I’mmmmmmm back!  Is Thanksgiving over already????  Is it really less than a month until Christmas???

Welcome to Thanksgiving Sports Center.

I decided to do a run down of the days events instead of dragging it out.  So just pretend we have 30min to get it all in…ready go!

I got to the airport in record time, of course, and there was no line through security, typical.

On the plane I had a seltzer with a splash of cran, and got some looks.  I also had two biscoff!  AirTran now serves these little butter cookies if you get on the right plane.

My momma picked me up from the airport and we were greeted at the door with whiskey sours aka Whiskey with a little bit of lemon juice.  Slooooow sipping.

We then had a special treat of Maine crabmeat salad sandwiches and tater chips with a pickle!

Next up we headed to the mall to get my mom’s watch re-sized and fawn over William Sonoma’s.

Round two for the day with food!

goat cheese with mango chutney, brie and olives x2 with a pretty glass of h2o!

Lamb chops, mint jelly, asparagus with hollandaise sauce.  Endive salad with radishes (which I picked off, yuck!).

Day one done!

THANKSGIVING DAY!

Theme of the day…pace yourself!

Whole Food – 12 grain with chemical pb before heading out for a 6.5 mile run on a misty, moisty morning in Maine!  It was quiet and peaceful, a few riders and runners.

When I returned I mixed some something special.

TJ’s blueberry oatmeal packet topped with Uncle Sam and Oat Bran, 1/2 grapefruit and coffee.

No, it is not dog food.  Actually pretty good!

After breakfast, mom and I went for a walk on the beach with tons of surfers.

And then it was time for the biggggg eating!

We headed to the Black Point Inn as we have for many years.

Plate number 1 – pickles, sausage, grapes, 3 types of cheese, marinated veggies and beets.

Plate number 2 – the main show!  Tukey (duh), cranberry sauce, cornbread stuffing, wild rice, cabage, green beans, brussel sprouts, maple burbon sweet potatoes and a roll.

Plate number 3 – actually this was plate 4, but I forgot to take a picture of my first dessert plate   Here there is a piece of gingerbread, and a blob of pecan pie and cranberry tart.  The cranberry tart was leftover and way too sweet, but I also had a small bite of apple pie and pumpkin tart on my first plate.

Wowza, that was a lot of food.

We headed home to digest and play scategories where I won as always!  I was asleep by 10 because we had to hit the outlets bright and early!!!

BLACK FRIDAY!

Up early at 6am to get to J.Crew before 8am.

We ended up with a few great things, but did not go overboard.

Next was the planned peppermint mocha at Starbuck!

Did you know they put 10 pumps of syrup in a venti peppermint mocha??!?!! I got 2 of each, nonfat, no whip.  Along with perfect oatmeal, which I only put the fruit into with a small amount of brown sugar.  The nuts had walnuts and I am allergic…it was a pretty small serving.

We hit up a few more stores, I got some Cole Hann shoes 50% off!  I also went to L.L. Bean, Banana Republic and Nike.  I love Nike DryFit for running.

We then stopped by my college roommate’s house in Freeport to say Hello! and hurried home for lunch…well so we thought.

There was miscommunication and mom and I ended up going to Whole Food to get some food and then getting super lost…

When we finally got back I was starving.  It was about 2:00pm and we ate around 9AM.

I was quickly instructed to make some guacamole, and I downed most of it.

I also seriously needed my margarita to settle down a bit.

When I finally calmed down I had some delicious lobster salad!

And the best part…

Pumpkin and vanilla gelato from Whole Foods…yes the Whole Foods in Portland, ME has a gelatoria and candy store, along with a lot more.

4 hours later…time to head to the Back Bay Grill in Portland for dinner!

Manhattan and Amuse Bouche.

Frise salad with almonds, goat cheese and grapes.  Ricotta and spinach pasta with mushrooms.

  Almond cake with buttermilk ice cream, apples and caramel sauce.

TODAY – SATURDAY!

Ditto Thanksgiving breakfast – blueberry oatmeal, oat bran, Uncle Sam.  Grapefruit and coffee.

Again, not dog food!

Lunch was eaten on a plane…but it was amazing!

My lunch box from Whole Food yesterday!

BBQ tofu, thai dumpling, peas, orzo salad, peppers, broc.

Vegan molasses cookie!  So good and chewy and tons of spice!  Awesome.

Look who I came home to!

My little pig who ate 3 days worth of food in one day…yep, we will work on that!

Well that was more than 30min, but there was a lot of food!  I need to go find a snack, we are supposed to go to a graduation party in a few hours and who knows what the food with be like and I don’t need any temptations!

I hope everyone had a great holiday!!!!!

Cheers!

There’s something about coastal mudflats, a Federal-style doorway, and white church steeples.  They stir my soul in a way that, say, a desert wildflower and mountain canyon don’t – even though the latter are sights I admire. 

In his new book Eating: A Memoir, career editor Jason Epstein has given me the perfect way to describe what’s going on.  He calls it “the default landscape of my soul.” 

We all know about the power of childhood memory in determining which dishes give us comfort and pleasure throughout life.  And in the same way for me, my childhood in New England has yielded the landscapes I persist in seeking. 

I shouldn’t have been surprised, then, when I was looking through my albums on Shutterfly last night to see how certain images repeat themselves – regardless of where I am.  It was particularly striking with Martha’s Vineyard and Mount Desert Island, Maine, two islands that compete for my soul and allotment of corporate paid time off.

What better time to pull together these soul-nourishing images than on Thanksgiving weekend.

