Last day of 2006, Saddam Hussein dead. Whatever

Photo is one I got off a French blog when I was surfing the ever revolving list of blogs from around the world you can click to from Blogger. I'm NOT going to post a photo of Saddam Hussein for God's sake.

So (as one of the students in Journalism 300 often begins emails)... so, Saddam Hussein is dead. Whatever. I'll save the New York Times coverage as it could be good for a class on obituaries in which we ask whether an obituary of a hated figure should include even a tiny good thing. Maybe he was loving to his dog, for instance. It would be the opposite of the "nose picker" detail in a profile, a small failing in the subject of the profile that makes him or her seem human and the profile more than a HAGIOGRPAHY or "life of a saint." Note to self: retrieve the red flocked wallpaper covered tome of the saints lives from 19 Brunswick Street, where it was among the books we all looked at on the bookshelf growing up.

Will post the self-written obituary in the Gazette that attracted more contributors to the readers TalkBack section than any other story.

A good op-ed piece by Paul Theroux in the Dec. 31 New York Times, called "America the Overfull." The news that the United States has reached the 300 million in population mark gave him no pleasure, Theroux says. It seems just another example of our pride in gigantism. He recalls when there was a lot more open space and quiet time, when, "In this hushed world, a bumblebee was a physical presence, the sound of a cicada could dominate an August afternoon."

There used to be empty spaces on the outskirts of towns, where you could wander (if you weren't afraid to, I might add), and driving down an empty road at night was "almost a trance-like experience." Added to the fact that the U.S. is a much more crowded place now, almost whereever you go, people here don't conduct themselves with much decorum, like they do in more crowded countries, says Theroux. We've become "ruder, more offhand, readier to take offense, a nation of shouters and blamers."

No response in the letters section to a Dec. 29 op-ed I really liked, "Middle School Girls Gone Wild," by Lawrence Downes, about the unseemly dance acts junior high school girls are performing at school talent shows these days. He describes his chagrin at seeing girls performing as though they were strippers at his daughter's school in Long Island. Boys wouldn't subject themselves to the kind of "constricted horizons" to which girls have, he says, "much less waggle their butts and roll around for applause on the floor of a school auditorium." Looking forward to NYTimes readers' feedback.

See you in 2007!

Does anybody else detect a little paranoia about women in "The Good Shepherd"?

Saw Robert DeNiro's "The Good Shepherd" last night about the early days of the CIA, its exploits in Cuba and elsewhere and what being a good soldier or shepherd of the CIA does to a person, in this case Matt Damon. It was a sold-out show at Cinemark with a fiesty audience.

The strongest reaction was to a line by Damon in response to a question from an Italian mob figure (Joe Pesci) about what a WASPish guy like he gets out of living in the United States. Damon says something like, "We own this country; the rest of you are just visitors."

The movie was about three hours long, but it casts a pretty seductive spell of intrigue, so I wasn't watching the clock. Until, that is, I got the nagging feeling that there was very little at the center of the intrigue. When you realize what the heart of the mystery is a few scenes before it is revealed, you hope this is not it -- but it is. It's like saving what you think is the best Christmas present for last then getting to the end and realizing you opened the best present first.

Once I started to find fault with the movie, I also began to question why Angelina Jolie wascast as Damon's dutifully suffering wife. It seems it is only to cash in on her current celebrity, because the role is not a great fit for her. Also, she and more or less the only other two women in the movie are seen throwing themselves at Damon, who plays a very shuttered up, totally unsexy guy in rather thick glasses.

This does not add up, unless you're a person who thinks women either throw themselves at every available guy because 1) they can't stop themselves or 2) have sly intentions. Readers, am I right?

Note from "get it right"

Here's a photo of Ana at my cousin's wedding. Any connection to this post is purely incidental.

Sometimes there is nothing better than getting a response to a story you write in the newspaper. Often it's something along the lines of the one comment I got on my Top Ten Movies of 2006 list (see below). Good tip; I fixed it here. Maybe "get it right" should try to get a job on the copy desk at the Gazette.

Top 10 movie picks of 2006
Filed in: Entertainment
Published on December 28, 2006
Mary Carey should watch "A Scanner Darkly" again so that she would get the name right. There is no "Through" in the movie's title.
get it right Thursday, Dec 28, 2006 at 02:23 PM

My early endorsement: John Edwards in 2008

Another manatee photo from our Florida trip, courtesy of Brian.

