Terry Cowgill

Blogging Break

Blogging here will be slow for the next couple of days. I am headed to Saratoga Springs, N.Y., for the annual NYPA convention. Back Sunday. Meanwhile, let the debates continue.

Motor Inn Now Just A Memory

Update: Click here to read my news story on the motor lodge.

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The old Salisbury Motor Inn (or Motor Lodge) on Route 44 at the bottom of Smith Hill was demolished today by Bunce Construction.

I moved to this area in 1990 and I never recall a successful business operating in there for very long.

A series of restaurants operated in the main building and I’m not sure I remember the hotel rooms being occupied during that time. I recall a Carribean eatery in the early 90s and, of course, most recently, there was a restaurant opened by the owner of the former Canaan Pizza.

The assessor’s card notes that the property had septic problems. Not surprising since it sits on the edge of a swamp. Somone told me the motor lodge was created when a series of cabins was moved from Ashley Falls and lashed together make a motel. This would have been the late 1960s or early 70s.

The property was sold last year to Peter Zagres. The current owner, I am told, is Scott Bok, proprietor of the White Hart Inn. I am trying to track Scott down to find out what he intends to do with the property. The motel had become an eyesore, to say nothing of being a safety liability, so I am glad it was taken down.

We have a photo of the demolition on the front page of this week’s LJ print edition. I do plan to write an article for next week’s paper that looks at the history of the place. Anyone have any stories to share about that building? I’ll bet you have some tales to tell, Marshall.

Martian Warming

If, as one scientist has observed, Mars is also getting warmer, isn’t there a possibility the Earth’s climate change could be explained by natural phenomena? I haven’t seen much coverage of this man’s theories in the MSM. Wonder what the global warming community’s reax will be. Actually, I think I know.

Scrapple-race: Scott Ott for Prez

My favorite satirist has an announcement.

Dopey Journalists

Sometimes (actually often) we journalists are just as blind to conflicts as those we cover. The LA Times publisher and editor did the right thing in this unseemly episode, but it looks like they only acted after reporters complained.

Thank goodnesss the dopey editorial page editor resigned. I don’t think I’d want him on my staff. Of course, this is not the first time the LAT has grappled with confilcts of interest. And it will surely not be the last.

Which brings to mind the question: “It’s rare that we learn of incidents like this one, so what’s going on in the netherworld of journalism that we never even find out about?”

Change at LHK: Too Much Too Fast?

Sometimes it’s interesting (and revealing) the way people react to change — proposed or announced.

Almost 40 people, most of them parents troubled by an upcoming change that will affect their child, crowded into the cramped Lee H. Kellogg School library Wednesday to sound off on Principal Maria Bulson’s decision to reconfigure the way the various grades at the K-8 school are grouped for classes.

Bulson had prepared a PowerPoint presentation outlining her reasons for the changes for the tiny 100-student school, whose enrollment is project to drop another 20% or more over the next few years.

Continue reading Change at LHK: Too Much Too Fast?…

Musical Comedy at Housy This Weekend

Don’t forget to go to HVRHS this weekend to see A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. It’s early Stephen Sondheim (1962). Hilarious.

I myself was in a production of it once and had a ball. Regrettably, at home I still have the video of myself singing “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid.”

Togas and sandals were the order of the day. Enjoy.

Wednesday’s Thoughts

One of those epic battles between the executive and legislative branches is brewing in Washington. It looks like the Senate will issue subpoenas soon for Karl Rove and Harriet Myers to testify under oath about their roles in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys and, judging from what President Bush said yesterday, he will strongly resist.

First Read has been following this closely. Bush has offered to let the two be interviewed unrecorded and behind closed doors — a proposal that was summarily rejected by Sen. Pat Leahy, the Dem who chairs the Judiciary Committee. This is a matter that may very well be decided by the courts.

But the best part is it will provide some deliciously hypocritical moments. Just picture Hillary Clinton arguing against Bush’s claim of executive privilege when, as a New York Times analysis notes today, “legal scholars said that President Bill Clinton asserted the doctrine of executive privilege more often and more vigorously [than the Bush admin], including in the investigation of his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.”

And, of course, Republicans who castigated Bill for invoking executive privilege so often, will likely support GWB. All of this just serves to remind us that in the don’t-do-as-I-do department, Congress has no equal.

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And I’m sure Mike Flint will tee off on this one on Sunday. The Courant reports this morning that there is a movement afoot to make some or all of Connecticut’s legislators full-time employees. This would essentially dispose of the notion that Nutmeggers send citizen legislators to Hartford.

Continue reading Wednesday’s Thoughts…

To Gore An Ox

I hate to beat a dead horse, but this piece is worth a read. Our old friend John Fund takes a hard look at AlGore’s dirty zinc mines, which contunued to operate even after he wrote “Earth in the Balance.”

He also notes that the NYT and Gore’s hometown newspaper have started to quote reputable scientists who question some of the more extreme and alarmist scenarios in Gore’s Academy Award winning film, An Inconventient Truth, as well as some of the those dubious “carbon offsets” he uses to rationalize his exorbitant energy use.

Winter Hangs On

On my way to check on a house, I stopped this afternoon to enjoy this view. The recent cold and the foot or more of snow couldn’t stop the waters from flowing over the dam on Fisher’s Pond (a.k.a. Meryl Streep’s Lake).