Episode 400

Since about October 2000 I have regularly listened to This American Life, originally as broadcast on WNYC (supplemented with streaming archived episodes), more recently as a podcast (and still supplemented with streaming archived episodes).  Over the more than 15 years that I've been listening to the show (which has since grown in popularity) quite a number of episodes have stuck with me, a disproportionate number of which have stories from Scott Carrier (Does it get better than Running After Antelope?).  Contributions of individuals aside, the show has been consistently great for the 20 years it has been on the air - which is an impressive feat (Hell, they even managed to develop a semi-well known passable spin-off [not counting the TV show].)

One episode, above all others, for more than six years has stood out as a miss.  First broadcast in early February 2010, episode 400, in which several of the show's producers attempted to produce stories based on suggestions from their respective parents.  And, ha ha, most of the stories pitched to these producers weren't very good and really didn't make for great radio.  The somewhat self-congratulatory point of whole thing seemed to be that professional radio producers are better at picking stories for radio/This American Life than average people.  (Give me at least a little bit of warning when you're going to hit me with such hard truths makers of This American Life - I don't want to hurt myself when I get knocked over).

(Kidding aside, yeah, we know - you're good at your jobs.  That's why so many people keep coming back to the show week after week and why Serial is as popular as it is.  I think it's fair to say that most listeners recognize this skill when we listen to the show.  While I, presumably like many other listeners, would love to be able to make a This American Life-style show, it is clearly beyond my skill set and the skill sets of many in the listening audience.  I think most of us recognize and accept that there is something in the skill department that the makers of This American Life bring to the table that we don't have.)

Of course, I am inclined to suggest that at least two of these parental suggestions didn't make great radio not because of the quality of the suggestion, but because the staff at This American Life just didn't understand the significance of the stories and, not surprisingly, the resulting stories missed the point/weren't that great.

In the show's first Act Lisa Pollak attempts to follow-up on her mother's suggestion that she look into funny funerals or humour at funerals or maybe funny things that have happened at funerals? She's never seems all that clear about the issue she is trying to examine.

I think the point Pollak misses is that her mother isn't looking for funny anecdotes about funerals gone awry, but about funerals that are true celebrations of the life of the deceased that involve the use of humour.  As someone, like Lisa Pollak's mother and father, who has attended a funeral that did have a fair number of laughs I think I see where's she's coming from.  Really, what better way is there to celebrate the life of the deceased than by remembering the high points of that life and, maybe, punctuating those memories with hearty laughter?

At my grandmother's funeral in 2003 there were plenty of laughs, all of which reminded the attendees of the best features of her personality.  Instead of wallowing in sadness and loss, we were reminded of my grandmother's unique contributions to our respective lives.  By others laughing along I could also tell (or at least thought I could tell) that others in attendance were reflecting on similar experiences they'd had with her.  The feeling that I had at the end of the event, despite the inherent sadness associated with her death, was that my grandmother was truly known and appreciated by those in attendance - and the shared laughter was the mechanism by which this truth revealed itself.  Had it been a normal, quiet funeral I would have been provided with no sense of the feelings of the other attendees.

Since this funeral I have realized that the only features of my funeral that I truly care about are that it is filled with laughs and that it celebrates my life instead of mourns my death.  I don't care about which songs are or are not played, which readings are or are not read, or where the event does or does not take place as long as most people leave after having had a hearty laugh.  (I can't really say that I'll be disappointed if this doesn't come to pass - I'll be dead after all - but I'll definitely be disappointed if this doesn't come to pass.)

I think part of the problem with Pollak's approach to the story is that she contacted funeral directors for input.  Despite this group seeming like an obvious place to turn, I'm not convinced that funeral directors as a group get this approach to funerals and that funerals really, at their core, should be celebrations.  Maybe it's because most funeral directors don't have a particularly strong connection to the people whose funerals they're leading (and thus don't know how to draw out the humour in each person's life) or because there's a general sense that funerals are supposed to be sad and sombre affairs (rather than funny) so that's what they give the dying public?  Or maybe it's because when you're surrounded by the business of death and the grieving it's hard to always find the light?  I don't know exactly the cause, but the reality seems to be that a strength of funeral directors, and their are many strengths, is not injecting levity into the funeral process.  And that's a shame, maybe even more of a shame than Lisa Pollak also seems to miss this point.

