pt at large

Fishermen host 200 for bake

East Bay, RI

East Bay Newspapers

Friday, September 30, 2005

Fishermen host 200 for bake; canoe winner a mystery
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The Westport Fishermen's Association cast a wide net and scooped up a catch of over 200 people for their 22nd annual clambake held last Sunday, Sept. 18, at the Sportsmen Club on John Dyer Road in Little Compton.

From noon till 2:30, the capacity crowd ate clam chowder, watched men in firemen's gear heat up the white granite rocks and rockweed for the "bake", and socialized under a clear blue sky. Live music was provided by guitarist John Campbell and fiddler Everett Brown of Charlestown. The bake produced heaping portions of corn on the cob, hot dogs, chourico, sausage, sweet and white baked potatoes, steamed fish, savory stuffing, and onions, accompanied by either clams or lobster.

When asked if he was the bake master, Raymond Davoll replied, "If it comes out good, I am." Suffice it to say, Davoll's reputation remained intact.

Many had come in hopes of winning the hand-crafted canoe made mainly by WFA members Tom Perkins and association president Jack Reynolds. The winner, whose name on the ticket stub was not decipherable, has not been reached via cell phone but was envied by many who had dreamed of paddling it down the Westport River themselves.

Plenty of others, however, left with one of dozens of gift certificates and merchandise donated by local businesses and raffled off after the bake. Lees Supermarket donated all the meat and 30 pounds of butter.

The annual fund raiser provides scholarship money in the form of $500 grants toward college tuition for the children and grandchildren of WFA members. A unique feature of these scholarships is that they last for a four-year college education, as long as the recipients keep up their grades.

The event also helps fund the WFA's shellfish propagation program at Westport High School and Durfee Regional in which students raise quahog seeds to donate to the Westport Shellfish Department facility at the Point.

By Paul Tamburello

 
http://www.eastbayri.com/story/297133092726305.php
Copyright © 2003, The East Bay Newspapers

Churches join in Crop Walk for Katrina victims

Churches join in Crop Walk for Katrina victims

Date September 29, 2005

Katrina, the category four hurricane that devastated parts of Louisiana and Mississippi, has been met with a category five surge of compassionate response. On Sunday, Sept. 18, a small group of residents congregated at the Westport Point United Methodist Church to see how they could help people whose homes were destroyed and jobs lost.

Amy Porter, Northern New England assistant director for Church World Service (CWS), presented an informational program on the organization's international and domestic activities. Founded after World War II to respond to refugee and hunger crises, Church World Service is a faith-based humanitarian agency of 36 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican denominations in the United States. Its international work extends to humanitarian projects in more than 80 countries.

One of its five major programs, the emergency response program, has nearly 60 years of experience in disaster relief. In a constant state of readiness, it hit the ground running just hours after Katrina struck.

"We're first responders for basic needs and medical supplies. We go in with the Red Cross and we work local churches to make a grass roots response," Ms. Porter said. The organization works with faith communities, social service agencies and emergency management partners.

The reason Church World Service has been able to respond so quickly is that the money raised by Crop Walks is used to stockpile emergency supplies and pay for the infrastructure that administers the relief. These "walks" raise money for local hunger-fighting agencies and confront the root causes of hunger. Since the 1960s, the walks have raised millions of dollars for its core programs, including the emergency response program.

Westport walks

On Sunday, Oct. 2, and Sunday, Oct. 9, Westport will participate in its second annual Westport-Dartmouth Crop Walk. Four local churches are involved, the Westport Point United Methodist Church, the Westport United Congregational Church, the Westport Friends Meeting House and the Allens Neck Meeting House.

"We like to work together," Rev. Jim Schutter of the Pt. Church said.

"We're permitted to designate 25 percent of proceeds to be distributed locally," Rev. Schutter said.

Like last year, that amount will go to the First Baptist Church's Branch Community Dinner in Fall River and the Market Ministries Shelter in New Bedford. The remaining proceeds support CWS programs including Katrina relief.

