Chrissy's blog

Vote NO on Question #3


100% of all retired Greyhounds are adopted in Massachusetts. Greyhound racing is one of the most regulated sports in the country. The dogs are under the constant supervision of the Massachusetts State Police and licensed veterinarians.

The MSPCA (Massachusetts Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) is one of the sponsors of this Ballot initiative. The MSPCA have carte blanch in Massachusetts to investigate cruelty claims. Their law enforcement officers can and do inspect the racing kennels at both tracks at any time, on demand and without notice. Yet, NO incident of cruelty has ever been brought to or investigated by the MSPCA from either dog track. The fact is there is not cruelty to animals going on at either track. As a matter of fact, Grey2K and the MSPCA allege the crates used to house Greyhounds at racing kennels are too small and inhumane? The sizes of the crates were set with the assistance of Grey2K and the MSPCA. They are bigger than any dog crate you can find in the pet store. If you have had a chance to see the video footage on the protectdogs.org website, I hope you are aware that the dog in the video was 100% OK. 100% OK. The reason the video stops where it does is to give the viewer the assumption that the dog did not survive. That dog was 100% OK and is still a race dog.


The law requires that every racing injury, even relatively minor ones (ie, cracking a toenail), be reported to the Massachusetts Racing Commission. According to the commission’s official records, from 2000-2007, the official injury rate was far less than 1 percent (0.015 percent). I think we can agree our own children have a higher rate of injury than that! As a matter of fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National SAFE KIDS Campaign report that more than 10 percent of children, or 120 per 1000, under 14, are hurt annually playing sports or participating in recreational activities.



It is ILLEGAL by racing regulations to put down a healthy greyhound. This is not true for any other breed of dog or animal taken in by shelters. In 2007, sadly, out of 2066, 8 Massachusetts racers were euthanized. BUT- Please be aware of how LOW this percentage is compared to every other dog breed who are brought up as pets.



Vote NO on Question #3


Question 3 is a tax increase. The state receives millions of dollars annually from the handlers at the state’s 2 dog tracks, and another $800,000 annually in real estate taxes from the tracks. This tax revenue supports schools, police, firemen and emergency responders. The Commonwealth cannot afford to amend its budget to compensate for this lack of income. The Commonwealth will simply raise taxes and fees. Can we afford that?


More than 1000 hardworking Massachusetts families will lose their livelihoods. The impact of these job losses will also threaten hundreds of businesses and their workers.


Save the Dogs & the People who Care for them!!

Rest peacefully Aunt Peg ........

 

103-year-old Margaret Maguire has watched Humarock change

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By Kaitlin Keane The Patriot Ledger Posted Mar 29, 2008 @ 02:00 AM

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SCITUATE —

The year Margaret Maguire turned 100, she watched the Humarock Labor Day parade roll by her Milton Street home while sitting beneath a banner that declared her “Mrs. Humarock, 100 years young.”

When neighbors and parade-goers stopped to ask her the secret to a long, full life, she told them: three ounces of sherry wine each day.

A local grocer later mentioned to her daughter, Maureen Maguire, that sales of the sherry had spiked.

Three years later, Maguire isn’t sure what she’s done right, but she feels good. She turns 103 years old on Saturday.

“You know what I think it is – I just never thought about it much,” said Maguire, perched comfortably in the living room of her one-story Humarock cottage, wearing a tiara left over from her 100th birthday.

Maguire and her husband, Frank, bought the land in 1947 and built the house as a summer getaway from their Jamaica Plain home.

After splitting her time between Scituate and Florida for many years, Maguire recently made Humarock her year-round residence.

The sleepy beach community has changed a great deal since the first years Maguire lived in the home, when there was no electricity or hot water and few homes along the beach, she said.

“We came here when there wasn’t anybody else,” said Maguire, who still spends her summer days greeting neighbors and watching her great-grandchildren scour the beaches. “They all came after we did.”

Soon the peninsula was packed with more tiny cottages and, later, more lavish homes with several stories and pricey oceanfront views. Maguire watched homes wash into the river during bad storms and has been around for three new Sea Street bridges.

Born in Roxbury and raised in Jamaica Plain, Maguire said every place she’s lived, not just Humarock, has changed a great deal.