The blueberry muffins are a dead giveaway of the sequence of the Vineyard and MDI photos.  You may want to read more about how the islands are similar on my post about a Labor Day weekend.  If you’re a Vineyard lover who is now more curious about less-known, less-visited Mount Desert Island, you can find out more at OUR ACADIA.

The states impacted are as follows:  AK, AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, HI, IA, ID, IL, KS, MD, ME, MI, MN, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SD, TX, WI, WV and WY.

To find the rate adjustments, go to our Resource Center (Log in Required):

• Company = AARP
• State = (Pick your State)
• Product = Medicare Supplement
• Resource = Rates

I have confession to make.

As we headed down the path to the cliff-rimmed sand beach, I saw a white board scrawled with a quote from John D. Rockefeller, Jr. reminding us that every possession implies a duty.  We kicked off our L.L. Bean sandals at the end of the path.  Here we were on this New England island, so beautiful and varied in its 100 square miles that it attracts visitors from around the world.

But why feel guilty about this?  My confession is: I was on Martha’s Vineyard, not Mount Desert Island.

I know that harboring affection for “another” island isn’t exactly like cheating on your husband.  As a resident of Mount Desert, I have every right to spend Labor Day in Menemsha.  So, why did I feel so guilty? 

It was probably because I liked it so much.  The crushed shell driveways, ubiquitous beach plums, and stonewalls marking rolling meadows brought something back from my Massachusetts childhood.  With no projects for my 1890 Mount Desert home to worry about, I lounged carefree, albeit conflicted, on a second-story porch listening to the catbirds in the nearby scrub oak and the harbor buoy bell in the distance.

Mount Desert Island and Martha’s Vineyard actually have a lot in common.  They vie for second and third place as the largest islands on the eastern seaboard.  They are made up of a variety of towns with distinct and different characters.  While Bar Harbor and Oak Bluffs resemble each other in their Victoriana and commercialism, Bass Harbor and Menemsha attract visitors to their fishing villages for harborside photographs and lobster dinners.  White clapboard houses and iconic steepled churches adorn the streets of both Somesville and Edgartown.  And among these towns buses bustle too many summer visitors from here to there (though L.L. Bean makes it free on MDI).  While a fiord divides our island, Martha’s Vineyard has a state forest in the middle of hers.  We tend to think of our island in terms of the two sides, east and west. Similarly, the Martha’s Vineyard towns divide east and west, with the western villages on their “quiet side” known as “up island” not because they are north, but higher in longitude. This is a carryover characterization from the Vineyard’s nautical past, just as “downeast” is for Maine.

Both islands offer great dining as part of the summer recreation.  We bought lobsters from Menemsha Fish Market and ate them on the beach at sunset.  Let me just say that this is so popular (i.e., crowded) that I would be wary of doing it before Labor Day.  We also had wonderful “special night out” meals at Sweet Life Café in Oak Bluffs and the Beach Plum Inn in Menemsha.  The menu at Sweet Life, where we ate in the garden, was deliciously innovative – for example, we had a white gazpacho made with grapes and garnished with steamed clams drizzled in smoked paprika oil. I must admit, though, that at the Beach Plum Inn I opted for a salad starter because I just couldn’t bear to spend $20 for an appetizer of scallops or crab cakes and then $40 for a lamp chop or grilled salmon entrée.  We knew we were paying for the honeymoon-worthy view.  Make special note that the up-island restaurants, such as Beach Plum, are dry, but you may bring your own wine, which appeals to my thrifty side.  On MDI I generally opt for one of Elizabeth’s martinis at Red Sky or a mojito at Havana, but wine nicely sufficed up island on the Vineyard.

The greatest difference between MDI and the Vineyard for me is that I am able to work off all of the calories from my indulgences on Acadia’s 130 miles of hiking trails.  Alas, that is not the case on Martha’s Vineyard, but the biking is good.

Residents on the Vineyard strongly recommended the bike paths to me for safety reasons.  However, the paths around the perimeter of the state forest of scrub pine and oak were unappealing.  We took the bike ferry ($5 per bike for the 100 yards across the inlet to Menemsha Pond) and then biked along the road with only banks of beach plums separating us from Vineyard Sound.  It was Labor Day afternoon so even the lookout at Aquinnah Cliffs (formerly Gay Head) wasn’t crowded and the roads felt safe enough.  It wasn’t the same as Acadia’s network of car-free carriage roads, but this was a really lovely loop back past Menemsha Pond to Menemsha Inn where we were staying.

Massachusetts beaches make me euphoric.  To the white sand and grass-covered dunes, the Vineyard adds dramatic cliffs.  A refreshing plunge in the ocean soon becomes so comfortable that I stay in longer and longer, floating over the waves, remembering how my mom used to have to gesture from the shoreline, “It’s time to come in.”  It was a bummer to have to stop then and equally so Labor Day weekend on Lucy Vincent Beach when we were told by a security guard that we couldn’t continue our walk on the beach because it was private property.  “Even if we walk in the water?”  “Yes.”

It was at this moment that I thought again about the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. quote at the entrance to this beach.  For all of us who love Mount Desert Island – very loyally, if not exclusively – how fortunate we are that in 1901 a group of wealthy individuals began a trust of private land holdings that, combined with land from John D. Rockefeller, Jr., was deeded to create a national park in 1935.  That these individuals chose to preserve one of the world’s most beautiful islands for all to share makes Acadia truly a rare wonder.

