Monthly Archives: March 2009

Books For A Buck

Posted on March 7, 2009 | Comments Off on Books For A Buck

Quick:  What can you buy for a dollar these days?

A)  One share of Citigroup

B)  A Barry Manilow song on iTunes

C)  A book at the Westport Public Library‘s winter sale

D)  All of the above

The answer of course is D, though only C will bring you hours of pleasure and joy.

Overseeing the March madness is Friends of the Library book sale chair Mimi Greenlee.  Mimi — whose perpetual smile and good humor make Kathie Lee Gifford look like Dick Cheney — greeted 150 people this morning.  They waited patiently for the doors to open and — proving that libraries are not Wal-Mart — trampled no one to death.

Instead they hunted feverishly for bargains.  Besides books, there are records, videos and “cassettes” (whatever those are, they’re 25 cents each, or 4 per Citigroup share).

In they piled: old guys carrying crates, women toting Whole Foods bags, kids whose parents forbid them to play xBox.

There were plenty of dealers too, said Mimi.  They buy for used bookstores, which sell them to readers, who then donate them to libraries for book sales, where they are sold back to dealers, creating a bibliophilic Mobius strip of epic proportions.

Thousands of books being sold, re-sold and re-re-sold, all for a buck or two:  It sounds like something out of Uzbekistan.  But Uzbeks can’t wander up one floor from the Westport book sale to the Library Cafe, where scrumptious brownies cost only $1.50.  Or one-and-a-half Citigroup shares.

NOTE:  The library’s book sale continues Sunday 1-5 p.m.; Monday 9 a.m.-8 p.m. (everything half-price), and Tuesday 9 a.m.-noon (all free).

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Beach Bozos

Posted on March 7, 2009 | 1 comment

Dog-walkers, playground users and the rest of us were out in force at Compo this afternoon.  The weather was warm, so lemming-like we headed down to the sea.

In a lifetime of beach-going, I thought I’d seen everything there (including Joe Lieberman in a bathing suit — not a pretty sight).  But, proving there is always something new under the sun, today featured a loooong row of cars, parked merrily smack in the grassy median separating waterfront spots from the larger lots at South Beach.

blog-compo-cars This was one for the books.  Like bears waking from hibernation, folks were too slothful to park 10 yards away and walk wherever they were going.

I asked one woman, lumbering out of her car, why she pulled in there.

“Everyone else did, so I thought I would too,” she burbled.

Of course! And I am sure when your teenager says that same line to you, by way of explaining why he or she did something never before conceived of, you will say, “Now I understand — no problem!”

People:  Water is for swimming.  Grass is for walking. Asphalt is for parking.

What’s next — driving on the sand?  No, no, wait — I’m kidding!  STOP!

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Posted in Beach

Dude, Where’d My Hour Go?

Posted on March 7, 2009 | Comments Off on Dude, Where’d My Hour Go?

You can be forgiven for having overlooked this, in all the excitement of the Dow falling below 0 and Rihanna maybe having to testify against Chris Brown, but Daylight Savings Time starts tonight.

In a tradition dating all the way to 2007, we turn our clocks ahead one hour before bed.   (Remember: “Spring forward, fall back” — though “Spring back, fall forward” makes sense too.)  Back when Ryan Seacrest was announcing the first “American Idol” songwriting contest — those were the days! — we sprang forward in early April, right around the time spring was, um, springing.

But in today’s crazy, mixed-up, the-old-rules-no-longer-apply world, we lose an hour (and don’t forget to check those smoke detectors!) a few days after the biggest snowfall of the year.

I don’t know about your neck of the woods, but I have yet to see one crocus sprout.  I have not heard a single bird tweet.  Earth to the U.S. Naval Observatory: We don’t even have a lot of daylight to save.

Experts say we’ve gotten into our economic mess because we’re an impulsive society.  We bought things we could not afford, then put off paying for them again and again because we wanted everything now. We must grow up and put away our childish things, President Obama says. It is time to delay gratification.

It’s the same thing with Daylight Savings Time.  I don’t mind a few more weeks of 6:15 p.m. dusk — particularly because dawn now breaks before 6 a.m. I like that early morning freshness.  I’m not yet ready to bust out the barbecue.

My politics may lean left, but when it comes to this issue, I’m as traditional and conservative as they come.  Daylight Savings Time belongs in April, just the way God created it.

UPDATE: Hey, nobody told me it was going to be 68 degrees today. I did hear a bird twitter. I am ready for Daylight Savings Time — bring it on! My bad.

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Posted in Westport life

Pizza Power

Posted on March 6, 2009 | 7 comments

Once upon a time, there was  Arcudi’s.

It was not Westport’s first pizza place — that honor goes to Westport Pizzeria, opened 40 years ago and still blissfully unchanged, right down to the paper place mats — but Arcudi’s was among the most loved.

