Villages

The updated Covid-19 booster shots — which protect against both the original strain of the virus and the now-dominant Omicron subvariants — are already becoming available at pharmacies, physicians’ offices, and other sites.

The destruction of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, was deeply felt in Montauk for many months after the attacks, as people sought to get away from the smoldering hellscape of Lower Manhattan and find some comfort and solace at sea.

In this photograph, 12-year-old Mary Huntting Rattray (1927-2016) appears just past her ankles in the surf as she enters the ocean at Napeague in 1939.

Forget the gold rush, in 1897 an East Hamptoner went north with hens to make money selling eggs in the Yukon. Fifty years later, T.W.A.’s Juan Trippe dressed up as Carmen Miranda at a Maidstone Club costume ball. And much more.

On Aug. 22, Surfrider’s Blue Water Task Force tested the water off Windmill Beach in Sag Harbor and recorded its highest level of enterococcus, a “fecal indicator,” in a year. It was 150 times the number used by the Suffolk Health Department to close a beach, but the beach remained open, with no signs alerting parents or casual tourists that the water should be avoided.

There is no vaccine to help prevent Lyme disease, which is transmitted through the bite of an infected deer tick, but that may soon change. In early August, the drug company Pfizer announced that it was seeking 6,000 people ages 5 and older to enroll in its phase 3 trial for a new Lyme vaccine. Separately, there's work underway using MRNA vaccine technology to make bites quickly itchy and red, so that they are easily noticed and the ticks can be removed before the transmit disease.

An informational meeting about emergency and personal wireless communications in Springs is scheduled for Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Springs Firehouse.

East End Presbyterians are facing a unique challenge this year as six churches here are without a full-time pastor — and everyone’s trying to find one.

The crowd of children and adults early on Friday afternoon, hours before its official reopening, were a clear indication that the renovated Lars Simenson Skatepark in Montauk is a hit. "What happened was a very organic process of people just building enthusiasm, community coming together . . . until we ended up with something that is world class," said a member of the Montauk Skatepark Coalition.

Many people know by now that Southampton Town has “opted in” to open cannabis dispensaries and consumption lounges one of these days, but less known is that the town is now hosting the East End’s only psychedelic healing center.

When David Plotkin collapsed while biking on Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett, bystanders and lifeguards jumped into action, helping to perform CPR for 15 minutes as they waited for an ambulance. That Mr. Plotkin survived is thanks to their quick action.

This invitation to the 1973 Ladies Village Improvement Society Horse Show feels particularly timely considering this year's Hampton Classic Horse Show starts Sunday.