Real Worcester Blog
Hockey Stars Shine On Worcester…
Let’s hope that Worcester shines back.
The NHL All Star festivities will be taking place this weekend in the hockey hotbed of Montreal, but there is plenty going on right here in Worcester as our fair city will be playing the gracious host to the up and coming stars of the AHL during this weekend’s AHL All Star weekend right here at the DCU Center.
The AHL All Star game will feature tomorrow’s stars of the NHL as Team Canada battles Planet USA. That’s right, those Canadians are so darn good on the ice that they “take on the world” in the AHL All Star format. One team features all Canadian born All Stars versus everyone else. All Star hockey games may be light on hitting but they certainly are heavy on scoring, so if offense is your thing these are great games to watch with plenty of pucks reaching the back of the net. Of the 455 players to participate in the AHL All Star game since 1995 more than 95% of them have gone on to see NHL action, including stars such as Patrice Bergeron, Brad Boyes and Zdeno Chara.
The Worcester squad will be represented by Ryan Vesce suiting up for Planet USA and Derek Joslin taking the ice for Canada, while other notables include ex Boston College star and Portland Pirate sensation Nathan Gerbe, Alexandre Giroux who just last week broke Brett Hull’s scoring record by recording a goal in 15 straight games and Chris Bourque the son of Bruins legend Ray Bourque.
Tickets have sold well but there are still tickets available and with prices of $40 or $32 for admission to 2 days worth of quality hockey action Real Worcester would suggest that some of you locals come on down and help make the DCU a sellout.
The AHL skills competition takes place on Sunday @ 4pm and the All Star game is Monday evening at 7pm. Other festivities include a party at Mechanic’s Hall on Sunday night as well as an All Star Luncheon at noon on Monday honoring Harry Sinden.
All Star weekend at The DCU Center will be beamed into more than 100 million homes through a variety of cable TV networks, both the skills competition and All Star game will be broadcast live on NESN and throughout all of Canada on TSN. The game will also be shown live throughout different regions of the country on station including FoxSportsNet, Time Warner, Comcast and NHL Center ice. The radio broadcast can also be heard locally on WTAG 580 as well as XM Home Ice 204.
I have my ticket and hopefully will have a full recap (or two) of the weekends events. Events of this prominence don’t roll into Worcester every day, so lets make the most of it!
Sharks All Star Ticket Info
AHL All Star Classic News
Worcestershire Journal – What a day of wonder
We had a snow day on January 20, 1961, the day of John Kennedy’s inauguration. As a result, I was able to watch the ceremony on our (black-and-white) television. I remember a bit of his speech, including the famous “Ask not” line. The next inauguration to which I gave any attention was Ronald Reagan’s first, mostly because of bizarre irony that the Iranians were releasing the American embassy hostages as soon as Jimmy Carter was out of office.
And, then, there was this one. I’m taking a course at Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner, one of my almae matres. The college set up tv screens in both the main auditorium and north cafeteria so that people could watch the event. My class got over at 10:45, giving me plenty of time to get a cup of coffee and find a table near an electrical outlet. The campus has wireless Internet, but there’s a dearth of wired electricity in the places where people might work.
The television was tuned to ABC. Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer did a good job of keeping up a steady stream of reporting, commentary, and background information.
Around 11:30, I was a bit worried about the turnout. There were quite a few empty chairs, even as the dignitaries and others were arriving at the inauguration stand. Nevertheless, there was enough of a crowd to give an audible hiss when Darth Vader Cheney arrived in a wheelchair, a note of disapproval even louder than when President Bush arrived on the scene.
I needn’t have worried. Small groups of students, faculty, and staff hurried in as the time drew near, breaking into teary applause when Barack Obama was announced. The crowd and emotions kept building. A few minutes before noon, as the quartet hit the familiar refrain of Simple Gifts, all the chairs were occupied and the overflow stood in the back or sat on the floor.
