Speaker 1: It's nice eyes, Dan ray I'm doing you Beazy Boston's
Speaker 1: News Radio.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Madison. And when the Red Sox
Speaker 2: play in Seattle tonight, Raffi Devers will be playing in
Speaker 2: San Francisco against the Cleveland Guardians. Never thought i'd see
Speaker 2: that day, that's for sure. Well we'll see that tonight.
Speaker 2: My name is Dan ram the host of Night's Side,
Speaker 2: a baseball fan too, by the way, talk show host
Speaker 2: in real life, been a baseball fan, and I follow
Speaker 2: that pretty closely. We talked about Raffie Devers last night.
Speaker 2: Tonight we will be talking in all probability a lot
Speaker 2: about the fact that the Karen Reed jury has come
Speaker 2: back now with four questions. They have finished a second
Speaker 2: full day of jury deliberations without a verdict, but some
Speaker 2: are suggesting that those questions in the way in which
Speaker 2: they were asked might suggest that the jury is close
Speaker 2: to a verdict that might come down tomorrow. We'll see
Speaker 2: how that all works out. But tonight we will talk
Speaker 2: to you about the trial trial number two, beginning at
Speaker 2: nine o'clock this hour. We have four very interesting guests. Again,
Speaker 2: my name is Dan Rayam the host of the show,
Speaker 2: Rob Brooks, is back in the control room, back at
Speaker 2: the big Socket in downtown Medford, well not downtown Medford,
Speaker 2: it's part of Medford, Massachusetts, kind of an undisclosed location.
Speaker 2: We really shouldn't tell you where it is, but you know,
Speaker 2: and I'm obviously broadcasting from a bunker somewhere. So we
Speaker 2: will now get to the more serious topics of the night,
Speaker 2: and one that is serious here in Massachusetts. We're very
Speaker 2: successful state, or a state that has great hospitals, great universities.
Speaker 2: We're considered to be a state that has a high
Speaker 2: value and high cost of living, but a good living lifestyle.
Speaker 2: And yet yet for the second year in a row,
Speaker 2: nearly two million adults in Massachusetts. That's a lot of people. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they cannot afford enough to eat or worry about the
Speaker 2: sos of their next meal. According to a statewide study
Speaker 2: by the Greater Boston Food Bank with US as Captain Tomato,
Speaker 2: she is the Greater Boston Food Banks CEO and President, Catherine.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Night's side. How do you have There's only
Speaker 2: six point seven million people in Massachusetts, so boy, this
Speaker 2: does work out to about one out of every three
Speaker 2: adults are having problems with food insecurity it does.
Speaker 3: First of all, thanks for having me and at least,
Speaker 3: you know, spending some time on this subject. There's so
Speaker 3: many things, and as you pointed out, it's a great state, right,
Speaker 3: I mean, we've always had a very strong economy, and
Speaker 3: you know, on the other side, we've always had a
Speaker 3: very high cost of living and that's part of what
Speaker 3: people are facing right now with increased inflation, you know,
Speaker 3: cost and groceries, cost of housing, so many things and
Speaker 3: such uncertainty you know that folks are facing.
Speaker 4: Do I have a job?
Speaker 3: Do I not have a job? You know, it's my
Speaker 3: company going to be sold, is it not. There's just
Speaker 3: so much uncertainty and volatility, and that puts folks in
Speaker 3: a situation where they have to make a lot of trades. Dan,
Speaker 3: you know, take their food money for something. You know,
Speaker 3: it might be daycare, might be education, might be housing,
Speaker 3: could be your rent, it could be you know, your
Speaker 3: food money is kind of flexible because we have a
Speaker 3: very strong pantry system in our commonwealth.
Speaker 2: We have a great pantry system and I'll call them
Speaker 2: common Wealth and you folks are really the top of it.
Speaker 2: The Greater Boston Food Bank. I was at a fundraiser
Speaker 2: that we support on the Cape the Cape called Family Food.
Speaker 3: The Family Pantry Sure.
Speaker 2: Family Pantry in Harwich, and so we do that fundraiser
Speaker 2: every year. Here's my question. There will be some people
Speaker 2: who's skeptical tonight, and I got to be honest, I'm
Speaker 2: a little skeptical too, and that we're in a state
Speaker 2: that there's the unemployment rate is right around with a
Speaker 2: national averages. We tend to be a little bit below that.
Speaker 2: I know we're an expensive state, but food prices and
Speaker 2: by the way, I shop at the grocery store probably
Speaker 2: three to four times a week from my family, and
Speaker 2: I watch prices really carefully. They've been fairly stable, particularly
Speaker 2: after the scare that was thrown at us with the
Speaker 2: tariff conversation earlier this year. Egg prices have dropped a
Speaker 2: little bit. I haven't seen huge jumps. Oh, I've seen
Speaker 2: it in some of the like Pepbridge Farm cookies. They
Speaker 2: haven't come down, but I'm not buying those babies. I
Speaker 2: love Pepperidge Farm cookies, but I'll stick with my Nobisco
Speaker 2: oreos to to save by my diet because I'm not
Speaker 2: gonna spey four bucks for you know, a dozen cookies.
