CapeCodToday Blog Chowder

Indeed. Finally a bit of "citizen journalism" (albeit from an old journo). Well done! Much better than the usual caliber of pontification masquerading as fact!

"I am pretty sure most of us marry for more than just sexual attractiveness judging by the lack of wedding rings on the employees at Zach’s"

- Spend a lot of time at Zachary's, do you?
- Does your wife know?
- Did it occur to you that they might be taking off their jewelry before their shift starts?
- What are you doing checking out their ring fingers, anyway?

"I especially like the step by step refutation of my arguments by your presentation of relevant facts and studies."

Tom, your blog post - like so many here at CCT - is a meandering screed comprising opinions and generalizations, with few actual *facts* to refute. Garbage in, garbage out, princess.

You want to be taken seriously? Do some research, report something substantive. Until then, I'll take you about as seriously as I do the other sententious, moralizing onanists here. Which is to say, not at all.

"The parents tax money pays for the school system, ergo the Superintendent works for the parents"

Only indirectly. The superintendent isn't an elected position, it's done by appointment by the school board.

"Leprosarium" is a great word. I think that's what I'll call my house from now on.

"I hear that there will be a rally sponsored by 'irrational and undereducated women' at Walmart on Saturday."

Sounds like a typical Saturday at Wallyworld to me!

Whatever-the-heck they were laying down on Tuesday was the most vile, awful-smelling muck. It wasn't asphalt, it was some sort of sealant, and it smelled like airplane glue amplified 100x. I can't imagine working around that stuff is healthy; heck, I can't imagine working around that stuff doesn't cause powerful hallucinations after a few minutes.

"Children learning how their bodies function!"

Take a bath and cut your hair, hippy! Children should learn shame and to fear their own bodies, just like some grown-ups!

Cantankerous:

Not just the same town, but the same school.

Awesome that you've figured out so many of society's ills, Tom. Sounds like all those years flying jets around the world were wasted when clearly you're a sociological mastermind.

Next up, maybe you can offer Obama some advice on how to fix the economy and get the troops out of Afghanistan.

Glad to know that the precious children of the Forestdale school are delicate little flowers whose trembling psyches have been permanently scarred from viewing something they'd see at any second rate science museum.

Awesome, a task force, just what we need!

I've got a better idea: Let's blow the bridges all together. Set up snipers on high points on our side of the canal, along with trebuchets every 1000 feet. We'll light refuse from the transfer stations and launch it at anyone who tries to come across.

"Words like Islamist, terrorist and war are seldom uttered."

That's an interesting fiction. Just about every news report I've read, including many from sources that more paranoid right wingers claim is liberally biased, reinforce that Hasan was a radicalized muslim, that he wanted an conscientious objection out for muslims serving in the American military, that he was in touch with a radical cleric, etc.

Yet they're also careful not to gloss over the fact that his guy has a history of questionable evaluations and that other people wanted to keep him at arm's length.

You're obviously welcome to draw your own conclusions and see it as sweeping Hasan's muslim connections under the rug, but even a casual review of coverage of this event unveils a very different take than what your opinion suggests.

Delighted to see Mashpee change its recycling program to commingling. Residents certainly used the recycling area extensively, but putting specific items in specific locations seemed to be a significant bottleneck especially to residents with more limited mobility, such as the elderly.

"I got the fact you were writing about a genre and it should be in capital letters."

Yeah, I "got the fact too," scamp. But that's where you're wrong: genres shouldn't be capitalized.

"a So Called Writer"

Lizzard, just a point of correction. Ted is a so-called writer AND author.

Sorry I hurt your feelings, Ted. And thanks for making the corrections. Well, some of them, anyway.

I'm inclined to let the occasional spelling mistake or grammatical error slip, but:

ether = either, half hazard = haphazard, young adult, graphic novel, the bookstore, comic book and manga should all be lower case (none of them are proper nouns or at the start of sentences).

Ted, I'm not one of those grammarian forum posting pricks who picks on the occasional gaffe in lieu of substantive criticism. But you bill yourself as an author; perhaps a bit more self-editing would be wise in the future.

And accessibility is the key issue I keep bringing up every time e-book readers are mentioned on CCT. Amazon is trying to lock in users of its Kindle hardware (and, increasingly software) - I can only access e-book content I've bought from Amazon on one of their devices or their software.

Sony's better in this respect, embracing and expanding an open standard for their e-books.

