It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's news Radio.
Thank you very much, Sherry. Good news in the Red Sox. Obviously the Bruins wrap it up. They'll be able to get to the golf course probably before the end of April, that's for certain. So that's the silver lining to the cloud of not making the playoffs. My name is Dan Ray. I'm the host of Nightside, heard every Monday through Friday night right here on WBZ Boston's News radio ten thirty and your AM dial from eight pm and to midnight. Rob Brooks is back in the control room at Medford
Broadcast Center. He will set you all up with phone calls when we start on our phone topics later tonight. We'll be talking about this is really interesting. If you purchased some cut rate stamps online recently, you want to pay attention. We will have a US Postal Inspection Service representative with us. You know, but your mother used to tell you, if you think the deal is it's too good to be true, it probably is. So we'll see what they have to say a little bit later on tonight.
We're going to remember the marathon bombing twelve years ago today at this hour. All of us were absolutely shaken as to what had happened in our city to the one hundred and seventeenth running of the Boston Marathon in
April fifteenth, twenty thirteen. Little did we know that not only three people had already died, and that later that evening, during our broadcast and MIT police officer sean call, you would be assassinated, ambushed and assassinated by these punks from Dagistan, one of whom, of course died that next that evening. Actually the other one who has been convicted of the death pally and sits and gets three squares and are cut to sleep in every day out in Colorado at Supermax.
Why is he still with us, I don't know, but we'll we'll get to all of that then later on tonight, if we do have time, we're going to talk about talk about the dattle between President Trump at Harvard Universe. And we got a lot to cover tonight. So let's get right started, right right away. Let me introduce Nicole McLoughlin to you. Nicole is the executive director of a
group called Plumber Youth Promise. And before we get to what Plumber Youth Promise does, today, Nicole, there's quite a history of this organization, almost goes back a couple hundred years.
It does, it does well. First of all, thanks for having me on tonight. But yes, so, Plumber Youth Promise started out as the Plumber Farm School of Reform for Boys in the mid eighteen hundreds and it's been there
ever since. And you know, of course, the services have changed over time because we no longer have reform schools, but we are actually operating in the same building that was built back in the mid eighteen hundreds, continuing to serve kids who currently are experiencing the foster care system.
Okay, so where is the building located? I just want to make sure that we get all of this facts out on the table first. Were sure.
We are in Salem, Massachusetts. If you're familiar with Salem at all, there's a neighborhood called the Salem Willows. A lot of people know that neighborhood. And there's a peninsula out that sticks out into Salem Harbor called Winter Island. And so this building is on Winter Island and Salem.
Okay, And I saw a video yesterday was I believe it was on Channel five of a wild shootout early in the morning in Salem. So obviously there is still some troubled youth in the city and the city of Salem, and you still have a lot of work to do. So let's talk about what you're doing today to help young men and women get their act together or get back on the straight and narrow. Explain to us exactly what Plumber Youth Promise does today.
Sure, so, Plumber Youth Promise is no actually part of the criminal justice system. We're part of the foster care system, and so we serve young people who are experiencing foster care and they might be living in any variety of settings. So in Salem we have the group care setting, but we also work with foster families throughout northeastern Massachusetts and we have older use between the ages of eighteen and twenty two who are living out in studios or one
bedroom apartments. And for all of them, in all of those programs, our objective is really to make sure that they leave the foster care system with a safe, stable, emotionally secure parenting relationship. So, you know, we really believe that people thrive in relationships and that every young person, regardless of their age, regardless of their circumstance, needs a family that is committed to them and will be with them through their lives. So that's our objective.
Yeah, so you want a young person who becomes a member of a foster care family to realize that that is a lifelong membership, just like it would be for a child who was the biological offspring of that family. If I'm hearing you.
Correctly, well, not quite almost.
Explait it for me, So I got to understand that, go ahead.