Speaker 2: I'd rather buy the family pack. So so how do
Speaker 2: we define this? I mean that we have the food
Speaker 2: programs in this state. We've just gone through a couple
Speaker 2: of billion dollar with people who are here, who we
Speaker 2: have housed and fed. Why do we not have enough
Speaker 2: money for people in that we've just passed the millionaires tax,
Speaker 2: which supposedly grew generated much more money than anyone would
Speaker 2: have expected. I would think we're fairly high clover here.
Speaker 2: This is this is, this is disgraceful that people in
Speaker 2: our state go to beout hungry at I particularly kids.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you've asked about one hundred great questions, which I
Speaker 3: love about you because you are you think, you think,
Speaker 3: and you're thinking out loud, and you share with your audience.
Speaker 3: You know the concerns of so many people. Right, so
Speaker 3: why you know what is it?
Speaker 1: So?
Speaker 3: First of all, the state doesn't pay for the food
Speaker 3: all the food programs, so there's a lot of philanthropy
Speaker 3: that covers, you know, the net in our state. And yes,
Speaker 3: there are great food programs. Many of those are federal
Speaker 3: that are in great danger due to the reductions that
Speaker 3: are occurring. And we'll know more about that once the
Speaker 3: Senate side of our Congress finishes their budget process, and
Speaker 3: then that will put the state in the situation where
Speaker 3: it's going to have to decide, right, do we make
Speaker 3: up those differences?
Speaker 5: Do not?
Speaker 3: Do we do some? Do we do none? But in
Speaker 3: our state we have as you noted, Harwich is one
Speaker 3: of our best partners down on the Cape, and Great
Speaker 3: Boston Food Bank has been partnering with them for forty years.
Speaker 3: So it's a great partnership. But people find themselves in
Speaker 3: need the food.
Speaker 5: For lots of reasons.
Speaker 3: It's always economical. And I'm going to challenge you on
Speaker 3: your pricing question because I'm going to go shopping with
Speaker 3: you someday and I'm going to send you some more data.
Speaker 3: So food prices are the greatest inflation include ever in
Speaker 3: the last forty years due to COVID. Now, while it
Speaker 3: went way up, you are correct, it did come down
Speaker 3: in many categories and exists is a great one. It
Speaker 3: was up, and it was up and up and up,
Speaker 3: and then it's starting to come down and we're seeing
Speaker 3: some relief there, but it's still more then it was
Speaker 3: before COVID. So while a double digit inflationary pricing might
Speaker 3: have occurred, we're down to singles. But it's still five,
Speaker 3: six or seven percent more than it was, so families
Speaker 3: have to stretch those dollars all over the place. And
Speaker 3: housing is also one of the major issues. But families,
Speaker 3: it's always it's always economical, and it's always political. That's
Speaker 3: what we're seeing now, and it doesn't matter to me
Speaker 3: what side of the aisle you are. Every administration makes
Speaker 3: changes every administration, and some of them are focused on
Speaker 3: certain things and some are focused on other things. Right now,
Speaker 3: this budget reconciliation is very focused on finding trillions of
Speaker 3: dollars in debt, you know, in reduction, and that's going
Speaker 3: to impact more proportionately poor people than not in our
Speaker 3: country should it all pass, So that's going to be
Speaker 3: much more challenging for people to make ends meet. And
Speaker 3: then it always is very personal. Could be a death,
Speaker 3: could be an illness. It could be a parent you
Speaker 3: have to take care of. It could be a loss
Speaker 3: of a job. It could be an emergency, it could
Speaker 3: be a fire, it could be numbers of things. Then
Speaker 3: that puts you in a situation where you need some help,
Speaker 3: and that we put out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what I'm trying to say, I want to give
Speaker 2: you credit. I want to give the Greater Boston Food Rank.
Speaker 2: I want to give them the cap cause family food
Speaker 2: Pantry credit. And there's there's there's hundreds of organizations and charities.
Speaker 2: And I got to tell you, anytime you want, Catherine,
Speaker 2: come with me. I will take you shopping to market
Speaker 2: bathroom Okay, and I.
Speaker 5: Will show you you're a market basket guy.
Speaker 3: Okay. See that's that's an important distinction. Their prices are.
Speaker 2: The best, well though they are. But guess what I
Speaker 2: will drive about ten miles to go to a market bank.
Speaker 2: And guess what. I know that I will save on
Speaker 2: twenty items a multiple of two, three or four dollars.
Speaker 2: And at the end of the day, what would what
Speaker 2: would cost me one hundred and twenty dollars will cost
Speaker 2: me a market basket maybe seventy five or eighty, which
Speaker 2: more than justifies my time and more than justifies my guess.
Speaker 3: But the fact that a lot of a lot of
Speaker 3: folks are still very much the same way you do
Speaker 3: about this oho.
Speaker 2: And guess what, I won't buy the expensive stuff, like
Speaker 2: when I want to buy ice cream, it better be
Speaker 2: two for seven dollars. I'm not paid for ninety nine.
Speaker 2: I'm serious when I tell you that doesn't anyway.
Speaker 3: But what you're highlighting, Dan, is that not in a
Speaker 3: humorous way or in the way because you could buy
Speaker 3: what you want. Right You're in a position where you
Speaker 3: and I can go to the grocery store. You can
Speaker 3: buy the four forty nine item, but you're going to
Speaker 3: get them.
Speaker 2: Going to win. I'm serious.