But until vendors have a universal format, e-book reader buyers run the risk of only being able to access their e-books through one vendor's device or software. At least with books I don't have to own a very expensive device in order to read them.

bipr: Agreed. An "iron fist in a velvet glove" moderation philosophy works well under such circumstances.

At the risk of sounding cynical: What I'm perplexed by is why the tribe is bringing this up *now*. If this has been a persistent issue since the wind farm was first proposed, why is it that this is the first we're hearing of it?

Monpo:

Target's a big step up from Wal-Mart. You're infinitely less likely to run into someone with a mullet wearing a Three Wolves Moon t-shirt shopping for a 5 pound bag of pork rinds there.

"And another thing, get off my lawn!"

Paper checks seem to work quite well. I give my fourth-grader a paper check every few weeks. The lunch folks do a good job of telling him a day or two in advance when his credit is about to run out.

I wonder how many readers know the headline is a Sex Pistols reference. *shrug*

Amen, Ned. Robert Kelly's screeds come off as bitter old fartism, but little of actual relevance or insight.

Regarding parenting magazines, it's a chicken and egg problem. The vast, vast percentage of readers of those magazines are women, therefore, the editorial content is heavily slanted their way.

What's more, publishing is a dying business right now, with advertising dropping dramatically and fewer people subscribing. (Just ask those people at Conde Nast, including the entire staff of Cookie, a parenting magazine that just was shut down abruptly.)

Ironically, many of us go to CVS to fix vomiting problems.

Rachael's criticism of Christy Mihos is well-founded, but her rant comes off to me as whiny and classist.

I admire her dedication to public service, but if Rachael's attitude, sarcastic or not, is that she's a better person because she went to private school and is a WASP, she's got a lot to learn about going toe to toe with someone like Christy Mihos.

Oh, btw: They don't call it "junior high" anymore. Now it's "middle school."

You left something out.

"Oh, and one other thing: Get off my lawn, you rotten punks!"

"Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one" - A.J. Liebling, The New Yorker.

They're entitled to moderate comments however they see fit. The first amendment does not extend to protecting schmucky behavior on an Internet forum.

"the recent homosexual sex scandal and how it was handled by bishops"

Do you mean the molestation scandal? Because that has as much to do with homosexual sex as a washing machine does with a bicycle.

"Unseemly haste during time of grief always causes regret"

Ironically, this subhead is a compelling argument for why we *shouldn't* rename the Zakim bridge -- or anything else -- after Ted Kennedy. At least not right now.

Maybe Cape Wind should name their turbines in honor of Kennedy, instead.

Walter: The John F. Fitzgerald Expressway is I-93, not I-195. I-195 is the expressway that runs from Providence to Cape Cod.
------------
Thanks, Peter, I changed it. Walter

Bob:

I'd say the meaning of the phrase is pretty self-evident: Kennedy's previous effort to derail Romney from appointing a senatorial successor is blowing up in his face.

Sure, it's easy to discount it if it either benefits one or one's party, but as to the implication that because Republicans have done it in the past, so Democrats should be able to do it now, the phrase "two wrongs don't make a right" comes to mind.

It's efforts like this, the occasional gerrymandering of congressional district lines, graft and corruption, etc. that makes many of us distrust politicians of either dominant party all together.

Numah:

The answer: Soylent Green! It's people! Tasty, tasty people.

It's a combination of the rise of 24 hour news networks, the ascension of the Internet as an mass information delivery mechanism, and the confluence of several other things: People don't think anymore, they simply react.

I don't see "brownshirts" at these meetings as much as I see a bunch of very easily misled, badly misinformed people who seem to think that by being the most shrill, they will win the debate.

They don't trust politicans, they don't trust the media, they don't trust anyone. They're scared. And scared people, just like scared animals, tend to lash out, snarl and bare their teeth.

I'm with you, Richard. I wish that we could get a collective mental enema and begin treating each other with mutual respect. Alas, I don't think it's going to happen.

Well, Monpo, Heritage Museums and Gardens *does* host the Highland Festival...

Thechief:

First off, thanks for your service.

Secondly, the inherent fallacy here that many of these shrieking people at town hall meetings have fallen into is that there's a single "plan" to rally against.

There isn't. There are several competing plans, and no one on either side of the aisle is saying to anyone, "just trust me, we'll come up with something."

