Outdoor Cats Podcast

We sit down in the courtyard of Chris’s building for a Sunday night session with the peepers. We catch up on the local chatter and hone in on our two favorite avatars of municipal corruption: Thomas Duffy and Candy Mero-Carlson.

While I have you, a few announcements I’ve been meaning to share...

One, the pre-orders for the second run of the Bad Brains shirts are all in the mail. Thank you for your patience! There are about 12 leftovers up on the merch store. Get ‘em while you can!

Two, next Election Squad is set for Oct. 16 at Steel and Wire! See you there. Flyer with details here.

Reading list for Duffy’s appearance in court last week: my short write up and This Week In Worcester’s coverage. I’ve been away at a wedding since Thursday, when the court date happened, and so I haven’t been able to provide my full written analysis yet. It’s coming! It was an extremely revealing move, Duffy’s going to court. Both for the city’s power relations and for his personal involvement in the case against Etel Haxhiaj. Short version: the absolute dumbest way he could have spent his political capital.

On the Candy front, we focus on the mailer she recently sent out which uses on the Alta on the Row development for some reason as the basis to rattle off a list of weird lies. Here’s the mailer...

...and the truth on Alta on the Row

“The development of Alta on the Row will cost north of $100 million, Lambert said. The project received $1 million in Housing Development Incentive Program funding and was also granted a Tax Increment Exemption (TIE) by the city of Worcester. The tax abatement agreement will last 15 years, according to Lambert”

“The apartments available will include junior one-bedrooms, standard one-bedrooms, one-bedrooms with dens and size all the way up to three-bedroom apartments, Lambert said, so there will be a variety of price points for the rent.

The project will not have affordable housing”

Here’s my reporting on the little league field and Anthony Petrone etc etc

Consider a paid subscription, I mean why not right?

Any support you can give us would be greatly appreciated. We have a tip jar now!

Venmo a tip / Paypal a Tip / Merch Store / Bandcamp

∿Intro music: original composition “Bleep Boop IV” by Bill Shaner 9.29.25

∿Outro music: “Rock A Bye Baby” by Jean Dawson

∿This podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Overcast, Pocket Casts others via this RSS link.

Chris and I catch up on the news of the week. We look at Kate Toomey’s wretched comments and mind numbing cross examination of the fire chief on the sprinkler ordinance, and the fact she won. What gets to be political violence and what doesn’t? Why can’t we figure out the most basic things, like how to get the kids too and from school without creating neighborhood turf wars.

Kate Toomey and the fire chief hoooo boy Do Wachusett school staff get Charlie Kirk level free speech rights, or don’t they?

Andrew Quemere had a good take: No, Boston Globe, we don’t “need more Charlie Kirks”Roosevelt School and Batteries Unlimited townie s**t

Next council agenda for Tuesday night there’s only three or so reports on, and one is a report on future roadwork buckle up.

“Clair de Lune” played for 80 year old elephantWhile we have you, consider a paid subscription, I mean why not right?

Any support you can give us would be greatly appreciated. We have a tip jar now!

Venmo a tip / Paypal a Tip / Merch Store / Bandcamp

∿Intro music: original composition “Bleep Boop III” by Bill Shaner 9.14.25

∿Outro music:

∿This podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Overcast, Pocket Casts others via this RSS link.

Drums, bass, biblical storms... a little McDonalds for the Candy Kids…

Catching up on a wild weekend and a not-wild preliminary election. We do our best to encapsulate the enigma that is City-Councilor-To-Be Gary Rosen. We ponder how to best implement the Shock Doctrine on Holden during the next Freak Weather Event. We say buh-bye to the haters and losers.

We’re on pace to hit 50 episodes in our first year of doing this thing which is great. It’s been a treat watching the listenership grow into its own whole thing, related but separate to the newsletter readership, like a younger brother who’s cooler but also more of a liability. Who mom worries about.

On that note WE need YOU to give us some funny ideas about where to stick a trail cam in this city... Really calling on you to get abstract about it.

We also need you to tell everyone you know how you, a dirty socialist on the Cultural Marxist Left, would be so mad I mean really really triggered if Moe Bergman decides to run for mayor. We, along with the entire Left and also Marxists, would hate to see it happen. We would be totally owned by Morris Bergman and yes, we would have negative feelings if he made it a three way race.

We would also be sooooo mad if we got a few more paid subscriptions today I mean really freakin pissed off.

