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Due to today’s weather, the Westport Weston Family Y is closed all day. It will reopen tomorrow (Saturday).
The Senior Center has canceled all of activities, including the lunch program. Questions or concerns? Call 203-341-5099.
In addition, the Westport Library has delayed its opening until 11 a.m.
Closed today.
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The Staples boys basketball team is gunning for their first FCIAC championship since 1962. It won’t be easy — but tomorrow’s quarterfinal game should be a great one.
It’s against Fairfield Warde (Saturday, 5 p.m.) — at Fairfield Warde. It’s a rematch of a fantastic contest a couple of weeks ago, when the Wreckers edged the Mustangs by 1 point in a thriller before a packed house. Though Staples is the higher seed, Warde is the site of all 4 quarterfinals.
Staples finished 15-5 this year, tied for 3rd place. They play exciting basketball, and Warde will pack their home gym with fans.
If you can’t get to Fairfield Warde, click here for the livestream.
Staples boys basketball fans packed the Wreckers’ gym, earlier this year. (Photo courtesy of The Ruden Report)
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Who knew? One of the unintended consequences of COVID is that head lice has pretty much vanished.
And who knew that that would have an unintended consequence: the closing of Hair Genies Lice Treatment, on the Post Road near Calise’s.
Just a month before the pandemic, Westport-based Sharkey’s was expanding its Hair Genies franchise with new locations in Houston and Frisco, Texas. Those were halted immediately. Now comes the closure of the Westport site.
The good news is that Sharkey’s Cuts for Kids — the parent business — is opening 46 new locations in 2022. Their original Westport spot is now the #1 location throughout the entire brand (104 current sites).
Sharkey’s newest brand — EveryHomeShouldHaveAChallah.com — is also in full expansion mode. They’re leasing additional space on the Post Road to meet our expansion plans for both brands.
Hair Genies — aka Lice Treatment Institute — on the Post Road is closed.
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Westport’s 16th annual Martin Luther King Day program — a keynote address by Heather McGhee, whose book The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together spent 10 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, and whose TED talk “Racism Has a Cost for Everyone” reached 1 million views in just 2 months — has been rescheduled for May 18. The original January date was postponed due to COVID.
To attend in person at the Westport Library, click here. For the livestream, click here. To purchase copies of The Sum of Us, click here.
The event is sponsored by the Westport Library, Westport Country Playhouse, TEAM Westport, Westport/Weston Interfaith Council, and Westport/Weston Interfaith Clergy.
Heather McGhee
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Where do you go after winning an Olympic medal?
For Julia Marino — the Westporter who took a snowboarding silver in China — it was off to Milan. She’s sponsored by Prada, and Fashion Week beckoned.
Click here to see Julia on the runway. She’s on at the 7:55 mark. Just after (ahem) Kim Kardashian.
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It’s 2022. You know that practicing meditation just a few minutes every day can improve mental health and emotional wellbeing; increase focus, productivity, and creativity; promote kindness; reduce anxiety; manage addiction and pain; help heal grief, even regulate sleep patterns.
But if you’re uncertain how meditation can work for you: Relax!
The Westport Library and Pause + Purpose — the new mindfulness studio, across from the Library on Jesup Road — are partnering on a new monthly event series.
The event is called “Self-Checkout” (get it?!). The first event is next Wednesday (March 2, 6 to 7 p.m., Westport Library).
Emily Tuttle — founder of Pause + Purpose — will discuss why there’s a need for a positive communal space to explore meditation. That’s followed by a discussion on parenting during uncertain times, and guided group meditation
Click here for more information, and to register.
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Winter is still hanging on.
So is this creature — the subject of today’s “Westport … Naturally” photo.
(Photo/Betsy Pollak)
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And finally … Mark Lanegan, part of the 1980s and ’90s Pacific Northwest grunge scene as a singer with Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age, died Tuesday at his home in Ireland. He was 57. He had struggled with drug use in the past, and been hospitalized with COVID last year.
The New York Times said
Though his stints in Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age and the Gutter Twins (a collaboration with Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs) never brought him the kind of fame achieved by other Seattle grunge bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden, Mr. Lanegan nevertheless drew attention for his deep, world-weary voice that could take a song to both soaring heights and melancholy lows….
His voice could be a haunting, mournful rasp, conveying mystery or, as he got older, weariness and vulnerability. Its evocative power made Mr. Lanegan a favorite of critics and especially of fellow musicians. Among his many varied collaborations were recordings with the British alt-rock star PJ Harvey and Tinariwen, a group of nomad African blues masters from the Malian desert.
And this:
In his memoir, he chronicled his journey from a “self-loathing redneck” to a rock star to a homeless heroin addict, and said (Kurt) Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love, had helped get him to rehab after Mr. Cobain’s death.
Click here for a full Times obituary.
