State Representative Devin Carney (R-23rd)
State Senator Art Linares
Rep. Devin Carney and Sen. Art Linares will host a Town Hall Meeting to discuss the 2016 Legislative Session on Tuesday, March 1, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
The event will take place at Lyme Public Library, Program Room, 482 Hamburg Rd.
For additional information, contact Erika Pocock at Erika.Pocock@cga.ct.gov or (800)=842-1421.
Nicole Prévost Logan
It is an interesting time when the US has started the Primary process and the French Socialists are debating whether to hold Primaries before the 2017 presidential elections.
The French public is following with great interest the twists and turns of the American campaign and was fascinated with the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries. It is surprisingly well informed (mentioning for instance the exact number of delegates each primary will bring to the national conventions). For a non-American, such a campaign is a real spectacle.
What is appealing to Europeans is the town hall format with a grass roots approach — the open debates when the candidates are bombarded with questions on a wide spectrum of topics. Besides, the European public likes a democratic process allowing candidates to be chosen by the people and not imposed from the top.
If primaries are systematic in the US, it is not the case in France. The primary system is already in place for the right wing party Les Republicains or LR, and also for the center, (UDI and Modem). But it is not with the left.
Thierry Pech, general director of the Think-Tank ‘Terra Nova.’
At this time there is an ongoing debate as to whether to make primaries the norm in left- wing politics. This debate reflects the division within the Socialist Party (PS). Thierry Pech, general director of Terra Nova, a think tank, has been most vocal since 2011 in advocating the adoption of a primary by the left.
The PS is divided since the “Frondeurs” (rebellious ones) have become a splinter party. Furthermore part of Europe-Ecologie les Verts or EELV (the Greens) have deserted the PS. The fracture within the left appeared quite blatantly during the Feb. 10 vote at the Assemblée Nationale on the inclusion in the Constitution of the dechéance de la nationalité (the loss of nationality) for terrorism acts. Half the Socialist deputies voted against their own government’s proposal.
Recently, the Minister of Justice, Christiane Taubira, caused quite a stir when she slammed the door and resigned from the cabinet over her disagreement on that very topic. Within 24 hours, she was giving a lecture at NYU!
On Jan. 11, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, ex-green European deputy (hero of the May 1968 uprising) and Thomas Piketty, 44 (nominated as the best young economist of France in 2002), headed a group of politicians and intellectuals who published a manifesto in the daily Liberation. The manifest called for a primary in order to reanimate a political debate of ideas.
Essayist and science professor Jean-Louis Bourlanges
“The quarrel about having a primary …” said Jean Louis Bourlanges, professor at Sciences Po and essayist, ” … reminds me of what Churchill said: democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others.” Bourlanges continues, “The Socialist militants are less and less representative. The proposition is like poker-liar: one pretends to have ideas, then one incarnates those ideas within a person.”
Many Socialists are opposed to the prospect of a president involved in months of campaigning while he should be concentrating his attention on governing the country and jumping into the fray as late as possible. For the time being, François Hollande is waiting and will not declare his candidacy until he sees a reversal of the unemployment curve.
On Feb. 11, the Elysée announced a government reshuffle. The objective was to remedy some of the internal division of the PS by bringing three ecologists into the cabinet and widening its base. The parity – 19 men, 19 women – is maintained. Jean Marc Ayrault- prime minister until two years ago – returns, but this time as minister of foreign affairs.
Apart from the positive asset of having a German-speaking and pro-European new prime minister, the changes in the composition of the executive were generally met with disappointment and criticism across the board.
Nicole Prévost Logan
About the author: Nicole Prévost Logan divides her time between Essex and Paris, spending summers in the former and winters in the latter. She writes a regular column for us from her Paris home where her topics will include politics, economy, social unrest — mostly in France — but also in other European countries. She also covers a variety of art exhibits and the performing arts in Europe. Logan is the author of ‘Forever on the Road: A Franco-American Family’s Thirty Years in the Foreign Service,’ an autobiography of her life as the wife of an overseas diplomat, who lived in 10 foreign countries on three continents. Her experiences during her foreign service life included being in Lebanon when civil war erupted, excavating a medieval city in Moscow and spending a week under house arrest in Guinea.
Maple Glazed Pork Roast, Yankee magazine
Just before I went to bed on a Sunday or two ago, I watched Lady Edith call Lady Mary a “bitch” more than once. (That’s “Downton Abbey,” for those of you not hooked on this Masterpiece Theatre show, which will end maybe by the time you read this. Sob.)
My reading matter was “Five Days at Memorial,” a nonfiction book about Memorial Hospital in New Orleans, before, during and after Hurricane Katrina. But before I began the book, I decided to read my new issue of Yankee magazine.
I have been subscribing to Yankee for years and the food editor is Amy Traverso. The recipes she chooses are always good. In the new issue, there is a story about maple syrup season. I loved a feature about two sugar shack competing owners in Vermont and a “flatlander” who decided to move to Vermont just over 10 years ago. (“Flatlanders,” according to Vermonters, are those who haven’t lived for at least a couple of generations in their gorgeous state.)
Dori Ross convinced the two owners to allow her to market their maple products. By the way, Ross, who got this article into Yankee, is a marketing guru because the owners are making a lot more money now.
There were recipes, of course, and reading them had me salivating. I don’t make pancakes or waffles at home, but I am crazy about maple anything. I was planning to make dinner for my neighbors, so when I saw a recipe for a pork roast using maple syrup, I was hooked. I rarely give you recipes I have not tried myself, but, just by reading the ingredients, I know it will be absolutely delicious.
