Friday, January 22, 2021
The Sound Person of the Week
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Cari Jansen: I Think That I Shall Never See...
Published Jan. 20, 2021 08:30 a.m.It happens every year after the holidays are over: What to do with the tree?
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Thayer Talbott: It’s All About Community
Published Jan. 13, 2021 08:30 a.m.Thayer Talbott gets to do something special at work: Give away money.
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Mandy Carroll: The Merchant of Chester
Published Jan. 06, 2021 08:30 a.m.Mandy Carroll says she should have seen it all coming at the beginning on 2020 when she was asked to design the T-shirt for Chester Rotary’s Four on the Fourth race.
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Carol LeWitt: An Opening to the Future
Published Dec. 23, 2020 08:30 a.m.Closing down in the face of COVID-19 was an unexpected problem. Opening up once again, though most welcome, has its challenges, too. And it is those challenges to which Carol LeWitt has been devoting time and energy.
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Jack Frost: Help is on the Way
Published Dec. 16, 2020 08:30 a.m.When Jack Frost retired five years ago, he changed his business card. In his professional career, it read Banker. In retirement, he changed it to read Helper. When people ask him what that means, his answer is succinct: “I help.”
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Margaret Morgan: Better to Give
Published Dec. 09, 2020 08:30 a.m.It’s the time for gifts—not only the gifts on Santa’s list but the things that come without asking: calendars in all sizes, decals from groups that recipients supported, embossed pencils from different organizations.
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Josh Harp: Flip the Light Switch
Published Dec. 02, 2020 08:30 a.m.Josh Harp is the volunteer who climbs the ladder to put up the holiday lights for the Illuminations show on the Ivoryton Green. And why is that?
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Dagmar Miller: Flower Girl
Published Nov. 25, 2020 08:30 a.m.Dagmar Miller knows the truism of the season: If this is Thanksgiving, it is time to decorate for Christmas.
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Carolyn Learned: A Chance Worth Taking
Published Nov. 18, 2020 08:30 a.m.Carolyn Learned would like you to take a chance—not just any chance, but a chance on Chester. And this chance and not really so chancy; it’s designed to be a winner all the way around.
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Clara Miller: Home Sweet Home
Published Nov. 11, 2020 08:30 a.m.Let’s start this story with a quiz about the Wizard of Oz: What does Dorothy say when she wakes up in her bed in Kansas after her adventures in the land of Oz? Remember? It’s “There’s no place like home!”
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Linalynn Schmelzer: Shall We Dance?
Published Nov. 04, 2020 08:30 a.m.You can dance in a ballroom, on a stage, or even at a high school prom, but that’s not where Linalynn Schmelzer was dancing.
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Tula McDougal: The Sweet Life
Published Oct. 28, 2020 08:30 a.m.Here’s an easy question: What’s the most popular ice cream flavor? Yes, it’s vanilla, says Tula McDougal, who with her daughter Christiana Barabe has recently opened Honeycone, an ice cream shop on Chester’s Main Street.
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Colin Bennett: It’s All About Community
Published Oct. 21, 2020 08:30 a.m.When he needed a used refrigerator, Colin Bennett did what any media savvy Gen-Xer would do: He put the word out of Facebook.
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Christine Carpino: Never Too Young for a Good Book?
Published Oct. 14, 2020 08:30 a.m.A good book lingers in the memory. Christina Carpino, the new children and teen librarian at the Essex Library, knows that
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Nicole Fauteux: No More Back to School
Published Oct. 07, 2020 08:30 a.m.It’s coming to an end, but Nicole Fauteux has spent the fall doing something she never anticipated, going back to school. At 27 and a graduate of the University of New Haven, Nicky thought she was all done, but not only did Nicky go back to school, she went back as far as elementary school.
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Marybeth Ellison: Advocating for Children
Published Sep. 30, 2020 08:30 a.m.Marybeth Ellison is worried. Yes, yes, everybody is worried these days, but her worry has a particular focus: children with special needs. Marybeth is a pediatrician in Essex specializing in children with developmental challenges.
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Jennifer Carlson: Days at the Museum
Published Sep. 23, 2020 08:30 a.m.Jennifer Carlson is about to do something for the second time this year that most people shudder to think about doing once. She and her husband Ben are packing up again for another move in less than 12 months.
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Kevin Joyce: Paddle Tennis Anyone?
Published Sep. 16, 2020 08:30 a.m.Do what your physician recommends: exercise. But how to do it in the era of COVID-19, especially with warm weather dissolving into fall and winter? Kevin Joyce has a suggestion. Play paddle tennis.
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Charlene Voyce: Lighting the Night
Published Sep. 09, 2020 08:30 a.m.Once it was so simple nobody thought about it. Now it is one of the questions COVID-19 makes us grapple with every day: how to connect with people?
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Loriann Mancuso: On the Run
Published Sep. 02, 2020 08:30 a.m.Loriann Mancuso is running the Boston Marathon—in Essex and Old Saybrook.
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Chris Groat: Going to the Dogs
Published Aug. 26, 2020 08:30 a.m.President Franklin Roosevelt served them to the King and Queen of England on their only visit to the United States in 1939.
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Matt Resnisky: The Brew that is True
Published Aug. 19, 2020 08:30 a.m.What would you use a stove-top popcorn popper for? Think beyond the obvious here.
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Amy Zupan: A Watery Tale
Published Aug. 12, 2020 08:30 a.m.Amy Zupan was surprised. She thought, given the particular challenges of this summer, that activity at the Safe Harbor Marina at Essex Island would be slower than usual. Amy is the manager at Essex Island.
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Alex Welch: Food, Glorious Food
Published Aug. 05, 2020 08:30 a.m.Now, here is some real news: Kids are not only eating Brussels sprouts, they are even asking for seconds—at least at Camp Hazen YMCA in Chester.
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Hila Rosen: Expecting the Unexpected
Published July 29, 2020 08:30 a.m.To say that this year has not turned out the way Hila Rosen expected it to is an understatement. Still, it is the place to begin.
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Samantha Steinmacher: Did You Say Stress?
Published July 22, 2020 08:30 a.m.Samantha Steinmacher knows stress. In fact, stress is her business and with all the complications of COVID-19, stress has not been in short supply.
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Karin Badger: Re-Decoration Day
Published July 15, 2020 08:30 a.m.It’s a familiar decorating story: Paint the ceiling and the walls look so drab, you decide to paint them, too.
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John Divis: Where’s the Fire?
Published July 08, 2020 08:30 a.m.John Divis didn’t want to, but he has had to change his Monday night schedule.
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Mike Long: The Long and Short of It
Published July 01, 2020 08:30 a.m.When Mike Long learned about Sustainable Essex, he had no hesitation. He knew he wanted to be involved.
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John Williams: Par for the Course
Published June 24, 2020 08:30 a.m.What does a park look like in your mind’s eye: a playscape for youngsters to climb all over, maybe a basketball court for teens, or, if you live in Chester, a nine-hole disc golf course?