This is that time of the year when news stations everywhere start running those safety demonstrations about what can happen if you’re not careful with fireworks. You can probably expect to see clothing on mannequins set on fire in an effort to show how easily clothing can ignite; you might see replicas of human hands being blown to smithereens to remind everyone that fireworks are explosives.

It’s sort of fun to watch, but at the same time, you’ll likely shake your head and ask yourself, “Do we really need to see this year after year?”

Unfortunately, we do. There are roughly 12,000 injuries each year because of fireworks. As one fireworks enthusiast points out, while taking a swing at the “biased” media, this is indeed a small amount when compared to the number of people injured in bicycle accidents. (I’m pretty sure we do stories from time to time about bicycle safety as well, but I’ve yet to see bicycle manufacturers trying to claim that the media is conspiring to make everyone walk!)

Far less than some vast conspiracy to run the fireworks industry into the ground, the media covers this topic because the majority of fireworks-related injuries, which affect children and adolescents, tend to be more preventable than other kinds of accidents if sufficient parental supervision is present. (After all, unless a child is only permitted to ride a bicycle built for two with mom or dad taking the second seat, there’s only so much parental supervision possible during every peddle.)

One other thing to consider is whether they’re legal in your town or county. Not all fireworks are, and if they’ve changed the law since the last time your neighborhood looked like a war zone, you could end up in trouble. One of the local newscasts, in fact, had a local fire chief on earlier this week to talk about the legality of fireworks: in his county, he says that fireworks are illegal if they:

1. Leave the Ground,
2. Produce Sparks, and/or
3. Produce a Report.

I had to laugh at that soundbite. Are there any other kind of fireworks?

Still, if you’re convinced that anyone in the media who might cover this topic has ulterior motives, perhaps you’d be more convinced by what a children’s hospital has to say on the topic.

Whether you purchase your own fireworks or leave them to the professionals, I hope you have a safe holiday!

I didn’t realize that they actually had their own name, but those skyscraper paperbacks that have begun appearing in book stores seem to. They’re referred to as “venti,” the same name given to a “supersized” selection at Starbucks.

I’m not a fan of these venti paperbacks. They’re about an inch taller than those traditional paperbacks we all know and love. And they cost about two bucks more. The cost by itself is enough to turn me off. I am still old-fashioned — or is it cheap — enough to think that $7.99 is too much to pay for a paperback as it is. I remember when a five-dollar bill could get you at least one, sometimes two paperbacks. Though I doubt dime novels were still around when I was born, I’m sure it was during my lifetime that five bucks could buy five paperbacks.

Ten bucks for a paperback? I can get a hardcover from my book club for that!!

As I get older, I might one day hope for larger type in books. But despite the size, there’s no real difference in font size. The difference in these books seems to be a little more white space on the pages. So we’re upping the price and wasting paper at the same time! Nice.

Tess Gerritsen and Bookseller Chick also have mentioned these ventis recently. Tess says that a book store employee explained that they’re all on the top shelf — and getting some nice exposure — because “that’s the only place where the damn things fit.” Bookseller Chick adds that the larger size forces her to adjust her shelving which means that she loses valuable space.

And for aspiring novelists like me, that is a concern: less book shelf space means that someone’s books are going to lose out. And who do you expect would lose out: an established author with lots of fans or newer authors who are battling for every single sale?

But wait…it gets better! Gerritsen adds that even for the established authors who get the prime real estate in the book stores, all is not well:

“Sure, it’s nice to be on the top row for a week or two. But what happens when the next shipment of titles comes in? Where do bookstores and drugstores and supermarkets put those ventis, if they can’t fit them on a lower row, where older releases usually go?”They return them. That’s right. They don’t get the prolonged stay of execution a normal-sized mass market may enjoy, sitting on a lower rack for a few weeks beyond its pull date. If the store doesn’t have room on the lower rack, those ventis are kicked out. Or they’re laid on their sides, spine out. They may have had their time in the sun, but it’s a briefer moment of glory.”

I’m sure the publishers have their marketing research to conclude that people will buy these books and be thrilled with them; perhaps they have marketing research that also indicates that this “briefer moment of glory” will be enough to make up for any lost sales that will result when those awkward-sized books lose their top-shelf position.

But I think I’ll stick with the normal mass-market paperback size…the size that fits on my bookshelves.

I was supposed to post these yesterday as part of the latest Round Robin Photo Challenge, but a long, meeting-filled day at work was just enough to make me forget.

