A most honestest hero

Truth, justice and the Dorchester way. What is the Dorchester way, exactly? We met "Tubby" Tunlum in his back yard this day after the Fourth of July and he was carrying around a metal garbage can lid painted with a red and white striped target and, instead of a star in its center, a rendition of the all-but-defunct Dorchester seal. You may have seen it. It's a heraldic shield with a schoolhouse and a farmhouse and the Blue Hills in the distance. "What are you supposed to be, Tubby?" I asked.

"I'm Captain Dorchester," he answered while puffing out his chest not quite as far as his belly. "I stand for truth, justice and the Dorchester way! Beware evildoers!"

He was wearing just shorts and a plain tee shirt as well as carrying his shield, not a full superhero uniform. He wasn't wearing a mask to hide his identity. "What's the Dorchester way, exactly?" I inquired.

Tubby struck a pose and flashed his home made shield in my direction as if I were about to fire on him. "It's the right to sit on your front porch unmolested," he said, "It's also the right to be served Smithwick's on tap anywhere you go. And shepherd's pie too. It's the right to buy Asian vegetables at your corner grocer if you choose and the right to speak any language you want to speak at home or on the streets. It's standing up to ignorance and prejudice with a kind of ignorance and prejudice that's better than the kind that tries to beat you down and make you feel like a crumb. Dot pride is an ennobling pride that includes room for everybody. Long live the Dot!" He stuck another pose after pretending to fight off some assailants.

"What flag do you fight for Captain Dorchester?"

"The Star-Spangled Banner is my flag," Tubby replied. "That's my first love. My second is the flag of Dorchester, where I grew up and where the most honestest people on earth need defending. After that, it's the Boston flag and after that its the Massachusetts flag on which the Indian holds his arrow point down in peace." He was serious.

"Is there a Dorchester flag?" I asked.

"I'm working on a prototype right now in my bedroom. It is a Red 'D' on a field of blue. The D is shaped like the Sox B. When I get my mom to sew it, we'll fly it in front of our three-decker with a spotlight on it at night."

Well, graphically, it beats a schoolhouse, a farmhouse and the Blue Hills in the distance.