tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83125041560662865322024-03-14T02:22:37.426-04:00Cranberry County MagazineNews and Observations From Southeastern MassachusettsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.comBlogger365125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-30056105682858893252017-09-25T07:13:00.000-04:002017-09-25T07:25:44.735-04:00Duxbury Beach Getting Some Jose Surf<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZiGXltvIbaM/WceOX6lS15I/AAAAAAAADR4/rULyOeeTfrwlhJ1SQqOMCL3HmsDXSt6TQCLcBGAs/s1600/0922171101a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZiGXltvIbaM/WceOX6lS15I/AAAAAAAADR4/rULyOeeTfrwlhJ1SQqOMCL3HmsDXSt6TQCLcBGAs/s640/0922171101a.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Duxbury Beach got in on the Tropical Storm Warning for a while during Jose, so we rolled up last Thursday to see how angry Mother Nature was.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RhkpmxZoHCY/WceQaFBflnI/AAAAAAAADSE/IqXO7LgBPlgC7pwFdnUko8F2hKgdn9WFgCLcBGAs/s1600/0922171058.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RhkpmxZoHCY/WceQaFBflnI/AAAAAAAADSE/IqXO7LgBPlgC7pwFdnUko8F2hKgdn9WFgCLcBGAs/s640/0922171058.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Seas were getting ugly on Tuesday, and they were still ominous on Saturday. That's an 8 tide storm, a very bad thing for coastlines (the No-Name Storm/Halloween Gale/Perfect Storm of 1991 was a 10 tide storm), and Duxbury was very lucky to be on Jose's fringe.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lNwoRz4uiiM/WceQbnafCwI/AAAAAAAADSI/efy3I1C_LeQAOwAvi6r8y1c3m94mYOXwgCLcBGAs/s1600/0922171059.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lNwoRz4uiiM/WceQbnafCwI/AAAAAAAADSI/efy3I1C_LeQAOwAvi6r8y1c3m94mYOXwgCLcBGAs/s640/0922171059.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Duxbury Beach gets pummeled in storms, so the residents are rarely caught slippin'. DBC...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mkGw3Qj8S_s/WceQhdx-I8I/AAAAAAAADSM/POFF1Mqm5XEzFURbPCrarIDCMicCK1UMgCLcBGAs/s1600/0922171100a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mkGw3Qj8S_s/WceQhdx-I8I/AAAAAAAADSM/POFF1Mqm5XEzFURbPCrarIDCMicCK1UMgCLcBGAs/s640/0922171100a.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jose hung around off Nantucket for a while, and her huge wind field (tropical cyclones expand in size once they reach cooler waters) made it past Duxbury.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rdWuMiYlcgY/WceQpCHYc4I/AAAAAAAADSQ/z8kUxwM257kFKek17FmsVNAiVSbdH_RPgCLcBGAs/s1600/0922171101.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rdWuMiYlcgY/WceQpCHYc4I/AAAAAAAADSQ/z8kUxwM257kFKek17FmsVNAiVSbdH_RPgCLcBGAs/s640/0922171101.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And now, down below, some amateurish video...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwt0ttvKHdwR2jnm3Pd9wdvh1vfXS5o8gwjT1EeFPUtZ0RZhhvNxLX5g-opZZ8ubhzHidByx5X19mdAJTT3eA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzxzqPkLpw61YARQIeOYcKFdcSAx_UYKeHntD7G9BT0mJS4KItwjGAvCvowB4uqe3Tfq3tWQWiFHZzNXuRSog' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EO1y4CvdHzM/WcewG6LXJQI/AAAAAAAADSg/eNyL2z35xA0UQG58T6P7Y98WEV6uyyOaACLcBGAs/s1600/0922171101b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EO1y4CvdHzM/WcewG6LXJQI/AAAAAAAADSg/eNyL2z35xA0UQG58T6P7Y98WEV6uyyOaACLcBGAs/s640/0922171101b.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There are scholarly articles which say that Duxbury Beach, in her present location on Cape Cod Bay and with the slope of her coastline, can't really generate waves higher than 5 or 6 feet. I won't disagree with scientists more than I have to, and admit that I could be wrong on a technicality, but I h<span style="font-size: 13px;">ave seen ten foot+ waves during the Blizzard of '78 and the Halloween Gale.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-V77yhWwLFjk/WcewRIOvSGI/AAAAAAAADSk/bFIRiZx43DEdfGwD5h760EClSPpXpK2ywCLcBGAs/s1600/0922171103.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-V77yhWwLFjk/WcewRIOvSGI/AAAAAAAADSk/bFIRiZx43DEdfGwD5h760EClSPpXpK2ywCLcBGAs/s640/0922171103.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Duxbury Beach was still getting heavy rain and 50 MPH gusts on Thursday, which is why a lot if these shots were taken behind houses and crouched under stairways</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FTbLenYmn1U/Wcewp09vCyI/AAAAAAAADSo/P8o-fpQgEz04bBYf-BkCAKtbw31C2I-ugCLcBGAs/s1600/0922171100.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FTbLenYmn1U/Wcewp09vCyI/AAAAAAAADSo/P8o-fpQgEz04bBYf-BkCAKtbw31C2I-ugCLcBGAs/s640/0922171100.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The cottage that was here before this house is famous for washing into Ocean Road North during the Halloween Gale. It is locally legendary because a glass of wine mitakenly left on the cottage's kitchen table during storm prep was still on the table- unspilled- after the storm.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dLJ3oW0_19g/WcexO2T0HEI/AAAAAAAADSw/hOZAZhiNPfAHtYWuB0cgSzkn6crSfVMDgCLcBGAs/s1600/0922171104.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dLJ3oW0_19g/WcexO2T0HEI/AAAAAAAADSw/hOZAZhiNPfAHtYWuB0cgSzkn6crSfVMDgCLcBGAs/s640/0922171104.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A fence with almost no chance at all of surviving the waves coming over the wall.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dXIv6545KYc/WcexuGkk4FI/AAAAAAAADS4/7qTJUmmQ7Aw-5mXSpSqJwdo517H-qLy_wCLcBGAs/s1600/0922171101c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dXIv6545KYc/WcexuGkk4FI/AAAAAAAADS4/7qTJUmmQ7Aw-5mXSpSqJwdo517H-qLy_wCLcBGAs/s640/0922171101c.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Your fearless reporter was in town three hours before high tide, and had to flee before a waning new moon tide blocked off the neighborhood. 1:30 high tides in Duxbury and a 2:45 school bus rendezvous in New Bedford are incompatible.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YhvDCoSGLAQ/Wcex7BenKTI/AAAAAAAADS8/4Kfpn4SIYU0HTGtS6fCNiFulr8Am-dT-ACLcBGAs/s1600/0922171104a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YhvDCoSGLAQ/Wcex7BenKTI/AAAAAAAADS8/4Kfpn4SIYU0HTGtS6fCNiFulr8Am-dT-ACLcBGAs/s640/0922171104a.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Duxbury Beach is stormy enough that kids there used to/may still do Death Runs. Death Runs involve waiting for stormy seas to hit the seawall, dropping yourself onto the beach as a wave recedes, running as far as possible before the next wave comes and pulling yourself back onto the seawall before the next wave hits. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qzJ0enwonLE/WcezDDW8L6I/AAAAAAAADTM/nptYAGlwfew8s7afdnocpT7DE9vne13_QCLcBGAs/s1600/0922171104b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qzJ0enwonLE/WcezDDW8L6I/AAAAAAAADTM/nptYAGlwfew8s7afdnocpT7DE9vne13_QCLcBGAs/s640/0922171104b.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The child who painted these rocks was most likely not thinking "These rocks will someday be the only bright colors in an otherwise slate-grey hurricane article from some obscure regional publication," but just look how things shook out.<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
The next three are from Maryellen Federici.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nliMKk2bFeM/WcezjVxPdOI/AAAAAAAADTU/Lm43AgdVCzYltwz_JwZDg8SRKC709gqEgCLcBGAs/s1600/received_2008843586002366.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1136" data-original-width="852" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nliMKk2bFeM/WcezjVxPdOI/AAAAAAAADTU/Lm43AgdVCzYltwz_JwZDg8SRKC709gqEgCLcBGAs/s640/received_2008843586002366.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PYNdoraqWW4/WcezrlaxVLI/AAAAAAAADTY/Ey2bFlVbttQ4M6EZw_un-dLXVLrJaHqmACLcBGAs/s1600/received_2008843602669031.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1136" data-original-width="852" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PYNdoraqWW4/WcezrlaxVLI/AAAAAAAADTY/Ey2bFlVbttQ4M6EZw_un-dLXVLrJaHqmACLcBGAs/s640/received_2008843602669031.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E_ydwgTADRU/Wcezv8AUXGI/AAAAAAAADTc/13N-LzSKigodb3LFh8E5BfV5vKr4NOJmACLcBGAs/s1600/received_2008843576002367.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1136" data-original-width="852" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E_ydwgTADRU/Wcezv8AUXGI/AAAAAAAADTc/13N-LzSKigodb3LFh8E5BfV5vKr4NOJmACLcBGAs/s640/received_2008843576002367.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qSmKUOx9tvc/Wce0NoBe97I/AAAAAAAADTg/u38tfdTwSYYc09rMFtr3mtqZSTp7uWIvgCLcBGAs/s1600/0922171105.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qSmKUOx9tvc/Wce0NoBe97I/AAAAAAAADTg/u38tfdTwSYYc09rMFtr3mtqZSTp7uWIvgCLcBGAs/s640/0922171105.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jose knocked over one of the Don't Run Over My Kids fluorescent lawn jockey dudes.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com065 Ocean Rd N, Duxbury, MA 02332, USA42.0633775 -70.64829809999997716.541343 -111.95689209999998 67.585412 -29.339704099999977tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-40519977973222271902017-09-24T06:26:00.000-04:002017-09-24T06:26:14.319-04:00Brant Rock Jose Surf<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1QLxaBFyNmI/Wcd_XW_JT7I/AAAAAAAADRE/DwfmacG5uTouY8Vs842MPA8eEEnhpplZACLcBGAs/s1600/0922171131f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1QLxaBFyNmI/Wcd_XW_JT7I/AAAAAAAADRE/DwfmacG5uTouY8Vs842MPA8eEEnhpplZACLcBGAs/s640/0922171131f.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">When people who like watching big surf see a North wind blowing, they start thinking Brant Rock. The Rock has more northerly bearing than most neighborhood beaches, and they really take their lumps on the back end of a nor'easter... or a near-miss hurricane.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CTYR-wv-nkQ/Wcd_1gmmpsI/AAAAAAAADRI/8avlRAdJMowQA-2JtHZnRZ1PVbnyC-6qwCLcBGAs/s1600/0922171131e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CTYR-wv-nkQ/Wcd_1gmmpsI/AAAAAAAADRI/8avlRAdJMowQA-2JtHZnRZ1PVbnyC-6qwCLcBGAs/s640/0922171131e.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Generally, Scituate gets it worse with East winds, Duxbury holds the crown with NE winds and Brant Rock gets her worst damage with North winds.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8hzoHxAOu1M/WceACOiVv9I/AAAAAAAADRM/yy-k9LkPa60LthP2-4uUo08PJnXYhWmLgCLcBGAs/s1600/0922171129b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8hzoHxAOu1M/WceACOiVv9I/AAAAAAAADRM/yy-k9LkPa60LthP2-4uUo08PJnXYhWmLgCLcBGAs/s640/0922171129b.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sometimes I get out of the car, sometimes I shoot between cycles of the wiper blades </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Hc7nWhb6hRw/WceAMiOorRI/AAAAAAAADRQ/MxLC9PgQyWsO7_amB1z7Jr8A9-jL0V62ACLcBGAs/s1600/0922171129e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Hc7nWhb6hRw/WceAMiOorRI/AAAAAAAADRQ/MxLC9PgQyWsO7_amB1z7Jr8A9-jL0V62ACLcBGAs/s640/0922171129e.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is about two hours before high tide on Thursday, so things got worse.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IqFkusZkLkA/WceAqgnoF8I/AAAAAAAADRU/VywakPqudSMo2khuu7B_HIydQUd-s3-NACLcBGAs/s1600/0922171131b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IqFkusZkLkA/WceAqgnoF8I/AAAAAAAADRU/VywakPqudSMo2khuu7B_HIydQUd-s3-NACLcBGAs/s640/0922171131b.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brant Rock gets her name from Brant Geese, which used to rest on those rocks back in map-drawing time. A few local areas are named for wildlife. Gurnet Point got her name because someone influential thought that it looked like a place in England where he used to catch Gurnett Fish.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XU53QzwnHHI/WceA1I5bMCI/AAAAAAAADRc/0J4pKc3JUfQnWijYJKrOAofnPEoMk171wCLcBGAs/s1600/0922171129b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XU53QzwnHHI/WceA1I5bMCI/AAAAAAAADRc/0J4pKc3JUfQnWijYJKrOAofnPEoMk171wCLcBGAs/s640/0922171129b.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is where all the splashover water comes from which eventually washes downhill and floods the Esplanade </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-E-lzgGQSRbQ/WceBtRVD2WI/AAAAAAAADRo/LFKwKzXSDK4HwTZIqtSMP6hSimkcJqmaACLcBGAs/s1600/0922171131b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-E-lzgGQSRbQ/WceBtRVD2WI/AAAAAAAADRo/LFKwKzXSDK4HwTZIqtSMP6hSimkcJqmaACLcBGAs/s640/0922171131b.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marsh Vegas aint no joke when Poseidon has been angered by the ways of men.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com0Joseph Driebeck Way, Marshfield, MA 02050, USA42.087662134834268 -70.6454647167968841.993412634834272 -70.806826216796878 42.181911634834265 -70.484103216796882tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-89813246265020277542017-04-24T09:14:00.000-04:002017-04-24T09:14:50.085-04:00Borden Flats Lighthouse Hotel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EYJQ4HdMtmc/WPIUx9XzMBI/AAAAAAAADNQ/hIVPnOxE6dc4Z_mLX897OjC8IaXFsh5XgCLcB/s1600/17965153_10155154560797510_1305934338_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EYJQ4HdMtmc/WPIUx9XzMBI/AAAAAAAADNQ/hIVPnOxE6dc4Z_mLX897OjC8IaXFsh5XgCLcB/s400/17965153_10155154560797510_1305934338_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
One of my favorite lighthouses around is in Fall River. This is odd, because I tend to romanticize lighthouses as isolated things on the end of a lonely beach. In that regard, it's odd to see one while I'm eating Popeye's chicken in the car.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.newenglandlighthouses.net/borden-flats.html">Borden Flats Lighthouse</a> sits at the mouth of the Taunton River, where it empties out into Mount Hope Bay. If I were a better photographer, you'd see how cool it looks there, but that's why you can read this for free.<br />
<br />
Borden Flats Lighthouse was erected in 1881. It, and the flats it sits on, are named for the famous Borden family of Fall River. The Bordens may have had a daughter turn up in the news at some point <a href="https://cranberrycountymagazine.blogspot.com/2015/10/forty-whacks-visit-to-lizzie-borden.html">for some reason or another</a>, I'm not sure....<br />
<br />
I think the Borden family may have been into hotels, because the Lizzie Borden house is now a B&B. The Borden Flats Lighthouse, which looks pretty much like a lighthouse to me, is actually a hotel!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hfzA8PZ2gB8/WPIZllDTc8I/AAAAAAAADNc/Ie-FsDl1jlYgON2l58_vHPUf4my_K4PQwCLcB/s1600/1551212_orig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hfzA8PZ2gB8/WPIZllDTc8I/AAAAAAAADNc/Ie-FsDl1jlYgON2l58_vHPUf4my_K4PQwCLcB/s400/1551212_orig.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
The actual good pictures are lifted from the Borden Flats Lighthouse <a href="http://www.bordenflats.com/stay-the-night.html">website</a>.<br />
<br />
Fall River, a bustling textile town in the 1800s, got a lot of shipping traffic, as well as steamboat ferry action. Mount Hope Bay is rather shallow, and Borden Flats were ship-wrecking treacherous. It was formerly marked by an unlit beacon. $25K was set aside for construction of the lighthouse.<br />
<br />
It went into action on October 1, 1881. It had a kerosene-fed fourth order Fresnel lens, and you know that I have no idea what that means. It got a modern plastic lens in 1977.<br />
<br />
It was electrified in 1957, automated in 1963, and the fog bell was replaced by an electronic foghorn in 1983... a mistake in my view, but I also don't live near/have to listen to it.<br />
<br />
The 1938 hurricane didn't topple Borden Flats Lighthouse, but it did give it a Pisa-style tilt that you notice once someone points it out to you. They built an additional caisson around it to keep it from having a ruined-castle style look.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ejsZVuXuFDo/WPIkG0GRDCI/AAAAAAAADNs/SPvRBqkEZO8QsxZyf2v-B6ZRGWl5c_TYACLcB/s1600/1436753177.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ejsZVuXuFDo/WPIkG0GRDCI/AAAAAAAADNs/SPvRBqkEZO8QsxZyf2v-B6ZRGWl5c_TYACLcB/s400/1436753177.png" width="300" /></a></div>
<br />
In 2000, the lighthouse was auctioned off to Cindy and Craig Korstad, who are in the Buy Lighthouses And Turn Them Into Hotels business. I think they dropped $53K on it, then many K more renovating it.<br />
<br />
It stands 50 feet tall, it has a 250 mm white light that flashes every 2.5 seconds, The foghorn goes off every 10 seconds, or- as Elwood Blues said when showing his apartment to Joliet Jake- "so often you won't notice it after a while." It is an active US Coast Guard aid to navigation, and is of the "Spark Plug" variety.<br />
<br />
It seems to be tastefully decorated, and it looks delicate enough that I will be on the "<i>Don't touch anything!!</i>" prohibition orders from my photographer when we tour it.<br />
<br />
That's right... you can tour it for $20 a pop. You can also <a href="http://www.bordenflats.com/stay-the-night.html">stay the night</a>, for rates as low as $299 a night off-season.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SesqeykcQ3s/WPIzddHaVHI/AAAAAAAADN8/x-kl4Eua2KQbDbdGKQbTAjipERgYFlT5wCLcB/s1600/1436752903.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SesqeykcQ3s/WPIzddHaVHI/AAAAAAAADN8/x-kl4Eua2KQbDbdGKQbTAjipERgYFlT5wCLcB/s400/1436752903.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Here's what I can learn about it from the website without calling the people like a real reporter does:<br />
<br />
- Swimming is "strongly discouraged" as this is both a shipping channel and not too far down the coast from where the <a href="https://cranberrycountymagazine.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-top-ten-places-to-get-attacked-by.html">last fatal shark attack in Massachusetts</a> happened. The current is around 7 knots, and the lighthouse is surrounded by large, diver-paralyzing rocks.<br />
<br />
- It runs off solar panels, so having Chief Brody <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfVP6HBoflg">kill the shark</a> by tricking it into biting the electric wire running to the lighthouse isn't a viable exit strategy.<br />
<br />
- Just like when it was built in 1881, the lighthouse has a DVD player and can get local stations on the TV. It lacks WiFi.<br />
<br />
- The best access is from Borden Light Marina, the trip takes 5 minutes. I'm not sure if they ferry you over themselves. It would be a heroic swim, especially while carrying luggage.<br />
<br />
- BYOB allowed, no smoking inside.<br />
<br />
- You call 911 for emergencies, unless you know the Sea Mafia or perhaps even Aquaman. They say that the Justice League only keeps Aquaman around in case trouble arises at the Borden Flats Lighthouse.<br />
<br />
- The Coast Guard has 24/7/365 access rights to the lighthouse.<br />
<br />
- Sunsets are amazing from the lantern room. I'd imagine that the rest of the day is pretty nice up there, too.<br />
<br />
- The lighthouse, like every other one, is haunted. The ghosts seem to be a giggling little girl, a classical music fan, and one of the keepers entering the lower floor while you're on an upper one.<br />
<br />
- If you dream of buying a lighthouse, understand that there is Herculean maintenance involved.<i> "You can't buy it and visit it once a year, your investment will wash into the sea."</i> Much of the hotel revenue is poured back into the lighthouse via renovations and maintenance.<br />
<br />
- Two guests only, and no pets allowed... even seals.<br />
<br />
- The picture below is from US Coast Guard, circa 1900:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FN4nhD9EWCU/WPI4zuuAgsI/AAAAAAAADOM/6mdR9I8TS78jkNY8JmKqFP3HPxD4IRYzwCLcB/s1600/Borden_Flats_Light_MA_1900.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FN4nhD9EWCU/WPI4zuuAgsI/AAAAAAAADOM/6mdR9I8TS78jkNY8JmKqFP3HPxD4IRYzwCLcB/s400/Borden_Flats_Light_MA_1900.JPG" width="340" /></a></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com0Bristol County, MA, USA41.707010077669722 -71.1694335937541.707010077669722 -71.16943359375 41.707010077669722 -71.16943359375tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-61363037328042132882017-04-24T09:13:00.001-04:002017-04-24T09:13:51.911-04:00Ned Point Light In Mattapoisett, MA<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rGtn9oNLwlo/WOO0Z-haL6I/AAAAAAAADH0/_gMDmDArTv0iDh7BNBkxl5euR7UiGZcZACLcB/s1600/17806831_10155115040732510_1061529686_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rGtn9oNLwlo/WOO0Z-haL6I/AAAAAAAADH0/_gMDmDArTv0iDh7BNBkxl5euR7UiGZcZACLcB/s640/17806831_10155115040732510_1061529686_n.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">We paid a visit to Mattapoisett, Massachusetts to check out Ned Point Light.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SbBCj9kapiE/WOO0gX6kXAI/AAAAAAAADH4/E_mnkQW84lcpEhskX57FgEa0_fOn2LtrgCLcB/s1600/17760650_10155115041037510_1939367253_n%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SbBCj9kapiE/WOO0gX6kXAI/AAAAAAAADH4/E_mnkQW84lcpEhskX57FgEa0_fOn2LtrgCLcB/s640/17760650_10155115041037510_1939367253_n%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.newenglandlighthouses.net/neds-point.html">Ned Point Light</a> is also known as Ned's Point Light by the locals. It was built in 1838 for $4500 of those 1838 dollars. John Quincy Adams was instrumental in getting the funds. It is older than Mattapoisett, which was part of Rochester until 1857.<br />
<br />
