Harpoon Winter Warmer Beer & Friends of Harpoon Winter Events

I got this from the Harpoon Brewery today:

We are less than a month away from Harpoon Helps Spread Holiday Cheer . On Saturday, December 1st, we will be again be sending Harpoon Helpers to 25 different locations in Boston to decorate and spread good tidings to those who need it the most. We are still looking for volunteers to come help us decorate and invite you to sign up yourself or a group today. After a couple of hours decorating, everyone will return to our Boston brewery for some food and fresh Harpoon beers! We hope that you will join us for our biggest Harpoon Helps mission of the year!

SIGN UP FOR HARPOON HELPS SPREAD HOLIDAY CHEER

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Couple Beers No Beers WBCN’s Chili Guy

Couple Beers No Beers

The Toucher and Rich show does drunken Red Sox recaps after most Sox home games and just interview the drunkest people they see about the game they saw the night before. At first they interviewed this guy and they thought he was a drunk guy at the game but a few months later they found out he was a homeless guy. He says some crazy things and the show has given back to him, always giving him food, gift cards and kind of take care of him. He is hilarious though.

For those of you around Boston that listen to WBCN will probably know who the Chili Guy is for the rest of you check out this soundboard for this guy, he is hilarious. Read more

Boston Sports Commercial Debuts During World Series

Mayor Menino was the only non-athlete with the exception of the narrator, Dorchester native Donnie Wahlberg appearing in a 30-second advertisement for local footwear maker Reebok.

The company lined up star power endorsers including David Ortiz, Bruin great Bobby Orr, former Boston College and Patriots quarterback Doug Flutie, and Patriots running back Laurence Maroney.

The ad, hastily produced by Reebok staff last week without benefit of an advertising agency, flashed photos of the city and its athletes, as Wahlberg asked: “What do they all have in common? They all play right here, and they all wear . . .” He doesn’t finish the sentence; the word Reebok appears across the screen.

Flutie says, “This is Reebok Nation.” Read more

Justin Timberlake Coming to Boston

Justin Timberlake is coming to Boston to the TD Banknorth Garden (formerly Fleetcenter), Boston, MA on February 6, 2007 at 07:30 PM. I’m thinking there’s going to be a few of my girl friends that will want to go. The problem is that I need to find someone in the Justin Timberlake fanclub to get my the discount on tickets for the Boston show. If anyone knows anyone in his fanclub let me know.

Ticket prices are between $53.50 and $92.50. Not cheap but should be a good show. I haven’t been to the new TD Banknorth Garden for a concert yet but I’ve been there for plenty of Boston Celtics games.

Internet Presale for Fan Club members go on sale Fri, 11/03/06 09:00 AM EST

Everyone else can get them Fri, 11/03/06 10:00 AM EST only an hour difference but I’m sure all the Justin Timberlake fans out there will jam the phones and take a lot of the tickets ahead of time.

Is anyone in the Justin Timberlake’s Dance Club? This is what was sent to be in an email for upcoming big shows in the Boston area:

Justin Timberlake is bringing his chart-topping hits and incredible live show to stages across the globe on the new, must see tour - 2007 FutureSex/LoveShow! Performing music from his new album, FutureSex/LoveSounds, Justin will be accompanied by a 14-piece band and an incredible lineup of back up dancers. Adding to the excitement, special guest Pink will join Justin for the North American leg of the worldwide tour!

So anyone Justin Timberlake fan club members out there hook me up. I got some friends who want to go.

Thx

Weymouth’s Own Sgt. Andrew Farrar

DROPKICK MURPHYS - “Last Letter Home”

Listen to Last Letter Home

Hello there my dearest love
Today I write to you about our sons
The boys start school today
They’re the spitting image of you in every way

Hey son it’s Dad
I hope this letter finds you well out of harm’s way
We saw the news today it frightened your Mom
Now all she does is pray

If I lead will you follow?
Will you follow if I lead?

Hey Melissa it’s me don’t be afraid
I’m in good hands I’m gonna be home soon
It’s time to watch the children grow up
I wanna be more than a voice on the phone

Thanks Ma I got your package today
I love “The Fields Of Athenry”
I swear I want ‘em to play that song on the pipes
At my funeral when I die

I stand alone in the distance
And the foreground slowly moves

“We regret to inform you that on January 28th Sgt. Andrew Farrar died while serving his country in the Al-Anbar province of Iraq words cannot convey our sorrow”

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9/11 + 5

Five years after the worst terrorist attack on American soil, families of some of the nearly 3,000 victims gathered Monday at Ground Zero for a solemn ceremony.

The commemoration included four moments of silence. Two for the times that hijacked planes hit the World Trade Center towers (which Dracut’s own John Ogonowski piloted flight 11) and two for when the burning towers collapsed into mountains of rubble, killing thousands of people working there and first responders who were trying to rescue them. Including my friend Ray Rocha.

