ALL IN is a place for everyone who works at NCPR to share behind the scenes activity, and surprising, curious, lovely or distinctly local tidbits from our travels around the region. We’ll post the best of what we find online, too. From time to time, you may hear from others—if you’d like to write an entry, send it to ellen@ncpr.org. What makes this place what it is? How do we connect to each other and the world? That’s what ALL IN is all about.
We've been a little more inquisitive than usual this week, having launched on Monday a new Question of the Day feature. This idea came from Nora Flaherty, who had seen the Question of the Day grow into a popular attraction at her former public radio home, WFUV in New York. I expect it will take a little while for us to figure out the best way to offer this, and to come up with questions you will actually want to answer, but we are persistent as well as nosy.
The interns come to get theirs.
It's also been extra lively around the station this week, as we absorb a record number of interns and try to sort out who does what, when and where. One of their number, Esther, perhaps recognizing our less than stellar organizational skills, suggested that the interns form an operating group within the station–an insurgency, if you will. After all, unless they can strike out on their own, the natural course of things at a media company will leave the interns post-producing audio, rewriting transcripts, and pounding in calendar events until they are fully exsanguinated.
Today's Question of the Day is the one I put to our intern insurgency, by way of being agent provacateur:
What would you do with North Country Public Radio, if you could pry it from our cold, dead hands?
Submit your answers and other demands in a comment below, or just drop by with pitchforks and torches.
Dickens scratching, scratching, scratching at the page.
Yesterday was the bicentennial of the birth of Charles Dickens, author of nearly everything that wasn't written by Shakespeare, or one of the Brontes. Among his dozens of books, one can find hundreds of the most memorable characters in literature–and certainly the most memorable and quirky of character names. Here's a complete list.
Today's Question of the Day: Forget your Blues Name, your Pirate Name, or your Superhero Name–what is your Dickens Character Name?
Don Woodcock and friends played a variety of foxtrot, waltz and swing tunes.
I attended a rare event this past Saturday night in Heuvelton: a ballroom dance to live music. Dancing to live music isn’t rare, but as an amateur dance instructor, I’m often asked about ballroom dance venues in the North Country. Not rock or swing, but more traditional ballroom dances. Where are they?
Doing the foxtrot at Pickens Hall.
More than 50 folks filled the second floor of the historic Pickens Hall for the Heuvelton Historical Association’s Winter Ball.
I helped kick off the dancing Saturday night with basic foxtrot and waltz lessons for a very enthusiastic group of dancers. It was so cool to see people of all ages on the dance floor. Even better was the live music from the band made up of some “top shelf” local musicians. In an email after the dance, champion fiddler Don Woodcock (on keyboard and fiddle that night) told me, “I haven't seen people dance like that in years. It has become a lost art to do a foxtrot or a waltz especially here in the North Country. I grew up seeing dancing like that when I used to go as a kid with my father when he played at dances.”
The Heuvelton group has another event scheduled for Saturday, February 25 at Pickens Hall and is planning an Irish dance in March. Anyone know a traditional Irish jig? The Cosmopolitan Club of Watertown has been going strong for years – their next evening of dinner and dancing is February 25 at the Black River Valley Club. Bonnie and Doug (fabulous dancers!) will teach tango and samba at a ballroom dance party at the Clayton Opera House on Friday, February 17. And, don’t forget the 25th anniversary of Dance Flurry – three days of music and dancing, February 17, 18 and 19 in Saratoga Springs.
The question of the day is: "So, where do you go to dance?"
The Plattsburgh Press Republicanreports that three rare visitors have taken up temporary residence on Lake Champlain, near Ausable Point State Park–Arctic Tundra Swans. This unusually open winter has brought many species out of their usual comfort zones. I saw an ermine crossing the road by my house, the first I've seen in forty years.
What infrequent flyers and special company are you seeing this year in your neck of the woods?
Well, Burmese pythons (here's a recent NY Times article on Florida's problem snake) and zebra mussels are among the most aggressive invasive species–one in the southern US, the other further north. I had a press release today from the Vermont Law School about a new study in support of legislation to control invasive animal species.
Zebra mussels
The study, by Vermont Law School alumnus Jane Graham, proposes a model federal law that calls for:
A “clean” list of species that are allowed into the country instead of the current “dirty” list that prohibits specific species.