It was made with stones that they found nearby. The contractor (Leonard Hammond), who also owned the town tavern, didn't finish in time. Stalling an inspector at his tavern, he had a crew try to make it look finished. The inspector stepped into the lighthouse and fell through the floor, which was merely planks laid over barrels.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RGlTJicXnt0/WOO6oqQ5lVI/AAAAAAAADIE/ahKHYZY9YzY4XKWpw7KoK6xFD2tikgUHACLcB/s1600/17690634_10155115040927510_1847923280_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RGlTJicXnt0/WOO6oqQ5lVI/AAAAAAAADIE/ahKHYZY9YzY4XKWpw7KoK6xFD2tikgUHACLcB/s640/17690634_10155115040927510_1847923280_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
It used to have a lightkeeper's house, but that was floated across Buzzards Bay to Bourne, where it now serves <a href="https://cranberrycountymagazine.blogspot.com/2016/04/wings-neck.html">Wings Neck Light</a>.<br />
<br />
Ned Point Light was deactivated from 1951-1963. It was restored by locals in the 1990s.<br />
<br />
It isn't open for touring, other than once a week in the summer. It's 39 feet high and has 32 granite steps.<br />
<br />
She guards the northern edge of Mattapoisett Harbor.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YUkQY5k9U_E/WOO0mcF5cMI/AAAAAAAADH8/y-_PAj2KemIZZQEXoWOExGL0e6g1mn3cACLcB/s1600/17793130_10155115041137510_1132370628_n%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YUkQY5k9U_E/WOO0mcF5cMI/AAAAAAAADH8/y-_PAj2KemIZZQEXoWOExGL0e6g1mn3cACLcB/s640/17793130_10155115041137510_1132370628_n%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com0Mattapoisett, MA, USA41.651289399076241 -70.79485200845948641.64832339907624 -70.799894508459488 41.654255399076241 -70.789809508459484tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-51355431108108816842017-04-24T09:13:00.000-04:002017-04-24T09:13:24.071-04:00The Three Sisters<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HATCPYur6Jk/WOO9-XNs5MI/AAAAAAAADII/jN9rK9JIoTMqN4FNw9Ea75nEh3r25cFKQCLcB/s1600/17360585_10155063613082510_48147706_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HATCPYur6Jk/WOO9-XNs5MI/AAAAAAAADII/jN9rK9JIoTMqN4FNw9Ea75nEh3r25cFKQCLcB/s640/17360585_10155063613082510_48147706_n.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L1sD_E9fzUQ/WOO-E6XKzPI/AAAAAAAADIQ/QDCMm_aCJUcuEC4qMinHSG-XWADfBIQ3QCLcB/s1600/17354874_10155063613992510_1118826723_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L1sD_E9fzUQ/WOO-E6XKzPI/AAAAAAAADIQ/QDCMm_aCJUcuEC4qMinHSG-XWADfBIQ3QCLcB/s640/17354874_10155063613992510_1118826723_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tyGeZ2exezY/WOO-E9zdnjI/AAAAAAAADIM/utqyFb6FZeYzagA6XaozjqZuqix8CkJRQCLcB/s1600/17355160_10155063613882510_1558739088_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tyGeZ2exezY/WOO-E9zdnjI/AAAAAAAADIM/utqyFb6FZeYzagA6XaozjqZuqix8CkJRQCLcB/s640/17355160_10155063613882510_1558739088_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k2oEFMmiJ-8/WOO-E4BrpMI/AAAAAAAADIU/un3EdQzaUms25bDUDB248ZdM1SDhcMwPACLcB/s1600/17360553_10155063614057510_2137624764_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k2oEFMmiJ-8/WOO-E4BrpMI/AAAAAAAADIU/un3EdQzaUms25bDUDB248ZdM1SDhcMwPACLcB/s640/17360553_10155063614057510_2137624764_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OVTD2ZwkFuo/WOO-Exh7NCI/AAAAAAAADIY/OK-ud4n-qdMgCMcmUE7sRiU62GTb0AWHQCLcB/s1600/17360911_10155063614077510_869754902_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OVTD2ZwkFuo/WOO-Exh7NCI/AAAAAAAADIY/OK-ud4n-qdMgCMcmUE7sRiU62GTb0AWHQCLcB/s640/17360911_10155063614077510_869754902_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--bEaD8UzLzo/WOO-FFjhj9I/AAAAAAAADIg/U57BZxLFa28FAf6q2DSctTi0BlfmTEERwCLcB/s1600/17392065_10155063613807510_1499547739_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--bEaD8UzLzo/WOO-FFjhj9I/AAAAAAAADIg/U57BZxLFa28FAf6q2DSctTi0BlfmTEERwCLcB/s640/17392065_10155063613807510_1499547739_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com0Eastham, MA, USA41.831609498223486 -69.94445800781244341.784278498223486 -70.025139007812442 41.878940498223486 -69.863777007812445tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-66598373727432917282017-04-24T09:12:00.000-04:002017-04-24T09:12:53.928-04:00Eastham<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-X6zduwyHh60/WOPFlc-3A-I/AAAAAAAADJw/Tqx2CltLnYIilVhOEMehSefGzvLc1yjcwCLcB/s1600/17141036_10155022533327510_1532606066_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-X6zduwyHh60/WOPFlc-3A-I/AAAAAAAADJw/Tqx2CltLnYIilVhOEMehSefGzvLc1yjcwCLcB/s640/17141036_10155022533327510_1532606066_n.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TKAIipjRnmA/WOPCuCUlRdI/AAAAAAAADJU/OEztBOtHx00KmwZMY6rB-CtN2VyD3F8-QCEw/s1600/17350928_10155063615527510_109419984_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TKAIipjRnmA/WOPCuCUlRdI/AAAAAAAADJU/OEztBOtHx00KmwZMY6rB-CtN2VyD3F8-QCEw/s640/17350928_10155063615527510_109419984_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-py7hEeY3644/WOPFeMCb9mI/AAAAAAAADJs/8xrtJ9stZxcFTlFWUsTDlwNzxDTyM709QCLcB/s1600/17392087_10155063614402510_1944334495_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-py7hEeY3644/WOPFeMCb9mI/AAAAAAAADJs/8xrtJ9stZxcFTlFWUsTDlwNzxDTyM709QCLcB/s640/17392087_10155063614402510_1944334495_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KwL0IL7jZ1U/WOPCuS3QtkI/AAAAAAAADJg/EM4ExXEes98njkYc2xMy7qBSl7gyzlIuACEw/s1600/17355117_10155063614952510_1216887200_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KwL0IL7jZ1U/WOPCuS3QtkI/AAAAAAAADJg/EM4ExXEes98njkYc2xMy7qBSl7gyzlIuACEw/s640/17355117_10155063614952510_1216887200_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com0Eastham, MA, USA41.828507694470595 -69.9432134628295941.825549694470595 -69.948255962829592 41.831465694470594 -69.938170962829588tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-28903794579556483462017-04-24T09:10:00.000-04:002017-04-24T09:10:16.852-04:00Fast Food Oversaturation In Wareham?<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UKrhEFlnL4M/WPI-urXXsGI/AAAAAAAADOc/_WXX8SEBuoA7aPd9otH8rhxFU7oEjOXowCLcB/s1600/17965650_10155154562722510_1439171091_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UKrhEFlnL4M/WPI-urXXsGI/AAAAAAAADOc/_WXX8SEBuoA7aPd9otH8rhxFU7oEjOXowCLcB/s640/17965650_10155154562722510_1439171091_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
If your doctor told you that you needed more cholesterol, you might want to get into the Fatmobile and bring the pod to East Wareham.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.sonicdrivein.com/">Sonic Drive-In</a>, an Oklahoma-based restaurant chain that banks much green in the South, is slowly edging into Massachusetts. They have set their sites on Wareham, via the Patel family, owners of a bunch of Taunton-area convenience stores.<br />
<br />
We had to go to Somerset to get these pics, but of course you know that I stopped for a salad on the way and didn't eat any artery-clogging fast food. We include the pictures for SE Massachusetts people who have never been to a Sonic. They're rare around here.<br />
<br />
The same area of Wareham is also getting an <a href="http://www.olivegarden.com/home">Olive Garden</a>.<br />
<br />
As near as I can tell, the Sonic is going onto the property currently occupied by an oil-change shop, so your fries will have a Pennzoil taste to them. The Olive Garden is said to be going across the street from Barnacle Bill's.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dm7TQY5mSFU/WPI-y29zAlI/AAAAAAAADOg/OvdsgwjLf90jocoosgsX2_f4h1h1uTJhQCLcB/s1600/17965362_10155154562497510_1695072140_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dm7TQY5mSFU/WPI-y29zAlI/AAAAAAAADOg/OvdsgwjLf90jocoosgsX2_f4h1h1uTJhQCLcB/s400/17965362_10155154562497510_1695072140_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
How much is too much?<br />
<br />
A lonely stretch of East Wareham is now host to a veritable takeout Mecca. You can get Burger King, Subway, McDonald's, D'Angelo's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell, Wendy's, Krua Thai, Pizza Boy, Rice Bowl and Dunkin Donuts. I'm not throwing Papa Gino's, Lindsay's or Bailey's into the mix, as you can't order from your car there. I'm pretty sure that the 99 only closed because the building floods in heavy rains.<br />
<br />
It's the Cardiac Highway!<br />
<br />
We're not Food Snobbing anyone. Stephen, one of our writers, hasn't cooked his own food since 2011 or so. However, about one hundred yards of East Wareham, a depressed region of a small town, now has every fast food place in the Northeast.<br />
<br />
They could use a White Castle or a Carl Jr's/Hardee's, but there is only so much Cranberry Highway.<br />
<br />
Buzzards Bay had a Burger King fail, which isn't easy. Other than the Hooters: Cape Cod and the Falmouth/Kingston Pizza Huts, it is the most high profile failure of a major fast food chain in the area.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BTREe9c8G1Y/WPI-3jBQ64I/AAAAAAAADOk/4wbKe4WXGfsAH2UaeGQDacEDpdzzfIebgCLcB/s1600/17888546_1904929896387089_2027044190_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BTREe9c8G1Y/WPI-3jBQ64I/AAAAAAAADOk/4wbKe4WXGfsAH2UaeGQDacEDpdzzfIebgCLcB/s400/17888546_1904929896387089_2027044190_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
You order off this screen, into the sort of speaker that you used to see at drive-in theaters. Someone skates out with it, and you get into the goods. I need both glasses and a taller car.<br />
<br />
Jessica and I passed on the tater tots, as I ate them every day for 4 years in high school. I got the SuperSonic Bacon Double Cheeseburger (pictures below), which came with fries and a soda for about $10. The burger was a-ight, but the fries were Ore-Ida quality.<br />
<br />
My meal had over 1500 calories and 2200 milligrams of sodium <i>before</i> I counted the milkshake (it had about 3000 calories with the milkshake... meanwhile, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00019261.htm">famine victims</a> in refugee camps are happy to get 1200 calories a day), and the unknowable portion sizes makes it impossible to gauge how many calories I stole from Jessica's food. The recommended daily allowance for sodium is 3400 mg, but I consider that to be a piddling sum ascribed to a 105 pound woman. I'm a slim 240 man, so I should get to have twice as much sodium as mortals are allowed. I plan on buying a salt lick and just posting it up in my office somewhere.<br />
<br />
I didn't get a pic of it, but when I took the bun and tomato off of the burger, it looked somewhat like William Dafoe.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AepYUFavm8Y/WPI-9kKouaI/AAAAAAAADOo/jC2JplSA9VkmHHZgoOXbzc_uKNa9tRuvgCLcB/s1600/17965872_10155154562247510_1283146969_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AepYUFavm8Y/WPI-9kKouaI/AAAAAAAADOo/jC2JplSA9VkmHHZgoOXbzc_uKNa9tRuvgCLcB/s400/17965872_10155154562247510_1283146969_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Jessica got the Chicken Strips Sampler Platter, which was 3 whack strips, more Ore-Ida fries, and onion ring and some toast. That also ran ten bucks, and you can see it below somewhere.<br />
<br />
Jessica's chicken did not look like a celebrity.<br />
<br />
My man Hardcore Logo got the Chicken Strips Kids Meal, which came with a shake and some Justice League stickers. He didn't let me steal any of it.<br />
<br />
The rollerskater (who was a guy) was friendly enough. He's out hustling for his dollar, so I'm not making fun of him. I have had worse jobs. He was the first fast food employee I have ever tipped, aside from the Dunkin' and Marylou's girls.<br />
<br />
That's your restaurant review. I made my journalistic bones as a sportswriter. Stacey's French, but she also isn't writing this article. We did go from Cape Cod to Somerset for these pictures, so we deserve some credit.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hjAEDV_hDQU/WPI_D7WIbyI/AAAAAAAADOs/Xevy0CnNsIYBB9EmemCgKzQ44m0NzMh0wCLcB/s1600/17918739_10155154562637510_1157947671_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hjAEDV_hDQU/WPI_D7WIbyI/AAAAAAAADOs/Xevy0CnNsIYBB9EmemCgKzQ44m0NzMh0wCLcB/s400/17918739_10155154562637510_1157947671_n.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
<br />
They must have been out of the Brazilian Man rollerskating waitress neon signs, which is understandable.<br />
<br />
Does the population of Wareham have enough kids who know how to roller skate to staff a Sonic these days? You may not want to go there until the girls get their skating legs under them, lest you get a milkshake to the face (doh!) like the cop in the <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlmeQv8OTk0">Happy Days</a></i> intro.<br />
<br />
Will this be enough for Sonic- who for some reason can't seem to come to some sort of spokesmanship agreement with the Sega hedgehog- to hold up on the Cranberry Highway against the heavyweights?<br />
<br />
We'll goof on the Olive Garden in some future article where we have pictures of one. We consider going to an Olive Garden for Italian food to be akin to going to Red Lobster for seafood. It works if you don't have Italians around to call BS on it.<br />
<br />
Olive Garden competing against Mezza Luna should be a devastating loss, but people like franchises. Don't count the OG out of it by any means.<br />
<br />
Here's Jesse's dinner. I stole her onion rings before the picture could be taken... because I'm eeeeeevil.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ti3-QH7BtA8/WPI_Idy38vI/AAAAAAAADOw/gAJUDdnz_ascOQJEIP3zSM3YqDa_4-SWwCLcB/s1600/17974874_10155154562357510_1321934970_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ti3-QH7BtA8/WPI_Idy38vI/AAAAAAAADOw/gAJUDdnz_ascOQJEIP3zSM3YqDa_4-SWwCLcB/s400/17974874_10155154562357510_1321934970_n.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Note that Sonic and Olive Garden are two more businesses who declined to move into (and perhaps revive) the Main Street area of Buzzards Bay. The only big names willing to dance with Buzzards Bay are Subway and Dunkin' Donuts, and we know that Dunkin' would set up in Aleppo if they were allowed.<br />
<br />
How much fast food can one region consume? Will the added presence of Sonic be too much for BK or lil' Miss Wendy to bear? Wendy's in Wareham is sort of smelly, and Sonic may just walk them out behind the barn and put them out of their misery.<br />
<br />
... or maybe Wareham needs more fast food? Does more fast food exist? Wahlburgers may be a bit high end. I'm not sure if Jack In The Box still exists. In-n-Out Burger or Phatburger (Fatburger?) may not make it here. I'm not sure if dropping a White Castle in Buzzards Bay or East Wareham works, especially for B Double. Chick Fil-A will help along people looking for a less gay-friendly chicken sandwich, but would you run the Bourne rotary for one?<br />
<br />
Will the East Wareham economy survive if it is reduced to a bunch of people selling shoddy hamburgers to each other? If that happens, will employees eventually just be paid in hamburgers?<br />
<br />
Will the very town of Wareham fracture along supper preference lines, with the higher-end West Ham and their Longhouses and Red Robins break away from their more ghetto McChicken-eating cousins in East Wareham?<br />
<br />
Only time will tell.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iBrq-OhjPzo/WPI_dVL2BgI/AAAAAAAADO0/aEXjdWJikkwCKepDDW2qYANw8jJn6rzrQCLcB/s1600/17918311_1904932433053502_1370477137_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iBrq-OhjPzo/WPI_dVL2BgI/AAAAAAAADO0/aEXjdWJikkwCKepDDW2qYANw8jJn6rzrQCLcB/s400/17918311_1904932433053502_1370477137_n.jpg" width="223" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Playing ring toss with onion rings makes the hardened arteries well worth it.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com0Wareham, MA, USA41.755658505081151 -70.6493425369262741.752697005081153 -70.654385036926271 41.758620005081148 -70.644300036926268tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-67960097223337692892017-04-24T09:09:00.001-04:002017-04-24T09:09:41.190-04:00Suicide Alley<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BO-7wsEBBIE/WPO6tJXuCyI/AAAAAAAADPI/jLDD-EM-d8UG3p1WQK6yMNWhxxEkSDOpgCLcB/s1600/17190728_10155023984787510_853886125168603750_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BO-7wsEBBIE/WPO6tJXuCyI/AAAAAAAADPI/jLDD-EM-d8UG3p1WQK6yMNWhxxEkSDOpgCLcB/s320/17190728_10155023984787510_853886125168603750_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dr9EyZJdYXU/WOPCt3MTHDI/AAAAAAAADI8/TRdV933Sm08UsZcvdz7XLm19vIVuWwrLQCEw/s1600/17160504_10155022536507510_272872574_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dr9EyZJdYXU/WOPCt3MTHDI/AAAAAAAADI8/TRdV933Sm08UsZcvdz7XLm19vIVuWwrLQCEw/s320/17160504_10155022536507510_272872574_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WGQhl67TCFo/WPO6juez4LI/AAAAAAAADPE/vs_WqpEWGN8b_chE7DdlBB__iRkejVXQACLcB/s1600/17201298_10155023984792510_4401308630471221006_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WGQhl67TCFo/WPO6juez4LI/AAAAAAAADPE/vs_WqpEWGN8b_chE7DdlBB__iRkejVXQACLcB/s320/17201298_10155023984792510_4401308630471221006_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-60597254929734804242017-04-24T09:09:00.000-04:002017-04-24T09:09:11.082-04:00Outer Cape Trippin'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4ahvwgU2db4/WOPCudP5yuI/AAAAAAAADJo/tZAWbcNV7_Qt6FgWKWr5U_YbIghzgfFsQCEw/s1600/17360864_10155063614517510_2049692718_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4ahvwgU2db4/WOPCudP5yuI/AAAAAAAADJo/tZAWbcNV7_Qt6FgWKWr5U_YbIghzgfFsQCEw/s640/17360864_10155063614517510_2049692718_n.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j8nIctS2rck/WOPCtoD2R_I/AAAAAAAADIs/B6b625OzmR4H_Iqizd-UZRG7lCQsCUH0ACLcB/s1600/17141234_10155022535572510_2143546037_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j8nIctS2rck/WOPCtoD2R_I/AAAAAAAADIs/B6b625OzmR4H_Iqizd-UZRG7lCQsCUH0ACLcB/s640/17141234_10155022535572510_2143546037_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-olWFfza6c7c/WOPCtmZgEJI/AAAAAAAADIk/noWByMesaXMsfi-S3v5epPTQ575A0bgAACLcB/s1600/17141247_10155022535207510_446365371_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-olWFfza6c7c/WOPCtmZgEJI/AAAAAAAADIk/noWByMesaXMsfi-S3v5epPTQ575A0bgAACLcB/s640/17141247_10155022535207510_446365371_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TuPulnNARoE/WOPCtvwtWOI/AAAAAAAADIw/weC6-nO4C7YOAF-2Lhz6klRcprZZ2hFqACLcB/s1600/17141707_10155022536257510_1852925570_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TuPulnNARoE/WOPCtvwtWOI/AAAAAAAADIw/weC6-nO4C7YOAF-2Lhz6klRcprZZ2hFqACLcB/s640/17141707_10155022536257510_1852925570_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zBc2oRCh2jc/WOPCti5epdI/AAAAAAAADI0/PBxEGZtpDucFz8ThTMGEQ04pL8VYHFQ8wCLcB/s1600/17141722_10155022535067510_1871917403_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zBc2oRCh2jc/WOPCti5epdI/AAAAAAAADI0/PBxEGZtpDucFz8ThTMGEQ04pL8VYHFQ8wCLcB/s640/17141722_10155022535067510_1871917403_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s2XNEURIlrA/WOPCtzm5KXI/AAAAAAAADJA/RsbMHmbaI4Mnf5M4AJ_5XjTDDgK4QJHcQCLcB/s1600/17160556_10155022536027510_1155416296_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s2XNEURIlrA/WOPCtzm5KXI/AAAAAAAADJA/RsbMHmbaI4Mnf5M4AJ_5XjTDDgK4QJHcQCLcB/s640/17160556_10155022536027510_1155416296_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mFWBjgxWwow/WPO7O_7vDxI/AAAAAAAADPM/cWHsJ4WdCb4QyaU88J1_-REgloKAc9IOgCLcB/s1600/17156114_10155023984797510_2929718897622940659_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mFWBjgxWwow/WPO7O_7vDxI/AAAAAAAADPM/cWHsJ4WdCb4QyaU88J1_-REgloKAc9IOgCLcB/s640/17156114_10155023984797510_2929718897622940659_n.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ax-7eCOB61Q/WOPCtxy9A6I/AAAAAAAADJE/F7PwjmavWnAoQ1AmNfZHMEYDuwU3pzkUQCLcB/s1600/17160848_10155022535317510_678328959_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ax-7eCOB61Q/WOPCtxy9A6I/AAAAAAAADJE/F7PwjmavWnAoQ1AmNfZHMEYDuwU3pzkUQCLcB/s640/17160848_10155022535317510_678328959_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oqYXI3TQQbA/WOPCt2tutAI/AAAAAAAADJI/wc-Qt4J77oQEelKN5Ev82afJYeJfmkn7gCLcB/s1600/17161014_10155022536157510_1845472926_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oqYXI3TQQbA/WOPCt2tutAI/AAAAAAAADJI/wc-Qt4J77oQEelKN5Ev82afJYeJfmkn7gCLcB/s640/17161014_10155022536157510_1845472926_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2tp6kyVZqnY/WOPCuPVGeOI/AAAAAAAADJM/WPwcrP_HVboc7oW-vxTuRIgFI3Pdxn9_ACLcB/s1600/17198901_10155022535792510_534612535_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2tp6kyVZqnY/WOPCuPVGeOI/AAAAAAAADJM/WPwcrP_HVboc7oW-vxTuRIgFI3Pdxn9_ACLcB/s640/17198901_10155022535792510_534612535_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YSzFhU0m_58/WOPCuNJI-tI/AAAAAAAADJQ/nb7xB_gkol8maVsodzy4x7mr74Hj-ZlgACLcB/s1600/17328090_10155063614797510_1270646771_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YSzFhU0m_58/WOPCuNJI-tI/AAAAAAAADJQ/nb7xB_gkol8maVsodzy4x7mr74Hj-ZlgACLcB/s640/17328090_10155063614797510_1270646771_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TKAIipjRnmA/WOPCuCUlRdI/AAAAAAAADJU/mI1B0L6bkq8Ifxzlp1XA-ZT9CwwqydPxACLcB/s1600/17350928_10155063615527510_109419984_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TKAIipjRnmA/WOPCuCUlRdI/AAAAAAAADJU/mI1B0L6bkq8Ifxzlp1XA-ZT9CwwqydPxACLcB/s640/17350928_10155063615527510_109419984_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EEOF7bZbmVc/WOPCuCbTCKI/AAAAAAAADJY/0cLmf2oNmmQIzUUVpoIclcUGMGIJDHF4wCLcB/s1600/17354710_10155063614997510_685224029_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EEOF7bZbmVc/WOPCuCbTCKI/AAAAAAAADJY/0cLmf2oNmmQIzUUVpoIclcUGMGIJDHF4wCLcB/s640/17354710_10155063614997510_685224029_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QYJjrH5CFXw/WOPCuXnnY4I/AAAAAAAADJc/iSRtVVILI9oItpbN8Myzb9z18LCbWnN9gCLcB/s1600/17355103_10155063614857510_1888886476_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QYJjrH5CFXw/WOPCuXnnY4I/AAAAAAAADJc/iSRtVVILI9oItpbN8Myzb9z18LCbWnN9gCLcB/s640/17355103_10155063614857510_1888886476_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1L5gHhvuoGU/WOPCudW8f1I/AAAAAAAADJk/0Z0VWecmRCoLk8n8wPhsD1okwY8YaD-9QCLcB/s1600/17360658_10155063614762510_1791015982_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1L5gHhvuoGU/WOPCudW8f1I/AAAAAAAADJk/0Z0VWecmRCoLk8n8wPhsD1okwY8YaD-9QCLcB/s640/17360658_10155063614762510_1791015982_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com0Truro, MA, USA41.993231937403955 -70.05311965942382841.981429937403952 -70.073289659423821 42.005033937403958 -70.032949659423835tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-81781082661223523112017-04-22T07:49:00.002-04:002017-04-22T08:20:52.172-04:00The Battle Of Marshfield<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WB1lLBYkbEE/WPX7gCOl0RI/AAAAAAAADPs/wodrTvfvLAc8FbYLgWMzTGiIKbdqhb4CQCEw/s1600/18035548_10155164265532510_1913920499_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WB1lLBYkbEE/WPX7gCOl0RI/AAAAAAAADPs/wodrTvfvLAc8FbYLgWMzTGiIKbdqhb4CQCEw/s400/18035548_10155164265532510_1913920499_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