Speaker 3: People just don't have the money at all at all.
Speaker 2: That's why we support That's why we got to support
Speaker 2: food Pansy. That's why we need to support Greater Boston
Speaker 2: Food Bank, which again is the hub of the food
Speaker 2: bay system here in Massachusetts. How can folks get in
Speaker 2: touch with the Greater Boston Food Bank. We're running out
Speaker 2: of time. This is fun, but in the market basket
Speaker 2: any day.
Speaker 3: And I'm going to go shopping with you, Dan. So look,
Speaker 3: people want to help, they can do a number of things.
Speaker 3: One is they can get financial support at GBFB dot org.
Speaker 3: They can also get and be supportive of the pantries
Speaker 3: in their communities. Some people very much want to be
Speaker 3: much more localized. Right, we have over six hundred programs
Speaker 3: in eastern Massachusetts that benefit from the work of the
Speaker 3: Greater Boston Food Bank, And I believe me there's one
Speaker 3: in your community of your listeners, and all over the country.
Speaker 3: We have over sixty thousand organizations that take food from
Speaker 3: the from our system. And you can volunteer, you can
Speaker 3: get involved, you can make a difference, you can show up,
Speaker 3: you can look. I also believe it's really important to vote.
Speaker 3: Vote for what you believe in. Get registered and vote.
Speaker 3: It's another action step. And lastly, call your state rep.
Speaker 3: Whatever you believe, call and tell them what you think,
Speaker 3: or your state senator or the delegation. That's another way
Speaker 3: you can act as an individual in Massachusetts to cosnive
Speaker 3: that change for those who need help.
Speaker 2: That's one of the things we try to do here
Speaker 2: on Nightside. I often say, Kathy, I don't care what
Speaker 2: you're thinking. I just want you to be thinking. And
Speaker 2: by the way, when you get a chance, next time
Speaker 2: you talk with Christine Menard, Dunn and Harwich, ask her,
Speaker 2: ask her how supportive, how much we care for the
Speaker 2: food pantry, well food listen.
Speaker 5: I have the quote, I will tell her that.
Speaker 3: And I have the honor of getting an honorary doctorate
Speaker 3: from the mass School Law this year. And what I
Speaker 3: learned is dieing Sullivan and you are a good friends
Speaker 3: that you are eight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we work together with the Shadow Fund, which provides
Speaker 2: veterinary care for people who cannot afford to take care
Speaker 2: of their pets. And Diane Sullivan and she will, she
Speaker 2: will be canonized as a saint.
Speaker 3: And she she's.
Speaker 2: An unbelievable person. Unbelievable.
Speaker 3: He asked me if I knew you, and I said, yeah,
Speaker 3: I do, and she said, he's terrific.
Speaker 5: So you are.
Speaker 3: And I appreciate that you're sharing a little bit about
Speaker 3: the importance of the pantry system and that it's okay
Speaker 3: to go if you need help, and that's why we're here.
Speaker 3: Dan help.
Speaker 2: Wrong with that absolutely. I did the commencement speech from
Speaker 2: mascol believe it was two thousand and eight. It's a
Speaker 2: great facility and Diane, as the assistant dean up there,
Speaker 2: has done such a fabulous job. And the I mentioned
Speaker 2: the Shadow Fund. Every penny that we raise, every penny,
Speaker 2: there's no administrative cost. She does this out of the
Speaker 2: goodness of her heart. She is a saint. She's a
Speaker 2: living saint. Professor Dean, Assistant dean and Saliva, I'm so
Speaker 2: glad that you mentioned Diane's name. She's the best she's
Speaker 2: the best.
Speaker 3: And Katherin you're pretty great too.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 3: You know what it takes all of us to push
Speaker 3: it forward, right and help those and to help our pets.
Speaker 2: That one absolutely all right, all dogs, all cats, all
Speaker 2: pets go to heaven and remember that. Okay, thank you
Speaker 2: very much. We get back it up to date you
Speaker 2: on a lull pub story and we think that the
Speaker 2: the conclusion to the story is what we hoped for.
Speaker 2: We'll talk with Melanie Gilbert of the Lowell Sun. She's
Speaker 2: a great reporter with that wonderful newspaper. Right after these messages.
Speaker 1: You're on night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: All right, let's get back to our conversation here, which
Speaker 2: is what we call the nightside news update with us.
Speaker 2: Is Melanie Gilbert. Melanie, you with us a couple of
Speaker 2: months ago, and we were talking about a dilemma that
Speaker 2: some of the pubs in Lowell were challenged on whether
Speaker 2: someone under the age of eighteen could go in. They're
Speaker 2: not eligible to drink or buy alcoholic beverages, but could
Speaker 2: they go in there and you know, have a bowl
Speaker 2: of soup or a hamburger.
Speaker 5: And thanks for having me back then, it's always a
Speaker 5: pleasure to be on your show radio first time. Yeah,
Speaker 5: oh you know here it is just put in a
Speaker 5: nutshell for your listeners. This is like the age old
Speaker 5: problem of underage drinking, right, is that Loll is saying.
