Category Archives: American dysfuntion

Let’s Hear It for the Working Class

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[I’ve tried to refrain from politics on this blog. For the most part, I’ve stayed true to that end. However, sometimes something occurs that makes it impossible to remain silent. In fact, I’ve had to hold my tongue over and over since Paul LePage was elected governor. Yesterday was the final straw for me, when the governor made a comment so crude and offensive, and well beyond the pale of civil discourse, while attacking another elected official that I decided I had to weigh-in on the matter.–jb]

Standing with Troy Jackson, a logger, and a champion for Maine's working class.

Standing with Troy Jackson, a logger, and a champion for Maine’s working class.

I don’t know Troy Jackson personally. I had the good fortune to meet his son back in March, a young man who left the region and state like many of Maine’s best and brightest, but realized at some point that he had Aroostook County in his blood and came back to see what he might do to turn the tide and make a difference in rural Maine. I’m guessing the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree. Continue reading →

Convenient for Whom?

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7-Eleven--feeding our dysfunction.

7-Eleven–feeding our dysfunction.

There was an old advertising campaign for the 7-Eleven stores that had the tagline, “thank heaven for Seven-Eleven.” It was prominent during the 1980s, I think.

7-Eleven is one of a plethora of convenience store chains dotting the American landscape. Coffee and convenience foods are an American birthright, and stores like 7-Eleven keep our addictions sated, and employ a segment of the American workforce that lack skills and other intangibles. Continue reading →

Writing From Another Time

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Norman Mailer was a literary icon whose influence as a writer spanned more than five decades following WWII. The decades where his writing wielded the most influence were arguably the 1960s, 1970s, and even into the 1980s.

Harvard educated, Mailer wrote fiction, nonfiction, essays, and even plays. He was one of the founding members of the The Village Voice. At times, especially early in his life, he was known as much for his machismo as he was for his politics and Pulitzers. Continue reading →

Careful What You Say, But Think What You Want

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It’s ok to hold contrary views and opinions, except when it’s not. Actually, we live in a fairly buttoned-up time when it comes to tolerating alternative narratives about politics, economics, work, family relations, etc. If you don’t think so, try going against the grain once in a while.

I know only too well that “thinking outside the box” basically gets you left out in the cold, and marginalized. Or, you get the “whispers behind your back” treatment. No one really wants the actual moving out of the box, or new ways of doing things; they just like talking about it. Continue reading →

The Need for Distance and Space

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When an event occurs, like it did today at the tail-end of the Boston Marathon, there’s a tendency to react. Given that many of us are connected via smartphones and social media platforms, news spreads like a wildfire in a windstorm. Continue reading →

Dusting up over WalMart

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Apparently last week, there was a major dust-up online between two seemingly disparate forces and writers. Gary North (more to come further down the page) took issue with James Howard Kunstler, peak oil iconoclast, anti-WalMart crusader, and writer. I respect Kunstler, I’ve read his books, and I even reviewed his latest book in January. That’s not to say that I hang on every word of Kunstler’s because I don’t. Continue reading →

Cracker Barrel Is Actually Quite Hokey (in my opinion)

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Hokey, Cracker Barrel-style.

Hokey, Cracker Barrel-style.

When I saw the following tweet yesterday afternoon in my Twitter feed from The Atlantic about Cracker Barrel, I was incredulous;

The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic). ” Why Cracker Barrel Isn’t as Hokey as You Think.” 2 March 2013, 4:30 p.m. Tweet.

My first thought was that things have gotten so bad for long-form narrative journalism that The Atlantic had decided to try to siphon off readers from The Onion. Then I clicked on the article link and realized that the writer, Emily Chertoff, was serious as a heart attack about extolling the virtues of Cracker Barrel, or as I now call it (based on my own experience that I’ll detail below), “a Crack in my Ass.” Continue reading →

Milk problems

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Kirk Kardashian's book on the demise of family-owned dairy.

Kirk Kardashian’s book on the demise of family-owned dairy.

Milk is the staple food that every American is most familiar with. It’s as American as mothers and apple pie. As babies, it was our first food.

Growing up, most of us that are of a certain age remember being told, “finish your milk,” and that “milk grows strong bones.” That advice most likely came courtesy of milk’s lobbying group, the American Dairy Association, but it was also echoed by parents, doctors, and even our teachers. Continue reading →

Baby, it’s cold outside!

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Hovering slightly below 0 (Fahrenheit)

Hovering slightly below 0 (Fahrenheit)

We are in the midst of a good old-fashioned cold snap, common to those of us native to northern regions. January has always been the coldest month.

Oddly, the cold is now big news, at least if you watch local affiliate news. It’s part of my morning 5 AM routine that I can’t seem to shake. WMTW-8 sticks their second-string weatherizer out in some live location where this pale and shivering meteorologist tells us that “it’s cold outside.” Yes it is. Continue reading →

Blue Mondays, Peace Pilgrims, and three day resolutions

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I wanted to cover this yesterday, given that it was actually Blue Monday. But since it was Inauguration Day and even a national holiday, I decided to save it for Self-Help Tuesday, today.

Apparently Blue Monday is the most depressing day of the year. Actually, until last week, I’d never heard of it.  Someone I was talking to mentioned the term and when I asked her what “Blue Monday” was she said, “It’s the day when most people bail on their New Year’s resolutions.” Continue reading →