Category: Activities (Page 32 of 36)

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

2016 Silvermine Challenge
June 24, 2016

The 2016 Silvermine Challenge DMA vs. Senior Men’s Club of New Canaan (SMCNC) was held at the Silvermine Golf Club on June 24th. This was the fifth consecutive year that this friendly yet spirited competition has been held. This year’s competition ended up in a 15 – 15 tie. DMA leads the series 3 – 1 with 1 tie.

The DMA Golf Team comprised the following members:

  • Dave McCollum
  • Tom Haack
  • Jim Crane
  • Jim Kelly
  • Woody Woodworth
  • Bud Bain
  • Tom Reifenheiser
  • Fred Conze
  • Michael Poler
  • Gunnar Edelstein
  • Kevin Davidson
  • Kevin Monahan
  • Mike Brennan
  • Austin Schraff
  • Spike Reed
  • Joe Holmes
  • Alex Garnett
  • George Gilliam
  • David Mace
  • Peter Carnes

Dave McCollum won the Closest to the Pin Award.

Denny Devere (Captain)

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Hiking the Zofnass Family Preserve
Westchester Wilderness Walk Thursday
November 3, 2016, 9:30 AM

Join us Thursday October 27 November 3 as we hike a portion of the Westchester Wilderness Walk at the 150-acre Zofnass Family Preserve in Pound Ridge, NY  ―  near the North Stamford border. We’ll be at Zofnass during height of the changing leaves in an undeveloped area noted for its beautiful rock outcroppings, upland forests, wetlands and ancient stone walls. We’ll hike about 3 ½ miles of the preserve’s 8 miles of trails.

And after the hike we’ll reward ourselves with lunch at the nearby Long Ridge Tavern on Long Ridge Road in North Stamford.

Invite your wife or significant other to join us both for this special hike ― and for lunch.

Because parking is extremely limited at the Zofnass Preserve we’ll meet at the Long Ridge Tavern at 9:30 a.m. and car pool the five minute drive to trail head.

Directions to Long Ridge Tavern, 2635 Long Ridge Road, Stamford, CT  06903.

― Merritt Parkway, exit 34, Long Ridge Road (CT 104)

― Drive north on Long Ridge Road (CT 104) 3.8 miles to Long Ridge Tavern

― Long Ridge Tavern will be on the right

― Meet in the parking lot

Cell service in Zofnass is limited, so if you need to contact hike leader Rich Sabreen the day of the hike try 917-951-8267 before we leave the Tavern about 9:30 a.m.

Book Club: Hillbilly Elegy by J.D.Vance, January 11, 2017

hillbillyFrom a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck. The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.’s grandparents were “dirt poor and in love,” and moved north from Kentucky’s Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually their grandchild (the author) would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of their success in achieving generational upward mobility. But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that this is only the short, superficial version. Vance’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother, struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, and were never able to fully escape the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. Vance piercingly shows how he himself still carries around the demons of their chaotic family history. A deeply moving memoir with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels. And it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.

Discussion leader: John Wolcott

Gentlemen–Hillbilly Elegy is an extremely important book, perhaps more because so many pundits are liberally quoting it than might truly be the case–and therein lies an intriguing paradox. However, Elegy is extraordinarily well-written (the pages fly by) and relates an absorbing, disturbing, yet at times uplifting story set in Appalachia, referred to by politicians, some sympathetically, others, condescendingly, as the Rust Belt. Our discussion will be both lively and provocative.

Once you’ve put the book down (but not before), please read the attached book review from The New Yorker. I’ve read a number of others, and none comes close. It’s so good that you could almost skip the book, but again, the book is so well crafted that you shouldn’t miss it. The article also refers to several other sources that might be worth a look.

New Yorker – Hillbilly Elegy

See you all January 11. In the meantime, Happy Holidays and a Wonderful New Year, speaking of which, make reading Hillbilly Elegy your first New Year’s Resolution!

