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Bellone launches second ‘Take Your Shot’ campaign

by Julianne Mosher - May 3, 2021

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bellone 4.29.21, julianne mosher — County Executive Steve Bellone with Dr. Gregson Pigott in front of the vaccine pods in Hauppauge. Photo by Julianne Mosher

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) is encouraging residents to get their COVID-19 vaccines.

On Thursday, April 29, he joined Dr. Gregson Pigott, commissioner of the Suffolk County Department of Health Services, Dr. Shaheda Iftikhar, deputy commissioner for the Department of Health Services and Holly Rhodes-Teague, director with the Suffolk County Office of the Aging outside the H. Lee Dennison Building to announce the second phase of the county’s “Take Your Shot” campaign.

With vaccine hesitancy on the rise, the multi-media campaign will utilize TV, radio and targeted digital advertisements to address misinformation and build trust for those still on the fence.

Bellone said at the press conference that as of April 29, there were 271 new cases of COVID-19 within the last 24 hours out of 15,628 tests.

“That’s a positivity rate of 1.7%,” he said. “That is huge.”

He added the last time the county saw a number nearing the 2% mark was at the start of the virus’ second wave back in the fall around Halloween — before the Pfizer vaccine became available.

“We are below 2% positivity, but we’re back in that 1% range where we were throughout the summer last year, when we were still dealing with the pandemic with no vaccines,” he said. “So, this is significant.”

Bellone noted maintaining the lower number is proof that the vaccines are working.

Aline of people ready to get their vaccines. Photo by Julianne Mosher

“We want to get to the point when we say this virus is behind us once and for all, and the vaccines are the key to reaching our goal,” he said. “You need to be doing everything that we can to get people vaccinated to #TakeYourShot.”

The first phase of the Take Your Shot initiative was originally launched late last year in an effort to foster public awareness and designed to encourage county residents on the importance of receiving the COVID-19 vaccines.

The second phase launched last week will continue to help remove potential barriers for people getting the vaccine.

“As of yesterday [April 28], more than 660,000 residents have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in Suffolk County,” he said. “That’s nearly 45% of our residents. While we’ve made tremendous progress over the last few months, at this point, there are no excuses, vaccines are available to everyone 16 and older.”

Right now, the Pfizer vaccine is the only shot eligible to teenagers, and Bellone said he’s encouraging high school juniors and seniors to do their part.

“We have a lot of school-related activities that are opening up and coming back — prom, graduation — and we’re very excited that those are going to happen,” he said. “Getting vaccinated is a way to reduce the spread of the virus and make those big gatherings safe.”

Bellone had another message to young people.

“You have a stake in this county,” he said. “You can be part of the effort to completely defeat this virus in and help save lives.”

The county also announced walk-in vaccination appointments available at select county vaccine pod locations.

“Our residents are busy, they want flexibility,” he said.

Started on April 29, residents can visit the Selden campus at Suffolk County Community College and get their vaccines anytime between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m.

“We’ve seen promising progress,” he said. “As more of our economy continues to open up, we want to return to normalcy.”

Huntington Public Library presents program on oyster gardening

by Press Release - May 1, 2021

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All Huntington and Oyster Bay residents are encouraged to become Oyster Gardeners this summer at one of five gardens in their community. Attend the Saturday, May 8^th presentation at the Huntington Public Library (via Zoom) to learn more and sign up to raise oysters this season in Oyster Bay and Cold Spring Harbor.

The Oyster Bay/Cold Spring Harbor Protection Committee invites residents to play an active role in protecting their local waters by becoming Oyster Gardeners this season. Oysters serve as “ecosystem engineers” improving water quality, enhancing habitat and protecting shorelines from damaging storms. Since 2017 hundreds of families, individuals, boy and girl scouts, church groups, yacht, bathing and garden clubs have raised and planted tens of thousands of oysters on a protected spawner sanctuary in Cold Spring Harbor.

The Oyster Gardening program is an outreach tool of the inter-municipal Oyster Bay/Cold Spring Harbor Protection Committee to educate and engage residents in conserving their natural resources.

