It was summertime in the late 1950s, and the men from Easton were taking on the men from Stoughton in a game of softball at the Unionville Playground.Among those on the Easton team were my dad and Willy Nixon, my dad’s BFF (for the uninitiated, that means “Best Friend Forever”). In the previous inning, a player from Stoughton, a tough guy who had played Div. 1 football, was running the base path and he — according to credible witnesses — leveled a cheap shot hit on one of the Easton players covering a base. The Easton guy who took the cheap shot was not my dad, but another friend of Willy …

  Antonio Povoas, an immigrant from Portugal, was smart, full of wisdom, and hardworking.  His wife, Mary, also from Portugal, was smart, full of wisdom, and hard working as well. The couple made their home in Easton.“Our father and our mother were great parents; they worked hard — and they valued education,” said Joe Povoas (Oliver Ames High School, ‘73).  “My father had only a fourth grade education; my mother graduated from Oliver Ames.”Antonio, a U.S. Army combat medic, and his wife, wanted more for their five children than they had for themselves.“There was never a push for us to go to …

  Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.              MATTHEW 23:12   Usain Bolt is the great, and I mean great, sprinter from Jamaica.  But, heck, he proclaimed to the world, after his extraordinary accomplishment in the London Olympics, doing again what he did four years before in Beijing – winning the 100 meters and 200 meters, and anchoring the Jamaican 4 x 100 meter relay team to gold – that, “It’s what I came here to do. I'm now a legend. I'm also the greatest athlete to live. I've got nothing left to prove." Wow.  Really?  It must be said …

  Yes, London can put on an Olympics. Wow!! That was just great. Absolutely great.And how about the performances of the sons and daughters of America in these games?Standout. Inspiring. Awesome. Now, of course, every Olympic Games has an individual stamp on it of the city hosting the event. The opening and closing ceremonies, the competition venues, the signage, the medals themselves, all contain something of the history, culture, and identity of the host location. Okay, so I’m thinking here — let’s say that Easton hosted some sort of international athletic competition. I mean, really, we …

  It was about one o’clock in the afternoon on Tuesday, and I had just walked out of the Tedeschi’s at Correira’s Plaza on Washington Street/Rte. 138.   It was a sunny and warm day.  And what do I spy in full gallop heading north on the sidewalk on the plaza side of the highway but a woman – yes, sprinting – while pushing a baby carriage.  Now, I wouldn’t have considered that exceptional, except the woman was not in workout gear – and not wearing  running shoes.  After all, many parents combine workouts with pushing their children in the stroller.  No, this woman, perhaps in her mid 40s, had …

  One of the biggest blessings for society is when a positive legacy builds, and people join in to support the legacy — and people smile and are happy about it, and they become better for nurturing that legacy. So it is with the Edwin A. Keach Wiffle Ball Tournament. This past Saturday, at the beautiful baseball fields at Militia Park, the 8th Annual Edwin A. Keach Wiffle Ball Tournament was held. This year had more teams and more people participate than ever before. So, yes, the legacy builds — and the legacy is actually two-fold: first, the most important legacy — and that is the legacy and…

  This is a follow up – part II – of the column I wrote, "Let Our Kids Be Kids", that ran in Easton Patch on April 30 of this year.    The column urged the reinstatement of some healthy balance and healthy values to the relationship between parents and kids and the games, athletics, and recreation in which kids engage. As for today’s column, first off, everyone, please check out this audio-video – it is a Nike “Find Your Greatness” advertisement; it is part of the Nike ad campaign attached to the 2012 London Olympics. Every kid, every parent, should watch this ad.  It puts things in …

 Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. “Pooh, “ he whispered.“Yes, Piglet?”“Nothing,” said Piglet taking Pooh’s paw. “I just wanted to be sure of you.” From Winnie-the-Pooh, by A.A. Milne How much of our lives can be made more comfortable and happy through a routine on which we can depend? Yes, for sure, I know that Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “A foolish consistency is the hobglobin of little minds.” Then again, Mr. Emerson wrote about consistency that was "foolish."There is so much of our lives in which consistency is stratospherically removed from foolish. I am a huge cat lover.  And …

  One of my favorite events in all the world is under way in London. Yes — the Summer Olympic Games. I am a big fan of the Winter Olympic Games as well — but having been a competitive runner and still a big track and field fan, I get more fired up about the summer games. (Here is a link to a column I wrote, "Easton's Olympic History is Impressive" , which ran in this space back on Nov. 5, 2010. You may be surprised just how big a role people from our town have played in the Olympics.) My affection goes far beyond the athletic competition of the Olympics — for it is the pageantry and …

  The fourth annual Callahan’s Run was held this past Saturday — and it was the best turnout and most money raised of all the Callahan’s Runs to date. Callahan’s Run is a motorcycle rally and “rolling thunder” event held in memory of Easton resident, United States Marine Corps Sgt. Bill Callahan, who gave his life for his country when he was killed in action on April 27, 2007 in Iraq. He was 28. Sgt. Callahan was an explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) technician. EOD techs disarm and defeat unexploded bombs and mines and other munitions. It is highly technical and highly dangerous work. Money …

