Next year, Westport will receive $8.4 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding. The money is part of a $2.2 trillion CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) economic stimulus package.
Earlier this month, “06880” reported one possible use. The Greens Farms Association hopes the town can repair the crumbling jetty at Burying Hill Beach.
On January 5 (7:30 p.m., Zoom), the Board of Finance will review a $1.3 million request from the Department of Public Works for that project.
They’ll also discuss an application for $200,643 in funds from the Westport Arts Advisory Council. It includes 12 organizations that could use some of that money:
Artists Collective of Westport: $20,000 to beautify new bus shelters with changing local artist work; full-color, large-scaled prints of adjudicated works to rotate every 2 months.
Beechwood Arts: $20,000 for 4 all-arts collaborative events, including community scavenger hunts, art opening, story share and facilitated dinner discussion.
JIB Productions: $20,000 for 2 projects: 1) Play Time (professionally moderated structred play reading/discussion group, 6 sessions at the Senior Center); 2) Partnership with Westport Library, Bridgeport schools and Westport schools to screen (with director talk-back) “Change the Name,” a documentary abouyt a group of middle school students who successfully changed the name of a Chicago park from slaveholder to abolitionist.
Levitt Pavilion: $20,000 to underwrite 4 free presentations for 2022 summer season, including folk, jazz, rock and big band concerts.
MoCA: $20,000 for weekly art enrichment workshops for underserved community groups such as STAR, Silver Hill Hospital, Veterans groups/Homes for the Brave, Bridgeport Boys & Girls Club, etc.
Suzuki School of Music: $20,000 for a community concert series in-person and streamed from the Westport Library; Connecticut Guitar Festival, Concerto and Aria Concert, Piano Concerto Concert and Family Pillow Concerts.
Westport Country Playhouse: $20,000 for a pilot program mobile tour of elementary school plays, touring Westport and Fairfield County; partnering with TEAM Westport, ConnectUs, the Boys & Girls Club of Connecticut/Southport, Westport Library and Norwalk Housing Authority.
Westport Museum of History & Culture: $20,000 for a graphic novel to explore the American Revolution from 6 perspectives: women, Indigenous people, enslaved and free Americans, loyalists, patriots, and local authors/illustrators.
WestPAC: $20,000 for art storage: professional fees ($125 an hour/160 hours) to perform a feasibility study to to adapt town-owned facilities for the Collection’s storage needs.
Community Band: $12,500 to commission a piece to commemorate the COVIDI experience, to be played at the Levitt Pavilion.
Music for Youth $6,518 for the Arkai gender-bending string duo 2-day residency and pormances a Westport middle schools and Staples High; master classes for orchestra students, performances for full schools.
Westport School of Music: $3,625 for a faculty chamber concert for The Residence at Westport assisted-living facility.
The Board of Finance meeting on January 5 will be streamed on www.WestportCT.gov, and shown on Optimum Channel 79 and Frontier Channel 6020. Emails can be sent to BOF@westportct.gov. Comments to be read during public comment period may be emailed to BOFcomments@westportct.gov.
After a hiatus of 2 years, one of the nation’s most important piano competitions is back.
And — though it’s flown under the radar since it began — it’s back in its hometown: Westport.
The Heida Hermanns Piano Competition returns from January 13 to 15,, at MoCA Westport. It originated with the Connecticut Alliance for Music. For many years it was sponsored by the MoCA’s predecessor — the Westport Arts Center — and held at Town Hall.
The event brings 4 of the world’s top pianists to Westport. Finalists were selected through an extensive international application process, including video submissions.
Though global in scope, the event has a true local flavor. Staples High School 1983 graduate Alexander Platt — whose career as conductor, music director and curator in symphony, chamber music and opera have taken him around the world — will serve as artistic director for the competition.
Alexander Platt conducts the Minnesota Philharmonic.
This year’s finalists include Americans Katharine Benson, Nathan Cheung and Aaron Kurz, and Russian Artem Kuznetsov. They’ll play on MoCA’s vintage Hamburg “D” grand piano, newly restored by the technician who took care of it at Carnegie Hall.
The winner earns $10,000. The other finalists receive $2,500 each.
Judges includes noted pianist Sahun Hong, Zhenni Li, and 2019 Heida Hermanns winner Priscila Navarro.
The 2022 Heida Hermanns International Piano Competition spotlights the neglected music for solo piano of African American composer Nathaniel Dett. He is regarded as a trailblazing Black composer of classical music.
