The National Collegiate Athletic Association has narrowed down its pool of nominees for its 2022 Woman of the Year award, and recent Adelphi field hockey graduate Jackie Brown has earned her spot in the Top 30, announced Thursday afternoon.
Established in 1991, the NCAA Woman of the Year award is rooted in Title IX. It recognizes graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their NCAA eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service, and leadership throughout their collegiate careers.
Brown was a 2021 first-team National Field Hockey Coaches Association All-American, following second-team recognition in 2019. A three-time Northeast-10 All-Conference selection, Brown earned first-team honors in 2021, 2019 and 2018. She was a member of the 2021 runner-up team for the NE10 Championship, leading her team to a 2021 NCAA tournament appearance the same year.
“It is an honor to be considered for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award,” said Brown. “All of the 577 female student-athletes who were nominated have made such an impact on the world through their athletics and academic achievements and giving back to their communities.”
The Port Jefferson native received CoSIDA Academic All-American At-Large third-team honors in 2022. She was named a 2021 NFHCA Division II Scholar of Distinction, recognizing those with a cumulative GPA of at least 3.9 through the first semester of the academic year.
The two-year team captain served as president of her campus Student-Athlete Advisory Committee for two years and as co-chair of the NE10 SAAC. Through her campus SAAC, Brown coordinated a Make-A-Wish dodgeball tournament in 2022 and led a Workout for Wishes campaign in 2021, which raised over $13,500 for Make-A-Wish. She also received the Panther Leadership Award in 2020 and 2021 and was a finalist for the 2021 Adelphi President’s Student Leadership Award.
“I am extremely grateful for my family and my Adelphi family for helping shape me into the woman I am today,” she said. “All of my experiences and relationships with so many great individuals would not have been possible without their endless support and guidance throughout my journey.”
Selected from 577 school nominees — a group that was then narrowed to 156 nominees at the conference level — the Top 30 honorees include 10 from each of the three NCAA divisions. Each honoree has demonstrated excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership. The honorees represent 14 sports and include nine multisport student-athletes. They have a variety of majors, including biological and biomedical engineering, psychology, business, digital communications, education, nursing, law and policy, and robotics. The average grade point average of the top-30 group is 3.92.
“As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Title IX, we recognize the impact of women on college sports and are honored to select 30 incredible student-athletes who have played instrumental roles on their campus, in their community and on their teams,” said Renie Shields, chair of the Woman of the Year Selection Committee and senior associate athletics director/senior woman administrator at Saint Joseph’s. “This accomplished and diverse group of women represent the millions of student-athletes who have participated in the strong history of women’s sports.”
The selection committee will select three honorees from each NCAA division for nine finalists. The NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will choose the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year from those finalists.
For the first time in the award’s 32-year history, the NCAA Woman of the Year will be named and the Top 30 will be celebrated at the NCAA Convention. The event will take place in January in San Antonio.
Baby boomers likely remember duck and cover drills in schools, backyard bomb shelters and the crippling anxiety of the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962. While many thought those fears were long behind us, the ghosts of our past haunt us today.
Today the specter of nuclear disaster seems real with intensifying conflict between Russia and Ukraine, also North Korea’s continual missile tests. This week we took to the streets to ask locals their thoughts on nuclear weapons, nuclear war and their favored response to elevated aggression abroad.
— Photos by Carolyn Sackstein
Wally Tomaszewski, Port Jefferson
“As far as Ukraine is concerned, of course, they were unjustly attacked by President Putin and Russia. The president of Ukraine has to support his people. The lives that are lost are unfathomable. Ukraine has been in existence a long, long time. They have gotten along with Russia. However, Mr. Putin has got something in his head that he wants to expand his territory and have the people of Ukraine commit to Russia. The killing and maiming of the Ukrainian people is just incredible. The Ukrainian people are fighting back. The Ukrainian military is gaining territory and beating Russians, which is incredible. The reason they are beating the Russians is that the Russian military really doesn’t have the heart to do this to a neighboring country. It is all subject to what Mr. Putin wants and they have to do what he wants. I think it is inhumane. They should stop this war immediately. The United States is supporting Ukraine with weapons. There are other countries that are supporting the Ukrainian people and rightly so.”