–John

Book Club: The Last Hurrah by Edwin O’Connor, December 14, 2016

last-hurrah“We’re living in a sensitive age, Cuke, and I’m not altogether sure you’re fully attuned to it.” So says Irish-American politician Frank Skeffington—a cynical, corrupt 1950s mayor, and also an old-school gentleman who looks after the constituents of his New England city and enjoys their unwavering loyalty in return. But in our age of dynasties, mercurial social sensitivities, and politicians making love to the camera, Skeffington might as well be talking to us.

Not quite a roman á clef of notorious Boston mayor James Michael Curley, The Last Hurrahtells the story of Skeffington’s final campaign as witnessed through the eyes of his nephew, who learns a great deal about politics as he follows his uncle to fundraisers, wakes, and into smoke-filled rooms, ultimately coming—almost against his will—to admire the man. Adapted into a 1958 film starring Spencer Tracy and directed by John Ford (and which Curley tried to keep from being made), Edwin O’Connor’s opus reveals politics as it really is, and big cities as they really were. An expansive, humorous novel offering deep insight into the Irish-American experience and the ever-changing nature of the political machine, The Last Hurrah reveals political truths still true today: what the cameras capture is just the smiling face of the sometimes sordid business of giving the people what they want.

Discussion Leader: David Mace

Book Club: Destiny of the Republic: Madness, Medicine & the Murder of a President by Candice Millard, November 9, 2016

destinyoftherepublicThe extraordinary New York Times bestselling account of James Garfield’s rise from poverty to the American presidency, and the dramatic history of his assassination and legacy, from bestselling author of The River of Doubt, Candice Millard.

James Abram Garfield was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, a renowned congressman, and a reluctant presidential candidate who took on the nation’s corrupt political establishment. But four months after Garfield’s inauguration in 1881, he was shot in the back by a deranged office-seeker named Charles Guiteau. Garfield survived the attack, but become the object of bitter, behind-the-scenes struggles for power—over his administration, over the nation’s future, and, hauntingly, over his medical care. Meticulously researched, epic in scope, and pulsating with an intimate human focus and high-velocity narrative drive, The Destiny of the Republic brings alive a forgotten chapter of U.S. history.

Discussion leader: Joe Spain

Book Club: Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built by Duncan Clark, October 12, 2016

alibaba-coverAn engrossing, insider’s account of how a teacher built one of the world’s most valuable companies—rivaling Walmart & Amazon—and forever reshaped the global economy.
In just a decade and half Jack Ma, a man from modest beginnings who started out as an English teacher, founded and built Alibaba into one of the world’s largest companies, an e-commerce empire on which hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers depend. Alibaba’s $25 billion IPO in 2014 was the largest global IPO ever. A Rockefeller of his age who is courted by CEOs and Presidents around the world, Jack is an icon for China’s booming private sector and the gatekeeper to hundreds of millions of middle class consumers.
Duncan Clark first met Jack in 1999 in the small apartment where Jack founded Alibaba. Granted unprecedented access to a wealth of new material including exclusive interviews, Clark draws on his own experience as an early advisor to Alibaba and two decades in China chronicling the Internet’s impact on the country to create an authoritative, compelling narrative account of Alibaba’s rise.
How did Jack overcome his humble origins and early failures to achieve massive success with Alibaba? How did he outsmart rival entrepreneurs from China and Silicon Valley? Can Alibaba maintain its 80% market share? As it forges ahead into finance and entertainment, are there limits to Alibaba’s ambitions? How does the Chinese government view its rise? Will Alibaba expand further overseas, including in the U.S.?
Clark tells Alibaba’s tale in the context of China’s momentous economic and social changes, illuminating an unlikely corporate titan as never before.

Hiking the Leon Levy Preserve in South Salem NY
Thursday Sept 29, 2016 at 9.30am

The Leon Levy Preserve was established approximately 10 years ago when the 400 acre Bell property was purchased by the Westchester Land Trust. The hiking trails here are wide, well maintained, well marked and range from an easy to a light moderate level of difficulty.

