Wednesday, July 30, 2008

This is a job for LETTERMAN!

It really chafes me when people litter. It suggests a disconnect between the individual and the environment. The disdain and disregard someone shows for their surroundings is often an indication of their feelings about themselves. A particularly vivid example is smokers flicking butts out car windows or onto the sidewalk; polluting themselves and then their world in succession. Vandalism and theft are much the same as littering. In Northampton I like to feel like we're all in this together. I'm a part of a community that is really an extension of my family and ultimately me. So whoever stole the big white A from the Serio's sign recently, and the H about a year ago, how would you feel if I just up and ripped your shirt off. Or your ARM!

Westfield's Lou Barlow and Eric Gaffney; aka indie icons Sebadoh found inspiration for an album title from just such an incident. But the vandals who stole the P to leave "HARMACY" were possibly making a strong statement about the anti-depressant craze and its ultimate results which is at least interesting and borders on justifiable. By the way, I would not assume that Lou and Eric yanked the P just for their album cover. I'm sure they found it this way.

In the 70s, The Electric Company on PBS was an educational show for kids who had graduated from Sesame Street. In addition to being first gig for Morgan Freeman (who created the character Easy Reader), there was a superhero who used spelling to fight crime. Letterman was his name. His arch enemy was the evil Spell Binder who would cause trouble by using his magic wand, replacing key letters to make the worse of situations (e.g.: Train into Rain). Then Letterman would take the letter(s) off his varsity sweater and correct the hazard. Where are you now Letterman! Serio's needs you!

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