Speaker 1: It's night Side with Dan Ray on WBSY, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Nicole. Not good news in the
Speaker 2: stock market today, but well you won't even mention it.
Speaker 2: We'll see what's going to happen next. We're going to
Speaker 2: be talking about that later on tonight. By the way,
Speaker 2: at ten o'clock, give you that a little more of
Speaker 2: that in just a moment. My name is Dan Ray.
Speaker 2: I'm the host of Nightside here every Monday through Friday
Speaker 2: night from eight until midnight. Rob Brooks, the producer of
Speaker 2: the program, is back in Broadcast Central over in Midford,
Speaker 2: and he will be taking all your phone calls, setting
Speaker 2: you all up when you start to dial the phone,
Speaker 2: which is anytime after at nine o'clock. We have four guest,
Speaker 2: interesting guests and some kind of different funny stories here.
Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, in this next hour we'll
Speaker 2: get to them all interesting that is for sure.
Speaker 3: Some of them have some news.
Speaker 2: Value, some of them are just really more just curiosities
Speaker 2: and interest that I enjoy this hour.
Speaker 3: I hope you do as well.
Speaker 2: I will tell you that coming up at nine o'clock
Speaker 2: will be talking with Boston merriw candidate Josh Kraft about
Speaker 2: the decision by a Superior Court judge that will permit
Speaker 2: the demolition of the old white stadium and the construction
Speaker 2: of a new multimillion dollar at least two hundred million
Speaker 2: dollar stadium in the middle of Franklin Park. We also
Speaker 2: will talk with Professor Greg Styler Boston University School. He
Speaker 2: is he's a business school professor. There, a business school teacher,
Speaker 2: I should say, and he will talk about the tariffs
Speaker 2: and the implications. By the way, Greg, who's a friend,
Speaker 2: He's made about fifty trips to China. He trains business people.
Speaker 2: He works at what's called the Questrum School of Business
Speaker 2: at Boston University.
Speaker 3: So we'll talk to him at ten o'clock.
Speaker 2: And there may be another topic or two along the way,
Speaker 2: but without any further Ado, let's get directly to our guests.
Speaker 2: And I am delighted to welcome Christopher Caltiviano. Massachusetts high
Speaker 2: school students are developing I guess, thank goodness, some knowledge
Speaker 2: of finances and the economy, so it certainly his timely
Speaker 2: topic to talk with my guest. Christopher Caltabiano, tell us
Speaker 2: about this program. We have I guess some savvy, some
Speaker 2: financially savvy high school students here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 3: Welcome.
Speaker 4: Thanks for having me Dan, and I hope that this
Speaker 4: would be considered one of your news stories as opposed
Speaker 4: to an interesting tale, because I think you're given some
Speaker 4: of what we saw today happening. It might be relevant
Speaker 4: to people going forward, very.
Speaker 2: Relevant, absolutely very relevant. So tell us how this is
Speaker 2: a Is this a Massachusetts program or is this Massachusetts
Speaker 2: students participating in a regional or a national program? Tell
Speaker 2: us about it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is a national program. Actually, this will be
Speaker 4: the Massachusetts state program of a national program run by
Speaker 4: my organization, Council for Economic Education, called the National Personal
Speaker 4: Finance Challenge, And we are looking for the best and
Speaker 4: brightest students in the country when it comes to the
Speaker 4: matter of personal finance. So what's going on next week
Speaker 4: here in Massachusetts is going to be the Massachusetts level competition.
Speaker 2: Okay, So how do we determine that? How to I
Speaker 2: assume that you're not looking for entrance at this point.
Speaker 2: I assume there must have been some some programs run
Speaker 2: regionally here in Massachusetts. Again, I am unaware of it.
Speaker 2: That's why I'm asking fairly broad questions.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, absolutely, and first of all, it's for high school
Speaker 4: level students, so ninth to twelfth graders. We're starting to
Speaker 4: build in Massachusetts, and there's some reasons why we think
Speaker 4: there's room to grow. I can get into in a moment.
Speaker 4: We wa had about six hundred students across the state
Speaker 4: participate in an early round, which is really a test
Speaker 4: primarily about topics of personal finance spending, saving, earning, investing,
Speaker 4: protecting yourself, risk and insurance. There the whole gamut of
Speaker 4: topics when it comes to the personal finance. The best
Speaker 4: performing students and those tests have been advanced now to
Speaker 4: participate in an in person competition that will take place
Speaker 4: next Tuesday fifteenth at MFS Investment Managements Campus in Boston.
Speaker 4: So those top eight teams will be presented with a scenario,
Speaker 4: a family scenario. Mom is does X, Dad does?
Speaker 5: Why they have these kids?
Speaker 4: They have these financial goals, This is what their earnings are,
Speaker 4: These are what their risks are. Build them a financial
Speaker 4: plan and they will have they will have time to
Speaker 4: build that plan and then they will actually present that
Speaker 4: plan to panels of judges from all sorts of companies
Speaker 4: right here in Massachusetts. Will have will have representatives from
Speaker 4: those companies actually judging those students and identifying the strongest.
