By Hilary Woodward We called it “the tower,” because that is exactly what it was. The Bishop family owned the tower. They found the abandoned windmill and rescued it for... more
Rain on the rooftop gets high romantic marks — it’s the pitter-patter that draws a loved one near. Tonight, near the end of a very dry June, I am mainly considering the water’s agricultural worth. I go out to check the gauge, happy to get wet, but when I come back in, I am hit by a shiver of cold. Then a memory, a Fourth of July from my past, hit me. The season suddenly changed from dry to wet. The rain didn’t stop. The potatoes were the size of pumpkins, and we had to dig almost the whole of ...
by Marilee Foster
Simon Perchik, who died this month at 98, had quite a run. He became Suffolk County’s environmental prosecutor in 1975, which may have made him the first full-time environmental prosecutor in any district attorney’s office in the United States. When he retired, he devoted himself fully to writing poetry. He was prolific. Stated Library Journal: “Simon Perchik is the most widely published unknown poet in America.” His poetry appeared in numerous magazines, including The New Yorker, and in more than 30 books. And then there was Si’s World War II service. Starting when he was just 21, he was a ...
by Karl Grossman
The Second Amendment to the Constitution reads in its entirety, “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” A well-regulated militia. No Department of Defense yet to take care of the security of the country. No army to stand in the way of invasion. Why not? Because the United States had vivid memories of a standing army, the British Army, coming ashore in Boston and its soldiers being assigned to the houses of Bostonians and being told to live in them. Under ...
by Anthony Brandt
For Robert Vasiluth, it began on 9/11. The operating engineer from Suffolk County was in Manhattan hoisting a section of a sign high up on the Renaissance Times Square Hotel when, just a few miles to the south, he saw the World Trade Center being struck. “I saw the second plane hit,” recounted Vasiluth last week. He went home to his family in Commack, he said, feeling “so terrible.” And the next day, he was at Ground Zero, part of a “bucket brigade” that, hand to hand, was moving debris. Soon, his task was “cutting steel” so corpses could be ...
21 Jun 2022 by Karl Grossman
The highlight of my second grade year was when a woman from the American Cancer Society brought in two preserved human lungs — one was healthy, and one was damaged by smoking. The smoking lung was gray and gross. The nonsmoking lung was pristine and pink, although I suspect it would have looked healthier if it were still inside a body. The point was to scare us away from cigarettes. In my case, it worked. I’ve never smoked. My teachers and the Cancer Society lady knew their audience. Second-graders are eager learners. That’s probably why our teachers gave us the ...
by Tracy Grathwohl
There are two primary reasons to embrace Dark Skies philosophy. The first is the conservation of resources. The second is to protect, by not molesting, migratory routes of birds and insects. Indeed, these are stark and valid challenges that our community has yet to fully grasp. But it is actually a third reason that proves the most compelling: aesthetics. Aesthetic is not beauty alone; it is the frame, the stage upon which the lovely or the profound is delivered. And different people tote around with them their own personal aesthetic. It is how they want to see things play out ...
by Marilee Foster
