Bitching about Boston

[trysail]

You really ought to get treatment for your anxiety disorder.

When did you become so susceptible to superstitious beliefs resembling those of a medieval peasant? Your hysteria borders on the pathological.

Tornadoes have been going through Massachusetts as long as there's been recorded history.



​

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

1,500 lightning strikes

Gardener, MA

Warnings for Gloucester, surrounding towns
Cape Ann

Wakefield, MA

Straight line winds possible
Cell activity

Warning for Northboro

New Hampshire ?

Counties Under Advisory
Belknap
Carroll
Cheshire
Coos
Grafton
Hillsborough
Merrimack
Rockingham
Strafford
Sullivan

46 PM EDT on August 4, 2015, expires at: 3:15 PM EDT on August 04, 2015
...A Severe Thunderstorm Warning remains in effect until 315 PM EDT for southeastern Merrimack...northwestern Rockingham...east central Hillsborough and southwestern Strafford counties... At 246 PM EDT...Doppler radar indicated a severe thunderstorm capable of producing damaging winds in excess of 60 mph. This storm was located near pawtuckaway State Park...or near Auburn...moving east at 35 mph. Pea size hail may also accompany the damaging winds. Locations impacted include... Exeter...Northwood...Hooksett...Barrington...Farmington...Epping... Epsom...Brentwood...pawtuckaway State Park...Bear Brook State Park... Raymond...Newmarket...Kingston...Chester...Danville...Lee... Allenstown...Fremont...Deerfield and Candia.

Precautionary/preparedness actions... Severe thunderstorms produce damaging winds...destructive hail... deadly lightning and very heavy rain. For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of your home or business. Heavy rains flood roads quickly so do not drive into areas where water covers the Road. Torrential rainfall is also occurring with this storm...and may lead to flash flooding. Do not drive your vehicle through flooded roadways. Lat...Lon 4297 7142 4300 7146 4318 7141 4335 7110 4293 7092 time...Mot...loc 1846z 253deg 31kt 4307 7126 Legro

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

I was born in 1954. A lifetime's worth of friends, colleagues, schoolmates, relatives, acquaintances,etc. All over the coast.


It is the height of summer, and there are ice balls falling out of the sky.
If I wanted to be crushed to death in my house, I would live in the middle of the USA.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Possible tornado touch down, Western, MA

Distant thunder, all afternoon. Getting closer, right now.

Hail in Natick
Portsmouth, NH is getting smacked around

Out in Millis, MA
Weymouth,MA
harbor might be a mess
Framingham is getting the storm

State police are warning about hydroplaning.
Better to wait, until the storm blows over.
Storm over Hampton Beach.

Approaching Needham

Headed to Newton, Medford

Straight line winds as possibility.

The severe storm warning is extended.

Storms, tonight-

Until 8:00, 9:00 tonight

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

*deep breath*

We squeaked by. Close, but no Springfield.

The thunder is still growling. New, smaller storms with hail.

Hurricanes force winds and plentiful lightning visited Cape Cod.

Clean up, in many places. Many messes.

Pop-up storms still flowing out.

Hoping nothing like this afternoon's brutally ferocious storms will visit.

Tornado touch down ? Maybe, it happened. One town was targeted.

Sure, we had powerful lightning strikes in Boston, before.

Once in a blue moon.

It was just a storm ? No. Monstrous strength, monstrous amounts.

July had just ended, and we have 70mph gusts.

The promise of Western Massachusetts problems with straight line winds, is bearing frightful fruit.

First taste, Springfield June 2011 Death and destruction.

July 2015

Carrying winds as high as 120 miles per hour, the powerful storm cut a destructive path through Revere’s central business district. It damaged more than 100 homes and turned a quiet residential neighborhood into a scene of stunned confusion in just a few minutes.


The first tornado to hit Suffolk County in at least 60 years, the twister snapped large oak trees and sent large sections of metal guardrails flying through the air, but no serious injuries were reported, officials said.

In 10 seconds, 100 houses were gone.

Hurricanes do what is expected.

Tornadoes punch holes in a state.
These New England states are densely packed with lives.
We do not have empty plains, and open skies.
We have skylines. We have open ocean waters.

