October 31, 2008

Halloween Hellhouse? No, Hillhouse

Halloween. Celtic New Year. Out with the old, in with the new and all that.
I spent the day cleaning the garage, among other things, donating some good but wrong-sized clothing to the local thrift shop, and sorting through some things I no longer use that have been packed away, like my son Ant's old trumpet from when he was in grade school, and the Mexican sombrero I had worn one year for Halloween when I dressed as Pancho Villa. I brought one stack to the local thrift shop to donate to someone who could use it and set aside another stack to sell on e-Bay.
Then off I went to videotape the Halloween night high school football game between New Haven Hillhouse and Shelton. When I get home tonight, well after midnight, I'll continue the Halloween vibe by spinning a classic horror film DVD.
- - TONY SPINELLI

ADDENDUM: I wound up watching "Carnival of Souls" -- what a yawner! I kept hoping to see a carnival! The scene where she is driving at night and sees relections of people who are not there in her car windows is pretty chilling though.

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A Real Halloween Treat: Tankful of Gasoline for $25

I stopped at the gas station in my neighborhood because my needle was glowing a big red "E," and I had the best Halloween treat a guy could ask for: it took only $25 to fill the tank.
I can barely remember the last time I was able to fill the tank for 25 bucks. I am thinking it has got to be at least five years ago.
Now we are headed in the right direction!
I had to laugh, though, because a little old lady filling up had expectations that were probably a little unrealistic.
"I want gas to be less than a dollar, the way it was in the 1950s!," she said.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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October 30, 2008

Just Like Star Wars: Holograms

There is that great scene in the 1977 film "Star Wars," where Princess Leiah records a holgraphic video of herself onto the computer inside R2-D2, so he can play it back later to the Jedi hermit Obiwan Kanobe.
"Help me Obiwan Kanobe, help me!," she says in the hologram, and Kanobe quickly obliges.
That type of technology, so novel in the 1977 sci-fi adventure film we've all come to love, is now reality. This Election Night, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer in New York will be talking to guests who will appear in the studio with him by hologram, rather than using the traditional split screen or window viewing technology so familiar in television news.
This equipment must certainly be very expensive, but I can guess that at some point we'll be watching holograms at home, just like some of us already own Blu-Ray DVD systems that are as close to virtual reality as it gets in our homes at this point.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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Mini Book Review: The Art & Soul of Baking

With the cold weather upon us, and getting colder, it's a good time to do some home-baking, even if it's just something simple like homemade bread, cornbread or maybe some stuffed bread to go with soups and stews. Home-baking in the cold fall and winter months is a good thing, because it fills the house with a delectable aroma, helps generate heat, and feels good.
Whether you're the type that wakes up early in the morning to do your baking before heading for work, or the type that likes to bake on the weekends when you're not so rushed, the new book "The Art & Soul of Baking," by Cindy Mushet from Andrew McMeel Publishing, is a terrific reference book to guide your hand.
The illustrated book gives detailed recipes and instructions, as well as background information you need to know on the various elements of the craft.
And with Thanksgiving Day approaching, you might want to brush up on baking a classic New England pumpkin pie.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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October 29, 2008

Honey With A Twist, From Sicily

I've been struck with a cold and sore throat all week, as you can tell from the sound of my voice on the newsvideos here at ConnPost.com, and I was looking for some soothing relief.
So I tried some lemon flower honey from Mt. Aetna, Sicily. If you like tea with honey and lemon, a tablespoon of lemon flower honey is like getting it all in one shot. The bees gather nectar from the lemon flowers that grow on the smoking volcanic mountain, and the honey is actually imbued with the flavor of lemons.
It tasted great, and if I am not mistaken, it was just as soothing as cough syrup but without the unwanted side effects.
I can only hope that American honey farmers will borrow this idea and start marketing honey from our own orange flowers, lemon flowers and other fruit flowers right here in the U.S. You could have Florida orange honey, for example, instead of just "orange blossom honey," which of course has been available for years in health food stores. Marketers could make the location of the product the selling point, such as Mt. Rainier, or Mt. Washington, the way the Sicilians do with Mt. Aetna. With all the interest in wholesome natural foods I would bet it would be a successful product.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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First American Newspaper Goes Full Digital

It is a significant time in American journalism: The Christian Science Monitor, a highly respected newspaper that nonetheless had been losing money, announced yesterday it will stop publishing a print edition next April and go full digital, continuing to exist on the Web only.
The Monitor's circulation is just 52,000 -- down from 160,000 two decades ago, and it has high production and distribution costs that make it no longer feasible to continue as a printed product, according to the Washington Post. The Web site, meanwhile, has been drawing 1.5 million unique visitors a month.
The short of it is, American journalism will probably develop an even greater Web audience once organizations start advertising and promoting the Web sites. All the growth so far has come without so much as a billboard notice and reflects the sheer size of the on-line audience.
Some American newspapers are already transitioning to using print editions as a niche product, such as only on weekends when demand for a print edition is highest, while the Web sites become the mainstays.
-- TONY SPINELLI

ADDENDUM: I refer only to American journalism, because newspaper reading habits vary from one country to another. The Japanese, for example, are voracious newspaper readers and it is not uncommon to see two or three subscriptions per household; in Japan, newspapers haven't done much to developer their Web sites because demand for their printed product is so strong. I would also add that Japan has one of the oldest populations in the world, and one of the smallest populations of young people in the world. In other words, there is very little market to develop.