(Maybe the craziest part of this mess of a story is that after the story is played for the audience the staff of This American Life, themselves having just listened to the piece for the first time as a group, all heap praise on the piece and laud it for being well reported.  Apparently, the fact that even in the story Lisa Pollak's mother seems dissatisfied with the results of the investigation doesn't merit much consideration.  Weird.)

Alex Blumberg's story, or Act 3, based on a suggestion from his father to examine the origins of corporate personhood suffers from slightly different problems - it adheres too closely to the original pitch and spends too much time showing it's workings while transitioning to a more do-able version of the pitch.  In this case, the suggestion from Alex's father is something I think has the potential to be quite interesting and it seems to be a story pitch that Alex understands.  As is reported in the story, maybe the approach to the issue of corporate personhood suggested by Alex's father isn't quite the best way in - which isn't that surprising given his lack of expertise on the subject demonstrated by his quest to learn more - but that doesn't mean that the general topic isn't fascinating and ripe for inquiry.

Unfortunately, just as Alex's story has worked it's way through the hiccups of the pitch and is moving on to the interesting side of the story (and I suspect that in most This American Life episodes they would have just cut this prologue and gone right to the portion of the reporting that lead to fruitful results) Ira decides the story is too boring to continue and the kills it, leading to a reverse en media res of sorts.

How Alex's dad's pitch was handled was disappointing because I think that it is likely a This American Life-style narrative story about the origins of corporate personhood, or maybe a consequential instance of corporate personhood, could be a great fit for the now.  Now, because of the failings of this piece, we're unlikely to hear such a story.  It seems it's been decided that issues associated with corporate personhood are just too boring for This American Life.

For better or worse, I can't really remember the other stories included in this episode.  I suspect that means that they were just fine, but not particularly memorable for being either great successes or great failures.  Whatever the quality of the remaining stories, this certainly hasn't been one of the episodes I've been tempted to revisit over the years since it was first broadcast/podcast - it just wasn't that good.

The ultimate irony of epiosde being that in an attempt to demonstrate the special skills and contributions of producers of This American Life that go into the creation of each and every episode of the show, this episode was one of the least skillfully produced and execute.  These skilled producers certainly weren't able to manage the less-than-alchemical transition of silver to gold.  Instead, we were given a peak behind the curtain and shown that when handed a story they don't understand, just like us, the producers of This American Life fumble around and, sometimes, miss the point of the assignment.  Of course, I don't really think that this was the point they were trying to make.

(Ok, there hasn't been much narrative to this whole thing, but how was that for a This American Life-style ending.  Just throw a little Coffaro's Theme or Mogwai underneath and you wouldn't be able to to tell this wasn't the real thing.)

(Jeannette thinks this post may be a little harsh, especially when I am a fan of This American Life and typically listen to each episode the night it is released.  I think it is because I know the quality that is typical of the show that this somewhat disappointing episode merits discussion - but maybe I'm wrong and I should just let it go after six years.  The truth is that I'm probably probably overly committed to the idea of funny funerals to provide an unbiased assessment of any piece of work that doesn't understand their significance in the same way I do - it's possible that this first story set the tone for the entire episode and I'm not judging the rest of the episode fairly.

Who knows?

But you should definitely take the opinion of a rando on the internet who's been obsessing over a single episode of a long-running podcast for more than six years with a grain of salt.)

Cameron - 7
Neil - 0

Now I'm fixing the radio

Yesterday afternoon I was listening to CBC Ottawa's All in a Day when I heard the host reading a listener letter chiding the host for warning cyclists about a location where police were actively handing out tickets.  After reading the note the host agreed that he wouldn't issue such warnings in the future.

I was immediately reminded of a story tweeted about by On the Media.  In the story it was reported that a man in Florida had been charged after he had been flashing his car lights to warn drivers about an upcoming speed trap.  The judge considered headlight flashing a form of protected free speech and the ticket was overturned.  Despite the fact that the case related to free speech protections that are specific to the US, I thought one the concepts that the judge mentioned was particularly relevant to the issue of warning cyclists.

At an earlier hearing Circuit Judge Alan Dickey said, "If the goal of the traffic law is promote safety and not to raise revenue, then why wouldn't we want everyone who sees a law enforcement officer with a radar gun in his hand, blinking his lights to slow down all those other cars?" reported The Crime Report.

