SALEM — We're not making an allegation here, but there might have been an illegal quorum of the School Committee last weekend in Norton.

Three members of the school board — Janet Crane, Jim Fleming and Kevin Carr — met on the ninth hole at the TCP of Boston, a golf course down in a dark corner of the state near the Rhode Island border. They claim it was not a secret meeting and they were there to watch golf.

Well, they may have a point.

At least Crane can make a case that she was there on family business. Her nephew is professional golfer Ben Crane, who finished in a tie for 10th in last weekend's Deutsche Bank Championship, which was held in Norton. He pocketed a cool $175,000.

Although he grew up in Oregon, Ben Crane is no stranger to the Witch City.

"When (Ben) was nine years old, he and his brother spent a week with me here in Salem," she said.

Crane had an apartment then near Salem Common and can remember the boys playing games of Wiffle ball on the Common.

"The thing (Ben) remembers most about it is that I took them to a Red Sox game," she said. "He said he has always been a Red Sox fan because of that game."

Crane had hoped to return to Fenway Park with her nephew on Saturday night, but he was in the thick of the tournament and couldn't go. Instead, she went with caddies for Mike Weir, Tim Clark and other PGA golfers.

The joking suggestion that this meeting may have been illegal was made at Monday night's school board meeting by member Brendan Walsh, who wasn't invited to the tournament because he was down at the Cape.

"He was definitely jealous," Crane said.

Or at least green with envy.

Fleeing Gustav

Former Salem High girls' basketball coach Dennis Skeadas was among the thousands forced to evacuate this week from Hurricane Gustav.

"We faced a mandatory evacuation on Sunday morning," said Skeadas, who lives in Beaumont, Texas, just a few miles from the Louisiana border. "It was quite a scary thing ...

"Saturday they announced a mandatory evacuation starting at 6 a.m. Sunday. We thought we'd be pretty smart to leave at 4 in the morning to beat everybody. Well, it took us 4 hours and 15 minutes to go 20 miles. Picture getting on Route 128 at the Northshore Shopping Center at 4 in the morning and it's a whole parking lot. It's very frightening."

Skeadas returned to his house Wednesday night to find all was well.

That was a much better outcome than three years ago following Hurricane Rita. That evacuation lasted 18 days and, upon returning home, Skeadas found two large trees had fallen through the roofs of the kitchen and another room. Rain came through the holes, buckling floors and damaging the interior.

"You don't know what you're going back to," he said. "This one we were very fortunate. We knew the storm didn't hit us."

Skeadas, 55, coached the great Salem High team in 1999 that won the Eastern Massachusetts championship and lost in the state final.

Twin City theft

It's a small world after all...

When Mayor Kim Driscoll bumped into Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak at the Democratic National Convention in Denver last week, the pair discovered they had more in common than meets they eye.

Aside from both being Democrats and mayors, Rybak learned Driscoll is the new boss of Tom Daniel, Minneapolis' former economic development manager, who left the City of Lakes after seven years and accepted a job in the Witch City in December.

Driscoll said Ryback raved about Daniel's work.

"He said, 'So you're the one who stole him from us!'" Driscoll recalled.

Jay-walking

Have you heard about this?

A late-night comedian had some fun with John Edwards' scheduled appearance at Salem State this week.

On NBC's The Tonight Show Monday night, Jay Leno started showing a series of humorous newspaper clippings during a regular bit called "Headlines."

Midway through, Leno reached for a copy of The Salem News, featuring a story by our very own Alan Burke on local reaction to Edwards' sex scandal.

"Usually women are a little more harsh on these things, but not in this case," Leno said as he held up the story.

Then the camera focused on a quote from Beverly artist Dianne Symmes: "Of course, it's not a good thing for him to have done this. But people do things like that all the time. ... I sometimes jaywalk."

The studio audience erupted with laughter.

"Now that is an understanding woman!" bellowed Leno. "Wow!"

Arresting music

This has been a rough week for the musically inclined.

On Wednesday, a man was arrested at 3 a.m. for singing too loudly on Howard Steet. It was the second time in two nights neighbors had called to complain.

The offending party went to Salem District Court, although some joker suggested he should go to Sing Sing.

The day before, another guy was arrested for playing his guitar after 1 a.m.

Police got two complaints from a Leavitt Street apartment building about a first-floor tenant who had been playing his electric guitar all night and who, despite repeated requests, reportedly refused to stop. The electric guitar was plugged into a pair of speakers, police said.

"It should be noted," a police report stated, "that these officers could hear the guitar from the sidewalk."

Police said they banged on the guy's bedroom door and windows for five minutes before he unlocked the door.

Sean Hussey, 26, of Leavitt Street, was arrested on a charge of disturbing the peace.

Taking the hand-off

What would you do for a pair of Patriots season tickets?

Keep your hand on a giant, 20-foot inflatable team jersey for the better part of three days, you say?

That's exactly what Chris Cerretani, 24, and Mike Pastorello, 32, are trying to do this week during a ticket giveaway sponsored by Bank of America.

Through the end of the day today, Cerretani, Pastorello and six other insane Pats fans will compete to see who can keep at least one hand on the giant jersey the longest.

The winner gets a pair of tickets to every Patriots home game for the 2008 season.

Even if they lose, both have the chance to meet and get an autograph from former Patriots great and recent Hall of Fame inductee Andre Tippett.

From the heart

The Gulu-Gulu Cafe raised an amazing $10,000 last Friday night for the family of Jocelyn Callahan, the cook who accidentally fell into the South River basin last week and drowned.

It was an incredible outpouring from a caring community.