The Week: What Caught Our Eye

June 24, 2023

Photo of Upper Saranac LakeThe calm waters of Upper Saranac Lake greet the start of another summer in the Adirondacks. Nancie Battaglia

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

The gift of kindness is priceless, infinite and enduring, always there with a reassuring word, a helpful act, a quiet serenity. You know it when you see it. You know you will miss it terribly when it is gone.

Lisa_facing Out.jpgThese are bittersweet days at Behan
Communications as we prepare to bid farewell to
Lisa Fenwick, who, with her husband John, is off to
a well-earned retirement with our deepest gratitude for all she has meant to us.

Lisa’s the first one in, combing through the news
and preparing reports that help our clients stay
abreast of important information and developments. She answers our phones with an unfailingly upbeat tone that says we’re happy to hear from you and eager to help. She grabs the mail, juggles the calendars, tracks down important contacts, always with a smile. A model of peace and grace, as anyone who’s crossed her path would surely confirm.

We’ll look forward to celebrating Lisa later this week before we send her into what we hope will be a long, happy, healthy retirement. And we welcome Kristy Miller, who was the eminently effective executive assistant to our Ryan Moore when he was Warren County Administrator and is wrapping up her first week as the newest member of the Behan team. We’re delighted to have her.

THE CURSE: Some 1,500 people died when the unsinkable Titanic sunk on its maiden voyage in the North Atlantic in April 1912. Now, five more people have died trying to visit to the wreckage. Their loss has brought attention to an industry of deep sea tourism that is as dangerous as it is expensive. The story of the world’s greatest ship is heavy with omens, strange associations, and mysteries that suggest it was doomed from the start and that, for those inclined to believe, a curse may linger. And it’s hard not to notice the disparity in how the news covered the search for lost billionaires vs. the attention given to the sinking of a packed migrant boat that one European official said may be “the worst tragedy ever” in the Mediterranean.

TIKTOK BOOM: The men Zenia Mucha worked for could afford to be nice guys, popular guys, because she threw the heat. Mucha is a practitioner of the full-contact approach to PR: Punch ’em in the face first just to get their attention, a style she may have learned while working in New York politics. She ably protected her principal and her brand against all enemies, inside and out. She moved on to Disney where, for 20 years, she served as Chief Communications Officer, first for Michael Eisner and, longer, for Robert Iger. Now, she’s heading to TikTok, as the app faces mounting questions over its ownership by a Chinese company and its data and privacy practices. Montana’s governor recently signed a bill banning TikTok in the state. The app has been prohibited at universities, at government agencies and by the military. The Biden administration has also pushed for a potential sale of the app to satisfy national security concerns.

ESCAPE TO THE CAPE: It seems a little quieter on Cape Cod this summer, Realtors say. Hotel bookings are on par, but demand for the roughly 16,0000 short-term rentals is down 20 percent. (Could it be their crazy prices and restrictions?) Don’t be deterred. The charms abide. And don’t sweat the sharks (the first great white of the season was spotted off Provincetown a couple weeks ago) or the $45 lobster rolls.

PUPPY LOVE: Easily the most heart-warming story we saw this week came courtesy of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, which reported on the rescue of a 4-month-old puppy that spent the night in the Adirondack wilderness after separating from his owner during a hike. News of his disappearance lit up social media and put hikers on the lookout. The lucky pup the next day approached a group of hikers with a dog. Soon, he was back with his very relieved owner.

FADING AWAY: Jack Hanna for years was a popular and engaging guest of late-night and early-morning television, in the mold of the late Steve Irwin and Jim Fowler, as well as the host of his own Emmy-winning animal show that continues in syndication. He built the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium into one of the nation’s best, and traveled the world as one of America’s best-known animal conservationists. The funny, charming Jack Hanna audiences came to know is gone now, consumed by the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease, first diagnosed in 2019 and now to the point where he doesn’t know most of his family. “My husband is still in there somewhere,” his wife, Suzi, told The Columbus Dispatch, which the family invited to tell the story so other families will know they are not alone when the struggle with Alzheimer's feels overwhelming. “There are still those sweet, tender moments — you know, pieces of him that made me and the rest of the world fall in love with him. It’s hard. Real hard some days. But he took care of me all those years, and so it’s my turn to take care of him.”

HEADLINE OF THE WEEK: We’re not sure it captures the gravity of the situation, but kudos to whoever came up with “Spare relationship causes awkward split,” the headline on an article about a former assistant college bowling coach losing his job over an affair with one of his athletes. If that’s not strange enough, consider that his soon-to-be former wife is the head coach. The school, Stephen F. Austin State University, has one of the nation’s best collegiate bowling programs. “I knew it was kind of a no-no, but there’s not a rule saying it can’t happen,” the former assistant, Steve Lemke, told The Lufkin Daily News in Texas. “There’s not a law saying I’m going to go to jail for doing something like this. There’s nothing in stone. I guess it’s just an ethics code, like we frown upon it, but there’s no rule, there’s no law broken.”

