After more than 87,000 total votes, we’re down to the top four of the Coolest Thing Made in Connecticut competition. 

Semifinal voting is underway now. The matchups are: 

The single-elimination, bracket-style competition is being led by the CBIA Foundation in partnership with the Connecticut Office of Manufacturing and CONNSTEP and made possible through the generous support of CliftonLarsonAllen LLP. 

The competition is an opportunity to showcase Connecticut’s vibrant manufacturing sector.

World-Class Workforce

“These four companies—and all 16 finalists—highlight the best Connecticut has to offer,” said CBIA president and CEO Chris DiPentima.

“And this is a chance to celebrate not only the products they manufacture, but the world-class workers who make them.”

During an appearance on Fox 61’s morning news, Connecticut Department of Economic Development commissioner Daniel O’Keefe noted the nearly 5,000 manufacturing companies and nearly 160,000 employees that make up the workforce. 

“We make very complicated things here. We’ve been able to develop this very specialized workforce over the last 100 years that make these highly engineered products,” he said. 

Semifinal voting is open through Sept. 17. 

The overall winner will be announced at the Oct. 2 Connecticut Manufacturing Summit at the Connecticut Convention Center.

A group of business leaders nominated the 16 products in the first year of what will be an annual competition.

Nominations are open now for next year’s contest. 

Police are investigating a reported shooting that happened in New Haven late Thursday night.

The police department said it happened in the area of Shelton Avenue and Gibbs Street.

The extent of injuries is unknown at this time. No additional information was immediately available.

I loved watching Our Gang and The Little Rascals while I was growing up, if I see a dog that looks like Petey, I fall into a nostalgic haze. Thinking back on the show as an adult, there were two things that scared the kids, but made me curious – castor oil and limburger cheese. After a three-year quest to find Limburger cheese in Connecticut, I’ve finally succeeded.

The Little Rascals/Our Gang has entertained kids of all ages for almost a hundred years, and it’s inspired the feeling of doom and gloom every time I’ve heard Limburger cheese or Castor Oil mentioned. I’ve tried Castor Oil, it’s not anywhere as bad as I had imagined.

When I started working with Ethan and Lou three years ago, somehow my wanting to try the stinky cheese came up in the course of conversation, and my quest began. The Limburger leads started coming in – DeCicco’s has it, they might have it, Stew Leonard’s had it, but I couldn’t get there. I looked in supermarkets all over Connecticut – multiple Big Y’s, Stop & Shop’s, Bantam Market and Northville Market, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, The Fresh Market, Balducci’s, Key Foods, even Aldi. Nothing. I asked inside Oakville’s New Curds on the Block, at the Caseus Crispy Melty truck too.

Finally, this past weekend, I shopped at Torrington’s Market 32, and there it was. I bought a 6oz. block of Country Castle Limburger Cheese from Monroe, Wisconsin, and I’m about to take the first whiff of Limburger in my lifetime, be right back.

Yowza. It’s true. My God. It smells like a teenager’s room that’s been filled full of dirty socks, with a hint of an Italian combo grinder that’s been left in the sun for 3 hours. Spanky, Alfalfa, Buckwheat, Darla, and Stymie, you were right.