Andrew Drake,Stony Brook
“I think [a nuclear weapon is] the worst thing invented by mankind. We now have the ability to destroy ourselves at any time. It is a horrible thing that exists. I wish it is something we could put back in the box, but we can’t. The sad reality is as long as they exist, we need to have them. There are going to be people that are bad actors. That’s why the United States tries to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. North Korea launching a missile over Japan was obviously scary. I wish there were something else we could do about it, other than what we are doing. I don’t think there is a military solution, as much as there is a diplomatic solution. We need to incentivize people not to develop these [weapons], or give them the ability to defend themselves in a way that is not going to require mutually assured destruction.”
Paul Adago Jr., Ridge
“It’s going to affect us as a country, because we can’t have someone just bow to another. We allow that to happen in one portion of the world, then everybody’s going to think, ‘Well, we can do that too.’ We have to step up as a world, whether they’re part of NATO or not. We have to do what’s right for the people. After what we’ve been through in the world in the last two or three years, we have to humble ourselves and look at each other as people.”
Jorel Alvarez, Middle Island
“Putin using tactical nuclear weapons is not good for anyone’s sake. Once you use nukes the other person is going to use whatever weapons they have and then it is going to keep going on and the cycle is not going to stop. It is not right that he has this power. It is not right what he is doing in Ukraine.”
Wet Yang, Brooklyn
“I don’t think we can afford nuclear war. I don’t think we should be using nuclear weapons. I don’t believe in the use of nuclear weapons.”
Michael Osgood,San Francisco
“North Korea is obviously [launching missile tests] to be provocative and to remind the world that it has the technology to cause a lot of trouble. They think that is the way they can stay in power.” Regarding Mr. Putin’s threats, Osgood replied, “I can feel fear in my stomach when I think about that. I mean, could he possibly be insane enough to pull the trigger on such a thing? I hope to God he isn’t.”
Pending approval from the village's Board of Trustees, the East Beach bluff, pictured above, could soon undergo significant transformation. File photo by Raymond Janis
As the clubhouse facility at Port Jefferson Country Club dangles precariously upon the edge of the East Beach bluff, coastal engineers are discussing a proper course of action.
Coastal erosion has encroached dangerously near the clubhouse facility which, without intervention, could fall off the cliff within years. The Village of Port Jefferson Board of Trustees is working to curtail the issue in a two-phased effort. Construction of a toe wall at the bottom of the slope began in August and is ongoing [See video, below].
GEI Consultants is a Huntington Station-based consultancy firm that produced the engineering drawings for the upper wall. In a detailed email statement, Rachel Sa, GEI’s director of communications, summarized the plans for the project.
“The proposed wall at the top of the bluff will be effective at preventing further erosion and providing protection around the country club building,” Sa said. “The proposed wall consists of a new anchored steel sheet pile that is greater than 50 feet in vertical length and has been designed for an exposed height of up to 15 feet. The new steel sheet pile will be reinforced with new drilled soil anchors and a continuous wale system.” She added, “The proposed wall at the top of the bluff is, at minimum, designed to wrap around the perimeter of the country club building.”
If approved, the upper wall would be part of an integrated system, designed to work with the lower wall currently under construction at the toe. While critics have cited the limited shelf life of the upper wall, Sa contends the plan represents a long-term solution, even if the bluff erosion continues.
“The proposed Phase I and Phase II stabilization systems have been designed and are being constructed as a long-term solution to the observed erosion of the East Beach bluff,” she said. “If any further erosion does occur, the proposed wall system has the structural and geotechnical capacity to support and protect the country club building.”
But these plans are not without criticism. Ali Farhadzadeh is an assistant professor in the civil engineering department at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. He became familiar with the erosion issue near PJCC about a year ago when he and a team of colleagues met with village officials.
Over the last half decade, the East Beach bluff has lost considerable vegetation. Now coastal engineers are evaluating the village’s revegatation plans and how those plantings will work with the proposed upper wall. File photos from the Suffolk County Department of Information Technology, GIS Division
Farhadzadeh said the village is engaged in a two-front effort, with waves striking at the toe as precipitation upland generates substantial surface and internal runoff. While both forms of runoff contribute to the bluff’s erosion, his concerns center on the internal runoff, or water penetrating the soil and exiting through the bluff face.
“My engineering judgment was that [the bluff erosion at East Beach] is most likely because of the runoff water from the parking lot and the tennis court going to the bluff soil,” he said. “Based on what we see, there is a large parking lot on top, which will generate a lot of runoff. There might be some evidence of erosion from the toe, but based on the pictures of the failure, my engineering judgment tells me that this is happening from the top.”
