CapeCodToday Blog Chowder

Tales of a Cape Cod Inn

In the winter of 1932/33, out-of-work New England poet Thomas John McSheey found himself penniless, nickel-less, dime-less, unshaven, drunk, and badly in need of a bath as he traveled aboard a train bound for Cape Cod. Upon the very last day of the year, amidst a raging snowstorm, he arrived at the legendary fishing port of Hartham along the lower Cape, where he staggered up the powdered main street to an inn owned by someone whom he thought was a distant cousin, yet as it turned out was of no family relationship whatsoever.

Regardless, the innkeeper and his wife took the poor man in, providing him with a small room on the second floor where the poet would spend the next three weeks in various stages of drunkenness. The room was simple, offering only a bed, a chair, a desk, a lamp, and a dozen or so pages of notepaper emblazoned with the message "Greetings from the Hartham Inn." In that room, over those three weeks, upon those pages of notepaper, McSheey penned what would become his masterpiece - a short choral arrangement entitled "Tales of a Cape Cod Inn."

Loosely based on Longfellow's "Tales of a Wayside Inn," which he had never actually read, McSheey's choral work was unique in that it contained no original music whatsoever, but was instead based on the melodies of drinking songs he had heard in Boston taverns and speakeasies. A recurring musical theme throughout the work was that of "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall," as well as "Show Me the Way to Go Home" and "Bid Me When Forty Winks More."

During those winter weeks in Hartham, McSheey would awaken around noontime, grab a bite to eat and then write from around 12:30 until 1:00. He would then take a long afternoon walk down by the wharves for inspiration and to bum cigarettes off the dockworkers. After enjoying a two-hour nap in a storeroom behind the sail loft, by late afternoon he would arrive at the Lee Shore Tavern, a small barn of a pub hidden away along the waterfront. There he would write classified ads in exchange for beer, such as the following advert, which he exchanged for a pint of stout:

For Sale - 14-foot dory, clean, only one owner (lost at sea, presumed drowned). Comes with oars. $75 or best offer. Inquire at Lee Shore Tavern. No agents, please.

McSheey became friendly with Hartham's resident poet, William "Willy" "Billy" "Bill" Maguire, who went by the nickname "Hank," and who, besides being the village poet, was also the village's token Irish Catholic. The unique thing about Maguire was that he was illiterate, and would therefore recite his poems aloud. Yet, he possessed short-term memory loss so he would forget his poems as soon as he recited them. In fact, he often forgot that he was a poet altogether and instead thought he was the village dentist, which was truly unfortunate for those villagers who made an appointment to visit him the next morning for dental work.

It was believed that McSheey formed another friendship -- with a local woman named Rosella. A waitress at the Lee Shore, Rosella and McSheey were often seen at complete opposite ends of the pub, never together, completely oblivious to each other's presence. In fact, it is believed that Rosella never once waited on McSheey's table and that the two never actually met during the poet's three-week stay in Hartham. Despite the fact that they never met, never talked, never shared a romantic moment, perhaps never even noticed each other (in fact, she often worked the lunchtime shift, leaving the premises an hour or more before McSheey even arrived), it is believed that this non-relationship with Rosella influenced McSheey greatly during the writing of "Tales of a Cape Cod Inn." It was this episode of lost love that he never even knew existed that ultimately provided the unfounded feelings of desire that never actually appeared in McSheey's classic work.

As time went on, McSheey worked feverishly on the choral arrangement, sometimes writing up to an hour and a half a day, once or twice awakening before noon, until finally he finished his magnum opus. After penning a Yellow Pages ad for the innkeeper, in exchange for his three-week room tab, McSheey stowed away aboard an outbound train and quit Hartham for South Boston. There, after a lost weekend of pub hopping, he submitted his choral work to the pastor of the local Catholic parish, who arranged for it to be performed by the church choir. And the rest is history.

Unfortunately, McSheey did not live to see his work performed before an audience. Though he didn't actually die for another two years, he was always unavailable whenever there was a performance scheduled. Actually, during one performance he was believed deceased and was briefly buried alive until it was determined that he was instead just in a very, very deep sleep.

The following are brief excerpts from "Tales of a Cape Cod Inn," written by New England poet Thomas John McSheey (1899-1935) during that snowy winter of 1932/33 in the seaside village of Hartham, Mass. As you'll see, he was greatly influenced by nautical themes, despite the fact that he could not swim, and in fact was allergic to salt water.

{To the tune of the drinking song "Ye Good Fellows - He Who Art Pouring"}

Icicles above / a foot of snow below

shut the door, tight / nowhere for one to go

Harbor frozen over / no ships can get through

tossing a log onto the fire / it's the best that one can do

against the snowfall

 

Starlight crystal clear / that chilling time of year

Kettle ponds frozen over / nights growing darker and colder

 

Winter storm raging / across Nantucket Sound

icy streets empty / not a person to be found

Winter storm pounding / at the coastline of the Cape

houses in its path / stand little chance of escape

against the snowfall

 

Starlight crystal clear / that chilling time of year

Kettle ponds frozen over / nights growing darker and colder

 

{To the tune of "Let's Be Jovial, Fill Our Glasses, I'll Buy the Next Round"}

A lifesaving boat was deployed

into the surf off of Monomoy

her crew was lost, but their story was told ever after

For the seas were rough

they gave it their all, but it was not enough

and their widows lived to curse the Monomoy Disaster

 

