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Happy as a clam at high water

The recent biblically proportioned floods in coastal New England have been as a miracle to area clams. "The worst shellfishing season in decades may have a sequel this summer, thanks to recent record rains coupled with wind and water conditions similar to what fed last year's ruinous red tide," reports our local 7 News. "Early this week, rainwater runoff forced Massachusetts to shut down shellfish beds from the New Hampshire border to Cape Cod and Buzzards Bay. At the same time, the state enacted a red tide closure of shellfish beds from the New Hampshire border to Deer Island in Boston Harbor." One clam's day is another man's empty clam plate. (Ipswich Shellfish Fish Market photo)

"No name has come to be so synonymous with "thesaurus" as has Roget's," writes David Crystal in his Opinion Journal list of "Top books on the history and use of English." While Harry Reid -- can you say useless idiot? -- would surely be apoplectic at the "racism" of celebrating the English language in the wake of yesterday's symbolic Senate vote to designate English as the national language -- or at least the "common unifying language" -- of the United States, we couldn't be more gratified*:

He has even become a common noun: I have "a Roget" on my shelves. Indeed I have a dozen Rogets, as his thesaurus has now appeared in numerous editions and been revised, expanded or abridged more times than any other example of the genre. The original was a truly remarkable work for its period, and anyone who has tried to update it or rework its contents (as I have) cannot fail to recognize the prodigious labor that went into its compilation. Idiosyncratic as all such thematic thesauruses are, it is nonetheless the best first source of reference we have for those many occasions when we are dimly aware of the meaning we want to express and are searching for the best word with which to express it.

Then there's The Use of English by Randolph Quirk:

This is the book that opened my eyes -- and the eyes of several generations of English students -- to the range, versatility and flexibility of the English language. The Use of English originated in a series of BBC talks, and the radio influence is apparent in the friendly tone of the writing and down-to-earth exercises. The book brought home the importance of always linking the study of language to the study of literature. Its range of examples, from both linguistic and literary sources, gave a perfect illustration of how the subject should be taught.

We were fortunate in high school to have had a number of English teachers -- Miss Wood and Mr. Friend and Mrs. Brady come to mind -- who would have been pleased as Punch to read Mr. Crystal's words today. He "is the author of more than 30 books specifically on English. His latest title, How Language Works (Overlook), will be published in November," says the OJ blurb. Don't tell Harry Reid, but we are "throned on highest bliss" at the thought of it.

Speaking of the out-of-control, misplaced use of the word racism,** we were horrified to read of Belgium's scapegoating of The Brussel Journal's Paul Belien's courageous voice-in-the-wilderness "crusade" -- yes, we said it! -- to save Europe from its death wish:

Following last Thursday’s Antwerp massacre, the Belgian authorities have announced zero tolerance for racism. Belgian journalists, lawyers and politicians (including Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt), say that I am responsible for creating the atmosphere of hatred that led to the massacre. Some people even demand that I be prosecuted . . .

Europeans have foolishly replaced God by the State as the one on whom they rely to take care of all their needs from cradle to grave. The religious vacuum has led to a demographic vacuum, because those who lose faith in God lose faith in the future as well. A civilization that has created a religious and a demographic vacuum is bound to perish.

The lights are turning out for Europe. If America follows Europe’s example Christendom is lost.

We'll bet it can't happen here. Despite the downside -- blogged here yesterday -- of a people who may not, as Voltaire wrote, "agree with what you say, but . . . will defend to the death your right to say it," this nation, under God, with the give and take of its balance of powers, will prevail as a shining city on a hill.

*863. PLEASURE ADJS. 12. pleased, delighted, proud [chiefly dial.]; glad, gladsome; charmed, intrigued [coll.] thrilled; tickled, tickled to death [coll.] tickled pink [slang]; gratified, satisfied, pleased with, taken with, favorably impressed with, sold on [slang], pleased as Punch, pleased as a child with a new toy. 13. happy, joyful, joyous . . . "throned on highest bliss" [Milton] . . . "thrice and four times blessed" [Vergil] . . . happy as a clam at high water [U.S.]. (Roget's International Thesaurus, Third Edition)

**525. NARROW-MINDEDNESS 4. class consciousness, class prejudice, discrimination, social discrimination, minority prejudice; racism, racialism, race prejudice, race snobbery, racial discrimination; anti-Semitism, redbaiting; social barrier, class distinction; color line, color bar; Jim Crow law; segregation, apartheid [Afrikaan]; desegregation.

