Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
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Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
Water Shoes
Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
Good news about The Great Courses
Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
Civilized: Fruit forks and knives
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Wednesday, June 9. 2010

Local News and Color

We, and others, have often felt that one of the best uses of the internet is to disseminate local - very local - news. Local newsletters/online newspapers will never win millions of daily viewers, but if they can pick up some local ads (and if the area has broadband), it's a better biz model nowadays than the dying dead tree format.


Our pal Greg Sullivan has just begun publishing The Rumford Meteor. Pretty slick for a small town rag, and a good model for what can be done.


Among other things, he posted this video of Maine clam diggers:


 

Posted by Bird Dog in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 08:18 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

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Man does that look like back breaking work (spoken from my sedentary database analyst position with butt firmly planted on the home office chair). I admire those that find their niche in farming to provide me with the food I so love. That doesn't mean I want to pursue that career though....

But, used to love those clams. I'm allergic to 'em now from having a close encounter with a bad one 20+ years ago. Sensitized me to whatever chemical is in shellfish. Funny thing is, I can eat them fried. Go figure.

I am still trying to figure out how they knew where to plunge the hand into the mud to come up with the clam. I've done a bit of the sand dig style where a water jet gives away their position, but I cannot see what clue the guy spots on the mud surface.

So for now, my clamming is done at HoJo's (just kidding, they're gone.) I miss those clam rolls!
#1 JoeC on 2010-06-09 14:40 (Reply)
Great video. It is one of the great pleasures of summer to sit on the dock eating lobsters and steamers, and having a beer.

But let's not all head out to the flats to dig our own -- the activity is licensed and pretty closely monitored in Maine, and rightly so, in my view. Nor, obviously, should any tourist ever pull a trap, a la Kramer in Seinfeld, for free lobster.

Mismanagement of fisheries is a pretty good example of "The Tragedy of the Commons," and why some basic agreed upon level of regulation can be a positive for all parties concerned. Clammers have done OK for most of the past decade or two, as the gentlemen in the video discuss.
#2 Escort81 (Link) on 2010-06-09 16:14 (Reply)

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