If only John Kerry could play baseball.

When poll workers in Lewiston recorded the write-in candidates for president Tuesday evening, the names of three players on the World Championship Red Sox appeared.

Flamboyant pitching ace Pedro Martinez, sinker-ball hurler Derek Lowe and third baseman Bill Mueller all earned votes for president of the United States.

As John Kerry examines why he lost the election, he might consider his own throwing, which was on display this summer when he tossed out the first pitch in a Sox-Yankees match-up. The Fenway Park crowd booed the candidate as his ball hit the ground.

Of course, the Sox won that game.

– Daniel Hartill
Bump in daylight?

With no warning, and no apparent cause, a heavy framed picture leapt off the wall and nearly beaned a lobbyist in the head during the Workers’ Compensation Board’s Wednesday meeting.

Of course the jokes began instantly: maybe someone had planted a secret listening device behind the picture? Maybe it had something, somehow, to do with the Red Sox win?

And the lobbyist asked, tongue-in-cheek, was there a personal injury attorney in the room?

(Had he really been struck, he would have been in luck: the sparse audience is always filled with lobbyists and lawyers.)

The scene happened about an hour after the board announced getting a $2,000 grant to check its AMHI campus building for safety issues.

– Kathryn Skelton
Siren song

Ed Pollard and Chuck DeGrandpre are heaving one big sigh of relief.

The co-owners of Emergency Vehicles of Maine had thousands of dollars at stake in the outcome of the Palesky tax cap Tuesday.

EVM makes firetrucks. Pollard said they had several orders that were put on hold by fire chiefs who wanted to see whether the tax cap would pass.

“The money had already been approved, but with municipal budgeting,” said Polland, “well you just never know.”

To cover their bets, the pair decided to start looking for business in New Hampshire and Vermont. They hired a sales rep who works from a border area of the two states.

Now EVM is getting orders from New Hampshire and Vermont fire departments. And Palesky failed, so Maine orders can start rolling.

Whew. Talk about a false alarm.

– Carol Coultas