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10 • THE WEBSTER TIMES • Friday, February 27, 2009<br />
www.<strong>webster</strong>times.net<br />
VIEWPOINT<br />
THE DEADLINE to submit letters to the editor and commentaries for next week’s newspaper is Friday at noon.<br />
SEND ALL ITEMS to Editor Adam Minor at THE WEBSTER TIMES — aminor@stonebridgepress.com<br />
A STONEBRIDGE PRESS WEEKLY<br />
NEWSPAPER<br />
25 ELM STREET, SOUTHBRIDGE MA 01550<br />
TEL. (508) 764-4325• FAX (508) 764-8015<br />
www.<strong>webster</strong>times.net<br />
FRANK G.<br />
CHILINSKI<br />
STONEBRIDGE PRESS<br />
PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER<br />
ADAM MINOR<br />
EDITORIAL<br />
WALTER C.<br />
BIRD JR.<br />
STONEBRIDGE PRESS<br />
WEEKLIES EDITOR-AT-LARGE<br />
EDITOR<br />
THE WEBSTER TIMES AND THE AUBURN NEWS<br />
Keep those<br />
submissions<br />
coming<br />
Acouple weeks ago, we<br />
announced that we here at<br />
the Webster Times will<br />
celebrate our 150th<br />
anniversary in March, and to help<br />
us celebrate, we are calling on the<br />
readers and advertisers to share<br />
your memories with us!<br />
A local newspaper does not put out<br />
a weekly newspaper for 150 consecutive<br />
years unless it has a solid support<br />
base behind it. This paper<br />
would not be what it is without all<br />
of you, and for that, you all have<br />
our eternal gratitude. We hope that<br />
we have been a great source of<br />
news and entertainment for you<br />
these past years.<br />
To recap our message from a couple<br />
weeks ago (and there will be many<br />
reminders in the weeks to come —<br />
don’t worry), our special edition,<br />
150th anniversary issue of the<br />
Webster Times will “hit the streets”<br />
Friday, March 20, and boy-oh-boy, do<br />
we have a special issue planned for<br />
you.<br />
We want nothing more than to spill<br />
all our secrets, but unfortunately,<br />
we cannot. However, we can tell you<br />
that it will be a one-of-a-kind keepsake<br />
edition you can hold onto. We<br />
know that’s vague, but that’s all we<br />
can give you. Sorry!<br />
Back to the mission at hand — the<br />
readers. Keep sending us your letters<br />
of congratulations, memories,<br />
stories and anecdotes about the<br />
paper. We want to run as many messages<br />
as we can in the anniversary<br />
edition.<br />
Now, to the nitty-gritty.<br />
E-mail submissions are preferred<br />
(at aminor@stonebridgepress.com),<br />
but you may also send us a legible<br />
handwritten note or typed letter via<br />
mail to The Webster Times, Attn:<br />
Adam Minor, 25 Elm St.,<br />
<strong>Southbridge</strong>, MA 01550. You may<br />
also fax us the note to 508-764-8015.<br />
Make sure the fax includes a return<br />
phone number for verification, and<br />
make sure it says “Webster Times”<br />
or “Adam Minor” on it so it gets to<br />
the right hands!<br />
For our advertisers, if you would<br />
like to share in our issue with a<br />
special advertisement, please contact<br />
our Advertising<br />
Remember that all decisions on<br />
whether or not to run a submission<br />
will rest with the editor. Also, try to<br />
limit submissions to 500 words or<br />
less, so others can make their voices<br />
heard, too!<br />
On a sadder note, this week, we say<br />
goodbye to our reporter of nearly<br />
two years, Patrick Skahill, as he is<br />
going off to new adventures. This<br />
week, we welcome a new reporter,<br />
Joy Richard, to the Webster Times<br />
team. We know you will make her<br />
feel most welcome.<br />
Thanks again, as always, for reading<br />
our newspaper, and as we look<br />
into the past for our upcoming<br />
anniversary issue, we also look to<br />
the future with a new reporter, and<br />
a renewed vigor to serve our readers<br />
with the best in local news coverage.<br />
SOUND OFF<br />
What happened to senior trip announcements?<br />
SOUND OFF:<br />
I have been traveling with the Dudley seniors<br />
