Vineyard Views

In Memoriam

From these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.
— Abraham Lincoln

2012 wasn't 1994

Most sports writers reported the many parallels between the 2012 and 1994 Eastern Conference NHL finals between the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils. Brodeur still in goal, a must win Game 6 for the Rangers on Jersey ice, former Rangers captain Mark Messier's win guarantee backed up by a hat trick, etc.

In the end, 2012 wasn't another 1994.

Ten Years After

JDR

June 24, 1956 - May 22, 2002

Kreider's First NHL Records

A Boston College student just a month ago, the New York Ranger's Chris Kreider already holds the NHL record for scoring the most goals, five, and points, seven, in the Stanley Cup playoffs without ever having played in the regular season.

The old records were set by the Montreal Canadien’s Eddie Mazur, who scored in the 1952 and ’53 playoffs before skating in the 1953-54 season.

What's mainstream about Mainstream Media?

Have you bought a copy of Time or Newsweek in the last several years? Me neither. According to Wikipedia:

• During the second half of 2009 Time magazine saw a 34.9% decline in news stand sales. During the first half of 2010, there was another decline of at least one third in Time magazine sales. In the second half of 2010, Time magazine newsstand sales declined by about 12% to just over 79 thousand copies per week.
• In 2003, Newsweek's worldwide circulation was more than 4 million, including 2.7 million in the U.S; by 2010 it was down to 1.5 million (with newsstand sales declining to just over 40 thousand copies per week). 

The declines in advertising revenue are even worse. Sure, the internet is part of the story, but so is news judgment and bias.

Facebook Flops

Facebook's IPO closes up 0.6% or 23 cents a share. Pfffft.

F1 Art in Monte Carlo

Amidst all the Grand Prix de Monaco activity in Monte Carlo is a talented German artist who travels around the world from Grand Prix to Grand Prix, painting Formula 1 cars for the drivers, sponsors and fans. Armin Flossdorf's art can be seen and purchased at F1 Arts.  His next destination is the Grand Prix Montreal this June 8 - 10.

Also heard an inspirational talk this morning from David Coulthard, Monte Carlo resident and two-time winner of the Grand Prix de Monaco.

Spaced Out

I went to the post office last week to mail a Mother's Day card. A woman ahead of me at the window asked to buy some stamps and the postal worker said, "Here are our newest stamps of the Mercury astronauts."

When I got to the window I asked him, "What does it mean when our government ends America's space program and then issues new stamps about space exploration in the 1960s?"

I think his mouth is still hanging open.

Meanwhile, the United States Postal Service reported a $3.2 billion loss last quarter.

More on the travesty of America's space program here.

Hell Yeah!

Leave it to the New York Post to nail the headline for the New York Rangers' game 7 victory last night over the Washington Capitals. The series win advanced the Blueshirts to the 2012 Stanley Cup Conference Finals against their Hudson River rivals, the New Jersey Devils.

There's no love lost between the Rangers and Devils. When the teams played last March 19 the opening face off led to six fighting major penalties as the gloves were dropped just three seconds in and six players did a respectable Hanson Brothers routine.

The Rangers won the game 4-2.

Grand Prix Historique de Monaco 2012

The Grand Prix Historique de Monaco 2012 is underway in the streets of Monte Carlo, including the famed hairpin turn at the Fairmont Monte Carlo hotel. It's all very exciting, especially since James Bond's SPECTRE nemesis, Dr. No, arrived in his yacht.

Where the iThings Aren't

I watched Terrence Malick's film The Tree of Life for a second time the other night. One of the things that struck me was the way the boys played . . . outdoors. Climbing trees, running, kicking, jumping, swimming, wrestling, shooting BB guns, riding bikes with cards on the spokes, playing kick the can, lighting firecrackers, even breaking windows. My older brother and I did them all . . . for years. If you were a boy in the 50s or 60s, you did too.

So when I read David Gelernter's op-ed Make it a Summer without iStuff in today's Wall Street Journal, the generational differences about playing and letting the mind wander were stark, and saddening. Some excerpts:

"Minds need rest and work. They rest when you let them wander freely—go where they please, perch where they like. They work when there is a dangling mental rope for them to grasp hard and climb. But the iWorld fails to supply the child-mind with either of these basic needs. These fancy digital toys create a new kind of mental purgatory instead.

"Consider Web browsing, which is like flipping the pages of an endless picture book or watching million-channel TV. The Web is the perfect anti-concentration weapon. The instant you get bored, just click or tap and you are someplace else.

"In ancient times, you could at least count on children to prefer tearing around outside to sitting still. But ever since television made passive, thought-free entertainment as cheap and plentiful as low-grade gin, running around has been losing ground.

"The Web and videogames and online gossip, with their endless servings of colorful and seductive mental mush, never make children grip hard, pull hard, and climb a dangling mental rope. The ability to click themselves clear of all obstacles turns children with computers into little digital Henry VIIIs, sending plates clattering to the palace floor the moment their majesties are displeased.

"And so, yes to the Internet, yes to the cybersphere! Yes to modern iMachines and pads, pods, smartphones—and to liquor, fast cars and sleeping pills when you need them. But not for children."

Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, has made similar observations. As has essayist Tim Kreider, as reported in this earlier blog post Not Knowing.

22 years and 73,764 miles

We sold the Jeep Cherokee today after 22 years and 73,764 (mostly) island miles. It served us well with countless trips to the beach, fishing rods on top, leaving lots of sand on its rubber floors. The best memories are of the many times our then young boys sat in my lap and "steered" the Jeep home from Upper Beach.

A new Wrangler takes its place.

Day at the beach

Philbin Beach

Aquinnah (Gayhead) Lighthouse