Guarino-Blog

Media Blame Game and the Whitey Tipster

2011-10-12T11:52:00.000-05:00

The drama involving the Icelandic tipster that helped theFBI finally land killer mobster James “Whitey” Bulger is one of thoseonce-in-a-generation confluences of craziness. Naturally, the media had a fieldday.

But hopefully today marks the end of The Boston Herald’s jihad against the rival Boston Globe for outing the tipster that nailed Whitey and pocketed$2 million.

Like many, when I read the Globe expose Sunday, Iwondered if they should have outed the tipster. Even as a Herald alum who loves my former paper, I worried one of Whitey’s pals –and he surely has some left – might scare her, stalk her or worse. I worriedthe media would have a field day chasing her down.

But some proper Globe explanation and the Herald’s overreachin its coverage has tempered my fears.

First off, it’s obvious to note that the Herald’s outragewas likely fueled by simply being beat. Ask any honest editor or reporter if they would haveprinted it and the immediate answer would be, “Hell, yes.” Of course they would.And the Globe was absolutely right to do print it – in almost the waythey did.

That is not to say the woman deserved to be outed. Shedidn’t. It’s a shame she was. “America’s Most Wanted” vet John Walsh, who knowssomething about tipsters and their impact on violent crime, is right thatanonymous tipsters should have a right to privacy.

But the mistake wasn’t the Globe’s or the media’s.

Within hours of Whitey’s arrest, word leaked from lawenforcement sources that the tipster came from Iceland. The minute any goodjournalist knew the tipster was a person from Iceland (a land of just 318,000 –who knew?) who had spent time in Santa Monica, it was only a matter of timebefore the Globe’s intrepid lead Whitey reporter, Shelly Murphy, tracked thewoman down.

So the outrage should be pointed at the leaking feds,first and foremost.

In fairness, the Globe should have done a better job attelling the story behind the story before the controversy hit. It’s fair to saythat, once Whitey (and most of the woman’s neighbors and friends) learned thetipster was from Iceland, he figured out exactly who it was. And it isimportant that the feds didn’t warn off the Globe when they were told of thepaper’s plans.

Could they have made more effort to speak to the tipster?Possibly. The tipster was clearly blowing off the reporter in Iceland – twice –so she couldn’t have reasonably done more. But if, as it seems, the Globe hadher email address, why not send her an email or letter from Globe editor MartyBaron? Would that have worked in getting her to speak? Probably not. But itwould have shown the Globe went far beyond reasonable means to track her down,give her a chance to speak and warn her that the story was coming.

As Dan Kennedy and others noted, the Globe should haveexplained their rationale as the story was published – either in the paperedition Sunday or online. The New YorkTimes and other media are doing a great job of authoring compelling ‘storybehind the story’ pieces online and as subscriber-only content. Sure, they aremostly for news geeks like me and my kind but they help set a historical recordof historic pieces of journalism – and follow the wise PR strategy of gettingout ahead of your critics.

Lessons learned on all sides. It won’t help the poorwoman in Iceland fending off TMZ and nosy neighbors (and hopefully not worse).But don’t blame the Globe for good journalism.

Scott Brown's Revealing "Thank God" Non-Gaffe

2011-10-07T08:52:00.000-05:00

We all know that a gaffe in politics is when a politiciangets caught telling the truth. But the gaffes that stick are when candidatesfor high office do or say something that fulfills a notion that the mediacovering them desperately want to expose as a character flaw.

The best example in my time covering politics was the infamousHoward Dean scream the night he won the Iowa primary. I had covered the VermontGovernor’s rise from obscurity to frontrunner and, like many, had sensed thequirks in his personality. So when Dean appeared to become unhinged on stage,the media (my paper included) played it up – big time.

This has happened in politics countless times (Muskie’stears, Michael Dukakis’ frigid answer to Bernie Shaw's rape question). So now it appears to be ScottBrown’s turn.

Fair or not, many in the media – and public – have seenBrown as a genuine good guy who is simply in way over his head. They believethe populace was charmed more by his barn coat, rugged looks and pickup than byhis positions, stances and intellect.

Brown gifted to that crowd the “Thank God” momentyesterday, responding to Democratic front-runner Elizabeth Warren’s joke thatshe didn’t have to pose naked for Cosmo to help pay for her college education. Thecritics have pounced and blamed this as proof of Brown’s “frat house humor.”The media played happily along – in part because it’s just plain fun andpolitics is personality – but also because it drives home a part of Brown’spersonality they have wanted to showcase.

Surely the Brown Brigades will cry media bias and try toutilize the clever but not-so-convincing spin that this somehow showcases elitismby Warren, the Harvard Law professor. That, for now, appears to be anoverreach. Of course, it could lay the groundwork for a time when Warren doesslip – and the media can turn the tables on her the same way.

For now, keep in mind another so-far ignored political tidbitin all this: Brown’s gaffe – intended or not – may just appeal to one keydemographic in this election. Call them the former frat boys, NASCAR Dad’s, theMan Cave set or whatever you’d like but men of a certain persuasion, certainage and certain ideological bent were key to Brown’s tide of independentvote-getting in toppling Attorney General Martha Coakley. It was no accidentBrown spent more time on sports talk radio than NPR – and it wasn’t justbecause they lobbed softball questions.

Is that proof the critics of Brown’s comment are right?Possibly. But is Brown crazy like a fox? The jury’s still out.

For now, I’m calling this gaffe what it seems to be –something that cuts both ways for Warren, Brown and the media.

Get in the Race – Or Get Out

2011-10-05T10:58:00.000-05:00

Thereare key moments in the delicate rhythm of any political campaign - predictablemoments like debates, big speeches, fundraising deadlines and even some polls.Those moments must be seized, harnessed and, with a bit of luck and skill,capitalized upon.

Thatis why the performances of the non-Elizabeth Warren Democratic candidates forU.S. Senate in Massachusetts in last night’s Boston Herald-UMass Lowell debatewere so befuddling. Waking up today and seeing the Herald splash of “Bravo” to theHarvard Law professor and the Globe saying frontrunner Warren “stood firm,”must have been heartbreaking for the other five candidates remaining in theprimary field.

Butwhile they’re all surely blaming the media for ignoring their fine moments –and, truth be told, there were a few – they truly only have themselves toblame.

Thisapplies more to candidates who actually have a shot, namely Alan Khazei and, toa lesser extent, Bob Massie and Tom Conroy. The moment passed and you let itpass. It’s time to get in the race or get out.

Let’sface it: the media likes a simple storyline. They are spread far too thin thesedays to be able to care about much more. Warren v. Brown is easy – it’sDemocrat v. Republican, liberal v. conservative, Obama ally v. Obama critic,even man v. woman.

Verysimply, one of these candidates is going to have to stand in front of the freighttrain that is becoming the Warren campaign or she will roll right into thegeneral election matchup with Senator Scott Brown that she and her handlers sowant.

Doesthis mean that they need to go negative? Of course not, though the time maycome for that if they are within striking distance. The goal now is to stayafloat, to stay viable and to stay competitive at least into 2012.

How?Draw out differences and shatter the inevitability cloak surrounding Warren.

CityYear co-founder Khazei and former lieutenant governor candidate Massie probablyhave the best odds there. Khazei and Warren clearly disagree on President Obama’sjobs bill. Khazei let the moment pass last night but he ought to be out theretoday drawing that distinction, making the case for his plan over hers andtaking the fight to Warren as best he can.

Massie,like Khazei, has rejected political action committee donations – which Warren,to date, has not. Either or both candidates should be trying to widen that gulfand showcase Warren as the creature of the Democratic special interests whilethey represent the voice of the grassroots.

Arethese issues enough to topple Goliath? Surely not. But they will allow at leasttwo of the Davids to fight another day.

Withfundraising reports for the latest quarter out soon, expectations are thatWarren may well blow away her competitors in that key media measuring stick. Newton Mayor Setti Warren’s hasty retreat will only act like chum in the water for a mediaonly too eager to write a few more political obituaries.

It’sup to the challengers now. They missed the first big moment last night, totheir detriment and Warren’s clear gain. There aren’t many more moments likethat left before they become afterthoughts and also-rans.

It's 9/11 and I remember

2009-09-11T08:33:00.002-05:00

I published this two years ago today, can't say it any better now.

It's 9/11 and I remember.

It’s 9/11 and, more than anything, I remember two friends – Dennis Mulligan and Mike Lynch.

Dennis and Mike were two firefighters among the 343 who died this day six years ago.

They were two among the 2,974 who died as a result of the attacks. They were two friends.

It feels strange now to call them friends, especially when so many knew them so much more than I did and since they’ve been profiled on CNN, in the New York Times and beyond. I Googled them one year on the anniversary and some random guy with a blog carries around a scrap of paper with Dennis Mulligan’s name on it. He never knew him, never met him. But Dennis personifies the brave firefighters and cops who ran into the buildings when everyone else was running out. Pretty amazing.

But to me, Dennis and Mike were pals, guys I played soccer with in high school, had a few too many beers with beyond and who I saw too infrequently – like so many others – once I moved to Boston and left the Bronx behind.

Dennis was 32 that day, assigned to Ladder 2. He had the day off but he jumped on the ladder truck anyway. Mike Lynch was 30 that day, assigned to a rotation on Engine 40. He was due to marry his longtime girlfriend two months later.

So many of my friends are cops and firefighters in New York that I had a nagging feeling one or more of them might have died on 9/11. It took a few days for me to get word about Mike and Dennis. And I’ve thought of them and their families many, many days since.

Today is their day. It’s a cliché but, as so often, clichés are clichés because they are truisms repeated too many times. 9/11 is about remembering them and the thousands of others like them.

It’s 9/11 and I remember.

History ... now and 146 years ago

2008-11-04T16:48:00.004-05:00

One hundred and forty-six years ago, a son of Auburn, New York, sat in the White House as Abraham Lincoln shared for the first time his draft of the Emancipation Proclamation.

William Seward, a former Senator and opponent of Lincoln’s for the presidency two years before, wasn’t entirely sure of the bold action Lincoln was about to take – even though Seward was a strong abolitionist and helped Harriet Tubman settle in Auburn near his home. Still, the minute it was done and Lincoln freed the slaves, Seward – who, with Tubman, is the most honored resident of Auburn to this day – heartily defended his president and the decision that would echo through the ages.

Some of my ancestors were in Auburn at the time, likely toiling in the factories that have since peeled away most of their jobs – recent immigrants from Italy, Germany, and Ireland. Lord knows how they felt then.

But I know today, when I turned this morning to my 2-year-old son and told him we were voting for Obama and he smiled and yelled, “O-VAHma!”

Tonight, not three generations later, there’s a darn good chance we’ll be electing our first black President of the United States.

What a difference three generations makes.

We’ve lived through two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam and both Iraqs. My grandparents did the Great Depression, my parents ushered in the Baby Boom. We’ve helped elect a Catholic but couldn’t quite get a Cuomo. We went from high school grads with blue collars to expecting grad school or beyond.

But today, today is one of those moments where the plates shift, the earth moves and something truly historic happens.

I am proud of my roots in Auburn and the act that William Seward helped write and usher in. I can’t imagine whether he would have imagined today coming – even these long, 146 years later. When I started voting just 20 years ago, I know I couldn’t have imagined it.

Admittedly, I was a Hillary guy in the primary and a McCain guy in 2000. I was slow to drink the Kool-Aid on this guy for reasons of experience, not heritage or race. But I saw McCain run like Bush Lite and Obama take the economic crisis and become a true leader. I had no misgivings casting my ballot and thought not a bit about race.

But now, in the quiet before the polls close and history may become real, it’s a good time to reflect on that 146 year journey from owned property to, very likely, leader of the free world. Far too long for most and far too painful a journey to be sure.

As has been quoted a lot lately, “Rosa sat so Martin could walk, Martin walked so Obama could run, Obama ran so our children can fly.”

I saw it in the eyes of Jake this morning – he didn’t care a bit that we were making history. But he was psyched to be a part of it.

And so am I.

Here's Why You Buy the Paper

2008-08-10T18:22:00.003-05:00

I have more than a few co-workers, friends and relatives who have given up on the printed newspaper. How many times have we all heard it, "Why should I buy it when I can get it free online?" This is typically followed by the plea, "And your fingers don't get all inky when you read it online."

Well, the second argument hasn't been valid for the better part of a decade, since newsprint and printing presses improved.

The first one? Some days it is hard to argue with. I realize I'm old school and like to actually flip through the real thing. I like to see the story placement, the front page mix, the layout, the design. I know too that you miss the graphics quite often online and much more.

I do still read online sometimes. Even I admit, it's often easier for the lazyman in me. This morning, I was dog tired and the kids got up too early so while they lounged with a half hour of morning cartoons, it just seemed easier for me to pop open the computer than wander onto the porch to see if the papers had arrived.

Today I went Globe first and scanned the headlines for anything I had to care about, then went on to things I just cared about. Never in the mix was a story simply listed under local news under the header "A healing touch."

Why would it be? It just smelled to me like a sappy feature about a nurse or a doctor or a professional healer. Either way, I'd probably seen it before, I figured, and moved on to reading about John Edwards and paternity tests.

A half-day later, when I hit the mid-afternoon lull of quiet around here, Heidi tossed the Globe Metro section my way and said, "You have to read that." As soon as I saw the front page of the section, I knew I would have even if she hadn't drawn my attention to it. The picture with the story was killer - an elderly man curled up in a hospital bed next to an elderly woman. It drew me right in, along with the story's sub-headline, "Auburndale man uses hugs, kisses to cope, help bring his wife back from the grip of Alzheimer's."

Those two minor things separated a story I was happy to read from one I was happy to skip.

Sure, all of this met me just now when I clicked on the link on the Globe website. But I never got there from the simple header in the morning. The difference between figuring out you want to read "A healing touch" on the main page here and reading this story on its own page here is stunning.

Can this be fixed? Of course. The Globe and other papers have done a lot to try to replicate the in your hands experience online. The local news tab of the Globe offers another avenue for web layout to showcase good stories and good photos. Unfortunately, today's local news page features a photo from the Vineyard story from Metro front - not a bad story, but not the showcase feature as the true news editors who lay out the print edition intended.

The Globe is good at putting a PDF of the front page on its opening page so you can see how the paper looked. That's great. But why not do it for Metro front, Arts, Sports, etc.? I think the Herald completely dropped this feature from its page, which is a shame because some days the Herald page one is a work of art - to wit this week's "Vote for Change" splash about the nickle and dime stealing pol running for reelection.

There was a period when papers tried to reproduce every page online so you could digitally flip through the paper. I always thought that was a good idea, but I guess it didn't really catch on. A quick search tonight didn't find the links to that kind of feature at the major local dailies or the Times. Correct me if I'm wrong, please.

So if you didn't read the story about the Alzheimer's husband, take a minute, click the link above and read it. And, next time, go out and buy the damn thing, will ya?

Billy Joel’s New Heir

2008-08-06T08:14:00.003-05:00

I always felt like Billy Joel epitomized that great crooner oddity – that all the ladies, and I mean all of them, love guys who sing. Walking down the street, Billy the Kid wouldn’t get a second glance from women, let alone good looking women … let alone Christie Brinkley.

But the guy sings how she’s got a way, belts out that she ought not go changing to try to please him or how the boys will all go down together and suddenly hot chicks get weak-kneed. This is all well-worn territory and Billy certainly has his company (I’m talking to you Mssrs. Springsteen, Jagger, Bowie and Bono). But Billy always stood out most to me as the best example.

But there is a new heir: Chris Martin of Coldplay.

This guy is all Brit, through and through. He’s got the accent, the lanky frame, the moody affect. But there he is, married to Gwyneth with a kid named Apple and all the ladies – all the ladies – loving him.

I saw Coldplay Monday night and there were honestly moments of screeching young ladies where I felt like I was in Shea Stadium with the lads from Liverpool 43 Augusts ago instead of the Garden with the newest British import. They were absolutely swooning. And one of my good friends, with no prompting whatsoever, leaned over to me about three songs into the show and said, “You know, I think I can see why everyone thinks he’s good looking.” She certainly wasn’t alone.

I thought, “Right, that white afro and five-day growth really does it for the ladies these days.”

But I watched, and I learned. Give the man his due, he is quite a performer, a great singer and very engaging. And I will give full credit that Chris Martin knows he’s ugly, he even went on a riff at the show when they played an acoustic number in the crowd, saying, in effect, we aren’t as pretty up close are we?

Do I have a man crush? No. Maybe on Bruce and Bono but I draw the line when the guys get downright homely, sorry.

I am just jealous? Well, other than the fact that I love my wife and wouldn’t trade her for Gwyneth, Christy or anyone else, you betcha.

But that’s not the point. The point is, well, wait, what was the point? The point is, I see through you Chris Martin, I know your game. I’m on to you. And I’m just glad Heidi couldn’t make it to the show Monday. You can have all the rest of them.

Soundtrack Blashphemy

2008-08-04T07:51:00.003-05:00

Now, I'm not exactly a child of the 60s - though I suppose I was conceived then, but that's a story I don't even want to know. Still, there are some 80s-60s movies that are somewhat sacrosanct to me - "Platoon" being one, "The Big Chill" being another.

I think I liked The Big Chill for the college friendships, the great lines ("I'm going to wash my hair and puke." "Puke first").

But it was also the music. My dad got the soundtrack and it turned me on to Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Otis and even the great one-hitters of the day, Procol Harem. But there was one scene in the film and one song I loved that didn't make it on - I always figured the Stones felt they were too good for it - that was "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Great song, perfectly used in the movie.

"And now," the priest says at the funeral of Alex (bonus point, who played the dead Alex?) "Karen Bowan, an old college friend of Alex's will play one of Alex's favorite songs." She strides to the organ and blasts out the chorus - much to the amusement of friends in the audience. But the film moves it right into the acoustic opening and on into the song. Perfect for the scene. Etched into my memory to this day.

