The Week’s Most Interesting News

September 23, 2023

Hot air balloons will light up the night sky at the Moon Glow event at 7 p.m. Saturday at Floyd Bennett Memorial Airport in Queensbury, N.Y.

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

In the North Country of New York, it’s the most uplifting event of the year — the Adirondack Hot Air Balloon Festival, which this fall celebrates its 50th anniversary.

Nearly 100 balloonists from all over the country will be in Glens Falls and Queensbury, N.Y., this weekend to participate in what is said to be the third largest balloon festival in America. Remarkably, it’s still free to the public, still entirely run by volunteers, and still raising money for local charitable organizations.

Over five decades, ballooning has become so much a part of the identity of the region that the City of Glens Falls adopted the slogan “A City on the Rise” and at one time made hot air balloons part of the official city logo. Balloon art pops up on front porches, in store windows, in schools and on restaurant placemats. And the festival itself has become a celebration of joy, hope and pride. With eyes cast upward, we are filled with wonder and appreciation. We set our sights on the long horizon and marvel at the beauty all around us. 

O’ZAPFT IS: Do you have your lederhosen and dirndl dresses? It’s Oktoberfest. The origin was in Munich in 1810, but people everywhere celebrate Oktoberfest – German or not. There is a bit of a twist this year, Jimmy Vielkind of The Wall Street Journal reports: a menu change in the Paulaner festival tent to serve organic hens is stirring fears of a “Woke Wiesn”— a play on the short form of the name of the Bavarian celebration. The organic birds are 20.50 euros for a half, the equivalent of $22, which is about 50% more than the nonorganic hens. Inflation also hit the star of the show — the beer. The cost of a liter — or “mass” — of beer in most big tents increased this year by 6%.

JOHN THOMAS BROOK: From the “It Took Until 2023?” department, the name of a stream in Vermontville, N.Y., has been changed from a racist slur to instead honor a man who escaped from slavery in Maryland and lived near the waterway. A dozen Black families farmed the land along its waters between the 1850s and 1870s. The brook became known by a slur, which in 1963 was slightly modified because someone apparently thought “Negro” would be better. Now a marker celebrates John Thomas and, by extension, other Black pioneers of the time. 

REGROWTH: When fire ravaged Lahaina, Hawaii, last month, it left a historic, beloved banyan charred in the middle of town. Planted in 1873, the tree grew to more than 60 feet near an old courthouse and was called the largest of its kind in the United States. Its canopy spread half an acre. Last week, Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources shared a video that showed bright green leaves unfurling around the trunk of the community’s sacred giant; others sprouted from its branches between brown and withered leaves. It will take years of rebuilding and recovery to bring back the town of Lahaina, but the symbolism of the old tree making a recovery is a beautiful sign. 

MORE FEATS OF STRENGTH: Last week we shared the triumph of Lewis Pugh, an endurance swimmer who swam (and ran alongside when necessary) the entire length of the Hudson River to celebrate its renewal. Two more athletes made news this week for completing superhuman feats. Poughkeepsie, N.Y., native Alexis Holzmann completed the Appalachian Trail over the course of six months, moving on foot from Georgia to Maine. Meanwhile, Kim Levinsky of Vernon, N.J., set the female fastest known time on the Long Path, a 358-mile journey from John Boyd Thacher State Park to the 175th Street subway station in New York City. Levinsky is a trail runner and ultramarathoner. And on Long Island, 52-year-old Vince Feola is participating this weekend in an Ironman Triathlon three years after a heart attack that nearly killed him.

UP IN SMOKE: New York’s slow, troubled rollout of a retail plan for legal cannabis is starting to bankrupt marijuana growers. Farmers and retail store license holders addressed the state’s Cannabis Control Board last week, relaying stories of extreme financial distress and rotting product as they wait for the state’s authorization program for retail stores to sell cannabis for adult recreational use to get underway. “We have lost millions of dollars. We have done everything right and I can’t feed my children,” one grower said, as quoted by the Albany Times Union. “This is no joke, we’re in trouble. … I beg of you to stand up for what is right so you may sleep at night.” One retailer, according to radio station WXXI, said, “We gave everything we have, we have nothing left. Absolutely nothing. We're paying rent on two locations, and we have no more money. We don't know what the future holds.”

THE FETTERMAN RULE: Is decorum coming apart at the seams in the U.S. Senate, or is the notoriously stuffy body just keeping up with the times? Democratic leadership changed the rules and no longer requires a jacket and tie for men on the Senate floor. The relaxed attire rule applies to all the chamber's lawmakers, but the switch was seen as a special accommodation for Sen. John Fetterman, whose love of shorts and hoodies has turned casual Friday into dress-down every day. Critics always alert for opportunities to be outraged are clutching their pearls. Sen. Susan Collins joked to NBC that she planned to “wear a bikini” and said, “I think there is a certain dignity that we should be maintaining in the Senate, and to do away with the dress code, to me, debases the institution,” she said, with a straight face.

A hint of the coming fall at Geyser Creek in Saratoga Spa State Park in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. John Bulmer. 

