Dave Harrity, Mike Casey and Mike Palumbo of Mulligan Stew (Winthrop Handy photo)

This year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade along Park Ave. on March 13 will mark a busy weekend and a busy month for the local Irish band Mulligan Stew; less so for Debra Donovan, who fell a couple of hundred votes (dollars) short in her bid to beat out the three-man group for mayor of the event.

Mulligan Stew raised approximately $6,600.

Donovan vows to try again after what she termed “the closest contest ever” for the honor. And next time she’ll enlist the services of not only bars and other businesses in the Canal District, including Fiddler’s Green, but of Clarence Plant. Plant is a previous “Mayor of the Parade” winner and the only one so far who hasn’t been hoisted to victory on the shoulders on patrons of the Press Box on Lincoln St.

For 2011, it will be Dave Harrity, Mike Casey and Mike Palumbo of Mulligan Stew “blowing the whistle to get the whole thing started” and then marching the entire length of the route before heading to O’Connor’s for their usual St. Patrick’s Day gig there, Harrity said.

“From mid-February till the end of March we’re all over the darn place,” he said. That’s because Mulligan Stew has established its niche in the Irish music world over the past twenty years at establishments like The Old Timer in Clinton and O’Connor’s, the Press Box and Biagio’s in Worcester, and by way of private parties. Harrity plays the mandolin and guitar, Casey the guitar and Palumbo the keyboards; all of them sing.

Their affiliation with the Press Box is rock-solid. Harrity is glad it’s that way because the Lyons family of the Press Box “does a ton of charity work,” he said. “Once you’ve been nominated for mayor of the parade you realize it’s not about you but about charity.”

This year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade will feature the usual assortment of fire trucks, unicyclists, marching bands, elected officials and candy throwers. It will also feature, for the first time, a 5K road race, according to Parade Chairman Steve Trainor. The run will start and end at Elm Park, partly to build up a crowd there for the end of the parade, Trainor said. More than six hundred runners have already signed up for the event, one of three in “The Tour de Patrick” being organized by a race director out of Providence. First there’s “the Irish 5K” in Woonsocket the weekend before Worcester’s, then “our Celtic 5K,” Trainor says, and then the “St. Patrick’s 5K” in Providence on March 20^th.

“Big Joe’s Nightside” is a new twist for Finally Big Joe’s, on Shrewsbury St. (Rod Lee photo)

Finally Big Joe’s on Shrewsbury Street is a dinner destination with the introduction of “Big Joe’s Nightside”—courtesy of Owner Joe Gerardi. A hub for the lunch crowd since opening in 1999, Finally Big Joe’s added Saturday evenings to the mix for the first time in late September. The resulting transformation of the place from a daytime deli to a nighttime date spot is startling to behold; it’s like seeing Clark Kent one minute and Superman the next.

Linen tablecloths, poinsettias (for the holidays), candles and plates of steaming Chicken Picatta and Veal Parmesan will do that for you. So will a friendly and attentive wait staff. But there’s something else: Doo Wop music. “People are going crazy over Doo Wop on CDs,” Big Joe said. The sounds of The Crests, Danny & The Juniors or The Chordettes wafting lightly across the dining room from a small CD player seemed as if it was being well-received by patrons when Inside Worcester visited Big Joe’s Nightside on a frosty evening in mid-December.

Big Joe’s Nightside is a BYOB affair brought to the city from 5:00 to 10:00 on Saturday evenings by the Gerardi family with an able assist from a family friend and first-class cook, Steve Baroni. Finally Big Joe’s: Lunch daily (except Sundays), catering, and now Big Joe’s Nightside.

Worcester Regional Flight Academy Flight Instructor Bill Allen and student David Thacker of Worcester prepare to go airborne for another lesson. (Rod Lee photo)

Anyone who thinks Worcester Regional Airport hasn’t taken on a new and more vigorous life should take a second look.

There is of course the presence of Direct Air with flights south that have proven popular. Paul Gunnerson of the Tatnuck Neighborhood Association tells us that at the recent annual meeting of the TNA, newly elected 13^th Worcester District State Rep. John Mahoney won the door prize: round-trip air fare on Direct Air. This is not an uncommon occurrence; Direct Air has been assertive and generous in gaining favor with the public here.

There is also the food and bar concession for travelers being run by Joe and Diane Louis of Le Mirage Café. The Louis’s service, Le Mirage Express, is attracting patrons.

Add to this mix the Worcester Regional Flight Academy, which has been operating out of the Swissport building at the airport since early May, and it becomes obvious that the long-underutilized airport is on the path to a brighter future.

The flight school is a small but growing family business whose principals are Bill, Debra and George Allen. Allen Aviation LLC knows what it’s doing in the sky and on the ground. A big reason for this is Flight Instructor Bill Allen, a mild-mannered former HVAC technician specializing in supermarket refrigeration who got bitten by the flying bug more than thirty years ago. He holds instrument and commercial licenses and has been teaching for twelve years or so.

