Yeah, I know...

Aftershock. It registered 5.5 on the Richter scale as opposed to the original 7.9 monster that has left 5 million Chinese homeless and perhaps 50,000 dead--all too many of them children.

I talked to my adoption agency guru late this afternoon (based in Manhattan) and she reported that they have a small office in Nanjing, located on the 16'th floor of a highriser, 700 miles from the epicenter of the original quake . The building actually swayed. Kind of like our World Trade Center North or South Tower absorbing the initial blow of an incoming commercial aircraft.

Jada, located only about 150 miles from ground zero, is fine. But: so very, very many are not.

Guess who?

Click to enlarge (looks like Ms. Awad to me)

Okay, if you had purchased a new home in South Hadley strictly as an investment to rent out, would you be doing gardening in the rain on a Friday afternoon during lunch hour?
Gazette Reporters take from a long time ago
So how sagacious is Mary Carey????: “I could even envision Awad leaving the board before her term is up in 2009” A-freaken-Men!

A smoking gun

Click to read

Soooooo…According the notarized Homestead Declaration he willingly signed, Mr. Hubley is now and has been a citizen of South Hadley since April 10’th AND according to the Mortgage covenant with Florence Savings Bank his spouse, Anne Awad, WILL BE or HAS TO BE (see Clause 6: Occupancy) a citizen of South Hadley two months after the signing date (note initials at bottom of each page) or by this coming June 10’th…just in time for the Amherst Select Board to add her open seat to the September 16 primary election.

Just Go! (I like my headline better)

You know the drill: click to enlarge (yeah, pretty wimpy--but better than nothing)

Good Omen?

Click to enlarge
9:35 PM Amherst Town Meeting. Note empty chair (all night) behind "Anne Awad" name tag. Yeah I was tempted to sneak up and add "Former Czar" in magic marker, but I like to be subtle. (Note pensive Rodan pose of Town Manager on far left.)
UPDATE: 11:00 AM: Two Select-persons report they have no idea why Ms. Awad was MIA last night (but then, she never tells them anything.)

Home is where the heart is...

Click to enlarge

Or where you sign a legal document saying it is (notarized no less). At the very least, as far as being an Amherst town official is concerned, Mr. Hubley is toast.

And when the Amherst Bulletin editorial comes out later today, Ms. Awad will be scrambled eggs.

Suffering knows no bounds

We’re confident Jada is fine as her orphanage is in South West China, about 150 miles from ground zero. But the reports coming out are simply devastating. An entire Middle School (not much smaller than Amherst’s--and I will be thinking that as I enter it tonight for Town Meeting) instantly collapses entombing 900 kids.

The People’s Republic of China can mobilize government employees en mass like no nation on earth. And yet, confronted with nature’s wrath, they are powerless.

Note to terrorists: no mater what your diabolical depraved minds conjure up, you are no match for Mother Nature.