And now another episode of,... The Three Jeffs!

Not one of the longer-running shows around here, I'll admit. We've only met Jeff, and his other deliverer Jeff, and his other non-deliverer Jeff, once before at the end of last year.  In it, I mainly talked about Jeff our longtime mailman and Jeff our longtime Sunday newspaper delivery guy:

We have two gentlemen who come to our house 365 days a year between them, in all kinds of weather. Amazingly, there is absolutely no duplication: Jeff the mailman comes Mondays through Saturdays except national holidays, and Jeff the paper delivery guy only comes on Sundays and national holidays.

Through this year's many dangers, toils and snares, neither has missed a day, or failed to bring us our news, our financial pipelines, and unfortunate (more for them than for us) amounts of junk each. They always get the same gift, and we will always get the same appreciation from both of them.

We still see Mail Jeff on his rounds, but a little over a month ago, Paper Jeff left a note with his last Sunday delivery that he was giving up the route after nine years.  That's pretty amazing tenure for such a tenuous gig. We were lucky to catch him as he was making his final delivery, to wish him well in person and make sure we had his address to send him a final card of thanks:



(He just got the one this time.)

Third Jeff from that late 2020 post got in to the act from a different context of life. He's a local lawyer I've referred clients to, and been referred clients from, over the years. Just a nice guy with a thoughtful streak that he doesn't hesitate to ask for guidance on when the question is weird. His pre-Christmas email to me was, well, even weirder than usual, at least as it appeared on my phone that day:



I think the answer is "42." Or maybe I didn't carry the  right.

Anyway, this Jeff led off the snarky pictures yesterday morning:



This immediately reminded me of a trip I took years ago to see friends in Boston. As we were walking downtown, I saw a sign, told my friend Donna to STOP!, moved to her left, pushed her to where I'd been standing and then kept walking.  As she looked at me like I was crazy (not an unusual occurrence), I pointed to the sign I'd seen:



Barahm bahm.

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Before I could find and send that picture to Other Jeff, there was almost instantly a similar photo posted by Other Other Jeff.  The two do not know each other, live 800 miles apart, are from totally different circles of my existence. But they both know a good photo op when they see one:



Hopefully the mess hall won't be serving Fuzzy Navels during happy hour;)

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Which gets us to a Jeff that only became relevant because he lives in Newfoundland, not far from the stomping grounds of Great Big Sea and the Republic of Doyle series set (and filmed) there. We've had the show on binge for a couple of weeks, and last night, we reached the end of the first disk from the first season.  I learned something about our neighbors to the north (and in this case quite a bit east) I'd never known: just a few clicks from St. John’s, Newfoundland is an actual French governed island. Or rather a couple, maybe three, such French islands.



That's one of them, St. Pierre. The other is Miquelon, but, per this explanation: 

is technically known as Miquelon-Langlade, and it is dumbbell shape, the northern portion being Miquelon and the southern portion being Langlade. What connects them is the Dune de Langlade, a not-so-permanent sandy isthmus. In fact, during the 18th century, a storm destroyed the isthmus, creating two islands, only to have currents shortly thereafter connect them once again.

But while St. Pierre is the more touristy of the bunch, the whole little archipelago is distinctly French- the only remaining French territory technically part of the North American continent.  When departing the ferry from Fortune, you need to present a passport, exchange your loonies and toonies for euros, and be prepared to hear taunts from the natives about hamsters and elderberries.

I asked my friend Jeff from those parts if he was familiar with this strange island paradise, and although he was due to drive by the ferry to St. Pierre this very day, he said he'd never been: "it's expensive and they arrange the ferries so you have to stay one night."  That "ye missed the last ferry" bit was a plot point in the Doyle episode we just watched, and it led to Jake and Mal having a serious late-night throwdown with a crusty old rum runner who winds up getting his come-oopance.  The character was played by longtime Canadian character actor Gordon Pinsent; he had a role in the bigger budget Newfoundland-set film The Shipping News, in which Great Big Sea also appears prominently in the soundtrack.  I'd watch it again, but it's got Kevin Spacey in it, and I've had enough sexual predators to deal with for one week in our state government, thanks.

Fortunately, none of them are named Jeff. That I know of.