Choices:

The earthworm has made a poor life choice, wriggling out of the grass and onto the sidewalk. It follows, no doubt, some potent tropism. But beyond the sidewalk is the drive, and beyond that, parking. The equivalent of the length of the Appalachian Trial lies between it and shelter. Its prospects are dim. It would be a simple thing to intervene, placing it back within the cool damp green. But it would probably just crawl back into harm, in obedience to the compulsion that sent it northward in the first place. Or I could carry it beyond to the other side. But I have finished my break now, and the newsletter deadline looms. And in just this way is half the world's evil done.

Extreme Retrofit:

NCPR Online has grown up over the years around a shell that was developed before standards for accessibility were well established. It's sort of like the brain--the monkey brain is still in there, and buried under that the lizard brain--or like my house, which rambles out over several crawl spaces tacked on by various generations of the rural poor. If you run one of our pages through verification software, a sea of red flags is partially obscured by greasy smoke. As part of the Disability Matters Sound Partnership series debuting in the coming week on air, NCPR Online will begin the process of redesigning the main website to conform to the latest standards for accessibility to the visually-impaired. We will begin with pages related to the series itself, then branch out to eventually bring the whole site up to par. In the interim, we'll try to keep the noise and construction debris down to a minimum.

Tomorrow's News Today:

What with the crocuses and the snowdrops, the return of great blue heron, and the growing cast of characters singing in the dawn chorus, you probably suspect that spring might be coming. I headed south to investigate on my way to the National Federation of Community Broadcasters conference in Baltimore, and can confirm the rumor. Bright battalions of nasturtiums, daffodils, forsythia and flowing crab have reached Harrisburg PA in their long northward migration. In Charm City itself (home of the famed Bertha's Mussels), the charm is turned on full, forcing the buds to begin to leaf out. Don't lose hope, though I will precede spring in my return to Canton, a whole riot of color, smell and sound is close behind. Say amen.

A Dollar Short:

I had lots of good things to tell you about for last night and this morning--but our newsletter service upgraded their database in a way that was, shall we say--sub-optimal. But they finished stamping out all the flaming ducks a few hours ago, so here is the abbreviated version, a day late. I hope you were able to tune in to last night's two-hour poetry call-in--a great time was had by all. If not, you can also try it out, a day late, on the Readers & Writers page.