Category: People

The Story Carl Rytterfalk’s Camera Tells

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-W2Ia9tar8]

 

Before there was Twitter or before Facebook gained popularity, I followed people online directly through their Websites or RSS feeds. I’ve long favored personal blogs over professional news sites. The best stories are told by and are about people.

Fast forward five years, people are what make the social Web work so well, and why my profession, journalism, is in state of chaos. Why read something filtered by a reporter/editor when the single, or even crowd, source is available? Interaction is more personal and direct.

The Hillywood Show

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wl30rTR1nY]   Among my 17 Comic-Con 2009 interviews: The Hillywood Show players, featuring sisters Hilly and Hannah. These girls are young, motivated and talented. The website is engaging, and they connect to all the […]

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The Firefighter’s Gift

Last night my daughter asked if I could buy a Santa hat for her to wear ice skating with friends. But I couldn’t find one anywhere. You would expect them to be sold out on Christmas Eve. Later, as I exited the UTC mall’s food court, I saw four security guards sitting around a table, the woman among them wearing a Santa hat. Surely they would know where to find one! I approached and cheerfully asked if they could suggest a store selling santa hats.

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Thanks, Mom

I was 14 when my mother saved my life. It was, in fact, my 14th birthday.

Dad, mom, my three sisters, and I had gone to my grandparents house to celebrate. Nana made tasty pork chops, for which I had no appetite. For dessert, there was fresh baked chocolate cake—yum, my favorite—and actually two. I had no taste for cake, either. Instead, after picking at my food, I lay down on the couch. My sister Annette, who is closest in age to me, also was ill. We both had fevers, and I assumed that we shared the same flu. 

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Jimmy

When I was 12, after school every day, my best friend and I would go to the local five and dime for Coke at the soda fountain. We’d sit on stools and share the drink, purchased for a nickel, using separate straws. His dad and mom worked at a different school, respectively, as principal and teacher. We would wait until they came for him. Day after day.

The description might make me seem to be quite old, but parts of Maine are still behind the times—in the best ways possible.