Seven Days Blogs: 802 Online

The Weekly Post

Librarian blogger Meredith Farkas ponders social networking software etiquette in this post. Farkas frequently gets friend requests on Facebook, LinkedIN, Flickr, and Twitter from people she doesn't know. She wonders if she'll be offending them if she declines the requests.

I’m curious about how other people deal with this. Do you add everyone who adds you regardless of whether or not you know them? Do you add people you don’t know? If someone doesn’t add you, does it hurt your feelings? Do you think the term “friend” in these social networks has meaning if you add people you don’t know at all? I don’t know that people add certain people because they’re a “status symbol” to have on your list, as Sarah suggested. I assume it’s because they are interested in the person or think highly of them. It’s like subscribing to someone’s blog. Only it really does complicate the whole vetting process if you really don’t know the people who you’re affirming as your friend.

I really do think that these tools will stop being meaningful if people friend folks regardless of whether they know them, respect them (in the case of LinkedIN), or find them interesting (in the case of del.icio.us). But I, too, feel the draw to add everyone who adds me because no one wants to hurt someone else’s feelings. Oh what a tangled Web!

Here's one question that didn't come up — how should companies or media organizations use social networking services? Seven Days has a profile on MySpace with 500+ friends. But how exactly do we use that network? I don't want to use it to spam people with stupid comments or bulletins, but I feel like there has to be a way to use it to let people know about important stories they might have missed.

Any suggestions?

Weekly Post

This week it's from Bryan Grundon at Cabin Fever:

CRB Delays, Congress Acts!

Good news for independent internet radio, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has delayed royalty collection, pushing back the May 15th date for royalty rates to take effect, to July 15th. This delay will allow broadcasters and advocates for independent internet radio to appeal the new royalty rate change with the CRB. In addition, two bills have been introduced.

In the House (H. R. 2060), introduced by Representative Inslee (D-WA) and Representative Manzullo (R-IL) and the Senate companion “Internet Radio Equality Act”, introduced by Senator Brownback (R-KA) and Senator Wyden (D-OR), to roll back the CRB decision. Currently, H. R. 2060 is in committee and has 81 co-sponsors. Check and see if your Representative has signed on to sponsor this bill. Both of these bills have garnered strong support on both sides of the aisle, demonstrating the importance of this issue and the effects it will have on millions of internet listeners and broadcasters.

The window of opportunity is closing, so please contact your Congress persons and ask them to sponsor their respective bills. You can visit Save Net Radio for more information.

I picked this one because I haven't done a thing with the Internet Radio stuff, and I've been meaning to look into it.

Introducing the "Web Page"

For a few months now, I've been cryptically alluding to my plans to change my "Weekly Post" column that appears in the newspaper each week, on the Letters to the Editor page.

In the Weekly Post, which premiered in 2005, I spotlighted a blog post from a Vermont blog, as a way of connecting Seven Days readers to the local blogosphere.

But though I've some gotten positive feedback about the column over the years, I've never thought it worked the way I intended it to. The intent was to drive traffic to Vermont blogs. Because I linked to the blog posts from my blog, I probably did drive some traffic, but I'm not sure I ever accomplished that through printing the blog post in the newspaper.

I've been thinking about how to change this feature, and I think I've hit upon a way to make it work better for all of us  — bloggers and readers alike. I'm not ready to implement my idea yet, and I don't want to talk about it too much until I do. Suffice it to say that I think this new plan will do a better job of connecting our readers with Vermont blog content.

In the meantime, I'm saying good-bye to the print-version of the Weekly Post, in favor of a new, expanded section called "The Web Page." The name is admittedly not very clever (Don, our creative director, described it as "uncharacteristically bland," which sounds right to me), but at least it explains what it is.

Basically, The Web Page will feature a few short excerpts from our many Seven Days blogs, and it will highlight one or more of our web content features each week. This week I filled up a bunch of space with comments about busking on Church Street, from my blog and from our online poll.

I'm hoping that having this space to fill will push us to do more online-only content. I'm also hoping that drawing attention to our online and interactive features in this way will let more people know that there's something to see online. I doubt that people will actually put down the newspaper and log on to a computer to check out the stuff online, but at least having this space in the print paper will help publicize the fact that there's something going on.

I'll continue to name a post of the week here on my blog, at least for the time being, until I'm ready to roll out my new plan. I have no idea how long that'll take to implement, since it involves harnessing the power of other very busy members of our web team.

I hope all you Vermont bloggers aren't too disappointed that the Weekly Post will no longer appear in print. I really think there's got to be a better way to do what I was trying to do with it.

Weekly Post

This week it's from Bill Simmon at Candleblog:

Have I mentioned that Comcast sucks?

Wednesday, May 09 2007 @ 03:31 PM Contributed by: billsimmon ...I mean lately? So our cable got disconnected. This is not the part makes Comcast suck -- we were late paying our bill. What sucks is that even though I paid the bill 24 hours after the cable went off, they informed me that we had already been "hard" disconnected, meaning that a technician actually came to the house and physically unhooked us (as opposed to a "soft" disconnect, where they just flip a switch at the office). Okay, so ignoring the fact that you can't get a freaking technician to your house to fix a problem in anything less than 3 business days but they were Johnny-on-the-spot to unhook us when we were a little late with the check, I had to pay a $30 reconnect fee for the cable and (here comes the Louis Black red-face) another $30 reconnect fee for the internet!!! It's one coaxial line that has to be reconnected! I understand that they need to send the tech back out to my house and that they expect me to pay for that, but why am I paying extra because I order more data through their one single pipe???

There's more, including updates, which you can read on Bill's blog, or on the letters page of this week's Seven Days.

Neil at What's the Point mentioned in the comments to this post that this is the 43rd time I've chosen a post from Bill's blog for this spot. Actually it's only the 4th time. But that's more than most. I tend to pick posts that are short or easily excerpted, and are about local stuff. Or as close to local as I can get.

