The city's "Public Viewing Guidelines," designed to restrict the movement of picketers and demonstrators, should be considered absolute crap. The whole point of a protest is to disrupt things — albeit non-violently — but acting like penned sheep is hardly a posture designed to rouse the rabble.
It was good to see the firefighters and police picketers ignore the guidelines on the final day of the conference — however misguided their presence was to begin with. If you are following the orders of the very people whose views and policies you are disputing, going along with their rules of conduct hardly gives anyone the idea that you have the gumption needed to put over your argument in a public forum. Doh!
Sleep tight, Chicago Seven.
BARKING SPIDERS
A thought for Patrick Kennedy from Phillipe and Jorge, who have more than a passing acquaintance with rehab and recovery. We all have our own barking spiders, as our friend the Pogey Princess calls them, and better to deal with them than be consumed by them.
The radio bloviators have been portraying Patrick's "stepping away" from his political duties as almost some sort of lark, a "me first" decision that is somehow insulting and undermining his constituents in the First Congressional District. Not so. Rehab is a humbling and humiliating experience, even if it is a life saver in many cases. And yes, it is "me first," especially when you decide to put your mental and physical health in the fore. We assume Patrick is not incapacitated and is in constant contact with his very capable aides and staff members, even as he gets away from the grind and stress that almost always feature in any sort of relapse or fear of same. He will find nothing but support from this corner, and we trust him to be more than capable of handling the needs of the people in his district. He has many detractors, but if everyone in Congress had his courage under fire in the political arena, we'd all be better off. Be well, Mr. Kennedy.
CAVEAT EMPTOR
A tough week at the consumer trough for P+J. First, we saw our car insurance bumped up by nearly 50 percent by the reptiles at Geico due to the first late payment we have ever made. Yeah, the gecko is a cute spokesperson, but he isn't the only lizard working for the company.
Then our purchase of a weedwhacker at the North Kingstown Home Depot turned out to be a bit less than satisfactory. After donning our Mr. Greenjeans yard work ensembles the next day, we removed the tool from its box to find we had purchased used goods, covered in grass clippings and with the line stained and torn off at the ends. Back at the store, the shrewish manager said they had obviously been duped and she would give us a new one. Pointing out that we thought we had already purchased a new one, and that it was Home Depot who had pulled a fast one on us, resulting in a midday 40-minute round-trip journey to return it, the mid-management hothead finally agreed to take off 20 percent (with an endearing snarl).
So if you're shopping Home Depot in NK, opening the package prior to purchase to make sure you aren't getting leftovers is recommended.
