(no subject)

[derien]

We had a film crew come through the checkpoint last night who do things for tv about the environmental impact of various businesses. They had just done a thing about gold mines and wedding rings and they were here in Maine doing a bit about the paper companies. I told one of the guys (actually, the one guy - I think the rest of the group were female) that over fifteen years ago, going door to door in Rumford, I found that almost everyone had a friend or family member in the hospital with cancer. And he immediately said "We've been to Rumford!" and started asking me if I had known so-and-so who had been the head of such-and-such in Rumford until he also died of cancer, so they'd gone to Rangely to interview his widow, blah blah. I was kind of like "er, no, I was just a crappy college kid doing a summer job, canvassing for Maine People's Alliance for universal health care."

Which they still haven't gotten off the ground. Everyone in Rumford was behind it, but they're all poor - since there was no place to work up there but the paper mill - and dying of cancer. The next day they sent us to Cape Elizabeth or Falmouth or someplace fairly affluent and some guy gave me an earful about how this universal health care idea would just suck the money out of his pocket to give it to lazy people who are only poor because they don't want to work, and slammed the door in my face. And then Maine People's Alliance let me go because I didn't collect enough money for them, but I really couldn't care too much because my grandmother had just died. Of cancer. (I wish I could say she'd lived near a paper mill, but no, she'd just smoked all her life aside from the last five years, and it had metastasized from her lungs to her brain.)

But anyhow, in the present day... I think the rather screechy woman who seemed to be heading up the group was named Swank, but I don't think she was Hillary Swank (although she looked quite similar) - I can't find info about a woman named Swank associated with environmental issues, besides one Canadian environmental and paper site which you have to log in to in order to see the content. She seemed to think she was somebody. "Don't let anyone touch my computer! Someone's moved my computer three times!" Um, well yeah, he's moved it because he's trying to keep all your stuff together and safe. You're not going to be able to touch it until he's done clearing it. You'd think we didn't handle laptops all freakin day. Yeah, a couple have been broken, but I don't think one has ever been dropped from a screener's hands in our checkpoint; they mostly get knocked off the belt because the owners leave them there too long and let baggage pile up behind them. Oh how I wish I could say all these things aloud. I turned her over to the hapless screener who had moved her computer and went to attend to the next woman in line.


In completely other news, other people apparently sited Julianne Moore coming through the checkpoint day before yesterday. I had no idea who they were talking about, but now I wish I'd seen her just because they say she has dark red hair and is covered with freckles.

Comments

[mizzmarvel.livejournal.com]

Oooh, Julianne Moore is very attractive. She's someone people would notice even if she wasn't famous.