Glad to see this from The Nation in my e-mail box today:
Dear EmailNation Subscriber,
John Nichols reports, "(John) Edwards gets it. That does not mean he is the perfect contender, nor that he is the perfect progressive. But he has grown a great deal over the past several years, and that growth has been in a serious, smart and savvy direction that progressives would be wise to note at this relatively early stage in the 2008 contest."
Writing about Edwards' announcement that he will run for president in 2008, Nichols compares the candidate's policies from 2004 to now and believes, "he has a lot more to offer progressives than he did in 2004."

Back from Florida

I'm back from Florida, but you knew that, because you, faithful readers or, if you will ( as I prefer), early adopters, were in Florida for the holidays with me. Back in Amherst, a recap, including which of the Tripadvisors was right about the motel in New Port Richey and whether it's worth braving the cold at 6:30 a.m. to see the manatees:

Part I: Ahhh, Christmas at Bradley Airport. On the one hand, there were no parking spaces left in the economy lot. We had not anticipated this, but it makes sense that if it is easier to get an affordable airplane reservation on Christmas, it's because everybody tries to be somewhere at rest that day. Ergo, many of them have stashed their cars in the economy lot for the day. It was $18 a day to park in Bradley's new parking garage vs. $6 a day in the economy lot.

On the plus side, babies in Santa Claus suits at the airport. The way more expensive but more convenient parking space seems also seems worth it when we get back from our trip late at night. (Photo is of nephew William and his dog Joey on Christmas Eve in Holyoke.)
Kudos to the Fort Lauderdale Airport for their really good automatic doors. They say "See you later alligator," on your way out. (Could it have influenced my dream later that night of being attacked by an alligator, which happens every year to 15 people in Florida, according to Gene Crabtree, our host in New Port Richey?)

Photo is of my niece Alexis trying to remove Dad's glasses at Gene and Cheryl Crabtree's house in New Port Richey.

Part II

Which of the TripAdvisors was right about the Ramada in New Port Richey? Answer: the person who said it is OK but nothing to write home about. And yet, I thought of that woman who wrote that she would like to go there every year in the off season. My brother Ed, by the way, a sales manager for Hyatt, says Tripadvisor and such sites are great for the consumer but the bane of hotel stay sales guys like he and others' existence.

Part III

Is it worth getting up at 4 a.m. to swim with the manatees at 6:30 a.m. in the cold? Most definitely YES. But you knew that. Our tour guide, Captain Ted pointed out that they are the only wild animal that will actually seek people out for companionship. You can find about the tours in Crystal River, Florida here: http://www.aquamarineimages.com/

"It's time to boogie. But, hey, you knew that."

Saw a great show at the Iron Horse last night, Commander Cody, aka George Frayne. Ok, so I am not an authority. In fact, I don't usually like live music. As I've said to Brian (my boyfriend), if I never see another bunch of 30- or 40-something guys playing blues music, it will be too soon.
I like character driven performances, although I'll add this disclaimer: I sat through the performance last month of The Raconteurs at the Mullins Center before Bob Dylan came on, puzzling with Brian over the fact the band seemed to have quite a following. Had Brian brought his binoculaurs -- heck, they're always in the glove compartment, so he can see street signs from a distance -- I would have realized the lead singer was Jack White, who I've seen many times, thanks to Nicky, in videos of his former band the "White Stripes." He's a character.
The Commander is even more of one. Of course, the lead-in act didn't hurt his chances of making an impact. A big, workhorse-showman kind of guy, Stewart James, evidently the lead singer in the house band, drives up to the Iron Horse in a huge white car (it turns out to be a Lincoln), gets out with an amplifier and addresses the crowd out front with a line from the Commander's most famous song, "Hot Rod Lincoln" from 1972. Turns out James was the ticket taker, sound-check man and announcer and turned in a credible performance himself that seemed to me almost self-consciously smarmy in its competence. If James was a reporter, he'd be one of those people who report the news, photograph it, sell the ads, lay out the pages and drop off bundles of the paper around town.

