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BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN
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ONE WITH NATURE
BEDFORD CORNERS, NY | OFFERED AT $1,595,000 325
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Part of the original Frick estate, this Ca. 1740 farmhouse has been lovingly updated. The house has a gourmet kitchen, amazing lightfilled space and four bedrooms with plenty of other rooms that can be used for work or study at home. A heated pool and direct access to the Westmoreland trails offer fresh air and a healthy lifestyle on 3.87 acres.
516
634 OLD POST ROAD | BEDFORD, NY 10506 www.renwickrealestateny.com | 914-234-9261
Robert Sechan rsechan@newedgecg.com 203-424-2280 Stamford, CT
newedgewealth.com
NewEdge Wealth is a division of NewEdge Capital Group, LLC. Investment advisory services offered through NewEdge Wealth, LLC, a registered investment adviser. Securities offered through NewEdge Securities, Inc., Member FINRA/SIPC.
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Where institutional caliber wealth management meets boutique service and support.
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914.592.1001
CONNECTICUT
565 WESTPORT AVENUE, NORWALK
203.924.84 4 4
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Based in New Canaan, CT NicoBlu designs exquisite styles that spell of escape and adventure. An effortless blend of style inspired by the glamour of Jaipur, Marrakesh and Cote D’Azur. 8
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N I C O B LU . C O M
BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN
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Start at the beginning, then become.
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ridgefieldacademy.org wrinkle reducers fillers lasers & peels hair restoration J U LY / A U G U S T
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landmarkpreschool.org J U LY / A U G U S T
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Learn More! Contact Dave Suter, Director of Enrollment at 203.894.1800 x112 or dsuter@ridgefieldacademy.org BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN
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List Your Home With Confidence
The Area’s Home For Real Estate
NEW CANA AN, CT
NORTH C A S TLE , NY
B EDFOR D, N E W YOR K
G A R RISON , NY
NEW CANA AN, CT
8 BEDS · 9.2 BATHS · 15015 SF · 4.02 ACRES
8 BEDS · 11.2 BATHS · 12275 SF · 10.06 ACRES
7 BEDS · 6.1 BATHS · 6267 SF · 6.30 ACRES
6 BEDS · 6.1 BATHS · 9635 SF · 12.22 ACRES
5 BEDS · 5.1 BATHS · 7540 SF · 0.41 ACRES
WEB# BM1693752 | Offered at $12,000,000 Taylor Tait M 203.644.0026
WEB# BM1721410 | Offered at $9,800,000 Kathryn Tanner M 203.856.6265
WEB# BM3010292 | Offered at $9,750,000 Angela Kessel M 914.841.1919
WEB# BM3018332 | Offered at $8,995,000 Lindsay Matthews M 914.318.1394
WEB# BM3011002 | Offered at $5,400,000 Lindsay Matthews M 914.318.1394
WEB# BM3008732 | Offered at $4,750,000 Taylor Tait M 203.644.0026
B EDFOR D, NY
A R MON K , NY
B RI A RCLIFF M A NOR , NY
NEW CANA AN, CT
POU N D RIDG E , NY
A R MON K , NY
3 BEDS · 5.1 BATHS · 3403 SF · 12.18 ACRES
5 BEDS · 5.1 BATHS · 7546 SF · 2.16 ACRES
4 BEDS · 4.2 BATHS · 5000 SF · 1.46 ACRES
5 BEDS · 4.1 BATHS · 4655 SF · 2.53 ACRES
5 BEDS · 6.1 BATHS · 5936 SF · 6.96 ACRES
5 BEDS · 4.1 BATHS · 5138 SF · 2.33 ACRES
WEB# BM3007002 | Offered at $4,500,000 Angela Kessel M 914.841.1919
WEB# BM3009272 | Ofered at $3,595,000 Amy M. Singer M 914.772.3526
WEB# BM2993472 | Offered at $3,150,000 Jamey Gelardi M 914.714.9959
WEB# BM3014282 | Offered at $2,950,000 Richard Tanner M 917.703.7000
WEB# BM3016172 | Offered at $2,895,000 Caroline Shepherd M 914.393.2795
WEB# BM3013412 | Offered at $2,800,000 Jaimme Pudalov M 914.844.7259
A R MON K , NY
NEW CANA AN, CT
A R MON K , NY
POU N D RIDG E , NY
NEW CANA AN, CT
B EDFOR D, NY
5 BEDS · 4.2 BATHS · 4903 SF · 4.74 ACRES
4 BEDS · 3.1 BATHS · 3840 SF · 0.33 ACRES
4 BEDS · 6.1 BATHS · 6199 SF · 2.64 ACRES
5 BEDS · 5.2 BATHS · 84 46 SF · 3.05 ACRES
6 BEDS · 3.1 BATHS · 4 495 SF · 0.42 ACRES
6 BEDS · 3.2 BATHS · 6000 SF · 0.33 ACRES
WEB# BM3012602 | Offered at $2,795,000 Katherine A. Cresci M 914.755.0130
WEB# BM3009592 | Offered at $2,495,000 Michele Murray Sloan M 203.858.5039
WEB# BM3008882 | Offered at $2,495,000 Amy M. Singer 914.772.3526
WEB# BM3003062 | Offered at $2,450,000 Angela Kessel M 914.841.1919
WEB# BM3016532 | Offered at $2,395,000 Melissa Jones M 203.801.8059
WEB# BM3008362 | Offered at $2,100,000 Rita Carrozza M 914.806.5470
NEW CANA AN, CT 6 BEDS · 8.3 BATHS · 8811 SF · 31.79 ACRES
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BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN
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H O U L I H A N L AW R E N C E .CO M
We mail B&NC Mag to the
25,000 most affluent homes in the following towns:
NEW CANAAN, ARMONK, BEDFORD, POUND RIDGE, WACCABUC, DARIEN, BEDFORD HILLS, MT. KISCO, PLEASANTVILLE, KATONAH, NORTH SALEM and SOUTH SALEM, and WE’RE MOST PLEASED THAT OUR
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A NOTE FROM OUR
President
Summer social! Spectacular sundown settings! Solstice soirees! This time of year, the B&NC Mag area is busy as a Bedford bee with exceptional events that bring the benevolent together for social and charitable purposes. Tents are erected, dance floors laid, tables are set. The area’s best caterers contribute. …And it’s all done to raise contributions for the B&NC Mag area’s worthy charities. Martha Stewart's preview party for The Great American Tag Sale to benefit the Martha Stewart Center for Living at Mount Sinai
B&NC Full Page Advert
Bedford & New Canaan Magazine
Do not forget to extend your images and background to the red bleed line
was Media Sponsor for:
THE BEDFORD 2030 MOONDANCE STEP INTO SUMMER at the New Canaan Historical Society THE FINE DAY FAIR at Lasdon Park in Katonah THE WESTCHESTER LAND TRUST Benefit at Monty & Angelina Lipman’s The Bedford Idea Committee’s INTRODUCTION OF PRINCE MANVENDRA to the Community, Including a Public Event at the Bedford Playhouse, and private events at Glen Arbor, and a Dinner at Evan Goldstein & Andrew Yu’s Katonah Residence THE GLASS HOUSE SUMMER PARTY and Picnic at the Glass House in New Canaan WE BUILD HEALTHY, SMART, ENERGY HOMES. 16 BEDFORDEFFICIENT & NEW CANAAN
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B&NC Mag is proud to serve as the Media Sponsor and give other support for a number of local charitable events. As only a part of B&NC Mag’s regular focus on local not-for-profits, B&NC Mag focuses attention on each sponsored event by featuring the event in the magazine and by posting about the event on the Calendar of Events we maintain at bedfordnewcanaanmag.com This Summer, B&NC Mag sponsored some of the most fabulous fêtes of the season. With pent-up postpandemic demand to socialize in the community, some charities putting on events for the first time in several years, and social causes being top-of-mind these days - Summer 2022 has proved a banner year for big bashes, celebrity sightings, new and renewed friendships…and generous giving! To find out about upcoming events in the B&NC Mag area, check our Calendar of Events at bedfordnewcanaanmag.com regularly, and follow us on Instagram at @bedfordnewcanaanmag
WE ARE ALWAYS LOCAL, ALWAYS POSITIVE! Truly yours, CASEY KAPLAN
President
BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN
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THIS SUMMER'S BEDFORD 2030 MOONDANCE
Photo: Elena Wolfe Casey Kaplan (B&NC Mag President), Michael Kaplan (B&NC Mag Publisher), Martha Stewart, Bob Pittman (Cofounder of iHeartMedia)
FINE DAY FAIR IN KATONAH
HOTTEST EVENTS
BEDFORD 2030 MOONDANCE
BEDFORD PLAYHOUSE X IDEA COMMITTEE
Keith Backer, James North, Max Tucci, and Thomas Edward Dugal head into the screening of Let's Start a Conversation
David Lauren and Lauren Bush Lauren chat with a friend.
NEW CANAAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY SPRING INTO SUMMER
WESTCHESTER LAND TRUST PARTY
Photo: Peter Michaelis Hosts Angelina (left) and Monte (right) Lipman with Adrien Brody and Georgina Chapman 18
BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN
DINNER FOR PRINCE MANVENDRA
Gil Vaknin Photography
Photo: Dana Gallagher Locals and visitors gathered at Lasdon Park in Katonah for the first of many Fine Day Fairs.
