Three cheers for earthworms!

Worm casts are popping up all over Dorchester. It's a welcome, if not exactly pretty sign of spring. It is a sight that warms a gardener's heart however. The earthworms are active and busy turning the soil and keeping it productive. Worm casts are those little piles of granulated earth that you find all over the ground without every seeing why. The worms prefer to do their work when no one is watching.

It is dung is a sense, but it doesn't attract any beetles. The casts really don't bother anyone at all. Stepping in them is certainly better than stepping in what dogs leave behind. If only people would keep worms as pets and take them for walks. The sidewalks would be more pleasant and no one would complain about owners ignoring curbing laws. Are there laws in Dorchester demanding that one pick up after his or her dog? I know people do, but I also know there are people who don't. I'm not too fond of the people who don't.

So, in honor of the humble nightcrawler and his noble, unobtrusive work, a salute. Most species of worms have five hearts and it's no surprise. They give and they give and ask nothing for themselves. They make the world fit for flowers and fruits, vegetables and shady trees, wine, hops and medicinals. Three cheers for earthworms!

Smart people live in Dorchester

I was at the Mud House in Neponset this morning and I saw something that made me rework this theme once again. It does bear repeating.....

Smart boys live in Dorchester, Mass. Smart girls do too. They grow up into capable men and women who earn their way in the world. Dorchester is the biggest and best part of the city of Boston. Its common sense is its strength. It may take a village to raise a child, but it takes the collected effort of all citizens to make a neighborhood worth living in. Dorchester is like that. Its values are common: Life. Liberty. Happiness. Equality.

All sorts of people live in Dorchester. Some are the type you’d like to share a cup of coffee with. Others are the kind you’d like to avoid. You can learn something from everyone who calls Dorchester home. If home is where the heart is, Dorchester’s pulse is strong. From one end of Dot Ave to the other, from the shores of Dorchester Bay to the furthest edge of Mattapan, a fresh wind blows through Dorchester. It is the kind of breeze that scatters cobwebs and invigorates clear thinking. Dorchester gets by, one day at a time in one way or another, usually in the best way available.

Some people hold Dorchester in low esteem. The good people of Dorchester don’t care a fig for other people’s negative verdicts. The people of Dorchester have their own eyes to judge their surroundings. Dorchester is very good. Even when it’s bad, it’s better than most places. I can’t think of anywhere better. There is room for improvement, but isn’t that always the case? Dorchester has its weaknesses but they are more than outweighed by the neighborhood’s strong points. The people who live here carry more weight than the people who don’t. Local opinion is on record for being Dot-centric. You mean there’s a Boston beyond Dorchester? I’ve read about it, but I really haven’t noticed.

All life’s needs can be met in Dorchester. From Lower Mills to Ashmont, to Neponset, to Norfolk, to Codman, to Bowdoin, to Fields Corner to Savin Hill, to Columbia, to Uphams Corner and to Four Corners, lives are lived contentedly with little fuss. Few feathers are ruffled. The views from Pope’s Hill and Meetinghouse Hill are remarkably clear. Given a problem, the smart people of Dorchester can solve it. They always have before. There is no reason to think they can’t do it again.

smart women by whaleheadking
Make a stainless steel travel mug online at zazzle
More Massachusetts Mugs

A little shameless promotion. Here is a nice gift for the gal at the front desk who greets people who enter your high-flalutin' brokerage firm and politely tells them to cool their heels while they wait to consult with you on a high-risk, high return scheme. In the world of high finance, it's the receptionist who makes or breaks deals.

This cup also is good for any immigrant Bostonian of the fairer sex. It is popular in Roxbury kitchen cabinets as much as in the board rooms of the BPL, the BFD, the BRA, the ICA and at the diners clustered around Broadway Station in Southie. Smart women do live in Boston. Most of them drink coffee.

Sin in Neponset

S.I.N. is a bit of graffito that gets scrawled around Neponset Circle and Pope's Hill. Graffiti in this vein usually reads "KEEP OUT," or marks gang turf. Not in this part of Boston though. This is friendly terrain that welcomes visitors. S.I.N. stands for "Stay In Neponset." It's like a welcome mat laid out for all to step on. At big neighborhood gatherings the master-of-ceremonies will offer a traditional toast to everyone gathered, "Let's SIN and enjoy it!" People nudge each other and wink and guffaw.

Some people take the acronym more seriously and actually do sin. Nothing mortal; all the sins committed in Neponset are the venial kind: wedgies, whoopie cushions, white lies...it's a community of cut-ups made up of the nicest people you'll ever meet.

All Boston All the Time

Your man on the Dot has been taking his time and stretching his legs, walking about, seeing the sights and inhaling the aromas that escape from Dorchester's kitchens and barbecue grills. Yes, Spring is in the air and the Fifth of May means cooking outdoors among friends while the sun shines its balm on Boston. It is about time. April truly was a cruel month, but on a day like today Mother Nature is forgiven even if she waited until a Monday to sweep the rain clouds away. At least the streets are clean.

Who is that Little Blue Ninja? It is Whalehead King, of course, sporting his sporty, armored jacket and his helmet dotted with stickers peeled off fresh vegetables. Our Man also sports a sticker he took off his coffee cup from the Mud House. The Mud House is a little storefront beanery located on Neponset Avenue just after Neponset Circle, which it one of the scabs on Boston's traffic arteries for which this city is famous. The ladies at the Mud House are quite pretty and attentive and pleasant. The coffee should be voted "Best of Boston." Check it out.

Next door is an efficient barber shop full of gentlemen who are masters of the electric clippers. Next to them is a police equipment supply store that may have vacated the premises if we saw things correctly while speeding by on our motorcycle. Whether the shop is open or shuttered, you can be sure Boston's Finest, the nation's first police force, will still frequent the Mud House to keep thier pep on the beat.