Rochester Writers

The more I see Bob Duffy in action, the more I think he's got some characteristics we don't see too often in politicians. 

First, he can deal with unpleasant situations in a forthright manner.  He axed the ferry without drama.  That could have been his last ferry-related act.  He could have tut-tutted over the audit, pointed out that everything occured on Johnson's watch and went on with life.  Instead, he's calling for criminal prosecution of the CATS founders.  That's probably futile, but his hardball stand is probably setting the stage to have the 40-year $1 lease on the port broken. 

Second, though he's by no means camera-shy, he's no publicity hog.  The D&C isn't swimming with "Duffy says" press releases.  Whenever there's a murder or a fire, he's not running around trying to get his face or name in the paper -- he lets his department heads do the talking.

Finally, his administration hasn't advanced any grandiose plans and schemes.  So far, he's sticking to the hard job of making the city government work.

This might seem like faint praise, but things could be a helluva lot worse.  In the 8th month of his administration, I have to say that Duffy's looking pretty good compared to the other alternatives.

Yet another reason to stick to beer.

"Too big to be small, too small to be big." Those are the words of the owner of the Messenger Post Newspapers , who put those papers up for sale this week. The MPN publishes 10 suburban weekly papers and a daily in the Finger Lakes.

The MPN sale is one indicator change in the traditional media market. Yesterday's launch of Her Rochester, the new Gannett (owners of the D&C) free glossy magazine, is another. Her, and Gannett's other recent experiment, the Insider , represent a big investment in our local media market.

Both of these moves are attempts by large media companies to adjust to Internet-driven media market fragmentation in Rochester. The au courant explanation for this fragmentation is the Long Tail . Or, as the media outlets probably see it, the Rochester herd is no longer happy eating from the same trough.

Over the past few days, I've noticed something kind of funny with my iTunes recommendations list.

Thanks to the hard work of Rottenchester, and Phil, as well as some bungling by FarMcKon, the (in)fameous RocWiki.org now has integrated google maps on pages where the address macro is done right  (such as Mamasans).

Just click on the "Map" icon in the Page-Title bar, and watch the mysterious magic of javascript unfold.

I <3 Web 2.0.

Webster Schools have decided to pull Rainbow Boys, a book about gay teen life, from a  reading list after parents complained.  Apparently, a few moms and dads got the vapors when they saw that the book was part of the  summer reading program. 

Never mind that little Johnny only has to pick two books from the hundreds of choices, or that he can choose another book by filling out a "permission to read off-list" form.  The unadulterated homosexuality of Rainbow Boys polluted that list by its very presence.  It was getting gay all over the place, and it had to be stopped!

I guess life is worth living in Webster -- if you're straight.  If you're gay, well, not so much.