So you can imagine my horror last night when I saw the attempt to have it used, ridiculously, to the same effect in "21." All in all, an average movie, the book, "Bringing Down the House," was great. But just as the movie made-up storyline of Harvard Med comes to pass, in comes that same acoustic guitar.

Now I don't blame the Stones, they can use the money, I'm sure. I blame the director. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but this is Hollywood theft and, to me, soundtrack blasphemy. Sure, the Stones sold out to car ads years ago and the song even ended up in the show 'House' at one point. But a movie, with the same acoustic opening at a key part in the plot, shamefully non-inspired.

Hey, you might say, Procol Harem was used in "The Commitments" and "The Big Chill," same song, "A Whiter Shade of Pale." But in truth, I don't even remember what scene it was used in during "The Big Chill," but I do in "The Commitments" - so what's that tell you? And "The Commitments" used it in an inspired scene (can't beat a priest joking about vestal virgins leaving for the coast).

So there you have it, a good reason to blow off "21" - that and, well, it isn't nearly as good as the book.

As you were.

4th of July, Asbury Park

2008-07-02T18:13:00.003-05:00

Two days from now, DJs around the states will cue up a lot of trashy Independence Day songs. One you will be lucky to stumble upon is the one I always love to hear driving around in the summer - the 4th and beyond - with the window down ... "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)."

It's just got that feel, the boardwalk, the sights and sounds. And it's got the characters, led front and center by Madam Marie, the fortune teller I didn't know was real until I saw her myself my first trip down to Asbury. I figured, like most, I'm sure, that she was as made up as Sandy was, a device or a fake name for the real fortune teller who might dare to tell fortunes better than the cops do.

Anyway, it's a great song and a great image.

Thanks to my good buddy Tronz, I learned that Madam Marie died the other day, 94 years old. The Asbury Park Press had a great little obit. Even better, I found the last interview she did, also in the Press. In that interview a couple years ago, she talks about a punk kid named Springsteen who used to come by and, as the story goes, she predicted would become famous one day. It's a great read ... and a good reason we should invest in local newspapers (imagine a blogger trying to get an interview with a 90-year-old Jersey lady who'd been telling fortunes on the boardwalk since the 1930s?).

Anyway, Marie is gone. The boardwalk probably too, maybe even Asbury Park. But the song will live and the tales will probably get taller as time passes. But that's what's great about music and storytellers like Springsteen, the legends are sometimes better than the real thing.

Speaking of which, I wandered by Marie a couple times the two days I spent down the Asbury Park boardwalk. I never went in though. First, fortune tellers really creep me out. But more importantly, I think I knew the legend would be better than the real thing.

Here's to Marie, to Sandy, to Bruce and the song.

Happy 4th.

UPDATE: Bruce posted on his own blog, check it out here. Among other things, he says "She always told me (my future) looked pretty good - she was right." Indeed.

It's 9/11, and I remember

2007-09-11T08:02:00.000-05:00

It’s 9/11 and, more than anything, I remember two friends – Dennis Mulligan and Mike Lynch.

Dennis and Mike were two firefighters among the 343 who died this day six years ago.
They were two among the 2,974 who died as a result of the attacks. They were two friends.

It feels strange now to call them friends, especially when so many knew them so much more than I did and since they’ve been profiled on CNN, in the New York Times and beyond. I Googled them one year on the anniversary and some random guy with a blog carries around a scrap of paper with Dennis Mulligan’s name on it. He never knew him, never met him. But Dennis personifies the brave firefighters and cops who ran into the buildings when everyone else was running out. Pretty amazing.

But to me, Dennis and Mike were pals, guys I played soccer with in high school, had a few too many beers with beyond and who I saw too infrequently – like so many others – once I moved to Boston and left the Bronx behind.

Dennis was 32 that day, assigned to Ladder 2. He had the day off but he jumped on the ladder truck anyway. Mike Lynch was 30 that day, assigned to a rotation on Engine 40. He was due to marry his longtime girlfriend two months later.

So many of my friends are cops and firefighters in New York that I had a nagging feeling one or more of them might have died on 9/11. It took a few days for me to get word about Mike and Dennis. And I’ve thought of them and their families many, many days since.

Today is their day. It’s a cliché but, as so often, clichés are clichés because they are truisms repeated too many times. 9/11 is about remembering them and the thousands of others like them.

It’s 9/11 and I remember.

Good luck, Sully

2007-09-10T19:05:00.000-05:00

Good luck.

It was always what I remember Paul Sullivan saying at the end of a conversation - light or heavy or in between: “Good luck.”

It’s what he said after we first met him for what I later figured out was a job interview back in 1998. It’s what he said when he finally hired me. It’s what he said when he offered up any of thousands of news tips when he was political editor and I was State House Bureau Chief of The Sun (“Lowell’s great newspaper, 15 Kearney Square.”)

It always seemed a strange way to end a conversation. Luck? How much of this dance we call life is really about luck, anyway? But for Paul Sullivan, you had to believe in luck.

He would hide behind luck as one of his many masks. It wasn’t hard work and good reporting that got him this great news tip, it was luck. It couldn’t have been hard work and performance that landed him his dream job at WBZ radio, it was luck. It couldn’t have been his magnetic personality, quick wit or charm that gave him a great family and friends, it was luck.

I always liked to be in the room when someone “important” met Sully for the first time. It was kind of a blast watching them try to figure this guy out. He wasn’t your typical pol and he wasn’t your typical media blowhard. As he said in a clip I heard replayed today, when he hit, he tried to hit with a pillow, not a nail. That’s rare, in media and in politics.

I met Paul Cellucci with him, met John McCain with him, even George W. Bush with Sully. All were immediately wooed by Paul’s sense of Everyman. They felt like they had an ally in Paul, even if they didn’t (and would soon learn in print). For Sully, sort of like luck, charm usually won out.

We shared many meals, typically breakfast up in Lowell or on the campaign trail in New Hampshire. Sometimes dinner, once even with wives – of course, the wives loved him more than even we did (he and Heidi had some bizarre connection over Three Stooges episodes).

As when anyone dies who you know and love, I’ve been thinking a lot these past few days of the last time I saw Paul Sullivan. It was in July, on Charles Street in Boston. He had a scar from the top of his head to his neck and a smile still plastered on his face. He was full of cheer, eager to hear what was up at the State House and in Massachusetts politics – probably looking for a story.

He told me what he told everyone. He was doing great, he had the easy part compared to doctors and family. He said it wasn’t fatal but couldn’t be cured. I think he, and we, all knew better. But this was Sully, after all, anything was possible. And he was lucky.

“Good luck,” he said, walking down Charles Street toward MGH as I walked up toward the State House.

Sully, it was good knowing you and I’m lucky to have had the friendship, the mentorship and, more than anything, the laughs.

You are on your own path now, entertaining those in the great beyond and, finally, feeling no more pain. Thank God for that.

Those of us whose lives you touched are thankful, and will eternally be thankful. I’m certain I speak for his friends, family, listeners and admirers when I say, good luck, Paul Sullivan.

Good luck.

My Day with The Left-Turn Loonies

2007-06-08T17:58:00.000-05:00

At the risk of flooding Guarino-Blog with a wave of hate mail and some Patricia Cornwall-esque cyber stalking, I need to say this: I have now been to my first, and last Nascar event.

I think my brother-in-law said it best walking out of the Charlotte speedway, “That was a once in a lifetime experience – truly.”

This is not to say we didn’t have fun, it was a hoot. It was a slice of Americana that I’d always been vaguely fascinated and perplexed about but always wanted to see. I saw it. I’m done.

The experience started before race day. We flew to Charlotte on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend for a visit with the wife’s sister, who moved there two years ago. Charlotte , by the way, is a beautiful place and I truly can see why so many northerners are moving there (that’s a post for another time, though).

So we left the kids with their grandparents for the night and headed out to what was, no surprise, called “Speed Street” – an all-night street fair in downtown … no, wait, Uptown Charlotte. Cheap Trick was playing at one end, some country band at the other and in between was a mass of drunk southerners downing Buds and eating massive turkey legs … literally just holding on to the bone. Good times.

I downed a few beers myself and must say I truly enjoyed the fried Twinkie and fried Three Musketeers the wife and I shared. It was like nothing you’d see up here, and that’s a shame. Once you got past the shock of it, it was a rousing good time.

Race day had us tailgating by like 1 in the afternoon, which wasn’t early enough for me or my brother-in-law but we made up for lost time by enjoying some tasty beers and truly fantastic grilling by Jeff and his buddy Josh. It was so hot that me and Josh’s wife, Jodi, and their friend, Maura, huddled under the one sun umbrella and finally broke out their actual rain umbrellas to use as parasols. Yes, there’s a picture out there somewhere of me with the umbrella parasol and a beer in my hand. Truly, that’s as un-Nascar moment as they come.

The race started at 5:30 I think but we got in early enough to find our seats in the massive stadium (170,000, I was told). We of course were right smack in the sun so I grabbed massive lemonade and settled in. There was a military tribute – complete with fighter jets and attack helicopters that were damn cool. LeAnn Rimes performed the national anthem and the entire cast of the Fantastic Four was there (yes, I saw Jessica Alba but Michael Chiklis wasn’t dressed as The Thing).

Then it was time for “Gentlemen, start your engines.”

The race was cool, at first. The cars went flying by and were so loud I actually did pop in the earplugs Jeff had brought. But while the pole allowed you to know which numbered car was in which place, once the lead cars lapped the losers in the back, the race was pretty much impossible to follow without a TV in front of you (which, yes, some people had).

The thing that convinced me not to go back, though, was the crowd – pretty much everything you’d imagine and worse. The women behind us – yes, women – had brought in about 40 plastic containers filled with little jello shots. By the second hour of racing, the guys around us were doing the shots off the women’s chests. And let’s just say that even a single guy there really shouldn’t have been glad to see these "women" in bikinis. I'd compare it to the scene in Return of the Jedi with Lea and Jabba the Hut, but this time Jabba was in the bikini. It burned my eyes.

One of them decided to join the guys behind them in tossing water on the crowd, which felt nice at first and then Jeff rightly remarked, "I hope that isn’t urine," and I suddenly hated it. Thankfully, someone else in the crowd did too and, within minutes, about four different law enforcement/security entities converged and the chicks were gone … one was apparently hauled off in cuffs. That was followed by two batches of guy fighting with their shirts off … nice and sweaty.

At about three hours into the race, we all looked at each other and wondered why they were only half-way through the 400 laps. We stuck around for another 50 or so laps and then called it quits – and we were exhausted.

For me, it’s not so much a cultural thing, it’s an annoyance thing. I’ll admit it, I don’t like to watch Sox/Yankees games from the Fenway bleachers, it was truly not a good experience to sit in the blue seats atop Madison Square Garden for a Rangers game, and I don’t like the crowd at Nascar.

Not to worry Nascar fans, it’s not you, it’s me. I must be crazy not to think un-showered guys with mangy beards and mullets are sexy, that fat women in bikinis truly get the motor running and that six hours of watching cars take left turns is major league excitement.

My bad.

3:30 of rock genius

2007-06-06T19:01:00.000-05:00

So I was driving in to work this morning and, as I often do when extreme measures need to be taken in my life, I turn to raw, loud music for a brief escape. I had the window down along the ocean and up onto my iPod mix came "Porch" by Pearl Jam.

It was 3 minutes, 30 seconds of pure joy ... pure rock genius, really.

If you are a fan of the rock and the roll and don't know Porch, I do recommend checking it out. It is a modern classic, Pearl Jam at their very best. And, unlike many, it's actually the reason I started liking and then loving Pearl Jam.

It was watching MTV's great old show "Unplugged" that did it. I had heard of these guys Pearl Jam, liked "Alive" enough (until I found out what it was about, that is) and saw enough of "Jeremy" on MTV to make me think they might be legit. So, this being the late college days of 1992, I had nothing better to do ... so I tuned in when they played "Unplugged."

Legend has it they taped the show at midnight one night at a studio in Queens. That's cool. Anyway, they put on a great set and Porch was toward the end, as it was then and always should be.

I didn't know the song before so was a bit shocked at the bleep Eddie Vedder got at the first lyric....

"What the fuck is this world, running to ..."

I thought, boy, I could like this song. And it went from there. With each, "oh," as the song built, it just gets better. There is a long instrumental break in the middle and this was the show Eddie, standing on the little stool they'd given him, grabbed a sharpie and decided to write on his arm in huge letters "PRO CHOICE." Cool moment, but nothing for what came after ... the crescendo kicks in,

"Hear my name, take a good look/This could be the day/Hold my hand, lie beside me/I just need to say/I could not take a-just one day/I know when I would not ever touch you/hold you/feel you/in my arms...never again...Yeah...
Yeah...
Yeah...

Great, great rock and roll.

Perhaps surpassed a few short years later. April 10, 1994. They'd found Kurt Cobain's body two days before and this was only the second show Pearl Jam had played since then. They skipped the memorial service to play the show, almost cancelled. And Ed said a couple times he thought they shouldn't play. But they did, and they blew the doors off the old barn.

Again, Porch was the climax ... and Eddie was slamming the microphone stand down so hard at one point (I think it was Porch), that he smashed a hole in stage floor - and then jumped through it to end the song. Wow.

Shame they fell down in subsequent years. If they could have bottled this, I'd still be hooked. Now, it's left to the random song like this that I remember the once-greatness. Sad, but still great. Thanks boys.

Oh, and if you want to watch it, here's a couple things you need to see. First is the video of the Unplugged set. I can't find just Porch, but this is the whole show. And then this is a great live video of Porch that shows Eddie at his best at the famed Pink Pop festival in 92. Very nice stage diving.

Living Large at Casa Guarino

2007-05-23T19:33:00.000-05:00

So the Guarinos have treated themselves pretty well lately, and, right about now, it feels nice.

Thanks to a sweet offer, we dumped the hard lines and got wifi, allowing me to sit in my overstuffed chair, in the flannel, blogging with my feet on the ottoman. Nice indeed.

The bigger reason for my joy is that Heidi is just a great wife. See, we decided last year to change the nature of our wedding anniversaries a bit - opting to change the gift for him and gift for her stuff to a gift for us. We figured birthdays, xmas, Mother's/Father's Day gave us enough alone gifts - we wanted treats we could both enjoy.

Last year, for anniversary four, we bought a big ole bed. No comments, please. This year, Heidi somehow let me talk her into a 37-inch HD for our fifth anniversary (by the way, it's noted that you didn't send a card, I'm keeping a list).

But, oh the glory of it. Now I sit, on said chair, with said ottoman, blogging on the wifi, watching the Sox/Yanks in HD beauty from The Stadium. I don't even really care that the Sox are losing.

My question is this - what have they been doing wrong all these years with the TVs? I mean, HD just takes things to a level that I, for one, couldn't quite imagine before. Just how cheap and poorly made were those old screens and tubes? The answer is obvious, but still a bit troubling considering how much we all sank into TVs, VCRs, DVDs, etc.

But the past is where it belongs. My future involves some ice cream and the DVR'd two-hour finale of "24" we still haven't watched as soon as the wife finishes up a phone call. Time to ditch the computer. Wifi doesn't come with ice cream cleanup yet.

Yet.

Good times, good times.

Early Ouchies Hurt Too

2007-05-21T18:36:00.000-05:00

All this talk about the early, early presidential campaign has clearly gotten to John McCain.

He must be laughing at the pundits who say the mere fact that the campaign started a year too early meant it would be a bit more tempered, a bit more sedate through these 'tween months leading up to the fireworks late this year in advance of the January primary fiesta. Today, McCain put the hard in hard-chargin'.

This courtesy of ABC's "The Note," now providing an early look at tomorrow's news with a "Sneak Peek" feature.

In a phone conference with conservative bloggers, McCain all but unloaded on former Gov. Mitt Romney. No, strike that, he unloaded. The topic, of all things, immigration ... that long-predicted third rail of the 08 cycle. McCain was asked about Romney's new ads criticizing the immigration reform bill McCain is championing in the Senate, ABC reported.

"Maybe I should wait a couple weeks and see if it changes," McCain said of Romney’s position on immigration. "Maybe he can get out his small varmint gun and drive those Guatemalans off his yard."

Wowchie, that's an ouchie.

Will early ouchies hurt? Yes, yes they will. I think the problem with conventional wisdom on this stuff right now is that people - not all of them, but the ones who vote in primaries - are paying attention. And this kind of critique does a great job not just of cutely reminding folks that Romney is a phoney hunter and that Romney had illegal immigrants mowing his lawn but it does a phenominal job of reinforcing the growing national consensus that Romney is completely full of crap.

So, for those of us who love a little bare-knuckled politics with their heaping portions of policy, I say bring it on.

Spidey's Lemon?

2007-04-18T20:35:00.000-05:00

Ok, file this one under: This is why I’m glad and kinda freaked out by what I get in my Google alerts.

So I’m looking through my guilty-pleasure U2 alert and find a reference to U2 (or Bono and The Edge, anyway) working on a soundtrack for a Spider Man musical in New York .

Check it out, here at something hysterically called superherohype.com.

This could mean one or all of three things.

1. U2 are about to get involved with something totally cool that will only expand their base.

2. U2 are about to get involved with something totally lame that will be this year’s version of the “Pop” album and tour (remember the 40-foot lemon?)

3. My wife will be very, very excited.

See, as much as I love U2, Heidi loves Spidey. She makes me watch every damn trailer that comes on for Spider Man 3 (which, I dare say, looks pretty lame). We own the first two movies (two was far better than one, end of discussion) and apparently she loved the comic book as a kid. How this turned into the woman I love and mother of my children, I don’t know and what she did with the dork who read the comics, I’m not going to ask.

But it’s apparently the real deal for the musical, they’re casting for Peter Parker, MJ and even a “Geek Chorus” starting in July.

