Saturday, August 4, 2018

WEST MARLBOROUGH: Burglar in custody

West Marlborough Township is normally a nonstarter crime-wise, so there was a degree of consternation when the State Police at Avondale announced on July 27 that there had been a house burglary. They posted on social media several surveillance photos of the burglar and his Hyundai. Although the police didn't release the address, locals had no trouble recognizing the distinctive barn doors in one of the photos.
Fortunately, an arrest was made within a few days.
I was impressed with the clarity of the photos taken by the home surveillance system. It was almost as if the pillowcase-toting bad guy had snapped a selfie of himself. You could identify the brand of shirt he was wearing, and the scars on his arms were distinctive.

SCAM: You're a winner!

Imagine my surprise when I learned via email that I had won an Indian lottery that I didn't recall entering. Why, all I had to do was send them my bank information and a passport-sized photo and they'd deposit my "4CROER 75LAKHS India rupees!" I was ready to charter a private jet and fly up to Mount Desert Island.
But of course it was a scam. The bizarre, stilted, Raj-style grammar was a dead giveaway: "Also be informed that the assigned British representative to supervise the transfer of your fund from the Reserve Bank is in the person of: (BRITISHDIPLOMAT) MRS.JESSICA ALEX. He will supervise the transfer and all the documents will be sent to you by courier immediately the transfer of your fund is completed to your bank account."
Or: "Dr Urjit Patel man date [sic] all unclaimed funds to be released back to the beneficiary stating that it is an unfair practice to withhold funds for government basket for one reason or the other for tax accumulations."
("Government basket" is actually a great phrase. I'm sure I'll be able to work that into conversation sometime soon.)
In other scamming news, tech-savvy telemarketers have managed to make it seem like they're calling from local area codes. It's really annoying, and I now make it a policy not to pick up the phone unless Caller ID tells me it's somebody I know. My financial advisor called me from home the other day but had his assistant put the call through, assuming, correctly, that I would pick up for "Amanda Conshy" but not for a random Devon number.

GARDENS: Naked ladies and phlox

Usually the Naked Ladies (Lycoris squamigera) simply appear by my walkway, causing me to stop and gape in utter astonishment, but this year I had some warning: the ones on the west side of my house bloomed well before the ones on the east side appeared.
These beautiful flowers are members of the Amaryllis family and are also known as "surprise lilies": because the stems are bare and unobtrusive, it seems like the flowers appear magically overnight. Highly recommended as a boost to the sometimes drooping late-summer garden.
By the way, my phlox have never had a better summer. Their lush, deep pink, fragrant flowers are blooming and reblooming, and the leaves, which in previous years have been prone to powdery mildew, are staying green and healthy.

CANINES: Meeting Eva

I had the pleasure of meeting Eva, a Spinone Italiano, yesterday. The friendly, intelligent, obedient dog is now two years old, but her master has been training her as a hunting dog since she was a puppy. He said, with understandable pride, that he recently took her on a birding trip out to North Dakota and she behaved like a seasoned pro.
It seems there's some friction in terms of training philosophy between the owners: the wife likes to play tug-of-war with Eva, but the husband thinks that doesn't set a good precedent for pheasant and quail retrieval.
When Eva came to visit, she had been riding in the car for a few hours and was delighted to get out and run. She has a graceful, bounding, powerful lope that's a pleasure to watch. When she sensed that deer had been in the area, she flattened herself on the ground and intently tracked them with her nose. She didn't know quite what to make of the two horses walking across a nearby field. 

KENNETT: Rock the Park

The final free concert of the summer series at Anson B. Nixon Park is Wednesday, Aug. 8, but the annual "Rock the Park" fundraiser will be held Saturday, Aug. 18, from 4 to 9 p.m. Tickets are $15 (free for those under 21), with proceeds going to support the park. Beer is included in the ticket price with online advance sales (www.ansonbnixonpark.org or ansonbnixonpark@gmail.com).
The main act is local band Love Seed Mama Jump, who will take the stage at 6 p.m. Opening acts are YouBeYou (4 to 4:45) and John Gibson (5 to 5:45).

Monday, July 30, 2018

BANKING: Hello, Tech support?

After a fortifying breakfast at Fran Keller's Eatery on Saturday, we headed off to take care of some banking formalities that required two signatures.
It turned out to be a long but entertaining morning.
The bank representative, a pleasant young man, told us with some embarrassment that he'd just managed to lock himself out of his computer. He apologized to us profusely and tried phoning several colleagues. 
While we were waiting for them to return his calls, the three of us chatted and we learned that the fellow was a recent transplant to this branch. His tenure so far has been varied: he took a training class on the bank's new perks for account holders and he replaced the side mirror on his branch manager's car (she promised him a case of beer in return).
Given that it was a Saturday morning in the summer, it was no surprise that nobody was responding to his messages. As a last resort, he begged the bank intern to figure out a work-around.
The capable intern managed to get the computer up and running; I foresee some gold stars on his evaluation. He even managed not to be too smug about it.

LONGWOOD: Ya Got Trouble

If Meredith Willson were writing "The Music Man" today, the Madison County Library Board would be facing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit (Marian Paroo, plaintiff) for permitting a hostile work environment, and Charlie Cowell would be facing mandatory sensitivity training for his micro-aggressions ("Girly-Girl," indeed!). 
But if we leave our politically correct lorgnettes at home for the evening, "The Music Man" remains a terrific musical, full of wonderful songs and timeless observations about human nature. We saw the Brandywiners' production at the outdoor theater at Longwood Gardens on July 28; the show continues Aug. 2, 3, and 4. The weather could not have been nicer, and I didn't see a single empty seat.
The Barbershop Quartet -- Allen Supplebeen, Cam Hay, Aaron Kirschner, and Steven Soltow -- stole the show, as they tend to do. Sam Gorman, the young actor who played the formerly introverted Winthrop Paroo, did a great job with his big number, "Gary, Indiana." Marian the Librarian was played by Rachel Burghen, whose lovely voice shone in "My White Knight" and "Till There Was You." And how funny that Robert Miller, who played the slick Harold Hill, is in real life the father of Julia Miller, who played Amaryllis Shinn!
The only criticism I have is that Longwood is a very busy place on Saturday evenings in the summer, and some of the noise from the music and fountain display was distracting. The sound system had some glitches as well -- we could hear the stage manager's instructions a couple of times -- but that's to be expected given the complexity of miking such a giant cast.