
Brittany Hrabcsak’s cookie recreation of Whoville from “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” won first prize in the Kent, Conn., Gingerbread Festival.
Photo by Melissa Roth Chernisk
In just nine years, the Kent Gingerbread Festival in Kent, Conn., has gone from being just fun to being quite a big deal. It’s one of the biggest gingerbread festivals in the region and has become a big draw to town, even in years when there’s a pandemic quarantine. This year, to make it easier to access the houses, the festival organizers used space in a retail area in the center of town owned by Rocco and Candi Valeri, that was converted for the holiday season to Gingerbread Station.
The cookie creations were on display for the month of December. Awards were announced Jan. 1; the judging this year was by state Rep. Maria Horn (D-64) and Jill Owens Zinzi, of Kent Coffee and Chocolate Co., described as “the mother of the Kent Gingerbread Festival herself.”
The grand prize winner this year was Brittany Hrabcsak, who has been an award winner in the festival for several years in a row now (for her first foray into gingerbread decoration she was young enough to qualify for the Youth Award). This year, Hrabcsak created Whoville from Dr. Seuss’ holiday tale, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”
Sue Hanneman won second place for her recreation of Rapunzel in her castle tower.
Third place was awarded to the Swyft restaurant team.
The people’s choice award went to Denise Howard, Teddie Miner, Cat Heidel, Karen Heuvel, and Janette Ireland.
“Social Media’s most loved creation” went to Isabel Carrington and Emily Creighton, whose post of their gingerbread Warner Theatre reached 19,200 followers and elicited 3,100 comments.
The Youth Award was won this year by Jordana Berman, Abby Berman and Alexander Berman, who recreated the Kent train station (now home to the Kent Station Pharmacy).
The prize for Most Realistic creation went to Tom Doyle, for building a fully edible cookie version of the exterior AND interior of Foreign Cargo.
Just starting out this year, the Salisbury, Conn., gingerbread festival and holiday decorating competition announced two winners at the end of December. Heidi Hoeller and Wanda Hoeller won the gingerbread contest with their Gingerville Ski Chalet; and the Hussey Family of Lakeville won first place in the Light Up Salisbury contest. Both contests were sponsored by the Salisbury Volunteer Ambulance and Salisbury Recreation.
Isabel Carrington and Emily Creighton not only know how to bake and decorate like pros, they also collected tens of thousands of views on social media for their cookie version of the Warner Theatre in Torrington, Conn. Photo by Melissa Roth Chernisk
Rapunzel and her tower were captured in cookies by Sue Hanneman, whose baking and decorating efforts won her second place in the Kent, Conn., Gingerbread Festival. Photo by Melissa Roth Chernisk
On Saturday, Feb. 22, at 5 p.m., co-authors Ann Temkin and Romy Silver-Kohn will discuss “Inventing the Modern: Untold Stories of the Women Who Shaped The Museum of Modern Art” at the Cornwall Library. This collection of essays highlights the often-overlooked women — founders, patrons, curators, and directors — who played a crucial role in MoMA’s early success.
Temkin, MoMA’s chief curator of painting and sculpture, and Silver-Kohn, a longtime researcher in the field, will explore the museum’s uncertain beginnings and the revolutionary efforts of these women. Their book offers fresh insights into MoMA’s history, shifting focus from its first director, Alfred H. Barr Jr., to the visionaries who laid the foundation for one of the world’s most influential modern art institutions.
Temkin, a familiar presence in Cornwall, previously spoke on Monet’s gardens at the 2024 Books & Blooms event. Silver-Kohn has a home in Sharon
A can of compressed air is handy for getting last year's grit and gunk out of your gear. It also wouldn't hurt to clean the car out more than once a year.
The Super Bowl is over, pitchers and catchers have reported for spring training, and that means spring is around the corner.
Which in turn means it’s time for the annual Tangled Lines Tackle Fondling report.
I noticed the reel bag, which has traveled around in the car for at least one full year, was full of dirt. This was in addition to reels, waterproof matches, a knife, and the extra pair of polarized sunglasses that I tore the car apart looking for back in October.
Hmmm. Maybe the definition of “tackle fondling” should be expanded to include “car cleaning.”
Anyhoo, I went to the hardware store, bought a can of compressed air, and started blasting the dirt, sand and grit out of the reels that float around loose all year in the reel bag.
While doing this I clipped off ancient brittle leaders and noted which lines needed cleaning and dressing.
Not a difficult process. They all need cleaning and dressing. Anglers don’t do this often enough. I do it a couple times a year, and as needed when my floating line stops floating.
Some people use hand wipes, the kind that come in a little packet. You can get them cheap online.
I’m even cheaper, however, so I use Dawn dish soap, which cleans everything from fly lines to birds caught in oil spills. You can even do the dishes with it.
I make a weak solution, defined as one cup or so of warm water with one small blob of Dawn dish soap. Stir until frothy, and dunk a brand new sponge in it.
Run your line through the sponge, recharging as needed. You’ll see the yick come off on the sponge.
For dressing regular PVC-coated fly lines, you can use Mucilin green label line dressing, which has silicone in it. Or you can use Albolene, which is a face cream designed to remove theatrical makeup. A tub of Albolene costs about the same as one dinky little thing of Mucilin. But the dinky thing is a lot easier to carry.
For dressing your silk lines, I refer you to Izaak Walton’s “On Ye Dressynge of Ye Snootye Sillye Silke,” 1655.
Next up, the waders and boots.
I have four pairs of waders, one is right out of the box. None have patches or known leaks. So, fingers crossed.
On boots, I have four pairs, felt and rubber soled, sizes 9 and 10. Looking them over, I see some studs have come out of the rubber soles and they have stayed put in the felt. So that means replacing a few here and there and hoping for the best.
