What a scary noise the thunder caused in Eastern Massachusetts Tuesday afternoon and evening! I got so nervous that I panted throughout the thunderclaps and scratched at the bedroom door trying to escape the wrath of Mother Nature. My human friend Rich tried to calm me down by playing the radio (it was our local Cambridge station, 740-AM) in an effort to drown out the thunder. But in fact, it was only when I started thinking about a second storm -- political campaigns -- that my sides stopped heaving and I quieted down somewhat.
You see, campaigns are a bit of a maelstrom too, and in our Massachusetts Senate race we have two candidates who are a study in contrasts in how to deal with the storm. On the one hand (or paw, in my case) we have the Republican incumbent, Scott Brown (grr!), who is unafraid to go out and "get his feet wet." Meanwhile, the candidate I'm rooting for, Democratic hopeful Elizabeth Warren, is staying indoors, playing it conservative.
Evidence backs me up here. Tuesday afternoon, my human companions Rich and Laura went to Bartley's burger joint in Harvard Square. If you haven't been, it has a reputation for mouthwatering hamburgers. (The best I can hope for, alas, is a doggie bag.) What's more, they are named after celebrities -- Harvard alum and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg ... Boston Celtics player Kevin Garnett ... even Lady Gaga. (I think I howl better than her!) And of course, Brown and Warren.
Yet not only did Bartley's honor Brown with a burger, it also displayed two of his campaign signs! Can you imagine a restaurant in liberal Harvard Square doing that with another Republican, say, George W. Bush? You'd be more likely to see me hanging around with the squirrels in the backyard instead of chasing them. Yet Brown earned this star treatment honestly. He showed up at Bartley's in April to chow down on his namesake burger -- it contains bacon (yum!), American cheese (tasty!), grilled onions (mmm!), jalapenos (think I'll pass) and French fries (double yum!). He also said he'd frequented the restaurant during his undergrad days at nearby Tufts.
I haven't been able to find a similar story about Warren going to Bartley's ... even though she LIVES IN CAMBRIDGE AND TEACHES AT HARVARD LAW SCHOOL. Maybe she doesn't like the ingredients of her burger -- red peppers, onions, feta cheese and Dijon mustard. Or, in fairness, maybe she didn't like the crude remarks of restaurant owner Billy Bartley -- a man who described himself as a fan of hers. Well, if he's such a fan, I would like to know why he said, in reference to a back-and-forth between her and Brown about our centerfold senator, "The thought of her taking her clothes off made me throw up a little in my mouth."
The Bartley's example, though, shows that Brown is taking the lead in getting out and connecting with people. And there are other examples I could bring up. Sunday, he was there to greet two Massachusetts residents, the Rev. Michel Louis and Lissa Alphonse, who were held in captivity by a Bedouin in Egypt for three days earlier this month.
Liz, politics is a particularly rough storm, worse than anything that happened last night. If given the choice, I may want to stay inside with the lights on and the music turned up. But you can't do that if you want to win this Senate race.
Daisy is a 10-year-old West Highland white terrier living in Cambridge, Mass. Her column appears regularly.
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