After two years of rainy Labor Days, 2004 finally produced a sparkling day for our town’s annual parade, and Newtowners made the most of it. The theme of the parade this year was “Newtown —Fun For All,” and people seemed very intent on staying on message, as they say in political quarters.

I, of course, had to lie low until The Newtown Bee’s King and Queen dogs and their Royal Court passed by, but from my perch in Gordon Williams’ tree, I got to see everything. Congratulations, by the way, to Gordon, who rode with his wife, Lina, at the head of the parade as this year’s Parade Marshal.

The most intriguing float of the parade for me was this Yellow Submarine, towed by a nautical-looking fellow on a lawn tractor.

I have learned the identity of the skipper, even though he was heavily disguised. It was Stephen Lewis of Old Bethel Road, who had made the Yellow Submarine for his son’s birthday party a few weeks ago. A friend dared Stephen to enter his masterpiece in the Labor Day Parade and he did just that. Stephen’s daughter Melody got to ride in the submarine behind her dashing dad.

By all reports, Saturday, September 4, was the best and busiest Friends of the Booth Library Book Sale Opening Day ever, and several veteran book sale volunteers remarked they had never seen anything like it. “The books seemed to be flying off the tables at a great rate,” noted reference volunteer Jane Hellman who was hanging out around Antiques, Architecture, and Art. Jane kept returning to straighten piles left in a jumble by rummaging bibliophiles. “Every time I come back, it seems like half the books are gone,” she remarked.

Volunteer Mary Maki working in fiction noticed that by Sunday afternoon “all the backup boxes filled with paperback mysteries stored under the tables were empty. Those books had already been moved up to fill holes in the inventory –– something I’ve never seen before this early in the sale.” Another record year, it seems.

An article, “New England Style,” in the September issue of Yankee magazine features several photos of the baby bed linens, pillows, and accessories made by Merry Little Fellows, the company owned by Mary Fellows, who operates the Little Green Barn in Sandy Hook Center. Mary started her business in 1997 after recently giving birth to her daughter, Cleo, and finding it difficult to locate baby sheets and blankets made from organic fabrics. According to Mary, two yards of organically grown fabric saves about one pound of pesticides from polluting the earth.

 “How bright appears the morning star!” is the first line of an old hymn and that should have been our clue. We should have known it was Venus the morning star –– not Saturn –– that shone so brilliantly on the eastern horizon at 3 am, and I thank Vanilla, Queen Cat of Parmalee Swamp, for the following correction:

“While reading your column last week my steward suddenly threw down the paper and growled, ‘It’s a good thing they have a strong moral compass down at The Bee because they sure can’t navigate by the stars.’ We went out for a look at Saturn shining ‘very bright,’ but found it a barely visible pink speck, outshone by silvery Venus, which is described in your column as ‘up too.’ Up too Venus was in fact shining 58 times brighter than Saturn. Could it be that your stewards have been spending too much time on dog contests?”

Uh, right. It was my stewards’ fault. You should know that, Vanilla. I’m 58 times brighter than they are. In fact the planetary mix up wasn’t the only mistake they made last week. It was suggested here that the plantings and flags in front of the police station were the work of the police themselves. Everyone knows that it takes the Newtown Woman’s Club to produce something that attractive.

Labor Day may mark the unofficial end of summer, but that doesn’t mean hot weather has left town. The interview room off the main lobby of the police station can be hot as blazes, even if you aren’t being grilled by Newtown’s finest. Jim Shpunt, who operates Town Hall South for the town, has made a few minor changes at the police station that have made the place a little cooler. By adjusting a vent and closing a door, Jim has modified the building’s climate control to adequately cool the interview room, which I hope is a great relief only to the innocent.

Forget about going out of town for fireworks displays on various summer holidays. While I was at Town Hall South on a rainy Wednesday, I saw a hired work crew cutting away the steel structure of the former parking deck next to the police station. The steel-cutting saws that the workers were using shot off more bright orange sparks than most fireworks shells provide. Maybe we can organize a steel-cutting display for the tercentennial next year and save a few bucks on fireworks.

This column is beginning to fizzle, but I’ll be back next week with some more sparks, so be sure to…

Read me again.