The title of this post is a phrase that’s struck me as peculiar ever since I first spotted it on a comic book that had found its way into my childhood collection, somehow. Does it indicate that it was the second time the two characters had been together?  Or had they been together in some other setting or comic book series before?

Whatever the case, the phrase seems applicable to a joint venture that places Anchor Rising and the Ocean State Current at the same URL.  As a matter of content, the two have had considerable overlap, but with respect to content emphasis, they differ somewhat, and organizationally, they are very distinct.  The organization part is the critical one, with the Current having a back-office structure that we hobbyists at Anchor Rising have never had the capacity to build.

But the relevance of the comic book implied in my title goes beyond the bold-print declaration that appeared in a Kablow!-style call-out on its cover.  The characters working together in Marvel Team-Up #31 were Spider-Man and Iron Fist — an established hero in the Marvel Universe and a lesser-known player with an occasional hit.

Even more significant is the plot.  The villain who brought “spider-skill and kung fu fury” together was Drom, a man living his life backwards — beginning old and declining, as it were, toward birth and an existential disappearance so profound that nobody would even remember he’d existed.  To slow his inverted progress, Drom had to drain the life force from other people.

That’s about as good a metaphor for the civic and economic circumstances of Rhode Island as one is apt to find.  And it has been the mission of both Anchor Rising and the Ocean State Current to save and protect the people of Rhode Island from the path on which their government has placed them, which is inexorably draining their economic life and their liberties.

With respect to the content that will appear on this page, we can only cite the established practice of both contributing sites to experiment.  It is certainly central to the motivation for the overlapping effort to enable everybody to do more of what we’ve found effective (and enjoyable) in the past — from liveblogs to research to good old investigative journalism and (yes) comment-section debate.

We are perhaps not alone in thinking that the mission of our day has changed a bit from the stated intention when Anchor Rising began, back in November 2004.  “Moving the state forward toward less-waning waters” is arguably no longer sufficient at a time when the keel appears to be scraping the bottom of the bay.

We’ve reached the point of dredging, and that requires greater focus and greater unity of purpose.

Technical Notes

Unlike certain other media Web site redesigns in recent memory, we’ve made a point of keeping the voluminous Anchor Rising archives in place, at their prior locations.  They remain searchable through the Internet and can be browsed starting from here (also accessible on the “Archives” drop-down menu on the navigation bar at the top of every AR/OSC page).

Another new feature is the “blog style” layout available through the navigation bar.  This would be the page for readers to bookmark if they prefer the full content of all posts to appear on a single page.  (The RSS feed on that page is also the most comprehensive.)

Finally, money donated through the links at the original Anchor Rising site, whether one-time or by subscription, will continue to go directly to the AR contributors for costs associated with maintaining the archives and their continuing activities on the AR/OSC site. Advertising and contributions on the new page will benefit the joint effort.