The World According to Gillespie

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER   This column originally appeared on Wicked Local. The necktie is probably one of the most pointless articles of clothing ever invented. Historically speaking, the tie emanated from Croatia which is sometimes referred to as the Mother Country of the necktie (which really makes me want to review my last go-round at Epcot).   The story goes that a group of apparently well-dressed Croatians (I’m thinking Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd playing two wild and crazy guys in the 1970s) went to Paris in 1635 to see King Louis XIII.   The style-conscious Parisians were so impressed by the colorful scarves worn by their visitors that they quickly went to work borrowing the idea, wearing their own version of scarves ‘a la croate’.   This colorful piece of clothing soon evolved into the cravat, and then somehow over time became the modern necktie.   The point of the necktie remains a mystery.   Succinctly pontificated by journalist Linda Ellerbee, “If men can run t

MAURA S. DOYLE SEEKS RE-ELECTION TO POST AS CLERK OF THE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT FOR SUFFOLK COUNTY (Originally published in the Boston Post-Gazette   2000) By Jay Gillespie Maura S. Doyle is campaigning to uphold her position as Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County.                   A graduate of both Northeastern University and Suffolk University School of Law, Doyle, who credits the influence of the late Boston attorney, Abner Sisson, had made her presence known in the Massachusetts legal community and beyond.   After practicing as a civil litigation attorney for 11 years, Maura Doyle became a Supreme Judicial Court Assistant Clerk in 1992.   In 1996, the Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court unanimously appointed her Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County.   On November 3, 1998 Maura Doyle became the first woman ever to be selected Clerk of SJC.                   “It was very difficult when I came here in 1992,” says Doyle, who ha

WHAT THE BIG DIG WOULD LIKE NORTH END RESIDENTS TO BELIEVE (Originally published in the Boston Post Gazette    June 2, 2000)                                                                                                                                                 By Jay Gillespie                 A few days following my story concerning the eventual removal of the sign restricting a left turn from Cooper Street onto North Washington, I was approached by Paul Santilli and invited on a tour of the Big Dig parcel that is currently under supervision of J.F. White Contracting.   Santilli is the Community Relations liaison between J.F. White and the North End.   On May 22 nd , I met up with Mr. Santilli on Cooper Street.   It was from there that we began our excursion into the depths of Boston’s nationally recognized and justifiably criticized Big Dig Project.                   In a previous article, I inferred that workers on this site were either reluctant to speak to inq

ITALIAN JAZZMAN SPARKIE MIELE – AN ORIGINAL BOSTON TREASURE (Originally published in the Boston Post Gazette   May 19, 2000)                                                                                                                    If you have been to Hingham’s Tosca restaurant, the Marriott Copley’s Terrace Lounge, or the Mill Wharf at Scituate Harbor, you have had the pleasure of seeing and hearing one of the most authentic jazz acts in the Boston area, Sparkie Miele.                   Spartaco Silvio Giovanni (Sparkie) Miele is an inspiration, demonstrating the intrinsic value and result of a lifetime spent pursuing a passion.   Miele is a master of jazz, a crowd pleaser who has never wanted to do anything but make music.   He speaks and plays with great enthusiasm as if his life in jazz is just beginning, but the world has been hearing the music of his horns for decades.                   Sparkie Miele was born and raised in East Cambridge, one of eight

CITY PLANNERS NEVER PROMISED NORTH END RESIDENTS A ROSE GARDEN (Originally published in the Boston Post Gazette     May 5 , 2000)                                                                                                             By Jay Gillespie                 Traffic in Boston will never be a bed of roses, at least until the underground artery project is finished and urban planners have planted the proverbial garden (which in the language of bureaucrat means parking lot) where there is currently a series of Big Dig headaches.                   For those of you who are following this ongoing story, the sign dictating that drivers are restricted from taking a left turn from Cooper Street onto North Washington Street has finally been removed by the city.   If you are a southbound commuter, this means that you are no longer forced to take a sightseeing excursion into Charlestown before you can head south on the expressway.   Unless you are a huge fan of the contem

AMERICA'S DEVELOPING IMMUNITY TO BASEBALL FEVER       This column originally appeared on Wicked Local. THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GILLESPIE AMERICA’S DEVELOPING IMMUNITY TO BASEBALL FEVER “Baseball Fever.   Catch it!” was the promotional public service announcement that Major League Baseball employed during the 1980s.   Baseball has recently expressed growing concern about its increasing lack of viewership, particularly among kids.   Major League Baseball executives convene around boardroom tables seeking to uncover the mysteries of dwindling viewership, and in the process, have made or begin to make changes to the game that will only whittle away at our national pastime eventually destroying the very fabric of what made baseball great in the first place. Challenging plays is both time-consuming and ridiculously unentertaining.   Baseball is a game measured on the imperfect human judgement of umpires.   Challenging calls brings the game to a complete stand-still, while

HARVESTING TRUTH FROM THE FARMER'S ALMANAC       This column originally appeared on Wicked Local. Many people still rely on the wisdom of the Farmer’s Almanac in order to obtain predictions about such things as the weather and tides.   Who amongst us hasn’t heard that the coming winter is supposed to be significantly snowier than last winter - “ according to the Farmer’s Almanac ?”   I know what you are thinking.   There has got to be a better way to get this information.   However, you are not alone if you still lean on predictions from the Almanac.   The Old Farmer’s Almanac, in fact, is currently #1 on the non-fiction best seller list (at least at the time of this writing), meaning that there are more people currently reading the Farmer’s Almanac than there are reading What Happened by Hillary Clinton or The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump by Bandy Lee (with a foreword by Donald Trump).   Ok.   Perhaps that’s not surprising, but the apparent popularity of the F