Get Horatio on the case

There are days when I'm at a loss for what I will write about in this space. The pressure of a deadline makes the writer's block that much more pronounced. Actually, it only happens Sunday through Saturday and except that it's not as good as when I fail to come up with something at all, you wouldn't notice the difference (do NOT try this at home. I am a professional, sort of) but you would a feel a sense of relief. 

We in Connecticut have an odd relationship with our state capital, Hartford. It's not our biggest city, it's not our best known city and it's not even a destination of choice for a lot of those who work there. If you visit Hartford, because you're a big fan of insurance (I guess), on a weekday evening as folks are heading out, you can be forgiven for believing that someone just pulled a fire alarm. I'll put it this way, you don't want to be between anyone heading home to Colchester and her/his exit on Route 2, if you know what's good for you.

What this leaves in our state's capital after hours is a colorful assortment of folks whose ability to survive in a less than cordial atmosphere is sometimes exceeded only by their genius at getting themselves into trouble. Here's a story you have to love, even if you're a fan (or a member for that matter) of law enforcement: Man Takes Off in Hartford Police Cruiser. I confess to not having spent a large amount of time handcuffed and in the backseat of a police car (see that aforementioned genius for trouble), so maybe I just lack the imagination to appreciate the mad skill of what this fellow was about. 

I feel for whomever is managing Hartford's efforts at promotion-the Capital City has marvelous arena and convention halls, hotels, restaurants, cozy little bistros and pubs and would love to attract visitors from across the country or at least from elsewhere in Hartford County. Instead, they get a story like Houdini making his getaway in a cop car  and it's the kind of item that gets picked up on a news site half way around the world. I suppose any publicity is good publicity though making it with this story on a website with the logos of all the first division cricket teams in India, Go Delhi Daredevils!, may cause the cats and kittens in marketing to scratch their heads and the Mayor to suggest a career change for you is in order.

That the news accounts all suggest the getaway in the police car may well have been followed by a further getaway in a boat is really asking a bit much, at least for me. When I next swing by Norwich Harbor on my way to work, I'll do a quick tally of the cigar boats and the cigarette boats (? or whatever all the other kinds are called) just to make sure no one vaguely resembling Frank Abagnale, Jr. is lurking around the gazebo in Howard T. Brown Park. I have enough trouble cleaning up the agricultural shots from the Daredevils off the steps without having to tangle with a desperado almost in handcuffs and, by then, probably in a terraplane. Jiminy Cricket!
-bill kenny