Trinity College should give Todd Dagres of the Class of 1982 an especially nice welcome if he shows up in Hartford for his 30th reunion this spring. He’s a really hot prospect for the alumni fund, having the wherewithal to endow several professorships with what he saves on taxes alone.There was a story in The Washington Post the other day about how private equity types “work the angles to keep from paying taxes” and the Trinity graduate was Exhibit A. That’s because Dagres paid no taxes on $3.5 million he earned in income and capital gains one recent year, and he beat the IRS in court when it tried to bill him for more than $1 million in back taxes and penalties. You can do that when you’re a venture capitalist like Dagres or, need I say it, Mitt Romney.Dagres raises funds to buy and invest in new and existing businesses and he’s extremely good at it. The Post reported he once made $800 million for his clients on a $15 million investment in a single business. “It’s a performance-based business,” Dagres told the court in 2009, when his case came to trial. “If we perform well, we’re compensated well. If we don’t perform well, we’re not.” Because of their patriotic willingness to take risks with other people’s money, a grateful nation gives wonderful tax breaks to venture capitalists like Dagres and Romney, to select two members of the species at random.Over a five-year period, The Post reported Dagres paid 20 percent of his total income of $59.5 million in taxes. That’s barely more than half the average middle class family’s tax rate. We haven’t known how much venture capitalist Romney paid in taxes because Romney, who still receives a cut from the profits of his firm, Bain Capital, didn’t release any of his tax returns until failing to do so cost him South Carolina and maybe more. Under considerable pressure to make his returns public, Romney first said he might release some returns around “tax time” in April, hoping he’d have the nomination in sight or clinched by then. He won’t. Now that he’s released his most recent tax data, he’ll still be under pressure for returns from his active years with Bain Capital to let the public know if he consistently paid at a rate of 15 percent, thanks to the exceptions made for those great Americans who labor in the venture vineyards. To be sure these splendid tax breaks continue, the financial services industry has worked hard to provide Congress with legal bribes disguised as contributions, to be honest about the system. The Post report on Dagres singled out Democrats from New York and Connecticut who “have faithfully represented and been rewarded by their Wall Street constituents,” with Sen. Charles Schumer receiving $18 million from the financial sector over two decades and Chris Dodd, $14.5 million.The industry is also generous to Republicans, especially House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who picked up $5.8 million in 12 years. His wife is a former Goldman Sachs vice president and that firm continues to lead financial sector donors with $2 million given to our Congressmen and women so far this election cycle, followed by the now famous Bain Capital, at $1.8 million.What Bain paid its founder and CEO and how much he paid in federal taxes are of greater interest because of Romney’s inexplicable resistance to making his returns public, something every presidential candidate since Richard Nixon and Romney’s father, George Romney, have done for four decades. Newt Gingrich released his return and no one cared, but Romney foolishly encouraged the suspicion that he’s hiding something big. That impression remains and will remain until he releases about a dozen years of tax returns, as his father did.For example, did Romney ever go as far as Dagres, and avoid taxes completely during an especially venturesome year? Probably not, because paying no taxes would be a very dumb move for someone interested in running for president. Fifteen percent is bad enough; zero percent would leave voters confusing Romney with General Electric or Al Capone. 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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