Village Times Herald

Suffolk County Community College interns prepare to take environmental samples in a south shore salt marsh. From left: Jake Montgomery, David Ziff, Jessica Cormier, Field Supervisor Nicholas Cormier, Brendan Lin, Kyler Vander Putten, and Grace Nelson. Suffolk County Community College photo

Six Suffolk County Community College interns are spending their summer monitoring the health of tidal wetlands as part of a multi-year study funded by a grant issued to Suffolk County and the College from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Grace Nelson holds an American Eel, a common inhabitant of the salt marsh. SCCC photo

Interns Jake Montgomery (Hampton Bays), David Ziff (West Islip), Kyler Vander Putten (Oakdale), Brendan Lin (Stony Brook), Grace Nelson (Selden), and Jessica Cormier (Farmingville) don waders, backpacks and other protection from the heat and biting insects to navigate through the challenging conditions of Suffolk’s south shore salt marshes as part of a multi-year post-Hurricane Sandy tidal wetland restoration project.

Assistant Professor of Marine Biology and grant coordinator Dr. Kellie McCartin said the students are given an orientation before starting their field work to understand the overall goals and science behind the multi-year study and how to safely navigate the salt marshes. “There are three monitoring aspects to this study: measuring the abundance of mosquito larvae, surveying the fish, invertebrate and plant community, and measuring water quality. Our students are learning a wide variety of skills and data collecting methods commonly performed by environmental scientists,” McCartin explained and said that the students are in the field up to four times per week collecting data that are vital to current and future salt marsh restoration efforts here on Long Island.

“Salt marshes play an important ecological role as the interface between the marine and the terrestrial environment, said Project Director of the Coastal Resiliency Internship Amy Dries.

“Salt marshes also affect public health by providing larval habitat for mosquitoes that are vectors for disease,” Dries said, adding that previously, ditching and pesticides were used as a control mechanism. “Ditching requires maintenance, and mosquitoes develop resistance to pesticides in the long term,” Dries said.

Beginning in the summer of 2017, select marshes on the south shore of Long Island were sampled weekly for mosquito larvae, nekton, and vegetation were collected and water quality parameters (dissolved oxygen, temperature, and salinity) were measured by interns from Suffolk County Community College. Hot spots of mosquito larvae were frequently found near locations of the invasive Common Reed, Phragmites australis, where reduced water flow and low salinities were also identified. Based on the data obtained by the interns, restoration of the marshes began in 2019.

Jessica Cormier pulls a minnow trap during a monthly nekton survey. SCCC photo

“We need healthy wetlands for a healthy Suffolk County,” said Edward Bonahue, President of Suffolk CountyCommunity College, “whether it’s water quality, habitat restoration, or aquaculture. Our students clearly feel a sense of urgency about this project, and I’m delighted they’re committing their time and energy to studying our crucial natural resources.”

Suffolk graduate and now Field Supervisor Nick Cormier, himself an intern before earning a bachelor’s degree in biology from Stony Brook University, said it’s nice to combine a passion for science with being outdoors. “It’s a great opportunity that’s also fun,” Cormier said, “the students are engaged and inquisitive. They want to be there,” he said.

Suffolk intern Brendan Lin of Stony Brook said he recommends the internship to anyone who’s interested in environmental science. “It’s quite interesting how the data we collect will help improve marsh conditions,” Lin, who is pursuing an environmental science and forestry degree, said.

Kyler Vander Putten said the internship is helping him narrow his study choices. “I’ve been really interested in the environmental science world and marine biology,” Vander Putten said. “I’m going to try and narrow it down by taking part in different internships and opportunities wherever I can. The field work we do supports everything we learned in class,” he said.

“The students are excited to be in the field. They’re applying what they’ve learned in the classroom or virtual classroom and it is a fantastic experience for any student interested in a career in the sciences” McCartin said.

H. Reşit Akçakaya during a recent bird watching expedition. Photo by T. Lybvig

By Daniel Dunaief

In the world of conservation, scientists and policy makers have relied on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species to understand just how likely species are to go extinct, often as a result of human actions.

When a species moves from one threat level to another, conservationists typically spring into action, taking steps to protect individuals within a species and the habitat in which that species lives.

A team of over 200 scientists in 171 institutions tested a new measure, called the Green Status, that is designed to measure how effective those conservation efforts have been.

