I've lived in Freeport for more than 40 years. I wasn't born here so I can't claim to be a native but I think my longevity here gives me some standing as a citizen and, more important, as a member of the community. It's the community that I want to talk about.
I've lived practically my entire adult life here; I've paid taxes, gone to PTA meetings, attended town council sessions, helped establish the youth football program, supported the local Boy Scouts and Little League, worked in the local hardware store, supported local businesses, and tried to be a good neighbor. There have been lots of changes in the town since I moved here in 1971 but there is one thing that has not changed: the "Freeport community" has always encompassed the neighboring towns of Pownal and Durham. Three separate towns, yes, but one "community".
Freeport Community Services is a wonderful organization that enriches the lives and provides assisatance to the residents of all three towns; likewise the Freeport Community Library is a wonderful resource that serves residents of Durham and Pownal as well as Freeport; there is even a local newspaper, the Tri-Town Weekly, devoted to providing coverage of news and events in the three towns that comprise the "Freeport community". My sons attended Freeport schools and had friends and classmates from Pownal and Durham. The residents of Durham and Pownal work in Freeport and shop in Freeport. Freeport, Pownal and Durham are three separate entities in terms of municipality but I would argue that they are one in terms of community. Which brings us to the movement afoot for Freeport to withdraw from RSU-5 and go it alone in the education of our children.
Some background is needed here. Freeport has always maintained a school system to provide education from kindergarten through high school. My sons went to Holbrook Street School for their early education, attended Mast Landing and Freeport Middle School during their formative years, and graduated from Freeport High School. Their experience was enriched by the presence of classmates from Durham and Pownal as part of the Freeport School System community. This "community" was formalized when the State mandated that local communities consolidate their educational resources to form "Regional School Units" as an efficiency measure, and RSU-5 was born.
RSU-5 resulted from the formal consolidation of the school systems of Freeport, Pownal and Durham into one entity which incorporated the facilities of the three towns into one entity devoted to the education of students from all three towns. The objective was to ensure that all students from the three separate towns enjoyed access to a quality education, and that the citizens of the three towns would have a voice in how that education was funded. The experiment got off to a pretty good start but recently it has foundered because of budget issues; the citizens of Pownal and Durham balked at approving expenses favored by many citizens of Freeport and all of a sudden the wheels started coming off.
A group of Freeport citizens who were incensed that they had not gotten their way in the budget vote organized a movement to have Freeport withdraw from RSU-5, which is their right. They are well organized and well financed, so their efforts led to an initial vote to have the town "explore" withdrawal. State law mandates several steps to be negotiated prior to a second vote to complete the process for a town to withdraw from an RSU, and the committees negotiating the process are apparently hung up on one critical issue: if Freeport withdraws from the RSU, will it be the "school of record" for students from Pownal and Durham? Incredibly, the withdrawal committee is balking at answering "yes" to this question!
Which gets us back to the concept of "community". It seems strange to me that we would turn our backs on the children of our neighboring towns and say "sorry, there's no room for you here". It seems even stranger that we would deprive Freeport students of the diversity and richness of experience that derives from broadening the student base beyond the town boundaries. The folks favoring withdrawal from the RSU may very well have compelling arguments in their favor but I can't believe that "we don't have room for students from Pownal and Durham" is one of them.
So I say this to my fellow Freeporters: withdraw from RSU-5 if you feel you must (I will vote against it) but please don't turn your backs on any of the children of the "Freeport Community", which includes students from Durham and Pownal. Freeport must be the "school of record" for our neighbors because if we abandon our "community" what are we teaching our children?
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Slow and steady
"So I'm on a mission: to occupy the syndicated space of RPDTNYTCP by appearing
daily to comment on the puzzle and to offer a peek into the early days of the
blog. My hope is that just as the "prime-time" blog has grown and evolved the
syndicated segment can, too. "We're more than one-half, we're more than
one-half!" Well, maybe I need to come up with a better chant but you get the
idea. If you do the NYT crossword puzzle, even if you only TRY to do it, get
over to RPDTNYTCP and leave a comment, dammit!"
That's the concluding paragraph of a piece I posted here over two years ago (My "Occupy" Movement, 10/20/2011 http://dirigonzo.blogspot.com/2011/10/my-occupy-movement.html) and it seemed like this would be a good time to revisit the topic for an update on the status of events and happenings surrounding the syndicated segment of Rex Parker Does the NY Times Crossword Puzzle. And I'm happy to report there have been some very positive changes over the last couple of years.
