Numbers game: Welcome, friends, to the 700 Club – not Pat Robertson’s circa-1966 Christian newsmagazine (still kicking), but the landmark 700th edition of the Innovate Long Island newsletter.
Do the math: The K-man’s 2017 creation has published more than 6,000 news features and opinion pieces … and closer to 1,000 e-newsletters.
Of course, this isn’t actually the 700th edition. Regular readers will be familiar with the Myth of the Missing 22, as will anyone who visits our outrageously entertaining, endlessly informative newsletter archive, which curiously begins with Newsletter No. 23.
And of course, there are our Monday calendar newsletters, which are also entertaining and informative but, for whatever reason, not numbered.
Late, great Innovate Long Island founder John Kominicki, who started all this way back in 2015, left us to ponder these numerical oddities. But mathematical mysteries aside, we know he’d be jazzed today – our mostly symbolic milestone moment proves that his novel idea to chronicle the regional innovation economy, and build a toolbox to help it grow, has legs.
Of course, it also has you, dear readers, without whom we’d never have reached 700 or anywhere else. Thank you, sincerely, for taking the journey with us.
Fortunately, innovation never stops, and neither does the journey – so you go ahead and enjoy today’s edition, and we’ll get busy on the next 700!
Sweet start: We feel like celebrating, so we’ll kick it off with a pair of tasty June 17 observances – National Apple Strudel Day, honoring the fruit-filled pastries, and National Stewart’s Root Beer Day, raising a frosty mug to the 1924 launch of the famous Ohio brand.
Full plate: Not sure what they were eating or drinking in Philadelphia 166 years ago today, but we know what was on the menu – the abolition of slavery and the looming threat of civil war – when the very young Republican Party kicked off its first national convention.
From torch to toe: Liberty, in pieces.
Instructions included: Speaking of historic assemblages, the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor on this date in 1885 after a transatlantic trip from France – in 350 copper and iron pieces, packed into more than 200 shipping containers.
Sounds right: Master innovator Edwin Armstrong, who patented wideband frequency-modulation radio in December 1933, made national headlines on June 17, 1936, when he demonstrated FM’s capabilities at Federal Communications Commission headquarters.
Meal service: Nine days before now-defunct Pan Am – the first global passenger airline – officially began its round-the-world service, the airline hosted a promotional press flight that departed New York on June 17, 1947, en route to Ireland, England, Turkey, India, Thailand, China, Japan and elsewhere.
Among the headlines: the amazing food.
You must be kidney: And the world’s first successful kidney transplant was performed by surgeons in Chicago on this date in 1950.
The operation saved the life of a 44-year-old victim of polycystic kidney disease, which had killed her mother and older sister.
Short version: Irish-American educator, publisher, humanitarian and stenographer John Robert Gregg (1867-1948) – who invented an eponymous shorthand speed-writing system that was ultimately adapted into 13 languages – would be 155 years old today.
Ruth Wakefield: Chipping in.
Also born on June 17 were American miller George Cormack (1870-1953), a champion of breakfast who co-created Wheaties; Russian composer, pianist and conductor Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), a pivotal figure of modernist music; Dutch graphic artist Maurits Cornelis “M.C.” Escher (1898-1972), the mind-bender beloved by art aficionados and mathematicians; American chef Ruth Wakefield (1903-1977), the undisputed inventor of chocolate-chip cookies; and American psychologist William Estes (1919-2011), the first to apply mathematics to psychological study.
The Mandy man can: And take a bow, Barry Manilow! The American singer/songwriter – now into the seventh decade of his Grammy- and Emmy-filled career and still going strong – turns 79 today.
Wish the Copacabana king well at editor@innovateli.com, where [You] Write the Songs, we Can’t Smile Without [your news tips] and we’re Ready to Take a Chance Again with your calendar events (whew … Looks Like We Made It!).
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BUT FIRST, THIS
Seminal lesson: A successful Jewish-education organization has partnered with the Adelphi University School of Social Work to create a new online master’s degree program.
This is not the first time the Brooklyn-based New Seminary – founded in 1997 to help collegians pursue degrees without compromising the Halakha (the collective body of Jewish religious laws derived from the Written Torah and Oral Torah) or Hashkafa (the guiding philosophy of Orthodox Judaism) – has partnered with Adelphi. The organization has facilitated an undergraduate degree program in the university’s College of Nursing and Public Health for more than 15 years.
