Boston Sports Morning Report — Thursday, Oct. 1

Sox got swept out of October in the Bronx — board flips to Pats at Buffalo Sunday and B's on the road Friday.

Short version: Red Sox season is over after an AL Wild Card sweep; Patriots rest until Orchard Park; Bruins hold 1st in the Atlantic heading into Winnipeg; Celtics still on the preseason clock.

New England Patriots

• Yesterday: No game
• Today: No game
• Next: Sun, Oct. 4 — 1:00 PM ET — @ Buffalo Bills (CBS)
• After that: Sun, Oct. 11 — 1:00 PM ET — vs Las Vegas Raiders (home)
• Standings: 1-2 · T-2nd in AFC East (Jets also 1-2); Buffalo 3-0 leads · Dolphins 0-3 sit 4th

Quiet week after the Jacksonville loss. Next stop is Orchard Park Sunday at 1 on CBS — undefeated Bills waiting.

Boston Red Sox

• Yesterday: L 9–2 @ New York Yankees, AL Wild Card Game 2 (Wed night)
• Series: Swept · outscored 182 (Game 1 was L 0–9 / 9–0)
• Today: No game — eliminated, season over
• Next: Offseason
• Standings: 87-75 · 3rd in AL East · Eliminated in AL Wild Card

October ended in the Bronx. Tough series, now the long offseason starts. Tip your cap and look ahead.

Boston Celtics

• Yesterday / Today: No games
• Next (preseason): Thu, Oct. 8 — 7:00 PM ET — @ Cleveland Cavaliers
• Then (preseason): Sat, Oct. 10 — 8:00 PM ET — vs Philadelphia 76ers (home)
• Regular-season opener: Tue, Oct. 20 — 3:00 PM ET — @ Detroit Pistons
• Status: Preseason / 2026-27 not started. Last season: 56-26.

Still quiet on the parquet. First preseason tip is a week out in Cleveland.

Boston Bruins

• Yesterday: No game (opener was Tue, Sep. 29: W 3–0 vs Rangers)
• Today: No game
• Next: Fri, Oct. 2 — 8:00 PM ET — @ Winnipeg Jets
• Then: Sat, Oct. 3 — 8:00 PM ET — @ Minnesota
• Standings: 1-0-0 · 1st in Atlantic · 2 points

Opening-night shutout still the last result. Road trip starts Friday in Winnipeg, then Minnesota Saturday.

That's the Thursday board, folks. Sox pack it in; football and hockey carry the week. Stay loud.

MOAM Out.

New England This Morning — October 1, 2026

Morning light is putting on a quiet show across New England — sunrise over the harbor, a sea of clouds under the summit, and fog hugging a classic Vermont covered bridge.

Marblehead Harbor (BYC Oceanfront) — Soft sunrise breaking through a gray sky over calm water and a full field of moored boats. Pier, dinghies, and the rocky point look peaceful as the day wakes up.

Mount Washington North View — Summit rocks above a thick undercast filling the valleys. Peaks poke through like islands, with clear blue overhead — a classic high-country morning.

Great Eddy Covered Bridge, Waitsfield — Fog wraps the Mad River and the wooden bridge; autumn color holds on a riverside tree while the water stays glassy and still.

Warmer-than-usual Thursday ahead across much of New England — mid-to-upper 70s with a mix of sun and clouds after a cloudy start.

Webcam views courtesy of the Boston Yacht Club, the Mount Washington Observatory, and Mad River Valley Television.

MOAM Out.

The Wing: The Story Behind the Title

The novel is called The Wing. The title comes from the meaning of the name Wenepoykin, the youngest son of Nanepashemet. The English called him Sagamore George.

In 1684 he came home from slavery in Barbados, an old man, and died that summer at a kinsman's house. Before he died, a young Native pastor named Daniel Takawombait heard him say who his land should go to. Daniel is a real person, and two years later he swore to it in court.

My book imagines the rest: George telling his whole family's story while Daniel writes it down. It moves from the Mystic to Saugus, Salem, Nahant, Rumney Marsh, and the shore right here in Marblehead.

