Between the difficulty of the image, and the fact that everyone was outside enjoying the beautiful weather, last Sunday’s Photo Challenge drew a perhaps record-low 6 responses.
And none were correct.
John Maloney’s shot of a wooden fence underneath a stone arch was not from Compo Road South by Appletree Trail.
No problem. Every Sunday, there’s a new Photo Challenge. This week’s is moderately similar.
If you know where in Westport you’d see this, click “Comments” below.
(Photo/Lauri Weiser)
(Every Sunday, “06880” hosts this Photo Challenge. We challenge you too to support your hyper-local blog. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)
The “No Dogs on Sports Fields” signs around town are often ignored.
But $77 fines might start getting some owners’ attention.
The Parks & Recreation Department and Westport Animal Control advise the public that they’ll stringently enforce the ordinance in the weeks ahead.
As Parks & Rec staff prepare the fields for the school year, they’ve found what one town official calls “an incredible amount of dog poop.” It’s especially bad at Wakeman Fields, adjacent to Bedford Middle School.
Animal control officer Peter Reid explains: “People can walk dogs on the walkways, but must have verbal or physical control of the dogs. I’ve seen quite a few dogs that stay right at their owner’s side, and those are fine.
“Specifically at Wakeman, people can walk dogs along the perimeter, but the dogs should be leashed. We can’t have dogs romping on the fields anymore, given the large percentage of owners that are not picking up after themselves.”
“And the outfield at the baseball field is part of a playing field. Some walkers were treating that like part of the perimeter.”
We’ve been blessed with several days of spectacular weather.
Yesterday was another perfect day at the beach.
Just another August Saturday at Compo Beach. (Photo/Susan Garment)
Thirsty visitors enjoyed dirty sodas. The non-alcoholic beverages are made by adding flavored syrups, fruit purees, cream or half-and-half, and a fruit garnish.
Three girls — Madeline, Olivia and Zoey — have created a business called (of course) Cherry on Top. They drew a great crowd (including lifeguards, who got freebies).
The girls …
Cherry on Top will be back the weekend of August 29.
… and their menu. (Photos/Jessica Eno)
That was not the only vendor yesterday. These young entrepreneurs sold ice pops (and did not care if you had no cash):
(Photo/Susan Garment)
Meanwhile, on South Beach, there was this wedding (or reception — hard to tell, since we were not invited):
(Photo/Sunil Hirani)
The couple rolled the dice — weather-wise — for this one, and won.
Let’s hope the rest of their marriage sails as smoothly, too.
Over near the cannons, Staples High School’s Classes of 1969 through ’74 gathered for a day-long reunion.
It was a chance to hang with old friends — and meet new ones. Everyone may not have been at school together, but when you’re in your late-60s to mid-70s, you’re all basically the same age.
And hey — those are the same numbers as the graduation years themselves.
Freaky!
Looking good, more than 55 yeas later! (Photo/Susan Garment)
Finally, not far away, these gulls gathered.
(Photo/Lauri Weiser)
They were either chatting, waiting to pounce the moment a bit of food was left ungarded.
Or they were imitating the chairs that humans plop down every year, saving space for the Independence Day fireworks.
Next weekend (August 22-23, 1 to 6 p.m.), you can see a wide variety of his images — up close, personal, and much larger than on a screen. The venue is his 11 Riverside Avenue studio, near the Post Road West corner.
The show will feature new works, ready to hang. His style includes photographs that resemble paintings, and photographic wall clocks.
Guest photographer David Stone, also a Westport resident, will contribute recent works.
It’s celebrated every August 16, to commemorate the anniversary of the first vertical loop roller coaster patent (issued to Edwin Prescott in 1898 — but you knew that, right?
Westport families are gearing up for the new school year.
Supply lists are checked off. Backpacks are dusted. First-day photos are planned.
Also ahead: an enormous plastic consumption surge. Single-use snack bags, water bottles, vinyl binders — the waste is about to begin.
Sustainable Westport is ready. The town’s non-profit environmental organization just released its UnPlastic Your Back-to-School Prep guide. It includes practical swaps for everything from classroom supplies to lunch
Students often lead the way.
