Nightside News Update 5/23/25

It's nice size We've did.

Ray I'm going you Mazy Boston's News Radio. Thank you very much, Madison. Hope you have a nice weekend. Hope everyone has a great weekend. As the weather we hope will improve throughout the weekend. It's better today than it was yesterday. Hopefully better tomorrow, even better on Sunday and Monday. Happy Memorial Day weekend. Hope everyone takes a moment this weekend to perhaps remember someone who served, or someone who served and never returned home, who basically gave everything for

It didn't take off on time, but it did land on time.

Well, you you would have had a sweat. I'm glad I didn't know that in advance. So there is what we call the Senate Project Series at the EMK Institute for the US Senate, and this is it's first of all, it's a great facility out by the Kennedy Library of Maybe someday we'll say that Kennedy Library is near the

Yeah, it's pretty remarkable. We have one of two US Senate chambers in the world, and one obviously is in Washington, but ours is an exact replica. And when we have a former or sitting US Senators come to our facility, they walk in and invariably they pause and they look there and they're they're in disbelief because it is exact, and it is It's definitely worth a trip, particularly if you're going to the JFK Library. This is it's quite a site, and we have a this is one hundred

I'd be honor hosting an event with Inton Sharansky several years ago at the at the e MK Institute. It is an impressive building. So this event that is coming up on Monday, June second, not this coming Monday, but a week from Monday, is at nine o'clock in the morning, and it is going to feature the sixth presentation of a couple of senators, often a senator from each party. So far we've gone through, you've gone through about twelve senators, and this is the first time you will have two

Well, just really quick background. The Senate Project is designed to get right leaning, left leaning or Democrat and Republican sitting senators in debate and the goal is to create dialogue and reach common ground. And our partners the Hats Foundation in Utah, because Arn Hatch and Ted Kennedy this very strange relationship that turned into a very deep friendship. And what we are all about is bipartisanship. One would think that a building named Kennedy and Boston houses a

Yeah, it's kind of important because of all the controversy around Center Fetterman.

There there was a very in depth and critical article in New York Magazine that suggested he was not fit to serve. There are many who are suggesting that perhaps the Democrats are trying to undermine center Fetterman because he is has shown a proclivity to vote on both sides, and there's a lot of questions about him. He has not had a major appearance like this since that article was written, so it adds to the interest in this event.

Now, is this event Monday morning? Is this open to the public? I know the media is invited to cover it, but is there an opportunities?

Unfortunately, unfortunate, it's not because we only have one hundred seats on our Senate floor, as you can imagine, and it's a replica, you know, the of the Senate, So we we have specific people who will be attending. But it is not open to the public. However, it will be. It will be live streamed on our website and it will be available on Fox throughout the week.

Now, certainly, John Fetterman is a senator cut from a different cloth literally.

And secretively.

Thank you.

That's a great line.

Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Every once in a while a blind squirrel finds in none. But you know, he has shown a level of independence which I think is discomforted some in the Democratic Party. McCormick is more of a I guess what you'd call a Northern Republican senator, maybe not quite cut in the mold of Arl in Spector, but probably not necessarily what you would think of as a mega senator. So it should be really interesting exchange.

Yeah, I mean, they will talk about the economy. They will uh, they will absolutely talk about the impact of of terrorists and uh, the Pennsylvania has a lot of manufacturing and the question is will we be able to onshore in to to offset the impacts of the terroriffs. Uh. They have a very different view on the on the big beautiful tax build that, and so they have a very different view of that. They have very different view on labor. I think they have a similar view on

Yeah, well, I think he is fit to serve. He's sort of a I think is because has morphed into kind of a Joe Mannion, a Democrat from his from the neighboring state, Bruce Persley, thank you so much for home getting here in time, remotely getting your plan on the ground and keep us posted. It's a great institute, the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. And I think that Senator Kennedy, where he alive today, would be very proud of what this institute has transformed into.

Thank you so much, Thanks much.

Talk again, thank you very much. When we get back. We're going to talk about something that is probably more has a broader appeal maybe than an Oxford type debate at the Kennedy Institute. Hamburgers, the history of Hamburgers, where hamburgers have come from. We're going to talk with a very interesting guest. My name is Dan Ray. This is Nightside. We will also talk later on tonight about Minni's with a mission, little mini horses and little minie donkeys and

Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's News Radio.

