Councillor George Trainor responded as follows to my query about his opinion on a ban on cosmetic pesticide use with in the City of Charlottetown:

Municipalities have the responsibility to provide their citizens with access to clean and healthy parks and open spaces. Due to increasing concerns about the potential hazards of pesticide usage on public greenspaces many municipalities are seeking ways to reduce or eliminate the non-essential use of pesticides . The City of Charlottetown is one of these municipalities.

The largest applications of pesticides in most municipalities occurs on turf surfaces such as sport fields, cemeteries, park lawns and road corridors. I think it is prudent that the City focus on a small number of significant targets, such as the above, for action.

It may also be prudent for the City to consider a model such as the “Integrated Plant Health Care” model which is defined as ‘An ecologically based approach to establishing and maintaining developed and natural landscapes in an urban environment. It integrates an understanding of living systems, urban stresses, human needs and horticultural principles in developing maintenance solutions that are environmentally sound, healthy and sustainable.”

In this model human needs are considered as part of the equation. A model such as this promotes the development of solutions that addresses both the need for landscape facilities and for pesticide reduction/elimination. It notes the concept of education as being critical and suggests that a new class of “Eco-Gardener is required in order to address the growing need for sustainable, economical landscapes that meet the needs of a community.

In this model there are five stages to adopting an effective IPHC: Inventory current practices, Evaluate and prioritize options, Implement, Monitor and maintain, Plan organize and communicate. Hopefully this is the Model that our City will follow, we need more information, the direct needs and impacts on human beings have to be considered as key challenges and goals.

Thanks to Councillor Trainor for taking the time to respond.

Ten years ago today, the first version of NCSA Mosaic was released. Ten years ago tomorrow, I arrived at work for the first time at the PEI Crafts Council.

It has been an interesting journey.

The trusty desk chair I purchased from Ritchie Simpson almost five years ago is starting to fray around the edges — not surprising given that I sit in it almost 8 hours a day.

So it’s time to upgrade.

As I know others who read here are similarly desk-bound, I’m soliciting opinions on ergo-chairs, especially ones that can be purchased (and sat in, pre-purchase) in Charlottetown.

The chair previous to this one was a “high back tilter” that was once owned by the ill-fated Atlantic Island Airways. I purchased it at auction. Before that one was a tiny secretarial chair at the PEI Crafts Council that assisted me in nearly blowing out my carpal tunnels. Chairs are important.

Actress Lynne Thigpen died Wednesday night.

Among many, many other roles, Thigpen played Grace Keefer on All My Children from 1993 to 2000. The start of her role on that show was the heart of the time I was a rabid fan of that soap opera (i.e. taping show when away from home so as to not miss an episode, etc.)

More recently, she was the reason (the only reason) to watch the television drama The District. She also played The President in Bicentennial Man, and had roles in Novocaine, Shaft and The Insider.

She will be missed.

Yesterday I lauded Councillor Philip Brown for his call for the banning of cosmetic pesticides in Charlottetown. I also mentioned that he was the only Councillor to publish his email address on the City of Charlottetown’s website.

Within the hour, I had a note from Bruce Garrity, another City Councillor, noting that he had just had the City publish his email address. I emailed him back and asked for his take on the banning of cosmetic pesticides. Last night Bruce responded.

What’s more, when Bruce’s email address was added to the list [PDF file], so were the email addresses of the Mayor and all Councillors but Clifford Lee, Daniel Redmond and Mitch Tweel.

This isn’t disarming Iraq. But all politics, they say, is local.

There are 10 wards in Charlottetown. There are now two councillors (at least) on the record supporting this ban. I’ll email the rest, and ask them for their positions. Watch this space.

If you are not a regular viewer of Eastlink Television (aka “Cable 10” in Charlottetown), you may have missed the fact that Kevin O’Brien has taken over from Elmer Williams as host of the Tuesday evening call-in programme Point of View.

I liked Elmer as host: he wasn’t pretentious, he ran the show well, and he was good at engaging his guests. Kevin’s equally up to the task, though, and this is especially impressive as, to the best of my knowledge, the sum total of his television experience before he assumed the host’s chair was, well, nothing. Of course he did play the lead in Brigadoon (or was it South Pacific?), and that must count for something ;-).

Be sure to tune in next Tuesday night if you’re around a cable outlet.

Kurt Andersen’s new public radio programme Studio 360 is an interesting listen every week. I’ve been a subscriber to the show, through Audible.com, for the past month.

Each show circumnavigates a theme — “War,” or “Robots,” for example — and includes a guest host with some connection to the material, and a series of interviews, pieces on tape by contributors, and music woven together very effectively.

I just finished listening to an episode about improvisation with Alan Arkin as the guest, and covering material from jazz to standup comedy.

Archived audio is availble for real time listening at the show’s website (which is very well put together) and is also available, for subscription purchase, from Audible.com (which means you can dump it into your iPod and listen to it in the car.

Ann’s comment about the RCAF fitness plan got me thinking about 5BX plan. I know that I bumped up against this plan — which is “the RCAF plan” for fitness — sometime in my life. I think my mother may have had the 5BX pamphlet at one point?

Here’s what the Chief of the Defense Staff said in his introduction to the plan:

It is your duty and responsibility as a member of the RCAF to maintain a high level of physical fitness and be ready for any emergency which may require the extended use of your physical resources. Positive physical well-being is also closely allied with mental and emotional fitness, all of which are essential in the discharge of normal daily tasks.

Presumably, in the eyes of public school educators in the American north-east, the same thing applied to their students? The entire 5BX plan is online, courtesy of Abraham Provost in Green Bay, WI.

That Green Bay is only 130 miles (say, a 12 hour run?) from Madison, WI, where Ann’s brother calls home, is a coincidence I will opt not to explore the ramifications of.

Kudos to Charlottetown City Councillor Philip Brown for calling on his colleagues to enact a ban on cosmetic pesticides within the city limits.

Civic “beauty” at the expense of our collective health is absurd. Council should show leadership on this issue and move immediately.

Show your support to Councillor Brown by sending him an email.

While you’re at it, you might thank him for being the only member of council to publish his email address.

I just got home from taping a piece for the CBC Prince Edward Island MainStreet programme’s My Music segment on Curtis Driedger. It should air this afternoon.