Latest News
Basking in the angler’s apricity
Mar 06, 2024
Patrick L. Sullivan
This time of year the angler has to be alert. Because America needs more lerts. Hahaha.
The preceding joke is courtesy of James Fenimore Cooper Middle School, McLean, Virginia, ca. 1975.
Between Thursday, Feb. 15, and Saturday, Feb. 17, the weather warmed up considerably. This coincided with a lack of rainfall.
So I shifted the schedule around to allow for a couple hours’ worth of fishing on those days.
Thursday at the Blackberry was a bust. It was a bust mostly because I forgot things and had to trudge back to the car. Twice. Also the fish didn’t get the memo.
Friday I trundled down to Macedonia State Park in Kent. This stream gets stocked pretty heavily by the state in the spring, meaning April or May. Maybe March if conditions allow.
There are two distinct sections of interest and accessibility. The first is below a series of boulders and rock shelf that’s not quite a waterfall but is definitely more than a bunch of big rocks. There is a big inviting pool that is just a short scramble from the small parking area right by the sign announcing you are in the park.
As far as I can tell, you can fish downstream of here for maybe 200 yards before posting appears. The stream just above this formation is posted for a little bit.
This too was a bust, although I gave it a good going over.
Undeterred, I proceeded upstream into the area that is unambiguously open for fishing. It was also open for hiking and for day-tripping.
So I had company as I prowled the dirt road that runs right by the stream.
On the first pass, my shadow fell on the water just below this bridge, and dark shapes darted for cover. On the way back, I low-crawled up to it and horsed up a brown trout.Patrick L. Sullivan
I used a Tenkara rod, the Dragontail Mizuchi if you care. A dry-dropper technique proved effective, in this case a Chubby Chernobyl up top and a series of weighted nymphs below.
I lost the Chubby to a tree branch that snuck up on me. Cunning creatures, those bare tree branches.
So I deployed a Parachute Adams, which generated a couple of strikes and one hook-up.
All told, in two hours, four extremely skinny brown trout in the 10-12 inch range came to the net, except I forgot the net.
I went back Saturday and used an old bamboo fly rod instead, a 7-foot five weight Phillipson I’ve had for 40 years.
Same thing, pretty much, except I had more company.
The strategy is to look for soft water, as opposed to roiled up, foamy white water. This means covering a lot of ground fast, and not pausing to beat a particular run or lie to death.
An old adage: If they haven’t taken your fly after three tries, you’re just boring them.
The tricky part at Macedonia, especially on Friday, was that at between noon and 2 p.m. standard time, the sun was right behind me as I worked up the stream from the roadside. Two or three times, my shadow sent fish scurrying for cover.
Keeping a low profile was critical.
This means kneeling, often on rocks.
This never used to bother me, but I am old and creaky now.
I went to Herrington’s the recently and described what I was looking for — a lightweight, non-bulky set of knee pads with Velcro fasteners for choice that would fit over waders.
The young man who helped listened intelligently and supplied the desired item.
They are sturdy, easy to put on and take off, and cost $30 and change.
The only catch is that it looks goofy, somewhere between Mad Max and Yogi Berra.
“Game-changer” is an overused term, but it applies here.
As I type this, the temperature outside has plummeted and there is snow in the forecast.
So the lesson is to be ready to take advantage of these opportunities.
A brief aside: I was asked recently, and not for the first time, about how I decide whether or not to name a stream.
It’s worth repeating, so here goes.
If a stream is listed in the state Angler’s Guide, I will name it. It is public information, easily found, and I am not giving away any secrets.
If a stream is not listed, I do not name it. The curious will have to find it the way I did — by word of mouth, by looking at maps and by getting out there and trudging around.
Keep ReadingShow less
Kent wins NEPSAC hockey tournament
Mar 06, 2024
BBIG Live Network
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Kent School boys hockey reached glory Sunday, March 3.
Seeded fifth in the New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) Martin/Earl Large Tournament, Kent overcame the odds and took home the trophy.
The championship game against Dexter Southfield School was played at Harvard’s Bright Landry Hockey Center March 3. In a game that was tied nearly the entire match, Kent scored the winning goal with just 47 seconds remaining to claim a 3-2 victory.
Kent’s star senior Gio DiGiulian scored twice, including the game-winner. Owen Mahar scored as well for the Lions.
Goalie Aiden Hopewell was a brick wall in the net and kept Kent in the game despite a relentless barrage of shots-on-goal for Dexter.