It comes out October 15.

Still the Same Act: Update — September 30

This is catching the MOAM's attention today….. Tuesday’s inbox was empty. Wednesday’s Cabinet finally got a folder.

Where things stood
As of my September 29 update, Araghchi had left New York still waiting on a formal U.S. answer, Trump had yelled “NOTHING” at Axios on Truth Social, Ghalibaf was threatening infrastructure, and Qatar was still carrying notes. Trail back to “Still the Same Act” and the April opener “The Act is Getting Old.”

What’s new today

1. The formal U.S. response finally landed
Wednesday in Tehran, government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani told state media that Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi presented the American side’s proposal — the official U.S. response — to President Masoud Pezeshkian at the Cabinet meeting. What’s inside the envelope? They won’t say. Rejection? Counter? Softener? Silence. Pezeshkian’s public line: keep working toward a “win-win.” After a week of Saturday stage-no’s and Tuesday empty deadlines, at least the paperwork showed up.
Sources: Fortune / AP, Sep 30, 2026 · 9:40 AM ET; Boston Globe / AP, Sep 30, 2026; CBS live updates, Sep 30, 2026

2. Sequencing — not the menu — is the fight
A briefed official told Reuters that Araghchi got the U.S. feedback from Qatari mediators in Doha on Tuesday night, heading home from New York. The document in circulation describes a seven-day trust-building ladder meant to get both sides back to an enhanced version of the June memorandum — including concrete nuclear steps. The disagreement, this official said, is over the order of those steps, not the pieces themselves. Iran wants American relief first; Washington wants nuclear moves first. Same act. Different stage directions.
Sources: Al Arabiya / Reuters, Sep 30, 2026; CBS citing Reuters, Sep 30, 2026

3. Trump Wednesday: “We blow them up or make a deal”
Asked how he plans to deal with Iranian officials he’s called “crazy,” President Trump told reporters Wednesday: “Maybe you blow them up.” Then the binary: “We have to make that decision: We blow them up or make a deal. But the time is coming. It’s going to end very soon, one way or another.” Diplomats pass folders in Doha. The Commander-in-Chief is still auditioning both finales.
Sources: CBS News, Sep 30, 2026 · 5:57 PM ET

4. Economic squeeze while the folder circulates
While Qatar shuttles texts, Treasury on Tuesday hit ten individuals and entities under “Operation Economic Outcast” for allegedly feeding Iran’s military supply chain. Iran’s rial punched a new record low Tuesday — more than 2.5 million to the dollar, after 2.2 million on September 2. Trump’s Tuesday Oval Office read: Iran is “failing very badly, very badly,” war “over with very, very soon” — even as he’s also said it may run past the November midterms. Pressure track and talk track. Same week.
Sources: Fortune / AP, Sep 30, 2026; Boston Globe / AP, Sep 30, 2026

MOAM’s take
Same act, Wednesday night — with a new prop. For days Tehran said it was waiting on an “official” answer while Trump rejected the plan on camera. Now the official answer exists… and nobody will read it out loud. Reuters’ briefed source says the fight isn’t what’s on the menu — it’s who eats first. Down here on the North Shore we know a dinner reservation that never seats isn’t a reservation. Strength still wins. A folder without a sequence isn’t a deal — it’s another scene change.

What to watch
Whether Tehran answers the answer with a real counter-schedule through Doha; whether “sequencing” becomes a ladder both sides can climb or the same June deadlock with better stationery; whether Trump’s “blow them up or make a deal” line stays rhetoric or becomes an order; and whether Brent / Hormuz traffic keep scoring a different game than the press conferences.

MOAM Out.

TDS Watch: Maddow says Trump cleared A.I. robots to kill us

Not for nuthin'…. But….. you know the syndrome has left the clinic when a national cable host tells America the sitting president “moved explicitly to make sure no human can interfere with robots’ ability to kill us.”

