UPDATED: So Many Questions

Hank Manz is the About Town guest columnist from April 11 to 15 while Denise Dubé is out of town.

With lunchtime approaching, I took that walk through the Center.

Even though Nicole at t has not yet named my favorite sandwich after me (half-an-egg-salad-on-whole-wheat-with-just-a-touch-of-lettuce) I stopped there anyway.  I really like the new chairs and tables. At the other end of the street, the is open on Sunday.  There are two places to buy ice cream (and the ) even if I don’t go all the way to East Lexington for gelato. I window-shopped some new shoes at and waved to the owner of , who swears she can do something with my hair. More of it, maybe?  I will admit that I also stopped at my bank.  I know—the common wisdom is that banks are not a destination, but mine is, since I tend to read the paper while I am there, pick up a mint at the counter and say “Hello” to the tellers. There really is quite a bit to do in the Center. Park the SUV and try walking. A quarter buys you an hour—try that in Boston. As I walked back to the , I tried to count how many times stores like the have saved me when I forgot a birthday or other special event.

--Two new patrol officers for the are being sworn in at 2:30 p.m. in the lobby of

--Two missing animals are still missing. Max, the Town Hall Cat, has not returned home and my investigative skills have not been sufficient to discover what happened to The Bear who used to watch over Bedford Street near Carol Lane.  I will leave that to Denise, who returns tomorrow.

--But I answered another question and uncovered another. I found the equivalent of an elephant graveyard for shopping carts, but now I am wondering why they only go one way. Wouldn’t it be just as easy to take them back as it was to take them home?

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Posted at 5:45 a.m. this morning.

It is the end of the week and the questions have been piling up. Time to do a little homework and figure out some answers.

One of the things that happens every Spring is all the crosswalks in town get a fresh coat of paint. This year the ones in the Center look different and people are asking why. Instead of the diagonal “zebra” stripes, the new way to paint crosswalks is what is often called “Abbey Road” style, after the pedestrian crossing made famous by the Beatles. (There is a Web cam at that crossing, by the way and if you click on the link above, you can see it. I don't think Paul is there today, though.) Anyway, the new style striping attracts the attention of motorists better than the old style. The old style tends to look like a very narrow white stripe to a driver, and does not immediately send a message to slow down because he or she is approaching a crosswalk.

Several people have called to ask what happened to "The Bear." They mean the large, black, wooden bear, which has been standing in a fenced niche on Bedford Street ever since a large tree that used to be there came down several years ago. Unfortunately, the answer to that question will have to wait for a future update. The condition of the fence hints that the bear may be hibernating, because of the snow and the subsequent need to plow the sidewalk. We all hope he has not been injured.

What is going on at the? As Patch has reported previously, some renovations -- most of which will make the building more accessible -- have been started. There have been some temporary office relocations, most tonext door. There are signs at each door of the Town Office Building and in the lobby of Cary Hall, to tell you what offices have moved and where they are now. Basically, anything that was in the back of the building on the first and second floor is now in Cary Hall. That includes Recreation, Finance, Community Preservation, Purchasing, Economic Development and MIS, plus a few more you probably have never felt the need to visit.

What happened to the "Town Hall Cat"—the large, friendly cat, who greeted everybody who came into the buildings? I called him Houdini when I first met him, because he could enter any building at any time. When Margaret Marshall, then the chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, came to Cary Hall to speak, I watched one police officer after another remove the cat from the hall, only to have him reappear moments later. He stayed for the presentation and seemed very interested. He also attended a public hearing on the new Stretch Code, which has to do with energy conservation. Of course, we were all incredibly interested, but a somewhat blurry picture I have indicates that only Max (his real name, as I learned later) was actually looking at the speaker the whole time. He also attended the black tie event hosted on New Year's Eve by the Lexington Symphony. Alas, Max has disappeared. The people he lives with are looking for him, but so far they have had no success. We all await his return.

You have visitors coming. What, you ask, is a good way to show them the area? A good start would be the Liberty Ride. Clicking on the link will take you to the new brochure which will tell you, among other things, that it is operating on weekends now, but will start daily operations on May 30. I know—you live here, so you know all about Lexington history, but I promise you that a ride on the trolley will be both interesting and informative. The Liberty ride will also introduce you to the historic houses operated by the Historical Society. Don’t forget to ask a few questions of the Battle Green Guides and stop in at the operated by the.

Now I think I will take a walk through the Center to see what is going on. I'll fill you in on what I find a little later in the day.