f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

 

spring in the square–
a child’s orange tricycle
scattering pigeons

 

 

 

 

gaining an hour . . .
I water the marigolds
one more time

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

crossing the bridge–
the shadow of a gull
I never see

 

 

Barry George

“spring in the square” – tiny words (March 20, 2002)

“gaining an hour”  – The Heron’s Nest (June 2001)

“crossing the bridge” – The Heron’s Nest (Sept. 2002)

 

 

 

 

• 
  
  by dagosan:  

special delivery —

mail carrier switches

to her short pants

 

                           [April 11, 2005]

 

  Schenectady’s Romolo Versaci, famous for his “so-called lawyer” defamation, 

suit, was quoted offering a classic criminal defense lawyer’s line, over the weekend.

This time, however, Versaci was playing the role of  “a friend,” rather than the lawyer

of Schenectady city councilman Peter Della Ratta.  The 32-year-old legislator is

accused of beating a 21-year-old man, Matthew Maioriello, last week — breaking his

nose, chipping a tooth and injuring his eyesocket — when he found Matthew in the

apartment of his [Della Ratta’s] former girlfriend.   Peter owned the building in which the

apartment is located.  He had fired Matthew from a construction job and evicted him

from the same building recently, after Matthew’s mother complained to housing officials

that Della Ratta was violating city codes by renting out an attic space to Matthew. 

[Schenectady Gazette, Della Ratta probed in beating (scroll to Reply 15), April 9, 2005]  

 

Here’s Romolo’s chivalrous and feisty defense of his friend Peter:

“No jury would convict him of a crime if he were ever prosecuted. 

He was merely defending a lady’s honor.”

The lady in question has not yet been quoted publically, but I shall keep you

posted.

• 
  
   By the way, criminal law experts:  Is it a little fishy that the D.A. himself
  
  
  made the call on charging Della Ratta (they’re both Democrats), and he
  
  
  decided that the injury suffered by Maioriello was not serious enough to
  
  
  be second-degree assault (a felony), so Peter is charged with misdemeanor,
  
  
  third-degree assault?  

 

  Two lines from “Man Smart, Woman Smarter,” the classic song by Norman  

Span (a/k/a King Radio) [recorded by Harry Belafonte (1956) , Robert Palmer

(1976), Rosanne Cash (1979), and C.J. Chenier (1995)], sum up this Baby

Boomer’s feelings on a lovely spring day — and they even look like a haiku.  The

scene: an old man finds a little boy in tears on a park bench:

“I can’t do

what the big boys do” —
Old man sat down, he cried too