April 3, 2025 • 39 mins
We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!
Massachusetts’ Most Financially Savvy High School Students Compete at the State Finals of the 2025 National Personal Finance Challenge! With Christopher Caltabiano - Chief Program Officer at the Council for Economic Education.
The history of the Haskell Free Library and Opera House – the library half in the U.S. & Half in Canada that has been caught in the middle of US/Canada tensions. With Matthew FarFan – Local Historian and Former President of the Haskell Free Library and Opera House.
How a song became the state's official poem in MA! With Colin Young – State House News Reporter.
The Top Pet Peeve Among Neighbors, according to a 2025 Survey from Home Gnome. With Jeff Herman - editor-in-chief of Home Gnome.
Listen to WBZ NewsRadio on the NEW iHeart Radio app and be sure to set WBZ NewsRadio as your #1 preset!
Massachusetts’ Most Financially Savvy High School Students Compete at the State Finals of the 2025 National Personal Finance Challenge! With Christopher Caltabiano - Chief Program Officer at the Council for Economic Education.
The history of the Haskell Free Library and Opera House – the library half in the U.S. & Half in Canada that has been caught in the middle of US/Canada tensions. With Matthew FarFan – Local Historian and Former President of the Haskell Free Library and Opera House.
How a song became the state's official poem in MA! With Colin Young – State House News Reporter.
The Top Pet Peeve Among Neighbors, according to a 2025 Survey from Home Gnome. With Jeff Herman - editor-in-chief of Home Gnome.
Listen to WBZ NewsRadio on the NEW iHeart Radio app and be sure to set WBZ NewsRadio as your #1 preset!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's night Side with Dan Ray on WBSY, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Thank you so much, Nicole. Not good news in the
stock market today, but well you won't even mention it.
We'll see what's going to happen next. We're going to
be talking about that later on tonight. By the way,
at ten o'clock, give you that a little more of
that in just a moment. My name is Dan Ray.
I'm the host of Nightside here every Monday through Friday
night from eight until midnight. Rob Brooks, the producer of
(00:29):
the program, is back in Broadcast Central over in Midford,
and he will be taking all your phone calls, setting
you all up when you start to dial the phone,
which is anytime after at nine o'clock. We have four guest,
interesting guests and some kind of different funny stories here.
As a matter of fact, in this next hour we'll
(00:49):
get to them all interesting that is for sure.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Some of them have some news.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Value, some of them are just really more just curiosities
and interest that I enjoy this hour.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
I hope you do as well.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I will tell you that coming up at nine o'clock
will be talking with Boston merriw candidate Josh Kraft about
the decision by a Superior Court judge that will permit
the demolition of the old white stadium and the construction
of a new multimillion dollar at least two hundred million
dollar stadium in the middle of Franklin Park. We also
(01:22):
will talk with Professor Greg Styler Boston University School. He
is he's a business school professor. There, a business school teacher,
I should say, and he will talk about the tariffs
and the implications. By the way, Greg, who's a friend,
He's made about fifty trips to China. He trains business people.
(01:48):
He works at what's called the Questrum School of Business
at Boston University.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
So we'll talk to him at ten o'clock.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
And there may be another topic or two along the way,
but without any further Ado, let's get directly to our guests.
And I am delighted to welcome Christopher Caltiviano. Massachusetts high
school students are developing I guess, thank goodness, some knowledge
of finances and the economy, so it certainly his timely
(02:18):
topic to talk with my guest. Christopher Caltabiano, tell us
about this program. We have I guess some savvy, some
financially savvy high school students here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Welcome.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Thanks for having me Dan, and I hope that this
would be considered one of your news stories as opposed
to an interesting tale, because I think you're given some
of what we saw today happening. It might be relevant
to people going forward, very.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Relevant, absolutely very relevant. So tell us how this is
a Is this a Massachusetts program or is this Massachusetts
students participating in a regional or a national program? Tell
us about it.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Yeah, this is a national program. Actually, this will be
the Massachusetts state program of a national program run by
my organization, Council for Economic Education, called the National Personal
Finance Challenge, And we are looking for the best and
brightest students in the country when it comes to the
matter of personal finance. So what's going on next week
here in Massachusetts is going to be the Massachusetts level competition.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Okay, So how do we determine that? How to I
assume that you're not looking for entrance at this point.
I assume there must have been some some programs run
regionally here in Massachusetts. Again, I am unaware of it.
That's why I'm asking fairly broad questions.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Absolutely, absolutely, and first of all, it's for high school
level students, so ninth to twelfth graders. We're starting to
build in Massachusetts, and there's some reasons why we think
there's room to grow. I can get into in a moment.
We wa had about six hundred students across the state
participate in an early round, which is really a test
primarily about topics of personal finance spending, saving, earning, investing,
(04:03):
protecting yourself, risk and insurance. There the whole gamut of
topics when it comes to the personal finance. The best
performing students and those tests have been advanced now to
participate in an in person competition that will take place
next Tuesday fifteenth at MFS Investment Managements Campus in Boston.
So those top eight teams will be presented with a scenario,
(04:26):
a family scenario. Mom is does X, Dad does?
Speaker 5 (04:30):
Why they have these kids?
Speaker 4 (04:31):
They have these financial goals, This is what their earnings are,
These are what their risks are. Build them a financial
plan and they will have they will have time to
build that plan and then they will actually present that
plan to panels of judges from all sorts of companies
right here in Massachusetts. Will have will have representatives from
those companies actually judging those students and identifying the strongest.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Ones winners who will go ahead picked at different grades
at different levels or is it a winner take all
high one high school team wins.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
YEP.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
So what'll happen is the top four performing teams of
those eight will then go onto a quiz bowl round
where they will be asked kind of, you know, answer
this question and they will have to respond to that question.
The top performing team from that will then be crowned
the Massachusetts state champion. They will then go on to
the national finals, which are going to be held in Atlanta,
Georgia this year at Voya Financials offices. They're the primary,
(05:26):
but not exclusive funder of this program. They will compete
against students from across the country. Will probably have thirty
five to forty states at minimum represented at that so
they will compete against their counterparts across the country.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
So let's assume that the Massachusetts kids win it all.
Is there some prize that I think that they probably
should be awarded college scholarships? But I'm sure that's a
little ambitious. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
No, our top performers are national champions, will all Actually
they get cold hard cash. So there are cash awards
for the top performers in the competition.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
And do they have to pay for their own again,
it's just just a question that is.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Yeah, they pay their transportation and back, they pay their
way there. But once they're there, we cover all expenses,
so their hotel, their food, all of that will do.
You know, We'll do some fun events, so they just
have to get themselves there.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
That's great, That is great. And when is that weekend?
When is the championship weekend? I know that this weekend
is matt March maddeness. When when does your your weekend?
We have to have a name for it here, April
Avarice or.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Money makers go ahead.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
Yeah, so April is financial literacy month. So it's a
good time for us to be doing this at the
state level. The state competitions are next Tuesday to fifteenth,
and the national finals will be held June first and second.
As they said in Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Well that's going to be great, beautiful time of year
to be in Georgia early June, that's for sure. Well,
this is this sounds great.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Is this the first year for Massachusetts.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
It's the first year that we've done this in person,
competition in quite some time, many many years ago we did.
We get away from it, but we're holding we're bringing
it back again. We're bringing back the in person round.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
So tell us we'll be.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
Able to do that again.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Tell us about your program. You the Council for Economic
Education in Yeah, and so we have left here. Tell
us what that does and how people can get in
contact with you or if they're interested in participating in
this next year, go ahead.
Speaker 5 (07:26):
Sure.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
So we're a nonprofit organization, been around seventy five years
and our focus is helping young people acquire the financial
and economic knowledge to be able to manage their lives,
the lives of their families, their communities as well and
frankly the entire country. So we work with primarily, as
I said, K twelve teachers as well as students, providing
them really awesome resources, helping do professional development development for teachers.
