Saltwater Disasters

This week, I was in South Florida reporting for a story. When I travel, I often use a last-minute booking service HotelTonight makes hotel stays amazingly cheap. Plus, I'm always getting $20 discounts for using the service, for not using the service, for referring friends, etc. On this trip, I happened to book a slightly cheesy, mostly funky hotel called the Royal Palms in Ft. Lauderdale. It was over-21 only (No screaming children! Yay!) and gay friendly (I am gay friendly!) in a self-contained little resort block only a 2-minute walk to the beach. It seemed perfect.

The downside, for me, was that I was so busy I didn't have time to sit by the quiet pool or take a walk down the beach. (I also hadn't taken my bathing suit, of course. It was a work trip.) I've never been so close to the ocean without getting in, so on the last night, when I finished my work at about 8:30 p.m., I decided to walk to the shore before it got too dark. My plan was to stroll barefoot in the sand—it's like a pumice stone!—but then, there was the tide calling for my toes. I took off my flip flops and stood in the ocean just far enough in so that I would sink a little more with each retreating wave. I was waiting for someone to call me back so I'd taken my cell phone and digital recorder with me. In retrospect, "Hey, let me stand in the ocean with these electronics in my hand!" is a bad idea, but there I was. The tide was coming in, and it pulled a flip flop, which I'd thought was a safe distance away, into the waves. I reached down to pick it up, and the other got caught. I grabbed that one, dropping the one I'd already picked up. This kept happening an absurd number of times. And, of course, once or twice or thrice, the hand holding my cell phone and my recorder was splashed. It seemed like everything was ok until I walked back to my hotel room and my recorder wouldn't stay on, and the buttons wouldn't work.

It happened that my recorder contained all the interviews I'd made on the trip, and I had downloaded exactly zero to my laptop. I really should have backed them up, but it had just been a matter of a couple of days. I put it in a bag of rice. I prayed to the atheist gods. I freaked out to my boyfriend, who googled "How to save a wet recorder." I did a shaman like dance around the bag I packed it in before the flight home. I pretended like it wasn't there so I wouldn't be tempted to try it too soon, before it had dried. When I got home, I gave it a shake, and the rice, sand, and salt trapped inside sounded a dire little death rattle. I plugged it in my computer, and the dear thing lived long enough to let me export my files, and then, finally, shut off for good. Rest in peace, sweet recorder. I bought you in Kentucky three years ago, on my first big project, and you traveled with me from California to Florida and many points in between. You served me well.

What I'm Writing:

On the sad saga of the National Housing Trust Fund, a program that George W. Bush signed into law and would build houses for very low-income families, if Congress ever lets it have money.

What I'm Reading:

Hillary Clinton is running as a feminist, and that matters for all women. Also, she wages war on voter ID laws. How drug courts judges practice medicine without a license. Laura Kipnis, a professor at Northwestern University, is subject of a totally outrageous investigation because of an excretable essay she nevertheless had the right to publish because FIRST AMENDMENT PEOPLE. Students had also been calling for her to be officially censured, sort of proving some of her points. She was cleared of wrongdoing, but not before her critics succeeded in turning her into a martyr, so, way to go, kids. The contestants from Spellbound, thirteen years later. How Wal-Mart became the town square in rural America. The alleged victim of former House speaker Dennis Hastert comes forward. An overview of official poverty lines, which is actually pretty interesting. Seven architects defend the world's most hated buildings. Anthony Lane on Lewis Carroll, probable pedophile and all-around weird guy.

What I'm Listening To:

The Rise and Fall of the British Empire. Patrick Allitt is a great lecturer.

What I Wish I Were Listening To:

I do not have a subscription to Slate Plus, but I may have to sign up for my friend Jamelle Bouie's awesome-sounding History of Slavery podcast.

What I'm Watching:

I'm re-watching Community. Dang, is it a good show. Also, when British people sneeze they make better TV than we do when we're trying: The first season of Broadchurch is nearly perfect. The second, not so much.

Cute Animal Pic of the Week:

Coco Frijol