Twenty years after the rise of 24-hour cable news, ten years after the Internet began to gain dominance, this is what passes for public discourse in our "town hall" meetings: People shrieking at each other incoherently like children in a schoolyard. It seems like there's precious little civil discourse or a reasonable exchange of ideas or opinions, just yelling and name calling, ranting about "socialism" and how we're "becoming Russia" and all sorts of other nonsense, without bothering to find out what is actually being discussed.

I'm also delighted to note that today Sony announced that it will support the epub format in its own "eBook Store" by the end of the year.

This means that the e-books you buy from Sony will be able to be read by Sony Readers and any other device that supports the epub format, which is an open industry standard for DRM that's already supported by Sony Reader devices, other e-book readers, and major publishers including HarperCollins and Random House.

Apparently they're as concerned as I am about Amazon locking up the market with the Kindle and its own proprietary .azw format.

"Investor's Business Daily is a small part of the GOP's Big Lie machine"

That's right. It's all part of the international Conservative conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

(last post, I promise)

My concern remains with "vendor lock-in" -- each company uses DRM schemes that prevent their e-books from being used on each other's readers. I'd prefer for the companies competing in this space to support a common DRM format, such as the EPUB standard, to make sure their copyright holders' intellectual property can be properly protected, while giving consumers the option to use whichever reader suits them the best.

Unfortunately, Amazon, Sony, B&N and anyone else who wants to get into the market is trying to "balkanize" things by creating their own end-to-end ecosystem, thus reducing consumer choice.

This doesn't even come close to painting an accurate picture of what happened, unfortunately.

MobileReference, an Australian e-book publisher, made available Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm to Kindle users. MobileReference failed to acknowledge the difference in copyright law between Australia and the U.S. - in Oz, Orwell's books are public-domain. In the U.S., they are not.

MobileReference alerted Amazon of the problem, and Amazon responded by pulling 1984 and Animal Farm (only two of Orwell's books, not his entire bibliography, as the blog suggests) *back* from Kindle users who had purchased the books, crediting their accounts the appropriate amount.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos admits, in retrospect, that this was a bad thing to do, and says that it won't happen again.

So while Amazon responded questionably, it was MobileReference's mistake that led to the problem initially. It's because Amazon has in place a system that lets publishers distribute content for the Kindle unchecked, assuming that they will respect copyright law.

MobileReference, for its part, didn't try to "rip off' anyone -- in fact, they were trying to do the right thing, by acknowledging that they erroneously distributed the e-book in a region they had no right to. And the readers certainly didn't get ripped off, either -- they got full credit for the price they paid for those books, as soon as the books disappeared from their Kindle.

Amazon and the Kindle certainly aren't the only e-book products on the market -- Sony has its own readers, including a new model that's $100 less than the Kindle. And it doesn't use over-the-air syncing, so you're in no danger of buying a book from the Sony store only to see it disappear.

Barnes & Noble has recently launched an e-book store, and will offer a reader developed by Plastic Logic early in 2010. In the interim, the books you buy can be read on a PC, Mac or iPhone.

So this is still very much a nascent market.

"This is socialism pure and simple."

In the words of Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride, "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Any system we'll end up with very, very unlikely to be "socialism," either in theory or in practice. Health care reform won't lead to the abolishment of private health care, won't create "death panels" as Sarah Palin has suggested, and so on.

But it's a lot more fun to shriek incoherently at things we don't understand than to try to muddle through the details, I admit.

Next thing you know, them commies will be forcin' the metric system down our throats again! You can pry my imperial units from my cold, dead hands! Yeee haaaaw!

Oh boy. I've got 11 years before Karent2 thinks I'm a loser. I'm so excited that I still have a chance for validation by someone I don't know!

One last thing, because I ran out of space in the previous comment: Austin may be the capital of Texas, but it's hardly the "capital of American fascism."

It's one of the most liberal, open-minded places I've ever been to, and is certainly a little bubble of sanity compared to other large Texas cities.

It bills itself as the "live music capital of the world" and has a very vibrant and youthful nightlife thanks to the University of Austin.

There's a hearty embrace of alternative lifestyles there and a thriving underground. No wonder the city's unofficial slogan is "Keep Austin Weird."

So you're basing your opinion of Inglourious Basterds off of a trailer? That's sort of like reviewing an album by listening to a thirty-second snippet off of iTunes.

You've gotten the scene totally wrong, by the way. A character named Donny is wielding the baseball bat, not Pitt, and Pitt says "Got us a German here who wants to die for his country, oblige him." You can watch the movie trailer online or check IMDB.com if you need verification.

