But is the party really over? I’m not so sure. There’s a Tea Party event being held next Saturday the 12th at Fanueil Hall; a deliberate attempt to restore some respectability to the movement. Speakers are of a decidedly non-Palin-esque persuasion, including Peter Schiff and Creature from Jekyll Island author G. Edward Griffin.

Going to check it out.

Here’s the interview:

Cape Wind Project Moves Forward

Be sure to listen to the callers. Having just learned about the escalating disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, I couldn’t help but come away from the interview with a feeling that the show had been professionally “hit” by the oil lobby. Or maybe it was disinformation orchestrated by the Institute for Energy Research of which Denise warns. Or perhaps those were actual angry NIMBY Cape residents pretending to have more noble concerns.

Either way, I wasn’t buying it. Jim deflected the arguments with the nonchalance of over-learned routine.

Congrats to Cape Wind.

Opening Day at Fenway

It’s opening day at Fenway
And a thrill is in the air
The champs are back in town
And there’s a hum in Kenmore square
The long cold winters over now
The snows have gone away
The sun is getting higher
And it’s warmer day by day
Emerging from our overcoats
Like moths from our cocoons
We spread our wings and point our hearts
Towards April, Mays and Junes
When the seasons full of promise
And the field’s full of dreams
And the old ball yard on Yawkey way
Is bursting at the seams.

It’s opening day at Fenway
And the fans are streaming in
From Southie, Newton, Roxbury
From Everett and Lynn
The ushers in their bright red coats
Are dusting off the chairs
The boys are selling popcorn
And yelling up and down the stairs.

It’s opening day at Fenway
And by some peculiar quirk
Some thirty thousand people
Have the same day off from work
Ten thousand aunts are sacrificed
On the alter of opening day
Their funeral processions
All end up on Yawkey way
The seats are filling up now
The opening pitch is near
The bleacher bums get settled with
Their plastic cups of beer
For some fans it’s their first game
For some perhaps their last
But all are here united
With the glory’s of the past
They gaze upon that green expanse
Where heroes played the game
Williams, Yaz and Manny
And more of lesser fame.

It’s opening day at Fenway
The pitchers on the mound
The patch of earth in Boston
once again is sacred ground
Heroes of tomorrow and ghosts of yesterday
Line up along the foul line
as the anthem starts to play
Now the rabble in the bleacher seats
Takes up the ancient call
It rumbles through the grandstand
And rattles off the wall
Play Ball the thirty thousand call
Let the game begin
It’s opening day at Fenway
And the Sox are gonna win.

Of course, I should really say baozi since these were authentic Chinese steamed buns. Served, oddly enough, in a plastic glove.

Oddness aside, they’re delicious.  If I passed through Porter Square every day I could imagine a stop at the newsstand quickly becoming a breakfast habit.

I plan to swing by later this week and see if the lights are up.  Though I for one enjoyed last year’s bizarre spectacle of lights, I suspect that Jamaica Plainers just might be getting a little more sleep this Christmas.

On October 11, 2002 Congress approved the “Iraq War Resolution” granting the Bush administration authorization to invade Iraq.  It was to be a quick war, we were told.

Six years later, 1 in 3 Iraqis have been killed, wounded, or displaced.  Over 4,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed with tens of thousands more seriously wounded.

The three trillion dollar Iraq War, burning through $10 billion dollars per month, has been funded with deficit dollars — money we do not have.

How much longer will we borrow to wage a war founded on lies; when our ailing economy threatens jobs, education, healthcare, and disaster relief?

On Saturday, October 11th, 2008, Bostonians will gather in Boston Common to make a stand.

For more information, see the official rally website and the program for a list of performers and speakers.

Update: This drew a much larger crowd than I anticipated; where I expected to see hundreds, there were thousands. Still much smaller than it needs to be, but encouraging.

Crowds will certainly grow as the economy worsens.

The “Castle” was pretty impressive last year, when the lights alone appear to have cost about $10,000 dollars. But this year its over the top. Literally. Atop Luberto’s $2 million dollar domicile this year sits a ten-foot high 650 pound illuminated gold crown.

Apparently back in November the city was after Luberto, stating that the crown is a permit-requiring structure. Luberto claimed it to be just a “temporary Christmas decoration.” He must have won; the crown was still up when we went to see it last night.

Even more bizarre than the display itself is the fact that Luberto seems to be using it to advertise his own version of Where’s Waldo.

An illuminated sign out front, finddominicdecorating.com, points to a self-published book available from AuthorHouse.com.

The “Free Preview” paragraph on AuthorHouse proudly declares:

Hi kids! This is your friend Dominic. I’ll decorate my Castle for Christmas. Can you guess which decorations I will use? Dominic will love to paste some of the book pictures but this program doesn’t let us do that.

Woah.

So with marketing collateral like that, what else could I do? I ordered a book from my friend Dominic. Hopefully the program will let him send it to me.

On the way out I was surprised to see how varied the audience was in age. Stephen is not just funny, he’s funny for everyone.

See English Rakugo Boston 2007 for details.

Following a seminar about the crazy healthcare reform laws that have befallen Massaschusetts, we decided to stop by Oga’s in Natick to see what the rest of the Boston Japanese community was raving about. Wow, we weren’t disappointed.

Though Oga’s looks pricey for dinner, a formal (read: “fancy-ish”) bento box lunch was only about $12. I had a fairly good tonkatsu pork bento (complete with cabbage and sauce), and Miho a really spectacular sushi box lunch.

Oga’s can be a bit far out of Boston on the highway, but worth the trip. Best bento I’ve ever had in the US.