He's a lumberjack and what the ...

Tree removal crew on Ararat Street in Worcester.

Crime in suburbia

From The Landmark (subscription required):

Holden

Monday, June 1

8:00 a.m. Street light out at Rte. 31 and Main
8:10 a.m. Lawn tractor in someone's driveway with keys in it on Mill St. for a week
9:46 a.m. Kids fooling around on police frequency; advised to vacate
10:58 a.m. Report of male soliciting on Greenbriar Lane, no permit seen
5:13 p.m. No-trespass order for church member dropped off at station
6:33 p.m. Walk-in reports being bitten on the hand by a collie on Kendall Rd.
6:51 p.m. Report of leaning pole on Putnam Rd.
7:05 p.m. Caller reports motor vehicle speeding on Malden St.
7:09 p.m. Caller reports motor vehicle speeding Brentwood Dr.; vehicle now parked
7:47 p.m. Dog found on Slipperhill Lane
8:53 p.m. 911 Caller reports seeing sparks from water heater in residence on Yorktown Ter.
9:18 p.m. Walk-in concerned about erratic operator call earlier on Malden St.
9:41 p.m. Suspicious person on Doyle Rd.

Tuesday, June 2

1:52 a.m. Male party on bicycle yelling at female party on Glenwood St.
7:46 a.m. USDA reports they will be climbing trees on Shrewsbury St.
8:52 a.m. Someone dumped fresh cut wood in yard on Wachusett St.
9:56 a.m. Report of water coming up out of the ground on Reservoir St.; water dept. advised
11:36 a.m. Landscaping trailer in road causing delays on Chapel St.
12:15 p.m. Walk-in would like officer to come to elementary school parent-teacher conference to speak to 7-year-old about bringing knife to school
2:22 p.m. Motor vehicle in road on Malden St. reported with airbags deployed, no one in area;
2:31 p.m. 911 Motor vehicle accident on Main St. with air bag deployment in front of WRHS
3:56 p.m. Reservoir St. resident reports no water at residence
5:06 p.m. Water main break on Reservoir St.
5:17 p.m. Dog bite reported by board of health
6:15 p.m. Jeep cutting through business to avoid stop sign reported
6:19 p.m. Branch reported hanging on Bullard St., damaged mirror; advised to file claim

Wednesday, June 3

12:27 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicle on Main St. with doors open; okay, owner forgot to close doors

7:19 a.m. Business owner on Main St. reports youths loitering there and leaving things on her vehicle; parties moved along
10:15 a.m. Missing tiger cat
1:21 p.m. Flyer dropped off for missing dog
6:02 p.m. Caller about electric service
7:12 p.m. Report of large trap by side of Bryant Rd.; set for dog that has run away

Thursday, June 4

10:54 a.m. 911 Party walking dog on Boyden Rd. reports alarm sounding for half hour
11:12 a.m. Caller reporting past incident at bus stop on Woodridge; dog feces placed there and substance applied to sign
3:25 p.m. Loose dog near Jefferson School
3:50 p.m. Dog captured
5:09 p.m. Skateboard ramp set up in lot behind Main St. business
5:10 p.m. Report of vehicle driving erratically in parking lot
7:20 p.m. Caller asking if gun was taken into safekeeping during medical call

Friday, June 5

10:30 a.m. Two loose dogs reported on Rte. 31
10:45 a.m. Walk-in reports rented tux not returned
11:59 a.m. Resident complaint that Reservoir Rd. at Bailey Rd. closed
9:48 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicle with six occupants on Holden St.; waiting for ride for one of the occupants

Saturday, June 6

3:57 a.m. Caller looking for spouse who might be in Holden; not there
8:12 a.m. Trailer blocking driveway on Reservoir St.; tree crew truck; owner will be contacted and vehicle removed
9:40 a.m. Suspicious incident on Mason Rd.
4:44 p.m. Police flagged down by resident concerned that dog wasn't breathing; advised to contact emergency veterinary care
7:30 p.m. Gas grill and its contents in road
10:29 p.m. Beagle reported missing from Holden St.

