Too late

Mr, and Mrs. Charles Cortese turned down what seemed to me an overly generous offer from the water company to shield their Dairy Road property from the company’s expansion plans, got nothing instead, and are now suing.

The time to cut a deal on one of these things is before the P&Z rules against you. The Coteses were warned by the P&Z that the ruling was going to go against them, they persisted in their opposition. Sometimes, it’s best to know when to fold’em.

God bless America

I’m heading back over soon to my neighbors and friends, Andy and Janet Bein’s Fourth of July party, where what must be twenty kids are swimming, kayaking, and flipping a canoe upside down while their parents chat and keep an easy eye on them. Watching that peaceful scene, I was reminded of my fishing partner  of this morning, Lou Van Leewuen’s tale- back in the late 30’s his parents walked, with his mother pregnant with Louis, from Holland to Spain to escape the Nazis. They eventually made their way to this country,penniless but alive, and started a new life. I don’t know the Bein’s story, but is there a Jewish family anywhere without tales of loss and sorrow during the holocaust?  My own Huguenot ancestors fled the slaughter yards of France back in the 1500’s and came to New Amsterdam via Holland. Yet here we all are on this brilliant sunny day in July, enjoying a life of peace and prosperity.

I’m far too long removed from the events to feel a particular pride that my ancestors fought to make this country free, but I’m certainly grateful to them, and am awfully pleased, this day, to be an American, and grateful to have friends like Louis, and Andy and Janet.

I hate stories like this

GHS hockey players rally around paralyzed high schooler. I don’t mean the actions of the hockey players, of course – they’re doing noble stuff. But as they themselves recognize, it could have been one of them and as a parent, it just sickens me . We love our children and want to protect them from every hurt in the world, yet we can’t. As a teen, I took all sorts of crazy risks without ever once considering the effect on my parents should I be seriously injured – and what kid does, or even should? But God, as a parent ….

Anyway, my heart goes out to this boy. Bring on stem cell regeneration as fast as possible, please.

Idiot wind

Martha Raddatz, who is apparently chief foreign correspondent for ABC, is upset that we aren’t killing and wounding enough of our troops over in Iraq and Afghanistan. What a lovely woman – and happy 4th of July to you, dear.

UPDATE: Interestingly enough, Raddatz is apparently married to the Marine Corp fighter pilot, pictured above. Does she consider him the same sort of coward who pilots a predator drone? Would she prefer her husband to be on the ground with his legs blown off by an IED? Or is she just a silly, simpering idiot? I’m going with the last.

UPDATE II: Okay, who’s the real idiot? A reader has correctly pointed out that I misread the article and Raddatz did not marry the Marine but merely introduced him to someone else, who did. My only defense is that when I hit gossip columns, i go MEGO and there it is. Sorry.

Where are the boaters?

I was fortunate enough to be invited fishing with friend Lou Van Leeuwen this morning and we had a wonderful time – even caught and kept a large bluefish (Lou’s the softy who always wants to release everything we catch while I, from time to time, insist on bringing one of the poor dears home to eat)  which, as I write, is brining in preparation for a trip through my smoker.

But Lou and i were both struck by the dearth of boats, both power and sail. It’s a beautiful day out there, with a nice breeze from the north – nothing so strong as to make power boating uncomfortable yet enough of a wind to propel a sailboat – and yet the Sound looked as it does post Labor Day, rather than today, the 4th of July. Is this a sign of recession, or just some odd phenomenon? Beats me. Any theories?