Little Brother is Watching You

Boston's local Fox station relayed the story of a Billboard that is located between a Fenway Park parking garage and the Mass. Pike that has a picture of the eyes of George Bush with the line "Little Brother is Watching You and a link to a website that questions the legality of the Bush Administration's domestic wiretapping program. It also provides a link to a website, littlebrotheris watching.com, where you can take an online poll and buy a tee shirt. But the irony is, the Massachusetts State Government, a Republican Administration wants it taken down, on the grounds it is 'too close' to another billboard. The owner of the billboard takes the view that he is just encouraging debate, but is this a case of censorship? Read the Boston Globe article here.

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So, Tom Delay resigns and moves to Virginia, ay? On one level, it is a good move, because it deprives the Dems of a slow moving target, but if he is as innocent as he claims to be, then why not do the Texas thing and stay and fight, like at the Alamo? Texas might still be a part of Mexico if Delay would have been around then. And what's with moving to Virginia? And why Virginia? Is he trying to avoid being extridited to Texas? And is he moving to Virginia to become the next Super Lobbyist like Jack Abramoff, with whom he is so familiar? Hmmm.

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A few weeks ago, Bruce and I toured Cape Ann and Gloucester. It was a rainy Sunday and the tourists have not yet arrived, but we did find one deep sea diving museum that was open. Small, but there was a variety of different kinds of scuba gear from various historical periods and one of the little fishing houses from the movie "The Perfect Storm" is on display nearby. Speaking of which, Bruce has a Blizzard of 78 website which has attracted many visitors, including the Weather Channel who wants him to work with them on a Blizzard of 78 and 'Perfect Storm' project. I will post the link in the link section to the right.

We also drove by the Gorton's Seafood Plant as well as the original Gloucester Fishermen Monument, which lists the names of all the fishermen who have died at sea since 1770. Interestingly, there were no drownings in 1776. That sounds like a fun project, along the likes of the Comstock Lode and Mining in Virginia City, Nevada.

There is still a lure of the sea in New England - where there was the Gloucester Fisherman and the Whalers of New Bedford and Nantucket. In fact, there is a 'mariner' middle school being planned for my home town. Students will learn history, science and 'practical' math applications based on mariner and shipbuilding and sailing as a guide. I wish a school like that would have been around when I was a kid.

On the way back, as we headed back further south, as Bruce was taking me home, we took the 'scenic' route, we decided to check out Dighton Rock, the spot where Portuguese Navigators allegedly reached American Shores some 40 years before Columbus, which, if true, would throw everything you've learned in grammer school out of whack, but hey, did the Vikings visit Newfoundland in 1000 AD?

The Rock was closed for the day (its a State Park) but we went on a hunt for historic graveyards, which, in Dighton, there are several. In fact, we found only one 'large, public' cemetaties, the Fox Cemetary, but many of the graveyards are tiny family cemetaries that you don't see in larger cities. Perhaps there were many in large cities but they probably got dug up and re-interred in larger public cemetaries. We found several of these gravesites, which included the Gooding Family Burial Grounds and some other familes. Some graves went back to the 1780s. Bruce took several hundred pictures as well as some stone Churches and other monuments. I suggested another project: "Etched In Stone: A Collection of Stone Graveyards, Churches and Monuments of Eastern Massachusetts". Bruce thought that would be a good idea, so you never know..

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Last week, I transplanted my cacti seedlings that were sprouted on January 21. I had about 43 sprouts originally, but so far only 10 have survived. Not sure why. I am not sure, if I removed the covering to early or what, but some of the members of the Cacti and Succulent Forum say that cacti sprouts at that stage are just mini water balloons that if they lose their moisture, they just shrivel up and didintegrate. I have always love cacti and I have at least one that still has its first leaves as well as a green 'trunk' and spines and is about 1/2 tall. I will begin feeding next week, as they are now coming out of dormancy. Next month, they go outside. I am looking into the possibility of pushing 'Scorched Pig Cacti Seeds' for sale at Pemi.

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The numbers for March. We hit 1,000 hits on March 14! The most prolific readers were from MN, NY and Washington and Texas.

The roll of states: CA (Pomona and Sunnyvale), CT, CO, DC, FL, IN, LA,MA (several) MI,MN,MO,NC,NM,NV (Genoa, the oldest established town in the state) NY,RI, TX and WA.

Foreign: Armenia, Latvia, Morocco and several friends from the UK. Welcome All.