Newtown’s pale and vitamin D-deficient citizens came blinking out into the sunlight last weekend after the clouds rolled back for the first time since… I don’t know, the Nixon administration was it? People didn’t know quite what to make of the sunshine, and most had misplaced their sunglasses long ago, so there was a lot of squinting and lack of recognition of familiar things… “Ma, is that you? C’mon in here out of the light so I can see you.” It was kind of unsettling. Fortunately, the rain returned by midweek and life could get back to normal.

They had to play the Newtown Scholarship Association Jack Friel Memorial Golf Tournament in the sunshine on Monday, but that didn’t stop a full complement of players from showing up for the benefit event. I saw Dr Bob Grossman on Monday just before he headed off to play in the tourney at the Whitney Farms course in Monroe. He let slip that he currently has a 36-shot handicap for his golf game. I know surgeons are pretty good at slicing, but I didn’t know they were that good!

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal spent a couple of hours Wednesday noon standing outside in the rain at the annual Senior Citizens’ Picnic held at Dickinson Park. While the seniors stayed dry dancing and playing cards under the shelter of the park pavilion, Herb was consigned to the lawn where he worked the grill, flipping burgers and turning hot dogs for a picnic lunch. Since he had forgotten his chef’s apron at home, Senior Center Director Marilyn Place fashioned a replacement using a large plastic bag. “It works fine,” said Herb, “but I have to be careful not to get too close to the fire, I might burn up!” Combusting in a downpour would be quite some trick –– even for a politician in an election year.

Peg Daley was limping somewhat this week as a result of recent knee surgery, but she showed up at the Danbury Boughton Street YMCA to cheer on fellow members of the synchronized swimming team who were being photographed for a feature article in The Bee. Unable to swim as yet, Mrs Daley donned her swimsuit for a team photo.

Jim Healey says it is amazing what can happen when your photo gets published in The Bee. Jim’s photo was published a few weeks ago when he was named Knight of the Year in Connecticut by the Knights of Columbus for his volunteer work with charitable organizations in Bridgeport and other areas. When rain put a damper on the tag sale held recently by the local skateboard park boosters, and everyone wondered what to do with the leftovers, Jim’s name came to mind. Jim was called to bring his Honda station wagon to collect all the strollers, high chairs, and clothing and take the items to the Daughters of Charity in Bridgeport. The weather also rained out a planned college graduation party that day, so Jim wound up the recipient of many loaves of bread and pounds of lunchmeat and cheese, which he and his wife took to Spooner House, a homeless shelter for men, women, and children in Derby. Jim says he didn’t know any of the donors, but has come to realize that Newtown is a very giving community.

Newtown’s State Representative Julia Wasserman insists that she never asked for the honor of having a road named after her, but she does admit that she is kind of partial to Wasserman Way because it winds quite nicely through Fairfield Hills, which is near and dear to her heart. So you can imagine her disappointment when she was exiting I-84 the other day and saw the state had erected a sign at the end of the Exit 11 ramp directing motorists to turn left for “Mile Hill Road,” which of course was the former name of Wasserman Way. Ever the advocate of clarity over confusion, Julia complained that the sign should be changed or the name of the road should be changed back to what it was. The great honor notwithstanding, she didn’t want her name associated in any way with such a glaring mistake.

The change basket by the newspaper stand in the front lobby of The Bee operates on the honor system. We rarely notice who is buying papers and whether they are leaving the right amount of change. On Wednesday, someone left one dollar in nickels, dimes, and pennies in an Altoids mint tin box in the basket. The dollar was too much for the 65-cent Newtown Bee and too little for the $1.50 Antiques and The Arts Weekly, which are both for sale in the lobby. To balance the books, the boss is counting the value of the tin as 50 cents and assuming that the payment was for the antiques paper. He declined to accept my theory that it was actually a 35-cent tip left for me because of my excellent work on last week’s column in The Bee.

Tip or not, I’ll be back next week, so be sure to…

Read me again.