* A Guy Who Makes a Stink (Today's Letter in Valley News)

Yours truly, proudly photographed shovel-in-hand six years ago after digging up my septic tank by hand at age 62.

* POOP, NUKE , and HECK: The 3 UN-Campaign PKvermonter YouTube Videos

* Baby-Face with Elvis Hair ! :" Let's ditch the Prom . . ."

I just discovered my Prom picture 

half a century later !  

Who is the hunk with the baby face and the Elvis hair?


I love to tell this story:  
My Prom date, who was (shall we say) much more "worldly" than I, and owned her own, brand new 1962 Bonneville convertible, said to me when I arrived at her house to pick her up in my father's Dodge Lancer, 

"Let's ditch the Prom and go to the back seat of my car."

She scared this country boy half to death !!  

(Although I do notice in this picture that the gleam hasn't gone completely out of my eye.)

1961 Dodge Lancer

Junior Prom, 1962

1962 Pontiac Bonneville Convertible

*Bad News for the UN-Campaign of Cranky Yankee?

(Update: I'm puzzled.

In the two hours since this post was published, its had 93 VIEWS but zero VIRAL views .

What does this mean?  

Am I supposed to be doing something I am not doing?  

I do NOT understand.

I need your advice and/or digital assistance.)

Are these Stats from Facebook representative of the Generation Gap ?

My lowest number of daily views is 812.  

My highest daily views 3,706.  

Yesterday was over 1,100 views!

But my next door neighbor, 

in his forties and of voting age, 

has never heard of 

my Facebook page!

Is my digital audience actually an audience of NON-voters?

If so, how can WE 

(all of my viewers and myself) 

get my Facebook page in front of 

ACTUAL voters?

Please Help.

PK

* Letter to Mr. Collea: Why I Won't Stand Outside Hartford High on November 6th

To:

Mr. Joseph Collea, Principal

Hartford High School

From:

Paul Keane,

Independent Candidate for the Vermont Legislature

Date:

September 20, 2012

Subject:

Election Day Polling Place

cc:

Mr. Riesburg

Mr. DeBalsi

Mr. Fogg

Mr. Heavisides

Mr. Frank

Mr. Franzoni

Mr. Christie

Mr. DeFelice

Ms. Vowinkel

Blind copies:(  )

Hi Joe,

Nice to see you at the joint meeting of the Boards the other night at the Getaway.

In answer to your question “Will you be standing outside on election day?”

let me say I’ve fretted about that.

I stopped in to the Town Clerk’s Office and they told me that a candidate can ONLY stand in the designated area ( ironically in the grassy area 20 feet outside Rm. B107, the room in which I taught for over two decades) and that if the candidate enters the school even to use the bathroom he/she must wear no campaign signs or buttons and speak no words about the campaign. 

The school  has become The Polling Place on that day and it cannot be violated with campaigning, except in the one designated area mentioned above.

Even if school were not in session, this presents a problem for me that other candidates do not have. 

As a recently retired teacher, all it would take is one student yelling out a window or one team member yelling out of the locker room “Go Keane” or “Vote Keane” to violate the Polling Place and put other candidates at a disadvantage.

Therefore my answer is: NO

I will not stand outside the High School with other candidates on election day.

This fits my campaign promise.

I will use ONLY social media:  No media interviews, no debates, no arm twisting, no back slapping, no glad handing, no baby kissing, no donations accepted, no money spent, no dehumanizing, impersonal, bubble-sheet surveys filled out, etc.

I will however stand on the crossroad berm for a rush-hour now and then the week before election in the center of town waving a sign and my dog Nemo’s pooper-scooper (see video below).

Those few hours of waving will be my entire campaign outside of the social media.

This is the first experiment of its kind as far as I know:  Can use of the social media alone win an election?

If it can’t, so be it.

Best wishes,

Paul

Paul D. Keane

(HHS, Ret.)

M.A., M.Div., M.Ed.

* Brava to Ms. Vowinkel who snubbed the Big City Paper: Too "Busy in the Garden" to talk to the New York Times!

L-R: Kevin Christie, Democrat; Paul Keane, Independent;
Sheila Vowinkel, Democrat; Alex DeFelice, Republican, chatting prior to a joint meeting of the Hartford Select Board and the Hartford School Board at the Getaway Cafe at Hartford High School, September 12, 2012

   I May Vote for Vowinkel,
 a candidate 
with 
Moxy!

You know, you get to vote for TWO of the above candidates in the election. I actually have voted for Mr. Christie in prior elections and for Mr. DeFelice for Select Board.

But I did not know Ms. Vowinkel until I met her at the joint Select/School Board meeting the other night, even though I had both of her children, Alex and Emily,  in class a decade ago. (They use her husband's name, so I can be forgiven my mistake.)

 I was sitting next to Ms. Vowinkel  in the audience and she was sitting next to the Valley News reporter, when Ms. Vowinkel mentioned that the New York Times had called for an interview and SHE "TURNED THEM DOWN"  ! 

"Tell them I'm busy in the garden" she told her  husband, Peter Tenenbaum, when he shouted out the phone message to her in the dooryard.

That's the best story of the campaign, in my opinion.

It belongs on the front page of the Valley News  : "Vermont Candidate Snubs New York Times" 

I may vote for her JUST FOR THAT ! 

 I admire moxy.

You can guess the name of  the other candidate I definitely will vote for on election day. 

His initials are "PK".



PS

I mentioned the snub to Valley News reporter but it didn't register as a worthwhile story I guess when the reporter got back to headquarters.  

So I'm printing it myself here.  

This blog has had 3,000 page views.

* Mitt Romney Loaned Me His Dog !

(This photo is for my pal, Scout.)