Wednesday, December 21, 2011
And I still don't know what to get for Aunt Harriet...
- OPINION
- Hank Manz
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Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Just after Thanksgiving I wrote that it had become a sort of universal holiday with huge ties to local things like the four big F’s—football, food, friends and family. Even the football is local, because many who do not watch the game on a regular basis find themselves sitting on cold bleacher seats watching two local high schools play while arguing about who beat whom 40 years ago. The food is always good, but an important part is family, with just about everything else revolving around that important element of our lives. But now, just a very short month later, we are all enveloped in what has come to be called “The Holidays.” Sure—this, too, is about family and all the rest of it, but in a different way. This is about more global issues…
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Although it turns out that I may not be a reliable decision-maker on the intersection of the two.
- OPINION
- Hank Manz
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Wednesday, December 14, 2011
It’s been an interesting week. One of those early-senders-of-holiday-cards I wrote about a couple of weeks ago turned out to be the Obama family. Even their dog, Bo, signed the card. I know—at least 4 million other people got the same card, but I like it just the same. Newt Gingrich has never sent me a card nor has Mitt Romney, even though I mentioned him once in a Patch column. And a Patch reader with connections to MASS MoCA called me a jerk when it comes to art. Well, she was kinder than that, but she made her point and the way it all played out is the point of this column. A while back I had a private disagreement with the editor of a newspaper in the area. I felt I was right. The paper defended itself. We did not agree with each other…
42.452365
-71.232055
Stop & Shop
36 Bedford St, Lexington, MA
/articles/it-turns-out-that-sometimes-work-is-art
188546
/locations/6002295
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
While all along I thought it was just part of being able to live.
Even before I graduated from high school, I had started working for an electrical company as an apprentice electrician. Ability to use physical tools like saws, drills, screwdrivers, pliers and the like was a must, and it was not acceptable to just do enough to get the job done. For instance, when you cut a piece of steel conduit with a hacksaw, a burr will be left on the inside and outside of the cut end. There are tools to remove those burrs because the inside burr may cut wires later pulled into that conduit and the outside burr may make threading difficult or may keep the conduit from seating in the fitting correctly. Moreover, the cut has to be straight so the conduit will slide into the fitting correctly. Apprentice electricians …
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
But I find that my idea of “local” is expanding.
- OPINION
- Hank Manz
-
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
I have written about my preference for buying locally before.There are many reasons. One of them is Manz’s Law #268 which states, simply, if you can’t find it at one store, you are probably not going to easily find it elsewhere. There is a corollary, which is if you pass it up at one store because you think you can find it cheaper elsewhere, either you won’t or you will spend so much time and gas going to that greener pasture to get the desired item that you will wish you had bought it at the first place. Sometimes, you do buy something and then find it astoundingly cheaper elsewhere, but probably not often enough to make a lot of driving every time you go shopping a sensible way to live. Haircuts are an exception to my Buying-Locally-If-…
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Watching Lexington right itself after the October Storm makes one think of something Muhammad Ali once said: “If you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything."
When the recent storm surprised us with not much snow, but a lot of damage, there were some obvious first steps. With six out of nine schools either completely dark or on emergency power and with access to several schools seriously impaired, closure was obvious. The need to delay trick-or-treating was another obvious measure given the number of homes without power, street lights dark, trees blocking the roads and sidewalks, and the very real possibility that there might be live wires buried in the debris. A shelter was opened at the high school, where people without power could get something to eat and warm up a bit. Cary Library was open and served as another place to get warm and recharge all those electronic devices we carry today. …
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Along with cold weather, snow and HOCKEY!
