Greetings, Supreme Leader: Welcome to Friday, dear readers, as we celebrate another workweek conquered, another weekend earned and all kinds of exciting progress on our never-ending quest for socioeconomic innovation.
It’s March 12 out there – the World Day Against Cyber-Censorship, and we can only hope this supercharges our newsletter subscriptions in Pyongyang.
Keeping us in suspense: Why March 12?
It’s a mystery, of course: He was born in August and died in April, but this and every March 12 is Alfred Hitchcock Day, honoring the master of suspense. Nobody knows why.
Scouting ahead: Today is also National Girl Scout Day, and you’ll learn why in a minute.
And it’s National Baked Scallops Day, and it’s a Friday in Lent, so sure, why not.
“The Sopranos” came later: But New Jersey became an British colony on March 12, 1664, via an English patent issued by King Charles II. (It has expired.)
To cap it off: Coca-Cola was sold in glass bottles for the first time on this date in 1894.
Bottle opener: It took a while to shape up, but the “bottle of Coke” was born 127 years ago today.
For those keeping score, the iconic contoured bottle design still used today didn’t shape up until 1915.
Let’s talkie about this: The first public demonstration of motion pictures with synchronized sound was made on March 12, 1923, by inventor Lee De Forest.
Keep talking: Knee-deep in the Great Depression and eager to soothe national nerves, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered his first “fireside chat” 88 years ago tonight.
Roosevelt would make 30 more “fireside chat” broadcasts through June 1944, calmly discussing his Emergency Banking Act, the New Deal, World War II and other nail-biting topics.
Guiding light: And it was this date in 1912 when Juliette Gordon Low registered 18 girls as the first U.S. troop of Girl Guides – predecessor of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America.
Wagon train: Four-wheeled American manufacturer Clement Studebaker (1832-1901) – who built horse-drawn carriages and Conestoga wagons and founded the Studebaker Corporation, which didn’t produce his namesake automobiles until after his death – would be 189 years old today.
You should see the other guy: Romney, eye-opening.
Also born on March 12 were “On The Road” author Jack Kerouac (1922-1969); American astronaut Walter Marty “Wally” Schirra Jr. (1923-2007), the only spaceman to fly in NASA’s Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions; Nobel Prize-winning Japanese physicist Leo Esaki (born 1925), deep into electron tunneling; velvet-voiced Grammy Award-winner Al Jarreau (1940-2017); and Academy Award-winning actress, dancer and singer Liza Minnelli (born 1946).
The right done right: And take a bow, American politician and businessman Willard Mitt Romney – the junior U.S. senator from Utah, who gracefully lost his 2012 presidential race to incumbent Barack Obama and has championed what’s best about U.S. politics ever since, turns 74 today.
Give these and all the other March 12 innovators your best at editor@innovateli.com, where story tips, calendar events and theories about what really happened to Romney’s face are gratefully accepted.
About our sponsor: Whether it’s helping in site selection, cutting through red tape or finding innovative ways to meet specific needs, businesses that settle in the Town of Islip soon learn that we take a proactive approach to seeing them succeed. If your business wants to locate or expand in a stable community with great quality of life, then it’s time you took a closer look at Islip.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Marvel-ous: Baldwin High Schoolers (left to right) Thalia Kontoleon, Reyna Palmer, Jessica Darcy and Rochelle Saunders, bringing brains to a gun fight.
Lower your weapons: An all-girl team representing Baldwin High School has captured top honors in a regional competition dedicated to encouraging STEM studies.
The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and Northwell Health’s Center for Workforce Readiness selected the Baldwin team as winners of the annual Medical Marvels competition, which focused this year on the issue of gun violence. More than 150 students from 18 Nassau and Suffolk high schools participated in the challenge, which required a three-minute recorded presentation, a scientific assessment of a chosen research topic, a “technological component” and a full-on public-health strategy, judged by a panel of scientists, clinicians and healthcare administrators.
