Speaker 1: It's nice size We've did.
Speaker 2: Ray I'm going you Mazy Boston's News Radio. Thank you
Speaker 2: very much, Madison. Hope you have a nice weekend. Hope
Speaker 2: everyone has a great weekend. As the weather we hope
Speaker 2: will improve throughout the weekend. It's better today than it
Speaker 2: was yesterday. Hopefully better tomorrow, even better on Sunday and Monday.
Speaker 2: Happy Memorial Day weekend. Hope everyone takes a moment this
Speaker 2: weekend to perhaps remember someone who served, or someone who
Speaker 2: served and never returned home, who basically gave everything for
Speaker 2: the defense of this nation. My name is Dan ray
Speaker 2: I the host of Nightside, heard every weeknight right here
Speaker 2: on WBS, Boston's News Radio. And we are going to
Speaker 2: begin our program as we do every night here at
Speaker 2: eight o'clock, and we're going to talk with well not
Speaker 2: every night with Bruce Percilla, but we start with four
Speaker 2: guests who provide information about events and developments that we
Speaker 2: all should be aware of. And welcome Bruce personally back
Speaker 2: to Knightside. Bruce is the chair of the Edward M.
Speaker 2: Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. Hi Bruce Ider said,
Speaker 2: you just got off an airplane. How are you I'm
Speaker 2: glad the plane landed on time.
Speaker 1: It didn't take off on time, but it did land
Speaker 1: on time.
Speaker 2: Well, you you would have had a sweat. I'm glad
Speaker 2: I didn't know that in advance. So there is what
Speaker 2: we call the Senate Project Series at the EMK Institute
Speaker 2: for the US Senate, and this is it's first of all,
Speaker 2: it's a great facility out by the Kennedy Library of
Speaker 2: Maybe someday we'll say that Kennedy Library is near the
Speaker 2: EMK Institute for the US Senate. Why don't you describe it,
Speaker 2: because there may be some people in my audience who
Speaker 2: are unaware that we have the actual life size replica
Speaker 2: of the United States Senate, which we can visit here
Speaker 2: in Boston and don't have to go all the way
Speaker 2: to Washington, DC. Let's talk about the facility itself and
Speaker 2: then we'll talk about the program.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's pretty remarkable. We have one of two US
Speaker 1: Senate chambers in the world, and one obviously is in Washington,
Speaker 1: but ours is an exact replica. And when we have
Speaker 1: a former or sitting US Senators come to our facility,
Speaker 1: they walk in and invariably they pause and they look
Speaker 1: there and they're they're in disbelief because it is exact,
Speaker 1: and it is It's definitely worth a trip, particularly if
Speaker 1: you're going to the JFK Library. This is it's quite
Speaker 1: a site, and we have a this is one hundred
Speaker 1: million dollar building. This is a this is a very
Speaker 1: elaborate facility and it's a great asset for the city.
Speaker 2: I'd be honor hosting an event with Inton Sharansky several
Speaker 2: years ago at the at the e MK Institute. It
Speaker 2: is an impressive building. So this event that is coming
Speaker 2: up on Monday, June second, not this coming Monday, but
Speaker 2: a week from Monday, is at nine o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 2: and it is going to feature the sixth presentation of
Speaker 2: a couple of senators, often a senator from each party.
Speaker 2: So far we've gone through, you've gone through about twelve senators,
Speaker 2: and this is the first time you will have two
Speaker 2: US Senators from the state from the same state. And
Speaker 2: in this case we're talking about two Senators, John Fetterman,
Speaker 2: a Democrat from Pennsylvania and David McCormick, a Republican from Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2: What will be discussed on Monday morning, June second, at
Speaker 2: nine o'clock.
Speaker 1: Well, just really quick background. The Senate Project is designed
Speaker 1: to get right leaning, left leaning or Democrat and Republican
Speaker 1: sitting senators in debate and the goal is to create
Speaker 1: dialogue and reach common ground. And our partners the Hats
Speaker 1: Foundation in Utah, because Arn Hatch and Ted Kennedy this
Speaker 1: very strange relationship that turned into a very deep friendship.
Speaker 1: And what we are all about is bipartisanship. One would
Speaker 1: think that a building named Kennedy and Boston houses a
Speaker 1: heavily left leaning organization. That is not the case. We
Speaker 1: are absolutely a bipartisan We have eight US Senators former
Speaker 1: US centators on our board for Republicans, four Democrats. We
Speaker 1: have a serious maga Republican on our board, and so
Speaker 1: we are all about balance and the debate or the discussion. Actually,
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be more that with John
Speaker 1: Fetterman and David McCormick.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's kind of important because of all the controversy
Speaker 3: around Center Fetterman.
Speaker 1: There there was a very in depth and critical article
Speaker 1: in New York Magazine that suggested he was not fit
Speaker 1: to serve. There are many who are suggesting that perhaps
Speaker 1: the Democrats are trying to undermine center Fetterman because he
Speaker 1: is has shown a proclivity to vote on both sides,
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of questions about him. He has
Speaker 1: not had a major appearance like this since that article
Speaker 1: was written, so it adds to the interest in this event.