The subject matter is ironic, given your bona fides, since the plot of the movie involves a (fictitious) group of Jewish-American soldiers (led by Pitt) sent to wreak havoc behind the lines in Nazi Germany.

With regards to Tarantino's background, you've got it wrong: he was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and raised by a single mom in Torrance, California. Hardly the "capital of American fascism."

Not having seen the movie myself, I'll refrain from reviewing it.

But I respectfully submit that if you're going to opine about a subject, the least you can do is have your facts straight.

...and the rest of the Cape is a purgatory for those of us who live year round and have to deal with being besieged by tourists right now! ;)

So finally we get at the root of why you can't shake this racial profiling thing, Rich: good ol' fashioned guilt. "I racially profiled a guy in 1975 so all whites must be racist, right?"

Tsk.

Keep tilting at windmills, Don Quixote.

In her "Who's the Boss?" blog posting here on CCT, Mary Wentworth has correctly identified this as a constitutional rights issue.

The meat of the problem here isn't, and never has been, what happens when a white cop perceives a person of color as acting suspiciously. It's a convenient story for the papers and TV stations to tell, so it's been repeated ad nauseam.

At the center of this how much we can or should arbitrarily defer to the authority of a police officer who's acting contrary to the rights we're guaranteed as citizens.

CCToday:

End users end up stuck in the same Digital Rights Management (DRM) morass that they were stuck with until this past year with the iTunes Store -- content they can't use unless they have a Kindle or Kindle software on their device. Amazon ends up becoming the gatekeeper for all of this.

It reminds me of something my old history prof said: Fascism is the best kind of government to live with, as long as you're on the side of fascists.

I've been on the fence about the Kindle for a while now -- I just can't get past the price. I certainly recognize the benefits -- the convenience of having thousands of books in a single device; the "WhisperSync" wireless networking technology, the thin iPod-style lines of the Kindle2. But $300 is a lot of second-hand paperbacks, which is what I spend most of my time reading.

I'm hoping that Plastic Logic's device, which is what Barnes & Noble will use for their e-book store, will lower the bar. But we'll see. B&N is making a big deal out of how its e-book store includes Google e-books, which helps boost its catalog tremendously. And that's great, if public domain literature interests you.

Sony's also readying a couple of nice new e-book readers in small and large formats for $200 and $300 respectively, which will give the Kindle some competition, as well. Sony's e-book reader design is fantastic, and the company has a decent relationship with Borders.

Problem as I see it is the lack of uniform standards for these things.

"Walter, how does it read on the beach?"

Here's the thing to remember about the Kindle: The display uses a fundamentally different technology than a cell phone or laptop. The "e-paper" display of the Kindle reflects light just like regular paper does.

By comparison, a cell phone or laptop computer uses a backlight to illuminate the screen, which means that the image gets washed out or illegible in bright environments.

"And, Apple sez it's coming up with one in the fall that delivers video as well."

Apple certainly has done no such thing. There have been wide reports that Apple is readying some sort of tablet device, but Apple itself has said nothing.

The rumors of what this device does and how much it will cost are quite literally all over the map. So much so that there's no legitimate way to distinguish truth from fiction. Better to simply discount it all together until more firm information is available.

To that end, Apple customarily does not comment on rumors, and it typically doesn't pre-announce products before they're ready to ship.

"Why do socialists hate cops?"

Peter:

Allow me to turn the question around. Why do people seem so intent on tossing away their civil liberties?

This case isn't about race, as much as the niggling over details in the forum here would like to make it out to be. It's what Gates' constitutional rights are in his own home.

No less an authority than Andrew Napolitano -- a former federal circuit judge who now works as a legal analyst for Fox News -- says that this is a plain and simple case of improper arrest; that Crowley overstepped his authority by cuffing Gates and taking him away on his own property.

You can watch for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYo6dR0tf_I

Napolitano makes the case that Gates' civil rights were violated in plain language that even the most wild-eyed and rabid of us should be able to understand.

Lucia Whalen and the Cambridge police both say that she did not mention race *during her 911 call.*

However, Crowley's police report says, "She went on to tell me that she observed what appeared to be two black males with backpacks on the porch of [redacted] Ware Street."

These two narratives are mutually exclusive. Whalen talking to Sgt. Crowley at the scene is *not* the same as Whalen speaking to the 911 dispatcher.

