As Russian troops advance into Ukraine, Lynsey Addario and Tyler Hicks — both Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times photographers, and both Staples High School graduates (1991 and ’88, respectively) are there, shooting important images and reporting too.
Today, Addario joined the paper’s podcast, “The Daily.” She’s on near the beginning. Click here to listen. (Hat tip: John Hartwell)
Ukraine president Volodomyr Zelensky (Photo/Lynsey Addario for the New York Times)
“Westport … Naturally” can never get enough dog-at-the-beach photos. At least until April 1, when the 6-month pooch ban begins. Here’s Axel, yesterday:
And finally … today is the 290th anniversary of the birth of George Washington. It’s also (coincidentally? probably not) the 131st anniversary of the day the state of Washington joined the union.
There aren’t a lot of songs about the Father of Our Country. Or about the Evergreen State. So these will have to do:
Comments Off on Roundup: Lynsey Addario, EMT Classes …
Today’s “balloon test” — designed to show what a 124-foot cell tower proposed for 92 Greens Farms Road — has been canceled. No further information is available.
Today’s event at 92 Greens Farms Road is off. (Photo courtesy of Google Maps)
The umbrella organization supports many good projects. Lynn is especially excited about the Fund for Women and Girls. Over the past 20 years, they’ve given out $8 million, impacting tens of thousands of females.
She is really excited about April 22 (12 noon, Greenwich Hyatt and virtual). This year’s guest speaker is Anita Hill.
The Brandeis University professor of law, public policy and women’s studies is the recipient of a 2019 PEN Courage Award. Her new book is Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence. In her autobiography Speaking Truth to Power, Hill shared her story of testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee about sexual harassment during her career.
A $73 million settlement last week for families of 9 Sandy Hook victims shook 2 worlds last week: the legal one, and the gun manufacturing industry.
It also brought national attention to Josh Koskoff, the Westport attorney who led the long effort.
Yesterday, the New York Times ran a long feature, headlined “How They Did It: Sandy Hook Families Gain Long-Awaited Legal Wins.” The piece explores Koskoff’s strategy, and its implications for similar lawsuits going forward. Click here for the full story.
Josh Koskoff, in his office. (Photo/Monica Jorge for the New York Times)
A broken sprinkler caused water damage at Serena & Lily. The Elm Street lifestyle store is closed today. They hope to open later this week. (Hat tip: Sal Liccione)
Mark March 13. Turn your clocks ahead — and at noon (EDT) enjoy an Aspetuck land Trust Sunday “Brunch and Learn” lecture with landscape designer/author/photographer Rick Darke.
He’ll discuss the vital roles native plants play in beautiful, ecologically sound, and broadly functional residential landscape design.
It’s free for members, $18 for non-members. Click here for details, and to register.
Rick Darke
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It’s mid late February. Time for some “Westport … Naturally” color!
When trouble erupts somewhere in the world, people flee for safety, or desperately hope to.
Tyler Hicks picks up his camera, boards a plane, and heads right there.
The 1988 Staples High School graduate has earned international renown — and many honors, including the Pulitzer Prize — with his photos from war zones, catastrophes and natural disasters. He has reported on the beauty, the people and the tragedies of Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Kenya and dozens of other spots around the globe.
Now Hicks is in Ukraine. As Russian tanks, armor and military threaten the nation, Hicks has trained his eye on the landscape and human beings behind the story.
These are from a town incongruously named “New York.” Close to the Russian front lines, it is home now to mostly older people — and a highly toxic chemical plant.
Hicks also visited Svitlodarsk in eastern Ukraine, where disputes have raged for years.
(All photos by Tyler Hicks, courtesy of The New York Times)
It’s a long way from the Westport of Tyler Hicks’ youth, to the threatened streets, woods and railroad tracks of Ukraine.
It’s easy to ignore the lives of the men, women and children there. Tyler Hicks’ photos make sure we don’t.
Nine families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacred have reached an agreement with the maker of the assault weapon.
The $73 million settlement seems to be the largest of its kind ever between a gun manufacturer and relatives of a mass shooting, the New York Times says.
The paper adds: “It also represents a significant setback to the firearm industry because the lawsuit, by employing a novel strategy, pierced the vast shield enshrined in federal law protecting gun companies from litigation.”
Josh Koskoff
The lead lawyer for the victims’ families — 5 children and 4 adults — is Josh Koskoff. The 1984 Staples High School graduate — and still a Westport resident — practices with Bridgeport-based Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder.
