You will soon make a journey by water...

Terry and I don't need coffee in the morning any more. Morning Edition wakes us at 6 am. By 6:10, one of us is yelling loudly at the clock-radio and the other is muttering unintelligibly. Sometimes we take turns; sometimes we harmonize. Between the world's newsrooms and our bedroom--things are getting pretty bellicose. I recommend (and practice) frequent river excursions. Captain Radio Bob has been most accommodating, but as you can see in this tribute to pacification via hydrotherapy, the boating season is pretty much done. How will we make it through the winter?

Spilled Milk

In the 60s, my high school in Potsdam had about forty kids in the Future Farmers of America, mostly from the many family dairy farms within a few miles of town. I doubt more than one or two of them work in agriculture now. In this week's special report on dairy farming, I was astonished to learn that farmers in 1987 were dumping milk into manure pits rather than sell it at prices that were actually better than what a farmer gets now. If you missed the special on-air, take the time to visit it on the website: Dairy Farming in the North Country.

Minor Spectacles

Living at the thin edge of the middle class, my family did a lot of day-trip vacations. Longer excursions required a relative with sleeping bag space on the receiving end. TAUNY's Very Special Places Exhibit, featured below, brought so much back. I went to Santa's Workshop in 1958, at age five. (You can do the math.) I have driven by or been to most of the others on family trips around the North Country. Some of my favorites no longer exist: Potsdam's Dilly Wagon, a chuck wagon-shaped diner featuring "Dilly Sauce" (also available in jars), or "1000 Animals" at the Sterling Game Farm in Lake Placid (which could also have been called 1000 Aromas). Are we there yet?

Reluctant Listening

Remembering is hard. Knowing what to do and what to say is hard. Of the blizzard of coverage available in the run-up to 9/11, NCPR is using about one-tenth. From last week's Listening Post, the number of people who toured Dark Island's castle outnumbered those who wanted info about 9/11 coverage by 4-1. Our ncpr.org front-page invitation to share stories of post-9/11 change has yet to garner a single reply after two days. People approach the anniversary with great reluctance; it seems to come too soon. Jim Lehrer, appearing on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, decried the wall-to-wall media attention and said we should commemorate the day "very quietly." NCPR will be on the air, trying to find its place between the brass bands and the silence.