For example, Staples High School rising senior Sienna Schwartz has turned plastic-free living into a personal project. She founded Speckless, a resource that helps people cut plastic out of their daily routines.
The other day, she gave Sustainable Westport a tour of her own lunchbox drawer and fridge. Watch the full video here.
Sienna’s favorite swaps include:
Lunch containers: Black+Blum stainless steel boxes with a built-in fork and divider, and S’well salad containers that keep dressing and toppings separate from the greens underneath.
Snack & sandwich storage: Stasher reusable silicone bags in place of zip-top bags for packing sandwiches and snacks. They’re dishwasher safe, and reusable all year.
Produce wraps: Beeswax wraps instead of plastic wrap, or a Ziploc for something like half an avocado. A little warm water and dish soap after use, and it’s ready to reuse.
Leftovers:Non-toxic Caraway pots and pans in the kitchen, so dinner leftovers like salmon salad are easy to pack for lunch the next day.
Grocery habits: Reusable bags for grocery runs, a small swap her family makes every week.
Sienna cites the biggest opportunity for improvement: plastic water bottles. They’re the largest source of avoidable plastic waste among her peers — and an easy first swap for any student, with a reusable bottle.
A familiar sight at Westport playgrounds and athletic fields.
Sienna’s setup is a reminder that “unplastic-ing” a lunch routine doesn’t require buying everything new at once. Reusing what’s already in the kitchen drawer, and replacing single-use items as they wear out, can make a meaningful dent in a household’s plastic footprint over a school year.
Sienna Schwartz
Sienna’s water bottle callout aligns with work already underway across Westport. This spring, Sustainable Westport partnered with the Parks & Recreation Department to install 2 new water bottle filling stations, at Compo Beach and Winslow Park.
But that’s not all. The organization is fundraising to install more stations at locations including Old Mill Beach, PJ Romano and Wakeman Fields. and the Town Farm complex.
Sustainable Westport hopes Sienna’s routine inspires other families to look at back-to-school prep with fresh eyes. To read the full guide, and see specific product recommendations for lunch and classroom supplies, click here.
Sienna will share more back-to-school tips and recommendations throughout the month. Follow @sustainablewestport on Instagram to catch her videos.
(“06880” regularly reports on the environment, our schools — and, like today, their intersection. If you enjoy stories like this, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
Former Westport resident and Parks & Recreation commissioner Stephen Axthelm posted a harrowing photo on social media …
… and this:
The first is of the base camp and command center for the Modrite fire north of Spokane, Washington.
The second is of his daughter Charlotte. The 2012 Staples High School graduate has lived for weeks — with just one 2-day break — working 16-hour days, managing heavy equipment logistics and trying to salvage habitat.
“I am so incredibly proud and equally terrified,” Steve writes.
Charlotte: Your home town sends thanks for your important and courageous work. We all are thinking of you.
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Answer: Jeremy Schaap.
Question: Who is the first-ever ESPN Jeopardy! champion?
The Staples High School Class of 1988 member and longtime Westport resident captured gold recently — and won $500,000 in support of the charity of his choice, the International Sports and Music Project.
All episodes now streaming on Disney+, Hulu and the ESPN app.
Speaking of “Jeopardy!”: Congratulations to Sam Pollack and Sid Kumar!
Both competed in the International Geography Championship, held last month in Thailand.
Sam — a rising Bedford Middle School 7th grader — qualified for the semifinals in the “Jeopardy” division (see the connection?).
He had to leave early. But despite missing some events, he still placed 36 (out of 66) in his division.
Sid — a Staples High School rising sophomore — finished 55th, out of 76.
(From left) Sid Kumar and Sam Pollack (Photo/John Pollack)
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Three new — and very different — shows are coming soon to the Westport Country Playhouse.
“Come Together” (September 10, 7 p.m.) is a night of Beatles music. A powerhouse live band and lineup of Playhouse favorites offer familiar and classic tunes, adored by generations.
“Ari Axelrod: My Year in Anatevka”(September 15, 7 p.m.) is a moving journey through one of musical theater’s most beloved stories. During one year, Axelrod portrayed 6 characters, in 3 “Fiddler on the Roof” productions.