Sa says GEI’s proposed stabilization initiative adequately addresses these runoff concerns.
“The proposed Phase II project (upper wall) also involves a significant landscaping scope,” she said, adding, “This proposed work involves removing most of the tennis courts and replacing them with soil, native grasses, wildflowers and shrubs. This will significantly reduce the amount of impermeable surface, improve site drainage, and therefore help reduce runoff over the top edge of the bluff.”
Farhadzadeh acknowledges that the revegetation work will slow the erosion of the slope. However, the internal runoff penetrating through the bluff face will likely continue, leading to continued loosening of the soil and further failure of the cliff.
“These are going to extensively improve the situation,” the SBU assistant professor said, referring to the proposed plantings. “If you do that implementation, if you take care of the surface erosion, the toe erosion and also the internal erosion, that steel structure could stabilize the soil — basically stopping the soil underneath the structure from moving naturally. But if the failure continues, then the wall itself is going to fail.”
‘The proposed steel sheet pile walls will address potentially detrimental permeability conditions at the locations where they are installed.’
— Rachel Sa
Responding to this argument, Sa believes that the vegetation work will be sufficient to prevent further erosion, citing this approach as standard industry practice.
“The proposed steel sheet pile walls will address potentially detrimental permeability conditions at the locations where they are installed,” she said. “It is common practice to use steel sheet pile structures to address these types of conditions — for example, constructing cofferdams to facilitate the dry construction of normally submerged structures/repairs. The remainder of the bluff slope will be protected against permeability conditions with the proposed vegetation and stabilization measures noted above.”
Given how close the clubhouse has come to the bluff’s edge, the village government is working with a sense of urgency. Mayor Margot Garant has stated that if the Board of Trustees favors the upper wall option, she would like to move forward quickly with a vote.
Farhadzadeh prefers a trial-and-error approach over rapid intervention. According to him, it would be wise for the village to install the vegetation and other mitigation measures, evaluate their efficacy in conjunction with the toe wall, and reassess the upper wall plans at a later time.
“From an engineering perspective, it doesn’t make sense to be rushing to the wall and building without making sure the recession [of the bluff] is reduced,” he said. “The wall is not going to stop the recession. The recession is going to be stopped by removing the water from the soil.”
On the other hand, Sa considers the upper wall a necessary measure that would act as a buffer to shield the clubhouse from further erosion. “In the event of areas of further erosion at the top of the bluff, the proposed wall will retain the soils beneath and around the country club building and protect this structure from the potential effects of this erosion,” she said.
‘The fact is you should stay away from the edge of the bluff.’ — Ali Farhadzadeh
In contrast to the upper wall plan, the village board is also contemplating whether to demolish the clubhouse and relocate the facility inland. Farhadzadeh prefers retreating away from the bluff.
“The fact is you should stay away from the edge of the bluff,” he said. “Based on what I’ve seen, it is probably too risky to maintain the existing facility.”
Sa disagrees with this assessment. Citing the village’s internal cost projections, she views the upper wall proposal as a cost-sensitive, viable alternative to managed retreat.
“The village is considering retreat/removal and replacement of the country club building at another inland location,” she said. “Rough initial estimates indicate that this may not be economically feasible. Therefore, GEI’s geotechnical engineers conducted bluff slope stability analyses and developed the double wall system as the best alternative given the site constraints.”
The village board will reconvene for a morning meeting on Monday, Oct. 17, at 9 a.m. Further discussion on the upper wall is anticipated during that meeting.
October began on a somber note with several days of rain, cloudy weather and blustery winds. For many people, short-term inclement weather can lead to lethargy and depressed moods.
Dr. Veronique Deutsch-Anzalone, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at Stony Brook University Renaissance School of Medicine, is a clinical psychologist who has researched the weather’s effect on people. The doctor said the first thing many think of regarding lousy weather and mental health is seasonal affective disorder, more commonly known as SAD. Deutsch-Anzalone said SAD is not technically considered a disorder anymore in the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,” but now what patients are diagnosed with is depression with a seasonal pattern. She added seasonal pattern is considered a specifier.
“Why not just throw on some raincoats and galoshes, go out and just jump around in the puddles and make those mud pies with them. They’re going to remember that and enjoy it.”