To learn more:

Attend: Oyster Gardening 101 Presentation – Huntington Public Library Huntington Public Library (via zoom). Everyone (not just Huntington library patrons) are welcome to attend. Oyster Gardening supporters and Huntington Town Councilmembers Cergol and Smyth will welcome attendees. The zoom session will be followed by an in-person visit to the site of the garden at West Neck Beach to learn first-hand. Registration begins May 3^rd. For details see: Library Newsletter ( page 4): https://myhpl.org/images/newsletters/2021/may-june.pdf

Visit: www.oysterbaycoldspringharbor.org for more information.

Two historic properties in Huntington open for tours May 2

by Heidi Sutton - April 30, 2021

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The weather looks lovely this weekend so the Huntington Historical Society will be offering tours of two of their historic properties!

The David Conklin Farmhouse, 2 High Street, Huntington will be open on Sunday, May 2 from 1 to 4 p.m.

This farmhouse was built c. 1750 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Originally the home of David and Sybel Conklin, the house was occupied by the Conklin family for over one-hundred and fifty years.

A volunteer docent will lead you through the original rooms of the house where Sybel Conklin and her children lived and worked while her husband, David, was held prisoner by the British in 1777. You will also see rooms decorated to reflect the Federal and Victorian periods. Stop by to get a spring dose of local history! Admission is a suggested donation of $4 per person. Parking is available on site. Masks are required.

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Soldiers and Sailors BuildingThe Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Building, 228 Main St., Huntington will be open on May 2 as well from 1 to 4 p.m. (free admission). The building was completed in 1892 as a memorial to the 40 townsmen who died in the Civil War.

The idea for a memorial was first proposed in 1865. Huntington’s leading citizens joined together to create The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Association in 1886 and fundraising efforts finally bore fruit when the building was completed in 1892. It is the first of several monumental civic structures built in Huntington in the two decades surrounding the turn of the twentieth century.

This building, which you see before you as you leave downtown Huntington going east, was used as the town library. After the library moved to its current location at the other end of Main Street in 1958, the building was used by the Huntington school district. From 1969 on it became home to the Town Historian. In 2000, the Association donated the building to the Huntington Historical Society. The Society undertook an ambitious eight year restoration project and re-opened it as a museum in 2008.

Today, the building houses the Society’s History and Decorative Arts Museum and features changing exhibits from the Historical Society’s collection. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and as part of Old Town Hall National Register Historic District.

Parking is available on site and masks are required.

Editorial: Staying the distance, but keeping your eyes open

by TBR Staff - April 30, 2021

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bike bill 7, julianne mosher — Photo by Julianne Mosher

This week, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) officially signed a new law stating that drivers must give bicyclists a 3-foot distance on the road.

We think it’s great, and know how important it is to share the road. No one wants to hurt someone who’s riding for leisure or exercise.

But what concerns us the most are the riders who might feel entitled, who don’t follow their own rules of the road.

Yes, vehicle drivers — especially on Long Island — can be awfully aggressive and distracted at times. But to play devil’s advocate, it isn’t just the car drivers. We have seen some aggressive bike riders, too.

There are times that sharing the road on a busy street like Route 25A or Nesconset Highway is near to impossible. The driver of the vehicle slows down traffic to abstain from the biker, who is weaving in and out of their bike lane.

Not all bike riders are bad, and again we think it’s great they are staying fit and not thrusting carbon dioxide fumes into the air. But, just as there are bad apples to everything, we are begging those riders to not take this new law in vain.

While car drivers are now more responsible for keeping a safe distance from a bicyclist, we are asking the rider to do the same.

Please don’t ride your bike in traffic, and please pay attention, yourself. Please don’t be a nuisance to the people trying to get to work during rush hour, and please, please, please stop at stop signs, too.

If we all abide by the rules of the road, all of us will be safe and laws like this won’t even have to be considered down the road.

Use common sense. Be kind. Stay safe.

Finalists announced for Heckscher Museum’s Long Island’s Best: Young Artists exhibit

by Press Release - April 29, 2021

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The Heckscher Museum in Huntington has announced the top prizewinners for its student exhibition, Long Island’s Best: Young Artists. This edition marks 25 years of celebrating young artists across Suffolk and Nassau Counties. More than 300 student submissions, representing more than 50 schools across Long Island participated. Jurors chose 83 works of art for exhibition. The following students were awarded the top four prizes:

Celebrate Achievement Best in Show

Keren Dial, Valley Stream South High School, Grade 11 for Cultivating the Mustard, colored pencil.