Speaker 2: Ones winners who will go ahead picked at different grades
Speaker 2: at different levels or is it a winner take all
Speaker 2: high one high school team wins.
Speaker 5: YEP.
Speaker 4: So what'll happen is the top four performing teams of
Speaker 4: those eight will then go onto a quiz bowl round
Speaker 4: where they will be asked kind of, you know, answer
Speaker 4: this question and they will have to respond to that question.
Speaker 4: The top performing team from that will then be crowned
Speaker 4: the Massachusetts state champion. They will then go on to
Speaker 4: the national finals, which are going to be held in Atlanta,
Speaker 4: Georgia this year at Voya Financials offices. They're the primary,
Speaker 4: but not exclusive funder of this program. They will compete
Speaker 4: against students from across the country. Will probably have thirty
Speaker 4: five to forty states at minimum represented at that so
Speaker 4: they will compete against their counterparts across the country.
Speaker 2: So let's assume that the Massachusetts kids win it all.
Speaker 2: Is there some prize that I think that they probably
Speaker 2: should be awarded college scholarships? But I'm sure that's a
Speaker 2: little ambitious. Yeah.
Speaker 4: No, our top performers are national champions, will all Actually
Speaker 4: they get cold hard cash. So there are cash awards
Speaker 4: for the top performers in the competition.
Speaker 2: And do they have to pay for their own again,
Speaker 2: it's just just a question that is.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they pay their transportation and back, they pay their
Speaker 4: way there. But once they're there, we cover all expenses,
Speaker 4: so their hotel, their food, all of that will do.
Speaker 4: You know, We'll do some fun events, so they just
Speaker 4: have to get themselves there.
Speaker 2: That's great, That is great. And when is that weekend?
Speaker 2: When is the championship weekend? I know that this weekend
Speaker 2: is matt March maddeness. When when does your your weekend?
Speaker 2: We have to have a name for it here, April
Speaker 2: Avarice or.
Speaker 3: Money makers go ahead.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so April is financial literacy month. So it's a
Speaker 4: good time for us to be doing this at the
Speaker 4: state level. The state competitions are next Tuesday to fifteenth,
Speaker 4: and the national finals will be held June first and second.
Speaker 4: As they said in Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 2: Well that's going to be great, beautiful time of year
Speaker 2: to be in Georgia early June, that's for sure. Well,
Speaker 2: this is this sounds great.
Speaker 3: Is this the first year for Massachusetts.
Speaker 4: It's the first year that we've done this in person,
Speaker 4: competition in quite some time, many many years ago we did.
Speaker 4: We get away from it, but we're holding we're bringing
Speaker 4: it back again. We're bringing back the in person round.
Speaker 2: So tell us we'll be.
Speaker 5: Able to do that again.
Speaker 2: Tell us about your program. You the Council for Economic
Speaker 2: Education in Yeah, and so we have left here. Tell
Speaker 2: us what that does and how people can get in
Speaker 2: contact with you or if they're interested in participating in
Speaker 2: this next year, go ahead.
Speaker 5: Sure.
Speaker 4: So we're a nonprofit organization, been around seventy five years
Speaker 4: and our focus is helping young people acquire the financial
Speaker 4: and economic knowledge to be able to manage their lives,
Speaker 4: the lives of their families, their communities as well and
Speaker 4: frankly the entire country. So we work with primarily, as
Speaker 4: I said, K twelve teachers as well as students, providing
Speaker 4: them really awesome resources, helping do professional development development for teachers.
Speaker 4: We do this competition. We have another competition similar in economics.
Speaker 4: We have a program specifically focused on helping helping girls
Speaker 4: see themselves in the financial world, so really focused on
Speaker 4: that economic and financial education at the K twelve level.
Speaker 4: We are at Council for econ ed dot Org. Council
Speaker 4: f o r econ ed dot org is our website.
Speaker 4: Love to have people check us out. I think we
Speaker 4: do great work and we're helping to build the next
Speaker 4: generation of savvy of savvy investors, savvy economists as well.
Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you it's certainly is subject is going
Speaker 2: to be in the minds of everybody for the next
Speaker 2: few weeks.
Speaker 3: If not a few months.
Speaker 2: And we'll be talking about this with a business school Well,
Speaker 2: we'll be talking about the tariffs with the business school
Speaker 2: professor tonight. We talked last night with a Globe columnist
Speaker 2: last last evening, which was again the topic of conversation,
Speaker 2: Larry Edelman from the Boston Globe. And tell you it's
Speaker 2: going to be a big subject and people are going
Speaker 2: to be much more interested in this in the next
Speaker 2: year to year and a half, I would.
Speaker 4: Think, absolutely, And having this financial knowledge will help people
Speaker 4: to navigate their financial lives as things get stronger and
Speaker 4: as things get weaker.
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Speaker 2: Christopher called Tobiano, thank you very much. We'll talk again.