Oh, sweet Mitt of life, at last I've found you?

There is already an online service to match up people who need help and those who are ready to help -- "In the event of a disaster, the best donation is cash" -- Lieutenant Kerry Healey is saying at a State House press conference late this afternoon, following Governor Mitt's acknowledgement that government cannot do it all. 'Course New England Cable News trumped them by a mile, but better late than never?

"I'm pleased that we've gotten Operation Lifeline (Whassat? Nothing comes up in a quick Google search) under way," says Governor Mitt from the State House this afternoon:

The National Guard . . . our cities and towns have done an admirable job. I've heard nothing but positive words from the people that have been affected.

NECN anchor R.D. Sahl summarizes the gist (rough transcript):

Updating the state relief effort in the flood crisis, Governor Romney has sent a letter to President Bush asking for relief to individuals and businesses. Still on hold is a request for relief for infrastructure until further assessment of the damage.

Our elected officials are on the front line, and their mettle is on the line now too. We were pleased with first impressions, but all too soon our Republican Massachusetts leaders of choice revealed their feet of clay. We caught Lieutenant Governor Healey saying something to the effect that this sort of thing would be common now, given global warming. How sad that such a brilliant, ambitious, well-educated and totally awesome woman who owns our heart has mindlessly bought the alarmists' story, not realizing that what we are looking at here is nothing new but the result of a "100-year storm" (in this case actually a "70-year storm"). It's true that scientific education -- not to mention the teaching of history and geography -- is a travesty in this nation, even among our best and brightest.

At the same time, the man who would be Leader of the Free World -- Oh, sweet Mitt of life, at last I've found you? -- played a most disagreeable disgrace card on "Good Morning America" with the silken, fawning Diane Sawyer:

“We’re continuing to be very, very careful and going through our neighborhoods, securing them, and making sure there is no looting of any kind,” Romney added.

The remarks puzzled local officials, who reported no incidents of looting in the Bay State, New Hampshire or Maine, and prompted experts to question if Romney was raising red flags for no reason -- or for political reasons.

Politics are the way of the world, but without knowing anything more about it, this one left a bad taste in our fiercely independent New England, home-rule mouth. We aren't like those folks down yonder in New Orleans, our local-pride first response told us. Mitt owes us more respect. Kerry Healey, too. We weren't born yesterday.

Bringing people together for the common good

"In a free society, the public good depends on private character," GW told a graduating class last May, citing Tocqueville's notion that "The secret to America's success was our talent for bringing people together for the common good. Tyrants maintain their power by isolating their citizens. America offered the world, he said, something it had never seen before. When you come together to serve a cause greater than yourself, you will help build a greater and more just America."

"Send us your offers of help for your neighbors," say the folks at NECN (New England Cable News) as the sun emerges from behind the rain clouds, and our fellow New Englanders begin to assess the damage, pick up the pieces and try to get back to normal in the wake of historic flooding this past week. We're doing our miniscule part by alerting our readers who may wish to help to head on over to "The NECN Help Your Neighbor" blog:

Matt Noyes suggested this, and we're happy to do it. We have received many emails from New Englanders (and beyond), offering free and discounted services to those who suffered losses in the May flood. Send in your offers to [email protected] and we will post them.

Here's a good summary of the big picture from CBS/AP:

Driving rains that caused the worst flooding in New England since the 1930s finally eased up Tuesday, but washed-out roads and the danger of dam breaks prevented many people from returning to their homes.

More than a foot of rain fell across New Hampshire, Massachusetts and southern Maine between Friday and Tuesday, with up to 17 inches in some places. Police reported a single fatality, a 59-year-old man whose body was found in a submerged car north of Boston.

Gov. Mitt Romney said the damage would reach tens of millions of dollars in Massachusetts alone. And more rain was forecast for the weekend.

But on Tuesday, the worst appeared to be over.

The sun is out, the terrace is a terrace again -- after its brief stint as a wetland on Sunday -- and the animals are loving it. Above, Baby pauses to sniff the air.

For our own readers who've expressed concern after reading our own local coverage of the Flood of 2006 -- featuring Tuck's heroic clearing of our flooded basement -- we're high and dry now, and for the first time in days, Tiny and Baby are outside happily catching up with their yard-patrol duties.

