SALEM — Have you heard the news about the mayor getting her very own talk show on WBZ radio?
All right, that's a stretch. But she sure has been on "Nightside With Dan Rea" a lot lately.
Her Honor has been the guest three times in the last month — including Wednesday night — to talk up Gov. Deval Patrick's plan for resort-style casinos. She even faced off in an on-air mini-debate with a Hampshire College professor.
All this has earned the mayor some serious adulation from WBZ staffers.
Maybe too much.
"It's nice to see a mayor who's both intelligent and good-looking," Jack Williams, the Channel 4 news anchor, remarked one night on the air, channeling his inner Ron Burgundy.
All-time leading rusher
Not much gets done on Beacon Hill these days, but lawmakers did manage to pass a bill making Salem State College a university earlier this month.
Who quarterbacked that legislative attack?
Our very own state Rep. John Keenan — the same John Keenan who once captained the Salem High football team — offered some Monday morning analysis.
"Having Sen. (Fred) Berry at the end of the legislative session is like having Tom Brady inside the 10 with seconds on the clock," Keenan observed to a reporter this week.
"Touchdown, game over."
Facebook fanfare
Congrats to Joey Colomba, whose Salem Facebook page surpassed 20,000 fans early yesterday morning.
His site — dedicated to all things Salem — also celebrated its one-year anniversary on July 11. So Colomba gave away gift certificates and other prizes to fans that could correctly answer trivia questions about, of course, the Witch City.
Not a bad way to treat your fans.
Here comes the general
The city had an important visitor last week.
Brigadier Gen. Bosco Pesse of Chile was here. He was in charge of emergency operations in a devastated region of Chile last February following the catastrophic earthquake in that South American country. If you recall, that triggered a tsunami they feared would hit Hawaii.
Pesse, who was on his way to the Chilean embassy in Washington, D.C., stopped here to visit Arthur Francis — the Salem News' favorite weatherman — and his wife, Jeannine.
To them, the brigadier general is just Bosco, the exchange student who lived with them during his junior year in high school. At the time, the Francises, who have a son and four daughters, lived in Ipswich.
Pesse, who did weather readings in the Francises' backyard, went on to serve as officer in charge of Chile's weather station at Antarctica.
The two families have stayed in contact all these years.
Pesse came here with his wife and two daughters. Over several days, they saw all the sights, including one favorite.
"They loved the Salem ferry," Francis said.
Welcome wagon
The School Committee wasted no time initiating, ahem, we mean welcoming new Assistant Superintendent Steven O'Brien.
At the start of his first regular meeting with the School Committee, O'Brien was greeted by committee member Brendan Walsh, who teased, "Alyce, you look terrible," comparing him to his predecessor, Alyce Davis.
Committee member Janet Crane scanned her surroundings and quipped, "It's beginning to look like an old boys' club."
O'Brien took the ribbing in stride, leading off his first report to the committee with "I'm the mystery guest tonight. I've got a secret," referring to a weekly panel game show that premiered in the 1950s.
"Some of us even remember that show," Walsh replied.
Sailor Jim
When the Grand Caribe, the first of three cruise ships due this summer, pulled up to the Blaney Street landing Saturday, they took aboard Salem's own Jim McAllister. The historian gave passengers a lecture on Salem's storied past.
Welcome to Salem!
We understand, your honor
Picture the scene: The courtroom dock was packed with defendants, the gallery was full, including at least six young children and babies, and the probation computers were down. Suddenly, in the midst of the semi-organized chaos Wednesday morning came the faint strains of circus music, from a child's toy.
Salem District Court Judge Robert Brennan looked around for the source, then quipped, "It kind of sounds like the music playing in my head right now."
V.C. is OK
Veann Campbell says she is doing fine after four days in the hospital.
The volunteer director of St. Joseph Food Pantry came down with pneumonia and a leg infection last week and is taking antibiotics for both.
All of this, of course, is happening just as the pantry is getting ready to move from the basement of Immaculate Conception Church to Franklin Street.
Campbell says she is blessed with "volunteers" from Middleton Jail and courts, and with a crew of real-life volunteers from the pantry who are working tirelessly.
"When I got sick, they all came over and said, 'Don't worry about a thing, we'll take care of everything,'" she said.
We wish her well.
Meter man
Bil Legault, the former health and fitness director at the YMCA, is getting his exercise these days walking all over town.
Legault, a former bartender at the Lobster Shanty, just took a seasonal job as a meter control officer, which means he'll be patrolling the city streets handing out parking tickets.
The smiling Legault is one of the best-known and best-liked folks around town. This could test his popularity.
Just for the record, he really is Bil — with one "l."
Dog news
The dog playing Toto in the North Shore Music Theatre's production of "Gypsy" was adopted a few months ago from the Northeast Animal Shelter on Highland Avenue.
Talk about a change of fortune.
Babeland
Did you see the story about Babe Ruth playing in Beverly?
It ran in our paper last week along with information about a July 31 ceremony at Cooney Field in Beverly to commemorate the Bambino's 1919 visit during his barnstorming days.
That story triggered an e-mail from a Salem man who said a deceased relative told him Babe Ruth once played an exhibition game at a field in Collins Cove.
We asked the crack crew — that's a compliment — at the Salem Library reference desk to look into it, but so far they have not been able to confirm that the Babe came to Salem.
Sign of times
Did you see any of the fliers around town about saving St. Joseph Church?
It was probably inevitable that a group would form to try to stop the demolition of the former Catholic church on Lafayette Street. Although no date has been set, it is expected to come down before next spring, or sometime prior to construction of an apartment development on the site.
Staff writers Julie Manganis and Stacie N. Galang contributed to this notebook.
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