happy halloween

googhoul.com

pauline basso is up for re election

i'd think twice about voting for her if that's what you plan on doing

how horrid is this?
Danbury politician apologizes for racist e-mails
by News Channel 8's Erin Cox
Danbury (WTNH) _ A Republican councilwoman from Danbury has sent an apology to the NAACP for sending racist e-mails to her friends.
News Channel 8 obtained copies of the offensive e-mails distributed by Pauline Basso. The e-mails take shots at illegal immigrants, Muslims and Africans.
"I'm just appalled. I can't believe someone who has a position as she does would do this," said Danbury resident Sonnie Council.
Rev. Ivan Pitts of the NAACP says, "We are outraged, deeply concerned and insulted."
In Danbury, undocumented workers have been a hot button issue.
"It is scary that someone in elected office is sharing these feelings," said Wilson Hernandez of the Ecuadorian Civic Center........

remember october 14th!

free speech party rundown from cool justice report

(if you click on the flyer it will open bigger in another window)

yarns i scooped up the other day

here's what i picked up at sit-n-knit the other day (ALL on sale. well the yarns were. i got some needles and a book as well)

in the middle the noro kureyon (100% wool). the black and white is bingo mouline (100% merino). the four skeins to the left are, haco. 2 of sapphire jade and 2 of deep blue ocean (100% hadn dyed marino). the orange/grey/brown is cool wool grossa, merino big print (100% merino). the light blue is kathmando aran tweed (85% merino, 10% silk, 5% cashmire) it is SO soffffffffffffffttttttttttt. the hanks are malabrigo merino (kettle dyed 100% wool) in jewel blue and frank orhre (i LOVE this yarn. i made my log cabin baby blanket out of it) and the big puffy colored balls are action ny yarns (70% acrylic and 30% wool).

there's a yarn sale

at sit-n-knit in west harford center (i think their old wethersfield store as well) through the week.

i got mine (i'll post a picture in a day or two)

i guess the angels didn't say enough prayers

my beloved bosox swept 'em

Something magical is in the air

By Dan Shaughnessy, Globe Columnist

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Manny Ramírez's towering walkoff home run - if a baseball lands in the Charles River does it qualify as a "splash hit?" - and the Red Sox charter aircraft both returned to earth sometime Saturday morning and throughout Red Sox Nation it feels like 2004 all over again.

There have been a lot of good nights at Olde Fenway since the Sox vanquished the Yankees (and Cardinals, by the way) three years ago, but this is the first time it's felt like the golden days of October '04.
Curt Schilling, one of the seven holdovers from that championship season, gets the ball today in a potential clinch game against the Angels. The Sox are on the threshold of advancing to the American League Championship Series and the Franconamen appear locked and loaded - ready for anything the Indians, or Yankees, can throw at them in the next round.........

picture: wfrfire.com

christopher shays

making your stomach turn at every opportunity.....

a few minutes ago on bbc world service (on npr) i heard shays asking erik prince some questions (from yesterday i would assume). he asked something like, how many diplomats (who were under blackwater protection) died in 2005, 2006 and 2007 - NONE replied prince. shays then said,

"Thank you for doing a perfect job."

granted i didn't hear the whole session BUT i'll bet stomach-churning-shays didn't ask, 'HOW MANY INNOCENT CIVILIANS DID YOU BUTCHER in 2005, 2006, 2007???' could prince answer, NONE to that?

piece o' steamin' shite
In House hearing, Democrats assail Blackwater
By Brian Knowlton and John M. Broder
WASHINGTON: Guards working for a private American security firm in Iraq have an aggressive and sometimes reckless record - involvement in nearly 200 shootings in Iraq since 2005 - and their use by the U.S. State Department amounts to an expensive and perhaps indefensible privatization of the military, congressional Democrats said Tuesday.
But the head of the Blackwater security firm, Erik Prince, said his workers, operating in hostile and chaotic conditions, had been the victims of a "rush to judgment."
Representative Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who is chairman of a House committee that is studying the record of the firm in Iraq, said that companies like Blackwater amounted to an inadequately controlled private military force.
"If we don't have enough troops to do the job, then we need to get more troops," Waxman said at a hearing Tuesday of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Privatizing security services was "causing us problems with the Iraqi people," he said.
But Prince - commenting publicly for the first time on a shooting in Baghdad on Sept. 16 in which Blackwater guards have been accused of killing at least eight civilians - rejected the depiction of his employees as trigger-happy "cowboys."..........

of COURSE it's misdiagnosed

AND misunderstood in grrrls. after all, they ARE JUST grrrls...........

