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© 2004 Jonathan Olson Introduction Essay for Connecticut 24/7 A Nice Place to Live By Tom Condon Take a right out of New York City, or a left as you leave Boston, and soon you'll be in Connecticut. You won't necessarily know you're in a new state but for the helpful "Welcome to Connecticut" road signs. The Connecticut landscape, a pleasant but unspectacular array of low hills and valleys with a placid waterfront on Long Island Sound, doesn't trumpet any particular distinction. The "big cities" you pass-Bridgeport, New Haven, and Hartford-are tiny by the standards of New York or Boston, yet our cities manage to have their share of the same urban troubles that bedevil larger ones. Nor does Connecticut possess any major national tourist attractions, at least it didn't until two Indian tribes, thought to be extinct, magically sprang back to life and opened huge gambling casinos. We had one major league sports franchise (a hockey team) but it moved to that hotbed of hockey, North Carolina. So it would be easy to assume Connecticut was a boring, undifferentiated suburb and keep driving; Some do. Corporate leaders say they have trouble getting people to move to Connecticut. But there is a saving grace. Once workers are here, they don't want to leave. They discover it's a nice place to live. In most years, the state has the highest per capita income in the country and the best-performing public schools. It has a fine collection of colleges, more than a dozen Fortune 500 companies, and a remarkable array of museums, theaters, and historical sites. One reason for Connecticut's success is an ancient value that somehow stays with us-good old Yankee ingenuity. We are the spiritual descendants of the Yankee peddlers who were so clever that they sold wooden nutmegs to unsuspecting rubes. Of course, the Department of Consumer Protection would get right on those rascals today, but that wily spirit lives. The Nutmeg State admires its inventors: Eli Whitney, Sam Colt, Charles Goodyear, Igor Sikorsky, and countless others. Connecticut folks claim to have invented the hamburger and the corkscrew. Think of us at your next barbecue. Money isn't disrespected here, but wit is admired as much as wealth. Mark Twain, who wrote most of his major works in Hartford, the state's capital, is much quoted today, and his wonderful home is a must-see. It is perhaps telling that the most popular radio talk show host in Connecticut today, Colin McEnroe, is not a ranting, ideological wing nut. He is, however, brilliantly funny. We have many unpaid comedians as well, even a few unintentional ones, some of whom are in city and state government (or were, until the indictments). But we also have some stellar public servants. New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, Jr., who has led a renaissance in his city, is actually taking down a sports arena-heresy in most cities-to replace it with a new home for the famed Long Wharf Theater. As long as enough people run our cities and companies with the creative quality we call Yankee ingenuity, as long as wit is honored, whether in the plays of Arthur Miller, the cartoons of Gary Trudeau, or the conversation at the corner barbershop, there will be reason to stop in Connecticut. New London native TOM CONDON is an editor and columnist at The Hartford Courant, Connecticut's largest-and the nation's oldest-newspaper. Browse    View All    A Nice Place to Live    Hearth & Home    Hard at Work    Connecticut at Play    Reason to Believe    Our Town Photos: 120 Photographers: 29 Towns: 48

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