Photo: Carter Fish
Photo: Elena Wolfe
Meredith Bach, Laura Budd, Tucker Murphy, Jennifer Gulden
WESTCHESTER LAND TRUST PARTY
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Gil Vaknin Photography Joy Gregory, Casey Kaplan, Arielle Kebbel, Prince Manvendra, Andy Yu
DINNER FOR PRINCE MANVENDRA
Gil Vaknin Photography
Andy Yu & Evan Goldstein hosted Prince Manvendra and other notable guests at their home for a 7-course meal paired with traditional Chinese music
Both B&NC Mag Congressmen, Jim Himes and Sean Patrick Maloney, joined for the dinner at the Yu-Goldstein home in Katonah
THE GLASS HOUSE SUMMER PARTY
THE GLASS HOUSE SUMMER PARTY
Photo: Andrea Ceraso Generous party-goers helped raise over $500k to support the WLT
GLEN ARBOR HOSTS THE PRINCE
Photo: Carter Fish Audrey Yu, Casey Kaplan, Arielle Kebbel, Torrey DeVito
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Photo: Carter Fish Susan Magrino (CEO of Magrino PR), Casey Kaplan, Sam Ring, Michael Kaplan, Evan Goldstein, Prince Manvendra, Andy Yu BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN
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THE #1 SELLING OFFICE IN NORTHERN WESTCHESTER IN 2021.*
THE PERFECT OUTDOOR LIFESTYLE -
1930’s BRICK ESTATE - Pound Ridge, NY
Bedford Hills, NY $8,000,000
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WHITE OAK FARM - Bedford, NY
$2,395,000
$4,395,000
TANRACKIN FARM - Bedford Corners, NY
STEEPLE CHASE FARM - Greenwich, CT
$12,500,000
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Join our circle of friends. Schedule a virtual tour with our Admissions team.
(914) 244-1205 / admissions@rcsny.org
*Based on OneKey MLS New York statistics, sold transactions 1/1/21-12/31/21 in Bedford, Lewisboro, Mt. Kisco, North Salem, Pound Ridge and Somers
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BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN
BEDFORD OFFICE J U LY / A U G U S T
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914-234-9234
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POUND RIDGE OFFICE 2 0 2 2
914-764-2424
BROWSE ALL OF OUR LISTINGS AT GINNEL.COM BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN
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FOLLOW US @GINNELREALESTATE
THE RIDGEFIELD PLAYHOUSE
Non-profit 501 (C) (3)
JON ANDERSON OF YES
CLOSE TO THE EDGE 50TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR JULY 16
THE 5TH DIMENSION AUGUST 5
“Age of Aquarius,” “Up, Up, and Away,” “Wedding Bell Blues,” “Stoned Soul Picnic” and more!
YES Classics and more!
FIVE FOR FIGHTING WITH SPECIAL GUEST THE VERVE PIPE JULY 26
The vocals and inspiration to Paul Simon’s classic Graceland album!
THE HIGH KINGS
ELI YOUNG BAND
The Multi-Platinum Irish Folk Group from Dublin!
ACM Award winners with Platinum hits “Crazy Girl,” “Even If It Breaks Your Heart,” “Love Ain’t” and “Drunk Last Night.”
CHRIS ISAAK AUGUST 1
Celebrity Softball Game & Outdoor Concert
AUGUST 17
“Superman (It’s Not Easy),” “100 Years” & more!
JULY 30
AUGUST 13
LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO
“Wicked Game,” “Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing” and more!
AUGUST 18
SCAN HERE FOR THE COMPLETE SEASON LINE-UP!
203.438.5795 • RIDGEFIELDPLAYHOUSE.ORG
Angélique Kidj0, August 6
Brian stokes Mitchell, July 9
J’Nai Bridges, mezzo-soprano, July 7
2022 Summer Season June 18 – August 19
Join us for High Holy Days outdoors at Caramoor
Cl assical / Roo t s / Ja zz / World / Family Fun / all in open-air venues
Tickets & Information
Join us for a season of discovery, inspiration, and delight!
Including Bill Barclay’s The Chevalier, Kronos Quartet, Matthew Whitaker, Stephanie Blythe, Rachael & Vilray, Shemekia Copeland, the Jazz Festival, Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens, Marc-André Hamelin, and more!
Services lead by Rabbi David Wilfond and introducing Cantor Inés Kapustiansky.
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Rosh Hashanah September 25 -27 Yom Kippur October 4 - 5 shaaraytefila.org J U LY / A U G U S T
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Plan your summer at Caramoor! Before the concert, explore our Sound Art installations, tour the historic Rosen House, or pack a picnic to enjoy with friends in our gardens.
caramoor.org 914.232.1252
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MICHAEL WINTER
M O N D AY T O S AT U R D AY
|
10AM TO 5:30PM
|
C L O S E D S U N D AY S
CONTEMPORARY STYLE, REDEFINING LUXURY.
LIVE WORK
Michael Winter Licensed Real Estate Salesperson 480 North Bedford Road, Chappaqua, NY M: 914.525.3378 michaelwinter@compass.com www.BedfordNYHomes.com 24 BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN J U LY / A U G U S T 2 0 2 2 Michael Winter is a real estate licensee affiliated with Compass. Compass is a licensed real estate broker and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. Photo provided by www.modernangles.com
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D A R I E N S P O R T. C O M
|
203.655.2575
|
BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN
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1127 POST ROAD, DARIEN, CT
TABLE CONTENTS J U LY / AU G U S T
OF
P.58
JAMES DUNNING JR.: More Than Just The Guy With His Name On The Fields… Despite all his fame and fortune, Jim Dunning wants the first word in his epitaph to be: Philanthropist. …He’s earned it!
P.47 P.37
FLYING COFFEE’S FANTASTIC CAR CONCLAVES Unless you were one of the lucky couple of hundred locals who heard about the earlymorning highbrow gathering, you missed out on Flying Coffee’s first car conclave - with collector automobiles by invitation only, but with the public welcome! 26
BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN
A COWBOY CASUAL WEDDING AT THE JOHN JAY HOMESTEAD Helen Murphy and Sam Miller wanted a unique wedding that fit their style. What they pulled off was unusual, eclectic, and fantastic, and perfect for this local equestrian couple.
P.72
THE WETMORE MANSION Christina Roughan and her team at Roughan Interiors recently completed a spectacular redesign of the Wetmore Mansion in Bedford for its current owners, Chris Lacovara and Sam Green. B&NC Mag gets inside to see the fabulous Roughan redesign…and to meet Chris and Sam.
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TABLE CONTENTS
Old Town Barns
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Crafted with Care in the Equine Tradition
OF
CONTINUED
COVER FEATURE
P.119
OUR BASKETS RUNNETH OVER…
P.90
CHRIS ‘MAD DOG’ RUSSO As headliner of Mad Dog Sports Radio, at Ch. 82 on SiriusXM Radio, and host of the afternoon radio show on that channel called Mad Dog Unleashed, as the television host of High Heat on MLB Network, and with his new gig on First Take as partner to Steven A. Smith on ESPN television, “Mad Dog” is one of the biggest names in sports talk today. …And yet the moniker doesn’t do justice to his radio skills, and totally fails to describe Chris Russo.
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P.108
SOPHIA Sophia Jortner…but from here on in, she need only be the artist known as Sophia. … And, at only 18 years old, her paintings will be exhibited at the Jean Jacobs Gallery in New Canaan, from July 9 through August 14th, 2022.
Picnics are a high art form. Meant to enjoy summer’s bounty, and set the scene for most memorable gatherings. Anything from the most casual to the full ‘dejeuner sur l’herbe’ warrants detailed planning and attention. Each and every picnic can be perfect!
P.130
PETER SPIEGELMAN Peter Spiegelman’s path to becoming an author was anything but a straight line, but Peter is now among crime fiction’s most respected authors. B&NC Mag is honored to provide an exclusive excerpt from Speigelman’s just-released “A Secret About A Secret” (Alfred A. Knopf) at page 136.
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Tel 845.855.1450
www.oldtownbarns.com
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Zublin Construction Services, Inc. Pawling, NY 12564
MOSOLINO
ORIGINAL ART + MUSEUM-QUALITY PRINTS - APPAREL + HOME
DEVELOPMENT
THE CRONIN GALLERY + THE SHOP
Custom Homes • Real Estate Development • Construction Management
203.536.0655 | MosolinoDev.com
WC-26915-H14 CT-HIC 0624137 CT- NHC 0015778
Confidence. It’s built over time. Our students graduate with the courage to have a point of view and the skills to express it, honed through years of practice.
FOR MORE ABOUT OUR ADMISSION EVENTS www.countryschool.net/visit
845.430.8470 | cronartusa.com | 30
@thecroningallery
INQUIRE FOR INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIPS | hello@cronartusa.com BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN
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GO BOLDLY. 635 Frogtown Rd, New Canaan, CT • (203) 801-5608
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New Canaan Country School is a co-ed, independent day school for students in Pre-K (ages 3 & 4) through Grade 9 living in Westchester and Fairfield counties. Graduates excel at top day, boarding and public secondary schools and go on to lead lives of impact and purpose. For more information, please visit countryschool.net. BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN 3 1
Compass Connecticut, LLC is a licensed real estate broker and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. 203.343.0141. *Source: 2021 Closed Sales Volume, U.S., RealTrends 500.
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Armonk
Katonah
15 Wampus Lake Drive $2,900,000 5 Bed 6.2 Bath 8.328 SF 3 AC
David Turner Lic. Assoc. R.E. Broker in NY & CT davidturner@compass.com M: 914.953.6010
Brian Milton Lic. Assoc. R.E. Broker in NY & CT brian.milton@compass.com M: 914.469.9889
Armonk
Katonah
9 Holly Branch Road $12,500,000 6 Bed 8.4 Bath 16,500 SF 20 AC
Pending
43 Reyburn Road $2,150,000 4 Bed 3.1 Bath 4,150 SF
17 Tallwoods Road $1,899,000 4 Bed 5.1 Bath 4,439 SF
Beth Silfen Lic. Assoc. R.E. Broker beth.silfen@compass.com M: 914.645.4563
Julie Schneider Lic. R.E. Salesperson julie.schneider@compass.com M: 914.261.3569
Sold
Pawling
compass.com
Guiding you home to Northern Westchester
Bedford Corners
16+ offices across Connecticut and Westchester.
Compass Office: 387 Main St. Armonk, NY 10504. David Turner: Lic. Assoc. R.E. Broker, Brian Milton: Lic. R.E. Salesperson, Beth Silfen: Lic. Assoc. R.E. Broker, Julie Schneider: Lic. R.E. Salesperson, Patti Howard: Lic. Assoc. R.E. Broker. Compass is a Lic. R.E. broker and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only. Information is compiled from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, condition, sale, or withdrawal without notice. No statement is made as to the accuracy of any description. All measurements and square footages are approximate. This is not intended to solicit property already listed.
