I’m remembering a good friend today who was killed in a car crash in Marlborough one year ago today. Susan Harvey spoke her mind, didn’t try to impress anyone, worked hard, loved her family and loved her animals. She worked overnights at T’Bird Mini Mart on West Street in Keene and was killed in a single car crash near “the ledges” the morning of September 25th, 2007.

I visited with Sue just a few hours before she died. She was especially tired that night and her diabetic condition was cause for concern. I suggested she have a cup of coffee to boost her brain power but she declined, saying she wanted to get some sound sleep when she got home.

Sue had been busy knitting that month. In fact, she gave me a red and pink hand-made scarf that night. I gave her a big smile and a big hug. If Sue liked you, she really liked you. She was a very genuine person. We talked for about 10 more minutes after that then I went back to work at the radio station and talked about the scarf on the air and how Sue had told me, “it’s getting cold at night already, Jean. Stay warm.” And that was that. Sue was ejected from her car and died of head trauma. Some nice man who was first on the scene covered her badly injured head so others could not see.

The reason I write this, other than to remember one fabulous lady, is to tell third shift workers out there that when you’ve been up 20 plus hours straight, like I was yesterday trying to accomodate the world around you, stop, think and slow down. Learn to say “no”. Learn to use sick days for rest. It is better than dying because you’re so tired you fall asleep behind the wheel.

Sue Harvey was just 40 years old. Her worn-down state wasn’t an age issue. Being a shift worker, trying to sleep when the sun is shining and the jackhammers are pounding-away and the lawnmower is running and the phone is ringing is grossly unfair since local, state and federal laws protect the sleep of some, but not all. Learn from my story. Most importantly, learn from Sue’s story. She would have liked that.

In the meantime, it’s getting chilly at night. Almost scarf weather, Sue…..

At Wednesday’s House hearing, Rep. Steve LaTourette cut to the chase, summing up the frustration of members who think their constituents aren’t getting the gravity of the situation from the dispassionate Bernanke and Paulson show.

LaTourette began talking about “my guy on the couch” back home in his district who was hassled by his boss and angered about doubts he’ll be able to get a new car, keep his job, retain his credit card and save for his daughter’s education.

“He’s scared because he’s the first generation who can’t pass on the American dream to his daughter,” said the Ohio Republican — adding, “In order to accept this plan…he needs to be more scared.”

Paulson obliged.

“He should be angry and he should be scared – and I think right now he’s angrier than he is scared,” said Paulson “And it puts us in a difficult position—no one likes to be painting an overly dire picture and scaring people, but the fact is that if the financial markets are not stabilized the situation can be very severe as it relates not just to his current situation – but keeping his job… this is a serious situation and one he should be concerned about.”

 http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0…

Sure, I get into work last night and find the computer system as I knew it, gone. Gone with it are four years worth of internet contacts and favorites and everything I depend upon to write my news and AI Trivia and Quacks Facts. Holy Jahosifa! Good thing I come to work hours early. By now, 1:40am, I’ve got the new system down to a science and am more than caught up on my work. So how about a blog?

Okay, this 700 billion dollar financial crisis is once in a lifetime, right? Right. So let’s throw out the system as we know it, (much like Ira the engineer did to my computer system) and re-invent U.S. finances. Here’s my masterplan:

The oil giants can make friends of all of us by giving to the government 5% of their most recent profit margin. In return, they would get more tax breaks than they already get, but hey, in dire times, dire steps must be taken. Billionaires and other wealthy individuals would be allowed to give 20% of their income to the bail-out and in return, never have to pay income taxes again. As I see it, the wealthy never paid the lion’s share anyway. So, let’s make it official and put it in writing.

Mortgage companies would renegotiate with the Americans they tossed out into the street, put them back into their homes and arrange a payment plan that’s affordable. That’s a win/win for everyone. Homeless shelters would clear out and food pantries would breathe a sign of relief.

The average working Joe would get tax incentives to volunteer their time. Maybe then, someone who’d love to help at the hospital wouldn’t have to work at the hospital as a second job just to make ends meet.

Donating unwanted junk vehicles would get you an automatic 500 dollar check from the government. Cities and towns would welcome the clean-up campaign, recyclers would love to get their hands on the scrap metal, the metal industry could stop shipping scrap metal abroad and the vehicle owner just made a tidy sum for a heap of junk that’s rusting away. Best part, is the government for 500 measly dollars, just gave the domestic metals industry a big shot in the arm. That means theives wouldn’t be welcome to turn in manhole covers and stolen catalytic converters. Crime rate drops, too. Excellent.