To tell the truth, I don’t know what brought people there. Certainly, many of us felt that we just had to be with other people at a time such as this. For the old lefty gray-hairs, it had been such a long time coming. For the younger people, white, black, and brown, I don’t know. I wish I’d been a better reporter, but the emotion of the moment sand-bagged me. I panicked a bit when Chief Justice Roberts stumbled over the oath. (I had a flicker of doubt that the oath was valid. The Constitution is specific on what the President must say. Constitutional scholars are weighing in, giving us comfort that the Chief Justice’s Bill Buckner moment won’t jeopardize BHO’s presidency.)
I watched the bright young faces, but didn’t know, couldn’t know, what resonated from the very serious words that made up Obama’s speech. I hope to find out. It’s not often that any of us at any age reflect on George Washington, much less take his exhortation to the cold and dispirited troops and apply it to these hard times.
Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we
refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we
falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we
carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to
future generations.
Worcestershire Journal – What you see and what you don’t see
I’ve enjoyed Jeff’s stream of blog posts on Shovelgate, particularly yesterday’s post about Phil’s sidewalk. If the goal is to ensure safe passage on the city’s sidewalks, the requirement that each property owner keep their sidewalks clear certainly isn’t working. Whether it’s the right thing to do or not, from a moral or civic responsibility perspective, isn’t really the point. What’s in force now isn’t working. And, it isn’t likely to work any more than James Michael Curley’s famed query to MIT regarding the advisability of using flame-throwers to clear Boston’s streets of snow.
Not that we in the ‘burbs have the problem solved, either. It’s true that Holden has taken responsibility for clearing the snow from the town’s sidewalks. For the most part, the town does a pretty good job. Getting at the crossing signal, however, can be a bit interesting.
The Social Security Administration lists hundreds of conditions that can disable a person, only a small number of which would put a person in a wheelchair. So, here, we’re fussing about whether the municipalities or the homeowners are going to do a marginally-adequate job clearing a path that only a few people will use because only a few people can use it. Meanwhile, the people we don’t see are the ones who so with that someone would clear a path for them.
In college, I took a course with Julius Lester. He talked about his trip to Hanoi during the Vietnam war. One day, he was walking on the street and met a woman whose face had been horribly burned in the fire-bombing. He wanted to say something to her, to apologize or something, but couldn’t speak in any language. Instead, he did all that he could do and, perhaps, all that he needed to do: he looked at her, at her face, and didn’t turn away. By looking directly at her, he acknowledged that, no matter what was going on in the war between nations, here were two human beings. The fire-bombing hadn’t taken away her humanity.
We can’t fix everything. Heck, we can’t even keep the sidewalks clear. But, we can look at people and let them know that we know that they matter.
Worcester Three Deckers… Highlights and History
What better way to pass the time on a cold and snowy weekend then stumbling aimlessly around the internet?
Today I found a real interesting set up webpages on the Holy Cross website called “Worcester And Its People”. There is a great piece on Worcester’s three deckers that we all take for granted today, the history behind them and more. If you stop and think about the folks that lived in these once proud houses in the early 1900′s it is easy to say that Worcester was built by the hard work and sweat of the immigrants that inhabited them.
The stories that could be told from within the walls of many of these houses could fill many books and be made into many movies I am sure. Growing up in Fall River and being around three deckers all my life this article was one of the first to give me a good glimpse into the thought that went into the design of the buildings and the form and function within.
Worcestershire Journal – Life as a customer
We don’t get out much, so it was a treat to make plans to see a holiday show at Foothills Theatre[1 ]. We decided to make a date of it and included a dinner-theater package for the Saturday matinee after Christmas. We were season-ticket holders for several years in the 90s. When Marc and Susan Smith moved on, however, we found that the performances weren’t as compelling and we let our subscription lapse.
Our first clue that things weren’t going to go smoothly this time came when we learned that our restaurant choice, 86 Winter, isn’t at 86 Winter Street, but at 65 Water Street. (There’s probably some history in the name, but we never got the background story.)
