Playing Crocodile Club Catch Up

 meant to get all caught up with Crocodile Club last week, but I didn't. So here are the tidbits left out in the telling:

Host Ray Dunaway did a good job. He wasn't prepared to say the blessing before the meal, but the expected preacher didn't show, so Ray had to man up and do it. He figured his credentials as club president gave him "the authority" so he plunged right in. I don't think he'll be running off to theology school anytime soon, but I'd say he passed. On a side note, he told me his accordian was in rough shape, so he didn't bring it. Hope he gets it fixed in time for next year.

Ray had a bell that he said he'd ring if anyone didn't abide by the five-minute time limit on the speeches. The only time he had to use it was on the first speaker -- Bristol Mayor Art Ward -- who was just getting warmed up and hadn't even tried to be funny by the time the bell rang. The bell didn't stop the mayor from moving ahead with his remarks, though.

The picture here is one of me and Wally Barnes, and the mayor, before he got the bell.

Carolyn Norton was the only Norton at this year's dinner. She was the toast of the town and the belle of the ball. She had fun, too.

Lots of old timers were happy to see the club back, thanks to the permission of the Norton family, who owned the rights to it, the hospitality of Lake Compounce, the great food provided by Nuchies catering and the hard work of the New England Carousel Museum, which brought the event back as a fundraiser.

Tons of newcomers were excited to get to attend the club for the first time. Many of them were seated up front at the head table and they had to give speeches. There could have been some better briefing by staff, since a couple people didn't understand how the humor was supposed to be playful and remarks weren't supposed to be mean. Hopefully next time, they'll know what it is and get with the program.

The worst offender was Mark Boughton, who is running for lieutenant governor on the Republican side. He took a serious shot at Dan Malloy and the crowd definitely didn't like it. As he made his way back to his seat, I heard Malloy tell him his "joke" didn't go over "any better than when Ned Lamont told it."

Malloy and Tom Foley were both there for the first time. I'm not sure they were excited or enjoying themselves, though. When they weren't working the crowd, they sat next to each other at the head table and didn't look all that comfortable. When they spoke, they both tried to be funny. They were, but only a little bit.

Worst joke of all? Tom Marsh, the independent candidate for governor. "What's brown and sounds like a bell?" Marsh asked. "Dung."

No, I'm not kidding.

Linda McMahon surprised me with her wit. She had a few off the cuff remarks that were pretty good, including a swipe at Dunaway for noting her age when he introduced her and no one else's. Her opponent, Richard Blumenthal, joked about how un-funny he is and sure enough, wasn't especially amusing, except when he talked about being camera shy.

George Jepsen recited a short limerick, which in my book gets a few props for creativity:

"It is the year 2010

The crocodiles have assembled again

At long tables they eat

Some really odd meat.

For me, I will stick with the gin."

Classiest speaker, in my humble opinion, was Nancy Wyman, who raised a glass to the memory of Stretch Norton, recognized Carolyn Norton and just stayed in the spirit of the Crocodile. It's not hard to see why she's popular.

Not sure why the carousel museum decided to take a "break" in the middle of the program to draw a raffle number. It could have been done quickly but instead, a break was announced and a whole bunch of people, including many of the candidates on stage, beat a path to the door.

John Larson and Ann Brickley had to wait until after the break to speak, which didn't seem right to me, since much of the room had emptied by then. It is the U.S. Congress, after all.

The award for best patient goes to Betty Boukus, who is healing from total knee replacement surgery. She's getting around pretty well, she said, and is definitely following doctor's/physical therapist's orders.

Most conspicuous absence that day? Stretch Norton. Everybody missed him.

Biggest delight for me? Wally Barnes was there. My favorite moment of the whole thing was taking a spin on the park's antique carousel with him.

I discovered that, like me, he also prefers a jumper to a stander. He didn't get the brass ring, he said, but I felt like I did.

Wally hadn't expected to be in town, but when he found himself there, he "didn't want to miss it," he told me. I'm glad.

