One is a longtime Westporter. He’s a Staples High School and Brown University graduate; a former Staples soccer coach; a writer of more than a dozen books, and the founder and executive editor of “06880.” He is a registered Democrat. Hey — that’s me!
The other Dan Woog is former hockey player at Arizona State University. He’s a real estate broker in Erie, Colorado. He was elected to the state’s House of Representatives in 2020, and is running for re-election. He is a registered Republican. Voterly gave him a 4 rating (out of 5) on protecting gun rights. That is clearly not me.
There’s a lot of stuff on the internet we don’t trust. But we tend to trust Google. It’s the gold standard of search information.
Not so fast!
The other day, Evan Stein meant to type in my name for “06880” on his phone. By mistake, it turned into a Google search.
And this is what came up:
That’s my birthday.
And my school.
As for the rest: Well, Dan Woog seems like a nice guy. He’s good looking, too.
For several years, a proposed gas-powered leaf blower ordinance has been blowin’ in the Westport wind.
On Tuesday (November 1, 7:30 p.m., Town Hall), a proposal — already approved by the Ordinance Committee — heads to the full Representative Town Meeting. for a first reading.
The text of the amendment is not yet available online. It is available at the Town Clerk’s office during business hours.
On Thursday (November 3, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.), the same site — the Imperial Avenue parking lot — turns into the Great Pumpkin Toss.
The free community composting event returns for its 4th year, at the Westport Farmers’ Market. Action Waste Solutions will collect pumpkins — aka “Halloween food waste” — while also having some fun.
Just “toss” your pumpkin (or gourds) in the bin, and go.
All pumpkins and gourds in their natural state are welcome. Squishy and rotted ones are fine, but decorated or painted pumpkins cannot be composted.
In addition to creating compost, pumpkins provide food for livestock. Stephanie Maynard from Ox Hollow Farm will fill her truck with good pumpkins that will serve as food for her cows .
Last year’s Great Pumpkin Toss diverted one ton of pumpkin waste from landfill. Can we break that record this year?
Last Saturday, over 75 children painted 63 store windows throughout town this past Saturday, in the annual Westport Weston Chamber of Commerce Halloween Contest.
Winners received gift certificates for an ice cream cake at Gofer Ice Cream.
They are:
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Scariest: Chloe Robbin (Cycle Dynamics; Long Lots grade 4)
Best Halloween: Scarlett Nathan (Stephen Kempson, Saugatuck grade 4)
Most creative: Calvin and Julian Carreras (ASF, Long Lots grades 1 and 3)
MIDDLE SCHOOL
Scariest: Hailey Kipperman (Sephen Kempson, The Southport School grade 8)
Best Halloween: Linda Morgan and Julie Ferraro (Cold Fusion, Bedford grade 6)
Kaitlyn Steffa loves living on High Point Road. “There’s always something fun going on,” she says.
Like her neighbor at #26, For the past few weeks Sarah Maraun has entertained anyone driving, biking or walking by with creative skeleton displays in her front yard.
One day they’re out playing Twister; the next, they’re doctors performing surgery, or having a potato sack race.
As you can see, Sarah does not mess around. These are some hard-core decorations — and some very hard skeletons.
More than 200 movie lovers thronged the Westport Library this week, for the opening night of “Short Cuts.”
Five international short films were screened, followed by a conversation.
The next installment of the “short film” festival (Thursday. November 17) features documentary films, with guest Oscar-nominated Kevin Wilson Jr. Click here fpr tickets. and more information.
“06880” does not often post wedding announcements.
But this one has a twist.
Staples High School graduates Juliet Senia and Josh Jeavons are getting married November 18, at Town Hall. State Representative Jonathan Steinberg will perform the ceremony.
Bride and groom live in England. A celebration is planned there in June.
What makes this special is that Juliet was the first baby born to a Westport couple in the new millennium.
Billy and Linda welcomed their 7-pound, 5-ounce daughter into the world at 9:09 a.m. on January 3, 2000.
Julia’s parents are not the only ones thinking right now, “Time sure does fly!”