What was said

On Late Night with Seth Meyers (taped Sep 28; aired into the Sep 29–30 window; transcribed and covered by NewsBusters on Wednesday, Sep 30, 2026), MS NOW host Rachel Maddow sat for the usual anti-Trump gripe session — then escalated past “authoritarian” into killer-robot apocalypse.

First the typecasting, exact words:

“Well—I can't speak to that. But I can say one thing, which is he's a type. Right? He is—and I don't just mean, like, ‘New York real estate scam artist.’ I mean, like, he's a type. He's an authoritarian guy. He's Blond Berlusconi. You know what I mean?”

Then Meyers asked whether Trump is “the wrong guy to solve A.I.” Maddow answered by citing a Washington Post report on U.N. autonomous-weapons talks — and turned diplomacy into Skynet:

“I will say two things. First of all, The Washington Post just reported this week that Trump administration lawyers made sure to scuttle the international discussions that would have said that A.I. programs aren't allowed to kill people with military weapon systems without humans checking first on what they're trying to kill. So, Trump moved explicitly to make sure no human can interfere with robots' ability to kill us.”

“So, it's, like, been hard, I think, to imagine, ‘How is it that the A.I. Apocalypse would happen?’ ‘How is it that A.I. might kill us?’ Well, the really easy thing to imagine is them using military weapons to kill us, and Trump is intervening to make sure they can.”

Sources: NewsBusters, Sep 30, 2026 (full transcript + clip) · Washington Post, Sep 26, 2026 (underlying U.N. talks story)

Context (not spin)

Argue lethal-autonomous-weapons policy all day. The Washington Post did report that U.S. and Russian diplomats stripped some human-review language from a non-binding U.N. draft on AI weapons earlier this month. That is a real diplomatic fight over treaty text — the kind sober people debate with footnotes.

What Maddow did on late night is not footnotes. She jumped from “lawyers edited a Geneva draft” to “Trump moved explicitly to make sure no human can interfere with robots' ability to kill us and “Trump is intervening to make sure they can” deliver the “A.I. Apocalypse.” Blond Berlusconi was already the night’s mood music. Killer robots clearing human interference is the diagnosis stamp.

You can dislike the administration’s Geneva posture. You can want stricter human-in-the-loop rules. Show the draft language. Cite DoD Directive 3000.09. What you don’t get not if you want anybody outside the green room to take the “A.I. safety” lecture seriously — is to tell a comedy audience the president is ensuring robots can kill us. That’s not arms-control analysis. That’s the ward with a teleprompter.

MOAM’s diagnosis

Severity: TERMINAL.

When “authoritarian guy / Blond Berlusconi” is just the warm-up for robots' ability to kill us” and “A.I. Apocalypse… Trump is intervening to make sure they can, we are past spicy cable punditry and into clinical territory. Treaty drafts can be too soft. Presidents can be wrong on AI. Neither requires a national host to sell Skynet as the White House briefing. Down here in Marblehead we still know the difference between a Geneva markup and a late-night end-of-days monologue. Save the arms-control debate for the diplomats. Save the robot apocalypse for the movies.

MOAM Out.

Woodworking Tip of the Day: Spiling Planks

A curved hull doesn't care what your tape measure thinks….. Today's tip: spiling planks — take the shape off the boat with a batten and a compass, then put that shape onto flat stock you can actually cut.

Why it matters: On a Chamberlain Marblehead gunning dory (or any traditional planked boat), the next plank isn't a rectangle. It widens amidships and tucks toward the ends. WoodenBoat and Greg Rössel teach the classic fix: nail a thin spiling batten into the opening, swing fixed-compass arcs from the station points onto that batten, then reverse the process on your cedar (or whatever stock) and connect the dots with a fairing batten. Lost Art Press (Walker & Tolpin) spells out the geometry — same divider setting, arcs back from the recorded marks, intersections recreate the original points. Guessing from a tape is how you burn a good board.

