thursday humor

the headline says it all here:
West Hartford Taxpayers Catch A Break
By BILL LEUKHARDT


yeah, it says it all but i'm still going to put my two cents in. catch a break my big fat ass. who the hell are they kidding. there are NO breaks in west hartford. also, i keep reminding everyone (who seems to have forgotten this part), black and blue square was absolutely positively going to save the good citizens of west hartford. it was going to cut our taxes (remember how the town put up a bunch o' dough to help finance it?). well our taxes keep going up even though by ALL accounts black and blue square is heaven on earth (i've never been and will NEVER go. outside of taking my father to one of his doctors who happens to have an office in a building somewhere in the bowels of black and blue)

i really really really dislike

the 'family' institute of connecticut (and hell no i'm NOT going to link to them). they're soul-less, full of fear and hate. wait till they meet their maker and she says she's pissed at 'em!

you see i believe - love makes a family


oh and don't let 'these people' fool you. they could give two shites about your or my first amendment rights. they just are homophobic, unaccepting, closed minded, steamin' pieces o' drek


After Complaint, DCF Removes Web Links To Churches That Welcome Gays

By DANIELA ALTIMARI The Hartford Courant
HARTFORD — - The state Department of Children and Families has removed from its website church-related links to "open and affirming" churches after a group threatened legal action.

"We thought it was appropriate to take these down from our website. ... Concerns over the separation of church and state did come into play," department spokesman Josh Howroyd said Wednesday.



................."We said all along that if same-sex marriage was imposed in Connecticut, the next thing that would happen would be an effort to re-educate Connecticut children," said Peter Wolfgang, executive director of the family institute. "That's what today's victory was all about: making sure they don't try and re-indoctrinate children into accepting lifestyles and beliefs that their parents are utterly opposed to.".......

sure, i read angela's ashes

and i STILL cry when i think of it. i've seen mr mccourt on television many times. i've never been lucky enough to see him in person. he absolutely wasn't bitter. he absolutely had a grand sense of humor. he absolutely seemed like a decent man. he got through hell and he shared what he could with us so we would know ANYTHING is possible.

we'll miss you frank
Frank McCourt, Author of ‘Angela’s Ashes,’ Dies at 78

By WILLIAM GRIMES
Frank McCourt, a former New York City schoolteacher who turned his miserable childhood in Limerick, Ireland, into a phenomenally popular, Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, “Angela’s Ashes,” died in Manhattan on Sunday. He was 78 and lived in Manhattan and Roxbury, Conn.

The cause was metastatic melanoma, said Mr. McCourt’s brother, the writer Malachy McCourt.

Mr. McCourt, who taught in the city’s school system for nearly 30 years, had always told his writing students that they were their own best material. In his mid-60s, he decided to take his own advice, sitting down to commit his childhood memories to paper and producing what he described as “a modest book, modestly written.”

In it Mr. McCourt described a childhood of terrible deprivation...........

pic:

Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times

Frank McCourt in 2005 in a classroom at Stuyvesant High School in New York, where he taught creative writing.

Frank McCourt, Author Of Angela's Ashes, Dies At 78
Frank McCourt's 1996 novel "Angela's Ashes" sold more than 5 million copies
By RINKER BUCK The Hartford Courant
Frank McCourt, the Irish-American storyteller who parlayed the miseries of a Limerick upbringing into an extraordinary late-life literary blooming, died of cancer Sunday in New York City. McCourt, 78, had spent the past 13 years buoyantly touring the globe on reading tours and writing two sequels to his 1996 best-seller, "Angela's Ashes," which sold more than 5 million copies and was translated into more than 20 languages. He had been undergoing treatment for skin cancer in recent years and been released in early June from New York's Memorial Sloan Kettering Center to recuperate at his Roxbury home. Two weeks ago he was diagnosed with meningitis, a frequent complication of patients whose immune systems are compromised by cancer treatment, and McCourt was moved to a New York hospice where over the past few days family and friends from around the world had gathered at his bedside. During the past decade McCourt had become a familiar, popular figure and a kind of permanent cultural resource around Connecticut............


pic: Frank McCourt author of 'Angela's Ashes' at his Roxbury home in 1999. (TOM BROWN / HARTFORD COURANT / August 9, 1999)

i LOVE LOVE LOVE hounds from hell!

i miss having a dog

i'm old enough to know who ned coll is

and this rather shocked me.................

i will say, my friends own the half door, plan b and of course tisane

i don't go to tisane if i can help it. EXCELLENT food, but i just hang elsewhere.

