Except — improbably — you can walk directly from Compo Road South to Compo Beach, without taking the long way on Soundview Drive or (even longer) Compo Beach Road.
Just pop through the gray wood gate, underneath a red brick arch.
It’s hidden in plain sight. But it was last week’s Photo Challenge (click here to see).
And it was quickly identified by more than a dozen readers, some of whom noted that they used it frequently.
Congrats to Bob Colson, Maureen Coogan, John McKinney, Joyce Barnhard, Missy Targowski, Kitty Graves, Dave Eason, Matt Murray, Nancy McKeever, Michael Szeto and Katie J. Phillis.
If we gave out prizes, you’d get a free beach sticker.
But obviously, you don’t need one.
Here is this week’s Photo Challenge. If you know where in Westport you’d see this, click “Comments” below.
Over the years, Wakeman Town Farm’s Harvest Fest has “grown” to become one of the best fundraisers, in a town that has plenty of them.
This year’s event (Saturday, September 9, 6 p.m.) will again feature season fare by local farmers and chefs, wine and signature cocktails, live music, auctions and more.
The food station setup encourages mixing and mingling. Seating in the outdoor tent is limited; tickets go fast. Click here for tickets, and more information.
Season 3 of Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building” includes an all-star cast: Meryl Streep, Martin Short, Steve Martin and Paul Rudd.
And — to keep things interesting — this season the “murder investigation” heads to Broadway.
To do that element right, the New York Times says, producers “enlisted the aid of a musical theater supergroup led by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, known for their work on ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ and ‘La La Land.’”
Before earning “supergroup” status, Justin was a kid — okay, a rising star even then — in Westport.
He graduated from Staples High School in 2003.
He likened the “Only Murders” experience to “theater camp.”
He told the Times: “It was just through and through a Broadway experience — there are just cameras filming it. There was that same sort of ensemble sense, whether it was Meryl or Paul Rudd or Marty or Steve, that everybody was making this show together.”
The show debuted Wednesday. Click here for the full New York Times story. (Hat tip: John Nathan)
Justin Paul and Benj Pasek, at the 2018 Golden Globe Awards. (Photo/Paul Drinkwater NBC)
Westport Police made 1 custodial arrest between August 2 and 9.
A man was arrested for illegal possession of personal information, illegal trafficking in personal information, and identity theft, following a complaint by a resident that a check had been altered and cashed.
Police also issued the following citations:
Failure to obey traffic control signals: 5 citations
Operating an unregistered motor vehicle: 2
Disorderly conduct: 1
Simple trespass: 1
Operating a motor vehicle without a license: 1
Operating a motor vehicle under suspension: 1
Operating a motor vehicle without minimum insurance: 1
Improper use of markers: 1
One person was arrested for trespassing this week.
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Westport’s Department of Human Services’ annual Back-to-School and Afterschool Childcare Campaign for families in need is underway.
Director Elaine Daignault calls the effort “a reminder that many local families struggle to afford basic school supplies, new clothing, and in some cases reliable afterschool care for their children throughout the school year.
“In addition to giving kids the tools for success in school, we recognize the importance of safe and nurturing environments for children outside school hours. Children involved in after-school programs with their peers feel more connected to the community and perform better in school. Reliable childcare allows parents to focus on their jobs with peace of mind, knowing their children are well cared for and engaged in enriching activities.”
Tax-deductible contributions can be made in 3 ways:
Online: Click here, then click “Family to Family Programs – Seasonal Program.”
Check: Payable to “Town of Westport Human Services” (Family Programs – “BTS” or “Afterschool Program” in the memo line); mail to 110 Myrtle Avenue, Westport, CT 06880.
Walmart gift cards: Drop off or mail to Westport Human Services, Room 200 at Town Hall (see above address).
School supplies help children academically — and socially.
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Koda lives near the beach. He usually hangs out at Old Mill Grocery & Deli.
Yesterday he ventured out to the Westport Farmers’ Market.
Unfortunately, he saw this sign:
(Photo/Jim Hood)
OMG! I guess it’s back to the beach …
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Speaking of the Sound:
The Congregation for Humanistic Judaism’s next “Havdalah on the Beach” is tomorrow (Saturday, August 12, 6;30 p.m., Compo).
Bring your own dinner, and a chair or blanket. CHJ provides cold drinkds and dessert.
What can you expect? “A short Havdalah service, and a lovely relaxed evening with friends,” CHJ says.
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Mushrooms are a prime Westport Farmers’ Market attraction.
Sunil Hirani took several photos yesterday. This was one of the best — definitely “Westport … Naturally”-worthy.
(Photo/Sunil Hirani)
I’m sure he bought some of the very photogenic ‘shrooms too.
The final summer meet-up for Club 203 — Westport’s social group for adults with disabilities — is Monday (August 14, 6 to 7:30 p.m.) at MoCA. The evening includes a chance to make art.
Season 2 begins September 20. Details will be announced soon. Click here for more information on the club.
As crabbers flock nightly to Sherwood Mill Pond and Old Mill Beach, they’ve lost one species: horseshoe crabs.
