Hampenings

Around Hamp

Most pumpkins have gone bad by now, but as my neighbor's porch shows the small ones seem to have longer lives.



As another of my neighbors has discovered, when pumpkins turn rotten they can become depraved to the point of eating their own young.



This sign suggests that the children where I live are slow, but at least they have the admirable desire to smash the state.



Posters on the railroad trestle downtown.



Here's an old video of a drunken me trying to juggle.



Thank God those days are over. I'm now so completely out of the booze scene that I didn't even know that Pop's Packy had closed!



Just the thought of a Hamp without Pops is quite disorienting.



Oh wait, it only moved next door, into a newer, nicer building.



Pop's gone respectable? Combined with the loss of Augie's flophouse across the street, I guess the ol' Hamp of yesteryear really is dead.

These are the only signs I've seen so far on anyone's lawn in Northampton promoting a candidate for the special senate election to replace Ted Kennedy.



When Kennedy died everyone predicted there would be a titanic battle for his seat as the biggest names in Massachusetts politics from both parties entered the fray. Instead the race has been a screaming bore, with four cookie-cutter Democrats running while all the GOP has put forward is an unknown state senator and a scandal prone has-been. No wonder the public seems disinterested, with the probable outcome being that we'll end up with the same bad representation we always got from Teddy, only now we'll get it from someone without Kennedy's senority or charisma.

Holiday Giving

Radio crazies Bax and O'Brien are doing a charity drive in Springfield, as humorously reported in this video.




Dan Yorke and I once helped in the 1990's with one of their charity events, but I don't remember if it was the same cause. In fact, come to think of it, it really wasn't even the same show as it was called Jonathan and O'Brien in those days. Wonder what became of Jonathan?

Back to the Future



Amherst College has a new logo (above) which is actually a return to the old logo that was in use before 1961. The latin lingo means,“Let them enlighten the lands." New or old, the logo sure is better looking than the official college tie, which only an alumnus could love.



To read all about the history of the Amherst College logo click here.

Speaking of Amherst College, in the Robert Frost Library is this stuffed owl that was donated to the school in 1862.



It was a different Pioneer Valley that owl flew over 147 years ago.

Today's Video

Someone asked me why I never put up anything by the Springfield band Staind. Okay, even though I find their music mostly a downer, here's a cover of one of their songs by Jay Brannan.