Second Place, Judith Sposato Memorial Prize

Ashley Park, Half Hollow Hills High School West in Dix Hills, Grade 10, for The 2021 Press, mixed media.

Third Place, The Hadley Prize

Aleena Abraham, Hicksville High School, Grade 12, for Storge, oil pastel.

Fourth Place, The Stan Brodsky Scholarship Award

Ariel Kim, Jericho Senior High School, Grade 12, for Personal Garden, oil pastel and colored pencil.

The exhibition’s anniversary milestone comes during a year where virtual visits and online classes were held in lieu of in-person programs. Despite challenges, art teachers and Museum educators worked together to give high school students meaningful experiences with exhibitions on view. Museum educators involved students through in-depth study and discussion about works of art. Each student then selected a work of art as their inspiration piece. They went on to create an original artwork and write an artist’s statement explaining their creative process.

Jurors for the 2021 exhibition are Karli Wurzelbacher, Curator, and artist Melissa Misla, guest juror. Misla is a New York artist who holds an MFA from Queens College and is represented by Praxis Art Gallery, New York City.

“I was eager to see the students’ approaches to creating,” said Misla, adding, “Long Island’s Best can impact a young artist in a transformative way.”

Long Island’s Best: Young Artists will be on view at The Heckscher Museum of Art, 2 Prime Ave., Huntington and online at www.heckscher.org through May 23.

A virtual opening reception and awards ceremony will be held live on Instagram @heckschermuseum on May 1 from 7 to 8 p.m. For more information, call 631-380-3230.

Bellone signs new legislation for bike riders

by Julianne Mosher - April 29, 2021

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bike bill 8, julianne mosher — Photo by Julianne Mosher

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A new law will now keep bicyclists safe on the roadways with its 3-foot rule.

On Tuesday, April 27, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) joined Deputy Presiding Officer Kara Hahn (D-Setauket) and members of the biking community at Stony Brook’s Stony Brookside Bed & Bike Inn to sign it in officially.

Bellone said the legislation will help ensure the safety of bicyclists while out on the roadways requiring drivers to pass on the left and provide the riders with at least 3 feet of space. Violations of this law are punishable by a fine of $225 for the first offense, $325 for the second offense and $425 for any subsequent offenses.

It is the first of its kind in New York state.

“For us in Suffolk County, where we love the outdoors, many of the reasons why people choose to live here is because of our incredible natural resources: our parks, our open space and the beauty that we have here,” he said. “Bicycles are such a big part of that. We are committed to, and we have to be committed to, making sure that cycling can be done safely, and people are protected as much as possible.”

He added that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, bike sales have “skyrocketed.” People want to be outside more.

“We’ve obviously been working on these issues for some time,” he said. “But the pandemic has only made it even clearer how important this is to people’s lives — and quite frankly, to all of us, even if you never get on a bike.”

Hahn added that Stony Brookside Bed & Bike Inn attracts bicyclists from around the world who come and enjoy the area’s paths, roads and trails.

“Our roads are going to be safer now,” she said. “But there is tremendous synergy between our environment and our economy, between what we have here to enjoy where we live. And who we attract to come here as visitors, who we attract to come here as businesses, and people — especially after the pandemic — are looking for places to live, places to visit where they can recreation safely.”

Bellone noted, though, that Long Island roads can often be dangerous, and he is committed to keeping the streets safe.

“We know that bicycling on certain roads in the county can be dangerous, but we’ve been working on that issue,” he said. “We’ve taken a number of significant steps to educate drivers and improve infrastructure to create a safer environment for bicycles on the road. So, today, our efforts go one step further.”

Attorney and board member of the New York Bicycling Coalition Daniel Flanzig said that currently only 33 states have this law.

“[NY] Vehicle & Traffic Law 1122-A currently exists, but only requires a motorist to pass a cyclist at a safe distance,” he said. “What a safe distance is to me is different to you.”

Flanzig said that the new law of a 3-foot distance is a tangible, recognizable number.

“I think 3-foot distance actually makes it easier to enforce,” Hahn said. “Now there’s a set difference. Previously, the law said drivers must pass cyclists at a safe distance and that wasn’t defined.”

Northport Tigers crush Hills East to capture League Title

by TBR Staff - April 28, 2021

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By Steven Zaitz

To the very end, they protected the ‘N.’

