Can Blogging Get You Out of Jury Duty?

I've been called to jury duty at Middlesex Superior Courthouse in Woburn on August 9, and the latest questionnaire they require me to fill out asks the following:

"Is there anything else in your background, experience, employment, training, education, knowledge, or beliefs that might affect you ability to be a fair and impartial juror?"

I want to answer "Yes, I am a blogger and I have already blogged twice about getting called to jury duty."

Do you think that will get me out of jury duty? Was that questionnaire supposed to be confidential? Oops.

Don't Have to Be Cool to Rumble In Clarinda

The Rumbles at a street dance in Clarinda, Iowa on July 16, 2010. It was a hot humid night but that didn't stop the sweaty street dancing.


The Rumbles were free, the beer tickets were $3.

Catching America's National Pastime for Less Than $4

You can have a good time across the river in Boston at a Red Sox game with your Fenway franks and your bleacher seats. But to really take in the national pastime the way it was meant to be played and watched, there is no substitute for a Clarinda A's baseball game.

Parking was free, admission was $2, the hot dog was $1.50, and for an extra $.25 they made mine a cheese dog. The game was called after six innings on account of a torrential thunderstorm. The crowd kept one eye on the game and the other on the cloud front and the lightening coming in from the west across the open sky, and most ran to their cars as the drops started to fall.

The players had to complete their inning in the first edge of the rain with the stands empty and a few people watching from their cars. It was a 2-0 win at the bottom of the 6th for the A's over the Excelsior Springs Cougars.

The A's play in the M.I.N.K. League, made of "farm" teams in Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas. This league plays college kids and locals and is not affiliated with Major League Baseball (so no prior written permission of MLB is needed for rebroadcast of part of the game).

The A's roster sports one hall-of-famer, shortstop Ozzie Smith, who played for the A's in 1976 before finishing his career with the San Diego Padres (1978–1981) and St. Louis Cardinals (1982–1996). The A's won the NBC World Series in 1981 with a perfect 7-0 record.

By the way, the A's bus broke down on the way to game a couple of weeks ago, and they need help with the expense of the repairs. Donations can be sent to Clarinda A’s, 225 E. Lincoln St., Clarinda, IA 51632.

Farewell to Medal of Honor Recipient Vernon Baker

The signpost at the corner of 16th Street and Main Street in Clarinda, Iowa honors two World War II heroes. Glenn Miller was a big band leader who entered the armed forces and was lost in flight over the English Channel in August 1944. Vernon Baker was a young second lieutenant who fought in the Italian campaign.

Vernon J. Baker was one of the most decorated African-Americans who served in World War II, winning the Distinguished Service Cross, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, American Defense Service Medal, American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, and Croce di Guerra. Later he was presented the Congressional Medal of Honor.

He died this past week in St. Maries, Idaho at age 90, after a long battle with brain cancer.

Baker was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He attended school there and at Boys Town in Omaha, Nebraska and graduated from Clarinda High School in 1939.

Here is the plaque in front of the Page County Courthouse. His full citation reads:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his own life above and beyond the call of duty in action on 5 and 6 April 1945, Lieutenant Baker advanced at the head of his weapons platoon, along with Company C’s three rifle platoons, toward their objective; Castle Aghinolfi—a German mountain strong point on the high ground just east of the coastal highway and about two miles from the 370th Infantry Regiment’s line of departure. Moving more rapidly than the rest of the company, Lieutenant Baker and about 25 men reached the south side of a draw some 250 yards from the castle within two hours. In reconnoitering for a suitable position to set up a machine gun, Lieutenant Baker observed two cylindrical objects pointing out of a slit in a mount at the edge of a hill. Crawling up and under the opening, he stuck his M-1 into the slit and emptied the clip, killing the observation post’s two occupants. Moving to another position in the same area, Lieutenant Baker stumbled upon a well-camouflaged machine gun nest, the crew of which was eating breakfast. He shot and killed both enemy soldiers. After Captain John F. Runyon, Company C’s Commander, joined the group, a German soldier appeared from the draw and hurled a grenade which failed to explode. Lieutenant Baker shot the enemy soldier twice as he tried to flee. Lieutenant Baker then went down into the draw alone. There he blasted open the concealed entrance to another dugout with a hand grenade, shot one German soldier who emerged after the explosion, tossed another grenade into the dugout and entered firing his submachine gun, killing two more Germans. As Lieutenant Baker climbed back out of the draw, enemy machine gun and mortar fire began to inflict heavy casualties among the group of 25 soldiers, killing or wounding about two-thirds of them. When expected reinforcements did not arrive, Capt. Runyon ordered a withdrawal in two groups. Lieutenant Baker volunteered to cover the withdrawal of the first group, which consisted of mostly walking wounded, and to remain to assist in the evacuation of the more seriously wounded. During the second group’s withdrawal, Lieutenant Baker, supported by covering fire from one of his platoon members, destroyed two machine gun positions (previously bypassed during the assault) with hand grenades. In all, Lieutenant Baker accounted for nine dead enemy soldiers, elimination of three machine gun positions, an observation post, and a dugout. On the following night, Lieutenant Baker voluntarily led a battalion advance through enemy mine fields and heavy fire toward the division objective. Lieutenant Baker’s fighting spirit and daring leadership were an inspiration to his men and exemplify the highest traditions of the military service.