for the past 12 years. The trips have been<br />
exceptional values. Now, someone at the<br />
Dudley Town Hall has destroyed all of the trip<br />
announcements, told citizens that these trips<br />
are no longer available — and to add insult to<br />
injury, they hand out copies of the Charlton<br />
Senior Center trips.<br />
I happen to know that the Dudley seniors<br />
travel group is alive and well. I am signed up<br />
for the two spring offerings. The first is on<br />
March 25. This is a trip to two casinos. The $30<br />
trip includes the breakfast buffet and a $10 bet<br />
‘Sexting’ is a dangerous new trend<br />
There are many methods of<br />
communication available<br />
to us these days. When<br />
used properly, they can be<br />
very beneficial to us. If used<br />
improperly, there can be severe<br />
consequences. I was recently<br />
asked to provide some insight on<br />
a new trend occurring among<br />
many teenagers.<br />
Something new many young people<br />
are choosing to engage in is an<br />
activity referred to as “sexting.”<br />
Many people, including parents,<br />
may not even be aware of what this<br />
disturbing act is. This practice<br />
involves people taking pictures (mostly<br />
through the use of cell phone cameras) of<br />
themselves or others in various states of<br />
undress and sending them to people by some<br />
electronic means. What may seem to be something<br />
intended for “fun” is truly a serious<br />
matter. Despite the fact there exists a compromising<br />
photo of you out for the world to see,<br />
criminal charges can be possible in many<br />
cases. If the subject of the photo is under the<br />
age of 18, they are considered to be a minor<br />
for legal purposes. Should these pictures<br />
include nudity in any form, they can be classified<br />
as obscene material depicting children.<br />
This can fall into several categories, including<br />
posing a child for sexual photographs,<br />
possession of child pornography, or dissemination<br />
of obscene matter to minors. Both the<br />
CHIEF’S<br />
CORNER<br />
STEVE<br />
WOJNAR<br />
on the big wheel at Mohegan Sun as well as<br />
the dinner buffet and a $15 Keno bet at<br />
Foxwoods. Of course, the transportation and<br />
drivers tip are also included.<br />
On May 11 to 15, the trip to Niagara Falls<br />
and Toronto is $445. This includes transportation,<br />
all attractions, nice hotels, several meals<br />
and much more.<br />
Why would anyone in the Town Hall or senior<br />
center want to keep this information from<br />
the people of Dudley?<br />
A PERPLEXED DUDLEY SENIOR<br />
Drunk driver says lesson learned<br />
He may have since<br />
been released, but a<br />
week ago last<br />
Wednesday, Mark<br />
Provencal was laid up at<br />
UMass Medical Center in<br />
Worcester.<br />
Whether his time there is<br />
enough to open his eyes as to<br />
how lucky he really is — and<br />
the rest of us are, at that —<br />
remains to be seen.<br />
Provencal was on his way home from work<br />
Wednesday, Feb. 11. He didn’t go straight to his<br />
North Woodstock, Conn. home on English<br />
Neighborhood Road, though. He stopped off<br />
first for a drink.<br />
“Some people like an after-work smoke,”<br />
Provencal said in a telephone interview, presumably<br />
from his hospital room. “Me, I like to<br />
have a drink.”<br />
Apparently, so.<br />
According to the police log that recorded his<br />
subsequent accident that night, this was his<br />
fifth OUI charge. Provencal vigorously disputes<br />
that, though, instead blaming the cops.<br />
“That’s a bunch of [expletive deleted],” he<br />
said of the number of OUI charges listed in the<br />
log. “I don’t know where [the police officer]<br />
came up with that.<br />
“Somebody doesn’t like me at the police<br />
department.”<br />
Provencal mentioned a few officers by name,<br />
saying he’s familiar with some of them from<br />
the past.<br />
“I used to drink at Sonny’s a lot,” he said of<br />