A word to the wise just added to NECN's "Help your Neighbor" blog:

We know how kind and generous New Englanders are. We appreciate the offers of free and discounted help that are coming in, and we are posting every one. But please note: we're offering this as a public service, and we aren't able to check out every offer to ensure they are sincere. Use common sense when responding, and don't give out too much personal information until you are comfortable with the offer. We have no reason to doubt the sincerity and generosity of everyone -- we just want you to be safe.

Meanwhile, a typical one of the many offers "flooding" in:

From the Greater York Region Chamber of Commerce website: The Greater York Region Chamber of Commerce is asking everyone who would like to assist to come to Short Sands Beach in York today (5/17/06) at 11:30 am with trash cans, brooms, wheelbarrels, and shovels to help us clean-up the debris in the streets and on the beach, as well as assist merchants with whatever else they may need. The goal is to get as many businesses up and running as we can for this coming weekend.

It's the American way, bringing people together for the common good. Not to mention that "the business of America is business." Tocqueville and Calvin Coolidge would both be proud. Speaking of doing our part for the larger community, we must remember to pay a visit to Brown's Old-Fashioned Ice Cream at York Beach when we're down Goomp's over Memorial Day weekend. From USA Today's "10 great places to scream for ice cream":

In operation for almost 40 years, "this is the quintessential summer ice cream stand on the way to a lighthouse (locals know it as Nubble Lighthouse). Once you get there, you'll notice that there are plenty of walk-up order windows, which is what any good stand should have. The ice cream is good, but it's the incredibly beautiful setting that's the draw.

We can vouch for that. Post-cookout outings to Brown's are a family tradition spanning four generations (JuJu used to love it).

Update: Jill Fallon of Business of Life on "The American talent":

I often noted this talent in the past and of course I quoted de Tocqueville who remarked . . . that at the head of any new undertaking, you would find the government in France, a great lord in England and an association in America Working Together on Borrowed Time.

In the end, everything is local, and helping neighbors is the way to reinforce and practice our very American talent.

Good stuff.

The Cat and the Hat

The Cat and the Hat. It's practically Seussian. We can dig it. Or how about Hats and the Cat, more on the Shavian side? We don't think so. We caught Tiny snuggling in with Tuck's Dorfman Pacific Outback Wool Felt Hat this afernoon after we returned home from big shoppies. Note drops of rain on top and brim. The rain it continues to raineth every day, although we've had a couple of brief sun sightings of late. Click here for The Man in the Hat.

"The SUN is out," Goomp imailed this afternoon, filing a you-are-there report from the front of the Flood Wars:

York Beach at Long Sands had no problem. There were maybe 25 surfers in wet suits in the ocean but not any swell really large enough to get up on the boards. The stores down by the entrance to Animal Forest had a lot of stuff out on the sidewalks, which must have been soaked when the area flooded, but there was no sign of water now.

We forwarded the news on to weatherman Matt Noyes at NECN. One of the special charms of our own New England cable network is their feature of soliciting and airing phone reports and digital images from our fellow citizens who are eyewitnesses to the making of local history. Talk about your national treasures. We look forward to their sweeping all the awards for regional news coverage in the coming period of time.

More from Goomp re local conditions in Newburyport, MA, the town our siblings call home:

Goomp: Ben says the marinas in Newburyport were hard hit. They had just in the last week or so put their docks out.

We: Were they washed away?

Goomp: Some and others broken and piled onto the shore.

And on-the-scene reports from Sister Sue:

She: TERRIBLE damage to [Newburyport] marinas. I never got a really good look at the mighty Merrimack, except from my car. I wish I had walked down to have a look, but I was unhaughty in the face of Nature this time [but] many of my friends went "flood peeping" last night. I just saw on NECN that Newmarket, NH, of all places, has had disastrous street flooding.

We: YES. It looked horrendous. Their dams are damned old. It's like Old Home Week with all our old haunts in the news: Exeter, Newmarket, Haverhill, Amesbury, Methuen, Milton -- even Gloucester -- Newburyport, of course . . . York Beach. Are we drowning?

Tiny as vamp. I want to be alone (with the hat).

We were going to photoshop out that diagonal line across Tiny's nose in the photo above, thinking it was some extraneous element that had been on the camera lens, when we realized in a zoom-in that it was one of her tail hairs, wet from her recent outing in the little house. Rain or not, after all these days the cabin fever has set in big time, and these cats will out.

Update: Speaking of the outing of cats, Watermark is hosting a most enchanting Mother's Day Special Edition of the 112th Carnival of the Cats "in honor of Gracie, my mother's cat and devoted companion."

