Category: Activities (Page 2 of 30)

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

Hike Greenwich Point Park, Dec 7, 2023. 10:30

November 16, 2023 /

“HIKING” GREENWICH POINT PARK

  7 TOD’S DRIFTWAY, GREENWICH

  THURSDAY DECEMBER 7, 2023

10:30

We will be walking around Greenwich Point starting at 10:30 am.  

NOTE THAT THIS START TIME IS 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. 

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 Lugano in Old Greenwich.

Contacts: 

Dave McCollum dgmccollum63@gmail.com and 203-858-5688 

Robert Plunkett rgplunkett1@gmail.com and 203-246-2898

HIKING GREENWICH POINT

DECEMBER 7, 2023

 

The scenery at Greenwich Point never disappoints. Even on a cold and cloudy day, there is so much to look at along the shore and inside the park itself. A hearty group of 23 DMAers and guests (plus two dogs) walked about 3 miles in an hour and a half. Some of the group were first timers to the site and were impressed with its size and beauty, not to mention the history of the Tod family’s ownership and the remains of the original mansion. Marilyn Parker’s superb photographs capture the day perfectly!

The ingenuity of DMA members was on display again at lunch after the hike. Out of the original 23, 16 opted to join the lunch at Lugano restaurant in Old Greenwich. An addition 3 skipped the hike and just came to lunch! Apparently the post hike lunches have become an attraction in themselves! 

Dave McCollum

Robert Plunkett

 

Book Club: Horse by Geraldine Brooks, Feb 14, 2024

November 15, 2023 /

A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history

Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack.

New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.

Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse–one studying the stallion’s bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.

Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism.

In preparation for our discussion next Wednesday of the novel Horse, by Geraldine Brooks, below is a link to a 7-minute PBS interview with the author that has very relevant content and a high production value:

PBS Interview with the author.

Book Club: The Road to Surrender” by Evan Thomas, Jan 10, 2024

November 12, 2023 /

A riveting, immersive account of the agonizing decision to use nuclear weapons against Japan–a crucial turning point in World War II and geopolitical history–with you-are-there immediacy by the New York Times bestselling author of Ike’s Bluff and Sea of Thunder.

At 9:20 a.m. on the morning of May 30, General Groves receives a message to report to the office of the secretary of war “at once.” Stimson is waiting for him. He wants to know: has Groves selected the targets yet?

So begins this suspenseful, impeccably researched history that draws on new access to diaries to tell the story of three men who were intimately involved with America’s decision to drop the atomic bomb–and Japan’s decision to surrender. They are Henry Stimson, the American Secretary of War, who had overall responsibility for decisions about the atom bomb; Gen. Carl “Tooey” Spaatz, head of strategic bombing in the Pacific, who supervised the planes that dropped the bombs; and Japanese Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo, the only one in Emperor Hirohito’s Supreme War Council who believed even before the bombs were dropped that Japan should surrender.

Henry Stimson had served in the administrations of five presidents, but as the U.S. nuclear program progressed, he found himself tasked with the unimaginable decision of determining whether to deploy the bomb. The new president, Harry S. Truman, thus far a peripheral figure in the momentous decision, accepted Stimson’s recommendation to drop the bomb. Army Air Force Commander Gen. Spaatz ordered the planes to take off. Like Stimson, Spaatz agonized over the command even as he recognized it would end the war. After the bombs were dropped, Foreign Minister Togo was finally able to convince the emperor to surrender.

To bring these critical events to vivid life, bestselling author Evan Thomas draws on the diaries of Stimson, Togo and Spaatz, contemplating the immense weight of their historic decision. In Road to Surrender, an immersive, surprising, moving account, Thomas lays out the behind-the-scenes thoughts, feelings, motivations, and decision-making of three people who changed history.

 HIKE THE NORWALK RIVER VALLEY TRAIL, WILTON, CT NOVEMBER 2, 2023 9:30 AM

October 22, 2023 /

 

            HIKING

                    NORWALK RIVER VALLEY TRAIL

      WILTON, CT

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

9:30 AM

 

The Norwalk River Valley Trail, when completed, will be a multi-use 30 mile trail stretching from Calf Pasture Beach in Norwalk to Danbury. The NRVT is a 501(c(3) non-profit organization headquartered in Georgetown, CT funded by private contributions. Every $250 donated builds one more foot of trail!

A completed section that we will be hiking in Wilton runs from near the Orem Diner on US 7 for 2.4 miles through thick woods up to Skunk Road where the completed section ends. We will hike up the trail and then retrace our steps back to RT 7. The path is 10 feet wide and composed of compacted stone and there is little elevation change. We estimate the round trip will take about 2 hours after which we will adjourn to Orem diner for an optional lunch. 