A few days before Christmas, a dear family friend died. The funeral was scheduled for that same Saturday afternoon. We knew where we needed to be and so called Foothills to plead our case and request a change to Sunday afternoon’s performance. No problem, reported the person at the box office. There were good seats still available. 86 Winter opened at 4PM, so we might have to tread water for a bit because the show was scheduled to conclude at 3:30.
You’ve probably already guessed that if that was that, I wouldn’t be writing this note.
First of all, it’s not fair to Foothills that the parking garage on Commercial Street looks like a set from The Sopranos. The place is pretty much empty, with water dripping from the ceiling and cranky bits of graffiti the walls.
We found a parking spot near a sign that said, IIRC, “This way to stores.” We enjoyed that bit of irony as we walked up the stairs, across the courtyard, and then inside the theater.
We had some nice seats, in the front section, near the center. Too bad that we couldn’t keep them. Y’see, we hadn’t noticed, nor had the box office clerk or the usher, that we were given out Saturday tickets with our Saturday seat assignments. We might have stayed where we were if another family hadn’t expected to sit where we were sitting.
After a good bit of stirring and shuffling and the usher making several trips back and forth from the box office, we were re-seated, still in the front section, more to the side, but still not bad. In the process, however, we also learned that 86 Winter didn’t open until 5:00. Not only that, but the show was going to wrap up before 3, leaving us with more than two hours in downtown Worcester on a winter Sunday afternoon.
The show started slowly, but had some good bits. Tom Lehrer’s Christmas Carol is always welcome and the cast had some good fun with Baby, It’s Cold Outside.
Foothills is a small venue, so it’s surprising that all of the performers wore microphones. We sat near the speakers, but were also close enough to hear the unamplified voices. The resulting discordance was distracting.
While my wife spent the intermission trying to explain to the box office crew that we really rather not be adrift for two hours and could we please cancel our dinner-theater package and get a refund, I went to get coffee at the concession stand. Now, I know that the people who work behind the counter are volunteers, but I don’t think that they should be surprised when customers ask for things, such as coffee. The person who took my order hopped back a half a step, as though I’d asked her to explain Schrödinger’s Cat. No, I just wanted two coffees, regular. A man behind me pointed to the chocolate cheesecake for sale on the counter and asked for a slice. The server flapped her arms, trying to find the serving untensils and plate. I thought for a moment that she might take flight. In the end, she did manage to serve up a pre-sliced piece of cheesecake.
I’m sorry that I offended the cashier when I paid for my two coffees with a $20 bill. I didn’t intend to be mean or unreasonable or otherwise difficult. The cashier gave me my change, snapping the one $5 bill and the 13 $1s into my hand.
The box office staff was able to un-make our dinner reservations and refund the balance, leaving my wife with time for two sips of coffee before the lights dimmed, announcing the start of the second act.
After the show, we went across the street to Viva Bene and, sad to say, had an unremarkable meal. On the ride home, we wondered aloud what had happened. Nothing really bad happened, but neither was it a special time.
Years ago, I was a short-order cook. We get very busy and I might have a couple dozen orders backed up. I had to keep reminding myself that, even though there was an avalanche of scrambled eggs on the grill, that 17th order was some guy’s breakfast. It might not be special to me, but it was to him. It was his breakfast.
If I want ordinary, I’ll stay home, eat my own cooking, drink my own coffee, and watch whatever is on TV. If my wife and I go out and spend good money on a date, we’d like it if the folks who are taking our money might treat it as something special.
[1]In case you’re wondering, as I was, both spellings, theater and theatre are correct, although theater is more common in American English. That said, Google prefers theatre.
Worcestershire Journal – Out with the something, in with the something else
In the early days of the big ice storm, we used the last of Huck’s firewood. My father, Huck, died just about two years ago, in January of 2007. He was 93 when he died and up to his last week still carried his own firewood to keep the living room and sauna stoves going. (During his last days, he needed oxygen. We were able to set up the oxygen tanks and tubes so that we could keep the wood stove going, a source of warmth and visual comfort, without blowing up the house.)
