Take On Life

Hi everyone,

Scott Gruda’s pawn shop is filled with an inventory list pulled straight from a Damon Runyon story — musical instruments, jewelry and old coins, all polished with a little bit of drama and the occasional desperation.

But every once in a while, a piece of history is carried through the front door.

For Gruda, owner of A Yankee Peddler & Pawn on Main Street in Danbury, it happened twice recently when two separate clients brought antique swords to his counter in the same week.

One sword appeared to be a relic from the Civil War. The other, which had a knob at the end of the handle with a swastika cast on it, seemed to a World War II piece.

“The guy who brought in the Civil War sword was an older guy. He said the sword was given to his great-grandfather or someone like that during the Civil War,” Gruda said. “As it turned out, his story was true. The sword was legitimate.”

Gruda credits the sudden increase in exotic items being pawned to the new History Channel program, “Pawn Stars.” The reality TV show is built around a Las Vegas pawn shop run by three generations of the Harrison family.

But unlike the swords that turned up at Gruda’s pawn shop, the Harrison men — Richard, Rick and Corey — see it all in Sin City, from a Grammy Award and a Super Bowl ring, to a Picasso painting and a spoon made by Paul Revere.

Much of the merchandise is authentic on the show. Everything else is not.

There are flat-out forgeries and convincing reproductions. Sometimes the seller is trying to pull a fast one. Other times, the seller unknowingly bought a fake without insisting on credible documentation.

“We never took in swords and stuff like that before,” said Gruda, who has owned A Yankee Peddler & Pawn for the last seven or eight years. “But after Pawn Stars, everybody seems to come up with different things.”

To read more about Scott Gruda and Pawn Stars, check out my Take on Life column Sunday.

Only in the print edition of The News-Times.

Hi everyone,

For one enchanted week in 1995, New Haven wasn’t singularly known for Yale University, or even, the best apizza this side of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Instead, the Elm City shined as the epicenter of the Special Olympics universe — the Ninth Special Olympics World Summer Games, to be exact.

Looking back, it was a wonderful week to be a reporter.

I remember trading pins at the historic Yale Bowl. I remember soaking up the medal ceremonies when athletes lowered their heads and simultaneously raised my awareness and appreciation of their accomplishments.

The Special Olympics, you see, whether they’re held on a local, national or international level, have always rested on the pillars of hope and inclusion.

On May 8, the Special Olympics Connecticut Northwest Regional Games will come to Greater Danbury for the second straight year and the stage — albeit smaller than those 1995 World Games in New Haven — will be no less stirring.

The track and field events will be held at Danbury High School’s oval. The aqautics competition will be held at Pomperaug High School’s pool.

And, for a few precious hours, sportsmanship will be the order of the day, not arrogant end zone dances, narcissistic home run trots, or ill-conceived trash talk born of bad intentions and the lowest common denominator.

“Once you’ve been to the (Special Olympics) Games, you’re hooked,” said Rob Gerowe, Northwest regional director for Special Olympics Connecticut. “They’re such an inspiring and amazing event.”

To read more about the Special Olympics coming to Greater Danbury — and what it means to the region — check out my Take on Life column Friday.

Only in the print edition of The News-Times.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for a great Mother’s Day column for next Sunday and I need your help!

Sure, everybody loves their mom: the giver of life, love, lessons and lasagna. After all, who’s better than mom?

But I want to write about the Greater Danbury mom with the story you can’t forget, the story that makes brunch and a box of chocolates seem woefully inadequate.

If you think you’re the mom I need to write about — or maybe, you know who is – please leave me a comment at the bottom of this blog post.

Or, if you prefer, shoot me an e-mail at bkoonz@newstimes.com or call me at 203-731-3411.

Thanks a lot and have a Happy Mother’s Day!

Hi everyone,

Shirley Fredlund figures she has more than 700 push pins stuck in her map of Connecticut.

Each one, the New Milford woman will tell you, represents someone she has helped with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a terminal neuromuscular disease better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

“Think about that for a minute,” Fredlund implored Monday morning, leaning over her kitchen table.

“What if you couldn’t talk?”

“What if you couldn’t communicate even the most basic human needs?”

“What if — Fredlund paused for a minute — you couldn’t tell someone you love them?”

That last one really hit me.

But instead of submitting to the worst kind of exile, the ALS monster that stole her friend, Fredlund fought back 20 years ago after the death of her high school pal, Joanie Margaitis.

After Margaitis lost her battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease — the condition is named after the former New York Yankees legend — Fredlund reached inside and pulled out Voice for Joanie, a local non-profit group dedicated to helping ALS patients.

To read more about Voice for Joanie — and to learn about Saturday night’s big fundraiser in New Milford — check out my Take on Life column Wednesday.

Only in the print edition of The News-Times.

Hi everyone,

With Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany preaching expansion – and the collection plate likely headed toward the Big East — I have to admit I’m not happy about it.

I understand that big-time college football “drives the bus,” as former UConn athletic director Lew Perkins used to tell me. But that doesn’t mean I’m ready to sign up for road trips to Bloomington and Madison.

Not yet, anyway.

As someone who grew up with the Big East — I’ve been a Big East guy since my freshman year at Syracuse in 1983 — it didn’t take me long to develop an affinity for Dave Gavitt’s 1979 brainchild.

I was in the stands at the Carrier Dome in 1984 when the Syracuse football team shocked No. 1 Nebraska. I was there when SU point guard Dwayne “Pearl” Washington was one part superstar, one part showman. 

The 14 years I spent as the UConn beatwriter for The News-Times only added to my book of Big East memories, a volume that could soon be out of print.  

