Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News

January 13, 2024

A solo hiker passes through a winter wonderland on Cascade Mountain in the Adirondacks. Nancie Battaglia

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

We’ll start this Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend with an exercise in changing perspectives.

We’ve all seen the classic drawing that asks what do you see, a haggard old woman or a glamorous younger woman? It’s a reminder that two people can look at the same object and see it differently, a truth that can be extrapolated to various differences of opinion.

Which brings us to the month of January — long, freezing, dreary, gloomy, not-so-dry January … unless you like the slower pace, cheaper flights, unclogged roads and restaurants, and general lack of social pressures that accompany its predecessor. Like much of life, it’s all in how you see it.

Whatever your thoughts about January, it’s apparent that a lot of people are stressed and need a break. A survey by Ford Motor Co. found that more than half of working people worldwide would take a 20% pay cut in exchange for better work/life balance, whatever that means. In the U.S., solid majorities of people born in 1981 or later said would they be willing to forfeit 20% of their income for a better quality of life. Older generations were less likely to want the tradeoff.

Of course, given what’s going on with younger people entering the job market, we shouldn’t be surprised with the generational shift in priorities. After all, in a December survey of 800 managers, directors and executives involved in the hiring process, one in five said a recent college graduate brought a parent with them to their job interview, and a similar percentage said recent graduates are unprepared and often unprofessional.

One final thought about perspective — consider, as Steven Greenhut has, aluminum foil. In the 19^th century, aluminum was so valuable that it was chosen to cap the Washington Monument. Today, if covers our leftovers. But instead of appreciating our unparalleled abundance, he finds “many people moaning about every aspect of life that doesn’t operate to perfection, or every endeavor that doesn’t benefit everyone equally. … I urge us all to spend more time appreciating and less time whining.”

DRAWING A LINE: Siena College demonstrated fortitude and good judgment this week in rescinding an invitation for a University of California physician to be the featured speaker at its annual Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King Lecture Series on Race and Nonviolent Social Change. The professor, invited last summer, has been an outspoken critic of Israel and its conduct in Gaza. But earlier this month she also wrote, “The presence of Zionism in U.S. medicine should be examined as a structural impediment to health equity,” among other statements that are evocative of antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories. This is not a matter of academic freedom, which implies good-faith inquiry and intellectual debate to educate and enlighten. Siena has wisely chosen to not provide a platform.

FAKE NEWS: Sports, so we’re told, are supposed to be about competition and fair play, a test of one’s physical capacities conducted within a framework of rules that everyone plays by. Those who transgress are labeled cheaters, branded for life, any achievement subject to scrutiny and side-eye. Just ask Lance Armstrong, Barry Bonds, or even Bill Belichick. Now we learn that ESPN, the self-proclaimed Worldwide Leader in Sports, chronicler of excellence and exhilaration, cheated, too, submitting fake names that resulted in the rewarding of more than 30 fraudulent Emmy Awards for its on-air talent. The scheme, which lasted more than a decade, was uncovered last year by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, which administers the Emmys. ESPN said it’s investigating, and ill-gotten awards are being returned.

BAD WEEK FOR BOEING: Boeing faced a series of uncomfortable questions about its quality and safety practices a few years ago after two of its MAX 8 planes crashed in a span of five months, killing 346 people. Those questions returned this week after a 2-foot-by-4-foot piece of fuselage that had been covering an inoperable emergency exit behind the left wing blew out as a weeks-old Alaska Airlines Boeing MAX 9 climbed to 16,000 feet shortly after leaving Portland, Ore. The fuselage ended up in the backyard of a Portland schoolteacher. Fortunately, two of the seven unoccupied seats on the plane were adjacent to the crater, which sucked out phones (one of which was still functioning and barely damaged when a passerby found it) headsets and the shirt off someone’s back. MAX 9s were grounded for inspections and the CEO of Boeing acknowledged the company’s “mistake.”

IN LIMBO: Delphine Sosu scraped together most of her life savings to pursue her dream of playing collegiate soccer in the United States. On top of the financial hardship, she dealt with visa delays and other bureaucracy while taking classes online, bouncing between her native Ghana, Uganda and South Africa as she waited. Finally, on Nov. 19, her paperwork in order, Sosu arrived at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, N.Y., eager to join a Division II power and play for a coach, Laurie Darling Gutheil, who had recruited her and offered encouragement as the visa process played out. Eleven days after Sosu’s arrival came word that the school would close permanently after the spring semester. “She chose Saint Rose because she connected with me, loved the high caliber of our program and the small classes and attention and relationship opportunities with professors with the MBA,” Darling Gutheil, who’s trying to help Sosu and other players find new programs to play for, told the Albany Times Union. “But it’s sad to say that she would have been in a much better situation right now if she hadn’t chosen us.”

