CapeCodToday Blog Chowder

The dreaded drive off Cape

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Hail to the WHAT? Bring back J. Michael Curley.

Alas, poor Tom Delay is hoisted on his own petard

Cape Cod & Massachusetts just can't seem to grow bent Pols like they grow 'em on trees down in Texas. That's two of  my least favorites giving the GOP secret sign, the  "Christian Right Wing Salute", to supporters.

Heck, we haven't had a scoundrel like Tom since J. Michael Curley , the "Rascal King" of Southie, went to that great chicken dinner in the sky. 

As BusinessWeek opined this week, "The House Majority Leader's indictment is the latest in a rash of problems for Republicans. Voters may start seeing them as aloof and arrogant ".

The magazine went on to add that the stunned GOP leadership on Capitol Hill have problems which now transcendtheir  ethics woes. They face a political perfect storm of bad news:

• a President sinking lower than ever in the polls,
  
• rising opposition to the Iraq war as even the Saudis think Iraq with implode,
  
• sky-high gasoline and natural-gas prices,
  
• new pessimism about the economy, and
  
• concern over the Administration's bungled response to Hurricane Katrina from both sides of the aisle in congress.

My esteemed colleague from the Dead Bloggers Society thinks Ariana Huffington is not a good source for information whereas I adore her Hellenic wit and wisdom.  Her blog may be the world's most popular.

As for poor Tom Delay, I can only hope his constituents  are as kind to him as Michael J. Curley's were. Michael once opined,  "Every time you do a favor for a constituent, you make nine enemies and one ingrate"

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On The Couch In Sandwich With A Red Sox Shrink

By Greg O’Brien: Codfish Press

Buck up, Sox fans! Feeling nauseous today? Achy? Can’t stomach the whiff of a Fenway Frank—even after last night’s walk-off win?

That morning sickness you’re feeling, particularly if you are ten years beyond child bearing years or if you happen to be a guy, can be as fleeting as first place in the American League East. All it takes is a dose of faith, and a dash of what psychologists call “profound identification” with success.

Time to shed the fear of failure over the Yankee hex. Get some help. There’s plenty of room on the couch. We’re all here, they say, because we’re not all there. I checked in Thursday with a shrink friend of mine after sitting in Fenway Funeral Parlor Wednesday night with my son, Conor, watching Bronson Arroyo throw batting practice to the Blue Jays. My friend finally talked me off the ledge—the Mass Pike overpass that leads to the House That Ruth Broke.

“Why do Sox fans always expect to lose?”

He offered me some clinical balance for today’s start of the Red Sox-Yankee imbroglio. “Why do Sox fans always expect to lose?” I asked him. “It’s easier to anticipate a loss than a win,” counsels John Piekarski, a clinical psychologist from Sandwich, “and we have a cheerless history of losing to the Yankees. If you anticipate a loss, you are not caught by surprise and pain.

It’s like being on the Sagamore Bridge on the Cape and you’re afraid you’re going to fall off. So you throw yourself off the bridge; that way you don’t have to be afraid any more!” If you expect failure in life, he notes, your misery is more predictable. “The predictability of misery is always easier to stomach than anticipating something good,” says Piekarski, former president of the Sandwich Little League where he engaged in more shock therapy than his own practice. “So out of fear, you don’t anticipate success—the curse mentality.

It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.” And one that at times appears to affect the players, given the sullen pusses in the dugout Wednesday night. Have faith, Piekarski urges. Fenway is the Mother Church. If things don’t work out, there’s redemption next year. We’ll always be the “little brother” to New York, he says, but every once in a while the little brother whoops him. There is pleasure in some degree of pain. And it’s apparently safer.

Baseball angst might be good for fans’ health

The New York Times this week reported a Children’s Hospital study in Boston that indicated baseball angst “might be good for fans’ health.” Emergency room visits at six Boston hospitals fell off last year during the A.L.C.S and World Series. So just snap out of it, advises Boston public relations maven Charley Manning, who knows negative spin when he sees it.

 “Enjoy the ride,” he says. “We have nothing to lose. I’m in the camp with Teddy Sarandis (WEEI Sports Radio). This is a mulligan year.” And besides, a conservative buddy—frustrated with the last week of the Sox season—told me the other day: “Hey, if we lose, we can always blame Bush!”

Postscript: The Red Sox are in first place after Friday's win over the Yankees .  Since it basically amounted to a postseason game, the Red Sox had the perfect man on the mound in David Wells shown on right. Throughout his career, the big lefty has loved big games. And even at the age of 42, he still thrives on that stage. He did it again Friday night against the team he did it for so many times, pitching the Red Sox to a 5-3 victory over the Yankees.

