June Ramblings

Of all possible Mildly Informative news items I have, the mildest by far is that Steve’s Mildly Informative Stuff is now a blog. That doesn’t mean I’m going to abandon the current crude method of disseminating obtuse drivel and forcibly subjecting your inbox to it, oh no, no, no! It just means that those of you who have been clamoring to comment upon the minutiae I proffer herein can now submit your own Mildly Informative Comments to the blog. Details here: http://stevesmildlyinformativestuff.blogspot.com/.

I just returned from a 2-week Fitpacking Trip to Shenandoah National Park in VA. It was incredible not only because of the surfeit of sweeping views and excessive panoply of wildflowers, but because our crew was comprised of decent human beings with great spirits. If you’ve never been, the hiking is excellent and so are the blackberry milkshakes at the waysides. Photos forthcoming.

And if you’ve spend the last few months jonesing for pictures of the April Great Smoky Mountains Trip, you can view a slideshow of Desiree’s pictures here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=16gnqgjx.5qm1qjxx&Uy=t5fpad&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=141197289411_816383435605&localeid=en_US. Unfortunately, Ann’s camera went swimming.


Last year, Backpacker Magazine spearheaded a Herculean effort to map the entire 2800+ mile Continental Divide Trail. As part of that effort, then-Associate Editor Jason Stevenson and I (Team 43) mapped a section of trail just South of Chief Joseph Pass on the Montana/Idaho border. Jason has produced, organized, edited and uploaded several videos detailing the efforts of hundreds of volunteers. You can peruse them here: http://www.backpacker.com/cdt. Note: We were the team that spotted the enormous charismatic megafauna at the end of the ‘Animals of the CDT’ clip.

Many of you have come to feel a gaping void in your soul when the Mildly Informative newsletter omits any mention of barf bags. However, take heart, this is not one of those times.

In May, the Air Sickness Bag Museum was listed as one of the 25 weirdest collections on the web, http://www.sahio.com/25-weirdest-collections/. (It’s #2 after the navel fluff collection).

Ergo, the National Review is weird: http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDg1NTkwNzM0M2ViZDIxZjQwNjhhMjRjZTljMTdkZDg=

Some sources even consider barf bag collecting a trend: http://www.transporttrends.com/mvnforum/mvnforum/viewthread?thread=1761

To all you corporate people who are reading this at work, thinking about how great it would be to spend your afternoon writing a dumb newsletter like this (but preferring to be able to afford essentials like food, gas, and lacrosse lessons for your not-so-athletic teenager), I need your help. Actually, Amy Lemkin does. She recently left her last position and is available for hire. If your company is looking for a Business Manager (HR, Accounting, Mgt Operations etc.) Amy is someone who can expedite and get things done. amylemkin@comcast.net.

Sera Genovese will be walking 60 miles over 3 days in an event called the Breast Cancer 3 Day. She needs to raise $2000 and her team is called “Pretty in Pink & Billy”. In order to donate or just check things out: http://www.the3day.org/.


For those of you who are languishing in obscurity and want a legacy that extends beyond a footnote in the Mormon Church’s database of every person who ever lived, consider a publicist. Darlan Erlandson does public relations work, copywriting, editing, proofreading and a host of other services to get you noticed. Contact her at fame@acd.net.

If you enjoy pointless confrontation then, well you’re most likely someone I’ve dated. Either that, or you’re in real estate. Anyway, if you want to feel good about not currently being involved in a real estate transaction, here’s a blog from one of this list’s members: http://framinghamguy.blogspot.com/

Amber Bloom has asked me to direct you to her website: http://www.code-creations.com/

This newsletter’s jeremiad is intended to underscore the difficulties of being an activist. To illustrate, please recall the old adage about Ginger Rogers having to dance as well as Fred Astaire, except backwards and in high heels. Yeah, I know, I only have a vague notion of who Ginger Rogers is myself, but I have even a less vague notion of who might currently be appearing on Dancing With the Stars (with the notable exception of Master P [not to be confused with Master Po from Kung Fu, who I’d actually tune it to watch on D with the S]).

Anyway, while my set of values compels me to support most any environmental cause, my actual activism is limited to possibly the tiniest amount of effort achievable. You may know for instance that I am the webmaster of Sustainable South Shore (http://www.sustainablesouthshore.org/). Yet even this most nominal of involvement takes far more time than I had ever imagined.

What this means is that being socially conscious costs an activist their time, time that they might otherwise devote to a far more profitable job, career, or business. Meanwhile, espousing the status quo is often lucrative. There’s big money in exploiting natural resources, supporting sweatshops, or polluting indiscriminately. Those who ignore say, environmental or social costs do so because it is good for generating wealth and then get to feel good about their choices by listening to Conservative talk radio. The socially conscious individual is therefore left with far fewer opportunities to generate enough largesse to influence legislation the way, say, oil executives do.

I don’t have any startling revelations about this phenomenon, other than my current assertion that pure Capitalism and economic theory don’t take social good into account until some lowest common threshold of decency (such as Lake Erie burning) has been exceeded.

I’m guessing some business wonk has written extensively about this phenomenon and profited handsomely from their research/revelations without having furthered any actual social cause. But that’s just a guess.

Send me your news!