After finishing off the last of the Christmas sugar cookies and the final slab of Aunt Ethel’s Hoot ‘n Holler Whiskey Cake, most of us feel like beached whales. Time to get moving and maybe drop a few pounds while having fun exercising. You might consider stopping by the Newtown Parks & Recreation Department at South Main Street to pick up a Winter Catalog.

Though classes started last weekend, there are still openings available in yoga, Pilates, and belly dancing. All you need do is fill out an application, pay the fee, and show up at the next class in your workout clothes.

 If the weather turns cold again (as we know it must) there will be ice skating at Dickinson Town Park in the pavilion and at Treadwell Park on the softball field. Any questions, call 270-4340. Or check the website www.newtown-ct.gov.

Six anonymous Newtown ladies (did I mention they all belong to the Newtown Current Events Club?) drove into New York on January 4 to see The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. After standing on line for about two hours (tickets do not guarantee a seat) they were seated in the studio, which one of them describes as “small and looking drab and nothing like the set on TV.” George Packer, author of a book called The Assassin’s Gate was the premier guest, following Jon’s deep and important questions to the audience, such as, “What frat did you pledge in college?” and “Where did you go on vacation?” The group was so impressed by Mr Packer’s interview that his book is on all of their “must read” lists now.

Not because they are early birds, but because they didn’t want to miss their TV debut, the dynamic sextet was back in Newtown by 10 pm to view the 11 pm show that night. Rumor has it, one of the group’s distinctive wolf whistles could be heard on air loud and clear. And so there you have it, the incredibly excellent adventures of the Newtown Current Events Club. Next on their agenda? A trip to the Colbert Report some time in March.

Town employee Bob McCulloch has been busy at Town Hall South maintaining the area. If you look inside the lower level of the building, where the social services department and the parks and recreation offices are housed, you’ll see a gleaming coat of brown paint on the interior trim and doors. It sure spiffs up the facility, dressing up an interior that gets heavy use.

The Shoppes at Church Hill & Queen, a new office/retail complex located on the corner of Church Hill Road and Queen Street in the borough, is well into construction. Now that workers have constructed the shells of the three buildings in the complex, they are doing interior work to ready the project for a planned June opening.

 Tom Mahoney has made sure that everyone who is home from school or work on Monday has at least one option for Martin Luther King Jr Day: Matinees at Edmond Town Hall. Additional showings of Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of The Were-Rabbit, which will be running all week, have been scheduled for Monday, January 16, at 11:30 am and 2 and 4 pm.

Amber Edwards will return to New Haven for an all-new cabaret show with Andrew Rubenoff on Sunday, January 29. The duo will present “Street of Dreams,” which they describe as “the crossroads between Tin Pan Alley and The Great White Way, at The Cabaret at Chow, at 964 Chapel Street (on the Temple Plaza Courtyard, behind Zinc). Amber and Andrew like to think of a cabaret not as a place where people congregate to worship at the altar of The Great American Songbook, but to revel in the pleasure of smart, sophisticated entertainment, and to enjoy a drink or two. Doors will open at 6 pm, showtime is 7, and there is a $12 cover.

Dog fanciers, which I’m not, may perform a prolonged sit-stay in front of the television this weekend on the evenings of Saturday, January 14, and Sunday, January 15, to watch the AKC Eukanuba National Championships held in Tampa, Fla. Newtown’s own Pat Laurans will be judging the Herding Group on Sunday evening, which occurs just before the Best-In-Show event ends the program. “They tell me I’ll probably be on about 10 pm Sunday,” Pat says.

The Eukanuba show, which features more than 2,600 dogs from 50 states and 20 countries, will be televised live on simulcast over ESPN and the Discovery Channel beginning at 8 pm both nights. From my feline point of view, I can’t imagine wanting to spend an entire evening watching dogs –– on television or otherwise.

While visiting Edmond Town Hall recently, I encountered a rare breed: an obviously intelligent dog. He variously goes by the names, Charles, Charlie, or Chuckie, depending upon your level of familiarity with the pooch. The large wiry-haired terrier is a frisky Airedale-mix, whose pronounced white eyebrows gives him the look of a British scholar. Charles is the pet of Karin Aurelia, the town’s Republican registrar of voters. I am told that Charles is highly regarded in the building, with workers there keeping on hand individual caches of dog treats for the friendly canine when he visits.

The reason Charles is so intelligent is that he gets his hand-outs around the office without having to work for it. I, on the other hand, have to write this column in order get my few crumbs from the boss. Until I can figure out a better way to make a living, be sure to…

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