The Editor's Notepod, Sun., Dec. 13, 2009

Area: local towns each manage garbage a different way, and this was an interesting summary of the methods. It remains to be seen how the problem of ash disposal will be handled in the long run. It might also be worth noting that a lot of local re cycling is voluntary; there are market forces at work, but in NYC, people who toss recyclable cans into garbage can be and are often fined.

Good tips on how to judge the purchase and reliability of gift cards now that a couple of years have passed since the negative results of companies which were closed or which declared that cards had expiry dates. Businesses in Wallingford and Meriden (and no doubt other communities) are cited for successful use.

State: there’s a suit filed against a store which sold raw milk. It would seem that the decision to buy raw milk and feed it to your children is a sort of personal choice which has to be rather deliberately made.

The photo caption about the Central Connecticut Civic Youth Orchestra says “Noise enjoyed at Meriden Public Library.” We are reminded of a 7th grade Meriden science teacher many years ago who took vociferous issue with a student – a piano-playing student at that – who happened to refer in a report on the senses to the piano as a “good way to make noise.” “A piano,” she wrote, “is music, not noise.” Do you suppose the distinction holds today?

Wallingford: The Campus at Greenhill, intended as a home for Mortgage Lenders, sits as it was when work stopped over two years ago. Taxes are behind, and there are scores of truckloads of earth placed there around the unfinished exterior and abandoned as they were dumped. Finding a buyer seems difficult but there’s no bankruptcy yet. Tough situation.