’Tis the season for TV commercials from the many special interests telling us why we should favor this bill or shun that one. Unions representing teachers have been especially active in fighting proposed reforms aimed at retaining the best teachers without regard for seniority. But my favorite commercial is the one with the waitress proudly saying she doesn’t serve flu with her lunches because her boss pays her to stay home when she’s sick. The ad supports an arguably worthy, but terribly ill-timed bill requiring businesses with 50 or more employees to pay full- and part-time workers when they’re sick or say they’re sick. About 60 percent of private sector companies, mostly large ones, voluntarily pay sick workers. Others say they can’t afford to and some probably can’t.Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro has introduced similar federal legislation seeking the same requirement for companies with at least 15 workers, so you could say the state bill is more business friendly. The ad with the flu-free waitress has one shortcoming. It isn’t quite upfront about the bill, which covers all businesses, not just restaurants and health-care facilities, as the commercial seems to say. The bill’s sponsors probably figured it’s scarier to talk about sick workers sneezing on your dinner than sick accountants sneezing on your tax returns or sick widget makers coughing on the widgets. The commercial is sponsored by “a broad coalition of public health professionals, women’s advocates, union members, faith leaders, small business owners and concerned citizens” but appears to be dominated by unions like American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the American Federation of Teachers, Communication Workers, United Auto Workers, Greater New Haven Labor Council and one union representing food handlers, United Food and Commercial Workers.Non-union backers include the Connecticut Medical Society, the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women, the Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs Commission, National Organization for Women, NARAL Pro-Choice Connecticut and a couple of religious groups. There were no small business owners listed.Whatever its merits, this is truly not legislation that cries out for passage in this difficult economic environment. Nor is it exactly emergency legislation, since Connecticut has done without this kind of worker protection during quite a few decades of passing pro-labor laws. And so have 49 other states.Yes, 49. If Connecticut passes what will certainly be perceived as another anti-business law, Connecticut will stand alone, at least for a while. We’d still be last in job creation, however, a record Connecticut has held since 1989. Also working its way through the Legislature is a so-called “captive audience” bill that would prohibit employers from holding paid meetings with workers to discuss unions, politics or religion. Politics and religion are smoke screens; it’s all about meetings to head off union organizers. Connecticut wouldn’t be the first state to prohibit such meetings, which are allowed under federal law, but it would be the second. Similar bills were passed in Oregon and Wisconsin but the Wisconsin law has already been declared unconstitutional. So why should the Legislature go out of its way to pass anti-business laws in a state that’s been 50th, also known as last, in job creation for two decades?Could it be that the Democratic majority, facing an election next year and keenly aware of labor’s displeasure with the way things are going in the current session, wants to do something nice for its erstwhile allies? Could be.Passage of the bills is far from certain. Should it pass, the captive audience bill may turn out to be unconstitutional. And the champion of the paid sick day bill, Labor Committee Chairwoman Edith (Hang’em High) Prague, thinks the sick day bill is in trouble and is talking compromise. The bill could end up exempting manufacturing jobs and concentrate on sneezing service workers. We’ll see. Simsbury resident Dick Ahles is a retired journalist. Email him at dahles@hotmail.com.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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