Pilot Pen Tennis Tournament ticket holders will want to prick up their ears and pay attention before the final match on Saturday, August 23. That voice behind “America The Beautiful,” performed a cappella on the center court will be Newtown’s aspiring thespian, 12-year-old Taylor Varga. Taylor and his family were notified just last Thursday night that he had been selected following a recent audition to perform at the tournament being held at the Connecticut Tennis Center in New Haven. It’s a exciting opportunity for Taylor, who has been seen in the lead roles in many local theater productions, including Oliver in 2006 at the Portuguese Cultural Center in Danbury, as Snoopy in the Sabrina Post Production You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown at Edmond Town Hall Theater this past January, and most recently as JoJo in Seussical, The Musical, also at Edmond Town Hall Theater. The Pilot Pen Tennis Tournament, with coverage by both CBS and ESPN2, provides Taylor with the potential to be heard by more than 100 million viewers, a big career boost to the singer who has also recently auditioned for the NYC Broadway production, Mary Poppins. I don’t have tickets myself, but I’ll be tuned in to CBS hoping to hear Taylor. And to think we knew him when….

There is still time to squeeze in a vacation before school starts. With lots of people opting to take to the road and not the friendly skies, audio books for those road trips have been flying off the shelves at the C.H. Booth Library. Audio book lovers might want to check out this website before heading off into the summer sunset, though. At librivox.org, books that are in the public domain are read by volunteers and the audio files released back onto the Internet. The goal of the organization, according to its website, is to make public domain books available as free audio books. Book titles include the Bible, several titles by Louisa May Alcott, Stokes’ Dracula, the Dr Doolittle series, and Jack London’s adventure novels. It’s worth taking a listen.

It was so gusty and windy during Tuesday afternoon’s Sandy Hook Organic Farmers’ Market, Dottie Evans tells me, that it took four husky farmers to wrestle one of the big white tents into submission and bring it back to its proper place covering a vegetable display stall. The tent had blown inside out like an umbrella and was headed upside down for the parking lot when the men grabbed its corner poles. Luckily, no beefsteak tomatoes or giant zucchini were sucked into the updraft.

I like to browse the old issues of The Newtown Bee — the really old editions — and I came across an interesting little article in the August 25, 1933, newspaper titled, “Writers Prefer Cats.” According to the author, C.M. Littlejohn, “English scholars, French writers, and American authors have in innumerable instances been possessors of quiet and cuddlesome cats that have shared their thoughts by the hearth and doubtless fitted into, if not stimulated, their writing moods.” I have to say, I find my human counterparts quite stimulating when putting forth each week’s column, so I guess it works both ways, and transcends generations. What confuses me now is the number of dogs here in the office if it is cats that are stimulating to writers.

Goodbyes are always a little sweet and sad, and that’s the case as Newtown bid farewell to town dispatcher Christopher Belair this Wednesday, August 20. Chris has served the town for nearly ten years, and will be missed by all. But it’s on to bigger and better things for him: following his graduation from the police academy, Chris will serve as a police officer for the city of Danbury. We wish him only the best of luck.

Steve Meeker, one of the organizers for this year’s Newtown Road Race benefiting Newtown Youth & Family Services being held August 30, says that the blue shirts worn by this year’s 75 volunteers will have a special tribute to the late Bee sports editor Kim Harmon this year. The backs of each shirt will read “Volunteer” with “in memory of Kim Harmon” printed just beneath. “Kim was a big supporter of the race and incredibly generous with his time. None of us really knew how to organize a race and Kim really gave us a platform to get the word out,” said Steve in a recent e-mail to The Bee. It never ceases to amaze me how such a quiet guy at work touched so many lives in the community while he lived. Thanks, Kim. Hope you hear me.

Speaking of sports, our new sports editor, Andy Hutchison, wants to remind all of the high school kids that the bulk of the try-outs for fall NHS sports take place this coming Saturday, August 23. Contact the school or the coach if you haven’t done so, and make sure those sports physicals are up to date.

I was really looking forward to seeing Sandy Hook strong man Derek Poundstone rip a phone book in half and otherwise impress me with feats of strength at the Labor Day Parade this year, but apparently he is doing so well in competition that he won’t be in town September 1. But Labor Day Parade Committee President Kym Stendahl has cheered me up by telling me that the amazing Trilby String Band from Philadelphia is going to be bringing their music and elaborately costumed extravaganza to town. The band originated in Philadelphia in 1898 and is named for the heroine of a popular George Du Maurier novel of the time. Since then, they have marched in the annual Philadelphia Mummers New Year’s Day Parade each year, and all over the region. I guess they heard about our fabulous end of summer event here in Newtown, called Kym and asked if they could take part (well, they do expect to be paid….), and now I’m rubbing my paws together in anticipation of this new addition to my favorite parade. Of course, in order to pay all of the bands that we so look forward to hearing each year during the parade, it takes a bit of moolah, and the parade committee is banking (excuse the pun) on residents donating to support the parade. Send donations to Newtown Savings Bank, where a special fund is waiting to receive your check. For more information visit newtownctlabordayparade.org.

Another area parade resulted in prizes for two of our local fire companies, Botsford Fire/Rescue Company and Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue Company. The firefighters and their super shiny trucks stepped out for the annual Bridgewater Country Fair Firemen’s Parade last Friday night, August 15, despite rainy conditions that threatened to dampen spirits. But plenty of people turned out in the drizzle for the fair’s kick-off to the weekend. Congratulations, at any rate, to our hometown winners.

In my mind, resident Andrea Banyas is a winner for coming across a website for opting out of getting phone directory delivery, and sharing it in a letter to The Letter Hive this week. Check it out, if you are as tired as I am of having pounds of paper dropped on your doorstep each summer. Good advice, Andrea, and I’m wondering if someone shouldn’t let AT&T know so that they can direct inquiring consumers to the site…. No doubt that whoever has had to remove the unwanted phone directories overflowing the barrels in front of the Queen Street AT&T office (not a recycling center, remember, according to AT&T) will be eternally grateful if less books are delivered next year to our town.

I’m off to take my name off of the delivery list. But don’t take your name off the delivery list for The Bee. Next week, I want you to…. Read me again.