Mike's Musings

Saturday, August 12, 2006

A New Blog From The News Journal

There is another new blog on the News Journal web site. Dialogue Delaware says it will present "inklings and oddments on the Delaware Way."

It looks to me like a collection of minor "reporter's notebook" items. I wonder who the author is. Is it set up to allow any of the paper's reporters to post?

I'd like to see attribution on these posts.

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Thursday, August 10, 2006

Molly Knows How to Avoid Heat Waves

I've just noticed that my old friend and fellow Lewes resident Molly Murray has joined the blogging ranks at the News Journal.

Molly is headed to Alaska on a journalism fellowship and plans to write about her travels in a new bog, North to Alaska, as well as (I assume) in the News Journal.

I first met Molly when I was making the switch from DJ/announcer to radio news guy back in the late 1980s. I got to know her while we were both covering Sussex County Council. She represented true journalism for me, and set an example for me to try to live up to.

Molly is a nice person. I'm happy she gets a chance to go to Alaska and learn new things. I'm also very jealous.

Update (8/11/06, 6:47 a.m.): There are details on Molly's Alaskan plans in this morning's News Journal. She's headed for Alaska today and will spend a bit more than a week up north, posting to her blog each day.

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Yup. I've Felt Like This

I found this image on Flickr today. I don't know if this was intended to slam Microsoft or Apple. I don't care.

I'm really sick of these Mac ads. I know the intent is to make PCs out as stodgy and old and un-cool. I get that.

But these ads also make me think of Macs as patronizing, self-righteous jerks.

I have a similar reaction to those Geico ads that feature the insulted cavemen. All I can think of when I see the ad in which the Geico pitch-man has to take the caveguys out to lunch to apologize is what a prissy, petty, ungracious creep that one caveman is.

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Oh Dear

I guess I should have thought more carefully the other day before posting my slightly self-righteous take on the recent visit of Girls Gone Wild to Dewey Beach.

I was reacting to an early version of the story from the News Journal's web site. I started having doubts when I read the full version the next morning and now that I have read Ryan Cormier's take on the story and Mike M's on Down with Absolutes, I'm having even more.

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Wednesday, August 9, 2006

Imagine My Surprise

I just finished a novel that is set, in part, in my home town, only in the late 1800s.

I had not realized that it would be set here in Lewes when I pulled Tunnell's Boys off the library shelf. I just did what I always do, I wandered along the New Books shelf and, judging them entirely by their covers, picked two to bring home and read. That approach usually works just fine.

Tunnell's Boys is a historical novel by Tony Junker, a Philadelphia architect and sailor. It tells the story of two young men who meet as apprentice Delaware River and Bay Pilots. It is set partly in Philadelphia, partly in Lewes, and partly on the Delaware River and Bay and on the Atlantic Ocean.

The sail and steam-powered boating in the book is very well told. Mr. Junker knows his boats and the moods of deep and shallow waters. It works just fine as a sea-going adventure.

Thematically, this book is about war and responsibility and the duties of men and women in the world. Mr. Junker is a Quaker, and uses his story to examine some of the larger issues of life from the perspective of Quaker practice. The story turns on the US war with Spain over Cuba. It holds some parallels for our foreign policy predicament of today.

What fascinated me, though, was to read a novel set in Lewes, Delaware. I don't know our history quite well enough to know how much license Mr. Junker may have taken, but I know enough to say that he has painted a plausible past for the First Town.

Much of the action takes place on the waters of the Bay. The characters live and work on a schooner that anchors behind the breakwater off Lewes. They discuss the need for a second breakwater, to expand the anchorage. This would be built eventually. The old Cape Henlopen Lighthouse is there on the dunes, but a major storm erodes away the sand at the base, and characters worry that it may soon slide away. I recognized street names and places. It felt right; it felt like Lewes in the days of sail.

I do wonder about Mr. Junker's addition of a brothel, run and staffed by Cuban emigres, to 19th-century Lewes. I am not sure whether that might be accurate or not, and I'm not sure who to ask. Should I go up to one of the elderly ladies of the Lewes Historical Society and ask? I suppose they might surprise me.

I also found myself thinking of local "coastal conservative" Jud Bennett as I read this book. Jud is now working his way up in politics, and blogging. But he was once a Delaware River and Bay Pilot. I could see Jud, a big guy, bushy-bearded and commanding, climbing onto the deck of a three-masted ship and piloting her up from Lewes the Philadelphia.

