imkittymyers at hotmail dot com
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
THE SUMMER OF MR. BIG DIG
That's "Mr. Big Dig" and Papa. It was their company which was hired for Corning's (NY) version of "The Big Dig," named after the original in Boston. Back in 2002, Corning had no choice but to tear up historic Market Street and replace the antiquated water pipes. The city had postponed the project for too long. In fact, when they began digging, some of the pipes burst and flooded the street. Just a couple of inches. The timing could not have been worse for the struggling shops on the street. Corning, Inc.'s stock was still in free fall from when the telecom bubble had burst. As a result, the company eliminated 28% of its employees. Ripping up the five-block long business district during the tourist season seemed like the kiss of death.
Then, like a ray of sunshine, along comes Mr. Big Dig in his big machinery. The stores were hurting for customers, which gave all the females, and a few males, too, lots of time to ogle the hunky operator while humming Jean Knight's classic Mr. Big Stuff (Mr. Big Stuff, Who do you think you are. Mr. Big Stuff).
De Vincentis & Son realized how vital it was that the project be completed as quickly as possible, so the street could return to normal. I never saw construction workers work so well so quickly. They were all business, especially Mr. Big Dig. And to make certain that his attention wasn't diverted by all us drooling idiots along the street, Papa was close-by at all times. He ran a tight ship.
Our Big Dig was just five blocks long. Boston's Big Dig (timeline) is another story.
Woman killed when part of ceiling falls in Big Dig tunnel: At least 12 tons of concrete fell from the ceiling of one of Boston's Big Dig tunnels, crushing a woman in a car and again raising concerns about the integrity of the massive highway project that is the central artery through the city.
In other construction news, we've got an illiegal immigration problem up here in the Northeast.
Illegal Immigrants In Northern Tier: On Monday Athens Township Police found the 26 immigrants after they pulled over two cars for traffic violations. Watch the video.
Think about it: twenty-six grown men in TWO vehicles!
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