SUNSET ABLAZE
‘I could see the beautiful reds and orange from my kitchen window,’ writes Collette Huber of Strong’s Neck before taking a walk down to Conscience Bay and capturing this gorgeous sunset on Jan. 25.
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By Ernestine Franco
Why does a generally rational society drag a sleeping groundhog out of his hibernation burrow to learn how much more winter is to come? Don’t we have calendars? Don’t we have memories of what has happened in previous years? Don’t we have the Weather Channel? Let’s consider how all this happened.
According to Charles Panati’s “Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things,” the groundhog (also called a woodchuck or whistle pig) is not really interested in how long winter is. Looking for a mate or a good meal are the actual reasons that determine a groundhog’s behavior when it emerges in winter from months of hibernation.
Quite simply, if on awakening a groundhog wants some company or is famished, he will stay aboveground and search for a mate and a meal. If, on the other hand, these appetites are still dulled from his winter slumber, the groundhog will return to the burrow for a six-week doze. Weather has nothing to do with it.
Folklore about the animal’s shadow originated with 16th-century German farmers. However, the German legend did not rely on a groundhog. Rather, the farmers relied on a badger. (Happy Badger Day?) The switch from badger to groundhog did not result from mistaken identity. German immigrants who settled in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, in the 19th century found that the area had no badgers. It did, however, have hordes of groundhogs, which the immigrants conveniently fitted to their folklore.
Weather did play one key role in the legend. At Punxsutawney’s latitude, a groundhog emerges from its hibernating burrow in February, again looking for company or food. Had the immigrants settled a few states south, where it’s warmer, they would have found the groundhog waking and coming aboveground in January. In the upper Great Lakes region, the cold delays its appearance until March. Thus, it was the latitude where the German immigrants settled that set Groundhog Day as Feb. 2.
German folklore dictated that if the day was sunny and the groundhog (badger) was frightened back into hibernation by its shadow, then farmers should refrain from planting crops, since there would be another six weeks of winter weather. Scientific studies have squashed that lore. The groundhog’s accuracy in forecasting the onset of spring, observed over a 60-year period, is a disappointing 28 percent — although, in fairness to the groundhog, the estimate is no worse than that of a modern weather forecast.
So Groundhog Day has become part of American culture. The official groundhog that gets yanked out of its burrow is Punxsutawney Phil, named for the town where the German immigrants settled. Thousands of people and the national media cover poor Phil’s treatment. And let us not forget there is the film, “Goundhog Day,” which is enjoyed by many people year after year after year.
Many other states celebrate their own groundhog. In New York we have Staten Island Chuck, Dunkirk Dave, Malverne Mel and Holtsville Hal, whose sleep is interrupted at the Town of Brookhaven’s Wildlife and Ecology Center in Holtsville.
For me, I recently had my own groundhog, whom I called Sound Beach Susie (shown in the accompanying photo eating a carrot), take up residence in my backyard. But I did not bother her in February. I waited until late spring when she brought her five babies out in the open. I had very interesting encounters with them when she allowed me to feed them all for a few weeks. They particularly liked carrots, broccoli and romaine lettuce. They did not like celery, asparagus or zucchini.
So Happy Groundhog Day, no matter how or when you celebrate it!
By Elof Axel Carlson
In 2016 a 54.5-million-year-old set of some 25 bones were unearthed in Gujarat, India. They belonged to the closest ancestor of all primates that lived about 56 million years ago. One branch of that ancestor produced the lemurs, lorises and an extinct group of adapoids. A longer branch produced the tarsiers and an extinct group of omomyids. Even more recently from that tarsier branch came the New World monkeys, followed by the Old World monkeys and most recently the apes and humans. The Gujarat primate has bones that are like a mixture of the lemurlike and monkeylike lineages.
The primates arose from an earlier line of dermopterans, and they in turn came from a line of tree shrews. The dermopterans are represented by a nearly extinct line of flying mammals that superficially look like bats but that differ in their mode of flight. They have a flap of skin that serves as a gliding organ, and they can glide about 200 feet from tree to tree in a forest. They are not good climbers, lack opposable thumbs and are nocturnal. Their diet consists of fruits, leaves and sap.
