Slack time

I seem to have been avoiding vacations lately, taking less time each year, dragging a laptop and cell phone everywhere, just in case. But I broke down and took a few days off in Maine this week, leaving the portable electronics at home. And the world seems to have kept up its regular rotation, even without me working the crank. I don't know why this should come as a surprise to me, considering that I fully expect the tide to rise and fall on schedule off Wells Beach whether I am there to watch it or not.

But we give so much to our jobs, if they engage us--all that time and sweat, all the plotting and the brainstorms. It should, by rights, all go to the devil as soon as we hit the outskirts of town. And the many places that try to do public radio without me--VPR, NHPR, WBUR, Maine Public Broadcasting, WAMU--they all (from my highway listening) seem to muddle through somehow. I can't explain it; I'll just have to rest up a little and give the matter some thought.

Strange Meat

The hot weather perks some people up, but I must have a touch of the reptile—I downshift and dawdle, distracted from my labors. I wander off into odd byways of the web, looking for snack fare. From before the glory days of the "Hamster Dance," similarly disinclined technorati have left behind a trail of low-calorie and completely pointless websites. I drag this strange meat back to the ncpr.org cave complex in the occasional feature called BITIL—Breathtakingly Inane and Totally Incomprehensible Links.

There’s must-hear audio ranging from Dolly Parton singing Led Zeppelin’s "Stairway to Heaven" to the alt-Christian performer Yodeling Theresa. And music video nuggets, such as Leonard Nimoy singing "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins." For the macabre there is The Death Clock, the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement and the compelling but cruel Yeti Baseball. There are animated gems such as Muffin Films and my sullen favorite, Strindberg and Helium. The three newest BITIL entries are Improbable Research, Crank Dot Net, and the endlessly fascinating Zen Toy. While the warm weather lasts, submit your own delicacies to BITIL. Mmmm—tasty.