07.19.2020 Columns Column: In 1764, Native Americans asked for help that never came In 1764 something happened in Southold that received almost no attention in the narrative put forward by early town historians. Those historians wanted to celebrate the “founding families,” to...
07.05.2020 Columns Column: The names that represent a story we can’t tell Across the country and across Long Island, America’s past is being examined, thought about in a very different light, criticized and, in some cases, kicked to the curb. Symbols...
06.02.2019 Columns Column: A remarkable discovery of our nation’s past Last week, a far-reaching discovery was made in a muddy river bottom in Alabama. It is a discovery that speaks to our history, and to the past we as...
04.06.2019 Columns Column: Climate change unfolding right before us Tide levels in Peconic Bay are higher nowadays, and this is having profound repercussions in a number of critical areas.
03.17.2019 Columns Column: You didn’t know him, but he was a player in our history On March 3, in the tiny South Carolina hamlet of McClellanville, a man named Frank Snyder died. I know this because Mr. Snyder’s niece emailed me last Tuesday night,...
02.08.2019 Columns Column: How did Bill Boken get away with murder? Why wasn’t William Boken ever arrested in connection with the October 1966 disappearance of Louise Pietrewicz?
01.17.2019 Columns Column: Anthony Palumbo was ‘a shining star’ among detectives On April 20, 1979, a 13-year-old Smithtown boy named John Pius was found dead in a patch of woods behind an elementary school. His death had been remarkably cruel:...
11.15.2018 Columns Column: Politics and the plight of the St. Louis “I am the child of refugees. Had my father and his parents not been allowed here, I would not exist.” — Billy Joel The passenger ship St. Louis left...