In addition to the finalists’ performances, the 3-day event includes master classes at the Westport Library, and performances by the jury.
Tickets are available for individual events or a 3-day package. Click here for more information, and to purchase.
Heida Hermanns
Heida Hermanns was born in Germany in 1906. She debuted on the piano with the Berlin Philharmonic at age 18, and toured Europe through the 1920s and ’30s.
She immigrated to the US in 1936, and made her Town Hall debut in 1942. In the late 1940s she moved to Westport and helped start the Friends of Music, to present chamber concerts.
She also founded Performers of Connecticut, which later became the Connecticut Alliance for Music. Click here for much more on Heida Hermanns.
PS: There’s one more Westport connection. One of the previous winners — Frederic Chiu — now lives here. For the past 10 years, he and his wife Jeanine Esposito have sponsored and led Beechwood Arts’ Immersive Innovation series.
Frederic Chiu: former Heida Hermanns winner. (Photo/Dan Woog)
Welcome to our first-ever Christmas Day online art gallery.
Many submissions reflect a holiday theme.
The subjects are always up to you. And by “you,” I mean anyone who creates art. Of any kind, in any style.
Whatever your age and level of experience — professional or amateur, young or old — this gallery is open to you. In every medium.
All genres are encouraged. Watercolors, oils, charcoal, pen-and-ink, acrylics, lithographs, macramé, jewelry, sculpture, decoupage and needlepoint — whatever you’ve got, email it to dwoog@optonline.net. Share your work with the world.
Today, from this gallery to your screen: Merry Christmas!
PS: If you’re looking for a subject for our next edition: It’s New Year’s Day.
“Away in the Manger” (Brian Whelan)
“Star of the Nutcracker” — acrylic on canvas. Weston artist Cindy Wagner says, “happy dancing and happy holiday to all,”
“Holiday Splash” Photographer Larry Untermeyer says, “When blended together, the many colors take on an artistic montage of Christmas lights and spirit.”
2021 was a difficult year. But as dark as things seem, we always have music.
Here in Westport, we’re particularly lucky. We have the Staples High School music department. Each year, they give us a gift: the Candlelight Concert.
This year — the 81st — was particularly welcome.
Despite the challenges — including Omicron and mask mandates — the concert was astonishing. It might be the best ever.
But don’t take my word for it. Watch the combined instrumental and orchestral version of Beethoven’s Fantasie for Piano, Choir and Orchestra Op. 80 for yourself.
Starting slowly, then building to a stunning crescendo, it features senior Sasha Maskoff’s remarkable piano solo.
Vocal soloists include Sophia Betit, Shanti Wimmer, Jackiei Peterson, Sydney Gusick, Emily Desser Lauranne De Vos, Samuel Betit, Peter Macris, James Dobin-Smith, Zach Berman, Jeffrey Pogue and Ryan Porio.
Seven days from the end of a terrible year, these 12 minutes will convince you that this is — still — a very beautiful world.
SIR Development’s Rob Haroun responds to yesterday’s photo of trees that were recently cut on Hideaway Lane, off Hillspoint Road. He says:
“The 7 or 8 trees, most of which are on town property as shown in the Google Earth photo and acknowledged by the Westport tree warden, were all posted for removal. No one objected.
“After the requisite period of time and with permission from the tree warden, the trees were removed, some by the town. This was due to the extreme hazard to walkers and vehicles and the lack of maintenance over many years both by the town and the prior owner of 149 Hillspoint.
“The Google Earth photo (below) shows how the trees in the background leaned perilously over Hillspoint Road. Even though most of them were town trees, the tree warden requires replacement trees, from the town-approved list, which will be planted in the fall.
“Additionally, the ‘after’ photo (below) was not taken from the same vantage point as the Google Earth photo, as it does not show the remaining trees on both the left and right sides of Hideaway Lane.”
It’s hardly a surprise that Tyler Hicks and Lynsey Addario — Staples High School’s 2 Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers — have images in this year’s “Year in Pictures” supplement.
Tyler’s was taken on July 12 in Herat, Afghanistan.
(Photo/Tyler Hicks for New York Times)
Tyler says: “This photograph was taken at a checkpoint where Afghan police were inspecting vehicles arriving from nearby Taliban controlled villages. As cars were stopped and checked I turned and saw that a family who was fleeing that area was packed into a car with a girl looking out the back window, back toward where they had come from. I could see the concern in her face and to me that’s what stood out about this moment.
