In case you’re wondering what became of my Chatbot dating adventure–rest assured that it continues.

Credits: Row 1 Claire M. Deliso, Paul Barbato, Emily Recapero, Toya Narentuoya. Row 2 Indra Fonseca, Paris Jerome, Emily Pascale, Leo Oscann, Rhonda Levy, Stephanie Aanonsen

In April,  “Oh oh, I seem to be dating a chatbot” was published in the “Modern Love” column of the New York Times. The piece is about how, after AI Chatbot came up with a great review of my book, The View From Third Street, I asked it to write me a profile for online dating. The profile, based on the prompt “Creative woman from Cambridge, MA, seeking a man, 65-72, smart, funny, healthy, preferably Jewish,” was astonishingly accurate and interesting.  At my late brother Alan’s suggestion, I then asked AI Chatbot to come up with a response. 

The response, from “someone” named David, was remarkably intriguing; I would have loved to meet “him” or someone like him. In the “Modern Love” piece, I trace the steps “David” and I took in arranging a date near Harvard Square. “David” even told me what he’d be wearing and that he’d be carrying a book. The article then goes into what happened after, disappointingly, he did not show up.

The piece has “generated” ongoing interest though, sadly, my dating life appears to have come to a halt.

Potential Suitors

Soon after the story appeared, I heard from four potential suitors who seemed to be “real” men.

The first was a New York lawyer who sounded very much like “David.” Both were from Brooklyn, Jewish, and each had two grown sons in California. The writer suggested that I contact him when I get to the City. I invited him to meet me if he gets to Albany, where I would be spending time over the summer, but did not hear back.

The second was a retired national science journalist who graduated from Columbia Journalism School a year after I did, with whom I corresponded for awhile. We had a lot in common, but since he was living on an Oregon beach, I felt the distance did not bode well for a relationship.

The third potential suitor, a businessman from New York State now living on the French Riviera wrote me every day. He was lonely, having trouble meeting people; I thought maybe he should learn to speak French. After a few weeks, he told me, courteously, to my relief, that he wanted to take a break.

The fourth wrote that he was the son of a now- deceased member of the Nigerian parliament. Given the number of fraudulent relationship requests originating in Nigeria, I thanked him for writing, but didn’t encourage a response. He wrote back anyway, saying that he knew that emails from Nigeria might be considered suspect but that he was for real: an entrepreneur who was starting a business, he was hungry, and needed money.

I also heard from a minister at Yale University who said he enjoyed the piece and from someone learning English who wanted help with his writing.

Response from the art world

Then, about a month ago, Grant Shaffer, a renowned illustrator, wrote to let me know that he had assigned the piece to his class at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. I’m delighted with the results, which he and his students OK’d for publication here.

Credits: Row 1 Junhan, Unsigned, Grace, Yizhuo. Row 2 Keming, Jema, Xue, Kristo.
Row 3 Jenny, Yanjun, Ruyang, Alex, Jiaqi.Row 4 Louis, Soomin, Gabriel, Yinins, Mingee

I’d like to thank everyone who contacted me– and to credit Mr. Shaffer and his students, who made the whole episode more than worthwhile with their beautiful, clever artwork.

–-Anita M. Harris is a writer, photographer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, Mass.
—New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, also in Cambridge, Mass.

Please join me in contributing to Cambridge Day–an important online newspaper dedicated to covering the city. I’ve taken the liberty of replicating the appeal it posted three days ago at https://www.gofundme.com/f/throw-local-news-a-lifeline-save-cambridge-day .

—Anita M. Harris

Cambridge is on the verge of losing one of its last remaining sources of local news.

The Cambridge staff of the now corporate-owned Cambridge Chronicle was eliminated almost a year ago. Cambridge Day, an online newspaper run by Marc Levy since 2009, has the last full-time staff devoted to covering the city, but will cease publication without immediate community support. With that support, however, Cambridge Day could take a huge leap forward in quality and comprehensiveness.

