Sad news...

Storyteller and Harvard Square fixture, Brother Blue has died at the age of eighty-eight.

So the army sez that 75% of recruitable US youth

are not fit for induction into the armed forces? Drugs, education and obesity issues being the core problems?
So when will the Pentagon declare high fructose corn syrup a threat to national security??
Well, I snark but really a stat like this ought to spark some hearings in congress, git some generals to testify...start that debate sez I. Because frankly Humble Elias can live in a world where high fructose corn syrup is outlawed as a food additive...Won't hardly change things at all.

So much for that whole quaint notion that

Maine is full of witty Marshall Dodge type caricatures who just want to be left alone. Given enough money and enough of "Fear Factor" politics they will happily police the marriages of their neighbors with a gay abandon.

Congrats to Mayor Menino on his re-election last night

the numbers were outside my predictions, but not by much in the weary wicked end.
The pundits and pols may hate and fear Tom Menino, but the electorate has yet been given no good reason to break their compact with him. You can complain until you are blue in the face about Menino's thin skin, autocratic style and lack of vision but those are the very things that 57% of last night's voters could care less about.
They want an urban mechanic and don't care if he is sixty six years old and bereft of ideas, period end of story.
Michael Flaherty ran an honorable campaign and made every good effort to innovate right up until the polls closed, he did not disgrace himself he did not punch below the belt. Dunno what the future holds for him, but there will at least be no recriminations for Citizen Flaherty from this campaign.
My only questions are, will the Mayor make an endorsement in the special election for Ted Kennedy's seat and will he support the guberatorial ticket in 2010?
Humble Elias suspects the answer to both those questions is a resounding "No".

A dinosaur spotted on the streets of Boston yesterday

a big ole sound truck was heard extolling the virtues of citizen Michael Flaherty, candidate for Mayor in today's city election.
No TV commercials at all, but Mike Flaherty and Sam Yoon have a sound truck, a campaign gimmick that went the way of the snap brim fedora over fifty years ago.
Still ya gotta give the guy credit, it is like sending up your last flare when the supplies run out.
I figure we will be out of the trenches by 9:30pm tonight, but then again crazy things happen on sunny election days.
Also on rainy ones as well.

Apropos of nothing

but when Joanie Vennochi writes the venom from her pen fairly scars the desktop at which she works.
When she calls in to the Jeff Santos show on WWZN Am 1510 though, Joanie is as decorously dull as dishwater, no middle school snarkage, no bitterness no nothing.
As a radio call-in guest, Joanie Vennochi ranks but poorly compared to say the sentimental rubbish routinely spouted by Mike Barnicle over on the Imus show.
Who knew that inside Joanie Vennochi prowled the placid soul of a Joe Lieberman?

Pursuant to Tuesday's Mayoral contest in Boston...

I'm predicting Menino 55%, Flaherty 45%.
If it rains and the Mayor's celebrated machine is on their game then the spread wil be much wider.
Ideologically not much separates either man, the argument is over managerial ability, temperament and unresolved problems impacting the city.
There, in almost every category save temperament, Menino holds the advantage, but I will say this for Flaherty like Adlai Stevenson he has run an honest and honorable campaign, he has not demeaned himself nor disgusted the city grasping for power, the man is but in his forties and may run well in other races down the line.
The same can be said for Sam Yoon, both he and Flaherty are men of the future whose times haven't caught up with them...Yet.
Meanwhile assuming victory Tuesday night, one has to wonder what role Mayor Menino's machine will play in next year's gubernatorial contest? Menino famously feuded with Scot Harshbarger in 1998 and helped deliver the corner office to Penniless Paul Cellucci, will he play the same role for the democrats in 2010?