The Times explains:
The families contended that Remington, the gun maker, violated state consumer law by promoting the weapon in a way that appealed to so-called couch commandoes and troubled young men like the gunman who stormed into the elementary school on Dec. 14, 2012, killing 20 first graders and six adults in a spray of gunfire.
Koskoff said: “These 9 families have shared a single goal from the very beginning: to do whatever they could to help prevent the next Sandy Hook. It is hard to imagine an outcome that better accomplishes that goal.”
(Click here for the full New York Times article. In 2014, Koskoff appeared on “The Rachel Maddow Show” to discuss the lawsuit he’d just filed. Click here for that story.)
The Westport Fire Department wants residents to know that carbon monoxide poisoning is a winter threat.
Carbon monoxide is an invisible odorless gas that can be fatal. It forms when fuels like gasoline, natural gas, propane, wood, charcoal, and kerosene do not burn completely. Breathing carbon monoxide can deprive the body of oxygen, and may lead to illness, loss of consciousness and death.
Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning include:
Headache, fatigue, dizziness, confusion, nausea or vomiting, and loss of consciousness.
If several members of a household experience these symptoms when they are home but feel better when they are away from the home, there may be a carbon monoxide problem.
If you have symptoms:
Get out of the house immediatelyand seek medical help if you or a family member or guest has unexplained/sudden onset of symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Carbon monoxide alarms are the only way to know if the deadly gas is present in your home. It is recommended that all residents with fuel burning appliances or indoor equipment install carbon monoxide alarms near all sleeping areas in their home to alert them of the presence of carbon monoxide. Install a carbon monoxide alarm on each floor of your home and outside of each bedroom. Install new batteries as per manufacturer’s instructions and replace alarms every five years, as the sensors degrade.
To stay safe:
Never use portable generators, charcoal or gas grills, gas or propane powered pressure washers, saws or other fuel powered equipment inside your home, garage, carport, basement, or other enclosed spaces. Opening windows and doors, and operating fans is not enough to prevent buildup of carbon monoxide in a home
Install a carbon monoxide alarm on each floor of your home & outside of each bedroom.
Make sure the exhaust pipe on your standby generator is pointing away from the house.
Place portable generators at least 20 feet from the house.
Make sure gas dryer vents and automobile tail pipes are not plugged up with snow.
Have your heating systems, chimney flues, gas appliances, wood stoves, and generators checked every year, and cleaned and serviced as needed by qualified heating/appliance contractors.
There are many ways to illustrate the current tensions in Ukraine.
Staples High School 1988 graduate/Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times photographer Tyler Hicks did it with a unique shot of Ukrainian soldiers jumping into a cross made out of ice, near the Russian front — a tradition in that country.
The image was the lead one today, on page 1 of the Times. (Hat tip: John Karrel)
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Congratulations to the Staples High School boys ice hockey team. The Wreckers beat Norwalk-McMahon 4-2 in the 3rd annual Dale Wemhoff Cup. Wehmhoff attended Westport schools and was the assistant hockey coach at Staples before taking over the Norwalk program. (Hat tip: Hannah Kail)
Staples High School ice hockey team.
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There’s (almost) always something going on at Local to Market. Mark these dates, for the popular food-and-more store on Main Street next to Parker Harding Plaza.
Tomorrow (Saturday, January 22, 2 to 4 p.m.): Maria from Fairfield’s Bee Love Project offers tastings, suggests pairings and presents insights into the world of honey bees.
Two days before Valentine’s (Saturday, February 12, time TBD), Samantha from Locavore Kitchens in Westport talks about her rosemary glazed shortbread cookies (and more).
Go for the local food stars. Stay for the samples?
And finally … 2 recent deaths with local connections.
Meat Loaf died yesterday, at 74 (or so — read full obituary here). The larger-than-life ’70s singer would of course be commemorated here no matter where he lived.
But for a while he was a Westport resident. He played softball on Sunday mornings at Compo Beach, coached his daughter’s softball team, hung out on Terry and Gail Coen’s very visible Soundview Drive front deck, and was a cheerful, popular presence in town. Everyone of a certain age has a Meat Loaf story from those days.
And Fred Parris, co-founder of the Five Satins and writer of “In the Still of the Night,” died recently after a brief illness. He was 85.
