I’ve been traveling this week and still am. I apologize for the sporadic updating, but it has been largely unavoidable. You probably want to hear about Boston Comic Con. I met some wonderful readers in Boston. I had so many people come by and say such nice things. However, so many kind words were prefaced the same way: “I used to read you all the time in the newspaper!” Of course, I would point out that I’m still in the newspaper, and they’d say, “Yeah, well, we don’t get a paper anymore.” Aside from being flagrantly reminded how far the scene has shifted from my professional turf, Boston was great. I will talk a lot more about it in days to come. Vermont Comic Con is yet to come!
213 responses to “Boston Is History”
Steve, I am from Boston, A lot of info from the duck boats is questionable. It is a nice tour of Boston.
tonyg. With it being an election year, EVERYTHING is questionable. But it is a nice tour and you get to go out on the water in the same vehicle/vessel. That’s pretty cool.
Where are the Villagers this afternoon?
I have been running around shopping for stuff to put the new stone patio together, the one just off kitchen which is big outdoor living room. Mainly. Am on way to spend night in Tulsa so I get to doctor’s appointment on time.
Jackie – I have your plague of frogs … and toads, and slugs, and spiders, and a smattering of preying mantis just to spice it up. You can have them.
Get well wishes to everyone that needs it.
Headed to bed. I fought then lawn, and the lawn won. I am beat!
I started out throwing the Denver Post 7 days a week for 2 bucks a month. I pay the San Antonio Express-News a year in advance and last time it was 425 bucks for the year. What really frosts me is if they decide to raise the rates they adjust my year down proportionately. I thought paying a year in advance was supposed to protect you from that. Guess not. I’ll probably have to drop the paper after 33 years of buying the local rag and just buy a paper off the rack Wednesday and Sunday. A real shame as I started out in the printing industry by running press for 2 different papers. They are pricing the print version out of the market. As it was explained to me years ago the price of a newspaper really is not to recover the printing price, but to have a way to track subscribers with ads paying the main load. Guess they changed toe business model I guess Ill keep paying GoComics and uClick to send me the comics in my email.
Dennis: When I get my yearly bill for the paper [which always incudes a statement that they will continue my subscription at some HIGH monthly price if I do NOT tell them otherwise], I phone them to complain. Invariably, the person on the phone finds a much lower rate for me. It’s a price break of about $150. or $160. for the year, so worth the aggravation. They then tell me to scrap the bill recently sent, and that they’ll send me a new one. They do, and I make sure to pay it right away.
The paper does have the obnoxious idea to charge extra for any number of issues they think are “special” and to do so by causing the subscription to end earlier than agreed. The subscriber does not have a choice, and I have entered my objections to that kind of treatment.
Have not noticed missing the Tulsa paper for last year and a half. It was expensive but it was for my mother. When she passed away it went unread because frankly they carried no columnists I cared for and while my mom loved the police beat coverage, I didn’t. I don’t do crosswords or games and I wasn’t taking advantage of coupons any more.
Mindy, I got some horrible bug in my hair that jumped down my cleavage that may have been a praying mantis. I squashed him after he landed on floor.
Toads and frogs are OK in small amounts but not spiders and bugs.
I have been back to school shopping for my grandson Jack who goes to Catholic school with strict dress code. He is four but just getting out of 2T clothes. Told you we were small people! He will probably have his wardrobe for next two school years as grand.other bought all the 3T and 4T clothes she found on sale that met dress codes.
He isn’t allowed to wear tee shirts or anything except plain polos and plain Oxford shirts in certain colors, khakis in tan or navy or black. No jeans.
Grandmother is exhausted.
Reading the newspaper tales makes me glad I gave them up. Now if I could find a cure for my electronic device addiction, I could go happily about life without a clue about what was going on in the world.
You would be happier for burying your head, as do I. I turned off television as well. What my “news feed” on this phone calls news is seldom news but gossip.
I’ve a certain bias for paper newspapers, partly because I contribute articles to one. The Bemidji Pioneer [Tu-Su] is owned by Forum Enterprises [or whatever], publisher of the Fargo Forum and owner of many MN and nearby ‘dailies’ and such, and source of some of the Pioneer’s articles. The Pioneer can editorialize / local issues and candidates, but the Forum decides national editorial policy. The Pioneer carries columnists of various stripes, actually a reasonable balance. It, along with more media that most people realize, is basically pro-business. After all, it is one, and its major customers are advertisers. The press is free if you own one.
