
One part of the Week 5 assignment was to look for something interesting about our hometown using WebFeat. The first problem was defining a hometown. My closest approximation is two towns in the same general part of Massachusetts: Walpole, where I was born, and Plainville, where I spent my teen years. Walpole is probably best known for the notorious Walpole State Prison, and I found references to Willie Horton, whose crimes after escaping from prison provided the campaign fodder for George Bush to defeat Michael Dukakis, as well as Albert DeSalvo, the self-confessed Boston Strangler, who died at the hands of a fellow inmate. Plainville was and is much quieter. It lies between the jewelry manufacturing centered around Attleboro and the high-tech Route 128 corridor near Boston. A current resident was recently granted a patent for a Network Fault Correction Apparatus, while Price-It featured some antique jewelry pieces manufactured by the Plainville Stock Co., in business since 1896 and still a viable company. I used to pass by its two-story brick building on the way home from school. The image is of a victorian gargoyle pin from the Plainville Stock Co. Having been somewhat involved in the implementation of WebFeat, I thought I knew how to use it but ran into several frustrations when Gale kept telling me I had been successfully logged out.
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