Non-violent offenders would not be jailed. Instead, they’d serve mandatory community service. Jails would become less overcrowded, taxpayer support would lessen by leaps and bounds and local public works and parks departments and libraries would reap the benefits.

Tax credits could be offered to parents who home-school their children. Qualified educators may see this as an opportunity to stay home and care for their own children while educating a few neighborhood kids at the same time and still live comfortably. The tax rate would drop as more and more parents stay home, making for smaller school systems and less overhead from infrastructure to bussing. Kids would learn to appreciate what “home” means.

Anyone who opens up a mass transit system, such as a regular route from Winchester to Keene, would get in on the ground floor of a profit-making venture and have the government’s blessing. Tax incentives to follow. Fewer cars on the road means less highway maintenance and it’s better for the environment. Cheaper for the commuter, too.

Concerning old folks, you get tax credits for keeping them at home and caring for them within the family. The kids will benefit from the inter-generational exchanges. History will be passed down from one generation to the next, as was the case years ago. Medicaid subsidies would slowly disappear and isolationism would end.

Regarding litter, forget recycling. Pay people when they turn-in their disposables then let municipalities recycle them and recoup the costs. Nobody will throw paper (now worth money) out onto the highway. Old washers dumped by the side of the road will be worth picking up. A cleaner landscape. Imagine!

There’s a whole list of what we can do to change the system in the face of collapse. Maybe we should hold-off on the Presidential election until the country knows in which direction it should travel. I’m in favor of that! So what if procedures for such a thing were never outlined in the Constitution. A 700 billion dollar bail-out was never outlined in the Constitution, either.

Bad thing about being at the top, like the United States, is the only place to go, is down. But the good thing about being temporarily down, is that opportunities to rebuild abound. Now is one such time in U.S. history.

Busy day ahead. Sister Joy is coming up from the Cape and I’ll meet her at sister Meggie’s for an early birthday celebration. Meggie turns 46 Thursday and sister Joy is making a leaf-peeping trip up the Mohawk Trail, so double the fun.

Over the years we’ve kept up what mother started. Mom was always so good at birthdays. I’d call it one of her fortes. In fact, when mom passed away in ‘91, I refused to celebrate my birthday for the longest time. I always said without mom, I would have no birthday and that still holds true. But because of Matty, I’m back to celebrating them.

Age is one of these things that at 21, you can’t possibly envision being 46 like Meg or 52, like me. It’s incomprehensible. But with every passing year, I enjoy the results. Sure, some stuff is a trade off. You don’t have perfectly toned abs at 52, but you’ve got twice the mind you had at 26. And you certainly don’t have the kind of empathy at 26 that comes with seeing, hearing about or experiencing the world around you for an additional 26 years.

Hamel often picks on me for being more of a chump every year, but I wouldn’t change a thing. I like the person I am at 52, better than the person I was at 26. With the passing of time we tend to care more about others and less about ourselves. I see that in my friends as well. In fact, a very dear friend is going through chemo right now, but her email from this afternoon asked how “I” was doing. Please. She’s a one in a million gal.

As for the birthday stuff, Meggie’s birthday bag is packed and waiting for transport. The cats ripped away at the ribbon as I hand-spun the bow and it’s a little lame looking. But hey, they were Meg’s cats that wrecked the bow. I care for her fur-faces now. But I love them like they were my own and they know that. Still, Meg will get a big chuckle out of hearing about their bow antics.

My little sister is 46. Imagine. That’s the same little sister with whom I shared a room when I was 10. Same kid who got into my make up and tried-on my clothes. She’s the same rugrat who used to follow me around the neighborhood and break-up my softball games and slow me down when I had to walk somewhere quickly because her little legs couldn’t go as fast as mine. She’s the same little sister who had never been to a big city, so I took her to Worcester when I was 17. Today that could be considered child abuse. LOL. (Sorry, Worcester!) Meg is the same little sister who worked in my rest home at age 13 and put some of the adults to shame with her diligence and love for the old folks. She’s the gal with the best education in the family, (Worcester State, Clark and Anna Maria) the best eyesight in the family (hmm, maybe she is the milkman’s daughter) and without doubt, the most artistic. She can make craft out of crap, to put it bluntly.

Not much has changed over the years. She’s the tall one now and I’m the short one although Joy is shortest of all. Meg certainly got my mother’s tall Swedish genes. The presents get more expensive as the years go by. But hey, at dad’s (el cheapo) birthday rate of a dollar a year, she’s still very affordable.

