Brain Clouds: the Listening Post Blog

Permission to play

2010-02-04T15:13:00.003-05:00

I notice as I get older that the weekend just ain't what it used to be. I'm more inclined to stooge around the house doing nothing much. Or I'm more likely to let work flow over into the once-sacrosanct space of recreation. I find I need a little encouragement to leave the week behind, to disengage from the opinion machine driven by downbeat talking heads. I need permission to relax, kick back, and do something fun.

Which has me a little excited about our new Friday night music line-up. A good weekend needs a good warm-up act and a high-energy soundtrack. If you've had a chance to hear Jonathan Brown sitting in for other music hosts, you should enjoy his new rootsy smorgasbord, Cutaway. Then two hours of the program that has been telling you the news is done for the day--it's time to come out and play--World Café. Then an hour of The Latin Alternative, to remind you that even though you may be bundled up in your parka, you could still be doing the rumba. And then taking you up to midnight, some of the most joyful noise anywhere, Afropop Worldwide with Georges Collinet.

After midnight? Well--I'll probably be in bed. But I won't be grinding my teeth in my sleep, and I expect to get up Saturday ready for a proper weekend.

Where's the Wowser?

2010-01-28T14:04:00.001-05:00

Americans used to love American technology. In the '50 and '60s, the rollout of the new Detroit car models topped the news programs. We were excited to have a new car, or even to see one for the first time. They touched our fantasy life, as well as our family life, and we could hardly wait for what comes next. Americans mostly hate their cars now, settling for anything with a wheel on each corner that will get them down the road with regularity and reliability.

The last vestige of that old familiar feeling probably goes to boutique electric carmaker Tesla, whose slam-you-back-in-your-seat roadster arouses a tech-lust that few have the depth of pocket to indulge.

We build little of what we once did--cars, appliances, gadgets, ships, consumer electronics. We travel to the International Space Station in a 1970s model space shuttle--having gone from "live TV from the surface of the moon" to "your father's Oldsmobile" in a single generation. What little we do design and/or build doesn't stand out from our world competitors in any way that elicits the "Wowsers!" response.

The only US company that seems to consistently have the old magic is Apple Computer. The unveiling yesterday of their new tablet computer, the iPad, had all the sizzle you could want. Ever since the introduction of the first Macintosh during the Super Bowl in 1984, new Apple products have lit up the "Hot Donuts Now!" light in American brains. The Mac, the iPod and the iPhone were transformative technologies--not because they were the first of their kind, but because they were the first to get it right-- to combine function with usability, sleek design with smart, even hip, marketing. They make you want it--and heaven help me--I do.

In a Name

2010-01-21T13:55:00.002-05:00

When Shunryu Suzuki (one of the earliest teachers to bring Zen Buddhism to the US) came to California his English was very poor. He asked a passerby in a San Francisco park the question in my poem below. The straightforward reply encouraged him that here was fertile ground for Zen.

Suzuki Roshi Discovers America

What do
you call
that black
bird there?

Blackbird.

Most of the names of NCPR programs follow a similar pattern: The Eight O'Clock Hour, Music for a Monday Afternoon, FM in the Morning, etc. I could say it was due to our advanced spiritual state, but no, we just can't come to consensus on anything clever and exciting. Coming up with good names is hard. No doubt Eve vetoed many of Adam's "best" ideas, when he legendarily named the animals. "Platypus? Really?"

NCPR has a new program in the works, and rather than settle on some pedestrian in-house pick, we have decided to reach out for suggestions. Jonathan Brown, known to most of you as our All Before Five host and news reporter, will be launching a new hour-long music program leading into the weekend. Regarding format, Jonathan says, "I'll play rock, folk, blues, R&B, soul, alt-country and roots from the '60s to new stuff. Each set will mix more well-known (and probably older) tracks with newer songs that listeners may not be familiar with."

So, what do you suggest, besides The Rock, Folk, Blues, R&B, Soul, alt-Country and Roots Hour? While you're at it, feel free to suggest alternatives (by preference non-scatological) to any of our other generic program names.