One species lives in the Philippines. They are called by their popular name, colugos. Colugos are unusual in the trade-offs they have made in adapting to the rain forests in which they live. They gave up the marsupial pouch as they shifted to the placental pregnancies of mammals, but like marsupials, the colugo babies are born immature and are shielded by their mothers for about six months in the skin flaps that serve as both gliders and a pseudopouch.
We humans (Homo sapiens) can decide which of our ancestors to call human. The Neanderthals and Denisovans are our closest ancestors, and we acknowledge that they shaped tools, lived in communities and even bred with us, leaving behind as much as 3 percent of their genes in our genomes in many parts of the world.
Less human in appearance are Homo erectus and Homo habilis. All of these walked upright, unlike apes. Their skeletons are more humanlike than apelike. The very fact that they could reach reproductive age and survive tells us they knew how to shape the environments in which they lived or extract from them the protection, food and materials needed for their survival.
Humans are remarkable in their plasticity of opportunities. They can migrate to frigid arctic or antarctic climates or live in deserts, in high altitude or sea level, in four seasons or one.
As a geneticist I am aware that the contribution of any one of my Homo sapiens ancestor’s genes some 200,000 years ago had a low probability of remaining in contact with its neighboring genes, and in all likelihood those genes in me are from virtually all of the individuals alive then.
When we do genealogy, assuming four generations per century, it only takes 2,000 years for any one of those ancestors in our family history to have less than 1 percent of our genes. If we are lucky (like royalty) to have records of our ancestors going back to the Middle Ages, we would likely find ourselves related to everyone in an ancestral region (a person like me whose father was from Sweden would be related to virtually every Swede in the age of the Vikings a little over 1,000 years ago).
In many ways our past genetic heritage is like the history of my Montblanc fountain pen, which was given to me by my students at UCLA in 1968. In the 40 years I wrote with it, I sent it to be repaired dozens of times either because I dropped it or a part wore out. Each time my pen came back looking new. I still think of it as the 1968 gift, but I doubt if there is any part that is still of the original pen given to me then.
This makes it unlikely that there is a genetic basis for behavior traits in a family that can go through more than 10 generations. The processes of shuffling genes every time we make eggs or sperm breaks up whatever cluster of genes we wish to assign to a human behavior. This is good because the genes of conquerors were spread widely while they held power, but having one of Ivan the Terrible’s genes or Genghis Khan’s genes would not make us a predatory monster in our relations with others. We inherit genes, not essences. If there is a mark of Cain, it is not engraved in our genes.
Elof Axel Carlson is a distinguished teaching professor emeritus in the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Stony Brook University.
By Jim Ferchland
Sam Schultz continues to be an unstoppable force.
The sensational senior scorer recorded 33 points for the Kingsmen Feb. 1, leading Kings Park to a 68-41 blowout victory over visiting Rocky Point. Kings Park improves to 17-2 on the year and 13-2 in League V, having won 14 consecutive games.
Schultz, who scored 22 points in the first half, hauled in nine rebounds and four assists in the win. Kings Park had a 12-point lead over Rocky Point at the break, but outscored the Eagles 30-15 in the second half.
“We can score at will,” Kings Park head coach Tom Edmundson said. “We really have an offensive-minded team. We talk about it a lot trying to step up our defensive game. We struggled a little bit in the first half, but we definitely came together in the second.”
Schultz said she likes to shoot from 3-point range, but said she felt she had to attack the basket more against Rocky Point.
“I tried to get to the lane and draw some fouls,” Schultz said. “The refs were calling them, so for me personally, I attacked the lane more.”
In her fifth varsity year with the Kingsmen, Schultz recently surpassed 1,500 career points, hitting the milestone marker Jan. 23 against Hauppauge, where she finished with a double-double on 34 points and 18 rebounds. Two days later, she broke the scoring record for both boys and girls basketball at 1,515 points in a home game against Sayville. The record stood since 2004.
