Cape Cod says "No" to Pot, but the Provincetown Area says Yes!

Eleven of the 15 Towns of Cape Cod, vote against legalizing weed

by Bill Russo

By a spread of eight percent in the November 8, 2016 election, voters chose to make Massachusetts the first Eastern state to legalize marijuana for recreational use.  The large margin of victory, 54 to 46 per cent, indicates widespread approval of the measure.

But the island/peninsua of Cape Cod voted against the ballot question - with the exception of the outermost Cape, where all four towns said 'yes' to pot.  The total vote of the dissenting towns was 5981 yes votes and 3629 no votes. The tiny city of Provincetown led the way with 1717 people in favor and only 537 against.

Across Barnstable County which includes all 15 towns of the Cape; Question Number Four was beaten back 64,541 to 59,758.  Cape Cod is commonly divided into four sections - Upper, Middle, Lower, and Outer.  The upper section includes the towns of Bourne, Falmouth, Mashpee and Sandwich.  The section wide vote was 24,504 in favor and 27,166 against.

In the Mid Cape towns of Dennis, Yarmouth and Barnstable; the vote was 22,731 for and 26,116 not in favor of legalization.  The City of Barnstable is the Cape's largest community and is comprised of a number of villages including Hyannis, the unofficial capital of Cape Cod.

The four Outer Cape towns, Brewster, Chatham, Harwich and Orleans said no to pot by about 1500 votes, with 11,325 in favor and 12,812 against.

Under the newly passed legislation pot becomes legal almost immediately.  Residents will be allowed to have up to ten ounces in their home and one ounce on their person. Citizens will be permitted to grow their own marijuana.  Pot stores however, will not be begin to appear for about two more years - and even then local communities will have a large measure of control over the venues. This could mean that the Outer Cape will have a proliferation of such establishments but the other parts of the peninsula may be unreceptive to allowing pot stores.

By Region, here are the vote totals, with the 'yes' votes listed first, followed by the 'no' votes.

Upper Cape:

Bourne: 5178-5516
Falmouth: 9373-10,071
Mashpee: 4126-4749
Sandwich: 5807-6830

Mid Cape:

Barnstable: 12,314-13,391
Dennis: 4237-5028
Yarnouth: 6180-7697

Lower Cape:

Brewster: 3220-3467
Chatham: 1924-2611
Harwich-3982-4449
Orleans-2199-2285

Outer Cape:

Eastham: 1875-1783
Provincetown: 1717-537
Truro: 963-546
Wellfleet: 1426-763

Among the tiny islands off the coast of Cape Cod, most notably Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, the playgrounds of presidents, celebrities, and billionaires, voters were in favor of legal pot by a margin of two to one.  The final tally was 11,671 in favor with only 6268 opposed.

The largest island community, the town of Nantucket voted 4,083 for the question, with 2320 against.

Massachusetts had voted in a prior election to legalize marijuana for medicinal use.  A few dispensaries have been opened, but the state seems to have put up a number of road blocks to implementation of the law.

Supporters of the legalization of pot, hope that their elected and appointed leaders will be more prompt this time around.

The $50,000 Ghost in a Jar

How much would you pay for a real "Ghost" trapped inside an old Mason jar?  When it was offered on Ebay some years ago thousands of people queued up for a chance to be haunted by the eerie occupant of the jar, which was found in the cemetery pictured below:

The auction was posted by "Teajay101" who related the following account of how he became the unhappy owner of the 'evil spirit'.

“Back in the early 1980s while out metal detecting, I came across an old abandoned cemetery with the foundation of a home-site or a church, or something, nearby.  My detector indicated there was something in the ground close by: the southwest corner of the foundation.

After digging down about two feet, my shovel struck a wooden box that was nearly rotted out.  The metal hinges and hasp were about all that was left of it. I thought I had discovered a fortune! Boy did that ever turn out to be wrong!!

There were two jars and an old journal in the box.  The jars had some strange writing and symbols on them.  While getting the jars out of the ground, I dropped one and it broke.  A black mist or something seeped out of it.