Speaker 2: That's sounds like a great program.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Roll we get back to talk about an international dispute. Well,
Speaker 2: it's really not a dispute, but it is International. There's
Speaker 2: a library in Vermont and Canada. It actually the library
Speaker 2: straddles both countries. The border between the United States and
Speaker 2: Canada in part of Vermont goes right through the middle
Speaker 2: of the library.
Speaker 3: It's a fascinating story.
Speaker 2: We'll tell you all about it coming up right after
Speaker 2: this break. My name is Dan Ray. This is Nightside.
Speaker 2: You're listening to WBZ ten thirty or your AM dial. You,
Speaker 2: of course, also can go to hern iHeart radio station.
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Speaker 2: My name is Dan Ray. Do that, pull that app
Speaker 2: down and join join the family. We'll be back on
Speaker 2: Nightside with more talking about it. Kind of call it
Speaker 2: a border dispute because people have lived up there with
Speaker 2: this set of circumstances as a great interesting story behind it.
Speaker 2: We'll explain it all on the other side of the break.
Speaker 1: It's Nightside with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio This is.
Speaker 2: A story that I read about two or three weeks ago,
Speaker 2: and it has fascinated me. And I'm delighted to be
Speaker 2: joined by Matthew parfin And, a local historian and former
Speaker 2: president of the Haskell Free Library Ian Opera House. The
Speaker 2: story involves a building that actually straddles the line that
Speaker 2: separates Vermont from Quebec, or separates the United States from Canada. Matthew,
Speaker 2: welcome to Nightside.
Speaker 3: How are you.
Speaker 6: Hey, How are you nice to be here?
Speaker 3: Well, thank you very much for joining us.
Speaker 2: This is a really interesting story. This it's called it.
Speaker 2: I guess it's a fairly tiny library. But the building
Speaker 2: is a pretty impressive building. Built in nineteen oh four.
Speaker 2: There were donations made by a family. This it's a
Speaker 2: beautiful looking building. Tell us about the building described. I'm
Speaker 2: looking at a picture of it, but I'd love you
Speaker 2: to describe it so people can understand it is a
Speaker 2: beautiful looking building.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Sure.
Speaker 6: It is a large brick and granite building built right
Speaker 6: on the border between Vermont and the province of Quebec,
Speaker 6: which is in Canada. And picture yourself living in a
Speaker 6: house with the international border going right through it.
Speaker 2: I think that there are actually.
Speaker 6: It's a library. I think that there're a library and
Speaker 6: an opera house.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that there are actually some private homes,
Speaker 2: maybe up in northern Maine or somewhere in Michigan or whatever.
Speaker 2: But this was done intentionally. In other words, this is
Speaker 2: not sort of an occurrence where they changed the geographic boundaries.
Speaker 2: This free library and opera house straddles these two towns
Speaker 2: Stanstead Quebec or Quebec Wui as they would prefer us
Speaker 2: to say, and Derby Line, Vermont. Now they are not
Speaker 2: big communities. I don't have the population numbers at my hand,
Speaker 2: but I think the story that I read says that
Speaker 2: Derby Line Vermont six hundred and sixty people, and Stanstead Quebec,
Speaker 2: a thriving metropolis, the twenty eight hundred people.
Speaker 3: So all in all, we're talking about.
Speaker 2: Thirty six or so what are thirty four hundred people?
Speaker 2: And it's a beautiful looking library inside. And it came
Speaker 2: to be built through the generosity of a family. And
Speaker 2: it was built to straddle the border.
Speaker 5: Correct, that's right.
Speaker 6: It was built intentionally, and it was built before they
Speaker 6: changed the law which forbid anything within ten feet of
Speaker 6: the actual border on either side. So they got in
Speaker 6: about six years before that law was passed. I think
Speaker 6: it was around nineteen ten. My little old lady, her
Speaker 6: name was Martha Haskell. She lived across the street. It
Speaker 6: was a vacant lot. She loved to entertain in her
Speaker 6: big mansion, and she liked culture and she liked books.
Speaker 6: She loved performances and concerts. She was born in Bada,
Speaker 6: but she lived in Derby Line and her vision was
Speaker 6: to have this beautiful cultural institution serve Americans and Canadians.
Speaker 6: And it's been doing that ever since. It's one hundred
Speaker 6: and twenty some odd years. Yeah, of course it's still
Speaker 6: going strong.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: My understanding is that.
Speaker 2: Canadian citizens would come in through one side of the
Speaker 2: library and the American US citizens would come in through
Speaker 2: the other. But once you're inside the library and the
Speaker 2: opera house, I guess everybody's sort of mingled and no
Speaker 2: problems at all. And I know that it has become
Speaker 2: sort of a point of, if nothing else, curiosity in
Speaker 2: view of some of the stuff that's been in the
Speaker 2: year politically.
Speaker 3: And I don't necessarily want to.
Speaker 2: Go into any of that in any depth, but I
Speaker 2: assume for over the hundred years, one hundred and twenty
Speaker 2: or so years, a lot of friendships have been made
Speaker 2: and there's never been a problem as far as I
Speaker 2: can tell, and I'm sure you know better than I.