"Trees waving, like (in) a hurricane," she said.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Our chance for beneficial rain, and storm damage cruised off to Nova Scotia.

It is possible, that there will be no tornado warning this week, the weather announcer has said.

/end roll eye icon

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Are the weather announcers crying wolf ?

The Midwest has unmistakeable proof, when there is a tornado threat.
The Midwestern citizen has a certain indifference that I have not developed.
They drive past a tornado, they drive toward a tornado.

Valar Morghulis

Yes
The wolf is snarling and gnashing its teeth
Yes
The wolf is snapping its jaws
Yes
The wolf is visiting
Yes
The wolf does nip
Yes
The wolf does bite
Yes
We fear that the wolf will kill
Again

The wolf has a tendency to be sudden and deadly.

I do not like the wolf that is visiting from the Midwest.
Better the evil that I know, than the evil I do not know.

Hurricane force winds are to be respected.
A hurricane gives warnings that are gradually more severe
A tornado gives no warning
It strikes suddenly, with no mercy
It twists the fabric of a world apart


I heard tales about the Tornado of 1953
when I was a child
Second hand stories

Here are stories from those, that remember

http://www.worcestermass.com/places/tornado.shtml

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Boston PBS cannot afford to keep Sesame Street. Big Bird, Elmo, Oscar the Grouch, and the muppets will be moving to HBO.

Congratulations, Newt Gingrich! For each five dollar bill from tax dollars spent on you, we took a dime away from Sesame Street.

Are you happy, now ? Selfish self centered cunt!

All of the poor children will have to wait nine months to see all the new episodes that the children who have HBO, will watch, right away.

I hope to fuck that a new educational puppet show will begin.
Then, you will see pledge levels rise.


In other news- One journalist's observations and opinions, with a few comments from gsgs

The Boston Globe’s new life sciences start-up, Stat, just fired its wonderkid on Friday, but not before they switched the journalism and computer science grad’s job from research and reporting to primarily clerical work that included filing expense reports for the editor-in-chief (which is apparently against Globe policy), creating name tags for Stat events (which was initially assigned to an intern before the journalism grad was tasked with it), as well as booking lunches and ordering food for editors, and other reporters.

The journalist said she was unexpectedly escorted to the human resources office Friday morning where she was informed that she would have to either resign or be fired. The journalist would not, she was told, have to return the $5,000 relocation package she was given.

While The Boston Globe editors had been briefed about this particular firing, they emphasized that Stat is a separate entity.


Black people generally don’t work at Politico, and apparently not at Stat either (At the time of last week’s firing, the young journalist was Stat’s only black newsroom employee.)


Based on all the information I have been able to gather, it appears Simon [managing editor Stephanie Simon, Simon had recruited the reporter to begin with and I had given a strong recommendation for the journalist when Simon had conveyed Stat’s need for a researcher/reporter.] was overruled by the man she reports to when it came to Friday’s firing. But even in a power struggle, I don’t think newsroom leaders would have to make the young journalist a secretary.

http://alldigitocracy.org/why-young-journalists-of-color-leave-the-news-industry/

Back to Friday’s firing at Stat. It happened during the National Association of Black Journalists’ 40th Anniversary celebration, no less.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

All of the democracy that you can buy! Say good bye to equality.

"...will be able to see it after the expiration of a nine-month HBO window of exclusivity—at which point the no-longer-new episodes will be passed on to PBS."

Sesame Workshop CEO Jeffrey Dunn described the arrangement as “a true winning public-private partnership model.” What does this winning model entail? It entails removing public goods and services from the commons, to repackage them as luxury products for affluent consumers.

Sesame Street was founded with grant money from charitable foundations and the federal government, on the premise that children’s broadcasting is a public trust. Although Sesame Workshop, through the years, developed a licensing and merchandising empire that covered most of its costs, Big Bird has been brought out whenever a politician threatens to reduce taxpayer contributions to public broadcasting, as a potent symbol of cultural democracy.