Consider: Over the past few months, Syracuse, UConn, Rutgers and Pittsburgh have all been mentioned as Big Ten targets.

And I hate it.

Of course, if the Big Ten extends invitations to any or all of these Big East schools, they’d be foolish not to accept the offer.

Big-time college football has the money and the muscle, after all. It always has.

If the likes of Syracuse and UConn hope to remain relevant — and viable – as big-time college sports programs, they would have to leave the Big East for greener (as in money) pastures, whether the final destination is the Big Ten, the ACC or some other Darwinian configuration.

What do you think about the Big Ten’s alleged pursuit of UConn and other Big East schools?

Leave me a comment!

Hi everyone,

Noel Hord has spent his career building some of world’s top shoe brands, including Nine West and Easy Spirit, into a commercial force.

But his real life’s work — the mission that fulfills Hord and makes him whole — is helping others.

“I came from a very socially conscious family,” said the 63-year-old Hord, who lives in Danbury with his wife, Tamar. “My parents instilled in me, really more by their actions than their words, that we are our brother’s keeper.“

On April 24, Hord will receive the Robert S. Young Humanitarian Award at Ability Beyond Disability’s Confetti Gala. The fundraiser will be held at the Amber Room Colonnade in Danbury.

This is not the first time that Hord, a former member of the Ability Beyond Disability Board of Directors, has been recognized for his compassion and philanthropy.

It surely won’t be the last for Hord, the son of a minister and a teacher.

As a boy growing up in Terre Haute, Ind., not too far from the Illinois border, Noel Hord watched his parents give back to the local community — sometimes with their money, but mostly with their hearts.

To read more about Noel Hord and Ability Beyond Disability, check out my Take on Life column Sunday.

Only in the print edition of The News-Times.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The next Take on Life blog post will appear April 26.

Hi everyone,

Beth Profeta took a terrible fall Wednesday night, but don’t bother looking for the bruises.

At least not on the outside.

But cut through the scars of a nearly 26-year-old unsolved murder and you’ll see a daughter’s battered heart, a black-and-blue punching bag that’s pulsed with hope too many times before, only to go another 10 rounds with the worst kind of disappointment.

It happened again Wednesday night in Profeta’s Torrington home after she received an e-mail alert from The News-Times in her computer’s mailbox.

A bone — possibly human — had been uncovered at 89 Poverty Hollow Road in Newtown, the e-mail alert read.

As Profeta soaked up the words — and read them once more, just to make sure she could trust her eyes — she felt the seductive caress of closure in the 1984 murder of her mother, Mary Badaracco.

A moment later, the first punch hit Profeta squarely in the chest.

Then came another. And another.

Badaracco was just 38 years old, the mother of two young daughters, when she vanished from her Sherman home, the victim of a cold-blooded killer who is free on borrowed time, Profeta will tell you.

After a few computer clicks Wednesday night, Profeta figured out the remains probably didn’t belong to her mother, but rather Elizabeth Heath, who was reported missing from the same Poverty Hollow Road address in 1984.

“I always have to calm myself down when news like this happens,” Profeta said. “You don’t want to get too far ahead of yourself because then it hurts too much when you hit the ground and it doesn’t pan out.”

To read more about Beth Profeta and the search for her mother’s killer, check out my “Take on Life” column Friday.

Only in the print edition of The News-Times.

Hi everyone,

So here’s my dilemma…

Actually, it’s not just my dilemma. There’s plenty of dilemma to go around for me, my wife, her ex-husband and his wife down in Florida.

But for my stepson, Mike, who lives with us in Connecticut, it’s the ultimate coming-of-age dilemma: Where to go to college?

After about a dozen campus visits and seven college applications, Mike is down to Georgia Tech and the University of Florida. He’s been admitted to study aerospace engineering at both schools, but he has to make his decision by May 1.

Georgia Tech is ranked No. 2 in the country for undergraduate aerospace engineering by U.S. News & World Report. The only school ahead of Georgia Tech is MIT, according to the magazine’s rankings.

Granted, the U.S. News & World Report rankings are only one tool. But they’re an awfully nice tool to have.

Mike was thrilled when Georgia Tech accepted him, of course. The Yellow Jackets remain his No. 1 choice, even as time is running out on his decision.

Unfortunately, as an out-of-state kid enrolling at Georgia Tech, we’re looking at a $38,000 bill for 2010-11 with only $4,400 in grant money and college investments that took a big hit during the recession.

Too bad UConn doesn’t offer aerospace engineering.

Sure, we could take out loans — and more loans – to send him to Georgia Tech, but it would definitely be a financial hardship.

Don’t get me wrong, it would be the ultimate investment in a winner. But I have another 10-year-old winner at home who will need college money someday.

Because Mike’s dad lives in Florida, he could attend the University of Florida as an in-state student for a bottom-line price of $17,910 for 2010-11.

Not bad, right?

Yes and no.

Like all parents, we want to give Mike every chance to succeed — and the best education we can – which would mean sending him to Atlanta.

But with talk of tuition at Georgia Tech increasing anywhere from 20 percent to 35 percent to even 77 percent for 2010-11 because of state budget shortfalls in Georgia, we’re pretty much financially paralyzed if any of those doomsday hikes come to pass.

So what would you do?

My wife and I both have friends who attended the University of Florida and loved their time there. Still, we’re not crazy about the No. 1 party school ranking from The Princeton Review and the 50,000 students running around Gainesville.

In the end, I’m sure Mike will do fine wherever he goes to school.

As for me, I just can’t seem to get that Georgia Tech fight song out of my head.