The Week: What Caught Our Eye

January 28, 2023

“Sunrise is the start of something beautiful: the day. Sunset is the start of something beautiful: the night” — Juansen Dizon. (Photo John Bulmer)

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

With all the talk of classified documents, we begin today with the until-recently classified story of a terrifying 30-minute mid-air battle that’s been kept secret for 50 years: On the 18^th of November 1952, a lone U.S. pilot on combat patrol shot down four Soviet MiG fighter jets bearing down on U.S. warships off Korea. He emptied all the ammunition he had, took 263 rounds to his plane, even withstood friendly fire from U.S. destroyers mistaking his jet for a Soviet jet and, with the Soviets in hot pursuit, barely made it back to his carrier. Neither the U.S. nor the Soviets reported the incident for fear that it would set off another world war. Now, the story has been told and, at 97, Royce Williams’ extraordinary skills and bravery have been acknowledged.

COLD WAR IN OUR MIDST: As the threat of nuclear war loomed during the Cold War, the United Stated turned to the Adirondacks for protection. The eyes, ears and weapons protecting the Eastern Seaboard were placed quietly in the High Peaks. Human spotters were recruited in the small towns. The fear was that a Soviet bomber could slip unnoticed into the U.S. with deadly consequences. The Adirondack Mountain News’ John Bulmer looks back.

CRISIS AVERTED:  In appears M&M’s chocolate candies will survive a week of cultural nuttiness that featured prominent debate about whether the marketing choices of M&M’s heralded a tipping point in society’s downward slide. There was but one choice: Sideline the spokescandies and replace them with Maya Rudolph. Tucker Carlson was among those who gave the issue national attention, and satirists like Alexandra Petri at the Washington Post were quick to pounce. Progressive comic Jeff Mauer chose to hold up a mirror to those mocking the histrionics of their political adversaries, pointing out that much of what elicits such strong reactions is absurd or half-baked in the first place. “People like me often focus on the right’s histrionics because we don’t want to confront silliness coming from ‘our side.’ Normie liberals like me are embarrassed by lefty idiocy, so we sometimes act like it doesn’t exist. … Most Fox News freak-outs are in response to a thing that is, in fact, quite dumb, if also completely trivial and not representative of opinions held by most people on the left.”

 WRITE ON: Chet and Karen Opalka are major philanthropists in the Capital Region of New York State and globally. He was a co-founder of Albany Molecular Research, she an elementary school teacher. They’ve supported efforts to advance the arts, education, and health care. Now, they have given the New York State Writers Institute the largest gift in its history, $1 million, to establish the Opalka Endowed Directorship, which will be held by Writers Institute Director Paul Grondahl. The Writers Institute is celebrating its 40^th year in 2023.

BRIGHT LIGHTS: Luke Nikas of Hudson Falls, N.Y., near Glens Falls, is a partner in the high-powered New York law firm Quinn Emanuel and is representing actor Alec Baldwin as he faces involuntary manslaughter charges in the on-set shooting death of a cinematographer. After Hudson Falls High School, Nikas earned his undergraduate and law degrees at Harvard. Quinn Emanuel’s web site says: “He has been described in The Legal 500 as ‘whip-smart,’ in Lawdragon as a ‘litigation star,’ and in Chambers USA as ‘a sharp litigator and tough lawyer who knows how to do aggressive … litigation when the stakes are high … Chambers USA further states that ‘Luke is an exceptional attorney,’ a ‘really, really smart’ and ‘fearsome lawyer’ who ‘sees the big picture and … [is] a great lawyer to have on your side,’ and is ‘absolutely amazing on his feet…’ ”

A LYRICAL PLACE INDEED: Saratoga Springs, N.Y., is a cultural masterpiece, with the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the New York City Ballet and Philadelphia Orchestra, Universal Preservation Hall, Caffè Lena and the Tang, plus dance, racing, automobile, military and children’s museums. Now, it also has its first poet laureate, writer and city resident Joseph Bruchac, 80, who sees his role as an opportunity to heal and bring understanding. “We need fewer lies, more truth, and more looking at the world through a lens that is kind, maybe critical, but kind at the same time,” he says. 