Speaker 3: These are people who live and who share.
Speaker 2: They live in two countries, they live in two towns
Speaker 2: in one in the province, one in a state, but
Speaker 2: they share a library and everything. There's no problems once
Speaker 2: you're inside the library, as far as as I can tell, right, there.
Speaker 6: Are never problems in the library or the opera house,
Speaker 6: just a small correction. Door is actually on the Vermont side.
Speaker 6: Canadians and Americans have always been free to use the
Speaker 6: same door, and that until recently, that's where the problem
Speaker 6: has started. That's a new development. So the Canadians are
Speaker 6: going to be building a beautiful door on the Canadian side,
Speaker 6: so which is a bit of a shame. But the
Speaker 6: library will continue once the patrons are in the library
Speaker 6: or in the opera house, whatever they're doing, it's completely open.
Speaker 6: It's friendly. People from both countries are free to mingle
Speaker 6: and exchange and use the facilities. That's a very friendly,
Speaker 6: open place.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so maybe I misunderstood. I thought that there was
Speaker 2: sort of a door on each side. So there was
Speaker 2: only a front door, one door on the on the
Speaker 2: US side, and that's the problem right now, there has
Speaker 2: to be another door has to be built on the
Speaker 2: other side of the on the Canadian side.
Speaker 3: Is that true?
Speaker 6: Correct?
Speaker 3: Hmm, it's interesting. Interesting.
Speaker 2: So Canadians worried that they would be stopped from I guess,
Speaker 2: walking around the building to go in the front door,
Speaker 2: which is on the American side. Is that a real
Speaker 2: concern at this point? I would hope it isn't.
Speaker 6: Well, you're getting off the top, you would lot me
Speaker 6: to talk about that. Yes, the Canadians have been told
Speaker 6: that their time is coming to an end where they
Speaker 6: can pass by the Vermont side.
Speaker 2: Oh okay.
Speaker 6: They've been raising funds on a GoFundMe campaign and within
Speaker 6: two weeks they've raised one hundred and seventy five thousand dollars. Okay,
Speaker 6: and that's just the start. So there's an incredible outpouring
Speaker 6: from all the states and Canada and across the world.
Speaker 6: In fact, donations have been coming in, people have been
Speaker 6: visiting in person, leaving check it's fantastic.
Speaker 3: Do you do you want to let me ask you this.
Speaker 2: I don't want to put you any sort of an
Speaker 2: international dispute here, Matthew, But do you want to mention
Speaker 2: the gofund to be paid so people could could find it?
Speaker 2: Or my producer said that you didn't want to talk politics,
Speaker 2: so which I have kept, which I have dutifully avoided here,
Speaker 2: and I have stumbled into this.
Speaker 3: I did not realize that that this.
Speaker 6: Element had supporting supporting the arts and culture and a
Speaker 6: library or not talking politics. And I welcome anyone to
Speaker 6: support the gofunding campaign. It's Haskell Free Library. The place
Speaker 6: has a great history. It's a fantastic place. It's completely
Speaker 6: open to both communities. It always have been century in
Speaker 6: a quarter, still going strong. The trustees that run it
Speaker 6: worked very hard. They come from both the US and
Speaker 6: Canadian side. Uh and and they're going to keep They're
Speaker 6: going to keep working to maintain that spirit which has
Speaker 6: always existed there.
Speaker 5: So yeah, they love to see people and.
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, well yeah it just as an outsider. I'm
Speaker 2: an outsider. I've been to Vermont, I ben of Quebec.
Speaker 2: The next time I'm up there, I'm going to visit
Speaker 2: the library, if not the opera house as well. Obviously
Speaker 2: there's not once they're inside the building. No, one's there
Speaker 2: saying to the Canadians, you can't cross here, or to
Speaker 2: the Americans, you can't cross there. It just seems to
Speaker 2: me silly, uh, that there's no way in which they
Speaker 2: can make an easier accommodation so that everyone can continue
Speaker 2: with with a lot of ease, and that they should never, ever,
Speaker 2: ever prevent Canadians from just walking into the US. You know,
Speaker 2: there's a spot in western uh, the US called four Corners,
Speaker 2: and I forget the states that are involved. I think Colorado, Arizona,
Speaker 2: New Mexico, and maybe Utah where there's a spot where
Speaker 2: you can literally stand in four states simultaneously. Uh.
Speaker 3: And yeah, Okay.
Speaker 2: I'm losing I'm losing our connection here with you, Matthew.
Speaker 2: And you've you've told the story. Well, you're you're bouncing
Speaker 2: on us a little bit. Are you on a headset
Speaker 2: or something? Matthew, you're gonna sell Okay, well, cell service.