“There are always stories about conservation successes,” said H. Reşit Akçakaya, one of the leaders of the effort who helped develop the methodology for this new metric. The scientists wanted to “create a standard, objective way of recognizing the success and effectiveness of conservation measures. That is very important. We need optimism. People don’t act unless there is hope.”

The Green Status monitors a species recovery, measuring the impact of past and future conservation efforts. Researchers including Akçakaya, who is a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook University, came up with a formula to determine Green Status. 

The formula includes elements conservations consider important: it should be safe from extinction, it should have a large enough population to have all its natural interactions with the other parts of the ecosystem, and it should be represented in every ecosystem in which it naturally exists and has existed.

The scientists considered the trade-offs between practicality in aiming for a system that is feasible to apply to many species and comprehensiveness, which incorporates relevant aspects of, and factors involved in, species recovery, Akçakaya explained in an email.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature Green Status of Species will join the IUCN Red List to provide a more complete update on a species’ conservation condition, which includes their extinction risk and recovery process.

In a new paper, published in Conservation Biology, scientists from around the world contributed to creating preliminary Green Status for 181 species.

It took seven years from the time the scientists came up with the method, developed it further to make it applicable to all species, published papers, organized workshops and other consultations to get feedback and tested the method.

Akçakaya, who has been involved with the Red List since 1999, said the new system provides information about the status of the species that goes beyond the risk of extinction.

“It’s not sufficient to prevent extinction,” Akçakaya said. “We want them to recover as well.”

One of the challenges in developing this method was in deriving definitions that apply across all species and that are not specific to the conditions and threats any one species faces.

Extinction is difficult to measure but easy to conceptualize, he explained. Recovery, on the other hand, is “not as clear cut.”

The first goal of this enterprise was to come up with ways of standardizing how to measure the recovery of a species that would reflect whether conservation efforts were working.

A species on the Red List might have been critically endangered over a decade earlier. After considerable conservation effort, that species may still be critically endangered, according to the same Red List.

That, however, does not indicate anything specific about whether the conservation efforts are working.

The Red List “doesn’t tell us how much more we need to work to get to a level that we can call recovered,” Akçakaya explained.

The Green Status is not currently a part of conservation policy decisions, particularly because it has only been applied to 181 species. The IUCN, however, which is the world’s largest network of conservationists and conservation scientists, has approved it.

Getting from 181 to tens of thousands will take several years, although Akçakaya said he “has a good start” and he has interest from different people who are involved in conservation.

“We are on our way” towards creating a metric that affects conservation policy, he said. “It will take several years to be used” to affect conservation policies for threatened species.

When the Green Status is more broadly available for a wider collection of species, Akçakaya believes it will provide a way for government officials to make informed decisions.

The IUCN, however, does not tell local and national officials what to do with the information provided with the Red List or with the Green Status.

In developing the Green Status, Akçakaya worked with numerous scientists and conservationists. For this methodology, the researchers received hundreds of comments from people who  shared insights online. They also announced the work within the IUCN network, through which they received feedback.

Part of the larger advances in the context of the Green Status came from looking not only at the resilience of the species, but also at what the species is doing in the ecosystem. “Is it fulfilling its ecological role and its function in the ecosystem?” Akçakaya asked.

The Stony Brook scientist is pleased with the Green Status work. The intelligence of the group is larger than the intelligence of any one person, he said.

The group “had the same goal,” he added. “It was a really satisfying experience in terms of how we came up with a system.”

The Green Status can help balance the conservation news. While conserving biodiversity is urgent, one of the things this measure can achieve is to formalize the successes.

A scene from 'Lorelei'
A scene from ‘Sisters’

Couldn’t make it to the in-person Stony Brook Film Festival this year? Here’s your chance to watch it virtually! For the Virtual Festival, passes will be available on their release date starting at 7:00 p.m through the following Monday at 11:59 p.m. Passholders will be able to watch films multiple times and will have access to the films the entire weekend. Pre-recorded discussions with filmmakers, directors, cast and crew will be included with the Virtual Festival Pass.

