Take On Life

Hi everyone,

Danbury’s Albert Yaldeh, longtime owner of the Carvel Ice Cream & Bakery on Route 7 in New Milford, had a curious customer Wednesday.

A white swan.

Sometime around 3:30 p.m., Yaldeh said, the swan took up residence in a deep puddle in his parking lot.

“She’s my neighbor who came to visit me today,” Yaldeh said. “She lives in the pond in the back of our store.

“Since the pond is waterlogged (from two days of rain), she came to the front of the store today. Usually, you’ll find swans in pairs, but this one is by herself.”

The 57-year-old Yaldeh wasn’t about to let his feathered friend feel lonely without her mate.

Fortunately, Yaldeh had plenty of help Wednesday.

With all the rush hour rubber-necking, the swan quickly became the center of attention on Route 7 near Veterans Memorial Bridge.

“I had half of a loaf of bread in the back, so I fed her from that,” Yaldeh said. “I think she enjoyed it.”

Hi everyone,

For years, Turkey Hill Road in Newtown was a dirt shortcut — and quite often, a makeshift race course — that joined Route 25 with Route 34.

But that changed in the mid-1990s, when residential development clamped the connection between Turkey Hill Road and Little Brook Lane in the south end of town.

Most of the families on Turkey Hill Road, especially those with small children, praised the end of through traffic on their winding road with the colorful, autumn arches.

That tranquility came with a price, however.

With only one way into the neighborhood — and only one way out — the Pootatuck River lurked over Turkey Hill Road and the little bridge that ushered folks home.

According to town officials, Turkey Hill Road has been closed at least twice because of flooding over the bridge.

For a long time Tuesday, as the Pootatuck River threatened to betray its banks, it looked like the number of road closures on Turkey Hill Road might grow to three.

To see what happened on Turkey Hill Road, check out my “Take on Life” column on Wednesday.

Only in the print edition of The News-Times.

Hi everyone,

I spent the afternoon on Long Island today at my sister in-law’s house for Passover. I have two nieces down here: Sara and her older sister, Michelle.

They’re both great kids. As the father of two boys, it’s fun hanging out with the girls, especially during the holidays.

I remember when all the kids were little, they used to make the funniest home movies. The kids wore feather boas, old sports jackets, makeup — lots of makeup! — and oversized shoes. 

Sara and I have been thumbwrestling rivals for 100 years. Of course, I always win!

Actually, I’m only writing this because she’s not looking, right now. Out of 1,000 thumbwrestling matches, I think I’ve won once…and it turned out I was dreaming, she says.

It’s great coming down here in the summertime. We love to go to Fire Island – Robert Moses State Park, if you like — and swim in the ocean. Here’s a tip: Always remember to park at Field No. 5!

It pretty much rained all day today on Long Island. Beach weather seems a long way off, but summer will be here before you know it. In fact, I heard it’s supposed to hit the 70s this weekend.

It’s fun seeing my nieces during the holidays. I sure miss the home movies, but I’m proud of the young ladies they’re becoming!

Hi everyone,

Bryan Anderson knew something was wrong, terribly wrong, the moment he heard the explosion that took his legs and his left hand in the fall of 2005.

Blood was everywhere. People were shouting. Smoke and chaos filled the air.

For Anderson, an MP from Chicago, it was the longest 12 minutes of his life.

How does he know?

“That’s how long it took the helicopter to get to me,” Anderson said. “I didn’t pass out until I got on the helicopter.”

Just about 4 1/2 years later, Bryan Anderson is a miracle man, a Purple Heart award recipient with new legs, a new hand and a new outlook on life.

It would’ve been easy for Anderson, a former star gymnast in high school, to give up on himself and his future. But that wasn’t an option, not for the handsome soldier with the easy smile and the courage to move forward.

Literally and figuratively.

Anderson took his amazing story to the Ethan Allen Hotel in Danbury on Wednesday night as the guest speaker for Ability Beyond Disability, the Brookfield-based nonprofit that helps improve the quality of life for people with disabilities.

To read what Anderson had to say about Ability Beyond Disability and the roadside bombing that changed his life — but not his attitude – check out my “Take on Life” column on Sunday.

Only in the print edition of The News-Times.

Hi everyone,

Jeff Wiggins gently pinched the bridge of his nose, just beneath his white eyebrows. But it did little to quell the memories that were suddenly thawing in his eyes.

Wiggins hasn’t seen 19 in a long time, but the limbless, lifeless images of World War II — dark, weeping portraits of frozen death — still resonate like the icy rain that fell on his back in the Netherlands.

Wiggins, who turned 85 in February, was one of 260 black soldiers in the U.S. Army’s 960th Quartermaster Service Co. ordered to help dig 8,302 graves for the war dead in the winter of 1944-45.

The white soldiers identified the bodies, usually with dog tags, Wiggins said. The black soldiers fought racism — and carved dignity — with shovels of segregation.

“I’ll never forget what I saw,” Wiggins said Wednesday at his New Fairfield home. “How could I?”

As painful as those words were to hear for Mieke Kirkels, a Dutch historian driven to tell the story behind the Netherlands American Cemetery, they were also music to her ears.