Speaker 1: But both senators are bipartisan, both respect each other, both
Speaker 1: have differences, and those will be aired at the Institute
Speaker 1: in a live debate which will be broadcast by Fox
Speaker 1: and moderated by Shannon Breem who will and this will
Speaker 1: be aired on Fox a number of times next week
Speaker 1: and on their live stream.
Speaker 2: Now, is this event Monday morning? Is this open to
Speaker 2: the public? I know the media is invited to cover it,
Speaker 2: but is there an opportunities?
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, unfortunate, it's not because we only have one hundred
Speaker 1: seats on our Senate floor, as you can imagine, and
Speaker 1: it's a replica, you know, the of the Senate, So
Speaker 1: we we have specific people who will be attending. But
Speaker 1: it is not open to the public. However, it will be.
Speaker 1: It will be live streamed on our website and it
Speaker 1: will be available on Fox throughout the week.
Speaker 2: Now, certainly, John Fetterman is a senator cut from a
Speaker 2: different cloth literally.
Speaker 4: And secretively.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: That's a great line.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Every once in
Speaker 2: a while a blind squirrel finds in none. But you know,
Speaker 2: he has shown a level of independence which I think
Speaker 2: is discomforted some in the Democratic Party. McCormick is more
Speaker 2: of a I guess what you'd call a Northern Republican senator,
Speaker 2: maybe not quite cut in the mold of Arl in Spector,
Speaker 2: but probably not necessarily what you would think of as
Speaker 2: a mega senator. So it should be really interesting exchange.
Speaker 2: I don't know if there's any particular issue in Pennsylvania,
Speaker 2: whether it's the coal industry or or you know, alternative
Speaker 2: forms of energy which will be discussed. Any idea about
Speaker 2: what sort of topics will be broached. I mean, I
Speaker 2: would love to put together the talking points for this conversation,
Speaker 2: because I think the two of them would be a
Speaker 2: whole bunch of Pennsylvania centric and North Eastern centric topic
Speaker 2: talking points would be would be possible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, they will talk about the economy. They
Speaker 1: will uh, they will absolutely talk about the impact of
Speaker 1: of terrorists and uh, the Pennsylvania has a lot of
Speaker 1: manufacturing and the question is will we be able to
Speaker 1: onshore in to to offset the impacts of the terroriffs. Uh.
Speaker 1: They have a very different view on the on the
Speaker 1: big beautiful tax build that, and so they have a
Speaker 1: very different view of that. They have very different view
Speaker 1: on labor. I think they have a similar view on
Speaker 1: on on Israel. And I think that and that has
Speaker 1: you know, been somewhat controversial on the Democratic side. But
Speaker 1: it's very interesting because a lot of the press and
Speaker 1: and a lot of the discussion about Fetterman has come
Speaker 1: from the Democrats. And the word that we hear is that,
Speaker 1: you know, John Fetterman is a different kind of character.
Speaker 1: But he was like that when he was elected. It
Speaker 1: was just it was just that at that time the
Speaker 1: Democrats assumed he was going to vote in lockstep. And
Speaker 1: he is not. And all of a sudden his perception
Speaker 1: has changed. And we're going to find out whether uh,
Speaker 1: you know, whether his uh he had a stroke and
Speaker 1: it did have some impact on him, but whether he
Speaker 1: is fit to serve or he is not. And that
Speaker 1: is what will make this event I think particularly interesting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I think he is fit to serve. He's
Speaker 2: sort of a I think is because has morphed into
Speaker 2: kind of a Joe Mannion, a Democrat from his from
Speaker 2: the neighboring state, Bruce Persley, thank you so much for
Speaker 2: home getting here in time, remotely getting your plan on
Speaker 2: the ground and keep us posted. It's a great institute,
Speaker 2: the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate.
Speaker 2: And I think that Senator Kennedy, where he alive today,
Speaker 2: would be very proud of what this institute has transformed into.
Speaker 2: And I really appreciate you taking the time tonight.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Thanks much.
Speaker 2: Talk again, thank you very much. When we get back.
Speaker 2: We're going to talk about something that is probably more
Speaker 2: has a broader appeal maybe than an Oxford type debate
Speaker 2: at the Kennedy Institute. Hamburgers, the history of Hamburgers, where
Speaker 2: hamburgers have come from. We're going to talk with a
Speaker 2: very interesting guest. My name is Dan Ray. This is Nightside.
Speaker 2: We will also talk later on tonight about Minni's with
Speaker 2: a mission, little mini horses and little minie donkeys and
Speaker 2: they are cute as anything. But will also talk with
Speaker 2: a reporter from Tennessee about the one hundredth anniversary of
Speaker 2: the Grand Old Opry. Country music reporter Marcus Dowling with
Speaker 2: a great newspaper down there called The Tennessee. And so
Speaker 2: we have wats to talk about. And then coming up
Speaker 2: at nine o'clock, we'll be interviewing Frank Baker, longtime Boston
Speaker 2: City councilor who stepped away from the council a couple
Speaker 2: of years ago, and he's about to step back onto
Speaker 2: the political scene. We'll talk about that, and we'll talk
Speaker 2: about Donald Trump's seeming ongoing and never ending battles with
Speaker 2: Harvard and why he is spending so much time focused
Speaker 2: on Harvard. My name's Dan Ray. This is Nightside. We'll
Speaker 2: be back right after this quick break.
