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125 years ago — August 1900
Edward Downer of Colebrook caught a turtle last week Wednesday which weighed forty-four and three-fourths pounds. He was fishing for small fish in a pond near his house when he caught the turtle.
SALISBURY — Mr. Hortie, brother of W.W. Hortie, has entered the employ of the Cutlery Handle Co.
Canaan now has a black bear; must be the one seen here recently.
Mrs. Choulet living on the farm of E.E. Swift near Norfolk has a Bantam rooster which, after insisting on setting for two weeks, was accommodated by having six odinary hens’ eggs placed in the nest. From these he now has four nice chicks, which he tends to with motherly kindness, scratching for them during the day and brooding them at night.
100 years ago — August 1925
Taconic was again visited by a disastrous fire a little after midnight Monday, when the beautiful mansion of Mr. Herbert Scoville was burned to the ground. Calls for fire apparatus were sent to Lakeville, Canaan and Sharon, and all companies responded in remarkably quick time. It was a fine exhibition of what could be accomplished by pumping outfits and had the fire been discovered a little earlier much of the building might have been saved. No estimate of the loss can be given at this time but it will reach at least half a million dollars. The building was filled with many very valuable contents among which were antiques that were practically priceless in fact many are of the opinion that the contents will constitute a larger loss than that of the building itself. Many cars and several hundred people gathered at the spot but little could be done except to express sincere sympathy for Mr. and Mrs. Scoville in the loss of their beautiful home. The couple left last Sunday and were to sail for Europe this week.
SALISBURY — The many friends of Reginald Kelsey will be interested to know that he is to broadcast songs from Station W.T.I.C. Hartford on Monday evening at about 6:00 standard time.
The new pumper engine of the Lakeville Hose Company arrived Monday afternoon by rail and was unloaded on Tuesday afternoon. The new engine is a beauty and one of which the entire town can well be proud. The new engine is not a chemical engine. Technically it is called a triple combination pumper and hose car with a booster tank. It is fitted with a rotary pump capable of delivering 620 gallons per minute.
NOTICE — Any one who is interested in joining a National Rifle Club, communicate with the undersigned at once. With the proper number of members we can get a large issue of free equipment from the U.S. War Department. If you wish to join tho you do not shoot a rifle, join as instruction will be given members. Capt. James W. Farmer, Taconic.
Miss Sadie Frink took a trip to Niagara Falls recently.
50 years ago — August 1975
A new study of Connecticut lakes shows that those in the Northwest Corner have deteriorated considerably since a similar survey was taken 35 years ago. The study, undertaken by scientists at the Connecticut Agricultural Experimental Station in New Haven states Lake Wononscopomuc is among the bodies that has shown severe deterioration while East Twin Lake Washining and Bantam Lake have suffered moderate eutrophication.
Jacob Orth of the South Ellsworth section of Sharon called The Lakeville Journal last week telling us of his ripening cantaloupe and muskmelon patch, which he described as totaling some 300 melons. Orth, who has been trying to grow melons for the past 10-12 years with little success attributed this year’s triumph largely to Mother Nature with this season’s warm temperatures.
Students at the North Canaan Elementary School will notice some changes when school reopens on Sept. 3. Among the changes are a lengthened school day and new bus schedules. The new day will run from 8:45 a.m. until 2:45 p.m., a half hour longer than last year. All students will be dismissed at the same time this year with no late bus run.
After more than a year of delay, plans have finally been made to move the Canaan portable classrooms to their new site near the Canaan town hall. Canaan contractor Richard Bunce has agreed to move the building the short distance to its new location. Once moved, the buildings will undergo alterations to turn it into additional office space for the town hall. The space is needed for boards and commissions that presently have no permanent quarters.
FALLS VILLAGE — The new school bus, purchased to replace a five-year-old bus previously in use, was delivered to Lee H. Kellogg School last Thursday. The new bus will seat 55 passengers and the padding on the bus meets the safety requirements of state standards. Its purchase price was $10,742 with a trade-in.
25 years ago — August 2000
A special thank you to Richard Bianchi of Canaan for returning a Lakeville Journal vending machine that he found on his property. The machine was taken from in front of Paramount Laundry in Canaan.
CANAAN — “Can we eat on the playground?” was a question frequently asked of parents at McDonald’s restaurant for the last seven years. Dismantling began on the brightly-colored tube slide and ball pits of the “Playplace” on Saturday. The playground and picnic tables will all be removed from the little island in the middle of the parkling lot. McDonald’s owner Joseph Deutschle said the equipment had outlived its usefulness and there are no immediate plans to replace it.
CANAAN — The town pool closed for the season Aug. 14. While the weather has not been conducive to swimming of late, residents will be out of luck if the temperature rises. A Labor Day closing was moved up when the underground wiring to the pool’s filtration system was “fried.” Town officials are blaming a power surge, which they believe occurred following a power outage on the morning of Aug. 14.
