Friday Forum

Rick Martin has joined Curmudgeon's Corner at L'il Peach. Yesterday he was passing out a sheet (only to the other curmudgeons) about buying American during the holiday season. As readers know I'm a big believer in buying locally and as the chairman of the Agriculture Commission I'll be telling folks about local food as well. Once you get through the anti-Chinese screed in Rick's paper, his sheet makes a lot of sense. Basically it says you can stimulate the American economy more with your holiday purchases by buying things that keeps the money in the US. The argument is that if you give a gift certificate to a nearby restaurant, the money will stay closer to home and be spent in the US economy a second time instead of going to cover our already poor balance of payments with China and other countries that make the stuff we no longer make here. The director of OA's kitchen does a fund raiser to fight Pancreatic Cancer. This year I won a raffle prize of a lube job and tire rotation at May's just over the line in West Bridgewater. That's another example of Rick's ideas-gift certificates for services keep the money here and helps to keep our friends and neighbors on the job. Dog grooming certificates, tickets to the Brockton Rox, all sorts of things can be great presents and help your neighbors more than buying Mom and Pop the 96 inch big screen TV for the Media Room in the McMansion. And remember, as a public official, I can't accept gifts of more than $49.99! If you have second thoughts about the big screen TV after reading this, I think it's called recycling if you anonymously put it next to the yellow topped container in my driveway.

I'm having second thoughts about my skepticism about Big History. The Teaching Company had Professor David Christian's course on sale this month so I bought the 48 lecture program and am listening to it now. It is much more intriguing when Dr. Christian has 24 hours to explain himself than the hour he had at Stonehill recently. The Teaching Company is one of the more intriguing businesses in itself. It has over a hundred college lecture courses available for sale at prices ranging from $100-$600. However, every course goes on sale at least once a year and can be had for audio download over the Internet for under $70. A nice colorful catalog comes every couple of weeks to tell me about the sales. How the company makes any money is beyond me, but I've listened to over a dozen undergraduate courses and only found one I didn't really enjoy. I love ancient history and philosophy, but I've also taken a great course on World Literature, another on Linguistics, and a third on the Story of the English language. So much better than listening to Dennis and Callahan, or Feel the Rush Limpburg. Can't say that course on Sumerian history actually changed my life, but it did start a fascination with the origins of civilizations. You get to keep the courses you download forever (the company had a "cloud" before anyone knew what a cloud was), and many of the courses are worth listening to several times. The Teaching Company is now offering video downloading (sale courses are $110). I bought a TC DVD course on American Art a few years ago and while Spielberg has nothing to worry about, the production values were pretty good-a professor wanders around a set made up to look like a better classroom than I ever sat or taught in and the pictures were inserted where appropriate. Yesterday I saw my first video download of a course by an archaeologist on the origin of civilization. I went with the video because the catalog promised 3-D renderings of ancient cities. Last night in the intro lecture it was mostly the professor wandering around and talking. We'll see.

Yes, I did once again fail to present the first permaculture blog. Hang in there!