(07:52):
We do this competition. We have another competition similar in economics.
We have a program specifically focused on helping helping girls
see themselves in the financial world, so really focused on
that economic and financial education at the K twelve level.
We are at Council for econ ed dot Org. Council
f o r econ ed dot org is our website.
(08:12):
Love to have people check us out. I think we
do great work and we're helping to build the next
generation of savvy of savvy investors, savvy economists as well.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Well, I'll tell you it's certainly is subject is going
to be in the minds of everybody for the next
few weeks.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
If not a few months.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
And we'll be talking about this with a business school Well,
we'll be talking about the tariffs with the business school
professor tonight. We talked last night with a Globe columnist
last last evening, which was again the topic of conversation,
Larry Edelman from the Boston Globe. And tell you it's
going to be a big subject and people are going
(08:52):
to be much more interested in this in the next
year to year and a half, I would.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Think, absolutely, And having this financial knowledge will help people
to navigate their financial lives as things get stronger and
as things get weaker.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Christopher called Tobiano, thank you very much. We'll talk again.
That's sounds like a great program.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Roll we get back to talk about an international dispute. Well,
it's really not a dispute, but it is International. There's
a library in Vermont and Canada. It actually the library
straddles both countries. The border between the United States and
Canada in part of Vermont goes right through the middle
of the library.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
It's a fascinating story.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
We'll tell you all about it coming up right after
this break. My name is Dan Ray. This is Nightside.
You're listening to WBZ ten thirty or your AM dial. You,
of course, also can go to hern iHeart radio station.
You can go to your app store and pull down
the free iHeart app, the new and improved iHeart app,
and you can then put us on your app your
first preset, so you will always just be a fingertip
(09:57):
away from WBZ whe anywhere in the world, three hundred
and sixty five days a year, twenty four to seven.
My name is Dan Ray. Do that, pull that app
down and join join the family. We'll be back on
Nightside with more talking about it. Kind of call it
a border dispute because people have lived up there with
this set of circumstances as a great interesting story behind it.
(10:19):
We'll explain it all on the other side of the break.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
It's Nightside with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio This is.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
A story that I read about two or three weeks ago,
and it has fascinated me. And I'm delighted to be
joined by Matthew parfin And, a local historian and former
president of the Haskell Free Library Ian Opera House. The
story involves a building that actually straddles the line that
(10:49):
separates Vermont from Quebec, or separates the United States from Canada. Matthew,
welcome to Nightside.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
How are you.
Speaker 6 (10:58):
Hey, How are you nice to be here?
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Well, thank you very much for joining us.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
This is a really interesting story. This it's called it.
I guess it's a fairly tiny library. But the building
is a pretty impressive building. Built in nineteen oh four.
There were donations made by a family. This it's a
beautiful looking building. Tell us about the building described. I'm
(11:24):
looking at a picture of it, but I'd love you
to describe it so people can understand it is a
beautiful looking building.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
Yeah. Sure.
Speaker 6 (11:33):
It is a large brick and granite building built right
on the border between Vermont and the province of Quebec,
which is in Canada. And picture yourself living in a
house with the international border going right through it.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
I think that there are actually.
Speaker 6 (11:51):
It's a library. I think that there're a library and
an opera house.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yeah, I think that there are actually some private homes,
maybe up in northern Maine or somewhere in Michigan or whatever.
But this was done intentionally. In other words, this is
not sort of an occurrence where they changed the geographic boundaries.
This free library and opera house straddles these two towns
(12:18):
Stanstead Quebec or Quebec Wui as they would prefer us
to say, and Derby Line, Vermont. Now they are not
big communities. I don't have the population numbers at my hand,
but I think the story that I read says that
Derby Line Vermont six hundred and sixty people, and Stanstead Quebec,
(12:38):
a thriving metropolis, the twenty eight hundred people.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
So all in all, we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Thirty six or so what are thirty four hundred people?
And it's a beautiful looking library inside. And it came
to be built through the generosity of a family. And
it was built to straddle the border.
Speaker 5 (12:57):
Correct, that's right.
Speaker 6 (13:00):
It was built intentionally, and it was built before they
changed the law which forbid anything within ten feet of
the actual border on either side. So they got in
about six years before that law was passed. I think
it was around nineteen ten. My little old lady, her
name was Martha Haskell. She lived across the street. It
(13:22):
was a vacant lot. She loved to entertain in her
big mansion, and she liked culture and she liked books.
She loved performances and concerts. She was born in Bada,
but she lived in Derby Line and her vision was
to have this beautiful cultural institution serve Americans and Canadians.
(13:49):
And it's been doing that ever since. It's one hundred
and twenty some odd years. Yeah, of course it's still
going strong.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
My understanding is that.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Canadian citizens would come in through one side of the
library and the American US citizens would come in through
the other. But once you're inside the library and the
opera house, I guess everybody's sort of mingled and no
problems at all. And I know that it has become
sort of a point of, if nothing else, curiosity in
(14:21):
view of some of the stuff that's been in the
year politically.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
And I don't necessarily want to.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Go into any of that in any depth, but I
assume for over the hundred years, one hundred and twenty
or so years, a lot of friendships have been made
and there's never been a problem as far as I
can tell, and I'm sure you know better than I.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
These are people who live and who share.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
They live in two countries, they live in two towns
in one in the province, one in a state, but
they share a library and everything. There's no problems once
you're inside the library, as far as as I can tell, right, there.
Speaker 6 (15:03):
Are never problems in the library or the opera house,
just a small correction. Door is actually on the Vermont side.
Canadians and Americans have always been free to use the
same door, and that until recently, that's where the problem
has started. That's a new development. So the Canadians are
(15:25):
going to be building a beautiful door on the Canadian side,
so which is a bit of a shame. But the
library will continue once the patrons are in the library
or in the opera house, whatever they're doing, it's completely open.
It's friendly. People from both countries are free to mingle
(15:45):
and exchange and use the facilities. That's a very friendly,
open place.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Yeah, so maybe I misunderstood. I thought that there was
sort of a door on each side. So there was
only a front door, one door on the on the
US side, and that's the problem right now, there has
to be another door has to be built on the
other side of the on the Canadian side.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Is that true?
Speaker 6 (16:10):
Correct?
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Hmm, it's interesting. Interesting.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
So Canadians worried that they would be stopped from I guess,
walking around the building to go in the front door,
which is on the American side. Is that a real
concern at this point? I would hope it isn't.
Speaker 6 (16:31):
Well, you're getting off the top, you would lot me
to talk about that. Yes, the Canadians have been told
that their time is coming to an end where they
can pass by the Vermont side.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Oh okay.
Speaker 6 (16:43):
They've been raising funds on a GoFundMe campaign and within
two weeks they've raised one hundred and seventy five thousand dollars. Okay,
and that's just the start. So there's an incredible outpouring
from all the states and Canada and across the world.
(17:03):
In fact, donations have been coming in, people have been
visiting in person, leaving check it's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Do you do you want to let me ask you this.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
I don't want to put you any sort of an
international dispute here, Matthew, But do you want to mention
the gofund to be paid so people could could find it?
Or my producer said that you didn't want to talk politics,
so which I have kept, which I have dutifully avoided here,
and I have stumbled into this.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
I did not realize that that this.
Speaker 6 (17:32):
Element had supporting supporting the arts and culture and a
library or not talking politics. And I welcome anyone to
support the gofunding campaign. It's Haskell Free Library. The place
has a great history. It's a fantastic place. It's completely
(17:55):
open to both communities. It always have been century in
a quarter, still going strong. The trustees that run it
worked very hard. They come from both the US and
Canadian side. Uh and and they're going to keep They're
going to keep working to maintain that spirit which has
(18:16):
always existed there.
Speaker 5 (18:17):
So yeah, they love to see people and.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Uh yeah, well yeah it just as an outsider. I'm
an outsider. I've been to Vermont, I ben of Quebec.