Speaker 5: And it was kind of a loophole, and even the
Speaker 5: License Commission acknowledged that they've been operating under this sort
Speaker 5: of a benevolent or benign theory that if you went
Speaker 5: into a bar, you had to be of age. And
Speaker 5: we're not just talking about people who are scamming the system,
Speaker 5: that you had to be of age to be in
Speaker 5: the bar. And this loophole has sort of proven the wrong.
Speaker 5: So let me back up and just say that back
Speaker 5: on March early March, I think it was March first, actually,
Speaker 5: the Lowell Police Department conduct did alcohol compliance checks on
Speaker 5: the Blue Shamrock in Loll and they found two underage well,
Speaker 5: they found two females standing by the bar who appeared
Speaker 5: to be under twenty one, and you know you have
Speaker 5: to be twenty one to drink in Massachusetts. So they
Speaker 5: asked them for ID and the two women presented ID
Speaker 5: that was fraudulent, which was they're already in trouble and
Speaker 5: based on the testimony of the officer, it appeared that
Speaker 5: they were admitted to the premises but were not served alcohol.
Speaker 5: And here's the loophole. Turns out that under Lull's Ordnance
Speaker 5: City Ordinance that you can be under age in a
Speaker 5: bar because we don't really have bars, we have restaurants
Speaker 5: that serve alcohol. So it'd be like you right, be
Speaker 5: like you're walking into the ninety nine. You know, you know,
Speaker 5: it's not a problem. So you walk into a bar
Speaker 5: and you don't have to drink if you just exactly
Speaker 5: as you preface, as long as you just order something.
Speaker 5: And I'm not sure if that includes a bag of
Speaker 5: popcorn or a bag of chips, but if you order
Speaker 5: something from the kitchen, you are allowed to be in
Speaker 5: that bar as even if you're not of age. So
Speaker 5: I think where the two women kind of messed up
Speaker 5: until this law was challenged is that technically right now.
Speaker 5: And the police department issued a memo Superintendent Houdon, who said,
Speaker 5: you know this is a it's actually I'm going to
Speaker 5: look at it here we Superintendent Hoodon wishes to express
Speaker 5: his serious concerns regarding the technicality identified by the law departments.
Speaker 5: His technicality has the potential to be exploited not only
Speaker 5: by the underage individuals, but also by certain establishments attempting
Speaker 5: to circumvent the law by falsely presenting themselves as pubs
Speaker 5: or restaurants. So, you know, it was all sort of
Speaker 5: a corker, you know, is that these the license commissions
Speaker 5: hands are tied because the Blue Shamrock, and I think
Speaker 5: it was the Village Smallhost was also cited that night
Speaker 5: with a compliance check and underage teat.
Speaker 2: My question is this, what's the difference between any restaurant
Speaker 2: I can think of all these restaurants you go to
Speaker 2: Legal Seafoods. You mentioned ninety nine restaurant, you have families
Speaker 2: in there, you have kids with their parents. Was it
Speaker 2: the fact that these under so called underage girls were
Speaker 2: not escorted by their parents if their parents had been there,
Speaker 2: they were having a graduation evening celebration. It sounds to
Speaker 2: me like, you know, if they go in and they're
Speaker 2: under twenty one and they've served alcohol when they got
Speaker 2: a problem with the license, I think the decision was
Speaker 2: the right one here.
Speaker 5: Well, you know, technicality exactly is that if you're under
Speaker 5: twenty one and you go into a establishment serving liquor
Speaker 5: in lull. You don't need you don't need to take
Speaker 5: sick ID is really what it comes down to. If
Speaker 5: you order from the kitchen, you're allowed to be in
Speaker 5: that establishment.
Speaker 2: Right, You kind of order from the kitchen and then
Speaker 2: order a glass of wine, but you can't order liquor.
Speaker 5: But you can order from the kitchen, and you can
Speaker 5: be in a bar with other you know, people who
Speaker 5: are where it's really.
Speaker 3: Just a bar.
Speaker 5: You know it's got when you when you go to
Speaker 5: the Blue Shamrock, it has pool tables and it has
Speaker 5: a jukebox, and it has a bar. But you're right
Speaker 5: when you look at bars, typically, the way I think
Speaker 5: of bars is so those are the places that don't
Speaker 5: close until like one or two o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 5: But Applebee's Legal Seafood they all close around maybe eleven,
Speaker 5: maybe twelve o'clock at night because restaurants, they're not barsa
Speaker 5: they're gonna go ahead and close up and because they've
Speaker 5: got all that prep work to do. But bars are different. So,
Speaker 5: as the tweet chief pointed out, is that you technically
Speaker 5: could have seventeen year olds in a bar or a
Speaker 5: pub in roll at the bar not drinking, but surrounded
Speaker 5: by adults who are drinking or other teenagers, I suppose,
Speaker 5: and as long as they ordered food, so you know,
Speaker 5: it's a you know, as a law currently stands, there's
Speaker 5: nothing preventing high school students from entering a bar late
Speaker 5: at night where college students of legal age drinking age
Speaker 5: are also present. Is basically how he closed out his memoran,
Speaker 5: and he felt that that created a risk of underage
Speaker 5: individuals being exposed to alcohol and unsafe in bar because typically,
Speaker 5: I think you're right, most people are. You know, you
Speaker 5: take your kids into the you know, the ninety nine,
Speaker 5: and you get a drink, but you're there with them,
Speaker 5: and you know, it's not like a pub scene, and
Speaker 5: it's kind of like, you know, the Captain Peasley, who
Speaker 5: was who represents the police department before the license commission said,
Speaker 5: you know, if it walks like a duck and it
Speaker 5: talks like a duck, and it's a dog, except you know,
Speaker 5: when it's not a duck, and this technicality sort of
Speaker 5: makes it a turkey or what do you call it
Speaker 5: sometimes might be exactly, so you know, it's it kind
Speaker 5: of raised interesting legal issues because the bar fought back
Speaker 5: and they said, wait a minute, we don't have you know,
Speaker 5: I think when mister Petrakis applied for his license thirty
Speaker 5: years ago, the Commission granted it and they classified him
Speaker 5: as a restaurant, and that was his defense before the commission.
