Recs on the weather jar comment are still welcome.
The common Moose, Alces alces, unlike other members of the deer family, is a solitary animal that doesn’t form herds. Not so its rarer but nearest relative, Alces purplius, the Motley Moose. Though sometimes solitary, the Motley Moose herds in ever shifting groups at the local watering hole to exchange news and just pass the time.
The morning check-in is an open thread and general social hour. Come back when time allows through the day – the conversation continues.
It’s traditional but not obligatory to give us a weather check where you are and let us know what’s new, interesting, challenging or even routine in your life lately. Nothing is particularly obligatory here except:
Always remember the Moose Golden (Purple?) Rule:
Be kind to each other… or else.
What could be simpler than that, right?
~
This has been a test of the Emergency iriti’s-internet-is-down Network. If this had been a real emergency … YIKES!!! … it is!!!
With all the movie talk centering around the film 12 Years a Slave, the plot, the cast, the director, critical reviews and audience responses, it is important that we don’t forget that this film is taken from real life…our history and yet, bound to our present.
Solomon Northup’s tale is one of many narratives of the era of enslavement, and its aftermath.
Given my own interests in genealogy and history, reading his harrowing tale, and about his eventual escape, even though his fate in later years is buried in mystery, I thought about his wife, his children and his descendants.
It is good to see those who came after him gather in his name as a living legacy.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The 12 years that Solomon Northup was a slave did not only affect the rest of his life.
Saturday at Skidmore College, more than 40 of his descendants traveled from all over the country to celebrate the 15th annual Solomon Northup Day, and many shared how he has impacted their lives.
“It’s like finding a missing piece of your life’s puzzle,” said Clayton Jamie Adams of Pittsburgh, the great-great-great-grandson of Solomon Northup on his mother’s side.
He said growing up he didn’t know about his legacy. In college, he remembers reading about Northup in a class on black literature, but even then was unaware of his connection to him.
It wasn’t until talking to his grandmother, Victoria Northup, that he discovered that branch of his roots and “discovered the beautiful family history you can’t put on paper.”
Through the efforts of Canadian, Samuel Bass, both black and white citizens of Saratoga, Hudson Falls (Sandy Hill) and Louisiana were instrumental in restoring his freedom in 1853. A literate man, Mr. Northup published his autobiography, entitled Twelve Years a Slave, in 1853(still in print and widely read).
Although Mr. Northup sought to bring his captors to trial, they were never prosecuted and he mysteriously disappeared. To date, his burial site has not been identified and it is not known whether or not he was killed, re-captured, or died of natural causes.
In 1999, in recognition of his life’s work, his ordeal and that of other African-Americans, native Saratogian, Renee Moore, founded “Solomon Northup Day – A Celebration of Freedom”. This historical and educational community event received recognition by the Library of Congress Bicentennial Local Legacies Project in 2000.
Former U.S. poet laureate Rita Dove wrote in her poem “The Abduction,” about “Solomon Northrup / from Saratoga Springs, free papers in my pocket, violin / under arm, my new friends Brown and Hamilton by my side” who, participating with his “friends” in a carnival act, “woke and found [himself] alone, in darkness and in chains.”
Those chains of enslavement shaped the United States as a nation. Many of us are direct descendents of those held in bondage. Others among us descend from those who were enslavers, or who profited from the triangle trade. Still others among us descend from fighters for abolition, or have ancestors who fought for the Union and the Confederacy. Later immigrants to the U.S. have moved into cities like New York, built with slave labor.
The very name “Wall Street” is born of slavery, with enslaved Africans building a wall in 1653 to protect Dutch settlers from Indian raids. This walkway and wooden fence, made up of pointed logs and running river to river, later was known as Wall Street, the home of world finance. Enslaved and free Africans were largely responsible for the construction of the early city, first by clearing land, then by building a fort, mills, bridges, stone houses, the first city hall, the docks, the city prison, Dutch and English churches, the city hospital and Fraunces Tavern. At the corner of Wall Street and Broadway, they helped erect Trinity Church.
On the west coast, Los Angeles was founded by blacks and native americans, with only 2 whites in the group of pobladores.
Growing up on the stories of enslaved ancestors told by my parents and grandparents, and later in life diving into the history of slavery here, in the Caribbean and Latin America, I feel an intimate and visceral connection. I am not blind either to the inheritance of racism that still shapes the virulent hate we live with or to the systemic/economic inequity we still face, resulting from a history that is not long ago nor far away.
