37 degrees first thing. Overcast all day long.
This is Catholic World Peace Day. God has long been reported dead, but I view God as the universalized expression of a community's highest aspirations. To people who have heard bad rumors about me, and I certainly hope I've earned some, I say remember that I am a lawyer, not a Methodist Sunday school proprietor like my grandfather.
There are rumors that the Wilbraham Grange is disbanding. What is the status of the Grange in Feeding Hills? Granges everywhere seem to be dying. The news is reporting that Mitt Romney and Kerry Healey will give up their salaries and serve as Governor and Lieutenant Governor for free. Attorney and former School Committee member Edward Friedman and his two sons were in the paper about some domestic dispute.
The 114th Rose Parade started at 11 today hosted by Al Roker and Nancy O'Dell on NBC. They celebrated the 100th Anniversary of Air Flight with a replica of the Wright Brother's plane at the head of the parade. My favorite float this year was sponsored by Dr. Pepper and had a wonderful depiction of a double-headed dragon breathing fire with its wings extended and a long curling tail. I also watched the Vienna concerts. It is time for Walter Cronkite to step down as host as he is getting too old and his voice has gotten gravelly.
I decided this afternoon to drive out to Bertucci's in Longmeadow for a New Year's dinner with a coupon. The Longmeadow Shoppes parking lot was well filled except at the far western end. I asked for the eggplant dinner and got a large oval plate of eggplant slices with a nice sauce over them. I also got some pizza. The place is nicely furnished with paneling and hanging bowl lighting. The Men's Room has black marble tiles throughout. The meal itself was okay and cost only $13 but I've tasted better eggplant recipes. The service was also on the slow side.
Eamon called and wished me a cordial Happy New Year. Jimmy Bloom, the relative of Attorney Francis Bloom advised Eamon to pursue charges against the fireman who threatened to burn down his house. We talked about Springfield's schools, with Eamon asking "How many more teachers and students have to be assaulted and stabbed or even killed like the late Rev. Brown before Superintendent Burke and the rubber stamp school board will take serious action?" He said the principals of Putnam, Sci-Tech and especially the politically correct but incompetent principal of Commerce Ann Henry should all be fired immediately.
We then discussed the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993 which cost $12 billion but which Eamon described as "an unmitigated disaster." He said there is certainly no hiring freeze at the Mass Department of Education and they have over 50 managers, many of whom hardly show up for work yet get astounding salaries. Eamon recalled Dr. Ann Schumer, the relative of a congressman from New York, who was head of art education for the state despite having flimsy credentials. She got her job from Governor Dukakis and she didn't like Eamon once she discovered he was feeding information about the Massachusetts Department of Education to WWLP's Bill Putnam and Deputy Commissioner Tom Curtin. That was when they transferred Eamon out of the Boston office so that he would no longer have as much inside access to the department's highest levels.
Over six inches of snow last night.
Frank's Autoplex was on Center Street in Ludlow in 1988. When we first moved to Birchland Avenue in 1956 our phone number was 8-4195. Mother's favorite perfume was "Whisper" by Lucien LeLong, which no longer exists. Red Lobster is airing advertising about "All the Shrimp You Can Eat." What about lobster? I am annoyed by a St. Joseph's Aspirin TV commercial that has a man talking about his dad and he says, "We're competitive about everything." What about collaboration? The subliminal message of that ad is dreadful. Today Kelly put on her Xmas lights at 4:30pm and turned them off at 10pm.
Mrs. Staniski called today and said Carol came over and took her to Stop&Shop to get groceries. Mrs. Staniski's mother was Anne F. Richter from White Temple, Florida. With all the bad weather I've been staying in and going over Mother's extensive medical records about Father and me and herself. Mother made a comprehensive list of every illness and prescription we ever had. There were lots of labels from drug jars and even a Tylenol bottle with Pine Point Pharmacy stamped on it. But no Charkoudion Drugstore labels, not one. Ralph Burke was the Pederzoli druggist who lived at 58 Lakeside. His kids were Ralph, Jerome and cute little Maureen. Mother's first set of false teeth were made by Dr. Mortimer Stone on Main Street in Springfield. Western Mass Hospital in Westfield has always been a quiet, unhurried place with a nice spread of magazines on the table in the waiting room.
I had the measles in April of 1949. In February 1954 I saw Dr. Gabriel Kitchener for a case of athlete's feet I got in the locker room at Buckingham Junior High. In February 1956 I had a hearing test by Dr. S. Segal at Buckingham that found my hearing slightly impaired. Dr. George H. Nieske was a dentist on Burt Lane in Wilbraham in 1959. Father fainted for no apparent reason on September 10, 1960. A mole on my leg was removed by Dr. Stanley Stusick in his office in December 1965. Mother had a thyroid operation at Ludlow Hospital in 1963 with Dr. Stusick. On April 25, 1986 I slashed my arm by putting it through the kitchen door window during one of Mother's tantrums. My arm had to be operated on by Drs. Omar T. Pace and David W. Page.
Called Mudry to thank him for plowing out my driveway. I must send him a thank you card with some money in it. Ex-cop Robert W. Brown called and said his wife had such a bad cold they had to take her to the hospital but she's back home now. We discussed Athan Soco Catjakis and Brown said that in 1995 Soco came up to him at an event at the Greek Cultural Center and put his arm around him and asked him to support Albano for Mayor over Charlie Ryan. Brown said he flatly refused, telling Catjakis that in his opinion "Albano is a fraud." He said that Soco owns land where the Bosch used to be and keeps an office there. Brown said he once ran for State Representative against Rudy Chumura (71 Chauncey Dr., Springfield, 13th Hampden District, Democrat) "a thief who beat me by just 26 votes."
I watched Mitt Romney get sworn in on TV and I thought he spoke well. That hypocrite Tommy Finneran was slapping Romney on the back like an old friend. Eamon called and he has a new phone system that makes better recordings and his voice comes across louder. Eamon says his New Year's resolution is to keep after inept public employees and corrupt politicians. Eamon was talking about his Catholic education and he said the church runs their schools "on deviation and deception." He recalled a nun telling him once that, "It is better to drop your seed on a whore's belly than to drop it on the ground." I told him that I feel that chastity and virginity are just as good as the married state. Eamon says "the despicable villains" behind the failures of the public school system are the teacher's unions who are "opposed to their members being held accountable for their failure to educate our children."
33 degrees this morning.
I just looked up the definition of sociopath in Clarence Wilber Taber's Medical Dictionary: Emotional instability, inability to take responsibility, anti-social acts, total lack of conscience, impulsive, lack of emotional maturity, not in contact with reality, refuses to accept help and withdrawn into their own world. That sounds like Aunt Maria!
David Driscoll is the Massachusetts Commissioner of Education. Sunday is the last day of the season for Bright Nights at Forest Park. The Springfield Rod and Gun Club on Wilbraham Road is now listed in the phone book as the Springfield Revolver Club. I just realized that the last time I visited the Museum of Fine Arts at the Quad to see that silly female athletes exhibit there was a supply of pencils but no guestbook to write in. I wonder if they removed the book when they saw me coming?