(it's changing a bit today......but when they used to study things such as heart attacks WOMEN WERE ALWAYS EXCLUDED. women and grrrls, don't get 'sick'. it's ALWAYS in their heads)

Girls Are Often Neglected Victims of Concussions
By ALAN SCHWARZ
WEST HARTFORD, Conn. — Hannah Stohler sat beside the piano she could no longer play, in the living room that spun like a carousel, in the chair in which she tried to read but could not remember a word. Ten months after her third concussion while playing high school soccer knocked her into a winter-long haze of headaches and dizziness and depression that few around her could comprehend, Stohler recalled how she once viewed concussions. “I thought they were a football injury — a boy thing,” said Stohler, a junior at Conard High School in West Hartford, Conn. “Those guys are taught to hit hard and knock people to the ground. But anyone can get a concussion, and I don’t think a lot of girls recognize that. They have no idea how awful the effects can be — it changes your life.”Stohler, 16, has more company than most people know. While football does have the most concussions (and controversy over their treatment) in high school athletics, girls competing in sports like soccer and basketball are more susceptible to concussions than boys are in the same sports, studies show.............

what's the answer? well for one, all grrrls should be BANNED from playing sports. they should be taken out of school at age 10, further taught (because of course the training of grrrls should start at birth) how to cook, sew, keep house and greet their manly man when he comes home and of course married off to their first cousin when they turn the ripe old age of 14!

i thought i was doing my good deed of the day

well, I THOUGHT WRONG

i was at the corner of asylum and prospect (the very same corner i found mambo sven wandering around at) at about 2:30 ish am this morning. stopped at the light, smoking a butt listening to npr. i hear something and turn to my leftt. it's a young woman, short hair, glasses with a backpack. she asked me for a ride. #1) there is NO room in my car for anyone but the driver. i'm not exaggerating not one little bit. there is NO room front OR back OR even in the trunk. and #2) there is NO way (even if there WAS room in my car) i would give a stranger a ride at 2:30 am.

i told her, no, i couldn't give her a ride and of course i pointed out there was NO place for her to sit. she started crying and told me she had just walked from the base of avon mountain (which is quite the haul in the middle of the night). her brakes went out (in avon) and her car was towed. she added the avon police were the ones who gave her a ride to the bottom of the mountain. well, i told her i'd give her some money to call a cab. i handed her $10.00. she didn't have a phone (no surprise there at this point). sooooooooo, i called a cab for her on my cell phone. i gave the location as the corner of prospect and asylum. the dispatcher said they MUST have a street address. they couldn't pick someone up at a corner. ok i said, i'd call right back. i told the young woman to walk down prospect a bit to the first house and i'd meet her there. i drove over, got the address of grace church (870 prospect) and called the cab company again. i gave them that address and told them the woman was going to broad street (oh, that's where she told me she lived). i backed my car up a bit (she hadn't quite made it to 870) and told her a cab would be there in 5 to 20 minutes. then I GAVE HER ANOTHER $5.00. i drove off into the darkness. picked my coffees up at dunkin' and came into work. no sooner than i sat down but my cell rang. it was a man asking if i was at the church. noooooooo i said (and i felt a chill). well he then asked if i was the woman he picked up. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO i said. turns out he was a couple of blocks from the address she gave him (on broad) and the meter was at $8.00. she told him she only had $5.00!!!! so she gave him the 5, started to cry and got out.

i told the man no. she had MORE than 5 (i didn't tell him i gave her 15). now i felt bad for him. i even entertained the though (i got it AFTER i hung up with him) of calling the cab company back and asking him to stop by and i'd GIVE HIM the rest of her fare (i didn't though).

i told him i found her wandering around prospect, her telling me her car got towed, me giving her money and me calling her a cab. that's it, i didn't know her, i just felt badly for her.

he mentioned something about calling the police (not on me of course, on her).

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.".........

i drive back and forth to work

(amendment 9/30/2007: i have been gently reminded, i also have a TON of pens, most of which are anchored in my bun AND several little ketchup bottles in my handbag)

to the grocery store, to my dad's house, to the half door, to an occasional restaurant, a movie theater, a lecture at a local college or university, to a friend's house. perhaps i'll go here or there every once in a while, but i don't travel that much. i usually carry a bit of makeup with me. some butts, some mints, an extra pair of sox, my digital camera, my mp3 player, my knitting, a book, lots of pens, some money (not a lot). in my car i have extra shoes, boots, water, cds, some yarn, a denim jacket, a wrap (as in if it's cold out, it goes around my body), books, a magazine on women with tattooes that i am in, three GIANT rats seatbelted in the back seat along with their friend, little teddy (remind me, around the holidays to tell the festive tale (or is it tail) of the three christmas rats). i know i have more in that car, i just can't think of ALL of it right now.
i drink a LOT of coffee. two big gulps every morning at dunkin'. i am currently listening to some leon russell. i'm currently reading: gertrude bell: queen of the desert, shaper of nations by georgina howell. i watch lots of television. i write. i don't sleep very much at all (usually averaging 3 hours a night) but i am USUALLY in bed BY 8:00 each night. as i said, not sleeping. i don't like violence. i have never even gotten a traveling traffic ticket (i have gotten two PARKING tickets in my whole life. ONE was not justified). i pay my taxes and i'm honest. i don't build bombs in my basement or plot to bring the united states down. i knit.