During that summer, as we readied his house for sale, I made many trips between here and there, each time returning home with a load of his firewood. A back of the envelope estimate is that he had about three cord, which, when added to our own supply, lasted through last winter and into this. Inside the house, he had another quarter-cord that was cut and split smaller for the sauna stove. I brought that firewood to the camp for use in the sauna there.
Among many Finns, particularly those who had immigrated in the early part of the 20th century, the sauna was the only bath that they had. When my father was building the camp, his father chastised him for not building the sauna first. You were supposed to build the sauna and then live in it while building the main house. The sauna was often the focus of activity for a household, a place for washing of people and clothes and, oddly enough, a place for socializing. On Saturday nights, families would come to visit, to eat and drink and go to sauna.
Of course, all ethnic, religious, and cultural groups have their own traditions, some quirky, some downright mystifying. A bunch of years ago, we were members of a Hudson church that sponsored a Hmong (Thailand) refugee family. The church located a nice house for the family and church members would stop by regularly to check the refrigerator and cupboards to make sure that the family had enough food on hand. The family was well-supplied with staples and took it upon themselves to supplement their larder; on one visit, a church member discovered dead muskrats hanging in the cupboard under the sink. In addition, when the Hmong family went to visit their American hosts, the first thing that they’d do was to open the refrigerator and cupboard doors, believing that such inspections were an American custom.
Traditions eventually get caught up in the swirl and churn that is American culture. Some traditions go away of their own accord, mercifully, such as certain Finnish recipes. 
Other traditions hang on, linking past to present. The Raivaaja, for example, is a weeky newspaper, half in Finnish, half in English, for the Finnish diaspora. Still others become part of mainstream culture, albeit with changes. Sauna, we should remember, is pronounced “Sow-nah,” not “Saw-nah.”
That swirl and churn isn’t always welcome. Not long ago, I heard the police chief in a small, central Massachusetts town comment on the “changing complexion” of the town. He used the phrase several times, lest there be any mistaking about what he meant. Some communities resist the change, trying to make newcomers feel as unwelcome as possible.
Others, such as the example shown in Worcester’s First Night celebration, offe unusual food and music and arts. We’re taking our three youngest granddaughters to First Night, giving all of us a chance to greet the new year, a year that’s special beyond others for the change that it will bring to our nation and to our selves.
May we stay warm inside and out, enjoying this year’s leap second along the way.
Worcestershire Journal – What we have here …
At this writing, mid-afternoon on Monday, 22 December, we’re still not connected to the Holden power grid. (I’m writing from the Panera Bread in Shrewsbury.) Today is day 11 since the power went out. We are extremely fortunate to have a generator that gives us heat, hot water, and lights for about 12 hours a day. (That’s as long as we dare annoy our neighbors with this rather loud machine). If it wasn’t for the generator, we’d certainly have frozen pipes by now.
We share a house with my wife’s parents, both in their 80s. Last Monday, they decamped to my wife’s sister’s house on the Cape. They came back to town briefly today to pick up some clothing and other essentials and then went back to the Cape, where they’ll stay until Boxing Day.
Our street has had power for eight days, but our house needs to be reconnected to the pole. We’ve been “on the list” for reconnection for all eight days, but the department has unable to tell us being “on the list” means.
Holden has a municipal light department that is clearly outmatched by this event. One of the strengths of national companies is that they know how to handle big events because they’ve had experience elsewhere. When I called Verizon about our phone line that had been snagged by some yahoo who drove through the wires draped across the street, the phone company sent me text messages when they’d dispatched someone to work on the problem. After the work was completed, we received confirmation messages by phone and text.
The town used reverse 911 at the outset to inform people about emergency shelters. Since then, they’ve sent email with status updates. (Those messages are useless to my in-laws and those without computer access. I’ve been reading email on my mobile phone.) The updates show progress at a macro level, but tell next to nothing about individual reconnections. (“We’re working as hard as we can.” “We have six or ten or thirty crews working on individual reconnections.”)