Speaker 2: Sometimes we got it in. That's the most we got
Speaker 2: the story out. And I thank you, Matthew local historian,
Speaker 2: for for joining us tonight. Have a lovely evening. Thank
Speaker 2: you have a great night. All right, when we get
Speaker 2: back right after the news, we're going to talk about
Speaker 2: a story that I am I haven't had a chance
Speaker 2: to read only because I can't get access to the story,
Speaker 2: but Marita has just sent me a copy which I'm
Speaker 2: going to speed read about how a song became the
Speaker 2: official poem of the state of Massachusetts. Colin Young will
Speaker 2: join us right after the break here on Nightside.
Speaker 1: You're on night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2: Delighted to welcome Colin Young. Colin is a state House
Speaker 2: news reporter with the State House News Service. Hey Colin,
Speaker 2: how are you tonight?
Speaker 1: Hi?
Speaker 7: Dan, I'm doing very well. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: I was having trouble getting in to read your story
Speaker 2: a little doing a little pre show prep here, and
Speaker 2: Marita had to send me a cut and paste version.
Speaker 2: So I don't know what's going on, but it was
Speaker 2: tough to get into. We're gonna talk about I apologize,
Speaker 2: not a problem at all. I'll check it out tomorrow.
Speaker 2: I hope I haven't lost my subscription. Somehow, how a
Speaker 2: song became the state's official poem. This is kind of interesting.
Speaker 2: I didn't even realize we had an official poem here
Speaker 2: in Massachusetts.
Speaker 7: You know, Dan, That's actually exactly what led me to
Speaker 7: write this piece was seeing that April is National Poetry Month,
Speaker 7: and just seeing that headline made me think, huh, do
Speaker 7: we have an official poem in Massachusetts? And sure enough,
Speaker 7: we do, and we've had it on the books. Gee's
Speaker 7: going on almost fifty years now, since nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 7: It's a poem called Blue Hills of Massachusetts. And I
Speaker 7: actually have a little bit of trouble finding a copy
Speaker 7: of it to be able to republish it in the
Speaker 7: State House News Service this week, because it's not a poem.
Speaker 7: You know, there are plenty of poets who have been
Speaker 7: famous poets who have been associated with Massachusetts throughout the years,
Speaker 7: but the official state poem is not by Emily Dickinson
Speaker 7: or any of the others. It's by a woman named
Speaker 7: Catherine Mullen, who was a ninety four year old retired
Speaker 7: school teacher from Barry.
Speaker 2: She's currently she's still alive.
Speaker 7: No, no, she was ninety four years old in nineteen
Speaker 7: eighty one when the legislature chose to make her poem
Speaker 7: the official poem of Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: Okay, so she was born in eighteen eighty seven.
Speaker 3: I just did some quick that's right.
Speaker 2: Back in eighty one, I remember ed King was the governor,
Speaker 2: and somehow, some way, I guess she had written a
Speaker 2: poem that her students found out about or something, and
Speaker 2: they invited her to the school and it became a
Speaker 2: bit of a news story where they read the poem
Speaker 2: to Is that the way the.
Speaker 7: Story went, Yeah, it was. It was a poem that
Speaker 7: she had written while she was a teacher, and she
Speaker 7: wrote it to help teach her students about the history
Speaker 7: of Massachusetts and the seal and the flag and the
Speaker 7: motto of the state. And when she returned to the
Speaker 7: school in nineteen eighty after having retired, she returned just
Speaker 7: to visit the school, and some of the children there
Speaker 7: sang these verses back to her all these years later,
Speaker 7: and it was a newspaper article about that, about the
Speaker 7: students singing this poem to the former teacher that caught
Speaker 7: the attention of state lawmakers in the area, and that's
Speaker 7: what got this down the road to its sort of
Speaker 7: official status.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 2: So I'm doing some math in my head, calling and
Speaker 2: I don't know if this was a new story, but
Speaker 2: if she was born in eighteen eighty seven, she probably
Speaker 2: turned sixty five around nineteen fifty two, and this poem,
Speaker 2: if it was written while she was a teacher, would
Speaker 2: have either had to have been written probably sometime in
Speaker 2: the forties or maybe in the final years of her
Speaker 2: time as a teacher, which would have been just after
Speaker 2: or during World War Two. So it probably is a
Speaker 2: pretty patriotic poem. And she retires, and thirty years later
Speaker 2: or so, she's invited to come back to the school,
Speaker 2: and all of a sudden, this becomes the official poem
Speaker 2: of the state. It was a song, but it's become
Speaker 2: a poem.
Speaker 5: That's right, it's still our poe.
Speaker 2: It's still our poem, right, I mean, our state.
Speaker 7: Poem exact already had an official state song.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 7: The author said, well, let's call it a poem.
Speaker 2: Okay, So again, give me the name, the title of
Speaker 2: the poem.
Speaker 7: It's called Blue Hills of Massachusetts, Okay.
Speaker 2: I grew up in the shadow of Big Blue, which
Speaker 2: is as you know, in Milton. So now I feel
Speaker 2: really associated with the story.
Speaker 3: Is there a.
Speaker 2: Stanza that you'd like to repeat for us, so that
Speaker 2: you might have in front of you. I couldn't find
Speaker 2: the poem. I'm sorry, Oh.
