‘Doyle’s 2020 Almanac of Newfoundland and Labrador’ worth leafing through
“Doyle’s 2020 Almanac of Newfoundland and Labrador — 2020 Local Forecasting: Our People, Our Culture: Stories of Our Province,” By Robert Doyle and Augustus Fanning= Newfoundland Pharmacy Ltd.; $15.95; 132 pages
This fifth edition of “Doyle’s 2020 Almanac of Newfoundland and Labrador” is composed of the now-anticipated assemblage of short features and interviews across a broad spectrum of Newfoundland and Labrador’s cultural and natural background and backdrop, sprinkled with songs and recipes, and accompanied by an in depth and contextualized forecast of all things weather and climate for the coming year.
Robert Doyle, who co-authors the series with Augustus Fanning, is the grandson of Gerald S. Doyle, the pharmacist (as is Doyle) with an intense interest in preserving Newfoundland and Labrador’s lore and song (ditto). These readable, informative books are an outgrowth of this Doyle lineage of attentiveness.
The volume opens with an acknowledgement of the late Patrick O’flaherty, the historian and author who died in 2017.
“He was a pioneer of Newfoundland studies and his scholarly work included a comprehensive three-volume narrative history of the province, which he spent a decade researching.”
Ray Johnson, of Buddy Wasisname and the Other Fellas, is profiled, discussing his musical career, deep devotion to rural Newfoundland, and take on different performance practices: “Ray is not concerned that recitations or ballads are on the wane in the province and credits performers such as Andy Jones, the Ennis Sisters, Anita Best, and Tommy Oliver from gull Island – who own father recited – with keeping recitations alive and well.”
Historically, the Almanac takes a look at such subjects as resettlement (still a current and divisive matter), aviation leader Lamont (Lal) M. Parson, and Capt. James Cook.
There is also a short article on “The Last Duels in Newfoundland and Labrador.” One, in St. John’s in March 1826, started with “a quarrel over cards” and ended with one participant slain. Capt. Mark Rudkin and Ensign John Philpot were also “vying for the affections of the daughter of a prominent family” – perhaps the underlying precipitating factor.
“While Philpot was a good shot, Rudkin was considered a marksman. In their first volley, Philpot’s shot grazed Rudkin’s collar and Rudkin merely shot into the air. Honour was satisfied but Philpot demanded a second round whereupon he was fatally wounded.” Their pistols can still be seen today, at The Rooms.
Turning to flora and fauna, Parks Canada, the Pitcher Plant, and Mistaken Point are among the topics explored.
“The Inuit Dog of Labrador” is particularly intriguing: “These are a working-class breed of dog, filling a niche between the faster and smaller Husky (Siberian or Alaskan) and the stronger Alaskan Malamute. Genetically they are in a class by themselves, showing no sign of recent wolf hybridization despite looking like a wolf, and their mitochondrial DNA is distinct from the Husky or Malamute and singular. This means they are all maternally related to one female whose DNA is not found in any modern breed (the Greenland Inuit dog is the same breed). Their nearest match was found in the 1,000-year-old remains of a dog found in Florida.”
About a third of the book is all about climate, illustrating the different provincial zones, breaking out the analysis of forecasting models, outlining a month-by-month synopsis, charting astronomical events as well as rain, snow, and temperatures, and tabling the times of sunrise and sunset. Iceberg numbers and the hurricane season is also predicted. We are all about the weather and there’s no more relevant issue to us today then climate and it is all here, listed and explained.
Interspersed with the text are lovely colour photographs – a vintage horse-drawn hay rake; a war memorial in Tavullia, Italy; the Mundy Pond Regatta. And the Climate section is thoroughly illustrated with charts and colour maps. The overall design is supple with a nice heft.
A little more care should be taken with word repetition, and regards punctuation Fanning should be restricted to one exclamation mark per 2,500 words. But those are small quibbles.
My favourite thing about the Almanacs is there’s always one piece that makes me look at the city differently as I walk through it – here it’s “Sculpted Heads of the Anglican Cathedral.”
I meander by this beautiful historic structure almost every day and never noticed them before, 58 on the exterior. There are 60 inside as well, representing Queen Victoria, Prime Minister William Gladstone, Cathedral architect George Scott, and other such personages. Those on the outside though are both much more weathered and enigmatic, not done in easily recognizable human likenesses; “One series of heads on three consecutive windows of the north side (Gower Street) displayed the proverbial ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.’”
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m just going to go have a gander at ’em.