The Week: What Caught Our Eye

February 25, 2023

Photo of The Troy Savings Bank Music HallThe Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, an architectural and acoustical marvel built in 1875 in Troy, N.Y., has been preserved and maintained much better than many historic gems, thanks largely to the dedicated efforts of the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall Foundation. The Foundation will honor two of its longtime board officers — local business leaders Daniel J. Hogarty, Jr. and George Arakelian —  with a reception from 5:30-7 p.m. Tuesday, March 21, at the Music Hall. The reception will be followed by a performance by the popular swing band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. (Photo by John Bulmer)

Good morning, Colleagues and Friends:

The old joke about the changeability of Upstate New York weather applies: If you don’t like it, wait five minutes. It’s been that kind of winter — highs in the 60s one day, followed by snow and ice the next. The lack of snow and cold has hurt many businesses and communities that rely on winter activities, but The New York Times’ Jesse McKinley — himself a veteran of upstate winters — found that ski areas and some communities are adapting, and visitors are still finding ways to have fun.

JIMMY CARTER, IN HINDSIGHT: The news that Jimmy Carter has entered hospice care has led naturally to a reappraisal of the former president’s time in office, often dismissed as a disastrous diminishment of American power, portrayed most pointedly by the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran where 52 Americans were held for 444 days. His overlooked accomplishments included the Camp David peace accords, the SALT II arms control agreement, normalization of diplomatic and trade relations with China, and immigration reform. He laid the groundwork for the end of the Cold War in Eastern Europe and Russia, deregulated the airline industry, and helped make America more energy independent. But when his name comes up, most Americans of a certain vintage immediately recall his much-maligned “national malaise” speech which, 44 years hence, seems prescient.

SWEET MUSIC: The music world was abuzz this week with word that the two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, are collaborating with the Rolling Stones for an upcoming album. McCartney and Starr were said to have been in Los Angeles in recent weeks for recording studio sessions, though it’s not known which songs will make the final album. The project is being led by Andrew Watt, winner of a 2021 Grammy for producer of the year. It’s not the first time the Beatles and the Stones have mixed: in 1967, McCartney and John Lennon sang backup vocals on the Stones’ single “We Love You,” celebrating the overturning of drug convictions against Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. The same year, Brian Jones of the Stones played saxophone on a Beatles track, though it wasn’t released until 1970.

COMPETITIVE DRIVE: Anyone who’s had a kid in Cub Scouts knows about the Pinewood Derby. It’s a tradition that dates to the 1950s, and involves a block of wood, four nails and four plastic wheels that are to be made into a car that glides down an inclined track. It’s meant to be a family project, and the cars match up in races, with the winners advancing to regional competitions. As a parent of one scout discovered, there’s a whole subculture of Pinewood Derby pros out there with tips about how to shave the wood, reduce friction, polish and bend the nails, find the optimal center of gravity, and contour the wheels for maximum speed. “There’s a tipping point, it would seem, in between one’s second and third orders for aftermarket Pinewood Derby car accessories — a point when the algorithm senses that you may be possessed of a sickness of the mind and opens the floodgates,” Scott Hines writes in The Action Cookbook Newsletter on Substack. “Suddenly, my recommended products — once a mixture of kitchen supplies, books, and children’s toys — were all for Pinewood accessories. Professional-grade parts. Pre-polished nails pre-bent to exactly two and a half degrees. Decal sets. Test tracks. Whole pre-made cars — for just $69.99 or four installments of $17.50, you could have your very own top dragster, without any of the work!”

IMAGE REHAB: Rick Pitino lived a long time near the pinnacle of college basketball, a championship-winning coach who was recognizable to every fan as he strode the sidelines in bespoke suits. His reputation was dinged in 2009 by a sex scandal, but the bottom fell out in 2017, when a cluster of allegations involving misbehavior in his program led to his ouster after eight seasons as the head coach at the University of Louisville. He has since been cleared of wrongdoing and resurrected his career at tiny Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y., where his team is atop the league standings and aiming for the NCAA Tournament. Pitino is 70 now, but sounding very much like someone whose work in the top ranks of college basketball is far from finished. “I've been doing this for 45 years,” Pitino told CBS Sports, “and I'm more excited about doing it now than I was even when I was 40, because I know it's not going to go on forever.”

STEALTH MOVES: President Biden visited Kiev this week in a show of solidarity with Ukraine near the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion. The trip involved extraordinary secrecy, with a motorcade that quietly left the White House around 3:30 Sunday morning, and two reporters whose phones were confiscated chronicling the trip aboard an Air Force One that had been parked in the dark and a train that would take the president from Poland to Ukraine and back. A small group of senior officials at the White House and across U.S. national security agencies worked in secret for months to make it happen.

CHEW ON THIS: Paul Ford had a problem: No matter how much he ate, he never felt full. So he ate, and ate, and ate, until he was morbidly obese. He lost 100 pounds and vowed never to go back. He even tracked everything at OHLIH.com, which stood for One Huge Lesson in Humility. The weight came back. He tried again. Nothing stuck. Until his endocrinologist switched him from Ozempic, a drug for Type 2 diabetes that is increasingly prescribed for weight loss, to one called Mounjaro, approved just last May. He’s dropped 25 pounds in eight weeks, doesn’t feel hungry, and writes as if he has encountered a miracle, though he hasn’t shed all of his doubt that his old ways are gone forever. “There’s no API or software to download, but this is nonetheless a technology that will reorder society,” he writes in Wired. “I have been the living embodiment of the deadly sin of gluttony, judged as greedy and weak since I was 10 years old — and now the sin is washed away. Baptism by injection. But I have no more virtue than I did a few months ago. I just prefer broccoli to gloopy chicken. Is this who I am?”