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k.d. lang a Hit On Good Morning America

Adult alternative artist k.d. lang, fresh off an appearance in Bridgeport Tuesday night, performed live on Good Morning America today and she was a hit to my 49-year-old tastes.
lang performed "Coming Home," an alternative country piece with a folksy banjo part, and it had a lovely, compelling and modern melody with lyrics that were equally as interesting. The overall sound was organic and earthy, sort of melancholy, and it made me want to run out and buy the album.
Of course in this Web age we live in, you don't have to "run out" and buy an album. I just went to my computer and Googled "k.d. lang new album" and within a minute I was playing streaming audio samples of the tracks from her CD, "Watershed," which when released in February was first new album in eight years. By clicking on an icon next to the streaming audio sample, you can purchase the mp3 of the track you want for 99 cents, which is a significant capability in a recession when people may not have an extra $17 to buy a CD.
It's a new world.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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October 28, 2008

Mini Book Review: The Untouchable Tree

Back in 2002, I was covering a ceremony in which some trees were being planted, and I asked the woman planting them what they symbolized to her, what they meant to her.
"They're trees," she said squarely, drawing a blank at the question.
Well, trees are powerfully meaningful to many of the rest of us and carry an awful lot of symbolism -- the Bible, for example, makes numerous mystical references to trees including perhaps the most famous one of all, the apple tree in the Garden of Eden -- so it was with pleasure that I discovered the new illustrated book by Peter C. Stone, "The Untouchable Tree: An Illustrated Guide to Earthly Wisdom & Arboreal Delights."
The book, from Skyhorse Publishing, fascinated me with its prose, poetry, art and insights into the wonders of the cypress, the oak, the juniper, and for those of us who love Christmas, the Norway Spruce, among many others. It is written from the perspective of an environmental conservationist, which some would not entirely agree with, but overall captures the essence of trees.
I hate to pop the balloon for the author of this fine book, but for me, at least some of the beauty of trees is what can be done with them: to make violins, guitars, mandolins. It is true that stringed instruments can be made of synthetic materials, as well, and they often are, but the ones made of wood have a beauty in their grain and a sensitivity to the touch that makes them seem organic.
And it is trees that give us that wood.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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Funny Hat Season Is Here

Cold weather is upon us and getting colder. On Friday nights, when I'm out videotaping high school football games, lots of people wear gloves, winter coats, scarves and hats.
Now, you can wear a knit hat to a football game, and it is just fine to look like a lumberjack or a merchant marine, but you need a different type of hat when you are wearing a jacket and tie, as I often do because the people I interview include senators, congressmen, goverrnors, and corporate executives. That leads to one of today's perplexing problems for men: finding a hat that doesn't make you look like a cartoon character.
Decades ago, when brimmed hats were fashionable for men -- they went out of fashion in the 1960s and never really came back -- everyone wore brimmed hats. Now, if you wear a brimmed hat, people take one look at you and shout out, "Indiana Jones! Al Capone!"
So brimmed hats, including Hamburgs, which look great with a suit, are out.
Then there is the old standby of the American West, the cowboy hat. The problem is, if you are out East and wear one, you look like some kind of dude ranch wannabe. I know because I've owned my share of brown "Little Joe" hats with the flat top and if I had a dollar for every remark about them I could probably buy a ticket to Texas.
So cowboy hats are out.
Then there is the cap. You would think a simple wool cap, like a golf cap, would pass muster today, but no, it too has fallen victim to cartoon character syndrome. I know because I wore one a couple of winters ago. "You look like that guy in the comic strip, Andy Capp!," somebody who wasn't wearing a hat told me.
So golf caps are out. Baseball caps are widely popular today, but they donh't do much to keep your head warm and you can't wear them with a suit. What's left?
I went shopping last weekend at some of my favorite stores, looking for the right hat, and found what I hope to be a good pick, at Burlington's Coat Factory in Stratford. It is a wool cap, but permanently shaped, similar to an English riding hat but more formal. I think they call it a Kangol. So far I've worn it with a a Humphrey Bogart-style rainy weather trenchcoat, and it seems to make the grade. It does the job of providing a warm, dry head covering without making you look silly when you're wearing a tie and trying to look proper.
Now if I could only get people to stop making remarks about trenchcoats. I am fond of them and looked far and wide to find one like the one I saw Bogart wear in the movies, the one with the belt around the middle and the epaulets on the shoulders.
"You look like an undercover agent!," someone told me today.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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October 26, 2008

Halloween for Adults: Guilty Pleasures

You don't have to be a kid to enjoy the American tradition that is Halloween.
I usually dressed up to take my son, Ant, out trick-or-treating when he was young enough to do that door-fo-door stuff. My sisters, Theresa and Kim, also would wear costumes, to greet the children at their doors and hand out candy.
Candy is what Halloween is all about. For some Halloween is scary, for some it is sexy, and for some it is just fun, but whatever your position on it, the candy is always at the center.
As a rule, I always try to buy the candy that I personally would enjoy receiving. I don't buy some undesireable stuff just to have something to hand out. I try to give what I consider the desireable stuff, based on what I personally like, and that is:
+Hershey's with almonds.
+Hersheys.
+Nestle's Crunch.
+Snickers.
+Baby Ruth.
+M&Ms with peanuts.
+Strawberry Twizzlers.
+Double-bubble and Bazooka bubblegum.
+Atomic fireballs.
+Starbursts.
+Good And Plenty.
+Ike And Mike.
+Black Crows.
+Juji Fruits.
I've also been a fan of jelly beans and gumdrops, which are more common at Easter time, but those candies are not typically found in small packages so they are not practical as Halloween giveaways.
And, Halloween is that one time of year when you probably should indulge in your favorite candy, go ahead and gain an extra five pounds temporarily, then get back to your disciplined self and work it off. If you don't enjoy these small pleasures of life when you can and while you can life has a way of being like a fast-moving parade that gets past you too quickly.
Especially now, in an economic downturn with a squeeze on credit, candy is an inexpensive pleasure that we can probably afford and should take advantage of, at least for Halloween. Think of it as inner child therapy.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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October 25, 2008

The Power of Suggestion at the Circus

One of the amazing things about the atmosphere of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, playing through Sunday night at Bridgeport's Arena At Harbor Yard, is the power of suggestion it has.
Walk into the arena, with all those barkers hawking popcorn and snowcones, and wouldn't you know it, you want to eat popcorn and snowcones. For me, it doesn't matter that popcorn is a snack food that is readily available at the Connecticut Post cafeteria, or that I eat Italian ice quite frequently because it happens to be one of my favorite non-dairy desserts and it is priced very reasonably at the supermarket. Walk into that arena, and you act like you have never seen popcorn.
The circus does that. It is probably the mother of all advertising and marketing.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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October 24, 2008