Eamon recalled how he used to go to Catechism on Tuesdays at Our Lady of Hope. Sometimes he used to skip it and hang out in Van Horn Park until it was time to go home. Eventually he was caught. Eamon mentioned how Harold Whitcomb used to take him camping up in Becket when he was a kid. He also remembered how when he was young he used to sing at the House of Good Shepard every year, accompanied by Roland Joyal on piano. He said Joyal was a very good piano player and his sister Katherine was a dancer. Eamon also sang at the Red Baron in Chicopee Falls where they used to pass the hat and he made out pretty good. He also sang for the vets up in Leeds annually for a number of years.
Eamon has a new mailman that is more predictable than his former postman Randy, a Vietnam vet. You never knew when Randy would arrive with the mail. Eamon also recalled how his brother Ray the Fire Chief told him that Fire Commission member Tommy Sampson of the funeral home used to show up at nearly every fire. He loved to watch fires. Eamon said his caller ID showed that District Attorney Bennett called his message twice yesterday. According to Eamon Mitt Romney is a good guy but will probably end up getting bogged down in the corrupt politics of Massachusetts. Eamon said he spoke on the phone for half an hour on Friday with Rose Marie Coughlin. She told him that she attended the inauguration of Governor Romney and even got to personally wish him congratulations. Karen Powell was invited to attend but didn't want to go. I was sorry to hear that because I recommended to Romney that the Powells be invited.
Rose Marie Coughlin used to be on the Springfield School Committee and City Council; her late husband Francis Coughlin was on the School Committee as well. She used to live on Ardmore Street as a tenant of the Nardi's who lived on the second floor. She later moved to a bungalow on Beach Street and finally moved to East Longmeadow saying that she was glad to "leave all the weirdos in Springfield behind." It turns out that Coughlin knows Stephen Burke, the fireman who threatened Eamon. She told Eamon that Burke used to follow her around and stalk her until she finally rejected him and he responded by smashing the window of her car. She called Burke's father Sylvester who came right over and begged her not to press charges saying, "My son Stephen suffers from some serious problems." Coughlin said that if Eamon wants she would be glad to testify about that incident in court. She said Sylvester Burke was an insurance adjuster and a friend of Matty Ryan. Stephen Burke is friends with Soco Catjakis, who once helped him get assigned to the Forest Park Fire Station.
Eamon complained that there is less and less real news in the Union-News these days. He recalled how Larry McDermott once asked him how he got all his information on Peter Negroni and Eamon replied, "I'm just doing what you ought to be doing - some old fashioned investigative journalism!" He said that in response McDermott angrily slammed down the phone in Eamon's ear. We both agreed that McDermott just can't handle criticism.
31 degrees in the breezeway, snow flurries. Lapis on the weather tonight: "Surprise! More of the white stuff on the way!"
The person with the best English usually gets the best job.
Rep. Charles Rangle (D-NY) is introducing legislation to revive the military draft. 25% of people in the military are Black but Blacks make up only 12% of the overall population. Commercials for Nicotrol feature a character like Doonesbury's Mr. Butts. Does Gary Trudeau's lawyer know about this? Attendance at Bright Nights was down 3% from last year.
Simpson was out in a cap and blue jeans putting a satellite dish on his house. Jan at Punderson Oil called and said they will deliver my heating oil tomorrow at $1.32 per gallon. Westfield State wants money for a new library and a Fine Arts Center. The last time I was at their library to shelf read there was lots of room for more books and at most they need an addition rather than a whole new building. Whatever happened to the stuffed birds in the Science Museum at the Quadrangle? Were they sold for profit when the museum was remodeled? I recall they had a male and female of each species and the birds were grouped by the region they came from.
Fire Chief Cassanelli has told Eamon that his complaint against firefighter Stephen Burke has been referred to the State Police and Steve Coen, Fire Marshall of the Commonwealth. Eamon says most cops have a personal agenda and fighting crime is secondary. Eamon got a phone call from retired Deputy Police Chief Daniel W. Spellacy, an old friend of Eamon's who graduated with him from Cathedral in the same class. Eamon says Spellacy was making $90,000 a year as Deputy Chief and is now collecting a $60,000 a year pension. Eamon said the Feds have spoken to him about Spellacy in the past and expressed disappointment that "he didn't seem particularly cooperative" when they pressed him for information about local politicians. The Feds told Eamon they are hoping that Spellacy will be more forthcoming now that he is retired.
Eamon described Spellacy as an honest cop but said he respects the "Blue Wall of Silence" - Look the other way if your buddies are involved in crime. Spellacy said that Burke refers to Eamon as "The Village Idiot." Eamon played for him the tape of Burke threatening him and told Spellacy how the phone ID showed the call came directly from the fire station. He told Spellacy that he is concerned because Burke has a history of violence as revealed yesterday by Rose Marie Coughlin. Spellacy said that Burke "has run up the white flag and now says he was only joking." Eamon said it's hard to know whether to trust Spellacy on this matter because Spellacy was close to both Burke's father and Matty Ryan. Eamon says he is so frustrated with the way things are done in Springfield - everything is always very political and very unprofessional.
29 degrees, sun shining brightly at 10:45am but snow last night. John DiPasquale on TV22 says we have had 47 inches of snow so far this year, double the average. Gas is 41 cents higher than it was this time a year ago.
Only the paranoid survive.
Dr. Bernard Rabinovitz had an office at 4 Chestnut Street in 1943. Dr. Howard L. Jackson had an office on Chestnut Street in 1947. Dr. Bernard Bloom had an office on Maple Street in Springfield in 1961. Dr. A.F. Mouchantat and Dr. Albert S. Klautky were in the Cancer Division of Westfield State Sanatorium in 1963. Dr. Lester Frank had an office on Maple Street in 1972. Dr. Robert S. Mandell had an office on Mulberry Street in 1972. Gordon N. Oakes was President and Chairman of Monarch Capital Corporation, the Enron of Springfield, in 1989. Maurice Gibson was Assistant Director of Compensation for Monarch in 1990. Typing this diary takes up a lot of my time, but the information preserved is valuable. Simpson's garage lights were on all night. News says a corpse was discovered in the lot of the former Indian Orchard Mills, a twelve building complex. Got a late Xmas card from Eskowicz today but with no comments at all in it.
Eamon called and claimed the three greatest Massachusetts cities are Boston, Northampton and Worcester. Springfield is just not in the same league as those places. Worcester may be a shabby mill town, but at least it has a fine list of academic institutions such as Holy Cross and Clark University. It also has the American Antiquarian Society which has the finest collection of rate Americana in the country.
Eamon says I have a weak handshake but a distinctive voice. I told him I have always felt that way, but I once heard myself on the radio and thought I sounded silly. Eamon said he wouldn't say that, but my voice is different. Eamon said he was at Stop&Shop and the lady who runs the store Mrs. Kathy Cathro took him to see their security set up. First she took him to her office, then up a somewhat concealed staircase to a security room on the second floor with a guy sitting in front of two dozen security screens showing the outdoors, the rest room hallway and all the aisles of the store. Eamon said he was amazed they had so many cameras watching the place.
