Middlesex Bank Marquee

[cleanup-davissq.livejournal.com]

Oh. My. God. This is hideous. It changes the whole vibe of the Square. How on Earth did they get permission to put that monstrosity up?
Why have they no concept of how ugly this is?

Comments

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

Why are you posting from a pseudonymous no-content account?

This sure doesn't give me the warm fuzzies that you're really a member of the Davis Square community, any more than push_stars is.

[irinarasp.livejournal.com]

Nothing against you personally, I'm sure you're a very nice person. But, that was a pretty stalker-like reply.

How do I know your profile isn't fake? Well, I know it isn't because I'm pretty sure I've seen you around Davis Square. But, your user pic might be fake, too.

Creepy, creepy.

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure where you see "stalker" coming from.

You may not have noticed, but there are accounts around here that don't seem to be occupied by actual people. They apparently exist only for the purpose of sending promotions to community groups. Click on my user name and you'll see a three-year trail of entries. Click on cleanup_davissq or push_stars and you'll see absolutely nothing. That doesn't seem like anybody who's actually a community member.

[ron_newman]

But it's legitimate to join LJ only to participate in local communities. That's pretty much all I do here. Someday maybe I'll have a real journal of my own, but right now I prefer to engage in conversations rather than to write a personal monologue.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

But you *do* engage in conversations. Even if you don't have a real journal (which I've never checked!), you participate in a lot of the comment threads around here; you don't just post the occasional, possibly political, post and then vanish. I get the definite sence that you're a real person with a real investment, and I really appreciate the posts you make because they are so informative. But when people have no real journal, don't engage in comment threads except on their own posts, and only make posts pertaining to particular special interests...I feel like I'm just being proselytized to, and I can't respond because the person vanishes.

(Also you give every impression of using your real name, which gives you a special sort of credibility.)

[artic-monkeys.livejournal.com]

Yes How do we know you are anything but a bunch of astro turf?

Oh and in case you had a genuine interest in understanding this you might start with this information:

There is little doubt that the Founders engaged in anonymous political writing. The essays in the Federalist Papers, published under the pseudonym of "Publius," are only the most famous example of the outpouring of anonymous political writing that occurred during the ratification of the Constitution. John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton shared the pen name "Publius" when they wrote the Federalist Papers.

Alexander Hamilton wrote several newspaper essays using a variety of pen names taken from characters from ancient Rome.

Benjamin Austin, a Baptist minister and author of some of the Federalist Papers, wrote under the pseudonym "Candidus."

Benjamin Franklin often wrote under pseudonyms, including "Silence Dogood," "the Busy-Body," "Obadiah Plainman," "Robin Good-fellow," and of course, "Poor Richard." Franklin frequently used the name "Richard Saunders," the same pseudonym as he had used when he wrote "Poor Richard's Almanack," which was first published in 1732. As Richard Saunders, Franklin was given both the freedom to express his thoughts and the freedom to do so with dramatic license.

Samuel Adams, perhaps the most effective rabble-rouser in American history, was known to incite riots with his articles, published under several pen names so that the British would think that their opposition was stronger than it really was at the time.

John Adams, our second president, often used the pseudonym "Novanglus" when he wrote, but he was published frequently by the Boston Gazette under the name "Clarendan."

John Leland, a Baptist minister and American patriot, wrote under the pseudonym of "Jack Nipps."

John Carroll, the first Bishop of our nation, used the alias "Pacificus" for his documents.

These are just a few examples. Our founding fathers, as well as others who were deeply involved in the events that led up to the American Revolution and the founding of the United States of America, used pseudonyms often, and for a variety of reasons. One significant reason was to avoid being arrested by the British.

An excellent job of cut-and-paste.

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

Next time, though, you might want to include a citation of the person whose words you are stealing. I'm sure the Magic City Morning Star of Millinocket, Maine, can use the publicity.

A Climate of Fear
By Ken Anderson
Mar 22, 2005
http://magic-city-news.com/article_3468.shtml

And I'm curious as to just why you excluded these two concluding paragraphs from your cut-and=paste:

But they are afraid. They are afraid for themselves, their families, jobs, homes, and camps. They are afraid of having their names published in the newspaper. They are afraid of being ridiculed in the press, and even in church. They are afraid of the sheer hatred that is likely to be directed their way if they dare to defy the folks at MAGIC. They are afraid of their businesses being destroyed, of customers and even vendors being warned away from doing business with them, and I know from personal experience that these fears are not at all unwarranted. Some are even afraid for their lives.

So, the Magic City Morning Star will continue to publish letters anonymously when that is requested, because to do otherwise would be to further stifle the voice of the people of Millinocket. Our readers, of course, are free to give more or less credibility to anonymous letters than to those which are attributed.

I will follow the example you provided, and continue to give much less credibility to posts from entities with no significant LJ presence.

