The Smokehound

Last night I went to the Filos Greek Taverna across from Pulaski Park.

Inside, it has a unique decor:

Generally you would associate pizza with Italian cuisine, but ya gotta try the pizza at this Greek joint. It is superb!

The first rays of the rising sun come pouring through the front windows of the Haymarket Cafe. You may notice that the New York Times is in front of me.

Despite their terrible bias and shameful abandonment of journalistic standards during the Trump era, the Times remains worth perusing. It still covers topics, whatever the spin, that other papers simply do not.

From the Haymarket I headed to the bus stop.

Soon I arrived in beautiful downtown Amherst.

I headed over to Amherst College to visit their library.

I was a few minutes early and the Robert Frost Library wasn't open yet, so I walked over to the nearby war memorial for those from Amherst College who died in the two world wars. It is one of our Valley's most beautiful spots.

On the giant marble disc is carved the names of the young patriots.

Some gave all.

While on the subject of untimely deaths, I must express my regret for the sudden departure of Eddie Gallagher. He used to live on Wilbraham Road near WNEU and his grandpa was a former chief of police. Eddie was also a good friend to my buddy Bodie Chesbro. God, he could be fun to hang with. His obituary doesn't say so, but before he went to college in Maine he did a few semesters at UMass. Eddie used to come by my dorm room 403 (O3 is the chemical symbol for ozone) in Cashin after his classes (or between them) and we'd have crazy pot parties. Damn he loved weed, so much so that we called him "The Smokehound."

My, oh my, what is becoming of my youthful companions?

Late night downtown stroll.

Year One

Another beautiful morning in our Happy Valley as I headed down King Street towards downtown.

Sid, the cat who lives in Shop Therapy, was out for his morning stroll.

What on Earth?

A woman's clothing store has transformed itself into a center for THE RESISTANCE!

And yes, they are STILL "with her."

As the 10:00 bus was taking me past City Hall, the usual suspects were starting to gather for an 11:00 anti-Trump rally on the one year anniversary of his inauguration.

I did not support Donald Trump in the 2016 primaries, nor did I vote for him that November. However, my frank appraisal of his first year in office is that I greatly underestimated him and I think that things are moving mostly in the right direction on a lot of fronts for the first time in a long while. So it's probably just as well that I got outta town before that rally got underway.

Photographer Mary Carey was down by the mighty Connecticut yesterday. Lots of ice blocks piled up onshore.

This video makes me happy.

2017 Year in Review

Downtown Amherst on New Year's Day, as seen from Starbucks.

A giant snowpile in downtown of Northampton.

Well, another year done gone. Lots to be happy and grateful about, with only an occasional mishap here and there. At the start of 2018, here's an update of where my online projects are at the start of 2018:

The Ogulewicz Chronicles - 2017 marked the first full year that this newly re-released and expanded memoir of Springfield politics has been available. This insider account by former City Councilor Mitch Ogulewicz, now features over 50 historic supplemental videos, making The Chronicles essential reading and viewing for anyone wanting to better understand what happened to the once great (and soon to be great again?) City of Springfield in the seminal decade of the 1980's.

The Diary of J. Wesley Miller - This massive Pioneer Valley history database kept expanding throughout the past year, as we followed the always interesting, insightful and sometimes downright bizarre adventures of one of Springfield's Grand Eccentrics (and his friend Eamon). Wesley knew everyone, and his behind the scenes views of our Valley's prominent personalities, politics and culture brings the modern history of our Valley fully to life with a degree of color and depth never before available. There's no end in sight, as the material currently available online covers only the years 1999 thru 2005. While certain years are missing, there is still decades worth of material yet to be released, going back as far as 1968. I only hope I live long enough to completely release all the contents of this historical treasure chest, which gets an average of between 50 and 60 hits per day, not bad considering what it is.

Tumblin' Thomas - This is the most popular website I edit, a fact which sort of irks me. I started Tumblin Thomas as a way of spreading memes, those one frame, one thought visual creations that can be anything from funny, to beautiful to sharply political. I created the tumblr in response to the meme craze so I wouldn't clog up my other blogs with them. That means it is the blog where the least amount of the material originates with me. In other words, the most popular blog I do is the blog I personally contribute the least material to. That makes the thousands of hits it gets weekly personally less gratifying than the numbers might suggest it should be.