Westport PAL’s first-ever gala on Thursday was a hit.
The Inn at Longshore was packed, as residents dined, drank, danced, and raised funds for the kids-first organization’s projects like renovating the clubhouse at PJ Romano Field. Click here to see all that PAL does.
Westport PAL gala-goers (from left):Anna Rycenga, Pam Romano, PAL president Craig Bergamo, Kristen Zygmant, Catrina Hegarty, Emma Rojas, Georgia Rojas. (Photo/Andrew Colabella)
Longtime Westporter Nancy Gershon died last month, 10 days before her 87th birthday, of multiple medical causes.
The Brooklyn native was a stellar student, and an excellent pianist and flutist.
After graduated from James Madison High School and Barnard College, majoring in math, then earned a master’s degree in education from Teacher’s College.
Nancy married Richard Gershon in 1957. She worked as a calculator (a pre-computer-era job) at the Harvard-Smithsonian Astronomical Observatory. After he graduate from Harvard Business School they moved to Queens NY, where she worked as a substitute high school math teacher.
The couple moved to Westport in 1963. Her 4 children, born in 6 years, kept her busy, but she took up cello. She played in the Norwalk Symphony and in informal Westport chamber groups. Nancy ‘s oldest child went on to a career as a professional musician.
Nancy and Richard divorced in 1980e. Once her nest was empty she continued with musical activities, including learning jazz piano and taking up saxophone. She also studied computer science at Norwalk Technical College. She collected large quantities of music books, which her musician son has been distributing to music students.
She is survived by her children Russ of Chelsea, Massachusetts, and Andrew, Jill and Laurie of Manhattan; 3 grandchildren; sister Maryanne Lehrer of Oceanside, New York and brother Dr. Robert Leon of Scottsdale, Arizoba. She was ably cared for in her home by Lorna Jones for the last 6 years of her life.
Today’s spectacular “Westport … Naturally” fall foliage photo is from Compo Road South, near Bradley Street. Thanks, Matt Murray, for the image — and kudos too to whoever takes care of this beauty!
And finally … rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis died yesterday in Mississippi. He was 87.
He was a legend. Just imagine what his career would have been like if he hadn’t married his 13-year-old cousin. He was 22 years old at the time — and still married to his second wife. (Click here for a full obituary.)
(Great balls of fire! Just click here for a chance to support “06880”!)
Posted onOctober 29, 2022|Comments Off on Online Art Gallery #134
Great minds think alike.
Great artists do too.
Four submissions to this week’s online art gallery feature leaves. Two are of sunflowers; another two are apples.
But every artist and photographer offers a different take on what are definitely not tired subjects. That’s what makes art so wonderful — and our online art gallery so interesting.
Remember: This is your feature. All readers are invited to contribute. Age, level of experience, subject matter — there are no restrictions.
All genres are encouraged. Watercolors, oils, charcoal, pen-and-ink, acrylics, lithographs, macramé, jewelry, sculpture, decoupage and (yes) needlepoint — whatever you’ve got, email it to 06880blog@gmail.com. Share your work with the world!
Untitled. Photographer Jerry Kuyper explains, :A leaf with a spherical growth falls onto a pumpkin,”
“Cedar Waxwing” — Artist Steve Stein explains, “This is a kind of finch. They eat berries, spread the berry’s seeds, and are noted to be serially monogamous,”
“Gettin’ Around” (Lawrence Weisman)
“Splendid Autumn in the Berkshires” — Housatonic River, Stockbridge, MA October 22, 2022 (Laurie Sorensen)
“View From a Connecticut Prison” — Suffield correctional facility (Wendy Levy)
“Hanging On” (Karen Weingarten)
Untitled — Photographer Bonnie Connolly says, “This a dall scene on my front walkway. After a cold rain, the fallen pine needles and leaves seemed to dance together.”
(If you enjoy our weekly online art gallery, please consider a donation to “06880.” Click here — and thank you!)
I have been disabled for 8 years. Before that, I did not have much knowledge or awareness about the different types of disabilities.