I've maintained my pledge to show up every day (with very few exceptions) and add my comments to the blog, if only to be a constant (and sometimes lonely) presence just to establish that the comment line is still open five weeks later, and maybe encourage other potential contributors to join in. Whether this has been helpful to the cause or detrimental is hard to say, but over time some commenters who had contributed occasionally began to show up with more frequency, and some new names emerged as "regulars" who came to join the party frequently, if not daily. And so a small but burgeoning, active community has arisen where once there was only a ghost town.
A community, even a virtual one, needs a name and we have tried out several over time. My own favorite was "Syn-City" and I still use it on occasion, but the most regularly used moniker for our little chunk of cyber-space is "Syndi-Land" and its denizens are "Syndi-Landers" or just "Syndies". Recently I've noticed both terms being used with a certain amount of pride attached as the community has developed a character which is quite different from that of the main body of Rexites ("kinder, gentler" is a phrase that comes up quite often) and I think most regard the difference as a good thing.
If Rexville is a hustling, bustling metropolis populated by a cosmopolitan assemblage of erudite contributors all rushing to be to be among first to the finish the puzzle and the earliest to comment, then Syndi-Land is the laid-back exurb where those of us who wish to avoid the stress of the "rat race" can join together and share our more relaxed approach to life in general and puzzle solving in particular. In many respects our little group resembles a retirement community where folks can discuss, critique (but seldom "criticize"), share and compare experiences, views and ideas on any number of topics sometimes even including the puzzle. The one thing we all have in common is that we solve (or try to - a "Did Not Finish" is not considered a failure among our group) the puzzle and come together to discuss it in our own time and at our own pace. The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that reading Rex's write-up and the comments, and participating in the blog community improves our puzzle-solving skills and makes the experience more fun.
The defining characteristic of a Syndie is that each of us solves the puzzle in our local newspaper, using a pen or pencil (or crayon or whatever) to fill in the actual grid published in the paper - we do NOT solve on-line as do most of the other Rexites. Any one of us could subscribe to the NY Times crossword puzzle on line and solve the puzzle on the day it comes out instead of five weeks later; I think that we choose not to do that is the defining characteristic of a Syndi-Lander. Our reasons may vary but the bottom line is the same: we are content where we are.
I'm hopeful that other syndi-lurkers will see the commentary going on among the Syndies and feel compelled to join us. There may even be a "prime-timer" or two who are ready to quit the hectic competition among the early contributors, and they would most certainly be welcomed into our little enclave. "Slow and steady" seems to be a good motto for Syndi-Land - it's how we solve our puzzles and it's how we grow our community.
As I said at the outset, I take no credit for what's happening in Syndi-Land, but I am very proud and glad to be a part of it.
If I can wait five weeks for a puzzle, certainly "Mañana is good enough for me". Here's what you get when you type it as it might appear in a crossword grid:
With the tilde (a word I learned from doing crosswords) in place, you might get this:
P.S. - A former syndi-lander turned prime-timer commented a while back that she sometimes yearned to rejoin the "bird-watching, star-gazing, cold-enduring" folks in syndi-land. I can't think of a better way to describe our little community!
That's the concluding paragraph of a piece I posted here over two years ago (My "Occupy" Movement, 10/20/2011 http://dirigonzo.blogspot.com/2011/10/my-occupy-movement.html) and it seemed like this would be a good time to revisit the topic for an update on the status of events and happenings surrounding the syndicated segment of Rex Parker Does the NY Times Crossword Puzzle. And I'm happy to report there have been some very positive changes over the last couple of years.
I've maintained my pledge to show up every day (with very few exceptions) and add my comments to the blog, if only to be a constant (and sometimes lonely) presence just to establish that the comment line is still open five weeks later, and maybe encourage other potential contributors to join in. Whether this has been helpful to the cause or detrimental is hard to say, but over time some commenters who had contributed occasionally began to show up with more frequency, and some new names emerged as "regulars" who came to join the party frequently, if not daily. And so a small but burgeoning, active community has arisen where once there was only a ghost town.
A community, even a virtual one, needs a name and we have tried out several over time. My own favorite was "Syn-City" and I still use it on occasion, but the most regularly used moniker for our little chunk of cyber-space is "Syndi-Land" and its denizens are "Syndi-Landers" or just "Syndies". Recently I've noticed both terms being used with a certain amount of pride attached as the community has developed a character which is quite different from that of the main body of Rexites ("kinder, gentler" is a phrase that comes up quite often) and I think most regard the difference as a good thing.
