We are here to protect you

[spatch]

Citizens of Davis Square: This is the MBTA. Do not be alarmed. We come in peace.

It has come to our attention that you may think that we are growing lax in our ever-vigilant quest to ensure safety, peace and prevent terrorists from blowing up our one true symbol of freedom: those creepy mime statues in Seven Hills Park and across the street in the square proper. To remedy this situation, you will all be relieved and reassured to know that we have set up a Freedom Checkpoint this morning on the fare collection level of the Davis Square T Stop.

Freedom Officers will be onhand, sitting at the special table we have set up for this purpose and also standing in front of the Charlie gates, conducting completely random and in no way arbitrary Freedom Searches of your personal possessions. This is for your own safety. It is for your own good. We cannot afford to let another domestic terrorist slip through our fingers, just like the last time when... the last time when... well, if we had let one slip through our fingers, you can bet we wouldn't let it happen again!

When approached by one of our friendly, official-looking Freedom Officers, dressed in black and toting impressive amounts of Peacekeeping Gear, please adhere to the following guidelines:

1. Do not be alarmed. This instills panic among your fellow passengers and makes you look like a suspect.
2. Say "Yes, sir" and "No, sir" to the nice officers. Using impolite language makes you look like a suspect.
3. Obligingly offer your bag, your purse, and any other personal containers you may have for inspection and explosives swabbing. What with the large amounts of explosives being shuttled through Davis Square Station on a daily basis, it is imperative we confiscate as much of it as possible. Not being obligingly compliant makes you look like a suspect.
4. Do not complain that setting a Freedom Checkpoint up at a subway station in the middle of morning rush is a waste of time, or that it's nothing but security theater. Disparaging our efforts to make sure you are safe for yourself and others is spitting in the faces of Uncle Sam, Lady Liberty, and a bald eagle, and will make you look like a suspect. And besides, being late for work is a small sacrifice to pay for national security.
5. Expect that with full compliance, a precedent will be set for more random bag searches at various checkpoints in the future, so print out a list of these guidelines and take them with you everywhere. Failure to remember that we are doing this will make you look like a suspect.
6. Don't even think about taking photographs of anything or anyone on MBTA property. Only suspects take pictures.

In short, suspects, please be reassured that we at the MBTA respect you and your freedoms highly, and it is only for your safety and security that we consider you all guilty until proven innocent. Maybe someday we will crack down on actual crimes committed on MBTA property, from the guy who sells you a copy of Spare Change only to give you a free copy of the Metro in return to the kids who make furtive drug deals underneath the staircases when they think nobody is watching, but until then, we consider you, the commuters, the monthly passholders, the riding populace, to be the suspects. You scum. We'll get you if it's the last thing we do.

And remember, if you are truly innocent, well, then you have nothing to hide... but we'll be the judge of that.


Yours,

Jack Boots
Freedom Officer at Large

Junkyard

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Xposted to b0st0n. I didn't see anything in the tags..

Hi all - I hit a bad bump/maybe the curb on the Mystic Parkway and am now missing a hubcap. Does anyone know/have experience iwth junkyards around here that might have auto salvage to pick thru?Alternatively if anyone has a bead on an 02-05 Camry 16" hubcap I'd like to talk.

I'm not paying the dealer $80 for 1.5 lbs of plastic, that much is certain!

New Mailers from Sciortino and Trane

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

I figured I'd post the new fliers I got in the mail from the two campaigns. People are still commenting on the last one, so if you'd like to see it, it's visible here.

( Here are the new ones... )

Annual 9/11 vigil in Davis Square, Thursday evening

[ron_newman]

Somerville's annual 9/11 memorial candlelight vigil will occur this Thursday evening. The vigil will begin at 6:30 pm with a procession from the Cedar Street end of the Community Path, and then conclude with a short ceremony in Davis Square.

For more information, read the city's press release.

And here's another local 9/11-related event, later the same evening.

Flood cleanup?

[winterhill.livejournal.com]

We had a sewer backup in the condo building which resulted in flooding in our shared basement.  Got an estimate from Service Master to clean it up but it was really high ($2700) and involved haz/mat suits and HEPA filters and rebuilding of the partitions between storage spaces -- basically everything but the kitchen sink.  I am not sure we need to do that much remediation but have no idea if this is standard or not. 

I looked through posts back to July 2007 but saw nothing about this.  Anyone have a recommendation?  Thanks in advance.

looking for a good house painter/carpenter

[samsdaddy.livejournal.com]

Does anyone know a good, reliable and affordable house painter/carpenter? My wife and I need some work done on our house to spiff it up for our new baby. Thanks in advance for the tips! 

Documentary Play About 9/11 to be Performed at Tufts University on Thursday Evening

[ludimagist.livejournal.com]

My play Bystander 9/11: A Documentary Piece Concerning the Events of September 11th, 2001 is going to be given a staged reading on the evening of Thursday, September 11th on the 3rd floor of the Tisch Library at Tufts University at 9:30 PM.

Here is a review of a performance of the play from 2004 at Brandeis University.

Questions about neighbor's tree surgeon

[fappyheet.livejournal.com]

I have a question that relates to neighbors and contract work. A fence separates our back yard from the (non-resident landlord) neighbor's yard. There's a tall tree on his side with foliage sufficient to shade both yards. Up until this story, the limbs have been long enough to reach our roof. One of our neighbor's tenants (who we chat with occasionally) does landscaping work. In the spring, this tenant pointed out how the branches from the neighbor's tree could rub against our roof and damage it. The gist of the conversation was "we wouldn't a tree of ours to damage your roof, so it should be trimmed back." I thought that made sense and said to go ahead and trim. During the summer, he came by a few times and used the landlord's ladder to trim branches above our roof and that of an adjacent neighbor. I assisted once or twice with cleanup and holding the ladder.

Last week, I heard that he was done and thought, "Great! No more evil tree branches." Last weekend, the tenant put a hand-written bill for "tree surgery" in our mailbox. It surprised us, given that we'd never contracted with him, just agreed to the request for access to trimming the branches. We haven't responded yet, since I'd rather know where we stand legally. Plus, we got along well enough as neighbors and I don't want to sour that unnecessarily.

There are two easy questions:
1) If a tree trunk is on your property, are you responsible for the foliage? I know there are "air rights" for buildings, but this strikes me as different, since the branches really could damage our roof.
2) Am I free to reject the bill, given there was no advance agreement for services? I've confirmed no one else in the building agreed to payment or any compensation. If anything, we allowed it BECAUSE it wouldn't cost us anything, otherwise we would've vetted him professionally first.

Muchos gracias!

(Checked through the "gardening" and "legal" DS archives with no luck, other than an entertaining conversation about Tom Champion's search for a tree surgeon.)

neighborhood mystery on Rogers Ave

[ms-info.livejournal.com]

Does anyone know the story behind the hearts on the sidewalk on the Morrison-Kidder side of Rogers Ave? The odd side of the street has red hearts on the sidewalk in the front of the houses, the even side of the street has white hearts. They appeared two or so years ago. This evening I had the opportunity to ask someone who lives on that side of the street, he found them to be just as mysterious. Inquiring minds want to know...do you have the answer?