Living the life of a comics character

Rick Redfern and I have a lot in common.

Both he and I worked for a newspaper for 30-some-odd years. Both he and I are in our 50s. Both he and I rose to a certain level of prominence at our respective papers. He and I left our papers with buy-outs last year as part of the industry-wide downsizing. He and I are both trying to scratch out a place as bloggers.

The slightly weird part is that Redfern, pictured at left, is a character in the "Doonesbury" comic strip. Last time I pinched myself, I was real.

It's not the first time I've had a lot in common with a comic strip character. I actually was one for a while back in the mid-1970s at the University of New Hampshire thanks to my buddy Ken Sheldon.

He did a strip for the college newspaper -- The New Hampshire -- that played on the college life trials and mostly tribulations of me and my roommate Wally Cole.

It was bad enough to actually live out the tribulations; then I had to relive them each week in the comic strip. But it was all hilarious.

What's funny about sharing a life with Redfern, a creation of Gary Trudeau, is the eeriness of it all -- that we're about the same age, we were moved aside from the same profession, and we're trying to be taken seriously as bloggers.

It's hard as a blogger to be viewed with the same seriousness as a journalist. Anyone can be a blogger, but can anyone be a journalist? I don't think so. There's an elevated level of ethics, fairness, research and writing ability that define the latter. It said anyone can be a blogger by putting your name over whatever you want to write, however you want to write about it.

Redfern is looking to be taken seriously as a blogger. He's had a couple of recent exchanges with his wife, Joanie Caucus, that show she's not quite there in accepting him as a blogger the same way she accepted him as a journalist.

I feel the same way. I don't have the cred among the family and friends that I used to. I was doing a telephone interview recently for my auto insurance company and they asked about my profession, and I said, "Blogger." I had to repeat it a couple of times ... even had to spell it. Think it'll flag anything with the IRS when I put it on my taxes as my profession?

There are a lot of us bloggers out there with me and Redfern -- more than 100 million, so I've read.

The number of blog posts that are considered news are increasing at a rapid pace while the number of newspaper stories is decreasing, because of fewer newspapers, fewer newspaper pages ... and fewer newspaper journalists.

About 15,000 journalists lost their newspaper jobs in 2008.

Maybe, just maybe, with more of us out there in increasing numbers as bloggers, we'll be able to raise the credibility among the Joanie Caucuses of the world, or at least the real people of the world.

Here's Rick at work back in October, soon after his layoff (click on strip for larger image):

Shoes in a shoeless house

I live in a house with my wife Jane where shoes are allowed at all times.

My brother Joe and his wife Nancy have a shoeless house.

As a result, their house is a lot cleaner than our house because we track in all kinds of outside stuff inside the house, especially during the winter ... dust, dirt, grime, pollen, road salt.

But I'm more comfortable padding around my dirty house in my shoes than I am padding around Joe's clean house in my socks.

It must be a tactile thing. It just feels funny to me to go shoeless. In the comfort of my own house, I always have something on my feet. Even if the shoes come off, a pair of flip flops goes on. In summer, I don't do barefoot.

Taking off one's shoes is customary in some countries, notably Japan, where shoes are removed before entering homes, schools and other buildings, the intent here to emphasize cleanliness. While on a business trip to Tokyo a few years ago, I was part of a group to dine at a nice restaurant and we removed our shoes and were given slippers to wear during the meal.

Good thing I had packed the good socks without the holes in the toes.

I didn't grow up in a shoeless house. My mother's only requirement for her brood of eight kids was to remove our snow boots. Other than that it was all shoes all the time.

So what is a shoe-wearing person to do in a shoeless house?

I had the presence of mind for a recent dinner party at my brother's to throw a pair of boat moccasins into the tote bag that included my appetizer contribution. It turned out great ... I held to the household protocol of ditching my shoes, wet with snow and gritty with sand, and I held to my need to wear something on my feet. Everyone was happy, happy feet and all.

After experiencing the Joe and Nancy shoeless household, my wife and I discussed the merits of a shoeless house for ourselves. But it was a brief discussion. We'll live with the detritus of nature that we haul into the house on our shoes.

If you invite me over, do me a favor and let me know -- shoes or no shoes? I’ll need to make sure I pack my mocs, or make sure I wear my good socks.

Let's help each other winter well

I have been down this road before: Why is it that after a snowstorm, some people make the effort to fully remove the snow from their cars, while others don't?

It's those that don't to whom this rant is directed.

Wintering in northern New England is hard work. It takes some effort to winter well.

There are constants you can expect. There are the snow storms and cold snaps, of course. They challenge your ability to move from Point A to Point B, be it on foot or in a car. There is also the challenge of finding harmony in the thermostat -- you don't want to feel uncomfortably cold in the house, but you don't want all that precious, expensive fuel burning away too quickly either. You hope the car will turn over on the coldest of mornings.

You can approach winter with a certain amount of dread, in which case you won't winter well. Or you can approach winter with acceptance and perhaps with even a bit of eagerness ... to ski, snowshoe, ice skate, whatever, to take advantage of winter. That's wintering well.

What upsets me about winter, however, are the people who don't take their winter responsibilities seriously enough. And I talk specifically here about the people who don't remove fresh snowfall fully from their vehicles, especially from the roofs of their vehicles.