Sure, So foster care is by definition temporary, right, so when people foster, they don't necessarily assume that they're making
a lifelong commitment to a young person. And so what we want to do is, regardless of whether this young person is living in group care or with a foster family, we want to make sure that, either by reconnecting with their own birth families or by sort of creating new families which may or may not be with that foster family, that by the time they leave the foster care system, they know that they have someone who's committed to them for a lifetime.
So who is that person who's committed, So whether it's a new family that they have formed or they've been reconnected to the biological family. Are those what are the options? You're confusing me just a little bit here. So that person is leaving the foster care system, and what the age of twenty two? Is that the magic age or is it earlier than that?
Well, our goal would be for it to be earlier than that, right, So our goal would be to get young people out of the foster care system and into a permanent situation as quickly as possible. And again, that could be reuniting with birth family, it could be with grandparents or aunts or uncles. In some cases, it could be with an adoptive family. But the idea is that in order for a young person to thrive, they need to know that they have people who are committed to them.
And as long as you're in the foster care system, you know that that's temporary, right, And so you want to know who's you know, who are your people who's going to be with you in the long run, because throughout our lives we actually need family.
Well, yeah, I absolutely understand that. What confuses me is that I've known, you know, some people who had the courage and the generosity of spirit to foster, to provide foster care for children, and I would assume that some of those bonds and some of those relationships could last well into someone's adult life. That's what confused me, to be really honest with you. I understand set of circumstances
is different, yep. Yeah, but I would assume that that the relationships between foster parents and foster children can be very critically important as well.
Oh absolutely. And and some foster parents do go on to adopt, there's no question, there's no question. And other foster parents really they want to be sort of the temporary respite, right, So there's this kid's in trouble now that let me provide a safe haven until something can be figured out. So it's it's really different for every foster family. But foster foster parents are remarkable people. Remarkable people.
Everyone that I have known has bet have have fit that category, that description as well. So Nicole, how can folks get information? Should they want to support the Plumber Youth Promise organization or what? What? How can they get in touch?
The best thing is probably through our website.
Which is which would be which would be.
Plumber Youth Promise dot Org.
Perfect? Perfect? Okay, that's that's pretty straightforward Plumber P l U M M E R Youth Promise all one word dot Org. Thanks to Carl. Thanks for the work you do, very important work that is done with these young people as they're developing, you know, throughout their teenage years or even before that and into their adulthood. We want them to have as many opportunities presented to them as possible, and you're one of the groups that is trying to make that happen. So thank you for what you do.
Thanks man, Thanks very much.
You're welcome. So when we get back, we hope to speak with Boston Globe sports writer Carrie Thompson a little bit of the history of the Boston Marathon. All of us is going to learn a lot about it, as we do every year between now and next Monday. But why not start tonight on Nightside. My name is Dan Ray. We'll be back on Nightside with our next guest. Also later on tonight, of course, we'll have some guests and some topics and take phone calls interesting guests and interesting
topics which will spur some conversation. My name's Dan Ray. This is Nightside. If you are listening somewhere anywhere in Eastern half of the US. Now on your radio or your car radio or your home radio, say what station is this? This WBZ in Boston where Boston's news radio and ten thirty the AM dial. But we're an iHeartRadio station. We're no longer with CBS. We're an iHeartRadio station and
the iHeart radio station. Can you can get us just by bringing down the app, the new and improved iHeart app, and you can make us your first preset and you will always be simply a finger touched away from wherever you are in the world, everywhere in the world. Can people listen? You'd be surprised how many people listen to Nightside and all the continents, believe it or not, many of them obviously folks who have friendships and relationships with Boston,
and they are spread far and wide. So wherever you are, you can listen to Nightside and listen to WBZ during the day WBZ News Radio. My name's Dan Ray.
Back on Nightside right after this, It's Nightside's News Radio. All right, Welcome back everyone, as we now focus on the marathon. Marathon now is what six days way and hopefully all will go perfectly well this year. And I'm delighted to introduce Melissa Paul. She's the vice president of Development and chief development officer at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Institute, and we're going to talk about the Boston Marathon team
and program from the team of the Iron Are Institute. Melissa, Welcome to Nightside.