Just a head's up, the way we do the weekly post may be changing soon. More details to follow, eventually. Thanks for caring!

The Weekly Post

This week it's from the funny pseudo-political blog Wicked Outdoorsy, home of the "Greennecks" (as opposed to rednecks). Blogger Drew Simmons writes about National Bike to Work Day, which is May 18. Drew lists the days preceeding it. An excerpt:

May 2 is Write Bike-To-Work Day On Your Calendar Day

May 3 is Give Another Motorist The Finger Day

May 4 is Wonder Why Kids These Days Are So Fat Day

May 7 is Drive To Work So You Can Go To the Gym After Work Day

May 8 is Put a "Bike To Work Day" Bumper Sticker On Your Subaru Day

May 9 is Make Fun Of the Guy On the Yellow Bike Day

May 10 is Feel Lonely In Your 9-seat Chevy Tahoe Day

May 11 is Think About How Good It Will Feel To Bike To Work While You're Driving To The Office Day

Read more on Wicked Outdoorsy, or on the letters to the editor page of this week's Seven Days.

On that same theme, cool story in this week's paper about the new Montpelier bike co-op that opens this weekend. 

The Weekly Post

This one was actually posted on Sunday, April 22. From Jim Blynt at Disquisitions and Revolutions:

Last Monday a deeply isolated and troubled young man committed an act of great violence and tragedy, one that speaks to many problems in our nation and our human society.

In an unrelated article, the New York Times reported on Saturday that 33-year-old Kelly Lawson of Fort Wayne, Indiana, said, in reaction to having a Buddhist temple near her home, "I can't stand them. It is strange to us, so we don't like it." In the same article, Donna Davis, 56, also of Fort Wayne, said, "If they want to live here, why can't they start acting like Americans?"

Thanks, Kelly and Donna! You're sure doing your part! The nation is grateful to you both for your truly brilliant insight!

Please, someone tell me, if I do have to start acting like an American, that I don't have to act like the people in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Jim's got another interesting post up today, about racist and homophobic UVM students. He writes:

A Frat Boy recently moved into our little apartment house. His presence is jarring. Most tenants, renting modest apartments in a downtrodden part of town, just try to make ends meet. Frat Boy is annoyingly incongruous. He drives a sparkling new SUV, roughly the size of our living room (he never walks, even a few blocks). He wears the requisite Abercrombie and Fitch wardrobe. A woman who is either his maid or his mother pulls up from time to time with bags of groceries or a laundry basket of neatly folded clothes. A giggling bevy of bar sluts skitters through on a fairly regular basis.

When did so many students become so rich, so arrogant, and so intolerant, and why is it happening at UVM? I know from experience this isn’t the case with students at some of the city’s smaller colleges, which seem to dovetail more appropriately with Burlington’s atmosphere. How did life become so privileged for so few, and when did the rest of us in Burlington become fair game for their rude, racist, homophobic, and completely inappropriate public utterances?

Read more...

The Weekly Post

This week it's from Selene Colburn's blog Word Blur. Selene is a dancer — and also a librarian, hence the title of her blog. In the post I picked, she describes a dream of inadequacy. From Whippet good:

Last night I had a dream that I was performing street theater in some unknown town that hosted an MFA performance program. A bunch of students were watching. I was invited to give a lecture/demonstration at their school.  When I showed up in the corriders of the Art Building a girl who recongnized me from the street came up to greet me.

"You're performance was..."  I prepared myself for the accolades.  "Three-quarters bullshit."

"It was a whippet of snip-snobbery," she concluded.

You can read more on her blog, or on the Letters to the Editors page of this week's Seven Days.

I like this post because Selene is actually a fantastic dancer. I'm not a dance fan, but I loved her performance Devotional Clusters; she did that at the Flynn Mainstage a few years back. Selene is working on a new piece, The History of the Future, and she's still looking for volunteers to participate. You don't have to be a dancer to take part. Rehearsals are on Sunday afternoons. Check it out.

Weekly Post

This week's Vermont blog post of the week comes from Barton blogger meeyauw. It expresses a sentiment I'm sure many of us were feeling earlier this week:

I really can't take anymore. I still have a 10 foot drift blocking a window and snow up to five feet deep behind the house. I got to the barn before this week's snow only because it was so crusted that I could walk over it. Now I can't get to the barn again and the cats can't get out there either....

I have stopped crying and now I am trying to re-think myself into winter: movies, cooking, reading, blogging. It isn't working well. I am going to try denial tomorrow.

Read more at meeyauw, or on the Letters to the Editor page of this week's Seven Days.

And if you're a Vermont blogger, come join us at the Vermont Blogger Meet-up at Radio Bean on Saturday.

Weekly Post

This week's post 'o the week is from former Burlington City Councilor Haik Bedrosian at BurlingtonPol. Haik and his wife just had baby #2.

He writes:

I have to be honest with you people. The blogger in me has been smashed in the face by a tidal wave called "baby"...

I feel ten years older since baby "Yanna" arrived ten days ago. To make matters worse for BurlingtonPol, it's like another eleven months until there's another local election to make fun of.

Monday I'll head back to work. I haven't shaved all week and there's a shocking amount of gray in my beard. I can feel myself softening. I no longer feel the sharp resentment I used to for the city's institutions- Fletcher Allen, UVM- Even the Co-op. I'm too tired to fight. I always lose and nobody cares anyway.

There's more here.

And check out this photo collage of Tim Ashe armwrestling Kurt Wright for the presidency of the Burlington City Council.

Thanks to Caleb D. for reminding me to post this. I've been forgetting lately. I've really been such a bad blogger ever since I got this online editor job. It's weird. My responsibilities have shifted, my work schedule has completely changed, and I'm having a hard time fitting the blog into it. Thanks for sticking with me.

