My Piece
Matt LeBlanc (11-27-01)

Last Sunday was quite possibly the most exciting professional sporting event in North America, and the sadness of the situation is that a majority of people in the United States of America did not see the event or even know it was going on. The game was the Grey Cup, the championship of the Canadian Football League. Canadian Football is one of the fastest, most exciting sports in the world, and 65,000+ turned out at Montreal's Olympic Stadium Sunday night for the annual event, not to mention part of the city was roped off for week-long activities. Many positives came out of the game. Olympic Stadium, which has not seen a sell-out in well over a decade, did not collapse at full capacity. I was afraid the stadium had resettled into a place made for around 8,000 or less, which is what the National League of Baseball's Montreal Expos draw. Also, the Calgary Stampeders, the team I am an extremely loyal fan of, won the game against the powerhouse Winnipeg Blue Bombers, even though the Stamps had a sub-500 record in the regular season and were heavy underdogs. Unfortunately for me, I do not live in a border town, and amongst the 400 channels, my Digital Cable offers neither the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation -- one of the most respected television companies in the world -- nor the America One network, a much less respected company but none the less the carrier of Canadian football in "The States," are not included. So I spent my Sunday night/Monday morning watching the Grey Cup on Tape Delay (5 hours behind). I hope the ladies in the apartment next to mine did not mind my excessive yelling and clapping at 1:30 in the morning. My recommendation: either pressure your cable company to carry America One next summer, or go to Canada and take in a game. You will thank yourself.

Keeping with the sports theme, Manchester's new Verizon Wireless Center opened a couple Fridays ago, and what an opening it was. Despite the horrible name, opening night was grand with all the big business and politicians of the state and city in attendance, as well as the excited New Hampshire hockey fans. Manchester is truly moving in the right direction and finally realizing its potential as the "Queen City." And the arena itself is a true beauty. The exterior green grows on you, and the rustic mill theme inside complimented by New Hampshire granite is very classy. Plus, and I advise the lawmakers of Taxachusetts to take notes here, the arena project was finished on time, under budget, with no major accidents. Instead of taxing drivers attempting to enter the commonwealth, why not take the principles of actually completing what you proposed on time and under budget.

Also in New Hampshire, apparently WMUR, Manchester's ABC affiliate is feeling the pressure from the independent WNDS. WNDS debuted their new set (the old set of WBZ out of Boston) in September, and their new, more professional look saw an increase in ratings. Well WMUR and their new owner, the Hearst Corporation, decided they also needed an upgrade and debuted a new set themselves. It is wonderful to see both NH newscasts producing a better product with a more professional look. Unfortunately for WMUR they are taking advantage of WNDS's lack of a newscast on the weekends by letting the terrible Kate Amara anchor the Weekend prime time casts, including the Friday night cast. If you feel she comes off as full of herself on the air (and she most certainly does), that is probably because she is the same way in person too. If WNDS was going to begin a weekend newscast, now is certainly the most opportune time because Amara makes me sick, and there is currently no where else to turn.

I had the opportunity to travel to the city of Worcester last week, and while I was en route to dinner, I passed a now hollowed out shell of the former Newport Creamery. This restaurant is Rhode Island's (one of the few states in the Union more pathetic than Taxachusetts) highly less successful answer to Friendly's. As I pondered the restaurants demise, it struck me that any company who markets their main product, in the Creamery's case a thick shake sort of drink that is comparable to Friendly's Fribble (even the font is the same), with the name "Awful Awful," is doomed for failure. I don't know about you, but I am reluctant to consume anything called Awful, never mind something whose name includes on the word Awful ... twice!

And while we are mentioning Worcester, it is truly sad to see they have lost their last local news source. Charter Communications, a company run out of St. Louis, Missouri; who as far as we know is not even sure they service central Taxachusetts, decided a couple of weeks ago to end the popular, and Worcester's only, local newscast. Charter's answer is that they have contracted New England Cable News to do a Boston oriented newscast, call it "Worcester News Tonight," and expect the people of Worcester to accept it. Oh, by the way, Charter may contract a couple of the old Newswatch 3 reporters to do quick pieces from Worcester for the NECN cast out of Newton. Smearing salt in the wound is the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, the once locally owned newspaper now run by the Boston Globe, has a deal with NECN, so their report on the demise of Newswatch 3 was highly subjective. The article attempted to convince the good people of Worcester that loosing their last local news source was a good thing. This is highly disturbing since it proves that the Worcester newspaper is not reporting objectively, and is instead slanting their reports in hopes that not actually telling the real story could earn them a profit. That goes against the fundamental principle of journalism, and is in fact not journalism, but instead fascist propaganda. My suggestion to the people of central Taxachusetts is to fight back, and let the people in charge of these corporations know you will not stand for the loss of your local news outlets. Cancel your subscription to the Boston Telegram and Gazette, and while you're at it cancel your cable and get a satellite dish because the only reason to pay the overpriced cable bill in the first place was to get the local Worcester area news. Of course, if you are a Worcester resident, you can also call up your city councilor and let them know that either Charter goes or they go.

I had the privilege of traveling on that wonderful road known to you and me as the Taxachusetts Turnpike after the Thanksgiving holiday; and let me say that the traffic was a true delight. Also, the interchange between 495 and 290 was a backed up mess, as was the 290 and 90 interchange. I don't like waiting very much in general, but I tolerated it okay in this situation. What I could not tolerate were the idiots who felt the need to honk their horns as if it would make a difference. If you are one of those people who were stuck at these interchanges after Thanksgiving give thanks for the fact I did not get out of my vehicle and start repeatedly bashing your's with my hockey stick. If it hadn't been for that new chanting female nuns song that is getting heavy radio play calming me down, your car would be destroyed right now, and I would get the insanity plea in court. In future, understand that it is you, not the traffic problem, that creates angry drivers.

Also on the Turnpike I had the pleasure of stopping at the brand spanking new rest stops. Now it is beyond me how the Commonwealth is so over budget with the Big Dig and is not sure how they will continue to fund it, and is still able to build beautiful, spacious, and costly new rest stops along their precious road. I personally felt the old rest stops got the job done, but apparently new ones were in order. Must be nice to have money to blow like that. Also cute is the big, and again seemingly costly, McDonald's sign that has D'Angelo's banner wrapped around it at one of the Western stops. Somebody probably should have checked up on who exactly the tenant of that restaurant would be before they ordered the sign. Brilliant work. And they wonder why they are so far over budget on the Big Dig. Hunger struck me before the Blanford stop, so I pulled in to check out the new establishment. The McDonald's, which had not been open for more than month, was already dirty. Thankfully the prices were not higher due to its location on the highway. But, as I was leaving, a little sign on the door struck me. "Thank you for choosing McDonalds." It struck me because quite frankly I didn't have a choice. It is not as if McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's and Arby's were sitting there at the Blanford stop all vying for my business. So then it struck me that the sign should actually read, "Thank the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for choosing McDonalds for you." I know I appreciate the Commonwealth taking away my need to think and make critical choices because exercising my brain is tough work. Wasn't taking away the right to think one of the main reasons communism was able to last for so many years? Well apparently, someone else felt the same way I did, because when I arrived back at my car in the parking lot, I was elated to find a Burger King cup littered beside my back left tire. Nothing like fighting state control with a good, impersonal protest. Take that Taxachusetts!

Matt LeBlanc is a freelance writer from Manchester, NH, and he recommends for ultimate skiing this winter, everyone should travel to New Hampshire. Please write him with your comments at mleblan1@ic3.ithaca.edu.