More Amazing Circus Facts: The Animals

In a previous blog item, I wrote about all the people that work in the circus. Today I'll mention the animals, since I have all this research material that couldn't fit into the script for the three newsvideos I made this week about the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show On Earth. The circus plays through Sunday night at Bridgeport's Arena At Harbor Yard.
+There are 10 Asian elephants. Contrary to urban legend, they are not African elephants.
+There are 17 horses, including a breed called the Fjord that comes from Norway.
+There are 12 tigers.
+Six zebras.
+Four goats. (Goats? Whoda thunk it. Must be for the soap. I swear goat's milk soap is the best soap in the world.)
+Lots of trained dogs.
When I was informed that each elephant eats 160 pounds of food per day -- much of it in the form of hay -- I shuddered to do the math because small bales of hay that weigh perhaps eight pounds sell at Wal-Mart for $6!
-- TONY SPINELLI

ADDENDUM: Someone wrote in claiming there is an 11th, young elephant that performs only occasionally, that did not walk with the others when the train arrived but rode in a vehicle. I was there and can say that I did see a young elephant leave in a vehicle, but I did not count the elephants that marched in the walk that day because I was busy videotaping them. Because of the camera angles, it cannot be confirmed from the tape whether there were 10 on the walk and the 11th rode or there were 9 on the walk and the 10th rode. Perhaps some of the still photographs of the elephant walk show a camera angle from which you can count the elephants.

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October 23, 2008

Amazing Facts About Greatest Show On Earth

There is only so much information you can pack into the script for a 3.5 minute newsvideo, so here is some of the information I brought back to the newsroom with me Thursday night after videotaping the first 20 minutes of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show On Earth on opening night at Bridgeport's Arena at Harbor Yard.
+It takes 12 hours to assemble the stage and rigging.
+It takes five hours to tear down the stage and rigging.
+The show takes three miles of cable.
+4,335 tons of equipment to move by train and truck
+350 costume changes per show
+60 pounds of confetti are used in each stop.
+1,000 pounds of popcorn consumed at each stop.
+15,000 pounds of ice is produced to make snow cones for each performance.
+750 pounds of sugar used to make cotton candy at each stop.
+The circus plays 42 cities per year, typically for four or five days at each stop.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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Greatest Show On Earth Is Truly Global

I have just completed nearly two hours of intense video editing of the first 20 minutes of opening night at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show On Earth in Bridgeport, at the Arena At Harbor Yard, and I am dazzled. All those elephants, horses, zebras, acrobats, clowns, and trapeze artists exploding at you in 20 minutes -- it is amazing and I had to leave before six cages full of tigers came out into the light!
The circus is truly an international show. I mention a couple of the acts by name in the newsvideo, but I thought it would be a nice gesture to name more, since this is the great daredevil clown Bello Nock's final tour.
Ringmaster Tyron Stucks McFarlan Jr., Columbia, S.C.
Aerialist Erendira Wallenda, Sarasota, Fla.
Cannonball Duo Brian Miser and Tina Miser, Peru, Indiana.
High Wire Artists Alberto Aguilar and Mauricio Aguilar Castro, Monterrey, Mexico.
Acrobatic tiger and horse handler Tabayara Maluenda, Arica and Santiago, Chile.
Aerialist Nikolas Wallenda, Sarasota, Fla.
Elephant caretaker Alex Vargas, Tampa, Fla.
Exotic animal handlers Stefaka Schwichtenberg of Sofia, Bulgaria, and Sylvio Schwichtenberg of Berlin, Germany.
Dog handlers the Olate Family, Santiago, Chile.
Trapeze artists the Flying Poemas, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Dog handlers the Zotova Family, Briansk and Moscow, Russia.
Teeterboard artists the Palazovi Troupe, Sofia, Bulgaria.
The Zunyi Acrobatic Troupe, Zunyi, Guizhou province, People's Republic of China.
BMX Stunt Riders Victor Bako and Benedect Eszteri of Hungary.
Clowns Kelly Ballagh of Arroyo Grande, Calif., Leo Acton of Ventura, Calif., Alan Ware of Albuquerque, N.M., Nari Tomassetii of San Francisco, Calif., Michelle Musser of Chicago, Il., Dustin Portillo of Independence, Mo., Brandon Foster of Plano, Tx., Michael Richter of Canaan, N.H.,Olexandr Kartukov of Nikopol, Ukraine, Martin Lopez of San Diego, Calif., Alex Acero of Cali, Columbia, and Yvinson Acero of Cali., Columbia.
There are also a troupe of Portuguese-speaking dancers, one of whom said they came from Brazil, a number of production men and women and the well-honed 10-piece band, led by Brett Barlow of Liberal, KS.
The performers live on the circus train, which stretches for a mile and is now parked at the railyard in North Haven.
I asked one of the performers what they look for in a parking spot, other than one large enough to accomodate a mile-long train. The answer was laundromats, because the circus trains have no laundry machines onboard.
Another thing they look for: movie theaters. When not entertaining, they enjoy being entertained.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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Richard M. Nixon Masks On e-Bay

The feature story I wrote about presidential candidate Halloween masks appeared on the front page of the Connecticut Post today, and on the header of ConnPost.com as well; one person on the interactive comments section wanted to know whether his old Richard M. Nixon mask is worth any money.
Well, it isn't going to buy you a trip to Cancun.
I checked it out on e-Bay. Nixon masks are available on e-Bay for $5 to $30, depending mostly on whether they are half-masks or full-head masks.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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October 21, 2008