As we approach April 19th, it is easy to view the American Revolution as a US vs. England thing... even if most of the Americans still thought of themselves as English (Paul Revere never shouted "The British are coming!" during his ride, entirely because of this phenomena. Paul actually was shouting the less poetic "The regulars are out!") when the fighting started.<br />
<br />
The US/England thing is easy to understand now, a few hundred years after the fact. What is less-known is that there existed considerable static between towns during the pre-revolt period.<br />
<br />
The basic cause of this discord was the issue that would launch the Revolution. Some people thought that the colonies should break free from the crown, while others thought that we should remain in the kingdom.<br />
<br />
As that famous American we know as Mel Gibson once said, <i>"an elected legislature can trample your rights just as easily as a king can."</i><br />
<br />
Others disagreed with Mel, and there was thick tension in the air throughout the 1760s and 1770s. If you voiced the wrong political opinion at the wrong tavern, you might be chased from the town by a mob.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PuIGyyEP050/WPX60FiIj0I/AAAAAAAADPg/7Qc_4MoqLuI2rqeONMfn5sDdaMDubjxkACLcB/s1600/17974783_10155164265307510_823473166_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PuIGyyEP050/WPX60FiIj0I/AAAAAAAADPg/7Qc_4MoqLuI2rqeONMfn5sDdaMDubjxkACLcB/s400/17974783_10155164265307510_823473166_n.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">..<i>. and maybe hung from this tree.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Here are a few examples of what would happen to you if you failed to say "Screw The Crown" quickly enough in pre-war New England. Its a lot of reading, but it should prove entertaining.<br />
<br />
- "At Taunton also, about 40 Miles from Boston, the Mob attacked the House of Daniel Leonard, Esqr.,3 one of his Majesty’s Justices of the Peace; & a Barrister at Law. They fired Bullets into the House & obliged him to fly from it to save his Life."<br />
<br />
- "Peter Oliver Esqr., a Justice of the Peace at Middleborough, was obliged by the Mob to sign an Obligation not to execute his Office under the new Acts. At the same Place, a Mr. Silas Wood... was dragged by a Mob of 2 or 300 Men about a Mile to a River in Order to drown him, but, one of his Children hanging around him with Cries & Tears, he was induced to recant, though, even then, very reluctantly."<br />
<br />
- "The Mob at Concord, about 20 Miles from Boston, abused a Deputy Sheriff of Middlesex, they making him pass through a Lane of them, sometimes walking backwards & sometimes forward, Cap in Hand, & they beating him."<br />
<br />
- "All the Plymouth Protestors against Riots, as also all the military Officers, were compelled by a Mob of 2000 Men collected from that County & the County of Barnstable to recant & resign their military Commissions. Although the Justices of the Peace were then sitting in the Town of Plymouth, yet the Mob ransacked the House of a Mr. Foster, a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, a Man of 70 Years of Age, which obliged him to fly into the Woods to secrete himself, where he was lost for some Time and was very near to the losing of his Life."<br />
<br />
- "A Jesse Dunbar, of Halifax in the County of Plymouth, (was) ordered it into a Cart, & then put ... into the Belly of the (slaughtered) Ox and carted him 4 Miles, with a Mob around him, when they made him pay a Dollar after taking three other Cattle & a Horse from him. They then delivered him to another Mob, who carted him 4 Miles further & forced another Dollar from him. The second Mob delivered him to a third Mob, who abused him by throwing Dirt at him, as also throwing the Offals [innards] in his Face & endeavoring to cover him with it, to the endangering his Life, & after other Abuses, & carrying him 4 Miles further, made him pay another Sum of Money. They urged the Councilor’s Lady, at whose House they stopped, to take the Ox; but she being a Lady of a firm Mind refused; upon which they tipped the Cart up & the Ox down into the Highway, & left it to take Care of it self. And in the Month of February following, this same Dunbar was selling Provisions at Plymouth when the Mob seized him, tied him to his Horse’s Tail, & in that Manner drove him through Dirt & mire out of the Town."<br />
<br />
- "In November 1774, David Dunbar of Halifax aforesaid, being an Ensign in the Militia, a Mob headed by some of the Select Men of the Town, demand[ed] his Colors [flags] of him. He refused, saying, that if his commanding Officer demanded them he should obey, otherwise he would not part with them: upon which they broke into his House by Force & dragged him out. They had prepared a sharp Rail to set him upon;12 & in resisting them they seized him (by his private parts) & fixed him upon the Rail, & was held on it by his Legs & Arms, & tossed up with Violence & greatly bruised so that he did not recover for some Time. They beat him, & after abusing him about two Hours he was obliged, in Order to save his Life, to give up his Colors."<br />
<br />
- "A Parish Clerk was taken out of his Bed in a Cold Night & beat against his Hearth by Men who held him by his Arms & Legs. He was then laid across his Horse without his Clothes & drove to a considerable Distance in that naked Condition. His Nephew Dr. Abner Beebe, a Physician, complained of the bad Usage of his Uncle & spoke very freely in Favor of [the royal] Government, for which he was assaulted by a Mob, stripped naked, & hot Pitch was poured upon him, which blistered his Skin. He was then carried to an Hog Sty & rubbed over with Hog’s Dung. They threw the Hog’s Dung in his Face & rammed some of it down his Throat;"<br />
<br />
- In Freetown, they used to paint Loyalists yellow, as "the Mob found that paint is cheaper than Tar and Feathers."<br />
<br />
- "Patriots from Duxbury did kidnap Marshfield Loyalists Paul White, Dr. Stockbridge and Elisha Ford, and carted them to the "Liberty Pole" in Duxbury. There they were "forced to sign recantations" of their Tory sentiments, likely in response to mob violence."<br />
<br />
By 1768, the crown deemed it necessary to send 4000 troops to pacify Boston, which was also getting ugly. Other than the potential for a Lexington-style suburban incursion by British troops, the countryside was (mostly) left on her own.<br />
<br />
You know how it went from there. In 1770, the redcoats fired on the colonists, in what is known as the Boston Massacre. In 1773, the Boston Tea Party went down. In 1775, on April 19th, warfare broke out at Lexington/Concord.<br />
<br />
As you can still see in modern occupational wars like Iraq or Afghanistan, the occupiers tend to stick to the cities. You have airports and docks to move supplies in, and cities usually sit astride rivers and highways that other trade flows through. The countryside tends to belong to the rebels.<br />
<br />
This was the case in Massachusetts. Remember, the Revolution didn't start until the redcoats marched far enough out into the countryside to find farmers crazy enough to pick a fight with the world's best light infantry. While they may not use exactly those terms, every schoolkid in America can tell you the basics of Lexington/Concord.<br />
<br />
What they can't tell you about (unless they read this column, of course) is the Battle of Marshfield. There's a good reason for this... there was no Battle Of Marshfield.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_-s1Bk3zZ5Y/WPX7IZIGZQI/AAAAAAAADPk/utQSZDsmqgUqBGa_dw8OR5YNGhqfF7Q2QCLcB/s1600/18009885_10155164265467510_1221717982_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_-s1Bk3zZ5Y/WPX7IZIGZQI/AAAAAAAADPk/utQSZDsmqgUqBGa_dw8OR5YNGhqfF7Q2QCLcB/s400/18009885_10155164265467510_1221717982_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The non-battleground from this non-battle.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
However, history is often drawn by tricks of fate, coincidence, miscalculations and itchy trigger fingers. An itchy trigger finger set off the Boston Massacre, started the Revolution, and was still happening when the National Guard went hippy-hunting at Kent State almost 200 years after the redcoats landed in Boston Harbor. If Marshfield in 1775 had been visited by ol' Mr. Finger, our history lessons would have been very different.<br />
<br />
While an apt high school kid could tell you that Boston was occupied by the redcoats before the Revolution, they might not know that Marshfield also bore this status. Marsh Vegas, as it was then not known as, was a Loyalist hotbed. People in Vegas had no problem at all with the crown, at least the ones with the money and influence. They preferred change through diplomacy over revolt.<br />
<br />
Even noting the fact that Marshfield patriots in 1773 had their own Marshfield Tea Party (on Tea Rock Hill), Marshfield was the most Loyalist town in New England.<br />
<br />
This put them at odds with the neighboring towns. Duxbury and Plymouth were hotbeds of Patriot activity, and you saw with the Dunbar brothers how Halifax handled Loyalists. Not wishing to be mashed in Hog Dung, the loyalists in Marshfield sent a letter to General Gage, who was in charge of Boston. They demanded protection, and Gage complied, sending 100 men and 300 muskets on two schooners (the <i>Dianna</i> and the <i>Britannia</i>) down to Marsh Vegas in 1775. They were under the command of future Parliament member Captain Nesbit Balfour.<br />
<br />
These redcoats disembarked at the mouth of the North River and marched 6 miles to the Nathaniel Ray Thomas estate. He was only the second most famous occupant, which is why you know it today as the Daniel Webster House. It looked a bit like a smaller version of the mansion from <i>Django Unchained</i>.<br />
<br />
The redcoats set up their barracks on the grounds of the estate, and proceeded to piss off the locals. They would go to taverns or private homes in Duxbury and Plymouth. They behaved well enough, but they would have been hated in Duxbury even if they walked across water to get there. There is at least one story of a mob chasing a British officer into a Plymouth store, and not letting him out until he surrendered (and they broke) his sword.<br />
<br />
Naturally, the entertainment in Boston served to get the locals' moxie up. Duxbury had already hosted Stamp Act protests, burned a dozen Englishmen in effigy and kidnapped loyalists for Liberty Pole parties. The presence of 100 redcoats a town over was, as they liked to say then, intolerable.<br />
<br />
You didn't see a lot of South Shore people at Lexington. Paul Revere went west, not south. By the time that word of Lexington/Concord got to Duxbury, they would not have had time to get up to Boston for the battle. We did send some men up to Lexington/Concord, but most of the South Shore got off no shots at the redcoats fleeing Concord.<br />
<br />
They didn't need to march up into the Metro West area to get at the regulars... they had 100 of them right there on the South Shore, sleeping on the lawn of a Marshfield mansion.<br />
<br />
The South Shore towns had militia, and they had been training for this moment. They dropped everything on April 19th and gathered at what is now known as the John Alden House in Duxbury, under the command of Colonel Theophilus Cotton.<br />
<br />
No one knows what went on in the John Alden house that night, nor on the day of the 20th, when a council of war was held. What we do know is that Cotton, of Plymouth, failed to attack. He may have hoped that the British would leave on their own, or he may have feared a rabble-vs-regulars fight, or he may have been waiting for more people.<br />
<br />
He got more people quickly enough. Companies arrived from Rochester, Middleboro, Carver and Plympton to join the Duxbury, Plymouth and Kingston patriots. Fishermen from various local harbors, always fixin' for a fight, threw themselves into the mix. Colonel Cotton soon had five hundred men, five times the number of the British that they wished to oust from Marshfield. Other estimates give him 1000 men.<br />
<br />
They marched to within a mile of the British regiment, not without some argument. The cautious Cotton still refused to attack. A company from Kingston (led by Capt. Peleg Wadsworth), perhaps seeking to atone for their now-unfortunate town name, advanced without orders to within firing range of the British camp. <i>Ish</i> was about to get hectic.<br />
<br />
However, there were no British to kill. The British garrison, who would have surrendered if fired upon, had instead run like a scalded dog.<br />
<br />
The schooner <i>Hope</i>, along with two smaller sloops (the sloops had been "<i>prest</i>" into service, and were two of the first AmRev prizes taken by the Brisih Navy) arrived at the mouth of the Cut River in Green Harbor. They gathered up the soldiers and whatever Loyalists they could find and fled for Boston. The citizens of Marshfield alerted the British to the arrival of the ships by firing guns from Signal Hill. These were the only shots fired in the Battle Of Marshfield.<br />
<br />
Then, the ass-kicking began. The South Shore is interesting, if not unique, in that our violence goes down after the troops leave.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EqGMYFzia0I/WPYC5xMxUII/AAAAAAAADP8/848koYlKnvAbiPsLp-hNd-tvluFEpyS8wCLcB/s1600/unnamed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EqGMYFzia0I/WPYC5xMxUII/AAAAAAAADP8/848koYlKnvAbiPsLp-hNd-tvluFEpyS8wCLcB/s400/unnamed.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Escape route...</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Marshfield had 1200 people at the time, and only a few of them could get on those ships. Everyone else was left to fend for themselves, as the British Army and Navy were busy up in Boston.<br />
<br />
Marshfield, a Tory town without the necessary Tory army to keep it safe, exploded in an orgy of assaults, tar-n-featherings, jailings, property confiscation, business boycotts and exile. Whoever could afford a boat ride to Nova Scotia fled. Everyone else stayed, and suffered abuse for it.<br />
<br />
"Our fate now decreed, and we are left to mourn out our days in wretchedness. No other resources but to submit to the tyranny of exulting enemies or settle a new country," said Sarah Winslow of Marshfield not too long after the British surrender at Yorktown. Her father said, "I was the butt of the licentious, and had received every species of insult and abuse, which the utmost rancour and malice."<br />
<br />
Those who did get away weren't always welcomed back. A ship from Nova Scotia, loaded with returning Marshfield Tories, was refused permission to disembark in the Neponset River by the town of Milton. The Tories eventually were let off at the North River, where they were promptly arrested.<br />
<br />
Marshfield, much like someone tied to the Liberty Pole or being made to run a Gauntlet, finally caved in. Three months after the British Army was chased from Brant Rock, a town meeting resulted in Marshfield agreeing to support the Revolution. They sent their men off to fight, just like other towns.<br />
<br />
Marshfield, for a long time, had more subdued celebrations of July 4th than neighboring towns did. Some years, they didn't celebrate the holiday at all. This sort of got played out in the 1950s and especially 1970s, as the demographics of the town were wildly altered by urban immigration. The incoming Bostonians loved July 4th, and by the time of my childhood, the Vegas coastline represented as hard as anyone.<br />
<br />
Duxbury and the surrounding towns contributed mightily to the cause. Taking the 300 British muskets they found at the Thomas estate, they marched to Boston and joined up with George Washington. Duxbury men were involved in fortifying Dorchester Heights, which forced the British out of Boston. Unlike just about everyone involved in the Siege of Boston, the Duxbury men had already seen the British Navy flee before them once by the time the Limey Poofters sailed away from Boston.<br />
<br />
Duxbury men served with George Washington at Valley Forge, and fought with him at Germantown and Monmouth. Washington was known to favor the fishermen of coastal Massachusetts as rowers. Duxbury men also manned a fort built out on the Gurnet. It saw no action in the Revolution, but they got to let off a few shots during the War of 1812.<br />
<br />
It is interesting to ponder how the Brits would have reacted if Capt. Wadsworth had decided to charge the overmatched regulars. We know how the immediate battle would have worked, as Captain Balfour told us himself. The Brits would have surrendered with the first Rebel shot.<br />
<br />
There's a difference between 100 soldiers and the entire Royal Navy, however. As we saw during the Battle of Wareham in 1812. the British would sail a squadron into town and burn every ship in the harbor for piracy. How wold they react after the loss of a whole garrison, especially if the battle which lost them turned into a massacre? Probably not well.<br />
<br />
Duxbury did not embrace shipbuilding until after the Revolution, but they did need their harbor, and had nothing beyond a crude fort to keep the British from sailing in to set the whole town ablaze. Duxbury was a backwater, perhaps not meriting an invasion, but Plymouth was a high-profile revenge target.<br />
<br />
Taking Plymouth would effectively cut off Cape Cod and the South Shore from contributing to the war effort, and would have the Brits very well positioned for a march on Rhode Island. The South Shore would have almost certainly got some Grey's Raid kind of action.. Never drink Earl Grey Tea, it's associated with the son of the Grey's Raid captain who attacked Fairhaven, New Bedford and Martha's Vineyard.<br />
<br />
The Battle of Marshfield may have indeed proved to be a Phyrric Phirryc Pyrrhic costly victory, and the whole war effort may have been jeopardized by the desire of some Plymouth County farmers to seize a contested Marsh Vegas front yard.<br />
<br />
However, all of that never happened. Colonel Cotton, viewed by many as a wussy, was actually a fine leader. He went all Sun-Tzu on the English, not moving to attack until victory was assured. He cleared out one of the two English-occupied towns in Massachusetts, and he did so without wasting an ounce of gunpowder.<br />
<br />
Colonel Cotton is actually twice-famous, as he led a group of patriots in 1774 who tried to move Plymouth Rock to a better viewing area. He split the Rock while doing so, and you can still see the split today. That's a story or another day.<br />
<br />
So, as you do something 'Murica today to commemorate the Patriot actions in Boston, Lexington and Concord, lay back and twist one in honor of the 500 South Shore bad-asses who chased the British away.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YgTiGuj8sCA/WPX6mzy73uI/AAAAAAAADPc/tetDkZhFhgIga6L4IJC2s_ThqC3BiKudACEw/s1600/17974313_10155164264972510_1904060106_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YgTiGuj8sCA/WPX6mzy73uI/AAAAAAAADPc/tetDkZhFhgIga6L4IJC2s_ThqC3BiKudACEw/s400/17974313_10155164264972510_1904060106_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Even the house is crooked... or the photographer.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<ul>
<li><br /></li>
</ul>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-9683134465492140102017-04-19T06:58:00.000-04:002017-04-19T06:58:21.075-04:00Aaron Hernandez Commits Suicide<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zR1lv6_BuTk/WPdCorkS2DI/AAAAAAAADQM/gWAexF_u9zce3yH9rdnBnsCP9NZI6h6pgCLcB/s1600/17506427_10155089022102510_1764931269_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zR1lv6_BuTk/WPdCorkS2DI/AAAAAAAADQM/gWAexF_u9zce3yH9rdnBnsCP9NZI6h6pgCLcB/s400/17506427_10155089022102510_1764931269_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Multiple sources are reporting that former New England Patriots start <a href="http://www.wcvb.com/article/aaron-hernandez-commits-suicide-in-prison/9527659">Aaron Hernandez</a> took his own life in prison this morning.<br />
<br />
He was found hanging from a bedsheet at 3 AM by a guard.<br />
<br />
He was doing life and beyond for one murder, although he won an acquittal on some other bodies he caused,<br />
<br />
We'll be back with an update.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-27828841552658630542017-04-13T12:16:00.000-04:002017-04-17T02:17:59.531-04:00Aggressive Turkeys Rampaging Across Massachusetts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Tus2dLSHziQ/WO-jooMMakI/AAAAAAAADNA/CfVaMJuWcD84JtEmf3f7yKesbiid_aoUwCLcB/s1600/unnamed%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Tus2dLSHziQ/WO-jooMMakI/AAAAAAAADNA/CfVaMJuWcD84JtEmf3f7yKesbiid_aoUwCLcB/s640/unnamed%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">You may or may not have noticed the Turkey Aggression going on around you.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />
<a href="http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dfg/dfw/fish-wildlife-plants/wild-turkeys-more-about.html" style="background-color: white; color: #7e7e7e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-decoration-line: none;">Turkeys</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> are not a creature that you should fear, and that headline up there is more me not knowing what else to write than an attempt to start a </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Mercury Theater</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">-style panic. A turkey can injure you, make no mistake, but we'll get to that later in the article.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love, and half or so of the turkeys are male. Love is in the air if you're a turkey, as it is mating season. I'd like to meet the person who scientifically named the turkey's mating season "the Gobbling."</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Gobbling starts in mid-March, the peak runs mid-April through May, and broods start appearing in June. Turkeys get a bit aggressive during mating season, and can also be touchy when the Bay Bays are around.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Take that, tie it into our headline, and you'll see where we're headed today.</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(235, 235, 235); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 5px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xp50yb5q4ls/WO5O8zsXB3I/AAAAAAAADLw/3Zd4qus8ncQcQiFRRS-oPd26osU4pzKZACLcB/s1600/17813844_10155143934242510_1328256201_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #7e7e7e; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xp50yb5q4ls/WO5O8zsXB3I/AAAAAAAADLw/3Zd4qus8ncQcQiFRRS-oPd26osU4pzKZACLcB/s640/17813844_10155143934242510_1328256201_n.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10.56px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>I know that broods aren't supposed to appear until June, but this guy started early and had his Bay-Bay payoff before Tax Day... unless those are hens, at which point I apologize to the turkeys in question.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Turkeys are native to America, and the nation of Turkey has no native, primordial population of them. Turkey/country lent her name to Turkey/bird via the European poultry trade with the Ottoman Empire. Opinions vary on the specifics (colonists may have mistaken American turkeys for Turkish guineafowl, which was imported all over the Mediterranean from Constantinople/Istanbul), but that's the basic etymology.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Massachusetts was crawling with turkeys by the time the Pilgrims arrived, and the Native Americans were eating them by 1100 AD or so. European explorers introduced the turkey to England in 1550.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">As the Other White Meat expanded across Massachusetts, they cut down the forests and used the leftovers for farmland. Turkeys, being both a forest-dwelling bird and a tasty bird, did not fare well following the arrival of Mr. White and his family. Turkeys did not survive the 19th Century in Massachusetts, with the last native one being killed (on Mount Tom of all places, wokka wokka wokka) in the 1850s.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Farmland began to revert to forest in Massachusetts during the Industrial Revolution, as farm goods were imported into the state by the new railroads. This presented an opportunity for turkeys to return, although resettlement efforts in the first 70 years of the 20th Century failed in Massachusetts. Part of the problem is that these efforts involved farm-bred, Butterball style turkeys, and they fared poorly upon their release in the wild.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">1972 saw the importation of wild turkeys from New York, and these 37 birds (and overflow from neighboring states) prospered into the 15,000 or so thought to exist in Massachusetts today. They were fully situated in SE Massachusetts by the time of a 1996 study.</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(235, 235, 235); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 5px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hv-k4fDrrdY/WO5Va3mf_iI/AAAAAAAADMA/LxGmgX1tVmI94jGuSr-epVLXbdyPoLjQwCLcB/s1600/17888144_10155143934307510_1030055703_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #7e7e7e; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hv-k4fDrrdY/WO5Va3mf_iI/AAAAAAAADMA/LxGmgX1tVmI94jGuSr-epVLXbdyPoLjQwCLcB/s640/17888144_10155143934307510_1030055703_n.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10.56px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Remember, kids... you can run down and have one of them, or you can walk down and have EACH one of them.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">This talk of turkey resettlement means little to you if you stay out of the forest, at least for most of the year. However, just like humans, turkeys get a bit sloppy during their mating season. This leads them out into your neighborhood, and potentially into your lives.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">First of all, they are promiscuous. They are not monogamous... when business is concluded, Tom Turkey is raisin' up off the cot. Toms may mate with every hen in the area. Hens will mate several times a season, and egg incubation takes a bit less than a month.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Early batches of eggs only have a bout a 40% survival rate, primarily due to weather and egg/hen predation. 25-50% of hatchlings survive, with foxes, hawks and chilling spring rains offing the other offspring. Like many rural families, they have large families in hopes of having offspring succeed them.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">This is why Tom Turkey is so busy about gettin' busy, folks. He has offspring odds to offset. Pimpin' ain't easy, as the rappers say.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">This means that from March through May, the party is </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">on</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> in Turkeytown. Much like high school kids, they care little if business takes them into your yard. This leads to increased human-turkey interaction.</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(235, 235, 235); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 5px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PXawzhT9uXA/WO5irrPt8UI/AAAAAAAADMQ/tF09cy6iMkcH9esbDGr7YeQYXnS2k2caQCLcB/s1600/17918274_10155143933872510_329006276_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #7e7e7e; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PXawzhT9uXA/WO5irrPt8UI/AAAAAAAADMQ/tF09cy6iMkcH9esbDGr7YeQYXnS2k2caQCLcB/s640/17918274_10155143933872510_329006276_n.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10.56px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Turkeys got a bit cocky around Easter, as they aren't a major menu item for this holiday. He wouldn't be Doin' The Butt at my photographers in November, I can tell you that.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Turkeys live by a code known as the Pecking Order. Turkeys assign everyone in their lives a role in their pecking order, and this role usually involves attempts to assert dominance. Humans fit into this pecking order, and the turkey assigns a sex to a human based on his/her perception of the human's behavior. A "male" human may be challenged (or deferred to) by a tom and followed by a hen.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Being followed by hens is flattering in a way, but being challenged by a Tom is a bad thing. Turkeys can give out a painful peck, and one </span><a href="http://www.necn.com/news/new-england/Turkeys-Terrorize-Town-Attacking-Residents-of-Foxboro-Mass-392076881.html" style="background-color: white; color: #7e7e7e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-decoration-line: none;">turkey attack victim</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> described it leaping into the air and doing a dropkick-style move with the talons.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">An adult human should be able to beat down even the angriest turkey, but it won't be a pretty fight and you're probably going to come out of it with some scars. A child or an old person may be less equipped to fight a large turkey.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Don't be afraid to stomp an aggressive turkey. It ends the immediate threat, and it teaches the other turkeys who the dominant primordial beast is. Turkeys are dumb enough to attack their own reflections (they are not thought to be self-aware), and one good smackdown is worth a hundred good arguments with that crowd. The sooner they learn it, the sooner they will regard humans as the turkey-sandwich-eating dominant species.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">This might save them from a scenario where they would have to be "removed" from a neighborhood. They don't do trap-n-release with nuisance turkeys. Trapping methods used by hunters in the forest don't work on Elm Street in Suburbia, USA. Suburban turkeys who become a nuisance get the ol' Smith & Wesson haircut.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">It takes a village of people beating down turkeys to make a positive change. Everyone has to do it, and they have to be consistent. If you get the neighborhood bully to go beat down the baddest bird, the turkeys will learn to fear just the bully, rather than humans in general. If the next human they see looks like a sucker, the turkey aggression begins anew. If they are chased from neighborhoods, it lowers the risk of human/turkey interaction.</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(235, 235, 235); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 5px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-goH05XiGpqI/WO-TqKJ-mmI/AAAAAAAADMg/1Zc2hFHg_FQkfvFjP_YL16X2WA99Met-ACLcB/s1600/12938217_1138639906181278_7301626680471290214_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #7e7e7e; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-goH05XiGpqI/WO-TqKJ-mmI/AAAAAAAADMg/1Zc2hFHg_FQkfvFjP_YL16X2WA99Met-ACLcB/s640/12938217_1138639906181278_7301626680471290214_n.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="360" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10.56px;">S'up?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Two of my own photographers have suffered turkey attacks this April.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Jessica shot the bottom picture in the article when a flock of turkeys marched right through urban traffic and attacked her car. She informs me that it was very Hitchcockian, but they turkey fled in a minute when she pulled out some Stove Top.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">In the picture just above, a turkey attacks the home of Cranberry County Magazine photographer Justin Thyme- who, in spite of her name, is actually a pretty girl. One can understand the turkey's motivation.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Unfortunately for this turkey, Justin has two Rottweilers named Fury and Wrath, they roam the yard from time to time, and they enjoy fresh poultry.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Nature is a cruel mistress, and one man's mommy might be another man's sandwich meat. Ideally, we'd each have our own realm to roam. However, as we noted earlier, the nation of Turkey is full of people...</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CtaOkjKDNEQ/WO5I8KcHQ1I/AAAAAAAADLk/IwBiMyz-2NwIvziYReshgxSTas8asQNHwCEw/s1600/17888177_1902183993328346_1872272793_n%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CtaOkjKDNEQ/WO5I8KcHQ1I/AAAAAAAADLk/IwBiMyz-2NwIvziYReshgxSTas8asQNHwCEw/s640/17888177_1902183993328346_1872272793_n%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="358" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com2137 Warren Ave, Plymouth, MA 02360, USA41.9381521 -70.625353441.9381521 -70.6253534 41.9381521 -70.6253534tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-18477142704236415212017-04-12T10:48:00.000-04:002017-04-17T02:18:53.706-04:00Get Your Baby Chickens In Wareham<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v41ImfI4YLE/WO44m5_c5CI/AAAAAAAADK8/VZWgmEHyTA4l8EAfhd5WtIS4fVzmQZuyQCLcB/s1600/17918987_10155143934507510_1464594887_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v41ImfI4YLE/WO44m5_c5CI/AAAAAAAADK8/VZWgmEHyTA4l8EAfhd5WtIS4fVzmQZuyQCLcB/s640/17918987_10155143934507510_1464594887_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>"Which came first, the chicken or the egg? I ate the chicken, and then I ate his leg."</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bFQLMqFT-G8/WO440tRTz6I/AAAAAAAADLA/P-DFc9e3ILkSAp6Xu1uUQ4ARg70prAW7ACLcB/s1600/17888733_10155143934387510_1448616146_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bFQLMqFT-G8/WO440tRTz6I/AAAAAAAADLA/P-DFc9e3ILkSAp6Xu1uUQ4ARg70prAW7ACLcB/s640/17888733_10155143934387510_1448616146_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">We rolled deep into the TSC last week, to check the chicks. While "tractor store" wouldn't be the very last place I would look to buy chickens at (there is a strong farming connotation), it also isn't what you open the phone book to when you're looking for one. I'm not sure if getting your chickens at TSC is the same as getting pizza from a gas station, so I won't weigh in either way.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">I don't farm much (I can't even grow weed), but it seems that the tractor would be the sworn enemy of little hard-to-see-from-the-tractor creatures who scurry around in the barnyard, such as the chicken.<br /><br />TSC is in the Cranberry Plaza in Wareham, just off the fabulous Cranberry Highway. If you ain't there... you're somewhere else.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5QgqRY6KF8U/WO444kw4DwI/AAAAAAAADLE/qDmj1vqSxm4MRFqF_n4TbsGCBfzT993KgCLcB/s1600/17918466_10155143934677510_2102107376_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5QgqRY6KF8U/WO444kw4DwI/AAAAAAAADLE/qDmj1vqSxm4MRFqF_n4TbsGCBfzT993KgCLcB/s640/17918466_10155143934677510_2102107376_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cute little suckers, aren't they? I don't know enough about chickens to A) recommend raising some or B) tell you horror stories to keep you from doing so. I read <i>"The Egg And I"</i> once, that's about it. I'm not even sure what baby chickens are called, although I'm thinking "chicks." <br /><br />I do know that, if you buy the wrong one- and the definition of "wrong" may be as simple and wide ranging as "male"- it'll be doing the old cock-a-doodle-doo for you every damn day at whatever hour the sun rises until you one day go outside and strangle it with your bare hands. <br /><br />Life's too short for that sh*t, Hoss... even if you get free eggs.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RbAe4kvSLpQ/WO448PqApSI/AAAAAAAADLI/ldtzrdnSK-wstTRJhM6tOnMRWGVev4cbQCLcB/s1600/17910991_10155143934877510_725198807_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RbAe4kvSLpQ/WO448PqApSI/AAAAAAAADLI/ldtzrdnSK-wstTRJhM6tOnMRWGVev4cbQCLcB/s640/17910991_10155143934877510_725198807_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">They grow the dark meat chickens in their own little chicken ghetto, it seems...</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RGY9zAgiMR8/WO45BVmKlUI/AAAAAAAADLM/haa1HnTSeYY6AHbORi4MNf9FnnEwZXkCQCLcB/s1600/17909519_10155143934622510_155856558_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RGY9zAgiMR8/WO45BVmKlUI/AAAAAAAADLM/haa1HnTSeYY6AHbORi4MNf9FnnEwZXkCQCLcB/s640/17909519_10155143934622510_155856558_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Hey nowwwwwwwwwwww... I usually have to pull out the credit card for this kind of action.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2gsTsO16wgE/WO45G4mODvI/AAAAAAAADLQ/lpbvUeSzaX0rs-0-7F3WWT2hW7mLPVo8QCLcB/s1600/17910730_10155143934787510_1738678577_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2gsTsO16wgE/WO45G4mODvI/AAAAAAAADLQ/lpbvUeSzaX0rs-0-7F3WWT2hW7mLPVo8QCLcB/s640/17910730_10155143934787510_1738678577_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">99 cents is a damned cheap price for something that will grow up to either produce eggs or fill a dinner plate. I'm not sure how McNuggets are made, but it sure seems to me that these little fellows are about the same size and shape.<br /><br />They are only selling chicks until a week after Easter, so be sure to hustle down and get clucked.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com0East Wareham, Wareham, MA 02538, USA41.757307229969591 -70.66080093383789141.755826729969591 -70.663322433837891 41.75878772996959 -70.65827943383789tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-87515739525261020902017-04-09T07:18:00.001-04:002017-04-17T02:21:00.337-04:00Fireball Explosion Above Kingston/Plymouth/Duxbury Area<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vlIvckYUlfU/WOoXAtkFNxI/AAAAAAAADKs/igZW7Ns5YCUffyRHZZSUD7yeQog1wY1QACLcB/s1600/16111251_10154864539657510_566799603_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vlIvckYUlfU/WOoXAtkFNxI/AAAAAAAADKs/igZW7Ns5YCUffyRHZZSUD7yeQog1wY1QACLcB/s640/16111251_10154864539657510_566799603_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This isn't the Plymouth Meteor, but it was close as we had to a picture of it.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Kingston is a quiet town, but- if the dice rolled a little differently- it could have been a Tunguska style disaster zone.<br />
<br />
Chris Gloninger of NECN <a href="https://twitter.com/chrisgnbcboston?lang=en">has reported</a> that a meteor entered the Earth's atmosphere above the Kingston/Plymouth area. There was a fireball visible, and an explosion was audible. There were some social media complaints about an explosion at around 10 PM, although CCM is unaware of any pictures or video existing of it.<br />
<br />
Reports of it came to me from Plymouth, Kingston, Plympton, Duxbury and- in one case involving a fisherman I know- Cape Cod Bay. People heard it as far away as Rockland. I have no idea of the path or where it exploded, although "just offshore' is my official wild guess. We are hearing reports that the explosion shook houses slightly.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amsmeteors.org/fireballs/faqf/#1">Meteors enter the atmosphere all of the time</a>. Several thousand enter our atmosphere every day. Many are the size of pebbles, but the friction entering the atmosphere causes great heat and a cool fireball effect. It may have been moving at 25,000 mph when it got over Kingston.<br />
<br />
A 20 meter superbolide meteor made world news when it exploded over Russia and injured thousands in the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor impact. A kilometer-sized impact flattened 2000 square km of Russian wilderness in the 1908 Tunguska event. Last night's explosion was nothing near that.<br />
<br />
I have no official confirmation, I am asking the NWS about it as I write this. There are no reports of damage and definitely no reports of any impact zone. This meteor may have been no bigger than a schnauzer, a far cry from the sort of Texas sized asteroid that we'd have to send Bruce Willis up to deal with.<br />
<br />
We'll be back with an update if the need arises.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xq9ZeBn5qA8/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xq9ZeBn5qA8?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-87915582666782536302017-04-06T06:13:00.000-04:002017-04-16T15:10:35.230-04:00Right Whales Moving Into Cape Cod Bay<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-c73PkwJHRJU/WOW5nT6WYCI/AAAAAAAADKM/Wt-ODMdGWo0vDdujR4kJRDvo48saTHt9wCLcB/s1600/17820770_10155121010537510_1762668608_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-c73PkwJHRJU/WOW5nT6WYCI/AAAAAAAADKM/Wt-ODMdGWo0vDdujR4kJRDvo48saTHt9wCLcB/s640/17820770_10155121010537510_1762668608_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Massachusetts has rites of Spring, just like Iowa, Arkansas and Colorado do. Some of our rites involve whales coming for a visit at a certain time of year, just like they don't in Iowa.<br />
<br />
North Atlantic Right Whales are <a href="http://www.capecod.com/newscenter/first-right-whale-calves-of-the-season-spotted-in-local-waters/">entering our waters</a> as we speak. They come in after plankton, using some primordial algorithm to know when the water temperature is just right to chow down on the microscopic organisms.<br />
<br />
Right Whales are as rare as it gets, and are especially rare for both large whales and marine mammals in particular. There are only 500 left in the world. At the moment, 71 of those have been recorded as being in Cape Cod Bay as of Wednesday.<br />
<br />
A mother and her calf were spotted in the Cape Cod Canal Tuesday, and another mom/baby were seen in Cape Cod Bay about halfway between Provincetown and Marshfield. Experts expect many more in the upcoming weeks.<br />
<br />
The whales cruise the surface, filtering tons of plankton into their tummies. They often work very close to shore, and are visible to beachwalkers. Set up on a cliff (Manomet, Cedarville, Scituate, Saquish) if you can, height always helps when spotting. It involves more "getting lucky" than me getting laid, but even a bad day staring at the ocean is better than most good days.<br />
<br />
It goes without saying that you shouldn't hassle these whales. They are very rare. Boats are required by law to keep a few hundred yards between them and any righty. A collision between a whale and a boat could take an endangered species off of the charts.<br />