NOT FROM AROUND HERE: In the natural order of things, alligators don’t venture farther north than North Carolina, but humans being humans, sometimes alligators end up much farther north as pets. When toothy reptiles are freshly hatched and fit in the palm of your hand, they’re cute. When they grow to four feet long and threaten dogs and toddlers, not so much. Police Chief Lee Bartolicius of Kiskiminetas Township, Pa., recently found himself leading a search mission for an alligator in the Kiskiminetas River. The search party included the township’s 12 police officers, staff from the state fish and game commission, four fire departments and about a dozen residents. Civilians found the gator later christened “Chompers.” Two kayakers hauled the alligator out of the water with their bare hands on Aug. 6. When the animal protested, they calmed it by petting the top of its head. In related predator news, a couple celebrating their first wedding anniversary at Pensacola Beach in Alabama rescued a mako shark that washed ashore Thursday.

A HARROWING ESCAPE: The leader of the Maine Legislature and his fellow lobsterman are lucky to be alive after an enormous wave, stirred by Hurricane Lee, toppled their boat several miles east of Desert Island, where Acadia National Park is located. Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham and fellow fishermen Alex Polk, both seriously injured, bobbed in the Gulf of Maine for an hour before they were rescued by Faulkingham’s cousin and taken ashore, where an ambulance whisked them to the hospital. “I knew it was a bad situation, but I had no fear. I can’t explain the science of adrenaline or any of that other stuff. All I know was it was the presence of God,” Rep. Faulkingham told The Associated Press.

AUTOWORKERS ON STRIKE: The last UAW strike was just four years ago, but the global pandemic that changed the world makes it seem much longer ago. It was also different — the target of the strike was GM and the company’s move to close plants was at issue. This strike targeted Ford, GM and Stellantis. At issue today is pay, and even United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain admits the union's demands are "audacious"because they include an ask for a 40% wage increase. But from the UAW's perspective, the current demands represent a long-overdue redressal for concessions the union made to prop up the automakers just before and after the 2008 recession — concessions workers say they still feel to this day.

QUEST FOR IMMORTALITY: The New York Times already summarized this one quite nicely: “Bryan Johnson, a former tech executive, is spending millions trying to reverse aging with a strict regimen of 111 pills a day, a cap that shoots red light onto his scalp and more.”

BUFFALO, N.Y., IS America’s nicest place, according to Reader’s Digest, citing the community’s response to a deadly blizzard, a racist mass shooting and the near-fatal injury to Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin. Those who wear the opposing team’s colors to Highmark Stadium may have a different view.

YOU GOT ‘RIZZ? Believe us, you want it.

ERR PORT NEWS: A Swiss International Air Lines flight last weekend from Zurich to Bilbao, on Spain’s north coast, arrived safely but without a single checked back in the cargo hold. Airline officials blamed it on lack of ground staff (of course), and said “most of the luggage” was delivered the following day.

TWO BEARS in Alaska — a sow and her cub — got an unexpected treat this week when a delivery van carrying Krispy Kreme donuts to a military base stopped on the way, with the driver leaving the doors open during a brief stop at a convenience store. 

A COURT IN COPENHAGEN ordered artist Jens Haaning to repay more than $76,000 plus legal fees to a Danish museum that had commissioned him to recreate earlier works depicting wage differences within the European Union. Haaning delivered two blank canvasses to the museum, titling his work, “Take the Money and Run,” which we suspect is about to become an ear worm for some of you.

BUDDY TEEVENS won more games than any other football coach at his alma mater, Dartmouth College, leading his Big Green teams to five Ivy League championships. He also was an innovator for player safety, becoming the first coach to eliminate full-contact practices in 2010 and leading development by Dartmouth’s engineering school of the Mobile Virtual Player, a robotic tackling dummy that has also been used by other college programs and NFL teams. “His impact both on college football and the NFL has been enormous,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said of Teevens during the 2023 NFL draft, shortly after Teevens was critically injured when a truck hit him while he was riding his bicycle in Florida. “He has been a leader in making our game safer through breakthrough innovations. He is a pioneer in hiring female coaches, two of whom are currently coaching in the NFL.” Teevens, a star quarterback at Dartmouth who also coached at Tulane and Stanford, was 66.

JOANNE EPPS started working at Temple University in the bookstore 40 years ago, rising to provost and dean of its law school before becoming acting president of the university, a position she held since April. She told The Philadelphia Inquirer shortly after accepting the position that, while not a candidate for the job full-time, “I am obviously humbled and excited and really looking forward to being able to make a contribution to the university that I so love.” She was attending a memorial service on campus, where she was scheduled to speak, when she collapsed on stage. Temple Provost Gregory Mandel choked up as he described Epps at a news conference, saying, “We are all in deep grief and at a loss for words. To know JoAnne is to be her friend.” She was 72.

“An earlier version of this article misidentified the opponent of Goliath in the Bible. He was David, not Samson.”
—    The New York Times, correcting an error in an opinion article about U.S. energy policy. 

MONEY FOR NOTHING: A clerk in the Buffalo Fire Department was on paid administrative leave for more than seven years after she was accused of tampering with payroll. The city never scheduled a required arbitration hearing, and she continued collecting a paycheck, even though she’s been working six years in a private-sector job. The clerk, who collected more than half a million dollars from the city during that time, has complied with a recent order to return to her city job.

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Principal Authors: Leigh Hornbeck and Bill Callen.

Sincere thanks to our contributors: Ryan Moore, John Brodt, Troy Burns, Tina Suhocki, Kristy Miller, Claire P. Tuttle, 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