Visit the Little Free Libraries of Somerville

[ron_newman]

A Little Free Library is a neighborhood box of books, where anyone can take a book or leave a book for others to read. Somerville has three that I know of:

The Book House at 44 Kidder Avenue, built by Todd Kaplan and Rivkah Lapidus

The Little Library of Ball Square, housed in a converted phone booth in front of True Grounds, 717 Broadway. Akil Williams and James Fox built this for the Friends of the Somerville Public Library, as part of the Somerville Arts Council's and Nave Gallery's Phone Art Box project.

The Little Library of 22 Willoughby Street, built by several neighbors on that street.

( Photos behind this cut )

do you live in the 5th Congressional District? don't forget to vote today!

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Somerville isn't actually in that district, but Ron suggested to me that there are enough readers from surrounding communities that are to warrant a friendly reminder that today is the special election to fill the Congressional vacancy left by Ed Markey's rise to the Senate.

When I voted at 10:15 a.m., I was just the 26th person to have cast a ballot in my ward and precinct. Why should more of us get out there to vote? Consider that Markey held this seat from 1976 to 2013. Now think about who has the chance to hold it for potentially the next few decades, and how few votes are currently set to decide who will represent us. It matters.

The candidates are:
Democratic: Katherine Clark
Republican: Frank Addivinola
Justice Peace Security: James Hall
Independent: James Aulenti

Here's an article detailing some of the basic differences between the D and R candidates. It's pretty much your standard D/R divide these days. James Aulenti has a campaign website, and so does James Hall.

If you're unsure whether you live in the 5th Congressional District, you can check this map to find out.

Just Energy

[jadelennox]

Just FYI, Just Energy sales rep was ringing doorbells in my neighborhood (East Arlington) tonight. It's the usual scam: he strongly implied he was with NStar; led me to believe he was an NStar rep checking for irregularities in my bill; flat out lied when I asked if he was selling something. I didn't open the door because he pinged all my BS radars and I vaguely recalled the post last month. (Thanks, DSLJ!)

I'm making a new post because this guy strongly implied he was with NStar. He answered questions about whether he was with NStar evasively ("We're a company contracting with NStar," while gesturing to the clipboard in his hand that had an NStar bill on it. And yes, he was hard to get off the porch.