Dot Dot Dot · Page 14

Thursday, January 29, 2026

Tags: Memorial University, Newfoundland and Labrador, Politics, Signal Hill, and St. John's.

Should MUN ever have taken on the GEO Centre?

When the philanthropist and businessman Paul Johnson died in 2015, he left behind a mighty physical legacy, especially in the St. John’s area.

Now, one of his favourite projects is in doubt, as Newfoundland and Labrador’s only university grapples with a financial crisis, declining enrolment and other infrastructure badly in need of repair.

Through the Johnson Family Foundation, Johnson spearheaded a number of projects close to his heart. The Grand Concourse, which upgraded and extended a network of walking trails throughout the city, is one of the most obvious. It’s an amazing thing: you can walk from the most easterly points of Canada’s most easterly city for hours and hours and not repeat a step.

Johnson kept a low public profile during his life. I talked with him only once; when we were introduced earlier that evening (it was at a fundraiser), he was so quiet that it took me a minute or three to clock that I was standing next to the Paul Johnson.

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Thursday, January 29, 2026

Tags: Quotations, Science, and Television.

A thought on passing the torch

“Science is a co-operative enterprise, spanning the generations. It’s the passing of a torch from teacher, to student, to teacher. A community of minds reaching back to antiquity and forward to the stars.”
— Neil deGrasse Tyson

Neil deGrasse Tyson remains a voice of clarity in a weird time. We live in a time when expertise is now often dismissed; when attaining knowledge is confused with “doing my own research” and ignoring science in favour of comforting beliefs.

Tyson inherited the mantle of Carl Sagan when the groundbreaking series Cosmos was followed in 2014 by Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. Have a peek at this episode.

An heir to Carl Sagan and himself now one of the best-known scientists in the world, Tyson in this video explains why he’s prepared to do things like appear on funny talk shows to help elevate scientific knowledge:

Wednesday, January 28, 2026

Tags: Britain, Jazz, London, Music, Pop culture, and Tunes.

The British Museum had lost its charm

I like a Gershwin tune, how about you?

My favourite version of A Foggy Day — a 1937 film tune from George and Ira that was introduced by Fred Astaire — was made about two decades later, by Billie Holiday.

It appears in Songs from Distingue Lovers, a Verve album from 1958, in which the label was hoping for the same sort of American songbook success as it had had with Ella Fitzgerald.

I bought the album when Verve issued it on CD. Part of becoming a mature young adult, I guess. More recently, I bought a fine reproduction on vinyl, and it’s one of the ones I never tire of when I want to read on the couch.

My love of the song may also have been connected to my fascination with London, a city I was so curious about as a kid and yet never got to visit until my 40s. The song’s line about the British Museum losing its charm made sense once I actually visited it: it’s surely impossible for such a thing to happen. The famous glass lattice roof did not exist in Holiday’s time, of course, but it comes to mind when I hear the song.

Holiday died in 1959. She was only 44. Her final years may have been marked by addiction and substance abuse, not to mention persecution by the U.S. federal government, but she also recorded some of her best work.

Wednesday, January 28, 2026

Tags: Blogs, Coffee, Design, Digital culture, Dot Dot Dot, Signal Hill, St. John's, and Writing.

Meet the designer

Last year, as I was nursing some ideas about having a digital sandbox of my own, I got in touch with Matthew Hollett. I had not yet met Matthew, but we had some mutual contacts, and a look at his design portfolio was enough to tell me a coffee chat would be worth it.

I wrote to him in August, introduced myself, and told him I was interested in having a website where could I post some things I wanted to write. I mentioned a revived blog, and a possible interest in a Substack, too. That would be fine, he said, but he cautioned he couldn’t take on another project until October or November.

Seeing as I was planning to clew up work around then before I retired in late November, the timetable sounded just fine.

On the Tuesday after my last day in the office, Matthew and I met for the first time at Bannerman Brewing on Duckworth Street in downtown St. John’s. Despite what its name implies, it is a grand place in the morning to get a coffee and have a meeting. I think Matthew and I chatted for a couple of hours that morning, back and forth from the website I had in mind to a whole manner of subjects and mutual enthusiasms. (The photo above by the way is of the two of us, at our latest Bannerman coffee and chat a couple of days ago.)