the one-time popular watering hole for many a<br />
local. Sonny, by the way, has since passed away.<br />
At tops, Provencal said, he has been nabbed<br />
only three times for OUI. The last, he said, was<br />
15 years ago.<br />
“My wife and I are trying to figure it out,” he<br />
said of what he claims is erroneous information.<br />
“I’m going to say it’s been three times.”<br />
He pointed out he had also “beaten a few”<br />
raps in court.<br />
Back to that Wednesday night.<br />
Around 7:40 p.m., police responded to an<br />
accident on Lebanon Hill, which is how<br />
Provencal would have traveled on his way<br />
home. Although he wasn’t arrested, he was<br />
summonsed to court on charges of operating a<br />
motor vehicle under the influence of liquor<br />
(fifth offense), operating a motor vehicle with a<br />
suspended license (subsequent offense), not<br />
possessing a license and failing to wear a seatbelt.<br />
He was injured in the accident, and taken by<br />
ambulance to the hospital. Provencal said he<br />
broke his wrist and his right arm and fractured<br />
six ribs.<br />
“I had a couple beers,” Provencal conceded.<br />
“I wasn’t drunk. I wasn’t arrested.”<br />
He also took issue with the charge that he<br />
didn’t have a license.<br />
“That’s new to me,” he said. “I mean, it was<br />
right in my truck.”<br />
Provencal seemed more upset that the incident<br />
found its way into the local paper’s police<br />
logs.<br />
“Last June, I was on Lebanon Hill around 4<br />
a.m.,” he said. “I was on my way to Vermont<br />
for work. A deer ran out in front of me. When I<br />
avoided it, I hit a telephone pole. I was [taken<br />
by Life Flight] to the hospital.<br />
“If they put it in the paper this time, why<br />
BIRD’S<br />
NEST<br />
WALTER<br />
BIRD JR.<br />
didn’t they put that in?”<br />
For the record, Provencal<br />
maintains he wasn’t drinking<br />
at the time of that accident.<br />
“I don’t drink and drive,” he<br />
said. “I don’t drive drunk.”<br />
His record, he was told, suggests<br />
otherwise.<br />
“I mean, I don’t have a beer in<br />
the car with me when I’m driving,”<br />
he clarified.<br />
But, he was asked, you do get<br />
behind the wheel after drinking, right?<br />
“But I’m not drunk,” he replied.<br />
It was suggested to Provencal that while he<br />
claims to have fewer OUI busts than listed,<br />
even three would be too much.<br />
“Oh, yeah,” he agreed. “Definitely, it’s too<br />
much for somebody to get.”<br />
Well, then, he was asked, should he even be<br />
allowed to have a license or drive a car?<br />
“Well, yeah,” he said. “Listen, the first time<br />
was 38 years ago. The second was 22 years and<br />
the last was 15.”<br />
Whether that’s true or not is difficult to<br />
ascertain, because the OUI’s are spread out in<br />
Massachusetts and Connecticut. The officer<br />
who responded to last week’s incident could<br />
not be reached to shed any light on the matter.<br />
Provencal actually tried to put a positive<br />
spin on the accident.<br />
“The doctor said I was lucky to have the accident<br />
because I was in the process of having<br />
congestive heart failure for the second time in<br />
a month,” he said.<br />
Surgery, he said, was going to have to be<br />
done.<br />
That news raised an eyebrow at this address,<br />
the thinking being that heart failure might be<br />
a sign that it’s time to stop drinking. Which, by<br />
the way, is precisely what Provencal said he<br />
plans to do — if not by choice.<br />
“I can’t,” he said. “The doctor will not do the<br />
procedure on my heart unless I put in writing<br />
that I will not drink again.”<br />
But, it was suggested, that doesn’t guarantee<br />
he’ll never pick up a drink again, or worse, get<br />
behind the wheel of a car after drinking.<br />
“Not after all this,” he said. “I’ve never had<br />
heart failure before. And this accident, this<br />
was the worst pain I’ve ever had in my life.<br />
“Believe me, I can’t drink and drive, anymore.<br />
