The Week: What Caught Our Eye

May 20, 2023

A Union College crew cuts smoothly across the waters of Long Lake in the Adirondacks. Nancie Battaglia.

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

Fifteen-year-old Anthony Zazzaro of Stillwater, N.Y., showed up last Sunday at the Kelly’s Angels Mother-Lovin’ 5K Run/Walk in Saratoga Springs with one thing in mind. He wanted to win it all. Not just because he’s competitive. He was running to honor his mom, Diane. And she was there, too, of course. She was determined to see Anthony run and to support Kelly’s Angels because the Angels had helped her family. Diane was in a wheelchair, surrounded by 60 friends and supporters, swathed joyfully, her hands clasped together in thanksgiving, in the final days of her battle against colon cancer. Anthony did win – he was first among more than 1,200 runners and walkers. Nobody else really had a chance against a young man running with greatest inspiration of all, his love for his mom. Diane had said cancer was a blessing, an ordeal that had helped her experience the love and support of an entire community. Diane passed away just three days later, at 51, a wife and mother of three and inspiration to thousands.

FAST TIMES AT LAKE OSWEGO HIGH: Mia Brahe-Pedersen, a junior at Oregon’s Lake Oswego High School, started out as a soccer star, then decided to switch to track. In a 100-meter race at the Summit Invitational, competing against boys, she won the race in a personal-best 11.08 seconds, making her the third-fastest U.S. high school girl of all time. She even beat her friend and prom date. Now, she’s aiming to be the fastest high school sprinter ever.

MARTHA’S MOMENT: Maybe this tells you who’s reading Sports Illustrated these days. The annual bathing suit issue is out, and this year’s cover features 81-year-old Martha Stewart. Ditch the garden gloves. Slip on the silver-metallic zip up. Martha knows how to move the merchandise — the white deep cleavage “Aruba” one-piece she sports on the cover has already sold out in some sizes. Decades before she was a lifestyle icon, Stewart modeled to put herself through Barnard. This time, she prepared by swearing off bread and pasta, doing pilates and swilling her standard green juice every morning, but now sans pineapple (too sugary).

DOG DAYS: The return of warm weather means the opening of more outdoor seating areas at restaurants, an increasingly popular (and, for a while, necessary) option in the wake of the covid pandemic. All that outdoor seating is coinciding with another covid-era trend — increased dog ownership, and what feels like a dramatic increase in the number of people who take their dogs everywhere, including out to eat. The Associated Press reports that Yelp searches for businesses using the “dogs allowed” filter jumped 58% between the year ending May 1, 2021, and the year ending May 1, 2023. Not everyone, naturally, is happy with the trend; even someone who makes a living in part by training dogs to behave at restaurants wonders if it’s a good idea. “If you think it’s for your dog, what exactly are they getting out of it?” she said. “It’s not as fun of a social interaction for dogs as it is for us.”

TIKTOK TIL THE COURT DATE: Can a U.S. state actually ban a social media application? Montana’s trying. On Wednesday, the governor signed legislation to prohibit downloads of TikTok in the state and fine any “entity” — an app store or TikTok, for example — $10,000 per day for each time someone “is offered the ability” to access the social media platform or download the app. The penalties would not apply directly to users but, of course, users are directly affected. TikTok is owned by Bytedance Ltd., a Chinese technology firm. There are no legal limits on the powers of the Chinese government to force businesses to comply with state orders, and there is rising concern in some circles that the Chinese government could force TikTok to turn over information on American citizens or push misinformation to influence U.S. policy or elections. TikTok says this has not happened. Free-speech advocates argue that the law tramples the rights of Montanans to express their views, share information, and run their small businesses. The first lawsuit has already been filed.

PRESERVING HISTORY: Neighborhoods, empires and livelihoods have risen and fallen around 48 Hudson Ave. in Albany, N.Y., yet the city’s oldest structure, improbably, still stands. The modest brick building, an example of Dutch architecture, was built in 1728 for a city councilman’s family a few hundred yards from the original Fort Orange and just outside the stockade wall. The Historic Albany Foundation bought it in 2016 and has been raising money ever since to stabilize it and move the organization’s offices there, an effort expected to cost $4 million. The project got a boost this week with the announcement $1.7 million is coming Historic Albany’s way from the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Historic Albany also has $945,000 in historic rehabilitation tax credits and other funding. 

