Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Clocks square off in China's far west

Kashgar, a city of 350,000 built around an oasis along the old Silk Road, has two time zones, two hours apart.

How you set your watch depends not only on the neighborhood, but on your profession and ethnicity, religion and loyalty.

People living on both sides of the time divide say there is little confusion because they have as little to do with each other as possible.

When communist China was formed in 1949, Mao Tse-tung decreed that everybody should follow a single time zone, no matter that the country is as wide as the continental United States.

But Uighurs, the dominant minority in China's northwestern Xinjiang province, balked at running their lives on Beijing time, which would have them getting up in the pitch dark and going to sleep at sunset.

"It is as ridiculous as having Los Angeles following New York time," said Alim Seytoff, who left Xinjiang in 1996 and is now secretary-general of the Uyghur American Assn. in Washington.

"That is the totalitarian nature of the Chinese government that they try to impose one time zone."

Medford driver rescues dog after hitting it; owner sought

The MSPCA is seeking the owner of a stray Husky who was hit by a car in Medford around 8 a.m. on Saturday, March 21.

Unlike several past cases of “hit and run,” the driver who accidentally hit the Husky immediately sought police and medical assistance for the injured dog.

After finding that there were no available local options to treat the injured husky he quickly drove her to Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston, where the dog — nicknamed Sasha by the hospital staff — received immediate emergency medical attention.

“Unfortunately it is all too common for drivers to accidentally hit a dog and flee the scene to the detriment of the animal,” said Dr. Kiko Bracker of Angell Animal Medical Center’s Emergency/Critical Care service.
“The quick thinking that his driver possessed, as well as the empathy he showed, meant that Sasha was receiving life saving medical attention shortly after this accident.”

In addition to the driver’s quick thinking, the driver also agreed to pay $1,000 to cover a portion of the cost of emergency medical treatment as well as X-rays.

America's best (and worst) salads

Visit the Salad Hall of Fame to read on...it will blow your mind.

More bad news at New York Times co.

The New York Times plans to eliminate several weekly sections, including its stand-alone City Section.

There are also discussions to eliminate the regional weeklies in New Jersey, Long Island, Westchester and Connecticut, and the Friday Escapes section as well.

The Boston Globe just made a similar move, nixing the City Weekly and dividing the Globe Northwest section between the Globe North and Globe west editions.

Happily some of the content will still be available online.

Monday, March 30, 2009

cute shoes, and vegan to boot


Meatless Monday

Ziti with Sun-Dried Tomato "Cream"
Makes 6 servings

Tofu replaces heavy cream in this flavorful no-cook sauce, which is warmed when you toss with the hot cooked pasta.
  • 1 cup silken tofu, drained
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1 pound dried ziti
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and chopped
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

In a large pot, bring 4 quarts of water to a boil. When water boils, add salt and pasta, stirring to prevent sticking. Cook until al dente, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.Meanwhile, in a food processor or blender, combine remaining ingredients except parsley and process until smooth, adding 1 to 2 tablespoons of pasta water to thin sauce to desired consistency. Drain pasta and transfer to serving bowl. Spoon sauce over pasta and toss to mix. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Nutritional Information Per Serving: Calories 158, Protein 5g, Total Fat 6g, Saturated Fat 1g, Carbohydrates 23g, Cholesterol 0mg, Sodium 583mg, Fiber 2g

Friday, March 27, 2009

Right whales in Cape Cod Bay


In a rare congregation, about 70 North Atlantic right whales have gathered in Cape Cod Bay. The group represents approximately 20 percent of the endangered species' worldwide population.

Right whales were named because of they were so easy to harpoon, making them the "right whale" to hunt.

The lumbering animals feed close to the surface and conveniently float after death. Unlike other species, right whale populations never significantly bounced back once whale hunting eased. The animals still fall victim to ship strikes and get entangled in fishing gear.

Read the story.

News in the world of news: It ain't good

First, FishbowlNY reports that there have been 100 layoffs on the business side of the New York Times, with a 5 percent pay cut across the newsroom, too.