How are you.
I'm great, Thank you so much for having me on.
Dan, You're more than welcome. Thanks for coming on. You know, look, most of us at some point in our lives have dealt with Mass General or with mass iron Ear. But you have had a team in the marathon for several years, and it is a team that already you know, it's full. So there were no no longer accepting applications for this year, understandably, but you're even advising people who next year who might be interested in running. We highly suggest filling out our
interest form below. Oh so you're a popular team. How many runners do you have? First of all? And how long have you guys been doing this?
Yeah? So it's Team Irooneer. It's a fantastic team. We started in two thousand and six, so we're in our nineteenth year. We have fifty two runners this year and we've had you know, give or take fifty two for the last nineteen years, so probably about one thousand runners over the nineteen year period.
Now, do many people come back or do or is it a one in done for every runner?
Yeah? No, that's a great question. We actually have about half the team who are first time runners, and about half the team are runners who've run before. We've got a good contingent of people who run every year, and fact, our chief nursing officer has run every year since twenty seventeen when she joined mass Pioneer, and she's not alone. So there are a lot of you know, people that just keep coming back every year and keep raising money and keep training for mass Iioneer.
Okay, Now, of course money is so important to an institution like Ironeer, mess general, et cetera. How much cumulatively have your runners raised for the cause. I'm betting it's a lot of money that you've raised.
It's a lot of money. So this year alone we've raised five hundred and fifty five thousand. Next year, in our twentieth year, will surpass ten million for the whole time. So it's really incredible and it's an honor to be given these numbers, you know, by the Bank of America Boston Marathon official charity, and we actually have to uphold a very high commitment. We ask each runner to raise ten thousand dollars, So just think about that.
In addition, yeah, I was doing the math, by the way, in my head. That's exactly what I figured out. So not only do you have to be a runner, but you also have to be a fundraiser, which not necessarily is something that every run runner can do, but wow, that's a remarkable achievement. Tell us what it will be like for your runners. Do you guys run together or do you just start together and the rabbits take off and the folks who perhaps aren't as fast just complete
the race. What percentage of your runs actually finish the race?
I think a very high percentage do finish. And it really is the ladder, you know. I think everybody, according to their abilities, you know, that does their start, and some people come in very quickly and some people, you know, really lag. But you know, I think I think it's such a wonderful opportunity for so many people. Being in the Boston Marathon is fulfilling a dream and to be able to tie that with a cause that they care about makes it just that much more special.
Are there are a lot of members of your staff. You mentioned there was the one member who joined in twenty seventeen. What's the makeup of the team is a lot of staff people? Are there runners? You know who we might know of either by their name. Do you occasionally get you know, you know, I don't know from a Red Sox player with someone like that to be in your group? Tell us how that goes.
You know, it's mostly patients and their family and friends who you know they've been touched by Mass Sioneer. We do have employees every year. We have about six this year, and I think that's probably typical. So that could be a nurse, that could be a you know, an administrator, could be a scientist, really anybody. It's open to anybody who wants to be on the team and is excited to run and raise money. But the vast majority of our patients whose lives have been touched by Mass Sioneer,
you know, we're a very unique specialty hospital. We really provide life changing care and when when people have been experienced, you know, have experienced that care, it means an awful lot to them and they want to give back. So there are really so many wonderful stories of runners, you know, sharing why they're doing this, why it's important to them, and it's really just a one ful thing from ass Sioneer and for these families supporting us.
So last question again, I noticed on your website, and we'll give that in a moment. It's MASSI inared dot org. That's pretty easy. But on the website, I noticed that it says, and I don't know when this was posted, it might have been posted months ago, that our twenty twenty five charity team is full. We're no longer accepting applications. So we folks are thinking about running in the year
twenty twenty six. Are you expanding the number of runners or will it stay pretty much in that fifty to fifty two range for next year?
Yeah, I think it'll be about I think we get fifty charity bibs and then if people qualify for the race. We do have people who will join the team and they don't need one of the charity bibs, but.
