Time check: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, as October (and Daylight Savings Time) run out the clock.
Yes, the sun is setting on the 10th month of 2025 (just two days to go) and on afternoon daylight (at least until late Winter). But we’re only halfway through this busy Autumnal workweek – so let’s call a quick timeout, check the clock and draw up some winning plays.
What’s the hurry? Speaking of clocks, this gentle reminder that time is running out on Innovate Long Island’s exclusive collaboration with LocaLI Bred – the classy gift-box curators who fill one-of-a-kind gift baskets with the best made-on-Long Island products (candies and coffees, teas and T-shirts, the sweetest-smelling soaps and candles and much more).
Corporate officers in charge of holiday gift-giving for staff, clients and partners should visit LocaLI Bred before midnight Oct. 31 and enter code innovateli5 for a discount on their bulk orders – but the deal’s only good through Friday night, so get cracking!
It’s the right thing to do: Maybe skip the bacon and eggs today.
Less stress: Stay calm! Today is only Oct. 29 and you’ve still got two full days to take advantage of our terrific LocaLI Bred collaboration. So don’t stress out – especially not on World Stroke Day, the World Stroke Organization’s annual spotlight on the causes and symptoms of stroke (and best actions to take when one strikes).
Always promoting serenity is a feline purring on your lap – so thank goodness today is also National Cat Day, when we offer a little extra love (and a few extra treats) to our sweet, occasionally standoffish companions.
Table for one (or more): Calling to mind the prototypical “cat lady” is National Hermit Day, honoring folks who select a life of human solitude for all kinds of different reasons.
And whether you’re flying solo or packing them in, we can all agree that a steaming bowl of whole grains provides an energetic start to any day – but especially National Oatmeal Day, served warm (and topped with fruit and nuts and a dash of cinnamon, please) every Oct. 29.
Reinventing the wheel: Also fairly energizing was the “Wind Wheel” patented on this date in 1872 by Illinois-based inventor James Risdon – officially, the first all-metal windmill, improving on all-wood designs.
Make it quick: With World War II raging, the original Alaska Highway was a rush job by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
…or the highway: Also improving conditions (and invoking wheels) was the Alaska Highway, which was completed on Oct. 29, 1942, by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. (Paved smooth now, the World War II pioneer-road project, built to connect Anchorage and Fairbanks to the Lower 48, was a relatively rough 1,500-mile stretch hammered out in just over eight months.)
Ball don’t lie: Also on-point was America’s first ballpoint pen – the Reynolds International Pen Co.’s “Reynolds Rocket,” which sparked a writing revolution when it was introduced by Gimbels Department Stores 80 years ago today.
If not NOW, who? Signing on the dotted line were the inaugural leaders of the National Organization for Women, who inked the powerful feminist group’s original Statement of Purpose on this date in 1966. (For the record, the early SOP was awash in 1960s language and themes, which have evolved through the years into updated NOW bylaws.)
Senior citizens in spaaaaace: And it was Oct. 29, 1998, when then-U.S. Sen. John Glenn Jr. – who in 1962 became the first American to orbit the Earth, during NASA’s famed Project Mercury – returned to space at age 77.
The Space Shuttle Discovery mission made Glenn the oldest person to travel to space – a record now owned by American sculptor, author and retired test pilot Ed Dwight, who in May 2024 hitched a ride on a Blue Origin spaceship at age 90.
Brushing up: American painter and television personality Robert Norman “Bob” Ross (1942-1999) – the soft-voiced, heavily bearded, distinctly afroed and remarkably talented PBS all-star who introduced millions to “The Joy of Painting” – would be 83 years old today.
Turning over a new Sirleaf: Now a grandmother of 12, Ellen Sirleaf changed Liberia — and all of Africa — forever.
