Ground-breaking News

Yeah, it's a bad pun. The powers-that-be finally broke ground for the new cop shop this morning, and I finally got my brick from an obliging workman (N.B.: I was not the only one to hop on the souvenir brick gravy train). The brief ceremony, to my eyes at least, was redolent with comedy. You had to know it was an election year because the pols were coming out of the woodwork. Seeing an empty seat on the dais, "Dolly" Powers jumped from the ground and planted her ample sit-me-down upon it. Since the cop shop is not in her district, and the state rep in whose district it does lie was there as well, there were murmers from the crowd at the Doll's brazenness, but she managed to get away with it.

The speeches, mercifully, were brief. The Doll lied outrageously, as usual; her whopper today was that Greenwich has the best police force in the state, when everyone who lives in the real world knows that is far from true. As faithful readers of this blog are well aware, it was, is, and probably shall forever remain one of the most venal and corrupt excuses for law enforcement on the face of the earth (see "Murder in Greenwich", below). But for some reason the earth did not open and swallow her up, even though there was what appeared to be a freshly-dug grave right in front of the dais.

This grave-like creation had been jackhammered out of the pavement, and filled with dirt. Six or eight brand-new spades were standing at attention in the dirt, obviously specially procured for the occasion. When the time came, it was amusing to see the local officials and politicians shovelling the stuff quite literally, instead of the metaphorical shovelling they usually do. The comedy was further heightened by Bill Nickerson appearing out of nowhere just in time to wrest a shovel from the chief of police's hands as the TV crew started to zoom in on the scene. Maybe it was Snickerson's seat that the Doll had purloined, but he sure wasn't going to be left out of the shovelling scene.

BTW, it is pleasant to report that Snickerson has been leaving your scribe alone of late. He apparently is one of the lurkers on this blog, and seems to have taken to heart the not-terribly-flattering (but fully accurate) portrait of him within these lines; he has also helped himself to some of the wit and wisdom contained herein. He apparently was never taught the meaning of the word "plagiarism", let alone the concept for which it stands. Snickerson has also been crashing events organized by his opponent, Frank Farricker, of late; he is not exactly what you would call a man of honor.

Gotta run; more later, and pics to follow for your viewing pleasure.