If you love Martha’s Vineyard, you may want to learn more about Mount Desert Island.  OUR ACADIA offers tips for exploring, eating, and relaxing.

About time, eh?

According to info from the ‘loaf, the mountain last night received eight inches at the base and more than a foot at the top of the SuperQuad. That’s enough to allow the mountain to open tomorrow to experts for skiing and riding on Tote Road via the SuperQuad.

Here’s the fine print: Snow coverage will be variable and unmarked hazards may exist. Some walking may be required. Lift ticket prices will be $25 for all ages on Sunday.

“Bates has long had a history of organizing the most vibrant musical events, with the meticulous planning of the Chase Hall Committee (the team responsible for selecting, arranging, and coordinating most of the band performances here on campus), WRBC (Learn more about our college radio station here: http://www.wrbcradio.com/), and the Student Activities Office (oversees most events ranging between a variety of guest talks, poetry readings, and weekend rafting trips). As a matter of fact, we’ve managed to get a couple of artist name brands out there to play a gig for us.” Read more.

Like a sad suck. Like a purple gut. Like a tree whimpering. Like a road covered in leaves. Like the process to warble. A screech in the dissing. There are cars parked in the driveway. Like a wool cap of white-grey. We measure our accomplishments here. Like dead earth. Like rotting, dead earth. You measure your accomplishments. I grow furious at this game. I grow tired at this game. I grow two limbs that speak in signed language. Assigned language is like the wind ruffling all the needles branched and webbed. The roads were long last night. The roads were like cell blocks. I grew paranoid last night. Marijuana fumes incorporated. Sebago Brewing Co. had $4.00 whiskey drinks. Featuring Bushmills. I was with Casey and Ben. Ben is now an engineer. Yesterday afternoon I took Kevin and we drove through Augusta. Augusta is like a police barricade. Or a trench cover. Hallowell was still Hallowell. A cute, crimped one-drag dream. Like something out of the 30s. Like a phone ringing. I saw my stepfather watch me from inside the house. His shadowed wheelchair-bound body watching me. Like a phone ringing in vibration in my pocket. He watched me waiting to tell me more. He was always a commander. I always grew frustrated. Duckfat does not accomodate wheelchairs. We are leaving in a half hour. There are two blond women my age or under in my neighborhood who I grew up with who both have children now, who both have children and zero men. Where did the men go? Like shooting crows instead of hawks. Casey told me about a hen she found on her farm. Like being fucked by 13 guys. Like slaughtering 11 men. Should have been shipped out. Should have been silenced. Like silencing a hen. Like my mother sending me a pound of oregono. There is no goodness in the police. You will be searched. Like a hound with guilt you will be searched. My stepfather hands me a “c-note.” Emergency funds. Like emergencies we live our lives on the edge. I live my backside on this couch. “We are getting rid of this furniture for new furniture.” Like a fear of falling down and hitting a head. Whose head did you grow up with? I think of the savage love of animals. Thirteen roosters for a single hen. Pecked. A hole in a neck. Like a sharp beak. Like a leaf blower. Worn into the fabric of the street. Worn into the routes of the coast. Rockland: stretch of natural, homely faces. People say hello on the sidewalks, mind the curbs. Rockport: nothing dignified. Remember Waldoborough? Creeley lived there. Like a ghost of culture. Like holding onto a slipping hand. We made this land on lobsters and smiles. We are fishermen here. In Camden, Maine I remember the town center looking like an elbow. I instantly wanted to leave. It reminded me of Newport, Rhode Island. Gloucester, Massachusetts. We had to get out of there. Like fleeing a place we knew too well. Now I am in Gorham, Maine. Now I am in Gorham, Maine. Now I am in Gorham, Maine. Freeport, Maine. Brunswick, Maine. Westbrook, Gray, Falmouth, Yarmouth, Bath, Whitefield. Really good pistachios for the plane. Brown leaves, golden or bronze, flying around in circles. I wonder what Stephen King’s testicles feel like. But not really. I didn’t see any roadkill this time. I didn’t see as many friends this time. There is no more room for things on the plane. Waving hands in the air. Enjoying the self. There is no more friends. I ate a lot. Ian Stuart and his girlfriend Kim. We played Apples to Apples. Joe was there being silent and we finally bonded. We were ghosts cutting portals into the air. A portal, a memory, a sinkhole, a chime. Three days in Maine. Working-class torrents. The rain poured down and I realized it would be perfect to drown here; perfect to just sink. In Thomaston; in Wiscassit. Somewhere with nobody watching, with the blessed land all around looking at you like one large pupil. The eye of a being, like a lens, like a child. Tears and watering holes. This house is aging. There are no more children here. Joycean disfunctions. My careful pre-disposed path. I have gained no skills worth knowing. My biggest talent is the ability to complain. This is what will lead me to my death. Maine has been led to its death. America is booming out its back-end. It will blow over and Maine will be the first to return to the days of Eden and primacy. Your youth; our age. Your change; our coming to blows. The chess board. Birdie, the Jack Russel. My sister Katie baking cookies, my mom getting on the computer to check her email before we go to the vegetarian Thai restaurant, the Green Elephant, in Portland.

Norwegian Forest Cat, King of Cats Mousepad by catherinesherman

The Norwegian Forest Cat traveled with the Vikings to North America in the 11th century, where it evolved into the Maine Coon Cat. It’s a large cat with a thick, water-resistant coat, tufted ears and toes, a fluffy raccoon-like tail and a mane. Doesn’t this cat look like Erik the Red!

