Salem

WBZ reports some girl up in Salem now faces a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon on a police officer for allegedly attacking a cop in the local police station with an eyeliner pencil. The officer was taken to the hospital with an unspecified injury from the attack but is expected to survive.

Salem Patch reports Witch City's city council met until 2:30 a.m. the other day - and voted 300 times - in an attempt to elect a new city-council president.

Right in the lobby.

The Salem News reports: Witches accused of zombie abuse.

Police expressed some frustration with the situation and an off-the-record longing for November.

Sounds like a job for Vimes of the City Watch.

The Salem News reports the city licensing board put a local witch on watch for a spell for making alleged online threats against other witches and psychics. The board voted to suspend his witchcraft license for six months - but to belay the punishment if he stays out of double, double toil and trouble for a year.

Yoni Appelbaum reports on days of yore when Salem would light massive bonfires to herald July Fourth:

For weeks, volunteers assembled materials, stacking them into a towering pyramid reaching high into the air. Fat hogsheads on the bottom supported row upon row of oily casks, topped with layers of smaller kegs. The pyramid claimed eight thousand barrels; some years, it had forty tiers. At midnight, a bundle of burning rags was run up to the top on wire pulleys, igniting the pile and announcing "that the night has turned into the morning of a new year of liberty."

Hello U-Hubbers,

I know some of us still have snow on the ground and summer time seems like a far away midsummer night's dream. But I thought I'd throw this out there in case some of you are looking for a summer program for your kid(s) that is a little different/interesting/unique than the average summer camp program.

Rebel Shakespeare Company is located in Salem MA and this year we find our enrollment for July and August is a lot lower than it usually is (ie: by now we're usually full with a waiting list).

So this could be your opportunity if you're looking for something different for the summer activities. Our regular program is for kids aged 9-15, and no acting experience is needed. Everyone is taught, learns, explores, grows. In July we're doing "Romeo and Juliet" with this age group, and in August we're either doing "Hamlet" or "A Comedy of Errors," depending on the enrollment. Our Teen program is doing "The Scottish Play"... ahem, in July. And in August, "The Tempest." The Teen program is usually for kids who have had acting experience, and we take a tour around the north shore and Boston doing 10 shows in a week's time. It's a great adventure.

Check out the note posted on the door of a Dunkin' Donuts in Salem at the height of the storm.

H/t Aaron Donovan.

The Conservation Law Foundation and HealthLink yesterday sued the owner of the Salem power plant, alleging the facility is pumping far more visible pollution into the air than allowed under state and federal regulations.

The two groups allege that the coal and oil plant, owned by Dominion Energy New England has been violating state and federal "opacity" limits - basically how much visible smoke comes out of its stacks - for at least five years, exposing downwind residents to God knows what. The two groups are seeking fines of at least $11 million for the alleged violations.

Read the complaint.

Channel 5 reports on the fire in a storage yard at 95/128 in Peabody.

Photo by the Salem Evening News.

Dean provides the photographic proof.

Hollywood East Connection reports that the latest required Boston-area contestant on a reality show is a woman from Salem who is a witch appearing tomorrow on TLC's "What Not to Wear."

The Massachusetts Appeals Court today upheld the disorderly-conduct conviction of a Philadelphia preacher who likes to show up in Salem on Halloween and use a megaphone to demand that revelers repent.

Discuss the case.

NOTICE: The slip opinions and orders posted on this Web site are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. This preliminary material will be removed from the Web site once the advance sheets of the Official Reports are published. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030;

COMMONWEALTH vs. Michael A. MARCAVAGE.

No. 08-P-1294.

May 8, 2009. - December 23, 2009.

Photos from:

• Zombie Walk in Salem
• World War II airfield battle reenactment in Stow
• Oktoberfest in Harvard Square (more

Money exploded into the air in Medford today when two alleged bank robbers crashed their getaway car.

A man exploded in Salem yesterday, accusing his neighbor of being a flesh eater and then holding off police with a gun for several hours.

Salem's Last Road is now open.