An ice storm spelled doom

and made for a chilling tomb

again, the unforgiving sea was wearing her veil

Navigating such treacherous seas

the paddlewheel steamer buckled at the knees

and named for the wreck became the Portland Gale

 

{To the tune of "How 'bout We Wassail in Thy Pub Awhile"}

Mooncusser with lantern in hand

walks along a rain swept beach

Into the darkness, beckoning ships

his misguiding light does reach

Upon angry seas a sinking ship

sends a message of distress

Waves crash across a broken bow

secrets are born no man will confess

 

{To the tune of "Drain Ye Punch Bowls Merry Souls"}

Bury me in the olde city

on the hill near the harbour where the ships sail free

Lay me to rest in my Sunday best

on the hill near the harbour where the ships sail free

Plant my stone so I shall not be alone

on the hill near the harbour where the ships sail free

Lay me down in this olde Cape Cod towne

on the hill near the harbour where the ships sail free

 

Happy New Year!

Jack Sheedy

Home insurance; Casinos, foreclosures on 2008 agenda; Weepin' Willie Robinson dies at 81

Home insurance crisis has lawmakers' attention

BOSTON — Hope is growing for a legislative solution to the coastal home insurance crisis in 2008, something even Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi acknowledges is a serious problem.

"It's tricky, but the goal is to have affordable insurance for people to be protected..." Rep. DiMasi, a Boston Democrat, said he is unsure how to solve soaring premiums and an exodus of insurers from Southeastern Massachusetts, but says it is a "priority" for the Financial Services Committee.

"It's tricky, but the goal is to have affordable insurance for people to be protected, and right now the question is some of them are not even being offered insurance," Rep. DiMasi said in a recent interview. "That's the key, right? We need to have insurance available and accessible and affordable for them as well." ... SouthCoastToday.com

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Death comes for a musician who lived the blues

Weepin' Willie Robinson, performed on the Upper Cape, dies at 81

Weepin' Willie Robinson smoked his last cigarette in bed yesterday morning at a Jamaica Plain rest home. The cigarette sparked a fire that ended the legendary blues man's rich and textured life.

Robinson performed a Friday night gig a few times a month at a bar called Grumpy's Pub in Falmouth.

Robinson, 81, had been a sharecropper, an Army veteran, a friend of famous entertainers like B.B. King. He had been homeless and then was rediscovered as a treasure who played with the likes of Susan Tedeschi, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, and Bonnie Raitt and won local music honors. Even when he was homeless on the street, too tired to stand, or losing his memory, Robinson never stopped performing.

"He was truly the elder statesman of the [Boston] blues. He was our godfather. He was the most dear man," said Holly Harris, host of "Blues on Sunday" on WBOS radio.  ... Boston Globe

See the Onset Bay Blues Cafe tribute to Weepin' Willie here. 

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Stars tell their worst jobs

Star of Sci Fi Channel's Tin Man Mini-Series on working in Hyannis

NEAL McDONOUGH (Tin Man): "After college, the only job I could get back in Hyannis (Mass.) was emptying the trash at the local Macy's and having all my buddies come by and see me emptying trash barrels, like, 'Mmm, you're really doing well, aren't you, Neal?' So that was a character builder." ... Sun-Sentinel.com 

More on the Sci Fi Mini-Series Tin Man here. (Image from the Sci Fi Tin Man gallery)

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Vineyard inn wins top rating from top travel mag

Charlotte Inn rated one of the top three by location

NEW YORK—Two of the most influential travel magazines - Travel + Leisure and Conde Nast Traveler - are out with their annual lists of best hotels.

Travel + Leisure's January issue lists 500 of the "world's best hotels," ranked according to the results of the magazine's readers' survey.

...  By location, the top-rated trio were the Charlotte Inn in Martha's Vineyard, Mass.; the Watermark Hotel & Spa, San Antonio, Texas; and the Four Seasons Maui at Wailea.  ...  MercuryNews.com

Thief cheats death in stolen taxi; Domestic suspect crashes car; Cumby's robbed in Falmouth; Text messaging blamed in Dennis crash; Armed invasion in Yarmouth; Rescuers respond to fall at Hyannis produce store

Happy New Year from Cape Wide News! 

Top story: Thief cheats death in stolen taxi

     ^{A man allegedly stole this cab and narrowly escaped death when a fence impaled it.}
HYANNIS - A man is facing stolen vehicle charges but should consider himself lucky to be alive. Just minutes after 2008 was rung in, the suspect allegedly stole a Town Taxi at the Cape Cod Inn on Main Street in Hyannis. Moments later police discovered the taxi crashed off West Main Street at Jack Ellis Foreign Auto Repair. The cab had sheared a fence and the support pole for the fence impaled the entire cab missing the driver by inches.

The suspect 48-year old David Letsch was taken to Cape Cod Hospital with minor injuries. He's expected to be arraigned on Wednesday on charges of larceny of a motor vehicle, operating under the influence of alcohol, and operating to endanger.

(Photos by Frank Paparo/CWN) 

Domestic suspect found crashed

     ^{A man wanted for a domestic dispute was found by police after his car struck a tree.}
BARNSTABLE - Barnstable Police didn't have to look far for a suspect wanted in connection with a domestic disturbance. The duty sergeant found the suspect's Chevy Malibu after the suspect apparently lost control, spun around and struck a tree on Shoot Flying Hill Road by the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce shortly before 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, just minutes after the "be on the lookout" broadcast was aired.