The New Haven native wrote the song while on guard duty with the Army in Philadelphia. His group recorded it “in a makeshift studio in the basement of St. Bernadette Roman Catholic Church in New Haven on February 19, 1956,” the New Haven Register says. Click here for the full obituary. (Hat tip: Audrey Rabinowitz)
The variety store at curve, where Riverside Avenue becomes Railroad Place — once known as Desi’s Corner — will soon become “Uncle Leo’s.” A small sign says simply “Steam Coffee Tea.”
There’s no indication when the renovation will be done.
It’s good news for train riders, who have been without a coffee shop on that side of the tracks since Commuter Coffee closed in 2018.
Let’s hope — for Uncle Leo’s sake — that there are soon actual rail commuters for his “Steam Coffee Tea.”
First, Cold Fusion hung the Remarkable Guy — a remnant of the long-ago book store across Main Street from the new gelato shop — on its wall.
Now it’s paying homage to another iconic ancestral neighbor.
The original Ice Cream Parlor was a few doors down — where Brandy Melville is now.
It moved twice, eventually ending up on the Post Road diagonally across from the Westport Country Playhouse. That’s where it was in 1966, when this ad appeared in a Playhouse playbill. Longtime Westporter (and, no doubt, longtime Ice Cream Parlor fan) Paula Schooler gave it to Cold Fusion.
In addition to the Ice Cream Parlor’s brunch, lunch and dinner offerings, and penny candies (“the largest assortment under the sun”), the ad touted Terpsichore. That was the restaurant’s discotheque — “Westport’s first” — with “Go-Go Girls in their Bird Cages.”
From ice cream to gelato — and go-go girls to #MeToo — we’ve come a long way, baby.
One of the few good things to come out of the pandemic is that the New York Times wedding announcements are a lot more interesting.
When fewer couples got married last year, the paper began writing actual stories out of how they meet, and how their relationships developed.
Here’s the lead in one “Vows” story in the Styles section yesterday:
On a summer evening in a previous century, Garrett Foster, then 27, summoned up his courage and entered a gay bar for the first time. At the Brook in Westport, Conn., which, until it closed, was the oldest continually operating gay bar in the country, he laid eyes on Brian Murray, then 31. Mr. Murray had once been a regular, but that was his first night there in a while. Their connection was immediate.
“I knew I was going to spend my life with this man,” Mr. Foster said. What he couldn’t have guessed, was that he would legally marry him someday.
That marriage was July 13, 2021 — 31 years to the day after they first met. Click here for all the details.
Brian Murray (left) and Garrett Foster. (Photo courtesy of New York Times)
Haslea is the name of Jeff Northrop’s new aquaculture company operating on Sherwood Mill Pond. After testing the concept a few years ago with Hummock Island Shellfish, he began developing a more streamlined approach to growing bivalves on the oyster grounds that have been in his family since the 1700s.
Haslea plans to use the Mill Pond not to maximize production, but as an R&D pond for selective breeding oysters for disease resistance. It’s part of a larger natural oyster restoration along the coast they’re working on.
The company — including chief technology officer Luke Gray of MIT — has provisional patents for a new fully robotic growing system that could produce oysters for 1/10th the cost. It’s for offshore sites, and will not be used in the Mill Pond.
Co-founder Jonathan Goldstein moved to Westport recently, to help Jeff. He was previously with Compass in New York.
Chief operating officer Roberto Aguaya Diaz moved from Texas, where he postponed his MBA to help build Haslea. His family has an aquaculture background, with shrimp farms.
And finally … I don’t know how, but I missed a big anniversary. It was 40 years ago yesterday that MTV began broadcasting. The first video was, as everyone knows …
After Roe Halper’s husband Chuck died in 2017, the noted artist wanted to make a tribute incorporating emotion, interpretation and design. She used lndia ink with Chinese brushes to create a book called Passage, about Chuck’s passage through life.
“Although I was thinking of him when I created it, it has a universal theme,” Roe says.
Passage is available at the Westport Library Store, Westport Museum of History & Culture (formerly the Westport Historical Society) and Barrett Book Store in Darien, and directly from Roe (203-226-5187; chalper@optonline.net).
The website says: “Chef John and his brother Chef Adonis, aka Tony the Greek, grew up running Andros Diner in Fairfield, working with their father Leo Pertesis.”
So though the name has changed, it’s still one of those Northeast favorites: a Greek diner. (Hat tip: Isabelle Breen)
How do you capture the most elusive objects in the solar system?
I’m not sure. But Thierry Legault may.
The world renowned astrophotographer joins the Westport Astronomical Society on May 18 (8 p.m.) for a virtual talk on the topic of elusive objects.