In Search Of David Humphries

In 1991, long before I was familiar with the Naugatuck Valley from four years of working there and three years of living there, I encountered the story of David Humphries.
David Humphries had been a friend of General George Washington, was a state representative from Derby, and a U.S. diplomat serving in Spain.
I learned those things by looking them up after a tractor-trailer driver on Interstate 95 scraped the left side of my hard-earned two-seater sports car, which I bought used when I was 28, and handed me an identification card claiming to be David Humphries from Derby.
"Please don't call the state police and file a report on this. I will make good on the damage. I don't want this going against my driving record," the truckdriver said as he handed me the card claiming to be David Humphreys.
I had visited friends in the Valley, though, which he could not have possibly known or guessed, and something sounded awfully familiar about that name because it is plastered around the place quite a bit. I kept thinking it was the name of a Revolutionary War hero -- Humphreys had in fact served as General Washington's personal aid.
I politely told the truckdriver to take a hike.
"I'm sorry, but my car is really messed up. I need to make a record of this," I told him, and the state police soon arrived and found out his name was actually not David Humphreys, as I had figured it wasn't.
He gave me a sly laugh like he thought for a moment he could have gotten away with the ruse -- leaving me stuck with more damage on my car than I could afford to repair. Insurance paid the repair bill, but my rates went up so high I could not afford to keep the car, which is how and why I had acquired it from it's previous owner in the first place. I was forced to sell the nifty Mazda RX-7 at a loss.
Now, of course, I know far more about David Humphreys than I ever thought I would. I had learned so much about him, actually, that I became fascinated with the story of how he returned from Spain with Merino sheep, famous for the fine quality of their wool, and gave the Valley it's first industry -- wool.
Watch for that mini-documentary tomorrow.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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October 20, 2008

Stimulus Needed Sooner Rather Than Later

"Momentum increased Monday for a new economic stimulus package to help Americans with President Bush and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke throwing their weight behind an idea they earlier opposed."
One thing I would add to that news item is that the stimulus is needed sooner rather than later. The super-important Christmas shopping season will soon be here, a time of year that accounts for much of the health of the retail economy.
So go get 'em guys!
-- TONY SPINELLI

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October 19, 2008

Amusing Disregard For Driving Laws

I just drove to work on a sunny fall afternoon, cruising from home in Seymour near Beacon Falls to the newsroom in downtown Bridgeport. But it was not without event:
+A woman driving down a one-way refused to believe she was in the wrong. I pointed to the sign repeatedly until she got the message, and she backed off so I could pass.
+A guy who obviously doesn't remember a thing from driver's education classes passed my car and two others -- from the right, which is not allowed.
It puzzles me that police obsess over whether people are wearing seatbelts and crack down on that like there's no tomorrow when they let other forms of bad road behavior that are a greater danger to the average driver go without notice.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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Funniest Things Said In On-Camera Interviews

Some of the funniest things people have said in interviews on-camera with ConnPost.com in the past several months:
At a rock festival/Q. What did you like most about the festival?
Girl from Pennsylvania: "The chocolate-covered mushrooms."

At a pawnshop/Pawnbroker: "It is better to come here for a loan of say $400 to help pay bills than to go to a little bank."
Q. What little bank do you mean?
Pawnbroker: "The Bank of America."
-- TONY SPINELLI

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October 18, 2008

Napolean Blown-apart Makes the Scene

I have always enjoyed wordplay, even before I worked in the journalism field, and had always gotten a kick out of referring to Napolean Bonaparte as "Napolean Blown-apart." I thought it was funny, I don't know. (Ronald Reagan, with his ambitious Star Wars plan, was Ronnie Raygun.)
Well, I was in Walgreen's the other day and there was a Halloween item for sale, and wouldn't you know it, it was called "Napolean Blown-apart."
It made me feel good to know someone else in this world has the same sense of humor I do.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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Paying $2.90 For Gasoline: Now We're Getting Warmer

I was videotaping the Milford Lawmen vs. Shelton Gaels high school football game Friday night in Milford, and on the way back to the newsroom in downtown Bridgeport I stopped for gasoline at one of those self-serve snack marts on Route 1.
I wasn't expecting it, but I was in for a happy moment: the price was $2.90 a gallon. Now we are headed in the right direction! I can't even remember the last time I paid less than $3 a gallon for gasoline -- prices seem like they were stuck in the painful $4.50 a gallon zone for a dog's age.
Now I'm starting to lose the bad feeling I'm driving in a taxi with the meter running.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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Now Those Are Unreal Presidential Powers!

I was watching one of the morning current events shows on television and the host was reading letters from American voters to the presidential candidates. One wanted to know why fast food for two or three people costs maybe $20, while a healthy meal costs three times that. He wanted to know what the candidate would do about that if elected.
Now that would be sweeping presidential power on a level never seen before! To the best of my knowledge, presidents have never had any authority over restaurant pricing and menus. If they did, I would have asked for a reduction in the price of McDonald's Angus Mushroom burgers because I love those things! I would ask for a volume discount!
-- TONY SPINELLI

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October 17, 2008

Football Team With A Personal Connection

I am the newsvideo maker here at ConnPost.com, the one who shoots, writes, narrates and edits the newsvideos, and that means that on Friday nights I shoot high school football games. High school football is phenemonally important.
I covered a game recently of the Stratford High Red Devils, at Penders Field in Stratford at Longbrook Park, and recalled that the last time I had been to their athletic fieldhouse, it was 10 years ago, after I had gotten divorced and I went there with several carloads of husky football players to deliver a load of barbell plates.
I had donated the plates to the team because I had to leave my home in Stratford, where I had an elaborate home gym in the basement that included thousands of pounds of barbell plates. I had been a drug-free powerlifter and power/bodybuilder and had built up a lot of equipment. The guys from Stratford High were happy to take it, as a donation, but I told them they had to send some burly guys over to help me get it to them!
Had I wanted to, I could have sold the barbell plates to the scrap metal yard as scrap steel but at that point I was more interested in doing some kind of good deed. So the plates, some of them 100 pounds apiece, went to the Red Devils fieldhouse and let me tell you, it was a workout just lugging them into the place!
When I see a beefy Red Devil I wonder if he's been pumping iron with my old plates.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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Missing the Point On Alternative Energy

