This week I’m featuring an Instagram account that encourages black men to share their travel photos. The inability to travel outside of New England due to the coronavirus has been tough and seeing photos like the one shared above from Sao Paulo Pride in Brazil reminds me how much I miss traveling.
Until I can safely travel, I’ll be eyeing this and other travel accounts on Instagram to live vicariously through those images. Check out this account and let me know what you think.
Hopefully the caption I’ve shared below inspires you to offer up a caption or two of your own. Leave a funny caption as a comment for this post, and I’ll approve it for readers to enjoy.
The “Blue Wave” seems more like a ripple at this point. Election results in several states won’t be known tonight and it looks as if the Senate will remain in control of the Republican Party.
I don’t think I’m being overly dramatic when I say the world’s attention on COVID-19 has temporarily abated to watch Americans go to the polls today. There is a feeling that everyone’s fate is tied to the results of this election.
Having said that, I’m optimistic about the election for two reasons. First, you either believe in polling or you don’t. I subscribe to the fact that no poll is perfect but in aggregate they can show trends and the “Blue Wall” states Trump barely won in 2016 (Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin) have shown a remarkably consistent lead for Biden since the summer. It is true that polls failed to properly represent voters without a college degree in 2016, but I believe reputable polling companies have corrected this oversight and greater scrutiny has been given to these Blue Wall states.
Second, it’s about the compelling demographics. Biden appears to be doing far better than Hillary Clinton with groups like suburban and older voters, putting Trump on the defensive in states he won in 2016 like Arizona, Florida and North Carolina. Additionally, Gen-Z voters are participating in record numbers and 65% of them support Biden.
There is evidence of Trump doing better with Cubans and Venzuelans in southern Florida but little is mentioned about the 850,000+ Puerto Ricans who can vote and mostly live in central Florida or the millions of Mexican-Americans living in states like Arizona and Texas.
I can understand Biden voters being skittish after Trump’s surprise win in 2016 but this ain’t 2016 and Biden is not Clinton. I’ll be the first to admit I could be wrong, but I see a blue wave coming. The only question in my mind is, how big will that wave be and who will be swept away by it?
This guy’s long torso is so well defined it will certainly distract you from the fact that it is sadly Monday morning all over again. Hope you have a great week.
If you are a registered voter in Boston and you have not participated in early voting or by mail-in ballot, please make time on Tuesday, November 3rd to get to the polls. If you are a first time voter, new to the area or cannot remember where to vote, I’ve got you covered.
In addition to voting for your candidate, Massachusetts has two state-wide ballot initiatives that you will be asked to vote for in this election.
Massachusetts Question 1, “Right to Repair Law” Vehicle Data Access Requirement Initiative
A “yes” vote supports requiring manufacturers that sell vehicles with telematics systems in Massachusetts to equip them with a standardized open data platform beginning with model year 2022 that vehicle owners and independent repair facilities may access to retrieve mechanical data and run diagnostics through a mobile-based application.
A “no” vote opposes requiring vehicles beginning with model year 2022 to be equipped with a standardized open data platform that vehicle owners and independent repair facilities may access to retrieve mechanical data and run diagnostics through a mobile-based application, thereby maintaining that vehicle owners and independent repair facilities may access mechanical and diagnostic data through a personal computer.
You have to flip your ballot over to read and vote on Question 2.
A “yes” vote supports enacting ranked-choice voting (RCV) for primary and general elections for state executive officials, state legislators, federal congressional and senate seats, and certain county offices beginning in 2022.
A “no” vote opposes changing the existing plurality voting system to ranked-choice voting for primary and general elections for state executive officials, state legislators, federal congressional and senate seats, and county offices.
For what it is worth, I plan on voting YES for both Question 1 and 2, but regardless of whether we agree or not, I’d like to encourage everyone to make sure they vote.
ADAM & ANDY is set in the fictional New England town of Woodfield, CT. You can learn more about Adam and Andy and purchase a copy of “the definitive collection of Adam and Andy” by visiting, adamandandy.com.
Boston’s first snow came surprisingly early this year. Typically snowfall doesn’t start until December but this year it looks like Mother Nature is feeling lonely and trying to cozy up to Ol’ Man Winter.
I took the photo of Union Park in Boston’s South End to capture how beautiful it looked. I forgot how quiet the city gets during a snowfall.
Approximately 20% of restaurants in Massachusetts have closed permanently and The Pioneer Institute predicts that the state’s restaurant industry will lose an estimated $2.13 billion this year. In response, the dining app, Seated, is rolling out a program modeled after a successful initiative in the UK that will offer a 50% rebate on any restaurant bill Monday through Wednesday in November that can be applied to the Seated Store which includes brands like Uber, Starbucks, Adidas, Target and many more. This offer is good for only dining-in and if your reservation is made via the Seated app.
The initiative called, Eat Out to Help Out MA, is free but to participate you must download the Seated app in the App Store or Google Play Store, identify the participating restaurant, make a reservation or signal you are a walk-in, and submit a photo of your receipt within the app to claim the rebate after your meal. More than 100 restaurants in Boston and Cambridge have indicated they will be participating in this program.
For those of you who are trying to be budget conscious this is an opportunity to show your support and be able to provide a slightly more generous tip to the staff at your favorite participating restaurant.
Each Friday morning I post a riddle to get you to think outside the box and exercise your brain. If you are stumped, share it with a friend or colleague and see if you can figure out the answer together.
I’ll confirm answers in the afternoon so don’t worry if you don’t see your comment posted right away. I want to give everyone a chance to guess.
This week’s brain teaser: The name of this famous person has the initials M.C. Using only the first initial and all of the letters in the last name is an anagram for the person’s field of renown. Who is the person and what is the word?
Here’s a hint: The initials are from a well known British actor who has been in film since the 1960s
BosGuy 
