Rain out: Between near-miss Henri and super-soaker Ida, we’ve had quite enough rain, thank you – thankfully, the sun is shining today, dear readers, just in time for a blessed three-day weekend.
Yes, it’s a bright Friday out there – and before we wrap up the week, a quick reminder not to expect a calendar newsletter on Labor Day Monday. Your next regularly scheduled newsletter will arrive Wednesday … until then, keep an eye on our website, and enjoy your end-of-summer festivities!
A toast: Welsh rarebit? It’s kinda cheesy, but definitely delish.
No rabbits were harmed in the making of this holiday: As for today, it’s Sept. 3 and National Welsh Rarebit Day. (What is “rarebit,” you ask? It’s a tongue-in-cheek play on what the Welsh called “rabbit,” a decidedly bunnyless cheese-covered toast.)
Stay in your lane: Ugly shoes and 10th-frame turkeys also get a little love today, known domestically as National Bowling League Day.
If that’s too guttural for you, reach toward the literal heights of innovation – Sept. 3 is also National Skyscraper Day.
Missing time: Maybe we should just be happy there is a Sept. 3. There wasn’t one in 1752 in England or its colonies, after Britain – aligning with the rest of Europe and correcting the errors of the Roman-era Julian calendar, which had strayed more than a week off the solar cycle – finally adopted the Gregorian calendar.
That jumped the date from Wednesday, Sept. 2, to Thursday, Sept. 14, and caused rioting in the streets, with less-than-well-informed villagers believing the government had “stolen” 11 days of their lives.
Very Old Glory: Speaking of dissatisfaction with the British crown, the American flag flew in battle for the first time on Sept. 3, 1777, rising during a Revolutionary War skirmish in Delaware.
It doesn’t end well: The USS Shenandoah, before the storm.
Dirigible? Yes. Durable? No: Not flying nearly as well was the USS Shenandoah, America’s first rigid dirigible, which crashed during a violent thunderstorm over Ohio 96 years ago today, killing 14 of its 43 crewmembers.
All aboard: No crewmembers were lost on Sept. 3, 1931, when the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad’s first all-electric passenger train – introduced to reduce smoke pollution around New York City – departed Hoboken for Montclair, NJ, with none other than Thomas Edison at the engineer’s controls.
Viking cruises: And another successful voyage was completed on this date in 1976, when NASA’s unmanned Viking II spacecraft landed on the Utopia Planitia, about seven weeks after the Viking I lander set down on the surface of Mars.
Both landers were stocked with equipment for biological experiments – but Viking II also had a camera, and beamed back the first pictures of the Martian surface.
There is no substitute: Czech-German automotive engineer Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1951) – who brought Hitler’s Volkswagen vision to life and founded the Porsche car company – would be 146 years old today.
Strangely familiar: Confrontational Ray bashed the political establishment, the media and environmental-protection laws, and served only one term.
Also born on Sept. 3 were Norwegian geophysicist Fredrik Størmer (1874-1957), who calculated the mathematics of polar auroras; American physicist Harold DeForest Arnold (1883-1933), who went the distance on radio communications; American physicist and Nobel laureate Carl David Anderson (1905-1991), who discovered the positron; American anthropologist and ecologist Loren Eiseley (1907-1977), remembered as the 20th Century’s most influential literary naturalist; and brash marine biologist Marguerite “Dixy Lee” Ray (1914-1994), Washington State’s first woman governor, an outspoken champion of nuclear power and a frequent opponent of environmental protection.
Still regretting the whole “tiger blood” thing: And take a bow, Carlos Irwin Estévez! The American actor – known best as Charlie Sheen and still dining on ashes for his very public 2011 meltdown – turns 56 today.
Give the former “Two And a Half Men” lead – now relegated to guest shots and reality TV – your best at editor@innovateli.com, where we define “winning” as news tips and calendar events.
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BUT FIRST, THIS
Back on track: The governor and other officials observe repair efforts at Great Neck Station.
Extreme measures: Surveying Long Island recovery efforts Thursday after the record-breaking inundation of Tropical Depression Ida, Gov. Kathy Hochul stated her intentions to better prepare the state for new extreme-weather realities.