Kent’s tournament run began with a 5-1 win over Deerfield Academy on the road. The Lions then had homecourt advantage in the second round against Berkshire School. Kent defeated Berkshire 5-4.
Kent hockey last won the NEPSAC title in 2019.
Girls basketball
Kent School girls basketball made it to the Class A championships March 3. A commanding tournament run for the Lions concluded in a 47-39 loss to Founder’s League rivals Loomis Chaffee.
Loomis led from start to finish on the way to their third consecutive NEPSAC trophy. In the previous round, the Pelicans defeated The Hotchkiss School 75-51.
Leading up to the championship, Kent defeated Buckingham Browne & Nichols School 63-52 in the first round and beat Sacred Heart Greenwich 55-41 in the semifinals.
The Lions gathered at center ice for a trophy photo.BBIG Live Network
Keep ReadingShow less
A Hospital’s History
Mar 06, 2024
When Sharon Hospital was founded in 1909, it was an eight-bed, two-nurse hospital in a rented house on Caulkinstown Road. In its first year, it served 88 patients. By the spring of 1916, thanks to the public-spirited generosity of the community that raised the funds for a building, a 16-bed hospital was officially opened.
The following day Dr. Jerome S. Chaffee, a surgical veteran of the Spanish-American War who was the moving force behind the founding of the hospital, performed an appendectomy in its new emergency room.
Over the years, the hospital underwent more expansion. In a 1969 Lakeville Journal article commemorating Sharon Hospital’s 60th anniversary, its history was described as “written by thousands of dedicated people who founded it, planned its development, staffed its facilities, financed expansion programs and, in many cases, became thankful patients. The article further noted: “A special feeling permeates the whole institution. Letters from appreciative patients and relatives emphasize the fine quality of patient care and the friendly, helpful spirit of everyone involved.”
While Dr. Chaffee is credited with starting Sharon Hospital, the success of the hospital as a cherished community institution that has provided acclaimed care for patients for all these decades is also due to the support from the people in our community. From the beginning, two years after the first patient was treated, a woman’s auxiliary was started, with 40 charter members who made bed linens, provided free meals for special occasions and pinch hit for staff when there was a shortage. The dream of Dr. Chaffee was realized in his lifetime. He died in 1947, and the hospital has grown and been supported decade after decade by an appreciative community. However, in the last two decades, it has changed hands more than once. In 2002 it became the first for-profit hospital in the state. In a 2016 takeover, it again became a nonprofit. Then in 2019, a merger folded seven hospitals, including Sharon Hospital, into Nuvance Health.
Last week, Northwell Health, the largest nonsectarian, nonprofit health care operation in the United States and the largest health care provider in New York state, announced that Nuvance and Northwell would combine. (See Nuvance hospital system to merge with Northwell Health). Pending state and federal approval, Sharon Hospital will join with Northwell, marking yet another significant milestone in the history of our rural hospital.
We can only hope that the leadership at the top of Northwell will preserve what the people of our community have built and supported and fought for over the past century, including the recent citizen campaign to retain labor and delivery services. In that engagement, the people of the state of Connecticut, represented by the Office of Health Strategy (OHS) and its Executive Director Deirdre Gifford, decided the outcome of a hospital request to terminate those services. The decision was not made by a large health care corporation.
In making the announcement last week, Northwell vowed to make significant investments in Nuvance. It would seem the timing is right. On Feb. 20, a little over a week before Northwell’s announcement and citing three principal factors, Nuvance appealed to OHS to reconsider its Final Decision to deny its request to close labor and delivery. “Good cause exists for addressing the degrading conditions for operation of the L&D service in an orderly fashion…before the Hospital experiences unavoidable service suspensions or safety issues,” Nuvance wrote.
Studies by the American Hospital Association point to hospital acquisitions as a way for hospitals to succeed in reducing costs and improving quality of care. Certainly the trend to hospital mergers is evident, affording scale and more standardization of care. Last year, Sharon Hospital was awarded its fourth consecutive 5-Star rating by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, based on patient experience and timely and effective care, among others. We imagine that Dr. Chaffee would be proud.
Keep ReadingShow less
Letters to the Editor - 3-7-24
Mar 06, 2024
Democrats are existential threat to women’s sports
Democrats shout a lot about “existential threats.” They claim that Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are existential threats to democracy, that whites are an existential threat to minorities, that climate change is an existential threat to humanity and even to the planet.