Speaker 5: No, that you know.
Speaker 7: I was fascinated by that. Dan I had a hard
Speaker 7: time finding it myself. I thankfully founded through the State
Speaker 7: Library they had a copy of it.
Speaker 2: You know, you could repeat for you could read to us,
Speaker 2: or no, if you don't, that's okay.
Speaker 7: Sure, I'll give you the last two, the final two
Speaker 7: verses of the poem, Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: To clear your throat, Ladies and gentlemen, Colin Young, with
Speaker 2: the official poem of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Speaker 7: Colin Massachusetts, Massachusetts, what a splendid history like our great
Speaker 7: and glorious nation in its strength for liberty, Massachusetts, Massachusetts,
Speaker 7: keep the faith, true pride in stills. May our trust
Speaker 7: in you be steadfast as the everlasting hills.
Speaker 2: We need a round of applause from our digital studio audience.
Speaker 2: Rob get this, wake up the studio audience, please, and
Speaker 2: let's give call in a little round of a class.
Speaker 2: That is an excellent rendition. Calling an excellent rendition. My
Speaker 2: understanding is that we are in search. This is a
Speaker 2: little bit of a we're giving people a little extra
Speaker 2: hair calling. You know, there's a search for Massachusetts needs
Speaker 2: a poet laureate. I didn't realize, right, we don't have one,
Speaker 2: but that poem you could tell was written in the
Speaker 2: era that we identified in the in the late salties
Speaker 2: or right after World War Two.
Speaker 7: I had to be a little careful too, about which
Speaker 7: verses I chose to read, because you know, as such,
Speaker 7: there are some phrases in there that just simply aren't
Speaker 7: phrases we use today. So probably not used with any
Speaker 7: ill intent. They're just outdated terms.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'll bet you they probably deal with the
Speaker 2: act with the people who were uh residents or citizens
Speaker 2: of the Axis.
Speaker 3: Powers during World War Two. If I.
Speaker 2: Justin, I'll take it a while, guest jar, Okay, I'll
Speaker 2: just take away and you don't even have to confirm that.
Speaker 3: Let's just let that one go.
Speaker 2: So tell us about the poet, Lawie, is this is
Speaker 2: this as if this is a position that is open?
Speaker 2: How much is the Is the position a funded position
Speaker 2: or is it an honorific.
Speaker 7: Ah, they are trying to make it a funded position. Uh,
Speaker 7: it's interesting.
Speaker 5: To me, you know.
Speaker 7: And going back to look back at the history of
Speaker 7: the state poem.
Speaker 5: Uh, when the.
Speaker 7: Author said, well, let's call this song a poem, she said,
Speaker 7: I don't know of any state that has a state poem.
Speaker 7: So maybe Massachusetts was the first to adopt a state poem.
Speaker 7: But it turns out we're now one of the last
Speaker 7: to have a poet law warrit there are only Massachusetts
Speaker 7: is one of three states to be without. Believe it
Speaker 7: or not, I'm not sure how we've we've managed this
Speaker 7: long without a poet Laureate, but we have well.
Speaker 2: Knowing our legislature and the need for relatives and family
Speaker 2: members and friends of state reps to be to find
Speaker 2: gainful employment in the public. Say, my god, this stuns
Speaker 2: me more than anything. Callin, I'll tell you.
Speaker 7: And there is a stipend involved the person chosen could get.
Speaker 7: It's in the works. It's not set in stone, but
Speaker 7: the poet laureate could get a fifteen thousand dollars stipend
Speaker 7: for their work.
Speaker 3: Okay, that's reasonable.
Speaker 2: I was hoping that it might be a six figure
Speaker 2: number and that you and I could apply for it,
Speaker 2: and I could. We could just sort of walk around
Speaker 2: the State House an hour or so every day with
Speaker 2: a pen and a scroll in hand and thinking great
Speaker 2: thoughts and write any doubt phrases.
Speaker 3: That you might do.
Speaker 2: Would you do me one final favorite? If Rob gave
Speaker 2: you my uh my email at w b Z, would
Speaker 2: you send me could you send me a copy of
Speaker 2: that poem because I'm I'm really interesting, I'm interested. Thank you,
Speaker 2: Thank you, Carlin. We got to have you back on.
Speaker 2: I really enjoyed this. This was this was a fun segment. Uh,
Speaker 2: and you made it a little bit of fun. Thanks
Speaker 2: my friend. We will we will, we will talk soon
Speaker 2: and uh, let's uh, let's keep in touch.
Speaker 3: Have you been you've been with us before, right, I.
Speaker 7: Believe I have, I have. I always enjoy it.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, come on, come on back more often because
Speaker 2: I love talking to folks. I used I was a
Speaker 2: reporter a long time ago, and so I I have
Speaker 2: I have. I feel I always enjoy talking to reporters.
Speaker 2: And you handled a touchy situation with greater plom I want.
Speaker 5: You to know that I appreciate it.
Speaker 7: I had some fun with it as well.
