89.7 WGBH’s Eric Jackson wins 2012 Duke Dubois Humanitarian Award

The "Dean of Boston Jazz," 89.7 WGBH Jazz host Eric Jackson (WGBH)

 
BOSTON — As July rolls in and we celebrate our nation’s birthday, Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank is preparing to become the first congressman to have a same-sex marriage.
 
Frank, who is retiring at the end of this term, is getting married to Jim Ready, his partner of 5 years, this month. News reports are speculating the event will take place in Newton on July 7.
 
Planning the wedding has been “a little stressful,” Frank said in June in an interview with Todd Zwillich of The Takeaway.
 
However, Frank said he wasn't worried, and thinks the couple did a good job, in part thanks to some helpful assistance from Ready’s mother and Frank’s sister.
 
While there will be a disc jockey and decorations (although those will be left up to the hotel), a couple things will not be there: the press and the president.
 
The lack of the press is not surprising. In a November 2011 interview with WGBH News, Frank said one thing he intended to do when he retired was to "talk to the media less."
 
As for the president, it’s nothing Frank has against Obama, but rather the Secret Service.
 
“I was asked if I would invite the president,” Frank said, “and it’s not his fault, but he brings [The Secret Service] with him, and they can ruin a party.”

Excerpts from Frank's interview with WGBH News co-production The Takeaway

Q: So, how is the wedding planning going? Is it stressful at all?
 
A: It is. It’s a little stressful, but Jim and I called in some reinforcements. Jim’s mother and my sister, who, between them, you know, weddings are new for both of us but Jim’s mother married off three of his siblings and my sister married off two of her children, so they’ve been helpful to us. And I just spoke to Jim, he was up at his mother’s house today, they were going through the RSVPs. We’ve got it pretty well organized.
 
Q: Do you guys have any taste for wedding planning, do you guys get into decorations and whatnot?
 
A: No, we left that to the hotel. I’m not very focused on those things, but we are dealing with the hotel on that one, not getting into that much, we’re going to have a disc jockey, Jim has been talking to him about songs, and we’ve gotten suits for all of the guys who are going to be at the wedding for that.
 
Q: Are you at all worried about the wedding?
 
A: No, it’s under control, I think we’ve done a pretty good job of planning it. We have a certain issue of we don’t want it to be a spectacle. I suspect there might be some disappointed press people when we tell them they’re not invited.
 

BOSTON — David D’Alessandro rose from humble roots in upstate New York to become one of Boston’s most respected business leaders. His flair for business battle is highlighted in his three bestselling books: "Brand Warfare," "Career Warfare" and "Executive Warfare."
 
In Greater Boston’s 1 Guest series, the former CEO of John Hancock Financial Services opened up to host Emily Rooney about growing up in Utica, his father’s gambling addiction and run-in with the mob and his early work history.
 
Childhood in Utica
 
D’Alessandro was born in Utica, New York. East Utica, to be precise.
 
“When you’re from Utica, you have to be distinctive about where you’re from,” he said. “Kind of like when you’re from New York, you’re from Brooklyn, not the Bronx.”
 
From an early age, D’Alessandro said, he had an aversion to authority figures. His own mother was no exception. “My mom told me I couldn’t go fishing. I was 4 or 5 years old,” he said. Undeterred by his mother’s orders, he constructed a fishing line out with a piece of string and a nail and proceeded to fish from the family goldfish bowl. Unfortunately for him, the goldfish just weren’t biting.
 
“Perhaps because the nail was bigger than the fish. And there was no bait on it,” he said.
 
D’Alessandro moved on to Plan B and scooped the fish out with a large pasta spoon then left them on the kitchen counter. His mother noticed them immediately when she came home.
 
“It didn’t work out so well,” said D’Alessandro. “I had them for dinner.”
 
Gambling
 
D’Alessandro said his father was the smartest person in the family, boasting an IQ of 165 and speaking five languages, including Japanese. Unfortunately, he also struggled with compulsive gambling, a habit that “put the family through hell.”
 
“He was addicted to horses,” said D’Alessandro about his father. “He played every day. Every day, including the day he died.”
 
His father’s gambling habits also got him into trouble with some of the neighborhood’s more notorious characters. As a child, D’Alessandro remembers witnessing a terrifying encounter between his father and a group of gangsters at the family’s grocery store.
 
“Some henchmen came in and we had a big chopping block,” said D’Alessandro. “They made my dad put his hand down and they kept plunging a knife between his fingers because he owed a few hundred dollars.”
 
On casinos in Massachusetts
 
Given his own family’s troubled history with gambling, it’s not surprising that D’Alessandro was disappointed by the recent legalization of casino gambling in Massachusetts.
 
“Gambling is an addiction,” said D’Alessandro. “For the legislature to push so hard for casino gambling knowing they are going to addict people … it’s anathema to me because I thought the state knew better.”
 
He added, dryly, “Why don’t we just open up crack cocaine parlors and take the tax off of that?”
 
Early jobs
 
It’s hard to believe one of Boston’s most respected businessmen was ever fired from a job. But D’Alessandro admitted his first job at a movie theater was not his biggest success.
 
“I got fired because the owner of the theater insisted I walk around with a flashlight … telling people to stop cuddling and making out with each other,” he said. “I didn't think it was good for my physical health in an Italian American neighborhood to be breaking up young people from cuddling.”
 
 

Uke Springsteen - "Atlantic City" from Johnny Anguish on Vimeo.