Note from the webmaster : From time to time, the presence of the NFB Club ONF web site on the Net brings good surprises ! Here is what we received on March 28, 2006

I have just stopped by the NFB alum site by sheer luck, while looking up Claude Pelletier.

I�m Louis-Philippe Hemond. I started at the NFB in 1973, as a summer intern in the mail room, working with Bob Maisaitis, Elzear Gariepy, and the whole bunch from Admin Services. During summer 1974, I was at the print shop with Rene Marier. In 1975, main stores with Pascal Fiorini and Maurice Pion.

After a few summers elsewhere - including a stint at the Videographe, and while completing my first B.A., I came back to work at the lab for Grant Dearnaly, Conrad Perreault, and with Richard Gauthier. After graduating, I stayed there for a while. I cleaned and inspected rushes, spent countless nights in the printing room, inspected distribution copies. I did an apprenticeship in Negative Cutting with Arlene Sawyer, but never got the job. Too bad, I seemed to be the only person who'd enjoy laying subtitle tracks for foreign versions; I remember doing the Italian subtitles for a film on palliative care. I fell asleep during the screening of copy zero... In 1983, I moved to the studio area as store man for the lighting and grip equipment, working for Laval Fortier and Claude Pelletier. I left a few breadcrumbs here and there, as sound man, a.p., and a little bit of electrical work.

Meanwhile, and despite the great PR operations of the 40th, the writing was on the wall. Since the NFB was still reimbursing us for university tuition, I went back to school at U of Montreal and graduated in Accounting and Finance. Shortly after, in the spring of 1986, I left.

Since:
I became a stock broker (first for Tasse and Associates, then for Wood Gundy), surviving the crash of 1987 � some of my customers also survived. In 1989, I went to work for the Montreal Exchange, where I help start the Canadian Bond Future contract, and worked in development and marketing for options and futures.

In 1991, I left Montreal and went to work in Chicago for the International dept. of the Quebec Government. In 1994, I went back to work in commodities futures at the Chicago Board of Trade, then in 2000 I worked for NASDAQ in their Chicago office. I completed a Master in finance and statistics at the University of Chicago in 1997.

In 2003, I came back to Canada and now manage the online brokerage platform for the Bank of Nova Scotia in Toronto.

In 1994, I got married in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, to Riva Aidus, a nice girl from New York, with whom I have two sons (Colin and Zachary). I am in regular contact with Richard Gauthier, who was my best man at my wedding.

Last year, I learned of the passing of Don Arioli from the Globe and Mail. I sent an note to the editor, telling some of my memories of Don. They were published on December 29 2005 (And, I ask you, who the hell reads the Globe and Mail on December 29 ???). Here is the text:

I remember... Don Arioli

We always took care of Don Arioli's mail first. His correspondence was illustrious, not for the number of letters he sent, nor for the prose they contained; others, indeed, enjoyed Don's words. But for us, it was his envelopes that stimulated our imagination.

While still in high school, I landed a summer internship at the National Film Board. Lacking a well-connected father or a patron of the arts for a mother, I was promptly assigned to the mailroom. Every once in a while, after picking up the mail at the English Animation Studio, I would enter the mailroom and announce: "You've got to see Don Arioli's letter!"

Don had the wonderful habit of decorating otherwise plain envelopes with drawings of colorful characters from his animated films. He depicted them in costumes, engaged in various activities, hinting at the letter's content; other times a caption conveyed a message, a greeting, or a joke for the addressee. Always, the drawings were cheery, colorful, and funny. To us, the mail boys of the NFB, they were true works of art.