Peddling Pablum The Innkeepers, 2011 For many locals, this movie will serve as an important historical archive of the Yankee Pedlar Inn. Located in Torrington, the grand old hotel is an iconic piece of architecture from an age that has long passed us by. The Inn has been shuttered since 2015 with scant promise of … [Read more...]
Read this first
National Stuff
Sports, Thrills, Cruises, Trains, Fairs, Parades, & Events
CT Books, Movies, People, & Stories
Towers, Bridges, Forts, Tunnels, Roads, Canals, Dams, Fishways, Airports, & Ferries
Everything Else
Houses, Communities, Urban Legends, Lighthouses, Libraries, Schools, Businesses, & Theaters
Geography
Animals, Farms, Gardens, Plants, Trees, Rocks, Waterfalls, & Caves
Religion, Remembrances, Statuary, & Outdoor Art
Firsts, Onlies, Oldests, Largests, Longests, Mosts, Smallests, & Bests
King Solomon’s Lodge No. 7
Mason-The-Cliff King Solomon's Lodge No.7, Woodbury This is one of those CTMQ pages that simply must exist, as this is one of those buildings that everyone has driven past on Main Street (Route 6) in Woodbury and wondered, "what the heck is that thing up there?" That thing up there is King Solomon's Lodge … [Read more...]
The Singing Bridge
"Tra LAAA Blah" The Singing Bridge Westbrook A Singing Bridge" is usually any bridge with a steel grid deck. These used to be fairly prevalent, but most have been paved over for health and safety reasons. Surely many of you remember the old Sikorsky Bridge on Route 15 across the Housatonic River down in … [Read more...]
East Haddam Swing Bridge
Swing Out Sister East Haddam Swing Bridge Haddam & East Haddam The good pictures on this page were stolen from Frank DiNardi's Instagram account. I don't know him. His photography is excellent. I imagine that having to use the East Haddam Swing Bridge on a regular basis could be frustrating. Although I don't … [Read more...]
Goodspeed Opera House
Swingin' Good Time East Haddam (Google Maps location) June 10, 2017 Iconic. From a national view, there are very few things that are truly iconic in Connecticut. Yale, New Haven pizza, Mark Twain's House, Mystic Seaport maybe... insurance? The Whalers logo for sure. Um, Greenwich wealth? CTMQ? But if … [Read more...]
World’s Tallest Uncle Sam
MAGA World's Tallest Uncle Sam, Danbury August 2022 The funniest thing to me about this incongruous giant Uncle Sam is that it's not the "world's tallest" because there's another 38-foot tall Uncle Sam in Michigan as I write. So what did the showman mayor of Danbury say? When the statue was officially … [Read more...]
The Jumping Frog
Pack it up, pack it in, let me begin... The Jumping Frog, Hartford Here I am in August of 2022 writing about a used bookstore that I first visited in... I'll say... 1996. And then again many, many times in the late 1990's when it was located at the corner of Prospect and Farmington Avenues in Hartford. … [Read more...]
Covered Bridges of Danbury Condos
Covered Bridges of Danbury Condos... County Crown Court & Covered Bridge Condo Bridges, Danbury If you can believe it - and I can't - there are two different condominium complexes in Danbury with covered bridges. They are both off of Route 37, both cross Padanaram Brook and are only about half a mile from each … [Read more...]
Dog Rock
Thalia and Melpomene... Woof Dog Rock, Intersection of Hayestown and East Hayestown Roads, Danbury Tragedy and Comedy in one dog's face. Painted on a rock. So much emotion. So much paint. Way down at the extreme southern end of Candlewood Lake - Connecticut's largest lake, by the way - very near Lakeside Pub … [Read more...]
Garden of Ideas (Closed)
It Was a Good Idea While it Lasted Garden of Ideas, Ridgefield June 2017 The Garden of Ideas Closed in September 2019. Things open. Things close. That's just the way things work in America. However, when some things close, they continue on in some way. I imagine the Garden of Ideas, nestled in a corner of … [Read more...]