Going Vogue

2010-01-14T15:55:00.002-05:00

As a high-tech web kind of guy, you might suppose that I was down with all the latest gadgets. For example, if you saw me pacing in the hall, waving my hands and apparently ranting into the air, you might think I was having a lively discussion over the blue-tooth headset tucked into my other ear. But no, sometimes I just go off like that. In fact, I use the cell phone in my pocket more often as a worry-stone than as a communications device, and I'd be just as happy if it had a rotary dial and plugged into the wall. I text frequently--but I do it at my desk with an extended keyboard. It's called email, I believe.

Nine years after the introduction of the iPod, and five years after I started podcasting NCPR programs and stories, my first personal iPod was under the Christmas tree this year. What finally put me over the edge was the latest feature they built into it--an fm radio. I sure have missed my old Panasonic pocket transistor from the '60s. In honor of that antique mobile device, I have loaded my iPod Nano up with Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna, the Beatles, the Byrds and Bob Dylan.

But time does move on, and even if I don't adjust too nimbly myself, the rest of the world is going mobile. NCPR needs to go along for the ride. This week, we finally worked out most of the kinks to get NCPR's broadcast stream, newscast and podcast news audio onto the NPR mobile platform, which makes it available to users of iPhones, Nokia phones, Android and other mobile computing devices. If you are so en vogue as to possess one, you can find us in your mobile device browser at this address: http://m.npr.org/stations/show/WSLU

Buzzing

2010-01-07T11:03:00.001-05:00

Each year brings a new crop of buzz words that so saturate public speech, one is tempted to have a New Year's resolution not to invent any new ones during the coming year. Place your right hand on the thesaurus and repeat after me…. Grant Barrett, co-host of A Way With Words, submits the following from 2009: "aporkalypse" (undue worry in response to swine flu), "death panel" (doctors and/or bureaucrats who would decide which patients receive treatment, ostensibly leaving the rest to die), "gay-marry" (to marry someone of the same sex), "tea party" (an organized gathering of antitax, antigovernment and/or anti-Obama protestors), and "wise Latina woman" (a term used by Judge Sonia Sotomayor in a speech before she was a Supreme Court justice).

At Lake Superior University, they have compiled their 35th annual "List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness." Among this year's candidates are shovel-ready, czar, friend (used as a verb), teachable moment, toxic assets, too big to fail, and bromance. The Houston Chronicle begs to include funemployed, tramp stamp, recessionista, new normal and deficit neutrality.

IMHO, we should have a crackdown and drain the swamp of such locutions. That's my mantra. This post can be taken as the run-up to that crackdown.

Blue Moon

2009-12-31T09:42:00.000-05:00

The stars conjoin to make this an auspicious New Year's Eve. As the second full moon in December, this makes tonight a "blue" moon, a rarity. The last New Year's Eve blue moon was in 1990. It will appear bigger than usual (about 7%)--the moon is at its closest to earth on January 1--and brighter than usual (earth and moon are closest to the sun on January 2). If only the overcast will clear, it will make a pretty show to usher out an unpretty decade.

A decade of 911, a decade of war and fear, a decade of diminishing fortunes and natural calamities. Its cultural highlight was the rise of the oxymoronic phenomenon "reality TV." The national discourse has gone deeply awry, and the institutions that support it are losing revenue and readers faster than the Arctic is losing sea ice. We have made an unencouraging beginning on Millennium 3.

Unless, of course, you shake off your (my) curmudgeonly inclinations and look at the other things that have been going on. Brian Mann gives his good news of the year in this In Box post. I have my own geeky and mildly-lefty list, and I encourage you to share your own take on the decade's blessings in a comment below.

Play nicely tonight--the police and ER personnel hate full moon nights. After a full moon brawl some years ago that brought fifty rowdies to woe in the streets of Gouverneur, the police chief quipped "We're hoping for a half moon tomorrow night."