Speaker 1: Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2: Delighted to be joined by Chris Carosa, a Hamburger historian
Speaker 2: and author of Hamburger Dreams. I Love Hamburger's. How classic
Speaker 2: crime solving techniques helped crack the case of America's greatest
Speaker 2: culinary culinary mystery. Chris Carrosa, that is a long title
Speaker 2: for a book. How are you?
Speaker 4: I'm good? How are you?
Speaker 2: I'm doing just great? So you have spent a lot
Speaker 2: of time looking into Hamburgers. I always assumed they were
Speaker 2: a product that was developed in a city called Hamburg, Germany.
Speaker 2: I guess I was wrong.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you and and even McDonald's was wrong. At one point,
Speaker 4: Ray Kroc sent a vice president of McDonald's to Hamburg,
Speaker 4: Germany with a certificate saying thanks for being the Hamburger.
Speaker 4: And Mayer looked at the certificate that said, we didn't
Speaker 4: do it. You guys did it in America. So how
Speaker 4: did you?
Speaker 2: So? What prompted you other than a love for a
Speaker 2: good hamburger? And by the way, even though it's bad
Speaker 2: weather up here in New England and cold and rainy,
Speaker 2: there'll be a lot of Hamburgs grilled around New England
Speaker 2: this this this holiday weekend, the start of summer, the
Speaker 2: unofficial start of summer. What got you interested in this?
Speaker 2: I mean, you are a Hamburger historian.
Speaker 4: Well, I didn't start off as a Hamburger historian. I
Speaker 4: actually started off as an astrophysicist. And I well.
Speaker 2: I think those are fairly similar. To be really honest
Speaker 2: with you, Chris, I mean it's the same level of intellect.
Speaker 2: I think. Tell us about it.
Speaker 4: I was I had room to take another class, and
Speaker 4: my classmates convinced me to take a class about the
Speaker 4: study of the city. They were architects, and they thought
Speaker 4: it would be fun, and they sold me on the idea.
Speaker 4: And they said, there's no final exam, you just have
Speaker 4: to write the biography of the city you were born in.
Speaker 4: I was born in Buffalo, New York, and as I
Speaker 4: was researching, I came across an old newspaper article that
Speaker 4: said the hamburger was invented.
Speaker 5: There knew that.
Speaker 4: So I ran down and I talked to one of
Speaker 4: my classmates and it's very excitedly and I said, hey,
Speaker 4: the hamburger was born in Buffalo. He says, no, it wasn't.
Speaker 4: It was made right here in New Haven, Connecticut. And
Speaker 4: he promptly took me to Louis Lunch and I had
Speaker 4: Hamburger there, and so I said, okay, well that was
Speaker 4: a start, and I learned that since then there were
Speaker 4: several other Hamburger origin stories, and I decided at one point,
Speaker 4: since people seem to be interested when I would talk
Speaker 4: about this, I just figure it out. I'd become the
Speaker 4: Hamburger sleuth, the detective that tried to solve this classic
Speaker 4: cold case of who sold the first Hamburger.
Speaker 2: So I don't want to give away the ending here
Speaker 2: but it sounds to me like maybe there are several
Speaker 2: communities who have a legitimate claim. How did you discern
Speaker 2: which one had the most legitimate claim?
Speaker 4: Well, it was next two step process. So first I
Speaker 4: was Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes says, eliminate the impossible. All
Speaker 4: these stories have dates associated with them. So the first
Speaker 4: thing I did is I went to old newspaper articles
Speaker 4: to find the first mention of what was then called
Speaker 4: a Hamburg sandwich, and anything that occurred after that date,
Speaker 4: any origin story that started after that date, was obviously eliminated.
Speaker 4: Then I took that hat off and put on my
Speaker 4: CSI hat, and I had to look into forensics to
Speaker 4: try to determine which ballot, And for that I picked
Speaker 4: a part the facts that each story had, and then
Speaker 4: I tried to arrange them in a way so that
Speaker 4: they could be proven or disproven feriary data. So again
Speaker 4: I went to the newspaper articles around those dates where
Speaker 4: that story was supposed to have happened to determine whether
Speaker 4: or not that story could have been true.
Speaker 2: So here's a little bit easier. It dropped out of
Speaker 2: me there for a second. Let me let me I
Speaker 2: hate to do this to you, but you are connection
Speaker 2: you dropped on me. Are you looking at microfiche newspapers
Speaker 2: or are you figuring this out by googling on computers,
Speaker 2: Because there's probably a lot of newspapers that have not
Speaker 2: been transposed in stories from microfiest to the internet.
