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"Short Notes"
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mar 1-16 |
mar 17-31 |
apr 10-16 |
apr 17-26 |
apr 30-May 5 |
may 16-May 30
June 1
31 may 00 |
Recent comings & goings |
Honest folks, I do intend to give you the rest of the trip up the East Coast. Hang in there.
Until then, folks have been writing me about their sites, some of which I find particularly interesting. Check these places out:
Ray Clarke has finally got his own webpage up. His hunting photos were featured
off my ABO Culture page last year. Now you can see more pictures as well as stories behind the shoots.
(Oh, and if you are anti-hunting, don't bother the man,
go here instead)
A total stranger sent me a link to paintings created by his grandfather,
Northam "Tod" Gould
. Turns out the man lived in East Haddam during and after World War II.
He created pretty good likenesses of town (one of which is provided here)>>>>
<<<<<And Marty Hogan (whose Adirondak
Canoe Trip I greatly admired) has come up with a new travelogue on scuba diving off of Panama. Fantastic colors
in those underwater pix. Check out his pages for more great images!
That Darker side of mental health again | Psych Wars and paranoia! Information
Warfare, actually. The website's apparent author says
"...Information warfare is the offensive and defensive use of information
and information systems to deny, exploit, corrupt, or destroy, an
adversary's information, information-based processes, information
systems, and computer-based networks while protecting one's own.
Such actions are designed to achieve advantages over military or business
adversaries." Dr. Ivan Goldberg. This site lets you know in what "day" it is we live.
30 may 00 |
It's Memorial Day weekend | Time to pay homage to those who've died fighting
for our freedom. Ironic word, Freedom, that. Or ironic use of the word. For what
price is freedom if we still have undue restrictions and aborgations of justice run rampant.
If seems that while we fought battles beyond the borders, there were those
who fought other battles not always conventionally recognized as "war". Harriet Tubman. Dorthea Day.
Karen Silkwood, for example. Freeing slaves, exposing the horrors of poverty, exposing
corporate indifference to social wrongs.
It's also a good time to remember tough guys who ~when it comes to the test~ expose themselves
as moral cowards. Including celluloid Urber-soliders like Sly Stallone and Clint Eastwood; Stallone for
spending years in Switzerland at a posh girls' school during Vietnam, Eastwood -"a small businessman"
who happens to have owned a 30 unit motel for three years. Seems Dirty Harry is willing to
glorify gratutious violence on film in the name of preserving "the law" has been
personally lobbying the US Congress to "make his day" so he doesn't have to obey the law himself. In particular he
wants his little motel to be exempt from provision in the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act for those of
you who still don't know about it). What can you say about a multi-millionaire who is too cheap to
put in an accessible bathroom for people who use wheelchairs?
22 may 00 |
St Augustine, Florida | The city is a postcard image 
everywhere you turn. Absolutely stunning!
The colors are so direct! North America's oldest European settled city, home of Ponce de Leon's
fountain of youth. It seems as though when Old Ponce went back to Europe to report about his
discovery that the toursit trade had been courted by this beautiful little city from
opening day. The Brits and the Spanish fought over the area for a couple of centuries
all the while the city grew, accepted Greek immigrants (whose descendants have built an
exquisite chapel full of lush iconography and a museum quality display about the
parish's history)
<<<<But there was trouble in paradise when we went through the town. Seems that, according to local
artists and street performers, people are banned from providing their crafts
(and asking money for it) on the very popular St George's Street. We were told that the
street used to be a good place to see the works of emerging and local artists,
and to be able to buy their works directly. Then, in order to (oh, what did they call it?) make the
street less congested, the merchants on the street, together with members of
the city council, went to the mayor of St Augustine's and pushed for a law that
forbids the sale of art on the street, the performance of musicians and
street performance artist and (not to be outdone I suppose) the mayor banned
a free newsletter from being distributed (one critical of town council's very swift
erosion of free speech rights. The City Council alsobanned a free newspaper
from being distrbuted. Seems it was critical of the Council for censorship, of all things!
The artists and performers argue in 
leaflets that if the businesses on St George Street
want to engage in this, then let them open up an enclosed shopping mall, fer gosh sakes! Otherwise,
the streets are public thoroughfares. I couldn't have said it better.
