Author Archives: dunster

Open Firehouse

I noticed a sign hanging on the Headquarters fire station in the center and asked about the event. Deputy Bob Jefferson provided me with these details:
“The open house is this Saturday, October 7, 2006 from noon to 2pm at our Headquarters station in the center. It is a family event to kick off Fire Prevention week, which is October 8-14 this year. It is run by the AFD and its S.A.F.E.  instructors to teach fire safety to the children and hopefully educate the public and answer any questions they may have.

“The event is also sponsored by Papa Ginos pizza which will supply pizza for the public who drop by.

“We will review the basic fire prevention tips that we will also be bringing to the elementary schools next week. We will have different stations around the fire house dealing with stop, drop and roll; videos,   pre-plan fire drills at home, as well as fun things such as tatoos, light sticks, and apparatus tours and testing the hoses.”

Trot Nixon’s Last Game as a Red Sox?

On Saturday I went to the second to last Sox game of the season.

I love September baseball. Some years it’s taut, emotional, full of do-or-die. Other years, like this one, it’s the opposite. It’s baseball being played for the sake of the game. It’s undistracted and undiluted. It’s a continuous, fluid flow of balls and strikes and hits and runs and innings. The outcome matters only in the most limited scope.
See the rest of my Tabblo

Healey Hiding From Debate

Earlier this week, Kerry Healey called for the removal of Christy Mihos and Grace Ross from future debates. Her motive is pretty obvious: she stands to lose more votes to Mihos than Patrick does to Ross. By removing Mihos from the debate, she can marginalize him and maximize her votes.

The hypocrisy here is glaring. As the Globe reports, “In April, Healey sent letters to all the gubernatorial candidates, including Mihos, urging them to commit to the four general election debates.” She thought debates were a great idea then, but has changed her mind when faced with polling data. I deplore her actions, but I can’t say that I’m surprised.

Hypocrisy aside, what about the merits of the proposal? The Globe quotes Healey: “I think it’s pretty clear that either Deval Patrick or I am going to be the next governor of this state, and when people go to the polls, they deserve to know where we stand.”

It’s easy to agree that when people go to the polls, the voters should know where the candidates stand. But, even if you concede that Patrick or she will be the next governor, I disagree that the voters will learn more if they are the only two at the table.

When you only have two participants, they can avoid topics that make them look both look bad. In this case, both voices represent long-entrenched political interests. You won’t hear either of them talk about patronage. They won’t talk about ballot access controls. They won’t talk about real campaign finance reform. And, of course, they won’t talk about the Big Dig.

This is what Mihos and Ross bring to the process. They break the silence and talk about ideas that the leading candidates find uncomfortable. At this point of the electoral process it doesn’t matter who the next governor will be. At this point, the important thing is to get all of the ideas and all of the opinions and all of the plans out in the open.
I sincerely hope that Healey’s call for a 2-person debate falls on deaf ears, while her earlier call for full debates is heard by all.

Arlington’s 200th Countdown Dinner

http://arlington200.org/

Friday October 6, 2006
Cocktails 6-7 PM, Dinner 7-10 PM
Sons of Italy Hall, Prentiss Road, Arlington
For details or tickets, contact George Arena at 781-646-1252 or E-mail tickets@arlington200.org.
Countdown Dinner tickets will also be sold at the
Farmers Market in Arlington Center on Wednesday, September 27th and in the
Town Hall lobby on Thursday, September 28th from 5:00 p.m to 7:00 p.m.

Housing Corporation of Arlington 2006 Annual Meeting

Reposted from Live on Arlington

Please join the Housing Corporation of Arlington and our distinguished guest, US Representative Barney Frank, in celebrating 20 years of ,”Creating Homes for our Community” at HCA’s 2006 Annual Meeting.

HCA’s 2006 Annual Meeting

Creating Homes for Our Community

Keynote Speaker:

US Congressman Barney Frank

Thursday, October 26, 2006 at Arlington Town Hall

Doors open at 5:30pm

Open to the Public.

New and Renewing Members receive free admission.

$25 suggested donation

RSVP requested by October 13th

By phone: 781-316-3606

By email: info@housingcorparlington.org


Apple Got It Right In The End

This is a consumer’s tale. It starts ugly, but ends in the right place.

