Page 10 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, JANUARY 7, 2022 THE SOUNDS OF SAUGUS By Mark E. Vogler Prostate Cancer Awareness There’s no better way to top this week’s column than with a well-crafted press release from the Saugus Senior Center about a very important upcoming forum about prostate cancer: The Senior Center is excited to host a new community-based group that will focus on Prostate Cancer Awareness. The meeting will take place on January 19th at 10 AM. Refreshments will be provided. The goal of Saugus Prostate Awareness is to raise awareness of prostate cancer, to encourage men to seek screening, to share personal experiences, and to provide suggestions for participants. The American Cancer Society informs us that about 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime. Prostate cancer is more likely to develop in older men and in non-Hispanic Black men. About 6 cases in 10 are diagnosed in men who are 65 or older, and it is rare in men under 40. The average age of men at diagnosis is about 66. The 2020 US Census has revealed that the median age of Saugus residents is 48 compared to the state is 39.4 suggests that prostate cancer could be more commonplace in Saugus compared to the state. The first meeting will feature three long time community members who have experienced diagnosis and treatment. They will share what they have learned with participants to inform and encourage men and their partners about the importance of accurate screening and detection. While this disease is specific to men, women are welcome and encouraged to attend. Please call the Senior Center at 781-231-4182 to indicate that you will be participating. It sounds like an invaluable forum that would be in the best interests of any Saugonian to attend. What better way than to promote a community conversation about a very serious health issue? The Voke vote is set for Jan. 25 Saugus voters will get to provide a “yes” or “no” answer to the following question in a special ballot election to be held later this month: Do you approve of the vote of the Regional District School Committee of the Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational School District adopted on December 9, 2021, to authorize the borrowing of $317,422,620 to pay costs of designing, constructing, originally equipping and furnishing a new Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational School and related athletic facilities, located at 100 Hemlock Road in Wakefield, Massachusetts, including the payment of all costs incidental and related thereto ….” Saugus is just one of 12 communities in the Northeast Metro Tech Regional School District that will be voting in the Special Election on Jan. 25. Voting for all 10 town precincts will take place at the Saugus Senior Center at 466 Central St. from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., instead of being held at the usual polling locations. Postcards notifying voters of the upcoming election were mailed out recently. There will be no early voting for this election. However, residents can vote absentee. The last day to request an absentee ballot is Jan. 19. I’ve become a New Year’s Eve snoozer I’m not a huge fan of New Year’s Eve celebrations and I think it’s been years since I partook in one. And last Friday, I was again dozing off in my reclining chair with my long-haired tuxedo cat Panda sleeping my legs as I snoozed through the televised festivities before the ball even dropped at Times Square. To be honest with you, I can’t remember the last time I was awake for the famous countdown and to watch that expensive glass ball slide slowly down the pole. Decades ago, I did take a few trips to Boston to check out “First Night” with my brother and his friends. I remember the ice sculptures, taking in a concert in Trinity Church and other musical performances in Old South Church. Those were some of the highlights we took in before ending the evening with a couple of beers at the Cheers Bar on Beacon Hill. Sure, I’ve been to my share of parties over the years – some outstanding ones on Nantucket Island, where I didn’t have to worry about driving home because I could walk home. But I’ve had my share of New Year’s Eve work shifts, because I preferred to earn extra pay and go home sober instead of hanging out with friends – only to nurse a throbbing hangover the next day. Bureau on weekend nights. A friend had invited me to a New Year’s Eve party at a fraternity house on campus. I had nothing else to do, so I went there after work. But the drinks weren’t the best part of the night. When I met up with a college buddy, Marty Kelly, at the party, he gave me a really good scoop about two police officers and the head cook of the Worcester Dining Commons losing their jobs for stealing food from the dining commons. Part of the story involved steaks and cheese products being found in a police cruiser. For me, it was not only a great story, but a chance to redeem myself after an investigation by UMass police determined there was no truth to a series of investigative stories I wrote on food thefts at the same dining commons. My exposé was accompanied by a photo of two dining commons workers with their eyes blotted out who were allegedly carrying large plastic bags that allegedly contained stolen food. The