The Changed:

One of the key ideas driving Tuesday's election, and shared by both major campaigns, is that "9-11 changed everything." It might be more accurate to say to that 9-11 changed everyone, but it changed them in a hundred different ways. Those who had felt safe and secure suddenly felt the chill wind of fear. Those who felt a new Pax Americana was rising from the detritus of the Cold War were disabused of their optimism. Those who looked for a new enemy found one, or many. Experiences like the terror attacks of 2001 drive down deep into the collective memory, seeming to bypass history, passing straight into myth. Which myth one subscribes to will shape the Tuesday vote more than any issue or argument. John Zogby calls this "The Armageddon Election;" pundits call it both the bitterest and most important election of our lives. I play with an interactive electoral vote map every day, and pray.

A Promise:

Like Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, public radio has "always relied on the kindness of strangers." What a blessing to discover that one can--even under the shadow of war and during the bitterest election campaign in memory. The faithfulness of our supporters sustains all of us at NCPR, helping us to keep the faith in turn at a time when the media as a whole is held (with some justice) in low regard. You have not failed us, and we will not fail you. Thanks don't begin to cover it.

Presents:

Ah--leaf smoke, hot cider with cinnamon, chevrons of geese crossing a crisp sunset! That's right--it's the best time of year in the North Country--time for the Fall Fundraiser. What a deal! We give you everything we got, free of charge. You, if you are so moved, give us what you think it's worth to you. Just imagine walking into a store, grabbing a stereo, and walking out. Months later, the store calls up, asks if you enjoy the stereo and if you have any suggestions about how to make it better. They call again a while later and say, hey, our stereo supply is getting a little low, and you know how important a good stereo can be--think you could help us out? It may be a little loopy as a business model, but it's ours. Please give generously. No doubt you've heard the alternative.

Messing with the Jesus Nut:

"Don't mess with the Jesus nut" (or some less polite variation) is a Vietnem-era admonition that has nothing to do with religious zeal. The Jesus nut is the assembly that attaches the main rotor to the body of a helicopter. If it fails, you (so to speak) go to Jesus. I am reminded of it often as I try to do a website-wide template update, which, like 9-11, changes everything. So far I have managed to lop off the bottom of nearly every page at ncpr.org, break the page that lets you browse the news archives one month at a time, double-bagged the search page inside its navigation wrapper, and probably committed other crimes against robotery that won't come to light for months. This comes on the heels of erasing more than a thousand community calendar items last week and yesterday's inadvertent spamming of the whole Listening Post mailing list with the daily headline email. If this place hadn't been built out of electrons, I wo uld have burned it to the ground. But if you happen to hear a couple of minutes of dead air this week during Talk of the Nation, it is not Radio Bob messing with the Jesus nut--it is sun-transit outages--caused when the NPR satellite is briefly between the sun and our receiver. Sort of like driving west on Rt. 11 at sunset.