I just deleted my first spam comment!

And, alas, I can now say fully one-third of the comments on this blog have been spam.

I have not yet been told what's running today and what's being held until Monday, but my loyal readers can look forward to pieces on Mark Foley's plan for the Gryphon Building and what's going to be new this year at the summer farmer's market.

My disloyal readers will be rooted out and dealt with in due time.

On money and mouths

In discussions of both the rec center and the parking deck, I keep hearing people make arguments to the effect that the city shouldn't get anything new until it starts taking better care of the buildings it has.

A reasonable point. Can I assume, then, that these people will start appearing at Board of Aldermen meetings to demand an increase in the amount the city puts into the maintenance budgets for each department?

I bought what?

For those of you wondering just how your tax bill will be divvied up by the federal government, I came across this tax receipt calculator. Use it in good health.

Straight Outta Rutland

Karen McLaughlin, who is opening the new children's store on Center Street, became one of my favorite people at this morning's Downtown Rutland Partnership meeting.

Discussing the teenagers who have apparently been engaging in various forms of misbehavior in and around the parking garage, she said "They're not going to intimidate me -- I lived in Miami."

There are times when some people start talking like Rutland has sections that could just as easily be the West Baltimore of "The Wire." It's nice to have an occasional injection of perspective into our public discourse.

Aldermen meeting tonight

Board of Aldermen President David Allaire opened tonight's meeting with a moment of silence for former Alderwoman Joanne Slattery, who died last week.

The quick-moving meeting covered liquor licenses, road and bridge standards and a professional services contract. Tomorrow's paper will have a look at the second round of mayoral appointments and we'll be more fully exploring a few other issues raised through the week.

More memories of Joanne Slattery

One of the people I tried to reach but couldn't when writing the piece in today's paper on the late Joanne Slattery was her colleague, Regina Sears. Sears called me back this morning.

"When she would work with her special ed students, she'd always have a smile on her face," Sears said. "She'd always have something good to say to them and she'd always make them feel comfortable, like she was a safe place."

Sears said Slattery was as pleasant and reassuring personally as she was professionally.

"She always had a smile on her face, always something good to say," she said. "With Joanne, the glass was half full, not half empty."

Fire at the Plaza

We don't have a lot of details yet, but the fire department just responded to the Double Dragon Buffet in the downtown shopping plaza. I walked down there and saw dark smoke coming out of the top of the building. Chatter over the scanner just described "a good amount of residual fire on the roof."

Merchant's Row along the plaza is closed, so drivers may want to avoid downtown at the moment.

Look for the full story from Brent Curtis in tomorrow's Herald.

Monday morning

My inbox tells me this blog now has four whole Twitter followers, so I'd best get down to business.

I just came from today's legislative breakfast, where several of our state representatives assured everybody there won't be any major tax increases as they cut various services. A couple other subjects were touched on, and you can look in tomorrow's Herald for full coverage.

Getting back was a bit of a task as those of us who left our cars by the Strongs Avenue entrance were cut off from them by a parked train. Fortunately, I'm still limber enough to hop over the links.

Shutdown

Rep. Welch has sent us a list of links for Vermonters concerned about how the impending government shutdown will affect them.

The page also includes information on a telephone town meeting he plans to hold Monday.

Radiation

After last night's talk on Vermont Yankee, I thought it would be useful to link to this radiation dose chart that's been making the rounds online. It was compiled the author of the Webcomic XKCD, but appears fairly well sourced and provides some broad perspective on the subject.