Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News

November 4, 2023

Things change fast this time of year in the Adirondack High Peaks, which went from summerlike conditions to a coating of snow in a matter of days. Nancie Battaglia

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

As folks across Upstate New York can tell you, apple picking is an early fall rite of passage, a visit to the orchard enlivened by a bouncy hayride, warm cider doughnuts and the crisp snap the fresh apples make when you take your first bite.

It seems they’ve been with us forever, but in reality, pick-your-own orchards and the country festival atmospheres they evoke are largely a result of business conditions in the 1990s that forced small farmers to choose between adapting and going under. This year, it’s weather conditions that are forcing them to get creative.

The New York Times calls it “The Apple-Picking Apocalypse of Upstate New York” in a report that details how two straight months of weekend rains at the height of their busiest season have washed away orchard revenue across the region. Commercial orchards continue to pick rain or shine, but the weekenders who entertain their kids and fill their bags with fresh apples don’t show up when it’s raining. “We have a business that’s almost recession-proof,” one grower told the Times. “Unfortunately, it’s not weatherproofed.”

QUITE AN ENCORE: The Beatles, with a big assist from machine learning, this week released their first new music in more than half a century, a single titled “Now and Then” that pieced together bits of old demo tapes, new instrumentals from surviving members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, and the AI-augmented voice of John Lennon. “This is the last track, ever, that you’ll get the four Beatles on the track. John, Paul, George (Harrison), and Ringo,” Starr told The Associated Press. A short film titled “The Beatles — Now And Then — The Last Beatles Song” also was released, detailing the creation of the track.

END RUN ON SALT? You know already that road salt is a leading contributor to the degradation of Adirondack Lakes. Now this: A state initiative to reduce road salt usage on a state highway that hugs Lake George instead ended dumping more salt onto the road — and more pollution into Lake George — because though less salt was used on each pass, crews made more frequent passes, Lake George Waterkeeper Chris Navitsky and researchers Jim Sutherland and Brea Arvidson found during a five-year study. “Each time the truck went out, they were putting down less salt; however, from their own records, they were going out two to three times as often,” Navitsky told the Adirondack Explorer. “That offset any reduction from the rates.” The New York Department of Transportation said bad weather necessitated more trips, but the researchers disputed that.

GOLD MEDAL PERFORMANCE: For more than 40 years, Jim McKenna led the successful effort to bring visitors to the Adirondack/Lake Placid region. He is a pioneer in “sustainable tourism,” the notion that, to be truly successful, tourist areas must also enhance the lives of local people and celebrate the environment and heritage of tourist communities. The Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism, which he helped create, has become a national model. McKenna announced this week he will retire in April. Among the many paying tribute to his leadership, Gov. Kathy Hochul: “For decades, Jim McKenna has been the face and voice for Adirondack tourism. He's been instrumental in supporting and preserving the region's winter sports legacy, and promoting the area's incredible year-round events and attractions that welcome visitors from around the world ... He's been a tremendous partner, and his leadership will be missed."

GLOWING ENSORSEMENT: If the Lake Placid region suddenly gets an influx of visitors from Northeast Ohio, it may have Susan Glaser of Cleveland.com to thank. She wrote that, as a fan of the Olympics, she had long wanted to visit Lake Placid but the distance was a barrier. An invitation to visit a friend in the Southern Adirondacks brought her close enough to make the trip, and she wasn’t disappointed, taking readers on a tour of the Olympic Museum, to the bobsledding and ski jump facilities on the outskirts of town and on two of many hikes available in the area. She also paid a visit to the heart of the village, which, in the opinion of The Travel, happens to be the best historic downtown in all of New York.

HOME SCHOOLING SURGES: An analysis by The Washington Post found that home schooling has become America’s fastest growing form of education as, in the Post’s words, “families from Upper Manhattan to Eastern Kentucky embrace a largely unregulated practice once confined to the ideological fringe.” A surge that accelerated in response to covid school lockdowns and mask mandates has continued. “In states with comparable enrollment figures,” the Post found, “the number of home-schooled students increased 51 percent over the past six school years, far outpacing the 7 percent growth in private school enrollment. Public school enrollment dropped 4 percent in those states over the same period, a decline partly attributable to home schooling.” While public schooling remains the norm, the trend toward home schooling cuts across political, geographic and demographic lines.

