My wife and I frequently went to the Fife and Drum restaurant in Kent, CT, where the owner would play show tunes on his grand piano. Nice guy and he played well enough to thoroughly charm us. He’d throw in Classical pieces, too (but only when there weren’t too many customers).
Between sets, he’d sometimes come to our table to schmooz, and on one occasion, mentioned that Horowitz (and wife) (who had a summer home in Kent), would drop in for dinner, two or three times a month during the summers. As you might expect, Vladimir would compliment the owner’s pianism. I liked that and figured it to be pure Horowitz. He was such a gentle soul.
Just over the line lies Newtown, where an airline pilot murdered his wife, cut her body up into manageable pieces and with a rented wood chipper, pureed them into a lake. However, Mr. Asshole was seen doing the wood chipper bit — in the dead of winter. The cops were able to glean bits and pieces of the wife’s body from the chipper and their DNA match helped to clinch the case.
Marion Anderson was a famous singer who lived in Danbury, CT.
Just 3 miles from my house, right here in beautiful uptight Brookfield, some teenager hauled out a shotgun and put a hole in his friend’s stomach. His defense: The devil made me do it. Honest.
Surprise surprise, it didn’t wash.
Paul Newman lives in Westport.
So did/does Sandy Dennis, the gal who played the dipsomaniacal young lady in the movie Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Remember how she formed a bubble of spit in the drunken scene?
I used to work in that town, but never saw Newman. I did see Ms Dennis in a restaurant there. Like Newman, she had no airs.
Martha Stewart also lives/lived in Newport. I like her and still feel she got a bum rap. I know, lots of folks say she’s a bitch.
Dustin Hoffman has/had a horse farm in Bridgewater .
James Taylor and Dianne Von Furstenburg live/lived in New Milford.
Arthur Miller and William Styron (author of Sophie’s Choice et al) had homes in Roxbury.
And I, the most famous of local celebrities. emerged from my owl house in the early hours of November 9th and took off on a celebratory flight throughout the neighborhood, hooting unmercifully while dropping elegant globs of owl shit on all the houses of my Republican neighbors.
Sadly, I was trapped by the town cops, and grounded for ten days.