Wading sticks: I have several, and I fully expect at least one to fail this year. So I have spares, both of the collapsible type, and the trekking poles which are adjustable but do not fold up and go into a holster.
Rods: I only have one new rod to test out, a Chinese-made bamboo number that is an experiment.
Fly boxes: I am not even going to pretend to sort this out. I’m just going to pick up where I left off.
But I am NOT buying any flies until I use up what I have. And since I have thousands…
Next time we’ll go back to the Tangled Lines medical report, featuring Mohs surgery, rotator cuffs, and how to splint your pinky toe when you bash it into the furniture at 3 a.m. — Hint: It involves duct tape.
KENT — A new study conducted at Lake Waramaug that explores the potential public safety and ecological risks of wake surfing has met some public pushback from some water sports enthusiasts.
The study was contracted by the towns of Washington, Warren and Kent — the three towns in which the lake is contained — in 2023 through the Lake Waramaug Interlocal Commission. The Lake Waramaug Task Force, a non-profit dedicated towards protecting the ecology and water quality of the lake, located infrastructure security and environmental services firm Terra Vigilis as a candidate to run the study. The group completed its research in 2024 and published its final report in December.
Washington hosted an informational meeting on the evening of Jan. 30, in which representatives of Terra Vigilis presented their findings and fielded questions from the public. Washington First Selectman James Brinton emphasized that there would be no action or vote at the meeting, as it was meant to be purely informative.
Terra Vigilis CEO Timothy Tyre spoke to a busy Zoom audience as well as a robust live crowd at Bryan Memorial Town Hall in Washington Depot as he went through the findings, which primarily concerned impacts to the lake bottom from wake boats while operating in “surf mode.”
Wake surfing is a sport in which the participant surfs on the wake of a heavy boat as it travels at slow speeds, usually between eight and ten miles per hour. Boats use various methods to produce a larger wake, though many modern designs rely on fillings ballasts – large sacks of water that weigh down certain parts of the hull – and other measures meant to push the stern of the boat deeper to displace more water, which then creates a higher and stronger wave.
Tyre compared the impacts of “large displacement waves” from wake boats in surf mode to the wakes created by more traditional waterski craft, which are lighter and “plane” on the surface rather than displace water.
Tyre reported that their findings found that the wave heights from the large displacement waves were “two to four times higher” than those created by waterskiing and cruising vessels. He also said that propeller downwash from wake boats in surf mode was detected up to 26 feet in depth, while a traditional waterski boat would only cause disturbance at up to “eight or nine feet” of depth.
The disturbance caused by the deep propagation of energy, Tyre reported, caused “sediment redistribution with nutrient release,” which includes the possibility of buried toxins being redistributed in the water column.
When the public comment section opened, several attendants wanted to know more about specific data regarding potential toxicity in the water, but Tyre was unable to provide satisfactory data as he said the study had not focused on measuring the chemistry of the lake.
Other viewers, such as Keith Angel who resides along the lakeshore, questioned why tubing wasn’t begetting scrutiny when it also produces large wakes. Tyre said that the bottom line of the study’s findings was that the waves produced by these boats in surf mode were fundamentally different from the wake of planing vessels.
Marc Rogg, who owns Echo Bay Marina on Candlewood Lake, questioned the horsepower figures Tyre used in his presentation, saying the power on the wake boats was overstated while waterski and casual craft’s horsepower were under-represented. He also doubted the study’s recommendation of a 500-foot buffer zone between a wake boat in surf mode and another vessel, the shore or other sensitive areas, claiming that the number was unprecedented amongst guidelines used elsewhere in the state and country.
Wake surfing is a relatively new presence on Connecticut’s lakes, having erupted as a popular watersport in the U.S. over the past 15 years or so, and as such is not yet regulated by state statute beyond laws that apply to waterskiing. The rules that apply to wake surfing are the same as those mandated to vessels towing water skiers under Connecticut General Statute, 15-134.
In a follow-up interview, Selectman Brinton said that no new ordinances have been passed regulating watercraft on the lake since the 2016 ban of sea planes. He was also careful to point out that, at the time of the Jan. 30 meeting, no new ordinance regarding wake surfing was currently under review by the BOS.
The next steps, he said, were to hold discussions with the other towns and then take ideas produced in those talks back to the Selectmen. There is currently no mention of watercraft regulation on any posted BOS agenda in the three towns, though Brinton indicated that Warren and Kent may hold similar informational meetings to report the Terra Vigilis findings.
Eleanor Helm leads a fast break for Hotchkiss Feb. 12.
KENT — Since losing the first game of the season, The Hotchkiss School’s girls basketball team has been perfect.
The win streak extended to 14 following a visit to Kent School Feb. 12.
After winning the opening tip-off, Hotchkiss scored three quick baskets by Morgan Jenkins.
Kent managed to keep the game close and under control for the first half thanks in large part to Kaya Nuttall and Celeste Harper. Both made three pointers and were near-perfect from the free-throw line.
The first half ended with a Hotchkiss lead 30-24. The Bearcats pulled ahead in the second half with superior rebounding, shooting and play execution.
Hotchkiss senior Morgan Jenkins reached the 1,000-point varsity milestone earlier this season.Lans Christensen
Hotchkiss’ star seniors Morgan Jenkins and Kaila Richards were leaders on the court. Both surpassed 1,000 varsity points earlier this season.
Eleanor Helm of Hotchkiss added to the winning effort by sinking three-pointers with frequency and leading a coordinated plan of attack.
In the end, Hotchkiss defeated Kent 69-49.
Hotchkiss then defeated Taft School 66-55 on Feb. 15 and the Bearcats’ season record improved to 15-1.
New England Prep School Athletic Council postseason tournaments begin in March.