The next time I'm up there, I'm going to visit
the library, if not the opera house as well. Obviously
there's not once they're inside the building. No, one's there
saying to the Canadians, you can't cross here, or to
the Americans, you can't cross there. It just seems to
(18:41):
me silly, uh, that there's no way in which they
can make an easier accommodation so that everyone can continue
with with a lot of ease, and that they should never, ever,
ever prevent Canadians from just walking into the US. You know,
there's a spot in western uh, the US called four Corners,
(19:04):
and I forget the states that are involved. I think Colorado, Arizona,
New Mexico, and maybe Utah where there's a spot where
you can literally stand in four states simultaneously. Uh.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
And yeah, Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
I'm losing I'm losing our connection here with you, Matthew.
And you've you've told the story. Well, you're you're bouncing
on us a little bit. Are you on a headset
or something? Matthew, you're gonna sell Okay, well, cell service.
Sometimes we got it in. That's the most we got
the story out. And I thank you, Matthew local historian,
(19:41):
for for joining us tonight. Have a lovely evening. Thank
you have a great night. All right, when we get
back right after the news, we're going to talk about
a story that I am I haven't had a chance
to read only because I can't get access to the story,
but Marita has just sent me a copy which I'm
going to speed read about how a song became the
(20:04):
official poem of the state of Massachusetts. Colin Young will
join us right after the break here on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Delighted to welcome Colin Young. Colin is a state House
news reporter with the State House News Service. Hey Colin,
how are you tonight?
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Hi?
Speaker 7 (20:26):
Dan, I'm doing very well. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
I was having trouble getting in to read your story
a little doing a little pre show prep here, and
Marita had to send me a cut and paste version.
So I don't know what's going on, but it was
tough to get into. We're gonna talk about I apologize,
not a problem at all. I'll check it out tomorrow.
I hope I haven't lost my subscription. Somehow, how a
(20:50):
song became the state's official poem. This is kind of interesting.
I didn't even realize we had an official poem here
in Massachusetts.
Speaker 7 (21:00):
You know, Dan, That's actually exactly what led me to
write this piece was seeing that April is National Poetry Month,
and just seeing that headline made me think, huh, do
we have an official poem in Massachusetts? And sure enough,
we do, and we've had it on the books. Gee's
(21:21):
going on almost fifty years now, since nineteen eighty one.
It's a poem called Blue Hills of Massachusetts. And I
actually have a little bit of trouble finding a copy
of it to be able to republish it in the
State House News Service this week, because it's not a poem.
You know, there are plenty of poets who have been
(21:44):
famous poets who have been associated with Massachusetts throughout the years,
but the official state poem is not by Emily Dickinson
or any of the others. It's by a woman named
Catherine Mullen, who was a ninety four year old retired
school teacher from Barry.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
She's currently she's still alive.
Speaker 7 (22:05):
No, no, she was ninety four years old in nineteen
eighty one when the legislature chose to make her poem
the official poem of Massachusetts.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Okay, so she was born in eighteen eighty seven.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
I just did some quick that's right.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Back in eighty one, I remember ed King was the governor,
and somehow, some way, I guess she had written a
poem that her students found out about or something, and
they invited her to the school and it became a
bit of a news story where they read the poem
to Is that the way the.
Speaker 7 (22:40):
Story went, Yeah, it was. It was a poem that
she had written while she was a teacher, and she
wrote it to help teach her students about the history
of Massachusetts and the seal and the flag and the
motto of the state. And when she returned to the
(23:01):
school in nineteen eighty after having retired, she returned just
to visit the school, and some of the children there
sang these verses back to her all these years later,
and it was a newspaper article about that, about the
students singing this poem to the former teacher that caught
(23:23):
the attention of state lawmakers in the area, and that's
what got this down the road to its sort of
official status.
Speaker 5 (23:31):
Now.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
So I'm doing some math in my head, calling and
I don't know if this was a new story, but
if she was born in eighteen eighty seven, she probably
turned sixty five around nineteen fifty two, and this poem,
if it was written while she was a teacher, would
have either had to have been written probably sometime in
(23:51):
the forties or maybe in the final years of her
time as a teacher, which would have been just after
or during World War Two. So it probably is a
pretty patriotic poem. And she retires, and thirty years later
or so, she's invited to come back to the school,
and all of a sudden, this becomes the official poem
(24:15):
of the state. It was a song, but it's become
a poem.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
That's right, it's still our poe.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
It's still our poem, right, I mean, our state.
Speaker 7 (24:26):
Poem exact already had an official state song.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Okay.
Speaker 7 (24:32):
The author said, well, let's call it a poem.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Okay, So again, give me the name, the title of
the poem.
Speaker 7 (24:41):
It's called Blue Hills of Massachusetts, Okay.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
I grew up in the shadow of Big Blue, which
is as you know, in Milton. So now I feel
really associated with the story.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Is there a.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Stanza that you'd like to repeat for us, so that
you might have in front of you. I couldn't find
the poem. I'm sorry, Oh.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
No, that you know.
Speaker 7 (25:01):
I was fascinated by that. Dan I had a hard
time finding it myself. I thankfully founded through the State
Library they had a copy of it.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
You know, you could repeat for you could read to us,
or no, if you don't, that's okay.
Speaker 7 (25:17):
Sure, I'll give you the last two, the final two
verses of the poem, Massachusetts.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
To clear your throat, Ladies and gentlemen, Colin Young, with
the official poem of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Speaker 7 (25:30):
Colin Massachusetts, Massachusetts, what a splendid history like our great
and glorious nation in its strength for liberty, Massachusetts, Massachusetts,
keep the faith, true pride in stills. May our trust
in you be steadfast as the everlasting hills.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
We need a round of applause from our digital studio audience.
Rob get this, wake up the studio audience, please, and
let's give call in a little round of a class.
That is an excellent rendition. Calling an excellent rendition. My
understanding is that we are in search. This is a
little bit of a we're giving people a little extra
(26:17):
hair calling. You know, there's a search for Massachusetts needs
a poet laureate. I didn't realize, right, we don't have one,
but that poem you could tell was written in the
era that we identified in the in the late salties
or right after World War Two.
Speaker 7 (26:42):
I had to be a little careful too, about which
verses I chose to read, because you know, as such,
there are some phrases in there that just simply aren't
phrases we use today. So probably not used with any
ill intent. They're just outdated terms.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Yeah, and I'll bet you they probably deal with the
act with the people who were uh residents or citizens
of the Axis.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Powers during World War Two. If I.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Justin, I'll take it a while, guest jar, Okay, I'll
just take away and you don't even have to confirm that.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Let's just let that one go.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
So tell us about the poet, Lawie, is this is
this as if this is a position that is open?
How much is the Is the position a funded position
or is it an honorific.
Speaker 7 (27:32):
Ah, they are trying to make it a funded position. Uh,
it's interesting.
Speaker 5 (27:41):
To me, you know.
Speaker 7 (27:41):
And going back to look back at the history of
the state poem.
Speaker 5 (27:45):
Uh, when the.
Speaker 7 (27:46):
Author said, well, let's call this song a poem, she said,
I don't know of any state that has a state poem.
So maybe Massachusetts was the first to adopt a state poem.
But it turns out we're now one of the last
to have a poet law warrit there are only Massachusetts
is one of three states to be without. Believe it
(28:06):
or not, I'm not sure how we've we've managed this
long without a poet Laureate, but we have well.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Knowing our legislature and the need for relatives and family
members and friends of state reps to be to find
gainful employment in the public. Say, my god, this stuns
me more than anything. Callin, I'll tell you.
Speaker 7 (28:31):
And there is a stipend involved the person chosen could get.