People are saying that Belle-Rita Novak should run for office this year but Eamon says "she's too smart for that." Eamon told me that Dan Spellacy the cop calls the roly-poly Lt. William Noonan of the Police Public Relations Department "Doughboy." Eamon recalled a girl named Ann Sullivan whom Spellacy used to date when they were at Cathedral. She later graduated from Elms and became a teacher. Ann Sullivan was married to Mark Shields and Eamon sang at their wedding but the marriage was no good. She is now one of a group of girls that go on trips with Cheryl Rivera and Linda Melconian.
Eamon said that he spoke with Rose Marie Coughlin again and she told him that she stopped into Fiorintino's on Sunday for some Italian treats and Melconian was there so they chatted a bit. Melconian has lost her bid for Speaker of the Senate and is wondering what to do next. Rumors are rampant that she wants to run for Mayor of Springfield if Mayor Albano gets indicted or doesn't run. Melconian said she thinks Albano may quit and take a high-paying do-nothing job with his old boss State Auditor Joe DiNucci. Melconian has already been offered a big job at the UMass Medical Center in Worcester but declined. Billy Bulger promised Melconian that he would hold open the presidency of Westfield State for her until she decides what she wants to do. Melconian told Coughlin that Governor Romney has no respect for Mike Albano and that he doesn't think that Springfield can be turned around until Albano is gone.
29 degrees at 8:30am. Heavy overcast, flurries. Elvis was born this day in 1935.
On political correctness: If the facts show something it doesn't matter if people's feelings are hurt.
Albert E. Lerche had a pharmacy opposite Court Square in 1929. A. E. Sunter Drugstore was at 85 Wilbraham Road in 1949. Acres Drug was on the corner of of Parker Street and Wilbraham Road next to A&P in 1965. Attorney David A. Foley had his office on Tremont Street in Boston in 1967. Urologic Associates was at 39 Mulberry Street in Springfield in 1972. Judy Matt was President of the Springfield Unit of the American Cancer Society in 1977. E.J. Hiney and Stuart L. Shapiro were the pharmacists at Louis & Clark in 1986. Dr. Sang Won Rhee was director of the Vascular Lab at Baystate Medical Center in 1988. Pam Anderson was a pharmacist at Louis & Clark in 1991. The Maple Surgery Center was at 298 Carew Street in Springfield in 1995. Ken Howard was the pharmacist at Louis & Clark in 1996. Dr. John W. Shore worked at Baystate Eye Care in Springfield in 1996. Sisters of Providence Health System was on Main Street in Holyoke in 1998. Jerry Shannon's Retirement Pig Roast Barbeque was September 8, 2002 at Plastics Park on Page Boulevard. The Massachusetts School of Law is on Federal Street in Andover, Massachusetts.
Around noon the police pulled over a small black pickup truck in front of my house. The next time I looked a CJ's Towing truck was taking the truck away. The Springfield Day Nursery has lost its funding from the Commonwealth. Scott Buxton (a lawyer and former Sci-Tech political science teacher) and Frederick Gula, called roommates, have been charged with counterfeiting. Went to Copycat and Jim Trelease was there. Then out to the Acres for the Valley Advocate and Boston Globe, where there are giant snow dunes around the Big Y parking lot. Longmeadow Community Market, which opened in 1950, is closing and Big Y is hiring their employees. Health New England has 90,000 members locally. 7,000 residents of Springfield receive fuel assistance.
I discovered today in my phone bill that I was overcharged 74 cents. The phone company is a nickle and dime business, always has been, and they are out to get every penny they can. Today James Levine became the Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. I like Levine, a short little Jewish guy with frizzy hair and a bright smile. Called Jeff at TV40 and complained about all the grammar errors they've been making lately. I said that they are in the business of using English and should uphold the highest standards of English usage. He thanked me. Mayor Albano is warning of layoffs and is asking every department to cut their budget by 20%.
Jim Landers, loving dad, a wonderful man, owns three tenements and has to lug his heavy snow blower to all of them each time it snows. Glenn Briere worked as a reporter for the Springfield Newspapers for 25 years covering the statehouse and then took a job with State Auditor Joseph DiNucci. Eamon said Briere told him once that it is impossible to tell if applicants for public housing are where they are supposed to be on the waiting list and said that favoritism and cheating is rampant. Jack Connolly once told Eamon that if Eamon's mother ever needed to get into a public housing complex to just tell him and he would tell Soco Catjakis to call Ray Asselin and he would move Eamon's mother to the top of the list. Soco and Asselin have total control over the lists and have been giving unfair advantage to their family and friends for years. Genuinely poor people wait in vain for housing while those with political connections move straight to the top of the waiting lists. The Springfield Housing Authority has no formal Human Resources department despite having 120 employees and pay raises are given without written evaluations. Contracts are given out year after year without the proper bidding process and seem to always go to the same companies.
35 degrees at 7:30am. Blue sky and puffy cumulus clouds. Gas is $1.46 at Watershops Pond.
I agree that Britain should get out of Ireland. I say if Britain wanted to give the Jews a homeland, they should have given them Ireland. If the USA wanted to give the Jews a homeland, we should have given them Massachusetts.
Governor George Ryan of Illinois has commuted the sentences of all 167 people on death row. Dr. W.B. Adams was my very first doctor. I have a blurry remembrance of a little man in a dark suit and a little old fashioned doctor's bag. Gore Vidal's The City and the Pillar (1948) propounds that queers may result from an overbearing mother and an emotionally distant father. That could be me.
WGBY-57 is still promoting its program A Celebration of Historic Deerfield. Each year thousands of visitors come to Deerfield to see its collection of 18th and 19th century houses and the Flynt Center of Early American Life with some of the great decorative art treasures of early America. One of the buildings in the former Johnson's Bookstore complex has been sold, leaving only the bookstore building itself on the market. The Better Business Bureau is useless.
Went out and bought the Union-News, Boston Globe and Hartford Courant at Newsstand in the Acres. Then out to the barber shop at the Eastfield Mall where Ciro was at work on an elderly gentleman so I went with one of the lady barbers. Afterward I went to the food court and bought a gigantic slice of pepperoni pizza and accidentally shook a lot of garlic rather than Parmesan cheese on it. Actually it wasn't that bad and it really cleaned out my sinuses! Then I swung by the Big Y on Boston Road where I bought some lean hamburger on sale.
Then I headed downtown to check out the display for the upcoming art auction at WGBY and parked in their uncrowded lot. The paintings are a real disappointment, it looks like a display of art by a bunch of bored housewives. The featured work by Robert Masla is mechanical. There was an enormous Josh Simpson megaplanet for $3,800, but it didn't have all the special details some of his others do. There were three drawings of bugs by Eric Carle but nothing rare. Peggy Starr, wife of David, donated a perfectly competent painting of flowers in a clear glass vase that was better than almost everything else. I saw a picture I liked by Louise Minks but I already own one by her. The show is packed with Les Campbell photographs selling for about $150 but overall there was not much of high quality. The wonderful variety of previous years is gone, they just don't have the merchandise this year.
A lot of my money is in rare books, with my name stamped in them. Stamping MY name in them increases their value because they are items associated with that distinguished eccentric lawyer and bibliophile J. Wesley Miller.