Stick to the facts, Richard. As an attorney, you should know damn well what a hairball it is to testify to state of mind.

Hey, neither of these guys look a thing like Borat. What gives! ;)

When reading any blog from Mike Bailey, the reader should insert tongue firmly in cheek. His blog isn't called "Snark infested waters" for nothing, folks.

I wonder how long it will take Massachusetts to catch up now that voters have made clear that they don't think minor possession is worth criminalization anymore.

I find it ironic that your anti-GOP screed is followed by a caution to "put our petty ideological concerns aside." Time to practice what you preach.

I don't disagree with you, by the way. I just dislike hypocrisy.

I think it's a better idea to retest *all* drivers periodically, say, every 10 years. The sheer level of stupidity and incompetence I encounter by fellow Mass drivers on a daily basis makes me certain that a lot of people would do well to *need* to continuously refresh their understanding of the rules of the road and to be reminded that driving is a privilege, not a right.

dodgeguy - emphasis "was." Jackson hadn't really done much of anything for the past decade that was even remotely noteworthy.

Personally, I stopped paying attention after "Off the Wall."

Tap water is regulated where it's provided from a public water supply. But many of us on Cape draw water from private wells, which don't have the same sort of regulation or scrutiny.

Also, some of us on the Upper Cape, in Mashpee, Sandwich and Falmouth live on top of an aquifer that's been polluted by the Mass. Military Reservation, which has tanted the public water supply with carcinogenic materials, making well water an even riskier proposition.

The alternative is to stop sucking the tourist teat and start investing in businesses that operate independently of the season, the weather and the condition of the beaches.

Yeah, Cape Cod is and will always be somewhat dependent on tourism money, as it's a resort community, and you're right, Falmouth Heights residents who want to dismiss that are wrong to do so.

But I still think local chambers of commerce can and should be doing more -- a lot more -- to stimulate business that doesn't dependent on part-time residents or visitors in order to thrive.

OMFG BILL THEM 4 WAISTING TAXPAYER MONNIES!!!!! HRAURAURULAUGH!!!!!!11!!

Sorry, just channeling some "capeconservative" jackassery.

Yay Jeff! Thanks for wasting your time and the government's time with the useless, politically pandering pile of crap rather than focusing on legislation that's likely to effect positive change.

I say this as much as a constituent as anything else, Jeff. Grow a pair. Your party lost in 2008. Get on with it, instead of wasting my time and everybody else's with useless horsesh*t like this.

Capeconservative:

Your grasp on the Federal budget process is lax. The American taxpayer paid for this man's rescue long before it became necessary, when Congress approved the 2009 budget for the Coast Guard.

It's also implied from Chrysler's statements that they're cutting out underperforming dealerships -- that the dealerships they're parting company with represent a small percentage of their sales.

While I applaud Peter Stagg for his forthrightness at this juncture, I have a little sympathy for Chrysler here as well, as it's trying very hard to get back on track and is making some very difficult decisions as a result.

If high school cliques and popularity contests are the yardsticks we measure local politicians by, it's no wonder that town government up and down the Cape is so screwed up.

"what will their online presence look like, I wonder?"

Ned:

If it's anything like their utterly clueless and content-light "Wickedlocal.com" sites are, you have nothing to worry about.

All I have to say is, "Soylent green! It's ... PEOPLE!"

Richard:

Your poor attempt at building Republican strawmen notwithstanding, my point remains. In the words of Strunk and White, "Omit needless words."

I'm not casting aspersions on the quality of your argument or your position. I'm simply saying that you're culpable of extraordinary logorrhea. You need an editor.

I can tell without even looking at his C.V. that Richard's a lawyer -- he very rarely, if ever, uses one word when 1,400 will do.

Thanks for the tips on Trader Joe's. Seems like some decent deals.

As someone who straddles the old media/new media divide (I work for a magazine publisher with a very strong Web presence), it occurs to me that this is a pretty simple situation with a simple outcome: Publish printed matter for as long as it makes sense to do so, develop a viable business model based around Web advertising to pay for your online presence, and continue to do both until the print product loses money.

It's hard to do and the transition will cost money and jobs and leave some people out on the street, but it's not exactly brain surgery, endless hand-wringing from news wonks aside.

"No way will I allow anything like this to transpire with my SPED daughter."

Good luck, murrbuck. I earnestly hope it never happens with your daughter, or anyone else's. As I've said to the Times and the Enterprise when they called, it appeared to be an isolated incident, and I hope it doesn't happen again -- but I'm very dissatisfied with how it's being brushed aside as "much ado about nothing."

