Far be it for a newspaper to encourage its readers often to turn on the television, but this is an extraordinary time in the history of the United States.

For the most part, the now-mandated low-nitrogen septic systems being installed on eastern Long Island work as promised. The big if is whether they will deliver on the environmental improvements.

In March, the swallows come back to the cliffs of Capistrano, and in November the scallops come back to the dredges in the Peconic Bays and the suppers of the salivating. Until they don’t.

An attentive group seemed surprisingly not bored on Tuesday when my daughter and I spoke about The East Hampton Star, and our magazine, East, at a gathering of a group called “Women in Conversation” at Peconic Landing, the retirement community in Greenport.

On my list of favorite things, right up there with shoulder rubs, Netflix comedy specials, and strawberries in June, is Christmas.

There’s one big reason for not hosting Thanksgiving — the turkey.

Reports of the scallops’ demise are premature, at least that was true in certain East Hampton Town harbors and select locations in Southampton Town.

We went recently to Sagamore Hill, Theodore Roosevelt’s home in Oyster Bay, and afterward I said I could imagine his wife, Edith, saying, “Not one more polar bear rug, water buffalo head, or hippopotamus foot inkwell, Teddy, not one more.”

Elias Van Sickle and Collin Kavanaugh, the entrepreneurs behind Montauk Mud, an environmentally friendly sunscreen, won the top prize — including $20,000 in cash and other investments in their company — at a local “Shark Tank”-like venture competition on Saturday.

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

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Diane O’Donnell’s squad topped its Class B rivals Sayville and Bayport-Blue Point at Sunken Meadow State Park Friday, assuring it of a trip upstate on Saturday — the first ever for East Hampton High School girls cross-country.

The season ended for East Hampton High’s girls and boys volleyball teams this past week as both squads were ousted in county Class A semifinal matchups.

Last year about this time Sas Peters came into the Star office with an Ultimate disc medal around his neck that appeared to be gold in the office light, but was in fact silver. This year it was indisputably gold.

East Hampton High School’s 200-yard freestyle relay team of Jane Brierley, Darcy McFarland, Julia Brierley, and Sophia Swanson qualified for the state meet by placing second to Northport-Commack’s team in Saturday’s county meet by two seconds.

A top shootist competes in San Antonio, the Pierson girls and Shelter Island boys will join the Bonac girls team at the state cross-country meet Saturday, plus a report on the Dock Race in Montauk.

Saturday brings the state cross-country meet in Plattsburgh (and the Bonac girls' first trip as a team), as well as the Pierson girls volleyball team's game for the Long Island Class C championship.

The bluebird has rebounded in East Hampton remarkably since 1985, when local groups and individuals began to work together to bring it back.

When it comes to fishing, I’ve always been a believer in beginner’s luck. But only up to a certain point.

Ralph Gibson was 17 when he enlisted in the Navy after dropping out of high school. After qualifying for training as a photographer’s mate, he flunked out of photography school. Sixty-two years later, his photography earned him France’s highest order of merit, Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honor.