The Weekly Post

This week's Vermont blog post of the week comes from Chris Fells, at From the News and Sports Desk. Fells writes about Milton High School basketball player Jeff Cota, who is battling cancer, and who just got his Xbox and a bunch of other stuff stolen.

Last week it was reported that items, including an Xbox were stolen from Jeff's home while he was in Boston receiving treatment. The Xbox was a gift to help him stay occupied while home bound and recovering from chemotherapy treatments. To the little twits who broke into the home, shame on you. Jeff has CANCER, and needs everything possible to help keep his spirits up. Stealing something because you either want to hawk it on eBay or are too lazy to get a job to buy one yourself is simply a disgrace. You think you have it bad? Think about the kid who is literally fighting for his life right now.

You can read the post in its entirety on Chris' blog, or on the Letters to the Editor page in this week's Seven Days.

Weekly Post

I almost forgot! This week's Vermont blog post of the week is Bill Simmon's eulogy for the Five Spice Cafe in Burlington, called, appropriately, You dim sum, you lose some.

My favorite restaurant in the whole world burned down yesterday morning. Five Spice Cafe has been in Burlington almost as along as I have and I've been going there since near its inception. The pan-Asian restaurant opened in 1985 and I probably went there for the first time in 1986 (with my friends Kevin and Jen to see my friend Steve play in a jazz quartet — I think Smoothie must have been there too). I went there the last time with Emily Friday night — the night before the fire. We still have left over veggie kung pow and chicken curry in our fridge. Reba suggested we freeze it and sell it on ebay.

Read it in its entirety on Bill's blog, or on the letters to the editor page of this week's Seven Days.

The Weekly Post

This week's spotlighted Vermont blog post comes from Flatlander at False 45th. It's about iConcertCal. Flatlander likes it. Read why on his blog, or on the letters to the editor page of this week's Seven Days.

Weekly Post

This week the spotlight is on Vermont's irreverant revenant expert, Molly Hodgdon. In Sunday Morning Buffet: Zombie Q&A, she explains why they call her "Undead Molly." I've always wondered.

Q. Are you undead?
A. As some of you already know, the "Undead" part of my name refers to my expertise in the field of revenant research and theory. Vampires and zombies are my métier.
Q. What does that mean, exactly?
A. Well, I do watch a lot of horror movies, but just doing that does not one an "expert" make. I've also developed an entire library of mostly non-fiction books on these topics, and written countless papers, essays, and articles.
Q. Uh, "Non-fiction"?
A. These are books which document and analyze the role of undead folks in mythology, folklore, literature, and film.

Read more at Undead Molly or on the letters to the editor page of this week's Seven Days.

The Weekly Post

One last 2006 retrospective for you — radical anti-capitalist blogger, librarian and tech teacher Jessamyn West reviews her year in books. Her list appealed to me, so I reprint it here. For the full test of her post, visit her blog, or check it out on the letters to the editor page of this week's Seven Days.

number of books read in 2006: 60
number of books read in 2005: 86
number of books read in 2004: 103
number of books read in 2003: 75
number of books read in 2002: 91
number of books read in 2001: 78
average read per month: 5
average read per week: 1.25
number read in worst month: 0 (December)
number read in best month: 8 (November, August)
percentage by male authors: 59
percentage by female authors: 41
fiction as percentage of total: 60
non-fiction as percentage of total: 40
percentage of total liked: 77
percentage of total ambivalent: 23
percentage of total disliked: 0

Looks like she's slipping a little — only 60 books read this year. Sheesh. That's more than a book a week! Who has that kind of time?

The Weekly Post

Meditations on winter from Maryellen Griffin, a farmer in South Peacham. Even though it doesn't feel like winter today.

Read her post by clicking on the link above, or by opening to the letters to the editor page of this week's Seven Days.

Weekly Post

This week it's from Rob Friesel at found_drama, who offers us this beguiling search term haiku:

breasts on a plane
phobia haiku poems
hypno erotic

Read more about this series at Rob's blog. And/or check out his post on the Letters to the Editor page in this week's Seven Days.

Weekly Post

Today's comes from Caleb Daniloff's blog what i saw today. I picked two of his posts, actually, because they're both short. Here's the one from last Friday:

      My four-year-old nephew ran into the dining room while we were eating Thanksgiving dinner. He’d been playing in the living room with some other kids. My sister was giving a toast. “Mama, Mama, guess what,” Nicholas interrupted, breathless. Eighteen heads turned to listen. “I’m not shy anymore!” he declared. Then dashed off. I need to pick that kid’s brain first chance I get.

You can read this one and the other on his blog, or on the Letters to the Editor page of this week's Seven Days.

You may have heard Daniloff on the radio last week. NPR picked up his holiday commentary.

Weekly Post

This week it's from Julie Waters at Reason and Brimstone. She's famous as the blogger who broke the Rainville plagiarism scandal, but she's also an excellent photographer. She does a Friday Birdblogging feature each week. This time she featured some fantastic photos of the snow geese at Dead Creek.

I stopped by Dead Creek twice in the last month but didn't manage to see many of the critters. Guess I went at the wrong times.

The Weekly Post

This week it's from the Henwhisperer at Post Menopausal Ponderings. Despite the blog title, it's basically an ag blog, so I have it listed on my blogroll as Hen Whisperer.

Anyhow, the Hen communicator writes about Ag Secretary Steve Kerr's departure, which was news to me. Here's some of what she has to say:

In an apparent parting of the ways, Steve Kerr gave his resignation to Governor Douglas yesterday. It was a mutual decision as the Burlington Free Press reported this morning. David Lane will stay on as interim secretary, though he has not decided if he will seek the position permanently. Kerr's last day, according to the media reports, is 15 December.

As one person wrote to me, it is better to sleep with the devil you know than one you do not know. I agree, but in this case, I am glad we are rid of Steve Kerr. I hope the Governor will seek out a more moderate secretary and one without agribusiness ties...