Baker's memoir Lasting Valor was published in 1997. He chronicles his early life and almost 30 years of military service from World War II to the desegregation of the armed forces under President Truman to the Vietnam War.

Netherlands Gets the Red Card, Spain Gets the Gold Trophy

Netherlands 0:1 Spain is the official end to the World Cup after 90 minutes of regular time, 3 minutes of added time, and 30 minutes of extra time.

The shot of the Dutch player kicking the Spanish player in the chest is in all the highight reels. Those in the U.S. who have been calling soccer a sissy sport will hopefully be quieted by this full contact game.

We had a little rematch of organge men verus the blue/red men in Somerville this evening. Once agan the orange team was unable to score (at least in this clip).



At the Somerville game I didn't see any yellow cards or red cards, or any green cards for that matter.

Milky Way Midnight Dark Wins the Candy Bar Taste Test

We have a winner in the candy bar taste test: Milky Way Midnight Dark. Second place goes to 3 Musketeers.

Candy Bar	Calories	Remarks
Milky Way Midnight Dark	230	The dark chocolate with the vanilla nougat is a great combination, and who can argue with caramel. A few less calories per bar than most of the others.
Milky Way Simply Caramel	250	No nougat, just a mouthful of caramel wrapped in milk chocolate. Delightful.
Milky Way	270	You can't go wrong with the classic chocolate, caramel, nougat. What exactly is nougat again?
3 Musketeers	260	For the biggest candy bar, it is suprisingly light. That's because it's whipped.
Snickers	280	Some people love the peanut taste, but we fnd it leaves an unpleasant after taste. And it has the most calories.
Snickers Dark	240	The dark chocolate goes well with the peanut flavor.
Cadbury Caramello	220	A good balance of chocolate to caramel. The fewest calories in the lot.

A word about the taste test. We included candy bars that can be readily purchased in the United States. We did not include chocolate bars, such as Hershey's or Hershey's Special Dark, because we do not consider chocolate by itself a "candy." We did not include Reese's, Reese's Pieces, Tootsie Rolls, or M&M's because they are not a "bar."

We also did not consider wafer or rice based candies such as Kit Kat, Twix, 100 Grand, Nestle's Crunch, Nestle's Butterfinger or anything with coconut or nuts. Arguably these are candy bars but we put them in the chocolate-covered food category. And we really don't like coconut or nuts.

Frank Ahearn Called to Manage the Big Comedy Club in the Sky

Frank Ahearn, legend of the Boston comedy club scene, passed away this week at age 53, he had suffered strokes in December and June. Frank was longtime manager of the Commedy Connection in Faneuil Hall and just last year opened Tommy's Comedy Lounge at the Charles Playhouse in the Theater District.

Back on May 24, his commedy friends responded to the organizing efforts of longtime Comedy Connection pal Paula Murphy by putting on the second of two benefit comedy shows to help with Frank's expenses. A third was in the works for August.

Harrison Stebbins emceed the benefit for Frank on the Shear Madness stage at the Charles Playhouse.

It's always fun to mock the members of the audience who have to use the restroom.

Steve Sweeney reminisces, "I'm from Charlestown so all my friends are dead." So sad, so true.

Chris Zito is a single dad who would like to go back to the days when he could roll a big fatty and smoke it in front of his kids.

Graig Murphy still has all his fingers.

Joe Wong hits home with the unsettling fact that while half of marriages end in divorce, the other half last forever. That's right, forever.

Joe List came up from Queens for the night, not that there is anything wrong with that.

Tess Rafferty of the boyfriend for 13 years is having trouble making the social adjustment for calls from her married friends. "You're pregnant? Is there somewhere I can drive you?"

Tess has a great snark face move where she looks to the left and talks to the right. You can catch her writing and occassionally catch her on the E! show The Soup.

Gary Gulman has his regrets, "Jesus was Jewish, we should have hung onto him. That was our Babe Ruth to the Yankees."

Paul Nardizzi loves reading a well-rounded story with a happy ending, particularly when written across the rear of a hot girl's shorts. Becase he loves to read.

Jimmy Tingle confessed to stealing Ted Kennedy's bicycle off the Harvard campus when he was a kid, and for his trouble looks to have been cursed in adulthood with Ted Kennedy's looks.

Frank Ahearn front and center with his posse in Las Vegas. Rest in peace.