Life now is so heavy, but laughter still lives!
My heart has been overwhelmed with sadness since the Israel-Hamas War began. Here we are in America seeing and hearing the terrible turmoil play out thousands of miles away and the pain that war brings.
Back at home, sadness fills my heart at the hate spewing on our streets and screens!
But I was so happy to see the smiles on the faces of my staff as we celebrated Halloween in our five offices.
Sammy, one of my team members who lived in Nigeria, has never experienced Halloween. He innocently asked me what it is and I told him to just come along for the ride and see for himself. I even gave him a mask to be part of our celebration! I can report he smiled and laughed, loving every party moment! What fun it was!
My staff had gathered in each of our five offices — in Southampton, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Philadelphia (the Queens team actually met in Avo Taco in the Bay Terrace Shopping Center). Each location was filled with local staff who joined together to meet in person for the celebration. Then, all the offices connected via Zoom so we could see each other’s wonderful costumes and smiling faces!
It made me so happy to see everyone gathered together to share lunch and laughter.
Since I was in Southampton, I was thrilled to see the writers, associate publishers and extraordinary office manager from the Dan’s Papers team. Since we are still mainly working remotely, seeing each other in person was a real treat! Hope to have more of it!
Slowly, we are making our way back to the office. There’s something powerful about being able to brainstorm in person. But for now, seeing each other in person was truly wonderful!
Then, we all drove over to Stony Brook University’s Southampton Campus Library to celebrate with Dan Rattiner, who founded Dan’s Papers, and his donation of his 63 years of newspapers and his personal papers to the University. Everything will be digitized, preserved and made available to the public forever!
As a bonus, I was delighted to see some old friends join us in the celebration and fundraising effort to make sure that the school has the money to do it. The goal is to raise $70,000 to help cover the total cost.
An opportunity to be here in perpetuity!
Voting early
Early voting for the Nov. 7 general election began Oct. 28 and it was so easy!
I went to the voting site in my neighborhood on Saturday and walked into a church that I had never visited before, even though it is right there at the beginning of town on Main Street.
The friendly neighborhood poll workers were larger in number than the voters! I hope that changes and each of us casts our ballots and performs the great right our country offers us!
It’s so easy now that there are multiple days to vote. DO IT!
