Spare Change: Feast on these thoughts while going in for Thanksgiving leftovers
Oddznendz gathered while enjoying the best holiday of all.
• As Little Richard once sang, “Great gosh a’ mighty!”
That approximates my reaction to the news that the Rogers High School construction project is $20 million in the hole. This news slipped out right after the election. More than a few cynics have wondered how this info stayed quiet until voters decided on a Newport-Middletown regionalization plan.
Newport voters trounced this idea, while Middletowners approved. I’m not sure how the $20 million shortfall revelation would have affected the vote.
This plan was DOA in Newport from the outset. It’s clear now such a plan should have happened years ago before Newport broke ground on a new Rogers.
I wasn’t expecting City Hall PR guy Tom Shevlin to crank out press releases. But city residents deserved to know about the $20 million pre-election.
Transparency is a four-syllable term. But it need not be a four-letter word.
• Is this similar to Dan McKee trying to sit on the state school test scores until Election Day?
• My take on standardized test scores is that those who do well at them are mostly good at taking tests.
Of course, my own SAT math scores weighed in at chimpanzee level.
• I have maybe five talents. Eating turkey and watching football are two of them.
• How is it possible to already hate a Christmas ad before Thanksgiving? For instance, the guy in the L.L. Bean flannel shirt who ducks the family party in order to stand in the snow and stare at the moon.
He acts as if this is the greatest moment of his life. This means everything? Hope not.
• Former Newport Daily News executive editor Sheila Mullowney grew up outside Buffalo. How can people stand it? About 70 inches of snow hit Buffalo this past week. And we go on about the Blizzard of ‘78 as if it happened a week ago.
• R.I.P.: Ray DeJesus.
Ray and I were chair neighbors at Tiverton Dialysis for nearly eight years.
Several folks will tell you he was a terrific racquetball player (kids, let me tell you what racquetball was). He served as the racquetball pro at the old Newport Athletic Club.
A Navy vet raised in the Bronx, Ray would tell you he was once a great dancer, dancing to Latin sounds and singing with family to Motown.
When Ray needed to use a wheelchair full time, neighbors built a ramp at his Portsmouth home.
• The book “Invisible Child” by Andrea Elliott is a journalism classic. Elliott, a New York Times reporter, spent from 2012 to 2020 with the damaged family of teenage Dasani Coates.
It’s a tale of addiction, homelessness , petty crime, broken child protection agencies and overwhelmed courts.
And, yes, it’s also a dysfunctional story of family love. We celebrate when great chances come Dasani’s way. And we want to cry when she chooses against her best interests.
• Caught “Les Miserables” at the Providence Performing Arts Center last week. This is the best of the four versions I’ve seen since 1990.
It will likely be back in five years. Dig under the couch cushions for change if need be.
It’s worth it.
Jim Gillis is a Daily News columnist. Send him email at jimgillis13@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Spare Change: Feast on these thoughts while going in for leftovers
