By David Fortier 

Come Sunday morning the weather will have turned the corner—we are in a wintry chill, getting ready for Thanksgiving—and our clocks will have been turned back an hour—fall back, spring forward–and the city will have turned from blue to red. With Tuesday’s election, voters will have decidedly voted for something, but I am not quite sure what.  

We will see. And there is plenty to consider considering the new mayor and council will be sworn in in ceremonies at Liberty Baptist Church on Maple Ave.–an unusual choice and somewhat confusing since these are public officials who are being sworn in and not churchmen. 

Following the swearing in, the first city council meeting is Tuesday, at City Hall. We don’t waste any time with our transitions in Bristol.  

And we have our work cut out for us here at The Bristol Edition. For instance, in a post-election survey, all Democratic candidates but one replied; for the Republicans, two of seven replied, among the latter the mayor-elect continued to fume over an article I wrote about a confrontation with a voter. In his email response to the post-election survey, he calls the article a hit job—because, he said, he denied the accusations originally–he did not deny this in his email exchange with me, but his story appears to shift over time—and, most important, he said he will not honor TBE requests because we aren’t working in his best interests. Interesting choice of words. 

I stand by the article and the reporting. One of the reasons we stuck out our necks here is because this encounter between the candidate and a voter sheds light on the character of the candidate. If he is willing to stoop to threats, then what else will he do when out of the public’s view. That is accountability. We shall see. 

I, for one, congratulate the winners of the election. They pulled off a historic campaign, and I believe that it will be the source of some discussion for months to come. Even though TBE is short staffed—really staffed by a few volunteers, among us, a heroic sports correspondent!—we will do our best to shed light on this as well as other topics that unfold in the future—both positive and negative ones, the way news works.

That friction between government and the press is a natural one. In reality, we haven’t really done much reporting on politics, and most of it has been simply checking in, because we did not have the resources. No matter which party won this election, though, we had already determined that we would need to try to cover city hall more thoroughly. That the Republicans are there now, it might look as if we are being more critical, but it is simply part of our growth as a news organization. To be more viable, we need to do more city reporting. And so we are sharing this, knowing full well that this initiative may well be misconstrued. Such is life. 

Aside from the election, the days were filled with much of the same kind of stuff as they always are this time of year. And of course, the knee is healing—ever so slowly—but still healing. It will be about three more months to feel a big difference, according to my physician. 

School just ended the first marking period, so grades are due and that means grading those final papers and adding comments before report cards are mailed. Grandkid photos and videos come through daily, both are on the verge of the terrible twos, but Mary and I wouldn’t really know from what we see. And of course, we are getting ready for Thanksgiving, which leads to this week’s homework assignment. 

“Seasoned” is a cooking show that airs on Connecticut Public Radio weekly. This past week the hosts featured the cooking of indigenous peoples, and it was much more interesting than I had anticipated. Let’s see what you think. Click here for the link. 

Have a wonderful week! 

“Come Sunday morning” is intended to be a weekly review, a recounting of the past week and an anticipation of week to come. Among its features will be reviews of old and new books, sharing of favorite podcasts, some family news, Bristol events and happenings and issues surrounding education, work and community journalism. He can be reached at dfortier@bristoledition.org.