"It's time to boogie. But, hey, you knew that," is the line the Commander, a properly grizzled 62-year-old old guy who relies a cane to get around fast, uses to great effect. Here's a link to a good Q&A with him (He says Linda Ronstadt asked him to marry her and there's a book about him, called "Starmaking Machinery.") http://www.classicbands.com/CommanderCodyInterview.html

His songs, as I realized with a little help from Brian who pointed out that one of the band's CDs contains songs all about losers, are about, yes, losers. One is about a kid whose band kicks him out (or at least this is what I take it to be about). He knows he can't play, but his dad says that's okay. Plus he just got a new sound system. There's the guy who sees his shoes on his ex's new boyfriend. And in "Hot Rod Lincoln," the guy who just can't stop driving fast which inevitably attracts the attention of the police. To the list of authorities, the Commander names in the song in Saturday night's version, the sheriff, the FBI etc., he adds "PATRIOT Act." Turns out the car is full of weapons of mass destruction.

I really like the loser character, who is not really a loser, of course, because the audience is always on his side.

I loved how when the Commander came back on stage for an encore, which really seemed to be a little physically challenging for him, he said, "If I knew I was going to be old, I would have partied a lot hardier."

The right question: Dowd to Trump

A great column by Maureen Dowd in the New York Times today (12/23). She asks Donald Trump what he makes of the Bush twins gallivanting around Argentina. Trump says, "When you're a president who has destroyed the lives of probably a million people, our soldiers and Iraqis who are maimed and killed -- you see children going into school in Baghdad with no arms and legs -- I don't think Bush's kids should be having lots of fun in Argentina."

Trump alone doesn't make it a great column, it's helped by the way Dowd introduces him, quoting someone else (Kurt Anderson) on what a ready made caricature he is: "our 21st century reincarnation of P. T. Barnum" and a bunch of other people, as well as the questions she asks Trump.

Dowd sets herself up as the straight guy. Trump would rather talk to Frank Rich and get quoted in the Sunday paper which has more reader; plus, he says he likes Rich. "'Me too,' I reply," Dowd says. We get it that Frank Rich gets the Sunday slot because he's a man.

TALKING POINT FOR JOURNALISM CLASS:

Coming up with good questions is crucial to the success of a story. Sometimes you can do it on your feet. And yet, I often can't think of anything to ask, say Mitt Romney or Deval Patrick at a press conference. The 29-year-old director of a movie I liked very much, "Mutual Appreciation," is coming to a showing at the Amherst Cinema in early Jan. 5-6. I'm trying to think of how to ask a question about what he sees his "voice" as being or maybe what he is trying to express in the movie about his world view.

I see him as trying to show how the lives of the 20-somethings of the movie couldn't resemble "Girls Gone Wild" less. For a scene of how UMass students tried to recreate THAT phenomenon -- the carnivalesque GIRLS GONE WILD -- check out Tom Devine's blog at http://www.geocities.com/bstateob/journal.htm and page down a bit till you get to the part where Devine gamely writes something like "If you're under 18, make sure your parents aren't around when you click on this video.

If someone asked me what my "voice" or world view is, I might try to express something like the late Hampshire Gazette and Amherst Bulletin reporter Nancy Newcombe did in her reporting. Here's a link to a piece I wrote about her when she died last year, mostly quoting things she had said: http://www.amherstbulletin.com/story/id/123001542006/ Here's the last paragraph:

(Being a reporter, a person got to hear about a lot of funny things as well as sad things, she wrote in a February 1999 piece. Titled, '''Crime of the week' shows small-town life at its most bizarre.'' it talked about odd incidents from the police log. A man on a bicycle, for example, had inexplicably swung a fish threaded onto his fish pole at a stopped car on Triangle Street, breaking the tail light, a ''crime of the week'' if there ever was one.
But ''Even in Amherst, there are sad, awful things happening,'' Newcombe wrote. ''And this, I think is what crime of the week is really all about. There are some areas of life where, if you don't laugh, you'll be crying all the time.'')