It was home to two institutions: the “square pizza,” which makes sense because pizza boxes are square, and Joe Arcudi, who also made plenty of sense much of the time. Joe had 3 loves: his restaurant (in the free-standing store next to Carvel’s); baseball and softball (he coached and played), and Westport. In fact, he parlayed his Saugatuck roots and local renown into a term as first selectman, from 1993 through 1997. He was not what some people in Westport expected in a chief executive, but the Arcudi family was here a lot longer than you, I or Joe and Mel Mioli, and he always had the town’s best interests at heart.

In the mid-’90s, Joe took his square pizza to Norwalk. During and since that time, a parade of pizza places plowed through town. There are strictly home-grown places like Angelina’s; big chains (Bertucci’s) and small (Planet, John’s Best). There are spots with suitable Italian names (Joe’s, 4 Brothers), and those whose names have nothing to do with pizza (Martha’s? Gimme a break.)

There are names that miss by an inch (Pizza Thyme — a bit too frou-frou, no?) and by a mile (S&M Pizza — you didn’t want to know what those guys were doing in the back). There have been several others, clustered in the Westfair area, all of whose names (except Slice) I forget.

But now — bellisimo! — Arcudi’s is coming back.

Soon, the very same storefront — most recently the site of Chef’s Table, which served great food perhaps a wee bit more health-conscious than pizza — will house Arcudi’s.  Joe will be back in action, no doubt wearing the same apron and dishing up the same great grub. You may not be able to go home again, but you will feast on a square pizza at Arcudi’s in Westport.

Now, if we could work that same magic on Big Top…

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Posted in Restaurants

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Risky Business

Posted on March 6, 2009 | 7 comments

There were plenty of handouts at last night’s “Risky Behaviors” panel, sponsored by the Staples PTA. Drug use, drinking, eating disorders, peer pressure, self-mutilation, sex — you name it, a flier described it.

The parent next to me examined his stash. “What’s worse?” he asked. “This, or your 401 (k)?”

I figured it was a tossup.

But as the panelists —  a therapist, attorney, paramedic, youth detective and 6 articulate, probably quasi-angelic students — spoke, I thought of the Who song from my own teenage years:  “The Kids Are Alright.”

Sure, in Westport some (the majority? a lot? most?) smoke, drink, get high, have sex, drive like Jeff Gordon, and  instantly post photos of it all on Facebook.

Just like they do in New York, California and Utah. Especially Utah.

When I was at Staples, some of us did all that too (except Facebook).

But as the adults and teenagers talked about risky behavior — abusing Adderall, hooking up in basements, sending salacious photos by cellphone — other themes crept in. There was talk of how much these kids trust their parents, and confide in them. Of how far the police go not to arrest partying teens, even as their flashing lights scatter them like cockroaches. Of the fact that — though kids will always be kids — they’re being kids with  more designated drivers and common sense than ever before.

In the 1983  movie “Risky Business,” Tom Cruise threw a rager when his parents were out of town.  Last night, “Risky Behaviors” explored the same phenomenon. Twenty-six years from now, today’s teens will throw up their hands at their own kids’ antics.  Teenagers in 2035 will face similar perils, plus dangers yet unforeseen.

But I think their parents — the young people growing up in Westport today — will be well prepared for those challenges.  After all,  they’re being raised  in a community that respects them, values them, and will do all it can to help them succeed.

On second thought, they’ve got a much brighter future than my 401 (k).

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Yeah, yeah, I know…

Posted on March 6, 2009 | 2 comments

In the early 1980s, when the first personal computers crashed on the scene, I could not imagine why any actual person would want one.  Within a year or so, I bought a Kaypro.

In the 1990s, when folks first started developing personal websites, I vowed never to follow the crowd.  It did not take long to cave.  For over a decade, I have been the proud owner/operator of danwoog.com.

So of course, after resisting blogging for several years — many generations, in tech-talk — I have now unleashed “06880” on the world.

What’s it all about? Beats me.

My vague idea is an adjunct to “Woog’s World” – my column that first appeared in the Westport News in 1986, on my way-cool Kaypro. I expect to write briefer, pithier, but no less scintillating, thoughts on what’s going on in my universe, and related galaxies. I expect every post to have some kind of Westport angle, but then again expectations are seldom reality. We expected George W. Bush to live up to his promise of “compassionate conservatism,” not that I am comparing myself to the man who James Buchanan is fighting to relinquish his spot as “Worst President Ever” to.

I will scour the town, from the Shores of Saugatuck to the Farms of Green’s, looking for interesting (or at least short) tidbits to comment on. But, like the judges on “American Idol,” I don’t expect to do all the work. This is your blog as much as mine. I welcome encourage plead for feedback from you, my soon-to-be-loyal readers. Kind words are cool, but so are disagreements. This is Westport, where every opinion is welcome  (even if it’s wrong).

So subscribe. Send ideas. Post comments. Give me some dirt to work with. And please pass the word about “06880” along to everyone you know.

Is this a great town or what?

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Posted in Media

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