No. 1092: On the Mahatma, automotive appellations, legal tech and sweet music (on the big screen)

 

Sports model: Welcome to Friday, dear readers, and not just any Friday but the kickoff of a golden quartet for sports fans – a rare and wonderful weekend when all four of America’s major sports leagues are in action.

Yes, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association all take the field/ice/court this weekend (if you include the NBA preseason, which, for the purposes of this clever newsletter opener, we do). Before we settle onto the couch, however, we’ve got one more workday to work through, starting with this educational, entertaining and surprisingly athletic week-in-review innovation newsletter.

Pacifistic plug: Today is Oct. 2 and we’re opening with some peaceful praise for the International Day of Non-Violence, the U.N.’s annual bouquet to passive resistance against injustice and oppression – polar opposite of this, this and this. (Nonviolence is preferable every day … so why is it officially feted today? Glad you asked. Keep reading.)

By any other name: Many really cool tags are taken – “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” “Ecto-1,” the “Batmobile” and such – but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to be creative on National Name Your Car Day, personalizing our four-wheeled friends since 1990.

And if you can’t be creative on National Fried Scallops Day (crisping up some bivalve mollusks), Barrel-Aged Beer Day (absorbing leftover notes and flavors from previously barreled wines and spirits), National Non-Alcoholic Beer Day (fine) and National Smarties Day (unwrapping the sweet, tangy and slightly chalky wafers), you’re just not trying.

Closer look: Trying his absolute best was Dutch eyeglass maker Hans Lippershey, who filed a patent at The Hague on Oct. 2, 1608, for a device that combined two lenses to make distant objects appear closer – marking, for all intents and purposes, the invention of the telescope. (Whether this was the spyglass’s actual origin, however, is open to debate).

Open and shut (and open): Much clearer are the origins of the tin can opener, patented on this date in 1866 by New York City-based inventor J. Osterhoudt.

Making his case: Speaking of inventors and inventions, in Wednesday’s newsletter, we highlighted a fantastic date for master innovator Thomas Edison. Today, we shout out Edison’s biggest rival, Serbian American mastermind Nikola Tesla, who scored three big patents – for his System of Electric Distribution, Dynamo Electric Machine and Dynamo Electric Motor – 138 years ago today.

Go ’Nuts: Also hitting it big was cartoonist Charles Schultz’s “Peanuts” comic strip, which debuted in seven U.S. newspapers on this date in 1950 (reworking the creator’s “Li’l Folks” strip, which had run exclusively in the Saturday Evening Post).

Beyond that which is known to man: And soon to incorporate little folks, giant monsters and every conceivable (and inconceivable) supernatural spook in between, “The Twilight Zone” debuted on the CBS Television Network on Oct. 2, 1959.

“Zone’s” original 1959 to 1964 run would generate eight Emmy Award nominations and three wins – and change the science fiction genre forever.

The Mahatma: Indian lawyer, nationalist, political ethicist and spiritual leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) – the ultimate symbol of nonviolent, passive resistance, put to successful use in the campaign to free India from British rule – would be 157 years old today.

Also born on Oct. 2 were British physician and teacher Sir Berkeley Moynihan (1865-1936), an influential abdominal surgery pioneer; American comedian, actor, writer and singer Groucho Marx (born Julius Henry Marx, 1890-1977), a sharp-witted legend of stage, radio, television and film; English novelist, short-story writer, playwright and journalist Henry “Graham” Greene (1904-1991), ranked among the 20th Century’s greatest authors; German American scientist and science writer Willy Ley (1906-1969), an early proponent of rocket-powered spaceflight; and English musician, songwriter and actor Gordon Sumner (born 1951), known best by stage name Sting.

Say cheese: And take a bow, Anna-Lou “Annie” Leibovitz! The American photographer – best known for her celebrity portraits, which often capture subjects in intimate settings and vulnerable poses – turns 77 today.

Shower the shutterbug with birthday wishes at editor@innovateli.com, where we’re thrilled to capture your news tips and perfectly frame your calendar events.

 

About our sponsor: ZE Creative Communications is a full-service integrated marketing communications agency specializing in public relations, creative marketing, crisis communication and social media. Founded in Great Neck, ZE Creative Communications has been helping clients create compelling and successful messaging campaigns for more than three decades. Learn more here.

 

BUT FIRST, THIS

Taking the LOCAL: A commercial-telecommunications kingpin, two progressive chambers of commerce and one of Long Island’s busiest business boosters have supercharged two more Island-based enterprises.

Optimum Business, the LIA Foundation (the Long Island Association’s philanthropic arm), the Long Island African American Chamber of Commerce and the Long Island Hispanic Chamber of Commerce have announced the grand-prize winners of the competitive-application 2026 LOCAL Small Business Grant Program. Huntington-based Balance Mental Health Counseling and the Hempstead-based Barber & Beauty Institute of New York will both receive a $20,000 business-development grant and an Optimum Media television advertising campaign valued at $5,000.