Speaker 4: So there are a lot of newspapers that are online
Speaker 4: in several different databases. Okay, and they were originally microfiche,
Speaker 4: which is a different problem because the quality is not
Speaker 4: that good. So I'm doing research now in a totally
Speaker 4: different topic and it's unreadable. It's unreadable, so that's too
Speaker 4: bad because they usually destroyed the newspapers after they'd converted
Speaker 4: to the microfies. But it's it is. You can get
Speaker 4: access to a lot of newspapers. The ones you can't.
Speaker 4: You do have to go and look at the physical
Speaker 4: copies wherever they are.
Speaker 2: Okay. So the book, the book is Hamburger Dreams, The
Speaker 2: True Story of the Origin of the Hamburgh I Gimberger
Speaker 2: history expert Chris Carosa. I don't want you to give
Speaker 2: away the ending, but is there a definitive ending?
Speaker 4: There is no, but the circumstantial evidence is pretty strong
Speaker 4: that the Hamburgers were sold I might as well tell
Speaker 4: you on Friday September eighteenth, eighteen eighty five, at the
Speaker 4: Erie County Fair just out Buffalo.
Speaker 2: So not only did you set out on this, but
Speaker 2: you came up with a conclusion that probably coincided. Happily,
Speaker 2: it was a happy, happy coincidence with your own origin
Speaker 2: story Buffalo, New York. That's great, Well, that ends well.
Speaker 4: The amazing thing is I never heard about it well
Speaker 4: when I was there, so well.
Speaker 2: Everybody can hear about it now. The book is out,
Speaker 2: I assume, and it's available Amazon. Do you have a
Speaker 2: website you'd like to plug?
Speaker 4: Sure, you can go to Hamburger Dreams dot com and
Speaker 4: it'll tell you the latest that I've been finding out
Speaker 4: about the hamburgers.
Speaker 2: Perfect Chris Corossa, Chris, thanks very much. I really enjoyed
Speaker 2: the conversation. I consider myself something of a hamburger connoisseur
Speaker 2: because frankly, it's the only thing I'm able to cook
Speaker 2: on a grill, and I do like hamburgers. Lots of ketchup,
Speaker 2: lots lots of relish, mustard, tomato slices, slice of cheese,
Speaker 2: everything with the hamburger. Are you just a plain Hamburger guy.
Speaker 2: I'm assuming you're more of a purist.
Speaker 4: No, I'm I'm not playing hammer. I just don't. I
Speaker 4: don't like putting cheese on it, but I like putting
Speaker 4: that other stuff on it. I do like putting lots
Speaker 4: of spices in my hammergroup, because as an Italian, I
Speaker 4: guess that's just the way it is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do purple onion. I do purple onion and
Speaker 2: pumperinnakle rye bread to kind of beef it up. It's good.
Speaker 2: It's a good burger. Chris Carosa, Thanks very much. We'll
Speaker 2: get you on again sometime. Thank you. I enjoyed this
Speaker 2: conversation a lot. Happy Memorial Day.
Speaker 5: Happy Memorial Day to you too. Thanks thanks Chris. Chris
Speaker 5: crosa Hamburger historian. When we get back, we when we
Speaker 5: talk about a really neat program that is available here
Speaker 5: in Massachusetts. It's called Minis with a Mission. We've talked
Speaker 5: about it before, but I think particularly as we move
Speaker 5: into the summer, it's good to talk about it. Tonight,
Speaker 5: We're going to have Justin Green with us on the
Speaker 5: other side of the break in a little bit. Later on,
Speaker 5: I'm going to talk about the one hundredth anniversary of
Speaker 5: the grand old Operator. Back on night Side right after this.
Speaker 5: And by the way, I want to encourage you if
Speaker 5: you haven't gotten the brand new, new and improved iHeart
Speaker 5: app get it down on all of your devices. Make
Speaker 5: us your first preset, so.
Speaker 2: WBZ will only be a fingertip away on whatever device
Speaker 2: you have wherever you are in the world at any
Speaker 2: given point. My name's Dan Ray. I'll be right back.
Speaker 2: Stay right there.
Speaker 1: You're on night Side with Dan Ray.
Speaker 5: Radio.
Speaker 2: Well, we have interviewed this gentleman before. His name is
Speaker 2: Justin Green. Justin Green, Welcome back to Nightside. How are you?
Speaker 6: Thank you so much Stan for having me on again.
Speaker 6: This is wonderful.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now I know that you are really invested emotionally in
Speaker 2: all sorts of ways in this program with which is
Speaker 2: called Minis with a Mission. Now, let's let's explain to
Speaker 2: people exactly what Minis with a Mission is.
Speaker 6: Sir. Mini Mission is a nonprofit It's based in Ipswich
Speaker 6: and in Newbery. It's miniature donkeys and miniature horses and
Speaker 6: the simple goal is the dread happiness. They go to
Speaker 6: senior centers, they go to school, elementary and high schools
Speaker 6: and they go to the College Salem State. The first
Speaker 6: day of school, they bring the milture horses and miniature
Speaker 6: donkeys to the fair class to help ease the stresses
Speaker 6: of some of the new students. And it's really Yeah,
Speaker 6: that's the main goal is the donkeys and horses love to.
Speaker 2: Be So how long has Minis with a Mission been around?
Speaker 2: Has it been around a while? And how did it
Speaker 2: start it? Uh?
