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Barack Obama Taking the Oath. Russ Dreaming Of Change. And did I snap a picture of hope in Obama's palm?
There are so many moments to write about from yesterday. The crowd, the speech, the poem, the music, the benediction, Michelle, Malia and Sasha, the moving vans outside the White House, Ted Kennedy on the floor, Bush in a Helicopter, Cheney in a wheelchair, the Obamas walking, the Obamas dancing, the Chief Justice stumbling….
But when I finished listening to his speech I grabbed my pen and wrote down three words. Service, Cooperation and Community. They were the words that jumped out to me during the speech. The belief that if we can all find a way to serve something greater than ourselves, work together, and care for our community; be that local, national or global, we can turn this spirit of hope into real change for the future.
It’s a simple message, and it may sound idealistic, but so did the idea of electing a black man, Barack Hussein Obama, to be the 44th president of the United States.
What a day.
The speech gives chills on a regular day. In the context of tomorrow’s inauguration, there are no words.
One of the oft-overlooked benefits of marriage is the right to legally adopt a second sports franchise. It’s important to ridicule friends and strangers that change their allegiance to teams based on a move, a philsophical difference with ownership etc. You are born into a team the same way you are born into a family name. I was born into the Giants, Yankees, Knicks and Rangers. I have problems with each franchise, but I can’t disown them. It’s like Obama said about Jeremiah Wright….(before he changed his mind on that).
Anyway, Rachel’s family is from Pittsburgh and they’re pretty rabid fans of the Black and Gold. So when my beloved Giants put up an uninspired performance against the hated Eagles, I had a justifiable team to fall back on. It’s not the same as cheering for Big Blue. But it feels real. It still feels like family.
So congrats to Polamalu’s hair and the rest of the Black and Gold. Russ was very excited….
Black and Gold and Russ
Russ Plays Terrible Towel
"This is Humiliating"
This is far from my area of expertise, but I’ve been trying to get a better grasp of the economic situation we’re in, and how we got here. Depending on where you get your news, it’s easy to find an email or article to point blame on a person or group. I received an email the other day, placing much of the blame on Barney Frank and Chris Dodd for missing the signs from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And giving kudos to those on the right for recognizing the signs before the democrats. One thing I do understand is that there is plenty of blame to go around, and the crisis was too large to place blame on a few people or one party. For a layman like myself, there has been one source for explaining the economic crisis in simplified terms. This American Life. Which is not only a great radio show, but makes a great podcast for long marathon training runs! The radio show produced two outstanding shows that explain the housing, credit and economic crisis through simple stories and language.
Show 1: Housing Crisis & the Giant Pool of Money
Show 2: Credit Default Swaps and CDOs
The team behind these two shows have also started a blog called Planet Money which has been helpful in tracking daily events, news and stories that relate to the status of our economy.
Sugar Hill, New Hampshire
To wrap up the year, Rachel and I traveled to NH, first to meet her parents for a few nights at The Sugar Hill Inn and then on to Portsmouth where we met cousin Jesse and Becky. Sugar Hill is a little town in the White Mountains, up the hill from Franconia (the proud hometown of Bode Miller). The towns around Sugar Hill are pretty sleepy, but a great place to ski, hike or escape busy life for a few days. We met two sisters at Franconia’s Main Street restaurant, “The Dutch Treat” that have lived there for 65 years. We asked them for directions and they said they didn’t know the street names….just to follow the creek and take a left over the bridge. The area is also famous for the Old Man of The Mountain. The face made of stone, which crumbled and fell in 2003.
The Old Man of the Mountain (Before and After Crumbling)
After Sugar Hill, we visited Portsmouth, which was a picture of health for small town, locally-owned businesses and downtown culture. The weather was hovering around zero and it snowed about 8 inches while we were there, but we stayed warm in a few great restaurants. We loved Jumpin’ Jay’s Fish Cafe for dinner and the Flatbread Company for lunch. We also had a good new year’s meal at the Portsmouth Brewery. The main courses were just okay, but we had fun with the paired appetizer and beer experience.
Portsmouth has a population comparable to Ithaca, and has a University nearby (UNH). They also went through a period where their downtown suffered and many locally-owned businesses and restaurants closed. But about 10 years ago, the local merchants and government organized to bring it back to life. And today the town is rich with great restaurants, shops, pubs, restored buildings, historical sites, etc. As Ithaca considers its own redesign and development of their downtown and commons, we should take notes from success stories like Portsmouth. One difference is the proximity of Portsmouth to Boston and other vacation towns. While Ithaca can draw people in the summer for their wineries, parks and lakes, they don’t have the same tourism draw in the middle of February.
A few pics of the town (not my own). The blizzard was not too conducive for photography.
Downtown Portsmouth
Market Square
Portsmouth's Tugboats
2008 was a year for change and a year for hope. Personally, it was a year with a big move, a new dog, and a career switch for Rachel. For our country, change and hope were the themes, and words of the year. When I moved to Ithaca, I saw an announcement in the local paper asking for article submissions along the theme of hope. It seemed fitting for where we were in our own lives, so I submitted an article and it got published over the holiday. To read it online, click here.
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