Sunday, June 7

12:39 a.m. Suspicious person on General Hobbs Rd.
1:04 a.m. Large bonfire and excessively loud rap music and drinking behind bandstand building on Boyden Rd.
2:32 a.m. 911 Loud music reported from Phillips Rd.
10:21 a.m. Vehicle struck by paintballs
12:23 p.m. Power outage on Sherwood Hill Dr.
12:27 p.m. Report of flashing red light and buzzing sound on Windy Ridge Rd.
1:33 p.m. Youth on mini scooter without helmet on Mayflower Circle
3:00 p.m. Call about Asian Longhorned Beetle; advised to contact DPW
3:30 p.m. Truck lost part of its load on Rte. 31
5:46 p.m. Call about sick bird
7:21 p.m. Ten-year-old child will not return home
8:07 p.m. Follow up on unruly child call

Paxton

Monday, June 1

12:50 p.m. Male going door-to-door trying to get jobs seal coating driveways, Indian Hill Rd.
12:54 p.m. Dog wandering around parking lot at Paxton Market, Pleasant St.
7:25 p.m. Person at station to reporting her dog was attacked on Pleasant St.

Wednesday, June 3

9:00 a.m. Male in lobby to speak with officer regarding illegal dumping on his property, West St.

Saturday, June 6

10:49 a.m. Dog in middle of the road, Pleasant St./ Burtenmar Cir.

Princeton

Monday, June 1

11:18 a.m. Safety issues, Worcester Rd.

Tuesday, June 2

5:07 a.m. Traffic safety hazard, Mirick Rd.
10:20 a.m. Request for animal control officer, Old Colony Rd.

Wednesday, June 3

10:14 a.m. Request for animal control officer, Mirick Rd.
4:40 p.m. Trash/litter complaint, Mountain Rd.

Thursday, June 4

9:06 a.m. Traffic safety hazard, Sterling Rd.

Friday, June 5

5:17 a.m. Request for animal control officer, Whitaker Ln.
1:15 p.m. Traffic safety hazard, Calamint Hill Rd.
1:45 p.m. Traffic safety hazard, Calamint Hill Rd. S.
2:05 p.m. Trash/litter complaint, Calamint Hill Rd. S.

Sunday, June 7

4:06 a.m. Disturbance, Matthews Ln.
11:58 a.m. Public service, Worcester Rd.
3:53 p.m. Request for animal control officer, Birchwood Rd.
6:55 p.m. Public service, Worcester Rd.

Rutland

Monday, June 1

7:09 a.m. Low-hanging wires, Prescott St./Orchard Hill Dr. Bus unable to get through
6:03 p.m. Request that police explain rules about riding dirt bikes to people on Barre Paxton Rd.

Tuesday, June 2

11:48 a.m. Suspicious male hitchhiking, Maple Ave.
1:17 p.m. Person requesting to be fingerprinted for employment, Main St.
2:03 p.m. Assistance requested getting cat stuck behind wall, Turkey Hill Rd.
2:07 p.m. Person at station to surrender weapons, Main St.
2:58 p.m. Complaint about loud noise from dirt bikes, Barre Paxton Rd.

Wednesday, June 3

11:20 a.m. Fraudulent activity, Main St.

Thursday, June 4

6:26 a.m. Caller reporting someone is trying to kill him and his cat, Inwood Rd.
9:11 a.m. Erratically-operated motor vehicle, Main St.
10:18 a.m. Party found a baby deer lying in Emerald Rd.
1:43 p.m. Cat stuck in pool in three inches of water, Cheryl Ann Dr.; cat removed
5:01 p.m. General police services, Barre Paxton Rd.

Friday, June 5

1:15 a.m. Disturbance, loud noise, couple arguing, possibly throwing beer cans around, Main St.
7:22 a.m. Complaint about horse droppings in roadway, Kenwood Dr.
8:31 a.m. Black bear in the road, Crawford Rd.
1:56 p.m. Person wants to speak with officer about incident on River Rd.
6:15 p.m. Person at station to be fingerprinted, Main St.
7:14 p.m. Person at station to talk with officer about incident previous night on Main St.

