EXTRA...

Hide 'n Seek here; Scandal rocks Beacon Hill; Turkey Day @ Children's Hospital

TODAY's quote:
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."
                - Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Hide N Seek
Even with a GPS device, the treasure is visible and not, part game and part landscape to the observant geocacher

Geocaching Cape Cod
Cape Blogger Susan Spencer writes about geocaching regularly in her Trail Hound series.

Wedged between gnarled branches of scrub oak, Fyodor, 11, scoured the coppice for any sign of treasure. For almost an hour, he and his brother, Alex, 12, had trekked through the dunes, following directions on a hand-held global positioning system device. Without complaint, they had conquered daunting sandy crests studded with bluish blades of sharp beach grass and skidded down into valleys ablaze with scarlet and amber foliage of sassafras and beech - all in pursuit of mysterious riches left at the Cape Cod National Seashore.

Parents, take note: Tracking down hidden booty with the help of an electronic device is a great way to get kids to explore New England's natural beauty on a long hike. Behold geocaching, an outdoor treasure hunt in which players program geographic coordinates into portable GPS receivers to find caches left by other players, and, in turn, leave something for future seekers...

As an added bonus during an economic crisis, geocaching can be done at no cost at all -providing you have a GPS receiver - since it is probable that someone has hidden a cache not far from where you live, maybe even within walking distance. I hear there is a cache in the 18th-century cemetery a 20-minute hike from my backyard.

The contents of caches vary widely, but most are eclectic collections of treats tucked into a container: bags of marbles, packets of coffee and tea, magnets, $5 off coupons for a nearby whale watch... Globe.
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Waves of scandal rattle Beacon Hill
Wilkerson T-shirt, Rogers house on Cape Cod, Murray subpoena

Senator Dianne Wilkerson seemed to think last week that her Senate colleagues would go easy on her. And she had reason. All her past indiscretions had been overlooked, and the collegial body that meets in a powder-blue room with cushy chairs has never tried to oust one of its own before a conviction for a crime.

"I trust that you will act consistent with prior practice," Wilkerson wrote in a letter to the Senate president.

But Wilkerson clearly misjudged the size of the shock wave her arrest on bribery charges triggered on Beacon Hill... But federal investigators have cast a wide net in the case, and some fear that Wilkerson could give up additional information to seek a lighter sentence. Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Maureen Feeney, City Council president, and Senate President Therese Murray have all received federal grand jury subpoenas in the Wilkerson case and have been referenced in one another's subpoenas - creating the appearance of a web of unseemly politicking that stretches from the State House to City Hall...

But in an indication of how charged the atmosphere is, Majority Leaders John Rogers, too, is among those facing ethics allegations. He has been defending himself over an arrangement in which his campaign allegedly paid funds to a consultant who in turn made mortgage payments on a vacation home on Cape Cod owned by Rogers and his wife... Globe.
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Worry builds over possible confusion on voting day
Tricky ballots, malfunctioning machines, long lines

Genie Gratto of Oakland, Calif., says early voters have been confused by arrows printed on ballots. Gary Watts reports three-hour lineups at his polling place in Renton, Wash., which provided only two dozen machines for people to vote on. Carrie Tobey has a co-worker in Cape Cod who she said was allowed to vote early instead of by absentee ballot, even though the state of Massachusetts does not allow the practice.

Tomorrow is election day in the United States, but already, reports of voting irregularities, long lineups, malfunctioning machines and badly managed polling stations are pouring in from across the country, suggesting that any victory will not come easily or without controversy. More than 130 million Americans are expected to vote tomorrow... Globe & Mail.
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Appropriate visitors on Thanksgiving
Plimoth Plantation to take part in Children's Hospital's Thanksgiving celebration

              Tribal $idebar:
Wampanoag tribal council spokeswoman Gayle Andrews says there are 1,600+ enrolled members of the tribe. 2,000 more have applied to become members since the tribe received its initial confirmation for federal recognition two years ago.

Plimoth Plantation will be part of Children's Hospital's Thanksgiving celebration this year in Boston, thanks to an anonymous donor. Following a 10-day eBay fund-raising auction held by the living history museum in Plymouth, a bid of $5,000 won the package offering two costumed interpreters to go anywhere in the United States for the holiday. The donor, a Cape Cod businessman, chose Children's Hospital because one of his children had been seriously ill in the past and spent a month at the facility. The child is a teen now and doing fine, plantation officials said. The man said the bid was a way to "pay it forward," they said.

One of the interpreters is Shann Young of Plymouth, who portrays Edward Winslow. Young began as a volunteer at the museum at 17 and now, at 26, is an interpreter/artisan who specializes in construction of the nonprofit plantation's 17th-century style homes. Interpreting the role of Hobbomock will be Jonathan Perry, 31, a member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribewho has worked for 13 years at the plantation in the Wampanoag Indigenous Program. He left the plantation's employ in September to work for the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe as a senior cultural resource monitor in the tribe's historic preservation office.

The pair will visit Children's on Nov. 25... Globe.