High Tide

*****

“There is no way that this winter is ever going to end as long as this groundhog keeps seeing his shadow. I don’t see any other way out. He’s got to be stopped. And I have to stop him.” Today is Groundhog Day and while we hope that Punxsutawney Phil groundhog doesn’t see his shadow, it will still not save us from some real cold weather this weekend. We even saw NYC’s record-breaking snowless streak ended after 328 days on Wednesday.

*****

Two more whales washed up in New Jersey and Lido Beach this past week, making a total of 10 in local waters since December. As a result, multiple politicians and pundits in New Jersey have begun requesting to have offshore wind development halted until further investigations of these deaths can be done. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has said that about half of those whales’ cause of death have been due to being struck by a vessel. It is still unclear what the cause of death is for the two most recent beached whales. Since 2016, NOAA reports that 178 humpback whales have stranded across 13 Atlantic states. The agency has labeled these deaths as an “unusual mortality event” and are still being investigated.

*****

Whoops! Last week’s Math Rocks was a doozy! I hope you did not get the right answer though… We made a bit of a mistake and added in the wrong answer. Check out the correct answer on page 33. And if you missed it last week, the question is on page 28.

*****

The NYC Plover Project is hiring two volunteer coordinators beginning in March for the 2023 season. They are especially interested in applicants from the Rockaway peninsula. While it is an open application process, they are encouraging applicants to apply before February 15. For a job description and how to apply, please visit: https://nycploverproject.org/jobs

*****

Congratulations to Villanova’s Maddy Siegrist, a Poughkeepsie native and granddaughter of Mary Ellen and Jim Barnes of Breezy Point. Maddy, who spends her summers in Breezy, is now Villanova basketball’s highest scorer for both the men and women’s programs. With eight games remaining, who knows what other records will be broken!

*****

State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli released data showing that 93% of NYC subway stations are seeing less ridership than their pre-pandemic numbers. Ranking at number two of all the subway stations is the Broad Channel A and S line station with a ridership of only 20.6% of what it was pre-pandemic.

*****

Everyone makes mistakes, we’ve discussed that a lot this week, but some are bigger than others. NYC’s new $11 billion train terminal extension for the LIRR at Grand Central Station includes a quote from one of America’s most famous painters, Georgia O’Keeffe. Unfortunately, the name that was placed under the quote, “One can’t paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt,” was misspelled and includes one less ‘f.’ The MTA says that it will be easy to fix but declined to say how much it would cost. MTA spokesman Tim Minton, summed up the situation beautifully saying, “we clearly F-ed this one up and it’s being fixed.”

*****

A winning TAKE 5 ticket for the January 30 drawing, worth nearly $37K was purchased at the corner bodega on Beach 116th. Congrats to the lucky winner!