My mention of the event between Sam Callis, police, and the Division of Motor Vehicles resulted in an e-mail from an interested policeman and a phone call from Sam. The cop said Sam often causes a parade of cars and is dangerous. Sam says it’s a lie, doesn’t consider the speed he says he drives, 30 to 35, dangerous. That argument will have to be decided elsewhere. Sam suggests he has a lawyer and has already won certain arguments in court. The scene at DMV was quite different and I write about it only to keep you informed as to what can happen to you, or me. It is not common knowledge that persons can appeal to DMV to have a particular driver relieved of their driving license. Of course, they must have provable reasons for such an action. The driver being reported upon can request the name of that person turning him or her in – unless that person is a relative or medical provider treating the said person. How does that grab you?

That may be the case and DMV was authorized because of some other person’s report that Sam was a danger to himself or other drivers. But that hardly excuses the person at DMV from taking the license from Sam and then telling him to find some other way to get home. This is rude treatment, and probably acceptable treatment by DMV, though it forced Sam to call his son and ask to be picked up at DMV, and to bring another person to drive Sam’s car home. But that’s a bureaucrat and no wonder Sam is hot.

You never know what will spring from a tiny seed planted in the ground. I don’t mean one picked up by a bird and dropped innocently wherever. I’m talking about the $50,000 seed planted near the new courthouse. A little bitty fountain sprouted putting out less water than a drinking fountain and passed by hundreds of hurrying citizens who hardly notice. Except, perhaps, by whoever grabs the pennies tossed there by those on their way to court to argue a ticket.

That seed has now grown so large it will cause a temporary emigration from a distant country. Think what that will do for the occupancy rate of the Hilton, 80 plus Italian citizens coming; 40 at the hotel. I hope there will be more direction signs in the lobby in Italian than there were in English when I visited their country back in 1945.

But where will they go for genuine Italian food? Neither of the two proposed Italian restaurants is open. Maybe our several chicken purveyors will knock out some chicken cacciatore. I don’t know how many American delicacies are available in Oderzo but they will return to their homes knowing why we are so fat…Lord help the Italian food industry if these visitors ever find Golden Corral.

I hope they feel as welcome here in Suffolk as I did seeing their beautiful old country in 1945. But what happened to our real sister city that turned out to be a county, in England? Are they being slighted, or outshined by Amedeo?

The public school system better watch it. Computers are sneaking into the area to help students learn. One system is called Novanet, and it is aligned with state SOLs. One merely has to turn it on and follow instructions. Virginia Beach and Portsmouth are dipping into this new method and it’s liable to catch on.

Imagine the havoc if the courses are more interesting than some teachers, especially if they do a better job of teaching. We might as well get used to the idea and take advantage of modern methods of learning. A computer disk on any subject need not attain a Bachelors degree or a Masters…it is already at the professor level.

No need for a few years of experience to gain the art of teaching…School Superintendent Dr. Milton Liverman says it takes about seven. Wonderful system, and a student can run the disk at any speed desired. It truly is the wave of the future and surely will cut down on the increasing problem of teachers luring underage but willing students into a deviant world. It would be far less expensive to see that every student has a computer at home than to provide palaces in which to sit. But then what would we do with all the buses?

Our Suffolk Affordable Housing Task Force is backing away from an idea for affordable housing that it once touted and the Tidewater Builders Association opposed. So who wins? The builders do. If the city merely enforces an ordinance that has been on the books it will allow builders to produce MORE homes (there goes UDO) if they agree to a few cheap ones. Cheap being under $200,000. So why haven’t we been enforcing it right along? And I’d like to know how many people who need affordable housing could afford even a $100,000 home. Surely the task force is not surprised that the

&uot;voluntary&uot; plan would work. Who do you suppose took the price of an average home in Suffolk to $336,000? The country must be very short of trees and wood.

Many elder folks who have lost their mates are seeking new ones and using medical supply and drugstores as their stores for the Bridal Registry. That’s common sense.

Robert Pocklington lives in Suffolk and is a regular News-Herald columnist. He can be reached at robert.pocklington@suffolknewsherald.com.