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June 21, 2011

• 11:38 AM Jim on Happy Father's Day, Chief Esserman, from a former commissioner's daughter

  To Frank Lennon: I have known your family from the Smith St. days. I knew you at Nelson Street School, your Dad I had at Mount Pleasant and had the privilege of working under him at the PPD. I always knew him to be a gentleman. Please never compare your father to a person like Essermann. Esserman has not earned nor deserves the title of Colonel. Your Dad never embarrassed his family or the police department. Esserman has been nothing but a bully since day one. He runs the department by intimadation and fear. He has embarrased the department on many occasions to wit, the incident at Greene Airport, the Pell wake, threatening to throw a hot cup of coffee in a Seargeant's face. If people do not agree with him, he makes his favorite statement, "DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM?" He would not be equal to 1% of your Dad, who was a true gentleman and to this day, did earn the right to be addressed as Colonel or Commissioner. God bless he and his family.

  
  

  June 21, 2011

• 11:06 AM Sheila Lennon on Happy Father's Day, Chief Esserman, from a former commissioner's daughter

  I had no idea this would touch people as it has seemed to. Thank you all for your kind use of the comments form to let me know. Bro, I'm identifying with young Ms. Essermann most.

  
  

  June 21, 2011

• 12:12 AM Sarah on Happy Father's Day, Chief Esserman, from a former commissioner's daughter

  Sheila, Well written. I always enjoy what you write - you can make a variety of topics come to life, you pick interesting topics, and you are by far my favorite read in the paper. Thanks!

  
  

  June 20, 2011

• 8:52 PM Frank Lennon on Happy Father's Day, Chief Esserman, from a former commissioner's daughter

  As custodian of the family scrapbook, I would like to add to my sister's recollections of our dad, Providence's Commissioner of Public Safety from 1959 through 1964. He was described by the Providence Journal in 1963 as a man "who does his job without fear or favor." I can also sympathize with Chief Esserman and his family. Our family knows the lengths to which political opponents will go in their efforts to undermine a public official who is trying to do the right thing, but steps on toes in the process. From personal experience, I can also testify that wives and children can be considered fair game in an effort to tarnish a reputation or distract the public from the real issues. Fifty years later, it appears that nothing has changed. In February of 1962, our father had so incensed Providence politicians with his plans to professionalize and depoliticize the police department (to include elimination of the time-honored ability of councilmen to fix parking tickets) that they prevailed on a Providence legislator to file a bill with the General Assembly to eliminate his job. A February, 1961 Providence Journal editorial strongly opposed that legislation, concluding that "For the first time in its history as a city, Providence has within its reach a professionalized police department beyond the reach of political. tampering. It will be a sorry day for the city if that chance is killed by the General Assembly." For the remainder of his tenure, local politicians fought him tooth and nail. Another Journal editorial in July of 1963 stated: "The number and vigor of the attacks on Public Safety Commissioner Francis A. Lennon of Providence suggest strongly that it's time for the city's voters to mobilize in support of his basic twin policies: professionalization of the department and the elimination of political meddling. "There must be, of course, a wry satisfaction for Mr. Lennon in the knowledge that he would not be under attack as he is today if his reforms had not taken an early hold. "The issue is not Mr. Lennon as a human being, although he would be less than human if he did not begin to feel the the cumulative weight of the bitter attack and personal vituperation… "The issue is whether Providence is to continue to have under Mr. Lennon…the kind of police department a city like Providence needs. "…In pursuit of his purposes, Mr. Lennon unquestionably stepped-- had to step -- on sensitive toes, long accustomed to treading old, easy and familiar paths of duty. But he persisted, and the first fruits of his work, supported wholeheartedly by Mayor Reynolds, have been evident to the citizenry for some time. "Providence has waited too long for police reform to let the department fall into old, slipshod politically dominated ways. Now is the time for individuals and organizations interested in good police work to speak up and let the mayor, the commissioner and the council know that the city will not tolerate a pre-Lennon police department." Granted, I am not intimately familiar with the internal department issues that Chief Esserman is facing today. However, I am distressed by the tactics—such as making such an issue of his daughter’s graduation party—being employed by his opponents to discredit him.

  
  

  June 20, 2011

• 2:16 PM Steve Daniels on Happy Father's Day, Chief Esserman, from a former commissioner's daughter

  I guess I should now forgive Frank for beating me in the finals of the CYO Spelling Bee after reading his sisters' wonderful story. He had some competition at home. Seriously, I remember their Dad well as a gentleman and a fearless leader.

  
  

  June 19, 2011

• 11:46 PM Joe Bagori on Happy Father's Day, Chief Esserman, from a former commissioner's daughter

  Wonderful story. In my opinion a mysterious thing has happened. Some parents of today want to be seen as cool, and with it, to their children and to their friends. That has been one of the reason for the parties, and the resulting need for the social host law. Not only parents of postion but all parents should be more concerned with setting the ground rules that build strong adults and the resulting lessons that you have been so kind to share.