Speaker 5: They didn't have alcohol, they weren't served alcohol. There were
Speaker 5: no drinks in front of these two seventeen year olds
Speaker 5: who were from Westford, so they weren't Lott residence. So
Speaker 5: I'm not in violation of the statute. I'm not in
Speaker 5: violation of the Ordnance and lull. They came in for
Speaker 5: the food. I guess.
Speaker 2: Well, the food is probably great, and maybe the company
Speaker 2: of the drunks at the bar is great too, but
Speaker 2: they weren't drinking. Melanie, thank you so much. I really
Speaker 2: enjoyed it, and we need to get another hot story
Speaker 2: up and well keep us bend.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 2: It's better than governed fires and city council meetings, that's
Speaker 2: for sure.
Speaker 5: Yes, all right, well listen to have a great night,
Speaker 5: and thank you for having me on the show.
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us. Melanie Gilbert of The Low Sun,
Speaker 2: Paul Sullivan's favorite newspaper, that's for sure, The late great
Speaker 2: Paul Sullivan. Well, we get back. Right after the news,
Speaker 2: we're going to tell you about a one dollar food
Speaker 2: that could help fight diabetes and heart disease. Almost sounds
Speaker 2: too good to be true, but it is true. We're
Speaker 2: coming back, and don't forget to download the new and
Speaker 2: improved night Side app. Just go to your local app
Speaker 2: store on your Google account, or go and find it
Speaker 2: anywhere for your for your your your your web, your
Speaker 2: your your your desktop, your your all of your devices,
Speaker 2: all of your devices. Pull that app down and make
Speaker 2: WBZ your first preset and will always be just a
Speaker 2: fingertip away. Be right back on Nightside right after the news.
Speaker 1: You're on night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2: This I mentioned just before the break. All of your devices,
Speaker 2: whether it's a desktop, laptop, cell phone, tablet, whatever, pull
Speaker 2: down the new and improved iHeart app and you will
Speaker 2: also be able to connect with us. There is a microphone.
Speaker 2: When you pull it down, you'll see it that's a
Speaker 2: bit a red microphone. You can just touch on it
Speaker 2: and you got thirty seconds to give us your your thoughts,
Speaker 2: your observations, and you can listen to it before you
Speaker 2: send to us. Make sure it sounds exactly like you want.
Speaker 2: You can be in touch your set in touch with
Speaker 2: us that way too. So it's great. Now we're going
Speaker 2: to talk with doctor Fami Fara, who is a cardiologist.
Speaker 2: Welcome back, doctor Fara. How are you to this this evening.
Speaker 1: I'm doing well.
Speaker 6: Thank you for having me. It's great to be back
Speaker 6: on your show.
Speaker 2: Well, right back at you. So you have a one
Speaker 2: dollar food that can help fight both diabetes and heart disease.
Speaker 2: I am all ears, doctor Fara, trust me on that.
Speaker 2: What are we talking about? Oh?
Speaker 6: Absolutely, you're absolutely right. There's a study that shows that
Speaker 6: chickpeas and black beans are great for heart health and
Speaker 6: I couldn't agree more. It's a plant based protein source
Speaker 6: and so it has great benefits to the heart and
Speaker 6: the study specifically showed that it decreased levels of cholesterol,
Speaker 6: which is a major respect for heart disease, as well
Speaker 6: as it reduced inflammation, which is another big reason why
Speaker 6: we get heart disease. So it's a great source of protein.
Speaker 2: Now, I don't want to sound like a total knucklehead here,
Speaker 2: but easy, easy to buy at a store, I assume,
Speaker 2: easy to prepare this is This is economical as well
Speaker 2: as pretty.
Speaker 6: Convenient one hundred percent. Yes, it's very easy to find
Speaker 6: and you can find them at any grocery store. It's
Speaker 6: very economical. It's one of the cheapest things as far
Speaker 6: as food products go. And you know, one of the
Speaker 6: things that you mentioned is that any source of beings
Speaker 6: like you know, black bean and chickpea specifically, is what
Speaker 6: it looks looked at by any source. I mean, like
Speaker 6: canned beans, for example, would be okay, But the thing
Speaker 6: to pay attention to it'd be well, how it has
Speaker 6: been stored, because typically stored products tend to have you know,
Speaker 6: quite a bit of other agents like preservatives and sodium
Speaker 6: and whatnot. So you really, if you're buying canned products,
Speaker 6: you really do need to be able to wash those
Speaker 6: thoroughly and get all that by product out of it
Speaker 6: and then use it and then it's still considered fairly
Speaker 6: safe and healthy.
