Tag Archives: Time magazine

Roundup: Lynsey Addario, Joshua Bell …

Posted on April 17, 2026 | 2 comments

Westporters are justly proud of Lynsey Addario.

The 1991 Staples High School graduate’s photjournalism for the New York Times and National Geographic — along with her books, interviews, documentary and more — bring war, women’s issues, and (sometimes) hope into our lives.

Lynsey has received some major honors, including a Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur fellowship.

But now she’s officially one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.

Time magazine includes Lynsey on their 2026 list. And they asked another very influential person — Katie Couric — to write about her.

Couric says:

The most recent time I interviewed photojournalist Lynsey Addario, she was hunkered down in a bathtub in Kyiv, clad in a bulletproof PRESS vest and a combat helmet. This was just one of the many times she chose to go into the eye of the storm searching for truth and recording it for history.

Lynsey’s photos leave an indelible impression: A grief-stricken Ukrainian teacher being handed an assault rifle to fulfill her patriotic duty. Young girls in burqas reaching out, almost through the camera, as boys in T-shirts and shorts run and play around them. A makeshift hospital room where somehow, some way, an infant in a war zone is getting an IV drip and oxygen.

If 2026 has taught us anything, it’s the power of images. The people and places Lynsey captures may be strangers in foreign lands, but they remind us of our shared humanity. You don’t just look at Lynsey’s photos. You feel them—as if you are there. But you don’t have to be, because she is, risking her life and making us care. 

Click here for the Time story, and the complete 100 list.

Lynsey Addario …

… and one of her haunting images. (Photo/Lynsey Addario for the New York Times)

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A small group of Westport Country Playhouse supporters got a huge treat Tuesday evening.

Board of trustees chair Athena Adamson and her husband Daniel hosted them for a private concert with violinist Joshua Bell and his wife, soprano Larisa Martinez.

The event was a fundraiser for the Playhouse’s Joanne Woodward Internship Program.

Bell has a long association with Woodward and her late husband, Paul Newman, including performances for their Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. Their daughter Clea was in the audience Tuesday.

Bell — who told several stories, including the one behind his 313-year-old Stradivarius violin — explained that music by Mozart and other masters was written to be played in small, intimate events at the homes of individuals. So, he said, the setting was particularly appropriate.

The music was marvelous, memorable — and very, very intimate.

Joshua Bell performs on Tuesday …

… and his wife, Larisa Martinez. The pianist is Kamal Khan. (Photos/Kerry Long)

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Dogs were banned from Westport beaches on April 1.

On May 1 — 2 weeks from now — drivers without stickers will be prohibited too.

Parking emblems are on sale now, online and in the Parks & Recreation Department office in Longshore.

If you purchased stickers or registered for Parks & Rec programs in previous seasons, your online account is already set up. Click here to log in. Then select “Memberships.” Westporters type in “Resident”; Westonites type “Weston” in the search box. Follow the prompt to complete the purchase.

It will take 14-21 business days to receive your emblem by mail. For in-person purchases, office hours are weekdays, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

(Photo/Mark Marcus)

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Still figuring out your Arbor Day weekend plans?

Earthplace has you covered. “Toast to the Trees” (Saturday, April 25, 4 to 6 p.m.) is a family-friendly event, with something for everyone.

Visitors can take a self-guided trail walk through the 62-acre Earthplace sanctuary. Adults enjoy craft beer tastings, while children do nature-themed arts and crafts.

Nearby, in the beer garden and picnic grove, there’s live music, food trucks, lawn games and a campfire for s’mores.

100% of the proceeds benefit Earthplace nature education programs, scholarships and community outreach initiatives.

Tickets are $35 for adults, $15 for 21 and under. Click here to purchase. 

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There is only one agenda item for Monday’s Planning & Zoning Commission meeting (April 20, 6 p.m., Zoom).

Regarding the Imperial Avenue parking lot, it includes a request from the 1st Selectman “to extend the water line, to install a temporary seasonal single-use ADA compliant restroom and to restripe the parking to provide a net increase of 16 spaces including ADA compliant spaces.”

The Imperial Avenue parking lot — site of the Westport Farmers’ Market — is convenient to the Levitt Pavilion and Westport Library.

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In February, “06880” profiled Alex O’Brien.

The 13-year-old has created a booming business, taking very cool drone photos of Westport scenes, for individuals and businesses.

And he donates 10% of all profits to Homes with Hope’s food pantry.

This Saturday (April 18, noon to 2 p.m.), you can meet Alex.

He’ll be at Faherty (26 Main Street) for a pop-up event. As usual, Alex will donate 10% of each sale to Homes with Hope.

An added bonus: Faherty will give each customer a free canvas tote bag, in honor of Earth Month.

Downtown Westport, via Alex O’Brien’s drone. You can’t quite see Faherty, but it’s there on Main Street.

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A special Westport Country Playhouse symposium following this Sunday’s matinee of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “Primary Trust,” focuses on people in the local community who make a difference by helping others.

The highly regarded play examines the importance of human connection, the power of kindness, and the essential trust needed to navigate life’s changes

Panelists include Rev. Richard Williams, pastor and executive director of Pivot Ministries in Bridgeport, and Liz Moore, director of community relations for Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan.