Materials

• Spiling batten — same length as the plank-to-be, thinner and narrower than the opening (thin lauan / plywood strips stapled with a scab or butt strap work well)
• Planking stock laid flat on the bench
• Scrap board or a clear spot on the boat / bench for the "sacred circle"
• Optional: hot glue or small tacks / staples to hold the batten without twisting it

Tools

• Compass or dividers (fixed setting for the whole plank)
• Pencil
• Fairing / marking batten (straight-grained, bends evenly)
• Bandsaw (or handsaw) and plane for final fit

Steps

1. Make the batten. Cut (or staple together) a thin strip the full length of the plank gap but narrower than the opening. WoodenBoat builders often use lauan strips joined with a scab or butt strap.
2. Tack it in place — no twist, no edge-set. Start amidships and work toward each end, as if spreading fabric. Forcing the batten edgewise or twisting it into the gap writes a lie into every mark that follows.
3. Lock one compass setting. Choose a span that reaches every station along the plank. Draw a "sacred circle" on the boat, the bench, or scrap — not on the spiling batten — so you can restore the setting if the dividers bump (WoodenBoat).
4. Swing arcs at the stations. From each reference point (usually frame centerlines on the upper and lower edges of the gap), put one compass leg on the point and draw an arc onto the batten. Keep that same setting for every mark.
5. Transfer to stock. Pull the batten, clamp it flat on your planking stock, check the sacred circle, and reverse the process. Walker & Tolpin: from each recorded arc, swing two small arcs with the same radius — their intersection is the original station point. Connect those points with a fairing batten.
6. Cut and fit. Bandsaw outside the line, then plane to a sweet fit. The batten also helps you place the shape efficiently on the board so you don't waste stock (Rössel).

MOAM's shop note: Biggest miss is changing the compass setting halfway through — or "helping" the batten with a little edge-set so it sits prettier. Both turn a fair plank into a puzzle piece that almost fits. Second miss: drawing the sacred circle on the batten itself, then confusing it with a spiling mark. Keep that circle off the pattern. Joggle sticks and spiling blocks work too, but the compass method is the one the books call more accurate — and it's the one that matches how we think about lofted lines on a Marblehead dory.

MOAM Out.

Boston Sports Morning Report — Wednesday, Sept. 30

This is catching the MOAM's attention today….. Elimination night in the Bronx, and the B's already got a shutout in the books.

Short version: Sox stare down a must-win Wild Card Game 2 at Yankee Stadium at 8; Bruins opened with a 3–0 blanking of the Rangers; Pats rest until Buffalo; Celtics still on the preseason clock.

New England Patriots

• Yesterday: No game
• Today: No game
• Next: Sun, Oct. 4 — 1:00 PM ET @ Buffalo Bills (CBS)
• Standings: 1-2 3rd in AFC East (Jets also 1-2 sit 2nd on tiebreak); Buffalo 3-0 leads by two

Still quiet after Jacksonville. Next stop is Orchard Park on Sunday at 1 on CBS — undefeated Bills waiting.

Boston Red Sox

• Yesterday: L 9–0 @ New York Yankees, AL Wild Card Game 1
• Today: Wed, Sept. 30 — 8:00 PM ET — @ New York Yankees, AL Wild Card Game 2 (NBC / Peacock)
• Next: Thu, Oct. 1 Wild Card Game 3 at Yankee Stadium if necessary (NBC)
• Standings: 87-75 · 3rd in AL East · AL Wild Card series 0–1

Backs against the wall. Sonny Gray gets the ball opposite Max Fried. One win keeps October alive — stay loud.

Boston Celtics

• Yesterday / Today: No games
• Next (preseason): Thu, Oct. 8 7:00 PM ET @ Cleveland Cavaliers
• Regular-season opener: Tue, Oct. 20 3:00 PM ET — @ Detroit Pistons
• Status: Preseason / 2026-27 not started. Last season: 56-26, 2nd in the East.

Still quiet on the parquet. Preseason tip is just over a week out.

Boston Bruins

• Yesterday: W 3–0 vs New York Rangers (season opener) — Minten, Peterka, Kastelic; Swayman shutout
• Today: No game
• Next: Fri, Oct. 2 — 8:00 PM ET — @ Winnipeg Jets (ESPN+)
• Standings: 1-0-0 · 1st in Atlantic (tied) · 2 points

Opening Night delivered. Three goals in 75 seconds late and Swayman blanked the Rangers. Road trip to Winnipeg Friday.

