SALEM — Hey, it's only a traffic light.
But try telling that to the folks down at The Grapevine, one of the city's oldest and best restaurants.
They hate the new light at Derby, Congress and Hawthorne Boulevard.
"It has literally ruined my life," said bartender Chris Allworth, who lives nearby and says he has to wait interminably for the light.
Grapevine co-owner Kate Hammond said it has become impossible to back out of a driveway next to the restaurant.
"Where there was never a traffic jam, now there's a traffic jam," she said.
Hammond got so ticked off she put a sandwich board in front of the Congress Street restaurant last week. Instead of the daily fish specials, it read: "Honk If You Hate The Traffic Light."
They got a lot of honks, she said.
Told that city officials say the light is a sign of progress and an end to the chaos that has reigned for decades at a dangerous corner, Allworth replied: "Is it progress? I think it's a step backward."
In the interest of fair play, the mayor's office said it has received "very few" complaints about the new lights.
The lights, by the way, were on blinking red yesterday morning because of a malfunction that was fixed by noon.
Consumer watchdog
Elizabeth Warren, special adviser to the secretary of the treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, was in town Monday and visited Salem State University's Enterprise Center.
Invited by Congressman John Tierney, Warren met with a small group of community bankers, mortgage bankers and Realtors about the Consumer Protection Bureau's efforts to protect consumers and how reforms will affect the financial and real estate sectors.
Eating in the dark
Tony Bettencourt, the chef/owner of 62 Restaurant & Wine Bar on Pickering Wharf, always seems a step ahead of the crowd.
On Sunday, July 10, he is doing something that sounds like a "first" for the area: dining in the dark.
Dinner guests will wear blindfolds and eat a three-course Italian dinner ($75 per person) consisting of delicious food they will be able to taste but not see. The idea originated with a blind clergyman from Zurich, according to the restaurant. Guests at the clergyman's house wore blindfolds as a sign of solidarity — it also supposedly heightened their taste experience.
Sounds like a great idea, unless, of course, you smack your shin on the way to the table and, instead of total blackness, are seeing stars.
Million-dollar walk
The North Shore Cancer Walk couldn't have had a better day on Sunday.
The clouds cleared just in time for 6,000 walkers and nearly 600 runners to take off from Salem Willows.
They raised a whopping $1 million, with money still coming in. The official total won't be announced until September.
The 6,000 walkers, by the way, was a lot more than last year.
Champions all
The Boys & Girls Club of Greater Salem held its first Champions Dinner in 2007 and drew an impressive crowd of 150.
At this month's dinner, they had a crowd of 350. Tells you something good is happening on Hawthorne Boulevard.
The annual dinner is held to honor kids who take part in the 45 academic, arts, athletic, leadership and other programs offered by the club.
Diversity day
Talk about diversity.
Do you know how much stuff was going on in the city last night?
Local historian Jim McAllister was giving a talk at the Visitor Center on photographs about Salem he has snapped over the years.
There was a big meeting at Bentley School on the future of the power plant site.
The Plummer Home for Boys hosted 300 guests at a fundraising dinner at its property on Winter Island Road. It was a who's who of Salem: Sally and John Hayes, John Keenan and Kara McLaughlin, Charlie and Joyce Walsh, Rob and Rachel Lutts, Alice and Tim Clarke, Fran and Martha Mayo, Stan and Mary Usovicz, and on and on.
Of course, there was the weekly farmers market.
And, oh yes, it was Out Night, a citywide event to welcome gay and lesbian visitors to the city. (Did you happen to notice the flag at the Hawthorne Hotel? In a first, the flag-crazy hotel hoisted a Gay Pride flag.)
So if you stayed home last night to watch a rerun of "Wheel of Fortune," it may be time for a serious self-examination.
Red Sox gift
More than 60 hearing-impaired individuals went to Fenway Park last week to get fitted for hearing aids. One of the grateful recipients was 28-year-old Sherri Michaud of Salem.
The Starkey Hearing Foundation, with an assist from the Red Sox, gave out the hearing aids. The foundation delivers more than 100,000 hearing aids each year in programs it runs from the U.S. to Vietnam.
Red Sox GM Theo Epstein and all-purpose player Jed Lowrie were on hand to help out.
Dutch treat
Were you one of the lucky ones to see the Dutch painting exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum?
If so, you were not alone.
The museum reports that 105,000 people came to see the Dutch and Flemish paintings loaned by Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo of Marblehead.
That's the third-largest crowd for a PEM exhibit in recent years, topped only by "Painting Summer in New England" (2006) and "The Emperor's Private Paradise: Treasures From the Forbidden City" (2010).
Double the fun
Congratulations to James Lister, executive director of The Plummer Home for Boys, and his wife. They recently welcomed twin boys.
That makes three sons for the Listers. They're well on their way to a basketball team, which would be perfect for the top guy at The Plummer Home, which has a new basketball court thanks to NFL Hall of Famer Steve Young's Forever Young Foundation — a court that has been christened by the Celtics.
Charlie, we hardly knew ye
Is that a smile we see on the face of Ward 6 Councilor Paul Prevey?
Prevey has a reason to smile — or, at least, to breathe a sigh of relief — after the news this week that Charlie Walsh is dropping out of the race.
Walsh, a retired principal from a well-known Salem family, was what political consultants call a nightmare opponent: a guy with no political track record whom everybody loves.
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