http://www.woodstockctcafe.com also serving Eastford, Pomfret, Brooklyn, Canterbury, Putnam, Ashford and Thompson. We're as close as your mouse. Sat, 20 Mar 2010 23:15:34 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Woodstock Valley Girl has repeated many times something to the effect that no one visits the Cafe anymore (not an exact quote). I used to kid another frequent visitor when he asked how many visit the Cafe by telling him that it's just you, me, and Taxpayer :-) . An ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/20/and-you-wonder-why-this-place-has-pretty-much-become-ghost-town/ from Frank Corden Businesses are neither Republican nor Democrat. Businesses large and small are about making money, and there isn’t anything wrong with that. In fact there is everything right with it, our country is a good place to live because anyone regardless of their economic standing at birth can rise ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/20/where-do-we-draw-the-line/ from Frank Corden No doubt some (including WVG) may object to my characterization of Woodstock conservatism. Sadly, what I’ve said above isn’t a lie, I really wish it wasn’t true. Case in point, look at the Town Garage issue and go from there. We ignored state and federal environmental rules as well ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/20/woodstocks-perennial-liability/ from Con I hesitate to bring it up because it’s WAY beyond the pale, but even certain so-called ‘Mainstream’ websites contain the worst comments I have ever read, bar none. I’m referring to YOUTUBE. While there are plenty of websites allowing totally unregulated, uncensored and probably unread (by staff) comments, most often ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/16/the-dark-side-of-the-web/ from Kevin Sorry 'Independent', I read WVG’s post differently from you but I never stated a conclusion on what would have happened if a vote occurred or even offered an opinion on how it would have gone. What I did say was, “That is why you have no idea how such ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/15/dont-waste-our-time/ from Con I’ve recommended before that readers look at as many similar examples from other Blogs, newspapers, etc. they can find, review their rules & policies and decide which are appropriate - this stuff has already been well thought out and there are excellent examples out there. They start with Who ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/15/some-thoughtful-advice/ By Frank Corden  (in response to Newcomer) I would agree that a key role of federal government is to maintain security. As such, the military, homeland security and federal coordination of the state militia’s (National Guard) are appropriately funded at the national level. With regard to entitlements, these really fall into two ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/13/more-on-key-economic-issues-and-our-entitlements/ from Frank Corden My approach to governance comes directly from my experience in the private sector. Good performance and success in the market place warrant further investment not less. Over the years that Dr. Baran has led the Woodstock Public schools performance in fact improved. Last year, WPS was the best ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/13/views-of-a-teddy-roosevelt-republican/ from Newcomer I’m slow to reply to your question (see "Re: Tough Times Ahead") because it’s so thought-provoking. Our nation was formed some 234 years ago and one would think that this question would have been answered at the outset. But as we’ve ‘evolved’ (if that’s the correct word) we’ve added more ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/11/an-attempt-to-answer-franks-question/ from John What could be a better indicator of a recovering economy? Timber harvesting. We are seeing this on Barber Road in Woodstock and on Storrs Road in Tolland. The two graphs at the bottom are showing that both white pine and fuel wood are coming back. You can get as much ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/10/a-sign-perhaps-that-the-economy-is-coming-back/ http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/10/a-reminder-that-the-balloon-is-going-up-tomorrow/ from Kevin E. Ford Regarding editorial policy, I do think that it is an important discussion because it is one of the most crucial factors to consider when deciding what type of media site you want to be. I believe that the reason why the Cafe’s policies appear to be going ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/10/advice-for-the-cafe/ from Anonymous That anecdote about the $100 circulating through a small town is - as one blogger observed - in part about velocity. How fast money moves through the economy is a partial measure of how well the economy is functioning.  The anecdote is also an illustration of what economists call the ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/10/circular-flow/  See the full analysis at JenRan Realty.com. You have to register to read Jennifer Esposito's monthly news letter which contains a monthly Northeastern CT housing market analysis. http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/10/woodstocks-housing-market/ from Frank Corden Independent, Taxpayer, Con and all others who seem to be routinely participating in a number of thoughtful discussions, I’d like to tee one up that flows from Independent’s comment above regarding a few tough years ahead. Clearly, we need to get our state and federal budgets under control. As ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/08/re-tough-times-ahead/ from Frank Corden So to the point, the only position you (WVG) have mentioned that I took that is contrary to your views has to do with Woodstock Academy. You stipulated to items, one that I supported the efforts of the BoE chair to propose legislation changing the statutory status of WA. ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/08/recognizing-our-national-strategic-imperative/ from Independent Once again, Anon makes an important point about the core workings of our economy. When I was in college, my professor took the class to Sturbridge Village to make this same point. Like the little town in Texas, it is a microcosm of the broader economy. Economists call this concept ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/07/our-capital-market-systems-have-not-and-will-not-dry-up-and-blow-away/ from John  WVG, Your persistence in your last comment about having been here before jogged my memory. I like the way you make things up as you go along. It wasn't four years ago as you suggested in one of your first comments (maybe just a smoke screen). It was more recently ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/07/re-writing-history/ from Frank Corden Sorry folks. I’ve been traveling over the last couple of weeks and consistent with company policy, won’t use my laptop for personal/political purposes. Regardless, I didn’t realize a request for clarification would engender such a vitriolic debate. This shouldn’t have been about me personally. I’m sorry it devolved to that. ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/06/for-the-record/ from Woodstock Valley Girl Subtitle: An Ode to 'Bill' Fact: Frank Corden never would have been endorsed by the Woodstock Republicans (and by “Woodstock Republicans” I mean, the nominating committee of the RTC, the entire RTC, and a caucus of all Republicans) for the Board of Education this year. He would have ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/06/you-cant-fix-stupid-one-more-time/ from Proud Liberal  Brownie, Conservative judges are the ones who vindicate corporations over the working guy. Take the recent court ruling on corporate campaign contributions and of course, how can we forget eminent domain? Liberalism looks out for everyone equally and I see no harm in that. Everyone deserves a fair ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/05/anti-liberals-try-doing-some-volunteer-work/ Bill Loftus (D) will oppose Mike Alberts (R) in the next election. http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/05/news-flash/ from Anonymous It is a slow day in the East Texas town of Madisonville.  It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted.  Times are tough, everybody is in debt and everybody lives on credit.   On this particular day a rich tourist from the East is driving through town.   He enters the ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/05/economic-lesson-of-the-day/ from Ernest Wetzel What ever liberal wrote this nonsense (below) must be smoking some good stuff. You’re revisionist history is incredible. Our country has been marching toward socialism/communism since the early 1900’s. The American public educated by our government schools has no basis of history, economics or common sense. They keep voting ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/04/still-more-on-where-our-economy-stands-now/ from Independent This (below) is a good summary of our political economy in my opinion. I have a few relative nitpicks. Demographic trends as the echo generation attempts to support the larger retiring baby boom generation has greatly aggravated the entitlement financing problem. The solution will inevitably involve means=testing these programs on both ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/03/03/more-on-where-our-economy-stands-now/ Comment about this article from an economic advisor:"This writer’s take on the TARP mirrors that of the press but is inaccurate; the money put into the banks usually involved sale of debt (bonds, preferred), not a 'bailout' and as such repayment was required and in fact most of the dollars ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/28/where-our-economy-stands-now-not-a-pretty-picture/ from Con to WVG Because of the Title to this main Comment, I’d like to stick to that subject: What exactly about the comment is “…just plain a lot of baloney, double-talk and whining…” as your comment had stated about “most” of Frank’s primary comment? A lot of us readers do ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/28/wheres-the-facts-to-support-the-premise/ Tomorrow is our special day, the day we got hitched; but when tomorrow comes, our special day will have already passed. On Sunday February 28th, 1988, Becki and I drove up to the Hyatt at North Lake Tahoe and spent the night at the slots 'till about 2 AM. The next day, Leap ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/28/our-special-day/  from Dean WVG, you are just guessing on election results. I know plenty of republicans who would have voted for him (Corden), myself included. Heck, I’ll draw some better conclusions than that from the past races. 1) If Mr. Rosendahl ran that election, he would have lost badly, perhaps worse than Mr. ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/27/hey-woodstock-valley-girl/ Click to enlarge. There's more to this story, I'm sure. This is an image from GoodEarth. The Image two articles down is from GoogleMaps. http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/26/a-more-accurate-image-of-the-lafleche-property/ from Mariah Leavitt (her blog) Mariah with (another Academy girl) Stephanie Corey's son Nathan last summer. I’m sitting in the airport waiting for my flight home to Virginia, but I hate leaving California. A very large part of me wants to stay out here, move out here, to live near my family. ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/25/woodstock-girl-tries-to-find-her-nitch/ Click to enlarge. The house at 234 Pole Bridge Road was owned by Rick Lafleche (R. Lafleche Logging and Construction Co). The home was at the end of a private dirt road nearly a mile from the paved town-owned section of Pole Bridge Road. Rick returned home at about 4PM ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/25/house-on-pole-bridge-road-destroyed-by-fire/ from Con As illustration of your point I recall one particular FOI Demand Action which I believe went all the way in the administrative process and, because it was so broad, burdened a lot of employees to search carefully in order to comply with a demand to basically produce ‘any & ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/24/waste-of-money-that-should-be-for-the-kids/ LOCAL SMALL BUSINESS ASSISTANCE FORUM Saturday, February 27, 9:00 a.m. @ Willington Library   State Representative Bryan Hurlburt; who represents Ashford, Tolland and Willington in the Connecticut General Assembly, is inviting local businesses to join him for a small business assistance forum Saturday February 27 from 9:00 am to 11:00 am at the ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/23/help-for-small-businesses-in-woodstock/ from Frank Corden Kevin: Thanks for taking the time to present an example of the kind of rational decision making that characterizes the administration and the Board of Education in general and Dr. Baran in particular. Though you can disagree on the numbers that one applies in any of these sorts of ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/20/on-the-costs-to-the-school-system-perpetrated-by-shultz-and-powers/ A response to the uninformed musings of Wholean, Powers, and Shultz. by Kevin  I think it is important to know what is behind these numbers before coming to any conclusions. I understand that it is normal that when people don’t know the context of something they tend to make one up. ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/19/common-sense-and-sensibility/ from Con In a small Town, very often any given lawsuit or proceeding initiated by citizens simply does more harm than good. A group of Woodstock Citizens most closely associated with woodstocktruth.com fails utterly to realize this nearly self-evident dynamic (And BTW, WHY do they call cafe.com ‘Aljazeera’? - that says ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/18/on-the-musings-of-the-untruth/ We don't normally pay attention to the Woodstock Untruth website but this conversation is very interesting, especially Preston Shultz's comment. Since few will ever see this commentary, we thought we would give it some wider coverage. Preston, Could you ask Craig to explain the recent Summary Judgement in Craig's case ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/18/the-musings-at-the-untruth/ Last night Becki's family and friends held a surprise party for Becki at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Becki was aware of this surprise but not the real surprise. Casa Isabelle's is rather dark but you can still figure out what happened. Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bzcDDtLQiY   http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/18/a-surprise-for-becki-at-casa-isabelles-in-palo-alto/ from John I did my taxes this week ... always ahead of the game. Usually I owe a little bit to the Feds and receive quite a bit back from the state which off-sets Federal taxes owed and the cost of heating oil in February and March. I did notice that ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/18/stimulus-pay-back/ The Miller's Fairvue Farm would like to generate clean energy from fermentation of manure in 2011. The Cafe wishes the Millers great success in this endeavor. Here is the beginning of an article (below) on this system that is already in place in Vermont. See the original article . Also here is ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/18/the-millers-are-proposing-an-anaerobic-methane-digester-system/ One of our favorite activities in San Francisco was, and still is, walking the Golden Gate Bridge (Becki is there this week). Whenever my kids who lived in Odessa TX would visit, we would make a point of spending a day in San Francisco and having a date with the ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/16/golden-gate-bridge-walk-may-1987/ On November 16th in the year 1993, Mariah, her dog Lickity, and her mom and dad drove out of Palo Alto CA on their extended tour across the nation and back. Mariah had expressed the desire to see her Granny June and Grampy Peter in Woodstock CT and other friends ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/13/mariahs-road-trip-to-woodstock-1993/ from Newcomer I spent today at the WES attending both sessions of the 2010 Winter Olympics. I had not had a chance to attend them before, although my children have participated in prior years. I just have to commend the PE teacher, Mr. Lazur. No wonder he’s Woodstock’s Teacher of the ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/09/mr-lazur/ by John I had my first desk top computer in 1985 when I was a researcher at the Pauling Institute in Palo Alto CA. I first used the Internet in 1995 at the Air Force Academy where I was on the faculty for a year. Boy, have things changed since then ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/09/as-the-cafe-turns/ by Taxpayer I thought that the meeting went very well. It was