That's the new holiday EP "Hartford Unwrapped," funded by the City of Hartford, featuring local stars like Grammy winner Zaccai Curtis, gospel singer Doobie Powell, West End Blend's Erica Tracy Sullivan, BROCKHAMPTON's Dom McLennon, and even Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam on guitar, showcasing Hartford's diverse music scene with R&B, Jazz, Pop, and Hip-Hop. The EP was released in early December 2025, with a live listening party planned for December 19th at Infinity Music Hall.
Middletown's Got Talent, too! Maybe next year! ...
Do We have the Courage to Try to do Something about "Zombie" Trash?
Here's how one neighborhood faced an impossible situation with mountains of trash: They found sociable way to deal with it. . . . . . Will Middletown citizens come together to give it a try?
by Edward Humes The Saturday Evening Post December 2024 -- February 2025
What started as a father-&-son weekend project grew to become Ridwell, a profit-making local business that aims to keep hard-to-recycle items out of landfills.
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The innocent question that changed Ryan Metzger’s life came the summer his son turned six. That’s when Owen asked about the ever-expanding bag of old batteries in the junk drawer.
“What’s going to happen to them, Dad?” he asked. “What are we supposed to do with them? We’re learning about recycling in school. Where do these get recycled?”
“Um,” Metzger said. “I don’t know.”
He knew where to get batteries, of course. And there were always instructions on correctly using them. But instructions on what to do when they died? Not so much. That’s why he fell into the habit of stuffing dead batteries into a drawer filled with all the other small, disused stuff that the family wasn’t sure what to do with.
“It’s heavy, Dad.” Owen waved the bag of batteries around.
It was pretty full, Metzger had to admit. Detritus from flashlights and old toys, smoke alarms and remote controls, with a crusty one that came out of an old toothbrush, these batteries were one of many types of problematic garbage. They had no obvious final resting place, much like garden chemicals, old phones, light bulbs, car parts, cooking grease … a ton of stuff, really, now that Metzger thought about it. You weren’t supposed to put any of that in the recycling bin. But you couldn’t put it with the landfill-bound trash, either, although that’s what many people ended up doing out of desperation or not caring or habit — or assuming (incorrectly) it would all somehow get properly sorted out by this impenetrable, mysterious entity called the waste management system.
“There’s got to be a place for old batteries,” Metzger assured his son. “Let’s find out.”
It took three phone calls to find a business near their Seattle home that would take their old batteries and ensure that they were actually recycled instead of just dumped somewhere.
Father and son decided to drive to this battery recycler so that Owen could make the delivery. On impulse, they asked a few neighbors if they had stashes of old batteries, too. Several did, so Ryan and Owen took those as well.
Special collection: Ryan Metzger with the Ridwell bin and marked bags that are picked up biweekly from customers’ doorsteps. (Courtesy Ridwell)
Owen was so delighted by this accomplishment that he and his father decided to make a regular project out of hauling one different type of problem trash every weekend to the right recycler, offering to do the same for neighbors in their Queen Anne section of Seattle. So they started gathering bent clothes hangers one weekend, burned-out light bulbs the next, and then plastic bags, wraps, pouches, bubble wrap, and Styrofoam, none of which plays well with community recycling programs. Demand kept expanding block by block as word got around about his little father-and-son project. Soon he had to create a subscriber email group to track it all, with a message going out each week on what sort of trash would be picked up next and when to leave it outside for pickup. They dubbed this “Owen’s List.”
Around this time, grateful subscribers to Owen’s List who had long felt guilty about their secret trashiness started offering the duo money. A few suggested they charge for the service. “I’d gladly give up a couple lattes a month in exchange for you taking care of this,” one neighbor said. “I bet a lot of people would.”
Could that be true? Could their father-and-son hobby become a business that would let him leave his tech job behind and do something to help save the world? Seattle residents took pride in living in one of America’s greenest cities, but would they really pay extra every month to change their trashy habits and help Owen’s List patch a gaping hole in the waste and recycling system?
Metzger renamed the service Ridwell, to better explain its mission at a glance, and then set out to find out.
