Can’t believe it’s already the middle of February…the future really is now!

But what I mean by the title of this post is that south shore live is broadcasting live on the internet each week! Yes, yes, I know what you’re thinking – we can already hear the show streaming live on 959watd.com. But it gets better. You can now see us stream on USTREAM TV!! Not only can you hear us but you can see us too!  Woohoo!!

So check out our USTREAM station on Mondays from 8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. You can join the conversation with the chat feature too!

South Shore Live on USTREAM: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/south-shore-live

Tucking in for the winter?  You’re not the only one pulling in your herbs, drawing in your curtains, locking up your home, burying yourself under blankets, hiding inside leg warmers, cozying up with hot toddies and warm soups and generally retreating.

We all have our own hibernation rituals. And here’s a few more ideas for the hibernators in all of us.

1.  HIDE AT HOME & SHOP ONLINE. Of course you might visit the usual suspects this xmas like ebay.com and overstock.com.  or you might want to try these deal-at-home sites:

> woot.com who bills themselves as cool stuff cheap! (woot gets over 2 million hits according to compete.com)

> biglots.com claiming to be the nation’s largest broadline closeout retailer

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Last week’s show was all about Norwell and we had so many folks to talk to…it’s spilled over into this week. Who knew this little town could be so interesting?

And we rummaged online for sites with Norwell kudos!

1. Heard of the site  FamousWhy? Like the name suggests you can look anyone up and get the skinny on their fame. And guess what famous person we found for Norwell? Jeff Corwin, animal extraordinaire and host of The Animal Planet.  Compete.com gives it an average of 437,000 visitors a month. And we give Jeff a “10″ for being such an adorable animal lover and a native Norwellian.
2. Does the name Earl Cogswell sounds famous? not yet, but it could be. The Norwell resident turned inventor, when he built the first Tank Nanny. And we found him online. No more tipping propane tanks all summer long. (I usually wedge my between the middle backseat and the floor, then wrestle to set it free). This former Sullivan Tire manager made his invention a Norwell family affair!
3. there are 1,100 meet-up groups within 25 miles of Norwell including the Dog hikers group, the knitters group and the past regression group. What’s a meet-up you say? It’s a group of folks like you and me, who come together around an interest (and businesses who see the commercial power), then socialize online about it and of course “meet-up”. You can create your own meet-up too.  It all happens at Meetup.com. Compete gives it an average of 2.9 million visitors a month. Geeez! Where have we all been?
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I’ve managed to make it 37 years without ever writing the word Boobs. But today not only am I writing it, but it’s for a good cause.  This week the virtual view went looking for the best breast resources online. Here’s what we found:

• A Bunch of Outrageous Breast Cancer Survivor stories [aka B.O.O.O.B.S.].  This book, which you can buy on Amazon.com is chock full of amazing survivor stories.

• BreastCancer.Org This nonprofit raises breast cancer awareness. The site contains must know breast cancer information for patients, families, and anyone interested in learning more about breast cancer.

• We also found a lot of survivors needed laughter in their lives, to help them get through it. That suddenly everything turns serious and people stop joking with you. Here’s one survivor who wrote a book about humor & healing. It’s called Not Now I’m Having a No Hair Day. Check it out on Amazon.com.

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This week the virtual web surfing is all about Braintree (where I actually lived for 6 years on Hollis Avenue). And I guess now that I’ve Googled the heck out of the town…I can sum it up with 3 names:  Silk, Sacco & Thayer. Read on and you’ll get the gist.

Of course, the first thing that popped into my head was the Sacco and Vanzetti case.  Remember these guys? They were two Italian-born laborers and anarchists who were tried, convicted and executed via electrocution on August 23, 1927 in Massachusetts for the 1920 armed robbery and murder of a pay-clerk and a security guard in Braintree, Massachusetts.  In April 2010, Braintree will host a 3-day event for the 90th anniversary of the murder of the 2 payroll clerks Federick Parmenter and Alessadandro Berardell. The day will include a mock trial form the day. (thank you Jim Regan! from BELD).

Worth noting that robberied in Braintree are way down according to CityRating, a great place to catch the city stats for crime, school,etc.

Speaking of the law, whether you are in Braintree and any other city and town in Massachusetts, there are a few dumb laws still on the books that could technically land you in jail. Here is a great list that made us roll on the floor. Check out the dumblaws website.

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After you’ve picked thirty bushels of apple. You’ve baked them, mashed them, cooked them and eaten them with peanut butter or cheese, then you might move onto pumpkins, maybe a few spooky venues. But once you get bored of those, here are some unique Fall-time activities:

1. Wolf Hollow – odd, sexy and dangerous. Watch wolves in their natural habitat. Learn about them, see them run in packs. This one of kind location is a perfect Fall activity. Just bundle up in a blanket and sit and watch them. It’s located in Ipswich. It’s open every weekend and it’s less than $10 a person to get in.  Children $5.