That's the Wednesday board, folks. Sox need one in the Bronx tonight. Stay loud.

MOAM Out.

Still the Same Act: Update — September 29

Not for nuthin'. But….. Tuesday was supposed to be the day Qatar whispered Washington’s answer. The suitcase left New York. The answer didnt.

Where things stood
Monday’s shuttle finally rolled — U.S. and Iranian officials spoke separately with mediators, an amended seven-day text stayed on the table, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Qatar had “ideas” for how Iran’s conditions get met. He packed for Tehran and hoped for Tuesday’s official U.S. response. AP heard slight progress.” That was the score in my September 28 update on “Still the Same Act” — trail back to “The Act is Getting Old.”

What’s new today

1. Trump: “I offered them NOTHING”
Late Monday night — after our last update — President Trump hit Truth Social over an Axios report that he’d offered Iran sanctions relief and frozen funds for nuclear concessions. Quote: “This is untrue. I offered them NOTHING!” He called the story a “HOAX and demanded Axios withdraw it. Same public posture as Saturdays rejection. Different envelope. Same stamp.
Sources: Iran International, Sep 29, 2026; Al Jazeera, Sep 29, 2026

2. Tuesday’s deadline — plane gone, answer still pending
Araghchi left New York on Tuesday after telling state broadcaster IRIB he expected Washington’s official response through the mediators by the end of the day. As of Tuesday’s reporting, that formal answer still hadn’t landed. On flexibility? He shut the door: I categorically state that there has been no change in Iran’s positions. Only the Strait is under discussion; Hormuz reopen still hinges on Iran’s conditions first. Boarding pass used. Deadline unused.
Sources: Press TV / IRIB, Sep 29, 2026; Al Jazeera, Sep 29, 2026

3. Ghalibaf: if our security isn’t guaranteed, no infrastructure stays safe
While the diplomats waited, parliament speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf raised the temperature on state TV. Quote: “In a region where we cannot sell oil, no one else will sell oil either; or if our security is not guaranteed, no infrastructure will remain safe.” Thats not a softener for Qatar’s “ideas.” That’s Tehran reminding the neighborhood what the leverage looks like when the answer doesn’t arrive on schedule.
Sources: CNA (AFP), Sep 29, 2026; Iran International, Sep 29, 2026

4. Qatar keeps shuttling — IRGC says Hormuz still isn’t “open
Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari confirmed Tuesday that Doha is still relaying messages between Washington and Tehran and that efforts are “focused on building common ground.” He also told Iran to take a clear non-aggression line toward Gulf neighbors. Separately, IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebi dismissed U.S. claims the strait is open: sneaking “a few hundred barrels… under the cover of darkness” with transponders off isn’t an open waterway — a real one, he said, needs at least 125 vessels a day and 20 million barrels. Two scoreboards. Same strait.
Sources: Anadolu Agency, Sep 29, 2026; CNA (AFP), Sep 29, 2026

MOAM’s take
Same act, Tuesday night. Araghchi wanted an official answer by sundown. He got a boarding pass and another day of “messages.” Trump said NOTHING on Truth Social loud enough that nobody can pretend Saturday’s rejection was just a negotiating costume. Ghalibaf answered the empty inbox with an infrastructure threat. Qatar is still carrying notes. Down here on the North Shore we know when the curtain call keeps getting postponed. Strength still wins. Deadlines without answers aren’t diplomacy — they’re the same show with a later showtimes.

What to watch
Whether Qatar ever delivers a real, on-the-record U.S. response Araghchi will admit to; whether “building common ground” changes Iran-first sequencing or just the adjectives; whether Ghalibaf’s infrastructure line stays rhetoric or becomes a target list; and whether oil / Hormuz flows keep writing a different scoreboard than the press conferences.

MOAM Out.

