Haven’t you guys got anything you can run FOR?

I’m a registered independent voter who has cast ballots for Republicans and Democrats. But I haven’t seen anything on the Republican side for quite some time now that would attract my vote.

Maybe you guys should concentrate on that. Having Republican numbers tank to the point of no return isn’t good for America. We always need a loyal opposition party, to keep tabs on the party in power.

And by the way — in 1974, I remember all those bumper stickers that showed up on cars, saying, “Don’t blame me. I’m from Massachusetts.” Going against the national grain is a point of pride in Massachusetts, not something to be ashamed about.

Did Duke look dumb in a tank? Sure. But we liked him then and we like him now.

By all means, put up a good, viable GOP candidate. That would be good for everybody.

The Duke couldn’t do much damage (hopefully) in the limited time available, but he’d be a powerful GOP fundraising tool long after his brief term ends.

Potential GOP TV ad: Scroll through long list of Democrat missteps since Obama’s election, then announcer says, “And Barack Obama and Harry Reid even supported tampering with a Mass. law so that their liberal friend Michael Dukakis could join the US Senate for just three months. Now Dukakis, rejected by 40 of our 50 states in 1988, enjoys Senate perks for a lifetime, on us.”…cut to video of helmeted Dukakis driving tank, with thumps-up, circa ’88.

Powerful.

My best memory of dime time is that it let me get from suburbia to fenway park for one of those April school vacation week games, usually a fog-shrouded affair against the horrid cleveland indians, with enough coin in my pocket for a hot dog.

Here is how it worked
Without dime time:
B & M from Suburbia 1.00
T fare .25
Ticket: Rt field grandstand 1.50, bleachers (better view, less money) 1.00
return trip: 1.00 for the B&M, .25 for the T.
Total, assuming bleacher seats: 3.50

With Dime Time (and its companion off-peak commuter rail pricing)
B&M to Boston: .50
T to Kenmore .10
Ticket: 1.00 to 1.50

Return trip:
T to North Station: .25
B&M 1.00

So… without dime time, I got to the ball park and home for $3.50. With dime time it cost $2.85. Hot dogs were $.50, and you could buy a can of tonic for .15 at the drug store in Kenmore Square. So dime time put a half-a-buck in the pocket of Harry M Stevens and 15 cents in the pocket of that drug store that was where CVS ended up in Kenmore Square. Being a baseball geek, I bought a program for a quarter (yeah, I kept score) and a popcorn for the same and carried in my 15 cent can of coke ( this obviously was before the current practice of searching ticket holders as a “security measure” which is no more than an excuse for the Bozo’s who own the team to make sure we do’t smugglein a half-eaten sub sandwich or, horrors, a bottle of water, when they have conveyed upon us the privilege of walking on a public way to which the ballclub had won rights to close off such public way to ticket holders in order to sell us Tiant or Remy sandwiches for absurd prices)

. Great deals came to those who planned ahead, so if the Record-American had its Red Sox game edition on sale (usually reserved for night games) , I could buy that for a dime and use its score card, thus saving 15 cents over the 25 cent official scorecard. With this precious dime and nickel, I could chip in with my friend to split a Hood’s ice cream bar for a quarter and we’d have five cents between us, which could be converted to pennies to be thrown in the Red Sox bullpen (a common practice at the time) where an actual major league baseball player would actually pick up the coinage flung to the bullpen. Nothing like having Cal Koonce be the first person to touch a coin that you had last touched!!

And then, when the fog-shrouded affair became a rain-out, I had $1.65 to spent at the Triangle Cafeteria, which seemed to be the adult version of high school lunch! And on the return trip home, one could hang around North Station and wait for the7:30 train, when it was off-peak again, and save 50 cents that could be used for a slice of pizza at Valenti’s or a Big Mac at Mickey D’s.

The best part of it all, though, was that Sonny Siebert or Ray Culp, with relief help from Bob Bolin or Vicente Romo would keep the pathetic opposition at bay, and the likes of Dick Schofield would have a career day on a cold, grey New England April afternoon and we could march aboard the green line confident that we had special knowledge unknown to the poor souls aboard who didn’t go to the game, that the Sox were a team of destiny that year. Nothing likee being one of 7,600 at a game in April to acquire Special Knowledge that this was THE year. (Ironically, I skipped a few classes at a Boston college to attend one of those April week games in 1975, where Rice and Lynn were rookies in the outfield and Tony C. seemedto be making a comeback, and Henry Aaron hit one out for the Brewers, in the early stages of which, for a Bill Lee eephus pitch, it was almost THE year.)

Sorry for droning, but Dan you mentioned Dime Time!!!

TEDDY KENNEDY’S GONNA GET’CHA IF YA DON’T WATCH OUT!

I wonder how these people would react if tomorrow – just for a day, mind you – every law Teddy Kennedy is responsible for were made null and void. Call it a hunch but I have a strong feeling that more people than you might suspect are going to miss him now that he’s gone.

Teddy, they hardly knew ye!

I’ll miss Teddy. His impact on the country he loved so much will be felt for generations. The loss his passing means to progressive politics in the United States is incalculable. We need him at this moment in history more than we ever needed him before. It’s so unspeakably sad. He’s gone and he’s not coming back. Now he belongs to the ages.

In the good old Irish Catholic tradition, tonight I’ll be drinking a toast or two (or twelve) to you, Ted. Sleep well and thanks.

http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

I’m glad to see Dukakis reminding people about what the MBTA was when he took over; it was an absolute disaster with cobbled-together Green Lne PCC cars that not only constantly broke down, but which mastered the art of filling over-packed cars with cold air in winter, hot air in summer. The system is infinitely better than it was and while some of it was on the way before Dukakis (such as the re-routing of the Orange line to Melrose) just about all of it was because of his advocacy. Most T riders today don’t know that before Frank Sergeant killed the inner belt and Dukakis took the public transit mantle to the corner office, the highway builders had complete control of Massachusetts govenment — the state highway commissioner was as powerful a post as existed and the state also had a roadbuilder as governor in John Volpe.