Compass is proud to be the nation’s #1 brokerage.*
284 Guard Hill Road $1,750,000 6 Bed 5.2 Bath 5.838 SF
535 North Quaker Hill Road $1,195,000 4 Bed 4.1 Bath 3,234 SF 20 AC
Patti Howard Lic. Assoc. R.E. Broker patti.howard@compass.com M: 914.391.2593
David Turner Lic. Assoc. R.E. Broker in NY & CT davidturner@compass.com M: 914.953.6010
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“Family-Owned and Operated Means an Exceptional Car-Buying Experience for You” David and Darren Beylouni, owners and operators
B R O N CO
NOW UNDER NEW OWNERSHIP...
Expertly equipped to get you anywhere you are going.
MAVERICK
David and Darren Beylouni, owners of Colonial Ford in Danbury, CT now bring 30 years of Ford sales and service experience to BEDFORD HILLS.
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THE NEW
FAMILY-OWNED
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241-1000 BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN
519 N. Bedford Rd., Bedford Hills, NY 10507
(Formerly Arroway Ford) Dealer Facility #7128380
C o l o n i a l F o r d We s t c h e s t e r. c o m
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FLYING COFFEE'S
FANTASTIC
CAR CONCLAVES PHOTOGRAPHY CARTER FISH
Unless you were one of the lucky couple of hundred locals who heard about the early-morning highbrow gathering, you missed out on Flying Coffee’s first car conclave - with collector automobiles by invitation only, but with the public welcome! Flying Coffee is B&NC Mag’s ‘Best in Bedford Bean’ from James and Nicola Stephenson, who are also the proprietors of oHHo, the CBD - and soon to be THC - brand, based in the little red shop on Court Street in Bedford.
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The April 24, almost-impromptu inaugural event was a smashing success! Some of Bedford’s best bodacious buggies! On about a week’s notice, the Stephensons were able to pull together a couple-dozen superlative new and vintage automobiles…and host the crowd that showed-up to get a glimpse of the spectacle - with Flying Coffee and donuts. Nicola explains, “The idea is that we get some of the incredible car collectors in the local area to get together from time to time to show-off their amazing autos - and we invite the public to come together for the special show.
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CAR CONCLAVES
BRINGING THE COMMUNITY TOGETHER WITH CARS
We approached Jordan Vogel, who recently acquired The Playhouse, because the parking lot behind the Playhouse and across the street from oHHo is the perfect place to gather. Not only did he help rally some incredible cars, he and our friend James Fayed helped to spread the word. We’re thrilled to create an event that will bring the local community together, and more generally draw attention to our area.”
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And James adds, “I’m a car guy. I’ve been lucky enough to own some very cool cars, from a Singer, to original Minis 90’s, and 911’s - my favorite among many others. There’s a wealth of special cars and special car collections in our area. Exquisite, extraordinary and exceptional cars! Our kick-off event in April was early in the season, when the weather was still cool, and called on short notice; but we managed to get some of our friends to open their garages for the first time in the season and bring out some of the crown jewels! …And that was just scratching the surface of the kind of cars that will be on our invitation lists for events to come! I want to have the kind of event - that just seems to happen in town - and that will make a big enough impression to create lifelong memories for any kid who comes by!”
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CAR CONCLAVES
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Real estate agents affiliated with Compass are independent contractor sales associates and are not employees of Compass. Equal Housing Opportunity. Compass is a licensed real estate broker located at 387 Main Street, Armonk, NY 10504. All information furnished regarding property for sale or rent or regarding financing is from sources deemed reliable, but Compass makes no warranty or representation as to the accuracy thereof. All property information is presented subject to errors, omissions, price changes, changed property conditions, and withdrawal of the property from the market, without notice.
A
Cowboy Casual
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Sam Miller and Helen Murphy love horses and all things Western.
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Both Sam and Helen grew up in the area, riding since a young age, and competing in the hunter/jumper scene. They each took jobs in the equestrian industry. But it wasn’t until stints at a barn in Florida that the pair met and forged a close friendship. “We were each down there helping out with a horse show for eight weeks, and developed a really nice friendship. When we came back to New York we started dating…and were soon inseparable,” Sam explains. Eventually they each got jobs at the same North Salem farm and moved into a property on Succabone in Bedford together, where they also managed the barn. They were engaged in 2019…and, of course, Sam had Helen’s horse and dog play a role in the proposal. In 2020, Sam and Helen started their own equestrian training and management business, called H&S Equestrian, based out of a barn on Sunnyfield Farm in Bedford, where they train, market, and sell horses, and train riders to compete on the local circuit. The duo have complementary skill sets, so that the business runs seamlessly; Sam does the teaching and riding, and Helen does the barn management. Sam also works with the Mounted Troop in New Canaan.
46 BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN Elysee Tablecloths, Placemats & Napkins
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“Dan, from Lakeside Productions, did a really good job of tying it all in, with music that fit each segment of the evening. He had this great guitar player for the ceremony, and then a guitar player with a keyboardist for the cocktail hour. He played our favorite country music when everyone was eating and playing games, and then transitioned to great dance music that got everyone onto the dance floor. He had the logistics covered and made the whole affair seamless,” Helen explained about the music. “Because we didn’t want to do a first dance, our cake cutting was kind of the big event - and we did that to ‘Simple’ by Florida Georgia Line.”
The couple chose the John Jay Homestead as their venue, and set up a massive sail tent to create a picturesque scene.
So when it came to planning their wedding, it seemed only natural to Sam and Helen to plan something based around their equestrian passion. “Neither of us really like dancing or parties, and we’re not big fans of being the center of attention… so we knew we wanted our wedding to be extremely low key - and definitely not like every other wedding,” Sam says. “We came up with
With the help of an amazing wedding planner, and Helen’s dad - who’s an interior designer, they were able to integrate an elevated aesthetic with their Casual Cowboy vibe, and create a magical evening.
the theme ‘Cowboy Casual’ and galloped with it. Sam and all his groomsmen wore jeans, and if you didn’t want to ride the mechanical bull because of your clothes - you were overdressed!” Helen laughs. The theme was complete with food trucks, carnival games, cornhole, and roping dummies. “It was so much fun, by the end of the night even our vendors were in on the games and good times!”
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Cowboy Casual WEDDING
For the ceremony the couple had a close family friend officiate, as they stood on a custom cowhide rug, wearing cowboy boots and cowboy hats. After ‘The Millers’ were pronounced husband and wife, they branded the cowhide with a custom brand made with their new initials - and the rug now sits in their living room as a constant and fond memory of their special day.
Helen’s actually been in B&NC Mag before! In 2020, while B&NC Mag was on the Bedford Green for a photoshoot with The Fat Jewish, Helen walked out of The Horse Connection just as he was trying to figure out how to put on his pink chaps. Helen was happy to lend a hand.
With a characteristic smile, Sam says, “Both of our hats come from the American Hat Store in Houston. They put a ‘+X’ on the back of each of their hats, which was the motto of their founder, and it means 'positive times'. We try to live by that same motto, find the good in every situation, and have a good time and fun every day. And that was kind of the inspiration for our wedding. There was never a doubt we were going to be wearing our cowboy hats for the whole affair!” 50
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BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN (914) 234-2047
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BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN
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@ H O U L I H A N L AW R E N C E
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H O U L I H A N L AW R E N C E .CO M
A MAN IN FULL “Let me tell you about the pivotal moment in my life,” Jim starts right in. “I was sitting on a stone wall outside my fraternity on Locust Walk in the center of the University of Pennsylvania, eating lunch one afternoon during my senior year at Wharton. A group of Trustees came walking by, and somehow it struck me - I mean really struck me, right then and there - that someday I was going to be one of those people! I made a conscious decision - at that moment - that I was going to make an impact, and that I was going to do so by ‘giving back’ as I figured those Trustees had done. “ Fifty-five years and two buildings, a lot of scholarships and a whole bunch of gifts to Penn later - he’s more than fulfilled the obligation…at Penn, and elsewhere.
NOT JUST THE GUY WITH HIS NAME ON THE FIELDS… JAMES DUNNING, JR. BY MICHAEL KAPLAN PHOTOGRAPHY: ANDREA CERASO
J
im Dunning is a ‘man in full’. He is the epitome of the brilliant, hard-charging, all-American, dyed-in-the-wool conservative, uber-successful businessman. He’s straight-forward, a lady’s man and a guy’s guy, and has the confidence of great experience. He turns a still-vibrant 75 this Summer and, while he claims to be retired, he quietly continues to help steer his wife’s powerhouse public relations firm - Jim’s married to Susan Magrino; having been introduced by the former President of Hearst Magazines - and otherwise
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“I come from plain, if not ordinary circumstances,” Jim explains. “My grandparents are from Illinois and Minnesota, and my parents met at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. All pretty traditional stock. My father was a New York Life lifer, and that meant we moved around America each time he got promoted. I was born in Spokane, Washington and, pretty incredibly, moved schools about a dozen times before I got to Deerfield Academy, in 1962, for 9th through 12th grade. We’d moved to San Diego when I was a toddler, and to Fresh Meadows, Queens for my Preschool and Kindergarten years. I did 1st Grade in Darien. Three different 4th Grades, and three different 6th Grades! I did the end of 6th, and all of 7th and 8th Grade at Trinity in Manhattan. It was all a formative experience for me. I got good at meeting new people and establishing myself in each new environment. I was very athletic, and used sports to grow credibility and make friends. But it was at prep school at Deerfield Academy where I found my first real home. I played baseball and hockey. It was all-boy, stable, disciplined, competitive, and stimulating. It changed the course of my life! As a result, I believe
fundamentally that sports are an integral part of the proper development of young people - and that’s informed much of my giving and charitable work.” With a measure of pride but not a hint of boasting, Jim continues, “I like to think I’ve taken a holistic approach. I’ve given some great facilities at great institutions so young people could have better education in sports. I’ve funded all kinds of scholarships and programs - always looking to provide opportunity for the young kid who’s coming from ordinary circumstances - like I did. And I devoted a whole lot of my time to coaching youth sports - and beyond coaching some of my own kids’ teams, working to ensure the quality of the experience for all of the kids in the New Canaan public school system. I’ve directed my philanthropy where I thought I could make an impact like those Penn Trustees.” Jay Egan, Director of Athletics at New Canaan High School, describes Jim saying, “Jim is a visionary philanthropist, who was the primary source for the funding and design of Dunning Stadium - the crown jewel of New Canaan’s sports facilities. One thing that speaks volumes about Jim is that his own children never went to public school in New Canaan! He’s a lover of sport, and cares deeply about doing what’s best for young people on a community level.” And Mike Murphy, Vice-Chair of the New Canaan Athletic Foundation, echoed those sentiments, saying, “It’s quite remarkable to be witness to the enduring impact of Jim’s conviction to the development of a multi-purpose athletic stadium in New Canaan. The tradition of generations of New Canaan families gathering at the annual New Canaan High School Turkey Bowl on Thanksgiving Day, or for the quintessential New Canaan High School Graduation Ceremony - in Dunning Stadium, serve as testament to Jim’s vision. Jim’s altruistic spirit should be celebrated and emulated”.
keeps a social and business calendar, jetting between their homes in New Canaan, New York City, Orient, Long Island, and Jupiter, Florida, that would exhaust much younger men. He’s the proud patriarch of the Dunning clan, including his two sons from a previous marriage, James Dunning III, who is now 40, and his wife Katie and 3 grandchildren, who also live in New Canaan, and David, who is now 37, , and his wife Tiffany, and their twin boys, who live in Houston. … But despite all the fame and fortune, Jim wants the first word in his epitaph to be: Philanthropist.