WTAG has gone back to their regular programming. Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh aren’t about to provide anything of use to us. Without cable (also down since the start of the storm), we have access to only a couple over-the-air television stations and, well, I talked about that a couple of weeks ago. So, we’re left to rely on anecdotes from neighbors and others of what is happening or not happening. A neighbor, also without power, went for a ride around our side of town and found no bucket trucks (the ones that can make connections to the power lines) on any of the nearby streets. I’ve not seen a light department truck on our street since the first weekend of the storm.
Finally, this morning I reached an HMLD employee who was willing or able to consult “the list” and tell us something. We’re assigned to Crew #7. “The list is much shorter than it was yesterday,” she said, hopefully.
Look, I know that someone has to be the last one connected and that we are very fortunate not only to have a generator, but also a wood stove and an ample supply of wood. I also know that we’ve got a lot of people working really hard in bad weather, away from their families in the run-up to Christmas, doing work that is hard and dangerous. I have no quarrel with them. I do have a lot of trouble with a system that doesn’t seem to know where the crews are, what they’re working on now, what they’re working on next, or how to treat customers like, well, customers.
My next letter will be to Santa Claus, suggesting that Brian Bullock, Holden Town and Municipal Light Department Manager, might want a set of asbestos underwear for the next selectman’s meeting.
[Update: We were reconnected to the Holden power system at 5PM today, after about 257 hours.]
[Second update on 12/23: I just received a call from the Holden light department, asking if we have power at our house. This gesture of confirmation is a very good step.]
Worcestershire Journal – Storm Notes
At this writing (mid-aftertoon on 16 December), we’re still without electricity, phone, or cable at our house in Holden. Our street has power. Along with our neighbors catty-corner across the street, we’re waiting for the Holden Municipal Light Department to reconnect our house to the pole. We lost power shortly after midnight on Thursday night/Friday morning.
Our house was not damaged. A falling branch put one small dent on the hood of my car.
We have a wood stove that has kept us warm and has provided a good cooking surface. We have a good supply of wood; we typically use about four cords of wood per season, anyway.
We share a house with my wife’s parents. After sharing in the adventure with us for more than three days, they’ve gone to stay with my wife’s sister on the Cape.
I’m writing from Panera Bread in Westborough. I’ve had some access to Internet services by way of my Blackberry, but I’ve needed to keep my phone off much of the time to save the battery.
Here are some of my notes in no particular order of time or importance:
- Electricity gives us evenings. It’s dark by five o’clock, so we eat early, talk for a while after dinner, read as best as we can by light from candles, oil lamps, or flashlights. By eight o’clock, though, we’re ready to turn in.
- We got to see a lot more of our neighbors, particularly during the first two days, as we worked outside to clear away what we could. The
- Most of the houses on the street have wood stoves or fireplaces.
- Our electric, phone, and cable wires were draped at angle across the street and then held on the ground by a large branch. One knucklehead in a large SUV couldn’t make it under the wires and so drove across our neighbor’s lawn.
- Conserving battery power, particularly for the unusual batteries that are in cell phones, cameras, or big flashlights, is very important. We have plenty of D and AA batteries, so we can use our radios to find out what’s going on out yonder.
- Our neighbor remarked, “The romance of candles is gone.”
- We work hard during daylight, clearing away branches and brush, work that’s not familiar to these muscles and joints.
- Having town water and sewer made things immeasurably easier. We took a ride to Phillipston on Sunday and saw a man getting buckets of water from a small pond. I talked with someone this morning who had been getting five-gallon buckets of water from a neighbor so that they could use their toilets.
- WTAG has done a great job keeping people informed. Good, old AM radio comes through in an emergency. Many other stations are operated by remote robots and cannot carry local news.
