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Renovations are coming along well at The Porch at Christie’s — the new breakfast/lunch/dinner-to-go (plus brunch, coffee, smoothies, baked goods and ice cream) spot that will build) upon a Cross Highway tradition dating back to 1926.
Owners Andrea and Bill Pecoriello — “proud Westporters since 1994” — already own Sweet P Bakery in Norwalk, providing job training and employment for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Sweet P will supply most of the baked treats for The Porch. Graduates of its programs will bake there, with 2 amazing pastry chefs. Additional Sweet P staff will work in front-of-house operations.
As the sign below notes, The Porch will open this spring — offering “local food, community and purpose.” Follow online, or on Facebook and Instagram (theporchatchristies; @sweetpbakeryct). For more information, email info@theporchatchristies.com.
(Photo/Wendy Cusick)
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Carrie Kerner and her husband moved to Westport in September.
She owns a PR firm (CG Social Inc.) and is a social media influencer (@CarrieGeorgette). Her husband Brian is an anesthesiologist at Yale Hospital.
They are foodies, and conscious of what they feed their 1-year-old daughter Chloe — mostly homemade, organic, healthy meals.
Yesterday morning, “CBS This Morning” featured the family in a story on a government report that baby foods are tainted with dangerous levels of arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury.
It’s not something she’s thought about before. Now she will. Click here for the full, frightening story.
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There’s a new COVID vaccination site, not far away.
Harry Evans reports it opened this week at 110 High Ridge Road in Stamford (the Lord & Taylor parking lot). He called Wednesday to schedule an appointment, and I got one for the next day.
He was in and out yesterday in 20 minutes — including the 15-minute waiting time after the shot itself.
“Everything was easy and very efficiently run, and extremely easy to reach from Exit 35 on the Merritt,” he reports.
“When the word gets out it may be mobbed. But right now it is the only drive-through facility in Fairfield County.” Harry called Connecticut’s COVID assistance hotline: 877-918-2224.
Though Connecticut is one of the leading states in the nation in terms of percentages of vaccines administered, it is still available only to people over 75, healthcare personnel, medical first responders, and residents of long-term care facilities. The next phase will include people 65 to 74.
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In 2005, Deborah Dohme got a parking ticket in New Canaan.
Six years ago she moved from Westport to Tucson.
Yesterday she got a letter, demanding $30. It was the first notice she’d gotten as a scofflaw.
“Is New Canaan that desperate for money, that they hired a debt collector for $30 after 16 years?!” she wonders.
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Overheard at the library, by Michael Catarevas: “Excuse me, but there is no sitting allowed in the library.”
“That sums up the pandemic perfectly,” he says.
The Westport Library Forum, way back a year ago.
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Today’s New York Times includes a story on Samuel Fisher — aka Brad Holiday — the 2007 Weston High School graduate/misogynistic dating coach arrested last month for his involvement in the January 6 insurrection at the US Captiol.
Investigators found a shotgun, machetes and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition in his Chevy Tahoe
Despite plenty of information about Fisher/Holiday’s social media posts celebrating his role on the storming of the building — along with other videos “denigrating women (and guides on) how to defeat Communists, expose what he claimed were government pedophilia cabals, and properly wield a Glock.”
However, the Times story does not mention Weston. It says simply that he “grew up in New Jersey.” Click here for the full story.
Samuel Fisher in Washington on January 6.
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And finally … happy 77th birthday to the multi-talented Al Kooper.
He wrote hits like Gary Lewis & the Playboys’ “This Diamond Ring” …
… played organ on Bob Dylan’s groundbreaking “Like a Rolling Stone” …
… was the Blues Project’s keyboardist …
… and discovered, produced and performed with Lynyrd Skynyrd.
The breathless CBS story says baby foods are “tainted” with toxic metals, which they also refer to as “pollutants.”
Only if you read a reliable print media source, such as the WSJ link below, will you find that the heavy metals are absorbed by plants from the soil, and quite likely are naturally occurring in the environment; i.e. not from pollution or contamination.
So, if your mom served you homemade baby food from ingredients including sweet potatoes, brown rice and cinnamon, you most likely ingested these same worrisome toxins.
Yet here you are, alive and in Westport, and somehow your brain function was sufficiently intact to graduate medical school, earn your Harvard MBA, etc.
Not to say we shouldn’t make our foods as safe as practically possible with today’s science, but the CBS story is clearly misleading to the point of inciting hysteria.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/toxic-heavy-metals-found-in-some-baby-food-congressional-report-says-11612451332
If you’re interested in how ‘social media Influencers’ try to gain followers and their desire to be famous or somewhat famous, I recommend you tune in to HBO Max Tuesday night for their documentary on influencers titled, ‘Fake Famous’.
