AdamSmith

He was one of those rare politicians about whom it was impossible to be cynical.

A good look back. Tom Menino, Boston's longest-serving mayor, dies at 71 City’s first Italian American mayor, who said in first TV ad ‘I’m not a fancy talker but I get things done’, served between 1993 and 2013 Thomas Menino pauses after speaking at an interfaith prayer service for victims of the Boston Marathon attack. Photograph: Spencer Plat/EPA Thomas Menino, whose folksy manner and verbal gaffes belied his shrewd political tactics and effective use of technology to govern as Boston’s longest-serving mayor and one of its most beloved, died on Thursday. He was 71. Spokeswoman Dot Joyce said in a statement that Menino died in the company of his family and friends. He was diagnosed with advanced cancer in February 2014, shortly after leaving office, and announced October 23 he was suspending treatment and a book tour so he could spend more time with family and friends. Menino was first elected in 1993 and built a formidable political machine that ended decades of Irish domination of city politics, at least temporarily. He won re-election four times. He was the city’s first Italian American mayor and served in the office for more than 20 years before a series of health problems forced him, reluctantly, to eschew a bid for a sixth term. “I can run, I can win and I can lead, but not in the neighborhoods all the time as I like,” Menino, a Democrat, told an overflow crowd at Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall on 28 March 2013. Less than three weeks after that announcement, two bombs exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 260. Menino, who had undergone surgery on a broken leg just two days earlier, checked himself out of a hospital to help lead his shaken city through the crisis. At an interfaith service three days after the bombings, Menino, in a symbolic act of personal defiance, painfully pulled himself to his feet from his wheelchair to declare that no act of violence could break Boston’s spirit. Thomas Menino at the site of the Boston Marathon bombing. Photograph: Chitose Suzuki/The Boston Herald/EPA “Even with the smell of smoke in the air and blood in the streets and tears in our eyes, we triumphed over that hateful act,” he said. He was in an SUV in nearby Watertown at the end of a nearly daylong, violent manhunt when police commissioner Edward Davis informed him that the surviving bombing suspect had been captured. Menino’stweet: “We got him.” Menino was anything but a smooth public speaker and was prone to verbal gaffes. He was widely quoted describing Boston’s notorious parking shortage as “an Alcatraz” around his neck, rather than an albatross. He often mangled or mixed up the names of Boston sports heroes – once famously confusing former New England Patriots kicker and Super Bowl hero Adam Vinatieri with ex-Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek. But while such mistakes might sink other politicians in a sports-crazed city, they only seemed to reinforce his affable personality and ability to connect with the residents he served. “I’m Tom Menino. I’m not a fancy talker, but I get things done,” he said in his first TV ad. He would grow a reputation as an urban mechanic, crisscrossing city neighborhoods and building coalitions to tackle problems as small as filling potholes or as big as rejuvenating the city’s public schools in the aftermath of court-ordered desegregation decades earlier. In an interview with the Associated Press in March, Menino said he “loved every minute” of being mayor, even during the city’s darkest days. He credited his staff and others, downplaying his own role. “I just did my job – nothing special,” he said. His tireless public schedule amazed and exhausted many of his closest aides. In his new memoir, Mayor For A New America, he made clear that was his greatest legacy. “I paid attention to the fundamentals of urban life – clean streets, public safety, good schools, neighborhood commerce,” Menino wrote in the memoir, released in October 2014. “Call my City Hall and you never got an answering machine. People trusted government because it heard them. Because they could talk to it. Because it kept its word.” Menino was sometimes faulted for being too controlling or too quick to lose his temper with subordinates. But his lengthy administration would steer clear of major scandal, something that could not be said for many of his predecessors. Thomas Michael Menino was born on 27 December 1942 in the city’s Hyde Park neighborhood. He received a certificate in business administration from Chamberlayne Junior College in 1963. A former insurance salesman, he caught the political bug while working as a legislative aide to state senator Joseph Timilty. He first earned elective office as a district city councilor in 1984. He went back to school and earned his undergraduate degree in community planning from the University of Massachusetts-Boston in 1988. Menino became the council’s president in 1993 and was automatically elevated to mayor when then-mayor Raymond Flynn was named US ambassador to the Vatican. While that prompted some