 The teams are now tied for first place in the American League East with just two games to go. Yes, this is what the Red Sox had in mind when they signed Wells as a free agent back in December.

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Just a light in the Fog

As the season starts to cool, and leaves turn to bright and wonderful colors, there is a phenomena that occurs when the cool and warm air mixes... Fog.

The mysteries that shrouds all that it consumes in erie quietness and wonder.

But I also use the beacon as a reminder to myself that sometimes it seems foggy to me  just how soon I will be back on the Cape, yet I keep watching for that light to give me hope and to guide my way back. Back to a place that has such fond memories,  of times more laid back and peaceful, unhurried and quiet. Kind of like those times, standing in the fog with only the beacon from the lighthouse, quietly pulsing its beacon, to light the way home for a wayward seaman. 

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The continued persecution of Dr. Richard Smayda

One has to wonder why, having been acquitted in May of charges of sexual harassment, Dr. Richard Smayda (of Brewster) is being forced to defend himself once again against similar charges brought by a group of middle-aged women who suddenly "remembered" instances of impropriety only AFTER the initial case was publicized?

I have been to Dr. Smayda and other physicians at Brewster Medical for all manner of treatments; including internal exams and adjustments. None of the doctors there (and I saw Dr. Smayda exclusively for 2 years)has EVER made me feel uncomfortable.

D.A. O'Keefe's duty to the taxpayers is to determine which cases have merit to spend taxpayer dollars prosecuting. NOT to allow frivolous lawsuits to conduct a witch hunt against a person who has already been acquitted once.

The whole process of watching the ruination of a fine doctor and his reputation revolts me! This case is a perfect example of abuse of the system, and maybe we should take a closer look at D.A. O'Keefe's agenda (and that of these women who should have spoken up AT THE TIME the supposed "violation" of their persons occurred)?

Had something like they are claiming happened to me, I would have reported the incident IMMEDIATELY!

I have seen Dr. Smayda's wife, and I sincerely doubt he would feel inclined to seek out middle-aged women (not ONE under 50?)...........

Come on now. This continued prosecution constitutes harassment at this point!

C. Contilli
Brewster, MA

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Mitt Romney Ducking The Coming Storm

By Greg O'Brien Codfish Press

Our war on terror has shifted, for the moment, from extremists like Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri to radicals like Rita and Katrina. But don’t be fooled—a catastrophic Category 4 or 5 hurricane has all the force of a suitcase nuke or the hydrogen bomb dropped in Hiroshima. As the beast Rita bore down last week on Texas and storm-battered Louisiana, Homeland Security, dead off course from the start, was being retooled, refocused and redefined. The knuckleheads at the top are finally getting the point: we must protect our shores before we move into the heartland and worlds beyond.

No surprise here, presidential hopefuls, governors of coastal states, and hybrids like Gov. Mitt Romney are rushing to the podium or mugging for the cameras to declare their take on the issue. The problem is they are about as equipped to forecast as the unwary victims of the Great Storm of 1938 that devastated New England—“the wind that shook the world.” That's a Boston Herald front page about that storm on the right.

In full bluster, Romney, mulling a run for the White House in 2008, grabbed the megaphone, the political conch shell, recently to proclaim the obvious: that Hurricane Katrina has caused more economic damage than the Sept. 11 terrorist attack and that the government response to the storm had been “undermanaged” and an “embarrassment,” notes to an Associated Press report. “This has not been a showcase for American ingenuity,” Romney said during a Statehouse news conference earlier this month.

Yeah, but is Massachusetts? The quick sound bite—and we’ve all heard it—is that the Bay State is different than Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. “We’re not a city under water or below sea level, like New Orleans,” Romney said. But Governor, a pile of rubble is a pile of rubble. And if we get hit some day with another storm like the Hurricane of ’38—which is as sure as frost in February—rescue workers won’t be able to tell the difference between Baton Rouge and Barnstable.

A 50-foot tidal surge hit New England in 1938

The ’38 storm, with its 50-foot tidal surge, claimed 564 lives in New England and left 100,000 homeless at a time when the population was a quarter of what it is today. We’ll need to do far more than conduct monthly reviews, as Romney has directed, of the state’s plan for responding to natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

Asked if Massachusetts was prepared to evacuate large numbers of people in the wake of a catastrophic storm or detonation of a dirty bomb, Romney replied in an AP report, “The answer is yes, to a degree…Knowing what has to be evacuated and where people are going is something you would only learn at the time of the attack.”