In an emotional roller coaster of a football season, that had them battling COVID just as hard as their opponents, the Northport Tigers wrapped up their schedule April 24 with a rousing victory over the Half Hollow Hills East Thunderbirds. With the 34-13 win, the Tigers earned Suffolk County’s League III title and capped off the year on a well-deserved high note.

Northport finished with a 5-1 record and rolled up a 188-59-point differential. The one blemish, a heartbreaker of a loss at West Islip, two weeks ago in the Conference II semi-final, prevented them from earning a piece of the county crown, but all in all, the Tigers spring campaign was an inspirational success that has put them back on the map as a Long Island powerhouse.

Newsday listed them as the 9th best team on Long Island in their final rankings in 2021 — especially impressive considering they lost six games out of eight in 2019.

“Northport has a winning tradition, and it was cool being a part of a team that brought back that tradition,” said senior captain and star middle linebacker Anthony Canales, who played his final game as a Tiger on Saturday. “I’m also proud to have been able to show the younger guys what it’s like to be a Northport Tiger and the way of ‘Class and Character’, just like I was taught when I was in their shoes.”

Canales, in addition to earning first team All Suffolk County and All Division awards (see full list of Tigers below), is a finalist for the prestigious Bob Collotta award presented to the most outstanding linebacker in Suffolk. He is still in the running for the Rob Burnett Award for most outstanding defensive player in Suffolk County too.

“He deserves all the accolades he gets,” said Northport Head Football Coach Pat Campbell. “He’s had a fantastic season and he’s a great leader.”

Canales led a Tiger defense that had many star players and was an overwhelming and suffocating wall of blue all year. On this sun-drenched afternoon, they were provided an extra bit of motivation when they saw that the Hills East team was disrespectfully dancing on the Northport ‘N’ logo in the middle of the field in pre-game warmups.

“That wasn’t cool,” said Canales. “That fired our whole team up and they (Hills East) paid the price. We always protect the ‘N.’”

Senior defensive lineman Cole Ronan, who must have used that fuel, had a great game with seven tackles and a sack. He was instrumental in containing T-Bird star quarterback Leisaan Hibbert, who aside from a few spectacular juke moves, was held in check for much of the afternoon.

“All week in practice the guys were preaching that we were so thankful that we’re getting to play one more game with each other,” Ronan said. “We wanted to give it everything we had this week and go out with a win. I’m glad we did.”

“He should get the Player of the Game,” said Campbell of Ronan. “He gets off the line of scrimmage and he knows how to get great pad level. He’s a big kid but he gets low and gets to where he needs to be to make plays. Great job by Cole.”

By losing to West Islip and Hills East’s loss to Bellport in the first round of the playoffs, the Tigers and T-Birds were able to compete for the League III championship. The two teams were scheduled to play in Week 2, but that game was erased due to a Section XI mandated quarantine. That was the start of a series of events that put the program on a never-ending obstacle course, as they lost between 12-15 players due the coronavirus and injury over the next five weeks.

“You can sit here and do the ‘what-ifs,’ said Campbell. “But there’s nothing we can do to change it. We still had a great year.”

What wasn’t so great was the way Saturday’s game started. T-Bird running back Louis Mathurian ran around right tackle and sliced through the Tiger Defense for 60 yards, defensive backs Rocco Stola and Tom Tini finally tracked him down deep in Tiger territory.

“I probably ran 100 yards chasing that guy, but I knew Rocco and I were going to catch him,” said the speedy cornerback Tini. “We weren’t going to let him score.”

Stola and Tini’s persistence paid off as Canales recovered a fumble three plays later and the Tigers soon stamped their imprint on this game.

Running back Rafe Carner ran the ball for 34 yards on the next two plays and quarterback Conner Gallagher finished off a 10-play drive with a 2-yard sneak, giving the Tigers a 6-0 lead. The offensive line, including tight end Wade Holden, opened up huge holes on this drive and throughout the entire season, bludgeoning hapless defenders to the tune of 7.8 yards a carry. Seniors Carner, Andrew Argyris, Stola and junior Jack Sandrib amassed over 1,300 yards rushing, due in no small part to the big guys up front.

