And October alchemy

“Earthly Alchemy’’ (encaustic monotype, ink, pencil, oil pastel on Kitakata), by Worcester-based painter Donna Hamil Talman.

Warner Memorial Theater, at Worcester Academy. Opened in 1932, it was designed by Drew Eberson. The prep school’s famous alumni include computer/lyricist Cole Porter.

‘Compulsory cannibalism’ needed

Abbie Hoffman in 1989

“I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they killed, there would be no more wars.’’

— Abbot Howard Hoffman, better known as Abbie Hoffman, a famous/infamous American political and social activist/agitator who co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies") and was a member of the Chicago Seven. He was also a leading proponent of the Flower Power movement. You could also call him transitional figure between the Beat Generation and the Hippies.

He grew up in Worcester, where as a student, he was a troublemaker who started fights, played pranks, vandalized school property and called teachers by their first names. In his second year, Hoffman was expelled from Classical High School, a now-closed public high school in Worcester where, as an atheist, he wrote a paper declaring that, "God could not possibly exist, for if he did, there wouldn't be any suffering in the world." The teacher ripped up the paper and called him "a Communist punk." Hoffman then assaulted the teacher until he was restrained and then was thrown out of the school. On June 3, 1954, 17-year-old Hoffman was arrested, for the first of many times, in this case for for driving without a license. After his expulsion from the public high school, he attended Worcester Academy (the alma mater of, of all people, Cole Porter). He graduated in 1955, and then went on to Brandeis University, In Waltham, Mass.

He died of an apparently accidental drug overdose, leaving an FBI file on him totaling 13,262 pages

Cannibalism in Brazil engraving by Theodor de Bry to illustrate Hans Staden's account of his captivity in 1557