“Although only one person is seen in this photograph, her face says everything about what was soon to come. You can always tell what’s coming by the mood of the population. There was an urgency among the people that was obvious. This is when it became clear to me that there would be no turning back the events that followed.”
Lynsey’s photo was shot on October 26 in Paliau, South Sudan.
(Photo/Lynsey Addario for New York times)
She says: “I was traveling with UNICEF through this very flooded area of South Sudan. It was the first time people had been given masks and they were trying them on. There is so much flooding, malaria, hunger. Covid is not first and foremost on peoples’ minds.”
Congratulations to Tyler and Lynsey, on their superb images. Let’s hope they’ll be able to capture more pleasant and peaceful scenes for the 2022 Year in Pictures.
If you’re heading to tonight’s Christmas Eve services at Greens Farms Church: you’ll need to register in advance (click here). COVID restrictions will keep each service — at 4:30, 6 and 9 p.m. — below the 180-seat meetinghouse capacity.
Each service will last about 30 minutes, and include opportunities for participation by children. All services feature candlelight, too.
Masks are required in the meetinghouse. Congregants are asked to arrive early, for check-in.
Greens Farms Congregational Church (Photo/Candace Dohn Banks)
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Dozens of Westporters took time from hectic last-minute shopping yesterday, to contribute toys, books, coats and fundsto OneWestport’s collection. All donations will be given to Person to Person, the Fairfield County organization serving needing families.
James Dobin-Smith — founder of Staples High School’s OneWestport Club — says, “We were overwhelmed by how many people showed up. A 1st grader named George Gitto used the allowance he had saved up for months to buy picture books to donate from Barnes & Noble. We even got a cash donation from England!
“Thank you, everyone. We can’t wait to deliver the gifts on Christmas Eve!”
Congratulations to club members Dobin Smith, Caroline Caggiano, Isabelle Ormsby, Ian Patton, Cooper Sadler and Melanie Stanger.
OneWestport Club members with donations (from left): Melanie Stanger (with the two stuffed animals) and Ian Patton, Isabelle Ormsby, Cooper Sadler & me. Caroline Caggiano also volunteered but isn’t pictured.
More than 55 years after graduating from Staples, Rob Carlson still writes and records music. He’s better than ever. And he’s doing it with great local talent.
His latest effort was assembled over the last 3 years. With some new and some new recordings of older songs, it’s called simply “Rob Carlson.” It’s typically eclectic: folk, rock, jazz, pop, Americana, R&B, comedy and reggae.
COVID enabled Rob to record with other non-gigging greats like Westport session guitarist Jeff Southworth, jazz keyboardist Chris Coogan, and old friends like Jon Gailmor.
Yes — the legendary Carlson & Gailmor duo, whose long-out-of-print Polydor record is one of the all-time, hard-to-believe-it-never-made-it great records — is back together for a bit.
“Rob Carlson” is on Spotify, YouTube and other streaming services. The CD or tracks can be bought at Rob’s Online Store, or downloaded from Bandcamp.com. Find out more about the songs and artists by clicking here.
This month, the Greens Farms Garden Club’s annual wreath-making workshop and lunch was special. They surprised long-time member Mary Lou McGuire with a Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut life membership.
She was cited for her many years of service, depth of experience, and breadth of talents in chairing and serving on almost all positions in the club.
All wreaths made by club members were donated to local non-profit groups.
Greens Farms Garden Club past [resident Ann Watkins, current president Kathy Mitchell, and Mary Lou McGuire
Friends and relatives of Kuti Zeeva gathered last Sunday for a memorial soccer game, at PJ Romano Field.
Zeevi — a stalwart member of the Late Knights men’s soccer team, and a popular jeweler in town — was killed 10 years ago this month, in a robbery at his Compo Shopping Center store.
Regular and former players joined younger ones — including Kuti’s 10-year-old grandson — for soccer and stories. He lives on in the hearts of many. (Hat tip: Alex Anvari)
And finally … if you never heard Carlson & Gailmor sing together in their all-too-brief heyday time together after Staples, you missed some beautiful music.
Here — thanks to the magic of the interwebs — they live again.
Some Westporters know Terry Brannigan as an Eagle Scout. Others think of him as a former Staples High School wrestling star.
Perhaps one day the rest of the world may celebrate him for his music.
