Eileen Bodell and grandaughter Ellery, 5 1/2, waited for Halloween visitors late today in front of grandma’s house at 1 Bradley St. at the corner of Compo Road South in Westport’s Compo Beach section. It was the eighth successive year for the Bodells greeting trick or treaters this way. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

A pizza truck set up today for the annual Gault Park neighborhood Halloween gathering hosted since 2000 by Keith and Cari Kaplan on Sandhopper Trial. Cari Kaplan said they expect the largest turnout of about 100 neighbors and friends. The Kaplans set up a tent this year for the first time because of the threatened rain. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Guests at the Westport Center for Senior Activities today had a tasty Halloween brunch prepared by Chef Bob LaBrusciano. The server in costume is senior volunteer Patty Fogliano. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Phyllis Groner for WestportNow.com

Two persons were transported to Norwalk Hospital today following a one-car crash in the northbound lanes of I-95 between Exits 17 and 18 in Westport. Assistant Fire Chief Robert Kepchar said three persons were in the car that bounced off the jersey barrier and ended up facing the wrong way. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

In a letter to the Washington Post today, a Westporter overseeing a legal education program in Kabul, Afghanistan disputed a top U.S. Foreign Service officer who resigned in protest over the Afghan war.

“I agree with many of former Foreign Service officer Matthew Hoh’s criticisms of the international effort in Afghanistan, particularly our failures to demand that the Afghan government address corruption and, relatedly, to give non-ideological insurgents incentives to stop planting roadside bombs,” wrote Benjamin Joseloff, 27.

“That said, I don’t agree with Mr. Hoh that there is nothing here worth fighting for.”

Joseloff, son of Westport First Selectman Gordon F. Joseloff, is a 2000 Staples High School graduate and 2008 graduate of Stanford Law School. After completing a one-year federal clerkship, he has been in the Afghan capital since September as a fellow at the Afghanistan Legal Education Project.

As a Westport artist, illustrator (and Mom) Elaine Clayton has a special eye. It came in handy Friday as she noticed an elderly woman walking along Compo Road South.
Elaine Clayton’s illustration of the missing woman. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed graphic

Moments later, Clayton received a CodeRed automatic notification call from police informing her that a 74-year-old woman with dementia had been missing for more than five hours from her Post Road East condominium.

She called police and told them about the woman. Moments later, police called back and said the woman she had spotted indeed was the missing woman. Someone else called in as well. (See WestportNow Oct. 30, 2009)

“I was gushingly thrilled and started whooping and hollering,” Clayton wrote on her Illuminara blog in an entry she titled “Westport Police Bulletin and Vision Angels” where she also posted a sketch of the woman. “I felt like I had just won the lottery!

Many of the hundreds of holiday lights in the trees along Westport’s Main Street and Parker Harding Plaza were getting their annual maintenance on Friday. Workers checked connections, replaced burned out bulbs, and added new strings of lights where needed. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Larry Untermeyer for WestportNow.com