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JAMES DUNNING, JR.
MR. DUNNING A James III, Jim, Susan and David
s Jim’s son James III puts it, “Our dad loves my brother and me, and our friends! Our dad loves New Canaan and the kids in this community! And our dad loves sports! He’s always preached the importance of sports in a child’s life - as an activity that instills discipline, builds structure and creates leadership qualities. When he witnessed a need for fields in New Canaan, he spent the time and money to make it happen. Despite the fact my brother and I never played on Dunning, he recognized the importance of building the stadium to bring the community together and provide better sports education for every kid in town. And he’s mentored so many kids, we sometimes felt like we were sharing our dad with a host of brothers and sisters.” And as Jim’s son David adds, “Dad’s vision, resolve and leadership in philanthropic endeavors is contagious within a community. The way he gives is in line with his beliefs.”
And maybe even more poignant than Jim’s own sons’ feelings about their dad, are the expressions of gratitude that are typical of the young people Jim coached on baseball, football and hockey teams in New Canaan, Darien, Stamford and Trumbull. David Benko, who’s now in Sales Development at BTS Insurance in New Canaan, says about Jim: “Beyond his countless contributions to the community, Mr. Dunning had a major impact on my development as an athlete and as a person. Mr. Dunning would show up to practice in perfectly pressed slacks, a monogrammed button-down shirt - and black Nike baseball spikes. He came right from the office to the diamond, and ran everything about our team with a professionalism that’s stuck with me to this day. He always made sure I got to the field even if it meant going a half-hour out of his way to pick me up. On the way to games he would talk to us about focus, and on the way home
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Jim and Susan with their new pups, Rockefeller and Astor
At his college alma mater Penn, where Jim served as a Trustee for a decade, and as one of the Overseers of the Athletic Department for the University, Jim donated the Dunning Coaches Center, located adjacent to Franklin Field, which houses most of Penn’s athletic coaching facilities. And, with others, he followed that up with the gift of the DunningCohen Champions Field for sports practices, which features a synthetic surface and an erectable structure that turns the field into an indoor practice facility in the colder weather. Upon meeting the older Penn graduate, fellow Penn Trustee, and super-donor George Weiss, Jim became committed to Weiss’ philosophy that philanthropy was all about impact, and joined in his efforts through the Say Yes To Education organization, which has sent 80,000+ kids to college.
he would talk to us about the good, the bad and the ugly. He was as sincere with praise as he was with critique - and both were always earned with him. He was always motivating us to keep getting better and it worked! I hope I’m still making him proud!”
Jim moved to New Canaan in 1984. His son, James, went to New Canaan Country School, Deerfield and then Penn - where he played baseball. David went to St. Lukes, Eaglebrook, Deerfield, Penn where he played football, and then USC Business School. At St. Luke’s, Jim donated a field complex that included a full baseball diamond and football field; both fields have since been changed to artificial turf. Even more significantly, for the Town of New Canaan, where Jim coached baseball and football teams and felt the facilities were not up to snuff, Jim worked with the Hawes family - also of New Canaan - to put the foundation capital together to build the new Dunning Stadium at the New Canaan High School. At his prep school alma mater Deerfield Academy, where Jim went to prep school and played baseball and hockey, Jim served as a Trustee in the 1990s and 2000s and led his 50th Reunion’s establishment of a scholarship fund for students from middle-income families - like the one he came from. After going to a poorly attended Deerfield baseball game, Jim went out and hired the folks who rebuilt Fenway Park to come to Deerfield and re-site and rebuild the baseball field and facility. Crowds of 2,000 or more followed. And then Jim added the gift of another field, complete with stands and scoreboards, for the Deerfield girls softball team to play on.
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In addition, much of Jim’s other charity is more under-the-radar. Like at St. Marks, where Jim attends church. “I was raised Episcopalian. My father earned an honorary doctorate from the Yale Divinity School and even wrote some of the liturgy of the Episcopalian Church. I was exposed but not indoctrinated. I was an altar boy, and I was favorably impressed by some of the priests and ministers I came in contact with in all the places we lived. I liked their approach to their lives. Something about making the most of each God-given day; having and sharing joy, and; participating in the lives of others. When it came time to raising my boys, Church was on the schedule every Sunday morning. And it was that way for me until the pandemic hit… a lot of things have changed since then…” Jim says a little wistfully.
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Wenner and Dunning started Outside Magazine, and brought in Willie Hearst as Editor and Jack Ford, son of the President, to sell advertising. Dunning recalls, “We lost $1M publishing only a couple of issues, but then sold the property for a nice profit to Mariah Publishing - and the title survives to this day.”
O
f course it took quite a career in business for Jim to be able to fund his philanthropy. Jim’s resume, starting in publishing but then including all sorts of other industries, is an almost endless list of turnarounds and expansions…and profitable liquidation events. “I got into Wharton - in the era of the Vietnam War - and jumped at the chance to get their business degree without having to go to graduate school,” Jim recalls. “When I graduated from Wharton, I formed a group of Penn guys, including a Wharton Professor, an MBA, and a Penn lawyer, and we set out building and buying companies with the audacious intention of building a global conglomerate. I started a national student marketing company, and then a national sampling company, and grew each to multi-million dollar, profitable operations. We developed a collection of businesses including consulting companies doing business in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. But then we got involved in an agricultural chemicals venture firm, and suffered a big loss when their entire developmental research center at Rutgers became diseased and was written-off. And the final straw came in 1973, when we lost the rest of whatever we’d made speculating on oil in the midst of the energy crisis. I sold the student marketing company to Publishers Clearing House and took a job with them to learn a bit more about the politics of corporate marketing.”
Then, on August 27, 1982 - the exact same day as the beginning of the greatest bull market in history, Jim was hired to be the Head of Corporate Finance and Mergers and Acquisitions at the giant Wall Street firm Thomson McKinnon - even though Jim had no prior Wall Street experience. During Jim’s stint at Thomson, Jim was responsible, among other things, for notable growth in the firm’s underwriting business. After Thomson, the Ziff family brought Jim in to direct the dismantling and disposition of their Ziff Davis conglomerate. Again as principal, in 1986, Jim invested $600,000 to buy the Yellow Pages of Long Island, expanded to Brooklyn, Queens, and Florida, and then revolutionized the historically print-only business into a group of electronic database businesses with a significant business-to-business element. He took it public with Lehman and Kidder as underwriters, then sold to the private equity firm Oak Hill, for another substantial gain. With investors eager to back him, in 1994 Jim paid $30M to acquire Transwestern - a division of US West, one of the ‘Baby Bells’ created upon the break-up of AT&T. The company had lost $100M. Jim did his thing; raising a bunch of money to finance expanded operations with greater economies of scale, and reimagining the company’s offerings; he turned a profit of $10M in the first year; and sold for $300M - 10X the acquisition price! - four-and-ahalf years from acquisition.
With that experience under his belt, in 1977 Jim was recruited to become Jann Wenner’s #2 guy at Rolling Stone magazine. Wenner had started the title in 1968 and made it into a cultural icon, but Jim turned Rolling Stone into a profitable business. He moved Rolling Stone to be more than music and made the brand unisex. He raised debt financing, lowered the cost of newsstand distribution, restructured subscription revenues to get a higher valuation, raised the advertising rate base, and brought in major advertisers like Ford and VW. Then he expanded the business to include other media and significant additional revenue streams. Rolling Stone’s success was a big story, and Jim was a big part of it.
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In 1996, Jim led the buyout team which purchased Petersen Publishing for $460M. In 1997, Jim took Petersen public on the New York Stock Exchange - on the same day as he closed the sale of Transwestern! He quickly expanded Petersen, the publisher of Motor Trend, HotRod, Teen and Sport and a couple dozen other magazine titles, into a multimedia producer with 76 brands. He started a network TV division which produced shows for NBC, ESPN and cable outlets including the Gravity Games. Jim grew profits from $20M to $80M in just two years and then sold in 1999 for $1.8 Billion!
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Then operating at what can only be described as investment banking hyperspeed, Jim pulled-off one deal after another, sometimes a couple at a time, and typically with a large gain at the end of the day. He bought and sold Standard Rate and Data, a media information business based in Chicago from the Robert Maxwell estate and sold it to a Dutch media conglomerate a year-and-a-half later for yet another substantial gain. He was a principal investor in Double Down Media, which concentrated venture investments in magazines serving the financial industry. And he served as the Chairman of Freedom Communications, which owned and operated 100 newspapers and 8 TV stations, and oversaw a significant turnaround in that business. And then, quite unusually, Jim agreed to a term as a Special Monitor for the Enforcement Division of the Securities & Exchange Commission, working to oversee hedge fund operations.