The children who are watching Sesame Street on demand through Amazon and Netflix will also lose access to the show under the HBO deal, the Times reports. Online viewership will be available solely through HBO’s own services.


http://gawker.com/sesame-street-teaches-poor-kids-educational-tv-isnt-fo-1723980319

PBS

"...the government passed the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, creating the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a semi-private corporation to fund NET.

Commercial networks and conservatives in Congress did not want an American version of the BBC.

(What kind of scandals were generated by PBS ?)

Senate hearing on funding PBS
Dick Nixon wants to give PBS less
Mr. Rogers stood up for the children

1969, Rogers appeared before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Communications. His goal was to support funding for PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, in response to significant proposed cuts.

The subsequent congressional appropriation, for 1971, increased PBS funding from $9 million to $22 million.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

A sunny and fine day, turns clouded over. Needham, MA hit by hail, winds, lightning


Severe Storms
6 Counties Under Advisory
Belknap
Carroll
Cheshire
Grafton
Hillsborough
Merrimack

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Storms popping up around Boston

Driving in rain that is pissing down like a waterfall?
Fun and games in NH

This is why they have lightning protection on the barns...

National Weather Service in Gray Maine has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...
west central Hillsborough County in southern New Hampshire...
central Cheshire County in southern New Hampshire...

* until 730 PM EDT

* at 643 PM EDT... Doppler radar indicated a severe thunderstorm
capable of producing quarter size hail and damaging winds in excess
of 60 mph. This storm was located over Swanzey... or near Keene...
and moving east at 25 mph.

* Locations impacted include...
Keene... Keene... Jaffrey... Jaffrey... Swanzey... Peterborough...
Rindge... New Ipswich... Antrim... Marlborough... Westmoreland...
Greenfield... Hancock... Dublin... Francestown... Bennington...
Harrisville... Gilsum... Surry and Nelson.

Precautionary/preparedness actions...

Severe thunderstorms produce damaging winds... destructive hail...
deadly lightning and very heavy rain. For your protection... move to
an interior room on the lowest floor of your home or business. Heavy
rains flood roads quickly so do not drive into areas where water
covers the Road.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

The weather announcers decided not to cry wolf about a tornado.

They said severe storms. Now, we are expected to guess who is
targeted for a microburst or a downburst. Natick was the target.
Straight line winds ?

All the signs are there. The trees were not snapped off at the top.
They were uprooted.

The element that is not included in a hurricane shows itself.
Everything about it is wrong and alien. Whatever protection
we had against this, is gone.

100 millibars drop ? Drastic temp drop ?

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

The down side of the weather announcer's decision to not cry wolf about a tornado
They did not bother to warn about microbursts,
even though the conditions were perfect.

One channel did take the trouble to explain that the storms could make a sudden re- appeance as soon as the sun warmed the air, again.


Gloucester got hit, and no one saw fit to mention it that it happened.
Gloucester was not warned.
They are still beating the drum about Natick tonight.
Avon got hit, but they are not getting a mention.

Avon, a utility poll and wires were knocked down on Main Street at about 6:30, and a tree fell across Page Street.

http://m.avon.wickedlocal.com/article/20150816/NEWS/150817296/13406/NEWS


If anyone knows about hurricanes and Nor' Easters, it is Gloucester

Microburst wreaks havoc at festival
15 to 20 tents, vendors' goods damaged at waterfront

GLOUCESTER — “It was dark, people were screaming and tents were flying around,” said Gloucester artist Ingrid Kinnunen, trying to capture in words the brief but intense storm that wreaked havoc at the city’s Waterfront Festival on Saturday evening.

“I literally felt like I was in the ‘Wizard of Oz,’ said Kim McKay, a volunteer for the Cape Ann Animal Shelter. “You ... saw stuff flying and twirling every which way.”

A microburst, also called a downburst, is a sudden downward spurt of wind from the base of a thunderstorm. The air can rush towards the ground at speeds of 60 mph before impacting and spreading in all directions. While the wind doesn’t swirl as it does in tornado, a microburst can cause more damage than a weak tornado.

Kinnunen, who co-owns Rusty and Ingrid Creative Company with her husband Rusty Kinnunen, said they were set up near the water where an entire row of tents all collapsed in the microburst’s onslaught.

“My prints were blowing off the wall,” she said. “I have never seen wind like that.”