The boys in U2 have shown interest in both movies and superheroes in the past – doing “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” for the Batman Forever soundtrack. And they did the Passengers album for a movie that didn’t exist but which spawned the great track, “Miss Sarajevo.”

And, way back in 1986, Edge did the soundtrack for a putrid little movie called “Heroine” – the title song marking the premiere of a beautiful young Irish singer named Sinead O’Connor.

Could this be U2’s “Tommy”?

One can only dream. But, I admit it, I’m starting to hear distant refrains of “lemmmmmon” and I’m scared.

Governor Seatbelt

2007-04-16T17:51:00.000-05:00

My good friend Bruce wrote well about the New Jersey highway experience when he sang about riding through mansions of glory in suicide machines. Of course, that was before the Turnpike, when Highway 9 was the road of choice. But that's besides the point.

The point is, New Jersey's governor almost put the suicide back in the machine the other day.

Maybe it's that I was in Jersey when it happened and in Pennsylvania for the few days afterward but why is this story not bigger news 'round here?

You've got Governor Jon Corzine, a gazillionaire who is already interesting just because he's spent millions to buy a Senate seat and a Governor's mansion. But on Friday, Corzine was being driven by a Jersey Statie on the way to the mansion. He was on his way to help host the oh-so-newsworthy meeting between Don Imus and the Rutgers women's hoop team Imus made the focus of his latest racial tirade.

A pickup cut off one car that knocked into the Gov's SUV, sending it careening into the guardrail. Governor's in critical with no less than half his ribs broken, his sternum cracked, a collarbone broken and his femur - the biggest bone in the body, cracked ... twice. Yeesh.

But the topper here is the Gov wasn't wearing his seatbelt. Why is this such a tantilizing fact? Because Jersey was the second state to require seatbelt use by law (next to my home state, the ever-ahead-of-the-curve New York, I believe) and one of the first to allow coppers to pull you over just for failing to belt up.

For now, the story is rightly about the Gov's health and recovery. Tonight's reports say he's still not out of the woods yet, is still on a ventilator and might need more surgery.

But, already, questions are being asked about why the Gov wasn't belted up. As they should. Corzine's chief of staff joked, sorta, that people don't usually tell the Governor what to do. But what about the state trooper driving his car - isn't it his duty to protect the Governor? Yes, and not just by driving carefully, by making sure he isn't the target of an assassin's bullet or whatever. He's supposed to keep the Govenror safe, even if it means safe from himself. That same chief of staff joked, again sorta, that the trooper perhaps should have ticketed the Governor. Funny, real funny.

The truth is, there probably isn't much a trooper could do if Governor Seatbelt wants to throw his own life away. Same as the morons who don't wear helmets on motorcycles. I usually chalk something like that up to natural selection. And I guess that kind of behavior extends to Governors too. Sad but true.

For Edwards, Cancer = Cash?

2007-04-06T17:46:00.000-05:00

I didn’t think much would make me question the Edwards family these days. I was definitely among those who turned against Katie Couric for her berating of Elizabeth Edwards on “60 Minutes” and of the hyperventilating media that wondered how on earth the candidate could choose to campaign when his wife had cancer. To me, the answer is simple: He and she said so. End of discussion.

But now, I hedge.

The New York Post (I know, I know, but keep reading) has the Edwards camp confirming that they have been collecting email addresses from supporters who have sent Elizabeth get-well notes and using them for fundraising requests.

According to the Post, the link to Edwards’ campaign website invites people to “send a note to Elizabeth and John” and features what The Post calls a “sad letter from the former senator penned just after the couple found out her breast cancer had spread and is now incurable.”

Turns out those people have then been hit up for cash by Team Edwards and, if they provide it, their email is added to the campaign’s online database.

The campaign, contacted by reporters, said they would add an option to allow well-wishers to decline getting future emails.

All together now: Ewwww

The Chinese Zax

2007-04-04T20:23:00.000-05:00

Today in China , the disputes aren’t quite what they were in 1989 in Tiananmen Square – when a student protester boldly stood in front of tanks rushing in to break up anti-government protests.

We all know now, the students won that round. But the images today are no less telling, and inspiring.

Today’s tale is brought to us courtesy of The Washington Post. Wu Ping and Yang Wu live(d) in the outpost of Chongqing , 900 miles outside of Bejing. Ping and Wu owned a small house among 300 in an area that developers wanted torn down to make way for the latest, massive bit of sprawl popping up in that land.

All the other owners sold out and moved. Ping and Wu held out. Eventually, all the other houses were raised. Wu and Ping held out. Their story became the stuff of legend around China , where they stood up to the government and the developers who refused to meet their demands – whatever those were - for three years.

It was shades of my good friends the Zax. Yes, the Dr. Seuss Zax. The north-going Zax ran into the south-going zax out on the Prairie of Prax one way and neither would budge. All around them, society rumbled on. And they kept standing, toe to toe, those Zaxes did, until the highway was built right around them.

But back in China , Ping and Wu caved – or their price was met, we’ll never know. And, under cover of night, the house was bulldozed over and the shopping plaza will now get built.

The picture of the house standing on its own tells the whole story. Was it stubbornness, fairness or just Nimbyism on a grand scale? I’m not sure and I don’t want to know.

But it is impressive – particularly in a place like China – to see the power of one or two people, committed and resolute, is still an immovable force.

Smoking Keith Richards

2007-04-04T18:30:00.000-05:00

Now, it all makes sense.

For years, Keith Richards topped our annual dead pool – he still does. The guy is a walking corpse. Every year, as we toss names out, people nod knowingly when Richards’ name comes up. I mean, look at him:

Given the life he’s lead and, the theory goes, the drugs he’s taken, it’s only a matter of time, right? Wrong. This has been going on for years and the guy keeps on tickin’.

Well now we know why.

In an interview published by NME, a British music magazine roughly equivalent to Rolling Stone here in the states, Richards is quoted as saying:

“The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father. He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared, he didn't give a shit. It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive."

Of course, now that it was published, Richards is saying it was all a joke – that he would never take cocaine now and that he truly planted his father’s ashes with a “sturdy English Oak.”

Riiiight.

The halarious part of this is that Denis Leary called this exact scenario, years ago. Well, ok, sort of.

Back on his funniest comedy album, “No Cure for Cancer,” Leary actually joked about smoking Richards’ ashes for a high after the guitarist had died.

“I was reading an interview with Keith Richards in a magazine and in the interview Keith Richards intimated that kids should not do drugs. Keith Richards! Says that kids should not do drugs! Keith, we can't do any more drugs because you already fucking did them all, alright?There's none left! We have to wait 'till you die and smoke your ashes! Jesus Christ! Talk about the pot and the fuckin' kettle.”

Irony, oh, sweet irony.

President Bush's Spilt Milk Theory

2007-04-03T20:00:00.000-05:00

Thanks, Mr. President, thanks for today's near-admission you’d been wrong … and I stress the word “near.”

But this is George W. Bush. Wrong is wrong and he isn’t wrong. He’s the decider. Deciders can’t be wrong – even when he’s smacked down by the highest court in the land and even when that highest court in the land tilts in his direction. Nope, no wrong here.

The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Bush administration was wrong in not enforcing the key provisions of the Clean Air Act. It was the first true global warming argument brought to the high court and, boy, did it pack a punch.

Bush got dunked by the court and now he’s saying, well, nothing new really. He admits the court’s ruling is “the new law of the land” but doesn’t quite bring himself to admitting the administration had it wrong all along.

He argued that "anything that happens cannot hurt economic growth. I care about the working people of the country but also because in order to solve the greenhouse gas issue over a longer period of time, it's going to require new technologies, which tend to be expensive."

And he continued to push the theory that nothing the US does matters unless China and India get in line on global warming.

Bush said that "whatever we do, it must be in concert with what happens internationally. Because we could pass any number of measures that are now being discussed in the Congress, but unless there is an accord with China, China will produce greenhouse gases that will offset anything we do in a brief period of time.”

To me, this sounds like an argument my 3-year-old might make when he and his buddies are spilling their milk all over the floor. He may look at me and say he won’t stop spilling his milk until the other kids do too. Sure, we have to stop the other kids from spilling milk but, for God’s sake, stop spilling yours first - not just because it'll mean there is less milk on the floor but maybe, just maybe, the other 3-year-olds will stop spilling their milk too.

And how does that jive with the Bush administration's immigration policy, by the way? This is the team that wants to put a fence on the border to cut off the flow of immigrants. Well if it makes sense to turn off the spigot there to stop the flood, why wouldn’t it here, too?

But that brings us back to the 3-year-olds and milk. You can't try to inject logic into a completely illogical mind.

Minute 13 of 15, I hope

2007-04-03T18:47:00.000-05:00

There isn't much out there these days that tops this photo on the weird-o-meter.

Obama is Christ. Perfect message for the holy weeks we are in, perfect.

I can see the bumper-stickers now: "Don't Blame Me, I Prayed For Obama."

Here's hoping this "artist's" 15 minutes are at 13.

The Globe Plot Thickens

2007-04-03T07:39:00.000-05:00

The plot thickens this morning on the Globe's Metro page. Where Brian McGrory's column usually is, there is nothing today. Often, the editors will put notes at the bottom of the page if a columnist is on vacation or just not writing. Today, nothing.

This, of course, only heightens my interst.

Presumably now we will see McGrory's typical Tuesday column tomorrow, in the Wednesday/Sunday slot previously reserved for the now bought-out Eileen McNamara. And then Adrian Walker back in his normal slot Thursday and then what Friday - another no-column day?

Why would the Globe make a change of this seeming magnitude but not tell anybody? It makes some sense to me that they wouldn't announce a new hire or that the post wasn't being filled this early in the process - but why not at least announce that McGrory was switching days and that, during the search, no column will run in McGrory's old Tuesday/Friday slot?

So far, I haven't heard back on my official query to Globe spokesman Al Larkin and my unofficial queries to others at the paper. I'll let you know if that changes. The website page at boston.com that lists the Metro columnist schedules hasn't changed either - still listing McNamara as Sunday/Wednesday, Walker Monday/Thursday, McGrory Tuesday/Friday.

Odd, very odd.

UPDATE: So it turns out part of the mystery wasn’t really a mystery at all – just an undersold announcement. Thanks to a reader, I’ve now seen the italicized note at the end of Brian McGrory’s Sunday column that I clearly missed on Sunday: “Brian McGrory's column will appear on Wednesday and Sunday.” I stand corrected.

A Signal from the Globe?

2007-04-01T17:27:00.000-05:00

From the update department, as usual, readers of Guarino-Blog are paying more attention than Guarino.

"Jason" wrote this afternoon in a post to my McGrory item from the other day - "did we get our answer in today's paper?"

It took me a second but I realized that the Brian McGrory column I'd read not 20 minutes before had, indeed, been in the Sunday paper. McGrory writes on Tuesdays and Fridays - or, at least he did.

So does this answer part of the question, anyway? Is McGrory the new marquee writer, scoring McNamara's treasured Sunday Metro column? The Globe officially hasn't said anything that I've seen and the city's media critics haven't posted anything on their blogs. I'll ask around.

Guess in hindsight, we should have picked this up a day earlier when McNamara wrote (perhaps her Swan Song?) on Saturday - which is usually a day without a Metro column.

Of course, all this could mean nothing. McGrory might have just had an extra column sitting around and offered it up.

Could be I'm the only one in town who cares about these tea leaves. But I don't know why - this is the marquee journalism job in the city and, for my money, the biggest single soap box now available in New England.

We'll be watching. Stay tuned...

McGrory's Latest

2007-03-29T06:28:00.000-05:00

Keeping on the theme of Globe columnists ... Anyone who knows me or has read this blog probably figured out by now that I'm an unapologetic fan of Brian McGrory, the Boston Globe's Metro columnist.

For me, it's as simple as this: He's the only writer in town - from either paper - that I will read start to finish no matter what the subject.

There are several others who come close, "Downtown" columnist Steve Bailey and my former boss Joe Sciacca (when he had his column). But it's McGrory who, I think, truly carries the pulse of Boston. It wasn't always that way. I think he has truly hit his stride in the last two years - wonderfully skewering pols (yes, including ones I have/do work for), telling stories of woe and triumph no one else will and truly covering the city from the columnist's chair.

So it wasn't much of a surprise to me that I picked up his first novel a couple years back, "The Incumbent." It was the story of a grizzled reporter from The Boston Record named Jack Flynn (not much of a cover, I thought, but I read on). And I was glad I did. It was a well-written, compelling story - based mostly in Washington - about a president, a reporter and another grand attempt at the perfect crime. Pick it up, it's good.

I fell off the bandwagon through two books - mostly owing, I guess, to the fact that I hadn't really read any books through the first couple years of my kids' lives since sleeping was a rarity and, when quiet time found me, sleeping was a priority.

A couple weeks ago, I stumpled on "Strangled," his latest, at Borders and figured I'd give it a shot. I just finished it the other day and it was great. It's the same reporter, a little older, a little more grizzled and now in Boston as the "Record's" top dog reporter, who gets drawn into a murder investigation which appears to shade the infamous Boston Strangler case.

Once again, a tight, well-written, compelling story. Mostly, I like the reporter-turned-action hero storyline (what current or former reporter wouldn't?). And I love the writing on Boston. It proves my point about no one knowing our capital city better. The story just has the feel, the sights and even the smells of Boston's diverse neighborhoods.

I'll admit, the writing around Jack Flynn's fellow reporter, Vinny Mongillo, annoyed me. Not just that Mongillo was fat but that McGrory had him eating like a pig in every single scene he was in. When Steven Soderbergh had Brad Pitt eating in every scene of "Ocean's Eleven," it was charming and funny - mostly since Pitt is eye-candy for most of the audience. But the image of a big, fat, sweaty guy eating all the time is pretty distracting.

That flaw aside, "Strangled" is a great read and one I'd highly recommend. Now I've gone on Amazon and, through private used book sellers, picked up the previous two books, "The Nominee" and "Deadline" (for I think $8 total). I'll let you know what I think - though I'm reading the "U2 by U2" coffeetable book and "Bringing Down the House" at the moment.

Oh, and a memo to McGrory - have one of the minions update your website, www.brianmcgrory.com. It's way out of date, doesn't have the new book featured and, unlike the columns or the books, needs some umph.

Who is the Next Globe Marquee Writer?

2007-03-23T18:05:00.000-05:00

The Boston Globe buyouts this week had my world of politics, media and government all abuzz. For the most part, I actually thought it was a non-event. A couple major losses for the Globe are Steve Kurkjian, a true investigative bulldog, and restaurant critic Alison Arnett. I wasn’t surprised to see Eileen McNamara take the buyout but her departure opens up the most serious question for Globe editor Marty Baron.

Will he replace McNamara? If not, what does that mean to Brian McGrory and Adrian Walker? And, if so, does it have to be a woman? And, if so, with woman?

[Another, slightly smaller question than 'who' is 'when'? Do you give the newbie the marquee Sunday/Wednesday slot that McNamara has or switch around McGrory, who currently has Tuesday and Friday, and Walker, who has Monday and Thursday]

I think the answers are pretty easy on a number of fronts. Yes, he should replace her. McGrory and Walker do good work but the Globe needs another face on its Metro page.

And, yes, it has to be a woman.

That may rub some people the wrong way but get over it. This isn’t a woman’s slot, per say. But, in this day and age, for the Globe to have more than one Metro columnist and not have one of them be a woman would be wrong. I don’t think McNamara or even Patricia Smith got their jobs just because they were women but, after Bella English, I think they had to reserve at least one slot for a non-man, it’s just life, it’s just right and it's just about the best way to truly give your paper some diversity.

Now, the question comes, who?

I happen to be of the belief that the job of Metro columnist, arguably the most high-profile at the paper, must be promoted from within.

You can’t draw a good person from out of town for that slot because learning the oddities, quirks and craziness of this small town while in that kind of slot would be just painful.

And I don’t think they should pull somebody from the cross-town Herald, even though I love them all dearly, because there isn’t truly a voice there strong enough to pull it off and bring in new readers (which, remember, is the goal here).

One oddball thought I'd consider if I were Baron is a TV personality, if any of them can truly write, which I suspect some can. Consider the sorry state of newspaper circulation. Not that TV is doing a heck of a lot better at drawing in young news viewers, but news writing needs to change with the times and there's a chance - longshot, I admit - that a TV journalist could do something special with a column. Think Emily Rooney, Maria Stephanos or Lisa Hughes. Again, if they can write well.

I think really you have to look first within the Globe. And, from the reporters/editors I know, there are some pretty good choices. Now I’ll admit bias on some fronts because these are people I have worked with and like. But here are some nominations:

· Carolyn Ryan. A name few outside the business know right now but who currently wields enormous influence at the Globe. I believe her title is now Assistant Managing Editor but she’s basically Metro editor and her hands are in everything of any consequence at the Globe for good reason – she’s very good. She hasn’t had much of a chance to write since she left the Herald but, at the Herald and, before that, at the Patriot Ledger, she was one of the best reporters I’ve seen. Neither of those slots allowed her to do much of the true writing she’d have to do as a columnist but I have no reason to think she couldn’t pull it off credibly. She has impeccable sources, is very well connected around town and, one of the most important aspects of the job, she knows the city and state. It might be seen as a demotion of sorts because she could be editor someday. But I think this might be a chance of a lifetime for her and the Globe.

· Yvonne Abraham. A great writer and reporter. I first ran into her on the Straight Talk Express with Sen. John McCain in the 2000 campaign and, though I was a lowly competitor, she was nice, fun and actually helpful. She is a great source reporter because everyone genuinely likes her. She was good in the State House but, I think, underutilized. Now she’s doing immigration stories and has been breaking news and writing true enterprise pieces on the single biggest topic facing the nation these days. She’s an Aussie with the accent but, at heart, a great Bostonian.