to initially chide Menino as an “accidental mayor”, he quickly proved his own political mettle, winning a four-year term later that year. He was never seriously challenged in four subsequent re-election bids, a two-decade period in which the city he governed slowly grew younger and more diverse. Traditional urban ethnic enclaves in Boston were beginning to give way to a mix of new immigrants and younger professionals. He developed vibrant neighborhoods through a series of initiatives: building and renovating public parks and green spaces, setting asides miles of new bicycle lanes despite the city’s famously narrow, twisting streets and promoting the public’s involvement in securing their communities and curbing violent crime. Boston mayor Thomas Menino Obamas attend Interfaith Service for Victims of the Boston Marathon bombings in April 2013. Photograph: Zuma/Rex Menino was also among the first big-city mayors to see the opportunities that technology afforded local governments to help solve recurring problems. He set up an office that developed a pioneering smartphone app for residents to report potholes and other apps to report graffiti and other nuisances. He never sought nor showed interest in running for higher office. Mayor, it seemed, was the only political job to which he aspired. That would not, however, stop him from being at the forefront of major national issues. He vigorously pushed to end gun violence as co-founder in 2006, with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, of a 700-member mayors’ group that lobbies lawmakers on gun measures. Menino was among the first US mayors to offer domestic partnership benefits to city employees when he signed an executive order in 1998, and he vowed block Chick-fil-A from opening a restaurant in the city after the company’s president spoke out against gay marriage in 2012, though he eventually acknowledged he had little power to stop the chain. Menino was not afraid to experiment and walk away from what did not work. In 1995, his administration began videotaping the court appearances of men arrested for soliciting prostitutes, promising to show on its cable TV station the arraignments of those convicted. Menino had earlier said, “By broadcasting faces on television at least some of the prostitution activity will decrease.” The initiative was later abandoned. Menino’s health was often a concern, and he was admitted to the hospital several times while in office. In 2003, he underwent surgery to remove a rare sarcoma on his back. The following year, his doctors confirmed he has been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, a type of inflammatory bowel disease. He spent six weeks in the hospital in 2012 for a series of ailments, including a respiratory infection. While he was in the hospital, he suffered a compression fracture in his spine and was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. In May 2013, he was back in the hospital for surgery for an enlarged prostate. In typical fashion, he declared on his release several days later that he would not let the latest ailment slow him down. “I’m raring to go,” he said. Menino focused much of his attention in his final months in office focusing on education, including an appearance before a legislative committee in which he advocated for more charter schools and flexibility to intervene in struggling urban schools. Menino didn’t take sides in the race to succeed him, eventually won in November 2013 by Martin Walsh, a state representative from the Dorchester neighborhood. He instructed his staff to work closely with Walsh on a smooth transition of power. Walsh paid tribute to his predecessor in his inaugural address the following January, saying Menino’s “legacy is already legend and his vision is all around us.” Menino left City Hall on his final day in office on 6 January to thunderous applause from city workers. Later, he tweeted: “Thank you Boston. It has been the honor and thrill of a lifetime to be your Mayor. Be as good to each other as you have been to me.” Menino accepted a position as co-director of Boston University’s new Initiative on Cities, a program that studies issues facing the future of the world’s cities. In March 2014, Menino revealed in an interview with the Boston Globe he was battling an advanced form of cancer that had spread to his liver and lymph nodes. Doctors said they were unable to pinpoint where the cancer originated. Menino told the newspaper he was ready to face the challenge. “What I don’t want is people feeling sorry for me. I don’t want sympathy. There are people worse off than me. It’s my biggest concern – I don’t want to be treated any differently,” he said. In a statement announcing he was stopping treatment to devote himself to his loved ones, Menino said he was “hopeful and optimistic that one day the talented researchers, doctors and medical professionals in this city will find a cure for this awful disease.” Menino leaves behind his wife Angela, his children Susan and Thomas Jr, a Boston police officer, and six grandchildren. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/oct/30/tom-menino-mayor-boston-politics-dies

