Crown Jewels

Get this:

Miss Maine's crown turns up missing
September 29, 2009 17:43 EDT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) -- The woman crowned Miss Maine in June is missing a key piece of her wardrobe.

Susie Stauble of Gray is without a crown after someone stole it from her car last week.

Stauble tells WGME-TV that she kept the crown in a special brown box in the back seat of her car. Last week, she discovered it was missing as she was preparing for a speaking engagement.

Stauble says replacing the crown would be expensive, so she hopes it's returned to her before January when she will represent Maine in the Miss America Pageant. -- WGME-TV, http://www.wgme.com

Good God Miss Maine! You're keeping your jewels in "a special brown box" (cardboard) in the back seat of your car!?! Is that any way to treat your royal adornments? At least you could have kept them in the trunk...

Some Good Writing

My friend Anne pointed me in the direction of this article in The Boston Globe. A professor at Boston University, Lou Ureneck talks about who got him interested in writing and reporting and what he feels is a responsibility to introduce writing to other young people.

I’m in a position now to pass along the gift of encouragement. This has been one of those marvelous life turns that seem too good to be true. The students who come to me mostly want to be journalists. They are drawn by the excitement of the news, the chance to do work that matters and the urge to write. I love them for wanting to be reporters.

As I work with them, I can’t help but think that there are many others out there in the world who deserve this gift of writing. I think of the young people who are not in college because they lack the money or encouragement. It’s the people in the worst circumstances who most would benefit from the chance to see that their experiences and observations have value, and that the value can be expressed by writing. I salute those teachers who bring writing programs to prisons. - Lou Ureneck

If I didn't write I don't know what I would do. It has helped me through some of the toughest times in my life. It helps me communicate in a way I can't do verbally. It has introduced me to some of the most interesting people I know.

As I write this one of my former students shares my office as an intern. How cool is that?

What Mimi Keeps Seeing: Sea Bags

Sea Bags. Cool idea but over priced and over hyped.

This company based in Portland, Maine started in 1999. They make cute tote bags out of recycled sails (as in sailboats). They make a killing on them, too, since the sails are recycled and donated and the bags run somewhere between $95 and $145. For people who want a little taste of New England, they're a huge hit. I'm just tired of seeing press about them EVERYWHERE!

Sure they're durable, waterproof, and you can throw them in the washing machine. But should they cost so much money? Maybe they DON'T cost a lot of money and I'm just poor. If that's the case let me know and I'll stop complaining.

I just feel like the constant press (they are being featured in the October issue of the new Maine magazine -- of course) and the fact that you can get one pretty much anywhere these days (I saw them at a couple shops in Bar Harbor on Sunday) takes the special-ness out of them.

As a business they are doing everything right to make money. Great PR (they've been featured in magazines like Vanity Fair, Elle, and Lucky) and they are getting their product out to the people. But I think this overhaul of their product is too much. Sure, get the word out there...brand yourself...but don't overdo it to the point of saturation. Hopefully they won't turn into another fad.

Love on the Set

I really enjoyed reading this article by Aron Gaudet, director and editor of the documentary film "The Way We Get By" about the Maine Troop Greeters.

It takes a special couple to be able to live together, sleep together, and work together. I'm not sure I could do it but these two have been doing it for about 5 years now with no end in sight -- they get married in October.

It was January of 2004 when I first met Gita Pullapilly. My friend and Gita’s co-worker, Dan Ferrigan, had brought us together because he thought we might share a similar dislike for our jobs in television news and a similar interest in documentaries. The first thing I said to Gita was, “I know you don’t want to work in television, so what do you want to do with your life?”— She would later tell me she was put off by my forwardness, but it made her think about her future. -- Aron Gaudet

Thankfully Gita gave Aron another chance...how many times have we written someone off because of a bad first impression?

In any case, falling in love on the job has it's pros and cons. Luckily these two have been successful.

Parking in Bangor

Gotten a parking ticket recently in Bangor? Well, even if you haven't you should read this hilarious post by Al Diamon of Media Mutt.

What I Learned from Charlotte's Web

I found this amazingly on-point blog post about Charlotte (the spider/copywriter from the book Charlotte's Web) at The Urban Muse. I think it's really cool and always surprising where we can take writing lessons from. Charlotte might be just a spider in E.B. White's book, but she has a lot of good points. Read them here.

The Ellsworth American: Digital

I sort of love what The Ellsworth American has done with its website. It no longer publishes the newspaper online. They've come up with two genius ideas and ways to get the news you want:

1. Digital version of the newspaper. For a fee, you can read The Ellsworth American online in a fully searchable digital edition. You have to PAY to read the newspaper online...what a novel idea.

2. Fenceviewer. This is where you can get free community news. It's not the newspaper, but web content FOR the web. I get the sense that the stories written here are more daily as opposed to the weekly paper. I could be wrong.

A newspaper making their readers pay for their content! How cool is that? Will other papers follow suit? Perhaps. If they want to stay in business I think they should. It makes perfect sense for a weekly to do what The Ellsworth American did. Have the most prominent news for free on the website...because other news outlets will probably be covering the same thing...and keep their longer feature articles for pay in the paper. This also ads added advertising possibilities to the company. Bravo!