HIDDEN PASSAGE: New York City police clashed with worshippers at a historic Brooklyn synagogue this week following the discovery of a secret and illegal tunnel connecting an empty apartment building to the synagogue’s sanctuary. The Associated Press reported a spokesperson for the Chabad-Lubavitcher Hasidic movement characterized the tunnel’s construction as a rogue act of vandalism committed by a group of misguided young men, condemning the “extremists who broke through the wall to the synagogue, vandalizing the sanctuary, in an effort to preserve their unauthorized access.” Police were called after Chabad leaders’ efforts to seal the tunnel were met with protest. Nine people were arrested. To make matters worse, the tunnel was not sufficiently reinforced, compromising the stability of parts of two buildings, city inspectors reported.

An increasingly common sight — open water on a mild winter day on Lake George. John Bulmer

FOOTBALL ROYALTY: Three of the most successful and respected head coaches of any era in football are getting a change of scenery after a combined 55 years leading their teams. On Thursday, the New England Patriots and Bill Belichick parted ways after 24 seasons and six Super Bowl titles, unable in recent years to recapture the magic they created with Tom Brady at quarterback. Belichick’s departure had been the subject of speculation for weeks. The bigger surprises came the day before, when the Seattle Seahawks split with Pete Carroll after 14 seasons and Nick Saban announced his retirement, ending a legendary 17-year career at Alabama, where he won six national championships. Belichick, who needs 15 wins to pass Don Shula atop the all-time NFL coaching wins list, and Carroll are expected to coach again. One coach who isn’t looking for work: the University at Albany’s Greg Gattuso, who was named FCS Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association after leading his Great Danes to the national semifinals.

WHERE BUSINESS GETS DONE: For cynics who worry that some Albany politicos are empty vessels, worry not: Albany has a new power bar where nothing sits empty for long. At the War Room Tavern, legislators, lobbyists, and their staffs enjoy a good drink, plentiful food, interesting company, and a little night music. On one floor, there’s karaoke. In another corner, live music. An evening last week found former Gov. David Paterson playing a Fender Stratocaster and belting out Hendrix. Attorney General Tish James, fresh from the Trump fraud trial, made the scene. There was a smoky reception promoting the Equal Rights Amendment. And everywhere politicians were getting along.

RUSTIC INFLUENCE: By the turn of the 20^th century, New York’s Adirondack Mountains had become a summer destination for the East Coast elite, its fresh, cool air a respite from the crowded hustle of city life. They brought along their Gilded Age taste for luxury, building vast and impressive vacation homes called great camps, or lodges. The elegant wilderness they created around Lake St. Regis so impressed John Jacob Astor IV that he named his landmark Manhattan hotel after it.

OPIOID PROBLEM PERSISTS: A decade ago, Vermont’s governor at the time, Peter Shumlin, took the unusual step of focusing his State of the State speech on the state’s burgeoning opioid epidemic and the urgent need to expand recovery centers and increase access to treatment. Today, according to Vermont Public Radio, there are nearly 12,000 Vermonters in treatment — double the number from 10 years ago — but the number of fatal overdoses has quadrupled. Shumlin told VPR the state can and should be doing more. “We've accepted this as sort of part of life as opposed to attacking it with everything that we have,” he said. “This is not acceptable.”

UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT: The girls’ basketball head coach at a public high school in Yonkers, N.Y., and one of his players were dismissed after antisemitic comments were directed at members of a private Jewish school during a game the week before. A player for The Leffell School wrote in an op-ed for her online school newspaper that teammates were injured by “the other team’s physical style of play,” and that opposing players shouted “antisemitic slurs and curses at us.” The game was stopped in the third quarter. The mayor of Yonkers and the school district’s interim superintendent issued a joint apology.

GUN PLAY: In 2009, while he was a New York State Senator, Eric Adams authored a book in which he claimed to have fired a handgun at his friends on a schoolyard while horsing around. The book even opens with an assurance — “All of the incidents in this book are true.” Asked about it this week, Adams, now the mayor of New York City, denied it ever happened, then said his ghostwriter must’ve misunderstood and never ran it by him.

