Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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More than 10 motorists who received parking tickets came to Thursday’s Parking Commission meeting to fight them, and a strange thing happened: Two of those in attendance who by chance sat down next to each other also learned they have the same last name. Michael Dooley on Feb. 11 received a ticket when his fiancée (Jessica, she was there too) punched in the wrong number on a space she in fact had paid for (the car is registered in his name) at Talmadge Hill Station lot. Edward Dooley one week later typed in the wrong space number on the Pay-by-phone app when he parked in the lot on the south side of the train station. Both Dooleys brought receipts to the hearing, and the commission voided their tickets.

Around Town

New Canaan’s Orr Family Takes Up Beekeeping

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Liam Orr, who on Wednesday enters the eighth grade at Saxe Middle School, stands with his two kid brothers and mom in a fenced area around the side of their two-story Colonial on Silver Ridge Road—a quiet, woodsy pocket of southeastern New Canaan that the family has called home for 10 years. Their Belgian shepherd mix, 7-year-old Spanky, watches his family through a sunroom window—until this spring, the area had been his personal dog pen. Today, anchored by three hives that dad Shawn built amid the Orrs’ rapid foray into a unique and stimulating hobby, the shaded area is abuzz with an estimated 500,000 honeybees. “You’re looking at bees that are going out to forage for nectar and pollen, and bees that are coming back with the pollen and nectar they’ve collected, into the hive so that they can store that for the winter,” Liam said. Prompted by the chance viewing at home of a documentary on honeybees last November—and driven by a man who, though not on hand for our interview, clearly delights his family with a penchant for delving with enthusiasm into new and hyper-focused interests—the Orrs have taken up an inclusive, creative and educational hobby that’s yielded real-life lessons in business and website development, marketing and the natural world.