· Beth Healy. A good reporter and writer on the Business desk, she’s now working on the Spotlight team and played a key role in the “Debtors Hell” series that, while I didn’t think it was all that, has at least caught the attention of the Pulitzer committee so that shows what I know.

· Other longer-shots could be: Stephanie Ebbert (great reporter I competed against in City Hall Bureau and would be a new, young face for an ever-changing Boston); Bev Beckham, formerly of the Herald and currently a once-a-weeker for the Sunday regional sections; And Haley Kaufman from the Living page.

Ok, now let the complaints flood in. But if you think I’m way off – tell me, who do you think deserves the job?

Fellas, beer, football and, above all else, friends

2007-03-21T18:37:00.000-05:00

So I took a brief hiatus. Sorry. I’m back. I know you missed me.

Oddly, site traffic didn’t really slow. Maybe less really is more or, as Owen’s good friend Lightning McQueen says, you have to turn left to go right sometimes.

Anyway, the reason for my departure is why I write tonight. See, I should have said this before, but I was away this past weekend participating in the single coolest example of friendship I – or pretty much anyone I know – has ever heard about. I’ll leave out all the details to protect the semi-innocent.

But for one weekend a year, a group of buddies and I get away for a weekend on the Cape. Yes, they are all guys. Yes, we go to the Cape in the dead of winter. And, yes, this has been going on now for 12 years. Yup, a dirty dozen. Fantastic.

It started when me and my roommate at the time were chatting one boring day as fall turned to winter in 1995. We were young, single and bored. We had plenty of places to drink and hang in the summer but wanted a winter getaway – basically, a change of scenery.

So off we went that early winter of 1996. We drank too much, played (gulp) tackle football, played (double gulp) The Century Club and generally just beat ourselves silly. Details, again, are being closely guarded. We didn’t think much of it when we did it the following year, and the year after, and the year after.

Pretty soon, somebody got married, then another, then someone got divorced, then someone else, a baby or two showed up, we bought houses, a few guys lost their dads, someone had to move away for work, etc., etc. We still drink a bit too much, play football (though we’ve downgraded to flag football after two guys broke bones), have moved to 3-Man or play some cards, have a first class meal, pull out the guitars and, of course, do a lot of laughing. This is typically how we learn about major changes in employment, job misery, spousal problems and, as with this weekend, the pending arrival of another child.

Over time, the weekend changed – not so much in substance, but in meaning. We were no longer just looking for a change of scenery for our debauchery. Now this was our weekend to reconnect, to rebond and to let loose the chains of the working stiff for 72-hours of, well, youthful indiscretions (the legal kind, thank you).

So that’s where I was Friday through Sunday. Of course, I was welcomed back with several late nights and long days at work – check the headlines, they’ll do a better job explaining than I will.

Anyway, it’s a fabulous tradition that we are sure to keep up. We’re already making big plans for year 20 (I’m suggesting Vegas, baby). Every year we mention in passing that we should invite a Cape Cod Times reporter along or something and tell people about our little tradition. Every year the wives/girlfriends complain a bit but admit after that they are not-so-secretly jealous of our tradition and our friendships.

Along the way this year, that friend I mentioned who dreamed this all up with me told us to check out this story on CBS the other night.

It’s a bunch of 70-somethings who have been getting together regularly to play cards for 50-odd years. Fifty years. Holy good God. One of them remarked that the cards were irrelevant, they were there for the friendship. They had the marriages, kids, houses. Now they are going through the loss of spouses and one of them has Alzheimer’s. So what do they do? One of them sits out every hand to help Charlie play.

Katie Couric remarked that not many people can claim friendships so long-lasting. She’s right.

Except I know 15 or so guys who, in a few more years, will all be able to say they can claim friendships that long-lasting. And it’s a truly special thing.

Horrible Press Work

2007-03-14T20:47:00.000-05:00

Rule number one in flack school is, first, do no harm in what you say. Number two is some version of this: Stay the hell out of the shot.

I've had my ups and downs with number one in my two years on this side but I sure failed miserably at number two today outside the Governor's Office.

Excuses abound - mainly that I, like the troopers next to me and Transportation Secretary Cohen to my right, really did not have anywhere else to stand since it was a jam-packed press avail. But they are just excuses. I failed and now, I pay the price.

Thank you, Associated Press, thank you.

A Smarter No-Brainer

2007-03-14T20:28:00.000-05:00

Salem, like many, is taking the first tentative steps toward installing cameras in traffic lights to catch scofflaws. Good for them.

Salem City Councilor Jean Pelletier was quoted in The Salem News saying, “This is pretty much a no-brainer.”

Agreed. So-called civil libertarians who think their “rights” are being infringed by government catching them in the act of, ahhh, breaking the law!

It’s illegal, folks. Just because there’s not a cop sitting there watching you do it, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be caught. So that’s the same for speeding? For breaking and entering? Spousal abuse? All is well, beat thy wife, just not when Johnny Law is around. That’s a load of crap.

The one beef I have with the Salem discussion is that they are going to post signs at intersections that feature camera lights. I’m sorry, but doesn’t that defeat the purpose? We all know the rules of the road – or at least should know them. Do we put signs up when there’s a hidden speed trap up ahead? And, carrying forward the above analogy, let’s just put signs in homes – “Just Don’t Beat Your Wife Here But Over in the Next Room is Fine.”

Well, I guess it could be worse – I could live in Swampscott. There, the town rejected the idea of traffic light cameras. Why? Well, it seems the cameras would actually cause more rear-end collisions because drivers would stop abruptly at yellow lights. Sure, maybe a few more rear-ends might happen. But given how many of the much-more-dangerous side-swiping accidents won’t happen, it seems, again, a no-brainer.

Just check out the federal highway stats and success stories – proving my point. At one New York City intersection, accidents were cut down 60 to 70 percent. Not bad.

Like most folks, I wasn’t so militant about this until I had kids. Now, every idiot on the road is a potential killer of my little boys. If a ticket from a camera stops some moron from running a red and slamming into my Jetta while Owen is pointing out the birds in the sky and Jake is quietly trying to scratch his brain through his nose – more power to ‘em.

No brainer.

"The Joshua Tree" - A Masterpiece at 20

2007-03-13T20:21:00.000-05:00

I remember it now like it was yesterday – really, I do. I was 16, driving with my high school buddies, excited beyond my young, teenage belief, about plopping down $11.99 for the new LP from a band called U2. Its name: The Joshua Tree.

I was driving with Joey Kimmel, Bobby Jackson and Dennis O’Brien from our high school in The Bronx up to our favorite mall in White Plains , New York . This was necessary, of course, because, let’s face it, most record stores in The Bronx didn’t carry U2 then – or now.

It was early March, 20 years ago. Twenty years. Wow.

We piled into my old, gray Chevette – which was my Mom’s, of course – and drove up to, I think, a Sam Goody in the Galleria Mall the day The Joshua Tree was released. I bought the LP for some reason, clinging to that theory of old-music and, more likely, wanting the big pictures and lyric sheets that surrounded an old record.

I know someone bought the tape because we popped it out to listen on the way home. I don’t think any of us bought those new-fangled Compact Disc versions. Hell, they weren’t gonna last, right?

So we get back in the Chevette and put in the tape. Organ creeps in and someone announces this song has a weird name, “Where the Streets Have No Name.” I figured it was about New York . I was wrong, it was Belfast but that didn't matter at this point - my world was about to change. I was listening for the first time to a modern musical masterpiece.

The moment the band came roaring in on that song, I knew they had more than lived up to the advance billing and hopes following the critical and popular acclaim of “The Unforgettable Fire.”

For me, it was a love affair cemented. I first got into U2 the way I did most of my music in those days, when one of my brothers brought home a record and I borrowed it. In this case, it was “War” a full four years before. He drew me in with “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “New Years Day” – I stuck around for “Two Hearts Beat as One,” “Like a Song” and “40.”

We watched the Red Rocks show live on MTV, with our Mom. She liked “Gloria” because it had religious overtones. Hey, whatever it takes to win over Mom, right?

After “Unforgettable Fire” came out, we tried to score tickets for the Radio City Music Hall show on that first mini-tour. But it sold out in something like 10 minutes. Crazy.

But we succeeded on the full tour the next spring, scoring great seats for their unbelievable premiere at Madison Square Garden on April 1. Someday I’ll write expansively on that amazing night but, suffice to say, between "Bad" (which literally made the woman next to me cry) and "Knockin' On Heaven's Door," they had me.

Anyway, I was a fan when the J-Tree came out. Afterward, I was a fanatic. The album was an instant classic and remains one of the greatest albums of all time – 20 years later. It’s just that simple.

It has such a wide, open sound – a yearning, hopeful sound that blew through the dark age it was born out of. It launched U2’s true love affair with America , with images as diametrically opposed as a scowling Reagan in “Bullet the Blue Sky” to the beautiful Southwestern images evoked throughout “In God’s Country.”

Several songs were hits – “With or Without You,” “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and “Streets.” Others, though less known, should have been – like my personal fav then and now, “ Red Hill Mining Town .” Why they never released that as a single and video is beyond me. "Running to Stand Still" - haunting, terrifying, a true story of suicide that came into its own only in later tours. "Mothers of the Disappeared" - underrated and rarely played but powerful in the way a mother can only love a son. "Exit" - the first in what would become a series of U2 songs that built a powerful rolling jam, where the lyrics were nice but the band really took charge over Bono. "One Tree Hill" - the eulogy for a friend. And "Trip Through Your Wires" - a Springsteen romp dressed up in an Irish bonnet.

I saw them 11 times on that tour – from a great starting point in Hartford where they came out with the lights still on and played “Stand By Me” to the first of many stadium blowouts at Giants and Foxboro. Driving to one show at the old Nassau Coliseum with Bobby, Joey and Jen Papp, I said aloud that I really wanted them to play “One Tree Hill” and Bobby said he wanted “Party Girl.” They played both. Great night. And, yes, I was there the night at MSG Bono had his arm in a sling and they played "Still Haven't Found" twice - the second time with a choir, and it ended up on "Rattle and Hum."

They came into their own on that tour, captured perfectly on “Rattle and Hum.” It was an age of promise for them and their music that just solidified a couple years later with the even-better-selling Achtung Baby!

The late 80s will always be a magical time for me – what time isn’t for someone in their late teens?

And the soundtrack to that magic was U2, usually “The Joshua Tree.” I’m glad to listen to it now, as I did driving home tonight. And I'm glad I can search You Tube for videos of these great songs recorded in concerts - as I did with the links above. All that brings back that flood of memories – so rich, as a good man once said, I have to swat them away like flies.

Congrats on the anniversary boys. A hell of an album.

The second time I met Bono I thanked him for writing “Out of Control.” He was shocked as hell.

Someday, maybe, I’ll get to add a thanks for The Joshua Tree – a modern masterpiece that day in the Chevette and 20 years down the road. Somehow, I don’t think he’d be quite as surprised.

Raving Mad Dad

2007-03-09T19:38:00.000-05:00

What is it about fatherhood that makes you want to become Bernie Goetz?

I’m not sure I want to know but I can say that, for the past three-and-a-half years most any story that pops up about parents or others harming children makes me want to turn into a screaming mad vigilante.

There were two examples this week and they just about made my blood boil.

One was the father in Springfield who picked his kids up at daycare, drove them to the parking lot of his wife’s business and set the entire car on fire – killing himself and the two innocents. The mother had to be hauled away in an ambulance in a shock that will probably never wane.

One of my coworkers, also a father, said it best: “I wish I could have been there so I could pull him out of the car and then kill him myself.”

Same goes for the rocket scientist in Indiana who flew a plane into his mother-in-law's house – with his 8-year-old daughter in the co-pilot’s seat. His message to his ex-wife before the crash: “I’ve got her and you’re not going to get her.”

In the background, the mother heard little Emily saying, “Mommy, come get me, come get me.”

Add them to the sad roster of demented parents like Susan Smith, Andrea Yates, Kenneth Seguin and Jeffrey MacDonald. And don’t even get me started on relative strangers or caregivers who kill – like Louise Woodward.

I used to shake my head at these crimes. Now that I’m a father, I want blood. And, to be blunt, I’m not very apologetic about it.

I think it’s just plain healthy. I live in daily fear about what will happen to my kids that day. I drive safer, I eat safer, I play safer, I live safer. Having those four eyes look up at me every morning (particularly two little boys who look at me for protection, for safety and, gulp, as a role model), makes me want to live longer and better.

So if it’s a given that my hand clutches more tightly around theirs when a weird dude approaches in the parking lot or that I look at the lady in the grocery store like she’s crazy when she just reaches out and touches my baby without warning, it only stands to reason that I’d believe the willful act of a parent hurting – or killing – his own child is the living breathing example of evil.

I only trust in moments like this that there is a heaven, for the innocents, and a hell, for the guilty.

Barack Market Crash

2007-03-08T07:13:00.000-05:00

And here comes the Clinton opposition research team. What took you so long kids?

Page one of The New York Times had a solid piece of reporting about some oddly-timed and just plain odd investments Barack Obama made shortly after getting elected to the Senate.

The bottom line is this: He bought some significant amount of stock in a few obscure companies that had ties to some of his biggest political donors. Probably not illegal, but certainly has a stench of shoulda known better. This comes after the previous mini-uproar about his ties to an indicted developer who help Obama with his personal, ummm, finances. Not helping with the do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do problem, of course, is that Obama made ethics the hallmark of his early tenure in the Senate.

So what does all this mean? Chum in the water, I think.

Early oppo is like early money in the negative. Early money is like yeast, the saying goes, and brings more money. Early oppo like this, especially on PG1 of the Times, puts blood in the water. Reporters at the Chicago Trib, Washington Post, LA Times and, yes, even El Globo, are sitting around now wondering why they didn't have this, what other there might be there and where to take the story next.

And, no, paying off the parking tickets isn't going to help all that much.

Batten down the hatches, Team Hope, the sharks are coming.

Fair Vanity?

2007-03-06T20:05:00.000-05:00

Bono as editor - As a writer, I shudder at the thought.

Given how much squabbling the boys in U2 do over their music to make it, in their eyes, as perfect as it could be, I can't imagine the guy sitting at a computer, watching the blinking cursor at the first line of my story. Even worse if that's a topic he cares about, like, say, Africa.

Well that's exactly what's happening now at the offices of Vanity Fair - where the world's biggest rock star is acting as guest editor for the July issue, a special African issue, of the venerable mag. The Times sat down with the man formerly known as Paul Hewson and Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter - offering up a decent, if surface, behind-the-scenes take the other day.

It's a tough subject, Africa, especially since the most compelling stories out of that continent are the tragedies - of which there are many. Bono suggests he's determined to make Africa sexy - that shouldn't be much of a challenge. But, as someone who does care about what's happening there and who has donated a bit to help the cause, I want to know more than just the sob stories. It's good that Bono seems to know this already. "We are trying to deal with the Sally Struthers thing," he told the Times, a stack of story ideas in front of him.

But it's a difficult nut to crack given the Vanity Fair audience. I'm certainly not your typical VF reader. I was drawn in when my good friend Jonny Tap told me it was a great magazine for people who loved good writing - and he's right. I skip over Dominick Dunne and half the stuff that, as the Times call them, "the idle rich" care about. But very few mags do the kind of indepth feature, news and investigative writing at VF does - as well as VF does. So, speaking for one reader, I say give me that, Bono. Give me the good writing from Africa and I'll come along for the ride. But that isn't necessarily what makes them the big bucks at VF.

I'm intrigued when Bono talks about the emerging markets in Africa - that the bars are dotted with Chinese businessmen who know there is money to be made there. Tell me about life in the cities too, tell me about the middle class of Africa, tell me about the stars of Africa, the pop culture of Africa and tell me about the media of Africa. Those stories will be compelling to me, and even to some of the cocktail party circuit in Hollywood and New York. He won't convince the bosses to change the magazine's name to "Fair Vanity" for one issue, but he'll make a dent.

It's good to see Bono still pushing, though. He's got his work cut out for him and, as he notes, writing songs, holding charity concerts and walking the halls of Washington alone won't do it. Media can help and getting a mag like VF to dedicate an entire issue to the cause is something that could only be done if a rock start/movie star or someone of that ilk will give of himself. That's what Bono is doing, and, as an unabashed fan, I think that's pretty cool.

As he says, "I'd meet with Lucifer if I thought it would do any good." Journalists, politicians and rock stars ... Good thing he's met with the Pope, that might help too.

Politicosaukee

2007-03-05T19:22:00.000-05:00

Romney update ...

The guy isn't measuring the drapes, yet, but he's already plotting where the summer White House will be. From The Politico:

Politico: What the White House reporters really want to know is whether your Crawford will be in Deer Valley, Utah, or Lake Winnipesaukee, N.H.? (He has homes both places.)
Romney: Well, that’s a hard choice. But without a question, it would have to be in Lake Winnipesaukee, N.H. We’ve actually chuckled about that, thinking about it the last couple of weeks and months. I wouldn’t want to impose the Secret Service and the press corps on our nice little community in New Hampshire. So maybe I’d get to visit once a year for a quick weekend and then get the heck out. Because I wouldn’t want to intrude on the beauty and the calm of that fabulous place.

Of course, he's already used that house to try to bolster his New Hampshire primary bona fides.

We know the neighbors have bristled over past Romney attempts to boost security on the lake and, in the process, make his beach private.

And who could forget the time Mitt and the boys actually saved some stranded boaters on the lake ... and then called up reporters to do a press conference there?

No, Mitt doesn't want to politicize his little town, does he?

Careful Candor, Mr. Mitt

2007-03-04T15:11:00.000-05:00

It's always those unguarded moments that catch a presidential candidate and show a bit of the true person behind the massaged, messaged candidate creation.

