Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News

October 11, 2025

Todd Monahan's Sunkist balloon is reflected in the water of the Champlain Canal as it floats over Washington County, N.Y., on a recent fall morning. (Chris Perry photo) 

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

You might assume the San Francisco tech crowd wakes up thinking about the latest AI advance. Truth is, they are more likely wondering what their city’s merry mastermind of mirth is up to next. The city’s chief prankster is a 23-year-old software engineer as famous for his work with AI chatbots as for the hijinks he masterminds as the boisterous bad boy of the City by the Bay. Just recently he reverse-engineered the city parking ticket system. Another time he used artificial intelligence to rate restaurants according to how attractive their customers were. He opened a fake steak house for one day and created a website revealing the Spotify listening habits of well-known people. Meet the witty, whip smart wunderkind Riley Walz, now of San Francisco but originally from Ballston Spa, N.Y.

REFRESHING OUR FACE: This is the 332nd issue of Facing Out. We love producing this each week for our clients and friends and hope it’s informative, inspiring, and fun. To keep it that way, we’re going to take a break and contemplate a more relaxed publication schedule. As we refine and refresh our approach, please know that as long as there are electrons in our computers, Facing Out will be positive and upbeat. While some specialize in snipe and scorn, we seek to be a source of light and hope, spotlighting what’s going right, elevating solutions over problems and honoring people who inspire us. And, of course, we’ll continue to fall for every heroic dog story that comes along. We’re fortunate to have a loyal readership both local and nationwide, a community of smart people with lots of interests and life experience. We hope our content is as smart as our readers.  Please send us your ideas about how we can improve Facing Out.

TOGETHER AT LONG LAST: Brothers Ken and Robert Budd were separated by 10 years in age but never truly separated until World War II came along. Robert signed up for the Marines on Jan. 9, 1942, the largest single day of Marine recruitment in Syracuse, N.Y., since Pearl Harbor. Just eight months later, he was killed at Guadalcanal. His remains were not recovered. Ken, who also later became a Marine, made it his life’s mission to bring home his brother, but he died on February 22, 2021, before the goal was accomplished. One month later, a construction crew laying water pipes outside a restaurant at Guadalcanal found human remains and American military equipment. They were identified as Robert’s and those of a Marine buddy. Finally, Ken and Bob will be buried side by side in a local cemetery, home together at long last.

FROM TROY TO STOCKHOLM: Omar Yaghi grew up in Amman, Jordan, in a home with no running water, no electricity and no plumbing. As a boy, he had to collect water for his family from a source to which he had access only twice a month. His dad encouraged him to go to the United States or Russia to study, and, at 15, he landed in Troy, N.Y., where he tried to enroll in Hudson Valley Community College with little English and no high school diploma. He lived in the spare room of a retired couple while taking HVCC classes, earned an associate’s degree there in 1983, then transferred to the University at Albany and graduated with his Bachelor of Science in chemistry in 1985. He went on to get a master’s and doctorate from the University of Illinois. This week, he won the Nobel Prize in chemistry.

WEALTH OF KNOWLEDGE: The Granite State will soon benefit from the unparallelled freshwater protection efforts at work every day here in Lake George, N.Y. Eric Siy, the former longtime president of The Fund for Lake George and the Lake George Association, has set his sights on protecting the largest lake in New Hampshire. Siy has been named executive director of the Lake Winnipesaukee Alliance, overseeing protection of the 21-mile-long lake at the foothills of the White Mountains. The veteran environmental advocate, whose protection philosophy centers on science-based actions, departed the Lake George Association at the close of 2023. He was instrumental in the 2021 merger of The Fund and the LGA, as well as the development of some of today’s most effective Lake George protection programs, targeting road salt and invasive species. In a letter to Lake Winnipesaukee Alliance members, Board Chair Mark Ishkanian wrote that Siy was hired after a nationwide search and that his “results-oriented approach” will be instrumental in “safeguarding water quality, strengthening local resilience, and protecting the economic and property values that depend on a clean, thriving lake.” We wish him success.

NERD’S THE WORD: When the Heisman Trophy is awarded in December, don’t be surprised if it goes to a finance nerd. Fernando Mendoza is a graduate of the University of California’s Haas School of Business. He commuted to internships in commercial real estate between two-a-days during training camp. He dabbles in investing. He reads motivational books like “Extreme Ownership” and “Inner Excellence.” He’s also the starting quarterback for Indiana University, where he has emerged as a legitimate Heisman Trophy contender and likely a first-round NFL draft pick next spring.

ROCKING BLACK ROCK: Squarely in the center of traditional mainstream news organizations sits a big black rock known as CBS News. And atop that rock now sits Bari Weiss, the new president  of the Tiffany Network’s vaunted news division, one of the most respected positions in journalism. Weiss began her journalism career at The Wall Street Journal and then was hired by The New York Times as it tried to diversify the left-leaning politics of its opinions staff. She quit The Times claiming political bullying by colleagues. Weiss founded The Free Press, an on-line newsletter that quickly became a home for those who formerly leaned left but were newly drawn to right-wing causes. 