The signs of impending winter are upon us. The leaves haven’t turned much and the weather is still warm it is true, but those are not the harbingers I look for. We picked the last of the apples from our two trees this weekend. It will be the last pie from those trees this year. Meg Muckenhoupt gave me an idea for next year when she said, “Hank, I’ve got two words to say to you.” I was relieved to find out that the words were “cider press.” I immediately checked on that and, while an assembled press is a bit pricey, there are plans for building one which looks like a great winter basement project. One sure sign that the growing season is over is the legion of small furry critters dashing about the property looking for the food they have …
42.44729
-71.23942
Hayden Recreation Center, Main Facility
24 Lincoln St, Lexington, MA
/articles/the-coming-of-winter
188695
/locations/5621413
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Two sides of the same coin.
It’s been an interesting couple of weeks. First, the Red Sox collapsed and, then three times I was asked a question which boiled down to what best prepared me for town government. I blathered on about desire to help and all of that, but I knew the real answer. It is all about baseball. Well, baseball generally, and Little League specifically. Deep down, there really is no other sport as far as I am concerned. I play, coach and announce hockey. I watch and announce football. I have even taken to watching soccer on TV late at night. But, given a choice, I will watch and play baseball because baseball is sport. All the rest are just games. The Red Sox collapse will not permanently scar me because I have never been overly impressed with won-…
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Even if only temporarily
Last weekend was another one of those weekends. And, as so many of them do, it started with technology. The idea was to upgrade my home broadband router so I could add network attached storage—NAS to the techies—which would give me automated backup with backup for the backup. RAID technology and all of that. But I won’t bore you with the details. It was a 15-minute job that ended up taking two days and two visits to Geek Central, also known as MicroCenter in Cambridge. I was deeply into the complexities of routers and NAS when I awoke Saturday morning to a cold house. Fifty-four degrees outside, 62 inside. Oh, good grief—fall had arrived. With most of the kids out of the house, I no longer have to explain certain things, such as how not …
42.444506
-71.236965
Center Recreation Complex
90 Worthen Rd, Lexington, MA
/articles/taking-it-personally-making-life-better-photos
231682
/locations/5405220
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
The bad and the good and why it can be hard to tell one from the other.
This past Sunday was the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and as I stood at remembrance ceremonies held at the main firehouse in the morning and on our Battle Green in the early evening, it was time for somber reflection. The events of Sept. 11, 2001 really came home to me during a visit to New York shortly after the attack on the Twin Towers. As I have done many times before, in the early evening I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge to a favorite restaurant. And, as I always do, I paused halfway across to look back at the New York skyline. I have lived in several large cities and there is a magic to them that has always drawn me to them. This time, though, there were no Towers. There was just a plume of smoke rising from the wreckage of what had …
42.44867
-71.2297
Battle Green
Massachusetts Ave & Bedford St, Lexington, MA
/articles/taking-it-personally-i-remember
1306074
/locations/5342611
42.45281
-71.2324
Lexington Fire Headquarters
45 Bedford St, Lexington, MA
/articles/taking-it-personally-i-remember
232562
/locations/5342612
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Except when it comes to barber shops...
After two weeks at camp and not much attention since, a glance in the mirror revealed that my hair was looking much like the lawn (term loosely used) in front of the Lexington Post Office. It was time to visit one of the many shops in the area that could help with this problem. Most guys my age do not deal well with the idea of hair salons. I say “guys” because, while some men may visit salons, guys find it hard to do so. Trust me on this one. The owner of the Stephanie Louis Salon once assured me that she could do something with my hair. I have not had the courage to find out exactly what she had in mind. Guys go to barbers. There are several in Lexington, by the way, but here there is another tenet of guyhood: Changing barbers is not …
42.45273
-71.23234
46 Bedford St, Lexington, MA
/articles/taking-it-personal-buying-local-makes-sense
/locations/5288151
Hank Manz
11:01 am on Thursday, December 22, 2011
Well, I gave myself a gift by donating to the Yes! campaign for the schools, but Aunt Harriet remains a puzzle. The goats were an attractive option, I must admit. Of course I have put behind me the fact that some years ago there were two goats who always came to the field with a certain Little League team. You could not beat this team. First, they had a very good pitcher. Second, they had those … more ›