Speaker 2: Okay. So if they're not in cans, which you which
Speaker 2: you don't advise, are they available in the vegetable department.
Speaker 2: They are.
Speaker 6: Majority of the grocery stores will have them. And you know,
Speaker 6: even online now a lot of groceries are available through
Speaker 6: online sources like Amazon, for example, they're fairly cheap affordable
Speaker 6: and beings. Generally speaking, it is considered one of the
Speaker 6: cheaper options that you can buy one dollar worth of
Speaker 6: beans that it can go long waves. So you know,
Speaker 6: I think this is a great option for majority of
Speaker 6: the people just because of how affordable it is.
Speaker 2: Okay, so what about palettes. Can these food products be
Speaker 2: prepared in a way that keeps them safe and and
Speaker 2: helpful to our heart and to fight diabetes? But also
Speaker 2: uh can can also be mixed with other products what
Speaker 2: you know, that will make them appetizing.
Speaker 6: Certainly, beans can be prepared in many different ways. It's
Speaker 6: one of the most versatile products. And you know, I'm
Speaker 6: a big foodie and I travel a lot, and I
Speaker 6: just love enjoying different cuisines from different cultures and from
Speaker 6: across the world of all, you know, my own background considered,
Speaker 6: all cuisines have beans, and it can be prepared so
Speaker 6: in a many many different ways. You can prepare it
Speaker 6: and curry. You can make it with other things, other
Speaker 6: types of vegetables. You know, you can use different types
Speaker 6: of spices. You can make it in so many different ways.
Speaker 5: You can make.
Speaker 6: Stew out of it, you can make it, you can
Speaker 6: use it as a replacement product for meat for chili
Speaker 6: and such. So the use is very versatile, and it
Speaker 6: really is a good replacement for red meat.
Speaker 2: Now, are any of the companies that manufacture and sell
Speaker 2: these Are any of them thinking about doing some sort
Speaker 2: of a marketing campaign, Because I got to be honest
Speaker 2: with you, when I read this article, I thought, gee,
Speaker 2: I didn't realize that. I mean, I know that I
Speaker 2: know generally the foods that are bad for you, those
Speaker 2: are the foods that I like. If it tastes good,
Speaker 2: ice cream.
Speaker 6: Bad, I hope they do. Actually, I hope they do
Speaker 6: better marketing than it becomes more well known. And you know,
Speaker 6: it's such an undervalued source of food that's so nutritious.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it could become much more of a staple of
Speaker 2: our diet. Obviously, there's lots of things that all of
Speaker 2: us eat that are unhealthy. But when I think, for example,
Speaker 2: ten years ago, I didn't know anybody who would ever
Speaker 2: eat avocados. It just wasn't it wasn't. Addition, now you
Speaker 2: go to any restaurant and people are ordering avocado toast
Speaker 2: or avocado on the side. Somehow someone figured out how
Speaker 2: to market avocados. Now, maybe it was because Tom Brady
Speaker 2: was eating avocados and he was winning football games. But
Speaker 2: there has to be a way to, uh to get
Speaker 2: this this food product into the food stream.
Speaker 6: I guess Oh, I totally totally agree with you. There
Speaker 6: are just so many different ways beans just cooked properly
Speaker 6: could be delicious, and I just I agree with you.
Speaker 6: I think more people need to advertise for us. Hopefully
Speaker 6: the companies do. The bean company.
Speaker 2: No, no, And I know, and I know there's a
Speaker 2: lot of companies that that that sell beans in cans
Speaker 2: and all of that, but maybe they should they should
Speaker 2: market them other ways as well, because look, if if
Speaker 2: it's tasty and it's also good for you, who, I
Speaker 2: don't know many products like It just seems to me
Speaker 2: that when I eat something that's that tastes good, I
Speaker 2: know it's got too much salt, it's got too much sugar,
Speaker 2: it's and it's chocolate. The one thing, though, doctor, that
Speaker 2: I eat every day that I believe is good for
Speaker 2: my heart. I was told by my cardiologist dark chocolate.
Speaker 6: Dark chocolate. I agree, dark chocolate is very good for
Speaker 6: you and your heart. The only thing to pay attention to,
Speaker 6: of course, most of the time, our source of dark
Speaker 6: chocolate is candy and with that, the problem is sugar
Speaker 6: and the additives that are in it. But dark chocolate
Speaker 6: itself is very good for you.
Speaker 2: So how do you get pure dark chocolate? Then help
Speaker 2: me out here because I'm buying her. She's dark chocolate.
Speaker 6: That is a that's a tough thing, you know. I
Speaker 6: myself don't know a good source of dark chocolate, but
Speaker 6: of all the other chocolate products, dark chocolate would be.
Speaker 5: The way to go.
Speaker 2: Well, we'll save that for our next visit. How's that? Okay?
Speaker 3: Sounds great?
Speaker 2: Really enjoyed it, Doctor fami Fara, she's a cardiologist and
Speaker 2: board sort of eyes certified invasive cardiologist. Uh and by
Speaker 2: the way, is there any sort of a website that
Speaker 2: that you'd like to publicize or certainly.
Speaker 6: Yes, my website is doctor Fammi fair www dot doctor
Speaker 6: fommifara dot com. Also you can find me on social
Speaker 6: media on AX and Instagram at fammy Jfarah.