For the first time since I became disabled, these last months I’ve had 2 people in Westport come up to me at different times when I’m parking in a disabled spot, with my disabled parking permit hanging, to say “Hey, you’re not disabled!”
I politely answered, “Yes, I am. And you can see my disabled parking permit hanging in the car.” One man insisted, “No, you’re not.” Then he laughed, thinking he was being sort of funny.
The second person was a woman. She said, “But you look so normal, young, healthy and fit. You can’t be disabled!”
After explaining to them that I don’t need to share my medical records, I decided to explain why I am disabled. Once they heard the reason, they understood and apologized. They felt terrible after hearing the story.
I want to take this opportunity to remind people that not all disabilities come with a wheelchair. There are many different types.
None of us chose to be disabled. It’s a sensitive topic for us. Being disabled is probably the biggest trauma in my life. Having strangers laugh or diminish this is painful. Please be kind to us. We have been through enough.
Saying things like “you don’t look disabled” or “you look normal” doesn’t make us feel better. It actually makes us feel worse. Comments like those come from a good place — but they don’t work.
If you don’t know the person, don’t say anything. If you do know the person, just listen to them. There’s no need to reply.
There’s no need to tell us we “look normal” when we know we are not. It’s not a compliment.
It’s not easy to post this. But by sharing my story, I might help you all understand a little about how we feel.
Just in time for Halloween … it’s the Mary Staples story!
In 1651, Goody Knapp of Stratford was accused of witchcraft. She quickly implicated another witch: Mary Staples.
That was Big News. She was the wife of Thomas Staples, who along with Roger Ludlow (later spelled “Ludlowe”) had helped found the community of Fairfield.
Thomas Staples sued Ludlow in New Haven court, for defamation. He won, and in 1654 was awarded 10 pounds in damages.
A tile depicting Mary Staples — donated by Linda Fraxer, and created by Marian Grebow — is part of the Westport Library’s River of Names.
In an era when women were burned or drowned as witches, Mary Staples survived.
In 1884 — more than 2 centuries later, and 49 years after Westport became a separate town from Fairfield — a family descendant named-Horace Staples founded his town’s Staples High School.
And today, 138 years after that, one of Fairfield’s 2 high schools — Fairfield Ludlowe — is named for Thomas and Mary Staples’ nemesis, Roger Ludlow.
The print version of the Westport League of Women Voters’ voter guide has gone the way of much of the print media: It’s disappeared..
But the LWV still provides important information. And it works for anyone, anywhere in the United States.
Just click on vote411.org. Enter your address. You’ll see every race being contested at your polling place. Clicking any office and candidate’s name brings up plenty of background information.
It’s a rich resource. And a lot better way to decide who to vote for than yard signs. (Hat tip: Charles Wiseman)
In August, the Board of Finance unanimously approved funds for a traffic and safety study of Cross Highway, at the North Avenue and Bayberry Lane intersections.
Monitoring devices have been installed. They’ll measure things like traffic volume and patterns.
No — they’re not cameras catching stop sign violators.
Although that might not be a bad idea.
Traffic monitoring device at North Avenue/Cross Highway stop sign. (Photo/Matt Murray)
Westport Chinese Takeout — the bare bones, simply named but popular restaurant on Saugatuck Avenue at Franklin Street, closed recently.
The location is historic. It was the original site of the Arrow Restaurant. The Nistico family eventually moved their famed Italian eatery to larger digs on Charles Street.
When the Arrow’s run ended there, it became Jasmine — a Chinese restaurant. When that closed, the owners opened the much smaller Westport Chinese Takeout — in the Arrow’s first spot.
Jasmine then became Blu Parrot, and later Mystic Market. Now it too is gone.
And the original Chinese Takeout owners sold to others too.
For now, a phone message says: “We’re sorry. Westport Chinese Takeout is no longer in business. In the meantime, we’re getting ready to bring you the best of Peruvian food at this location. We’ll see you soon!” 9(Hat tip:
Westport Chinese Takeout is now closed.
