I’m often surprised at how many readers nail what I thought would be difficult Photo Challenges.
And how few get those I think are easy.
I’m not a golfer. So when Richard Hyman submitted a shot of a little colonial figure holding what could be a flag — but could also be a tee marker — I figured many readers would ace it. (Click here to see.)
Turns out, only Fred Rubin, Andrew Colabella, Jonathan McClure and Seth Braunstein did.
Perhaps it’s because, as Seth said, they’re only used for special events.
Or maybe everyone else was watching the Masters.
Or playing golf at Longshore themselves.
Now it’s on to this week’s Photo Challenge. If you know where in Westport you’d see this happy face, click “Comments” below.
(Photo/Dan Woog)
(If you enjoy our weekly Photo Challenge — or anything else we post — please consider a tax-deductible contribution to “06880.” Just click here. Thank you!)
After 158 years, Henry Moses Judah has a headstone.
The Westporter was the last Civil War general in the nation with an unmarked grave.
For 158 years, his remains lay in the town cemetery at the corner of Wilton Road and Kings Highway North. He shared his grave with several dozen others — including his father, Rev. Henry Judah, and mother Mary Jane. — in a tomb marked for Ozias Marvin.
The Judah family was among the first Jewish residents of Westport (then part of Norwalk). Michael moved from New York City in 1742 because of anti-Semitism. He was a merchant trader, specializing in corn shipped to the West Indies.
His son Henry became an Episcopal minister. (There was intermarriage in the family with non-Jews, including the Jesup family.)
Rev. Judah’s Henry Moses Judah fought in both the Mexican-American and Civil Wars. He died at 44 less than a year after the Civil War ended, apparently of alcoholism.
The Judas family owned an estate in Saugatuck, which was named for them. Over the years, Judah’s Point morphed into Judy’s Point.
Peter Jennings — an 11th generation Westporter, and the author of a book on local cemeteries — helped give General Judah his headstone. He also cleared brush from the site, before the headstone’s installation.
It was paid for by the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Installation costs were covered by Shrouded Veterans. The non-profit identifies, marks and restores 19th-century graves.
Meanwhile, plenty of restoration is needed for the graveyard at one of Westport’s most visible corners.
Grayson Braun, chair of the Westport Historic District, notes with chagrin that debris has been dumped throughout the cemetery.
Before the headstone was laid, she caught a neighbor dumping yard waste there.
(Want to learn more about this, and other Westport’s cemeteries? Click here.)
Plenty of them referenced Disney’s “It’s a Small World After All.” They still remember it, 6 decades later.
So here, for your listening pleasure — and to bring back visual memories too — is that classic earworm.
(It’s a small world — and “06880” connects Westport with all of it. But we can’t do it without our readers’ support. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)
“Tennis” and “sustainability” don’t often go together.
But in the US alone, 125 million tennis balls are tossed into landfills each year. That’s about 20,000 metric tons of rubber waste.
Serve2Sustain is a national student-led non-profit aimed at making tennis an eco-friendly sport.
And it’s led by teenagers, right here in Westport.
Serve2Sustain chapters work with local tennis clubs to collect used balls. They’re sent to a facility where machinery separates materials for reuse. They then go to RecycleBalls and Laykold, which supplies tennis courts for events like the US Open.
The companies grind the rubber into crumbs used to construct courts.
Student chapters raise money to cover the cost of shipping balls to recycling centers, and collects balls from local tennis clubs.
Serve2Sustain was founded by Staples High School junior Shreyas Gorre and Ari Fayne, a sophomore in Chicago. Both avid tennis player, they met through the Wharton Global Youth Program at the University of Pennsylvania, where they studied entrepreneurship.
Shreyas’ Staples friends (and Wrecker tennis teammates) Lucas Ceballos-Cala and Noah Wolff, are national vice presidents of operations and outreach, respectively.
Shreyas Gorre drops off used tennis balls, at the UPS Store.
The Staples chapter has partnered with Intensity Racquet Club and Westchester Tennis Center in Port Chester.
Every month, members pick up used tennis balls, and ship them off.