The suspect 20-year old Seth Broemmer of Bourne was not injured. He was arrested at the scene for operating under the influence of alcohol, operating to endanger and minor transporting alcohol. It could not immediately be confirmed if he will face additional charges in connection with the domestic dispute.

(Photos by Frank Paparo/CWN).

Cumby's robbed in Falmouth
FALMOUTH - A juvenile is under arrest for a reported armed robbery at knifepoint in Falmouth. The Cumberland Farms on Waquoit Highway (Route 28) was robbed shortly after 10 p.m. Police quickly caught up with a suspect at the corner of Carriage Shop Road and Altons Lane. The juvenile was charged with armed robbery while masked, assault with a dangerous weapon (knife), disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and malicious desctruction of property.

Text messaging blamed for Dennis crash

     ^{The driver of this Chevy Tahoe reportedly took her eyes of the road to retrieve a text message.}
WEST DENNIS - Around 9:45 p.m. on New Years Eve, a woman reportedly retrieving a text message from her cell phone took her eyes off Trotting Park Road in West Dennis and glanced off a utility pole, severely damaging the right front end of her Chevy Tahoe. Alone in the vehicle, she was not injured in the crash. Dennis police responded to the scene of the accident and notified NSTAR to check the condition of the pole. It was not immediately confirmed if the woman will be cited.

(Story and photo by Kevin Morley/CWN).

Armed invasion reported at Yarmouth motel
YARMOUTH - Yarmouth Police and State police were on the scene of a reported armed invasion at the West Yarmouth Resort on Route 28 sometime after 8 p.m. Monday evening.

A police K-9 dog was requested to track two suspects who reportedly brandished a shotgun and made off with a safe.

We'll bring you further details as we get them from Yarmouth Police.

(Photo by R. Copley/CWN)

2008 arrives with a snowstorm in tow
Cape Cod spared
CAPE COD - The new year will be greeted by a fresh blanket of snow across parts of Massachusetts. The National Weather Service has issued a heavy snow warning for portions of Berkshire County, where 5-10 inches may fall on New Year's Day. Forecasters says the snow will develop Tuesday morning and become heavier through the afternoon. ... WHDH TV

COMM Rescue response to fall at Lambert's Fruit Co. in Hyannis

HYANNIS - At 4 p.m. Monday the Barnstable Police Department and Centerville-Osterville-Marstons Mills (COMM) Fire responded to a call of a man inside Lambert's Fruit Co. who had fallen and unconscious. Even though Lambert's is on West Main Street in Hyannis, just before Route 28, it is in COMM's coverage area.

When the rescue arrived they found that the male was not  was alert but seriously injured from striking his head on the cement ground inside the store. COMM rescue packaged the male and transported him to Cape Cod Hospital.
(Story and photos and story by Frank Paparo/CWN)

Child injured in fall in Centerville
CENTERVILLE - At 6:30 p.m. Monday, Centerville, Osterville, Marstons Mills (COMM) rescue and Barnstable Police got a call of a small child with a head injury in the 270 block of Skunknet Road in Centerville. The child was worked on by several EMTs and then rushed to Cape Cod Hospital. It was not clear how the injury was sustained. Further details were not immediately available.

(Story and photos by Frank Paparo/CWN).

The No Ethics Zone: Advertising as Culture and the National Children's Health Crisis

by Dianna Morton, Media Literacy Educator

Based on her knowledge of economics, sociology, psychology, and media, through the eyes and practice of a social scientist,Juliet Schor(2004), in Born to Buy,  examined our contemporary culture in which advertising has an immense effect on young people, in particular children ages eighteen months through thirteen years old. Having posed the question, "What is happening to kids today?" in terms of well-being trends,  Schor did not dismiss the discourse that crosses political spectrums including family structure, permissive parenting, the decline of morality, and ill performing schools, yet included what she named the " 800 pound gorilla" in the room, an alternative explanation: Media and Consumer Culture. The basis for this claim is that children are spending more time with media than generations of the past. Her quantitative research strategy was two fold. First, she obtained a managerial position with a Madison Avenue children's marketing group.

There, Schor was tutored in all facets of children's advertising; she met with those contacts for an additional forty meetings and interviewed people in the industry to find out what was going on and what the cutting edge of marketing to kids was. Schor's second mode of  research involved surveying three hundred children age ten through thirteen in five schools, both urban and suburban, and residing in varying socio-economic and racial/ethnic households, in the Boston area, to measure consumer involvement, media use, and a series of psychological variables including depression, self-esteem, headaches, etc. This research included twenty six parent interviews. The purpose was to ask the question what is the impact of media and commercialization on children's well being? Schor examined how the market targets children immersed in the consumer media culture to their detriment, in which they are offered false promises, yet are put into a metaphorical prison in which they are controlled, bereft of connection with caring adults, suffer severe stress and anxiety, become prone to obesity and diabetes, and are encouraged to develop addictive behaviors, all in order to meet the ever increasing demands of the market.

