Gov. Malloy says consolidating the state university system and community college administrations will save “tens of millions of dollars over time.” How much time? It might take tens of millions of years.Certainly the higher education bureaucracy could use pruning. The chancellor of the state university system, whose retirement Malloy seems to have hastened, is being paid nearly $400,000 per year, and university presidents are earning nearly $300,000. Actually, Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven has two presidents earning nearly $300,000 each this year, the old one being kept on the payroll for an extra year as part of a dismissal settlement, the new one being a crony of the retiring chancellor. The immediate past chancellor draws a state pension of $110,000 per year as he goes around the state lecturing the skeptical against cutting state spending, which he likens to “eating our seed corn,” which he made a career of doing and still does in luxurious retirement.And yes, the system is full of people who call each other “Doctor,” append more abbreviations to their names than can be found in a bowl of alphabet soup, talk in impenetrable jargon and do jobs whose necessity can’t be perceived by anyone outside the system. u u uBut as much as there is money to be saved here, it’s not really big money on the scale of the state budget, and it’s not the big scandal of education in Connecticut. The big scandal is really lower education.Last year a state government study found that nearly two-thirds of degree-seeking students in the state university system and nearly 70 percent of such students in the community college system require remedial math or English or both. That is, Connecticut’s higher education system is serving mostly students who never should have been permitted to graduate from high school. What used to be taught in 12 years now requires 16. Thus the bloat isn’t just its administration but the whole system itself — consumed by educational inflation. Valuable as the system is to the third of its students who applied themselves enough in high school to deserve a shot at college, Connecticut might be better served — better educated and more prosperous — if most of its higher education system was simply liquidated and standards were restored in high school. The objective should be to take the joke out of the line used by the late, great Hartford radio broadcaster who often noticed the surplus of pretension in higher education and so would introduce himself on the air as “Bob Steele, H.S.G.” — “high school graduate.”Then tens of millions of dollars might be saved in the first year and every year for tens of millions of years, and the only expense would be bruised egos.u u uWhile unnerving higher educators, the governor has reassured lower ones, in that his budget will fund state financial aid to municipal school systems at the same level as last year. This will be portrayed as a noble service to children but it is a service only to the municipal teacher unions. The governor would exempt them from the sort of concessions he is seeking from state government’s unionized workforce. If state aid to municipal school systems isn’t reduced, municipal school boards won’t be forced to get tough with their unions, even though Connecticut’s economy is so weak that teacher compensation probably could be reduced by 20 percent or more without a significant loss of staff.Mere taxpayers may hope that Malloy’s exemption of the municipal teacher unions is simply strategic, that he means to start economizing with the state workforce without having to fight the municipal workforce as well and wants only one labor battle at a time. Indeed, even one might be a miracle. Chris Powell is managing editor of the Journal Inquirer in Manchester.
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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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