Author: gregbover

Are there schooner fishermen in your family tree? If so, come sailing with on Adventure Saturday, July 20 from 3 to 6pm. It is a great opportunity to experience some of what your forefathers went through to put bread on the table. And it is free, so bring the kids so that they can see a little of what made Gloucester what it was and is today. This special sail is for descendants of all schoonermen, not just those who fished from Adventure’s dories, so join us and share your family stories, help raise the sails, and learn some family history.

Call the Adventure office at 978 281 8079 to sign up today, space is limited.

I got the time wrong for Adventure’s sail on Saturday. It will be from 3:00 to 6:00. The earlier time for Saturday sails will start next week.

Come join us, help raise the sails, take a trick at the wheel, help us coil down, and learn about the fishermen who made Gloucester what it is. At 122 feet, Adventure is the queen of the fleet, she’s fast and able, and there’s nothing quite like the feeling of being aboard when the wind pipes up.

And both the Friday (5-8) and Saturday sails this week are half price. Call 978 281 8079 for tickets and details.

Gloucester’s National Historic Landmark Schooner Adventure begins her community sails on Friday, June 28, with a sail from 5 – 8 pm, and Saturday from 11 am to 2 pm. We will be continuing through the season. Next Wednesday evening we’ll have a special sail for the Fireworks.

You owe it to yourself to get aboard to experience what it’s like to sail on a 122-foot vessel that was the highliner of the fleet and one of the handful of these historic ships still sailing.

Call the office at 978 281 8079 for special pricing to celebrate the start of our home port sailing program.

Gloucester’s flagship schooner Adventure is currently looking for enthusiastic, energetic candidates to join our crew. This season we will conduct educational and public daysails in Gloucester and travel to nearby ports such as Boston, Portland and Provincetown. Ability to work with the public is a must. We have openings for deckhands, officers and a cook. All crew must be at least 18 years of age and are subject to USCG drug screening. Seasonal employment starting immediately and running through mid-October. Resumes and inquiries accepted at rwheeler@schooner-adventure.org

On Wednesday, March 20th, 2019 the 5th annual Vernal Equinox Bell Ringing will be celebrated in honor of global peace and care for the planet. Declared by proclamation in 1970 by United Nations Secretary General U Thant, the Vernal Equinox recognizes that “We are one human family and have only one Earth”.

The Community is invited to participate in celebrating the Vernal Equinox and recognizing local and global environmental champions. The program takes place from 5:00-6:00pm and features the ringing of the Gloucester UU Church’s Paul Revere Bell at 5:58pm, the moment of the equinox. Simultaneous events will take place with the ringing of the Peace Bell at the United Nations headquarters in New York, NY and Vienna, Austria, and at other locations around the world.

This is a family event and is open to the public

Get your tickets early, it usually sells out.

I just read in the GDT that there might be a new Indian Restaurant up at Gloucester Crossing. If the owners are clever they’ll call it the Tan Dory.

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Henry Louis (H.L.) Mencken (1880-1956)

An essayist and critic for the Baltimore Sun, the New Yorker, and the New York Times, Mencken was a founding editor of the influential American Mercury. 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 was a follower of Nietzsche and counted Twain among his heroes. His support for Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, etc.) helped to launch her career. His distrust of the democratic process is on display in the above quote as well as the following: “No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.”

 Greg Bover

Some tips for life: 1. Don’t be afraid to follow your dreams, unless your dreams are stupid. 2. Be kind to people. 3. Don’t get too excited when you read the Fountainhead 4. In times of recession, it is time for invention. 5. Things can kill you, so keep that in mind, you fearless know it alls.  Lexington High School Commencement Speech, 2009

Eugene Mirman (1974-      )

The Russian born stand-up comedian moved to the United States in 1978 and graduated from LHS and Hampshire College where he designed his own degree in comedy. He often opens for rock bands rather than appearing in comedy clubs and has worked extensively in radio and television as an actor, writer and voice actor. He published a book of satire, The Will to the Whatevs, in 2009. He is married with one child.

Greg Bover

January 4, 2019

Some people pay a compliment as if they were expecting a receipt.

Frank McKinney (Kin) Hubbard (1868-1930)

Midwestern humorist, cartoonist, and writer known best for his political commentary, Hubbard was a high school dropout who said his goal in life was to own a circus. He worked briefly as a silhouette artist and attended art school for a short time before beginning cartoon work for the Indianapolis News.  For 25 years he drew the acclaimed cartoon “Abe Martin of Brown County” which went into syndication and made him nationally known. Will Rogers cited Hubbard as an influence and called him the greatest humorist of his time. Another favorite Kin Hubbard quote: “Now and then an innocent man is sent to the legislature.”

Greg Bover

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

Dwight D Eisenhower (1890 – 1969)

Born in Texas and raised in Kansas, Ike was the 34^th President of the United States after having risen through the ranks of the Army to be the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces during the Second World War. He is generally credited with having planned the successful invasions of Nazi-held North Africa and later Normandy and the battle for Europe. Although not highly political, he ran for President as a Republican, defeating the isolationist Robert Taft who wanted to end American participation in NATO, of which Eisenhower was Commander. He beat Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 general election by a landslide, repeating the feat in 1956.  Domestically conservative, he none-the-less successfully opposed McCarthyism, signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and paved the way for the massive Interstate Highway System, which is named in his honor. As he left the presidency in 1961 he famously inveighed against the “military-industrial complex” coining the term. The above quote from the most powerful soldier of the 20^th century was uttered eight years earlier in a speech following the death of Stalin.

Greg Bover

This is the biggest live story-telling show of the year, benefiting The Writers Center and Gloucester Stage.  With the theme OMG, it is bound to be entertaining.  Buy your tickets early, it was sold out the last two years.