If Rexville is a hustling, bustling metropolis populated by a cosmopolitan assemblage of erudite contributors all rushing to be to be among first to the finish the puzzle and the earliest to comment, then Syndi-Land is the laid-back exurb where those of us who wish to avoid the stress of the "rat race" can join together and share our more relaxed approach to life in general and puzzle solving in particular. In many respects our little group resembles a retirement community where folks can discuss, critique (but seldom "criticize"), share and compare experiences, views and ideas on any number of topics sometimes even including the puzzle. The one thing we all have in common is that we solve (or try to - a "Did Not Finish" is not considered a failure among our group) the puzzle and come together to discuss it in our own time and at our own pace. The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that reading Rex's write-up and the comments, and participating in the blog community improves our puzzle-solving skills and makes the experience more fun.
The defining characteristic of a Syndie is that each of us solves the puzzle in our local newspaper, using a pen or pencil (or crayon or whatever) to fill in the actual grid published in the paper - we do NOT solve on-line as do most of the other Rexites. Any one of us could subscribe to the NY Times crossword puzzle on line and solve the puzzle on the day it comes out instead of five weeks later; I think that we choose not to do that is the defining characteristic of a Syndi-Lander. Our reasons may vary but the bottom line is the same: we are content where we are.
I'm hopeful that other syndi-lurkers will see the commentary going on among the Syndies and feel compelled to join us. There may even be a "prime-timer" or two who are ready to quit the hectic competition among the early contributors, and they would most certainly be welcomed into our little enclave. "Slow and steady" seems to be a good motto for Syndi-Land - it's how we solve our puzzles and it's how we grow our community.
As I said at the outset, I take no credit for what's happening in Syndi-Land, but I am very proud and glad to be a part of it.
If I can wait five weeks for a puzzle, certainly "Mañana is good enough for me". Here's what you get when you type it as it might appear in a crossword grid:
With the tilde (a word I learned from doing crosswords) in place, you might get this:
P.S. - A former syndi-lander turned prime-timer commented a while back that she sometimes yearned to rejoin the "bird-watching, star-gazing, cold-enduring" folks in syndi-land. I can't think of a better way to describe our little community!
Friday, January 10, 2014
The Peacock Family Tragedy
I live in a small town and because I work in the local hardware store, where almost everyone winds up at one time or another in search of some needed item, I know most of the citizens by face if not by name. So when I see a news account of a local family who has suffered a loss I take interest and wonder how I can help them out.
And so it was when I read of a fire that had destroyed the home of Richard and Diane Peacock - Diane is a regular customer whom I know by both face and name and I knew at once that I wanted to help. Freeport is a caring community that looks out for its own and by the time I learned of the need someone had already established a fund at the local credit union to receive contributions on behalf of the victims, so providing some financial aid was easy. Still, I hoped to do more. And of course Providence intervened to make that possible.
Rick and Diane came into the store while I happened to be working - they had been in previously to purchase a very small item for the home that a neighbor vacationing in Florida had offered for their use until their home could be replaced. As it turns out, they got the wrong part and needed to exchange it and I happily offered to help them.
We found the part they needed without difficulty and they were glad to have it, but as they looked around the store they found several other items that they needed in their new, temporary home (they lost everything in the fire) and by the time we arrived back at the register they had quite an armload of goodies and I allowed as how some special pricing was in order. OK, here comes Providence.
My boss, the new owner of the store, was near the register so I introduced him to the Peacocks and briefly told them their story. By sheer coincidence (for lack of a better term) he had JUST received an email from his wife who had just read a news account of the fire and wanted to do something to help the victims. Call it Karma, kismet, fate or whatever, but Woody (he's the owner) had just learned of the loss from his wife, who was spending the holidays in a far-away state, and now he was standing face-to-face with the victims - needless to say, he was in a very generous mood!
When Rick and Diane left the store they had the right part to replace the one they had purchased earlier, plus the items they added on the way back to the register, plus a few things that Woody felt would be helpful - all free, because the forces of the universe all combined to make such a thing happen. You may call it luck, and maybe that's all it is - I don't have any better explanation for why things worked out that way, but I do have my suspicions. Whatever you call it, I'm glad for the minor role I was able to play in helping, in a small way, some good folks get back on their feet after a tragic loss.
And so it was when I read of a fire that had destroyed the home of Richard and Diane Peacock - Diane is a regular customer whom I know by both face and name and I knew at once that I wanted to help. Freeport is a caring community that looks out for its own and by the time I learned of the need someone had already established a fund at the local credit union to receive contributions on behalf of the victims, so providing some financial aid was easy. Still, I hoped to do more. And of course Providence intervened to make that possible.