Don Rickles was about to present an Emmy so I thought I’d take a seat and enjoy his comedy. As I look around the den, there’s husband sleeping on the couch with Sadie at his feet. The dog, Daphne Davenport, has claimed the recliner with Bootsie overhead. Yoda won’t budge from the wing back, so I take my coffee into the living room. Maybe I can find a seat in there.

Nope, BB has the top of the big comfy leather chair and Owen owns the seat. Surely, there’s room on the couch. Forget about it. Iggy and Abby are sprawled out, unwilling to share. So, I head back to the desk and take my place on the smallest seat in the house.

The humans don’t get much respect here. We just basically keep the place clean, pay the bills and bring home good food. I’d like to put my sweater over my shoulders to fend-off the chill while I watch the rest of the show from my desk, but Baby Kitty won’t move. She loves mother’s shawl.

Even though I can’t find anywhere to sit tonight, I wouldn’t change a thing. It speaks volumes to see the fur-faces so happy. So on that note, time to get ready for work. Maybe if I’m lucky someone will have moved by the time the 11 o’clock news begins…..

By Bill Cotterell • news-press.com capital bureau • September 21, 2008

THE VILLAGES — Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin told wildly cheering, flag-waving, chanting supporters that John McCain is “the only great man in this race” and promised Sunday he will fix the nation’s economy if voters give the GOP four more years in the White House.

“He won’t say this, so I’ll say it for him,” the Alaska governor said in an almost confidential tone at the close of her first Florida stump speech. “There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you. John McCain wore the uniform of his country for 22 years — talk about tough.”

The Villages, a vast, upscale planned community north of Orlando, has about 70,000 mostly adult residents — many of them military retirees — who vote reliably Republican in statewide races. Tens of thousands inched along roads into the picturesque town square of the complex, where they stood in sweltering heat for about four hours as local GOP officials and a country band revved up the crowd.

“Sa-Rah! Sa-Rah!” they chanted at every mention of her name, applauding loudly and waiving tiny American flags that were distributed — along with free water bottles — by local volunteers. The fire chief estimated the crowd at 60,000.

Sunday, September 21, 2008
Never saw it coming

When ‘the big one’ went north in a hurry

THE HURRICANE OF ’38 REMEMBERED

By Bill Fortier TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
 wfortier at telegram.com

After four days that brought nearly a foot of rain to Central Massachusetts, the sun came out for just a few minutes in the early afternoon 70 years ago today.

That proved to be a cruel tease because by mid-afternoon on that Wednesday, the driving tropical rain started again and the wind picked up from the southeast. The Great New England Hurricane of 1938 was about to hit the area, with winds estimated at 80 miles per hour to 100 mph and more than 6 inches of rain.

It all lasted about three hours — roughly 4 to 7 p.m. Children walking from school had to dodge falling trees, shingles, and in some cases, parts of roofs.

Amnesty International conducted an extensive examination of this case, documenting the many recantations, inconsistencies, contradictions and unanswered questions. Even the Pope has gotten involved. So why schedule an appeal after his execution?

By BOB HERBERT for the New York Times

Published: September 19, 2008

Troy Davis, who was convicted of shooting a police officer to death in the parking lot of a Burger King in Savannah, Ga., is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday.

There is some question as to his guilt (even the pope has weighed in on this case), but the odds of Mr. Davis escaping the death penalty are very slim. Putting someone to death whose guilt is uncertain is always perverted, but there’s an extra dose of perversion in this case.

The United States Supreme Court is scheduled to make a decision on whether to hear a last-ditch appeal by Mr. Davis on Sept. 29. That’s six days after the state of Georgia plans to kill him.

Mr. Davis’s lawyers have tried desperately to have the execution postponed for those few days, but so far to no avail. Georgia is among the most cold-blooded of states when it comes to dispatching prisoners into eternity.

So the lawyers are now trying to get the Supreme Court to issue a stay, or decide before Tuesday on whether it will consider the appeal.

No one anywhere would benefit from killing Mr. Davis on Tuesday, as opposed to waiting a week to see how the Supreme Court rules. So why the rush? The murder happened in 1989, and Mr. Davis has been on death row for 17 years. Six or seven more days will hardly matter.

Most of the time, the court declines to hear such cases.