Saturday, June 6

9:21 a.m. Dead chicken in roadway, Main St./ Prouty Ln.
9:49 a.m. Report of target practice, Whitehall Rd.
1:07 p.m. Person brought bug to station thought to be an Asian longhorned beetle, Main St.

Sunday, June 7

12:12 p.m. Cars parked on both sides of the road, Naquag to Central Tree Middle School
1:13 p.m. Report of two girls fighting in front yard, Maple Ave.
3:20 p.m. Person complaining about neighbor, Anthony Dr.
4:43 p.m. Report of large party going on with cars parked on both sides of Prescott St.
4:52 p.m. Caller complaining that police officer is damaging his reputation
8:31 p.m. Person locked out of truck, River Rd.

Sterling

Monday, June 1

6:32 a.m. Officer wanted, Pratts Jct. Rd.
8:31 a.m. Moving van pulling onto access road to cell tower, Pine Woods Ln.
7:59 p.m. Caller reporting two loose dogs, basset hound and black Labrador, Princeton Rd.

Tuesday, June 2

12:37 p.m. Caller reports standing in his driveway when vehicle operator passing by threw beer can at him, Beaman Rd.
7:52 p.m. Large porcupine has climbed a tree in caller's back yard, Clemence Ave.

Wednesday, June 3

8:28 a.m. Caller reports hearing loud screams coming from home in neighborhood, Redemption Rock Trl.
1:43 p.m. Suspicious parcel hanging from mailbox, N. Row Rd.
10:54 p.m. Missing yellow Labrador, Taft Rd.

Thursday, June 4

7:57 p.m. Black bear ran in front of motor vehicle, Redemption Rock Trl.
3:07 p.m. Dead rabbit, possibly domestic, Primrose Ln.
6:08 p.m. Young man came to caller's door selling magazines, Boutelle Rd.
6:38 p.m. Report of large bobcat in yard, Stuart Rd.
7:01 p.m. Motorist reports unattended puppy beside Clinton Rd.

Saturday, June 6

7:38 a.m. Suspicious activity, Maple St.
10:23 a.m. Person at station to be fingerprinted, Leominster Rd.
11:56 a.m. Someone stole 1,000 lb. granite sign on property on Cynthia Ln.; sign found in woods
1:25 p.m. Request that officer look at mess left overnight, Tuttle Rd.
2:16 p.m. Hose stolen, Pineview Rd.
9:58 p.m. Complaint about dogs barking all night, Chace Hill Rd.

Sunday, June 7

12:41 p.m. Caller reports bear in her yard, Redstone Hill Rd.
5:03 p.m. Loose dog in yard, James Rd.
9:23 p.m. Report that three people got out of their car and ran into orchard, Chace Hill Rd.

They get around

Earlier this morning, I read a story on the Fitchburg Sentinel and Enterprise web site and noticed that there were two women from Holden featured in the advertisements:

After some errands, I wound up at the Jumpin' Juice and Java in Gardner. A check of the same page shows that the ladies had moved to Gardner.

"Good used lanterns make good neighbors"

OntheCommon.com: "Good used lanterns make good neighbors"

Fox saved our reality by creating its own

So, if they say that they're creating an alternate reality and they do, does that mean that they're right or they're wrong when they say weird stuff? We report. You decide.

What Fox did is not just create a venue for alternative opinion. It created an alternate reality.

via Fark.com

Two items to ponder over lunch

1. It seems that we're voting with our feet, sort of, because we're not really walking that much. Consumer Reports tells us that Americans, over the past 18 years, have been doing their best to avoid healthy habits:
   
   
   
   • Exercising 12 or more times a month: This dropped from 53 percent of adults exercising regularly to 43 percent.
   • Eating five or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day: This dropped from 42 percent of adults to 26 percent.
   • Maintaining a healthy weight: The percentage of obese adults rose from 28 percent to 36 percent.
   • Smoking: This didn't change over the study period, with around 26 percent of adults smoking.
   • Drinking alcohol in moderation: This increased from 40 percent to 51 percent of adults. Moderate alcohol consumption was defined as up to one drink a day for women and up to two for men. This is considered a healthy level, so this was a positive trend.
   • Adhering to all five healthy habits: This dropped from 15 percent of adults to only 8 percent.
2. Meanwhile, Amazon is offering this special, 10 bucks off of a large purchase of Baconnaise:
   
