Arts & Entertainment

Thanks to all the children who entered Times Beacon Record News Media’s annual Halloween contest and for helping to make it so successful! Congratulations to Julianna P. of Setauket and Izzy F. of Lake Grove for being this year’s winners and receiving a family four-pack of theater tickets to “The Little Mermaid Jr.” courtesy of the John W. Engeman Theater in Northport.

Comedy fundraiser

Chris Roach will join the group on Nov. 3.

Long Island Comedy Festival will host a special Stand-Up Comedy fundraiser at Theatre Three, 412 Main St., Port Jefferson on Saturday, Nov. 3 at 8 p.m. to help the beloved theater recover from recent flash flood damage. Comedians from around the country will be flooding the Theatre Three stage including Talia Reese, Jamie Gravy, Maria Walsh, Michael Somerville, host Paul Anthony and, just announced, Chris Roach. Tickets are $39 per person. To order, call 631-928-9100 or visit www.theatrethree.com.

 

  • Comedians from around the country will be FLOODING the Theatre Three stage!
  • The audience will experience a WAVE of Laughter & hilarious fun!
  • RUSH IN to get your tickets to this outrageous night of LIVE Stand-Up Comedy!

 

Open House

The Atelier at Flowerfield, 2 Flowerfield, Suite 15, will hold an Open House on Friday, Nov. 2 from 6 to 8 p.m. Tour the studios, meet the instructors and learn about the Atelier’s mission to foster a community of local artists of all levels and experience. Enjoy art demos by instructors and apprentices, participate in a scholarship raffle and browse the current art exhibition, Charles Yoder: Natural Resources, in Atelier Hall. Refreshments will be served. Free. For more information, call 631-250-9009. 

The Northport Historical Society will present a day of evaluation and intrigue as expert appraiser Lark Mason comes to Northport’s Village Hall, 224 Main St., Northport, on Saturday, Nov. 10 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. A celebrity appraiser who has provided appraisals for the PBS traveling antiques show and iGavelAuctions.com, Mason and his team of experts will offer professional appraisals of antique furniture, collectibles, textiles, paintings, silver, jewelry, art and more.

Lark Mason

Last held in 2016, the historical society’s version of the PBS antiques show created quite a stir when a West Hempstead man found a simple pot he had inherited from his great aunt was actually an imperial Chinese brush pot valued at $30,000. As Mason said, “appraising is like trying to unravel a mystery … the thing that’s really joyful about what we do is to find things that have value and that someone is unaware of. … To share that with them sometimes dramatically changes the person’s life.”

A fee of $40 per item will be charged, $30 members, with a maximum of two items allowed per attendee. Along with Mason who will be appraising paintings and American and European works of art, are Lark Mason III who will be appraising Asian art and Niki Tiliakos who will handle jewelry and silver. All proceeds from the event will benefit the Northport Historical Society. Tickets for each item are available on the day of the event or may be reserved at www.northporthistorical.org/events.

In addition to the actual Appraisal Day, a Meet the Appraisers kick-off reception will be held the evening before the event from 6 to 8 p.m. at the society’s museum, 215 Main St. in Northport village. Tickets are $60/$50 for members and include beverages and hors d’oeuvres. To reserve, please call 631-757-9869 or visit the website listed above.

Photo by James Dima

Tribute to Led Zeppelin

Pure Led, a Long Island Led Zeppelin tribute band, will return to the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum, 180 Little Neck Road, Centerport to perform on Sunday, Nov. 11, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the 60-foot domed theater of the Charles and Helen Reichert Planetarium.

 The playlist, which features work from the early BBC recordings to select hits from the later albums, captures the essences of the band’s best live performance and will include “The Song Remains the Same,” “Stairway to Heaven” and “Whole Lotta Love” as spectacular laser images and space imagery fly overhead in a truly immersive and unforgettable experience.

“We love the music and we love playing the music you love to hear,” said band member Patrick Giovanniello. “We give it our all with a chemistry and force that is comparable to the mighty Led Zeppelin during their early years.”

