July
Modest Needs
Thursday, July 12, 2007 9:01 PM (permalink)
I just got back from visiting my parents in northern Maine, in a little town called Calais. If you have ever driven to the Maritime Provinces of Canada, you probably drove through Calais--and didn't stop. Since the paper mill fell on hard times, Calais--and pretty much all of Washington County--have fallen on some hard times. I bumped into an old High School teacher of mine, who told me that the entire population of Washington County is now under 30,000 persons (or, less than the population of the city of Bangor, Maine, which at two hours away was the closest thing we have to a city with an airport, shopping mall or a proper hospital).
Maine is a mess right now. Over the past decade or so, essentially all of the coastline has been bought up by wealthy transplants and investors from out of the state--it is no longer even remotely possible for a Maine native of modest needs to own land on the Maine coast. Southern Maine (where most of the people are) is the land of Kennebunkport, LL Bean and lobsters for everyone. Northern Maine, where I grew up, is now the poorest part of New England--and Washington County one of the worst off counties in the US.
The folks who live there are working poor--living check to check, paying their bills when they can, hoping for some more overtime at the mill and praying that their car holds together for one more (brutal) winter. It is not easy to escape Northern Maine.
I have been extremely fortunate in my life, and going back to my home town, and seeing it as a shell of its former self, dominated by a Wal-Mart and an empty main street, crushes me everytime I think about it. The tough part of life for many of the folks there is that they work--and work hard--but constantly skirt the edges of financial ruin. Many families make just a whisker more than the cutoff for various state and federal aid programs, but are a single illness, accident or car repair away from a complete fiscal crisis that they can never catch up from.
I write all of this mostly as a plea for anyone who reads this who can spare a few bucks to look closely at Modest Needs, a charity I support every week with a small deduction from my check. Modest Needs provides small grants to cover medical bills, fix mufflers and catch up on back rent to folks who are usually just a tiny amount - a few hundred dollars--away from calling it quits and filing for bankruptcy. It is amazing what a little bit of money can do, and these are folks who don't really have other avenues for aid since they make "too much," which is, frankly, ridiculous. Donors can log in, read grant requests, and score them based on need, with higher scores getting funding priority. I regularly log in and rate the Maine requests highly, then turn to North Carolina, where I live now.
I don't give much--I don't give enough. I do give every week. I give a little bit more by writing about them here. Maybe you will too.
Captain's Log, July 10th. Bumpy clouds--morale is flagging.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007 2:20 PM (permalink)
Another bumpy day in the air, this time from RDU to Boston. Over the years I have learned to get to know clouds--which ones are benign, and which ones are malevolent. Some times, even on partly sunny days in hot, humid weather, you get these big piled up fluffy columns of clouds that are not yet thunderstorm material, but you know they will be. They are safe to fly through, but pack a heck of a wallop. One more reason to fly as early in the day as you can (he says, gripping the armrest at 2:30 PM, descending into the maw...)
I Forgive Myself For Being A Lousy Blogger
Tuesday, July 10, 2007 2:17 PM (permalink)
Sure, I have been blogging up a storm here, here and here, but I have sadly neglected my personal blog here for some time. I'm sure any other bloggers reading this can sympathize--months pass without a post, and then when you finally do get around to it, you hesitate--why bother? You haven't written anything for months, so why start now? Whoever reads this has deserted you long ago, so what hope do you have of recapturing readers? Are you not, in fact, a loser?
I am not, in fact, a loser. I just finished reading Mark Bernstein's The Tinderbox Way, which is not only a deep dive into the workings and design decisions behind Tinderbox (my preferred tool for notes), but also a considered look at why we take notes in the first place, and what a personal blog really means. I have lots of outlets to write for readers, but this is meant as an outlet to write for me. Turns out, I need to write a bit today, so here it is.
Hi, my name is Tom, and I am a lousy blogger. I forgive myself.
But I will try harder!
Would You Recognize Brilliance?
Monday, July 9, 2007 10:25 PM (permalink)
This story in the Washington Post is incredible: Joshua Bell played his violin a couple of months ago as a street performer at a Metro station in DC and only one person knew who he was (maybe not so shocking) but hardly anyone even stopped--some threw a couple of quarters into his case, but that is about it. One of the finest living violin players, playing some of the most technically and emotionally brilliant pieces ever written, and he gets a few quarters.I did not feel sorry for Bell, of course--he is very, very well paid (and deservedly so). But it did make me think about whether or not I would have stopped (I was at that very station a couple of weeks ago) and would I have recognized mastery? True art? Being honest, I don't think I would have. I don't think I would have stopped, and I highly doubt I would have given any money. But realizing this makes me feel pretty depressed about the whole thing.
How to Drive from New York to London
Monday, July 9, 2007 10:24 PM (permalink)
Study Finds Air Travel Hassles on the Rise - Weather??
Monday, July 9, 2007 10:22 PM (permalink)
A recent study found that air travel hassles are on the rise. Well, I could have guessed that--but as a researcher I am pleased to see it quantified. But the real scary thing here was the comment from a spokesman for the Air Transport Association that the majority of delays can be attributed to bad weather.I think I only got a C in logic, but here goes--if air travel is getting worse, and the delays are due to weather--is the weather getting worse?