COUPLES ONLY: Leave the kids home, USA Today says, and try one of the finest couples-only resorts in the country at The (pricey) Point in Saranac Lake, N.Y., built in the early 1930s as the Great Camp of William Avery Rockefeller and family. The Point features a main lodge and 11 distinctive rooms in four original log buildings and a Great Hall dining area where, two nights a week, the dinners are black-tie only with seven-course tasting menus. Chef Löic Leperlier has led Michelin Star restaurants and five-star resorts in Europe and French Polynesia, followed by Relais & Châteaux properties in the United States. His style of cooking combines French cuisine accented by Indian, African and Chinese influences.

NAMING RIGHTS: Naming contests can be tricky, especially in our hyperconnected world. Case in point: all the people who couldn’t find Fort Wayne, Ind., on a map, but nevertheless enthusiastically voted to name the city’s government center after a longtime former mayor, Harry Baals. It backfired for the British National Oceanography Centre in 2017 when they were stuck with “Boaty McBoatface” for a $287 million polar research ship. But the names middle- and elementary-school students came up with in a Massachusetts Name a Snowplow contest — an idea that’s catching on in snowy climates cross the U.S. — are actually pretty good.

Paper maps are enjoying a resurgence in popularity, with one shop owner telling The Wall Street Journal that customers are looking not just for directions but for inspiration and even art worth hanging. (Photo: Adobe Stock)

ON THE MAP: It’s not old, it’s vintage. Millennials and members of Gen Z may not remember a time before GPS, making paper maps chic and retro. According to a spokesperson for Ordnance Survey, the national mapping agency of Great Britain, “sales of custom-made maps exploded in 2020, with an increase of 144% compared with the year before. A year later, in 2021, there was a further 28% increase.” Sales are up in the United States, too. Unlike MapQuest directions hastily printed for a road trip, many maps are beautiful and offer a tangible pleasure not created by turn-by-turn directions. Speaking of maps, the Dutch National Archive sparked a treasure hunt in the tiny Netherlands village of Ommeren after its annual document dump included a hand-drawn map allegedly showing where Nazis buried jewelry that they stole when occupying the country in World War II.

UNEQUAL JUSTICE: New York State’s “Good Samaritan” law has provisions to help compensate people for injuries suffered while attempting to stop a crime in progress, with an important but little-known caveat: The victim must be willing to cooperate with law enforcement. An analysis of data between 2015 and 2019 shows denials of victim compensation benefits for failure to cooperate with law enforcement shows significant disparities based on race, gender and type of crime, including sexual assaults.

WELCOME BACK: Tourists and New York City officials are celebrating a return, and for once it has nothing to do with the pandemic. Dolphins were spotted swimming in the Bronx River recently for the first time in five years, which the city’s parks director attributes to decades of work to clean up the river and keep it stocked with fish. The dolphins were in an area of the river known as Boogie Down. Officials urged tourists to enjoy the dolphins from a distance to keep them “comfortable during their visit.”

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: Beth Pashley lives in Old Forge, N.Y., deep in the Adirondacks, miles and miles of trails in any direction as far as the eye can see. But before the pandemic changed practically everyone’s life three years ago, hiking wasn’t part of her routine, even though she enjoyed hiking with her family when she was younger. As she started getting out more, she set a goal: hike 100 miles in January 2021. She came up short, but set another: hike 1,000 miles in 2022. The 68-year-old hiked often with her grandchildren, and reached her goal with a few days to spare. “One of the most rewarding aspects of this experience was to show my grandkids that you are never too old to do something you want to do when you set your mind to it,” she told the Adirondack Explorer. “The biggest thing is to know my limitations and just enjoy the scenery. I’m not in a race and not out to set any records.”

 A COMMUNITY CRUMBLES: Joshimath, a town in the Himalayas in northern India, is slowly sinking into the earth. Part of it is the region’s geology — it is in a high-risk seismic zone and prone to land subsidence, where the ground slides downhill — but panicked local residents, thousands of whom have fled their homes, place no small measure of blame on relentless construction to accommodate the half-million religious and secular tourists who come to the region each year, as well as the hydropower stations that are being built to meet the country’s growing electricity needs. “Man has messed with nature too much,” a local Hindu priest told Vice. “One of these days, the whole town is going to wash away down this slope like a big glacial flood.”

PICTURE THIS: The Underwater Photography guide announced the winner of its 2022 photography contest this week, and the images, as you can imagine, are breathtaking. As a bonus, each photographer described the circumstances of the shot and equipment used. If history is more your thing, or you’re a fan of the Beatles, there’s a new coffee table book on the way with images taken by Paul McCartney, including three from their first visit to New York City that haven’t previously been published.