Speaker 6: We we had a program called Equine Rescue and that
Speaker 6: saved horses and donkeys from slaughterhouses. And then the too,
Speaker 6: Mary Ann and Laurie, they've both got donkeys and miniature
Speaker 6: horses and they opened up their own program Minis with
Speaker 6: the Mission and they just wanted to show people that
Speaker 6: miniature horses can really make people feel better about themselves,
Speaker 6: like being happiness. And that role was blood pressure and I.
Speaker 2: Think all of need need a blood pressure lowered occasionally.
Speaker 2: So how long has it been around?
Speaker 4: Has it been around for I'd say about ten years?
Speaker 2: Ten years? Okay? And where do the horses? You said
Speaker 2: that they're up in the Newburyport area if I'm not mistaken, Yeah,
Speaker 2: the Newberry and okay, and they it's stationed on a
Speaker 2: farm or two up there.
Speaker 6: I mean they're the Mitchell horses are out of state
Speaker 6: in a stable. Mister donkeys are Actually the woman who
Speaker 6: lives in Newberry has a lucky enough to have a
Speaker 6: very big backyard and a barn sized garage, and the
Speaker 6: donkeys live in a backyard.
Speaker 2: Okay, And how old are these When you think about horses,
Speaker 2: you think about they, I think horses live like twenty
Speaker 2: years or so. How old are these little guys.
Speaker 1: Tough on that?
Speaker 6: Uh, he's a senior statesman, he's about twenty seven. Who
Speaker 6: and and we we thought, and we thought Romeo, who's
Speaker 6: now about eight or nine, we thought he's been boyfriends
Speaker 6: with Pixie, who's a young six year old. But Romeo
Speaker 6: enjoys eating grass more than uh relations, and more than
Speaker 6: having fun with Pixie. So now has Puffinutter has because
Speaker 6: he has a young girlfriend Pixie.
Speaker 2: And yeah, kind of like Bill Belichick. Actually, when you
Speaker 2: think about.
Speaker 6: It, yes, fluff is first and uh yeah, but yes,
Speaker 6: pluff pluffs. He's wonderful. He's a white, he's white, hence
Speaker 6: the name Flufferutter. And we paint him and like the
Speaker 6: Gay Pride Week, he gets the rainbow colors on him
Speaker 6: and Saint Patrick's dage, he gets green and on the
Speaker 6: fourth of July he'll be red.
Speaker 2: Red and blue was gonna get red. Fuing flow. So
Speaker 2: now the question that I'm sure a lot of people
Speaker 2: are going to have is how far do the minis
Speaker 2: with a mission travel? Because I know that you visit,
Speaker 2: they visit, you know, some elderly communities, they have some
Speaker 2: retirement communities. You mentioned some schools.
Speaker 6: What they like to keep it. They like to keep
Speaker 6: it under an hour because the driving kind of tires
Speaker 6: them out. I'm lucky enough to come to Newton, but
Speaker 6: if the need advises, they've gone all the way to Blockton.
Speaker 6: Because there was a World War two that was near unfortunately,
Speaker 6: was near death, and his goal was to see a
Speaker 6: donkey from the re live his childhood. So the Minis
Speaker 6: with the mission stepped up to the plate and they
Speaker 6: drove all the way to Brockton. And he loved it,
Speaker 6: and he died a week later. He did die with
Speaker 6: a smile, because you really love hanging out with the donkeys.
Speaker 2: Okay, So so then the question is if there are
Speaker 2: people out there, is there a cost? I mean, there
Speaker 2: must be some sort of a cost associated with this
Speaker 2: to travel distances and take care of these. Is it
Speaker 2: a nominal fee. You don't have to get into specifics,
Speaker 2: but I assume there is at least a nominal fee
Speaker 2: associated with this.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's it doesn't take the best. Like I'm hosting
Speaker 6: an event in Newton and I'm fortunate I'm able to
Speaker 6: afford it myself. But for like, if they have like
Speaker 6: a block party, yeah, they come and they have for
Speaker 6: two hours. You can really enjoy. It'll make everyone. It
Speaker 6: makes you feel like a child. The way I describe it,
Speaker 6: it's seeing a rainbow. Everyone loves seeing a rainbow. Like
Speaker 6: take pictures, you see all ages rainbows.
Speaker 2: So is this is this the event that that you
Speaker 2: spawned string at the Hide Community Center in Newton on Thursday? Yeah,
Speaker 2: twenty ninth, So coming up this Thursday, Okay, Yes, and
Speaker 2: that's open that's Is that open to the public or
Speaker 2: do you have to be a member of the Hide
Speaker 2: Community Center.
Speaker 6: It's open to the public. I do it on behalf
Speaker 6: of the Senior Center.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 6: Because when my grandpa was dying, he told me he
Speaker 6: had no more friends. The last thing he ever told
Speaker 6: me was that Babe Ruth was a good soul. He
Speaker 6: might have been a womanized on a drunk. But he
Speaker 6: was a sports writer and he met Babe Luth for breakfast.
Speaker 6: And he also told me he had no more friends left.