When it comes to big-business, to put it lightly, Jim has done it all! And his track record has been remarkable! But, as Jim reflects, “These days I’m content to work behindthe-scenes for Magrino PR - even though Susan is the toughest boss I’ve ever had! Imagine that: I finally retired and now I’m under the gun 24/7! In truth, I love the role supporting my wife, and I’m pleased to see her continue to grow Magrino as a global leader in public relations and marketing spanning all media. We have a great life together! We’re both long-term New Canaan residents and love the town, and members of Susan’s family have lived and gone to school in town, but we also get to enjoy time in Orient - where Susan grew up going in summers and at our place in Jupiter. I work-out every day. But my greatest joy is being with my kids and their families, and watching them mature and succeed as healthy and happy adults.” Adding, incorrigibly, “Of course if they come calling on me to run Blackstone or something like that…”
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THANK YOU MR. DUNNING
JAMES DUNNING, JR.
JIM WANTS THE FIRST WORD IN HIS EPITAPH TO BE:
PHILANTHROPIST.
Good chance, when he gets to the pearly gates, they’ll be having a ceremony to name the baseball diamond ‘Dunning Field’, and Jim will be handed a big stack of tributes from some of the many young people he’s impacted, like this one from lifelong New Canaanite David X. Prutting, who Jim coached in football and baseball, and who is now a principal in the BFA photo agency: Mr. Dunning decidedly played a central part in some of my fondest childhood memories growing up in New Canaan, a sentiment I’m sure I share with many others. Mr. Dunning’s older son James and I started playing sports together at a young age and when we played Pop Warner football, Mr. Dunning was quick to volunteer as a coach. Then, when baseball season came around…he was there, too! And I learned that he loved baseball even more than football and that he’d even played some Second Base in the Dodger organization! Although his physical stature wasn’t big - forgive me Mr. Dunning - his energy and presence was. He was omnipresent! It was immediately obvious to all of us that Mr. Dunning was a successful business person. I was enamored by his huge black Mercedes and his signature Macanudo cigars. And even though the smoke wasn’t my favorite scent, we were all always happy to catch a ride to the games with him - just to have some extra time in his presence. It always impressed me how such a titan of business could make all this time available to be present for not just his own kids, but for all of us?! It’s something that - now, as a successful business owner myself - has always stayed with me. Growing up here in New Canaan, there were plenty of rich and powerful dads, but few that were willing to make such selfless efforts with their time and money for the good of many. It wasn’t just the all-new equipment and jerseys he provided in football and baseball year after year - but the actual fields we played on! It was also somehow immediately obvious to all of us that you wanted to earn Mr. Dunning’s respect. His voice was like an alarm clock that you couldn’t snooze. It jolted you into action. He had a masterful way of motivating you to play at your best - taking interest in each individual’s potential. He was tough and demanding, yet empathetic and caring. His passion was contagious.
And then, when Mr. Dunning saw the need to build a first-class baseball field at New Canaan High School - even though his kids were not attending the school - it really showed how selfless his projects and his coaching all were. When teams eventually played at Dunning Stadium, you could see the immense pride it brought Mr. Dunning to see all the kids - not even including his own - flourishing. I got to play at Dunning Stadium and can testify that playing there - and the feeling that Mr. Dunning thought we deserved it - gave me a great sense of pride. My senior year, as co-captain of the football team, we won the 1999 FCIAC championship, with Dunning as our home field. I truly believe that part of our motivation was to prove that his investment in us was worth it!
And that sense of pride and generosity continues in and with each new generation in town. It’s why Mr. Dunning’s legacy is cemented here in town as not just the guy with his name on the fields, but as the transformational coach and leader who truly loved supporting the youth of New Canaan and who made a real difference in the lives of many. That’s Mr. Dunning’s return-on-investment! Everything I learned from Mr. Dunning is instrumental and influential in how I’m running my own life, raising my own kids, and leading my company. Making the time for others and, when appropriate, putting their needs over your own.
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HANNELORE KAPLAN
# 1 Agent in New Canaan
Everything
HOME IS
Wondering how much your home is worth? We’re in a compelling seller’s market. Call for a price opinion: 914.450.3880 Now is the time to sell!
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Four Elm Street, New Canaan, CT 06840 66
BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN
Source: NCMLS - 01/01/2021-12/31/2021. J U L Y / A U G UThis S T 2 0 2 2 information deemed reliable but not guaranteed
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An Independent preparatory school OPENING IN BEDFORD IN FALL 2022 Grades K-8
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www.thehawthornschool.com | 483 Old Post Road, Bedford, New York 10506
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ROUGHAN INTERIORS
REDES IGN OF TH E W E T MORE MA NSION BY SUE DECHIARA, @ZHUSH - B&NC MAG HOMES EDITOR HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHY JANE BEILES / FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHY: CARTER FISH Along the twists and turns of a backcountry Bedford road, hidden from view, behind a large wrought iron gate and up an impressive gravel driveway, positioned perfectly on 20 acres filled with mature landscaping, is the home of Chris Lacovara and Sam Green, and their twins, Alex and Kate.
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The Lacovara Greens are only the home’s third family-inresidence, even though the house was built at the turn of the 20th Century. The house was built by architect Charles Wetmore, who was famous for having designed Grand Central, the Helmsley Building, and the New York Yacht Club, for his Park Avenue socialite cousin, Maude Wetmore. The stone manse was inspired by a beloved country house in England, and was meant to be a stopover between Maud’s Manhattan apartment and her
“We love Manhattan. The twins are in school in the City, and Chris needs to be in the office for work. But Bedford is our place to escape and retreat, re-energize and flourish. The twins have space to play, and we have space to entertain and have fun!” Sam laughs. Chris continues, “We knew this would be our house the moment we saw it. It’s impossible to build a home like this now, and the bones were just so fantastic. But it needed work… so we brought in the notable designer, Christina Roughan of Roughan Interiors, to help
mansion in Newport - which is now a museum.
us reimagine this beautiful 1900 home into the more modern spaces that we could really see ourselves using.”
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Chris Lacovara and Sam Green chose Bedford as a weekend respite and a place that they could make into a retreat for their family from the bustle of the City. “We came to see the house on a rainy day in February in 2019, and it was kind of dilapidated… but we couldn’t stop talking about it afterwards. It was the first house we saw up here,” Sam explains. “Now we’re considering making Bedford our full-time spot.”
Chris Lacovara
Sam Green
After graduating from Harvard in just three years, Chris had a career on Wall Street, first at Goldman Sachs, then Lazard Freres, and finally KKR, before leaving finance to return to law school at Columbia. “I didn’t feel like I was doing enough to give back to the world, and I guess most guys would probably retire and go on a board and play golf… but I stink at golf. So my pivot was going to law school in my early forties, which was the best decision I ever made,” Chris declares. After graduating, he clerked on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, and then New York’s Court of Appeals, before becoming an associate at Patterson Belknap. But Chris was always interested in housing and homelessness, so he’s spent the last 6 years of his career working with Community Access, a non-profit organization based in the Bronx, which develops, builds, and operates housing for people coming out of
The organization is focused on ‘supportive housing’ - housing for people who have a history of homelessness, many of whom have mental health issues or other trauma. “It’s not just the apartment, it’s also social services that are provided. For most people we house, this is their first apartment! And it’s a life changing event for about four to five thousand people that are being housed at any given time by the organization, and thousands of others who are helped outside of the housing by other social services we provide,” Chris says with a smile. Chris runs Community Access’ financial and legal affairs, and is the non-profit’s real estate developer, “I get to go to work every day feeling like I’m making a very direct and positive contribution.”
the shelter system.
hard keeping homebound elderly people out of the hospital.”
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But most of all, Sam and Chris are each ‘dad’ to their twins, Alex and Kate. At five years old, the very cute kids are a handful - and they have the complete run of the house! Alex can usually be found climbing on his favorite rock or playing on the jungle gym in the front yard. And Kate likes to find beautiful flowers planted all around the property to make bouquets to bring to her dads. Although they’re already both pretty good swimmers, both Kate and Alex are headed to swim camp this summer so that they can make even better use of the Wetmore Mansion’s backyard pool,
Sam spent most of his career working as a visiting nurse practitioner and taking care of elderly New York residents in their own homes on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and has a Doctorate of Nursing Practice from Columbia. “I came to New York in the early ‘90s from Corpus Christie, Texas. I thought I wanted to be an actor and, being a man that needs a schedule, I gave myself a year to make it happen. And it just didn’t. …So I put myself through nursing school instead, and for a couple of decades, I had a few hundred patients, and worked
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MOOR GNIVIL EHT
THE LIVING ROOM
The L i ving Ro o m. “The living room transformation was amazing. We used Venetian plaster to give the room a bit more depth." The couple are big blue fans, as is evidenced by the living room and many other spaces in the home, and wanted the room to be vibrant without being overwhelming. And although everything in the house has an elegant aesthetic, it was a must that everything actually be kid friendly - and usable. Our kids are five! We didn’t want to have rooms that were off-limits. So Christina helped us to select durable fabrics, and choose furniture that would be not only beautiful, but also comfortable and practical.”
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In the den/family room, Roughan took the beautiful and practical idea to the max by creating a massive custom upholstered ‘coffee table’ that could serve as a place to have pretty books or a tray for snacks… but that was actually sturdy enough for the kids to jump all over… which is exactly what they were doing when B&NC Mag came for a visit!
KITCHEN
The family room is connected to the large and bright kitchen with a portal swing door, finished with polished accents. “It’s something you usually expect to see between a kitchen and a dining room, but I love having this slightly unexpected piece lead straight to a moreutilized room,” Roughan remarks.
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T HE DININ G RO OM
The D i nin g Room. “The dining room probably had the most structural work done on the first floor. Throughout the rest of the first floor we refreshed all of the flooring, repainted everything, re-finished woodwork and molding, redid all the fireplaces, changed all the scones, and did a lot of electrical work and of course made robust design changes throughout… but structurally, we kept most of the first floor in tact. The dining room was the exception - we gutted the space and started totally fresh."
