People were feeling pretty down at the Sandy Hook Diner this week. Mary Fellows sent flowers. Twiggy, the 8-year-old Vietnamese pot-bellied pig who was such a good friend of so many customers that she, at one time, porked up to 190 pounds, had gone to meet her maker. Owner Ellie Lewis said Twiggy went out as a happy pig.

“All of the kids including Mary’s daughter, Cleo, loved to feed her,” Ellie said. “So did our waitress Bonnie. Twiggy had trimmed down to about 100 pounds on orders of our vet, but she was working her way back up there.”

Ellie said customer Alan Smith used his backhoe to dig a grave for Twiggy behind the diner. Now that both Twiggy and Digger are gone — Digger living happily on a Woodbury farm since his well-publicized escape from the diner in 1996 — Ellie doesn’t plan to buy any more pigs.

“A $50 piglet turned out to cost me $3,000 after she got some kind of swine disease,” Ellie explained. “I didn’t intend to spend $3,000 but once you’ve spent $800 at the vet, what are you going to do?”

This wasn’t the only bad news in the animal world this week. Veterinarians Rita Power and Frances Paulin report that their animal hospital in the Bethel Village Square has been closed because of a broken pipe and probably won’t reopen for at least two weeks while they try to repair the damage. The vets, who are both Newtown residents, said the water caused part of the ceiling to collapse and soaked the wallboard so that much of it has to be replaced. Fortunately, the animals — one cat that was recovering from surgery and three “freeloader” cats awaiting homes — were promptly rescued none the worse for the experience. Dr Power says the hospital computer was wrecked but all the paper records were recovered. The vets are trying to be at the office during the day to provide information for other vets who are helping with emergency referrals.

The American Red Cross says it is experiencing a crisis with less than 200 pints of blood on hand in Connecticut for emergency use. But donors like Sue Shpunt are rallying to the cause. Sue donated at the blood drive at Trinity Church last weekend and got her ten-gallon pin.

Those of us who watched Reid Warner, 23, compete Monday noon on the syndicated TV game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire were proud to see our hometown boy go home with $8,000. Reid had decided ahead of time not to gamble on a question he wasn’t sure about, and that turned out to be an excellent strategy. He was stumped by the question of where the Christmas tree first originated and was leaning toward England, but it turned out to be Germany. “I’ll take my money and run,” Reid said, declining to answer. His friend Eunice Huang, who watched from the audience, will be a contestant in May. Her segment has already been taped.

There’s now more orange in the rear parking lot at Edmond Town Hall than found in most citrus groves. I counted 15 bright orange traffic cones positioned in the parking lot to prevent parking in front of the Newtown Hook and Ladder firehouse there. It seems that some of the people who attend movies at the town hall movie theater have parked carelessly while at the shows. Newtown Hook and Ladder’s firehouse, which contains several fire trucks, directly faces the town hall parking lot, so it’s important that there be a clear opening in front of the firehouse for fire truck access. The area is posted to prohibit parking. But some people who attend the movies apparently don’t understand the importance of the parking prohibition and park in restricted areas, hindering fire vehicle travel near the firehouse. Also, in the wintertime, with all the sand spread out across the pavement, the paint markings that prohibit parking are less visible.

So where you do think the center of Newtown is? Some people say Main Street, others Queen Street, and some people think that Fairfield Hills will be the center of town once the town takes it over and starts to develop facilities there. But I think the real center of town just may be Hawley Pond. For three week running, Hawley Pond has been featured in a picture on the front of The Bee.

While there may be debate about the location of the center of Newtown, there can be no doubt that the center of the universe is right here in this column, so be sure to…

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