Speaker 2: Sounds great and fammy is spelled fa h m i
Speaker 2: pharah fa r ah. Doctor farre We've got it. Thank
Speaker 2: you so much. We'll talk soon.
Speaker 3: Okay, thank you for having me.
Speaker 6: It was my pleasure.
Speaker 2: Thank you right back at you. When we get back,
Speaker 2: I'm talking a little nineteenth century baseball. Uh yeah, eighteen
Speaker 2: hundreds baseball alive and well in Newbury, Massachusetts, playing with
Speaker 2: New England vintage eighteen sixty four rules and they play
Speaker 2: competitive live games. We're going to talk with Brian Shees,
Speaker 2: the president of the Essex Baseball Organization, right after this break.
Speaker 1: Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Okay, I think everyone who listens to night Side knows
Speaker 2: that I'm a baseball fan. With us. Now is Brian
Speaker 2: she He's the president of the Essex Baseball Organization. They
Speaker 2: played nineteenth century baseball. Hey, Brian she how are you
Speaker 2: welcome to Nightside?
Speaker 4: Hey? How's it going sot out here?
Speaker 2: How did you get into nineteenth century baseball? I understand
Speaker 2: the rules are quite different, we get to those in
Speaker 2: a moment. But how did you find this or how
Speaker 2: did this find you?
Speaker 4: A long long time ago, back when I was in college,
Speaker 4: about twenty three twenty four years ago, I was working
Speaker 4: at the library at Merrimack College, and the reference librarian
Speaker 4: there said, Hey, my boyfriend started a team in Danvers.
Speaker 4: They played eighteen sixties baseball. You like baseball? You're a
Speaker 4: history major, why don't you go check it out? So
Speaker 4: I did, and it's been a slippery slope down whatever
Speaker 4: since for me.
Speaker 2: Okay, So you guys operate up there in Essex, or
Speaker 2: rather in Newbury excuse me, Newbury, Massachusetts. How many teams
Speaker 2: do you have and do you play teams from other
Speaker 2: communities or is it all done within the confines of Newbury.
Speaker 4: So when we first started playing twenty plus years ago,
Speaker 4: we were traveling all over New England, going to Connecticut,
Speaker 4: Rhode Island, like New York. Were were kind of traveling around.
Speaker 4: But as we got older, started having families, we kind
Speaker 4: of settled on Spencer Pierce Little Farm in Newbery and
Speaker 4: we have four teams based out of Spencer Pierce Little Farm.
Speaker 4: Now it's a beautiful venue. We have ipswich Ail as
Speaker 4: one of our sponsors. In the fall, there's corn in
Speaker 4: the outfield, so it's kind of like a field of
Speaker 4: dreams vibe. We get a couple We get a couple
Speaker 4: hundred fans at just about every one of our games,
Speaker 4: all the way up to like maybe a thousand some
Speaker 4: of the bigger events that we have.
Speaker 2: So okay, So the dimensions of the diamond. Are they
Speaker 2: the same? Ninety feet to the basis, sixty feet to
Speaker 2: the mountains sixty feet six inches.
Speaker 4: That's a great question. Ninety feet for bases, the pitching
Speaker 4: distance is forty five feet away. And the picture in
Speaker 4: eighteen sixty four. The rules that we play by throws underhands,
Speaker 4: fielders don't wear gloves and things like that. But I
Speaker 4: don't want to skip ahead to all the rules unless
Speaker 4: you want going to jump into that.
Speaker 2: No, no, that's fine. So it's it's the game as
Speaker 2: it was played in eighteen sixty four. I know the
Speaker 2: legend is that baseball was founded by Abne Doubleday, a
Speaker 2: Civil War general. Is this the game that, as you understand,
Speaker 2: that he developed.
Speaker 4: Well, when I teach my class on like on this,
Speaker 4: we talk about the double Day myth, which is what
Speaker 4: it is. It's a myth like baseball. And I do
Speaker 4: teach a whole course on the evolution of bat ball
Speaker 4: games and sports in general. But base like baseball, taking
Speaker 4: a ball, hitting it with a bat or your hand,
Speaker 4: it was all the way back. Human beings have been
Speaker 4: playing bat ball games forever. There's actually a hieroglyphic or
Speaker 4: high highlow glyph on a in the Pyramids of a
Speaker 4: pharaoh holding a read and a ball in this game
Speaker 4: called seeker hamat like batting the ball. So batting and
Speaker 4: batting games have been around forever. If you kind of
Speaker 4: look at the the rules of baseball that we know today,
Speaker 4: they probably date to about eighteen forty five. Diamond, shakefield, fair, fair, foul, territory,
Speaker 4: et cetera.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I also love the idea where you go to
Speaker 2: a ballgame and even you know whether it's a little
Speaker 2: league game or which, of course the dementia is a
Speaker 2: little different or a major league game. So many ground
Speaker 2: balls to third basement and shortstop the guy gets thrown
Speaker 2: out by just one step. So if the bases were
Speaker 2: eighty five feet would be very different, different game. So
Speaker 2: how many games does do your teams play every year?
Speaker 2: Is it all weekend games from June to September? Or
Speaker 2: just give us the schedule? How can people get more
Speaker 2: information if they want to come up and witness one
Speaker 2: of these one of these sporting events.