Delighted to be joined by Chris Carosa, a Hamburger historian and author of Hamburger Dreams. I Love Hamburger's. How classic crime solving techniques helped crack the case of America's greatest culinary culinary mystery. Chris Carrosa, that is a long title for a book. How are you?

I'm good? How are you?

I'm doing just great? So you have spent a lot of time looking into Hamburgers. I always assumed they were a product that was developed in a city called Hamburg, Germany. I guess I was wrong.

Yeah, you and and even McDonald's was wrong. At one point, Ray Kroc sent a vice president of McDonald's to Hamburg, Germany with a certificate saying thanks for being the Hamburger. And Mayer looked at the certificate that said, we didn't do it. You guys did it in America. So how did you?

So? What prompted you other than a love for a good hamburger? And by the way, even though it's bad weather up here in New England and cold and rainy, there'll be a lot of Hamburgs grilled around New England this this this holiday weekend, the start of summer, the unofficial start of summer. What got you interested in this? I mean, you are a Hamburger historian.

Well, I didn't start off as a Hamburger historian. I actually started off as an astrophysicist. And I well.

I think those are fairly similar. To be really honest with you, Chris, I mean it's the same level of intellect. I think. Tell us about it.

I was I had room to take another class, and my classmates convinced me to take a class about the study of the city. They were architects, and they thought it would be fun, and they sold me on the idea. And they said, there's no final exam, you just have to write the biography of the city you were born in. I was born in Buffalo, New York, and as I was researching, I came across an old newspaper article that said the hamburger was invented.

There knew that.

So I ran down and I talked to one of my classmates and it's very excitedly and I said, hey, the hamburger was born in Buffalo. He says, no, it wasn't. It was made right here in New Haven, Connecticut. And he promptly took me to Louis Lunch and I had Hamburger there, and so I said, okay, well that was a start, and I learned that since then there were several other Hamburger origin stories, and I decided at one point, since people seem to be interested when I would talk

So I don't want to give away the ending here but it sounds to me like maybe there are several communities who have a legitimate claim. How did you discern which one had the most legitimate claim?

Well, it was next two step process. So first I was Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes says, eliminate the impossible. All these stories have dates associated with them. So the first thing I did is I went to old newspaper articles to find the first mention of what was then called a Hamburg sandwich, and anything that occurred after that date, any origin story that started after that date, was obviously eliminated.

So here's a little bit easier. It dropped out of me there for a second. Let me let me I hate to do this to you, but you are connection you dropped on me. Are you looking at microfiche newspapers or are you figuring this out by googling on computers, Because there's probably a lot of newspapers that have not been transposed in stories from microfiest to the internet.

So there are a lot of newspapers that are online in several different databases. Okay, and they were originally microfiche, which is a different problem because the quality is not that good. So I'm doing research now in a totally different topic and it's unreadable. It's unreadable, so that's too bad because they usually destroyed the newspapers after they'd converted to the microfies. But it's it is. You can get access to a lot of newspapers. The ones you can't.

Okay. So the book, the book is Hamburger Dreams, The True Story of the Origin of the Hamburgh I Gimberger history expert Chris Carosa. I don't want you to give away the ending, but is there a definitive ending?

There is no, but the circumstantial evidence is pretty strong that the Hamburgers were sold I might as well tell you on Friday September eighteenth, eighteen eighty five, at the Erie County Fair just out Buffalo.

So not only did you set out on this, but you came up with a conclusion that probably coincided. Happily, it was a happy, happy coincidence with your own origin story Buffalo, New York. That's great, Well, that ends well.

The amazing thing is I never heard about it well when I was there, so well.

Everybody can hear about it now. The book is out, I assume, and it's available Amazon. Do you have a website you'd like to plug?

Sure, you can go to Hamburger Dreams dot com and it'll tell you the latest that I've been finding out about the hamburgers.

Perfect Chris Corossa, Chris, thanks very much. I really enjoyed the conversation. I consider myself something of a hamburger connoisseur because frankly, it's the only thing I'm able to cook on a grill, and I do like hamburgers. Lots of ketchup, lots lots of relish, mustard, tomato slices, slice of cheese, everything with the hamburger. Are you just a plain Hamburger guy. I'm assuming you're more of a purist.

No, I'm I'm not playing hammer. I just don't. I don't like putting cheese on it, but I like putting that other stuff on it. I do like putting lots of spices in my hammergroup, because as an Italian, I guess that's just the way it is.