<br />
It's also good sense for the mariner. Look at how things ended for Captain Ahab, Quint, Joshua, Samuel L. Jackson... you don't want to mess with anything that can fit you in their mouth.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DKZT7D4Mbjo/WOW5itiU-rI/AAAAAAAADKI/yQW6Ix06pBQIv0kqU5LFtI8en6mqalPtwCEw/s1600/17821407_10155121010487510_646271211_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DKZT7D4Mbjo/WOW5itiU-rI/AAAAAAAADKI/yQW6Ix06pBQIv0kqU5LFtI8en6mqalPtwCEw/s640/17821407_10155121010487510_646271211_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com0Barnstable County, MA, USA41.939062754848571 -70.30151367187541.749832754848569 -70.624237171875 42.128292754848573 -69.978790171875tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-50066580937135688212017-04-04T10:40:00.002-04:002017-04-04T10:40:51.409-04:00Flooded Cranberry Highway Impassable In Spots<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C4G-qaPsJ2s/WOOuuJOLHeI/AAAAAAAADHs/JYWnCiC3A-s9ycCRmcqs1amlNy7YgGNSQCLcB/s1600/17806848_10155115447382510_1347711913_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C4G-qaPsJ2s/WOOuuJOLHeI/AAAAAAAADHs/JYWnCiC3A-s9ycCRmcqs1amlNy7YgGNSQCLcB/s640/17806848_10155115447382510_1347711913_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Route 6/28 through Wareham, aka The Cranberry Highway, is impassable for all but the highest-profile of vehicles.<br />
<br />
Drenching rains are pouring down on the 'Ham, and the area in front of the old 99 is an urban river.<br />
<br />
This is the second time this week that the Cran has been too flooded to drive through. Any good rain does it these days.<br />
<br />
Note that this is a major evacuation route for Buzzards Bay and Wareham, especially Onset, in the event of a hurricane. You'll want to get ghost early if your evacuation plans include East Wareham,<br />
<br />
We'll be back if an update is necessary.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-maowDloAkm8/WOOv-G_5tHI/AAAAAAAADHw/-Cz3YwyVsv4UglIfmMLZHY5m6kEQKbcQACLcB/s1600/17806984_10155115447052510_305654612_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-maowDloAkm8/WOOv-G_5tHI/AAAAAAAADHw/-Cz3YwyVsv4UglIfmMLZHY5m6kEQKbcQACLcB/s640/17806984_10155115447052510_305654612_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Click the "East Wareham" link at the bottom of the article for the map location of the flooded road.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com0East Wareham, Wareham, MA 02538, USA41.758738224711905 -70.6613159179687541.757257724711906 -70.66383741796875 41.760218724711905 -70.65879441796875tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-37166890520501360892017-04-02T11:36:00.000-04:002017-04-05T14:29:32.590-04:00Vampire Panic In New England<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F3jfrTlUbck/WN03GTEhw_I/AAAAAAAADGw/L_uuo9IdnnwRCLG25r1OvZwCZ2c12f__wCEw/s1600/17555137_10155089022287510_435658181_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F3jfrTlUbck/WN03GTEhw_I/AAAAAAAADGw/L_uuo9IdnnwRCLG25r1OvZwCZ2c12f__wCEw/s640/17555137_10155089022287510_435658181_n.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
New England is home to Harvard, Hawthorne and a lot of US Presidents. We have intellectual stripes that few states can match.<br />
<br />
We also would blame tuberculosis deaths on vampires and desecrate corpses to kill them now and then.<br />
<br />
New England had a period running from 1784 through 1949 where 80 bodies were exhumed from graves to be treated as vampires. Various folk-remedy methods of vampire extermination were utilized.<br />
<br />
This wasn't medieval stuff... a vampire was exhumed in Rhode Island about 20 years before Ronald Reagan was born, not too long before the Wright Brothers got an airplane off the ground. This was 200 years after the Salem Witch Trials. People were living during that exhumation who, in the same life, watched a moon landing on TV.<br />
<br />
What's up with these people? What's the dilly? As you might imagine, several factors were at work.<br />
<br />
Understand that the Internet sucked in 1892, with "sucked" meaning "didn't exist." Literacy, while on the upswing from near-zero in feudal times, was still a rare thing, especially in rural communities. The newest medical journals were slow to get to western Rhode Island farms. Doctors were rare, many were quacks, and even President McKinley had a doctor check a bullet wound by sticking a finger in his abdomen and poking around... in 1901.<br />
<br />
If educated city-folk were that dangerous, you can imagine how much damage a farmer could do when faced with a disease or infection that he had no idea about.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oyPYD1UkIMg/WN023NITu-I/AAAAAAAADGw/GwKZVxFYcs4RUVIGN52Iw70muTUjcqP3QCEw/s1600/17506427_10155089022102510_1764931269_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oyPYD1UkIMg/WN023NITu-I/AAAAAAAADGw/GwKZVxFYcs4RUVIGN52Iw70muTUjcqP3QCEw/s640/17506427_10155089022102510_1764931269_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Tuberculosis was only really figured out recently, and doctors would just throw up their hands when they saw it in 1892. Their cures were often worse than the illness- Doc Holliday was sent to a sulfur spring to treat his tuberculosis in 1887.<br />
<br />
Rhode Island farmers had even less understanding of tuberculosis, which they referred to as "consumption." The name was fitting. A person with tuberculosis would lose weight, become pallid, refuse to eat, fear light, labor to breathe... they wasted away before your eyes. It would also tear through families, many of whom were piled 8 deep in a house and sharing one bed.<br />
<br />
While a doctor might recognize this as tuberculosis, a farmer would have a different diagnosis set. It might include the spirit of a deceased relative leaving the grave and feeding on the life energy of their surviving family.<br />
<br />
Belief in vampirism goes back to Mesopotamia, and was still in effect in many parts of the world by 1892. This was before Bela Lugosi and <i>Twilight</i>, so no one thought of a vampire resembling a Hungarian count or a pouting teenage boy. When it wasn't being described as a sort of energy force, a vampire was viewed as more corpse-like than a Brad Pitt-looking fellow.<br />
<br />
While a diagnosis of vampirism might get you laughed out of Tufts, an illiterate farmer might think that it sounds as good as whatever the city slicker was telling them. You have a definite cause-and-effect thing working, always valuable to a man playing doctor who can't read. A diagnosis of tuberculosis requires medical knowledge and intense examination. All you need for a Vampirism diagnosis is for the TB to run through the rest of your family.<br />
<br />
Consumption happened a lot in rural communities. It was the leading cause of death in the northeast in the 1800s. To their credit, most farmers recognized it as a natural illness without paranormal overtones. That's why farm families crank out so many kids. Children are Labor, and even Dowry. They are also vulnerable, which is why many farmers banged out 12 kids in hope that 5 would survive to run the farm.<br />
<br />
However, historians have uncovered at least 80 instances where corpses were exhumed and desecrated because someone thought that they were vampires.<br />
<br />
Cases run from Maine to Minnesota , but New England holds the title. We do have places like Yale and enlightened cities like Boston, but we also had many areas chock full of susperstitious farmers.<br />
<br />
We are also heavy-handed with the punishment. We performed the first legal execution of a juvenile in America... for Bestiality, I believe.<br />
<br />
That tendency towards draconian superstition, much of it brought over from Europe, gave New England the title belt with both Witchcraft and Vampirism.<br />
<br />
There's a good reason why Shirley Jackson didn't set <i>The Lottery</i> in Manhattan, and why Stephen King set <i>Salem's Lot</i> in Maine. The stories work here.<br />
<br />
A relatively isolated area in Rhode Island and Connecticut could do a pretty good Salem's Lot impression, as a great % of the recorded Vampire exhumations went down there.<br />
<br />
You can't blame them totally- there was a prominent exhumation in Vermont in 1817, Thoreau wrote about one in 1859 and even America's Hometown of Plymouth has someone buried face down to prevent them from being able to dig their way out of a grave- but they were into it the most.<br />
<br />
A newspaper from Connecticut in 1784 denounced exhumations. The Tillinghast family of Exeter, which saw consumption run through it after the father's 1790s dream of a blight killing half of his orchard, lost half of their children even though they exhumed 17 year old Sarah and did a ritual. Jewett City, Connecticut, Saco, Maine (15 miles from where <i>Salem's Lot</i> was based), Loudon, New Hampshire, Belchertown, Massachusetts, Woodstock, Vermont, Cumberland, Rhode Island, Manchester, Vermont and Griswold, Connecticut- among dozens of other New England communities- went all Buffy on someone in the course of their histories.<br />
<br />
Exeter, if not the epicenter of the vampire craze, serves as the main neighborhood. They acted like Serbian gypsies. They also are notable for their brutal exhumation techniques, their near Reagan era survival of vampire superstition and for being the home of America's vampire queen.<br />
<br />
Mercy Brown, pictured below, is the most famous of the 80 recorded cases where a vampire-themed exhumation went on.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Un6ZSQfMHzQ/WN026vVhcBI/AAAAAAAADGw/BxOC7CQDg58o48jsogEMgJBSbD1L5p3EQCEw/s1600/17496377_10155089021627510_1313226536_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Un6ZSQfMHzQ/WN026vVhcBI/AAAAAAAADGw/BxOC7CQDg58o48jsogEMgJBSbD1L5p3EQCEw/s640/17496377_10155089021627510_1313226536_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Mercy was one of an unfortunate group of children that George and Mary Brown bore. George was a farmer living a hard life working a rocky Rhodey homestead. The consumption came for his family, taking Ma Brown in 1893 and a daughter the next year. The mother and daughter were Mary and Mary Olive. There was also a sister named Mercy Lena.<br />
<br />
Mercy fell sick and died in 1892. Then her brother Edwin fell sick. This set off a superstition algorithm involving multiple consumption deaths in the same family equaling undead predation.<br />
<br />
That was enough for the villagers. Perhaps fearing that Mercy would move on to their own families after polishing off the Brown blood bank, several locals- after a vote- approached George with a folk remedy. It may have been the last conversation of the Dark Ages.<br />
<br />
Although he gave his permission, George was not in attendance when a Frankenstein-style mob moved on the crypt that held the remains of Mercy Brown. Distinct among the group, which was most likely smaller than a mob, were a wildly protesting doctor and a <i>Providence Journal</i> reporter.<br />
<br />
Mercy was a winter death, and she was stored in the above-ground crypt that we have a picture of somewhere in this article. She was kept this way until the ground thawed enough for a burial. You should note that her crypt was very much similar to how they stored ice back then.<br />
<br />
They checked the coffins of all the Brown women. Two of them were Corpsing along as they should have been. Mercy was a whole other story.<br />
<br />
Mercy didn't look that bad for a corpse. The cold had preserved her well. They cracked open her chest and cut out her heart. It still had blood in it. Bingo! We got us a vampire!<br />
<br />
Since this was 5 years before <i>Dracula</i> was written (Bram Stoker had an article about the Brown exhumation among his papers, and may have based Lucy Westerna on Mercy Brown), the people- who only acted like Serbians, and didn't actually use Serbian words like <i>vampyr</i>- probably just called her Mercy or Lena... especially around George, who most likely had to be handled diplomatically.<br />
<br />
Vampire slaying methodology varied from region to region. Both Plymouth and Maine, connected by maritime trade, favored burying the corpse face down. Vermont was more brutal, and their methods spread down the Connecticut River into eastern Connecticut and western Rhode Island.<br />
<br />
Mercy's heart was placed on a nearby stone and cooked to a cinder. The ashes were then fed to her ailing brother, most likely in a tea. It worked so well, he was dead in two months, and is buried next to the sister that he consumed.<br />
<br />
Opinions vary as to whether it was effective. The doctor pointed out that Mercy's lungs showed tuberculosis. He no doubt spoke up when the remedy failed to cure Edwin. The locals pointed out that no Browns got sick after Edwin.<br />
<br />
Michael Bell, the authority on such matters, says that exhumations occurred in America until the mid 20th Century. The last one Bell is aware of went down in the Pennsylvania mountains in 1949. A construction crew in Griswold, CT dug up an ancient cemetery in 1990. One of the graves had been broken into. The corpse was beheaded, the heart was torn out and the legs were broken off. The damage was done 5 years after death.<br />
<br />
Mercy wasn't the last one, but is the most famous one. Her desecration got national publicity, all negative, and western Rhode Islanders were known as superstitious and "vicious" by neighboring communities, with the Boston Globe suggesting inbreeding as a cause for the vampire panic.<br />
<br />
We checked out her grave recently, as one of our road trips took us into that Rhodey/CT midst. Route 95 goes through there now, and Exeter is a charming bedroom suburb of Providence. You can still see the Old Days if you poke around some.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3B-jpCWWnc4/WN1kfJL_cSI/AAAAAAAADG8/wZvNbT8vgGMterN5ut6s0Pw3C3sh9MTYQCLcB/s1600/17554647_10155089022247510_344884367_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3B-jpCWWnc4/WN1kfJL_cSI/AAAAAAAADG8/wZvNbT8vgGMterN5ut6s0Pw3C3sh9MTYQCLcB/s640/17554647_10155089022247510_344884367_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com0Exeter, RI, USA41.5813738086061 -71.55854433774948141.5811883086061 -71.558859337749482 41.5815593086061 -71.558229337749481tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-2029813899735043562017-03-31T09:50:00.000-04:002017-03-31T09:50:03.617-04:00Late Season Snow Information<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PFZvtKplfs0/WN5d7Af94DI/AAAAAAAADHM/VfjaK6uuRzQNRqR1ZiWSwVQSdFTMd5IVQCLcB/s1600/17012638_10154996572767510_53207046_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PFZvtKplfs0/WN5d7Af94DI/AAAAAAAADHM/VfjaK6uuRzQNRqR1ZiWSwVQSdFTMd5IVQCLcB/s640/17012638_10154996572767510_53207046_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>Late-season snow facts:</b><br />
<br />
- According to <a href="http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/03/18/snow-boston-weather-forecast-massachusetts-sunday-monday-noreaster-accuweather-wbz/">WBZ</a>, Boston has had snowfall of 12 inches or more after March 20th once, in 1997. More on that in a sec. Boston has 6 instances where 6 or more inches of snow fell after March 20th. Worcester has had 12 such events.<br />
<br />
- Spring starts at 12:30 AM this Sunday, March 20th.<br />
<br />
- The average date of Boston's last snowfall is March 25th.<br />
<br />
- The latest measurable snowfall for Boston was a half inch on May 10th, 1977. The latest we've had non-accumulating snow in Boston was June 10th, 1955.<br />
<br />
- <a href="https://www.wunderground.com/blog/weatherhistorian/record-late-season-snowfalls">This source</a> tells me that New York and Atlanta both have the same day, in different years, for latest snowfall... April 25th.<br />
<br />
- Most of New England had frost on August 23rd in 1816, and lake ice was seen around the Bay State into August.. This was due to the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia, which gave everyone red, smoky skies and drove worldwide temperatures down. New England had her corn crop fail, and all sorts of food prices skyrocketed. June snow fell in some parts of New England. It is known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer">The Year Without A Summer</a>. They had one period where it went from 95 degrees to 35 degrees in a half day.<br />
<br />
- Three late-season snowstorms stand out in our history. One was that May 10th, 1977 one <a href="http://farmersalmanac.com/weather/2012/05/07/may-mayhem-a-freak-snowstorm-remembered/">from The Farmer's Almanac</a>. The record is a bit later in the year for the Berkshires. The other late-season trace snow events of note in our history are the ones I was yapping about up above.<br />
<br />
- Our second storm of note was the 1997 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fool%27s_Day_Blizzard">April Fool's Day Blizzard</a>. Over 25 inches of snow fell on Boston, and coastal flooding tore apart the shoreline.<br />
<br />
- Our third late-season storm of note was a <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1987-04-29/news/mn-1555_1_wet-snow">17-21 inch blockbuster</a> that hit Worcester and areas north on April 28th, 1987.<br />
<br />
I was a freshman at Worcester State College for that storm, and had just picked up a girl from West Boylston High School for a date... because that's how I rolled in 1987, playboy! We went to a movie, came out, and there were 6 inches of snow on the ground. We had an Italian dinner somewhere, and there was a foot on the ground when we came out of the restaurant.<br />
<br />
I had only been driving for a year, and had zero savvy. We nearly hit a plow when we skidded all the way down a hill on Route 9. We also drove into a drift in some guy's yard in Berlin, Massachusetts. It ended well... the homeowner called his sons out to shove my car from the drift, and they came out single file... and each one was bigger than the last. "Don't worry about it, just steer" is how the father replied when I offered to make Katie drive so that I could get out and help shove the car. They literally lifted my car and threw it from the drift.<br />
<br />
I got zero (0) play from that date, too. The only time I even got a hug as when we nearly crashed into the plow, and that may have been a case where she was trying to wrestle me into a position where the plow blade hit me first. I really can't blame her.<br />
<br />
Anyhow, 17 inches of snow is about as much as we get that late in the year. If you get snow on your lawn after May 10th, you just saw a regional record.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AaWoLOpHWRY/WN5d_2oaX5I/AAAAAAAADHQ/FaU1iKgWF5ob1OuGZ_bspQWwclhMelr5wCLcB/s1600/17741382_1896495587230520_278643712_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AaWoLOpHWRY/WN5d_2oaX5I/AAAAAAAADHQ/FaU1iKgWF5ob1OuGZ_bspQWwclhMelr5wCLcB/s640/17741382_1896495587230520_278643712_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>Our own March Madness brackets for Worst Massachusetts Storm Ever</b><br />
<br />
1) 1938 Great New England Hurricane<br />
<br />
2) 1635 Great Colonial Hurricane<br />
<br />
3) Blizzard of '78<br />
<br />
4) Hurricane Bob, 1991<br />
<br />
5) Worcester Tornado, 1953<br />
<br />
6) Halloween Gale, 1991<br />
<br />
7) Blizzard of 1888<br />
<br />
8) 1898 Portland Gale<br />
<br />
9) April Fool's Blizzard, 1997<br />
<br />
10) Hurricane Carol/Edna, 1954<br />
<br />
11) Hurricane Donna, 1960<br />
<br />
12) The Great September Gale Of 1815<br />
<br />
13) Winter of 2015<br />
<br />
14) 1944 Great Atlantic Hurricane<br />
<br />
15) The Triple Storms of 1839<br />
<br />
16) Blizzard of 2005<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Lower Seeds:</b><br />
<br />
2008 Ice Storm<br />
<br />
1698, reported 42 inches of snow in Cambridge<br />
<br />
1831 Snowstorm, 3 feet on the Cape<br />
<br />
1978 pre-Blizzard January snowstorm<br />
<br />
2011 Springfield Tornado<br />
<br />
Blizzard of 2013<br />
<br />
1993 Superstorm<br />
<br />
Saxby Gale, 1869<br />
<br />
1969 100 Hour Storm<br />
<br />
Winter of 1717<br />
<br />
1996 South Shore microburst<br />
<br />
Hurricane Belle<br />
<br />
Hurricane Gloria<br />
<br />
Hurricane Irene<br />
<br />
Hurricane Sandy/Post-Sandy Wareham microburst<br />
<br />
1960 snowstorm<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dQhGIf3aAD4/WN5eE1GUxnI/AAAAAAAADHU/ScHk2EM-YAEuwqCbJFfRWnqsVxP8tcDogCLcB/s1600/17160861_10155022534552510_289941768_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dQhGIf3aAD4/WN5eE1GUxnI/AAAAAAAADHU/ScHk2EM-YAEuwqCbJFfRWnqsVxP8tcDogCLcB/s640/17160861_10155022534552510_289941768_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com1Duxbury, MA, USA42.055997228501916 -70.64599514007568442.053049728501918 -70.651037640075685 42.058944728501913 -70.640952640075682tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-29627862250530615852017-03-19T09:38:00.003-04:002017-03-19T19:36:30.838-04:00Should Route 3A Have A Nickname?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aAs2X_khLCA/WM5-xUnHU4I/AAAAAAAADGU/zNDh7iTeXu4NWBFSbaQmS7XaCF2TttbewCLcB/s1600/17350943_10155063608807510_2085401976_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aAs2X_khLCA/WM5-xUnHU4I/AAAAAAAADGU/zNDh7iTeXu4NWBFSbaQmS7XaCF2TttbewCLcB/s640/17350943_10155063608807510_2085401976_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Granted, there are more important issues on the table. Syria and Iraq look messy. The Trumpcare rollout has been slightly less than smooth. North Korea is advancing their nuclear technology. There are many problems in the world more important than naming Route 3A something cool.<br />
<br />