We do if someone if someone out there tonight is listening and say I want to run as a member of this team, and maybe they were a patient maybe they're a member of their family, was a patient. What should they be doing in anticipation of trying to qualify or to be accepted as a team member next year, assuming they can raise the amount of money that's necessary to justify their participation. Do they have to send an email to you guys, like tomorrow or the day after
the races? Give us give us some insight here.
Yeah, No, I think there's I think there's some time. I can give the contact Stacy Kelly runs our marathon team, and I can give her number, So I would probably have him call Stacy at six one seven five seven three three zhoo three five and Stacy will put them on a lift so that we can, you know, stay in touch. We can be in touch in the fall. But also we have other opportunities to run. If somebody's interested in running but isn't ready to do a marathon.
We have the A six Pelmouth Road Race on August seventeenth. That's one thousand dollars fundraising commitment, and we do have seven DIBs left, so that's an opportunity and for people who are avid runners. We this year joined the Sydney Marathon. It's actually August thirty first, we'll pull for this year, but if somebody has always wanted to run that, we'll have that.
So that's in Australia, right, that's in Australia. Okay, give me that number one more time, six one seven, go ahead.
Five seven three three zero three five.
Okay, Well I'll try to write that down in case anyone needs that information. Stacy Kelly at mass On Era. Okay, thank you so much. Appreciate your time and information today. Very helpful, Melissa, best of luck all the runners next Monday.
Okay, thank you, we appreciate it.
By bye, all right, will be back. We'll be back right after the news at the bottom of the era. My name is Dan Ray. Sorry, we're a little bit late here and we will get back and we'll be going to be talking with Mark shield Drop about some good news Nashally, but not so much in several New England states in terms of automobile fatalities. We will explain.
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on you Easy Boston's news radio.
Well, we have kind of mixed results here. We're delighted to be joined by one of my favorite eight PM guests here on Nightside, Mark shield Drop. Mark is a senior spokesman for Triple A Northeast, and I guess there's some good and bad news here, Mark that automobile fatalities for twenty twenty four of the year just ended. These figures are not I guess said and shown, but they're pretty close to what they're going to be. Nationwide is down, but in four New England states it's up.
What's going on, yeah, definitely, So that's a good summary. Nationally, we're seeing improvement from that terrible twenty twenty two. We've seen steady declines and crashing this fatality So looks like twenty twenty three was an improvement over twenty twenty two, and then projected for twenty twenty four, we're expecting to have fewer than forty thousand fatalities for the first time since twenty twenty. That's good. But when we zoom in a little bit and take a look at the Northeast,
we're going in the other direction. So the rest of the country is I'm seeing improvement. But when we look at Massachusetts, for example, we saw an increase of seven point three percent. When you look at New Jersey, the increases fourteen point seven percent. If you look at Maine, which is really troubling. Fatalities increased thirty two percent from twenty twenty three to twenty twenty four. So we're the
outlier here in the Northeast. You know, as a part of the country, you like to think we're sort of ahead of the ballgame, or you know, leading the rest of the country in many categories. So when it comes to crackers and fatalities, looks like the checkers.
I looked at the stats quickly. I'm sure you know them much better than I, but looked to me like only Connecticut and Vermont for twenty twenty four in New England or lower than twenty twenty three. And I've no no excuse me, Vermont and Rhode Island. Vermont and Rhode Island.
That's correct. And with Rhode Island, he got kind of take that a little bit of a grain of salt. It's so small and the numbers are so small that even just a couple, you know, there's a decent drop from seventy one fatalities to fifty two. So that's twenty five.
Yeah, that is a good drop.
That's a good drop.
Look, hey, Vermont, probably Vermont, I will bet your Rhode Island. As a matter of fact, I know it for a fact that little Roady has more citizens than Vermont. And the reason I know that is Rhode Island has two members in the House of Representatives and Vermont only has one in the House of Representatives. And so the population in Vermont, they have more move they have more room to move around. So I would say Rhode Island is the superstar in New England. Here to be honest with you, when.
