So You Think You’re Lance Armstrong

Posted on September 1, 2010 | 67 comments

Jimmy Izzo sees and hears everything.

Whether holding court at Crossroads Hardware (which he owns) or driving around town (which he also owns), he’s got his eyes and ears opened.

The other day Jimmy posted this on Facebook:

Almost hit another 2 “Lance Armstrong wannabes” this morning on their bikes.  These arrogant idiots who seem to make up their own rules of the road are without a doubt on a suicide mission.

Cyclists blowing through red lights and stop signs is a practice that needs to be stopped.  Tickets and fines should be given, just as they are to motor vehicles.

Jimmy didn’t hit any cyclists — but he struck a chord.

Comments poured in:

  • I totally agree…riding in the middle of the road…not looking crossing intersections.
  • By law, they are supposed to obey the same laws of the road.  I was avoiding 2 octogenarians on bikes one day.  They rolled through a stop sign.  I was working NOT to pass them.  And who gets the $124 ticket?
  • I actually had a biker hit ME at Minute Men Cleaners.  My baby was sleeping in the back seat, my mom was with me.  And he started yelling at ME about his $3K bike and how I would have to replace it.
  • Weston concurs!  Stay to the side; ride single file!
  • There really should be a campaign about it, because Westport has made the effort to put in bike lanes around a lot of the town.  Single file is right!  Ride with traffic!
  • I ride all the time, and stay as far to the edge of the road as possible.  I never ride side by side with anyone.  The police need to start ticketing the riders who obstruct the roadways.
  • Saugatuck Avenue is loaded with these pains-in-the-asses.  Every Sunday morning they are out there yelling their messages to each other, waking the rest of us up.
  • Sounds like someone should bring this up at a Westport town meeting.  I don’t know what this would fall under, but I bet it would pass unanimously.

And if it does — though nothing, not even a request for world peace, would pass unanimously here — I’ve got the next issue:

The logo-plastered Spandex that bicyclists feel compelled to wear.  If they really want to pretend they’re Lance Armstrong, do it the right way.

Take performance-enhancing drugs.

I'm cool. And I'll mow you down.

67 Comments

Posted in Local business, People, Sports

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About Those DVDs…

Posted on August 31, 2010 | 5 comments

Maxine Bleiweis — everyone’s favorite library director — enjoyed “06880”‘s recent shout-out about the Westport Public Library‘s DVD collection.

In true librarian fashion, she quickly offered up some background information, historical references and intriguing tidbits, so Westporters can better understand what a treasure the library collection is.

Maxine noted that when Downtown Video and Best Video (near Bombay Restaurant) went out of business, they offered their collections to the library.

Not only did the institution purchase both collections (with help from a generous supporter) — the library also got Jim Grosner on staff.

The longtime night manager of Downtown Video, Jim has worked every Monday through Thursday night at the library, ever since the store closed.

Maxine added said that the excellent DVD collection grew when a patron decided that — rather than amass his own film “library” — he would give money to the Westport Library, for everyone to enjoy.

This couple was recently spotted looking for Blu-rays at the Westport Library.

After the man get a Blu-ray player, he continued the tradition with Blu-ray DVDs.  “It’s a financial challenge to have a multiplicity of formats, so his donation was critical,” Maxine praised.  “We now have an excellent Blu-ray collection too.”

But wait!  There’s more!

“Beyond the collection itself is the community feeling you get while you select DVDs and audiobooks,” Maxine said.

“Strangers ask each other for advice.  Some say spontaneously, ‘Have you seen this?  It’s terrific’ to the person next to them.

“Our staff knows the collection well, and also makes great suggestions.  We have many of the Criterion DVDs — very special re-masterings — as well as all the TV shows.

“Our international film collection” — what used to be called “foreign films” — “is superb, and you’ll find every language imaginable. Many people have dropped premium services and Netflix because they find the collection, plus the camaraderie is more important to them.”

Maxine could go on and on, but she’s not that type of librarian.

“06880” has no idea what the next blockbuster trend in video will be.  Whatever it is, the Westport Library will embrace it.

Unlike, um, Blockbuster.

5 Comments

Posted in Entertainment, Library, Local business

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Be Honest!

Posted on August 30, 2010 | 80 comments

“06880” gets plenty of requests for advice.  Usually we just blow them off respond politely.

But a recent email demands serious reflection, and in-depth responses.

Not from “06880,” though.  From you — our loyal, passionate, and uber-opinionated readers.

A former Westporter who now lives elsewhere wrote:

I need some real info — as real as you can get.  My husband and I want to move east within the next year.  I’m seriously considering Fairfield, Norwalk Stamford… but my heart is Westport.

However, that may be through a very filmy and possibly faulty lens of my childhood there.

I’m working with a nice realtor there.  I’ve asked her, and she assures me there are still wonderful, real and down-to-earth people in Westport.  That’s important to me.