I have heard a lot of talk by political candidates in recent weeks about how important it is to develop alternative energy so the U.S. is less dependent on foreign oil.
But we have got to focus on why that is bad.
It's not bad because they are not Americans and our money is going somewhere else, maybe to people who don't like us very much, as one candidate said. We buy lots of oil and oil products from friendly countries like Canada and Mexico, so that's not the problem. The problem is that energy is too expensive.
The point is, we need to make energy cheap. Cheap electricity. Cheap fuel for cars. Cheap fuel for trucks that are the backbone of interstate commerce. Cheap fuel for heating our homes.
I heard a candidate say something on this subject that I thought was noteworthy: if the U.S. can successfully make cheap energy, there could possibly be a resurgence in manufacturing because high energy cost is one of the things that discourages energy-gobbling manufacturing companies from setting up here. Manufacturing matters because it creates jobs and revenues that feed other elements of the overall economy, such as the service economy, the retail economy, and local tax bases.
Making the U.S.A. the cheap energy capitol of the world would probably foster an awful lot of economic benefits. So I hope these candidates don't lose sight of why we need energy independence in the first place. I hope it's not because going green is politically correct, with no regard for the cost.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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October 15, 2008

Monroe Rocker Gerald Goode Sets Date For CD Party

Monroe rocker Gerald Goode, who recently released his first independent CD, "For Those Who Have" (I reviewed it here recently) has set the date for his CD release party to celebrate the disc.
Daniel Street,at 21 Daniel Street in Milford, will be the setting for the party Thursday Nov. 6, at 8:30pm. The party will feature an opening performance by Lisa Heile and special guest Christopher Robin before Gerald takes the stage with his band to perform not only the CD in its entirety, but also tunes from the catalog of his former band, Simple Jim. All partygoers will receive a copy of "For Those Who Have," included with the $10 admission.
The singer/songwriter/producer, 30, is distributing his CD though online independent music giant CD Baby, and it is available for direct download on most major online digital retailers, including iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody and Amazon.com.
There were too many stops and starts during the recording of this CD, which took five years of work, Gerald said in an email.
"I was distracted by a lot of personal demons during my twenties; I spent a lot of time with all of the wrong people, and came to learn a lot of lessons I would much rather have avoided, all the while trying to figure out who I was and what I thought life was supposed to be about. But coming out at the other end of the tunnel with this collection of songs made it all worth the while," he said.
Throughout the record, Gerald takes on many different roles as narrator, from the jilted ex-boyfriend ('Mad') to the hopeless romantic ('However I'm Able' & 'Beautiful'); from the sympathetic companion ('True') to the insightful traveler at the end of his days ('When I Was Younger/Lament').
And that is the latest on Monroe's Gerald Goode!
-- TONY SPINELLI

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Italian Bread Just Like New York, In Bridgeport

Here's something good to say about Bridgeport: the city has always had, and still has, a good supply of independent bakeries that make old-fashioned bakery bread.
Most of the bakeries are Portugeuse-style, and that is excellent, but if you want some Italian-style bread, the kind you get on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, a place I know that is quite good is Bagel King on Main Street in the North End.
Without any exaggeration, Bagel King bread compares very favorably to the bread you get on Arthur Avenue, and it is right here in the Park City. Buy a loaf of that and cook up a pot of escarole and beans and you know it's fall!
-- TONY SPINELLI

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A Homestyle Low-Risk Fund

I bumped into a senior citizen who was very interested in hedge funds and hedge investing in general. He knew I was a business and finance reporter in the 1990s so he questioned me all about the subject.
My answer to him, other than that hedge funds are typically for the extremely wealthy and not for the average Joe, is a good one for a lot of seniors at this time: if you want to put your money in a place where it is safe and you won't lose any of it, while making a respectable return with no risk involved, your best and simplest course of action would be to find a savings bank with a high rate of return and as they said in the old days, "put your money in the bank."
The savings rates are varied. I don't want to name names, but one popular Connecticut bank offers only less than half a percent interest yield annually, while some lesser known banks in other states offer closer to four percent. Thanks to the Web, you can easily shop around for the best money market rate.
Just to check things out, I Googled "savings bank rates" and came up with a list of banks nationwide that offer as much as four percent annually on their money markets, and a number of them had a minimum investment of only $1! Now you know you can't go to a broker and start a so-called hedge plan with a buck.
If you can earn four percent interest on your nest egg and keep it safe, you take a weight off your shoulders. And if you're only trying to make a little savings account for yourself as a kind of Christmas Club, it beats the Wranglers off what the bank will give you.
So get on the Web and shop around. If you have a PayPal account and shop on eBay, you might want to check out the money market account available there, since you are already half-signed up.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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October 14, 2008

The Loss of Independent Halloween Shops Is Scary

I had written an in-depth newsfeature, complete with newsvideo, about how there are only two known survivors in the region from among the dozens of independent video rental shops that sprang up like dandelions in the 1980s.
But I know of another type of independent retailing that has become even rarer: the independent Halloween shop.
Costume shops that sold extra masks and outfits for Halloween, as well as novelty shops that sold masks and rental shops that traded in costumes, used to be fairly common in Southern Connecticut, in the late 1970s for example.
But you would be hard-pressed to find an independent costume and mask shop this Halloween. Sure, there are chain stores that sell costumes and masks, but the independent shops are pretty much gone. It matters to a reporter researching an article on the year's hot costumes and masks because chain stores have a habit of not talking to the press except through their company headquarters, and then you lose that incredibly important local focus.
So, I remembered from way back when that the Costume Bazaar is an independent shop in New Haven, and a quick check on Google showed that it indeed is still in business. I quickly made an appointment with the store's owner, Jeff Russell, and got over to New Haven for the story and video on presidential candidate masks..
It would be nice to see more independent businesses with the courage and acumen to stake out a claim for themselves and do something original. There are doughnut shops in Southern Connecticut from here to eternity but how many knish kiosks are there? None! Russell seems to be holding his own against the chain stores and I'm sure there's a lesson in there.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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In Defense of Bridgeport