The 2020 Staples grad is now a Wesleyan University sophomore. He’s double majoring in physics and music. He’s minoring in IDEAS (Integrated Design, Engineering and Applied Science). He’s a varsity wrestler (125 pounds).
And he’s just released his first album. Which (of course!) he created entirely himself, in his dorm room.
Terry Brannigan’s “studio.”
He wrote every song. He played live instruments (after teaching himself bass and piano — he already knew guitar). He sang. He mixed, mastered and produced it all (after figuring out how to use the Ableton program).
And — why not? — he designed the album cover too
Terry Brannigan created all the “Gillham” art.
“Gillham” — that’s Terry’s middle name; it’s both the album title and his stage name — traces its roots back to Terry’s first guitar, at 7. He joined School of Rock, but did not take music seriously until the summer after 11th grade
He and a friend formed the band Verbatim (it included his younger brother Eamon). They played a few gigs, at venues from bars to Barnes & Noble.
Terry Brannigan
A turning point for Terry was taking Advanced Placement Music Theory with Luke Rosenberg. The Staples choral director gave Terry “another way to look at and appreciate music,” he says.
Balancing school, music, wrestling and Boy Scouts was not easy. Terry was grateful to have two escapes — arts and sports — from the stresses of teenage life. They use different sides of the brain, he notes, and balance each other out.
Throughout high school, Terry wrote songs. Last year, stuck in his Wesleyan dorm room for long stretches during COVID, he worked in earnest on his music.
“I’d sit in the same chair for 6 or 7 hours — class, homework, music, eating dinner at my desk,” Terry says. “I was having a really weird relationship with time.” He began writing songs with that theme.
At first, Terry admits, it was hard to write about personal feelings. “Is it too much information? Why would anyone care?” he wondered. But, he notes, “it’s easier, and a lot more fun, to write something you care about.”
The hardest part of making an album was not the lyrics or melody. It was production.
“There’s so much to learn,” says Terry. He taught himself Ableton Live — a digital audio workstation. “There’s an infinite number of sounds and instruments. When I figure out how to get something to sound the way I want it to, I’m grateful.”
Terry Brannigan: Westport and Wesleyan’s music man, in Nashville.
He’s produced an impressive debut album. That theme of “time” runs through nearly every track, mutating and reprising often. The more you listen to “GIllham,” the more you appreciate Terry’s insights, subtleties and nuances.
After the next tough part — promotion — Terry will turn to another musical project.
He’ll fit it in along with his very demanding courses at Wesleyan. And his equally tough wrestling schedule.
Terry Brannigan is a many of many talents. And — somehow — he’ll find “time.”
(“Gillham” by Gillham is available on Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming platforms.)
If Terry Brannigan is not making music or studying, you’ll find him on the wrestling mat.
For months, Greens Farms residents have wondered: What’s going on at Morningside Drive South and Clapboard Hill Road
There’s been activity there, at one of the town’s largest still-undeveloped private tracts of land.
On January 5 (7:30 p.m., Zoom) the Flood & Erosion Control Board will hear an application on behalf of the owner — Kowalsky Family Company LLC — for a 6-lot subdivision. It will be reviewed for drainage and grading recommendations to the Planning & Zoning Commission. To attend the virtual meeting, click here.
Site of the proposed subdivision, at 109 Morningside Drive South. (Photo courtesy of Google Earth)
Despite the Orphenians’ cancellation, there’s a great reason to go downtown tomorrow (Thursday).
From 2 to 5 p.m. Staples High School’s OneWestport Club is holding a toy and coat drive, at the Bedford Square traffic circle on Elm Street.
All donations will go to the Person to Person network. They provide a free holiday store, where low-income families can shop for free gifts for their families. There’s been a huge demand this year, so OneWestport is offering a final push.
New and gently used coats (all sizes, but clean!), new board games, stuffed animals and picture books are great.
Run — don’t walk — into 2022! Registration is open for Fleet Feet’s next training program
Starting Saturday, January 8 (8 a.m.), it’s a 12-week group effort, for runners of all abilities. From non-runners to those training for a big race: All are welcome.
There are Saturday 8 a.m., and Tuesday 5:30 p.m. sessions. Most runs start and end at the Sconset Square store (with an occasional track or trail run).
Fleet Feet offers a changing room/bathroom, secure storage of keys and valuables — and product discounts while enrolled in the program. Click here for more information, and registration.