In a broad analysis, contemporary advertising is damaging to children, and therefore detrimental to the well being of the society if we are to view children as our future. In order to understand the theoretical foundation of this analysis, it is essential to look at the cultural role advertising plays in the society, and how through this role society's values are constructed. This is not to examine advertising in its effectiveness in selling product, but to examine advertising in terms of what stories are being told. These stories influence our behavior, our morality, and our ideas about what is important. (Jhally, 2000, p.30) One of the most prominent ways in which advertising works is by catering to deep human needs, as people's relationships with objects is what defines us as human beings. In Sut Jhally's debate with James Twitchell "On Advertising" (2006), Jhally exemplified this with the huge success of The DeBeers advertising campaign in which the power of advertising has structured our culture into responding to the belief that the diamond is directly correlated with meeting the needs of love and courtship. He stated that The DeBeers example points out how advertising works, "by reaching deep seated human needs." (Jhally, 2006, p. 119) Jhally also noted that this system has been established as an essential part of Capitalism. He quoted retail analyst of the 1940's Victor Liebow in his essay "Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse" (2000):

               Our enormously productive economy...demands that we
               make consumption our way of life, that we convert the
               buying and the selling of goods into rituals, that we
               seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction
               in commodities...We need things consumed, burned up,
               worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing
               rate. (in Jhally, 2000, p. 31)

It is this connection between goods and human happiness that the story of advertising tells us, and in telling this story, a culture is created. Based on this premise, humans become the product sold to advertisers, of value only as a potential customer.

     The defense of advertising is the second underpinning concept to clarify when examining the detrimental effects of advertising on children. This defense is based on the belief that adults are rational and can detect truth and falsity in advertising. Yet, this argument cannot be applied to children because rationality is not something that exists, but develops. Based on the defense of advertising theory, it would be unethical to direct advertising to children, especially children under the age of twelve, as the younger the child, the more vulnerable to the message. Prior to the 1960's, children were only exposed to ads that were made for adults. The reason is that a medium for the market did not exist until television entered as a commodity in the mainstream culture. This commercial media technology connected children directly to the market. Juliet Schor (2004) explained that up through the 1980's, the messages of advertising were less directly sent to children, as the parent served as a gatekeeper to some extent. She noted how this historic shift in the triangle of children, parents, and marketers began to break down in the eighties, and that advertising firms pushed and disseminated this old regime in the 1990's, where a direct market to kids, via advertising, created an alliance between the marketer and children. She stated that the corporate position made a claim to children in which the marketer is "going to take you to a free hedonistic place where everything is going to be fun." (Schor, 2004, p. 202) The taste of a generation is being formed through a process of marketing and advertising. The lives, the development of meaning, and experiences are being constructed by a set of corporations who are turning children into commercialized children. The market's claim is that it is empowering these children. Yet, Schor, based on a structural equation model of media exposure and physical and psychological health, argues that the negative trends in childhood well being are directly correlated to media exposure.

     Statistics that Schor was exposed to during her "work" on Madison Avenue was that the present generation of children is the most "brand" oriented. Her Madison Avenue "constituents" bragged that by eighteen months old, children were identifying logos, and by age two, they were asking for products by brand name. By age three, children were using brands to communicate aspects of their personalities. The growth of research on how to market to kids included marketers moving into homes to "study" kids and their activities. The scientific side of the research included "neuro-marketing"- actual MRI scanning on "consumers", including children.  In her direct research with children, Schor recognized that children were shopping 50 % more than the preceding generation, both with their parents and on their own. The supermarket was the predominant consumer arena. Schor also noted that commodities have become increasingly influential especially in social dynamics within schools. Among youngsters who previously answered questions about future aspirations with career goals, the number one answer (75%) is now "rich." (Hymowitz, 2007, ¶ 5  ) As I thumbed through a local high school newspaper this week, two out of three senior students interviewed stated "rich" as the future goal they wished to attain.  A term used by Madison Avenue when discussing their target child audience is "Tweens". The markets' hype is the benefits of appealing to the children's "aspiration age". (Hymowitz, 2007, ¶ 5)  Tweens are between six and twelve years old, and the term refers to a person who is between childhood and adolescence. According to the marketers, a six year old is no longer a child. If we are to return to the ethics of advertising, this concept takes the heat off the advertisers in a moral debate.

     Through advertising and corporate media, there are several stories that are being told to children about the culture of childhood. The first is that children now have clout in the market place. Prior to this shift in the eighties, kids' consumer culture was "cheap". There was penny candy to be sold along with cheap plastic toys. When the paradigm began shifting, and children were spending more time with media, an advertising culture was set into place to reel the children into the consumer culture. In her article Childhood for Sale, Kay Hymowitz stated that, "marketers use the expertise of anthropologists, sociologists, brain-imaging specialists, child psychologists, and pollsters to plumb children's desires, analyze family dynamics, and develop techniques that seem consciously designed to make parents' lives miserable." (Hymowitz, 2007, ¶ 5) Part of this alliance between marketers and children is the "nag-factor" or "pester power", which results, according to Schor (2004), in seven hundred billion dollars of adult purchasing power being driven by children annually. As the Nickelodeon motto has it, "Kids Rule!"

