Katie Doyle, Girl About Town

Friday, Sept. 26, 2003 - 12:39 a.m.

Bon soir, mes amis. :) I am listening to the one french cd I spent my rapidly dwindling money on over there, Gilbert Becaud's penultimate one, "faut faire avec." Consequently, as happens every time I listen to the damn thing, I am quite homesick for Paris. ::sigh::

Becaud was a pretty accomplished guy. If you are so inclined, you may read up on him. Bob Dylan even recorded one of his songs here in the States, as did James Brown and Nina Simone. Becaud sang all the way up until his last live concert, in July of 2000, not all that long before his death from cancer in December 2001, at the age of 74. Which just makes the title song really meaningful; it was obviously a very personal song for him to include on the album, and it's a fitting title for it, as well. He also wrote a musical which was performed in America as well as France, "Madame Roza." In fact, it first played in America, to capacity audiences, in Los Angeles and Baltimore, and hit Broadway in 1987. Pretty impressive for a froggy, huh? ;) Anyway, if you want, go read. I'll not bore you with any more biography belonging to someone you've never heard of.

The Return of Golfzilla
Bigotry. Questionable ethics. Conflict of Interest. Attorney-Client Privilege. Building a golf course has never been a snap.

The Martha's Vineyard Commission and our pal Linda Sibley are at it again. The more faithful of my readers will recall a few times in this little journal of mine where I have posted some of the more delightfully boneheaded comments of Ms. Sibley, but just in case you're new or have forgotten those little gems, let's revisit them now, shall we?

First there was Ms. Sibley's elitist comment on the sort of birds golf attracts: "[Golf]...enhances the habitat for very ordinary suburban birds." Ordinary suburban birds. I hardly know where to start.

Then we had disparaging comments about people like Michael Jordan flying in to play golf for the day, and this classic regarding Japanese golfers: "...my hypothetical golf fanatic from Tokyo could have a membership and could fly in, and I've got to say that a lot of people are very disturbed by that." It seems there was more on "little men from Tokyo" from dear Ms. Sibley, but I can not now locate that one; I really wish I could. I can, however, locate the next one.

"Presumably we want the benefits to accrue to the Island, and not to the mythical golf player from Japan." Well. I have to say I am all for benefits accruing to actual islands and not mythical golf players, no matter what, but are there actually mythical golf players from Japan? I am unaware of any myths originating there or in any other country having to do with golf players, great or otherwise, but apparently there are some, and Ms. Sibley is well-versed in them, though why she has a problem with benefits accruing to them, I can not say. I do have to wonder though, do benefits actually accrue, and if so, do they actually accrue to anything, or do they just accrue? Just wondering.

Ah...I found the Michael Jordan gem: "I don't want any little Japs or Michael Jordans flying in here to play golf." Is it just me, or does she seem just that dislikable?

But you know, to get back to the subject of mythical golf players, because now I am rather fascinated by the idea, what kind of golf player do you think it takes to be considered mythical? Is Tiger Woods the kind of golf player about whom myths are to be constructed, so that one day in the future, young children will read stories of his exploits? Will they call him Tiger in the same way they utter the names Zeus, Hercules, Jason, or - dare I say it - Mulan? Perhaps Tiger will one day attain the dizzying status of Yamato Takeru or the Kobayashi Maru. One never knows when you start talking mythology and golf together. The possibilities are astounding.

Anyway, the reason I bring up all these beauties is because there was a meeting called last week or so to decide whether or not Ms. Sibley has indeed made bigoted comments and should recuse herself from the matter of the affordable housing the Down Island Golf Club and our pal Brian Lafferty and his boss Corey Kupersmith want to build on the Vineyard. Not surprisingly, Ms. Sibley claims she is NOT a bigot and therefore feels no need to recuse herself. The whole of her little body of government agreed with her, which is also not surprising, given that many of them have demonstrated not so vested interests in how the whole Golfzilla thing pans out, because more than half of them seem set to benefit financially if the DIGC is not allowed to build their golf course...on land they bought for a hefty sum which was already ZONED FOR A GOLF COURSE. Bri and his buddies have bent over backward to meet every requirement and jump thru every hoop set before them, including donating land and a lot of money they did not have to donate to the community around the golf course.

"The evidence is the evidence. It doesn�t matter what Brian Lafferty said. It matters what Ms. Sibley said." --Eric Wodlinger, attorney for the Martha's Vineyard Commission, regarding the matter of Ms. Sibley's recusal from voting on the anti-snob (40B) housing matter on the basis of racist and bigoted remarks she has made consistently in the last year or so.

So, apparently, no matter how many bigoted statements you make, the only thing that matters is that you say you didn't say them. Got it. Of course, Mr. Wodlinger also refuses to turn over public records documents and correspondence between himself and the MVC which are supposed to be a matter of public record, despite having been ordered to do so by the Massachusette's Secretary of State, so clearly, he's not real interested in actually allowing anyone to see "the evidence." We're all just supposed to believe Ms. Sibley.

Frankly, I can't believe all this had dragged out as long as it has. It's astounding. I've looked at some of the court documents, and lemme tell ya, the MVC is frigging RIFE with fraud, deception, conflict of interest, and Burberry-clad bigots utterly lacking in ethics. Ordinary suburban birds, my ass. Linda Sibley and the rest of her gang suck. I can't wait for Bri and his pals to build greens right next to their houses, so errant golf balls can shatter their bedroom and living room windows at all hours of the day.

And on that note...

Peace out,
Katie

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Yesterday's News - Next Stop

In which Katie shares sad news - Wednesday, Apr. 01, 2015
In which Katie returns after a very long absence - Monday, Jun. 25, 2012
In which Katie pokes her head in and brushes some of the cobwebs away - Thursday, May. 06, 2010
In which Katie asks you to write your congressman again. - Monday, Jun. 02, 2008
In which Katie asks you to please click the link and send the message to protect the rights of artists - Wednesday, May. 21, 2008