In any case, these were taken this past weekend, when I took my parents to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens here in Richmond. My mom feels that her hair was a mess on that particular outing, and has made it clear that I am to show no one the photos that I snapped of them, so I’ll stick to three samples of flowers that I spotted as we toured the gardens.

Of the three, this next one is my favorite. Although I like the vibrant reds, both the color and the flower itself seemed so delicate in person that I wanted to try to capture it and show that these particular blossoms seem to be fairly solitary:

This one was snapped inside the conservatory:

I’m no botanist, so if you are curious about what kind of flowers they are, I am unfortunately not able to give you that information. I can say, however, that these are a very, very small sampling of the things to see at Ginter, and if you’re ever in the area, you should definitely stop by.

Found this over at Wil’s “Daily Snooze:”

You Are a German Shepherd Puppy


Intelligent, quick witted, and a bit aggressive.
You’ve got the jaw power to take a bite out of anyone you choose.

What Breed of Puppy Are You?

Found this over at “Anna’s Crazy World:”

You Are 51% Indie

You’re pretty indie, but you don’t make a fuss letting everyone know.
You just do what you like. You enjoy many types of things - from trendy to bizarre.

How Indie Are You?

Enjoy!

1. Are abridgements a good introduction to long, boring classics, or a blight on literature? I don’t care for the concept of abridgements. The reason the work is a classic because it was well-written as is. People who want only a CliffsNotes version should save themselves the time and just go buy CliffsNotes. Sure, they’ll miss out on the whole, but isn’t that the main point of an abridgement?
2. If abridgements have their place, what is it? The dust jacket copy. Condense, condense and condense some more. Reduce the story into a sizzling tease that makes me want to just plop down in the aisle of the book store and read until I reach “The End.”
3. Have you read any abridgements, or will you read any? Why or why not?The only time I have ever gone the abridgement route is in audiobooks, and then only — let me repeat: only — when there was no unabridged version. But when I’ve listened to an abridged audiobook then picked up the actual book from which it was abridged and read that, something interesting has occurred: I enjoy the full versio more, because I realize that there were subplots and deeper textures that the “skim-through” version didn’t have time to deal with.

Visit “Booking Through Thursday” here.

This little story was contained in a marketing newsletter I subscribe to. The source of it is unknown. You may have seen it before, but for those who haven’t, I thought you might enjoy it:

Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, all of the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water.

After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know that’s the way it’s always been done around here.

And that, my friends, is how company policy begins.

It explains a lot about how we go through life, doesn’t it?

My folks are in town this weekend, and we’ve been having a nice visit. They arrived on Friday afternoon just in time for a torrential thunderstorm, one of those sudden downpours that makes you think the end of the world might actually have arrived.

In the aftermath of the storm, there were a few Robins hoping around, trying to fly around, and having mixed success. By their size, they were clearly just past the “hatchling” stage but not quite at adulthood. I found one bird huddled on the wet ground. It was screeching for its mother, but made no effort to flee when it saw me coming, as if it were dazed. I guessed that the storm and heavy rain had knocked it from its nest, but I couldn’t see any sign of a nest nearby. I was able to pick it up without any resistance, and I took it inside and placed it in the nest on my patio recently vacated by another Robin and her babies which had grown up and moved on.

I decided that I was going to try to feed the little bird, either until it died or until it was strong enough to fly off on its own power. So we went to the grocery store and bought some fresh ground beef. I realize that ground beef isn’t a Robin’s normal fare, but this little bird was so hungry as I fed it little bits of the meat with tweezers that it made no effort to complain. It ate a lot more than I expected it to eat, but he (or she?) made it clear when he’d had enough by not opening his mouth anymore. But at least now it was flapping its wings as though it was getting some energy back.

The next morning, my dad went out on the patio and tried to feed it again. The bird took only two little morsels before deciding that he’d had enough. Then he jumped from the nest to a patio chair and was watching the world beyond.

By the time I got up — my parents are morning folk…I’m not — the little bird was poised on the ledge of the patio, contemplating rejoining his siblings, no doubt. His feathers were ruffled to the point that he looked as if he’d just been through the spin cycle, but I decided not to go out onto the patio because I didn’t want to scare him off the patio before he was ready to leave.

About an hour or so later, he was gone, so the hamburger meat was apparently just enough of a boost to get him (or her) moving again. Whenever I see a Robin fly by or hear one singing in a nearby tree, I’ll probably wonder if that’s “my bird.”