Also born on Oct. 29 were English physician John Elliotson (1791-1868), who advocated for the use of therapeutic hypnosis and founded England’s first “mesmeric hospital”; American paleontologist Othniel Marsh (1831-1899), a prolific fossil collector who packed a lot into only four years of fieldwork; Bulgarian American pharmaceutical chemist, novelist, playwright and poet Carl Djerassi (1923-2015), who helped develop the first oral contraceptives to earn immortality as the “Father of the Pill”; American actor Richard Dreyfuss (born 1947), a versatile Oscar and Golden Globe winner; and Canadian former professional ice hockey defenseman Denis Potvin (born 1953), a National Hockey League No. 1 draft pick who became a vital cog in the New York Islanders’ early-1980s dynasty.
Yes, sir ma’am: And take a bow, Ellen Eugenia Johnson Sirleaf! The Liberian statewoman – a tireless social-justice crusader, proud Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the 24th president of Liberia and the first woman elected to lead an African state – turns 87 today.
Send your best to “Africa’s Iron Lady” at editor@innovateli.com, where we lead with your news tips – and your calendar events keep our irons in the fire.
About our sponsor: FourLeaf Federal Credit Union (formerly Bethpage Federal Credit Union) has been serving its members and their communities for more than 80 years. Just like when it first opened its doors in 1941, the credit union is keeping its promise to continuously meet the changing needs of members, employees and the communities they serve by being a trusted financial partner dedicated to enriching lives. Let’s Money Together.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Ray of sunshine: The popular Long Island-based comedy will be celebrated with a groundbreaking LIMEHOF exhibit.
You’ll love this: The museum that famously feted Long Island icon Billy Joel is giving the center-stage treatment to a beloved Island-based sitcom.
“Everybody Loves Raymond: Celebrating 30 Years” is scheduled to open Nov. 28 at the Stony Brook-based Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame, honoring a Nassau County-set, Emmy-winning comedy that graced the CBS Television Network from 1996 to 2005. Presented by Rockville Centre-based Catholic Health and designed by LIMEHOF Creative Director Kevin O’Callaghan, the exhibition will feature original studio sets, costumes and props (the Christmas toaster!), with multimedia presentations – including favorite scenes and rare outtakes – filling LIMEHOF’s surround-sound theater.
The “Raymond” exhibit is “enthusiastically” supported by series star (and native Long Islander) Ray Romano, according to LIMEHOF Chairman Ernie Canadeo, and makes for a worthy successor to the museum’s comprehensive and long-running homage to the Piano Man. “I am thrilled that we can follow up the incredible success of the ‘Billy Joel: My Life’ exhibit with another blockbuster exhibition,” Canadeo noted. “It is a fitting tribute to Long Island that we can … showcase 30 years of this beloved show to be enjoyed by its legions of Long Island fans.”
Owning it: One of Long Island’s top institutions of higher education has ignited the engines of its “not modest” strategic growth plan.
Aligning vision, resources and effort, SUNY Old Westbury President Timothy Sams officially and enthusiastically introduced his school’s 2026-2031 strategic plan – “Owning our Future through Community, Excellence, Impact and Distinction” – on Oct. 22. The five-year mission, leveraging 24 months of front-row insights gathered from all campus corners, is built on four central pillars, each with its own comprehensive blueprint (and multiple objectives): academic and research excellence, student enrollment and success, institutional and external-profile resilience and enhanced innovation and creativity.
The new plan will “set a new course” for the SUNY institution, according to Sams, while extending the campus’ six-decade legacy of social and environmental justice. “We now must continue to build upon this foundation and develop new ways to prepare students for careers that do not yet exist, and civic roles that are sorely needed,” the president added. “Because our aspiration is not modest: We intend to be a premiere cosmopolitan public liberal arts university that cultivates growth, success and impact.”
POD PEOPLE
Episode 57: Spencer Bang, scare tactics.
Ghostly apparitions, creepy sounds, dark woods, moody music … you’ve heard and seen it all before. But not in the way innovative production company Nightwire Films does it, twisting the horror genre into a unique, unsettling and often frightening experience – a distinctive calling card for its founders, including accomplished actor and filmmaker Spencer Bang.