The second annual Westport-Dartmouth Crop Walk is scheduled rain or shine at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 2. The 10-kilometer walk will begin at the Way Back Eddy and end at the Allens Neck Friends Meeting House. A spaghetti dinner will follow the walk.

A second Crop Walk will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 9, for people unable to walk on Oct. 2. It will begin at the Westport Point United Methodist Church on 1832 Main Road. Organizers have set a goal of 100 walkers and hope to raise $5,000.

Ms. Porter stressed that the Katrina recovery effort could last years.

"Since we will be in the gulf region for the long-term recovery efforts, some of the money raised in this fall's Crop Walks will certainly go there," she said.

Church World Services will be holding 2,000 Crop Walks 2,000 around the country. The funds raised will help the organization to continue to provide lifesaving food, water and medicine to some 350,000 refugees in Darfur. Additionally, it will support its ongoing development programs in Afghanistan, Malawi, Indonesia, Nicaragua and Africa.

"The Crop Walks will also help us to be prepared when, God forbid, another disaster strikes," Ms. Porter said.

Longtime organist for the Point Church, Helen Whipple said, "I'm not able to walk but I'll raise money for the walk."

Rev. Schutter's wife, Joyce, said, "It's a great way to enjoy fellowship and raise money for a good cause."

Rev. Sue Moenius, pastor of the Westport United Congregational Church, said they had been putting up posters to announce the walks. Rev. Moenius will be driving the support van for people who might need help.

"We'll also make up a short walking route so people with limited strength can feel like they took part," she said.

Ms. Porter said she recently discovered the blankets CWS distributes in relief efforts world-wide are made by the Trans American Spinning Mills on Coffin Street in New Bedford. Church World Services has distributed hundreds of thousands of these wool and man-made fiber blankets over the years, including to countries devastated in the 2004 tsunami and to states devastated by Katrina.

For more information about the Crop Walk, call Rev. Jim Schutter at 508-636-2036.

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Within the first three days following Hurricane Katrina, Church World Service (CWS) delivered its initial shipment of immediate emergency medicines and supplies to Baton Rouge.~ As of 9/18/05, CWS has shipped more than $900,000 in donated material assistance to affected areas, including 18,100 CWS Blankets, 47,190 "Gift of the Heart" Health Kits; 704 CWS Kids Kits, and 3,360School kits.~~ In addition, CWS has processed a shipment of 20 Interchurch Medical Assistance Boxes to Louisiana, containing basic medicines and antibiotics for 20,000 people for three months.

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By Paul Tamburello

KnowFat Lifestyle Grill

KnowFat Lifestyle Grill
Arsenal Street, Watertown, MA
September 9, 2005
http://www.knowfat.com/home.htm

“I’ll have one of those,” I hear myself blurt out. “Those “ were a plate of a 1/3 lb. sirloin burger topped with American cheese, turkey bacon (I thought it was the real deal but it looked soooo good), lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles on a multi grain bun and a side of “air fries”. I intended to order a pretty authentic hunk of lean cuisine at the KnowFat! Lifestyle Grill and assumed that I’d fallen off the low-fat wagon.

To my amazement, the 591 calorie burger plate was only 88 calories more than the Sirloin Fajita Wrap (beef sirloin, refried beans, tomato, steamed peppers and onions, fat free sour cream, cheddar jack cheese in a whole wheat tortilla) that I intended to order after reviewing the easy to read menu over the wide ordering counter.

The menu here makes it impossible not to take responsibility for your choices. Under each item are listed calories, protein, carbohydrates, fiber, fat, and sodium. Knowledge does not always lead to sound choices but today, any choice I made here would have been healthy.

The business began in its storefront location on Arsenal Street in Watertown five years ago. Two thirds restaurant, one third health food emporium, it’s a pure play life style business. With successful small cafes in Woburn and Shrewsbury, the owners intend to launch it, under the name Get Low, this summer.

