Just a quick note to apologize for not posting much of substance this week. I have been going to .NET training sessions...   more »

Well Pat and I managed to squeak into the polls at 7:30 PM tonight.  Ours were votes numbers 315 and 316.   Talk about poor turnout!  Looks like Deval Patrick and Tim Murray will be the team going up against Healey. (Primary results at boston.com.)  My boy Stephen Dinatale seems to have won a landslide for Worcester Third State Rep, and a hearty don't-let-the-door-hit-you-on-the-rear to Emile Goguen, (you all know where I stand on THIS guy), who is vacating the seat.  My choice for Governor's Council, John Burke, appears to have been defeated by a large margin.  It's too bad really, he was the only candidate of the five running who was from Fitchburg.  And Galvin won Secretary of State by a bajillion votes.  I've seen some large margins in my time but 83% of the vote is impressive.

Just wanted to take a brief moment here to wish my friend, Tom King, a Happy 39'th Birthday!  Please join me in wishing Tom a pleasant day.  Tom, I hope you're kicking your feet up and relaxing today.  I'll be thinking of you today with a grin on my face and a lightness in my step.  (And not just because I'm a month younger than you are.)  (Well okay, not completely because I'm a month younger than you are.)

(Hey, I'm a month younger than you are... have I mentioned that lately?)

Happy Day Tom!

Here's what we know, there are bags of fresh cut spinach circulating in our country that are contaminated with E. Coli bacteria. Several people have gotten sick in Wisconsin, Connecticut, and other places. At present they have not been able to narrow the problem to a particular brand of spinach or a particular lot number. So please, if you've bought bagged spinach recently, toss it until they get this one nailed. The news articles caution that washing the spinach will not protect you. I heard this on the news this morning, but I'll give a tip of the hat to PurpleCar for reminding me I wanted to post about it...   more »

Some Mexican road workers uncover a strange stone block covered with hieroglyphs while building a road. Then, nearly 10 years later, a team of archaeologists get a look at it and detemine that it is the only existing example of the writing of the Olmec people, and the oldest surviving writing in North or South America. How cool is that?...   more »

My cousin Kristin volunteers at a special shelter in Quincy for victims of domestic violence. The organization that offers the shelter, DOVE (DOmestic Violence Ended), has learned that the Department of Social Services is terminating its funding...   more »

Let me tell you, it's no fun. Especially when you are someone who spends as much time to writing posts or comments as I am. Since discovering the Twin Cities Blog recently, I've been dropping comments on it from time to time. And all was well until a few days ago. You see the Twin Cities blog is moderated, and therefore comments made to them are held for approval before they appear on the blog. And apparently, someone there doesn't appreciate my point of view...   more »

Well unfortunately I missed the second debate (had to work late). But I did read about it this morning. It's a real toss up for me right now... I'm in a difficult quandary...   more »

Back in July the Twin Cities Blog (a blog for the local Sentinel & Enterprise newspaper serving Fitchburg, Leominster, and the surrounding communities) posted a simple question...   more »

Just a followup to Saturday's story about the canada geese in Coggshall Park and the local hunter who was proposing he be allowed to shoot them to keep the population under control. I heard back from both the Mayor and the Recreation Director in response to the letter I sent...   more »

Well I just listened to the President's address given last night and was shocked to hear him blithely stating (as if it were something he had been saying for a long time now) that Saddam Hussein was not responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Congratulations Mr. President, and good work catching up on that minor detail...   more »

Here's another little audio challenge, which I think you may find harder than the last challenge, or maybe not. This time the clips vary in size from 5 seconds to 20 seconds, and each one includes spoken dialog from a movie. But there's a catch...   more »