"Having trouble understanding why a monitor ... would discipline a child outside the bounds of the BIP agreement."

So does the mother, Cantankerous. Which is precisely why she brought the videotape to the attention of the police to begin with, and precisely why I'm saying that the investigation needs to continue rather than be swept under the rug.

"I am also of the belief that no one should be spit on in the course of doing an honest day's work."

By an able-bodied person in full control of their senses, sure. But as we've established, this is a severely disabled child -- a child who's not doing this out of spite, but who's doing it because she has no other effective way to communicate.

That's not going to stop an adult in control of their senses from responding irrationally to what they perceive as a provocation, either.

Couldn't agree more, Capeconservative. If the Collaborative had simply taken the action the mother requested -- finding a different bus, which they ultimately *did,* after it went public -- this never would have come to the fore. It's pennywise, pound foolish.

What I wanna know is where the photo was taken. If you tell me it's stock photography, you're dead to me, CCT!

"He got food poisoning from Seafood Sam's once."

Well, *once* isn't *consistently* now, is it? ;)

I always knew Jeff Perry was a teabagger.

It's sad. More than a decade ago I worked at Community Newspapers, which Gatehouse acquired. Even then, Fidelity, which owned CNC, was looking for ways to cut costs and reduce overhead. The writing was on the wall back in the 1990s that newspapers were being replaced with other forms of communication.

Bizarre. This reads like something out of a Stephen King novel. All that's missing is a rabid St. Bernard or maybe some vampires.

Capemom:

Put simply, because the federal and state laws require special education funding to be in place.

What's more, many gifted and talented children also require special education accommodations -- so-called "twice exceptional" children, who are very smart and talented, but may also suffer from learning disabilities or social/emotional disorders.

capeconservative:

"Back when I was in school 100 years ago, we used to tutor our peers and help them out"

Right, back in the good old days when children with serious special needs - the "hopelessly afflicted kids" of whom you speak - were shut away in institutions and shunned from society.

Oh, for the good old days!

Even if the girl was a total Lolita, Weixler should have known better. Common sense applies: "Picture her body with the face of your arresting officer."

Anyway, that's entirely beside the point of this blog, which is to excoriate Mashpee parents for not being more involved.

"being 14 is no accuse either"

I think the word you're looking for is "excuse," not "accuse."

And yeah, it is. That's why they call it "statutory rape."

With regards to anonymous_joe's bizarre suggestion, the bottom line here is that Weixler should have understood that a 14 year old is below the age of consent. She didn't "lure" him into doing anything, sorry -- as a adult, and as a trained teaching professional, he had no business touching her inappropriately under any circumstances.

dingbat:

Indeed, I lay the problem with reliability at Nstar's feet. Weren't the residents of Fitchburg looking to "fire" them after that massive outage that struck them early this winter?

Beyondgreen:

Interesting statistics; if the case can be made for private enterprise and government investment to foot the bill without dramatically increasing my tax burden or my existing fuel costs, I'm all for it. I'm just really reluctant to subsidize more R&D than I am already; I'm already at my breaking point for what I can afford for electricity and natural gas.

I'm all in favor of a wind farm or other forms of renewable energy, but not if it means another big hike in my electric bills. Cape Cod residents are already spending an absurd amount on electricity, and if Cape Wind is going to add more to it, forget about it.

Speak for yourself, Yarmouth. I'm more interested in seeing my tax money spent smartly, and that's absolutely what Rep. Patrick wants to see by having the Sandwich power plant shut down.

In so far as "reliable" power goes, I'm left wanting. We experience regular outages, more likely due to drunk drivers hitting aerial poles and knocking out transformers than anything to do with the plant itself.

Buzz says: "You've heard of the "First Amendment" haven't you?"

Yeah, have you?

The first amendment doesn't have a thing to do with what's going on here. "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press..."

That's "congress," specifically. Again, not pertinent here.

No question that Acepro is flipping out over nothing, but let's not sully the discussion with red herrings.

Folks, holding the Saturn dealership responsible for hiring these guys at one point or another is silly and stupid. Last time I checked, passing a CORI wasn't a requirement for someone to work on a car lot.

As far as the Saturn manager's comments are concerned, thanks for clarifying. Please disengage the Caps Lock key on your keyboard for future postings, however. IT LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE YELLING.

