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Day: July 16, 2011
Are there more rabbits around than usual?
Donna Ardizzoni took this picture yesterday
It seems everywhere I go there are rabbits hopping about lately? Is it mating season? Have the rabbits been getting extra busy if you know what I mean ?
All those foodies who have been salivating over thoughts of dead bunny stew must be thrilled with such an abundance of livestock to choose from.
Live Blogging The July 2011 Block Party
Barbara Luster Moon Shot
GLOUCESTER AT WORK
We Will Be Playing The 2011 Greasy Pole, Seine Boat Races and 2011 St Joseph’s Novena Movies In Front Of Empire For The Block Party Tonight
Todd Farm Time Tomorrow!

Todd Farm Flea Market in Rowley is always a lot of fun. Many Cape Ann citizens (and even a few GMG contributors, like Alicia) are regulars at the Flea Market. We know a good thing when we see it. If you happen to be over there tomorrow morning, stop in and say hi. There might even be a free cup of coffee in it for you! I’m on twitter @therovinghome if you want to have a flea market tweet-off tomorrow or need to track me down…
Henry Louis (H.L.) Mencken Quote of The Week From Greg Bover
Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.
Henry Louis (H.L.) Mencken (1880-1956)
Often referred to as the “Sage of Baltimore”, Mencken’s notoriety was solidified by his acerbic coverage of what he called the Scopes Monkey Trial and his widely read book The American Language (1919). He wrote essays and criticism for the Baltimore Sun, the New Yorker, and the New York Times and was a founding editor of the influential American Mercury. He was a follower of Nietzsche and counted Twain among his heroes. His support for Ayn Rand helped to launch her career.
click the pic to see his wikipedia page
Did You Know? (Caponization)
That we can get into some very lofty discussions over here at Madfish Wharf on Rocky Neck? This morning Wendie Demuth and I were talking about cooking bluefish, after Adam Bolonsky said he was going bluefishing and would bring us one if he was successful. I said I had only cooked bluefish once, baked with mayonnaise and capons. Wendie said there was no such thing as a capon, except to describe a superhero after he has gotten dressed, and I must have meant capers, which is what I had meant. But in fact, capons are roosters that have been castrated to improve the quality of their flesh for food.
Caponization is the process of turning a rooster into a capon, and can be done by surgically removing the rooster’s testes, or may also be accomplished through the use of estrogen implants. With either method, the sex hormones normally present in roosters are no longer effective. Caponization must be done before the rooster matures, so that it develops without the influence of sex hormones. Capons, due to the lack of sex hormones, are not as aggressive as normal roosters. This makes capons easier to handle, and allows capons to be kept together since their reduced aggressiveness prevents them from fighting.
The lack of sex hormones results in meat that is less gamy in taste. Capon meat is also more moist, tender, and flavorful than that of a hen or rooster, which is due not only to the hormonal differences during the capon’s development but is also because capons are not as active as roosters, which makes their meat more tender and fatty. Superman is protecting this rooster from caponization.
Capers on the other hand are the unripened flower buds of Capparis spinosa, a prickly, perennial plant native to the Mediterranean and some parts of Asia. Their use dates back beyond 3000 B.C. where they are mentioned as a food in the Sumerian cuneiform Gilgamesh, an ancient retelling of a great flood and ark legend. The small, green herb buds lend a piquant sour and salty flavor to salads, dressings, sauces, vegetables and a variety of main dishes. They add a nice flavor to bluefish, and probably to capons too, and can be enjoyed by superheroes everywhere, with our without their capon, and whether or not they are trying to solve capers.
E.J. Lefavour
Blackburn Challenge Registration ends Midnight Tonight
Click here for Blackburn Challenge Registration. Do it today since the registration ends at midnight tonight. Next week will be the 25th running. Sign up and be part of history and get a cool shirt too. Stand Up and Paddle, sit down and kayak, turn backwards and row a dory. If Rubber Duck, Ed Collard, and I can do it, you can too.
Only 7 days to the race. Check out a map of the course.
Magnolia Library Art Festival Judges and People’s Choice Selections
Seacoast Seven Road Race Medalist
Questions From Bill Hubbard
Hi, Joey,
As an ex-gloucesterman and artist I look at thousands of local pictures and maps. I know that the East Gloucester Ferry ran from the railways on Rocky Neck to about where the Coast Guard Base is today. But I’ve never seen a picture of the Ferry which someone told me was Little Giant. Wonder if any of your eaders could send in one to GMG? Also, there are a number of sizable granite piers on Lobster Cove in Annisquam and I know it was frequented by coasting and fishing schooners in the past. I’d like to now when the wooden(now footbridge) was built and, it it originally had a span that opened. I hope one of your readers can answer that too.
Bill Hubbard
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Topside Grill To Raffle Off Two Free Front Row Nascar Tickets Tonight
Doug Silva manager at The Topside Grille writes us that you can go in and ask for a free raffle ticket to win two front row Nascar tickets for tomorrow at Laconia.
This Weekend At The Topside Grill
Hey Everyone,
Saturday is the first Block Party of the summer! Come check out some of our delicious food and drinks and enjoy the festivities! Visit Ryan and Jen behind the bar tomorrow night and Antoine and Elizabeth every Saturday! Don’t forget about our delicious Sunday Brunch (11-3) every week! You have to try our Huevos Rancheros… So good! We also now feature light Jazz entertainment in the pub during brunch every week. This week we have Julie “voice of an angel” Dougherty playing! Hope to see you there…
Thanks,
Doug Silva General Manager
Topside Grill
50 Rogers St.
Gloucester, MA (978) 281-1399
Bill Hubbard Painting
Joey,
You’ve had some great blogs thes past few weeks especially the Fiesta pictures.
Hers’s my latest painting. It’s based on a 1909 post card that was titled, Coasting schooner in Gloucester Harbor. I could not recognize the local from the picture but it was probably around the head of the harbor and it does look familiar.
Bill Hubbard
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Visit my artists website at:
http://bill-hubbard.fineartamerica.com
The Scene At The Seaport Grille, Gloucester MA
Hello Mr Speckled Lobster- Landed At Captain Joe and Sons 7/15/11
New England Plein Air Painters Exhibit
From: http://www.Outdoorpainter.com
New England Plein Air Painters Exhibit
From July 8 – August 28, 2011, members of the New England Plein Air Painters will present the ‘Paint the South Shore’ exhibition in the South Shore Art Center’s Shipyard Gallery in Hingham, Massachusetts. Plein air paintings by 12 of the members will be on view, including works by Dianne Panarelli Miller, Stapleton Kearns, Caleb Stone, Marjorie Whorf, and Christopher Magadini,
- David P. Curtis
- T.A. Charron
- Robert Duffy,
- Michael Graves
- William G. Hanson
- Barbara Lussier
- Sergio Roffo
Want The Coolest Desktop Screen Ever? Check Out The Discovery Channel’s Sharkweek Live Feed
Click on the live video below and then make it fill up your screen by clicking this
in the bottom right hand corner of the video-
It is the live view of the Ocean Voyager exhibit at the Georgia Aquarium, the world’s largest aquarium, located in Atlanta, Georgia.