Speaker 6: They all died and he wasn't being sad, it was
Speaker 6: just true.
Speaker 2: Well, it's it's one of the problems if you lived
Speaker 2: to a really ripe old age, you look around and
Speaker 2: there's no one, no one left. But by by having
Speaker 2: the minis with a mission come up, it puts a
Speaker 2: smile on everyone's face.
Speaker 6: So right, So, how can people to have a friend?
Speaker 2: How can you how can people who may be in
Speaker 2: the Newton area, whether what did they have to do?
Speaker 2: They have to get in contact with the High Community
Speaker 2: Center in Newton. Is that the deal?
Speaker 6: It'd be great if they could contact the Senior Center,
Speaker 6: the activities director Alana Stedeman, she's wonderful and just tell
Speaker 6: them that they're interested in coming and we're not going
Speaker 6: to turn you away if they get But she's with.
Speaker 2: Again, I'm just getting a little tight here in time.
Speaker 2: Justin she's with the Newton Council on Aging. So I'm
Speaker 2: sure that if they contact the Newton Council on Aging
Speaker 2: at Newton City Hall, uh and ask about Minis with
Speaker 2: a mission, which will be on Thursday, May twenty ninth,
Speaker 2: from noon until two o'clock. They can, I'm sure that
Speaker 2: they will have an opportunity to.
Speaker 6: Attend, and can I meet you with one quote?
Speaker 2: Sure, but we're a little tight on time and don't
Speaker 2: want to short change our next guest. Go right ahead
Speaker 2: as long as.
Speaker 6: It's quick, oscar. While it says the smallest active kindness
Speaker 6: is worth more than the grandest intention, and I say
Speaker 6: this to people, don't you don't have to do a
Speaker 6: big thing like myself doing the minis dors a lot
Speaker 6: of joy. So if there's something you like, don't make
Speaker 6: it perfect, just do something and it's well, but it yep.
Speaker 2: But if they say better to light one candle than
Speaker 2: curse the darkness, absolutely justin greed. Thank you very much,
Speaker 2: And hopefully there'll be a lot of folks who are
Speaker 2: listening tonight who will find their way over to the
Speaker 2: High Community Center in Newton on Thursday, May twenty ninth
Speaker 2: again this coming Thursday, from noon to two and they
Speaker 2: can meet all of the noon to one.
Speaker 6: Was that noon to one?
Speaker 2: Oh, it's noon to one. I'm sorry, I'm looking at
Speaker 2: a piece a schedule here that says noon to two,
Speaker 2: noon to one, Okay, noon to one at the High
Speaker 2: Community Center. Thanks very much, justin appreciate what you do.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much. When we get back, we're going
Speaker 2: to talk a little bit about another location that everyone's
Speaker 2: heard of, but not too many people that have actually visited.
Speaker 2: The Grand Old Opry celebrating its one hundredth anniversary this year.
Speaker 2: Marcus Dowling of a great newspaper down there called the Tennessee,
Speaker 2: and he's the country music reporter there, and he'll tell
Speaker 2: us all about the Grand Old Opry. Coming back on Nightside.
Speaker 7: It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WA Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: All right, welcome back everyone. The Grand Old Opry is
Speaker 2: an institution. It's celebrating its one hundredth anniversary. I'm sure
Speaker 2: that everyone has heard about the Grand Ole Opry, but
Speaker 2: many of us have never visited. Marcus Dowling knows it
Speaker 2: very well. He's the lead country music reporter for the
Speaker 2: Tennessee and a great newspaper in Tennessee. Marcus Dowling, welcome
Speaker 2: to Night Side. How are you?
Speaker 7: I have a fantastic How about yourself, sir?
Speaker 2: Doing just great?
Speaker 6: So?
Speaker 2: How long have you been a reporter covering this this
Speaker 2: very venerable institution.
Speaker 7: I've been a reporter for twenty years, have been a
Speaker 7: reporter based out of Nashville for about five I've been
Speaker 7: a fan of country music. I'm forty seven, so I've
Speaker 7: been a fan of country music for forty years.
Speaker 2: So one of the to give you a sense, yeah,
Speaker 2: go ahead, Yeah.
Speaker 7: To give you a sense. That's that's generally what we're
Speaker 7: looking at.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you are in one of the great cities in
Speaker 2: America right now, and I think many people have said
Speaker 2: it's like the hottest city in America. And nothing says
Speaker 2: Nashville more than the Grand Ole Opera.
Speaker 1: Uhh, unquestionably.
Speaker 2: Just give us you know, we we have the Boston
Speaker 2: Symphony Orchestra here, uh, Symphony Hall in Boston, which is
Speaker 2: a very different vibe. I'm sure give us a sense
Speaker 2: of the Grand Ole Opry. What it's like on any
Speaker 2: given Friday or Saturday. Is it every is it open
Speaker 2: every night.
Speaker 7: Or is it is it a venue that it has
Speaker 7: opened five nights of a week currently, So imagine that
Speaker 7: you're going to a variety show that initially and still
Speaker 7: is broadcast on the radio. It's a radio program broadcast
Speaker 7: on WSM six fifty AM nationwide worldwide now as well,
Speaker 7: and you're getting five to six decades of country music stars.