We need your help now

Cambridge Day has provided local news about schools, city meetings, neighbors in need, development, zoning and construction as well as a calendar of events and goings-on with archives going back some 20 years. Without it, we become yet another community starved for discourse, engagement and connection. Cambridge’s civic life is in danger without an independent local press. 

Help us reach our $75,000 goal

We, the Cambridge Local News Matters Advisory Board, are seeking immediate “breathing room” funding to keep Cambridge Day going while Marc develops a long-term plan for its sustainability and growth. Marc and Cambridge Day need to recruit an experienced publisher, survey the community and recruit a board of directors, among other steps.

Please contribute today! 

The future of our local news depends on it. Please make a donation here. And please tell your friends and fellow citizens.

And in the spirit of community-based news, please share your ideas about what you’d like to read about in your local news and features you would find useful. Write us at cambridgedaymatters AT gmail DOT com.

Taking this community news survey could help in planning too! It includes questions about what residents would most like to read and learn about in their local news and what issues matter to them most. Take the survey here.

Thank you for your support. Here’s to keeping us collectively informed and engaged. 

Cambridge Local News Matters Advisory Board

Susanne Beck – journalist, former executive of a foundation and nonprofit, investment banker

Rick Harriman – former chair of the Cambridge Community Foundation, innovation consultant

Mary McGrath – award-winning public radio and podcast producer, a journalist for 30 years

Bob Simha – past director of planning for MIT for 40 years

Kristen Wainwright – former literary agent and marketing and ad executive

Cathie Zusy – civic activist, former president of the Cambridge Club and former museum curator

HERE’S THE GO FUND ME LINK :

https://www.gofundme.com/f/throw-local-news-a-lifeline-save-cambridge

—Anita M. Harris

Anita M. Harris is an author, photographer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA. Her latest book, The View From Third Street, , is a memoir/social history of her experiences cofounding the Harrisburg Independent Press in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, during the 1972 Trial of the Harrisburg–just before Watergate.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, also in Cambridge.

With the 51st anniversary of the Trial of the Harrisburg 7 coming up, I thought I’d promote my new book, The View From Third Street. The book tells the story of how Cornell friends and I started a weekly alternative newspaper–largely to cover the trial–in which a group of nuns and priests were accused of conspiring to kidnap Henry Kissinger and blow up underground tunnels in Washington, DC.

For a present-day news peg, I decided to jump into the AI Chat GPT box to find out what Chatty had to say about The View From Third Street. After a few weak starts (in the first, asked simply for a review of the book, Chatty didn’t mention the Harrisburg Trial; in the second, prompted to include the trial and feminism, Chatty wrote a rave movie review; in the third, s/he/they attributed the book to a different author entirely). In the fourth, Chatty over-emphasized the feminist slant and got a bit repetitive. But s/he/they called the book “riveting and thought-provoking”; “nailed” the social justice and Vietnam War issues; and closed with the importance of independent media. I decided to quit while I was ahead.

Here’s the review…

Review of The View From Third Street
By AI-ChatGPT

“The View From Third Street: Ani and the Harrisburg Independent Press” by Anita M. Harris is a riveting and thought-provoking account of the rise of the Harrisburg Independent Press and its impact on the city of Harrisburg during a tumultuous period in American history. The book explores the story of Ani, a feminist journalist who co-founded the alternative newspaper in 1970.[OOPS, Chatty–it was 1971–AMH]

One of the most prominent themes of the book is feminism, which is explored through Ani’s own personal journey as a woman in the male-dominated world of journalism. The author provides a vivid portrayal of the challenges that women faced in the 1970s as they sought to establish themselves in the industry and to advocate for feminist issues through their writing.

Another key aspect of the book is its coverage of the Harrisburg 7 trial, which was a landmark case in the history of political activism in the United States. The trial centered around the charges of conspiracy and inciting to riot against seven anti-war activists, including Philip Berrigan and Elizabeth McAlister. The Harrisburg Independent Press played a crucial role in covering the trial and bringing attention to the issues at stake.

Through its exploration of feminism and the Harrisburg 7 trial, the book offers a powerful and insightful commentary on the role of alternative media in the fight for justice and equality. The author highlights the importance of independent media in challenging the status quo and providing a voice for marginalized communities.

