CapeCodToday Blog Chowder

The Wonders of Autumn

Photo Essay-Monarchs, Sunsets and The Zen of VW repair.

Welcome to The Poet's Perspective. Today I'll be presenting a photo essay of autumn scenes and shots  from this morning's adventure.

Enjoy!

                                                                 Monarchs In Hyannisport

Fall colors-Harwich

East Reservoir-towards Bell's Neck

Hacker Conservation Area,  Harwich

Sunset at Gray's Beach, Yarmouthport

       It's strange how items from the past can revisit us. For me it culminated with an e-mail from a woman who saw this blog, and asked if I had sold her husband a VW Bus in 1998. Indeed I had. Her husband, John, had unfortunately succumbed to cancer several years ago.

She insisted that John would want me to have the Bus, so she offered it back. It was most likely good only for parts, in serious disrepair, but my excitement was still brisk.

I purchased this Bus 19 years ago, as an 18 year-old who had big dreams and scant resources. I installed an extended roof and called it home. Being young, scared and homeless seemed far less gruesome with this home on wheels.

     As time passed I eventually sold it to a friend, who fell ill and lost it at a storage auction. My cousin won the auction. I purchased it for the second time.

       I then resold it to John in 1998. According to his parents, he drove it all over the country. At some point he succumbed to cancer and the vehicle sat for a few years.

I  took in the orphan  last week and saw that my old riveted bodywork held up.(I hadn't yet learned to weld) I still saw signs of its past life, and remembered harder times when it carried me where I needed to go.

    I have been slowly dismantling it for useful parts

                         This morning's mission was to pull the engine.

                                 Lining up the necessary equipment-  8AM

                                                       Basic connections removed,

                                                       Raised and Supported-  8:40

Engine out-9:45 AM

My love for old VWs continues.

Halloween Horror Request!!

Fellow CC2day Blogger the CapeCodCrusader requested a Halloween post from your Gothic host and I'm thrilled to comply!  I've been working since late spring on an illustrated master outline tying together all my published comicstrip serials and unpublished fragments dating back to the mid60s...  this cheerful scene is based on recently-discovered notes from a lunch I had 23yrs ago in the Columbia U. neighborhood with WBAI-FM radio host of The Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade, and GNOSIS Magazine contributor Peter Lamborn Wilson... Mister Wilson went on to conceptualize the Temporary Autonomous Zone and thus became the father of the Rave Scene and the chief influence on the Burning Man Festival...  In this update of the scenario hip-hop superheroines The Bomb and Tone Arm, working undercover doing sound at Club Narthex, aka the recently desanctified Saint-Athanasius-In-The Mews, investigating 'Vitamin Z'~a new anentheogenic drug sweeping the Club Scene~look on in cosmic dread as Skippy the Acolyte discovers his boss~ the Rev. Montague Knell~ slumped across the downstairs bar on a Sunday morning!  Skippy gets on the horn with Episcopalian Mystic and Psychic Detective Richard Falcombe who's living-under-a-curse 4 blocks to the west at the Amalgamated Theological Seminary.  Falcombe pulls on his broadbrimmed black Borsalino and the Occult Thrills commence!!

Term Limits ? What?s Your View?

The subject of term limits often provokes a great deal of debate with passionate feelings on both sides of the issue. Representative Karyn Polito has filed a Constitutional Amendment proposal on Beacon Hill currently known as HD 4409, which has once again started the debate of whether term limits would help make our State Government more accountable and responsive to the voters of Massachusetts. 

Certainly with all the ethical scandals emerging from Beacon Hill, including the last three Democratic Speakers being indicted for felony charges, one does have to question whether cleaning out the elected officials on a regular basis might bring about a more honest, ethical and productive political culture.

Massachusetts law does not currently impose term limits on our elected officials.  This is not because of a lack of interest to do so.  In 1994, you may recall that Massachusetts voters approved Question Four during that year's general election, which set term limits on state political officials of eight years for Constitutional officers, such as Governor, Attorney General, Treasurer and Auditor. State Legislators and members of the Federal House would also have been limited to eight years and twelve years for United States Senators.

While the voters approved the term limits law, it soon was overturned by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 1997.  The State's highest court held the law to be unconstitutional, holding that the Legislature cannot pass a law that changes the qualifications for political offices that are found in the Constitution itself.  While I appreciate and agree with the voter's right to alter their system of government, I believe the Court made the correct decision under the language of our Constitution.  Thus in order to enact term limits for state elected officials, we need a constitutional amendment.  So, we are now back to HD 4409.

