Little Peggy, Miss Piggy, MP3, Emigree, and Mr. P.

Brevity is the soul of wit. Good things come in small packages. Less is More. All these addages explain how much can be gleened from the unlikeliest of sources. "A mouthful of joy in every bite".

In my formative years on the CT Shoreline I worked in a small restaurant called LL Chapman's. It wasn't fancy, but it was good. She got bought by a larger institution down the road and we gained a new step-family of employees. They were rowdy and unfinished but well-meaning. Among them were Stanley, the stockbroker turned dishwasher (by way of a Stoli abedded nerv. bd), Del the eighty year old stud, Peggy and Bobby the mom's looking for butter and egg money, and little Peggy, not to be confused with the other Peggy or Too-Tall for that matter. She was fiery, four' ten", and loved a good time. Little Peggy did prep work at both places, washing dishes, bussing, whatever it would take. She lived on a big boat in the local marina by offering her labor in lieu of rent. She would usually come down the river to work on her boston whaler, pretty nice commute, I know. She split her time between the islands and the shoreline, dodging cold weather wherever she went. One fine night of rum and Jimmy Buffet had us jumping overboard from the top of the bridge into the harbor, boarding from the stern, running back up two flights of stairs and jumping again. All the while shouting Little Peggy's battle cry of, "Yyyyaaaaaaaaayyyyaaaaaawwwwwwwwwww!!!!!" She was a lots of fun and I know she's causing trouble in some corner of the road.

Miss Piggy was as tall as my friend Little Peggy and just as formidable. When Peggy was winning the female heat of The Singing Bridge, Great Canoe Race of 92, Miss Piggy was dominating the Box Office with Muppets Take New York. When Little Peggy was decking the drunken heathen, Miss Piggy was throwing karate (pork) chops. Most people would find this comparisson to be rude, but I don't think so. Both are legends and celebrities. I'm sure their international circles may even have crossed here and there. Little Peggy's hair was longer and she didn't where high heels, but they were both role models in the formative years on the Shoreline for me. The chance to make muppet jokes is too cheap and easy.

I was stymied all weekend by a device not bigger than my ring finger. I am the child that could assemble model cars without the instructions, the peg kind and the cement kind. And then I could turn around and create something equally as cool out of the plastic frames that held all the parts in the kit. No waste. I rule my fridge the same way, it's amazing what sticks in your life. But this little nasty device tortured me for days. I could have gotten the owners manual online on friday but was determined to figure it out on my own. It has four buttons, how brutal can this be? I poked, I chopped, I cussed and all the tricks done me none. I would pick it up, let it infuriate me, and put it down. I would walk away, go back, walk away, and go back again. I would carry it in my pocket, knowing that it wouldnt work in hopes to have a moment to break this DaSamsung Code, on my own. And truth be known, the company discontinued the mp3torture implement. While finally downloading the "no longer available" instructions, I got the sequence right and the player opened right up for me. It was ready to play and packed with fun. "Yyyaaaaaayyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!"

Emigrees are people that leave their homeland for political reasons. They bring their ideals and traditions with them in their hearts and heads to the next location.

Mr. P was short for Mr. Pontbriant, my elementary school art teacher. He married Miss MacFarlane my third grade teacher circa '76. He knew that majority of the students wouldnt be able to say, let alone spell Pontbriant, so he abbreviated his name to Mr. P for all our sakes.