Category: Uncategorized

I could read Sarah all day long.

Tattoo: Secrets of a Strange Art.

Last Week to Apply to the Backyard Growers Program

The Cape Ann Farmers’ Market will accept applications for the Backyard Growers Program until Friday, March 11. The BYG Program helps Gloucester residents start vegetable gardens in their own backyards. Preference is given to low- to moderate-income residents in the Ward 3 downtown area. For more information and to apply contact Lara Lepionka at 978-317-8025 orlara@beaconstreetfarm.org, or go to the website at www.capeannfarmersmarket.org/backyard-growers

That Harp seals spend relatively little time on land and prefer to swim in the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans? These sleek swimmers cruise the chilly waters and feed on fish and crustaceans. They can remain submerged for up to 15 minutes. Harp seals are sometimes called saddleback seals because of the dark, saddlelike marking on the back and sides of their light yellow or gray bodies.

Both sexes return each year to breeding grounds in Newfoundland, the Greenland Sea, and the White Sea. On this turf males fight for their mates, battling with sharp teeth and powerful flippers.

When the mating ends, females gather in groups to give birth. Young harp seals are born on the ice, and mothers identify their own offspring from the multitudes by their smell. The young seals are famous for their snowy white coats. This fluffy fur is highly valued and has drawn hunters to the Newfoundland breeding grounds for two centuries. During the past several decades these grounds have become the scene of a human conflict between sealers and outraged environmentalists and animal rights activists. Modern hunts are better regulated than in the past, but the harp seal remains perhaps the most commercially important seal, with hundreds of thousands killed each year. (From National Geographic)

This harp seal seemed to have no interest in the cold water and appeared to be enjoying his/her sunbath on the dock, and was also really into posing for the camera.  In the first shot, he’s giving a big smike and wave to everyone out there in GMG land.  Maybe he’ll stick around Cape Ann where he’ll be safer. 

My grandfather grew up in Newfoundland near Piss Pot Rock (really, that was what it was called), and was a sealer when he was a young man.  (There, that dark secret from my mother’s family history is out of the closet).  He went on to become a longshoreman after he immigrated here, and stopped killing poor defenseless creatures.  After falling into the hold of a ship and breaking himself up, he became a fry cook at his sister and brother-in-law’s awesome restaurant, Wes Parker’s Fried Clams in Wakefield; closed after everyone died off or got too old, but they did have the best fried clams.  Anyone remember them?

E.J. Lefavour

www.khanstudiointernational.com

http://www.goodmorninggloucester.com Do you get it?

I Am On A Drug, It’s Called Charlie Sheen Sound Clip.

The Chamber Reports

Fire Last Friday
Back in Business This Week

Last Friday,
a terrible fire at the law offices of Johnstone & Schlichte
destroyed a 100-year old historic building on Pleasant Street; it gutted the
law office and ruined Tricia and Gary Johnstone’s home on the second
floor. The Johnstones lost all of their personal property in the blaze. It
was an awful tragedy for a well-known Gloucester family. At least no one was
seriously injured and the dog was saved.

While the
fire was reported as a total loss, we are pleased to report that the Johnstone
& Schlichte hard drive was stored in a fire-proof safe and the legal files
were saved. The law firm has its records and will be able to resume business
immediately.

Johnstone
& Schlichte has moved right around the corner to the second floor of the
BankGloucester building on Middle Street in Gloucester. The files have already
been moved into place and office furniture is due for arrival on Tuesday. It
will take most of the week to get things running as before but clients can be
assured that the files are intact and legal services are being quickly
restored. The building reconstruction is already in design. Amazingly, the
original masonry walls are in good shape and construction will be underway
soon. An historic Gloucester landmark will be saved.

We wish
Trish, Gary and Catherine the best. Stop by their new pub ‘Stones’
on Main Street to wish them well. They can be reached at 978-283-1413
or email info.