- It was very disappointing to listen to WBUR or read the Sunday Boston Globe to find scant mention of the fact that more than 100,000 people were without power. If it isn’t happening in Boston, it doesn’t exist.
- Verizon’s landline service stayed on for a couple of days, even though the wire was lying on the ground. It wasn’t until a car snagged the wire and pulled it from the pole that the service stopped.
That said, we found that we could get by pretty well with just the cell phones and may drop landline service. - I was able to use Twitter from my Blackberry to send a few updates that family and friends picked up on Facebook.
- While we were trying to keep the house warm, we also had to contend with keeping food cold. The cellar’s temp has stayed in the low to mid-40s and served as our interim refrigerator. We had melted ice cream for dessert on Saturday night.
- We prepare our large meals during the daylight so we can more easily see what we’re doing.
- Our neighbors got their power back mid-day on Sunday.
- During the night, if we sleep through, the indoor temperature dropped to the mid-50s. The temp in the cellar bottomed out at 41°
- Kudos to the Michauds who deliver our newspapers.
- I wonder if we’ll change our ways after being without power for these many days. I suspect not.
Worcestershire Journal – TV at us, but not for us
It probably matters a lot less now than it used to, but having a broadcast TV station seems to be an important part of a city’s identity. As a result, Worcester is nearly invisible to the outside world and, more importantly, to itself.
We do have two stations, but neither provides Worcester news or other programming.
- WUNI, Channel 27, that provides Spanish-language programming for the Boston area. (The call letters stand for “Univision Nueva Inglaterra”, which is Spanish for New England.) WUNI doesn’t even call itself a Boston station.
- WYDN, Channel 48, that runs Daystar religious programming.
Other cities in New England are much richer in television offerings. Providence (including New Bedford/Fall River) has five stations. Springfield has four. Heck, Burlington VT, in conjunction with its partner city across Lake Champlain, has six stations.
Some of the Boston stations try to provide Worcester coverage. WBZ, for example, has a Worcester bureau in downtown. A search of Worcester news stories on the WBZ web site, however, shows eight stories, including one each about the beetles and the firefighters’ memorial. Oh, and skiing is good at Wachusett.
NECN, in conjunction with Charter, provides Worcester News Tonight. A search for Worcester news on the NECN web site, however, produces a few more local stories, but not a lot for a week.
| WBZ | NECN |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Charter’s local service is, IMO, pretty good, with a regular diet of news, sports, and public affairs programming. Heck, it even warrants its own Wikipedia page. (Wikipedia provides a pretty good overview of media outlets in our fair city.) Of course, satellite and over-the-air TV watchers don’t receive Charter’s material.
To be sure, with the increased concentration in media ownership and the resulting shared content, there’s really very little that’s left for local content in any of the media. Mike’s reviews of online journalism show that the denizens of the blogosphere are increasingly trying to fill the news coverage gaps. 
Meanwhile, the broadcast industry is resisting efforts to require more locally-originated programming.
So, we’re left with lots of television choices from our left and right, up and down, but not many opportunities to see ourselves on the tube.
Worcester Sharks “Guaranteed Lights Night” Wednesday 12/10
Thumbs up to the Worcester Sharks and their marketing effort to make lemonade out of some lemons with their “Guaranteed Lights Night” this Wednesday vs. our neighbors to the west the Springfield Falcons. This is the makeup game for the sold out game featuring the autograph signing with Jason Earles of Hannah Montana which was supposed to be played on November 15th, but was called due to an electrical fire and power failure.
The Sharks are laughing at themselves and passing on one heck of a deal to their fans. This Wednesday the first 500 fans will receive a flashlight courtesy of Office Depot and IF the lights stay on for the entire game EVERYONE in attendance will receive a FREE TICKET voucher to another Sharks game. In these though economic times where people are looking to stretch their entertainment dollar I credit the Sharks with providing a great 2 for 1 deal and making the best out of a dark situation! Oh, and don’t forget $1.00 Hot Dogs on Wednesday.