See: Leon Levy Preserve

We have chosen this particular hike to encourage wide participation. The hike should appeal to hikers of all levels of experience. We welcome spouses and significant others: they will enjoy this hike.

We will start at 9.30am, hike for perhaps 3.5 miles and be done by approximately 12 noon.

Following the hike, an optional lunch will be at Chef Luis in the heart of downtown New Canaan.

See: Chef Luis

Directions:

The best directions can be had by googling 45 Smith Ridge Road in South Salem, NY. This is a private home on Route 123 very close to the Preserve. In fact, a few yards from their mailbox is a brown sign saying the the Leon Levy Preserve is just ahead on the left. There is ample parking.

For those traveling from Darien, you will basically being going up Mansfield Ave (Route 124) into New Canaan and there connect to Route 123 N which is Smith Ridge Road in New Canaan. Proceed on Route 123 N well into New York State till you see the mailbox for 45 Smith Ridge Road in South Salem and spot the Leon Levy sign mentioned above.

Rain date: Friday, Sept 30, 2016

Contact for this hike: Sunil Saksena, 203­561­8601; ssaksena44@gmail.com

Tuesday, September 27, 2016
DMA Golf Outing
at Sterling Farms

Sterling Farms

Sterling Farms

Peter Carnes has arranged for DMA members to play golf at Sterling Farms on Tuesday September 27, 2016. The outing will cost $44 which includes a cart. Tee times start at 10am and Peter needs a “hard” count by Wednesday 21 September in order to lock in the tee times.

Please REPLY to picarnes@gmail.com if you are interested in playing or have questions. For those who indicated interest via the sign-up sheet at the last meeting, please reconfirm. Later logistics will be handled by email.

Sterling Farms Golf Course
1349 Newfield Avenue
Stamford, CT 06905

Hike the Mianus River Gorge
April 21, 2016

Mianus River Gorge

Mianus River Gorge

On Thursday, April 21, we will return to the Mianus River Gorge. The Gorge is a 750-acre preserve of old-growth forest that was established sixty years ago as the first land project of The Nature Conservancy.

The trails roughly parallel the river at a higher elevation. Among the interesting features is an abandoned quarry where mica, quartz, and feldspar were mined in the 19th century. For more details see www.mianus.org/visit-the-gorge/planning-your-visit/.

The Mianus River Gorge is located nearby in Bedford, NY, not far from the Stamford border. To reach it:
• Take Exit 34 from the Merritt Parkway.
• Drive North on Route 104 (Long Ridge Road) towards Bedford for 7.5 miles.
• Turn left onto Miller’s Mill Road. If you hit Route 172 and the Mobil gas station, you’ve gone too far.
• Left on Mianus River Road after crossing the bridge.
• Drive about ½ mile on dirt road. Entrance to the parking lot is on the left–just across the street from 167 Mianus River Road.

Be cautious! It is easy to miss Miller’s Mill Road. Check your odometer when you exit the Merritt so you will know when you have traveled 7.5 miles. A helpful landmark on the right is Twin Lakes Drive, which comes just before Miller’s Mill Road.

The hike is about 4 miles, and will take us 2½ – 3 hours. Those who wish to hike at a slower pace will have a 3-mile option. As always, wives are welcome.

We will meet at the Gorge parking lot at 9:50 a.m. and begin the hike at 10:00 a.m. Afterwards there will be an optional lunch.

For more information contact Scott Hutchason at 203-322-5025 or shutchason@sbcglobal.net.

 

March 31, 2016
Hiking in Trout Brook Valley in Weston, CT

The first hike of the season is scheduled for Thursday, March 31, 2016. We will be hiking the Trout Brook Valley Preservation Area in Weston, Ct. This is an 1100 acre preserve that has several trails classified as hard, medium and easy. We will be exploring a combination of medium and easy trails totaling about 4 miles.

We will be using the Bradley Road entrance to the park in Weston. However, since parking at the trailhead is limited, we will meet instead at the commuter parking lot just off Exit 41 on the North bound Merritt Parkway. This lot is along the curving Exit 41 ramp and can be entered by
making a right turn from the ramp itself.

