Letter from Chip Northrup Unnecessary Nuisance The Cooperstown firehouse siren is noise pollution at its worst — far above the Village’s own decibel limit, and totally unnecessary, unlike say a heavy metal concert. Pagers and cell phones can and have replaced these ridiculous noisemakers. If the firemen get a page or a text, they get the address of the fire — they can go straight there — they don’t have to go to the fire station first. When the Queensbury,…
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Letter from Chip Northrup Hapless Mussels The hapless mussels didn’t want to come here. They were as happy as clams in Siberia — before they were Shanghai’d to the Great Lakes. They have no political advocates in Albany — so they get the blame for everything. Count the votes Chip NorthrupCooperstown…
‘Justice involved’ The proposed New York State licensing program for cannabis dispensaries (a.k.a. dope shops) gives priority to applicants that have a record of being “justice involved” – that is, persons convicted of drug charges, or the relatives of such persons, before the state dope sale law went into effect. What a great euphemism for a criminal! Fortunately, I qualify – having exported hashish from England to America in the 1970s. So where do I apply for a license to become the Dope…
Letter: Meanwhile in Texas Texas’s new voter suppression law is a great example of how to keep lots of people from voting. The new statute requires a voter to present either a driver’s license or their Social Security number in order to get an absentee ballot. Since Texas only requires one of these IDs to register to vote, if a county registrar receives an absentee ballot request with a type of ID they don’t have on file, they can’t match…
Letter: ‘Plague’ Improvements The Plague has produced some revelations, a few for the better. Our son works remotely at PIXAR. He lives a mile away from the office, where he used to commute by bike, but hasn’t gone there in over a year. Now that working from home is a viable alternative, a PIXAR artist or programmer could work from anywhere there is sufficient bandwidth — even Cooperstown.…
Letter: Another dispensary ‘no’ To the Editor: The most obvious, most sober course of action for the Village Board is to opt out of the state’s comically misguided and tragically misspelled “marihuana” law, and simultaneously schedule a referendum on the matter that, among other things, addresses zoning, etc.…
LETTER from CHIP NORTHRUP Proposed apartments better than existing eyesores To the Editor: A new apartment building has been proposed at 10 Chestnut between Main and Lake. Simple Integrity proposed much the same thing two years ago. I was the only person at the hearing that spoke in favor of it—on the simple premise that what they proposed was clearly an improvement on what’s there now—a dilapidated building. The first and foremost utilitarian test on the redevelopment of property in…
LETTER from CHIP NORTHRUP While U.S. Soldiers Fought, Families Confined At Home To the Editor: Racial animus against Asians, including snide remarks about the “Kung Flu,” has no place in America. My father-in-law, Al Prather, was a lieutenant in the 442nd Infantry Regiment during World War II. Most of the enlisted men were Japanese Americans, most of the officers were not. Many of the families of the Japanese-American soldiers were imprisoned in detention camps, as a form of racial profiling…
LETTER from CHIP NORTHRUP Before Cuomo Resignation, Let Investigations Conclude To the Editor: I have never voted for Andrew Cuomo and probably never will. I can’t. I’m not a year-’round resident of New York State. The allegations of harassment against him are troubling, and, if proven, worthy of condemnation. But I am going to suggest that, rather than simply clamour for his resignation, it would be more helpful, indeed therapeutic, to allow the investigations by the state Attorney General and…
LETTER from CHIP NORTHRUP What If 13 Of Our Neighbors Joined Attack On The Capitol? To the Editor: Another fellow Texan, Luke Coffee, has been arrested for taking part in Trump’s Seditious Farce. This is getting a bit close to home. Luke Russell Coffee’s grandfather was mayor of University Park, a Dallas suburb, for 20 years. I know his father Roy Coffee, Jr., is a member of the Dallas Country Club. He went to my high school, Highland Park. All…