Only in Salem: Witch gets probation for trying to frame another witch during a heated local debate on psychic licensing. Oh, did we mention that mutilated raccoon carcasses were involved?

Cathy Huyge profiles Jack Walsh, a Salem glass artist who got the idea for his technique of etching glass through sandblasting while spending 30 years building and cleaning bus motors with a sandblaster:

... The sandblasting machine looks like an incubator in a hospital's neo-natal intensive care unit, complete with arm holes with gloves on the inside that Jack inserts his hands into and uses to manipulate the blasting hose and the bottle. ...

Some examples of his work.

The Salem News reports:

An MBTA bus driver was cited after he swerved around traffic that was stopped for a couple pushing a baby carriage through a crosswalk, Salem police said.

The Salem Gazette reports Salem police have arrested a man wanted in connection with 10 years' of graffiti on MBTA trains and on buildings across the North Shore and Boston.

Adam Michael Brant, a.k.a. SPEK, was arrested Wednesday on 16 counts of tagging and 16 counts of malicious destruction of property.

Some examples of his oeuvre.

The view from our Roslindale front porch a few minutes ago: Five or six inches of new snow and howling winds - and now sleet (or maybe it's just very cold rain - hard to tell when it's whipping into you horizontally). Ashamed to admit that when I went shopping last night, I forgot to get bread! Plenty of English muffins, though - French English muffins, anyone?

10:45 update: The cavalry arrives (this actually shows the front end loader's second pass):

Lorianne DiSabato sees a similar view out her window in Newton.

David Moisan snaps Salem this morning:

Steve Garfield looked out from his porch in Jamaica Plain this morning:

Steve also videos himself shoveling this morning - looks kind of difficult to shoot with one hand and shovel with the other.

Jen Stewart looks out her window:

Susan Senator marvels:

... It is no secret that I hate the winter and the cold. And yet, today, looking out at the vigorous storm, I do feel a sense of wonder similar to my springtime feeling, when I just can't get over the activity of things that are not alive: the ground, the wind, the leaves. So much is going on out there, it feels a little exciting, like I'm anticipating a fun event. ...

Karl, however, declares that Mother Nature is Satan:

... For what it's worth, and I don't like thunderstorms either, but I'd rather have a thunderstorm than a blizzard any time. In fact, I wish there were one now as the lightning will INSTANTANEOUSLY melt melt the snow and the ice underneath it too.

Jack Hodgson: This winter wonderland stuff is getting old fast....

Karen prepares a little math quiz for her kids in case school is canceled tomorow:

If we already had a foot of snow on the ground from Thursday's blizzard, and Daddy was letting Mama sleep in today, but she was rudely awakened by the kids' whoops of joy at the news that Sunday school is canceled because we're in the midst of another blizzard today with expected accumulation of 5–8 inches, how many cocktails will Mama need by the end of this day trapped home with the kids while trying to finish up her big Spanish project, which is due this week?

Leslie after shoveling: My back has held up pretty well until now, but I think it's starting to protest...

Kelly: It's a good day to stay inside, drink gallons of hot tea, and paint or quilt while watching Marx Brothers movies.

Lori Magno has some nice friends.

All three of the Salem plant workers injured yesterday.

The state wants $2 billion to fix its college system, but does that conceal a classist public/private school divide? A Salem Blog is not optimistic.

Night Owl Gal and friend are having lunch in a Salem restaurant, when she takes a pretty near instant dislike to some Midwesterners at the next table:

... Their waiter (also our waiter), probably a gregarious, beer-guzzling Salem State college student named Vinnie, came over. Vinnie is all Massachusetts, probably has family in Southie who taught him how to talk. He is annoying in that way that some waiters cannot help but be, and he saw midwesterners and turned up his accent a bit, giving them the show they came for.

"Hello folks, I'm Vinnie and I'll be your waiter today" he smiled down at them, hoping for a tip that John and I already knew he wouldn't be getting, not from that table. The asian man looked up at him, in all seriousness, and said "Did you know that you talk funny?". They all laughed, and tried to mimick their best Boston accent, which invariably makes people sound as though they have swallowed golf balls in their effort not to pronounce the letter "R". ...