The first debate between veteran Congressman Christopher Shays and his Democratic challenger, Jim Himes, had just finished at the new Beacon Hall of Housatonic Community College, and an older gentleman of about 80+ walked up to Michael Daly, managing editor of the Connecticut Post, who had been on the panel asking questions of the candidates.
The man wanted to complain about how the city has gone downhill.
"There's nothing downtown anymore," he said.
Well, from my point of view as the newsvideo maker for ConnPost.com, that is not true. From my perspective, Bridgeport is much more alive, culturally, than it was 10 years ago. It may not be the bustling place it was in the 1940s and even the 1950s, but it has more going for it than in recent decades. For one thing, he was standing in a brand new Beacon Hall at the community college. The college downtown draws students from all over Southern Connecticut and is a nice, new campus. I remember Housatonic in the old days, when it was based at the former Singer sewing machine plant on the East Side. It has come a long way.
The Klein auditorium, over on Fairfield Avenue, has more concerts these days than I remember it ever having, thanks to shows being promoted there by the Fairfield Theater Company.
The Arena At Harboryard has lots of spectaular family entertainment, as well as sports events and concerts. I just videotaped the Walking With Dinosaurs show there over the summer, and I hope to videotape the first night of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus next week.
The Ballpark at Harboryard is an affordable way for a family to enjoy a baseball game. Major League Baseball tickets cost $100 each or more, which is prohibitive for many families, but the Bridgeport Bluefish tickets are low enough in price that it can be a family outing, a night out with friends or even a date.
The Playhouse on the Green and the Downtown Cabaret Theatre are doing their thing grandly.
So yes, Bridgeport has grown, and there is more cultural life downtown than there was 10 years ago.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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October 13, 2008

Stocks Are Not A Savings Plan

I have seen more than a couple of news reports refer to the downturn in the stock market as, "people losing their savings."
Let's stop right there -- stocks are not a savings plan in any way.
Stocks are a risky investment. There is a risk they won't pan out, or worse, a risk they could take a dive into the cellar after you've bought them.
From the point of view of a repoter who covered business and finance for eight years, if you want to play your money safe, shop around for a savings bank with a good rate of return, put it in a certificate of deposit, put it in government bonds including highly-rated municipal bonds. Put it in mutual funds based on bonds. There are a number of relatively safe ways to invest money, albeit with lower rates of return than stocks can bring on a good day.
Yes, there are safe plays, but stock investing is often not one of them unless you're talking about water company stocks with dividends, the so-called widows and orphans stocks. (That is why privatization of Social Security is a bad idea -- some people will be taking unsafe risks and other people will be playing it safe as they get older, like they should, but paying a private company to do for them what the Social Security Administration already does. Playing risks with Social Security is a bad idea for everyone except the youngest people who have the longest time to recover.)
-- TONY SPINELLI

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October 12, 2008

There's A Lot of Cash Out There

I was a business and finance reporter covering the last big recession in the U.S., the one that raged from 1989 to 1993, and there are some things that were true then, that I learned from some broker analysts, that I would imagine are still true today.
Lesson one: cash is king is a downturn. When someone has a stock on Wall Street that has grown in value over the years, it is only liquid if they sell it. Other than that it is just a number in a net worth calculation. So when a bunch of people see the market is at a high point and they believe it will not go any higher, they sell their stocks, take their profits and go to cash. A theoretical number becomes liquid.
Taking a profit and going to cash is not a bad thing. It means people have made money and they have it on hand. But in the popular media, "the stock market is dropping" is a kind of negative mantra that stirs up images of people losing lots of money. What is actually happening, quite often, is that people who bought low are selling at what they believe is a profit-taking point and going to cash. (Other people, looking to begin their investing cycle, are gambling that the market is at a low and will probably go higher so they are discount shopping. That shows a lot of optimism and that is not a bad thing.)
What does all this going-to- cash mean? It often means there are a lot of people looking to stuff money into banks. And that's not a bad thing either, for anyone.
-- TONY SPINELLI

ADDENDUM: One of the stocks I selected after research in the early 1990s to be a good growth opportunity was Coca-Cola, because the worldwide marketplace was expanding after the end of the Cold War and Coke was an iconic product with relatively low startup costs in new marketplaces, where existing bottling plants could simply be converted. Coke of course turned out to be a very good stock to own indeed.
I think a good stock to own at this time for the next 10 years out would be General Electric, because of the widespread interest in alternative energy like wind farms. It looks like a growth opportunity.

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October 9, 2008

Some Shots That Got Away In Hunt For Fall Foliage

I had planned back in September to get out around this time of October to do a fall foliage video, featuring some attractive scenes like the Little River Falls in Seymour and old Oxford sheep meadows surrounded by the changing leaves. And yes, I got those shots, as well as a nice uninterrupted drive down Quaker Farms Road in Oxford on a morning with no traffic to block the view of the changing leaves.
Let me tell you about some of the things I saw that I just couldn't capture on tape though: near the meadow, there were several large, orange butterflies -- Monarchs, I guess -- but they were flitting around too fast for me to focus my videocamera from a distance. I couldn't get a nice steady shot on them so they didn't make the video.
Then, on a little wooded road not far from the Housatonic River in Oxford, I spotted a doe nibbling near a mailbox. I stopped the car, got out, looked her right in the eye, and she stood calmy munching. But the moment I raised my videocamera to capture her on tape, she skittered off into the woods.
That's an example of the things you find when you go out for a drive to admire the foliage. You get a little extra for your money, you know.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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October 8, 2008

When Current Events Are Unknown the Result is Comedy

These are actual conversations I've been in recently, with someone who obviously is not going to pass a current events quiz.