VIRTUAL FESTIVAL FILM SCHEDULE

WEEK ONE | August 5 – 9
Feature: The 5th Man  |  Short: Feeling Through
Feature: Risks & Side Effects  |  Short: David
Feature: Red River Road  |  Short: The Following Year
Feature: Sisters  |  Short: Girls Are Strong Here
Feature: Games People Play  |  Short: Off Duty


WEEK TWO | August 12 – 16
Feature: Persona Non Grata  |  Short: On the Sidewalk
Feature: Anchorage  |  Short: The Saverini Widow
Feature: As Far As I Know |  Short: Da Yie
Feature: Willow  |  Short: The Night I Left America


WEEK THREE | August 19 – August 23
Feature: Fire in the Mountains  |  Short: The Music Video
Feature: Everything in the End  |  Short: Max is Bleeding
Feature: Sun Children  |  Short: Noisy
Feature: The Castle  |  Short: Inverno


WEEK FOUR | August 26 – August 30
Feature: Murder at Cinema North  |  Short: Devek
Feature: How to Stop a Recurring Dream  |  Short: This Uncertain Moment
Feature: Lorelei  |  Short: Swipe
Feature: Perfumes  |  Short: Ganef
Feature: Final Set

QUESTIONS? Contact the Staller Center for the Arts Box Office at (631) 632-ARTS [2787]


CLICK HERE TO WATCH FILM TRAILERS
 

CLICK HERE FOR PASSES & WEEKLY TICKETS

Hospital thanks founders as they prepare for their final bow

Stony Brook Children Hospital representatives thanked Joseph and Maddie Mastriano for the money they have raised through the Three Village Kids Lemonade Stand. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

After a successful nine-year run, Joseph and Maddie Mastriano are retiring the Three Village Kids Lemonade Stand. The total impact by the original founders of the increasingly ambitious fund-raising event in support of Stony Brook Children’s Hospital and the Child Life program is over $122,000, with more to come during the last lemonade stand scheduled to take place this August.

Dr. Carolyn Milana, chair of Department of Pediatrics and physician-in-chief, Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, Carol Gomes, CEO of Stony Brook University Hospital, and Joan Alpers, director Child Life Services with members of the Child Life team, met to honor the Mastrianos for their fundraising work, and to receive a check for the program. The money raised has helped the Child Life program fund projects that directly support kids struggling with illness and hospitalization.

Joan Alpers says the event started as a small affair, organized by two preteens but quickly escalated into a local fixture.

“Every event is crafted, colorful, energetic and attracts community members, kids, teens and grownups, to come out and join the giving,” Alpers said. “I know this is the last lemonade stand event, but I have a feeling this could be a ‘lemonade movement’ that inspires another set of young people to find a new way to do a good thing for their hospital and community.”

Joseph and Maddie first started the fundraising event in the summer of 2012 when the siblings decided to make lemonade and sell it outside their home with some friends. At first, they thought of splitting the few dollars raised between friends, but their mother suggested donating it to charity and they chose Stony Brook Children’s.

“We were lucky to have a summer while there are some kids who are sick, and don’t have that chance,” Maddie said. “ We thought donating to the Child’s Life program would be a nice way to let them know we are thinking of them and give them a chance to do everyday activities outside the four walls of the hospital.”

What started out as a small lemonade stand in front of their home, quickly grew year after year. The community rallied around the event, making it a summer tradition. Beyond raising money for Stony Brook, the stand has given more than 1,000 students the opportunity to earn more than 9,000 community service hours. In 2020, 150 volunteers from grades K-12 took part in the annual Three Village Kids Lemonade Stand.

“It’s been so amazing to see people from across the Island come together to support the Children’s hospital and support our efforts to raise money for the Child Life program,” Joseph said.

Now that Maddie is about to start her senior year at Loyola University in Maryland and Joseph is set to begin attending Stony Brook University this fall, they are ready to end the event on a high note.

The final in-person lemonade stand event will be on Monday, Aug. 9, from 3 to 7pm at R.C. Murphy Junior High School with a virtual livestream to follow on the Twitch app (on the “Impulse912_” channel) from 7:30 to 9:30pm. To donate to this year’s event, visit this GoFundMe.

Stony Brook University: Entrance sign
Matthew Lerner, PhD, LEND Center Co-Director. Photo courtesy of SBU

Stony Brook University is the first institution on Long Island to receive a federal grant designed specifically to train students, professionals, families and self-advocates for the purpose of improving the lives of children and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and neurodevelopmental disabilities (ND). Called Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and other related Disabilities (LEND), the program at Stony Brook will involve graduate level training through the School of Social Welfare, Department of Psychology, and other Health Sciences programs.

The LEND grant, funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Maternal and Child Health Bureau, and provided to the SUNY Research Foundation, is a five-year $2.2 million grant that is effective through June 2026. It is designed to provide training and resources to individuals with ASD and NDs, their families and clinicians, as well as researchers and policymakers through the establishment of a regional Center.