The average PFA (person from away) in all likelihood will never guess this remote spot…but Mainers should…

Find unique Maine gifts for the holidays at Lasting Impressions of Maine on Route 302 in Windham Maine. Visit www.lastingimpressionsofmaine.com for more information and online shopping.

Baltimore, Maryland – Glen H. Footman, 52, died November 9 in the University of Maryland Shock and Trauma Center after what the Bangor Daily News called “a 14-month emotional and courageous battle for life” from gunshot wounds in a possible anti-LGBT hate attack in the Mouth Vernon section of Baltimore.  Footman was shot twice on September 22, 2008 after being seen walking hand-in-hand with his soul-mate and life partner of 12 years, Alejandro Chavarria.  According to Baltimore police, the two gay men were walking shortly after midnight when a young man on a bicycle came up behind them.  Footman turned to speak to the young man while Chavarria walked on ahead.  Chavarria shouted back to his partner, “Come on, let’s go,” when two shots rang out, and Footman fell, wounded to the pavement.  As Chavarria ran to help Footman, the assailant ran from the scene, but then raced back to collect his bike, and then made his getaway.  Police have been treating the case as a possible anti-gay hate crime from the beginning of their investigation.  The Baltimore Sun reports that the victim’s father, H. Rodney Footman of Brewer, Maine spoke to reporters by phone to say that Baltimore police have not been encouraging about ever locating the shooter.  The elder Footman has no doubt that his son was killed because he was gay.  Shortly before the attack, Footman’s father said, a witness overhead the assailant brag, “‘I’m going to kill myself a gay tonight.’ He took off with that intention and he did just that. Police were very up front with us in saying that the chance of this ever being solved is practically nil.”  Glen Footman’s death not only bereaves his relatives and his partner.  Footman was a force for good in the community who will be sorely missed by many.  He was a licensed alcohol and drug abuse counselor in Maine, Rhode Island, and Texas, and held degrees in business administration and pastoral theology.  He counseled youth in Maine and Texas.  He and Alex had moved to Maryland shortly before the shooting, where he was to take up a new job at an insurance company.  He leaves behind two children from a previous marriage, Nicole Leah and Blaine Jonathan. His beloved Alex, who the Bangor Daily News calls Footman’s “sustaining grace during his last challenging year of physical and emotional struggle,” has returned to San Antonio, where he and Glen first met.  Police have not yet ruled Footman’s death a homicide, pending the coroner’s report on whether the injuries sustained in the 2008 shooting were the actual cause of death.

Okay so Lowell didn’t beat Maine. What’s the big deal?

With all due respect to Maine (and they are, of course, due none, but we’ll get to that in a little while), Lowell couldn’t have beaten a high school team tonight. And when we say high school team, we don’t even mean a very good one.

If you want to look at it from a pro-Maine perspective, Lowell did a lot of things well tonight. It had maybe three successful breakouts all night. It had four clean looks at the net. It failed to string together more than three passes without an egregious turnover. It put a ton of pucks on Maine sticks. It put 28 shots on Scott Darling that were benign as to be laughable. It made a ton of mistakes that junior mite teams don’t make. It did everything in such a clumsy, Clouseauesque manner as to make us wonder just how long ago those dominant wins against Merrimack and UNH and BU really were.

We didn’t personally witness what was reportedly a horror show in Providence on Tuesday, but if it was anything like this game was tonight, then we pity the brave few that gutted it out through both games.

It’s kind of funny that Lowell went up 1-0 considering just how badly it was outplayed for the majority of the first period. Shots were, at one point, 11-3, and Lowell went a good six minutes into the game without registering a shot on goal, and the one first few shots on goal were, in a word, completely harmless. They were only shots in the technical sense that, had Darling not been physically standing in the crease, then yes, they would have rolled lazily into the net. And to really highlight how bad the Lowell goal was, let’s just say it took about 12 whacks at the puck from a number of different Lowell players before it finally crossed the line.

Now, you might go so far as to call that will, that Lowell outcompeted Maine at the point of attack and earned a hard-fought goal. And you would be wrong, because it was more the ineptitude of Darling and the Maine defense at covering or clearing the puck and letting Kory Falite, Joe Caveney and Ben Holmstrom swing wildly at it for a good three to five seconds than anything Lowell did.

The first Maine goal (you might know it better as the one that ensured Lowell would lose) came just about six minutes later and Tanner House took advantage of Lowell’s lack of desire to clear the puck from its defensive zone and whipped what was an admittedly very nice turnaround shot off the top of Nevin Hamilton’s shoulder pad and in to level at one apiece. And Lowell could have used that as a wakeup call.

Instead, Maine outdrew the River Hawks 11-3 in the rest of the second period, outshot them 11-4 and drew a pair of penalties that can only be described as incredibly stupid. The first was to Joe Caveney for a trip on a play where we can’t even begin to understand what he was thinking, and Maine scored 16 seconds after he went into the box thanks to Adam Shemansky beautifully tipping a point shot into the roof of the net. That’s how you draw it up, we guess. The second penalty came to David Vallorani for a dumb roughing call at the very end of the period as he shoved some Maine defender in the face in the dying seconds. Real smart plays both.

Maine made it academic with House’s second goal of the game late in the third, but Lowell had made it official long before that when it had one good chance in the entire period, that being a turnaround shot from the middle of the slot by Holmstrom that hit Darling in the shoulder and deflected high off the glass. From our vantage point behind that net, it looked like Darling never even saw it.