Tickets are $20 adults online, $25 at the door; $15 children ages 5 to 15; children under 5 are free. For more information, call 631-854-5579 or visit www.vanderbiltmuseum.org.

There are planning tools an individual can employ to potentially safeguard wishes after death. Stock photo

By Nancy Burner, Esq.

Nancy Burner, Esq.

Inheritance is the practice of passing on property upon someone’s death. The rules of inheritance differ from state to state.  

In New York, a decedent generally cannot disinherit his spouse. This principle is governed by Estates, Powers and Trusts Law Section 5-1.1-A (Right of Election by Surviving Spouse) and requires that the surviving spouse receive a portion, or share, of the decedent’s estate. The surviving spouse’s share will be equal to the greater of $50,000 or one-third of the decedent’s estate.

The right to elect to take your spousal right of election is governed by time frames. An election under this section must be made within six months from the date letters testamentary are issued but no later than two years after the date of the decedent`s death. A written notice of the election is required to be served upon the executor, or upon the person named as executor in the will if the will has not yet been admitted to probate. The written notice must then be filed and recorded with the Surrogate`s Court.  

Conversely, a decedent can disinherit a child. However, it is important to note that a child falls into a certain class of individuals who have the right to contest your will even if they are specifically disinherited, whether or not they are named as a beneficiary under your will or if they were left with a disproportionate share of your estate. A disinherited child has the right to challenge or contest your will because, had you died without a will, your child would receive a share of your estate through the laws of intestacy.  

However, there are planning tools an individual can employ to potentially safeguard wishes after death. An in terrorem provision in a decedent’s will “threatens” that if a beneficiary challenges the will then the challenging beneficiary will be disinherited instead of inheriting the full gift provided for in the will. An in terrorem clause is intended to discourage beneficiaries from contesting the will after the testator’s death. New York law recognizes in terrorem clauses, however, they are strictly construed.   

Keep in mind that simply having an in terrorem clause in your will may not be enough to dissuade beneficiaries from potentially challenging your will. Theoretically, however, for an in terrorem clause to have any weight at all, a beneficiary under a will must be left a substantial amount to incentivize their compliance with the will. 

An in terrorem clause may have no effect on a beneficiary who was not left anything under a will as they risk losing nothing by challenging the will. While in terrorem clauses may be effective in minimizing a will contest, for some it holds no power.  

As with many things in life, one size does not fit all. A successful estate plan takes all personal and unique factors to an individual into consideration. The documents are only part of the problem and solution. The fact is, there is no substitute for competent legal advice.   

Nancy Burner, Esq. practices elder law and estate planning from her East Setauket office.

Photo by Heidi Sutton

Back by popular demand, the Resurrection Byzantine Catholic Church, 38 Mayflower Ave., Smithtown will host its annual Slavic Dinner on Saturday, Nov. 3 with two seatings: 4 and 6:30 p.m. accompanied by a performance by the Resurrection Ukrainian Folk Heritage Dancers, a cash bar, raffles and traditional ethnic boutique with handmade Pysanky eggs, crafts, gifts and more. $22 per person includes a Troika platter dinner of cucumber salad, kielbasa,  pirogi, stuffed cabbage, homemade desserts, coffee and tea. For reservations, call Lisa at 631-265-6701. Walk-ins welcome.

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The cover of Dineen's novel

Reviewed by Jeffrey Sanzel

In his novel, “Suburban Gangsters,” Michael P. Dineen paints a bleak picture of the drug dealing/criminal culture on Long Island, spanning the 1980s right through the War on Drugs of the 2000s. And while Dineen is dealing with a difficult and often ugly story, he has managed to create an engaging and occasionally darkly humorous chronicle.  

Clearly, the book is a fictional account of his own life, told first person through Huntington resident Patrick Hunter. While Hunter was born in New York City, he was raised on Long Island. And while his experience focuses mainly on the drug dealing issues that were faced locally, he tells a universal story.

