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Last Friday’s Question Box sparked a debate about when Carvel opened.
The definitive answer: August 1954.
And the man who provided that answer — RTM member Harris Falk — also offered proof. Here’s a newspaper advertisement from that month:
Check out the ice cream cone on top of the store. As Dave Lowrie noted in the Comments section, both it and the red and white bucket over KFC (now Sun Reflexology, next to Layla’s Falafel) came down in the 1970s. The Architectural Review Board was trying to make the Post Road look “less commercial.”
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As one of their many services, the Compo lifeguards post a new, thought-provoking quote every day. Little gestures like that mean a lot.
But this sign last week was particularly intriguing:
(Photo/Dinkin Fotografix)
Were they being slyly clever, misspelling both “their” and (look closely) “swimming” in a quote about fault-finding?
Or were they just simple mistakes, made more prominent by the context of the quote?
We may never know. Today is their last day on duty.
Anyway: Who cares? If you see a lifeguard, thank him or her for another safe, fun summer.
And for a daily diet of inspiring, important quotes.
No matter how they’re spelled.
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Every Home Should Have a Challah — the Westport-based national delivery service — is busy taking Yom Kippur orders. The deadline is midnight Wednesday (September 8). Click here for details.
Rosh Hashanah challah is already sold out.
Challah, from Every Home Should Have a Challah.
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Westport Book Shop is expanding its hours. Starting tomorrow (Tuesday, September 7), they’ll open earlier — 10 a.m. — Tuesdays through Saturdays.
They’ll open at noon on Sundays, and are closed Mondays.
Westport Book Shop, on Jesup Road.
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William Nicholas (Nick) Delgass died peacefully at his West Lafayette, Indiana home last month, attended by his family, after a 9-year battle with cancer. The 1960 Staples High School graduate was 78.
His interest in the world and the way it works led him to science. He graduated from the University of Michigan, then earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Stanford University.
He was more than a scientist. Throughout his life, Nick was well rounded. When he spotted Elizabeth (Betty) Holstein at a mandolin concert in 1966, he convinced her to go out with him after they bonded over a love of English literature. They married a year later, and would have celebrated their 54th anniversary at the end of August.
He and Betty had their first child, Michael, while Nick was completing his post-doctoral fellowship at the University of California. He accepted his first faculty position at Yale University, and the growing family moved to Branford, where their second son, Leif, was born. Nick was on the faculty at Yale University for 5 years before accepting a position at Purdue.
he became chair of the chemical engineering department there, and taught until retirement. Nick was globally recognized for his work in integrating new tools and methods into reaction systems. His colleague Fabio Ribeiro said that few researchers impacted the field so broadly. He was a joint author of over 200 scientific papers, 2 books, advisor to many graduate students, and consultant to many companies.
His love for Betty was fierce. Nick often biked from the lab to have lunch with his family, and was a constant presence at his sons’ events. When his grandchildren were born, he made cross-country trips to visit.
Nick served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Catalysis, the flagship journal of the field. he earned various awards, and was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).
Teaching was one of his great loves, as evidenced by his many honors, including the Shreve Teaching Award 7 times, and inclusion in the Purdue University Book of Great Teachers.
In addition to his wife Betty, Nick is survived by his sons Leif and Michael (Jessica Spector), and grandchildren Isaac, Aidan, Ariella, and Serafina.
No formal service is planned, but there will be a memorial reception on October 16 at the Whittaker Inn in West Lafayette. Click here to leave condolences.
Nick Delgass
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Since we began our “Westport … Naturally” feature a couple of months ago, we’ve posted plenty of animal photos. Lots of flowers, too.
This may be our first cucumber shot. It’s a nice “window” into another aspect of Westport’s many natural wonders.
(Photo/Tracy Porosoff)
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And finally … Happy Labor Day!
It’s easy these days to forget the origins of the holiday. We may not remember (or never learned) the importance of unions in our nation’s history. They brought about safety, minimum wages, overtime pay and more.
Winning those rights was not easy. The power of unions has waned over the years — look at the recent Amazon battle in Alabama — even as income inequality has grown. Organizers there no doubt wish they still had a Pete Seeger to champion their cause.