TDS Watch: Scott Galloway calls Trump a “stain,” admits TDS cost him 40% of his stocks

You know the syndrome has hopped the rails when a tenured NYU marketing professor calls the sitting president “a f---ing idiot and a stain on the American experience” — then, in the same breath, admits the last time he let Trump feelings run his brokerage account it cost him roughly 40% of his liquid stock net worth.

What was said

On the Monday Office Hours edition of The Prof G Pod (aired for the Sep 28–29 cycle; covered by Fox News on Tuesday, Sep 29, 2026), NYU Stern marketing professor and media regular Scott Galloway took a listener question about whether the American economy feels like a “ticking time bomb.” Fair game to talk valuations, diversification, don’t-time-the-market. Galloway went somewhere else — and then confessed the receipt.

Exact words, as reported by Fox News Digital from the podcast:

“I think the president is a f---ing idiot and a stain on the American experience and that the grand sum of all of these head up your a-- economic and foreign policy decisions will eventually crash this economy or result in long-term structural damage that will take decades if not generations to repair.”

Then the self-diagnosis, same monologue:

“So when he was elected in 2016, I sold all my stocks. That was stupid. The market ripped for the next year. There was so much insecurity about him actually winning that the fear had been priced in. Stocks ripped up.”

“So you could argue, at least notionally, that decision cost me 40% of my liquid net worth in stocks.”

And the label he put on it himself:

“Probably my biggest investment mistake was the emotional reaction I had to the 2016 election of Donald Trump.”

Sources: Fox News Digital, Sep 29, 2026 · Prof G Pod / Office Hours transcript

Context (not spin)

Galloway is not a random reply guy. He’s a tenured professor, a bestselling business author, and a podcast host who tells other people how to think about money. On that same show he correctly notes that trying to guess market tops is dangerous and that most of the economy “just grinds on” regardless of who is tweeting. Good advice. Then he immediately models the opposite: vulgar personal abuse of the sitting president, a forecast of generational economic ruin, and a reminder that the last time he acted on the same feelings he paid a 40% tuition bill in foregone stock wealth plus New York capital-gains taxes.

You can dislike Trump’s economic policy. You can dislike his foreign policy. You can short the market if you want. Argue the data. Show the chart. What you don’t get — not if you want anybody outside the blue-check faculty lounge to take the “don’t let emotions drive the portfolio” lecture seriously — is to call the president a “stain on the American experience” while waving the receipt for the last time the syndrome emptied your account. That’s not analysis. That’s the ward with a Bloomberg terminal.

MOAM’s diagnosis

Severity: ACUTE.

When the same breath that says “don’t time politics with your brokerage” also says “f---ing idiot,” “stain on the American experience,” and “decades if not generations to repair” — and the speaker already admitted the 2016 version of that feeling cost him 40% — we are past spicy punditry and into clinical territory. Markets can be frothy. Presidents can be wrong. Neither requires a tenured brand to torch his own “stay invested” sermon with a bathroom-wall insult and a prophecy of national decline. Down here in Marblehead we still know the difference between a risk warning and a temper tantrum with a ticker symbol. Save the portfolio lecture for the portfolio. Save the name-calling for the group chat.

MOAM Out.

Woodworking Tip of the Day: Cambered Clamping Cauls

This is catching the MOAM's attention today….. a flat caul looks honest until you clamp both ends — then the middle bows up and your dado, scarf, or panel joint starves….. Today’s tip: make a cambered clamping caul so end clamps drive pressure where clamps can’t reach.

Why it matters: Fine Woodworking (Gary Rogowski) spells it out — ordinary flat stock bows when you load the ends; a slight crown (camber) flattens under those same clamps and pushes into the middle. Asa Christiana’s case work uses the same trick across shelf dadoes in case sides. On a Chamberlain Marblehead gunning dory, that same caul keeps scarf joints and laminated stems / keel stock flat while epoxy cures. One stick of fir, two clamps, even glue-line pressure.