— Dr. Veronique Deutsch-Anzalone
“There are actually a lot of conflicting views on whether or not the lack of sun and the increase in cold and darkness causes us to have a depressed mood,” she said, adding that a 2016 study showed no objective data to support that depression is related to either latitude or season or sunlight. The doctor added that some people get depressed only in the summer.
However, due to many having depression that tends to follow a seasonal pattern, the disorder of depression with a seasonal pattern remains in the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.”
She said similar symptoms that people feel in the winter could be experienced even during short-term weather patterns, such as the recent period of rain, as lack of sunlight has been a factor in psychiatric problems and depression, with females and the elderly being particularly susceptible.
There are a few reasons, the doctor said, that support cloudy, rainy days being accompanied by depressed moods which involves serotonin, a body chemical that has to do with body functions; and melatonin, a hormone that induces sleep.
“We have our circadian rhythms where we’re programmed to be alert when the sun is up and be drowsy when it’s gone, and that is because when the sun goes down our bodies produce melatonin,” she said.
On darker days, the body produces less serotonin. On sunnier days, more serotonin is made, and it’s a neurotransmitter, Deutsch-Anzalone said. She added, on a cloudy day, people tend to keep the lights low in their homes and cuddle up on the couch to watch TV, which increases sleepiness. In turn, she said, a person may crave carbohydrates, sugar and salt.
“Unfortunately, when we turn to that kind of food that actually kind of makes us go into more of a slump, and can also cause some people to feel guilty and not very happy with themselves,” the doctor said.
Comfort foods raise serotonin but only briefly, Deutsch-Anzalone said. The best approach is eating healthy and drinking water. The doctor also advised against excess alcohol and caffeine intake, which can cause inflammation and dehydration.
She added an increase in aches and pains during stormy weather also doesn’t help matters. The drop in atmospheric pressure causes body fluids to move from the blood vessels to the tissues, creating more pressure on nerves and joints.
“That can lead to more increased pain or stiffness or reduced mobility, which then of course, makes us a little bit less likely to want to move,” she said.
She said on gloomy days, it can help to turn the lights on inside to increase serotonin and have more energy. Deutsch-Anzalone added some people might need a light therapy lamp or doctors may prescribe vitamin D.
She said it also helps to engage in enjoyable activities to lift one’s spirits. When a person is feeling down and can’t even think of pleasant activities, she suggests googling to find a list of things to do. Some, the doctor added, might be ones a patient hasn’t thought of, such as picking up an instrument, writing poetry or decorating a room. Exercise is also recommended as well as socializing or calling a friend.
Even in the rain, she suggested embracing nature, especially for people who have young children.
“Why not just throw on some raincoats and galoshes, go out and just jump around in the puddles and make those mud pies with them,” she said. “They’re going to remember that and enjoy it.”
Getting a good night’s sleep is also imperative, she said, since human’s circadian rhythms are thrown off when it’s dark outside for long periods of time. Napping and lying around the house most of the day also throws off a person’s sleep schedule.
“If you’re able to keep that good sleep hygiene and get a good night’s sleep, that will continue to give you a good amount of energy throughout the day, and it’ll ward off any sort of irritability.”
Deutsch-Anzalone advises anyone who is struggling with their mental health to seek professional help.
Recently, 1,150 members of the LGBTQ+ community participated in including Micah Schneider, from Ronkonkoma, above. Photo rom Lisa Czulinski
In a first of its kind survey of 1,150 members of the LGBTQ+ community on Long Island, Stony Brook Medicine found that people in this group struggle with numerous health care challenges.
Stony Brook Medicine’s Dr. Alison Eliscu was the principal investigator of the study that 1,150 members of the LGBTQ+ community recently participated in. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine
Over two in five people responding to an online survey between June and September of 2021 said they were in fair to poor mental health. Additionally, about one in three people had thoughts of self harm, while 23.9% had seriously considered suicide within the past three years.
People in the LGBTQ+ community are struggling with mental health and access to care, while they also have had negative experiences with health care providers, who may have been making incorrect assumptions about their lives or who haven’t respected them, said Dr. Allison Eliscu, principal investigator of the study and medical director of the Adolescent LGBTQ+ Care Program at Stony Brook Medicine.
Partnering with 30 Long Island-based community leaders and community organizations, including Planned Parenthood, Stony Brook Medicine created the survey to gather the kinds of data that could inform better health care decisions, could provide a baseline for understanding the needs of the LGBTQ+ community in the area, and could shed light on the disparity in health care for this community.