Seriously any support you can give us would be greatly appreciated. We have a tip jar now! A nice easy way to drop us a few bucks. The site has an option to give us an extra $5 a month recurring if you want to show us extra love.

A few links of note from the episode...

Folder: /

Hidden election results document / the election results document at home

Josh Wingell’s cool shot

Redlining map by Clark prof

The Fire This Time (2002) Gulf War audio documentary

Goose is getting a livestream

The Fort Bragg Cartel

Josh Croke looking sick as all hell

And then some additional ways to support ya boys!

Venmo a tip / Paypal a Tip / Merch Store / Bandcamp

I’ll have the written post referenced throughout the episode up tomorrow I promise. I swear.

∿Intro music: original composition “Bleep Boop II” by Bill Shaner 9.7.25

∿Outro music: “Blart, in ‘Looper Kimball III’” by thiiird person.

∿This podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Overcast, Pocket Casts others via this RSS link.

An extremely free ranging conversation as Chris and I soak up the last little bit of summer and willfully incriminate ourselves in multiple acts for which misdemeanor charges could theoretically though maliciously be applied.

In no particular order we discuss The Ongoing Horrors, the upcoming preliminary, Joyner Lucas, the Hot Dog Safari, the Worcester Courthouse, hobbits and scams, Mitra and Luster’s pronouns, some proposals for a new Massachusetts state flag.

Relevant links...

Preliminary election guide

Even more journalist deaths at a hospital in Gaza

Kilmar Abrego Garcia detained again

Mitra candidate profile in the Worcester Guardian.

His campaign finance filings have raised eyebrows, with many large donations coming from out of state. Mitra said the support reflects trust built over decades. “Many of these donors, though not residents, have a vested interest in Worcester — through investment properties, business activities, or family ties,” he said.

Shireton, or lack thereof

WPS kids get ADHD backpacks from Joyner Lucas

MA Flag, seal, and motto submissions

Here’s the five specific flags we discussed.

This podcast exists because of the people who support this outlet! Paid subscriptions are the best way to do so. There’s also a new tip jar on on the tip jar website Buy Me A Coffee, where you’ll also find an option to give us an extra $5 a month or $50 annual recurring if you want to show us extra love.

Other ways…

* Venmo a tip

* Paypal a Tip

* Merch Store

* Bandcamp

∿This podcast is now available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Overcast, Pocket Casts others via this RSS link.

∿Intro music: original composition let’s call it “Beep Boop Boop” by Bill Shaner 8.28.25

∿Outro music: Unknown Mortal Orchestra - “First World Problem”

We break down the most recent entry to the ongoing fight versus good and evil controver at St. Vincent Hospital—one this podcast finds itself right smack dab in the middle of…

Not before goofing around a bit about Cat Mayors, Joe Petty, and the ZBA of course, but we get there. Skip to 31:00 if you’re only interested in the St. V’s stuff.

Oh I made up a little digital tip jar if you want to send Chris and I some money to split in front-of-house back-of-house style.

St. V’s nurse Carla LeBlanc came on this show back in February to celebrate the firing of failed union buster Carolyn Jackson. Tenet, the Dallas-based equity hog that owns St Vincent, fired Carla for comments made—specifically about patients dying due to lack of staffing—they called “maliciously untrue.” Then the results of a long running DPH report were made public, and within it three documented patient deaths due to short staffed nurses—exactly what Carla told us and thensome. Now Tenet finds itself hoisted by its own maliciously untrue petard, to the point it almost lost Medicaid reimbursement.

Carla is now suing them under a whistleblower statute for wrongful termination. We’re named in the lawsuit, which you can read here.

Outdoor Cats was all over the news this weekend. Someone needs to teach the Globe and the Telegram how to hyperlink! Here’s the episode: “Episode 10: Sorry Miss Jackson” I’ll never feel bad for bypassing either of their paywalls again. Like so….

Boston Globe: “Patient deaths, government investigations, and a new lawsuit. What’s happening at Saint Vincent Hospital?”

“At this point, I’m not confident that things will be changing for the better,” she told the hosts of the podcast called “Outdoor Cats.” “You know, I’ve learned over the last few years that I can never be confident that this company is going to do the right thing.”

Three months later, the hospital fired LeBlanc, citing her comments on the podcast as “disloyal, reckless, and maliciously untrue.”

By the way the Telegram is owned by the Tenet of journalism, Gannett Media. Just as evil but luckily in charge of no one’s health and well being.