      In this defunct paradigm, food is a major product that is being pushed.  A recent study done by the Kaiser Foundations Food for Thought:  Television Food Advertising to Children in the United States concluded the following:

               The study combined content analysis of TV ads with detailed
               data about children's viewing habits, to provide an estimate
               of the number and type of TV ads seen by children of various
              ages. The study found that tweens ages 8-12 see the most food
              ads on TV, an average of 21 ads a day, or more than 7,600
              a year. Teenagers see slightly fewer ads, at 17 a day, for
              a total of more than 6,000 a year. For a variety of reasons --
              because they watch less TV overall, and more of their viewing
              is on networks that have limited or no advertising, such as PBS
              and Disney -- children ages 2-7 see the least number of food ads,
              at 12 food ads a day, or 4,400 a year.

              For each age group studied,food was the top product seen advertised.
             Thirty-two percent of all ads seen by 2-7 year olds were for food,
             while 25% of ads seen by 8-12 year olds and 22% of ads seen by 13-17
             year olds were for food. Of all genres on TV, shows specifically designed for children under 12 have the highest proportion of food advetising (50% of all ad time).

            "Children of all ages see thousands of food ads a year,
             but tweens see more than any other age group,"
             said Vicky Rideout, vice president and director
             of the Program for the Study of Entertainment Media
             and Health at the Kaiser Family Foundation. "Since
             tweens are at an age where they're just becoming
             independent consumers, understanding what type of
             advertising they are exposed to is especially
             important." (The Kaiser Foundation, 2007, ¶ 2)

            

     The study revealed that out of the types of food advertised, 34% are for candy and snacks, 28% are for cereal, and 10% are for fast foods. Of the 8,854 ads reviewed in the study, there were none for fruits or vegetables targeting children or teens. The appeals used in advertising food to kids include a push to view websites and a premium toy gift. One in ten of these toys are connected to a TV or movie character. Only fifteen percent of this advertising included depicting healthy habits such as physical activity. (The Kaiser Foundation, 2007, ¶5)

     Out of all the battles between parent and child: food, drugs, sex, and violence, food is the one that lost, and may do the most harm to children over time. The extreme changes in the levels and rates in obesity in American children show that one quarter of all children are obese today. One third of these children will develop diabetes as a direct result. (Schor, 2004, p.128) There is a never ending increase of branding of junk food through toys. Junk food is even being produced to look like toys. Hymowitz (2007) highlighted the point that, " They (the marketers) appeal to children's impulsiveness by introducing ever more exciting and more noxious products like "Blue Funky Fries" or "Mystery Color Ketchup." (Hymowitz, 2007, ¶5) While this advertising is going on, continuously pervasive is drug, alcohol, and tobacco advertising to kids. (Schor, 2004, p. 35-36)

      Another story that is being told about the culture of childhood is that adults are the enemy. Schor claims that Nickelodeon is the prime pusher of this concept. Shows on Nickelodeon are disrespecting of adults, and sell children on the "cool" factor. To be connected to "cool", you need to be disconnected from adults. Anti-adultism is rampant in this consumer kids' culture. Schor's research indicated that the more children watch Nickelodeon, the more they dislike their parents. (Schor, 2004, p. 51) A few months ago, an eleven year old child was a guest in my home for a week. She watched television (which is severely monitored in her own home), and often chose the Nickelodeon station as a novelty. I sat with her to view a show on a Saturday morning and was abhorred by the behavior of the animated characters. Teachers were portrayed as sadistic and evil; children were physically torturing their teachers in retaliation.   My viewing experience leads me accept Schor's observation.

      A third story being told is the need to be "cool" in order to be respected in the society. A shift in how products are marketed to children has changed. In the past, the nature of the product was advertised as in "It tastes good." or "It is fun to play with." Yet in this new world of marketing to kids, the adult approach of the symbolic and social significance of the product is what is being sold as in "You need this cereal to be cool."
The move has been from the intrinsic qualities of the product to the branding of the product, and cool has become the central theme of all youth marketing. Although this idea has been present in adolescent culture for many years, making sense in terms of childhood development in which the adolescent needs to seek an identity separate from a family identity, (Merchants of Cool, a PBS documentary, examines the marketing to teens industry in depth) the idea that a six year old should care about being "cool" is radical. Another shift in marketing to children is that marketers are now taking products and themes ("cool") usually marketed to adults and teens and are marketing these products to children. (Schor, 2004, p. 202) These include items such as make-up and iPods. Children are now weighing in on what type of automobile the family will purchase. As major automobile marketers attend the marketing for children conferences, companies like Toyota sponsors family safety pamphlets to schools. There has been an age compression in media marketing.

      According to cultural critic Steven Kline (2004), marketers have always paid more attention to children's imaginations than educationists. They recognized these attributes as the deeply planted roots of children's culture, and that they could use them to communicate effectively with children. (Schor, 2004, p.203).  In one sense, this marketing move does empower children. Consumer theory views the consumer as agent rather than consumer as manipulated, and children are now viewed as economic agents and consumer agents according to marketers- their defense is that they are empowering children. Yet this empowerment is taking place in a toxic media consumer environment.
As boundaries between adult and child break down- what will be the role of children in the future?  The problem of what is happening today is that the world children have been let loose into is the corporate construction of the market place, which includes tobacco, junk food, and alcohol. A very small number of powerful corporations, and through a discourse of empowerment, are making kids sick. Schor (2004) noted that the notion of sacred childhood, in which the field of childhood development sprouted from, fails to recognize its own social construction-the field of childhood development grew up simultaneously with marketing to kids. (Schor, 2004, p. 200-201)  Kline lamented that, "Television kills children's imaginations with limited colonizing narratives; violates their innocence in relation to sex, violence, and commerce; and like a narcotic, numbs their innate curiosity about the world." (Kinder, 1999, p. 121)