In fact, I used Jud's face in my internal movie for one of the characters in the book.

I had thought to read another sea-story, fun and salty but nothing special. Instead, I found a sort of history machine, taking me back in my town's time.

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Tuesday, August 8, 2006

Questions I Ask Myself on Reading Some of the Latest Delaware Headlines

I took a peek at some of the stories that the News Journal is working up for the news on Wednesday. A couple of questions come to my mind.

Didn't we see this coming? Bobby Jacobs now faces forgery and theft charges related to his management of the Slam Dunk to the Beach basket ball tournament. Also, what took so long? And where is Bobby? (Print version, from 8/9/06)

Where do they get the seasonal cops for Dewey Beach? Two off-duty Dewey summer police officers are under investigation for allegedly drinking with an under-age woman on the Girls Gone Wild tour bus recently. Also, why has it taken so long for Girls Gone Wild to roll into Dewey? Oh, and, on a personal note: ew.

Update (8/9/06: 06:49 a.m.): The more complete, print version this morning, suggests that there may be more, or less, here than first suggested.

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Sometimes Life Really is Just Like a Game, Played With Real Money

I've walked and driven past this sign at least once a week for years. It always struck me as odd, but I never really looked closely at it to figured out why.

Until this noon. Walking back from 33 West with a Caesar Salad, I paused to take a closer look.

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sign
dover

Monday, August 7, 2006

Sunday, August 6, 2006

Ninth Golf Game of 2006

Andy Southmayd and I played a round at The Rookery this afternoon. It was hot. Very hot.

The Rookery is a great course. It is wide open, in places, with a variety of challenges, lots of water, and strategically placed trees.

I played like, well, crap. I have a pull, a knot, a strain, or something in my left shoulder. My range of motion is affected, though I thought I'd be able to swing without too much trouble. Not so much.

Either I was topping the ball, which I thought I had cured, or I was hitting weak shots with odd, counter-productive spin. I think I was unconsciously correcting, over-correcting, for my shoulder.

Several shots were not bad, but it was not a memorable round. At least not for any good reason.

Actually, that's not entirely true. I did sink some long putts that I would be crowing about if it weren't for the fact that the best, longest putts I sank were all in the service of horrendous, blow-up hole scores.

"Woo-hoo! Great putt! Way to read that green! What'd you get?"

"An eight."

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golf
2006

Saturday, August 5, 2006

A Symphony Orchestra Concert at Lewes

We celebrated our hometown's history yesterday evening at a concert by the Delaware Symphony Orchestra at the College of Marine Studies' Virden Center, here in Lewes.

The concert was part of a year-long celebration of the 375th anniversary of our town, which began in 1631 when a group of (Dutch) Europeans attempted to set-up a trading post that they called Zwaanendael.

From that small, and ultimately futile beginning (the settlers failed to get along well with the established population and were eventually attacked and destroyed), flow almost four centuries of history. Based on that settlement, we lay claim to being the First Town in the First State. It all started here (You're welcome).

We used to have a symphony concert in Lewes every summer. For some years the concert was part of a larger Summer Arts Festival which included some great acts. One year, before the girls were born, we got to see the folk-singer Odetta.

A feature of the festival each year was a pops concert by the Delaware Symphony. It always ended with a rendition of the 1812 Overture, performed with a battery of historic iron cannon blasting away in the finale. If you have never heard the 1812 Overture with real cannon, you are missing a wonderful musical experience.

I still remember the first time we attended the concert. It was held at that time at Cape Henlopen State Park and as the show started, a thick fog rolled in from the Atlantic. By the time the cannon were fired, we could no longer see the orchestra. The cannons' muzzle-flashes lit the fog all around us. It was like being inside the thunder-head cloud during a major thunderstorm.

This weekend's concert was in a large field alongside the Virden Center. We all brought lawn chairs and blankets. Many people enjoyed picnic dinners and gatherings of friends and family.

Karen and I packed a light supper of pita and hummus with carrots and zucchini. We sat and chatted with Andy and Lynn, who joined us for the show, and then sat back to enjoy the music.

The evening was fine. The week's heavy heat and humidity finally broke with an evening breeze, clear skies, and a hint of thunderstorms on the northern horizon. It was perfect evening to put your feet up and listen to the music.