A process that explains exactly how risk assessment decisions will be determined.
Uniform restrictions on exotic—and potentially all—animal ownership.
Increased public awareness of invasive animal laws.
Higher and uniform fines and criminal penalties for violations.
Methods to fund restoration of ecosystems damaged by invasive species
Entrepreneurship and partnerships between government and private businesses.
Graham argues that "other laws—such as the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and the Animal Health Protection Act as well as state laws, public nuisance laws, free market solutions and exotic pet restrictions— are insufficient…and uncoordinated."
What do you think? More regulation? Or, should we just accept invasive species as a by-product of the global economy?
The 2011-2012 Niles Lecture on Science and Religion from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. January 30, 2012. The topic discussed was, "Are the Values of Science and Religion Compatible?" Participants include SLU faculty members Aileen O'Donoghue, Karen Johnson, Laura Rediehs, Michael Greenwald and Aswini Pai.
NCPR will be out in the community recording forums, events and lectures of public importance, artistic merit and general interest. You can find NCPR archive video at our Youtube channel, UStream channel, and our latest efforts in the NCPR Vimeo channel.
February revelry–try to pronounce that five times fast. I've gotta say, I'm not a fan of the month. In non-weird weather years, this is the month I begin to get sick of winter. (I finish getting sick of winter when the lilacs bloom.) This year we haven't even had any proper winter, and I'm still sick of it.
But it's not just the weather. February is the season of lame holidays. It's like they had to just stick some in there on general principles. Today, for instance–Groundhog Day. A bank of networked supercomputers can't predict the weather out past Saturday, and we're supposed to celebrate the uncanny powers of a big fat rat? I don't think so.
Then there's the unofficial entry in the race–Super Bowl Sunday. When the new TV ads come into bloom, and tribes of biggified humans do barbaric things to one another for loot and glory. (Sorry sports fans–the portion of my brain that once appreciated team athletics was destroyed when Eddie Kunkel released a baseball bat directly into my forehead while I crouched behind the plate at the age of 10.)
Next up used to be Lincoln's birthday. Pretty good candidate for celebration, followed later by Washington's birthday. I was down with that, too. But President's Day–really?–even Warren G. Harding? I studied Lincoln and Washington. They were school friends of mine. And you, Warren, are not them. Then there's Valentine's Day. Bad cards, chocolates with nasty gooey centers, soon-to-be-dead flowers, and all designed to humiliate the unattached, and guilt-trip the pair-bonded.
Our bonus holiday this year is Leap Year Day, where insult is added to injury by extending the month by a full day. 365 and 1/4 days to the year? Who thought that up? And adding the extra day on to the election year?–have mercy. But now that I think about it, there are a few things I don't like about every other month of the year, too. It's just that I only find myself dwelling on such grievances in (that's right) February.
Okay, this video was made at Tipitina's in New Orleans a few years ago, but it gives you a feel for this remarkable Grammy Award-winning roots musician and his crew, The Zydeco Experience.
Ticket info for this Friday's 7:30 pm show at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts is available here: www.lakeplacidarts.org or 518-523-2512.
North country landscape in...early November, late March? Nope. Late January.
I just don't know what month it is. Early April? Mid-November? Very peculiar this un-winter. Many share my disorientation and my seasonal affect depression because it's just not cold and snowy enough. Back in the olden days when snow was piled so high you had to pull out halfway into the crossroad at stop signs, or huddle against sub-zero temperatures for days and nights on end, who would have guessed we would deeply and viscerally miss those real winters? Heck, if nothing else, how are we going to scare the daylights out of those new arrivals to the North Country? "Oh, ya gotta be tough to survive winters around here–it can be +30 for weeks on end…with more than an inch of snow on the ground!"
Bill Knoble is dressed in fall/spring gear--and it's January.
Where are the mittens and neck warmers? The mukluks and woolen long johns?
But it's not just the weather. February is the season of lame holidays. It's like they had to just stick some in there on general principles. Today, for instance–Groundhog Day. A bank of networked supercomputers can't predict the weather out past Saturday, and we're supposed to celebrate the uncanny powers of a big fat rat? I don't think so. 
