Essentials:

I started contributing to North Country Public Radio 25 years before I came to work here in 2001. Even then, I numbered it among my North Country essentials, alongside such items as a good woodstove, 40 cords of dry split maple, longneck bottles of Molson Golden Ale, and a daily dose of disco antidote--Steely Dan. Cold mornings in late winter, I'd take a pan of coals from the stove and shove them under the frozen motor of my rusty Dodge Colt--the sucker would either start or burn. It just needed a little encouragement, a little warm-up. From now until Sunday, we are in the Web Warm-up period of our North Country Essentials Membership Drive, and although the technology is a little higher, the intent is the same--a little goose to get the thing rolling. Why wait for the harangue? Pledge online now. Thanks for your support.