NEWRY — I arrived Tuesday night to cover Newry’s town meeting and took a seat on a bench along the wall between fire Chief Bruce Pierce and a pretty young woman wearing gray suede knee-high boots.

About halfway through the meeting, the woman tapped me on the shoulder and asked, “Can I hit you?”

Then she pointed to a fly on my jacket that had been annoying her.

“Sure,” I said.

So she lightly punched my shoulder but missed the fly, which flew away. She grimaced.

When moderator Dave Duguay got to the social services article, the woman stood up and introduced herself as so-and-so from Safe Voices and explained how they work with so many victims of domestic violence in the area.

When she finished and sat back down, I asked her, “You’re with Safe Voices and you hit me?”

“But I asked you nicely if I could hit you first,” she said.

tkarkos@sunmediagroup.net

And the meatball winner is . . . 

Swabian meatballs in barbecue sauce took the bragging rights Sunday in the inaugural Central Maine Meatball Challenge at the St. Mary’s Nutrition Center.

Bob Bernheim of China was king meatball.

Organizer Chris Abbruzzese of Double Z Land and Livestock said nearly 100 people turned out, raising $1,200 for the center.

Five amateur chefs and two teams of teens entered the competition. The teens, all part of the Nutrition Center’s Youth Powered Cooking Program, took second and third place. 

As part of his prize, Bernheim’s winning meatballs will be served on March 18 at DaVinci’s Eatery, with part of the dish’s sales that night going to the program.

— Kathryn Skelton