Monthly Archives: July 2022

Pic Of The Day #1931

Posted on July 31, 2022 | Comments Off on Pic Of The Day #1931

Missing at Compo (Photo/Karen Como)

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Photo Challenge #396

Posted on July 31, 2022 | 27 comments

Most backyard sculptures are enjoyed by whoever lives in the house, and anyone fortunate enough to be invited over.

The backyard of one Beachside Common home is not like most.

The sculpture there is admired by anyone driving into Burying Hill Beach. It’s visible on the right, just across the marsh.

Lynn Untermeyer Miller, Seth Schachter, Michael Calise, Andrew Colabella, Richard Hyman, Ed Simek and Mary Ann Batsell all correctly identified last week’s Photo Challenge as that intriguing sculpture. Click here to see — and check it out the next time you’re at that quiet, quaint and very beautiful beach.

Now check out this week’s Photo Challenge. If you know where in Westport it is, click “Comments” below.

(Photo/Molly Alger)

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Roundup: Curt Swan’s Superman, Starbucks’ Scalding Coffee …

Posted on July 31, 2022 | 23 comments

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman at the Westport Library!

Sort of.

For many years, the legendary superhero comic strip was drawn by Westport illustrator Curt Swan.

This Wednesday (August 3, 7 p.m., Westport Library), local comic book art historian Arlen Schumer dives into the artist’s work.

Swan worked full time on Superman from 1957 to 1986. From the scenes of a doomed Krypton to soaring above Metropolis, his Superman is the standard against which all succeeding artists are judged.

Schumer is an award-winning comic book-style illustrator and pop culture historian. He writes, lectures and teaches on his passions.

Click here for more information.

From the 2002 book “Curt Swan: a Life in Comics”

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An environmentally minded, coffee-drinking reader writes: “Starbucks now uses sustainable cups, straws and lids. That’s great.

“But the lids suck. Twice this week at the drive-through one they fell off, burning my husband and me.

“When I asked for a new lid, they told me to call corporate because everyone is complaining about these flimsy sustainable lids, and ‘someone is gonna sue soon.’

“I’m all for sustainable Westport — but not at the expense of being burned.

“The good news is: They gave me a $10 gift card the second time. They saw it happen, and felt terrible.”

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Lou Weinberg is a teacher, director of our town’s Community Gradens, and a superb photographer.

Here’s what he says about today’s “Westport .. Naturally” submission:

“I was listening to this black-capped chickadee sing its song. It really went the extra mile. My exuberant applause was met with a full bow by the bird. It was a command performance!”

(Photo/Lou Weinberg)

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And finally … in honor of Arlen Schumer’s homage to Curt Swan at the Library this week (see story above):

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Posted in Entertainment, Environment, Library, Local business

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New Exit Numbers May Drive Us Crazy

Posted on July 31, 2022 | 14 comments

Since the 1950s — through name changes (Connecticut Turnpike  to Thruway to I-95), changes in speed limits and the removal of tolls — 2 things remained constant: Exit 17 was in Saugatuck, Exit 18 in Greens Farms.

For even longer — as Merritt Parkway signs changed from wood to metal, and actual arrows were replaced by symbolic ones — Westporters have known  2 truths: Exit 41 was near Wilton, Exit 42 by Weston.

As we’ve seen in many other areas of life, things are not always what they seem. There can be more than one “truth.”

Federal regulations mandate changes, for uniformity and emergency response reasons. With exits marked by miles from a standardized point — in these cases, Mile 0.0 at the New York state border — rather than simple numerical order,* I-95 exit 17 could  become Exit 18. The current Exit 18 would be Exit 20.

Exit 27 will now be Exit 1.

More drastically, Merritt Parkway Exit 41 would be renumbered Exit 21. Exit 42 would turn into Exit 22.

The dramatic — and so far, unreported — information comes from Neil Brickley. The 1971 Staples High School graduate is a civil engineer. His Wethersfield firm, Close, Jensen & Miller, works closely with the state Department of Transportation.

The mileage calculations are Brickley’s. They’re not yet official.

He notes that similar renumbering on limited access highways has already taken place in both eastern Connecticut, and the Middletown area.

The new Exit 18.

However, there’s good news for traditionalists. The Merritt Parkway project will not begin until 2025. I-95 will not be renumbered until 2029.

And once they’re done, signs with both the new and old numbers will remain for at least 2 years.

(Want to knw more? Click here, for a state DOT Frequently Asked Questions page.)

*There is no Merritt Parkway Exit 43 in Fairfield/ Legend has it that Greenfield Hill residents objected to on- and off-ramps in their neighborhood. When plans were scrapped, numbers had a already been assigned. Exit 43 was simply eliminated.

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Posted in Transportation

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Pic Of The Day #1930

Posted on July 30, 2022 | Comments Off on Pic Of The Day #1930

Colorful Compo (Photo/Lauri Weiser)

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Roundup: Homes With Hope, Compo Movies, Finding Westport …

Posted on July 30, 2022 | 9 comments

Homes with Hope announces that volunteers are again welcome inside the Gillespie Center community kitchen and food pantry.

Volunteer guidelines have been modified, in accordance with the CDC’s COVID guidelines for shelter settings.

Click here for more more information, and to volunteer.

