From the newsletter

Greetings from the Berkshires on the Western edge of Massachusetts! We came up here to check out an autism school for Ian and decided to turn the trip into a mini-vacation. 

On today’s schedule is a tour of Edith Warton’s House, which should put me in literary geekery heaven. And a tour of a gilded age mansion — Ventford Hall Mansion, owned by J. P. Morgan’s sister — which should put me in history and art geekery heaven. In short, lots of geekery today, so let me put out a quick newsletter, while I’m waiting for the teenager to wake up. 

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So, last Tuesday had some surprises, no? I mean it wasn’t 2016 level of surprise, but the tight election in NJ and the huge sweep in VA‘s gubernatorial was certainly not called by the major media. The signs that pissed off parents were going to take out their anger on Democrats? That was missed, too. 

Why did they miss all this? Partly, it’s because local news sources are on oxygen masks in hospice care. There’s nobody really going to the school board meetings. Nobody writing those stories that will get picked up by the bigger fish in the media ecosystem. 

Continue reading “Lessons from Nov. 2” →