We're already looking towards our Spring issue

I hoped to begin blocking it out this afternoon, but we've been very happily interrupted by people seeking last minute gifts of the N. Q. And now the cards are signed and the labels printed and I will personally escort these issues to the mail room. This will be my last entry until 2009, so, Bless us, everyone, and bring on the New Year!

(Image: wordpress.com.)

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

When you don't drive, there are a few problems. It can be hard to keep your hair looking nice, for example. You can do the hair straightener thing and emerge as quite presentable, but after 10 minutes walking face first into a northeaster, you might as well have styled your hair with a knife and fork.
Also, you can end up carrying a lot of stuff. Gym bags, library books, small children. Trips need to be planned to allow for trade-offs in baggage.
It's hard to wear heels.
And sometimes, even though you're 45, you have to call your mom to ask her to drive you somewhere.
People often ask why I don't drive. "Why don't you drive?" Like that. I always say because I'd be a terrible driver. They always say, "Oh, no you wouldn't." But the thing is oh yes I would. I can't tell my right from my left, I'm often so distracted and daydreamy I'll walk into a street sign, and if you ever saw me trying to operate a piece of complex machinery, like, say, a can opener or a pair of scissors, you would think, "Mother of God, that person must never, never be allowed behind the wheel of a car."
Don't worry. Won't happen.

(Image: wordpress.com)

There used to be a few guys downtown who sold Christmas trees from their houses. It was a bit of a hard gig - get up at 4AM, drive to the woods, harvest the stock and then come home and deal with the clientele who'd see the trees and knock on the door. No one seems to do that now so we're looking further afield. Being without a car makes this an endeavour that takes some planning, but people in movies are always carrying trees along sidewalks, the snow softly falling, it's very seasonal though often set in New York I believe. But in the spirit of the current festivities we might give it a try.

(Image: farm1.com.)

Seussian Tunes

Usually I manage to miss out on the TV Christmas Specials, but this year I'm catching them all - Charlie Brown, It's A Wonderful Life, Bill Murray's excellent take on Scrooge. I'm steeped in moral messages, spiritual uplift and bonhomie. Hark the Heralds, Zuzu's petels and Mankind is my business, got it. Most lingering of all is that bah-hoo doo-ray carol from How The Grinch Stole Christmas. The show still stands up as an exceptional cartoon riff on malice, loneliness and sweet redemption.

(Image: filmschoolrejects.com.)

We're getting awfully used to seeing Christmas lights in the rain and fog - no matter, they're still some pretty. We get a real treat at the office because we're on the Parkway, which is so beautifully festooned again this year.


(Image: dailygalaxy.com.)

A Visual Representation Of Our Office Dynamics

As we process the Christmas mailout. Very busy but also a nice feeling of being Santa's helpers.

(Image: zerotoys.com.)

Weather Gone Bonkers

It's near freezing, slush mixed with hail, northern gusts on the Parkway - and this was the nicest walk to work this week! The forecasts are bananas, with temperatures shifting ten or fifteen degrees in either direction, every old thing falling from the sky, warnings about this, that and the other - how are we supposed to handle this? What are we supposed to wear? Halter tops or parkas? Mukluks or ballet flats? I need more guidance from the CBC Morning Show team about this. Never mind whether they can or can't see the parkway - did they wear hats and mittens to work or not? Did they bring their sunglasses? Emergency rations?

(Image: storm3.com.)

Took yesterday off to wallpaper my daughter's bedroom, something that's been on the household to-do list for, oh, ten years or so. Now, it is done - she picked some really nice stuff, too. Oh, and here's a tip: when you buy the wallpaper, don't forget to ask the salespeople if it is pre-pasted or not. You could save yourself much trouble, tears and marital stress. I'm just saying.

(Image: coolchaser.com.)

Merry Christmas Charlie Brown

A Charlie Brown Christmas is now as necessary to the Christmas Season as rum in eggnog, but when it was first created it was actually quite controversial. There was no laugh track, the jazzy score was thought over-sophisticated, and there were objections to Linus's recital of the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke. Thankfully, Charles Schultz trusted his instincts and fought for his choices and has left us this sweet tempered, compact and gloriously un-hyper gem.

(Image: musicfromthemovies.com.)

Mags in Bins

Here's how the conversation in the office ran today;
Me: I think we need another bin for the NL Residue.
Circulation Manager: Right here. (She's very organized, as I have mentioned.)
Me: Oh No! I've mixed the AIEs with the AIKs!
Yes, it's all about postal codes, as we gear up for the mailout tomorrow am.

(Image: flickr.)

International Mailout

All our international issues and gift subs go out today - Canada Post promises they'll make their destination by Christmas. And the N. Q. does some serious traveling - Paris, Australia, Berkeley, China, New Caledonia (keep meaning to look up where the heck that is - South Seas?).

(Image: mymapman.com.)

Boland/Gill @ CPG

Nice event tomorrow if you're round these parts: Grant Boland, New Paintings, and Will Gill, New Work, opening at Christina Parker Gallery, with art, wine, and nibbles all good to go at 5:30pm.

(Image: Boland/Oranges.com).

Christmas Elementals

The best place to anticipate Christmas is in elementary school. The kids aren't weighed under by shopping lists and decorating plans and the incredible pressure to spend so much. They are just plain excited. And the best place in elementary school to anticipate Christmas is the Grade 5 homeroom. I don't know why but it is true. The cut-out snowflakes. The early dusk that brings the Christmas lights taped around the teacher's desk and strung amidst the bare park trees outside to a neon pop. The chalk-written list on the board: Fun Things To Do: #1 nitting (spelled without a 'k') #2 yelling at the TV #3 going to Australia.

(Image: webdesignerwall.com.)

What Goes Up, Goes Up

From the rain it seems the sky is falling and from the news it seems the government is falling, but one thing we at the N. Q. are determined to see go up in our mail-out numbers. As the Circulation Manager gets the Christmas cards organized (well over a hundred! and yes we'll remember any special salutations you requested) she's also printed off the lists of 428s and 429s (readers who need to renew from the summer and fall issues). So I'm sending emails and getting on the phone to subscribers, hopefully herding together all the strays who want to keep getting the magazine but haven't had time to contact us.

(Image: w3.org.)

Coming off back-to-back Craft Fairs in St. John's and Corner Brook. Both events were really good for us - we met people, garnered some new subs, and got to show off the Jean-Claude Roy painting from coast to coast. But the experience is also a bit surreal. Spending six, eight, even twelve hours a day in a big arena filled with sparkly lights, dangling stars and slightly echo-y Christmas tunes starts to feel like a stint on a space station, only HAL keeps singing "I'll be home for Christmas..." instead of "Daisy, Daisy..." It's intense I tell you.

(Image: malaland.files.)