The Delaware Symphony has new leadership since the days when they used to come down for a concert each summer. The program was still "Pops," but I think it was a more adventurous set than had been the case in the past. They started with Fanfare for the Common Man, which Karen and I both love, and continued with a set of variations on America by Charles Ives. Ives was one of America's first great composers and his approach to music -- standing it on its head, warping, twisting and resculpting familiar tunes -- appeals to my musical tastes.

There were also Sousa marches, but they threw in a Sousa dance number, described by the conductor as a "Victorian Tango." That's an interesting notion, isn't it?

The 1812 Overture was well-played, even without the cannons, and they finished with a traditional Stars and Stripes Forever, guest-conducted by the Delaware Secretary of State, whose budget helped support the event.

After a brief pause to let the sun settle, there was a fine fireworks finale. A good time was had by all.

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Wednesday, August 2, 2006

Welcome to the Blogosphere, Miss Nancy!

Nancy Willing, often a blog commenter, is the newest to join the ranks of the Delaware bloggers.

Nancy has launched The Delaware Way.

She has been a consistent commenter on this and other blogs. She takes a dim view of the incumbent office-holders.

The Delaware Way is how our politicians use the system for their own personal gain. Let's turn the tables and game them for once.

I would say "welcome to the fray," but Nancy has been here a while. Now she has her own bit of Blog-Estate... Blog-Turf... Blurf?

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Tuesday, August 1, 2006

Flower Surprise

This is Lily that is growing in my side garden. It's somewhat squeezed between a huge Butterfly Bush and a mass of Four O'Clocks.

Early in June, I thinned the Four O'Clocks back from this plant and was rewarded with several pretty flowers when we returned from up north.

I took a macro-setting close-up the other day. I cropped in close and adjusted a few brightness and contrast settings.

I like the result.

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Monday, July 31, 2006

Seventh and Eighth Golf Games of 2006

Andy Southmayd and I were able to get out for two rounds of golf while we and our families were in Vermont.

North Country Golf Club
Early in the week, we headed across the islands at the top of Lake Champlain to Rouse'’s Point, New York, for 18 holes at the North Country Golf Club. We've played here each of the last several summers. We meet Andy's old friend and former Milton neighbor Rich, who vacations about the same time each year, just a bit farther south on Lake Champlain.

The North Country Golf Club is close to the Canadian border and seems to have members from both sides. One of my favorite hats is a North Country cap I bought a few years ago. It has crossed US and Canadian flags. Often, out on the course, we meet up with folks whose cursing (it is golf, after all) is in French.

About a week before we played, the club had hosted the Labatt's Invitational. In chatting with the bartender after our round, we heard that the Labatt's tournament, and for that matter, the Bud Light Tournament, always fill up quite quickly. I think we were told that the Labatt's featured 200 golfers and 400 cases of beer. Or something like that.

I had a few pars and was hitting some shots just they way they are meant to be hit. But I was still having a few "blow-up" holes. There was rain in the area, and our round wasn't completely dry, but we got in all 18 holes.

Alburg Golf Links
Late in the week, we set up a foursome from among Tyler Place guests and planned to play Bakersfield Country Club, a mountainside course in far northern Vermont that I love. But Bakersfield was going to have a tournament that day, so we made a visit instead to Alburg Golf Links, on one of the Champlain Islands.

Andy and I had played a Tyler Place Golf Scramble at Alburg five or six years back. It has since changed hands and I think has improved. We were joined on this occasion by Tim, with whom we'd played before, and Bob, a new friend on his first visit to the Tyler Place.

It was raining determinedly as we left Highgate Springs that morning; it often rains when I want to play golf in Vermont. I don't think any of us were convinced that we'd get many holes in, but as we came around a bend in the road and to the entrance to the course, the skies brightened and the rains stopped. We were able to play all 18.

Alburg looks like a wide-open course; it has sweeping views of Lake Champlain and a variety of elevations. It is a links-style course in some places and a mountain-meadow style in others. All holes feature an impenetrable rough. There is water, but most balls are lost in 10-inch grass.

I started out well, with good drives and a decent short game on the first few holes. I was going along swimmingly until Andy helpfully pointed out how often the universe acts to humble you when you start out a round so well. Sure enough, the third hole was a disastrous blow-up. After at, I had some good holes and some awful holes.

It was all quite fun, though a few holes on the back nine featured an astonishing number of biting flies.

I like playing in different areas, and I've now had my Lake Champlain golf fix for the year.

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Sunday, July 30, 2006

Oh, Goody. We're in the News Again

The New York Times yesterday included a story on the Indian River School District school prayer issue: Families Challenging Religious Influence in Delaware Schools (NYT Registration Required).