You're definite members.
So how come it is now April fifteenth, we're three and a half months into twenty twenty five. How come that we're still dealing this late or this late into the new year, that those numbers aren't formally finalized for twenty twenty four. Yeah, they figured that's that's pretty much whe we're going to be. But what do they do that They still say, Hey, they could have been some guy who got a bad automobile accident a New Year's even Nebraska and he's still hanging on like this.
Yeah, it is a little bit of that.
So this is these are numbers from NISA, the National higha Traffic Stape Administration. So they generally take as it's a little bit slow, but for good reason. You know, they really go through all these crash reports and they do some really deep analysis, so they really take their time with this, and generally the way it flows is they close the books on one year. So twenty twenty three's numbers were finalized this past week or last week, and at the same time they put out their preliminary
numbers for twenty twenty four. So this time next year we'll be talking about twenty twenty four's books closing and the preliminary numbers for the current year that we're in. So there's a little bit of a lag. Fortunately, here in Massachusetts, we have really great data and the state shares that data in near real time, so there is a way to look at what's going on on the ground in real time here in Massachusetts. The numbers are
always preliminary. You always have to think about, like you said, there are times where the numbers increase six months into the new year from the prior year because there was that person who was hanging on for months but then unfortunately died ultimately from their injuries, and we try to capture all of that in the numbers, just so we know, you know, we have accurate data when we're talking about this stuff.
So now, twenty twenty two, I think you alluded to it earlier was kind of the high water mark. Yeah, automobile and it's just just automobile in trucks or is it all motor vehicle. It's all motor vehicles.
It's everybody. It's cars, trucks, pedestrians, motorcyclists, people riding scooters, all of it.
Okay, So why was twenty twenty two such a spike. I know that twenty twenty we had COVID and everybody stayed home and the twenty twenty one we were kind of getting back. But why the spike in twenty twenty two? Any theory on that.
Yeah, so a few things happened at once. It's kind of a perfect storm. So it was still kind of coming out of COVID. Even though it was twenty twenty two, there was still that sense we were still coming out of it. But the traffic volumes that really pretty much came back to pre COVID levels. The problem is the driving behaviors got worse, so people were speeding, driving way
more aggressively. Many of the folks that were driving a lot during COVID, you know, kind of owned the roads, and so some of those behaviors carried over, and then folks that got back into the swing of things and driving more kind of copied some of those behaviors. We've also seen upticks and impairment, people taking recreational drugs, illegal drugs and drinking, so some of those behaviors kind of went the wrong direction with it. And then, you know,
we work closely with law enforcement. They're a great partner, but there's no question enforcement was affected. Enforcement was a bit down during that period as well. Felt like, you know what, they're not gonna no one's gonna catch me, or that I'm not going to get pulled over, So there's that feeling that they can get away with it. So all of that going on at the same time.
And then there is an argument who made of some of the newer drivers who came onto the road who maybe took drivers there during COVID who didn't get those practice hours in the way maybe you know, traditionally folks would get so maybe more inexperience on the roadways as well. So it was really a lot of bad things happening at once.
I'm going to ask you another question which is separate, but you might be able to help me out of this. I'm told that the backups at the r m V and at Triple A are incredible in advance of the deadline for the the the the real ID driver's licenses. Do you have any insight on that that's the situation and is that going to abate once the actual deadline I think it's May fifth passes.
It's May seventh, And yes, we are seeing very strong, very high volumes at our branches and I know the Registry is also experiencing that. So getting an appointment on those reservation systems that we operate maybe a challenge. You got to keep checking throughout the day. Slots do open up, so people are grabbing slots, but there's a lot of demand people. I think some folks are maybe a little
bit more panicky than they should be. There's some misinformation out there, some confusion, and I take ownership for some of that too, because it's hard to get the messaging right. But there are folks who think that there are the driver's license in their walle it's going to be no good after May seventh, and that's not the case at all. A lot of people don't realize that it's literally to board a domestic flight or go into a federal building.