I really hurt myself here.”<br />
Was the accident a wake-up call?<br />
“A wake up call? Well,” he said, “it makes<br />
you think. Anything like that makes you<br />
think.”<br />
Provencal at least seemed to take some<br />
responsibility for this latest incident, saying,<br />
“When you’re wrong, you’re wrong.”<br />
Will he honestly never pick up an alcoholic<br />
drink again, or get behind the wheel of a car<br />
after drinking? That remains to be seen. His<br />
track record, at least according to police<br />
accounts, doesn’t give a lot of reason for optimism.<br />
For the safety of everyone else on the road,<br />
Provencal needs to know he is a dangerous<br />
presence behind the wheel — at least when he<br />
has been drinking, which appears to be a lot.<br />
Whether he knows that, here’s hoping he<br />
remembers his own words after he recovers<br />
from his injuries and from his heart troubles:<br />
“I’m 57. I’ve got a lot of things going for me<br />
besides a can of beer.”<br />
person sending the material as well<br />
as the person who receives the pictures<br />
can fit the criteria for criminal<br />
charges. All of these crimes are<br />
felonies in the Commonwealth of<br />
Massachusetts. They carry state<br />
prison terms and can seriously affect<br />
a person’s future.<br />
Taking the criminal aspect aside<br />
for a moment, it is important for people<br />
to think before they act out in any<br />
of these ways. Remember, the “www”<br />
before all computer sites stands for<br />
the “world wide web.” Once a photograph<br />
is sent out over the Internet, by<br />
telephone, or other electronic means,<br />
you have no control over where it can go from<br />
there. Consider it available for the world to<br />
see. People may be able to view these years<br />
later. This can have a serious impact on your<br />
career and your life in general. What may<br />
have been something that seemed funny at<br />
the time, cannot only be criminal, but may<br />
also damage you in ways you cannot imagine.<br />
Thanks again for your questions and comments.<br />
Please send them to me at the Dudley<br />
Police Department, 71 West Main St., Dudley,<br />
MA 01571, or e-mail<br />
swojnar@dudleypolice.com. Opinions<br />
expressed in this weekly column are those of<br />
Chief Wojnar only and unless clearly noted, do<br />
not reflect the ideas or opinions of any other<br />
organization or citizen.<br />
In praise<br />
of the<br />
‘go-to’<br />
drawer<br />
AS YOU<br />
LIKE IT<br />
MARK<br />
ASHTON<br />
It is, after all, a simple matter of survival.<br />
In our home, we couldn’t possibly function<br />
without it. I for one would be lost. A dozen projects<br />
a day would never get done. We’d be forced<br />
to wander from room to<br />
room in search of the proper<br />
tool, implement, or accessory<br />
— and very likely we’d<br />
never find it.<br />
Without it, normal life (at<br />
home) would not be normal,<br />
things would surely grind to<br />
a halt, and a variety of<br />
everyday tasks would suddenly<br />
become insurmountable<br />
undertakings,<br />
Herculean household horrors,<br />
personalized Big Digs<br />
with Sisyphean (never-ending)<br />
conclusions.<br />
I’m talking about The<br />
Drawer, usually found in the<br />
kitchen, the one with the hammer and pliers<br />
and a couple of screwdrivers in it, the one with<br />
a slew of used-but-still-good batteries (all sizes),<br />
a couple of tape dispensers, leftover screws,<br />
nails, brads, pins, picture hanging hardware,<br />
and, oh yes, the scissors that actually work — on<br />
both paper and wire.<br />
I’ll admit that I’ve been accused (and frequently<br />
convicted) over the years of operating<br />
under the assumption that there’s “a place for<br />
everything — and everything’s all over the<br />
place,” but I can get away with that approach to<br />
life only in the cellar, aka the workshop, laundry<br />
room, furnace room, and auxiliary storage<br />
facility.<br />