It's in the works. It's not set in stone, but
the poet laureate could get a fifteen thousand dollars stipend
for their work.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Okay, that's reasonable.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
I was hoping that it might be a six figure
number and that you and I could apply for it,
and I could. We could just sort of walk around
the State House an hour or so every day with
a pen and a scroll in hand and thinking great
thoughts and write any doubt phrases.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
That you might do.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Would you do me one final favorite? If Rob gave
you my uh my email at w b Z, would
you send me could you send me a copy of
that poem because I'm I'm really interesting, I'm interested. Thank you,
Thank you, Carlin. We got to have you back on.
I really enjoyed this. This was this was a fun segment. Uh,
(29:26):
and you made it a little bit of fun. Thanks
my friend. We will we will, we will talk soon
and uh, let's uh, let's keep in touch.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Have you been you've been with us before, right, I.
Speaker 7 (29:35):
Believe I have, I have. I always enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Well, yeah, come on, come on back more often because
I love talking to folks. I used I was a
reporter a long time ago, and so I I have
I have. I feel I always enjoy talking to reporters.
And you handled a touchy situation with greater plom I want.
Speaker 5 (29:56):
You to know that I appreciate it.
Speaker 7 (29:58):
I had some fun with it as well.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
We'll talk soon, all right, say there, Rob will give
you my email address and I'll have it'll be fun
to read that. Thanks so much when we get back,
we're going to This is not one you can participate,
and although maybe we could do it some Friday night,
we will disclose to you the top pet fee peeve
or the top pet peeves among neighbors according to a
(30:24):
twenty twenty five survey from Home Gnome. And that's g
n o emmy, and we're not talking about nom Alaska.
Back on night Side with Jeff Herman, the editor in
chief of Home Gnome.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Right after this, if you're on night Side with Dan
Ray on w Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
All right, welcome back, everybody. We are going to talk
now about a survey of the top pe pet peeves
amongst neighbors.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
In his poem The Mending.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Wall, Robert Frost wrote, good fences make good neighbors. Apparently
we need more fences with us as Jeff Herman, he's
the editor in chief of Home Gnome.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Have I pronounced Gnome g n O m E correctly?
Speaker 5 (31:14):
I hope yes, that is correct.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
It is not. It is Gnome.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
I just wanted up. All right, So what what prompted
you to conduct such a survey?
Speaker 5 (31:31):
Because so many of these things involve home services that
are needed to kind of fix things. If you have
a broken fence, you need somebody to stay it painted
or mend it. And if you have broken windows in
you know, your neighbor's house, or you have disputes over
the landscaping, you need help and so one thing you
need to do is turn to some people who can
help make that happen. And that's kind of what the
(31:53):
site's all about. But more than anything else, we want
to find out what people are upset about with their neighbors.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Okay, So now, first of all, let me give you
a chance. What what is the service of the website, homenome?
And the reason I want to get that out of
the way is I want people to understand sort of
like you're the foundation of this whole, this whole interview.
So if you need something done at your home, you
(32:21):
have a website people can go to and check it out.
Speaker 5 (32:24):
Absolutely, so you know, if it's painting, if it's plumbing,
if it's hvac, whatever it is, you know you can
find the people near you who can take that job
and do well for you.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Okay, So therefore your your you supply. When I need
something done in my hometown, you'll give me a list
of potential people who can do the job. And it's
a free serve. I assume us is a free service.
Speaker 5 (32:49):
Absolutely absolutely, and so it's home now.
Speaker 7 (32:52):
But your radio.
Speaker 5 (32:53):
Commercials before this session were fantastic. They were funny, they
were enlightening, and there are home services companies right where
you're listeners are, So I will puss with that.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Oh well, thank you very much. If you need commercials,
this is the this is the show to put the
commercials on. So let's let's talk about you guys. So
one in ten neighbors clash over home upkeep. So that
means if you're next door neighbor is a slob uh
or has fifteen junk cars in his yard and is
(33:26):
and is out there, you know, with a chainsaw on
Sunday morning at six point thirty when you're trying to
catch some sleep. These are some of the some of
the problems. Give us the top pet peeves that you
have found in the survey the home Gnome conducted.
Speaker 5 (33:44):
The top five pet peeves are garbage twenty seven point
four percent of the respondents, So that that's their number
one tet peeve, landscaping, lawn career, yards that just aren't
kept up. That's the second most common pet peeve.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
I missed it, hold on wastecond's the first one. What's
the first one?
Speaker 5 (34:02):
There's garbage. So if there's you know, with garbage, yeah,
you know, if it's if it stinks, you know, or
it's just piling up. That's a problem for you if
you're a living next person like this, So that's number one.
Number two. Landscape, your laun care. If the yard is
a mess, well that's going to be a problem because
(34:23):
that's not only unsightly, but it also can lower your
property values. So you know, keep the neighbor's yard clean,
keep your yard clean. Home maintenance. If the windows look
like they're falling apart, they're broken, you know, or you know,
the the gutters seem to be falling off the sides
of the house, that's another problem. So if things aren't
(34:45):
being addressed again, it makes you look bad because your
neighbor looks like this, it's going to be reflecting on
your home property. To noise. If you have a really
noisy neighbor like you just said, you know, he's operating
the chainsaw at seven o'clock in the morning. That cause
those issues. And pets they might not bite you, but
they might be doing things in your yard that you
(35:07):
don't want them to do, whether it's digging up the
flower bed or whether it's you know, leaving a mess
behind whatever it is. Pets can be a problem.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Too, Yeah, The other thing too, which I think we
should realize, is that you don't have to necessarily live
in a bad area of town. There was a story
a couple of years ago United States Senator rih and
Paul from Kentucky got into some sort of a skirmish
with his next door neighbor which ended up, I believe,
(35:36):
in a fistfight of some sort.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
Right, yeah, do you remember that story.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
I mean, there was two neighbors and I don't know
if politics are involved or whatever, but at one point
I think the guy sucker punched Brian Paul and it
was it was a big story. It's a United States
Senator that you know, you'd think most people would like
to be friends with, right as opposed to up in
a brawl. So, yeah, this is a problem, and I
(36:04):
think you have the key on it, and that is
that you're trying to keep your house as best you can.
No one expects the house next door and the house
across the street to be, you know, from the cover
of you know, home beautiful or something like that.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
But you're right, if all of a.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Sudden the shutters are falling off or the fences is
falling onto your property, generally, if that happens and you
try to talk to the neighbor. My suspicion is the
neighbor probably if they allow that to happen and allow
it to continue, they're probably not going to be really
open to some of your entreaties of hey, can you
(36:43):
fix the fence.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
I would suspect it.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Very rarely would someone in that situation say, oh, my goodness,
I didn't realize it was over. Oh excuse me, I'll
get that done tomorrow. I suspect it might be you
fix your thing and I'll fix my fence later and
bridge exactly.
Speaker 5 (37:01):
You know, neighbors is just tough. Sometimes they're good friends
and sometimes they're just difficult to get along with. I
lived in Saint Louis. The neighbor next door my other
half didn't get along with that neighbor at all, and
it went from you know, they were almost going to
start with a fist fight there. It was one of
the worst days because I'm trying to break up the
fist fight, and then it turned into the best day
(37:21):
because we went and adopted our puppy. So, you know,
really really tough day turns out to be a really
fantastic day with what type of what.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Type of puppy, What type of puppy did you adopt?
Speaker 5 (37:34):
Australian cattle dog smart, smart dog, one ear up, one
ear down, so it was it was a little puppy,
one ear up, one down.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
My daughter adopted a puppy from Michelter, who is my
best friend right now. Unfortunately I live in San Francisco,
so I don't see him as often as I want.
But he's Mustard the corgy. Oh, he's a great dog.
He's a great dog. And I was in the phone
of my daughter one night. She had walked out the
back of her apartment building in San Francisco, and there
(38:05):
was some guy across the street who was kind of
hanging around. And as I'm talking to her, all of
a sudden, Mustard, who is the quietest dog in the world,
starts to bark and growl at this guy. And ever
since then i've he's he's my daughter's protector. So we
have bonded you and I, Jeff, over our love for dogs. Jeff,
thank you so much. This was an interesting piece home
(38:28):
gnome and that's all one word. H O M E
G O M E dot com.