HD 4409 would amend the State Constitution to allow people to serve in the Massachusetts House or Senate for a total of 12 years, or six legislative terms, in their lifetime.  It would not impose term limits on any other elected officials as Article 1, Section 3 of the United States Constitution controls on the qualifications of Federal members of Congress.

The term limit proposal is not retroactive as written.  The amendment would apply only to time served in the General Court after the date of its passage by the voters.  It also would not apply to any partial term a legislator serves for the purpose of filling a vacancy in office.

I believe term limits are a method to restore the concept of a "citizen legislature" in our Commonwealth; however, the concern remains that voters should have the right to keep a legislator who is doing a good job for their district.   Perhaps the 12-year term limit strikes the appropriate balance between this need and the need to have some continuity and institutional knowledge in the Legislature.

Currently some fifteen other states impose term limits on state legislators. Another four states (including Massachusetts as discussed above) have ruled that term limit initiatives passed since 1990 are unconstitutional, and two states have repealed their term limit laws.  California was one of the first states to pass a term limits bill in the early 1990s, allowing legislators to serve only six years in the State Assembly (two three-year terms) and eight years in the State Senate (two four-year terms). Once the fourteen-year limit is reached, legislators are banned from their respective branches for life.

Now, I would like to know what you think.  Please e-mail your views to ElectJeffPerry@aol.com or telephone my office at 508-888-2158. 

DA's office coverup death in Cape hospital, Trooper drunk driving

Visitor to Hyannis Hospital killed by employee using a restraint hold
What took hospital, police and D.A.'s office three weeks to reveal killing?
When isn't empty beers cans enough reason to give a Breathalyzer test?

By Walter Brooks

State and local police are investigating the death of an unidentified visitor to Cape Cod Hospital which happened three weeks ago. Daniel J. Ryan, 35, of Quashnet Woods Drive, Mashpee was subdued by employees inside the Hyannis facility on October 9 according to radio station WXTK. The man had been trying to visit his wife who was being treated for psychiatric issues.

Hospital security put the man in a choke hold, rendering him unconscious. Then he died.

The Cape Cod Times reported that the 35-year-old man came to the hospital to visit his wife, according to a source with knowledge of the incident. The man ended up in the emergency room for a psychiatric evaluation, the source said. The emergency room employees placed him in "one-on-one observation," which means a hospital employee was assigned to watch him closely.

At some point, the man fled from the emergency room and ran through the hospital, the Cape Cod Times source said. A short time later, a page was heard over the hospital's loud speakers calling for help in the lobby of the Mugar Building. The page later announced a "Code 99," a medical emergency usually requiring cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

The man was placed on life support due to a lack of oxygen in his brain. At the time of his death he had been on life support for nearly two weeks.

The hospital says employees restrained the patient in order to prevent him from injuring anyone else. Several Cape Cod Hospital employees were injured.

Why isn't our DA investigating some crimes?

"The facts that State Trooper Peirce admitted to consuming alcohol earlier in the day and that two empty beer cans were found in his car were not enough to compel police to administer a Breathalyzer test."
                                - D.A. O'Keefe.

Hospital security put the man in a choke hold, rendering him unconscious, according to WXTK radio. Another source told cctoday that DA O'Keefe has too many skeletons in his own closet to vigorously pursue some case, the failure to investigate the highway crash involving a State Trooper was mentioned as another example.

The D.A. said yesterday, "The facts that State Trooper Peirce admitted to consuming alcohol earlier in the day and that two empty beer cans were found in his car were not enough to compel police to administer a Breathalyzer test."

It would have been compelling enough to get most drivers tested and arrested.

That death on an abortion table, the DA's missing guns

In 2007 the DA's office did not pursue an abortion death until this newssite and others reported the incident.

Cape Codders have to wonder whether Mr. O'Keefe's own problems have him unable to police the police and the "power structure" here.

He has never fully explained the disappearance of guns from his Sandwich home, and he has never been prosecuted for his failure to keep them locked and possibly even registered.

The 2006 theft of a firearm from the home of Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe - a firearm for which no serial number is available - has raised questions concerning the Cape's top law enforcement official.

Who polices the police?

The police department investigation of the missing gun, which remains open, has been hampered by what a department memo calls "the lack of a serial number."

State law requires that the serial number of a firearm be recorded every time the gun is sold or transferred. Law enforcement officials say serial numbers are key tools for investigating crimes involving guns.

Massachusetts law also requires that the owner of a firearm hold a license or permit appropriate for that gun.

O'Keefe lives in Sandwich. On Dec. 28, 2006, Sandwich police responded to a report of breaking and entering at his home. During that break-in, according to police, a gun was stolen.