In June, 40 Long Island small businesses received $5,000 grants through the annual Lifting Our Community Businesses Across Long Island program, which launched in 2024 and has so far awarded nearly $750,000 in grants to 130-plus regional businesses. “This grant program… contributes to the sustainability of Long Island’s ecosystem by injecting capital into the regional economy,” noted Long Island African American Chamber of Commerce President Phil Andrews. “Capital is the lifeblood of businesses in the region, and companies such as Optimum are to be applauded for making a significant difference in shaping the region’s economy.”

The envelope, please: Let’s have a round of applause for the second-annual Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame Music Documentary Film Festival, which concluded Sept. 27 with a stirring awards ceremony.

This year’s three-day festival included 42 short and feature-length music documentary films – profiling Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Heart frontwoman Ann Wilson, the Beastie Boys and many other performers and bands you know – along with Q&A panel discussions and live musical performances. Among the award-winners were “Billy Preston: That’s the Way God Planned It” (which won the Best U.S. Feature Film and Feature Audience awards), “Kenny Loggins: Convictions of the Heart” (which earned a Best U.S. Director award for filmmaker Dori Berinstein) and “The Long Island Underground Legends of Hip-Hop” (which snagged a Long Island Filmmaker Award for director Archie Snowden).

A complete list of 2026 award-winners is available here. “These films reminded us that music can change lives,” noted LIMEHOF Music Documentary Film Festival Executive Director Tom Needham. “It brings people together, it builds community, it gives artists a way to express themselves in a way that words can’t … it really makes a difference, and that’s what this festival is all about.”

 

TOP OF THE SITE

Innovation in the court! Leveraging a $1 million alumnus gift, Hofstra University’s Maurice A. Deane School of Law has announced the creation of a new Institute for Legal Technology & Innovation.

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ICYMI

The Town of Hempstead Local Development Corp. has issued preliminary approvals for a tax-exempt bond sale that could pump tens of millions of dollars into a state-of-the-art Molloy University science facility – a big potential win for students and the regional innovation economy.

 

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 Florida: Sanford-based youth baseball/softball scouting service Perfect Game streamlines its platform with a new event-classification system for families and future stars.

From California: Los Angeles-based family-storytelling frontrunner Remento simplifies baby’s first year with its easy photo- and milestone-filled hardcover keepsake books.

From Louisiana: New Orleans-based infrared-sauna innovator HOTWORX launches a limited-time fundraising efforts supporting military women battling breast cancer.

 

ON THE MOVE

+ Deidre Cooper has been named assistant dean for student services and records at the Central Islip-based Touro Law Center. She was coordinator of student engagement at the Friends Academy in Glen Cove.

+ Laurence Spier has been hired as vice chairman of thoracic surgery and director of robotic thoracic surgery at Rockville Centre-based Catholic Health. He was chief of thoracic surgery at NYU Langone Hospital-Long Island in Mineola.

+ Aldo Spano has been named director of recreation and head sprint football coach at the Old Westbury-based New York Institute of Technology. He was the varsity football associate head coach, linebacker defense coordinator and running backs coach at the Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn.

+ Babylon-based McBride Consulting and Business Development Group has announced two new hires:

• Michael Alliksen has been hired as senior vice president/business development, insurance and risk management. He was vice president at Corporate Synergies in Melville.
• Sal Ferro has been hired as vice president/state and local government practice. He is a former member of the Town of Huntington Town Council.

+ Joseph Greco has been appointed chairman of the Hauppauge-based Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council. He is executive vice president and chief of hospital operations at NYU Langone Hospital-Long Island in Mineola.

+ Great Neck-based Sheehan and Co. has announced two new hires:

• Paul Becht has been hired as a partner. He was a principal at Baker Tilly in Uniondale.
• Amy Joyce has been hired as director of private client services. She was assistant superintendent for business in the North Bellmore Union Free School District.

+ Shauna Lent has been hired as fleet coordinator at the Oakdale-based Suffolk County Water Authority. She was revenue manager at Clare Rose in Yaphank.

 

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 ZE Creative). Gregory Zeller can tell you more.

 

BELOW THE FOLD (Judicial Homicide Edition)

Life after death (sentence): Tennessee postpones scheduled executions after death-row inmate survives multiple lethal injections.

Death do us part: Only one-quarter of the world’s nations still practice capital punishment – with China, Iran and the United States topping the list.

Dead wrong: Trump’s not the first head of state to call for the execution of political rivals – just the first American one.

New life: Please continue supporting the fantastic firms that support Innovate Long Island, including ZE Creative Communications, which specializes in resurrecting left-for-dead brands and lifeless marketing messages. Check them out.