Now she co-chairs the Westport Arts Advisory Committee. She also manages and produces theater and dance.
In Westport Nancy co-founded the very popular lunchtime theater series Play With Your Food, and was the founder and producer of the short film festival Short Cuts.
The other day, we chatted at the Westport Library. Our “06880” podcast ranged from her work in finance to the arts; the changes she’s seen in the Westport arts scene over 30 years, whether this really still is an “arts community,” and many related topics..
Click below, for an inside look into art, music, dance, and much more.
In this area, many of those talking are businesspeople. Most have some skin in the game.
That includes Stew Leonard Jr.
The Westport native — now CEO of Stew Leonard’s, the company his father founded, with 8 locations in the tri-state area — sat down the other day with Business Insider. Among his comments:
As far as tariffs go, I’ve talked to our suppliers in Mexico with avocados and beer and tequila, and I’ve talked to our suppliers in Canada. We get some tomatoes on the vine from Vancouver, and salmon is our biggest item from Canada. There’s also lobsters, but it’s not lobster season yet.
Basically, take your darts out for your dartboard because nobody that I’ve talked to, even the experts in the field, knows what’s going to happen.
Throw a dart. Is this tariff going to last one day? Is it going to last a week? Is it going to last a month?
What we’re scrambling to do is find alternate sources if there is an increase in the tariff. We’re sitting here riding the market day by day….
Click here to read the full story. (Hat tip: Doug McCarthy)
Stew Leonard Jr. (Photo courtesy/Westchester Magazine)
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On the 5th anniversary of the pandemic, COVID is still here.
Is bird flu here too?
While the CDC website shows no reported cases in Connecticut — or east of Ohio — one Westport woman is not so sure.
She told “06880” yesterday that she found 2 dead birds in the waters of the Ned Dimes Marina at Compo Beach, and another nearby on the Longshore golf course.
She was advised to contact the Aspetuck Health District, just to be sure.
Dead birds at the Compo Beach marina.
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For a while, I’ve wondered why nearly every new house in Westport seems to be white (with black accents).
I’m not the only one.
Dan Kois has thought about the trend too.
Now he’s written about it.
He concentrates on Arlington, Virginia. But the style is national, he notes.
His piece in Salon answers a number of questions, including why they’re so big, and why they’re so white. Click here to read. (Hat tip: Scott Smith)
This 4-bedroom, 3 1/2-bathroom house on Spriteview Avenue is on the market for $3.499 million.
It’s less than 3 miles from Staples High to the Westport Country Playhouse.
It’s a lot longer through Ithaca, New York.
That’s the route Zach De Brino took. It was worth the detour.
Before graduating from high school in 2019, he was an assistant director for Staples Players.
Zach earned a BFA in stage management from Ithaca College in 2023. Since then he’s worked Off-Broadway and regionally, including production assistant and crew swing on “Teeth” at Playwrights Horizons, assistant stage manager for the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, and event production coordinator in New York.
Now he returns home. Zach is the production assistant “Theatre People,” which opens March 25 at the Playhouse.
Click here for more information on the show, including tickets.
Zach De Brino, checking props for “Theatre People.” (Photo/Andrea Quiles)
I hate to ask for funds. But the NPR/PBS model is the only way to continue to tell stories about the people, places and past of this town; to bring you news and photos, and to do all the back-end stuff no one ever sees but that takes all of my time, 24/7/365.
Someone congratulated me on 16 years of “06880” — then said, “Sorry I missed your contribution day. I’ll send a check next year.”
Great news! Your money is good any time!
You can donate by PayPal or credit card: click here. It’s easy, safe — and you don’t even need a PayPal account.
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But a Montessori school may be in Westport’s future.
Apple Montessori Schools has applied for a special permit, and site plan approval, to convert the Bank of America building — next to Starbucks, on Post Road East — into a 2-story private school.
As a first step the Architectural Review Board will review the proposed addition, facade renovations and outdoor play spaces and pool at its March 18 meeting (7:30 p.m., Town Hall Room 309).
The building has been vacant since Bank of America closed several Fairfield County branches, early in the pandemic.
