Day 2

The Alliance Review 17 December 2011

According to the internet, Mark Twain once said, “If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed.” In the case of my hometown, I would add, if you read the Alliance Review you are mal-informed. Being mal-informed is like being malnourished. In the instance of malnourishment food is entering your body, it just isn't the food that you need to live a healthy life. I would argue that a glove shaped (really a glove? more like a deformed chicken foot) is not the kind of information one needs to live a healthy life. Mr. Beach didn't grow it himself, he just found it "in a bag of spuds". And note the small print in the bottom right hand corner. It isn't a submitted photo. A Review photographer actually took time to specifically photograph Mr. Beach and his "unusually shaped potato"!

Granted, the picture occurs on page B8, amongst some local information such as the weekly school menus; and while not a strong candidate for a Pulitzer; it is edited well. It is nowhere near the prize for dumbest headline in the Review. A few years back there was a photo of some local senior citizens doing Christmas crafts. The headline?  "Alzheimer patients create Christmas memories". 

Day 1

All of my siblings are now in Ohio. Anna arrived from Geneva a few hours before our original flight was supposed to arrive. Alas, we missed our connection in Chicago and spent the night in a hotel and arrived about nine hours later than we were supposed to. Becky caught a flight from a conference she was at in D.C. and we're sitting around and chatting as the first snow of the year falls outside.

Clive is reacclumating himself to his extended family and to my parents' dog Maggie. He did okay on the flight, but is still a bit jet lagged. Last night he went to bed at 4pm and got up at 5am. I can handle that. Hopefully tonight we'll restore him to a more convenient schedule of 6 or 7pm to 7 or 8 am. He will have his hands full tonight though as we're having aunts, uncles and cousins over.

Erica and I ventured out into my hometown yesterday afternoon. For as much as things change, they also stay the same. Alliance is grim (as Simon Mitchell would say). We talk of England's weather, but the sky here is just a different kind of grey. We did stop by a charity shop though, buy some (non-alcoholic) apple cider, and stop by Heggy's for some chocolate.

Other highlights? My brother building an open fire in the fireplace last night, beating Anna at scrabble, realizing that I didn't miss Graham Crackers that much, and listening to my dad snore as he sleeps on the living room floor.

Until Day 2...

An Infographic

I (Zac) love information. I especially love when information is presented visually. They even have a term for this nowadays; infographics.

The above infographic shows how the various parts of the islands we currently live on relate to each other. The bluish (I hope) circles represent legal definitions and the other colour represent geographical definitions.

Enjoy.

Isn't She Something?!

Erica is a pretty darn special woman. Along with being the primary caregiver of Clive, she is also a freelance graphic designer. Our church has hired her on for four hours a week to handle All Saints' publicity, posters, brochures, website, etc.

Anyway, the new front page of the website has gone up and I must say that I am impressed! She's going to have this place looking good in no time.

Check it out at www.allsaintsloose.org.uk you can look at the rest of the site too, but Erica hasn't put her magic touch on those parts yet.