Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News

December 14, 2024

The woods beckon with fresh snow, one of many peaceful treks available to cross country skiing enthusiasts in the Northeast. Nancie Battaglia

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

Lake Placid may not be back in the Games, but an announcement this week put the storied Adirondack mountain village one step closer to a third turn as a Winter Olympics host and vindicated decisions made over the past four decades to continue investing in facilities and developing world-class venues.

Lake Placid was designated a backup site for sliding events of the 2026 Winter Olympics, in case renovations to the venue for the Milano-Cortina Games in Italy aren’t finished. Lake Placid was chosen over two European competitors, both of which also previously hosted Winter Olympics.

“For decades, New York State’s commitment to winter sports has kept the Olympic flame burning bright in Lake Placid,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement celebrating the news, and that’s true, which itself is extraordinary given the uphill battles that typically must be waged in Albany to get tax money spent in the North Country. 

Regardless of whether the Olympics make another cameo in Lake Placid in 14 months, the designation raises the region’s global profile and is an endorsement of the efforts of the Olympic Regional Development Authority.

SPORTS STUNNERS: In the time it took you to read this sentence, Juan Soto earned roughly $10. The 25-year-old baseball superstar signed the largest contract in North American sports history, a 15-year, $765 million deal with the New York Mets that could end up being worth even more. Gargantuan as the contract is, it’s no surprise Soto got paid; that was expected. The same can’t be said for the news a few days later that legendary coach Bill Belichick, who won six Super Bowls as a head coach and two more as an assistant, would take over as coach at the University of North Carolina, his first collegiate job. (And an indicator, according to one report, that he’s not exactly missed in the NFL, despite his success).

BIATHLON BOMBSHELL: Sexual abuse and harassment by coaches and others who held positions of power over women on the U.S. Biathlon team have been dismissed, ignored or excused over decades, The Associated Press reports, citing a half-dozen former Olympians and other biathletes. The women said men in positions of authority continued to advance in their careers despite failing to address their claims. “U.S. Biathlon leadership always seems to choose to support the predators instead of the person who was abused,” Grace Boutot, a 2009 Youth World Championship silver medalist, told the AP.

GOLDEN METTLE: As a girl on Long Island, Chary Griffin spent hours surfing and swimming in the Atlantic Ocean, but that’s where her athletic opportunities ended. Similar limitations confronted Brenda Switzer in rural Pennsylvania. “When I grew up the only two sports in my school were modern dancing and cheerleading for girls,” the 76-year-old Griffin told Syracuse.com. She and Switzer, 72, have more than made up for lost time, each earning bronze medals in an international triathlon competition in Spain. “I do it for the joy. I don’t do it for the medal,” Switzer said. “As women when we get these opportunities to do something for ourselves, it’s invaluable.”

BUZZING OVER DRONES: Ordinary citizens and elected officials alike are freaking out about mysterious drones flying over New Jersey, with members of Congress suggesting they should be shot down “if necessary,” though no one will admit to knowing where they’re coming from or who owns them. A national security spokesman brushed off the concerns, feeding speculation that it’s some sort of test of new technology, but that didn’t satisfy a New Jersey mayor, who called the remarks an insult to people in New Jersey “who are living through this.” On Friday, the New Jersey Division of Fire Safety warned firefighters not to approach any grounded drones they may encounter, and instead to call local law enforcement, the FBI, state hazardous materials responders and the nearest bomb squad. Someone needs to explain what’s going on, quickly.

The talented Angelo Mazzones — the father a well-known and successful caterer and restaurateur, the son a renowned opera tenor who is performing in Melodies of Christmas in Schenectady. N.Y.

MUSIC BUILDS A COMMUNITY: Over its 45 years, Melodies of Christmas has become a beloved Capital Region holiday tradition, a celebration of joy, generosity and community that has raised nearly $10 million for the Melodies Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders at Albany Medical Center. But Melodies is also a celebration of truly extraordinary local talent, including the members of the Empire State Youth Orchestra, among the region’s most gifted young musicians; Professor Louie & The Crowmatix from Woodstock, N.Y.; and, this year, a homecoming for international tenor Angelo Mazzone, son and namesake of the iconic Capital Region caterer and restaurateur and founder of Mazzone Hospitality (read more about this extraordinary young talent).  Melodies of Christmas opens at Proctor’s in Schenectady on Dec. 19 and runs through Dec. 22.

LEGACIES OF LEADERSHIP: For many years, Glens Falls, N.Y., was the only New York State community outside of New York City that still had two locally owned community banks — First National Bank of Glens Falls and Glens Falls National Bank and Trust Co. They stared at each other in stately elegance, directly across Glen Street, two friendly but fiercely competitive institutions, each of which managed to prosper because of the deep historical wealth and the robust consumer and business activity in the Glens Falls/Lake George region. Longtime leaders of the two banks — Bill Bitner of First National and Michael Massiano of Glens Falls National — died within weeks of each other. Their legacies continue to inspire the outsize civic ambitions and achievements of the Glens Falls area.

PRESSURES OF YOUTH: Two of America’s premier legacy news titans cast their attention this week on very young people shouldering very big burdens. Documentary filmmaker Faye Tsakas gives viewers a closeup of two preteen sisters in rural Alabama whose tens of thousands of Instagram followers watch as they try out and comment on cosmetics, clothing, exercise equipment and anything else that a consumer might want to purchase, all delivered for free by brands looking for a plug. “What kid wouldn’t want a stream of likes and gifts,” Tsakas writes for The New York Times, “waking up to the feeling of, as Peyton and Lyla’s parents put it, ‘Christmas, every day’”? The Washington Post headed overseas to report on the elite go-karting circuit that has become the pressure-filled proving ground for the next generation of Formula One racers. As one 11-year-old reminded himself, “I’m not here to make friends.” 

