Random Thoughts and Raves

-- The Gloucester Daily Times continues to slander its own hypocrisy with todays front page lynching of an alleged drunk driver teacher, athlete, mother from Rockport. For a paper to laud the Fiesta commitee for a rousing success last June and then on page 3 of the same issue publish police notes 5 columns wide by a page high of bloody fights, drunks in alley's and case after case of intoxication is ridiculous. Either they are against alcohol abuse or they are not. Just because the seine boat load of drunks last June were not teachers doesn't make them page 3 material. Come on put them on the front page too...

-- Derek Jeter should keep his pretty, cologne-wafting, questionable sexual orientation pie hole shut concerning what David Ortiz said and what context the assinine NY press construed it as. Jeter's New York team would not be any further from first if he wasn't there than they are now and Ortiz Red Sox would be about 20 games out if he were missing. That is a fact. The entire Yankee team makeup is boring even if they are "professional". I can see the 25 guys-25 cabs look whenever I see and hear them talk. Boooooring.

-- I hope CNN learned a lesson as they watched their rebroadcast "as it happened" on 9/11 this past Monday. First of all, for the sake of self-promotion, there is no need to take up 30+% of the screen with a stock ticker and the CNN logo during a national crisis. The headlines were often late, misinformed and useless. The audio of the reporters was 15 minutes behind the pictures. We all saw a second plane hit the 2nd tower but it took CNN 12 minutes to say so. Well, we kind of saw it behind the CNN logo.

To show in split-screen the towers burning and 2 guys talking on a roof was an exercize in juvenile production, as was the distant view for about 4 minutes of smoke that we didn't yet know was the Pentagon. And then it took almost 10 minutes for them to realize the first tower had collapsed totally when it was obvious by the broadcast view in 3.

Other than the obvious 20-20 hindsight judgement and confusion though it was still spellbinding as it unfurled in almost surreal slow-motion again in real time. Grainy images of Walter Cronkite withstanding, this generations Kennedy assassination has its mark on all.

The conspiracy talk has some creedence. I mean, why else would two buildings come down straighter than a planned implosion? There could not have been a full coincidence of exact and equal dispersion of fire and fuel across the airplane hit floors in both cases. And when is this question going to be answered: Why, oh why, did F-ing W have all the Bin Laden family flown out of the country the next day without so much as a single question being asked??? The answer probably lies in why Bin Laden hasn't been caught... he could run W right out of the universe if he were able to talk freely.

-- Even if you have Deion Branch on a fantasy football team, you have to be a bit pissed when a player leaves to go elsewhere for millions as he did. Who cares though, really? I love the Patriots and the NFL and the guy is gone. That's it. The players lament his departure like he was some kind of hobo but he is just another moron that could not get by with 30 million bucks, he needed 36. And let jerks who want to read about it get a Seattle paper. I don't feel like paying for a paper reporting on another teams player for days and days.

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Labor Day and Cape Ann

With the impending exodus of the tourist herd now in final stage, it is wonderful to reclaim one's town yet take a moment to reflect on summers end as it so seems to be so suddenly on Labor Day around Cape Ann. The grand Schooners from near and far waited an extra and drier day to cruise the outer portion of Gloucester Harbor with lesser effects of Ernesto at their keel, the New England road racing community enjoyed a jaunt of 15.5 miles around the island in ideal cool racing temperatures and the stores of edible content have been cleansed of all past borderline expirations for the family dysfunctions.

Soon the boats will disappear in 2's and 3's from Sandy Bay YC (pictured Friday), the seas will get choppy and the gannets will migrate off shore in diving fashion. The next brand of tourists will be older and more laid back and certainly wiser to realize that the visit to Cape Ann in September and October can be like no other, especially with no kids in tow. The strangeness of it all is how suddenly on a daily basis from here on in the town shut down on a nightly basis is.

Anyway, we are proud to freely serve Cape Ann with our site and want to thank the many for using as well as feeling good about helping the dozens who needed information. We have once again by about 30% exceeded last years traffic for the 6th straight year and our several new traffic monitoring tools have indicated that not only are we an information vehicle for the visitor of our quaint little Cape and a top engine listing but we are also a very popular destination for Red Sox and Patriots fans alike!!! As far as page popularity overall, after the portal, it's lodging followed by anything weather, with the Sox sprinkled in, fading like summer and the Pats rising like the sun.

Hope you all had a wonderful summer near and far and we look forward to covering the tropics for another 2 months and the ever active New England weather follies. Cheers!