"THE UPSTAIRS
"
of our house is quite sizeable, but when you’re up there it doesn’t feel like some gargantuan home. Every room has its own private space - and the hallways are cozy,” the couple shared as they lead us up the regal staircase. With the help of Christina, they created a wing for the kids, a separate secluded guest wing, and renovated the primary suite to give more space to the master bathroom. “The renovation of the master bathroom was actually the biggest renovation involved in the entire process,” Roughan shared. “We took what was originally a pretty small space and opened it up by borrowing space from a home office/gym that’s part of the
WE WANTED TO MAKE THE DINING ROOM A FUN ENTERTAINING SPACE, SO WE USED
primary suite. That allowed us to add a sizable walk-in shower as well as a clawfoot bathtub, and create a much larger double vanity."
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THROUGHOUT THE ROOM."
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Reimagine Your Spaces With Professional Organizers
“WE’RE THRILLED with the finished product. As luck would have it, the house was ready for us just in time for the pandemic. So we’ve spent way more time here than we originally anticipated…and loved every minute,” Sam says. “The flow of the house and the rooms gives us just the right amount of closeness while also having our own space - which was necessary as we navigated school and work from here for over a year. And now that we’re back to our routine, it’s like a treat every week when we walk through the front door on a Friday. The subtle color and sophisticated design elements in these useable spaces brings us so much joy,” Chris added.
Sam and Chris recently re-enlisted Roughan to do a complete renovation, redesign and redecoration of their spectacular apar tment overlooking Central Park... and we can' t wait to see the results! 82
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99 Moseman Ave, Katonah Main Residence: 8 BRs | 8.5 Baths Guest Cottage: 3 BRs | 2 Baths 6-Car Garage | 16.48 Acres $4,100,000 Nikki McMann | 917.349.4763 Take a serene drive past your pond to Pine Hill, your own private retreat on over 16 park-like acres. The mature landscaping adds to the beauty of this estate and includes colorful birds aplenty. The architectural grandeur of this luxurious home is custom and unique with soaring ceilings, beautiful wood details inside and out, and 19 stained glass windows. This is a magical setting to entertain and make memories with family and friends.
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PHOTOGRAPHY: CARTER FISH
“MAD DOG”
To be sure, he’s always animated, his delivery is rat-a-tat-tat staccato, a bit excited, and comes in bursts, and his nasal sound rings the ear like a trumpet with a horn - what George Vescey of The New York Times called “a bizarre mixture of Jerry Lewis, Archie Bunker and Daffy Duck.” But in 1988, shortly after Chris started working at WFAN hosting a solo show, Bob Raissman of the NY Daily News gave Chris the ‘Mad Dog’ nickname. And in 1989, when Chris famously first partnered with Mike Francesa, to start their 19-year run on WFAN Sports Radio NY - ‘The Fan’, the show name ‘Mike and the Mad Dog’ cemented the tag. …Thing is, though he’s still known as ‘Mad Dog’, and the voice is definitely distinctive - he’s never really barking.
CHRIS
As headliner of Mad Dog Sports Radio,
at Ch. 82 on SiriusXM Radio, and host of the afternoon radio show on that
channel called Mad Dog Unleashed, as the television host of High Heat on
MLB Network, and with his new gig on First Take as partner to Steven A.
Smith on ESPN television, “Mad Dog”
is one of the biggest names in sports talk today. …And yet the moniker doesn’t do justice to his radio skills,
and totally fails to describe Chris
Russo. In real life; 62 years old; husband of 27 years to Jeanne; father
to 23 year old Tim, 20 year old Colin, 21
year old Kiera, and 17 year old Patrick; decades-long New Canaanite; he's actually a real pussycat. 90
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An interview with B&NC Mag's Publisher | MICHAEL KAPLAN
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CHRIS 'MAD DOG' RUSSO
On rhythm, Chris continues, “I’ve always known I wanted to do sports, but I started out thinking I wanted to do play-by-play - because that’s all there was on radio. Marv Albert was a huge influence. Remember, in 1969 and 1970 you used to listen to Knicks games on the radio they were not on TV - and Marv was really bringing the games to life, and coming up with distinctive calls like his famous
‘YYYYESSSSS! ‘YYYYESSSSS!
“
What is true about Chris, is that he believes being a sports radio talk show host is his calling. He says,
And even Chris’ description of his personal history is delivered in his classic cadence, and laden, like almost all of Chris’s descriptions of just about everything, with an extraordinary focus on names, numbers and dates. He recalls, “My father was a jewelry salesman who was born in Flushing in 1931. He went to Pace, and married my mom in 1956. She was born in Waitron, England in 1934, came to America in 1955, and married my dad 6 months later. My dad was a Yankee fan - loved DiMaggio. They moved to Sante Fe in 1997 when he retired, and when he died, in 2013, I moved my mom
then Southwards Junior High School. I played some little league, some basketball, and a lot of tennis, and Thurmon Munson was my sports hero, although I was a San Francisco Giants fan. In 1968, my dad had a jewelry convention in Philadelphia and he took me to see the Giants versus the Phillies. I got a ball signed by every Giant player other than Willie Mays and I was hooked. For 50 years I watched every pitch of every game. I went to every game of the playoffs in 1997 and the World Series in 2002. But since they won the Series, I follow them a bit more casually. …Anyway, when I brought home my first bad test score, in Spanish, in 8th Grade, my parents sent me off to the Darrow School, where my dad graduated from in 1951. It was the best thing for me. I went from a big, city school, to a place way up in New Lebanon, New York, with only 130 kids, where I could be a big fish. I had some fabulous teachers at Darrow. One teacher, Bob MacAnnon, who I played tennis with at Darrow, suggested I go to Rollins and - after I didn’t get in to Duke, and decided it was too cold in Syracuse and Ithaca, where I was accepted - I headed to Winter Park, Florida. I wanted a liberal arts education, I loved the academics at Rollins, and I majored in European
to New Canaan. My mom is an amazing woman, she went to college and graduated when she was 78. I grew up in Syosset, with no siblings, and went to St. Pauls in Garden City for elementary school and
History with a focus from 1860 to 1950. I did the Rollins basketball play-by-play, and basically took over the sports programming at the college radio station, WPRK, for the 4 years I was there. I graduated in 1982.”
SPORTS WAS ALWAYS MY FRIEND; I GREW UP CONSTANTLY TALKING SPORTS TO MYSELF; IT SOUNDS COCKY, BUT GOD PUT ME ON THIS EARTH TO DO WHAT I’M DOING.”
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when a player sunk a basket. And he called the Islanders hockey games from 1969 to 1974. I’ve told Marv how I feel about him, and I was honored when he sent me a note, when I was on WMCA in the summer of 1988, that said he had been listening to me between 5 and 8 on Saturdays and Sundays and ‘enjoyed the show’. Last year, when he retired, I had him on my SiriusXM show for 45 minutes. He was the play-by-play GOAT.”
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HE RATTLES OFF HIS CAREER HISTORY LIKE HE’S CALLING A GAME,
“Mel Karmazin was the CEO of SiriusXM when they hired me in 2008. Howard Stern had joined SiriusXM in 2006. When I joined in 2008, there were over 100 media people there at the SiriusXM studios to cover it! They gave me my own channel, a 5-year contract, and said
“I couldn’t have planned the path, but I always knew the direction I was going. In February 1983, a guy named Lou Liapolis gave me a job selling season tickets for the Double-A Jacksonville Suns - Hank Aaron played for the Suns - with the promise of a future doing the play-by-play. I went there in my AMC Gremlin with 92,000 miles on it, sold $1,500 in advertising…and after only 6 weeks, he fired me. I was in Jacksonville, so I knocked on the door at WEXI 1280 AM, a small station that broadcast dawn to dusk. As incredible luck would have it, March 13, 1983, 4 days before St. Patricks, the sports guy at WEXI left the same day, and at age 23, they gave me the job! I stayed at WEXI, with a small audience, for a year. I’d sent some tapes to a friend from Rollins, Larry Kahn, who was a producer at WKIS News Talk 74 AM in Orlando, and in March 1984,
‘DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO’!
EXPLAINING
It was a tremendous opportunity!” Chris says about what is, 14 years later, his ongoing role as headliner of Mad Dog Sports Radio on SiriusXM. “First of all, it’s national instead of local, so you can’t just talk about the home team all the time. 5 hours on SiriusXM is like doing 7 hours on The Fan. And in the beginning I had to put together a channel, and that meant hiring morning and afternoon hosts. When I signed my second contract with them, I gave up a lot of the management duties and moved to doing a 3 hour show. And covid was a game changer. I had a year with no sports, but still had to do a show every weekday 3 to 6. I did covid updates with Dr. Robert Wake from UC San Francisco as a kind of public service announcement. I love the music from the Laurel Canyon days in the 1960s in California, so I did an hour with Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn from the Birds. I had on the film director, Alison Ellwood. These days I can talk about whatever I want - that’s a big responsibility.”
