Behind the Headlines

By Stephanie Ariganello; stephaniea@monroenews.com

Reading! Yay! I was just turned on to a new (for me at least) Web site from coworker and fellow reader Stacy. You can find it at www.goodreads.com. it’s an online community specifically for readers.

With another Big Read right around the bend, and a community focus on reading, I figured I would mention this. Plus, as “the paper” or “the news” we kind of have a vested interest in the further promotion of the written word.

It seems like it could be a great place to get some Christmas gift ideas, too.

A short amount of time later:

At Staples, three young men decided they would set up hobo shop, pitching a makeshift tent and waiting things out in the comfort of their space heated room on air matresses. They said they were in line since about 4 p.m. yesterday. Laptops were the hot thing.

The people gathered there, though most were not together, seemed to have a certain camaraderie about them. It seemed like a kinder, gentler shopping experience.

Shawna reported, that even though she and her sister were some of the first shoppers at Old Navy, there was no MP3 player to be had. They grabbed their stuff and got in line, but were told that only the first 39 people who got wristbands when they came in the doors were eligible for the free gift. She definitely felt shafted, she said.

Bath and Body Works and other mall stores, though, Shawna reported were moving along swimmingly.

Original plans were for Santa to show up at Frenchtown Square mall today, but someone realized that traffic might be lower due to the Michigan-Ohio State football game.
So Santa won’t debut until tomorrow.
That might leave some kids blue. But maybe Santa doesn’t care. After all, when he’s done sliding down the chimney, isn’t his soot-stained suit all scarlet and gray?

By Stephanie Ariganello; stephaniea@monroenews.com

No, no. That should read “cents”. Okay, so some of the humor may be lost in the reading, since there is a clear difference in spelling, but imagine hearing it.

Talking to Charles Londo, CFO/Admin for the county, about the upcoming budget last week:
He relayed that the prelim budget has the county spending $53,699,523 in 2008. I jokingly asked what the change was, since it was such a huge number.

“Cents? Oh, we don’t use any cents at the county,” said Mr. Londo.

I immediately laughed. It’s a statement probably confirming what most of you have suspected all along.

“Wait,” he said. “That’s not how it sounded.”

By Stephanie Ariganello
stephaniea@monroenews.com

I met with a woman earlier today who was using a hair curling iron when the cord separated from the unit, sending the current into her arm, through her body and out the top of her head and one of her feet. She couldn’t described the pain, but said there had been a loud noise like gunshots, the world slowed down and a wide blue arc connected her flesh to the electrical outlet by way of thin black cord.

One of the medical professionals she has been working with told her that her electrical system was overloaded and shut down, like a plug during a storm, and they just haven’t been able to get it back up and running.

Usually when someone experiences a physical trauma, we can relate. Who hasn’t fallen down, or gotten cut, or burned accidentally? We’ve all felt pain at some point - whether fleeting or otherwise and have at least vague memories of what it’s like.

This, however, was not one of those situations.

I always thought it was hilarious in the movie So I Married an Ax Murderer when they are talking about situations that would be gross or uncomfortable, mentioning things like going to eat a steak and discovering a bandaid, or drinking lots of coffee, eating a bran muffin and being trapped in a traffic jam on a bridge. One of the characters offers up - “being electrocuted” which just doesn’t seem to fit. That scene kept playing in my mind today, before going to meet with Rita and her lawyer. How would it feel, I wondered. How would I describe it to people?

There are so many things that are interelated to our electrical functioning. Think back to high school bio - electrical currents are what keep us going. When Rita was zapped by the cord, it did more than just hurt. Her entire right side doesn’t really respond and ” feels like 1,000 pounds” now. She can’t work. She can’t stand up. She can’t think of words.

When it rains, she feels the thunder and lightning. Fourth of July was excruciating, she said. She could feel each whiz and pop. It just made me think, even though the current has left her, it’s still bouncing around inside her. She said occasionally a small charge will make its way out of her skin, leaving a burn mark behind. The shocking happened in January and instead of time healing all wounds, the passing months seem to be revealing more ways the electricity has burned paths through her.

There should be a story coming in the next few days, talking about Rita’s experience as well as what her and her lawyer are now trying to do: make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Well, maybe not, but it’s interesting to see part of an outsider’s perspective.

