An alert — and suspicious — “06880” reader writes:
I received a $100 gift card offer from Constellation Energy for a transfer from Eversource. Yet they say Eversource will still provide service and billing.
Sounds like a no-lose deal — but I know there’s no such thing. I wonder if I’m missing something.
Do any savvy Westporters have a take on this?
Early today, a group of Westport teenagers headed to New York for the anti-gun violence “March for Our Lives.” (Photo/Ted Horowitz)
Democratic Women (and Man) of Westport, in New York. From left: Danielle Dobin, Amy Dowell, Becky Martin, Rob Simmelkjaer, Jen Gorin and Lisa Newman.
The protest at Sturm, Ruger headquarters in Southport. (Photo/Mark Yurkiw)
Saugatuck Elementary School students Owen Hill and Alex Weiner with their signs.
Staples students in New York City. (Photo/Erika Smith)
Former Westporter John Backiel traveled from Florida to Washington, DC for today’s march.
Amy Weiss, in New York City.
And — far from Westport, “at the end of the earth” — Staples High School Class of 2017 graduate Johnny Donovan organized a march for American gap year students.
He’s in Patagonia, Chile. But he’s doing what he can to make all Americans safe.
Staples Tuition Grants turns 75 years old this year.
To celebrate, the organization — which last year provided over $300,000 in scholarships to 115 Staples High School seniors and graduates with financial need — threw a fundraising party this month.
The event met its goal: over $75,000 in donations. (For 75 years — get it?).
One of the night’s highlights was a video. Produced by talented Westport filmmaker (and Staples grad) Doug Tirola, it featured well-known residents and SHS alums like Christopher Jones, Justin Paul, Ned Batlin, Linda Bruce, Jessica Branson, Miggs Burroughs, Anne Hardy, Dan Donovan and Maggie Mudd. They offered insights into their own scholarships and those named for loved ones, plus thoughts on the importance of college and life.
The video — filled joy and heartache, humor and love — is well worth the 8 minutes. Enjoy!
(For more information on Staples Tuition Grants, or to donate, click here.)
Posted in Economy, Education, Media, Staples HS
Tagged Doug Tirola, Staples Tuition Grants
Nile Rodgers seems to have done it all.
The 65-year-old Westporter/musician/ producer/ composer/arranger has performed or produced for everyone from Sister Sledge (“We Are Family”) to Duran Duran, David Bowie, Madonna and Britney Spears.
He’s earned Grammys for Record of the Year and Album of the Year (for Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories”).
Those of us a bit older remember his guitar work with Chic (“Le Freak”). Nearly 40 years later, he played at President Obama’s final White House party. It lasted until 6 a.m.
Nile Rodgers has even been honored as the Westport Library’s “Booked for the Evening” star.
But now he’s got a new gig: chief creative advisor at Abbey Road.
The legendary artist joins the most legendary studio on the planet. He’ll record rock and pop stars, while also mentoring up-and-coming performers.
Rodgers — who told the BBC he dreamed of working at Abbey Road ever since he heard “I Want to Hold Your Hand” — says that every day at work, he sees people recreating the road-crossing made famous on the Beatles’ eponymous album.
But, he adds, the studio remains cutting-edge. “I’m an audio fanatic. I want my new stuff to sound amazing.”
He’s already worked with Bruno Mars there.
It really must be “Something” to watch the 2 stars “Come Together.”
(For more details on Nile Rodgers’ new project, click here. Hat tip: Alan Hodge.)
Nile Rodgers outside Abbey Road Studios. (Photo/Jill Furmanovsky for BBC)
The Westport Library’s Transformation project continues (Photo/Lynn U. Miller)
More than a dozen Westporters traveled to Hartford today. They testified before the Judiciary Committee, supporting a bill that bans bump stocks and related rifle accessories.
Alert “06880” reader Jaimie Dockray reports that at least 11 students were at the state capitol. Lily Kane testified. Kaela Dockray submitted written testimony. She and her mom had to catch a train to Washington for tomorrow’s March For Our Lives.
First Selectman Jim Marpe and Third Selectman Melissa Kane both testified. “They were awesome,” Jaimie Dockray says.