Offensive linemen rarely get noticed unless they commit a penalty, but to not give citation to Ryan Wagner, Ronan, Ryan Farrington, Stylianos Poilitidis, Jack Pokowicz, Tom McDonagh, Andrew Canales, Joe Keller-DelPrete, Chris Bolitho, Gavin O’Malley and Luke Lamendola would be an injustice — especially on a team whose style is to cement-mix the opposing defense into submission and dominate the line of scrimmage. Holden, who is the quintessential blocking tight end, was selected as an All-Division player despite not having gaudy receiving numbers.

“Our offensive line was great all year,” Canales said. “We lost Joe (Keller-DelPrete) to injury twice. A few kids had COVID, but it was next man up.”

Farrington, who played center against Hills East in addition to his duties as a defensive lineman, was on the field essentially the whole day.

“We do everything we need to win,” Farrington said. “We prepared hard this week knowing it was our last game. We wanted this one.”

Stola, who fittingly ended his Tiger career with a fourth quarter touchdown catch from Gallagher, is the last in a bloodline of three brothers to play at Northport. They all represented the team and school with class and excellence throughout their football careers according to Campbell.

“That kid is a superior athlete and an incredible competitor,” Campbell said. “I’ve had a Stola on my team for eight years and I can’t remember what it’s like to not have a Stola on my team. All three of them have been gems to our program and it goes beyond the football field. Rocco is a great, great kid and I’m going to miss having him.”

“Northport football has been our family for the past eight years,” said Stola, who will be attending Middlebury College in the fall. “My brother Frank started the legacy, then Ben, and I was honored to finish it.”

Stola, and the entire Northport team, certainly finished the 2021 football season in style. After the final gun, they had a prolonged and tearful celebration amongst themselves and family members as they climbed up into the bleachers.

“Playing my last game as a Tiger, I had mixed emotions,” Stola said. “Getting that touchdown and the win was great, but then with all the hugs and realizing it’s my last time in the uniform it was sad, but a good kind of sad.”

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Suffolk County honors for the Northport Tigers

ALL COUNTY-ALL DIVISION

Anthony Canales – LB

Cole Ronan – DL

Rafe Carner – RB/DB

Rocco Stola – RB/DB

ALL DIVISION

Dan Lugo – DL

Andrew Argyris – RB

Owen Johansen – LB

Wade Holden – TE

Tom Tini – DB

2nd TEAM ALL DIVISION

Tristan Triolo – WR/DB

Ryan Farrington – OL/DL

Conner Gallagher – QB

Mini golf at the Vanderbilt extended through May 16

by Heidi Sutton - April 28, 2021

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169647414_10158922299593801_6835070857522014932_n — Photo from Vanderbilt Museum

Picnic & Putt at the Vanderbilt

The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum, 180 Little Neck Road, Centerport invites visitors to play the museum’s William Vanderbilt Classic Mini-Golf Course through May 16. Play during the day on Saturday and Sunday between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. ($15 per person), or reserve tickets for Sunset Picnic & Putt on Friday and Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m. Group package for up to 6 guests is $45. For tickets and more information, visit www.vanderbiltmuseum.org.

D. None of the Above: Two men face big decisions amid the pandemic cloud

by Daniel Dunaief - April 28, 2021

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By Daniel Dunaief

I have two friends whose sons are contemplating important choices. The first son, Matt, is trying to decide where to attend college.

He has gained admission to two elite schools. He can’t go wrong, as his parents have told him repeatedly, with either choice. Making this decision in a normal year would be hard. In a pandemic year, it’s almost impossible.

Matt can’t stay over at each school for a weekend or even attend a few classes. He can’t get much of a feeling for the “vibe” of the school because he can’t go into most of the buildings, even with a mask and with his letter of admission.

He can compare the national rankings from U.S. News and World Report, check college guides, talk with his guidance counselor, chat with graduates from his high school who attend each school and stroll around each campus.

He can’t, however, fully try on the school, the way he might a tailored suit. Masks cover the faces of most of the people at each school, which makes it impossible to search for smiles on the faces of his potential future classmates.

He recently found himself leaning toward school A. The same day, his father spoke with a friend of his whose daughter was attending school B.

His father showed a picture of his friend’s daughter to Matt. The friend’s attractive daughter caused Matt to rethink his tentative decision.

That brings me to my other friend’s son, Eric. In his mid-20s, Eric has been caught in the same social world that has limited the options for everyone else.

Eric has been dating a woman for over two years and is considering the future of the relationship. He is not sure whether it’s the appropriate time to consider living together or getting married.

