Date: Fri 09-Apr-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

Mountain-April-15

Full Text:

TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN

You can see them circling the tables at the post office and library -- those

lost souls with the stricken look searching vainly for IRS Form 1040SOL

covering deductions all the year's big disappointments. Frankly, I believe

every disappointment should be deductible regardless of its size. Why, we

could all deduct the federal government itself, and we'd all be getting rich

on refunds right now instead of writing out that big check for April 15.

Joe McCarthy, a representative of the IRS, was a guest speaker at the Rotary

meeting Monday night, and during dinner he was seated next to Barbara Kershaw.

Barbara, not knowing Mr McCarthy or his profession, was sitting with a large

box on her lap, struggling a bit with the cover, and she chose that moment to

ask him what he did for a living.

"I'm with the IRS," he said, just as the cover popped off and revealed that

the box was filled with cash -- ones, fives and tens.

"Uh, I can explain..." Barbara said as she quickly covered up all the cash.

It turns out Barbara was just in the process of counting all the small bills

collected as Rotary "fines" in the past several weeks. It was not , as Gary

Fetzer later suggested, her latest fee for her work as an attorney. Mr

McCarthy, a gracious guest of the club, let the incident slide without further

comment.

In all her years on the Legislative Council, Melissa Pilchard had never missed

a public hearing on the budget. Until last week. But Melissa assures me that

her absence had nothing to do with the Melissa Virus, which has swept its way

through cyberspace over the past two weeks.

Public Works Director Fred Hurley has turned out to be quite an enthusiastic

UConn fan. Nine days after the Huskies captured the NCAA basketball national

title, he was still wearing his UConn hat. Rest assured, Fred will be at the

Husky victory parade April 17.

One UConn star (who is not on the basketball team), Stephanie Hays, a senior

and the daughter of Norma Hays, has hit the Internet. Her picture appears at

www.honors.uconn.edu/furpean.pdf along with a report of a psychological study

on nutrition and college students, which she and two other students conducted.

No one ever suggested those Lerman guys were defenseless types, and they

certainly aren't saying it now. Sandy Lerman joined his father, Kenneth, last

weekend when he was awarded the rank of Nidan, second degree black belt, in

the martial art Jujitsu. Kenneth received his Nidan ranking in August of 1997.

Both Kenneth and Sandy earned the rank of Shodan, first degree black belt, in

1996.

The Hawley School PTA is raffling a jelly cupboard hand-painted by artist

Janice Wilkinson. The cupboard is on display at the Booth Library and $1

raffle tickets can be purchased at circulation desk until Monday. The drawing

will take place next Tuesday at the middle school during Pasta Night. Winners

need not be present.

A large contingent of Newtown residents made their way south to Myrtle Beach,

S.C., this week for a little spring golfing. Among those who went down were

the foursome of Richard Sturdevant, Bill Meyer, Scott Conover, Joe DeCandido,

and the foursome of Bob Woodies, Ken Bigham, John Anderson and Ed Atkinson.

A happy birthday goes out to Bee reporter Jan Howard, who celebrated her 60th

on Thursday. And congratulations to Jack Shpunt who was recently honored by

the youth basketball board of directors for his 30 years of volunteer service

to Newtown youth basketball.

Former Newtown resident Nancy Knapp recently e-mailed The Bee to inform me

that the "Looking for Old Friends" forum in the "Town Talk" section of The

Bee's website helped reunite two old friends who hadn't had contact with each

other for ten years. Dawn Wigglesworth's March 18 note led Nancy to Dawn's

sister Andrea. Andrea and Nancy's daughter, Tracy, were longtime friends.

Within 24 hours, Tracy and Andrea were back in touch again. The Knapps moved

out of Sandy Hook in 1993, but they still keep tabs on Newtown by logging on

to www.thebee.com.

If you are looking for old friends, you can sometimes find them on The Bee's

website. You can always find me there, however, so there is no time of day or

night when you can't log on and...

Read me again.