Peter Gay: Some random thoughts on Hump Day

Happy hump day, everyone!

That’s right, you will now find my weekly column on a new day, hump day Wednesday.

I use the phrase hump day often but never knew its origin until I looked it up in preparing this column.

Multiple websites give credit to Roy Mann while standing around a water cooler at a Dupont Chemical plant back in the early 1960s. More than a decade later, J.J. Cale wrote a song “Friday” where the lyrics included the words hump day.

Bring that fact up the next time you’re sitting at the end of a bar and someone is likely to mistake you for Cliff Clavin.

It’s time to get to work. Here are six opinions for the page of the same name:

 Thank God no one was seriously hurt when sophomores were forced to box each other at the August King Philip Regional High School football preseason camp in Maine.

I agree with the editorial this paper published on Oct. 3 stating the single-game suspension served by head coach Brian Lee was too lenient. I also believe the upperclassmen responsible for the hazing incident should have been suspended.

 Hats off to the school committee members in Foxboro who had the courage to do away with the Washington Redskins logo used by the high school’s athletic program. A number of high schools, the former Coyle-Cassidy comes to mind, kept the Warriors name while eliminating Native American imagery.

This would be the perfect time for Foxboro to become the Patriots. After all, the men and women who fought for our freedom from Great Britain were certainly Warriors. I’m sure Bob Kraft might even fund the costs of replacing the old logo with the new Patriot logo.

 I am as nostalgic as the next person, probably more, but North Attleboro’s Community Field is no longer a great place to host a high school football game.

On the positive side, fans are closer to the action than anywhere else the Red Rocketeers play games, give the players a chance to play on natural grass and it’s an opportunity to play on the same field their dads once played.

On the negative side, I’ve seen a number of older fans fall when trying to navigate the home stands, parents of the visiting teams have to stand in the bleachers on their side of the field in order to see over the players on their bench, the lights are inadequate and the lack of room between the sideline on the home side of the field and the paved walkway is dangerous.

Yes, the seats at the refurbished Beaupre Field at the high school are farther away but the facility is far superior, especially when the new scoreboard is in place next season and is showing North TV replays.

 Timothy Allard’s guest essay on Oct. 11 was alarming. (”Sturdy’s poor financial situation should be a concern to all.”)

Regular readers of this newspaper know I’m a big proponent of Sturdy Memorial Hospital. I credit the proximity of our local hospital for the reason my mother survived a stroke when she was in her mid-50s and lived a productive life for another 30 years.

I was born at Sturdy, have had multiple surgeries and procedures over the past 64 years and find it comforting that the people taking care of me are local, many of whom I know.

Is the hospital on strong financial footing? Is there a chance it could be sold to a for-profit chain?

This is an invitation for Sturdy President and CEO Aimee Brewer and Board Chair John Korona to sit down with me on the North TV set to discuss our local hospital’s financial position and future. I would share the interview with my colleagues in communities Sturdy serves and allow a Sun Chronicle reporter to sit in on the interview to share the discussion with you.

 I didn’t realize the state’s right-to-shelter law has been in place for 40 years until I looked it up on Friday. I also didn’t know Massachusetts is the only state required by law to shelter unhoused families.

One might think that after four decades state officials would be in a better position to handle the current migrant crisis. Sending families to hotels in cities and towns with little or no notice to the officials in those communities is irresponsible.

Maura Healey is lucky the next gubernatorial election is three years away.

 I was disappointed when I read and heard people blaming the Biden administration for the Hamas attack on Israel. International experts I saw on television were all surprised the Israeli intelligence community was caught off guard, especially since the recent attack occurred on the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

Israeli intelligence officials were clearly unprepared for the latest offensive. One could blame the White House if Benjamin Netanyahu had notified the president that there was an impending threat and it was ignored.

That wasn’t the case.