this damn well better NOT happen

i wait the WHOLE year for fresh (native REAL) tomatoes. oh no no no. oh no no no. this CANNOT happen

Fungus That Caused Ireland's Potato Famine Now Affecting Gardens In New England
By SHAWN R. BEALS The Hartford Courant
The state and most of New England are teetering on the edge of losing every tomato plant to a fungus that is flourishing in the wet weather the region has endured for weeks, state experts said Thursday.

It's the same fungus — late blight — that decimated the potato crop in Ireland in the mid-19th century. The region's potato crop is also vulnerable, but it's tomatoes that will really get slammed, said Jude Boucher, an extension educator at the University of Connecticut and a state commercial vegetable expert.

"If we don't get some dry weather, we may not have any tomatoes in the state of Connecticut," Boucher said, explaining that the disease multiplies best in a 65- to 70-degree wet environment.

The late blight has already been picking off backyard plants here and there. Boucher said he found the first case on a commercial farm on Wednesday, and on Thursday four out of the 10 farms he visited in the Connecticut River Valley had it.........

you know i hang at plan b every once in a while

my REAL home is the half door their FIRST and BEST place (in my most humble opinion. i like it cause it's not chuck full of id-jit hipster* west hartford folk**)


Helen Ubiñas points out something rather ickky about the new restaurant next to plan b tavern in west hartford. to be honest i never really noticed the fence and i've never been inside taqueria tavern either. i smoke so i've seen the lovely cactus shaped ashtray at the taqueria (left over from the last joint). never ever noticed the fence though.



An Of(fence)ive Image, Intended Or Not
There were a good number of people eating outside Taqueria Tavern and the adjoining Plan B restaurant the other day, but no one seemed to pay much attention to the fence with metallic strips between the two eateries.

A reader had tipped me off about some curious decor at the new Mexican restaurant on Park Road in West Hartford, and suggested I go take a look.

So, I grabbed one of my more measured colleagues and while we waited for our food at an outside table we debated whether the fence was as offensive as the reader had said.

Could be a cattle fence, he reasoned.

Could be.

Or some rustic Tex-Mex take-off?

Maybe.

Or just some cheesy addition to go with the equally cheesy cigarette receptacle shaped like a cactus. Also a possibility.

But then I asked our waitress what the fence represented.

The liquor commission mandates a division between eateries, she said, while grabbing the check.

Oh, if only she had stopped there.

But she didn't. It's supposed to represent the border fence, she continued. Inside, she told us with cringing enthusiasm, they even have a sign, one side pointing to the U.S., the other to Mexico.........................

*hipster is my new favorite word
**i am west hartford folk but i am NOT a hipster nor am i trying to be one. i DO NOT own an suv. i do NOT own a designer dog. i do NOT need to see or be seen. i am NOT pretentious.

just a note on some road construction

which i believe is necessary (especially because of black and blue square) but is going to be a royal pain in the arse. i use the cvs pharmacy next to this location. it's already a nasty trip every time i have to make it, it will just be worse now.

Improvements begin on dangerous intersection
By HANNAH VAHL
Work has already begun to make safety improvements to a highly trafficked, dangerous intersection in town.


WEST HARTFORD - Work has already begun to make safety improvements to a highly trafficked, dangerous intersection in town.
The area where Park Road, Sedgwick Road and South Main Street meet has averaged 35 traffic accidents a year, one-third of which have involved injuries, according to Town Engineer David Kraus.
"The accident history has been really disturbing," he said. "This is a very worthwhile project for us to undertake."
Kraus estimates that with the addition of left-turn lanes to all three streets, those accidents should result in a 40-percent accident reduction - the same decrease seen when the intersection of Albany Avenue, King Philip Drive, and Trout Brook Drive was redone.
"We will have a better functioning intersection," said Town Manager Ron Van Winkle.
"People will take fewer chances, run fewer red lights. It will help in many ways."
Utilities at the intersection have already been relocated, and roadwork is expected to begin June 29 and end at the beginning of August, timed with a dip in traffic during school vacation.......

it's time again for stupid connecticut crimes

and yes, it's a crime to go to the dentist's office NUDE (in connecticut it is, if that dentist's office is NOT in the middle of a nudist colony)


Police: Stratford Man Went Naked To Dental Appointment
STRATFORD - A Connecticut man has been arrested after he allegedly showed up at a dental office naked.

Police said 41-year-old Christopher Hoff of Stratford also was five days late for an appointment Monday when he went to Optimus Dental.