Peace,
As far as the shoddy subscription practices some of you have described, I think The Bemidji Pioneer is pretty clean.
Peace,
Talked to Mark earlier tonight. He badly needs help, cannot do anything yet and has no help, not even home health or whatever they call the visiting aides. He got turned down for resident rehab and has no one to run errands or do chores for him which he cannot do himself like changing bandages, laundry, food. His mom is not capable of looking after herself and certainly not Mark.
This does not seem right. He is just a week maybe post on and needs care.
Not hearing from Ghost concerns me too. Here I sit in La Quinta getting ready for bed and feeling frustrated I can help no one. Southern women and Jewish mama’s
Thank God I am an Anglican or I’d be in real trouble.
Just a long day, Jackie. My mom’s heart problem has responded to medication and is no longer an immediate concern. The pneumonia, not so much. I stayed to talk to the incoming night nurse about some treatment options, so that everyone would be on the same page. The hospitalist should have a report on her afternoon chest X-ray. Hoping for signs of improvement.
I don’t know if Mark’s situation is related to the fact his care was under the VA “Choice Program”, allowing use of private healthcare providers to relieve the VA’s “backlog” problem. I recently read that the VA is billions of dollars behind in paying outstanding claims to private providers. If that is the case, some providers may not be anxious to provide additional care under the program if it could at all be considered medically unnecessary. Or the VA could be “cost cutting” to pay for VA employee “bonuses”. ($142 million in 2014.) I’d be interested in knowing who made the decision to deny his follow-up care.
GHOST, good to hear. You get some rest too. I bet you will be there at 7 a.m. to meet that doctor too.
Me, I am getting in shower, Dickens is ready for bed. I left not one but two wakeup calls. Hate morning appointments.
Jackie: “…down my cleavage…I squashed him after he landed on floor.”
Remind me to never get handsey with you.
You’re a lot bigger than that bug or my foot. You wouldn’t shake out that easily. It looked like a dried branch, I had been giving fast lesson in cutting back bearded iris fans to transplant and thought I’d gotten cypress branch in my hair. I was shocked it was alive. It was a low cut blouse and loose so I got it out.
Now if that had been a small snake you’d have heard me in Mississippi.
Ghost, nope, nothing like that. The local hospital has the monopoly on nearly everything inpatient here, including rehab. By their standards, I was not bad enough off to qualify for inpatient rehab there even though both my surgeons said otherwise. VA hospital inpt rehab is mostly tied up by people even sicker than I. I am supposed to receive outpatient help of some kind by a provider who works both for the VA and the cardiology service, thereby coordinating care across both civilian and government services. We hope.
Good luck, Mark. Still seems to me like bean counters making medical care decisions. I have a friend who was recently denied SNF surgical rehab she desperately needed by a major Medicare Advantage plan under similar circumstances.
Debbe 😉 Did I hear this on a TV commercial the other day? Probably; they use all the good old classics to sell crap these days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcJm1pOswfM
Sirius Satellite Radio was playing it this week. Love that song. Finally figured out how to listen to more than the six stations they had it set on!
Jackie, that may have been some variety of what my mom called a walking stick bug:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phasmatodea
Good morning Villagers…..
Gal, love you too. Who knows, there may be a day when we can meet, you’re in Ohio and I’m in Indiana and there’s just a state line between us. Do have a blessed time with your son and his family. AND don’t EVEN think about work!!!!
Indy Mindy…very clever…I fought the lawn and the lawn one 🙂
Thank you Jean.
GR, what Jackie said is very true…pace yourself, eat right, get sleep.
Mark, wish I could help you out. I feel so sorry for you. But you have my prayers…….Amen.
I have tomorrow off, Ian too. And it’s going to rain, then on Sunday the high will be 75 degrees. I should go in but I’m not, I need the rest. We learned yesterday the FDA is coming through next week. They are/have been at The Corp already. So much to do. Going to be a long Sunday.
If it’s Friday….then it’s payday 🙂
Jerry!!!!!