You’re forgetting something, Governor—frontline public safety response, and the fact that we’re down a few quarts. A legislative report last year cautioned that 92 percent of the Commonwealth’s fire departments and 83 percent of its police departments are not prepared for such an emergency. He who lives in the midst of a seaport city with glass high rises ought not to be the first to throw a stone.

Far better, Governor, to duck and take shelter, particularly if you’re hoping to live some day in a white house with a lot of windows.

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Open for Business

Burned, Banned and Challenged Books featured this week 

This past weekend the speeches were made, the ribbon was cut, and the new Dennis Public Library was officially dedicated and opened to the public. The response was tremendous, with some 300 visitors on Saturday and another 200 on Sunday.

Today (Tuesday) at noon the library doors opened to patrons and there has been a steady stream of people enjoying the new facility. The building's design provides lots of comfortable space to browse and read a chapter or two, or a newspaper or two.

This week we're encouraging patrons to check out a "banned" or "challenged" book to help celebrate Banned Books Week. Titles include such classics as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Twain), The Catcher in the Rye (Salinger), To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee), Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck), and Julie of the Wolves (Craighead George) among others. Even Stephen King's The Dead Zone and the Harry Potter series make the list!

A great novel that actually addresses the issue of censorship and the banning (or in this case, the burning) of books is Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Set in some futuristic police state, books are against the law and anyone caught reading them is subject to arrest. The firemen of Bradbury's novel don't put out fires, but instead start them with the books they burn. As the author points out, the title of his work - Fahrenheit 451 - is "the temperature at which book paper catches fire and burns."

On the subject of censorship, Bradbury has said, "You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." So, the message we wish to pass along is to continue reading books. And a good one to start with is Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 ... followed by healthy doses of Mark Twain and John Steinbeck.

Visit us online at DennisPublicLibrary.org for hours and programs.

Jack Sheedy, Reference Services - Dennis Public Library

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No Shows for Lt Governor

The Orleans Democratic Town Committee hosted an event this past Saturday morning, where all three announced Democratic candidates for Lt Governor- Deborah Goldberg, Sam Kelley and Andrea Silbert were invited and apparently all accepted.  Come to pass on that fine Saturday morning that only our local candidate, Ms. Silbert, made the visit over to join the 40 or so people in attendance. While I've made known my preference for Silbert, I have to say that she has genuine interest in learning more about Cape economic issues. Whenever I've mentioned something of interest that I've come across, she always makes a point of asking me to forward it to her.

And she shows up when she says. Even off-Cape  

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Google-Bombing

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Local boy makes good

Former Falmouth Enterprise Editor moves up, WAY UP !

A couple decades ago Michael Phelps was a feisty, young Editor at The Falmouth Enterprise. Always "ahead of the curve", Mike helped me cobble together something called "The Cape Cod Newspaper Group" made up of the four biggest Cape Cod weeklies of that era.

Unlike most of his inky ilk, he knew as much about marketing as he did about journalism, and he quickly moved up, up and away.

Among the stops on his flight was teaching journalism at Emerson College in Boston while being solicited by many of the nation's largest dailies to mentor their moves into the 21st century.

Mike even remade the industry trade journal Editor & Publisher about ten years ago before heading to the mid west as a vice president of Lee Enterprises, Inc.  (NYSE: LEE), and publisher of the Quad-City Times. In addition to his responsibilities as publisher in Davenport, Phelps oversaw newspapers in eastern Iowa, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Kentucky.

On to Washington and San Francisco 

Today Mike announced today that he is leaving Lee Enterprises to join Clarity Media Group as a general executive. Clarity, based in Denver, publishes The Examiner in San Francisco and The Examiner in Washington, D.C.

Before joining Lee in February 2000 as vice president, sales and marketing, he had worked with some of Lee’s newspapers, as well as with other newspapers such as The Boston Globe and The Hartford Courant, as an internationally known newspaper consultant. He has been a business newspaper owner, newspaper group president and publisher, managing editor, news editor and reporter.

He is an adjunct faculty member for the journalism school at Michigan State University, and previously directed the master’s program in media management at Emerson College in Boston. He has led seminars or been a speaker for the American Press Institute, the International Newspaper Marketing Association, the National Newspaper Association, the Inter-American Press Association, the International Media Fund and The Freedom Forum. After the end of the “Iron Curtain,” he visited Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union on five occasions to train and consult for publishers there.

Mike has a bachelor of arts degree in economics from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and a master of arts degree in journalism from Michigan State. He is a retired lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard. He is married to the former Adrienne Miller and has two adult children from a previous marriage and a grandson. 

Mike can be reached at (563) 383-2224 or mphelps@qctimes.com

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