nice to see the new Headmaster of Woodstock Academy and I was glad that he saw the issue of Woodstock education funding as a mutual K-12 concern and not an “us vs. them” situation (WA vs. WPS). I asked ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/07/the-saturday-board-of-education-meeting/ Sunday February 7, 2010 Woodstock East Congregational Church, 220 Woodstock Rd Pot luck luncheon 12:30-1:30          Business Annual Meeting 1:30-2:00 Program at 2:00 - Cordwaining:  The history and art of making shoes by hand Sponsored by the Woodstock Historical Society Free and open to the public         About the Speakers:   Daphne Board, honorable cordwainer, and Lisa Davidson, honorable ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/06/cordwaining-the-history-and-art-of-making-shoes/ from Con Unfortunately for supporters of Scott Brown I think because of several factors he is bound to disappoint or fail outright. 1) The pendulum always swings, it’s only the speed which changes - now it’s really moving fast. A month before election he had ‘no chance’, but Voters are fickle and ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/04/scott-brown/ from Con Thanks Con, We will heed your advice. What you say below regarding Taxpayer's behavior is bothersome to the admins who enter the Cafe more than anyone else. It's come down to the fact that when readers see Taxpayer's obnoxious statements, they just pass over them with out reading them. ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/03/bad-behavior-gets-paroled-without-good-behavior/ from Kevin I’ve for many years struggled with a similar question (to Newcomer), how to get people to the polls? I believe that a democracy works best when the full measure of the people express their will. I don’t think that has to have anything at all to do with political ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/02/02/the-value-of-voting/ This is what Cafe visitation looks like for the month of January 2010 (graphs below). The most deceiving statistic is the number of "unique visitors". This is every unique IP (Internet path/protocol) that visits the Cafe. I am able to look at the visitors to the Cafe who have turned ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/01/31/cafe-activity-in-january-2010-and-the-preceeding-year/ by Newcomer Your first statement (in your post #38) summarizing how I feel about this is a bit off (this is to Taxpayer). On a National level, I do feel that the political parties have separated themselves from the people they are supposed to represent. However, your second thought is not ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/01/31/politicians-and-their-conflicts-of-interest/ From teachref09: "Sounds like Mr. Walker could use a quick dose of “Boardsmanship 101.”  Where are all the CABE (Connecticut Association of Boards of Education)representatives who advise BOE’s? Aren’t they providing any training for new board members these days? Oh, right, you have to “request” training. And if you already ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/01/30/the-board-of-anthony-the-ayes-have-it/ provided by Dave Brown See the History of Bowen's Garage at http://www.bowensgarageinc.com/history.html  Their dealership was sold to Oliver Bowen by Henry Ford himself! http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/01/26/the-original-bowens-garage-and-dealership/ by John  Today there's an article in the Norwich Bull by reporter Tom Chiari about an initiative in Eastford to develop zoning regulations. It will be interesting to listen to the dialog between those for and against adopting regulations in Eastford which is one of only two towns in CT that has ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/01/24/zoning-attempt-in-eastford/ from John This figure shows (1) the number of unique IP paths (IP stands for Internet Protocol) that indicate unique visitors, (2) the total number of Visits, and (3) the number of clicks on a specific page (article) which we call "page turns" from January 1 through January 21. Becki and I ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/01/22/a-new-way-of-looking-at-cafe-activity/ by Newcomer As an aside (to Chicklet), did you hear about yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling? It struck down a significant portion of McCain-Feingold that had made it illegal for private corporations to pay for ads either in support of or against a political candidate. In a way, this related to what ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/01/22/yesterdays-supreme-court-ruling-on-mccain-feingold/ by Becki The CT Siting Council is considering a proposal from Verizon to place a cell tower at 445 Prospect St. There will be a public hearing tomorrow (1/21) March 11th (we think & will verify tomorrow) at the Woodstock Town Hall from 1PM to 10PM to allow townspeople to express ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/01/20/just-a-little-perspective-on-the-cell-tower-a-bigger-picture/ by Julie Anderson I do want to mention an issue that was the subject of a recent article in the Norwich Bulletin. The article discusses local concerns about a potential cell tower being sited on land owned by Mr. Fred Rich. Here’s a link to the article: http://www.norwichbulletin.com/homepage/x1672016251/Woodstock-cell-tower-causing-dispute I read some of the ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/01/20/regarding-cell-towers-in-woodstock/ click to enlarge I don't get it. Based on these numbers (from the Hartford Courant), Woodstock students will benefit by a little under $14 each per year and about 7.8 cents each per school day. You