12 minute read
City Voices
HARVEY
This Thanksgiving, setting a table for one JANICE HARVEY year I can greedily jeopardize my
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Iremembered all the ingredi- that terrible delight without interents to make my Nana’s turkey ference. However, the satisfaction stuffing, a recipe she picked I usually enjoy while cramming my up as a waitress at Messier’s maw will be missing, that much I on Millbury St. and never made know. the same way twice. My mashed I’ve noticed that Christmas potatoes are the smoothest; sug- decorations are going up much ary whole cranberries sprinkled earlier than usual. Facebook with orange zest will bubble friends are posting photos of their on the stove, while my famed living rooms fully festooned, with asparagus soup waits for a final front porches wrapped in garland whisk. Arlo Guthrie will tell his a week before Thanksgiving. As a story at noon as I baste the bird. mild-to-moderate sufferer of OCD, It’s Thanksgiving, and I’m setting a I have for more years than I can table for one. count decorated for Christmas
Two family members have been on Black Friday, and every New exposed to the coronavirus, and Year’s Day I pack up the ribbons, out of an abundance of caution, the wrappings, the tags, the tinsel, they’re in quarantine for 14 days the trimmings and the trappings that include Thanksgiving. Rather Grinch-like. I never deviate from than take any chances, Harveys this schedule. Something bad are not gathering. 2020 is the year could happen. we’ll never forget because of ev- Well, something bad already erything we didn’t experience. The did happen, so I busted out the only upside to this surreal holiday baubles, the beads and the lights. season is that the absence of the It occurred to me that I, along brother we lost this summer won’t with most of America, need some be so painfully evident if none of comfort. We’re dragging out the us are together. That’s a half-full holiday swag to feel good about glass of wine, if ever I sipped one. something. If we could wrap
It’s so tempting to abandon ourselves in garland and tinsel, what we know to be true in favor we would. Are we wishing away of letting our hearts rule our November only or all of 2020? I smarts. Who doesn’t want to see think the latter. We’ve created our Gramps fall asleep in a recliner, own Operation Warp Speed, lookwatch lovable Aunt Mae get ing for a flux capacitor to shove tipsy, and coo over the new baby us back to the future. We want wearing a bib embroidered with yesterday back, tomorrow. a turkey? This is the year when And so I’m setting my table for we’ve been denied much more one, using my best dishes, and than access to movie theaters and making all my favorites. I’ll put indoor dining. We’re untethered fresh flowers in a vase and pour a by COVID-19, kept from enjoying glass of Massetts Cranberry from family and friends, drifting with- the Hardwick Vineyard and Winout oars. Wouldn’t I prefer listen- ery. I’ll Facetime my grandkids ing to my sister and her husband and have pajamas on by 7 p.m. squabble in their kitchen over The tree will light my living room who forgot to thaw the gravy? You with a lovely glow. know it. Wouldn’t I love to fight I hope “The Wizard of Oz” is on my brother Chris for the crispiest TV because honestly, Aunty Em, parts of the turkey skin, the stuff there really is no place like home. everybody knows is no damn good for you? Of course. We’ve been arm-wrestling and monkey bitepinching each other over that flap that holds the stuffing for 50 years. (I usually win because I fight dirty, hence the monkey bites.) This health by scarfing every scrap of
FIRST PERSON
‘Nature always wins’ — A cautionary tale for our time MICHAEL HAUCK And the most tragic part of this climate crisis we face. This time it disaster was that it was completely is not tearing up the sod that holds
Ijust recently finished reading a caused by the people — by greed, the precious moisture and retains compelling narrative history of shortsightedness, and ignorance. the soil. Now it is expelling thouthe Dust Bowl and the “Dirty The drought and winds that created sands of tons of hydrocarbons daily Decade” of the 1930s — “The the Dust Bowl effect had been the into our atmosphere. This time, it is Worst Hard Times,” by Timothy climate of the region for a thou- not 100 million acres in a six state Egan. I was aware of the Dust Bowl, sand years or more — an arid land area (Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, at least vaguely, but Egan’s detailed of little rainfall, constant wind, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska). account brought the hardships, and temperature extremes — but, Now it is our entire planet. And the tragedies, the loss of life and surviving as a healthy ecosystem of we are subject to the same greed livelihoods into vivid relief, blending grasslands perfectly suited for these (profits for oil, for fracking gas); the personal accounts of individuals harsh conditions. shortsightedness of government and specific families with the stark It was the greed of unbridled capi- and business leadership to not and sometimes sterile statistics of talism to get rich quick in the wheat realize that the sooner we begin to this immense disaster. boom of the 1920s; the shortsighted- make the transition to non-carbon-
People of all ages — babies, ness of government and business to based energy the easier, smoother, children and adults — died by the promote large scale development; less disruptive the transition will be; thousands of “Dust Pneumonia” and the ignorance to willfully ignore and the sheer ignorance to believe and silicosis from so much dust the complex interactions of the vari- that if we ignore it, if we deny it, if in their lungs; families having to ous elements of the ecosystem that we ridicule and doubt the climate literally shovel out dirt from inside created this horrific tragedy. Despite science, it will go away. their home twice each day; static Herculean efforts and hundreds of There were many who survived electricity in the air so strong that millions of dollars in the 1930s to it, but the Dust Bowl saga is not you didn’t dare shake hands with a restore the region, still today most of an uplifting story of courage and friend for fear of a jolt that would it remains an isolated, sparsely popu- resilience in the face of adversity. It send you to the ground; dust storms lated wasteland — never to return to is simply survival by sheer numbers. of thick clouds that would blot a productive, healthy ecosystem. It is a cautionary tale of the clash of out the sun so midday seemed like While reading the accounts and our hubris with the greater forces midnight. Dust circulating in the air descriptions of these hardships, I of the natural world. And Nature 24-7 so that you feel it on your skin, could not help but see parallels to always wins. in you eyes, in your teeth constantly. our own time and the impending Michael Hauck lives in Millbury.
