Actor Judd Hirsch, former star of the most depressing sitcom of all time, wants to install a 177-foot-tall wind-turbine electric generator on his land in upstate Denning, NY. Unfortunately, many of the 549 other residents of the town aren't too happy about it, and have been petitioning to stop the project. But just like that old saying goes, man plans and Judd laughs. "Their fears, in my estimation, are baloney," Hirsch told the Times. "Behind it, I believe, is the pollution of jealousy and the pollution of stupidity."
Neighbors say that the giant turbine "would ruin the beauty of the location." Richard Benkwitt, 61, who lives in a log house about a mile down the mountain where Hirsch is, added, "Once you put it up, you can’t take it back." Others are more concerned about increased noise, some just don't want the scenery to be changed.
But nobody is more hurt by the proposed turbine than Tiffany Gillman, 34, who helped organize the petition and lives about a mile away from Hirsch. We can safely say no one has been more upset about anything than Gillman is upset about this wind turbine:
She and her husband have since built a home, and turned an abandoned field into an orchard. They grow apples, peaches and pears that they make into cider and pies. “Our everything, our heart and soul, is in this place,” she said. They also have a 2-year-old son.
“I just think of him,” said Ms. Gillman, her voice halted by tears, “and I think about us being up there in that orchard, and those blades spinning, and this thing coming out of the landscape for the rest of our lives now. It feels like everything that we worked for, and everything we sacrificed for, is at risk.”
Hirsch sounds unconvinced: "This one annoys the hell out of me because these people are making up stories that don’t have any relevance to anything in this world. You can’t hear it, and it can’t harm you, and you can’t see it, and if you did it would be beautiful." It's like these people think Hirsch is the kind of shlemiel who smokes in the office or something!