      Schor's research supports Kline's observations between the amount of commercial media consumed by children and the direct correlation on children's physical and emotional health. According to Schor (2004), 21 % of the population ages 9 through 17 suffer from emotional behavior /psychological disorders including depression and anxiety. (Schor, 2004, p. 152-172) Schor  (2004) concluded that kids spend more time in consumer culture than anywhere else. Their average daily media use is six hours and twenty one minutes, and that reading magazines and books has also become a commercial medium to sell products, especially media characters. Schor (2004) also noted that the amount of exposure time with media could be considered  a plus of two hours due to double exposure - daily TV use is 3hours and 4 minutes plus movies and videos 3:51, video games 49 minutes, recreational computer use one hour. Although it was anticipated that computer use would push out the television, this is not the case. Computer use is rising, but television use is not declining. (Schor, 2004, p. 154-162). The media has become an advertising delivery system for children. And based on Schor's research, children are ingesting advertising and marketing for most of the child's day.

      The average American young person has the anxiety level equivalent to what was measured in 1957 in in-patients psychological hospital. (Schor, 2004, p. 35) A study published in the Pediatrics Journal  found that "the rates of emotional and behavioral problems among children aged four through fifteen soared between 1979 and 1996." (Schor, 2004, p. 35)  Among the high rates of anxiety and depression among today's youth, suicide is now the fourth leading cause of death among ten to fourteen year olds. (Schor, 2004, p. 35) The worsening of these well being trends has occurred in a period of time when rates of child poverty were declining; a period of time in which should have been presumed a more healthy and hopeful childhood. Juliet Schor's research concluded that the whole picture that is playing out in terms of kids well being in this immersion in media consumer culture is the underlying cause of emotional and psychosomatic illnesses in children and adolescents. The higher the level of consumer involvement the higher the level of depression, anxiety, etc-The higher media use leads to higher consumer involvement that then leads to psychological outcomes. The model does not go both ways. In order to resolve this situation, a developmental approach is only a starting point, as it fails to address and understand the cultural context, and the public health approach is too narrow.  The social and cultural context in which kids are being raised needs to be considered. (Schor, 2004, p. 200)

     In the twelve years from 1992 through 2004, the annual budget of direct child marketing moved from one billion to fifteen billion dollars in the United States. The consumer media market now saturates the landscape of childhood, from television to video games, to schools and museums. Congress "Tied the hands of the Federal Trade Commission in 1981" (Schor, 2004, p. 194) in regulating children's media. The Children's Television Act passed in 1990, yet it is a far cry from an alternative, basically requiring stations to include three hours per week of educational programming, yet with little oversight. In Advertising, Culture, Criticism, and Pedagogy: An Interview with Sut Jhally conducted by William O'Barr, Jhally (2006) goes so far as to metaphorically compare advertising to child molestation. He also claims the same of the media based on how commercial television is organized. Jhally (2006) stated, "What networks are trying to do is gather you together in the way a factory owner would gather laborers together. They are drawing value out of your watching, out of your labor." (Jhally, 2006, p. 14) Jhally further explained that when this is done to children as early young as two years old, it becomes a type of child labor. (Jhally, 2006, p. 14) The networks need their captive audience to sell their product. 

     A de-commercialization of cultural would seem the way to correct these problems in children's health. According to Schor (2004), this would include the de-commercialization of food, media space, and the outdoors. Schor advocates for a national comprehensive curriculum in gardening, menu planning, eco-literacy, and science and nutrition. She suggests a model of a government funded "National Kids Public Media Corporation", (Schor, 2004, p. 203), and a national incentive to make outdoor spaces much safer for children, so that children will not be confined to indoors, only to become a captive audience for commercial media and sedentary media involved activities. Recently, after a year of co-teaching media literacy to high school students, a colleague of mine removed her television from her home. She noted that at first, her children, ages seven and ten, moaned and groaned about the house, nagging for its return. Within a week, she observed a shift in their behavior. Instead of coming home from school and fighting over program viewing, they ran outside to play, and soon made no mention over the missing television; yet these children are fortunate to reside in a relatively safe rural environment. Such a movement to de-commercialize the culture would take tremendous effort not just from legislators, but from parents and educators. There are currently numerous organizations, including The Action Coalition for Media Literacy, The Media Education Foundation, Stop the Commercial Exploitation of Children, The Center for Media Education, Commercial Free Childhood, and The Center for the New American Dream, that are working towards this very goal. Although their funding is small and limited, individuals and communities are moving towards involvement and support in these cultural movements as imperative in the future of our children, and ultimately humanity, rather than contribute to a media driven consumer machine that pillages the earth, the cultures of the peoples, the brains and mindsets of individuals: a culture that can only result in war over limited resources and the destruction of life on earth. 

References

(March, 2007). Food for thought: television food advertising to
children in the united states. Retrieved November 17, 2007, from Kaiser Family Foundation Web site: 

Hymowitz, K. (2005, Wntr). Childhood for Sale?. Public Interest 125+.
Retrieved November 17, 2007, from Questia database: 

Jhally, S. (2000).Advertising and the edge of the acocalypse. Critical
Studies in Media Commercialism. 27-39.

