Dan's Papers - May 15, 2009 -

I'm a little late to be writing about Paul Sidney. I'll do it anyway because of Paul's showing up at Boys Harbor years back when George Plimpton first boosted the Harbor's presence in the community with his great Grucci fireworks show.

That Saturday morning of the first fireworks, while setting up tables and chairs for the event, I noticed a bus on the lawn outside our house, perched somewhat precariously on the bank overlooking Three Mile Harbor. Nobody was in it. What the hell was a bus doing there? Then a man appeared on the driveway, walking toward his bus. "Is that your truck, or bus, or whatever it is?" I asked, somewhat impolitely. "And I'll ask you kindly remove it, but now!"

"I'm looking for Tony Duke or George Plimpton, or somebody around here to okay my plan to report on the fireworks tonight.They'll be glad to see me," he said. Paul and his truck remained. He reported, or rather yelled, about the fireworks and more and more people showed up and the evening was a success. Paul showed up every year after that to help with my friends' George and Felix Grucci's great fireworks show, and he greatly supported and promoted Boys and Girls Harbor from then on - always inviting me to come over to WLNG to shout in his own unique positive way, with him about the merits of Boys & Girls Harbor.

A truly goofy friend indeed, I'll miss Paul.

Those Bastille Day fireworks are greatly missed. - DR

Diane (True be it) Trubia had written in your May 1, issue regarding health insurance concerns. Diane? You're right, but I'm not so sure this country will ever get healthcare right for most of us, in the land of equal opportunity. All I have is Medicare - 'Mediscare' it is often called, since it's scary when I think about having to use it. I'll be so in debt anyway until I die, that just maybe a fatal heart attack/stroke might be the solution. I'd not have to worry then, and as for the funeral expense? How about all my monthly Medicare $96 monthly premiums that have added up for the past four and a half years pay for it, since I'd only get about $250 total worth out of Medicare, with its so-called 'exclusion' denying me the rest.

Dying can indeed be a bargain. - DR

A recent issue of Dan's Papers "The Pressure to Go Green" featured some energy positions by NY Assemblyman Fred Thiele. He is in favor of solar and wind power, as we all are. Good luck on getting folks to accept windmills, even far out at sea! Also mentioned was his opposition to nuclear power. Not everyone on Long Island would agree. We all are paying for the demise of Shoreham, even though the Three Mile Island 'disaster' showed that the core meltdown of an old design nuclear plant could happen without any effect on life or property!

We've already accepted windmills. - DR

It has been nearly a decade since we crossed that mystical threshold into the millennium. Highly anticipated, this historical chronological marker has emerged into a plot that Stephen King would be proud of. Blind to our fate and ultimate destiny, the next thousand years promises to be daunting. As we reflect on the past nine years, we can only ask ourselves, "Can things get any worse?" Let's hope not. Unfortunately, our daily lives have been immersed in chaos. It began on that brisk morning in 2001 when thousands of innocent victims lost their lives in crumbling buildings while the entire world watched in horror. Next, came financial turmoil and the worst economic environment since the Great Depression. If that were not enough, a new strain of influenza is spreading across the globe with the potential to threaten our mortality. As we venture into uncharted waters, it is becoming blatantly obvious that the future will be filled with obstacles. We must prepare ourselves for the wrath that seems to have become synonymous with this new millennium.

I say, wrath do thy worst. - DR

In the lovely town of Bridgehampton, where your paper is published, there is a wonderful public school that you should visit. It is a small school, a multi-ethnic school, a warm "family" school, a scholastically successful school and a highly avant garde school. Recent studies by universities claim that students do far better academically and socially in small classes rather than large. So I don't understand why anyone would want to close this wonderful educational facility.

In a green America, why would we transport students away from their community to be bused to another community and to what cost to the Bridgehampton taxpayers?

I hope this will be resolved with the students in mind and not some shortsighted individuals.