My thinking is that the judge has it right.  Whether one is flashing lights or issuing a warning over the radio the end result is, hopefully, less of the prohibited/dangerous activity.  And isn't reducing the number of incidences of the action in question usually the justification for such check-points?  And, as far as society is concerned, isn't reducing these incidences what we really want as an outcome not the issuance of more tickets?  Are we necessarily served by the police issuing more tickets (which implicitly means that instead of being prevented the behaviour was ongoing until after it had been observed)?

Anyway, I quickly dashed off an email to All in a Day expressing my disagreement with the listener's letter, citing the aforementioned case.  Just a few minutes ago I received an email from someone from the show looking for more information about he case because they are interested in doing a follow-up piece on the topic today.  So if all goes well the radio will be one step closer to fixed by the end of the day.

Fixing the internet

I may currently be clogging the internet with garbage, but earlier this afternoon I feel as though I made a real contribution to fixing the internet.

While looking at the episode summary for the upcoming This American Life episode Conventions I noticed that the link to Dishwasher Pete's site was broken (because the site no longer exists).  Through the magic of Twitter I conveyed this information directly to the powers that be at This American Life.

Within 9 minutes (and it was likely much less than this) the broken link was removed and replaced with a functioning link.

Sometimes the internet blows my mind.

Cameron: 8
Neil: 0

A Bunny Watson moment

This past weekend Jeannette took it upon herself to watch the three Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies.  Though I am not a fan of these movies, I did end up catching a few minutes here and there.

After watching the movies Jeannette and I were both quite taken with the similarities between the Lord of the Rings story and the Harry Potter story/books.

Of course, this discussion reminded me of the Radiolab piece from a few years ago about Wagner's Ring Cycle. While this piece is mostly about the Ring Cycle, they do discuss some of the similarities between Wagner's work and Tolkien's.



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This piece, like most of Radiolab's output, is easy to access and informative.

Conflicting Portrayals

A few months ago I read the second Freakonomics book, SuperFreakonomics, and struck by a section of the book dealing the activities of a company called Intellectual Ventures. Much of the discussion focused on the suggestions that the company has for dealing with tropical storm suppression and and reducing global warming. On the whole, the book provided a very positive portrayal of the company.

In a subsequent two-part episode episode of the Freakonomics podcast this company, and its founder Nathan Myhrvold made another appearance in the Freakonomics canon, this time in relation to the recently published cookbook Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking. Again, the portrayal was very positive and the focus was on the invention and research side of the company's operations. Actually, if memory serves me correctly, these are the only aspects of the company that are even mentioned.

As a result of these portrayals of the company I just assumed that it was primarily a R & D firm, maybe even verging on a philanthropic venture.

As of last night I have been given some reason to question my original assessment.

A recent This American Life examination of some of the company's patent related activities suggests a slightly different image of the company. From this vantage point the company is portrayed predominately as an owner and licenser of thousands and thousands of patents. They note that the company, or that related third parties, frequently use legal action to secure settlements from companies that are deemed to be infringing on their patents. At times, though I am not sure if the two individuals reporting the story say it directly, the company is compared to a protection racket.

I always love it when I am left with opposing senses of things due to conflicting media reports. It is all the more impressive that these conflicting portrayals are both from New York based public radio shows.

Cases like this always remind me that I need to be a little more critical when consuming media. Of course the problem is that it takes time and energy to be so critical, and I quite frequently don't have the time or energy to invest in these issues. Maybe it's sufficient that I am at least aware of some of the problems with current forms of mass media?

Framing and Media Coverage

How appropriate that just hours after I post about the nature of media and political framing of this election that I happen to hear a great interview about research into the potential impact of such frames and metaphors (what is a frame if not a metaphor?).



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I love that while the CBC is allowing their resources to be used as a tool of the parties with little effort to take control of the coverage they are conducting hard hitting investigations into the safety of bean sprouts - the dangers of which have been known for years (and can be found with a simple Google search)

Before I go, I should mention that I have just recently started listening to On the Media (the source of interview mentioned above) and am quickly starting to think of myself as a fan. If you are interested in American media and have a chance you might consider checking it out as a radio show or a podcast or through their website.