Speaker 2: We'll talk soon, all right, say there, Rob will give
Speaker 2: you my email address and I'll have it'll be fun
Speaker 2: to read that. Thanks so much when we get back,
Speaker 2: we're going to This is not one you can participate,
Speaker 2: and although maybe we could do it some Friday night,
Speaker 2: we will disclose to you the top pet fee peeve
Speaker 2: or the top pet peeves among neighbors according to a
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five survey from Home Gnome. And that's g
Speaker 2: n o emmy, and we're not talking about nom Alaska.
Speaker 2: Back on night Side with Jeff Herman, the editor in
Speaker 2: chief of Home Gnome.
Speaker 1: Right after this, if you're on night Side with Dan
Speaker 1: Ray on w Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2: All right, welcome back, everybody. We are going to talk
Speaker 2: now about a survey of the top pe pet peeves
Speaker 2: amongst neighbors.
Speaker 3: In his poem The Mending.
Speaker 2: Wall, Robert Frost wrote, good fences make good neighbors. Apparently
Speaker 2: we need more fences with us as Jeff Herman, he's
Speaker 2: the editor in chief of Home Gnome.
Speaker 3: Have I pronounced Gnome g n O m E correctly?
Speaker 5: I hope yes, that is correct.
Speaker 3: It is not. It is Gnome.
Speaker 2: I just wanted up. All right, So what what prompted
Speaker 2: you to conduct such a survey?
Speaker 5: Because so many of these things involve home services that
Speaker 5: are needed to kind of fix things. If you have
Speaker 5: a broken fence, you need somebody to stay it painted
Speaker 5: or mend it. And if you have broken windows in
Speaker 5: you know, your neighbor's house, or you have disputes over
Speaker 5: the landscaping, you need help and so one thing you
Speaker 5: need to do is turn to some people who can
Speaker 5: help make that happen. And that's kind of what the
Speaker 5: site's all about. But more than anything else, we want
Speaker 5: to find out what people are upset about with their neighbors.
Speaker 2: Okay, So now, first of all, let me give you
Speaker 2: a chance. What what is the service of the website, homenome?
Speaker 2: And the reason I want to get that out of
Speaker 2: the way is I want people to understand sort of
Speaker 2: like you're the foundation of this whole, this whole interview.
Speaker 2: So if you need something done at your home, you
Speaker 2: have a website people can go to and check it out.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, so you know, if it's painting, if it's plumbing,
Speaker 5: if it's hvac, whatever it is, you know you can
Speaker 5: find the people near you who can take that job
Speaker 5: and do well for you.
Speaker 2: Okay, So therefore your your you supply. When I need
Speaker 2: something done in my hometown, you'll give me a list
Speaker 2: of potential people who can do the job. And it's
Speaker 2: a free serve. I assume us is a free service.
Speaker 5: Absolutely absolutely, and so it's home now.
Speaker 7: But your radio.
Speaker 5: Commercials before this session were fantastic. They were funny, they
Speaker 5: were enlightening, and there are home services companies right where
Speaker 5: you're listeners are, So I will puss with that.
Speaker 2: Oh well, thank you very much. If you need commercials,
Speaker 2: this is the this is the show to put the
Speaker 2: commercials on. So let's let's talk about you guys. So
Speaker 2: one in ten neighbors clash over home upkeep. So that
Speaker 2: means if you're next door neighbor is a slob uh
Speaker 2: or has fifteen junk cars in his yard and is
Speaker 2: and is out there, you know, with a chainsaw on
Speaker 2: Sunday morning at six point thirty when you're trying to
Speaker 2: catch some sleep. These are some of the some of
Speaker 2: the problems. Give us the top pet peeves that you
Speaker 2: have found in the survey the home Gnome conducted.
Speaker 5: The top five pet peeves are garbage twenty seven point
Speaker 5: four percent of the respondents, So that that's their number
Speaker 5: one tet peeve, landscaping, lawn career, yards that just aren't
Speaker 5: kept up. That's the second most common pet peeve.
Speaker 3: I missed it, hold on wastecond's the first one. What's
Speaker 3: the first one?
Speaker 5: There's garbage. So if there's you know, with garbage, yeah,
Speaker 5: you know, if it's if it stinks, you know, or
Speaker 5: it's just piling up. That's a problem for you if
Speaker 5: you're a living next person like this, So that's number one.
Speaker 5: Number two. Landscape, your laun care. If the yard is
Speaker 5: a mess, well that's going to be a problem because
Speaker 5: that's not only unsightly, but it also can lower your
Speaker 5: property values. So you know, keep the neighbor's yard clean,
Speaker 5: keep your yard clean. Home maintenance. If the windows look
Speaker 5: like they're falling apart, they're broken, you know, or you know,
Speaker 5: the the gutters seem to be falling off the sides
Speaker 5: of the house, that's another problem. So if things aren't
Speaker 5: being addressed again, it makes you look bad because your
Speaker 5: neighbor looks like this, it's going to be reflecting on
Speaker 5: your home property. To noise. If you have a really
Speaker 5: noisy neighbor like you just said, you know, he's operating
Speaker 5: the chainsaw at seven o'clock in the morning. That cause
Speaker 5: those issues. And pets they might not bite you, but
Speaker 5: they might be doing things in your yard that you
Speaker 5: don't want them to do, whether it's digging up the
Speaker 5: flower bed or whether it's you know, leaving a mess
Speaker 5: behind whatever it is. Pets can be a problem.
