Today’s high winds have caused 48 power outages in Westport, and 39 in Weston.
This was the scene on Cedargate Lane, off Whitney Street:
(Photo/Richard Fogel)
Winds of 20 to 30 miles mph hour — with occasional gusts possible over 50 mph — are expected through 6 p.m.
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This news is very timely, for Presidents’ Day.
The University of Virginia’s Miller Center is a non-partisan center that studies presidential scholarship.
On March 20 they’ll host a special session: “How the Best Did It: Leadership Lessons from Our Top Presidents.”
It’s special for another reason: 2 of the 3 participants are Staples High School graduates.
Speaker Talmage Boston (SHS ’72) is an attorney, historian and author. His latest book examines presidential leadership. He has been named a “Texas Super Lawyer” by Thompson Reuters every year since 2003, and among the “Best Lawyers in America” every year since 2013.
Moderator Marc Selverstone (SHS ’80) is the Miller Center’s Professor of Presidential Studies. A historian of the Cold War, he is the author of “The Kennedy Withdrawal: Camelot and the American Commitment to Vietnam.” As co-chair of the Center’s Presidential Recordings Program, Selverstone edits the secret White House tapes of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon.
Click here for more information, and a link to the livestream and archived video.
Talmage Boston and Marc Selverstone.
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Registration is open for the Joggers Club’s Kids Running program.
It’s great for youngsters grads kindergarten through 8th grade looking to perfect their skills, as well as those looking just to burn energy.
The program runs every Sunday from April 6 to June 4, 4 to 5:15 p.m. at the Staples High School track. The cost is $149 for Joggers Club members, $199 for non-members.
Workouts range from the 100 yard dash to fun conversational runs.
Sessions begin with stretching and warmups, followed by coaching on speed, endurance and strength. Each day ends with relays and games.
Coaches include 5 experienced adult runners, and stars of Staples High School’s cross country and track teams.
All members receive a running shirt, trophy, and visit from an ice cream truck.
Email thejoggersclub@gmail.com for more information.
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They can’t believe it’s here. But the Staples Class of 1965 is planning their 60th reunion.
The main event is September 20, at the Patterson Club in Fairfield. Many more activities are also in the works.
A committee of 12 — including Westporters Merle Spiegel, Joey Kaempfer and Mike Greenberg — have been at work for a year already, determined to make it the best reunion in history. (Three members are expected from Australia!)
They’ve found good addresses for 230 classmates — but they need more. If you’re a ’65 grad — or know someone who is — email Staplesreunion1965@gmail.com.
The “new” Staples, circa 1959. By 1965, a new addition was built to the 2 buildings, on the right (south) side of the ones pictured. The auditorium (center left) and gym (largest building in the rear) are the only original structures that remain today.
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Ed Simek writes: “These 3 trees always catch my eye as I drive through Longshore. They’re on the fairway, separating the 8th and 9th holes.”
No one is playing golf there today. But it’s an intriguing photo nonetheless — perfect for today’s “Westport … Naturally” feature.
(Photo/Ed Simek)
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And finally … sure, this is Presidents’ Day.
But it’s also National Condom Week.
Enjoy!
(Celebrate today — and every day — with “06880.” May we suggest a tax-deductible contribution, to support our work? Please click here. Thank you!)
Dan, your comment in the caption to the ca. 1959 image of Staples High School is not quite correct. In addition to the Auditorium and the original Gymnasium, the two iconic music rehearsal rooms survive. They appear in the 1959 photo as the roughly octagonal structure just to the west of the Auditorium. When I stopped by to visit a few years ago, the Choral rehearsal room appeared unchanged since my days as a chorister and Orphenian in the late 1960s, with several concentric rings of built-in risers. The Band/Orchestra room’s built-in risers had been torn out, but the space, with its deliberately non-parallel walls was still recognizable. Also gone, alas, was the original Dahanos painting, “March Band at Football Game,” which hung in the Band/Orchestra room back in the day, and, I believe, is now displayed at Town Hall. [Wouldn’t it be great to return it to, say, the main lobby at Staples, where it could again inspire generations of Westport students?] — Scott Brodie, Staples ’70.
Ed, nice photo. Hope you didn’t drive to the middle tree otherwise you would become stuck!
Dan, Thanks muchly for the UVA announcement re Boston & Selverstone. Warms this colonial historian’s mindwaves to see this kind of serious program get a push. Calendared several ways. Also, I now recommend the UVA’s YT channel for PBS Frontline-style programming.
And that Boston & Selverstone trod the same New/Old hallways, seen in the ’59 aerial pic, as I did definitely makes me pleased. I had read some pieces on Selverstone’s Secret Tapes work but never knew of his Westport connection. (UVA also publishes the papers of Jefferson and Madison; still ongoing projects.)
Another strand in that Westport Webs The World meme.