Item of the Week From the East Hampton Library Long Island Collection

Gloria Isabelle Schuerlein, who devoted her life to her large family and to her church, died on Nov. 7 at home in Farmingville. The former East Hampton resident, who was 89, had been in declining health and was in hospice care.

Maurice Richard Blowe, who grew up in East Hampton and attended East Hampton High School, died at home in Phoenix on Nov. 14. He had been ill for about 15 years with various ailments, his family said.

Owain Gardner Collingwood Hughes of Water Mill, an author and entrepreneur, died on Nov. 19.

Mary Margaret McCaffrey of Wainscott, who served the Wainscott School for 19 years as secretary and district clerk, died on Nov. 18 at Southampton Hospital surrounded by family. She was 56 and had been diagnosed five months ago with metastatic lung cancer.

Stewart Miller Cullum, who grew up in East Hampton, died on Nov. 9 at Good Shepherd Hospice in Port Jefferson. He was 78 and had been ill with cancer for three years.

Suffolk County officials announced increased police patrols over the Thanksgiving holiday, and a partnership with Lyft in an effort to deter people from getting behind the wheel under the influence this holiday season. 

Weeks after a re-election campaign that saw her win 60 percent of the vote over her Republican challenger, Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming announced on Tuesday morning her intention to challenge Representative Lee Zeldin in New York's First Congressional District next year.

Virginia Woolf was likely not talking about scrapbooks when, in her “A Writer’s Diary,” she advised the reader to “arrange whatever pieces come your way.” But this magpie sentiment surely fits the 19th-century notion of collecting the ephemeral bits of one’s life into albums that illustrated the scrapbooker’s personal world.

Local pros agree: The rules of good interior design are universal, even when it comes to decking your halls and swagging your walls with garlands, wreaths, and lights. Think “less is more” and the “rule of threes.” Think themes, like vintage or forest, and complementary color palettes.

What’s a house without a story behind it? Just a structure. So what do you do if you find yourself living in new construction with plenty of character but no history? No story? Make something up.

Making your hurried holiday rounds, as you sprint off Main Street and into the Ladies Village Improvement Society’s Bargain Box thrift shop — recently renamed the Shops at the L.V.I.S. — you cannot fail to notice the octagonal dollhouse in the entryway. It is huge, standing tall at 5-foot-4, with nine rooms, two bathrooms, a basement, and an attic. When you pause to peek inside, you see how intricately it has been decorated, with festive details that change with the seasons.

Lynn King was born on Thanksgiving Day, so, naturally, she likes Thanksgiving. But she flat-out loves Christmas — and her impressive collection of Santa Claus mugs is a testament to her holiday obsession.

Food grown on the East End of Long Island will fill many tables here this week. Traditional Thanksgiving dinners include many of the staples long grown here, and increasingly, a dazzling variety of meat, vegetables, and beer and wine from these parts will be served as well. Though it may be less than a passing thought as we tuck into the first courses, there is a remarkable struggle behind each of the local foodstuffs.

An extraordinary lineup of women running things gathered earlier this month to share the message with high school girls that they, too, can make a difference.

Sympathy for a Cooper Lane couple whose house may soon be over-loomed by an extra-tall utility pole should lead to action by PSEG-Long Island to find another location.

I spent a sleepless night earlier this week trying to remember where I’d left a certain bright-purple file folder that I used to drag out every November, as party season approached. It was our party-planning folder, containing guests’ names and menus from celebrations in years gone by. In the morning, rather to my surprise, I actually managed to find said folder, in a bundle in a box among other folders containing favorite recipes.

Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner standing by a cross-like iron object hung on the wall of their Springs house as photographed by Hans Namuth was on my mind one morning last week as I walked west along the bay shore.

There is no greater pain than the feeling of shame. I know. As a victim of clerical sexual abuse, my tears waited nearly half a century to stream from my eyes.

If everyone who’s said they’ll come comes today there will be 21 in our house, of all ages, an infusion of spirit that ought to see Mary, me, and O’en, the house’s everyday occupants, through most of the winter.