Opinion

Opinion & Letters

The opinion section of the Courant is written entirely by Richard "Dick" Mabry of No. 4, under an arrangement neither party remembers agreeing to. The views expressed are his, and he can defend them, and will, at length, in person, if you slow down near his driveway.

The Mabry Column

The streetlight buzzes because nobody writes letters anymore

By Dick Mabry • Columnist (ret.)

The streetlight at the mouth of the court has buzzed since 2015. I have written eleven columns about it. This is the twelfth, and I want to talk about why it is the twelfth.

When the light first started buzzing, I wrote to the county. I got a card back with a reference number. That was correct procedure, and I respected it. A man with a reference number is a man in a system. I wrote again in 2017, 2019, and 2021, citing my number. Somewhere in there the county switched to a web form with a character limit. A character limit. For infrastructure.

My neighbors tell me they cannot hear the buzz. I have stood with several of them under the light at ten o'clock at night, and they have looked me in the eye and said they hear nothing. I am not calling anyone a liar in a family newspaper. I am saying the human ear gives up on things, and mine has not.

The young people ask why I keep writing these columns. Here is why: the day the county comes out, finds the ballast has been failing for eleven years, and fixes it in twenty minutes, this column will be the only record that anyone knew. The paper of record means the paper that remembers. The light buzzes. It is in the record now, twelve times.

The Mabry Column, Continued

In defense of the printed flyer, the last honest medium

By Dick Mabry • Columnist (ret.)

This paper's potluck investigation has been called divisive. I have heard the word "vendetta" used at the mailbox cluster. I want to offer a calmer view, which is that the investigation is the finest thing this newspaper has done, and I include the gnome work.

A flyer is a contract. It is taped where everyone can see it, it says a time, and it does not send a follow-up correcting itself at 11:15. When we let the flyer say noon while the eggs move at 11:30, we are not being flexible. We are running two streets: one for people on the text, and one for people who read. I know which street I bought a house on.

I will say this for the Schmidts: they host every year, they own the good tables, and nobody has done more for this street's folding-chair capacity. This is not about the Schmidts. It is about the flyer. Print the real time or do not print a time. The Courant offered them column inches to respond. The response was a casserole, which I ate, and which changes nothing.

Dick Mabry in front of his hedge — The columnist at home, No. 4 Butternut Court.

Letters to the Editor

Your reporter parked across from my lawn for three consecutive mornings. I am told this is called a stakeout. My gnome and I would both benefit from an editor who says no occasionally.

Gary Henderson, No. 7

In response to Mr. Henderson: the Courant's vehicle was legally parked, and if there were an editor who said no, we would not know about the eggs. Some of us are grateful.

Carla Simmons, No. 5

It was a raccoon. I have said this since Part I, I will say it until Part fifty, and I notice my letters keep running under "wildlife."

Name withheld, No. 1 (the Courant knows, and so does the street)

Twelve columns about the streetlight and not one about the basketball that has been in my hedge since June. The record has gaps, Dick.

Carol Fenwick, No. 8