Author: DOuG pRATt

Last Draft, First Draft

WEN.jpg

Looking for an old newspaper clipping, that I still haven’t found, I came across another clipping. My first published newspaper story. It’s about the last man drafted to serve during the Vietnam War era from Westfield, MA. I remember being surprised by how little of what I’d written had been changed. Of course, now I see it needed more editing. For example, the lead should say "…drafted into the U.S. Army." Click the thumbnail picture to read.

Bible Tech

This week’s Boston Sunday Globe had an article about The Massachusetts Bible Society’s struggle to survive in the Internet Age:

The Massachusetts Bible Society, a 197-year-old organization that distributed Bibles to seamen during the war of 1812 and welcomed 19th-century immigrants to Boston’s docks with free Scriptures, has sold its downtown building, is about to close its wood-paneled bookstore, and is trying to reinvent itself for a world in which the latest theological treatises are just a mouse-click away.

If the link above to the full article doesn’t work (registration may be required) click here. Hey, look at that. Comic-books are mentioned…

… and a now-missing set of 1940s Bible stories published by the editors of DC Comics, has for years been housed at the Boston University School of Theology.

As I explained previously in this blog, during college I was an Evangelical Christian. Or at least I tried to be. Although I am no longer a church-goer, that doesn’t mean I don’t read the Bible. But these days I read it online.

Bible Link

Another previous post was about my new SanDisk flash drive with U3 software. Recently, a U3 version of a free program called Bible Link Basic became available. There are add-ons that cost money, but I’m a relatively casual Bible reader.

    Click here

Here’s a screen grab of the small toolbar that comes up when Bible Link is started. From the toolbar you can search the Internet or view local copies of two different versions of The Bible. Click the toolbar image to see a full-size copy of the Bible viewer. Additional translations are available for download at reasonable cost.

The reduced images of the viewer above show how you can navigate by dragging the numbers on the right; (1) for books, (2) for chapters, and (3) for verses. Another neat feature is you can either read just the New American Standard or King James version, or you can view both, one above the other.

So here already is another nifty U3 application for flash drives. I never quite saw the need for a PDA, but this approach to portable applications and data is making a convert of me.

Dilbert Has No Mouth

I’m not a gigantic fan of Dilbert.  I enjoy the strip, I almost never miss it, and I think it actually provides some valuable lessons for my son, who’s a fan of it. But for me it’s a bit impersonal. Which is, I know, the way things are supposed to be in the workplace.

But still, like Beetle Bailey, I don’t feel a personal connection to Dilbert the way I do to Calvin and Hobbes, or Peanuts or, until a few years ago, Doonesbury.

It’s been a while since I checked Scott Adams’ blog, so a tip of the toupee to friend tastewar for pointing out this item.

As regular readers of my blog know, I lost my voice about 18 months ago. Permanently. It’s something exotic called Spasmodic Dysphonia. Essentially a part of the brain that controls speech just shuts down in some people, usually after you strain your voice during a bout with allergies (in my case) or some other sort of normal laryngitis. It happens to people in my age bracket.

Frankly, at first I thought it was a put-on. It seemed too strange and ironic, because Adams draws Dilbert without a mouth.

Immediately I thought of idiot former disk jockey Rush Limbaugh’s deafness, which turned out to be induced by prescription drug abuse. But Adams seems to be sincere, so I’ll take him at his word. I guess I feel a bit embarrassed that I didn’t already know about this.

Swan Song for Flamingos

Last week The Boston Globe had an item about another local company that has fallen on hard times. It’s not the same as Digital Equipment Company coming to an end, but it’s newsworthy.

Pink plastic flamigos are going away! Although, as seen in the photo, some are more lavender in color. And me only 15 years away from being old enough to justify buying one. My guess is the molds will be sold to some outfit in China.

    Birthplace of the flamingo will go the way of the dodo

    October 21, 2006

    The pink flamingo began as an emblem of suburban style, faded as a symbol of ultimate tackiness, and re-emerged as a showpiece of kitschy-cool. Now, it’s facing extinction.

    The flamingo’s maker, Union Products of Leominster, is scheduled to close Nov. 1, the victim of soaring energy and material costs, according to published reports. Dennis Plante, Union’s chief executive, couldn’t be reached for comment. For a half-century, the company has made a variety of plastic lawn ornaments, but none ever fired the imagination like the flamingos, which sell for less than $10 each.

    Designed by Don Featherstone of Fitchburg, whose signature beneath the tail proves authenticity, the ornament went into production in 1957. Like other popular cultural icons, flamingos have had their ups and downs. But through it all, Featherstone has steadfastly disagreed that they are tacky, insisting they would add style to any lawn.

    In Union’s hometown, flamingos are a point of pride, said Mayor Dean Mazzarella, noting there’s hardly a resident who hasn’t been asked, “Can you get me a few flamingos?”

    The Featherstone flamingo, meanwhile, still has a chance to survive, although probably somewhere else. Union plans to sell the molds to another company.

    ROBERT GAVIN

    © Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company