“It was crazy and scary all at the same time,” McKay said.

The storm lasted for approximately 5 to 10 minutes, she and Kinnunen said, although it felt like much longer than that. There was a lot of thunder and lightning flashes as well. McKay, who lives just down the street from the park, said by the time she got home, the storm was over and the sun re-emerged with a “beautiful rainbow.”

“I reached out to Pete and said what the heck just happened?” said McKay, referring to local forecaster and Gloucester Times weatherman Peter Lovasco.

Lovasco said the microburst hit the south side of Gloucester along the water and then skipped over the downtown to pummel Stage Fort Park. He shared video footage on his Twitter feed from a resident near Nile’s Beach that captures the strong winds and rain passing through.

“I let people know ahead of time that there was a chance of bad weather,” he said. “The [National] Weather Service didn’t agree.”

Ironically, he noted, Gloucester wasn’t included in the severe storm warning issued by the Weather Service on Saturday afternoon, which only predicted it would venture as far along the coast as Beverly. But once the storm arrived in Gloucester, the city was hit hard.

“Luckily no one got seriously hurt or killed,” he said, referring to the destruction at the festival.


http://www.gloucestertimes.com/news...926-4a91-54d5-bb3a-c6df4f568845.html?mode=jqm


This started in Western Massachusetts, close to where Tornado Alley East would begin. Now it is at the waterline in the East, and close to the border with New Hampshire.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

I am so relieved that the Red Sox are not to blame.

Wear a goalie mask ?

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

They are sticking to not mentioning any possibility of straight line winds, or cell activity...


645 PM EDT

* AT 603 PM EDT...DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM
CAPABLE OF PRODUCING QUARTER SIZE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS IN EXCESS
OF 60 MPH. THIS STORM WAS LOCATED OVER NORTHBOROUGH...OR OVER
SHREWSBURY...AND WAS MOVING NORTHEAST AT 15 MPH.

* SOME LOCATIONS IMPACTED INCLUDE...
FRAMINGHAM...MARLBOROUGH...SHREWSBURY...ACTON...HUDSON...
WESTBOROUGH...GRAFTON...SUDBURY...HOPKINTON...NORTHBOROUGH...
WAYLAND...MAYNARD...SOUTHBOROUGH...WEST BOYLSTON...UPTON...STOW...
BOLTON...BOYLSTON AND BERLIN.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

A house fire with every storm ? It has been consistent, this month.
"Crews are battling a fire in Massachusetts officials say was caused by a lightning strike."

Franklin Fire department is busy. Franklin was targeted for floods.
Storms followed the Tornado Alley East route.


http://www.necn.com/news/new-england/Lightning-Strike-Sparks-Fire-322211582.html

Severe storm warnings have started to include hail...

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Umbrella weekend. Curious, as to what the Red Sox game will be like.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Report as of 6:00
MBTA
Red Line fire at South Station
(groan)
Fire trucks,etc
Shutdown from Park to JFK
Five hours of this nonsense ?
Got shuttles ?

Ashmont is OK
Removed the fallen tree
Braintree, you had better ask, first

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Weasel words and pussyfooting from the Boston weather announcers

Tell me the difference between a thunderstorm and a severe thunderstorm ?

Tornado Alley East is an active area, today.

Methuan, Worcester, Swansee got alerts.
How is New Hampshire, today ?


308 lightning strikes
Positive are more deadly ?


National Weather Service in Taunton has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...
northwestern Worcester County in central Massachusetts...
northeastern Franklin County in western Massachusetts...

* until 445 PM EDT

* at 413 PM EDT... Doppler radar indicated a severe thunderstorm
capable of producing quarter size hail and damaging winds in excess
of 60 mph. This storm was located over Erving... or 7 miles east of
Greenfield... and was moving northeast at 25 mph.

* Some locations impacted include...
Orange... Northfield... Bernardston... Erving... Gill... Royalston...
Wendell and Warwick.

Precautionary/preparedness actions...

Severe thunderstorms produce damaging winds and large hail. Go
indoors and stay away from windows. Drivers should prepare for low
visibility and avoid flooded roads.

