On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

And we've lost another one: Comerford's Cigar Store.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/deachman-a-victim-of-covid-and-changing-times-comerfords-closes-after-75-years

I used to visit for the newspapers, the magazines and the snacks.

Public health matters on public transit and this is another part of why.

Canada got a bit of a shock last night: Carol Off is ending 16 years as co-host of As It Happens on CBC Radio at the end of next month. Hers is a voice I've gotten used to hearing on the radio, of course, being a longtime CBC listener. The series will continue, of course, well into what we hope is its next full half-century.

The town of Tilbury, Ontario is getting a pleasant shock of its own: they're going to have a newspaper of their own again. Mohsin Abbas, a journalist originally from Pakistan now calling Canada home, is doing the work to make that happen for the Tilbury Times, liberating the brand - so we hope - from Postmedia control. The CBC News report goes into a lot more detail about Tilbury, Mr. Abbas, and the process of rescue and revival.

Searching and researching resumed this morning.

Although, to be honest, the job alerts I've subscribed to via Indeed, Jobilico, Workopolis and the Canadian federal job bank never stop, not even on statutory holidays. So I find myself spending at least an hour a day on weekends and holidays looking at those alone, no matter if I click on any links or not.

I went down to the ByWard Market on Sunday. It's been over a month since my last visit, and I worried that Globe Mags and Cigars and Mags Plus were both finally defunct. I am pleased to report that the first of these is still in business selling newspapers, magazines, and (not so pleased to say the same about) assorted smokeables and related gear. Google Maps tells me Mags Plus on Rideau Street - about a block or so east of ByTowne Cinema - is still active, and I wasn't about to push my luck by personally confirming that as well.

I was amused by the displays currently active at the LEGO Store at the Rideau Centre: the Disney Castle, a replica of a classic Adidas running shoe(!), the apartments of Friends, and a four-story Marvel-authorized Daily Bugle playset, with twenty-five figures of assorted Marvel characters. Both Spider-Men, Parker and Morales. "Spider-Gwen" AKA Ghost-Spider from Earth-65. Daredevil. Firestar. Even Spider-Ham! Venom, Carnage, Doctor Octopus (Otto, not Carolyn), Sandman, "Green Goblin" Osborn, and a few others. Probably runs to C$500 to take that one home, and Marvel fan though I am, I am not that fanatic nor anywhere near that wealthy.

Still waiting for the advisory to go to the pharmacy to get dose # 2. I'm on their e-mail list for this, so that notice should be soon. Perhaps before the end of the week?

Have received word from Lloyd Penney that there will be physical and online components to "Third Monday" tonight, the latter for those of us unable/unwilling to visit Orwell's in Toronto in person. This is good news, I think.

Hoping to see Black Widow next week, finances and health/safety rules permitting. I do continue to read the current ongoing comics series that inspired the movie. Both Natasha and Yelena are core cast members in the comic book series, which is currently set in San Francisco. You should be able to just drop in on the story arc in progress without too much trouble.

More as it occurs to me.

I don't live in Centretown, but I've been reading the Centretown Buzz off and on over the last decade, in large part because of the editor-in-charge for most of that span, one Kathryn Hunt. She's been a fellow contributor to Spacing Ottawa alongside yours truly, and there's been the SF&F community here in Ottawa-Gatineau which has provided other connections. Those connections will continue, I expect.

But...she's done with newspapers. At least for the time being.

I hope that we maintain - nay, improve upon! - our respect for non-daily newspapers. They're covering ground that the dailies are increasingly prevented from, and the CBC can still only do so much despite all their well-performed budget-stretching tactics. And there are so many 'blogs out there, even now.

FYI: If you want to see her commentaries about being a dedicated year-round bicyclist, here's that blog.

More on other stuff later...

If you'd like me to consider dropping my ad-blockerware, you might want to consider selling hardcopy editions in the Ottawa-Gatineau region (again, if you previously did so and stopped for whatever reason).

Long live the hardcopy newspaper.

Starting to look like some of the information I've been getting on the newspaper situation is less reliable than I feared.

I found copies of yesterday's AND today's Toronto Star at a local newsstand at Minto Place between buses on the way home. So I'm thinking that "one day's delay" situation re: the Star was a one-time gaffe. I'll find out when I get downtown tomorrow morning.

Sadly, the New York Times copies being sold at retailers in Ottawa really are being sold on a "one day's delay" basis now. I bought yesterday's edition today, at the same venue.

Cause for concern about newspapers. Click on the image for a further explanation over on my Flickr account.

This is one of those questions that's been bugging me for a while and I want to flush out some informed, opinionated answers.

I've been wondering of late: could Ottawa do with a daily newspaper of its own that hewed to the Atkinson Principles as set out by the founder of the Toronto Star, and further developed by his successors in the century or so since its founding?

It occurs to me that the two anglophone dailies based here in Ottawa at present, useful as they often are, do not often cover the whole of certain stories for various reasons. (Sadly, I cannot speak to the francophone side of the market at present due to lack of skill as a reader. It's on my ongoing "to do" list to fix that.)

I think a paper operating on the Atkinson Principles might help remedy that, as much as Internet access already does if not more so.

Any thoughts?