Hunter is the son of a cold and demanding Army vet and New York City firefighter. He starts off as an athlete but strays from the path. He can trace the turning point to his father refusing to co-sign a car loan for him. “Had my conversation gone differently with my father in the spring of 1985, I may have never become a criminal.” By his junior year, it is this deep-seated anger with his father that turns this jock into a burnout and juvenile delinquent.  

The cover of Dineen’s novel

A combination of intense training and steroids also fuel his rage and anti-social behavior. He and his friends “trained like animals” in this hybrid martial art called American Combat Karate. His change in personality draws him to like-minded and like-feeling young people. He begins using cocaine and then successfully selling it. “I had no clue that we had just opened Pandora’s box.” This metaphor points to the perils that follow. 

Dealing out of his home, Hunter could clear $5,000 to $10,000 a week. “For being average kids from the suburbs, that was serious dough. And we were just starting to scratch the surface of this modern-day gold rush.”

It’s not long before the enterprise begins to grow: “Settling into a nice routine, we began expanding the scope of our business. In addition to selling cocaine, we were now selling steroids, pain pills, other pharmaceuticals, and even small amounts of marijuana. And we also began some small loan sharking.”

Hunter gives an unflinching description of the toll that cocaine and crack cocaine have taken on the community. Throughout the book, there are devastating reports of destruction — both of people and property. (A wilding incident secures his gang’s creed but also called them to the police’s attention.) It is a brutal world where the anger and danger manifest in violent and senseless brawling. The only loyalty in this cutthroat existence is to money. There are many stories here of drug users that involve beatings and worse.  

His life is populated with equally damaged souls. When he falls in love, drugs predictably complicate his life. His girlfriend (and later wife), Vanessa, is a cocaine user and later addicted to pain pills. He shows that there is no emotional security when dealing with an addict. Love may blur the problems but it won’t make them go away. His partner, Jake, is a study in contrast. Jake is a high risk-taker and that causes a much earlier fall than Hunter. Even those who are committed to him in their own way are a liability in this hard society.  

The first shift is when dealers begin making deals with the police and FBI. As they begin to roll over, it becomes an era defined by survival. The narrative refrain is to “trust no one” as the likelihood is betrayal. His life alternates between dealing and partying and hiding and running.

Throughout the narrative, Hunter addresses issues of karma. The fact that he is the one who hooks Vanessa on Percodan (and eventually she goes back to cocaine) is just as much his fault as hers. There is the overall ruin that visits all who are involved. “When you are caught up in the hustle game making easy money, it’s almost impossible to voluntarily stop. It’s just as hard to stop dealing drugs, as it is to stop using drugs. Making that money becomes just as addictive.”

In addition to the drug world, there is theft. A gang called the Crash and Carry Gang are featured throughout. A highly dangerous crew that steals and fences, the intersection of Hunter and these men only furthers his twisted existence.

After a number of years, Hunter shifts his dealing to only selling marijuana and becoming a police informant. This gives both security and the ability to rat out the competition. He and his second partner, Big Ray, make a fortune while serving as police informants:

“We just finished a two-year run of basically being able to deal drugs with police protection. Our involvement with them and setting up that huge bust allowed us to operate while they looked the other way. It may sound crazy, but it’s true. Had you told me back in 1985 that seven years later I would still be dealing, only acting as a double agent by being a federal informant, I would have said you were nuts. But that is the insanity of this lifestyle. If you weren’t smart enough to roll with the changing times, you would have the life expectancy of a housefly.”

The fact is, by this time, everyone was either being caught or flipping. Everyone with whom Hunter had been involved was either cooperating or in jail.

Through all of this, glimmers of Hunter’s humanity come through. There is a poignant account of the death of a friend to heroin overdose (one of many in his journey).  

His love for the daughter he has by Vanessa and his fear for her safety is also very honest. The devastating loss of his karate mentor coincides with the dissolution of his marriage.