If that’s the decision this time, Georgia can get on with the dirty business of taking a human life. If the court agrees to hear the appeal, it would have an opportunity to get a little closer to the truth of what actually happened on the terrible night of Aug. 19, 1989, when Officer Mark Allen MacPhail was murdered.

He was shot as he went to the aid of a homeless man who was being pistol-whipped in the parking lot.

Nine witnesses testified against Mr. Davis at his trial in 1991, but seven of the nine have since changed their stories. One of the recanting witnesses, Dorothy Ferrell, said she was on parole when she testified and was afraid that she’d be sent back to prison if she didn’t agree to finger Mr. Davis.

She said in an affidavit: “I told the detective that Troy Davis was the shooter, even though the truth was that I didn’t know who shot the officer.”

Another witness, Darrell Collins, a teenager at the time of the murder, said the police had “scared” him into falsely testifying by threatening to charge him as an accessory to the crime. He said they told him that he might never get out of prison.

“I didn’t want to go to jail because I didn’t do nothing wrong,” he said.

At least three witnesses who testified against Mr. Davis (and a number of others who were not part of the trial) have since said that a man named Sylvester “Redd” Coles admitted that he was the one who had killed the officer.

Mr. Coles, who was at the scene, and who, according to authorities, later ditched a gun of the same caliber as the murder weapon, is one of the two witnesses who have not recanted.

The other is a man who initially told investigators that he could not identify the killer. Nearly two years later, at the trial, he testified that the killer was Mr. Davis.

So we have here a mess that is difficult, perhaps impossible, to sort through in a way that will yield reliable answers. (The jury also convicted Mr. Davis of a nonfatal shooting earlier that same evening on testimony that was even more dubious.)

There was no physical evidence against Mr. Davis, and the murder weapon was never found. As for the witnesses, their testimony was obviously shaky in the extreme — not the sort of evidence you want to rely upon when putting someone to death.

In March, the State Supreme Court in Georgia, in a 4-to-3 decision, denied Mr. Davis’s request for a new trial. The chief justice, Leah Ward Sears, writing for the minority, said: “In this case, nearly every witness who identified Davis as the shooter at trial has now disclaimed his or her ability to do so reliably.”

Amnesty International conducted an extensive examination of the case, documenting the many recantations, inconsistencies, contradictions and unanswered questions. Its report on the case drew widespread attention, both in the U.S. and overseas.

William Sessions, a former director of the F.B.I., has said that a closer look at the case is warranted. And Pope Benedict XVI has urged authorities in Georgia to re-sentence Mr. Davis to life in prison.

Rushing to execute Mr. Davis on Tuesday makes no sense at all.

AP-DALLAS - A 56-year-old man who spent 25 years behind bars for a rape he says he didn’t commit walked out of court a free man on Friday after a judge recommended his aggravated rape conviction be overturned.

Johnnie Earl Lindsey said he wrote six letters to a Dallas County court seeking post-conviction DNA testing that could prove his innocence. All six were ignored, he said.

“I couldn’t get nobody to hear my case,” said Lindsey, 56. “Once I could get someone to pay attention to what’s going on, there was no doubt in my mind I would be exonerated.”

That day came Friday, about a week after testing on DNA evidence from a rape kit taken after a 1981 sexual assault of a Dallas woman excluded Lindsey as the source.

He becomes the 20th man in Dallas County proven innocent by DNA testing since 2001, although one of those men will be retried by prosecutors. Those 20 cases are a national high for one county, according to the Innocence Project, a New York-based legal center specializing in wrongful conviction cases

October 2008

A chilly start then some showers over the first weekend. Partly cloudy and cool and breezy for much of the first full week. Wet cool weather around or shortly thereafter the Columbus Day Holiday weekend. Partly cloudy and cool weather holds into late month then showery and windy for the last weekend…followed by dry but cold weather for the end of the month so ghosts and goblins will need their coats.

November 2008

A wet start then fair and cold through much of the first week…..but that following weekend could turn out cloudy and wet. Prior to mid month it should be fair and chilly but shortly thereafter a storm could bring a preview of winter with a cold rain, perhaps some wet snow and sleet. Late month with see another rain storm followed by dry but cold weather around Thanksgiving time. The end of the month could see more wintry precipitation.

December 2008

First week will be mainly fair and cold. Some showers will give way to another period of dry cold weather during the second week. As we approach mid month there could be the makings of a winter storm for all of us. Following that storm there will be a break in the wintry pattern and it will turn milder with some showers as we head toward the first day of winter.

(The rest of December will follow in our Winter Forecast to be issued in early October).

Pat Pagano