(An aside: Late in the game Maine defenseman Mike Cornell picked up a five-minute major for hitting from behind. An aside: This play, obviously, came with Lowell down 3-1 and Maine under no threat of being scored upon, which really just underscores what a disgusting move this is. Cornell had been chirping Lowell players all night, pushing and shoving on faceoffs and generally trying to agitate Lowell forwards with little to no success. So he did the next best thing to drawing a penalty, which is deck a Lowell player we believe to have been Joe Caveney (but we could be wrong) from behind while he was battling another Black Bear for possession along the halfboards in the attacking zone. Even if the game had been close, the hit was unnecessary and clearly illegal. But for him to look at the situation, where the opponent is clearly engaged already, and say that this was a good time to drill someone from behind is revolting. But frankly, “revolting” is pretty much par for the course for the Black Bears, from whom we’ve come to expect this type of thing. We revel in their gutless program, full of gutless players and led by a gutless and ineffectual coach, dying a joyously slow and torturous death, but one that will never never be slow and torturous enough for our liking.)

In the wake of the Cornell penalty, Lowell pulled Hamilton and in the remaining 1:56 of game time, all of which was played 6-on-4 mind you, managed maaaaaybe 15 seconds of offensive-zone possession. In fact, as if it wasn’t eye-rollingly bad enough, Maine actually came closer to scoring than Lowell ever did because at least they hit a post on a soft dump from the neutral zone.

The only soft dump Lowell took, meanwhile, was in its fans’ faces.

“…after spending weeks talking about female exploitation in music videos and other mediums, a classmate of mine rose her hand and brought up this Lady Gaga video. She wanted to point out that there are some music videos that clearly try to shift focus from the usual overtly sexual and patriarchal images. My professor was intrigued so we got on the classroom’s computer, projected the music video,  and watched it as a class. Everyone was really interested in the images and after theorizing about the different things going on and whether they are conceptual or not…” Read more.

My wife and I have been having an ongoing argument …

A little background: I’m all for being “green” (although I think that most green practices are 10% reality and 90% marketing), but I’ve always struggled with the concept of reusable shopping bags. In my experience, there are two problems with these bags:

1. They’re too floppy. That is – they won’t stand up like a paper bag. This always makes me feel like I’m making the bagger’s job even crappier, if such a thing is possible.
2. After a half-century of disposable grocery bag conditioning, I just can’t remember to use the ##$%&**# disposable bags. Even though I keep ‘em right in the car, I generally don’t think about them until I’m actually inside the store. At that point, I can either make a trip back outside, or I can just say “screw it” and promise to be a better human being in the future.

Recently, though, Hannaford Stores have started stocking reusable bags that are made of some peculiar hybrid of paper and plastic. These bags can be folded flat like a traditional grocery sack (or “poke” as my dear departed grandmother would say), yet they are rigid enough to maintain their shape when empty. In addition to these qualities, the bags are virtually indestructible, and can easily hold 30 pounds of groceries without producing the “tear anxiety” that is engendered by the aforementioned disposable paper bag. This final feature is what really sold me on the reusable bags: Since I do all the grocery shopping in my household, this effectively reduces my bag load from 7 to 4 for a typical, two-week shopping trip.

As I mentioned before, I’m the grocery shopper at our house. However, my wife demanded to accompany me on a recent trip, as she felt that I was displaying a certain indifference when selecting from among the approximately 2000 available flavors of single serving yogurt. During this trip, we got into a casual conversation about reusable shopping bags, and I innocently mentioned that Hannaford WANTED people to steal the bags, even though they are ostensibly marked with a nominal price of $1.99 each.

My wife was shocked at this statement and insisted upon knowing my rationale.

If you’ve been in Hannaford, you’ve seen racks of these bags placed at various strategic locations throughout the store. The pricing for the bags is designated by a bar code on a paper tag that is attached to the sturdy fabric handle of the bag by a thin plastic cord. It would have been just as easy for the manufacturer of the bag to screen print the bar code directly on the bag itself, but this is not the case. As such, it is virtually the only item among the tens of thousands of products available at Hannaford that does not have its price permanently printed or glued to its surface. All that’s necessary to make an unpurchased bag look exactly like a purchased bag is to discretely pluck off the paper tag – an action that requires about the same amount of time and effort as glancing at your watch.

Is it dishonest to steal a two-dollar disposable bag from Hannaford? Probably. Is it an accident that Hannaford has made it so easy to steal such a bag? Not a chance …

Here’s how I see it: Hannaford must know that they will save money in the long run on disposable paper bags. You can’t fault them for trying to make a couple of bucks off each bag – after all, they’re not getting them for free. That said, the deliberately insecure pricing makes it clear that it’s to their benefit to give the bags away, if that’s what it takes to get people to use them.

Needless to say, my wife does not ascribe to this elegant theory of shopping bag economics. In fact, she regarded me as if I had suggested we take up professional bank robbery.

For the record, I DID NOT steal any bags (Well, maybe one. It was kind of an accident.). But I’m sure that lots of the bags have been pilfered by folks that are less scrupulous than me. My question is … are these people fundamentally dishonest, or are they behaving in exactly the way that most economists (and grocery store managers) would predict?

Have you ever had an experience that is so bizarre that it makes you question your grip on reality?

 About a month ago, I was walking my dog along the rural road where I live, just as I do early each morning. Suddenly, I heard a rustling sound from the weeds at the edge of the road near my feet. A moment later, a large bird emerged from the undergrowth and charged directly toward me and my dog! Needless to say, this behavior seemed most uncharacteristic for a bird!