Materials

• Ordinary fir construction lumber (less likely to mar hardwood than dense hardwood cauls)
• A 2×4, ripped roughly in half for caul stock
• Useful lengths about 16″ and 24″ for most cabinet / case work; cut longer for wide panels
• Optional: wax or packing tape on the caul face so glue doesn’t stick

Tools

• Tablesaw or bandsaw (rip the 2×4; cut to length)
• Handplane (blend the camber; knock off sharp corners)
• Bar or pipe clamps — one at each end of the caul
• Straightedge or dry-fit scrap to check pressure before glue

Steps

1. Rip and cut stock. Rip a fir 2×4 roughly in half. Cut cauls about 16″ or 24″ long for typical case work; go longer when the panel or joint spans wider (Rogowski).
2. Lay out the camber. Mark the midpoint as the high spot. From that center, taper each end down about ⅛″ to ¼″ — that drop at the ends is the camber (Rogowski).
3. Plane the blend. Handplane a smooth crown from the high middle down to both ends. Knock off sharp corners that could dig into the work.
4. Orient the face. Put the convex (high) face toward the workpiece. Flat or concave face down is the common miss — you’ll recreate the flat-caul bow problem.
5. Clamp the ends only. Set clamps at both ends of the caul. As they close, the camber flattens and drives pressure into the middle — across a mid-case dado, a scarf glue-up, or a panel that needs to stay flat.
6. Dry-fit, then glue. Test pressure on a dry joint first. Too much curve → plane the middle flatter. Not enough mid-span squeeze → increase the end taper a hair and try again (Rogowski). Then glue for real.

MOAM’s shop note: Biggest mistake is putting the flat face down — then you’re back to a bowing bar that lifts in the middle. Second mistake is over-cambering: a monster crown can dent soft stock or refuse to flatten before you over-clamp. Start in the ⅛″–¼″ end-drop range, dry-fit, and sneak up on it. Wax or tape the caul face so tomorrow’s cleanup isn’t chiseling fir off your case side.

MOAM Out.

Boston Sports Morning Report — Tuesday, Sept. 29

 

Not for nuthin'…. But….. October just showed up on Causeway and in the Bronx on the same night.

Short version: Sox open the Wild Card in Yankee Stadium at 8; Bruins drop the puck on Opening Night at the Garden at 8; Pats lick wounds and look at Buffalo; Celtics still on the preseason clock.

New England Patriots

• Yesterday: No game
• Today: No game
• Next: Sun, Oct. 4 — 1:00 PM ET — @ Buffalo Bills (CBS)
• Standings: 1-2 · 3rd in AFC East (Jets also 1-2 sit 2nd on tiebreak); Buffalo 3-0 leads by two

Quiet after that Jacksonville beatdown. The next test is Orchard Park next Sunday at 1 on CBS — 3-0 Bills waiting.

Boston Red Sox

• Yesterday: No game — regular season finished 87-75
• Today: Tue, Sept. 29 — 8:00 PM ET — @ New York Yankees, AL Wild Card Game 1 (NBC / Peacock)
• Next: Wed, Sept. 30 — 8:00 PM ET — WC Game 2 at Yankee Stadium (NBC / Peacock); Game 3 Thu Oct. 1 if necessary
• Standings: 87-75 · 3rd in AL East · AL Wild Card #5

Playoff baseball is back, and it’s the Yankees again — best-of-three, all in the Bronx. Payton Tolle gets the ball in Game 1. Stay loud.

Boston Celtics

• Yesterday / Today: No games
• Next (preseason): Thu, Oct. 8 — 7:00 PM ET — @ Cleveland Cavaliers
• Regular-season opener: Tue, Oct. 20 — 3:00 PM ET — @ Detroit Pistons
• Status: Preseason / 2026-27 not started. Last season: 56-26, 2nd in the East.

Still quiet on the parquet. Preseason tip is a little over a week out.

Boston Bruins

• Yesterday: No game
• Today (regular-season opener): Tue, Sept. 29 — 8:00 PM ET — vs New York Rangers (ESPN)
• Next: Fri, Oct. 2 — 8:00 PM ET — @ Winnipeg Jets
• Status: Opening Night. Last season: 45-27-10.

Real hockey is here. Rangers at TD Garden, 8 on ESPN. Don’t miss Opening Night.

