I consider the Lowell Spinners to be unsurpassed in the field of minor league baseball promotions, but the Binghamton Mets, the double AA affiliate of the New York Mets, definitely earned honorable mention on Tuesday night with a “plunger giveaway.” The first 1000 fans into the park received a free toilet plunger, courtesy of Sage Supply and radio station KGB FM. The promotion, better known as “Toilet Tuesday” was a great success. Here’s the Mets’ own video publicizing the event:
August 25th, 2010
Welcome to “Chelmsford Patch”
There’s a new source of news in Chelmsford – the “Chelmsford Patch” launched recently as an online, constantly updated community newspaper with a full-time editor, an aggressive presence on Facebook and Twitter, and a heavy dose of reader generated content. Here’s how the Patch describes itself:
Chelmsford Patch is your site. Here, you can find all the latest news, sports, calendar listings, events and more. We’ll have the Board of Selectmen’s latest decision, your child’s pop warner game on video, and ideas for things to do every weekend.
Chelmsford Patch is also a place for business and community listings. If you’re looking to try a new restaurant in town this weekend – browse our food listings for complete information on the eatery’s hours, what kind of payments they accept, and if they take reservations.
We want Chelmsford Patch to be the pulse of the community, and that means we need your help and participation. Submit your own news tips, and announce your engagements, weddings, births or if you made the honor roll.
We want to know what you want to see us cover. Whether it’s a Pinewood Derby or a 100th birthday party, send us the information and we’ll do our best to be there.
Please visit us throughout the day and feel free to post your own photos and videos. Do create a free account and log in, and post on our comment boards.
Thanks to Dean, one of our regular readers, for pointing me at Chelmsford Patch. In the process of discovering the Chelmsford Patch, I discovered that a companion site has recently gone online for Tewksbury, as well. I’ll be visiting both for their take on local news.
August 25th, 2010
‘The Bread & Puppet Circus’
Writing about the upcoming Bread & Roses Festival in Lawrence sent me to the vault for this poem written in the late 1970s, when I first encountered the political puppeteers and bakers in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Coincidentally for our blog community here, this poem was selected by Tom Sexton (before I knew who Tom Sexton was) for publication in the Alaska Quarterly Review (Fall 1984), which was a big-deal academic journal appearance for me at 30 years old. Tom was poetry editor of the journal for many years. It was and still is an important literary magazine to be in because AQR is distributed to booksellers and newsstands nationwide. There’s a chance that your work will be read.—PM
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The Bread and Puppet Circus
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This is the Hay Bowl Tournament.
Noon—flea circus and fiddles, then suppertime hush in white pine woods.
Mute priests and man-ponies act out Bach spirit music.
The silence of chanters padding on rusty duff, their small bells the only sound.
Eyes drink the lovely robed choir: saints and magic deer.
Back to noon—The Bicentennial Circus pokes fun.
Tentless pirate horsemen dance for squares.
Witches curse war machines. Peace plays in the barn. Satire on the farm.
Uncle Sam as businessman, Father George in midget gear.
Power is slain while the weird horns parade.
Through the day—full of free sourdough rye, celebrants watch angels.
Angels of ecology, angels of trees, angels of Temptation.
Dreamscapes of Swan Lakes. Chilean folksongs.
Children’s puppet plays. Biblical charades.
Women gypsies, loose and longhaired, leap over bales.
Toward evening—cannon and lanterns and stars and banners in the arena.
Umbrellas sprout like mushrooms.
A Domestic Resurrection Pageant renews the Light.
Dragon-sized sheet worm enters from the east.
All day players: A man with gold curls tucked up in a tan burnoose.
Children draped in yellow linen and red sashes.
Denim ramblers eating vegetable sandwiches.
Fiddlers in frock coats and cowboy hats.
Craftsmen downing cider. Grandmothers playing guitars.
Night cut by cold rain. Red tongues snake toward drumbeats.
Shrieking Aztec birds hawk in over the rise.
Wide rigid wings slice rain. Chains of fire, a stream of torches,
Amid wild pipe and hubcap and brass cymbal and hunk metal clanking signal music.
A shaman stilt-man dripping with gold spangles thumps the earth like a drum.
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—Paul Marion (c) 1984
August 25th, 2010
Bread & Roses Festival in Lawrence on Labor Day
Mark your calendars for one of the authentic Merrimack Valley annual events, the Bread & Roses Festival in Lawrence, which is always produced on Labor Day. This year it’s Monday, September 6, 12 noon to 6 p.m. on the Campagnone Common in the middle of downtown. If you go, look for the Robert Frost Memorial on the Common; he was born in San Francisco, but grew up there and graduated from Lawrence High—valedictorian. The festival is animated by a point of view about justice, peace, and fairness in life and work. Planning is underway throughout Lawrence for the 100th anniversary of the Bread & Roses Strike in 2012. The workers said we need not only bread for sustenance but also the roses of joy in our daily lives. It’s a lasting message.
Performers and attractions will include the Bread & Puppet troupe from Vermont, Boston Music Award-winning Grupo Fantasia Latin music group, Pentucket Players, pony rides and a petting zoo, Sweet Willie D., Itchy Feet, Bylli Crayonne, Dramatik, Dairon Skye, Boys R Us, Show Divine, Febo and Masada, trolley tours, international foods, plus lots of information booths from labor, environmental, peace, and other social justice organizations.
For details, visit breadandrosesheritage.org or call 978-794-1655.
Web photo courtesy of breadandpuppet.org
Culture, Greater Lowell, History, Lowell, Politics | 
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August 25th, 2010
‘Four More Years’
Congratulations to the City Council and City Manager Lynch for having reached an agreement on compensation and a contract for the City Manager, who in this writer’s view has been tested and proved his value to the community in very challenging circumstances.
August 25th, 2010
SUN Reports on Drop in Housing Sales
Our blogging colleague Dick Howe, Jr., who is also Register of Deeds for northern Middlesex County, is quoted at length in today’s SUN article about the decline in house sales in July when matched against sales a year ago in our region. Read the article here, and consider subscribing to the SUN if you appreciate the journalism.
August 25th, 2010
Remembering Ted Kennedy
One year ago today Senator Ted Kennedy lost his battle with brain cancer. Many believe (including me) that his greatest moment was the concession speech he gave at the 1980 Democratic Convention. I remember watching it at the time, thinking…here is a great talent marred by personal flaws.
Click HERE to listen to audio of that memorable speech.
August 25th, 2010
Charlie Baker’s New Ad
Republican candidate for Governor, Charlie Baker released this new campaign Advertisement this morning.
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