The free Sunday Symposium will be moderated by Mark Shanahan, Playhouse artistic director. he play examines the importance of human connection, the power of kindness, and the essential trust needed to navigate life’s changes.

“Primary Trust” runs through May 2. For more details and tickets, click here. 

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The warm weather has many creatures stirring.

We’re featuring many, in our “Westport … Naturally” series. Today, for example:

Whitney Street (Richard Fogel)

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And finally … in honor of today’s “Westport … Naturally” photo (above):

(Don’t be a snake! If you enjoy “06880” — your 24/7/365, hyper-local blog — pony up. Please click here to support our massive amount of work, today and every day. Thank you!)

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Roundup: Miggs Burroughs, Dick Nixon, Butternut Squash …

Posted on November 11, 2023 | 3 comments

50 years ago tomorrow — November 12, 1973 — Time magazine published their first editorial ever. It called for the resignation of President Nixon.

The cover read “Nixon’s Jury: The People.” It showed 12 people, in various stages of contemplation about the Watergate scandal-engulfed chief executive.

That cover was drawn by Miggs Burroughs.

He was just 27 years old. Less than a decade earlier, he’d graduated from Staples High School.

“It was not my proudest moment artistically,” he recalled yesterday.

Because of an extremely tight deadline, he worked in the Time/Life office. Staffers ordered paint and supplies from the Arthur Brown Art Store nearby.

Then they stood over Miggs — with the doors barred — until he was done.

Because of its historical significance — it was the magazine’s first editorial, after all, the magazine is now in the Smithsonian Museum.

“Not the best looking jury ever convened,” Miggs added.

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As temperatures drop, the Westport Fire Department has partnered with Bridgeport Rescue Mission for a “Share the Warmth” coat drive.

New or gently used (and clean) winter coats, hats, mittens, gloves, scarves and snowsuits can be dropped off at Fire headquarters (515 Post Road East), the Senior Center and Town Hall through December 15.

Several schools will have collection boxes at their entrances, too.

Westport firefighters will sort and transport the items to the Bridgeport Rescue Mission.

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The Secretary of the State’s office has released official turnout results for Tuesday’s election.

In Westport, 45.6% of eligible voters cast ballots. That’s up from 43.1% in 2021 — the last town-wide election (although that also included state-wide races, like governor and the General Assembly).

Throughout Connecticut, turnout was 33.3% — exactly one-third of eligible voters.

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Last month, Westporter Walter Fischel was evacuated from Ashkelon, Israel, where he had lived and worked for 9 months. Because there was so much uncertainty around when and if he would return to work, he decided to travel.

Last week he landed in South Africa to visit friends. On his way to meet them, he was carjacked and shot in the face.

Though he will make a full recovery, his passport, phone and credit cards were stolen.

He got a new passport and should be well enough to travel next week, but his accounts have been frozen since the robbery and he is unable to book a flight home.

All funds raised will go directly to Fischel, to assist with travel, medical expenses, and living expenses for him and his family.

Click here for the GoFundMe page.

Walter Fischel

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Linda Doyle writes:

“Back in the spring I bought some pre-cut butternut squash from Trader Joe’s. At the bottom of the tray I found 1 seed, and put it in water.

“It sprouted, so I stuck it into a small pot with soil. It turned into a little plant.

“Thrilled to see the growth, I stuck it in the ground. Amazingly, that 1 seed became a huge vine over 25 feet long!

“My daughter Mikayla and I tended to it all summer. We just harvested 5 beautiful monster-sized butternut squashes. Never underestimate the power of one small seed!”

Mikayla and Linda Doyle, and their butternut squashes.

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Aspetuck Land Trust’s next “fall lunch and learn” webinar could not be more timely.

Arborist Chris Teter discusses fall foliage (Friday, November 17, noon to 1:30 p.m.). He’ll explain the biology of leaves on trees and shrubs in autumn, highlight their significance in the ecosystem, then connect it to urban and suburban settings.

He’ll also provide information on how to use leaves to enhance both beauty and ecological value.

Click here to learn more, and register.

Just another fall day, at Staples High School. (Photo/Dayle Brownstein)

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Speaking of foliage: Todd Suchotliff’s shot of the Longshore entrance road on Tuesday is today’s very worthy “Westport … Naturally” image:

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And finally … in honor of Miggs Burrough’s Time magazine cover, 50 years ago tomorrow (story above):

(From Watergate to winter coats, butternut squash to fall foliage, “06880” is your place for hyper-local news. Please click here to support our work. Thank you!)  

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Posted in Arts, Environment, Local politics, Media

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“Covering” COVID In Westport

Posted on March 20, 2020 | 6 comments

As we end the first week of our new, hunker-down normal, plenty of people have time on their hands.

Not to mention, Time on their hands.

The newsmagazine — which, honestly, I did not know still existed — has published a special online edition about the pandemic. There are 6 different covers.

The very first one shows a 51-year-old Stamford woman. As the text explains, she was infected at a Westport party.