I got a Sunday Night show, 2 hours, no calls. Kahn and I are still friends, we went to each other’s weddings. In Jacksonville, I’d been making $120 a week and living in a rented room in a house with no kitchen. At WKIS, I got $13,000 a year, traded up to a Honda Civic, and had a nice enough place that my parents came and visited. I was a talk show host! 6 to 8, Monday through Friday; Sports Updates at 3 and 9. It was a huge step! Then, Bob Trumpe got fired doing weekends and they put me in that slot - and that killed the weekday audience I’d developed. So in February 1987, I sent a tape to Rick Sklar, who’d been the Beatles first promotor and who put Howard Cosell on the air, at Sklar Communications, answering an ad in Broadcasting Magazine looking for people who talked like ‘New Yorkahs’. He flew me to New York to do 2 shows, and then 3 weeks later, he called me and offered me $54,000 a year, and to pay for my move! I packed up the Civic and headed to WMCA in New York to do Weekday and 5 to 8 Weekend Sports Talk. Sklar was a marathon runner who wanted to go to the top in Washington, but who had a foot issue and died from a freak occurrence during surgery at St. Roosevelt. He made a real difference in my life, and I will forever be grateful. …And then, in mid-December 1988, my agent at the time, Robert Schauf, got me in at WFAN for an interview with Don Imus. At 660 AM, WFAN had acquired the old 1050 AM and their 50,000 watt clearwater channel, they were broadcasting the Mets, and Imus had taken the helm two months before my interview. The higher-ups intended to establish the first 24-hour sports talk format. I was 29, and they thought I would work well together with Mike Francesca, who had been working as a researcher, and we started together on the Monday after Labor Day in 1989. I had a great run with Francesca from 1989 to 2008. And contrary to a lot of the hullabaloo, and the pressures of working together in the same room for 5 and ½ hours a day for almost 2 decades, and the sparks that flew from our presentation
In what seems like a moment when Chris is taking a rare breath, he reflects, “To be a good radio talk show host, you have to be curious. I love to read. I read The New York Times, the Post, USA Today and the Daily News every day. And I read a ton of biographies, a lot of history, and all the sports books I can find. I just finished Truly, Madly: Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, and the Romance of the Century. I don’t read too much on the internet, because the info is too overlapped for me. When I do a show, I want to know everything I can about what we’re going to talk about, but I don’t set a script or prepare specific questions. Sometimes being a little unprepared is better, because in the end it’s really all about having a relationship with the fan. I relate to the guy on the street who’s a sports fan. I bond with the fan, so they want me to be the guy who fills them in. The key to my success is my passion - I love what I do. And my likeability - to have a good and long career you have to be likable, with your fans and your guests. I got this golden voice from my father. And I’ve always been a ham. But you can’t really develop into being a talk show host. You’re either a good talk show host or you’re not. I had to clean up the edges, but I was born for it. Ultimately, I get the best out of people because I’m genuinely interested in people.”
as both partners and adversaries, I have nothing but good feelings about him and our time together. To tell you the truth, I really had no idea how big a phenomenon The Fan had become until I left in 2008. The story got front page in the New York Post and the Daily News, and coverage in The New York Times. I was blown away!” 94
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CHRIS 'MAD DOG' RUSSO
BUT, REMARKABLY, BEYOND HIS EXTRAORDINARY MEMORY, AND DESPITE HIS FAME AND FORTUNE,
CHRIS RUSSO IS A REGULAR GUY.
He jokes, “Jeanne probably lets me watch more games than most other guys get to. But I try not to sit there for 12 hours - except on Sunday, when I watch a few games at a time and go from 1 p.m. to midnight. I met Jeanne in 1993, seated next to her on a plane coming back from seeing Jordan and the Bulls beat the Knicks in the 4th Game of the Eastern Conference Finals, on Memorial Day weekend in Chicago. We were engaged on a Friday night in 1994, and we were married in May 1995. She’s the love of my life and a real sweetheart, but she wouldn’t know Aaron Judge if she fell on him. She sang in the choir at St. John the Baptist on 125th Street until about a year ago. We moved to New Canaan in September 1996, because we feel it’s one of the best places anywhere to raise a family, and we still feel the same way today. Our first house in New Canaan on Beech Road was built in 1957, we bought it for $685,000 in 1996 and sold with a profit in 2004. New Canaan is always a great investment. We didn’t move to the house we’re in now until after I’d been on The Fan for 15 years. I have a radio studio in the basement and a television studio in the attic, so I can do almost all of my work these days from home - except I have to go into New York City to do First Take on Wednesdays. It’s only a short drive to our country club, Shorehaven, so I can jump over to play golf, but don’t really like being gone for 7 hours. I do play in 5 or 6 club tournaments a year because I really like the competitive environment and enjoy the camaraderie. I like tennis better than golf mostly doubles - and get to play 3 times-a-week at the Field Club all summer long. I play in regular games with 8 or 10 guys, and I play in an inter-club league.”
Then back to the names, numbers and dates, and again a bit excited, Chris says about now also doing TV, “I started doing television when I got the contract to do High Heat with Major League Baseball Network in 2014. I’d never leave radio, but I like the size of the audience and the extra dimension to your relationship with the fan that television brings you. I was thrilled when Stephen A. Smith called me in late January to do a Hall of Fame announcement and a couple of segments on First Take. Stephen grew up in Queens, and actually once worked with us on Mad Dog Sports Radio. He’s the best in the television sports talk business today. We did the first segment on a Wednesday, after the Packers lost to the 49ers and Brady lost to the Rams. Stephen called me the next morning to say the ratings were hot and later that day I had a deal with ESPN to do 40 appearances, 10 to 12, on Wednesdays. It’s fun, and our TV clips get millions of hits on social media. It’s Stephen’s show, but I’ve trained my whole life to be able to do 2 hours on TV. I think quickly on my feet and I’m good at ad libbing. I don’t always agree with him, but I get a huge kick out of the banter with him…and I try not to be too much of a bully. I have a call with the producer at 7:20 a.m. on Wednesday morning, when we go over the segment for that day for about 30 minutes. When we get on air…it’s whatever happens between Stephen, me, and the fans!” Of course, Chris’s extraordinary memory and ability to recall names, numbers and dates, is also central to his unique qualities as a sports talk show host. He says, “It’s not like Rain Man or anything, or at least I don’t think so. But I remember games like I’m watching a movie in my head. I remember where I was when I saw the game and the experience of watching. I have that kind of memory for just about everything. …The ‘Ice Bowl’ in 1967. Packers versus Cowboys. 21-17, with 69 yards to go, and 4:38 left on the clock. Greatest mind-over-matter comeback. Or the Giants versus the Bills in 1990, in the midst of the Gulf War, when Norwood misses the field goal to lose 19-20 in Tampa. Or in 1986, after the Red Sox had come from 5 to 2 down late in the game against the Angels to force that playoff series to continue, and went on to lose to the Mets in one of the best World Series ever. Or Game 7, Red Sox versus Yankees in 2003, when Aaron Boone hit the homer. The great Buffalo versus Kansas City game this year. I see them as if they’re playing on the TV now.”
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NEW CANAAN HAS BEEN A GREAT PLACE TO RAISE OUR FAMILY. Somewhat philosophically, Chris continues, “…Like I said, New Canaan has been a great place to raise our family. I’m proud of my kids - and proud to say they’re normal. It’s a tribute to Jeanne…and to growing up in New Canaan. My youngest daughter, Kiera, isn’t even into sports. My older boy, Colin, is at Wisconsin and is interested in media and is a huge Pelicans fan, and my other son, Timmy, is at UConn and considering coaching. Because I’m ‘Mad Dog’ I can get tickets to just about any sporting event I ever want to see - although I make it a point to pay for tickets - and I’ve probably spoiled my kids taking them to a lot of special games over the years. But other than that they’re making their own way in the world, and none of my kids ever went around New Canaan boasting - or posting - about being ‘Mad Dog’s Pups’.” “New Canaan is used to famous people living here, and I’ve been here so long we’re like part of the furniture. I go into town to pick up coffee every morning. I’ve been to as many of my kids’ games and recitals as possible. I love being able to chat with all the people I know, without ever feeling pressed or uncomfortable. And whenever I can give back to the community, I’m happy to do it. I’ve spoken, or M.C.’ed, or served as auctioneer for New Canaan High School, St. Aloysius, Father/Son Night for Fairfield Prep, Cardinal Spellman in Bridgeport, and lots of others. I try not to ruffle peoples’ feathers. I don’t get involved in politics and try to stay away from anything divisive - other than a good argument about sports!” Chris smiles.
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Turn What You Love Into Where You Live In the rare moment when Chris isn’t busy - and if he hasn’t already then picked up a book - his thoughts or conversation will inevitably turn to some ‘Top 10’ list or a discussion of who was the greatest in some sport or at some feat. He’s authored two such tomes: The Mad Dog 100 : The Greatest Sports Arguments of All Time (Doubleday, 2003), and The Mad Dog Hall of Fame: The Ultimate TopTen Rankings of the Best in Sports (Doubleday, 2006). He is, of course, fluent in the entire history of baseball, football and basketball. Somewhat surprisingly, he’s encyclopedic with hockey, golf and tennis as well. He does live broadcasts every year at the U.S. Open Tennis Championships in Queens. Federer is his favorite tennis player ever, but he loves Nadal, and admired how “Connors played every point like he was broke”. Best Tennis Announcer: “No question, John and Patrick McEnroe”. Best Golf Commentator: “Faldo”. Best Baseball Reporter: “Tom Verducci”. Best Basketball Commentator: “Charles Barkley is a real personality”. Best Football Commentator: “Collinsworth and Aikman. I like when the guy passes along his expertise, but I don’t need commentary on every play”. All-Around Sports Commentator Hall of Fame: “Howard Cosell, Bob Costas, who’s a good friend of mine, Al Michaels, Dick Enberg, Stephen A. Smith, and, as I said before, Marv Albert, the Play-by-Play GOAT.” And as for the people, dead or alive, he would invite to a fantasy dinner party, Chris quickly lists, “Thurmon Munson, Vince Lombardi, Bill Russell, Babe Ruth, Carol O’Connor, and Bob Dylan,” and adds, “... no politicians - they’re a pain in the ass.”
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83 KATONAH AVENUE, KATONAH NY 10536 914.232.3700 © 2022 DOUGLAS ELLIMAN REAL ESTATE. ALL MATERIAL PRESENTED HEREIN IS INTENDED FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY. WHILE, THIS INFORMATION IS BELIEVED TO BE CORRECT, IT IS REPRESENTED SUBJECT TO ERRORS, OMISSIONS, CHANGES OR WITHDRAWAL WITHOUT NOTICE. ALL PROPERTY INFORMATION, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO SQUARE FOOTAGE, ROOM COUNT, NUMBER OF BEDROOMS AND THE SCHOOL DISTRICT IN PROPERTY LISTINGS SHOULD BE VERIFIED BY YOUR OWN ATTORNEY, ARCHITECT OR ZONING EXPERT. EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY.
Join Westchester Land Trust this fall for...
Thursday, September 15, 2022 Enjoy live music, creative cocktails, and gourmet snacks as we raise funds for Westchester Land Trust’s farmland preservation and food justice programs. Since 2012, we’ve partnered with local food banks to grow and donate an average of 8,000 servings of produce a year for families in need across our community.
