Author Archives: Dan Woog

Pic Of The Day #215

Posted on November 18, 2017 | 1 comment

Compo Beach skate park (Photo/Lynn U. Miller)

1 Comment

Posted in Beach, Pic of the Day

Tagged Compo Beach skate park

Hail To The Victors! Staples Field Hockey Wins State Championship

Posted on November 18, 2017 | 9 comments

Last year, Staples and Darien tied in the state L (large schools) state title game. They were declared co-champs. That was quite an accomplishment.

But this year, there’s no sharing at all. The Wreckers edged the same team — the Blue Wave — 1-0 in the championship match, at Wethersfield High School.

Congratulations to coach Ian Tapsall, and his girls!

The 2017 state champion Staples field hockey team. (Photo courtesy of Sal Augeri)

They were not the only Staples team playing for a state crown today.

The girls soccer team — fresh off their FCIAC championship — fell 2-1 to Ridgefield, in the LL (largest schools) clash at West Haven High.

It’s very difficult to beat the same good team 3 times in one season. The Wreckers of coaches Barry Beattie, Mackenzie Pretty and Dave Sharpe had knocked off the Tigers twice before, in regular season and FCIAC tournament play.

9 Comments

Posted in Sports, Staples HS, Teenagers

Tagged Barry Beattie, Ian Tapsall, Staples High School field hockey, Staples High School girls soccer

If Only The Rest Of The Holidays Were This Easy

Posted on November 18, 2017 | 1 comment

Christmas is coming! The holidays are almost here! Which means one thing: Westporters will soon be stressed to the max.

There’s plenty to worry about. Will my house look as wonderful as Martha Stewart’s and Hallmark’s? Am I a bad person because hearing “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas” 10 times a day for the next 6 weeks drives me batshit? When I find the perfect tree, how the hell am I supposed to get it home?

The answers to the first 2 questions are: no and no.

The answer to the final one is: Tree Transporter.

The TT is a soft-sided, frameless carrier. It attaches easily to a car roof, and the tree fits just as easily into it. It catches sap drippings and random needles.

And it’s the brainchild of a Staples High School grad.

Bobby Donofrio got his diploma on a hot day in 1999. Now — as the weather turns cold — he hopes to make hay off of pine trees.

His big product is actually pretty small. You can shove it in your pocket or purse, like a reusable bag.

When you’re ready to haul your tree home, just unroll it, put it in place, buckle it and tighten it. It takes just 60 seconds — far less than the amount of time you spend putting that !@#$%^ angel on the top, once it’s home.

Merry Christmas! For more information, or to order a Tree Transporter, click here.

Now get back to stressing out…

1 Comment

Posted in Environment, Staples HS

Tagged Bobby Donofrio, Tree Transporter

Clay Singer’s “Romeo And Juliet”: A Play In 2 Parts

Posted on November 18, 2017 | Comments Off

Last month, “06880” profiled Clay Singer. The 2013 Staples High School graduate was getting ready to play Peter in the Westport Country Playhouse production of “Romeo and Juliet.”

His background — including starring roles in Staples Players, and as a Carnegie Mellon musical theater major — sure paid off.

Last Sunday at 1 p.m. — while driving from New York for his 3 p.m. matinee — Clay learned he’d have to step in for an actor who was ill.

In addition to his own role, he’d play Prince Escalus.

Clay got a quick costume fitting, learned all his lines and blocking with his scene partners, and went on stage.

Clay Singer and his new costume.

He’d already planned to arrive at the Playhouse early — to watch football games on the green room TV.

Instead, he asked his family to record them.

The show, after all, must go on.

And it has, with Clay playing his — and Prince Escalus’ — roles, ever since.

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Posted in People, Staples HS, Westport Country Playhouse

Tagged Clay Singer, Westport Country Playhouse

Pic Of The Day #214

Posted on November 17, 2017 | Comments Off

Morning at the Greens Farms train station (Photo/Robert Augustyn)

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Posted in Pic of the Day, Transportation

Tagged Green's Farms train station

Take A Bite Out Of Hunger

Posted on November 17, 2017 | 2 comments

As Westport heads toward the holidays, many of us will dine well.

We’ll enjoy meals at fine restaurants, with friends, family and colleagues. It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

But it’s not such a great time for our neighbors who are hungry. So, as we eat and drink, we should also look for this logo:

“Hunger Bites” is a month-long campaign to end local hunger. Co-sponsored by Food Rescue US — a national organization (with a strong Westport presence) that moves fresh, usable food that would have been thrown away by restaurants and grocery stores to families that desperately need it — and the CTBites website, the month-long drive is a way to make a donation on your restaurant bill. It goes directly to folks in need.

With the cost of delivery just 5 cents a meal, adding just $1 to your check provides 20 meals.