Your old license is perfectly fine. That will still work as a regular driver's license. You don't need to rush in unless you have a trip plant after May seventh. If you're going to be flying, you know May tenth, and you don't have a real ID, yeah, you should probably get that done if you can, or you should have already gotten that done. The thing is, though, if you have a valid passport, that will also work on
getting on a plane. So what we're seeing is there are folks that want to get the real idea before the deadline because they do have travel. There's a lot of folks that think they have to get it or there's a real sense of urgency. But when you talk to them, it's like, no, you still have a passport. You use that passport. Just wait till it dies down. I think after May seventh we will see numbers kind of get back to normal and things settle down a little bit.
Yeah, in the passports, by the way, work. Both would work even without the real idea on your driver's license, both domestically and internationally. On airplane flight, absolutely no reason,
no reason. It is just you say to panic. All right, Mark, Well, I'm glad I asked you about that because I'm here and it's been tough, and a friend of mine was trying to in a panic get an appointment at a registry office or at a triple A office and the only one that the individual could find was on Nantucket Island, which was, yeah, particularly excess at this time of year, especially convenient.
Everyone.
Mark is always first one of one of my favorite guests, and thanks for rearranging your schedule for us a little bit tonight.
Hey, my pleasure any time.
Dan.
It's always great talking and we appreciate people's patients. We know it's tough. People want those ideas, you know. Just we're gon just take a deep breath. We're doing the best we can. We promise you know, everyone's going to get taken care of them.
Well.
The other thing are doing their jobs.
Yeah. The other thing too, is that there were so many stops and starts. They originally were supposed to be required by October of twenty twenty, if I'm not mistaken, that's four and a half years ago.
But with all I mean, we've gone back all the way to nine to eleven is when this stuff really originated. And it's been it's been years and years, and then you know, it's supposed to go on right before COVID and then COVID game, so they extended it again. And so I think a lot of folks just kind of, you know, put it on the back burner and all of a sudden, next thing, you know, you know, you smell smoke. The food's burning.
Here.
We got good metaphor, good metaphor. Mark, Thanks man, We'll talk soon, okay, all right, right, take care, thank you much. Okay, we come back. We will preview what's coming up later on tonight. One of our guests has mysteriously disappeared. I hope he was not abducted by aliens. A sports writer for the Boston Globe unfortunately, gave us every belief that he would be with us tonight at a certain time and didn't. But that's okay, that's okay. I can tell
you probably everything that he could have told us. Well, and then I'll preview the show. We'll come back on Nightside right after the break.
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Well, we have to apologize on behalf of Elevate Communications, a PR firm that represents the Boston Globe, and also Carrie Thompson, a writer for The Boston Globe, had written a piece that caught the attention of our producers. Why does the Boston Marathon start in Hopkinton. They were supposed to be available for eight fifteen tonight, and they weren't. We had to move. Melissa Paul was very gracious from Team ironeer up fifteen minutes, and also Mark shield Drop
from TRIPAA moved them up fifteen minutes. So I'm just going to take a moment here in the absence of one of our scheduled guests. And I don't understand why any individual who tells their company yeah, I'll do that interview tonight small isn't smart enough to call and say, gee, something came up. You know. Maybe the person I don't know, you know, had it inconvenient. It's just it's kind of what where our country is going. You got to be polite,
You got to think about the other guy. It's funny today I was driving and I was on Route nine, and just as I talked last week about the idea of ambulances barreling down Route nine heading to the hospital district. Sure enough, there was one about a quarter of a
mile away. And I was in a position where I say, well, not only to get off of Route nine completely, but I was able to get off of Route nine and into a parking lot across the way so that I could open up an entire line of traffic for the ambulance. And there was no one else in front of me, which was great. And I was not going to race and try to race through a light. I had an opportunity and I did it. So again, you need to be professional, and you need to be considered of other people.