From left, Fort William Henry CEO Kathryn Flacke Muncil, Warren County Tourism Director Heather Bagshaw and Fort William Henry President Sam Luciano.

BEST IN CLASS: The Fort William Henry Hotel in Lake George took top honors this week from the New York State Hospitality and Tourism Association (NYSHTA) for bringing back to life its historic Carriage House as a major new wedding and meeting venue overlooking Lake George. Four out-of-state industry leaders serving as independent judges chose Fort William Henry CEO Kathryn Flacke Muncil for “excellence in hospitality” for her leadership of the industry statewide. NYSHTA President Mark Dorr said Muncil stepped in as chair of NYSHTA several years ago when it was imperiled by financial problems. Without her leadership, he said, it’s quite possible NYSHTA would not still exist.

OWNERSHIP DIVIDE: A report published this week by the New York State attorney general’s office found significant disparities persist in the rates of homeownership between white residents and Black and Latino residents. It also recommends solutions, including programs to subsidize down payments for mortgage interest rates for first-time homeowners, and passage of legislation authorizing local governments to establish and run local banks, the Albany Times Union reported. The report found home ownership rates among white residents more than doubled that of Black and Latino residents. The gap was even more pronounced in Albany — 69 percent vs. 20 percent, the second-highest racial gap of any city in the nation behind Minneapolis.

A HOMETOWN HALLOWEEN: Next year will be Glens Falls, N.Y.’s, 80^th year as Hometown, U.S.A., the title the old Look Magazine bestowed during World War II. This week, on Halloween, we learned another reason why that title still fits: Eight-year-old Thatcher Marra arrived at the darkened doorstep of a home to find it candy-less. So, he did what came naturally to him: “I just put some candy of mine so you guys have trick or treaters,” he announced. The home security video has gone viral.

PLAYER SAFETY: The inherent risks of a sport where skates can turn into a slashing blade were at the forefront again this week after 29-year-old Adam Johnson, an American who played briefly in the NHL, bled to death after his neck was sliced by a blade during a game in England. Other players have had their necks cut, as well as wrists and Achilles’ tendons, and protective gear is available, but hockey is notoriously slow in adopting change. “These guys are skating on razor blades,” Mercyhurst College men’s hockey coach Rick Gotkin, an advocate for mandating neck guards, told The AP. “You think about the course of a game: guys hunched over, scrambles in front of the goal and everything else, you could see where this is something that needs to be addressed.”

TREE NEWS: An 80-foot Norway spruce that towers over a neighborhood in Vestal, N.Y., will soon bear more than 50,000 lights, five miles of wiring and the gaze of millions as this year’s Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. The tree is scheduled to arrive in New York City next weekend and be lighted in a nationally televised ceremony at 8 p.m. Nov. 29 on NBC.

TIP, OR ELSE: Delivery service DoorDash has a warning for customers who don’t tip — it might take longer to get your order. An on-screen pop-up informs those who don’t include a tip that “Dasher can pick and choose which orders they want to do,” and suggests lack of a tip may be a disincentive for prompt service.

STUNNING COLLAPSE: WeWork, a once-bright star in the startup world with a $47 billion valuation built on flexible office-space — think Airbnb for business — is on the verge of bankruptcy. WeWork was hammered by the pandemic, when office occupancy cratered, and even before then had lost some favor with investors over the management style of co-founder Adam Neumann.

LOCAL HISTORY: Historian Don Rittner, co-host of a series of videos focusing on America’s earliest highways, is turning his attention next to Warren County, N.Y., where he serves as executive director of the Historical Society. Rittner and his co-host have been traveling the historic route between New York City and Canada, passing through the Warren County communities of Queensbury, Lake George, Hague and Warrensburg. They hope to release the new season in 2024.

REVISITING MILKWEED: A few weeks ago, we featured a New York Times report on the loss of milkweed to mowers along roadsides. That’s important because milkweed is the only source of nutrition for monarch caterpillars before they transform into butterflies. Faithful reader Jerry Delaney, who grew up on a farm in the Adirondacks, worked for many years as a logger, and is a longtime local government official, wonders if New York State land management policies inside the Adirondack Park may be a factor. “When the state acquired private properties that supported milkweed, those properties were no longer managed,” he writes. “Thus, my observation is the State of New York, as it acquires private lands, actually pushes a lot of diverse management needs that are important to society onto the remaining private landowners while the public has been trained to think that privately owned (and managed) lands are somehow inferior to public lands allowed to grow wild. … Not mowing is a temporary fix. Suggesting management techniques to improve habitat might well be a better approach.” 

BOB KNIGHT was among the successful coaches in the history of men’s college basketball and also among the more controversial for his mercurial outbursts, occasional manhandling of players and caustic statements. As coach at Indiana, Knight’s teams won three national championships and produced the sport’s most recent undefeated team, in 1976. He won a then-record 902 Division I games before retiring in 2008 from Texas Tech, where he coached after Indiana fired him in 2000 for grabbing a student. Many of Knight’s former players revered him, and he remained a generally well-respected figure within the sport. Mike Krzyzewski, who played for Knight at Army in the 1960s and later became a legendary coach himself at Duke, said, “This is a tremendous loss for our sport and our family is deeply saddened by his passing.” Knight was 83. 

FRANK HOWARD was a towering man who hit baseballs as far as anyone ever had, earning him the nickname “Capital Punisher” during the seven seasons he played for the old Washington Senators. He was the favorite ballplayer of a lot of kids who grew up around Washington in those days, both because of his legendary power and his gentle giant persona. An all-America basketball player as well as a baseball star at Ohio State, Howard was the 1960 National League Rookie of the Year with the Dodgers and won a World Series with them in 1963 before he was traded to Washington. A four-time all-star, the 6-foot-7 Howard hit 382 home runs and later had brief stints as manager of the San Diego Padres and New York Mets. He was 87.

MATTHEW PERRY, born in Williamstown, Mass., son of an actor, followed his father into the business as a young performer and did well for himself, landing guest spots on TV shows and, at 19, a role opposite River Phoenix in the 1988 film “A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon.” But he was launched to stardom in 1994 as the wisecracking Chandler Bing in “Friends,” an appointment-TV sensation that drew as many 50 million viewers and remains popular thanks to syndication and streaming. Movie roles would follow, but so would struggles with alcohol and opioids, as detailed in his 2022 memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.” Perry’s “Friends” co-star Maggie Wheeler, who played his on-again, off-again girlfriend Janice on the hit show, posted on Instagram, “What a loss. The world will miss you Matthew Perry. The joy you brought to so many in your too short lifetime will live on. I feel so very blessed by every creative moment we shared.” Perry was found dead in his hot tub at 54.

“Many New Yorkers, and many Americans, don’t realize what an incredible story the Hudson has to tell.”
—    Endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh, who finished his 315-mile swim along the entire length of the Hudson River in September, in an interview with River Journal.

SURLY CHARGE: A Georgia restaurant that advertises an “Adult surcharge: For adults unable to parent” added a $50 charge to the tab for a group that included 11 children between 3 and 8. The restaurant had gone viral several days earlier when a photo of the menu was posted on Reddit.

• LAST WEEK we told you Letchworth State Park is in Genesee County, N.Y. It’s in the Genesee Valley, but in Livingston and Wyoming counties. We’re ordering new maps!

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Principal Author: Bill Callen

Sincere thanks to our contributors: Ryan Moore, Leigh Hornbeck, John Brodt, Troy Burns, Kristy Miller, Nancie Battaglia, and Jerry Delaney.

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