Yeah, I do purple onion. I do purple onion and pumperinnakle rye bread to kind of beef it up. It's good. It's a good burger. Chris Carosa, Thanks very much. We'll get you on again sometime. Thank you. I enjoyed this conversation a lot. Happy Memorial Day.

Happy Memorial Day to you too. Thanks thanks Chris. Chris crosa Hamburger historian. When we get back, we when we talk about a really neat program that is available here in Massachusetts. It's called Minis with a Mission. We've talked about it before, but I think particularly as we move into the summer, it's good to talk about it. Tonight, We're going to have Justin Green with us on the other side of the break in a little bit. Later on, I'm going to talk about the one hundredth anniversary of

WBZ will only be a fingertip away on whatever device you have wherever you are in the world at any given point. My name's Dan Ray. I'll be right back. Stay right there.

You're on night Side with Dan Ray.

Radio.

Well, we have interviewed this gentleman before. His name is Justin Green. Justin Green, Welcome back to Nightside. How are you?

Thank you so much Stan for having me on again. This is wonderful.

Yeah.

Now I know that you are really invested emotionally in all sorts of ways in this program with which is called Minis with a Mission. Now, let's let's explain to people exactly what Minis with a Mission is.

Sir. Mini Mission is a nonprofit It's based in Ipswich and in Newbery. It's miniature donkeys and miniature horses and the simple goal is the dread happiness. They go to senior centers, they go to school, elementary and high schools and they go to the College Salem State. The first day of school, they bring the milture horses and miniature donkeys to the fair class to help ease the stresses of some of the new students. And it's really Yeah, that's the main goal is the donkeys and horses love to.

Be So how long has Minis with a Mission been around? Has it been around a while? And how did it start it? Uh?

We we had a program called Equine Rescue and that saved horses and donkeys from slaughterhouses. And then the too, Mary Ann and Laurie, they've both got donkeys and miniature horses and they opened up their own program Minis with the Mission and they just wanted to show people that miniature horses can really make people feel better about themselves, like being happiness. And that role was blood pressure and I.

Think all of need need a blood pressure lowered occasionally. So how long has it been around?

Has it been around for I'd say about ten years?

Ten years? Okay? And where do the horses? You said that they're up in the Newburyport area if I'm not mistaken, Yeah, the Newberry and okay, and they it's stationed on a farm or two up there.

I mean they're the Mitchell horses are out of state in a stable. Mister donkeys are Actually the woman who lives in Newberry has a lucky enough to have a very big backyard and a barn sized garage, and the donkeys live in a backyard.

Okay, And how old are these When you think about horses, you think about they, I think horses live like twenty years or so. How old are these little guys.

Tough on that?

Uh, he's a senior statesman, he's about twenty seven. Who and and we we thought, and we thought Romeo, who's now about eight or nine, we thought he's been boyfriends with Pixie, who's a young six year old. But Romeo enjoys eating grass more than uh relations, and more than having fun with Pixie. So now has Puffinutter has because he has a young girlfriend Pixie.

And yeah, kind of like Bill Belichick. Actually, when you think about.

It, yes, fluff is first and uh yeah, but yes, pluff pluffs. He's wonderful. He's a white, he's white, hence the name Flufferutter. And we paint him and like the Gay Pride Week, he gets the rainbow colors on him and Saint Patrick's dage, he gets green and on the fourth of July he'll be red.

Red and blue was gonna get red. Fuing flow. So now the question that I'm sure a lot of people are going to have is how far do the minis with a mission travel? Because I know that you visit, they visit, you know, some elderly communities, they have some retirement communities. You mentioned some schools.

What they like to keep it. They like to keep it under an hour because the driving kind of tires them out. I'm lucky enough to come to Newton, but if the need advises, they've gone all the way to Blockton. Because there was a World War two that was near unfortunately, was near death, and his goal was to see a donkey from the re live his childhood. So the Minis with the mission stepped up to the plate and they drove all the way to Brockton. And he loved it,

Okay, So so then the question is if there are people out there, is there a cost? I mean, there must be some sort of a cost associated with this to travel distances and take care of these. Is it a nominal fee. You don't have to get into specifics, but I assume there is at least a nominal fee associated with this.

Yeah, it's it doesn't take the best. Like I'm hosting an event in Newton and I'm fortunate I'm able to afford it myself. But for like, if they have like a block party, yeah, they come and they have for two hours. You can really enjoy. It'll make everyone. It makes you feel like a child. The way I describe it, it's seeing a rainbow. Everyone loves seeing a rainbow. Like take pictures, you see all ages rainbows.

