The unceremonious bulldozing of roughly four semi-wooded acres on Marsden Street was a shocking sight to Sag Harbor residents earlier this month, though plans to develop the property have loomed — and sparked controversy in the village — for decades.

Season’s Greetings from 1900. And 1925, for that matter. Plus much more cribbed from our voluminous pages.

This week’s mailbag.

In conjunction with its current show, "Second Skin," the Southampton Arts Center will host a "fashion intervention" performance by the artist Gabriela Galvan.

An off-site music series organized by the Arts Center at Duck Creek will bring three vibrant jazz ensembles to the Sagaponack Farm Distillery.

More realty hereabouts.

As the most powerful nation in the world teeters at the edge of a dictatorial cliff, historians can counter this distressingly familiar story.

The East Hampton Library is the pearl in our town’s cultural crown.

I have generally stopped overnighting at hotels of the Holiday Inn sort and instead tried when possible to book short-term rentals. It has been an education.

I have a psychological profile that prefers to cling to old ways.

When readers struggle to escape the gender trap.

It’s hard to believe a little house, with a little store and studios, run by a kindly, helpful team of devoted community members, could do so much for the making of art here.

The family of Phillip G. Mannino, who died on Saturday, will receive visitors on Thursday, Dec. 18, from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Scott-Rothwell Funeral Home in Hampton Bays. A funeral Mass will be said on Friday at 11 a.m. at Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Bridgehampton, with a reception to follow at the church. 

No nail was left unbitten at the Kendall Madison championship on Saturday. The Bonackers basketball team beat the Bridgehampton Killer Bees by just 2 points in a tight defensive game, with a final score of 47-45.

Week four was a busy one for the Bonac boys varsity swim team, which traveled to Sachem for its second and final nonleague meet of the season on Dec. 9 and hosted Ward Melville at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter last Thursday.

At the Bonackers’ second meet of the season Saturday at Suffolk Community College in Brentwood, the 4-by-800-meter relay team took second place to Smithtown West with a time of 8:50.4, the fourth-fastest finish in Section XI.

East Hampton wrestling had a mixed weekend — earning a strong league win over Eastport on Dec. 12, but struggling the next day at the annual Doc Fallot Dual Tournament in Hampton Bays, where the team dropped all five matches.

Peter Solow will be at The Church in Sag Harbor to talk about his artistic practice and his piece "Piazza Signoria," which is on view there.

Comedy at Guild Hall, music at Sag Harbor’s Masonic Temple, Sticks and Stones Comedy Club in Southampton, Cherry Bombs at the Talkhouse, and a garden book group on Zoom.

Paintings by Robert Dash at Madoo, museum-quality furniture and antiques at Shooster in Sag Harbor, and an exhibition tour at the Bridgehampton Museum.