Finally, a link to a story about the Bulletin cop log (to get to the log itself, click from Bulletin's homepage : http://www.amherstbulletin.com/story/id/62300242005/

A Year without Amherst aka Ana Reyes's Top Ten List of Good Things Back Home (posted by Ana Reyes from Los Angeles)

For the first time in my adult life, I won't be spending Christmas in
Amherst. Which means I won't be eating buffalo wings at The Hangar on
Dec 26th, or buying cheap wool slippers at The Mercantile to wear
around my Mom's house until I go back to L.A. I won't get to see the
newly renovated Amherst Cinema, and I won't get to sled down Suicide
Hill.
This year I'm spending Christmas in Florida.
So, for all of us who only make it home once a year, here are ten of
my favorite things about Amherst; the things I will cram into next
year's Christmas break. They are in no particular order.
1. The Bike Path: Formally known as the Norwottuck Rail Trail, this
path parallels Route 9 through Amherst, Hadley and Northhampton. One
of my favorite memories involves biking to Northhampton with my
9-year-old brother and stopping at the Hampshire Mall to watch THE
OTHERS. On a hot day, you can also stop for ice cream at Pete's Drive
Through, or at Bread and Circus for a smoothie.
2. The Salvation Army on Route 9 Now that I've lived in LA, where
professional shoppers pick through thrift shops like buzzards and
re-sell the clothes at exorbitant prices on Melrose, I can appreciate
the cheap second-hand store where I got most of my clothes in high
school. (And later, as a broke UMASS student, where I got all my
furniture and kitchenware.)
3. The Hangar: As anyone who's ever eaten a DC-3 of Red Alert wings
can tell you, this place is heaven on earth. The avaition theme is a
bit out of left field, but it lends a feeling of solidarity to all of
us who've ever devoured a DC-10 with Kickin' Bar-B-Q.
4. DP Dough at 3AM: The combination is what makes it great. Without DP
Dough, 3AM would be just another hour and without 3AM, calzones would
be just another fatty food. But together, they're pure magic.
5. Dave's Soda and Pet Food City: Another match made in heaven. A
great place to go when you're in the market for either soda or pet
food. They also have a great selection of pets. I once bought two
adorable tree frogs there.
6. Crosswalks: In Amherst, looking both ways is more of a suggestion.
Especially on campus at UMASS. The crosswalks are annoying for
drivers, but liberating for the pedestrian - no where else is the
pedestrian so free to cross the street whenever they want.
7. The Black Sheep: Excellent coffee and a good place to do homework.
8. Hastings: Good place for stocking stuffers. Cheap, and oftentimes
unusual gifts, plus the best selection of penny candy I've ever seen.
9. The PVTA: Reliable and cheap transportation. It rivals, and
frequently supasses, public transportation in LA, New York, or other
infinitely larger cities.
10: The Moan and Dove: This place is more than a bar - it' an
education. It was here, for example, that I learned the difference
between Belgian Trappist Ale and Belgian Abbey Ale. But don't be
fooled by it's informative menu; just when you start to think the
place is pretentious, you notice that the entire floor is covered with
discarded peanut shells.

Probably my favorite Website

It's Tripadviser.com, where I visit every time we are going on vacation to get user reviews of hotels. It is such absorbing reading, I can easily spend five hours looking for a hotel and feel very crabby afterwards in addition to having stinging eyes. When I arrive at the hotel, I recall the Tripadvisors who have gone before me; being there gives me more insight into them. Hmmmm, note to self: possible screenplay. Here are excerpts from reviews of the motel we are staying in New Port Richey, Florida the day after Christmas. We're visiting my brother Mike and family at his inlaws then "snorkeling with manatees" the next day. I'll report back on my impressions of the Ramada and the manatees -- when we return.

Reviews 1-4

1) "This hotel appears to have had a lot of neglect and needs major renovation."

2)"Oh, did i tell you I had my own private pool? Yes, if you go to the hotel on off season it is most likely that the pool will be your own private pool most of the time. I am not a fancy woman but I do like things clean. I will go to this hotel every year for the rest of my days."

3)"My triple A rating: Awful, Awful, Awful"

4) " It was centrally located to what we were doing, tarpon springs and weeki wachee. It wasnt bad, could have used a little more maintenace to give it a nicer look."