So is this is this the event that that you spawned string at the Hide Community Center in Newton on Thursday? Yeah, twenty ninth, So coming up this Thursday, Okay, Yes, and that's open that's Is that open to the public or do you have to be a member of the Hide Community Center.

It's open to the public. I do it on behalf of the Senior Center.

Okay.

Because when my grandpa was dying, he told me he had no more friends. The last thing he ever told me was that Babe Ruth was a good soul. He might have been a womanized on a drunk. But he was a sports writer and he met Babe Luth for breakfast. And he also told me he had no more friends left. They all died and he wasn't being sad, it was just true.

Well, it's it's one of the problems if you lived to a really ripe old age, you look around and there's no one, no one left. But by by having the minis with a mission come up, it puts a smile on everyone's face.

So right, So, how can people to have a friend?

How can you how can people who may be in the Newton area, whether what did they have to do? They have to get in contact with the High Community Center in Newton. Is that the deal?

It'd be great if they could contact the Senior Center, the activities director Alana Stedeman, she's wonderful and just tell them that they're interested in coming and we're not going to turn you away if they get But she's with.

Again, I'm just getting a little tight here in time. Justin she's with the Newton Council on Aging. So I'm sure that if they contact the Newton Council on Aging at Newton City Hall, uh and ask about Minis with a mission, which will be on Thursday, May twenty ninth, from noon until two o'clock. They can, I'm sure that they will have an opportunity to.

Attend, and can I meet you with one quote?

Sure, but we're a little tight on time and don't want to short change our next guest. Go right ahead as long as.

It's quick, oscar. While it says the smallest active kindness is worth more than the grandest intention, and I say this to people, don't you don't have to do a big thing like myself doing the minis dors a lot of joy. So if there's something you like, don't make it perfect, just do something and it's well, but it yep.

But if they say better to light one candle than curse the darkness, absolutely justin greed. Thank you very much, And hopefully there'll be a lot of folks who are listening tonight who will find their way over to the High Community Center in Newton on Thursday, May twenty ninth again this coming Thursday, from noon to two and they can meet all of the noon to one.

Was that noon to one?

Oh, it's noon to one. I'm sorry, I'm looking at a piece a schedule here that says noon to two, noon to one, Okay, noon to one at the High Community Center. Thanks very much, justin appreciate what you do. Thank you very much. When we get back, we're going to talk a little bit about another location that everyone's heard of, but not too many people that have actually visited. The Grand Old Opry celebrating its one hundredth anniversary this year.

It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WA Boston's news radio.

All right, welcome back everyone. The Grand Old Opry is an institution. It's celebrating its one hundredth anniversary. I'm sure that everyone has heard about the Grand Ole Opry, but many of us have never visited. Marcus Dowling knows it very well. He's the lead country music reporter for the Tennessee and a great newspaper in Tennessee. Marcus Dowling, welcome to Night Side. How are you?

I have a fantastic How about yourself, sir?

Doing just great?

So?

How long have you been a reporter covering this this very venerable institution.

I've been a reporter for twenty years, have been a reporter based out of Nashville for about five I've been a fan of country music. I'm forty seven, so I've been a fan of country music for forty years.

So one of the to give you a sense, yeah, go ahead, Yeah.

To give you a sense. That's that's generally what we're looking at.

Yeah, you are in one of the great cities in America right now, and I think many people have said it's like the hottest city in America. And nothing says Nashville more than the Grand Ole Opera.

Uhh, unquestionably.

Just give us you know, we we have the Boston Symphony Orchestra here, uh, Symphony Hall in Boston, which is a very different vibe. I'm sure give us a sense of the Grand Ole Opry. What it's like on any given Friday or Saturday. Is it every is it open every night.

Or is it is it a venue that it has opened five nights of a week currently, So imagine that you're going to a variety show that initially and still is broadcast on the radio. It's a radio program broadcast on WSM six fifty AM nationwide worldwide now as well, and you're getting five to six decades of country music stars. So when you see the news talking about somebody getting inducted into the Grand Ole Opera, you're essentially adding a

How do you become, so you become a member, if you're inducted into the Hall of Fame. Is that what's called what's called no number.

You become a member. You become a member if the Opry members and the Opry ownership and the Opry leadership decides that you're a person that respects the history and

Now does one in order to be a member, does one have to be a performer or can you be a member if you are in effect a patron of season ticket holder of the Grand Old.