Ethical Question

This morning Jeannette and I were talking about a short 'ethics' she has to discuss in an upcoming assignment. After a few minutes of contemplation I realized that the scenario she was dealing with was somewhat similar to a scenario that had been dealt with by Radiolab in one of podcasts.



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Actually, I think that the ethical scenario I remember them dealing with in this episode may have been the first Radiolab segment I ever heard (as it was featured on an episode of This American Life.)

Anyway, if you have the time both This American Life and Radiolab are worth checking out (and would be incredible additions to the daytime CBC Radio One line-up).

It only took them 15 years

After about 15 years of producing some of the best public radio content in North America CBC has finally decided to jump on-board and start broadcasting This American Life in Canada.

While this is definitely a step forward for the CBC, they have definitely not gone quite far enough. Instead of having the show air at an hour when most people might actually listen (and taking a poor quality show off the air) they have decided to clump it in with their late night filler content (most of which comes from international sources). Bummer.

Anyway, This American Life is definitely worth listening to. I have been listening been listening to the show regularly for just over ten years now and have to say that it is one of the best radio shows I have had the pleasure of hearing.

A Few Quick Notes 490

-It is currently raining, as it has been for much of my trip. Though we did see some sun this afternoon, today, like every other day since I have been home, has seen at least some rain. This has been one of the worst stretches of weather I have seen in quite some time.

-We went bowling tonight. While my father and I pulled respectable scores together in the last frame or two of play of the first game, we all managed to solidly break 100 in our second game. The only unfortunate part of this, at least as far as I was concerned, is that I managed to score fewer points in the second game than in the first.

While we were bowling the gentlemen in the lane next to us, who arrived just as we were arriving, (who was a good bowler) was seemingly there just to practice. He quickly played two 250+ games and then took off. In total he was probably there for less than 30 minutes. While he was there he seemed to even do things like set up splits and then finish them off. The whole thing was rather odd.

-Jeannette and I will soon be heading back to Halifax. It seems that they have been having similar weather there, so I don't imagine we have missed much.

-For the past day or two I have been engaged in re-listening to the recent Radiolab episode entitled Wild Talk.



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This episodes explores communication, or language, that has been found in certain animal species, or across species. Most importantly, it seems to give some credence to my skepticism of the claim that was made by my professor in my intro linguistics class that language is only to be found among humans.

The Shepherd on CBC

For years at Christmastime (likely Christmas Eve) I remember listening to CBC and again and again hearing the same story about a pilot running out of fuel and then being guided by a phantom plane to safety. Only a few years ago did I learn the name of this story (The Shepherd) and that it was being performed by long-time CBC personality Alan Maitland. Even without the basic details regarding the origins of this piece it became an important part of my Christmas celebrations.

Presumably I eventually learned these facts about the broadcast when I received a CD copy of the story (along with a few other Christmas classics as read by Alan Maitland) for Christmas a few years ago. Not surprisingly, I was really quite excited to get this CD so that I am able to listen to the story as frequently as I like, and not have to wait for the one a year broadcast on CBC.

For most of the years that I listened (and looked forward) to this story I assumed that almost everyone in Canada felt similarly. I guess I assumed that even if they were not fans of the story they would at least know what it was and know to respect it as an important part of Christmas.

It seems that, once again, I was wrong - listening to this story just isn't as widespread a Christmas tradition as I had imagined. When I tried to throw on the CD a few nights ago when Kirsten and Jeannette were in the car not only were neither of them interested in listening to the story, neither of them had heard it before and neither of them could figure out why it had anything to do with Christmas. Both were incredibly underwhelmed by the whole thing. Though they didn't mean their reactions to be so, they were definitely disappointing to me.

Anyway, if you are one of those people that routinely listens to The Shepherd, as read by Alan Maitland, at Christmas I am pleased to be able to provide you a link to an online version of the recording (which can be downloaded by left-clicking or the equivalent).

Reality and Art

The first story most recent episode of This American Life deals with key players in a Michigan Tea party. At one point in the story the reporter, while interviewing a subject, happens to record a phone conversation that a recently fired campaign manager has with a member of the campaign team for the Republican candidate. The beauty of this recording is that you basically get to hear the change of position taken the fired campaign manager as well as the willingness of the Republican campaign worker to spread a false story (and I should be clear, I suspect that members of both parties frequently engage in such dealings).

