Shortly after Lyman Beecher’s wife, Roxana, bore their first child, Drusilla Crook was brought to the household to take care of the baby — she was 5 years old, “a colored girl,” Beecher wrote in his autobiography.

I believe nothing is more depressing than the “festival” of “fun” that goes on at Hershey’s Chocolatetown in Pennsylvania.

Here in Noyac, for some reason I’ve been overlooking nearby Long Beach, and was surprised it took me till the second weekend in July to appreciate it in a way I haven’t since the days of the Oasis.

If I were sermonizing, I’d write one on the folly of self-abasement, self-doubt, self-mortification, self-flagellation, and self-loathing.

Thoughts on “The Potato Book,” a droll, tongue-in-cheek time capsule of a book with a 1970s warning in Truman Capote’s foreword.

AMAGANSETT

Estate of Bonnie Krupinski to Christa E. Bistrian, 17 Private Road (vacant), April 15, $412,500.

Far East Properties L.L.C. to HRH Design Group L.L.C., 172 Cranberry Hole Road (vacant), April 29, $2,550,000.

BRIDGEHAMPTON

The week's comments from readers.

"The Year Coronavirus Came to Town" was the assignment for Montauk School students in this year's Montauk Historical Society Essay and Original Artwork Competition, and the society's director said she "was so touched by the way the kids opened their hearts" in their submissions.

The Clamshell Foundation's Great Bonac Fireworks Show will light up the sky over Three Mile Harbor in East Hampton on Saturday at 9 p.m., in a return to an annual tradition dating back to the 1970s. 

Goat on a Boat Puppet Theatre plans to take the puppetry to the people -- here and all over Long Island -- this fall as it develops and raises money for a new puppet truck and mobile stage. According to Liz Joyce, founder of the company, the truck's conception sprang from one question: "How can we bring puppets to people that don't get them?"

After Sunday's ceremony for the 2021 Teeny Awards, given by East End Arts to artistically talented high schoolers, two South Fork students walked out of the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center with awards for dramatic performances of note. 

From an outdoor concert to puppet shows, live reptiles, story times, and crafts, there's a lot for kids of all ages to do this week.

Robert Zecher, a real estate developer and the new owner of the building that is home to Mary's Marvelous in East Hampton Village, has a vision to transform that section of the village into an extension of the commercial core with more storefronts and apartments. 

These are unfinished, previously unpublished works of a prolific poet who was known for being “obscure,” but what they offer, thanks to Emily Skillings, the volume’s editor, is a far deeper understanding of John Ashbery’s process and what mattered to him as a writer.

The site plan for a 50-unit affordable housing complex the East Hampton Housing Authority will build off Three Mile Harbor Road received a positive initial review from the East Hampton Town Planning Board.

The South Fork Natural History Museum and Nature Center is flipping the script on the typical shark tournament this month. Instead of catching sharks, the idea is to collect discarded balloons from local waters to protect them and compete for prizes throughout July.

Five equestrians who have competed in the Hampton Classic's Grand Prix -- McLain Ward, Kent Farrington, Laura Kraut, Jessica Springsteen, and Lucy Deslauriers, as an alternate -- have been picked to represent the United States in the coming Tokyo Olympics' team show jumping competition.

The Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill will present a conversation on Sunday about “The Black Woman Project,” a collection of Gwen Smith’s portraits of renowned Black women.

Name a centuries-old monument here, or windmill, or house, and the odds are that Robert Hefner had a hand (often a hands-on hand) in helping to save it from destruction or reincarnating it, sometimes phoenix-like from its very ashes.

"Alexis Rockman: Shipwrecks," is a meditation on the power and peril of the sea, with paintings crossing the boundaries of realism and hellscape.