Thoughts on the Boston Globe Home-Delivery Fiasco

I visit the Boston area frequently. On my most recent visit I became aware that The Boston Globe was planning to switch its home-delivery vendor, and that the switch would take place beginning Monday, Dec. 28. The Globe sent a letter to all subscribers alerting them to the switch, and providing a new toll-free customer-service number and a new home-delivery URL. So far, so good (although everyone with whom I’ve had occasion to discuss this has questioned why the excellent delivery service they had been getting needed a change at all).

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On Trying To Have a Reasonable Discussion

Updated below with a response on Twitter to this post.

I’ve had a couple of lively Twitter exchanges lately with people who think differently than I do, in particular about the Affordable Care Act. Typically they start with me calling BS on some sweeping statement that gets made with no backup, they continue with both of us arguing our positions, and they end with the other person wishing me a “blessed day” and terminating the conversation, neither of us having convinced the other. After the most recent one, I decided I’d like to try to have the conversation in more than 140 characters.

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The Role of Obituaries

Note: I know. It’s been a while since any new content was posted here. This post represents an effort to be more purposeful about blogging regularly. No promises, but feel free to nudge.

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This week The New York Times posted an obituary of a rocket scientist named Yvonne Brill. The original version, since revised, led with her cooking skills, mentioned her commitment to parenting, and then got into her professional achievements. The above-linked version, in response to substantial outrage about how no male rocket scientist’s obit would carry a similar lede, has substituted her rocket-scientist status for the original reference to Stroganoff.

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Digitizing Downtown Retail

Flemington Borough is an interesting place. Flemington is the county seat for Hunterdon County, and is famous for lots of things, among them the Lindbergh kidnapping trial, which until this year was re-enacted every year, and its outlet shopping center. Interestingly, those two things have had a direct effect on the health of its Main Street.

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Phantom Election

Tuesday is election day, but you’d never know it around here. No campaign signs, no mailers, no robo-calling, no endorsements in my local paper, nothing. Not even redistricting has managed to generate any activity in most districts.

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Some thoughts on universal broadband

Yes, thank you for asking, I do have some thoughts about universal broadband Internet access.

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Can a pawn shop be a good citizen?

I had a lovely visit this week to a small city where I’m doing some research on an upcoming article. Like most cities in the Northeast, this one is definitely missing its manufacturing-related employment base, and lots of people there are working hard to try to revitalize its downtown in a post-industrial world. It’s a struggle.

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