At the beginning of the war in Iraq…

Recently Connecticut lost one of its best…

This week’s crossword puzzle is…

The morning is crisp and clear, highlighting the “assembled multitude,” a mass of gulls and terns that are regulars on Whitney Beach. There’s a lone skimmer in the sand away from the group that isn’t moving and appears to be injured. A woman looking at it tells me she’d just seen the skimmer walk on an injured left leg and plunk down.

“Beer and valium, that’s how I sleep. Works every time, a perfect night’s sleep.” So said an actor friend of mine, who often had trouble “coming down” after a play and used this cocktail three or four times a week. Yet often alcohol plus sleeping pills do not “work.” Thirty percent of American women use some kind of sleeping pill each week, but combinations are rarely remarked upon — though clinically common. Studies of them are relatively sparse, as researchers tend to look at one drug at a time.

In 2008, the slogan was “Yes We Can.” We were told we can halt the rise of oceans, begin to heal the sick, reduce the deficit, and bring new respect and friendship for America from the family of nations. So, how’s all that working out for us? The oceans aren’t rising; of course even in 2008 the oceans were only rising in Al Gore’s fevered imagination. The sick have to wait until at least 2014 for Mr. Obama’s demonstrably unpopular health care reform to kick in, if it ever does, as its fate rests in the hands of the Supreme Court.

The Longboat Observer is conducting a straw ballot that is trying to throw light on how the citizens feel about the proposed cell tower adjacent to GMD on the property of the Longboat Island Chapel. These are legitimate questions but unfortunately straw votes are about the worst way you can go about getting the right answers. Straw balloting along with referendums is a lousy way to govern.

Consistent with my minor political activity around here I asked an acquaintance here in District 3 to sign a nomination petition for a neighbor who is running for our Town Commission. That targeted signer asked me whom the new candidate was running against. I answered: David Brenner, the current commissioner from this district, our district. The person seemed not to know who David was. Wow!

This is the first verse of a poem inspired by reports of a ghost roaming the stairs of a haunted house in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada. The opening lines of the poem are “Yesterday up on the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there.” This line has always fascinated writers who use the image of “the man who wasn’t there” to represent all the unwanted acts of harassment that seemingly devour our lives on a daily basis.

Last evening our commissioners spent more than $425,000 to purchase a piece of land adjacent to Bayfront Park. I believe this was an unwise expenditure that accomplishes little, when the money could have been spent to enhance our community’s attractiveness to visitors and perspective residents in more effective ways. Instead, we hear claims by the commission that a large project at Bayfront Park will somehow contribute to the island’s welfare.