She:"Who owns the Connecticut Post?"
Me: "Hearst."
She:"Isn't that the company that rents cars?"

Me: "The stock market is really dropping. At a time like this, you have to look at what the smart money is doing. You have to look at guys like Warren Buffett."
She:"Isn't he the guy that sang 'Margaritaville?"

-- TONY SPINELLI

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October 7, 2008

Great Depression Survivor's Advice for Us All

I was talking to a senior citizen, a woman who could remember the Great Depression, and she said her response to the recession the U.S. is in right now is to cut back.
"Cut back on what?", I asked her.
Her response was to cut back on major purchases, such as a new wardrobe, a new car, a new TV, a new whatever. She explained this isn't the time for that, and we all just have to wait until times are better to buy ourselves some new things like that.
That makes sense, it really does. But it is only valid up to a point, because many people are struggling with necessities, never mind frills and quality of life improvements. People are struggling to afford gasoline to get to work, and worried that heating oil will be too expensive this winter, for example.
Groceries are expensive and many people are shopping at off-price discounters as much as they can to stretch their food dollar.
Yes, it is an expensive world we live in, much more so than in the 1930s when that senior I spoke with lived through the Great Depression. Back then, working class families had stay-at-home moms. The dad went to work and the family got by. That's the way it was for my grandparents; my grandmothers never worked a day in their lives, but they always got by on whatever money my working class grandfathers earned. Pat was a barber; Louis was a machinist in a scissor factory. Today, working class and even lower-middle class families struggle to exist with both parents working, trying to get as close to six figures as possible in combined income. Also, there are a great many single parent households nowadays, because the American divorce rate is 50 percent, and a two-income household that approaches six figures is not a reality for many families.
We live in an overpriced world, a world based on financing and credit cards, and it is more difficult to buy things like brake jobs for our cars, tires for our cars, even shoes for our feet, than it was during the Great Depression.
In the Great Depression, many Americans lived in urban centers like Bridgeport and New Haven and could ride the bus to work, because lots of manufacturing companies existed in the cities at that time, so they didn't need a car. Today we live in a world of suburban sprawl in which many people live miles from anywhere, and it is inconceivable to walk to a store or ride a bus to work. Most of the time buses are not even available in the burbs.
So I thanked her for her advice, but I knew that even cutting back on new purchases would not be enough for most of us. I think the recession we are in is much worse, already, than the one that raged from 1989-1993.
That is why it is so important to vote for people with some good ideas on how to get us out of this wreckage. There has never been a more important time to register and vote for progress.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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October 6, 2008

The Sad Loss of Vintage Home Movie Footage

Earlier this year I posted an old family movie from 1947, shot on color 8 m.m. film at Steeplechase Amusement Park at Bridgeport's Pleasure Beach, and posted it on ConnPost.com to go with reporter John Burgeson's article on the history of the park. I would like to say that there is more where that came from, but the sad truth for most Americans who have vintage family movies is that the films are irretrievably broken down.
It is true that my dad has a crate full of old 8 m.m. movies that had belonged to my grandfather, Pat Spinelli, the barber. However, they are in a brittle, fragile condition because of their age and the material they were made with -- a common problem with old movie film -- and cannot actually be played on a projector. They would break apart and burn up.
The '47 film had by some miracle been in a better playable condition and had been converted to VHS by my cousin Ercole Spinelli, the teacher, back in the early 1990s, before the old films got in any worse condition. He was able to preserve quite a few old reels but of course a number of them were beyond playability and now, 15 years later, they are even worse.
It is true that old films can be restored, digitally, in a frame-by-frame process done in a lab such as one in Shelton where many of the Turner Classic Movies were restored and colorized, but it is also true that the process is expensive and would make such a project financially unwieldy. It is a boat a lot of us are in -- we have old family movies, but converting them and restoring them would be quite expensive.
So the sad stituation is that the films will probably age even more, and become even less playable, unless technology becomes available to inexpensively restore them.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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A History Lesson

I was telling a 20-something that I miss drive-in movie theaters.
He had never heard of one and asked what they were.
"Well, for a low price you paid by the carload, instead of per person, so it was a cheap way to see movies," I told him. "They weren't first-run movies though. In those days there were first-run houses, second-run houses, and then on the third-run they'd go to the drive-ins, so by the time it got to the drive-in it was no longer a new movie."
He was baffled.
"When did they come out on VHS?," he asked.
I laughed.
"There WAS no VHS in those days," I told him. "VHS didn't become popular until the 1980s."
"So how did people buy movies?," he asked, in shock because he thought video tape had always been around!
-- TONY SPINELLI

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October 4, 2008

Democrats' War Chest Outpacing Republicans

When I was a municipal reporter covering cities and towns like Milford, Shelton, Monroe, Seymour, Oxford, Easton, Trumbull, Norwalk and Ansonia, one type of story we'd (all the competing dailies and weeklies) always do during an election season was the campaign finance story, in which we'd get data from the legally-required party filings with the town clerk and look into it to see who is donating what to whom, and from where the greatest support comes for the candidates. The papers would race each other to see who could break these stories first. We'd keep notes on our calendars about when the next campaign filings would be available and hope the other guys forgot.
It is curious that we don't see more stories like that being written on the national level for the presidential race. I would really like to know who all the people are that are donating the money that drives these campaigns and allows them to afford all those TV commercials.
I Googled this up though: as of August 31, the Democrats had raised $761.8 million and the
Republicans had $461.9 million.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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October 3, 2008

You Read It Here First: Lowdown On the Candidates

I had wanted to write an article about handwriting analysis of the four candidates, but could find no university professor or private analyst willing or able to go out on a limb and perform the work.
However, an astrological reading was available. Laura Lenhard, owner of Talisman - A Unique New-Age Store, at 150 Main Street in Monroe, put together an astrological profile of the candidates based on their birthdate information and provided me with a synopses.
She explained how a person's sun sign reflects their true inner personality; their rising sign is how they are viewed by others, and their moon is indicative of how they behave under stress or pressure - their emotional base. So here goes.