The police department investigation of the missing gun, which remains open, has been hampered by what a department memo calls "the lack of a serial number."

Why wouldn't the chief law enforcement officer for Cape Cod and the Islands have the registeration numbers? And what would your police department do to a mere resident were they to not disclose that information?

Who polices the police?

The hospital statement

The hospital released a prepared statement Friday which read in part, "Cape Cod Hospital can confirm that a patient who died in the hospital earlier this week was involved in an altercation in which certain of our employees restrained the individual while waiting for additional assistance."

"Several of those employees were injured themselves although none to the extent of those involved in the event at Massachusetts General Hospital just a few days ago."

Hospital visitor killed; Set clocks back tonight; Here comes the train; Fishermen protest catch rules; Guv stiffs Vineyard group; Heron lunch; Bourne FD under stress; Brewster's Landmark Zoning Bylaw; ?Song for Melissa' recalls murder victim

TODAY's quotes: "People are having stress reactions." - Gil Taylor, Bourne FD union.
"It's one of the most important bylaws ever passed on Cape Cod."
- Margaret A. Geist, executive director of the APCC.
"I'm ready to lose my home; I'm ready to lose everything."
- Bruce Gibbs, a longtime commercial fisherman from Cape Cod.

Visitor to Hyannis Hospital killed by employee using a restrait hold
What took hospital, police and D.A.'s office two weeks to reveal killing?

State and local police are investigating the death of an unidentified visitor to Cape Cod Hospital which happened two weeks ago who was subdued by employees inside the Hyannis facility on Tuesday according to WXTK. The man had been trying to visit his wife who was being treated for psychiatric issues... Cape Cod TODAY.
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Gov. Deval Patrick Gives Vineyard Cold Shoulder On Oceans Plan Meeting

While you were eating breakfast this morning, this Heron at Jackknife Cove on Pleasant Bay was deciding on his entree for lunch. Pat Brooks photo.

Gov. Deval Patrick has been accused of snubbing attempts by a delegation of Vineyard community leaders to meet with him and share their concerns about the impact of the state's draft oceans plan on the Island.

The delegation, which includes representatives of every Island board of selectmen, the Dukes County Commission, Martha's Vineyard Commission and the Wampanoag tribe, has been trying without success for almost three weeks to get a meeting with the governor.

Instead, the governor's office offered them time with the chief architect of the plan, the Secretary of the Department of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Ian Bowles. But as of yesterday, he also had not agreed to a meeting, according to West Tisbury selectman and Island delegation member Richard Knabel... Vineyard Gazette.
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Bourne Fire Department Under Stress

The ongoing rift between union firefighters and town officials is starting to inflict collateral damage. Since news broke that the department's deputy chief stands accused of rape and that his wife has been investigated by the police department, coupled with threats of being fired for talking to the media, one firefighter is requesting an immediate medical leave. Meanwhile, the police were called to the Main Street station Wednesday night over a domestic dispute.

Officials from the Bourne Professional Fire Fighters Union said yesterday that the health and well-being of employees at the department has deteriorated, even as the town's acting fire chief, Daniel Doucette, reiterated comments made by town officials this week to the union's membership that anyone who disseminates "false information" to the media will be fired... Fire Engineering.
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Fishermen protest catch rules

Hundreds of grumpy fishermen, their spirits visibly buoyed yesterday by the assemblage, rallied for justice from the National Marine Fisheries Service at the front door of its regional headquarters here.

In banners, homemade signs and more than two hours of speeches through a battery-operated bullhorn, the boatsmen and -women, a lawyer and scientist all proclaimed that with the rebounding stocks stronger than any other time in the past 30 years, according to scientific reports, there is no reason and this is no time to consolidate and commodify the fishery... "I'm ready to lose my home; I'm ready to lose everything." - Bruce Gibbs, a longtime commercial fisherman from Cape Cod... Gloucester Times.
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Trial Run Planned This Spring For Cape Rail Service

Although all the details have not yet been worked out, a trial run for passenger rail service between Buzzards Bay and Middleborough is in the planning for next spring, Thomas S. Cahir told members of the Cape Cod Canal Region Chamber of Commerce's Bourne Committee this week.

Mr. Cahir, the new executive director of the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority, said he wanted what he termed "a pilot project" of Cape Rail Inc.'s proposal to connect the Cape's passenger trains with the MBTA service to that town.