The memo to staff reads, in part:

The recession, especially the deteriorating advertising climate, is exacting a bitter toll, despite all that we have already done to reduce spending.This morning, we notified about 100 employees on the business side of The Times that their jobs were being eliminated. We thank these
dedicated colleagues for all they have contributed to The Times over the years.
The broader announcement today outlines a temporary salary reduction for the remainder of the year for all
non-union employees, including the top leadership of the company. It is our hope
that these cost-cutting measures will allow us to avoid further layoffs.Although
employee pay will be cut by 5% for the remaining three-quarters of the year, you will be entitled to 10 additional personal days off over the nine months. Next year, we plan to return salaries to their current levels. Of course, such a decision depends on the state of our business.

And, over at the Christian Science Monitor, today marks the last publication date of their daily print newspaper.

An editor's note to readers says:

"No longer inked on wood pulp, no longer trucked from printing plants to your mailbox, no longer published only five days a week, the daily Monitor is now a dynamic online newspaper on all days. Complementing our 24/7 online Monitor is a new print weekly, the first issue of which will be in subscribers' mailboxes in two weeks. "

Tough times.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

I shall make this for Easter! Wherever it is we're celebrating

Strawberry Tart with Orange Cream

Cointreau is a well-known liqueur from western France, where it was first made more than a century and a half ago in the city of Angers. Colorless and with a strong, pleasing aroma, it has an exotic flavor that is a marriage of sweet orange peels from Spain and bitter orange peels from the Caribbean island of CuraƧao. Although similar to triple sec, Cointreau is drier. You will find it sold in a distinctive square bottle with a bright red ribbon. A popular after-dinner liqueur, Cointreau is also often used as a flavoring ingredient, as in this tart recipe.

Ingredients:
1 rolled-out round of tart dough
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1⁄4 cup sugar
1 tsp. finely grated orange zest
2 tsp. Cointreau or other orange-flavored liqueur
2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and halved lengthwise
1⁄2 cup apricot jam

Directions:
Fold the dough round in half and carefully transfer to a 9 1/2-inch tart pan, preferably with a removable bottom.

Unfold and ease the round into the pan, without stretching it, and pat it firmly into the bottom and up the sides of the pan.

Trim off any excess dough by gently running a rolling pin across the top of the pan.

Press the dough into the sides to extend it slightly above the rim to offset any shrinkage during baking.

Refrigerate or freeze the tart shell until firm, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, position a rack in the lower third of an oven and preheat to 375°F.

Line the pastry shell with aluminum foil or parchment paper and fill with pie weights or raw short-grain rice.

Bake for 20 minutes, then lift an edge of the foil.

If the dough looks wet, continue to bake, checking every 5 minutes, until the dough is pale gold, for a total baking time of 25 to 30 minutes.

Remove the weights and foil. Continue to bake until the shell is golden, 7 to 10 minutes more. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat the cream cheese and sugar on medium speed until smooth. Mix in the orange zest and Cointreau.

Spread the cream cheese mixture evenly over the bottom of the tart shell. Arrange the strawberry halves, overlapping them, in concentric circles on top of the cream cheese, completely covering the surface.

In a small saucepan over low heat, warm the apricot jam until it liquefies. Pour through a fine-mesh strainer set over a small bowl.

Using a small pastry brush, gently brush the strawberries with a thin coating of jam.

Refrigerate until ready to serve. Let stand at room temperature for 20 minutes before serving.

Makes one 9-inch tart.


Basic Tart Dough

Ingredients:
1 egg yolk
2 Tbs. very cold water
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
8 Tbs. (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes

Directions:
In a small bowl, stir together the egg yolk, water and vanilla; set aside. To make the dough by hand, in a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar and salt. Using a pastry cutter or 2 knives, cut the butter into the flour mixture until the texture resembles coarse cornmeal, with butter pieces no larger than small peas. Add the egg mixture and mix with a fork just until the dough pulls together. To make the dough in a stand mixer fitted with the flat beater, stir together the flour, sugar and salt in the mixer bowl. Add the butter and beat on medium-low speed until the texture resembles coarse cornmeal, with butter pieces no larger than small peas. Add the egg mixture and beat just until the dough pulls together. Transfer the dough to a work surface, pat into a ball and flatten into a disk. Use the dough immediately, or wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until well chilled, about 30 minutes. To roll out the dough, on a lightly floured board, flatten the disk with 6 to 8 gentle taps of the rolling pin. Lift the dough and give it a quarter turn. Lightly dust the top of the dough or the rolling pin with flour as needed, then roll out until the dough is about 1/8 inch thick. Use a small, sharp knife to cut out a round or rounds 2 inches greater in diameter than your tart or larger tartlet pans. Use a small, sharp knife or a cookie cutter to cut out rounds 1/2 to 1 inch greater in diameter than your miniature tartlet pans. If using a rectangular tart pan, cut out a rectangle 2 inches larger on all sides than the pan. Makes enough dough for one 9 1/2-inch tart, six 4-inch tartlets, twelve 2-inch miniature tartlets or one 13 3/4-by-4 1/4-inch rectangular tart. Nut Dough Variation: Add 2 Tbs. ground toasted pecans, walnuts, almonds or hazelnuts to the flour mixture and proceed as directed. Make-Ahead Tip: The tart dough may be made ahead and frozen for up to 1 month. To freeze, place the dough round on a 12-inch cardboard circle and wrap it well with plastic wrap. Alternatively, use the round to line a tart pan and wrap well.

Despite North Shore theater's closing and economic troubles all over, most local stages are managing to keep their doors open

(Good article, well executed, nice angle. However: It fails to mention the main difference between NSMT and community/summer theaters -- North Shore hires Equity actors at minimums in the $500-per-week range, whereas community theaters typically pay nothing or give a small stipend with no taxes witheld. It's easy to remain profitable if you charge comparable prices to professional theaters but don't pay your workers. And summer theaters don't incur weather-related costs such as winterizing a building, paying for heat, suffering losses during snow storms, etc.)


The shutdown at the North Shore Music Theatre in January was a dramatic twist, but local stage companies are still playing the first act of the economic downturn.

"We're going into this stage of, how are we going to be able to learn from this and how are we going to adapt to be able to survive?" said Sue Griffin, a member of the board of directors at Marblehead Little Theatre.
Everyone knew that nonprofits would face challenges, but many were still shocked when North Shore Music Theatre cut short its season in Beverly, laid off all but three employees, and began a drive to raise $500,000 by spring in hopes of restarting productions. The April 15 gala opening of the Nordstrom's at Northshore Mall will benefit NSMT, among other charities. But there's no decision on what will happen after April.

Yvonne Abraham: A hub's pulse and grit

The debate over how to fix Downtown Crossing shouldn't obscure one important fact: There is much in this part of the city that is seriously cool.
Yes, the immense pit where Filene's used to be is a depressing sight, a monument to poor planning and bad luck. The empty stores that dot the streets make the whole area seem down-at-the-heel. And it's barren at night.

But despite all of that, if you like your city quirky and real, Downtown Crossing is packed with gems.

At the top of Winter Street, devotees line up at the Falafel King. Kadhim Al Zubaidy greets them all with "How are you brother," and "Hello my friend," and hands them free, hummus-dipped falafels. "I always give the falafel, one in the hand, one on the plate," he says.

At the Corner Mall food court, customers shovel gyros, chicken curries, greasy fries, or a dozen other cuisines from plastic foam containers. They sit alone, their heads buried in novels, or in groups, wearing business suits or paint-spattered pants.

It's an enormous mix of people - blacks, whites, Latinos, Asians - sitting shoulder to shoulder. And that's rare in this still-tribal city.

With its blue neon and glass-brick decor, the Corner Mall is utterly dated. But that's the charm here, and all over Downtown Crossing.

Few individual health policies cover maternity

San Fransisco Chronicle says the number of individual health insurance policies that do not include maternity coverage has risen dramatically in recent years, prompting concern among consumers and a legislative effort to require California insurers to include the benefit.

As more people lose their jobs - and along with that, their health insurance benefits - an increasing number are expected to turn to the individual health insurance market for coverage, an option that is usually less expensive than paying to stay on their former employers' health plans.

Health insurers and consumers who support the right to buy a policy that excludes maternity benefits say they shouldn't have to pay for a service they have no intention of using. They say requiring such coverage would increase premiums and force more people to go without insurance.

Supporters of the mandate, however, argue that denying coverage is unfair to women and that, in exchange for an average $7.17, or 4.24 percent, increase in monthly premium price per individual policyholder, society would save money if fewer women were on government-supported programs.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Modern-day Hooverville

In Sacramento's tent city, a torn economic fabric

A tattered encampment of 200 men and women along the American River is a vivid symbol of a financial crisis otherwise invisible to most Americans. Officials say they will shut it down within a month.