I understand that Arkansas' Phil Wyrick may lose his job. Another excellent choice judging by the crap he wrote in justification of ID chips in horses. His logic is faulty and what he proved is that this whole id'ing and chipping of animals just makes more avenues for criminals to get away with things. It also turns regular people who just want to live their lives in peace into criminals.

Read the rest by clicking on the link above, or see it on the Letters to the Editor page of this week's Seven Days.

The Weekly Post

Hard to pick this week. I wanted something non-political, but everybody was blogging politics because of the election. So we get this post about Ted Haggard, from Steve Benen's very excellent Carpetbagger Report.

When we last left evangelical leader Ted Haggard, he was admitting to have bought (but not used) methamphetamines, but continued to deny having an affair with a gay prostitute. There was, shall we say, some lingering doubts about Haggard's evolving defense.

Late yesterday afternoon, Haggard's New Life Church, after an oversight investigation conducted by four pastors from other churches, found that he had "committed sexually immoral conduct" and fired him. Reportedly, Haggard began calling close friends last night, admitting that he'd been involved in sexual transgressions.

The church released a statement explaining that Haggard would offer an "explanation" at this morning's services. Apparently, the broken man has finally stopped lying.

"The fact is I am guilty of sexual immorality, and I take responsibility for the entire problem. I am a deceiver and a liar. There's a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring with it all of my adult life."

There's more. Read it online, or see a slightly shorter version on the letters to the editor page of this week's Seven Days.

The Weekly Post

This week it's Magog Nights from Candleblog, which you can read by clicking on the link, or flipping to the Letters to the Editor section of this week's Seven Days.

When I emailed Bill Simmon to tell him I'd selected a post from his blog, he thanked me, and sent this critique of the weekly post feature:

It's a great idea, but the implementation is weird.  This post is a great example, actually.  The last sentence, where I wrote "She did, however, treat me like a king," makes absolutely no sense unless you follow the linked words "treat me like a king" to the BJ snowden song "In Canada," which contains those lyrics.  Print's lack of hyperlinks makes the translation not really work. 

Also, it's a little ironic that the one part of the letters page that's not reproduced online is the part that's about the web. I'm just sayin'...

I agree with Bill's assessment, but I don't have a solution. Unfortunately, we can't expand the column to explain the hyperlinks. And it would sort of kill the joke to explain it, I think.

As for not being reproduced online, I think the idea was that the post would be reproduced, or at least noted, here on this blog, instead of being on the actual online letters page. Maybe that's faulty logic, though. I know it keeps the online paper audience from actually seeing the post, which is unfortunate. Not sure if that's critical, though, as my real point with it is to introduce the print readers to content they can find on the web.

Anybody have any thoughts about this? We haven't tinkered with this column since we introduced it a year or so ago. Should I suggest some changes? If so, what should we change?

PS — BJ Snowden is back in town this Saturday, to share her quirky songs about Canada. She's at Langdon Street Cafe in Montpelier at 4, and at Radio Bean in Burlington at 8.

Weekly Post

This week's selection is actually a composite of two harvest moon blog posts, courtesy of Tom's Astronomy Blog.

Part 1
Part 2

This is appropriate, I think, given that Tom Dumont's harvest moon image is actually a composite of two different images Photoshopped together.

Thanks, Tom! You can see this snappy photo, along with bits from both posts, on the Letters Page of this week's Seven Days.

Weekly Post

This week it's a September 11 post from freelance writer Caleb Daniloff's excellent, pithy blog, what i saw today:

a post-industrial message    

                    

Down by the waterfront, across from the dog park, an old Dumpster sets against a stone wall. The wall is speckled with graffiti like “Matt reads playgirl. what a fagit.” Other sentences snake along the stones with their bloated letters and lack of surprise. Walking the path today, I saw a man lean his bike against the Dumpster. He pulled back one section of lid and peered into the small dark cavern. He pulled back the other section and seemed to recoil. He jumped on his bike, empty-handed. When I approached the steel green container, I saw what had spooked him. Spray-painted on the underside of one of the steel flaps: “Jesus wasted his time on us.” Revealed like a fortune cookie.

You can also read it on the Letters page of this week's Seven Days.

Weekly Post

This week's farm fresh entry comes from Peter Griffin at Down on the Farm:

Pulling in the oars

We are expecting our first frost tonight. This is early for us, but not unheard of. In an average year, we get our first frost around the end of September. But today was autumnal, no doubt about it -- sunny, dry, high of 63.

But frost tonight means that we have to harvest certain veggies now, and then cover certain crops to try to nurse them along for a few more weeks. We ran out this morning and pulled all our onions, and all the winter squash that was ready...

Read more by clicking on the link above. Or check out the Letter's page in this week's Seven Days.

The Weekly Post

Last week Vermont Daily Briefing, this week She's Right. Writes Charity Tensel,

Have you heard about the latest scheme cooked up by the Vermont left? They are attempting to make sure that no one runs against Bernie Sanders in the November election.

...the left is organizing a campaign to get people to vote in the Republican primary to write-in the deceased Fred Tuttle, eradicating any opposition from the Republican Party.

I picked Charity's post about the Tuttling of Rich Tarrant because I think this "campaign" is totally ridiculous. Ok, yes, I voted for Fred Tuttle against Jack McMullen in 1998. But that's when Fred was actually alive, and after that brilliant appearance on VPR's Switchboard, where he exposed McMullen's utter lack of basic Vermont knowledge. I will never, in my lifetime, forget the sound of Fred's voice as he asked, "how many teats on a dairy cow, Jack?" That was priceless.

But let's let Fred rest in peace, shall we?

You can read Charity's post here, or on the Letters page of this week's Seven Days.

The Weekly Post

This week it's Philip Baruth's recap of Green Mountain Daily's online Lt. Governor debate. Find Philip's Vermont Daily Briefing roundup here. My favorite part? The fart joke reference near the end.

You can also read the post on the Letters page of this week's Seven Days.

