Terry Cowgill

Upper Housy Heritage Area Passes

Last night the U.S. Senate passed a bill that included the designation of the Northwest Corner and parts of Berkshire County, Mass., as a national heritage area.

If signed into law by President Bush, the Upper Housatonic National Heritage Area will make the region eligible for about $1 million per year in federal matching grants for historic preservation and environmental protection.

Heritage Area Chairman Ron Jones told me in an email today: “Terry - I just heard that the Senate has passed our bill, S. 203, so we now have our Congressional designation, assuming, of course, that the President does not veto it.”

Of course, Ron was being tongue-in-cheek. Imagine if Bush used this opportunity to issue only the second veto of his presidency. That would put us right up there with stem cell research on his list of betes noires.

At any rate, congratulations are in order to Ron, Ed Kirby and the rest of the gang who made this terrific project possible. Click here to see the heritage area’s website. Click below on the “Read the rest of this entry …” link to see the press release accompanying Ron’s email.

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A Right-Wing Hit Man?

[Photo courtesy of Fox News]

For those who have been following the controversy surrounding Chris Wallace’s interview Sunday with former President Bill Clinton, yesterday’s Imus In The Morning program was interesting on at least two levels: Imus’ interview with Wallace and his chat with Col. Jack Jacobs. For a synopsis of both interviews, click here. A full transcript of Wallace’s interview with Clinton can be found here.

Of course, no one but Clinton or his closest advisors know if his outburst was spontaneous. But it wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn that he had planned it from the beginning. The scene reminded me of Dan Rather’s now infamous 1988 interview with Bush 41.

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Chris Murphy: Opportunity Knocks

Democratic congressional candidate and State Sen. Chris Murphy was in Lakeville over the weekend. Late Saturday afternoon, he strolled down Bostwick Street knocking on doors and giving his spiel to anyone who would listen.

[In the photo at left, he is seen pressing the flesh with Craig Davis]

Accompanied by his young field coordinator, a couple of local supporters and Al Ginouves, who chairs the Salisbury Democratic Town Committee, Murphy was determined to meet as many people as he could and spread the word that incumbent Republican Nancy Johnson, who has served 14 terms representing the Northwest Corner in Washington, should be sent packing. It’s hard to disagree with him.

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A Slice of Heaven in Hatteras

My friend Steve Potter, the former general manager of Lime Rock Park, sent me the following photo he took Sept. 21 while on vacation. Here is the text of his email:

“Sitting 30 miles or so east of the mainland, Cape Hatteras on North Carolina’s Outer Banks has the reputation of producing some of the world’s loveliest sunsets. Judge for yourself; I made this photo last Thursday (the fall equinox, as it happens) at sundown.”

Best regards,
Steve

Steve, this photo reminds me of sitting on a tree stump and watching the sunset over Currituck Sound while sipping a fresh peach dacquiri with my old buddies from boarding school. From Duck to Okracoke Island, I, too, have enjoyed the fine beaches and friendly people of the OBX. I first visited there in 1978, when the only food store in Kitty Hawk was Wee Winks, which is smaller than the Canaan Market. I haven’t been back since 1997, when my now-10-year-old son was still in diapers. My wife and I honeymooned in Southern Shores in 1988. This makes me nostalgic for both of those visits. We’ve got to go back again soon.

The Green Alps State

Note: This is the second in a series on states that have harebrained ideas. For the first, click here. [photo of Newport and Lake Memphremagog courtesy vermontvacations.com]

There is a very amusing piece in today’s Los Angeles Times about a movement in Vermont — albeit a small one — to secede from the Union. A group calling itself the Second Vermont Republic wants the Green Mountain State to split from the U S. and become a neutral and self-sustaining nation much like Switzerland.

Members of the group worry, according to the Times, “about global warming, the U.S. military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, unfair trade practices, and the ‘tyranny of multinational corporations.’”

Of course, secession is a pipe dream, as even many of it advocates admit. But it raises some very interesting questions about one of the most interesting states in the nation.