A couple weeks ago, my iPod Nano died. iPods have a “lock” switch on them that turns off the wheel control so you can shove it in your pocket and not inadvertantly turn the volume up to 11. I got on the T, headed into work, locked the iPod, and put it in my shirt pocket. I took it out to change the volume, and the lock switch was stuck. It wouldn’t unlock. My iPod was going to keep playing until the battery died. I went to the Apple website and found that I had a 1-year warranty. The iPod was 10 months old, so I figured I was set. I filled out the online form, they sent me a box, I sent them my iPod – it was very smooth. Here’s where it got sticky.

They sent me back my iPod, still broken, with a form letter. The form letter indicated that there were four possible reasons why it was rejected – but they didn’t check any of the boxes. I’m a bit suspicious that the iPod was in the same plastic bag. I’m not sure they even opened it, though I’m not sure of that. Obviously, I wasn’t happy.

So, I took the iPod to the Apple store in the Cambridgeside Galleria. The guy at the desk in the back of the store listened to my story and looked at the iPod and the form letter. He decided that the rejection was because the screen was cracked. I showed him that it wasn’t a crack, but it was a protective plastic film (that I’d bought at Apple!) for the screen that was a bit delaminated. He pointed to a dent in the back of the iPod, and said that voided my warranty. As far as I was concerned, he didn’t have to fix the dent, but he did have to fix the switch at the top. He offered to take my iPod as a trade in, and he’d give me 10% off my next iPod. I told him quite clearly that that was not an option. There were a lot of ways this might end, but me giving Apple a few hundred bucks in order to get them to honor the warranty was not one of them. I asked to speak to a manager.

She was equally polite and listened. She also pointed to the dent, but I repeated that I didn’t care about the dent, I only cared about the switch. She said that she’d go in back and check the service record and see if that gave any more information. I thought that was a great idea.

Several minutes later, a third guy, Ed, came out. He told me the system was down and they couldn’t check the iPod history. He said that it was unusual, but he would replace my Nano with a new one. I thought that was a perfectly fine solution. Black wasn’t available (like I care!), and I got silver instead. I’ve been using it this week, and it’s been good.

Bottom line: Apple should have honored the warranty in the first place, but they got it right in the end. It was a legitimate claim. If it wasn’t legitimate, they needed to explain why: checking a checkbox on the form letter is a good start. Similarly, the first guy at the Apple store should have been more interested in helping me. I get the feeling that he was just doing what he was told, meaning that it wasn’t his fault. And in the end, compliments to Ed and to Apple. They got it right, kept me happy, get a good posting, and my continued business.

MassINC Analyzes the Gubernatorial Primary Results

Last week I drafted an analysis of the primary results, but it wasn’t gelling, and I didn’t publish it. I’m very glad I didn’t. I would have been put to shame by the excellent analysis by Robert David Sullivan at MassINC.

His analysis backs up the common wisdom that it’s Deval Patrick’s race to lose. The primary showed that Patrick has the ability to get Democrats and unenrolled (independant) voters to the ballot box. Patrick got more of each of those than any candidate in quite a while. The question is, of course, what the rest of the electorate will do. Can Patrick convert the ones that voted against him, and the ones that didn’t vote at all, to his side? Can he get them to the polls?

If turnout equals that of 2002, and Patrick holds on to his primary supporters, he only has to win 37 percent of those who haven’t voted for him already in order to capture a majority in November — and if independent Christy Mihos and Green Party candidate Grace Ross capture a meaningful portion of the vote between them, the share he needs will be even lower. Healey, on the other hand, will have to win about 63 percent of the voters who voted for one of Patrick’s opponents or sat out the Democratic primary in order to match Romney’s 50 percent total. By comparison, Shannon O’Brien’s primary total in 2002 represented 11.1 percent of the total vote in the fall — meaning that Mitt Romney only had to win about 56 percent of the voters who were up for grabs after the primary.

I’m also struck by the list of towns that he thinks are Healey’s key to victory: “Billerica, Revere, Saugus, Tewksbury, and Woburn.” Those are cities that, at least so far, have been immune to Patrick’s message. Compare that to the list of towns represented by Senator Havern: Woburn, Arlington, Billerica, Burlington and Lexington. Arlington and Lexington went for Patrick in a big way, but Woburn, Billerica, and Burlington were bigger fans of Reilly or Gabrieli. Someday, there is going to be a very interesting race for that seat.