Milling Around
Hello World,
Well, this has certainly been another week for the birds, and they're welcome to it. It started out bad and went downhill from there, and those of us waiting around to see some improvement, suffice to say, are still waiting. The big story all week around here was the mighty Yankees being swept by the hapless Kansas City Royals, and anyone who watched it on TV knows that the Royals reacted to this unexpected outcome as if they had just won the World Series and then some. Hometown fans may quibble, but I think it's nice to see that kind of enthusiasm in June, with little else to cheer about. (Certainly not the weather, so don't even get me started on that!) Of course, pretty soon the NBA playoffs will be over, no doubt ushering in the usual riots and car fires, but that's a different sort of enthusiasm altogether.
This year was one of the few times that Memorial Day was observed on what is generally referred to as "traditional" Memorial Day, that is, May 30th. Like its brethren holidays of Presidents Day and Labor Day, but quite unlike Christmas and Independence Day, Memorial Day has recently become a moveable feast, falling on whatever is the last Monday in May, rather than staying put on May 30th. This is a nuisance for those of us who run up the colors, and are purists, because I end up putting up and taking down flags on both days, for traditional Memorial Day and also the day it's observed. It can be as early as the 25th, or as late as the 31st, but no later than that. Periodically, it falls on May 30th, just like in the good old days, and that makes it doubly special. Not to mention, half as much work for the flag brigade around here, and since I fly flags upstairs and downstairs, that makes a big difference. Like the gunslinger riding off into the sunset after cleaning up the wild frontier, I can say, "My work here is done."
Speaking of work, I arrived on the campus as usual on Tuesday, to be confronted with a large sign outside of the parking lot and announcing this as one of "Solucient's Top 100 Hospitals," for all the world to see, or at least the local pedestrians and motorists who share our neighborhood. I said to Bill, "I don't have any idea what that means, and I work here!" So I asked them in Administration, and they gushed about receiving what they referred to as a great honor, although it turned out, as Jon Stewart always says, "Mmmmm, not so much!" It seems that Solucient is a company that you can pay to send you a sign, which you can erect on your property, and is basically a billboard for Solucient, because all it has is their name on it, and not the name of your hospital. This is what used to be known in the old days as "snake oil," and anyone else out there who considers this to be a great honor, please contact me, because I have a very handsome bridge that I'd be happy to sell you.
I had occasion recently to attend an event held at the prestigious and magnificent Mill Neck Manor in the scenic enclave of Mill Neck on Long Island's north shore, in the area known as "the Gold Coast" for all of the wealthy families who built estates there. Please feel free to visit their web site at www.millneck.org and see for yourself. If you ever have an opportunity to go there for any reason, you should definitely not walk, but run full-tilt at once, because it is worth the trip. The treasure that is now Mill Neck begins its life as Sefton Manor, a classically styled stone mansion nestled on 86 bucolic acres, built in the 1920's for four million dollars, back when money really meant something. In 1948, the Lutheran Friends of the Deaf were scouting around for some property to build a school, and through some miraculous set of circumstances (and here, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of divine intervention) they were able to buy the property from Mrs. Lillian Sefton Dodge for only $216,000. For those of you out there keeping score, this transaction netted the Sefton family a loss of almost $3.8 million in less than 30 years, which is a rate of return usually seen in stocks for bankrupt railroads, or municipal bonds issued by crazed despots in Third World wastelands. I think this illustrates either that the Seftons were financially inept, or that they were generous to a fault. I prefer the latter interpretation.
In any case, they opened the Mill Neck Lutheran School for the Deaf in 1951 (you would think the least they could do would be to keep the Sefton's name on it after that!) with 19 students learning in classrooms converted from farm buildings, and living in rooms right on the property. Over 50 years later, they're still going strong and teaching people today, although now it's a day program and not residential. They've expanded many times over the years, converting unused rooms or buildings to new purposes. My favorite was described this way in their brochure: "In the Spring of 1961, the third-floor servants' quarters of the Manor House were converted into a library. The first library card was presented to New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller." And they have a picture of him looking about as delighted as you would expect a grown man getting a library card to look, and it is just too priceless. Eventually, they had to add some new buildings, to meet the needs for extra classrooms, a conference center, audiology clinics, job placement programs, an early childhood center and sports complex. Through it all, it's remarkable how well the newer buildings blend in with their surroundings, not as a cheap imitation of the same design, but rather as understated and thematically-related companion pieces.