Schultz said but her main focus remains competing hard every game to help her Kings Park team get to where it wants to go.
“It’s crazy,” Schultz said of her achievements. “I’m happy I get to leave my mark on Kings Park, but I just want to win. I just want to make it as far as we can. I want to get a county championship so bad. I feel this year, we have a really good shot. I’m excited.”
Edmundson, who has coached the varsity team for nine years, said it’s remarkable to have a player like Schultz.
“We’ve had some talented teams over the years, but she makes a big difference,” Edmundson said. “She broke 1,000 points last year. She was a little over 1,000 going into this year. She did what she did last year to have a chance to get to 1,500, but she’s blowing it away. She can get up to 1,600 before the season ends, which is not something we really expected.”
Rocky Point’s Clare Levy lead the Eagles with 20 points, all scored in the first half. She accounted for almost half of Rocky Point’s 41 points. The Eagles fall to 7-10 on the year and 4-10 in League V.
Junior guard Sam Hogan contributed 10 points and four assists for Kings Park. She played with multiple injuries, bruising bruised her elbow and hand in the previous game against Westhampton, and breaking her pinky in a win over Harborfields Jan.18. She said she feels pain physically, but that doesn’t stop her from doing what she can to help secure a win.
Edmundson said Hogan is freak of nature.
“She’s the toughest kid I’ve probably ever coached,” Edmundson said. “She’s a competitor. She’s actually a phenomenal soccer player. She’s an outstanding basketball player as well.”
Kings Park will face East Islip on the road Feb. 8 at 3:30 p.m. It’s King Park’s final regular season game before playoffs.
“It’s been a really intense year,” Hogan said. “Since last year, I felt we should have won the league. This year is the year for revenge.”
Holtsville Hal did not see his shadow this year, forecasts winter to come to an end soon
The snowflakes stopped falling moments before Brookhaven’s famous groundhog offered this year’s prediction — it was a good omen of what is to come.
More than 100 residents cheered as the famed Brookhaven Town groundhog Holtsville Hal did not see his shadow, an indicator that spring would come early this year.
“I’m happy,” said Dan Losquadro (R), Brookhaven superintendent of highways. “We love winter
here on Long Island. We love the kids to be able to play in the snow, but we don’t want winter
to last any longer than it has to.”
Hal made his 22nd annual Groundhog Day prediction at Holtsville Wildlife and Ecology Center Animal Preserve at 7:25 a.m., as per tradition, according to the master of ceremonies Wayne Carrington.
Tradition says that if Hal — or, as he’s known in the Town of Brookhaven as a throwback to
the classic Bill Murray movie “Groundhog Day,” the Great Prognosticator of Prognosticators
— sees his shadow when he wakes from hibernation, the community is in for six more weeks of winter.
“So he exited the ground, not a creature was stirring and not a shadow was found,” read
Losquadro from a large scroll to the cheers of onlookers. “I cannot tell a lie, my prediction so
accurate does not come from the sky. I saw what I saw in a blink of an eye.”
Those who attended were treated to free hot cocoa to warm up and celebrate the good
news. Both Losquadro and Carrington asked residents to make donations to the ecology
center to help support care for its animals and programs.
Dredging crew rescues five town employees from frigid waters after boat capsized
By Kevin Redding
A Bay Shore-based dredging crew sprung into action while working on the Nissequogue River in December when a boat capsized, hurling five Town of Smithtown employees into the frigid waters. For their heroic efforts, the seven-man crew, responding medical professionals and first responders, were honored by Smithtown Supervisor Ed Wehrheim (R) during a special ceremony at town hall Jan. 30.
“A first responder’s primary duty is to protect all others before self,” Wehrheim said before presenting plaques to the heroes. “But, when unforeseen conditions put the lives of first responders at risk, who protects them?”
“I was just trying to keep my head above the surface.”
