Daily Archives: July 12, 2010

The Newtown Bee Is Alive And Tweeting

Published July 12, 2010

After discovering what Twitter looked like 100 years ago — as seen in a dusty, yellowed copy of The Newtown Bee dated 1913 — I was delighted to discover the little community paper in Connecticut still exists. (Family-owned since 1877.) Not only that, the Bee tweets ()!

Reporter Nancy Crevier got wind of the blog post and interviewed me by phone for a story:

Back To The Future — How ‘Tweet’ It Is
When Mr Smith shared with him a copy of the January 3, 1913, Newtown Bee that had belonged to his great-great-great-grandfather, Botsford H. Peet, and which had recently come into his possession, Mr Phelps was as intrigued as the web developer about the style of writing common to that era of newspapers. Newsy bits of information were regularly published on the front page and throughout, most of them no more than several words long — just like modern tweets.

I just like that they call me Mr. Phelps.

This Just In: Brown Will Vote For Finance Overhaul

Published July 12, 2010

From Sen. Scott Brown’s news release:

I’ve spent the past week reviewing the Wall Street reform bill. I appreciate the efforts to improve the bill, especially the removal of the $19 billion bank tax. As a result, it is a better bill than it was when this whole process started. While it isn’t perfect, I expect to support the bill when it comes up for a vote. It includes safeguards to help prevent another financial meltdown, ensures that consumers are protected, and it is paid for without new taxes. That doesn’t mean our work is done. Further reforms are still needed to address the government’s role in the financial crisis, including significant changes to the way Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac operate.

He joins a handful of Republicans who will support the landmark legislation.

From AP:

Brown joins Sen. Susan Collins of Maine as two crucial Republican votes for the legislation.

Democratic leaders were still looking to secure the 60 votes needed to overcome procedural hurdles. They were awaiting word from Sens. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who supported an earlier Senate version of the bill.

Massachusetts Is Really Super Great

Published July 12, 2010

Boston Public Garden in fall

The Public Garden is a great place. (Michael Durwin/Flickr)

Today the commonwealth releases a list of 1,000 great places — or is it the 1,000 greatest places? (The official Web page shows both. If it’s the latter, I pity the 1,000th greatest place in Massachusetts.)

Gov. Deval Patrick established a commission 19 months ago to round up the Bay State’s great places, and they came up with about 15,000, with help from the public. Someone — probably an editor — told them to get the list down to 1,000. Bob Oakes said it best this morning: “It’s almost as if you can’t throw a stone without hitting something great.”

In seriousness, Massachusetts is filled with great places. “Greatness is all around you,” said my favorite native, Ben Franklin. Boston Harbor, the Public Garden and the Common, the USS Constitution, the Old North Church, the Old South Church, the Granary Burying Ground, the Mt. Auburn Cemetery, the Longfellow Bridge, the Zakim Bridge, Mass MoCA, Walden Pond, Cape Cod, Harvard Square, Davis Square, Sullivan’s food stand, the little park behind my apartment, ooh, the Arnold Arboretum — OK, I see how you could generate a list pretty quickly.

What are you greatest places? Let’s get a list going. Share in the comments.

Update: Here’s the list (Scribd). It’s not weighted.