This vacant bank building … (Photo courtesy of Google Earth)
Montessori is a non-trademarked method of education that emphasizes hands-on learning and the development of real-world skills, rather than formal instruction.
Montessori schools believe that children are capable of initiating learning, and that education should not be measured by grades or tests.
There are Montessori schools for children 14 months through 8th grade in Fairfield and Wilton. There is currently no Montessori school in Westport.
The building is in the Highway Service District, with a portion of the rear property zoned Residence A. Schools are permitted — subject to special permit approval — in the HSD and Residence A zone.
Interior renovations would convert the bank into a Montessori school providing “curriculum based early learning,” with infant/preschool programs through kindergarten.
… could become this.
The maximum capacity is 124 children: approximately 40 kindergartners, 60 preschoolers, 16 toddlers and 8 infants. The proposed hours are weekdays, 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Dropoff and pickup times would be staggered.
On average, 8 to 10 staff members would be at the school during peak times.
There would be a small addition where the drive-in area is now, along with “new paint and materials for added visual interest and an improved aesthetic.”
Montessori also proposed enclosed outdoor play and learning spaces, and a small saltwater pool used only for preschool swim lessons in the summer.
The ARB meeting is the first of several in the town approval process.
(“06880” is your hyper-local source for education news — and much, much more. Please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
Last week’s Photo Challenge showed a Christmas wreath, still hanging (on) on the top of a building.
It was the Westport Weston Family YMCA, as Fred Cantor, Andrew Colabella, Ed Simek, David Meth, Sal Liccione, Will Gibson, Richard Hyman, Jonathan McClure, Linda Vita Velez, Rew Travis, Jalna Jaeger, Naree W Viner, Amy Schneider and Tanaz Mody all knew.
None of them — or anyone else, for that matter — knew why it was still there, 67 days after Christmas.
No matter. It was gone a couple of days later.
Coincidence? “06880”-related? Who knows.
Just call it another Christmas miracle.
It will be a miracle, meanwhile, if no one gets today’s Photo Challenge. It’s easy — we’ll drink to that!
If you know where you’d see this, click “Comments” below.
(Photo/Seth Schachter)
(Every Sunday, “06880” hosts this Photo Challenge. We challenge you too to support your hyper-local blog. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)
Posted onMarch 9, 2025|Comments Off on Roundup: Sushi Jin, Westport10, Leo Cirino …
Last July, “06880” reported that Sushi Jin & Lounge would move into 44 Main Street in Westport, “between recently closed home retailer Oka and Mexicue restaurant.”
A sign on the door promised “the essence of contemporary Japanese cuisine … where tradition meets innovation in every dish.” It added, “Opening soon.”
Eight months later — and following the closure of its next door neighbor Mexicue — Sushi Jin looks ready.
Westport10 — our town’s networking and social group for Black men — does not have their own clubhouse (yet).
So they did the next best thing last week: They had lunch at The Clubhouse (Westport’s newest event-and-more space).
Twenty men gathered to chat, share stories about work and families, and plan for the future. For more information on the group, click here.
Part of the Westport10 group, at The Clubhouse (from left):Rene Hart, Roy Adams, Harold Bailey Jr., Ted Parker, Adam Moore, Jay Norris, Brynden Cooper, Vincent Spencer, Dr. Stephen G., C.D. Glin, Kevin Christie, Frank Wood, Craig Melvin, Eric Freeman.
Longtime Westporter and volunteer with an enormous variety of interests, from education and the Rotary to electric cars and stamp collecting Leo Cirino died peacefully on Monday, from natural causes. He was 91.
The New York City native attended Columbia College, graduating with degrees in liberal arts and electrical engineering. He was a varsity wrestler, and played clarinet in the marching band.
In the wake of the Korean War he joined the Army as a rocket engineer in what became the Army Ballistic Missile Agency at Redstone Arsenal, a precursor of NASA. He helped launch the first US satellite, Explorer 1. Leo lost most of his hearing in a loud succession of rocket launches. That did not stop him from being an avid communicator and receptive listener through the rest of his life.
After his service he moved to Westport and worked for Norden Systems in United Technologies for the next 33 years. That is also where he met his wife of 54 years, Jane.