DEATH NOTICES: An Ecuadorian woman who startled mourners five hours into her wake by hitting the inside of her coffin has in fact died at 76 from complications of a stroke, the country’s health ministry reported. Bella Montoya, a retired nurse, was declared dead at a local hospital and sent to the funeral home for a prompt wake and burial before regaining consciousness. She spent the past week under constant monitoring in an intensive care unit. While her case generated international attention, the same wasn’t expected for one James Loveless of Somerset, Ky., at least according to his son, Rocky, who wrote in his father’s obituary, “He will be moderately missed.” The son’s funny, unvarnished farewell, which includes the immortal words, “Jamie loved his family more than anything else in the world...except ice-cold Busch, room-temperature Busch, T-bones, New York strip, prime rib, shrimp, swimming, poker, hatch-back Mustang GTs, tank-tops, Kentucky Men's basketball, and his personal copy of Eddie Murphy's Raw,” has gone viral, with 600,000 online views (and counting) and comments from around the world, according to the funeral home.

Photo of New York State MuseumThe late-day sun paints the architecture of the New York State Museum in Albany, N.Y. John Bulmer

WHY PAY MORE? Months of overheated inflation are correlating to a noticeable change in the makeup of people who shop at bargain retailers, with more high-income households looking for cheaper staple goods and shedding their disdain for dollar stores. “We see lots of people driving Porsches, Mercedes and BMWs in the parking lot,” one well-to-do bargain shopper told The Wall Street Journal. “No matter how much you make, you don’t want to spend $4 on an avocado when you can get one for 59 cents.”

CONCERNING AI: Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged with dizzying speed and seemingly without guardrails, opening horizons for imagination and exploration as well as creating fertile ground for deep fakes and other fraudulent activities that already are bearing poisonous fruits. A woman in Central New York is sounding the alarm about a phone scam that perfectly mimicked her daughter’s voice saying she needed $15,000 to make bail after a car accident. “This is a proliferating area of fraud, and we’re going to be seeing more of this,” an expert on fraud told Syracuse.com. AI already is transforming industries and job markets, so Rolling Stone asked its own experts what professionals should do to stay relevant and valuable in the age of AI. The recommendations range from the straightforward (be a better human) to the subtle (send people hand-written notes, be more adaptable).

ACADEMIC REGRESS: The average test scores for 13-year-olds in the U.S. dropped to the lowest levels in decades last fall, dropping nine points in math and four points in reading compared with the 2019-20 school year, according to data from National Assessment of Educational Progress. U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the scores strongly reflect the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which in many cases left schools closed for more than a year. The results, he said, confirmed predictions that “the pandemic would have a devastating impact on students' learning across the country and that it would take years of effort and investment to reverse the damage.”

BASIC TRAINING: All young newcomers to the workforce could use advice about how to act and dress in an office, but the forced separation caused by the pandemic exacerbated the natural shortcomings. This year’s college graduates, remember, were freshmen when the pandemic hit, forcing them into remote learning and out of opportunities for internships or even to interact personally with classmates. Employers are responding with training and programs to help the newcomers develop skills from how to respond to email to the basics of interacting professionally in person. And many of the new employees are responding with enthusiasm and appreciation.

ART PRODIGY: A high school senior in upstate New York has created a piece of artwork that might be viewed the world over. Daniel Rivera’s striking painting that he titled “Tears of Miss Justice: Mourning a Broken System,” with tears of red and blue, won a national award and will become part of the State Department’s Art in Embassies program, which develops and presents approximately 60 exhibitions per year and has installed over 70 permanent art collections in more than 200 of the State Department’s diplomatic facilities in 189 countries.

MORE TO THE STORY: Last week we reported on the death of three-time Olympian Tori Bowie, once the fastest woman in the world. For many, her death at 32 was tragic confirmation of the elevated risks Black women face during pregnancy and childbirth. What is emerging now is that she also struggled for years with anxiety, paranoia, and other mental health issues. Running saved her, she said, as it does so many. But obtaining actual treatment can be a particular challenge for athletes who may see it as a sign of weakness or who believe they can fight their way out without help.

LIVES

HOWARD NOLAN was early in his second term in the New York State Senate when he took the unthinkable step of challenging Albany’s legendary mayor, Erastus Corning 2nd, in the 1977 Democratic mayoral primary. Corning, who by then had served 35 years, won easily, but the dwindling holdovers of machine politics never messed with Nolan again. In 1983, while in the Senate, he backed one of the nation’s first diversion programs for addicts. He gave up his Senate seat after two decades and launched a successful career in business and continued to serve on nonprofit boards while also indulging his passion for thoroughbred racing. He died at 90. 

ALMOST FINAL WORDS

“To my Republican colleagues who introduced this resolution, I thank you. You honor me with your enmity. You flatter me with this falsehood. You, who are the authors of a big lie about the last election, must condemn the truth tellers, and I stand proudly before you. Your words tell me that I have been effective in the defense of our democracy, and I am grateful.”
—    U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, responding to his censure by the House of Representatives for his role in investigations of the Trump administration.

THE SIGNOFF

KILL SWITCH: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., is suing a janitorial company, alleging one of its employees destroyed decades of research when he cut the power to a super-cold freezer because its alarm was annoying him. The suit alleges the act caused at least $1 million in damage.

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, Lisa Fenwick, Tina Suhocki, Leigh Hornbeck, Kristy Miller, Troy Burns, Mike Cybulski, Tara Hutchins, Claire P. Tuttle, Nancie Battaglia 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 conversationmark.behan@behancom.com

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