Not all interesting news and observation arrives under big headlines.

Sometimes things get overlooked, slip between the cracks, go unnoticed.

Here's passing along a few of these that have come lately to my attention.

• Did you know, for instance, that some of the people who opposed the taking of homes at Fort Trumbull by eminent domain actually cursed the land as the wrecking ball began to swing?

Kathleen Mitchell, one of the people in New London most active in the fight against the takings, sent along a copy of the ominous looking fliers that were up around Fort Trumbull at the time.

"And as Moses stood on hallowed ground, prosperity here will not be found," they warned. "Until the good people return, bad luck will follow at every turn."

Looks like the curse might have worked.

• Did you know the law firm of City Attorney Thomas Londregan no longer lists Pfizer as a client on its Web site. It was there as recently as last year, an obvious conflict of interest.

• Did you know that "Abraham Lincoln: A life," by Michael Burlingame of Mystic, retired history professor at Connecticut College, has been named one of the top five books of the year by Atlantic literary editor Benjamin Schwarz?

"This is the life of Lincoln for our times," Schwarz writes.

• Did you know that Joshua Hempstead, a prominent resident of New London in the early 18th Century, now has a blog?

It's on the New London County Historical Society's Web site, nlhistory.org, and it is culled from entries in a diary he kept for more than 47 years, chronicling life in his home and the city.

"wee gathred the Last Ld of apples in the orchard behind ye House, I helpt mend ye highway," Hempstead wrote in October, 1743.

Kind of a reminder of this year's fall paving of Eugene O'Neill Drive.

• Did you know Soon-to-Be-Mayor Rob Pero will be the last remaining New London city councilor to have voted to allow the use of eminent domain to take people's houses?

• Did you know that Pfizer is reportedly already planning layoffs for next year at its facility in Pearl River, N.Y., one of five research facilities that, like Groton, was spared the shutdown ax last week?

The Times Herald Record, quoting an unnamed senior management source within Pfizer, reported that 600 people will be laid off at Pearl River next year. About 3,000 are employed there.

If the cuts go that deep at Pearl River, one wonders about workforce levels at the other four "core" research centers left standing in the reorganization.

I take little solace from assurances from Pfizer, given the strong commitment the company made to New London as recently as last summer.

"We can never say never, but there are currently no plans to close Pfizer Global Research and Development Headquarters in New London," Martin Mackay, president of global research and development, wrote to The Day last July. "The (headquarters) is essential to our ability to deliver the quantity and quality of potential new medicines . . ."

His remarks were in response to a column, one he said was "shoddy " and filled with "groundless gossip," that reported on numerous comments on industry blogs suggesting that Pfizer was contemplating closing New London and moving workers to Groton.

• Did you know that some supporters of Rob Simmons are chagrined that he didn't run for governor instead of the U.S. Senate?

Apparently chased off from the prospect of running against a popular grandmother, Simmons instead has to take on the mother of professional wresting and a campaign war chest on steroids.

• Did you know there are no signs limiting the amount of time you can park in the new lot at Columbus Circle, as there are in most of the rest of downtown New London?

• Did you know that ABC World News with Charles Gibson this week gave Pfizer what might have been some of the worst five minutes of corporate public relations on national television in a long time?

The segment "Pfizer Abandons Connecticut Town" interspersed the Pfizer logo with file footage of people's homes being torn down and showed displaced resident Michael Cristifaro pointing to what the piece calls "the most symbolic weed-choked lot in America."

It kind of makes you wonder how much thought Pfizer gave, in deciding to close New London, to the inevitable wave of bad publicity that would follow.

This is the opinion of David Collins.