A lot of people are expressing surprise in the wake of the news that disgraced former State Senator Stanley Rosenberg is making his supposedly estranged husband Bryon Hefner-Rosenberg the recipient of his state pension upon his death. Personally, I am not surprised at all, as I never believed that the couple had ever split up in the first place. I based that opinion on back channel info from sources in a position to know, who told me that Bryon was still receiving legal notifications and other official correspondence related to his criminal case at Stan's address. So apparently the "separation" that Rosenberg claimed had occurred while he still thought he had a prayer of returning to power, never became separate to the point where Bryon felt he needed to file a change of address form with the post office.
Ex-Senator Stan claims in his pension filing that he collected a government paycheck in some form or other for 38 years and five months. That means after decades of Rosenberg attacking working people's paychecks with his relentless demands for higher taxes as he crusaded for every crackpot socialist scheme that came down the political pike, the long suffering taxpayers must now bear the burden of supporting Stan for as long as he lives, and then posthumously supporting his young husband for possibly decades beyond. But why would Rosenberg give his pension benefits to the man whose actions ruined his political career? I'm reminded of that line from Faulkner's A Rose for Emily - "With nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will."
Meanwhile, the old Adams Jewelry by the Haymarket has become festooned with signs for State Representative candidate Diana Syznal.
I peered through the window as best I could, but couldn't tell through the darkness whether the spot has become Syznal's campaign headquarters, or if the sign display is just a supportive gesture from the owner of the building. Ms. Syznal is the District Director for the previous holder of the seat, Peter Kocot, who died tragically earlier this year. Unfortunately, Kocot's legislative voting record was a model of leftist dysfunction, and his aide Syznal is promising more of the same, which should please Northampton's masochistic electorate. Syznal is considered a shoo-in for the seat because after she brushes aside her primary opponent, the political neophyte and dizzy feminist Lindsay Sabadosa, Syznal will face no opposition from the region's hapless Republicans.
In any case, I'm sorry that Adams Jewelry is out of business. At the time of its closing last winter, Jesse Adams wrote this heartfelt farewell.
My grandfather Emery Abrahamowicz survived the Holocaust but his wife and kid did not. Before the war, he was a jeweler and watchmaker in a small town in Hungary. One of his roles was to fix the village clock when it needed it. The Nazis took all his possessions and murdered his family but he hid two diamonds that a dentist friend stashed in his teeth. He survived the holocaust. He came to the US after the war. After Ellis Island he became Emery Adams. He did not know English. He cracked the diamonds out of his teeth. They were still there. (The dentist didn’t trick him as he feared). He married another Holocaust survivor and started a new family. He sold one of the diamonds and started a successful jewelry store in NYC. He taught my father. My father opened up his first store in Northampton in Thornes in 1979 and later moved to a Main Street storefront. He later bought the building and two others downtown. I was in the store nearly every day and lived above it for 15 years. The store supported our family. After nearly 100 years the Abrahamowicz/Adams jewelry/watch/sculpture business ends. From Hungary to NYC to Northampton, it was a good run. It’s the end of an era.
Around the corner at Sam's Pizza, I recently tried Virgil's Cream Soda, the best I've had since I was kid drinking Cray's Soda.
Across the street there was a good turnout for the first summer concert in Pulaski Park.
While Hamp is rockin, UMass is sleepy with the students away for the summer, as evidenced by this video of the usually crowded Peet's Coffee, now turned ghostly silent
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