However, those problems require complex solutions, ones that will most likely not be figured out by a wandering stoner journalist lining up his next road trip. However, I'm just the man to bring this issue to your attention and maybe float a few names out there to sort of jump-start the process. I'm not smart enough for a brainstorm, but I do generate an impressive squall line now and then. That's good enough to name a highway.<br />
<br />
One thing that Bourne, Wareham and Sandwich do well is name highways. Sandwich has the Old King's Highway (Route 6A), Bourne has the Scenic Highway (mainland Route 6, between the bridges) and ?ham has the Cranberry Highway. You could also throw in the Mid-Cape Highway and the Grand Old Army of The Republic Highway, but we're getting ahead of ourselves.<br />
<br />
Running a road along the Canal and giving it a catchy name didn't get the Muslims and the Jews to stop bickering or anything, but it adds some character to the area, makes it easier for traffic reports and helps the tourists along.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, the 50 mile stretch of road between Bourne and Quincy- Route 3A- has no nickname at all. Wikipedia <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Route_3A">says</a> it is known as the "Cape Way" highway, but that sort of doesn't really work either functionally (these days), as no one goes to the Cape that way anymore, and stylistically (ever). "Cape Way" blows like the mighty north wind.<br />
<br />
Every year at around St. Patrick's Day time, we run whatever Irish-themed articles we have kicking in the archives. <a href="https://cranberrycountymagazine.blogspot.com/2016/03/check-your-irish.html">"Check Your Irish"</a> is a good one, as is <a href="https://cranberrycountymagazine.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-irish-riviera.html">"The Irish Riviera."</a><br />
<br />
One thing you'll learn if you read either article (or read both, I need the money) is that the area between Quincy and Bourne is stuffed with Irish-Americans. That, and the seasonal/coastal nature of the area, garnered the "Irish Riviera" nickname for the area.<br />
<br />
Many inland towns have high Irish populations, but the <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/03/15/massachusetts-wicked-irish-charts/fVIOkbHW7E4xBwN3qwc5nL/story.html">big unbroken run of 33+% Irish</a> goes from Weymouth to Plymouth.<br />
<br />
If you stare at a map long enough, you'll also notice that Route 3A runs right through the same area. While 3A itself is inland some and doesn't host the actual Riviera, it connects to every piece of it through a sort of river/tributary system.<br />
<br />
If you weigh the factors of 1) no effective Route 3A nickname and 2) the green wave of Irish-Americans in that Plymouth-Weymouth stretch, a solution comes to mind. Give it an Irish-themed nickname.<br />
<br />
There are many sorts of nicknames, some official, some not. At least one pol who I asked said I'd have to go to MassDOT. That's if we want to go official. If we just want to introduce a nickname or three into the public domain and see if one of them catches on, all we have to do is write an article and post it a bit.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KUgUa3gs9tA/WM5-qK3moAI/AAAAAAAADGQ/0AZYaJg5P2EjnDOJHVR-DMNtfDUUkAzaACLcB/s1600/17354732_10155063610462510_1265931935_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KUgUa3gs9tA/WM5-qK3moAI/AAAAAAAADGQ/0AZYaJg5P2EjnDOJHVR-DMNtfDUUkAzaACLcB/s640/17354732_10155063610462510_1265931935_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Let's kick a few around, shall we?<br />
<br />
<b>- "St. Patrick's Highway"</b> has a nice ring to it, but it may violate the concept of keeping the church and state apart. That's probably my only official-sounding one.<br />
<br />
<b>- "Paddy Road"</b> sounds like an Irish Mob movie, but it is also very catchy.<br />
<br />
<b>- "Mick Street"</b> and the Happy Meal-sounding <b>"McStreet"</b> might offend someone, but it won't be someone Irish. The Irish, who were compared with dogs for a lot of US history, are incapable of taking offense. Don't believe me? Approach any college and say "<i>You should be more like the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. How about the Bridgewater State University Crafty Jews</i>?" You're not going to get a callback, player. Meanwhile, Irish-Americans who have never been near Indiana root for Notre Dame. If you think Christianity has anything to do with that, suggest that the bartender at your local sports bar stop what he is doing and hunt through the channels for the Oral Roberts University game.<br />
<br />
- I am reluctant to put quote marks around <b>O'Boulevard</b>, because it already has a half of one in it.<br />
<br />
<b>- "The Green Mile"</b> has ominous connotations from the movie that will be gone in a generation or two. It will also fit perfectly into those "<i>Massachusetts Roads Make No Sense</i>" memes, along the lines of "<i>The Green Mile is 50 miles long</i>." This nickname also lets us experiment with painting those yellow lines in the road green, which is just the thing to do in resort areas with a hard-drinking population base.<br />
<br />
<b>- "Shamrock Lane"</b> sounds like a stripper, but it is also very catchy and relatively inoffensive to people who aren't a bit too familiar with Stripper Naming. The movie with the giant monster (Cloverfield or John Goodman, take your pick) sort of ruined any "Clover Road" possibilities.<br />
<br />
<b>- "The Guinness Bypass"</b> would be ugly the first time someone de-barked a Route 3A tree.<br />
<br />
<b>- "The Capital Highway"</b> would be a simple power grab. Ireland stopped being the place with the most Irish one potato famine ago. America now has the most people of Irish descent, by a large margin. In America, Massachusetts is known as the most Irish state. In Massachusetts, the South Shore is recognized as the most Irish part of the most Irish state. Why shouldn't the South Shore thus have Capital status? Ireland can put the Capitol wherever they wish, but we can make a great claim to the Capital status. We should make a reality of that claim by naming Route 3A in such a mindset.<br />
<br />
<b>- "The Leprebahn"</b> is a mishmash spelling of the little Irish pixie and the Autobahn in Germany where you can drive 200 mph if your car (and skills) will support it. We could paint the stripes between the lanes Gold, like the pot o' gold that the leprechaun guards. To save money, we can just declare that we painted them gold, leave them as the present yellow that they are, and hope that it either A) fools the tourists or B) amuses the locals. Stacey, an editor here, is arguing strenuously for a spelling of "Leprechahn."<br />
<br />
<b>- "The Edge"</b> is not only a cool name for a road, but it is U2 related. U2 is an Irish rock band that the kids are listening to these days, or 1986 or whatever. That in itself doesn't merit a road, but could the actual real Edge guy be persuaded to record a quick ditty in exchange for having a highway named after him? I float this possibility only because Route 3A doesn't have her own song, like Route 128 does with that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy88-5pc7c8">Roadrunner</a> song by the Modern Lovers... although someone once told me that Roadrunner somehow references Cohasset <i>(Editor's Note: Christine Frka, a former Frank Zappa groupie, lived and died at the Cohasset house of Modern Lovers founder Johnathan Richman,,, h/t to Nathaniel Palmer)</i> . The Edge could hand us that title with ten minutes work.<br />
<br />
<b>- "Beating A Dead Horse Street" </b>comes to mind when it's time to end this article.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vH3vOgnKBz4/WM5-i2yWh4I/AAAAAAAADGY/7YoZgG8MCyciKxg-No8ioX6OHpsSTQY1ACEw/s1600/17361379_10155063611097510_354184250_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vH3vOgnKBz4/WM5-i2yWh4I/AAAAAAAADGY/7YoZgG8MCyciKxg-No8ioX6OHpsSTQY1ACEw/s640/17361379_10155063611097510_354184250_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com10Greenbush, Scituate, MA 02066, USA42.17676233561518 -70.74972152709960942.164995335615181 -70.7698915270996 42.188529335615179 -70.729551527099616tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-30921414971798637482017-03-14T08:57:00.000-04:002017-03-14T09:16:06.031-04:00Blizzard Inland, Winter Storm For SE Mass, Coastal Flooding, Power Outages<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q6XP5_7WlLE/WMfnw88e-hI/AAAAAAAADFk/GTvZgvLp3gwovyyCrpMANmQMUk7jHRJIgCLcB/s1600/17308827_1299977843429917_7894446011286228035_n.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q6XP5_7WlLE/WMfnw88e-hI/AAAAAAAADFk/GTvZgvLp3gwovyyCrpMANmQMUk7jHRJIgCLcB/s640/17308827_1299977843429917_7894446011286228035_n.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
...WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 3 PM EDT THIS<br />
AFTERNOON...<br />
<br />
Western Plymouth MA-Eastern Plymouth MA-Southern Bristol MA-<br />
Southern Plymouth MA-Western Kent RI-Eastern Kent RI-Bristol RI-<br />
Washington RI-Newport RI-<br />
Including the cities of Brockton, Plymouth, Fall River,<br />
New Bedford, Mattapoisett, Coventry, West Greenwich,<br />
East Greenwich, Warwick, West Warwick, Bristol, Narragansett,<br />
Westerly, and Newport<br />
719 AM EDT Tue Mar 14 2017<br />
<br />
* LOCATIONS...Southeast coastal Massachusetts and Coastal Rhode<br />
Island.<br />
<br />
* HAZARD TYPES...Heavy wet snow and strong winds.<br />
<br />
* ACCUMULATIONS...Snow accumulation of 4 to 8 inches.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZvRkcgyLWqA/WMfn7tx1COI/AAAAAAAADFs/1ZMan1iZsmUZDOBzpKGR_V557RzFEW0LgCLcB/s1600/17265105_1299978286763206_9090209565709902847_n.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZvRkcgyLWqA/WMfn7tx1COI/AAAAAAAADFs/1ZMan1iZsmUZDOBzpKGR_V557RzFEW0LgCLcB/s640/17265105_1299978286763206_9090209565709902847_n.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
* TIMING...Snow develops through 7 am and becomes heavy by mid<br />
morning. Snowfall rates of 2 to 4 inch per hour snowfall rates<br />
possible through early afternoon before precipitation changes<br />
to sleet and then rain.<br />
<br />
* IMPACTS...The heavy wet snow and strong winds may result in<br />
tree damage and scattered power outages along with poor<br />
visibility. Roads may become impassable at times from the<br />
heavy wet snow combined with the strong winds.<br />
<br />
* WINDS...Northeast 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 65 mph.<br />
<br />
* VISIBILITIES...One quarter mile or less at times.<br />
<br />
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...<br />
<br />
A Winter Storm Warning means significant amounts of snow are<br />
expected. This will make travel very hazardous or impossible.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cEhL6-K_d3U/WMfn1kFYi2I/AAAAAAAADFo/N8uW9NqCMtwUSvG_xoXljKbSsO4wEAJBACLcB/s1600/17264748_1299978520096516_7368925751096295819_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cEhL6-K_d3U/WMfn1kFYi2I/AAAAAAAADFo/N8uW9NqCMtwUSvG_xoXljKbSsO4wEAJBACLcB/s640/17264748_1299978520096516_7368925751096295819_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
...COASTAL FLOOD WARNING NOW IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM THIS MORNING TO 4 PM EDT THIS<br />
AFTERNOON...<br />
<br />
...COASTAL FLOOD WATCH IS CANCELLED FOR TONIGHT/S HIGH TIDE...<br />
<br />
* LOCATION...NORTH AND EAST FACING SHORELINES OF CAPE ANN INCLUDING PLUM<br />
ISLAND.<br />
<br />
* TIDAL DEPARTURE...A 2 TO 3 FOOT STORM SURGE IS LIKELY DURING THE EARLY<br />
AFTERNOON HIGH TIDE CYCLE TODAY.<br />
<br />
* TIMING...WITHIN A FEW HOURS ON EITHER SIDE OF THE EARLY AFTERNOON HIGH TIDE<br />
CYCLE TODAY.<br />
<br />
* COASTAL FLOOD IMPACTS...WIDESPREAD MINOR WITH AREAS OF MODERATE COASTAL<br />
FLOODING ARE LIKELY. MODERATE TO SEVERE EROSION IS LIKELY FROM THE WAVE<br />
ACTION ALONG OCEAN EXPOSED SHORELINES OF PLUM ISLAND.<br />
<br />
* SHORELINE IMPACTS...MODERATE TO SEVERE EROSION IS POSSIBLE FROM WAVE ACTION<br />
ALONG OCEAN EXPOSED SHORELINES.<br />
<br />
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...<br />
<br />
A COASTAL FLOOD WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN MODERATE OR MAJOR COASTAL FLOODING IS<br />
EXPECTED. MODERATE COASTAL FLOODING PRODUCES WIDESPREAD FLOODING OF VULNERABLE<br />
SHORE ROADS AND/OR BASEMENTS DUE TO THE HEIGHT OF THE STORM TIDE AND/OR WAVE<br />
ACTION. NUMEROUS ROAD CLOSURES ARE NEEDED. LIVES MAY BE AT RISK FOR PEOPLE WHO<br />
PUT THEMSELVES IN HARMS WAY. ISOLATED STRUCTURAL DAMAGE MAY BE POSSIBLE.<br />
<br />
MAJOR COASTAL FLOODING IS CONSIDERED SEVERE ENOUGH TO CAUSE AT LEAST SCATTERED<br />
STRUCTURAL DAMAGE ALONG WITH WIDESPREAD FLOODING OF VULNERABLE SHORE ROADS<br />
AND/OR BASEMENTS. SOME VULNERABLE HOMES WILL BE SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.<br />
NUMEROUS ROADS ARE IMPASSABLE...SOME WITH WASHOUTS SEVERE ENOUGH TO BE LIFE-<br />
THREATENING IF ONE ATTEMPTED TO CROSS ON FOOT OR BY VEHICLE. SOME NEIGHBORHOODS<br />
WILL BE ISOLATED. EVACUATION OF SOME NEIGHBORHOODS MAY BE NECESSARY.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1hVKZAG7uXw/WMfqjUHQC-I/AAAAAAAADF4/QwLI82IHMFMckngY1y3PnqM_Tx0mYiazwCLcB/s1600/17308758_10155053832252510_7123986173838993244_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1hVKZAG7uXw/WMfqjUHQC-I/AAAAAAAADF4/QwLI82IHMFMckngY1y3PnqM_Tx0mYiazwCLcB/s640/17308758_10155053832252510_7123986173838993244_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
TIME OF HIGH TOTAL TIDES ARE APPROXIMATE TO THE NEAREST HOUR.<br />
<br />
SCITUATE<br />
<br />
TOTAL<br />
TIDE DAY/TIME SURGE WAVES FLOOD<br />
/FT/ /FT/ /FT/ CATEGORY<br />
----------- ---------- --------- ------- ----------<br />
7.8- 8.3 14/03 AM -0.2/ 0.3 1 NONE<br />
12.6-13.1 14/02 PM 2.8/ 3.4 7-16 MODERATE<br />
11.4-11.9 15/02 AM 1.8/ 2.2 7-11 MINOR<br />
9.2- 9.7 15/02 PM -0.2/ 0.2 5 NONE<br />
9.3- 9.8 16/02 AM -0.2/ 0.3 5 NONE<br />
8.8- 9.3 16/03 PM -0.2/ 0.2 2 NONE<br />
<br />
VINEYARD HAVEN<br />
<br />
TOTAL<br />
TIDE DAY/TIME SURGE WAVES FLOOD<br />
/FT/ /FT/ /FT/ CATEGORY<br />
----------- ---------- --------- ------- ----------<br />
1.4- 1.9 14/03 AM 0.0/ 0.5 1 NONE<br />
5.4- 5.9 14/02 PM 3.7/ 4.2 3-6 MODERATE<br />
1.9- 2.3 15/02 AM 0.1/ 0.6 3 NONE<br />
1.4- 1.9 15/03 PM -0.2/ 0.2 2-3 NONE<br />
1.2- 1.7 16/03 AM -0.6/-0.1 3 NONE<br />
0.7- 1.1 16/04 PM -0.8/-0.2 2 NONE<br />
<br />
NANTUCKET HARBOR<br />
<br />
TOTAL<br />
TIDE DAY/TIME SURGE WAVES FLOOD<br />
/FT/ /FT/ /FT/ CATEGORY<br />
----------- ---------- --------- ------- ----------<br />
2.7- 3.2 14/03 AM -0.2/ 0.3 1 NONE<br />
5.4- 5.9 14/03 PM 2.3/ 2.8 5-7 MINOR-MDT<br />
5.1- 5.6 15/03 AM 2.0/ 2.5 5 MINOR<br />
2.7- 3.2 15/03 PM -0.2/ 0.2 4 NONE<br />
2.7- 3.2 16/04 AM -0.3/ 0.2 5 NONE<br />
2.2- 2.7 16/04 PM -0.6/-0.1 3 NONE<br />
<br />
SANDWICH / DENNIS<br />
<br />
TOTAL<br />
TIDE DAY/TIME SURGE WAVES FLOOD<br />
/FT/ /FT/ /FT/ CATEGORY<br />
----------- ---------- --------- ------- ----------<br />
12.8-13.3 14/01 PM 2.8/ 3.4 4-9 MINOR-MDT<br />
12.7-13.2 15/02 AM 2.7/ 3.2 4-5 MINOR<br />
9.4- 9.9 15/02 PM -0.2/ 0.2 2-3 NONE<br />
9.7-10.2 16/02 AM 0.1/ 0.6 3 NONE<br />
9.0- 9.5 16/03 PM -0.2/ 0.2 2 NONE<br />
<br />
PROVINCETOWN HARBOR<br />
<br />
TOTAL<br />
TIDE DAY/TIME SURGE WAVES FLOOD<br />
/FT/ /FT/ /FT/ CATEGORY<br />
----------- ---------- --------- ------- ----------<br />
8.6- 9.1 14/03 AM 0.0/ 0.5 1 NONE<br />
12.4-12.9 14/02 PM 2.0/ 2.5 6 MINOR<br />
11.1-11.6 15/02 AM 0.7/ 1.1 5 NONE<br />
9.9-10.4 15/02 PM -0.2/ 0.2 2-4 NONE<br />
10.1-10.6 16/03 AM -0.2/ 0.3 3 NONE<br />
9.3- 9.8 16/03 PM -0.5/ 0.0 3 NONE<br />
<br />
CHATHAM - EAST COAST<br />
<br />
TOTAL<br />
TIDE DAY/TIME SURGE WAVES FLOOD<br />
/FT/ /FT/ /FT/ CATEGORY<br />
----------- ---------- --------- ------- ----------<br />
5.2- 5.7 14/03 AM 0.0/ 0.5 2 NONE<br />
8.9- 9.4 14/02 PM 3.2/ 3.7 9-20 MINOR<br />
7.5- 8.0 15/03 AM 1.9/ 2.3 9-12 NONE<br />
5.2- 5.7 15/03 PM -0.2/ 0.2 6-7 NONE<br />
5.4- 5.9 16/03 AM -0.2/ 0.3 6 NONE<br />
4.7- 5.2 16/04 PM -0.5/ 0.0 3 NONE<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ziq3knzIiIk/WMfqoH0uF8I/AAAAAAAADF8/Abnxh7EW6nQ0IrKXlnkXOuAZQracbvBcACLcB/s1600/17342884_10155053831782510_5653393057804678964_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ziq3knzIiIk/WMfqoH0uF8I/AAAAAAAADF8/Abnxh7EW6nQ0IrKXlnkXOuAZQracbvBcACLcB/s640/17342884_10155053831782510_5653393057804678964_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com0Buzzards Bay, Bourne, MA 02532, USA41.764013742189448 -70.61874389648437541.752169742189444 -70.638913896484368 41.775857742189451 -70.598573896484382tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-13453896122556713062017-03-12T08:20:00.003-04:002017-03-13T03:50:33.249-04:00B Word! Blizzard Watch For The South Shore, South Coast<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eS3ZmbQSY-0/WMUypBgPblI/AAAAAAAADE4/m3uFvE99uussLOQbAi6EmTlt5p5ATjJLwCLcB/s1600/17203007_1297882383639463_3077624909992357402_n.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="414" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eS3ZmbQSY-0/WMUypBgPblI/AAAAAAAADE4/m3uFvE99uussLOQbAi6EmTlt5p5ATjJLwCLcB/s640/17203007_1297882383639463_3077624909992357402_n.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
UPDATE: Blizzard Watch now covers all of Plymouth and Bristol Counties!<br />
<br />
*************************************<br />
<a href="http://forecast.weather.gov/showsigwx.php?warnzone=MAZ018&warncounty=MAC023&firewxzone=MAZ018&local_place1=2%20Miles%20WSW%20North%20Carver%20MA&product1=Blizzard+Watch&lat=41.9046&lon=-70.8284#.WMUwmPnyvIU">BLIZZARD WATCH</a> REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM LATE MONDAY NIGHT<br />
THROUGH LATE TUESDAY NIGHT...<br />
<br />
* LOCATIONS...Southern Rhode Island and east coastal<br />
Massachusetts from Boston to Plymouth.<br />
<br />
* HAZARD TYPES...Heavy snow, strong winds, and reduced<br />
visibility.<br />
<br />
* ACCUMULATIONS...Snow accumulation of greater than 6 inches<br />
possible along drifting and blowing snow.<br />
<br />
* TIMING...Tuesday and Tuesday night.<br />
<br />
* IMPACTS...Rapid snow accumulation as well as blowing and<br />
drifting snow may make many roads impassable. There could also<br />
be scattered power outages.<br />
<br />
* WINDS...Northeast 25 to 35 mph with gusts over 50 mph.<br />
<br />
* TEMPERATURES...In the lower 30s Tuesday.<br />
<br />
* VISIBILITIES...One quarter mile or less at times.<br />
<br />
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...<br />
<br />
A Blizzard Watch means there is a potential for considerable<br />
falling and/or blowing snow with sustained winds or frequent<br />
gusts over 35 mph, with visibilities below one quarter mile, for<br />
at least 3 hours. Whiteout conditions will be possible, making<br />
travel very dangerous. Be prepared to alter any travel plans.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8xr_m8HDPyk/WMUyzVk1gwI/AAAAAAAADE8/NqzjTNyRZaYbglZSFG-2O87B3yK3W0Z3wCEw/s1600/17264753_1297882700306098_8518512817900518340_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="414" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8xr_m8HDPyk/WMUyzVk1gwI/AAAAAAAADE8/NqzjTNyRZaYbglZSFG-2O87B3yK3W0Z3wCEw/s640/17264753_1297882700306098_8518512817900518340_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Please note that Cape Cod and the interior of both Plymouth and Bristol County aren't in the Blizzard mix... yet.<br />
<br />
The rest of Southern New England has a Winter Storm Watch.<br />
<br />
Also note that the areas with the Blizzard Watch are the areas with (as for now) the lowest forecast snow totals.<br />
<br />
Remember, a Blizzard isn't just heavy snow, it involves winds and visibility. As we've pointed out before, you can have a Blizzard with no snow falling at all, but that's an extreme case where you need an iced-over Lake Superior full of dry, fluffy snow and a high wind.<br />
<br />
Coastal Flooding will be major and ridiculous. They are forecasting a 2-3 foot storm surge, on what I believe is a 9.9 and then a 10.0 tide on Duxbury Beach on Tuesday morning and Tuesday night. Only an unexpected wind shift will save the South Shore from a major Poseidonistic curb-stomping.<br />
<br />