The parking lot for the trail is on the west side of RT 7 just past Orem but short of the corner where RT 106 ends at RT 7. It is marked as a lot for the trail as well as for carpooling. 

Dogs, friends and family are welcome on this hike.

Dave McCollum

Robert Plunkett

 

On the coldest day of the fall, 26 hearty DMAers and guests hiked the 4.5 mile roundtrip of the new Wilton Loop of the NRVT. This was an out and back trek since the new trail is not finished past Skunk Road on the east side of Rt 7 in Wilton. As advertised, the trail is wide and made of crushed stone giving a smooth surface now covered by leaves.. There was some ice on the several bridges but all traversed safely. As is typical on our hikes, we saw little wildlife but many other hikers and a couple of bikes.

With such a large group, we got strung out quite a bit but all gathered at the Skunk Road terminus for a group photo by Marilyn Parker. The different speeds also meant we arrived back at the parking lot in small bunches. Many hikers stayed for lunch at Orem Diner nearby but we were prevented from having a group lunch because of a large college group which was already in the Diner. All does not go as planned all the time! 

Dave McCollum

Robert Plunkett

Current Affairs: December 14 at the DCA and on Zoom: The Fed’s post-pandemic efforts to fight inflation – and what went wrong

October 22, 2023 /

The last Current Affairs unit of the year will explore the role that the Federal Reserve played coming out of the Pandemic. How did the Fed deal with its important mandate to preserve price stability? What could Jerome Powell have done differently? We will examine the three most significant policy tools available to a central bank in fighting inflation: interest rates; quantitative tightening; and coordination of monetary and fiscal strategies with Treasury. Since the viewpoints on these matters vary widely among the media and the public, discussions at this CA session are expected to be lively. Bert von Stuelpnagel will start with an introduction of the subject and moderate these discussions. He says that his two objectives for the session are (i) to better understand what happened, but also (ii) to allow participants to make an assessment of what interest rates might do going forward.

Bert wrote his master’s thesis at the State University in Munich on monetary policy in 1977. For the next 40 years he worked in the banking industry, always on the fixed income desk, ending his career as the head of dollar capital markets at BayernLB, New York. In the 1990s, he served on the board of the Financial Markets Association. In retirement, he has remained an avid Fed Watcher, always guessing what the Fed may be up to next, and appreciative of Chairman Greenspan’s one-liner that “if I made myself clear about future interest rates, you must have misunderstood”.

Recommended Readings:

Paul Krugman, Wonking Out – Are High Interest Rates the New Normal? New York Times, September 29, 2023

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/29/opinion/natural-interest-rate-higher.html

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, September 19-20 FOMC Meeting, Press Release

https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/fomcpresconf20230920.htm

MarketWatch, Ray Dalio thinks the U.S. is courting a debt crisis. Are regulators moving fast enough to avert it? October 12, 2023

https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20231012318/ray-dalio-thinks-the-us-is-courting-a-debt-crisis-are-regulators-moving-fast-enough-to-avert-it

Reuters: Fed’s QT mix may be capping, not spurring, long term yields, October 11, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/fed-qt-mix-may-be-capping-not-spurring-long-yields-2023-10-11/

Wall Street Journal: Where have all the Foreign Buyers Gone for US Treasury Debt, November 17, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/where-have-all-the-foreign-buyers-gone-for-u-s-treasury-debt-3db75625?mod=hp_lead_pos10

Forbes: Here is the Fed’s 2024 Meeting Schedule and Interest Rate Outlook, November 18, 2023

https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonmoore/2023/11/18/heres-the-feds-2024-meeting-schedule-and–interest-rate-outlook/?sh=7965589b284c

November 16th at 2 pm, Gunnar Edelstein will talk about how far we have come in the world of aviation from the Wright Brothers to the Space Shuttle.

October 12, 2023 /

What are the effects of deregulation on commercial air travel? How are airlines trying to reinvent air travel as business travel declines? What will Artificial Intelligence mean to aviation? Are spare parts the airlines are using safe? What happens in the cockpit of a Navy jet when it is strafed by a Chinese jet? A pilot all of this career, Gunnar will tell us things we never knew about aviation.

Articles of interest

Your Pilot has a new job and a bigger plane to fly       WSJ-Subscription required

Electric Planes, Once a Fantasy, Now Take to the Sky

Why Planes Were Grounded for the First Time Since 9/11

Spate of Runway Near Misses Casts Shadow Over Summer Travel

More Workers Are Getting Hurt on the Tarmac. ‘It Was Really Frightening.’

