Rogue watching

Atlantic Monthly blogger Andrew Sullivan is following closely the moves and machinations of Sarah Palin, who is now on tour pushing her book. Like many on either side of the political divide, Sullivan was outraged that John McCain created this monster.

McCain, writes Sullivan, "perpetrated this nonsense and even now refuses to take an ounce of responsibility" for "the fact that a person of no credentials and no transparency and no knowledge came that close to being president of this country ...I want the truth about this farce fully exposed so it never, ever happens again."

Between the publication of her book, Going Rogue (cover, above, from Wikipedia) and appearances (Oprah and elsewhere) to support the book, Palin has worked herself again into the center of a media storm. Meanwhile, former future son-in-law Levi Johnston -- the father of Bristol Palin's child -- is posing for Playgirl magazine.

John McCain unleashed this plague upon us, and Andrew Sullivan is right to insist that he be held accountable.

Creative juices

The latest incarnation of The Eastie Jolt is up and it includes poetry from a local wordsmith, photographs of some of East Boston's natural beauty and an essay on turning to each other during difficult economic times.

In recent weeks The Jolt has published a story on the neighborhood's turn-of-the-century Jewish community and a piece on a local hip-hop record label, as well as fiction, art and more poetry, photographs and essays. All of it can be found on the site.

Submissions of writing and photography are accepted from any East Boston resident, as well as those who used to live in the neighborhood or work here. Send material or questions to editor@eastiejolt.com.

Comments policy changed

An infusion of "junk mail"-type comments, as well as a number of silly and inappropriate comments, has necessitated that readers must register in order to post from here on. The shift was delayed repeatedly, but it has become too time consuming to do otherwise.

Dinner time

***The Salesian Boys & Girls Club is holding a spaghetti dinner fundraiser tonight in the cafeteria of its current location, the old Savio Hall. The proceeds will help sustain the club's programming for young people from East Boston.

***State rep. Carlo Basile is again sponsoring a Thanksgiving Day dinner at the Sacred Heart Church. Transportation can be arranged by calling 617.913.3332. This community has a long tradition of such events, which speaks to the notion that we are each responsible for helping out our neighbors when we can.

Local business needs your help

Local entrepreneur Rob Pyles and his Audissey Guides are one of the finalists in Forbes Magazine's Boost Your Business Contest. Audissey offers downloadable podcasts of walking tours of cities, historic sites and more. Check out their web site here.

A group of 1,500 businesses has been whittled down to just five in the competition, with $100,000 going to the winner. The contest is partially decided by Internet voting, which can be done here. You can watch a video of Rob in New York City to pitch the idea to a panel of judges here.

Hyperbolic bollocks

I've never read an editorial quite like the screed in last week's East Boston Times. There's almost no attempt to make a logical case for the position that casino gambling should be brought to Suffolk Downs; instead there's a collection of ridiculous hyperbole and a bunch of straw-man arguments.

According to the Nov. 4 editorial, "Negative vibes," those against bringing a casino to East Boston:

-- "stand against progress in this litigious world" and "prefer economic inertia to sound development and job creation"
-- believe a casino at Suffolk Downs would be an "immoral Tower of Babel"
-- believe a casino would be "ruinous in every measure."
-- believe a casino would require "twin eight lane highways costing $500 million" and that traffic will be "so bad that life is going to stop"
-- believe that "East Boston ...will be ruined if Suffolk Downs is developed"
-- believe that "East Boston ... will be obliterated, the fabric of the community torn, the civil society shredded, tattered beyond recognition with East Boston itself taking on the persona of a homicide victim brutally stabbed to death and left to bleed."
-- believe that, "Small business will be ruined. Housing values will tumble. Prostitution will take over. Drugs will flow."
-- believe that "East Boston becomes Sodom and Gomorrah and people looking back at the neighborhood will run the risk of turning themselves into pillars of salt."