We will meet there at 9:45 am, pool and depart for the trail at 9:50 am. It should take us 15 minutes to reach the trail head.

After the hike we expect to be back at this lot by 12:30 pm and we will then proceed for lunch(optional) at a nearby restaurant.

As usual, spouses and friends are welcome to join the hike.

Meet at: Commuter parking lot off exit 41(Merritt Parkway)

Date: Thursday, March 31, 2016

Time: 9:45 am

Contact: Sunil Saksena on cellphone 203-561-8601 or email at ssaksena50@aol.com

December 4, 2015
Hiking in Mianus River Park

mriver-autumnThis hike originally scheduled for Thursday December 3 has been postponed by a day to Friday December 4, 2015 to allow the trails to dry out from the rain earlier in the week.

The 400 acre Mianus River Park straddles the towns of Stamford and Greenwich and is owned jointly by them. We hiked here last year but this time we will be attempting a different, more interesting trail. We will hike approximately 4.5 miles and, starting at 10am, be done by about 12.30 pm.

As usual, participation from spouses, significant others and friends is welcome.
The hike will be followed by lunch at a Stamford restaurant (optional).

Date : Friday, December 4, 2015

Time : 10 am

Meeting Point: Parking lot at the Stamford entrance of the Mianus River Park on Merriebrook Lane, off Westover Road
Parking. : lower level, just below the large red cabin on the right side of Merriebrook
Website for directions and trail map: www.friendsofmianusriverpark.org.

You can also search Merriebrook Lane in Stamford on Google Maps for directions or follow these directions:

  1. Heading towards NYC on the Merritt take exit 33 on to Den Road.
  2. Then take the first left onto Bangall Road and a
  3. Left again on to Riverbank Rd. This turns slightly right and becomes Westover Road.
  4. After 1.2 miles, make a right on to Merriebrook Lane (careful, it’s easy to miss this turn).
  5. The park entrance is at the end of Merriebrook.

Contact. : Sunil Saksena.
mailto: ssaksena 50@aol.com.
203-­561­-8601 cell

Hiking in
Ward Pound Ridge Reservation
postponed to Thursday, November 5, 2015. Thursday October 29, 2015
at 10:00 am

Pound Ridge ReservationOur first hike of the season is scheduled for Thursday, November 5, 2015.  Thursday October 29 at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation.Located in Cross River(Pound Ridge) this is a 4000 acre park with 42 miles of trails over varied terrain. We will select a trail approximately 4 to 5 miles in length and the hike should take about 2 ½ to 3 hours. The trails are wide, well maintained and well marked. The hike will be followed by lunch(optional) at Blind Charlie’s Cafe in Downtown PoundRidge. Spouses, significant others, friends and guests are welcome to join the hike.

No entrance fee is charged of seniors during the week in the off-season and there is plenty of parking available. We plan to assemble at 10.00 am at the parking lot near the entrance of the park (where the ticket booth is located). There are restrooms here. At 10.10 am we will proceed as a group by car to the trailhead which is a short distance past the ticket booth on Michigan Road.

This hike is led by Sunil Saksena who can be reached at 203-561-8601(cell) or ssaksena44@gmail.com

Directions:

  • Take exit 35 off the Merritt Parkway and proceed north on High Ridge Road( Rt 137 N).
  • Continue on Rt 137 North for approx 8.5 miles and bear left at the fork towards Pound Ridge onto Stone Hill Road which is still Rt 137N.
  • Continue till theT-junction at the end of Rt137 N and then make a right turn towards Cross River onto Old Post Road (Rt 121N) . After about 2.9 miles make a right turn just past the Baptist Church located at 1789 Old Post Road.. This right turn is clearly marked as the entrance to the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation.
  • Proceed on this road (Reservation Road) till you reach the ticket booth.

( the distance from Exit 35 on the Merritt to the ticket booth is just under 14 miles and will take about 30 min depending on traffic).

Official address of the Park is 4 Reservation Road, Cross River, NY 10518

 

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