Catherine Violet Hubbard loved to hold and pet animals. Whenever she did, she whispered to them, even if it was a tiny insect in her palm: “Tell all your friends I am kind.”

Collectors routinely pay tens of thousands of dollars for one of Bill Eggers' vintage vehicle reproductions.

Connecticut produced arguably “the greatest female athlete in sports history,” but you might not even know her name.

The Manchester resident and disciplined fitness guru took up Baja racing in his 60s as a way to "to do something interesting."

Our new poet laureate, Margaret Gibson, wants to come to your town or city, go to your public library, park, art gallery or coffee shop, and engage you in a community dialogue.

In a small, nondescript building set back from the road along a strip of industrial warehouses in Waterbury, two brothers and their dad have carved out a successful product line recognized by a growing number of Major League Baseball players: the Tater Bat.

Christine Cummings and Todd Secki have put into action what Cummings calls “a shared passion for birds” by transforming their Killingworth property into a rehabilitation and education center for birds of prey.

On Dec. 30, 1981, Fred Murolo went for a run. He has continued to do so daily, without missing one day, for more than 37 years.

Chief Justice Richard A. Robinson keeps a guitar in his chambers, and it’s not just a memento left unused in the corner. “When I get stressed,” he says, “I pick it up and start playing. I try to play a little bit every day. It just puts you right in a zone; everything goes away.”

Tasha Caswell was walking between the shelves containing the film collection of the Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford three years ago when she got a strong whiff of vinegar. She knew immediately what that odor meant.

Over the past year Tyler Green started a product line called Synthetic Simulation Systems. His goal is to help medical trainees, EMTs and others move away from working on dummies and replace them with his “super realistic” models.

First launching in 1938, Connecticut Magazine's predecessor, Connecticut Circle, was dedicated to selling the good life in the Nutmeg state.

Colin Caplan was raised on New Haven pizza, and he has never lost his deep affection and desire for what’s now recognized, he proudly notes, as “the best in the world.”

Martin Podskoch wants to get us out of our habit of visiting the same old places in our state and instead “take the road less traveled.”

Christopher Wigren doesn’t want people to merely read his new book, Connecticut Architecture: Stories of 100 Places. He hopes we will go out and see for ourselves the state’s rich variety of sites and even discover some we never knew existed. Perhaps even some that didn’t make it into the book.

One hundred years ago, after much debate, misgivings and opposition, the Connecticut State Farm for Women, set up in a collection of cottages in the fields of Niantic, opened its doors to 12 inmates.

Connecticut’s new state troubadour is not just another “folkie” like those who preceded her. And she is the first African-American solo artist to be chosen for the position.

Scott Freiman says he loves it when he reveals to people “tidbits” about the Beatles “and I hear that gasp from the audience because I’ve told them something they didn’t know.”

Noticing hearses periodically going past the window of his converted condominium in an 1865 house that overlooks New Haven’s historic and picturesque Wooster Square, Steve Hamm had an epiphany.

Howland Blackiston is always eager to talk about “my passionate hobby” and “my love affair with honey bees.”

Documentary filmmaker Karyl Evans, who says she “wanted to give voice to women,” found a fitting person to focus on for her latest film, The Life and Gardens of Beatrix Farrand.

When I first call Ray Figlewski at his home in Branford, he says, “It’s hard for me to run these days; my balance is gone” because of Parkinson’s disease. Then he adds, “It’s tough. But it can be dealt with.”

Duo Dickinson and Steve Culpepper didn’t want to write a basic history of New England. Instead they decided to co-write a “tapestry” of the people, places and homes they find interesting and that make this region of the country unique.

When Tony Renzoni arrived at Toad’s Place, the legendary New Haven music club, he was carrying a shopping bag that included two Gene Pitney albums and a transistor radio from his youth on which he had written “Independence.”

Gary Payne greets me at the front door of his condo in Hamden and says, “Come on down to my Circus Room!”