Beyond our region – Page 2 – Columbia County Current

Mysterious Object Falls From Sky in Litchfield, CT

It looks like our Connecticut neighbors have a real-life X-File on their hands. This past Tuesday, around 2am, a state trooper and another person reported a large object falling out of the sky in Litchfield, CT, located in the North-West corner of the state. The object was described as being the size of a whale, green and glowing. The witnesses thought the item landed in Bantam Lake and the fire department was called to the scene to investigate. Nothing was found and the search was called off. The item remains a mystery.

NYC’s New Taxis

Big news for the Big Apple as New York City has unveiled the next generation of city taxis. The Nissan NV200 was introduced to the public yesterday at the New York Auto Show and it’s packing some cool new features.

The NV200 will come with USB and 12V power ports for charging your gear, a rider controlled GPS system and the ability for the rider to control the heat and AC. Some of the lower-tech features include simple but highly functional details like more leg room, a flat floor so you can easily slide across the seat, doors that slide open, lights on the floor and ceiling and a glass sunroof. Everyone seems excited about the anti-microbial odor-absorbing seats that will supposedly keep the car smelling fresh but I’ll believe that when I smell it.

With all these new and improved features it seems odd that the cabs will run on old-fashioned gas engines rather than hybrid or electric ones but there is talk of an electric version arriving in 2017.

The new taxis should be showing up on streets in late 2013. For more information and specs, visit Nissan’s official site by clicking here.

Carrie Fisher On The Star Wars Holiday Special

Ok, this has nothing to do with Columbia County, or even our planet, but I’m a huge Star Wars fan and this is a blog post I wrote for another website but also wanted to share with you.

Enjoy!

Carrie Fisher was recently interviewed by the New York Times’ ArtsBeat and in the interview, she discussed the Star Wars Holiday Special. For anyone unfamiliar with this special, it was a TV holiday special that aired on CBS in 1978 and is, without a doubt, the worst thing to ever legally come out of the Star Wars universe. The holiday in the special is the Wookie celebration of Life Day and the TV fiasco reunited the main players of the 1977 Star Wars movie with some spliced-in footage from that movie and added a handful of television “stars” including Art Carney, Bea (Beatrice) Arthur, Harvey Koreman, Diahann Carroll and musical guest – Jefferson Starship.

In the ArtsBeat interview, Fisher talks about the Holiday Special and how she made Lucas give her a copy, one of the few in existence.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t embed the video of the interview but you can watch it by clicking here. It’s short and definitely worth watching if you are a Star Wars fan.

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Jeff McKinney is a Realtor in Columbia County, NY. Connect with him on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Pinterest.