Category: Activities (Page 4 of 32)

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

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. 

 

Summer read: G-Man by Beverly Gage, Sep 13, 2023 at 2:00

July 17, 2023 /

“A major new biography of J Edgar Hoover that draws from never-before-seen sources to create a groundbreaking portrait of a colossus who dominated half a century of American history and planted the seeds for much of today’s conservative political landscape. We remember him as a bulldog–squat frame, bulging wide-set eyes, fearsome jowls–but in 1924, when he became director of the FBI, he had been the trim, dazzling wunderkind of the administrative state, buzzing with energy and big ideas for reform. He transformed a failing law-enforcement backwater, riddled with scandal, into a modern machine. He believed in the power of the federal government to do great things for the nation and its citizens. He also believed that certain people–many of them communists or racial minorities or both–did not deserve to be included in that American project. Hoover rose to power and then stayed there, decade after decade, using the tools of state to create a personal fiefdom unrivaled in U.S. history. Beverly Gage’s monumental work explores the full sweep of Hoover’s life and career, from his birth in 1895 to a modest Washington civil-service family through his death in 1972. In her nuanced and definitive portrait, Gage shows how Hoover was more than a one-dimensional tyrant and schemer who strong-armed the rest of the country into submission. As FBI director from 1924 through his death in 1972, he was a confidant, counselor, and adversary to eight U.S. presidents, four Republicans and four Democrats. Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson did the most to empower him, yet his closest friend among the eight was fellow anticommunist warrior Richard Nixon. Hoover was not above blackmail and intimidation, but he also embodied conservative values ranging from anticommunism to white supremacy to a crusading and politicized interpretation of Christianity. This garnered him the admiration of millions of Americans. He stayed in office for so long because many people, from the highest reaches of government down to the grassroots, wanted him there and supported what he was doing, thus creating the template that the political right has followed to transform its party. G-Man places Hoover back where he once stood in American political history–not at the fringes, but at the center–and uses his story to explain the trajectories of governance, policing, race, ideology, political culture, and federal power as they evolved over the course of the 20th century”–

Hiking: Mianus River Park, Stamford CT, June 8, 2023 at 10 a.m

May 31, 2023 /

Hiking: Mianus River Park, Stamford CT, June 8 at 10 a.m.

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.

CONTACTS:

Dave McCollum

Bob Plunkett

Golf June 6, 2023

May 31, 2023 /

Golf, June 6 – tee time 8 a.m.:

Peter Carnes and Bob McGroarty have scheduled our first golf outing of 2023, for June 6 starting at 8 a.m. at Oak Hills Golf Course, 165 Fillow Street, Norwalk. We have a limit of 24 golfers so if you’re interested get your name on our sign-up list this week. As of this writing there are 3 spaces remaining. Golf will be followed by an optional lunch. Come and join us for this always popular and fun activity! Any questions, please contact Bob McGroarty: rgmcg@me.com

Book Club: The Wager by David Grann, Oct 11, 2023

May 10, 2023 /

The author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost City of Z returns with a rousing story of a maritime scandal.

In 1741, the British vessel the Wager, pressed into service during England’s war with Spain, was shipwrecked in a storm off the coast of Patagonia while chasing a silver-laden Spanish galleon. Though initially part of a fleet, by the time of the shipwreck, the Wager stood alone, and many of its 250 crew members already had succumbed to injury, illness, starvation, or drowning. More than half survived the wreckage only to find themselves stranded on a desolate island. Drawing on a trove of firsthand accounts—logbooks, correspondence, diaries, court-martial testimony, and Admiralty and government records—Grann mounts a chilling, vibrant narrative of a grim maritime tragedy and its dramatic aftermath. Central to his populous cast of seamen are David Cheap, who, through a twist of fate, became captain of the Wager; Commodore George Anson, who had made Cheap his protégé; formidable gunner John Bulkeley; and midshipman John Byron, grandfather of the poet. Life onboard an 18th-century ship was perilous, as Grann amply shows. Threats included wild weather, enemy fire, scurvy and typhus, insurrection, and even mutiny. On the island, Cheap struggled to maintain authority as factions developed and violence erupted, until a group of survivors left—without Cheap—in rude makeshift boats. Of that group, 29 castaways later washed up on the coast of Brazil, where they spent more than two years in Spanish captivity; and three castaways, including Cheap, landed on the shores of Chile, where they, too, were held for years by the Spanish. Each group of survivors eventually returned to England, where they offered vastly different versions of what had occurred; most disturbingly, each accused the other of mutiny, a crime punishable by hanging. Recounting the tumultuous events in tense detail, Grann sets the Wager episode in the context of European imperialism as much as the wrath of the sea.