Halloween alert: Tomorrow (Saturday, October 29, 2 to 4 p.m.) — not Monday — the United Methodist Church of Westport and Weston hosts their annual (and very popular) “Trunk or Treat,”
The parking lot will be filled with car trunks from church and community members, Staples PRIDE, and more, decorated for (non-scary) Halloween. Kids (up to age 12) can pick up candy and other goodies.
It’s free for the community — but there’s a chance to give back too. The church is collecting canned goods for the Person to Person food pantry. A donation of 5 cans of food per child attending is requested.
All (kids up to age 12) are indeed welcome at the United Methodist Church’s “Trunk or Treat” tomorrow. (Photo/Dan Woog)
Speaking of Halloween: Wednesday’s downtown parade was a smashing success.
We can’t ask the kids — they’re still devouring their candy — so here’s the perspective of a parent. Tyler Errickson writes:
“Westport is a special town, and my son Henry had a special time at the Halloween parade. He was proud to mount the Westport fire truck, on a very special day.”
Henry Errickson, on a fire truck at the Halloween parade. (Photo/Tyler Errickson)
Jonathan Alloy reports on a long-running projecct:
“The bridge on Bayberry Road North Extension saw major progress on Thursday: The deck rails arrived.
“Each of the 7 concrete and steel rails is more than 50 feet long, and weighs over 19 tons.
“They came from Vermont, each on its own special 24-wheel trailer truck. A portable crane lifted them into place.
“Instead of being flat, the rails are built with a camber (arc) to allow for flex with weight and weather. Inside the concrete, steel cables allow for that bending.”
The trucks caused a traffic mess on Bayberry. Westport Police soon straightened things out.
Plenty of work remains. But yesterday marked a big step forward.
Trucks line Bayberry Lane yesterday morning …
… and work is completed yesterday afternoon. (Photos/Jonathan Alloy)
The free Thinkers, Educators, Actors — “TEA” — event returns to the Westport Library on Sunday, November 6. Among the notables: an Emmy-winning composer, Oscar-nominated filmmaker, former Westport Teacher of the Year, and many more.
They’ll share the Trefz Forum stage, to explore provocative, topical subjects in the arts. Particularly apt for an event impacted for 2 years by COVID, they’ll consider the effects of recent history on creativity in film, music and visual art.
Were home-bound artists more or less creative? What new ways were discovered to express one’s creativity? Does the public now consume the arts differently from the way it did before?
Westport textile and fashion designer Shobana Mani converses with Oscar-nominated New York City filmmaker Kevin Wilson Jr.
Dr. Richard Epstein (Westport musician, dentist and WPKN radio host) speaks with Emmy Award-winning composer, music supervisor and pianist Michael Whalen
Westport 2013 Teacher of the year Cecily Anderson discusses the state of the arts with Westport artist Tom Berntsen and Norwalk street-muralist 5ive Fingaz.
TEA Talks is sponsored by the Westport Arts Advisory Committee. An audience Q-and-A and refreshments follow the presentation. For more information, click here.
Speaking of honors: The Westport Garden Club earned several honors at this week’s Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut’s 93rd annual awards luncheon.
The club received the Certificate of Achievement – Arboreal for planting a swamp white oak at Grace Salmon Park for “Oaktober 2021.”
They also won a Certificate of Achievement – Historic, Memorial and Public Gardens for their 2022 renovation of the Nevada Hitchcock Garden at the Cross Highway/Weston Road intersection. The garden — established in 1941 — was reworked to focus on native and pollinator plantings.
Two members received individual awards. Andi Turner was given a Certificate of Individual Achievement for her work as horticultural chair. At each meeting, she shares well researched and informative best practices .
The Tribute Award in Landscape Design went to Ellen Greenberg, a Westport Garden Club past president, for her leadership in the club and community, involving a diverse array of partners including the Waltersville School Garden Project with Pivot Ministries, Wakeman Town Farm Pollinator Gardens, a Kaboom playground project in Bridgeport, and Aspetuck Land Trust’s Green Corridor Initiative and Haskins Preserve Project.
Westport Garden Club members at the Nevada Hitchcock Garden.