“ Influencers “ has to be the most overused word in the English language. It has become a keyword on how to grift people who refuse to think for themselves.
Is Deborah Dohme that desperate for money that she can’t pay a $30 bill? Frankly, she should pay interest and penalties on top of that.
I have never defaulted on a payment. It’s not right. And to turn around and criticize the entity you owe money to just reeks of entitlement. She’s no different from all the other entitled parkers we excoriate on this blog.
Come on, Jennifer. It sounds like one of those things she just forgot to pay, then completely forgot about. Relax.
I hear you. My point was more about her criticism of New Canaan for seeking to collect on a valid debt that is owed. (And the reality is New Canaan probably transferred/settled its receivable with a third party, and it’s the third party and not New Canaan that’s looking to collect, but that’s another story.)
If she simply forgot to pay, she’d just send them a check and move on with her life. Instead, she made an effort to make this public and reached out to you. That’s not the sign of someone who simply forgot to pay a bill and senses remorse; rather, it’s the sign of someone who feels like they shouldn’t have to pay the bill, and now they’re making a scene, which isn’t right.
Regarding the comment below about going for a walk: I plan to do so tomorrow – looks like we’re finally getting a sunny day!
100% agree with you Jennifer, why Ms. Dohme seeks attention in a blog over $30 is beyond me. But wait, she previously lived….? Ahhhh, now I get it.
James, since every comment you make is a negative one about Westporters, why do you continue to read “06880”? Or to put it another way, why do you never comment on any positive story about Westporters? Asking for a friend…
Sorry, Jennifer, but I disagree. She found it amusing that, after a decade and a half, she got a letter about a $30 parking ticket. Where in the story did it imply that she does not intend to pay?
I agree with Dan. I was amused by the story. Making assumptions about her intentions both 30 years ago and now are baseless and mean-spirited. I’m happy to hear news about Debby – she and her husband are decent people and I was sorry when they left for Arizona years ago. When they were here, they did good things in and for Westport.
That is probably overly generous of you, Dan. Tickets are hard to forget when you get them and I’d be surprised if this is the first time anyone sent a reminder that her ticket had not been paid. Most towns, including I believe, Westport, send multiple reminders of failure to pay anything that is owed them.
I suppose if she had the wrong address on her registration, those reminders went to Never Neverland, but failure to update her address is her fault, not New Canaan’s and certainly not an excuse to not pay. Maybe it simply took this long for someone to track her down.
Frankly, it seems more likely that she didn’t bother to pay figuring “what can New Canaan do to me”, was seemingly rewarded for being a scofflaw because no one actually did anything to her, and is now shocked that someone followed up before the statute of limitations ran out. Perhaps even a lawyer friend advised her to go that route.
In any event, irrespective of how this actually transpired, she doesn’t deny she got the ticket, or claim that she shouldn’t have received it, or deny that she didn’t pay it, or even claim any hardship, so Jennifer is right – just pay the ticket and don’t whine about it.
I would hope Westport is more diligent in following up on unpaid items of any sort. We should all applaud Westport (or New Canaan in this case) for trying to collect every nickel that is due.
Wow, someone seriously needs to lighten up! Go for a walk Jennifer, it might cool you down.
“Influencers” is another word for grifter. Unreal that folks don’t use their own commercial n sense, nor reason.
…. and on a happy note, cheers to Andrea and Bill for adding to our local community in a wonderfully, unique business. Best of luck to you Andrea, Bill and staff. Looking forward to the opening!
Sam Fisher’s face is repulsive.
Well well, I sent this because I never received anything from them for 16 years. I lived in Westport for 36 years and paid tickets wherever I received them, not just Westport, Norwalk, Stamford, etc. I do not remember that incident or I would have paid it. The point I thought was odd, is that it took the town of New Canaan that long to bother with trying to collect $30.00! My address was correct, and so was forwarding info.
Lighten up folks, it was just an FYI.
Actually a debt collection agency appears to have bought Dohme’s debt—probably for pennies on the dollar. So when she pays she will not be putting $30 into New Canaan’s coffers… it will go to Robin Gonzales of TaxServe. Online reviews of this company indicate shadiness and fraud. I would neither acknowledge this debt nor deal with the company.
Oh, and by the way, the expiration for liability for Dohme’s ticket has likely expired long ago… chances are pretty high that this is a scam.
And if you think debt collectors are very different from those who will call you telling you to send money to bail your grandchild out of jail in Mexico… well…