CapeCodToday Blog Chowder

Wait, so only viewpoints that laud Cape Cod and talk rhapsodically about the area are allowed here? C'mon folks, maybe you need to check your senses of humor.

"numâseepeem, 'i am a mashpee'; mâseepeewak, 'mashpees'"

Now THAT makes more sense. Sounds better, too.

"I look like Steven Bingham so I can claim to be a Wampanoag."

Great. I'm bald like Steven Bingham, so I'll jump on the bandwagon too!

Hm.

"Mashpeeite?"
"Mashpeean?"

"I'm Mashpeein'!"

No, that can't be right either.

Let's let the state decide what people can do with their spare time and money, after all, they don't know any better.

It doesn't much matter if you're liberal or conservative, apparently: The nanny state is the preferred choice for both.

Yeah, the only difference is that discretion was more feasible before 24 hour news channels and blogs hopped on the scene. The amazing thing about the Craig scandal is not that it happened, but that it took as long as it did to become public.

As someone who spends most of his professional life online, I can relate to what you're saying, Mr. Peters. Even the most considered and balanced opinion is likely to engender a ferocious backlash from those who are convinced that what they say is correct and anything that differs from that is worthy of ridicule and contempt. It is, unfortunately, what passes for debate these days. And the fact that they can do so anonymously from behind their keyboards emboldens them even more.

The D in DVR stands for "Digital."

- Some Dweeb

Didn't anyone have a camcorder or a camera phone? Where's a citizen journalist when you need one! :)

Well, Peter, at least Habit OPCO is doing something to try to wean drug addicts back to health. As opposed to snide, self-righteous and anonymous condemnation on a public Internet forum.

Am I the only one who snickers every time he sees this guy's last name?

Let's all mourn for Carly Schofield's loss. Not!

I love animals, and always cringe when hear stories of animal abuse. But please pardon me if I don't shed a tear for the attack dog of a drug dealer who was shot in a raid.

Inevitably we hear cries of "It's not the dog or the breed, it's the owner!" and those voices are quite often correct. Unfortunately, when faced with a dog that's acting in such a hostile way, especially when it's identifiable as a breed that has a long history of attacking humans, police officers have no choice but to put it down -- especially when it doesn't react appropriately to first-step measures to subdue it.

"the cat was wet and smelled like urine"

Whose urine, the cat's or Pehrson's?

No, not quite the same, but Cellular One used different technology (TDMA) compared to Cingular (GSM). I used AT&T Wireless in the bad old TDMA days and dropped them in favor of Verizon Wireless almost three years ago. Last year I switched back to Cingular/AT&T and it's been a lot better. Not perfect, but better.

No.

The iPhone doesn't come out until the 29th.

Yes indeed. This passed from being an idiosyncracy of living on the Cape to a full-blown PITA a long time ago. This week the outages caused me to lose a flat-panel computer display (even though it was hooked up to a line conditioner).

Nstar isn't the only service provider that gives us short shrift because we live in a place that has too small a year-round population to bother with trivialities like redundancy. Take a look at our telecommunications infrastructure, where if you live on the Outer Cape, it's entirely plausible that basic 911 service will go offline without a backup in place. Not to mention the complete absence of fiber optic coverage from Verizon.

At least Comcast gives most of us high-speed net access. Otherwise, I'd have to move -- DSL ain't fast enough and I need it for my job (I work from home).

TF Green service, YAY!!!

The lack of available and direct bus service to TF Green has kept me from using that airport for any of my regional travel (I'll still go to Logan for West Coast non-stops, however). I'm *so* delighted to hear that this is no longer a problem!

Back in MY day, we used to have to trudge through two miles of three-foot high snow drifts to attend Memorial Day parades, naked! Because we were too poor to afford clothes! But we were happy to do it, because it was our PATRIOTIC DUTY!

Ridiculous, crusty old fartism aside, Robert, we all choose to remember our war dead in different ways. I memorialize them by visiting the graves my passed-on relatives who wore uniforms, not at a parade.

So with all due respect, I will continue to find parades and other showy public spectacles on holidays to be an irritant, as I continue to try to find a relevant and personally meaningful way to acknowledge the day.

bub's lola pretty much has this one nailed: Capemom is coming across, at best, as a judgmental, superficial idiot.

I'm no fan of kids going out of their way to act obnoxious or to harass other mall patrons -- that's what the security guards and posted signs about conduct are there for.

But to suggest that someone who shows up at the mall in the middle of the day who doesn't agree with capemom's refined sense of what's "normal" must therefore be some welfare leech from a broken home is beyond prejudiced. That's just ignorant, and pretty g_d_mn stupid.

"Have you ever considered that OVER 50% of all the money earned by Cape Codders in twelve months comes from visitors who are here for mostly a ten week season."

Well, I'm not in that group. And if this region would get its collective head out of its posterior and focus more on strengthening small, entrepreneurial businesses that *weren't* dependent on tourist dollars, maybe we'd actually get somewhere. But I don't see it changing, because the tourist dollar is easy to get, and people are lazy.

"Yet you don't have to build schools for their kids"

Yet our schools suffer seriously because of their vacation homes and inequities in Chapter 70 funding. I blame Beacon Hill for that, though.

"Your taxes and mine would be double what they are now without the blessings of tourism."

See your earlier comment about where the money comes from. If tourists weren't spending money, there likely wouldn't be as many people here year-round and we wouldn't have to support the infrastructure we do, Q.E.D.

"Where were YOU born, flargh?"

Under a cabbage leaf. Or at least that's what my momma tells me.

"But the tourists are here to stay-like it or not"

Well, at least until we set up barricades on the bridges and man some sniper towers.

Anyone else with me?

Add my pet peeve to the list: Morons who have never seen a rotary before, and stop dead in the middle of it to navigate their next course correction.

Honestly. Anyone on the Cape with an out-of-state license plate ought to be given a brochure -- or better yet, driving simulator training -- until they get it right.

As someone who lives here year round and doesn't depend in any way on the tourist dollar, I couldn't be happier than with the prospect of the Cape becoming a wasteland to tourism, totally devoid of summer visitors. Maybe then we'd be able to commute without doubling our driving times in the summer, and some of those godawful plastic lobster and giant t-shirt selling eyesores on Route 28 will go away once and for all.

The phrase "All your base are belong to us" comes to mind.

While I agree with some of the rationale offered to explain the drop in circulation, I don't think those are the only reasons. There's also been an explosive rise in the availability of online content, including local content. This is especially apparent in the classified sections of local newspapers across the nation, which have dwindled precipitiously as computer users have discovered free ways to advertise items for sale, such as Craigslist.org.

"A casino would destroy the beauty of Cape Cod, in the name of reparations."

Oh, please. The beauty of Cape Cod? Have you actually been on Otis/MMR? It's a wasteland -- a vast expanse of undeveloped land, underutilized and cheaply built military housing and 1940s and 1950s-era clapboard-clad buildings.

I have some concerns about traffic management and such related to a casino on the MMR, but the idea's a good one. Better to keep the money here than to let it flit away to somewhere else.

"A clown can legitimately ***k you up. Read "It" for proof."

Or just go to McD's and wait for the onslaught of diarrhea!