 I recognized the bird variety as the common partridge or woodcock (often called a grouse in other parts of the country). It continued to dart about in bird-like fashion, not quite coming within reach, but making a clear effort to stay within an 8-10 foot radius of me. This despite the fact that my dog was clearly having visions of a chicken dinner!

 At first, I was intrigued by these strange actions. However, as I considered the danger that this bird posed to itself, I began to grow concerned. Struggling to divert the attention of my large collie, I proceeded down the road.

 The partridge followed us!

 Eventually, the bird retreated into the woods. I spent the remainder of my walk musing over this unusual experience. Although the bird appeared to be healthy and fully aware of my presence, I finally concluded that it was blind or otherwise injured, and couldn’t possibly survive for long. (For what it’s worth, I also considered rabies; but I’ve never heard of birds being carriers for that disease.)

 Fast forward one month: It happened again! In the exact same spot, at the exact same time of day, I was hectored by (presumably) the same bird! The bird still looks quite healthy: Its breast is plump and its feathers are sleek, so my injury theory is out the window!

 As entertaining as it might be to conclude that this animal is my “spirit guide” or some similarly bird-brained notion, I’ve decided that it has a brood of chicks hidden somewhere in the woods nearby and that it’s following its natural instincts in an effort to distract me from them. Most people have heard of how a duck will mimic an injured wing to draw a predator away from her chicks, and many people have observed this first-hand. I’ve personally experienced a similar behavior with a turkey hen and her chicks that I surprised along the roadside. On that occasion, I observed the chicks scatter into the undergrowth while the hen made an obvious attempt to divert my attention, staying directly in the center of the road for several minutes when she could have easily escaped into the woods. At no time, however, did the turkey allow me to come closer than 30-40 feet, whereas the partridge repeatedly came within 4-5 feet of me, not to mention my very interested dog!

 Nature: Beautiful, yet slightly screwed-up.

Stealth ihad in schools continues, and if this Maine school doesn’t start complying with Islamic sharia, the FBI-shunned CAIR suggests things could get litigious. Hat tip to Refugee Resettlement Watch who has much more on the Muslim immigration problems in Maine. From the Sun Journal:

According to the Washington, D.C.,-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, seventh-grader Nasra Aden had been routinely “praying discreetly during her free time or lunch break in a corner of a school hallway.” But, on Tuesday, CAIR asserts a teacher told Aden “never to pray on school property” after Aden was seen preparing to kneel in prayer in a corner of one of the hallways.

After Aden told her mother, Jamad Warsame, what happened, Warsame spoke with school Principal Maureen Lachappelle and asked the school to accommodate her daughter’s desire to pray. According to CAIR, Warsame’s request was rebuffed and she has been “forced to pick up her daughter every day and take her to a nearby park to pray.”

Lachappelle said Aden is not being forced to leave school to pray, but that the district accommodated her mother’s request for her to leave the campus this past week for prayer.

Lewiston Superintendent Leon Levesque, who learned of CAIR’s written accusations hours after a press release had already been published on various Web sites, said, “Students are free to pray quietly during class if they choose as long as it’s not disruptive,” because “prayer is constitutionally protected in schools.”

“They can pray audibly or silently,” and are subjected to the same rules of order as apply to other students in the school. “We have never denied a student’s right to pray,” he said.

CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper said Friday that if the Lewiston School Department did not address its four requests to allow prayer, modify school policy, institute training and protect Aden from retaliation, “we wouldn’t really have much choice but to take the case further” because “the student has the legal right and the constitutional right to pray in school in a manner that is not disruptive to the learning environment.”

Hooper said no one from CAIR spoke to school officials before filing its four-prong request because it is their general practice to file requests and then follow up with schools and other organizations to institute changes.

This is the same CAIR, aka the Muslim Mafia, that is listed as an unindicted co-conspirator to the largest terror financing case in U.S. history, and is currently under at least one RICO indictment. Here are terms of CAIR’s extortion Shakedown 101 compliance:

1) allow the Muslim student to pray on school property during her free time,
2) modify school policy to provide constitutionally-protected religious accommodation,
3) ensure that the student will not face retaliation because of her request for religious accommodation, and
4) institute diversity training for school staff.

Contact Lewiston’s school leaders, here, and urge them not to give in terror-linked CAIR’s demands to submit the school district to Islamist demands or training.

Related Creeping Sharia posts on Maine (home of the RINO):

Maine changes policy for Muslims
Maine Fines Christian Group for Exposing Jihad Training Camps
DOJ gives Maine police training to learn Muslim culture
Maine exempts Afghan Muslims from zoning laws & cuts deal for Ramadan

Main Street Bar Harbor

It may be the off season but there’s lots going on in Bar Harbor, especially next weekend…

33rd Annual Arts Christmas Craft Fair
December 4, 2009; 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
December 5, 2009; 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Atltantic Oceanside, 119 Eden Street Bar Harbor
Holiday Craft Fair – Maine handcrafts, raffle, lunches and fun! Free admission and free parking.  For more information call, (207) 288-5246.