The cliché in the newspaper business is "if it bleeds, it leads." As true today as when the expression was first coined decades ago.

Bad news sells newspapers (and makes people tune in to the news.

intheno: Thanks, I'm actually reasonably informed already. My point is that I don't particularly care for Perrino's campaign tactics.

All I know for sure is twice in the last week I've gotten automated phone calls from Anastasia Welsh Perrino talking about her "liberal opponent" but not telling me a damn thing about what the Register of Probate is or why I should care.

Doesn't say much about her "professionalism and character" as far as I'm concerned.

Struck and killed by a kid who says he fell asleep at the wheel. If there's a lesson to be learned here, it's not about how dangerous road duty is -- it's about how careless some people are with the vehicles they drive. That young man had no business being on the road.

Initially, I was really excited about the service too, as I travel by air frequently enough that I thought I might use it. But the lack of direct west coast flights out of Green combined with the fare prices compared to what I can get flying out of Logan killed it for me. So it's no lack of publicity or mindshare that's kept me off of CapeX buses -- it's everything beyond the Cape-to-Providence trip that's the problem.

"Wasn't it a foolish idea, that technology could somehow change Cape Cod?"

Naw. What *was* foolish was to entrust such an effort to a few round-waisted, grey-haired, comfortably well-off white guys who were looking for something to do when it wasn't fishing or golf season.

As far as my high-speed broadband connection, I got it from MediaOne the same year that you old farts were still lobbying for better DSL and fractional T1 access rates for your (now defunct) companies.

Don't let the door hit you in the butt on the way out, Matt. Enjoy the Caribbean. Watch out for sharks.

"Mattrick" could also be the description of what happens when Matt gets three bills passed in a row!

"One of the ways the US transportation sector will move off of petroleum will be via pluggin hybrid electric vehicles."

And what of the energy industry, which is still very dependent on fossil fuels?

More than 90 percent of the coal in the United States is used for generating electricity, and about half the electricity produced in the U.S. is made by coal-burning plants.

Sure, Cape Wind is a good start, but even if it goes online tomorrow it's not going to replace coal and oil-burning energy plants.

Sparky:

http://cnwmr.com/nss-folder/automotiveenergy/

What concerns me the most about hybrids is their total energy costs, which, at least at this stage of the game, given their somewhat limited availability, are still higher than non-hybrid vehicles. I'm hoping this is something that will improve as economy of scale increases, at least until auto manufacturers find more efficient engine technologies.

Those pies look fantastic. I wish they were a bit closer to Mashpee, tho.

Davis' bequest continues to this day. Mashpee schoolchildren -- natives and non-natives alike -- receive cash awards distributed from Davis' estate by the schools for demonstrating kindness and compassion above and beyond the norm.

Thanks for the info, Opinionator. Interesting to note that Mashpee, where my kids are, is near the bottom of the list in terms of funding. And believe me, it shows!

Karent:

Baked flatbreads date back at least to pre-Christian times in the Mediterranean area. Tomato on flatbread has been pretty common ever since the 18th century, once peasants were convinced that tomatoes weren't going to kill them. :)

There's an urban legend that the Chinese invented pizza, but that's mostly commonly associated with the green onion pancake, the recipe for which Marco Polo brought back from his trips to the Orient.

It ain't true, don't believe it. Marco Polo may have loved the green onion pancake, but foccacia and its ilk were in the Mediterranean long before Marco Polo took his trip.

I really wish that you'd focused this article on Joyce's wrongheaded demand for money from the town of Dennis instead of a bunch of thinly veiled sexist garbage about how men and women shouldn't play together. Instead, it's just a muddled, regressive-sounding mess.

I wish Verizon could be convinced to bring FIOS to the Cape. I'd switch from Comcast in a New York minute.

"What's the problem with entering school like entering court?"

Most obviously because it's not going to do a damn thing to stop something like this from happening.

Neither does Elton John, and look what he does with wigs.

Aaron, I appreciate what you're saying.

Yeah, same with us, Buzz. Fortunately, we're secure enough in our relationship that we don't consider publicly talking about our family's disabilities to be "airing dirty laundry."

So we can be friends with judgmental jerks like you? Naw, I'd rather be late.

Codder:

Yeah, like any new technology there's an etiquette that needs to be developed. I try not to have Bluetooth conversations in the market or anywhere else I'm in close proximity to other people -- it's just rude.

I've actually taken to wearing the headset only in the car -- that's the main time I use it, to help reduce distraction and improve my driving vision.