Opry, that is that is not the case. If you're if you're a if you're a ticket holder, you're just coming to a lot of showsky. The only people who are not regularly members of the opera who are performers are oftentimes you have comedians and stage acts who reflect the culture of the genre. So a comedian like Gary mule Deer, a lot of people may remember from the seventies and eighties of appearing a lot on the Johnny Carson Show. He's a member of the Grand Ole Opery.

Okay, so now the next question. Again, I'm just trying to learn here, so bery no problem.

I love doing this.

How big is the capacity? What the old Boston Garden, which hosted the Celtics and the Bruins for many years and from the twenties through the end of the twentieth century, the attendance was always it was thirteen nine oh nine. That number was emblazoned on the mind of every young New Englander who liked hockey or basketball.

I'm off it is college alone, So I am very aware you're aware.

Of thirteen nine oh nine. Okay, so you're a foe, fair enough, Okay, yes I am.

Yes, it was thirty four hundred peopley four hundred people with thousand, four hundred, okay, and then give us a sense of if someone's going to Nashville, Tennessee.

Uh, you know, three four or five months out, how tough is it to procure tickets to the Grand Ole Opry. And what is the standard fee, meaning what is the cost the range of the tickets unless you're going to buy them on what we would call the secondary market up here we called scalpers.

But go ahead, oh, I know, I know, so Opry tickets range anywhere from eighty dollars to eighteen hundred dollars roughly. To sit in the very front row of the Grand Ole Opry, like you know, you're literally two and a half feet away from you know, your your favorite country music. You're two and a half half feet away from Carrie Underwood for instance. Wow, you're right there, or you're at the top of the building, which is actually a beautiful seat. There's not a bad seating the house at the Grand

Yeah, there were bad seats in the house at the Boston Garden. If you've got.

Plus sat behind a pool, I know absolutely you got it.

So how many venues have there been it's been one hundred years. You've given me at least two. I'm assuming it's at least three venues over the years.

Yeah, gosh, somewhere around somewhere around a half dozen or so have held the Grand Ole Opry at various points. There was a flood in twenty ten, so they held it at the warm Memorial and other spaces. They go back to the Ryman every year in January because they do have to clean the Grand Ole Opry, so they do go to the Ryman. It's a historical home for thirty years to hold operate programs on the weekends for the first month of the year. Then it's back into the space over at ap Brillium Drive.

I'll tell your enthusiasm, Marcus is fabulous here and it's a it's a great newspaper. We're familiar with the Tennesseean, and you are really a reporter. I guess there's nowhere else your your love of country music could take you. I mean, you are at the equivalent of the Baseball Hall of Fame in many respects, and also really at the equivalent of the Fenway Park or Wrigley Field.

There these every every time I walk into a venue in this town, I feel it like you walk into the Ryman Auditorium, the mother Church of country music, and there's stained glass windows that at the right time, at the right at the right time of the perfect day, you have the lights streaming through the stained glass and you're watching, say like the Fisk Jubilee singers on stage singing you know, two hundred year old gospel hymns, and

Yeah, I can identify with that. As a little kid going to Fenway Park, you go when you're first time you're six or seven or eight years old, and it just is so overwhelming. And then when I worked as a TV reporter, I would be playing catch with the governor of Massachusetts or the mayor of Boston out on Fenway Park at five point thirty six am on opening day the lights.

That's amazing. Oh yeah, yeah, I've sat next to Pesky's poll. So that's my that's my contribution.

Yeah, I hope you set the.

Second semester as a friar.

You can drive right up, you can get student tickets and always.

Yeah. I don't know how much the student tickets.

Are these days, but again they were not I can assure you they're probably much more expensive now.

Yeah.

No, there's no doubt the Red Sox. They have had great success. They had some success. Today they clap it the hapless Baltimore Orioles by the nineteen to three or something. It was from a Baltimore perspective, it was a very ugly, ugly afternoon. I can only imagine bed Way Park, Marcus. I love your enthusiasm. Whenever you talk to someone who loves what they do, you have never worked a day in your life, That's what they say. If you love what you do. You never work a day in your life,

Absolutely checking out it on opry dot com in the Tennessee and is at tennesseean dot com. Marcus K. Dillen, check me out.

Sounds great? All right, Marcus Stolling. When we get back, we're going to talk with a gentleman who is making a very interesting political comeback. Frank Baker was a Boston City councilor from Dorchester for six terms twelve years. He stepped away from politics a couple of years ago, but he's getting back in the ring this time running this