Spencer joins “Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast” for a special Halloween episode exploring the importance of professional collaboration, the art of Digital Age marketing and the heart of old-school moviemaking – and detailing why soul-thumping supernatural suspense is Nightwire’s primary focus.
TOP OF THE SITE
Shelf life: An independent bookseller is bucking retail trends, uniting likeminded communities and otherwise living the dream on Suffolk County’s North Shore.
Stop at nothing: Our subscriber-only Monday Calendar Newsletters – all the history, all the business intel, plus a thorough rundown of weekly and coming-soon networking and professional-development events across Long Island and around the world – are not reprinted in our deep Newsletter Archive. But don’t let that stop you.
VOICES
Environmental attorney Frank Piccininni, co-founder of Spadefoot Design & Construction, says slow government action is giving invasive vegetation a galloping lead – and the Voices environmental anchor is calling on residents, small businesses and civic groups to join Long Island’s ecological resistance.
Something you’d like to add? The Entrepreneur’s Edge is open for business! Innovate Long Island’s promoted-content platform provides a direct link from startups, established corporations and nonprofits to our forward-thinking audience – your future clients. Progressive product to promote? Singular service to sell? Sociopolitical position to push? Here’s your chance to shine a bright light on the big picture, the little details and everything in between, from the perspective of your innovation-focused enterprise. Learn more here!
STUFF WE’RE READING
Grok bottom: Musk challenges “woke” Wikipedia with new artificial intelligence-powered rival. Forbes grades ‘Grokipedia.’
Artificial excuse: Amazon pins 14,000 pre-holiday layoffs on rapid AI advances. Fast Co. cuts to the quick.
Hopes (Door)Dashed: Behold, the innovation that’s killing American restaurants. The Atlantic orders in.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Wild Moose, a New York City-based, artificial intelligence-powered Site Reliability Engineering platform, raised $7 million in Seed funding led by iAngels, with participation from Y Combinator, F2 Venture Capital, Maverick Ventures, Meta Superintelligence Labs AI Researcher Joel Pobar, Reddit and Netflix Founding SRE Jeremy Edberg and Dropbox Cofounder Arash Ferdowski.
+ Sweatpals, a Texas-based, community-driven fitness platform, raised $12 million in Seed funding led by Patron, a16z speedrun and Kevin Hart’s HartBeat Ventures, with participation from Max Mullen, WndrCo, Antler, Pear and Deb Liu.
+ Spacial, a California-based, AI-powered automation platform for residential engineering and permitting, raised $10 million in Seed funding led by TLV Partners, with participation from Mango Capital, Re Angels and HTV.
+ Epic, a Texas-based fintech focused on the automotive industry, raised $10 million in Series A funding led by FM Capital, with participation from Automotive Ventures.
+ iPNOTE, a California-based legal-tech platform streamlining intellectual property-related services, raised $1 million in Seed funding led by AltaIR Capital, with participation from Hi2 Venture Fund.
+ Plastomics, a Missouri-based agricultural biotech focused on chloroplast engineering, raised $5.8 million in Series B funding led by Fulcrum Global Capital, Lewis & Clark Partners, Skull Diamond & Heart Capital, the Missouri Technology Corp. and BioGenerator Ventures.
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 – on Long Island, and soon, across New York State (just ask FourLeaf). Gregory Zeller can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (World Series Edition)
Four decades later: Has it really been THAT long?!?
Fall Classic: The first World Series was played in 1905 – but it wasn’t the first national baseball championship.
Instant classic: Monday’s epic Blue Jays-Dodgers Game 3 was one for the ages.
Mets classic: It’s been 39 years (and four days) since this happened.
World beaters: Please continue supporting the innovative institutions that support Innovate Long Island, including FourLeaf Federal Credit Union, which applies a series of worldly services – and a champion-caliber pedigree – to your banking needs. Check them out.