Looking ahead, they hope to add more clubs (and players) to help. To help, or ask questions, email serve2sustain@gmail.com. To donate, click here. To learn more about Serve2Sustain’s national operations, click here.
(“06880” is where Westport — and the environment, sports, and more — all meet. If you enjoy this hyper-local blog, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
The Connecticut Department of Transportation wanted them gone, for sidewalk installation and lane expansion as part of the Post Road renovation project.
Representative Town Meeting member galvanized local politicians and others in support of the beloved trees.
Public Works Department, RTM, Westport Tree Board and Earthplace officials, plus Sakura’s owner and landowner, met with representatives from DOT and Eversource. The trees were saved.
This week, they were at peak blossom.
Present and former members of the RTM headed to Sakura, to honor the occasion.
Every Westporter who drives past the restaurant thanks them for their efforts.
FUN FACT:“Sakura” means “cherry blossom” in Japanese.
Standing at Sakura (from left): RTM members Harris Falk, Claudia Shaum, Andrew Colabella, Matthew Mandell, Don O’Day. Not pictured, but important to the effort: Louis Mall, Jay Keenan, Julie Whamond, Chris Tait, Seth Braunstein and Jimmy Izzo.
Senator Richard Blumenthal was supposed to address the Sunrise Rotary Club in person at 8 a.m. yesterday, at Green’s Farms Church.
However, the Senate schedule kept him in Washington.
No problem! Rotary member Mark Mathias used his technical know-how to set up a remote appearance.
At 8:00 sharp, Blumenthal appeared on-screen. An audience of 80 people — members of both Westport Rotary Clubs, and guests — heard his takes on a variety of issues, including the need for quick approval of military aid to Ukraine.
Senator Blumenthal addresses Sunrise Rotary. (Photo/Dave Matlow)
The Tesla Cybertruck that has drawn plenty of attention in Westport may be off the road for a while.
Tesla has recalled all 3,878 of the vehicles it produced from November 13 to December 4. An accelerator pedal can stick, leading to accidents. The cause for the defect was soap used as a lubricant at the Austin factory. (Hat tip: Bill Dedman)
Tesla Cybertruck, last week on Hillspoint Road. (Photo/Karen Como)
The Westporter has developed a great business making (very) fresh jams and preserves.
Mary Lou is also an excellent artist.
She took a break yesterday from the kitchen. On a whim, she headed to Playhouse Square.
There — on the sidewalk outside the post office — she went to work:
(Photo/Dan Woog)
Whatever she does, Mary Lou always manages to make it a fruitful day.
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Speaking of artists: Herm Freeman — the Westport Book Shop’s artist exhibitor for February, whose works have been exhibited throughout the US and Europe for over 40 years — is one of 2 local artists whose “Kaleidoscope Eyes” show at Colorblends House & Spring Garden in Bridgeport has an artists’ reception today (Saturday, April 20, 3 to 6 p.m., 893 Clinton Avenue).
The other — Cris Dam — has produced the show.
They invite interested Westporters to stop by. “There’s tons of art, and thousands of tulips. It’s great family fun!” Herm says.
Judging by the number of emails I get, Westporters are increasingly concerned about the number — and weight — of wires strung between utility poles.
They serve a variety of purposes: electricity, telephone, cable. But apparently it’s lot easier to string new ones than replace outdated ones. There are a lot up there.
Alert “06880” reader Bob Weingarten spotted a utility worker yesterday, on Post Road East by Stop & Shop. Bob writes: “He must be wondering, which one do I connect?!”
Today’s “Westport … Naturally” feature is a fierce one.
Anita Tucker Smith writes: “Our wooded yard on Roseville Road has a lot of daily wildlife visitors. But this one is special.
“We first spotted footprints in the 6-inch snow a few weeks ago. We then saw him 6 feet from our front door a few weeks later. We were all startled, and he zipped away.
“I finally managed a few pictures Saturday afternoon as we glanced out the living room windows, just before heading out to dinner.”
(Photo/Anita Tucker Smith)
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And finally … since today is 4/20:
(On 4/20 — and every other day of the year — “06880” is your hyper-local blog. And every day, we rely on readers like you. Please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
The totality of this month’s eclipse lasted just over 3 minutes.