Speaking in Great Neck, Hochul referenced “record-shattering rainfall,” invoked regional “resiliency” and applauded the “extraordinary effort” of repair crews trying valiantly to get the flooded Great Neck Station back into operational shape. She also highlighted a decade of infrastructure progress since 2012’s Superstorm Sandy – “Many of our coastal areas are in a far better place to be able to handle the wind and wave action,” the former lieutenant governor noted – but insisted there’s much work to be done to keep New York ahead of future storms.
“One thing I want to make clear: We’re not treating this as if it’s not going to happen again for 500 years,” the governor noted. “What we’re not prepared for, and what I’m not satisfied with, (is) what’s happening on our streets at the higher elevations. They’re not able to sustain the effect of flash floods. Flash floods are now coming – it is not waves off the ocean or off the Sound, it is flash floods coming from the sky.”
Extra effort: As part of a National Institutes of Health clinical trial, the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research on Wednesday delivered its first set of “extra shots” to eligible patients with autoimmune diseases.
Funded by the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Phase 2 “COVID‐19 Booster Vaccine in Autoimmune Disease Non‐Responders” trial will study antibody responses to additional shots of an authorized COVID-19 vaccine in people with autoimmune diseases, which affect an estimated 8 percent of the U.S. population, according to Northwell Health’s scientific research mecca. The idea is to see how the booster affects patients whose bodies didn’t initially respond to vaccine regimens, and to determine whether temporarily delaying immunosuppressive therapy – common to autoimmune-disease patients – around COVID inoculations improves antibody responses.
Long Island grandfather Robert Cass, who suffers from both Sjogren’s syndrome and rheumatoid arthritis, was the first New York patient to receive the extra shot, with 600 patients ages 18 and up scheduled to join the national study. “We are eager to enroll patients … to study the efficacy of an additional vaccine dose to boost their immune system,” noted principal co-investigator Meggan Mackay, a professor in the Feinstein Institutes’ Institute of Molecular Medicine, adding the effort could “help protect millions from this virus.”
TOP OF THE SITE
One-two punch: The COVID crisis and climate change are inexorably linked, according to Voices legal anchor Michael Sahn, who suggests solid steps to protect Long Island from both.
Streams of thought: Featuring an incredible roster of executives, educators and inventors, Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast is the smartest thing you’ll hear today. Season 1 now streaming.
ICYMI
A St. Joseph’s biology professor takes astronauts to Mars; a freshly minted governor takes anti-vaxxers to school.
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 North Carolina: Durham-based biochemistry groundbreaker Precision Fermentation advances craft-brew automation with IoT-driven BrewMonitor System.
From California: Santa Monica-based software specialist Aparavi partners with tech-services provider Terralogic to classify, consolidate and govern distributed data.
From Pennsylvania: State College-based meteorological master AccuWeather puts new severe-weather alert system in the hands of T-Mobile customers.
ON THE MOVE
Harold Paz
+ Stony Brook University has named Harold Paz executive vice president for health sciences. He was most recently executive vice president and chancellor for health affairs at The Ohio State University and CEO of the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center.
+ Alton Byrd has joined the Freeport-based Book Fairies Board of Directors. He is vice president of growth properties at Brooklyn-based BSE Global.
+ Leslie Berkoff has been appointed to the American Arbitration Association’s International Centre for Dispute Resolution. She’s a partner at Garden City-based Moritt Hock & Hamroff and chairwoman of the firm’s Dispute Resolution Practice Group.
+ Internal medicine physician Razia Jayman-Aristide has joined New York Health as chief medical officer. She will practice in Mount Sinai.
+ Oncologist-hematologist Meytal Fabrikant has joined New York Cancer and Blood Specialists. She will practice in Lake Ronkonkoma.
+ Family medicine physician Neelma Khan has joined New York Health and will practice in North Massapequa.
+ Katherine Robinson-Cirelli has been named senior executive of marketing operations for Cold Spring Harbor-based Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty.
BELOW THE FOLD (Fine Wine Edition)
(Pumpkin) spice, spice baby: It’s beginning to look a lot like autumn in New York.
Pit cru: A French oil company is using wine waste to create eco-friendly racecar fuel.
Sangria, for starters: Sparkling vinos and “natural wines” lead Autumn 2021’s beverage trends.
Days of wine and cider donuts: From vineyards to pumpkin patches, fall festivals abound across Long Island.
Vintage storytelling: Please continue supporting the amazing companies that support Innovate Long Island, including Brandtelling, where they’re ready to pop the cork on your fantastic new podcast. Check them out.
