Category: Activities (Page 2 of 32)

Activities are gatherings that occur on a regular schedule, usually weekly, to enjoy a specific pastime.

Book Club: Breaking Through by Katlin Kariko, Nov 13, 2024

“A story of perseverance and the power of convictions from the groundbreaking immigrant scientist whose decades-long research led to the COVID-19 vaccines. Katalin Karikó had an unlikely journey. The daughter of a butcher in postwar communist Hungary, Karikó grew up in a one-room home that lacked running water, and her family grew their own vegetables. She saw the wonders of nature all around her and was determined to become a scientist. That determination eventually brought her to the United States, where she arrived as a postdoctoral fellow in 1985 with $1,200 sewn into her toddler’s teddy bear and a dream to remake medicine. Karikó worked in obscurity, battled cockroaches in a windowless lab, and faced outright derision and even deportation threats from her bosses and colleagues. She balked as prestigious research institutions increasingly conflated science and money. Despite setbacks, she never wavered in her belief that an ephemeral and underappreciated molecule called messenger RNA could change the world. Karikó believed that someday mRNA would transform ordinary cells into tiny factories capable of producing their own medicines on demand. She sacrificed nearly everything for this dream, but the obstacles she faced only motivated her, and eventually she succeeded. Karikó’s three-decades-long investigation into mRNA would lead to a staggering achievement: vaccines that protected millions of people from the most dire consequences of COVID-19. These vaccines are just the beginning of mRNA’s potential. Today, the medical community eagerly awaits more mRNA vaccines-for the flu, HIV, and other emerging infectious diseases. Breaking Through isn’t just the story of an extraordinary woman-it’s an indictment of closed-minded thinking and a testament to one woman’s commitment to laboring intensely in obscurity-knowing she might never be recognized in a culture that is more driven by prestige, power, and privilege-because she believed her work would save lives”–

Book Club: Table for Two by Amor Towles, Oct 9, 2024

“The millions of readers of Amor Towles are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories set in New York City and a novella in Los Angeles. The New York stories, most of which are set around the turn of the millennium, take up everything from the death-defying acrobatics of the male ego, to the fateful consequences of brief encounters, and the delicate mechanics of comprise which operate at the heart of modern marriages. In Towles’s novel, Rules of Civility, the indomitable Evelyn Ross leaves New York City in September, 1938, with the intention of returning home to Indiana. But as her train pulls into Chicago, where her parents are waiting, she instead extends her ticket to Los Angeles. Told from seven points of view, “Eve in Hollywood” describes how Eve crafts a new future for herself-and others-in the midst of Hollywood’s golden age. Throughout the stories, two characters often find themselves sitting across a table for two where the direction of their futures may hinge upon what they say to each other next. Written with his signature wit, humor, and sophistication, Table for Two is another glittering addition to Towles’s canon of stylish and transporting historical fiction”–

Wander Forest Hills, May 9, 2024

On May 9 we will wander to Forest Hills Queens to visit the neighborhood and the former Tennis Stadium which was the home of the US Open from 1915to the mid 1970s We will see the site of Helen Keller’s home, as well as the home of Branch Rickey of the Dodgers. Forest Hills is also the former home of Trygve Lie, the first Secretary General of the United Nations. Teddy Roosevelt visited Forest Hills and Robert Kennedy campaigned there. A most  interesting piece of New York City
David Mace, Joe Spain

HIKE GREENWICH AUDUBON CENTER, MONDAY MAY 20, 2024

HIKING GREENWICH AUDUBON CENTER

GREENWICH, CT

    10 AM MONDAY MAY 20, 2024

Greenwich Audubon Center is a 285 acre sanctuary which opened its doors in 1943 as Audubon’s first nature education center in the country. Located on land donated by Eleanor Clovis Reese and H Hall Clovis the center includes over 7 miles of trails through a rich diversity of hardwood forest, meadows, lakes, streams and vernal ponds. Also on the property are an expansive Nature Education Center, an old apple orchard and original New England homestead buildings.

We plan to meet in the main parking lot at 10 AM and hike for about two hours over varied terrain including one steep climb and several sections of rocky trail. We rate this as a hike of moderate plus difficulty. We hope to see migrating birds but our wildlife scorecard has not been good! As always, guests and spouses welcome but NO DOGS. If the weather is iffy, contact one of us to see if we are hiking.

Optional lunch after at Ole Mole at 1030 High Ridge Road in Stamford

 The Center is located at 613 Riversville Road in Greenwich on the north side of the Merritt Parkway. Exit at Round Hill Road and use GPS to get you to the center. 

