Host: Jan Selkowitz
Author: Webmaster (Page 27 of 90)
Jon Winkel (https://stamfordpartnership.
Host Doug Campbell
Chairman: Frank DeLeo
Bell Ringing at Palmer’s for Darien Human Services
Raising funds to help needy Darienites by soliciting donations from Palmer’s shoppers at Christmas has been a long-standing DMA tradition. Due to COVID-19, we couldn’t perform this important service in 2020. Fortunately, we were able to re-start this activity this year with teams of 2 (and one team of 3) ringing a handbell and greeting shoppers on their way in and out of the store on Sunday, December 12 and Monday, December 20. We had 25 people participate, including 3 members who rang on both days as well as a wife and granddaughter who joined their respective DMA members. Thanks to all who helped and to Palmer’s for letting us use their space and leverage their shoppers.
For several reasons, our historical relationship with the Salvation Army for this activity was no longer an option. So, we partnered directly with the Darien Human Services Department (DHS) (who had been our historical benefactor and go-between with the Salvation Army), focusing on their direct funding activities related to housing, energy, food and clothing assistance. We also had brochures about DHS at our table to help publicize the breadth of services they provide. By partnering directly with DHS, we were able to ensure that the funds raised would go 100% to Darien residents.
We were blessed with good weather on both days (sunny and not too chilly). Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of Darien residents/Palmer’s shoppers (and the warmth and engaging demeanor of our bell ringers – many of whom enhanced the spirit of the season by wearing Santa hats), we raised $1,350 on the 12th and $1,125 on the 20th, for a grand total of $2,475. The DHS Director was thrilled and extremely appreciative since past years’ daily donations were typically in the $400-$800 range. What a great way to re-institute one of our traditional Community Service activities. We not only made a significant contribution to our neighbors, but we also raised the bar for future holiday fund raising at Palmer’s!
“HIKING” GREENWICH POINT PARK
7 TOD’S DRIFTWAY, GREENWICH
THURSDAY DECEMBER 9, 2021
10:30
We will be walking around Greenwich Point starting at 10:30 am.
NOTE THAT THIS START TIME IS ONE HALF HOUR LATER THAN OTHER HIKES. We will be walking about 3 miles over flat, mostly paved or packed gravel paths, which should take us about an hour and a half.
Greenwich Point is a 147 acre property owned by the Town of Greenwich which bought the property in 1945. The peninsula, surrounded on three sides by water, was the private estate of J. Kennedy Tod who purchased the property in the 1880s. Greenwich Point offers spectacular views of Manhattan and the Greenwich shoreline. It is a beautiful place to walk and only available to non-Greenwich residents (without a substantial fee) during the months of December-April. You will not regret coming on this “hike”!
We will assemble in the first parking lot on the right after you pass the gatehouse. Greenwich Point can be windy and cold so layer up! Dogs on a leash are permitted and, as always, bring guests.
We will have an optional lunch at Louie’s Italian Restaurant in Cos Cob at 136 River Road Ext, a 12 minute drive from the Point.
DIRECTIONS: Google Greenwich Point Park for guidance
Contacts: Dave McCollum and 203-858-5688 and Bob Plunkett
Followup:
An enthusiastic group of 16 braved cold and windy, but bright, conditions over a little more than 3 miles at Greenwich Point this morning. This was our first chance to tour the spectacular peninsula after a two year absence due to weather and Covid. The wait was worth it, as it always is at GP. We had a fairly good view of Manhattan and a
very look at the Greenwich shoreline on our way around. Except for a stretch of about 400 yards, the trail is hard packed or pavement and very flat. We attracted four guests and the total group was the largest since Sherwood Island last year. J Kennedy Tod picked a beautiful place to site his mansion over 130 years ago and, like many of the places we hike, a municipal, state or charitable entity had the foresight to acquire the property for the benefit of future generations. Wildlife report-birds, nonlife report-one dead fish.
The group transferred to Louie’s Italian Restaurant in Cos Cob for a great lunch after the hike. This was the 8 th and final hike of 2021, an activity well suited to the unusual conditions of this year. Thanks to all who participated! We
hope to schedule some more hikes over the winter months.