And while we're talking about VDB, I should point out this morning's post about the upcoming net neutrality action in Senator Jeffords' Montpelier office. It's tomorrow at noon. See VDB for more details. More info on the urgent issue of net neutrality here (via We Are the Web).

The Weekly Post

I couldn't resist giving Bill Simmon some actual ink for his post on last weekend's air show. To read the Free Press, you'd think the only people annoyed by it were a small group of singing grannies. And that's just not true.

Writes Bill,

These planes fly maybe 100 feet over the [VCAM] studio and are extremely loud. And it's not a gradual build up of noise, it's sudden and explosive. We're a production studio and as such we're pretty sensitive to outside noise. You know, because we use microphones and stuff. These fighters are interrupting us every time they fly over head, which happens about once per minute for a period of an hour or so for the last three afternoons. I'm about ready to call the Burlington police and lodge a noise complaint against the Air Force. I get it, you're doing an air show this weekend. You fly around in tight formation. It's very impressive. Now please go away.

You can read this post in its entirety here, or on the Letters to the Editors page of this week's Seven Days.

Weekly Post: from Deadbeat Club

This week's post comes from Eva Sollberger, president and CEO of the Deadbeat Club. How could I resist a post called You Tube goes geriatric? Here's Eva:

The event of which I speak is that there is a new YTKP (You Tube King Pin) in town and he is not who you might expect.  The NHSOYT (New HOT STAR of You Tube) is a well-spoken, elderly gentlemen from England named Peter!  (see his videos here)

Watch out you Aussie hussy Emmalina, Peter the British widower is hot on your trail with almost as many suscribers as you - almost 7000 and counting! Peter is also the #11 subscribed channel of ALL TIME!!

How is this possible, you ask? You Tube has been a teenage wasteland from its inception and suddenly, out of the blue, their champion is 78 years old?

How indeed. I edited the excerpt slightly in the paper. You can find it on the Letters to the Editors page of this week's Seven Days.

Weekly Post: from Green Mountain Daily

This week's post comes from Green Mountain Daily. With all the uproar about the CT Senate primary, this announcement from odum may have gotten lost in the shuffle:

On Monday, August 28th at 12:00 noon, Green Mountain Daily will host Vermont's first online political candidate debate between the Democratic primary candidates for Lieutenant Governor, Representative John Patrick Tracy of Burlington and Senator Matt Dunne of Hartland. The debate will be held in a live chat room linked from the GMD front page, with comments from viewers in a parallel live-blogging thread.

I know this is the second time I've plugged the debate here on 802, and it's still a few weeks away, but I'm really happy to see it happening.

The rest of the announcement is printed in full on the Letters page of this week's Seven Days.

The Weekly Post: From Bad Colonies Motoring Cooperative

I couldn't resist reprinting at least one post from the Bad Colonies guys, who are driving from London to Mongolia as part of the 2006 Mongol Rally. I envy them and their troubles, though I really can't complain about sitting safely in my air conditioned office.

From On the Move Again:

So far today driving might be described as dangerous or insane depending upon your point of view. Along the main road from Kiev to Charkov the road drops to two lanes. There are a lot of slow moving vehicles and the Ukrainians cannot be bothered. They will pass a any moment and completely disregard any oncoming vehicles. As has been our general rule for Eastern Europe, we have chose the join the fun and not resist. Its quite a frightening experience to just make it into your lane with one of those big ass Euro trucks coming straight for you.

Read the rest on the Letters to the Editors page of this week's Seven Days.
 

Weekly Post

Bought to you this week by Flatlander at False 45th. He writes about (and photographs) the mysterious performance artist at the Montpelier Farmers' Market:

I first noticed the person last week when he/she was standing on their platform wrapped in a large off-white sheet and mask just peaking out of their wrapping. It kind of freaked my kids out at first but then they became curious about who it was and why they were standing there. The artist moves every once in a while but is completely unresponsive to the people going by.

The reaction from the other folks at the market seems to have varied from being startled when they first see it to being annoyed by it because it made them uncomfortable to laughter to photographing the person while their kids stand along side of the artist. Plus, a lot of people just walk by without noticing it or just purposefully ignoring it.

The people who seem the most perplexed by it are the out-of-towners who thought they'd go away for the weekend to a quaint Vermont town. There never was anything like this on Newhart.

This post also appears on the Letters to the Editor page of this week's Seven Days.

Weekly Post: From the 8th Nerve

This week's feature: Sarah Maas' humorous response to a streaker at Wimbleton.

So I was watching the Sharapova/Dementieva match, when this naked guy ran onto the court. He jumped around and did a cartwheel. Then security guys took him away. The commentators remarked so calmly on it that I rewound and watched it again to make sure it really happened.

There doesn't seem to be a Janet Jackson/Super Bowl uproar and backlash happening over this, and this was way worse than her wardrobe malfunction. I saw a completely naked man do a CARTWHEEL. I saw the dark side of the moon, people. Man parts that wouldn't usually see the light of day even if he strolled outside in the nude.

And it was all flopping about, too.

People in the audience were laughing and cheering. Dementieva was smirking. I could be wrong, but nobody appears to be suing ESPN or Wimbledon, saying that unsuspecting families were watching, children were traumatized. Because you know what really traumatizes the children? Their uptight parents making a big stink about it, reacting as if it is horrifying and shameful. So far everybody seems pretty easygoing about the whole thing. Yay for tennis fans.

You can also find this bit of cultural commentary on the Letters to the Editor page of this week's Seven Days.

The Weekly Post: From Norsehorse's Home Turf

This week I chose to spotlight Vermont's most vigilant and prolific blogger, Morgan Brown. Morgan is once again homeless. He occasionally writes about the difficulties of his transient lifestyle, as he did in this post, In Transit: Moving, Day 2:

It appears I will be able to sleep on a couch on an outside porch of a place in town. I have permission to do so, at least if the couches are not already filled up with others by the time I make it over there. Late last Summer and much of the Autumn I slept on the same porch, until I moved indoors on October 22nd (2005).