He began just days after the October 7, 2023 massacre. The show’s themes of tradition, identity, displacement, resilience and hope took on new and urgent meaning. With songs (including those not in the Broadway staging) and behind-the-scenes stories, “My Year in Anatevka” traces an artist’s journey through a musical that suddenly felt like a mirror.
In “Rent Control”(September 28, 7 p.m.) — a crazy but true 1-man show — a struggling actor turns a rent-controlled New York apartment into a lucrative Airbnb scheme.
A large yacht anchored off Compo Beach drew some attention yesterday.
(Photo and hat tip: Eric Bosch)
But for everyone wondering what famous Big Name owns it: It’s just a rental.
Okay, a $120,000 per week (plus expenses) “charter.” But a rent-a-yacht nonetheless.
The 130-foot “King of Fun” hosts 10 guests in 5 cabins (plus a crew of 8).
Special features include a sundeck jacuzzi with bar, marble interiors, outdoor cinema, Wi-Fi, spa, gym, air conditioning, waterslide, fishing and snorkeling equipment — plus an “armada of toys.”
Last night offered a couple of great music options.
A Motown tribute band brought back memories at the Westport Country Playhouse.
At the Levitt Pavilion, Christine Ohlman and friends celebrated Amercan icons like Curtis Mayfield, the Staple Singers, Hank Williams, Willie Dixon — even Stephen Foster.
There are 2 free shows at the Levitt this weekend: Logical Pretzel, a Steely Dan tribute band (tonight, Saturday, 7:30 p.m.) and the String Queens (Sunday, 7 p.m.).
And finally … in honor of the 120-foot yacht that turned some heads at Compo Beach:
(Maybe you can’t afford a $120,000 a week yacht. But we’d be grateful for any kind of contribution at all, to show your appreciation for “06880.” Please click here. Anchors aweigh!”)
As we do nearly every week, we again welcome new artists to our online gallery.
Whether you’re a regular visitor or first-timer — and whether you’re an accomplished artist or one just starting out: We want you.
This is your feature. No matter your age; the style or subject you choose — and whether you’re a first-timer or old-timer — we want your submissions. Watercolors, oils, charcoal, pen-and-ink, acrylics, mixed media, digital, lithographs, collages, macramé, jewelry, sculpture, decoupage, needlepoint — we want whatever you’ve got.
Just email a JPG to 06880blog@gmail.com. And please include the medium you’re working in.
“Free the Foot Bridge!” (Michael Tomashefsky — Available for purchase; click here)
“For Mom, Great pond, Falmouth, MA” — oil on canvas, 24 x 36 (Cathy Kim Walker)
“Serene Takeoff” (Patricia McMahon — Available for purchase; click here)
“Woodside Avenue” (John Maloney)
Untitled (Cohl Katz)
“Floral Forest” — acrylic pouring with fine point illustrator accent pen (Dorothy Robertshaw — Available for purchase; click here)
“Cupcakes — Baked and Crocheted” (Rebecca Stein Richards)
Untitled — collage, white/black pen (Toby Michaels — Available for purchase; click here)
“Brinna” — silverpoint on prepared linen, 10 x 8 (Werner Liepolt)
Photographer Mike Hibbard says, “Path to our vacation cottage: Be on the lookout for Alligators and rabies infected Monkeys. Even worse, we are in a dead zone – no TV or cellphones!”
“Osprey Soaring Over Compo” — watercolor and pencil (Steve Stein)
“Server” (Lawrence Weisman)
(Entrance is free to our online art gallery –as it has been for 6 years. But please consider an anniversary donation! Just click here — and thank you!)
Sam Disraelly, his wife and their 2 girls have been Westport residents for 7 years. A Navy veteran, he is on the board of the Westport Weston Chamber of Commerce. He is also a founder and CEO of Your Tech Department, a cybersecurity and IT support firm with offices in Wilton, Stamford and Westport.
Sam addresses this warning to “every neighbor still using an optonline.net email address.”
If you signed up for Optimum internet more than 5 years ago, there’s a good chance you got a free email address along with it — something ending in @optonline.net or @optimum.net.
If you’ve had it a while, you might still be using it. A lot of Westport and Fairfield County residents still are. They’re familiar. They work.