Sea Coast Mission Holiday Open House
December 4, 2009; 5:30-7:30p.m.
Sea Coast Mission, 127 West Street, Bar Harbor
Come enjoy hot mulled cider and wine, savory hors doeuvres, and live music byJessie Holladay. There will be door prizes. Your donation to this event will help provide gifts for the island and coastal children.  For more information call:  288-5097

Village Holidays & Midnight Madness Sale
December 4, 2009; 5:00 p.m to Midnight
Help us welcome Santa to Bar Harbor on the Village Green at 5pm. Plenty of activities for adults and children, including having pictures taken with Santa immediately following at the YMCA, 21 Park St. The 10th Annual Midnight Madness Sale will be held from 8pm-midnight. There will be great discounts, music, food, drink and midnight raffles!  Check our website for a list of participating stores.
For more information call, 288-5103 x112

‘Light a Candle’ Holiday Festival
Saturday Dec.5, 10am to 8 pm. Sunday Dec. 6, 11am to 7 pm.
Bar Harbor Municipal Building, Cottage Street
OUR BIGGEST EVENT OF THE YEAR! Live Entertainment all day, both days: music, magic, belly dancing, theater!! HUGE SILENT AUCTION! FOOD, FOOD, FOOD! Children’s activities, ‘Global Mama’s’ products for sale: clothing, jewelry, tablecloths,aprons,and bags and more!
Proceeds to benefit: Island Connections, Maine Seacoast Mission,MDI YWCA, Wat Opot AIDS orphanage in Cambodia, Faith in Action in Ellsworth, MDI Campfire Coalition, Doctors without Borders.
For more information call or visit:  (207) 266-0674 or www.unitedworldcitizens.org

It’s A Wonderful Life
December 4, 2009 at 7:00 p.m.
Criterion Theater
Acadia Community Theater presents It’s A Wonderful Life.  Tickets will be $8 for Adults, $4 for children and Senior Citizens.  $2 extra for all if you want to sit upstairs.  For more information, call 288-5103.

December evening in Bar Harbor

Menu

Omelets made to order

Carving station – Ham

Scrambled eggs

Home fries

Corn beef hash

Mac and cheese

Bacon

Sausage

Waffles

Pancakes

Shrimp

New burg

Soups

Salad

Turkey pot pie

Lasagna

Cheese and crackers

Beams

Beef tips

Fresh fruit

Muffins

Cereals

Hot oatmeal

Fruit sauces

Blueberry Cake

Coffee Cake

Cost:

Adults $15.95

Children under 12 $7.95

Children under 5 FREE

]]> http://movingmountainsproject.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/sarah-longs-podcasts-on-library-delivery-avialable/ Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:28:38 +0000 Valerie Horton http://movingmountainsproject.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/sarah-longs-podcasts-on-library-delivery-avialable/

Sara Long, Executive Director of the North Suburban Library System (IL) produces podcasts called “Longshots.”  Two of her recent podcasts were on library physical delivery.  Check it out at: http://www.librarybeat.org/

Longshots #197 Will Digitization Damper Physical Delivery or Send it Skyrocketing?
Sarah talks with Valerie Horton, executive director of the Colorado Library Consortium, about her groundbreaking work in the field of library physical delivery. Valerie talks about the results of a recent national survey on delivery practices, including outsourcing, the motivation for the creation of the Moving Mountains Project, and her prediction that the digitization of books will cause delivery stats to skyrocket. Valerie also talks about her new book, co-authored with Bruce Smith, titled Moving Materials: Physical Delivery in Libraries.

Longshots #196 The Benefits Culled From a Nor’easter Delivery Crisis
Sarah talks with Dean Corner, Director of Reader Services and Information, Maine State Library, about the day their statewide delivery service dried up. When staff of the delivery vendor for Maine learned their contract had not been renewed, they started jumping ship, seriously impacting physical delivery. The happy result of what became a national media story was the increased awareness of a highly used library service that many people did not even know existed.

The quicklist:

Fresh Juice Opening

- MECA holiday sale

- Two Point Gallery holiday sale

- MECA Print Bake Sale

- School Finals

- Website Launch for Art at Work

Sunlight trickled in through the clouds in drops and splattered on the windshield, smeared to streaking by the infrequent, but regular, swipe of the wiperblades. There had certainly been better mornings in this unseasonably warm November, but, as he drove through the unfamiliar back roads and byways of the city, a smile crept into the corners of his mouth in between sips of scalding coffee.

An underground drumbeat drowned out the sounds of passing cars and workward bound commuters, snares and high-hats providing a melodic background for the harsh, chanting rap laid over the top of it. Even though he was singing along, doing his best to completely imitate the grain of Technique, his eyes were unfocused, drifting from one moving body to the next, barely registering a shape before passing to the next and the next, faces of the few pedestrians sliding to his periphery, then, too, wiped out of view.

Praegu on masu ja raha on vähe, ilm on kole jne.. Ühesõnaga otsustasin minagi raha kokku hoida ning alustasin oma mobiiliarvete korrigeerimisest.

Olgu öeldud, et olen olnud EMT lojaalne lepinguline klient pea 10 aastat, vahel tööandja kaudu, vahel personaalselt, aga siiski pidevalt, koostöösuhet katkestamata. Alguses oli EMT valiku põhjuseks parim leviala. Kui leviala ei olnud enam argument, siis oli seda hea klienditeenindus, tasemel turundus. Viimastel aastatel aga pigem harjumus, sissejuurdunud arusaam, et EMT on parim. Müts maha EMT turundustiimi ees, et nad ennast minu peas nii mitmeid aastaid seda brändi sellisena (parim mobiilioperaator) positsioneerida suutsid!

Ühesõnaga, kuna MinuEMT meeliköitev turunduskampaania oli mulle kui turundajale ammu silma jäänud ning  mis seal salata, ka mõjunud (!), otsustasin validagi säästmise eesmärgil MinuEMT paketi.