Are they serious? Was this supposed to be an actual attempt to say something intelligent on an important matter? Bringing casino gambling to Massachusetts and, specifically, to East Boston is an issue that has legitimate arguments on both sides. Reasonable people can discuss the subject and reach different conclusions. With this ridiculous polemic, the Times completely ignores rational discussion.

Meanwhile, the Times' front-page story about a State House hearing on casino gambling reads like a transcript of comments by an official from Suffolk Downs. The article is completely one-sided for two reasons: first, the remarks aren't evaluated, investigated, fact-checked, scrutinized or analyzed; and second, no one else is quoted in the story. You mean to tell me that nobody showed up who was on the other side of the issue? Or did those who write the Times' editorials instruct their reporter to ignore anyone at the hearing who is against casino gambling?

Potential buyers to look at Savio

Word is that representatives from North Cambridge Catholic High School will be looking at the former location of Savio High School in East Boston as a possible future site. NCC, currently located just off Mass. Ave. about a mile northwest of Porter Square, apparently needs to move and has been negotiating with the Archdiocese of Boston for a building that housed another school near Savin Hill in Dorchester. After eight months the two sides still seem far apart with regard to price, so the school's board wants to look elsewhere.

NCC is one of 24 schools that are part of the Cristo Rey Network, which educates urban teens using "a unique program that requires students to work one day a week with a corporate sponsor in order to subsidize their tuition," according to Time magazine, which called the program "an island of success in the Catholic ocean."

Savio shut down in June of 2007 due to financial difficulties. The school, run by the Salesian order of the Catholic Church, opened its doors in 1958 as St. Domenic Savio High School. After several decades of success (I graduated in 1981), the Salesians announced that they needed to close down the school, but the community expressed outrage and a number of accomplished alumni stepped forward and negotiated a deal. The doors opened in the fall of 1993 as Savio Preparatory High School, and though the institution wasn't shut for any school days, a significant number of faculty members and students had moved on. By the mid-2000s the school was in trouble again and nothing would save it.

While the gym building has been utilized as the Salesian Boys & Girls Club, the classroom building -- a brick structure at the corner of Horace and Byron streets (see photo) -- is older and needs quite a bit of work. Plaster is falling inside rooms and offices, tiles are chipped and broken, there's been some water damage and there's a musty smell throughout. It's been said that the building needs "hundreds of thousands of dollars" worth of work. The visit by NCC is only an initial step, and it remains to be seen whether this is simply a tactic by the school to spur on the negotiations with the archdiocese for the Dorchester site.

The irony here is that Savio was one of the places that Cristo Rey initially considered back when the program first came to scout sites in Boston at some point just as the organization was forming about a decade ago. I was on the faculty at the time, and Savio's leadership quickly squashed the idea. Cristo Rey kept looking and discovered that NCC was an ailing Catholic high school willing to embrace the innovative approach.

Remembering slain officer

Richard Halloran, a Boston Police sergeant who was shot and killed in the line of duty at the corner of Bremen Street and Neptune Road 34 years ago today, was honored this morning. With the mayor and others on hand and bagpipes playing, a bronze and granite memorial was unveiled.

Image from Boston.com

Election Day

The polls are open and the race for mayor will be decided today after the most contentious campaign for City Hall in years. The Boston City Council will also see some new faces, as well as some old familiars.

Any comments or observations? How does turnout look so far? What's the word on the street? This thread will be open all day for comments on the election (but let's keep it factual and civil, not biased and inflammatory).

Here is a look at the names on today's ballot. Here is where to find the location of your polling place. Here is the Globe's election coverage.

Whose cider you on?

We are deep into apple season and, as I've mentioned before, I am a cider guy -- an unpasteurized cider guy, to be specific. Each autumn I drive out to orchards that sell the delectable unprocessed libation, and yesterday I went to one of the best cider towns in the state: Stow.

I'd been out there Columbus Day weekend and picked up a couple gallons of cider at Honeypot Hill, which was packed with visitors looking at farm animals, navigating a maze, sampling cider donuts and purchasing farm products. Their cider is good -- I'd had some of it for the past few years -- and if I remember they're charging $5.50 a gallon.