Nothing can take away from the glory of the original manor house, which manages to appear grand and imposing, not only from the front and also the back, but both sides as well. Ah, for those halcyon days of yore when people cared about quality, and beauty was appreciated just for the sake of being beautiful. I don't know if they let people in the manor house, because the event I attended was in the conference center, which was nice enough as conference centers go nowadays, but I wouldn't recommend it as a tourist destination. But the real jewel of the estate, at least for me, was the Memorial Garden, which I stumbled upon by accident, after following a wrong path along a hedge. When the path ended at an ornate wrought iron gate and I looked inside, I was mesmerized by the grandeur and symmetry of the formal gardens, with their stone walks, massive gazebos and decorative fountains. I was surprised the gate wasn't locked and I walked right in, to drink in the splendor of the gardens and be transported back in time to a simpler and more elegant era. After I walked around, I realized that the rest of the garden was open on all the other sides, and the wall where I came in was basically serving a purely decorative purpose and not a security one, so it would have done no good to lock the gate anyway.
It was with regret that I went back to the rest of my conference, and when we finally finished, it was too dark to enjoy another stroll in the gardens. But I was so glad that I decided to attend this event and have a chance to see this beautiful estate for myself. Because Mill Neck Manor is a privately-owned educational facility, I don't know that they allow the general public to just drive in and wander around the grounds for their own enjoyment, although I would certainly vote for that if anyone asked me. But every year over the Columbus Day weekend, they host the locally famous Mill Neck Manor Fall Harvest Festival, which draws crowds from all over to indulge in their variety of apples, home-made pies, fresh produce and other treats, as well as arts and crafts. If you find yourself at loose ends at that time of the year, by all means, jump in your car and go there, and don't spare the horses.
Well, this has certainly been another week for the birds, and they're welcome to it. It started out bad and went downhill from there, and those of us waiting around to see some improvement, suffice to say, are still waiting. The big story all week around here was the mighty Yankees being swept by the hapless Kansas City Royals, and anyone who watched it on TV knows that the Royals reacted to this unexpected outcome as if they had just won the World Series and then some. Hometown fans may quibble, but I think it's nice to see that kind of enthusiasm in June, with little else to cheer about. (Certainly not the weather, so don't even get me started on that!) Of course, pretty soon the NBA playoffs will be over, no doubt ushering in the usual riots and car fires, but that's a different sort of enthusiasm altogether.
This year was one of the few times that Memorial Day was observed on what is generally referred to as "traditional" Memorial Day, that is, May 30th. Like its brethren holidays of Presidents Day and Labor Day, but quite unlike Christmas and Independence Day, Memorial Day has recently become a moveable feast, falling on whatever is the last Monday in May, rather than staying put on May 30th. This is a nuisance for those of us who run up the colors, and are purists, because I end up putting up and taking down flags on both days, for traditional Memorial Day and also the day it's observed. It can be as early as the 25th, or as late as the 31st, but no later than that. Periodically, it falls on May 30th, just like in the good old days, and that makes it doubly special. Not to mention, half as much work for the flag brigade around here, and since I fly flags upstairs and downstairs, that makes a big difference. Like the gunslinger riding off into the sunset after cleaning up the wild frontier, I can say, "My work here is done."
Speaking of work, I arrived on the campus as usual on Tuesday, to be confronted with a large sign outside of the parking lot and announcing this as one of "Solucient's Top 100 Hospitals," for all the world to see, or at least the local pedestrians and motorists who share our neighborhood. I said to Bill, "I don't have any idea what that means, and I work here!" So I asked them in Administration, and they gushed about receiving what they referred to as a great honor, although it turned out, as Jon Stewart always says, "Mmmmm, not so much!" It seems that Solucient is a company that you can pay to send you a sign, which you can erect on your property, and is basically a billboard for Solucient, because all it has is their name on it, and not the name of your hospital. This is what used to be known in the old days as "snake oil," and anyone else out there who considers this to be a great honor, please contact me, because I have a very handsome bridge that I'd be happy to sell you.