But it is the first time New Seminary has collaborated with Adelphi’s School of Social Work, creating a fully online two-year cohort that will offer students specialized training in behavioral health, psychiatric social work and other in-demand fields, within their specific religious parameters. “This new partnership will make our highly ranked social work program available to members of the Orthodox Jewish community,” noted School of Social Work Dean Manoj Pardasani. “We envision the graduates of this initiative bringing much-needed social services and professional expertise to their communities.”
Getting there: Long Island-based delivery service Trellus is giving mom and pop a fighting chance against the e-commerce giants, according to CEO Adam Haber.
Trellus another one: Congratulations to our friends over at Trellus Same-Day Local Delivery, the Long Beach-based last-mile delivery startup that’s roared passed a promising milestone.
Trellus – which launched in February 2021 (in the teeth of the COVID lockdowns) to facilitate same-day product deliveries (50 pounds or less) from mom-and-pops registered on the digital Trellus Marketplace – has signed its 250th Long Island small business: Madison’s Niche, an independent lifestyle boutique boasting five brick-and-mortar shops across Nassau and Suffolk counties.
With plans already afoot for a New York metropolitan area expansion – and a Series A funding round slated for this summer – the gig-driver network and technology platform’s quick rise to 250 member companies is a very good sign, according to Trellus co-founder and CEO Adam Haber. “It’s exciting to see the rapid growth of Trellus as we help Long Island’s small businesses … compete against e-commerce giants with on-demand last-mile delivery,” Haber said this week.
TOP OF THE SITE
Good cup of joe: A successful Long Island entrepreneur with a significant coffee habit has gifted $2 million to Molloy University’s new Workforce Development Program.
Ladies first: And second and always, as Northwell Health breaks ground on Glen Cove Hospital’s new $10 million Katz Women’s Surgical Center.
Pod racing: Prequels? Sequels? No thanks … we prefer original content on “Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast.” Season 3 breaks from the gate June 29 – until then, rev up with two-dozen stimulating conversations from Seasons 1 and 2.
ICYMI
Nimble consultancy keys Long Island’s first residential fuel-cell farm; SUNY chancellor plugs federal government’s new student Internet-access grants.
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 Minnesota: Minneapolis-based advanced-materials expert Claros Technologies partners with a Japanese subsidiary to scale-up wastewater decontamination tech.
From Pennsylvania: King of Prussia-based development and manufacturing organization The Center for Breakthrough Medicines accelerates its cell-therapy manufacturing plans.
From California: Santa Barbara-based interactive entertainment platform Gamisodes and its top team of Disney, Sony and Warner Bros. veterans emerge from stealth mode.
ON THE MOVE
Monica Ramirez-Montagut
+ Monica Ramirez-Montagut has been hired as director of the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill. She was previously the executive director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum of Michigan State University.
+ Frank Mazzagatti has joined Garden City-based Moritt Hock & Hamroff as a partner in the Corporate and Healthcare practice groups. He was previously a partner in the Healthcare Practice Group at New Jersey-based Mandelbaum Barret.
+ Gianni Sbarro has joined Uniondale-based Forchelli Deegan Terrana as an associate in the Land Use & Zoning Practice Group. He earned his law degree from St. John’s University School of Law.
+ Kathleen Mulcahy has been hired as executive director of Fighting Chance Cancer Counseling and Resource Center in Sag Harbor. She previously served as the mayor of Sag Harbor.
+ Edward Perlow has been elected president of the Illinois-based Special Care Dentistry Association. He is a clinical dentist in New Hyde Park.
+ Lisa Jusino Calla has been elected to the Smithtown-based Freebird Organization’s Board of Directors. She is the assistant dean at Suffolk County Community College in Selden.
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 Sahn Ward). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Father’s Day Edition)
Opie up: Is Andy Griffith’s Andy Taylor the best of the best?
You only get one: Why celebrating Father’s Day is so important.
Act now: Amazing last-minute dad gifts that might even arrive on time.
Father figures: Behold, the all-time very-best TV dads – and the absolute worst.
Knows best: Please continue supporting the amazing firms that support Innovate Long Island, including Sahn Ward, which helps corporate clients through their growing pains with decades of experience and parental wisdom. Check them out.
