South County

Okay, after an absence of about five months, blogger boy is back. I hate to keep recounting this whole thing, but I've been out of action because of a very aggressive infection in my leg. I was in the hospital for more than a month, having several surgeries, and recuperating for three more. It's been more frustrating than difficult.

But I'm back, and I'm going to be contributing to this regularly again. That's the plan, anyway.

One of the reasons this all happened was that I wasn't paying attention to my diabetes. I actually didn't think I had diabetes, because I didn't show any of the symptoms. But just because there are no symptoms doesn't mean someone doesn't have it. And my doctor, for
years, was beating me over the head to get treatment, and I deluded myself into thinking I was okay.

But I wasn't okay. Although, to be honest, with it under control, I haven't felt this good in years. So I see a silver lining in this. But then, I see a silver lining in most everything.

I've been laid low by the flu for longer than usual, and one of the
things that fell by the wayside was this little effort. Sorry about
that.

Anyway, one of the things in which I indulged myself during my
forced internment were DVD movies, some borrowed, some I just hadn't
seen in a while. I watched probably more than I should have.
But I've grown to love those old 1950s scince fiction movies. The
special effects. The goofy dialog. And most of all, the fake science.

Did you know, for example, that the human heart is one large cell?
Well, that's what one of the doctors in "The Amazing Colossal Man"
tells us. The date of the first Mars expedition from Earth? 1973,
according to one of the crew members in "It Came From Beyond Space."

I watched the second movie twice last week because it was so
gloriously 1950s. If you don't know the plot, here it is: A group of
scientists are traveling to Mars to investigate the disappearance of
another crew on the planet. While they're on the planet, one of the
crew members leaves the door to the ship open (hey, it happens) and a
hideous creature stows aboard. The ship takes off, and the creature
kills a lot of people, until they kill it.

This spaceship is like Laura Petrie's living room. Everybody smokes
like a chimney and they mix drinks and sort of hang out. Also, there
is an astonishing amount of ordinance aboard, like machine guns,
grenades, even a bazooka. They finally kill the thing by opening one
of the main hatches and letting it blow out into space.

In the 2000s, the crew would have figured a way to somehow preserve
an alien life. In 1953? Blow it out the hatch! We'll ask questions
later. That's why I love these 1950s movies.

About the only time I play my "Alice Cooper's Greatest Hits" CD on a
regular basis is during election season. I play, as you might
surmise, Cooper's hit "Elected" a lot. And I usually sing it at the
top of my lungs. (In the car. Alone.)

"We're gonna be elected,

"respected,

"selected,

"call collected."

And so on.

But one of things I enjoy doing is visiting the polling places
during the day to get a sense of the turnout. This year was very
busy, which is good. Locally, everyone I thought would win, did win.
But I thought the Green-Rainbow Party made a good showing. And while
I don't subscribe to most of their philosophies, I believe the
national Tea Party movement is not necessarily a bad thing. I think
if they induce more people to vote, that is a positive accomplishment, no matter their positions. The problem I see both
locally and nationally is that there are fewer and fewer real choices
in most elections. Which in turn leads to voter apathy and in turn to
low turnout. That is the real problem in any Democracy.

I have to admit, I didn't think there were as many comic book
aficianados in the Berkshires. But I got several e-mails on my Tom
Sutton column that ran last week. For those who didn't read it, I
recounted the bio of Sutton, a North Adams native who made it big in
the comic book business in the 60s through 80s, working for virtually
every company in the business in that span. I believe the guy was
probably the most successful comic book artist fom the Berkshires
ever.

In the wake of my story on Wes Souliere of Becket, the 91-year-old
ex-WW2 vet who was awarded the French Legion of Honor Medal, I got a
lot of e-mails and calls, mostly positive. One woman accused me of
"glorifying war" and "making a hero out of a soldier who killed."

I don't know a lot of Muslims, possibly because there aren't a lot
in my town. But I do remember that when I was living in Boston, I
knew a Muslim woman. And she was a Red Sox fan.

This year's Berkshire Harvest Festival was filled with fun, food and
flowers, as it always is.

This year, the festival had this monstrous pumpkin on display. It
was the Moby-Dick of pumpkins, the Incredible Hulk of gourds, a
gigantic thing that weighed almost 700 pounds. I admit that I'm a
cynical dude. I've been at this reporting gig for 20 years, so not
much impresses me anymore.

I was impressed by that pumpkin. I have to admit, at first I thought
it was fiberglass or something. It just didn't seem possible that
such a vegetable could be that big.

This parade isn't in South County but I was assigned to cover it and
I left a few things out of Monday's story.

At one point, as I was interviewing the mayor, a bunch of clowns
sort of surrounded me. I'm not as enchanted by clowns as some people.
And two of the three were about six feet tall. They were menacing
clowns, to me.