John Kennedy, president and CEO of Cape Rail Inc., who also attended the Wednesday morning meeting at Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School, has been discussing the possibility of that connection for more than a year. He has said that it would cost about $6 million in capital to put into operation, but that he thought the operation would not require any subsequent subsidies... Bourne Enterprise.
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      "Fall back, Spring forward"
      Change Smoke Detector batteries

Brewster Zoning Bylaw may be Cape's Model

The Town of Brewster has adopted what the Association to Preserve Cape Cod (APCC) is calling a landmark piece of zoning reform, and the APCC is hoping it will serve as a model for other Cape towns... The APCC first pitched the "Natural Resource Protection Design" (NRPD) bylaw in 2008 as a new approach to zoning that, according to Donald Keeran, the APCC's assistant director, has been utilized elsewhere in the nation with great success.

In the case of the Brewster bylaw, it emphasized water resource protection -- specifically, two separate areas in the southeastern and southwestern portions of town, which together encompass 6,538 acres in the Pleasant Bay Water Recharge Area... Enterprise Newspapers.
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"Her dad approached me in the winter before the anniversary of her murder and asked me if I would write a song for her memorial." - Chris Pahud

‘Song for Melissa' recalls the compassion and loss of murdered Randolph woman

Folk music touches people in very personal ways. Quincy's Chris Pahud, a deep baritone singer and song interpreter, says he doesn't write songs very often. But when he was asked to write a song by the father of a murdered local woman, Melissa Gosule, Pahud couldn't say no.

Pahud wrote "Song for Melissa" with the help of Melissa's father, Les Gosule, and musician friend Jim Ryan. The song is on Pahud's newest CD, "Red Sky in Morning" .

Melissa Gosule, a 27-year-old Randolph native who lived in Jamaica Plain, had been raped and murdered when her car broke down in Bourne and she sought help from a stranger in July 11, 1999... Patriot Ledger.

Diabolus Imbibo

Researching 20^th century lunatic poet Thomas J. McSheey (1899-1935) has consumed all my time of late, causing me to spend long hours in the library at Stonybrook University – where all his papers are kept. The university also keeps all his No. 2 pencils … in a beer stein emblazoned with the creed Scientia est Diabolus imbibo (Translation: Knowledge is the Devil's drink).

Here is some of what I have come across in my studies:

Pavane pour une Maniaque Poete

McSheey was truly a lunatic. For instance, as an undergraduate student he went on for a score of pages writing about two beloved pieces of classical composition – Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Ravel's Pavane pour une Infante Defunte – comparing and contrasting their moods and tempos, providing detailed biographies of the two composers, who their influences were, and arguing in great detail the artistic value of their musical pieces to the world of classical music. Until, on the final page, he realized he had confused Ravel's Pavane with Fauré's Pavane, concluding the paper with the short sentence, "Oh, never mind."

Incidentally, he received a failing grade on the paper, not because it was sloppily researched or poorly written, but because he had written it not for a Music Appreciation class but instead for a Modern Sculpture class, leading his art professor to write atop the first page, "What the hell did you write all this for?!"

Not surprisingly, McSheey's failure and subsequent embarrassment left him with a lifelong phobia of modeling clay.

Cow from Uxbridge

Further to the above, McSheey wrote a poem entitled Pavane pour une Insect Defunte, set to the music of Ravel's work, which was an ode to a fly he once dispatched at a summer picnic. The poem climaxed with the lines:

The cursed fly landed on my plate,

right next to my potatoes – mashed,

if there is one thing I truly hate,

so I swatted him – smash, smash, smashed!!

McSheey entered his Pavane in a poetry competition held at a local agricultural festival, winning second place honors. He was runner up to a poem entitled There Once Was a Cow From Uxbridge, which went on to win state honors, praised by the panel of judges as being "so descriptive in its depiction of New England farm life that you can almost smell the cowpats."  

Autumn Garden

One rainy autumn day, as I pored through a folder of McSheey writings, I happened upon a short poem handwritten upon a yellowed piece of paper. The page, which displayed words and stanzas crossed out here and there, showed the process of writing and of how the poet's thoughts moved from earlier drafts to edited drafts to a finished draft … and then finally to a To-Do list. The finished poem reads as follows:

Autumn garden, dead, wilted,

deprived, dejected, deceased, jilted,

killed by a chilling night and a waning sun,

dry, rustling of a corn stalk,

this damn, blasted writer's block

with patience, the torrent of words will at last come.

Nature's seasons come and go,

summer's gardens die and grow,

days and nights travel at their celestial pace,

moonbeams phase from full to new,

worlds melt down in autumnal hue,

to unravel like a ball of yellow yarn,

deep out into the pitch of space.

