Ok, just a couple of things to catch up.

BC Business magazine had a short piece in the May 2009 issue (p19) about how the death of the phone book is exaggerated. The publishers claim 70% of the US population is still using phone books regularly to find local business. Perhaps.

A little further along in the article they talk about the waste produced when the phone books are recycled. Hey, says the publisher, we support the forest industry and they are the sole source of tree planting in BC.

Hmmm, I’m still thinking about that one.

On another note, our two local TV stations say they should be getting a cut of Shaw Cable’s financial pie. It seems that the ad revenue that’s kept them afloat isn’t enough any more, so they want Shaw to share the revenue stream from household cable subscribers.

Noodling on that one, it seems to me that if you watch an hour of news, you’ll only get about 30-40 minutes of programming. The rest of the hour is ads, the stations telling you what’s up next (after more ads), and the station patting itself on the back for being the best (and sometimes even that is an ad). Sigh. Perhaps they are just not charging enough for ads?

Please, I’d rather not pay more for that. Perhaps if the CRTC takes pity on them, Shaw should make the local stations pay per view. or add them to a tier of their own where we can choose to pay more and watch. Or not. After all, it’s my money they’re talking about, and I should have a choice to pay. Or not.

And last but not least…(and speaking of paying)

The Golden Ears Bridge opened up for a party today. People came. And came, and came. The first thing I ran into was a lineup 50 yards long at Colossus in Langley, where they were offering transit to the event. It took about 20 minutes to catch the bus to a transit event. Gotta laugh at that.

Once down to the bridge though, I saw why. There must have been close to 100,000 people walking around during the course of the day. There were a few protesters on about the planned new roads and the paramedic strike, but mostly there were families, out to enjoy the day. This was probably the last time the public will have free access to the bridge. A bit of Metro Vancouver history, I guess. Glad I went.

It’s an impressive structure. Too bad it’s going to cost commuters and arm and a leg to use it. Just think about it. If you pay around $3.00 each way, every day to work and work 200 days a year, that’s an additional $1200 bucks out of your pocket. If you live on the north side of the Fraser and work on the South, you might be better off working at Whistler. At least the drive on that new road is free.