By Tom Dalton and Chris Cassidy
SALEM — It may have been the loudest applause Ward 1 Councilor Bob McCarthy has ever received.
The first-term councilor was called to the front of the room Tuesday night at the senior center to receive an award from the Park and Recreation Commission. There was mild applause for the award, and then a wild, foot-stomping racket for the announcement that followed.
The bathrooms at Salem Willows are finally fixed, the councilor said.
The packed house — it was Awards Night — could barely restrain its enthusiasm. And the applause continued as almost every award recipient said how pleased they were about the new bathrooms.
Matt Caruso of the Salem Jazz and Soul Festival, which is held at the Willows, was thrilled. Dog lady Donna Michaud mentioned that the bathrooms are cleaned by her friend Kathy Strecker's business. More cheering.
How bad could the old bathroom have been? Everyone seemed to agree they were disgusting rust-buckets.
"Even when it was cleaned, it never looked clean," Park Director Doug Bollen said. "It's been my No. 1 complaint since I took this job seven years ago."
The new bathroom, built in the former's women's "cottage," will have toilets that flush automatically, water that turns on and off automatically and air hand dryers. The new bathrooms cost — brace yourself — about $140,000. The bonds will be paid off over many years by Willows' parking meter funds.
After she saw how excited the crowd was over news of the bathrooms, Mayor Kim Driscoll joked about having a ribbon-cutting. Somebody in the crowd yelled out that it should be a toilet-paper cutting.
Believe it or not, city officials are now actually talking about holding a grand bathroom event when Salem Willows opens for the season April 15.
"We're looking forward to a big, ceremonial first flush," McCarthy said.
Ward 1 cocktail
McCarthy may have been a hit at the meeting, but he did nothing for his image at the charity fundraiser right before at Finz restaurant on Pickering Wharf.
While Mayor Kim Driscoll was serving up mixed drinks as a charity bartender, McCarthy, who is a big construction kind of guy, was drinking a glass of soda water with a splash of cranberry juice.
That could cost him votes with the high-livin' Juniper Point crowd.
Home intruder
Police got a distress call Monday morning from a woman on Russell Drive who thought she had a dead cat in her trash barrel. Actually, she wasn't sure what it was, or if it was alive or dead.
Patrolman Mike Dunn took a peek inside and saw a sleeping raccoon. "The raccoon was released and sent on its way," he wrote in his report.
All in a day's work.
Golden anniversary
A belated congratulations to the Rev. Edward Keohan, who recently celebrated his 50th anniversary as a priest.
Father Keohan resides at the Immaculate Conception rectory, has been helping out at a church in Beverly and is former pastor of St. Mary's Italian Church, which closed a few years ago.
Big Brother Bruin
Matt Hennessey of Beverly is a lucky guy. He went to the recent Bruins-Flyers game at TD Banknorth Garden with his "Big Brother," Bill Platt of Salem. They had great seats, which were donated by Ace Ticket.
Bottoms up
Christina Pesente of Salem gets her 15 minutes of fame tomorrow when she appears on the "TV Diner" cocktail competition on New England Cable Network. The show airs at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Pesente, marketing coordinator at Creative Juices in Beverly, has entered her favorite drink, a Cinnamon Habanero.
A heart-y endorsement
Have you sent your congressman a Valentine yet?
Salem State College students have. They collected just over 200 Valentine's Day cards for John Tierney this week, proclaiming that the congressman is "too cool for global warming."
That, apparently, is a good thing.
MASSPIRG, a statewide student-run organization, said it held the card drive to thank Tierney for supporting investments in global warming solutions in the House economic recovery package.
The students plan to deliver the cards in a giant heart-shaped Valentine next week.
Jay Leno's pal
It should be a sellout when Jay Leno comes to Salem State on April 6 to honor his old pal, Lennie Sogoloff.
Sogoloff, of course, is the guy who gave Leno his big break by booking him at Lennie's-on-the-Turnpike in 1972. At the time, Leno was a college kid from Andover going to Emerson College in Boston.
Sogoloff, 85, recalls every detail of that first meeting in the office of his Route 1 jazz club.
"To this day, I remember looking at Jay wearing granny glasses, bell-bottom pants and a leather vest looking right out of Harvard Square. ... He had made some appearances at fraternity houses, and worked a little in the Combat Zone, but at that moment in February of 1972 nobody knew who the hell Jay Leno was."
Leno did five minutes of stand-up right in Sogoloff's office and "he had us breaking up."
On that first night, Leno opened for Mose Allison. Before the show, Sogoloff told the crowd to go easy on the new kid.
"They were there to hear a blues pianist, and I implored them to be quiet while this young man deals up some pretty funny stuff. They were (quiet) and they broke up."
Leno appeared at the club several times that year, opening once for Kris Kristofferson and filling in when one of the Everly Brothers got sick and they had to cancel.
Sogoloff, an East Coast club legend, liked Leno right away, but wasn't thrilled about his name.
"I said to myself, 'That will never work. Jay Leno ... the name itself ... I can't see that up on the marquee.' But how wrong can you be?"
Asked how a young college kid had enough material to make repeat appearances at his club, Sogoloff told another Leno story.
"He was working for a foreign motors company. They were picking up cars in Chicago, it seems to me, and he was driving over the road, and he used to do his own writing with a tape recorder."
Leno is coming to Salem State because this is a fundraiser for a scholarship in memory of Sogoloff's late wife, Barbara. The late-night comedian waived his usual performance fee and is flying out and flying back to California the same day.
That tells you a lot about Lennie Sogoloff.