Too often I hear the plaint “slavery had nothing to do with me or my family” from those who came here far after its “official” death.
Not true. Even now, voices on the right respond to yet another film about enslavement, with scorn and whines of denial.
They reject the ties that still bind us all, our present to our past.
Everyone who had anything to do with this film getting made – from the producers, to director Steve McQueen, and the committed, talented cast – should sleep tonight and every night knowing that for once, the escapism, bluster and simple provocation that marks a good 95 percent of our film output has been somehow flanked, and subversively so. These people have told a hideous and essential story about our nation’s great and longstanding sin with such calm and clarity that if we accept the film on its actual terms, rather than through the cluttered prism of our own racial and political sensibilities, only two kinds of folk will emerge from theaters.
The first will be at last awakened to the actual and grievous horror in which the black experience in America begins. Efforts to achieve this in the past – The “Roots” miniseries on television, or a few halting and veiled attempts in feature films to imply the desperation of terrorized human chattel – came down the road a piece, but none dared the entire emotional journey. For ordinary Americans willing to confront our history without equivocation and vague allusion, this film will prove a humanizing and liberating journey. This much truth can grow an honest soul.
And for those still desperate to mitigate our national reality at every possible cost, this film will be an affront. It is not intelligently assailable by anyone, though the racial divide and resentment that still occupies our national character a century and a half after abolition will prompt certain creatures to pull at threads, hoping against hope. Mostly, those who want to pretend to another American history will just avoid the film or the discussion that ensues.
In 1831, Nat Turner, slave rebellion leader, was tried and convicted, then sentenced to death.
In 1872, suffragist Susan B. Anthony voted (though illegal at the time), for which she was fined $100, a considerable sum in those days.
In 1916, in Everett, Washington, there was a shoot-out between the Industrial Workers of the World organizers and local police and their vigilante supporters (aka “citizen deputies”). Two of the “citizen deputies” were killed, but accidentally by their own side. The casualties on the other side are disputed, with claims ranging from zero to 12 deaths, but at least 20 injuries.
In 2006, Saddam Hussein and two co-defendants were found guilty and sentenced to die in the trial for their roles in the 1982 massacre of 148 Shi’as.
In 2009, US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan went on a shooting spree at Ft. Hood, Texas, killing 13 and wounding 29.
In 2011, Bank Transfer Day, or Move Your Money Day resulted in over 2.2 million Americans moving their accounts to credit unions or small local banks to show the large greedy banks that small customers are a force to be reckoned with.
Born on This Day
1619 – Philip de Koninck, Dutch landscape painter (d. 1688)
1667 – Christoph Ludwig Agricola, German painter (d. 1719)
1701 – Pietro Longhi, Venetian painter (d. 1785)
1742 – Richard Cosway, English painter (d. 1821)
1751 – Friedrich-Heinrich Füger, Austrian painter (d. 1818)
1779 – Washington Allston, American painter (d. 1843)
1846 – Gustavo Simoni, Italian orientalist painter (d. 1926)
1855 – Eugene V. Debs, American socialist leader (d. 1926)
1890 – Jan Zrzavý, Czech painter (d. 1977)
1900 – Natalie Schafer, American actress (d. 1991)
1905 – Joel McCrea, American actor (d. 1990)
1911 – Baby Marie Osborne, American actress (d. 2010)
1913 – Vivien Leigh, English actress (d. 1967)
1914 – Alton Tobey, American artist (d. 2005)
1922 – Violet Barclay, American comic book artist (d. 2010)
1931 – Ike Turner, American musician (d. 2007)
1940 – Elke Sommer, German actress
1941 – Art Garfunkel, American musician
1943 – Sam Shepard, American playwright and actor
1946 – Gram Parsons, American musician (d. 1973)
1946 – Alton S. Tobey, U.S. painter and illustrator (d. 2005)
1947 – Peter Noone, English musician (Herman’s Hermits)
1949 – Armin Shimerman, American actor
1957 – Mike Score, English singer-songwriter and musician (A Flock of Seagulls)
1960 – Tilda Swinton, English actress
1963 – Tatum O’Neal, American actress and author
1968 – Sam Rockwell, American film actor
1971 – Jonny Greenwood, English musician, songwriter, and composer (Radiohead)
1976 – Jeff Klein, American musician
Died on This Day
1515 – Mariotto Albertinelli, Italian painter (b. 1474)
1559 – Kano Motonobu, Japanese painter (b. 1476)
1660 – Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle, English socialite (b. 1599)
Fierces on the Weather Critter Comment are obligatory welcome.
