Hanukkah begins Sunday at sundown. The holiday will be celebrated with different events across the South Fork, including menorah lightings, singing songs, making and eating latkes and sufganiyot (doughnuts), and religious services.

Visiting hours for Chris (Mac) McErlean of Flanders, who grew up in Sag Harbor, will be Monday from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in Sag Harbor. He will be buried on Tuesday at 11 a.m. at Oakland Cemetery. Mr. McErlean died suddenly on Tuesday while at work. He was 38. An obituary will appear in a future issue of The Star.

Other than everyone in masks on the plane, there was nothing much out of the ordinary about Alaska Air Flight 458. It seemed strange to travel again, being the first time that I had been aboard an aircraft since 2019.

The South Fork Wind farm, which would be New York State’s first offshore wind farm, took another major step forward on Wednesday when the federal Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued a favorable Record of Decision, a move that concludes the project’s federal environmental review. 

The East Hampton Town Board is expected to opt out of allowing cannabis retail dispensaries or on-site consumption licenses.

Those who overindulged on Thanksgiving dinner and dessert can "walk it off" with a moderately paced hike on Friday at 10 a.m. through the Long Pond Greenbelt, a post-Thanksgiving tradition from the Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt and the South Fork Natural History Museum.

Besides the good right arm that recently won him a full athletic scholarship to play baseball at George Washington University, Colin Ruddy, a personable 17-year-old East Hampton High School senior, has a good head on his shoulders, which very well may be the most important thing when it comes to success in athletics.

East Hampton High School’s winter sports teams, namely boys and girls basketball, boys and girls indoor track, boys swimming, bowling, and wrestling — which was scratched last season because of the coronavirus pandemic — began practicing here Monday.

Two teams, Maidstone Market and the East Hampton Soccer Club, which had twice played to draws in the regular season, met for the men’s soccer 7-on-7 fall championship at East Hampton’s Herrick Park on Nov. 15, with the Soccer Club winding up a 4-1 victor.

With my boat prematurely out of the water for the season with various and costly engine issues, I have to find other vessels to fish on. Many friends have already hauled out their crafts, so I’m resigned to fishing on open boats, and that’s just fine with me. Two weeks ago, I took passage on the Peconic Star 3 out of Greenport for blackfish. It is skippered by the ever-youthful Capt. Speedy Hubert, he of the age of 84. Spry and energetic as ever, he anchored us up on a wreck off Horton’s Point in Long Island Sound. I had not fished that area in probably over 35 years. It was nice to be back.

A change to the ways East Hampton Town ordinances are prosecuted would be a significant improvement over the antiquated procedure in use now, which requires a mountain of paperwork and takes officers out of the field. Under the present rules, only parking and other very minor tickets can be handled by mail or online; everything else has to be handled in town court. This leads to a sizable backlog, particularly as violations pile up in the summer and can take well into the fall to be dealt with.

The New York State Assembly’s damning report following an eight-month investigation of former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s behavior while in office should serve as a cautionary tale for government at all levels.

Fresh or frozen, brined or spatchcocked, roasting a turkey with all the trimmings can be a fairly expensive and labor-intensive holiday undertaking. For those who may find them too expensive, there’s help available in various forms. Food pantries, school groups, religious institutions, community-minded businesses, and even the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office have been distributing turkeys to those in need.

I’m not supposed to say this — visualize me right now muttering “Knock on wood” as I rap smartly on the top of my head — but I am the lucky dame who always wins the raffle: I win things much more frequently than chance says I ought to. If there is a door prize or basket of cheer, I expect to soon be carrying the basket home, strapped with a seatbelt into the front passenger seat beside me, softly chuckling to myself like a thief.

Hard-hitting college football action — a cure for the late-night-Wednesday-in-November blues.

The desert is hardly deserted, at least the one that is rimmed by the San Jacinto mountains in Southern California, where two of our grandchildren, unbridledly joyous 4 and 6-year-old girls, live. Untrammeled joy, however, was not our lot last week inasmuch as an 11-year-old grandson who lives in northwestern Ohio underwent at the same time a severe Covid-caused trial ultimately overcome only by astute medical intervention and his characteristic bravery.

On Nov. 25 and every day before and after, I will thank God, Destiny, Fate, Chance, and the prejudice of white descendants of European immigrants for my good fortune. But is that something I should celebrate?

The prices below have been calculated from the county transfer tax. Unless otherwise noted, the parcels contain structures.

Notes from the Star's archives

Many residents of East Hampton Town know, or know of, Lenny Ackerman. A successful attorney and longtime principal of the Ackerman, Pachman, Brown, & Goldstein firm on Pantigo Road, he is often seen representing a client before one of the town or village planning or zoning boards. But Mr. Ackerman is a man of many talents, and interests.