And that’s exactly the problem.
Sam Disraelly
I run a cybersecurity and IT support company in Fairfield County. People call me all the time after their optonline.net or optimum.net email gets hacked. Of everything I see in this business, it’s the one service that generates the most calls of this kind.
Three things are considered baseline in 2026 for any email provider:
Two-factor / multi-factor authentication (MFA). This is a second proof of identity beyond your password — an SMS code, an app confirmation — before anyone can log in. Microsoft’s research shows MFA blocks more than 99.2% of account compromise attempts, even when a password has already been stolen. It’s become standard on nearly every major email provider.
Session logs. The ability to see where and when your account has been accessed, so if something looks wrong (a login from a country you’ve never visited) you’d actually know.
The ability to kill an active session.If you discover you’ve been breached, the ability to remotely log out every open connection to your account.
None of these exist in Optimum’s email settings. There’s nothing to configure, because the option was never built.
Optimum notes the importance of 2-factor authentication (above). However, they do not offer it.
Changing your password isn’t enough, either.
If you call Optimum and say you think your email’s been compromised, the advice you’ll get is to change your password. What they won’t tell you — because there’s no way for them to check — is whether that actually locks the hacker out.
Without session logs or the ability to end an active session, an account that’s already open in a hacker’s session before the password change simply stays open. A new password doesn’t close an existing connection; it only stops new logins. The old session keeps receiving mail as if nothing happened.
So a compromised Optimum account can stay compromised indefinitely, silently, even after you think you’ve fixed it.
An email address isn’t just an address. It’s the recovery point for your bank, your medical portal, your retirement accounts, your kids’ school logins — nearly everything password-protected online gets reset through email. If someone controls your inbox undetected, they control the keys to reset almost anything else you own.
Why hasn’t this been fixed? Because Optimum has quietly stopped investing in this service.
Buried in Optimum’s FAQ, under a page titled “How do I check my Optimum email?”, is this: “As of May 4, 2021, Optimum no longer offers the ability for new and existing Internet customers to create new Optimum email accounts.”
This means Optimum won’t create new addresses for anyone. It’s not an announcement of a shutdown, and existing accounts still work.
But Optimum’s own residential Terms of Service go further: any email account inactive for 90 days — no login, no sent or opened mail, no active forwarding — is deemed inactive and permanently deleted, contents unrecoverable, with no obligation to notify you first.
Screenshot of Optimum’s Terms of Service.
An address you’ve had for 15 or 20 years, tied to accounts you may have forgotten about, can simply vanish if you go 3 months without opening it.
Taken together: no new accounts issued since 2021, no security features added since who knows when, and inactive accounts wiped without warning. It’s a strong signal about where Optimum’s investment in this “free feature” has gone.
You don’t have to wait for Optimum to fix this, because there’s no sign they’re going to.
Instead: Set up another email address. I recommend buying a domain. Use it to host your own email on a trusted service, so you can control your own digital identity. If you need to use a free account, there are other providers like Gmail, Outlook, or a similar provider that supports MFA, session logs and remote sign-out.
Forward your Optimum mail there in the meantime, or notify your important accounts (bank, medical, etc.) of the new address or switch them over directly.
If you’re not sure how, ask someone: a neighbor, a local IT person, your kid. This isn’t a hard switch, just an overdue one.
I’ve started gathering stories from people in the area whose Optimum.net or Optonline.net email has been hacked or compromised, as part of a push to get Optimum to bring their email security up to a basic 2026 standard. If that’s happened to you and you’re willing to share what happened, I’d like to hear from you. My email is sam@yourtech.team.
This isn’t about switching internet providers. It’s about one free feature that’s been quietly neglected for 5 years while sitting at the center of — and now endangering — a lot of digital lives.
(“06880” wants our readers to be safe. We want them to be informed. And, every once in a while, we want them to show support for this hyper-local blog. Please click here. And thank you!)
We’ve mentioned before how rocky Compo Beach was — for nearly all its existence.
Not until a major public works project in the late 1950s/early ’60s did Compo become the sandy “beach” we know and love today.
But how rocky was it?
Check out this (undated) photo. And wear your flip flops.
