Yep, I was there…

…in Boston at the Tea Party on Wednesday, the 14th. It was a pretty mellow gathering, truth be told. Someone today asked me how it was, and I said “it was nice”. I was in Worcester last year, and it was really rowdy, but I was hanging with some older folks in Boston, and it was very low-key (and I wandered around a lot, and I didn’t see much rowdy at all).  I forgot how pretty Boston is in springtime, and it was a beautiful day to see Sarah P. in Massachusetts(!), get a burrito from my favorite cart vendor, and feel the rumble of the MBTA beneath my park bench as I basked in the midday sun for the quietest lunch I’ve had in years.

Back off ladies, he’s married -

This handsome, well-educated, self-described “progressive”  Bostonian shared his opinion of Sarah Palin at today’s Tea Party event in Boston. His wife was unable to join him because she had to stay home to make his sandwiches, dammit!

Catholic Mass Changes to Stem Spread of Swine Flu

Last week, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston formally made changes to the way Catholics celebrate mass in order to reduce the likely spread of Swine Flu.  The 300,000 Catholics who attend mass each week saw the new rules in action starting on Sunday.  The Archdiocese :

“is recommending that parishes stop offering laypeople consecrated wine at Communion and also discourage laypeople from hugging, shaking hands, or otherwise having physical contact during the “sign of peace” at Mass.”

Further, the Church has issued instructions on how to sanitize holy water fonts on a regular basis and how to issue communion with minimal chance of infection. The Archdiocese has fielded numerous complaints about cessation of offering consecrated wine at mass.  Some of the feedback included sentiments such as:

“if God wants me to get Swine Flu, I’m gonna get it – wine or no wine!”

In response, the Church has offered the option of individual servings of consecrated wine.  The Church is offering ‘JesusJuice Boxes’ to parishes , to ensure the most sanitary method of offering  the Precious Blood to the faithful.  The boxes are the same type of paper-based container found in lunch boxes across America, except that these are two ounce servings of consecrated holy wine.  The boxes will not come with a straw, so the user will pull a foil tab in order to drink the wine.  One local priest noted that

“the chalice is the hot zone in every Catholic church, so the individual servings would come in really handy year-round.  Episcopalians really push the wine, so they would be wise to get on board with our new sanitary procedures.”

The new wine boxes will be available at many area parishes starting this Sunday.

Tall Ships – Is there a brig in this vessel?

A beautiful day gone wrong when the kids had an absolute shit fit about not getting a soda on board our harbor cruise of the Tall Ships in Boston this weekend. The tour guide was very entertaining, and he kept quizzing us on history, boats, sailing, etc., and would reward the first correct answer with a free soda. (Where are the highest tides in the world?  Anyone?  Somebody shouted out “The Bay of Fundy”, “Correct”, said the guide, “that’s a free soda for you, my friend”.) My number one son was getting very frustrated that others were ‘winning’ free sodas, and scolded me and my husband for not knowing the answers and letting him know. “You’re welcome” I said, “for the wonderful afternoon we’re having”. Number two son joined in on the pissing and moaning for the remainder. It was a long car ride home for all.

(This is a photo of the steel-hulled Romanian vessel ‘Mircea’, originally built to train the Romanian navy. It’s 328 feet long, and was overhauled in 2002, making it one of the most modern ships in her class)

UPDATED: Don’t plan the BBQ just yet (BREAKING: Zoo animals may be euthanized, cooked to feed the homeless)

UPDATED:  Massachusetts legislators are going to ‘try and reinstate’ the zoo’s funding to stem the public uproar over this story.  They’ve been pressured into action by their own means (which usually means threatening the public with the ‘what about the children’ argument), using the ‘what about the cute fuzzy animals’ argument.  We’ll see if they actually come through on this one.

 

Boston – The Franklin Park Zoo, in the throes of intense budget shortfalls after Governor Patrick cut funding by over 60%, has announced that it may have to euthanize some animals (mostly the cutest furry ones) to contain costs. They assure taxpayers that they will hold massive bar-b-ques open to the public to feed the euthanized animals to those who need it most. The Governor has shot back at Zoo New England (which owns and operates both the Franklin Park and Stone Zoos), saying these are unfair, incendiary threats.  Zoo officials could not be reached for comment at this time.

Tall Ships in Boston – The Eagle

 

This is the Eagle, at the Charlestown Navy Yard.  The Eagle was originally a German training vessel for the German Navy in World War II (under the name Horst Wessel), but was taken as a war prize in 1946 (by us), and commissioned the ‘Eagle’. It is the only active sailing vessel in U.S. military service.

Tall Ships in Boston – and it wasn’t raining!

On an unusually sunny Saturday, we took the kids into Boston to see the Tall Ships; we took a boat from the Cambridgeside Galleria into the harbor.  Here’s the Russian vessel Kruzenshtern (second largest ship in the world), docked at the World Trade Center.

Slow news day? Boston’s top headline is…

..,‘Rottweiler puppy eats 8 golf balls’ - and subsequently throws up three of them. Why is local news so pathetic?

Condom sales rise in 4th Quarter

The Nielsen Company reported today that sales of condoms in the United States actually rose in the fourth quarter of last year by 5%, while January sales alone rose 6%.  DUH – Americans are getting screwed now more than ever, so they’re taking precautions. The government should tax them; they seem to be popular!

In Boston, however, consumers are irate that condoms are now locked up behind CVS pharmacy counters in largely minority neighborhoods, charging racist motivation for the change.  We want our condoms in Boston, but we don’t want it to be like wicked embarrassing and have to actually ask for them.  CVS reports that only stores that have high theft rates of condoms have made the change.  To be fair, practically everything you could want from an urban CVS is behind the counter these days, so it doesn’t seem unfair to have to say to the clerk, “Uh, I need a bar of Dove soap, the two-pack of Oral-B toothbrushes, the red ones, a pack of Mach 3 razor blades, a stick of Edge deodorant, and oh – throw in a pack of  Trojans, would ya?”

Reminds me of this episode of the Simpsons:

SCANDAL

Catholic symbols and art at private, Catholic college. ACLU to investigate.