H2otown's blog

Sorry, No Drive-Through

Originally uploaded by lisa.williams.

What is it with the driving-into-buildings in this town? You'd think it was a trend or something. Here's some cleanup going on at Coolidge Hardware after a car drove into the storefront earlier this week.

Last chance liquidation

Originally uploaded by lisa.williams.

H2otown saw them everywhere driving across the country this summer: people standing outside in the hot sun, holding last-chance liquidation signs.

She hadn't seen many of them around here until a few weeks ago, when she saw these. The guy holding the sign got hired as day labor, for minimum wage; during a visit to the store yesterday, H2otown asked an employee if they had another job yet. No, they replied. And they didn't expect to find one before Christmas, either.

Does H2otown seem a bit grinchy if she observes that no one seems to know about the day-laborer or the retail clerk, or even know who they are? MIA from the pages of the papers, or the pixels at CNN, who operate at a much grander scale.

So, let's scale up then. The Arsenal Mall is one of the town's top 10 taxpayers. Could the loss of an anchor tenant cause the collapse of the property itself, as it did here? The good news is, probably not, at least not for now. Simon Property Group, which owns the mall, looks very good against one of its main competitors, General Growth Properties, which teeters on the brink of collapse. Over the past year, Simon's stock price has been cut in half, and the historic Boston Garden scoreboard that hangs on the mall's second floor has a few tacky videoscreens bolted to the bottom but is otherwise dark. But a stock price of around $60 today is a lot better than how Linens and Things is doing -- the company is bankrupt and the stock has been delisted.

Good Time Emporium

Originally uploaded by varmazis.

H2otown was consuming tasty carbohydrates with her family at the IHOP, flipping through the paper, when she came across a photo of the Good Times Emporium in Somerville being demolished.

We preserve historical monuments, endangered species, open space, but H2otown asks you: who will preserve the tacky? Is it too much to suggest that it may have some undiscovered but vital role in our health and happiness? What will happen when the last mini-golf course is made into a tasteful condo development, and soft-serve is abolished in favor of green tea ginger ice cream made with milk from organically raised dairy herds?

Ah, Good Times Emporium. Yes, you needed a thorough scrubbing. Yes, you attracted dangerous patrons along with the families and their birthday cakes. But H2otown will always remember the time she saw a buddhist monk play basketball within your concrete-block walls.

Maria Varmazis, who took the photo you see here, writes movingly about it on her excellent weblog, VARiable Expression.

pirate flags

Originally uploaded by reitveld.

Yes, the day has come again: International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Arrr!

People's Software Company Hits The Globe

Originally uploaded by lisa.williams.

H2otown's top-secret summer project -- not so secret anymore! The software startup founded by Ms. H2otown and Susan Mernit, People's Software Company. is featured in Das Globe today.

BTW, if you are a Facebook user, you can get a peek at what we're doing. We do a lot of our work right out in the open, so you can see things being built. Check out apps.facebook.com/whozaround.

.08 Acres (and a Donkey) is about to get real good again, real soon, I can feel it!

Just in case you didn't know, Suldog IS running. H2otown particularly enjoyed these parts of his platform:Suldog: If I Am Elected...

10) My Running Mate Will Be Chosen At Random By Publishers Clearing House!So, get those entries in today! Special priority will be given those who purchase subscriptions to High Times. If you get your entry in before October 1st, you'll be eligible for the special early-bird prize: A seat on the Supreme Court.Remember this, though. If you win the nomination as my running mate, but you get some uppity idea about succeeding me as President after the election...11) The Vice-President Will Be 247th In Line For Succession!

Watertown State Rep results Originally uploaded by lisa.williams. ...but more importantly, Bob Erickson, town webmaster, wins the 2008 Sleep Deprivation Challenge! Yes there are precincts for this race that are NOT in Watertown. Stay tuned, and congratulations to all who ran.

Now for Your Moment of Electoral Zen Originally uploaded by lisa.williams.  Update:H2otown's plan: pick up juice boxes for tomorrow's lunchboxes, very important; drive by the town hall again, and then to the place where election results happen first...Donohue's.  Well, maybe.  It IS a school night.   Folk walking in and out say Hecht and Devaney are way up; this jibes with H2otown's scan of the tapes.     So, the state rep race: Blanks: 110 Write-ins: 308 Well! That settles everything for A3! It's going to be a long night. Good thing H2otown is a night owl :) Pull up a chair and have a cup of coffee down there in the comments section!

My Vote-o-Booth photos

Originally uploaded by Rachel Kramer Bussel.

H2otown certainly hopes so!