The Week: What Caught Our Eye

March 18, 2023

The push-and-pull of the changing seasons is reflected on the surface of the Tomhannock Reservoir in Pittstown, N.Y., where the melting ice causes on-shore pushes that make for some dramatic scenery. (Photo by John Bulmer)

Good Morning, Colleagues and Friends:

Welcome to March Madness, when winter can’t seem to take the hint of eviction and spring is moving in anyway. Happy St. Patrick’s Day to those who are still celebrating and may the luck of Furman be with you.

In Florida, just in time for Spring Break, the Gulf Coast is dealing with “red tide,” a toxic algal bloom that kills fish and causes respiratory problems for people. Rising ocean temperatures and higher levels of carbon dioxide said to contribute to this, as do heavy rains that wash nutrient-rich fertilizers and other chemicals into the ocean.

Coming to Florida soon, and we can only wish this were a horror movie: a giant seaweed blob — 5,000 miles wide, twice the width of the United States. “This is an entirely new oceanographic phenomenon that is creating such a problem — really a catastrophic problem — for tourism in the Caribbean region where it piles up on beaches up to 5 or 6 feet deep,” says one researcher. Barbados needed 1,600 dump trucks a day to clean beaches and make them suitable for tourists.

A CURTAIN COMES DOWN: It’s won seven Tony Awards and in New York alone has entertained nearly 7 million people. It’s created more jobs and generated more income than any other musical in Broadway history. It’s helped actors and musicians buy property and send kids to college. After 35 years on the Great White Way, Andrew Lloyd Weber’s “Phantom of the Opera” is closing in April, even as Broadway shows signs of recovery from the pandemic.

THE OTHER BORDER: Last year, most of the 39,000 asylum seekers who crossed into Québec from the U.S. outside official ports of entry came through Roxham Road, in the little village of Champlain, N.Y. Located in Clinton County, it is the most popular unofficial crossing on the entire northern border. “I think people have a sense that Canada is more generous, that there are more resources, that they're going to have a better chance of winning an asylum claim, of being supported throughout (the process),” Camille Mackler, the executive director of Immigrant ARC in New York City, told North Country Public Radio.

BIRTH OF THE FDIC: For nearly 100 years, Americans have slept comfortably knowing their bank deposits are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. But when the idea that the federal government would back depositors emerged, President Roosevelt opposed it, as did his Treasury Secretary, who thought it would encourage risky lending practices. The president of the American Bankers Association called the idea “unsound, unscientific and dangerous.” Ultimately, supporters in the heartland prevailed, and the FDIC was created as part of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. The insurance totaled $2,500.  

DEFYING DEATH: The news was incomprehensible. Ryan Marlow, a pastor in North Carolina, was brain dead, doctors told his wife, Megan. He had suffered a hemorrhagic stroke while being treated for listeria. She broke the news to their three young children and began making funeral arrangements. Because he was an organ donor, he would be kept alive for another few days, so matches could be found. Then, the day the harvesting procedure was scheduled, he moved his feet as his family played videos of his children singing and laughing. Megan Marlow insisted on further testing, which showed there still was blood flow in Ryan’s brain — he was in a coma, not brain dead. Six months later, he has returned home, where he continues to recover.   

Few places on Earth can match the natural beauty of a snow-covered mountain under a cerulean sky. Here a skier makes his way toward the peak of Whiteface in Wilmington, N.Y. (Photo by Nancie Battaglia)

DIGITAL DIVIDE: We’ve all seen the commercials — upload your resume and watch the offers come rolling in. That’s a real struggle for people with limited technical skills, who have disabilities, do not speak English as their first language or who can’t afford a home computer and internet connection. Several organizations in Western Massachusetts are working to close those gaps, providing basic computer training, connecting people with resources and in many cases giving away laptops so people can be connected. Frank Robinson, vice president for public health at Baystate Health, a nonprofit health system headquartered in Springfield, told Boston’s WBUR that being connected and literate in digital tools is a civil right and a human right. “If you don’t have that level of proficiency,” he said, “you can’t fully participate in society.”