Check out what Jack Schultz, author of Boomtown USA and authority of economic development in small towns, had to say about his recent visit to Monroe.

Read his musings here.

This comes to the newsroom from Kellogg’s of Battle Creek:

Think you’re a Crazy Good storyteller? NEW Pop-Tarts Splitz toaster pastries are encouraging kids to get their creative juices flowing this summer with its Crazy Good Kid Creative Writing Contest. Children ages eight to 12 will have the chance to share their passion for Pop-Tarts by submitting an essay about the latest addition to the Pop-Tarts toaster pastries lineup. The only requirement is that stories include at least one mention of the new Pop-Tarts Splitz. Beginning August 13, 2007, original essays can be submitted with parental permission online at www.poptarts.com/splitz.shtml.

Here are the 2007 NCPERS Conference expenses, as obtained through a FOIA to the Monroe County Employee Pension Board. There is an information request in for the City Pension Board expenses also.
The information was provided by Deb Elmore, retirement specialist and the person in charge of expense reports. Each of the attendees had a $890 registration fee for the conference. Hotel costs were $1,716.40 for each participant (7 nights at $245.20 a night).
The costs that varied were airline - ranging from $643.73 to $705.10. And the rest of the money reportedly spent on meals, shuttles and airport parking.
Clayton Charron, total cost: $3,311.50 - Mr. Charron’s expenses include only registration, airfare of $705.10 and hotel. He did not put in for any additional reimbursements.

Nancy Colpaert, total cost: $3,319.49 - airfare $643.73; meals $69.36.

Deb Elmore, total cost $3,476.25 - airfare $661.09; meals $134.76; airport parking $56; and airport shuttle $18.

Pamela Jones, total cost $3,336.25 - airfare $690.60; meals $0; mileage to airport 50 miles at 48.5 cents for $24.25; shuttle from airport $15.00.

Henry Lievens, total cost $890 - paid for own airfare, hotel and meals; reimbursed only for cost of registration.

Charles Londo, total cost $3,448.75 - airfare $691.10; meals 133.25; shuttle $18.00.

James Morgan, total cost $3,276.50 - Mr. Morgan’s expenses include only airfare of $670.10, hotel and registration fee. He did not put in for any additional reimbursements.

William Sisk, total cost of $890 - Mr. Sisk reimbursed the retirement system for airfare and hotel on 7/20/07. Paid for meals; he was reimbursed only for cost of registration.

David Thompson, total cost $3,353.93 - airfare $670.10; meals $77.43.

Grand total for county: $25,302.67

By Paula Wethington

My sisters and I are long-time Funky Winkerbean comic strip fans. The Monroe Evening News runs the Sunday strip but not the daily, so I have to go to some effort to keep up with the story line.

Anyway, yesterday, one of my sisters asked “Is Lisa terminal?” And we all knew which Lisa she was talking about (Funky Winkerbean’s Lisa Moore), since neither our sister Lisa or cousin Lisa are seriously ill.

I have been following the comic strip story line closely enough to tell her the answer was yes.

Well, from one of my other sisters, I found out us fans are watching the details unfold for a plot line that was determined awhile back. Go to Funky’s site and you’ll see both a news article and blog from the author hinting at what’s in the future for one of his most popular characters.

CNNMoney.com created a list of the top 100 small cities to live in based on a combination of economic opportunities, schools, safe streets, things to do and sense of community.

Based on those criteria, the #1 small town was Middleton, Wis.

Michigan had three cities:

#37- Plymouth Township

#55- Farmington

#59- Saline

What would be your top 5? What criteria would you use to judge?

Actually, I just put that header because with the new feed on Monroetalks.com I feel pressure to make the titles a little more intriguing.

Existentialist question of the day: If you were doomed to repeat one life, would you choose to repeat the life you’re living right now?

As a reporter I often find myself hobnobbing with people who may not be at the high points in their lives - sometimes it has to do with cops/corrections, other times it’s scandals and still others it has to do with
injustices or inequities in the world. I’m often tempted to ask the aforementioned question, but part of me feels like it’s not fair.
The simple act of asking questions already leads to self examination. What would a question like this do?

Let me know. Would it be fair to ask? How would you answer?

U.S. Rep. John D. Dingell was in town the other day to commend the local Ducks Unlimited chapter for its help in raising money to help expand the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge, which Rep. Dingell enabled through legislation.

