Delayed, but Finally up: Last Week's New York Minutes

Feb 15th: The Schisms article really surprised me. It’s easy to be ignorant of the racism still in America, especially growing up white in some of the whitest states in the country (ME and NH). The way these officers acted was completely and utterly nuts. Why would you taser an unarmed 73-year-old?
Feb 16th: Tea time for Republicans. I wonder if this will split the party eventually? Very theatrical, very narrow visioned, oh and while they seem polite, very elderly. I wonder if this movement will eventually, just simply, die off? Oh, and the President’s birth certificate IS NOT fake. And global warming is not correct statement as far as I am concerned. Global CLIMATE SHIFT is. Some places get hot, some get cold. Mostly things get hot. Go ask a polar bear.
Feb 17th: I’d love to actually see someone wear what I see in a fashion show. Moving on. Actually moving from a point I made yester “Global Weirding” is much better then global warming. I have to agree with him, it’s the activist as much as the antagonists who have gotten facts wrong on climate shift. Sorry, “Global Weirding.”
Feb 18th: Can’t find anything interesting in today’s edition. A couple letters to the editor about the tea party not being crazy caught my eye. There’s an interesting little article on how to grow plants with just water, fish, and, well the plant. I kind of want an aquaponic garden now. According to Microsoft “aquaponic” is not a word. Somebody should tell the New York Times.
Feb 19th: Ghost Writer sounds interesting. I’ll pass on Shutter Island. Obama meets up with the Dalai Lama. China objects to this of course, but it really just makes it look bad for China. Dear Google: please move out of China. Oh and a school in China is supposedly where some cyber attacks took place. Dear Google: Really, get out of China.

Fiction Train 2

James Laboke was walking to work yesterday when he saved a man’s life. While walking 4 miles to his job in Old Orchard, Laboke noticed a car stalled on the tracks. In the car, unconscious, was an 80-year-old man. The next train was scheduled to go by soon.
“I knew there was no time,” Laboke said, “I had to do something.” Finding all the doors locked, he ran 100 yards to the nearest police station. Janet Paradiso received the call about the incident at 6:05 AM. The next train, an Amtrak Downeaster, was scheduled to come through around 6:10 AM.
Rushing over, Paradiso heard the train’s whistle as she arrived. Realizing there was no time, she rammed her cruiser into the car, pushing it off the tracks. 30 seconds after this, the Amtrak train passed through at 40 mph.
The 80-year-old man, one Francois Truffaut, is a diabetic and had been in insulin shock when he passed out on the tracks. He is listed in stable condition at Southern Maine Medical Center. “I don’t remember a thing,” he says. Truffaut, a Quebec native, had been making the trip to Old Orchard every summer since he was a kid.
Laboke works at the Eezy Breezy restaurant on East Grand Street. Charles Champaigne, Laboke’s boss, commented on his actions. “It doesn’t surprise me at all,” Champaigne told a reporter. “That young man is one of my most responsible employees.” Laboke, a Sudanese refugee, is 17 years old.

Fiction Train

The Below Report is fictional.

A police officer saved an elderly man’s life today by pushing his car off the tracks. Janet Paradiso received the call at 6:05 AM. The next Amtrak train was scheduled to come through around 6:10 AM.
The call reported an unconscious man in a car on the tracks. Paradiso heard the train’s whistle as she arrived. Realizing there was no time, she rammed her cruiser into the car, pushing it off the tracks. 30 seconds after this, the Amtrak train passed through at 40 mph.
The 80-year-old man, one Francois Truffaut, is a diabetic and had been in insulin shock when he passed out on the tracks. He is listed in stable condition at Southern Maine Medical Center.

New York Minutes: One Week.

NEW YORK MINUTES:
FIRST WEEK:
MONDAY: I’m kind of bummed my dad has his four year degree; I could have gone to SandHoke. On the flipside, I think four years of college is worth it, expenses aside. I’ve spent nearly two years here already and I’d be mad if this was my last year, especially now that’s everything finally coming together. I’m impressed by the low dropout rate though, good for them.
TUESDAY: I’ve never read an opera review before, but when I saw a giant picture of a pink bed, a freaky lady, and the words “Proper Swine” beneath it, I decided to give it a shot. Wasn’t that bad of an article, I guess, though it kind of lost me at some points since I never took any singing classes. Still, sounds like a fun story for kids, iron shoes and all. I just hope the composer doesn’t become an attention hog if the opera becomes too famous. Sorry, I just had to add the pun.
WEDNESDAY: So spreading this out now that I’m getting the hang of it. Canada’s prepping for the Olympics, besides that not much else. Google uses Buzz to bump into Facebook. Never heard of Buzz until now, I should probably explore it.
THURSDAY: Greece seems to be in trouble, they’d been an article covering that in Wednesday’s edition too. I like how American’s think we crippled Germany’s finances after WWII when I read Daniel Gros saying that “the Germans are the only ones with deep pockets.” Other repetitively themed articles include Google (now talking about fast internet) and the Olympics which is a given. Oh Faulkner’s in here too, but I skipped him as I laid reading.
FRIDAY: Finally this paper is starting to grab my attention with the weekend art sections. HBO is trying to make a new a TV show from the writer’s of Entourage. Do we get HBO on campus? I might tune in. Both Wolfman and Lightning thief are said to be rather mediocre, but I could have told them that. Oh and in the A section, there was a great article buried on Republicans and Medicare. It’s funny what you find while browsing.

