Who Wants to Bash Connecticut?

Liebermanville.

from Boston to NYC...seems to last forever. Route 95 is a living hell of constant construction. The Merritt Parkway is pretty and way too short.

Pennsylvania and Kansas are long drives East/West, California and Florida are long North/South

CT is smaller than some counties in Texas, I bet.

;-)

and Repuke Gov. Rowland.

I feel a little guilty for encouraging verbal violence against poor little Connecticut, the state with the name no one can spell. (Ba-dum-bum!) I went to school there, you see, and it is a great place to go to school because there's nothing at all going on there to distract you from your studies. (Ouch!)

yet still held office as mayor of Waterbury, right up until he started serving his decades-long stretch in the Federal pen!

Wondering why Lieberman cruised to re-election in the Senate? Guess who his R opponent was?? Yup, it's him!

you make a RUN to the liquor store! The dang-blasted things close at EIGHT, as well as all day Sunday! I distinctly recall running down the hill from college once, so as to set the pace for a friend who was of age. We made it, huffing and puffing, at 7:59...

Shortly thereafter, we moved to a dry town! You know you're entering Wilton when you pass Elmer's Town Line Liquors on Rt. 7. Not surprisingly, Elmer's does a land-office business, so much so that it has its own private-label wines!

And to be fair, they elected Joe before he turned into a moralistic Republican apologist.

I used to live in New Haven. Married a grad student in philosophy. Had a wonderful wedding in the chapel on the old campus. Everyone walked through Phelps Gate and across the town green to the Graduate Club (which my boss was a member of). Both our families thought we were marrying into money, but the whole thing cost less than $3,000 for 88 people (1982 dollars).

At "The Place" by Long Island Sound you could sat around big cable spools, drink beer, and eat grilled lobsters and corn, which is about all they had. And Pepe's and Sally's, the nation's premier pizza places (duck), I first had white clam pizza, which is a wonder.

My ex-wife and I lived near Wooster Square in the back of a house owned by a couple of very old, very small Italian immigrants ("like salt and pepper shakers," she said). Every square inch of the tiny backyard was cultivated, including a protected fig tree and grape trellises over the entire driveway. In September, they made their own wine in a galvanized tub under the full moon. We only paid $140 a month for three rooms.

Not to mention the rocky New England landscape. Always close to the water. Surrounded by colonial and precolonial history. Always a little in the shadow of the Big Apple, which was easy to visit by jumping on a train.

No, I have no reason to bash Connecticut.

as in Hepburn...Mark Twain...Louisa May Alcott...Gene Pitney (what a town without pity can do...no it isn't very pretty what a town without pity caaaaannnnnn dooooo)...Roz Russell (Auntie Mame!)...Wallace Stevens...Norman Lear...Sinners in the hands of angry god...where I waved to JFK on the newly opened 91, lost my virginity, met Allen Ginsburg (not at the same time), and saw 2001 82 times as an usher at the Cinerma Theater...Cheered Vincent Sloan Coffin's denunciation of LBJ, Abe Ribicoff's denunciation of gestapo tactics on the streets of Chicago, and my father's denunciation of Republicans ("Every time they win, I lose a job."). I could go on, but it all gets down to that corny thing about there being no place like home.

See I knew there was a reason why I felt guilty about inviting people to bash Connecticut, which is why I made the thread title an indeterminate question rather than an imperative.

Oh, God, I'm sorry Connecticut!

> no place like home.

Odd thing about that. I grew up in Connecticut, but it didn't feel the least bit
like home when I would go back there.

It's pretty, but there's nothing to do!
Wannagodancing? Fergeddit!
Culture? Drive to NY or Boston.
Go walk in the woods, yeah, there's lotsa woods.
We used to do that a lot when I was a kid,
but now you gotta worry about Lyme disease!

CT was never in the running jobwise either.
Me work for an insurance company or some defense contractor?
I don't think so.

Raggedy Ann and Andy (they're from Norwalk), Gerry Mulligan (I'll bet his neighbors in lily-white Darien cringed when he had his jazz friends over!), several doo-wop groups including the Five Satins (New Haven), heck, even Ayn Rand if you're into that sort of thing.

There is food in Conn. outside Wooster Square as well; Louis' Lunch (downtown N.H.) claims to have invented the hamburger, while a couple of joints up in Meriden still serve 'em steamed (?!) Meanwhile, Portuguese bakeries, especially in Bridgeport, turn out chewy loaves that have even (shh, don't tell anyone) been spotted on supermarket shelves in NYC!

Every single Huskies women's hoops game is on TV; if not national cable, then on Conn. Public TV. Ahh, the days when the Big East was so weak the Huskies would be up by 40 at halftime!

And so, a full seven years gone, I find myself alternately bashing and praising CT -- just like I did when I was there!! :argh:

and yet it's crawling with YANKEE FANS

we have one of the best representatives in the country -- John Larson is GREAT. I live in central CT and I do love it. We have very progressive state laws, the right to choose is protected, we have good anti-discrimination laws, our schools are pretty good. And, believe it or not, we do have culture. The Wadsworth in Hartford is one of the best museums I have ever been to -- and I have been to many. The Stowe Center does great programs with the likes of the ACLU. I am proud of my state.