PENNY’S THOUGHTS: Daniel Penny, in his first public remarks since his acquittal in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway car, told Fox News the guilt he would’ve felt had Neely injured someone, as he was threatening to do, compelled him to act. “I’ll take a million court appearances and people calling me names and people hating me just to keep one of those people from getting hurt or killed,” Penny told Fox’s Jeanine Pirro. The Washington Post editorial board pointed out various cracks in the system that left Neely free to menace his fellow citizens, warning “the best way to prevent vigilantism is to maintain public order so that civilians will not try to impose order themselves. That requires controlling crime and getting mentally ill people the help they need — forcibly, if necessary.” A scholar studying the public comments in support of Penny and Luigi Mangione, arrested this week for the murder of a healthcare executive in Manhattan, had his own ominous assessment, telling Gothamist: “There is a massive social shift underway. I think we’re going to see a dramatic rise in this kind of violence going forward.”

BETTER BUTTER:  Animal Farm Creamery in Shoreham, Vt., produces some of the best — maybe the very best — butter in America. You can’t buy it in stores. The butter from Laura, Lillie and the rest of a beloved herd is light, sweet and so full of flavor that it commands more than $20 per pound and is sold almost exclusively to the finest restaurants like Per Se in New York and the Inn at Little Washington outside Washington. 

SHOE STOPPER: A pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” sold for $28 million at auction, shattering the previous record for a piece of entertainment memorabilia, the $5.52 million paid for the white dress Marilyn Monroe wore atop a windy subway grate.

FOXX’S FRIGHT: Jamie Foxx revealed in his new Netflix comedy special that a doctor told him if he didn’t immediately have surgery to alleviate a brain bleed that had caused a stroke, he would likely die. Foxx said he has no recollection of three weeks in 2023 after the incident, which was followed by weeks of arduous rehabilitation.

BUZZ WORD: Hard to quibble with Merriam-Webster’s 2024 word of the year: Polarization. Merriam-Webster, which logs 100 million pageviews a month on its site, chooses its word of the year based on data, tracking a rise in search and usage, The Associated Press reports. Last year’s pick was “authentic.” 

WITH GRATITUDE: Bestselling author James Patterson continued what has become an annual tradition for him, awarding $500 holiday bonuses to 600 independent booksellers. “Booksellers save lives. Period,” Patterson said in a statement released through his publisher, Little, Brown and Company.

NIKKI GIOVANNI warned people like us not to write about her life. “(A)nd I really hope no white person ever has cause to write about me because they never understand Black love is Black wealth and they'll probably talk about my hard childhood and never understand that all the while I was quite happy." So just the facts: A poet, author, Virginia Tech faculty member and public speaker, she was born Yolande Cornelia Giovanni Jr. in Knoxville, Tenn. She was accepted to Fisk University as a high school junior, rebelled against the rules, was kicked out, re-entered later and graduated. Friends helped her publish her first book of poetry, “Black Poetry Black Talk.” She championed Black Power, railed against the U.S. government, founded a publishing cooperative, wrote more than 25 books, and earned the title “Princess of Black Poetry.” When she turned 30, some 3,000 people filled the concert hall at Lincoln Center to hear her speak. She was 81.

LANCE MORROW plunked himself down at the keyboard every morning in pre-dawn darkness and wrote for hours. He wrote hundreds of essays for Time and The Wall Street Journal and a dozen books. “He shaped sentences into something akin to a Sargent portrait — technically proficient and totally enthralling,” wrote Paul Grondahl, himself a distinguished stylist. Morrow was a writer’s writer, son of a mother who covered the Washington social scene and a father who wrote for the Saturday Evening Post before joining the Nelson Rockefeller administration. Lance Morrow loved journalism even as he recognized it was an unforgiving mistress. “Journalism was a rascal — a smoker and a drinker — and the life was picaresque: hectic, improvised, although at times as dull as a clerk’s. The pay was bad. You were broke half the time, and often hung over. But you were young enough to enjoy the scruffy mystique and a winking intimacy with big shots …” He died at 85 at his home in Spencertown, N.Y.

MICHAEL KAIDAS bought his first business, a Sunoco gas station, at 17. At 22, he and his wife Susan began operating the Boulders Bay Inn in Lake George, N.Y. He ventured into construction, built homes, launched Kaidas Kitchens and Baths in Glens Falls, and redeveloped several downtown Glens Falls properties, including the historic Empire Theater, now home to apartments, offices and restaurants. He was a dedicated member of the Glens Falls Lions Club for more than 50 years, served as District Governor and spearheaded efforts to raise $1 million for the Albany Eye Institute. He later served as President and Chairman of the Lions Foundation at Albany. He was 79.

“We don't have palm trees. We have taxes in New York. Those are real, and those are things you deal with.”
— Buffalo Sabres General Manager Kevyn Adams, on why his struggling franchise has difficulty luring top players.

GAME OF THE NAME: Albany County, N.Y., is inviting residents to name seven county snowplows, with entries to be judged by a panel of county legislators and public works employees before going up for public vote.

Some of the linked material in Facing Out requires a subscription to read.

Principal Authors: Bill Callen and Mark Behan.

Contributors: Ryan Moore, John Brodt, Kristy Miller, Claire P. Tuttle, Nancie Battaglia and Angelo Mazzone.

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