An unknown empty place

A giant fungus frames the scene of a crater left by the remains of a Tree of Heaven felled close to the house a couple of years back. The hole is that dark place visible mostly to the upper right. Tuck had taken a crowbar to the stump awhile back and found the crowbar almost disappeared into the soil as the trunk had gone virtually from dust to dust. We theorize that this is the drywell that drew the flood into our basement of late.

After the floods had subsided in our Cellar-by-the-Sea, Tuck got to thinking and figured out the source of that biblical flow of water into our basement during the recent downpour. It was an unknown empty place beneath the stump of an Ailanthus altissima close by the house that had been felled a couple of years back -- reminded us of that unknown underground stream in Haverhill of which Governor Romney spoke today. In the first couple of years after the tree was slain, it sent up numerous clonal sprouts in the lawn. Now, in this last week, it visited its revenge upon us by drawing the flood waters into our cellar. Were we Bill Clinton, we would feel its pain.

"The sewage ran raw into the river every day"

"It’s going to get worse before it gets better,” said Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney as he and Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey visited Haverhill and other flood-threatened Merrimack River Valley cities this morning, then traveled to the state-of-the-art Deer Island Sewage Treatment Plant at the mouth of Boston Harbor for presidential-quality photo ops. The point was that things were going swimmingly at Deer Island, but serious problems lay ahead inland as the region's major rivers continued to rise ominously, with yet more rain in the forecast. His eyes looked sad and careworn, but Governor Mitt was definitely at the helm and ready to assume responsibility. Not-my-fault/Bush's-fault Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco need not apply. We like the cut of our Governor's jib. Unlike the usual suspects -- the local network affiliates, who have better things to amuse us with, like Katie Couric in the morning and soaps in the afternoon -- New England Cable News has been on the case non-stop since the rain started to fall these many days ago. (Screen shot from NECN)

"It's already the third worst flooding event in the history of the Merrimack Valley,"  reports meteorologist extraordinaire Matt Noyes of Boston's superb, all-floods-all-the-time New England Cable News, the station of choice for breaking area news. The waters are still rising, expected to crest early tomorrow morning between 2 and 3 o'clock. "It's the biggest since 1936," said Haverhill Mayor Fiorentini, referring to the benchmark flood in these parts. Goomp was on the scene in Haverhill way back then, checking out the family firm on River Street and documenting conditions with his then state-of-the-art 8mm movie camera, when "the sewage ran raw into the river every day":

I well remember the 1936 flood in Haverhill. I was home from Governor Dummer Academy on spring vacation. There were outboards going along Merrimac Street and Post Office Square. We took a boat from higher ground and entered C.F. Jameson & Co. [the family firm] through a window six feet above the street.

The treatment plant was built the next year. You can't imagine how dirty the river was in those days. The waste from Concord, Manchester, Nashua, Lowell, Lawrence all came through to the ocean in Newburyport.

Fortunately for us, the most water we had to walk through was a few inches in our cellar, which seemed huge at the time but has now receded, thanks in no small part to Tuck's ingenuity, together with a break in the weather. There's flooding, too, near Goomp's neck of the woods, in York Beach, Maine, but in the higher ground he commands at Camelot-by-the-Sea in York Harbor, all is well.

Now the sewage has hit the fan once more, as the Boston Herald reports:

The worsening flooding after four days of relentless rain is being called the worst in New England over the last 70 years. Hundreds of people are hunkering down in shelters or are in the process of evacuating -- some by boat -- across the North Shore and Merrimack Valley.

Untreated sewage is flowing in the Merrimack River from a burst pipe in Haverhill at a rate of roughly 35 million gallons a day, officials said. The loss of power at a Lawrence treatment plant threatens to release some 100 million additional gallons a day.

Romney declared a state of emergency yesterday, activating the National Guard and other state services to help local officials respond to the torrential rain that hasn’t let up since Friday. Romney said he anticipated the state would reach the threshold of $7 million in damage to apply for federal aid. No deaths or injuries had been reported by early today in Massachusetts, state officials said.