— Joseph Link
It started out as a routine day for three bay constables and two parks employees as they steered their vessel around the head of the river Dec. 12 removing buoys. While attempting to pull a seventh buoy from the water, however, a rogue wave came crashing in from Long Island Sound. It flooded the boat, overturning it in a matter of seconds. All five employees struggled to swim the 40-feet to shore against the rough current.
“I couldn’t get anywhere, the waters were way too strong,” said Joseph Link, of one of the rescued employees. Link said he wasn’t wearing a life jacket at the time as it obstructed his work. “I was just trying to keep my head above the surface.”
Sgt. Charles Malloy, a senior bay constable, said he faced different dangers when he was knocked overboard.
“I was swimming away from the rear of the boat because the motors were still engaged and the propellers were still spinning and within arm’s reach,” Malloy said.
Luckily, members from Gibson & Cushman Dredging Company were about 500 yards away when the accident occurred, setting up equipment by the river’s bluff. Once they saw the boat capsize, the crew acted quickly.
“We just grabbed some lines or whatever else we could find and started throwing them out to pull them toward us,” said dredger Keith Ramsey.
They yanked four of the five stranded employees onto their boat. One member, Dan Landauer, managed to swim back to shore on his own.
“It was just our reaction,” said dredger Che Daniels. “We saw that people were in the water. The water was cold, like 40 degrees [Fahrenheit]. The wind was blowing. We were just doing what we would do for anybody on our crew if something were to happen like that.”
Upon reaching the shore, Kings Park volunteer firefighters and Kings Park EMS responders rushed to the scene. Two men were treated for hypothermia and exposure. All were transported to St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center and out of the hospital within an hour without any lasting injuries.
“We were just doing what we would do for anybody on our crew if something were to happen like that.”
— Che Daniels
Paul Taglienti, director of emergency medical service at St. Catherine’s, was honored during the ceremony. He said his staff’s job had been about 95 percent done for them. “This was a circumstance where I think everything was done pretty much ideally,” Taglienti said. “They were rescued very quickly and we just kept an eye on them to make sure everyone was OK.”
Wehrheim was joined by town council members Lisa Inzerillo (R) and Tom McCarthy (R), to present proclamations to all seven members of Gibson & Cushman — Daniel Engel, Daniels, Michael Lake, Jordy Johnson, Joseph Johnson, Ramsey and Peter Wadelton — although only Ramsey and Daniels were on hand to accept them.
“I was glad when I heard they helped out, but I also would expect that from them,” said Matthew Grant, supervisor of the dredging crew’s project. “If something happens, we help out. Not many people are out on the water at that time of year, so it was a good thing we were there.”
Those rescued echoed the sentiment.
“If it wasn’t for the dredge crew — use your imagination,” Malloy said. “The outcome would’ve been far more tragic.”
Landauer also expressed his gratitude.
“There wasn’t a hiccup in anything they did, they saw us and boom — they jumped right on it,” he said. “I hope they never have to do it again, but I’m very glad that they were there that day.”
Suffolk Comptroller's audit of Walt Whitman Birthplace Association cites trouble with financial practices
Suffolk County is seeking more than $21,000 in repayments from the nonprofit Walt Whitman Birthplace Association after an audit allegedly found multiple issues with its financial practices.
Suffolk Comptroller John Kennedy (R) performed an audit of the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association, a nonprofit organization that operates the state historic site and interpretive center in Huntington Station, after receiving an anonymous hotline complaint and tips from people he described as “those familiar with its operation.” The Jan. 19 report alleged the birthplace association overbilled the county by $24,365 in 2015.
“I have the utmost respect [for nonprofits]; they put in a tremendous amount of hours for benefit of the local community and educational community,” Kennedy said. “There is also a select segment who seem intent on gaming the system.”
“We have a curator who was submitting his hours on the back of looseleaf paper.”