The story includes a quote from WGMD's Dan Gaffney. I'm sure he'll be pleased with the exposure.

I notice, looking at the Times' web site statistics this morning, that this is (as of 8:30 this morning) the sixth most e-mailed story and the fourteenth most blogged on their site.

I'll be curious to see whether this Times story is picked up in the larger blogging world.

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Saturday, July 29, 2006

Vacation Report, Part 3: At The Tyler Place

After our visits to the Statue of Liberty and Mystic Seaport, we headed to Highgate Springs, in northern Vermont, and the Tyler Place Family Resort. This is the eighth summer that we've spent a week at the Tyler Place, and we're not tired of it yet.

The Tyler Place is a large campus on the Vermont shore at the northern end of Lake Champlain. It sits about a mile south of the US/Canada border. There is an Inn, a wide variety of cabins, clubhouses, a pool, boat dock, tennis courts and more.

You stay a week, and pay a flat rate that covers accommodations, food, and most activities. The children have counselor-led group activities from early morning through early afternoon and again from late afternoon through early evening. It is very like summer camp, but with parents along to stay with at night and to play with for part of the afternoon.

While the kids are "at group", the adults are free to laze about, explore, or join in a variety of organized activities. Karen and I traditionally try to make the canoe trip, the mountain hike, and the kayak trip.

We particularly enjoy the mountain hike, as it includes a picnic lunch at The Three Holes, a swimming area in Montgomery Vermont that features a crystal clear, cold mountain stream cascading into three deep pools in a sunlit glade.

And we swam, in Lake Champlain and the Tyler Place pool. The lake swimming area includes a float, with a tall tower and slide on it. It is traditional for us to start our visits to the Tyler Place by sliding on this slide. Great fun, but the tower sways when you climb it, especially as a dozen kids frolic on the float below.

This year, since I have a new digital camera, I was brave enough to take my old digital camera out on the Lake in a kayak for a photoset from water-level. I spent a lot of time on, and in, the water this summer. I tried out a small hobie cat sailboat. It was fitting, as I brought two novels from the Aubrey/Maturin series along for the week. My internal dialogue, as I sailed along, was all in 19th-century sailing terminology. It's a good thing no one was along to hear that.

I got out for two rounds of golf with Andy Southmayd. We played the North Country Golf Club, in Rouse's Point, New York, and the Alburg Golf Links, on one of the Champlain Islands. I'll write them up for my Golf in 2006 series, of course, but for this report, suffice it to say that it was great fun, even if my game was not great in itself.

In the evenings, the kids would head off to group again and we would gather in the Inn's spacious lounge for a gentle cocktail hour, followed by leisurely, excellent dinner. One of the things we particularly love about the Tyler Place is the opportunity to meet new folks. We had a ready-made group, of course, with Andy and Lynn along and with my brother Bob and his wife Karen. But we took advantage of the evening social events to find new friends. Each night, we tried to add new people to our large dinner table. We met some really cool people.

I could go on. And on. Let's finish this the way we ended many of our dinners, with a sunset over Lake Champlain.

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Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Vacation Report, Part 2: A Mystic Tour

After a comfortable night at a small hotel just south of the Tapanzee Bridge, we headed north Friday morning (July 14), across southern New York and into Connecticut.

Our day's destination was the historic town of Mystic, where we spent a morning at the Seaport and an afternoon at the Aquarium.

I love Mystic Seaport. I am a fan of sailing ships and the sea. I repeatedly devour historical, tall-ship novels. I love to wander among old sailing ships, wood, cordage and canvas.

Karen and the girls are less enamored, but they were good-natured about it. At one point, I was explaining the working of a ship's windlass to Christina. Her eyes lit up and she started to tell me about a scene in the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. But she stopped short, remembering that I had not yet seen it. I saw the movie after we returned and there are, indeed, several scenes that make use of a windlass. I'm glad I was able to explain that to her a bit.

After lunch, we made the short drive to Mystic Aquarium. A well-put-together, if small and tourist-y place. Here we all were fascinated.

Christina is a budding naturalist and Colleen loves the grace of many kinds of fish. She's always seen the beauty in jellyfish.

I love to watch the girls when they are deep into something like this. Their pleasure is a joy.

When we left the aquarium, after a full afternoon of touristicality, we cut across country to Hartford and up into Massachusetts.

We had dinner in Holyoke, near were my parents met as college students.