i don't know jack. i can't speak for him. what i CAN do it tell you i hang in the area. i CAN tell you it does have people who panhandle. i CAN tell you i learned my lesson after giving peeps money a LONG time ago (it's spent on drugs or drink.. no ifs ands or buts. not a doubt. it IS. i know that for a fact). i know all the businesses in the area, NOT JUST TISANE ask the panhandlers to move on. i personally know them ALL. (i do). I NOW ASK THEM TO MOVE ON (my favorite was the time several winters ago, gary (my personal favorite) came up to me (on a very snowy sunday AFTERNOON), opened his coat and asked me if i wanted to buy frozen meat (I'M VEGAN MY PEEPS). now come on. even if one was a carnivore would you buy frozen MEAT from someone who had rows of it stashed in their coat?????????????

anyway, my point being, the businesses around the west end are sometimes bothered by the garys and the delores' (my personal favorite crack ho in the ENTIRE universe. no, i'm not being insensitive. no, i'm not being un-pc. i am being HONEST. delores would walk up to me and say, 'a rose is a rose, you look BEAUTIFUL' wait 3 beats then say, 'do you have $20.00'?. yes, it's true). i gave her some 20s to begin with. then i insisted upon going into the bodega with her to BUY SOME FOOD (and yes, she did buy food when i went with her. unfortunately delores is no longer in the hood. i do hope she's ok. i LIKE her. there were times she was locked up and she came back to the hood looking healthier than i've ever seen her. she's been gone t0o long this time. keep your fingers crossed for her).


not that ned isn't allowed in tisane, but WTF???????????? it's rather like seeing him in black and blue square. just some place you'd NOT expect him (or ME) to be


Activist Ned Coll Arrested After Tiff At Tisane

By DAVID OWENS
HARTFORD — - Ned Coll, the activist and sometime presidential candidate, was arrested about 11 p.m. Tuesday after getting into a dispute with the manager of Tisane, a Farmington Avenue restaurant.

Police said Coll was a patron at Tisane when a panhandler who frequents the area walked by. Coll gave the woman some money, then began to speak with her.

The manager of Tisane asked the woman to move along, police said. Coll became upset with the manager, and the situation escalated to the point that restaurant staff called police.

Coll, 69, who lives in Hartford's West End and has a home in Barkhamsted, was charged with second-degree breach of peace and first-degree criminal trespass. He was released on a written promise to appear in court today in Hartford.

Coll said Tuesday afternoon that the woman approached him.

"This lady came up to me, and she was poor, and I helped her," Coll said. "This guy cuts in and says 'don't give her any money.' That's where I got ticked. It's not his business if I'm helping somebody."

Coll, who founded an anti-poverty agency called the Revitalization Corps, said restaurant staff then attacked.....................

stupid connecticut crime

i can't call HER a criminal. she hasn't been tried yet. hmmmmm but it sure is a stupid series of events (and dangerous)

i'm thinking it's NOT a good thing to be late for work on your first day. i'm also thinking
#1) GET THE HELL UP EARLIER THAN NORMAL ON THAT FIRST DAY
#2) GET YOUR ASS IN YOUR CAR EARLIER THAN NORMAL ON THAT FIRST DAY
#3) IF IN FACT YOU GET A TICKET ON YOUR FIRST DAY OF WORK, BRING THE TICKET INTO WORK TO SHOW THEM YOU'RE NOT LYING

of course, since this woman had stolen plates, i don't think she was ever ACTUALLY going to get to work that day any way

Police: Late For New Job, Woman Flees Traffic Stop
By DAVID OWENS The Hartford Courant
VERNON - A woman pulled over for speeding on Route 83 near Connecticut Golf Land about 8:40 a.m. Thursday, but intent on getting to a new job, sped off after giving her license to an officer, police said.

Maria J. Alipio had told Sgt. Bill Meier she was late for a first day of work at a new job, and nearly struck two other officers who tried to stop her, police said.

Alipio, 49, kept going even an officer in a car pursued her south on Route 83, said Vernon police Sgt. Bill Meier.

"I turned around to walk back to my car and she takes off," Meier said.
.............

question?

does anyone care less about this shite than i do?

really, i don't care who was boinking who(m). i don't care how much she spends a month and what she spends it on. i don't care what he thinks of her habits.

they BOTH got what they deserved: each other

so connecticut news outlets STOP COVERING THIS SHITE. WE SIMPLY DO NOT CARE

Possible Settlement In David Divorce

make sure they really DO work for the MDC

or whoever they say they're working for. if you're suspicious DON'T OPEN THE DOOR. just don't. tell whoever it is to wait while you call and verify their story. then DO IT. call and verify it. no one is going to think less of you.

i am especially shocked at the florida couple who were recently killed. they're the ones who adopted a MESS of kids, some of whom had disabilities. i believe 9 of their kids were home during the murders.

JUST BE CAREFUL. the tougher the times, the crazier people seem to get


MDC Warns Of "Water Company" Impostors

HARTFORD - The Metropolitan District Commission is warning customers about potential "Water Company" impostors attempting to enter homes.

The warning comes after a West Hartford resident reported a potential impostor near her property Monday, according to the MDC.

