Media: Patterns that Follow

TORONTO, ONTARIO - I've spent a surprisingly large proportion of my life getting up at twenty-four minutes after the hour. That's right, not at half past, but twenty-four minutes past the hour. Why? CBS Radio distributes "The Osgood File," a two-minute feature from Charles Osgood, at twenty-five minutes after the hour, four times a day (actually, seven times if the four times zones are accounted for, but there are only four new Osgood Files each day). So, I would set my clock radio to come on just before Osgood would start.

Once upon a time, most radio stations ran the features right off the network feed, so pretty much everywhere I went in the Pacific Northwest, I could listen to Osgood at the same time (on KIRO from Seattle, KXL from Portland, KREW-Sunnyside in much of central Washington, and KXLY from Spokane). By the time I went away to college, that had started to change, with stations delaying the feature up to fifteen minutes. KCBS in San Francisco (which originally delayed Osgood to half past) was running it about thirty-six minutes after the hour, so during college I could sleep in another six minutes and just wake up at half past to the headlines. Yet, when I moved to Boston, WBZ was still running the feed live, so I was back to my old routine. I'm obviously listening to the CBC (and getting up at standard times) in Canada, and commercial radio has so degraded that if I ever move back, I probably won't be listening, so getting up at twenty-four after the hour is probably an artifact of my past now.

Yet, other media traditions are still following me around. My parents purchased a gift subscription to the Christian Science Monitor for me in high school, and it might have been the best gift they ever gave me. The problem with the Monitor is that it was and is not hand-delivered, but comes by the postal service. That wasn't so bad when I lived in suburban Seattle or even eastern Washington state, where service was pretty predictable (if slow), but it was terrible on-campus at Stanford University. On occasion, an issue would come two weeks after the issue date, and I would regularly receive the Monday and Tuesday papers on Thursday (if I was lucky, Wednesday would also arrive the same day). I got to know my local postmaster exceptionally well in this era, as we had a near-constant "publication watch" in progress to track what was happening which never really solved the problem.

The United States Postal Service largely cleaned up its act in the late 1990's in terms of service reliability, but it was lost on me as about the same time I decided the Boston Globe was the correct paper to receive while I lived in that metropolitan area. Yet, I did miss the forward-looking, in-depth world news of the Monitor, so when I moved to the world city of Toronto, I decided that the weekly "International" edition of the Monitor should be back on my reading list.

The only problem is that Canada Post hasn't gone through a phase of becoming more reliable. In fact, it seems to be getting steadily worse. Today, on March 25th, I finally received the March 15th Christian Science Monitor--along with the one dated the 22nd. If I thought it would do any good, I'd request a publication watch. However, if it didn't do accomplish anything down south, it's even less likely to do so here. Some life patterns just won't go away.

Of course, I still listen to Charles Osgood--off a podcast. Maybe it's time to get a iPad and finally receive the Monitor when it is released.

Culture: Junction Post Office Saved

TORONTO, ONTARIO - I am ashamed to admit that in this post, I neglected to talk about the most surprising thing I learned at that community meeting event. Canada Post had told Man Gi Ju that they were pulling the post office from his store in The Junction neighbourhood of Toronto and moving it across the railroad tracks to a near-by Shoppers Drug Mart in a line of big box stores. Ju was at the meeting describing his situation and collecting signatures on his petition for Canada Post to reverse the decision.

While Ju's post office is not my home branch and in fact is one that I have not used, I signed the petition after listening to residents speak on Ju's behalf at that meeting. I appreciate The Junction as a neighbourhood, and it is entirely possible that I may someday live closer to it and want full facilities available--the last thing I would want to do is walk over to St. Clair and its Wal-Marts and Office Depots in order to get postal services. As one community activist put it, "Canada Post is doing exactly the opposite of what is happening in the neighbourhood--increased livability and more locally-owned stores."

By the time I thought to write about this again last week, I found out that the crisis was over--public pressure had already resulted in Canada Post doing a complete reversal and offering Ju a new five-year contract. The whole situation has now been well-summarized in this post on BlogTO. It seems clear enough that Canada Post backed off to avoid some very bad publicity.

Torontonians--and I suspect Canadians in general--are very good at this kind of neighbourhood-level pressure. I can't say I was surprised to find out I was behind the curve in reporting on this situation as someone from outside the neighbourhood, and that it had been resolved to the neighbourhood's satisfaction, at least as expressed by its Business Improvement Area staff. Member of Provincial Parliament Rosario Marchese mentioned last night that he was amazed at how organized condominium owners had become in his riding--a recent meeting had 180 of 200 condos represented. People may live in condominiums designed to keep out the world--and even their neighbours--but they still form communities.

It's no wonder so many Canadians liked Barack Obama--we understand community organizers and seem to know how to push them and subsequently follow them. On that, many United States residents have a lot to learn.