We here at FishOn are just returning from a wee sabbatical. We were short-staffed last week, so preparations for this edition of the missive were a tad hampered. Please bear with us. We appreciate your business.
Normally, we throw the full weight and force of our far-flung FishOn investigative staff — cribbing from the great George V. Higgins, we've designated it our Flashlight Team — into producing the column.
With little exception, it means a deep bench of reporters and researchers working feverishly amid a growing pyramid of pizza boxes and Red Bull empties. We spare no expense. We once had a staff mime for stress-relieving purposes. Had to let him go. Once out of his imaginary box, the guy just wouldn't shut up.
Stuff happens and you roll with it. We were stung amid last week's rising reprise of the COVID-19 thing when about a dozen staffers opted to isolate. They weren't sick or anything. They're just isolationists.
So, we're playing small ball and heading directly into the wind. Let's begin the beguine.
Awesome is no ordinary word
We here at FishOn have always had a good eye at the dish and appreciate a good walk. One of our favorite rambles within the friendly confines is down through the waterfront and around the Fort neighborhood before making the turn for home. This summer we spied something afoot.
In June, Awesome Gloucester, which is dedicated to making life on Cape Ann better and more interesting one $1,000 micro-grant at a time, commissioned Studio Fresh to create a mural in the city's most fish-centric neighborhood. It was to honor the proud tradition of fish workers — cutters, packers, processors, many of them women — working in the seafood industry's shoreside infrastructure.
The finished mural, which is strikingly executed and well-worth a trip into one of Gloucester's coolest neighborhoods, is on the exterior of the Ocean Crest/Neptune's Harvest Fertilizer facility on Commercial Street.
There's now a documentary by Persistent Productions, a six-minute making of The Fish Workers Mural that shows how the project came together. It chronicles a litany of moving parts and contributors, including Studio Fresh artists Josh Falk and Dana Woulfe, the Ocean Crest/Neptune's Harvest folks, and the Cape Ann Museum and its Down the Fort Documentary and Archive project which provided images for the mural and the documentary.
The film debuted last week on the Awesome Gloucester Facebook page. Apparently Johnny Depp was a problem on the virtual red carpet. That alone has to be worth checking it out.
The short documentary remains in residence on the Awesome Gloucester Facebook page for all to view. You should venture forward. The mural, as well. A twofer. Better yet, a free twofer. And then lunch at The Beauport to balance accounts. Request the Awesome Gloucester table. Insist on the micro-bill.
More details on the mural and the documentary are available on the Awesome Gloucester Facebook and Instagram pages.
FishOn football trivia challenge
There have been six Heisman Trophy winners who have played for the Boston/New England Patriots. Please name them. And no, Babe Parilli, Tom Sherman, Mike Taliaferro, Matt Cavanaugh and Tony Eason are not among them.
GMGI gets all scientific
A few weeks ago we wrote about the online Science Hour program produced by the Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute that provides a panoply of insight into various nooks and crannies of science. It's like the Putnam Pantry (FishOn's first real job) of science, sans ice cream and toppings.
The next edition of Science Hour, set for Thursday night on Zoom featuring Dr. William G. Kaelin, should be a corker.
In 2019, Kaelin was awarded the Nobel Prize in Stockholm, Sweden. He would have preferred FishOn's Smarty Pants Award, usually presented at Pratty's, but grudgingly accepted the Nobel for his work on tumor suppressing proteins.
Quick aside: We here at FishOn considered similar research, grew tired, and took a nap. Our story would have been from the pillow to the Nobel. Kaelin's talk is about how a one-time, C-minus student (his very self, we presume) made it to the big lights in Stockholm.
The discussion, scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m., will be moderated by Marc Vidal, who hasn't revealed his grades. But we bet they were boffo. Registration is required and you may do that very thing at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_sBDLYjg-RL2ImgDHFqp91g?fbclid=IwAR0BvIw1JaBwaN-N5K6mQVkRPrBlxshNac3fAMdsV3HEY9gNigl335AFXiY.
Knowledge. Get yourself some.
And speaking of the Smarty Pants Award . . .
With the generous assistance of many FishOners and our own indentured staff, we have spent a good portion of the past two weeks chronicling (newspaper lingo for beating a story down to its dirty knees) the presence hereabouts of night herons.
Rocky Neck resident Mark Glendening, a proud FishOner, wondered what kind of bird was standing on his skylight in the inky night hours. We issued a cry for help and the first to respond was local lobsterman Mark Ring, who also serves as the chairman of the city's Fisheries Commission.
Ring advised us the bird in question most likely was a night heron. He said he often sees them feeding in the early morning hours as he heads the F/V Stanley Thomas out to a day's labor.
In the heel of the hunt, we presented the FishOn Smarty Pants Award to the Flying Bianchinis (actually Ellie and Dick) of Lanesville because they included an image from the Audubon Field Guide actually describing the bird and, in doing so, made our lives easier.
Last week, Ring cut his own path to FishOn immortality. He sent along a picture of a night heron - which he named Mack Heron, earning big Tommy Points - hanging out on the rail of a boat in the harbor as he and (nephew, stern man and dueling second) Matt Ring headed out at 4:30 a.m. to lobster and, apparently, bird watch.
In an unprecedented move, the FishOn awards committee - which also serves as our Committee on Crime and Punishment, so don't get any ideas - is presenting Ring with his own FishOn Smarty Pants Award.
He is a man of the people. A man who puts his smarty pants on one leg at a time.
FishOn football trivia answer
The six Heisman winners to play for the Pats are running back Joe Bellino (1960, Navy), quarterback John Huarte (1964, Notre Dame), quarterback Jim Plunkett (1970, Stanford), quarterback Doug Flutie (1984, Boston College), quarterback Vinnie Testaverde (1986, Miami) and quarterback Cam Newton (2010, Auburn).
As always, no fish were harmed in the making of this column.
Contact Sean Horgan at 978-675-2714, or shorgan@gloucestertimes.com. Follow him on Twitter at @SeanGDT
The Link LonkNovember 16, 2020 at 05:00PM
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FishOn: Docufilm celebrates fish worker mural | Fishing Industry News | gloucestertimes.com - Gloucester Daily Times
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