A brisk, absorbing history and a no-brainer for fans of the author’s suspenseful historical thrillers.

Current Affairs: May 18 at 2 p.m. at the DCA and on Zoom. Our current and future relationship with China

April 28, 2023 /

Jan Selkowitz is a veteran China watcher.  There is no more important foreign affairs issue facing this administration than our complex relationship with Xi Jinping and China. Are we friends or enemies?  Can we cooperate on important technology issues like Artificial intelligence, or are we headed into a Cold War?  What is the future of Taiwan?  How aggressively should we be providing them with military resources?  What are China’s challenges going forward?  How is their Belt and Road initiative doing? Some Geopolitical commentators predict with their aging demographics, China’s days as a world power will be over in the next decade. Others strongly disagree.

You won’t want to miss this discussion on May 18th at 2 pm moderated by Jan Selkowitz.

Background Material

What Does Xi Want?  YouTube Video May 11, 2023

Is China’s Power about to Peak   The Economist May 11. 2023  Subscription Required

Just How Good can Chinas Get at AI  The Economist May 11, 2023 Subscription Required

What’s China’s growing role on the world stage mean for the U.S. ?    NPR April 30, 2023

America, China and a Crisis of Trust   Tom Friedman New York Times April 14, 2023  Subscription required

A Country in Flux: Recent and Future policy shifts in China   Brookings Institute March 10, 2023

U.S Taiwan Relations: Will China’s challenge lead to a crisis?  Brookings Institute May 1, 2023

Peter Zeihan: Decoding China’s Destiny   April 2023

Money Matters. Drones. Mark Strauss founder WaveAerospace, May 8, 2023 at 10:00

April 27, 2023 /

Mark Strauss, founder of WaveAerospace in Stamford, builds unmanned aircraft that carry out our customer’s most important missions with their most critical payloads. What differentiates our aircraft from all other aerial systems is our ability to fly in wind & weather that grounds other aircraft. Whether your mission is reconnaissance, communications, or tactical logistics, we fly day or night.

 

Douglas Campbell

HIKE LARSEN WILDLIFE SANCTUARY,   APRIL 27, 2023 10:00 AM

April 15, 2023 /

   HIKING 

      LARSEN WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

    FAIRFIELD, CT

    APRIL 27, 2023

10:00 AM

 

The Larsen Sanctuary is owned and run by the Connecticut Audubon Society and was a gift from Roy and Margot Larsen in the early 1960s after the construction of I-95 eliminated about half of Audubon’s sanctuary in coastal Fairfield. It consists of 155 acres of varied terrain with little elevation change, several ponds and streams and very well maintained trails. We will be hiking about 3 miles which we should complete in about two hours as there will be many places to stop and observe wildlife. What you say, “wildlife on a DMA hike?” yes indeed there is here. We saw birds, turtles, a snake and an active beaver pond during our pre-hike. There is a pair of nesting Barred Owls on the property and the center also has a birds of prey compound which we may be able to see as well. This should be a terrific hike!

 

The Sanctuary is located at 2325 Burr Street in Fairfield which is north of the Merritt Parkway. Google “Larsen Wildlife Sanctuary”. There is plenty of parking, a nature store and bathrooms. NO DOGS permitted on this hike but please bring spouses and/or friends!

There will be NO LUNCH after this hike so that hikers will also be able to attend the Current Affairs meeting at 2:00 that afternoon.

 

PS-The director of the Fairfield region of Connecticut Audubon is Amy Barnouw, the daughter of John Schlachtenhaufen, who guided us on our pre-hike!  Thank you Amy!

Trip report:

The forecast for today was occasional showers with a probability of rain of about 50% during the hike two hour window of 10-12 am. However, at about 8:30 the skies opened up in Darien which apparently had a sobering effect on many DMAers desire to hike. Your hiking captains, Robert and Dave, were not deterred and headed up to Fairfield ready to push ahead. 

As it turned out, five other DMAers were not deterred either and the seven of us set out pretty much on schedule to tour the spectacular Sanctuary. The weather was just fine for a hike, cool but no rain. We set out on the main trail and detoured for a one mile trip through Deer Meadow (no deer!) before resuming on the main path which then took us past two beaver ponds and into the forest of giant trees and many streams and ponds. We hiked 3.2 miles in under 2 hours.

The overcast weather kept more than hikers inside, most wildlife stayed away too! We did see two Canada Geese, a few birds and a squirrel. Thanks to all who turned out!

The next hike is scheduled for Monday June 5 at a site TBD. We will hope for a better forecast!

Dave McCollum

Robert Plunkett

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