I will not, however, expect a Father’s Day card.

How much do you surf through the web’s top destinations? A site called Web100.com has ranked the 100 best websites in a variety of categories. We’ll use their rankings for this week’s edition of the Sunday Seven.

But first, Carly, of “Ellipsis…Suddenly Carly,” was first to play last week! Congratulations Carly!

On to your challenge — and you might not have seven answers this time around!

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION:
Beginning with the top 10 websites as listed by Web100.com, list the websites from that list that you visit most often. If there aren’t seven sites in their top 10 that you feel you visit enough to list, continue on to their next set of 10, and on, until you either fill 7 slots or run out of their rankings.

For example, of their top 10, I only really visit Amazon.com regularly, so I’d list it as my #1, then move on to their 11-20 rankings. Make sense?

Either answer the question in a comment or answer it in your journal and include the link in a comment. (To be considered “first to play,” a link must be to the specific entry in which you answered the question.)

My answers:
1. Amazon.com (#6)
2. Internet Movie Database (#29)
3. USA Today (#47)
4. WebMD (#53)
5. Dictionary.com (#79)
6. MSNBC (#85)
7. National Institutes of Health (#98)

Canon is one of those terms that pops up a lot in discussions of fanfic. At the recent Ravencon, I heard it pop up several times in a discussion of the “Star Trek” universe that had nothing to do with fanfic.

Canon, basically, refers to the history or backstory that the “official” writers establish. It is a kind of continuity in ongoing stories. For an extremely simplified example, if you were to write a “Star Trek” story about a Vulcan’s mating cycle, there’s that episode, “Amok Time” from the original series that created some facts about Pon Farr. The cycle of the condition recurs every seven years, according to that episode. You’d be breaking canon if you had it recurring in normal Vulcans — and especially in Spock himself — every five or every nine years. Again, that’s a very simplified example, but you get the idea.

In the “Star Trek” discussion, the writers were still upset over a long-standing policy at Paramount (apparently penned by Gene Roddenberry himself) in which the licensed ‘Trek’ novels and even the old animated ‘Trek’ series from the early 1970s are not considered canon. This means that whatever happens in their story doesn’t necessarily become the “official history” of ‘Trek.’

Over at “A Writer’s Life,” novelist Lee Goldberg mentions a fan of “CSI:” who was angry about the season finale in which two characters are suddenly depicted in an intimate scenario. Previously (at least as far as I recall), there had been a little sexual tension between the two, but there was no hint that anything was “going on.” The letter writer, while complaining about this sudden change, wrote, “Don’t mess with canon.”

But it’s their canon to “mess with.” Even if a storyline seems to go astray of the characters’ own backstory, the people who own the copyright still get to make those decisions. It may anger fans, and it might even turn away a few if the perceived transgression seems serious enough. But when the writers create that scenario, that is canon.

I tend to agree with one of Lee’s commenters, who suggests that if a show is good enough, the writers can “mess with” their own canon without committing an unforgivable sin.

I’m enough of a control freak about the characters I create that I actually enjoy establishing their backstories, even some details that never make it into the story. I honestly don’t anticipate creating characters that will appear in more than one novel at this point, nor do I have any desire at the moment to write stories with characters created by other people, so I doubt I’ll ever have to deal head-on with the canon issue.

But if I someday do manage to create a recurring set of characters, I’ll reserve the right to allow those characters to guide me in “messing with” canon if that tampering makes for a better story.

I do hope the readers will understand.

The most recent “Patrick’s Place” Poll asked you about your feelings on the controversial subject of gay marriage. Voters had three choices:

People willing to commit to each other should be allowed to marry like anyone else.
Same-sex couples should be allowed rights of marriage, but it should be called something else.
Same-sex couples should not be allowed any legal rights or recognition of their relationship.

I’m happy to report that 84% of those who voted feel that gay couples should at least have a legal option, whether it be called “marriage” or a “civil union.” Only 16% say the should not be entitled to any legal rights at all, which seems to me to be in direct opposition to that notion of all men being created equal that most of us hold so dear.

Of that 84%, it’s striking that 71% not only feel that gay couples should be allowed the legal rights of marriage, but that they also don’t have a problem with gay unions being called marriage. The remaining 13% feel that gays are entitled to the rights heterosexuals enjoy, but would be more comfortable if it were called something other than marriage.