Dave McCollum and Bob Plunkett
Austin Richard Schraff passed away on August 17, 2021 at the age of 87. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Austin counted his days as a Cleveland paper boy as a key factor in building the work ethic that would lead him to success later in life. He fondly recalled as a boy taking the bus by himself to Cleveland Browns games at Cleveland Stadium and the Cleveland Zoo, which spoke to his sense of independence. As a high school graduate, Austin enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served as a pilot navigator in the Korean War. After his service, Austin attended Miami University of Ohio. One of his early jobs was working for International Paper, but he eventually moved on to Wall Street as an institutional investor. He established relationships with clients nationally, with a focus on San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Austin met his beloved wife, Ann (since divorced), while skiing at Mont Tremblant near Montreal. Both were avid sportspersons and sports fans during their marriage, attending college and professional football games, as well as many U.S. Open tennis tournaments at Forest Hills and Flushing Meadows. Austin and Ann passed this zeal for sports to their sons, Scott, Greg and Richard, each of whom played college lacrosse—Scott at Brown University and Duke University, Greg at Duke University, and Richard at Michigan State University.
Austin raised his family in Wilton, Connecticut, where he was a member of the Wilton Riding Club and a multi-year winner of the club’s tennis tournaments. While in Wilton, Austin pursued his passion for flying by piloting his Bellanca Super Viking single-engine plane on the weekends in Connecticut, including buzzing over the family home, and taking trips from coast to coast and to the Caribbean to visit friends and on family vacations. Austin was a member of the Darien Men’s Association, and loved the group’s guided historical walking tours of New York City. He was also an avid bridge player, paddle tennis player and golfer. Austin was a longtime and active member of The Connecticut Golf Club, Easton, Connecticut, and Sankaty Head Golf Club, Nantucket, Massachusetts. He loved playing golf competitively and was a regular participant in, and winner of, the Sankaty member-member, member-guest, and the Fall Classic tournaments. Austin played competitive golf until 2019.
Austin is survived by his former wife, Ann, of Phoenix, Arizona; sons, Scott (Barclay) of Phoenix, Arizona, Greg (Nicole) of Durham, North Carolina, and Richard of Nantucket, Massachusetts; brother Tim (Bonnie) of Vermilion, Ohio, sister Diane Tomlinson of Charlotte, North Carolina; grandchildren Arden Schraff, Quintin Schraff, Meade Schraff, Lucy Schraff and Ellie Andrews; and nephews and nieces. He was preceded in death by his parents Austin and Gertrude, and his sister Marilyn.
The family was assisted by Clements Funeral & Cremation Services, Inc. in Durham. Online condolences may be sent to www.clementsfuneralservice.com.
From Kirkus Reviews:
AN INSIDER’S STORY OF WEALTH, POWER, CORRUPTION, AND VENGEANCE IN TODAY’S CHINA
A Hong Kong–raised entrepreneur chronicles a high-flying life of wealth and political connections, eclipsed in harrowing fashion by a new wave of Chinese Communist Party authoritarianism.
In September 2017, Shum’s ex-wife and business partner, Whitney Duan, disappeared without a trace from Beijing, most certainly among the countless victims of trumped-up corruption charges by the relentless arm of Xi Jinping’s Communist Party apparatus. Together, Shum and Duan had built a vast fortune from real estate dealings in China, from the late 1990s through the global recession of 2008, a span of time during which China fully embraced private entrepreneurial energy in order to jump-start the economy. Around 1997, sensing the “go-go energy” of the new boom, in which “stories of instant millionaires and financial sensations” abounded, the couple leapt at the opportunity to enrich themselves, their families, and associates. However, the same intricate political connections that Duan had assiduously cultivated through the years, such as with Zheng Peili (“Auntie Zhang”), the wife of former premier Wen Jiabao, would prove the couple’s undoing as the political winds began to shift with the accession of Xi in 2013. Through a deliberative, slow-building, suspenseful narrative that reveals numerous insights about the mechanics of power and greed, Shum chronicles his humble early beginnings in Shanghai, then Hong Kong, where his family moved for more opportunity and he excelled as a swimmer, through college at the University of Wisconsin and attempts at trying his hand in the fledgling field of private equity. He effectively shows how Duan, a boldly calculating investor from a humble background, helped mold him into a highly successful entrepreneur. While Shum insists that they both fervently believed their wealth could foster social changes, he learned early on that what the Party gives, the Party can take away. Observers of contemporary Chinese affairs, consistently intriguing and murky territory, will find much to interest them here.
A riveting look inside “the roulette-like political environment of the New China.”