Eric is incredibly attached to his girlfriend, who has been one of the few people he sees regularly in real life during the pandemic.

Eric is not sure how long this altered reality, in which he works from home, speaks with family and friends virtually most of the time, and sees his girlfriend during his limited social hours, will last. In the meantime, he’d like something in his life to move forward.

Matt and Eric are weighing their options. For Matt, the choice of college may well come down to the last picture of another student he sees before he pushes a button.

Choosing a college can, and likely should, involve more significant factors. Then again, both of the colleges line up so well that he is likely to have a similar experience, albeit with different people around him, at each school.

Eric’s decision, however, isn’t so interchangeable. It involves a leap of faith that those of us who are married have made that relies on our own criteria. We can consult family, friends, and counselors as we weigh the pros and cons, but, ultimately, the responsibility and opportunity rest with us.

Coming up with his own questions and his own scale to evaluate the relationship is challenging, particularly when everything seems somewhere between good and great right now. He can’t possibly know what life will look like in two, five, 10 or 20 years from now.

I don’t envy either Matt or Eric as they contemplate these decisions. I do, however, agree with Matt’s parents: he can’t go wrong. For Eric, the decision has more significant longer-term ramifications and likely reflects variables that are difficult to imagine, particularly amid the uncertainty of the present.

Between You and Me: Be who you want to be after the pandemic

by Leah Dunaief - April 28, 2021

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Leah Dunaief

By Leah S. Dunaief

Would you like to be different? Would you like to change your personality? Perhaps you would like to be more extroverted. Or more open to new experiences. Or even just more organized. Well, thanks to the pandemic, here is your chance.

People can and do successfully change their personalities even as adults. Now we are about to emerge from the isolation of lockdown and quarantine and rejoin the larger world. The stage is set for a new you. But this transformation will take work. To start, one could embrace the “As If Principle,” proposed by Richard Wiseman, a psychology professor at the University of Hertfordshire in England. This would require one to behave as if one were already that different person, and after a time, the new behavior and the person would sync. Famously, that is the story the debonair Cary Grant told of his early life, which started on the Bristol docks as Archie Leach and wound up at the pinnacle in Hollywood. “I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person. Or he became me,” Grant said, according to the British newspaper, The Guardian.

An article in the April 11 issue of The New York Times took up this subject. Headlined, “You Can Be a New You After the Pandemic,” written by Olga Khazan, the story states the following. “Researchers have found that adults can change the five traits that make up personality — extroversion, openness to experience, emotional stability, agreeableness and conscientiousness — within just a few months.”

Another psychology professor, this one at Columbia University, asserts a similar theme. Geraldine Downey, who studies social rejection, has found that “socially excluded people who want to become part of a group are better off if they assume that other people will like them. They should behave as if they are the popular kid. Getting into social interactions expecting the worst, as many socially anxious people do, tends to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.” In another example of change, “people were able to become more extroverted or conscientious in four months just by listing the ways they’d like to change and what steps they would take to get there,” according to the NYT article. If one wants to be more outgoing, one can make a list of upcoming events in which to interact or persons to call for lunches, and after enough such efforts, the act becomes natural.

It can help in this transformation to see a therapist, research recommends. One such example described a person with neuroticism, “a trait responsible for anxiety and rumination.” After a short burst of therapy, in which the “warm, comforting presence” of a therapist encouraged the idea that the client is a valued person, neuroticism receded, and the studies showed the effect lasted for at least a year.

But not everyone can afford a therapist. Mirjam Stieger, a postdoctoral researcher at Brandeis University, and her colleagues developed an app that “reminded people to perform small tasks to help tweak their personalities, like “talk to a stranger when you go grocery shopping,” to prompt extroversion. The app then asks them if they had done that. According to the study, after three months, the change had stuck.

Agreeableness, by the way, involves “greater empathy and concern for others.” And so, being agreeable after this pandemic could mean being gentler toward one another. We now know, for example, how much essential workers sacrificed during the pandemic, many even their lives. That would suggest greater kindness and patience toward someone who, during the pre-pandemic, might just have been dismissed as annoying. We don’t know what exactly has been that person’s recent experience. At least that can be a conscious thought to modify behavior in what otherwise might have been a contentious situation.

For those who wish to change or live differently, as the NYT article says, “your personality is more like a sand dune than a stone.”

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