Rick and Diane came into the store while I happened to be working - they had been in previously to purchase a very small item for the home that a neighbor vacationing in Florida had offered for their use until their home could be replaced. As it turns out, they got the wrong part and needed to exchange it and I happily offered to help them.
We found the part they needed without difficulty and they were glad to have it, but as they looked around the store they found several other items that they needed in their new, temporary home (they lost everything in the fire) and by the time we arrived back at the register they had quite an armload of goodies and I allowed as how some special pricing was in order. OK, here comes Providence.
My boss, the new owner of the store, was near the register so I introduced him to the Peacocks and briefly told them their story. By sheer coincidence (for lack of a better term) he had JUST received an email from his wife who had just read a news account of the fire and wanted to do something to help the victims. Call it Karma, kismet, fate or whatever, but Woody (he's the owner) had just learned of the loss from his wife, who was spending the holidays in a far-away state, and now he was standing face-to-face with the victims - needless to say, he was in a very generous mood!
When Rick and Diane left the store they had the right part to replace the one they had purchased earlier, plus the items they added on the way back to the register, plus a few things that Woody felt would be helpful - all free, because the forces of the universe all combined to make such a thing happen. You may call it luck, and maybe that's all it is - I don't have any better explanation for why things worked out that way, but I do have my suspicions. Whatever you call it, I'm glad for the minor role I was able to play in helping, in a small way, some good folks get back on their feet after a tragic loss.
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Thanks, Sis - I found the puzzle you left for me!
Every week I do the Premier Crossword by Frank A. Longo, which appears in the local Sunday paper, and then I post an entry about the puzzle and my experience solving it on a blog I have for just that purpose. I enjoy doing this and the process has become an important part of my weekend routine (and we all know how much I love "routine". I do other crosswords as well and for the most part I enjoy sharing the experience with whoever happens to be around to participate, but I really like to do the Longo puzzle as a solitary exercise so I can focus on what I like or don't like about the puzzle and can analyze my own reactions to it without being distracted by anyone else. It's my way of carving out an hour or two of "me time" without outside distraction or influence, and I like it.
Last week, delivery of the paper was delayed by the arrival of a major snow storm - the motor-carrier who delivers my daily paper plus the Sunday Telegram is super efficient but he's not crazy so he wisely chose to delay delivery until the roads had been cleared and made safe by the very excellent Public Works employees who take care of these things during and after a storm. By the time the paper arrived I was already busy clearing my own yard so the puzzle had to wait. It was still undone by the time I retired for the night so I planned to take the puzzle page with me the next morning to work on while I waited for the veterans whom I drove to the VA facility to be ready for the return trip, so no problem.
But, as Robert Burns famously wrote in his poem "To a Mouse, On Turning Up Her Nest With The Plough", "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft a-gley, [often go awry] " (robertburns.org), and my plan did just that. I had not counted on an insomniac house-guest completing the puzzle while I slept but that's just what she did, so I arose in the morning to find a completed grid along with a note proudly announcing that she had completed the puzzle without any help! Good for her, bad for me, but I quickly developed a "plan B".
The route I take in the van takes me right past a local convenience store and I surmised that, due to the storm, they might very well have Sunday papers left over when I went by early Monday morning - I would simply pick one up, chuck the rest of the paper which I had already read, and do the puzzle while I waited at Togus. Genius! So here's where things get weird.
I went directly to the paper rack in the store only to discover that there were no Sunday papers left - I was disappointed but it wasn't the end of the world so I started to leave when I spotted a single paper on top of the ice-cream freezer near the from door, obviously left there just for me! I picked up my trophy and took it to the cashier who very helpfully pointed out that it was "yesterday's paper" but I assured her it was just what I wanted and she happily took my money, saying that I had saved her the trouble of throwing the paper out, which somebody was supposed to have done before her shift began just a little earlier. So I got a paper that wasn't even supposed to be there to begin with, but that's just lucky! Then things got even more weird.
The paper had the appearance of having been read and put back together, which didn't bother me because I just wanted the puzzle section anyway. But when I finally had a chance to search for that section I couldn't find it - of all the sections and inserts in the paper it looked like the section that contained the puzzle was missing! Panic started to set in. But I'm a determined individual not given to quitting easily so I started to go through the entire paper piece by piece in search of Section G, where the puzzle resides. That's when the situation went from weird to just plain spooky.