As a reporter, I always found the 10 minutes before an interview truly started and the period after the recorder went off to be much more enlightening than anything a candidate could ever tell me on the record. It surely showed up with George W. in 2000 when he talked with me with such excitement about baseball - a glee that never really showed when he was talking policy or even politics. I think that mild disinterest has manifested itself throughout his presidency, mostly in the worst ways.

Now it's showing just a bit with the Talented Mr. Romney. It surely was a parlor game in the State House press corps to try to get any little snipet of real Mittism. Reporters breathlessly retold the story of how the only daliance Romney allowed himself was the rare Vanilla Coke. In truth, Mitt's peeps told us it was regular Coke, not Vanilla.

But with all of them, particularly Mitt, you have to look for those rare moments where the guard is down in interviews, appearances and debates. It speaks volumes.

Check out this one with Real Clear Politics.

Mitt opened up about his dreams of all things after the recorder came on, waxing about his dreamed fear of You Tube.

"ROMNEY: You've got to be really careful about what you say and do anywhere you are. I actually had a dream about being in parking garage and having somebody in front of me taking too long to get their change and honking the horn and then yelling back, and getting out and yelling at each other and then seeing it on YouTube the next day. So I said 'OK', I've got to really be careful, you know, in my personal life."

Wow, Mitt's dreams. I never really want to go there. Never.

But this, to me, shows a certain vanity that is rare even in presidential candidates. How much has he drilled it into his own head to avoid missteps on the trail that the behavior modifications are even entering his private dreamworld? Man, that's deep. Sorry.

Anyway, it's revealing - if, even, for a moment. And the Mitt had better be careful. If he keeps doing things like that, we might just get a sense of the real person behind the candidate ... before he gets elected.

My 1K

2007-03-03T19:16:00.000-05:00

Somewhere out in America last night, a complete stranger found his or her way onto this blog and officially logged as my 1,000th unique visitor. Ok, so it was someone in Brighton and probably someone I know. But still, I think 1,000 is pretty cool.

I started Guarino-Blog on a snowy, boring, unemployed morning - January 23. I wouldn't say it took off from there, but Seth Gitell, Adam Hurtubise, and Jason Lefferts helped draw in my first visitors. I followed my good pal Jack into the fray and helped draw the wife into the blogosphere - she's already better than I am, I know. I'm sure folks with Google alerts on presidential candidates and movie stars helped chug me along but certainly friends, family, work and casual acquaintences and total strangers have driven me to the, I think, impressive 1K mark in just a little more than two months.

I've praised Obama and Mitt and then turned around to hit them both. I've tossed around Pete Townsend, Oasis and, of course, the boys from Dublin. I've chatted up my kid's potty-training problems, my wife's smiling genius and pretty much every illness to enter the Guarino household.

My sitemeter tells me I've hit a ton of spots around the states. Of course many people in Massachusetts along with friends and family in North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania and (freakin') Jersey. But also folks in Illinois, California, Oregon, Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas. Beyond our shores, I've been read in Japan, China, England, Portugal, Australia, France, Belgium, and Germany (thanks Brushy).

This is my 46th post and, hopefully, my least imaginative. But I just wanted to note the moment, give a slight self-pat on the back and say thanks for reading. And, more importantly, hope you come back and, if you do, say hi.

An Inconvenient Doof

2007-03-01T21:12:00.000-05:00

Now I've never exactly been one to defend Al Gore. Heck, I spent 36 days in Florida six years ago thanks to his campaign - still one of the most scarring experiences of my young life.

But knocking the guy for his environmentalism? That's just silly.

To bring the uninitiated up to date, The Tennessee Center for Policy Research hit the Oscar winner the day after his movie, "An Inconvenient Truth" nailed the Academy Award for documentary. It was the height of political do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do, they said. Gore preached but didn't practice in his home - emitting a huge carbon footprint on his sprawing Carthidge estate.

Turns out the group was basically right in their main fact - that the Gores use a lot of electricity in their home. But they took one fact and drew some pretty startling conclusions - which, of course, got them headlines.

“As the spokesman of choice for the global warming movement, Al Gore has to be willing to walk the walk, not just talk the talk, when it comes to home energy use,” said Tennessee Center for Policy Research President Drew Johnson.

They should be smart enough to realize that's only part of the story.

Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider told the Associated Press: "Sometimes when people don't like the message, in this case that global warming is real, it's convenient to attack the messenger."

Kreider said Gore purchases enough energy from renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and methane gas to balance 100 percent of his electricity costs. The former Veep has reportedly said he leads a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." To balance out other carbon emissions, the Gores invest money in projects to reduce energy consumption, Kreider said.

Ok, ok, the guy's got a mansion and uses a ton of juice. Get in line. Even those of us in small homes probably use too much. But who among us can say they use a lot of solar, wind and methane gas and invests in projects that reduce consumption? Hmm, hmmmm?

I'm not naive enough to think Gore isn't a target on the environment, he surely is. But to knock a guy who does this with his free time for not being Green enough? Now that's just silliness.

"Political Theater" At It's Best

2007-02-28T19:55:00.000-05:00

Every now and then, I'm going to just shamelessly plug a writer who must, under most any circumstance, be read. These are people I like so much I've created Google alerts just to read their stuff.

Today, speak up about Dana Milbank of The Washington Post. In yesterday's Post, he delivers nothing short of a laugh-out-loud piece that slices and dices Rudy Giuliani. Read it here, now.

The premise is that Rudy used to charge $100,000 per speech but, now that he's running for prez, is giving them gratis, of course. So Milbank went to hear Rudy speak to the Hoover Institution and literally parsed out the 46-minute word by cost. Trust me, hilarity ensued.

"Had America's Mayor charged the going rate, the 46-minute, 34-second speech would have cost the conservative think tank $2,147.46 per minute, including:
* $5, 368.65 for jokes about the weather.
* $21,899.94 for his views on education.
* $9,019.32 for his thoughts on taxes.
"Instead, the Hoover folks got all this free, and more! Giuliani threw in bonus thoughts on foreign policy such as, 'We clearly won the Cold War' (that two-second snippet had a market value of $71.58), and "We've never been a perfect country, we're never going to be a perfect country, but we're a good country, so we don't like war" ($214.74 for this six-second gem)."

Biting, hard-hitting, funny. Perfect political journalism.

The Post's description of his column fits - "an observational column about political theater in the White House, Congress and elsewhere in the capital."

He's great at skewering people with their own words.

He enjoys tearing into staff which, in a place where staff holds so much sway and swagger like Washington, it's always a fun thing to watch.

And he's clearly a practishioner of the old maxim about afflicting the comfortable - regardless of party.

Anyway, check out his columns here - worth a look and a nice, long winter's night of reading.

Let My Blog Open the Door

2007-02-27T20:07:00.000-05:00

First of all, who knew that Pete Townsend has a blog? I mean, what the f-? Good little world we have here. I came across Robert Reich's the other day (by the way, he predicted Gore would win the Oscar and announce right there that he was running for prez - oops).

But now I see the mighty Pete has his own blog. Pretty much set as a way to build hype about his memoirs, the blog did, however, give Mr. Townsend the vehicle to author a spirited defense and spiritual hope for none other than Ms. Britney Spears.

Check it out:

"Dedicated Man In A Purple Dress to Britney in Long Beach. I said, 'Let's not be too quick to judge'. Roger said 'Britney? Britney who?' Like, Roger! Pullease...... read the paper.Just heard she's gone back into rehab. Pray for the babe. This is a tough business when you have a down period - she sometimes has over one hundred cars following her, every one with a camera geek in it.Tonight's show? My feet hurt. I gashed my hand. My fingertips hurt (my guitar strings felt too heavy). I'm happy. I must like pain."

So this is Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend - two musical geniuses, talking about Britney, the tart of all tarts. And who says the blogosphere isn't productive?

I guess Pete has a point on Britney but, let's face it, this is the woman who drove around with her kid on her lap - when she was sober. So we're not dealing with a properly-stacked deck here, are we?

And, if I'm Britney, would I take advice from this guy? I mean, hell, "Who's Next?" is a definitive album, "Tommy" a masterpiece and "Baba O'Reilly" defined a generation. But talk about a train wreck waiting to happen?

Still, I'll come back to his blog - if only because his entire profile is simply: "I'm in a rock band." Well put.

Horseshoes, hand grenades and, apparently, the Oscars

2007-02-26T20:51:00.000-05:00

I was close to perfect. I took my perfecto into the 9th but blew it on one category. Damn you Alan Arkin.

The wife, well, she was perfect. Kudos to her and, apparently to the proprietors of a local Thai restaurant and the makers of the next great chick flick. Heidi killed me again in the Oscar pool, taking seven of seven categories in a clean sweep. Bravo, I say, bravo.

Unfortunately for me, pools are one of those things where almost is close enough.

Of course, we were both sleeping through most of the awards, as predicted. What a ridiculous charade it is to keep that show going so long. I’d love to see the ratings numbers for midnight and after. A joke.

From what I saw, I’d disagree with the conventional wisdom that Ellen didn’t do a good job. I actually laughed out loud at her into monologue (a rarity when watching standup for me). I thought the in-the-crowd with Scorsese and Eastwood was a little lame but the insider jokes were great – this is the ultimate Hollywood insider event … that’s what we expect!

And I loved the Will Farrell, Jack Black, John C. Reilly song – hilarious.

Still, kill about two-thirds of the show, make it two hours and America would be much happier.

Oscar night - My picks

2007-02-25T10:02:00.000-05:00

Following a tradition begun by a good man, each year I try to get to every Best Picture nominee before Oscar night. Almost always a good time since, typically, there really aren't any bad movies nominated for Best Picture.

That goal was a lot easier before kids and, this year, I failed again. I made it to four of five - leaving 'Letters from Iwo Jima' at the alter. I had one more movie-going day in the week before I started the new job and two movies to go ... I picked 'Babel.'

Still, the wife and I have begun an annual Oscar pool and I see no reason not to show my cards here so I can be judged and hopefully judge whomever joins (so come on in, popcorn's on me). The bet in our house is choice of restaurant and movie for our next date night.

We take the big six and this year we're doing adapted screenplay as the tie-breaker (mostly since we've seen more of those movies than original screenplay nominees). Last year, she smoked me. I'm not feeling particularly strong this year, especially since she loved 'Dreamgirls' and it will probably do pretty well.

The sad thing is that we almost never know who wins before going to bed anymore. I'm sorry but midnight is just too late to sit up to here Martin Scorsese ramble. As Heidi said, one of the few times I wished I lived in California - the other, of course, being during baseball playoffs and, well, winter.

So here's my picks.

Picture - 'The Departed' should and will win. Sorry but 'Little Miss Sunshine' doesn't belong.

Director - Scorsese will finally pop his cherry (Goodfellas reference, not just being crude). Don't rule out Clint Eastwood, though, but I'm with Martin for good reason.

Actor - Forest Whitaker for Last King of Scotland. Didn't see it, but the Academy always likes to think of itself as worldly. Watch out for Peter O'Toole, though for one last nod from the insiders.

Actress - Going with my heart on this one, Helen Mirren. She was incredible in 'The Queen.'

Supporting Actor - Going with my head on this one - Eddie Murphy. I think Marky Mark was better but Murphy will get the nod for going semi-legit in 'Dreamgirls.'

Supporting Actress - Jennifer Hudson. Period. She was amazing.

And the tie-breaker - Surprise, 'The Departed' for adapted screenplay. Loved 'Children of Men' but as much as I like them, I don't think post-apocolyptic thrillers are the stuff of Academy Awards.

So tune in at 8:30 (of 9 if you're me and watching 'The Amazing Race All-Stars). And good luck staying up through the intolerable speeches from Best Foreign Film winners and lifetime tribute honorees - I'll be snoozing, remembering the best line of 'The Departed' ("I'm the guy who does his job. You must be the other guy") and dreaming of victory in the house pool.

Cash is Clinton

2007-02-23T19:08:00.000-05:00

Maybe it’s just me, but don’t you just love ex-presidents? I love the allure, I love the lifestyle, I love the fact that they get Secret Service protection for life. I can’t get enough of what they are doing – or not doing – with their time.

It is the ultimate retirement, really. You’ve had the greatest job in the world for four or eight years so what to do? Nothing, really.

Sure, Carter is trying to atone for a mediocre presidency and win the Nobel. Nixon was trying to atone for, well, everything, and stayed largely out of sight. Ford set the gold standard, playing golf and hangin in Cali.

And then there’s Bill Clinton. A relative pauper most of his life in Arkansas, the guy has been out earning large, phat cash. And who could blame him? They did ring up more than $10 million in legal fees thanks to Whitewater and Monica. And they had to prepare for Hillary’s self-financed run this year.

So in comes the Washington Post with a fascinating story of the ex-president’s big, big travel. Over five years, a cool $40 million. Nice.

The details in the story are pretty good, though it certainly could have been written with a bit more pop. But I love, love, love the graphics online.

This is why we need real newspapers to survive and thrive on the web. The folks at Google or YahooNews wouldn’t come up with these kinds of cool graphics. It’s fun to go speech-by-speech on the map to see Bill bouncing around the globe. I also wasn’t aware before that he was in New Zealand on 9/10/01 … makes you wonder if he was stuck there on 9/11 or had trouble getting home.

And it’s neat to see how much he got paid for his local speeches. Salem State College, Tufts and Temple Beth Avodah shelled out $125,000 for the big guy in 2001 and 2002. Funny, I wondered how Salem State attracted such good speakers … now I know.

Anyway, check it out, good read and very entertaining.

Romney Downswing ... Already?

2007-02-22T21:08:00.000-05:00

First, I just thought it was the Globe being nasty to the local guy with their headline about his new ad just outright saying he was "faltering." Now it really seems Mitt Romney's national star may be dimming a bit at just the wrong time.

The Hotline, the most respected of all the insider must-reads, dropped Mitt in its unofficial White House 2008 rankings.

They wrote this:

"Romney's campaign kick-off was overstaged and underwhelming. Somewhere beneath the cant, the real Mitt Romney is struggling to get out. Also, the decision to go on the air this early may be a mistake because now, instead of peaking in the fall, he needs to start moving up in the polls before the summer, or else the media will go into a "what's wrong?" frenzy much earlier than deserved."

Ouchie.

I'm not sure I totally agree that going on the air early is a bad move. Yes, it's true the media will wonder aloud if he doesn't start moving in the polls now but the great truth about ads is that, in a vacuum, they almost always work. Obviously, in a national campaign and, particularly in these early primary/caucus states, Mitt is going to have to do a lot more than just be on the air. In fact, in Iowa and New Hampshire, it'll be much more important to be on the ground.

But now it's all about name rec and John McCain and Rudy Giuliani have it, Mitt doesn't ... yet. My assumption with the man from Belmont is he's got money to burn. So what better cause right now? And, by the way, the ad is good - watch it here.

I stand by my "don't underestimate this guy" mantra about Team Mitt. The thing I would worry about if I was in the North End HQ is the subtle Romney-fatigue creeping into press stories. The problem with this campaign starting so early is that the press is already looking for the second and third acts and we're not even in March. When the silly Obama/Hillary infighting passes, they'll wonder why the Republicans aren't doing the same.

And don't forget, the press always wants a two-person race - three is just too many when you have active races on both sides. So watch out Mitt and keep an eye on that second chair because, eventually, the music's gonna stop. This year, it might stop earlier than anybody expects.

A New Senate Nuclear Option

2007-02-22T19:24:00.000-05:00

Could the Joe-Mentum in the Senate be moving toward the GOP? It’s truly the new nuclear option for Senator Joe Lieberman, who told Time and The Politico that he’d consider switching to the Republican Party if Democrats don’t get their act together on Iraq .

“I have no desire to change parties,” Lieberman told The Politico. “If that ever happens, it is because I feel the majority of Democrats have gone in a direction that I don’t feel comfortable with.”

Lieberman said the pending fight over funding for Iraq and President Bush’s surge could be a tipping point for him – and, thus, the Senate. “I hope we don’t get to that point,” he said.

Proving the move is pretty well orchestrated, Lieberman said the same stuff to Time in a piece appropriately titled “What Joe Lieberman Wants …” Time talks about Lieberman preferring Sen. John McCain in the presidential sweepstakes, that he’s working on a Social Security fix with South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham.

About leaving, Joe calls it a “very remote possibility.” But, as Time notes, even that “possibility” gives Lieberman all the cards with the Democrats – and the White House.

What a far cry from last year, when Democrats thought they had Lieberman over a barrel and had him knocked out in a primary, never to be heard from again.

The trick for Joe is to use his power once and be done with it. He surely knows well that you can’t be the senator threatening to flip forever.

But, for now, he could be exactly what the Senate and the country needs – a moderate voice to pull together both ends of the spectrum. Hmmm, sounds like the working definition of an independent.

Long Live The Beef

2007-02-21T21:43:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine, who will go nameless because, well, you'll see, once won a great bet at the Hilltop Steakhouse.

He had just finished a tasty slab of prime rib - the king cut, I believe. Baked potato, all the fixings. Like a good man, he ate the meat but left the hunking piece of fat on his plate (as I recall, it was the only thing left on his plate).

So this other friend of ours says she'll pay for his meal if he eats the fat. And not just down it with a glass of water but chew it alone and eat it.

He pulled it off and, somehow, didn't throw up. And he got pie and a glass of milk for dessert. The story is the stuff of legend among the fellas and retold anytime any of us passes the Hilltop.

After today, that can only happen in Saugus now that the Braintree Hilltop has closed its doors. This picture tells the sorrowful story more than anything I could muster here. The plastic cows are gone. The placemats identifying each cut of beef on a map of a cow are history.

Where, on the South Shore anyway, will the fat-eaters of tomorrow craft their trade?

Where will the gluttonous masses go on a Saturday night to eat til they practically puke?

Where will guys who shouldn't be wearing cowboy boots and women who shouldn't be wearing Texas belt-buckles go for Sunday brunch?

The Outback? Puh-leaze, mate.