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Wednesday, January 28, 2026

Tags: Business, Leadership, and Quotations.

A thought on psychological safety and leadership

“You shouldn’t blindly accept a leader’s advice. You’ve got to question leaders on occasion.”
— Richard Branson

The above, which comes from the Virgin founder’s 2011 book, Business Stripped Bare, speaks to something I think many leaders would naturally agree is reasonable … but that they may not be inclined to do. That is, put themselves in situations where others (I don’t want to say subordinates, but let’s be frank) can put a question to them with psychological safety.

I’ve worked with lots of leaders over the years, not just in my own workspaces but also because training assignments have brought me (often briefly but sometimes deeply) into contact with lots of different teams. Many of the leaders I admire are the ones who don’t just welcome questions, but encourage them: it can be about accountability, it can be about better work, it can be about team-building. Poor leaders not only avoid situations where questions can be asked, but where conversations can even start.

Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Tags: Journalism, Media, Newfoundland and Labrador, Paddy Daly, Politics, Radio, and Recommended reading.

Taking flight from VOCM Valley, and other things in the air today

The snow is coming down in St. John’s this afternoon, and hopefully it’s the fluffy stuff that was predicted, albeit in some volume.

A good time to read and take things in. Here are a few things that have passed my way.

A change at VOCM Valley

VOCM’s flagship call-in show Open Line has for a few generations been one of the prime spots for influence in Newfoundland and Labrador, even as private radio has diminished continent-wide as a presence for audiences and advertisers.

Paddy Daly started his show this morning with news that’s he’s leaving.

I found his choice of words interesting: “I’ve made the decision that I’m resigning.” That language is not reflected, for what its’ worth, in VOCM’s own coverage of the change.

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Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Tags: Training and Travel.

Tell me Y: I’ve been packing up my troubles in my old kit bag

Up until the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, I spent a lot of time on the road. Apart from working as a digital producer with CBC News in St. John’s, I was lucky enough to have another specialty with the company: a trainer. I delivered courses and did other projects (coaching work, development, etc.) with teams across the country.

That meant going on the road for a few stretches, and over the years, I got pretty good at keeping things light. I kept my work stuff in a backpack, and in lieu of a suitcase, I often used this:

My dinner companion tonight. #roadwarrior #traininglife

I called this orange bag my dinner companion, as I would (as I did that evening at Pearson International Airport in Toronto) put it in the opposing seat as I scarfed something down.

I still have the bag, except now it’s my workout companion. It’s the one I tote to the Ches Penney Family Y here in St. John’s, as I can shove everything I need, including my size-14 sneakers, into it.

The orange bag is a great little road warrior. I learned over time to minimize the number of things to take. I became very practical about actual needs, and repeated experiences made me a better travel planner. I’d like to think I was helping with reducing my carbon footprint, although I would argue that COVID turned out to be a much bigger effect. From 2020 onward, I taught more courses than ever, and almost all of them were done virtually and remotely. That’s a conversation for another post.

I still have the same backpack, too, by the way. It carries my notebooks, daytimer and often the laptop I’m using to write posts like this, and some bigger projects I’m dreaming up. You can call that my coffee shop companion…

Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Tags: Gardening and Quotations.

A thought on flowers and time

“No one is promised tomorrow. We cherish real flowers more than fake ones because we know they are fleeting.”
—Julie Fratantoni

Today’s quote comes from “your friendly neighborhood neuroscientist” and the author of a Substack I follow called Better Brain. The line above resonated with me. When we can’t clip flowers from our garden, I like to buy a small bunch for my mom, who’s 93, because it cheers her up immensely, and her joy and ease lift my spirits. The flowers don’t last that long, but for several days at least, she remarks on them, and I smile whenever she extends a finger to feel the softness of a petal or leaf.

I’m aiming to post a quote here every day, sometimes with an extra note, detail or history. Track the lot of them here!

Monday, January 26, 2026

Tags: Newfoundland and Labrador and Politics.