A Peek Behind the Curtain

Exclusively for Extra B.S. readers... here's a bit of insight into the vendor stories.
First of all, it's interesting how many people are commenting on them on the Bristol Press website. My eyeballs are sore just trying to read them.
Though I always wish I had a few more comments on this blog so I'd know people were in fact reading it, I'm even more grateful that I don't get that kind of volume -- or venom.
I'm kind of staggered by it sometimes. The other day I posted why I love readers, because so many people had stepped forward to help Carolyn Norton find the Lake Compounce drawing she wanted to help her design the etching for a gravestone for her husband, Stretch Norton.
By the way, waaay back in 1993 when I first started at the Press and first met Stretch, I asked him how he wanted me to identify him in the newspaper. That, to me, seems the fairest and kindest thing to do for anyone I am quoting. There's not much in life that is so central to someone's identity as their name and I really try hard to respect that.
When I asked all those years ago, he said he wanted to be known as Stretch. Not J. Harwood "Stretch" Norton, like the Courant does with his name. And so I called him Stretch in my stories, out of respect for his wishes. It's the way he was identified for all those years in many stories that I wrote and my husband Steve Collins wrote for almost two decades in the pages of The Bristol Press.
Then, starting about a year ago when we wrote about Stretch after he died, someone editing the stories changed his name to the style used in the Courant without any explanation, comment, or notice to either of us. I say this to let you know that not all the words under our names is decided by us anymore, so if you're wondering about something that was written, ask.
On Extra B.S. and in The Bristol Blog, which is written by Steve, he's Strech Norton.
But I digress. That ramble all started when I was writing about why I love readers. On the other hand... the vendor comments are enlightening (some of them) but also disturbing in their meanness. I won't respond to the meanness, since I haven't got all day and my fingers would fall off, but I will respond to some of the rest.
Some posters griped that I was only writing about the inspection reports on the vendors and not the restaurants, too. Some thought that the health district just recently did the inspections on the vendors. Some demanded to know the inspection reports on all the restaurants in town.
The health inspections were the most recent available for the vendors. Some were done this spring and others last fall. I asked the health district for the reports and they provided them to me.
I only asked for reports on the vendors because people were questioning their cleanliness and sanitation. Until today, no one was questioning any of the restaurants in that way, only insulting the food quality, which is another issue.
Given that this has become such a hot button issue, it seemed important and fair to present the basic facts -- that the vendors have to play by the same rules as the restaurants and that they do pretty well on health inspections.
Compared to the number of restaurants in town, there are not very many vendors. I could manage to sift through those reports in time to write that story, but going through all the restaurant inspections would take much longer.
As a reporter, I have to work under the constraints of time and space. I can't put everything in the story and I can't look at inspection reports for the whole town and write about them all in a couple days, assuming the health district would provide them that fast.
In case you didn't realize it, the number of reporters covering Bristol at the Press anymore is 2.5. One person works half time in Bristol covering the police and the schools and the other half of her time covering Plymouth.
Steve and I write about everything else in Bristol -- government, politics, business (that includes ESPN and Lake Compounce), non-profits, social and human services, land use, public works, sewers, roads, bridges, health, the hospital, museums, veterans, parks, downtown development, blight, housing and the occasional quirky thing that doesn't fit a category. And plenty more that are not coming to mind right now.
The choices that are made as to what to cover and how to spend our limited time are crucial. Sometimes, we make those decisions. Other times, it is an editor who decides. They get the final say, after all.
If you ever want to know why something was covered, please ask me! If it was my idea, I will certainly tell you why I thought that story was worth not only my time, but yours.

Why I Love Readers

I wrote a story for the Bristol Press, which I also put on this blog, about how Carolyn Norton was looking for an old Lake Compounce logo to use as the basis for an etching on the gravestone of her late husband, Stretch Norton, a former mayor of Bristol and a lifelong lover of Lake Compounce, which was founded, owned and operated by his family for generations.

Anyway, not long after my story appeared, a couple of readers -- I believe both are from out of state -- produced this logo.

I'm not sure if this is what Mrs. Norton is looking for, but I suspect it may well be. If anyone out there has anything else, please send it to me. She thought the logo had the outline of Compounce Mountain on it, and three rides -- the carousel, roller coaster and Ferris wheel, but she could be mistaken. It's also possible that there's another old logo out there.

In any case, if you have anything different, send it along to me at jmajerus@bristolpress.com and I will make sure she gets it.

Thanks so much to those who found this one. Even if it's not what she was looking for, I know Mrs. Norton will be grateful for the effort expended on her behalf.

Does Anyone Have Old Compounce Logo?

Carolyn Norton is looking for some help.
She's trying to design a gravestone for her late husband, the former Mayor Stretch Norton, whose family owned and operated Lake Compounce for generations.
Stretch died last spring, and Carrie wants to have a nice design on the gravestone that shows Compounce Mountain, the Wild Cat roller coaster, the carousel and the Ferris wheel. She said the park's old logo from the Norton days showed a nice view of all of it.
If anyone has a piece of paper with that letterhead, a business card or anything else, please let me know and I'll pass the word to her. You can email me at jmajerus@bristolpress.com or call me at 860-523-9632. She doesn't need to have the item, only take a picture of it.
She's a very nice woman and if you can help her, I'd be grateful.