UPDATE: VENUE CHANGE FOR CONNECTICUT EVENT NOVEMBER 29th!

by Christopher Hodapp

UPDATE: THE VENUE FOR MY CONNECTICUT SPEAKING EVENT HAS BEEN CHANGED!

I'll be speaking next Wednesday, November 29th at the Grand Lodge of Connecticut's 5th District Blue Lodge Council. When I originally posted this event, I had thought it was to be at Unity Lodge No. 148 in New Britain. However, the venue has changed. It will be Wednesday evening at the East Street Eatery at Farmingbury Hills Golf Club, located at 141 East Street, Wolcott, Connecticut. 

The event will be hosted by Wolcott Lodge No. 146. Dinner will begin at 6:30PM and the program will begin at 7:30PM. Dinner: $20 contribution. Reservations required due to limited seating. Please make all reservations via the BLC email address: BLC5Reservations@gmail.com

For further information, contact: WB Steve Gorman, Secretary BLC5 at 860.916.1162 (cell/text) or by email at roughashlar@ctfreemasons.net

Click to enlarge

It's been quite a few years since I've been in Connecticut, and I'm truly looking forward to being there. I've actually had the pleasure of speaking in their 5th District at New Britain's Unity Lodge twice before - first in 2008, and again in 2018. So they've got no one to blame but themselves for inviting me a third time. It's not like they weren't forewarned.

Barring any undue mischief by the airlines, I'll have books with me in case anyone wants a copy disfigured by my usual childish, illegible scrawl.

Arson Suspect Arrested In Connection With Connecticut Masonic Hall Fire

Fayette Lodge 69's historic building before a fire earlier this month

by Christopher Hodapp

Police have arrested a man in connection with vandalism and an arson fire at Fayette Lodge 69 in Ellington, Connecticut. 

According to an article on the WFSB-TV3 website, 23-year-old Salvatore Gino Degrandis (photo above) was arrested this morning in the nearby town of Vernon. He was charged with third degree arson and first-degree criminal mischief in connection with the January 7th fire.

No motive has been reported, but he may also be connected with two previous acts of vandalism against the lodge in the two weeks before the blaze was set.

The morning of the fire, neighbor Lucianna Easton spotted smoke coming out of the building and called 911. She has started a GoFundMe campaign to raise $10,000 in order to offset insurance deductibles and help restore the historic lodge building. CLICK HERE to donate.

Connecticut Masonic Hall Damaged By Arson Fire

Photo: Connecticut State Police and NBC Connecticut

by Christopher Hodapp

Connecticut State Police are searching for a suspect believed to be responsible for an arson fire that damaged a Masonic hall this past weekend. 

According to NBC Connecticut, at 9:43 AM Saturday, firefighters were called to the scene at Fayette Lodge 69 in Ellington, Connecticut. The lodge was empty at the time, but neighbors spotted smoke coming out from under a doorway and called 911. 

A man was spotted walking away from the building wearing dark clothing and a black knit hat. It was reported today that he has been identified, and police are attempting to find him.

Members report that the lodge has been vandalized at least twice before this in recent months, and there is concern that these incidents may have all been perpetrated by the same person.

Fayette Lodge 69 before the fire. (Facebook page)

UPDATE MARCH 30, 2023:

Lodge members report that damage to the ground floor was substantial, as was smoke and water damage throughout the building.

A GoFundMe account has been set up by the neighbors across from the lodge who spotted the fire to raise $10,000 in order to offset the insurance deductibles and repair damage to the building and its contents. CLICK HERE to donate.

Shriners Statue in Connecticut Vandalized

by Christopher Hodapp

The Sphinx Shrine temple in Connecticut is the latest victim of statue vandalism this week.

Twice before in recent months, area malcontents attempted to unbolt and topple the iconic 'Editorial Without Words' sculpture in front of the Shriners' temple in Newington, but their prior efforts apparently failed to generate satisfactory attention. So, sometime before last Saturday, they returned and beheaded the statue. This time, the New Britain Herald picked up the story and interviewed Potentate Richard White, Past Potentate John Taylor, and Past First Lady Lisbeth Mindera Herbert about the incident.