2. The Center Church Crypt – Connecticut is probably not high on your list of great Goolish places to visit this October, but it should be.  Here, there is a fascinating crypt tucked away in the subterranean underworld of the Center Church, where you can see tombstones dating back as far as 1687.The crypt that is tucked away beneath Center Church holds the identifiable remains of 137 people, among them city founder Theophilus Eaton; Benedict Arnold’s first wife, Margaret Arnold; James Pierpont, one of the founders of Yale College; and the grandparents of U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes. It is believed that about 1,000 unidentified individuals are also buried beneath the church. (more…)

Sure we could list all the fruit and veggies you can pick in Carver, but what fun would that be? The real fun is the stuff we found underground in Carver – for the eager and the doomed — the stuff you might not know about this cranberry & iron town unless you’ve unearthed it “virtually.”

#1 Like, did you know…. Carver has its own Marylin Monroe celebrity impersonator. She goes by the name Memory Monroe and she really looks the part. We found her on GigSalad. What’s GigSalad? nearly 50,000 unique visitors stop by every month to find an entertainer for their next event. Check it out. And don’t forget to see the picture of Memory Monroe and tell us what you think. Does she look the part?

#2 And you know we had to look for Carver ghosts sightings online.  And you know we found some. On Ghosts in America, a site that got nearly 60,000 unique visitors last week. How do we know that. We looked it up on Compete.com. A great site to check our the strength of a site including your competitor’s sites. My favorites ghosts are the fishing ghosts and for your Twi fans, the vampire near the river and the lady in the canoe.  See the list of ghosts sightings or report your own Carver spirit.

#3 And if you’re not brave enough to fly solo on your paranormal adventure, you can hire a paranormal team out of Carver to go on a real ghost hunt. The Dead of Night Ghost Tour in Carver promises you an overnight in the haunted john Alden House where you’ll learn the tools of the trade on a professional ghost hunt.

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Tonight the virtual view heads away from the South Shore and roams freely out into the world wide web. My mission? all that is good for you (including a few things that you probably didn’t want to know…but are still good for you anyway). are our top 5 favorites:

5. Complete Running Network. This blog covers training, injury treatment and prevention, equipment, motivation, racing and more. They’ve created a Running Blog Family, which they claim is the most comprehensive list of running blogs (1037). That’s a lot of blogs!

4. Delish – a great food recipe site that offers a section on Healthy Comfort Food Makeovers.

3. The Real Age Test – we already know our birth age and many of us can guess our mental age (I’m about 8 years old most days)…but do you know your biological age – the age your body really is due to wear and tear (aka “on the inside”)? This quick test will give you the answer. Don’t be shy…go for it. And for those brave souls who do, share it here with your comments (you can keep your number secret).

2. Feline Cat Diet – this amazing cat miracle diet will have you laughing on the floor in stitches.  It’s a joke of course, but one of the funniest things I’ve ever read, especially if you know anything about cats.  Read it and tell us what you think.

1. The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl: Shauna, a.k.a. Dietgirl, chronicles her own personal journey so that other dieters know they are not alone in the process, and that no matter how difficult or easy an article may make losing weight sound, the journey for each individual is different.

If you know of a great healthy site that you love or laugh about – post it here and share with our audience.

Well, one things is for sure, folks in Cohasset love their town. I stopped counting the word “love” at number eighteen. On every twitter page, youtube comment and facebook. Folks here are passionate about the town’s beauty, charm and location.

So here’s our picks from last week on the Virtual View in Cohasset:

1. Wikipedia of course. Our fun fact was that 25% of Cohasset is land and 75% is water. The town was incorporated in 1775 and….

2. YouTube pick – a boy, a girl and their dog Lucky present a “Day in Cohasset“. It’s amazing what a camcorder and a sense of humor can bring. They stopped at all the locations for filming of the Witches of Eastwick.

3. NEW pick – For anyone who loves to bike, find all the best bike routes in Cohasset on a site called MapMyRide. I found 16 in Cohasset….

See ya next week in Plymouth!

This past Monday was our fifth week on 95.9 WATD, South Shore Live – the show that tells you where to go, who to know and what to do on the south shore. So far on the Virtual View, we’ve talked about tweeting, creative ways to use blogs sites, Wikipedia, email alerts and fun things happening online in the South Shore.

This week, we traveled to Scituate, Massachusetts [aka the Irish Riviera and my hometown] and we talked facebook and Yelp. Why? Because there’s this sub shop called Maria’s Sandwich Shop on Front Street in Scituate, Ma who’s fans are so devoted they’ve created not 1, but 2 facebook accounts with nearly 1000 loyal followers. They also have 4.5 stars on Yelp, the largest online customer review hub. (more…)