Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News

December 2, 2023

Colder, crisper temperatures mean clear nights for stargazing in places like Grafton Lakes State Park in Grafton, N.Y. John Bulmer

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

It seemed inevitable, yet feels so sudden.

To prospective students, it was “The College of Saint Rose: Home of Your Future.” Yet word came near the end of the week that there would be no future for Saint Rose. The College will close next spring, at the end of the current academic year, after 103 years.

Saint Rose, in Albany, N.Y., has been engaged for years in a Sisyphean struggle against shrinking enrollment and eroding finances, challenges painfully familiar to small private colleges in the Northeast, which are competing for a shrinking pool of high school graduates, among other significant obstacles. That struggle, which the local media have reported on over the years, erupted into a five-alarm emergency Wednesday with news that Saint Rose had asked the city and state for bailouts, something not even the local newspaper columnist could support (though the spending he criticized was itself an effort to modernize and stay alive).

Cazenovia College, near Syracuse, N.Y., lost its battle last year, just shy of its 200^th anniversary. Paul Smith’s College in the Adirondacks is said to be struggling. In New York State alone, nearly a dozen small colleges have closed in recent years. Years ago, parents began following jobs to the South and Southwest, and that’s where many more students are now. Small colleges have smaller endowments and more modest resources but proportionally the same high costs of educating students. Public colleges are offering free tuition. How does a small private college compete?

The Saint Rose leadership and Trustees took painful action to stave off closure and worked tirelessly to shore up the college’s finances. Alas, it was not to be. Things change. Society’s needs change. And yet when great institutions fail, there is such sadness and regret where, perhaps, there might justifiably be a measure of contentment. Let’s think of it this way: Saint Rose fought the good and noble fight. It finished the race. It kept the faith. It educated thousands of students and veterans, especially future teachers, social workers, communicators and law enforcement people — often kids who were the first in their families to go to college. It was a force for good for more than a century. What more could we ask?

We’ve worked with and known many fine people at The College of Saint Rose, and our thoughts are with them, and all of the students, staff, faculty and alumni who will feel this loss so personally.

CANINE CONCERN: The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) reported this week that a mysterious, potentially contagious and sometimes-fatal illness that is sickening dogs had reached 14 states from coast to coast. Researchers at the University of New Hampshire’s Veterinary Diagnosis Laboratory and the Hubbard Center for Genome Studies told NBC News they have identified a pathogen that might be what’s making pets sick. Work is ongoing to understand the nature of the illness and how to treat it. A veterinarian in Pennsylvania said the best defense is to make sure pets are up to date with all vaccinations, and “not panicking, but being cautious.” That includes not allowing pets to share water bowls or toys with other dogs. Let’s hope further misfortune avoids loyal Finney the Jack Russell Terrier. Finney accompanied his owner, Richard Moore, on a hike in the mountains east of their home in Colorado on August 19. They never made it home. An intensive search-and-rescue operation came up empty. Ten weeks later, a hunter on horseback discovered Moore’s body, and with him a gaunt but fiercely protective Finney, who was reunited with Moore’s widow and is recovering his lost weight.

KEEP A CLOSE EYE: Cases of pediatric pneumonia have spiked in Denmark, China and in one county in Ohio – Warren County – where health authorities report 145 cases since August. The average patient is eight years of age and suffers from a cough, fever and fatigue.

SWEDISH SOLIDARITY: Elon Musk is a guy with a lot on his plate and a lot on his mind, and the workers of Sweden aren’t making things any easier. It all started when a Tesla subsidiary refused to recognize the labor union representing 130 mechanics who worked on Tesla vehicles. You can imagine how that went over in a country where 90 percent of workers are in a union. Soon, postal workers were refusing to deliver license plates for Teslas, dockworkers refused to unload Teslas from ships, and electricians stopped servicing them, among other actions. Tesla sued to force delivery of its license plates and won in a Swedish court. Now if only they can get the cars off the ships.