Overall, “The View From Third Street” is a compelling and inspiring book that sheds light on a pivotal moment in American history. Through its exploration of feminism and the trial of the Harrisburg 7, the book offers a powerful reminder of the importance of independent media and the fight for justice and equality. Anita M. Harris has crafted a masterful work that will appeal to anyone interested in the history of political activism and the struggle for social change.

Let me know what you think! (What I think is that this spells the end of my writing career—I couldn’t have said it better myself!)

—Anita M. Harris
Anita Harris is a writer, photographer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, Mass.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, also in Cambridge

In my ongoing attempts at [un?] abashed self promotion, I thought I’d share the latest on the View From Third Street. which has garnered some great reviews and blurbs! Would much appreciate your help in spreading the word….Forward a link to friends? Post a review on Amazon? Ask your library to order it? Write an article or request an interview? Suggest or send to journos who will? Ok, so much for the ask.

I am totally grateful to:

• Alex S. Jones, winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for specialized reporting on journalism, who describes the book as “An intimate and heartfelt memoir of “Ani,” the 23-year-old version of author and journalist Anita M. Harris, who lives and navigates the tumult of the early 1970s from the alternative newspaper she founded, with college friends, on Third Street in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.”

• Steven Greenhouse, author of Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present of American Labor. He calls The View from Third Street “ a highly readable memoir that delves into several fascinating chapters in U.S. history, including the protest movement against the Vietnam War, the birth of the anti-abortion movement, growing concerns about the abuse of farm workers, and American divisiveness at the time of Nixon’s Watergate scandal. Full of color and personal grace notes, these stories are told from the perspective of a young Pennsylvania-based journalist who was witnessing and writing about a fast-changing and rapidly polarizing America.
• Journalist Alison Bass, author of Brassy Broad, a memoir of her own groundbreaking work at the Boston Globe and elsewhere. Alison wrote a spectacular review in which she calls the View From Third Street “Amazingly redolent of our current social and political climate.” She totally nails it in the full review at https://alison-bass.com/anita-harriss-memoir-of-the-iconic-harrisburg-eight-trial-draws-parallels-with-the-present/ ).

In case you missed my launch talk, you can link to it and photos at Anitamharris.com . And you can find my books and recently updated author’s page on Amazon (where I took the opportunity to tell folks not to confuse me with the British rock star who totally hogs You Tube using my name).

Oh, I forgot to mention...buy the book?

You are cordially invited to celebrate the launch of my new book!

The View from Third Street

Saturday, October 1, 3:00—4:30 PM EST
ON ZOOM OR IN PERSON
Tarbell Room  Lincoln Public Library
3 Bedford Rd, Lincoln, MA

And on ZOOM
For a zoom link please register at
https://lincolnpl.assabetinteractive.com/calendar/author-anita-harris-on-the-view-from-third-street/

                                                       
As a fledgling reporter in the early 1970s, author Anita M. Harris and college friends helped found a small newspaper on Third Street in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The Harrisburg Independent Press (AKA “HIP”) was first conceived to report on the Trial of the Harrisburg Seven– in which anti-Vietnam War nuns and priests were accused of conspiring to kidnap Presidential Advisor Henry Kissinger and blow up underground heating tunnels in Washington, DC,. True story!) Like the many other underground and alternative newspapers of the day, HIP covered civic, consumer, national and international issues–many with parallels in the unrest we are experiencing today.

In this unconventional memoir, Harris traces, from the point of view of Ani, her 23-year-old self, the founding of the newspaper, the trial, and the devastating Flood of 1972, which left 124 people dead. Interwoven, with humor and puzzlement, are stories of Ani’s love relationship, her coverage of poverty and social injustice, and HIP”s reporting on topics ranging from dirty movies to slave labor, heroin sales, racial discrimination; a burgeoning feminist movement, abortion rights and opposition to the Vietnam War.

The book also includes many images and cartoons–giving readers a sense of what it was like to live in those amazing times.