[ron_newman]

I'm not sure what your objection is here. The topic is certainly relevant to Davis Square, and this is a legitimate opinion, even though I may disagree with it. (My LJ account doesn't have any content, either.)

[push-stars.livejournal.com]

Who cares if you have a warm and fuzzy feeling. A community is about more than just you. If you would like to meet personally and non-anoumsously to discuss the legitimacy of what community I can or can not belong to I would be more than happy to do so.

[cleanup-davissq.livejournal.com]

I believe it's called ..er, "free speech"...!

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

You can post your opinion as you have above, but remember what I told you -- you may not issue blanket insults about Davis residents or sectors of the community as you've done in the past.

/mod

[mattdm [typekey.com] (from livejournal.com)]

I'm gonna havta say I agree. Ugh.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Eh, I didn't mind it. It was different, and that was pretty much my opinion. I'm short and unobservant so I'm not likely to notice it much.

[spatch]

It's pretty damn bright at night. Bright and orange. You can see it all the day down Day Street, f'rinstance.

[ron_newman]

Yep, I think they need to tone it down a bit. It's quite noticeable even during the middle of the day, all the way from Mass. Ave.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Mmm, OK, I can imagine that. I only saw it during the day.

[ah42.livejournal.com]

Photos, anyone? I'm not likely heading into the square for a while...

[xjustquietx.livejournal.com]

I didn't know how I felt about it at first. I think I initially thought, "Ew," but then I didn't feel like I hated it. Like ukelele said - it's just different. I imagine in a few weeks we'll all be used to it, like it's hardly even there.

I don't think it changes the vibe of the square at all; after I saw it I focused on jaywalking and meeting up with my friend and I completely forgot about it.

[dominika-kretek.livejournal.com]

Couldn't they have gotten one that was at least modern-looking, instead of something from the fire sale at the warehouse of the lowest bidder? I mean, I've seen signs on top of cabs that are better looking.

[cleanup-davissq.livejournal.com]

The thing is, it is not a matter of getting "used to it", it is a matter of why should we put up with this visual pollution just because a bank wants to advertise itself? What sort of arrogance do they have to think we want this ugly thing in the Square? I don't understand passive acquiescence.

[mattdm [typekey.com] (from livejournal.com)]

It seems to mostly scroll sports scores.

[ron_newman]

I have yet to see it display anything other than major league baseball scores. (No World Cup scores.)

[artic-monkeys.livejournal.com]

Everyone has a different sense of what is or is not visual pollution. I guess with noise, it is easier because you can define a relative decibel level and time of day to allow it. I believe there have been some ordinances passed or discussed by our city that have to do with signs that contain ads for alcahol. If it has finally become a law though, they are definetly not enforcing it everywhere. I don't know how much I would want to regulate this kind of stuff; on the other hand, I would not want my neighbor to put a giant blinking neon sign that spewed light into my windows all night.

Oh yea, here is the link to the alias story. http://magic-city-news.com/printer_3468.shtml

[ron_newman]

The Middlesex sign is an item at the end of this Wednesday's Davis Square Task Force agenda. If you have something to say about it, please attend the meeting.

[ron_newman]

If you'd like to tell Middlesex Federal how you feel about the sign, and you can't walk in during business hours, you can send them a message here:

http://www.middlesexfederal.com/contact.asp

I just send them a message pointing them at this page. (I don't have a strong opinion yet, so I didn't express one.)

not a fan

[jd-science.livejournal.com]

thanks for the link. I just sent them the following comment.

I live in the Davis Square area and wanted to express my unhappiness with the new scrolling marquee above your bank. This weekend I was sitting in the square with some friends, and within five minutes we saw the words "death" and "kill" repeated several times. This does not seem appropriate at all for large, bright broadcasting in the middle of Davis Square.

I realize that the marquee was just scrolling news headlines, but I don't believe that news headlines - particularly those types of headlines - really aren't that important to building a truly informed public and in fact contribute to a destructive social atmosphere. If the marquee must be there (which I don't think it great, but I understand you've probably put a lot of money into it), I'd prefer it just to scroll the time, temperature, and maybe sports scores. And please nothing about death, killing, children being bombed, and so forth. We can get enough of that everywhere else.

Re: not a fan

[ron_newman]

maybe it could instead announce local events, like the Davis Square Farmers' Market, or the upcoming city fireworks, or poetry readings at McIntyre & Moore.

Re: not a fan

[jd-science.livejournal.com]

i like it.

also, i just noticed some typos in my original comment - most significantly, i meant "I believe that news headlines..." not "I don't believe..."

Re: not a fan

[ron_newman]

Just curious - when did you see the news headlines? All I've seen so far are major-league baseball scores. And yesterday, it was turned off whenever I went by it.

Re: not a fan

[jd-science.livejournal.com]

Saturday late afternoon/early evening, maybe around 5 or 5:30 pm. It was pretty awful.