Cape Cod History

1991; 2001: The Perfect Storm. 2001: The Way We Live Now. 2006: Kitten's death case prompts reaction

2006: Kitten's death case prompts reaction from PETA

Oon this day in 2006 the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) demanded jail time and psychiatric evaluation if the West Yarmouth man recently accused of killing a kitten is convicted. Peter J. Hession, 47, of 18 Egg Harbor Road, West Yarmouth, allegedly stomped a kitten to death Oct. 19. He faces cruelty-to-animals charges as well as assault charges stemming from an alleged attack on his roommate that day.

1991: Harbors checked from Woods Hole to Cape Breton
The brunt of the storm was off Cape Cod

On this day in 1991 the Gloucester Times first reported the Andrea Gail, the ship featured in the book and movie "The Perfect Storm", was missing.  The article reported:  The Coast Guard continued searching today for a fishing boat due back in Gloucester last Friday from a trip to the Grand Banks off Newfoundland, Canada.

The crew of the fishing vessel Andrea Gail was lost in the North Atlantic during one of the strongest storms in recorded history. Above is a scene from the movie showing the boat vertical as it  climbs a wave.The 70-foot Andrea Gail was supposed to have returned to port by Saturday with its crew of six fishermen, according to Chief Petty Officer Alan Burd.

Several Gloucester fishermen were said to be aboard the vessel, but Coast Guard officials were withholding crew members' names this morning pending notification of their families.

The vessel has not been heard from since Thursday when it was reported to be 180 miles east-northeast of Canada's Sable Island...

The missing vessel was reported to be encountering 30-foot seas and 50- to 80-knot winds kicked up by the northeaster that devastated coastal New England last week.

"The brunt of the storm was off Cape Cod," Brannan said. "But it did affect that area. Not as badly as it was here."

Robert Brown, owner of the Andrea Gail and a resident of Bray Street, said last night, "We have hope the boat is OK and that it's just lost its communication."

The Coast Guard has been searching for the Andrea Gail for three days. Today a Coast Guard cutter and long-range airplane were assisting four U.S. Coast Guard an one Navy aircraft.

Authorities were searching an approximately 18,000-square-mile area between Gloucester and the Grand Banks... (from the Gloucester Times, Nov. 4, 1991)

2001: The Way We Live Now: 11-4-01; United Nations

"What Orwell and Churchill foresaw, and the 1990's deepened, bin Laden catalyzed still further. And it's appropriate, perhaps, that this came about not because of some political effort from the top but simply because of an emotional groundswell from below." - Andrew S ullivan.

In crises, some things clarify. I grew up for 20 years in Britain, and I'm now closing in on 20 years of adulthood in the United States. It's funny how feelings of identity arc in such a life. I remember the first time I got a lump in my throat singing ''The Star-Spangled Banner,'' on July 4 about 10 years ago. It took me completely by surprise. My attachment to my new country had taken shape and form without my even knowing it, until I found myself tearing up in a routine ritual of patriotism. It wasn't that I had left my love of homeland behind. But it was now refracted through the prism of my new love -- a love that is foolish to inspect because it belongs somewhere in the heart where reason doesn't follow.

And then, in the aftermath of Sept. 11, another surprise... My own first moment of silence blurred nationalisms as well. It was at a memorial service for an acquaintance of mine from Provincetown, where I spend my summers. Graham Berkeley was a Brit, a violinist, a business professional, a big, tattooed bodybuilder, who'd been on the flight from Boston that crashed into the World Trade Center's south tower. Like me, he was a transplant for many years in America and loved the place with a passion. A bunch of us gathered around some candles and memorabilia on the farthest part of Herring Cove beach, the sun setting over Cape Cod Bay, told stories and wiped away tears. And by the side of us were two large flags impaled in the sand, Old Glory and the Union Jack. In the dusk, they intertwined until the reds, whites and blues seemed almost indistinguishable... NY Times.