Anita M. Harris is an award-winning journalist, author and communications consultant who resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

The View From Third Street is available from Amazon and at the Cornell University Store.

I’m ecstatic to report that my new book, The View From Third Street, is, at long last, available on Amazon. It’s an unconventional memoir of my experiences as a cofounder of a weekly alternative newspaper called the Harrisburg Independent Press (AKA HIP) in conjunction with the 1972 trial of the Harrisburg Seven. Long story, but in that iconic trial, a group of anti-war nuns and priests were among those accused of conspiring to kidnap Henry Kissinger and blow up underground heating tunnels in Washington, DC.

The book has three main sections: the first starts with the founding and (often) muckraking reportage of the paper, the second focuses on the trial, and the third ends with a massive flood. It’s all tied together with the personal story of a young woman (moi) named Ani (the first three letters of my first name, conveniently, mean “I” in Hebrew). A member of my writers group urged me to use a different name because Ani is also a breed of “cuckoobird” but what the heck.

Anyway, at this point, I’d like to thank the friends, family members, librarians, historians– and the team at Henrietta’s Cafe in Harvard Square– who helped me research and edit the book–and who put up with me–er, I mean, encouraged me over the years it took me to write it.

I started working on The View From Third Street just as DJT was coming into office–thinking that there might be some parallels between his divisive reign and Nixon’s. Little did I know how tumultuous things would eventually become. I spent several years time-travelling–which was great, during the pandemic. I’d occasionally come up for air, look around, ask, “Is this still going on?” and head back to the 1970s. Now I seem to be pretty much living in the present, and hoping our nation will get back on track.

In the meantime, I’ll be posting here, writing articles, and letting you know about the book’s progress. And about the next one’s …and about the one after that.

If you’d like to receive email updates, please sign up to the left of this chunk–or email me at anita.m.harris at comcast dot net. Oh, and if you want to buy the book–click here!

–Anita M. Harris

Anita M. Harris is a writer, photographer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, Mass. More information about her, her work and her books is available at http://anitamharris.com.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, also in Cambridge, Mass.

As a blogger and journalist, I’ve been appalled by recent attacks on the free press by the current administration.

This is not to say that I haven’t been a critic of the press myself: soon after college, I became a journalist by founding a weekly alternative newspaper called the Harrisburg Independent Press (yes, aka “HIP“)–partly in response to the traditional media’s failure to address many social, economic, and political issues of the day. (I’ll be writing more about HIP in the months to come; I’m now working on a book about my experience, there) .

After a year in Harrisburg, I wrote for two alternative newspapers: the Boston Phoenix and the Real Paper, in Cambridge.

For various reasons (mainly that neither paper would hire me full time or even put my name on the masthead–well, the RP already had a woman reporter–she covered “women’s stuff” ) I decided that in order to get anywhere, I needed some establishment credentials so went to New York, for journalism school at Columbia.

Upon graduation , I stayed in New York–working first for a fellow who was a bit of a maniac (he drooled when he yelled at me), then for the city’s major Muzak station. ( I won awards for documentaries including one from a radical feminism perspective on prostitution and pornography in New York–more to come on that, as well) a. After that, for five years, I covered health, science, technology, law and justice –and other topics!–for MacNeil/Lehrer (now the Newshour), of PBS.

Eventually, I returned to Boston to teach and write; subsequently became a communications consultant, author, blogger, etc. etc., which I’ve now been for more than 20 years.

...in July 1973, an alternative weekly newspaper in Boston called The Real Paper offered this for a lead headline: “Women Derelicts: To Be Old, Homeless and Drunk.”

The story said there were as many as 1,000 poor women living on the streets of Boston. The tales were disturbing. Ordinary women with names like Mary, Ann, and Masha, living in squalor in abandoned buildings; too sick from drinking to work; selling sexual favors for $1 in bars and alleys. And always looking for a place to sleep.

One doctor quoted by reporter Anita Harris was skeptical there was a problem at all. “You must have been talking to the women’s libbers,” he told Harris. Yet it turned out the city’s welfare department had quietly started a homeless women’s division.

