Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News

October 14, 2023

The Queen of American Lakes bids you good morning. Photo by Kathy Flacke Muncil

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

By the time Facing Out reached your mailbox last Saturday, Israel was already under siege, the worst violence in 50 years. The attack by Hamas is not a war. It is terrorism, and pure evil.  The atrocities the world has seen against unarmed, unsuspecting, and innocent civilians, children, toddlers, infants, the elderly, including some in wheelchairs, young people at a music festival, and people living quietly in their homes is indefensible butchery, savage and unthinkable. We stand with Israel. We pray for all innocent victims of violence. Even in this dark hour, let there be hope. People of goodwill will prevail.

THE GIFT OF ANONYMITY: The news of his death arrived as quietly as he lived: The Irish immigrant, educated in Catholic schools and at Cornell, who made a fortune in airport shops and technology investments and then gave it all away. Charles Feeney did not make public appearances nor hold press conferences. The buildings he paid for did not bear his name. His lavish donations often arrived as cashier’s checks so even the recipients were kept in the dark. He and his wife lived simply: Rode the bus, flew coach, preferred to eat at home. He left a modest amount of money to each of his children and lavished $8 billion on charities. Warren Buffett once called him “my hero and Bill Gates’s hero — he should be everybody’s hero.”

RURAL HEALTH CARE: Health care researcher Alison Coates has worked in health care in the rural North Country of New York for almost a decade, having worked with St. Lawrence Health and Adirondack Health. Her work and observations have led her to the conclusion the American health care system was built as a “one size fits all,” and it’s a bad fit for rural America. As an example, the vice-president of the New York State Association for Rural Health points to the way healthcare is paid for, by services rendered. If you have a lot of patients, then you're getting a lot of money, because there are a lot of people going through the system. But in these smaller centers, where fewer patients go through, providers still have all the fixed costs associated with delivering care that can't be offset by just having more patients or just doing things more efficiently.

PAY GAP: We’ve all heard a politician making hay out of the pay gap statistic — women make 77 to 78 cents for every dollar men make. And that’s just white women. The gap for Black and Latina women is bigger. The reasons for the gap are complex and have been Claudia Goldin’s life’s work. This week, the Harvard professor of economics was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for her work exploring the role of women in the labor market. Notably, Goldin is only the third woman to win the Nobel Prize in economics, which has been awarded to 90 men. Among Goldin’s most noteworthy findings was that access to the birth-control pill, approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1960, played a pivotal role in increasing college enrollment among women.

LAKE GEORGE’S NEW SEASON: Lake George, N.Y., is making a big move to become the Northeast’s leading destination for wintertime family fun. As this year’s holiday season opens, Lake George will welcome two major magical experiences: Winter’s Dream and Winter Realms. Think interactive and immersive, lights, video, music, ice skating, ice bars, sculpture gardens and more. For information on tickets, visit www.lakegeorgewintersdream.com and www.winterrealms.com.

ROCK ON: Who remembers “School of Rock,” the 2003 movie starring Jack Black as a loser who becomes a hero to school kids through the power of rock and roll? For years, the Capital Region had its own School of Rock in Latham. When it closed leaving young musicians without a place to rock, Tess Collins, Kim Lindh and Sean Cranston opened Albany Rock Pit, a music lessons-and-performance school. Albany Rock Pit offers individual lessons in guitar, keyboard, bass, drums and vocals for learners of all ages and experience levels, as well as group performance lessons that will culminate in the school’s first live show in December.

“My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky,” William Wordsworth wrote. “So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man.” A rainbow leaps over Lake George. (Franny Nemer)

THE CONDUCTOR: The hockey world wrapped itself around Glens Falls’ Barry Melrose this week, as well it should for a man who for 50 years has been one of the sport’s most beloved, respected, and admired leaders. “He's bigger than any team," Wayne Gretzky said. "For decades, he's been suiting up —and I mean suiting up — for the game, for the sport, for hockey. ... You see, hockey is more than a game, it's a community — a finely tuned orchestra — and Barry was our conductor.”  The NHL commissioner called Melrose a “gigantic personality’’ who made the game “bigger, more exciting and more entertaining.” Melrose excelled as a player, coach and broadcaster and friend. He was an Emmy Award-winning hockey analyst for ESPN for nearly 30 years.  He is retiring to deal with Parkinson's disease.

COSTAS TO THE RESCUE: The details are slim, but the New York Post calls Bob Costas a hero for saving the life of a friend in Syracuse recently. His companion was choking, and the legendary sports commentator, winner of 28 Emmys, rushed to perform the Heimlich maneuver. Costas grew up on Long Island and attended Syracuse University. You’ve not seen him in his longtime perch at NBC recently. These days, he’s working for Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, where he does play-by-play and studio work for the MLB on TBS and commentary on CNN, and the MLB Network.  

BABES ON THE JOB: You’ve heard of all the good therapy dogs can do. Imagine what babies could accomplish, with their smiles, hugs, and happy chatter.  A nursing home in Japan had hired new team of professional caregivers: toddlers. The kids are tasked with a job that comes easy to them: being cute and uplifting. Their grateful customers are the senior citizens who live at the facility. Parents accompany the little ones who work as they want to, strolling around freely among walkers, canes and wheelchairs. In Japan, a third of the population is older than 65 and social isolation is acute for the country’s seniors.

YIELDING HER SECRETS: After more than 500 years, Leonardo DaVinci’s Mona Lisa is still giving up her secrets, one particle at a time. Art historians and scientists peered into the atomic structure of a particle from the painting, using X-rays in a synchrotron, a large machine that accelerates particles to almost the speed of light, and found Plumbonacrite. Leonardo is thought to have dissolved lead oxide powder, which has an orange color, in linseed or walnut oil by heating the mixture to make a thicker, faster-drying paste, and producing golden color. Rembrandt may also have used technique.

JOHN WARNOCK failed a high school math class and was told by a guidance counselor he had no aptitude for the subject. Another teacher saw promise. With his encouragement, Warnock went on to earn bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in math and a PhD in electrical engineering. After a stint in research at Xerox, he and a colleague founded Adobe, developed the PostScript programming language, and created the PDF, which made it possible for almost anyone to be a desktop publisher. He was 82.

KEVIN PHILLIPS grew up after World War II in Manhattan, amid sometimes hostile ethnic groups, to which he did not fully belong. Feeling excluded, he turned to statistics as a teenager to look beyond the melting pot and study it scientifically. He was in his late 20s when he published his first book, a landmark work,  “The Emerging Republican Majority,” which presciently predicted a rightward realignment in national politics driven by ethnic and racial divisions and white discontent. But his view soon darkened. He recoiled at ideological extremism, greed, and dangerously short-sighted policies. A graduate of Colgate and Harvard Law School, graduate, he wrote 15 books and popularized the terms “New Right,” and “Sun Belt.” He was 82.

“The day will come, when the story of Israel in modern times will speak not just to Jews, but to all who believe in the power of the human spirit as it reaches out to God, as an everlasting symbol of the victory of life over death, hope over despair.”
—    Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, international religious leader, philosopher, award-winning author, respected moral voice and sought-after contributor to radio, television and the press both in Britain and around the world.

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Principal Author: Leigh Hornbeck, Mark Behan, Ryan Moore

Sincere thanks to our contributors: Ryan Moore, John Brodt, Leigh Hornbeck, Troy Burns, Tina Suhocki, Kristy Miller, Audrey McCarthy, Frannie Nemer and Kathy Flacke Muncil.

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