it's NOT your bid-nez to find these things out about me UNLESS #1) i tell you (which i just did) OR #2) you suspect me of being something i'm NOT and get a warrant to spy on me

otherwise BUTT out. you aren't entitled to MY life. it's MINE

Collecting of Details on Travelers DocumentedU.S. Effort More Extensive Than Previously Known
By Ellen NakashimaWashington Post Staff Writer
The U.S. government is collecting electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the persons with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried, according to documents obtained by a group of civil liberties advocates and statements by government officials. The personal travel records are meant to be stored for as long as 15 years, as part of the Department of Homeland Security's effort to assess the security threat posed by all travelers entering the country. Officials say the records, which are analyzed by the department's Automated Targeting System, help border officials distinguish potential terrorists from innocent people entering the country. .................

i was mindin' my own bid-nez

not having that great a day. did a little grocery shopping at the stop & shop which just made it worse. there was some trouble in the line i picked (NO, NOT with me). it was horrid. i was standing there forever. it never fails.

then i walk outside to my car and i see the MOST WONDERFUL THING EVER (well almost)

a little elmwood news

and history (i for one didn't know about capt'n ebenezer faxon)

Elmwood's Liberty Symbols
Though it may sound generic, the name of the Elmwood section of West Hartford has a distinct historical provenance. In 1777, Captain Ebenezer Faxon planted 13 elm trees at the corner of New Britain Avenue and South Quaker Lane to celebrate the crucial American victory over the British forces led by Gen. John Burgoyne at the Battle of Saratoga. After the Revolutionary War, more elms were planted along New Britain Avenue and Newington Road.The tall and graceful trees gave the neighborhood its name and identity. But in the early to mid-20th century, Dutch elm blight took these and countless other American elms. Well, the elms are coming back. .......

a nice little write up

about what andy thibault is doing (BUT SHOULDN'T HAVE TO DO) because our constitutional rights are being slowly BUT surely taken away

if you're free on october 14th, why not attend the event at the litchfield inn?

"If You Stand Up, People Will Help Out"
A Ripple Effect in Reg. 10 Flap By Emily M. Olson Litchfield County Times09/20/2007LITCHFIELD - When Litchfield journalist Andy Thibault heard about Avery Doninger, a 17-year-old student at Lewis Mills High School in Burlington who was punished by school administrators for critical statements she made in a blog on an Internet Web page, he was outraged. And when the situation became a legal battle involving the student's First Amendment rights, he was disgusted and angry and wanted to do something. Now he's using that energy to help the Doninger family raise money to pay its continuing legal expenses to fight the Region 10 school district by organizing a fund-raiser at the Bistro East at the Litchfield Inn. On Oct. 14, "Poets and Writers for Avery: A Free Speech Festival" will be held involving Mr. Thibault's writer friends, including Wally Lamb, Ravi Shankar, Amy Ma, Franz Douskey, Rand Cooper, Jon Andersen, Ron Winter, Margo Schilpp, Oscar de los Santos and Luis Colavecchi. Five local bands have also been invited to perform. .............

......"We'll have a great time and we're doing something that's important," he said. "It's like a 'Field of Dreams,' -- if you stand up, people will help out."E-mail tntcomm82@cs.com, or call 860-690-0211 for information and tickets. ...............

i just felt like listing some

songs that are sad to me. this by no means is complete. they're only what i thought of this morning (so far). the songs may not have been written by the artists listed by them. it's THEIR version that is the saddest to me.
do you have any?

1,000 miles from nowhere – dwight yaokam
a change is gonna come – sam cooke
angola – ry cooderdisorder – system of a down
avalon - bryan ferry & roxy music
cry on – tracy nelson and mother earth
don’t dream it’s over – crowded house
glory box – portishead
hallelujah – jeff buckley
hurt – johnny cash
i can’t make you love me – bonnie raitt
i don’t know where i stand (i just picked this one – but there are TONS) – joni Mitchell
i get out (or ANY of the songs on her mtv unplugged release) – lauryn hill
i’d rather go blind – christine perfect* (*can anyone WITHOUT LOOKING IT UP tell me who christine perfect became?)
farewell to tarwathie – judy collins
i’m so lonesome i could cry – hank Williams
louise – leo kottke
luca (my name is luca) – Suzanne vega
nothing takes the place of you – toussaint mccall
now that the buffalo’s gone (or MANY others)– buffy sainte marie
somewhere over the rainbow – israel kamakamiwo’olemadame george – van morrison
stars – janis ian
strange fruit – billie holiday
sunday and sister jones – roberta flack
suzanne (or MANY others) – leonard cohen
sweet jane – cowboy junkies
the messiah will come again – roy Buchanan
white man’s melody – cyndi lauper
who knows where the time goes – fairport convention OR judy Collins

to the family and friends of jeff

i am so very sorry for your loss. as jeff's mom and dad said, HUG YOUR KIDS TODAY (and everyday). even if you're mad at them. let them know you love them.