The stormy weather, Rooster Race postponement, and parade postponement have not given us much to smile about lately, but here’s a way to put a smile on your face: Sandy Hook-based professional comedian Andrew Kennedy will be one of the opening acts for “Comedy For A Cause: An Evening with Alexandra McHale and Friends,” a special event planned at the Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University, Friday, September 23, at 8 pm, to benefit Special Olympics Connecticut. The show will feature Fairfield University alumna and Connecticut native Alexandra McHale headlining, and a routine by Special Olympics athlete Brian Drexler. General admission tickets are $20 and may be purchased through the Quick Center box office by calling 203-254-4010 or 877-ARTS-396. VIP tickets are available for $50, and include an hors d’oeuvres and wine/beer reception at 7 pm, preferred seating, and a Meet & Greet after the show.

Here is something else to smile about this weekend. While September 11 has become for many a day for reflection upon events that occurred in 2001, Sue and Jim Shpunt have long felt differently about that day. It’s their wedding anniversary. And this weekend the Shpunts will celebrate their 40th anniversary! Congratulations to both of you.

I was pawing through some old issues of The Bee and came upon a poem in the September 18, 1936, edition that seemed apropos to our recent situation. Titled “Singing in the Dark,” the last stanza of the poem by Evelyn M. Hart reads:

“Ah! God of Life’s Garden — we’ll trust to Thy leading,

E’en when Earth’s pathway seems lonely and stark.

Then we shall learn from Thy sweet-throated songbirds

How we may also ‘Sing in the Dark.’”

I’m hoping there is no one still in Newtown learning to sing in the dark, by this point. Singing in the light, with music, seems a better idea to me. Customers of Starbucks have learned how to sing for their coffee, however. The Church Hill Road coffeehouse and gathering spot has been without music since Irene’s visit caused a power surge, and knocked out the business’s sound system. A note taped to the front of the register this week and last has offered apologies, and has also encouraged customers to sing a few bars of their favorite song. “We’ll sing along with you,” the note promises.

That reminds me: the first rehearsal of Newtown Choral Society took place this week but you can still join by attending Wednesday, September 14, at 7 pm, in the Newtown Middle School chorus room. The choral society is open to all who love to sing and love to learn about singing. The first concert of the year is scheduled for Saturday, December 3, at 7:30 pm. So far as I know, there is no singing in the dark. For information, contact NCS prez Laura Lerman at 203-426-3769.

James Pearson shared a delicious story with me. “A few weeks ago, my family went to the Stone River Grill for dinner, and my son, Daniel, was wearing his Newtown Baseball shirt. The owner, Gary Seri, came over to chat. He asked if my son had a game and we told him our team was going to be in the championship game the next night against Danbury,” says James. (This is the part that gets yummy.) “Gary told Daniel that if his team won, we should come back to the restaurant with proof and he’d make a special ‘King Kong’ dessert, just for him.” On July 31, Daniel’s team took the league championship. Several weeks later, the Pearsons and friends, the Winans, whose son, Peter, was also on the team, returned to Stone River Grill, along with a copy of the Bee article proving that their team had won. “Gary remembered his promise,” James says.   “A man of his word, he brought out a fried dough ice cream sundae to the boys and said, ‘Many have been served, but none have been sold!’” Gary says he can’t put the behemoth dessert on the menu, “Because it has to be earned.”  If only I could swing a bat.

I recently ran a photo of a big “kitty” from the woods that visited a local home off of Mt Pleasant Road. Now whether or not that was a mountain lion is still up in the air, but Lainie Willis of Trumbull is pretty darn sure that the cat loping across the road in front of her car last week on Huntingtown Road was a mountain lion. “His legs were about two feet off the ground, and he was a brown-gray in color, not spotted at all. He had a very long tail and a long body. He was lean,” she says. “It stopped me in my tracks. I felt like I was at the Beardsley Zoo for a moment,” says Lainie, who was on her way to Brushy Hill Road. “It was about a block away from my car, and then went into the woods,” she tells me. Having grown up in Easton, Lainie says she has seen her share of coyotes, and this animal was “definitely of the cat family — but not one I want in my yard!” As to the DEP’s assertion that mountain lions in Connecticut are extinct? “Well, this one just ‘de-extincted’ itself,” laughed Lainie.

The Lundstrom family sends this farewell to their cat, Tatty: “We miss you and love you very much. You brought so much sunshine to our lives for the little time you were here. RIP, Tatty.” Tat the Cat was the victim of a hit and run on Labor Day morning, on the road outside his home. Even though the family rushed him to the emergency vet clinic, his injuries were too severe, and he has gone to kitty Heaven. Just a reminder, everyone, there are lots of animals, wild and domestic, that suddenly appear in our roadways, and with school underway, a lot of kids waiting at the sides of the streets early in the morning. Please drive carefully. And if you hit an animal that is clearly a pet, please don’t leave it to die in the road. It just ain’t right.

Clive Cussler and his co-author, Newtown resident Justin Scott, are hoping to hit a homerun of their own, with the publication of the newest Isaac Bell Adventure, The Race. The novel is featured in a full page, color ad in the September 6 issue of The New York Times, and is also available from Penguin Audio and as a e-Book, according to the advertisement. Congratulations to both writers!

If you are a bit of a ham,  you’ll want to attend the annual Western Connecticut Hamfest on Sunday, September 11, from 8:30 am until 12:30 pm. The event will be in the gymnasium and lower parking lot of Edmond Town Hall. Admission is $6, and free for ages 10 and under. There will be lots going on — a raffle, door prizes, ham radio equipment (naturally), and computer gear, as well as refreshments and presentations by Steve Simons (W1SMS) and Bill Thoren (N1TIW). So tune in Sunday – rain or shine, the Hamfest goes on.

I’m always one for hamming it up, but not to worry: I’ll stop long enough to write next week’s column. Be sure to… Read me again.