NO FREE RIDES: The New York Yankees are one of the most valuable franchises in professional sports, worth billions, and think nothing of handing out nine-figure contracts to sign the sport’s elite. But when it comes to in-flight WiFi, the players are on their own. The Yankees are one of two teams in Major League Baseball — the notoriously cheap Cincinnati Reds are the other — that does not pick up the cost of in-flight WiFi service. As Sports Illustrated points out, at a cost of about $40,000, a full-season WiFi plan would cost the Yankees about what they pay pitcher Gerrit Cole to throw four pitches.

A SURGEON’S LIFE: In war and peace and prison,
Dr. David Thompson treated thousands of patients and still found time to run 25 marathons and help raise five daughters. Thompson, a longtime vascular and general surgeon from Glens Falls, N.Y., is 89 now and looking back, but still not ready to retire.

TEST SUBJECTS: You know those jobs that you hear about and say to yourself, they could never pay me enough to do that? Meet Raighne Hogan. He works fulltime as a freelancer, seeing the country as he goes from place to place. His job: to be a test subject for all manner of medicines once they reach the clinical trial stage. He is among thousands of people in the U.S. who voluntarily subject themselves to swallow, inject, spray or rub on medicines in the early stages of public trials, to determine whether they are safe and effective. They even call themselves lab rats, and they are housed together and monitored constantly during the duration of the trials, which can last from days to a month or more. “I was sleeping on my parents’ couch, and I was essentially looking up get-rich-quick schemes on YouTube, so I came across this video, and this girl was talking about how she made, like, $9,000, something crazy like that, in like less than 30 days,” one lab rat told journalist Katherine Dee. “I saw that there was, like, three or two clinics near me, and I just called, made my appointment, and yeah, I did my first study for $3,300, and that was the most money I ever made working a full-time job.”

NATIVE HERO: Marvel Studios has an animated streaming series called “What If …” that reimagines famous events from Marvel films in unexpected ways and introduces new heroes to the Marvel Universe. The newest, Kahhori, is a young Mohawk woman whose character, and the episode she is featured in, were developed in close collaboration with a Mohawk Nation historian and language expert. The storyline imagines what would happen if the Tesseract (one of the Infinity Stones, whose raw energy can completely change an environment) fell to Earth and landed in the sovereign Haudenosaunee Confederacy before the colonization of America. Ryan Little, who wrote the episode featuring Kahhori, said, “I had a wonderful writing mentor who worked extensively with the Indigenous community in upstate New York, and I was excited to draw on that experience to build an entirely original corner of the MCU with storylines for new Indigenous heroes written from a place of respect for past generations and optimism for future ones.”

FAILING GRADE: The largest public school system in Virginia removed a question from a college-level social studies test after complaints, including from the lieutenant governor, that it reinforced stereotypes. One of the multiple-choice questions asked, “Which of the following is an accurate comparison of liberals versus conservatives?” with choices for “liberals” including “Young, white males;” “Middle aged, urban lesbian;” “College-educated black male professional” and “White, upper-middle class suburban male.” The potential answers for “conservatives” included “East Coast, Ivy League educated scientists;” “Southern male migrant laborer;” “Catholic, midwestern middle-aged male” and “West coast, Hispanic teacher. ” The school system said the course was “designed to assess 12th graders’ understanding of American political ideology.”

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS: Four wrestling teammates at Northwest College in Wyoming headed out to the wilderness in search of antlers shed by elk, moose and other male animals, a nice pair of which can fetch $200. They spilt into pairs. One of the wrestlers, Brady Lowry, turned to alert teammate Kendell Cummings about a fresh pile of bear poop. That’s when the grizzly attacked. That they lived to tell about it is borderline miraculous, as is the heroism of Cummings, who, watching his friend mauled by a beast whose jaws can crush a bowling ball, made the split-second decision to fling himself onto the bear’s back and an effort to distract it and give his friend a chance to escape. A backpack and the cellphone in his pocket are likely all that saved Cummings. It’s a gripping tale of fortitude, imagination and an indomitable will to live.