Speaker 5 (38:34):
Dot org, dot com dot com.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Jeff, Thanks very much. We'll have you back. I really
enjoyed it. You've got a great sense of humor and
I appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (38:43):
Thanks Dan.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
All Right, we come back when to be talking with
Josh Craft Kraft, a the the the only mayoral candidate
here in Boston who is taking on the incumbent Michelle Woo.
Earlier this week, Boston developer Tom O'Bryan decided, indeed not
to run. So it is now Josh Kraft and Michelle Wou,
(39:08):
and we're going to talk about the White Stadium legal
developments in the last day or so. Coming back on
Nightside right after the nine o'clock news
It's night Side with Dan Ray on WBSY, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Thank you so much, Nicole. Not good news in the
stock market today, but well you won't even mention it.
We'll see what's going to happen next. We're going to
be talking about that later on tonight. By the way,
at ten o'clock, give you that a little more of
that in just a moment. My name is Dan Ray.
I'm the host of Nightside here every Monday through Friday
night from eight until midnight. Rob Brooks, the producer of
(00:29):
the program, is back in Broadcast Central over in Midford,
and he will be taking all your phone calls, setting
you all up when you start to dial the phone,
which is anytime after at nine o'clock. We have four guest,
interesting guests and some kind of different funny stories here.
As a matter of fact, in this next hour we'll
(00:49):
get to them all interesting that is for sure.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Some of them have some news.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Value, some of them are just really more just curiosities
and interest that I enjoy this hour.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
I hope you do as well.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I will tell you that coming up at nine o'clock
will be talking with Boston merriw candidate Josh Kraft about
the decision by a Superior Court judge that will permit
the demolition of the old white stadium and the construction
of a new multimillion dollar at least two hundred million
dollar stadium in the middle of Franklin Park. We also
(01:22):
will talk with Professor Greg Styler Boston University School. He
is he's a business school professor. There, a business school teacher,
I should say, and he will talk about the tariffs
and the implications. By the way, Greg, who's a friend,
He's made about fifty trips to China. He trains business people.
(01:48):
He works at what's called the Questrum School of Business
at Boston University.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
So we'll talk to him at ten o'clock.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
And there may be another topic or two along the way,
but without any further Ado, let's get directly to our guests.
And I am delighted to welcome Christopher Caltiviano. Massachusetts high
school students are developing I guess, thank goodness, some knowledge
of finances and the economy, so it certainly his timely
(02:18):
topic to talk with my guest. Christopher Caltabiano, tell us
about this program. We have I guess some savvy, some
financially savvy high school students here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Welcome.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Thanks for having me Dan, and I hope that this
would be considered one of your news stories as opposed
to an interesting tale, because I think you're given some
of what we saw today happening. It might be relevant
to people going forward, very.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Relevant, absolutely very relevant. So tell us how this is
a Is this a Massachusetts program or is this Massachusetts
students participating in a regional or a national program? Tell
us about it.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Yeah, this is a national program. Actually, this will be
the Massachusetts state program of a national program run by
my organization, Council for Economic Education, called the National Personal
Finance Challenge, And we are looking for the best and
brightest students in the country when it comes to the
matter of personal finance. So what's going on next week
here in Massachusetts is going to be the Massachusetts level competition.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Okay, So how do we determine that? How to I
assume that you're not looking for entrance at this point.
I assume there must have been some some programs run
regionally here in Massachusetts. Again, I am unaware of it.
That's why I'm asking fairly broad questions.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Absolutely, absolutely, and first of all, it's for high school
level students, so ninth to twelfth graders. We're starting to
build in Massachusetts, and there's some reasons why we think
there's room to grow. I can get into in a moment.
We wa had about six hundred students across the state
participate in an early round, which is really a test
primarily about topics of personal finance spending, saving, earning, investing,
(04:03):
protecting yourself, risk and insurance. There the whole gamut of
topics when it comes to the personal finance. The best
performing students and those tests have been advanced now to
participate in an in person competition that will take place
next Tuesday fifteenth at MFS Investment Managements Campus in Boston.
So those top eight teams will be presented with a scenario,
(04:26):
a family scenario. Mom is does X, Dad does?
Speaker 5 (04:30):
Why they have these kids?
Speaker 4 (04:31):
They have these financial goals, This is what their earnings are,
These are what their risks are. Build them a financial
plan and they will have they will have time to
build that plan and then they will actually present that
plan to panels of judges from all sorts of companies
right here in Massachusetts. Will have will have representatives from
those companies actually judging those students and identifying the strongest.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Ones winners who will go ahead picked at different grades
at different levels or is it a winner take all
high one high school team wins.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
YEP.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
So what'll happen is the top four performing teams of
those eight will then go onto a quiz bowl round
where they will be asked kind of, you know, answer
this question and they will have to respond to that question.
The top performing team from that will then be crowned
the Massachusetts state champion. They will then go on to
the national finals, which are going to be held in Atlanta,
Georgia this year at Voya Financials offices. They're the primary,
(05:26):
but not exclusive funder of this program. They will compete
against students from across the country. Will probably have thirty
five to forty states at minimum represented at that so
they will compete against their counterparts across the country.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
So let's assume that the Massachusetts kids win it all.
Is there some prize that I think that they probably
should be awarded college scholarships? But I'm sure that's a
little ambitious. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
No, our top performers are national champions, will all Actually
they get cold hard cash. So there are cash awards
for the top performers in the competition.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
And do they have to pay for their own again,
it's just just a question that is.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Yeah, they pay their transportation and back, they pay their
way there. But once they're there, we cover all expenses,
so their hotel, their food, all of that will do.
You know, We'll do some fun events, so they just
have to get themselves there.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
That's great, That is great. And when is that weekend?
When is the championship weekend? I know that this weekend
is matt March maddeness. When when does your your weekend?
We have to have a name for it here, April
Avarice or.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Money makers go ahead.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
Yeah, so April is financial literacy month. So it's a
good time for us to be doing this at the
state level. The state competitions are next Tuesday to fifteenth,
and the national finals will be held June first and second.
As they said in Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Well that's going to be great, beautiful time of year
to be in Georgia early June, that's for sure. Well,
this is this sounds great.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Is this the first year for Massachusetts.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
It's the first year that we've done this in person,
competition in quite some time, many many years ago we did.
We get away from it, but we're holding we're bringing
it back again. We're bringing back the in person round.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
So tell us we'll be.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
Able to do that again.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Tell us about your program. You the Council for Economic
Education in Yeah, and so we have left here. Tell
us what that does and how people can get in
contact with you or if they're interested in participating in
this next year, go ahead.
Speaker 5 (07:26):
Sure.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
So we're a nonprofit organization, been around seventy five years
and our focus is helping young people acquire the financial
and economic knowledge to be able to manage their lives,
the lives of their families, their communities as well and
frankly the entire country. So we work with primarily, as
I said, K twelve teachers as well as students, providing
them really awesome resources, helping do professional development development for teachers.
(07:52):
We do this competition. We have another competition similar in economics.
We have a program specifically focused on helping helping girls
see themselves in the financial world, so really focused on
that economic and financial education at the K twelve level.
We are at Council for econ ed dot Org. Council
f o r econ ed dot org is our website.
(08:12):
Love to have people check us out. I think we
do great work and we're helping to build the next
generation of savvy of savvy investors, savvy economists as well.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Well, I'll tell you it's certainly is subject is going
to be in the minds of everybody for the next
few weeks.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
If not a few months.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
And we'll be talking about this with a business school Well,
we'll be talking about the tariffs with the business school
professor tonight. We talked last night with a Globe columnist
last last evening, which was again the topic of conversation,
Larry Edelman from the Boston Globe. And tell you it's
going to be a big subject and people are going
(08:52):
to be much more interested in this in the next
year to year and a half, I would.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Think, absolutely, And having this financial knowledge will help people
to navigate their financial lives as things get stronger and
as things get weaker.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Christopher called Tobiano, thank you very much. We'll talk again.