Real to Reel had a feature by Steve Kiltonic on a seminary in Boston. The January issue of Chamber Channels has a picture of Dr. Carol Leary, identified as 2002's Woman of the Year. The new issue of Journal/Bravo is out and two Henriette Michaels articles should be enough to kill it! No Flavin or Gagnon on the masthead. It should be said that the Buendo brothers have now all but ruined the former Springfield Journal, but if that had to be done to get rid of Fran Gagnon than it was worth it.
Mrs. Pellegrino is in the news again. Her lawyer is Thomas Kiley who lately represented Bulger. His fee is $250 per hour and Councilor Dan Kelly says she should pay him, not the taxpayers. He's right on that one. Rumors are that the Feds are closing in on Ray Asselin and that Soco is desperately trying to distance himself from his old friend. Catjakis is more than willing to let Asselin go down in order to save himself.
Eamon T. O'Sullivan graduated with a Bachelor's from Amherst and a Masters from Columbia. He retired from the State Department of Education and now places editorials on local issues on his answering machine once or twice a week at 413-746-6164.
Eamon went to his eye doctor John Frangie in West Springfield who told him he has "young eyes" but still needs Lasik surgery in a few weeks. Eamon said Jim Bloom told him there are over 100 Springfield cops out on workman's comp "and in no rush to get back to work." David Percy from the Fire Marshall's Office came to visit Eamon this afternoon about Stephen Burke's threat to burn down his house. Percy told him that D.A. Bennett is interested in the case. Percy made a recording of Burke's threat and told Eamon to take good care of the original. Eamon described Percy as a short guy who told him he knows Dan Spellacy but knows the brother in the State Police better. Percy asked about his telephone editorials and Eamon told him it only takes him about twenty minutes to make each one. Percy admitted it was an original form of political activism.
27 degrees at 7:30am, a peachy sunrise.
In addition to my law degree, I have done grad work in English at Harvard and Wisconsin and eight years of college teaching experience.
The Amherst Selectboard voted to oppose an invasion of Iraq. Good for them! I've personally written a trilogy about Springfield in the 1980's, making fun especially of the economic developers. Free parking is the issue. It is the Economic Development 101 of Springfield.
Mother saw Dr. Raymond L. Barrett for nervousness in 1948. Thomas J. O'Connor, Leonard Collamore and Richard S. Thomas were Hampden County Commissioners in 1987. There are enormous potholes on Wilbraham Road before the Plumtree Road intersection.
Yesterday I got the Sunday Republican and the New York Times at Louis & Clark, which had just inside the door maybe 25 boxes of Christmas merchandise that did not sell all packed up. I saw a rabbit hopping across the lawn when I brought in the mail the other day.
I got up at 6:30 today and watched the 7am news, which said Hooters has opened in the old Spaghetti Warehouse building. Dave Madsen described the girls as wearing "skimpy outfits" of tight tops and shorts. Mark Hyman had an editorial talking about the new book Shakedown: The Real Jesse Jackson. TV40 said "there is a partnership between the FBI and Springfield police that is a model for other police departments around the country." But that is not what the Feds told Eamon, that Chief Meara and Spellacy have not been cooperative in the corruption probe.
I caught the 8am bus into downtown and got off by Jakes eatery on the corner of Worthington. I went inside and paid $3.94 for scrambled eggs, potatoes, two slices of toast and pink lemonade. Then I walked down Main Street to Efrem Gordon's and all along the way the street was badly shoveled. One of those silly bus trolleys went by and as usual no one was on it. Downtown is a mess.
Arrived at Gordon's at 9:08 and he invited me into his library. On the wall of Efrem's by the door he has a framed typewritten letter from Louis Brandeis and another from Felix Frankfurter, both very brief, thanking Efrem's father for sending them an article he had written. Dated 1939. He also has two books by me in his library. We talked about everything about the case with the young stenographer Elaine O'Donnell present. O'Donnell said she likes her job and learns a lot, last week she was on a property case and learned a lot about farming. Afterwards as I left I ran into Atty. Marshall Moriarty who told me he likes his new house which is right on a lake.
On the bus home sitting across from me wearing a brightly colored knit cap was Peter Meltzer, an artist and former teacher at DeBerry Elementary School. He was just coming from looking at the items in the Channel 57 auction. He complained there were too many photographs for sale and not the kind of nice merchandise they had in the old days. He said his wife (now deceased) used to donate a silver bowl every year to the auction but one year they gave a Tiffany tray valued at $750 and it sold for only $100. They concluded either something dishonest was going on or the station didn't know what they were doing and so never gave again. Meltzer is an interesting, artistic type in his seventies and got off the bus at the corner of Bradley and Wilbraham Road.
Superintendent Joseph P. Burke says Springfield is 89% dependent on state aid for education. A bullshit interview in the paper today with the guy running the Basketball Hall of Fame, with Eamon chuckling over every word and declaring "he doesn't know whether he's on foot or on horseback." Eamon likes military cliches. Also an article about Frank Ware Jr. the former Cathedral basketball star who is now under investigation for getting money from all kinds of suspicious political/economic activity.
20 degrees, sunny.
Lawyers question everything, yield nothing and talk by the hour.
Julian Bond is 63. Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut announced his candidacy for President at his old High School yesterday saying, "Elections are about the future." Mother kept extensive records but didn't organize them which is why it has taken so long to go through her files since she died. Father had a slight shock in 1981 and a stroke in 1982.
Doctors A.G.F. Edgeflow and Robert J. Carpenter shared an office in Springfield in 1956. Dr. Joseph C. Creed had his office on Maple Street in 1964. Doctors Ryan and Berger Inc. were located at 80 Congress Street in Springfield in 1980. K-Mart is closing a lot of their stores, including the one in Westfield. Received a letter today from Norma J. Couture, the Branch Supervisor, about the history of the 16 Acres Library. She said the architects were Lester I. Thomas and S. Dakin Chamberlin and the building was completed on June 22, 1965.
On TV40 Dave Madsen talked about distributing materials "on campus that are not school related." This is a misplaced modifier. It should be material "that are not school related on campus." The electronic media promotes sloppy language with imprecision and inaccuracy that eventually results in lousy journalism, or perhaps a better term is "electronicism."
Went to Efrem Gordon's again for depositions. Today I drove rather than take the bus and saw the city is dumping excess snow in the athletic field behind Duggan. I spotted President Courniotes' Cadillac parked at American International College. I parked at Pro-Park where the Court Square Theater once was and the attendant came right out of his little house with no waiting. When you enter Efrem's from the hallway you are in a dark waiting room that has a couple of leather backed chairs and a long bench with blue velvet seats that would look right at home in a Masonic lodge somewhere. Over this bench is a framed photo of all the members of the Hampden County Bar in 1926. On either side of this on the left is a framed steel engraving of John Marshall and on the right Daniel Webster. Gordon has on the back wall over a leather sofa a framed moonlight painting of a masted sailing vessel. There is a receptionist desk and the room itself is painted maroon. A small framed picture of Efrem's dad Louis is on the wall.
When I entered the office Efrem was sitting at his desk eating one of those little bowls of chicken noodle soup you cook in a microwave. He was on the phone with someone named Pedro and at one point said, "The police report claims it was a whole kilo." Ruth and Edith arrived at 10:54 and Shannon arrived shortly afterward. Ruth Michaud lied like hell but inadvertently spilled information we can use. Afterward Efrem said to forgive Ruth for her lies because, "She's protecting the memory of her friend." When I left Efrem graciously offered me a long black top coat from Yale-Genton he didn't want anymore and I accepted it.