While it is not always easy for me to get enough of a good quality sleep in such environs, relatively speaking, it is somewhat better than the alternative(s) -- of which there are not too many (i.e., good ones anyway).

If it comes down to it, my tent and camping gear is always at the ready, stored with the rest of my stuff, just in case it is ever needed; although having to resort to camping out typically requires a lot of energy and takes its toll on me.

I know Morgan and have read his writing because he has access to tools that allow him to publish and disseminate his work electronically. His blog is a great example of how the web can give voice to people who might otherwise be voiceless; how it can deepen our understanding of important but often invisible people and issues in our own communities.

You can read an excerpt of Morgan's post on the Letters to the Editor page in this week's Seven Days.

UPDATE: Morgan takes issue with my characterization of him as Vermont's most prolific and vigilant blogger. Hmm. In an email, he writes: "while I appreciate the honor, I am in no way Vermont's most 'prolific' blogger, I think that honor is best bestowed on the likes of NTodd as well as others. In fact labeling me with it might be taken as an insult to those who actually deserve it as well as their readers. In addition, I also do not think I am Vermont's "most
vigilant" blogger either."

Ok, maybe Morgan is not quantifiably the most prolific Vermont blogger. I said that because he maintains a bunch of different blogs. But I stand by the "most vigilant" label. Literally every time something interesting happens in the local blogosphere, Morgan writes to tell me about it, and often posts about it on his blog. And he finds all kind of Vermont sites I've never seen. He's got his finger on the digital pulse of what's online in 802. I call that vigilance.

The Weekly Post: From Diabologue

Can't believe I haven't posted since Wednesday! Jeez, I've been busy. Can't wait to write about what I've been doing all week, but I'll let it sit until Wednesday.

In the meantime, you can peruse this post about the Satanic High Mass on 6/6/6 from Burlington resident Matt G. Paradise. Matt's a Magister of the Church of Satan, and the guy behind Radio Free Satan.

I thought this was a fitting choice, given the spirituality-themed issue of the paper. You can read a tiny excerpt on the Letters to the Editors page of this week's Seven Days.

Weekly Post: from Undead Molly

Continuing on the MySpace theme...

MySpace etiquette questions from Molly Hogdon, who writes about her night out at a show last weekend:

...while I was there I saw two people I "know" from MySpace.  One of them was with some mutual friends so I was introduced to her in that was, but the other was... well, there was a four-degree separation between myself and this person such that an introduction was not going to occur.
    Normally this would be a relief because I hate people and don't want to meet 99.9 % of them.  But this is the second time I've seen someone from MySpace I actually wanted to meet but was baffled by what sort of etiquette might govern the situation and was nowhere near drunk enough to say "fuck etiquette".

Read more at Undead Molly, or on the Letters page of this week's Seven Days.

The Weekly Post: from Beauty is in the Eye of the Storm

This week's post o' the week comes from Kelly G. over at Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder Storm [duh]. It's a eulogy for 135 Pearl.

Well, 135 Pearl, RI fricken P. You were the best of bars; you were the worst of bars. For a while there you had a pool table. For heinous DJs, to heinous drama, to intermittently heinous decor-- for good drinks, good friends, and good nights of dancing we will never forget you...

You can find my slightly edited for length version on the Letters to the Editor page of this week's Seven Days.

Incidentally, I was a little disappointed by the lack of response to my 135 Pearl blog post. Guess people just aren't into the whole blog memorial thing. Or maybe I just don't have enough readers. Or maybe the readers I do have aren't the ones with Pearl's stories? Whichever. My little experiment didn't work the way I'd intended. Ah well.

The Weekly Post: from Open Heart Farm

I've been wondering all week how those farmers in the floodplain in Burlington's Intervale have been handling all this rain. RD (Josh?) from Open Heart Farm fills us in:

I finally made it to our field, on top of a little rise (and how very clearly vital these little rises have become!) and saw the PEAS! happy to be drying off and shaking it out...

and then the BEETS! and ONIONS! dear friends from early days on the field this year (gee, really it's only been 2 months...) - they're AOK, a little muddy but standing tall - high-riding! - also, okay...

LETTUCE, SPINACH, BACHLOR BUTTONS, RADISHES, DAIKON, NAPA, and many rows of greens!

ALL INTACT!

More here, and on the Letters page of this week's Seven Days.

The Weekly Post: from In a Mirror Dimly

Today's entry comes from Ed Cyzewski's In a Mirror Dimly. Cyzewski, an Arlington resident, is an evangelical Christian. He writes intelligently about John McCain's recent speech at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. Here's an excerpt from Ed's blog:

It was bound to happen. If Senator John McCain wants a shot at the White House in 2008, then he has to suck it up and court the religious right. Apparently he has gone straight to the head man. After criticizing Jerry Falwall as an agent of intolerance, McCain and Jerry have tried to make nice for the sake of the common good: keeping liberals out of the White House.

It's amazing how far two men will go to acheive a common goal. McCain has to swallow his pride and have his picture taken with Falwell. Falwell has to accept that McCain is not quite in the same camp on issues such as gay marriage. I for one am glad to see a moderating influence rise to prominence in the Republican party. I'm sick of the religious right determining the agenda. I don't want the next election to center on gay marriage. Way to bite the bullet John.

You can read the full text of the speech here. As turned-off as I am by Falwell and his agenda, I really appreciated McCain's speech. I guess I'm not cynical enough yet to dismiss his call to bridge the ideological divide in this country. I think it's a message more people need to be spreading.

On that note, I guess it's appropriate to mention that I'll be appearing on Charity Tensel's 5:25 call-in show on Channel 17 this Friday. It's called "She's Right." Feel free to give us a call...

