Endless Knots

Decide to Network by Robert Muller

Every now and then, we get a request for copies of the "Decide to Network" postcard, backstory here. One such came yesterday, prompting me, post-Boston Marathon, to remember the power of this message. As noted before, when Robert Muller sent us this poem in 1981, there were 4 billion people in the world; 32 years later, we're 7 billion. There's a great deal more to say about Boston, the kind of post that takes a few hours, not a few minutes, like this one.

 

A woman as editor of the Boston Globe?

No, I've got no inside info nor am I starting a rumor (not deliberately anyway :) but...how 'bout it? With Marty Baron going to the Washington Post where he's replacing a man and whereas he replaced a man here in Boston and as only one newspaper of a major city (New York Times, interestingly the owner of the Globe) has a woman as editor, e.g. Chicago Sun-Times, Miami Herald, Baltimore Sun, Philadelphia Inquirer, and...need I go on...all have men as editors AND insofar as we've just elected our first senator who is a woman in Massachusetts PLUS our neighbors to the north have a slate of all women representing them, one has to ask: Isn't it time?

(And before someone pipes up with this: Yes, women have been publishers of major papers for a long time.)

Ever since Margaret Fuller nabbed the greatest number of headlines of her time (famously writing 250 articles in 18 months for the New York Herald Tribune following her stint as the first editor of The Dial), the path to the editorial top of newspapers has been paved with testosterone, often very good testorsterone, mind you, but still, it is 2012.

A little googling reveals that a woman did edit a Boston newspaper at one time. 170 years ago, according to the New York State Library's Women in Journalism: Newspaper Milestones:

Cornelia Walter was editor of the Boston Transcript and the considered to be the first woman to edit a major newspaper in the United States. One of her reporting highlights came on August 3, 1842, during a race riot in Philadelphia, in which she chronicled the plight of the black citizens who had been victimized and left homeless.

Meanwhile, I'm very happy to report that the paper where I got my start, The Pottstown Mercury, has as its editor, Nancy March.

So, Boston Globe Search Committee, how about it? Can you live up to the great standard set by The Merc? (Yeah, I know, The Times is a tad more impressive to some of you rubes...)

 

Stop the presses! I agree with Jeff Jacoby!

It happened. Rarer than a celestial line-up. Boston Globe's Jeff Jacoby, whose columns typically leave me, variously, shaking my head wondering how small-thinking a good writer can be or, worse, wondering how such poorly reasoned pieces can make it past the editors (where are you, Tom Winship?), has perfect pitch today. In "A Book Lover's Lament," admittedly a soft-ball, Jacoby puts aside his silly retro politics and gives us a beautiful love letter to books. Here are a few lines that I particularly like:

• "I love perusing book reviews and leafing through publishers’ catalogs and nosing around in bookstores. And as my wife discovered when she met me, my idea of interior decoration is books on bookshelves, preferably floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall."
• "With disposable income, however, the world changed. I realized that the pleasure of reading books was amazingly enhanced by the pleasure of owning books. I liked seeing around me books I had already read; I found it gratifying that my encounter with a book continued even after I’d finished reading it."
• "Ah, if only I could read books as fast as I acquire them! Even half as fast would be a blessing. Even a quarter as fast."
• "I’ll never catch up on my must-read list. How can I, when they keep publishing books I’m so impatient to read?"

Well done, Mr. Jacoby. Keep reading, please. And thanks.

 

"...Sign on to a big bold impossible enterprise"

Over the past six months, I've been working closely with Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative in Roxbury, MA. Bostonians -- and many many others around the country, if not abroad -- know of the remarkable things DSNI has achieved in its nearly three decades of existence, including launching a land trust in the most blighted area of Boston, now 225 units of permanently affordable housing, lovely homes; encouraged the creation of gardens and parks and an enormous green house where chop shops used to be; and numerous convenings of its residents that have given rise to a striking theory of place-based change that truly works.

Most recently and working with Boston Teacher Residency, DSNI has been involved with launching the Dudley Street Neighborhood Charter School, an in-district charter school that is part of the Boston Public School system, which will open in September. (Unless you're an expert on Boston public schools, it's almost impossible to understand the fine-point differences between pilot schools, innovation schools, in-district charter schools, and whatever-the-other charter schools are but, in short, there are five in-district charter schools in Boston, including the new elementary school.)

All of this is prelude to the point of this post. As a result of my involvement with DSNI, I've gotten to know people in this beloved city where I've lived for my entire adult life, people whom I'd never have met if I weren't doing this work. Among them is Melinda Marble, deputy director of Barr Foundation. (if you go to the Barr link, you'll see a picture of DSNI executive director, John Barros, talking with Patricia Brandes, exec direc at Barr). Each of these people deserves a post of their own but...

Melinda has started a new blog, Change Practice, "a blog about changing practice – and practicing change – in the world of philanthropy and nonprofits," which, if its first posts are any indicator of what this will have to offer, is, shall we say, ratthhhher promising. I was taken with a single phrase from Melinda's tribute to Bob Hohler, an extraordinary force for change (he was executive director of the Melville Charitable Trust) who died suddenly in June 2011. I recommend Melinda's post about Bob, filled with wisdom and insight. This single phrase, the title of this post, comes from this sentence: "Bob realized that the great gift of a job in philanthropy was not to process grants, give other people’s money away, but to sign on to a big bold impossible enterprise.  His was 'finding and fighting the causes of homelssness,' the memorable tag line he composed for National Public Radio."