Allen uses two planes that are leased, a Cessna Skyhawk and a Piper Warrior. He puts his students at ease and emphasizes to them that learning to fly is no more difficult than learning to ride a motorcycle or horse, or learning scuba diving. “It’s like anything; it can be complicated or simple. It’s what you make of it; one step at a time,” he says.

The Allens’ masterful promotion of their flight school is paying dividends. They offer flight training financing (“you can earn your wings with affordable monthly payments”). They are reaching out to colleges and universities as partners in flight education (Becker College has already shown interest). They recently held an open house. They have developed a partnership with Bill Simonic of Yankee Cricket Bed & Breakfast in Brimfield for “Fly, Dine & Stay” packages. They collaborate with Worcester Airport Limousine.

They have also launched an Aviation Discovery Club for kids age 12-17. The club meets the second Saturday of the month.

For the Allens, and their flight school, the sky’s the limit.

Even without special guest Ayla Brown, an event dubbed “Stepping Out for Arts” at the Hanover Theatre on October 29 would have been a huge success. The “fusion of musical, theatrical, dance and art performances” by the Burncoat Quadrant Performance & Visual Arts departments was that good.
Of course it is always a treat to experience the Hanover, which continues to fulfill the vision that Paul Demoga and Ed Madaus had in mind when they spearheaded a massive rehabilitation of the then-dormant and largely forgotten former movie theater several years ago.

Ayla Brown waves to the audience as she and the entire cast wrap up “Absolutely Everybody”—the finale of “Stepping Out for Arts” at the Hanover Theatre. (Rod Lee photo)

Brown certainly added luster to the proceedings. The 2005 American Idol semifinalist and now national recording artist wrapped up Act I with a song entitled “My Favorite Part,” which, if we heard her correctly from loge seats in the balcony, was recorded at Reba McIntyre’s studio. “I’ve gone Country!” Brown, who has the long legs and height of the WNBA player she could have been, told the audience.

She also concluded the evening with “Absolutely Everybody,” and was joined in that endeavor by the entire cast from Worcester Arts Magnet School, Burncoat Middle School and Burncoat High School. How proud WAMS Principal Susan O’Neil, BMS Principal and Assistant Principal Lisa Houlihan and Cheryl St. Onge and BHS Principal William Foley must have been! Not to mention members of the Board of Directors of Support Our Fine Arts (SOFA) in attendance.

Brown’s donation of her time to the show should not be taken lightly. She is a busy young woman. Following the event, she was scheduled to travel to southwest Asia to entertain troops stationed there.

And she was as impressed with the talent assembled on stage as any person in the crowd. “These are the most amazing young people I’ve ever worked with,” she said.

From the opening number—“Grease, a new Broadway medley” by the WAMS Chrous—right on through to “The King of Pop (Man in the Mirror, I’ll be There, Thriller)” by the BHS Orchestra to “I Wanna be a Rockette” and “Whatever Lola Wants” by the BMS and BHS Dance department, the production rocked, prompting thunderous applause.

Watching, enthralled, more than one viewer must have thought, “our faith in the kids of today” is restored!

First day of school. First communion. First kiss. First job. First taste of BlackJack chewing gum. There is something about that first of anything that sticks in the craw long afterward.

Worcester Sharks Coach Roy Sommer is no different than anyone else in recalling memorable “firsts” in his hockey life, as the Sharks prepare to host the Providence Bruins in their AHL home opener on October 23^rd. The Sharks will be wearing their new teal uniforms for the occasion, hence their freshly coined nickname for their residence: “Teal Town.”

“I remember the first time I got to go behind the bench in the National Hockey League,” Sommer said during a break in a Sharks practice on ice shrouded in fog from the humidity that filled the DCU Center on the morning of September 30^th. “It was with Daryl Sutter, who was coach of the San Antonio team at that time. After all my years in the game, to come out of the East Coast Hockey League to experience that, it was pretty special.

“Coaching-wise, it would have to be an opener in Cleveland when I was with the Cleveland Barons,” he said. “We were down 6-5, tied the game with thirty seconds left and then one of our guys went end-to-end in overtime to win it for us 7-6.”

“Every home opener is a pretty exciting experience for us players, who’ve been working hard all summer,” Defenseman Matt Irwin of Brentwood Bay, British Columbia, said. “My freshman year at UMass-Amherst, I missed the home opener due to injury but in my first college game my parents came and I had a goal versus BU.”

“Opening night at home, there’s always a bigger crowd, it’s louder and more exciting. The guys are already looking forward to it,” said Forward Dan DaSilva of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, one of the Sharks’ most popular players. “And Providence is our big rival.”

Goaltender Alex Stalock of South St. Paul, Minnesota, who is starting his second year with the Sharks (he played collegiately at the University of Minnesota at Duluth), said, “you train for three months and finally a game comes. Everyone is amped up for (the home opener).”

The Sharks organization certainly is psyched. Festivities for the home opener will include a pregame lobby party (at 5:30 p.m.) featuring face painting, games and raffles. The first 3,000 fans in will receive a Worcester Sharks rally towel presented by Price Chopper. The Sharks will debut their new fifth-anniversary teal jerseys. And their Atlantic Division banner will be raised.

Who could ask for more?

The puck drops at 7:00 p.m.