Our Top Ten Posts of 2009 (in reverse order for drama…)
The Well
10. Long Island Concerts Winter/Spring 2009 Though we lean heavily towards politics, we do also consider ourselves to be an arts and culture website. As with politics, we like to cover music that the corporate media ignores. Our number ten top post this year was a re-posting of Richard de Bruin’s email calendar of LI music. It featured the band Return to the Dream (Diane Garisto, Tom Griffith, Martha Trachtenberg, & Andy Huenerberg). Extra: This post has photos and a poem Ian wrote after seeing a prior incarnation of this band, The Well. The first stanza is : “you curse me for misplacing my voice/my eyes show no hint of recognition/you fail to see I have no choice/I can’t even name my own condition”
9. Riverhead Jail in Suffolk County: sad news This post was one of the saddest of the year. Kimberly expressed her feelings:
KW: I almost didn’t post this because it so sad and confusing. Though, of course, the community must acknowledge such a happening. And, people must investigate with care and awareness. Condolences to the friends and family of this young man, Jesse Haszinger.
8. Suffolk County Election Results These results were from 2008. Knowing that people were stumbling across the wrong year’s results we re-directed them to #6. (We aim to please and to inform.) We find it interesting that our web-site is often one of the few places to go for simple, election information. One of the all-time highest posts here was when we posted a sample ballot for the 2008 Presidential election, which included all the candidates people truly had the option of voting for.
7. Summer 2009: Long Island and NYC Beach Closings This information is very difficult to get because the park services do not make it available to the general public. Here was Kimberly’s commentary:
KW: I can’t seem to find a way to get automatic alerts or updates. Seems like a need to fill. Because, when I search, Newsday and our blog are the only place to find that info.
6. 2009 Suffolk County Elections Kimberly’s commentary (notice a pattern?) is the election year in a nutshell:
Kimberly says: There is so little exciting or worthwhile in the Suffolk County elections this year. The only thing that interests me is making a small gesture of disapproval to the Democrats and Republicans for cross-endorsing lots of candidates and giving us no choices. Where you see one candidate on the ballot — PLEASE, WRITE SOMEONE IN. I am especially going to write in: Audrey Capozzi for Suffolk County Treasurer. (Audrey is a Libertarian, who was unfairly kicked off the ballot by the Democrats and Republicans who control our government and the board of elections.)
5.Ways to Prevent Afternoon Drowsiness Amazingly, this post is from 2006. It is a constant favorite. This post made the top 10 in 2008 also. This is what we said last year:
This post began in April of 2006, when Ian found a research article about trying not to succumb to napping at work. Evidently, there are a lot of tired and bored people out there, because this post is in our list of perennial top hits. Kimberly, always one to follow the action, has added to the post over the years. Her favorite part has been finding various videos that she feels will wake up the tired people who click for help. The current video is a man who tap dances on his hands. You should see it, really.
This is also the number 4 all-time post.
4. Nassau County Election Results These results were from 2008. Knowing that people were stumbling across the wrong year’s results we re-directed them to the Nassau County BOE website. This post was in the 2008 top 10 where it should have been. And, it is also the number 6 all-time post. Here is what we said about this post last year:
This post is mostly a link to the Nassau County Board of Elections results page. We have found that people care about electoral politics, and local outcomes. Often, the press only focuses on the top of the ticket and celebrity candidates, so by giving people complete information, we can fill a market demand and get a scoop.
3. Making spanking worse: Spanking of child We do not know whether to be happy about community awareness of the danger of corporal punishment in schools, or frightened by how prevalent the word “spanking” is in web searches. This post has also received a lot of comments (some fit to print, and some not…) Here is the beginning of Kimberly’s commentary:
Update – More research on spanking is: here.
Evidently, in Missouri, teachers are still allowed to spank children in school. I think that is appalling. And, it makes me think that some activists should probably focus on making sure no schools in any state are allowed to use corporal punishment on children. It is outrageous that a civilized country would allow people to hit children.
2. Inauguration: Ending Prayer/Benediction This was probably the last glimmer of hope that Obama would offer an activist administration, rather than a corporatist administration. For those of us who can’t remember to the beginning of the year, here is the beginning of the post:
Live blogging of the Inauguration by Kimberly Wilder (one green’s perspective):
Joseph E. Lowery did the ending prayer/benediction.
Reverend Lowery was inspired and entertaining. [Here is a link to the Joseph E. Lowery Institute for Justice & Human Rights.]
He spoke of “inclusion, not exclusion” and “tolerance, not intolerance.” This seemed like a hidden message reflecting on the public attitudes of Reverend Rick Warren. Reverend Lowery’s speech was profound and straight forward. Then, at the end, he got very folksy. He actually did a list of little sayings, hoping for the day when…
“When brown can stick around”
“When yellow can be mellow”
“When the red man can be the head man”
This is also our all-time, second highest post. This post also has our all-time highest number of responses: 326 comments.
And the number one post is . . . .
Read more »
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