I’m staying home

Reserve your seat!

Thousands flock to French village to await end of the world in 2012. That’s not Ed Krumeich in front of the pilgrims -he’s reserved a flight for January 2012, but has wisely reserved a tent site.

UPDATE: Ed emails: ” This is the nonsense up with which I will not put! I have not made any reservations for a French vacation next year - in fact, I am leaving with my family next week, and the rest of you can rot in Hell!”

(Okay, he didn’t really say that, but he should have)

Horrors! Competition!

Doctors want to work in US, U.S. medical schools don’t want them. With Medicare slated to cut doctors’ fees to the bone, so to speak, don’t we need these people?

True Grit – I really want to see this movie

 One of my favorite writers, Stephen Hunter, reviews my favorite movie makers, the Cohen Coen brothers. It’s a love fest, and why not, with Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon starring? Nothing like Fargo, alas, but then, what could be?

Maybe this is what it takes

Montana jury pool revolts, refuses to consider marijuana indictment. ”I’ve never seen anything like it”, says prosecutor. May it happen again, and often.

Where are we going with this?

Pilot criticizes TSA and has his house raided by six agents, weapon confiscated, home searched. This is an agency seriously out of control. Abolish it now, and let’s take our chances.

Blue crabs are back

I used to catch these as kid, and now they’re back, expecially by the Bush Holly House. Bring a net – so far as I know, there’s no restriction on catching them. They came to mind today because I bought some Alaskan King  Crab legs and started wondering at all the spider crabs we used to discard when lobstering. Those are big suckers, with huge legs, and probably perfectly tasty. I never tried them, but I regret that now. Especially given the price of Alaskan Crab.

UPDATE: by the way, if you haven’t read Beautiful Swimmers, the story of blue crabs and the Chesapeake fisherman who go after them, you’ve denied yourself a real treat. A wonderful book. Won the Pulitzer Prize, if that matters to you.

Newark fires cops after senior members reject wage cut

You might think that unions protect all members. You’d be wrong.

No open houses today

So I’ve been firing the potato cannon at geese in the creek. They don’t like it. Video coming  soon, if daughter Sarah uploads it to me.

Why stay home when you can celebrate Christmas at the casino?

All your friends from Round Hill Club will be there!

Screw the grandchildren and go have fun! What shouts “Merry Christmas” louder than “Jackpot!”?

And from August of this year

Is there a reason for the YMCA in Greenwich to exist?

YMCA!

I have no idea what their “mission” is  anymore. The YWCA, down the road, proclaims its goal as “Eliminating racism, empowering women”, which is just fine, I suppose. But what the hell does the Young Men’s Christian Association want to accomplish? Right now, it seems to be spin bicycles for women. They’ve eliminated their rental units for single men, tossed out the old timers, and now sit in an half-empty, half-renovated palace on tax exempt property, running exercise classes for women. I don’t get it.

From 2005

YWCA

Our town is now blessed with several new signs in orange plastic steering folks to the YWCA. And in front of that building the same orange plastic proclaims a new mission statement: Eliminating Racism, Empowering Women. I thought it was all about learning how to swim, but what do I know? More important, did they really have to choose orange plastic as their medium for conveying this message? I realize that the signs are no uglier than the building they identify but that’s about the same as pointing out that, for a fat girl, she doesn’t sweat much.

Land is still valuable south of the Village

5 St. Claire

Tear down on 0.3 acre next to St. Savior’s. Assessed at $1.5 (the owner should have appealed long ago) sold for $1.275.

YMCA

So screwed, There are ways out of this but, so far, they don’t want to  hear it. My guess? Someone on the Board has cut a deal with Greenwich Hospital to sell the place, but that’s just speculation on my part. Still, I smell a rat.

The rumour I hear is that Frank Corvino, head of Greenwich Hospital, has assembled some investors who will buy the YMCA building and then lease it to the hospital for a tidy sum. Truth or fiction? I don’t know, but since that would screw all the donors of the past who’ve kept this institution going, the cynic in me believes it true. Who, by the way, sits on the board of the Y, and are they Corvino’s investors?