This New England

-- Photo and caption by WILLIAM MORGAN

While walking across the new India Point Bridge, in Providence, which is something of a mixed experience: views of the tranquil harbor offset by the noise and smell of the traffic roaring below on Interstate 195, I happened upon this quiet urban accent and found myself smiling, almost laughing.

Something so simple, so utilitarian as a manhole cover providing a light note, an upper--like a door handle that comfortably fits the hand rather than trying to look elegant.

This rusty spiral is one model of ornamental castings offered by the Tacoma, Wash., firm Urban Accessories. Calling themselves "the designer's foundry" and established almost 40 years ago by an architect, their small-scale effort to enhance the urban environment seems to be working.

A mundane object in the cityscape, perhaps, yet this nautilus-shaped manhole cover offers so much delight.

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Don't members of the Judiciary Committee of the Vermont House have anything better to do than to pass laws against teenagers "sexting'' -- sending explicit photos of themselves via their cell phones?

A majority of the panel have agreed to make "sexting'' punishable by civil penalties or even with criminal penalties in juvenile court.

This is close to unenforceable legislation and yet another layer of too much law, not to mention intrusion into private matters.

If you try to make so many things illegal, then it's impossible to have enough resources to enforce the important laws.

"Sexting'' may be mildly malign, but government shouldn't spread itself so thin with such laws. Perhaps there should also be a law banning legislators from emailing each other suggestions to add new laws ("lexting'') ? This legislation needs sunset legislation before its sun rises.

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Shipping captain Richard Phillips, who was saved by the U.S. Navy from Somali pirates, is back home in Vermont, where he was cheered in Burlington before going home to Underhill, Vt.

It seems strange than a sea captain operating in the Indian Ocean should live in the Green Mountain State, but then the exotic Rudyard Kipling lived in the Brattleboro area for several years in the late 19th Century, until a dispute with an unstable brother in law drove him out.

For most of his time, he was very happy there, where he did some of his most famous writing, such as The Jungle Book.

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The late Grace Metalious, author of Peyton Place, that then scandalous but now tame New Hampshire novel of 1956, was often a very good writer. Her descriptions of New England's seasons and the class and other social tensions of small-town life are particularly vivid.

New Hampshire fiction writer Jack Polidoro has been commendably championing her work. Check out his Web site -- www.longtailpublishing.com.

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I have been in Taiwan lately, where public infrastructure and public and corporate services are far better than in the United States.

Here, much of our transportation infrastructure is falling apart and services provided by companies and public agencies, when they exist, are getting worse and worse.

The shoddiness, rudeness and chaos of some U.S. big airlines is an example of our decline to Third World status in so many areas.

 Tags  Grace Metalious Jack Polidoro Peyton Place Richard Phillips Rudyard Kipling sexting Underhill Vt.

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