Other links:

Woody wins D2 Dog of the Week

The Last Will of Anas Al Sharif

Tenet’s Stock Ticker

Gabriel House fire exposes “gaps” in subsidized affordable housing business model

The lawsuit one more time

And here’s a glimpse of the insanely redacted inspectional report we were talking about…

On p 26.

This podcast exists because of the people who support this outlet! Paid subscriptions are the best way to do so.

Other ways…

Venmo a tip / Paypal a Tip / Merch Store / Bandcamp

∿This podcast is now available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Overcast, Pocket Casts others via this RSS link.

∿Intro music: summer version of “Roaming The Cosmic Winds” by Mystic Realm, Worcester-based dungeon synth project by Kevin Fitzgerald.

∿Outro music: “Strange and Unproductive Thinking” by David Lynch

Apropos of nothing here’s a truly unfortunate jumbotron crop from at-large council candidate Satya Mitra’s campaign website we discovered mid recording…

Nevertheless… they made it the thumbnail. Lmao.

Just one of the many things Chris and I discuss in a wide-ranging catch up session, recorded on the porch studio yesterday afternoon.

Loosely in order: Moe Bergman’s hilarious campaign radio spot. The dog park homeless encampment and the downtown BID “ambassadors,” the (very related) routine horrors of district court. The two girls of the Eureka Street mother now missing. Webster PD placing Goose “in custody.” Satya Mitra’s insane council war chest, the “for lease” sign above the empty lot Madison Properties abandoned at Polar Park, the sad collapsing prospect of the Michael’s Cigar Bar building ever being put to good use again. Eric Batista’s push to purify the city, and the transparent Joe Petty campaign ploy the announcement transparently serves. The historic bus shelter on Plantation Street they turned into a grim concrete mausoleum in order to spite homeless people.

The cops got Goose. FREE GOOSE.“As your City Manager, I take full responsibility”

1 Exchange Place, “Something New Coming Soon”Gotta seal off the unused bus shelter so people can’t sleep in it

A spokesman for Chicago-based AbbVie, told the Telegram & Gazette his company has been working closely with the City of Worcester, the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Police Department and state’s Department of Health and Human Services to find a way to solve “a number of public health and safety issues” connected with the stone shelter while maintaining the historical preservation of the site.

As always we would greatly appreciate you considering a paid subscription if you haven’t already. Recording these episodes is fun but it’s also a good amount of work to get them out, schedule guests, stay on top of everything. Were I working another job there would simply be no way. So…

Other ways…

Venmo a tip / Paypal a Tip / Merch Store / Bandcamp

∿This podcast is now available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Overcast, Pocket Casts others via this RSS link.

∿Intro music: “Roaming The Cosmic Winds” by Mystic Realm, Worcester-based dungeon synth project by Kevin Fitzgerald.

∿Outro music: “Trash” by New York Dolls

We head down to District 1 City Council candidate Keith Linhares’ house to check in with his campaign and marvel at his absolutely amazing garage.

Last time we talked to Keith it was back in March, when he was just getting started. “Episode 16: Time for an overhaul (ft. Keith Linhares)”

Now he’s got a sense of the terrain and we were stoked to hear he’s more optimistic now than he was then. We talk housing policy, extending a hand to winnable conservatives. We talk about the asymmetry of the typical citizens’s politics and the opportunity that lies in considering the funding of the DPW versus the WPD. Here’s a passage from Keith (around 35 mins in) I appreciated:

That's something that has been resonating with voters is, kind of back to that concept of investing in ourselves, that the DPW is so under understaffed. I think I heard a couple months ago, it’s like 90 people short.

And people like the idea when you say like, these should be good jobs for the people of Worcester, we should be able to help ourselves, we should be able to take care of ourselves that resonates with people.

And I mean, you can label it as you know, whatever “ism” you want, but the idea that a municipality should have some level of authority over itself and some ability to satisfy its own needs is so, so crucial right now, when you look at what the federal federal government's doing, especially lately.

Keith, like all the good candidates, needs money and volunteers if he’s going to do the damn thing. Sign up for his mailing list, give him some cash (recurring ideally!) and get involved.

Website

Volunteer sign up form

Donation page

Instagram (very good videos)

If you don’t know where to start in terms of “getting involved” there’s a perfect event for you this Thursday: Worcester Sucks Election Squad #1 at Steel and Wire, 7 p.m. July 31.