— Suffolk Comptroller John Kennedy
The comptroller said he found it “absolutely horrendous” the organization’s executive director doesn’t keep time sheets or oversight of employee hours, which were byproducts of the audit. Kennedy said despite selling tour tickets and running a gift shop, the organization had no point of sale system or manual bookkeeping. He said his staff also found an active credit card still in the name of a former trustee.
“We have a curator who was submitting his hours on the back of looseleaf paper,” he said. “It’s crazy, absolutely crazy.”
The association receives roughly half of its funding through Suffolk’s hotel motel tax, which sets aside 8 percent of the tax revenue for “the support of museums and historical societies, historic residences and historic birthplaces.” The organization receives 1.5 percent of that 8 percent set aside, under county law, for a total of $138,789 in 2015.
“We had hoped this would be a collegial and cooperative enterprise when they said they would audit us,” said William Walter, president of the organization’s board of trustees. “We thought we would find some improved procedures and not this type of report where they want to take money back from us that we need to run our programs.”
Kennedy said the nonprofit has 30 days to come up with a plan to repay the funds.
In response to the county, the organization has admitted to overcharging more than $2,000 in expenses but disputed most of the audit findings.
“We had hoped this would be a collegial and cooperative enterprise when they said they would audit us.”
— William Walter
Walter said Executive Director Cynthia Shor is a salaried employee, not subject to time sheets under state law. The $2,587 disallowed by the audit for paid lunches to its part-time staff has been a standing company policy, according to the board president.
“We have no health insurance for employees, no pension, no benefits, no vacation,” he said. “The one thing we thought we could give them was a paid lunch hour, which is a half hour.”
The nonprofit board president also pointed to several policy changes enacted since 2015. An audit committee was formed in September 2017 to provide oversight of the organization’s finances and a point of sale system has been installed in recent months. That credit card in a former trustee’s name Walter said is slowly being paid off so the organization can close it out and replace it with a debit card.
The comptroller said he will be forwarding the county’s audit both to Huntington Supervisor Chad Lupinacci (R) and New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli (D), as both provide funding to the organization. Huntington spokesman A.J. Carter confirmed the town gave $21,000 to the birthplace in 2017, an amount that has remained consistent since 2015.
Walter said the organization has hired an attorney, Melville-based Tenenbaum Law, to defend itself against the county’s allegations.
“We’d rather not have to take it to court or get into an adversarial position with them,” he said.
An Amtrak train crashed into a garbage truck on the tracks in Albemarle County, Virginia at about 11 a.m. Jan. 31, according to the Albemarle County Police Department. The train left from Washington D.C. and was carrying several GOP lawmakers headed to the Annual Congressional Institute retreat, including U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley).
Three people were in the truck upon impact, including 28-year-old Virginia resident Christopher Foley, who died as a result of injuries sustained during the crash, according to ACPD.
“Thank you to everyone who has reached out to check in,” Zeldin said in a statement released via email through spokeswoman Katie Vincentz. “I am okay. It was clear upon impact that something had gone terribly wrong and I am very grateful that the train was able to stop without severely derailing. Fortunately, our amazing first responders, police officers and medical professionals, without hesitation, leaped into action with the utmost expertise and professionalism to help everyone in need of first aid. I am praying for all those injured in today’s accident and their families and loved ones.”
Foley was one of two passengers in the truck. The other was airlifted to University of Virginia Medical Center with critical injuries, and the driver was transported by ground in serious condition, ACPD said.
“The ACPD, Albemarle County Fire/Rescue and numerous other state and local agencies worked quickly to break down the size and scope of the scene,” ACPD Public Information Officer Madeline Curott said in a statement. “The ACPD Crash Reconstruction Team is investigating the crash and working with the National Transportation Safety Board in their Investigation.”
For 10 minutes a day, five days a week, Kristine McCarren prevents tragedies.
As founder of the Long Island branch of Infant Swimming Resource (ISR) — a “self-rescuing” program that originated in Florida in 1966 — McCarren of Mount Sinai teaches children between 6 months and 6 years of age how to hold their breath underwater, wriggle onto their backs and float on the surface until help arrives in the event that they fall in water unsupervised. Since it began, she said, the technique has proven to be successful in saving more than 800 children from drowning — the leading cause of accidental death for children under the age of 4 in the United States.