The morning check-in is an open thread posted to give you a place to visit with the meeses. Feel free to chat about your weather, share a bit of your life, grump (if you must), rave (if you can). The diarist du jour sometimes posts and runs, other times sticks around for a bit, often returns throughout the day and always cares that meeses are happy … or at least contented.
For those new to the Moose, Kysen left a Moose Welcome Mat (Part Deux) so, please, wipe your feet before you walk in the front door start posting.
The important stuff to get you started:
– Comments do not Auto-refresh. Click the refresh/reload on your tab to see new ones. Only click Post once for comments. When a diary’s comment threads grow, the page takes longer to refresh and the comment may not display right away.
– To check for replies to your comments, click the “My Comments” link in the right-hand column (or go to “My Moose”). Comments will be listed and a link to Recent Replies will be shown. (Note: Tending comments builds community)
– Ratings: Fierce means Thumbs Up, Fail means Thumbs Down, Meh means one of three things: I am unFailing you but I can’t Fierce you, I am unFiercing after a mistaken Fierce, or Meh. Just Meh. (p.s. Ratings don’t bestow mojo, online behaviour does).
– The Recommended list has a prominent place on the Front Page because it reflects the interests of the Moose. When people drive-by, we want them to see what we are talking about: news, politics, science, history, personal stories, culture. The list is based on number of recs and days on the list. Per Kysen: “The best way to control Rec List content is to ONLY rec diaries you WANT to see ON the list.”
– Finally, the posting rules for a new diary: “Be excellent to each other… or else”
(Some other commenting/posting/tending notes for newbies can be found in this past check-in and, of course, consult Meese Mehta for all your questions on meesely decorum.)
Christie of New Jersey and McDonnell of Virginia in November 2009 … Scott Brown of Massachusetts in March 2010 … and then the tea party wave election in November 2010 that appeared to sweep away our country’s common sense and which set up gerrymandered Republican majorities in statehouses across the country.
Today’s polls seem to indicate that we have a good chance to turn the tide in Virginia but not much hope in New Jersey where Gov. Chris Christie (R) appears to be a shoo-in for re-election.
It would be rude of me to wag my nannyish finger at New Jersey Democrats because they won’t vote to advance my agenda. But I reserve the right to be sad that a Christie victory will be spun so that he can run for president in 2016 on the lie that he is a moderate Republican because “Look! Democrats voted for me!”. So I will try one more time to convince New Jersey Democrats to vote for the Democrat … because I am an optimist!
In 2012, New Jersey voted to re-elect Barack Obama by 58%. They have sent two Democrats to the US Senate. The New Jersey congressional delegation to the House of Representatives is split 50-50, Democrats to Republicans. Today Gov. Chris Christie (R) leading by 30+ points over this DEMOCRATIC candidate.
I’m Barbara Buono, the only one actually running for governor. Chris Christie’s got his sights set on the Republican presidential primary. That’s why he defunded Planned Parenthood, opposes abortion rights, vetoed gay marriage and stands with the gun lobby on background checks. With 400,000 New Jerseyans out of work and our poverty rate at a 50-year high, Christie raised taxes on the working poor-but won’t ask millionaires to pay another dime. He wants to be president. I want to be your governor.
Chris Christie can’t win re-election without Democratic votes. Period. And he is NOT a moderate Republican in the mold of former Governor Christine Todd Whitman … he is NOT a moderate Republican in the mold of former Governor Thomas Kean.
Chris Christie is a Republican governor who believes the same things that Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Rick Perry of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida and John Kasich of Ohio and Rick Snyder of Michigan and Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania believe: that tax cuts to the wealthy are more important than social safety nets, that teachers (and other public service unions) are the cause of all of our economic woes, that the way to win national elections is to disenfranchise Democratic voters, and that women should be forced to give birth if they become pregnant (and they should not have access to birth control, either … uppity women!!). There is no space between him and the radical Republican agenda.
So why does a Democratic blogger from Wisconsin care about what happens in Virginia and about the ins and outs of New Jersey state politics?
Two reasons. First, one of those extremists swept in with the tea party wave is Gov. Scott Walker (R) of Wisconsin. New polls show that we have a pretty good chance of defeating him next year, turning the tide in Wisconsin and starting a return to our traditions of honest government, a government that reflects the values of our state, not the national Republican Party’s agenda.