That's sounds like a great program.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Roll we get back to talk about an international dispute. Well,
it's really not a dispute, but it is International. There's
a library in Vermont and Canada. It actually the library
straddles both countries. The border between the United States and
Canada in part of Vermont goes right through the middle
of the library.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
It's a fascinating story.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
We'll tell you all about it coming up right after
this break. My name is Dan Ray. This is Nightside.
You're listening to WBZ ten thirty or your AM dial. You,
of course, also can go to hern iHeart radio station.
You can go to your app store and pull down
the free iHeart app, the new and improved iHeart app,
and you can then put us on your app your
first preset, so you will always just be a fingertip
(09:57):
away from WBZ whe anywhere in the world, three hundred
and sixty five days a year, twenty four to seven.
My name is Dan Ray. Do that, pull that app
down and join join the family. We'll be back on
Nightside with more talking about it. Kind of call it
a border dispute because people have lived up there with
this set of circumstances as a great interesting story behind it.
(10:19):
We'll explain it all on the other side of the break.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
It's Nightside with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio This is.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
A story that I read about two or three weeks ago,
and it has fascinated me. And I'm delighted to be
joined by Matthew parfin And, a local historian and former
president of the Haskell Free Library Ian Opera House. The
story involves a building that actually straddles the line that
(10:49):
separates Vermont from Quebec, or separates the United States from Canada. Matthew,
welcome to Nightside.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
How are you.
Speaker 6 (10:58):
Hey, How are you nice to be here?
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Well, thank you very much for joining us.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
This is a really interesting story. This it's called it.
I guess it's a fairly tiny library. But the building
is a pretty impressive building. Built in nineteen oh four.
There were donations made by a family. This it's a
beautiful looking building. Tell us about the building described. I'm
(11:24):
looking at a picture of it, but I'd love you
to describe it so people can understand it is a
beautiful looking building.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
Yeah. Sure.
Speaker 6 (11:33):
It is a large brick and granite building built right
on the border between Vermont and the province of Quebec,
which is in Canada. And picture yourself living in a
house with the international border going right through it.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
I think that there are actually.
Speaker 6 (11:51):
It's a library. I think that there're a library and
an opera house.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yeah, I think that there are actually some private homes,
maybe up in northern Maine or somewhere in Michigan or whatever.
But this was done intentionally. In other words, this is
not sort of an occurrence where they changed the geographic boundaries.
This free library and opera house straddles these two towns
(12:18):
Stanstead Quebec or Quebec Wui as they would prefer us
to say, and Derby Line, Vermont. Now they are not
big communities. I don't have the population numbers at my hand,
but I think the story that I read says that
Derby Line Vermont six hundred and sixty people, and Stanstead Quebec,
(12:38):
a thriving metropolis, the twenty eight hundred people.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
So all in all, we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Thirty six or so what are thirty four hundred people?
And it's a beautiful looking library inside. And it came
to be built through the generosity of a family. And
it was built to straddle the border.
Speaker 5 (12:57):
Correct, that's right.
Speaker 6 (13:00):
It was built intentionally, and it was built before they
changed the law which forbid anything within ten feet of
the actual border on either side. So they got in
about six years before that law was passed. I think
it was around nineteen ten. My little old lady, her
name was Martha Haskell. She lived across the street. It
(13:22):
was a vacant lot. She loved to entertain in her
big mansion, and she liked culture and she liked books.
She loved performances and concerts. She was born in Bada,
but she lived in Derby Line and her vision was
to have this beautiful cultural institution serve Americans and Canadians.
(13:49):
And it's been doing that ever since. It's one hundred
and twenty some odd years. Yeah, of course it's still
going strong.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
My understanding is that.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Canadian citizens would come in through one side of the
library and the American US citizens would come in through
the other. But once you're inside the library and the
opera house, I guess everybody's sort of mingled and no
problems at all. And I know that it has become
sort of a point of, if nothing else, curiosity in
(14:21):
view of some of the stuff that's been in the
year politically.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
And I don't necessarily want to.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Go into any of that in any depth, but I
assume for over the hundred years, one hundred and twenty
or so years, a lot of friendships have been made
and there's never been a problem as far as I
can tell, and I'm sure you know better than I.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
These are people who live and who share.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
They live in two countries, they live in two towns
in one in the province, one in a state, but
they share a library and everything. There's no problems once
you're inside the library, as far as as I can tell, right, there.
Speaker 6 (15:03):
Are never problems in the library or the opera house,
just a small correction. Door is actually on the Vermont side.
Canadians and Americans have always been free to use the
same door, and that until recently, that's where the problem
has started. That's a new development. So the Canadians are
(15:25):
going to be building a beautiful door on the Canadian side,
so which is a bit of a shame. But the
library will continue once the patrons are in the library
or in the opera house, whatever they're doing, it's completely open.
It's friendly. People from both countries are free to mingle
(15:45):
and exchange and use the facilities. That's a very friendly,
open place.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Yeah, so maybe I misunderstood. I thought that there was
sort of a door on each side. So there was
only a front door, one door on the on the
US side, and that's the problem right now, there has
to be another door has to be built on the
other side of the on the Canadian side.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Is that true?
Speaker 6 (16:10):
Correct?
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Hmm, it's interesting. Interesting.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
So Canadians worried that they would be stopped from I guess,
walking around the building to go in the front door,
which is on the American side. Is that a real
concern at this point? I would hope it isn't.
Speaker 6 (16:31):
Well, you're getting off the top, you would lot me
to talk about that. Yes, the Canadians have been told
that their time is coming to an end where they
can pass by the Vermont side.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Oh okay.
Speaker 6 (16:43):
They've been raising funds on a GoFundMe campaign and within
two weeks they've raised one hundred and seventy five thousand dollars. Okay,
and that's just the start. So there's an incredible outpouring
from all the states and Canada and across the world.
(17:03):
In fact, donations have been coming in, people have been
visiting in person, leaving check it's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Do you do you want to let me ask you this.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
I don't want to put you any sort of an
international dispute here, Matthew, But do you want to mention
the gofund to be paid so people could could find it?
Or my producer said that you didn't want to talk politics,
so which I have kept, which I have dutifully avoided here,
and I have stumbled into this.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
I did not realize that that this.
Speaker 6 (17:32):
Element had supporting supporting the arts and culture and a
library or not talking politics. And I welcome anyone to
support the gofunding campaign. It's Haskell Free Library. The place
has a great history. It's a fantastic place. It's completely
(17:55):
open to both communities. It always have been century in
a quarter, still going strong. The trustees that run it
worked very hard. They come from both the US and
Canadian side. Uh and and they're going to keep They're
going to keep working to maintain that spirit which has
(18:16):
always existed there.
Speaker 5 (18:17):
So yeah, they love to see people and.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Uh yeah, well yeah it just as an outsider. I'm
an outsider. I've been to Vermont, I ben of Quebec.
The next time I'm up there, I'm going to visit
the library, if not the opera house as well. Obviously
there's not once they're inside the building. No, one's there
saying to the Canadians, you can't cross here, or to
the Americans, you can't cross there. It just seems to
(18:41):
me silly, uh, that there's no way in which they
can make an easier accommodation so that everyone can continue
with with a lot of ease, and that they should never, ever,
ever prevent Canadians from just walking into the US. You know,
there's a spot in western uh, the US called four Corners,
(19:04):
and I forget the states that are involved. I think Colorado, Arizona,
New Mexico, and maybe Utah where there's a spot where
you can literally stand in four states simultaneously. Uh.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
And yeah, Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
I'm losing I'm losing our connection here with you, Matthew.
