Get over it: Jump to it, dear readers! It’s Wednesday out there and we’re leapfrogging into the back half of another relatively warm winter workweek.
Sorry to all the snow lovers out there, but all this mild weather (here on Long Island) has certainly got us thinking about the early springtime we’ve been promised. And with that particular spring in our step – and an otherwise sunny disposition – we hurdle another midweek hump.
Get loud: Our Feb. 7 review begins with World Read Aloud Day, which recalls the tradition of passing stories verbally from generation to generation and encourages the practice of reading to others. Try it with this newsletter, perhaps.
Love it: It’s not great FOR your heart, but it turns out fettuccine Alfredo is FROM the heart.
Today is also National Periodic Table Day, celebrating the iconic chart that arranges all (known) elements into handy rows and columns, essential to comprehensive physics experiments and sixth-grade science class.
Get a plate: And a fork, too – Feb. 7 is also National Fettuccine Alfredo Day, serving up the popular Italian dish of noodles bathed in butter and parmesan cheese (not the healthiest choice, but it does have a sweet origin story).
Get lit: Speaking of bright ideas, America’s first public streetlamp illuminated the night at the intersection of North Holliday and East Baltimore Streets in the City of Baltimore on this date in 1817.
Get off: A French court acquitted novelist Gustave Flaubert of obscenity charges on Feb. 7, 1837, allowing his sensational novel “Madame Bovary” – now hailed as the book that established the Realist Movement in Europe – to resume publication. (Plenty more world-class writers below.)
Get it straight: Combining many of the popular board game’s divergent origin stories, game-maker Charles Darrow sold the rights to the modern version of Monopoly – updating inventor Elizabeth Phillips’ original Landlord’s Game with Atlantic City locales – to Parker Brothers on this date in 1935.
Above-average Joe: A mere percentage of today’s MLB minimum salary ($740,000), DiMaggio’s $100,000 contract made history in 1949.
Get paid: The New York Yankees signed slugger Joe DiMaggio to a $100,000 contract 75 years ago today – the first six-figure contract in Major League Baseball history.
Get out there: And it was Feb. 7, 1984, when NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless II executed the first-ever untethered spacewalk, jet-packing away from the Space Shuttle Challenger.
Operating his Manned Maneuvering Unit’s nitrogen-gas thrusters with hand controllers, McCandless accelerated to a speed slightly faster than the shuttle’s 17,500 mph orbital velocity and ventured about 320 feet from the cargo bay – essentially becoming the first human satellite.
That little Dickens: English novelist and social critic Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) – who created numerous memorable characters and is arguably the greatest writer of the Victorian era – would be 212 years old today.
Rock solid: Fearlessly funny Chris Rock is one of history’s great stand-up artists.
Other major-league scribes born on Feb. 7 include American frontierswoman Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957), who based her popular children’s fiction on her actual little house on the prairie; American novelist and playwright Harry “Sinclair” Lewis (1885-1951), the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature; American journalist Gaetano “Gay” Talese (born 1932), a bestselling author and pioneer of New Journalism; British science writer Matt Ridley (born 1958), also a bank chairman, businessman, prominent conservative columnist and former member of the UK Parliament’s House of Lords; and American novelist Emma McLaughlin (born 1974), who teamed with longtime partner Nicola Kraus on the semiautobiographical No. 1 bestseller “The Nanny Diaries.”
Slap happy: And take a bow, Christopher Julius Rock! The American comedian, actor and filmmaker – among history’s most successful (and wealthiest) stand-up comedians – turns 59 today.
Wish the assault victim well at editor@innovateli.com, where we promise to keep Will Smith’s wife’s name out of our mouths as long as you send us some news tips and calendar events (and even if you don’t).
About our sponsor: Stony Brook University Economic Development collaborates with regional innovators, supports startups and facilitates early-stage enterprise by leveraging the resources of a SUNY Flagship University and partner Brookhaven National Laboratory. Combining state-of-the-art laboratory facilities, the world-class expertise of 900-plus scientific investigators and best commercialization practices, Economic Development and its partners have the collective imagination and ability to attain exciting new heights for the Long Island innovation economy. Learn more here.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Odds on: Following an extensive and “highly competitive” search, Long Island’s first casino – already in its seventh year of operation – has finally selected its advertising and marketing “agency of record.”
Jake’s 58 Casino Hotel, which opened in 2017, announced Feb. 2 that it has tapped Melville-based EGC Group as its AOR. The designation puts the circa-1985 public-relations cornerstone in charge of the casino-hotel’s marketing, analytics and creative strategy, and sets EGC Group as the chief advisor on media planning and buying for the Islandia facility, which is owned and operated by Buffalo-based food-, venue- and hotel-management company Delaware North.