The Depression had Hoover-villes. The energy crisis had snaking gas lines. The state's droughts have empty reservoirs and brown lawns.

But today's deep recession is largely about disappearing wealth -- painful, yes, but difficult to see.

To ride Japan's super Shinkansen, or bullet train, is to zip into the future at speeds reaching 186 miles per hour.

In 2025, the country plans to be traveling by rail at 310 mph.


From Nagoya to Tokyo, the scenery whizzes past in a dizzying blur as the sleek engine with its bullet-like nose floats the cars along elevated tracks -- without the clickety-clack of the lumbering U.S. trains that make you feel as though you're chugging along like cattle to market.

These days, Californians dream of a future with high-speed elevated rails that would link Southern California and Las Vegas in less than two hours, or L.A. and San Francisco in just over 2 1/2 .Japan, meanwhile, will soon have a class of train that could make the trips in less than half those times.

This is a nation where it's not nearly enough that the trains run on time -- they've got to break land records. And even that's not enough.By 2025, a network of bullet trains connecting major cities is to feature magnetically levitated, or maglev, linear motor trains running at speeds of more than 310 mph.

Developed for use during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the Shinkansen trains were the brainchild of Hideo Shima, a government engineer who died a decade ago at the age of 96. Designed to traverse Japan's mountainous terrain, the trains use tunnels and viaducts to go through and over obstacles rather than around them. They travel on elevated tracks without road crossings and apart from conventional rail. An automated control system eliminates the need for signals.

Officials boast that on average the trains are less than half a minute late each year, which includes delays caused by earthquakes, typhoons and snow. During the line's 45-year history and transport of 7 billion passengers, there have been no deaths from derailment or collisions.

But Japan isn't stopping there.The trains planned for 2025 will reduce the travel time between Tokyo and Nagoya to 40 minutes from about 90 minutes. At that speed, commuters could go from L.A. to the Bay Area in just over an hour.

Still, the Shinkansen isn't perfect.The trains often cause a rail version of a sonic boom as they emerge from tunnels. That's because they enter so fast that they create a bubble of air pressure that is pushed along until they emerge. The trains remain in stations for only two minutes -- not a moment more or less -- before easing out and quickly gaining speed.

But there's no tooth-jarring shudder as when jets lumber down the runway. This ride is smooth. The turns are gentle, peaceful, even serene.


Joel Stein: Solo at the birthing class -- oh baby!!

When my lovely wife, Cassandra, got the worst case of flu of her life, I happily volunteered to go to the second class alone and take notes. It turns out the easiest way to seem like a really good guy is to show up alone at a birthing class. If the other women weren't with their husbands and carrying their babies, I think I could have gotten some.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Poet Sylvia Plath's son commits suicide in Alaska

Nicholas Hughes, the son of poet Sylvia Plath, has killed himself, 46 years after his mother committed suicide and almost 40 years to the day after his stepmother, Assia Wevill, did the same. He was 47.

The Merchants of Venice Art



No one sold the world on modernism like Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese.


Frederick Ilchman, a curator at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, believes it was the Venetian artist Titian and a couple of rival painters, Tintoretto and Veronese, who—about 450 years ago—really invented modern painting.

That is, Ilchman says, if your definition is his: "oil on canvas, not done for any specific site, and with the artist, not the patron, choosing the subject matter."

Ilchman offers proof in the 56 paintings that make up one of the most breathtaking old-master exhibitions you'll ever see, "Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice," which is up through Aug. 16 before it travels to a second and final stop at the Louvre in Paris.

The Italian largesse comes from the MFA's 2006 voluntary return of 13 antiquities, including a Roman statue of Sabina and a 2,500-year-old Greek bowl.

(Does anyone want to go see this with me at the Museum of Fine Arts?)

Downtown's dark heart

Boston's shopping district loses its charm at night, becoming a lonely, desolate place apart

While many streets in famously sleepy Boston can be quiet at night, the feeling here is different.
The lack of all but commercial traffic makes it seem a district apart from the rest of downtown - so quiet that the click of heels echo from a block away and you can hear the horns honking on Tremont Street.