John McCain (8/29/36): Sen. McCain is a sun sign Virgo. Conscientious and conservative, Virgos can be relied upon to be careful, efficient, and thorough. They take pride in a job well done. Their main flaw is that they can be petty and critical "My way or the highway!" unless things are done exactly as they feel they should be. He has Libra rising, which has him seen as expressing a spirit of cooperation, compromise, friendship and fairness. A moon in Capricorn will see him trying to carry the world on his shoulders and rarely asking for help. His stoicism is the stuff of legends ...and heroes.

Sarah Palin (2/11/64): Gov. Palin is a sun sign Aquarius. Fair, intelligent, objective, rational - often lets her head rule rather than her heart. Strong convictions and feelings about fairness and equality and tries to live by these ideas - but her ideals about how people SHOULD treat each other doesn't always take into account human weakness, difference and needs. She has Libra rising, same as Sen. McCain, so like him she is seen as expressing a spirit of cooperation, compromise, friendship and fairness. Her moon is in Aquarius, so she can be curiously detached from her own and others' emotions.

"As a team, these two will work well together, provided Sarah never tries to upsurp John's authority or runs roughshod over his ideology," Lenhard said. "He will probably take a 'kind grandfatherly' and amused view of her tendancy to be less traditional in dress and speech, while she WILL conform to the conservative standards he abides by."


Barack Obama (8/4/61): Sen. Obama is a sun sign Leo. Intensely individual and a natural leader, doing something well and being respected for it is extremely important to him. Barack will take great pride in always putting his best foot forward as Chief Commanding Officer, and would absolutely hate to be viewed as unprepared or unpolished. He likes to be in charge and a catalyst for change, but doesn't share the leading role easily. He has Aquarius rising, so he is seen as a humanitarian - someone interested in humanity as a whole who clearly sees the vision of global community. A moon in Gemini has him shrinking from drama - he would much rather settle differences by talking things out reasonably and rationally. He has difficulty "taking the gloves off" and can give the impression of lacking passion and being unemotional.

Joe Biden (11/20/42): Sen. Biden is a sun sign Scorpio. Fierce pride, courage, and emotional strength are the hallmarks of this sign. They are usually an excellent judge of character and tend to think, and react, straight from the gut rather than the head or heart. However, a slight - or perceived slight - will not be forgotten or go unpunished. He has Saggitarius rising and is seen as high-spirited, enthusiastic and exuberant ... sometimes, too much so! There is an unfortunate tendancy to speak without thinking first. Others see him as being a good sport or good friend, but one who is not always consistent or reliable. And a moon in Taurus keeps him even-tempered and peace-loving, although he will stubbornly refuse to step away from his core beliefs no matter how much he is pressured to do otherwise.

"As a team, Barack and Joe will do well as long as Barack remembers his VP needs to be allowed to shine from time to time," Lenhard said. "Joe will remain loyal to the end unless Barack points out or jokes about one of his now-famous political gaffes. Joe will not tolerate being made to look foolish, as he expects loyalty - and nothing less - from a partner and a friend."

Thanks to Laura Lenhard, now I guess we know more about the candidates than we did before!
-- TONY SPINELLI

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Speculators Flock For Sarah Palin Action Figures

I wrote a business feature that appeared on the front page of the Connecticut Post last month about how a company in Oxford is manufacturing and selling Sarah Palin action figures for $29.95 direct to the public at herobuilders.com.
So why would you pay more? But some speculators, who bought the action figures apparently only to quickly turn them over for a profit, are listing them on e-Bay for $40 or $50 each. Surprisingly, some are selling at those higher prices even though anyone can buy a brand new one in the box right now from the company that makes them.
Speculation is a fascinating thing. It is amazing how if a reporter asks someone to give an opinion, they often freeze in their tracks for fear of speculating, as if it would kill them to be wrong, but if you put money in their hand and tell them to try to invest it they will speculate faster than a speeding express train. That's probably part of the reason the country is in such a financial mess -- there is a real fever for financial speculation.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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October 2, 2008

Pictures Told Thousands of Words

I videotaped the funeral of Army 1st Lt. Thomas Brown at St. Jude Roman Catholic Church in Monroe this morning. I had quite a bit of footage, and could have edited the video piece so many different ways. I really could have taken the piece into one of several different directions.
I chose to show the last few minutes of the procession, as an honor guard carried the casket out of the church and placed it into the waiting hearse. Then tearful mourners left the church and the long line of vehicles moved slowly away, while a stiff wind blew dozens of American flags.
I chose not to narrate the piece because it appeared to me that the pictures told thousands of words.
-- TONY SPINELLI

ADDENDUM: Some of the scenes left out of the piece include firefighters unfurling giant American flags over Route 110 from ladder trucks and a line of dozens of motorcyclists that formed an honor guard of flag bearers.

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October 1, 2008

Bridgeport Calendars Return

I know from the volume of emails I get in response to items about Bridgeport's former times that it is a popular subject, so I thought I would share this with you: after a seven year hiatus, a new, limited edition of "Bridgeport By the Sea" calendars for 2009 is available thorugh Jeffrey C. Williams, host of the WVOF FM radio program "At the Ritz."
The calendar is illustrated with old-time artwork postcards of what Bridgeport looked like way back when. The cost of the calendar is $12 plus 75 cents tax, and proceeds benefit the show.
The calendars are available at Helen Antoniak's Greeting Cards in Bridgeport, White's Diner, the Barnum Museum, Clough's Hardware in Stratford, the Baldwin Senior Center in Stratford, Fairfield Stationer, Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Trumbull, Jennie's Pizza in Monroe, Sassafras Diner in Shelton, and Graphic Image Printers in Milford.
Among the subjects in the postcards are Frisbie's Pie Company, Warner's, Columbia Records, Seaside Park, Pleasure Beach and Beardsley Park.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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