Airlines, Regulators Weigh More Cockpit Safety Alerts After Close Calls on Runways

Delta, Southwest Search for Jet Engines Parts Sold With Forges Safety Records

American Airlines’ Radical Plan to Reinvent Business Travel

Revenge Travel  Fizzles for Budget Airlines

 

Book Club: Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon by Michael Lewis, Dec 13, 2023

October 2, 2023 /

“When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side? In Going Infinite Lewis sets out to answer this question, taking readers into the mind of Bankman-Fried, whose rise and fall offers an education in high-frequency trading, cryptocurrencies, philanthropy, bankruptcy, and the justice system. Both psychological portrait and financial roller-coaster ride, Going Infinite is Michael Lewis at the top of his game, tracing the mind-bending trajectory of a character who never liked the rules and was allowed to live by his own–until it all came undone”–

Hiking and Happy Wanderers: October 26, 2023, 8:30AM – Walkway Across the Hudson, Poughkeepsie NY

September 28, 2023 /

HIKING AND HAPPY WANDERERS
WALKWAY ACROSS THE HUDSON
POUGHKEEPSIE, NY
OCTOBER 26, 2023

The Walkway Across the Hudson is billed as “The Longest Elevated
Pedestrian Bridge in the World” as it spans the Hudson River between
Poughkeepsie NY and Highland NY. It provides magnificent panoramic views
of the Hudson, and at 212 feet above the river, this 1.28 mile linear park
boasts scenic views north to The Catskills and south to the Hudson Highlands.
The Walkway structure dates from 1889 when it was built as a railroad bridge
eventually carrying as many as 3000 train cars a day. A fire on May 8, 1974
halted train traffic forever but after 35 years the bridge was reopened as the
Walkway on October 3, 2009 as a part of the Hudson Valley Rail Trail
Network. For more information on the Walkway see Walkway.org
TRIP PLAN
We will gather at the DCA for an 8:30 AM departure for Poughkeepsie by car
pool. The drive takes about 1.5 hours to the parking lot at 61 Parker Avenue
which is at the east end of the Walkway. We will cross the entire span to the
west bank of the Hudson, taking our time to enjoy the views and then retrace
our steps back to the Poughkeepsie starting point. On the Poughkeepsie side
of the bridge is an elevator down to the riverbank. If it’s open, we have the
option of a ride down and back. Once back up on the Walkway we will
proceed to lunch at Lola’s, a very good sandwich shop right under the
Walkway. There are restrooms at either end of the Walkway. We should be
back at the DCA by 3:00 PM.
As always, spouses and guests are invited. There will be a sign up sheet at the
DMA meetings on October 11, 18 and 25.

Dave McCollum

Bob Plunkett

David Mace

Joe Spain

 

Trip report:

On a late October day with weather more like early September about 35 DMAers, spouses and friends crossed the Hudson River on the spectacular repurposed railroad bridge from the 1890s. At its peak, the bridge carried more than 3000 train cars a day. A fire in 1974 closed the bridge but it was reborn in 2009 as the “Walkway”. 

Usually we can get an accurate headcount but here walkers came from different points and at slightly different times due to the distance from Darien. All of us traversed the 1.25 mile length to the west side of the river and then wandered back across, stopping often to admire the fantastic views of the river below and for miles up and down. The only boats visible today were an oil barge pushed by a tug and a sailboat moving slowly in the light wind.

Most enjoyed a sandwich lunch at Lola’s situated under the bridge on the Poughkeepsie side. Lola’s has really good food but seating is limited and it is popular so it took some patience for most to be fed. A smaller number opted for lunch at Tavern 23, a short walk from the bridge. 

We think all would agree it was a day well spent despite the long trip. Thanks to all who participated!

 

Dave McCollum Robert Plunkett Joe Spain David Mace

 

 

Book Club: Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead, Nov 8, 2023

September 15, 2023 /

CROOK MANIFESTO

BY COLSON WHITEHEAD ‧ RELEASE DATE: JULY 18, 2023

It’s not just crime fiction at its craftiest, but shrewdly rendered social history.

Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Whitehead continues his boisterous, incisive saga of late-20th-century Harlem and of a furniture dealer barely keeping his criminal side at bay.