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After having listened to this story I recommend that you watch basically any episode of the Thick of It, a great show about British politics. The pace at which positions are reversed, changed, or abandoned in both contexts is amazingly similar. Apparently the writers of the Thick of It really didn't miss the mark by much, which is presumably why the show is so excellent.

(I sure that I should have done a better job drawing out the parallels between the This American Life episode and Thick of It, unfortunately I am a little tired and this thought probably doesn't merit being held until a time when I am a little more rested.)

A Few Quick Notes 467

-Today turned out to be a much more pleasant day than I expected, largely because we didn't have the rain that I expected. It looks as though we are due to be really slammed tomorrow though.

-I managed to spend a good chunk of today dealing with TA related activities. It seems likely that I will also spend much of tomorrow dealing with similar activities.

-Yesterday, because of a TSOYA-related blog post I ended up subscribing to a few new podcasts.

Freakonomics Radio, a podcast based on the book and blog by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. This afternoon, while walking around campus, I managed to listen to a few episodes and was quite impressed. I found the episode dealing with education reform (and the use of personalized teaching approaches) in New York City particularly interesting.

Another one I happened upon during this podcast directory browsing experience is called Hmmm.... and seems seems to be related to RadioLab, already a favourite of mine, though with somewhat different content and an emphasis on shorter, easier to access pieces.

To The Best of Our Knowledge, the podcast that lead me down the path to the aforementioned podcast subscriptions, seems to be more general in nature than the other two that I mentioned. Unfortunately, unlike the other two (because of the length of the episodes) I have not yet had the chance to listen to a full episode. Nonetheless, the part of the one episode that I did hear was pretty good.

-I guess I should get back to work.

Might be worth a listen

A few days ago I noticed that This American Life was now allowing others to embed their episodes. I thought I should mention this feature but didn't really have a good excuse.

Fortunately today I started to listen to their most recent episode and realized that it was worth sharing. Both stories in the episode deal with somewhat scary trends in the administration of 'justice' in the United States.

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If you have time, another favourite episode of mine is Running After Antelope, which features the work of Scott Carrier(my favourite This American Life contributor).

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I guess I should also mention that This American Life's entire radio archive is online and free to access. Check some of their shows out if you have the time, they are worth a listen.

A Few Quick Notes 294

-Today has been somewhat cold and a little windy. This combination is rather unpleasant, though it wasn't bad enough to keep me inside.

-It seems that Neil and Rebecca purchased some chicken at the grocery store yesterday, so we will be having chicken for dinner tonight. Should be good.

-Today, the Hearing Voices blog posted a YouTube video of a group called the Leningrad Cowboys performing Lynryd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama. Upon watching the video, in which only the people at the front of the audience seem to move, I decided to try to find a little more out about the group as the whole thing seemed to be a bit of a non-sequitur.

It seems that this Finnish group was originally formed as a fictional group that was featured in a Finnish film. Apparently after the film was released the group began performing regularly and releasing albums. The Leningrad Cowboys, with their flamboyant costumes and hair-styles, have now been together for more than 20 years and been featured in at least three feature films. Sadly their website doesn't list any upcoming shows for 2009, though they did play about a dozen times in 2008, and even more frequently in 2007.

-My bedroom scarlet runner beans are really taking off. At least two of the plants have already reached the string, and should be wound around it by tomorrow (though I may have to assist in the initial winding process).

A Few Quick Notes 281

-Today was another pretty passable day, though I didn't make it outside so I don't know if the wind made things unpleasant.

-Environment Canada seems to have recently added 2 days to their forecast, making it a 7 day forecast. A friend of mine who is a meteorologist suggested that he doesn't listen to anything more than 48 hours out, so I wonder how useful these additional two days will be, especially given their track record with the 5 day forecast.

-Almost as soon as I woke up this morning I started making a batch of bread. After not too long a period of time I was able to tap into the first loaf, which happened to be the first thing I had to eat all day. Just a few minutes ago I managed to kill of this first loaf. It has been a while since I have killed off an entire loaf of bread in a single day all by myself.

-We had pinwheels for dinner tonight. I think everyone was satisfied with my menu choice.

-While preparing the aforementioned pinwheels I listened to the 1968 episode of Hearing Voices. It was a great. In episode included coverage of the 1968 Democratic convention riots, including a section of tape during which a reporter was gassed and a number of political speeches from the year. The only present-day content was a set of two interviews with former Merry Pranksters about their time with Ken Kesey and Acid Tests. Throughout music from 1968 was included to set the mood.

