< meta name="DC.Date.Valid.End" content="20050825"> Amendment Nine: I Just Don't Know If It's Worth It

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

I Just Don't Know If It's Worth It

I live in Westport, CT. A small, fairly ritzy half suburb of NYC and half New England coastal town. These days, it really is more like 70-30 suburb to coastal town, but thats progress I guess. There are two train stops in Westport. Westport/Saugutuck, the older section where I live and Greens Farms, the newer section full of big mansionettes, famous neighbors, and a view of the Sound.

I get on the train a little early and typically I take the inside of the three seat benches. Usually no one sits in the middle, unless its really crowded. Today though, it was packed. Two friendly guys crowd in and sit beside me. Probably in their later 30s early 40s, one is clearly a banker, the other I'm not sure of. When the conductor came around, we all pulled out our passes. I looked to see where their stop was and it turned out they were getting off at Greens Farms, the stop after mine, crowded all the way home.

As the train went chugging, I was reading about that 38 year old Sgt. Irizarry, most everyone was, it was front page in the Daily News. Sgt. Irizarry, from the Bronx, lived in Waterbury CT, died after only a month in Iraq leaving four kids and a wife. Sad story. His 5 year old son started sobbing when the officers in dress uniform came to speak with his mom. "He overheooaOrd what the men said and began to cry," said Jessica Irizarry."

As I was reading about Sgt. Irizarry's desire to be "brave, just like his dad" (who had fought in the Army during the Korean War), the guys beside me were getting a little louder so I couldn't help but overhear.

"No way." "Yep. Seriously. They installed it in a day. Now I have a putting green year round. It doesn't roll quite as true as the greens at the Club, but I can use it whenever I want, and I all have to do is blow it clear with a leaf blower and its ready to go." "How much did it cost?" "Only $5000" "Hmm, that's not bad."

Their talk continued, mostly about the differences between X-Box and SuperPlayStation. The verdict seemed to be X-Box was more fun, but SuperPlayStation was better. By the time my stop was close, they had moved on to bigger and better things.

42" Plasma Screen TVs. One fella had heard that the new LCD displays coming online were significantly cheaper, offered just about the same clarity as plasma screens, and took up less energy. The other guy said he thought the LCDs were still too dim. He was going to go plasma this year, the bigger the better. Plus his kids will be thrilled on Christmas day. As I was leaving, they were talking about how expensive a 42" screen was. I couldn't quite make it out, sounded like he said "$5000-$6000 depending on brand." To which his friend replied: "Yeah, that's not bad, I just don't know if its worth it."

I wonder what Sgt. Irizarry's family thinks about that? Do they think it was worth it?