Take a look at our October newsletter!
OCT 2021
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LIFE IN BALANCE
that they needed help, I realized that I can’t do all of this work for the community only to not be there for my own family. I’m grateful to have the opportunity to provide the children with stability so that they can eventually return home to a positive, stronger family unit. The kids range in age from 4–14, so I’m lucky to have my adult daughters’ help. Being stuck at home due to COVID-19 (as well as the logistical hurdle of taking five kids anywhere) forced us to come up with creative ways to spend our time. The kids have started yoga and mindfulness work, and we had a vision board party. Of course, the 4-year-old’s vision board looked very different from the 14-year- old’s, but that’s half the fun. And we make sure to include their parents; it’s important to maintain a connection so that they can be successful when the family is reunited. Having all these kids around has helped to bring out the kid in me, too. We’ve been able to reconnect as a family across generations by finding things we all enjoy. On Friday nights, we have a dance party, and I’ve introduced them to some “old school” music. All of the kids are now huge Michael and Janet Jackson fans. Of course, the enjoyment I get out of spending time with the kids doesn’t mean that taking care of them has been easy. It’s been a lot of hard work, but it’s also a blessing to have a reminder of what’s important in life. Life is about people, not things. The legacy I want to leave behind some day is not about anything material, but rather the actions I took and the commitments I made and stuck by. My family has only gotten stronger during the pandemic, and I’ve been reminded that families come in all different shapes and sizes. Wherever your personal circumstances have left you, your family is still your family — even if it looks a little different than you imagined. I hope that you’ve also been blessed during these difficult times with a family to help get you through.
Hello there! It’s been a while since I’ve had the opportunity to touch base with you all, and so much has happened since the beginning of the pandemic. As stressful and unpredictable as these times have been, I’ve also had the opportunity to reassess what matters in life and find things that bring me joy. Since the beginning of COVID-19, my office has switched gears to meeting with clients via Zoom. While there are some things I miss about the in-person meetings, the benefit of Zoom has been seeing more clients and helping more people on a daily basis. I’ve also adopted a greater focus on estate planning and elder law, and I enjoy helping seniors avoid paying out of pocket for long-term care so that they can still leave a financial legacy for their families. In May, I became the first African American female chair of the YMCA of Central Massachusetts. The YMCA has over a 150-year history of helping with youth development, and I’m so proud to be a part of it. This position pairs nicely with my role as one of the first trustees of color for the Bancroft School. I deeply value giving children the chance to learn, become critical thinkers, and ask questions. I believe this is how children find their place in the world, as well as what’s right and what’s wrong. But the biggest change in my life by far is that I’ve been fostering my four great-nephews and one great-niece. When I got the call A FAMILY AFFAIR Reconnecting With What Really Matters
–Polly Tatum
PS: If you know someone who may need our services, please refer them to us! We are accepting new clients through the end of the year for Divorce Mediation, Estate Planning, and Elder Law services!
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Man Sues Woman for Texting During a Movie Date
We’ve probably all found ourselves annoyed with someone who uses their phone during a movie at the theater, but have you ever been so annoyed that you sued them? That’s what Texas resident Brandon Vezmar decided to do back in 2017, following a “first date from hell” (as Vezmar put it) with Crystal Cruz. According to Vezmar, about
pizza and $17 for the movie ticket he’d paid for. If she didn’t pay, he threatened to go after the money in small claims court. When Cruz initially refused, Vezmar made good on his threat and filed a petition in Austin, Texas. Vezmar made the case that Cruz had violated the cinema’s no cellphone policy and had negatively impacted his and other moviegoers’ experiences of watching a raccoon and a talking tree (among other beings) save the day. He claimed that while he sought modest damages, it was the principle of the thing that really mattered to him. He called Cruz’s behavior “a threat to civilized society.” As entertaining as it might have been to see that case fully make its way through the legal system, the lawsuit was eventually dropped after the TV show “Insider Edition” reunited Cruz and Vezmar and filmed her paying him back for the date. As the camera rolled, he counted his cash and considered them square. Unlike “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” there were no good guys in this story — but that doesn’t make it any less entertaining to read about after the fact!
15 minutes into “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” Cruz was texting on her phone. When Vezmar asked her to stop texting, she refused. Then, Vezmar suggested that she step outside of the theater to text. Cruz took his suggestion and never returned. Most people would chalk the experience up to a bad date and move on, but Vezmar was so indignant
that he reached out to Cruz the next day and requested that she compensate him $4 for the
Corn Mazes Date Back to Ancient Greece? A Historical Look at This Wacky Fall Tradition
Exploring a corn maze is a great way to get outside and enjoy the fall season with friends and family — but who came up with the idea of wandering around a corn field for fun? As it turns out, outdoor mazes are an ancient tradition, and the American corn maze of the ‘90s sprouted from the mazes of 17th-century European gardens. Don’t believe it? Here’s a quick tour of corn maze history. The Minotaur and the Maze Have you heard of Theseus and the Minotaur? This ancient Greek legend tells the story of the hero Theseus, who ventured into an elaborate maze to kill the half-man, half-bull imprisoned there. The monstrous Minotaur was known to eat heroes, and the labyrinth was known to trap them, but Theseus managed to slay the Minotaur and find his way home with the help of a string that he unspooled as he walked. This story isn’t the first recorded example of a maze or labyrinth — according to the World History encyclopedia, “[L]abyrinths and labyrinthine symbols have been dated to the Neolithic Age in regions as diverse as modern-day Turkey, Ireland, Greece, and India, among others” — but it’s perhaps the most famous ancient tale. If you’ve ever navigated a Halloween corn maze staffed by ghouls and ghosts, you can see the parallels! Garden Art to Get Lost In Mazes formed from bushes began popping up European gardens in the 17th century. They were a popular artistic feature of upper-class gardens in England, more for looking at than solving. One famous
example is the half-mile-long Hampton Maze, which was planted in 1690 and still stands today. The Corn Maze: An American Invention Garden mazes eventually hopped the pond to America but didn’t become interactive puzzles until Don Frantz, Creative Director of the American Maze Company, came on the scene. In 1993, Frantz created the “first ever cornfield maze for private and public entertainment” to attract college kids in Pennsylvania. Today, every small-town corn maze is a descendant of his “Amazing Maize Maze.” To learn more about that wacky history, visit AmericanMaze.com.
