The Fourth of July is not one of those holidays that you can move a day or two in one direction or another to attach it to the nearest weekend, like Labor Day or Memorial Day. It is the Fourth, pure and simple. So what we get next week is a Wednesday holiday, which may be a welcome break in the middle of the week to some, but to us here at The Bee, it’s not fun at all since it comes in the meaty part of our newspaper production cycle.

By Monday and Tuesday, we usually build up quite a head of steam here, and by Wednesday in a normal week, fingers are flying across the keyboards and the network servers are humming as pages emerge on our computer screens. But when the Fourth of July falls on a Wednesday, we plunge headlong into an enforced day of sloth and potato salad from the slingshot of Tuesday, and the eerie apprehension of a free fall attends our Independence Day celebrations. We know full well that we are going to hit our Thursday deadline with a thud. But we always hit it dead on, no matter how much it hurts, because we like our readers a lot, and we don’t ever want to keep them waiting.

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal has his own way of coping with some of the rough spots in his work week. He arrived at Edmond Town Hall last week singing the theme song from the 1970s TV show Green Acres. Politicians these days have to have a thick skin and Herb, who was negatively compared to a character in Green Acres in last week’s Letter Hive in The Bee, took the humorous, yet stinging, criticism in stride and with a laugh of his own.

For years, the town symbol has been the rooster. Maybe we could change it to “Arnold the Pig.”

Joe Humeston of Newtown Savings Bank is looking for a few good men or women to take part in the annual Chamber of Commerce golf outing Thursday, July 26, at the Newtown Country Club. The shotgun tee off is at 2 pm. To register, call Pat Linnell at 426-8228.

Czaplicki triplets Mike, Patrick, and Megan are all grown up now and Mike is getting married this weekend in Burlington, Vermont. Patrick and Megan are going to be in the wedding.

The Newtown High School graduation last week was blessed with nice weather, but almost every graduation party since or before has been rained upon.

The first year of school is over for the kindergarten students. Sandy Hook School pre-first graders provided musical entertainment for their families last week. One little boy felt the show had gone on long enough; part-way into the second song he blurted out, “I think I’m going to faint. Can we sit down for a little bit?” This had the crowd roaring.

Kindergarten teacher Janet Vollmer was really into the songs the students were singing. One was “ABC Rock.” Janet’s back was to the parents, but if everyone had a side view they would have seen she was rockin’ right along with the best of the students and loving it.

The General Store is pretty busy at lunchtime. Orders are taken quickly for the specialty sandwiches, but watch out if you mistakenly take someone else’s sandwich or you have left yours on the counter. John, who works behind the sandwich counter, makes it his mission to find which sandwich belongs to each customer. Last week someone took the wrong sandwich and he flew from around the counter and out to the front of the store. You could probably hear him from The Bee, yelling to the customer who took the wrong sandwich to come back to get the correct one.

Children’s Librarian Alana Meloni brought magician George Franzen for a special show for children to kick off the summer reading program at the library. Mr Franzen had special bubbles that did not pop when you caught them or they landed on you, except of course for Mrs Meloni. Each time a bubble touched her it popped or shrunk. I am not sure what that says for the nice librarian, but one thing is for sure: magic was in the air!

Who was that man? I was walking down a corridor in Canaan House at Fairfield Hills, between the town land use department and the building department, when I saw a man who looked familiar. It looked like the younger brother of Town Engineer Ron Bolmer. But no, in fact it was Ron himself! I was fooled you see because Ron, who had kept a close-cropped mustache for the past 30 years, had shaved it off. When asked what had happened, Ron explained it was time for change.

The American Red Cross is putting out its call once again for holiday heroes to help make up the annual shortfall in blood supplies after the Fourth of July holiday. Newtown Youth Services is sponsoring a blood drive on Thursday, July 5, from 8:30 am to 6:45 pm at Edmond Town Hall to help in the cause. You can give blood if you are 17 or older, weigh more than 110 pounds, and are generally in good health. To make an appointment, call 800-GIVE LIFE.

You won’t need an appointment, however, to…

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