"We've been surprised about some of the places that flooded," Governor Romney said in one of his press conferences today, citing an underground stream in Haverhill "we didn't even know about" that had the effect of eroding the surrounding soil and undermining something or other -- a bridge or a segment of road? Gotta try to find out more about that. This whole thing resonates with the old saw about those who do not study history. Here's an example of how quickly they forget, with a punchline you wouldn't expect to hear on this blog:

"There's a 30-foot wall standing between downtown Haverhill and its ambitious plans to spawn a renaissance on the banks of the Merrimack River," went an Eagle Tribune article of September 2004:

The flood wall was built by the Army Corps of Engineers between 1937 and 1938 to protect downtown Haverhill from the Merrimack, which spilled its banks and flooded the city in 1936 and to a lesser extent again in 1938.

The discussion came as Grabauskas, Fiorentini and state Sen. Steven A. Baddour, D-Methuen, talked about ways to connect riverside properties -- such as the Merrimack Valley Regional Transportation Authority bus station -- to the flood wall or to a proposed "Newburyport-style" riverside boardwalk.

"There is no question that the seawall is a major impediment to viewing the river and using it for recreational purposes," Fiorentini said. "Of course, it's possible to take down the wall, but it might flood the city. I am skeptical that we could ever obtain permission to knock down the flood wall and I am certain that we could not obtain permission quickly."

Here's the unanticipated punchline: Sometimes bureaucratic sluggishness works out for the best. What if they had torn down the wall to make way for dewy-eyed river views? We shudder to think and give the final word to our weatherman of choice, Matt Noyes of NECN, whose historical sense is alive and well:

Now there is a lot more money invested into the riverbanks [what with condos and such] as opposed to the earlier days when mills and related businesses [our own family firm] lined the banks of the Merrimack.

You go, Matt!

"We ourselves may be beauties in unwanted places"

Matthew as a youngster head to head with the doggie love of our life, Max, back in the good old days, now at the head of the cellar stairs with a plethora of vases and pots from Washington Park Florist below.

This is awesome in a funny way. We sent mutiple emails to various addresses for the Carnival of the Cats, our long-time weekly showplace for all things Tiny and Baby because of late our posts haven't been received there for some reason we can't fathom so far. Presumably as an unintended result, we got the following message from the totally awesome Pat Santy of Dr.Sanity:

Did you send me something that I didn't include? You sound upset . . . I looked through my email and didn't see a post from you for the Carnival, but I get so much email it is certainly possible that I missed it. If so, I humbly apologize.

Tuck continues vacuuming the flooded basement this afternoon. We pitched in for awhile, baling bucketful after bucketful, but soon tired and retired upstairs to the blog.

Dear Dr. Sanity: You are the light of our life. We'd love to be your patient but are still trying to be strong and keep up our end of things as your fellow freedom fighter. You are so beautiful to us. Her latest:

Cheer up. We ourselves may be beauties in unwanted places, but we're beautiful nonetheless.

This woman is too good to be true.

Update: Meanwhile, Tuck has devised a poor-man's temporary sump pump, a siphon system with two hose sections (weighted down, left, by a container) going from the hole in the concrete where the water is entering the cellar across the floor and out the door (right) onto the driveway.

Beauty in unwanted places

The terrace as wetland this morning. Beauty in unwanted places? Poor drainage happens.

Weather consequences were so bad yesterday that Tuck requested we not blog about it for awhile. He spent hours vacuuming out inches of water from the basement with the shop vac, not knowing the source. At one point the Chelsea Fire Department came in at Tuck's request and determined it had nothing to do with the sewage system and must be leakage from the saturated soil surrounding the foundation.

Water patterns on the terrace this morning, where the drainage is non existent after these 40 days and 40 nights of rain.

The weather picture here of late has been of biblical proportions.

The basement floor, dry at 5 a.m. was in full flood mode by 7 a.m.

When Tuck arose this morning, ready to head out to Home Depot for sump-pump relief, we told him the basement had been dry a couple of hours earlier when we arose to feed the puddies. 'Wish we had taken a photo, as now, when we went down, the flood had moved back in. Who will ever believe us? At any rate, as he heads out, we head for the kitchen to prepare a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs. The cats are antsy with cabin fever.

We must admit we awoke this morning with a primal fear. You always think it's going to be a terrorist attack or a hurricane or a tsunami or a tornado. What if it snuck in the back door? Lots of perennial worries when it comes to torrential rain, including the undermining of the root system of our grand old Silver Maple, which could fall with full force onto the house, not to mention the ever looming possible breach of the awesome retaining wall behind the house.

Update:  Tuck's home with no sump pump in hand. About a zillion fellow citizens ahead of him in line at the Home Depot.