CAUTIONARY TALE: Harvard researchers in 1938 began a study that continues today, in which they seek to answer the question, what makes us happy in life? As the subjects aged, they often were asked about their lives in retirement. The subjects expressed varying concerns about health and finances, which are to be expected. What wasn’t expected, and what isn’t talked about nearly enough, is the diminishing effect of lost relationships and connections in the workplace, often not replaced as people transition out. One man who was forced into retirement tried volunteering and devoting time to his hobbies, but that wasn’t enough. “I need to work!” he told the researchers when he was 65. “Nothing too substantial, but I’m learning that I just love being around people.”

Actor Owen Wilson graces the cover of Saratoga Living, which will be available on Monday.

THE ART OF ACTING: Actor Owen Wilson colored Saratoga Springs, N.Y., curious two springs ago when he arrived, afroed and bearded, to film “Paint,” a comedy based on the quirky 1970s public television show “The Joy of Painting” with Bob Ross. Now, “Paint” is about to debut in theaters, and Saratoga Living editor Abby Tegnelia has scored a big interview with the elusive artist himself. Meanwhile, Upstate New York’s Hollywood cred got a big boost at the Oscars when actor Brendan Fraser, who owns a horse farm in Westchester County, won best actor for his role in “The Whale” and the film won for best makeup and hairstyling. Fraser offers an affecting portrayal of a morbidly obese recluse pondering the meaning of his life. The film was produced in Newburgh and New Paltz.

TOP DOGS: Labradors reigned as America’s favorite dog for 35 years, but the American Kennel Club says French Bulldogs, who look a little like Winston Churchill with four legs and a tail, are now the most popular breed in the U.S. And it’s a controversial development. 

LIVES

DICK FOSBURY changed the sport of high jumping so much that the move he created to this day is known as the Fosbury Flop. Before Fosbury came along, high jumpers would run parallel to the bar and try to clear it using a straddle kick that landed them on their faces. Fosbury took an angle, leapt backward and flexed his body into a “J” shape to clear the bar back-first. Fosbury won gold and set a then-Olympic record with a leap of 7 feet, 4¼ inches at the 1968 Games in Mexico City, and every Olympic champion high jumper since 1976 has used the technique. The move has often been used by business leaders and university professors as a study in innovation and willingness to take chances. He died of lymphoma at 76.

PATRICIA SCHROEDER served her Colorado district in Congress for more than two decades, a champion of women’s rights and a skeptic of miliary spending who coined the term “Teflon president” to describe Ronald Reagan’s sustained popularity during the Iran-Contra scandal. A pilot and Harvard Law School graduate, she reflected in her memoir about being one of just 14 women in the House of Representatives when she joined in 1973. “The women in Congress had to wage virtually every battle alone,” she wrote in “24 Years of Housework…and the Place Is Still a Mess: My Life in Politics.” She died at 82 of complications from a stroke.

JOHN JAKES spent 17 years as an advertising copywriter and creative director before the publication of this first novel, “The Bastard,” part of an eight-book series that depicted American history through the lives of a fictional clan and ended up selling 55 million copies. He would write more than 80 books, none more popular than his Civil War trilogy — “North and South,” “Love and War” and “Heaven and Hell.” All were No. 1 best sellers and adapted as ABC miniseries in 1980s and ’90s. He held honorary doctorates from five universities and in 1995 received the National Cowboy Hall of Fame’s Western Heritage Literary Award. He was 90.

ALMOST FINAL WORDS

“He kind of enjoyed it but he admits he was a little more nervous than usual and he had some problems with breathing.”
—    Pavel Kalous, promoter of David Vencl, the 40-year-old Czech who set a world record this week with a free dive to a depth of nearly 171 feet beneath a frozen lake in a single breath.

THE SIGNOFF

PICTURE THIS: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, at an event in Iowa to promote his new book, posed for a photo with a framed snowflake he had been given. He was all smiles before learning the snowflake had the word “Fascist” hidden on every branch.

—

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

Principal Author: Bill Callen. 

Sincere Thanks to Contributors: Ryan Moore, John Brodt, Troy Burns, John Bulmer, Nancie Battaglia, Maury Thompson, Leigh Hornbeck, Lisa Fenwick, 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