The first Falls Village Volunteer Ambulance Service barbecue will be held Sept. 2 from 4 to 7 p.m. at Cornwall Auto Body at the intersection of routes 7 and 126. Money raised at the event will help pay for a new ambulance to replace the current rescue vehicle, which is the oldest in-service ambulance in Connecticut.
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Fed chairman Jerome Powell kicked off his Aug. 22 speech at the annual Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium by admitting that the economic outlook may warrant a change in the Fed’s tight money policy. That was Fed speak for it is time to cut interest rates. Markets soared on the news.
Economists will debate endlessly whether Powell’s sudden turnaround reflects the mounting pressure by the administration on the Fed to cut interest rates or worries that unemployment may be rising. In the meantime, all the main averages were up more than 1.5%.
The assumption (more than a 90% chance) is that this first-interest rate cut will occur on September 17, the date of the Fed’s FOMC meeting. The question most are already asking is how many more cuts are in the cards between that meeting and the end of the year. The market believes two more cuts will occur. The next series of economic data points, released before their next meeting, will determine that.
If inflation data comes in higher than expected, then there may be only one cut in September. Readers know that I am expecting hotter inflation readings to continue through the end of the year. Powell seems to be aware of that as well. He said the risks from inflation remain “tilted to the upside.” Like me, he also believes that tariff-related inflation pressures “are now clearly visible.”
Balancing out the inflation risk, however, is the growing unemployment risk. Job risk became a factor after the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that unemployment had been ticking up for the last three months. Most analysts believe that the July non-farm payrolls report will also show weakening job growth. The onset of tariffs has made the job of managing monetary policy tricky at best.
Suppose that is the case, why cut interest rates at all? Therein lies the rub. Ostensibly, the fear of further job losses. However, the pressure by the Trump administration to remake the Federal Reserve Bank is growing by the day. By September, if Congress votes to approve Stephen Miran, the president’s Chair of his Council of Economic Advisors, to the Fed, at least three members of the FOMC will be Trump appointees.
Last week, Trump made it clear that he planned to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook if she doesn’t resign — and he did so this week on Monday — giving him four out of 12 FOMC members in his pocket. It is likely that the president, unless somehow appeased in the short run, will continue to find cause, reasons, or excuses (manufactured or otherwise) to continue his persecution of the remaining Fed members not under his control. From Powell’s point of view, the political circumstances might justify a “hawkish” cut next month to alleviate the pressure. Sort of a cut in time to save nine (FOMC members).
Before Friday, the S&P 500 was down 2.2% last week, while the NASDAQ was lower by 4%. That was the second week in four that markets sold off only to bounce back. However, under the hood, those sectors and stocks that have driven the market’s gains over the last few weeks were trashed.
Investors sold momentum names like Palantir, Tesla, and Nvidia. Other artificial intelligence names took it on the chin, falling by double digits. Some software stocks were down more than 20%. Wall Street bears have long argued that valuations in the AI space are absurd. Companies with little to offer investors beyond some mention of AI in their company name or business saw their stock price triple and quadruple in a matter of weeks.
Bulls say that valuations don’t matter. No one knows how AI power will transform the world’s economies, but they believe that the AI potential must be measured in mega-trillions of dollars. Given that thesis, it was a shock when Sam Altman, the CEO of ChatGPT, one of the movers and shakers behind AI, joined the fray.
He said last week that the billions of dollars flowing into the AI arms race risk causing a bubble comparable to the dot-com crash of the early 2000s. “Are we in a phase where investors as a whole are overexcited about AI? My opinion is yes. Is AI the most important thing to happen in a very long time? My opinion is also yes.”
But Powell’s comments on Aug. 22 effectively dismissed all these misgivings as investors rushed to buy the dip. Interest rate-sensitive sectors and stocks lead the charge higher. Small-cap stocks, as represented by the Russel 200 index (3.87%), outperformed. The dollar fell almost a whole percentage point since expectations of lower U.S. interest rates mean a lower dollar. As such, both gold (+1%) and silver (+2.28%) as well as cryptocurrencies also chalked up some significant wins.
The last few weeks of mild corrective actions have now given way to higher stock prices and possibly another attempt to regain former highs. I could see the S&P 500 Index tack on another 75 points or so to 6,550 -6,570. Are we out of the woods and on our way to the moon? Not yet, I see another decline once we reach my target sometime in September.
Bill Schmick is a founding partner of Onota Partners, Inc., in the Berkshires.
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Musical on Indian Mountain
Aug 27, 2025
Aly Morrissey
On Aug. 22, Sharon Playhouse brought the musical fairytale adventure “Once Upon a Mattress” to Indian Mountain School’s Qianxun Performing Arts Center. Above, Mollie Leonard plays Princess Winnifred, a spirited, quirky swamp-dweller with a heart of gold, determined to win the love of Prince Dauntless.
Bridget Starr Taylor
The annual Norfolk Library Book Sale drew big crowds on Saturday, Aug. 23, as almost 18,000 books attracted dealers and book fans over three days. In total, an estimated 5,500 books were sold and 9,500 found new homes as free books on Sunday and Monday.
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