We'll try to embed ourselves somewhere dangerous for the high tides, but no promises. The Cranberry County Magazine Cranmobile barely made it over the Bourne Bridge in the last blizzard, and the house that I usually storm-watch from on Duxbury Beach is rented. We'll do our level best for you, however.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UFwTQMNesR0/WMUzWJTs5gI/AAAAAAAADFA/SbrLvmLPig04EVENqCv0NSrXU4t77HpkgCLcB/s1600/17202983_1297882586972776_1769118412925822016_n.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="414" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UFwTQMNesR0/WMUzWJTs5gI/AAAAAAAADFA/SbrLvmLPig04EVENqCv0NSrXU4t77HpkgCLcB/s640/17202983_1297882586972776_1769118412925822016_n.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<u><b>Snow Total Predictions From Local News Stations</b></u>:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://boston.cbslocal.com/2017/03/11/new-england-weather-blizzard-watch-march-11-pamela-gardner/">WBZ</a>... " Plan on around a foot of snow for most (give or take a few inches) and maybe two feet.".... don't EVER bitch at me about a vague forecast again, Pam Gardener is getting 6 figures.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://whdh.com/weather-blog/one-thing-at-a-time/">WHDH</a>... " I think it’s a lock to say we see a widespread 6″ of snow… I think it’s a VERY good possibility we see a widespread 10-16″ of snow. I think it’s also a possibility that we get...closer to 20″ of snow.".... There's your "six to twenty inches" forecast that you see Boston weather girls drop now and then. Brie Eggers may just be in a More Vague contest with Pam Gardener.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.wcvb.com/article/giant-king-kong-statue-bursts-into-flames-during-vietnam-movie-premiere/9121128">WCVB</a>... 12-18" for Emass, 5-10" with some rain for Cape Cod<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.fox25boston.com/weather/fox25-boston-weather-forecast/10893603">WFXT</a>... 1-3" with rain on the Cape , 3-6" Plymouth/Bourne/South Coast, 6-8" interior Plymouth/Bristol Counties, 8-12" central/western MA<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.necn.com/weather/?zipCode=02201">NECN</a>... 5-15" coast, 10-20" inland<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/buzzards-bay-ma/02532/daily-weather-forecast/891_pc?day=3">Accuweather</a>... 9.7" in Buzzards Bay by Wednesday AM<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wbJMRZM9ZUM/WMU0Ib5cO0I/AAAAAAAADFM/HlDNlsBrdiodmrvAwBg0HHTocd6Bx2eiwCLcB/s1600/17201069_1297882643639437_1209584367128950031_n.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="414" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wbJMRZM9ZUM/WMU0Ib5cO0I/AAAAAAAADFM/HlDNlsBrdiodmrvAwBg0HHTocd6Bx2eiwCLcB/s640/17201069_1297882643639437_1209584367128950031_n.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>Info you may need or want:</b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://ma.usharbors.com/monthly-tides/Massachusetts-Boston%20Harbor,South%20Shore/Brant%20Rock">Tide Charts</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.eversource.com/Content/general/residential/outages">Eversource Outage Map</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.weather.gov/">National Weather Service</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://cranberrycountymagazine.blogspot.com/2015/09/master-list-hurricane-information-by.html">Forecast Flood Maps</a> (for hurricanes, but still a useful tool.... maps for all towns in EMass)<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/NWSBoston/?hc_ref=SEARCH">NWS Boston Facebook</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/990688824385595/">Nor'easter Blues</a> storm information/reporting Facebook page<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cUhxecipblM/WMU0Rh4qHyI/AAAAAAAADFQ/x-mNOOQRd7YeZsPVEbbzovQlgmV3fD7EACLcB/s1600/17309292_1297882333639468_6278040858732394322_n.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="414" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cUhxecipblM/WMU0Rh4qHyI/AAAAAAAADFQ/x-mNOOQRd7YeZsPVEbbzovQlgmV3fD7EACLcB/s640/17309292_1297882333639468_6278040858732394322_n.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com0Bourne, MA, USA41.7687510944553 -70.61256408691406241.721384094455296 -70.693245086914061 41.8161180944553 -70.531883086914064tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-28849055970826292682017-03-11T08:11:00.001-05:002017-03-11T10:06:23.157-05:00The Chase Wild Animal Farm Mystery<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-v7cxyHGNBL8/WMP64Q4ljYI/AAAAAAAADEk/j7lMrGoTY6kgWe21P63aeAX2wShopwtpwCLcB/s1600/12_12_279_1-09262012-10000313A.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="468" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-v7cxyHGNBL8/WMP64Q4ljYI/AAAAAAAADEk/j7lMrGoTY6kgWe21P63aeAX2wShopwtpwCLcB/s640/12_12_279_1-09262012-10000313A.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bill Chase is on the right.... we lifted this pic from the Circus No Spin Zone website</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Halifax is a quiet little town off of Route 106 in the rural center of Plymouth County in Massachusetts. While it doesn't qualify as "the middle of nowhere" since the commuter rail hit it, Halifax is still a place where nothing happens. I don't mind saying this, because I'm a former resident of Halifax, and I know that locals like it when nothing happens there.<br />
<br />
Halifax is largely residential today, but there was a time when it was a resort spot. The railroad lines that ran into town brought people from the teeming cities of the No Widespread Air Conditioning era. They were thrilled to spend a summer in a cabin, enjoying the many benefits of Silver Lake and (pre-algal blooms) Monponsett Lakes. Cars and highways brought day trippers.<br />
<br />
Businesses in town were built to suit the needs of these cash-carrying tourists. Since the land was cheap, a businessman could afford to think Big. A man named Bill Chase got into the import/export business, and his stock in trade was wild animal hunting/exhibiting/selling. Most of us don't know anyone who could get us an elephant... but if you knew Bill Chase, you knew someone who could get you an elephant. You also missed your chance, as he died in the 1980s.<br />
<br />
He had some gig, which I'm betting is quasi-illegal now, where he would capture animals in Africa, store them at his western Africa depot, and then ship them to zoos and reservations and whoever else orders things like Leopards. He also was in on some animal storage thing in Florida, which is most likely where his Wild Animal Farm animals spent their winters.<br />
<br />
What wild animal farm, you ask? Why, I'm talking about the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=DSEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&dq=chase+wild+animal+farm&source=bl&ots=6po599HTNR&sig=vbT7Fy32AiCTqgroGj3xl9dVXLQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj76KqftMfSAhVBzoMKHUU1AOAQ6AEINTAF#v=onepage&q=chase%20wild%20animal%20farm&f=false">Chase Wild Animal Farm</a> that used to be in Halifax, Massachusetts. In 1955, Chase moved his Chase Wild Animals Farm (which, due to his unfortunate last name, implies that you get to hunt the wild animals) from <a href="http://halfanhouraday.blogspot.com/2009/03/march-15-2009-dreamwold-scituate.html">Egypt/Scituate</a> Massachusetts to Halifax, Massachusetts.<br />
<br />
The farm (part of the Chase Enterprises, Inc. empire) had permits allowing them to keep the animals in their "natural habitat," which is sort of funny because no part of Africa, let alone the parts with the cheetahs and hyenas running around, has Halifax's climate. They had a veritable Wild Kingdom happening off of Route 106, about where the Country Club is today.<br />
<br />
Residents of the park included elephants, cheetahs, <a href="http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/picks-from-the-past/051883/an-anteater-named-teddy">anteaters</a>, leopards, zebra, llamas, various exotic birds and God knows what else. Admission was 50 cents for adults, and 25 cents "for moppets."<br />
<br />
They used the Zebra as the mascot for the farm, and cardboard zebras were placed on highways to make sure that tourists didn't sleep on the Dark Continent happening in Halifax. They had free advertising from an animal-themed Boston TV show, sponsored by a Chase-friendly dog food manufacturer. They had a promotional deal with a local soda company. They opened themselves up to churches, schools and youth groups, making sure every kid left with a free (advertising) bumper sticker.<br />
<br />
You could work a pretty good 1950s vacation in these parts. When you weren't splashing around in one of the Monponsett Lakes, you could go see a leopard at Chase's, then go to Edaville Railroad some other day, take the kids to Duxbury to see an ocean the next day, check out the Pilgrim stuff in Plymouth on another day, then finish off the week (and your paycheck) at Lincoln Park in Dartmouth.<br />
<br />
This was pre-Internet, and not far from an era where kids rolled a hoop down the street for fun. It is very far removed from my own style of vacationing, which generally involves places where I can't be extradited from, coca and a bevy of gringo-friendly prostitutes. We're getting away from the point, however... and if the kids weren't happy seeing a leopard and going to Lincoln Park, you could always send them off to Vietnam or- if what I saw on<i> Happy Days</i> was customary- have the Fonz slap some sense into them.<br />
<br />
I moved to Hally in 2000, and dudes were hitting 200 yard drives off the tee where CWAF was by the time I showed up. CWAF was unprominent (we make up our own words sometimes, and patent the really catchy ones) enough that I can't find out when it closed on the Internet. I could probably find out if I went to the town's historical society person, but I'm not going to Halifax from Cape Cod until I'm sure that I have a pretty good chance at getting a hippo skull (more on that later). I also have to convince Jessica to go, and the last time she and I went exploring in an old park, we were nearly arrested for breaking into Edaville Railroad. That is a story for another day, however...<br />
<br />
I do know that Chase was still looking for <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=gh4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA100&lpg=PA100&dq=chase+wild+animal+farm+halifax+ma&source=bl&ots=PlqK2Aeyw0&sig=oqaxy60EuzuCDPMkrxzt0vX-2i8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQ_5flicfSAhUJ5oMKHVGOBtsQ6AEIRjAH#v=onepage&q=chase%20wild%20animal%20farm%20halifax%20ma&f=false">Rhesus Monkeys</a> in 1957, so the park lasted at least that long. They ran a nine month season, closing after their big Yule Festival promotion that had Santa with real actual reindeer. I'm sure that elephants and toucans love Massachusetts in late December.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-haqVenytyg4/WMF1W4r3cwI/AAAAAAAADEE/DrytxuaxN6UCpLa4J2bZXqSkPGoPCeOSACLcB/s1600/14962394_10154618569942510_523251897_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-haqVenytyg4/WMF1W4r3cwI/AAAAAAAADEE/DrytxuaxN6UCpLa4J2bZXqSkPGoPCeOSACLcB/s640/14962394_10154618569942510_523251897_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
A guy on Facebook said it ran through the 1960s, and it was his post (taken from a <a href="http://www.topix.com/forum/city/hanson-ma/TCLNGPQH6F21H3R6A">forum on cougars</a> in Massachusetts) that got my imagination working. Several locals have told me a similar version of the story. I didn't canvas the town or anything, but no one I chatted with about the farm who actually had lived there when it was operating hadn't been told some version of this story.<br />
<br />
If I may cut and paste some....<br />
<br />
<i>"I grew up in Halifax, in the fifties and sixties. There was a wild animal farm there called the "Chase Wild Animal Farm" It's now the Halifax Country Club Golf Course. It was one of those walk-thru zoos in the forest,where the animals were barely restrained, and was finally shut down. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>The owner, a man name of Bob Belinda, released all the animals into the swamp, including big cats, birds, everything, before he was run out. Even elephants, alligators, monkeys, lions were in the swamps for years, and some undoubtedly cross-bred with local animals. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>After that time, we saw weird-looking birds like vultures, there were even yellow canaries that would attack other birds in swarms, and huge cats lived in the area after that. My father shot one huge cat by our barn, that was larger than a bobcat. We used to hear wild screams from the swamp in the summer, and Gawd knows what types of inbreeding went on. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>We had horses, goats and sheep that had to be watched closely becuse of the wild dog packs, and some of those that we killed resembled Hyenas. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>This can all be verified at the Halifax Town Hall. This is the area about a mile behind the King Supermarket on Plymouth street. You can start your own "Monsterquest," for real."</i><br />
<br />
Nowwwww, we have something we can work with.<br />
<br />
You and I both know that is nonsense. Let us count the ways.<br />
<br />
A guy who sells wild animals has very little to gain from releasing them into the swamps of Massachusetts. Even if he chose to do so (see: <a href="http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/10/chaos_at_zanesville_exotic_ani.html">Zanesville</a>, Ohio), it would have made headlines very quickly. An elephant rampaging through Plympton would be one thing, but it would get ugly with the quickness if the liberated leopard started picking off Kingston schoolchildren.<br />
<br />
Please understand that Logic only gets in the way of a good urban legend, even out in the sticks.<br />
<br />
If they did escape unnoticed somehow, some animals would have a better chance of surviving than others. The tropical birds would be hurtin' for certain. The cheetah once roamed North America, but I'm not sure if Massachusetts was part of that range. Asiatic Cheetahs are capable of growing a winter coat. Amur leopards range into Siberia. Hannibal once took 38 elephants over the Alps to invade Rome, possibly passing within sight of the Matterhorn, and got a few of them across.<br />
<br />
Still, every animal in the park would face long odds in a Massachusetts winter.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VwFqP1-GVVU/WMP6_kOmDDI/AAAAAAAADEo/kBsnZZdCHU4QF9HCJT-P_5RDlmshfiHXQCLcB/s1600/17021628_10212185103453651_8037616904249692721_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VwFqP1-GVVU/WMP6_kOmDDI/AAAAAAAADEo/kBsnZZdCHU4QF9HCJT-P_5RDlmshfiHXQCLcB/s640/17021628_10212185103453651_8037616904249692721_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">picture from Christine Murray Pearl</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
I have no idea how these species would interbreed with native fauna. The only thing I can see an elephant being able to shag around here would be a Jeep. A domestic cat would <i>explode</i> if a leopard entered her. Our local seagull population would be cooler if they interbred with escaped Macaws, but something like that would have been noticed as soon as they started opening McDonald's around here.<br />
<br />
Perhaps an alligator could be responsible for the hybrid car-sized <a href="https://cranberrycountymagazine.blogspot.com/2016/05/monster-turtle-in-plymouth-pond.html">turtle said to haunt Great Herring Pond</a> in Plymouth, but the killer mutant canaries story sounds eerily like the plot of that Sylvester/Tweety episode where Tweety gets into the steroids and swells up like 10000%, to the extent that he is then able to hunt Sylvester.<br />
<br />
However, some "proof" does exist if you insist on pursuing the mass-release story. Where I'm headed with this is the Bridgewater Triangle theory.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://cranberrycountymagazine.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-pilgrim-curse-expanding-bridgewater.html">The Bridgewater Triangle</a> is a term used to describe an area of heightened spooky/paranormal activity. It runs from Rehoboth to Abington back to Freetown, although you could make great arguments for including some of the surrounding areas.<br />
<br />
You name it, someone has seen it in the Triangle. UFOs? Check. Bigfoot? Twice spotted, once eating a pumpkin. Thunderbirds? Yup. Anaconda-sized snakes? You know they have it.<br />
<br />
A man who knows the basic Bridgewater Triangle legends can turn his imagination towards matching Triangle monsters to things that might have been released (or escaped- they say that Chase favored a barely restrained style of animal husbandry) from the Chase Wild Animal Farm in Halifax. This is especially true if it happens during a slow news week.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://cranberrycountymagazine.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-beast-of-truro.html">The Beast of Truro</a>? Perhaps this is what became of the Halifax leopard. I do wonder if Chase would bother to report a cheetah escape, or- if it killed someone- he'd just be like "<i>Oh well, it must have belonged to someone else around here who frequently purchases leopards</i>." The Pamet Puma, described by witnesses as a Big Cat style big cat, made no appearances after 1982.<br />
<br />
That alligator corpse in Westport recently? Could it be a sewer-living offspring of a Chase gator? No. We've discussed <a href="https://cranberrycountymagazine.blogspot.com/2016/03/headless-alligator-found-in-westport.html">alligators up north</a> before, it never ends well for the Gator. <a href="http://newenglandfolklore.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-frogman-of-silver-lake-truly.html">The Silver Lake Frogman</a> could have been someone getting a fast glimpse at an alligator, but it could not have been, too.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://patch.com/massachusetts/plymouth/i-saw-daniel-webster-s-sea-monster">Daniel Webster's Sea Monster</a>, spotted off Duxbury? OK, too early. The same goes for the Cape Ann sea serpent, and we should mention here that Chase did not have any plesiosaurs or however they spell that.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pukwudgie">Pukwudgies</a>? Too early, the Wampanoags had lore of them. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dover_Demon">The Dover Demon</a>? That could easily be escaped Rhesus monkeys, who would most likely have had the best chance of escaping Chase's farm.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://sasquatchchronicles.com/bigfoot-in-the-bridgewater-triangle/">Bigfoot sightings</a> in Bridgewater? Could it have been someone mistaking a llama? Even if your answer is no, you simply<i> have</i> to grade that possibility far above "<i>a Yeti wandered into a Massachusetts college town.</i>" Chase procuring and losing a bear without Google knowing 60 years later is also a possibility.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.thebridgewatertriangle.com/2013/12/hockomock-swamp_2.html">Giant snakes</a> menacing workers in Hockomock Swamp? I bet there was a very short list of <i>"people who might import an Anaconda into the greater Halifax area,</i>" and Chase was probably on the top of it. While the Hockomock snake story goes back to the Great Depression, Chase was in business in Scituate at the time, and your guess would be as good as mine as to "<i>where in Massachusetts to get rid of an unwanted Reticulated Python</i>."<br />
<br />
Those monster stories are best left to the Monster Hunters. There's one grotesque part of the Chase legend that fascinates me, and that may finally move me into a trip back to my old Halifax stomping grounds.<br />
<br />
An ugly story followed Chase around, both in Halifax and in his prior Scituate digs. When his animals died, he was rumored to have buried them on-site. According to local legend, the remains of a giraffe are buried in <a href="http://halfanhouraday.blogspot.com/2009/03/march-15-2009-dreamwold-scituate.html">Scituate</a>. Halifax, where I intend to prowl around some, is said to be the final resting place of a hippo.<br />
<br />
It makes sense in a pre-EPA way. Let's say that your elephant moves on to the Final Answer. It's not like you're going to ship him back to Africa for burial. I doubt that any animal cemetery in the region could accommodate one. Much like when you have to kill someone, you go find an isolated spot out in a forbidding swamp and dig a hole wide enough and deep enough. While an elephant funeral would most likely be a great media event, it would raise ugly questions with the local officials... who might be understandably leery of the guy who keeps free-ranging cheetahs in town.<br />
<br />
You can see where my man might want to do his dirt by his lonesome, on the D Low.<br />
<br />
It is for God to judge him, and- seeing as he died in the 1980s- that probably has already happened. All I care about is where to dig for that Hippo skull.<br />
<br />
Most of the time, we write about foliage and snowstorms and local matters, but this column does piss someone off now and then, and they sometimes are able to deduce my identity and thus my home address. This leads to animated discussions and sometimes even the presence of Johnny Law.<br />
<br />
Now, I'm not a small man, and I like a good slobberknocker as much as the next guy does... but, if I can avoid conflict because my stalker foes are intimidated by the giant and ghastly Hippo skull that I have nailed to the front gable of my cottage, that counts as a win.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-V1t1ddX8XmU/WMP3gmhIE9I/AAAAAAAADEY/bOEREEQwLQgYLDbgN34hdXjGHVvx_r9gACLcB/s1600/9caa89fa-9cad-4c5b-854d-c6a8e1240241_zpsivyijklx.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-V1t1ddX8XmU/WMP3gmhIE9I/AAAAAAAADEY/bOEREEQwLQgYLDbgN34hdXjGHVvx_r9gACLcB/s640/9caa89fa-9cad-4c5b-854d-c6a8e1240241_zpsivyijklx.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com0Halifax, MA 02338, USA41.985142672697684 -70.844993591308641.973339172697685 -70.865163591308587 41.996946172697683 -70.8248235913086tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-70115257727570492362017-03-08T09:34:00.001-05:002017-03-08T09:34:12.120-05:00Three Chances At Snow In The Next Week<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-977RRXr2Nhs/WMAV_dYiqHI/AAAAAAAADDg/m_xyBKLz9FYgIQHj5VCMMGxL7QmPVYvJACEw/s1600/16788086_10154969782987510_482238961_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-977RRXr2Nhs/WMAV_dYiqHI/AAAAAAAADDg/m_xyBKLz9FYgIQHj5VCMMGxL7QmPVYvJACEw/s640/16788086_10154969782987510_482238961_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<i><br /></i>
<i>You</i> may have been fooled by that Strawberry Spring we had this month, but Cranberry County Magazine wasn't fooled. It takes a good man to fool Cranberry County Magazine... it just doesn't take him very long.<br />
<br />
As it turns out, we have not one not two but THREE shots at some Siberian Marching Powder in the next 7 days.<br />
<br />
