Many of the locals give me information about upcoming events or local organizations they believe would be appropriate for highlighting in this column. I do sincerely appreciate the input and try hard to accommodate those items at least I think are of interest and may be of interest to you. I don’t always hit the mark, Wabash College football comes to mind, but at least some of you continue to send me helpful suggestions. One such suggestion came this week noting the upcoming Port Ludlow Village Center Christmas Tree Lighting on Dec. 2 at 4:30 p.m. (Anybody for Mexican food?) When I was but a child growing up in a small town in Ohio nobody even thought about Christmas until after Thanksgiving and here we are talking about it before Halloween! Well, at least I don’t remember thinking about it until after Thanksgiving. So, you will hear about the tree lighting event again in this space in a month or so but it might be appropriate for you to pencil it in on your calendar.

Since I breached the subject of Halloween it is befitting to bring to your attention last Saturday’s celebration at the monthly LMC Pot Luck Dinner. As announced in this space last week I was scheduled to take Steven Gross’s place as the emcee for the evening. He told me that after the announcement around a dozen reservations were cancelled. This was clearly just another example of fake news since a festively garbed crowd had a great time eating, drinking and gawking at the various costumes.

As a part of their eighth season the Port Gamble Theater Company presented the musical “Barnum.” We went over last week to enjoy a delightful evening of music and story of one of America’s more enduring and intriguing characters. Hank Hayden plays P. T. Barnum and describes P. T. as “not a particularly good person, but his dreams were fantastic and the legacy of showmanship he left behind him is unrivaled.”

We planned to have dinner ahead of the show at Port Gamble’s Butcher and Baker Provisions but apparently the wind blew down nearby power lines and the restaurant was closed. Fortunately the nearby Scratch eatery was open so we stopped in and ordered dinner. Unfortunately there were many folks who seemed to either want dinner before the show, (The Port Gamble Theater is across the street), or they just wanted dinner and they also found the Butcher and Baker unavailable for the evening. Scratch got crowded in a hurry but I had some great bolognese and then enjoyed a fun show at the theater.

This Saturday’s Port Ludlow Performing Arts presentation is the eighteen-year-old magician Matthew Laslo. Descriptions of his show will lead you to think of him as much older and experienced and be amazed at his skills. His show is family friendly so we are encouraging our grandsons to consider coming from Seattle and forego the ever-pressing schedule of their soccer games. The show is 80-90 minutes long with no intermission. That means no potty break and if you need a second glass of wine, get it before the show.

In response to your many inquiries I can report Wabash is now 5-2 and one of four teams tied for first place in the North Coast Athletic Conference.

Love a curmudgeon and have a great week.

(Ned Luce is a retired IBM executive, the PR officer for curmudgeons and the herald of Port Ludlow.)