The fourth annual family-friendly community spelling bee will be held on Friday, October 22nd, from 7-9pm. This event will be at the Theater of the Performing Arts, which is located within the Learning Corridor at 359 Washington Street. It is free to watch teams scramble for correct answers.
It’s not free to play, however. It costs $500 to register a team; the registration deadline is September 30, 2010. This means you have a few weeks to decide whether to compete, study up, find better spellers than yourself to be on your team, and ask for help funding your registration. Team members can be high school age and up, and a word list will be made available so that spellers can study before humiliating themselves in public. A few past teams have included The Goode Spellerz (Asylum Hill Congregational
Church), Habeas Corpses (Law and Government Academy), and Ain’t mis-bee havin The Bee Sharps (Friends of Achieve Hartford!). Participants are encouraged to select names that will make the eyes roll.
Achieve Hartford! — a nonprofit organization that “has been established to monitor, support and be a catalyst for education reform and community involvement in the Hartford Public School District”– says that:
The Community Spelling Bee is our signature special fundraising event. The funds raised from the Bee will go to support literacy-based resource programs that help students excel in reading.
For more information about the Spelling Bee or the organization, see the Achieve Hartford! website.
J is nestled in Barry Square just outside of the Frog Hollow and South Green neighborhoods. It’s near Hartford Hospital, CT Valley Girl Scouts, and across from the Children’s Medical Center. It’s not far from Trinity College or Downtown. It’s about a mile from my house, and Google Maps tells me that it takes five minutes to get there, whether I drive or ride my bike. In spite of its accessibility to me, I had never visited the restaurant until last Wednesday.
Because we had made reservations, we were seated immediately. The waitstaff were attentive, which is not always the case at restaurants when part of a party shows up before the rest. I stuck with the non-alcoholic beverages for the evening, but given that our group sought several refills of the same type of wine, my assumption is that they found something good. The house wines were priced at $25 per bottle, but others ran from $25-63.
The Taste of Hartford menu here was among the more impressive in terms of vegetarian options. Continue reading 'Had Ourselves a J'»
The description of this film was utterly unappealing to me. Anything involving “mystery” or a “punk computer hacker” threatens to lull me to sleep.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo turned out to be one of the most compelling films I have ever seen. It’s in Swedish with subtitles; I have enjoyed a fair number of subtitled films in the past, but this was the first that I was drawn into so quickly that I forgot I was having to read anything.
It is a disturbing film. This is not apparent in the description, but needs to be mentioned. It’s graphic. There are brutal rape scenes. With that said, the film also has one of the strongest female leads. Without giving away too much, there are no attempts to rescue her and she needs nobody’s help anyway.
This film will be playing tonight and Tuesday night at Cinestudio.
This is the first year that both of the colleges I work for had their spring breaks line up. Since I work seven days a week, these five days were the only that I have had off (not counting one snow day) since classes resumed in January. Rather than create stress by planning for an expensive vacation to some warmer place, I decided to stick close to home. Real close. Continue reading 'spring break in a three-mile radius'»
The final community listening session for the Planning & Zoning Commission will be Tuesday evening at Rawson School. So far, there have been sessions at the Pope Park Rec Center, United Methodist Church, and Metzner Rec Center. Each session has focused on proposed land use for nearby neighborhoods.
Continue reading 'Proposed Land Use for Hartford’s Neighborhoods'»
"north end", Asylum Hill, Barry Square, Behind the Rocks, Blue Hills, Clay Arsenal, Economics, Environment, Frog Hollow, Hartford, POCD, Parkville, South End, Urban Renewal, West End, architecture/design, blight, class, commentary, community, downtown, housing, library, neighborhoods, parks, photos, quality of life, south green, tax money in action, transportation
Two individuals were arrested yesterday in Barry Square and South End for “BICYCLE LIGHTS,REFLECTORS,BRAKES,WH.” It’s safe to assume that means the cyclists lacked these accessories, had insufficient ones, or were doing it wrong. In both cases, the arrested men had other charges tacked on later, like possession and sale of narcotics, and violation probation. Since the average cyclist in Hartford does not use lights on his bike, I think it’s safe to assume that unless one is looking sketchy for one reason or another, he probably is not going to get arrested simply for lacking appropriate safety gear. On the other hand, the bond was listed as $150, so it’s cheaper to just get the lights, whistles, sirens, etc., and skip the tour of Jennings Road.
Two days ago Cityline published a letter that Rich Wareing sent to numerous individuals regarding the plan to house a “no freeze” shelter at the Center Church downtown. He wrote:
Indeed, that Mr. McGovern would seriously consider locating a facilty which the City estimates will be 50% utilized by registered sex offenders across the street from two apartment buildings, three blocks from a magnet high school, and right in the middle of the most signficant business and entertainment district in the city, speaks volumes about the City’s disregard for the welfare of its voters, taxpayers, visitors, and children.
While keeping sex offenders away from youth sounds like an altruistic goal, I believe this argument is deceptive. Here’s why:
In the past, Hartford has had a no freeze shelter. This is not a brand new creation. The previous one was housed at 255 Washington Street, but a mile — if walking – from the new one. I even created a map to show this:
View homeless shelters in a larger map
What do you notice about the location of the old shelter on Washington Street? For someone with no familiarity with Hartford, the only two things that really should grab his attention would be that it was located in a very residential area, as one can see a number of houses nearby, and that it was very close to the Connecticut Childrens Medical Center.
Continue reading 'No Homeless: The Special Just-in-time-for-Thanksgiving Edition'»
Barry Square, Crime & Justice, Frog Hollow, Hartford, access, class, commentary, parks, political b.s., privilege, quality of life, social programs, south green, weather
After a few days away, I returned to find obnoxious (but fairly routine) comments littering the Topix forum that one is routed to from the online Hartford Courant.
On my trip, I was thinking about civic pride and the need for community and cooperation between neighboring towns. I am not talking about these qualities on a political level, but on a personal level. There is community here, within the city, but it’s not something that gets much press. Crime and corruption are made public. Poverty and illiteracy are treated as mascots for my city.
What does not make the news are the minutiae.
One Friday night I gathered with a half dozen women to eat local pizza in the host’s dining room. We wolfed down three pizzas and laughed. Nobody got shot or stabbed.
Last week, I ventured with a friend and two of her children to Colt Park. We were hoping to catch a women’s rugby game. Though it seemed to be canceled, we picked up some delicious goodies from Modern Pastry, watched runners cross the finish line at the Hartford Marathon in Bushnell Park, and then headed to La Paloma Sabanera for an actual lunch. At the coffee house, we ran into more friends. Again, nobody got shot or stabbed.
Continue reading 'Words vs. Pictures'»
"north end", Asylum Hill, Barry Square, Behind the Rocks, Clay Arsenal, Frog Hollow, Hartford, Parkville, Regionalism, South End, West End, community, downtown, food, fun, myth busting, not Hartford, parks, perception bias, photos, quality of life, south green, transportation
As I hinted at in a previous post, schlepping down to Washington D.C. is on my list of things I do not enjoy. It’s not D.C. itself that bothers me, just the dull, non-scenic trip. As historical of a day as this is, getting on a bus/train/plane to stand among millions without even a chance of seeing President Obama seemed rather pointless, so, I stayed in Hartford and watched the inaugural events on a friend’s widescreen television. Being among friends and warm acquaintances, indoors, with tissues handy and cameras out is a memory I will cherish. Someone cooked molasses sweet potatoes, and another person made a special Obama cake, pictured below.
Below are a few pics of the tv screen, for anyone who might’ve missed all of the coverage today.
Continue reading 'Thoughts on the Inauguration'»
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