Friday in the snow with Paul

It's Friday...the first this year in Daylight Savings Time .

The snow is falling fast and furious, so I'm glad we didn't call the time change summer hours as some nations do. I love irony, but enough is enough.

I just finished watching Paul Bass' (I'm using AP style, not NYT) weekly v-blog http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HgYv9FNAgY

Paul and his cohorts are doing a great job covering New Haven, and that has nothing to do with his putting my smiling face on the home page.

I only have one question: How much of a placement fee did you get for showing that Stop & Shop bag? None? Get with it, pal. Don't be elstupido.

But to be serious for a moment, Paul brings out some need points about the presumption of innocence and about the good work done by the vast majority of New Haven's police, including work by Billy White in the past.

I'm waiting for the other three or four shoes to drop -- not necessarily about who else is charged, but how far up knowledge goes of these shenanigans. It seems that no matter what the scandal: housing, economic development, the police, the mayor channels John Banner (Sgt. Schultz on "Hogan's Heroes." "I know nothing, I see nothing, I hear nothing."

Look, I know that even if the mayor knew all about the cop scandal, he couldn't and shouldn't interfere with an FBI probe. That would be stupid and illegal. But I seem to remember a HUD scandal a few years ago with the mayor saying he was shocked, shocked do you hear, about the goings-on. I just hope there isn't head-in-the-sand behavior in the mayor's office.

To sum up, if you live anywhere near New Haven or just want an example of great community journalism, www.newhavenindependent.org. And again, this has nothing to do with my puss being on the home page.

Time for some silliness.

My wife and I were in Maryland the other day (see the March 14 post to find out why you should care) and we decided to see a movie. I won't mention the name of the theater chain (think Rambler autos) but we had to laugh about their silliness.

The decision to see a movie was last-minute, so we hadn't boned up on the latest releases, and the box office just had names and times at this super-mega movie house (defined by me as anything over 14 screens).

We looked around for a description sheet such as are available at the greater-New Haven chains. Nothing. So we took a shot, paid our money and went in.

And what was waiting for us: yep, a whole pile of sheets expounding on the plots, actors, reviews and running times for the night's offerings. Why these weren't in the lobby is a question I'll have to call theater management to ask some day.

I remember the same situation at a complex owned by the same company in New Jersey. But then, we had friends with us who could answer our questions, so I guess it didn't matter.

Just a little Friday silliness.

Oh, I would be remiss if I didn't give a plug to William Shatner and the PriceLine "Name Your Own Price" booking service.

Just for the heck of it, we decided to try to book a hotel through them recently. We asked for a three-star hotel in the Washington, D.C., area and bid $50. Within seconds, wham, we had it. It turned out to be a nice, big room at a modern and ultra-clean Holiday Inn. The rack rate for the room we got was $180 a night. Hey, I don't hand out plugs, but this was just great. Two nights, two people in a large room with a king-sized bed, wi-fi, a sleeper couch, indoor pool, whirlpool that actually worked, all for $120 including tax.

Anyway, I hereby declare under the penalties yadda yadda that I received no compensation from PriceLine or Shatner, other than to thoroughly enjoy his Denny Crane portrayal on that wonderful "Boston Legal" TV show.

Enough for today. For those in the Northeast, happy shoveling. For the members of the tribe, Good Shabbos.