Sixteen days of Christmas: Welcome to Friday, dear readers, and not just any Friday but the last Friday before Christmas and Hanukkah – and the last Friday of the year with an Innovate Long Island newsletter.
Yes, today we wrap up both this latest workweek and temperamental, slightly terrifying and undeniably tumultuous 2024, a year marked by worrisome wars, poisonous politics, alarming artificial-intelligence advances, disconcerting drones and even a few bright spots (that solar eclipse, while not bright, per se, was certainly a humanity-uniting highlight).
Innovate Long Island will return Jan. 6 for a new year of unrivaled innovation-economy coverage. We’re going to spend our break hoping for the best in 2025: peace, tolerance, justice, love and, of course, progressive and sustainable socioeconomics – on Long Island, across the United States and everywhere else. Merry Christmas, Hanukkah Sameach and Happy New Year to all … embrace your family and friends this season, and be good, for goodness sake!
Wine enthusiast: Show your sweeter side on National Sangria Day.
Jingle all the way: Today is Dec. 20, and in tune with our Christmas music-themed season finale, we’re leading off with Go Caroling Day, an annual observation designed to help even the Grinchiest among us find their holiday spirit.
While you’re raising your voice in song, lower the bar on your attire: The third Friday of December is always National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day.
Maybe just a half a drink more: Why not? It’s also National Sangria Day, celebrating the sweet combo of wine and fruit juice every Dec. 20 (and baby, it’s cold outside).
White Christmas: The “Great White Way” section of New York City’s Broadway was first illuminated by electricity on this date in 1880.
Dashing through the snow: There were no horses in sight, but the ride became a lot smoother on Dec. 20, 1892, when Syracuse-based inventors Alexander Brown and George Stillman – laughing all the way – patented the pneumatic tire.
The richest man in town: George Bailey (James Stewart, center) first learned the meaning of Christmas 78 years ago tonight.
“Wonderful” time of the year: A day before it opened to the general public, Frank Capra’s holiday classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” premiered on this date in 1946 with a charity-benefit screening at New York City’s Globe Theatre.
Coming to town: It was 73 years ago today when Idaho’s Experimental Breeder Reactor I became the world’s first power plant to supply public electricity via atomic power.
Winter wonderland: And it was Dec. 20, 1990, when the World Wide Web went live (though it wasn’t quite the data-rich wonderland we know today).
English computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee did the deed, activating the first website on his NeXT workstation computer inside the CERN research facility on the French-Swiss border. (The site was for the exclusive internal use of other CERN scientists, though the server was opened in August 1991 to anyone with an Internet connection.)
Joy to the World (According to Garp): American stage and screen director George Roy Hill (1921-2002) – a World War II veteran and accomplished stage producer whose Academy Award-winning filmography includes “The Sting,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The World According to Garp” and other massive Hollywood hits – would be 103 years old today.
Wright man for the job: Hamstrung by chronic injuries, old No. 5 still became a bona fide Mets hero.
Also born on Dec. 20 was American industrialist Harvey Firestone (1868-1938), who leveraged those previously noted pneumatic tires into the mammoth Firestone Tire & Rubber Co.; American physicist Robert Van de Graaff (1901-1967), who invented the high-voltage Van de Graff electrostatic generator; Israeli British illusionist, magician and television personality Uri Geller (born 1946), the self-proclaimed “psychic” who bends spoons with his mind (though not really); English audio engineer, songwriter, musician and record producer Alan Parsons (born 1948), namesake of popular music’s most famous “Project”; and American author and poet Sandra Cisneros (born 1954), known best for channeling her Latina heritage (and for “The House on Mango Street”).
Blue (and Orange) Christmas: And take a bow, David Allen Wright! The New York Mets’ all-time leader in hits, doubles, runs and runs batted in – scheduled to have his No. 5 retired this summer in a Citi Field ceremony – turns 42 today.
Give the seven-time Major League Baseball All-Star your best at editor@innovateli.com, where all we want for Christmas are your news tips and calendar events.
About our sponsor: At Nixon Peabody, we deliver sophisticated legal services to our clients and our communities by combining high performance, entrepreneurial spirit, deep engagement and an unwavering commitment to a culture of collaboration, diversity and humanity. Visit NixonPeabody.com.
BUT FIRST, THIS
O Little Town of (West) Babylon: The Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency is putting the salad before the meat with its latest tax-abatement deal.
The IDA has approved an “inducement” package that will help Good Meats LLC, a subsidiary of meat/seafood/grocery distributor Casanova Market, trade in its undersized 16,000-square-foot West Babylon headquarters for a 50,000-square-foot facility on Hauppauge’s Wireless Road, which Casanova Market plans to purchase, renovate and equip with the latest gear. The company – which distributes to restaurants, bodegas, delis and small grocery stores – is projecting a $20.5 million investment that will create seven construction-phase jobs, retain 82 full-time positions and add 22 more, pushing its annual payroll past $6.4 million.