In the center of the paper, amid all the ads and inserts that abound during the holiday shopping season, I spotted a torn page kind of crumpled up and jammed down into the crease of the center fold - it looked more like a scrap than anything useful but I pulled it out anyway. It was the top half of a single newspaper sheet which had been torn roughly in two, probably by some mechanical processing error, and as I extracted it and uncrumpled it I discover that I had found the Premier Crossword with the whole grid and all of the clues intact. With a little more careful unfolding and application of some Scotch tape to hold the whole thing together, I had my puzzle!
I've written in this space before that I truly believe there are forces which we do not understand at work in this universe and that not everything that happens can be chalked up to random chance, pure luck, fate, or whatever you call it when something entirely unexpected happens like that. I could be wrong but I don't think it was pure accident that placed that one vital piece of a destroyed section in my paper. Or maybe it was - I don't expect to ever know the answer in this lifetime but if I learn the answer in whatever comes next, I'll try to let you know.
Until I get an answer, if I ever do, whenever something unexpected and good like that happens I like to think of my departed parents and sister and wonder if just maybe one or all of them is still keeping an eye on things back here and helping whenever they can. Probably not, but I still take comfort in the thought - because, really, I need all the help I can get.
Speaking of angels (which I was, without using the word) here's a seasonal song on the topic which enjoyed and I hope you do, too:
Last week, delivery of the paper was delayed by the arrival of a major snow storm - the motor-carrier who delivers my daily paper plus the Sunday Telegram is super efficient but he's not crazy so he wisely chose to delay delivery until the roads had been cleared and made safe by the very excellent Public Works employees who take care of these things during and after a storm. By the time the paper arrived I was already busy clearing my own yard so the puzzle had to wait. It was still undone by the time I retired for the night so I planned to take the puzzle page with me the next morning to work on while I waited for the veterans whom I drove to the VA facility to be ready for the return trip, so no problem.
But, as Robert Burns famously wrote in his poem "To a Mouse, On Turning Up Her Nest With The Plough", "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft a-gley, [often go awry] " (robertburns.org), and my plan did just that. I had not counted on an insomniac house-guest completing the puzzle while I slept but that's just what she did, so I arose in the morning to find a completed grid along with a note proudly announcing that she had completed the puzzle without any help! Good for her, bad for me, but I quickly developed a "plan B".
The route I take in the van takes me right past a local convenience store and I surmised that, due to the storm, they might very well have Sunday papers left over when I went by early Monday morning - I would simply pick one up, chuck the rest of the paper which I had already read, and do the puzzle while I waited at Togus. Genius! So here's where things get weird.
I went directly to the paper rack in the store only to discover that there were no Sunday papers left - I was disappointed but it wasn't the end of the world so I started to leave when I spotted a single paper on top of the ice-cream freezer near the from door, obviously left there just for me! I picked up my trophy and took it to the cashier who very helpfully pointed out that it was "yesterday's paper" but I assured her it was just what I wanted and she happily took my money, saying that I had saved her the trouble of throwing the paper out, which somebody was supposed to have done before her shift began just a little earlier. So I got a paper that wasn't even supposed to be there to begin with, but that's just lucky! Then things got even more weird.
The paper had the appearance of having been read and put back together, which didn't bother me because I just wanted the puzzle section anyway. But when I finally had a chance to search for that section I couldn't find it - of all the sections and inserts in the paper it looked like the section that contained the puzzle was missing! Panic started to set in. But I'm a determined individual not given to quitting easily so I started to go through the entire paper piece by piece in search of Section G, where the puzzle resides. That's when the situation went from weird to just plain spooky.
In the center of the paper, amid all the ads and inserts that abound during the holiday shopping season, I spotted a torn page kind of crumpled up and jammed down into the crease of the center fold - it looked more like a scrap than anything useful but I pulled it out anyway. It was the top half of a single newspaper sheet which had been torn roughly in two, probably by some mechanical processing error, and as I extracted it and uncrumpled it I discover that I had found the Premier Crossword with the whole grid and all of the clues intact. With a little more careful unfolding and application of some Scotch tape to hold the whole thing together, I had my puzzle!
Until I get an answer, if I ever do, whenever something unexpected and good like that happens I like to think of my departed parents and sister and wonder if just maybe one or all of them is still keeping an eye on things back here and helping whenever they can. Probably not, but I still take comfort in the thought - because, really, I need all the help I can get.