“The idea [for the survey] came out when we were creating the Edie Windsor Healthcare Center” in Hampton Bays, Eliscu said, which opened its doors in 2021 and is the first such center for the LGBTQ+ population on Long Island. “We were trying to think about what we want [the center] to provide and what does the community need.”
Without local data, it was difficult to understand what residents of Long Island, specifically, might need.
The data suggests a disparity between the mental health of the LGBTQ+ community in the area and the overall health of the population in the country.
Over half of the people who took the survey indicated that they had symptoms of chronic depression, compared with 30.3% for the nation, based on a 2020 PRC National Health Survey. Additionally, 23.9% of the LGBTQ+ community described a typical day as “extremely or very stressful” compared with 16.1% for the nation.
To be sure, the national data sampling occurred just prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, in February of 2020, while the Stony Brook Medicine survey polled residents during the second year of COVID.
Nonetheless, Eliscu suggested that her anecdotal experience with her patients indicates that the LGBTQ+ community likely suffered even more during the pandemic, as some people lived at home with relatives who may not have been supportive or with whom they didn’t share their identity.
Additionally, the isolation removed some LGBTQ+ residents from an in-person support network.
Stony Brook Medicine has taken steps to provide specific services to residents who are LGBTQ+. People who are transitioning and have a cervix continue to need a pap smear.
Some members of the transgender community may not be comfortable going to a gynecologist’s office. Stony Brook Medicine has put in place extended hours to meet their needs.
Micah Schneider, a social worker who lives in Ronkonkoma, served as a survey participant and also as a guide for some of the wording in the survey.
Schneider, who identifies as nonbinary and transgender and prefers the pronoun “they,” said the survey can help people “recognize that we’re not alone.”
When Schneider was growing up, “I had a sense that I was the only person in the entire world dealing with this,” which included a struggle with identity and mental illness.
“We as a community have each other and we can lean on each other,” Schneider said.
As for medical providers, Schneider suggested that this kind of survey can alert these professionals to the need to honor names, pronouns and identities and not make blanket assumptions.
Despite some improvements, the local and national LGBTQ+ community remains at risk, Schneider said.
“There are any number of people who are actively considering suicide,” Schneider added. “It’s a very real crisis in our community.”
On a conference call announcing the results of the survey, Dr. Gregson Pigott, Suffolk County Commissioner of Health, described the survey, which Stony Brook plans to repeat in a couple of years, as “groundbreaking. What you have here is hard data based on the survey.”
Above, members of Port Jefferson Fire Department and the local EMS after their technical rescue training. Photo from Port Jefferson EMS
By Julianne Mosher
It takes a village – literally.
Located on opposite sides of Port Jefferson, the Port Jefferson Fire Department and Port Jefferson EMS recently converged outside the Village Center at Harborfront Park for a training exercise that was quite the spectacle.
A dozen volunteers from both agencies staged a scenario Sunday, Oct. 9, in which a person “fell” over the ledge of a nearly 40-foot wall, located on East Broadway, and said the “patient” could only be accessible by lowering a rescuer down to get them.
Christian Neubert, third assistant chief of the PJFD, noted a real-life example using this technique could be if someone were to fall into an open construction area with a finished basement but no stairs.
So, to train for an instance like this, the two groups strapped up individual rescuers from both the fire department and EMS, and lowered them down using a rope to the parking lot below to assess, package and retrieve the patient.
A look at the volunteers bringing their ‘patient’ to safety during the recent drill by Port Jefferson Fire Department and Port Jeff EMS. Photo from PJFD
Back above, other volunteers created a five-to-one haul system to pull both the patient and rescuer back to safety.
These specific agencies coordinate frequently on different types of calls, as many fire departments and EMS often do. But Michael Presta, deputy chief of the Port Jefferson EMS, said that the partnership between Port Jeff’s fire department and the separate EMS — which supports not only the village, but provides services to Belle Terre, Mount Sinai and Miller Place — has been ongoing for quite a few years, and this technical rescue training they practiced on Sunday is an indicator on how these two teams can work together.
“There’s a lot of fire departments that provide technical rescue services in a confined space — different kinds of specialty disciplines — but there’s not a lot of patient care centered activity that goes on in a lot of these places,” Presta said. “We had a great conversation a few years ago and said, ‘Hey, it’d be really great to work together jointly with both departments and work on getting paramedic-level care down to these patients.’”
