Ah. Cold weather camping in the middle of a bustling little city, next to a chirping cuckoo on what I'm sure will be a calm St. Patrick's Night in a College Town. Why would someone do this? Publicity stunt? Yes, but publicity for The Cancer Connection. If you don't know about what they do, have a listen. Then you might be motivated to pull a publicity stunt too.
Meet their director, Betsy
What do the professionals at Cooley Dick think of their work?
Cancer Connection doesn't only serve people with Cancer, they serve their families too.
Zoom in very slowly, in and out on the New Englander who is arguably the world's best known documentarian, Ken Burns.
Baseball, socialism, National Parks and how Hampshire College converted this Michigan boy into a Red Sox fan.
Just how well is the Obama administration doing with the closing of Gimto? And how much different is the new administration than the one that opened the prison?
Jon Haeftz from the ACLU has a new book: "The Guantanamo Lawyers: Inside a Prison Outside The Law"
Andrea Donlon, the steward of the Connecticut River from the CT River Watershed council is concered with the news that VT Yankee is leaking radioactive tritium and that that tritium may have made its way into our River.
Let's say you've had a celebrated career in engineering and technology and it's time to retire. Let's say you start to get a little ancy, and happen to have a really think Boston accent. What do you do? Become an actor for Martin Scorcese.
Mix a cocktail, smoke in a building, sexual harrasment: all the good things that were the early 60s. That's why my friend Anja wanted to have a Mad Men themed birthday party.
Jesse Sheidlower is an Editor-At-Large of the Oxford English Dictionary. And he loves him some F-Bomb. Enough to write a book about it. A serious, scholarly, book. Get your mind out of the gutter!
And for more love of words...
Emily Brewster: Resident Wordster from Merriam-Webster elucidates the juxtaposition of the quixotic word of the year.
For a video clarification of the "affect effect" with Emily, click here. She will b e thrilled to know you watched this video.
Sitting down with Tracy Kidder in his Valley home, the author gives us a glimpse into Haiti both before and after the earthquake.
When Tracy Kidder's not writing about his hometown, his focus is on Haiti. He's worked long and hard with Partners in Health, an organization on the ground in Haiti. I caught up with him at Hope & Olive in Greenfield at Free Soup & Games Night.
Photo of the Constitution of the United States of America. A feather quill is included in the photo.The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America and is the oldest codified written national constitution still in
ACLU Attorney Bill Newman on how corporations now have more rights as people than you do,
The Cliff Notes Version
The Director's Cut
Are we at a crossroad?
At this point I prefer Hope & Olive. Moveon.org organized a Downtown Northampton rally in support of Health Care reform. So why was one of the ralliers hugging a Scott Brown supporter?
Kids these days. With the new fangled Chicken Pox vaccine, kids hardly get the chicken pox. But with measured skepticism, my wife and I intentionally exposed the kids rather than take the vaccine. Turns out everyone in the neighborhood and people who live two hours a way wanted chicken pox the old fashioned way too.
So did anyone get the chicken pox?
The Well of the 21st Century
There are three 1500 foot holes in the middle of downtown Greenfield. Ed Wierboski, the man recreating the Pushkin and the old Clarke's buildings which will no doubt soon become the central hub for the arts in The Valley has decided to heat his buildings with the fires of hell.
A Northampton doctor, his association with the Nobel Prize, how even a teeny nuclear war in Pakistan might kill a billion people, and what he thinks of Obama as the next winner.
Jimmy Olsen. The musical spirit and inspiration for the River for the last quarter century. What are the highs and lows of WRSI's storied past? His fondest musical memories...and did he sleep with Dar Williams?
I've got some trash on Northampton At-Large City Councilor, David Narkewicz. I also have his recycling and compostables. D-Nark volunteered to get a trash audit from Green Northampton. How did he do and if we all "audit" what impact could that have on the City's landfill?
Monte took the family to Yankee Candle to hear the Von Trapp Children in concert. Now if Julie Andrews was really their mom his kids would want to join their band.
He's one of the most famous names in the world of glass and it's his worlds that have made his name. Find out the secrets inside his "planets" and why his wife is watching him from outer-space.
Keeping stuff out of landfills, selling it to you at good prices, using the money you spend to hire people from Windham county who need a second chance. The Renew Salvage Riverlution.
For the fourth year in a row, the River Green Team jumped into the Green River to haul out tires, fence posts, and a safe. Too bad it was empty. The mayor even stopped by to lend a hand.
In an interesting take on the lemonade stand, 4.5 year old Atticus has a "combing hair stand". To follow his road-side entrepreneurial endeavours, scroll down to "Atticus is Lemonade."
