(Alder)Men Just Wanna Have Fun

Could be his strong competitive nature – after all, Alderman Dan Moriarty is a successful triathlete. But who knew he was also a bit of an apple slingshot ringer?

This became clear at the Salvation Army Applefest on Oct. 12, where Moriarty was enthusiastically coaching his kids on how to get the best launch from the Apple Slingshot.

"Pull it down to the ground," Moriarty instructed, explaining that's how to get the highest and longest trajectory. He even helped anchor one of his daughters to the ground so she could stretch the bungee-cord slingshot to the max.

He then explained that the slingshot was actually what drew him to Applefest this year – with all the other fun stuff coming in a close second.

"We spent a lot of time doing this back in college – when we weren't doing homework," said Moriarty, an MIT grad. 

Then he unleashed his inner engineer, pointing out that oranges actually "fly" better than apples, because they're dimpled.

"Like golf balls," Moriarty said. "And off the record, when an orange hits a window, the orange breaks. When an apple hits a window, the window breaks."

Sorry, Alderman Moriarty, nothing's off the record when it comes to slingshots at Applefest.