A logo for trouble in the making
While Ancient Order of Hibernians, the largest fraternal order of Irish in America, calls for a boycott of retail giant Spenser Gifts over insensitive stereotypical merchandise the local Party Boys have come up with a t-shirt to immortalize the ignoble all-day debauchery known as "The Blarney Blowout 2014".
The drinking marathon commences apparently at whatever time college age youth roll out of bed these days, and traditionally falls (if you can call four years a "tradition") on the Saturday before St. Patrick's Day, this year March 8.
Because St. Patrick's Day always falls during Spring Break why waste an excuse to get drunk, rowdy and obnoxious in Amherst, your adopted hometown of four years (or five or six)?
Last year the "official" event in town center went well enough, only to successfully lull town officials and local media into a false sense of security.
Daily Hampshire Gazette Break Page 3/11/13
It was then the north end of town exploded in violence.
Thousands of students, fueled by alcohol, took to the quad area around
Townhouse Apartments, set fires, threw bottles and vandalized property.
State Police, APD and UMPD had to break out the riot gear to disperse the unruly crowd.
State Police, APD and UMPD had to break out the riot gear to disperse the unruly crowd.
Amherst officials were unhappy to say the least (more like "pissed off") with UMass officials for not putting out advance communications with students and parents about maintaining decorum. UMass officials responded they didn't want to give the "event" any advance free PR with the email blast notifications.
The fiasco and resulting friction between the two superpowers did directly lead to formation of the Town Gown Steering Committee, "to jointly develop a plan to address shared
areas of interest including housing and economic development issues."
It took years for authorities to retire the "Hobart Hoedown." Now it's time once-and-for-all to shut off "The Blarney Blowout."
Call in the Marines!
Call in the Marines!
Gazette eventually figured it out: front page (above the fold) 3/12/13
"Umass Amherst black out or transfer " #SMACK
— Smack College (@SMACKCOLLEGE) February 23, 2014
36 comments:
Any idea what's happened to the Halal food cart? Haven't seen them in downtown lately
Most food carts take off the bad winter months. He will return with the robins.
When we drink, we get drunk.
When we get drunk, we fall asleep.
When we fall asleep, we commit no sin.
When we commit no sin, we go to heaven.
So, let's all get drunk, and go to heaven!
--Old Irish toast
Sound to me like something a CAN would make up.
Look it up. You're supposedly a reporter.
Yeah, should have said it sounds like something a CAN would quote.
For most of these kids the blowout is about as close as they'll get to having a job. What would they do without it.
Walter, I genuinely don't know if you are being sarcastic or serious, but I'm the latter -- things like the Blowout are the inherent consequence of young people coming to realize that UMass promises far more than it ever intends to deliver.
Were it not exempt from Chapter 93A, the consumer protection statute, you'd see UM getting sued for consumer fraud with some degree of frequency. As it is, by their senior year, kids are realizing the extent to which they were lied to and deceived, and that this very well may be the only fun they'll have for a very long time.
What I genuinely don't understand is how UM is able to keep bringing more kids out there every fall -- how much longer they will be able to find kids who don't know how much UMass truly sucks.
Oh, and Larry, some of us wear Orange on St. Patrick's day.
As in the Town of Orange, which is where WalMart wound up building the SuperCenter that they had intended to build in Hadley.
i cant wait for the blowout. i hope its bigger and badder than any of the previous ones. and i bet you do too because itll give you something to harp on and so-called report on.
Hey Wally, look who's talking?
Dude, you should be the last one to talk.
As an Irish American I wish that people would stop associating being Irish with being drunk. Yes, there are many alcoholic Irish people, but why this is made fun of and celebrated is way beyond my understanding.
Spoken like a true geezer.
Cool logo! Go Green UMass!
I don't know about that Ed. I speak to many UMASS grads who loved going to the school and think it was a great place to get an education.
I got a great education at UMass for a great price. I'd gladly do it again.
What is your problem, Dr. Ed?
I went to UMass and I have a better education than I ever expected too for the price. Had I gone elsewhere I would have ended up typing up stuff, or maybe doing video or some BS media work for my firm. Instead I am running a sizeable portion of a significant department.
Every once in awhile I must remind folks here that this trashy part of UMass is not representative of the whole
I couldn't be prouder of the 3 degrees I earned at UMass. They also enabled a great career, so I take offense to bashing my alma mater.
I think the fact that only 2% of the recent graduates voluntarily joined the alumni association, that they had to make everyone automatically a member, speaks for itself.
If Planet UMass truly was an alma mater and not a purgatorial cesspool, people would want to belong to the alumni association...
I referenced "senior year", I was discussing the undergrad experience -- which I never was at UMass. The fact is that undergrads aren't getting jobs -- aren't getting jobs for which a college education is necessary.
Yes, a few do, but by the same token, a few do quite well without a college degree -- Bill Gates comes to mind. I also like to remind people that neither Bailey Jackson nor Patricia Crasoon have an undergraduate degree -- he was the Dean of the School of Education and she the Provost.
It's a question of "opportunity cost" -- in most cases, for most undergrads, UMass is a terrible investment on which they don't even break even.
Heck, they'd be better off taking the money down to Foxwoods...
Demonize the youth...because that tactic is historically proven to work!
