Stewie, a Maine Coon cat, was in the news last week, and I just have to share with you why he hit the headlines. The 5-year-old cat was certified as the new Longest Cat Guinness World Record holder, measuring 48½ inches in length.

That’s a lot of kitty cat. Check it out yourself: www.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101020/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd_world_s_longest_cat.

Keep reading if you are a cat lover: our photo adjustment specialist here at The Bee, Dan Beck, is pretty crafty with the carving knife. He has carved out a wide-eyed Halloween cat from one of his pumpkins this year to celebrate the holiday.

Now there’s a cat that truly has fire in his eyes. I like that.

Black cats are always associated with Halloween, and while most black cat superstitions involve bad luck, I was happy to run across this gem of a superstition this week: “Many people believe that a black cat brings good fortune and also, that anyone who finds the one perfect, pure white hair in an all-black cat and plucks it out without being scratched, will find great wealth and good luck in love.” However, this French superstition, “It is bad luck to cross a stream carrying a cat,” just seems to me to be a matter of common sense…. Water plus cat equals trouble, anywhere, anytime.

Rachel McAdams may be out of the running for Black Cat villain in Spider Man 4, but I’m pretty sure I can carry it off this Friday when everyone in The Bee office has agreed to dress up as his or her favorite villain or super hero. So don’t be taken aback when you visit 5 Church Hill Road the end of the week.

Trinity Church will be offering its parking lot for parents who would like to bring their little trick or treaters to Main Street for Halloween this weekend. The church is asking for donations of any size in exchange for being able to park so easily along the town’s biggest October 31 hot spot.

Whether you park at Trinity or in another nearby location, if you are in the area after 4 pm on Sunday, don’t forget to stop by The Bee, which will again be offering treats to all those who come by in costume. A few staffers and friends will be all decked out in their costumes and, like the Main Street residents a few hundred yards west of 5 Church Hill Road, they will hand out candy until their stash runs out.

NHS culinary chef Stephen O’Shana has stashed away something a bit spicier than candy, I hear. Chef O’Shana walked away from the West Hartford VFW chili cook-off this past weekend with first place honors, so we offer our congratulations to him.

With its 1-0 victory against Kolbe Cathedral on Senior Night Monday, the Newtown High School boys’ soccer team earned a home game in its first matchup of the South-West Conference playoffs. Newtown will host New Milford at Tilson Field at Treadwell Park on Friday, October 29, at 6 pm. To add to the festivities, since the SoccerFest fundraiser was rained out earlier this month, the NHS soccer parents will hold a raffle featuring more than 30 valuable prizes. Raffle tickets are $1 each (or $10 for 12 tickets or $20 for and 25). Halloween treats are free with every purchase (while supplies last). Food, drinks, and candy will be available for purchase. Admission to all SWC games is $7 for adults; $5 for students and seniors. Gates open at 5:30 pm.

It’s nice to know that some couples keep the spice in their relationship long after the wedding vows have faded. I hear that Dennis Walton delivered a bouquet to his wife, Katherine, at Danbury Hospital where she is a nurse. The reason for the flowery display of love? It was October 25, the 20th anniversary of the day he proposed.

The vows have certainly not faded yet for hometown actress Jenna Van Oy, who was wed to boyfriend Brad Bratcher in a small ceremony right here in Newtown on October 10. Jenna is known by many for her role in the 1990s Blossom series on NBC, and has more recently guest starred in television shows that include Cold Case, Chicago Hope and 7th Heaven. Congratulations to the lovebirds.

Hey, you could be showing a little love, too. Where are all the Good Egg nominations? If you know someone who does good deeds, but flies below the radar, submit his or her name to me at nancy@thebee.com. I’ll be happy to give that person his or her fifteen minutes of fame! (And a Good Egg graphic, ideal for framing after it is snipped out of the column.)

Apparently, he’s all ears. Newtown resident and Newtown Toastmasters member Tom Long not only won the Toastmasters International District 53, Division D, Area D-5 Evaluation Contest on October 6 (“Resident Wins Toastmaster Award,” October 22, 2010), now he has won the Toastmasters Division D Evaluation Contest, held October 26 at Fairfield Public Library. The competition featured competitors from Toastmasters’ clubs across Fairfield County. The purpose of the evaluation contest was to listen to one speech and offer critique of that speech. The quality of the evaluation provided was then critiqued by the judges. Tom will now advance to the District 53 Contest to be held at the Fall Conference at the Holiday Inn in Fishkill, N.Y., on November 20. Good luck, Tom!

Former Newtown resident Polly Brody will participate in Open Studio Hartford’s First Annual Poetry Celebration. Polly will be one of ten poets invited to present poems that were written to accompany a specific painting; 17 works of art have been interpreted poetically. Polly selected what she described this week as “a very abstract painting called ‘Lost at Sea’” for her poetic efforts, which will be offered between 2 and 4 pm on Saturday, November 6, at ArtSpace Gallery, 555 Asylum Avenue in Hartford. Admission is free, and a light reception will be provided by poets and OSH members.

Were you part of that great big picture that was taken by Bee Associate Editor (and Sandy Hook Firefighter) Shannon Hicks back in June during Newtown’s Relay for Life? Now is your chance to see that photo, where cancer survivors and caregivers assembled on one of the baseball fields at Fairfield Hills on Saturday, June 5, and spelled out the word HOPE. Newtown’s Relay For Life will unveil that photo during a Relay Rally Photo Unveiling planned for Friday, November 12, from 7 to 9 pm, at C.H. Booth Library. The Newtown Relay For Life Committee has printed up 100 copies, each measuring 8 by 10 inches, and then matted the photos so that they are ready to be put into an 11- by 14-inch frame of your choice. Miss Hicks (a cancer survivor) has signed each copy, and they will be sold for $50 each, with all proceeds to benefit the American Cancer Society. In addition to unveiling and beginning sales of the HOPE photo, the Relay committee will be raffling a cord of wood just in time for winter.

I don’t have any cords of wood or awesome photographs to offer, but you know that I do have HOPE — that you will make time next week to…. Read me again.