Fresh Bark Mulch
By Tony Sampas
Rough hewn granite
April 19th, 2011
“A Friendly Reminder” by paul hudon
paul hudon sent along the following essay:
Dear Mr. Antoine Furtive,
We here at your neighborhood bank notice that your last three mandatory credit vouchers are yet unclaimed. MCVs are the result of fours years of study by There’s Blood Yet to Be Had from This Stone Foundation. Introduced just three short days ago, MCVs now account for over 86% of the business done by banks as of this morning, a little after ten.
That success in fact has every one here wondering why it wasn’t until last Thursday that some genius came up with the idea. All the more amazing when you consider that the financial services industry has never been retardaire when it comes to devising innovative ‘instruments.’
Making these instruments available to you has not been easy. MCVs only became globally recognized after the defeat of leftist forces who for nearly nearly two hours attempted to derail implementation. These social deviates were hoping to use the judiciary to strangle in its cradle this marvelous new tool, only now starting to reveal its full promise. This insane, irrational, and vindictive attempt to deny you the credit you want, when you want it, is yet another demonstration that these people have no moral restraint whatever. Nearly 1100 suits were filed against MCVs, worldwide. But not one court, not one, has so much as accepted to hear the case; there was not a single jurisdiction on the planet willing to give standing to these social misfits. People who actually refuse to perform the rites of citizenship while on the other hand are ever willing in their perverse way to misrepresent what the Great American Republic is about. Absurdly, they insist on spelling the word as ‘rights.’ They think of it as an incantation — apparently, a magic word that if repeated often enough and by a wide enough acquaintance of people will conjure up what it describes, and make it real. They work from the wild assumption that if you change people’s language, you’re in control; and if you control language, you have the whatall to shape the audience. This is sheer delusion. read more »
April 19th, 2011
Lexington’s Captain John Parker
Yesterday I took a ride to Lexington, MA. I arrived shortly before the annual Patriot’s Day Parade and several hours after the re-enactment of the famous battle that took place on the Lexington Green on April 19, 1775, a battle recognized as the start of the American Revolution.
In the center of the town, directly in front of the Lexington Green stands a statue of a proud minuteman holding a musket. The statue is of Captain John Parker. On the morning of April 19 Parker lead a small band of Lexington farmers into battle.
I have driven by that Parker statue many times and each time I admirer the determination, pride and character displayed by the figure.
Captain Parker was part of a well respected Lexington family. At various times his father, Josiah served as Lexington Town Clerk, Assessor and even a Selectman. Parker himself was a farmer, mechanic and life long resident of Lexington…born on Spring Street. He was “a stout, large framed man of medium height”. Parker was no stranger to military battle. Earlier in his life he fought in the French and Indian War at Louisbourg and Quebec and was a member of Roger’s Rangers. At the age of 26 he married Lydia Moore also of Lexington.
On the morning of April 19, 1775 Captain John Parker was 46 years old as he stood beside 76 other colonists and opposed 700 British Regulars. At the time he was terminally sick with tuberculosis. His illness forced him to bed early the night before (April 18, 1975). It was around 1:00AM when a messenger arrived informing him that the Regulars were marching to Concord. Parker and his men assembled on the Lexington Green and around 5:30AM three advance companies of British Regulars burst on the scene commanded by Major Pitcairn.
Many, many times historians have debated how the events unfolded that morning, but several things are indisputable…
Parker lined his men in two ranks, a proud stance for freedom challenging the world’s most dominant superpower… and the captain and his brave men weren’t looking for fight that morning, but they weren’t going to back down if one came …and it did.
Here is the text of Captain John Parker’s actual deposition given several days after the battle:
Lexington, April 25, 1775.
