A play called September Bears will be presented this week in Manhasset. It will be shown tonight, March 6, at 8 p.m. and Saturday night, March 8, at the Community Reformed Church and tomorrow night, March 7, in the Black Box Theater of Manhasset High School. Here is the story behind the play. FULL STORY

The board of trustees of the Manhasset Public Library held two public meetings last week, one on Wednesday, Feb. 26, in the evening, and one on Saturday, March 1, in the morning. Both meetings were fairly well attended and most of those in attendance seemed receptive to the message of the board--that a new library is needed. The referendum on the $16.8 million bond issue will be held at the library from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on March 19. FULL STORY

Well, the fat lady has sung, and the Swiss Alinghi are taking the America's Cup to Europe for the first time in the history of the event. The sweep of Alinghi over Team New Zealand (5-0) ended with a decisive final victory (delta of 45 seconds) over the home team, who once again experienced gear failures. After the disastrous first race, when New Zealand had to pull out of the race because of a broken boom, followed by a broken mast on the fourth race, forcing them to pull out of that race, one had to wonder what possibly could go wrong for the young New Zealanders who were desperately trying to keep the Cup "down under." But the fifth and last race brought more trouble when the spinnaker pole snapped on the second downwind leg, allowing Alinghi to increase their lead, which they held from the start of the race. With this final win, the two native New Zealanders, Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth have made history. This is the first time ever that the Challenger has won the Cup on its initial attempt. Other records have been made. Alinghi finished the America's Cup season with a 31-4 overall record, with an on-the-water record of 30-3. Coutts becomes the all-time winning skipper in the America's Cup Match, having won 14 races with no defeats, breaking Dennis Conner's record of 13 America's Cup race victories. He also tied Charlie Barr and Harold Vanderbilt record of three consecutive Cup wins. While Coutts has won 14 consecutive races, some of his teammates have won even more. Butterworth (tactician), Murray Jones (traveller, wind spotter), Warwick Fleury (mainsheet), Simon Daubney (genoas) and Dean Phipps (bow) all have won 15 races. They're all former Team New Zealand crewmembers. One can only imagine how the New Zealand team must have felt to see the Commodore of the Royal New Zealand YC hand Coutts et al the Cup, and watch him raise it over his head in jubilant victory. FULL STORY