In early 2012, needing a job, I went to work at a small newspaper in nearby Granville, NY. It was eye-opening. My adopted hometown of Rutland, VT, has a reputation, well-earned, for having a problem with petty crime caused mainly by abusers of recreational drugs, largely prescription but also pot, heroin, coke and the rest… Continue reading Notes from the editor emeritus
Tag: stupid people
What’s wrong with the Red Sox?
You might think that after 40 years of watching baseball I would be used to the average fan's (or sportswriter's) complete inability to understand basic statistics. But watching the meltdown around this year's underachieving Red Sox is yet another reminder that not all baseball fans can do long division. The consensus is that the Sox'… Continue reading What’s wrong with the Red Sox?
Making MS Word look smart
One theory has it that the reason Microsoft's word processor is not called "Words" is because of the limits of its spelling database and truth-in-advertising laws ... . So it's rare, nay, almost unheard of, to find a distinctly more useless automated spell-checking "tool." Unless you use WordPress. The built-in editor just rejected "bocce." OK, maybe hoping that software will… Continue reading Making MS Word look smart
Personals ad to AY* 475
You: Woman driving a blue Honda Element with a Thule carrier. I left out one letter * on the plate in case there's two such cars in Rutland. You were wearing aviator shades and between my sunglasses and the tint of my windshield, you had an odd, one-tone color set off against the blue of the… Continue reading Personals ad to AY* 475
Water scofflaws
For the most part, I've been trying along with my family to conserve water as Rutland's DPW struggles to reconnect the city water supply before the reservoir runs dry. I think that probably puts us in the middle ground; no, we're not taking sponge baths, and no, you probably don't want to read lots of Facebook… Continue reading Water scofflaws
Pool party
True story No. 2 from our summer in the drought-hit suburbs of DC. A fire chief from one of the smaller communities between Baltimore and DC was caught filling his swimming pool in direct contravention of the state of water emergency across the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast that year. His excuse? He used the pool (occasionally,… Continue reading Pool party
Car wash
A sharp-eyed reader (Thanks J.!) pointed out a resident of Deer Street in Rutland watering his/her lawn today. That's why it's called voluntary water conservation, and people like that are why it is likely to become mandatory conservation soon. Gee, I hope it wasn't my tax accountant ... True story No. 1 from the drought year we… Continue reading Car wash
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