From his home “in the light-polluted suburbs of Paris,” he’ll show some of those elusive objects he’s captured — like images of the International Space Station, eclipses and transits.
The event will be presented both as a Zoom webinar (click here to register), and a YouTube livestream (click here for the page).
Dr. Suniya Luthar is familiar to many Westporters.
The emerita professor of psychology at Columbia’s Teachers College led a longitudinal study on youth and resilience here. She chose Westport because of its high number of high-achieving professionals, and the emphasis on status and achievement.
That study was referenced in a guest essay in today’s New York Times. The piece looks at the mental health of young people today. Click here to read. But beware: The news is not good.
Psressures — academic, social and other — are high on teenagers today. (Photo/Dan Woog)
That’s the name of the new movie from Todd Rawiszer. The 2007 Staples High School graduate produced and co-wrote the film.
Shot in Westport and Pennsylvania, it follows 2 women who must trust each other to survive the longest night of their lives. They are “badass, strong women,” as well as good Samaritans.
“Goodbye Honey” was screen at festivals across the country, winning Best Thriller Feature, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor at the Garden State Film Festival, Best Lead Performance at the Nightmares Film Festival, and Best Actress at NOLA Horror Film Festival.
It will be released May 11 on cable, satellite and digital HD>
Former Westporter Alex Lasry is running for the United States Senate.
In Wisconsin.
The 33-year-old Democrat hopes to unseat Republican Ron Johnson. Lasry has taken a leave from his position as Milwaukee Bucks senior vice president. His father — a billionaire businessman and hedge fund executive — co-owns the NBA team. The Lasry family first lived on Sylvan Road North. Marc Lasry now lives on Beachside Avenue.
Before the Bucks, Alex Lasry worked in the Obama White House for senior advisor Valerie Jarrett. He was host committee chair for the 2020 Democratic Convention, which was planned for Milwaukee but held virtually due to COVID. (Hat tip: Gloria Gouveia)
A year after Connecticut was locked down, COVID has killed over 7,700 state residents. Nearly 2,100 have been in Fairfield County — 28 in Westport alone.
This Saturday, members and friends of Green’s Farms Church will mark the somber anniversary by placing 2,00 luminarias on Veterans Green.
Bagpipes and a brief service of dedication begins at 7 p.m. Thepublic is invited to walk among the lights (or view them from cars), reflect, and light their own LED luminarias in tribute to a life lost or affected by the pandemic, or as a symbol of hope for the future. The display will remain in place for 24 hours.
Sunday’s New York Times Real Estate section explored trends in the tristate suburbs.
Much of the Connecticut focus was on Westport. The paper said:
Gains were perhaps expected south of the Merritt Parkway, whose popularity derives in part from regular train service. Indeed, in the past two months, Westport saw 33 sales of single-family homes priced from $1 million to $2.5 million, compared with 19 sales last winter, according to William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty.
There were quotes from a man who missed out on a home here, despite offering a 10% premium (“There seems to be so much irrational behavior”), and retirees from White Plains who very much wanted to move to town,
After two failed purchases, they swooped in last month with an all-cash offer for a four-bedroom house, listed for $1.749 million. And it seemed to do the trick; a contract was in the works.
But a rushed title search missed problems, and on Feb. 24, (they) walked away. (The seller upped the price to $1.849 million a day later.)
The piece is illustrated with 2 photos too. Note the New York license plate! (Click here for the full story. Hat tip: Peter Gold)
1992 Staples High School graduate Susan Izzo co-founded The Sports Management Mastermind. The company helps professional athletes maximize their potential — while never losing sight of who they are as people.
At 7 p.m. today (Tuesday, March 9) and Thursday (March 11), she and another sports agent host a 90-minute virtual sports management masterclass for aspiring pro, college and Olympic athletes, and their families.
I am hosting/teaching tomorrow and on Thursday. I am joining forces with another female sports agent and we are hosting a free 90-minute virtual sports management masterclass for aspiring professional, collegiate and Olympic athletes and their families.
Topics include building a successful career as a competitive athlete; creating and amplifying your brand; learning what sponsors, agents and coaches look for, and how to build those relationships; NCAA and Olympics regulations, and more.
The sessions are free, but spots are limited. Click here to register.
Speaking of sports: Westport READS continues during March with a fascinating conversation about baseball.
Andrea Williams — author of “Baseball’s Leading Lady” — chats with Westport Museum for History & Culture executive director Ramin Ganeshram about a little-known woman at the center of the Negro Leagues: Effa Manley, co-owner and business manager of the Newark Eagles.