As soon as I got home Eamon called and I told him about my day with Efrem. Eamon says his friend Jim Bloom, a former cop and court clerk in Palmer, has nothing but praise for Gordon, calling him a gentleman, friendly and someone who gets along well with everyone. Bloom likes to say, "In the Halls of Justice the justice is in the halls." Eamon said he may one day compile all of his telephone editorials into a book he would title Your Man on the Doorstep. Eamon says that "most of Springfield's principals and teachers live outside the city and merely use Springfield as a cash cow paycheck while they enjoy a suburban life and send their own kids to far better performing schools."
21 degrees, beautiful sun in the living room window all morning.
That is what I'd truly love to be!
Cause if I were an Oscar Meyer weiner,
Everyone would be in love with me!
Tom Brokaw on the news did a story on a prison camp in North Korea said to be the cruelest in the world. Are they softening us up for a war with North Korea? Ex-Governor Jane Swift is getting a job at the Kennedy School of Government. Horrors!
Attorney Efrem Gordon called and I told him about Aunt Maria's car accident in which Ada P. Darbe of Agawam was killed. Gordon used the word "vignette" in our talk, he is a master of language who often uses words one seldom hears in conversation. A cardinal rule with Gordon is to be friendly to everyone until the axe must be lowered.
Russell Peotter of WGBY sent me a response to the letter I sent him inquiring about his salary. He declined to surrender the information I requested, but I give him credit for his polite and professional reply:
Dear Atty. Miller,
I am writing in response to your request last month regarding my compensation and that of Jerry Franklin of CPTV.... Although your note was very short, I can only infer that you feel Jerry and I have taken an unnecessarily large share of donated dollars in the form of our compensation. Let me speak for myself.
I was first hired as a cameraman in 1976 at WCCB-TV in Lewiston, Maine. My boss at the time told me, "You'll never get rich by working in public broadcasting." He was right. While it has been a truly rewarding experience during these almost 30 years, the progressive increase in my responsibilities and performance would have yielded far greater personal financial benefits in the for-profit sector.... I am happy to take your calls at any time on this or any subject regarding WGBY.
Sincerely,
Russell J. Peotter
General Manager
I stopped by my neighbor Irving Cohn's house today to drop off my Tyndall guide to James Joyce. Cohn says Mary Kay is married to the foremost authority on Joyce and so Cohn is reading Ulysses. He said his wife was not home but was out for her dialysis treatments. Then off to Copycat to make copies but Jeff said his copier finally died.
Baystate Medical Center Wesson Unit was located at 140 High Street in Springfield in 1979. Dr. Cuadra was Father's physician at the end of his life and is Eamon's current doctor. Eamon called and said he was down to the registry this morning to renew his license and only three other customers were there besides himself. Eamon said he was up on a ladder today chopping ice off his roof. Jim Landers told him he went to Chef Paul Santo's place up in Chicopee and said his pork chop was so thin you could see through it and the vegetables were so few you could count them.
Eamon said he was talking on the phone earlier with Jim Bloom about Dan Spellacy and Bloom said that Spellacy has "a weird and warped sense of humor." Eamon is complaining that "not a single principal has been fired for ineptitude and academic failure, and that is why Springfield has a last place ranked school system with the highest dropout, suspension and truancy rates and the lowest test scores in Massachusetts."
High cloudiness, sunny, 29 degrees at 11:30am.
Minds Over Missiles! Negotiations Over Confrontation!
Four kids at Yale have died in an SUV accident. TV40 had a reporter on the Yale campus interviewing students and one said, "It's kind of disconcerting when somebody dies at our age." How about the kids your age dying in the Persian Gulf? Why aren't you demonstrating in their behalf?
When I got to college I wanted to read all those wonderful authors like Plato and Lucretius and Spinoza that I'd heard about. Therefore, I majored in English and minored in Classics and Philosophy. I also took courses in Sociology. However, I always had trouble writing the bullshit term papers in sociology, even though I am a prize winning essayist in other fields.
Dr. William A. Hare had his office on Maple Street in Springfield in 1944. Dr. James F. Haines of Wilbraham was one of Mother's doctors when she had the shingles. The 350th anniversary of Northampton will be celebrated in June 2004. New England Archives had a brief and fast talking commercial on TV40 News tonight. Big water main broke last night closing State Street. Neither Maureen Turner nor Tom Devine ever fully appreciated what I gave them.
Stayed home the past few days but stopped by the Cohn's briefly to drop off some reading material on James Joyce. Irving Cohn greeted me in the kitchen with a big grin and told me he has been thinking a lot about Myra these days. I told him I had to go and he said, "You're the luckiest of men, you're in good health!" I said yes, that's true, for now.
I spoke on the phone with Otto Welker about the history of the 16 Acres Mobil at 1830 Wilbraham Road. He said the person he bought it from was Bill Collins who had owned it since sometime in the 1960's. Welker said he bought it in 1986 and remodeled it in 1991.
Eamon called and said Nader the Hatter is heading back to Florida on the 29th. He said Nader told him that he was married once for seven years and is much happier single. Eamon said he got 145 callers to listen to his answering machine editorial yesterday that began, "With two phony social promotion Superintendents in succession with their records of failure in the Bronx and Miami, the Springfield School System had little chance to succeed and has little hope of recovery."
Eamon is disgusted by plans being announced to create a statue of Congressman Ed Boland downtown across from Monarch Place. He says the person most responsible for the closing of the Springfield Armory should not be so honored. It occurred to me that Boland's successor Richie Neal must be in some way involved so I called Neal's office to find out more. June answered but said all she knew about it was what was in the paper, but she did know that the person in charge was J. David Keany at 785-1337. So I called him and he told me they hope to raise $160,000. They have no definite plans except to hire Lark Grey Dimond-Cates, who did the Dr. Seuss statues, to do the one of Boland. They hope to be able to unveil it on Boland's birthday October 1st. As Tom Devine used to say about Springfield's political culture, "The bigger the scoundrel, the higher the honors."
20 degrees at 2am, puffy clouds.
Maybe the reason the first George Bush made Dan Quayle his vice-president is that he didn't want anyone who might have become a competitor to his sons. My Johnson's Bookstore Funeral Ode was distributed for the first time in 1998 at the November Republican City Committee meeting and excerpts were read aloud by Tommy Devine on the Thanksgiving Day Special edition of The Dan Yorke Show.
The Catholic Information Center/St. Francis Chapel now stands on the site of the former Trinity United Methodist Church, which later moved to Sumner Avenue with money from Strathmore Paper given by Horace Moses. I have long believed that the Valley Advocate in general and Maureen Turner in particular should receive a Pulitzer Prize. I also feel that Karen and Bob Powell, as well as Charlie Ryan, deserve Pynchon Awards.
My cold is mostly gone. Dr. Myles H. Illingsworth had an office on Chestnut Street in 1950. Mother's dermotologist was Dr. Jay A. Hendrix in 1992. The Ploughshares Institute is in Simsbury, Connecticut. The First National Bank Building in Greenfield has been okayed structurally and will be redeveloped.
