In designing the Charlie Baker's World Atlas, cartographers used slightly different standards to determine the borders of the regions of Massachusetts.
Instead of the traditional line between the Pioneer Valley and Worcester County serving as the Gateway of Western Massachusetts, Charlie Baker's World opts to let the interstate highway system define who is in or out.
This unfortunate oversight has led to several snafus for Charlie Baker as he addresses voters in unfamiliar territory.
In the real world, folks from Western Mass don't like it when you describe the place they live as "west of 495". Actually, folks from Central Mass don't like it much either.
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Buzz
I would like to announce that our party is desperate. We are coming to terms with the fact that we will probably lose all possible elections that have decent candidates running against us. Unfortunately, we have four years of failure to cover up with Deval but we are hoping by bringing in the same guys that tricked America to vote for Obama with hope and change, we can trick the people of Massachusetts. Does anyone have a better idea? All of our creative college interns have gone back to school and now we cannot figure out what to do. This website was really all we could come up with. Seriously, we've got nothing. We are desperate. Will you at least cross your fingers for us?
That's another funny thing about the folks in Charlie Baker's World. They are such kidders!
I am pretty sure they fired the dudes involved with their last internety goofiness (http://www.bluemassgroup.com/diary/20297/charlie-baker-please-stop-plastering-astroturf-over-the-grassroots-on-twitter) so is that you Tim O'Brien? This is a lot funnier than the orange jump suits from last time. Keep pluggin' at it. You'll get a funny one sooner or later.
John Walsh
@JohnEWalshDem
John, looks like you're the only one on this site and you're talking to yourself. Maybe we should invest the Party's money more wisely. This thing is spinning out of control. Find me some HOPE, i can't CHANGE!
Deval,
Together we can!
John Walsh
@JohnEWalshDem
I'm a lifelong Democrat, and have very seldom voted for a Republican and don't expect to do so this year. But this is a ridiculous criticism. I now live in Franklin County, formerly in Hampshire County. If I got excessively annoyed every time someone from the Boston area acted like the "Hub of the Universe" was exactly that, I'd be excessively annoyed a lot.
For example, when I heard Deval Patrick on the radio in 2009 announcing stimulus funding for bridge repair, I heard him say something like, "from the [big bridge in Boston, whatever it was] to the little Gill-Montague bridge in Western Massachusetts," like it was a quaint covered bridge used by horses and buggies. The bridge is 1,700 feet long, it crosses the Connecticut River at the site of what was once known as "Great Falls," and the rebuild project, now under way, will take three years. It ain't little.
AND ANOTHER THING (now that I've gotten warmed up), the current enthusiasm for fast-tracking wind power development and "biomass" generating plants (aka forest incinerators) makes me feel like this part of the Commonwealth is viewed by some as a colony fit primarily for resource extraction. The consistent pressure and manipulation towards school regionalization also shows contempt for small communities and local governance. So maybe Mr. Baker's careless language is not the only example one could give of insensitivity to Central and Western Massachusetts.