MARBLEHEAD — In years past, as part of the Christmas Walk, Santa came ashore on Saturday morning (9:30) in Jay Sahagian's boat Mistress. It might have bothered some who always take everything the wrong way — but it just wasn't that kind of mistress.
This year, the mistress problem is solved as Santa is scheduled to arrive at the Landing aboard a new vessel — the Sea Hooker. Well, it's not that kind of hooker either, says Chamber of Commerce Director Ann Marie Casey.
"They hook lobsters." Yet, she adds, "I think we're going to put some garland over that name."
And, really, how bad can it be? Mrs. Claus will be on the boat, too.
Hail to the selectman
One day, he's a lowly local official. Next day, he's president. No, it's not Barack Obama. It's Selectman Jim Nye, recently elevated to the presidency of the National Grand Bank.
"He's the Ben Bernanke of Marblehead," observed fellow board member Bill Woodfin, citing the current chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.
No word yet if Nye is distributing bailouts.
Don't put your trunks on yet
Marblehead/Swampscott YMCA director Paul Gorman has set Dec. 13 — not superstitious he — as the date for the opening of the spectacular new YMCA building on Leggs Hill Road. Everything is ready to roll, including the workout rooms, the basketball courts, the squash courts, the kids' play area ... everything except the pools.
"The pools are a couple of weeks behind," Gorman says.
A formal opening for the new building complete with ceremony will take place in January. Gorman is receptive to the idea of raffling off the right to be first down the giant slide and into one of the two indoor pools, once they are completed.
Last one in is a rotten egg.
Drama at sea
So how did you spend your Thanksgiving? It didn't go all that well for Marblehead sailor Rich Wilson, now in the South Atlantic approaching the Cape of Good Hope as part of the Vendee Globe around the world sailing race. The veteran sailor doesn't expect to win. Yet, as he reveals in his blog, it's getting tough just to survive.
"Yesterday, the pounding of the boat was so bad that I reinjured the rib that I think is fractured," he wrote over the holiday. "While resting on the chart table bench, we crashed off a wave and it felt as though everything that had healed in my back came undone. The rib felt broken and very painful again. I spoke with the doctor later in the day, and he, too, thinks that I cracked the healing rib again. Fortunately, he does not think it will take two weeks for the rib to get back to the healed state that it was in before yesterday."
After, Wilson was unable to sleep in his bunk. "The pain of my fractured rib was such that it was utterly impossible to do the gymnastics required to get into the bunk, let alone, out. So I've been curling up at the chart table for three weeks."
By Tuesday, the solitary seaman finally found relief. "Last night, I got into the bunk with minimum agony and had four good 50-minute sleeps," he wrote.
Wilson is a survivor, however, who once braved a storm near Cape Horn that saw his trimaran do something incredible, flipping upside down, then right side up.
Magic you can believe in
The Magic Hat Thrift Shop, under the gym in the Marblehead Veterans Middle School, is donating $29,000 to the Parent-Teacher Organizations of the town. The mostly volunteer store has given an astonishing $95,000 to various school programs since 2005.
"It's a phenomenal organization," says School Committee Chairwoman Amy Drinker.
Clothing and housewares are donated and assessed by the volunteers before being offered for sale. (And they are tax-deductible in case you've bought something you've never worn or hardly worn.) Hours are Wednesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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