It is a little-known reality, however we right here at FishOn spent three years within the sewers of Paris, combating the German occupying drive alongside the French resistance in World Struggle II. It is the one sort of hardship that would have ready us final week for the arduous process of renewing our Massachusetts driver’s license within the midst of the pandemic.
Navigating the arcane calls for and necessities of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Automobiles has at all times been its personal ring of hell and you will be happy to know nothing has modified. Wait. That is not true. It has modified. It is worse now.
Our license needed to be renewed by immediately. So, we embarked per week early assuming that just about nothing would go proper. And it did not. We tried to resume it on-line, however we have been rebuffed with excessive prejudice as a result of our beginning certificates summary from California was deemed inadequate for proof of our existence.
We then tried to make an appointment at one of many Registry service facilities. When, with the help of the great people at Prince Insurance coverage Company, we lastly found out the way to do it — we’re not addled, it was that tough — we in fact could not e-book an appointment till weeks after our present license expired.
We then turned our lonely eyes to AAA, of which we’re a member. They have been sort sufficient to shoehorn us in Friday morning for an appointment. Inside 35 minutes we have been holding our new non permanent license in our scorching little mitts, ensuring we might not slip from our standing as one authorized beagle.
So, a honest shoutout to Karen, Heather and Anastasia on the AAA department in Danvers for kindly and competently bailing us out. And sure, our beginning certificates summary, of their palms, labored simply high quality. The Registry. Sheesh.
Portray a household portrait
Just a few weeks in the past, we wrote a narrative within the pages of the Gloucester Every day Occasions and on-line at gloucestertimes.com on Ocean Alliance’s inexorable marketing campaign to satisfy its imaginative and prescient within the restoration and renovation of the Tarr and Wonson Paint Manufacturing facility on Rocky Neck.
Following publication of the story, we obtained a pleasant e-mail from William Keniston of Harmony, New Hampshire, expressing curiosity within the mission on the historic web site that stands sentry on the entrance into Gloucester’s interior harbor.
“I’m a Wonson,” he wrote. “My mom and her siblings, together with my grandmother, bought the manufacturing unit and paint system again within the very late ’50s or early ’60s, following my grandfather’s loss of life.”
Keniston talked about that he has grow to be a household curator of kinds, amassing footage, tales and different details about one in every of Gloucester’s most iconic websites.
“My household got here down a number of years in the past and acquired a tour of the work being achieved,” he wrote. “I can say on behalf of the Wonson household, we’re delighted that Ocean Alliance has bought it and are bringing it again to life. I feel my grandfather would approve.”
FishOn baseball quiz query
On this date in 1956, the supervisor who nonetheless holds baseball’s all-time information for many wins, losses and video games managed died on the age of 93. Who was he? The reply is filling out the lineup card down beneath.
Let’s break the ice
The Coast Guard has a fleet of 140-foot ice breakers and 65-foot ice-breaking tugs that it employs to maintain waterways away from ice in our extra frigid areas, corresponding to New England. The hassle is in assist of Operation Dependable Power for Northeast Winters.
This is a enjoyable reality that’s positive to impress at your subsequent cocktail social gathering, if we’re ever allowed to have one once more:
“Greater than 85% of all house heating oil used within the U.S. is consumed within the Northeast and 90% of that’s delivered by ship on a Coast Guard-maintained waterway,” in line with the Coast Guard. “On common, the Coast Guard assists over 100 vessels that grow to be caught in ice yearly.”
Get the keys. We’re going for a blood drive
The good people at Hook-a-Treatment, who’ve raised a lot cash with fishing tournaments and different occasions to assist fund most cancers and different medical analysis, proceed to adapt to the restrictions of the continued pandemic. And do good things.
“Fundraising was virtually unimaginable over the previous yr resulting from COVID,” they stated in an e-mail. “However a lot to our delight, we found blood drives weren’t.”
The group, after its first profitable blood drive final yr on the True North Ale Firm brewery in Ipswich, partnered with the Kraft Household Blood Donor Middle/Dana-Farber Most cancers Institute Blood Cell “to make this a everlasting a part of what we provide as a charitable group.”
Its second blood drive is ready for Feb. 13 at True North, from 8:30 a.m. to three p.m. These making donations will obtain a free Kraft Household Blood Donor Middle sweatshirt and a free pint from True North’s alternatives.
Appointments are really helpful and could be made at tinyurl.com/truenorthF21.
So, what are you ready for? Pack a vein and get going.
FishOn baseball quiz reply
On Feb. 8, 1956, Connie Mack, the longest serving supervisor in baseball historical past, died in Philadelphia. Mack, often known as “The Tall Tactician,” managed the Phillies for 53 years — and by no means in uniform. He at all times wore a enterprise go well with. He retired after the 1950 season on the age of 87, having gained 3,731 video games and misplaced 3,948. In all, he managed in 7,755 video games and was universally admired and revered.
“Humanity is the keystone that holds nations and males collectively,” Mack as soon as stated. “When that collapses, the entire construction crumbles. That is as true of baseball groups as every other pursuit in life.”
As at all times, no fish have been harmed within the making of this column.
Contact Sean Horgan at 978-675-2714, or shorgan@gloucestertimes.com. Comply with him on Twitter at @SeanGDT.