Depending on which direction you're facing, the folks on the Right side of the Street were holding anti-Obama Health care rally. I had some questions about their signs.
And what does a Canadian think about our Health Care debate?
And what does another American/Canadian think about what that other Canadian thinks?
Surprise for nerd fans everywhere: John Hodgman added his witty Mystery Science Theatresqe commentary to the Emmy's. Since he was sleeping in another time zone far away the morning after, I called his Nanny at home.
Earlier in the Hodgsaga:
John Hodgman is a PC, is a Daily Show Contributor, is a fancy Hollywood actor, is an author, so what's he doing here in the Valley? Besides hosting the Bill Dwight show on WHMP. whmp.com/
Hodgman inquires on purchasing advertising from our radio station.
Hodgman's meteoric rise to fame, and what it's like to be a computer.
Hodgman on Obama warming up the crowd for him at the Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner
Barack Obama. US Citizen or not. I'll pretend to ask him myself.
Smoker President Barack Obama has signed some pretty tough anti-smoking legislation. Where does the President get his smokes? Find out in my exclusive pretend interview.
And hear other pretend conversations with the President
Obama heads to Denver to sign his $787 Billion Economic Stimulus. What does (pretend) Obama think this will mean for you?
So what was (pretend) Obama's first night in the White House like?
Biomass: The Burning Issue
Hillary Lister from Athens, ME has fought off biomass in her town and is now helping the folks of Greenfield to keep biomass at bay.
Dave Manning from Applied Dynamics, the abutter to Biomass, is going to stay and fight.
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Biomass: Good Green Science, or Good God Spin. Engineer Mark Beaubian has thoughts
When Atticus grows up he wants to work at the radio station 2 days, build houses 2 days and start his own lemonade stand. We set up shop in the Patch in Turners to see what kind of a small business owner Atticus would be.
You can peer into Local Hero singer/songwriter/rocker Erin McKeown's Valley home during her live web concerts. And come with me for a glmipse inside her house and her mind.
Erin perfoms in the river and gets baptized by the Rev. Monte Belmonte
Web Concert 3 Preview: The River
Web Concert 2 Preview: The Porch
Web Concert 1 Preview: The Living Room
Erin's thoughts on the music business.
Listen on the air, and check back here, as I tour other parts of Erin's home in anticipation of the other web-concerts.
Click here to sign up for Erin McKeown's "Cabin Fever" concert series
Steve Earle on his musical guru Townes van Zandt, Rachel Maddow, his thiefin' son, his post "The Wire" HBO acting career and why he might not mind if I stalk him. You lucky internet person, you get to hear all the bonus material that didn't make it on the radio. Fancy!
Steven Wright
Is he tired? Is he bored? Maybe he's just focusing really hard.
Are Decemberists racist towards December?
Or does the name "The Decemberists" mean something else entirely? Find out from the hyper-literate mouth of Decemberist front man, Colin Meloy.
Nothing says "wasting time by amusing yourself" like prank calling. And with all the computer/recorder/radio station at my disposal, no one in my sphere of influence is safe.
Like poor Bob who was pestered over and over again by Napoleon Dynamite
Or my Mom, who thought she was implicated in a butchering of endangered trees.
The Good (At Drawing) Samaritan
Oh the lengths this former art student would go to do a good deed.
The Greatest Place on Earth?
Susan Shilliday thinks so. So much so that she left the glitz and glamour of Hollywood to run a teeny tiny little miraculous bookstore in the hills of Western, MA. The Montague Bookmill.
What was she thinking?
Why is the Bookmill eerily magical?
Bonus: Susan interviews me about being the Prom King
Leo Kottke
Finger pickin' guitar legend and wise old sage.
But will he appreciate my offbeat interviewing on- the-street techniques? And how did the guitar save his life?
The quote that will haunt him forever and his thoughts on the Big Box.
Everything's better with Bacon.
Kevin Bacon and his brother Michael are the Bacon Brothers. They're playing in Great Barrington. So just how many degrees seperated from Kevin Bacon am I, now that I've spoken to him?
Forever Young
Nothing makes me bawl out loud in public more than Northampton's Young @ Heart chorus. So when a member passes it makes me bawl just a little bit harder.
This American
Ira Glass is our nation's foremost storyteller of what goes on in "This American Life"
What makes a story worthy of telling?
My confession to Mr. Glass and all those other famous public radio types...what's their deal anyway?
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When Atticus grows up he wants to work at the radio station 2 days, build houses 2 days and start his own lemonade stand. We set up shop in the Patch in Turners to see what kind of a small business owner Atticus would be.
