1) The Case of the Cramped Councilors:
How, oh how, can the Springfield City Council possibly squeeze its newly expanded 13 members into a chamber that previously sat just nine? It's a mystery that's loosened hundreds of thousands of dollars from a city budget that's hardly got spare change floating around, and provoked a blanket slap at city employees from the Council president.
Enter G. Michael Dobbs, managing editor of the Reminder, which a potential solution culled from his personal collection of Springfield ephemera (including an extensive postcard collection). In his latest column, Dobbs includes a photo of the Council Chambers, circa 1936, that shows 16-as in, three more than the current number of councilors-seats arranged around two long, curved desks.
"[T]he arrangement was such that councilors could actually look at people attending a meeting," Dobbs notes.
2) "T Is for Totally Irresponsible. Wait, Scratch That-Now T Is for Totally Great Idea."
Looking for some context to explain City Councilor Tim Rooke's decision last week to put the brakes on a proposal from Mayor Domenic Sarno that would allow the city to send out its tax bills late this quarter? (Rooke blocked a vote on the measure by invoking the Council's Rule 20. Rule 20 is, officially, a provision that allows a single councilor to prevent a vote by asking that a financial analysis of the measure be completed before it's put to a vote. Informally, it's a handy way for a councilor to offer a resounding f-you to the proponent of a measure he or she finds offensive, politically insulting, or otherwise unsavory.)
There's nothing new, of course, about Rooke throwing a wrench in some plan of Sarno's; the veteran councilor has been the mayor's most vocal critics and all-around nemesis over the past couple of years.
But to truly understand what inspired a frustrated Rooke to shut down the vote on Sarno's tax measure, check out this piece in last week's Springfield Intruder, where Bill Dusty offers a blow-by-blow account of Rooke's own attempt to extend the tax-bill deadline, in order to allow more time for public input on the city's new tax, and to allow the new councilors, sworn in earlier this month, to vote on the rate. Rooke's effort was stymied, Dusty reports, by the Sarno administration and its allies on the Council. So when the mayor subsequently turned around and asked for the extension himself, you can imagine that Rooke was not exactly in an accommodating mood.
3) Who Was That Necktied Man?
Some years ago, J. Wesley Miller (the now-deceased self-styled Springfield gadfly and freelance agent provocateur) mailed me an almost-nude photo of Tom Devine (the editor, at the time, of the Baystate Objectivist, precursor to what's now called, in blog form, Tommy Devine's Cosmos Report), in the form of a bogus report of a naked man who'd been spotted lurking about the city libraries.
As was invariably the case with Miller, his exact motives were unclear, and most likely unkind. Presumably, though, he'd hoped to either embarrass Devine and/or shock me.
Two flaws in that strategy: It would take a heck of a lot more to embarrass Devine, who—as faithful readers of his blog can attest—is a man who bares all, both literally and figuratively. And, while I admit that opening a envelope to find a photo of one of your pals in the almost-altogether is an unusual way to start your workday, as one of those faithful Devine readers, and someone who's counted Tom a friend for 13 or so years, there's little about the man that can shock me. Or so I thought.
Then I came across this shocking image, from Devine's archives, captured during his too-short career as a local TV pundit.
Ah, but then, perhaps we could have seen that coming, as this image of a toddler Devine presages.