I, John Parker, of lawful age, and commander of the Militia in Lexington, do testify and declare, that on the nineteenth instant, in the morning, about one of the clock, being informed that there were a number of Regular Officers riding up and down the road, stopping and insulting people as they passed the road, and was also informed that a number of Regular Troops were on their march from Boston, in order to take the
Province Stores at Concord, ordered our Militia to meet on the common in said
Lexington, to consult what to do, and concluded not to be discovered, nor meddle or
make with said Regular Troops (if they should approach) unless they should insult us;
and upon their sudden approach, I immediately ordered our Militia to disperse and not to fire. Immediately said Troops made their appearance, and rushed furiously, fired upon and killed eight of our party, without receiving any provocation therefor from us.
John Parker
Captain John Parker didn’t live long enough to see the United States officially declare its independence. He died of Tuberculosis a mere five months after the battle of Lexington and Concord…but his noble actions on April 19, 1775, so perfectly represented by that statue on the Lexington Green, sounded a declaration of freedom heard throughout the world.
April 19th, 2011
UMass (Amherst) Football to Announce Upgrade to FBS
This article appears in today’s Springfield Republican – it might have some interest to area locals especially UMass Amherst alums:
AMHERST – After decades of debate, and with some difficult questions still to be answered, the University of Massachusetts football program will make the move to the Football Bowl Subdivision.
Beginning in 2012, the Minutemen will play their entire home schedule at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough. The 2011 schedule will not be affected unless UMass increases its previously announced schedule from 11 to 12 games, as is allowed during the transitional phase.
UMass will join the Mid-American Conference, a league of predominantly Midwest schools that also includes Buffalo and Temple. The move is not expected to affect the Minutemen’s Atlantic 10 Conference membership in other sports.
A press conference Wednesday at Gillette Stadium will announce the move. Officials of UMass, the MAC and Gillette Stadium will be in attedance.
The 2011 UMass team will play in the Colonial Athletic Association of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). The FCS classification has commonly been called Division I-AA.
In 2012, UMass would play a mixed schedule of FCS and FBS teams. Its first full season as an FBS and Mid-American member would be in 2013, when the school would become eligible for postseason bowl games.
The FBS, the highest of the NCAA’s four levels of college football, is known informally as Division I-A.
UMass sources confirmed the press conference would introduce the program to FBS football.
Read the full article here at masslive.com
April 19th, 2011
“Community Innovation in Lowell” Meeting – April 26, 2011
Received this information from Professor Bill Berkowitz, Dept. of Psychology at UMass/Lowell:
We thought readers of the Richard Howe blog and friends would be interested in an upcoming meeting on Community Innovation in Lowell, to be held on Tuesday, April 26, from 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. in Coburn Hall, Room 205, on UMass/Lowell’s South Campus (corner of Broadway and Wilder).
Given the fiscal outlook in Lowell and beyond, innovative ideas will be more important than ever to help maintain our community quality of life. This event is designed to build upon the successful Innovative Cities conference held in the city last June, and to take some next steps toward making innovation a part of Lowell’s civic culture.
At the meeting we will both hear about innovative work that participants are engaging in, and talk about how we might move toward establishing Lowell as a model Innovation City.
All community members are welcome. Since space is limited, though, we would be grateful to receive an RSVP, which can be sent to Prof. Bill Berkowitz of the Psychology Department at Bill_Berkowitz@uml.edu.
Bill Berkowitz
Dept. of Psychology
UMass/Lowell
April 19th, 2011
For Perspective: The Milky Way, Time-Lapse Imagery
Click here to see photographer Terje Sorgjerd’s amazing views of the sky and earth from a mountain in Spain: The Mountain. I picked this up from AOL/Huffington Post.
April 19th, 2011
April 19, 1861 (part II)
Eight railroad cars bearing seven companies of the Sixth Regiment made it to Camden Station, but four companies in four cars remained behind. The four captains commanding those companies decided to march through the city. Captain Follansbee of Company C took the lead. The troops had to overcome a number of obstructions along their route and eventually stones were thrown at them and shots rang out.