This final version deviates greatly from the original draft of the poem, which initially began with the lines: "Roses are red / Violets are blue / Actually, they're not really blue / They're more purplish in color, wouldn't you say?"

Incidentally, the page concludes with the following from his To-Do list:

• Wash windows
• Rake leaves
• Fix kitchen sink
• Buy more No. 2 pencils

Recipe for Diabolus Imbibo (Devil's Drink):

Mix 3 oz of your favorite hard cider with 3 oz of Diabolus mixer, available at most fine spirits shoppes and at all Witches' Sabbaths. Add 3 oz of bitter made from the mandrake root, preferably harvested at midnight beneath the pale light of a waning moon rising in the east. Garnish with lemon juice, limejuice, apple slices, apricots, cinnamon, nutmeg, honey, the wing of a bat, the sweat of a toad, and (now this is really important) 18 whole cranberries – which is the sum of 6+6+6 … 666 … the sign of the Diabolus. Add ice. Shake. Remove ice. Pour into a sturdy, fire resistant cup. Set ablaze. Extinguish. And enjoy … to the music of Liszt's Mephisto Waltz No. 1 playing on the turntable.

Jack Sheedy

Chapter 69-Spring

Copyright 1995
By David Rojay

THE LONG BRIDGE RUNNER
Book One/THE MIDWEST

Spring came on like a parade; there were crocuses and daffodils and tulips and dogwood blossoms and cherry blossoms and finally the leaves of great oak trees and maple trees and sycamores. The evenings were warm and the rain was warm and the birds sang and the frogs croaked so loud they could be heard on Main Street. People who had been frozen, made love and girls in shorts could be seen, and the Town Band played on the Courthouse green; from the gazebo they played song after song and the throng clapped along until they played excerpts from South Pacific which delighted Kimberly and Gurion and the band director announced that "someone here today actually saw South Pacific on Broadway" and he asked Kimberly and Gurion to stand amidst loud applause.

Daniel was there and "Aunt" Henrietta was there and Molly had come in from Scottsville where the lilac trees were abloom; and Glenn and Dorothy were there sitting in Glenn's parked car. Everyone was there and everyone clapped along to Stars and Stripes Forever.

Not far away, Veterans in the park drilled for Memorial Day and all over town people could hear the band as they worked in their yards or sat on their porches. The air was filled with the smell of cut grass. Life was sweet, thought Daniel as he watched his "cousin", Wendy, walk his way. She was strikingly beautiful in her red shorts and white blouse, her black hair tossing from side to side. Of course, she wasn't really his cousin, she was Cecil Monroe's daughter, the first girl he had seen naked when he was only one year old; and since then she had been his off and on babysitter. She sat down beside him and kissed his forehead and called him "sweetie pie".

Daniel remembered that only one year before, he had been hospitalized in St. Louis-so much pain-but now he sat beside Wendy and smelled her perfume.

In the spring of 1950 the mood of Fairhaven was full of hope. Midwestern towns like Fairhaven did not have the roots of New England villages or southern encampments-these towns sat upon the prairie tentatively, anchored only by faith and optimism. A tornado could blow them away in minutes and the people who lived in them knew that and put their trust-not in history or traditions-but directly in God. Therefore the denizens of these places had to be good and think good and do good. This was the magic of the place. This is why the people who lived there thought they lived in the best part of America-the very center of the universe; and the proof of this was the squeaky cleanness of the place.

Of course, there were the Communists to worry about; they had taken over China and were trying to take over Korea and according to Senator McCarthy, they were trying to take over America; but there were none in Fairhaven-or were there?

The change of weather is a time of migration-a flock of guinea hens returned to Scottsville and the prairie was dotted with Canadian Geese, all the seasonal birds returned. Alligator Gar traveled north in the Mississippi and people were moving too. Gurion and Kimberly had made the decision to spend the summer on Cape Cod. Dr. Boggs would care for most of Gurion's practice with the help of another German doctor named Nurinberger. Glenn would accept an offer from Sam Warner to move to Evansville and become field manager in the Tri-State Oil Company (Indiana, Kentucky and Southern Illinois) and Wendy Monroe would go to Hollywood; she was eighteen and had starred in the high school production of Finian's Rainbow.

When she sang "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" her sweet soprano tugged at each question in the lyrics-tenderly and with yearning.

Rapturous applause was her reward.