Speaker 2: Too, Yeah, The other thing too, which I think we
Speaker 2: should realize, is that you don't have to necessarily live
Speaker 2: in a bad area of town. There was a story
Speaker 2: a couple of years ago United States Senator rih and
Speaker 2: Paul from Kentucky got into some sort of a skirmish
Speaker 2: with his next door neighbor which ended up, I believe,
Speaker 2: in a fistfight of some sort.
Speaker 3: Right, yeah, do you remember that story.
Speaker 2: I mean, there was two neighbors and I don't know
Speaker 2: if politics are involved or whatever, but at one point
Speaker 2: I think the guy sucker punched Brian Paul and it
Speaker 2: was it was a big story. It's a United States
Speaker 2: Senator that you know, you'd think most people would like
Speaker 2: to be friends with, right as opposed to up in
Speaker 2: a brawl. So, yeah, this is a problem, and I
Speaker 2: think you have the key on it, and that is
Speaker 2: that you're trying to keep your house as best you can.
Speaker 2: No one expects the house next door and the house
Speaker 2: across the street to be, you know, from the cover
Speaker 2: of you know, home beautiful or something like that.
Speaker 3: But you're right, if all of a.
Speaker 2: Sudden the shutters are falling off or the fences is
Speaker 2: falling onto your property, generally, if that happens and you
Speaker 2: try to talk to the neighbor. My suspicion is the
Speaker 2: neighbor probably if they allow that to happen and allow
Speaker 2: it to continue, they're probably not going to be really
Speaker 2: open to some of your entreaties of hey, can you
Speaker 2: fix the fence.
Speaker 3: I would suspect it.
Speaker 2: Very rarely would someone in that situation say, oh, my goodness,
Speaker 2: I didn't realize it was over. Oh excuse me, I'll
Speaker 2: get that done tomorrow. I suspect it might be you
Speaker 2: fix your thing and I'll fix my fence later and
Speaker 2: bridge exactly.
Speaker 5: You know, neighbors is just tough. Sometimes they're good friends
Speaker 5: and sometimes they're just difficult to get along with. I
Speaker 5: lived in Saint Louis. The neighbor next door my other
Speaker 5: half didn't get along with that neighbor at all, and
Speaker 5: it went from you know, they were almost going to
Speaker 5: start with a fist fight there. It was one of
Speaker 5: the worst days because I'm trying to break up the
Speaker 5: fist fight, and then it turned into the best day
Speaker 5: because we went and adopted our puppy. So, you know,
Speaker 5: really really tough day turns out to be a really
Speaker 5: fantastic day with what type of what.
Speaker 2: Type of puppy, What type of puppy did you adopt?
Speaker 5: Australian cattle dog smart, smart dog, one ear up, one
Speaker 5: ear down, so it was it was a little puppy,
Speaker 5: one ear up, one down.
Speaker 2: My daughter adopted a puppy from Michelter, who is my
Speaker 2: best friend right now. Unfortunately I live in San Francisco,
Speaker 2: so I don't see him as often as I want.
Speaker 2: But he's Mustard the corgy. Oh, he's a great dog.
Speaker 2: He's a great dog. And I was in the phone
Speaker 2: of my daughter one night. She had walked out the
Speaker 2: back of her apartment building in San Francisco, and there
Speaker 2: was some guy across the street who was kind of
Speaker 2: hanging around. And as I'm talking to her, all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, Mustard, who is the quietest dog in the world,
Speaker 2: starts to bark and growl at this guy. And ever
Speaker 2: since then i've he's he's my daughter's protector. So we
Speaker 2: have bonded you and I, Jeff, over our love for dogs. Jeff,
Speaker 2: thank you so much. This was an interesting piece home
Speaker 2: gnome and that's all one word. H O M E
Speaker 2: G O M E dot com.
Speaker 5: Dot org, dot com dot com.
Speaker 2: Jeff, Thanks very much. We'll have you back. I really
Speaker 2: enjoyed it. You've got a great sense of humor and
Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
Speaker 5: Thanks Dan.
Speaker 2: All Right, we come back when to be talking with
Speaker 2: Josh Craft Kraft, a the the the only mayoral candidate
Speaker 2: here in Boston who is taking on the incumbent Michelle Woo.
Speaker 2: Earlier this week, Boston developer Tom O'Bryan decided, indeed not
Speaker 2: to run. So it is now Josh Kraft and Michelle Wou,
Speaker 2: and we're going to talk about the White Stadium legal
Speaker 2: developments in the last day or so. Coming back on
Speaker 2: Nightside right after the nine o'clock news