As an undergraduate in nearby Quebec, I spent a lot of time in Vermont in the mid 70s to early 80s. I drove through it often on the way back and forth from my home in the Boston area. My girlfriend’s family had a place in Townshend, Vt. And the family of one of my best college friends from Montreal had a summer place in Highgate Springs. When we stayed there it gave us the opportunity to experience Burlington. What a fun and funky place …

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Outrage in Falls Village Justified

Monday in Falls Village, one of the two stone quarries on Sand Road set off an explosion to loosen rock for its extensive mining operation. That in itself isn’t unusual. In fact, it happens regularly. But this time something strange and dangerous happened.

Dozens of stones, some of them as large as my foot (I’m size 11 1/2, for those who are already planning their holiday shopping), rained down on two nearby properties. When I heard about it, I went to one of the affected homes. The news story about my visit can be found here. The photo of the largest stone I saw is at left. The wide-angle lens on my camera makes the Giumarros’ home look farther away from the stone than it actually is.

The people I interviewed were upset but calm. They were miffed but not shaking their fists. Rest assured, though, they were angry about what they described as “an industrial accident.” Bob and Ruth Giumarro and Frank and Maggie Ruotolo revived Concerned Citizens of Falls Village and held an impromptu meeting with a reporter in the Giumarros’ kitchen. They simply wanted answers.

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35K And Barely A Whimper

Perhaps some of my readers could explain this to me. A friend just alerted me to the fact that 35,000 people in New York protested the Tuesday speech of Iranian President Ahmadinejad at the U.N. There has been almost no coverage of the demonstration, which featured speakers such as Elie Wiesel, U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, Gov. George Pataki and Harvard Prof. Alan Dershowitz.

35,000 people and the only coverage in the MSM I have been able to find is in the conservative newspaper the New York Sun. Several Jewish publications ran articles and it has turned up in blog searches. But I think it’s safe to say that if protesters had turned out in such numbers to register their disapproval of President Bush’s speech, we would have heard about it big time.

The Sun article is here. And there are other accounts and discussions here, here and here. Maybe the MSM will be shamed into reporting this eventually. My friend is fit to be tied over this. Is he overreacting?

Show The Door To Leo The Lip

Well, that’s it. I’ve had about enough. Last night L.A. Steel (a.k.a. Leo Nadeau) lost it. I rarely tune into his wretched Tuesday night show on Q-103 unless there is a power failure or unless I am in the car (in both cases the Lakeville station is about the only form of entertainment available). But even by Leo’s own low standards, his pathetic diatribe exceeded the bounds of decency and he embarrassed himself beyond the point of redemption.

It was a typically unfocused and uninformative discussion. The dialogue centered on a controversial speech given in Germany by Pope Benedict XVI about Islam and the resulting furor in the Muslim world. Perhaps Leo thought he was being cute, but no one in the room cooed when he called the Pope “a moron and a Nazi.”

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Throw The Book At HP Snoopers

As someone who often leans Libertarian, I am happy to criticize government officials when they are guilty of overreaching, unethical behavior or just plain corruption. But the private sector can be just as out-of control. Witness the disclosures recently of the shameful behavior of the board of directors of Hewlett Packard.

Earlier this month, news accounts surfaced that as early as January 2005, when inside information about the ousting of former chief executive Carly Fiorina first emerged , HP excutives and board members launched an ill-fated investigation into who was leaking company secrets to the news media (the leaker was identified as a board member and has since resigned). Now a piece in today’s New York Times reveals that almost from the beginning the probe included surveillance and the gathering of phone records of both board members and journalists. Click here to read the NYT piece.

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Straight Talk On The Pizza Express

There’s a terrific letter to the editor in the Sept. 14 Lakeville Journal from Maura Wolf in which she raises three major questions about Dean Diamond’s proposed pizzeria on Millerton Road.

In an earlier post on this matter last month, I addressed two previous letters on the restaurant. Unlike Ms. Wolf’s, however, those two epistles (one from an art gallery and another from a resident across the street) focused more on the inappropriateness (really the esthetics and ambiance) of a “fast-food” eatery being allowed to operate in a historic district. Those two letters prompted some stern responses — both on my post and on the letters page of The Journal.

Rather than get carried away by emotion or indignation, Ms. Wolf calmly questioned whether the town of Salisbury’s historic district commission “is strong enough” to ensure that signage and other exterior alterations will be consistent with the district. She also wondered whether parking and access were sufficient given the buidling’s location on a fairly dangerous section of Route 44.

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