This New England

Maine is getting $709,000 in federal stimulus funds to replace old trolleys that provide seasonal service in the southern Maine coastal resort communities of York, Ogunquit, Wells, Kennebunk and Kennebunkport.

Ah, but how nice it would be if these towns had the sort of train service they had before World War II, when people could go to pretty much any densely populated place in New England in comfort, with extra summer trains and the ski trains serving resorts.

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"Blue Water Wave,'' by Rosamond Berg, at the Silvermine Guild Arts Center, in New Canaan, Conn.

The painting expresses the beauty and power she sees in the movement of water. (Rather obsessed with it myself.) It's part of her Asian-inspried "Variations on a Wave'' series. Water works wonders for a lot of artists -- think Monet and Turner.

Silvermine is one of the most dynamic arts centers in New England. The wealthy New York suburb (but I repeat myself?) has long had many artists living in the area, and many people who can afford to buy art -- God bless 'em.

I had cousins who left New Canaan because, they said, some of the folks there seemed too high-end, or too stressed about trying to act high end. They moved to the town of Fairfield, which doesn't seem that much of a socio-economic-psychic leap. Fairfield -- home of a brilliant gun-making mogul with a mansion with an elevator and a capacious capacity for puns, drink and old cars. That's another story. Hello, Bill Ruger!

I, however, found the many people I met in New Canaan over the decades generally very pleasant and good natured -- even the many Madison Avenue types who tended to concentrate there and in Westport. They tended to be very funny.

And I found few of the desperate types in, say, Revolutionary Road, except for a few who forgot how to ration the drinking, which people in New Canaan used to do a lot more of many years ago. But then the men had to practice at lunch every workday. And you could write it off 100 percent before Jimmy Carter came along and spoiled the fun.

The town also has the wonderful Elm Street Books, where I did a reading a couple of years ago about this time of year. Several of the attendees were on their way to their summer places on Nantucket, and became quite vociferous with each other about whether the windmills should go up in that summer bathtub for kids with toy boats called Nantucket Sound.

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Below is an emailed letter to Arthur Sulzberger, CEO of The New York Times Co., from a bunch of Boston Globe reporters. The NYT, by the way, is trying to sell off The Globe now that it has shrunken its cost structure a lot, presumably making it more attractive to buy. Maybe the nearly-all-Web Boston-based Christian Science Monitor will be their model?

Will the likes of Jack Welch or Fidelity's Ned Johnson make a pass at it? Probably not -- more like a bunch of 40-year-old venture capitalists. Iron-pants Welch, of all people, has condemned The Times's harsh tactics against Globe workers.

Dear Mr. Sulzberger:

Thank you very much for your response. It's nice to know that we can talk to each other.

The purpose of our letter was not to substitute for negotiations but to appeal for your leadership, an appeal to find common ground. Many of us who have long admired your family and its legacy have yearned to hear from you directly, without the subterfuge of lawyers and legal posturing. Again, we believe you care deeply about the work we do, and we know you understand how vital it is to Boston.

At the same time, we hope you appreciate the devastating consequences of a 23 percent pay cut -- how it will completely upend the lives of those who have worked at the Globe for years, some of whom have literally risked their lives to report the news.

We know there's been a lot of heated rhetoric, but we believe you're better than allowing negotiating tactics to lead to this outcome -- reporters losing their homes or having to leave jobs they love because they can't afford to raise their families. The solution should be simple: Parity in cuts between the staff and management.

We're also gratified to hear that you share our commitment to making the Globe stronger and more viable -- we weren't sure about this when we learned on our front page a few months ago that the Times had threatened to close the Globe -- and we want to work with you to cut costs and plan for the future.

Finally, we invite you to come to Boston, to speak to us and hear from us directly. Your family has responded to countless challenges to newspapers, and there's no reason we can't succeed together now. We're asking for you to lead us through these hard times, with the transparency and empathy reflected in your letter.

All the best,
Concerned Reporters at The Boston Globe

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 Tags  Bill Ruger Elm Street Books Fairfield New Canaan Ogunquit Roberta Berg Silvermine Trolleys

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