This beautiful daughter of Cecil Monroe had been hired one more time to look after Daniel, even though Glenn said that Daniel was too old for a babysitter. That day she playfully wrestled with him and straddled him while he was on the floor and unzipped his trousers and held him in her hand and pulled her red panties to one side to show a shock of black pubic hair and he felt her come down around him as if she were a tight ring descending and then there was wetness, gushy wetness and tingling and burning and squirting and with the squirting her shrieks of, "Oh, my God, Oh, my God." He could still hear her screams when she was in the bathroom, "Oh, my God, Oh, my God." In the weeks that followed, he avoided her and refused to have her baby-sit and crossed the street when he ran into her downtown; this was the little drama of Wendy and Daniel.

In the weeks after the band concert, Gurion took Kimberly to the Flower Farm in Mill Shoals where they walked through fields of blossoms. "Everything growing here," said Gurion, "was brought out of China by an Englishman named Wilson. He's the botanist that discovered the Regal Lily and he bought out fifteen hundred samples of flowers that grew in the Hung Dwang Mountains. These mountains are the original birthplace of most flowers. For example, rhododendrons-while there are thirty varieties in Europe and America, there are hundreds of varieties in the Hung Dwang."

"So you're telling me that most of these flowers are Chinese flowers?" said Kimberly.

"That's right. Every-day flowers that we take for granted came out of China. Here's a very unusual one," said Gurion as he bent down and showed Kimberly a Mandragora.

While Kimberly studied the Mandragora, Gurion spotted Cannabis growing nearby. "What's that?" asked Kimberly.

"Oh, it's just a weed," said Gurion dismissively; but Gurion read all the literature and he knew that in Jerusalem, Rafael Mechoulam was doing research on marijuana. He had isolated its active ingredient-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

Gurion bent down and showed Kimberly the female component of the plant. "This is where the resin is produced. It's like a byproduct of the plant's sexuality."

Kimberly began to laugh.

"Don't laugh," said Gurion, "that's what flowers are; they're the sexual components of plants. They're beautiful on purpose so that they can attract pollinators--bees and other insects. See here," he said opening a tulip, "the stamens are male and the pistils are female and their allure is nectar."

Kimberly was laughing even harder now. "How do you know all this, Isaac? You have so many little lectures inside of you." And even though she laughed, this quality of Gurion's filled her with warm affection.

Glenn was occupied with a different kind of plant (the post-war popularity of French fried potatoes) and he showed his father how to plant the spuds that would produce the elongated Russet Burbank. "You see, dad," he said, "a machine can slice two dozen super long French fries out of a potato like this," and in order to demonstrate, he took two large Russets into the Reeves' kitchen and sliced them and deep-fried them in melted Crisco. When they had cooled sufficiently, father and son sat down to a feast of French fries and ketchup.

As for Wendy Monroe, she went through all the dresses in her closet (and there were as many as a spoiled girl could own) and picked out just a few-one suitcase full. Things would be different from now on she knew. Her father was against her trip and though she suspected her mother might help her from time to time, there would be no checks traveling from Fairhaven to Hollywood. But in addition to her beauty, she was brave and she took a deep breath standing in front of the mirror. She had, in her purse and hidden in a slender money belt-two hundred dollars. She cupped her hands underneath her ample breasts and looked down and said to them, "If push comes to shove, you little babies will have to come through," and she meant it.

Then she lifted her suitcase and began the walk to the Greyhound Bus Station. It was there that Daniel nearly ran into her. She was too close for him to flee and she sat her suitcase down, walked over and held him in a fierce embrace, kissing his face and his ears and his forehead. "I won't forget you, sweetie pie," she said, "you'll always be my first lover." And then she was gone---and left him standing---all alone---and crying*.

*From a lyric by Roy Orbison
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Chapters change on Tuesdays and Friday Evenings:
Be sure to watch David Rojay on The Dan and Dad Show each Saturday night at 9:30 on Channel 17. Read A RED STATE HERO by David Rojay on capecodtoday.com. Read Sea Street-David Rojay's blog on capecodtoday.com and finally check out David Rojay on YOUTUBE. For more information, Google "David Rojay".
Check out my Sea Street Blog: "All Gab and No Jab.

Kraft Celebrates Football Season with Social Media

When I wrote about the Kraft iFoodAssistant widget recently, I realized that Kraft had more going on in social media and resolved to look into it. When you look, you find all the usual blogs pointing out coupon availability, which is ongoing for most CPG brands. It certainly is a new way of distribution though; and therein lies one social media impact.

What you also quickly see is two seasonal promotions for Velveeta cheese. Tis the season for tailgating or football on TV, and snacks made with Velveeta cheese are a seasonal item. The Kitchenistas blogger promotion has been going on since September; see the program microsite here. In fact, today is the last day of activity for the five compensated “Mommy bloggers” who have participated in the promotion.