I had occasion recently to attend an event held at the prestigious and magnificent Mill Neck Manor in the scenic enclave of Mill Neck on Long Island's north shore, in the area known as "the Gold Coast" for all of the wealthy families who built estates there. Please feel free to visit their web site at www.millneck.org and see for yourself. If you ever have an opportunity to go there for any reason, you should definitely not walk, but run full-tilt at once, because it is worth the trip. The treasure that is now Mill Neck begins its life as Sefton Manor, a classically styled stone mansion nestled on 86 bucolic acres, built in the 1920's for four million dollars, back when money really meant something. In 1948, the Lutheran Friends of the Deaf were scouting around for some property to build a school, and through some miraculous set of circumstances (and here, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of divine intervention) they were able to buy the property from Mrs. Lillian Sefton Dodge for only $216,000. For those of you out there keeping score, this transaction netted the Sefton family a loss of almost $3.8 million in less than 30 years, which is a rate of return usually seen in stocks for bankrupt railroads, or municipal bonds issued by crazed despots in Third World wastelands. I think this illustrates either that the Seftons were financially inept, or that they were generous to a fault. I prefer the latter interpretation.
In any case, they opened the Mill Neck Lutheran School for the Deaf in 1951 (you would think the least they could do would be to keep the Sefton's name on it after that!) with 19 students learning in classrooms converted from farm buildings, and living in rooms right on the property. Over 50 years later, they're still going strong and teaching people today, although now it's a day program and not residential. They've expanded many times over the years, converting unused rooms or buildings to new purposes. My favorite was described this way in their brochure: "In the Spring of 1961, the third-floor servants' quarters of the Manor House were converted into a library. The first library card was presented to New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller." And they have a picture of him looking about as delighted as you would expect a grown man getting a library card to look, and it is just too priceless. Eventually, they had to add some new buildings, to meet the needs for extra classrooms, a conference center, audiology clinics, job placement programs, an early childhood center and sports complex. Through it all, it's remarkable how well the newer buildings blend in with their surroundings, not as a cheap imitation of the same design, but rather as understated and thematically-related companion pieces.
Nothing can take away from the glory of the original manor house, which manages to appear grand and imposing, not only from the front and also the back, but both sides as well. Ah, for those halcyon days of yore when people cared about quality, and beauty was appreciated just for the sake of being beautiful. I don't know if they let people in the manor house, because the event I attended was in the conference center, which was nice enough as conference centers go nowadays, but I wouldn't recommend it as a tourist destination. But the real jewel of the estate, at least for me, was the Memorial Garden, which I stumbled upon by accident, after following a wrong path along a hedge. When the path ended at an ornate wrought iron gate and I looked inside, I was mesmerized by the grandeur and symmetry of the formal gardens, with their stone walks, massive gazebos and decorative fountains. I was surprised the gate wasn't locked and I walked right in, to drink in the splendor of the gardens and be transported back in time to a simpler and more elegant era. After I walked around, I realized that the rest of the garden was open on all the other sides, and the wall where I came in was basically serving a purely decorative purpose and not a security one, so it would have done no good to lock the gate anyway.
It was with regret that I went back to the rest of my conference, and when we finally finished, it was too dark to enjoy another stroll in the gardens. But I was so glad that I decided to attend this event and have a chance to see this beautiful estate for myself. Because Mill Neck Manor is a privately-owned educational facility, I don't know that they allow the general public to just drive in and wander around the grounds for their own enjoyment, although I would certainly vote for that if anyone asked me. But every year over the Columbus Day weekend, they host the locally famous Mill Neck Manor Fall Harvest Festival, which draws crowds from all over to indulge in their variety of apples, home-made pies, fresh produce and other treats, as well as arts and crafts. If you find yourself at loose ends at that time of the year, by all means, jump in your car and go there, and don't spare the horses.
posted by El Tango Fandango @ 8:41 PM
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