I’m a tall guy. When I stand up straight, which sadly is not often due to some rather severe scoliosis of my spine, I normally would measure out at nearly 6 foot 6. Despite my poor posture, I’ve become well accustomed to the many benefits my tallness brings in everyday life and activities.
Michael Combs was going to be a plumber, or perhaps work on a New York City tugboat, like his dad. He was learning plumbing in high school in the 1980s in Greenport, and a skill in the trades promised job security and income. He’d grown up among baymen, market gunners, and hunting guides — hunters, foragers, and fishermen, many of whom were also, by need and nature, artists: decoy-carvers, lure-makers, self-sufficient men and women who could fix or build most anything. Young Combs watched and learned.
Every Tuesday, hundreds of people snake into the East Hampton Food Pantry’s small building off Pantigo Road to receive their share from tables laden with fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen chopped venison and other meats, milk, and baked goods. This scene is repeated at some nine food pantries from Hampton Bays to Montauk that feed upward of 3,000 people a week.
Gigging (or spearfishing) — a primordial method for nabbing eels and all sorts of other briny creatures — requires no special skills and just a few basic pieces of equipment. David Gibbons tries his hand with Kerry Heffernan, the celebrated chef, as guide.
MICHAEL SHNAYERSON is a long-time contributing editor to Vanity Fair, and the author or co-author of seven books on subjects that range from mountaintop coal mining (Coal River) to an unauthorized biography, in 2015, of New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo (The Contender). He has lived in the Sag Harbor area for over 25 years.
Now in its 12th year, Hamptons Doc Fest continues to grow with a new venue, the Southampton Arts Center, new awards and a first-class line up of films.
Kathryn Szoka and Maryann Calendrille, who own Canio’s Books in Sag Harbor, are on a first-name basis with one of their favorite poets, Emily Dickinson.
There is something loose and special about the Sag Harbor art gallery community, which can treat its art shows as intuitive and impromptu affairs. Often an open forum, it is not unusual for artists and curators to join the spaces in a last-minute collaboration.
The big story Paul Tough tells in “The Years That Matter Most” is about the failure of higher education in the 21st century to provide equal opportunity to all segments of American society. But it will lead you to reflect on your own academic experience, too.