We headed north from there, towards our night's stay in southern Vermont.

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Monday, July 24, 2006

Vacation Report, Part 1: At Liberty

We left on our northern trek on Thursday, July 13. We were due at The Tyler Place, in northern Vermont, on Saturday, but decided to ease our way up the eastern seaboard over a few days, playing tourist as we went.

We took the Cape May/Lewes Ferry over to New Jersey and drove up the Garden State Parkway to our first stop: Liberty State Park, across the Hudson River from Manhattan.

We took the Park's ferry to Ellis Island and then to Liberty Island. I think it would have been better had we driven the evening before, stayed somewhere close, and arrived at the Park in the early morning, rather than just after lunch, as we did. Then, we might have been in time to go into the Statue of Liberty. As it was we were only able to wander around the statue and Liberty Island itself.

Ellis Island also would have rewarded more time. We saw the Registration Room and some of the immigration museum. The girls were interested and I think we all would have enjoyed doing a search for those members of Karen's family that came through Ellis Island a few generations back. Next time.

We did enjoy watching the other tourists; there were folks from all over the US and around the world.

Liberty Island was very cool. I took advantage of the grounds to photograph the statue from all sides and to try some close-up shots and artistic shots.

The day was partly cloudy. But enough sun broke through to light New York City with the clouds as a backdrop. I was impressed with the beauty of Manhattan from the Hudson.

We'll need to go back to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty some day when we have more time.

We left there late and drove through horrific afternoon rush hour traffic to the Palisades Parkway and north to a hotel just over the New York/New Jersey border.

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Sunday, July 23, 2006

And ... We're Back

We rolled back into Lewes a bit past five this evening after ten days on the road.

We traveled to the most northern part of Vermont, stayed a week, and returned.

On the way we visited Ellis and Liberty Islands and Mystic Seaport and Aquarium. We drove through six states and several heavy rain storms. We rode on the Cape May/Lewes Ferry (twice).

We ate bad food at highway rest stops. We found a wonderful Italian restaurant in Sugarloaf, New York.

We took 1,106 photos. I have started working through those and will be posting some of them on Flickr over the next few days.

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Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Northwards

There will be a blogging pause for a while. We're heading north to Vermont for our annual stay at the Tyler Place. The car is packed. The house-sitter has arrived. We're ready to roll.

When on vacation, I suspend all work, all web surfing, all e-mail, all blogging.

It's time to disconnect...

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Sunday, July 9, 2006

We Do Welcome Guest Workers

I was proud this week of Lewes' Tom and Chris King, owners of King's Ice Cream and a prime example of what it means to have class.

There'’s an article in Friday'’s Cape Gazette about a recent incident at King'’s Ice Cream in which patrons were not willing to be served by young women from Russia who are in our area working at Kings.

We have a large number of young people from many countries in our area each summer. We depend on them to help fill the many service jobs our summer resort economy demands. They come to us from Russia, Poland, France, the United Kingdom, and other European nations.

In this case, a patron balked at being served by someone "not an American." I hope that this particular boob was a visitor, and not one of our own. It seems likely, since people who live here are well used to waiters and counter staff with accented though usually perfectly serviceable English.

It just seems wrong to object to guest-workers in an area such as this, where the demand for vacation homes and hotel rooms has driven housing costs so high that few working people can afford to live close enough to the beach to be able to fill the many jobs needed to feed, clothe and entertain all the vacationers.

We have to have student workers. If some proportion of those workers is from other counties, we should welcome them and take advantage of an opportunity to learn more about the nations from which many of our own forbears came to America.

Tom King showed his practical side when he posted a sign in his business saying that he is proud to employ young people from Russia and hopes his patrons will join him in welcoming them to our shores.

Tom and his wife Chris showed an extra level of class, though. According to the news story, they have welcomed their workers into their home as well, giving their temporary staffers room and board in their house while they are working here.

One of the problems we face in having so many summer workers, domestic and imported, is housing them fairly and safely. Man of these young people are treated badly and taken advantage of by unscrupulous landlords.

Good for Tom and Chris King. I'm proud to have them as leaders of the Lewes business community.

Update: The story that prompted this post is now available on the Cape Gazette web site (Some customers reject foreign servers at King's Ice Cream). Also, the Tuesday edition of the paper includes a great editorial cartoon and some letters to the editor about the issue, one rather strongly worded. (Note: The two last links here will not persist past Friday, 7/14.)