The leading goals of Stony Brook LEND are: to increase the number and expertise of clinicians and leaders who are well-prepared to deliver high-quality, interdisciplinary, family-centered and culturally responsive care to those with ASD/ND and their families; through Stony Brook Medicine clinics affiliated with Stony Brook’s Autism Initiative, provide additional services to benefit children in the region; through outreach initiatives and regional collaborations, establish a base of better-informed and trained professionals for the ASD/ND community; and advance research and scientific knowledge about the challenges, needs, strengths, and opportunities of children and adults with ASD/ND and their families.

LEND will target interdisciplinary, evidence-based clinical training for healthcare professionals and students, alongside the experts themselves, people with disabilities and their families,” explains Michelle Ballan, PhD, Stony Brook’s LEND Program and Center Director, Professor, and Associate Dean for Research in the School of Social Welfare and Professor of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine. “Cultivating a cohort of trained leaders will ultimately advance systems of care across the lifespan, and thereby help to reduce numerous health inequalities children and adults with ASD/ND face.”

Stony Brook LEND will involve faculty representation from 11 disciplines, with more than 65 additional supporting faculty representing several medical sub-specialties and arts and science disciplines. The program will also collaborate with 55 affiliated programs across the region and multiple states, including community agencies, academic medical and research programs, and school districts. There will also be participation by cultural consultants from traditionally underserved communities throughout Long Island.

Michelle Ballan, PhD, LEND Program and Center Director. Photo courtesy of SBU

LEND is a game-changer whose impact for individuals with autism and other neurodevelopmental disabilities and their families will ripple across Long Island and beyond,” says Matthew Lerner, PhD, LEND Center Co-Director, Research Director of the Autism Initiative, and Associate Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry & Pediatrics. “With the LEND Center, whole generations of families, self-advocates, clinicians, and academics will develop a deeper understanding of the complex network of services and supports available to those with autism and other developmental disabilities, and will learn how best to work together to navigate this network to produce the best quality of life and care.”

Training will begin at the start of the 2021-22 academic year. Each year approximately 300 trainees will take part in the Stony Brook LEND program. Some will be long-term trainees gaining education and clinical training (300 or more hours), medium-term (40-299 hours) and short-term trainees (39 hours or less). All trainees will have access to didactic coursework, clinical workshops, and community-based training. The LEND Center will also work with community partners to provide consultation and continuing education.

The first round of LEND long-term trainee applications are due August 13th, with rolling deadlines throughout the year for medium- and short-term trainees.

For more information, and to apply, please see this School of Social Welfare webpage.

 

As it prepares for its new exhibitions in the Art Museum and History Museum, The Long Island Museum, 1200 Route 25A, Stony Brook will offer free admission to its state of the art Carriage Museum, which includes eight renovated galleries that tell the story of transportation before the automobile, from Aug. 6 to 8 and Aug. 13 to 15 from noon to 5 p.m.

Three new exhibitions will open on Aug. 20 and run through Dec. 19:

Fire and Form: New Directions in Glass

Tiffany Glass: Painting with Color and Light

8th Annual LIMarts Members’ Exhibition, Fragile

For more information about admission, exhibitions and programs visit: longislandmuseum.org

'The Goonies'

The Stony Brook Fire Department, 1406 Stony Brook Road, Stony Brook (Station #2) hosts its 3rd annual Drive-In Movie Night fundraiser on Saturday, Aug. 7 at 6:30 p.m. The movie of the evening will be “The Goonies.” Rain date is Aug. 21.

Plot: When two brothers find out they might lose their house they are desperate to find a way to keep their home. They find a treasure map and bring some friends along to find it. They are all out looking for the “X” and trying to get away from a group of bad guys who also want the treasure.

Rated PG, the 1985 film stars Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Corey Feldman, Jeff Cohen and Jonathan Ke Quan.

Tickets are $50 per car. Assorted sodas, popcorn, assorted boxes of candy, hamburger, cheeseburgers and hot dogs will be sold at the concession stand.

To order, click here.

Pixabay photo

Imagine the hope in newsrooms across the nation to know that a bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate may resuscitate the news business on local levels.

New outlets, especially print media, have been suffering for decades. In the late 1990s, computers became a staple in homes and gathering information became easier than ever for readers. The introduction of smartphones, social media and apps helped hasten the downward slope of print. The pandemic was the final nail in the coffin of many magazines and newspapers across this nation as they saw advertising dollars diminish due to many businesses shutting down. Even if temporarily, they felt there was no reason to place an ad.