That I am interested in people’s thoughts about a Did You Know book?  Admired and respected fellow GMG contributor, Manny Simoes, has been encouraging me to do a book of my Did You Know posts; so I have put together the design, and am interested in knowing what GMG readers and other contributors think about it, before I go to the expense of having it printed.  It would be a 5.5×8.5 full color bound soft cover book containing 39 of my (and hopefully other people’s) favorite GMG posts and images (photos and paintings), and based on printing costs would sell for $20.  The cover and a couple of example pages are shown here.  I respect the opinions and feedback of the greater GMG universe, so would like to know if people think it’s a silly idea, or if you think it looks like something you might buy or think others would buy.  Artists always have to be innovative, coming up with new ways to pay the bills so they can continue creating while waiting for those wealthy patrons to come along and discover them, and none of us can afford to make expensive mistakes, so your input would be greatly appreciated.  If you would like to see the book in its entirety, you can go to http://www.khanstudiointernational.com/did%20you%20know%20book.htm. Thanks so much, EJ

E.J. Lefavour

www.khanstudiointernational.com

Seeing Dad in the nursing home for the first time. Just trying to stay strong for my mom.

For the links click here

http://www.goodmorninggloucester.com Do you get it?

“Most people don’t recognize opportunity when it comes
because it wears overalls and it looks like work.”
–Thomas Alva Edison
1847-1931
 
Often praised as the pre-eminent inventor of the
modern technological age, the “Wizard of Menlo Park” was home-schooled
and a voracious reader. Beginning his working career as a telegraph
operator, he built his own laboratory for the exploration of electrical power
and went on to hold over a thousand patents. His inventions most famously
include the electric light bulb, the stock ticker and the phonograph.
His method of dogged trial and error, denigrated by his rival Tesla, is
reflected in his best known remark, “Genius is one percent inspiration, and
ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
 

 

Before the coming of the English explorers and colonists, Cape Ann was home to a number of Native American villages, inhabited by members of the Agawam tribe. Samuel de Champlain named the peninsula “Cap Aux Isles” in 1605, and his expedition may have landed there briefly. By the time the first Europeans founded a permanent settlement at Gloucester in 1623, most of the Agawams had been killed by diseases caught from early contacts with Europeans.

The area that is now Rockport was simply an uninhabited part of Gloucester for more than 100 years, and was primarily used as a source of timber—especially pine for shipbuilding. The area around Cape Ann was also one of the best fishing grounds in New England, in 1743 a dock was built at Rockport harbor on Sandy Bay and was used for both timber and fishing. By the beginning of the 19th century, the first granite quarries were developed, and by the 1830s, Rockport granite was being shipped to cities and towns throughout the East Coast of the United States.

Rockport had consisted primarily of large estates, summer homes, and a small fishing village while Gloucester was becoming increasingly urbanized. Rockport was set off as a separate town in 1840 as its residents desired a separate enclave with an identity of its own. As the demand for its high-grade granite grew during the Industrial Revolution, the quarries of Rockport became a major source of the stone. A distinctive form of sloop was even developed to transport the granite to parts far and wide until the second decade of the 20th century. For many years, there were a large number of residents of Scandinavian descent, dating from the days when Finns and Swedes with stoneworking expertise made up a large part of the workforce at the quarries.

Although the demand for granite decreased with the increasing use of concrete in construction during the Great Depression, Rockport still thrived as an artists colony—which began years earlier due to its rocky, boulder-strewn ocean beaches, its quaint fishing shacks, a harbor filled with small, colorful fishing boats, and Motif #1. 

E.J. Lefavour

www.khanstudiointernational.com

Nancy Goodman Writes-
I’m
excited to announce that the band I play with, The Girl Next Door, will be
playing in Gloucester this Wednesday, March 9 from 6-9 p.m. In celebration of its second anniversary, the Seaport Grille will
be offering their special “Sully” Burgers at half-price ($5.95), and you can
eat in a heated tent on the deck.

The Girl
Next Door offers a crazy mix of songs, from Beatles to Elvis, Ricky LeeJones, some
blues, country, and even a few originals. Janice Fullman anchors the band
on guitar, keyboards and vocals. Barbara Jansson sings leads and plays
harp and percussion. Nancy Goodman plays flute, sings a few tunes and
supports with percussion. Fud
supports the whole sound on bass. We promise an evening of finger-snappin’
tunes, magical harmonies, precision grooves and lots and lots of fun.

Hope to get
to sing for you!
Love,
Nancy

http://www.goodmorninggloucester.com