Then — on Monday, December 27 — you can start again. MoCA Westport will host a pop-up shop event (9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.), in conjunction with the Winter Recess Art Camp at their 19 Newtown Turnpike campus.
The sale features luxury home accents and fashion accessories.
Thanks to STAR board member Amanda King Heavey, her son Will and his classmates, every child served by the STAR Rubino Family Center’s early intervention pediatric therapy program will receive a handmade card and note, plus a book to enjoy during the holidays.
Entering its 70th year, STAR Lighting the Way creates opportunities for people of all ages with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live full, independent lives.
In the photo below, Will Heavey gives Westporter Parker Greenberg a book and card.
Aitoro Appliance — just over the line in Norwalk — is many Westporters’ go-to for sales and service.
Now they need our help.
On Monday night at 3:30 a.m., 2 men wearing hoodies stole gas grills. The vehicle was a white Ford truck. Security cameras could not catch the license plate. Anyone with information can email info@aitoro.com.
And finally … Maurice and Robin Gibb were born on this day in 1949. With their older brother Barry, they formed the Bee Gees — one of the most popular British Invasion (and then disco) groups of all time.
Both died young: Maurice at 53 from a twisted intestine, and Robin at 62 from kidney failure.
Connecticut has introduced its version of a “digital vaccine passport.” Residents who click on their COVID-19 vaccination records through the state immunization database, CT WiZ (click here), can then get a “SMART Health Card” to save on their smartphone photo roll, or in an app like the iPhone Wallet.
The “card” includes a QR code that uses the same standard as New York, California and Canada.
The “vaccine passport” is optional and voluntary, officials note. Click here for a full Westport News story.
This is the busiest time of year for Staples’ Orphenians.
The elite high school a cappella group has spent weeks singing holiday music. They visit civic clubs, elderly residents and Christmas tree lightings. Earlier this month, they entertained a large crowd at the “06880” Stroll.
They return downtown on Thursday, with a twist: alumni.
Former Orphenians are invited to join current members for an hour-long meander along Main Street and environs.
The group gathers shortly before 6:30 p.m. this Thursday (December 23), near the entrance to Starbucks in Parker Harding Plaza.
Groupies are welcome to tag along and listen, too.
The Orphenians entertained at this month’s Town Hall holiday tree lighting. (Photo/Dan Woog)
Due to COVID concerns, tonight’s Westport Astronomical Society lecture by Harvard professor Avi Loeb, titled “Extraterrestrial Life: Are We the Sharpest Cookies in the Jar?” will be virtual only.
To access the 8 p.m. event by Zoom, click here. For the YouTube livestream, click here. For the WAS’ YouTube channel, click here.
It’s Christmas Day. You’ve opened the presents, put all the stuff that needs assembling together, and gone to CVS for batteries. You’ve had lunch, and an egg nog or two.
What’s left?
At 3:06 p.m. — that’s right, just after the news — tune in to WSHU-FM. Westport Country Playhouse Radio Theater reprises last year’s clever audio play, “A Merry Little Christmas Carol.”
Missed it on Christmas? Tune in the next day — Sunday, December 26, also 3:06 p.m. — for a rebroadcast.
Pro tip: You don’t have to listen on radio. “A Merry Little Christmas Carol” is available now through January 2 at the Playhouse website — click here.
“A Merry Little Christmas Carol” is written and directed by Mark Shanahan, adapted from his play of the same name, and based on “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. Shanahan is curator of Playhouse Radio Theater, and also curates the Playhouse Script in Hand playreading series.
“With the remarkable Paxton Whitehead as Scrooge, Dickens’ masterpiece charges us to recall that we are all responsible for the wellbeing of our brothers and sisters—an idea which rings true now more than ever,” Shanahan says.
“Our merry little audio play invites those who cannot be with us in person at the theater to close their eyes and imagine they are once again nestled into their cozy red seats at the Playhouse, experiencing a remarkable story filled with laughter, tears, and holiday cheer.”
Speaking of the Playhouse: A promo is out for next month’s PBS specials: “Stars on Stage from Westport Country Playhouse.”
The shows — set for 3 consecutive Fridays (January 7, 14 and 21, all at 9 p.m.), featuring Broadway stars Gavin Creel, Shoshana Bean and Brandon Victor Dixon — will put our historic theater squarely in the national spotlight.
They were filmed in September, before live audiences.
