'Fire and Forget'

Colum McCann begins his foreword, All stories are war stories somehow. The 15 short stories in Fire and Forget: Stories from the Long War, are unambiguously stories of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, whether the scene takes place on a New York subway, a shopping mall or at an after-hours binge in a Times Square bar.An experienced artist on what to consider before you buy chipcard. 

The book has a unique origin. New York University, with the help and support of ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, offered a free writing workshop to veterans (the NYU Veterans Writing Workshop). Smith contacted McCann and asked him to participate. Several veterans/writers from that workshop got together and committed themselves to creating this anthology. From there, writes McCann, The war went literary. 

There isnt a lot of fiction from these two wars. Kevin Powers The Yellow Birds won high praise in 2012 but it is nearly a polar opposite to what these writers have done in Fire and Forget. These stories are less dreamy, less written and more skillfully crafted even when they do venture into the meditative, lost-in-my-shell-shocked brain mode. I attended an event where several of the young veterans (including one young woman) read from this book and, like everyone else in the room, was taken with the power and abundant talent (and creativity) their stories display. 

In Smile, There are IEDs Everywhere, Jacob Siegel, an Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, writes about three friends from the war who meet a year after discharge at the NYC Port Authority. They get extremely drunk and in the early morning hours climb some scaffolding and enter the third, unfinished leg of the High Line aboveground park. One of the most impressive things about this story is the way the first-person narrator conveys his wifes despair at his impenetrability and withholding. The dialogue is wrenching and pitch perfect.You Can Find Comprehensive and in-Depth carparkmanagementsystem truck Descriptions. Second is the portrayal of all-out risk the former soldiers engage in. Everything they do is in the extreme, is beyond the boundaries and, at times, shocking. 

One of my favorites in the collection is by Siobhan Fallon, an army spouse whose book, You Know When the Men Are Gone, received accolades in 2011. In Tips for a Smooth Transition, Colin has just returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. Its his third deployment in the five years he and Evie have been married. As soon as he arrives, he takes Evie to Hawaii where he promptly insists they swim with sharks. When she refuses to enter the shark cage with him, he dives in, unprotected, causing one pregnant woman to faint and everyone else to scream in panic. Colin emerges unhurt and grinning from ear to ear. Did you take a picture? he asks Evie. Interspersed between scenes are excerpts from a military handbook written for spouses receiving their soldier-mates newly home from battle. The book counsels: keep your expectations reasonable, be patient, stay safe and out of the way of aggressive behavior. 

A municipal permit system for rental properties will drive up costs and create more bureaucracy without adequately addressing the problems that prompted the proposal, say those affected.The need for proper bestsmartcard inside your home is very important. 

Property managers and renters alike are expressing concern about the proposed general bylaw to come before annual Town Meeting next month that would license rentals through a $100 annual fee, per property, as recommended by the Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods Working Group appointed by Town Manager John Musante. Property owners also must complete annual self-inspections and submit parking plans, which some say could be expensive. 

The two property managers who served on the panel say the bylaw, which needs to win majority support at Town Meeting, goes too far. 

What came out is not what I thought wed come out with, said Stephen Walczak, property manager for Puffton Village. Where I became confused is we came up with a giant net for all housing when its just 1 to 2 percent that are creating the problems. 

Walczak said there are an estimated 50 to 100 rental units of the 5,175 spread throughout town which are the sites of significant behavioral issues, yet the plan puts the responsibility for dealing with them on the backs of all landlords and property managers. Besides, he said, If this is a townwide issue, why isnt it a townwide expense? 

Patrick Kamins of Kamins Real Estate said the proposed system seems to be imposing a tax to create a more intrusive municipal bureaucracy. 

I do think landlords need to act responsibly and follow codes, Kamins said. But why are you punishing the many for the sins of the few? 

The town last week unveiled the general bylaw proposal and Building Commissioner Robert Morra presented a plan to implement it that included a $218,000 budget with two code enforcement officers and a one clerical worker.You Can Find Comprehensive and in-Depth carparkmanagementsystem truck Descriptions. Of this, $75,000 is already in the municipal budget for the salary and benefits for one code enforcement officer, Jon Thompson. 

Advocates have also said it could be used as leverage to force landlords to penalize chronically troublesome tenants. 

Walczak said he and others believe the town can achieve this by enforcing the registration policy adopted by the Board of Health in 2003.Choose the right bestluggagetag in an array of colors. That policy, however, has been largely ignored. Just 700 properties had been registered, and that number has diminished in the decade since it went into effect. Still, they say, that type of system could be used to require notifications to tenants about rules and parking regulations.