The Daily Five: Wild Neighbors and a Giant Lobster

The Daily Five is Patch's regular morning column that tells you five things you need to know, all before breakfast!

1. We might see another severe thunderstorm warning today. Weather.com is predicting a 60 percent chance of rain with scattered thunderstorms both day and night and cautions that some of these storms may be severe. The high temperature should top out at about 83 degrees and the overnight low will drop to about 74 degrees.

2. Looking for something to do tonight? The weather forecast doesn’t bode well for the Starry Nite concert scheduled from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. outdoors at the Village Shops at 10 Lyme Street in Old Lyme but the Lymes’ Senior Center’s performance by the Old Lyme Town Band will be going on rain or shine starting at 7 p.m.

Similarly, there’s no rain date given for the Movie on the Beach showing of Dolphin Tale, which is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. at McCook’s Beach in Niantic tonight as a benefit for the American Cancer Society. (Donations are by the carload, however, so perhaps it's like a drive-in movie?)

The Book Club discussion of The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto, though, is a great rainy day event and that’s happening at 6:30 p.m. at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme.

3. In case you missed it, the New London Day had a story yesterday about a very lucky and extremely large lobster that, but for the intervention of a Niantic man, would have ended up as dinner at The Dock in Waterford.

Niantic resident Don MacKenzie told the Day he bought the 17-pound lobster, which he figured had to be about 80-years-old, with the express intention of returning it to Long Island Sound.  The lobster, fondly known as “Lucky Larry,” is now once again free to terrorize smaller lobsters and tempt lobstermen. And now the Associated Press has picked up the story, there are sure to be many of them on the lookout for Larry.

4. Larry isn’t the only curious creature in our waters. Not long ago, a local fisherman caught a shark off the coast of Niantic and just this week, a . But there are plenty of critters on land too and some of them are posing problems for pets, livestock, and gardens.

So how should you handle it if you’ve got a problem with geese, coyotes, skunks, or deer in your backyard? Glad you asked. The Humane Society just came out with a guide offering humane but that come up most frequently. It’s available as a free download from the Humane Society of the United States Website.

5. I admit I had to laugh when I saw the picture that ran with our “Review It” local business feature yesterday. Seeing a photo of Osprey Sportfishing decorated for the holidays and buried under several feet of snow did remind me, however, that our business listing directory was actually compiled two years ago.

If you’re a business owner, I’d recommend you check out the listings to make sure that all the information is up-to-date. If you , you can also add information to it! If your business isn’t listed, let us know and we’ll make sure to post it on Patch. (Business listings are free, by the way!)

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