 SEEING IS BELIEVING … OR NOT: When a former White House Chief Information Officer is alarmed about something, we probably ought to pay attention. Theresa Payton, the CIO under President George W. Bush, said the ability of artificial intelligence to generate fake video that is nearly indistinguishable from reality will soon result in synthetic “franken-frauds” that criminals will use to defraud institutions and individuals, and that other bad actors will use to spread disinformation (an AI-generated deepfake of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky appearing to tell his troops to lay down their arms last March was laughed off because of its poor quality, but the technology is only getting better). She called on technology companies to adopt content moderation practices that identify and remove deepfakes from their platforms, warning, “If these practices are not adopted, the online environment could drastically change where misinformation and manipulation campaigns are increased.”

LIVES

SUE COREY in 2009 became the first female town supervisor of Minerva, N.Y., in the Adirondacks, six years after the town had named her and her husband, Mike Corey, its citizens of the year. She nurtured a generation of curious young minds as leader of the school system’s Odyssey of the Mind program, and for the past eight years was director of the Indian Lake Theater. As respected as she was in the community, her family will recall so much more — adventurous, competitive and amazing are among the words they chose in remembering Corey, who died of cancer at 64.

LLOYD MORRISETT was a psychologist who noticed his young kids’ fascination with television and their ability to memorize the advertising jingles.  He turned an idea — using TV to teach young children — into “Sesame Street.” The show, which debuted in 1969, used an urban setting and diverse set of characters living peacefully among each other as a backdrop to basic lessons about letters, numbers, empathy and kindness. To date, the show has won 216 Emmys and 11 Grammy, and in 2019 became the first television program to receive the Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime artistic achievement. It continues to air in more than 150 countries. He was 93.

EVAN FRANZ was a senior at Tamarac High School, near Albany, N.Y., who was welcomed as an honorary member of the Siena College men’s basketball team in November 2021, 2 ½ years after he was found to have a rare and aggressive brain tumor. He was a regular presence on the team’s bench both at home and on the road, and when the players huddled up, he would lead the chant of “1-2-3 FAMILY!” to break it. “It's heartbreaking,” Andrew Platek, a guard for the Saints, told the Albany Times Union. “Our condolences go out to his family. Ev was just as much part of this team as anybody else, and he was a fighter, so we're going to try to carry that spirit with us the rest of the season.” He was 18.

LIN BREHMER was a Chicago radio legend who loved to mix rock’n’roll with a poetry, literature, personal philosophy, and his love for the Cubs. For 30 years, he entertained radio listeners as a host on leading station WXRT. He started his radio career at Colgate University and worked for WQBK in Albany before heading to the Midwest. “Lin Brehmer was the voice of Chicago. His voice was unique and a perfect way to start the day,” former Mayor Rahm Emanuel wrote on Twitter. “Chicago has lost its best friend,” U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley posted. He died of cancer at 68.

BILLY PACKER is a name familiar to generations of college basketball fans. As an analyst, he provided commentary for 34 Final Fours, 27 at CBS, where he paired with fellow broadcasting legend Jim Nantz. A star player at Wake Forest, where he averaged 14.1 points a game as a senior, Packer got his start in broadcasting as an analyst for Atlantic Coast Conference games and combined with Dick Enberg and Al McGuire to form a popular three-man broadcasting team at NBC before moving to CBS when that network bought rights to the Final Four. He retired in 2008. “Billy Packer was synonymous with college basketball for more than three decades and set the standard of excellence as the voice of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament,” CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus said in a statement. He was 82.

ALMOST FINAL WORDS

“What we really wanted to do was make Lake Placid relevant, and they are, now.”
—    Former New York State Sen. Betty Little, on the impact of hosting the World University Games in the Adirondacks. Several Lake Placid merchants said they were underwhelmed by the business generated during the event.

THE SIGNOFF

A-PLUS: The school district in Royal Oak, Mich., like most these days, used its social media channels to announce that school would be canceled because of snow. Unlike the rest, it made the announcement in a student-created parody music video called “Snowhemian Rhapsody,” which featured about a dozen students, teachers, and the district’s superintendent. Production started in October. People loved it.

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THANK YOU to our contributors: Bill Callen, Ryan Moore, John Brodt, Troy Burns, Lisa Fenwick, John Bulmer, Leigh Hornbeck, Claire P. Tuttle and Tara Hutchins.

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