Speaker 7: So when you see the news talking about somebody getting
Speaker 7: inducted into the Grand Ole Opera, you're essentially adding a
Speaker 7: member of the rotating cast of the opery. The opera
Speaker 7: has been on for one hundred years, so you can
Speaker 7: imagine there's like two hundred and fifty people who have
Speaker 7: or two hundred and fifty acts that have had the
Speaker 7: opportunity to be rotating regularly appearing members of the Grand
Speaker 7: Ole Opry. That's everybody from the CMA and ACM Entertainer
Speaker 7: of the Year Laney Wilson, all the way through to gosh,
Speaker 7: let's go all the way back to Marty Stewart. If
Speaker 7: you're a fan of you know, the nineties country, we
Speaker 7: have a guy like Vince Gill who's a member of
Speaker 7: the opry. You know, there's it's it's every single era,
Speaker 7: the peak era. Superstars of those eras are all presented
Speaker 7: on the show. And then you have stars of the
Speaker 7: current day who may not be members, but they may have,
Speaker 7: you know, songs that are relevant to the radio.
Speaker 2: How do you become, so you become a member, if
Speaker 2: you're inducted into the Hall of Fame. Is that what's
Speaker 2: called what's called no number.
Speaker 7: You become a member. You become a member if the
Speaker 7: Opry members and the Opry ownership and the Opry leadership
Speaker 7: decides that you're a person that respects the history and
Speaker 7: the culture of country music. So it's actually it's it's
Speaker 7: it's a it's a very serious act to be inducted
Speaker 7: into the Opry as a member, because essentially, as people
Speaker 7: from all over the world who are coming to Nashville,
Speaker 7: Tennessee and coming to you know, twenty eight oh four
Speaker 7: opry Land drive to watch a show, and you want
Speaker 7: people to go to that show and feel like they're
Speaker 7: getting the honest, authentic core of what country music is.
Speaker 2: Now does one in order to be a member, does
Speaker 2: one have to be a performer or can you be
Speaker 2: a member if you are in effect a patron of
Speaker 2: season ticket holder of the Grand Old.
Speaker 7: Opry, that is that is not the case. If you're
Speaker 7: if you're a if you're a ticket holder, you're just
Speaker 7: coming to a lot of showsky. The only people who
Speaker 7: are not regularly members of the opera who are performers
Speaker 7: are oftentimes you have comedians and stage acts who reflect
Speaker 7: the culture of the genre. So a comedian like Gary
Speaker 7: mule Deer, a lot of people may remember from the
Speaker 7: seventies and eighties of appearing a lot on the Johnny
Speaker 7: Carson Show. He's a member of the Grand Ole Opery.
Speaker 7: He's a great comedian. I mean, Pearl was a member
Speaker 7: of the Grand Ole Opera. She never sang a song,
Speaker 7: but she was oftentimes the host and also hilariously funny.
Speaker 2: Okay, so now the next question. Again, I'm just trying
Speaker 2: to learn here, so bery no problem.
Speaker 6: I love doing this.
Speaker 2: How big is the capacity? What the old Boston Garden,
Speaker 2: which hosted the Celtics and the Bruins for many years
Speaker 2: and from the twenties through the end of the twentieth century,
Speaker 2: the attendance was always it was thirteen nine oh nine.
Speaker 2: That number was emblazoned on the mind of every young
Speaker 2: New Englander who liked hockey or basketball.
Speaker 7: I'm off it is college alone, So I am very
Speaker 7: aware you're aware.
Speaker 2: Of thirteen nine oh nine. Okay, so you're a foe,
Speaker 2: fair enough, Okay, yes I am.
Speaker 7: Yes, it was thirty four hundred peopley four hundred people
Speaker 7: with thousand, four hundred, okay, and then give us a
Speaker 7: sense of if someone's going to Nashville, Tennessee.
Speaker 2: Uh, you know, three four or five months out, how
Speaker 2: tough is it to procure tickets to the Grand Ole Opry.
Speaker 2: And what is the standard fee, meaning what is the
Speaker 2: cost the range of the tickets unless you're going to
Speaker 2: buy them on what we would call the secondary market
Speaker 2: up here we called scalpers.
Speaker 7: But go ahead, oh, I know, I know, so Opry
Speaker 7: tickets range anywhere from eighty dollars to eighteen hundred dollars roughly.
Speaker 7: To sit in the very front row of the Grand
Speaker 7: Ole Opry, like you know, you're literally two and a
Speaker 7: half feet away from you know, your your favorite country music.
Speaker 7: You're two and a half half feet away from Carrie
Speaker 7: Underwood for instance. Wow, you're right there, or you're at
Speaker 7: the top of the building, which is actually a beautiful seat.
Speaker 7: There's not a bad seating the house at the Grand
Speaker 7: Ole Opry. It was constructed in nineteen seventy four in
Speaker 7: order to reflect country music at that time experiencing extraordinary popularity.