The menu ranges from Grilled Protein Plates between $9.99 and $10.99; Better Burgers (ground sirloin, turkey, bison, and veggie, from $5.49 to $7.99); Signature Wraps, hot and cold, between $5.49 and $6.99; and Smoothies and ProLattas, pretty awesome looking affairs made with protein powder, $4.79 for Smoothies, $5.79 for ProLattas; Breakfast Wraps from $4.99 to $6.99, served all day; and a Kid’s Menu from $4.99 to $6.99; Plenty of vegetarian choices populate the menu.

The average body mass index of today’s customers seems to be in the range of a college cross-country team. From the suits to the workout crowd, there’s nary a flabby belly to be seen. Take-out business is brisk, whether for multi taskers or those who might enjoy a quieter setting. The place sounds like an old Hayes Bickford on steroids. The clatter of plates being set up or piled into the bus trays (no paper here, thank you) and an exhaust fan that could compete with a 727 engine idling on the tarmac are prominent. The color scheme is cheerfully loud as well. A bright yellow ceiling and accents of lime green, burnt orange, and mauve splashed liberally around the room give one the sense of eating inside huge fruit bowl. A dozen yellow “deuces”, a long black granite counter facing the street, and a small ante room between the restaurant and the health food store accommodate the diners.

Photo taken a month after visit

As busy as the place got, at no time did it remind you of the line from Hell, tormenting you with smells and sights of delectable food, your stomach doing flips while you practice the children’s game of Statue. There were 8 people behind the counter, four taking orders, and four facing the huge stainless steel backsplash who were furiously preparing food.

The Air Fries served here deserve crisp paragraph. As a helpful server informed me, “They come pre-cut and pre-cooked specially for us. We put them in a convection oven and blast them with hot air at about 500 degrees. They’re not greasy and you’ll love’em.” He was right.

As healthy as this burger was, I prefer the juicier versions made with ground chuck mixed with sirloin, the kind that squirt red down to your elbows when you take the first bite. And I had to eat my scrumptious air fries quickly so they wouldn’t chill out under the whirring overhead fans. A return visit is definitely in the cards to sample a ProLatta and perhaps even try that Fajita Wrap I ditched today.

The calorie counts may be low but expectations are high for this little eatery. “We intend to put them in every nook and cranny in the United States,” vows entrepreneur George Nadaff. The good news for locals is that one of the new locations will be an expanded version of the present storefront down the street.

Salsa redux

Salsa at Ryles in Cambridge can also be applied to salsa at Union Station in Newton Corner...

Those six short Latin steps did it. The aesthetic ideals I apply to women were laid waste last night. I fell hopelessly in love with several women at a salsa dance. Women of all shapes and sizes, women who wouldn’t have been laser beamed into my radar in the workaday world, skyrocketed like roman candles into my consciousness, dislodging my notions of sculpted playboy beauty. They were chunkier, plainer of face, unremarkable in proportion. But on the dance floor they were wet dreams in motion, Utterly transformed into graceful, commanding, sinuously moving creatures who found a fourth dimension hitherto unseen by this Yankee boy. I could not keep from staring at them from the perimeter of the dance floor.

One heavy set blonde woman, anti matter as far as cover girl proportions go, wearing a black outfit, jiggling midriff-baring top and short skirt, was transformed into a goddess with agile feet, perfect balance and a megawatt smile. She attracted the most amazing posse of men, young and old, who vied for her attention on the parquet. I couldn’t keep my eyes off her. Textbook salsa, upper torso remaining upright under her feet and her hips, my god, her hips swiveling in a way to make Fidel proclaim salsa as the national dance. More powerful than sexy, this was sensual. And fun. Are epiphanies accompanied by eight beats sounded out in six steps?

I have vowed to learn this dance, to commit it to muscle memory. I dream of the day I can take one of these goddess's hands in mine and lead her in this dance of love. I want to see her eyes light with anticipation when she sees me walking toward her with my extended hand.