The summit of Gore Mountain in North Creek, N.Y., peaks over the horizon during a spectacular spring sunset. Kurt Ruppel

MORE OLD TREASURES: A 1,100-year-old leather-bound, handwritten Hebrew Bible that is one of the world’s oldest surviving biblical manuscripts was purchased at auction this week for $38 million. The buyer, former U.S. Ambassador to Romania Alfred H. Moses, is donating it to the  ANU Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv. It’s one of the highest prices paid for a manuscript sold at auction. Also this week, researchers examining an ancient tablet found on Mount Ebal, roughly 30 miles from Jerusalem, used X-ray technology to reveal an inscription that predates any known Hebrew inscription in Israel by at least two centuries. Translated, it read, “You are cursed by the God YHW.” And in rural Conqueiros, Portugal, a purebred Rafeiro de Alentejo named Bobi just celebrated his 31^st birthday, extending his record as the world’s oldest dog ever. His owner attributes Bobi’s longevity to the “calm, peaceful environment” he lives in, which includes never having been leashed and eating only human food.

LITERACY LEAPS: Good news from the South: Mississippi, ranked 49^th for fourth-grade reading achievement in 2013, rose to 21^st in 2022, and its Gulf State neighbors, Louisiana and Alabama, were among only three states to see modest gains in fourth-grade reading during the pandemic, which saw massive learning setbacks in most other states. All three states have trained thousands of teachers in the so-called science of reading, which refers to the most proven, research-backed methods of teaching reading. They’ve dispatched literacy coaches to help teachers implement that training, especially in low-performing schools. 

HV TV: Television can’t seem to divert its admiring gaze from New York’s charming Hudson Valley. HGTV is coming back to the Hudson Valley with a new show that follows a real estate agent designer and her partner, a contractor, as they help families find their perfect house and renovate it in a way that complements the natural surroundings. Meanwhile, TV cameras will follow a couple as they plan a rustic farm wedding at Rensselaer County’s beautiful June Farms, the joyful sanctuary for heritage breed farm animals and the guests who come to visit, stay in cabins, and dine in style.

DATING GAMES: If watching people degrade themselves for TV ratings is your thing, you’ll be pleased to know “The Golden Bachelor” is coming to ABC in the fall. If you’re not familiar with the franchise, congratulations. If you are, and you think contestants in their 20s and 30s can be conniving and manipulative, wait’ll you see what more experienced people have in store.

PEAK PERFORMER: People pay ungodly sums of money and spend years preparing for one shot to hike through punishing conditions to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Then there’s Pasang Dawa Sherpa, a 46-year-old Nepali sherpa guide who climbed Everest for the 26^th time, tying a record set by another sherpa. The tie might not last long; the other sherpa, Kami Rita Sherpa, was on his way up this week. Sherpas, who mostly use their first names, are known for their climbing skills and make a living mainly by guiding foreign clients in the mountains. Everest has been climbed more than 11,000 times since it was first scaled by Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953.

A MEASURE OF JUSTICE: Nauman Hussain could spend 15 years in prison after an upstate New York jury convicted him of manslaughter in the deaths of 20 people who were killed when the brakes failed on a stretch limousine as it descended a steep hill in 2018. Prosecutors persuaded the jury that Hussein, in his capacity as manager of Prestige Limousine, intentionally failed to conduct required, routine state inspections of the limousine that crashed, and that such inspections would have revealed the brakes were defective and prevented the tragedy. Seventeen passengers, many of them related, were killed in the crash, along with the driver and two bystanders, making it one of the deadliest vehicle accidents in decades. Sentencing is scheduled for May 31.

DISNEY ISN’T PLAYING: The Walt Disney Co. said this week that it was scrapping plans to invest $1 billion and bring 2,000 jobs to central Florida, citing “new leadership and changing business conditions,” understood to mean the company’s ongoing feud with Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis’ spokesman suggested the decision was a result of Disney’s “financial straits,” but a former chairman of the state Republican Party called Disney’s decision “a serious blow” to the state. State Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat who represents the Orlando area in the Florida House, was more direct: “Governor Ron DeSantis is a job killing moron who cares more about his own political ambitions and culture wars than Florida and our future. According to him, ‘woke makes you go broke’ but this is another example of how it’s actually the complete opposite. DeSantis is not who you want for President — ever.” Oh, and Florida is investigating a teacher for showing a Disney movie in class — a movie about people and the environment — in which a male character expresses feelings for another male character. No, we're not kidding.