Actually, this is just one of a number of very good episodes of Hearing Voices that I have been listening to lately. The more I listen the more impressed I am with this show. I particularly enjoy their use of archival material. Anyway, if you like public radio documentary shows Hearing Voices might be to your liking.

-Just a few minutes ago Neil had to take the plunger to our toilet. I had noticed a problem a few minutes earlier but somehow managed to forget to deal with it in any way (though that had been my intention). Fortunately the problem wasn't particularly severe, nothing few strokes of a plunger couldn't take care of.

-While I still feel the remnants of my cold, it is definitely less potent than yesterday. Hopefully it will be completely gone in the very near future.

A Few Quick Notes 280

-So it seems that we did get some of the predicted freezing rain and wind. Fortunately, it seems that not as much damage was caused by this weather as could have been the case. That being said, I did notice a number of down branches on the paved area outside my window.

Though the freezing rain had ended by morning, much of the rest of the day was marred by periods of rain and wind. Given that it wasn't that warm, things were definitely on the unpleasant side of things.

-I had to head into school today for a few reasons, one of which involved a quick stop at the medical library, the W.K. Kellogg Health Sciences Library. Amazingly, I managed to find the library relatively easily though I only had the vaguest idea where it was located. Somehow I managed to pick the the correct building even though it could reasonably been in anyone of about five buildings (at least that is my impression of the health sciences portion of the campus). Once entering the library I was surprised to see how busy it was. Almost every available space on the main floor was taken by studying students. A feature which distinguishes from the Killam Library is how well lit this library is. Not only are there windows that let light in, there are also a number of light sources and colours that seem to adequately reflect the light. The overall effect was to make it a much more pleasant environment than the Killam, which is far too dark for my liking.

-While at school I also picked up my grading for the term. I will try give these papers a quick once over and maybe start on the grading proper either tonight or tomorrow.

-A few days ago I mentioned that it seemed that the blog-off had caused our traffic to spike a little. Upon closer inspection of the numbers it seems that the real cause of much of the spike was actually Neil's review of Slumdog Millionaire. It seems a relatively large (by our standards) number of individuals found Montifax when searching for reviews of the movie.

I guess this might teach us two lessons. Firstly, blog-offs among don't really generate all that much general interest. Secondly, if you want your numbers to spike, start covering all kinds of pop/contemporary culture content. Since mass readership isn't really our goal I can't imagine we will be making many changes based on this second lesson. And considering that readership isn't really our primary goal I can't imagine that we will be taking to many lessons from the first lesson either.

-The cold I have been mentioning these past few days is still around. Aside from being generally unpleasant, it is causing me to go through tissues as though increased consumption might lead to increased wealth. Hopefully this cold will pass in the very near future.

-One of my favourite podcasts, Stop Podcasting Yourself, recently released their 52nd show, meaning that they now have a year's worth of shows. Given this significant achievement I thought that this might be a good opportunity to mention the show and encourage you to listen if you like comedy podcasts with guys talking about stuff. For those of you that still miss Richardson's Round-Up, this Vancouver based podcast has participatory elements that allow the listeners (or 'bumpers' in the context of this podcast) to really engage with the hosts and the content, which might help fill the void made by the cancellation of the aforementioned CBC show.

-As I was approaching the supermarket this afternoon I saw the lights flick off. As I entered the store it seemed that while the lights had gone off most of the other electricity drawing devices were still fully functional (including the deep-fat frier in the pre-made food section). Aside from having a little trouble finding things in certain aisles, the experience was quite fine. Had the debit machines not been functioning I think I would be of a different mind.

Scott Carrier MP3s on HearingVoices.com

Last night, while looking for something to listen to I remembered that Hearing Voices occasionally has some good Scott Carrier material. When I arrived at the site my recollection was confirmed and I learned that they also provide MP3s of some of his stuff. Unfortunately, some of the longer pieces originally broadcast on This American Life are only available on as part of that show and not individually. Anyway, at least I now have a little more Scott Carrier than before, though I still don’t have the classic “Running After Antelope.”