How does this kind of promotion affect sales? Velveeta brand manager Sherina Smith admits they don’t really know:

“It’s hard to say,” Smith says. “What we do know is that this consumer is online looking for ideas for meals. We know she blogs a lot and looks to other bloggers for tips and ideas. The more that we can be where she’s looking for ideas, the more we can be top of mind when she’s grocery shopping.”

All this context seems to create warm fuzzies for the brand, and that may be all we can say at present. I’d love to know the ROI of a low-cost promotion like this, incorporating real people, compared with the ROI of, say a traditional television commercial. Yes, I’d like to know, but what is the dependent variable—brand awareness, favorable brand attitudes, what? We’re back to the difficulties of measuring attitudes and their impact on behavior. Marketers have operated on faith that positive brand associations do matter for a long time, and I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon.

Enter the Big 10 promotion, also for Velveeta and also tied in with football season. Here’s the Big 10 conference home page for today. Note a banner ad at the top by Rotel with a dish of cheese dip beside it. You probably won’t be surprised when you click through and find that most of the featured recipes feature Velveeta cheese. Rotel is a ConAgra brand with a non-corporate-looking website that pushes recipes and attitude.

Note that on the Big 10 home page there’s a square box pushing a contest for bowl tickets, again featuring Rotel. At the bottom of the page there is another banner that makes the Rotel Velveeta partnership more explicit. It’s all quite integrated—and hard to miss!

Kraft’s website, the iFood Assistant, and one guesses its relationships with bloggers will go on. Promotions for various brands, many of them seasonal, can also be expected to continue. But this is a large international corporation. What can smaller businesses learn from what Kraft is doing?

A lot, actually. First, promotions work. Second, seasonal is good. Spreading the word through local and/or relevant bloggers can be a way to get word out about the promotions. Follow the mommy bloggers link to explore issues of compensating bloggers. Finally, note that the Kraft campaign makes use of low-cost social media and relatively low cost online advertising to drive viewers to the social media and web pages for the promotions. No high cost mass media here! It’s carefully planned and targeted, making use of a variety of media to get the word out—this is the season for recipes made with Velveeta cheese! 

Yarmouth Police Department weekly arrests include shoplifting and OUI; Vineyard Police arrest armed man after two-hour stand off in Edgartown

Yarmouth PD arrests October 22-29, 2009

Warrant arrests, OUI and shoplifting

YARMOUTH - During the past week, from Thursday, October 22 through Thursday, October 29, the men and women of the Yarmouth Police Department responded to  482 calls resulting in the criminal charges against 31 individuals. 

The following are some of the more significant criminal events during that period. 

Release and photos courtesy of the Yarmouth Police Department.

Editor's note: The information and images (mugshots) are included in this blog as a matter of public safety.  Inappropriate comments on this blog post will be deleted. All individuals are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Vineyard Police arrest armed man after two-hour stand off in Edgartown

Special report by Ezra Sherman of VineyardToday.com

EDGARTOWN - Martha's Vineyard's Tactical Response Team diffused a potentially deadly situation in Edgartown Thursday. There were no reports of any injuries to either officers or the individual taken into custody, which is exactly why the team was formed in the first place, to help arrest idiots like this guy.

Just after 12 p.m. yesterday afternoon, Edgartown Police responded to the Whalers Walk development for a report of a suspicious male with a weapon. When cops peaked in the windows they observed "a male with a gun inside the residence." In case the officers hadn't seen the gun, the suspect informed them, "I have a gun, go ahead and shoot me." Police declined to shoot the suspect and instead called the TRT team.

During the two hour standoff, the suspect, 36-year-old Arthur Smith, repeatedly brandished his weapon at police. The weapon appeared, according to the police report, to be a long-barreled black pistol. Smith was eventually taken into custody and charged with Assault With a Dangerous Weapon and Disorderly Conduct.

It's lights out in some Cape Cod towns

Cape towns turn to a street light shutdown to ease budget woes

   This stretch of Route 28 in Harwich between Chatham and Orleans has a halogen light every hundred or so feet. Neighbors report that there is no pedestrian traffic at all here and half the homes are occupied only during the summer. Walter Brooks photo.

By Gerald Rogovin

Plummeting tax revenues in Massachusetts have made budget reductions imperative for Cape Cod towns. Several have turned to  shutting off street lights as a quick response. Altogether, about 70 Bay State towns have begun investigating the approach, according to Wayne Bergeron, a Dennis selectman.