And you've you've told the story. Well, you're you're bouncing
on us a little bit. Are you on a headset
or something? Matthew, you're gonna sell Okay, well, cell service.
Sometimes we got it in. That's the most we got
the story out. And I thank you, Matthew local historian,
(19:41):
for for joining us tonight. Have a lovely evening. Thank
you have a great night. All right, when we get
back right after the news, we're going to talk about
a story that I am I haven't had a chance
to read only because I can't get access to the story,
but Marita has just sent me a copy which I'm
going to speed read about how a song became the
(20:04):
official poem of the state of Massachusetts. Colin Young will
join us right after the break here on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Delighted to welcome Colin Young. Colin is a state House
news reporter with the State House News Service. Hey Colin,
how are you tonight?
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Hi?
Speaker 7 (20:26):
Dan, I'm doing very well. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
I was having trouble getting in to read your story
a little doing a little pre show prep here, and
Marita had to send me a cut and paste version.
So I don't know what's going on, but it was
tough to get into. We're gonna talk about I apologize,
not a problem at all. I'll check it out tomorrow.
I hope I haven't lost my subscription. Somehow, how a
(20:50):
song became the state's official poem. This is kind of interesting.
I didn't even realize we had an official poem here
in Massachusetts.
Speaker 7 (21:00):
You know, Dan, That's actually exactly what led me to
write this piece was seeing that April is National Poetry Month,
and just seeing that headline made me think, huh, do
we have an official poem in Massachusetts? And sure enough,
we do, and we've had it on the books. Gee's
(21:21):
going on almost fifty years now, since nineteen eighty one.
It's a poem called Blue Hills of Massachusetts. And I
actually have a little bit of trouble finding a copy
of it to be able to republish it in the
State House News Service this week, because it's not a poem.
You know, there are plenty of poets who have been
(21:44):
famous poets who have been associated with Massachusetts throughout the years,
but the official state poem is not by Emily Dickinson
or any of the others. It's by a woman named
Catherine Mullen, who was a ninety four year old retired
school teacher from Barry.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
She's currently she's still alive.
Speaker 7 (22:05):
No, no, she was ninety four years old in nineteen
eighty one when the legislature chose to make her poem
the official poem of Massachusetts.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Okay, so she was born in eighteen eighty seven.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
I just did some quick that's right.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Back in eighty one, I remember ed King was the governor,
and somehow, some way, I guess she had written a
poem that her students found out about or something, and
they invited her to the school and it became a
bit of a news story where they read the poem
to Is that the way the.
Speaker 7 (22:40):
Story went, Yeah, it was. It was a poem that
she had written while she was a teacher, and she
wrote it to help teach her students about the history
of Massachusetts and the seal and the flag and the
motto of the state. And when she returned to the
(23:01):
school in nineteen eighty after having retired, she returned just
to visit the school, and some of the children there
sang these verses back to her all these years later,
and it was a newspaper article about that, about the
students singing this poem to the former teacher that caught
(23:23):
the attention of state lawmakers in the area, and that's
what got this down the road to its sort of
official status.
Speaker 5 (23:31):
Now.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
So I'm doing some math in my head, calling and
I don't know if this was a new story, but
if she was born in eighteen eighty seven, she probably
turned sixty five around nineteen fifty two, and this poem,
if it was written while she was a teacher, would
have either had to have been written probably sometime in
(23:51):
the forties or maybe in the final years of her
time as a teacher, which would have been just after
or during World War Two. So it probably is a
pretty patriotic poem. And she retires, and thirty years later
or so, she's invited to come back to the school,
and all of a sudden, this becomes the official poem
(24:15):
of the state. It was a song, but it's become
a poem.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
That's right, it's still our poe.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
It's still our poem, right, I mean, our state.
Speaker 7 (24:26):
Poem exact already had an official state song.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Okay.
Speaker 7 (24:32):
The author said, well, let's call it a poem.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Okay, So again, give me the name, the title of
the poem.
Speaker 7 (24:41):
It's called Blue Hills of Massachusetts, Okay.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
I grew up in the shadow of Big Blue, which
is as you know, in Milton. So now I feel
really associated with the story.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Is there a.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Stanza that you'd like to repeat for us, so that
you might have in front of you. I couldn't find
the poem. I'm sorry, Oh.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
No, that you know.
Speaker 7 (25:01):
I was fascinated by that. Dan I had a hard
time finding it myself. I thankfully founded through the State
Library they had a copy of it.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
You know, you could repeat for you could read to us,
or no, if you don't, that's okay.
Speaker 7 (25:17):
Sure, I'll give you the last two, the final two
verses of the poem, Massachusetts.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
To clear your throat, Ladies and gentlemen, Colin Young, with
the official poem of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Speaker 7 (25:30):
Colin Massachusetts, Massachusetts, what a splendid history like our great
and glorious nation in its strength for liberty, Massachusetts, Massachusetts,
keep the faith, true pride in stills. May our trust
in you be steadfast as the everlasting hills.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
We need a round of applause from our digital studio audience.
Rob get this, wake up the studio audience, please, and
let's give call in a little round of a class.
That is an excellent rendition. Calling an excellent rendition. My
understanding is that we are in search. This is a
little bit of a we're giving people a little extra
(26:17):
hair calling. You know, there's a search for Massachusetts needs
a poet laureate. I didn't realize, right, we don't have one,
but that poem you could tell was written in the
era that we identified in the in the late salties
or right after World War Two.
Speaker 7 (26:42):
I had to be a little careful too, about which
verses I chose to read, because you know, as such,
there are some phrases in there that just simply aren't
phrases we use today. So probably not used with any
ill intent. They're just outdated terms.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Yeah, and I'll bet you they probably deal with the
act with the people who were uh residents or citizens
of the Axis.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Powers during World War Two. If I.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Justin, I'll take it a while, guest jar, Okay, I'll
just take away and you don't even have to confirm that.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Let's just let that one go.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
So tell us about the poet, Lawie, is this is
this as if this is a position that is open?
How much is the Is the position a funded position
or is it an honorific.
Speaker 7 (27:32):
Ah, they are trying to make it a funded position. Uh,
it's interesting.
Speaker 5 (27:41):
To me, you know.
Speaker 7 (27:41):
And going back to look back at the history of
the state poem.
Speaker 5 (27:45):
Uh, when the.
Speaker 7 (27:46):
Author said, well, let's call this song a poem, she said,
I don't know of any state that has a state poem.
So maybe Massachusetts was the first to adopt a state poem.
But it turns out we're now one of the last
to have a poet law warrit there are only Massachusetts
is one of three states to be without. Believe it
(28:06):
or not, I'm not sure how we've we've managed this
long without a poet Laureate, but we have well.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Knowing our legislature and the need for relatives and family
members and friends of state reps to be to find
gainful employment in the public. Say, my god, this stuns
me more than anything. Callin, I'll tell you.
Speaker 7 (28:31):
And there is a stipend involved the person chosen could get.
It's in the works. It's not set in stone, but
the poet laureate could get a fifteen thousand dollars stipend
for their work.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Okay, that's reasonable.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
I was hoping that it might be a six figure
number and that you and I could apply for it,
and I could. We could just sort of walk around
the State House an hour or so every day with
a pen and a scroll in hand and thinking great
thoughts and write any doubt phrases.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
That you might do.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Would you do me one final favorite? If Rob gave
you my uh my email at w b Z, would
you send me could you send me a copy of
that poem because I'm I'm really interesting, I'm interested. Thank you,
Thank you, Carlin. We got to have you back on.
I really enjoyed this. This was this was a fun segment. Uh,
(29:26):
and you made it a little bit of fun. Thanks
my friend. We will we will, we will talk soon
and uh, let's uh, let's keep in touch.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Have you been you've been with us before, right, I.
Speaker 7 (29:35):
Believe I have, I have. I always enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Well, yeah, come on, come on back more often because
I love talking to folks. I used I was a
reporter a long time ago, and so I I have
I have. I feel I always enjoy talking to reporters.
