When she heard that other municipalities had ceased holding Bingo games with money on the line, Diane Patrizio, East Hampton Town's director of human services, decided to check on East Hampton's own license to conduct the game at its senior center. She discovered that the license had expired.

As autumn gets colder and darker, it's the perfect time to pull up a comfy chair, make a piping-hot beverage, and settle in with a good book. This list includes memoir, historical fiction, crime fiction, and more, both brand-new and recently released, that are also available in accessible formats like audio and large print.

From classic movies to hands-on activities and educational resources, there are plenty of ways older adults can relax and socialize together at local libraries, cultural institutions, and the town senior center. Here is a curated selection of upcoming events that promise to be entertaining and informative (mainly free, unless otherwise indicated).

 Very long ago, I read the words "out on the wine-dark sea" in Homer's "Odyssey," first as a student, then as a teacher of world literature. Homer the poet was besotted with the Aegean Sea, and I, as student and teacher, was besotted with Homer, though not yet inclined to dally in the waves and tides that sourced his ecstatic reflections.

In a 2021 survey, the National Funeral Directors Association revealed that only 36 percent of adults have ever had a conversation with loved ones ahead of time about what they want to have happen when they eventually die. Considering it's inevitable, the experts say that pre-planning for your own "final expenses" is one way to ease your loved ones' grief when it finally occurs.

The Southampton Town Police Department will run a Civilian Police Academy, which will teach residents about department operations, starting on Jan. 16 at 6 p.m.

The weekly weigh-in . . .

Rain on Thursday notwithstanding, an unusually dry fall season persists statewide, raising concerns about fire and impact on crops. Last month, the county had only .23 inches of rainfall, just off the record low for October precipitation, and even with rain on Thursday, more than 99 percent of the county was considered to be in "severe drought."

The East Hampton Town Board formally decided Tuesday that a proposed senior citizens center on a seven-acre parcel at 403 Abraham’s Path in Amagansett would have little environmental impact and did not need a lengthy environmental review.

The East Hampton Town Board dropped a surprise into another lengthy discussion of proposed zoning code amendments in the wake of a well-attended public hearing on Nov. 7. The board agreed on most amendments as written; however, in a straw poll, four members voted against a measure that would include a portion of basements in the gross floor calculation of residences.

The Surfrider Club at East Hampton Middle School helped restore eelgrass to waters in Three Mile Harbor last month. “In recent years, our native eelgrass population has been diminished by pollution and non-native invasive species,” said Natalie Petykowski. “Sadly, there is barely any eelgrass left in East Hampton waters.”

East Hampton and Amagansett firefighters volunteered to head north last week to help fight a 5,000-acre wildfire in Orange County, N.Y., not once but twice, battling unfamiliar terrain to do so. “They fight fires completely differently than we do when we have a brush fire,” the Amagansett chief said.

“One of the things that I struggle with is people saying the AIDS crisis is a thing of the past, as if the time to remember is something for the past,” said Tom House, the founder of Hamptons Pride, which is bringing quilts from the National AIDS Memorial to the East Hampton Presbyterian Church next week.

With a large inflatable rat in tow, a group from the Laborers Local 66 union has been stationed this week outside the Montauk Playhouse Community Center, where new aquatic and cultural centers are under construction, with signs calling out the architects and general contractors on the project.

Debate over the addition of an area for small dogs at the Springs Park continued this week as the park committee met to discuss recommended changes that also include removal of invasive species.

Design work has yet to begin on a new lighting plan for downtown Amagansett, where large trees line Main Street and sometimes block light, but the East Hampton Town Board appeared happy Tuesday with a preliminary study by L.K. McLean Associates, the project engineers.

The westernmost grass field at the Stephen Hand’s Path Recreational Facility will be converted to a multiuse artificial turf field in January, with work to be completed possibly by Memorial Day, depending on weather. Councilman David Lys and Matt Jedlicka, an engineer at L.K. McLean Associates, gave a presentation on the project to the town board at a meeting on Tuesday.

“It could have gone worse. We’re lucky that I have officers here that weren’t shot,” said Police Chief Jeff Erickson at Friday’s East Hampton Village Board meeting. Chief Erickson was recognizing Sgt. Wayne Gauger and Officers John Clark and Robbie Greene for a traffic stop on Aug. 31 that turned into a scuffle and the eventual confiscation of an illegal gun.

Two dozen women from across the South Fork gathered Monday night at Grace Presbyterian Church in Water Mill to kick off a season of soup-making in which the goal is to prepare 1,000 quarts of hearty, homemade soup for people facing food insecurity and homelessness.

The South Fork had more harmful blue-green algae blooms this year than ever before, researchers at Stony Brook University recently announced as part of an annual water quality report.