The Baldwin team proposed a revamping of national gun laws, with new legislation for drug testing, background checks, mandatory safety courses and mental health screenings (most firearm deaths are suicides, they noted). Enacted together, these ideas could decrease U.S. gun deaths by 70 percent over 18 years, according to the students’ winning research.
Legal maneuver: A strategic merger with statewide implications has direct connections to Long Island, where fresh blood will bolster a busy Garden City law group.
Syracuse-based Bond, Schoeneck & King, a 250-attorney firm with eight statewide offices and operations in Boston, Florida and Kansas, is absorbing the 15 attorneys of Putney, Twombly, Hall & Hirson, a 155-year-old boutique with satellites in Garden City, Manhattan and New Jersey. Two of the 15 (and a Putney Twombly Trusts & Estates paralegal) are ticketed for Bond’s Garden City office, where they’ll add expertise (and clients) in healthcare and higher education and otherwise “advance the strategic growth of our downstate footprint,” according to Kevin Bernstein, chairman of Bond’s management committee.
Both firms have a knack for employment and labor law, creating a synergy that was too good to pass up, according to Putney Twombly Managing Partner Dan Murphy. “Joining Bond will allow us to offer our clients a full-service platform with 30-plus practices,” Murphy said in a statement.
TOP OF THE SITE
Frame this one: An innovative filmmaker’s 88-second drone flight through a bustling bowling alley lands high on the zeitgeist’s list.
Hit the gas: If they’re serious about carbon emissions, regulators and investors must get on board with renewable natural gas, according to this energy insider.
Innovation in the Age of Coronavirus: Quelled quarantines, reversed railroads and valiant vaccinators … another wondrous week for Long Island’s one-and-only pandemic primer.
ICYMI
Items from Northwell Health’s historic first U.S. COVID-19 vaccination are headed to the Smithsonian.
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 Utah: Salt Lake City-based SaaS provider PatientBond launches new marketing-strategy application for hospitals, health systems and other healthcare providers.
From Washington State: Woodinville-based therapeutics pioneer Saltology introduces luxurious line of CBD- and essential oil-infused bath salts.
From Arizona: Tucson-based national accounting firm Profitopia offers free consultations to help small businesses decipher the $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan.
ON THE MOVE
Tweed Roosevelt
+ Tweed Roosevelt has been appointed chairman of Long Island University’s Brookville-based Roosevelt School. The great-grandson of Theodore Roosevelt is a co-founder of the Society of Presidential Descendants.
+ Bruce Latman has joined Hauppauge-based Custom Computer Specialists as chief financial officer. He previously served as a managing consultant for Jericho-based Grassi & Co.
+ Eliud Custodio has joined Hauppauge-based Custom Computer Specialists as vice president of marketing. He previously worked for Hotel Business, HomeWorld and Hamptons magazines.
+ The Hon. Jeffrey Brown has been appointed to the National Arbitration and Mediation Panel of Neutrals. He previously served as a justice of the State Supreme Court, 10th Judicial District, in Nassau County.
+ Melissa Negrin-Wiener has been appointed to the Levittown-based ELIJA Foundation’s Board of Directors. She is a partner managing the Government Benefits Department at Melville-based Cona Elder Law.
+ David Herold has been appointed to the Real Estate Institute at Stony Brook University. He is a partner in the Banking and Commercial Lending Group at East Meadow-based Certilman Balin Adler & Hyman.
BELOW THE FOLD
High there: They know how you feel.
Low riders: Why collegians want Congress to raise the national minimum wage.
Middle ground: Finding the leadership sweet spot between too nice and too demanding.
High note: Science finally understands the “runner’s high,” and it’s not from endorphins.
Just right: Please continue supporting the amazing institutions that support Innovate LI, including the Town of Islip Office of Economic Development, where the precise assistance your small business needs to survive and thrive is just a click away. Check them out.