Sponsored by U.S. Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ) and Dan Newhouse (R-WA), the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, if passed, will help local newspapers as well as digital platforms and local radio and television stations on multiple levels, as subscribers, advertisers and news outlets will be able to take advantage of tax credits for five years.

Americans who subscribe to a local nonprofit news publisher will be eligible for a five-year credit of up to $250 annually. That credit means covering 80% of subscription costs in the first year and 50% in the following four years. That credit can even be used when making a donation to a local nonprofit news publishing company.

Businesses will have more financial flexibility to spend on advertising with local newspapers, television, radio stations and digital-only platforms as well as nonprofit news organizations with a five-year credit of up to $5,000 in the first year and up to $2,500 in the next four years.

Local news outlets will be able to retain and hire more journalists as their five-year credit will be up to $25,000 per journalist in year one and $15,000 in the following four years. This can cover 50% of compensation up to a $50,000 salary in the first year and 30% of the salary up to $50,000 in the last four years.

The federal government providing tax credits helps news outlets and, at the same time, keeps its distance by not being closely aligned to any media platform. This allows journalists to continue providing unbiased reporting.    

For local publishers and journalists, whose job it is to keep readers up to date on what’s going on in their town and share their neighbors’ achievements, the task has become difficult as the number of newsroom employees has shrunk to a small percentage of what it once was and resources are stretched thin. At times the financial constraints prevent reporters to be everywhere they need to be to ask important questions.

So, it’s no surprise that many newspaper journalists support the Local Journalism Sustainability Act as the bipartisan bill can be the answer in helping to keep jobs.

One problem with tax credits is that they only go to businesses that show profits, because credits come off the top of the taxes they pay. Small businesses can have no profits or razor-thin ones at this time.

With that being said, we applaud our local congressmen Tom Suozzi (D-NY3) and Lee Zeldin (R-NY1) who are co-sponsors of the bill. And, we urge our readers who believe in local journalism to contact their federal representatives and ask them to support this act.

Pixabay photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

Welcome to the casino. Just by being alive today, you’ve all punched your ticket to the worldwide slot machine.

Now, the machines operate the way people expect, most of the time. They follow their programming, they make the loud noises as the three wheels inside of them spin and then show images on those three wheels.

The machine doesn’t cost anything to play. You don’t have to put in quarters or tokens or anything else. You just sit down and a machine starts spinning.

In fact, when you sit in one of our relatively unclean chairs, because we’re much more about playing the game than we are about cleanliness or safety, the process begins.

The chairs are close together, so you and your neighbor can compare notes on how you’re doing in this game, can share stories about your lives and can enjoy time out, away from the limitations of quarantine and all the other frustrations that you’ve had to endure for so long.

We do everything we can to discourage masks. We want you to be able to share the freedom that comes from seeing each other’s faces clearly.

And, if you should happen to need to use the bathroom, we don’t have any annoying signs about washing your hands. In fact, we don’t even recommend soap. What is the value of soap, after all? It’s probably some corporate scheme to boost profits somewhere.

We mean, come on, right? The cavemen didn’t have soap and they lived long enough to become fossils. That should be good enough for you, too, right? Before they died, they drew cool things on the wall, sharing stories that survived years after they did.

Now, we want to share a few details about our cool slot machines. You want to know a secret? We didn’t build these machines. We know, it’s hard to believe, but they just appeared one day, as if a stork or another kind of flying creature brought them. Well, not all of them. That’s the incredible thing. A few of them appeared and, after we started playing them, they copied themselves. The more we played them, the more they produced new copies.

Now, you might have heard that these machines can be bad for you. But, hey, so many other things are bad for you, too, and you still do them, right? You have a little too much to eat or drink now and then, and you maybe put a recycling bottle in the wrong trash can, but who pays attention to those things?

Anyway, so, these original machines built themselves the same way, most of the time. Each time a new machine appeared, they worked the same way, with images flying across the screen.

Every so often, when the machines made enough copies of themselves, they changed slightly. We’re not exactly sure why or how that happened, but it’s perfectly normal, we think.

The newest versions of these machines spin at a faster rate and also copy themselves more rapidly. One of them, which is now the most common type, has a big D on its side. That’s the dominant machine.

Actually, at this point, we’d kind of prefer people stop playing the game. You see, each time you play the game, not only does that D version copy itself, but our people are telling us that we run the risk of creating other types of the machine that might have worse features.