Jhally, S. (Ed.). (2006). The spectacle of accumulation: essays in culture,
media, and politics. New York, New York: Peter Lang.

Kinder, M. (Ed.). (1999). Kids' media culture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Retrieved November 24, 2007, from Questia database. 

Schor, J. (2004). Born to buy. New York, New York: Scribner.

The holiday season brings lights to the Hyannis Mets

The Holiday Season Brings Lights to Hyannis Mets!

story and photos by Peter Robbins

If you build it, they will come goes without saying. McKeon Field, home of the Hyannis Mets of the Cape Cod Baseball League, has been hosting future stars for years, always during the daylight hours.

That changed earlier this month, despite 20-degree temperatures and blustering winds, with the installation of a state-of-the-art lighting system by the Hyannis Athletic Association its team of volunteers.

Under the watchful eye of John Brewer and HAA board member Everett Martin, the poles were lifted into place by Brewer's expertise and crew. Once the poles were placed over the piling, Brewer took up position on his back at a pre-determined point and directed the crane for proper alignment of each bank of lights.

The field that day resembled an outdoor skating rink, requiring some to wear ice spikes over their shoes.

The Mets unofficial mascot has long been the osprey, thanks to a family of them that took up residence atop an outfield pole, offering a birds' eye view of the action, and providing some action of their own for the fans, their comings and goings sometimes rivalling the game itself for attention. Construction of a permanent platform on top of one of the new poles is underway, a testament to the role of the osprey in the team's plans for the future.

The Cape Cod Baseball League's slogan, "Where the stars of tomorrow shine tonight," will be even more appropriate next summer in Hyannis. A ceremonial lighting is planned for the near future. 

Visit the Mets' homepage for more images and information here.

A family man, former deputy sheriff, boat captain, carpenter, private investigator and avid photographer, Peter Robbins is a longtime supporter of the Hyannis Mets. 

Christmas Clean-up

I am sitting here a week after Christmas wondering when all our decorations are going to begin their trips back to boxes which will spend the next 11 months living under our cellar stairs. I could never last until the Epiphany, we put the tree up in early December  It's amazing how stuff which can engender such excitement, good will, and generosity of spirit three weeks before, can now be the source of such annoyance and clutter.  "When are we going to get rid of this junk?"  I ask my wife.

It used to be that because the tree was drying out and dropping needles all over the place that we hurried to strip it and toss it out back. It would sit there for maybe months, turning into a red fuzzy bush that we slipped off to the landfill in mid-May.  That was the fire hazard argument.  But a couple of years ago we bought a discounted artificial tree at K-Mart the day after Christmas so the damn thing doesn't shed. It could stay up year round, I shudder to think. These artificial trees are very realistic, identical to the real McCoy and you can spray them with pine or fir scent and your living room, in the fullest spirit of the Yule season, will smell just like your bathroom.

We have small red wreaths with light bulbs in the middle that my mother and father bought when they didn't have any money the first year they were married in 1939. Although they are starting to rot and look moth eaten I wouldn't part with them for the world.  The star on top of our tree I purchased at the local five and dime in 1949 for $.25.  My third grade teacher gave me the money and asked me to pick one up for our classroom tree. After the holiday she gave me the star and it has become one of my prized possessions.  All my children know the story of how that star came into our family.

"When are we going to get rid of this junk?"  I ask my wife. I find that as time passes, collections of Christmas decorations grow and pick up accoutrements of different generations.  Some of our decorations are from my wife's tree when she was a little girl and some of our stuff followed to our house when my parents passed away. We have a small tinsel Eskimo ornament on our tree which was part of a Cliquot Club Ginger Ale promotion back in the fifties.  I bet I could sell it on E-bay.  One year at church they had workshops that taught the kids how to make tree ornaments by threading pearl-like beads onto pipe cleaners.  So our tree today is full of crosses, alphas and omegas.

When we decorate the tree several grandchildren are usually involved.  They love it and carefully handle each item as if they were family heirlooms, which, indeed, they are.  The process gives me a chance to tell the stories behind the ornaments and to try to answer any questions the kids might have about them. It is a great way to instill a piece of family history.

Ornament clutter is not limited to the Christmas tree itself. We have two or three manger scenes going simultaneously and it is not unusual to have a wise man looking suspiciously like a Fisher-Price toy standing next to a beautiful wood carved shepherd.  With the kids doing their usual pandemonium attack this year, I will probably find tiny sheep and angels under the couch and behind the bookcase all year.  When we moved to the Cape years ago and discovered the Christmas Tree Shops for the first time we took full advantage of the beautiful holiday bargains we would discover there. We went crazy over the chance to buy a 12 inch hand painted nut cracker for $3.99 when we were accustomed to seeing an item like this costing in excess of $35.00.  I bet we have three or four nutcrackers on the mantle.

Finally, we got everything put back under the cellar stairs.  It's kind of sad to sit in the stark living room  with all our memories in storage. It's time to settle in for a winter of watching reality television shows and American Idol. Thus march on the currents of time.

Low Expectations

New Lyme disease test; Hunting association under fire; Nantucket lobsterman investigated; New Life Ministries to build new church

Nantucket Headlines, December 28, 2007

New Life Ministries to build new church
It is not often that a new church is built on the island, so even the early sketches of New Life Ministries International's proposed church are worth noting. Planned for a 2.7-acre lot the church owns at 42 Monohansett Road, Minister Donovan Kerr said the building should be around 4,000 square feet in size, one-and-a-half stories high and under 30 feet tall.