David Ader shot today’s “Westport … Naturally” image.
(Photo/David Ader)
He explains: “Turin has its shroud. On Woodside Avenue, we have the bird.
“These photos are of a haunting outline of a bird on a picture window, a good 20 feet off the ground. I noticed this and thought it was the lingering remains of something my kids had put up years before, but it wasn’t a sticker’s residual on the inside.
“I suspect this was from a bird that smashed into the window and left, somehow, this image. I ran outside to see if a dead or stunned bird lay below on the driveway, but there was nothing, not even a feather.
“I’d like to believe it’s a sign of something — perhaps an angel’s wings, or a symbol of peace?
“Or, worst case, that we’re all flying straight into a wall!”
And finally … on this day in 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs — the world’s first full-length animated feature film — premieres at the Carthay Circle Theatre. in Los Angeles.
As the clip below shows, the film — and song — definitely stand the of time.
On the last Sunday before Christmas, Main Street is packed today with almost-last-minute shoppers.
While buying gifts for friends and loved ones, Steve Crowley hopes we’ll think about everyone in Kentucky whose holidays — and lives — were upended by last week’s tornadoes.
Steve — the owner of SCA Crowley Real Estate Services — has swung into action. He got a logo (courtesy of Miggs Burroughs) with the words “America Lends a Hand.” He ordered dozens of t-shirts, with the design.
Marty Rogers produced a sign. It’s in front of Vineyard Vines all day today, where Steve and his sons are selling the shirts, in return for donations to the Western Kentucky Relief Fund. 100% of all contributions go directly there.
In the midst of everything, stop in front of Vineyard Vines to help out. And, Steve says, if you can’t be there, send a tax-deductible check made out to “Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund,” c/o Public Protection Cabinet, 500 Metro Streeet, 218 NC, Frankfort, KY 40601.
Steve Crowley (right) and sons, selling t-shirts outside Vineyard Vines today.
As the Omicron variant surges, and COVID cases soar, the Urgent Care center on Post Road East — which offers rapid testing i– has been swamped with patients.
As Bob Weingarten notes, the line of cars there “has replaced the normal line at Starbucks” across the street. .
(Photo/Bob Weingarten)
Hey: If there’s an accident at Urgent Care, at least you won’t go far for treatment.
Marty Greenberg lives on the Saugatuck River, across from the Rowing club. Last night around 8:30, the “floating Christmas team” passed by, for the second time.
“What a sight! What a treat!” Marty says. “it’s a unique Westport thrill.”
Floating Christmas tree, across from the Saugatuck Rowing Club. (Photo/Marty Greenberg)
Readers: If you’ve got photos — or any other info on the floating Christmas tree, like when it will next ride the river — click “Comments” below.
Sure, this is one of the busiest weeks of the year. But if you get a chance, stop in to the Westport Library’s Verso Studios holiday open house tomorrow (Monday, December 20, 7 p.m.).
The creative staff will show off their podcast, mixing and mastering equipment. They’ll answer questions about audio and video creation, editing and post-production, including training courses.
Registration is requested, for planning purposes. Click here to RSVP, and learn more.
Speaking of the Library: It can’t run without volunteers. Betty Lou Cummings was one of its staunchest.
She served many other organizations, including her fall festival baby, the Applel Festival. She was a Representative Town Meeting member, as well as a 2nd selectwoman.
Yesterday, Betty Lou and her husband Tom celebrated their 66th wedding anniversary. It was the same day I — and so many other Westporters — got their classic Christmas card, filled with photos of children, grandchildren, and random others.
Happy anniversary — and Merry Christmas — to one of our town’s favorite couples!
Here’s a last-minute gift idea for anyone who remembers hours spent at Arnie’s Place arcade (or dreams about paying their taxes in pennies, as Arnie did).
Virginia Wong — the Westport native and entrepreneur who spent many happy hours at the controversial (to parents and town officials) and joyful (to kids) Post Road video arcade (now Ulta) — has reanimated the iconic graphic from Arnie Kaye’s long-running campaign to open, and stay open.
“I Support Arntie’s” t-shirts come in 4 colors. They’re perfect for any ’80s Westport kid.
Click here to order. But hurry! Tomorrow (Monday, December 20) is the cutoff for Christmas delivery.
And finally … Edith Piaf was born on this day, in 1915. The French singer-songwriter. She died in 1963, just 47 years old. But she left quite a legacy behind.
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