An estimated 2,973 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks.

Memorials were also held in Washington and Pennsylvania.

After the wreath-laying ceremony, the president and first lady attended a service at Trinity Church near Ground Zero. Read more

Support Massachusetts Democrats

Dear Friend,

In 3 months, voters across the Commonwealth will head to the polls for the critically important 2006 election. It has been 20 years — far too long — since we elected a Democratic governor here at home. Massachusetts, like so much of the country, is ready for a change.

That’s why the Democratic Coordinated Campaign in Massachusetts has organized a series of cookouts in support of Massachusetts Victory ‘06, the impressive grassroots organization that we Democrats are building to help Democratic candidates win in 2006. Several cookouts have already been held, and a dozen more are planned throughout the Commonwealth that you can sign up for today.

I’ll be at the Lexington grassroots cookout on Sunday, August 13 to show my support for Massachusetts Victory ‘06, and I hope you can join me. If you cannot attend this cookout or if you simply live too far away from Lexington, please consider participating in another cookout or making a donation in support of Massachusetts Victory ‘06.

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Red Sox Joke of the Month

On a tour of Florida, the Pope took a couple of days off to visit the coast for some sightseeing. He was cruising along the beach in the Pope-mobile when there was a frantic commotion just off shore. A helpless man, wearing a New York Yankee jersey, was struggling frantically to free himself from the jaws of a 25-foot shark.

As the Pope watched, horrified, a speedboat came racing up with three men wearing Boston Red Sox jerseys aboard. One quickly fired a harpoon into the shark’s side. The other two reached out and pulled the bleeding, semi-conscious Yankee fan from the water. Then using autographed David Ortiz baseball bats, the three Boston heroes beat the shark to death and hauled it into the boat.

Immediately the Pope shouted and summoned them to the beach. “I give you my blessing for your brave actions,” he told them. “I heard that there was some bitter hatred between Red Sox and Yankee fans, but now I have seen with my own eyes that this is not the truth.”

As the Pope drove off, the harpooner asked his buddies “Who was that?” It was the Pope,” one replied. “He is in direct contact with God and has access to all of God’s wisdom.” “Well,” the harpooner said, “He may have access to God’s wisdom but he doesn’t know squat about shark fishing. How’s the bait holding up?”

Massachusetts Schools Getting Money for Extending Student Day

10 schools in Massachusetts will be paid by the state with state funds to lengthen their days, a pilot program dubbed “Expanded Learning Time” that people believe will improve test scores and opponents say is too costly.

The $25.2 billion state budget Gov. Mitt Romney signed Saturday included a $6.5 million item for the program that will increase anywhere from one hour, 45 minutes to three hours a day of instruction and other programs for all students at selected schools in Boston, Cambridge, Fall River, Malden and Worcester. Read more

Massachusetts Beaches Now Have to Deal with Jellyfish

Jellyfish attack Boston area beaches!

Poisonous Portuguese men-of-war, in an unusually large invasion, stung at least 14 people in Massachusetts during the last week, prompting periodic swimming bans on Cape and Islands beaches during one of the summer’s busiest holiday weeks.

Local and state officials say the intermittent beach closings may continue through Thursday, as the jellyfish-like creatures continue to wash up on beaches from Westport to Nantucket. However, they believe that shifting winds should carry the strange creatures, which are more common in tropical waters, back to sea after that.

None of the stings appear to be serious, although several people were taken to local hospitals for evaluation. Contact with a tentacle, which can dangle 50 feet below the surface, can bring painful welts that look like whip marks. Some people are allergic to the stings and, in extremely rare cases, they may cause anaphylactic shock, which can cause death.

Yesterday, Nantucket officials prohibited swimming on about 13 miles of south-facing beaches, but reopened much of the area in the afternoon, after winds died down and numbers of the creatures appeared to decline.

In Falmouth, Menauhant Beach was closed early in the day, but lifeguards later put up a sign that said swimming was allowed “at your own risk.”

Chapoquoit Beach in Falmouth also closed briefly when eight men-of-war washed up on the shore or were spotted near the beach. Read more

Ashlee Simpson Can Smile While in Massachusetts

It isn’t easy being Ashlee Simpson.

There’s the gorgeous, mega-famous older sister. The Saturday Night Live lip-syncing snafu. Being booed at the Orange Bowl. Getting caught on tape drunkenly swearing and barefoot at a McDonald’s.

But Ashlee Simpson, 21, can laugh about it. A few years in showbiz, after all, makes you grow some pretty thick skin.

“It’s just a part of the business and I realize that criticism is something that comes with that,” says Simpson. “I just shrug it off — I don’t read any of the negativity.”

Talking on the phone from Los Angeles, Simpson chatted and giggled at a breakneck pace as she dished on fans, touring and life as Jessica’s younger sister.

Simpson launched a full-scale U.S. tour last month where she’ll take on everything from tiny nightclubs to gigantic arenas and amphitheaters.