Len Simms, who made a play for N.L.’s premier’s office, was a decent man

In 1993, Len Simms took the Progressive Conservatives into a provincial election in Newfoundland and Labrador, against Clyde Wells and the governing Liberals.

It was an uphill battle, and Simms knew it. By the end of it, Simms was still in Opposition, which he led until his retirement a couple of years later.

I interviewed him several times over the years, and I can’t recall him ever being anything but accessible and straight-up. Decent, in other words.

Premier Tony Wakeham, who took the PCs back to power last fall, announced today that Simms had died. He was 82.

Monday, January 26, 2026

Tags: Health, Mental health, Retirement, and Substack.

Cortisol, a panicky moment and letting it all go

This is me on my living room couch. In my latest Substack post, I write about a brief moment of panic earlier this month, when I looked at the clock and a wave of stress hormones hit me. Again, briefly.

Read all about it here.

Please consider subscribing, too, if you have not already. It’s early (literally) days with both this site and my Substack, and I’m grateful for hearing from people.

Monday, January 26, 2026

Tags: History and Quotations.

A thought on winning a war

“You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.”
— Jeannette Rankin

Jeannette Rankin was a political force a century ago. In 1916, she became the first woman to win federal office in the United States. She is best known for fighting for legislation clearing the way for women to vote.

Sunday, January 25, 2026

Tags: Comedy, Lenny Henry, Red Nose Day, Rowan Atkinson, and Satire.

A Red Nose Day poke at Simon Cowell, 25 years on

Red Nose Day yesterday posted to YouTube this sketch from 2001, of a satire of music competition reality shows. Lenny Henry and Simon Pegg are among those auditioning for the likes of Rowan Atkinson, who channels Simon Cowell. To put the sketch in perspective, this was a year before American Idol launched.

Sunday, January 25, 2026

Tags: Music and Tunes.

What if I were Romeo in black jeans?

Michael Penn may be best known as the brother of Sean Penn, perhaps as the husband and sometime collaborate of Aimee Mann, but I think of him primarily for his debut single.

No Myth is a song — I think — about the earliest stages of a relationship, the moments between illusions of grand romanticism (hey, Romeo in black jeans, yo Heathcliff) and having a scuff at a bar (maybe she truly is just looking for someone to dance with).

No Myth came out in 1989, which feels like a long, long time ago. The song still feels very fresh to me, though. I always turn it up when it pops on during a playlist in the car.

And let’s not forget this moment from Community ..

Sunday, January 25, 2026

Tags: Language, Literature, and Quotations.

A thought about guilty minds

“The guilty think all talk is of themselves.”
— “Geoffrey Chaucer”

The quote of the day is a well-known proverb from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, although of course that’s not how he wrote it … modern English being a few generations away. Instead, it’s been passed along from one book (or website) of quotations to another.

Forgive me for going all English major with this post. (My “Beowulf to Virginia Woolf” honours program included a course just on Chaucer, plus two courses on Middle English. Learning how entertaining Chaucer was a revelation that assured me I was in the right place as a student.)

Chaucer might well be surprised to see that he has been getting full credit for the quote, as he actually attributed it to Cato the Elder in the Canon Yeoman’s Prologue … or rather, he has one of his characters do it for us:

For Catoun seith that he that gilty is/ Demeth alle thyng be spoke of hym, ywis.

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Saturday, January 24, 2026

Media diet: A few things I’ve seen lately

[Most of this was published earlier today as my newsletter on Substack.]

Congratulations on making it to the weekend.

We’re being advised via Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro to conserve electricity and that rolling outages are possible due to the loss of power at a generating station, “polar vortex” is one of the most searched phrases, a cold snap is underway in lots of places, and there’s a whopper of a storm moving through the U.S. and Canada. Observe this map, courtesy N.L. meteorologist Eddie Sheerr, of what’s expected to fall by Tuesday:

It’s too early to say what’s coming our way early next week, but after a zigzag winter, nothing surprises me. We had a ton of snow in December, and it all melted earlier this month, at least a couple of times over. We had double-digit temperatures at one point (a reminder that I’m in Canada, and following Celsius, just as the map above is showing centimetres of snow, not inches!), followed by lashings of rain and then brutally cold winds.

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