Oh, and as to the clique who "run everything" -- the town, the schools, & UMass itself -- it's like what Communist Party membership was in the former Soviet Union -- their success is because they are a member of the clique and not because of their UMass educations.
They have the power & influence they do in the stagnant "circa 1971" world they live in, and when change finally comes, they will no more know what hit them than the railroad and auto folks before them did.
Who ever would have thought that GM stock, let alone GM bonds, would suddenly become worthless paper?
Circa 1964, a half century ago, who would have thought that the mighty Penn Central Railroad would be bankrupt a decade later?
For that matter -- and remember that 1964 is the year that the Civil Rights Act came into being -- who would have ever thought there would ever be a day when (a) the "N-word" was anything other than a hateful racial slur or (b) that anyone would care about its use.
Just sayin....
"I think the fact that only 2% of the recent graduates voluntarily joined the alumni association, that they had to make everyone automatically a member, speaks for itself."
Not really. Alumni associations success is hinged on how well the program is run. It's a never ending public relations campaign and recruitment. That you say 2% tells me that the Alumni association isn't run so well. Means little about graduates and how happy they are with their education. It should be automatic and that is a very good move by UMASS to make it automatic.
So...if/when umass students graduate they will (if theyre lucky) fill unimportant, drone-like corporate jobs. If they don't graduate.. they are useless members of society that serve no greater purpose to society than to sit on the curbs and drink (the same disgusting homeless bums that fill amherst...of course drawn by the students, right? Because lets blame them for everything). Meanwhile you put yourselves on some sort of pedestal..why? Because you are clearly the only ones who are aware of the fact that the students are getting robbed by inflated tuition rates. So much unnecessary negativity.
If they want cake let them eat cake... you know what I'm saying? but seriously go to some dog show or something out of town for one weekend if it really affects you that much. I'm pretty sure the townhouses are strictly Umass students including the are around them. If you are worried that the bars will be too rowdy maybe you shouldn't be at the bars. Just grow up and learn that kids are going to enjoy themselves in college and thats a fact. As a Junior in college I think we give enough money and stimulus to this town to do what we want in our housing areas.
Anonymous said...
I can't tell from the comment where people stand on the issue but I wonder who the police got more calls for..the college students or that Echo Village before it was purchased? I heard that the amount of police and social service involvement was very high with limited improvement. I also heard that the new owners support section 8 housing and have properties elsewhere with affordable housing. I heard that the gang involvement there is diminished or gone now. How come people don't want to talk about imrovement for Amherst and only want to focus on the political correctness?
February 25, 2014 at 6:38 AM
Walter, you have no idea either how visceral the hatred of UMass is or how many almuni want NOTHING to do with the cesspool.
Ed, we know how visceral your hatred is but that isnt what the majority feels. Some people hate the school they went to for one reason or another and Umass is no different. Stop projecting your feelings onto others and let them speak for themselves. So far I have yet to read anyone else spew your hatred. Its getting old.
I think it is important to mention that you are outside observer of the action and therefore never properly adept at understanding certain elements of the events you report on. When the festivities moved into the backyard of a student's home (all of which were of legal drinking age) the smaller crowd was all upper classmen. All friendly, all peaceful. The police proceeded to break up the event just to exercise their power. It is interesting that you failed to report on that element of the day's festivities. But I guess you can't see everything over a set of handlebars.
The mountain bike did come in handy that day as traffic on Meadow Street and North Pleasant Street was at a standstill.
I can't think of one person I went to school with at UMass that isn't doing well right now. We never had trouble with the cops, never drove drunk, never went to the hospital. We had fun, worked hard, and moved on. It's disgusting to see you use your freedom of speech this way. Is this how you want to be remembered in Amherst?
Ed, only you would use a strategy of talking down the value of your degree.
-Proud UMass Graduate
Stop projecting your feelings onto others and let them speak for themselves. So far I have yet to read anyone else spew your hatred. Its getting old.
Others kept their mouths shut and remained in the closet -- for now at least.
Notwithstanding that, I don't really care. I extended the Olive Branch and UMass took the flame thrower to it. Hey, sucks to be them after that -- I'm taking UMass down with me, except I'm not going down...
I'm guessing with all the snow on the ground this year there will be fewer problems. The Townhouse quad is probably snow covered as are everyone's backyards. Where will everyone gather? Less likely to have a riot if everyone is indoors. Further what do you expect the town to do? Make the bars close? The problem last year wasn't at the bars. It was at private homes and at townhouse apartments. The business bars handled their end of things as asked to by the town last year.
UMass sucks - there is no other way to put it, and I don't mind saying it. Nor do I mind mentioning that I am working on eliminating UM's customer base although I don't want to say more than that.
Why do you think umass stinks, Ed? As a proud umass grad, I couldn't be happier. I also don't know of a SINGLE student I went to school with that has anything bad to say about there program or the school itself. Everyone is happy and proud to be apart of umass, so please, tell us what your problem is because I can't figure it out. I also don't know of anyone that cares if they are or are not in the alumni assoc. probably don't even know about it. Says nothing about how they feel about the school.
Go umass!
Hey Ed- I'm a UMass graduate with a fine career. Even if I didn't have a fine career, I'd be far better off than you. Why? Because I'm happy Ed! Please try to let go of your suffering....life will soon be over. Try to enjoy!
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