To walk through the Ridwell warehouse in Seattle’s south-of-downtown district is to take a grand tour of the plastic industry’s unintended legacy: a disposable, single-use economy made of zombie trash that will not die.
The big room with the high ceiling and crammed aisles jars the senses with its piles, boxes, pallets, and bags of waste. It looks as if a landfill has been excavated, then its contents sorted, bundled, and neatly organized. That’s not far from reality, except this material has been rescued before its more typical destiny as landfill fodder, litter, or waterway pollution. And there is a lot of it: This “stock” changes day-to-day, the tide that never stops, with most of the warehouse contents turning over every two or three days.
The account above is part of an excerpt from an article in (believe it or not) The Saturday Evening Post, a magazine that some of us might remember from ... 'way back when. The article, however, leads me to think, in the here and now, "Why aren't we doing more of this?" Brainstorming! Imagining new ways of doing thing? Could we be thinking about what could do with a little neighborhood get-together and elbow grease by us, that is, We the People who care? And I know there are a lot of us who care in Middletown. How about talking with neighbors over the holidays, and talking about organizing Saturday morning walks for fun, just to pick up Friday night's "donations" of cans & bottles along the roadside? And get a little fresh air? We don't exactly need to "Love our Neighbor" to talk about taking a group walk, do we? We could just respect our neighborhood and want to pick up a bit of trash in a group to make it more memorable. Couldn't we? Build community, pick up trash, go have coffee at a neighbor's kitchen or back yard? Why not?
I mean, if you look at it in a certain way, it would take a neighborhood to do on a Saturday morning with lots of neighborly interaction & good will and getting to know each other, what grantwriters and committees accomplish with a lot more time, sweat and anguish of writing the grant proposal to find the money and wait for someone else to do the dirty work. . . . And at the same time, perhaps, as in Owen's neighborhood, our local neighborhood might eventually grow a volunteer effort into a successful business, a local employer, that could help to help "clean up" the notoriously unclean business of waste management.
. . . read more at the link below about how Owen's effort grew.
MIDDLESEX HEALTH “16th ANNUAL TREE OF LIGHTS” RETURNS TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2025 FROM 6 P.M.-7 P.M. TREE LIGHTING AT 6:15 P.M. By Frank LoGiudice
The Middlesex Health "16th Annual Tree Of Lights" returns again this year with a ceremony on Tuesday, December 2, 2025, at the Middlesex Hospital lobby at 28 Crescent Street in Middletown. It will take place from 6 p.m.-6:45 p.m. The tree lighting will take place at 6:15 p.m. The ceremony will include the Mercy High School Chamber Choir.
According to the Middlesex Health website it states, ¨The Middlesex Health Hospice Program invites you to donate in honor or in memory of anyone who has impacted your life. The 16-year tradition of Tree of Lights is a heartfelt event to remember or honor loved ones with a tree lighting ceremony, and a display that stays prominent into the New Year.¨
Steven Liedlich of Middlesex Health, “Middlesex Health's Tree of Lights event on December 2nd is ¨a heartfelt event with a tree lighting ceremony, a holiday choir and a display of loved oneś names. This program offers vital end-of-life support for patients and families, focusing on comfort, dignity, and emotional care in their journey. By participating, attendees directly contribute to Middlesex Hospice, helping to sustain these services and programs. Your donation helps the Middlesex Health Hospice Program have a meaningful impact on hospice patients who face life-limiting illnesses and their families. Our program supports and assists patients and their families in making important decisions regarding their care, and is focused on enhancing their patientś quality of life. The goal of Hospice is to enable patients to remain in their own homes as long as possible with the aid of family, Hospice staff and volunteers.¨
Donations received after November 17th will be listed on the website only.
To view the listing of those memorialized, please go to MiddlesexHealth.org/TreeofLights. ¨The Tree of Lights honoree names will be on display on the new digital donor wall in the lobby of Middlesex Hospital from December 2 – January 2, 2026,¨ according to their website.
