Saying good-bye to a trusted travel companion

Written by Donald Eng
Thursday, 19 November 2009 10:52

I never really considered myself the sentimental type. Certainly, I never expected to be standing in a parking lot dabbing away a tear over a piece of injection molded plastic.

But there I was watching the insurance agent remove our old car seat like a soldier pulling his wounded comrade from the fray.

Like all new parents, Maggie and I were determined to do whatever we could to keep Elizabeth safe. Like all who aren’t Saudi princes, that sometimes meant prioritizing or delaying what politicians call “wants” so we could focus

The end of the world again

Written by Fred Musante
Wednesday, 18 November 2009 14:44

If or when the world finally ends, expect the cataclysm to arrive with a sense of déjà vu.

We have seen the ultimate catastrophe happen over and over again on the silver screen, and last weekend yet another planet-chomping film arrived in theaters, Roland Emmerich’s “2012,” to dazzle us with extravagant mayhem we never thought we’d see, or survive.

Supposedly, as New Age hucksters tell us, the ancient Mayan calendar comes to an end on Dec. 21, 2012, foretelling a worldwide catastrophe that will hit on that date. If it doesn’t kill you, you’ll wish it did.

Emmerich doesn’t make much of this in his flick, however. It is mentioned in passing, but the real purpose of the film is to display computer-generated special effects, not to promote some knuckleheads’ hoary, pseudo-religious end-of-the-world nonsense.

And that is all for the best, since nobody is more embarrassed by the Mayan calendar story than the poor Maya, down in old Yucatan.

The MTA’s big dig

Written by Jim Cameron
Monday, 16 November 2009 18:32

We all know what happened when Boston decided to bury its downtown elevated interstate highway, known as the central artery. What was intended to be a seven-year, $2.5-billion project became a 10-year, $14.6-billion engineering nightmare.

Well, heads up fellow commuters and taxpayers. New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) (parent of Metro-North) has similar designs on our beloved Grand Central Station. Nicknamed the “East Side Access” project, the goal is to bring the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) into Grand Central.

How writing columns has enriched my life

Written by Ellen Beveridge
Monday, 09 November 2009 18:34

When I retired from my position on the editorial staff of the Trumbull Times after 46 years, publisher Tom Nash suggested I write a column, “to stay in touch with the community,” he said, referring to the many years I was the social editor.

Although I agreed to give it a try, writing a column was something new to me. My experience had been in writing features, but in this type of writing you are simply the liaison between the person you interview and the reader.

Writing a column is personal; you have to tap into memories, experiences and opinions to make it work. This was my challenge.

I began by taking up on the suggestion of a granddaughter who once asked, “Grammy, why don’t you write about what your life was like when you were a little girl?”

Avalanche of e-mails keeps on growing

Written by Joe Pisani
Monday, 09 November 2009 18:31

While I was waiting in line at the information desk of Barnes and Noble, a clerk told the woman in front of me, “I’ll contact you when the book comes in. What’s your e-mail address?”

There was a moment’s pause before she responded, “I don’t have an e-mail address.”

The young man looked up quizzically. This was like telling the mothers in the carpool, “I don’t have a driver’s license.” It was totally out of the ordinary in the post-modern technological era when people put their whole lives, including their police records and sexual preferences, on Facebook for the entire world to see.

To confirm this eccentricity, the woman, who looked about 40-something, shook her head “no.”

Ask and you’ll find the answer

Written by Joe Pisani
Tuesday, 03 November 2009 09:42

At the entrance to the bookstore, larger than life, was a display for a new book by celebrity atheist Richard Dawkins — the Jerry Seinfeld of nonbelievers and author of such controversial works as “The God Delusion.”

You can’t buy a caramel macchiato these days without bumping into an atheist, trying to convert you to the cause of Godlessness.

“The time for polite debate is over,” an Associated Press story proclaimed. “Militant atheist writers are making an all-out assault on religious faith,” publishing books like “Good Without God” and “God Is Not Great.”

New railcars a year late in delivery

Written by Jim Cameron
Monday, 02 November 2009 16:05

It’s the question I am asked almost every day: “When are the new rail cars coming?” The answer: “Later than we’d thought.”

Yes, the new M8 rail cars, which lawmakers authorized in 2005, and we hoped would be in service late this year, won’t be in service until late 2010 … a year later than planned.

We on the Connecticut Rail Commuter Council (a state-appointed watchdog group) have been tracking the progress of the M8s from engineering design to focus groups on the interiors to initial “crush tests” (which they failed). Every month we ask if there are any delays, and the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CDOT) says “no, we’re right on track.”

My Halloween night of trickery

Written by Ellen Beveridge
Tuesday, 27 October 2009 10:58

One Halloween night I got the bright idea to pay my mother a trick-or-treat visit at her home in Stratford. It happened so many years ago that I have no recollection of where I got the ghoulish mask I wore or why I came up with such an idea in the first place.

I dug up some old, unrecognizable clothes and decided to carry a walking stick to complement the appearance of an old, down-on-his-luck man.

On the way to my mother’s, I stopped at a friend’s house to test the effectiveness of my costume (where the accompanying photo was taken). She was encouragingly impressed. That was all I needed to continue on with my Halloween venture.

Not everything contagious is bad

Written by Joe Pisani
Tuesday, 27 October 2009 10:48

A friend of mine who grew up in Greenwich and lives in Fairfield married a girl from the Valley, so he’s seen much of the civilized world as we know it. But when he traveled to Vermont recently, he stepped into another dimension. It was not the civilized world – as we know it.

At one point, he and his wife stopped to study the road map, and a local resident ambled over to ask, “Are you lost? Can I help?”

This simple act of unsolicited kindness took them by surprise, which makes you wonder whether we’re too accustomed to having doors slammed in our faces, motorists cut us off on the turnpike and horns honked if we don’t move fast enough.

The hardest thing in the world to do

Written by Joe Pisani
Wednesday, 21 October 2009 09:04

Every day after dropping his wife off at the train station, a middle-aged man drives his Audi to the end of the parking lot, opens the trunk and pulls out a concealed pack of cigarettes.

It sure looks like something sinister is going on. In his hideaway far from the platform, he lights up, sits on the bumper, coughs a few times and then enjoys a good smoke.

I guess he’s not supposed to smoke in the car. He’s probably not supposed to smoke, period. Several minutes later — his morning ritual concluded and nicotine coursing through his veins — he speeds away, a happy man despite the respiratory problems.

Cigarette smokers are a hunted breed, by their families, by their doctors, by non-smokers and by their governor, who raised taxes $1 a pack, hoping to capture $100 million in revenue, cut health-care costs and strong-arm people into quitting.

In theory, the higher tax, which brings cigarettes to $7 a pack, is expected to dissuade 24,000 young people from starting and persuade 10,000 adults to stop. More than 4,700 people die every year in Connecticut as a result of smoking (the national toll is 467,000), and the medical bill is $1.63 billion for the state and $96 billion for the nation.