Street lighting goes back to 1879 in the United States. At first, it was done by lamp-lighters,
who toured a town at dusk each day, lighting gas lamps.

Incandescent lighting succeeded gas in the early 1900s. It was followed by high-intensity
discharge lights, which are common today. High-pressure sodium lamps have also become
popular. Yarmouth installed some about 20 years ago, according to Town Administrator Bob Lawton, who said they were the first on the Cape. But some engineers consider them less appropriate for night lighting.

Where do you stand on shutting off street lights to save money? Vote in our poll now.

Budgeting and night lights

Whatever the design, street lights have emerged as a budget consideration for Fiscal Year 2011, and, in Yarmouth and Dennis, a controversial topic.

A survey of seven Cape Cod towns -- Yarmouth, Dennis, Barnstable, Sandwich, Falmouth, Chatham and Provincetown -- suggests that town officials in all are staying abreast of the implications of shutting off street lights in the effort to reduce budgets.

400 on the block in Yarmouth

Yarmouth residents had until last Monday (10/26) to appeal proposed street lights that were to be shut off by next Monday (11/2). About 400 of the 2,447 in the town were to be turned off. Part of the reason was budgetary, Lawton said. But since 1989, town policy has called for reviews of street light placement, by order of the Board of Selectmen.

They have been limited to street intersections, curves in roads and on those roads the police department considers them essential for public safety.

Lawton said that the policy was revised in 2003, when a guide was issued to citizens that noted which lights were considered essential. He said that volunteers continuously examine the lights for compliance with the guide. The 400 to be shut off were determined last spring and again two months ago.

If all 400 are shut off, Lawton estimated that the town will save $30,000 a year in energy costs.

"We're not looking at Route 28, Station Avenue or other well-traveled roads. But we can't afford to light up the whole town," he observed.

Extinguish a light, save a job?

Dennis proposed turning off 697 of its 2,300 street lights, about 30 percent. The objective was to save money. Bergeron estimated that $23,000 could be saved in the second half of the current fiscal year, $53,000 in all of next year. "The difference could be in avoiding laying off an important town employee," he pointed out.

When residents objected at an October 20 selectmen's meeting, complaining that shut-offs threat night-time drivers and pedestrians, and risked crime, an "adopt-a-light" program was discussed. It could involve a one-time fee and a monthly lease, altogether costing about $450 a year.

The town owns the lights and NStar owns the poles. They would have developed a program together.  But NStar backed down in negotiations. Next month, the selectmen will consider a plan to be worked out by the Town Administrator.

An online survey conducted by CapeCodToday.com over the past three days - 10/28-30 - showed that 50 percent of readers participating in the poll approved shutting off street lights to save money. Opposed were 42 percent. Eight percent were undecided.

Barnstable to wait and see

Street lights in Barnstable's seven villages are the responsibility of the town's five fire districts. Hyannis  district commission's chairman Richard Gallagher said, "We're not contemplating any action right now. But we are keeping an eye on what is happening in Yarmouth and Dennis. When budget deliberations  come up in January, we may consider the matter. But not yet."

Barnstable's Finance Director Mark Milne told town officials last week that $1.2 million in budget reductions plus another $1.8 million for the schools must be identified in the next fiscal year.

Towns like Provincetown which have after dark activities need ample street lighting. File photo.

Falmouth to assess; Chatham, Sandwich Ptown have no plans

Falmouth has begun an analysis of its 2,500 street lights to determine the pattern of their distribution.  Some may have to be eliminated, according to Heather Harper, Assistant Town Manager. She said that the process will be townwide, and will include public meetings. She anticipated that it will start after the town concludes budget discussions later this calendar year.

Harper estimated that it costs  the town about $200,000 annually for energy. "Street lights are a statewide subject these days. Some of ours have been in place for more than 30
years. What was the criteria for their placement? The analysis will give us the opportunity to determine what is the optimum distribution pattern," she said.

Chatham has no plans for shutting off street lights this year, according to Dan Tobin, Director of Parks and Recreation and formerly Director of Public Works. "We surveyed our situation a number of years ago," he recalled.

Elsewhere, the matter hasn't come up. A spokesman for Sandwich's Town Clerk's office said he hadn't "heard a word about the subject." Provincetown's Town Clerk reported, "We're not aware of any discussion about shutting off street lights. At least, not yet."

Gerald Rogovin began as a journalist in 1948 in dailies, weeklies, radio and magazines; and in the past 9 years back to weeklies and magazines. In between, for 36 years, he headed his own public relations firm in Boston. He lives in Yarmouth Port with a skepticism confirmed by 60 years in the inky trade.