Speaker 7: So you really wanted to be able to offer people
Speaker 7: this kind of venue that's similar to the Ryman Auditorium
Speaker 7: where it was held as a program from nineteen forty
Speaker 7: three to seventy four. The same kind of idea that
Speaker 7: there's not a bad seat in the house, and it's
Speaker 7: also intimate but also spacious.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there were bad seats in the house at the
Speaker 2: Boston Garden. If you've got.
Speaker 7: Plus sat behind a pool, I know absolutely you got it.
Speaker 2: So how many venues have there been it's been one
Speaker 2: hundred years. You've given me at least two. I'm assuming
Speaker 2: it's at least three venues over the years.
Speaker 7: Yeah, gosh, somewhere around somewhere around a half dozen or
Speaker 7: so have held the Grand Ole Opry at various points.
Speaker 7: There was a flood in twenty ten, so they held
Speaker 7: it at the warm Memorial and other spaces. They go
Speaker 7: back to the Ryman every year in January because they
Speaker 7: do have to clean the Grand Ole Opry, so they
Speaker 7: do go to the Ryman. It's a historical home for
Speaker 7: thirty years to hold operate programs on the weekends for
Speaker 7: the first month of the year. Then it's back into
Speaker 7: the space over at ap Brillium Drive.
Speaker 2: I'll tell your enthusiasm, Marcus is fabulous here and it's
Speaker 2: a it's a great newspaper. We're familiar with the Tennesseean,
Speaker 2: and you are really a reporter. I guess there's nowhere
Speaker 2: else your your love of country music could take you.
Speaker 2: I mean, you are at the equivalent of the Baseball
Speaker 2: Hall of Fame in many respects, and also really at
Speaker 2: the equivalent of the Fenway Park or Wrigley Field.
Speaker 7: There these every every time I walk into a venue
Speaker 7: in this town, I feel it like you walk into
Speaker 7: the Ryman Auditorium, the mother Church of country music, and
Speaker 7: there's stained glass windows that at the right time, at
Speaker 7: the right at the right time of the perfect day,
Speaker 7: you have the lights streaming through the stained glass and
Speaker 7: you're watching, say like the Fisk Jubilee singers on stage
Speaker 7: singing you know, two hundred year old gospel hymns, and
Speaker 7: you're just like, Okay, this is really my life. Like
Speaker 7: when you're watching like Ricky Skaggs playing bluegrass and you're
Speaker 7: just like, I do this for real, this is actually
Speaker 7: my life. I do this job and I love it,
Speaker 7: so I can't complain.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can identify with that. As a little kid
Speaker 2: going to Fenway Park, you go when you're first time
Speaker 2: you're six or seven or eight years old, and it
Speaker 2: just is so overwhelming. And then when I worked as
Speaker 2: a TV reporter, I would be playing catch with the
Speaker 2: governor of Massachusetts or the mayor of Boston out on
Speaker 2: Fenway Park at five point thirty six am on opening
Speaker 2: day the lights.
Speaker 7: That's amazing. Oh yeah, yeah, I've sat next to Pesky's poll.
Speaker 7: So that's my that's my contribution.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I hope you set the.
Speaker 6: Second semester as a friar.
Speaker 7: You can drive right up, you can get student tickets
Speaker 7: and always.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't know how much the student tickets.
Speaker 7: Are these days, but again they were not I can
Speaker 7: assure you they're probably much more expensive now.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, there's no doubt the Red Sox. They have had
Speaker 2: great success. They had some success. Today they clap it
Speaker 2: the hapless Baltimore Orioles by the nineteen to three or something.
Speaker 2: It was from a Baltimore perspective, it was a very ugly,
Speaker 2: ugly afternoon. I can only imagine bed Way Park, Marcus.
Speaker 2: I love your enthusiasm. Whenever you talk to someone who
Speaker 2: loves what they do, you have never worked a day
Speaker 2: in your life, That's what they say. If you love
Speaker 2: what you do. You never work a day in your life,
Speaker 2: and I can identify with that philosophy. So thanks very
Speaker 2: much for giving us some real insights into the grand
Speaker 2: old Opry. It's one hundredth anniversary. Thanks Marcus. I hope
Speaker 2: to meet you someday.
Speaker 7: Absolutely checking out it on opry dot com in the
Speaker 7: Tennessee and is at tennesseean dot com. Marcus K. Dillen,
Speaker 7: check me out.
Speaker 2: Sounds great? All right, Marcus Stolling. When we get back,
Speaker 2: we're going to talk with a gentleman who is making
Speaker 2: a very interesting political comeback. Frank Baker was a Boston
Speaker 2: City councilor from Dorchester for six terms twelve years. He
Speaker 2: stepped away from politics a couple of years ago, but
Speaker 2: he's getting back in the ring this time running this
Speaker 2: year as a counselor at large. Big step for Frank Baker,
Speaker 2: and we're going to talk with Frank, who I think
Speaker 2: was always a voice of reason on the Boston City Council,
Speaker 2: just as I'm a voice of reason on WBZ, Boston's
Speaker 2: news radio. We'll get back with Frank Baker right after
Speaker 2: the nine o'clock news. You stay right there. He's going
Speaker 2: to be a great guest,