Host: Doug Campbell
HIKING MIANUS RIVER PARK
STAMFORD, CT
NOVEMBER 18, 2021
On a spectacular mid-November day, 10 DMAers and 2 spouses hiked
for 3.8 miles in a little over two hours through the beautiful trails at
Mianus River Park, a 391 acre nature reserve on the
Stamford/Greenwich border. The combination of some still colorful
leaves, glacial rock outcroppings and a forest floor largely free of low
foliage made for a very scenic hike. Alas, again we spotted no wildlife
but we did encounter many other hikers and their dogs on such a nice
day. No injuries or other mishaps occurred extending our safety record!
The beauty of these hikes is the opportunity to converse with each
other in a quiet setting and to get to talk to every hiker at some point
during the walk.
After the hike, ten of us enjoyed a delicious and well served lunch at
Jody’s 19 th Hole at the E Gaynor Brennan Golf Course in Stamford.
Our next hike will be on Thursday December 9 at 10:00 at Greenwich
Point. Always a DMA favorite for its flat path and spectacular views of
Manhattan, we welcome a return after a Covid enforced absence of
two years.
Dave McCollum and Bob Plunkett
December 16th (11am ET) DCA/Zoom Hybrid
Don Loomis will moderate a discussion on the Voting Rights Act, H.R.1, H.R.4, and the actions being taken by the states to reform their voting laws. What does it all mean for future elections? Free and fair elections have been the bedrock of our democracy. Where do our voting rights come from and how did we get to our current status concerning voting rights.
Bert von Stuelpnagel will host a discussion of Europe’s War on Technology companies
Europe’s War on US Tech is motivated by at least two principal motives: The fear that American technology companies, while clearly ahead of their European rivals, do not provide sufficient privacy protection; and the widespread opinion that they do not pay their fair share of taxes, given their outsized income. The Current Affairs discussions on November 19 will ask two questions: Are these valid concerns; and should the European point of view be shared by Americans?
Recommended Reading
Google loses key appeal against 2.4 billion EU shopping antitrust case
Opinion | You Are the Object of a Secret Extraction Operation
Intelligence Squared US, Europe has Declared War on American Tech Companies, October 22, 2019
https://intelligencesquaredus.org/debates/europe-has-declared-war-american-tech-companies
BBC London, EU Reveals Plan to Regulate Big Tech, December 15, 2020
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55318225
Tax Foundation, What European OECD Countries are doing about Digital Services Taxes, March 25, 2021
https://taxfoundation.org/digital-tax-europe-2020/
Thomson Reuters, Demystifying the 2021 EU’s Value Added Taxes, August 2, 2021
https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/posts/tax-and-accounting/eu-vat-myths/
Avalara, Global VAT and GST on Digital Services, undated 2021
https://www.avalara.com/vatlive/en/global-vat-gst-on-e-services.html
Tax Foundation, Evaluating Proposals to Increase the Corporate Tax Rate and Levy a Minimum Tax on Corporate Book Income, February 24, 2021
https://taxfoundation.org/biden-corporate-income-tax-rate/
SizzlingStocks Newsletter, Largest Tech Companies by Market Cap, undated (2021)
https://companiesmarketcap.com/tech/largest-tech-companies-by-market-cap/
New York Times, Facebook Whistle-Blower Brings Campaign to Europe after Disclosures, October 25, 2021
New York Times, Why Europe is Hard on Big Tech, April 22, 2021
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/22/technology/europe-tech-regulations.html
Brookings Institute, An Agenda for US-EU Cooperation on Big Tech Regulation, August 9, 2021
https://www.brookings.edu/techstream/an-agenda-for-us-eu-cooperation-on-big-tech-regulation/
9to5MAC, Europe can’t agree on how to regulate tech giants like Apple or Google, October 11, 2021
https://9to5mac.com/2021/10/11/how-to-regulate-tech-giants/
Dr. Joshua Lader, a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist at Stamford Health Medical Group (Stamford Hospital), will speak to us about “Advances in the Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation.” This is a condition of irregular heartbeat that especially affects the age group of our membership, with approximately 70% of individuals presenting with AFib falling between 65 and 85 years of age. Dr. Lader graduated from New York University and has a medical degree from the NYU School of Medicine. Through a fellowship at NYU School of Medicine, Dr. Lader conducted research aimed at explaining some of the basic molecular underpinnings of AFib. He believes that when targeted lifestyle modifications fall short, this marks the beginning of an age where heart rhythm disturbances are treated, and even prevented, by targeted treatments at the molecular level. Dr. Lader is a member of a collaborative team at Stamford Health that addresses rhythm disturbances from a multidisciplinary point of view.
Arranged by Charles Salmans