According to the headline, the damage is 'irreparable.'

The statue is a common decoration seen in front of Shrine temples throughout North America. It is a widely recognized representation of Shriners International's ongoing mission of providing orthopedic and burn care to children in their 22 hospitals. 

The sculpture is modeled after a famous 1970 photograph of Shriner Al Hortman taken in Evansville, Indiana at a Shrine picnic. Local photographer Randy Dieter had been on assignment covering Hadi Temple’s annual outing for handicapped children. Hortman stopped to pick up a disabled girl named Bobbi Jo Wright and her crutches when Dieter spotted them almost by accident and snapped the photo. The older girl in the photo is Hortman’s daughter, Laura, who was a patient at the Shriners Hospital in St. Louis. It was after Laura began receiving treatments at the Shriners Hospitals for Children that Al Hortman had joined Hadi Shrine.

Since then, the image has been reproduced countless times, as a logo, in advertising, on jewelry, and as a sculpture, which was first created to stand in front of the Shriners International headquarters in Tampa. It's referred to by the unusual title 'Editorial Without Words' because the image immediately and wordlessly portrays the Shriners and their principal charity.

Shriners Hospitals for Children provide specialized pediatric care in orthopaedics, spinal cord injury, cleft palate and other conditions. Over 1.4 million children have received treatment since 1922. Shriners Hospitals provide all care without financial obligation to patients or their families.

While all Shriners are Freemasons, not all Masons choose to become Shriners. In addition to the Shriners meeting at the Sphinx Temple, it is also home to the Scottish Rite Valley of Hartford.

By the way, the Sphinx Shriners have the distinction of being home to the oldest established Shrine band in the country, originally formed in 1899.

I'm told by several Shriners in other states that this attack on the Connecticut Shriners' statue has not been the only one this year. In the statue-toppling frenzy of the past several months, it seems that petty miscreants have damaged several of these around the country. It's not as though the statue of a Shriner in a fez carrying a handicapped child is any sort of symbol of 'oppression' or worthy of some sort of historical revisionist scorn. But perhaps these have been tied to the latest Internet fantasies of Masonic conspiracies and assorted Qanon chatter about Satanic child traffickers. Or perhaps tied to beheadings of Christian and Western statuary (and people) in Europe by Islamic extremists in the last few weeks. Or maybe just basement-dwelling pseudo-insurrectionaries excited by the execrable Popular Mechanics' 'How To Topple A Statue' article over the summer that contributed to rampant damage nationwide.

Or more likely, just bored, ignorant teenagers with too much time on their hands during the national shut downs. I suppose we'll never know. But in the ongoing mania to tear down people, institutions, beliefs and nobility, it sure would be a pleasant switch if some of these cretinous delinquents tried building something admirable in their place.

Silly me.    

Connecticut Withdraws French Recognition

WBro. Simon Laplace from Connecticut reports that the Grand Lodge of Connecticut AF&AM has joined the growing worldwide list of grand lodges that have withdrawn recognition of the Grande Loge Nationale Française. The vote took place at today's semi-annual communication.

Most of the regular western European grand lodges have yanked recognition of GLNF over a number of issues revolving around Grand Master François Stifani who continues to cling to his purple apron like a great clinging thing. More than 600 GLNF lodges have either withdrawn from the Grand Lodge or have had their charters pulled by Stifani, and three weeks ago a full blown fight broke out as a 65 year old member attempted to enter the GL headquarters in Paris and was knocked to the ground and dragged out by security officers for failing to show his dues card. Nothing good is coming of this catastrophe, and the court appointed female attorney the civil courts in Paris installed to oversee operations seems to be ineffectual and slower than an escargot. The question remains how much longer can this situation go on?

BTW, congratulations to my friend Simon who will be installed Deputy Grand Master of Connecticut in March 2012.