Melle on his enemy No. 1

What an affront the Berkshire Eagle's tribute (12/20) to outgoing state Sen. Andrea Nuciforo ("Rear View Mirror") must have been. Here is the first paragraph of Melle's response:

Dear News Media, Politicians, & the People:
Re: Rear-view mirror: Mother's death, long drive to Boston are part of Andrea Nuciforo's look back on 10 years as a state senator; Up next: a new job" (The Berkshire Eagle, 12/20/2006): WHAT UTTER PROPAGANDA! Nuciforo is the WORST politician to ever be "elected" to any and all political offices. WHY? Because Nuciforo has made a MOCKERY out of our democratic institutions of government be CORRUPTING everything in government to fit his own perverse economic incentives, pathetic political career, and his trivial Pittsfield Political Machine that will NEVER get him elected to the United States Congress!
(etc.)
Jonathan A. Melle

Top 10 movies of 2006

My Top Ten Movies of 2006 list with a photo of my Dad and me in front of the Micheltorena School across from my daughter Ana's apartment in L.A. It is where the kids in the wonderful movie "Quinceanera" go to school. This trip to L.A. was particularly magical, because we saw both that movie and "Little Miss Sunshine." It, of course, is about a multi-generational family road trip -- which our trip sort of was. Dad went on to see "Little Miss Sunshine" three more times.

Top 10

1) "United 93" -- In 1,000 years, when even some Americans may only dimly recall the significance of Sept. 11, 2001, "United 93" will still be gripping. Because we never get to know the characters as individuals -- we don't even know most of the doomed passengers, airline staff and air traffic controllers names -- they are everymen, and by extension, us. It's about how everything can change forever on a perfectly normal day.

2) "The Departed" -- Why I'm now a Leonardo DeCaprio fan. So this is what Martin Scorcese has seen in him all along. There's a sensational scene in which DeCaprio as a Massachusetts state policeman is sitting face to face with Jack Nicholson, playing a character somewhat inspired by Whitey Bulger. DeCaprio is trying to convince him that he isn't a mole, which he is. DeCaprio is so compelling, I felt like it was me using my wits to try to save my own life.

3) "Little Miss Sunshine" --It's the "Mad Hot Ballroom," "March of the Penguins" of the year. It's a road movie that's not just about a journey of self-discovery but about connecting with other people while you're on an adventure together. A reason why it can be a good idea to go on vacation with as many generations of your family as you can muster for the trip.

4) "The Queen" -- Let's face it. There aren't THAT many movies with an intriguing female protagonist who is not somehow tied to a man. It's about how Queen Elizabeth II (Helen Mirren) grasped that times had changed in time to adapt to them, following the public outpouring of grief over the death of her bothersome daughter-in-law Princess Diana. Would that we all had the capacity the Queen had, God love her.

5) "Quinceanera" -- About the Latin American celebration by the same name of a girl's 15th birthday. The aptly named Magdalena longs for a perfect quinceanera complete with a chauffeur-driven rented Hummer, but her family can't believe she has gotten pregnant without having sex. Slyly funny and uplifting, it is told like a fairy tale with all the details grounded in reality.

6) "Babel" -- Richly detailed, sweeping and moving, it contrasts life in three regions of the world as experienced by three sets of characters in the midst of turmoil. Brad Pitt is wonderful as an American tourist whose wife has been shot in a Mideastern country as is the little boy who shot her. Gael Garcia Bernal is great as a ne'er do well Mexican who is tormented by the U.S.-Mexican border. But the most gripping scene is of the deaf teen Chieko played by pop star Rinko Kikuchi in a dance club. Although it is earsplittingly loud for everyone around her, she is engulfed in silence.

7) "The Devil Wears Prada." The esteemed Meryl Streep lives up to her reputation as the evil editor in this fairy tale about a smart girl played by Anne Hathaway who learns to dress well without compromising her values. I really can't remember much about the Hathaway character. It's the nasty editor, modeled after Anna Wintour, who I was interested in. A kind of Martha Stewart type, she is utterly hardworking and competent yet lacking in public relations skills, and, perhaps, empathy. Like Queen Elizabeth, we get the feeling that this strong woman has sacrificed something to play a role everyone would be disappointed if she rejected.

8) "Prairie Home Companion" -- I'm not much of a Garrison Keillor fan, but I love the elegiac tone of this endearing interpretation of his weekly radio show by the now late Robert Altman. The best scene involves Meryl Streep, again, this time with Lily Tomlin, sitting at their dressing tables backstage, recalling good and bad times. They transform lived experience into stories much the way Keillor does -- but without the schtick.

9) "Flags of Our Fathers" -- Another deeply moving Clint Eastwood movie, it's about the way lackeys in the United States government cruelly manipulated a trio of servicemen who were in the iconic photo of the flag being raised at Iwo Jima. Like "Million Dollar Baby" before it, the movie has a plaintive score that stays with you a long time after you've left the theater.

