New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Thoughts on the Pepe’s boycott, a wedding, more
Don’t look for me to join the boycott of Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana. Not gonna do it.
Anybody who regularly or very occasionally reads this column knows I loathe the backward policies of President Trump. But I think it’s going too far to shun Pepe’s on the grounds that coowner Gary Bimonte has expressed support for him.
If you make it inside Pepe’s after enduring the long line outside, you will see a diverse staff hard at work. Bimonte reportedly doesn’t show up there much. Perhaps he’s busy overseeing all the Pepe’s franchises.
What about those workers? What will happen to them if this boycott really takes hold and starts to hurt the business? Some of them could face layoffs or wage cuts.
Last December I spent some time with one of those employees, Erik Preston, the fulltime clam shucker at Pepe’s and I was impressed as I observed him at his craft. We didn’t discuss the president. It wasn’t relevant to his job.
Yes, and I have been hiring a good, dependable home handyman for years who likes Trump and doesn’t mind telling me this. Does that mean I want to look for somebody else? Should I penalize him for his political views? Not gonna do that, either.
Connecticut’s Sen. Chris Murphy, an outspoken critic
of Trump, has also said he doesn’t support the Pepe’s boycott. He said “that kind of line drawing would be exhausting.” I agree.
I also agree with one of our prominent Republicans, state Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, who wrote that “trying to organize action to punish an individual for having views different than your own promotes division, instead of respectful disagreement. It takes our differences to another level that could have a chilling effect in which people fear sharing their own personal thoughts.”
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For those of you, like me, who have been watching the sky over New Haven for the past year, wondering when the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument atop East Rock willl again be lit at night, things are looking up. Giovanni Zinn, the city’s director of engineering, tells me the restoration project is in its final stages. And the redesign will result in the angel on top of the monument being better lit and thus more visible than she was before a
lightning bolt rendered this iconic symbol dark.
“Since it’s such an important part of New Haven, we wanted to do it right and make sure it was lit properly,” Zinn said. “We’re excited.”
The last holdup is installing the concrete pole bases, which have not yet arrived. But Zinn expects them to be here soon. Keep watching ...
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This year I made a prudent decision: running the fivekilometer (3.1 miles) part of the Faxon Law New Haven Road Race on Labor Day and staying away from the grueling 20kilometer competition. After slogging through the 20K last year for the 24th time, putting up with temperatures in the mid80s and high humidity, I had had enough.
Sure, I was a little miffed when I woke up Monday morning to cloudy skies and milder temperatures than last year. But in July I had decided not to embark on a series of weekend twohour runs to prepare for this thing, that longer distance. With everwarmer temperatures in early September (climate change!), it’s no longer worth the risk of enduring oppressive conditions.
The 5K felt just right. The crowds were great on this traditionally festive day in New Haven and I enjoyed my usual free beer on the New Haven Green afterward (two Harpoon IPAs) and my traditional vanilla milkshake at Clark’s.
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Ah yes, it’s been a memorable summer. My elder daughter, Natalie, went and got married, at age 27! She and her fabulous man, Chris, gave their vows in Montclair, New Jersey — not in their hometown of Los Angeles, because his mom lives in Jersey.
This was a Quaker ceremony, in which many of us stood and shared our feelings about these young lovers and offered sweet memories of them. The setting was a community farm full of goats and chickens. The ceremony was held under a big tent near the barn.
Natalie and Chris were married over the home plate from the baseball field in my old back yard in Mount Kisco, New York, where I learned to play baseball. I, too was married over that plate, in Madison.
What can a father say to all of the assembled when his daughter is getting married? The main message was joy over the occasion and these two finding one another. And since the bride and groom are movie people who work in that field, I recalled showing “The Wizard of Oz” to Natalie when she was quite young and deriving the sentimental lessons of that story.
What was that movie’s final line? “Oh, Auntie Em — there’s no place like home!” I said at the end of my little speech that Natalie and Chris have been all over this country, sometimes far away from “home,” but they will always be together on that yellow brick road.