We have a soft spot for strange local news stories around here, even when they’re not about sports. The latest great one comes from Matt Shearer of Boston CBS Radio affiliate WBZ. Shearer’s segment on the closing of one of three Market Basket (a New England supermarket chain) locations on Boston Road in Middlesex County town Billerica, a segment originally featured on WBZ’s TikTok channel, got spotlighted by NBC’s Ben Collins on Twitter as “the most Massachusetts news report of all time”:
The most Massachusetts news report of all time.
(By @mattwbz) pic.twitter.com/TmZsmsOfxU
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) June 14, 2022
Look, this is a fun segment in the first place, especially with the repeated references to these all being on Boston Road and with the end reveal that Shearer is reporting “From the mechanical horse in front of Market Basket.” But the true highlight of this is interviewee Carl (seen above) at 0:31, who says “I don’t like change. I tell my kids the dinosaurs didn’t become extinct by accident, they saw the future and said, ‘Screw this, let’s go to the tar pit.'”
You never know how serious interviewees are being in vox pops, and those man-on-the-street interviews have led to many absurd situations over the years (especially at championship celebrations). And there’s a good chance that Carl here was at least partly playing this for effect. But even with that, the idea of dinosaurs thinking “Screw this, let’s go to the tar pit” over the closing of one of three Market Baskets on Boston Road in Billerica is incredible.
[WBZ on TikTok]