Speaking of angels (which I was, without using the word) here's a seasonal song on the topic which enjoyed and I hope you do, too:
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Wicked Woman*
Today's (syndicated) New York Times crossword puzzle included the following clue: 45 & 46 (Down) - Quite bad; the corresponding answers were PRETTY AWFUL. This entry generated some commentary from the regular contributors to a blog devoted to the puzzle, including this from @Z: "PRETTY AWFUL is an interesting construction to consider (how did 'pretty' become
a word that adds emphasis? 'Awful' as in god-like or as in terrible? Maybe Hera
would be the embodiment of PRETTY AWFUL? It's just kind of weird)."
All of which started me to thinking about emphatic words and phrases that I use or hear regularly but which might strike anyone "from away" as weird or non-sensical. So in the interest of helping visitors to Maine understand the level of emphasis imparted by figures of speech which locals may use when describing something, here is a primer of terms that may be employed to specify the degree of a particular description:
- "Pretty" may indicate a higher or lower level of degree depending on the context. Something said to be "pretty good" is OK but not up to the highest standards, and something that's "pretty bad" is worse than just bad. "It's pretty cold out" probably means the weather is not too severe, whereas "It's pretty cold out there, I'll tell ya" indicates more extreme conditions.
- "Plenty" on the other hand is unequivocally higher in degree. "It's plenty cold out there" means it's not just cold, it's really cold. Go outside only if you have to.
- "Some" or "some-ol'" also indicate a higher degree of intensity, so "It's some friggin' cold out" and "It's some-ol' friggin' cold there, Mr. man" both mean you should probably stay inside under any circumstances. "She's some pretty" and "She's some-ol' pretty" are both high compliments to the lady in question. But if her cooking is "some awful" or "some-ol' awful" you should make reservations at a good restaurant.
- "Awful" raises the level of intensity to a whole new level - "I'm sorry" may be a sincere apology but "Hey, I'm awful sorry" conveys real regret. "She's an awful good-lookin' woman" means she's drop-dead gorgeous, and "I didn't pay an awful lot for it" means it was pretty cheap.
- "Wicked" is the superlative of modifiers. When none of the others quite convey the extreme condition you wish to impart "wicked" is the word you want. "It's wicked cold out there" means don't even think about going outside. Anything that's "big" is exponentially larger if it's "wicked big", and so on. anytime you're looking for the right word to express something in superlative terms, good or bad, "wicked" is the way to go. Here are a couple of guys who totally get the usefulness of the term and have put it to good use to ensure highway safety:
All of the above terms can be used to great effect in conjunction with the word "massive", but that's a topic for another post.
So "pretty awful" might mean quite bad but "awful pretty" is a whole other story - funny how that works, isn't it?
*
-
All of which started me to thinking about emphatic words and phrases that I use or hear regularly but which might strike anyone "from away" as weird or non-sensical. So in the interest of helping visitors to Maine understand the level of emphasis imparted by figures of speech which locals may use when describing something, here is a primer of terms that may be employed to specify the degree of a particular description:
- "Pretty" may indicate a higher or lower level of degree depending on the context. Something said to be "pretty good" is OK but not up to the highest standards, and something that's "pretty bad" is worse than just bad. "It's pretty cold out" probably means the weather is not too severe, whereas "It's pretty cold out there, I'll tell ya" indicates more extreme conditions.
- "Plenty" on the other hand is unequivocally higher in degree. "It's plenty cold out there" means it's not just cold, it's really cold. Go outside only if you have to.
- "Some" or "some-ol'" also indicate a higher degree of intensity, so "It's some friggin' cold out" and "It's some-ol' friggin' cold there, Mr. man" both mean you should probably stay inside under any circumstances. "She's some pretty" and "She's some-ol' pretty" are both high compliments to the lady in question. But if her cooking is "some awful" or "some-ol' awful" you should make reservations at a good restaurant.
- "Awful" raises the level of intensity to a whole new level - "I'm sorry" may be a sincere apology but "Hey, I'm awful sorry" conveys real regret. "She's an awful good-lookin' woman" means she's drop-dead gorgeous, and "I didn't pay an awful lot for it" means it was pretty cheap.
- "Wicked" is the superlative of modifiers. When none of the others quite convey the extreme condition you wish to impart "wicked" is the word you want. "It's wicked cold out there" means don't even think about going outside. Anything that's "big" is exponentially larger if it's "wicked big", and so on. anytime you're looking for the right word to express something in superlative terms, good or bad, "wicked" is the way to go. Here are a couple of guys who totally get the usefulness of the term and have put it to good use to ensure highway safety:
All of the above terms can be used to great effect in conjunction with the word "massive", but that's a topic for another post.