10) "A Scanner Darkly" -- I was really tempted to include "Borat" among my favorite movies of the year, if only for the hilarious naked wrestling scene. And there are a few movies I strongly suspect would have been contenders if I had seen them -- "Volver," for instance, "The Good Shepherd," "Dreamgirls," "Little Children," maybe. But I nominate "Through a Scanner Darkly," based on the 1977 Philip K. Dick novel and directed by Richard Linklater. I want to watch it again sometime to experience the reality altering effects of the animation technique called rotoscoping. It makes everything look fluid, as if it could wash away at any time, much as "United 93" reminds us that it could.

Link to Amherst Bulletin story on local blogger Tom Devine and more

Here's a story I wrote about Tom Devine, whose blog is aptly addressed tomdevine.net. He's an authority on blogging from having done it since 1999. I found him via his YouTube posts on such things as walking to Amherst Chinese and the great ant fight outside the Jones Library one day.

http://www.amherstbulletin.com/story/id/21217/

Here's a very nice story by UMass student Kevin Dooley on Devine's visit to my class:

http://www.dailycollegian.com/media/storage/paper874/news/2006/12/08/News/Blogger.Speaks.On.Benefits.Of.Online.Journalism-2529239.shtml?norewrite200612221920&sourcedomain=www.dailycollegian.com

And here's another story that didn't get much attention on the Bulletin Website. It's about a conservative professor/provocateur who visited UMass, where he was roundly heckled by students, some dressed in drag then wrote about it. As Devine pointed out to my class several weeks later, it was a win-win-win-win all around. 1) Mike Adams, the provocateur got just the kind of reception provocateurs wish for and will, no doubt, boost his visibility. 2) The students participated in some high-spirited guerilla theater and advanced the reputation of UMass as being a place where dissent is alive. 3) Devine got a good video that received more hits on YouTube than any other he has ever posted. 4) Adams wrote the kind of piece he probably loves to, in which he portrays himself as the normal guy in a weird universe, or as he calls it in his piece, "Planet Amherst." Plus, I got to write this fun piece with a link to Devine's video.
You can get there, eventually, from here: http://www.amherstbulletin.com/story/id/19350/

Photo is of UMass hecklers.

A local blog with beautiful photos and posts I think are great, including the blogger's picks from the esteemed Bulletin Cop Log.

Here's a link to a blog whose author goes by the name of Emily Dickinson. http://amherst01002.blogspot.com After Scott Merzbach, author of the Bulletin Police Log pointed this blog out to me, I recognized a blogging role model. In one post, the blogger talks about the romanesco caulifower/broccoli, which I have written about too. The article (posted below) drew a negative response from an anonymous critic. I think the detractor was a fellow newspaper writer or editor. (I'll post the message I received soon, in case a sleuth can shed some light on it.) Anyway, LOVE the photos on Emily's blog.
Here's the story. See photo upper left.

They flock to praise odd veggie's spirals
BY MARY CAREY STAFF WRITER
AMHERST - It looks like a vegetable from another planet, and it's been flying off the shelves at the Hampshire College Farm Center.
Alternately referred to as 'romanesque cauliflower,' 'romanesco cauliflower,' and 'romanesco broccoli,' the pungent, chartreuse-colored, cone-covered produce may or may not be a cross between broccoli and cauliflower.
Professional plant taxonomists are divided.
So, in some ways, is the reaction to the bold brassica (a genus of plants in the cabbage family) at the Community Supported Agriculture farm program at Hampshire. Its 150 members have a chance to pick one up with their weekly share of flowers and vegetables - if they're among the first to arrive.
Between the novelty of it and a fairly limited supply, the rococo romanesco cauliflower/broccoli is in demand, said Nancy Hanson, manager of the Community Supported Agriculture Program at the farm center.
'Either people think there is something wrong with it - they say, 'What's wrong with this cauliflower?' - or they think it's really cool.'
Bloggers and Internet posters have been onto the plant for several years: 'A cauliflower after a gamma ray experiment gone horribly wrong,' is how nicole, a poster at the Web log callalillie.com, describes it. 'Looks like something that some people would roll up and smoke,' Kevin Walsh notes at the same site.
A British blogger says the cauliflower 'caused a stir' when it was introduced at a farmers market there.
The beguiling broccoli/cauliflower was celebrated at a joint mathematics and botanical exhibition at Smith College in 2003 called 'Plant Spirals: Beauty You Can Count On.'
Turns out its curious protuberances are formed according to the Fibonacci series, in which each digit is the sum of the previous two. 'This is so visually stunning an object that on first encounter it's hard to imagine you're looking at a garden vegetable rather than an alien artifact created with molecular nanotechnology,' John Walker, an admirer, notes at a Swiss Web site, fourmilab.ch. 'But, of course, then you realize that vegetables are created with molecular nanotechnology, albeit the product of earthly evolution, not extraterrestrial engineering.'

