Hm. A creature that only is seen when the water is cold, and even threatening to freeze over all the way? That doesn’t sound biologically right. Could there, though, be a current, seen as a like a serpent, that’s unique to that time of year? Alas, it’s too late to go back and directly observe the conditions 150 years ago. Still, I’ll be looking out on the gray waters with a newly focused eye this coming January.

The supposed monster of Cayuga Lake is most often given the name of Old Greeny, though someone who saw it back in 1979 called it Cayuga Katie. Most reports say that was the last sighting of the creature, thirty years ago. One site, however, claims that “Second-hand accounts of these beasts have continued to filter in throughout the 21st Century”.

Is this true? I’ve never seen a single sign of any creature in Cayuga Lake. Neither has my wife, and she’s done Women Swimmin’ a couple times now. Has anyone else seen, or even been told of a sighting, since 1979?

If you don’t know about this convention, well, you ought to. It was the spark that ignited the engine of activism that resulted, eventually, in women’s suffrage here in the United States. Present were Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Frederick Douglass. The convention made a big enough historical impact that it’s earned Seneca Falls a National Park commemorating the occasion.

Seneca Falls is just a half hour’s drive up the road. It’s in our own congressional district… and that brings me back to Mike Arcuri.

Many political leaders from around the world spoke today about the Seneca Falls Convention, showing respect not just for the historical efforts that make Seneca Falls special, but also honoring the place of equality that women deserve in our society. Congressman Arcuri was not among them.

Michael Arcuri had nothing to say about the Seneca Falls Convention. He didn’t even have an aide write a short statement for him. Congressman Arcuri’s office seems to have forgotten about the whole thing.

What else has Michael Arcuri forgotten about, sitting in his office down there in Washington D.C.?

The Trumansburg flood of 1935.

Second, I took a look over at the Back To Democracy web site, and see that they’ve got a new design that’s appealing and easy to read from. They’ve also got a great page of Back to Democracy archives – offering a kind of history of local political activism back to the summer of 2004.

This Friday evening at the Trumansburg Fire Hall, Back to Democracy is offering a free viewing of the documentary film Why We Fight. If you pay attention to the details in the news, you already understand the sinister reality of war profiteering that this documentary describes. It’s a good summary, however, and a motivating one.

Video courtesy of MoodyCat.

If you’re more the type to love the weather you’re with, then there’s this other video, celebrating Trumansburg’s big snow last week, from Sal:

Over the years, Crossing Press has published many interesting titles, such as Magic Mommas, Trembling Sisters, Puritans & Perverts and The Women Who Walk Through Fire. Of special local interest was Moog’s Musical Eatery, published in 1978, referring to Robert Moog, of course.

In 1986, Trumansburg lost Crossing Press to Northern California. In 2002, it was bought out by Ten Speed Press.

John Gill died in 1995, and was memorialized in the summer 1996 issue of Poets and Writers by fellow poet Robert Peters, who wrote, “In the 30 years of our friendship I never heard him complain that his work as a publisher, magazine editor, and poet was insufficiently appreciated. I can hear the cheery laugh he’d give over this, changing the subject by pointing out some magical detail in the landscape a pair of gulls over Santa Cruz harbor or the spectacular Trumansburg falls.”