There’s mystery afoot, too. I don’t want to seduce these women, I want to dance with them. Very well. I want to express my masculinity by leading them in ways that bring us both pleasure - sensual kinesthesia.

How many women are walking down the street who can make the Clark Kent quick change into black smooth soled pumps and suck the hearts out of unsuspecting partners within sight lines on a dance floor? And how many men? In time, at least one more of them. Maybe I’ve been transformed into a Yanqui Boy.

Teacher of sharks is handy with old tools

East Bay, RI

East Bay Newspapers

Friday, September 23, 2005

Teacher of sharks is handy with old tools
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Sanford "Sandy" Moss was lured to Westport in 1967 by the prospect of teaching marine biology, his favorite subject, in a small New England school. As the first order of business, Mr. Moss and his wife Barbara, whom he met while they were graduate students at Cornell University, bought a house on River Road.

During his 34 year teaching career there, Southeastern Massachusetts Technological Institute evolved into UMass Dartmouth. While his three children were growing up, he was active in Little League and Cub Scouts. He participated in civic life, having been a member of the Lion's Club and the Westport Land Conservation Trust. A life long builder and tinkerer, Since he retired in 2004, Mr. Moss has built an active second career finding, buying, and selling hand tools to a growing number of collectors across the country. He and his wife now live on Ivy Meadows Lane. The Moss family has now grown to include two grandchildren.

FIRST JOB: "My wife and I lived in New Haven and taught at Yale for two years after graduating from Cornell University."

COMING TO WESTPORT: "I wanted to go to a small school that had a marine education program and Southeastern Massachusetts Technological Institute was just developing a pretty strong one here. "

ACADEMIC COURSES: "I taught graduate courses in animal behavior and ichthyology (study of fish). My specialty is the biology of sharks. I received my doctorate on the subject of shark feeding mechanisms."

WHY SHARKS: "My mentor knew a professor at Cornell who wanted a graduate student to study the feeding mechanisms of sharks. I'd always been interested in fish so that sounded good. We dissected sharks in the lab and did field studies of them in Bimini during vacations."

SHARKS AROUND WESTPORT: "There are dog fish, often called sand sharks. At this time of year, there are tiger sharks, hammerhead, and mako sharks offshore. In spring, there are basking sharks. There's not much to worry about since the last fatal shark attack around here was in Mattappoisett in 1936."

WHY HAND TOOLS:"I've always enjoyed woodworking and built myself a nice shop of power tools. One day in 1997 I was using the table saw and it bit me in the finger. That scared the heck out of me and I thought it might be fun to do things with hand tools rather than power tools."

LOVE OF OLD TOOLS: "Finding hand saws and chisels proved to be seductive. I found it interesting to learn how to use them and learn their history. Many tools are marked by the maker or patented. I wanted to find something out about the men who made them and the conditions they were made under. I spent more time reading about them than using them."

MARKETING HAND TOOLS: "I set up a web site. I write a description of the tool, take a photo, say what condition it's in and price it. I have to do lots of research. Many collectors use the site as a resource to find information. The more I sell, the more I buy. The whole thing took on a life of its own."

FINDING TOOLS: "I visit flea markets, auctions and go to tool meets where people swap and buy tools. Lots of collectors call me and want to sell me things, too. I buy and sell block planes, wood planes, draw knives, braces (boring tools), bits, drills, screw drivers, chisels, gages, rules, levels, squares, books, machinist tools, saws, plumb bobs, and tool handles."

MAINE CABIN: "When Barbara and I were first married and living in New Haven we decided to buy some land in Maine. After a week looking, we ended up buying 100 acres. In 1992, we cut down pine trees, sawed up the lumber and built a cabin. It's a heck of a lot more comfortable living in that cabin than camping in a tent."

