his sister-in-law joan didion is one of my favorite writers. i liked dominick as well. his style was different than joan's of course. the subject matter was different as well (although when you think about it, WAS it really????). this is a good write up. there are a few things in here i didn't know (stage manager for howdy doody?). and griffin's (his son) performance in after hours was nothing short of genius)Dominick Dunne, 83, a novelist and journalist who chronicled true-crime tales of the rich and infamous, including O.J. Simpson and Claus von Bulow, and in turn became a celebrity in his own right, died Aug. 26 at his home in New York City. He had bladder cancer.
As a reporter for Vanity Fair magazine, Mr. Dunne was perhaps the country's foremost chronicler of crimes among the privileged. He developed his journalistic specialty in a painfully personal way, when Tina Brown, the newly installed editor of the magazine, asked Mr. Dunne to cover the 1983 Los Angeles trial of a man charged with killing a promising young actress. The actress was Mr. Dunne's 22-year-old daughter, Dominique Dunne........
Celebrity Author And Hartford Native Dominick Dunne Dies At Age 83
Special to The Courant
Dominick Dunne, a celebrated chronicler of the crimes of the rich and famous and a best-selling novelist who skyrocketed to celebrity status through his vivid, caustic, openly partisan and dishy coverage of the infamous O.J. Simpson murder trial, died Wednesday at his home in Manhattan.
Dunne, who had been battling bladder cancer, was 83.
The Hartford native, who kept a home in Hadlyme, grew up in a large, prominent and wealthy Irish-Catholic family in West Hartford. He found success with such novels as "The Two Mrs. Grenvilles" and "A Season in Purgatory." But it was his brilliant, controversial, highly readable coverage of the Simpson "trial of the century" for Vanity Fair that transformed him in 1995 into a bona fide, red-hot celebrity.
His owlish, oval-framed glasses, shock of gray hair, diminutive stature (maybe not quite 5-foot-6 or so), feisty presence, often rumpled apparel and smart, razor-sharp commentary made Dunne a hot product on the cool medium of TV.........
pic: FILE - In this Sept. 23, 2008 file photo, celebrity crime writer Dominick Dunne, left, looks at his son Griffin Dunne during O.J. Simpson's trial in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, Pool) (Jae C. Hong - AP)
Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with congressional Democrats, told CNN’s John King on Sunday that “great changes often come in steps. The civil rights movement changes occurred in steps.”
And so it should be with health care, Lieberman argued.............
On July 1, a 32-year-old Ansonia woman came home to a nightmare, and police now say her husband -- an alderman who was up for re-election in November -- was behind her attack.
Keith Maynard, 42, resigned from his position on the Ansonia Board of Alderman on the eve of his arrest, according to the Valley Independent Sentinel.
The man inside knocked the woman to the ground, covered her with a blanket and hit her with a baseball bat, police said. She told police she did not recognize him. He was wearing a mask, the New Haven Register reports.
Police investigated. They were told a man was seen running from the house soon after assaulting the victim but police could not find him. The woman was taken to Griffin Hospital to be treated for minor injuries...............
Turner was arrested on June 24 for allegedly calling for the murder of three judges who supported the Chicago gun ban. The confession by his attorney came at a bond hearing last month.
"Attorney Michael Orozco [...] said his client gave authorities information about a plot to assassinate President Barack Obama," reported the Associated Press in July.
His recent arrest came after a complaint about an overt call for the murder of three judges............
Defense attorney: FBI had trained NJ blogger how to incite others when he was an informant
HARTFORD — - A lawyer for Harold "Hal" Turner, the blogger and Internet radio host accused of encouraging people to "take up arms" against two Connecticut legislators and a state ethics official, said Tuesday that the comments are protected by the First Amendment.
Turner knew just where the line was between protected political speech and criminal conduct because the FBI taught him when the agency used him as an informant, his attorney, Michael A. Orozco of Newark, N.J., said outside a Hartford courtroom.
"Mr. Turner was trained by the FBI," Orozco said. "He was told where the line was — what he could say." Turner, of New Jersey, worked as an "agent provocateur" for the FBI from roughly 2002 to 2007, Orozco said...........
Tales of witchcraft and tombstones
Wethersfield’s Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum to give special tours
focusing on witchcraft and the Ancient Burying Ground during October
Just the mention of a David Glass cake makes mouths water, but the legendary maker of high-end desserts is going out of business.
Desserts by David Glass, a high-end Bloomfield cakery, will close after 28 years, reeling from losing a big wholesale customer, recession and debt, the Hartford Courant reports........
Desserts By David Glass Going Out Of Business
The Hartford Courant
Savor a slice of David Glass cake, and they say you'll never forget the taste.
Now, all that will be left is that memory.
Desserts by David Glass, the iconic, high-end Bloomfield cake purveyor, is going out of business after 28 years, succumbing to the loss of one of its biggest wholesale customers, a recession that crimped spending, and debt that the company could not repay.
The decision to close is a wrenching one for Glass, who started the company in a house on Sargeant Street in Hartford and for years operated under the Blue Onion dome at the Colt Building. He made a name for himself with his signature "Ultimate Chocolate Truffle Cake" and gained rave reviews in New York, launching a brand that became sought after well beyond Connecticut.
....................
pic of david glass: DAVID GLASS, owner of Desserts by David Glass, will be shutting down his Bloomfield-based company after 28 years in business. The company's most famous cake was the "Ultimate Chocolate Truffle Cake." (MARK MIRKO/THE HARTFORD COURANT. / September 11, 2008)
pic of white chocolate cake from nbc 30
STAMFORD -- A downtown hotel being sued by a woman raped at gunpoint in its parking garage is claiming she was careless, negligent and "failed to exercise due care for her own safety and the safety of her children and proper use of her senses and facilities," according to court documents.
The victim's attorneys also argue the hotel has inadvertently identified her to acquaintances by asking them to testify.
The Stamford Marriott Hotel & Spa, along with the firms in charge of managing the hotel and its parking garage, made the claim as part of a list of special defenses filed in state Superior Court in Stamford last month. Such defenses allow defendants in civil suits to argue they are not responsible for damages even if the plaintiff's story is true.
The special defenses, and the plaintiff's argument against them, are a few of the documents filed in a series of arguments and counterarguments as the case heads for trial, scheduled for April.
The woman filed the lawsuit in May 2008, six months after Danbury native Gary Fricker, 56, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after a plea deal in the case.
On Oct. 10, 2006, Fricker stuck a handgun in the back of the then 40-year-old woman and forced her and her children, then 3 and 5, into their minivan as they left the hotel, according to court documents...............
update: video from the courant but it's really a faux 61 vid