Anticipation

2009-12-24T15:44:00.000-05:00

It's more than an ad for ketchup—anticipation. It's the subtext of the whole holiday season. If one is supposed to live in the moment, today—Christmas Eve—must be the least zen day of the year. Christians have spent the last four weeks in the waiting time of Advent. Children (and many adults) are anticipating what might be under the tree tomorrow.

I confess to looking forward myself: to singing Joy to the World tonight with a couple hundred candle-bearing neighbors. And while I have already had some pretty good chocolate today, I anticipate more and better chocolate tomorrow. And I have to wonder just what's in that large oddly-shaped package the Senate placed beneath the tree this morning. I look forward to the family Christmas Eve meal of chicken cutlets with "straw and hay," and tomorrow's dinner of Cuban pork with mojo criollo and black beans and rice.

Anticipation adds a little savor to the good things, just as it adds a little sting to the bad. May all sentient beings have a savory holiday, and anticipate an auspicious New Year.

When instant gratification isn't quick enough

2009-12-17T15:01:00.000-05:00

If you've dropped by the NCPR news page in the last couple of days, you may have noticed the new way we are handling audio--providing an embedded "zipper" to play our news features. Greater geeks than I maintain that the online audience has, on average, the patience of a piranha and the attention span of a Labrador pup. While I am not one inclined to compare the ncpr.org audience to any kind of animal, I take from this that quicker and easier is better. In the past, our audio links launched an outside player, which took time to load, then more time to get started. By then, many of you were three websites down the road, shopping for Etruscan nose flutes on eBay, twittering about Facebook, or whatever it is you do when not camped out on our website.

Now you can get to the story much quicker, and much easier. Which part of "right now" don't we understand? No part. Please let us know how this works for you, and anything else we can do to make gangway for your power surfing experience.

The public cheese

2009-12-03T12:00:00.002-05:00

While the personal security of leaders has been a concern at least since the days when Julius Caesar went to visit the Roman Senate for a little high-level arm-twisting, today's presidential security regime has grown up over a century and a half, well-watered by violent disasters. That makes the recent crashing of a White House state dinner by uninvited "performance artists" an almost unbelievable lapse on the part of White House staff and the Secret Service. No doubt, there will be pink slips in a number of Christmas stockings.
But the White House has a much more open, if equally disastrous, history. Jefferson was gifted with a mammoth wheel of cheese (1200-1600 pounds), that stood as public provender for two years until replaced by an equally mammoth, but less smelly, loaf of bread. 15 years after being burned down by uninvited British guests, the White House was ransacked by a crowd of 20,000 who followed Andy Jackson home from his inauguration. In order to recapture the people's house, his aides dragged washtubs full of whiskey screwdriver out onto the grounds. Not having learned his lesson, Jackson also favored the monster cheese--with 1400 pounds being consumed by the public in two hours at one party. Lincoln bemoaned the number of job seekers hanging around outside the office while he was trying to work. Still, the White House remained open to the general public up until 1885, open to public holiday receptions until the 1930s, and open to casual guided tourism up until 9/11.
Having wandered DC as a tourist, food is now very hard to come by in the government parts of town. I've been tempted to drop by the White House for a little gnosh myself.

Observing the holiday

2009-11-24T14:29:00.000-05:00

All of our major secular holidays seem to involve giving thanks in one way or another: for our founding generation, for the service of veterans, for those sacrificed in war, for leaders, both political and moral. The same is true for religious holidays, when Christians give thanks for the life of Jesus, or Passover, when Jews are grateful for the sparing and liberation of the tribes of Israel. Even the so-called minor holidays: when we give thanks in February for our sweetie-pies, or for moms in May and dads in June, or when we give thanks in April for the planet that sustains us. We may not be as grateful as if we had the day off, but are grateful, nonetheless.