So "pretty awful" might mean quite bad but "awful pretty" is a whole other story - funny how that works, isn't it?
*
-
Friday, November 22, 2013
Cutting the Cord
It's been almost three years since I announced in this space that I was considering dumping the cable company (http://dirigonzo.blogspot.com/2011/02/im-considering-dumping-my-cable-company.html )and last week I finally did it. As with the last time, it was a confluence of events that precipitated the need for a change: another hard-to-resist offer from Fairpoint DSL service (this time with prices that get even LOWER over time) arrived just in advance of a package from my cable company, which contained a device required to receive the now encrypted signal for all channels.
I never watch TV anymore but I occasionally have guests who like to watch a ball game or tune in the local news so I had no problem shelling out a few bucks a month for the basic cable package. However, when I discovered that I apparently didn't even have that anymore since I had not installed the requisite decoder, I said, "enough is enough". The time to cut the cord was at hand.
I called Fairpoint to get the particulars of installing their DSL service for my Internet connection and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they would send me the necessary modem, which I could install myself after they had done the necessary technical work on their end - no service call was required. I was even more pleasantly surprised when the very helpful young woman suggested that I could save money on my phone service by switching to another plan, with the overall net effect being that I would pay for phone service and Internet combined about the same as I had been paying for phone service alone - OK, we have a deal!
The equipment arrived as promised and, after a slight delay due to an incomplete installation on their part, my new high-speed Internet service was up and running. I played with it for a couple of days to be sure everything was operating as advertised, and then I boxed up my old Comcast modem and the brand-new decoder they had just sent to me and took the whole kit and caboodle to their local office to cancel my service. I have to say that process was surprisingly easy and efficient - the lone customer-service rep on duty apparently had a lot of experience in these matters because while I was there she dealt with a steady stream of customers who came in with equipment to return.
On the way home from cancelling my cable service I stopped at the local mall to check out the selection of antennas designed to receive over-the-air HDTV signal and after a few minutes of shopping I came away with an indoor model that promised clear reception of all channels within 50 miles, for under forty bucks. When I got home and hooked it up I was once again pleasantly surprised to discover that it brought in a total of 15 channels, which is probably more than I had with cable.
So to recap: my $70 per month cable bill is history; my phone bill is pretty much unchanged at $50+ but now I get Internet as well as phone service; and all my local TV stations are free after a one-time investment of $40 or so. Why didn't I do this years ago, I wonder?
I love to end these posts with an appropriate video so I googled "cutting the cord" and here's what I got back - enjoy!:
I never watch TV anymore but I occasionally have guests who like to watch a ball game or tune in the local news so I had no problem shelling out a few bucks a month for the basic cable package. However, when I discovered that I apparently didn't even have that anymore since I had not installed the requisite decoder, I said, "enough is enough". The time to cut the cord was at hand.
I called Fairpoint to get the particulars of installing their DSL service for my Internet connection and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they would send me the necessary modem, which I could install myself after they had done the necessary technical work on their end - no service call was required. I was even more pleasantly surprised when the very helpful young woman suggested that I could save money on my phone service by switching to another plan, with the overall net effect being that I would pay for phone service and Internet combined about the same as I had been paying for phone service alone - OK, we have a deal!
The equipment arrived as promised and, after a slight delay due to an incomplete installation on their part, my new high-speed Internet service was up and running. I played with it for a couple of days to be sure everything was operating as advertised, and then I boxed up my old Comcast modem and the brand-new decoder they had just sent to me and took the whole kit and caboodle to their local office to cancel my service. I have to say that process was surprisingly easy and efficient - the lone customer-service rep on duty apparently had a lot of experience in these matters because while I was there she dealt with a steady stream of customers who came in with equipment to return.
On the way home from cancelling my cable service I stopped at the local mall to check out the selection of antennas designed to receive over-the-air HDTV signal and after a few minutes of shopping I came away with an indoor model that promised clear reception of all channels within 50 miles, for under forty bucks. When I got home and hooked it up I was once again pleasantly surprised to discover that it brought in a total of 15 channels, which is probably more than I had with cable.
So to recap: my $70 per month cable bill is history; my phone bill is pretty much unchanged at $50+ but now I get Internet as well as phone service; and all my local TV stations are free after a one-time investment of $40 or so. Why didn't I do this years ago, I wonder?