HIS NEIGHBORS’ KEEPER: He was a curiosity in his small New Hampshire hometown, the fix-it man who collected model cars and trains and rode a lawnmower to the store. He lived in a trailer where the legs of his bed poked through the floor. People used to see him reading the newspapers and watching the cars pass, but nobody knew much about him – and that’s just the way he liked it. When he died earlier this year, the whole town heard the news. He’d left a multi-million-dollar fortune to his neighbors.

Ski season arrived slightly ahead of schedule at Whiteface Mountain near Lake Placid, N.Y., and other ski areas of the Northeast. Nancie Battaglia

MIND READERS: Wearable devices that can sense brain waves and offer cognitive feedback and other brain enhancements in real time are on the way to the mainstream, The Wall Street Journal reports. “Among the initial goals: improving concentration and helping consumers boost productivity and reduce burnout by alerting users when their attention wanders.” Down the road, the Journal reports, “Improved communication, collaboration, and social interactions are among the enhancements that (brain-computer interface) developers are working to realize in coming years by combining high-quality brain-activity recordings with information from activity sensors, food diaries, sleep logs, eye trackers and other data sources.”

DINNER IN LAKE GEORGE: The excitement keeps coming at Fort William Henry in Lake George, N.Y., home to a hotel, wedding venues and a recreated 18^th century fort from the French and Indian War Era. In addition to hosting Winter’s Dream at the fort, President Sam Luciano announced this week the White Lion Room is open to the public. Long a wedding venue and generally too busy for regular dinner guests, the White Lion Room and the adjoining Tankard Room are now open year-round to hotel guests and visitors. Chef John Holmes created a new menu for the relaunch. The beautiful space has a view of the lake. Our colleague Leigh Hornbeck, who dined there Thursday night, recommends the trout cooked in cast iron and the Norwegian apple pie.

WWE UNDERGROUND: Well, not quite, but that’s the vibe wrestling superfan Tim Rivera and his troupe of his performers are reaching for as they don costumes and wigs and transform themselves into characters for “Subway Mania,” a rolling homage to the professional wrestlers of their youths and a unique entertainment experience for New Yorkers accustomed to performers in the subway. Like the stars they’re emulating, the participants in Subway Mania perform scripted fights for delighted audiences, which Rivera records and posts on social media. “This is my art,” he told The New York Times.  

TOASTED TOWN: A recent study found that nearly a quarter of the adult population of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., consider themselves heavy drinkers, giving the city known for horse racing and health the distinction of being the “drunkest” city in New York State. As if determined to guard that title, organizers of the Saratoga New Year's Fest are promising the “biggest New Year's celebration north of Times Square.”

FAKE NEWS: “Sports Illustrated” once was among the most respected brands in journalism — not sports journalism, journalism. Generations of readers devoured it each week from cover to cover, each issue filled with some of the best writing and photography to be found anywhere. Its glory days are long behind it, and its dignity followed suit this week with news that several articles published on the Sports Illustrated website with author names and images were in fact generated by artificial intelligence.

BROADWAY CHUCK: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York made his Broadway debut before a supportive audience the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, The Times of Israel reports, popping onto the stage in “Gutenberg! The Musical!” to tell the two characters, who are aspiring to sell a Broadway musical about Johannes Gutenberg, “This show is fantastic. I don’t need to hear another note. I’m a Broadway producer and I hold in my hands a Broadway contract. You’ve got your show.”  

SEE TO IT: The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles is warning thousands of drivers who renewed their licenses during covid-19 shutdowns that they are at risk of license suspensions if they fail to submit results of vision tests. Drivers who renewed between March 1, 2020, and Aug. 31, 2021, were permitted to self-certify their vision. Meanwhile, drivers in Kansas took one look at the state’s newly redesigned licensed plates and declared that they failed their own vision test. The state will try again.

ENDLESS APPETITES: Looking to boost sales during the traditionally slower second half of the year, the owners of Red Lobster decided to make their popular, periodic endless shrimp promotion a permanent fixture on the menu. All you can eat, $20. Then $22. Now $25. Those incremental increases weren’t nearly enough to offset the unexpectedly high number of customers who took the deal, contributing to $11 million in third-quarter losses for the company.

GOOD RIDDANCE: U.S. Rep. George Santos, R-Fraud, became the 6^th person ever expelled from Congress and the first since 2002. Regrettably, we doubt we’ve heard the last of him.

So many prominent, consequential lives ended in recent days, it would be impossible to do all of them justice. Among them:

ROSALYNN CARTER, the former first lady who transformed the role during President Carter’s term in office and spent decades afterward advocating and working for humanitarian causes. Former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush called her “a woman of dignity and strength.” She was honored at a memorial service in Atlanta to which The New York Times dispatched its crack fashion reporter. Married to her childhood sweetheart for 77 years, she was 96.

SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR, a former Arizona state senator who became the first woman ever appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States. She was appointed by President Reagan in 1981 and retired in 2006. Considered a swing vote on an ideologically divided court, she spent her retirement years crusading against threats to judicial independence and advocating for more civics instruction in public schools. She was 93.

HENRY KISSINGER, the Secretary of State under Presidents Nixon and Ford who helped open a diplomatic channel to China and won a Nobel Peace Prize but was dogged by critics of his policies on Southeast Asia and support for repressive regimes in Latin America. He was 100.

CHARLIE MUNGER, a real estate attorney, philanthropist and architect who made his own fortune before becoming Warren Buffett’s right-hand man as vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. He is credited with broadening Buffet’s investment strategy, encouraging the company to focus on companies with high-upside potential. He was 99.

CATHERINE CHRISTER HENNIX, a composer, musician and teacher who combined minimalism, mathematics, and drones into mesmerizing intonations that she called “infinitary composition.” She believed that music is God – the sound that endures, unchanging, forever – and that musicians are mediums who bring the sound of God to the world. She was 75.

TERRY TAYLOR, the first — and only — woman ever to serve as sports editor of The Associated Press. She was credited with elevating the journalistic standards of her reporters and editors; stressing the importance of investigative stories, in-depth features and sharp commentary; and coaxing reporters to look for news that went beyond scores and on-field action. She was 71. 

CHARLIE PETERS, a New Deal Democrat who favored a strong national defense with a military draft, the dismissal of incompetent public-school teachers, aid for entrepreneurs, an end to Social Security for the wealthy, and patriotism, provided it was “not phony flag-waving.” He published his views in The Washington Monthly, a journal that regularly found its way into the mailboxes of Washington’s smart set but never drew a broad general audience. He was 96.

VIKTOR BELENKO, a senior lieutenant in the Soviet air force who made headlines in September 1976 when he landed an advanced supersonic MiG-25 Foxbat interceptor at a civilian airfield on the Japanese island of Hokkaido and was granted political asylum by the United States. The plane was dissected by western intelligence before being returned to the Soviets in pieces. He was 76.

WILLIE HERNANDEZ, who in 1984 had one of the best seasons ever by a major league relief pitcher, winning the Cy Young and league Most Valuable Player awards while helping the Detroit Tigers win the World Series. He is one of 11 pitchers (and three relievers) in history to win both the MVP and Cy Young award in the same season. He was 69.

“To have them come stay with me for Thanksgiving and have something like this happen speaks to the level of civic vitriol, speaks to the level of hatred that exists in some corners of this country. It speaks to a sickness of gun violence that exists in this country.”
—    Rich Price, uncle of Hisham Awartani, one of three Palestinian college students who were shot without warning or provocation in Burlington, Vt., the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

CANNED RESPONSE: A defense attorney in Noble County, Ohio, had his law license suspended for throwing a Pringles can full of his own excrement into the parking lot of the county’s victim advocacy center. He admitted throwing the can, but claimed he didn’t know the target. He admitted to previously throwing similar feces-filled cans on at least 10 previous occasions, Cleveland.com reported, saying that “[i]t was kind of like a release” and that he “got a kick out of” imagining the “look of surprise” on peoples’ faces when they would find them.

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

Principal authors: Bill Callen and Mark Behan

Sincere thanks to our contributors: Ryan Moore, John Brodt, Troy Burns, Tina Suhocki, Kristy Miller, Leigh Hornbeck, 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