And in 1998, Hunter gets hooked on painkillers. The final portion of the book, entitled “To Hell and Back,” is the ultimate karmic payback. He begins the section with an unflinching assessment of the opioid and heroin crises: 

“The painful truth is no one seemed to care when heroin was devastating the inner city minority neighborhoods. Now that Little Johnny and Suzy from the bourgeoisie started dying, people finally started taking notice. That is politics for you. … For years, my fellow criminals and I cashed in on the suffering and unquenchable desire of a population that demanded drugs. It was almost like taking candy from a baby, it was so easy. But now the universe was about to flip the script and teach me a punishing lesson, you reap what you sow.”

While he began with a pill addiction, like so many, Hunter shifted to heroin because it was both cheaper and more accessible. His own downfall is inevitable:

“[H]eroin became the new love of my life. It was a total obsession for me. My habit became enormous overnight. Within a few weeks, I was sniffing twenty bags or two bundles a day. This continued for about three months until [his dealer] just up and disappeared. Now unable to get it, I began to panic. Withdrawal began creeping in and I was miserable.”

What ensues is a circle of detox, followed by relapse, methadone clinics, jail, homelessness … There is a harrowing observation that after 9/11, dopers thoughts were only how would they get their fix? And, of course, the question of how did he get here haunts him: He went from a million dollar drug business to being a junkie with nothing to his name. It is not until 2008 that Hunter is finally drug free and has his life on track.

In the beginning, Dineen writes with wonder at his often good luck … and later is accepting of his ultimate fate. In the end, he reaches both a sense of self and responsibility. His final thought is an important warning:

“So let this be a cautionary tale to anyone who is thinking about embarking on a life of crime or being involved with narcotics. There is no riding off into the sunset, no Hollywood endings when it comes to drug and crime. You will be lucky to escape with your freedom, and most importantly, your life!”

“Suburban Gangsters” by Michael P. Dineen is available online at Amazon.com or from its distributor AT www.dorrancepublishing.com.

Pumpkin-Butterscotch Muffins

By Barbara Beltrami

When the kids were little, we used to carve pumpkins and then use the insides to make all kinds of pumpkin goodies: pumpkin bread, which we froze for Thanksgiving; pumpkin soup and pie and pudding; and cookies and cakes. Each year we would try a new recipe for the jack-o’-lantern’s innards; sometimes it was great like the pumpkin-butterscotch muffins and sometimes it was awful like the pumpkin tapioca. But we always had fun looking up recipes and concocting something new. Here are two of our success stories.

Pumpkin-Butterscotch Muffins

Pumpkin-Butterscotch Muffins

YIELD: Makes 10 to 12 muffins

INGREDIENTS:

½ cup sugar

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

¾ cup pureed cooked fresh pumpkin, drained

¼ cup water

1¼ cups flour

¼ cup whole wheat flour

¾ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

2/3 cup butterscotch morsels

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400 F. Grease a muffin pan or insert paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine sugars, oil and eggs. Stir in pumpkin and water. In a large bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg. Add the pumpkin mixture and butterscotch morsels; stir until just combined. Do not overmix. Fill muffin cups two-thirds full and bake 20 to 25 minutes, until crusty on top and a cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Serve with cream cheese, butter or apple butter and hot coffee, tea or chocolate.

Pumpkin Crumble

Pumpkin Crumble

YIELD: Makes 10 to 12 servings

INGREDIENTS:

1 stick unsalted butter

4 cups pureed cooked fresh pumpkin, drained 

2 cups light cream or half and half

1½ cups sugar

3 large eggs

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup rolled oats (not quick cook or instant)

1 cup brown sugar, packed

¾ cup flour

½ cup finely chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 F. With one tablespoon of the butter, grease the bottom and sides of a 13×9×5-inch baking dish. In a medium-large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, cream, sugar, eggs, pumpkin pie spice and half the salt until well blended. In a large bowl, combine the oats, brown sugar, flour, pecans and remaining half teaspoon salt. Melt remaining butter, add to oat mixture and toss well. Spread pumpkin mixture evenly over bottom of prepared dish; sprinkle oat mixture on top. Bake 45 to 50 minutes until pumpkin mixture is set but a little wobbly in the middle if dish is moved back and forth and oat mixture is golden and crisp. Serve warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream and hot apple cider.