Residents can verify whether an individual is an MDC worker by calling the 24-hour Emergency Command Center at (860)278-7850, Ext. 3600 or by e-mailing H2ogc@themdc.com................

ravings of a semi-sane madwoman: domestic violence and in this case, the thin blue line

ravings of a semi-sane madwoman: domestic violence and in this case, the thin blue line

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.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

you know there is one forgotten firefighter

in the new haven firefighter's lawsuit. i didn't know about lt. vargas until i just read this. either way or any way you look at it, he has one wicked tough road to follow. it appears he is following his heart and mind which is all fine by me (my position on the lawsuit, which of course i've stated before is, GO FOR IT. i would fight discrimination, racial or ANY kind with all i have. however, i also want those that deserve the job to GET the job. if a test is stilted one way, it certainly would be unfair and should be tossed out. if a test is fair and only a few pass, well then they should indeed get the rewards. i haven't seen the test, i don't know what it contains. )



For Hispanic Firefighter in New Haven Bias Suit, Awkward Position but Firm Resolve
By A. G. SULZBERGER
NEW HAVEN — The two dozen firefighters who packed into Humphrey’s East Restaurant were celebrating a coming marriage, drinking and jawboning in the boisterous style of large men with risky jobs, but Lt. Ben Vargas spent the evening trying to escape the tension surrounding his presence.

During a trip to the bathroom, he found himself facing another man. Without warning, the first punch landed. When Lieutenant Vargas awoke, bloodied and splayed on the grimy floor, he was taken to the hospital.

Lieutenant Vargas believes the attack, five years ago, was orchestrated by a black firefighter in retaliation for his having joined a racial discrimination lawsuit against the city over its tossing out of an exam for promotion that few minority firefighters passed. (No arrests were made in the attack, and the black firefighter vigorously denies having been involved.)..............

pic: Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times

Lt. Ben Vargas, with 17 white firefighters, won a case before the Supreme Court contending that New Haven had shown discrimination by throwing out a test for promotion.

well on the one hand

unlike (allegedly) what the neighbors didn't do for kitty genovese these teens actually DID something. unfortunately it was NOT a woman getting beaten up. the good news is it appears the man who was beaten was released from the hospital the same day

i'm torn here. people ABSOLUTELY MUST be aware of what is going on around them. if someone, ANYONE, a woman, a child, an elderly person or even a grown man is getting slammed, CALL THE POLICE IMMEDIATELY. don't wait. DO SOMETHING

note: if it's noisy sex, BUT OUT (so to speak)


Police: Noisy Sex Leads To Beating, Arrests
Associated Press
TORRINGTON - Police in Connecticut say they arrested four teenagers who misunderstood a woman's screams and beat a 25-year-old man who was having sex with her in her bedroom.

The teens were arraigned Wednesday in Bantam Superior Court on assault and conspiracy charges in the June 6 beating in Torrington. They were arrested Tuesday.

Police say a 16-year-old girl who lives in the home overheard the man and the 34-year-old woman, and got four friends to stop what she thought was an attack............

congratulations to john phillips who will be the new

west hartford director of public works. i DO have an ulterior motive for saying that though. i have been (as well as a few others i know of) calling the town of west hartford to get a burned out street light replaced on asylum avenue. i have personally been calling for well over two years. YES OVER TWO YEARS (more like 3 or 4 i think). why is it bothering me so much? well i'll tell you. the burned out light in question is right near one of those effing stupid and effing dangerous and effing ridiculous lovely traffic islands on asylum. they should be lit up as much as possible to avoid MORE accidents than they've already caused. soooooooooooooooooooooooo mr phillips how about fixing that burned out light on asylum?

years is way too long to wait to replace a light. and tell whoever answers the phone when we call to stop lying. they always say it's on the list and they'll get to it. must be an awfully big effing list if that light has been on it for over 2 years.

(p.s. seriously though, i'm happy mr phillips got the job. i am glad they promoted from within)

U.S. Navy Veteran Named West Hartford Director Of Public Works

By BILL LEUKHARDT
WEST HARTFORD — - John Phillips, a U.S. Navy veteran hired in 1996 as a public works laborer, will be the new director of public works.

Phillips, the public works department's municipal parking manager since 2004, will replace Dana Hallenbeck, who will retire July 18 to start a new career as an ordained Lutheran minister.

"It was a difficult decision, because we had excellent applicants," interim Town Manager Ron Van Winkle said Monday. "John is an incredible hard-working person and has done a great job as parking operations manager."

The town recruited from within and had seven applicants. The pay range for the director's job is $65,000 to $119,000 a year. Van Winkle said Monday that he has not yet met with Phillips to set a salary.

Phillips, 38, said Monday that he looks forward to the challenge of running the department that maintains roads, supervises trash collection, cuts grass and, in Van Winkle's words, "basically [are] the ones who take care of the town."..........