Dear Felicia

“The leaves of brown came tumbling down, remember – in September – in the rain!”

That old song came to mind since our last missive cuz of the monster Nor’easter we got last week. September went out with a bang and drenching. The storm was called a “blizzard without the snow,” by one forecaster to let people know jest how massive and damaging it could be. The leaves were not so brown but they did come tumblin’ down, boy did we have some rain, Felicia!

All week people were put on the alert, and even Long Island Sound has some waves generated by the storm that we don’t see in these parts very often. And, all that great beach sand that was recently placed along the coast found its way in the drink due to those waves, the wind, and the fury that Momma Nature can produce at times.

One thing was ironic. So far, the forecasters have marveled at the fack that for the foist time in several decades there haven’t been any hurricanes percolating out in the Atlantic so far, and we’re reaching a record date on that fack. Meanwhile, we git a Nor’easter like we ain’t seen in these parts for the same number of decades. No, it ain’t got nuthin’ to do with “global warming,” but everything to do with the ebb and flow of the aforementioned Momma Nature.

And, speaking of leaves, the trees in some parts of town are giving up the annual ghost already. Cobina was traversing the main drag, and all those trees that were put in about a decade ago seem to be the last to bloom and the foist to turn yellow and lose their leaves. Meanwhile, all around town trees are browning, redding or yellowing with leaves fluttering to the ground.

Hate to say it, sweets, but the heating season is looking to be not only jest around the corner, but darkening the door. Temps were in the 40s last week, and will continue to drop. And, effen you ain’t seen them, the Internet is full of forecasters who are crowing about El Nino this and Super El Nino that, with headlines about massive storms, only to have the hedging during their presentations. Click-bait I think they call it.

Effen it ain’t bad enuff that things are turning chilly, there are yokels about the berg who are ready for Halloween some six weeks before it happens. Skeletons and witches and all kinds o’ scary stuff are appearing already. Is it me, dearie, or are things not as much fun anymore and gettin’ jest a bit darker. Spookiness is one thing, but some people take it a bit too far, methinks.

Here in the Asylum by the Sea meanwhile, paving has been a big part of the late summer and early fall. The main drag was, in fact, dragged a couple weeks ago of its pavement, and brought down almost to the bare ground. Well, here we are jest a couple o’ weeks later, and the pavement is finished – jest last week, in fact.

The Wag was in t’other day and noted that paving this year seems to be a bit quicker on the turnaround from milling to paving not only on the main arteries but all over town. It was a three- to four-week lag betwixt the milling portion and the paving, but his year neighborhoods are getting the foist coat about a week later, and a second coat within 10 days after that.

Don’t know effen it’s the company that’s doing the work or a mandate from the powers that be, but I hafta say it’s nice to have things done in a timely manner. And we know we only have a few more weeks to go before paving the streets will be a bit more difficult with the change of climate.

~~~

Now, yew know that Cobina has never had a warm spot in her ticker for Rosa DeLauro Greenberg (as I have said, I do this jest to tick off herself and the feminist sojourners). Tennyrate, Rosa has been making a name for herself in the last lit’le while being a bit of a harpy on Capitol Hill (no surprise there), embarrassing herself and her colleagues with some of her antics. Think AOC but without the fashion sense. In the last few weeks she’s had two hissy fits during oversight committee meetings, where that purple pate of hers is in full display.

Well, in the last week or so there has been a bit of a kerfuffle up in Greenfield, MA, where a drinking establishment that caters to “well-tailored gals” (that’s what we used to say in the 50s) made up the clientele. The story goes that since the Covid debacle of 2020, the watering hole has had a masking policy that patrons had to be covered from the nose down unless slurping or chewing. Now remember, this is six years since the bat flu.

The story goes that the establishment was having financial difficulties and wanted to up the numbers so the place could stay open. One night a week, Saturday, they were gonna relax the mask regulation, and allow patrons to go facially commando.

You’d have thought the proprietors were going hetero by the response. The social media gestapo got out and called it “ableist” and hurting people with autoimmune problems, fill in the blanks yew git the drift. The Society of the Eternally Offended lit up the ether.

Enter Rosa, who got on a social media site and wanted to get up a bus trip to Greenfield to protest the “weird lesbian bar.’ Now, it ain’t clear from her post which way she was leaning on this issue until a day or so later, when herself canceled the bus trip. The reason: no one wanted to wear masks.

So, the Dem from the CT-3 districk was gonna go up to Greenfield, jest a stone’s throw from the Vermont border and rally the brigade of harpies she could muster to make the owners of the bar pay a price, evidently. One problem though, masks were not optional.

Yew can’t make this stuff up. You also know that Rosa will probably be re-installed in Congress come November, and we’ll have to put up with her lunacy for two more years or until she enters the gates of greater life.

~~~

Work on the West Haven Community Center seems to be winding down somewhat, and some of the tenants are ensconced therein. Now will be the work to git the place operational in a tenant and date sense, with events scheduled and meetings planned, etc.

With such an undertaking, Nelly Nuthatch came by and wondered who is going to the persona that will have his or her name emblazoned on the building? Good query. Around here, putting a name on a public building is a good way to immortalize people who have made big contributions to the city, and we do a lot of it.

Cobina has a few people in mind, but we ain’t heard who the power brokers in the Actors Colony might be thinking of. Might we offer a suggestion? The papyrus would like to git involved and will take suggestions for John and Jane Q. Public as to who or whom they would like to see honored, and a committee could make the final recommendation.

We did that a few decades ago on the street that runs along the high school, and it was a great participation event. We remember we got hundreds of names and suggestions. We offer it, and hope someone either on the Thoid Floor or elsewhere will take us up on it.

~~~

Mike Mercuriano did git back to us about the carousel, and sez that plans are being hashed out for a merry-go-round. Remember, I mentioned that a few weeks ago. In the process of him discussing things with him, he regaled us with videos and photos that are on YouTube concerning the old amusement park. People are showing old home movies as well as some professional stuff that was done in the 30s, 40s and 50s.

Cobina happened to catch a glimpse of one or two and our thoughts went back to those days. The scenes included the old Jimmies, Peter Franke’s Funhouse, the Virginia Reel, and an old favorite, the motorboats as well as the Skyblazer and Thunderbolt, the one that went out over the water.

We will keep you apprised of Mercuriano and his committee, but effen yew git a chance, take a look at what’s online.

~~~

We see we’re getting a bit closer to money coming into town to study (again) downtown. Whilst we can be critical and say, we know what’s wrong, the question is how do we fix it, we will keep an open mind. What Cobina wants to see is the plan that comes outta this study.

Plans have been proffered before and scuttled. It’s one thing to talk about a plan, and quite different to git one operational. That is something we know very well in our little corner of the universe. Plans concerning downtown could wallpaper City Hall. What is needed is one that could be put into use. We have a bit more to wait before that happens.

~~~

With that bit o’ chatter, I’ll close this time till next, mitt luff und kizzez,