Phil Boyle, who doubles as president and CEO of both Jake’s 58 and Suffolk OTB, said in a statement the casino-hotel had sought a “marketing partner that had integrated media strength and buying power” and was “excited to have found the ideal partner” in nearby Islandia. EGC Group CEO Nicole Penn, meanwhile, called the AOR designation a “special honor,” adding, “Jake’s 58 is on the cusp of their expansion and will be continuing their commitment to be the premier regional entertainment destination.”
The house that Big Macs built: The groundbreaking for Suffolk County’s first Ronald McDonald House is scheduled for April in Stony Brook.
House money: A new Ronald McDonald House will rise in Suffolk County.
The New York Metro Chapter of Ronald McDonald House Charities announced Feb. 1 that it’s raised more than $23 million toward Suffolk’s first-ever Ronald McDonald House and plans to break ground April 17 on a three-story, 60,000 square-foot facility located “within walking distance” of Stony Brook Children’s Hospital. The house – designed to provide free lodging, meals and emotional support to the families of sick children – is slated to include 30 bedrooms (with private bathrooms), a communal dining room, a movie theater and a fitness room, along with administrative offices and a child-friendly “great room.”
With one Ronald McDonald House already operating in New Hyde Park, opening a second Long Island facility in Suffolk County “has been a vision of ours for many years,” noted RMHC New York Metro CEO Matt Campo. “[It’s] needed to help so many families who travel from the farthest ends of Suffolk to find the medical care their children need,” Campo added. “We’re thrilled to see the end in sight and get ready for construction next year.”
TOP OF THE SITE
You bet your life: As wagering opportunities proliferate around the region, the Family & Children’s Association is opening two Gambling Support and Wellness Centers to help Long Islanders suffering from destructive gambling addictions.
From them to you: From the freshly minted mayor to the world-famous DJ … the father of bioelectronic medicine to the mother of all cops … the Albany power player to the Knicks power forward … the master inventor to the university mastermind … only Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast goes one-on-one with Long Island’s leading innovators. Pick a pro and go.
VOICES
High-tech advances are raising tides across maritime industries – and that bodes well for Long Island, notes CEBIP Executive Director and Voices Technology Anchor Heidi Anderson, who sees major advantages for aquaculture, water-based tourism and other important regional sectors.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Closed-minded: Returning office workers don’t want open space – they want their cubicles back. Business Insider speaks privately.
Happy thoughts: From war to climate change to presidential elections, you can stop expecting the worst. Vox ends catastrophizing.
Cooking class: As self-sufficiency wanes, home-economics classes are needed more than ever. Salon goes old school.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ ProducePay, a California-based agtech innovator, raised $38 million in Series D funding led by Syngenta Group Ventures, CF Private Equity, G2 Venture Partners and Endeavor8.
+ Avation Medical, an Ohio-based neuromodulation and digital health startup, raised $22 million-plus in equity funding led by ShangBay Capital and Asahi Kasei, with participation from Angelini Ventures, JobsOhio Growth Capital Fund, Arboretum Ventures, Tonkawa, Medtronic and Avestria Ventures.
+ Harbor, a Texas-based tech startup focused on infant care, raised $3.7 million in seed funding led by Trust Ventures, Morrison Seger and Capital Factory.
+ Synergy Spine Solutions, a Colorado-based medical device developer, raised $30 million in funding led by Amzak Health.
+ Indemn, a New York City-based, AI-powered conversational insurance platform, raised $1.9 million in pre-seed funding led by Markd, with participation from Afterwork Ventures and Everywhere Ventures.
+ Cour Pharmaceuticals, an Illinois-based clinical-stage biotech, raised $105 million in Series A funding led by Lumira Ventures and Alpha Wave Ventures, with participation from Roche Venture Fund, the Pfizer Breakthrough Growth Initiative, Bristol Myers Squibb, Angelini Ventures and the JDRF T1D Fund.
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 Stony Brook University). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Super Bowl Pregame Edition)
OK, “nutjob” is a little harsh: Also, the 2020 election was stolen, China invading Taiwan is cool and the U.S. government orchestrated 9/11.
Comical: Nutjob claims the Big Game is rigged to aid Biden’s reelection.
Controversial (not): Fearing social media scorn, advertisers will play it safe this year.
Combinatorial: A 12-hour flight, a 17-hour time difference and time to spare for Tokyo Taylor.
Classically commercial: Please continue supporting the amazing institutions that support Innovate Long Island, including Stony Brook University Economic Development, where innovation commercialization is just part of the socioeconomic story. Check them out.