Downtown Crossing is one of the country's last remaining pedestrian malls, a vestige of the 1970s that was intended to enliven American downtowns by blocking them off from traffic but instead made many of them seem eerie and forlorn, particularly at night.
At 11:30 p.m., surveying the stillness outside his condo on Washington Street, with Ogan and his pit bull, Twister, Kevin Barron offered an idea, unbidden.

"We need to open it up to traffic," said Barron, who moved to the street in 2001. "We are so sick of this. It's plagued by loiterers at day and a ghost town at night."

Ogan nodded. "From a purely residential convenience standpoint, it would be helpful," he said. "Newbury Street works great."

"Rethinking rent"

Maybe we should stop trying to be a nation of homeowners, Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow says.

Irresponsible mortgages have been universally condemned, but it is still widely assumed that we all aspire to own homes - and that we all should aspire to own homes.
Homeowners are thought to be more engaged in their communities and to take better care of their houses and neighborhoods.
On a nearly subconscious level, buying a home is a central part of the American dream.

But a growing chorus of economists and housing experts say that this mind-set, too, needs fundamental reform.
Owning a home is not right for everyone, they say: In some ways it's overrated, and it can even have harmful effects for individuals and society.

And the experience of a place like Switzerland - a well-functioning country with only about a 35 percent homeownership rate - suggests that rental housing per se does not unmoor society.

Thoughts?

Friday, March 20, 2009

Newspaper cuts open door to more political trickery

Political consultants aren't exactly rubbing their hands together and snickering.

But as the hired guns look over a landscape of closing newspapers and laid-off investigative reporters, they sense an opening that leaves them both excited and queasy.

Pushing back the death penalty in New Mexico

In an act of courage, Gov. Bill Richardson repealed capital punishment in the state.

Hopefully his decision will make it easier for other officials to follow their conscience.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Yeah...I was definitely hoping this was temporary


As layoffs and early retirements alter Boston's television newsrooms, the traditional anchorman is becoming a minority and newscasts are getting female makeovers.

Men have been leaving their anchor jobs because of budget cuts forced by the recession and changes in direction at the stations, and women are being elevated to more prominent roles.

At WHDH-TV (Channel 7) the marquee anchor duo is Frances Rivera and Kim Khazei.

Ed Ansin, owner of WHDH, had been trying out the team of Rivera and Khazei since Price left Channel 7 last month and made the duo permanent yesterday.

Ansin said he paired them because he wanted to make his stations stand out against the traditional anchor format.

Curtains for Foothills?




Read the reviews of 'Whorehouse' here:

http://www.telegram.com/article/20090316/NEWS/903160368

http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Foothills_Theater_Welcomes_THE_BEST_LITTLE_WHOREHOUSE_314_20090314

Hummus goes upscale at Fresh Pond

There are many places to service your car on New Street, the little road that follows the railroad tracks behind Fresh Pond Mall in Cambridge. You can get a new transmission, buy an air filter, watch the dents get knocked out of your bumper.

Now you can also service your stomach: A squat brick building with exposed steel beams has been transformed into Basha Cafe, a Middle Eastern restaurant that opened a few months ago in this restaurant wasteland.

The food is a mixture of Lebanese and Armenian, with many familiar dishes, like falafel and kebabs, as well as more unusual Armenian sausages and a spicy chicken soup.

At night, the restaurant turns into a nightclub, with bellydancing, salsa, Greek bands, and karaoke on different days.
The prices are upscale, too, and that may be hard to sustain, though portions are colossal.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Disturbing study: Boston youths blame Rihanna for domestic beating

A Boston Public Health Commission survey on teenagers and dating violence released yesterday offered up some pretty chilling results: Nearly half of the kids surveyed said they think Rihanna was "responsible" for what happened between her and her boyfriend, Chris Brown.

Rihanna, who turned 21 a few weeks after the incident, was beaten severely enough to require hospitalization.
Brown, 19, who reportedly had a history of violence toward Rihanna, turned himself in and was charged with two felonies.

Yet 46 percent of the kids surveyed said that they thought Rihanna was to blame for the beating; 51 percent said Brown was at fault, and 52 percent said that both of them were somehow responsible.
And, according to the survey, a significant number of males and females said Rihanna was now destroying Chris Brown's career.