wonder if it is worth the cost of the application filing and administrative paper work. Apparently, ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/01/19/woodstocks-education-stimulus-money/ By John (thinking out of the box) Ever since the community of Woodstock rejected my idea to build a nuclear power plant (see “Woodstock Should Go Nuclear”), I’ve been racking my brain to come up with an alternative, more appealing solution to solve Woodstock’s economic problems. The answer was presented to ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/01/17/how-to-solve-woodstock%e2%80%99s-economic-woes/ Hello, all -- Just a reminder that there is a meeting Wednesday evening at 7 pm at the Hyde School to discuss the town's Plan of Development in the light of sustainability issues. Every 10 years the town rewrites it's Plan of Development and the next one is due in 2012.  Currently ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/01/13/meeting-to-discuss-woodstocks-development-plan-wednesday-evening/ http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/01/13/upcoming-board-of-education-meet-greet/ from John The Academy’s decision to start a foundation to raise private funds for expansion projects is a step in the right direction if the Academy decides to head into the future as a independent private school. The challenging part, however, is to find someone to head the foundation that understands ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/01/08/fund-raising/ Things have been slow at the Cafe for the last 4 weeks, but we are starting to pick up momentum again. On average for the entire month of December about 40% of the page turns were from outside the US; so if there are 3000 page turns on an average ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/01/06/2720/ From Rick Green's Courant.com CTConfidential "What's Really Happening". "To see what's happening with local, independent, newsgathering, stop by the Woodstock CT Cafe or Urban Compass in Hartford, but don't forget the always fresh Bristol Today." http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/01/05/connecticut-websites-to-watch-in-2010/ from Kevin There was a very positive development by the Woodstock Academy Board of Trustees last year that shouldn’t be forgotten. In the December meeting they voted to start a foundation to raise private funds for expansion projects. This has been something that has been discussed for several years but in ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/01/04/the-academys-new-foundation/ This article was first published by the Cafe on November 9th, 2006. In light of Kevin's statement above we thought that this article would add some perspective to the new Academy Foundation. I found it interesting that Ms. Musumeci (former BOT chairman) reminded the Academy Communities that Woodstock and Eastford approved a ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/01/04/what-was-the-academys-13-year-plan/ Woodstock’s Winners: ·        Woodstock Villager for providing improved and more accurate local news coverage under the leadership of editor Stephanie Jarvis and reporter Matt Sanderson. ·        The Woodstock PTO for rallying the electorate to vote NO and reject the repeal of the WBOE in the June 9th referendum. ·        Allan Walker for his ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2010/01/02/woodstock%e2%80%99s-winners-and-losers-in-2009/ from 'A Student' The landscape from the second floor of the Bowen building at the Academy that was snapped on Monday. http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2009/12/22/view-from-the-bowen-building/ GOT PICTS? send them to woodstockctcafe@gmail.com. We measured 11 inches. Below (1) our house, (2) John wrestling with the snow blower, and Becki pausing from shovelling on Route 197. http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2009/12/20/eleven-inches-at-our-house-in-north-woodstock/ by Teacher's Point of View “What do you think about this Character Counts program? Do you feel it’s helping you meet the State CCT standards any better than you were already doing on your own (prior to three years ago when CC came in)? Are you seeing an appreciable difference in ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2009/12/16/more-on-character-counts/  from JK When I have a question about what my children are doing in school I contact their teacher(s). I’ve not had to take any steps beyond that so far, as I’ve found that the teachers in Woodstock have responded to the questions I’ve asked. If I were not satisfied, contacting ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2009/12/16/inquiries-about-school-policies-who-and-where/  by teachref09 Teacher has expressed a deep sense of frustration with replies to Taxpayer’s questioning of the value of the Character Counts program. One has only to look across the street from the Woodstock Middle School and see an entire educational facility dedicated to the Character Counts philosophy. Hyde School is ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2009/12/14/the-character-counts-philosophy-is-practiced-at-hyde-school/ by Con  I don’t know much about this Program and so am giving benefit of the doubt by the ideal suggested by it’s title - and I don’t understand objections to a program like this. What could be more important for young people to learn, develop, acquire, etc., than Character? Tax says ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2009/12/14/teaching-personal-responsibility-choice-and-judgement/ from 'Teacher's Point of View'  “I’ve heard other parents say that their child has been bullied in one of our schools. One of my children has also been bullied. The handful of students whom I’ve asked about this program report that it’s “so boring” Newcomer said. If it’s fairly new in our schools ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2009/12/13/character-counts-in-our-schools/ Taxpayer, I’m only going to address a couple of your questions and answers here. “3- What exactly is the weekly curriculum for character counts? Answer:There is none. Its “student directed”…which according to the rhetoric above translates to “greater student input and ownership”. For thinking people, this means, “not much is going ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2009/12/10/teachers-point-of-view-to-taxpayer/ http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2009/12/10/cafe-activity-2/ Norwich Bull article. 