The marathon, as you know, is twenty six point two miles, and I have covered a whole bunch of marathon starts. I remember covering the one hundredth anniversary. We'd go out there early in the morning. We'd oftentimes end up at the high school, and in those mid April mornings that I was out there on Patriots Days over the years, many mornings you'd go out and it would be thirty degrees or thirty five degrees on your car thermometer, and by time the sun came up it was sixty and
so you're peeling. And of course the runners loved it because to a nice temperature for the run, not too hot. There were some races where it was eighty degrees or a little even worse than that. I remember a couple. But it's twenty six point two miles, and the finish line has changed a couple of times. It used to be there on Ring Road by the Prudential Center. They pushed it ahead a little bit, not a whole lot. And it also the start line it did start in
Ationlaland at some point. But it's a story, it's a storied history. It's when the world comes to Hopkinton, and I can always remember this was probably in the early two thousands when they were a lot of really good Japanese runners. I mean a lot of the Kenyon runners now have taken over for the marathon, as I'm sure you know every time there's the winner, both from Kenya or whatever. And of course now you have the wheelchair
divisions as well. But amongst the elite male runners, and even amongst the elite female runners, there was always a healthy contingent of Japanese tourists who came out because the Boston Marathon is a big deal, or it was then, at least in Japan. And I can remember so many times we would be by where the buses were pulling in and it was always a great shot to see the tourists come off a bus and you could tell they were not American by the language that they spoke,
or by their appearance in some cases. And whenever the Japanese bus would come off, they would always be Japanese. And I know this is a bit of a stereotype, and it's not fear, but it's true. Japanese love to take pictures, at least in the days of the marathon, and they were they had come to Hopkinton, which for them was like I don't know, you know, us going to Buckingham Palace or going to the Shamps dis A or going you know, going somewhere in the world that
you had read about your entire life. And so oftentimes the we we would be standing there, uh and I would be with my camera crew, and occasionally, a matter of fact, on more than one occasion, a Japanese tourist would come up and ask if they could take a picture with me, and I am convinced based upon what they would say to me that they thought I was the mayor of Hopkinson, not merely a simple television reporter from w b C TV and the unbelievably polite, gracious,
friendly people. Uh. And they would say to me, in either broken English or just by gestures, can take a picture and that hand the camera to a friend and uh. And we would stand there, shake hands, and we would pose. Again. I wasn't about to say no, no, I said sure absolutely uh. And we talk a little bit, or try
to talk a little bit. And and this was even around the time that Japanese baseball players Haiki Nomo was I think pitching at that point for the Dodgers or for the Red Sox late in the twentieth century early and I would say Hideki and Omo and and they would understand names. You know, uh, Uh that that's Hideki Matsui with the with the Yankees at a different time. And you you'd make that little connection, believe it or not,
and they'd be very appreciative. Take a picture, uh. And then they'd hand the camera to their buddy or to their wife or to whomever they were with, and then I would get a picture with that person. And many of them would say to me, maya, maya, take picture, take picture, and I'd say, okay, find no problem. Hopkinson doesn't have a mayor. It's a town, so as a
board of selectmen. But I am still convinced that to this day there may be some pictures of me in homes in Japan in which people still proudly point in Japan to the wall and say and to their friends, I was in Hopkinton and that's a picture of me with the mayor of Hopkinton. They have no idea. It's just Dan Ray. It's as simple as that. Anyway, when we get back, have any of you bought deeply, deeply discounted stamps on any of the websites eBay or places
like that. Well, I know several people who have, and I have thought about it myself, and I decided to check with the US Post Office because some of these deals right now, one hundred stamps at sixty seven census stamp would cost you sixty seven dollars. Most of us are buying books of them, and you're paying fourteen sixty
for just twenty stamps. However, there are sites which purport to sell you forever stamps, one hundred forever stamps for twenty bucks or twenty two bucks, like a deep discount. The question then, is, just as your mother told you, if it's too good to be true, is it likely too good to be true? We will find out. We're going to be talking with a US Postal Inspector supervisor about if you have some stamps and you have had a good experience, please feel free to join the conversation.
We will unwind this story for you right after the nine o'clock news. My name is Dan Ray, and this is Nightside