Men from the upper floors of a building just passed by the companies fired into the trailing unit, killing two of its men. At the front of the column, with their path blocked by the mob, the soldiers leveled their guns and fired, killing many in the crowd. More shots and two more of the soldiers were killed and several wounded. They pressed on, however, and soon were reunited with their comrades.
The men of the Sixth all mounted their train and had to point their guns out the window to get the menacing crowd to back off. The regiment reached Washington at about 1 pm and was quartered in the Capitol.
Back in Lowell with communications not quite so instantaneous as they are today, readers of the Daily Courier found the following in their April 19th paper:
“The first military demonstration in New York since the attack on Fort Sumter was made by the Massachusetts regiment yesterday. The soldiers were received with great enthusiasm and loudly cheered at every point. . . . At 11 o’clock the military marched down Broadway amidst an ovation more demonstrative than ever before greeted any Massachusetts soldiers.”
April 19th, 2011
April 19, 1861 (part I)
A sleepy Sixth Regiment departed Philadelphia by train at 1 am on Friday, April 19, 1861. The original plan was to leave first thing in the morning, but railroad officials warned Colonel Jones of talk that people in Baltimore planned to prevent any troops from passing through the city. Jones decided to leave Philadelphia immediately which would get them through Baltimore earlier than expected, and too early for trouble-makers to react, he hoped.
Like other US cities (Boston, for instance), a train arriving in Baltimore from the north could not continue directly through the city and continue its journey south. A train arriving in Baltimore from the north arrived at the President Street Station which was on the northern side of the city’s inner harbor. If the train was to continue south, it’s cars were decoupled from the original engine and then pulled through the city by horses on the street car tracks on Pratt Avenue to Campden Station which was on the south side of the inner harbor.
Colonel Jones knew of this procedure and planned accordingly. Rather than allowing his regiment to pass through the city piecemeal in this manner, Jones decided to dismount the entire unit at the first train station and march en masse through the city to the second station. The mass of the entire regiment marching in formation, he hoped, would deter any active resistance. Before leaving Philadelphia, he planned the loading of the train in great detail so that his unit could rapidly disembark and assemble in traveling formation as soon as it reached the city.
Jones plan went awry long before reaching Baltimore. The first mix-up occurred when the train reached the southern border of Delaware and prepared to cross the Susquehanna River into Maryland at a place called Havre-de-Grace. There, the cars of the train were ferried across the river where they were reunited and attached to a new locomotive. Other cars were added to the train and those carrying the troops from Massachusetts were rearranged. For some reason, neither Colonel Jones nor any of his subordinates seemed to notice this reshuffling of the cars.
The train reached Baltimore at 10 am and railway workers quickly attached the first seven cars of the train to horse teams and dragged them through the city, again without either Jones or any of his commanders seeming to notice. While these first cars made it through the city without their occupants suffering any serious injuries, their passage was not without incident. Here is an account of the next few minutes as described in “History of Middlesex County” which was written shortly after the war:
“On Pratt Street, the mob detached the horses [that were pulling the cars], in proximity to a pile of paving stones. Here a most furious and determined attack was made with stones and fire-arms, wounding several soldiers in the car. Major Jones ordered the men to shelter themselves, as far as possible, by lying upon the floor of the car, while he went out among the crowd, and by threats, and the formidable appearance of his revolver, compelled the driver to reattach the horses. They had proceeded but a short distance, when the horses were again detached and the same scene was repeated; the car was then drawn to the Washington depot without further trouble.”
To be continued.
April 19th, 2011
Trailer: The Last Pow-Wow-Oak Documentary
Documentary movie about the last Pow-Wow Oak Tree in Lowell, MA. Traces the historic events that took place at the tree, the role it played in the American Revolutionary War, and the story of the Pow-Wow Oak Protectors – a citizen group trying to preserve and protect the tree for future generations.
Video originally posted by databanka
April 19th, 2011
The Royal Wedding, T-Mobile Style
The real event won’t take place until April 29, but T-Mobile is giving us a sneak preview of the Royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton.
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