With the passing of “Focus on Nature” columnist Paul Stoutenburgh, the recent retirement of Louisa Hargrave’s “The Oeno Files” wine column and the previous semi-retirement of my own “The Observer” column, there’s just one columnist left standing when it comes to continuous longevity of service to this newspaper. (more…)
Tag: Troy Gustavson Column
John Williams. (Credit: Marty Heitner)
If you’ve lived on the North Fork for a while, you probably have driven past it numerous times. It’s at the southwest corner of Front and Fourth streets in Greenport, and it’s currently known as The Captain’s Cottage in its most recent iteration as a rental cottage. But before that the little white frame building was the home of Williams & Company, the advertising and public relations firm, and, concurrently and somewhat improbably, the headquarters of the National SCRABBLE ® Association. (more…)
A confession: I have not been ice boating even once this winter on either Great Pond or Hallocks Bay. And that’s because I’ve been on the North Fork for less than a week between Christmas and today. And therein lies the challenge of writing this column every other week. How can I keep it local and relevant if the former Joan Giger Walker and I, in our so-called retirement years, are away from the North Fork for nearly half the year?
Short answer: I can’t. (more…)
George and John Giannaris at the renovated bar last year. (Credit: Carrie Miller, file)
Friday, Jan. 30, was an important date in the life of the North Fork. No, it wasn’t Groundhog Day, and it wasn’t the date of another Big Snow Storm. It was the seasonal reopening of the Hellenic Snack Bar in East Marion, and the former Joan Giger Walker and I were privileged to be there for the occasion.
When and how did this happen?
When did we so-called baby boomers become Older Americans, coming up fast on age 70?
Those are questions some male friends of a certain age and I found ourselves asking this past weekend during the course of a men-only getaway to a mountainside retreat in the Adirondacks. (In deference to the concept of equal rights, some of our wives and daughters spent the weekend at health spas elsewhere in the New York Metro area.) (more…)
Billy McAllister carries the ball for the Porters earlier this season. (Credit: Robert O’Rourk, file)
Having just returned from our 50th high school reunion, whence I was reunited with teammates from our undefeated, state championship football team, I am once again ruminating on the relative merits and demerits of the sport. And this rumination is, of course, profoundly influenced by the recent death of Tom Cutinella, the Shoreham-Wading River High School football player who died Oct. 1 following an on-field collision. (more…)
Deer on the East End. (Credit: James Colligan)
We surrender. Bambi has won the war. The several thousand dollars we invested in new landscaping in our back yard is slowly but surely serving as the outdoor salad bar that sustains Bambi and her mates during The Wicked Winter of 2013-14.
Troy Gustavson