Long Island’s Car Free Day is next Thursday, with people encouraged to get around without cars, instead traveling by train, bus, bicycle, subway, on foot, or by car-pooling.

The cocktails will have to wait, but the boat slips are back in business. The Montauk mecca formerly known as Liars’ Saloon, which also was home to the Offshore Sports Marina, has a new sign out front from its new owner, Sam Gershowitz, signaling a new chapter is indeed afoot at 408 West Lake Drive in Montauk.

The food critic and writer Florence Fabricant will serve as a judge of clam chowder entries at the East Hampton Town Trustees’ Largest Clam Contest, which happens on Oct. 9 at noon on the grounds of the Lamb Building on Bluff Road in Amagansett. Those residents entering clams or chowders have been asked to arrive a little before noon.

America’s 9-year-olds “are performing at a level last seen two decades ago,” said Daniel McGrath, the acting associate commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, a branch of the United States Education Department. His announcement addressed a recent federal study that exposed the devastating effects of Covid-19 on the nation’s schoolchildren.