Hammer Mill Days

Is this thing on? Are you sure? Trouble is, Mitch, I can't believe anything you say now. I need independent confirmation of every bland assurance you give me. Hello? Hel- lo ? Oh, well ... I think this blog is working again. Greetings from the abandoned Cheney Hammer Mill in beautiful upstate New York, where your friends and neighbors in Big Green are busily preparing for what may be the most ambitious holiday celebration we've seen in years. Bigger than, well... bigger than last year's, which, to be frank, wasn't much. So I should say the biggest in year . Anyway, it takes a lot of preparation - that's the point. And now that we have the Web site back up and running (I am told), we can turn our collective attention back to the impending festivities. What's on the docket? So glad you asked. We are planning another holiday extravaganza on THIS IS BIG GREEN , our monthly podcast, featuring special guest appearances, new music, strange, unidentifiable noises,...

Been off this pony for a couple of weeks - kind of unusual for me, frankly - so I'm just going to run through a few items. Bear with me. Guns, guns, guns. The sickening Connecticut grade school massacre appears to have moved the discourse on guns a bit over the last week, as you might expect any mass slaughter of innocents should. Call me a cynic, but I've reached the point where my expectations are extremely low when it comes to finding solutions to national problems. Once all of those young, young (too goddamn young) people are in the ground, my guess is that the backpedaling will begin in earnest. We are dealing with a hard core of tri-corner hatted fanatics, driven by an industry hungry for profit. "Take away our 30-round ammo clips and next you'll come for our flintlocks!" With each outrage we imagine reaching a turning point, but it never seems to come. I'm ready to be pleasantly surprised, but... it would indeed be a surprise. Fiscal cliffhanger. ...