Old man winter was a little less cantankerous this week, giving us a break from some well-aimed snowballs that came out of the Midwest and the mid-Atlantic last week. The sun came out and stayed out for most of the week, loosening the grip of the old guy in these last few days before the vernal equinox this Sunday.

The robins are back, the pussy willows are plumping up, and it won’t be long before we are seeing snowdrops and crocuses on Gordon Williams’ front lawn on Main Street.

When it comes to celebrating birthdays at The Bee, the employees here are like that little girl with a curl. When they’re good, they’re very, very good. When they’re bad, they have a week like last week.

Around midmorning on March 10, the editorial department was gently reminded that Dottie Evans was celebrating a birthday that day... and no one seemed to have remembered. A quick trip to the grocery store resulted in at least a cake for Dottie’s big day. Who tipped us off? It was Dottie’s mom, Mary Mitchell, who called in with the reminder.

On Friday it wasn’t until late afternoon that the Bee’s production department realized they should have been celebrating Lynn Johnson’s birthday. The dregs of Dottie’s cake of the day before were “borrowed,” someone found some candles to light up the half-eaten cake, and a round of “Happy Birthday” rang out just in time to save the day.

The celebrating was far more intentional on Friday night, however. Several Bee staffers joined a party of family and friends comprising a rather sedentary mosh pit at Mocha Coffee House in Sandy Hook for Bee Reporter John Voket. John was the evening’s featured entertainer. On stage from 7 to 10 pm beneath the tasseled chandelier in the performer’s corner, the multitalented Mr Voket managed to juggle guitar, mandolin and harmonica while orchestrating an occasional prerecorded accompaniment on his iPod and singing along in a lyrical baritone voice. His repertoire included pop, rock, and blues from the 1970s and 1980s, “when I was but a lad in high school, totally enthralled with the music of the time,” John said. The coordination of the audience was repeatedly tested as they struggled to applaud enthusiastically while sipping hot lattes and forking down huge mouthfuls of chocolate cake. When it was all over, everyone left Mocha humming a few tunes, and John noted there was a “Swedish smorgasbord of crumbs all over the floor.”

Scott Sharlow, the coordinator of the town’s geographic information system, has an office located in the upper reaches of Edmond Town Hall, in the area behind the stage of the Alexandria Room. It seems that recently the folks who run the movie theater in Edmond Town Hall have taken to storing large volumes of popped popcorn near Scott’s office, creating an especially intense, pervasive popcorn aroma — not unlike The Bee’s classified department after a Cub Scout tour. While one may think that the popcorn that one buys at the movie theater is popped just before it is purchased, the snack is actually popped well before it ever gets to the building and is stored in volume until needed.

I recently took in a rehearsal of Show Boat, Newtown High School’s upcoming musical set to unveil the second weekend in April. Despite a change of directors and cast substitutions, Show Boat is steaming ahead. From just the small snippet we heard, the voices were strong and the performances passionate. As NHS music department head Michelle Hiscavich says, it’s “all about the students.” No doubt. The kids have clearly stepped up to the plate.

As a final note, I would like to bid a fond farewell to Larissa Lytwyn, whose name means laughter and whose personality and machinegun conversational style generates lots of it. Larissa is taking a position as editor of the Easton Courier. I wish her great success in her new job.

Since there aren’t too many newspaper positions for black cats with only a loose grasp of the facts and a penchant for gossip, I will be desperately hanging on to my job here at The Bee. So be sure to…

Read me again.