And you handled a touchy situation with greater plom I want.
Speaker 5 (29:56):
You to know that I appreciate it.
Speaker 7 (29:58):
I had some fun with it as well.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
We'll talk soon, all right, say there, Rob will give
you my email address and I'll have it'll be fun
to read that. Thanks so much when we get back,
we're going to This is not one you can participate,
and although maybe we could do it some Friday night,
we will disclose to you the top pet fee peeve
or the top pet peeves among neighbors according to a
(30:24):
twenty twenty five survey from Home Gnome. And that's g
n o emmy, and we're not talking about nom Alaska.
Back on night Side with Jeff Herman, the editor in
chief of Home Gnome.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Right after this, if you're on night Side with Dan
Ray on w Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
All right, welcome back, everybody. We are going to talk
now about a survey of the top pe pet peeves
amongst neighbors.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
In his poem The Mending.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Wall, Robert Frost wrote, good fences make good neighbors. Apparently
we need more fences with us as Jeff Herman, he's
the editor in chief of Home Gnome.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Have I pronounced Gnome g n O m E correctly?
Speaker 5 (31:14):
I hope yes, that is correct.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
It is not. It is Gnome.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
I just wanted up. All right, So what what prompted
you to conduct such a survey?
Speaker 5 (31:31):
Because so many of these things involve home services that
are needed to kind of fix things. If you have
a broken fence, you need somebody to stay it painted
or mend it. And if you have broken windows in
you know, your neighbor's house, or you have disputes over
the landscaping, you need help and so one thing you
need to do is turn to some people who can
help make that happen. And that's kind of what the
(31:53):
site's all about. But more than anything else, we want
to find out what people are upset about with their neighbors.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Okay, So now, first of all, let me give you
a chance. What what is the service of the website, homenome?
And the reason I want to get that out of
the way is I want people to understand sort of
like you're the foundation of this whole, this whole interview.
So if you need something done at your home, you
(32:21):
have a website people can go to and check it out.
Speaker 5 (32:24):
Absolutely, so you know, if it's painting, if it's plumbing,
if it's hvac, whatever it is, you know you can
find the people near you who can take that job
and do well for you.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Okay, So therefore your your you supply. When I need
something done in my hometown, you'll give me a list
of potential people who can do the job. And it's
a free serve. I assume us is a free service.
Speaker 5 (32:49):
Absolutely absolutely, and so it's home now.
Speaker 7 (32:52):
But your radio.
Speaker 5 (32:53):
Commercials before this session were fantastic. They were funny, they
were enlightening, and there are home services companies right where
you're listeners are, So I will puss with that.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Oh well, thank you very much. If you need commercials,
this is the this is the show to put the
commercials on. So let's let's talk about you guys. So
one in ten neighbors clash over home upkeep. So that
means if you're next door neighbor is a slob uh
or has fifteen junk cars in his yard and is
(33:26):
and is out there, you know, with a chainsaw on
Sunday morning at six point thirty when you're trying to
catch some sleep. These are some of the some of
the problems. Give us the top pet peeves that you
have found in the survey the home Gnome conducted.
Speaker 5 (33:44):
The top five pet peeves are garbage twenty seven point
four percent of the respondents, So that that's their number
one tet peeve, landscaping, lawn career, yards that just aren't
kept up. That's the second most common pet peeve.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
I missed it, hold on wastecond's the first one. What's
the first one?
Speaker 5 (34:02):
There's garbage. So if there's you know, with garbage, yeah,
you know, if it's if it stinks, you know, or
it's just piling up. That's a problem for you if
you're a living next person like this, So that's number one.
Number two. Landscape, your laun care. If the yard is
a mess, well that's going to be a problem because
(34:23):
that's not only unsightly, but it also can lower your
property values. So you know, keep the neighbor's yard clean,
keep your yard clean. Home maintenance. If the windows look
like they're falling apart, they're broken, you know, or you know,
the the gutters seem to be falling off the sides
of the house, that's another problem. So if things aren't
(34:45):
being addressed again, it makes you look bad because your
neighbor looks like this, it's going to be reflecting on
your home property. To noise. If you have a really
noisy neighbor like you just said, you know, he's operating
the chainsaw at seven o'clock in the morning. That cause
those issues. And pets they might not bite you, but
they might be doing things in your yard that you
(35:07):
don't want them to do, whether it's digging up the
flower bed or whether it's you know, leaving a mess
behind whatever it is. Pets can be a problem.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Too, Yeah, The other thing too, which I think we
should realize, is that you don't have to necessarily live
in a bad area of town. There was a story
a couple of years ago United States Senator rih and
Paul from Kentucky got into some sort of a skirmish
with his next door neighbor which ended up, I believe,
(35:36):
in a fistfight of some sort.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
Right, yeah, do you remember that story.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
I mean, there was two neighbors and I don't know
if politics are involved or whatever, but at one point
I think the guy sucker punched Brian Paul and it
was it was a big story. It's a United States
Senator that you know, you'd think most people would like
to be friends with, right as opposed to up in
a brawl. So, yeah, this is a problem, and I
(36:04):
think you have the key on it, and that is
that you're trying to keep your house as best you can.
No one expects the house next door and the house
across the street to be, you know, from the cover
of you know, home beautiful or something like that.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
But you're right, if all of a.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Sudden the shutters are falling off or the fences is
falling onto your property, generally, if that happens and you
try to talk to the neighbor. My suspicion is the
neighbor probably if they allow that to happen and allow
it to continue, they're probably not going to be really
open to some of your entreaties of hey, can you
(36:43):
fix the fence.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
I would suspect it.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Very rarely would someone in that situation say, oh, my goodness,
I didn't realize it was over. Oh excuse me, I'll
get that done tomorrow. I suspect it might be you
fix your thing and I'll fix my fence later and
bridge exactly.
Speaker 5 (37:01):
You know, neighbors is just tough. Sometimes they're good friends
and sometimes they're just difficult to get along with. I
lived in Saint Louis. The neighbor next door my other
half didn't get along with that neighbor at all, and
it went from you know, they were almost going to
start with a fist fight there. It was one of
the worst days because I'm trying to break up the
fist fight, and then it turned into the best day
(37:21):
because we went and adopted our puppy. So, you know,
really really tough day turns out to be a really
fantastic day with what type of what.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Type of puppy, What type of puppy did you adopt?
Speaker 5 (37:34):
Australian cattle dog smart, smart dog, one ear up, one
ear down, so it was it was a little puppy,
one ear up, one down.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
My daughter adopted a puppy from Michelter, who is my
best friend right now. Unfortunately I live in San Francisco,
so I don't see him as often as I want.
But he's Mustard the corgy. Oh, he's a great dog.
He's a great dog. And I was in the phone
of my daughter one night. She had walked out the
back of her apartment building in San Francisco, and there
(38:05):
was some guy across the street who was kind of
hanging around. And as I'm talking to her, all of
a sudden, Mustard, who is the quietest dog in the world,
starts to bark and growl at this guy. And ever
since then i've he's he's my daughter's protector. So we
have bonded you and I, Jeff, over our love for dogs. Jeff,
thank you so much. This was an interesting piece home
(38:28):
gnome and that's all one word. H O M E
G O M E dot com.
Speaker 5 (38:34):
Dot org, dot com dot com.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Jeff, Thanks very much. We'll have you back. I really
enjoyed it. You've got a great sense of humor and
I appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (38:43):
Thanks Dan.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
All Right, we come back when to be talking with
Josh Craft Kraft, a the the the only mayoral candidate
here in Boston who is taking on the incumbent Michelle Woo.
Earlier this week, Boston developer Tom O'Bryan decided, indeed not
to run. So it is now Josh Kraft and Michelle Wou,
(39:08):
and we're going to talk about the White Stadium legal
developments in the last day or so. Coming back on
Nightside right after the nine o'clock news
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