Civic participation rewarded with drinks

WINSTED — Lee Thomsen, the owner of The Winning Ticket bar on Main Street, took a creative approach in encouraging citizen action this week by offering drink specials to anyone who voted at Thursday’s town meeting.“This is the Chicago way of getting people to a meeting,” Thomsen said.At the meeting, residents were asked to vote to override the Board of Selectmen’s rejection of a proposal by the Winchester Land Trust to acquire the development rights to 360 acres of town-owned land. “To me, the issue is not so much about the Land Trust,” Thomsen said. “It’s more about allowing people to vote and have their say.” As for how he would know who voted and who did not vote at Thursday’s meeting, Thomsen said, “Let’s just say I have faith in my fellow man.” The meeting took place two days after this week’s Winsted Journal went to press. An article detailing the meeting will be in next week’s issue.

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Robert J. Pallone

NORFOLK — Robert J. Pallone, 69, of Perkins St. passed away April 12, 2024, at St. Vincent Medical Center. He was a loving, eccentric CPA. He was kind and compassionate. If you ever needed anything, Bob would be right there. He touched many lives and even saved one.

Bob was born Feb. 5, 1955 in Torrington, the son of the late Joesph and Elizabeth Pallone.

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The artistic life of Joelle Sander

"Flowers" by the late artist and writer Joelle Sander.

Cornwall Library

The Cornwall Library unveiled its latest art exhibition, “Live It Up!,” showcasing the work of the late West Cornwall resident Joelle Sander on Saturday, April 13. The twenty works on canvas on display were curated in partnership with the library with the help of her son, Jason Sander, from the collection of paintings she left behind to him. Clearly enamored with nature in all its seasons, Sander, who split time between her home in New York City and her country house in Litchfield County, took inspiration from the distinctive white bark trunks of the area’s many birch trees, the swirling snow of Connecticut’s wintery woods, and even the scenic view of the Audubon in Sharon. The sole painting to depict fauna is a melancholy near-abstract outline of a cow, rootless in a miasma haze of plum and Persian blue paint. Her most prominently displayed painting, “Flowers,” effectively builds up layers of paint so that her flurry of petals takes on a three-dimensional texture in their rough application, reminiscent of another Cornwall artist, Don Bracken.

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A Seder to savor in Sheffield

Rabbi Zach Fredman

Zivar Amrami

On April 23, Race Brook Lodge in Sheffield will host “Feast of Mystics,” a Passover Seder that promises to provide ecstasy for the senses.

“’The Feast of Mystics’ was a title we used for events back when I was running The New Shul,” said Rabbi Zach Fredman of his time at the independent creative community in the West Village in New York City.

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