The games are afoot: Well played, good sports … another busy workweek in the win column and another relaxing weekend on deck!
And what a weekend, particularly for sports fans, with the Knicks, Islanders and Rangers all kicking off postseason playoff series, the first-place Yankees hosting the rival Rays and the red-hot Mets (!) confronting the mighty Dodgers. Before we get to the action, one more workday to defeat – and this sporty innovation newsletter to help settle the score.
Purrrrrfect love: It’s National Cat Lady Day, spotlighting affections between females and felines.
Pet projects: Today is Friday, April 19, and we’re opening with a double-dip for pet lovers – today is both National Dog Parent Appreciation Day, when we honor the affections bonding pups and their humans, and National Cat Lady Day, when we toss out “crazy” imagery and celebrate the unconditional love connecting women and their feline friends.
Hold your breath: Maybe not a terrible idea on National Garlic Day, when the aromatic, tasty and highly potent (long after consuming) “stinking rose” flavors our foods.
Be sure to wash it down with a bittersweet after-dinner cordial – a must on National Amaretto Day, sipping the almond-derived spirit every April 19.
This is only a test: Raising a glass to his success on this date in 1892 was American automobile pioneer Charles Duryea, after test-driving his first gasoline-powered automobile (or so the story goes).
Pedal pusher: Eschewing gas for a completely different fuel was Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman, who took history’s most famous chemically enhanced spin on April 19, 1943, ingesting a tiny amount of LSD and hopping on his bicycle.
You give us 22 minutes…: Also making headlines was Westinghouse Broadcasting, which switched New York City AM radio station 1010 WINS – underperforming as NYC’s third-rated rock ’n’ roll station – to an all-news format 59 years ago today.
Race to space: Aerospace engineer and retired U.S. Air Force fighter pilot Guion Bluford Jr. became NASA’s first African American astronaut in 1983.
Diversity in spaaaaace: Also switching things up on this date in 1982 was NASA, which informed astronaut trainees Sally Ride and Guion Bluford Jr. that they’d be America’s first woman and African American, respectively, to fly in space. (They’d blast off separately, for the record, on 1983 Space Shuttle missions STS-7 and STS-8.)
Cleared for takeoff: And it was April 19, 2021, when NASA engineers conducted humanity’s first powered and controlled flight on Mars, sending the ambitious Ingenuity Helicopter soaring through Martian skies.
The whirlybird drone surpassed all expectations and conducted dozens of successful missions over the next two years-plus, finally damaging a rotor blade this past January on its 72nd and final flight.
Untouchable: American crimefighter Eliot Ness (1903-1957) – the U.S. Department of Justice special agent who famously took on gangster Al Capone’s Chicago-based criminal enterprise – would be 121 years old today.
The scribe who came in from the cold: Former CIA operative Valerie Plume wrote all about it after her cover was blown by scurrilous political insiders.
Also born on April 19 were Norwegian inventor Ole Evinrude (born Ole Andreassen Aaslundeie, 1877-1934), who built the first practical outboard marine engine; American ecologist Richard Pough (1904-2003), founding president of The Nature Conservancy; American chemist Glenn Seaborg (1912-1999), whose investigations of transuranium elements earned him a Nobel Prize and influenced development of the A-bomb; American actress and sex symbol Jayne Mansfield (born Vera Jayne Palmer, 1933-1967), who turned wardrobe malfunctions into an art form; and American spy novelist Valerie Elise Plame (born 1963), a former Central Intelligence Agency operative who became a writer after her cover was blown in 2003’s infamous “Plame Affair.”
The Force is strong with this one: And take a bow, Hayden Christensen! The Canadian actor – whose personal redemption arc eerily mirrors the journey of tormented “Star Wars” centerpiece Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, his most famous role – turns 43 today.
Give the slightly ridiculed, wholly loathed and finally beloved performer your best at editor@innovateli.com, where you don’t know the power of the Dark Side – but we fully understand the power of your news tips and calendar events.
About our sponsor: Northwell Health is New York’s largest healthcare provider and private employer, with 21 hospitals, 900 outpatient facilities and 85,000 employees. We’re making research breakthroughs at the Feinstein Institutes and training the next generation of medical professionals at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra Northwell School of Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. Visit Northwell.edu.
BUT FIRST, THIS
High note: One of Long Island’s coolest museums has earned a showstopping endorsement.
Grammy.com, the online home of the Grammy Awards, has named the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame one of 10 nationwide music-industry HOFs worth visiting this spring, part of an impressive list including Nashville, Tenn.’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the National Jazz Hall of Fame in Kansas City, Mo., and the Grammy Hall of Fame in Los Angeles. It’s a top honor for LIMEHOF, which was incorporated in July 2005 and moved into its world-class Stony Brook digs 18 months ago.
The Grammy gift arrives as the museum – which has enshrined major-league talents ranging from Tony Bennett and Barbra Streisand to Neil Diamond and LL Cool J – kicks off its 20th Anniversary celebration, complete with ongoing honorifics for favorite Long Island son Billy Joel. “I dare anyone to find another region or Hall of Fame in the world that showcases as much internationally recognized, diverse musical talent as Long Island and the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame,” trumpeted LIMEHOF Chairman Ernie Canadeo.
Back in the saddle: Pal-O-Mine Equestrian has opened a new Therapeutic Center in Islandia, part of a larger effort to expand its services for people with disabilities.