A Few Quick Notes 116

-Aside from a brief period of showers today was a pretty nice day. One possible flaw might be that even though the sun has set the temperature has not really dropped all that much. This trend is somewhat problematic when it comes to sleeping, or attempting to sleep.

-For the past two nights I have worked until close. While neither of the nights was problematic it certainly was tiresome. These long shifts were not made any easier by the fact that I have been suffering from a cold for the past number of days. Hopefully my Sunday afternoon shift will involve fewer keg changes than the last two.

Actually, that is the other thing that has been impressive my last two shifts. I am not sure if I have ever changed as many kegs. At one point on Thursday four went almost simultaneously. On top of that two sets of lines were not working properly and required continued attention.

-The mouse problem seems to be expanding, or at the very least continuing. While in bed after work on Thursday movement caught my eye. It turned out that one of the mice was on my bedroom floor near my closet. Shortly after its movement caught my eye it ran back into the closet.

Though I didn’t really want to do much about the mouse at 3:30 AM it seemed a pretty opportune moment, mainly as I knew exactly where the mouse was. Within a few moments I had re-arranged the contents of the closet to form a barrier, inside of which I hoped to trap the mouse. Though once the barrier was constructed I could not find the mouse. I quickly realized that the only place it could be hiding was the poison box in the closet.

With a curtain rod I tapped the box to limited effect. Confident that the mouse had to be inside I tapped again, this time more vigorously. After the second round of tapping I managed to get the mouse to leave the box and enter the open space of the enclosure. The mouse went from the box to the bedroom door, which it then managed to scurry under, meaning that to continue my hunt I would have to rummage around Nithum’s bedroom with him asleep at 3:30 in the morning. At that point I decided that the hunt was up for the night, I had failed.

Since then all that has happened on the mouse front is that I have been unable to get the motivation to go to the store and buy some wire traps for the creation of my trap line. Maybe I will get around to this on Monday (as the store where I was planning on making my purchase is closed on Sundays).

-While at Lobos yesterday I bought a few hard peaches as well as a pair of hard plums. As far as I am aware, these, aside from lemons, are my first fruit purchases of the academic year.

Actually, that is not the case. I just realized that I have purchased (during a sale) several bags of frozen raspberries.

-While listening to Randy Bachman’s Vinyl Tap tonight I was again reminded of a question that has been bothering me for some time. The question is whether or not Canadian Content rules apply to Mr. Bachman, and if not why? It seems that other shows could not play almost exclusively foreign music, particularly American music, and get away with it. Does his playlist mean that the rest of CBC Radio One’s content has to balance his high level of foreign content?

-For the first time today I saw an entire football game in person. The infamous McGill Redmen played the Acadia Axemen. In the final minute of play McGill managed to score to take the lead and then allow Acadia to score a field goal for the win.

The final score of 45-44 is somewhat indicative of the quality of defense. It seemed that both teams were more interested in offense.

Something else that was striking was the size of the players. Some of them were tiny and none of them were huge. I feel that if I stood next to the McGill football team I wouldn’t look particularly less athletic than most of the members of the team (though this may be a slight exaggeration).

A Few Quick Notes 103

-Another sunny, yet cool, day in St. John’s. While we definitely had a little bit of wind it definitely wasn’t oppressive.

-While looking through judicial inquiries at work today I came across two suicides and a vehicle pedestrian accident that all occurred in the last week of October 1979. Deadly week b'ys.

-This evening, immediately after work I went to Signal Hill with my mother and sister. From this iconic location we were able to see three icebergs very clearly and some number of them in the distance. While my mother and sister were counting about eight in total I think that 4 or 5 would have been a more appropriate number.

-I wore my new Value Village wool sweater vest to work. It turned out that this was a very appropriate choice as the library was pretty cool today. Only late in the afternoon, with the help of the midday sun, did things start to warm up.

-Our first Ultimate game was tonight. While I was not able to play for medical reasons, I was able to stand on the sidelines and watch my team defeat our opponents in a nail-biter. The final score was 11-10. The game ended with the opposing team just outside our endzone.

-Last week’s episode of This American Life was one of their best in years (at least as far as I am concerned). While it is not quite up to the standard set by Running After Antelope, it was pretty good. Particularly from a library and information studies perspective it was of interest. The prologue seemed like a pretty good example of a (one of the few maybe?) knowledge management program. For those of you that are interested, This American Life now has a podcast which is updated every Monday.