Bugaboo Creek? Sounds like a bad Robert Redford movie, not a steakhouse.

The 99? Might as well go to Unos and have a pizza, you wuss.

They, my friends, will go to Saugus where the Hilltop still lives, thrives and reigns. And then, for a brief time anyway, all will be right in the world.

Fly-over Follies

2007-02-21T19:56:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, in the life of a political leader, there are stands that simply must be taken. They are votes of conscience, articles of faith, true profiles in courage.

And then there's Rep. Gil Herbel of North Dakota.

This week, the representative has taken up the cause of blocking a resolution honoring Bono, lead singer of U2 and repeated nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. The resolution paid tribute to Bono's work on human rights issues. Filed by Representative Scot Kelsh, the resolution credited Bono for his "humanitarian work in urging decision makers and religious leaders to set aside their philosophical differences to ease the burden of those who have the least among us."

Herbel blocked it because, well, Bono's issues allegedly have no bearing on the people of North Dakota. Really? Seriously?

Now don't get me wrong, the Legislature should certianly focus its attention on problems facing the residents of that state. And this resolution certainly shouldn't be the subject of much debate in the Legislature.

But c'mon Rep., is honoring a guy for humanitarian work all that bad? This is the legislative body that just last year passed resolutions urging the induction to the Hall of Fame of Roger Maris AND Maury Wills. I think they have some time on their hands.

Then again, they also passed a resolution urging Congress to pass a constitutional amendment protecting all human life (read: ban abortions).

Now I see why Bono's causes may not be their cup of tea. Oh, and Herbel said he was confused because he thought they were honoring Cher's ex-husband.

File under: Fly-over-state.

Me and Jakey McGee

2007-02-20T08:27:00.000-05:00

Sick day today. No, I'm feeling fine. Jake's sick. Coughing so hard he's throwing up - all the time. Hasn't had a real meal in something like 48 hours. Already been to doctor, to Children's for a chest x-ray (they think there might be someting "more" going on ... words from a doctor you never, ever want to hear).

And so now he's home with me. We probably could have shuffled him off to daycare but good Lord, how much can a 14-month-old take? And they have this rule about throwing up: If he does it there, he can't come back for at least 24 hours. Makes sense if you think it through.

But boy does it make it tough on parents who work. I can't quite recall the last time I had a "sick day" that was truly just a day when I was sick, home alone. When it's just me who's sick, it's usually time for "Rub some dirt on it son and get back in the game." Life of a Dad, I suppose. Heidi's certainly done more of these days than I have (covering all days during campaign and my first weeks in the new job). But she has a big conference today and my boss is out of town so, hopefully, the office will be quiet.

So Jake's night went something like this:
7 p.m. - bed
9:45 p.m. - up and crying (right at the end of '24' ... which we missed part of)
midnight - up and crying
4:45 a.m. - up and crying
530 a.m. - up for good.

Then his morning's been something like this:
545 am - dressed by dripping wet Mom, who cut short her shower to get the boy.
547 am - crying because he had to be put down so Owen could get dressed
6 am - first attempt at breakfast (failed)
615 am - a bottle of milk
618 am - coughing
618:30 am - coughing worse
619 am - puking all over Daddy in his nicely-pressed shirt
620 am - Daddy pulls the plug on the day, puts on a flannel
635 am - second attempt at breakfast (half a banana)
640 - 7 am - assorted play/crying/bullying with Owen
7 am - Owen and Mom leave
700:01 am - crying (see previous entry)
700:02 am - Daddy realizes he's in for a long day
704 am - third attempt at breakfast (about four bites of Daddy's oatmeal)
705 - 720 am - good, quiet playtime with blocks
720 - 745 am - The Chase-Me-Around-the-House-While-I-Get-Into-Bad-Things-Like-Garbage-Cans-Bathtubs-And-Laundry Game. A classic.
750 am - fourth attempt at breakfast (failed)
755 - 810 am - assorted play
810 am - attempt to find favored toy under Owen's train table goes horribly wrong when Jake tries to stand up (under the train table).
810 - present - attempt to put Jake down for morning nap

He's only interrupted me with tears three times while writing this item. Now, the only sound in the house is the two pairs of kids overalls with other assorted laundry (and said nice shirt) clinking in the dryer and "Me and Bobby McGee" echoing out of the "mellow" mix on the iPod.

Happy kid means happy parent and, on sick days, quiet kid means happy parent. I better go get the papers, get the papers.

UPDATE: 645 p.m. The wife has now taken Jake off to the doctor as his condition worsened throughout the day. I'm now on Owen detail - which is markedly easier. All in all, though, Jake was a champ. Sick as a dog but still managing to melt my cold, black heart about a dozen times throughout the day. And, somewhere in there, I was able to read the papers, take a couple press calls for work, listen to some chill tunes on the "mellow" mix and even read a bit of my book. Not bad for Dad duty.

A moment of mute, please

2007-02-18T13:42:00.000-05:00

I was taken, this morning, with the death of Dr. Robert Adler, co-inventor of the remote control.

Not just because it is a writer's dream of puns.

AP's lede was good - Hit the mute for a moment of silence, the inventor of the remote control, Dr. Robert Adler, has died.

Other stories credited (read: blamed) Adler and his co-founder for creating the couch potato and launching us into a generation of bloat. Right, and the inventor of the book created degenerative eye disease.

The tabloids, well, they had more fun. One Brit news site heralded "TV remote controller inventor switches off" with the sub-head "No, he wasn't found down the back of the sofa." Insert loose change, lost remote, and other jokes here.

But it's likely the classic tale of a guy who did hundreds or thousands of things with his life and his obit, well, it's the one thing they remember. Clinton will have Monica, Ford had pardoning Nixon, Anna Nicole had, well, nothing special.

Somewhere, in Boise or Austria, the family of Dr. Adler is saying, 'But there's so much more.' Yes, well, there is - and plenty of stories reflected it. He had something like 180 patents, the most recent registered just a few weeks ago. His touch-screen technology is used from the Holocaust Museum to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.

But such is life in the modern age. If you are infamous, and Adler was, that is your cross to bear.

I know when I get back on the couch in a few minutes, I'll thank Dr. Adler for allowing me to relax in peace.

Of course, I won't be able to take his invention from the wife's hands to flip off the chick flick she's watching but look at the bright side - the person who's busy inventing that important gadget will be honored someday too.

Nader beats Obama, Hillary and Newt!

2007-02-17T19:24:00.000-05:00

Thanks to The Concord Monitor's great Primary Monitor blog for this one.

Fox News and Opinion Dynamics just put out a great national poll.

Some hilarious trends that actually make me feel better about Fox, the American people and humanity at large.

1. More people say they are closely following the 2008 presidential campaign (77 percent closely/23 percent not closely) and the Congressional debate on the Iraq war resolution (69/29) than all of the following - the death of Anna Nicole Smith (51/48), this season of "American Idol" (26/71), the trial of Scooter Libby (31/65) and the arrest of the diaper-wearing astronaut (41/57).

I am slightly freaked out that 51 percent of the populace says they are following the death of a moron closely and don't at all get that Americans aren't more interested in a decorated astronaut who drives across the country in a diaper to kill a woman she thought was a threat to the man she was cheating on her husband with.

But I digress.

The true hilarity in this poll is the ranking of candidates voters say they will never, ever vote for. The key phrase here is, "under no circumstances." The results may (but I doubt it) send some candidates back to the drawing board.

The ranking - remember, you don't want your name on this list:

Ralph Nader - 76 percent
Newt Gingrich - 64 percent
John Edwards - 45 percent
Hillary Clinton - 44 percent
John McCain - 40 percent
Rudy Giuliani - 36 percent
Barack Obama - 34 percent

Love it.

Sadly, for the Man from Belmont, his name never even comes up. Not a single question about Mitt Romney. Hmmm. Wait, there is the ever-present question of whether voters would be more or less likely to support a candidate who's a Mormon (8 percent say yes, 26 percent no and 62 say it doesn't matter). But Hillary, McCain, Rudy, Obama - they're all there in the horserace questions.

But No Mitt. Sorry, Eric.

The new must-read in town

2007-02-17T09:24:00.000-05:00

For the first couple days, I let it alone. I merely linked to my wife's new blog on the side rail here, hoping people might happen upon it like they happened upon mine.

And some did, which is cool.

But then the wife did something entirely unexpected. She took what we both thought would be a blog like any other (this one included) and made it into something I think is truly revolutionary. Rather than just write about our kids, her life, her job, the world at large, the wife has decided to make hers a blog-o-forum for the millions of people out there just like her.

Hence, the Working Mom's Blog.

It's fabulous and, all spousal pride aside, a must read.

The wife sent an email to all her friends and coworkers who happen to be working moms and urged them to join the forum - to trade ideas, to tell tall tales of little people and bring some sanity to what I have long said is one of the two hardest jobs in the world - being a full-time working mom. (The other, by the way, is being the mayor of any urban city tied with pretty much anyone who works with, around or near a dump).

She hasn't talked any of her friends into contributing yet and I worry that they won't because they're intimidated by the medium, worried about being too personal or scared that she's a better writer than they are. All these things are true - but no reason not to join the fray. That's the beauty of the blogosphere. Everyone is welcome, all are equals and no opinion is worth any more than another.

So tell your mom, tell your wife, tell yourself, go check out The Working Mom's Blog. I think there's a book in this someday ... time will tell.

Either way, I'm very proud.

Mission Accomplished … for now

2007-02-15T20:03:00.000-05:00

It was V-P Day in the Guarino household yesterday. You remember V-E Day and V-J Day to commemorate the victories in Europe and over Japan . Well, last night brought the victory over P – literally.

We had a parade, we had some treats, and we had a boisterous party for the reluctant potty-trainer.

Mrs. G employed a trick we all knew from college and old “MASH” episodes and it worked like a charm. She had some little toys in a bowl of warm water. Put the boy on the pot, let him play with the toys in the warm water for a minute or two and … well, the rest is history.

Now, to continue the pained war analogy, I don’t exactly see this as an armistice. This is much more like our current wartime situation. Last night was probably a lot more akin to Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” moment in the silly flight suit on the aircraft carrier.

But I won’t be hanging any banners or declaring an end to major combat operations. I know the insurgents are out there. I know they are well armed. I know there is much more fight to come.

Our problem is, we are a bit Bushian in our plans for an exit strategy. We believe that we have the will, the troops and the patience to wait out the insurgents and win the day. Will there be bumps along the way? Sure.

But we are not so Bushian in our diplomacy. We have tremendous support from our allies, we won’t hesitate to change course if needed and we are stockpiling weapons at our disposal.

Still, my perspective, as one of two Deciders, is this: Will he figure the damn thing out before he goes to college? As long as that answer is an unqualified ‘yes,’ I’ll sleep well.

Hello, Mr. Magnum?

2007-02-14T21:17:00.000-05:00

I really, really thought the polar bear story from Memphis couldn’t be topped this Valentine’s Day.

I should have known.

From today’s Springfield Republican, a truly devious Valentine’s thought – “Illicit romances also blooming.”

The lede from Stephanie Barry, “Roses are red. Violets are blue. Caught on tape skulking out of a motel? Shame on you.”

Excellent.

Turns out private investigators will be working overtime alongside flower delivery guys and romantic restaurant waiters. It seems, according to the PIs, Feb. 14 is a great time to pinch the cheating hearts – tracking said deliveries and staking out cheap motels. One investigator, the aptly-named Rollie McCarter III, said he’s had to beef up his staff by two to respond to recent calls for domestic surveillance.

“It’s such an easy task,” McCarter told The Republican. “The subjects are predictable … and they’re sloppy because they’re so worried about pleasing that other person.”

Another PI says he’ll be on a call today from a wife who suddenly saw a lot of strange numbers on her husband’s cell phone bill. Good thing Mrs. Guarino-Blog doesn’t check mine – she’d be tailing me back to a lot of calls from strange people ... newspaper reporters.

World, meet George Kottaras – the other rookie

2007-02-14T19:19:00.000-05:00

Top notch piece of subtly brutal social/media/sports commentary by Gordon Edes in this morning’s Globe about Dice-K’s first catch with the third-string Sox catcher on day one of training camp yesterday.

It followed the current reining formula, of course: When there’s no real news but you have to write or air something, write about how crazy it is that the news media’s covering the non-news. All this is true because the media did have to cover Daisuke Matsuzaka’s first day in camp and the Sox did only give them access to one leisurely tossing session with the aforementioned third-string catcher, George Kottaras.

But Edes took the story to a new level by telling it from the absurd vantage-point of Kottaras – a guy who will either be riding pine on Yawkey Way all year or, more likely, starting in Pawtucket. The team sees him as eventually replacing captain Jason Varitek someday … just not someday soon.

Best line: “… for the next 10 minutes or so, a ball passed back and forth between the two rookies – the catcher making the big league minimum, the pitcher with a $103 million price tag hanging from his sleeve.”

The Herald’s Jeff Horrigan did a passable version of it, mostly focused on the crowd, the media and the tick-tock absurdity of it.

But Edes’ story – dripping with details on the very divergent lives of two rookies doing that most basic act of having a catch – is just what I want from my spring training reports.

The man from Belmont enters

2007-02-13T21:29:00.000-05:00

He looked good, there’s no denying he looked good. Oh, Romney, I mean.

Of course I mean Romney. The guy always looks good. He had that same stiff little walk, the same pitch-perfect delivery, the same rousing populist but conservative oration, the same picture-perfect family.

I’ve covered several of these announcements and Mitt did as well as can be expected. And the coverage thus-far reflects it. He’s chiseled, he’s handsome, he’s the well-spoken outsider. I really liked the jabs at Washington insiders and The Neophyte, that’s a rare touch of personality from The Mittster.

A couple problems:

One: That plane looks like it might hit him – a rare slip by the usually spotless Romney advance team.

Two: The national media, already gravitating to the flip-flopper storyline, appears to now want to hit him for being a bit too perfect.

Consider this lede from Roger Simon at Politico:

Mitt Romney is so good he is almost too good. Candidates want people to come away from their events thinking “presidential,” not “slick.” But Romney is so polished and looks so much like a president would look if television picked our presidents (and it does) that sometimes you have to ask yourself if you are watching the real deal or a careful construction.

And three: The Mormon thing just keeps on coming. America ’s most-watched cable network (CNN) and most-read paper (USA Today) both featured it prominently today.

Does Mitt have what it takes to win again? Sure. And the more people underestimate him, the better he’ll do.

But the Republicans are suddenly acting a lot like Democrats. They can’t settle on any one candidate to like, let alone a new standard-bearer. Their not getting any help from the White House and the press will now only give them reasons not to like these guys.

For the man from Belmont, it’s got to be a pretty unsettling place to be.

Love Hurts

2007-02-12T21:51:00.000-05:00

There’s love stories and then there’s polar bear love stories.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, here’s a great tale of love and loss, courtesy of a couple polars in Memphis who got a bit too frisky in their first mating attempt.

The lede in the Commercial Appeal story sort of says it all: “Courting is complicated, especially when you weigh 650 pounds and have claws the size of hubcaps.”

Seems Payton, the male, took things a bit too far with Cranberry, the female, in their first meeting – knocking her off a 14-foot cliff and breaking her leg.

Cranberry now has surgery to repair the leg and, sadly, at least several weeks in isolation to recover.

I guess this is what they should expect when they try to mate a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old.

File under: Love hurts. Ohhh, ohhh, love hurts.

GUEST BLOG - Our Greatest Challenge

2007-02-12T19:45:00.000-05:00

(GUARINO-BLOG IS ALL ABOUT THE COMMUNITY, ALL ABOUT THE VILLAGE. AND, IN THAT SPIRIT, WE'VE EXTENDED THE OFFER TO MRS. GUARINO-BLOG TO JOIN IN FROM TIME-TO-TIME. TONIGHT, SHE TAKES US UP ON IT ... OH, BOY, DOES SHE TAKE US UP ON IT. ENJOY. I DID.)

From the moment our first son was born, everything we did was a learning experience. Changing diapers, making bottles, learning to survive on 2 hour stretches of sleep, how to hold a baby, diaper bag and several bags of groceries at once, and so on.

We have managed to master – or at least look like we've mastered - each step along the way…. Until now.

Potty training, without question, is the toughest one yet.

Owen is a smart kid, there's no doubt about that. He knows his letters and numbers, he can sing tell you what just about any animal says, he likes to "read" (translation: he likes to sit with books and tell stories based on the pictures, which is pretty cute), he can climb virtually everything and knows the names of far more dinosaurs than I do. But he has yet to figure out what we mean when we say "time to go potty."

He sits there. He swings his legs. He talks about Buzz Lightyear. He asks me to tell him a story. He asks me to read him a story. He plays with the toilet paper. He plays with whatever is in reach.

But peeing? Not a drop. And Number 2? Please.

That is, until we pull up his brand new Buzz Lightyear or Thomas the Tank Engine underwear.

To be fair, we just started this process in earnest this weekend. We bought the tiny little Tighty-Whities (and they're damn cute), we committed to regular trips to the potty throughout the weekend and we readied for multiple loads of laundry. But after a weekend of accidents and not a successful trip to the potty, we're a little mystified.

How do you teach a 3 year old who has spent his entire life peeing at will how to pee on command? How do you teach him what it feels like when he has to go? It's one thing to show him how to stir cookie dough or how to put on his pajamas but how to do you teach him to control his bodily functions?

I'm sure in a few months we'll look back on this and have a good laugh. Until then, we're going to be doing mountains of laundry.

Outlandish D'Amour

2007-02-12T19:18:00.000-05:00

“Ladies and Gentlemen, we are The Police and we’re back.”

With that, Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland ripped open the Grammy’s and reunited after nearly twenty years last night. They rocked ... but only kinda. They played “Roxanne,” which was a supreme disappointment to me.