Many Westporters know Pippa Bell Ader for her environmental activism.
She’s also a talented potter. Next Thursday (November 3, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.), she’ll sell her work at the Westport Farmers’ Market (Imperial Avenue parking lot).
All money raised at the “Urban Farming and Food Justice” fundraiser go to Green Village Initiative. The non-profit grows food, knowledge, leadership and community, through urban gardening and farming, to create a more just food system in Bridgeport.
Can’t make it to the Farmers’ Market, but interested in helping Pippa and GVI? Email bellader@gmail.com.
MoCA Westport’s next 2 “Cocktails and Conversation” events are set.
On November 3 (6 p.m.), Diana Mashia — founder and CEO of Invest In Her Art — discusses “the power of story, and the role that narratives play in shaping identity, fandom, advocacy and positive social impact.” She’ll lead a conversation around “how to better utilize stories and the arts to build awareness and advance women and non-binary people.” Click here to register.
On November 10 (6 p.m.), exhibition co-curators Tom Berntsen, Liz Leggett and Ruth Mannes describes the design and installation of MoCA’s current exhibition, “From the Pen to the Knife,” and the fascinating story of artist Marian Christy. Click here to register.
Both events are free; advance registration is requested. Access to the exhibit beforehand is free; cocktails and drinks are available for purchase.
Anne Bernier explains: “Anyone has seen ‘Stranger Things 4’ episode 3 (or has heard the Kate Bush song ‘Running Up that Hill’) will understand the floating Halloween decoration my 8th grader Luke created. Hopefully it won’t scare off any potential trick-or-treaters.”
Chocolatieree is trying to find the sweet spot among Westport’s 3 artisanal chocolate shops.
Besides its hard-to-remember-and-pronounce name, it’s tucked a bit back on Church Lane — behind a parking area between Myrtle Avenue and Elm Street (across from Christ & Holy Trinity Church, if you still don’t know).
You can’t see its little designer chocolates from the road. But its window is now colorful, attractive and enticing.
Chocolatieree, and its colorful window.
It was decorated by artist Sophia Livecchi. It’s the first piece of public art in Westport for the 2017 Staples High School graduate — though not her first anywhere.
The project has sparked her interest in doing more such work — including murals — in her home town.
Sophia — a soccer and tennis player, and radio show host, at Staples who went on to major in environmental studies at Skidmore College — grew interested in the intersection of art and urban design during a semester in Copenhagen.
Since graduating last year she’s created an 800-square foot mural for a rugmaking studio in Brooklyn and helped turn an abandoned building facing I-91 in Hartford into a piece of art. She’s also served as marketing manager for The Knowlton, the exciting Bridgeport waterfront event venue, artist studios and mural park.
Sophia Livecchi, with one of her murals.
Sophia spent 2 days on the Chocaltieree windows, creating an intriguing fall scene.
As she worked, passsersby watched and chatted. That’s the power of public art, she says: It brings people and communities together.
“We need more of that here,” Sophia notes. “We have a lot of artists, but not a lot of outdoor art.”
There are plenty of empty walls, from the beach and the narrow driveway heading to CVS’ back parking lot, to the railroad station underpass across from Miggs Burroughs’ lenticular photos.
Meanwhile, Sophia continues to create art, indoors and out. Blow Dry Bar — near Chocolatieree — asked her to design a window too. She’s also painting a mural in a Westport family’s bathroom, and a Queens art studio.
Sophia Livecchi, at work.
In a couple of months, Sophia will be back at her first local project. Winter is coming, so she’ll update Chocolatieree’s windows for the new season.
By then, she and the owners hope, many more Westporters will know exactly where the shop is. They’ll appreciate the little pieces of artisanal chocolate — and the much larger public art on exhibit there.
(To learn more about Sophia Livecchi’s work — including commissions — click here; email livecchisophia@gmail.com, or follow her on Instagram: @Sophlive.
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After explaining to them that I don’t need to share my medical records, I decided to explain why I am disabled. Once they heard the reason, they understood and apologized. They felt terrible after hearing the story.