I should have known something was wrong right then and covered the thing back up – but being young and foolish, I didn’t.

I left the broken jar with what looked like a candle in it, there where it fell and took the other one and the old journal home.

What I was able to read in the journal before the pages crumbled made the hair on the back of my neck stand up!

That night I had my first visit from what I can only describe as “The Black Thing”. This thing fell on me while I was lying in bed and it felt like I was being pushed down through the bed and the floor into a pit!!! I struggled with it and managed to somehow escape its clutches.  Since that time, I have been attacked twice more and both times the unopened jar was in the close vicinity.

I and others have caught fleeting glimpses of a black, shadowy thing out of the corners of our eyes, as it would pass from one room to another."

Fifty thousand dollars! That was the high bid for the 'Ghost'.  It was made by a man from the Netherlands.  What of that man today?  What of the "Ghost"?  The answers to these and other questions are in the new Kindle book, Weird Tales of Ebay Sales.  Pictures and stories of the most bizarre  auctions in the Ebay Bazaar make this quick read a must for anyone looking for a a few laughs or a peek into a sideshow of curiosities! 

www.amazon.com/Weird-Tales-Ebay-Sales-Bizarre-ebook/dp/B01LW2MFBK/ref

Ghosts Take Top Spot in New England!

For the first time since its publication one year ago, The 'Ghosts of Cape Cod' has reached the top spot in its niche in the Amazon Kindle Sales Charts.  Bill Russo's book that takes readers on a virtual 'spectral' tour of the 64 mile long island/peninsula had previously reached as high as the fourth position before finally attaining Number One on its one year anniversary.

Click the link to view the book on its Kindle page...  www.amazon.com/Ghosts-Cape-Cod-Bill-Russo-ebook/…/B01BL1TP7U
#1 in Books > Travel > United States > Massachusetts > Cape Cod
#16 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Reference > Trivia & Fun Facts > Curiosities & Wonders
#47 in Books > Humor & Entertainment >

A message from the author, "YIPPIE!!!! The Ghosts of Cape Cod finally hit number one in its genre!!!!! Thanks eveybody."

Dallas Changes the Course of Mankind Forever

Make no mistake about it. Dallas really did alter the lives of everyone on the big blue marble - forever! The monumental action is detailed in my short story D B U L- which has received a fair
 amount of attention. Three reviews are listed below.

 You can read about Dallas' seminal action for free by clicking the link -www.smashwords.com/books/view/649363

1-"Review by: Mike White on Sep. 06, 2016 :
Given the way this brief story unites two disparate time periods through its pop culture and news references, it's enough to make one wonder about how people will connect with what happened in Dallas when they read about it in the future."

2-"Review by: James Jenkins
At the time of reading I did not associate this work with any real life events.

It works well as a stand alone story. Credit is given where credit is due."

3-"Review by: Malcolm Torres
That is an interesting spin on what happened in Dallas. When I heard the news about this event, the robot, I thought it was weird and didn't think of it again until I just read your story. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this."

Will the Juns Federation Attack Earth?

Along the starway of infinity there are millions of planets just like Earth. We need not be concerned with them. There are however many billions more that are not like Earth – these represent the biggest threat to humankind. A slow moving, fragile rudimentary craft from the United States pierced the murky atmosphere of Jupiter on July 4, 2016. Strange cries, shouts and howls were captured by the ship‟s aural detectors. The voices, if indeed they were voices, were not made by carbon based lifeforms. The Space Agency quickly issued reports that derided the cries as nothing more than some sort of interference or radio static. The collective mind of Earthlings however, is beginning to grasp the concept of intelligent life that is not carbon based. Such lifeforms may not even appear to be lifeforms to the primitive brains of the homo-sapiens. Many of the beings are so different from humans, that they could not survive on an H-con planet (one based on Hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen). Conversely, the humans could not exist on planets like the Gas Giants – Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Saturn: known as the Juns. . Superior intelligence is likely among the creatures of the Juns federation. They doubtless recognize humans as sentient beings – but most certainly regard earth creatures as cosmic infants. What if the Gasmen of the icy giants decide to inhabit Planet Earth? How would they be able to adapt to an H-con orb? Perhaps the invasion would start with a single icy Gasman. He might land his frosty ship on top of a frozen mountain. The story might unfold in a manner similar to "The Invasion of Ragged Mountain‟ as told by a disc jockey spending a solitary winter in an isolated dwelling on the flat top of the frigid mountain several hundred miles north of Montreal. Chapter One: Ragged Mountain,