The adventures of entrepreneur, family man, and sometime fence Ray Carney, which began with Harlem Shuffle (2021), are carried from the Black Citadel’s harried-but-hopeful 1960s of that book to the dismal-and-divided ’70s shown here. In the first of three parts, it’s 1971, and Carney’s business is growing even amid the city’s Nixon-era doldrums and the rise of warring militant groups like the Black Panthers and the Black Liberation Army. Carney barely thinks about sliding back into his more illicit vocation until his teenage daughter, May, starts hankering to see the Jackson 5 perform at Madison Square Garden. And so he decides to look up an old contact named Munson, a seriously bent White NYPD officer and “accomplished fixer,” who agrees to get free “up close” seats for the concert if Carney will fence stolen jewelry stuffed in a paper bag. But the job carries far more physical peril than advertised, culminating in a long night’s journey into day with Carney getting beaten, robbed, and strong-armed into becoming Munson’s reluctant, mostly passive partner in the cop’s wanton rampage throughout the city. In the second part, it’s 1973, and Pepper, Carney’s strong, silent confidant and all-purpose tough guy, is recruited to work security on the set of a blaxploitation epic whose female lead inexplicably goes missing. The third and final part takes place in the bicentennial year of 1976, the nadir of the city’s fiscal crisis, marked by widespread fires in vacant buildings in Harlem and elsewhere in New York’s poorer neighborhoods. When an 11-year-old boy is seriously injured by a seemingly random firebombing, Carney is moved to ask himself, “What kind of man torches a building with people inside?” He resolves to find out with Pepper’s help. What recurs in each of these episodes are vivid depictions of hustlers of varied races and social strata, whether old-hand thieves, crass showbiz types, remorseless killers, or slick politicians on the make with the business elite. Whitehead’s gift for sudden, often grotesque eruptions of violence is omnipresent, so much so that you almost feel squeamish to recognize this book for the accomplished, streamlined, and darkly funny comedy of manners it is. If its spirits aren’t quite as buoyant as those of Harlem Shuffle, it’s because the era it chronicles was depressed in more ways than one. Assuming Whitehead continues chronicling Ray Carney’s life and times, things should perk up, or amp up, for the 1980s.

It’s not just crime fiction at its craftiest, but shrewdly rendered social history.

Hike the Saugatuck Trail, Sept 7, 2023

July 24, 2023 /

HIKE THE SAUGATUCK TRAIL

      REDDING, CT

SEPTEMBER 7, 2023

9:30 AM

The Saugatuck Trail is a part of the Centennial Watershed State Forest which covers parts of Easton, Redding, Weston and Newtown and is a partnership between Aquarion Water Co, CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, and The Nature Conservancy. Created in 2002, the property was developed to conserve 15,300 acres of land for water supply protection. It encloses the Saugatuck Reservoir and consists almost entirely of forested rugged terrain with rock outcroppings. While most of the trail is somewhat distant from the reservoir, it can be seen through the trees in several spots. The forest scenery is spectacular!

We will be hiking about 4 miles (2 hours+) on mostly well groomed trails with the usual roots and rocks. There are a few fairly steep places on the trail and walking sticks would be helpful but not at all necessary. We rate this hike as medium plus. NO DOGS are allowed in the Forest but, as always, bring friends and family!

There is limited parking so we will organize some car pooling from the DCA leaving at 8:45 AM. The Google address is “Saugatuck Universal Access Trail, Redding, CT” 

No lunch is planned after this hike.

Dave McCollum or Robert Plunkett

September 21st at 2pm Jim Phillips will lead a discussion on “The Future of Social Security: What are the Options?”

July 23, 2023 /

There are a number of options to fix Social Security. Some of the most common proposals include: raising the payroll tax, lifting the cap on taxable wages, means-testing benefits, providing incentives to take the benefits later, privatizing social security, etc.. We anticipate a lively discussion on what are reasonable solutions. Whether or not they could pass Congress is anyone’s guess, but ideally, we need solutions that would have broad appeal and support.

Blackstone’s Tony James Wants Retirement Security for All

PERSONAL FINANCE

No, Social Security Isn’t Bankrupt. But It Is Struggling, Here’s Why.

How Social Security Funding Works

How to fix Social Security? It’spolitical but it can be done

The Right Way to Fix Social Security: Quickly

October 19th at 2pm: Vincent Arguimbau will lead a discussion about how Darien should develop Great Island.

July 20, 2023 /

How Darien should develop its purchase of Great Island rests primarily on the Italian Palazzo mansion and the horse stable with arched ceilings taken from Grand Central Station. Two monumental assets require enormous expenses to refurbish and maintain, expenses that taxpayers will resist shouldering. Our town will have to consider the whole gamut of possibilities from commercial development, for example, the palazzo privately developed into a Relais Chateaux Hotel by a group holding a long-term lease, to a complete teardown of the buildings and cleared into parkland.

Background Material

Beka Sturges Presentation to DMA, October 11, 2023

Darien TV79 Playlist of video tours and committee meetings concerning Great Island. 

 

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