This storm was also producing frequent lightning. Go indoors
immediately. If you can hear thunder... you are close enough to be
struck by lightning. Wait until at least 30 minutes after the storm
ends to resume outdoor activities.

Minor flooding can be expected from torrential rainfall. Do not drive
through flooded roads.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Yesterday's targets on the dartboard

Deerfield, MA
Weare, NH
Bow, NH

http://m.wmur.com/weather/strong-storms-bring-trees-down-in-weare/34917084

Extreme amounts of lightning arrived with severe storms.
There were warnings about deadly lightning.
Four miles from the NH border, people in MA watched lightning hit in NH.
Too far away, to hear thunder.

Intense storms, is a newer description for the destructive, fast moving storms.
Six inches of rain, during a severe thunderstorm, in New England ?
That is what happens, now. Flash floods.

http://m.wmur.com/weather/storms-to-bring-heavy-downpours-gusty-winds-tuesday/34900540

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Trump! brings his mutual back scratching tour to MA

Trump said the money raised was only being used to offset the costs of the event and said people attending could choose to pay whatever they wanted.

That's despite multiple signs that were posted at the property's entrance telling those arriving, "Please have cash ready or make checks payable to: Donald J. Trump for President, Inc." and "Entry Fee $100 Per Person."

One thousand people came to the party.

The event comes as Trump has reversed course on his early pledge to self-fund his campaign entirely.

How is that PAC, Trump ?

http://m.wcvb.com/politics/abortionrights-activists-to-protest-trump-fundraiser/34977228

"...man with a red clown nose sat in a chair reserved for reporters, holding a strip of paper that said “#clownsmatter.”


gsgs comment-

Yeah, that is not tone deaf. Not at all. /end sarcasm sequence

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Move in Monday might prove to be a bit warm.
90f in Boston, 100f on the Canadian border ?

The massive American television corporations
have allowed very brief mentions about the
tornadoes in Canada. *looks at .ca news*

yikes!

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

War of the Appeals

Plenty of battles ahead.

The federal judge deflated "Deflategate" Thursday, erasing New England quarterback Tom Brady's four-game suspension for a controversy that the NFL claimed threatened football's integrity.

http://www.necn.com/news/new-england/Federal-Judge-Ruling-DeflateGate-Scandal-323462751.html

http://www.wbur.org/2015/09/03/brady-beats-deflategate

U.S. District court judge Richard M. Berman issued a 40-page decision overturning the NFL’s suspension of Brady on grounds that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell violated the league’s collective bargaining agreement.

“The Court hereby denies the Management Council’s motion to confirm the Award and grants the Players Association’s motion to vacate the Award, thereby vacating the four-game suspension of Tom Brady, effective immediately,” Berman wrote.

http://www.boston.com/sports/footba...p2vLVo5Q3OkCc9sqI/story.html?p1=stream_sports


Points were made.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

To be young, and to be in Venice! *sigh*

The first two full days of festival screenings included Tom McCarthy’s superb Spotlight, which details the Boston Globe’s uncovering of the colossal child-molestation scandal hidden for decades by the Boston Archdiocese of the Catholic Church, and Scott Cooper’s ambitious Black Mass, in which Johnny Depp plays barbarous gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, who ruled the scrubby streets of South Boston – and served as a dubiously useful FBI informant – for years before virtually disappearing into the ether in late 1994. (He was finally captured in Santa Monica in 2011, and is now serving a life sentence at USP Coleman.)

Too soon, for those who suffered from.Whitey Bulger's decisions.
Human nature, being complex, might reject what is true.
It does open the conversation, as to what happened and why.

http://www.villagevoice.com/film/ve...mass-is-a-tightly-wound-piece-of-work-7606025

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

First September heat wave, in 30 years. School will start on Tuesday.
Money poured on the heat problem.

School missed because of record breaking snow storms, record low temperatures. Now, school missed because of record breaking high temperatures ?

Customers get surprise at Union Oyster House

President Obama visited the Union Oyster House in Boston on Labor Day leaving with 10 clam chowder meals.

http://www.whdh.com/story/29975408/president-obama-visits-boston-oyster-house

(He left, just in time to beat the Boston heat.)