The Legislative Council might better be termed the Legislative “Cancel” these days after its third and fourth meetings of the month of August were called off this week. At this time of year, the council adopts a kind of European ambiance where everyone packs it in for the month of August and goes off to work on their tans. You would think, however, since nobody’s getting any sun anywhere on the East Coast this August, the council might have wanted to meet a few times just to do crossword puzzles together. Oh well, September’s almost here.

A few sporting events did manage to get squeezed in between the raindrops this month. I got a chance to watch some of the Newtown Tennis Association’s Coopersmith Cup matches last weekend at Dickinson park and was impressed with the play of our local youths. However, I was surprised to see players in one of the early-round Stroock matches forced to move off the court they had signed up for because one parent feared balls might end up on the court where his son was playing.

As a special birthday treat, Scudder Baggett, 11, got to throw out the first ball at the New Haven Ravens – Norwich Navigators game on August 6 in New Haven.

 Before his moment in the spotlight, Scudder was a little worried about getting the ball all the way to the plate, but he wound up and fired it right to the catcher 60 feet away. He was so pumped up by all the crowd support he was getting, he forgot to watch the ball after he let it fly. He had to ask his friends when he got back to his seat whether the ball went over the plate.

This certainly is the weekend for music lovers in Newtown. First Treblehook will be back at the Booth Library for a free outdoor concert at 7 pm on Friday. On Saturday at 7 pm Musicon 2000, a 60-voice choral ensemble of high school students from across the state, will perform an original musical, Never Alone, at the Congregational Church on West Street. And on Monday the Connecticut Choral Society is holding a sing-in at St Rose Church from 7:30 to 9:30. For a $5 fee (to help cover the cost of the sheet music provided), anyone interested can join in an informal performance from Handel’s Messiah. Come at 7 pm to sign in.

Pasta Fresca owners Claudio Mancuso and fiancée Karen are scheduled to be married this weekend. In celebration, they are changing the name of their popular Italian restaurant. The new name – “Claudio’s,” of course.

Newtown resident Howard Lasher has been putting out the welcome mat for all kinds of birds, butterflies, and other wildlife ever since he moved onto his 20-acre property in Dodgingtown back in the 1960s. This summer, the National Wildlife Federation has certified Howard’s backyard as an official wildlife habitat.

Leave it to Selectman Bill Brimmer to ease the tension of an awkward moment. The Board of Selectmen arrived at its meeting last week to find that Bruce Becker and his staff had changed the seating arrangement, moving the board’s table so that the selectmen were forced to sit sideways to the crowd.

“Hopefully you got our good side,” Mr Brimmer joked.

Newtown resident Kristin Morris and her Jeep are back in town this week after nearly being washed away last week in Stratford. Kristin had just pulled her Jeep into the train station parking lot when the entire area became flooded. The driver was forced to abandon her Jeep as it was pulled into five feet of water.

The mystery of what happened to the Tambascio family has been solved. Last week Louise, John, and Mark were nowhere to be found. It turned out that Louise was preparing for her annual cookout, an event that draws 50 members of the family. Louise wants everyone to know that she wasn’t on vacation – she was working!

The back room at My Place was a busy place on Monday when more than a dozen members and friends of the Spay & Neuter Association of Newtown were busy stuffing 10,500 envelopes for a mass mailing in Newtown. SNAN is trying to get members and donations to help with the nonprofit organization’s objective of reducing the number of unwanted, abandoned, and feral cats and dogs in the community by spaying and neutering both pets and strays. Anyone who can help SNAN – or who needs help – can call 426-5730.

The interior corridors on the lower level Town Hall South are sparkling clean, so much so that on entering the building, you might think you are entering a clean room where microchips are fabricated under sterile conditions. Mike Snyder, who maintains the building for the town, has been hard at work making those white floor tiles shine and sparkle. The lower level of the building houses the town’s social services department, the Borough government offices, and a conference room.

Who are all those good looking people hanging around the police station? The police have been busy interviewing job applicants who want to become patrolmen. Several dozen well-dressed applicants visited the police department late last week and early this week for interviews with a panel of police officers. The applicants will be interviewed by the Police Commission next week.

We are bidding farewell to Jeff White, whose genial ways have made life very pleasant here at The Bee for the past year or so. After a brief trip to California, Jeff will be enrolling in a graduate journalism program at Boston University this fall. I can’t imagine what more he can learn about journalism after being The Bee’s education reporter for a year. But youth is impetuous and will have its way. I hate to see what Boston’s going to do to Jeff, who is already full of beans.

Tanjua Damon is our new education reporter, and her quick wit and easy-going personality are doing a lot to console us over Jeff’s departure. Tanjua, who originally hails from Bennington, Vermont, is coming to us from South Carolina, where she and her husband, Joe, lived until he recently completed his tour with the military.

For all the comings and goings, be sure to…

Read me again.