Presta said that not every scenario is the same when it comes to an emergency. People might be trapped somewhere for an extended period of time or have a complicated injury that requires care, pain management, airway management or bleeding control in a technical rescue environment.
“We thought, ‘What better way than to get the paramedics, train them in technical rescue and get them down to those patients?’” he said.
Neubert added this type of training is not easy. “There’s a lot of knowledge and skill that has to go into it, and you need to have the type of student that is ready to learn,” he said. “It’s different than basic firefighting skills.”
And Sunday’s training created an atmosphere allowing both firefighters and paramedics to work together as a team.
“It doesn’t matter what organization you were volunteering from,” Neubert said. “When we started that drill the other day, we gave the scenario, they found the job that needed to get done and they just did it.”
And once that patient is secured by whichever volunteer is first on scene, paramedics begin to administer the care that someone would find in the hospital emergency room right on the spot.
Technical service rescues might seem niche and relatively rare, but Presta said that one could really never know.
“In this small little community here, we have a couple of hospitals, we have a power plant, train station, major transportation, the ferry. So, there are a lot of opportunities, I’d say, for people to get injured in very tricky situations,” he said. “Whether you’re down in the engine room of a ship, or in a confined space in a power plant or injured on the roof of the hospital, in this community there could be a lot of opportunities.”
Neubert added, “Something as simple as a broken leg on the bluffs out in the cove … that’s not necessarily the same as a 40-foot wall, but it still involves rope, timing concepts and technical rescue.”
After a successful 90-minutes, and a spectacle for shoppers at the local farmers market across the park, Presta and Neubert were both satisfied with the day’s events.
“This type of training will give us the ability to help other agencies,” Presta said. “Now we’re able to provide a specialty resource like this, and they have the ability to call on us if they don’t have that training or ability or equipment. We can bring it.”
The cast of A Kooky Spooky Halloween. Photo by Peter Lanscombe/Theatre Three Productions, Inc.
By Heidi Sutton
Theatre Three was at full capacity last Saturday morning as families with young children came to celebrate the spookiest season with the return of the wonderful musical, A Kooky Spooky Halloween.
Written by Jeffrey Sanzel and Steve McCoy, it tells the story of a kind ghost named Abner Perkins (Steven Uihlein) who has just graduated from Haunting High School and has been assigned to be the spooksperson for Ma Aberdeen’s Boarding House (known for being the most haunted house in Harrison Corner USA and for having the best toast!) as its last ghost, Baron Von Yost, has recently retired. Abner is given a diploma and a medallion of invisibility and is sent on his way.
But Abner has a secret — he’s afraid of the dark! The only person who knows his secret is his best friend Lavinda the Witch (Danielle Pafundi) who gives him a nightlight and promises to help him get settled in.
Abner’s first day of haunting is on Halloween and he comes upon Ma Aberdeen (Ginger Dalton) and her boarders the perplexing Petersons — Paul (Liam Marsigliano), Penelope (Stephanie Moreau) and their son Pip (Sean Amato) — and Kit Garret (Samantha Fierro), a girl who “just came from a small town to a big city with a suitcase in her hand and hope in her heart,” stuffing goodie bags for trick-or-treaters in the kitchen.
In one of the funniest scenes in the show, Abner tries out a series of spells, making the group stuff the bags in double time, dance, do jumping jacks, sing, spin like a top, quack like a duck and stick to each other. Just as he is about to undo the last spell, fellow graduate ghost with a grudge Dora Pike (Beth Ladd) appears, steals his medallion of invisibility and nightlight and heads to the bottom of Black Ridge Gulch, the deepest, darkest gorge in the entire world (where it’s really, really dark). Now visible, Abner must convince the sticky strangers to help him get his medallion back. Will he succeed or will his fear of the dark take over?
With the message that everyone deserves to be understood, director Jeffrey Sanzel has assembled an incredible cast to tell this sweet story, with action, suspense, hilarious hijinks, Halloween jokes, and all around fun. The amazing costumes by Jason Allyn, special effects, futuristic lighting and the catchy songs, accompanied on piano by Douglas Quattrock, with special mention to “It’s Ma Who Makes the Toast” and the great rap number “A Need for Speed,” tie it all together for the perfect holiday treat. Your kids will love it!
Ghost pumpkin souvenirs will be sold before the show and during intermission and costumes are encouraged. Meet the entire cast in the lobby on your way out for a keepsake photo.
