Bundles of fun: One of my favourite activities over the past few years occurred each Tuesday morning, when my co-pilot spouse and car-crazy Yellow Lab and I would jump in the car and head out on our Voice bundle delivery run to the retail spots where the paper was available. It was a great chance to shoot the breeze with various folks, get the latest intel, share a laugh, and give Deseret her big puppy fix. One of those stops was the Fonthill post office. Just inside the loading dock entrance there is a small sign on the wall that reads: Whenever possible, be kind. And a second line below it: It is always possible. A fine sentiment, that. I’m sure I’m not alone in struggling to regularly achieve the goal. For decades my default mode has been wary skepticism—sort of mandatory in this business—and that’s a tough habit to break...And more bundles: Well, boxes, actually, two large ones, containing a nearly complete collection of the first ten years of the Voice, compiled by Susan Anderson, who was also the kind lady from whom I retrieved them last week at the gorgeous century home that she and her husband share in Fonthill. Thanks again, Susan!...Speaking of which: I’m short on 1950s Pelham Heralds. If anyone has old copies that they no longer want, feel free to drop them at our office (which has snazzy new PelhamToday signage) across from Beamer's Hardware, and I’ll happily take them. There aren’t that many, since the paper was founded late in the decade, in 1957...
Dating back even farther: I happened across this odd tidbit last week when a Purolator truck drove past the house and my wife asked, reasonably, “What does ‘Purolator’ mean, anyway?” I had to confess shameful ignorance. “UPS” and “FedEx” are pretty obvious. (“DHL” less so—turns out the initials refer to the company’s three San Francisco Bay Area co-founders, in 1969.) But Purolator? So I did the modern natural thing: I stared at my phone and carefully enunciated, “Hey Google, why is Purolator named Purolator?” Well, well. The company started Down East in 1960 as TransCanadian Couriers Ltd. In 1967 it was acquired by an American company, Purolator, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, which changed its name. What did the company do? It manufactured (and still does) automotive air and oil filters. Why the name? It’s an abbreviated form of “Pure Oil Later.” The company was the first to sell commercially available oil filters, starting in the early 1920s. Flash-forward to 1987, when Canada Post bought the courier division and brought it back to Canada (now owning 91 percent of it), severing any connection to the filter company. Maybe we need a courier company naming contest...
Apparently the internet is everywhere: And so are PelhamToday readers. In response to his story about free breakfasts now available at St. Alexander Church, reporter Don Rickers heard from the organizers, who emailed, “You're going to love this....we were tipped off about the article from two retired Loretto nuns who are on vacation in the Dominican Republic. They also sent pics so we could see their new hats.” And as you may have seen last week, we have at least one reader in China (albeit a Fenwick transplant)...Here’s your viewing recommendation of the week: Again, not a great title, but the four-episode Netflix documentary Gunther’s Millions will grow on you, due in large part to some excellent pacing and editing that keep the surprises coming. It’s nominally about a German Shepherd (a dog, not an actual shepherd) named Gunther which has a net worth of $200 million dollars, but it quickly gets complicated and weird in bizarre ways you don’t see coming. Woof!…Check the stats: I’m in the habit now of checking the record weather values that appear below each day’s Good Morning photo. I’m writing this on Monday evening, so I don’t know what Tuesday’s numbers will be. But the record low temperature on this date was -24.3, in 2015, and the record amount of snow on the ground for the date was 20 cm, in 2014. I guess we did have a couple of real winters there, didn’t we…Hope your day off was restful: And now, back to it! See you next time.
