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Food for Thought |
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Tobin's Blogs
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By Tobin Bell on
5/10/2007 2:28 PM
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The Lord’s Prayer is 69 words, the Gettysburg Address is 272 words, there are 1,323 words in the Declaration of Independence, but government regulations on the sale of cabbage total 26,911 words.
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Legion Memorial Field |
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Tobin's Blogs
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By Tobin Bell on
10/4/2006 2:16 PM
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When the 3 p.m. bell rang, I’d run out the door, down Church Street, up King Oak hill, arriving 20 minutes later at Legion Memorial Field where Weymouth High School football practice was already under way. I made myself valuable by sneaking milk bottles (glass at the time) full of water to thirsty players. Water was a no, no in those days. The need for hydration was a distant concept, just implying weakness and lack of fitness. Those were happy afternoons. The team was under the tutelage of renowned coach Harry Arlenson, now a member of the High School Football Hall of Fame. He was firm, knowledgeable, but kind, speaking softly to the young men in his care. I can't tell you how old I was, but I can tell you what size. The players lifted me onto their lockers after practice so I didn’t get cleated. Legion Field is still swampy by Commercial Street and the stadium where the maroon and gold played is now called Arlenson Stadium. (click "more" to see photo)< ...
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Fenway and My Friend Donnie |
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Tobin's Blogs
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By Tobin Bell on
8/29/2006 10:08 PM
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I love baseball. My team, the Yankees, are in first place, ahead of Boston in the A.L. East…and yes, I know, it’s a long way to October. Which reminds me…Donnie Wahlberg…”Detective Mathews” in Saw 2 was a fan of the original Saw. It motivated him to become part of Saw 2. I didn’t know anything about Donnie before we met on the set of the film. After spending an hour working on dialogue with him in Jigsaw’s “kitchen”, I sensed he was a no-bullshit kind of guy who didn’t mince words. You got what you saw. I like that. On top of everything else, it’s time-efficient. A Massachusetts boy like me, he has a wry sense of humor, never gives up. He has a tenacious sense of what feels right for him. Takes his craft seriously. Donnie’s generous. He set up a tour of Fenway Park for my ten-year old and me that we’ll never forget. We walked the whole storied property, stood on the warning track in left where “Yaz” played and Bucky Dent hit the homer into the net. My son tossed a hardball high up against the "green mons ...
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Gregg Hoffman |
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Tobin's Blogs
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By Tobin Bell on
8/3/2006 5:00 PM
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Gregg Hoffman died last December at the age of 42. He was a producer of all three SAW films. This is Tobin's tribute to him.
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The Simple Things |
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Tobin's Blogs
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By Tobin Bell on
7/30/2006 6:15 PM
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When I was a kid in Massachusetts, playgrounds and sports saved me from what was going on at home and from myself. I was never happier than afternoons at VFW Clapp Memorial, an old brick building next to a shoe factory, playing basketball. We'd play in the old wood gym that stunk of sneakers, a suspended track high above echoing footfalls of joggers. After the game, it was glass-bottled coke, salted peanuts and fighting for a game at the beat-up pool table. At dusk, I’d start a two-mile walk home, stopping (if I had a nickle) at the Coffee Cup Diner for a game of pin ball, where the trick was to shake the machine just enough to win, but not enough to make it "tilt". Sometimes it’s simple things, details, (the steel-gray light in a late-afternoon New England winter sky) that resonate longest and brightest in our memory.
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