Speaker 4: We played just about every weekend from the first weekend
Speaker 4: of June all the way till the beginning of October,
Speaker 4: typically on Sundays at Spencer Piast Little Farm We're on Facebook.
Speaker 4: Our website isn't really up to date rightly right now,
Speaker 4: but we are on Facebook, Instagram. Essex Baseball.
Speaker 2: Now, do you different teams have uniforms or is it
Speaker 2: sort of a uniform that everybody wears.
Speaker 4: All four of our teams have different uniforms. All four
Speaker 4: of our teams that play there are modeled after teams
Speaker 4: that played in the nineteenth century. So we have the
Speaker 4: Lowell Baseball Club, which was a team that played in
Speaker 4: the eighteen sixties based out of Boston. They were named
Speaker 4: after John A. Lowell, who was who helped fund them.
Speaker 4: We have the Lynn Live Oaks, which was a team
Speaker 4: that played in the eighteen seventies in Lynn. We have
Speaker 4: the Portsmouth Rocky Hymns, which was a team that played
Speaker 4: in ports with New Hampshire in the eighteen sixties. And
Speaker 4: we have the newberry Port clam Diggers, which is based
Speaker 4: on a team that played in newbury Port in the
Speaker 4: eighteen eighties.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's that's great. The ball that you that you play,
Speaker 2: I know, is of it's not a softball, it's it's
Speaker 2: probably softer than a.
Speaker 4: Softball, right, It's definitely softer because in eighteen sixty four
Speaker 4: nobody wore was wearing gloves yet.
Speaker 2: So they Wilson eight two thousand have not been invented,
Speaker 2: so there was no need of it.
Speaker 4: No, no, but I mean the ball is a little softer.
Speaker 4: We still have some guys who who break fingers. My
Speaker 4: fingers a little jammed from our games this past weekend
Speaker 4: and swollen.
Speaker 2: They can have it in basketball too. So when you
Speaker 2: guys hit a ball, if somebody really gets a hold
Speaker 2: of it, it's not going five hundred feet. I understand
Speaker 2: that what is considered a home run distance or was
Speaker 2: there a home run if it, you know, makes it
Speaker 2: to the cornfield or what's what's the rules?
Speaker 4: I mean, there's some where we play is kind of interesting.
Speaker 4: So you could hit a ball, I'd say the right
Speaker 4: field if the corn is up and it's it's late September.
Speaker 4: If you hit a ball two hundred and fifty feet,
Speaker 4: you're probably in the corn shot. It's a decent shot.
Speaker 2: It's a decent shot. That's that's only fifty two feet
Speaker 2: short of the piskey.
Speaker 4: Poll are like, our guys probably hit the ball, hit
Speaker 4: the ball three hundred plus feet. But because of the rules,
Speaker 4: if say a guy hits the ball three hundred plus
Speaker 4: feet and the outfielder is able to run and catch it.
Speaker 4: On one bounce, the batter is out. So people have people. Yeah,
Speaker 4: people hit like hit home runs if they if they
Speaker 4: hit the ball into a bush, there is a bush
Speaker 4: that is in fair territory. So balls have gotten lost
Speaker 4: in this bush and people have been able to get
Speaker 4: around the bases because of that.
Speaker 2: Nothing wrong with that. Look Wrigley Field, if it gets
Speaker 2: into the vines ground will double simple as that. Well,
Speaker 2: look at where can folks get? Give us the best website.
Speaker 2: I'm sure we're going to get some of our fiends
Speaker 2: to go up there and watch. You'll go ahead, what's
Speaker 2: the website?
Speaker 4: So if you go on Facebook and take in the
Speaker 4: Essex Baseball Organization, you'll find us there.
Speaker 2: That's great. Sounds great, Brian. It's great that the tradition
Speaker 2: is kept alive. Sounds like a great way to spend
Speaker 2: a summer afternoon watching some folks play, or maybe even
Speaker 2: get out there yourselves. You still need players or the
Speaker 2: rosters full.
Speaker 4: I'm always looking for new players, new fans, new umpires,
Speaker 4: all like all kinds of things.
Speaker 2: Yes, some crafty left handed relief pitchers, that's what you need. Okay,
Speaker 2: they don't have any crafty right handers. It's always a
Speaker 2: crafty left hander. Thanks Brian, enjoyed the conversation the president
Speaker 2: of the Essex Baseball Organization. Sounds like a lot of
Speaker 2: fun if you're up in that neck of the woods
Speaker 2: on the north Shore. Thanks again, Brian. We'll talk. We'll
Speaker 2: talk again.
Speaker 4: Thank you, final have a great night.
Speaker 2: All right, when we get back, we're going to talk
Speaker 2: about Karen Reid. Some developments today, no verdict, but developments today.
Speaker 2: Questions may give us some guidance to some of you
Speaker 2: out there who are paralegals or legal legals or just
Speaker 2: simply salutes. Again, this is a serious case. It does
Speaker 2: involve the death of Officer John O'Keefe, so it's nothing to
Speaker 2: be made light of. But we'll talk about it and
Speaker 2: if you have a point of view, we'd love to
Speaker 2: hear from you. My name's Dan Ray and this is
Speaker 2: Night Side