When photographer Angela Strassheim went recently to visit Cheryl Chutter in Stamford, Conn., she was there not on assignment, but as a friend. Chutter, 51, was diagnosed with COVID-19 on March 17.

Chutter was on her first day of quarantine, and Strassheim had come by to leave some food for Chutter and her son outside the door. As she approached the house, she saw Chutter in the window wearing a face mask, and was struck by how powerfully the mask seemed to visually convey the frustration, fear and isolation her friend was feeling. Strassheim asked if she could take a quick photo on her iPhone, and came back the next day with her camera. “For me it sums up where we are at right now. We are all imprisoned in our homes and the window is like a mirror to look back at ourselves,” she says. “You are that same person in your own home whether you have the mask on or not.”

Chutter thinks she was infected when she attended a birthday party in Westport, Conn., in early March. About a week after the gathering, she learned that one of the attendees, who had recently traveled abroad, had tested positive for COVID-19. By then, she had already been once to a hospital and once to an urgent care facility due a high fever, chills, body aches and utter exhaustion. But it was only after she discovered she’d been in contact with someone at the party who was diagnosed with COVID-19 that she was able to get a test, since kits were so scarce.

When she finally received her positive test result on March 17—after eight days in quarantine—she said one word: “Relief, I felt relief. I knew now that my dad can get tested. I just want to be safe. I want to take care of my son, be considerate to other people and I don’t want to leave my house till quarantine is over.” Since the party, 20 attendees have tested positive.

Entering her second week of quarantine, Chutter is trying to stay positive, but the social isolation—especially the forced estrangement from her son—is emotionally challenging. “I was told to have as little contact with my son as possible,” she says. “I can’t prepare meals for him. I wear a mask and gloves in the house. I can’t be near him.” —Paul Moakley and Alice Park

(For this, and Time’s other stories on coronavirus victims, click here. Hat tip: A dozen-plus readers.)

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Posted in Environment, Media

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Miggs Burroughs: Time For Merle Haggard

Posted on April 7, 2016 | 6 comments

Most Westporters knew Merle Haggard — if they knew him at all — as the singer-songwriter of the proud-to-be-a-hippie-hater “Okie From Muskogee.”

But Miggs Burroughs knew Haggard — who died Wednesday, on his 79th birthday — in a different way.

More than 40 years ago — in June of 1973 — Time Magazine asked the 27-year-old artist to create the cover for a story on the country music “outlaw hero.”

“I wasn’t a fan at the time,” Miggs recalls.

“I painted it on real barn siding to make it look as haggard as possible. I liked it, they liked it, and proofs were printed.”

The Time cover readers never saw.

The Time cover readers never saw.

But Merle complained, and the editors swapped Miggs’ artwork out for a photographic cover.

He sighs. “Then it was me who looked haggard.”

PS: 14 months later, Miggs painted another Time cover — the one announcing Richard Nixon’s resignation. The disgraced president didn’t like hippies either.

6 Comments

Posted in Arts, Entertainment, History, People

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Tyler Hicks Photo In Time’s Top 10

Posted on December 3, 2013 | 4 comments

Time magazine has announced its Top 10 Photos of 2013. Included in the images — nearly all of disasters, either natural or man-made — is a shot from September’s mall massacre in Nairobi, Kenya.

Staples graduate Tyler Hicks — a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times photographer who lives nearby — raced to the scene. He took this shot:

Tyler Hicks Time photo

Tyler described the scene this way, in Time:

It was clear that something catastrophic was developing when I arrived at Nairobi’s upscale Westgate Mall. Gunfire had been reported, and I witnessed hundreds of victims streaming out of the building, many of them shot and bloodied. I realized this was the attack people had warned about since I moved here two years ago. Al Shabab militants were waging a violent attack on a crowded target frequented by foreigners.

After photographing the panic outside, I turned my focus to finding an approach into the mall, where I found a small number of disorganized Kenyan police and army, mixed with terrified masses trying to escape the attackers. From an upper floor I moved to the balcony of the atrium to glimpse the bloodshed below.

Bodies of victims lay lifeless where they fell, and among them a terrified woman remained stranded with two children in a café. They remained there, petrified, with quiet, everyday music continuing to play over the mall’s sound system.

I took some photographs and then retreated from the exposed position. The woman and children were later rescued unharmed.

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Lynsey Addario In Afghanistan

Posted on February 21, 2010 | Comments Off on Lynsey Addario In Afghanistan

Westport is justly proud of our trio of world-famous photojournalists:  Lynsey Addario, Tyler Hicks and Spencer Platt.  All are Staples graduates from the 1980s.

Last week, both Lynsey (the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and a 2009 Pulitzer Prize) and Tyler (who shared that 2009 Pulitzer for International Reporting) have had gripping photos in the New York Times, from Afghanistan and Haiti.

Now check out the February 21 edition of Time magazine.  Lynsey has contributed an insightful photo-essay on medical evaluation units in Afghanistan.

In the 1950s and ’60s, Famous Photographers School made Westport proud.  Five decades later, 3 home-grown photojournalists are doing the same.

Lynsey Addario captures the urgency of a medical evacuation. (Photo courtesy of Time magazine)

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