Beverly gets horrible

Everyone loves a parade, right? So why are people in Gloucester so upset by the July 4 so-called Horribles Parade in nearby Beverly?

Aha! Might it have something to do with the floats mocking the teen pregnancy rate in Gloucester? Read about it here, in the Globe.

As we all (around here, at least) know by now, Gloucester's rate of teen pregnancy has shot up dramatically (four times the 2007 number of pregnant girls), and it was reported in Time magazine that it was the result of a "pregnancy pact" between some high school girls.

Everything except the jump in teen pregnancy at the high school has been disputed by various Gloucester officials since the city hit the big-market media last month.

What's almost as interesting (if you're at all interested in inter-city disputes) is that the editor of the CNC paper The Beverly Citizen shot video of the Beverly parade and put it on YouTube.

(Sorry, you're going to have to go to YouTube to see it - I'm not clear on whether uploading it violates my blogging agreement not to upload obscene video.)

On a side note, this editor, Dan MacAlpine, was one of the few people in the CNC office who ever actually spoke to me ...

Some of the floats were kind of lewd, and I guess even some Beverly citizens were not thrilled since teens were throwing packaged condoms into the crowd and one float had a ... well, a giant phallus projecting out the back, spewing liquid (water, I assume).

Ummm .... so ... it was a 'Horribles' parade, so I guess the participants took it literally.

But should Gloucester take offense? Yeah, I'd say so. It's a shame that the Beverly teens could not have contributed something a little more meaningful and not quite so tasteless.

A fellow editor at CNC/Gatehouse media, David Rogers, wonders on his blog whether MacAlpine will take heat for putting the vid on YouTube. (You can also see the entire video on this blog.)