But it’s captured here for eternity, in a photo by first-time online art gallery contributor Michael Robertshaw. (His mother Dorothy is a well-known local artist; her works are frequently featured here.)
We welcome too another new exhibitor. Joan Carroll recently returned to art, after 40 years away. You’ll enjoy her work!
No matter what your theme or medium — and whether you’re a first-timer or old-timer — we welcome your submissions. Watercolors, oils, charcoal, pen-and-ink, acrylics, digital, lithographs, collages, macramé, jewelry, sculpture, decoupage, needlepoint — we want whatever you’ve got.
Age, level of experience, subject matter — there are no restrictions. Everyone is invited to contribute.
Email it to 06880blog@gmail.com. Please include the medium you’re working in — art lovers want to know.
“3 Minutes and 3 Seconds” — South Hero, Vermont (Michael Robertshaw)
“Creating Sunflower Honey” — Cohl Katz says, “it took 4 days, the right sunflower, and the right beetle …”
“Dusk Over Star Valley” — Ken Runkel says, “this is an impressionistic digital illustration of a location in Arizona that I would often pass through on my way to the mountains in the çentral northeastern part of the state. One of my favorite locations in the Ponderosa pine — Zane Grey country in the 1920’s.”
Untitled (Tom Doran)
“Girl by the Bay” — oil painting on canvas (Joan Carroll)
“Manspread” (Lawrence Weisman)
“Did You Want High Tops or Low Tops” (Aerin Stein, 12 years old)
“A View of National Hall” (Steve Stein)
“Sunday Brunch” (Patricia McMahon)
“I Want to Get Burnt in Your Flames of Beauty” — poem by Colonel Muhammad Khalid Khan (Mike Hibbard)
(Entrance is free to our online art gallery. But please consider a donation! Just click here — and thank you!)
Since graduating from Greens Farms Academy in 2003, Sefra Alexandra has been on a mission: preparing people around the globe to survive.
Jesse Levin and Sefra Alexandra.
She and her twin brother Jesse Levin have brought “readiness skills” to the veteran, disaster response and entrepreneurial communities.
As part of their efforts, their company Tactivate outfitted customers with gear, and offered advice and training for every conceivable emergency, at a Bedford Square pop-up shop.
Their Norwalk-based Readiness Collective invites residents to train and learn alongside medics, veterans and first responders, in a “fun club-like environment.”
But Sefra cares about the environment too.
As the lead “boatanist” — not “botanist” — of the Boatanical Expedition, she coordinates The Ecotype Project. They grow seed crops of Connecticut’s native pollinator plants, bringing them to nursery growers and homeowners to produce plants that restore native pollinator habitat.
In 2021 they paddled in outrigger canoes down the Connecticut River to Long Island Sound. Along the way they removed invasive species, and spread “the seeds of ecological resilience.”
Of course, rivers are not the only places under threat.
Cockenoe Island is rife with “mile-a-minute.” The vine smothers other herbaceous plants, shrubs, even trees, by growing over them, almost as quickly as the name implies. (Click here to learn more.)
Mile-a-minute is a very invasive species.
On Friday, April 26, the Boatanical Expedition invites residents to paddle to Cockenoe Island, where they’ll remove mile-a-minute.
The date is significant: It’s the 247th anniversary of the Battle of Compo Hill. On that day in 1777 local Minute Men fought Redcoats, on their way back from burning the patriots’ Danbury arsenal.
British ships were anchored off Compo Beach, not far from Cockenoe.
Sefra calls the upcoming event “The Minute WoMan Mile to Fight Off Mile-a-Minute.”
It’s a clunky name, but it includes all the main ideas: Minute Men. Mile-a-Minute. Cockenoe Island, a mile off shore. And women are more than welcome.
RSVP to theboatanists@gmail.com, to reserve a spot. Bring a canoe, paddleboard or kayak, plus a life jacket, canteen, gardening gloves and vine removing tools.
Sefra — and the planet — thank you.
