Here’s a rundown of the last week’s news:

Gardening greats: The Bainbridge Public Library’s unsung heroes, the Friday Tidys, have been hard at work for over a decade. With their members aging, the Tidys are now seeking some young (or not-so-young) blood to keep the garden-grooming project going. Read more HERE.

Public pod: Winslow’s newest piece of city-funded public art was unveiled on Saturday. Dozens of attendees at the unveiling praised it. Online commentators have (so far) panned it. Head over HERE and share your thoughts about “Pod.”

Hen homes: The island’s finest chicken coops were on display Saturday for the second-annual Tour de Coop. Read about it HERE and take my virtual tour HERE.

Robot randonneur: A retired engineer wanted the ideal tandem bicycle riding partner. So he built one. “Joules” the robot bike-rider never complains and never slacks off, but he can easily get carried away (and potentially brake the speed limit on most island roads). Read the story, see the photo gallery and watch the video HERE.

Dino drop-in: Two-time Republican gubernatorial candidate and current U.S. Senate candidate Dino Rossi stopped by Bainbridge to say, among other things, that the next ballot he’ll appear on will not carry the ‘baggage’ of more divisive, higher-profile Republican candidates. And that, he said, could give him the edge over incumbent Democrat Patty Murray. Read more HERE.

Click here to see Rachel Pritchett’s story on Saturday’s Tour de Coop. Eight chicken coops around Bainbridge will display the various ways islanders are taking advantage of this inexpensive food source in tough economic times.

As Rachel writes:

Long symbols of strapped times, chickens and their coops are enduring symbols of self-reliance, the good earth and the promise of never going hungry as long as there is a scritch or scratch beyond the kitchen door.

Chickens: cheap, fresh food, good garden compost producers and (little known fact) stress reducers. Watch chickens peck about your yard and you will feel your mind calm and your muscles relax. I have no scientific data to back up this claim. But my mom swears by it, so it must be true.

Last week, I wrote a story about the revival of “Minnie Rose Lovgreen’s Recipe for Raising Chickens.” The book is an oral history of sorts focused on an old-time islander’s methods of making hens happy (and getting a lot of fresh eggs at the same time). You can read the story here.

While talking to Nancy Rekow, who first published the book in 1975, she mentioned that the road named after Lovgreen’s family has long been misspelled on city street signs. The road, which intersects Highway 305 south of Day Road, is titled “Lovegreen” road. Note the extra ‘e’.

Rekow said several longtime islanders have pointed out the typo, but the city’s been slow to respond.

Fortunately, a new form of government – heralded as the more responsive and effective alternative to the musty old mayor-led kind – is taking shape at City Hall.

Echoing the late Ronald Reagan’s famous Berlin address : “Mr. City Manager, tear down that misspelled street sign.”*

(*Reagan may have actually used slightly different words.)

Addendum: Blog reader Marvin added that the city also misspells Lovgreen as “Lovegren” on other parts of the Road. If memory serves, the city uses “Lovegreen” at the highway intersection and “Lovegren” to the east. By the way, I’ve also heard plenty of different pronunciations of the road – “Love-green,” “Loav-green,” “Loav-grin” and “Lofgren” (which is actually a road south of Murden Cove). According to Rekow, the correct pronunciation is “Love-grin.”