Thanksgiving is a different kind of holiday in this sense: It has no specific honoree. It celebrates a quality of mind, gratitude, without respect to subject. It may be unique among national holidays everywhere for that reason. It did not begin that way. The first national day of Thanksgiving was an expression of gratitude for the passing of the ruinous turmoil of the Civil War. But as that trauma passed from the memories of the living, the holiday remained, leaving each succeeding generation to identify its own reasons for giving thanks.

The success of Thanksgiving suggests that we might consider national celebrations of other virtues: compassion, modesty, moderation, generosity, diligence, mercy, or selflessness, to give a few examples. A national day of diligence, alas, would not be one you could take off from work.

With respect to bowing

2009-11-19T09:03:00.002-05:00

I once told my zen teacher that prolonged periods of sitting meditation were making me a little antsy, a little twitchy. What should I do with this energy? She said I should bow more. "Try eight full prostrations," she said, "or sixteen. If that doesn't work, do one hundred and eight full prostrations." OK OK--at least she didn't hit me with a stick. But bowing is a big deal in Buddhist practice. One bows to the Buddha image upon entering the meditation hall, and to the person seated across, and finally to the cushion upon which one is about to sit. It's a matter of respect and recognition of like spirit.

Much has been made of President Obama's use of the bow when first being presented to the Saudi king and to the emperor of Japan. It has become a popular misconception that to bow is to express submission, rather than to express greeting and respect. President Washington didn't see it that way, but styles of manners have changed in the US--outside of square-dancing anyway.

In Japan, bowing can carry as much or as little nuance as its equivalent American gesture, the handshake. Respective depth and length of bows can be calculated to the millimeter and the microsecond in signaling relative status, just as how long and how strong a grip, how much eye contact, and who offers the hand first can be "read" in American body language. No one expects a foreigner to get a bow, or a handshake, just right, but the effort is taken for the deed. In fact, the president did both with the emperor, offering a hand to shake as he bowed. But regardless of nuance, refusing an offered hand or neglecting a bow altogether are equally serious signs of loutish behavior.

I think any president does well to bow to foreign dignitaries, when a guest in places where that is the customary respectful greeting. Further, in Japan, I would bow when introduced to shopkeepers and schoolteachers and streetcleaners, unless they forestalled it by offering a Western handshake instead. I'm not big on swapping cheek kisses, but in France, I would man-up and do my best. In Saudi Arabia, I would take care not to eat with my left hand, even if I was left-handed, or to show the soles of my shoes when sitting. These are considered unsavory for reasons that are now, thankfully, largely symbolic. And in Rio, I would not use the hand gesture that signals "OK." In Rio it signals--well, never mind what it signals. The point is: local manners are not universally understood. Respect (and disrespect) are.

Fadeout

2009-11-12T15:18:00.000-05:00

The pleasures of plenty are easy to appreciate: the roast pork, the apple pie a-la-mode, the symphony blazing forte, the lambent flower beds of June, the autumn leaves at their peak. But now we are moving into the fadeout of the year. The trees have dropped their "Joseph's coat" to trample underfoot and now stand stark in early twilight.

To make it through the long lean times of the North Country unshattered, it is necessary to learn the pleasures of paucity. If not the symphony, the lone flute. If not the pie, the first sip of hot green tea. If not the moan, the sigh. The last leaf to fall is the most precious.

The slim beech lets go
every leaf but this one.
What gold is in it?

Aftermath

2009-11-05T15:30:00.000-05:00

If you are like me, this week's special election has left you with a crippling political hangover. All voices sound a little shriller and you find yourself listening for the hidden meaning in everything--even the weather report, or a request to pass the salt. You bark when answering the phone, and don't stop to correct your typos when making stream of consciousness comments on the blogs of imagined foes. Or maybe that's just me. But the tone has been pretty angry, and anger takes its toll.