Photo of a young foal.An unnamed foal, days old, enjoying the taste of mare Justleavesmealone’s milk at Saratoga Glen Farm in Stillwater, N.Y. (Photo by Skip Dickstein)

WORD PLAY: Roald Dahl has been dead more than three decades, but his works, including “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” have been revised lately to strike words that could be offensive to some readers. (Augustus Gloop in “Charlie” went from “fat” to “enormous”; Oompa-Loompas from “small men” to “small people.” Other works had context added or sentences rewritten). Critics, including author Salman Rushdie, are responding fiercely, decrying the moves as censorship and, in the words of the CEO of the free expression advocacy group PEN America,  “a dangerous new weapon” for editing works of literature that a particular set of people might find objectionable. Puffin, the publisher of Dahl’s books, worked with The Roald Dahl Story Company, which manages the copyrights of Dahl's books, to make hundreds of revisions.

IMMEASURABLE INCOMPETENCE: The secretary of state for transport and the head of the state rail company in Spain resigned this week in the face of continuing public outrage after the discovery that dozens of new commuter rail cars purchased under a contract worth about $273.4 million U.S. are too wide to fit through tunnels in the system. The government insists that the error was spotted before the trains were built and that no money was wasted.

FOUR SURE: Nearly 3,000 employees and 61 companies took part in a six-month pilot study in the United Kingdom to assess the effects of reducing a full-time work week from five days to four. The result: the majority of supervisors liked it so much they’ve decided to keep the arrangement, and 15% of employees said “no amount of money” would convince them to return to a five-day schedule. The employees, whose pay was not reduced despite the shorter week, reported an array of positive health outcomes, and employers reported that company revenues “stayed broadly the same” during the trial.

A TOAST TO AGAVE: Agave-based liquors like tequila and mezcal were the fastest-growing spirits category in 2022, and analysts say they may soon pass vodka as the best-selling liquor in the U.S. Agave thrives in arid conditions, and the founding director of the California Agave Council said he sees agave spirits as an economic opportunity in a hotter and drier future, calling it “part of the adaptation strategy” to climate change. But others are concerned that the life cycle of agave is too fragile to endure the major weather whiplash that climate change is generating and may diminish the number of bats that pollinate the plants in the Tequila region in Mexico (the only liquor that may lawfully be called tequila; anything produced elsewhere is an agave spirit).

WHAT SCHOOLS MUST FACE: Consider all we ask of school leaders: Prepare kids for an unknown future, deal with artificial intelligence, get them ready for standardized tests, provide exercise opportunities and healthy snacks — and keep them safe in case a school shooter bursts in the front door. “It’s sad, really,” says one New York State associate superintendent. “But it’s part of our job to make sure kids don’t get shot. That is part of the current reality.” Across the nation, schools are limiting access to school grounds, installing locks on doors, and training teachers and administrators to intercept shooters. And a major industry is growing up to help schools think about the unthinkable.

MORE MEDIA CUTS: NPR announced this week that it would lay off about 10% of its current workforce and eliminate most vacant positions, citing the loss of sponsorship revenue and a tough financial outlook for legacy media generally. An NPR spokeswoman said final decisions on which jobs to cut will be made in about a month. In late November, NPR announced $20 million in cuts, including a near-freeze on hiring, elimination of most travel, and suspension of internships.

NAME GAMES: New York City has a lot of roads, bridges and other public infrastructure, and over the years has adorned many of them with names since lost to time. Rather than ask herself rhetorically just who is this Major Deegan and were his arteries as clogged as the one named for him, a law professor at The City University of New York researched the namesakes of some of the city’s landmark highways and other locations and published her findings in a new book.

REST UP: First-time moms and dads looking for a relaxing getaway before a baby arrives can find plenty to enjoy in Upstate New York. For Babymoons, New York Upstate recommends, among others, The Sagamore Resort in Bolton Landing, the Mirbeau Inn and Spa in Skaneateles, The Otesaga in Cooperstown, and The Adelphi in Saratoga Springs.

LIVES

RICHARD BELZER was a legendary standup comic before his career-defining turn as the acerbic, cynical Det. John Munch, a role he played for nearly two decades on “Homicide: Life on the Street” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” He also played the role for laughs on “Arrested Development,” “30 Rock” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” and a puppet who looked like Munch even showed up on “Sesame Street.” He worked a series of odd jobs and even tried his hand as a journalist before his father’s suicide prompted him to reassess his life, take a risk and try comedy. He was 78.

TOM WHITLOCK was a skilled drummer who got his big break by fixing the brakes on a recording studio owner’s Ferrari (it needed brake fluid). He went on to write more than 100 songs, including hits performed by Ray Charles and Graham Nash. But he is best remembered for his “Top Gun” songs, “Danger Zone” and “Take My Breath Away,” which won the Academy Award and Golden Globe. He was 68.

ALMOST FINAL WORDS

“It’s a huge suffer-fest, but it’s like my favorite thing all year.”
—  Jamie Campbell, a bike fitter, fitness coach and endurance athlete from Syracuse, N.Y., who was among 31 participants in SnoFatShu, which consists of biking 7.7 miles on snowy trails and running 6 miles in snowshoes.

THE SIGNOFF

CASH BOX: Karen Green got a new iPhone in 2007, a gift from friends who pitched in to buy it for her, but she had just updated her phone and didn’t want to switch carriers. So she left it in the box, unopened. It sold this week at auction for more than $63,000.

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THANK YOU to our contributors: Bill Callen, Ryan Moore, John Brodt, Leigh Hornbeck, Lisa Fenwick, John Bulmer, Skip Dickstein, Troy Burns, 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 conversationmark.behan@behancom.com

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