The event is set for Monday, March 22 (7 p.m.).
Williams worked in marketing and development for the Negro Baseball Museum in Kansas City. She’s now a fulltime writer.
In her Pulitzer Prize-winning career as a photojournalist, Staples High School graduate Lynsey Addario has trained her camera on the world’s most dangerous hot spots.
She’s done it again.
This time the place is Britain. There, the coronavirus is taking “an almost unbearable toll.”
Having covered war and humanitarian crises for 20 years, the MacArthur fellow writes today, “I recognize the trauma I see in front-line workers. The pain and sadness can be overwhelming.”
One of 30 ICU patients in north London’s Barnet Hospital. It usually holds 15 to 19. (Photo/Lynsey Addario for New York Times)
Her story today — “It’s Still Getting Worse. Inside Britain’s Vicious Second Wave” — is visually stunning. Her words are an equally graphic reminder that the pandemic is far from over.
“Though the vaccine — which has reached over seven million people in Britain — is a light at the end of the tunnel, the darkness of what the country has experienced must not be forgotten,” she adds.
“For frontline workers and all Britons, these pictures stand as testaments to their trauma and their perseverance.”
The lead focused on Lori Levine van Arsdale. She’s the board president of a 5 -unit cooperative near Gramercy Park. Owners there have not always played nice.
Lori is also an 8-year resident of Westport. Her experience here — with great neighbors who look out for each other — has inspired her to make her city residence a more friendly place too.
That was not mentioned in the Times story. But the other day, she talked about it for “06880.”
Lori grew up in New York. She’s owned her co-op for 15 years, and loves the neighborhood.
When she she married her husband Jan 8 years ago, he’d lived in Westport for nearly a decade. They blended their families — she had 2 dogs; he had 2 dogs and 4 kids — and bought a new home. It’s off Park Lane, behind Trader Joe’s.
The van Arsdales (from left): Jansen with Kipper, Stedman, Carolynn with Casey, Jane, Jan with Suki, and Lori.
Many of their neighbors are older than the van Arsdales. Yet right from the start — when a woman brought herbs from her garden — Lori felt welcomed.
Everyone socialized, celebrated birthdays, lent leaf blowers. A neighbor called Lori once in New York, when she spotted an intruder in Lori’s back yard. The Van Arsdales’ stepsons shoveled neighbors’ driveways.
When COVID struck, Lori and Jan spent most of her time in New York. Westport neighbors checked in by phone. One told Lori that her stepchildren — 24, 22, 20 and 18 years old — were doing great. One had offered to go food shopping for homebound neighbors.
“That’s the way living should be,” Lori says. “I wondered why it wasn’t happening in my 5-unit brownstone.”
Owners in the self-managed 1851 building did not get along. When 3 units came on the market, Lori decided things could change. She ran for president, and won.
Lori Levine van Arsdale on the steps of her Gramercy Park co-op. (Photo/Katherine Marks for the New York Times)
She had a long conversation with the remaining owners about working cooperatively, and showing each other kindness and appreciation for all the extra work and effort needed to make their units a home.
She brought her Westport sensibility to the new owners too. Neighborliness became the norm. Her husband shoveled the sidewalk and steps; another owner did the patio.
The co-op bought 2 outdoor heaters for the back yard. They added a table and pop-up gazebo, so people could eat together outside.
“It’s lovely now,” Lori says. “It’s like house living in a communal environment.”
Adapting suburban values to urban living has changed the dynamics of her building. “I’ll never again come home to contentious people,” she says.
She’s changed her views on city life in general too. “This is what everyone should do for someone else. I’ve lived in high rises, where the only interaction you have is with the doorman — not even the people on your floor. It shouldn’t be that way.”
Meanwhile, Lori remains connected to Westport. This is where the family celebrates Hanukkah, Christmas and New Years (it’s the van Arsdales’ anniversary).
“When we blended our family, we wanted everyone to really feel at home,” she says. “We’ve created a home there. Westport has really rubbed off on us.”
Lori laughs. “From the outside, it must have looked like I was living a ‘Sex in the City’ life. Suburbia to me meant Westchester. I always thought Connecticut would be stuffy. But Westport isn’t. It’s charming.”
COVID has caused many city residents to move here, she notes. She hopes they find this to be a great community too.
But — unless they keep their co-op — they can’t bring Westport life back to New York the way she did.
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