Ducks Unlimited calls itself a conservation group, which it is. But that doesn’t mean they want to necessarily conserve ducks. They work to create habitat so ducks can make more ducks and hunters can bag more ducks.

Rep. Dingell, an avid hunter himself, put the whole thing in a little better perspective during his comments to the group about his relationship with ducks. “While I like to shoot them, I also just like watching them and knowing that they’re there,” he said.

So will 7-7-07 be a lucky day for people or is it just all hype?

I’m still undecided on how I feel about the superstition. Should I consider it to be a lucky day and go play the lottery or should I just let it go on by like any other day.
What do you think? What are your plans for the day? Gambling? Attending weddings? Or just hanging back and let the day slide by?

Remember that old saying about corn plants - knee high by the Fourth of July?

Driving my usual routes through the county, I’ve noticed that unless knees have suddenly gotten a lot further from the ground, the corn stalks are enormous for this early in the season.

Of course, this is all from an non-farmer eye. So I ask coworker/Ag reporter Dean C. what his take is. He said the knee high thing is not really a good measure anymore, but that some of the corn was looking a little tall. The other night while driving through the county, he said he and his family were trying to spot the fireworks off in the distance. When they drove by the tall corn, the view was blocked.

Of course, he said, this was likely the early corn, it didn’t appear to be pollinated yet and in outlying areas of the county such as Ida and the like, it was closer to knee high than towering.

What’s the deal? Does it seem like a banner year for tall corn to you or what? Will Monroe County suddenly become the setting for a sci-fi worthy experience where the corn grows into menacing stalks that come alive and enslave us?

I got a chance to go on the day sail with the tall ship Niagara on Monday. It was a fascinating voyage and left me wondering how sailors of yore managed to figure out all the complicated ballet of lines, canvas and rigging that would push a square-rigged ship through the water. I couldn’t imagine captains maneuvering these ships so they could blast the heck out of each other with cannons.

Here are a few of the things I learned during the voyage on Niagara:

I was stunned to see that the ship was steered by a tiller rather than a wheel such as you might see in the pirate movies. Capt. Wesley Heerssen noted that warships of the day used tillers because the wheel and its more complicated mechanism would be harder to repair if cannon fire struck parts of it. A tiller, on the other hand, could be replaced by any stout piece of lumber.

In a sea battle of the day, it always was better to be upwind of the enemy and it didn’t have much to do with clean air or maneuverability. It meant that if you fired your cannon, the smoke would trail downwind toward the enemy, partially obscuring their vision. And when they fired, their cannon smoke would be blown back into their ship.

“Shiver me timbers,” a stereotypical seaman’s phrase, actually was a working ship order. The timbers were the yardarms holding the topsails. Shiver me timbers referred to spilling air or luffing the sails, causing them to flutter in the wind and shake or “shiver” the wooden yardarms.

The crew members on Niagara are confined to hammocks in the poorly ventilated and cramped belowdecks area even on steamy nights while the ship is under way because there’s too much activity involved in sailing the ship on deck to have sleeping bodies around.

The bowsprit – the front of the ship that extends out over the water ahead of the ship’s hull and holds headsail booms and stays once was part of the ship called the bird’s head because the bowsprit resembled a beak and holes for anchor chains on each side of the bowsprit resembled eyes – like the giant head of a bird. It used to be the place where crew crawled out to go to the bathroom. That’s why a ships toilet still today is known as the head.

The Niagara can carry as much as 12,000 square feet of sail. The crew last tried to move the boat with its onboard supply of long oars about five years ago. They moved it, very, very slowly, and no one’s hankering to try it again anytime soon.

The ship’s 800 pound anchor is raised and lowered manually, usually with crew members winching it aboard using a giant capstan amidships. It’s like a giant spool of thread on end and has slots around its diameter that pieces of stout lumber will fit into creating a spoke-like arrangement. Each crew member is assigned to push against one of the lumber “spokes” as they walk in a circle around the capstan to winch the anchor aboard.

The captain said the ship usually stays off the water or out of the way of storms, but he recalls one harrowing episode in the northern Great Lakes when a storm blew up while the ship was anchored near the coast. The anchor wasn’t holding and the ship had to use both its engines running at full speed to help the anchor hold and keep the ship from being dashed against the coast. Of course, in the old days, the ships didn’t have engines.