The Weekly Post: from Tirade Parade

This week's post o' the week comes from that sharp-tongued UVM student at Tirade Parade, who rails against Bob Kiss' interest in turning Burlington into a sanctuary city. I'm not saying I agree or disagree with T-Rage, but I do like the way she expresses herself. Very fiesty!

Did he not hear any of the talk during the "Day With No Immigrants?" Because as far as I could tell, people were shouting about how bad regular immigrants have it — but the mayor wants to go ahead and make it worse for them by giving jobs and housing to people who haven't even gone through the system. Not to mention the troubling issue of the general shortage of affordable housing. I'm about to graduate and will be leaving this state because the available jobs in my field don't pay what I would need to live here.

Mr. Kiss, have you heard of the term "Brain Drain"? Because this little "let's help illegal immigrants" shtick is the exact opposite thing you should be worrying about when there are energetic, young, qualified people leaving your state (to build and strengthen the economies for other states).

Read more (and comment) here. Or see an edited version on the letters page of this week's Seven Days.

Weekly Posts

I haven't been updating my weekly post choices on the blog, but they've been in the paper. Two weeks ago, while I was on vacation, I reprinted a fashion faux pas post from New York Ex: The World's Most Powerful Lesbo.

Last week, it was an explaination of localvores from Peter Griffin at Down on the Farm.

This week, I excerpted Charity Tensel's rant about the Vermont Legislature from She's Right.

That's a nice mix, don't you think? 

The Weekly Post: from Dohiyi Mir

N.Todd Pritsky of Dohiyi Mir is the author of this week's Vermont blog post spotlighted on the Letters page of Seven Days. In a post written on my 31st birthday, N.Todd disagrees with Congressman Barney Frank about the value of all the talk recently about impeaching G Dub. 

Barney, what do you think the impeachment debate would include if not the disastrous war in Iraq and the lies that led to it, not to mention illegal, unconstitutional warrantless wiretapping and all the other sins of this administration?  This is a way for the Dems to control the debate.

Read on...

Also, it looks like Dohiyi Mir came in third in this year's Koufax Awards for Most Deserving of Wider Recognition. Though frankly, I'm having trouble figuring that out. But it looks like he did...

UPDATE: Yes, I really am that dumb... Bill Simmon writes, "I don't think the Koufax results are posted yet.  Notice how the list you linked to is in alphabetical order?" Whooops! Sorry for the confusion.

The Weekly Post: from Vermont Daily Briefing

This post o' the week comes from Philip Baruth at Vermont Daily Briefing . He writes about a peace rally in Rutland last weekend that drew a bunch of folks. Find a shorter version of his post on the letters page of this week's Seven Days.

And if you're looking for interesting reading, you might pick up Philip's 1999 novel about Burlington called The Dream of the White Village. It's actually a collection of interwoven short stories that touches on the two degrees of separation thing we've got going on here. I read it in a book group years ago and really liked it. And I'm not just saying that because I was on VPR with the guy. 

The Weekly Post: from Sugar Mountain Farm

This week's post o' the week is Piglet Counting, by Walter Jeffries at Sugar Mountain Farm. I was looking for something nonpolitical for a change. Find it in print on the Letters page of this week's Seven Days.

The Weekly Post: from BurlingtonPol

This week's post o' the week comes from Haik Bedrosian's Burlington Pol. I excerpted part of his coverage of Burlington's Second Mayoral debate. I was bummed this week when I scrolled through the blogs; I was hoping to see more coverage of Town Meeting and local election issues, but Haik's blog is one of the few focusing on local politics. Maybe it's because Vermonters believe that not enough of their neighbors are online to warrant discussing hyper-local issues. Or maybe this local stuff just isn't as interesting as the statewide races.

Whatever. I'm really hoping folks blog about Town Meeting Day next week.  I can't make it to small town Town Meetings, and I want to read about them. If you're blogging about stuff that happens in your small town in Vermont, please send me links to your posts. I want to help you find readers, starting with me.

The Weekly Post: from PoliticsVT

This week's post o' the week is actually not a post. I wrote a short bit about PoliticsVT, and their hiatus post, and excerpted a comment from Rep. George Cross, D-Winooski. There are now 82 comments on that thread. You can read the Weekly Post column on the letters to the editors page of this week's Seven Days.

I interviewed "Edna Beard" from the Capitol Bureau via IM on Monday afternoon. Edna basically said the people at PoliticsVT are burnt out. I would have excerpted direct quotes from that interview, but alas, I accidentally erased it before I could save it. I was in a hurry to leave that afternoon.

During our interview, I asked Edna why the Capitol Bureau had removed its past posts from the site. Edna did not have a good answer. I suggested that the Capitol Bureau replace their past posts, and I see they've put a few of them back. I'm not sure why they don't have real archives, but at least they've got more than that one hiatus post up now. 

The Weekly Post: from Dorset Farms Neighborhood

Almost forgot! This week's post o' the week, from Dorset Farms Neighborhood:

Speeders in the Neighborhood

Although I sense that the problem of speeding, especially on Midland road, has decreased, there are still those who feel they have no need to abide by the 25mph limit. In order to decrease the problem even further all 15 Neighborhood Watch captains will now be reporting anyone they see speeding in Dorset Farms to Watch coordinator Dan Wetzel.

There's more. You can also read it on the letters to the editor page of this week's Seven Days.

I picked this post because I want people to expand what they think blogs can do. If I thought my neighbors were all online, I might try to communicate with them this way.   

The Weekly Post: from False 45th

Today's post o' the week comes from False 45th. Flatlander usually writes about the music scene, but here he covers a Texas Hold 'Em tourney in the tiny town of Maple Corners.

My favorite aspect of the night was the contrast between this tournament and the ones you see on TV from Vegas. Rather than guys with sunglasses and cowboy hats, this tournament was filled with guys sporting a lot of mid-winter facial hair and funky smells. Rather than sitting at a table of uber-serious players, I had a lady breastfeeding her child at the table (and never missing a deal). Rather than being surrounded by the faux-luxurious trappings of guady carpeting, excessively large chandeliers and security cameras, we had wide colonial pine planks running under our feet, exposed beams traversing the ceiling and a few sconces on the walls for lighting.

