I’m covering my summer highlights with lowlights, someone else is watching the kids, and the horse chestnut trees are brown. It must be Fall. Actually, the chestnut trees started turning brown in early August. There’s one outside my bedroom window and it’s usually the first thing I see when I open my eyes in the morning. I love it when it’s greening out in the spring, but in mid-late summer, honestly, I’d like to chop it down. August mornings typically dawn warm and full of promise, with brilliant sunlight sparkling on the harbor. Summer fully swinging. Except for that tree, loitering …
When the power went out in Bristol’s downtown business district shortly before 7 am last Sunday, August 28, it was a novelty. It has been a long time since the electricity did more than blink out. We pulled out the candles and flashlights, dug out the long matches so we wouldn’t singe our hair trying to light the gas stove without the electric ignition, and watched the trees sway in the breeze. There were some good gusts, but it was really the relentlessness of the storm that got to us. When all was said and done, there was enough deadwood lying around to fuel a small village for a year. If …
I know I’m going to get a lot of disagreement with this one, but I think my least favorite advertisement of all time has to be that Staples back to school ad that co-opts the Christmas holiday song "Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” I haven’t had to see it in ages, mainly because the Red Sox are pretty much all I tune in to during the summer. If you are like me and have watched nothing but NESN since Memorial Day, you probably think Cialis is the only consumer product buying ad space these days. And I am fresh out of E.D. acronyms for the kids. But I’m getting off-topic. I’m going to just say…
My mother is climbing the walls and filling the bathtub, my sister is stockpiling Scott Ultra Soft and San Pellegrino, my husband is breathing into a paper bag. Jim Cantore has stopped in town. Looks like we’re about to have a weather event. Now I’m the last person to ignore dire warnings – this little piggy prefers a brick house (though I can do without the earthquakes, thank you very much.) And all these warnings are great, actually. If we had the Weather Channel (or any reliable forecasting) in 1938, none of those south county church ladies would have decided that September 21st was a …
There’s a lot of activity on Bristol Harbor, especially in the summer. Most of it is all in good fun, but sometimes, when people fail to respect the water or their own personal limitations, a rescue is necessary. The Fire Department’s rescue boat launches on a fairly regular basis, usually with a fine ending, but occasionally a tragic one. But a Coast Guard helicopter hovering over Bristol Harbor long after midnight, scanning the surface of the water with a powerful beam of light? Pretty much unprecedented. Yet that was the case a couple of weekends ago, in the wee Sunday morning hours …
Would-be scofflaws missed a golden opportunity at 10 a.m., on Monday August 1, as what seemed to be the entire Bristol police force gathered at the Town Hall to celebrate the promotions of four of their own. Probationary Patrol Officers Rachael Gaffney, Vanna Nhem, and Barry Carinha were all elevated to the rank of Patrol Officer 2nd Class, while 1st Class Patrol Officer Paul Medeiros was named a Sergeant. Police Chief Josue Canario recommended the officers for promotion “without hesitation or reservation,” citing their outstanding work and saying that they have proven themselves on the job …
Investigating the audible buzz coming from the Warren waterfront (valet parking? Really?) I walked into Trafford last Friday during the lull between the lunch and dinner service. The space, in a new building at 285 Water St., is understated elegance at its best. The views of the Warren River are lovely, but a window seat is completely unnecessary, as the interior, by Westport designer Alyn Carlson (and the bars by designer Kyla Coburn) in collaboration with the restaurant’s eponymous Chef Trafford Kane, is as stunning as the view outside. Kane is 31 years old, with an open and affable manner …
No matter how old you are, chances are good that the bike you are riding today looks a lot like the bike you had when you were a kid. You may have traded in your banana seat and sissy bars for knobby tires and a few more gears, but the basic mechanics are the same. The pedals move the crank, which rotates a chain ring, which moves a chain along the teeth of the sprockets, which turns the wheels. When you want to switch gears, a mechanism called a derailleur pushes the chain from one gear to the next. The chain is dirty and oily, and if you maintain your bike properly it needs to be cleaned …
It’s Memorial Day, and you know what that means. Fifty percent off all Kenmore appliances! As we all know, Memorial Day is truly about honoring those who died in service to the United States – people for whom the word “sacrifice” meant more than having to spend summer’s first weekend at the in-law’s. The holiday was first widely observed in 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of the Union and Confederate soldiers at the newly-established Arlington National Cemetery. There are a lot of bright, crisp flags flying at the cemeteries around our towns today, decorating the graves of all …
Early May in Rhode Island means getting outside and digging in the dirt, planting some flowers, and generally cleaning it all up after a punishing winter. It’s a lot of work. Now imagine that your yard is more than 200 acres. This Saturday, May 14, is Clean Up Day at Mount Hope Farm, co-hosted by the Pepsi Cola Company, Bristol Parks and Recreation, and the URI Master Gardeners. According to Mount Hope Farm Executive Director Janet Zwolinski, it was Walter Burke, Parks and Recreation director, who coordinated the partnership. In addition to funds and refreshments, Pepsi will be providing as …