They took the Xmas lights down over to Kelly's today, but I didn't see them do it. I went out around 10am and made copies at the Pride station in the Acres. A big black cop was in the Pride store looking for a Valley Advocate. I said they probably have them over in the liquor store. When I left to head over to Food Mart there were vigorous flurries in progress and the sky was dark but the squall had passed by the time I got there. They had an information table set up for Homewatch and I got my first Mississippi quarter in my change from buying a Hungry Man All-Day Breakfast.
As I came home there was a squirrel in the street by WNEC that had been run over, gory in blood, his tail lashing up and down. I felt so sorry for the dying critter but there was a heavy line of traffic and there was nothing I could do. When I got back I chatted on the phone with Mother's friend Mrs. Staniski. She said she can't walk to the corner store because of all the ice and I told her to call the PVTA van service.
Susan Christian on Fox61 has had a baby girl. She is a better newscaster than Beth Carroll whom she replaced. Fox61 had a Walmart commercial on bragging about their "good works" helping handicapped children. Walmart is a monopolistic pig corporation airing sentimental tear-jerker commercials to improve their image. On the Lehrer News Hour they had a segment on demonstrations in Madison, Wisconsin against going to war with Iraq, and who should I spot but none other than Bob Mulenkamp, an old campus personality, now with grey hair.
Kathy Pellegrino has finally been fired, thank goodness. The family of murdered Springfield guidance councilor Rev. Brown will get his full pension, as is certainly appropriate. Eamon called and said he was in Stop&Shop where he ran into Tommy Crogan, who went to school with Eamon and Spellacy at Glenwood Elementary and Van Sickle. Eamon and Spellacy went to Cathedral while Crogan went to Tech. Crogan said he knows Stephen Burke and said that Fire Chief Cassinelli "despises him" and is glad Eamon is causing trouble for him.
Eamon heard from Percy the state trooper from the Fire Marshall's office and he said he's been busy and unable to do a follow-up investigation on the arson threat against Eamon's home. Percy says he wants to keep the investigation "as narrow as possible" so he doesn't plan to interview Dan Spellacy or R.M. Coughlin. Percy also told him that Kevin Garvey, President of the Fireman's Union, has informed Stephen Burke that he is under investigation. Eamon describes the whole situation as "all fucked up."
There is a wonderfully negative article in the Valley Advocate this week about Mayor Albano and all the scandals in his administration. As usual the enemies of Albano will be stocking up on copies and the mayor's friends will be throwing them in the dumpster. Tonight Karen Powell called and said people are telling her they are having trouble finding Advocates because the Albano backers are driving around stealing all the copies and throwing them away. She said she has several copies and will send one of them to Governor Romney to make sure he reads it. Powell agreed that the Advocate should do a story on Eamon. Karen herself once appeared on the cover of the Valley Advocate with her dog Simon, who ran for mayor against Albano in 1999.
19 degrees, bright and sunny, clear blue sky.
Boredom is the cause of a lot more strange behavior than anyone would want to admit.
Senator John F. Kerry jumped all over Donald Rumsfeld for saying that draftees "added no value to the military in Vietnam because they served such a short time." Kerry angrily pointed out that 20,000 draftees died in Vietnam, one third of all deaths.
Barbara G. Lucia is a Financial Consultant for Chittendon Securities at 29 State Street in Springfield. Dr. Adams was my first kid doctor, then Dr. Nelson Newmark, then Dr. Frank J. Jordan, then Dr. Popkin until he died. Dr. Mark J. Mullan took over for Popkin and is my current doctor. Dr. Gabriel H. Kitchener was a Chiropodist in Springfield in 1954. He treated me for a nasty case of athlete's foot I got in the Buckingham Jr. High locker room. I recall that the locker room and showers were primitive but well heated. There was a group latrine, no separate units, and steam pipes around the sides. Everybody had a locker with a padlock on it and long benches to sit on maybe a foot wide.
There were plenty of places to pick up germs. I must have disgusted Coach Peabody because I couldn't do anything athletic and wasn't ashamed of it. Assistant Coach Gerry Foley was cheerful and tried to encourage me by loudly cheering when occasionally I would hit a ball or make a basket. They gave me a B for effort so I could make the honor roll and I behaved well. I see it all now, but I didn't understand then. I was the best little boy in town, but my athletic performance was disgusting.
I had a pretrial hearing this morning so I drove downtown and parked in th P lot over against the Court Square wall. Then I went to use the men's room in Efrem's building which is a perfectly preserved specimen of the architecture of its day. Somehow it has never been remodeled. The whole place has steam radiators. Efrem says they have a lot of heat in the morning, then the building gets chilly until the heat kicks in again after lunch. The men's room has rose marble walls and two white pedestal sinks. Efrem's men's room was built to last a century and it has. I stared out the window at the Campanile for a bit, then went to Efrem's office at five to nine.
The door was open and the lights were on, but the receptionist had not yet arrived. Finally Efrem appeared with his usual smile and asked, "Do we have an appointment?" I replied yes and he said he'd check his calendar. Ms. White came in and started getting some papers together as Efrem said we must leave at once for the courthouse. He said he liked my winter jacket and I told him it was cold outside so he should wear a hat, but Efrem said he never wears one.
And so we left for court, and like everywhere he goes Efrem was stopped every other minute by admirers wanting to shake his hand. At the courthouse lawyers like Efrem and I go through the door on one side and everyone else enters on the other, and there was a long line of mostly minorities waiting to get in. We went to the 4th floor and into the courtroom where we were told that the Judge had to come down from Greenfield so we would have to wait. The Lucias and Gendron were in the back row. At 9:50 the Judge finally arrived and Gordon proposed I move to the front row. "Is anything important going to be said?" I asked. Gordon replied, "Who knows, but at least you'll be able to hear better."
Unfortunately despite my new location I couldn't hear well enough to follow the proceedings. Afterward in the hallway Gordon explained that nothing much had happened, that the issues had been narrowed and that things were moving "consistent with your desires." Efrem said "It is time for them to retire from the field of valor." He thanked me for coming and then headed back to his office.
I went over to Keyser's and had scrambled eggs and toast and then went back to the car where I paid $8 for parking. On the way home I stopped at Stop&Shop and finding a suggestion box in the back of the store I decided to insert a suggestion. However there was no pencil or paper to write on outside or inside the unlocked box. So I went over to the seafood counter and borrowed a pencil and paper and made three suggestions:
Suggestion Number One: Get a pencil and hitch it to the box with a string.
Suggestion Number Two: Lock the box.
Suggestion Number Three: LOWER YOUR PRICES!
On the way out I saw Bill Corrigan the manager and told him to look in his suggestion box! The mail brought a newsletter called The Congressman Richard Neal Report from Washington D.C. and it is riddled with errors. I called Neal's Springfield office and got June and told her that the mailing contained numerous errors including the failure to capitalize the City of Agawam. She politely replied that she would inform the Congressman. Then I called Eamon and told him about my day in court. Eamon says Anthony Ardolino, Charlie Kingston, Frankie Keough, the Asselins and the Pellegrinos are the sort "who have never been gainfully employed in the private sector and who would steal a dog's dinner while hiding behind a corkscrew."
Sunny, clear and 20 degrees at 1:30pm.
