Cooper and Change

[mallorys_camera]

It used to be they’d give kids like Cooper a second chance. Let them join the army where they could go off and die in a distant land. But all that ended with Vietnam.

So Cooper is probably going to go to prison instead.

Nicest kid in the world. Good-looking. Not dumb – though singularly lacking in common sense.

For example: If you’re gonna be carrying enough coke in your car to get hit with a distribution charge, you really want to make sure you’re driving the speed limit, that your automobile can pass inspection. That a taillight isn’t out.

Cooper only had one previous DUI. But he kept violating the terms of his probation. His urine kept testing positive for alcohol, for weed. Eventually – regretfully – the T-burg police had no recourse but to lock him up in the County clink. They were sorry to do it. T-burg is a small town, and the cops all knew Cooper. They all liked Cooper. But the law is the law.

He’d gotten into a fairly good college on an athletic scholarship straight out of high school. His sport was lacrosse. But the scholarship was pulled after his first assault charge.

The guy he beat up was his father. Knowing his father, I suspect the assault was warranted.

But the law is the law.

There are other assault charges, too. Bar brawls. Stuff that even 10 years ago wouldn’t be grounds for police involvement. Anyway, it’s sad.

Some of Max’s high school band of bros had sad stories too, but on the whole, I think RTT’s band has the sadder stories.

(No, that's not Cooper in the picture above. That's RTT.)



Ithaca is changing. Quickly, quickly. So quickly. They tore down a lot of the historic old buildings in the Commons and are replacing them with skyscrapers – or what pass as skyscrapers in these parts. I can’t imagine how they think eight- or nine-story tall buildings are going to improve the ambiance of the Commons, which three or four years ago, before various “urban renewal” projects got underway, used to be a pleasant place to while away a lunch hour. You’d sit in the sun reading a book. Look up every now and then to people-watch. If the fancy took you, you’d duck into one of the pretty little stores.

But the new buildings are gonna block out all the sunlight. The buildings will be filled with apartments for a transient population – Cornell students. The buildings’ street levels are all supposed to be commercial spaces, but I dunno. Seems to me that they will be singularly charmless places.