What the F????
Read the Globe's blog entry about this here.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Mass. Registry, AAA may join on license renewals


The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles is close to completing a partnership with AAA so members can renew their driver's license and vehicle registration at select branches of the motor club.

A Registry spokeswoman said Wednesday a pilot program will likely begin next month at AAA's West Newton and Worcester branches.

It will last for six months before a broader rollout is evaluated.

HOV lanes: old, expensive...worth it?

A driver of the HOV lane maker talks about his job zipping and unzipping high-occupancy vehicle lanes on the "unique" highways of greater Boston.



Before dawn and dusk every weekday, the large, lumbering machines crawl along the Southeast Expressway, gobbling 750-pound concrete barriers at one end and spitting them out in seamless rows at the other.

The heavy lifting required to open and close the so-called zipper lanes on the 6 miles of Interstate 93 south of Boston has become increasingly expensive as the Pac-Man-like trucks get older and a dwindling number of vehicles use the high-occupancy lanes.

On an average day in January, fewer than 7,000 vehicles - cars with two or more occupants, motorcycles, and emergency vehicles - used the zipper lanes, a 20 percent drop from the average peak use three years ago.

The 14-year-old barrier transport vehicles are well beyond their intended lifespan and will have to be replaced in the next few years at a cost of more than $1 million apiece.

As lawmakers debate how to pay for the deteriorating transportation system, the high replacement cost raises questions about whether the state should continue an operation that already costs taxpayers $1.25 million a year.

Last week, the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation encouraged state officials to join a federal program to convert the high-occupancy vehicle, or HOV, lanes on I-93 into high-occupancy toll, or HOT, lanes.

The idea would be to allow single-occupancy vehicles to pay a toll to use the zipper lanes. Carpoolers would still drive for free, but solo drivers would pay to use the lanes with transponders.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

In tough times, fewer candidates for town meeting

Dozens of town meeting seats up for election in communities from Arlington to Winchester will have no candidates on the ballot in the coming weeks, signaling a shortage of office seekers that local officials say could affect legislative representation amid declining revenues and widespread budget cuts.


Officials blame the shortage of candidates on a variety of factors, from hectic work schedules and waning interest in local affairs to the fiscal realities of these harsh economic times.


"I think it's going to be an unpleasant time to be in a legislative body, because unlike when you can vote on budgets that are moving the community forward, here we're voting on budgets where you're standing still, and that's not a lot of fun," said Reading Town Manager Peter Hechenbleikner. 

"The other thing is, I think as a society, we're more focused on other things right now - like having a job."

Marathon makes peace with host towns

Wellesley Executive Director Hans Larsen has signed off on this year's permit to allow the Boston Marathon to run through town next month, after the race's organizer met with local officials to discuss their budget problems and the escalating costs of hosting the world famous footrace.

Officials in Ashland, Framingham, Natick, and Wellesley had been delaying approval of Marathon permits until they could meet with the Boston Athletic Association to discuss the financial and logistical costs and to point out the impact on local businesses, some of which suffer significant losses during the annual Patriots Day event, observed on April 20 this year.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Catholic population tumbles in New England

Down to one-third of population from more than half a decade ago

The Catholic population in New England, long the most Catholic region in the country, is plummeting, according to a large survey of religious affiliation in the United States.

The American Religious Identification Survey, a national study being released today by Trinity College in Hartford, finds that the Catholic population of New England fell by more than 1 million in the past two decades, even while the overall population of the region was growing.

The study, based on 54,000 telephone interviews conducted last year, found that the six-state region is now 36 percent Catholic, down from 50 percent in 1990.

In Massachusetts, the decline is particularly striking - in 1990, Catholics made up a majority of the state, with 54 percent of the residents, but in 2008, the Catholic population was 39 percent.

At the same time, the percentage of the state's residents who say they have no religious affiliation rose sharply, from 8 percent to 22 percent.

"It's quite an amazing change," said Barry A. Kosmin, one of the study's authors.

Do we need devices to cut clothing next to all escalators?

Sort of like the way there's hatchets and fire extinguishers kept inside public areas under fire code? What I find appalling about this story is that someone did try to go find help -- scissors, nail clippers, a box cutter -- and not only did none of the surrounding businesses offer so much as one pair of shears, the security personnel closed access into the station for anyone who might have returned with a cutting instrument anyway:

Thursday, March 5, 2009