Nantucket lobsterman investigated for illegal sale of a whale skull
Nantucket lobsterman Dann Pronk being investigated by the National Marine Fisheries Service for the alleged sale of a skull of a one-year-old humpback whale he brought up in his lobster gear the fall of 2006.

From on High
'Sconset Trust president Bob Felch leans over the top rail of Sankaty Head Light to adorn it with a Christmas wreath earlier this week. The trust is the new caretaker of the light that was moved 405 feet inland in October. Sankaty has been an active aid to navigation since 1850.
More ...

Ethics questioned
Schlesingers raise conflict of interest issue with NPT architectural survey for SBPF
Armed with an architectural survey, the Siasconset Beach Preservation Fund told the Conservation Commission on Dec. 5 that 1.9 million cubic yards of sand could ultimately save 54 historic houses.

Hunting association under fire for shooting range proposal
Since the 1970s, gun-owning Nantucketers have gone target shooting on 48 acres of town-owned land between Bunker Road and Russell's Way with little or no consequence.

Florida lab claims to have superior Lyme disease test
Test, however, is non FDA-approved, and Dr. Tim Lepore is skeptical
AFlorida laboratory facility maintains that for the last year it has been able to offer a blood test that specifically identifies whether a person is carrying the antigen or bacteria that causes Lyme disease.

Bartlett's Farm bringing B.J.'s wholesale to island
When Bartlett's Farm Market reopens on January 8 after a holiday break, islanders will be able to choose from a selection of about 25 items sold in bulk and at discounted rates by B.J.'s Wholesale Club on the mainland. Larry Belka, Bartlett's Director of Sales and Marketing, is one of many Nantucket residents who flocks to B.J.
More ...

Point Breeze work shutdown not tied to money worries
Rumors of Point Breeze Developer Bob Matthews' coffers running dry, as evidenced by the deceleration of activity on his hotel over the last two weeks, are apparently unfounded. Although they had been going like gangbusters since the lifting of the Sept.

Gas prices on Nantucket reach record highs
Heating fuel costs expected up but assistance is available
As of the week of Dec. 17 Nantucket's gas pump prices reached record highs with On-Island Gas selling the cheapest regular grade at $3.76 a gallon and premium at $3.90. As of Saturday, Dec. 22 the cost of regular at On-Island dropped to $3.69 but high test stayed the same and the prices at the other stations remained at peak levels.

New harbor plan articles readied for Town Meeting
Working since Sept. 27 on bringing a new plan for Nantucket's harbors into service, the Harbor Plan Implementation Committee (HPIC) is focusing on several waterfront-related Town Meeting articles. "We have gone through the natural resources section and prioritized the order of the action items," said committee member Sarah Oktay.

Read the rest of the Nantucket Independent. 

Searching for Thoreau; Susan B. Anthony show in Falmouth

For former editor, Thoreau book was labor of love -- and tiring
And a way to reintroduce him to Cape Cod

MONTPELIER, Vt. --Tom Slayton set out hoping to renew interest in Henry David Thoreau, using his feet and his pen.  It turned out that following Thoreau's footsteps to Cape Cod, Walden Pond and Maine's Mount Katahdin burnished his own admiration of the "Walden" author. Now, he hopes the fruit of his travels -- a book entitled "Searching for Thoreau: On the Trails and Shores of Wild New England" -- will do the same for others.

"What I hope the book does is give people intimate access to Thoreau, to make him approachable to them," ... The resulting 240-page paperback -- which is illustrated by Slayton's 36-year-old son, Ethan -- draws heavily on "Walden," "Cape Cod," "The Maine Woods" and Thoreau's journals, describing in lyrical detail the flora, fauna and sometimes-treacherous paths Thoreau walked more than 150 years ago and Slayton followed... Globe.  
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Falmouth Forum to present one-woman show on Susan B. Anthony

F

or the next Falmouth Forum at the Marine Biological Laboratory, actress and educator Sally Matson (at right) will present "Susan B. Anthony, the Invincible!" on Friday Jan. 4 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. in the Lillie Auditorium, corner of Water and MBL streets in Woods Hole.

The event is open to the public and free of charge. An optional dinner will be served in a nearby cafeteria before the performance at a cost of $20 per person.

Contact the MBL at 508-289-7423 or comm@mbl.edu for more info.

Upcoming Falmouth Forum speakers at the MBL include Geraldine Brooks, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2006 for her novel "March," on Jan. 25; Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Ian Bowles on Feb. 8 and Time magazine essayist Lance Morrow on March 7.

(photo credit, www.susanbanthonytheinvincible.com)

 

 

Today in Cape history: Epic blizzard blasts Northeast

On this day, the last of 1962, a savage winter storm, "a freak of nature" as described by the Associated Press, "continued its merciless assault on the Northeast Monday, with below-zero termperatures and howling, destructive winds."

The storm claimed at least 18 lives and created snow drifts 20 feet deep, temperatures plunging to 35 below zero on the summit of Mount Washington and winds gusting to 80 miles per hour.

"New Year's Eve celebrations were curtailed in many areas by the ravages of the gale," the AP reported.

(photo credit, www.flickr.com/photos/icesailr)