Practice Article: Car Crash

The below article is based on fictitious information and was used as a practice assignment. None of the details are real.

A car crash on Mile Hill Rd. in Belmont, Mass. left two passengers hospitalized Monday evening. The accident happened around 9 PM when Jamie Peterson, seventeen, crashed going around a curve. Peterson walked from the crash.
Tom Carroll, Jr., also seventeen, was the first on the scene. He had been following behind Peterson’s white mustang, according to police. “I thought the worst,” Carroll said when he saw the Mustang speed up. “They were flying. It’s hard to see…something like this. You realize when you see it what could happen, especially on this road.”
Josie M. Crandall, who lives on Hill Rd., saw the accident and called police. “I’ve seen a car going so fast on this road. It’s a dirt road, and it’s really easy to lose control.”
Rescuers managed to save the two passengers, both female, using the Jaws of Life. They were taken to Memorial Hospital located in Belmont. One of the passengers is now in stable condition while the other has been airlifted to Mass. General Hospital in Boston. According to Lt. Judith Barkus the identity of the two passengers is unknown. A fatal accident happened at the same spot in 1998, in which two people were killed.

Local Church and Students step up for Haiti

On January 29^th, volunteers sat in restaurants and changed Haitian lives a dollar at a time. Jessy Dick, a student at UNH, sat at a table in Scorpion’s Bar and Grill. She smiled at those who entered and asked if they could donate a dollar for Haiti. She wasn’t alone. Beside her other volunteers sat as did many others did in restaurants all around Durham. A few even stood in the street asking for donations. The event was called One Less Beer For Haiti and, no matter where the volunteers were, their numbers and success were evident.

“This was an eye opener,” Dick commented, “for local students who wanted to get involved [in Haiti] but didn’t have an outlet.”

The event ran from 5:00 PM to midnight January 29^th. During the fundraiser, patrons of Scorpion’s Bar and Grill could donate a dollar to the fundraiser and the restaurant would match it up to five hundred dollars. They weren’t the only ones. Libby’s Restaurant, The Village Pizza, Billard’s, Wings Your Way, JP’s, and Pauly’s Pocket also either had tables set up or simply tins beside the cash register helping the cause. Young’s, while closed during the event, had a table with volunteers outside asking for donations as well.

Ben Sturgill, a UNH Alumni and active member of Durham Evangelical Church, ran the event. When advertised in chalk on campus, One Less Beer for Haiti was misrepresented as being ran by Intervarsity, a student organization. That was caused by “a miscommunication,” Sturgill explained, “Student organizations aren’t allowed to team up with businesses that sell liquor…which was why it became an event for the [Durham Evangelical] church.” The money was to be donated to Heartline and Partners in Development, two organizations helping Haiti by running clinics according to Sturgill. He also explained how the event came to be.

“When this happened,” he pointed out, “the students were on break, many in different places and they said ‘hey we got to do something about this.’ And so we have three people [from DEC] that are down in Haiti on the ground…[They] help out through these organizations.” And help they did.

The event raised $3,631.80, half of which went to Heartline and the other half Partners in Development. While just last week the three DEC members returned home, Pastor John Wizwell on Wednesday, and both Jeremiah Cady and Jen Froning on Saturday, Sturgill stated that the church is “currently organizing another trip back.”

A New York Minute: "High Caffeine, Monk's Wine Packs Devlish Punch for Scots"

I couldn't stop laughing at this article, even though I feel for the Scots issue with alcohol abuse. Wine is usually portrayed to me as a wussy thing to drink. It is only to be used at wine tastings or at fancy restaurants. So to hear it littering a housing project and used as a weapon in 114 crimes in three years is hilarious. The Scotland government is afraid of this "Wreck the Hoose Juice" and with good reason for it seems to be their equivalent of Jagerbombs. Who knew wine could cause this much trouble? You'd think they'd stop after the wine hangover, but no not the Scots. And I use to think giving them tequila was bad.