Friday, June 25, 2010

to the residents of bridgeport

man, i'm sorry about the storm damage. we had almost NOTHING here. i was driving home from work at about 2:30 and it rained a TINY bit (10 minutes maybe) not even that hard. the sky cleared up right away too (it DID get cloudy again later though. i don't know if it rained more again after that. i was in my cave)

Summer Storm Toys With Bridgeport, Conn.

Eyewitnesses Report Seeing Funnel Cloud; Mayor Orders Residents To Stay Home; Storm Also Hammers Queens, L.I

 

Connecticut's biggest city was under a state of emergency on Thursday after reports of building collapses and structural damage had parts of town blocked off.

In all, 23 people were injured and nine buildings were heavily damaged.

The whine of the chainsaw was the soundtrack of a summer night in Bridgeport.

A fast-moving storm turned it into a battered city of trees -- toppled onto homes and blown over in city parks. There were lots of broken windows on buildings and on cars..........

pic: Transformers, trees and parts of buildings were knocked over during a fast-moving and violent storm in Bridgeport, Conn., on June 24, 2010.

CBS

Curfew, state of emergency in Park City

Bridgeport and Stratford have issued a state of emergency following a severe storm Thursday afternoon.............




State Of Emergency In Bridgeport After Severe Weather

 


Thursday, June 24, 2010

mo is home. now we just have to get

ADAM home! a while ago i posted a story about a connecticut soldier deployed in afghanistan. he found a puppy and wanted to bring it home. it took a LOT of red tape and a great deal of money (it would have been cheaper to fly A COUPLE of HUMANS home) to get mo home. he's HERE thanks to the generosity of people. now we just have to get his human companion adam home.

Dog Brought From Afghanistan To New Home In State
Fox CT
One Lucky Dog

Mo is adjusting to the good life in Clinton after being rescued from
Afghanistan. The 6-month-old mutt traveled over 48 hours and across nine time zones to his new Connecticut home with Brian Wakefield. Brian's brother Adam took the stray in, but the Army ordered him to get rid of the dog.

So Adam and his family started Operation "SendMoHome;" a website that raised the $3,500 needed to quarantine and vaccinate Mo, and then fly him to Connecticut. Donations flooded in and the money was raised in less than 24 hours. Brian picked up Mo Tuesday at JFK International Airport...............


pic:

( Mike Piskorski / June 23, 2010 )
Brian Wakefield shares a quiet moment with his brother's dog Mo. Mo is a stray dog from Afghanistan that was adopted by Brian's brother Adam, who is stationed in the war torn country. It took $3500 and 48 hours for Mo to make it to the United States.




Monday, June 21, 2010

i met her years ago

at an event for fidelco. i didn't know her but what i knew ABOUT her said it all. selfless, giving, compassionate. rip

Roberta Kaman, Fidelco Co-Founder, Dies

Roberta C. Kaman of Bloomfield, a well-known breeder and trainer of guide dogs for the blind, died early Sunday at Hartford Hospital after a long illness. She was 74.

Kaman was the president and co-founder of the Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation of Bloomfield, which has placed more than 1,300 guide dogs with blind and visually disabled people throughout North America. Fidelco was considered important within the guide dog world for breeding a line of German shepherds for leading and assisting the blind, and the group also developed "in-community placement" of its dogs, training guide dogs and owners in their home area..................

ravings of a semi-sane madwoman: da LIEbs is a giant wad (but we all know that)

ravings of a semi-sane madwoman: da LIEbs is a giant wad (but we all know that)

if i were on the vollyball team, I'D SUE THE SHITE OUT OF 'EM TOO

here it is. i'm NOT a fan of cheerleaders. not then, not now, not in the future. i don't need anyone shakin' their stuff in my face in order to support an athletic team. i either support the team or not. take your t and your a (i know there are male cheerleaders too, but more likely than not, they are usually made up of 'HOT CHUNKS CHICKS') 




 this is an ap article so you'll have to click to read ANY of it
https://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/20/AR2010062001020.html?hpid=moreheadlines">Trial in Conn. to find if cheerleading is sport




By PAT EATON-ROBB

this one is from wtnh
Women's volleyball team sues Quinnipiac

Hamden (WTNH) - Players and the coach of Quinnipiac University's women's volleyball team filed a lawsuit against the school today, saying they have failed to provide female students with equal opportunity to participate in varsity intercollegiate athletics.
The lawsuit came after QU's recent decision to eliminate women's varsity volleyball. The ACLU-CT, who is representing the players and coach, said cutting the program is in violation of Title IX.
"We understand these are tough economic times, but Quinnipiac shouldn't be unfairly balancing their budget on the backs of women who are already being discriminated against," said Andrew Schneider, Executive Director of the ACLU-CT.................

and this (yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh judge underhill)
also from ap through espn so click it.
Team to stay until Title IX case is heard

Sunday, June 20, 2010

manute bol has passed

i didn't know him personally, but i did see him and say hello from time to time. every once in a while he'd come into the half door too. i know you know he was tall. i can't even explain HOW tall he was.nice too! i'm not nice when people stare at me. HE was nice. you couldn't help but stare. i almost always saw him with a smile on his face as well. i'd love to actually watch others around him as he walked through town. people with jaws agape. manute did a LOT of walking when he was in town. he really was never the same after the accident. 

i remember thinking to myself, WTF, when i heard he was scheduled to 'fight' some ass (it was someone horrible like joey buttafuco) on a celebrety boxing show on tv  years ago. THEN, i found out he was doing it to raise money to build either a school or hospital in his homeland of sudan.
manute, rip

Manute Bol, Former West Hartford Resident And NBA Player, Dead At 47


Manute Bol, known to state residents as a basketball player whose 7-foot-7 frame made him one of a kind and also for the passion he held for his native land, died on Saturday in Charlottesville, Va.
He was 47.
Bol, a native of Sudan who lived in West Hartford in 2002-07, sought to better the lives of the people in his home country.
That mission was cut short when he died at the University of Virginia Hospital. Tom Prichard, executive director of the Kansas-based Sudan Sunrise humanitarian group for which Bol worked, told The Associated Press that Bol was being treated for severe kidney trouble and a painful skin condition.............

pic: sportige.com




pic of manute and billy grant:
Manute Bol stands with Billy Grant,
owner and chef of Grant's Restaurant,
and his son http://www.sudansunrise.org/getinvolved.htm

this wapo article is pretty comprehensive

Manute Bol, former Washington Bullet and one of NBA's tallest players, dies at 47

By Matt Schudel

Manute Bol, who became a basketball sensation in the 1980s as a skeletally thin shot-blocking giant with the Washington Bullets and other professional teams, and who devoted his post-basketball life to improving the lot of his fellow natives of Sudan, died June 19 at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville. He was 47.
His cousin George Bol said Mr. Bol had internal bleeding and other complications from Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a rare skin disease that he contracted from a medication he received in Africa.
Mr. Bol, one of the two tallest players in NBA history, was also one of its most exotic and endearing -- and surely the only one to have killed a lion with a spear. His unusual journey to basketball stardom began in southern Sudan, where he was a cattle-herding member of the Dinka tribe and never touched a basketball until his late teens. After catching the eye of an American coach working in Sudan, Mr. Bol made his way to the United States without knowing a word of English.............