tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65313272011-04-21T18:16:46.321-05:00After 150 years, Greenfield, Massachusetts is still trying to figure itself out. I'm a relative newcomer who plans to call it as I see it.Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113892826723700754noreply@blogger.comBlogger161100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531327.post-1127562732571702532005-09-24T06:34:00.000-05:002005-09-24T06:52:12.606-05:00

The police department announced that an officer will be assigned to the downtown area full time. Good news! It's an old-fashioned idea--an officer walking a beat, knowing everything going on and everyone in the area.I learned at a young age from my grandfather how important this is. He was a policeman in Quincy, Mass. for 38 years starting in the 1920's. Over the years he worked on a horse (

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113892826723700754noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531327.post-1127561631824914842005-09-24T06:29:00.000-05:002005-09-24T06:33:51.830-05:00

Visitors to www.townofgreenfield.org now get the new web site instead of the dead-end error message.

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113892826723700754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531327.post-1124736905168731902005-08-22T13:16:00.000-05:002005-08-23T10:31:07.766-05:00

Three cheers to councilor Isaac Mass for his straightforward response to the supposed conflict-of-interest brouhaha. The ethical concerns raised by Al Norman are a transparent attempt to affect the outcome of this rezoning matter. One could just as easily question Mr. Norman's motive, since any publicity he receives from blocking development will help him sell more books. Mr. Norman has two

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113892826723700754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531327.post-1123353822810890042005-08-06T13:09:00.000-05:002005-08-06T13:45:42.623-05:00

My Better Half and the Fractions are out of town. With no responsibilities at home, I decided to take a long bike ride. Too long, as it turned out; I'm expertly conditioned for sitting in the car and at a desk for long periods, but not for extended physical activity involving hills and sunlight.I took a ride over to GCC, not for any particular reason, just that it seemed like a destination just

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113892826723700754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531327.post-1121131616096339872005-07-11T20:25:00.000-05:002005-07-11T20:26:56.100-05:00

We're on the map! http://westernmass.craigslist.org/

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113892826723700754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531327.post-1118520824470545552005-06-11T15:06:00.000-05:002005-08-01T09:20:33.473-05:00

Since it's out there, I thought I'd take an in-depth look at the new "'City' of Greenfield" website.The very first thing I notice when arriving at the site is not the attractive graphics nor the navigation nor the nice content. I notice that the site hijacks my browser and resizes the window to the maximum width of the screen--an absurd and unwelcome action on my widescreen iMac. I end up with

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113892826723700754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531327.post-1118516749366372102005-06-11T13:59:00.000-05:002005-06-11T14:05:49.370-05:00

Today I dashed off a letter to the editor at The Recorder after reading more about the city/town thing. I reused a few pieces of last week's post.To the editor:For some reason, Mayor Forgey and her personal lightening rod Ms. Marrocco have decided to make political waves by declaring Greenfield a city, which it technically is in the eyes of the commonwealth. But as Barbara Tillmanns pointed

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113892826723700754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531327.post-1116687724671461442005-05-21T09:11:00.000-05:002005-05-21T10:02:04.696-05:00

I'm enjoying The Recorder's coverage of the mayor's bus debacle. The mayor seems to think that leadership means issuing decrees and expecting the waters to part, but instead of parting the waters, she's created a wave of resentment. The initial spin that the mayor's office put on the matter--that it was the product of two months of careful planning with the two bus companies--was punctured by

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113892826723700754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531327.post-1109435244374475912005-02-26T11:23:00.000-05:002005-02-26T11:27:24.376-05:00

Greenfield has a great toy store, Magical Child, that saves me from trekking 45 minutes to the oversized and overcrowded Toys-R-Us every time my kids go to a birthday party. They even wrap the gift for free. Try asking that of any TRU cashier.

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113892826723700754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531327.post-1101178738934113802004-11-22T21:34:00.000-05:002004-11-22T22:12:18.373-05:00

Greenfield is reeling from a gruesome murder that took place last week. One journalist from the Boston Globe, Suzanne Smalley, wrote a "man on the street" piece that tried to cram the story into a "town ravaged by drugs" motiff. Unfortunately she had too much motiff and very few facts to support it. I wrote to Ms. Smalley to express my dismay. Here's what I said: Subject: Objection to your

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113892826723700754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531327.post-1099942680384152742004-11-08T14:38:00.000-05:002004-11-08T14:38:00.383-05:00

Wired points out the benefits of potassium iodide in preventing radiation sickness after a nuclear accident. Being in the shadow of Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee we're eligible for freebies. As a mnemonic device we keep them on top of the microwave (where we "nuke" our food) so we won't be running around looking for the radiation pills when the need arises. If you live in the zone, you can

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113892826723700754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531327.post-1093904575891437492004-08-30T17:08:00.000-05:002005-05-22T07:22:46.750-05:00

It's not the case with all establishments, but there seems to be a code of mediocrity around here. You get a picture framed, and it's not the size you asked for because they didn't have that one in stock. You go to a chain restaurant and there's an unidentifiable black rubbery mass in your child's french fries (the cheese from a cheesburger cooked an hour ago?) In this case I brought my old

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113892826723700754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531327.post-1093743711086838072004-08-28T20:41:00.000-05:002004-08-28T21:00:24.656-05:00

I'm not going to post my dinner experience daily, but how could I keep quiet about the "oriental chicken salad" at Friendly's? In addition to teriyaki-dipped chicken, you get a mountain of iceberg lettuce sprinkled with red, white and blue nachos and a little dish of honey-mustard salad dressing, thankfully served on the side. (They call it sweet & sour, but trust me--it's honey mustard.)

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113892826723700754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531327.post-1086663621060747152004-06-07T22:00:00.000-05:002004-08-28T20:58:37.833-05:00

WFCR interviewed Al Norman, the anti-Wal*Mart crusader. He says Wal*Mart is evil because they source goods from China, "flooding the market" with cheap imports displacing American goods. And the working conditions there are full of "horror stories", he says, with people working for very little money. So let's make people buy more expensive goods? Protectionist trade policy has never done

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113892826723700754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531327.post-1080005689831573222004-03-22T20:34:00.000-05:002004-08-28T20:58:49.740-05:00

If ever there was a celebrity sighting in Greenfield--and I'm not saying there ever was one--it could only have happened when some New York limo ran out of gas on the way to Vermont. But if this rumor turns out to be true, we'll have a true-to-life, respectable celebrity in our midst. Why would Jon Bon Jovi, or any other rock-singin', football team-ownin' minor celebrity with big hair end up in

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113892826723700754noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531327.post-1077679480822530252004-02-24T22:24:00.000-05:002004-08-28T20:59:02.026-05:00

(This is something I sent to the Recorder but they never got back to me and then the issue crumbled to the ground.) It seems a lot of people want to restore the old Greenfield Tap and Die smokestack to it's original, er, splendor as a symbol of Greenfield's industrial past. Undoubtedly many solid and useful tools were manufactured there, but you'd never know it by looking at that old stovepipe.

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04113892826723700754noreply@blogger.com