Expanding horizons

Country_Journal.jpg

Hint, hint….

Today I added two blogs to my list of RSS feeds: by Paul Krugman (part of the NYTimes), and by Janet Van Fleet.

Krugman you probably know, the guy who just received the Nobel in Economics. I may get aggravated by him and cut him from the list sooner rather than later, though. He’s super-Keynesian, and that may get to me. Of course, you could argue that learning more about macroeconomic theory is not a bad idea, and Krugman’s certainly a good place to start!*

Janet hails from a different part of the world, spatially and conceptually. She’s an sculptor, designer, and artist who lives in Vermont. Check out her web page here, and her blog here. There’s a lovely, wry sense of humor incorporated into her pieces…. It’s a long story how I met her, and the short version is via The Guru.

* Interesting summary of Krugman’s work/position by the Nobel people linked here.

7 comments

  1. Janet Van Fleet says:

    Wow, I am so touched to see the old Country Journal sign and your links to my cyberspaces. Here is the long story: Sammy’s husband J.C. Burns worked with my husband R.D. Eno and me at a weekly newspaper in Plainfield, Vermont called The Country Journal in 1975-ish. It was an exhausting and hilarious undertaking, with almost no pay (We made $40 a week between us; I’m sure J.C. made even less.). On paste-up night we’d stay up all night putting the newspaper together. It was back in the day, before computers, so all the type was created on an IBM typewriter. By about 2:00 in the morning we were all blithering, which most of the time involved breaking down into hilarious laughter at the slightest provocation. My favorite thing that J.C. did: There was a column that was mailed to us every week from the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department called “Outdoors with BJ.” They supplied a line drawing of BJ, and J.C. created a little banner for the column. He’d draw appropriate seasonal/meteorological elements surrounding BJ. As fall would approach, for example, leaves would begin to drift down around BJ. Week by week, more leaves would accumulate around him, slowly obliterating his face, until by the time winter arrived, BJ would be completely covered. Then it started all over again with snowflakes.

  2. Berrian Eno-Van Fleet says:

    I’m Berrian, Janet and R.D.’s daughter. I’m 27 and I’m a second year law student at Tulane University in New Orleans. My parents might not know this but when I finally got old enough for them to leave me home alone, my favorite rebellious thing to do was to play Dad’s untouchable Beatles records and read through the old copies of the Country Journal. I would also play with the hot wax machine they used to paste up copy and pretend I was publishing an underground newspaper. The legend of the Country Journal lives strong in my imagination.

  3. Sammy says:

    Janet, that’s pretty much the story I’ve heard, along with the drives to Canada for the printing. Thanks for the bit about the banner art; that’s a new one for me…. Welcome, Berrien! Please stop in and see the real, actual Country Journal sign if you travel between VT and LA overland….

  4. R.D. Eno says:

    R.D. Eno here, Sammy. Actually, we went up to Canada to smuggle back Cuban cigars. The Country Journal was printed in Newport. After Thursday’s all-night paste-up, J.C. got to go home and sleep, but Janet and I (and sometimes I alone after Janet became pregnant) had to drive the flats 60 miles to the printer in any kind of weather, wait until the job was done, load up the papers and drive back to Plainfield to mail out subscription copies and distribute the rest for newsstand sales. It was often late Friday night before we saw bed, but those 48 sleepless hours left us mysteriously high, though I’m not sure I want Berrian (who shared her own dark secrets) to hear that — I don’t know how we survived. My favorite J.C. memory involves sending him to Cabot to get a story — any story, so long as Cabot people were in the paper, because if they weren’t, no one in Cabot would buy a copy. All J.C. could find was adult night at the school gym, where basketball was in progress. He wrote a story that consisted almost entirely of the sounds of the game (THA-DUMP,THA-DUMP, THUNK! CLUNK-CLUNK … “Hey!” “Here!” “One More!” “All right, Harv!” “Hwup!” “Oh!” “Ow!” “I’m sorry!”). Classic.

  5. Sammy says:

    Aha! Now we have the stories straightened out! Thanks all!

  6. deb says:

    oh my goodness. i met JC in 1976 in athens, ohio. i’ve been hearing about you two for so long that i always thought of you as a single unit, because that’s how JC always expressed it: “rdenoandjanetvanfleet.” nice to meet you all, virtually, at least. berrian, i would KILL to have one of those waxers. they are true relics; treat yours with care.

  7. deb says:

    oops, on re-reading, i realize berrian probably doesn’t actually have that waxer. pity. what do you suppose one of those would go for on ebay?