Horse sense: A Long Island nonprofit that leverages horses as healers is saddling up its new Therapeutic Center.
Islandia-based 501(c)3 organization Pal-O-Mine Equestrian is scheduled to ceremoniously cut the ribbon today on its new center, with visions of expanding its comprehensive therapeutic-equine curricula for children and adults with disabilities. Programming on tap at the new center includes new workforce-development efforts for at-risk youth, speech and occupational-therapy programs, veteran and first-responder retreats and educational programs specifically targeting teenagers struggling with traditional schoolwork – with hundreds of additional students expected to benefit from the infrastructure upgrades, according to a Pal-O-Mine statement.
The new Therapeutic Center – part of the nonprofit’s $3 million expansion campaign, dubbed “A Race We Will Win” – was made possible in part by a $600,000 Empire State Development Corp. grant. “We thank the many generous donors who contributed to our Therapy Center’s development,” noted Pal-O-Mine Equestrian CEO and founder Lisa Gatti. “We are extremely grateful to Empire State Development for awarding us a $600,000 grant to assist us in our workforce-development initiative.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Mental breakdown: A new study led by the New York Institute of Technology expresses growing concern for the mental health of U.S. collegians, particularly Asian American students.
Now’s the time: If you’re enjoying this newsletter, just wait until you see what we’re working on for Monday’s edition – which you won’t see, of course, unless you have an always easy, always free Innovate Long Island Newsletter subscription. What are you waiting for?
ICYMI
As Long Island casino action heats up, Suffolk OTB is doubling down on Jake’s 58 with an ambitious $210 million expansion plan.
BEST OF THE WEST (AND SOMETIMES NORTH/SOUTH)
Innovate LI’s inbox overrunneth with inspirational innovations from all North American corners. This week’s brightest out-of-towners:
From Colorado: Denver-based dog-care dynamo Woof pairs popular Pupsicle refillable treats with nutrition-packed Wellness Pops.
From New York City: Groundbreaking creative platform Fair Share Publishing redefines the self-publishing ecosystem with first book publication.
From Colorado: Denver-based THC/CBD-infused cocktail creator Fable launches new line of high-quality nonalcoholic beverages.
ON THE MOVE
Nisha Parikh
+ Nisha Parikh has been named the system director of the Women’s Heart Program at the Northwell Health Cardiovascular Institute and the Katz Institute for Women’s Health. She was a cardiologist at the University of California/San Francisco.
+ Kate Caporusso has been hired as assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction and personnel in the North Merrick School District. She was an assistant principal at Merrick Avenue Middle School in Merrick.
+ Huntington Hospital’s Obstetrics and Gynecology Practice has announced the hiring of three new physicians: Lisa Amorin, Morisa Marin and Natalia Flores, all of whom worked previously for Smithtown-based Square Care Medical Group.
+ Gerard Luckman has been elected president of the Institute of Management Accountants’ Long Island Chapter. He is a partner at Uniondale-based Forchelli Deegan Terrana and chairman of the firm’s Bankruptcy & Corporate Restructuring Practice Group.
+ The Westbury-based Medical Society of the State of New York has announced the election of Assistant Treasurer Frank Dowling, a clinical associate psychiatry professor at the Stony Brook School of Medicine, and Assistant Secretary Bernadette Riley, director of the Old Westbury-based New York Institute of Technology’s Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome/Hypermobility Treatment Center and a NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine family medicine professor.
+ Melville-based Bond, Schoeneck & King has added five new Education Law attorneys, all from Melville-based Lamb & Barnosky, to its School Law Practice Group: Eugene Barnosky, Robert Cohen, Lindsay Crocker, Mara Harvey and Lauren Schnitzer.
+ Don Tesoriero has been appointed executive director of The 1653 Foundation in Huntington. He is the principal of Huntington-based Tesori Ventures and administrator for the Incorporated Village of Northport.
+ Danielle Molaison has been hired as vice president of development at Forest Hills-based Cord Meyer Development. She was director of development at Melville-based AvalonBay Communities.
+ Jessica Newburger has been hired as a board-certified dermatologist at Greenberg Cosmetic Surgery and Dermatology in Woodbury. She held the same position at Northwell Dermatology in Huntington.
+ Lisa Mitnick has been hired as director of development at Deer Park-based Girls Inc. of Long Island. She was senior business development manager at Hauppauge-based People’s Alliance Federal Credit Union.
+ Peter Schimmel has been hired as a financial advisor and registered representative at East Hills-based Blue Ocean Wealth Solutions. He is a recent graduate of St. Thomas Aquinas College.
Like this newsletter? Innovate Long Island newsletter, website and podcast sponsorships are a prime opportunity to reach the inventors, investors, entrepreneurs and executives you need to know (just ask Northwell Health). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Spaced Out Edition)
Check under the hood, too: Welcome to the Astroscale Prototype Servicer for Refueling.
Fill ’er up: Behold, the first gas station in space.
Decked out: How engineers are bringing a “Star Trek” holodeck to the real world.
Death star: A huge stellar explosion in a distant constellation will be visible from Earth later this year.
Stellar effort: Please continue supporting the incredible institutions that support Innovate Long Island, including Northwell Health, where healthcare innovators are always reaching for the stars. Check them out.
