People who don’t know, ask: What is that awful noise? And then it stops. A different tree now gradually comes alive; the leaves nearly vibrate as the buzzing builds. The sound of an individual cicada is, of course, not an awful noise — it’s just loud, and the pitch is not designed to attract the human ear. The loud things we generally live with are human sounds: parties, lawnmowers, farm equipment. Yesterday, while harvesting tomatoes in the middle of a 50-acre field, I could hear, in the distance, the distinctive crunch of a house being demolished. But, other times, what ...
16 Sep 2025 by Marilee Foster
A little over 50 years ago, the Suffolk County Farmland Preservation Program was launched, based on a first-in-the nation concept of sale of “development rights.” Then-Suffolk County Executive John V.N. Klein was pivotal, in 1974, to the inception of that program. This month, the Suffolk County Legislature unanimously passed the Conservation of Working Waterfronts bill, with the current county executive, Ed Romaine, playing a critical role, too. It also involves future development. For centuries, farming and fishing have been at the economic foundation of Suffolk County. Great strides have been made in preserving farming in Suffolk — and keeping Suffolk ...
by Karl Grossman
Because of a bevy of other headlines, somewhat overlooked earlier this month was the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. The signing ceremony aboard the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945, was a formality, because the war essentially ended two weeks earlier, when Emperor Hirohito told his people that Japan was giving up. That allowed the Allies to begin liberating the POW camps containing thousands of inmates. A particularly brutal one was Omori, on the outskirts of Tokyo. The following is an excerpt from toward the end of “Running Deep,” which will be published next month. On ...
by Tom Clavin
There’ll be a question for voters on the election ballot in November on whether the terms should be extended, from the present two years to four, for the 18 members of the Suffolk County Legislature, of which most of the major government officials in Suffolk County in the last five decades have been members. One was Republican John V. N. Klein of Smithtown, the first presiding officer of the legislature. He brought continuity between it and the centuries-old Suffolk County Board of Supervisors when the legislature replaced the board in 1970 as the county’s governing body. It was determined in ...
9 Sep 2025 by Karl Grossman
A heron departing the wetlands flies up and across the morning sun. With each wingbeat it grows closer to silhouette: white, then silver, then black. Then the bird has risen directly into the sun’s path, and you must drop your watch of this or be blinded. You close your eyes to recover. September — they say summer is over. That position does not give summer much credit. How could she just end? Something so vibrant and desirably warm, the season of fruit, green grass and fresh vegetables, does not die in a day. September is the culmination of summer, the ...
by Marilee Foster
2025 is what political pundits call an “off-year” election: There is no election for president or governor. It is the most local of the four-year election cycle, with only local town and county races on the ballot. Yet, just 100 miles to our west is a high-profile election to choose the next mayor of New York. It has drawn national attention since an unknown state assemblyman turned the political world upside down by winning the Democratic primary. His name is Zohran Mamdani. Why was this a political earthquake? Well, first of all, he is an avowed Democratic Socialist who, just ...
8 Sep 2025 by FRED THIELE
Late summer is reductive work. You harvest, take away the best, and plants, likewise, contract. The oldest growth — green leaves rimmed in death, tattered at their edge — cannot hide the fruit. A life cycle is complete … or, at least, nearing completion. Weeds, robust, and some 6 feet tall, tower over the remnants of the first melon planting. Their seeds are not mature, but the threat is burgeoning. One year at seed takes seven to weed. So the mower goes. We battle weeds all season, but in August, when the farmer is too busy reaping to spend time ...
2 Sep 2025 by Marilee Foster
With less than a week to go before Labor Day, I panicked that I haven’t been to the ocean as often as I thought I would. I headed down to Ponquoque Beach to spend time with my son and granddaughters. At the end of August, in the parking lot, it’s not unusual to see broken beach chairs, single flip-flops or battered paperbacks with pages curling from the salt air — remnants of summer vacation. The beach buckets filled with sand, and maybe a hermit crab or a carefully curated shell collection, brought back memories. There’s a gentle melancholy in these ...
by Denise Gray Meehan
Staff Writer on Oct 21, 2024