To celebrate the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration, Wellesley Booksmith will have a life-size cardboard cutout of Barack Obama on hand Jan. 17-20. You’re invited to swing by and get your picture taken with the future prez (bring your own camera).
We hear Wellesley’s Julia Blake, quoted in this Boston Globe piece about jumbo loans that we mentioned earlier in the week, will also be part of a CBS Evening News report on the topic Wednesday night…
clicked on one of the little Google ads below or on the right hand side. Google sends a few pennies our way for each click. Think of it like our experimenting with a PBS-like, or more recently, Wikipedia-like, pledge drive.
For those of you who don’t know how these things work, when you set up a blog or website you can run Google ads for free. Google has a system that associates the topics of the ads with things you are writing about (we have no control over which specific ads run, needing to trust Google that they are legit businesses). Google has systems in place to prevent what’s called click fraud. For example, this would prevent bloggers from sitting around all day and clicking on the ads on their own sites.
A regular reader who listens to the town’s police and fire department scanners reports that firefighters had their first big call of the new year late last night/early morning to extinguish a fire on Oakland Circle. Earlier, they responded to a broken heat pipe at the high school that did some water damage. As the reader wrote:
“Well maybe it is time for a new high school after all.”
Rick Brown is retiring in March after 36 years on the job. He’ll be a tough act to follow, with involvement in such projects as Wellesley Center and Linden Square among his accomplishments. If you’d like a shot at replacing him as Wellesley’s planning director and enacting your idea to put a dome over Hunnewell Field to ensure future fireworks displays don’t get rained out, or whatever, here’s the start of the job posting from the town web site.
Under the general policy direction of the Planning Board, the Planning Director is responsible for the municipal planning activities of the Town. The incumbent directs and administers the municipal planning, zoning and subdivision control programs within the Town as delineated by state statute and the Town’s Bylaws. The Director serves as the Town’s principal professional adviser and resource on planning and development issues, and is responsible for recommending, preparing, and implementing the policies, programs, plans and studies needed to guide both the short-range and long-range development of the Town and address planning and land use issues and opportunities facing the Town.
Was so excited to spot this owl in the rafters of the Wellesley Farms train station, until realizing it was phony, probably there to keep pigeons from decorating commuters.
Wellesley rated a mention on the Enobytes web site’s “Top 10 Wackiest Wine Laws That Still Exist” posting (thanks to BobD from the Wellesley Wine Press for passing along)
6. In many states, it is illegal to carry an alcoholic drink from the bar to a table. In some states its illegal to sit at a bar (standing room only) and in other states, you have to be seated to be served! I remember being in Wellesley, MA and saying to a bartender, “You must be a really be a bad bartender, they took away all your seats”. I cant’ keep up with all these wacky state laws!
Of course Wellesley does have some bar stools these days, such as at Blue Ginger and the Cottage, though patrons are encouraged to order food if they want a drink.
The Globe actually wrote its own story about Gatehouse’s no-chance bid to put a stop to the Globe’s scheme to wipe out the Townsman’s parent company via new online websites targeting Newton, Needham, Waltham and sooner or later, Wellesley.
Management and other employees of Gatehouse are in a tizzy because the Globe has been borrowing rather liberally from the Needham Times and other pubs to fill its new websites. Bloggers and local media have been buzzing about the controversy since last month, but until now, the Globe hadn’t acknowledged the dispute to our knowledge.
The systems will be delivered and installed at no cost. They’re for those 60 and older who are heads of households in single family homes. The units plug into wall outlets and have battery backup. Call 781 235-1300 for more details.