National board member (and Westporter) Simon Hallgarten notes that this is far below the norm for most food non-profits. Food Rescue US is so efficient because there is no cost of storage or delivery. They crowdsource their volunteers, so there is no direct cost for pickup or delivery.

Participating restaurants in Westport include The Cottage, Jesup Hall, Kawa Ni, Match Burger Lobster, Tarry Lodge, The Whelk and Winfield Coffee & Deli.

We’ve got a lot of choices for great dining over the next few weeks. Those places should be on everyone’s list.

2 Comments

Posted in Organizations, Restaurants

Tagged "Hunger Bites", CT Bites, Food Rescue US

Friday Flashback #66

Posted on November 17, 2017 | 8 comments

Recent Friday Flashbacks have featured interesting sites at the head of Main Street: Needle Park (the old library plaza) for example, and West Lake Chinese restaurant.

This week’s flashback goes way further back — all the way to the turn of the 20th century.

This circa-1900 photo of E. Lehn’s Bakery shows that same area of downtown. It looks a lot different today — and also very similar.

(Photo courtesy of Paul Ehrismann)

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Posted in Downtown, Friday Flashback

Tagged Lehn's Bakery

Daphne’s Gift

Posted on November 17, 2017 | 26 comments

Dogs are quick to make friends. A sniff here, a wag of a tail there, then a tiny poodle and huge Rottweiler head happily into the woods.

Dog owners are a friendly breed too. The folks who are led by their pets to the paths and benches of Winslow Park form their own tight community. As Fido and Fifi romp, their parents bond.

So it was nice to see this big box — and accompanying note — the other day there:

The flyer said that Daphne — a golden — had died a few days earlier, from injuries in an accident. She was a month shy of 3 years old.

Her owner Carrie wrote:

Daphne was such a joy and full of love. This park was her home away from home. Winslow was her happy place and the community of people and dogs here were part of her family….She befriended any dog that was willing to play and chase. Daphne was a friend to all and always had a smile on her face.

Carrie will miss her daily walks with Daphne. But, Carrie said, a box of tennis balls had been delivered just before Daphne died. Her dog “couldn’t wait to get her paws on them. She would want her friends to have them.”

There they were: tons of tennis balls for the taking.

Carrie concluded: “Hug your fur babies a little extra for me today.”

(Hat tip: Lindsey Blavais)

26 Comments

Posted in Environment

Tagged Dogs, Winslow Park

Holiday House Tour Is Truly Historic

Posted on November 17, 2017 | 2 comments

They said it couldn’t be done: Set up a Holiday House Tour of only historic houses in Westport.

Ed Gerber did it.

For this year’s 31st annual event, the Westport Historical Society past president identified 7 great homes. Then he got the owners to open them for 5 hours on Sunday, December 10 (11 a.m. to 4 p.m.), so that history (and real estate) buffs could tour them.

(Gerber also makes sure they’re decorated festively. Holiday decor is a big draw each year.)

Six were built before 1850. Five of the homes are historic landmarks. The one that is not technically historic — unless you think, at 51 years old, it qualifies — is a saltbox reproduction done so well, you’d think it’s stood since Revolutionary times.

This saltbox was built in 1966. It sure doesn’t look that young.

One of the homes is Gerber’s own — a beauty on Cross Highway we all admire often. What, you thought the co-chair of a Westport Historical Society fundraiser would live in a modern McMansion?

Ed Gerber’s historic home.

Homes on the tour include:

“Duck Haven,” a house and cottage on the Saugatuck River adjacent to the historic low-tide crossing point
A 1760s saltbox remodeled 15o years later — in 1910! — in Colonial Revival style
An early Colonial updated in the 1880s in the fashionable Italianate style, whose owners uncovered an original back staircase
The “David Judah House,” circa 1760, whose current owner meticulously preserved every nail, piece of timber and window
Westport’s 2nd-oldest school building, now a handsome home
That reproduction saltbox, built in 1966 and looking very historic
An adaptive reuse of an old barn into a residence.

A former barn, now a residence.

Gerber says, “Whenever you research historic houses, you find interesting links.” This time, he learned that 4 of the 7 residences were once owned by noted artists: John Held, master Jazz Age illustrator; painter Caroline Bean; landscape master Ossip Linde, and George Hand Wright, often called “the dean of Westport artists.”

Speaking of links, how about this: Miggs Burroughs — heir to that arts colony legacy pioneered by Wright — photographed all 7 doorways on this year’s Holiday House Tour.

He combined them all in a poster and logo, for “Holiday Doors of Westport.”

Be sure to register now, so you can see what’s behind those historic doors.

(The Westport Historical Society’s Holiday House Tour is Sunday, December 10, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are $50 for members and $60 for non-members in advance; $70 on the day of the tour. For more information, or to purchase tickets, click here; go to the WHS at 25 Avery Place, or call 203-222-1424.)