It was the talk of the internet last week: an Instagram selfie of 78-year-old domestic icon Martha Stewart, emerging from her Lily Pond Lane swimming pool in full makeup, hair... more
Early this summer, while scouting the eggplant, I came across a few potato beetles. They were the first hatch, the ones laid weeks earlier by the adults that survived the winter. There are rarely just a few of these, so I ready my fingers to start pinching. I check the time, take a deep breath and begin, gently pushing the sturdy plants away in the motion of inspection. I try to sweep forward. I do this quickly, and regularly, for the next week, hopefully annihilating the pest at this beginning phase. The potato industry that once supported these bugs is ...
28 Nov 2023 by Marilee Foster
George Washington’s spies came from Long Island and New York City, and they risked their lives to get important information to the general. They knew that, earlier, the British had captured patriot spy Nathan Hale, who was carrying sketches of their fortifications and troop movements. Without a trial, the British hanged him on September 22, 1776. Washington considered intelligence vital to the patriot cause and realized that timeliness was critical. He was most interested in reports of British plans, troop numbers and disposition of naval vessels. Washington asked Benjamin Tallmadge to recruit spies, mainly in New York City, where the ...
27 Nov 2023 by Jim Marquardt
The Legislative Commission on the Future of the Long Island Power Authority, a bipartisan eight-member panel, has concluded that LIPA should be a full public utility and operate the electric system on Long Island itself, not contract out the work. This comes as PSEG, the Newark, New Jersey-based utility that former Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2011 arranged to get a contract to run the Long Island grid, has been involved in intense lobbying of state officials to keep doing it. The commission’s just-out report said cutting out PSEG would provide a savings of $50 million to $80 million a year ...
by Karl Grossman
By Joan Baum Once upon a time, college curricula consisted of requirements in basic divisions: the humanities, the social sciences and the physical sciences, including mathematics. Then, largely in response to political urging for broader societal inclusion and wider preparation for jobs — subjects that ostensibly would provide students with needed comfort and greater career opportunities — enrollment in the social sciences, including education, went up, along with courses and concentrations in applied science and technology. Introductory classes in the three divisions were revised in order to keep within the 128-credit graduation limit. In the process, though, something important was ...
21 Nov 2023 by By Joan Baum
Everything in a barn gathers dust. Equipment parked in here is subject to a gradual accumulation of dust. Years of sitting means the bright colors of antique tractors are muted, their showy paint jobs — the curlicues, the calligraphy and pin-striping — are all dim. Dust doesn’t hurt the tractors — they are designed to run in it — but parked dust is different from field dust. Parked dust speaks of disuse. A farm keeps old equipment because even if it is parked, it doesn’t need to be. It is in the barn because, to a degree, it is in ...
20 Nov 2023 by Marilee Foster
Next to March, November is my least favorite month. October’s dazzling dresses of deciduous trees have fallen off, revealing skeletal branches and twigs like witches’ fingers. It doesn’t do itself any favors by starting with All Saints’ Day, which is observed by many Christians to remember the dead. November is a waiting room before the magic and lights of pine-scented winter. But the 11th month has a three things going for it: Our grandson’s birthday, Veterans Day and Thanksgiving. My husband is a Marine, so I have to be especially nice to him on Veterans Day. I use the present ...
17 Nov 2023 by Denise Gray Meehan
And now it’s: Our son, the judge. Our son, Adam Grossman, was appointed a town justice in the Town of Southampton last week. He has been active in governmental affairs on the East End for more than three decades. He was Riverhead Town attorney after graduating from Pace Law School. He was chair of the environmentally focused Southampton Party, which achieved a majority on the Southampton Town Board decades ago with Fred W. Thiele Jr. as supervisor. In following years, Thiele, of Sag Harbor, has been a state assemblyman and, like Adam, a Democrat. Adam was, as a member of ...
by Karl Grossman
on Jul 28, 2020