EXTRA...

First Annual Quahog Day; The Old Cape Magic; Ex-coach indicted; Wampanoags want new deal; Older drivers may get retested - finally; 10 Secluded beaches; 4 days on the Wampanoag Canoe Passage; Commission sues - again

TODAY's quote: "The town (Harwichport) was so dull, one day the tide went out and refused to come back." - Fred Allen, radio comic who vacationed here for years.

•  Providence Journal runs a cc2day Editorial, see here.
• Ex-soccer Mashpee coach indicted in child rape, see here.
• Commission sues (again) to stop Cape Wind, see here.
  "I was interviewed for this article (in The Vineyard Gazette) and provided brief comments to the reporter. It is unfortunate that the Gazette chose to ONLY include statements from one source, the Cape Cod Commission, as their only source cited for this lengthy article, giving an inherently one-sided perspective to the readers.
       This article reads like a Cape Cod Commission press release. " - Mark Rodgers, Communications Director, Cape Wind.
  
• Vote in our Poll about "County Government", see here.
  

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Pols might finally be driven to act
Older drivers may finally be retested

Yesterday, 25 of 40 state senators, including Senate President Terry Murray, said they now support mandating road tests for drivers 85 and older. Such legislation, filed repeatedly by state Sen. Brian Joyce and Susan Fargo, until now has gotten nowhere. "But if we're not going to act now, when the hell are we?" said Joyce, in reference to the killing Saturday of 4-year-old Diya Patel, allegedly by an 88-year-old driver with a history of crashes.
   "When you lose your license in this country, you're in trouble," said Democrat Robert O'Leary of Cape Cod. "But in the end there are people who shouldn't be out there" - including, O'Leary added, his own 93-year-old mother... Herald.

Wampanoags decline deal with investors
Council hopes for better terms

The newly elected leaders of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe have opted not to endorse a deal they have with a group of deep-pocketed casino investors, the latest impediment to the tribe's efforts to build a $1 billion casino in southeastern Massachusetts. The tribal council, hoping to get a more favorable deal, voted unanimously last week not to reaffirm a 2007 development contract that a previous group of tribal leaders had negotiated with the investors, Sol Kerzner and Len Wolman, who built Connecticut's Mohegan Sun resort.

It is not clear how big of a rift the dispute represents. The vote does not mean that the tribe is walking away from the deal, at least for now, and they still have a contract with Kerzner and Wolman to try to build a casino in Middleborough.

"The terms did not seem in the best interest of the tribe," said Cedric Cromwell.

Cromwell said there were certain terms of the deal that he objected to, although he would not get into details. He also said the former tribal chairman, Glenn A. Marshall, ignored professional advice against the deal in letters that were only recently discovered... Globe.
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  This coming Sunday, June 21st, is the First Annual

Celebrate the first day of Summer 2009 "Quahog-style!" Join us for the First Annual Cape Cod Quahog Day at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 21, 2009 at the Quahog Republic Waterfront Eatery on Mashnee Island in Bourne.

     10 secluded beaches from
      Coastal Living magazine

Looking for a beautiful beach without the crowds? Coastal Living magazine recommends 10 secluded beach destinations in its June issue.
They are Lanikai Beach, near Kailua, Hawaii; Bahia Honda State Park in Florida; Bahia Sucia on the southwest coast of Puerto Rico along Highway 301; Indian Beach, on Oregon's Pacific Coast; Ocracoke Island, on North Carolina's Outer Banks; Cape Cod's Bound Brook Island in Truro; Montana de Oro State Park in California's San Luis Obispo County; St. Joseph Peninsula State Park in northwest Florida; Lumahai Beach, Kauai, Hawaii; and Windansea Beach in San Diego. Mercury News.

The day of family fun will kick off with the "Quahog Prognostication" - an announcement from the Secretary General of Quahog Republic as he receives word from the "official quahog" on how many weeks of Cape Cod beach weather lie ahead.

Other highlights of the festivities - which will be held on the Quahog Republic lawn overlooking the water and emceed by Channel 5 News Anchor Steve Lacy - include a clambake preparation ritual, shucking demonstrations, live entertainment and children's activities. There will also be various fun competitions, where you can have a chance to compete to be the 2009 Ms. Quahog, Boss Hog and Mister/Miss Littleneck! Challenges will include such games as shell tosses, putting & corn shucking contests, a frozen t-shirt contest, and the limbo.

The general event is free and open to the public, with food and drink available for sale at the restaurant. Space is limited.

A traditional clambake, which will be served at 6 p.m. under a tent on the lawn, will be a ticketed event. Clambake will include 1 ¼ boiled lobster, steamers, linguica, potatoes and corn. The cost for the clambake PLUS a limited edition First Annual Cape Cod Quahog Day T-Shirt, is just $48... CC Chamber.
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Paddling and carrying back home
After 4 days on the Wampanoag Canoe Passage

Nicholas Tyack is home again, a little sore and still itchy from poison ivy, after his four-day trek along the historic Wampanoag Canoe Passage connecting Massachusetts and Narragansett bays.

The 20-year-old Hanover native, who undertook his trip as a fund-raiser for the North and South River Watershed Association and as of last week had raised more than $5,000, said fallen trees, invasive marsh plants, and shallow water made parts of the 72-mile route almost impassable.

Luckily, he was accompanied in those sections by two physicists - his uncle Seth Lloyd, who teaches at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and post-doctoral student Olaf Dreyer - who used their knowledge of torque and momentum to figure out the best ways to maneuver Tyack's canoe through the tightest spots.

Unfortunately, the maneuvers still often involved hauling the boat overhead while slogging through waist-high mud... Globe.

NOTE: The Wampanoag Commemorative Canoe Passage is a water trail that twists and turns for more than 70 miles along river, marsh, brook and pond from Scituate on Massachusetts Bay to Dighton Rock State Park as the Taunton River flows into Narragansett Bay.

The water course is one formerly used by the Wampanoag Indians long before the Pilgrims came to America. It was re-established by the Plymouth County Development Council and local officials as an educational and recreational opportunity for all ages.

The route includes some 20 portages (where the canoe must be carried across land). There is easy access to the passage at many points.
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Good Summer reading: That Old Cape Cod by Richard Russo

The Boston Globe called That Old Cape Magic an "an astounding achievement" and "a masterpiece"-Richard Russo gives us the story of a marriage, and of all the other ties that bind, from parents and in-laws to children and the promises of youth.

The book's hero Griffin has been tooling around for nearly a year with his father's ashes in the trunk, but his mother is very much alive and not shy about calling on his cell phone. She does so as he drives down to Cape Cod, where he and his wife, Joy, will celebrate the marriage of their daughter Laura's best friend.

For Griffin this is akin to driving into the past, since he took his childhood summer vacations here, his parents' respite from the hated Midwest. And the Cape is where he and his wife Joy honeymooned, in the course of which they drafted the Great Truro Accord, a plan for their lives together that's now thirty years old and has largely come true. He'd left screenwriting and Los Angeles behind for the sort of New England college his snobby academic parents had always aspired to in vain; they'd moved into an old house full of character; and they'd started a family. Check, check and check.

But be careful what you pray for, especially if you manage to achieve it. By the end of this perfectly lovely weekend, the past has so thoroughly swamped the present that the future suddenly hangs in the balance.