Small postscript on the election

'World of Warcraft'-playing candidate wins election

Despite what the Republican Party of Maine might want people to believe, playing "World of Warcraft" does not make a person unfit to hold office.

Or so Colleen Lachowicz proved Tuesday night.

Lachowicz plays "World of Warcraft" as a level-85 orc named Santiaga. She is also a newly elected state senator in Maine.

Lachowicz, a Democrat, beat Republican incumbent Thomas Martin Jr. to become the senator-elect for Maine's District 25 — this after the Republican Party of Maine launched a campaign to out her love of the fantasy role-playing game.

Maine's GOP had accused Lachowicz — a 48-year-old health-care worker — of living a "bizarre double life" and set up a website revealing her participation in "World of Warcraft." Not only did the site show off a picture of the orc rogue assassin character she plays, it also dug up online comments she made about her love of the (sometimes violent) game. The Republican Party also sent out mailers as well as a press release claiming her "disturbing alter-ego" had been "revealed."

Glad to hear she won despite the smear campaign against her.

Apparently the Republicans (surprise) don't get computer gaming, and I think in this case it's going to backfire on them

This is absolutely ludicrous, let me just say that as a preface.

'World of Warcraft'-playing candidate: 'I'm a real person'

Colleen Lachowicz is a long-time health care worker who works with teens and young adults. She is a wife and a step-mom. And she likes to knit.

But this week, the 48-year-old Lachowicz — who is running as a Democrat for the State Senate in Maine — abruptly found herself a the center of a Republican smear campaign because of one of her hobbies. No ... not knitting.

Lachowicz is a gamer. More specifically, the Republican party of Maine discovered that Lachowicz enjoys playing the online role-playing game "World of Warcraft." And, on Thursday, the party launched a campaign to out what they are calling her "disturbing alter-ego" and her "bizarre double life."

The Republican Party not only launched a website, they sent out post cards to voters in her district and even issued a press release — all of which showed off the level-85 orc named Santiaga that Lachowicz plays in the game and also highlighted online comments she had made about the game....

Is her opponent's campaign so weak that it can't handle things like, oh, issues, and has to try to get voters to think she's a horrible person because she takes on a role in a fantasy world? Doesn't that just mean she's creative? Or that she's playing with people from all walks of life, all over the world. That's good, as far as I am concerned, from a political viewpoint. Or that she's somehow aberrant because she is a gamer (one of millions who play games online, on gaming consoles, or gee, the type I play, where you sit around a table with pencil and dice.)

Gee, I thought Mitt Romney was out of touch with real people. Seems the Republican party in Maine is as well.

An update to an earlier post

New England loses a big tree, and a little history: Champion tree was more than 200 years old and battled Dutch elm disease

As the tree's long-time caretaker, Frank Knight--himself over 100--put it:

"It's been a beautiful tree. I'm sorry to see it go. But nothing is forever," Knight said. "It's pretty near my turn. And it's just a fact of life that life is going to end. And that's for people, for trees, for everything. I thank the good Lord every day that we had him in his glory and beauty for so long."

It survived the odds for so long, and grew majestic and strong, sheltering many a person and witnessing much of history in Yarmouth, Maine. I'm sure they will miss the grand old tree very much. But some essence will continue in the wood, and a part of Herbie will live on in various new forms.

An archival document/public vs. private ownership debate in the news

Court: Va. man owns 1776 copy of Declaration: Tech entrepreneur purchased document from a book dealer for $475,000

Although it's a loss to archives, I have to agree with the court. I don't think the state of Maine proved its case.

Maine says that the disputed printed copy of the Declaration of Independence is a Maine official public document and is subject to their ownership because it was never officially released, but rather was retained by a clerk and then was mixed up with his personal estate, which was sold.

The collector's lawyers argued that the copy that was transcribed from this one into the town's books was, indeed a public record, but the Declaration itself is not. It is one of a series of copies of the Declaration printed in Salem and sent to Massachusetts towns (Maine was originally part of Massachusetts) to commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 so they could be read to the populace.

I just don't see that as an official document; it wasn't produced by the state or local town as a permanently held record, but rather was a copy much like a facsimile of an important federal document might be posted online for others to read. Also, I'm not sure when the state law was made about releasing official documents, but the clerk died in 1929, so I'd be interested in whether the law predated that.

The collector didn't do anything shady, the provenance was not shady, and I don't think the collector should be out anything just because he was shrewd enough to purchase it and a public archives did not. I'm sure there are plenty of my fellow librarians who wouldn't agree, but that's my opinion. It's the court's opinion that really matters. There's nowhere to go up in terms of appeals for cases like this, so the matter is settled.