TRAVELERS AID: When a bus carrying 23 people from Montreal to New York City crashed on the Northway in Lake George, N.Y., on January 4, one person was killed, 11 were injured and many were stranded. The Fort William Henry Hotel in Lake George opened its doors, providing rooms and food for free and helping travelers obtain clothing and personal items and retrieve their luggage. “That’s what we do, we take care of travelers,” CEO Kathryn Flacke Muncil.

SHORT SEASON: Michigan has a very short season in which anglers can legally take lake sturgeon through the ice on a lake in the northern part of the state. How short? That depends on whether the fish are biting — the season closes after six sturgeons are harvested. Not six per angler, six total. The 2022 season ended after 36 minutes.

GOOD PREVAILS: A bag of money meant to support the Miracle League of North Oakland, which provides sports and recreation programming for children and young adults with special needs in Southeast Michigan, was stolen from a bowling alley, though it was clear from the security footage and the boisterous participants that the thief knew exactly who he was targeting. The bag contained $350 in cash and a $210 check. Word spread, and within days, others had sent in nearly five times that amount. Someone in Seattle sent $500.

YUM, PLASTIC: NPR reports that researchers from Columbia and Rutgers found nearly 240,000 detectable plastic fragments in a typical liter of bottled water, up to 100 times more than previously estimated. According to NPR, about 10% of the detected plastic particles were microplastics, and the other 90% were nanoplastics. Microplastics are between 5 millimeters to 1 micrometer; nanoplastics are particles less than 1 micrometer in size. A human hair is about 70 micrometers thick.

FRANZ BECKENBAUER was an icon of German soccer, one of three people ever to win the World Cup as both a player and a coach. A freewheeling defenseman, he was equally adroit at shadowing the opponent’s best player or coming forward to join offensive thrusts. Known as The Kaiser, he was captain of the West German team that defeated The Netherlands 2-1 to win the 1974 World Cup and coach when West Germany defeated Argentina 1-0 in the 1990 final, avenging a defeat four years earlier. In between, he played alongside Brazilian stars Pelé and Carlos Alberto for the New York Cosmos, helping increase the sport’s popularity in the U.S. Beloved in his home country, Beckenbauer was 78.

BUD HARRELSON has the distinction of being the only man in uniform for both of the New York Mets’ World Series titles. He was a light-hitting, sure-handed shortstop for the 1969 Miracle Mets and the team’s third base coach in 1986; that was him excitedly waving Ray Knight home after Bill Buckner’s infamous error in Game 6. A two-time all-star who also won a Gold Glove, Harrelson memorably brawled with Pete Rose of the Reds during Game 3 of the 1973 National League Championship Series, later joking, “I hit him with my best punch. I hit him right in the fist with my eye.” In 1986, he joined Rusty Staub as the first two players inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame. He spent his later years as part-owner of the Long Island Ducks, an independent minor league team that he was instrumental in starting and running and in which he took great pride. He died at 79 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s.

“For over 27 years, we have had the honor to partner with Tiger Woods, one of the greatest athletes the world has ever seen. Throughout the course of our partnership, we have witnessed along with the rest of the world, how Tiger not only redefined the sport of golf, but broke barriers for all of sport. We watched him set records, challenge conventional thinking and inspire generations of people around the globe. We are grateful to have been a part of it. We wish him the best in the future.”
—    Nike, in a company statement, after Woods announced that his partnership with the company was ending.

A LITTLE DIP: A 42-year-old is facing criminal charges after he crashed his car outside a Bass Pro Shop in Leeds, Ala., stripped naked and cannonballed into the store’s giant aquarium. He was in the tank for about 5 minutes before police arrived.

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Principal authors: Bill Callen

Sincere thanks to our contributors: Ryan Moore, John Brodt, Troy Burns, Kristy Miller, Leigh Hornbeck, Bob McCarthy, Claire P. Tuttle, Nancie Battaglia, and John Bulmer.

FACING OUT is what we do. We help companies, organizations and individuals work effectively with their most important external audiences – their customers, their shareholders, their communities, the government and the news media.  www.behancommunications.com

Facing Out features news and other nuggets that caught our eye, and that we thought might be of value to you, our friends and business associates. Some items are good news about our clients and friends, others are stories that we hope will leave you a bit more informed or entertained than you were five minutes ago. As always, we welcome your ideas and feedback. 

Let’s make it a conversation: mark.behan@behancom.com