Freyne Land

Was sitting on a window stool at Capitol Grounds on State Street in Montpeculiar yesterday while the House Democrat Caucus took its lunch break.  Commiserated with Steve from Chelsea. Old dudes lamenting the absence of a voice of any kind emanating from the youth of today.

And sharing a smile over how sweet it was to pick up the Gannett-chain daily paper - Le Freeps de Burlington - and read the story about the high school kids protesting the Iraq War at the National Guard recruiting office in Williston Friday afternoon - 13 arrests for trespassing. The Freeps even has some excellent video of it all on its web site.

It was a Sixties flashback for the two old guys sitting in the window sipping coffee and swapping stories about the Vietnam War protests of our younger days.

Finally.

Then comes more good news this morning from Montpeculiar!  Montpelier High School has not only been picked 5th best in the friggin' country by US News, but grad Garrett Graff's first book has hit the street!

Yes, that Garrett Graff. The high-school "kid" who set up Gov. Howard Dean's first website 10 years ago in 1997 when all this internet stuff seemed so new,

Garrett's book is titled The First Campaign.

Subtitled: Globalization, the Web, and the Race for the White House

As his book website notes, Graff:

"comes from a long line of journalists: His grandfather, Bert McCord, was the drama critic for the New York Herald Tribune; his father, Christopher Graff, was the long-time bureau chief of the Associated Press in Vermont, and his mother, Nancy Price Graff, is a historian, children's book author, and former magazine editor."

Bravo!

The Montpelier kid also has an interesting article in today's Washington Post.