But, wait, how can you stop playing? What can keep you out of a casino that’s everywhere? Well, there’s a special thing you can get at any local drug store that someone puts in your arm. After you get it, you become almost invisible to the machine. That may be the best way to get away from these monsters.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Sanzel

Author Bruce Stasiuk

Everything you need to know is on the copyright page: “Maybe some of the names have been changed to protect the identities of certain characters. Maybe not.” The “Non-Dedication” follows.

This book defies categorization. It almost—but not quite—defies description. 

With Something to Remember Me. BYE, Bruce Stasiuk has created a work that is edgy, raw, and darkly comic. There is not a word wasted; the writing produces chills because it is, quite simply, brilliant. 

Subtitled “Short Stories about a Long Life,” the over three dozen interconnected pieces find extraordinary depth in even the most everyday topics. His stark prose captures a deeper essence. The stories could be read individually—or perhaps randomly—but the underlying structure gives strength to the whole. And while they are not chronological, the order possesses an indescribable logic.

The book is a memoir—of a sort. It is also a collage, a reflection, and many more things all at once. As a young man, Stasiuk was a first-rate athlete: stickball, baseball, diving, and basketball. He covers them with a keen eye. Girls are discussed in almost pastoral terms. And yet, Stasiuk makes everything “other” and somehow “more than.”

At age seventeen, a devastating trampoline accident changed his life’s trajectory. A long recovery set him on a different path, eventually becoming a teacher. Yet, he is never self-pitying, whether describing the hospital, the rehab, and the many losses that ensued. He has not overcome challenges; he has transformed them. Somehow, his struggles manage to be simultaneously germane and tangential. It is never less than personal and self-revelatory, and yet there is unique and contradictory objectivity that only enriches his account.

“The war ended and new customers were marching home, toting duffle bags over their shoulders, and the Spanish flu in their lungs.” Few authors possess the art and the skill to be both simple and unnerving in the same sentence. Stasiuk possesses a remarkable elegance: “Marie buried her daughter and took her grandchild in.” The synthesis of the rhythmically poetic and the prosaic reality weaves throughout the slender volume.

Succinctness is not just a strength but a gift. In “The Apology,” a picturesque father-son venture to a baseball game builds to a coda, both sad and inspiring. Stasiuk’s family exists within the pages as painted shadows, hovering around the edges, peeking in, sometimes coming into bright focus, but then receding.

One of the finest pieces is “Uncle Jack”:

He spoke fast, compressing conversations, rarely offering the courtesy of a comma. As he flooded the air with words, his eyes scanned the room like an oscillating fan, hunting for a larger audience. Uncle Jack was always trolling to see who wasn’t listening. Since the adults weren’t, he aimed for us, his nieces and nephews; little pairs of ears to be filled.

In a trip to Provincetown, his ruminations on seemingly absolute truths of childhood are revealed to be anything but. He offers nostalgia laced with tension. In “Knuckles,” whimsy and death go hand-in-hand in astonishing ways. The book is rich in dark humor. The final sentences of “Consanguinity” are hilarious and epiphanous. He refers to his colonoscopy as “the age of the medical scavenger hunt.”

In describing his second career, he states: “Nothing spectacular. Nothing extraordinary. No heroics.” The self-effacing statement resonates throughout the entire book. He never touts his accomplishments; he presents them.

He poses the rare direct messages with eloquence and subtlety. The thoughts, ideas, and musings sneak up, land, and then quickly retreat. His one nod towards commentary references the assistance he received: “Sometimes, if the government invests in a person, especially one trapped in a difficult spot, it might be the best investment the government could ever make.”

The report of a close friend, remembered on his death, is not a hagiography but a detailed and heartfelt portrait. A celebrity encounter. An autopsy. Nothing is arbitrary, with seemingly candid narratives turned into almost twisted parables. The piece titled “The Happy Ending” is subtitled, “This is a true story up to the point where it is not.” In some ways, this is the perfect bookend to the copyright page.

Sometimes a piece of writing defies description. Something to Remember Me. BYE does not ask or beg to be read. Instead, it demands to be experienced. And shared. Such is the case with Bruce Stasiuk’s book. Purchase. Read. Repeat.

A resident of Setauket, author Bruce Stasiuk presently teaches a workshop at Stony Brook University’s OLLI  program. Something to Remember Me. BYE: Short Stories about a Long Life is available through the publisher, bookbaby.com, Book Revue in Huntington, Barnes and Noble and Amazon.