Of all the songs they could have pulled from the catalog, why that one? Sure it’s the most identifiable – other than maybe “Every Breath You Take.” But music has changed a bit in the 20 years you’ve been off doing solo projects and making film scores, boys. The Police rocked in their prime. And to rock now, they have to rock harder than that.

“Next to You” would have been my choice. Take a look at this and tell me this isn't a band you'd go see live. Or "Truth Hits Everybody." Hype it up, play it fast and blow the doors off the joint. It would have at least made those losers in the front “pit” jump up and down a bit. They’ve all heard “Roxanne” so many times, it didn’t feel unique to them. It felt like it looked - a bunch of old guys playing a song you've heard too many times.

So the tour was announced today at the Whiskey-a-Go-Go. Impressive locale. Maybe it will be more than a greatest hits effort to make money. But, at $225 a ticket for the best seats, I have my doubts. Shows all over the place, including Fenway on July 28 (I think I’m away, sadly) and closing the North American tour out at MSG on Aug. 1 and 3. That’s cool.

Anybody wanna go to New York ? Nothing like a show as the Garden, nothin'.

Thanks, Charlie Sennott

2007-02-11T15:53:00.000-05:00

A little while back, I took on those who were lamenting the loss of the final overseas bureaus of The Boston Globe. I argued ("Don't Cry for me, Bogota," Jan. 25) that it is a sad loss but said I wouldn't really cry over it - mostly because I thought the Globe was better served serving its local interests. I also argued that those foreign-based reporters could still do a heck of a job covering national and international issues doing what reporters have done for years, parachute in to a locale, find the story, know the story and write the hell out of the story.

Thankfully, Charlie Sennott proved me right today on Page One.

Under a stinging headline, "Told to wait, a Marine dies," Sennott pours out the story of Jon Schulze, a Marine and father from Minnesota who came back from Iraq - like many other Marines and soldiers - with troubles. He was angry, he had nightmares, he couldn't readjust. So he drank too much and abused those around him. When his thoughts turned to suicide, Jon asked for help from our government. They told him to sit tight for a spot in the VA, he was 26th on the waiting list for 12 beds.

Jon killed himself.

It's a stinging rebuke to our federal government, the VA and how we're all treating vets.

But it's also a great Sunday read and proof the Globe, reassigning some of its former foreign assets, can still do a good job covering the world.

Sennott was the London bureau chief of the Globe, a job that typically had him far from London - covering all of Europe and drifting well into the Middle East. He was in Afghanistan several times and put his life on the line to bring back compelling coverage from a world away.

I, for one, am glad he's going to keep doing that. Today's paper is proof that good reporters can bring good, important stories if they're given room to roam, some solid backing from the top and the space to write it - whether or not the paper has storefront offices dotting the globe.

Days of Discontent

2007-02-11T09:09:00.000-05:00

These are painful, painful days.

It happens every year, this dark, quiet, nameless depression. It's mid-February. Valentine's Day - that most fake of holidays looms. The weather, well, stinks. The kids can't really play outside for more than a few minutes without looking at you with frozen snots and wind-burn. You wear so many layers that you can't help but feel like the kid brother, Randy, in "A Christmas Story" who can't move his arms.

But it's not all that entirely.

It's mostly that there's not a single good sports storyline to follow.

Let's be clear, I'm no sports junky. I'm as casual a fan of professional and college sports as they come. I listen to the headlines, watch the highlights when I happen into them on the news and scan the Globe and Herald sports pages most every morning.

But the sports I do actually care a bit about are baseball and football. I love listening to the Sox on the radio on my way home in the summer with the window down. I love sitting down with a pile of nachos and taking in as much of a football game as The Boys will allow.

Now that the Bears went kerplunk, football season is over (no, I don't count that silly Pro Bowl game. That just makes me realize how little I can afford to take a good vacation to Hawaii). And baseball, real baseball, is two months away.

Hockey, pro basketball, college hoops, you say? I'd rather watch the director's cut of "Reds" most days. Hockey left my system after about age 12 when the Bruins stopped being fun and pro basketball did too after Magic and Larry hung em up. College hoops is great, but only in the Tournament. And don't even get me started on the Bruins and Celtics. Dead sports, both of them.

So I'm left to dream of spring, lean on Netflix for good deliveries and hope The Police truly rock tonight on the Grammy's.

Apparently, I'm not alone. The Herald announced on Page 1 this morning that they were doing their earliest baseball preview package ever. The great Tony Massarotti's two-page spread is pretty surface but, well, it was enough to turn the thoughts forward, not backward.

Pitchers and catchers report in 5 days. Can't be soon enough.

Cockfighting on the Road to the White House

2007-02-10T10:00:00.000-05:00

As a reporter, I saw a lot of strange things on the campaign trail. As an adviser, I saw more. But nothing quite brings out the true oddities of life in government and politics like the early jockeying of a presidential campaign.

To wit: The buzz out West about an end to cockfighting in New Mexico.

This week, New Mexican Gov. Bill Richardson suddenly came out in favor of a ban on cockfighting in his home state - one of only two states to still allow fighting birds. Richardson, a Democratic candidate for president, seems to think siding with the longstanding rooster fights might be an, umm, blemish on his record or somehow lead people to think he represents something of a backwoods state.

How people could get that from the "sport" of cockfighting is beyond me.

We've seen hometown governors, senators and congressmen do a lot of things over the years to bolster their records before launching a run at 1600 Penn. Romney did it here, so did Dukakis. Heck, W. Bush even happily worked with Democrats before leaving the Texas Governor's Mansion - for a while, anyway.

But cockfighting?

"The bottom line is that if Bill Richardson is not running for president, this wouldn't be an issue," said Leo Lopez, a 42-year-old Hobbs native who has been attending matches since he was 12. "He doesn't want it to be known that he's from a state with cockfighting."

Well, who could blame him, really?

But it could be worse, Governor, imagine you were running from the Tula Province deep in the woods south of Moscow. Now then, you'd have something to talk about.

Tivo Shows Some Fight

2007-02-09T21:36:00.000-05:00

Thank you, Tivo, for not going quietly into that good night.

Check out this story from today’s San Jose Mercury about Tivo teaming up with Amazon.com to provide a sort of ‘On Demand’ for their customers.

I was an early Tivo subscriber. We bought the box before it was cheap, signed up for the monthly service and told everybody that it changed our television viewing lives. It did and has now made us much better consumers of The Box. We watch better shows, fewer commercials and, on most nights, very little crap.

Comcast came along recently with its DVR, as has everyone else. We haven’t dumped Tivo yet and this news makes me want to stay with the original master.

So far the movies aren’t too pricey and seem like they might even be pretty easy to download – except for Neanderthals like us who don’t have wireless and have to hook The Box up to the phone cord every couple weeks since there’s no jack in our living room. (A rant for another day...).

But competition is good for everyone so it’s good to see Tivo isn’t throwing in the towel yet.

Maybe next they can figure out a way to not recommend Burt Reynolds movies and reruns of that show with Balki?

Oasis: DO Go Away

2007-02-08T21:05:00.000-05:00

For the record, before I rant about them, I used to love Oasis.

Great ‘90s band, I thought. “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?” was a fabulous album. Still gets regular play on the treasured iPod.

Some of their later albums, well, they were good. Each seemed to have one or two good songs - "Live Forever" and "Stand by Me" among them - but nothing on the scale of the start-to-finish greatness of Morning Glory.

Like most bands I like, I held out absolute judgment on them until I saw them live. My two favorite bands are U2 and Springsteen and the E Street Band so I value live music more than most and, because they set it, the bar is pretty darn high for putting on a good show.

I finally got around to seeing Oasis at the Orpheum in 2000 and, while they played a ton of good music, the show pretty much sucked. Liam and Noel just sort of stood there shouting out the music, didn’t offer any real energy and enthusiasm and crapped on the crowd whenever they could.

Like most Oasis fans, I always sort of discounted what they said because, well, clearly they were idiots who just made good music.

But making fun of U2 for talking about AIDS, famine and stupid poverty in Africa ? Now that’s just over the line, you dumb Brit. Check it out here in today's London Telegraph, Noel's interview with Neil McCormick, a good friend of U2, by the way.

Say what you say about Radiohead and compare yourself to The Beatles but, for God’s sake you yellow-toothed bastards, U2 doesn’t push its causes down anyone’s throat. I think there’s maybe one mention in each show these days, about a five-minute intro to “One” (which, by the way, is a song you no-doubt wish you wrote, Mr. ‘F-ing in the Bushes.’).

Let’s face it, Noel, you guys were about two good songs away from being the 90s version of Talk Talk. You are a three-hit wonder still living off your first good album and your 15 minutes ended at about minute number two.

Shut up, sit down or go wash your hair. But don’t knock U2 for trying to make the world a better place while also making good music – fans actually like that.

Yeesh, I feel better ...

The Man Behind the Hope

2007-02-08T19:59:00.000-05:00

The Nation just popped a fascinating profile on David Axelrod, the 51-year-old reporter-turned communications consultant (hmmm, now that’s an idea…) behind Barack Obama and Deval Patrick.

It’s a great read and, unless I missed it, exactly the kind of stuff the Globe, Herald, BoMag or Phoenix should have done during the 2006 campaign.

The piece sheds light on Axelrod’s thinking, methods and past – all of which will help frame the upcoming Obama-for-Prez movement. Of course, the piece starts with stories of similarities between the Patrick and Obama campaigns – one thing we heard a lot of in 2006.

I always wrote that off as similarities between the candidates, their uniquely impressive speaking styles and their views of government more than any kind of Axelrod playbook. This piece doesn’t delve too deeply into that, other than Axelrod saying he’s not the message deliverer but the guy who they feed off – “It’s like riffing with great musicians.”

I’ll give him this, he is astutely on message.

The piece doesn’t shed any real new light on the Patrick campaign but the test, as Axelrod surely knows, will be when the Obama campaign turns ugly. For all his protestations and the media hand-wringing, the 2006 campaign for governor was nothing compared to the presidential whirlwind the junior senator from Illinois is about to hit. And, like Patrick, Obama wasn’t particularly well tested on his past and, like Patrick, was elected more on a wave of tremendous public support, personality and over-arching vision than nuts and bolts plans. That won’t last long in the fields outside of Des Moines or the town dump in Exeter.

But don’t bet against Axelrod. Too many have already and lost their shirts.

Owen’s Stegosaurus Moment

2007-02-07T21:09:00.000-05:00

I guess I expected it someday, but it sure shocked the hell out of me when Owen clearly, directly and perfectly identified a stegosaurus the other day.

Let me be clear, I'm not selling the boy as a genius (yet), I’m not grooming him as a child paleontologist or anything (yet). But, c’mon – to be able to ID three different kinds of dinos at age three is pretty cool. And his teacher, the wonderful Miss Katie, says he’s one of only three kids in his class who can actually pronounce the words. My boy.

The point here, though, is that Owen saying such a thing was a total, utter, wonderful surprise. And I like that.

I’m not a big reader of books on child development. I was, at least for the first 6 months with Owen. I read the “What to Expect…” stuff when Heidi was pregnant and again when he was a newborn.

I think that’s required reading, particularly for the first solo flight with child. Who among us hasn’t had that moment when the husband/wife leaves to run some errands and you are alone with the kid the first time?

Mine went something like this:

Me: “Ok, kid, this is it. No dying on my watch.”
Owen: (Silent, slightly puzzled stare of the confused, doubt-filled or pooping child)
Me: “You can puke, you can poop and you can get hungry. Just don’t die on my watch. Just wait till Mommy gets back.”
Owen: (Looks around the room, sees Mommy nowhere, bursts into tears).
Me: “Ok, ok, no crying either.”
Owen: (Full-fledged wail)
Me: “Ok, cry. Just don’t die.”
Me (repeating): “Not on my watch, not on my watch, not on my watch.”

So I gave up after Owen hit his stride. I put the books away and let pure skill, dumb luck and instinct take over. And Jake, well, he’s been a challenge too but I feel like books are kind of for sissies now.

The problem is when the boy breaks out “stegosaurus” after I randomly asked him which dino was on his jammies. I mean, is this supposed to happen around now? I’m not entirely surprised when he counts to 20 (he always skips 13 for some reason – I think he might be Lucifer). And he’s had the ABCs down for a while now.

But what’s next? Long math, the Dewey Decimal System, and the intricacies of the 3-4 defense in the NFC?

Who knows? And, truthfully, who cares? If I knew, I wouldn’t have the reaction I had when he popped out “stegosaurus” with that big, wide, toothy grin.

Now I just walk up to him hoping those moments do happen – on my watch.

An Ouchie, from ... and for Hillary

2007-02-07T19:41:00.000-05:00

Thanks to the Globe’s Names for trolling through former DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe’s new book, “What a Party!” and finding what is surely one of the few tantalizing tidbits – the story about Ben, Matt and Gwyneth with Bill and Hill at Camp David.

The story is recounted here, so take a look.

But the even shorter version is that Affleck and Damon went to Camp David in 1998 to screen “Good Will Hunting” for President Clinton. McAuliffe found his way there and Hillary was around. Apparently the boys watched some playoff football with the Pres before dinner, where the true hilarity ensues.

And I quote:

“During dinner, while Damon bent Madeleine Albright's ear, Ben rose to greet his date. ‘Who's that?’ McAuliffe asked Hillary. ‘That's Gwyneth Paltrow, the actress, you idiot,’ snapped the first lady.

That is classic. You really can see Hillary calling McAuliffe an idiot on that one. By this point, she’d already been in “Emma,” “The Pallbearer,” and “Se7en” and that very year she was staring in “Sliding Doors,” “A Perfect Murder” and the movie that really put her on the map, “Shakespeare in Love.”

To quote Hillary again, “You idiot.”

Of course the kicker is that Clinton loved the movie, loved its sweet ending and said he had a romance like that and chasing the girl was the best thing he ever did. And, as Names points out, a few days later the Monica scandal broke.

Now that’s an ouchie.

Go Bears!

2007-02-03T07:46:00.000-05:00

It's great to be in New England these days for one main reason . No, not these guys. It's because all Pats fans are suddenly Bears fans. And who am I to complain?

I've been a fan of the Monsters of Midway since I was a young pup and somehow became fascinated with a whispy young back named Walter Payton. I think I'd seen "Brian's Song" with my brothers one night and, after I realized it is ok for guys to cry, I decided I loved a team with that kind of heart and a runner with that kind of grace and speed. I had it in #34.

I loved the Bears through some trying times. Can you say Bob Avellini, Vince Evans, and Mike Phipps at QB? A coach that let players leave the field early to make some personal phone calls and had Ken Margerum as a wideout and Gary Fencick as the lone defensive standout? It was bad.

In 82, things picked up. A new coach arrived, a tough-talker who once roamed Soldier's Field when they were the Monsters - Mike Ditka. He came into minicamp and said "The good news is, our goal is to win the division, conference and super bowl. The bad news is, as I look out at you all, many of you won't be here to see it." And he had a hotshot rookie quarterback, Jim McMahon.

Still, they finished the season 3-6. So much for changes.

But they were .500 the next year, and, in '84 Walter broke Jim Brown's single-season rushing record and they hit the playoffs for the first time in years.

And then came 1985. What 15-year-old wouldn't want the team they'd loved for years to suddenly propel itself into a dominant power. Only one loss, the best defense EVER, and the Super Bowl Shuffle. I am still ticked at Ditka for not giving Walter a Super Bowl TD (handing it instead to that overweight lineman named Perry because the TV loved him). But they throttled the Pats (sorry locals) and were World Champs again. Good, good times.

Then came the Tomczak era, some good seasons but no more rings, the strike, Walter's retirement, the loss of Ditka, and a series of pretty unremarkable years.

Thanks, I think, to the return of a glory days-style defense in 2005, the Bears are back. I get thrills and chills like that 15-year-old again with names like Urlacher, Tillman, Brown and Tank Johnson, what's not to like? Jones and Benson are no Payton but they get it done. I'm not as down on Rex as most, but I do like Griese more (having seem him play in college, I think he's got talents) and you can't say many bad things about Muhsin and Des Clark.

So we're underdogs this time, giving 7. That's probably fair. The AFC is dominant and the Colts are a tough, tough team to beat.

Could it happen? Of course it could happen. The Bears have been defying expecations all year. On this given Sunday, I'll sure be wearing my Bear colors - and I think some of my friends and neighbors will be joining in in rooting for the return of the Monsters.

Go Bears!

Well this isn't going to be easy

2007-02-03T07:40:00.000-05:00

I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but this is just plain hard.

Day two into this whole work thing again and it seems pretty clear I have to come up with a better way to keep my side projects (this among them) going. As you can see, the blog suffered as my employment became, well, full.

I could detail but the bottom line is out the door by 7 and not back in the door until after 7 doesn't leave much time for blogging. We all know I won't be blogging at work. So where, dear reader, do I find the time?

Thoughts, suggestions, surrogates and clones are welcome.

Here's to privacy in government

2007-01-31T12:59:00.000-05:00

It's not often that David D'Alessandro steps out of the shadows these days. The former John Hancock CEO is comfortable in his semi-retirement - owning Toscano on Charles Street and dabbling here and there in matters public and private.

But the guy is nothing short of genius and, when he puts pen to paper, I read. Today's tour de force in the Globe was worth it for me and everyone who cares about Boston and it's future should take a look.

It's a difficult sell at first - this idea that a search for a new superintendent of Boston schools should be at least semi-private, cutting out the do-gooder neighborhood and school groups that help drive any success the schools have. But when you look at the unmitigated disaster that has so-far unfolded in trying to replace Tom Payzant, it starts to make a hell of a lot of sense.

As a former reporter, I do believe in transparency in government. But I have seen in my two years in government that there are times when a story - even a straight story - can upend government's over-arching goal, which is to do its best for the people.

In this case, if Boston gets a better superintendent because the process is a bit more shrouded, who's really hurt? Plus, look at D'Alesandro's track record in searches - he was smart enough to pull Eddie Davis down from Lowell to run the Boston Police Department. He gets it.