Or army boots.
(Photo courtesy of Karen Verelley)
(Friday Flashback is one of “06880”‘s many regular features. If you enjoy this — or anything else on our website — please consider a tax-deductible contribution. Just click here. Thank you!)
Cat Malkin — a local animal communicator, pet loss grief counselor and animal Reiki teacher/practitioner — has created a “Guide to Staying Safe Around Dogs.”
It’s free, and filled with practical tips to help children, adults and families better understand dogs, respect boundaries, and feel safer around them. Click here to download.
Speaking of safety: An increasing number of Westporters are alarmed at the increasing number of electronic bikes, being driven recklessly and thoughtlessly all around town.
An “06880” reader sends this photo from the Post Road near ASF …
… and writes: “Technically, I think this is legal.
“But it feels like an episode of ‘Lost in Space,’ where something’s bound to go wrong. I am very concerned about the safety issues presented by this.”
We’re glad the young riders are wearing helmets. And they are riding single file.
But we hope they’ve been properly instructed — and reminded, over and over — about the rules of the road.
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Harvest Fest is one of Westport’s best parties ever.
Wakeman Town Farm’s biggest fundraiser (and food & wine) event of the year includes tons of seasonal fare from local farmers and chefs, wine and signature cocktails, live music, an auction with culinary and travel experiences, and much more.
It’s the closest thing our town has to an old-fashioned barn-raising party. And proceeds help WTF provide education to folks of all ages, incomes and abilities.
This year’s event is September 26. Tickets go on sale Monday (August 17) at http://www.wakemantownfarm.org. Get ready — they always sell out fast!
Looking for a fun kids’ activity for this fall — and far beyond?
Westport Scout Troops 39/139 invite students in grades 5-12 (and their families) to Compo Beach on Thursday, September 3.
From 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., they’ll make pizzas with their camping ovens. They’ll have a fire pit (with s’mores!). Scouts and leaders will answer questions, and share experiences.
The troops note, “We’re organization. Almost all of our Scouts do other activities — sports of all kinds, Staples Players, music and more. Scouts can choose to do some or all of our activities they find most interesting, and that fit with their schedules.”
The civic and outdoor-oriented troops’ 2026-27 calendar includes:
Hiking in the Adirondacks, and part of the Appalachian Trail
Biking the Rail Trail in Trumbull
Haunted Lake Compounce
Sleeping on a battleship
Visiting the Eastern State Penitentiary
Winter cabin camping
Skiing
Weekend campout on Block Island
Helping with Lobster Fest, veterans’ grave flags and wreaths, myTeam Triumph
And more!
Questions? Interested, but can’t be there? Email Troop39westport@gmail.com.
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An upstairs leak damaged the Westport Book Shop Thursday night.
The popular Jesup Road store lost its entire vinyl section, along with some furniture and books. But an extraordinary morning effort by staff, neighbors and volunteers helped clear the damage.
They opened at their regular time. Last night, they hosted a reception for guest artist Gregg Ziebell.
While full restoration of the music section and damaged areas will take a few weeks, the non-profit bookstore is open to all. They offer a massive “thank you!” to all who jumped in to help.
We’ve got one more photo of this week’s solar eclipse.
This is from Stratford-upon-Avon, England, where Diane Lowman — Westport’s first poet laureate, and a prominent Shakespeare scholar — observed the phenomenon.
As the Bard said in “King Lear”: “These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us.”
Financial Times reports that Goldman Sachs is buying NEOS. The deal is worth up to $2.3 billion, and is expected to close early next year.
NEOS — based in Westport — is an asset management/ETF firm. Its SEC filings showed about $14.7 billions in assets under management as of last September. Click here for the full FT story.
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Our “Westport … Naturally” photo series includes natural phenomena of all kinds.
Including this 70-foot tree near Cross Highway and North Avenue. It was burned and flayed by lightning last weekend. Huge shards landed up to 30 feet away, and buried themselves into the ground.
And finally … in honor of Diane Lowman, and everyone else in Europe was saw much more than we did (story above):
(From safety to fundraisers, “06880” has Westport covered. If you enjoy our daily Roundups — or any other feature on our hyper-local blog — please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
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