CONTACTS: Dave McCollum 203-858-5688 and dgmccollum63@gmail.com and Robert Plunkett 203-246-2898 and rgplunkett1@gmail.com.

 

We looked up our report on our hike here in May of 2022 at which we had a total of 12 hikers. Today we had 19 who enjoyed a beautiful day hiking about 3 miles in about two hours. We are very happy that more DMAers are coming on the hikes! This hike is really a tale of two different types of trail. About half  is relatively flat and the other half is pretty steeply up and down as the property drops over 160 feet from top to bottom. All hikers handled the terrain with minimal difficulty. Alas, your hike leaders missed one turn which required a short backtrack but there were only a few random comments about the goof. As we should have learned from past hikes, talking while navigating trails sometimes doesn’t work out well!

Eight hikers enjoyed a delicious Mexican lunch at Ole Mole on High Ridge Road in Stamford. All in all a wonderful day!

This concludes our hikes for the 2023-24 season. We had seven hikes averaging over 20 hikers and finally got to traverse the Walkway Over the Hudson in October. Thank you to all who participated! The next hike will be in September 2024.

 

Dave McCollum and Robert Plunkett

 

Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson, Sep 11, 2024

On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor: Fort Sumter.

Master storyteller Erik Larson offers a gripping account of the chaotic months between Lincoln’s election and the Confederacy’s shelling of Sumter—a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Lincoln himself wrote that the trials of these five months were “so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them.”

At the heart of this suspense-filled narrative are Major Robert Anderson, Sumter’s commander and a former slave owner sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union; Edmund Ruffin, a vain and bloodthirsty radical who stirs secessionist ardor at every opportunity; and Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of a prominent planter, conflicted over both marriage and slavery and seeing parallels between them. In the middle of it all is the overwhelmed Lincoln, battling with his duplicitous secretary of state, William Seward, as he tries desperately to avert a war that he fears is inevitable—one that will eventually kill 750,000 Americans.

Drawing on diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers, and plantation records, Larson gives us a political horror story that captures the forces that led America to the brink—a dark reminder that we often don’t see a cataclysm coming until it’s too late.

Book Club: The New China Playbook by Keyu Jin, May 8, 2024

“China’s economy has been booming for decades now. Keyu Jin, an economist who was born in China and educated in the United States, brings her fluency in Eastern and Western cultures together to offer an explanation of how China became such a successful economic story. This book is a guide to the Chinese economy as it has shifted from being based primarily on state-owned enterprise to being based on entrepreneurship and participation in the global economy”–

Hike Mianus River Park. April 22, 2024

HIKING MIANUS RIVER PARK

​​​​STAMFORD, CT

​​​​   APRIL 22, 2024

​​​​     10:00 AM

Mianus River Park is a 391 acre nature preserve on the

Stamford/Greenwich border. The park, one of a series of green areas in the Mianus River Watershed, features a two mile stretch of the beautiful Mianus River, forest lands, vernal pools, glacial outcroppings, varied wildlife and rolling hills. The trails are good but feature the usual rocks and roots and some elevation change but anything steep is in short spurts.

We rate this hike of about 3.5 miles as easy to moderate and it should take us about 2 hours to complete. Dogs on a leash are welcome (there are many dog walkers here!) and, of course, bring a spouse or friend to enjoy this hike.

There will be an optional lunch after the hike at Zody’s 19th Hole Restaurant at the E Gaynor Brennan Golf Course near the Park and Stamford Hospital.

DIRECTIONS:

We will meet at the Merriebrook Road entrance to the Park in Stamford. Both Waze and Google Maps respond to “Mianus River Park”. There is parking on the right before the bridge over the river. Do not park on the roads in the area which are marked and patrolled.

Write Up:

A cloudless sky, 54 degree temperature and Earth Day to boot made for a memorable 2 hour hike through the spectacular Mianus River Park! A total of 21 DMAers, spouses and two dogs spent the first half hour walking upstream along the river which was full and moving rapidly. Two of the party retraced that section back to parking but the rest continued on over the inland portion of the trail, which is hillier and more rugged, through scenic views of rocks and trees. This is a park that is well used by the public and it is easy to see why! 

We encourage hikers who would like a shorter hike to come with us. There is almost always an intermediate point where it is an option to return to the start. So long as there are at least 2 for that option, we can offer it on most hikes.

After the hike a smaller group ate lunch at Zody’s 19th Hole Restaurant at the E Gaynor Brennan Gold course. Lunch there, by the way, is excellent and well priced!

Dave McCollum

Robert Plunkett

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