Me, i think "thirty-five miles to the nearest McDonald’s, fifty-five miles to the nearest stop light" might count as a Plus rather than a Minus. :)

I like "two lane blacktop with moose," myself. The best I can do to describe our roads in wildlife terms is "occasional mongoose."

Ginger?

I don't know any COO's. It seems to me that the ML web of trust might be a bit underrepresented in the executive class.

Colebrook does have a Dunkin Donuts, though, which is much more vital than a McDonald's. And there's a Subway in the same location for those days when nothing but fast food will do.

It seems to me that the ML web of trust might be a bit underrepresented in the executive class.

You never know. The discussions of gin-based drinks may have brought some in.

#3:

Interrogative whiskey tango foxtrot DESIG Ginger, over.

James @ 7... If you're saying what I think you were saying, I myself was saying in obviously too brief a manner that Ginger should apply for the job.

Dang it, we just had someone that would have been qualified take a job in AZ. I figure living in Colebrook can't be worse than living in Fairbanks.

I'll print out the description and pass it around. Maybe someone will know someone that is qualified and interested in a change of venue. Tom Bodett moved from up here to your neck of the woods, it could happen again...

16 beds - it's dainty. HHC, other outreach, sounds nice.

I'll keep my eye out for anyone I may run into who's interested (not super-likely, but perfectly possible -- I do run into some hospital folk on occasion).

Are y'all all right up there, incidentally? Heard on NPR this morning that there were bad storms in NH. I don't know exactly where you live but NH isn't very big, so I worried.

Heard on NPR this morning that there were bad storms in NH.

There were, but we're okay. The National Weather Service was (last I heard) trying to figure out if it was a downburst or a real-live tornado we had.

The heaviest storms were south of me, on the other side of some mountains. All we had here was heavy rain.

The major storms in New Hampshire yesterday were from Ossipee (home of a really good barbecue restaurant) to Deerfield, by way of Alton. (The time Miss Teresa visited and saw a moose (and thereby saw our hospital) we went back south by way of the road that pretty much followed the heaviest storm-damage area this time around.)

Serge?

Serge @8: Ah, much becomes clear. I almost could, if I weren't more of a specialist in non-human diseases...and had a partner who absolutely hates change. Prying her out of her previous job essentially took an act of Congress. (Or, to be more specific, a lack of an act by Congress, to whit, failing to release monies for DoD to use, including her Department, thereby necessitating the release of contractors.) She's making roots in her new job, and it would take a lot more to pry her out of it.

Ah, New Hampshire -- I feel cooler already.

Ginger @ 12... Wise gal, eh?

Linkmeister @ 2

It's a minus because moose will do a lot more damage to a car that runs into them than a deer would. And moose are not inclined to get out the way of anything; they are stubborn.

Stubborn moose. (Gorillaz animation. Takes a while to get to the moose.)

15, 16: Moose are allowed to be stubborn. Anything that large is granted dispensation to act in any way it chooses.

[insert mental image of moose sniffing a cat]

My only concern is, do I address this moose as Mr. or Ms. Moose? Dr. Moose? The Very Right Reverend Moose? Chief Moose? (OK, I stole that last one from our previous police chief.)

Ginger: Moose are allowed to be stubborn. Anything that large is granted dispensation to act in any way it chooses.

Like the proverbial 800-pound gorilla. (Where does an 800-pound gorilla sleep? Wherever it wants to.) With the added wrinkle that 800 pounds is small for a moose.

Ginger @ 17

That's right, we share an ex-police chief. Chief Moose spent a couple of years here before he bailed on what has to be one of the most insular and uncontrollable forces in the country. And then he got the DC sniper on his watch there. That was hard on him, we could see it in the news film.

Yes, moose can be very stubborn, not to say kinky. Call him "Bull" Moose.

Ginger @ 17: [insert mental image of moose sniffing a cat]

Why settle for a mental image?

Also, some crow-cat love.

Ginger @ 17... do I address this moose as Mr. or Ms. Moose? Dr. Moose? The Very Right Reverend Moose? Chief Moose?

Meanwhile, in Frostbite Falls, Minnesota...

Serge, thanks. I was thinking of Bullwinkle too.

And you've probably seen this week's "Non Sequitur" cartoon sequence about the moose, the pets, and the hunters, complete with Happy Ending. (Sheer fantasy!)

A moose and a woman met some years back on one of our freeways... Problem was, she in her car when they met... The car, being slightly smaller than the moose, turned out to be not much of an obstacle to their meeting. Neither survived.

I really LIKE the idea of needing to watch for moose on the highway. We used to see them here in MN all the time, but in the last 10 - 15 years the population has dropped over 90%, possibly due to climate change. Haven't seen one in more than a decade...

Jim, do you think they would trade eight years at Detox for having any of the REAL qualifications needed for the job?

Bruce Cohen @ 19: Do you know where Moose went after MoCo? One of the Hawai'ian islands, where he is apparently back in patrol.

[pedant]The snipers were in the DC area, but only one person in DC was actually a victim. It might be more apropos to label them the DC area snipers. [/pedant]

Those sniper shootings occurred near where I live, shop and work. It was not a fun time for anyone, and it's a shame they all got so focused on the "white van" so early -- the DC shooting was the only one in which the witness actually described the car. Chief Moose did a stand-up job of leading Montgomery County police efforts in this hunt, and was a good man in a tough place to be.

Tim @ 20: Thanks! I've seen that cat-crow video before, and I still love it.

As it happens, on my way back from the Montshire Museum with Pip this evening, in a pouring rain, we were first-on-scene at a car/moose collision on Rt. 2 just a little west of Lunenburg, VT.

This is the first time I have ever seen highway flares get extinguished by rain. It was that heavy.

Ginger @ 25

I thought Moose was a really good cop and a good chief from what I could see here; as I said, he came up against a really dysfunctional police culture here, and I don't envy him the experience.

Is he really back on patrol? That hardly seems fair or sensible; he was a good commander, and they're hard to find.

Bruce Cohen @ 28: From what I read, he went through the police academy in Oahu, Hawai'i because they apparently do not allow lateral transfers from other PDs -- so by his choice, he went through and joined the patrol in 2006.

Jim, I hope the outcome was better than our incident in '94... I drove past the pile of moose parts 2 days after and hadn't heard about it at the time, so I couldn't identify the moose. Turned out she cut his legs out from under with a low front end, and he landed right on top of her... The moose had a brain disease which makes them wander hundreds of miles in a pretty heedless state...

Even in days of thousands of moosies here, we very rarely saw one this far south. She probably had no chance. Weeks later I saw a picture of her car... A tiny coupe... She REALLY never had a chance.

Jim M. #11: The time Miss Teresa visited and saw a moose (and thereby saw our hospital)

Please untangle? Did the moose do something to her, or did she fall over in surprise, thereby gaining a concussion from New England's stony soil?

Ginger @25 - oh, yeah. My husband has a beard. And at the time, his job was driving a white van throughout the DC area. Guess how many times he found himself pulled over? (Bonus points if you can guess how many of those involved guns pointing at him.)

Re: moose - I've never seen one. My mom kept saying we would when she lived in Canada, but none ever materialized while I was there. (But we did see law-abiding Canadian deer, crossing at a crosswalk marked with a "Deer Crossing" sign. That was pretty fantastic.)

Cat @ 32: Oh, I can't count that high. I probably even saw your husband on the news when they went to their latest screaming breaking news helicopter moments, which were never as loudly proclaimed when it was clear that the police were letting the people go.