In saner times, I am fond of an anecdote from the Muslim tradition where a man seeks the advice of the Prophet on how to live a spiritual life. He says, "Don't be angry." Pressed for more advice, the Prophet repeats, "Don't be angry." In seeking to track this anecdote down online to its original source, I found various versions, but I also happened upon this further spiritual instruction:

Three ways to control your temper and anger:

Say ta'awuz (ask for protection from the devil)
Do wudu (ritual cleansing) or drink water
Lie down on the floor

I can attest to the effectiveness of number three. I can no longer see the monitor, or reach the keyboard.

Must-see TV

2009-10-29T14:38:00.001-04:00

You may think of this as a call for prayers. Tomorrow morning, Team NCPR will be in the WPBS-TV studios, going mano-a-mano with the News 10 Now crew as we battle for glory on a taping of Whiz Quiz, hosted by Glenn Gough. Forget the Yanks and Phillies--this is the must-see match-up. On deck for the honor of public radio: station manager Ellen Rocco, station engineer Radio Bob Sauter, assistant news director David Sommerstein, and yours truly. Up for News 10 Now--well, who cares really?

I must say, I look forward with some trepidation. My last TV appearance was with Glenn's old colleague from his WWNY days, on Dan "Danny Bee" Burgess' Saturday morning cartoon show, 50 years ago. There's a reason we're in radio. While my boss Ellen is, of course, radiant and youthful, and David could be considered cute in an Eddie Munster kind of way, Radio Bob resembles the current Archbishop of Canterbury following a powerful psychotic episode, and I look like someone who may have a bomb in his shoe, or an appetite for "braaiinss." We'll just have to see. I'll be having fish for dinner--it's brain food.

Best year ever

2009-10-22T17:46:00.000-04:00

Thanks to everyone who has been calling and writing this week in support of NCPR, and particularly to those who re-upped or became new members during String Fever this afternoon, when through a semi-annual lapse of judgment, they put the over-caffeinated web guy in front of an open microphone. This how we get it done: with a bluegrass band answering the phones, special padded kneelers in the pitch room, and the enthusiastic encouragement of all the folks you don't hear on the radio every day, as well as those you do.
It takes a lot of different skills to float this boat, and your support floats a team that excels in every way, recognized throughout public broadcasting not only for great radio, but for great membership services, a premier underwriting program, innovations in major giving and special projects and new media--in general, for getting a bigger bang for smaller bucks than anyone else in the business. You make this all possible. We're well on the way, but don't stop now. We still have about $80,000 to raise between now and Saturday at 8 pm to make our goal. The real goal--same as ever--to make next year our best year of radio ever.

Kindness of strangers

2009-10-15T15:10:00.001-04:00

All of us who work in public radio, and in all sorts of public service not-for-profits, can declare along with Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, "'I have always depended on the kindness of strangers." We aren't quite the lilies of the field who "toil not, neither do they spin;" we toil a lot. But for our raiment (fine or otherwise) we have always been in the faith business. Faith in the value of our efforts, and faith that the community will provide for its support.

It's come time once again (starting Monday) to put that faith to test, as we do each year in our fall fundraiser. It would be easy to view this regular exercise as a burden, both in the making and in the hearing, but the longer I work in public radio, the more I see it as an opportunity. We get to see our faith born out, year after year, in a way that no other endeavor provides. There is no compulsion, there is no exchange regulated by "the invisible hand of the market," there is only the giving and receiving of gifts. And for the giver, there is a rare opportunity to value something based on one's own experience and circumstance, not on a bar code readout.

I am not among those who want to change the business model of public broadcasting to something more "scientific" and "predictable." I predict that we'll do just fine. You just have to have a little faith.

Invaders

2009-10-08T15:27:00.001-04:00

I was struck by today's Photo of the Day by Stuart Delman of a bizarre tree fungus along the Pilot Knob Mountain trail near Lake George. It looks like a coral learned to climb a tree, or like some horror movie alien about to leap off onto a screaming face. It's nothing I've seen in my local woods walks, and it gets me to thinking about what else I don't see: chestnuts, elms, healthy beech, or much of anything living that's older than me.

