Waiting for Speedway Fowler

All over Worcester, we have these little street corner memorials. We drive past them every day, without realizing that they are essentially the only legacy of some of the people of the city who went to war and never came back.

So I went around and snapped some pictures, so you can see who some of these people were and how and where they died.

Normally, you just drive by, so you never get a change to read the small plaques.




Chaplin Square is across from Worcester State College, at the corner of May and Chandler.

Fred Chaplin never went abroad to fight. He died of pneumonia in Nebraska while in training. But check it out: he was assigned to the BALLOON CORPS! I didn't even know there was a Balloon Corps.






St. George Square is at the corner of Park Ave. and May Street, right outside the place we used to call Casey's, which is now known as Mahoney's. The Square honors TWO men named St. George. I don't know if they were related. Maybe they were brothers. Both died in World War I in France.







DeMars Square is down near the old WCC, which is now Saint Peter's Elementary School, near Hammond and Main Streets.




Again, it looks like these two man were brothers. One was killed in action in France, the other in "Luxembourg, Germany". I'm not sure if that's modern Luxembourg, or if it's a town by the same name in Germany.

















Langley Square is off Beacon Street near Ionic Ave.
This was one of the few memorials I came across for someone lost in the Pacific.





There are a couple of memorials along Shrewsbury Street.
Carmine Mercano was killed in Italy in World War II.






And Martello Square is just one block farther down.
John Martello was a World War II casualty in Luxembourg. He died after the tide had turned in Europe and the Germans were in retreat. The War would end just 9 months later.

"Survivor" champ Ethan Zohn has cancer. Zohn, who outlasted the competition to win "Survivor: Africa"in 2002, is undergoing chemotherapy for a rare form of Hodgkin's disease.
A spokeswoman for the CBS series, Lori DelliColli, confirmed Zohn's condition. The news was first reported by People magazine.
The former pro soccer player, known for his curly mop of hair, was diagnosed with stage-two Hodgkin's disease in late April, when a swollen lymph node was discovered beneath his collar bone and a mass located on the left side of his chest.
Then, last week, he began chemo treatments after being diagnosed with a less common type of the cancer that forms in the body's lymph system.

I had a chance to meet Ethan Zohn last Summer, when he passed through Rhode Island while dribbling a soccer ball from Foxborough to Washington, DC... part of a fundraiser for his GrassrootSoccer charity, which helps children in Africa with AIDS. He seemed like one of the nicest guys you could meet, and he was very sincere and committed to his cause.

I wish him a complete and quick recovery.

Last night's episode had a lot of interesting twists and turns, and included a cliffhanger where the main character ends up in a parallel universe. One of the nice touches is a NY Post front page that implies the White House had been destroyed by terrorists, but the real surprise was a small headline in the corner of the paper: "Celtics Sweep: Len Bias Wins MVP", though a friend of mine pointed out that Bias would be about 45 years old these days.

(Seen at the Granite Street stop light.)

(off Shrewsbury Street)

What the hell does that even MEAN?

(at The Aurora...)

This spray-painted testament to someone's devotion has been weathering the seasons on an overpass in northern Rhode Island for at least 10 years.

I've always wondered what the story was behind it.

Had there been a fight? Was this a going-away message? Did Muffit have a stalker?

Whatever happened to them?