The Baystate Objectivist - This, of course, is the blog you are reading right now, and it is the one on which appears my most serious writing about the endless kaleidoscope of topics that interest me. I'm gratified by the 9,000 to 10,000 hits it gets per month, but wish it was more popular than, say, my stoner memes on Tumblin Thomas. Oh well, this blog still has the distinction of being the Pioneer Valley's longest running blog - 20 years online this year, with seven years as a print publication before that. It is also the Pioneer Valley's first blog (I saw nobody else around when I started) which has sometimes caused me to be referred to as "The Father of the Valley Blogosphere" although I am demanding a paternity test. In any case, I'll try to do some retrospective pieces at various points throughout this year in celebration of the twenty years online anniversary, so that will be fun.

In the meantime, Peace and Love to you all in 2018!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!

Yuling

The woodland way into downtown Northampton was an icy deathtrap this morning, but I traversed it safely thanks to my nimble footed agility.

Something to be grateful for this holiday season - no broken bones!

This King Street restaurant is available if you happen to be having a "Christmas Story" type holiday.

Soon I arrived at a cozy coffee shop.

The view out the window.

A dino-driver.

It was a Santa-driver who drove me into Amherst.

The Boy Scouts sold out their whole stock of Christmas trees, as they do every year.

Here is me on Christmas morn about ten years ago.

This morning's bus driver wears a Santa hat better than I do.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!

Bobby Brown vs. the Police Commission

I was surprised and dismayed to see an obituary in the paper for ex-Springfield cop Robert Brown. Surprised, because I didn't know he was even still alive, and dismayed because he was a colorful character on the local political scene for many years. The picture that ran with the obit was obviously taken many years before his death recently at age 89:

In the Diary of J.Wesley Miller, there is a great anecdote about Brown and an encounter he had with the Springfield Police Commission:

Retired Police Officer and labor activist Robert Brown came to visit today. He arrived at 2:55 and I served strawberry shortcake and sherry, of which he had several refills. Brown told me that he used to go to First Church but the new minister there talks about Martin Luther King all the time instead of God so he stopped going. His father was a truck driver from Rumford, Maine. Brown is 76 years old and has six kids, three boys and three girls. He graduated from Tech High in 1945.

Brown said he hopes the Feds get something on Albano after all the trouble he caused the Patrolman's Union. Brown also told me of how "Efrem Gordon saved my ass!" It all started when Brown made an important arrest and two cops who arrived later wanted to put their names on the arrest report too. Brown refused to give them false credit and the cops got mad and said they'd get even.

One day Brown stopped to chat for a few minutes in a barbershop in Six Corners and the cops who were mad suddenly barged in and accused him of sleeping on the job and turned him in. He was hauled before the Police Commission chaired by the hard-nosed Beaumont Herman, who suspended him without pay for three days. Brown cried out, "Your Honor, I'm getting the shaft!" Bo Herman stood up and shouted at him not to use profanity and suspended him for another three days.

Brown went to see Efrem Gordon and Effie said he'd been before the Police Commission many times and that he would help him out. At the appeal Atty. Gordon showed that there were inconsistencies in the accusations against Brown and brought in dictionaries that showed the word "shaft" is not obscene. Bobby Brown was exonerated and thereby became one of the few guys to ever beat the Police Commission. Later Brown went to Efrem and told him that with six kids he didn't know how he could afford to pay him but Gordon said forget the bill because, "I've had so much fun beating the bastards!"

Efrem Gordon
The dirt road that goes past my backyard is covered with ice.

Craig Chaquico of Jefferson Starship has a new band. As you can hear below, it is very good.

Frankie's Bad End

As the first rays of the rising sun struck the woodland way into downtown Northampton yesterday morning I was surrounded by beauty in all directions.

Hamp's Happy the Homeless Frog is all decked out for the holidays.

Snow on the pumpkins outside Iconica Cafe, in the alleyway outside the Haymarket.

While looking through my archives for something else, I stumbled across this old newspaper clipping from 1974 about my former Thomas M. Balliet Elementary School and Duggan Junior High School classmate Frank Bourbeau, describing the circumstances of his tragic death.

I put a scan of the article on Facebook, thinking there might be a few souls out there who may still remember Frank and his family. I was surprised by the response!

Amazing how much people still have to say about this family, 43 years after Frank was killed in an accident for which drugs and alcohol were blamed.

Also on Facebook this week....

Last week I went to a birthday party for Amherst's poetic superstar Emily Dickinson at the Robert Frost Library on Amherst College. The old gal ain't doing too bad for 187 years old. Here's 69 seconds of what went down.