Lead Update

The shark that was responsible for two recent deaths has been caught and killed. Beaches will reopen immediately. Island residents and guests alike are encouraged to return to the water.

Town Meeting Outrage

Yesterday’s town meeting yielded an eruptive response from those who attended, as the cause of the two recent deaths and what course of action to take was discussed. Police Chief Martin S. Brody suggested summer police staff be called in as early as possible and that shark spotters be present at the beaches.

When asked if the beaches are going to be closed, he responded by saying that they will be closed for 24 hours.

“That’s like three weeks,” an unknown attendee yelled.

The crowd’s sentiments were in accord concerning this outrageous claim, as island residents thought about the loss of business that closing the beaches would bring about.

Currently the mother of victim Alex Kintner is offering a $3,000 reward for anyone who can find her son’s killer. Fisherman Ben Quint is demanding that he be paid $10,000 for finding the shark that may or may not be connected to these tragic murders. 

Cause of Death: Shark Attack

Amity resident Alex Kintner was killed in what appears to have been a shark attack. He was playing in the waters of Village Beach this afternoon around 2 when the attack occurred.

His body has not been recovered, but his raft floated ashore shortly after the incident with what seems to be a large bite taken out of it.

The mangled body of local teen Chrissie Watson was found washed up on South Beach this morning. An autopsy is underway to determine the origins of the attacker and the police are investigating the incident.

Watson was last seen alive leaving a beach party with former island resident Christopher P. Hoggenbottam III around 11 p.m. on Sunday. According to Hoggenbottam, Watson decided to go swimming and entered the water near the South Beach Shoal bell buoy. Hoggenbottam notified police around 6 a.m. when she  did not return from her swim.

           

Watson, 17, was a member of Amity High School’s varsity swim team and a lifeguard at the Amity  Island YMCA pool. Witnesses told police that the two teens had been drinking and possibly smoking marijuana during the evening.

A special meeting will be held today at 6 p.m. in Town Hall. The mayor, the Amity Board of Selectmen and the police chief will be there to discuss the matter.

An investigation is pending regarding the connection of the two deaths.  

What is Truth?

           On Facebook (the best source of news ever!) someone posted a video where they interviewed people that went to the Coachella Music Festival about fake bands. The people talked about these bands as if they knew who they were, even though they don’t exist. One of the comments on the post said how the videos could have been dubbed over, as in the attendees’ interviews could have been real but the questions were different (asking about actual bands). And whether this is real or fake isn’t the interesting thin. It’s the fact that these things have come into question.

            The sheer possibility that it can happen is quite mind-blowing. We have so much amazing technology today that anything and everything can be manipulated. It was funny because the thought that the video could have been altered didn’t even occur to me. This got me thinking: what else has been altered that I’ve seen or heard? How do we know what’s real and what isn’t? What is truth? Somehow a Facebook post got me thinking about such profound questions. But it’s important to think and to question everything. That’s what we as journalists must do. 

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

            Of course as a journalist I should comment on the recent Boston tragedy. To be honest, I don’t know much about it. But that’s because I haven’t sought out the information. I’m not a big fan of politics or the news, so all I’ve heard about it is what’s on Facebook and what my friends have told me. But even with this I know a fair amount, because that’s the nature of newsworthy things. Even without journalists people would hear about what goes on in the world. News travels through the channel of human interaction as naturally as water flows in a river. But I suppose the purpose of journalism is to do it better, faster and more efficiently.

            It is these principles that were called into question concerning the coverage of the Boston bombing. Misinformation, conspiracy theories and false accusations littered news outlets. Twitter blew up, Facebook blew up and at first no one knew what was going on. It’s hard to know what is fact and what is fiction. Which leads me to my next blog post. 

Many years later, a carillon--miniature bells played with a keyboard, with the music broadcast via speakers--was the center of yet another bell tower controversy. The carillon had been given to UNH in 1952 to honor the late "Dad" Henderson, longtime UNH registrar. Soon after it was installed in Thompson Hall, former UNH News Bureau Director L. Franklin ("Frank") Heald '39 began playing the carillon as a favor to Irving Bartley, a music professor. When called upon, Heald would walk up one flight of stairs, and play the noontime concert. Appointed the official UNH carillonneur in 1982, Heald continued to select the music, which by then was played by a computerized 246-bell system located in the Elliott Alumni Center and broadcast through eight speakers in the Thompson Hall tower. He also fended off complaints about the volume--since affection for the carillon seems to be inversely proportional to distance from it. (One nearby listener describes the volume as "decibels beyond reason.")

But complaints of a different sort came to a head in 1992. Some faculty and students felt it was inappropriate for a state university to broadcast Christian hymns across campus, and then-president Dale Nitzschke silenced the music while a committee studied the issue. A media storm ensued. Heald, who has a puckish sense of humor (he often wears a chef's hat when presenting alumni office staff with birthday gifts of his home-baked bread), was astonished by the furor. "I've played the carillon for 40 years, and I never received the attention that I have received in the last week for not playing it," Heald quipped at the time. Many wrote Heald to express their support. "The bells remind us of home," one alumna wrote.

Heald took the position that the carillon should play examples of the best music of all kinds. After 11 days, a compromise was reached. "Onward Christian Soldiers" was banished: other hymns, including the Alma Mater (to the tune of "Lead On, O King Eternal") stayed. The carillon music resumed.

Brooke McMullen is a freshman communication sciences and disorders major and a previous Boston Marathon runner. McMullen was running for the Best Buddies team, a non-profit organization that works with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. As McMullen got to the starting line on Monday, however, she realized she had a problem.

“So, for the past week I have been limping with quadriceps muscle strain, but I wasn’t going to let the injury stop me after all the hard work,” McMullen said. “Even as I was walking to the start line I was in a lot of pain, and 26.2 miles seemed a bit farfetched.”

McMullen ran for nine miles on an injured foot before her coach saw that she was limping. He then picked up and carried her on his back for another mile to meet up with McMullen’s family.

 “My family and friends were waiting for me at Natick Center, and planned to cheer me on several stops along the marathon route, but once they saw the condition I was in we took off,” McMullen said. “In the car, I argued that I wanted to at least walk the last mile so I could be there to support the rest of my team, but when we stopped the car to use the restroom I fell out of the car and couldn’t hold myself up.”

Her family took her to the Newton Wellesley Hospital to be examined. The coverage of the bombing came on TV as she was waiting in the emergency room.

“It was devastating to see such a terrible thing happen in Boston, with so many runners, children, staff, and families affected,” McMullen said. “I am so unbelievably thankful that I was in the hospital with the ones I love and not at the finish line, because if I wasn’t injured, that would have been my intended finish time.”