Chris Gabrieli in Leominster this afternoon

Gubenatorial candidate Chris Gabrieli is coming to the ‘hood this evening, with a meet-and-greet from 5:00 to 6:30 at the Ealges Hall. Since I’m still undecided, I’ll be heading over to get an idea what he’s all about. I’ll let you know what I find out…

Tags: Massachusetts Leominster Election 2006 Governor Democrat Primary

It’s that dirty Francona’s fault

Dan Kennedy noted this morning that no one is blaming Terry Francona for the Sox collapse, so Nick Cafardo’s latest article is unnecessary. Ah, but Dan obviously doesn’t read the letters to the editor of the Telegram & Gazette (and in his defense, why would he). If he did, he’d know that all of the Sox troubles are related to Francona’s lack of personal hygiene.

The solution for the Red Sox to have a successful season is not in the pitching staff, bullpen or starters. The solution is sitting on the bench with his head and eyes looking at a puddle of tobacco juice, bubble gum saliva and sunflower shells.

Occasionally he washes out his foul mouth and that goes into the contaminated puddle also. Terry Francona’s supposed to be looking at his players, not the puddle.

He’s got the walking man (second-in-the-league Kevin Youkilis) batting fifth. Who needs a walk when men are in scoring position?

No wonder they ran him out of Philadelphia. Give him his bus ticket and bring in Carlton Fisk before the season is a washout.

Ah yes, when in doubt, call on Carlton Fisk. Fisk is the guy who taught a whole generation of New England children what “a pinch between your cheek and gum” meant through years of commercials for Copenhagen chewing tobacco.

He is the man whose official bio at his speaking agency says “he already had a nickname (Pudge, from his childhood), and a trademark wad of tobacco that bulged inside one cheek.” He’s the guy to clean up the Sox.

(And I’m aware through a fair amount of googling that Fisk has given up spit tobacco, but still…)

Previous T&G Letters to the Editor:
T&G reader takes on terrorism
Worcester: the San Diego of the East
Is State Senator Barrios a Bush Crony
Rem-Dawg Debate Rages in Worcester
Jerry Remy has “lost all touch with reality”

Tags: Boston Red Sox Terry Francona Carlton Fisk Tobacco

Traffic Update

No Drumlins welcomed it’s 2,500th visitor Friday. Since adding StatCounter to the site on January 26, here are other milestones:

500th visitor — May 23
1,000th visitor — June 30
1,500th visitor — July 24
2,000th visitor — August 15
2,500th visitor — August 25

Something’s been bugging me…

So, I go to cook supper last night, and for some reason, I decided to look in the bottom of the box of pasta that I had just poured into the water. Don’t know why, perhaps I was looking to see if there was a rotini or two left in the bottom of the box. Anyway, I didn’t find any more rotini, but I did find a couple of these guys crawling around the bottom of the box (note, they’re not as big as pictured, they are about the size of a grain of rice.)

Well, that was pretty yucky, so I went to dump out the water and pasta that I had started to cook and I learned something: these suckers float. There were four or five of them that had made it into the pot and were bobbing around the boiling water.

So I moved to plan B, which was to check another box of pasta (this time penne) and found a couple of more. Finally, I grabbed our last unopened box of pasta (spaghetti) and sifted through it. Finding it acceptable, I boiled another pot of water and dumped the pasta in. While I was cleaning up after myself, I found one more bug crawling on the plate I’d just used to check the spaghetti. So another pound of pasta to the trash. Eventually, we ended up cooking ravioli since it had been frozen and theoretically not susceptible to an infestation. It was fine.

I spent the rest of the night with phantom itchiness.

Tags: Pasta Cabinet Beetle Bugs

Youth leagues should voluntarily ban aluminum bats

With the Little League World Series ongoing, the legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Health is taking the opportunity to share the spotlight by holding hearings on safety in youth baseball. Among the solutions they are investigating are a ban on metal bats.

Local youth baseball organizations from Little League to the MIAA should take the initiative and voluntarily switch to all wooden bats. The state house should stay out of it.

When aluminum bats were originally developed and marketed to baseball teams, they were popular because they were a little cheaper in the long run than wooden bats since they were less apt to break. Over time, technology advanced to the point where aluminum bats also produce much more power. Aluminum bats today are much more expensive–and dangerous–than 20 or 30 years ago.

Since there is no longer an economic reason to continue using metal bats (the best ones can cost up to $200 or more), all leagues below the college level should voluntarily hang up the aluminum sticks. Would it cause a competitive disadvantage for those teams that advance out of the state to the Little League (or Cal Ripken or Babe Ruth) World Series? Probably. But the leagues should be looking out for all of their players, not just those 12 good enough to advance to a national tournament.

And they should do it voluntarily and quickly, so the legislature doesn’t get involved. Like so many things government tries to solve, they would end up screwing it up. For instance, the House committee chairman suggested that they would look at other safety measures as well, including changing the distance from the mound to home plate. If Little League coaches and administrators are worried about what will happen if they ban metal bats, being the only state in the country without a 46-foot pitching distance would cause more problems than any change to the composition of the bat.

