January 2006

Each Tuesday afternoon for years there’s been a peace vigil in Lincoln Square. To pass the time, the vigilers count the number of positive and negative responses from people driving by.

Apparently the upcoming State of the Union speech had Worcesterites riled up today–check out the high ratio of positive:negative reponses (117:6). We haven’t seen anti-war sentiment like this since the height of Cindy Sheehan Fever.

I think that the vigil gets a higher ratio of positive responses than you’d get if you did a phone survey; most people shy away from confronting demonstrators if they disagree. But the trend over time is a different story. I think it reflects the changing mood of the area.

(This scatterplot is designed for the page rather than the screen–hope you don’t have to squint too much. A screen-friendly scatterplot will debut in 2006. Some weeks have no dot on the scatterplot because nobody wrote the numbers down.)

A good pie starts with a good pie crust. I once complained to my grandmother that I couldn’t make a decent pie crust. She said, “Bobby Max, that’s because you haven’t made enough pies. When you have made 100 pies, you will be able to make a great pie crust.”
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People crowd the Vietnamese Buddhist temple on Dewey Street in Worcester, Massachusetts, to celebrate the new year (Tết Nguyên Ðán).

Global Voices has a good wrapup of Chinese New Year (and Tet).

You’ll notice that the photo above is probably the least-colorful Chinese New Year picture ever taken. I didn’t think to run home and get my camera until after the dragons, fireworks, and the rest were over. Kevin Ksen took a couple good pictures inside the temple, below.
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A few items and a lot of media analysis–or, as my grandparents’ generation called it, “bitching about the paper.”
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Central Massachusetts’s own Elmer Gantry, the suspiciously well-groomed Tom Crouse of Engaging Your World Productions, is holding an it-would-be-offensive-if-it-weren’t-so-lame event in Worcester next month called “Mr. Hetero.” You’d think conservative Catholics would be a core part of the audience–not no more. Today in his blog, he calls for the arrest of the pope, then writes:

“There is no other organization, in my opinion, this side of NAMBLA that has done more to promote and enable the rape of kids than the Roman Catholic Church.”

Pro-gay groups are encouraging local institutions to boycott prestigious Mechanics Hall, which is hosting the event. Now Crouse is working to annoy the largest religious group in the state. Who will he alienate next? Patriots fans? Candlepin bowlers?

Postscript

Another comment:

I pray and encourage you all to pray for those trapped in the evil web of the hypocrisy and heresy that is known as the Roman Catholic Church!

Please see also “Let us now praise Mr. Hetero.”