For 65 years, the farming village of Margraten was home to a cemetery steeped in honor — and shrouded in mystery — for a nation that gave its bosom for America’s fallen heroes.

Kirkels, the linchpin of a Dutch group charged with researching the cemetery’s oral history, couldn’t wait to interview Wiggins about the black gravediggers of Margraten, the men who dug 250 graves a day for 2 1⁄2 months.

“I was so happy when I found Jeff. It was like a gift from heaven,” Kirkels said, referring to her overseas phone call with Wiggins in February 2009. “That’s why I’m here, to learn more. This is a story all people should know.”

To read more about Jeff Wiggins and Mieke Kirkels, check out my “Take on Life” column on Friday.

Only in the print edition of The News-Times.

Hi everyone,

On Wednesday night, I had the honor of serving as the pronouncer for the Hearst Connecticut Media Group Regional Spelling Bee.

For the second consecutive year, I dished out words such as m-i-s-a-n-t-h-r-o-p-y and c-r-o-q-u-e-t-t-e to nearly 40 kids from Danbury, Brookfield, Ridgefield and several other Fairfield County communities.

One girl, Hannah Makuch, came all the way from Willington to spell her dreams into a microphone at Western Connecticut State University’s White Hall.

Finally, after nearly two hours and more than 160 words, three students — Rahul Malayappan and Alisha Davis Lukas of Danbury, and Christo Popham of Greenwich — earned a trip to Washington, D.C., to compete in the 2010 national spelling bee.

Rahul, who attends Broadview Middle School, is no stranger to the national spelling bee. This is the third consecutive year Rahul has earned a ticket to spelling’s brightest stage.

Congratulations to all of Wednesday night’s competitors! Well done, kids!

Hi everyone,

When Dr. Ann Hines opened the Hanahoe Memorial Children’s Clinic in Danbury in 1974, it was supposed to be a temporary fix, a medical Band-Aid for kids without adequate (or any) health care coverage.

Not exactly.

For 35 years — and 89,458 office visits — Ann Hines dispensed hope and health care from her little clinic that could in Danbury. She healed kids with the help of tireless volunteers, generous sponsors and a city that took care of its own.

But what about the children in this country without a Hanahoe Clinic? What about them?

Unfortunately, America’s health care cracks don’t have to be very wide for the nation’s poorest kids to fall through them.

Hines, who lives in Danbury with her husband, Paul, never imagined she would see second-generation patients walk through her clinic door, but she did.

Far too often.

“Health care is not a privilege,” said Hines, who retired last summer as one of the city’s most beloved residents. “Health care is a right.”

Of course, it is.

The greatest country in the world shouldn’t have kids with asthma wheezing in class — or worse, missing school — just because their family can’t afford to buy an inhaler.

To read more about Dr. Ann Hines and her selfless story of helping sick kids, check out my “Take on Life” column Wednesday.

Only in the print edition of The News-Times.

Hi everyone, 

Brooke Hundley wants to move on with her life, but it’s hard when you’re lugging front-page baggage wherever you go.

Seven months after her scandalous affair with Steve Phillips, the former ESPN color commentator and New York Mets general manager, Hundley has moved to New York in hopes of starting over.

In an exclusive interview with The News-Times on Friday, the 23-year-old Hundley didn’t deny last summer’s affair with Phillips.

But the one-time ESPN production assistant did reject her public portrayal as the scorned mistress.

It’s easy — way too easy, in fact — to play Hundley as the only home wrecker here, the “other woman” responsible for the affair that brought Phillips’ marriage and his career to their knees.

That’s not entirely fair.

As much as I can tell, Phillips did a pretty good job swinging a sledgehammer at his marriage long before Hundley came along.

In 1998, when Phillips was GM of the Mets, he settled a sexual harassment claim out of court. He admitted having consenusal sex with the woman and having other affairs as well.

Although Phillips declined to talk to The News-Times about his affair with Hundley, he did tell the Today show’s Matt Lauer in February, “I’m fully responsible for everything that I did and accept responsibility for that.”

If so, that would seem to include exploiting his position at ESPN, particularly when he was on the road covering Major League Baseball.

It should be noted that ESPN fired Phillips and Hundley last October once their affair went public in the New York tabloids and news outlets all across the country.

Before that, however, the two spent a month with reassigned duties: Phillips was taken off the “Baseball Tonight” program and Hundley went from covering baseball to NASCAR, she said.

“I can’t get into any of the specifics for legal reasons, but I will acknowledge that part of my job when I was out on location (with baseball) was to take the talent around,” Hundley said, referring to ESPN’s on-air personalities.

“I knew this from the very first day I was hired. You do not talk to the talent. Never approach them. Never go up to them. But if the talent asks you to do something, go do it.”

Surely, Hundley’s job description didn’t include having sex with Phillips, who resides in Wilton with his wife, Marni, and their four sons.

When asked point-blank if Phillips is the one who initiated their relationship, Hundley simply pursed her lips and shrugged her shoulders.

“All I can tell you is the rules are the rules,” Hundley insisted. “And I followed the rules.”

To read more about Brooke Hundley’s story, check out my “Take on Life” column Sunday.

Only in the print edition of The News-Times.