Tags: Massachusetts Aluminum Wood Baseball Bat Little League

‘LOST’ secret revealed by Montana senator

Republican Senator Conrad Burns of Montana (the guy at right in the cowboy hat) is in a bit of hot water over some insensitive remarks he made about a man working on his house. In a speech at a campaign stop, he referred to the worker as “a nice little Guatemalan man” and recalled a conversation he had with the worker about whether or not he had a green card.

While that has the senator in trouble with his constituents, I’d say the real trouble will come when others realize that he gave away at least one of the plot lines to the hit TV series ‘LOST.’ Can you spot the spoiler:

A new video released this week by his Democratic challenger, Jon Tester, shows Burns, 71, joking to a crowd in June about how a “nice little Guatemalan man” fixing up his house might be an illegal immigrant. “Could I see your green card?” Burns tells the crowd he asked the man. “And Hugo, says, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Oh, gosh.’ “

A Burns spokesman said the senator never really doubted the legal status of the handyman, Hugo Reyes. But it wasn’t the only time Burns — a critic of illegal immigration — has poked fun at the immigrants doing work around his house.

Well, what do you know? Apparently the folks who crashed on that mysterious island get rescued sometime before Summer, 2006 (in the show, the crash happened in August, 2004), because amiable fat guy Hugo “Hurley” Reyes (the one waist deep in the ocean at right) is now a handyman in Montana. Seems like quite a change from being a hard-luck multi-millionaire, but that’s why Hollywood writers get paid the big bucks.

Forget about Senator Burns’s insensitivity. Can you trust the judgment of someone who hires a clinically depressed morbidly-obese slacker to work odd jobs around his house? Maybe Reyes was a major contributor to Burns before Oceanic 815 crashed and the Senator feels like he owes Hurley one…

Tags: Montana Senator Conrad Burns LOST Hurley Hugo Reyes

Some pics of Jackson to hold you over

Jackson in a fall sweater.

Jackson’s first time in “the Jumpy Thing.”

Jackson with his cousin Kayla.

Question Authority, Eat a Grinder

So 100 or so protesters were expected to march in Leominster yesterday to protest alleged police brutality following a punk-rock concert at a church (!) last weekend. The police were ready, reinforcements had been brought in. The Telegram and Gazette picks up the story:

It was set to begin at 2 p.m., but no protesters had arrived by then. Police staff could be seen through the department’s second-floor windows, waiting. One had binoculars.

By 2:30, Lt. Robert J. Healey came out to talk with reporters. He said the protest organizer had come by Friday night to finalize the permit, and promised 100 attendees. Now, nobody knew if there’d be even one….

A few minutes later, four punk fans showed up. They weren’t connected to the organizer, but had heard about the protest and wanted to show support….

But for the next hour and a half, not much would be said. The four protesters sat quietly on the grass, two reading magazines. At one point, Lt. Healey even re-emerged to ask if anyone else was coming. The protesters said they didn’t know.

Finally, at 4 p.m., the organizer of the event showed up. He was flustered and peeved, complaining of punk fans who were driving around, too afraid to stop and join such a small gathering. Seven would-be protesters had even chosen to skip the event and went to eat at a nearby Subway, he said. (emphasis mine)

And that’s what the punk movement has come to. Rage? Only if the kid behind the counter forgets the mayo.

Tags: Massachusetts Leominster Police Protest Punk Rock Cut Throat

T&G reader takes on terrorism

Oh those crazy T&G readers. It’s almost to the point where I can’t wait to read the Saturday morning Telegram and Gazette just to see this week’s letters to the editors. It seems like the editor has decided that he’s going to empty his desk drawer of all of the odd letters he’s received during the week.

Today’s gem (emphasis mine):

I find it unbelievable that people in general call Hamas, Hezbollah, the Lebanese people, the Palestinians and almost everyone who is not connected to Israel terrorists. No one seems to report nor care that Israel murders the above groups as well as children. Israel destroys their olive gardens, enters their homes in the night and shoots their teenagers to death and pretty much does just as it pleases with no one referring to Israel or its people as terrorists.

Anyone else left with this image in my head of reporter Richard Engel wearing his flak jacket kneeling in front of a smoldering Italian restaurant as he picks up an object and reports, “tragically, these bread sticks went uneaten…” followed by an interview with an Israeli spokeswoman expressing regret, but insisting that if hungry townspeople had heeded warnings and gone to Bertucci’s instead, they would not have been affected.

No? It’s just me?

Previous T&G Letters to the Editor:
Worcester: the San Diego of the East
Is State Senator Barrios a Bush Crony
Rem-Dawg Debate Rages in Worcester
Jerry Remy has “lost all touch with reality”

Tags: Israel Lebanon Olive Garden

Enough Already

I love the Red Sox and have always looked forward to their games with the Yankees. But God Bless America, does every game have to go four hours? After a while, these contests move from tension to tedium. When it’s 11:25 and only the top of the seventh inning–without the help of a rain delay–I’d say this game has crossed that line.

Update: And then after all of that, the bullpen gives up seven runs in the seventh inning…sigh.

Tags: Boston Red Sox New York Yankees