For a year, I’ve read blogs and articles about living in Westport.  A lot of it isn’t favorable.  The terrible things I’ve read really bother me.  Westport’s reputation can be horrible online when it comes to rich, overindulged, shallow people.  Is there a balance there like everywhere else, I’m hoping?

An iconic view of Westport.

My mind wanders there, my heart wants to take me back there to live, and I know so many streets with my eyes closed, the curve of the shoreline as you drive to Compo.  That never leaves you, and I’ve wanted to go back for some time.  I listen to my intuition.

But I don’t want to be fooled by being too sentimental either.  Is Westport as bad as some say it is?  That’s so hard to believe.

I would love to know your true thoughts.  Be real with me.  The good, bad and the ugly.   What’s still magical?  What’s really changed since the 1960s and early ’70s when we were kids there?  Are there still wonderful people there?

I’ve read that young people don’t stay and businesses are moving out.  Is this so?

Another symbol of Westport.

I know this is a long question.  But I’ve had a whole year to read some not so great stuff about Westport not being vibrant anymore, and a rich people’s playground, blah, blah blog! and Wesporters of today.

We will be there this fall, and maybe stay at the Longshore Inn.  I’ve made a reservation for a couple of nights so we can just see.

There’s your challenge, “06880”-ers.  An ex-Westporter wants to know about Westport today — the good, the bad and the ugly.  Just click on the “Comments” tab, and write the “real info.”

And at the end of your response, please answer 1 question:  Should she move back, or not?

80 Comments

Posted in Westport life

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The Recession Is Over!

Posted on August 29, 2010 | 6 comments

Apparently, Westporters don’t need bargains anymore — they’re back to paying full price for everything.

How else to explain that only 1 — 1! — Westporter checked in to Foursquare.com last week to claim the free iced coffee available every Friday at Crumbs?

Sure, iced coffee costs (substantially) less than the mondo, multi-colored and mega-sugared cupcakes served up behind (ahem) Tiffany.

Still, “free” is not a bad price.

6 Comments

Posted in Economy, Local business

Tagged ,

The Newest Way To Track Students

Posted on August 29, 2010 | 3 comments

Schools lose things all the time.  Textbooks.  Laptops.  Students.

Now — thanks to Secure RF, a Westport company — administrators can track anything they want.  Gone are the days when valuable resources walk out the door — including kids and teachers.

According to BrickhouseSecurity.com, a blog covering all things surveillance, Secure RF will use a $100,000 National Science Foundation grant to test radio frequency identification (RFID) tags — aka chips.

Embedded in a laptop — or student ID or backpack — RFID scans a room “to figure out what’s there and what’s missing.”

The technology allows school administrators to “take a quick count of who is in class and who’s not, who walked out the front door, or who walked into the library.”

And guess which school system is thinking of testing the concept?

Gotcha!  Not Westport.

New Canaan.

Currently, the program is limited to volunteer students and parents.

As expected, not everyone is leaping onto the RFID bandwagon.

A college ID, with RFID chip.

A school board member said:  “I can perceive parents would have an issue with tracking kids through the school and through town.”

BrickhouseSecurity.com noted, “if the chip is in an ID card or backpack, high school students could easily ditch these items, rendering the system somewhat ineffective…  It seems like this program is primarily targeting younger children and assets.”

High-tech efficiency — or Big Brother run wild?  Whatever the answer, Fairfield County is involved in both the problem and its solution.

3 Comments

Posted in Education, technology

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Blockbuster Goes Bust

Posted on August 28, 2010 | 17 comments

The recent “06880” post on the local BP station “gas sale” drew nearly as many comments as the number of gallons of oil spilled in the Gulf Coast.

Meanwhile, across the street, another financial story is unfolding.

Blockbuster is about to file for bankruptcy.  (The chain, that is — not the local outlet, which saw the writing on the wall a while ago and shrunk by half.  The rest of the building now houses a big-and-tall men’s store, which for some reason I never patronize.  Go figure.)

Some see the demise of Blockbuster as a sign that the company failed to adapt to changing technologies and tastes.  It was done in, they say, by Netflix, Redbox and streaming video.

Others see it as market payback for a company that charged usurious late fees, advertised “2-day rentals” that were really 1 night only, and did not stock indie films or controversial documentaries.

As someone who avoids chain outlets whenever possible — Doc’s vs. Starbucks is a no-brainer — I see Blockbuster’s bye-bye as karma.

Back in the pre-Blockbuster day, Westport was awash in mom-and-pop video rental stores.  A funky hole-in-the-wall place next to Westport Pizzeria carried 1 copy of every film ever made, in countries even the UN never heard of.

There was a shop in Westfair, and others sprinkled around town.

Blockbuster drove them all out — and such was its domination, I can’t even remember their names.

I do recall Circuit City, Caldor and Sam Goody — area stores that Blockbuster may soon join in that great retail graveyard in the sky.

If you remember any Westport video stores — from that long-ago era of the 1990s — click the “comments” link.

In the meantime, if you’re not a Netflix, Redbox or streaming video fan — or you just want a change of pace — I’ve got 2 words for you:

Westport Library.