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TAKE A BREAK
If you had to get surgery in the early 1800s, it could be a death sentence. Before the invention of anesthesia, patients needing amputations and other operations were awake and lucid the entire time. Plus, surgery looked more like something from a horror movie than a lifesaving procedure. And it was during this era that Dr. Robert Liston, who was ironically considered one of the best surgeons of his day, performed the deadliest surgery of all time. Before getting into the particulars of what transpired during the surgery itself, you should know a little bit about Dr. Liston. Sure, he was a professional surgeon, but he was also a product of his time. He likely worked with dirty saws and knives while wearing a bloody apron in an unsanitary operating room. He was also named the “fastest knife in the West End” by medical historian Dr. Richard Gordon. He was known for performing surgeries very quickly, which, in the days before anesthesia, was as much as patients could hope for on the operating table. Only 1 in 10 of his patients died on the operating table, which sounds bad until you learn that a nearby hospital reported 1 in 4 people dying from similar procedures. PERFORMED BY THE ‘FASTEST KNIFE IN THE WEST END’ THE DEADLIEST SURGERY IN HISTORY
Also, in those days, much like crowds used to gather to watch a hanging, people found amputations to be morbidly entertaining — and who wouldn’t want to watch the fastest knife in the West End at work? So, on the fateful day of that deadly surgery, Dr. Liston, ever the showman, cut through his patient’s broken, infected leg with incredible speed — so incredible that he didn’t realize he had cut off two of his assistant’s fingers in the process. Both later died of gangrene (remember the unsanitary tools?). But theirs were not the only deaths that day. When Dr. Liston went for one of his knives, he whipped it about a little too closely to one spectator, slicing through his coat. While he didn’t actually break the man’s skin with his knife, the spectator thought he’d been stabbed and died of shock right there in the operating room. So, instead of saving one life, Dr. Liston killed three people. It’s the only known surgery to have resulted in a 300% mortality rate.
HALLOWEEN COOKIE PIZZA
Inspired by Pillsbury.com
Image sourced from Pillsbury.com/recipes/halloween-cookie-pizza/67172821-ddfb-49ce-b658-ddc4ef4b5cf3
This one’s for the candy corn lovers! This “pizza” is far from traditional, but once you try it, you might find yourself making it every October!
Ingredients
• 1 roll Pillsbury Sugar Cookie Dough • 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 cup candy corn • 1/2 cup chocolate chips • 1/4 cup vanilla frosting
(store-bought or homemade)
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. 2. Grease a round, 12-inch pan and line with cookie dough, ensuring the dough covers all but the outer 1/2 inch. 3. Bake for 16–20 minutes until golden brown. Cool completely. 4. Spread the peanut butter over the cooled cookie dough, then sprinkle on the candy corn and chocolate chips. 5. In a small bowl, microwave the frosting for 15 seconds or until liquified. 6. Drizzle the frosting over the “pizza,” slice, and serve!
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE
19 Cedar St. Worcester, MA 01609
Reconnecting With What Really Matters
Man Sues Woman for Texting During a Movie Date Corn Mazes Date Back to Ancient Greece?
Halloween Cookie Pizza The Deadliest Surgery in History
The Tiger King Remains Behind Bars
The Tiger King Remains Behind Bars Judges Deny Joe Exotic’s Appeal
Even more than a year after the release of “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness,” Joseph Maldonado-Passage, more popularly known as Joe Exotic, continues to make headlines. Following the fame that came with having his story at the center of a wildly popular Netflix series, Maldonado-Passage saw fit to appeal his 22-year prison sentence for plotting to murder big cat rescue activist Carole Baskin on a few different grounds. However, in July, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his appeal. The primary reason for Maldonado-Passage’s appeal, as reported by his legal team, was that Baskin was allowed to attend the entirety of Maldonado-Passage’s trial, despite her role as a witness in the case. As a general rule, witnesses are not permitted to attend proceedings in their entirety, as other witness testimonies might affect the objectivity of their own testimony.
scheme. Victims are allowed to attend court proceedings so long as the judge decides their testimony (if they are also a witness) will not be affected by their attendance. Maldonado-Passage’s legal team asserted that Baskin was not a victim of any sort, since the murder-for-hire plot did not result in her murder. However, U.S. Circuit Court judges ruled that she still suffered emotional and financial harm because of the incident. In addition to this, since Maldonado-Passage conspired to have Baskin murdered two different times, the judge at his trial in 2019 had incorrectly considered them as two separate plots, rather than two attempts at the same murder. The U.S. Circuit Court judges ordered the trial judge to resentence him. So, even for all that trouble, Maldonado-Passage remains behind bars. However, so long as the Tiger King’s popularity continues, it won’t be surprising if Joe Exotic and his legal team keep searching for ways to get him out of prison.
However, Baskin was also in attendance at the trial as a victim, since she was the target of Maldonado-Passage’s murder-for-hire
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