The second is about momentum. Our country’s descent into electoral madness started with the FreedomWorks funded rallies in August 2009 and translated itself into electoral victories that year and in 2010. In 2012, the tide began turning when voters rejected radical anti-woman anti-commonsense Senate candidates, gained seats in the House of Representatives and rejected the Romney-Ryan agenda. And next year, we have a good chance to regain the governorships in a handful of states where tea party overreach has led to well-deserved anger at Republican officeholders: Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida … and maybe even Texas.
We will need a big wave in 2014 to sweep away the mess made when the tea party movement gained momentum in 2009.
Let’s win Virginia and let’s make sure that a Christie victory in New Jersey is not spun as a victory for his brand of politics: hiding behind a super-sized mantle of moderation while working against everything Democrats hold dear. Don’t be tricked … when you boil away the tea, you are still left with Republicanism: anti-worker, anti-woman, anti-minority, anti-commonsense regulations, anti-environment … anti-ordinary people.
The wind blowing across the water’s surface forms ripples which become waves. Speak strongly, and as one, and create ripples … then waves … and sweep away the movement created by greed, fueled by fear, and stoked by racism.
Elections Matter. Regaining control over the future direction of our country begins now.
We need a major scandal, celebrity or Republican, to fill the cable news hours. What would your favorite scandal look like? (h/t KelleyRN2 for the question)
What is the best dessert of all time?
What was the last foolhardy thing you did? (It doesn’t have to be major.)
What’s the most disgusting thing you’ve ever eaten (even just a taste)?
The Twitter Emitter
I just tried to buy a gun online. Now I know why Republicans think healthcare.gov is slow.
In 1677, Mary of England, daughter of Charles I, was married to William, Prince of Orange. They later reigned together as William and Mary.
In 1952 , the NSA was established.
In 1979, the US embassy in Tehran was invaded by a group of Iranians, mostly students. They took 90 hostages, 53 of them American.
In 1995, Yitzhak Rabin, prime minister of Israel, was assassinated by an extremist Orthodox Israeli.
In 2008, American voters overwhelmingly elected a black man to the White House, causing exploded white people brains to be scattered across the country.
In 2008, Proposition H8 passed in California, revoking state recognition of LGBT marriages. Thankfully, the damage has since been reversed.
Born on This Day
1575 – Guido Reni, Italian painter (d. 1642)
1592 – Gerrit van Honthorst, Dutch painter (d. 1656), also known as Gherardo della Notte
1779 – Jan Willem Pieneman, Dutch painter (d. 1853)
1787 – Edmund Kean, English actor (d. 1833)
1836 – Eduardo Rosales, Spanish painter (d. 1873)
1837 – Egisto Sarri, Italian painter (d. 1901)
1868 – Carolina Otero, a.k.a. La Belle Otero, Spanish actress, singer and courtesan (d. 1965)
1872 – Ulisse Caputo, Italian painter (d. 1948)
1879 – Will Rogers, American humorist (d. 1935)
1907 – Henry Heerup, Danish artist (d. 1993)
1912 – Pauline Trigere, French fashion designer (d. 2002)
1916 – Walter Cronkite, American news broadcaster (d. 2009)
Good morning Motley Meese! Hope your weekend was lovely.
PLEASE Don’t Recommend the check-in diary!
Fierces on the weather jar comment are still welcome.
The morning check-in is an open thread and general social hour. Come back when time allows through the day – the conversation continues.
It’s traditional but not obligatory to give us a weather check where you are and let us know what’s new, interesting, challenging or even routine in your life lately. Nothing is particularly obligatory here except:
I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in “Cheers & Jeers”. For example …..
OLDER-YOUNGER BROTHERS? – Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose and Jesse Tyler Ferguson (from “Modern Family”).
OK, you’ve been warned – here is this week’s tomfoolery material that I posted.
ART NOTES – Edward Curtis’s 20-volume photo compendium The North American Indian is at the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend through January 5th.
FILM NOTES – the “Dark Knight Rises” film star Tom Hardy will play Sir Elton John in a biopic of the singer’s life called Rocketman – which begins shooting in late 2014.
JUST AS IN CALIFORNIA … a state that often flirted with the GOP was Minnesota – and now due to some hard work, “Wellstone’s Revenge” has shaded the state indigo blue, once again.
THURSDAY’s CHILD is Nibbles the Cat – one of a line of South African kittehs who have been keeping South African inmates company for decades …. including the prison that once housed Nelson Mandela.