18 may 00 |
They call this the TREASURE COAST And I gotta admit, after the tours of
the millionaires' homes along the Ste Lucie River and the Intercoastal Waterway,
I can well understand why.
 Anyway, reading about the area came after living the ldyllic life for four days. You know, lolling
about the pool, watching the Cuban emigres mow the lawns, eating at the many
restaurants (most of them really great actually ...especially Benihana's and
a place called "No Anchovies"), so... it was then time to
move on. Don't want to spoil too much of a good thing.
But sometime what you see ain't what is really part of the underbelly.
For that, while in Stuart, we picked up the local papers to get a flavor of the
area. This is some of what we found. If those who live there all the time,
and love the place, don't yell at me for this. Talk with the folks who run
The St Lucie News. They are the ones who help set the information
tone for visitors.
Neighbors in Stuart FL protest Rehab halfway house | The Community
Baptist Church in Port Salerno wants to open a halfway house for people
recovering from substance abuse histories. Old Frank (pictured here) is
but one of the NIMBY opponents standing outside his home. Martin County
officals are concerned that the good church elders may have deceived them.
In other news: A 74 year old widow was physically evicted by Ocala
sheriff's deputies because she was behind in paying $1,200 (home-owner assiocation fees)
on her $150,000 home, where she'd lived for seven years.
The Silver Meadows North Association forclosed on her house and had her thrown
in a homeless shelter beacuse of the arrears.
And in West Palm Beach three workers at an assisted living senior center were arrested
after videotaping themselves dragging a frail naked 96 year olf woman
acorss the floor. They said she was being aggressive.
Domestic violence In Tavers FL, a man was arrested for murdering his daughter by beating
her for soiling herself. While her friends were at a Thanksgiving Day celebration, her dad, Richard Adams,
beat her so hard her liver broke into three parts, and she bled to death internally. Adams attorney said
the dad "thought she was being defiant".
Ecohazards The Sunday paper had a big feature article on the
enviornmental destruction of Lake Okachobee. Seems that ranchers, orange grove
farmers, golf course maintainers and growing residential communities in south Florida
feel killing this 700 square mile lake is of secondary importance to their needs.
I suppose they must be right.
Things that really irk me today |
The Nissan ad that has
jerks in SUVs tearing up the terrain while playing polo on the edge of what looks like the Cliffs of Dover
16 may 00 |
Trip Highlights You won't get the photos right away.
That's right. I don't have a digital camera. And what you see today shall be filled out as the week progresses.
So here is an outline of what to expect:
• Stuart FL Millionaire Row: Sewall's Point in particular but digressions into the
somewhat weird phenomena of really rich people (along with many not so rich) who insist on living in gated "communities"
with names ending in words like Plantation and Colony; Other Stuart stuff: Neat eateries including
No Anchovies. And some thoughts on Gladiator,
yeah that's right I went and saw it on the very first night!
• St Augustine, FL After 400 years the oldest European started city in North America turns
out to be a tourist trap, but a very pretty one. To bad everything closes early.
• Jacksonville, NC and the Carolinas in general Okay. I figure there are no porno places since
there had to be a church at least every 500 foot from one another. Well, there were no gay bars (none we could find at any rate,
though we didn't try very hard to locate one). There were, however, many "Gentlemen's Clubs" (read = "Stripper joints"),
and pawn shops. Lots of Pawn shops. Redemming factors included the peninsula east of Morehead City, and the ferry rides
to Ocracoke and Hatteras. More on these to come, including some rambling comments on pirates.
• Maryland's Eastern Shore
• Philadelphia
• Lambertville, NJ
mar 1-16 |
mar 17-31 |
apr 10-16 |
apr 17-26 |
apr 30-may 5 |
may 16-May 30
Catch you on the rebound!
~Will Brady
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about "Short Notes"
"Short Notes" was the title of a column I wrote while
working for a newspaper in the Adirondack Mountains some years ago.
The format was similar to what you'll find here, except augmented
with pictures and maps. The subject matter shall sometimes be personal,
at other times comments on events or situations of which I am aware. Comments,
suggestions welcomed but not always acted upon.
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LEGAL & DISCLAIMER NOTICE: © 2000 / Will Brady
I hope you've found this site interesting, even thought provoking || Occasionally
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This website is maintained by Will Brady / wbrady@connix.com /
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