What’s in a name? For many gay couples who want to be legally allowed to marry, having their relationship called a “civil union” rather than a “marriage” harkens back to the days of “separate but equal,” when children were segregated by race into separate school systems.

Granted, this survey was in no way scientific. But if this is even close to the “general population’s” view of things, why, other than for political posturing by a president desperate for a strong show of support on something, does this even need to be an issue? If the majority is supposed to rule, and if these results represent anything near what the majority really feels, it seems like it would be time to move on to more critical issues of the day.

Note: The quiz listed in question #4 featured a link to an old quiz. The link has been corrected, so if you’d like to update your responses, the new quiz is present. Sorry for the confusion.

I saw a preview trailer for the movie “Click” with Adam Sandler. Though the movie itself probably isn’t one I’d see, it did inspire one of this week’s questions!

But first, Cat of “Sweet Memes” was first to play last week’s set of questions. Congratulations, Cat!

Here are this week’s “Saturday Six” questions. Either answer the questions in a comment here, or put the answers in an entry on your journal…but either way, leave a link to your journal so that everyone else can visit! To be counted as “first to play,” you must be the first player to either answer the questions in a comment or to provide a complete link to the specific entry in your journal in which you answer the questions. A link to your journal in general cannot count. Enjoy!

1. You are given a “remote control” that involves life itself. Of these functions, which would you think you’d make the most use of: fast-forward, rewind, or pause?

2. If you could use a “change channel” button to become a totally different person, would you do so?

3. Do you own a gun? If not, what would it take for you to purchase one?

4. Take the quiz: What piercing are you?

5. Would you ever get a piercing described in your answer to the previous question?

6. Do you tend to visit friends and relatives at their homes more or have them visit you in your home more?

If you have a Reader’s Choice question you’d like to see asked (and answered), click the e-mail link in the Blogger profile and send it to me.

MY ANSWERS:

1. I would probably use pause the most, followed by rewind. I think I’d be afraid to make too much use of the fast-forward.

2. Only if I could do so temporarily, just to see some other perspectives. If it was a permanent change, no way.

3. I don’t, but I would purchase one if I felt security was a major problem where I lived. (And while I was out buying a gun, I’d be sure to pick up some apartment guides, because as soon as I could arrange it, I’d be moving somewhere else.)

4. Ear

You are boring! the ear piercing is the most common piercing and is not very daring!

(Can’t argue much with that assessment!)

5. No piercings for me.

6. I usually visit people at their place more often; I’m a packrat, so there’s not a lot of room for social gatherings in my place!

One of my newest readers, Julia of “Aesthetic Vibrations,” recently left this comment:

If you don’t mind me asking, how do you get so many readers to visit your blog?

I don’t mind admitting that it’s a question that I’ve often asked myself! I try to be informative, or entertaining, or amusing, or interesting, or a combination of any of these. Sometimes I succeed; sometimes I fall on my face.

As much as I’d like to pretend that I don’t, I know better. Believe me.

One of the things I find amusing about the blogosphere is that despite the fact that I have a fairly respectable audience, I am more than aware that in “real life,” if many of those readers were to meet me in person, they’d undoubtedly find me one of the most boring people they’d ever encounter. I’m not a party animal, I’m not a model, and I’m not a social butterfly. I have opinions, many of which are admittedly old-fashioned, and I am what is known as an “old soul.”

These are not the typical qualities that popular people tend to have. So I’m really not sure why people come back after that first visit. I’m just glad they do.

Of course, none of that really helps explain how I attracted an audience. So let me try to answer it a little better.

• Continue Reading….
When I started this blog, it was on AOL. AOL calls its blogs “journals.” And the group of people who have journals there have been known as “J-land.” It was a very supportive community for a long time; in some ways, it still very much is. But a change in policy there about six months ago caused many of its more prolific bloggers to leave that service, so many of us have scattered to services like Blogger, Movable Type or LiveJournal.

Having a blog there, during the first two years of J-land certainly helped. That’s where I built most of my audience, in fact. I’m grateful that many of those same people who read “Patrick’s Place” when it was an AOL blog still are regular visitors here.

During my blog’s first year, I introduced a meme called the “Saturday Six.” As the name implies, it’s a set of six random questions posted every Saturday. I had two main reasons for starting it was to add an interactive feel to the blog and to encourage folks to leave links to their blogs. As it grew, more and more people participated and I was able to find some very interesting journals to read. The “Saturday Six” and its sister meme, the “Sunday Seven” are now over at “Patrick’s Weekender,” which is also hosted here at Blogger.