HAIL and FAREWELL to several noted people who have died this past week: Hall of Fame basketball player Walt Bellamy (at age 74), blues-rock guitar pioneer Bobby Parker – whose 1961 song “Watch Your Step” was an influence on both the Beatles and Led Zeppelin (at age 76), guitarist Peter Haycock of the Climax Blues Band (at age 62), a man whose Greenwich Village sandal shop served as a jam session space for Joan Baez, Dave Van Ronk and Bob Dylan, Allan Block – the uncle of NPR’s Melissa Block (at age 90) and jazz saxophonist Frank Wess – who performed everyone from Count Basie to the Saturday Night Live band (at age 91).
IN RECENT YEARS the nation of Hungary has fallen prey to a right-wing, xenophobic government – but an unlikely coalition called Together 2014 is offering hope come next election.
FRIDAY’s CHILD is Fritz the Cat – a Wisconsin kitteh feared lost in a home fire … but who came out from the ashes two weeks later.
AS ATRIOS often puts it: we need to give ‘free money’ to climb out of this recession. The Economist magazine has discovered that “giving money directly to poor people works surprisingly well” – rather than to intermediaries – but suggests more is needed for the deeper causes of poverty.
SEPARATED at BIRTH – TV stars Nina Dobrev (“Degrassi: The Next Generation”, “Vampire Diaries”) and Victoria Dawn Justice (Nickelodeon’s “Spectacular!” and “iCarly”).
…… and finally, for a song of the week …………… with the death last week of actor/singer Noel Harrison – attention was paid to a song he won an Oscar with: The Windmills of your Mind with music by the French composer Michel Legrand … and lyrics by Marilyn & Alan Bergman – who have composed the lyrics of some of the most memorable film and TV shows the past half-century.
Alan (born 1925) and Marilyn (born 1929) grew-up in the same Brooklyn neighborhood … were even born in the same hospital …. yet did not meet until they relocated to Los Angeles in adulthood. Alan attended the University of North Carolina and Marilyn was a psychology/English major at NYU. After attending UCLA to study music, Alan got his start overseeing children’s television (during its advent in the early 1950’s) in Philadelphia before returning to songwriting at the urging of Johnny Mercer. Marilyn moved to LA after suffering a shoulder injury so that she could be nursed back to health by her mother (who had relocated there). A friend suggested she try songwriting during her recuperation, and she met Alan while he was working with a particular music writer – and have continued as songwriting partners (and a married couple) ever since.
Someone they have worked with closely over the years has been Barbra Streisand – whom they nearly passed on meeting in the 1960’s:
“We had spent the whole day auditioning girls for the juvenile lead for a show that we were doing that Jule Styne was producing and directing,” recalled Marilyn Bergman. “After hearing about 50 girl singers, Jule said, ‘Come on, we are going downtown. There is a girl singer you have got to hear.’
We said, ‘Jule, we have been listening to girls sing all day!’
But he said, ‘Not like this.’
He was right”.
Said Alan, “As soon as she started to sing, Marilyn started to cry,”
In the interest of time: let’s look at their career highlights in stages.
Some of the music writers they have teamed with are: the aforementioned Michel Legrand, Henry Mancini, Cy Coleman, Marvin Hamlisch, Quincy Jones and John Williams. Besides Barbra Streisand, some of the others who have sang their songs include Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Fred Astaire, Gladys Knight, Kenny Loggins and Mary-Chapin Carpenter.
Some of the TV theme songs they have written (or co-written): “And Then There’s Maude”, “Good Times”, “In the Heat of the Night”, “The Sandy Duncan Show” and “Ironsides.” They also have three Emmy Awards: for “Queen of the Stardust Ballroom”, “Sybil” and the theme for the TV movie “Ordinary Miracles”.
Some of the films their lyrics appear in are: “The Thomas Crown Affair”, “Sabrina”, “A Star Is Born”, “Wuthering Heights”, “Tootsie”, “The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean”, “Micki & Maude”, “Major League”, “Never Say Never Again”, “Same Time Next Year” and “Summer of ’42”.
They have been nominated for sixteen Oscars, and have won three: The Windmills of your Mind which began this profile, The Way We Were (which also won a Grammy), and the score for the film Yentl – the latter two sung by Barbra Streisand, of course. In fact, at the 1983 Academy Awards: although they did not win, they had three of the five nominated songs: “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?”, “It Might be You” (from Tootsie) and “If We Were in Love” (from Yes, Giorgio).
