Coffee in Worcester: Boulevard Diner

In this coffee review about the Boulevard Diner, Bruce and I are joined by Michael, the “publisher” of Pie and Coffee, who rarely appears on this blog. He speaks Hungarian, is a fan of classic diners, and lives near Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Pie and Coffee: So how do you say her name?

Michael: Báthory Erzsébet.

P: And what were you telling me about her?

M: Well, she liked to bathe in the blood of young girls. She thought it kept her young. And that’s not really cool, but the family couldn’t kill her, because she had a title and all that, and you don’t kill a family member. So they walled her up in her room, because they weren’t really killing her then.

P: So they just let her die.

M: Roughly speaking, yeah.

Bruce: Of a slow death.

M: Yeah. But they didn’t kill her!

B: Of a bloody death.

P: Did you hear Bruce’s song about her?

M: Yes I did, I liked that very much.

P: It got a good review on Volcano Boy.

B: I got a great review on Volcano Boy.

M: I saw that too.

B: You know what they say about Volcano Boy.

M: What do they say about Volcano Boy?

P: It’s a volcano—watch out for the ashes! They get hot!

P: So the Boulevard Diner.

M: The Boulevard Diner rocks!
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Worcester County Ecumenical Council dissolving

Tanya Connor, in the Catholic Free Press:

The Worcester County Ecumenical Council is closing on June 30, due to waning support and changes in ecumenical endeavors.

The Rev. Allyson D. Platt, executive director, made that announcement in a March 1 letter and explained reasons to The Catholic Free Press Tuesday.

“The General Board, with both current and past members, reached this unanimous decision in the fall of 2006,” said the letter. Rev. Platt said they worked out details before making the announcement.

(read more)

I have mixed feelings about this. Part of me thinks that somebody should be doing full-time ecumenical work around here. (According to the article, running the Council is a 17-hour-a-week endeavor.) Another part of me is glad to know that Worcester is a city of religious cooperation, and that the people behind the WCEC are willing to say “mission accomplished” rather than keep the WCEC together just for the sake of keeping it together.

Items

Cha-Cha ConnorSupermodels for Oaxaca: In May, Miss Universe will be holding its “traditional costume” competition in Oaxaca. Given that repressive Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz is likely to capitalize on this event, a group of activists calling themselves the Popular Assembly of Models for Oaxaca (AMPO) will be dressing up and picketing Donald Trump and NBC in Manhattan. on April 18 Auditions are April 18. Narco News has more, courtesy Worcester’s own Cha-Cha Connor.

Press release

Pictured: Activist and “Spokesmodel for Oaxaca” Cha-Cha Connor. “We models aren’t cheap props for dictators.”

Caltech: Niniane has photos and memories of a Caltech mini-reunion.

Taxing non-profits: The Worcester City Council is always mumbling about asking non-profits for a “payment in lieu of taxes.” (PILOT, or, as I like to call it, “taxes.”) Bill Randell wonders why the recommendations of the last city Task Force on this issue haven’t bourne fruit.

St Patrick’s Day: A classic video from last year.


Click To Play

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Less anxiety about the Worcester Wal-Mart

Don’t get me wrong. I still think bringing Wal-Mart to the city would be, economically, a step in the wrong direction. But after meeting with some folks about this last night, I no longer feel a free-floating anxiety. I don’t have a lot of hope at this point, but I have some actions I can take.


Click To Play

For those who are interested, you can read the planning proposal.

Nine Days in April: A Free Conference Guided By Catholic Social Teaching

Seeking and Working for Social Justice and Peace as Guided by the Nine Themes of Catholic Social Teaching: An Easter Novena and Conference at Anna Maria College, 50 Sunset Lane, Paxton, Massachusetts.

April 10th through 21st, 2007

The Theology and Religious Studies Community at Anna Maria College, Paxton, MA invites you to a multi-day conference on the nine themes of Catholic Social Teaching. Each day of the conference is devoted to one of the nine themes. This spring conference purposely coincides with Anna Maria’s student musical, “Cotton Patch Gospel” by Harry Chapin which will be presented on the evenings of Thursday, April 12 and Friday, April 13 at 7 PM.

The Novena/Conference aims to increase understanding of and enthusiasm for the faithful pursuit of social justice and peace called for by Scriptural inspiration and admonition, Christian tradition, and the century-plus old promulgation of social encyclicals issued by recent Popes. The Conference will also attend to the documents of the Ecumenical Councils and select pastoral letters issued by Bishops’ conferences.

Fr Bernie Gilgun’s homily, March 2, 2007

This is a recording of a homily by Father Bernie Gilgun, from his weekly Mass at the Mustard Seed in Worcester, Massachusetts. You can download the mp3 (4.5MB) or see other formats. You can also subscribe (RSS) to the podcast.

Reading for March 2, 2007.

Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar,
and there recall that your brother
has anything against you,
leave your gift there at the altar,
go first and be reconciled with your brother,
and then come and offer your gift.

Items


Bob Waldrop, on the US Catholic Bishops:

These documents are the latest in a series of morally problematic statements on Iraq from the U.S. Bishops’ Conference. The bishops ignore their own personal responsibility for our nation’s disastrous war policy. They inflate their reputation as peacemakers and they call for even more war and violence in their crusade for a “responsible transition” in Iraq. See how clever they are with words? War is no longer peace, now it is “responsible transition”.

Free shirt: In the latest WCCA Internet Update, I promote a contest wherein you can win a free shirt. Watch it, enter it, and with luck you can wear it.


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Hermis Yanis switches stations

The final episode of The Hermis Yanis Show on WCCA TV13 airs next week. The first episode of “Hermis At Large” airs on channel 3 this Friday at 3pm.

This show has always been controversial for unknown reasons, so I thought it was worth a mention as part of the local media landscape. WCCA wishes him well.

Hermis keeps telling me he’ll send the press release, and then forgetting, so I talked to him today and here’s what I know:

  • It will start off as a 30 minute show, and may change time and length as TV3’s schedule changes. TV3 shows a lot of infomercials as well as NECN. You have to pay for your slot, so the show will have some commercial sponsors and could conceivably turn a profit.
  • The first guests are Mayor Konnie Lukes, prominent attorney Gregory Cassell, and Christina Andreanopolis, PR person for the New England Surge. (Sorry if I spelled any names wrong.)

Beyond Broadcast and other items

Aside from seeing a One Laptop Per Child computer, this year’s Beyond Broadcast conference (at MIT) was underwhelming. But then I had a similar impression after last year’s. It took months for the ideas to start bearing fruit. The session on the future of public access TV, for example, just sort of drifted around, but I think it will catalyze discussions about this topic at my local public access station. And those discussions could have a real impact.

OLPC
OLPC, with metal hand sign for scale

Dave Winer:

I have no idea what they’re talking about. They use terms that I don’t have a sense of what they mean in real terms. When they talk about the “grass roots” I guess those are the people you see on BART or the Red Line. How do these people meet them? When these guys go to work, what do they do every day?

The term “grassroots” doesn’t bother me, but this discussion weirded me out, too. On the electronic forum during the panel, somebody asked how these grassroots projects are supposed to be funded. Answer: with your day job. If the core of the funding isn’t people’s personal money, and the core of the work isn’t being done by non-professionals, I don’t see how it’s grassroots.

After the conference, I had dinner with family. My cousin (an MIT grad) works for a firm that does architectural law, and she told me that the aesthetic criminals behind the Stata Center have not, to her knowledge, been brought to justice.
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