A tax break that keeps a 75-year-old, born-on-Long Island operation in Suffolk County – and by extension benefits “more than 700 restaurants in Caribbean and Spanish ethnic communities,” according to the IDA – is what the economic-development agency is all about, according to CEO and Executive Director Kelly Murphy. “[Casanova] services hundreds of businesses throughout the region, offering high-quality products at competitive prices that elevate the businesses of their customers,” Murphy noted. “The IDA is delighted to offer assistance and support … their continued expansion.”
The children shall lead: A year after featuring elderly patients, Northwell Health’s annual “Raise Health” marketing campaign is focused on youth.
Little Saint Nick(s): Northwell Health has flipped the script on its 2023 holiday marketing campaign, which featured regional centenarians – this year, the health system is spotlighting kids.
Teaming again with New York City-based advertising agency StrawberryFrog, Northwell has debuted the next chapter of its Raise Health marketing campaign, this time incorporating “candid wisdom” from regional children (including the children of some of the health system’s 87,000 employees). The first 30-second television spot, titled “A Little Wisdom,” debuted this week, with kids ages 5 through 9 sharing health and happiness insights.
Offering what the New Hyde Park-based health system calls “a fresh perspective on wellbeing,” the annual campaign is slated to run through mid-January and is designed to give viewers “a reason to smile,” according to Northwell Health Deputy Chief Marketing Officer Joe Leston. “Our Raise Health platform allows us to speak to the drivers of health in really interesting ways – even the effects that happiness has on one’s overall health,” Leston noted. “Sometimes it takes the youngest among us … to remind us of the little pleasures in life.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Silver Warning bells: Sensing a threat to the creative spark that has historically energized the PR/marketing/advertising world, ZE Creative Communications Executive VP and Voices Media Anchor David Chauvin takes a hard look at the Omnicom/Interpublic mega-merger.
Last Christmas: At the helm of the New York Institute of Technology, anyway, as President Henry Foley is set to retire in June – but he’s got lots more to do before he goes, according to the latest episode of “Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast.” Hear his plans.
ICYMI
Hauppauge-based product-design specialist Intelligent Product Solutions has been recruited by a high-level national consortium working to make hospital-at-home a reality.
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:
Christmas in New Jersey: Franklin Lakes-based med-tech Becton, Dickson and Co. teams with Texas-based health-tech Babson Diagnostics to upgrade fingertip blood testing.
Christmas in Massachusetts: Boston-based online-safety spearhead Aura announces comprehensive study of technology’s effects on children’s mental health.
Christmas in Vermont: Manchester Center-based non-alcoholic beverage baron TÖST Beverages launches AI-enabled microsite to help speakers toast the moment right.
ON THE MOVE
Michael O’Malley
+ Michael O’Malley has been hired as senior vice president and supply chain officer at Catholic Health Services in Rockville Centre. He was chief procurement officer for the Commonwealth of Virginia.
+ Lauren Bogen has been hired as a medical malpractice paralegal at Islandia-based Davis & Ferber. She was a paralegal at Patchogue-based Cartier, Bernstein, Auerbach & Steinberg.
+ Michael Durney has been hired as chief executive officer at Plainview-based ACDS. He maintains his position as principal and CFO at Manhattan-based ProCFO partners.
+ Ben Alessi has been promoted to chief financial officer at Teachers Federal Credit Union in Hauppauge. He was senior vice president for accounting and finance.
+ Marc Palker has been elected president and chief executive officer of East Northport-based Long Island Advancement of Small Business. He is president of MPP Associates in South Huntington.
+ Caitlin Bolte has been hired as receptionist and legal assistant at Davis & Ferber in Islandia. She was previously a calendar clerk at Gruenberg Kelly Della in Ronkonkoma.
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 Nixon Peabody). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Christmas Carols With A Twist Edition)
In our own image: Snowmen (and women) personify the art of self-expression.
With a corncob pipe and a button nose: There are some very interesting reasons why you wanna build a snowman.
Just like the ones we used to know: There’s a decent chance for a white Christmas this year (but not on Long Island).
Reindeer games: Turns out reindeer are actually fairly lazy during the Christmas season.
Do you hear what I hear? You do if what you hear is brilliant legal advice – exactly what you get from Nixon Peabody, one of the fantastic firms that support Innovate Long Island during the holidays and all year long. Please keep supporting them, all ye faithful, and have a great holiday break … catch you in 2025!