  Kerri Louise Cotter has achieved national renown as a comic — having appeared on primetime television and on Oprah and on the stages of some of the top comedy clubs in America.Kerri, who grew up as Kerri Louise Mather in Easton, and graduated from Oliver Ames High School in 1987, was mentioned in this space last Thursday, and was the focus of this "Muscato's Musings" column which was published back in October 2010.Her popular Mommy Minutes webisodes provide a funny look at the travails and good fortune of being a mother of three boys: twins, Cameron and Harrison, 9, and Tommy, 4 — and the …

  Guys – being guys – cannot begin to understand the biological power of pregnancy and impending motherhood and the cyclone of hormones that attend it.  Nope.  We can’t begin to get our arms around it. And we marvel at the power of food cravings that beset a woman with child.  Also, of course, pregnancy also brings with it aversion to foods.  I thought it may be of interest and engaging for a column to talk with mothers who grew up in Easton – and asked them to share with me some of the food cravings, and food aversions, they had during pregnancy. For this sampling I went among my Facebook …

  Late last summer, my sister sent me three books that she had read, which she enjoyed. (Suzy didn’t send me the actual physical books she read; she ordered copies of them for me online and had them sent to me.)Among the books she sent me was Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin: Writers Running Wild In The Twenties — Edna St. Vincent Millay, Dorothy Parker, Zelda Fitzgerald, and Edna Ferber, by Marion Meade. I am almost done with the book, which was published in 2004.   I tell you, this book is good.Yes, Ms. Millay, Ms. Parker, Ms. Fitzgerald, and Ms. Ferber could all write — indeed they all wrote …

  This is a column in which I complain and in which I celebrate – in which I express my discontent and in which I commend the effort and conduct which makes me smile and makes me feel good about people. Let's get going here – on something that mildly infuriates me – and that is people who won’t pick up the phone and make a call, or write a letter of recommendation, or, in our electronic age, send along an email, in support of someone and to help that someone out. Really – sometimes it can send me skyward – and other times it can merely irk me.  The funny thing about some of these people who …

  Yesterday was July 4th — which is first and foremost the day on which America celebrates its independence. Of course, the celebration and merriment are attended with all sorts of, well, celebration and merriment.  That is appropriate.  That works. A lot of cookouts on July 4th.  An ingrained and strongly fortified institution, these cookouts.  Grilling is done at cookouts, which is a separate animal from barbecue — which is both a noun and a verb. The Muscato clan was never big into cooking over flame.  I mean, back on Andrews Street the only time we had flame cooked food is when my father …

  For me, like it is for many Americans — July 4th is an occasion of reflection that is not all about touting the benevolence, exceptionalism, the greatness, and the magnificence of America.  I write as one who believes wholly and fully that the United States of America is far and away — and that we should tout this — the most benevolent, the most exceptional, the greatest, and the most magnificent nation on earth.  Far and away.  Yet things need to be put in perspective.  For in putting things in perspective, and in admitting and recognizing our faults — while also celebrating our victories …

  It is often proclaimed in this space the benefits – and for deists, the blessings – that are available in Easton.  We have a nice place to live here – and the reason it is so nice is because of hard-working, caring, smart, wise, and focused people who built, preserved, and maintained.  I was thinking this yesterday early evening when I stopped by a thank-you reception at the Ames Free Library for Madeline Holt, who is stepping down from her role as executive director of the library, a post she has held since 2008.    In Madeline’s tenure as top administrator of the library, the organization…

  There is that column in the Boston Herald; it is called, “Inside Track.”  It is written by Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa.  It is sort of a gossip column.  Occasionally, the column includes a segment titled, “Tales From The Naked City.” It is fun reading – all tawdry and tightly packed and sexy and scintillating and relating all sorts of conduct in Boston, and by Boston area people, that is variously bad, amusing, and shocking.  Most of the players in the dramas are fairly well known and powerful. Ms. Fee and Ms. Raposa don’t name names though.   They keep the not so innocent anonymous.  The …

  So now Abraham Lincoln is a vampire killer or hunter, or whatever.  I know next to nothing about Seth Grahame-Smith’s bestselling novel, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, on which the movie of the same name that just came out is based.  I suspect it will be good theater – and from what I’m reading, in a sort of peculiar, comic, and fantastical way it does exalt the genuine heroic and eternally noble qualities of our 16th president; and angel, saint and martyr of our republic.  Still, though, I would hope that the kids of today understand that Abraham Lincoln’s life need no fictionalizing, no…

  We all have our favorite lines from movies.  Here I share with you some of mine.  This is just a short list – and I will do another “favorite movie lines” column a little way down the road. In this column, for some of the quotes, I have provided links to pages on YouTube where you can play clips of the movie scenes in which the quotes were spoken.  Viewer discretion is advised, for included in the scenes are those in which salty language is used.  I hope you enjoy this column.   Please feel free to provide your own favorite movie quotes in the comments section below.   Here we go.  “You’re …