“People worry about their children in car seats and preventing accidents there, but I don’t think they even think about how big of a problem drowning is,” said McCarren, who since 2013 has provided lessons, at ISR Seal Team Survival Swimming Inc. in Port Jefferson Station and Courtyard by Marriott in Ronkonkoma. She currently has 15 students of varying ages, who each go through a six-week program.
McCarren said unlike typical swim lessons, it’s best to teach the technique every day in small increments so the children are able to retain it.
“This program is about making swimming second nature,” she said. “If a child can learn how to crawl or walk, it’s the same thing — it’s a motor skill just like that. The repetition gets it into their muscle memory, so as soon as they hit the water, they know to flip back and float.”
McCarren said parents are encouraged to stay on the sidelines and not interfere as their child is learning, as hard as that might be initially. The children are tested in both winter and summer clothes, as most would be fully clothed in a drowning situation.
“Kristine is absolutely amazing and it’s insane what she’s able to do with them,” said Sarah Walters, who two years ago traveled every day from Babylon to Port Jefferson Station with her three children. “I know that’s absurd, but at the same token I don’t have to worry anymore. It’s the best investment I’ve ever made. We were at a party once and my daughter, [who was 2 at the time], fell into the pool. There were adults all over the place, but I didn’t have to panic. She just got herself to the surface and to the side. That peace of mind is worth every penny and hour spent driving.”
“After five weeks of the intense training and a little bit of tears, she can now save herself.”
— Nicole Delfino
McCarren got involved in early 2013 after seeing a picture of her then-18-month-old niece swimming underwater in Florida, where the program had been extremely popular for decades. A physical therapist at the time, with a doctorate from Stony Brook University, the lifelong lover of water quickly decided to travel down to Florida to get certified as an ISR instructor. She went through an intensive, eight-week training program that, on top of in-water, hands-on training, included education in physiology, anatomy and child psychology.
Melissa Larsen, who brought her 14-month-old son to McCarren for lessons in 2016, became so inspired by her and the program that she became an ISR instructor herself, training in New Jersey. She currently teaches ISR in Hauppauge and Garden City.
“Seeing what [McCarren] did with my own son was incredible,” Larsen said. “She has patience and she’s thoughtful in what she’s doing. We have a pool in our backyard, and even if we didn’t, I think it was a necessary skill for him to have.”
The program has been especially essential and therapeutic for those in the area who have suffered water-related tragedies like Nicole Delfino, a Centereach mother whose 15-month-old daughter Kyleigh died after falling into a pool at a family party Aug. 15, 2016. Delfino said Kyleigh was in a crowded living room while she was helping her 5-year-old daughter Liliana in the bathroom. Kyleigh found her way outside and into the pool.
“Kyleigh was bright,” Delfino said. “She had her whole life ahead of her, and it was taken away in an instant.”
Only a few months after Kyleigh’s passing, Delfino enrolled Liliana in the program to make sure something like what happened to Kyleigh never happened again. Her 6-month-old daughter will begin ISR lessons in a few weeks.
“After five weeks of the intense training and a little bit of tears, she can now save herself,” she said Liliana. “It means everything to me, and she’s phenomenal in the program. If my daughter [Kyleigh] would’ve taken ISR lessons, she could have fallen into the pool, gained her composure and floated on her back until she was able to literally swim to the side of the pool.”
She said she encourages any parent to enroll their child in the program.
“I would highly suggest it to anyone, because at the end of the day, who is responsible to save them are themselves,” Delfino said. “All the layers of protection — you should have a gate around your pool and you should have an alarm — can fail, and if they do, you and only you can save yourself.”
McCarren and Delfino are in the process of starting a nonprofit in Kyleigh’s name to provide ISR scholarships to children whose siblings have drowned. For more information on the ISR program, visit ww.isrnewyork.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ISRSealSchoolLI.
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