7 March—Beloved President Joe Biden will be reading his fourth annual State of the Union address tonight. It’s hoped—but in no way expected—that all the usual rude Republicans will behave themselves for a change.

Meanwhile, the big news is that in Litchfield a couple of hours before Joe’s scheduled performance, the borough’s august Historic District Commission is scheduled to conduct a public hearing on the town’s application for a coveted certificate of appropriateness to install—for all the wrong reasons, mind you—electric vehicle charging stations in the three town parking lots located in the borough and then decide whether the charging stations are aesthetically appropriate in overwhelmingly colonial, colonial revival, and grungy Victorian inner-city Litchfield.

Just the other night, the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission (to which the borough has ceded its own planning and zoning authority) approved the installation, having paved the way for the town to go into the retail electric-car-charging business with a clever amendment to its regulations a couple of years ago.

The Bantam Planning and Zoning Commission, meeting at the same time (but on the other side of town, of course), approved the EV chargers in the town’s one parking lot located within that borough’s hallowed precincts. Bantam is fortunate in not being or having an historic district.

Should you wish to mouth off or just enjoy the show, the borough HDC will convene at 7 pm tonight at the Pilgrim House (of the Congregational-Messianic Jewish church), 21 Torrington Road. Remember, though, the HDC has dominion over only what structures and permanently affixed appurtenances look like. And, despite what some HD commissioners and advocates may claim, that’s purely and entirely arbitrary. So all HDCs can do whatever they damn well please—and for any reason . . .