Lovely as the North Country is this time of year, it's also true that it is not what it once was, and never will be again. Aliens have been at work, though not the kind you see in movies. The chestnuts were mostly gone before I was born, fallen to an invasive import, though I witnessed the recent decline and death of one of the last survivors on the St. Lawrence University campus. The elms went when I was a child. The beeches around my house are all on the way out due to scale and insect predation. Pine, spruce and maple all contend with their own ills, and the ash blight moves closer each season.

All pests brought in by human activity. We are also an invasive species in the North Country. Just try surviving a winter naked outdoors if you believe otherwise. And we had at the forests with the rabid greed of Dutch elm beetles, cutting in less than a century virtually 100% of the forest, that had developed undisturbed since the retreat of the glaciers 10,000 years ago. Second-growth forest and old-growth forest are apples and oranges. It will take a few more centuries before the Forever Wild lands begin to resemble a climax ecosystem.

The price of progress is not only steep, it is ruinous. We have smashed the watch so we could play with the gears. What'll we tell Mom when she gets home?

Partisan feelings

2009-10-01T15:59:00.001-04:00

My brother was in town last weekend, so we took a leaf-viewing drive up into the mountains, first walking the Boreal Life Trail at the Paul Smiths VIC, then meandering up above Lake Placid on John Brown's Road. The day was sunny and cool, and the views all one could hope for, up behind the ski jumps looking east toward the Cascade Pass. As I had never visited the John Brown Farm, I took the chance to stop in for a moment.

The bearded abolitionist of my high school civics book (in life-size bronze) greeted me by the entryway--one arm sheltering an African American child, and looking out over the many-colored hills. His eyes hold a terrible purpose; you can see in them the bloody partisan night raids of "Bleeding Kansas," the armed insurrectionist, captured and brought to trial for treason by then US Army Colonel Robert E. Lee at Harpers Ferry.

Brown inspires in me very mixed feelings. One must admire those who are willing to give their life in a cause. But the willingness to take life for a cause? That gives me pause. Particularly at a time when political temperatures are rising to a boil.

Brian Mann, in the In Box blog, has been tracking some of the hotter end of politics, noting a column this week by John L. Perry, suggesting that a military coup may be the only way to preserve the nation. And in reply to my Listening Post entry about the "American character," an old friend maintained that "As an issue, abortion is the slavery of the 21st century." Even shaving a few points off for hyperbole, when I look at the statue of John Brown, and remember the legacy of slaughter and ruin it took to resolve the issue of slavery, I have to hope my friend is wrong about that.

Outside the bubble

2009-09-24T15:46:00.003-04:00

In the days when most of the traffic to ncpr.org came from our core radio audience, the conversation on the site was remarkably quiet, usually civil, and frankly--kind of thin. It must be some Norwegian bachelor farmer-shy folk kind of thing. But we have been getting our stories out beyond our website for some time now, into a more general audience via syndication on other news and community sites. Of the top five stories in the last 30 days, all have been heavily driven by traffic from outside sources, most notably from North Country Now, the online companion to the weekly paper North Country This Week based in Potsdam, and newzjunky, an online-only news aggregation site based in Watertown.

This is good. One of our top goals is to build the public media audience by getting our work in front of new eyes and ears. And it is also illuminating. Outside the bubble of public radio's "usual suspects," the North Country is much more angry and divided. Following the comment threads on the syndicated stories, all the fissures that divide North Country neighbors are writ plain: poor vs. affluent, born-here vs came-here, village vs back road, upstate vs downstate, private sector vs public, town vs gown.

When we think of "hot button" issues in the media, we tend to think big: climate change, status of marriage, financial meltdown, war and peace. It is a useful corrective to note that while all our reporting on climate change issues over the years has brought in a handful of comments, our recent story on the coming ban on open trash burning has brought in 15 pages of comments over two days. Carbon re-uptake hardware, we don't got--burn barrels we do. The collapse of international financial institutions seems far away, while the woes of Hacketts play out just down the road. While the tone of the online conversation is often regrettable, the cooler view would do well to take into account the "hot." To paraphrase Wendell Berry, the neighbors we're supposed to love are the one's we've actually got.