I once had a student ride a unicycle into my class. I thought that was wonderful!
There is a Wesleyville, Pennsylvania on the shore of Lake Erie. The Masons should bring back the Springfield chapter of the Order of DeMolay and encourage minority brotherhood. I should receive an award for extraordinary service to the Order of DeMolay and a special award from the Mason Fraternity for all I've done to clean the organization up.
David D. Selleck is Treasurer of the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Maine. Governor Rowland of Connecticut is laying off over a thousand state employees. Fort Pleasant Pharmacy was at 32 Fort Pleasant Avenue in 1949. The Arcade Pharmacy "Strictly Professional" was at 165 State Street in Springfield in 1951.
Hamelin Furniture on King Street in Northampton is going out of business. The cold caused a water main to break on Wilbraham Road in front of Duggan and the Springfield Municipal Credit Union. The Massachusetts Cultural Council is cutting funding to the Quadrangle, forcing them to cut back on the number of art shows this year. It was high-spending David Starr and his New York ways that got the Quadrangle into a lifestyle it really couldn't afford.
I called 1-877-620-2255 and got put on the Do Not Call List for telemarketers although it doesn't take effect until later this year. I gave my number to Pauline who told me that "lots of people are calling" to be put on the list. Then I called William J. Harper the roofer at 9:15 and he sounded like he just got out of bed. He told me he doesn't do standing seam roofing and doesn't know who does. He said he still has the conscientious Frenchman working for him.
Channel 40 is celebrating "50 Years of Coverage You Can Count On!" TV40 suddenly went off the air today at 5:55pm. The other stations were still in service. It didn't come on again until five after seven when Seinfeld was on, so no local news or Peter Jennings. This is not coverage you can count on! During the commercial break at 7:20 Dave Madsen came on apologizing and saying there was a WMECO transformer blowout that caused a fire behind the Springfield Shopping Plaza on Liberty. They had pictures showing trees on fire beside the transformer site.
I watched some of the Channel 57 Auction tonight. Roy Scott was the circus-master and the featured artist was Robert Masla with a pigtail and right earring. Masla spoke about spirituality in art and how art fosters growth and self esteem. However his pictures all look the same and are unexciting. Masla is very articulate but he lacks technique and perhaps tried too hard and failed. Russ Peotter also appeared as did a floppy haired John Simpson. There were also appearances by Gloria Russell, Susan Tilton Pecora and Jack Briggs. No Sally Fuller.
At one point John Simpson introduced an untitled watercolor "by one of my favorite people, Peggy Starr." I called at once and made the winning bid of $215. I am glad to have acquired this piece, a lovely still life of flowers, and of course I also wanted it because it was by Mrs. Starr, wife of David. Let us see what mischief I can cause by obtaining it.
Police Chief Paula Meara was on TV22 and it looks like she's had a facelift and dyed her hair. Eamon called and said all went well with the Lasik operation on his eyes today. He said it cost $2,800 to have it done by Dr. J.P. Frangie at the NorthEast Laser Center in West Springfield, as opposed to Dr. Balin who charges $3,800. Eamon has to take eye drops every day for some weeks. He said the PVTA van came right on time for his 9:30 appointment and he was back home by noon. Eamon also said that Percy from the Fire Marshall's office called and said Steve Burke has hired a lawyer and refuses to talk. Eamon blames Kevin Garvey of the Firefighter's Union for tipping Burke off that he was under investigation.
29 degrees, sunny and clear. Start of our January thaw?
I am an artistic property lawyer (substantially as a way of avoiding clients) though I do provide free advice to certain people from time to time. I taught English Composition at Heidelberg College for five years, and I taught the same for three years at the University of Wisconsin. I have a fifteen page bibliography of publications over a multi-disciplinary range of topics. I have a Masters degree from Harvard and Wisconsin, as well as a shabby degree from Western New England College School of Law.
In 1973 University of Wisconsin English Professor Merton M. Sealts wrote
of me, "In all my dealings with Mr. Miller, I have found him unfailingly
courteous and considerate. He is a person of high moral character who
sets high standards of personal conduct for himself and exhibits
stubborn courage in defense of what he believes to be right."
Charles Brush of Longmeadow is the owner of the Indian Orchard Mills complex in Springfield. Dr. Norman Popkin was my regular physician for many years, a wonderful gentleman with an office on Mulberry Street that ran all across the front of his fine old residence.
The other day I called Leonard Collamore and told him about seeing The Legacy of Christopher Columbus by Otto Schoenrich (1949) being offered as a rare book in the WGBY-57 Auction. Collamore said he had never heard of the book but would try to acquire it. He seemed grateful for my referral.
I went over to the 16 Acres Library today to make some copies and while I was there I poked around in their computer catalog. They have nothing listed for me, nothing by Guy MacLain but twelve entries for Joseph Carvalho including videos! There were also five items by Fran Gagnon, but didn't have time to check Arthur Curley. So obviously there is preferential treatment for some authors. When I left the library a jeep with the license number 7575DK cut in front of me on Parker Street.
Next I headed downtown to pick up my Peggy Starr painting at 57 and they gave it to me nicely wrapped in brown paper. Then I swung by Eamon's house to show it to him and he liked it. Eamon's license plate number is MI-5. He recalled how there used to be a place downtown called Paramount Clothes run by Hugo Roth and S. Bruce Sheffield. When the store closed John Pierce Lynch gave Sheffield a job at the Registry of Deeds. John Pierce Lynch once told Eamon, "If they build Eastfield Mall you can forget about downtown." Lynch thought the only way to save downtown was to put buildings on the riverfront.
Eamon has been getting reports that the Union-News has been calling around asking people about him, perhaps in order to do a story about the arson threat against his house. Eamon says he would be surprised if that's true because the paper has always been reluctant to print his name or give him any publicity lest it increase the number of callers to his telephone editorials. When I left Eamon gave me some cookies and recent copies of Reader's Digest. On the way back I stopped at the Boston Road Big Y for some Imperial Margarine. It was quite crowded.
For weeks Larry McDermott's answering machine at the paper has been shut off. Today I tried it and it was on so I left the message, "Hello Larry, this is Wesley. Happy New Year!" Then I called Eamon and told him that McDermott's answering machine is working. Eamon soon called back saying that he called and left a message telling McDermott to stop sending his reporters to spy on him and be a man and interview him in person. He then told Jim Landers who got on the phone and left a message telling McDermott to stop covering up for the crooked politicians and the incompetents running the public schools. All of these calls were made within a fifteen minute time span. I wonder how long it will be before McDermott's answering machine is turned off again?
13 degrees at 8:21am. Sunny, nice but chilly. Gas at Pride is $1.49 per gallon.
Southbridge Savings Bank now has branches at the Big Y in Amherst and West Springfield. Grace House, a program for homeless women with children in Amherst, has fallen short of their fundraising goals said Catherine A. Bennett, program director. Marcia Williams is the President of the Atheneum Society of Wilbraham, Bob Swallow is the Vice President. UMass Professor Leonard L. Richards delivered a lecture recently on "The Truth About Shay's Rebellion."