WHO IS THAT MASKED MAN? He wore hats, sunglasses, mustaches, fake teeth and even fat suits. Now, after 25 years, the mysterious (and feared) food critic of the Washington Post, Tom Sietsema is retiring and shedding the disguises he hoped would allow him to experience restaurants as an ordinary person might. In 1,200 reviews over two decades, he was generous with praise but unsparing when the food and service failed to meet his expectations. One popular DC restaurant he gave zero stars (“The temptation to finish an order is zero.”) Of another fancy French place, he wrote: “At least the water is cold.”

THE MUSIC NEVER DIES: Joel Moss was a 12-year-old folk prodigy when he arrived in Hollywood in the 1950s. But the early 1960s were all about rock and roll, and he thought his career might quickly be over. He reinvented himself as a producer and engineer for such artists as Tony Bennett, the Eagles, the Beach Boys, Little Richard, Johnny Cash, Joe Cocker, Cissy Houston, Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Talking Heads. His work on Broadway included credits for Lin-Manuel Mirandaʼs “In the Heights,” “Hair,” and “Beautiful: The Carol King Musical.” Over a six-decade career, Moss, who died in September, became a go-to engineer for scores for memorable films including “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” “Footloose,” “Sister Act, and “A Few Good Men.” This weekend, Saratoga Springs, N.Y., where Moss lived in retirement, will pay tribute to him with musical performances at Caffè Lena and around the city.

OLYMPIANS’ HOMETOWN: More than 900 athletes are returning to Glens Falls, N.Y., next week for the 2025 New York Special Olympics fall games. “Special Olympics athletes are among the most inspiring individuals you’ll ever meet,” said Mayor Bill Collins. “I urge everyone in Glens Falls to volunteer and witness firsthand the incredible impact these Games have on our community.”

LISTENERS RESPOND: WAMC, the Albany-based NPR affiliate heard in seven states, is being hit hard by the loss of federal funding, but its listeners and supporters came through this week, helping the station raise $1.25 million in less than four days. And American Public Television tapped deceased painter Bob Ross to help raise funds.

DIGITAL DA VINCI: If you ever wanted to compare your doodles to those of a genius, your opportunity is here. The most extensive collection of Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks is the Codex Atlanticus, a 12-volume, 1,119-page set of drawings and writings exhibited at Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan, Italy. Now, for the first time, the museum is offering on-line access. 

GARAGE PARTY: Your grandparents hung out on the porch. Now, the garage is becoming the perfect place for meeting the neighbors and entertaining the family. In a city like Houston, Texas, where car-focused living minimizes the chance of running into people, the revived garage is a tool to create the human interaction that some people crave.

BACK IN MY DAY: Director Ridley Scott is 87 now and not liking much of what he sees on the big screen. The director of “Gladiator,” “Blade Runner” and “Black Hawk Down” says the film industry is “drowning in mediocrity.” He adds: “The quantity of movies that are made today, literally globally – millions. Not thousands, millions … and most of it is s**t.”

A LONG VACATION: Ten years after he disappeared from his family’s backyard, a poodle-doodle mix is back with the Lighthall family of Chicago, thanks to a microchip. Pete is settling in nicely back at home. "It is like we picked up where we left off,” owner Edmon Lighthall said on “Good Morning America.” “I'm happy. He is happy. Everyone who hears this story is happy.”

JOAN KENNEDY was an accomplished pianist who earned standing ovations and stellar reviews when she gave a recital with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1970. Under the baton of Arthur Fiedler, she narrated stories, like Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf,” accompanied by the Boston Pops. She published a book, “The Joy of Classical Music: A Guide for You and Your Family” (1992), edited by her sister-in-law, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. She devoted her later years to raising money for nonprofit organizations and charities in Boston. She was also the first wife of Sen. Ted Kennedy, completely uncomfortable with the Kennedy family’s competitiveness and completely uninterested in the family business, politics. She developed a drinking problem and her marriage dissolved after her husband’s unsuccessful 1980 run for president. She was 89.

SISTER MARION IRVINE was 48 years old, overweight and addicted to cigarettes. A Dominican nun and school principal in San Rafael, Calif., she decided to try jogging on Memorial Day in 1978. She didn’t own running shorts, so she rummaged through the school’s lost-and-found and grabbed a pair of men’s shorts. Her plan was to jog just two miles, but almost immediately, she was gasping for breath. She ended up walking about halfway. Within two years, she was winning races against much younger runners. A Nike sponsorship paid for shoes and travel. In December 1983, at age 54, she ran a marathon in two hours and 51 minutes to qualify for the 1984 Olympic trials. Though she didn’t make the Olympic team, her time set a record for women over 50. She was 95.

NEWS TOO WILD TO BE TRUE: Fred Ramsdell and his wife Laura O’Neill were deep in the wilds of Idaho on a Rocky Mountains hiking trip, living their best life, and completely out of touch when the Nobel Prize Committee tried to reach him to tell him he’d won the most prestigious award in science. When they returned to civilization, Laura O’Neill got the message first. “You just won the Nobel Prize!” she shouted. “No, I didn’t,” he replied, according to The New York Times. But he had.

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Principal Author: Mark Behan.

Contributors: Bill Callen, Ryan Moore, Amanda Metzger, Jim Murphy, Kristy Miller, John Brodt, Chris Perry, Michael Cybulski, Tara Hutchins, John Behan, Claire P. Tuttle, John Bulmer and Nancie Battaglia.

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