Next door to a barbershop, along a largely residential stretch of High Street in Bristol, stands a well-kept shingled building which, at street level, is fairly nondescript. But behind the glossy double doors is a house of worship that is at once intimate in scale and insular in faith, yet housing a congregation whose founders modeled the “melting pot” ideal of American immigration in the late nineteenth century. Chevra Agudas Achim – The United Brothers synagogue – is the second-oldest synagogue in Rhode Island, after Newport’s Truro. Chartered on June 11, 1900, the congregation’s founders …
If the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, the path to the local police report may well be in close proximity to an outlet of Countrywide Gold Buyers. A quick search of local news stories from the past year is very revealing: The South Kingstown Patch reported on January 31, 2011 that an individual had been arrested for stealing over $3000 in jewelry, “allegedly selling the stolen goods at Countrywide Gold, a pawn shop located in the Providence Place Mall.” On May 19, 2010, the Providence Journal reported that a nurse’s aide at the Tamarisk assisted living facility stole thousands of …
Local stargazers are going to have to relax this morning and settle for the latest edition of Us magazine over their fourth cup of coffee: the scheduled Prudence Island shoot of Moonrise Kingdom is postponed due to today’s foul weather. Moonrise Kingdom, the latest from acclaimed writer and director Wes Anderson (Fantastic Mr. Fox, Rushmore), is a story about two lovers who are pursued after fleeing their small New England town. The cast reads like a who’s who of Hollywood’s A-list, including Ed Norton, Bruce Willis, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, and Frances McDormand. Presumably the shoot, which…
I can’t imagine there’s a resident of either Bristol or Warren, here for more than a handful of years, who doesn’t have some memories, some great connection to Colt State Park. Maybe you were married in the outdoor chapel, or played your best soccer game ever on one of the fields down by the town beach. Maybe you caught an enormous striper off the boat ramp, or earned a personal best time in a foot race. Or maybe you just have great memories hanging out with friends in the summer sun, or late into the evening, sneaking an illicit beer and diving behind an old stone wall when the police patrol…
Colt Andrews elementary school students were recently shown a glimpse of the world beyond Bristol and Warren, thanks to international students from Roger Williams University. On Wednesday, April 6, students from grades 3 and 4 had the opportunity to attend Global Fest at the RWU campus. The university provided transportation, and each child was given a passport, to be stamped at each of the nearly 40 exhibits. International food was offered at many of the “countries” and the students were entertained by Asian music and dance performances on the center stage. On Friday, April 8, about 30 of …
One major feature of the new town budget recently hammered out by the Bristol Town Council calls for privatization of the town’s trash collection services. Privatization, whether on the local, state, or federal level, involves taking services that are performed by government employees and putting them out to bid to private contractors. Typically, the effect of exposing government services to the free market has resulted in lower costs passed on to the taxpayers. In Bristol’s case, the timing was right for privatizing trash collection. According to Town Council member David Barboza, the Public…
September 11, 2001. December 7, 1941. November 22, 1963. April 11, 1954. If you were paying attention to the news – or in history class – you know the significance some dates can hold. The horror of September 11, 2001. The pride of what America’s “Greatest Generation” achieved after Pearl Harbor dragged them into global war. The pain of losing a young President who charmed a nation, cut down in his prime. And then there was April 11, 1954. According to British computer scientist William Tunstall-Pedoe, April 11, 1954 was the most boring day of the 20th Century. He’s invented a search engine …
"This Old House" is coming to Rhode Island! For the first time, the Emmy award-winning Boston-based staple of public broadcasting is looking for a property to rehab south of the border. A few key requirements are in play. The star should be a single-family home. The scope of the project should be broader than just a single room, but cannot encompass the whole house. The home-owning family should be energetic and compelling. Telegenic even. You may be fooled by those soothing public-radio voices and the unimpeachable subject matter, but this is television. “Reality” television. The field of …
For the past two years, an intrepid group of your friends and neighbors have been rising with the sun, getting their hands wet, and doing their best Mr. Wizard impersonations, all in the name of saving Bristol Harbor. Indisputably Bristol’s best asset, the harbor has shaped the town’s fortunes over the generations as a haven for patriots and privateers, Herreshoffs and hardworking watermen. With all that traffic – and more to the point, all the runoff from our streets, fertilized lawns, and goose poo – it’s bound to get a little grotty. The question is, how bad is it? Two years ago, Save …
The word on the street is that if Dante were able and willing to issue an updated version of his 14th century epic Divine Comedy, he would have to add a tenth circle of suffering to his Inferno: the Warren branch of the state’s Division of Motor Vehicles. Ever since the Middletown branch closed last month, horror stories have emerged from Warren about wait times upwards of five hours for residents seeking to register vehicles. While not on par with what, say, the Libyan government is currently doing to its people, we have come to expect a higher standard of service from our government than “…