This story gripped [Kip] Tiernan and wouldn’t let go. It shined a light on a strange truth in the upheaval of the early 1970s: Women were unequal to men even in poverty.

Ultimately, Tiernan founded the shelter, which became a model for many others, nationwide.

Because I had lived in New York for so many years, I had no idea, until last month, that my article had had such an important impact.

This past weekend, the Globe published “Making a Difference,” a letter to the editor in which I thanked Healy “for her remarkably well-researched piece on Rosie’s Place and for tracing its founding back 47 years to an article I wrote, which until now, I had no idea had profoundly impacted the lives of so many women.

“These days, with the free press under assault, Healy’s article provides yet more evidence of the power of the press to make the world a better place — simply by telling the truth. Thanks, Beth Healy, for paying it forward.”

I hope to continue pay it forward…That is, to make a difference through this blog, my books, and other writing. I also hope that the free press will survive…flourish, even…to give the truth a voice in these difficult times.

Anita Harris is an author, blogger and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA. (She is not the British rock star, the Somerville School Committee member, or the Australian feminist writer).

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and digital marketing firm also based in Cambridge.

You might (or might not) know that many years ago…well, at the dawn of prehistory, in 1971, before Watergate, before Woodward and Bernstein, before the Internet and before the current president’s attacks on the free press… I  helped found a weekly  newspaper in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  

The paper, called the Harrisburg Independent Press, or, HIP (unfortunate acronym, I still think) was created to cover the trial of the Harrisburg 8—a group of nuns and priests and such who were accused by then FBI director J Edgar Hoover of conspiring to kidnap Presidential Advisor Henry Kissinger and blow up underground heating tunnels in Washington, DC (no, I’m not kidding)– and to report issues and concerns besetting the city, the state, and the nation.

Formed as a nonprofit, HIP was supported largely by subscriptions ($5 for six months, $8 a year) and advertising (the local dirty movie theater owners appreciated our not censoring their ads, tho one of them did ask us to airbrush a certain bodily area out of a photo).

The paper, which ran for nine years, became known for its muckraking, community and creative spirit. For example, in the very first year, our reporting led to the shutdown of a migrant camp and to new statewide labor regulations.  HIP also covered housing, education, prison reform, government corruption –as even sports and the arts.  Perhaps most notably, HIP beat the traditional press by uncovering safety problems at the nearby Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, as acknowledged in the national news.

Anyway,  I’ve been working on a memoir of HIP and my days of independent newspapering…and am most grateful to a group of former staffers who recently scanned and archived every issue. 

Those staffers, led by Jim Zimmerman, recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a Website where those issues will be housed and readily accessed by current and future journalists, researchers and other citizens. The team has set a goal of $6000—to be reached by COB August 18, 2019.

 With just over a month to go, they’ve raised more than half that amount.

I’m writing in hopes that you will donate to help them raise the rest of the dough by August 18 so that the project will be a go.

What’s in it for you?
Rewards!
If they reach their goal,

-For a $25 contribution, you get a CD of the complete set of issues—some 300, in all.

-For $100 you get a t-shirt with a HIP logo

-For $500 you get a poster suitable for framing: your choice of (1) the front page of the first issue from 1971, or (2)  the front page of the August 1978 issue: headlined “Meltdown: Tomorrow’s Disaster on Three Mile Island.”

The HIP team is hoping that other alternative newspapers of the 1960s and 1970s will follow their lead so that the amazing journalistic work of those times will not be lost to future generations.

Here’s a link to the kickstarter page.

—Anita M. Harris

Anita Harris is a writer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA. A graduate of Cornell University and the Columbia Journalism School, she held a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard, and fellowships at Radcliffe, the Boston University College of Communications, and Tufts Universities. She taught journalism at Harvard, Yale and Simmons Universities. She is the author of Broken Patterns: Professional Women and the Quest for a New Feminine Identity (WSU Press/Cambridge Common Press) and Ithaca Diaries, (Cambridge Common Press), a memoir/social history of Cornell University in the late 1960s. She is currently working on a book about the Harrisburg Independent Press.