Paketi võlud on järgmised:

Vali endale sobiv hulk kõnesid, sõnumeid ja internetti. MinuEMT tasu saad teada, kui liidad kõikide valitud teenuste osatasud kokku.

• Kõnede kasutusmahus sisalduvad kõik Eesti-sisesed tava- ja videokõned.
• Kõnede kasutusmahus ei sisaldu:
- tasuta Perekõned, tasuta kõned Sõbraliinile, tasuta suunamised, neid saad kasutada lisaks valitud kõnemahule;
- eritasulised kõned (erihinnastusega võrgud, kõneteenusnumbrid).
• MinuEMT paketis arveldab EMT kõnesid sekundipõhiselt ja kõnedele ei lisandu kõnealustustasu.
• Mahu ületamisel maksab Eesti-sisene kõneminut 1.53 kr/min ja videokõne 5.03kr/min.

Ühesõnaga, otsus sai tehtud ruttu. Teadsin umbkaudselt, kui palju ma kuus räägin, valisin vastava paketi vastava kuutasuga ja jäin rõõmsalt väiksemaid arveid ootama..

Üllatus saabus esimese arvega – ligikaudu 1/3 kallim arve kõneteenuste eest, kui seni kunagi olnud! Ok, selgitasin seda endale asjaoluga, et olen senisest rohkem kasutanud M-parkimise teenust, maksin arve ära ning asi selleks korraks unustatud. Järgmisel kuul aga tuli arve, mis ületas arveid enne minuEMT-ga liitumist enam kui poole võrra!

Kõigepealt vihastasin ennast seaks… Siis elasin ennast välja, kurtsin lähedastele oma saatust. Ja siis süvenesin arvete sisusse (loomulikult oleksin pidanud seda tegema kohe, esimese arve saabudes, ma tean, ma tean – aga aastatepikkune usaldus EMT-sse oli liialt süüvinud, et midagi kahtlustada).

Ja mis selgus – olin oma naiivsuses valinud MinuEMT-ga liitudes liiga “õhukese” paketi, mis sisuliselt tähendas seda, et kui ma valitud kõneteenuste mahtu ületasin, hakkas sekundipealt edasistele kõnedele kehtima järgmine klausel:

Mahu ületamisel maksab Eesti-sisene kõneminut 1.53 kr/min ja videokõne 5.03kr/min

Täpselt sealt need meeletud kõnede arved tekkisidki. Kusjuures, loomulikult ei saa ma siinkohal süüdistada EMT-d, vaid ainult iseennast, et ei olnud tähelepanelik, ei hinnanud olukorda jne.. Aga siiski, ma leian, et on eetiliselt väär mitte teatada kliendile, et tema paketti kuuluvate kõnede määr on ületatud. Kui oleks selline teade edastatud, oleksin ma ju kohe saanud valida MinuEMT-st suurema mahuga kõneteenuseid sisaldava paketi ning oleks ikkagi üldkokkuvõttes rahaliselt võitnud! Muidu tulevad igasugused pakkumistega sõnumid söögi alla ja söögi peale, aga nüüd sellist väikest teavitust ei ole siis võimalik automatiseerida ning sellega kliendi usaldust võita?

OK. Tunnistan, et paljuski tulenesid suured arved selle tõttu, et ma ei käinud Iseteeninduses aktiivselt saldot jälgimas ega teinud sellest vastavaid järeldusi. Siiski solvusin EMT peale, kuna mind ei teavitatud kahel kuul, et paketti kuuluvate kõneteenuste maht on ületatud. Siinkohal lihtsalt tõdemus, kui vähesest piisab, et sinu seni lojaalsest kliendist saab päevapealt konkurendi klient. Võiks ju öelda, et kogu turundus selle kontakti nimel on luhta läinud. Iseasi, kui väärtuslik on 1 kontakt? Samas, kui ta räägib oma halvast kogemusest 7-le sõbrale… teame ju seda turundustõdemust isegi.

Esitasin taotluse operaatori vahetuseks. Valituks osutus Tele2 ning paketiks Hinnaliider 80. Miks? Vaadake ise:

Hinnaliider 80: Miinimumarve 150; Võrgusisesed kõned 0,81; Kõneminut teistesse võrkudesse 0,81; Kõnealustustasu 0; Tekstisõnumi saatmine 1,88; Kuumaks * 10,17 * Klientidel, kes valivad e-arve, on kuumaksu soodustus 100%.

Kindlasti ei taha ma antud üllitisega EMT-d halvustada. Tegemist on ju siiski väga tubli ettevõttega. See, et ma ühte pisikest tegematajätmist klienditeeninduses südamesse võtsin, on puhtalt minu probleem. Küll aga on antud loo põhjal soovitus teistele MinuEMT klientidele – jälgige oma jooksvat saldot, et teaksite, millal on teie kõneteenuste maht ületatud.

Loo moraal ehk mida ma tegelikult tahan öelda:

1. turundus on kõikvõimas ning lojaalne klient usaldab ettevõtet ja ei pööra tähelepanu pisiasjadele
2. hinne 5+ EMT turundustiimile, kes on suutnud korraldada üliedukaid turunduskampaaniaid ning saavutanud EMT kui usaldusväärse tel.operaatori maine turul
3. hinne 2- EMT klienditeenindusele, et nad ei võtnud “lahkumisavalduse” teinud kliendiga isegi ühendust selleks, et küsida tagasisidet, miks klient operaatorit vahetab

Või mida teie arvate?