“The chairman of the committee asked their party affiliations, knowing they are on opposite sides of the political spectrum. When asked if they agreed on this issue, they emphatically answered ‘yes.’ They said their only problem was keeping their combined testimony to under 3 minutes.”
Lily Kane is interviewed at the Capitol. (Photo/Jaimie Dockray)
M&M Shoe Repair is not on Main Street.
The owner is not leaving because of high rents or lack of business.
But the closing of a small Riverside Avenue shop has caused a big ripple in town.
M&M Shoe Repair is at 265 Riverside Avenue — right next to Jr’s Hot Dog Stand.
The last day is April 14. Owner Rick Masone is moving to Georgia, to be closer to his kids.
“Oh noooo!” one person posted on Facebook’s Westport/Fairfield Community Board page.
“So sad,” another added.
Other customers chimed in:
It’s one thing to lose Chico’s, or Jack Wills.
It’s another thing entirely to say goodbye to a good — no, great — hard-working, honest and very talented shoe repair man.
Buell Neidlinger — longtime “06880” reader and commenter/Westport native/world-renowned musician/all-around good guy — died last week. He was 82 years old.
Three days before his sudden death, he emailed me a suggestion for a Friday Flashback.
He sent a few pages from an old cookbook he’d found. “The New Connecticut Cookbook, Being a Collection of Recipes from Connecticut Kitchens” was compiled by the Woman’s Club of Westport, and illustrated by Connecticut artists. It belonged to his mother.
Buell’s pages did not include a publication date. But — judging from the car in the illustration, which may or may not be parked on a stylized version of Main Street — it was early in the papacy of Pope Pius XII.
Why that example? Because the preface (below), by literary critic/ biographer/historian Van Wyck Brooks — a Westport resident — notes that as Cardinal Pacelli, “the present Pope has been a visitor here.” Pius XII was Pope from 1939 to 1958.
Brooks mentions two other famous visitors to Westport, separated by more than a century: the French gastronome Jean Anthelem Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), and Luigi Pirandello. The Italian writer and poet attended a performance at the Westport Country Playhouse. That was sometime between 1931 — when the summer theater opened — and 1936, when Pirandello died.
The pages that Buell sent are fascinating. Then again, everything he did for “06880” was.
This one’s for you, good friend.
The Parkland massacre — and a subsequent assault rifle scare at their own school — affected, then galvanized many Staples High students.
Audrey Bernstein and Kaela Dockray met with Florida survivors, and began speaking out. Over 1,000 students participated in last week’s walkout.
Elana Atlas took to the internet.
She’s just a freshman — though you wouldn’t know it from her activism.
Elana Atlas, at work.
First, she composed 3 letters. One is for Republican legislators. Another is for Democrats. The third is for President Trump.
Though each is different, they share the same message: The founding fathers gave all of us rights to life and security. They did not give anyone the right to an AR-15.
“I am not asking you to ban all guns,” Elana writes. “I am asking you to ban the ones that are not necessary, that aren’t our right to have, the ones that are meant for mass killing. These include all automatic and semiautomatic guns, as well as bump stocks.”
Her letter ends, “We are fed up with thoughts and prayers. The time for change is now.”
Elana distributed the letters to friends across the country, and asked them to pass it on too. She called them templates, which anyone could revise as they wished.
But she wanted even more people to see her letter — and learn about gun issues.
The result is ActionAgainstGunViolence. The strongly researched, well-presented website, is a go-to site for anyone interested in facts, resources and action.
Elana Atlas’ website includes these heartbreaking texts between Parkland High School student Matthew Zeif and his younger brother Ben.
Elana has collected background information on the epidemic of school shootings; texts sent by terrified students in the midst of gunfire; counter-arguments to the “right to bear arms” clause; links to gun safety organizations; advice on how to start your own movement — and of course, her letter templates.
She even cites all her sources. Her teachers have taught her well.
Now — like students all across this town and country — she is taking everything she’s learned in school.
And turning it into action for her country.
(Click here to visit Elana Atlas’ website.)
Posted in People, Politics, Staples HS, Teenagers
Tagged ActionAgainstGunViolence.weebly, Elana Atlas, gun safety, gun violence, Parkland massacre
Earlier this week — before the snow — a tree was reflected in a Post Road West office building. (Photo/Amy Schneider)
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