In mid-October I went up to Russell Orchards in Ipswich, which is a nice place, but the cider -- at $6.25 a jug -- was just mediocre (unlike last year). They do sell a nice assortment of fruit wines, and on fall weekends Russell often has a bluegrass band playing and a fireplace going.

Yesterday I hit up a pair of places across the street from each other on Great Road (Route 117) in Stow. Derby Orchards, which I often frequent because their farm store is usually open late in the season, was selling cider for $4.25 a gallon! (Only Market Basket, at $4, sells cider less expensively, but it's pasteurized, which changes the flavor.) It's good stuff, but even better is One Stack Farm.

I'd never been to One Stack before, and it's almost hidden at the corner of Great Road and Packard Road. I purchased the cider for $5 a gallon from an older gentleman inside an open garage. The beverage is sweet and smooth. I've often found that the smaller the operation -- at Phil's Apples off I-495 in Harvard you'll find Phil pressing the apples in front of you -- the better the cider.

Cheers.

Rolling on the river

I was at the Condor Street Urban Wilds today when an oil tanker, the Panagia Lady, passed beneath the raised Meridian Street Bridge and made its way up the Chelsea Creek. I took some photos, including the one above, which captures a gentleman at the bottom right who had a much better camera than I did. (Click on photo for a larger image.)

Decision time for Afghanistan

Twin bombshells regarding Afghanistan in the past couple of days: Foreign Service Officer Matthew Hoh's resignation; and The New York Times story that Afghan president's brother, who was widely reported to be in control of that country's drug trade, has been on the CIA payroll for years. Throw in the obvious widespread fraud during Afghanistan's presidential election, and we have a toxic mix just as President Obama is in the final stages of making a decision on future US policy in that South Asian nation.

I think that American forces need to be pulled out of Afghanistan. I understand the post-9/11 invasion, but I don't see what we are accomplishing now -- eight years later. For those on the fence, I suggest that you read Hoh's resignation letter, which makes clear the complexities of the situation and, further, says that America's presence is only making things worse. In fact, I think everyone should read the letter.

Cheap AND dry

I stopped at Market Basket in Chelsea today during the deluge and, when I came out, there were a couple of store employees with umbrellas in the parking lot to escort customers to their cars. I've never seen that at a store of any kind.

Taking a pounding

In the wake of a University of Michigan study on the long-term health of retired pro football players, there is a rising chorus of concerned voices. The study, commissioned by the NFL, shows higher rates of dementia, Alzheimer's and other brain-related syndromes in those who suffered the repeated concussions associated with the sport.

I read the story in last week's New Yorker in which Malcolm Gladwell compared the physical damage done to NFL lineman to that done to the animals used in dogfighting -- very much in the news after the return to the field of Michael Vick. Gladwell's point wasn't, of course, that pro football players get ripped to shreds, but rather that they sacrifice their bodies for the enjoyment of others.

The New York Times has a story today about a former NFL executive trying to rally support for the retirees, who sometimes fall through the cracks of the league's support programs, and a Congressional committee has announced that hearings will be held on the matter.

As I've mentioned on this blog before, I know a little bit about the issue, having written a story about concussions among high school athletes when I was a sports reporter in southern Maine. (I recently posted the award-winning story again at The Eastie Jolt.)

The medical professionals I spoke with at the time were quite concerned about the issue and felt that it needed to get more attention from everyone involved in youth and collegiate sports -- and not just with regards to football, but other sports where concussions sometimes occur.

Unzipped

One of the two Zipcar locations in East Boston is looking for a new home. The car-sharing company won't be able to use the spots at Maverick Square and Henry Street after the end of this month, and Zipcar is looking for another suitable location that can fit two or three vehicles. If you have such a spot or know of one you can email jcrooks@zipcar.com.

The second Eastie site, at the Gumball Factory condos on Orleans Street, is still in use.