You can read the whole post here, or find a slightly edited version on the letters page of this week's Seven Days. Yep, the post has moved to the letters page. We lost our space in the back  — and, thankfully, my goofy picture — thanks to a new layout. 

The Weekly Post: from The Carpetbagger Report

From Steve Benen, who moved to Vermont from D.C. with his wife, Eve (get it, Carpetbagger? But in reverse...) comes a post called Swiftboating Murtha, about the attack on Iraq war critic Congressman John Murtha.

An excerpt:

We're talking about a man who left college to volunteer to serve in the Korean War as a marine, where he was quickly promoted to captain. Murtha was discharged from active duty after the war, but reenlisted at the age of 34 to volunteer for Vietnam duty, where he won two purple hearts, a Bronze Star with Combat "V" and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.

I realize Murtha, as a credible and articulate critic, became a problem for Bush and his allies. It's led to some bizarre ethics complaints that have no basis in reality, and some unusually petty snipes from the White House itself. But to question the man's valor? It's just shameless.

You can read a slighly truncated version of the original post on page 54A of today's Seven Days.

The Weekly Post: from Clear Path International

This week's post o' the week is courtesy of James Hathaway at the Clear Path International blog. CPI is an organization devoted to helping landmine victims in Southeast Asia. Hathaway commemorates Hugh Thompson, who died last week.

The word hero has been applied so liberally in recent years, that it has largely lost its meaning.

There is no other word than heroic, however, to define the actions of Hugh Thompson in the Village of My Lai on March 16, 1968. Mr. Thompson had come across a massacre of Vietnamese civilians in progress at the hands of US forces.

Instead of turning away, or worse, taking part in the killing, Mr. Thompson and the men with him that day (Lawrence Colburn and Glenn Andreotta) forced the end of the massacre by turning their weapons on the US soldiers commiting the atrocity.

Over 500 men, women and children were killed that day and there would have been more if not for this brave act.

Mr. Thompson's good deed did not go unpunished. Ostracized by his peers for turning in his fellow soldiers, he suffered from depression... but from what I have read... never regret. It was not until 1998 that the US government grudgingly, after much lobbying, awarded him and his two collegues the "Soldier's Medal".

Mr. Thompson on that day recognized that the value of human life transcends borders, or language or culture. He risked his life and his career to do the right thing. For his actions in My Lai in 1968, many escaped certain death, and for this he was a true hero.

Hugh Thompson died  from cancer today at the age of 62. May he rest in a well-deserved peace.

You can also read a slightly shorter version of this post on page 54A of this week's Seven Days.

The Weekly Post: Vermont Blogger of the year

This summer, Seven Days included a "Best Vermont Blog" category in its annual Daysies awards.  Readers chose Bill Simmon of Candleblog as this year's winner. Well now it's my turn to pick my favorite blogger of 2005, and I've chosen the late Patricia Hejny.

I was going to wait to post this — it won't appear until the issue that comes out Dec. 28th — but I just listened to the fantastic VPR piece on Pat, and felt like sharing this sooner than I'd planned. In its tribute, VPR includes an audio montage of recordings of Pat calling in to Switchboard. It made me smile. Very much worth downloading and listening to. The piece on Pat is the last segment of the program.

Weekly Post Dec. 28

From 802 Online

Vermont Blogger of the Year

This year’s winner is self-described “granny blogger” Pat Hejny. Pat, who died on December 13 at age 79, kept a blog called Pat Political. 

Pat inspired me. She started blogging at an age when most people are beyond caring about the newest new thing. I first spoke with her in February for Senior Surfers, a story I wrote about senior citizens and technology. "I enjoy the computer,” she told me. “I don't quite know what I'd do without it."

Pat was an enthusiastic activist. In her blog’s left-hand sidebar, she declared her support for universal health care, instant run-off voting and a renewable biomass fuel economy. A two-time independent candidate for governor, she was mulling plans for a third run when she suffered the stroke that precipitated her death; in her final post, on November 29, she discussed her possible platform.

The thing I admired most about Pat was her insistence on taking part in society’s ongoing conversation — about politics, technology, you name it. On her blog’s masthead, she wrote: “Plenty of bad things these days. I saw the start of a lot of them. Here's what I know. We'll talk
about what we can do.”

We’ll keep talking, Pat.

The Weekly Post: from Candleblog

This week's post o' the week comes from Bill Simmon at Candleblog. "Pop Quiz" explores the other Christmas wars — the small, psychological battles we fight in the checkout line trenches.

This particular incident involves a customer who's a little too enthusiastic about a mechanical snowman that sings "Frosty" and farts. Writes Bill,

When we thought our torture was finally over and the evil snowman had been silent for several minutes, the bastard, having completed his purchase, walked back to the filthy thing and made it start again before leaving the store with a smug and satisfied look on his face. I hate that man's breathing guts.

I feel you, man.

The Weekly Post: from Found Drama

This week's post o' the week comes from Rob Friesal's Friesel's (oops!) Found Drama. You can find it on page 62A of this week's Seven Days.

This is one of my favorite weekly posts. I love reading about other people's dreams, especially when they're so, er, dramatic. If you click over there, you'll see that it looks a little different in the paper. I reformatted it to make it more readable on the page, and xx'ed out a couple words to make it fit.

In case you're wondering, "how do I get my blog into this column?" I'm looking for writing that is original, maybe about Vermont, or about current events that we're not covering in the paper. The post has to be able to stand on its own, can't depend too much on information linked within the post, and most importantly, it has to be fairly short — under 250 words or so, depending on paragraph breaks. Otherwise it won't fit.

Weekly Post: from Alphecca

I've grown slackerl