Yesterday, Governor Lamont signed a bill banning the harvest of horseshoe crabs in Connecticut waters.
The legislation was sought by advocates who say that the population in Long Island Sound has plummeted in recent years. Thousands of horseshoe crabs are captured each year, often for use by fishermen as bait in traps to catch whelk and eels.
Many are also captured by the biomedical industry, which uses blood from horseshoe crabs for vaccine research.
The population decline has also raised concerns from organizations dedicated to the conservation of birds, who say that migratory shorebirds like the red knot rely on horseshoe crab eggs for food during their annual migration to the Arctic.
New Jersey, Delaware and South Carolina have adopted similar bans.
Compo Beach horseshoe crab (Photo/Lauri Weiser)
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One of the most enjoyable sites for a fundraiser is the main pavilion at Sherwood Island State Park.
That’s the site for Shorefest. Set for September 8 (6 to 9 p.m.), it’s the only time of the year guests can stay at the park past sunset.
The evening includes food, live jazz piano, a silent auction (and of course, a Sherwood Island sunset).
Catering by Westfair Fish & Chips includes lobster, steak, salmon or vegetarian, plus appetizers, salad, dessert and beverages. Burgers and hot dogs are available for youngsters.
All proceeds support the habitat restoration, education and advocacy work of Friends of Sherwood Island State Park. Click here for tickets, and more information.
MoCA’s annual benefit — set for September 30 (7 p.m.) — has a special theme: “The Surrealist Soirée.”
The evening includes imaginative décor, avant-garde performers, a DJ, auction, and catering by Marcia Selden. Guests are encouraged to “dress creatively in line with the evening’s surrealist theme.” Click here for tickets, and more information.
Rosie Lundberg of Westport won gold recently, in the women’s U19 4+ race at the World Junior Rowing Championships in Paris.
Two other SRC athletes competed as well. Fairfielderes Ella Casano placed 4th in the women’s U19 8+, while Fairfield’s George Bentley was 5th in the mens’ U19 4+. Both are coxwsains.
The World competition followed SRC’s strong performance at the US Rowing Summer Nationals in Ohio last month.
Rosie Lundberg (center) and her Saugatuck Rowing Club gold medal-winning teammates. (Photo/Row2k)
If you’ve always wondered about “Uncovering the Non-Spherical Shapes of Bodies Beyond Neptune,” you’re in luck!
Darin Ragozzine — associate professor at Brigham Young University — will discuss that exact topic on next Tuesday (August 15, 8 p.m.), through the Westport Astronomical Society’s free science lecture series.
And finally, musical giant Robbie Robertson died yesterday in Los Angeles, after a long illness.
The lead guitarist and chief songwriter for The Band — the seminal Americana folk/rock/country/gospel group (including 4 Canadians, and only 1 American) — was 81.
The New York Times obituary quotes him: “I wanted to write music that felt like it could’ve been written 50 years ago, tomorrow, yesterday — that had this lost-in-time quality.” Click here for the full story.
(From Westport to Neptune and beyond, “06880” is your hyper-local blog — and a non-profit. Please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
It did not happen as scheduled. Neighbor Cathy Morrison reports, “We may have temporarily halted the tree removal. The tree people needed access to remove it from our private street, and the residents won’t let the large trucks and equipment have access from our street. We pay to pave and plow it; the town doesn’t.”
White oak tree on Appletree Trail. (Photo/Cathy Morrison)
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Westport Volunteer Emergency Medical Services always needs help. Here’s your chance.
EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) and EMR (Emergency Medical Responder) classes begin August 31. They run through December.
Classes are generally held Tuesdays and Thursdays, with some Saturdays.
They’re thorough. They’re intense. They’re also very important.
Click here for details. And thanks to all who enroll.
The death of director William Friedkin yesterday brought renewed attention to one of his most notable films.
Describing “The Exorcist,” William Grimes writes: “it was a suspenseful, often gruesome, cinematic study of evil at work in the modern world — evil conceived in almost medieval terms.”
Linda Blair, as the possessed girl, gave a terrifying performance enhanced by eye-popping special effects. In a cinematic moment that entered into legend, she spewed a jet of green vomit — actually a blend of oatmeal and pea soup — straight into the face of a priest played by Jason Miller. Even more startling, during the exorcism later in the film, her head spun full circle on her shoulders, grinning maniacally.
Westporters of a certain age remember Linda Blair well. She was a 14-year-old Staples High School student in 1973 — and had been working as a model and actress for years — when she was chosen from 600 others for the role of Regan.
She earned a Golden Globe Award, was nominated for an Oscar — and received death threats for her “blasphemy.”
Linda Blair in “The Exorcist.” (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros., via the New York Times)
The Times obituary notes:
The film, released in late December 1973, became a phenomenal hit, one of Hollywood’s top-grossing movies to date, with ticket sales of more than $200 million (the equivalent of about $1.3 billion today). It was also the first horror film to be nominated for a best picture Oscar. (It lost to “The Sting.”)
