west hartford cow parade 2007

friday morning, 2:00 am september 28th. not my best work, but hey it was EARLY AND RAINY. for more (and different) pictures see: the reformed pirate
i'm going to try to take more cow pictures next week or the week thereafter. we'll see
(if you click on a picture, it will enlarge)

wow

Catholic hospitals to follow Plan B law
By SUSAN HAIGH, Associated Press Writer
HARTFORD, Conn. - Roman Catholic bishops in Connecticut have agreed to let hospital personnel give emergency contraception to all rape victims, reversing their decision days before a new state law requires it.
The church, which runs four of the state's 30 hospitals, had fought the state law requiring medical personnel to give rape victims emergency contraception, sold as Plan B, even if the women are ovulating.
Church officials had said the treatment was tantamount to abortion and had been considering legal action, but they took a step away from that position Thursday, in a joint statement by the Catholic Bishops of Connecticut and leaders of the Catholic hospitals...........

once again, plan b is NOT an 'abortion' pill. it does NOT cause an abortion. what it does is, it PREVENTS conception.

the witching hour

salem is 'famous' for it's witch trials and executions. connecticut had the FIRST witch execution by the way

if you're in the hartford area, why not stop and see this performance. it runs through saturday

When Fear Reigns
A Performance Focuses On The Lessons Of Hartford's Witch Hunts
By MATT EAGAN Courant Staff Writer
Addie Avery was 12 when history came alive for her.The dusty recitation of facts and figures gave way to a vivid story about people trapped in a nightmare.One of those people was her nine-times great grandmother, Mary Sanford, who was executed as a witch in Hartford in 1662. As Salem, Mass., prepares for a month in which it will make money off its legacy of hanging 19 young women by their necks until they were dead, Avery and the Judy Dworin Performance Project are attempting to bring Hartford's history to life for the rest of us.Dworin has created "The Witching Hour," a production that combines theater, puppetry, dance and stubborn, sober history.The show, which starts today and runs through Saturday at the Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford, is part of a monthlong collaboration with the Connecticut Antiquarian & Landmarks Society (soon to be Connecticut Landmarks) and Eastern Connecticut State University that seeks to explore the trials and their legacy in greater depth..............

training?

FORGET the training! no amount of 'training' is going to cure whoever did this. NO TRAINING. find out who did it (after all, aren't you charged with DEFENDING OUR NATION???) and boot him, her or them OUT of the academy

Coast Guard holds training after noose incidents

NEW LONDON, Conn. -- The U.S. Coast Guard Academy has been stepping up its training in race relations after nooses were left in the bag of a black cadet and in the office of a woman giving the training, a spokesman said Monday.An investigation was unable to determine who left the nooses, said Chief Warrant Officer David M. French, an academy spokesman."We're disgusted by it," French said. "We consider these hate incidents."The first noose was left in the bag of a black cadet on July 15 on board the Coast Guard cutter Eagle, French said............

willie, nancy and the river

an amazingly detailed story about two people who ended up in hartford, living by the connecticut river. two people with hard lives but two people who made a way for themselves. two people who have each other and the river

a shout out to christine dempsey for reporting on this tale
River Life: Peace, Pain

By CHRISTINE DEMPSEY The Hartford Courant
EAST HARTFORD - Nancy watches as her home goes up in flames.She wants to rescue her cat, but two cops at the scene tell her it's too dangerous.It's just a shack. But Nancy has lived there for more than a decade.
Some 75 yards from the Connecticut River, the 10-by-18, carpeted structure had everything she and a longtime friend, Willie, needed: kerosene heaters, food, books, even photographs. Willie built it in the early '80s with wood he collected.Now, the heaters have exploded. Firefighters are hampered by the remote location. There are no roads, so a custom-made, four-wheel-drive truck with a tank supplies the water.Thick, black smoke is visible to Hartford-area commuters. Willie, too, sees it from downtown."I was on Main Street, picking up some things," he says later. "I saw the smoke, and I had an uneasy feeling."By the time he gets back to the river, his home is gone. His first concern is Nancy, but she's safe at town hall.Only possessions far enough from the heat and flames survive - a 30-foot-long wood pile, birdhouses and windsocks Willie had hung from branches, and more than a dozen chimes attached to a beam he'd tied up between trees. A memorial to a pet is intact, protected by a crude wire fence. A small, tattered American flag is affixed to it.Firefighters suspect a candle started the fire. Nancy has her own theory: "Arson.".........