It drives me crazy to see people driving along the road or highway, a blizzard literally blowing behind them as snow billows from their roofs. It drives me insane when I have to follow directly behind them, sometimes in a whiteout because of all the snow that is coming from their laziness.

If someone is going to take the time and effort to brush and scrape snow from the front and rear windows before they head out, why can't they take a few more minutes to make sure the hood, the roof and the trunk are also cleared?

Sometimes these folks get as far as the hood and trunk, but then ignore the roof.

It's a nuisance when it's just snow that's billowing into you. It becomes a hazard, however, when the snow becomes ice and that ice comes flying off into someone else's windshield.

I see that a lot from cars, I see it a lot on vans and SUVs, and I see it a lot on tractor trailers. After a recent storm, while driving on the interstate, I cowered as huge sheets of ice lifted off a semi's trailer and, fortunately, splintered on the pavement, not the windshield of a car.

As much as I'm wary of the tractor trailers, I can forgive them not getting up there to clean snow. I can't forgive cars, vans or SUVs.

Part of wintering well is helping make it less miserable for others.

For Obama's to do list: Fix health care

I shouldn't complain. I have health care. And I realize I'm fortunate and I'm grateful.

According to the National Coalition on Health Care statistics:

-- Nearly 46 million Americans, or 18 percent of the population under the age of 65, were without health insurance in 2007, the latest government data available;
-- The number of uninsured rose 2.2 million between 2005 and 2006 and has increased by almost 8 million people since 2000.

But my issue is that my health care stinks.

I went from a pretty good plan when I was working to a pretty crummy plan through my wife when I retired. And going from a good plan to a crummy plan has been a blow to my wallet and, perhaps long term, a blow to my health as I begin to make decisions where cost of treatment trumps need for treatment.

For those fortunate enough to have had health insurance over the years, we've seen its character change, and not for the better.

First with HMOs then PPOs, the alphabet soup of health care for those fortunate enough to have health care has not changed for the better. If you never see a doctor, it's not such a big deal, but if you have some recurring health issues, which I did in 2008, it hits you wear it hurts ... in the wallet.

Co-pays of $5 to see the doctor became $10, then $20, now $40. Insurance companies are devising ways for the insured to spend more out of pocket for their care. Besides the higher co-pays, there are deductibles you have to pay: $500 a year or more. And there is co-insurance. For certain medical treatment you have to pay 20 percent co-insurance of up to $3,000 per year.

For example, if you have a lab procedure that costs $1,978 your out of pocket expense will be $565.19 -- $111.99 toward your $500 a year deductible and $453.20 toward your 20 percent co-insurance. It's like paying for insurance that I'm already paying for. If you maximize the deductible and co-insurance it can amount to $3,500 a year out of pocket.

As a result of all of this, I am much more challenging to my doctor and his recommendations for certain tests or care. That's a good thing, to be more proactive about one's health care. But not at the expense of your health.

Then there's the whole issue of prescription medication. The co-pays there have jumped too.

You have to give an outfit like Wal-Mart props for stepping up, seeking to help curb the growing cost of prescription medicine by offering a slew of generics for a very affordable price. I switched from a name brand cholesterol medication to a generic at Wal-Mart because the price difference was remarkable.

It just seems odd to me that a retail concern is more out front on this issue than our government.

There's a lot on the plate of incoming president Barak Obama, and health care is a priority. I hope he makes it a priority priority.

You know what I mean?

I really feel for Caroline Kennedy, you know?

As she's been angling for an appointment to the U.S. Senate, she's been derided for peppering her comments with a string of "you knows."

Kennedy is 51 and wants the U.S. Senate seat of Hillary Clinton, who is becoming the Secretary of State for Barack Obama's administration. Filling Clinton's seat is up to New York Gov. David Paterson.

Though filling the unexpired term is up to the governor, not voters, Kennedy has been on the stump, visiting throughout New York State and granting interviews. The interviews that have put her in less than a flattering light.

While she's been a little light on her position on certain issues, it's the "you knows" that have attracted the most attention. During an interview with the Associated Press, for example, she said "you know" 30 times within the span of 147 seconds.

Verbal tics -- the you knows, the ums and the uhs -- are a nervous need to fill a conversational void.

Drop a few "you knows" and it's not so bad. Drop too many and it becomes distracting to the point where you might think the speaker is ill-prepared or unsure of his or her point.

I've had the "you know" affliction for a long, long time. My mother took me aside years ago and advised it was something that I needed to edit from my vocabulary string, and I have to think hard about not doing it while I talk.

Words come out faster than the brain can think them, so I use a "you know" to give the brain time to catch up.

Not all us are great at speaking in public -- to a crowd of 100 or to one or two people in a social setting. I'm better off with 100 people because I'll speak from prepared notes or I'll purposely slow myself down to concentrate on what I'm saying and how I'm saying it.

Kennedy and I are in good company. Barack Obama is an "uh" person. And remember "my friends" from John McCain on the presidential stump? It's the same sort of verbal tic.

No one is perfect, you know? We're thoughtful. We just struggle sometimes putting the thoughts into words.

The more you know: