Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News

August 9, 2025

Saratoga Springs has been named the fourth best summer destination in the country by USA Today. (John Bulmer)

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

Thirteen hundred words forever changed the world.

The Declaration of Independence, signed August 2, 1776, severed the ties between Great Britain and the 13 colonies (though it would take a war to confirm the break), enshrined fundamental principles of human rights and individual liberty that inspired movements for independence around the world, and made clear that government answers to the people. Thomas Jefferson was the principal author. He did the work in 17 days.

You’ll be hearing a lot more about the 250^th anniversary of the Declaration. National, state and local celebrations are in the works. In November, America’s documentarian, Ken Burns, will release a six-part masterpiece eight years in the making that features more than 100 places that played a role in the Revolution, including many in New York State. Burns, of course, has been documenting America for decades with “The Civil War,” “Baseball,” “Jazz” and “Country Music,” among other works. Characteristically, his latest work will be “an expansive look at the virtues and contradictions of the war” through the stories of dozens of people. Consider this one: William Franklin, son, confidant and acknowledged illegitimate son of founding father Benjamin Franklin, was a steadfast loyalist, the last Royal Governor of New Jersey. Benjamin raised “Billy,” sent him to school, taught him the printing trade, and had a warm relationship for the first 30 or so years of his life. But when William became Governor of New Jersey in 1762, he and his father split.

In the months ahead, it’s a good bet we will come to a better understanding about things we thought we already knew well. Jesse Jackson, founder of Glens Falls’ Look Media Resources, recently scored an interview with Ken Burns that’s well worth watching. Jackson is himself a history buff. Before creating Look Media, he was head of marketing and creative services at A&E Television Networks and helped launch The History Channel.

SARATOGA’S SUMMER: Saratoga Springs, N.Y., is having a bang-up summer. At the Saratoga Racecourse, the day-long handle for last Saturday’s Whitney Stakes was an impressive $49.7 million — a 23 percent increase over the 2024 record. Saratoga Hospital Foundation’s summer gala at the Polo Meadow of Saratoga Casino Hotel raised eyebrows in a single festive evening by raising $495,000. At the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Phish drew more than 52,000 people. A Forbes journalist was there and lavished praise: Saratoga “offers everything you’d want in a weekend or full-time retreat: extraordinary cultural offerings, a walkable downtown with independent shops and cafes, one of the country’s oldest horse racing tracks and a restaurant scene that rivals any urban hub.” Indeed, Saratoga’s restaurants are having their best summer since the pandemic.  And still to come: The Saratoga Senior Center, celebrating its 70^th year, will honor veteran CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz and his CBS colleague and Saratoga’s own professional golfer and broadcaster Dottie Pepper.

Sierra Leone (#5) overcame a strong field to give Mechanicville, N.Y., trainer Chad Brown his first $1 million Whitney Stakes win at Saratoga. (Skip Dickstein)

DeNIRO’S NEW YORK: New York City once was a hub for silent filmmaking. Now, Robert DeNiro is playing a part in the revival of big screen production in the city, combining his passions for filmmaking, hospitality and New York in a new venture: a 775,000-square-foot production facility in Queens called Wildflower Studios. More than a dozen films have already been shot there. It was Mayor John V. Lindsay (1966-1973) who helped bring modern filmmaking to New York when he established the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting. During Lindsay’s two terms, more than 360 films were shot in New York, putting the city in all of its grit and glamour on display to audiences around the world. “For the first time, our parks and museums, our streets and courthouses, our libraries and monuments, all these things that make New York unique, have been made available to film people,” he said.

THE BILLY BACKSTORY: They may have left out the fact that he opened his 1986 world tour at the Glens Falls Civic Center in Behan Communications’ hometown, but you learn a lot about Billy Joel in the epic five-hour biography airing now on HBO. His early years in a heavy-metal duo called Atilla. The origins of some of his most famous songs. The role his first wife played in his rise to stardom and the challenges that stardom posed to his marriage with supermodel Christie Brinkley. There’s also the money he lost to a trusted manager and former brother-in-law. And, of course, the ups and downs of addiction. But one of the most poignant – and heretofore little known – segments focuses on his Jewish grandparents’ escape from Germany during World War II, and his other family members who did not leave in time. "They wiped out my family," says the 76-year-old Piano Man. "I would’ve liked to have known some of these people." His grandfather Karl Joel ran a successful textile factory in Nuremberg that was taken by the Nazis, then disturbingly used to produce the uniforms worn by their victims in the concentration camps.

REMEMBERING THE DAY: For more than 50 years, the chimes have rung out across the Japanese city of Hiroshima every morning at 8:15. The ritual marks the moment 80 years ago August 6^th when the U.S. bomber Enola Gay dropped the world’s first atomic bomb.  About 70,000 people were killed instantly. Three days later, the U.S. unleashed a second atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki that killed another 40,000 people immediately. The bombings hastened Imperial Japan’s surrender and the end of World War II, which spared untold lives at the price of nearly a quarter-million lives.

NO SUGARCOATING THIS: Martha’s Dandee Cream, the soft ice cream landmark on Route 9 in Queensbury, N.Y., has been honored as the top ice cream spot in New York State. The honor was bestowed by New York Upstate based on review by customers, including one who enthused: “I’ve never tried such an amazing soft serve before. It was perfect both texture and flavor wise.” Long Islanders Martha Schoelermann and her husband Carlton Freiberger transformed an old chicken farm into a restaurant with summer cabins in 1947. Martha was in the insurance business in Manhattan, but her family had been in the ice cream business on Long Island for years. Martha’s was just another roadside attraction until Charles R. Wood arrived on the scene in 1956. He turned the vacant land across the street into Storytown USA, now the Great Escape, and Martha’s became a summertime sensation among not only local people but generations of vacationers. Martha and Carl sold the business in 1982 to Roger and Lena Lafontaine who operated it for the next 17 years. In 1999, the Lafontaines sold Martha’s to the Great Escape. They bought it back in 2009.

MAKING THEIR WAY SAFELY: If you’re of a certain age, you might remember reading Robert McCloskey’s famed children’s book, Make Way For Ducklings. A real-life version of that story is playing out in the northern England community of Thirsk. Every night around 8:30, a group of 20 ducks takes the 15-minute jaunt from The Cod Beck river to the market square car park where they bed down for the night. Ever since four of the ducks were killed while crossing the road last year, 15 local residents have begun taking turns escorting and safeguarding their fine-feathered friends. Says one of the kind-hearted escorts: “It has brought a wealth of community spirit with all parts getting involved to make sure the ducks are safe.”

THE BIG BAD WOLF: Those fake owls used to keep birds away from parking garages and backyard patios apparently don’t work with wolves. They need a whole different level of persuasion. The U.S. government is reportedly deploying drones equipped with night-vision cameras to spot wolves that are preying on cattle in southern Oregon and then “hazing” them with a spotlight and sounds blasted from a loudspeaker to chase the wolves away. Among the most effective audio annoyances: fireworks, gunshots, AC/DC’s Thunderstruck, and the soundtrack of raging arguments between Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver’s characters in the 2020 Oscar-nominated Marriage Story.  

DIM BULBS: An experiment last year by University of Washington researchers into whether saltwater spray could create clouds to dim the sun’s rays – and cool the Earth – was suddenly shut down when local officials objected to their being kept in the dark. The researchers, bankrolled by billionaires, were planning a pilot on a retired aircraft carrier in Alameda, California, when local officials first heard about the plan from The New York Times. According to funding requests, emails, texts and other records obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News, the initiative was part of a major body of research aimed at countering global warming. For years, the University of Washington has been studying whether creating clouds is worth the risk of disrupting weather patterns, potentially affecting farm yields, wildlife and people. Even if the clouds cool the climate, critics say temperatures could spike upward if the processes are abruptly shut down.

TASTES OF SUMMER: The Hugo Spritz is so last year. This summer’s hot drink is the spaghett, which consists of Miller High Life topped with Aperol and a splash of lemon. Some call it a “trailer park spritz,” a concession to the recession. Meanwhile, cottage cheese is making a big comeback among the Tik-Tok generation of protein-hungry consumers. Maybe grandma was on to something.

PIZZA TOUR: Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy, whose One Bite Pizza reviews are a YouTube sensation and who summers in Saratoga Springs, was on the hunt for great pizza in the Glens Falls, N.Y., area. He gave Stumpy’s Pizzeria in “Fort Edwards” 7.6 out of 10, and Pizza Jerks in “Glen Falls” a 7.4.

JOURNALISM EARTHQUAKE ALERT: The New York Post is going west, launching The California Post early next year. In their usual understated fashion, The Post promised “serious reporting and puckish wit,” stating: “Los Angeles and California surely need a daily dose of The Post as an antidote to the jaundiced, jaded journalism that has sadly proliferated.”

OLD INK: The remains of a woman who lived 2,500 years ago show “intricate, crisp, uniform” tattoos of leopards, tigers, a stag, a rooster and long-lost mythical creatures. The woman’s body was encased in an ice tomb. Tattooing was likely widespread during prehistory, but few remains from that era are preserved well enough to investigate.

 THARS BAR IN THEM THAR WATERS: The National Hockey League’s Seattle Kraken had a great idea for a promotional video. They’d send their scruffy blue-haired sea troll Buoy on a fly-fishing trip to the Katmai National Park. The video shoot was all fun and games until a grizzly bear showed up.

WHATEVER, DUDE: Those of us who thought the word “dude” was coined by Jeff Bridges or California surfers 50 years ago were badly misinformed. It turns out the original dudes were young men in New York in the 1880s who preferred over-the-top fancy clothes and an Anglophile lifestyle perceived as fake. The label was a reference to Yankee Doodle, who, as the song goes, was an unsophisticated American parading as a European dandy.

LAWRENCE ARTHUR BOSSIDY was born on March 5, 1935, in Pittsfield, Mass., the son of a shoe store owner and a journalist. He was destined, or so it seemed, to play baseball. The Detroit Tigers wanted him to pitch. But when a team representative arrived at the Bossidy home with a contract, Mrs. Bossidy refused to let him in, saying her son had to go to college first. He attended Colgate University on a full athletic scholarship, and in 1955 led the team to the College World Series. He graduated with a degree in economics and joined General Electric. Over 34 years he rose to its highest ranks, vice chairman under Jack Welch, with whom he became close friends. In 1991, he left GE and took over Allied Signal and transformed it into one of the great corporate success stories of the 1990s. He was 90.

“Able to land by air but not enter by land through a crossing—why? This is humiliation. For God’s sake, have mercy on us.”
— Oday Al-Quraan, a Palestinian nurse in the Gaza Strip, who was killed only days after making this public plea when a pallet containing food dropped out the sky and fell on him.

THREE TIMES SO SHADY: Henry Betsey Jr. will serve two years’ probation after he was charged with marrying three unsuspecting women he met on dating apps: Tonya on Tinder, Brandy on Stir and Michelle on Match. The women believe that Betsey married them for money; he insisted on joint checking accounts. One wife kicked him out after five days. A judge ordered him to stay off dating apps and perform community service.

Principal Author: Mark Behan

Contributors: Amanda Metzger, Ryan Moore, John Brodt, Jim Murphy, Kristy Moore, Bill Callen, Skip Dickstein 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