Leo applied his engineering and project management skills in building airborne and seaborne radar systems. He retired when the Soviet Union fell.
He became increasingly active in the Westport community. As a commander and navigator for the Power Squadron, a regular member of the Westport Shellfish Commission and a Thimble Islander, he channeled his love of the sea.
After following the alternate route to certification, Leo shared his knowledge as a part time physics and biology teacher at Staples for several years, before heeding the state’s request to teach full time in Bridgeport and Norwalk.
He taught youngsters to reach for the stars during space camp summers, raised funds for charity and student education as a Rotarian and in the United Way, and tutored anyone who needed help.
An avid stamp collector and Ye Olde King’s Highway Stamp Club regular, he wrote a book about philatelic artists from Westport and exhibited their works. At the Westport Historical Society he led the Wheeler Barn restoration.
In his later years Leo founded the Westport Electric Car Club, and worked with towns to promote the dream of a sustainable future.
He is survived by his wife Jane, daughters Dana and Jennifer, son Guy, and grandchildren Jack, Max, Chloe, Emmett, Logan and Leo Elias.
Calling hours will be at Harding Funeral Home on Monday (March 10, 4 to 7 p.m.). An honor service will be conducted Tuesday (March 11, Christ & Holy Trinity Church, 10 a.m., followed by a reception at VFW Post 399 from 1:30 to and 4:30 p.m.
Just in time for the start of Daylight Savings Time — you did remember to turn your clocks forward, right?! — we have today’s “Westport … Naturally” photo.
More good news: Spring comes early this year. The first day is March 20 — just 11 days away.
And finally … on this day in 2012, 76-year-old Jerry Lee Lewis got married for the 7th time. His bride was his caregiver, 62-year-old Judith Brown. She was previously married to Lewis’ cousin Rusty.
Speaking of cousins: Lewis’ 3rd marriage — when he was 22 — was to 13-year-old Myra Gale Brown, his first cousin once removed. She was 14 the next year, when their first child was born.
(“06880” is your hyper-local blog — your place for news, information, events and more, We rely on reader support. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)
Comments Off on Roundup: Sushi Jin, Westport10, Leo Cirino …
Remember the time Queen Elizabeth II visited Westport?
Neither do I.
But check out the internet:
Queen Elizabeth II visited Westport, Connecticut in 1954. Some people who were there remember the event, and the Remarkable Theater in Westport honored her with a showing of “The Queen.”
That’s a remarkable statement. And not just because the Remarkable Theater did not exist until 66 years later.
It’s remarkable because it did not happen.
And even more remarkable because artificial intelligence says it did.
Queen Elizabeth, circa 1954.
Local resident Gary Shure is on vacation this week. The other day he drove through Westport, New Zealand — the scenic South Island town that is one of about 2 dozen Westports scattered around the world.
He Googled the queen, and Westport CT. AI — which now appears at the top of many Google searches — quickly returned the utter nonsense that a year after her coronation, Queen Elizabeth II came to our town.
It’s much more likely that the new queen visited our New Zealand counterpart. They’re part of the British Commonwealth, after all.
The United States, meanwhile, fought a famous war to get away from the royal family.
Welcome to Westport, New Zealand, that is.
What Google — the non-AI version of it, anyway — does say is that the Remarkable Theater did show the movie “The Queen” in September 2022, shortly after the long-reigning monarch’s death.
Artificial intelligence is good for many things.
But it remains just that: artificial.
Meanwhile, remember the time King George came to Westport, and had tea with George Washington at Marvin Tavern?
That was a remarkable day in our town’s history, for “shure.”
Queen Elizabeth II, in Westport, Connecticut. (Photo courtesy of News12).
(“06880” is “where Westport meets the world” — with real, non-artificial news. If you appreciate human journalism, please click here to support us with a contribution. Thank you!)
Today’s International Women’s Day “Unite and Resist” rally drew over 200 people to the Ruth Steinkraus Cohen Bridge.
Organizers said, “we’re taking to the streets to fight back against the fascist takeover. Join us to defend our rights, our bodies, and our future. No permission needed — just show up, bring signs and friends!”
Plenty of women — and men — did. They filled both sides of the span.
Passing motorists honked in support. Some held their own signs.
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