"I also resent the loss of the use of one hand having to hold the damn thing to your head."

Get a Bluetooth headset! Sure, you look like a nutjob, talking to thin air, but it's nice having both hands so you can gesticulate wildly to your imaginary friends while doing so.

Looks like the Gallagher to me.

A hotel I just stayed in in Reykjavik, Iceland had the neatest shower I've seen. It wasn't a separate stall. The fixtures were affixed to the wall, but the space was separated by a swinging glass door, and the water from the shower drained into the floor.

The tiles of the bathroom were heated, so the water evaporated just minutes after it fell. And the showerhead was one of those "rainfall" types that dripped straight down, rather than at an angle.

But because of the swinging door, the entire shower basically "folded" into the wall when not in use. A nice, efficient use of space.

Monponsett, you have fantastic musical taste! ;)

Buzz:

It'll cost you the same as other major Mac OS X upgrades -- $129.

I've been using the same stylist for a few years now. He's excellent, I recommend him to everyone.

His name is Gilette.

Gilette Mach 3.

Unfortunately, Halloween isn't a big holiday in Reykjavik. :)

Thanks, Jack. Yeah, a couple of BR humdingers about education come to mind: "We are faced with the paradoxical fact that education has become one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought" is one that made me laugh out loud the first time I heard it, in college. The other is "Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education." ;)

Yeah, I've been reading and watching the news on this one. You have to wonder what was in the woman's head who bought this kid the guns. Her defense so far was that she was trying to make her son happy.

Fillet:

You're right. There's no question this was a "worst case scenario:" A mentally ill young man with a history of violence in a completely inappropriate setting.

Dagny:

He *wasn't* taking his meds at the time, and that's part of the problem. I don't disagree with what you're saying, but my point is that he had *asked* for help and they had ignored and neglected him.

There was a gorgeous sunset today.

One of my favorite spots is the cranberry bog just to the west of Cotuit Road in Mashpee, on the shore of Mashpee-Wakeby pond. When the sun is setting over the pond, it makes for some dramatic lighting.

Capewide MCAS scores are a mixed bag.

I'd settle for Congress fulfilling its promise to fund 40 percent of the special education spending in this country. Right now the number is closer to 15 percent. That would go a long, long way to closing the gap.

Special education needs run the gamut. Many kids can thrive if they just get some accommodations that don't cost the school a lot of money, like giving them extra time to do tests. Unfortunately, many times, their parents don't know what to advocate for, and in a class of 18 or 22 kids, even their teachers may not recognize the issues for what they are -- few educators are trained to recognize special needs.

Other kids require extensive assistance because of severe disabilities. For them, there's no easy answer that isn't going to cost taxpayers money, but those services are guaranteed to them by state and federal law.

We've seen wild turkeys in our front yard (in Mashpee) twice in the last month. First time since we moved to this neighborhood, and we've been here almost six years.

Advosnob:

When we first started talking about the SEPAC, I set up the basic site using iWeb from Apple. It's part of the iLife suite that Apple includes with new Macs and sells separately as well.

Bonnie's continued using iWeb to produce the site, which we host through a third party and update using an FTP client.

iWeb, in retrospect, wasn't a spectacular choice. It's very limiting in a lot of respects, though it is *very* easy to use.

"As someone who has a slight learning disability, but missed the wave of fervor over seperating kids from the rest of the pack, I think inclusion is more important to school aged kids than testing, medications and so forth."

I'm not sure what "fervor" you're talking about, but federal law (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA), mandates that children with special needs be placed in the "least restrictive environment" possible for their needs. That means inclusion, to the maximum extent appropriate.

Thanks, Fillet: I'll continuously return to the SEPAC issue and sped issues in Mashpee, since it's really important to me and my family. Though it won't be exclusive to that: my next blog post involves Dunkin' Donuts. :)

Thanks for the comments. You're right, and that's a big part of where we ran into problems with the previous administration -- it seemed that we were always getting knocked off balance with bureaucratic roadblocks, rather than any sense of cooperation or collaboration.

Getting the word out is another big issue. We've gotten more cooperation this academic year than last when it comes to notifying parents of our SEPAC and when it meets; I'm hoping we can become even more high-profile with a sustained effort to raise awareness in the community. It's certainly a work in progress. :)

Thanks, Diane. We did, as have countless other parents, some meeting with success, some not.

Thanks, Opinionator!