The Commenter of the Week's been a great chance to showcase what other people are thinking and talking about, and luckily, the people who read this blog can type with reason and the caps lock off.

Which brings us to Patrick, our Commenter of the Week, who rightfully pointed out that International Talk Like A Pirate day is really eclipsing a more important holiday, "INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY."

It's true.

But he also knocked one out of the park at the end of last week when he took notice of Mr. B. Nemitz's challenge to commenters on PressHerald.com.

Patrick's what you might call a reader, and he's been thinking about just what would happen to all the stuff (or some would say crap) we create, if we were no longer around...

Thank you Justin, and thank you Justin's reader's for this prestigious honor. Now I have to think of something pithy, and think of it fast. Oh dear. Well at least that's 27 words out of the way. Now 37!

Okay, now I know what to write about. I'm currently reading this book called "The World Without Us" by Alan Weisman. Its main premise is what would happen to humankind's mighty works if we were to up and disappear tomorrow. You know all that awful urban sprawl that we've been building lately? Well, good news! It would pretty much decay back into pristine wilderness within a century of our departure.

On the other hand, all of our nuclear plants and oil refineries would all explode within weeks of our unspecified disappearance, which isn't such good news. Plus, the idea of us going extinct is just plain depressing.
Sure we've been kind of a negative force of nature these last few centuries. But hey, I'm an optimistic guy and I think we can be a positive force – without even giving up cool stuff like the internet and flush toilets. Give us a chance, Weisman.

At the end of the day this book is naught but a combo of shock entertainment and an after school lesson. The best part for me, though, has been walking around Portland and speculating how our fair town would fall into ruin.

The Maine State Pier, for instance, would be reclaimed by the sea in rather short order. Same with Whole Foods and other flimsily built big box stores. At the other end of the spectrum you have bronze statues (at least I think they're bronze) like Our Lady of Victories and Mr. Longfellow. (Longfellow's house, on the other hand, will probably be toast when all that steel comprising the Time and Temp Building's steel skeleton corrodes, thus leading it to collapse onto it's lowly brick neighbor.)

And that, my friend's, could be the future of Portinsula!

E-mail this entry to a friend