Soon, I plan to make a spinach, feta and grape salad with maple-soy vinaigrette and maple affogato, an ice cream treat, also from that article.
Maple-and-Rum-Glazed Pork Roast
From Yankee magazine, March/April 2016
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
1 3-pound boneless pork-loin roast, tied at intervals with kitchen twine (perhaps the butcher at the supermarket will do that for you)
2 teaspoons plus 11/4 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
1 cup maple syrup
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons apple-cider vinegar
1 tablespoon dark rum
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and set a rack in the lowest position. Sprinkle pork all over with 2 teaspoons salt and let it sit for 10 minutes.
Now make the glaze: In a medium-sized bowl, stir together syrup, mustard, cider vinegar, rum, cinnamon, and remaining 1 1/4 teaspoon salt until blended.
Place the pork, fat side down, in a 9×13-inch roasting pan (Pyrex would be good) and pour the glaze over the meat. Transfer to the oven and cook 30 minutes, basting halfway through.
Remove meat from oven, turn it fat side up, baste and return to the oven. Cook, basting every 15 minutes until the meat reaches 150 degrees when an instant-read thermometer is inserted into the center, 30 to 40 minutes more. Remove meat from the oven and let it rest 10 to 15 minutes. Slice and serve with additional glaze on the side.
Chicken Fried Chicken at Ninety Nine Restaurant & Pub
Generally, I avoid medium-sized, medium-inexpensive franchising restaurants, the ones I used to call fern bars. There are a few that are standouts for certain menu items: the Cobb salad at Chili’s and risotto with chicken and butternut squash served with a Caesar salad at Brio. But generally, I would rather get a burger and fries at Five Guys or choose the salad bar at Ruby Tuesday.
But now I can add the chicken fried chicken at Ninety Nine Restaurant & Pub. In the group of $9.99 dinners is the chicken fried chicken, a pounded-thin chicken breast, lightly battered and fried, a lovely mound of mashed potatoes and, for a vegetable, sweet corn. Best of all, like its sister, chicken-fried steak, it is topped with white, somewhat peppered country gravy. No, it is not on my healthy, low-calorie diet, but sometimes one must splurge. This is a nice splurge.
Around the Valley Shore area, Ninety Nine Restaurant & Pub is at 117 Long Hill Road in Groton. A few Other Connecticut restaurants are in Cromwell and Glastonbury and Norwich.
About the author: Lee White has been writing about restaurants and cooking since 1976 and has been extensively published in the Worcester (Mass.) Magazine, The Day, Norwich Bulletin, and Hartford Courant. She currently writes Nibbles and a cooking column called A La Carte for LymeLine.com and the Shore Publishing and the Times newspapers, both of which are owned by The Day.
The article below was written by a person (male) who attended the fall 2015 Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program hosted by Vitality Spa. To maintain the confidentiality of the attendees on the program, we have been requested not to name the author.
It seems that more and more frequently in the past year or so I have come across the term “mindfulness,” either in newspaper articles, TV programs or scientific literature. The benefits of practicing mindfulness-based techniques are claimed to be almost limitless and, in particular, include stress reduction and tolerance, improving self-awareness and self-esteem, and improving general well-being.
In the words of Jon Kabat-Zinn, Professor of Medicine Emeritus and creator of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, “Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.” Mindfulness has its origins in ancient Buddhist meditation practices and over the past 30 years, numerous clinical studies have documented the physical and mental health benefits of mindfulness in general, and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) practices in particular.
So, although somewhat skeptical, I was persuaded by the scientific literature and by the fact that over 95 percent of participants in MBSR programs state that they have drawn something of lasting value from it, I signed up for Kate Micheom’s eight-week MSBR course offered by Vitality Spa and held each Monday evening through the fall at the Lyme Art Association. I had had no previous exposure to meditative practices and was quite unsure what to expect.
So on the first evening I joined Kate and around 20 other participants as we introduced ourselves and began our MBSR training. Much like Vegas, ‘what happens at MBSR training stays at MSBR training,’ but I can say that each of the eight sessions was mentally- and physically-stimulating and included a mixture of explanation, guided meditation practice and discussion, and also audio recordings and written instructions for follow-up, home-based practices.
Initially many of the concepts were hard to grasp, but as the weeks progressed, the underlying principles of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction became increasingly clear, and by the end of the course, I think we all felt we had a good understanding of the subject and left the course with a very powerful set of mental tools that we could continue to practice and apply as necessary in our day-to-day lives.
I would have to say that the course leader, Kate Micheom (who is a graduate of Yale School of Nursing and has more than 15-years-experience practicing and teaching MBSR) is an outstanding teacher and discussion leader, and she kept the sessions lively and varied. The group also formed some very strong personal bonds between each other as the weeks progressed, many of which have prevailed several months later.
If you are curious about mindfulness and meditation practices, and interested in exploring a totally new and different dimension in your life, I would strongly recommend you to consider spending some time reading about MSBR (Kabat-Zinn has written several excellent books on the subject) or attending an MSBR eight-week course. I can almost guarantee that you will enjoy it … and you may even find it life-changing.
Editor’s Note: Vitality Spa is hosting a free information session from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Lyme Art Association this coming Tuesday, March 1, on their upcoming eight-week MBSR program scheduled to start Tuesday, March 29, and run through May 17. The workshop leader, Kate Mitcheom — who will also lead the eight-week program — will discuss the program including scheduling details and time commitment. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions, hear about the most recent research and understand the format of the classes. Mitcheom stresses that the program is suitable for men as well as women.
For more information about the information session, visit the Vitality Spa website.