One of the greats has passed.

Tim Cook Speaks Up By Tim Cook Throughout my professional life, I've tried to maintain a basic level of privacy. I come from humble roots, and I don't seek to draw attention to myself. Apple is already one of the most closely watched companies in the world, and I like keeping the focus on our products and the incredible things our customers achieve with them. At the same time, I believe deeply in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, who said: "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'" I often challenge myself with that question, and I've come to realize that my desire for personal privacy has been holding me back from doing something more important. That's what has led me to today. For years, I've been open with many people about my sexual orientation. Plenty of colleagues at Apple know I'm gay, and it doesn't seem to make a difference in the way they treat me. Of course, I've had the good fortune to work at a company that loves creativity and innovation and knows it can only flourish when you embrace people's differences. Not everyone is so lucky. While I have never denied my sexuality, I haven't publicly acknowledged it either, until now. So let me be clear: I'm proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me. Being gay has given me a deeper understanding of what it means to be in the minority and provided a window into the challenges that people in other minority groups deal with every day. It's made me more empathetic, which has led to a richer life. It's been tough and uncomfortable at times, but it has given me the confidence to be myself, to follow my own path, and to rise above adversity and bigotry. It's also given me the skin of a rhinoceros, which comes in handy when you're the CEO of Apple. The world has changed so much since I was a kid. America is moving toward marriage equality, and the public figures who have bravely come out have helped change perceptions and made our culture more tolerant. Still, there are laws on the books in a majority of states that allow employers to fire people based solely on their sexual orientation. There are many places where landlords can evict tenants for being gay, or where we can be barred from visiting sick partners and sharing in their legacies. Countless people, particularly kids, face fear and abuse every day because of their sexual orientation. I don't consider myself an activist, but I realize how much I've benefited from the sacrifice of others. So if hearing that the CEO of Apple is gay can help someone struggling to come to terms with who he or she is, or bring comfort to anyone who feels alone, or inspire people to insist on their equality, then it's worth the trade-off with my own privacy. I'll admit that this wasn't an easy choice. Privacy remains important to me, and I'd like to hold on to a small amount of it. I've made Apple my life's work, and I will continue to spend virtually all of my waking time focused on being the best CEO I can be. That's what our employees deserve -- and our customers, developers, shareholders, and supplier partners deserve it, too. Part of social progress is understanding that a person is not defined only by one's sexuality, race, or gender. I'm an engineer, an uncle, a nature lover, a fitness nut, a son of the South, a sports fanatic, and many other things. I hope that people will respect my desire to focus on the things I'm best suited for and the work that brings me joy. The company I am so fortunate to lead has long advocated for human rights and equality for all. We've taken a strong stand in support of a workplace equality bill before Congress, just as we stood for marriage equality in our home state of California. And we spoke up in Arizona when that state's legislature passed a discriminatory bill targeting the gay community. We'll continue to fight for our values, and I believe that any CEO of this incredible company, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation, would do the same. And I will personally continue to advocate for equality for all people until my toes point up. When I arrive in my office each morning, I'm greeted by framed photos of Dr. King and Robert F. Kennedy. I don't pretend that writing this puts me in their league. All it does is allow me to look at those pictures and know that I'm doing my part, however small, to help others. We pave the sunlit path toward justice together, brick by brick. This is my brick. http://mobile.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-30/tim-cook-im-proud-to-be-gay

DNA From Toilet Helps Police Catch Alleged Burglar AP 10/29/14 08:13 PM ET ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) Police in Albuquerque say a man suspected of a $250,000 heist should have flushed the evidence he left behind. KOAT-TV reports (http://goo.gl/V3OmEg ) investigators tied Ramon Herrera to the September burglary using DNA left on a toilet. Police say the 33-year-old relieved himself while taking $250,000 worth of jewelry from a home while the owners were on vacation, but he didn't flush. Police say Herrera also took a Coke from the fridge, drank it and left the can along with his DNA. Investigators say DNA from the can and toilet was matched to Herrera. He was recently arrested and booked into the Bernalillo County jail. Herrera has pleaded not guilty to charges of residential burglary and larceny over $20,000. It's not known if he has an attorney who could be reached for comment. http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/6071882?cps=gravity

Don't it make my blue boys green

Moi? I'm drip-dry, wash-and-wear. Long as folk don't bitching about hijacks.

Did hito leave his medicine chest unlocked again?

(A) Fascinating! Was ignorant of all that proto-history. ( B ) Isn't inserting a hijack complaint itself a hijack of sorts?

Of course straining causes hemorrhoids and occasionally rupture. http://www.health-writings.com/img/aq/symptoms-of-a-ruptured-colon/ima-fig2.jpg

Did you know this?!

Mmm... 11 Totally Disgusting Things the FDA Allows In Your Food http://www.cbsnews.com/news/11-totally-disgusting-things-the-fda-allows-in-your-food/

Whoops. Ignore this double-post; go here if interested: http://www.boytoy.com/forums/index.php?/topic/22525-11-totally-disgusting-things-the-fda-allows-in-your-food/

Way out of my league here!

Really inexcusable.

Wonder if the upsell would be to charge not by the inch but rather the foot?

Of course the backpage.com crowd spoils the party by offering free verse.

Half-rates for shooting blank verse? Heroic couplets for muscle worshipers?