Upstairs where we live, work, eat, sleep, and<br />
occasionally entertain guests and felines, it’s<br />
important to play by the rules. And the rules<br />
clearly state that since one of us is a pack rat,<br />
it’s up to the other one, the neatnik (aka Mrs.<br />
Monk) to keep things orderly, neat, and “put<br />
away.”<br />
Fortunately for the pack rat, “put away” can<br />
sometime mean simply “out of sight,” which is<br />
where The Drawer comes in. As the repository<br />
for everything useful on every household project<br />
from opening mail packages (there are razor<br />
blades and a box cutter in there) to performing<br />
emergency snowblower surgery (involving the<br />
replacement of “shear pins” and their accompanying<br />
collars and nuts), this is the “go-to”<br />
drawer when the neatnik goes to the pack rat for<br />
household project assistance. Hey, I was recently<br />
able to repair both our Miniature Christmas<br />
Train and Miniature Christmas Ice Pond with<br />
Skaters using only what’s found in The Drawer.<br />
Over the recent holidays, in fact, it occurred<br />
to me that I had to go to this special drawer several<br />
times a day, and that because it always<br />
seems to hold the tool or tape or jar of Mighty<br />
Mend-It that’s needed, it has become a favorite<br />
place — almost a little room unto itself. There<br />
are other drawers in the kitchen (and elsewhere<br />
in the house) that get opened so infrequently<br />
that it’s always a surprise to discover what’s in<br />
them (“Oh, so that’s where I left the autographed<br />
photo of Luis Tiant!”).<br />
Anyway, at some point in recent history, The<br />
Drawer was getting just a tad tight, and I was<br />
forced to take stock of what was in there, what<br />
needed to stay in there, and what might be<br />
moved to a secondary storage location. Would it<br />
surprise you to learn that our drawer had the<br />
tools previously mentioned in it in addition to<br />
all of the following? A battery tester, a carpenter’s<br />
pencil sharpener, glue sticks, a precision<br />
screwdriver set (of the size used in eyeglass<br />
repairs), a value pack of assorted household<br />
fasteners (cup hooks, push pins, thumb tacks,<br />
and plastic anchors), a couple of Sharpies (different<br />
colors), a gold leaf pen, rubber bands, a<br />
paint scraper, hand warmers (of the chemical<br />
variety), a medical thermometer (oral), one<br />
tube of Mighty Putty, one shoe lace (black), a<br />
roll of electrical tape, two tubes of lock deicer,<br />
assorted snippers and clippers, a spare set of<br />
car keys (for the wife’s car), some Tic Tacs, a<br />
three-speed pull-chain switch, a ball of twine<br />
(suitable for tomato stake tying), several keys<br />
on a chain (of unknown origin or use), a set of<br />
plastic vampire teeth, chocolate sunflower<br />
seeds, a 40-millimeter padlock (with keys), and a<br />
plastic kazoo. The other stuff in there is hardly<br />
worth mentioning.<br />
I bet YOU have a drawer just like this one at<br />
your home, full of odds and ends but necessary<br />
stuff, the stuff that keeps your household functioning<br />
and your projects (unlike the Big Dig)<br />
on schedule and on budget. If your drawer is<br />
somehow under-accessorized (perhaps yours is<br />
a new household), please call or write for<br />
detailed instructions (and a starter kit) on how<br />
to properly “stuff it” with appropriate stuff.<br />
My one fear is that OUR drawer may soon<br />
wear out from overuse. Its slide tracks may be<br />
nearing some pre-determined point of planned<br />
obsolescence (“Only 3,287,629 pulls per drawer,<br />
you know!”), but if that ever happens, I’ll simply<br />
replace them — perhaps with the tracks<br />
from some underused utensil holder right next<br />
door to The Drawer.<br />
I know just where to find the screwdrivers,<br />
hammer, pliers, and Mighty Putty to get the job<br />
done in a jiffy.<br />
Mark Ashton writes a weekly column for<br />
Stonebridge Press publications.