(From the Revolutionary War in 1777 to Cockenoe Island in 2024, “06880” is where Westport meets the world — every day. Please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
This coming Monday — April 22 — marks the 60th anniversary of the opening of the 1964 New York World’s Fair.
To many folks today, world’s fairs are relics of the past. You may have heard of them. But like rotary phones, cassette tapes or (if you’re really young) dial-up modems, you can’t figure out how they worked, why they were important, or what their appeal was.
If you were a child of that era though — particularly if you grew up in the tri-state area — the New York World’s Fair may be one of your most powerful youthful memories.
(I know a few “06880” readers remember the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair. That one was way before my time.)
The ’64 World’s Fair included over 140 pavilions and 110 restaurants representing 80 nations, 24 U.S. states, and over 45 corporations. It covered 646 acres in Flushing Meadows, Queens.
When the Fair opened that April — just 2 months after the Beatles appeared on “Ed Sullivan” — America was racing headlong toward an optimistic future. We were putting men in space, cool cars in driveways and color TVs in every home. Business was booming.
A small portion of the large Fair.
Businesses had a big presence at the World’s Fair.
IBM — for whom many Westport dads worked — had a pavilion with a 500-seat grandstand, which pulled people upward into an egg-shaped theater designed by Eero Saarinen. A film shown on 9 screens described how computers think.
The IBM Pavilion.
Throughout the Fair corporations displayed mainframe computers, computer terminals with keyboards, teletype machines, punch cards and telephone modems. Sure, the computers were the size of freight trains. But this was the future!
General Motors offered a “Futurama”: a ride past scenery showing what life might (or would!) soon be like.
GM gave World’s Fair-goers a vision of the future.
Ford jumped the gun. They introduced the Mustang 5 days before the exhibition opened, on April 17, 1964. Their pavilion sent guests on a ride in cars like Fords, Mercurys and Lincolns, past scenes of dinosaurs and cavemen. We’ve come a long way, baby!
There were many other memorable experiences, like “It’s a Small World,” sponsored by Pepsi; an animatronic Abraham Lincoln at the Illinois pavilion; the Pieta from the Vatican; “exotic” foods like Belgian waffles.
Walt Disney created Pepsi’s “It’s a Small World” exhibit. “Voyagers” glided past (above) the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, Dutch windmills and tulips, and other scenes from 26 countries.
Like every Westport kid I knew, my family visited the World’s Fair many times.
Four Burr Farms Elementary School friends and I went together once. The mother who drove us let us loose for the entire day. “Let’s meet back here at 5 o’clock!” Mrs. Welker chirped.
We were 11 years old.
A 1964 World’s Fair children’s ticket was $1. That’s $9.85 in 2024 money. The official name had an apostrophe in “World’s” — though the ticket did not.
Another time, I saw New York Yankees announcer Mel Allen waiting in line, just like everyone else. I got his autograph, and felt like I had seen the president.
Today, little is left of the 1964 World’s Fair. The Unisphere — the 12-story model of the Earth that was its symbol (built on the foundation of the 1939 Fair’s Perisphere) — still stands in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, a landmark from the air as planes approach La Guardia Airport.
The Unisphere
The park is best known now for Citi Field and the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center (site of the US Open).
The New York Mets’ current home opened in 2009. It replaced Shea Stadium, the shiny new ballpark that opened on April 17, 1964 — like the Mustang, 5 days before the World’s Fair.
Shea Stadium was demolished in 2009, to make way for Citi Field parking.
What’s not gone are World’s Fair memories. I’ve offered a few above.
If you have any to share — of the 1964-65 New York one, the previous fair in 1939-40, or any other city that has hosted a World’s Fair, click “Comments” below.
I would say “see you at the fair.” But World’s Fairs just don’t seem to be a thing anymore.
(Friday Flashback is a weekly “06880” feature. If you enjoy it — or anything else on your hyper-local blog — please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
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Serve2Sustain chapters work with local tennis clubs to collect used balls. They’re sent to a facility where machinery separates materials for reuse. They then go to RecycleBalls and Laykold, which supplies tennis courts for events like the US Open.