Theatre Three, 412 Main St., Port Jefferson presents A Kooky Spooky Halloween on Oct. 15 and 22 at 11 a.m. and Oct. 16 at 3 p.m. Running time is one hour and 10 minutes with intermission. Children’s theater continues with Barnaby Saves Christmas from Nov. 19 to Dec. 30. All seats are $10. To order, call 631-928-9100 or visit www.theatrethree.com.
Ihave never been as happy to hear a Madonna song as I was this weekend.
Let me back up. My family and I attended our second familial wedding of the last three months. This one was a destination wedding in Ithaca, New York.
Stepping out of the rental car at the hotel on campus, I realized I wasn’t in Kansas anymore, as shorts, a T-shirt and a sweatshirt weren’t sufficient for the cooler upstate air.
In the hours before the ceremony on Saturday, my son, brother-in-law, his grown sons and I threw a tiny gift shop Nerf ball around on the baseball field, while surrounded by a visual collage of multi-colored foliage. That tiny football was probably the best $7.50 I’ve ever spent at a wedding.
With the wedding in the hotel, we only had to push an elevator button to get to the correct floor.
The bride and groom exchanged vows that they hadn’t previously shared with each other. Not too surprisingly after dating for close to a decade, the vows included many of the same references to things they each enjoyed about their time together, including dancing in the kitchen while making dinners, watching TV shows together during college, and running to the clock tower and back.
During the cocktail hour, I excused myself from my social circle to go to the bathroom, where I overheard the first of two unusual restroom conversations. The groom and his young cousin were chatting.
“You know the secret to a successful marriage?” the young man asked, eager to share the accelerated wisdom he’d accrued during his short life.
“What’s that?” the groom asked gamely.
“Separate vacations,” the sage young man suggested.
“Hmm, well,” the groom continued, “thanks so much for coming. I appreciate it.”
“My mom said my grandparents would have wanted us to come, so we came,” the unfiltered young man added.
Fortunately, neither of them could hear me inhale sharply.
Listening to the toasts and comments from the parents of the bride and groom, each side seemed to think the new member of the family would help soothe their partner. Perhaps, that says something about the way the bride and groom interact with their parents?
After dinner and before the music started, I returned to the restroom. This time, a man was standing at the sink, washing his hands.
“Out of respect for the gentleman who just walked in, I’m going to end our conversation about poop,” he said to a friend in the stall.
“Oh, uh, I’ll be leaving soon,” I offered, not wanting to interrupt.
“It’s okay,” he added. “We were done.”
Returning to the ballroom, I raced to the dance floor once the music started. My wife, children and I love to dance, with each of us smiling and shimmying as we jump, sway and sing the lyrics of the music. Somehow, our daughter knows the words to just about every song at most of these events, singing and shouting them to her cousin’s girlfriend, who has the same encyclopedic knowledge of modern music. I chime in with the chorus, while our son glides around, often with his arms in the air.
And here’s where Madonna came in. After bending my knees and swaying to numerous rap songs I had never heard before, I was thrilled to hear the familiar intro to a Madonna hit.
Buoyed by throwback sounds from an earlier decade, I threw myself around the floor, crooning for all I was worth.
When the rap songs returned, I scanned the floor and saw the bride, groom and their friends sharing their euphoria for the moment and for their familiar music. While Frank Sinatra never made an appearance, the happy couple were clearly doing it their way.
This message is for older people who are reading this column and may get COVID-19. The information may save your life. It may have saved mine.
Especially for older people, COVID is a deadly virus. What defines older? Let’s say, beyond 50. Now there is a medicine that dramatically reduces severity and possible death from this virus, but many Americans are not taking it. Its name is Paxlovid.
“Never really in recent history for a respiratory virus can I think of an anti-viral medication being as effective, demonstrated in scientific literature, as what Paxlovid has shown,” stated Dr. Rebecca Wang, an infectious disease specialist at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, when interviewed by The New York Times.
Both random trials and data from electronic health records have shown this medicine to be effective, particularly among older patients. The medicine works by inhibiting the virus’s replication once it invades the body. Its underuse is already associated with thousands of preventable deaths, according to Dr. Robert Wachter, chair of the medicine department at the University of California, San Francisco.
“A large chunk of deaths are preventable right now with Paxlovid alone,” Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID response coordinator told David Leonhardt of The New York Times. He predicted that if every American 50 and above with COVID received a course of either Paxlovid or monoclonal antibodies, daily deaths might fall to about 50 per day, from about 400 per day.