By Paul Tamburello
http://www.eastbayri.com/print/303594469367442.php
Copyright © 2003, The East Bay Newspapers

Catboat survives close to a century

East Bay, RI

East Bay Newspapers

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Catboat survives close to a century
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WESTPORT - The story of John Conway's catboat should have ended when the Hurricane of 1938 pitched it into a tree two miles inland and it was declared a total loss. Or more recently when it was rescued from a previous owner who was ready to turn it into what Mr. Conway described as "fuel for the New Bedford Bonfire of 1992."

In both cases, men with an enduring love for boats prevailed.

On Aug. 18, at the Macomber Community Center on Main Road, Mr. Conway presented a slide show based on his book, "Catboat Summers," which he published in 2003. Displaying the confidence of an experienced mariner shooting into the wind to pick up a mooring, Mr. Conway chronicled a brief history of catboats, his boyhood introduction to boating and the story of his own 24-foot catboat, Buckrammer, which he has owned for the past 12 years.

He called it "the history of how my family and Buckrammer collided."

Buckrammer has been a steady summer presence for the Conways since 1993, when Mr. Conway's older daughter spotted an ad for a 24-foot vintage Crosby. The boat was built by Charles H. Crosby in the famous Crosby Boatyard in Osterville in 1908.

Over its lifetime, the catboat has been used as a utility pickup boat, pleasure cruiser and cargo carrier. In 1919, its cargo included codfish and cow manure.

The Saltonstall family owned the boat between 1924 and 1937 and used it during their summers in Marion.

The Coggeshall family of Osterville owned the catboat at the time of the 1938 hurricane and rebuilt it after it was damaged. They sold it in 1954.

When Mr. Conway bought it, the seller, Cal Perkins of Mattapoissett, was its 18th owner. Mr. Perkins said he was selling the boat because he was tired of the never-ending work on restoration and maintenance.

Mr. Conway plugged the holes, put her in the water and sailed her back to Westport.

Messing about in boats comes naturally to Mr. Conway, who's been doing it since he was a 10-year-old plunking about with his brothers in a small plywood pram on Cape Cod vacations. As they grew up, so did their aspirations. By high school, they were using an Amesbury skiff to salvage golf balls from an aptly named water hazard on a local golf course, making as much as $1,200 one summer.

Mr. Conway's boating adventures were in dry-dock while raising his own family but resurfaced when they began summering in Westport.

"About 20 years ago, we bought a place here near the harbor and before too long we got an itch to go boating again," Mr. Conway said.

From the audience was heard a quizzical "We?" from Mr. Conway's younger daughter, Caroline. Her question caused Mr. Conway's face to turn red and produced a hearty laugh from the audience.

Truth be told, all the Conways seem to have been hooked by the boating bug. The slide presentation, accompanied by music from swing to Celtic, showed the family growing up on the water beside the various prams, skiffs, and Beetlecats they acquired over the years.

Any captain willing to use house paint on his boat, let a little sand accumulate in the cockpit and take a crew of kids under 12 on an overnighter qualifies as unpretentious. For the Conways, a sense of fun always trumped spending time on varnishing.

Sailboats, with their joys and challenges, can have lasting impact on those who sail them. On a recent sail to Osterville, Mr. Conway was approached by gray-headed men with tears in their eyes saying that learning to sail on his boat had shaped their lives in the 1930s and 1940s.

Catboats at a glance

*Original design built at Crosby Boat Yard in Osterville from 1850s until the 1920s; at peak Crosby could manufacture 16 full-sized wooden boats per week.

* Designed for fishermen, easy for one person to handle.

* Had one mast, set well forward in the bow, with one gaff rigged sail

* Between 16 and 26 feet in length.

* Hull generally half as wide as it is long, large capacity cockpit.

* Centerboard can be raised for work in shallow water.

* A one-ton, 18-foot catboat draws only 18 inches with the board up.

* Buckrammer made in Osterville by Crosby Boat Yard in 1908.

