Month: June 2010

The Long Fall of One-Eleven Heavy

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It was summer; it was winter.

So starts my favourite Esquire article. It profiles SwissAir Flight 111, the MD-11 that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Nova Scotia, on September 2nd, 1998. The article follows a few of the 229 passengers—how they came to be on board the flight, and how the crash and its aftermath affected their families.

The plane had hit the water at more than four hundred miles per hour, nose first, two engines still firing, very unusual, extremely rare; the jet was two hundred feet long, and the tail rammed straight into the nose, everything exploding into more than one million pieces.

You can read it here.

There’s a split-boulder monument to those aboard on the shores of Peggy’s Cove. It reads, in part:

…They have been joined to the sea and sky. May they rest in peace.

Field Notes, How do I love thee? Let me count another way.

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I love Field Notes. I live by my lists. I have to-dos for ALA, for each of my freelance projects, as well as lists of books I want, sites to visit, compelling quotes, and things to pick up at Safeway.

Earlier this week, Field Notes wrote to say they were offering Field Notes Colors subscribers the chance to receive two packages of Field Notes personalized by favorite U.S. state. Wha?

I’m a Canadian, living in Canada. I understand that Field Notes is a U.S.-based company and that they have every right to offer state-based personalization to their customers. But, as a Canadian, I’m not really interested in receiving Field Notes personalized based on a state. Doesn’t do a thing for me. In fact, I found it a little insulting. Why would I want my Field Notes “personalized” by a U.S. state?

I ignored the first note and did not visit the site to choose my states. The reminder notice came, and I wrote back to say that I had no interest in personalizing my Field Notes by state. To my surprise, a Field Notes staffer replied nearly instantly, offering me an alternative. Just another reason to love Field Notes and the real humans who make them.