stories that ran in The Massachusetts Daily ColleGUESS WHO GOT SKETCHED! In this week’s edition, we continue our weekly feature where a local artist sketches people, places and things in Saugus. Got an idea who was sketched this week? If you do, please email me at mvoge@comcast.net or leave a phone message at 978-683-7773. Anyone who between now and Tuesday at noon correctly identifies the Saugonian being sketched qualifies to have their name put in a green Boston Red Sox hat with a chance to be selected as the winner of a $10 gift certificate, compliments of Dunkin’ at the 1204 Broadway Saugus location on Route 1 North. But you have to enter to win! Look for the winner and identification in next week’s “The Sounds of Saugus.” Please leave your mailing address in case you are a winner. (Courtesy illustration to The Saugus Advocate by a Saugonian who goes by the name of “The Sketch Artist”) I remember covering a three-alarm house fire in Methuen for The Eagle Tribune of North Andover one New Year’s Eve when the temperature hovered close to zero. It was so cold that my paging device and handheld Bearcat Scanner radio froze up and went black while my Cross pen wouldn’t write. So, I used a Sharpie to write in my notebook that night. I wore gloves, of course, but I could have used two pairs that night to protect my fingers from the painful tingling brought on by the cold. I also remember being one of four reporters who got hoodwinked by an Eagle-Tribune editor to work on New Year’s Eve of 1999. The assignment was for us to give extensive local coverage on the infamous Y2K – the overhyped electronics event that never happened – as the year changed from 1999 to 2000; a widespread computer programming problem was supposed to cause major chaos. It was supposed to be a technological nightmare. I and the three other reporters were promised double overtime. But that turned out to be a phony story, too, after our paper’s human resources department learned of the generous bribe. Our city editor also put the kibosh on the double overtime deal, saying we would only get paid the compensation for which we were entitled and no more. New Year’s Eve payback One of my most memorable New Year’s Eve work assignments while working for a newspaper happened when I was a student at UMass-Amherst working parttime for The Springfield Union out of the Northampton gian caused a furor on campus. We got swamped with letters to the editor, most of them critical of my investigation, which was labeled as “yellow journalism.” The investigation was basically a whitewash, I believed, because the investigation focused on the two women carrying the plastic bags – not the actual incidence of thefts. In one of my first stories, I had quoted UMass officials as blaming a steep increase in board on thefts of silverware and un-estimated quantities of food. That was basically the catalyst for my investigation in the college paper. By the end of the semester, The Massachusetts Daily Collegian had published an apology to the women in the photo and concluded, like the campus police, that there was no evidence that they or anyone had stolen food. So, I took a lot of grief for my first crack at investigative journalism. That would have been the end of the story. But sometime between the end of the UMass police investigation and New Year’s Eve, there was another investigation. And it led to the quiet resignation of the head cook at the dining commons, a UMass police officer and a Hadley, Mass., police officer. I spent New Year’s Day and two days after trying to confirm the tip and what appeared to be a coverup of the dining commons scandal that would follow. I had the pleasure of calling the public affairs director at the UMass-Amherst for a quote. He had castigated me publicly and privately for what he regarded as irresponsible journalism. When I called, he told me that The Massachusetts Daily Collegian editor already had a statement, and a story would be published when students returned for the spring semester. I told him I wasn’t writing the story for The Massachusetts Daily Collegian, that I was writing it for The Springfield Union. The PR guy didn’t sound happy after I told him. The next day, a front-page story with my byline ran in The Springfield Union: “Three Quit in Probe of UMass Thefts.” I got to write a few more stories. The Hampshire County District Attorney called for a grand jury investigation. The two police officers and the cook were indicted. Going to that party kind of made my New Year’s Eve a productive one. No winners this week It looks like our readers got stumped again in our weekly “Guess Who Got Sketched” contest. In recent weeks, we’ve had plenty of names to drop into the green Boston Red Sox cap to pick a weekly winner. But nobody was able to identify the sketch in last Friday’s (Jan. 31) paper. In fact, we received no answers. So, did our loyal readers take the week off because they were out celebrating New Year’s Eve? Anyway, for those who are interested, here’s the correct answer, offered by the person who goes by the name of The Sketch Artist: The answer to last week’s sketch is Miss Ceiny DuPlessie! Ceiny is the daughter of Beth DuPlessie who’s the daughter of Donna Manoogian! THE SOUNDS OF SAUGUS | SEE PAGE 11
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