  
  

  June 19, 2011

• 10:01 PM Carolyn Egan on Happy Father's Day, Chief Esserman, from a former commissioner's daughter

  Essential and beautiful. He would be proud Sheila as I am to have you as a friend.

  
  

  June 8, 2011

• 7:25 AM tony vieira on Updated: Video of Meredith Vieira taking Monday's 'Today Show' to her roots in the Azores

  I loved these comments. my mother is from pico and my late father from fail, I have never been but am proud to be from such a proud and often reffered to as a quiet race of hard working people.props to you meredith and your family. portugees are awesome.

  
  

  June 7, 2011

• 4:52 PM Ruth on 500+ cats find happy endings, colorful houses at Caboodle Ranch in Fla. woods

  God Bless you, you have a heart of gold

  
  

  June 2, 2011

• 9:46 AM Flecha on Young Adults reunion at the Met: 'Complex World' video clip

  Somebody get Bruce a shirt. Please.

  
  

  May 26, 2011

• 9:34 AM kats4dog1 on Small news: Baby deer rescued using Jaws of Life (video)

  What a great video, thanks so very much for sharing!

  
  

  May 23, 2011

• 9:53 AM Jef Nickerson on When newspapers wrote the headlines on the front of the building

  I lived in New York during the 2000 election. I worked in Midtown across from the GM Building where CBS News had their studios on the ground floor. They had a big screen which would simulcast the news to the plaza. Everyday after work, crowds would gather in the plaza to watch the big screen and get the latest updates on the recount in Florida and the Supreme Court case. We had internet back then, but TV was still the best way to get the full story quickly. There was something very comforting about that communal gathering of citizens seeking information.

  
  

  May 20, 2011

• 9:52 PM lenny on Mp3s: Led Zeppelin '75, 'Physical Graffiti' outtakes

  johnny remember when i turned you on to this gig back in 88. You help me pick out my drums then you left gatzen high and dry. bonham lives...keep on doing what you're doing. i kick myself everyday. Still got the ludwig's though. Living the the girl whose x makes drumframe. Shoot me an email and let me know how its going. When are you going to play connecticut? Let me know, I want to be there and sit in for the 20 yrs of pleasure that you have taken from me. bonzo forever. indianlen@yahoo.com If you ever need a sub, give me a call. Len Bonzo Schumann. The guy that bought the last Bonzo kit you ever sold.

  
  

  May 19, 2011

• 9:54 AM jitters on Large Hadron Collider fires up, beams collide, watch the Webcast now

  Hey, if the further you look out into distant space the nearer you come to the big bang, where do you propose the future is. Isn't the future built when the children grow up, what do you think?

  
  

  May 17, 2011

• 9:29 PM jd on 1906 San Francisco traffic video, shot from the front of a streetcar

  To this day here in San Francisco, we have those wires running above the streets stretched between the buildings. I thought it was quite strange when I moved here, however I quickly realized it is how they generate power for much of their municipal (buses, streetcars, trolleys, etc.) fleet. It also keeps the pollution down that many other large cities experience.

  
  

  May 17, 2011

• 12:54 PM Sheila on London newspaper: Providence is 'New England's coolest city'

  Shawomet, I think she maybe added another zero to one of the ballpark estimates of coastlines floating around. Dave, I do seem to recall that "red-light district" label applying just before the Antoinette Downing revolution in the '60s. Thanks for the heads-up on the intruding text. Fixed now, I think.

  
  

  May 17, 2011

• 8:02 AM shawomet on London newspaper: Providence is 'New England's coolest city'

  The article credited RI with 3500 miles of sandy beaches. Counting all the bays, inlets, coves, etc., we have somewhat over 400 miles of coast, I believe 456 miles to be exact.

  
  

  May 16, 2011

• 10:16 PM David Brussat on London newspaper: Providence is 'New England's coolest city'

  And a minimum of the usual oopses that often infect such pieces as this. In this case, one was that Benefit Street was once a "red light district." Not! But but 283 Benefit, just off the left side of the photo (taken near the Hope Club parking lot, toward the Unitarian Church) was once home to a prostitute who worked out of an upper-story apartment. This was before my six years in a tiny apartment there, in 1984-1990, after my first arrival in Providence. PS, Sheila, fyi, when I did a preview of my comment an ad was encroaching on the text from the right.

  
  

  May 15, 2011

• 2:20 PM Elwood Davis on Norfolk Eagle Cam's female killed by plane, eaglets removed from nest

  If it was you that had a misfortune of an accident, you would expect someone to step in and take care of your children. It sould not be any different for animals or birds. We are all GOD'S children. I support the people that steped in and decided to give these birds a chance of life.

  
  

  May 14, 2011

• 8:15 PM jv on Obama's multimedia gig at 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner

  Question shouldn't be 'Why didn't he show it...?' Question should be 'Why did he have to show it?'Did anyone ever badger, hound and ask any of the other presidents before him to show their birth certificate? All Trump did was make Americans look stupid. If we allowed President Obama to campaign for presidency and then elected him to be the president of our country without him having to complete a background check, (as which I'm sure he had to do), then Trump is saying that we are either stupid or 'trumped'.