Man or beast, don’t drive distracted

Written by Joe Pisani
Thursday, 03 February 2011 00:00

By Joe Pisani

While I was pulling out of Cumberland Farms, all excited about buying the winning Powerball ticket, I almost crashed into a pole because the car coming at me was being driven by a shih tzu with one of those Fu Manchu mustaches and a pink bow in her hair.

Suddenly, my smart-phone started shouting: “Danger, Will Robinson, danger! Puppy speeding on the Post Road!”

What really scared me wasn’t the dog’s creepy mustache but that she didn’t have her paws on the steering wheel.

Why, I wondered, would the Department of Motor Vehicles ever give a driver’s license to a dog that didn’t know how to steer correctly?

Then, crazy me, I realized the dog was sitting on the owner’s lap and he was probably teaching her to drive, which really scared me because it meant that dimwit was the one controlling the car.

You’ll probably say, “You journalists are always looking for something to complain about. Stop picking on that dog-owner just because he wants his pet to understand the rules of the road so she can drive him home after happy hour at TGIF.” That would truly be a new and revolutionary concept in motor-vehicle safety — the designated doggie driver.

OK, even if the dog had a learner’s permit, how could she see the road with all that hair in her eyes? The tragic reality is that I’ve seen many dogs — and an occasional infant behind the steering wheel, and I have to wonder why the heck they’re not strapped to the seats.

One in a million... or 18 million

Written by Carter Johnson
Thursday, 03 February 2011 00:00

I don’t really remember when I first started thinking about college, when the idea of it crept its way into my head and made itself at home. Now it seems to dominate everything I do, especially as I come off midterm exams and face the spring semester of my junior year, a pivotal time by all accounts. Every grade now is not just a letter — it is a signal to work harder, to keep apace and in front of a growing pile of work and goals. The playwright Tennessee Williams said, “The future is called ‘perhaps,’ which is the only possible thing to call the future.” Upon finding those words, I took solace in the idea that I’m not the only one uncertain about the future, especially as it’s applied to the college process ahead.

It seems to me impossible to go through it without feeling doubts and uncertainties, and I know I’m not the only teenager who feels that anything could lie in wait around the next turn.

The whole process will leave me with doubts and questions, but I can’t deny that it’s exciting in its own whirlwind kind of way.

Having watched two older siblings endure the process of applying to college, I like to think I have few misconceptions about what lies ahead. But the truth is, I don’t have the faintest clue what’s in store for myself and others who will graduate next spring. I can only take solace in the fact that I am in the same boat as millions of others.

Where are the new rail cars? That’s a good question

Written by Jim Cameron
Thursday, 03 February 2011 00:00

Almost daily, on train platforms and in town, a commuter stops me to ask, “So, where are the new M8 rail cars?” I wish I knew!

It has been six years since then-Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced that the state would finally be replacing its broken-down rail fleet — six years! It’s taken that long for their design, bidding, construction and delivery. The first car arrived Christmas Eve 2009, already a year late due to builder Kawasaki’s construction problems.

For 13 months those cars have undergone testing. But today we seem no closer to riding the M8s despite promises that they would be in service by now, and the testing process has been cloaked in mystery. (Ironically, there are dozens of videos of the M8s undergoing testing on YouTube, but that’s the closest I’ve been to seeing them running.)

Throughout 2010, we were told that prototype testing was going well. But by November, we wondered why a date hadn’t been announced for the trains to go into service. After all, even Gov. Rell had been promised that the M8s would run before she left office at the end of December 2010.

Rebellious Rhythms

Written by Victoria Baker
Thursday, 27 January 2011 12:17

"Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and cannot remain silent," said the great French writer Victor Hugo. Yet there are so many ways to express oneself musically. We can be restrained and elegant, loud and angry and sometimes rhythmic and rebellious. The soul of Latin music and in particular the music of Cuba contains all of these qualities and then some.