Volunteers are back at the Gillespie Center. (File photo)

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Free family “Summer Movie Nights” return to Compo Beach.

“Luca” will be screened on Thursday, August 4 (8:15 p.m.). It’s followed by “Soul” on Thursday, August 25 (7:45 p.m.).

The films will be shown on the field near the basketball courts.

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How do you say Westport without saying Westport? Jillian Elder of Finding Westport — the online seller of iconic “Westport” t-shirts, mugs and other goodies — wondered.

The result: Some clever new designs, Click here to see (and order).

One of several new tees.

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Matt Murray is lucky enough to live on Sherwood Mill Pond.

He enjoys photographing the ever-changing scenery — particularly at sunrise and sunset. Here’s a recent egret sighting, for “Westport … Naturally”:

(Photo/Matt Murray)

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And finally … 2 cities — worlds apart — celebrate birthdays today

Baghdad was founded in 762. Nearly 1,000 years later, in 1729, so was Baltimore.

(“06880” is a fully reader-supported blog. Please consider donating; click here!)

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Posted in Beach, Categories, Children, Entertainment

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Online Art Gallery #121

Posted on July 30, 2022 | 4 comments

This week’s online art gallery subjects are as near as here and Westchester, and as far as New Mexico.

That’s what makes this feature so intriguing. And remember: This is your gallery. All readers are invited to contribute to it. Age, level of experience, subject matter — there are no restrictions.

All genres are encouraged. Watercolors, oils, charcoal, pen-and-ink, acrylics, lithographs, macramé, jewelry, sculpture, decoupage and (yes) needlepoint — whatever you’ve got, email it to 06880blog@gmail.com. Share your work with the world!

“Reflecting Light” (Linda Franco Doyle)

“Westchester County, View From a Bus” — colored ink and black enamel (Peter Barlow)

“Contortionist (Don’t Try This at Home)” (Lawrence Weisman)

“Sailing with Kimberly” (Steve Stein)

“Adobe Hallway, Albiquiu, New Mexico” — oil on linen (Werner Liepolt)

 

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Small Car Company Provides Big Help

Posted on July 30, 2022 | 6 comments

It was called the Small Car Company. But for several years in the late 1960s, the Westport dealership sold more Volkswagens than any other in the US.

The Small Car Company was a Post Road West landmark from the ’60s through the early ’80s. It later became Dragone Classic Motorcars. Today it’s Carvana — the used car dealer selling entirely online — and if that doesn’t say something about yesterday and today, I don’t know what does.

The Small Car Company lives on, though, as SmallCarCompany.org — which also shows how the world has evolved. The brainchild of former Westporters Tom Truitt and Dave Abelow, they’re an informal group of vintage VW and Porsche owners who meet to share their passion, trade information, and host driving rallies and shows.

The club’s shows raise awareness — and funds — for local needs. Their focus is on youngsters in underserved areas who are interested in cars, but lack the resources to be introduced to automobile dealers and classic car owners.

Working with the Piston Foundation — a national organization — they help make connections.

This spring, for example, the Small Car Company brought 30 students from Bridgeport’s Bullard-Havens Technical High School’s auto technology program to the Malcolm Pray Achievement Center in Bedford, New York (including its private 4-story garage filled with classic autos), and then to a meeting with vintage repair mechanics.

Curran Volkswagen in Stratford — a dealership with Westport roots — has promised to hire some of the students from the program.

On October 9, the Small Car Company’s 7th annual Air-Cooled Classic Car Show & Fun(d) Raiser is set for Veterans Green.

Bullard-Havens’ students and teachers will be there.

Seen at Veteran’s Green, last year. (Photo/Sarathi Roy)

The week after, the Small Car Company will be back, as part of the Westport Downtown Association’s Westoberfest. showing off their classic cars and raising even more funds for youngsters who just need a bit of help to begin fulfilling careers.

Plenty of Westporters own Porsches, and other very cool (and air-cooled) cars. We’ve got plenty of vintage car owners and collectors too. For more information on the Small Car Company — and the chance to drive forward a new generation of youngsters looking for guidance, apprenticeships and a foothold in that fascinating world — email tom@smallcarcompany.org.

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Posted in Teenagers, Transportation

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Pic Of The Day #1929

Posted on July 29, 2022 | Comments Off on Pic Of The Day #1929

Wesley, early morning on the Ruth Steinkraus Cohen Bridge (Photo/Maxx Crowley)

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Friday Flashback #307

Posted on July 29, 2022 | 21 comments

The new Burying Hill Beach jetty, and recent stories about the Compo Beach concession stand, have jogged a number of Westporters’ memories.

They remember summers at the small Greens Farms beach, which — unlike its much larger Compo cousin — was served only by an occasional Good Humor man.

But what a great Good Human guy Ray was.

I have forgotten his last name, if I ever knew it. But Ray was the man who kept Burying Hill beachgoers from starving — and whose Saturday morning route brought him to High Point Road, where kids like me bought toasted almonds for immediate joy, and (if we were lucky) our parents stocked up on other treats for the week.

Several years ago Jean Whitehead — a former High Point neighbor — sent this photo from Burying HIll. It shows herself, her sisters, and some random boy, with Ray.

It’s a classic image. All that’s missing is the jingle-jangle of Ray’s Good Humor bell.

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