In recent years, they put together a ‘photo-symphony’ called Visions of America – which has been performed by the Boston Pops, among many orchestras.
As for other awards …. again, too numerous to mention. They were both inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1980 and have numerous honorary degrees. Alan has served as a member of the Library of Congress Film Preservation Board and Marilyn was the first female president of ASCAP – the performing rights organization. She was also awarded France’s highest cultural honor, the Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters.
Perhaps the best tribute paid to them (as Alan is now age 88 and Marilyn soon to turn age 84) came earlier this year, when the couple were awarded a Grammy Trustee Award – and appropriately enough, it came from part of another famed duo who combine both songwriting as well as marriage. Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil have written (or co-written) songs such as “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling”, “On Broadway”, “Walking In The Rain”, “Soul And Inspiration” and “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place” so they recognize a kindred spirit. Here is how Cynthia Weil put it:
Those who have attempted either would say the two most difficult things to accomplish in life are a successful partnership and a successful marriage. Combine both endeavors and the odds against you rise appreciably, but this year we proudly honor two people who have beaten those very odds and excelled gloriously at both undertakings. The fact that they both write the lyrics and have to debate titles, rhymes and concepts boggles the mind. They have managed to create the soundtrack to our lives in film, theater, TV and on radio, and the fact that they have done this without bloodshed speaks volumes to their personal strength, angelic nature and extraordinary talent.
Then there’s the stage and their wonderful work for the musical “Ballroom,” both touching and literate, in other words very “Bergmanesque.” And now for radio: “That Face,” “What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?,” “Nice ‘N’ Easy,” “How Do You Keep The Music Playing?” … how do they do it?
Inquiring couples who also write want to know. How do they continue to produce work that is timeless and outstanding and continue to create with an enthusiasm that never diminishes? The truth is they are so special and so perfect, we’d like to slap them around a little, but then, they are so gracious, kind and elegant that we want to sing their praises and worship at their computer.
Of all of their songs: my favorite is a less-well-known tune, but one that a masterpiece of a performance brought to my attention.
In 1991, the nonpareil vocalist Abbey Lincoln recorded a monster of an album You Gotta Pay the Band – which also featured three other music legends. These were the tenor saxophonist Stan Getz, the pianist Hank Jones (who had played piano on Stan’s first record date 45 years earlier) and the bassist Charlie Haden. (Sadly, only Charlie Haden survives to this day).
And one ballad, the title track to the film Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams – with lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman, and music by Johnny Mandel – is my favorite recorded song of the entire decade of the 1990’s. (I mean that). And below you can hear it.
Fierces on the Weather Critter Comment are obligatory welcome.
The morning check-in is an open thread posted to give you a place to visit with the meeses. Feel free to chat about your weather, share a bit of your life, grump (if you must), rave (if you can). The diarist du jour sometimes posts and runs, other times sticks around for a bit, often returns throughout the day and always cares that meeses are happy … or at least contented.
On weekends (and holidays), you may find the check-in thread earlier or later than normal because … it is the weekend! Moosies need their beauty rest:
For those new to the Moose, Kysen left a Moose Welcome Mat (Part Deux) so, please, wipe your feet before you walk in the front door start posting.
The important stuff to get you started:
– Comments do not Auto-refresh. Click the refresh/reload on your tab to see new ones. Only click Post once for comments. When a diary’s comment threads grow, the page takes longer to refresh and the comment may not display right away.
– To check for replies to your comments, click the “My Comments” link in the right-hand column (or go to “My Moose”). Comments will be listed and a link to Recent Replies will be shown. (Note: Tending comments builds community)
– Ratings: Fierce means Thumbs Up, Fail means Thumbs Down, Meh means one of three things: I am unFailing you but I can’t Fierce you, I am unFiercing after a mistaken Fierce, or Meh. Just Meh. (p.s. Ratings don’t bestow mojo, online behaviour does).
– The Recommended list has a prominent place on the Front Page because it reflects the interests of the Moose. When people drive-by, we want them to see what we are talking about: news, politics, science, history, personal stories, culture. The list is based on number of recs and days on the list. Per Kysen: “The best way to control Rec List content is to ONLY rec diaries you WANT to see ON the list.”
– Finally, the posting rules for a new diary: “Be excellent to each other… or else”
(Some other commenting/posting/tending notes for newbies can be found in this past check-in and, of course, consult Meese Mehta for all your questions on meesely decorum.)