A member of the Russell family that owns the restaurants Russell's and Thirtysomething, both on Boston Road, has been killed in a snowmobile accident. The funeral will be at Trinity United Methodist. Ray Herschel had a story on the news that the principal of Van Sickle has been transferred to the troubled Sci-Tech, but parents of Van Sickle students are complaining they want the principal to stay. Weatherman Tom Bevacqua said it was eleven degrees last night at his house in Greenfield.
On WFCR they played the first piece by Mozart I ever played with the Young People's Symphony Orchestra so that was really special and I listened to the whole thing. Also on WFCR UMass English Professor Arnold Silverman gave a strong pro-Israel editorial. He said the Arabs criticize Israel "to deflect attention from their own corruption." He also said that for Israel to allow Yasser Arafat to be head of a Palestinian state would be like making Osama bin Laden head of Canada!
A piece in Cries and Whispers told about how Judith Matt was sitting with Brenda Garton of WNEC at a Springfield Symphony Orchestra lunchtime concert when some construction workers elsewhere in the building starting making a lot of noise: "Spirit of Springfield President Judy Matt jumped from her seat, ran outside, flagged down a Springfield patrolman and said, "You have to stop these workers, we are in the middle of a concert here." The patrolman acted quickly, the noise stopped and the concert continued uninterrupted. So much for the extra percussion."
Went to Louis & Clark to send out mail to the Greenfield Public Library and Liberty Methodist Church. Cindy and Joann were working and I bought them each a box of 99 cent chocolates! The new Journal/Bravo is out with nothing in it by Francis Gagnon but a fine piece by Flavin.
Mike Peters' comic Mother Goose and Grimm had a Christopher Columbus theme the other day so I thought I would alert alleged Columbus collector Leonard Collamore. I called and got Mrs. Collamore on the phone who said Leonard was not there because he was teaching at STCC this morning. I said I thought he retired and she said he did but still teaches one class for the extra money. So there you go, these politicians sure know how to take care of themselves! I told her about the cartoon and when I hung up I called Channel 57 and found out that the rare Columbus book I told Collamore about that was offered in their auction went unsold, meaning Collamore never called to bid on it like he said he would. I am becoming more and more convinced that Professor Leonard Collamore is a phony and a faker.
Governor Romney fired thirty plus state public relations people because he said they were a waste of taxpayer's money. Good for him. Travolini and Finneran have both released statements saying they are willing to work with Romney even though he is a Republican. We shall see. Eamon says he now knows for a fact that the newspaper is working on a story about him and that one of the reporters involved is Buffy Spencer. Eamon's latest telephone message says that "Mayor Albano has a distinct tendency to lie." Larry McDermott's answering machine has been turned off again.
23 degrees this morning, a dusting of snow overnight. Gas is still $1.49 at Pride.
In her 1985 will, Aunt Maria said that any flowers from her funeral were to be donated to the Agawam Methodist Feeding Hills Church, for use at the next Sunday service, stating that "I would like to think of the flowers used at the Sunday church service rather than being wasted on my grave."
Her original 1985 will gave "to my nephew John Wesley Miller III, 5 Birchland Avenue, Springfield, Hampden County Ma. all the real estate, with the buildings thereon, that I may own at the time of my death, together with the contents of such buildings, excepting all furnishings and personal property."
Mother died of colon cancer on January 23, 1999. About a year earlier she made an appointment to be x-rayed at Baystate Medical Center and they put her through the process and told her there were no problems. She told them it still hurts so they gave her some pain pills. It turned out they should have x-rayed her lower section.
Pat Morrison of the L.A. Times is proposing that polticians be fined for their grammar errors. Latoya Foster of TV22 made a grammar error on the news tonight. WFCR is celebrating Shubert's birthday by playing Symphony Number Five. Ruth B. Loving the distinguished black lady with white hair who works at the Martin Luther King Center in the Square was on TV complaining about cuts in welfare spending proposed by Governor Romney. Later I watched On the Menu on 57 with Roy Scott who had the chef from Chandler's in Deerfield as his guest. I found the show boring and Roy Scott is no Julia Child.
Atty. Herve J. Girard had an office on Main Street in Palmer in 1974. The office of Efrem A. Gordon is at 101 State Street. His father Louis who founded the firm was born in 1898 and died in 1960. Anthony S. Nowak, a life-long resident of Ludlow has died at the age of 79. He was a relative of the gentleman who runs the antique shop in Indian Orchard. A new Kohl's store is to open in West Springfield in April. Hartford has cancelled their Mark Twain Days celebration two years in a row. Greenfield is preparing to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of its founding in 1753.
Cooking up a Mrs. Smith blueberry pie, the mail today brought the Book of the Month Club books. I called Wesley Church and Arlene MacKay answered very professionally and said that Karen Gutowski is the pastor at Liberty Methodist and she and her husband Richard live on Ohio Avenue in West Springfield. I hate the Verizon phone company. They nickle and dime you, are misleading and dealing with them is a waste of time. Fortunately practically the only long distance phone calls I make are to Timothy Hawley and Melinda McIntosh.
Ran into Mrs. Penniman coming out of Louis & Clark. Went to the Newsstand in the Acres for the Boston and Springfield papers, then out to Filene's at the Eastfield Mall, where I was waited on in the China Department by a man with diamond earrings named Scott Newburger. I told him their tureens should have the William & Mary design around the platter and at the edge of the lid. Dr. Scholl's sandals were also for sale in Filene's for $29.95.
Then I drove out to the Whateley Antiquarian Book Center and the friendly Mr. Povirk was in charge. He told me there was an enthusiastic crowd at the Springfield book fair but the promoters did a poor job of advertising. He said business has been slow. When I got back to Springfield I stopped at the McDonald's on Allen and got two Big Macs for the price of one with a coupon.
Chief Scott of Holyoke was on TV tonight calling the local judiciary "too liberal and too lenient." Sy Becker announced on the news that Cory Ramos, who killed the guidance councilor Rev. Ted Brown has been sent to jail for life with the possibility of parole in fifteen years. By then he'll probably have a PHD in social work and be made President of STCC.
Father Lavigne now lives at 86 Haven Avenue in Chicopee. Federal agents yesterday raided the Dickinson Street home of Arthur G. Sotirion of the Springfield Housing Authority looking for "evidence of kickbacks from contractors, stolen power tools and appliances, contract receipts and other business records. A spokesperson for the agency Raymond L. Berry would not comment on the search of Sotirion's home."
Jim Landers is taking real estate classes at STCC for free because he's an employee. Eamon called and said his caller ID showed that four different reporters from the Union-News called today to listen to his message bashing the paper. He said that Stephen Burke the firefighting arsonist has hired Tom Rooke as his lawyer. Eamon hears that Atty. Rooke is nothing but a pompous ass. Percy from the Fire Marshall's office will file an official complaint against Burke next week.
Eamon said his mother told him he could never be a politician because he won't lie. Eamon said he just got off the phone with A. Gingras who told him a Hispanic kid at Commerce named Rocky was hit with a sucker punch and fell backward down a staircase and split his head open and had to be taken away on a stretcher. Eamon is pleased that Governor Romney is appalled that the state employs over 800 lawyers and intends to fire them until there is only 50 or 60. Eamon has been in touch with Romney who instructed him to send any dirt he has on Springfield to his aide Eric Kriss, State House Room 373, Boston 02133.
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