Recent weather has been a warmup for Hamptons Observatory's next virtual lecture, "NASA's Airborne Lab: Mapping Polar Ice," co-sponsored by the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. On Thursday at 7 p.m. Walter E. Klein, a navigator for NASA, will share details of his current work including as a project to map the world's polar ice.

Shown here is the account book that Daniel Hedges, a shoemaker in East Hampton, kept from 1765-1771. Hedges (1742-1831) was a son of John Hedges and Elizabeth Talmage Hedges. In this account, Hedges identifies each pair of shoes he sells, some listed as "pomps," or pumps, and others simply as "shoes." He also notes repairs to soles of shoes and caps put on heels.

Montauk's favorite son, John L. Behan, who, with broad bipartisan support, was the East End's voice in the State Assembly for the better part of two decades, and who, for three years afterward, headed the state's veterans affairs office before retiring from public service in 1999, died in his sleep of a heart attack at home last Thursday at the age of 76.

In many ways, there are few things in medicine as dangerous as the passage of time. By this, I mean that inexorable movement toward a place where the status quo holds reign. Patients who come in to discuss their concerns about a recent 5 or 10-pound weight gain over a month or two will often be fired up with the desire to make positive changes in their lives.