Red and Blue 2008

Final Figures

For you political junkies, here's a graphic showing how each county in the nation voted in the 2008 Presidential election. Notice how in New England only one county up in Maine voted for McCain. The Republican Party is indeed in sad shape in our region of the country. 

Farewell Poem

Here's a great poem by the recently departed Massachusetts writer John Updike about getting too old to die young.

It came to me the other day:

Were I to die, no one would say,

‘Oh, what a shame! So young, so full

Of promise - depths unplumbable!

Instead, a shrug and tearless eyes

Will greet my overdue demise;

The wide response will be, I know,

‘I thought he died a while ago.’

For life’s a shabby subterfuge,

And death is real, and dark, and huge.

The shock of it will register

Nowhere but where it will occur. 

 

(From Endpoint, a new collection of Updike poems to be published by Knopf in September ‘09)

In Danger

People in Northampton are concerned because the gay store is for sale. Shops of that type don't always find a buyer. 

Then again, if a store like that can't prosper in Northampton, where can it?

Missing Animals

I went over to the farm at Hampshire College to check out the animals. However when I got there not a creature was to be found anywhere with not even any footprints in the snow. Wonder where they went to?

I decided to walk a little ways up to the Hampshire College sugar shack, perhaps to purchase some of their delicious Pioneer Valley maple syrup. But alas, they were closed.

Some days you just can't win for trying. 

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More Endless Winter

You know we've had enough of winter when you see this:

It snowed again today, not much but enough to dust the frog statue over the container in front of Hamp's First Church where you give money to the poor.

I was surprised to hear an advocate for the poor criticize that statue because the frog seems to be happily relaxing, giving the impression that the poor are just lazily waiting for a handout.

Today in Amherst I ran into Local Buzzer Greg Saulmon.

He was at UMass to cover the rally on behalf of Jason Vassell, who was arrested a year ago over a fight that some say had racist overtones. I don't really know what to make of the case. While Vassell hardly seems the purely innocent victim his defenders claim he is, there also seem to be legitiment questions about how he's being prosecuted. To check out Greg's coverage click here. 

Today's Video

I like this clip of Marines doing the Cha Cha Slide in Iraq.