* Fully loaded Buckrammer needs only two feet of water to sail; when center board is down, it draws seven feet of water.

By Paul Tamburello

[email protected]
http://www.eastbayri.com/print/297175567733198.php
Copyright © 2003, The East Bay Newspapers

The trumpeter in the pulpit

East Bay, RI

East Bay Newspapers

Friday, September 9, 2005

The trumpeter in the pulpit
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The Rev. Dr. Evan Johnson has two deep callings in life, the ministry and music. Since 1960, his vocation as a Methodist minister has taken him from Enfield, Conn., to Brockton, Newton, and Milford. His flock was just as likely to hear Rev. Johnson using his trumpet as his words as a way to encourage worship.

Ever active in his local community, Rev. Johnson has been involved in Head Start, school committees, civil rights advocacy and leadership activities in ecumenical groups. Since retirement from the ministry in 1991, he served a term on the Westport Conservation Commission. He and his wife June discovered Westport in 1972. They bought their Shirley Street home in 1985 and have been year-rounders since 1991. Rev. Johnson served in World War II and Korea and was a member of the United States Military Band at West Point. He often boards his boat around dusk and serenades residents on the East Branch.

INTRODUCTION TO WESTPORT: "In the early 1970s, the clerk at the Westport Friends Meeting took my wife, June, on tour ending up on the Nubble. June said we should own a piece of this!"

FIRST TRUMPET: "My mother was an organist in a small church in Portland, Maine, for 40 years. She insisted that her children play an instrument and play it well. I was craving to play the trumpet. By time I got mine I was couldn't get enough of it. I began playing it on a small pond outside my aunt's cottage when I was 16."

MILITARY BAND: "When the Korean War came along, I auditioned for the band. I served in it for four years then got back into teaching music and then began to study for the ministry"

CALL TO MINISTRY: "Growing up in such a deeply religious house, religion was always a part of my consciousness. In my 30th year, I was teaching in Hartford and playing in the Hartford Symphony. It felt natural to enter Hartford Seminary and accept a student pastorate in Enfield, Conn."

TRUMPET OPENS DOORS: "In 1972, we rented one of "Cooper's cottages" on Drift Road. The first night, I rowed to the middle of the river and blew my horn. The next day, someone showed up at the door and wanted to know where the trumpet player lived. He heard we were looking for a cottage to buy and within the hour we had committed to buy it. We vacationed here while I served at Central Methodist Church in Brockton."

TRUMPET FROM PULPIT: "When I became a pastor in Brockton in 1967, I walked to the pulpit one Sunday and said, 'I make a lot better sound on this trumpet than I do with my voice, and with your indulgence I'll use this trumpet on the hymns.' It inspired the congregation to sing better. I've used it ever since. My horn is my best gift."

CHURCH AND STATE: "I was involved all my life in politics beginning in campus politics. The clergy have to be quite circumspect in terms of being partisan but to activate people into the political life always felt to me to be one of the best things that could happen."

WATER MUSIC: "I take my Boston Whaler out around Cadmans Neck around dusk and play for 30 or 40 minutes. I'm a bit of a romantic and think there's a mystique about playing in the darkness."

WHAT HE PLAYS: "Everything! Jazz standards, hymns, symphonic themes, Gershwin, Rogers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, love songs. When July 4 comes along I blow every patriotic song in the book."

STAYING ACTIVE: "I'm retired but not retiring, I ran unsuccessfully for selectmen. I've been on the Conservation Commission and just completed a three-year term on the Interchurch Council of Greater New Bedford."

SECOND HALF LEARNING: "I've taken courses there and taught. I co-led classes in presidential politics, world religions and 'Great Decisions: U.S. foreign policy.' I serve on the curriculum committee at Second Half."

FULL LIFE: "I marvel at the full life June and I have led during our 57 years of marriage."

By Paul Tamburello

[email protected]
http://www.eastbayri.com/story/287433342839544.php
Copyright © 2003, The East Bay Newspapers