Leaving those links brings me to another way to add readers: when you visit other people’s blogs, if you read something that inspires you to comment, be sure to end the comment with a link to your blog. It’s a quick and easy way to encourage the writer (and his readers) to visit your blog. If they like what they see, they’ll be back.

As more people visit and leave comments in your blog, return the favor. That reciprocation can work wonders: we all want to have comments. The challenge is to try to leave at least as many comments elsewhere as you receive in your own blog. I’m the first to admit that I don’t always succeed there. I’m working on that. Really.

There are lots of posts online about how to build an audience. Here are 10 steps I’d suggest. If you have ideas you’d like to add to the list (or if you’ve done posts on the subject yourself), please leave links in the comments!

1. Post Frequently (or at least Regularly) Everyone says this. Few people want to go out on a limb to say how “frequently” you should post or how regularly you should update. Some bloggers have a respectable audience that checks back from time to time despite the fact that they may only post once or twice a month. Others post several different entries per day. There’s no real rule here; the best advice is to figure out where your comfort zone is and then post as close to that as you can. You will eventually find that if you set some sort of normal frequency and you break it without warning, you’ll have readers leaving comments wondering if everything is okay!

2. Set Boundaries
Take a look at your blog’s capabilities. What kind of design capabilities does it have? How do you want your blog to look, and does that look complement the subject matter you plan to include? Does it allow you to turn off comments? Do you really want to? What if someone visits your blog just to cause trouble: will you delete those comments, start a “flame war,” or leave them up and ignore them?

Are there some topics that you aren’t willing to discuss? Figure out where your comfort zone is when it comes to what you’re willing to share and what you’re not. Don’t be ashamed to hold back some aspects of your life. It’s what we all do, and in today’s world of internet predators, it’s extremely wise.

3. Know Your Audience
Everyone likes to say this, too, and the fact is, it’s an extremely hard thing to know. I work in marketing, and I have the benefit of expensive survey information that tells me who’s watching my television station: I know all kinds of demographic information and specifics about where my viewers are located within my market.

If only blogging was that easy!

Utilities like StatCounter can not only keep counts on how many page visits you get, but they can also tabulate which individual post pages get the most attention. Some can tell you roughly where your visitors are located. You can also attempt polls or surveys on your blog. The results might give you at least a little insight into who’s already reading.

Posting on certain “controversial” topics can also give you an idea of who’s reading, particularly if you go out on a limb and reveal which side of the issue you’re on. (This is where that question about what to do with rude or mean-spirited comments could come in!)

It doesn’t always have to be hot button topics that get you comments, either. A post about a problem you’re having or a pet’s funny antics can get a lot of attention.

The more feedback you get, the easier it will be to gauge what interests those who visit. But keep in mind one important point: most of the people who visit will not comment. You can see this for yourself when you add a counter to your blog: you’ll see your page views go up despite the fact that comments don’t seem to appear. Don’t let yourself get discouraged: this happens to all of us.

4. Respect Your Audience
Once you know your audience, or at least once you feel you begin to know a little about what your audience is interested in, respect them. Be honest. Be who you are as much as you can or feel comfortable being. Don’t make up things just to attract attention. Don’t lie about who you are or try to play on readers’ sympathy with sob stories that are false. It’s been done and it ends badly.

5. Participate in Memes or Quizzes Not to repeat myself, but it really can generate visits. There are plenty of them out there. (I’m not trying to get you to play mine, although you’re more than welcome to if you like.) When you see someone post one, if you like the topic, post your own results at your blog, then go back to the blog where you saw the quiz and leave a comment stating that you’ve played at your blog. Leave that link so that others can visit and compare their results with yours. It’s one of the easiest ways to get people to stop by.

6. Make It Easy On Your Readers
The easier it is for them to find you and your posts, the more likely it is that they’ll visit. Sites like FeedBlitz give you the chance to offer your readers free email updates. Every time you post a new entry, they’ll get an email notifying them that there’s something new to read. Sites like Bloglines can supply you with buttons that readers can click to automatically add your blog to their subscription list, so that when you post something new, it will automatically appear on their reader service. (These days, with so many blogs, many people only read blogs through an aggregate reader rather than visiting individual blogs. This is another reason why you don’t always get comments.)