A NEW VIEW OF TITANIC: A team of scientists have completed what’s being called the largest underwater scanning project in history, using deep sea mapping to produce a detailed digital replica of the debris field of the Titanic, yielding information that historians believe will provide answers to some unanswered questions about the fate of the great ship and those who went down with her. Roughly 715,000 images and 16 terabytes of data were gathered during the expedition.

OLYMPIAN BID: Fans of the Winter Olympics may remember Sarah Hughes as the 16-year-old surprise gold medalist in figure skating at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, where she upset teammate Michelle Kwan, among others. Her joyful smile lit up TV screens and made her a star, though she returned to her life on Long Island and stayed fairly low-profile, working as a lawyer. Now 38, Hughes is about to step back into the spotlight in a big way, filing to run in the Democratic primary for a congressional seat representing a South Shore district.

LIVES

JIM BROWN was, in the minds of many, the greatest player in the history of professional football. A running back who matched brute strength with blazing speed and ironman durability to rush for 12,312 yards and 106 touchdowns in nine years with the Cleveland Browns, he retired in his playing prime to become an actor. (In fact, he announced his retirement while on set filming “The Dirty Dozen.”) He also used his fame to advocate for civil rights, join with other leading Black athletes to support Muhammad Ali in his fight against service in Vietnam and work to address gang violence. He also had several arrests for hitting women and was jailed for refusing domestic violence counseling. He was 87.

DOYLE BRUNSON was among the biggest stars in the history of professional poker, a 10-time World Series of Poker tournament winner who, in 1979, wrote a book on poker strategy that is credited with bringing many newcomers to the game. When Texas Hold ’Em tournaments went mainstream, Brunson could often be found in the middle of the televised action, always under his big beige cowboy hat. He won world championships in 1976 and 1977 and was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1988. He was 89.

SAM ZELL was as controversial as he was successful, a blunt, contrarian billionaire real estate investor who was reviled in media circles for his failed ownership of the Tribune Co., which fell into bankruptcy soon after he acquired the company. He got his first taste of real estate managing the student apartment building where he lived in exchange for free rent as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, to which he and his wife became generous supporters in later years. He specialized in acquiring and turning around distressed assets, and a newspaper headline dubbed him “The Grave Dancer,” a nickname that stuck. He died at 81 after a brief illness.

PALE MALE was a red-tailed hawk who liked his swanky digs high above New York City’s Central Park. For three decades, he nested on a ritzy Fifth Avenue apartment building where Mary Tyler Moore and Paula Zahn also lived and where he and a succession of mates raised their young each spring. He was the subject of a 2009 documentary and several children’s books. The world’s most famous red-tailed hawk was believed to be 33.

ALMOST FINAL WORDS

“I’m still happy to join the day and be a part of things. I just enjoy the little math problems of existence. I love waking up and figuring that stuff out and at the same time being with my family. My problem is I fall down. I trip over things and fall down and break things. And that’s part of having this. But I hope that, and I feel that, I won’t break as many bones tomorrow. So that’s being optimistic.”
—    Actor Michael J. Fox, whose life and journey with Parkinson’s disease is the subject of a documentary now streaming on Apple TV+

THE SIGNOFF

SURE SHOT: A 13-year-old Northern Michigan boy saved his younger sister from an attempted kidnapping when he grabbed his slingshot and fired a green marble and a gravel rock, hitting the assailant in the head and chest and causing him to flee. Police found the suspect hiding at a nearby gas station suffering from injuries consistent with being hit by a slingshot.

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Principal Author: Bill Callen. 

Sincere Thanks to Contributors: Ryan Moore, John Brodt, Lisa Fenwick, Leigh Hornbeck, Troy Burns, Tara Hutchins, Claire P. Tuttle, Nancie Battaglia, and Kurt Ruppel.

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