Read it  on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, Baker and Taylor and many more leading online sites.
https://www.amazon.com/Invasion-Ragged-Mountain-Bill-Russo-ebook/dp/B01KY5HAMQ

The Killer Catfish of an Eerie Cape Cod Lake

NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE from Barnes & Noble, Apple, iTunes, Baker & Taylor and many more...www.smashwords.com/books/view/657900
PROLOGUE - The horse-shoe shaped highway that runs from one end of Cape Cod to the other, is 64 miles long. Halfway down, is the town of Harwich. 
In the middle of Harwich, several miles past bumpy Bell's Neck Road, where a dense forest has morphed into a shallow, tree-stump pond; is a dirt road - really just a path - that leads to a small village called The Marsh. 
There's only one business building in the tiny 'throwback' settlement. It's a creaky, wooden two-story structure with faded red paint, that houses a general store - with pickles, ice cream, common crackers in a barrel, and canned goods inside. On the porch, outside, framing the entry way, are two wooden park benches. 
The one on the left is painted blue with white lettering on the slats of the backrest, saying "Democrats". On the right hand side, is a red bench, with the same white lettering saying, "Republicans". 
Most of the villagers will sit in either one. They might call themselves G.O.P., but they like the Kennedys - especially the war hero, Johnny who became President. 
Or they might be Democrats, but they like "Ike", the war hero who became President. 
A few old timers are gathered at the store on a warm summer day to sit on a red bench or a blue bench, depending on their mood; or where the sun is hitting. They talk, drink sodas, and and gaze across the street at a crystal clear lake with a sandy bottom and generous beaches. 
"That little kettle pond is nothing like Codfresh Lake," says the owner of the store, who has just walked out to chat with the only customers he's had for over an hour. He is an ancient, shrunken man who everyone calls 'AP'. 
"What's Codfresh Lake?" one of his companions asks. 
Using the question as an invitation; the wrinkled old man takes a pull from his Birch Beer in a glass bottle, and slowly eases into the Blue bench opposite his friends. He wears a faded Red Sox cap. With his old-fashioned handlebar mustache on top of a fluffy white beard, he looks like a skinny Santa Claus. 
Setting his soda down, he stares for a moment at the faded paint of the bench. It's cracking and blistering. He picks off a few blue chips, as if he were stripping little flakes of skin from a sunburn. Peeking out of the corner of his eye, he waits until he is sure he has the group's full attention.
Satisfied that he does, "AP" begins to tell a tale of a body of water so strange as to defy description. A lake compounded of equal but separate sections of fresh water, sea water, and an unearthly brackish stretch, reportedly inhabited by man-eating catfish. 
"Even stranger than that," he continues, "is that it was also home to a person who was more catfish than human. Few people know about Codfresh Lake, and even fewer about that fish-man, Jimmy Catfish. I saw him. I even knew him. The story ends here on Cape Cod but it starts out far across the ocean in a different cape, Cape Verde."

Don't Want to Vote for Hillary or Trump?

2016 - TRILLARY OR HUMP?

If, like millions of others, you don't care for either of the 2016 presidential nominiees (Trillary or Hump) - don't fret. Our country has had bad presidents before.  It will be a short 'four years and out' for either one of the tainted pair.

Our country has an Ace in the Hole which will save us - it is the three pronged system inaugurated by the U.S. Constitution. 

Branch One - Legislative: The Senate and the House of Representatives

Branch Two - Judicial: The Supreme Court

Branch Three - Executive: The President and Vice President

 In my best middle school rhyme here's what I believe - 

Our Government is like a tree, 

with branches numbering three.

Whoever the CEO picked may be,

One and Two can Trump Three!