'First Selectman Allan Walker said he was “very excited” the proposal passed. ... I think it’s the right time to do it because bonding rates and construction costs are low right now,” Walker said. “It’s long overdue.” ' ALSO... Many thanks to those who participated with donations to ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2009/12/08/highway-facility-bond-referendum/ From teachref09: "I just can’t fathom the incongruity of Mr. Powers who has sued the Town of Woodstock and cost the taxpayers thousands of dollars in legal fees and now has a seat at the BOF table. What is wrong with this picture? The CPS crowd has placed a lot ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2009/12/08/powers-ridiculous-statement/  by teachref09 While listening to the WINY Talk Show this morning (Monday)I heard a woman talking about voting down the proposed bonding issue for the salt shed/Town Garage. Is every building project in the Town of Woodstock going to be called a “Taj Mahal?” First it was the new Town Hall ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2009/12/07/the-taj-mahal/ from Becki I don’t know what the average per head cost would work out to be. What I remember from the town meeting was that the increase in taxes that this project would create would work out to about $30 per $100,000 in assessment(…or $2.50 a month) initially. Then in the ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2009/12/06/vote-yes-for-the-bond-on-tuesday-and-reject-the-misinformation-on-the-salt-shed-bond-published-by-powers-and-cps/ from the Board of Education Common sense suggests that students who feel safe, supported, and engaged in school are more likely to learn well. In the last 30 years, a growing body of research has confirmed the importance of the learning climate for students. Compelling empirical research shows that a positive ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2009/12/05/school-environment-key-factor-in-student-achievement/ This paper was published on October 8th:  "Evaluation of the efficacy and safety of a statin/caffeine combination against H5N1, H3N2 and H1N1 virus infection in BALB/c mice"    by Liu, Zeyu et al. European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences 38:215-223, 2009    "The development of novel antiviral drugs is necessary for the prevention and treatment of a ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2009/12/02/more-evidence-that-chlesterol-lowering-statins-block-the-lethal-effects-of-influenza/ The bond proposal put forth by the Woodstock Selectmen last night is a modest and much needed proposal of $2.5 million compared to the $7.42 million 2006 shopping list proposed in the capital improvement plan by the Wholean administration (see this proposal below). The unfortunate greed of the Wholean admininstration has ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2009/12/02/upcoming-capital-improvement-plan/ by Dean Audet The questions about whether we need a new highway garage and whether we should do it now are good ones. I have been working on the Highway Garage Committee for 5 years, here are some answers to your questions. First, lets just be clear, the existing highway complex is ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2009/11/27/the-highway-garage/ by Frank Corden Acting to correct the issues at the town highway garage is a requirement by the Connecticut DEP. To date they have been very reasonable in their requests. As a former environmental scientist who addressed many Superfund sites over the years, I know what the high cost of addressing ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2009/11/27/should-the-situation-become-adversarial-we-have-only-a-few-to-blame/ from June 15th, 2008 A half century of football memories recalled in the context of Academy athletic expansionism. "It's the bad fans and booster mentality that destroys the football experience ... (and the) exploitation of the athletes by the school leadership to make money and remind themselves of their glorious childhoods … ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2009/11/25/football-stories/ from Steve Adams The following is the text of the famous 1936 Thanksgiving proclamation of Connecticut Governor Wilbur L. Cross:   State of Connecticut By His Excellency WILBUR L. CROSS, Governor: a Proclamation Time out of mind at this turn of the seasons when the hardy oak leaves rustle in the wind and the frost gives ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2009/11/25/2686/ by Kevin, I think you are both right to some extent (JK and nanny). The chair’s position isn’t that of a CEO or president talking to his EC. That’s more the roll of Dr. Baran and his senior staff. However, it does have some power. For example, it does take a ... http://www.woodstockctcafe.com/2009/11/25/on-the-role-of-the-chair-on-the-boe/