Mabfan's Musings

Today is the 94th anniversary of:

THE GREAT BOSTON MOLASSES FLOOD

"Shortly after noon on January 15, 1919, a fifty-foot-tall steel tank filled with 2.3 million gallons of molasses collapsed on Boston’s waterfront, disgorging its contents in a fifteen-foot-high wave of molasses that traveled at thirty-five miles per hour. When the tide receded, a section of the city’s North End had been transformed into a war zone. The Great Boston Molasses Flood claimed the lives of twenty-one people and scores of animals, injured more than a hundred, and caused widespread destruction."

The above is quoted from author Stephen Puleo, who has published a wonderful book about the flood called "Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919." It tells the story of what happened and also places the event in historical context. For more information on the book, you can visit his website at http://www.stephenpuleo.com.

In this week's The Brookline Parent column at Brookline Patch, gnomi looks back at how things have changed for our kids since the beginning of 2012. Muffin and Squeaker have grown and matured in a variety of ways, and some of those ways might not be what you'd expect.

Go read My, How We've Grown to see, well, how they've grown.

I feel like I should say something about the end of the old Gregorian year, or the beginning of the new one, but I really don't know what to say.

I will say this. It'll be weird not seeing Dick Clark on the television in a few hours. That is, assuming I'm still awake.

Any questions?

Today, of course, is Christmas. If you're celebrating Christmas, may you have a merry one, full of happiness.

It's also Isaac Newton's birthday, something I always like to commemorate given my background in Physics.

And earlier in the month of December, I celebrated the festival of Chanukah. Let's take each of these in turn.

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So that's it. To all my Christian friends, as I said before, may you have a merry and joyous Christmas. To all my Jewish friends, I hope you had a happy Chanukah. To all my friends who celebrate some other holiday of the season, may it be for good. And for those of my friends who celebrate no holiday at all, may you enjoy a good start to the Gregorian New Year of 2013.

In the wake of last week's news out of Newtown, CT, gnomi and I use this week's The Brookline Parent column at Brookline Patch to write an open letter to our daughters.

Click to read Dear Muffin and Squeaker.

Nomi spotted an obituary in today's paper this morning for Reinhold Weege, the television writer and producer who created the TV show Night Court. The New York Times obituary is here.

I had no personal connection to Mr. Weege, but I loved the show when I was growing up. I thought it was wacky and quirky and wonderful. For those of you unfamiliar with the show, it was set in a night court in New York City, set up to get through minor cases and clear the daily backlog of the court system. Harry Anderson played Harry T. Stone, the judge who ran the court. Given the show's locale, and the fact that my mom was a lawyer and later a judge, I found the premise particularly appealing. I was delighted when Nomi and I discovered it was among the many shows we both had enjoyed before we knew each other.

I also remember when I first noticed the name of the show's creator. One episode focused on (among other things) the real first name of character Dan Fielding (the annoying DA played to a hilt by John Larroquette, who won four well-deserved Emmys for his role). At the end of the episode, we discover that Dan has hidden his first name from everyone because it's Reinhold, and everyone agrees that it's a ridiculous first name. And then the first end credit flashed on the screen, and it was the name Reinhold Weege. I appreciated the inside joke, and the fact that presumably Mr. Weege was sharing with his audience a little bit of what he had dealt with all his life with his first name.

Sadly, Night Court isn't all that available to watch today. There was a DVD release of the first season a few years ago, but it didn't sell too well, and as far as I know they never released any of the other seasons. If you're looking for a show that will make you laugh, but with plots that will also make you think, I highly recommend tracking it down. (ETA: Apparently I was in error. Seasons of the show are indeed available on DVD! Thanks to Tom Galloway for pointing that out.)

I'll end with something I recall from the start of the show. In the first episode, everyone in the court is wondering why Harry Stone got appointed, as he is rather unqualified. Stone tells the story: they went down the list, calling candidates, and he was the first one to show up.

There's a life lesson in that.

Rest in peace, Mr. Weege. Thanks for the laughs.

In this week's The Brookline Parent column at Brookline Patch, I discuss Brookline Town Meeting's recent votes to ban polystyrene cups and plastic grocery bags.

What is the connection between these votes and Muffin and Squeaker? Read "Roots in the Future" to find out.

And if you're a fan of either Spider Robinson's Callahan's Bar stories or J. Michael Straczynski of "Babylon 5" fame, there's a little bonus for you.

Tomorrow's The Brookline Parent column on Brookline Patch, "Roots in the Future," begins with a quote from Spider Robinson and ends with a quote from J. Michael Straczynski. And in between, a discussion of Brookline Town Meeting. What do all of those things have to do with each other and with Muffin and Squeaker? Read the column tomorrow morning at 9 and find out...

So, if I hypothetically were to have another collection of stories coming out, what would people want to see in it? :-)

The list of my published stories can be found here.

Note that in theory, I wouldn't want to include the stories already collected in I Remember the Future.

gnomi has a post about today's 70th anniversary of the Cocoanut Grove Fire. Go read it and follow the links.