That’s the Tuesday board, folks. Sox and B’s both under the lights at 8. Stay loud.

MOAM Out.

Canada Import Ban: Real Leverage or Midterm Theater?

This is catching the MOAM's attention today…..

At 12:01 a.m. this morning, the United States slammed the door on nearly $1 billion of Canadian imports. Beer, wine, whisky, cider and the rest of the liquor cabinet. Whey and other dairy byproducts. Molasses. And motorcycles, including those Can-Am three-wheelers you see on summer roads.

How did we get here? Over the summer, the White House dusted off a Great Depression-era law to slap 50% tariffs on about $20 billion of Canadian goods. Ottawa answered dollar for dollar. Today's ban is the punishment for answering back.

Let's be fair to the President's side of the ledger. Canada's dairy walls are real. Ottawa has fenced out American milk with quotas and sky-high over-quota tariffs for decades. And when most provinces yanked American bourbon and wine off their liquor store shelves, that wasn't a tariff. That was a boycott. You don't have to love this fight to admit Canada threw punches too.

The numbers, though, tell you what kind of fight this is. The American Action Forum pegs the ban at about $967 million, based on 2025 imports. Roughly 87% of that is alcohol. Against $880 billion in yearly two-way trade, the AP calls it "barely a ripple." One Holland & Knight trade lawyer says the 50% tariffs were already acting as a "de facto ban" on most of this stuff.

So who feels it? Not Ottawa. Canada's trade office shrugged this morning and said it's focused on "diversifying our partnerships abroad." Prime Minister Carney is courting the European Union, India and even China. And BRP says most of this season's Can-Am Spyders and Canyons already shipped, so the real pinch lands next year, on American dealers.

Meanwhile, the President told reporters Monday the Canadians are "gonna come in and they're gonna say, 'Sir, we are sorry.'" Maybe. That same trade lawyer expects the standoff to run months, not weeks. And renewing USMCA, the deal Trump himself once called the most balanced in history, just slid further onto thin ice.

Here's where it gets local. Canada is New England's largest trading partner. Massachusetts brings in roughly $10.6 billion of Canadian goods a year, about a quarter of all our imports. Vermont's governor says the summer tariffs "immediately shut down" the stream of Canadian visitors. Our package stores, cafés and small shops don't get a vote in Washington or Ottawa. They just get a thinner shelf and a higher invoice.

And timing matters. Massachusetts heating oil just hit $6.15 a gallon, up 74% from a year ago. The head of the state's fuel dealers' group says truckers are "up in arms" over diesel at $8-plus. Banning Canadian beer and protein-powder whey doesn't take a dime off those bills. Energy, by the way, was left off the tariff list. That tells you Washington knows exactly where the real pain would be.

So the MOAM's question: leverage, or midterm theater? Leverage means the other side has a reason to fold. Five weeks before Election Day, a ban the numbers call a ripple, aimed at a neighbor busy lining up new customers, looks more like a show for the cameras than a win you'll feel at the register.

Stand up to Canada on dairy? Sure. But bring home a deal. North Shore voters will judge this at the checkout line, not the podium.

MOAM Out.

Sources

• AP via Boston Globe: "From motorcycles to booze, US ban on $1 billion worth of Canadian imports goes into effect" (Sept. 29, 2026)
• American Action Forum: "U.S.-Canada Trade Interdependence"
• CBC News: U.S. bans on Canadian motorcycle, dairy, alcohol products take effect (Sept. 29, 2026)
• Proclamation 11061 (alcohol import ban), American Presidency Project
• Globe and Mail: "BRP to feel hit from U.S. ban on Canadian motorcycles"
• Boston Globe: "Canada tariffs: Massachusetts will feel effect" (Aug. 24, 2026)
• Boston Globe: Massachusetts imports $10.6B in Canadian goods annually (Nov. 24, 2025)
• Boston Globe: Vermont Gov. Phil Scott on Canadian visitors (Aug. 10, 2026)
• GBH News: "Expect high heating prices and volatility this winter" (Sept. 23, 2026)