“How To Blow Up A Pipeline:” Book, movie

A fun light read on the origins of “community policing”

Goose, the monitor lizard, spotted in CT

It’s embarrassing when we do this. Please stop.

This podcast exists because of the people who support this outlet! Paid subscriptions are the best way to do so.

Other ways…

Venmo a tip / Paypal a Tip / Merch Store / Bandcamp

∿This podcast is now available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Overcast, Pocket Casts others via this RSS link.

∿Intro music: My summer rendition of “Roaming The Cosmic Winds” by Mystic Realm

∿Outro music: Winston Band, “Lâche La Patate”

Chris and I have a freewheeling conversation, starting with John Fresolo’s District 3 Race Theory, zooming out to the War on Terror and the great Mooninite Massacre of 2007, back in time to the sinking of the Frigate Hussar and the possibly still at-large Midgley’s Mortar, then back down to reality: the Crompton Pool fiasco and Alex Guardiola’s weird obsession with teacher sick days.

Fresolo’s comments in The Rambler

Mooninite Bomb Scare

Candy Mero Carlson’s 2022 cable access freakout and the video evidence

Alex Guardiola’s war on sick days in the Worcester Guardian

And don’t forget about those two events we plugged...

Comedy for Bilotta on the 17th

And on the 31st, Worcester Sucks Election Squad at Steel and Wire. 7 p.m.

This podcast exists because of the people who support this outlet! Paid subscriptions are the best way to do so.

Other ways…

Venmo a tip / Paypal a Tip / Merch Store / Bandcamp

Share

∿This podcast is now available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Overcast, Pocket Casts others via this RSS link.

∿Intro music: My summer rendition of “Roaming The Cosmic Winds” by Mystic Realm

∿Outro music: “American Guilt” by Unknown Mortal Orchestra

To celebrate the fourth, Chris and I go full porch mode, eschewing the news of the day to focus instead on Worcester’s messy, turbulent, amazing relationship with the Fourth of July, a Purge-like affinity built into our DNA going back to the industrial revolution. We read from an entire chapter about the city’s July 4 celebrations a century ago in Roy Rosenzweig’s Eight Hours For What We Will, the best book ever written about this city. Because it’s pretty hard to find, having been out of print for decades, here’s a scan of the chapter in question, and a folder with the whole book in it, courtesy of the group of volunteers who made scans for the book club we did last year.

We also go over a 1900s story recently posted to Reddit about a Worcester guy who came to possess a revolutionary war mortar?

Then to bring it all home, the news from Wednesday of a guy lighting off dynamite.

Hope everyone is having a good holiday weekend. Lots of laughs in this ep, very little serious or depressing talk. Chase the shaved and lubricated pig of your dreams. Oh here’s a look at the porch rig. It’s beautiful.

And some of you may notice I’m wearing an I Pick Up Worcester Litter Very Well shirt. An Instagram account you simply must be following if you aren’t already. They have a few cleanup events coming up!

This podcast exists because of the people who support this outlet! Paid subscriptions are the best way to do so.

Other ways…

Venmo a tip / Paypal a Tip / Merch Store / Bandcamp

∿This podcast is now available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Overcast, Pocket Casts others via this RSS link.

∿Intro music: “Roaming The Cosmic Winds” by Mystic Realm, Worcester-based dungeon synth project by Kevin Fitzgerald.

∿Outro music: Outdoor Cats summer theme. Will be up on the Bandcamp soon!

Back from our top secret trip deep within the heart of the Axis of Resistance, Chris and I discuss the local implications of Zohran Mamandi’s victory in NYC, building off the piece I wrote the other day: “A politics of no translation.” Of particular concern is how bad the Massachusetts Democratic establishment has been on housing, and the opportunity that presents. Then we pay Cape Cod Ray a visit, reading his cranky thoughts on protestors—and a stunning admission about WPD thuggery—into the record.

Cuomo’s ridiculous $25 million plus real estate PAC.

RealPage rent fixing expose in ProPublicaKneecap movie trailer

This podcast exists because of the people who support this outlet! Paid subscriptions are the best way to do so.

Other good ways…

Venmo a tip / Paypal a Tip / Merch Store / Bandcamp

∿This podcast is now available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Overcast, Pocket Casts others via this RSS link.

∿Intro music: “Roaming The Cosmic Winds” by Mystic Realm, Worcester-based dungeon synth project by Kevin Fitzgerald.

∿Outro music: CEARTA by Kneecap