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Sunday, January 24, 2010

Ramble On ...



While most of Boston and New England provide for postcard perfect settings during all four seasons of the year, there are a few - 'circa 1970 - buildings that leave a lot to be desired in terms of architectural decency.  I sarcastically refer to one of the buildings, near Government Center, as the "Berlin Wall."

Boston has plans to tear down the "Berlin Wall" which stands as the government center parking structure to open up the skies of the West End much the way the city did by tearing down the old "Elevated" train tracks above Causeway Street, adjacent to Boston Garden to form Rose Kennedy GreenWay.

The Boston Globe posted this photo essay to show the "ugly" buildings -  See:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/gallery/in_praise_of_ugly_buildings/#/1

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A noted Boston veteran of politics, mostly local and not national, had this to say about last Tuesday's Senate election of Scott Brown:

"Yesterday was much more about really well run campaign prevailing over a horribly bungled campaign and a charismatic candidate who believeably articulated a message over a boring, complacent candidate who tried to coast to victory until it was too latethan the earth shaking political statement many are making it out to be. Losing almost 40 seats in... See More Congess and the White House over the course of just 2 years is a call for change, the better candidate winning a single seat is not no matter what party they represent. Politics by it's very nature is to play and spin every small victory as a monumental one and that will be the case with this special election victory for a while but I'm going to wait for some more movement in that direction, maybe another 10 seats or so to start predicting a Republican rise from the ashes of 14 month ago." - he posted earlier in the week on FB.

I thought it was pretty well put.  I would add:  The national media attention on the "lone" and "slow" media day on the special election added to the frenzy.  All networks sent reporters and dedicated their shows to the single election result and it magnified the outcome.  That, combined with the AMAZING result, upset, "Teddy's" seat and the obvious Democratic stronghold on prior Senate seats, then added to the media blitz.

Martha Coakley did nothing for me and that is a fact.  That was the prevailing viewpoint statewide.

Mike Capuano was a much better candidate but fell short in the primary.  I wish Steve Pagliuca had put his $ towards Capuano's campaign fund, rather than running for the seat himself.  It would have been money well spent.

Too late.

I wish Scott Brown the very best and I look forward to his proposal to fix a health care system that has been and continues to be broken.  Let's hear the better ideas.

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Marc Spears of Yahoo reports:

The 1992 Olympic Dream Team is expected to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Aug. 13. Two of its members, Karl Malone and Scottie Pippen, are also expected to be inducted individually, but if the Hall gets its wish, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and the rest of the original Dream Team will be in attendance.

“It was an honor to represent your country in one of the greatest times of your life,” Charles Barkley said.

The current U.S. national team will be training in New York for the upcoming World Championships and USA Basketball officials are hoping the players can take a break to attend the Hall of Fame ceremony.

“It has the makings of an incredible night,” said Jerry Colangelo, who is chairman of both USA Basketball and the Hall of Fame. It’s way too early to talk about it, but to get that history and legend together for both teams … it could be really big.”

USA Basketball is expected to name a pool of 20 to 25 candidates for its roster before the All-Star game. Colangelo is expected to meet with potential members during the All-Star break. He’s already met with some players to assess their interest and has a meeting with Kobe Bryant scheduled in New York.

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