Hoff was charged with two counts of disorderly conduct, one count of public indecency and failure to comply with fingerprinting. He was being held in lieu of $10,000 bond.

He did not immediately return a telephone message left Wednesday at his home. It's unclear if he has an attorney.

Police said when Hoff entered the dental office, a startled female receptionist screamed and he ran away......

another domestic violence case

but thankfully she escaped her ex husband captor. (as a note, i am NOT a woman who believes a woman should get EVERYTHING in a divorce. a woman should get her fair share and NOTHING more - but NOTHING LESS as well. that includes child custody. if she doesn't deserve it she shouldn't get it. no one should be raked over the coals if they don't deserve it. i don't know what went on in the divorce proceedings for this couple. NOTHING justifies kidnapping and/or taking a hostage).


Hostage Drama Ends In South Windsor

By CHRISTINE DEMPSEY, MARK SPENCER and DAVID OWENS

staff writers Jesse Leavenworth and Hilda Muñoz contributed to this story.

SOUTH WINDSOR - A tense standoff ended early today when Richard Shenkman emerged from his burning house on Tumblebrook Drive, hours after his wife escaped from the home where she had been held hostage since Tuesday morning. Nancy Tyler, who was taken hostage by her ex-husband about 9 a.m. Tuesday in Hartford, escaped from the house at 8:27 p.m. Nearly an hour later, around 9:30 p.m., gunfire and flames erupted at 96 Tumblebrook Drive. Police said all the gunfire came from Shenkman, and that he set fire to the house. As the house burned police called to Shenkman to leave. By 9:55 p.m., the house was engulfed in flames, and gunshots rang out again. "He keeps yelling, 'Shoot me, shoot me,' as if he wanted someone to kill him," South Windsor police Cmdr. Matthew Reed said. Police put Shenkman into an ambulance after he left the house. Police believe Shenkman, 60, took Tyler hostage around 9 a.m. Tuesday in the parking lot of her workplace at CityPlace in downtown Hartford. He allegedly brought her to the house at 96 Tumblebrook Drive, and by 11 a.m., police had cordoned off the house and evacuated the neighborhood as Shenkman threatened to harm his hostage and blow up the house.......

pic: South Windsor firefighters watch from Clearview Drive as the house of Richard Shenkman burns Tuesday evening around 10 p.m. Earlier in the day, Shenkman abducted his estranged wife, Hartford attorney Nancy Tyler, and held her hostage for several hours before she could free herself. Shortly after the police ordered Shenkman out of his home, it became engulfed in flames. (BETTINA HANSEN / HARTFORD COURANT / July 7, 2009)

flowers

and a bee and a ladybug

from the half door

we have copperheads too

i saw a bunch of 'em (babies) in the west hartford rez years and years and years ago. haven't seen a real snake (in the wild) for a long time. i did see a rattler when i was a child on my noni's property. she told me how they smelled. she also taught me to pick mushrooms and what herbs do what to whom

anyway, WATCH OUT y'all

Man Bitten By Rattlesnake In Marlborough

MARLBOROUGH - A 45-year-old Wallingford man bitten by a rattlesnake Sunday is recovering at Hartford Hospital. Robert Burns was celebrating the Fourth of July weekend at his wife's aunt's house in Marlborough when he a relative found the snake, said his wife, Jodie Burns, 28. "He thought he could get the snake. Bobby picked it up with a stick," she said. The snake bit Burns as he went to grab it, she said.................



pic: Robert Burns of Wallingford shows a visitor his swollen left hand where he was bitten by a 5-foot-long rattlesnake Sunday. Burns, who is being treated with anti-venom medication at Hartford Hospital, was attending a July 4th weekend picnic at a relative's house in Marlborough, a property that abutts Rattlesnake Mountain, when he was bitten. Burns said it the most intense pain he has ever felt. (CLOE POISSON / HARTFORD COURANT / July 6, 2009)

torrington; the sex capital of southern new england?

now THIS is funny:


Public Indecency Charges In Torrington
Just days after they arrested four teens on assault charges who allegedly misinterpreted a woman's scream during sex and attacked her lover, police have charged three people with of an overly public display of affection.

Officers were sent to the area behind a Migeon Avenue car dealership to investigate a report of two people having sex on a car. By the time an officer got there, the woman and man had finished up and she was fondling a second man, police said................

.........Police said "bountiful amounts" of alcohol were involved in the incident.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,