But a real existential threat is what Democrats are doing to female sports. Their insistence that transgender athletes with male bodies must be allowed to compete with biological females in the name of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is causing growing numbers of females to lose athletic contests and positions they should win, and increasingly causing them to be injured in the process.
Most Democrats vote in lockstep for trans sports inclusion, while most Republicans oppose it. A majority of the public opposes it too - nearly 70% in a Gallup poll reported by NBC.
The majority believes, correctly, that biological males who declare themselves female cannot be allowed to participate in female sports that rely on strength, speed, endurance, height, weight, reach, lung capacity, etc. Trans athletes with fully intact male bodies simply cannot be allowed to overpower biological females on the playing field and then shower with them afterwards.
No self-respecting athlete should even want to compete under such circumstances. College pitchers who strike out Little Leaguers are not heroes, they’re frauds. The fact that trans athletes who were also-rans as males are taking trophies from female Olympians is a travesty, but this is the Democrats’ new DEI reality.
Since testosterone treatments do not adequately reduce the advantages of trans athletes, those athletes should compete in trans categories or with males, or not at all. If that’s not inclusive enough, they should hang it up.
Yet the science of biological reality is not evident to Democrats who cannot even define “woman” anymore and who simply ignore the fact that biological sex has a far greater influence on athletic ability than “declared” gender identities.
After adamantly supporting Title IX for 50 years, Democrats should be adamantly opposed to trans athletes throwing biological females around like rag dolls, causing injuries and invading their privacy.
But most Democrats simply genuflect at the altar of DEI with platitudes about “diversity” and “inclusion.” Either they really believe this, or they just hope the issue will go away. But it won’t go away without leadership.
Women like Riley Gaines and Martina Navratilova are providing real leadership, but where are Democrats like Jahana Hayes and Maria Horn? Evidently party loyalty trumps justice, fairness, privacy and even safety.
You can declare yourself whatever gender you want, but biological sex is a fact. (Your sex, by the way, was accurately “recorded” at birth - it was not arbitrarily “assigned” as left-wing activists and journalists want you to believe.)
The Democrats’ entire DEI edifice is full of false strictures and ultimatums on everything from sports to race to education. If you disagree with them, they threaten your existence. Vote them out.
Mark Godburn
Norfolk
What does the Rule of Law mean in Connecticut these days?
The Office of Health Strategy denied the closure of labor and delivery at Sharon Hospital and just like Hartford Health Care did at Windham Hospital, Nuvance is ignoring that ruling.
How is that lawful?
Do Senator Harding and Representative Horn, a lawyer, not support their constituent’s lawful access to safe birthing at Sharon Hospital?
Does Attorney General Tong not stand for compliance to the rules established under his jurisdiction?
The Dept. of Public Health cannot require Nuvance adhere to the ruling granting access to complete reproductive healthcare at Sharon Hospital?
Where is Governor Lamont who told me that the Office of Health Strategy has the final say, and he trusts their decisions?
Why would a new hospital system entering Connecticut respect the Office of Health Strategy’s ability to establish rightful access to healthcare if the state leadership does not enforce the rulings?
Deborah Ritter Moore
Sharon
FFA article rekindles memories
Your front page headline, “Housatonic FFA testifies at state budget hearing” caught my eye and pulled me into the story. Nowhere in it, however, could I find a line telling readers what the initials FFA stand for. Sprinkled in the piece were hints: “agricultural science” and “ag-ed” and “agriscience” and “future of agriculture.”
Having grown up on a farm in rural Michigan, I remember a teacher, Dale Wightman, who taught classes in a room at our high school with a large banner that read “Future Farmers of America.” I wonder how many Housatonic Valley Regional High School students are FFA members and how many actually aspire to be farmers.
I never joined the FFA myself. Our 60-acre farm had poor sandy soil. We raised pigs and dairy cows. My mom and I had to hand-milk 3 to 5 cows twice a day while dad kept his factory job. That experience fuelled my interest in higher education. I went to Michigan State University just down the road that used to be Michigan Agricultural College, that some called “Moo U.” Its president at the time was John A, Hannah, a former poultry science major. I ended up as a journalist.
Jim Sterba
Sharon
Editor’s Note: The name of the organization was updated in 1988 to National FFA Organization to represent the broad range of agricultural careers fostered by the FFA.
Keep ReadingShow less
loading