I love to end these posts with an appropriate video so I googled "cutting the cord" and here's what I got back - enjoy!:
Monday, October 14, 2013
Some thoughts on having a swimming pool
Many years ago when the boys were little putting in a pool seemed like a good idea for all the reasons you can imagine, and so we put one in the back yard. We chose a Gibraltar Pool which is an above-ground model with a 16' x 24' swim area, a large deck on the end for sun-bathing and there's a 4' high railing around the whole thing. It's a nice looking unit and it's low-maintenance so I have to say over the years I have been very happy with it. Now that the boys have grown up I pretty much have the pool to myself so it has gone from being a recreation place for the neighborhood kids to a place where I can sun-bathe in the nude and skinny-dip to cool off, which is pretty much the extent of my summer recreation lately.
This year I was incredibly late getting the pool opened up and ready for use. There are several reasons for this, not the least of which is that by the time I went out to pull the winter cover off I discovered a whole eco-system of critters living in the water on top of the cover. Since the surface of the pool is four feet above ground level I wondered how a bunch of frogs and tadpoles came to be up there, but that mystery was cleared up when my younger son, who was home for the summer, remembered that he had found a frog while he was mowing the lawn and he had put it up on the pool to keep him safe while he mowed. How that one frog turned into a whole friggin' community is still not known but the fact remained that I had to do something about the whole population before I could open the pool.
Well, long story short, a woman who comes into the hardware store occasionally remarked that she was building a frog pond in her back yard and I, knowing a golden opportunity when I see one, asked if she would be interested in the tadpoles inhabiting my pool - she was, and the deal was made. I would transfer the critters into a pail and she would come pick them up to take to her frog-pond. This is what we call a win/win situation, and after not too much longer I assigned the task of gathering the little swimmers up and getting them into a pail to my son and he did a pretty thorough job of scooping them out and transferring them to their container to travel to their new home.
It was mid-summer by the time all this transpired and by the time I got the cover off the pool and got the water cleared up through repeated applications of shock treatment it was later yet. I did get to sit on the deck several times but I think I actually went in the water only once, so I guess I have to ask myself if it was really worth the effort because now it's time to close the pool again and put the cover back on for the winter. But yeah, it was worth it and I'll just have to get an early start in the Spring to extend the season next year - I just hope I don't have to cope with any more vernal pool fauna. I wouldn't want the Department of Environmental Protection to designate the pool as a "natural habitat" subject to regulation - then I'd never be able to use the pool again!
It's a sunny day and still pretty warm - maybe I'll just go sit on the pool deck and think about it for a while longer. I can always close it tomorrow.
(Here's the note Martha, the tadpoles' new mom, left in the pail when she brought it back:)
And here's a song that seems strangely appropriate to the situation:
This year I was incredibly late getting the pool opened up and ready for use. There are several reasons for this, not the least of which is that by the time I went out to pull the winter cover off I discovered a whole eco-system of critters living in the water on top of the cover. Since the surface of the pool is four feet above ground level I wondered how a bunch of frogs and tadpoles came to be up there, but that mystery was cleared up when my younger son, who was home for the summer, remembered that he had found a frog while he was mowing the lawn and he had put it up on the pool to keep him safe while he mowed. How that one frog turned into a whole friggin' community is still not known but the fact remained that I had to do something about the whole population before I could open the pool.
Well, long story short, a woman who comes into the hardware store occasionally remarked that she was building a frog pond in her back yard and I, knowing a golden opportunity when I see one, asked if she would be interested in the tadpoles inhabiting my pool - she was, and the deal was made. I would transfer the critters into a pail and she would come pick them up to take to her frog-pond. This is what we call a win/win situation, and after not too much longer I assigned the task of gathering the little swimmers up and getting them into a pail to my son and he did a pretty thorough job of scooping them out and transferring them to their container to travel to their new home.
It was mid-summer by the time all this transpired and by the time I got the cover off the pool and got the water cleared up through repeated applications of shock treatment it was later yet. I did get to sit on the deck several times but I think I actually went in the water only once, so I guess I have to ask myself if it was really worth the effort because now it's time to close the pool again and put the cover back on for the winter. But yeah, it was worth it and I'll just have to get an early start in the Spring to extend the season next year - I just hope I don't have to cope with any more vernal pool fauna. I wouldn't want the Department of Environmental Protection to designate the pool as a "natural habitat" subject to regulation - then I'd never be able to use the pool again!
It's a sunny day and still pretty warm - maybe I'll just go sit on the pool deck and think about it for a while longer. I can always close it tomorrow.
(Here's the note Martha, the tadpoles' new mom, left in the pail when she brought it back:)
And here's a song that seems strangely appropriate to the situation:
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