The Middlesex Health Hospice Program is celebrating ¨40 years of caring for the community.¨ The Middlesex Health Hospice Program websites states, ¨We are commemorating 40 years of offering compassionate physical, emotional, social, and spiritual care to individuals facing terminal illness, while also supporting their families through this journey. Founded in 1985, the program is dedicated to helping patients live as comfortably and fully as possible - remaining alert and free from pain - so they can spend their final days with dignity and in the presence of those they love, Your support has a meaningful impact on hospice patients and their families.¨
For more information about the 16th Annual Tree of Lights and the Middlesex Hospice Program please go to
Whether you're new to the Middletown area--or not, you might wish you had a little extra help in the kitchen as holidays approach.
If so, you can hardly do better for special dishes, desserts, and fruit than Lyman's Orchard Store and Gotta's Store, which, in addition to our many local grocery stories and supermarkets, help many families fill in gaps on their menu during the holidays.
Lyman Orchard Store is on Route 157, in MIddlefield.
Gotta's Store is across the River, on Route 17 in South Glastonbury. Links are below. Lyman can deliver, Don't know about Gotta's. Check them out. Every little bit helps.
A Feature for the Farsighted (who can't see near) in the Chrome Browser
If you're a reader who sees the online printed word getting smaller every year--and in case you haven't discovered it yet, the Chrome browser has a built-in feature for the Farsighted.
On the Chrome webpage, click on the three dots at upper right & you'll see a drop-down picklist. Toward the bottom of the picklist, click on "More Tools" to display a Popout.
On the Popout, click Reading Mode just up from the bottom of the list and your reading matter will instantly transform into larger, darker, & more readable paragraphs. You'll never need to squint again!
Topic:Tried and True Published Sources for Early Connecticut
Research with Al Fiacre, Board Chair and Treasurer, Godfrey Memorial
Library
This is a reprise of Al's popular New England Regional
Genealogical Conference (NERGC) presentation for those of you who were unable
to make it to New Hampshire earlier this month.
Not everything of genealogical value has been digitized.
Join Al as he discusses some Connecticut genealogy resources that have stood
the test of time and are sometimes overlooked.
Please register by 4:00 PM Friday, November 21 . The invite
will be sent out on that Friday.
Godfrey Premium members can register for free at the
following email: zoomregistration@godfrey.orgIf you are not a Godfrey Premium member and want to attend the
presentation, you can pay $10 via PayPal (https://www.paypal.com/us/home) with
the payment sent to Godfrey Memorial Library. Then register using the above email.
Note:We've had a few
requests lately to try a hybrid (Zoom and in-person) Genealogy
Club, and we're going to give it a try with our November meeting. So locals,
come and join us!
We've been working on this new set of new vinyl cut-out stickers for a while and we're happy to finally share with all of you! From peace signs to cats to We the People these iconic simple designs offer artful and cheerful messages to express wherever you choose to place them. When you click through to our site you'll see our full selection of 170 designs within a wide range of themes.
The Raga Club is delighted to present a concert of Carnatic classical music of South India:
Sri TVS Mahadevan, vocal
Sri VS Gokul, violin
Sri V Sai Raghavan, mridangam
4pm, Sunday, November 2
Connecticut Valley Hindu Temple Society (CVHTS)
11 Training Hill Road, Middletown, CT 06457
Please join us for a sublime and thrilling performance by these master musicians! All are welcome. We ask that you also invite your friends, colleagues, and family.
Please see our website for more information and to purchase your tickets in advance.
FRANKFURT, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Gauss Fusion, a German technology company, said on Thursday it will hand over Europe's first fusion power plant design to the German chancellery within ten days.
Gauss Fusion CEO Milena Roveda was scheduled to present the design at a climate congress hosted by Germany’s BDI industry federation. The event comes just days after the German government unveiled a 2 billion euro ($2.33 billion) Fusion Action Plan, which will run to 2029.
The Reuters Power Up newsletter provides everything you need to know about the global energy industry. Sign up here.WHY DOES IT MATTER?
Germany said it aims to move beyond basic research and adopt an industry-led approach, positioning itself as a global leader in the race to develop fusion energy — a technology that replicates the process powering the sun to generate electricity.
Germany's conservative-led government supports the technology within its energy agenda.
WHAT IS THE CONTEXT?
Competition is intensifying across several fronts: between state and private companies, among governments in Europe, the United States and China, and between different technological approaches -- such as plasma confinement and the use of lasers.
Hartford 