<b>Friday </b>looks like the best bet. 1-3" are forecast to fall on us. Friday morning looks to be the time for that one, although- as we always say in this business- a slight wobble in the track could mean rain, no precipitation at all, or even 3-6". Freezing cold air moves in behind this storm for the weekend, so get the shovel work done early, lest you be chopping at ice on Saturday.<br />
<br />
<b>Sunday Night/Monday Morning</b> has a lower floor and a much higher ceiling. The floor, made more likely by the length of time between Now and Then, could be a non-event. The ceiling would be a powerful nor'easter with heavy snow. Yup, I just gave you a forecast of "nothing or two feet." If you want odds, go with the non-event, as it is the more likely scenario. Just remember that we also told you about the ceiling.<br />
<br />
<b>Monday Night/Tuesday Morning</b> is a storm which (currently) is forecast to move along a more northerly track than the fellow we're watching for Sunday night, and is more of a bet to put some powder on us. Accuweather, which is very conservative, is giving Bourne, MA three inches of snow <a href="http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/buzzards-bay-ma/02532/daily-weather-forecast/891_pc?day=6">for this one</a>.<br />
<br />
Please remember that these events are not set in stone. They could be better or worse than I am telling you. You want to check the forecasts frequently during the upcoming week, as it is constantly evolving and has the chance to mess up your commute.<br />
<br />
We'll be back with an update.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wH39NPsm5qo/WMAWBAlOyiI/AAAAAAAADDk/3ssFc0RiS5cEoFV_2b5ufIsMYEleJVgjACLcB/s1600/16788110_10154969782922510_787857883_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wH39NPsm5qo/WMAWBAlOyiI/AAAAAAAADDk/3ssFc0RiS5cEoFV_2b5ufIsMYEleJVgjACLcB/s640/16788110_10154969782922510_787857883_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com0Buzzards Bay, Bourne, MA 02532, USA41.763693638204018 -70.61994552612304741.757771638204019 -70.630030526123051 41.769615638204016 -70.609860526123043tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-63729971722416103992017-03-04T10:34:00.000-05:002017-03-04T16:51:56.413-05:00The Rise, Fall and Rebirth Of The Hanover Mall<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kOf0yX7jwuI/WLrdboWJ5II/AAAAAAAADDQ/QG840rEBgG4Yw7GDuQ5pL1uKlptx1jjSgCEw/s1600/17102043_10155012776407510_1936544823_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kOf0yX7jwuI/WLrdboWJ5II/AAAAAAAADDQ/QG840rEBgG4Yw7GDuQ5pL1uKlptx1jjSgCEw/s640/17102043_10155012776407510_1936544823_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
A local icon is about to get a major face lift in an attempt to Get Modern.<br />
<br />
The Hanover Mall was sold recently (to PECO Real Estate Partners, for $39.5 million), and the new owners came out this week and <a href="https://959watd.com/blog/2017/03/hanover-mall-headed-for-big-changes/">debuted their plans</a> for the Route 3 landmark.<br />
<br />
The plans are radical. it involves the Hanover Mall becoming a sort of outdoor mall, along the lines of Shops At The 5 in Plymouth or even- keeping it Plymouth- the Colony Place mall with the Wal-Mart. Rather than enter one big building with all the shop entrances inside the mall, you can pull up to whatever store you want to go to.<br />
<br />
Malls, aka large scale public shopping centers, have been around at least as long as Rome, and actually predate Rome if you're willing to break out the dictionary and argue Semantics for a while. Trajan's Market in Rome is the first one with a name I can find, but Istanbul, Damascus, Tehran, Oxford, Paris and St. Petersburg have malls that are older than America. Timbuktu, technically a city, was essentially a mall that was fortunate enough to have culture spring up around it.<br />
<br />
America mastered the mall, and we were/are the catalyst behind the advent of the modern mall. America is big, and we spread ourselves further out than European or Middle Eastern people do. This led to us getting into cars and highways and- most importantly- Suburbia.<br />
<br />
Notice that all of the old malls that I named are based in cities. For much of history, people would take their goods into the cities, where the large numbers of people gave them the largest market possible for those goods. Cars, trains and highways allowed Americans to flee the teeming industrial cities, and they didn't want to have to trek back into the Metropolis every time they needed a vacuum cleaner or a manicure.<br />
<br />
In the same vein, the low population density of a suburb means that you can't set up a vacuum store in town and sell enough of them to earn a living. Americans also need a great variety of stuff, and there is only so much room on Main Street. You can't fit every sort of store that someone needs in one town.<br />
<br />
Keep in mind, this is pre-Internet. If you need a part for your wood stove and it's 1972, you can't just order it online. You can't even Google up a location for the Wood Stove Parts store a few towns over from you. That's just how it was back then. <i>"The Internet must have sucked in the 1920s</i>," as one of my students once said.<br />
<br />
The solution? Build an airport-sized building, and fill it with every sort of shop that a person could want. Space these buildings out, maybe one or three per county. Soon enough, rather than trekking town to town in search of an obscure product that you need, you can walk through a mall full of more stuff than you could possibly even take a crack at buying in an average life span. Walk through your local mall today, and you'll probably see several dozen stores that you will never set foot in. "<i>This place has got everything</i>," as Joliet Jake once said.<br />
<br />
Laws opening up land for development and tax dodges where real estate investment trusts could avoid corporate income taxes spurred mall growth. Retail Stores dominated America. The enclosed suburban mall style (like Hanover) came about in the 1950s. By 2015, there was 48 square feet of retail space for every American.<br />
<br />
Malls are deeply ingrained in American culture. While I lack the fashion knowledge, several girls in Duxbury that I knew in high school could tell where someone was from by a formula of A (what they're wearing) = B (which mall had an Old Navy or whatever), which = C (the kid must be from the region which had that mall), so A = C.<br />
<br />
Every kid in every 1980s movie who wasn't babysitting or selling drugs worked in a mall. I think that all of the non-Spicoli kids from <i>Fast Times At Ridgemont High</i> worked <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUMTshUflTg">in a mall</a>. The best car chase in <i>The Blues Brothers</i> went <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz81ZO0qfvI">through a mall</a>.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LxGfGz_P27A/WLrNRsL2V8I/AAAAAAAADC0/iGhMYVONR2Usyq0BnStJBkcx8GsNUjq-wCLcB/s1600/17124839_10155012776102510_1251421224_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LxGfGz_P27A/WLrNRsL2V8I/AAAAAAAADC0/iGhMYVONR2Usyq0BnStJBkcx8GsNUjq-wCLcB/s640/17124839_10155012776102510_1251421224_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanover_Mall">The Hanover Mall</a> has stood in place since 1971, and was the only mall in the region until they put the Independence Mall (now known by the newly redesigned and ridiculous Kingston Collection moniker). If you commute to Boston up Route 3 from anywhere south of Exit 13, you look at the Hanover Mall twice a day.<br />
<br />
Any kid from the 1980s Irish Riviera who was too far from the South Shore Plaza didn't have many mall choices. Hanover was your mall. It's where you did your school shopping, where the cinema was, where to try to get girls before you figured out Beer... it was where you could buy jeans and have a pretzel while someone was fixing your brakes. If you couldn't knock off your Christmas shopping in one trip there, you weren't trying hard.<br />
<br />
Still, as the child of the 80s grew up, he saw the Decline setting in. I can recall being very angry when the York Steak House left (one YSH remains in America, and it's in Ohio), I still miss Friendly's and Brigham's, I disagreed with the closing of Zayre's and a big part of me thinks that the mall people deserved what they got when they uprooted the fountain.<br />
<br />
The Hanover Mall never really died, and the tail still wags. They just became marginalized. It's funny, because it is straddled by wealthy towns like Duxbury and Cohasset, but here's what did in the Hanover Mall that you know and love. Keep in mind,the guy doing all this urban planning talk peaked in life as a Sportswriter, and has very little experience planning malls and analyzing market trends.<br />
<br />
1) They were slow to adapt to the Food Court idea. When the Independence Mall opened and you could get Taco Bell in these parts, it was very bad for Hanover when the best non-Brigham's meal you could get in their mall was an Orange Julius. Much like a house with shag carpeting, the Hanover Mall had a very 1970s look during an era of rapid Mall Change.<br />
<br />
2) The Independence Mall came when the Hanover Mall was getting complacent. Hanover was the only dog in town for a while, and when the Kingston mall opened, people had shopped themselves out at Hanover's long-term offerings. <i>"Let's go to Hobbytown again!"</i><br />
<br />
3) Hanover had a highway project going right off Route 3's exit that took 35 years or so to complete, and the left turn towards the mall for someone coming up from Plymouth was a death wish.<br />
<br />
4) We're getting into Square Footage talk that I'm not really smooth enough to discuss, but Hanover was very poorly equipped to accommodate the big Box Stores that came into vogue after Hanover was constructed.<br />
<br />
5) Wal-Mart kills everything else, why not the Hanover Mall? You can carry a dozen shopping bags full of goods through 40 stores like a homeless person at a mall, or you can get all of that stuff in shoddy, Made-in-Chine mode and run it through the register all at once in a Wally.<br />
<br />
6) The Hanover Mall eventually went into business with the devil and gave Wal-Mart a corner office, but it's one of those weak Wallys without the supermarket. More modern malls are built to accommodate free-standing Super Wal-Marts.<br />
<br />
7) Hanover finally went for a food court, but they did so when Kingston was kicking their ass. The food court was never profitable, and they ended up putting an Old Navy there instead.<br />
<br />
8) We had a backbreaking recession kick in by 2008, and there was trouble with gas inflation long before that. Those things bring about the Want/Need question among belt-tightening people.<br />
<br />
9) The Internet slit a lot of Mall throats. Why wander through gangs of teenagers when you could instead just order stuff online? While a mall has great variety, the Internet has more stuff.<br />
<br />
10) Hanover is set in a wealthy area of the South Shore, and those towns tend to trend Elderly. Old people buy less stuff, and towns with lots of elderly are bad places to open up a Hot Topic in.<br />
<br />
11) The growth of Southern Plymouth (and the explosion of shopping options south of the Independence Mall) both drew away customers and illustrated the new open-mall game plan that Hanover would either adopt or perish before.<br />
<br />
12) Malls in general went into decline. Malls were still being built in the 1990s, but a marked decline was present by the turn of the century. The fight-or-flight period for many struggling malls went down during the Great Recession.<br />
<br />
13) Store owners balked at the high cost of heating the common areas in an indoor mall.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iCWjJ0IskWc/WLrZR5CXSnI/AAAAAAAADDE/M5qwXy_ZoJM3VXiqOy8obrGErSKhfW-lwCLcB/s1600/17105659_10155012776302510_87157855_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iCWjJ0IskWc/WLrZR5CXSnI/AAAAAAAADDE/M5qwXy_ZoJM3VXiqOy8obrGErSKhfW-lwCLcB/s640/17105659_10155012776302510_87157855_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Hanover is now rolling the dice on the outdoor mall approach. This will be a sort of retail cul-de-sac formation, based around several box stores.<br />
<br />
They'll pour millions of dollars into it, snarl up the traffic some, and a whole new entity will emerge in the following years. It will be a major economic base in the central South Shore, and it will employ or supply many of her residents.<br />
<br />
We'll miss the old Hanover Mall, but progress is inexorable, Several "dead" malls (Hanover, which is still somewhat vibrant, qualifies as a "dead" mall among mall-labeling people because it is seen to be underperforming) have been restored to their former glory through just this sort of bulldozing, and Hanover is in a prime commercial region.<br />
<br />
Even the guy who paid $39 million for the Hanover mall described it as a "B+" 1970s mall that "started to diminish." I doubt that's what he has in mind as an end goal, so we should end up with a pretty cool mall sitting in a prime location just off the highway.<br />
<br />
Only time will tell us what ends up in there. He could change his mind and fill it with low-income housing, for all that I know. For now, we're looking at a bulldozing and rebuilding project, and a brand new, redesigned Hanover Mall that will confuse elderly people for a generation.<br />
<br />
Construction is set to kick off at the end of 2017, so prepare yourselves. We'll be back with an update as they get closer to Bulldozer Time.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mZz---dqunQ/WLrMoXrIJoI/AAAAAAAADC4/Nlaj6kcilNQpa7xMlasE1iOyuXQOPNmhQCEw/s1600/17093935_10155012776437510_209599712_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mZz---dqunQ/WLrMoXrIJoI/AAAAAAAADC4/Nlaj6kcilNQpa7xMlasE1iOyuXQOPNmhQCEw/s640/17093935_10155012776437510_209599712_n.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com321775 Washington St, Hanover, MA 02339, USA42.146466 -70.84205399999996242.1346925 -70.862223999999955 42.158239499999993 -70.821883999999969tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8312504156066286532.post-61315372702615569082017-02-26T10:17:00.000-05:002017-02-26T10:17:07.413-05:00Sunday Drive Gas Prices For South Shore, Plymouth County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OeWoAluZVok/WLLnRHGpnMI/AAAAAAAADB0/NXbdpQuH_AYXKMK24b4oI1sdVZuYMsfLQCLcB/s1600/17028899_10154999300072510_245228412_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OeWoAluZVok/WLLnRHGpnMI/AAAAAAAADB0/NXbdpQuH_AYXKMK24b4oI1sdVZuYMsfLQCLcB/s640/17028899_10154999300072510_245228412_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">The life experiences of staff motivate much of what turns up in this column. That is the case today, as the void left by the end of Football Season has fully asserted itself and it is not unusual for your author to take to the streets.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">That costs money, because to get gasoline you must have dead organisms (mostly plant life, but yes, dinosaurs too) get buried under layers of stone and dirt, have it heated and pressurized by the functions of the Earth, wait 10 million years, have a bunch of PLO looking dudes move in over it, have someone figure out that you can burn this stuff in a manner that heats homes and powers machinery, subjugate the PLO guys, extract, refine, ship and distribute it.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">It takes a lot of time and money to do all of that, so don't be too unhappy if gas costs $2 and change a gallon. It beats walking to Boston. That said, a reasonable person doesn't want to pay more than necessary to drive the beater around.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">We're here to help you with that. We check with the </span><a href="http://www.massachusettsgasprices.com/" style="background-color: white; color: #7e7e7e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-decoration: none;">Massachusetts Gas Prices</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> website, set the search engine there for "last 36 hours," and tell you the best and worst listed prices in town. After that, it's on you to decide if it is worth driving to Whitman from where you live to save 25 cents a gallon.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">A few notes on our methodology:</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Gas prices can change at the drop of a hat. I pumped gas for a few years (I was never happier at a job, to be honest), and we usually changed over on Friday, before the weekend commute. There was a great deal of gouge-the-tourist behind this, but it is also when most people are getting their paychecks and filling their tanks.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">We'd write this column on Friday night, but these gas price websites are user-driven, and it takes a while for the info to trickle in. Sunday is a good driving day (see intro), and with no tourists at this time of year, many/most stations don't lower the prices on Monday to favor the locals.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Note that, in this political climate, gas prices could suddenly spike. An oil company executive is our Secretary of State, and a simple </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">"Those damned Iranians need to die 100,000 at a time. Pathetic!"</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> social media message from the wrong orange-tinted president could double gas prices overnight.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">If you see a lower/higher price in town that we didn't list, use our comments feature below to correct us. If there is more than one Shell in your town, it's on you to drive enough to find the cheap one.</span><br />
<br />
Mobil has the worst price in 10 of 20 towns that had both a high and low price reported. They also had the worst price on the South Shore, a Gimme The Loot price of $2.69 at the Norwell Mobil.<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">National Average Gas Price: $2.228</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Massachusetts Average Gas Price; $2.259</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Price per barrel, crude oil: $53.57</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;">Best Price in this article: $2.05, Prime Energy and Diamond Fuel in Whitman</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;">Worst Price: $2.69, Mobil in Norwell.</span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jCR1mrwW7tQ/WLLnea0iu9I/AAAAAAAADB4/3mJGMqrCTWw3RgIXyH3hYyy-7va4sopXwCLcB/s1600/16976780_10154999299742510_678289620_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jCR1mrwW7tQ/WLLnea0iu9I/AAAAAAAADB4/3mJGMqrCTWw3RgIXyH3hYyy-7va4sopXwCLcB/s640/16976780_10154999299742510_678289620_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
GAS PRICES BY TOWN<br />
<br />
Plymouth<br />
Best: $2.11, BJs<br />
Worst: $2.49, Gulf<br />
<br />
Carver<br />
Best: $2.13, at both Eagle Gas and Geko<br />
Worst: $2.15, Mobil<br />
<br />
Middleboro<br />
Best: $2.06, Petro Max<br />
Worst: $2.23, Mobil<br />
<br />
Lakeville<br />
Best: $2.13, Shell<br />
Worst: $2.15, Mobil<br />
<br />
Bridgewater (East, West and Everything Else)<br />
Best: $2.10, Tri Town<br />
Worst: $2.46, Mobil<br />
<br />
Halifax<br />
Best: $2.16 Cumby's<br />
Worst: $2.27, Mobil<br />
<br />
Plympton<br />
Best: $2.15, Plympton Gas and Convenience<br />
<br />
Kingston<br />
Best: $2.15, Super Petroleum<br />
Worst: $2.25, Gulf<br />
<br />
Duxbury<br />
Best: $2.29, Bennet's<br />
Worst: $2.35, Gulf<br />
<br />
Marshfield<br />
Best: $2.14, Public Petroleum<br />
Worst: $2.27, Shell<br />
<br />
Scituate<br />
No Prices Reported<br />
<br />
Pembroke<br />
Best: $2.18, Cumby's<br />
Worst: $2.39, Mobil(s)<br />
<br />
Hanson<br />
Best: $2.13, at both Cumby's and Speedway<br />
Worst: $2.35. Main Street Auto<br />
<br />
Brockton<br />
Best: $2.06, Montello's Express gas<br />
Worst: $2.29, Sunny's Auto Care<br />
<br />
Whitman<br />
Best: $2.05, at both Prime Energy and Diamond Fuel<br />
Worst: $2.09, at both Whitman Gas and Stop & Shop<br />
<br />
Abington<br />
Best: $2.07 Route 18 Superstore<br />
Worst: $2.19, Abington Gas and Auto Repair<br />
<br />
Rockland<br />
Best: $2.15, at both Mutual and Steve's Auto Service<br />
Worst: $2.25, BP<br />
<br />
Hanover<br />
Best: $2.13, Super Petroleum<br />
Worst: $2.29, Sunoco<br />
<br />
Norwell<br />
Best: $2.47, 7-11<br />
Worst: $2.69, Mobil<br />
<br />
Cohasset<br />
Best: $2.29, Stop & Shop<br />
Worst: $2.31, Mobil<br />
<br />
Hingham<br />
Best: $2.17, Mobil<br />
Worst: $2.39, Gulf<br />
<br />
Hull<br />
No prices reported<br />
<br />
Weymouth<br />
Best: $2.17, at both the Towne Pump (hey nowwwww) and Super Petroleum<br />
Worst: $2.49, Mobil<br />
<br />
Quincy<br />
Best: $2.15, Super Petroleum<br />
Worst: $2.47, Mobil<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hHYJJgRSioo/WLLnpF08t_I/AAAAAAAADB8/_r0eppUkVYEpD0KOW4mYIbr3Rl4wpggqgCLcB/s1600/16997439_10154999299522510_1807139346_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hHYJJgRSioo/WLLnpF08t_I/AAAAAAAADB8/_r0eppUkVYEpD0KOW4mYIbr3Rl4wpggqgCLcB/s640/16997439_10154999299522510_1807139346_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Be sure to check our <a href="https://cranberrycountymagazine.blogspot.com/2017/02/sunday-drive-gas-prices-cape-cod.html">Cape Cod</a> and <a href="https://cranberrycountymagazine.blogspot.com/2017/02/sunday-drive-gas-prices-for-bristol.html">South Coast</a> versions of this very same article.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06407126252456078678noreply@blogger.com0Duxbury, MA, USA42.049866252884648 -70.64404249191284242.048392252884646 -70.646563991912842 42.05134025288465 -70.641520991912842