D'Alesandro is right - the people of Boston hired Mayor Menino, he has taken ownership of the schools, let him do his job.

Brad Pitt Can't Act

2007-01-30T13:45:00.000-05:00

So I took myself to see Babel the other day. I wanted to see it when it came out but, well, life interrupted. And, I'll admit it, the Oscar buzz got to me. So I picked Babel over 'Letters from Iwo Jima,' and I was fine with my choice. It was a good movie, a bit stressful, but well done.

Still, I left with that odd sort of feeling like I got duped. And I realized, that's because Brad Pitt just can't act.

The guy is literally just a pretty face who brings nothing to the screen. I'll admit that when George Clooney is on screen, he has skills, he commands the scene. Same with Leonardo DiCaprio. But Pitt? Name two roles the guy actually should get nominated for, I dare you.

Here's the list if you want a refresher.

I loved him in "Ocean's 11" but mostly because Soderbergh had him eating in every scene. Hilarious. But the guy needs nachos to be funny when Clooney walks out of jail in a tux?

"Se7en" was another great movie. But that was more David Fincher and Kevin Spacey than Pitt. Hell, even boring Gwenyth found a way to outshine Brad in that one.

Pitt for me will always be the loser he sort of started off in film as - the hick in "Thelma and Louise." Sure, he's done well - and doing good -with Angelina. But see Babel and tell me, honestly, that the Academy didn't know what they were doing when they "snubbed" Brad.

Not Spreading the Word

2007-01-29T13:50:00.000-05:00

Typically, I've found, when people create blogs, they shout it from the rooftops - for good reason. It's exciting, you want the attention, you want the hits. I decided to take a different path, and I'm taking a beating in the process.

I told no one when I put this blog up last week. Well, almost no one. I told the wife. I told Lisa Davis, who inspired me to finally take the plunge after she created hers. And I told one friend almost in passing before it hit me that it might be a fun experiment to tell no one.

The Experiment has been fun, and continues to be.

Seth Gitell was first to find me - no doubt notified that I linked to his great blog. A ton of people found me through there and my parents learned when Seth's post showed up on the Google alert they created for my name (a truly hilarious topic for another time). Adam Hurtubise was next and opened me up to some of his friends and fellow bloggers. Then Adam Reilly posted and one person found me that way. Now the trickle continues as I get various mentions in various quarters. All this is fun, for me.

But some friends are not so amused at The Experiment. Maybe they are ashamed that others clearly knew first - cutting, perhaps, into their blog-egos. Maybe they are surprised that an egoist like me didn't take out an ad to announce it. Maybe they've got a point. Who knows.

But The Experiment remains in effect and I'm telling no one. Most of my former Reilly cohorts haven't a clue - can't wait for the crap I'll take from them if this stretches into a matter of weeks.

Either way, I'm having fun which, really, isn't that what it's all about?

Times/Globe Page 1 - Separated at Birth, United in Barack

2007-01-28T09:53:00.000-05:00

At first, I thought my hangover might have been worse that I thought. I did have a long night with some of Heidi's work crew (a fabulous dinner at the Grapevine in Salem, by the way, check it out).

I realized that, while my eyes were bleary, I wasn't seeing double - this Sunday morning's Boston Globe and New York Times do both have front page features on Barack Obama's days at Harvard Law School. Here's the Globe story. Here's the Times' take.

Coincidence? Something tells me it's not. Collusion? Doubt that too.

My guess - the Globe picked up that the Times was in town doing a Harvard Law scrub on Obama and quickly dispatched two of their better and faster-working reporters to bang something out. Both features are well-done and strikingly similar. But I'm sure that has more to do with the fact that they talked to a lot of the same people and are probably both pretty close to what really happened to Obama at Harvard Law. No mystery there.

But I'm sure some will jump to oddball conclusions that this means the Globe and Times are sharing more than profits. It's silly to think this means the Globe and Times are fronting Barack together. Chalk this one up more to hometown pride by the Globe not wanting to be scooped on a presidential campaign feature in their backyard than any kind of grand scheming.

Of course, the Globe did beat the Times to the single best bit of info in either story - that Obama still owes excise tax and parking tickets in Cambridge. Why this wasn't pulled out into an amusing sidebar, I don't know. Could have been great opposition research turned on it's head story - here's a candidate for the presidency who has already admitted in an autobiography to doing cocaine but ... shock of shocks, he doesn't pay his parking tickets!

Or maybe that's the hangover kicking back in....

The Reluctant Mrs. Obama

2007-01-27T15:10:00.000-05:00

Newsweek has a great story this week on Michelle Obama, the seemingly reluctant wife of Barack-star Obama. Apparently this Mrs. O is a bit hesitant on stage, though she certainly has an impressive background and an inspiring life story of her own.

It's always an interesting sideshow to watch, this dance the media does with spouces of candidates.

So far, Mrs. O seems to be inching a bit more toward the path set last time by the outright reserved spouce of Howard Dean - Dr. Judith Steinberg. Steinberg really shunned the media and didn't campaign at all with her husband. When Maureen Dowd took a whack, it created quite a stir and, suddenly behind Sen. John Kerry in New Hampshire after Kerry's suprise in Iowa, guess what Dean did? Well, he trotted out the wife. I was there that day in a cramped New Hampshire schoolhouse, it was pretty sad.

Lord knows we saw a ton of Teresa Heinz and Elizabeth Edwards - proof the out-front spouce can cut both ways, I think. Edwards thinks his wife is such an asset, she's now written a book, gone on Oprah and has her own blog.

And then we've got Mr. Hillary Clinton to deal with this time - the ultimate quandry of spousal impact on a presidential campaign. What's Bill doing? What's Bill not doing? Why is/isn't Bill doing it?

That, of course, isn't even getting to the kids. Dick Cheney almost took out Wolf Blitzer with his hunting rifle for having the gall to ask about Cheney's daughter - this being after said daughter campaigned publicly for her dad, wrote a book and even went on Wolf's show to promote it.

Time will tell whether the public fascination with Mr. Obama extends to Mrs. Obama.

My unsolicited advice - if she doesn't want on the campaign trail, keep her off and have her do a couple very high profile interviews (Oprah, 60 Minutes, Times Magazine, Washington Post Style Section) and then minor profiles in key primary state papers and TV (Iowa, N.H., S.C., and Arizona should do it). That will fend off most of the criticism, will keep her largely out of harm's way (and away from chili-feeds) and help her keep some measure of sanity for the kids.

But she's already got a problem - she's interesting. And that, my friends, will draw the media like white on rice. Heck, I can't stop thinking of the commitment it takes to get up every morning at 430 a.m to work out. I've got two kids too and I thought my 5:30 a.m. wakeup call from Jake was impressive.

Bring on the Reunion

2007-01-26T09:11:00.000-05:00

A Canadian rock radio station this morning brings us a step closer to a reunion of, next to U2 of course, one of rock's greats - The Police.

The Vancouver classic rock station reported the trio have booked Lions Gate Studios there to rehearse for their upcoming tour. And rumors are stronger still that Sting, guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland will open the Grammy's in Los Angeles on Feb. 11.

(By the way, my bet for surprise opener from them if they do the show ... "Roxanne" - though I'd personally rather see "So Lonely" or a deep track like "Born in the '50s." What's your pick?)

I've been a fan since the early 80s when my brother Mike brought home Ghost in the Machine but it was 1983's Synchronicity that hit at the perfect time for my young music-loving ears. At 13, I was the perfect age to fall deeply into songs like "King of Pain" and "Tea in the Sahara." Of course, the young ladies loved to fast-forward the tape on my boombox to "Every Breath You Take" - apparently they didn't get that it was pretty much a stalker song. And back when the industry was trying to shy us away from LPs and toward cassette tapes, the courageous buyer could find the great bonus track - "Murder by Numbers." Good stuff all.

I was never able to see The Police that last full tour. The closest they came to upstate New York was Shea Stadium that August and my folks wouldn't let Mike and I treck down to the big city. I was crushed, particularly since Joan Jett was opening.

We did catch them on the Conspiracy of Hope tour in 1986 (the great Amnesty International benefit tour with U2, Peter Gabriel, Bryan Adams and others). They played a pretty quick set but blew the doors down - especially when Bono joined for a great version of "Invisible Sun"

I know, I know, reunion tours always suck. That's true, often. But not always. They are particularly fun for folks like me who never had a true chance to catch the band in their prime but still love the music and are just looking for a good trip down memory lane for a night.

And, while I might also go hit Van Halen's reunion with David Lee Roth - the urge isn't that great since I did catch them in their prime, 1984 in the Meadowlands. And, well, everything they've done since the 1984 album is god awful.

All hail the return of The Police - let's just hope they break out Sally the inflatable girlfriend for the visit. Next up on my reunion wishlist - The Alarm, The Smiths and Genesis (with Gabriel, naturally).

Win for Danvers, Win for Patrick

2007-01-25T15:22:00.000-05:00

I was driving through Danversport today, as I often do - typically on the way to the mall or Chuck-E-Cheese or something with The Boys. Each time, I pass the part of town that was pretty well destroyed by the Nov. 22 chemical explosion.

As usual, the TV and still photos, don't do the scene justice. Homes and businesses along that stretch are still shuttered. People are living in them, yes. But most every window is boarded up. Imagine having your Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years with boarded windows. Residents can't do the construction or, worse, can't afford to, as they fight with insurance companies.

So Gov. Patrick made it his business to join the voices from the North Shore calling for aid for the victims. A full-on relief package is pending but Patrick filed his first bill as governor allowing residents and businesses to receive a tax credit. It won't cost the state anything and clearly the people of Danvers were thrilled.

In the end, it might cut about a third of people's tax bills but help is help and it's a start.

And, of course, it's good politics for Deval - just ask Janet Lettich.

Don't Cry for me, Bogota

2007-01-25T09:26:00.000-05:00

Conventional wisdom is the Globe made itself a smaller paper by closing its three remaining foreign bureaus as part of its continued downsizing. I say well done. I may be the only media maven not fretting over the shuttering of the Globe's international outposts but I'd be willing to bet I'm in the majority of avid Globe readers who couldn't care less.

The Globe's international reporting has been steller over the years, no doubt. John Donnelly has done great work from Africa, Elizabeth Neuffer was courageous in Iraq.

But my personal high water mark was Colin Nickerson in Sarajevo at the height of the Bosnian conflict. His stories about the animals trapped starving in the zoo while snipers took out people trying to feed them were nothing short of brilliant. I was a college intern on the Globe foreign desk then and gave him dispatches on local news and sports as he filed his copy each night. We hung his used Kevlar body armor on the newsroom wall after he'd pulled out. His writing, his heroism and his commitment helped convince me to stay in journalism for more than a decade.

But each of those examples, and most others that are being used by the Kleenex crowd mourning the loss of their father's Globe have a stunning pattern - they weren't reporters actually based in the city or even the region they were covering. They shuttled in and out of conflicts, tragedies and triumphs the way great journalists have done for decades. And I see nothing in Marty Baron's memo that says the Globe won't keep doing that - and keep doing that well.

The happy side result is that there's a chance the Globe will rededicate those resources to covering Boston. And not just the latest murder on Blue Hill, Governor Patrick's lastest podcast or where to find the best burger in the city. I mean covering Boston and Massachusetts the way only a dominant daily can. By breaking news before the developers tell them they can break it, by telegraphing what our government is doing with our money before they do it and by telling the kind of simple, heart-wrenching stories a city like ours strives for but too often doesn't see because of simple journalistic laziness.

What do I mean by this? Check Steve Bailey's Downtown column most days - just in the last few weeks he upended the debate over tolls and taxes and went on to artfully lampoon those bemoaning the loss of prescious Lottery revenues. Read Kevin Cullen's amazing tale of the Iraqi boy named Rakan who was shot in Iraq and "put back together" by a team of Boston doctors. And pick up Brian McGrory - the man has truly grown into the heartbeat of Boston.

I'm not fully in the Jack Welch camp that all large regional dailies like the Globe need to exclusively refocus their energies on local news alone. As my former Herald colleague Michael Gee pointed out on his blog, our alma mater tried that.

But they need to focus on what they can and should do best. Sure, all newspapers need to figure out a new way to make money on the Internet and to give their seemingly dying product life. But we all know the one thing bloggers, TV news, radio and citizen journalists can't do as well as a strong daily newspaper - actually cover their region. To that end, the Globe has taken a strong step in the right direction.

She's 'In' And Coming North

2007-01-24T09:04:00.000-05:00

Fresh off the creation of her exploratory committee, Hillary Clinton has announced her first trip to the first-in-the-nation primary state next weekend.

The Concord Monitor's great Primary Monitor Blog quotes Clinton field director, former Howard Dean hand Karen Hicks, saying the junior senator from New York will be in the Granite State Feb. 3 and 4. No info yet but expect this visit to be bigger than the Obama-palooza we endured on the Illinois senator's first trip a month ago.

You have to pity the batch of other real candidates who are going barely noticed there these days. But, remember Hill and Obama, what's up always must fall down - it's the New Hampshire primary way.

Stranger than Fiction, Volume one

2007-01-24T08:25:00.000-05:00

I decided early on that one thing I'd try to do every day here is promote stories that, while true, really belong in the world of fiction.

I figured I'd be pulling typically from worldwide sources. Who knew the perfect example would be on Page One of the Globe this morning. Boston City Councilor John Tobin has decided that Boston needs ... drum roll please, a poet laureate. Setting aside the fact that Matt Viser tried to be poetic in his lede - never a good idea unless you can really nail it, the story is nothing short of amazing.

Third-term councilor and anxious mayoral wannabe Tobin has, to this point, proved himself pretty adept at getting good press on common sense problems the city faces. He was on the right side of the beer/wine in convenience stores fight, has taken on out-dated city residency rules and, in a true breath of fresh air, admits to his mayoral aspirations.

But a poet laureate? First off, he's not even saying yet whether the position will be paid. In some cities, there is a stipend. Look, I've known some councilors who shouldn't be paid - but a poet on the city dime? Get real.

The idea is to have someone pen poetry in honor of the big annual Boston events, like the State of the City. Leaving our current mayor out of it, what State of the City is ever going to feel significant enough for a poetry slam?

I'm not even going to go for the simple layup of arguing that kids are dying in the street, councilor, so focus on something real (just see yesterday's well-done McGrory column for that). Let's talk about schools, trash, noise, traffic, housing, parking, snow removal, T service, potholes, sidewalks, park maintenance, and on and on and on.

A city councilor once told me the trick to success on the council is to bide your time, come up with three good ideas a year and hope the mayor, your district rep or senator leaves at the perfect time for you.

For this year, Tobin's still looking for his three ideas.

Shout-out from Seth

2007-01-23T19:17:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Seth Gitell, first to officially notice Guarino-Blog with a nice post titled, Guarino Joins the Fray.

Seth is proving on the blogosphere what he did on the 5th floor of City Hall and at The Boston Phoenix - that good people always do well. Both organizations could use a little bit of Seth right now.

Keep an eye on Seth's blog, particularly the restaurant commentary - a must read.

Bush SOTU: Is it hot in here?

2007-01-23T11:18:00.000-05:00

So the president speaks tonight and the nation, those who aren't instead watching "Lindsay Lohan's Shocking Moments" on VHI, will listen. Iraq being, well, Iraq, Bush will want to change the subject slightly and, according to reports, has some ideas about global warming.

This, of course, is a laugh riot because the guy has been fighting states like Massachusetts for the better part of six years on efforts to enforce something as simple as the Clean Air Act. I was there in November when Massachusetts and a dozen other states had to take their fight to the United States Suprme Court because Bush's EPA won't do it's job. The Supremes are still thinking it over (though I think we won over Justice Kennedy and even got the respect of, but not the vote of, Justice Scalia and we'll end up winning 5-4).

So now Bush apparently watched "An Inconvenient Truth" in the White House screening room and wants to take on this global warming thing. Letterman joked the other night that his policy will be called "No Ice Cap Left Behind." Funny, kinda.

In truth, I say bully for Bush. Late to the party but, hey, let's welcome him in and try anew to get something done. Yesterday in the Times, Jim Rutenberg and Robert Pear wrote that that the president was pushing a domestic agenda because he's still failing in the polls. Makes sense - people actually like when their presidents and the Congress deal with issues that mean something to them like health care and the environment.

Sure Iraq is important and, no doubt, Senator Jim Webb will give em hell in the Democrats' response. But let's not forget that the people are saying over and over in the polls that they are sick of the Red State/Blue State dramas.

Let Bush have his moment, see what he has to say on global warming and, maybe, just maybe, we'll get something done.

Welcome

2007-01-23T10:55:00.000-05:00

I'm back. Can't say for sure if I'm better than ever, but I'm back.

Today starts my blogging anew. More than two years ago, I started the first ever blog at The Boston Herald. We were gearing up for a presidential campaign then and our senator, John Kerry, was jumping in. We called it "The Road to 1600."

I had fun with it while the campaign lasted but decided to hang up my journalism spurs the next year, ending a 12-year run covering local, state and national politics. I love journalism, particularly print journalism, but I needed a new challenge. I signed on with Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly as his communications director. It was a blast. I got to see the amazing work of the Attorney General's Office up close, served as a senior staffer to our too-brief run for governor and worked on the front lines of truly trying to make our state a better place.

Now I'm looking for a new challenge, taking some time and hoping to find the right fit. Whether it's in government, the corporate boardroom or somewhere inbetween, I know the one thing I do miss about journalism is the writing. So here I am.

I intend to tackle issues from the important (like global, national, state and local politics) to the mundane (like when is someone in the city of Salem going to figure out that one road in and one road out just isn't a good idea?) and absurd (like the truly inspiring shrieking match my two young sons had on the drive to school this morning).

Hope you enjoy it and, more importantly, join in. Thanks for reading.