Isn't that what we all should/could/want to do -- sign on to big bold impossible enterprises? Thanks, Melinda.

Shhhh...Acton Jazz Cafe (for your eyes only)

I am very conflicted about doing this post. It's one of those gem-finds that too much discovery might ruin--or make it impossible for me, a newcomer, and the regulars, who've been going forever, to attend.

Acton? Jazz? Cafe? I was as surprised as you might be driving out Route 119, turning into what looked like a mall, and ending up in this completely charming small venue (Tibetan prayer flags along one wall, pictures of performers on others) for a night of great music and terrific dancing.

Everyone dances; some people eat and drink; and the music just keeps playing.

Last night, it was Boston's own The Love Dogs.

The description from their site (someone's a great writer) captures them best:

Take one red-hot horn section - we're talkin' alto, tenor, baritone saxes and trombone - down and dirty. Add liberal amounts of barrelhouse boogie-woogie piano and stinging Fender guitar. Pour over a funky and swinging rhythm section that Blues Review magazine called "the best in the business", and top it all off with a crazy and charismatic front man with one of the biggest blues voices around. Season with a few years on the road tearing up juke joints, festivals and concert halls across the U.S. and Canada and on both sides of the Atlantic. Sound tasty? It's a recipe for music and mayhem, for intensity and irreverence; it's THE LOVE DOGS.

And here's a nice clip of them from the Acton Jazz Cafe itself (sorry, no embed available; "disabled by request"," it says on youtube. Rock on, AJC, Love Dogs, and all the great dancers who flooded the floor til nearly 1 AM.

 

 

The New Urban Mechanics

Now this is a really good idea from the City of Boston. Those in the Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics have 21-century toolbelts, according to this article from Governing, naming "Mechanics" Nigel Jacob and Chris Osgood "The 2011 Public Officials of the Year:"

When it comes to government innovation -- especially during tough times -- some of the best ideas come from thinking small. That’s the notion behind the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, a unique Boston IT agency focused on finding innovative ways to deliver services and increase citizen engagement. It’s like an in-house R&D shop for the city, and the two-person team that leads the office -- Nigel Jacob (left) and Chris Osgood -- says that a flexible focus on micro-projects is key. Most of the projects cost about $10,000, which may be subsidized through a combination of city operations funds and contributions from nonprofit and private partners. “In order to get these products up and running as quickly as possible and start showing value as quickly as possible, we try to make them as bite-sized as possible,” Jacob says.

But Jacob and Osgood’s small-scale focus has yielded big results. Their signature product, a maintenance-request app called Citizens Connect, has been downloaded more than 16,000 times and replicated in more than 20 countries since it was launched in 2009...

 

Sylvia, Amartya, BPL, 6 PM

 

 

Quite the line-up tonight at Boston Public Library when Sylvia Nasar, author of Grand Pursuit (and A Beautiful Mind and Knight Professor at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and my adored college roomie) engages in conversation with 1998 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences Amartya Sen, thinker extraordinaire, and accomplishments too long to list. Economic historian Claudia Goldin, president-elect of American Economic Association, is the moderator. 6-7:30, Rabb Lecture Hall, Copley Square Main Library. Here's one (of many) rave(s) for Sylvia's book. See you there!

Before the Marathon

Snapped some quick pics this morning as Michelle left for the Marathon. She had choices for where to pick up the buses to get out to the race start in Hopkinton, MA, and finally decided to join the Mass State Police contingent, which left from the Boston Athletic Club headquarters in South Boston.

She made a wise choice. After leaving her, Michelle's hubby Bob and I drove around to Boston Common, another pick-up point. Where Michelle was able to board a luxury coach quickly, at the Common thousands, literally, thousands ringed the Common from Tremont Street, along Boylston, and all the way around Charles Street (Bostonians can appreciate how far this really is), waiting to get on school buses.

One interesting/baffling thing: We were there at 7:15, early, obviously, and it was more than evident that something really big was afoot. Cops everywhere, barricades, volunteers, and, as mentioned, dozens of school buses.

So the rest of us schmoes were just waiting to be waved on. Yet one driver after another seemed to feel that honking would help. No honking. Take a breath. It's a holiday. A little embarrassed for my tourist passenger to see how rude our local drivers can be. Enough grousing. On to the pictures!

Check out clock over Bob's head

 

Many very thin people waiting to board at BCA

 

The all-important amenity

 

The po-lice waiting to escort the buses

That's Michelle on the bus

Get thee to Red Lentil

Speaking of Watertown, eat at Red Lentil. Boston Phoenix: "By now everyone knows Red Lentil is dog-plays-the-piano good. It’s the best all-vegetarian and lots-vegan restaurant Boston has ever had." I agree.

Many very delicious things

 

What's wrong with this picture?

Do you see what I see?