Mainelife...thru the eyes of someone from away

OCD Site Renamed

I was just contacted by a very nice woman who holds the trademark for Palintology, and given that I don't hold myself above the law (I'd cooperate with an investigation of my ethics, as an example) and that I take copyright infringement very seriously, the Obessive/Compulsive site of all things Sarah Palin is hereby renamed Pales In Comparison and it can be found here. 

Dusting Off the Cobwebs on the Old Blog

Wow. I've been away a long time, haven't I?  Unfortunately, I detest bloggers who spend all their time telling you why they are too busy to blog, so I'll quickly thank you for checking back in at the dusty ole site and move on.

Last week, we went down to see the Boston Lobsters play World Team Tennis.  The tennis pro at our club arranged for a VIP tent and part of the VIP tent includes not only a private bar and some pretty good appeys, but also the chance to meet all the celebrity tennis players, including the greatest woman to ever play tennis, Martina Navratilova. 

She spent time in our tent, talking with many of us, signing autographs and taking pictures.  She was gracious and kind and for WTT, it's all part of the shtick.   WTT is rather like AAA baseball--great entertainment, great values, safe for the kids and it moves along quickly.  If you are a tennis purest, it might drive you a bit batty, and I certainly woudn't want to do it more than once a year, but it's great fun.   WTT scores differently that regular USTA tennis, and it's team based.  The team wins or loses and every member of the team contributes points to the total.  There are mascots and every kid who attends gets a free tennis racket. After the match, all 16 and unders can get autographs and pictures with the players.  It's great for the sport; it's a good evening of entertainment. 

As exciting as Martina was (and it was exciting, as  I'm old enough to remember the first time that she beat my hero, Chris Evert at Wimbledon), even more exciting was Jan Michael Gambil, one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People on the Planet, people.  I must say that I wholeheartedly agree. What do you think? 

As exciting as WTT tennis was (the Lobsters won in a tie break), the most exciting discovery of the week is a tie between:
1) Yes, we can swim off our float at high tide and not break our necks diving in or dying of hypothermia or having to touch bottom.  Do not undersestimate the last point, folks.  The bottom is a clam flat and it's muddy, icky stuff.
2) Billy's Tavern in Thomaston.  When DownEast magazine rated it one of the top 50 spots in Maine to eat, we were a little suprised.  It's a bar, we thought, in a parking lot.  How good can it be? Well on a rainy Sunday afternoon, we found a new hidden gem, a highly recommend, a must visit: for the oysters, for the Guinness, for the calamari, for the crabcakes, for the service.....well just go.   If  you like oysters, get the Gay Island Oysters and 2 Guinness special for $20.00.  Divine.

As Maine Goes....

RedOrbit chronicles Maine's growing political blogging community.  It's balanced between progressive and conservative bloggers and has at least one omission but it's still a great round up if you're looking for perspective from Maine. 
As Maine Goes, So Goes the Nation. 

The Non-Fiction Meme

What issues/topic interests you most--non-fiction, i.e, cooking, knitting, stitching, there are infinite topics that has nothing to do with novels?.
Politics, sports,  history, cooking and gardening, in no particular order.  Although I think I listed politics first as it's an election year. Come to think of it, I almost never read books about sports, despite being an avid sports fan.  I read sports blogs, the sports pages and watch ESPN, but hardly ever read non-fiction sports books. 

Would you like to review books concerning those?
I would, but I find writing reviews to be very difficult.  I know what I like and why I like it, but I have a hard time putting that into words.  Interestingly enough, I can edit an author's manuscript, shape it and improve it and provide  specific direction as to what needs to be changed to make the book work (it's what I used to do for a living before I became a manager and stopped doing anything really useful), but writing a review leaves me at a loss for words. 

Would you like to be paid or do it as interest or hobby? Tell reasons for what ever you choose.

A hobby for the reasons above.  I don't think I'd write a review good enough to get paid for it. 

Would you recommend those to your friends and how?

I often recommend books to friends, both fiction and non-fiction and enjoy discussing those books with them afterward.  I love to hear and compare others' impressions. 

If you have already done something like this, link it to your post.
I've written restaurant reviews,   and a Skybus review ( the most heavily googled post I've ever written).  I think that's about it for the non-fiction reviews.   

I thank Lori for tagging me.....and I pass the honor on to"
Lisa
Amy
Margaret

MicroJournalism

The NYTimes has an interesting article on microjournalism and the Presidential campaign.
John Dickerson started reporting on the candidates via Twitter and on January 5th, broke the story of Bill O'Reilly misbehaving at an Obama event. 

Now Annamarie Cox and Marc Ambinder and Patrick Ruffini are also twittering from the campaign trail along with the Obama campaign, Joe Trippi and John Edwards. 

Twitter posts are limited to 140 characters (including spaces) so there's little room for analysis, but some Twitterers (like KenyaNews) have mastered the medium as a way of  reporting breaking news. 

(As an aside, I read the NYTimes article on my Kindle....).

Home Renovations

So, I've redecorated.....what do you all think?
I need to:
readjust the banner to make it a little bigger
possibly change the font

What else?  Thoughts and suggestions are welcome.

This Is Why It's a Typepad Blog

Posted from my iPhone this morning (I took the picture a couple of years ago, but wanted to test the mobile photo posting process--IT WORKS!).  Yee Haw.  Makes all the moving pains (the yard sale, the packing of boxes, saying good bye to neighbors, etc) worthwhile :)