In New York, audiences lined up for hours in the freezing cold, while scalpers sold tickets for three times their face value. Vincent Canby, in The New York Times, dismissed the film as “claptrap” but pronounced it “the biggest thing to hit the industry since Mary Pickford, popcorn, pornography and ‘The Godfather.”
In the long, convoluted history of civil rights in America, the 1948 Democcratic Party’s plank — which led President Truman to desegregate the armed forces — is often forgotten.
But it — and the role played by Minneapolis mayor (and US Senate candidate) Hubert Humphrey were crucial moments.
New York Times journalist, award-winning author and Columbia University professor Samuel Freedman explores those days in his new book, “Into the Bright Sunshine: Young Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights,” at the Westport Library on August 23 (7 p.m.). Books will be available for sale and signing.
There are 2 Westport connections.
Freedman will be interviewed on the Trefz Forum stage by journalist/author/editor Daniel Gross, who lives here.
And last year Freedman’s son Aaron married Carly Machlis. She grew up here, and graduated from Staples High School in 2009.
Click here for more information on Freedman’s appearance.
The Weston History & Culture Center offers 2 free summer program, for children ages 6-10.
“1940s Fun & Games Kids Camp” runs Thursday, August 17. Children will play with toys and games from the ’40s, and create crafts and art work from the era.
“Weston Illustrated Art Camp” follows on Wednesday, August 23. Both are 10 to 11:30 a.m. Youngsters will learn about artists who lived and worked in Weston. They’ll go on a scavenger hunt through the “Weston Illustrated” exhibit; create a cartoon strip, sculpt with clay, and create a toy.
Both programs will be taught by WHCC executive director Samantha Fargione, assisted by college and high school interns majoring in history. Click here to register, and for more information.
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Abstract art?
(Photo/Mark Mathias)
No.
A tree at Winslow Park — and today’s “Westport … Naturally” featured photo.
And finally … back to Linda Blair (story above). In the 1980s — a decade after starring in “The Exorcist” — she dated singer Rick James for 2 years.
He wrote “Cold Blooded” about her, after she had an abortion without his knowledge.
(Where else but “06880” will you find Linda Blair and Hubert Humphrey together? That’s why this blog is “Where Westport Meets the World.” Please click here to help us continue our work. Thank you!)
This will no doubt be the most listened-to “Westport … What’s Happening” podcast ever.
In this week’s edition — sponsored, as always, by the Y’s Men of Westport and Weston — 1st Selectwoman Jen Tooker and Long Lots School Building Committee chair Jay Keenan chat about the future of the elementary school.
Keenan begins with a brief background of the committee itself. He describes 3 options — renovate the existing structure, construct an addition, or build a new school on the property — and discusses their implications (buses, parking, draining, neighbors) and stakeholders (including the Westport Community Gardens and youth sports).
Options for the Gardens, Keenan says, are that they remain; that they’re modified, or that they’re relocated elsewhere on the property.
“Our main priority is the school, and the children,” the chair notes. “All the rest is juggling” a variety of elements.
The committee’s goal is to have a report to Tooker by the end of August. That will be followed by presentations to the Board of Finance, Board of Education and Representative Town Meeting, with requests for money to complete the design work.
Keenan hopes for “a bid-able set of drawings” within 10-12 months.
They were shot by Brandon Malin. The multi-talented 2020 Staples High School graduate is a rising University of Michigan senior, noted lighting designer and photographer, who has spent this summer working at the Sailing School.
On Saturday night, at their annual staff dinner — just a few hours after his photos appeared — Brandon received the “Jimmy A” Spirit Award. It’s Longshore Sailing’s highest honor.
Named for Jim Adelman — a longtime employee and Westport resident — it is given each year to a staff member who embodies exemplary character, a willingness to put others before themselves, and a passion for Longshore Sailing School.
LSS president Jane Pimentel says, “Brandon is a jack of all trades, and a master of them all. He has the best interest of Longshore Sailing School and its staff on his mind at all times. He is a kind soul, someone you can depend on, and just a great human. He is a great example of what it means to represent the spirit of Jimmy A.”
Today, the Westport Rotary Club premieres a new video podcast.
“Westport Rotary Speaks” is hosted by member Ifeseyi Adedoyin. The 3- to 4-minute videos will post at least once a month on Rotary’s website, and its social media platforms (Instagram @Westportrotary; YouTube WestportRotarySpeaks; LinkedIn Westport Rotary Club).
This month’s shows will focus on LobsterFest. Next month, club members will discuss a variety of topics.
His volunteer job as chair of the Westport Community Gardens takes a ton of time too.
But Lou still finds time to be a wildlife photographer.
Today’s “Westport … Naturally” image is one of his bumblebee shots. Ever the educator, Lou writes:
“Thousands of bees, including this, use the Gardens and Long Lots Preserve as a food source and for habitat. This bumblebee adds to the pollen sack on its leg by gathering from shrubby Saint John’s Wort located in the Gardens.
“If you like feeding bees, plant St. John’s Wort! Nature wins!”
And finally … in honor of Brandon Malin, and his Longshore Sailing School award (story above):
(Another week … and another week of “06880.” We started in 2009, and have never missed a day. Please help us continue. Click here to make a contribution. And thank you!)
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