   Of course, people don't live by Baconnaise alone:
   
   You may be disappointed (or relieved) to know that Baconnaise is bacon-free and, if you're liberal in your definitions, suitable for vegetarians:
   
   
   

   Ingredients: Soybean Oil, Water, Egg Yolks, Gluconic Acid, Yeast Extract, 
   Salt, Microcrystalline Cellulose, Cultured Dextrose, Distilled Vinegar, 
   Modified Food Starch, Xanthan Gum, Guar Gum, Gum Arabic, Dehydrated Garlic, 
   Sugar, Paprika, Dehydrated Onion, Spices, Natural Flavors, Natural Smoke 
   Flavor, Cellulose Gel, Tocopherols (Added to Protect Flavors). 
   
   Contains: Egg, Milk
   

On the Common - On the power of tools

OnTheCommon.com is back on the air. Here's my post from last week: On the power of tools

Computer viruses 2009

Amherst College : Keefe Campus Center

Standardized tests are to academic success as ...

Another hippie, radical, humanist college decides that the Scholastic Aptitude Test doesn't provide much useful information about how well an student will do in college.
Assumption: Who Needs The SATs? | Worcester Business Journal

I was gonna say ...

WRTA Kneeling Bus

... that Kneeling Bus would be a good name for a rock band, but a rock band thought of it first.

Millions of librarians are crying. Quietly

Adams County libraries shelving Dewey Decimal - The Denver Post: "'Sometimes, when you try and do something differently, it makes people uncomfortable,' she said. 'But I think Melvil will understand.'"

via MeFi

Nordic strawberries under attack

Today's news brings alarm from northern Europe. In Finland, voles have done such damage to the strawberry crop that farmers are having to bring in (suppressing smirk here) Pygmy owls to attack the rodents. (See Pygmy owls drafted in to control unprecedented vole damage in Savo Province.)

Meanwhile, the threat in Sweden is that of imported strawberries. Swedish agricultural authorities are using isotope analysis to determine the authenticity of the strawberries. Suspicious samples are sent to Germany where they are inspected and detected.
It should be noted that "While the Board of Agriculture has never come across a confirmed case of the alleged strawberry fraud, the agency is taking no chances in its efforts to protect Swedish consumers."

The European Court of First Instance has made bogus strawberry detection more difficult. In the case of the smelly strawberry, the court denied a claim that different types of strawberries have unique smells and thus can be registered and protected.
So sayeth the Court:

Admittedly, ... the smell of strawberries did not make it possible to distinguish between the varieties of strawberry in a significant way in respect of all the different crops.

Update 9 June: Recent frosty nights damage berry crops, chicks die in nests

All we need is a little light, more or less

The Hawthorne effect has been discussed in business management meetings for a long time. The story went that increasing the amount of illumination in a factory increased productivity, but that reducing illumination (to a still reasonable level) also increased productivity. Managers and other story-tellers believed that workers were responding to the increased attention given to their work. ("Someone cares about me.") Turns out, what we believed wasn't so.
Put this into the same bin as frog-boiling.

What did you learn today?

Today, I learned that the Bible is one of the earliest references to π. 1 Kings 7:23 says that Solomon ordered the creation of cylinders with a diameter of 10 cubits and a circumference of 30 cubits, resulting in a value of π equaling 3.
Some "critics of the Bible could say that the Bible is imprecise here, but they cannot legitimately say that it is inaccurate or mistaken." Close enough for religious purposes, said Maimonides. The Lord is holy, for sure, but this pi isn't.

Off the Common « On the Common away from home

Off the Common « On the Common away from home

For the past few months, I’ve written a weekly blog post for the Worcester Telegram and Gazette’s OnTheCommon.com site, covering my notes about life in Holden and Phillipston, Massachusetts.
The OnTheCommon site is having some problems with their content management system, such that new blog posts aren’t appearing. Until the new posts are available, I’m publishing my notes here.

Update 6/10/2009: It appears that OnTheCommon is back on the air.