7. Graphics and Images Don’t Hurt
Take a look at your local newspaper. What do you see? Lots of print or a nice mix of images and photos and graphic elements? I’d wager it’s the latter. Post a photo or an image that somehow supports the post you’re making. Or include memes that include images with results. It breaks up the “gray matter” text and gives the eye a break. It can also make your blog more visually appealing for people who stumble upon it for the first time.

8. Sweat the Details
Yes, here’s where the writer in me comes out. I accept, begrudgingly, that not everyone writes completely grammatical sentences. There are good reasons not to from time to time. Sometimes, complete sentences aren’t even necessary. But the more spelling errors, typos, and butchered English you use, the harder it becomes to read your posts. The harder you make it, the smaller your audience will be. Why do that to yourself?

Proofread. Have a second look before you click that “submit” button

9. Think Before You Post
We’ve all been guilty of this at one time or another. You read something that hits a nerve and your fingers can’t peck out a response fast enough. You post what you’ve just gotten off your chest and your blood pressure drops as a wave of satisfaction washes over you. Then you realize that you’ve been a jerk and stepped on someone’s toes or hurt someone’s feelings.

Face it: it’ll happen to you sooner or later. The best you can do is to guard against it. If you’re writing something that has struck an emotional chord, it’s better to write the post, then walk away for a while before actually publishing it. Come back after you’ve cooled off. Re-read. Edit. Tone down. Be honest, but not hurtful.

Otherwise, you’re making yourself look as bad as you hoped to make your adversary look.

10. Have a Good Time
As soon as your blog becomes a “task” rather than a hobby, you’re in trouble. You should blog because you want to, not because you feel you have to; otherwise, the quality of what you write will almost certainly drop.

Those are my ten. What are yours?

There’s no real surprise here, as it’s been speculated that today’s announcement was coming for months, but CBS News and Dan Rather have officially parted ways.

Fifteen months ago, amid a controversy over a report on President Bush’s military service record that turned out to contain questionable documents, Rather signed off for the last time on the CBS Evening News, the broadcast he anchored for 24 years.

He made it clear as he closed that chapter of his professional life that he intended to stay with CBS and would focus his energy on 60 Minutes II. When that program was cancelled, Rather sort of disappeared. With all of 60 Minutes’ regular contributors in place, plus the several correspondents who were moved from the failed “Sixty-2″ as it was nicknamed at CBS, there just wasn’t enough slots to fit everyone in.

With his contract set to expire this November, Rather and CBS couldn’t come to terms on what his future assignments would be. So their mutual decision to separate ends Rather’s 44-year tenure at the Network.

In a statement, Rather made it clear that he felt he was being shut out:

“My departure before the term of my contract represents CBS’s final acknowledgement, after a protracted struggle, that they had not lived up to their obligation to allow me to do substantive work there. As for their offers of a future with only an office but no assignments, it just isn’t in me to sit around doing nothing.”

A CBS spokesman had only this to say in response:

“We value and respect Dan’s tremendous career at CBS News. Despite the fact that we couldn’t reach an agreement that satisfied everyone, we wish him all future success.”

Katie Couric, who departed from NBC’s Today, will take over anchor duties at CBS’s evening broadcast in September. Bob Schieffer, who is currently anchoring on an “interim” basis, will remain with the program with occasional commentaries. Rather, meanwhile, is rumored to be considering a deal with a cable network.

The new “Patrick’s Place” Poll tackles Rather’s departure. Cast your vote for the option that best describes your opinion of the situation.

The repairman from Verizon just left after finding the problem causing my new DSL service to move as slow as molasses.

When you order DSL service, they send you a connection kit with everything you need. Included in this kit is a wall-mount style filter jack that simply mounts in front of an existing wall-mount phone jack. (Everything that needs in a phone line in your home — except your computer — has to run through one of these filters.) I used the wall-mount phone in the pass-through between the kitchen and living room where the wall-mount jack is. This particular adapter actually has two jacks: one in front where a wall-mounted phone would plug in, and one at the bottom of the adapter, which allows you to plug in a second phone. So I plugged Tivo into the bottom jack. No more “dual splitter!” Bonus!!

The only problem is that the jack at the bottom of the adapter is not filtered. Who knew!

Adding a filter there was apparently all that it took to fix everything else. So now I’ve got internet service that seems just as fast as my cable internet service was, and after three months of promotional rates, I’ll be paying $29.95 per month for it instead of the outrageous $49.95 per month that my cable company was charging!

I’ll try my best not to use that $20 I’m saving each month at the book stores!