At a glorious Christmas party hosted at friends in Mystic this year, I sat while others plated desserts in the kitchen. As some of us talked over the dining room table, I spied a woman doing something with what looked like a thread. I excused myself from a conversation and walked across the living room and into the kitchen.

I had just met Rozanne Kilpatrick, whose husband is head of buildings and grounds for the Groton Public School system. She had made a raspberry-topped cheesecake and was cutting it into perfect slices using a foot-long piece of dental floss. I was amazed. She asked whether I had ever seen that before. I hadn’t. Have you?