17 Comments

Posted in Library, Local business, Looking back, technology

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Al’s Angels Asks For Aid

Posted on August 27, 2010 | 2 comments

Al DiGuido needs help.

The founder of Al’s Angels — the organization that for the past 6 years has provided hope, love and joy to children challenged by cancer and rare blood diseases, and to their families ravaged by the ensuing financial hardship — is gearing up for another holiday season.

This Thanksgiving, Christmas and Hanukkah, the group plans to donate over 2,000 family meals — each bin is filled with $100 worth of groceries — and gifts to more than 5,000 children.

But Santa’s elves won’t make it happen.

Westporters will.

Al’s Angels is launching what they call “the most incredible outpouring of love and support for the work we all do for our special children and their families.”

On the weekend of October 2-3, the Edge Fitness Club in Norwalk hosts a “24 Hours of Hope Fitness Fundraiser.”  From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. both days, participants will work out on bikes, ellipticals or treadmills. A minimum of $60 in fundraising is requested for each hour.

There are also Zumba, spinning and yoga classes.  At least $60 in pledges is requested for those events too.

Al’s goal for those 24 hours is ambitious:  over $100,000.  To reach it, he’s starting now.

But he needs everyone’s help.

(To register, create a fundraising team, donate, or receive more information, call 203-254-1759; email adiguido@24hoursofhope.com, or click on www.alsangels.org)

2 Comments

Posted in Organizations, People

Tagged ,

Gas Up?

Posted on August 26, 2010 | 80 comments

What do you do if you’ve spilled millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf Coast, killed 11 workers, diminished the livelihood of thousands, and befouled the habitat for years to come?

If you’re BP you lop a few cents off each gallon of gas, and hope customers  pour in.

We spotted this sign at the BP station across from Blockbuster.

Will Westporters buy it?

80 Comments

Posted in Environment, Local business

Tagged ,

Half-Staff

Posted on August 26, 2010 | 25 comments

Of the many memories I have of President Kennedy’s assassination, the most searing may be seeing flags at half-staff.

For 30 days, every American flag flew sadly, partway up its pole.  It was a powerful reminder of the tremendous loss our country suffered.

Flags flew at half-staff on similarly sad occasions — when presidents Truman, Eisenhower and Johnson died, for example.  I can’t remember any other time, when I was a teenager, that I saw flags that way.

Today, it seems, flags are almost permanently at half-staff.

The tribute is awarded to former police officers, firefighters and town employees, as well as every Connecticut resident killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.  In the soldiers’ cases, the flag remains at half-staff until after the burial.

I do not want to diminish anyone’s death — not the men and women who served our town, or those from our state who gave their lives serving our country.

But I can’t help wondering whether flying flags at half-staff so often doesn’t diminish their deaths in some way.  Most of the time, we don’t know who’s being honored.  There’s no one to tell us, so we ignore the symbolism.  Half-staff flags become part of the scenery.

I know many “06880” readers will disagree.  I’m not even sure I agree with myself.

But — in true American spirit — let the debate begin.

25 Comments

Posted in Totally random

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Separation Anxiety, Part II

Posted on August 25, 2010 | 17 comments

“06880” is not the only blog to give a shout-out to the New York Times story on hovering parents.

“Gawker” took note too.  Here’s a response from a reader named “Admiral_Awesome”:

An aunt of mine is a complete and total combination cool-mom-syndrome/helicopter parent, although she’d never admit to it in a million years, and gets really angry when you say that to her.  Her family lives in Westport Connecticut….

She rented out a nightclub and hired strippers for her younger sons Bar Mitzvah, lets the kids and all their friends drink and smoke pot openly at their house, threw a 400-guest fully catered graduation party with an open bar and cocktail waitresses, they each get a new car every year… you get the idea.

Anyway, the dad is pretty much an absentee … more concerned with his tennis club and social circle than his wife (my aunt), so the older son was always kind of a surrogate to her, running errands, doing household stuff, and generally treated like the man of the house.  When he had to go off to college … she was completely devastated and he was intensely homesick.  She had his entire dorm room redecorated in the style of Van Wilder meets Ralph Lauren, and got an apartment near the school to make visits easier.  Yeah.

Its gotten a bit better since then, but at this point he’s a complete neurotic wreck in general, losing his hair at age 20 and living entirely on Adderall, marijuana and Pepsi.  He also decided he was gay.  And a Republican.  He’s a gay Republican.  Although that isn’t such a shocker, as our family is very conservative in general.  Its just a little hilarious.

Fact or fiction?  “06880” — which hears plenty of stories — has never heard this one.

But the fact that “Gawker” — with millions of page views a month, it’s even bigger than “06880” — would provide a nationally known platform for this Westport tale shows what the world is saying about us.

As of yesterday, no one had posted an anti-Westport remark in the “Comments” section.  I guess “06880” readers are not also “Gawker” fans.

17 Comments

Posted in Westport life

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