UMass Herbs

Yesterday at UMass was the Herb Festival. No, not those kinds of herbs. Here is a display about the cocoa plant. No, not that cocoa plant, this is the kind they use to make chocolate.

Free hotdogs were available to all comers. You can usually find somebody giving away a free lunch at UMass everyday - provided you favor a diet of hotdogs, hamburgers and pizza.

 



Later you could pose to have your picture taken with Stewie.

 



The moon over Northampton by Greg Saulmon. 

The musical Moe.

 




Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the Rebecca Johnson school in Springfield, Massachusetts. One is from Ludlow, another from Longmeadow and the third, Agawam. They go with a Springfield official to examine the fence.

The Ludlow contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil. "Well," he says, "I figure the job will run about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me."

The Longmeadow contractor also does some measuring and figuring, and then says "I can do this job for $700; $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me."

The Agawam contractor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to the Springfield official and whispers, "$2,700."

The official, incredulous, says, "You didn't even measure like the other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?"

The Agawam contractor whispers back, "$1,000 for me, $1,000 for you, and we'll hire the guy from Longmeadow to fix the fence."

"Done!" exclaimed the Springfield official.