Keller @ Large: Top Local Turkeys Of 2018
BOSTON (CBS) -- It's been fun the last two days going over our picks for the biggest pop-culture and national turkeys of 2018. But now things get real and close to home as we count down the top local turkeys of the year, some of which are the unwanted gifts that keep on giving:
Columbia Gas
From a public relations perspective, a press conference held by Gov. Charlie Baker and Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera early on in the Merrimack Valley gas-explosion disaster must have been the worst nightmare possible for Columbia Gas executives.
"It became clear to us that Columbia Gas was simply inadequately prepared," said the governor as he announced the company was being stripped of oversight over the recovery effort. Added Rivera: "The least-informed and the last to act has been Columbia Gas."
In the crisis management classes of the future, the Columbia Gas reaction to the fiasco will be a case study in how *not* to handle things. No plan, no answers, no clue.
Columbia Gas may survive the lawsuits and federal probe, but they'll never live down their turkey-like response.
The Red Sox parade beer-tossers
From the thrill of victory to the agony of idiocy, the Red Sox victory parade was marred by the decision of alleged fans to throw full cans of beer at our heroes as they rode by on the duck boats.
Sox manager Alex Cora and his daughter were struck by a beer. Cora was gracious about it later, quipping: "I just gotta be ready to make that play next time."
But someone could have been badly hurt. Mookie Betts was nearly brained by another beer missile.
Red Sox nation could do without turkey fans like these.
Steve Wynn
Remember when the casino mogul blew into town, fast-talking the locals and bamboozling the Gaming Commission into giving him the coveted Greater Boston casino license? Now he's gone, a victim of his own allegedly improper sexual conduct. Collateral damage includes commission Chair Steve Crosby, who stepped down amid the fallout from the disaster.
Wynn is suing his old company and the commission to prevent the release of the investigatory report the commission conducted to make up for their prior due-diligence failures, and former competitors for the license are also suing. And as the lawsuits pile up, you wonder if Wynn's sins will leave us with a giant white elephant in Everett?
Local turkeys
State officials estimate there are up to 30,000 wild turkeys statewide, and this year it seems they're more brazen than ever.
It's one thing when they stay in their pens and fatten up for Thanksgiving. They are tasty, no question.
But the streets are crawling with wild turkeys these days, pecking at your tires, chasing people down the street, and leaving their calling card behind. The president may, by tradition, pardon a couple of turkeys every Thanksgiving. But we're not in a pardoning mood.
That said - Happy Thanksgiving to all!