Feeding the debate

2009-09-17T11:52:00.000-04:00

My wife and I have pieces of our kitchen spread all over kingdom come from cooking for crowds. I just got back from a lunch-hour excursion to collect a crock-pot left behind at a church college supper, in order to make it available for this week's Reachout training dinner. Having the usual web geek's social graces and leadership qualities, feeding folks is my way of contributing to the general welfare. People will pretty much ignore you while you flip things on the grill or load the dishwasher, and you rarely have that nagging worry afterward about whether you have done the right thing. After all, everybody's gotta eat, and most people are glad to do so.

Having witnessed the meltdown of basic civility at this summer's healthcare town hall meetings, I have a modest proposal for political circuit riders--town hall potlucks. Of course the town hall meeting attendees were grumpy--they'd been standing in line, there weren't enough chairs inside for everyone. Their feet were sore, and they were hungry. Besides, you can carry a hot crock-pot, or you can carry a sign with a swastika and a hammer & sickle, but you can't carry both. Inside the hall, instead of presiding from behind a lectern, the speaker should preside over the serving line, perhaps behind a mound of fried chicken. People are unlikely to scream abuse in your face if they think you might use your tongs to snag that chicken breast back off their plate, and the pressure from hungry folks waiting to fill their plates will keep conversation brief and to the point.

After everyone has had a plate or two, and a chance to rest their feet, then you can make your remarks and take questions. Full-bellied folks are more agreeable and less excitable. They may be inclined to nap over their dessert plates. And yelling just upsets the digestion.

In character

2009-09-10T15:07:00.001-04:00

There are certain phrases that jump out from the background noise of contemporary debate. One phrase that jumped out for me was from President Obama's healthcare speech last night. He quoted a letter by Ted Kennedy delivered posthumously to the White House, in which the late senator used the phrase "the character of our country." The president characterized that character thus:

"One of the unique and wonderful things about America has always been our self-reliance, our rugged individualism, our fierce defense of freedom and our healthy skepticism of government." Later on he qualifies that with: "That large-heartedness, that concern and regard for the plight of others… too, is part of the American character: our ability to stand in other people's shoes; a recognition that we are all in this together…."

Our national character then, has strains that are both contrarian and contradictory, as might be expected when applying generalizations to the multitude. There are so many "on the other hands" to our national character, that we might need to borrow many-armed Kali from India to describe it fully.

Foreign detractors have their own list of American qualities. In World War II Britain it was lamented that Americans were "over-paid, over-fed, over-sexed, and over here." Others might think us friendly, spontaneous and inventive, and at the same time chide us for being credulous, arrogant and disrespectful. Domestic detractors on the right might decry America as Godless, while those on the left declare it heartless. Those in the middle might add "intemperate." Everyone seems to agree that there is an American character, we just can't agree on what it is.

But it's worth talking about--because who we think we are determines, in large part, what we think we should do. Use the comment link below to characterize your views on the American character.

Laboring

2009-09-03T15:00:00.000-04:00

I have labored full- or part-time pretty much continuously since I was 14 years old. Over the decades I have worked for under-the-table cash mowing lawns, shoveling coal and at very odd jobs, such as funk band roadie. I have worked on commission, delivering newspapers and pizzas. I worked for peanuts and tips in a variety of food service operations. And as a small businessman and employer, proprietor of a commercial print shop. And as a union employee of the state, managing a college print shop. And as a solo free-lance, doing publication and web design. And as a non-union employee, working in the online-mines here at North Country Public Radio. Except for military service and indentured servitude, I have worked under just about all the available conditions of employment.