Simpson says she loves both types of venues. Read more

Do Not Knock Massachusetts Bill Going to Vote Today

Do Not Knock list proposed by Massacusetts lawmakers here to push for a bill that would allow residents to sign up for a do-not-knock list keeping solicitors off their property.

The legislation also would require background checks on sales crews.

Representative Cleon Turner of Yarmouth says the bill is intended to make people feel safer and less vulnerable to the aggressive tactics of some door to door solicitors.

In cities and towns that vote to adopt the proposal, police departments would maintain the resident database, as well as a list of door-to-door sellers. The bill would exempt political activists, religious organizations and nonprofits such as Boy Scouts.

Under the bill, sales crews who don’t register with police departments would face fines of up to $5,000. A special provision to protect senior citizens, who Turner says are particularly vulnerable to intimidation, says a salesman who solicits on the property of a person 65 or older on the list cannot be fined less than $1,500.

A spokeswoman at the Massachusetts chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union wasn’t able to immediately comment as she had not seen the proposed legislation.

World’s Largest Yellow Jacket Bee

OK so I’m sitting at my desk today trying to figure out somehow to get some interviews and get a web deisgn job. If only something would just show itself and I would recognize it as my big opportunity and take advantage of it.

So then while working at my desk in the basement rewriting my resume I hear this loud buzzing flying around me in the dark. With only a desk lamp on I turn on more lights to see what it is. Almost sounded like a hummingbird but more like a bee flying around. When I turned the light on this is what I saw:

Click for larger images of these giant bees

I captured him in a cd spindle cover so to scale this bee he looks to be about one third the size of a CD. That’s a big ass yellow jacket bee.

Hey btw if anyone is looking for a good web designer please contact me.

GPS tracking allows authorities to keep closer tabs on offenders

GPS Ankle Bracelet Plugged into a phone outlet in Joe Magno’s ranch home on Rock Avenue in Hudson is a black box.
And strapped around the former high school teacher’s ankle is a rubber and metal bracelet. If he so much as steps outside for fresh air, dunks the bracelet or tries to cut it off, the radio connection between the two is broken, an alarm rings in a field monitoring office staffed 24 hours a day in government center in Boston.
Magno is one of more than 600 people in the state assigned a radio frequency electronic monitoring bracelet. The 65-year-old is awaiting trial on charges he raped a male student at Maynard High School and is back in Middlesex Superior Court tomorrow for a pre-trial conference.
With more bracelets in use nearly every year, are they working? Are more people destined to be fitted with the newest GPS bracelets, now reserved for about 100 sex offenders?

Of 8,300 people who have been strapped with the bracelet, only 8 percent, about 700, have tried to break it off, according to Deputy Commissioner of Probation Paul Lucci. One of them was Hudson wedding photographer Gary Tobin, who cut off his bracelet and fled to New Hampshire while awaiting trial on charges he robbed a pizzeria with a machete in 2004. Read more

Choosing a Boston Personal Injury Lawyer

If you have had the misfortune to suffer a personal injury, you will understand just how deeply such an event can change your life. You will probably encounter huge medical bills, and may need ongoing medical care for a long period of time. You may be unable to work, perhaps even permanently, and you may have a spouse or family who are shaken by both the financial implications and changes in their life situation and routine. While obtaining the right settlement will not erase the impact of your accident, either in physical or emotional terms, right attorney will be able to arrange a deal for you that will at least help ease your monetary worries. For those of you living within the confines of this city, here are some tips to help you find a Boston personal injury lawyer who will help you make the most of this difficult time in your life.

Firstly, ensure that your lawyer has direct experience in personal injury law. The law is an enormous area, and specialisations within it have developed for a reason. By choosing a professional who deals primarily with this type of case, you will be ensuring that you are dealing with a lawyer who understands this particular area of the law in detail, which in turn means they will be equipped with the knowledge and experience to get you the best deal possible. Read more

9/11 Video To Be Released Today

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that Department of Defense will release a videotape to Judicial Watch at 1:00 p.m. this afternoon that allegedly shows American Airlines Flight 77 striking the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

The Department of Defense is releasing the videotape in response to a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act request and related lawsuit.

“Choose Life” License Plates to Support Adoption in Massachusetts

A Wakefield woman is spearheading efforts to bring a specialty license plate to Massachusetts that encourages adoption over abortion, even though similar plates in other states have brought legal challenges.

Merry Nordeen, who opposes abortion, is gathering support for a “Choose Life” license plate, part of a nationwide effort by abortion opponents to raise money for groups that support adoption.

She recently started an Internet campaign to collect $40 checks from 3,000 people who are interested in the plates. If she gathers enough support, she can bring her proposal to the Registry of Motor Vehicles.

The plate design Nordeen proposes is yellow, with the words “Choose Life” written in a child’s writing and with childlike drawings of a young boy and girl. Read more