It must have been the Full Harvest Moon on Wednesday night, or the fact that Mars, that feisty red planet, was passing closer to Earth than usual. Whatever the reason, a few bad cats have been hanging out, lately, howling off the back fence and behaving in all sorts of unacceptable ways.

For one thing, Newtown’s graffiti artists have been skulking around town at midnight again. They were busy this week, leaving their signatures on the new railroad bridge over Church Hill Road and they’ve decorated the new brick-red panels over the boarded-up windows at the former Grand Union supermarket.

And poor Jim Gaston just has not been getting the sympathy he deserves. When he limped painfully into the Board of Finance meeting this week, nobody seemed to care about what might have been the problem with his foot. Instead, they wanted to know what that growth was around his chin. Jim explained he had had surgery last week, and he didn’t have anything else to do, so he decided to sit around the house and grow a beard. As other members of the board and First Selectman Herb Rosenthal arrived, they asked about his beard and he had to explain, over and over, why the change in his usual clean-shaven appearance. Beard or no, we hope your foot feels better soon, Jim.

Back to the topic of outlandish behavior, we know there is one thwarted Library Book Sale thief somewhere out there looking for something to read, preferably romantic fiction in a southern setting. One man attending the Booth Library Labor Day Book Sale tried to pass a bad check, and failed. “We had been warned about him a couple of years ago, so we were on the lookout –– lying in wait for him,” said book sale Chairman Joanne Zang. “When he realized his check had been flagged, he took off like a shot, leaving a big, flatbed cart loaded down with fiction. All we know is, he had Virginia plates.”

Another thief has been redeemed by a guilty conscience. Mary Fellows, organizer of the Sandy Hook Organic Farmers’ Market, wants everyone to know that the large tomato sign that she made to advertise the market has been returned after disappearing a few weeks ago. Mary said she had just made a new sign, when she found the missing one had been returned and left outside the church. Now, she’ll have two signs for next year. She also reminds everyone that the market will continue every Tuesday until October 21, from 9 am to 1 pm, behind St John’s Episcopal Church.

When I visited the town clerk’s office in Edmond Town Hall last week, I thought I had stumbled onto the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. Carol Mayhew was using a piece of personal computing gear so sleek and futuristic looking, it appeared to have come from the set of the television series Star Trek. I half expected Mr Spock to come around the corner to make some adjustments to Carol’s new computer.

Then I needed to use the office’s new photocopier but I quickly saw that it had more switches on it than the dashboard on the Space Shuttle. I was trying to make a standard copy on standard-size paper. Good luck. Doing that seems about as simple as finding as plain doughnut in a doughnut shop or finding a cup of ordinary coffee at Starbucks. I think I should read the instruction manual.

All this talk of doughnuts and coffee has my taste buds watering. By next spring, Ferris Acres, a dairy farm on Route 302, plans to have in operation its ice cream store selling ice cream made on the premises. Although there’s a similar farm ice cream stand in Oxford, there’s nothing else quite like what the Ferris family has in mind. I’ll take mint mouse chip…or maybe catnip crunch.

Since Steve Gordon has gone on sabbatical from his job as pastor at the Congregational Church, he appears to have set up shop at the Misty Vale Deli in Sandy Hook. The phone was ringing in the deli this week, and out of the blue, Steve rushed in and grabbed it. “It’s for me!” he announced. How did he know that?

Judy Volpe is looking for walkers and sponsors for her team that will participate in the annual Making Strides for Breast Cancer walk on October 19. It will be the tenth year for the walk and the ninth year that Judy’s team has participated. To sign up or help, call 270-8911 or stop by Avance Esthetiques in the Sand Hill Plaza.

Speaking of walkers, Ester Nichols of the Newtown Hikers wants all past and present club members to know that longtime group member Ursula Goebel is at The Homesteads now, and “she would love to have visitors.” Ester urges Ms Goebel’s friends to give her a call and stop by. The Homesteads is at 166 Mt Pleasant Road (along Route 6) and the telephone number is 426-8118.

Time for me to take a walk. Despite all this good news about ice cream and reformed thieves, I’m kind of relieved Mars is leaving the neighborhood. I think I’ll keep my invisibility cloak handy if any of those bad cats cross my path. You might not be seeing me for a while, but you can always…

Read me again.