So why aren’t people taking the medicine?
For one reason, Paxlovid, which is taken twice a day for five days, does leave a metallic taste in the mouth. So I found that by eating half a banana after each dose, I got rid of the unwelcome taste. I also got the benefit of a banana a day, which is a healthy and nutritious fruit containing fiber and some essential vitamins and minerals.
Another possible reason is the association of Paxlovid with “rebound,” a second session of the disease which can occur a week to a month after the end of the first round. Experts don’t know what causes the rebound. A rebound is possible even if the patient never used Paxlovid. And even if he or she did, perhaps a longer duration of the drug is necessary for some patients than the five days currently administered.
Research has shown that out of sample of 568,000 patients, 0.016% over 50 who used Paxlovid died. For a similar cohort of patients who did not use the drug, the death rate was four times higher or 0.070. But only 25% of patients eligible to receive the drug actually took it, even though it is available and free.
Thanks to my son, Daniel Dunaief, who has spoken with two infectious disease experts, we also have some local reaction to the drug. Dr. Andrew Handel, pediatric infectious disease physician at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, commented, “Hesitancy to take Paxlovid seems to fall in line with the general ‘COVID fatigue.’COVID is clearly less lethal now than during prior surges, thanks in large part to vaccinations, but it still causes some hospitalizations. Those at highest risk of severe disease, particularly those who are unvaccinated, benefit from antiviral treatment if they are infected.”
Dr. David Galinkin, infectious disease expert at St. Charles Hospital, said, “The media has overblown this rebound experience. In the literature, about 10% of cases [have a rebound.] Like any other medication, people that could really benefit from Paxlovid [should consider it.] … We are still seeing people dying from this.”
Perhaps more doctors could be better informed about this drug. Additional information and encouragement are needed from the White House, and a lot more public announcements should be placed in the media to reach people. As has been the case throughout these last two-and-one-half COVID years, instructions have been changing, adjusted as the scientific and medical professions learn more about this pathogen. Proper treatment is still a work in progress.
The nuclear industry will see major growth thanks to the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act, and Long Island communities must again resist calls to go nuclear.
Among other incentives, the new federal law gives tax credits to utility companies that invest in new nuclear plants. While this may benefit other places around the country, such as West Virginia’s coal economy, it will do no good for Long Island.
The decommissioned Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant, still standing today, is a living relic of Long Island’s long-standing opposition to nuclear power. At the time of its construction, the plant saw intense local resistance for various reasons.
While efforts to oppose Shoreham proved successful, we know that bad ideas die hard. While nuclear energy sees a renaissance nationwide, let us remember why we are a nuclear-free zone.
Anyone driving on the LIE at rush hour understands the glaring logistical hurdles of evacuating Long Island during a potential nuclear meltdown. It can take hours to get off the Island on any given day of the week. Our mass transit network is outdated and already incapable of supporting this overdeveloped and highly congested regional economy.
In an age of more frequent and intense hurricanes, a nuclear meltdown appears ever more plausible. Swift and successful evacuation seems unlikely, if not impossible. For these reasons, adding nuclear infrastructure would be an existential threat to the health and safety of Long Island residents.
Properly treating and disposing of radioactive material remains an unsettled science. Ridding ourselves of this toxic waste would put a greater strain on our already cluttered roads, highways, tunnels and bridges, further complicating evacuation efforts.
Finally, while we acknowledge that nuclear energy vastly outperforms wind and solar technologies, we should continue exploring these cleaner, safer alternatives. We should limit our carbon footprint and reduce fossil fuel consumption where possible, but we should do so responsibly. Reintroducing nuclear power to Long Island merely swaps one environmental hazard for another, endangering our citizens needlessly.
The apparent ties between our electric service provider and the nuclear industry should give Long Islanders unease, especially since the Long Island Power Authority maintains an 18% stake in the Oswego-based Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station.
History tells us that powerful and monied interests may try to score a quick profit, even at the expense of ordinary folk. In time, some here on Long Island may seek to use the newly available nuclear energy subsidies. We must not let them.
Long Island has never been — and never will be — a safe venue for nuclear energy. We must remember the example of Shoreham, how generations of Long Islanders have fought to keep our island nuclear free. Let us continue their work.
Wally Tomaszewski, Port Jefferson
Andrew Drake,
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