While Maguire can no longer climb over the beach dunes at the end of Milton Street, she has no major health problems. A bout with shingles at age 99 worried doctors, and a bad fall put her in physical therapy at 102, but family members said she bounced back.

“I don’t expect to be perfect, or even half perfect,” she said. “I just don’t think about it.”

Maguire’s granddaughter, Kim Zielinski, of Marshfield, said her grandmother’s memory is equally sharp.

“She’s a book of knowledge,” said Zielinski, who still hears stories from Maguire about her grandfather, who died three decades ago. “She can remember a story, a dinner, a vacation.”

On Friday, Maguire reminisced about drinking Manhattans at the Bridgeway Inn while her children attended dances at the clubhouse.

“I think those days are gone forever,” she said.

But she’s still drinking those three ounces of sherry.

New Corporate Buzz Words :

Blamestorming: Sitting around in a group discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

Body Nazis: Hard-core exercise and weight-lifting fanatics who look down on anyone who doesn't work out obsessively.

Seagull Manager: A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, and then leaves.

Chainsaw Consultant: An outside expert brought in to reduce the employee headcount, leaving the top brass with clean hands.

Cube Farm: An office filled with cubicles.

Idea Hamsters: People who always seem to have their idea generators running.

Mouse Potato: The online, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.

Prairie Dogging: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on.

SITCOMs: What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids. Stands for Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage.

Squirt the Bird: To transmit a signal to a satellite.

Starter Marriage: A short-lived first marriage that ends in divorce with no kids, no property, and no regrets.

Stress Puppy: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.

Swiped Out: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because the magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.

Tourists: People who take training classes just to get a vacation from their jobs. "We had three serious students in class; the rest were just tourists."

Treeware: Hacker slang for documentation or other printed material.

Xerox Subsidy: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one's workplace.

Going Postal: Euphemism for being totally stressed out, for losing it. Makes reference to the unfortunate track record of postal employees who have snapped and gone on shooting rampages.

Alpha Geek: The most knowledgeable, technically proficient person in an office or work group. "Ask Larry, he's the Alpha Geek around here.

Assmosis: The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.

Chips and Salsa: Chips = hardware, Salsa = software. "Well, first we gotta figure out if the problem is in your chips or your salsa."

Flight Risk: Used to describe employees who are suspected of planning to leave a company or department soon.

GOOD job: A "Get-Out-Of-Debt" job. A well-paying job people take in order to pay off their debts, one that they will quit as soon as they are solvent again.

Irritainment: Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying, but you find yourself unable to stop watching them. The O.J. trials were a prime example.

Percussive Maintenance: The fine art of attacking an electronic device to get it to work again.

Uninstalled: Euphemism for being fired. Heard on the voicemail of a Vice President at a downsizing computer firm: "You have reached the number of an uninstalled Vice President. Please dial our main number and ask the operator for assistance." See also Decruitment.

Vulcan Nerve Pinch: The taxing hand positions required to reach all the appropriate keys for commands. For instance, the warm re-boot for a Mac II computer involves simultaneously pressing the Control Key, the Command key, the Return key and the Power On key.

..... wondering since for the most part we only know each other through our short conversations and discussions on the fox blog.......
so i am thinking what it would be like to meet each other in person and have say a round table discussion. i think it would be very fascinating to meet face to face. there is so much you can share on a blog, but to sit face to face could be a lil strange at first. especially after all the once overs, and the hmmmmm, not what i pictured. i always thought if the morning show had us come in and discuss topics from the blog it would be rather fascinating. i had always stated from the beginning that a chat with chip and graham cracker , would make for some really interesting conversation. no i am not looking for a battle royal, but i always have loved a great debate. not to mention there are quite a few other characters on the board that are very intriguing. so what do you guys think . think this would be fun or is it better to just leave well enough alone?

One another blog there was a question on why there are more parents driving kids to school. 

My question is and I am interested in seeing what the different rates to ride the bus are from town to town.

In our town it is 180.00 with a family cap of 280.00. In the town my sister lives it is  265.00 with a family cap of 485.00.

So what is any rate does your town charge ?