Though I have only had Labor Day off a handful of times over the years, I appreciate it when it rolls around on the calendar. It is increasingly popular these days to minimize the contributions of the labor movement to American life. Union membership is at an historic low in terms of percentage of workers enrolled, and labor's political influence is correspondingly on the wane, even within the once "party of the working man," the Democrats. But the list of accomplishments is too long to ignore: the weekend, the forty-hour work week, pension benefits, workman's compensation, widespread health insurance, workplace safety regulations, child labor laws, the minimum wage, and on and on. The post-World War II heyday of the labor movement saw the creation of the mass middle-class, and the smallest gap in our history between rich and poor.

Despite its waning influence today, anyone who works under any circumstances is the beneficiary of the more than century-long struggle of organized labor. It defined our expectations for the good life, and created a benchmark for the American standard of living. Any working person who aspires to own a home and educate a family and enjoy the occasional vacation, or who looks forward to a secure retirement, is dreaming their dream. And without their long struggle, those aspirations would be nothing more than a dream for the vast majority. So, happy Labor Day this Monday. Hope you get a chance to put your feet up. Me--I'll be at my desk as usual.

Consolation prize

2009-08-27T15:37:00.000-04:00

It seems like it was just a few weeks ago that we packed up the down comforter with the flannel sheets. But out it came again last night as we closed the windows to keep out the near frosty night air. And it's frost for real tonight for some of you who live up in the nose-bleed seats of the Adirondacks. So cover up the tomatoes, if late blight has left you any.

Last I checked, it was still August. The summer has been a shambles--chilly, wet, ungenerous with sunshine. And as always, way too short. I'd file a grievance if I could identify the guilty party. If insanity is trying the same thing over and over, but expecting different results, what does that say of our expectations of the weather? This is cruel country for an optimist. But it's also too dismal too often to always have a grump on about it. We are left to the consolation of palliative measures--chocolate for instance. Hot chocolate. Hmmmm.

Interesting times

2009-08-20T15:19:00.001-04:00

Last year was the fortieth anniversary of NCPR, among many other notable events, but it's hard to beat 1969 for portentous happenings. The moon landing on July 16 sticks in most minds. Less well-known is that on July 17, The New York Times publicly retracted its 1920 article ridiculing rocket pioneer Robert Goddard for asserting the possibility of spaceflight. Close behind Apollo 11 comes Woodstock, which beamed down onto Max Yasgur's farm in Bethel NY, forty years ago this week. Also in 1969, on January 30, the last public concert of The Beatles was held on the roof of Apple Records, until broken up by the police.

Nixon was inaugurated January 20; on March 13, the secret bombing of Cambodia began. On February 20, the Boeing 747 was test-flown, and on March 2, the Concorde. On June 2, John and Yoko began a "bed-in" for world peace in Montreal. On June 28, the Stonewall Riots launched the modern gay rights movement. On August 8 (a week before Woodstock), members of the Manson cult murdered Sharon Tate and friends.

The ATM machine was born September 2 and the last Looney Toon cartoon was released September 20. Monty Python first aired October 5, and on October 29, the first message was sent via ARPANET, the forerunner of the Internet. Sesame Street premiered on November 10; the first Wendy's opened November 15. On December 6, the disastrous Altamont Free Concert formed the other bookend to Woodstock. And sometime in 1969, AIDS is thought to have first come to the US via Haiti.

If you're too young to remember 1969, the benediction/curse "May you live in interesting times" may not be fully appreciated. But then again, 2009 is not without its "features of interest." Check back in 40 years.

Woodstock: Back to the Garden

2009-08-17T12:10:00.003-04:00

The Woodstock Music Festival ended forty years ago today. In the years since, neither the Apocalyse nor the Harmonic Convergence has come to pass, but the culture wars are still alive and well. What did it all mean? Were you there? Share your stories of what it was like in a comment below. Radio Bob will feature your replies on the Radio Bob Show, starting 3 pm Wednesday.

Do you still have a pair of mud-encrusted jeans preserved in the attic? Send your photos from the festival or of other memorabilia to dale@ncpr.org. We'll attach them along with your remembrances to this post.