The incomparable Jonathan Melle and all the people on his mailing list.

Jonathan Melle, formerly of Pittsfield, now of Hanover, N.H. has been e-mailing his take on local, regional and state government for years now. He's created a few enemies along the way, most notably former Sen. Andrea Nuciforo, who is Melle's Enemy No. 1, if I understand anything about Melle. Daniel Bosley, recently appointed by incoming Deval Patrick as an economic development advisor is another public figure to have drawn Melle's ire -- and who sends him lengthy responses to his critiques. I submit Melle's mailing list and an excerpt from his response to Bosley's appointment:
To:
"Bosley, Daniel - Rep. (HOU)" , Alan , Patrick Pennell , The Berkshire Eagle , Bill Everhart , The Pittsfield Gazette , Deval Patrick , The North Adams Transcript , Bob Travaglini , "Rosenberg, Stan (SEN)" , Mike O'Brien , kramsdell@tams.com, Judi Loeb , Lew Markham , Joan Kaiser , Matt Kerwood , Mike Franco , Matt Barron , Matt Kinnaman , "The Honorable Mayor Jim M. Ruberto" , Richard Delmasto , Mary Carey , Joan Vennochi , bray@globe.com, Big Dave Vallette , Larry Kratka , "Rep. Smitty Pignatelli" , jdew@berkshireeagle.com, Ned McGlynn , "U.S. President George W. Bush" , George Will
Subject:
RE: Why I believe Dan Bosley will bring positive changes for Massachusetts!
Date:
Tue, 19 Dec 2006 22:17:18 +0000 [View Source]
Dear News Media, Politicians, the People:

The reasons I believe Dan Bosley will bring positive changes to Massachusetts are as follows:

(a) He is the most intelligent person whom I have personally known on a first hand basis when it comes to public policy. ..(.etc etc etc)..I hope Deval and Dan will do the right thing and abolish this flawed mandated universal healthcare plan with no funding mechanism before Massachusetts and her municipalities and people all go BANKRUPT, which is the opposite of "economic development"!

-Jonathan A. Melle

Calling the creator of this cute bat: who are you?

This is an excerpt of a story that didn't get too much attention at the Amherst Bulletin Website, possibly because I and the editor were too clever by half. I tried to cram too much into this note on the new graffiti on the Amherst Cinema building, linking it in spirit to old graffiti. Then the editor put a headline on it combining references to something embedded in this post and in another one.
Here's the stripped down version:
The new Amherst Cinema Center is already turning into an institution - complete with graffiti on the side of the building. A large bat - looking a bit like Stellaluna of the beloved children's story by that name - was spray-painted on the pristine pinkish bricks over the weekend. The police received a report of its appearance on Monday.
The nocturnal flying mammal joins the graffiti reading, "For Willy, for humanity," and "Save the Drake," on the side of the original Amherst Cinema building. The messages commemorate the bar in the basement of the former Drake Hotel. Closed for good in 1985, "Willy's Rathskeller," better known as "The Drake," was a colorful gathering place, whose passing some customers decried as a sign of the gentrification of Amherst.
"The question is what will replace the Drake, and the answer is nothing," one customer wrote to the Bulletin back then.
"For Willy," is a reference to the longtime bartender, Willie Whitfield.
Cut to the present, and posters to the Bulletin's online forum, "Talkback," are expressing similar concerns about the recent closing of Barselotti's, otherwise known as Barsies.
"This was more than a dingy college bar," B.R. writes on Talkback earlier this month, "it was a place for locals to come back and catch upon town news or reunite with old friends on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving."
J.B. wishes Judie's, which is to expand into the former Barsie's, well.
But he adds, "As for me, I'll pass by on the way to the Pub and I expect many others will not be running out to join the beret and martini crowd either."