WORCESTERIA
Literally and metaphorically talking turkey!
VICTOR D. INFANTE AND VEER MUDAMBI
METAPHORICALLY: In her education-centric blog Whos of Who-cester, Worcester School Committee member Tracy Novick took exception to some assertions in a letter Bishop McManus published Nov. 17 in the Telegram & Gazette. Novick is a bit of a rarity in the world of social media political commentary, in that she’s straightforward and inevitably armed with statistics, and that’s as true here as ever. In the letter, McManus asserts that one of the ways in which the nontaxed Catholic Church helps save the city money is through the enrollment of local students in Catholic schools, claiming, “Catholic schools located in the Diocese of Worcester have 5,033 students enrolled this year which saves the taxpayers and the communities in Worcester County over $65,000,000 dollars. In Worcester this year we have 687 students in our parish and diocesan schools who are residents of the city, excluding those who attend private Catholic schools. Using the latest reported average cost per student in Worcester, St. Paul Diocesan Jr/Sr High School, St. Peter Central Catholic Elementary School and Our Lady of the Angels Elementary School saved the city $10,380,735 this school year.” Novick respectfully points out the flaws in that logic. Among her observations are that, “Far from costing taxpayers – Worcester or otherwise – nothing, the private and parochial schools in the city of Worcester are, by state law, provided with bus transportation at no cost to the diocese, the schools, or the families of students. Thus some of those WPS taxpayer dollars are indeed supporting the diocesan schools,” and that “The ‘average cost per student in Worcester,’ as supported by the state’s progressive – that is, meeting greater need with greater dollars – funding system funds a student body that is 60% low income, 31.7% English learner, and 20.9% students with disabilities. I am quite sure that is not reflective of the student body of Worcester’s diocesan schools. The $10M figure thus is simply incorrect; the student body of the diocesan schools, were they to join the Worcester Public Schools would not cost the district anywhere near that kind of money to educate. Those dollars thus are not being saved.” Of course, this is just one exchange in what is an enormously complex issue, but for those looking for tangible facts as the city weighs hard discussions of taxation and education spending, it’s hard to do better than Novick’s blog. (Victor D. Infante) LITERALLY: There’s a popular myth that founding father Ben Franklin advocated for the turkey to be our national bird instead of the bald eagle, stating the former was a “much more respectable … bird of courage who would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British Guards who presumed to invade his farm yard.” While the quote is accurate, Franklin never suggested it replace the eagle. So how did the subject of avian character judgments come up? Most reports, including Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute, say he was criticizing the design of the U.S. Seal, saying it looked more like a turkey than an eagle. He went off on a tangent that turkeys were much cooler anyway and went on to denounce the eagle’s “bad moral character” often stealing food from the fishing hawk and being “too lazy to fish for himself.” Turkeys are certainly a force to be reckoned with. They’ve essentially conquered New England after all, within a span of just 50 years. When settlers arrived, there were an estimated 10 million wild turkeys in New England but by the mid-1850s they were almost extirpated. The wild turkey population was almost nonexistent until intensive conservation efforts brought them back — in the same way they did for eagles, as it happens. Today, most of the Massachusetts wild turkey population, which numbers over 25,000, is in fact descended from the 37 birds brought in from New York state. Whatever else, they’re prolific and can fly up to 60 miles per hour with excellent vision, seeing three times more clearly than 20/20. For birds who have made such a strong comeback, it’s clear they are not to be crossed. I still have nightmares about being chased down the halls of the local wildlife rehab center by an enormous white turkey. Dang, now I’m hungry. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! (Veer Mudambi) LARGEST SELECTION OF
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