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Jewish Living @ Shaaray
Westchester Land Trust (WLT) works with public and private partners to protect natural lands—from farmlands to woodlands, meadows and more! Over the last 30 years, WLT has permanently preserved over 9,000 acres (and counting!) across Westchester and eastern Putnam counties.
An experiential gateway to Jewish identity and education beginning in Kindergarten. Plus! Introducing our new TeenCenter @ Shaaray
Registration now open. shaaraytefila.org/living-judaism
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@WLT_NY
westchesterlandtrust.org 403 Harris Road, Bedford Hills, New York 10507
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"Kawa 1 & 2" • Hannan Field
"Threading Diagram" • The GreenLink • Oenoke Lane
"The Last 42 Seeds" • Silvermine-Fowler Preserve
"Floating Torii Gate" • Silvermine-Fowler Preserve
148 Narrows Road | Bedford Hills, NY | $6,900,000 "Brickhead Truth" • Carriage Barn Arts Center "Chaos and Calm" • The GreenLink • Oenoke Lane
JUNE - OCTOBER 2022
"Barb Wire Fence" • The GreenLink • Irwin Park
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"The Wind in the Waves" • Still Pond Preserve
Your donation will make future programs possible.
"Square Knot III" • New Canaan Town Hall Scan to Donate
"Titanosaurus II" • The GreenLink • Nature Center
Presented by the New Canaan Land Trust & the Carriage Barn Arts Center sculpture.newcanaanlandtrust.org
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Devin McCrossan is a Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker affiliated with Compass. Compass is a licensed real estate broker and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity Laws.
Ask a Gynecologic Oncologist
WHAT SHOULD I KNOW ABOUT GYNECOLOGIC CANCERS? Gizelka David-West, MD
Northwell Health Cancer Institute Northern Westchester Hospital, Phelps Hospital
What is important for women to know about gynecology and cancer? When many people think of gynecology, they think of pap smears, but there is much more to it than that. Gynecologic cancers can develop in a few different reproductive organs: the uterus, cervix, ovaries, fallopian tubes, vagina, and vulva. It’s important for women to know that even after having children or experiencing menopause, they should continue their annual visits and be aware of screening guidelines: pelvic exams annually after age 18, cytology-based pap smears every 3 years after age 21, or co-testing with cytology and human papillomavirus (HPV) tests every 5 years between the ages of 30 to 65.
Early detection is key to preventing many types of cancer. How does this apply specifically to gynecologic cancers? The best screening method we have is the combination HPV test and pap test for cervical cancer that is proven to prevent disease. Uterine cancer screening is a clinical evaluation and assessment of the clinical history of patients with abnormal uterine bleeding patterns. There is also much research being done in early detection methods for ovarian cancer.
Should women have different gynecologic concerns at different ages in their life?
We put the emphasis on living.
Age plays a role in gynecologic cancers, but the role varies with each cancer type. Cervical cancer is prevalent in younger women in their 40s, uterine cancer in ages 50 and up, and ovarian cancer from ages 50 to 60. While guidelines state that women can stop cervical screening at age 65, it is important for women over 65 to know that they should continue screening, especially if they’re sexually active or have a history of HPV infection.
How does your use of robotics benefit patients undergoing gynecologic cancer surgery? The da Vinci surgical system is a robotic, minimally invasive tool that allows for greater precision and increased dexterity for me as the surgeon. Because of this, patients typically experience less pain, recover quicker, and may have lower risk of blood loss and infection. While it is preferred over open surgery, the benefit depends on the type of cancer being treated. We primarily use it for endometrial cancer.
What about the future of gynecologic oncology excites you? The incorporation of maintenance therapy for our patients with advanced stage disease has dramatically changed the treatment landscape. In ovarian cancer, we are seeing an improvement in survival thanks to available maintenance therapies, such as VEGF and PARP inhibitors. And, earlier this year, the SIENDO study showed promising results which may address the increasing mortality rate we are seeing in uterine cancer and provide more options for patients to prevent recurrence of disease. Additionally, in cervical cancer, there have been great advancements in immunotherapy which gives us an opportunity to improve survival.
What is special about the oncology team at Northwell Health? Northwell puts so much effort and emphasis on the multi-disciplinary approach to cancer treatment. Oncologists and radiologists get together to review every case to ensure patients are receiving the most up-to-date, leading-edge treatment options available. When you’re told you have cancer, not only do you need cancer treatment, you also need psychosocial and wellness support, as well as any necessary physical therapy support. Northwell offers all of this for our cancer patients. In addition, our patient navigators and care managers are great and really help patients through this complex and difficult time in their lives.
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203.702.7400 | makingthebestofeveryday.org
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Northwell Health Cancer Institute Northern Westchester Hospital, Phelps Hospital | nwh.northwell.edu/david-west | (914) 666-1775
SOPHIA JORTNER… BUT FROM HERE ON IN, SHE NEED ONLY BE THE ARTIST KNOWN AS
Sophia
Her art is bold, bright, expressive, textured and raw. Her marks are strong and decisive. Her work comes from a genuine place in her spirit, and she conveys her unique voice onto canvas. In works such as American Gothic, Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck, she translates her artistic influences into a style that is very much her own.
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She's only 18. She and her twin sister just graduated from Easton’s public high school, and her sister is headed to the University of Chicago thinking pre-med or pre-law. Sophia says, “We’re complete opposites - and we’re best friends. I like that we don’t have to compete about anything, and support each other totally. I struggle with school, and things like math in particular. The thing I can
She’s had no formal arts education outside classes in her public school this year and last. The Guggenheim is the only major museum she’s ever visited. She explains, “I’ve always been able to draw. When I’m driving around, walking or hanging out with my friends, I see colors, shapes and objects. I draw the picture in my head. Then I practice the picture by drawing it on paper. My mom’s always been an artist and used to be an art teacher. She does mostly abstract art with pastels and has always drawn and done illustration. So art has always been in my life. We always argue about what I should paint, and she gives me advice and sometimes harsh criticism. But it’s for my benefit. …In school, I took an Advanced Placement Art class, and now the teacher, Mr. Angelis, mentors me and helps me a lot. Junior year, I submitted an abstract piece from the portfolio
do, is art.” Sophia and her sister live with their mom, who is a designer, and their 13-year old brother, who likes to play basketball and sometimes draws alongside Sophia.
I did in Mr. Angelis’ class, which was based on a Bob Ross landscape, and my piece was ranked 57 out of 500,000. …And now Jacob is a support and a guide…”
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Jacob is Jacob Herman, proprietor and Gallery Director of the Jean Jacobs Gallery at 84 Main Street in New Canaan. Jacob opened Jean Jacobs Gallery in September, 2020 and, through covid, has developed Jean Jacobs into a gallery which features original art by established artists such as Michael Desrosier, Aesther Chang, Hans Neleman and, most recently, original lithographs by Matisse, while at the same time offering a wide variety of accessible works in multiple genres to fit any clients requirements.
Jacob tells the story of meeting Sophia, saying “Sophia cold-called me out of the blue, looking for a gallery assistant role, and mentioned she was an artist. She seemed inexperienced - told me she was just 16 - and said she wanted more than anything to be a part of the art world. She had a website, and when I checked it out I was blown away by the work she was doing at her age and with her limited experience and training. After I looked at some of her work on her website, I texted her back and told her I didn’t specifically have a job for her…but that I was extremely impressed with the level of her pieces and wanted to work with her to help develop her work and position her for success. I brought some pieces into the gallery, didn’t announce anything about Sophia, and the first customer who walked in bought Sophia’s first piece. She is extremely serious about her art, with her pieces selling as fast as she can paint them. We are proud to present her first solo exhibition, a culmination of the work she has created and developed within the past year. This will be the first time the public will be able to experience her work in this larger context, and we feel very positive about this show and Sophia’s future success as an artist.”
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"I WAS BLOWN AWAY BY THE WORK SHE WAS DOING AT HER AGE AND WITH HER LIMITED EXPERIENCE AND TRAINING."
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About her artistry,
She continues, “I want people to be interactive with my art. I want them to touch it, and be intrigued by the vision. I want my paintings to convey a deeper meaning, more than just look pretty. I’m interested in the themes of old money vs. new money, and fantasy vs. reality, and in the conflict between good and evil. …I have the view that there is beauty in all things. I’m trying to get to some of the deeper meanings in society - even if my commentary on society is only from the viewpoint of an 18-year old young woman.”
Sophia explains “I’m inspired by other artists, including notably Basquait, Keith Haring, Alex Monopoly, and Banksy, but I’m trying to develop my own style. I do ‘cover’ the artists who inspire me and bend my style to achieve that artist’s ‘feel’, but mostly my method depends on the vision of each painting. I see ‘my picture’ when I’m watching something on TV, or in a movie, or when I’m thinking about my dad, or other things going on in my life. I like to listen to experimental rock, and a lot of times I see ‘my picture’ in the music. Then, before I draw it out, I envision the color palette. In executing the painting, I’m focused on the vision, and
And about where she’s going, Sophia says, “I’m just beginning to do what I think I can do. Selling paintings has opened my eyes to really being an artist. Although selling work is not the most important aspect to me, it gives me such a feeling of validation because people are really resonating with what I am creating and willing to have my work in their homes, something that was hard to imagine when I first started. I’m thrilled to be finished with high school, so I have all of my time to devote to my art. And I just committed to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art starting in September. I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity to learn from MICA’s great professors and study the fine arts. My dream is to become the next ‘biggest artist’, do things like Banksy’s murals, and have my paintings in galleries all over the world.”
STRIKINGLY, THE QUALITY OF SOPHIA’S EARLY WORKS - AND PARTICULARLY GIVEN HER LACK OF FORMAL TRAINING POINTS TO TRUE, IF NASCENT, ARTISTIC GENIUS!
try to let my style flow. I use model paste on the canvas to get depth and character, and then I usually set the painting working with spatulas and use brushes to do the details.”
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The Jean Jacobs Gallery will be exhibiting Sophia’s 115 BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN 1 1 5 work from July 9th to August 14th, 2022.
SOPHIA JORTNER : SOCIAL STUDIES
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Mt. Kisco – Kids Are Great | 241 Lexington Avenue | Mount Kisco, NY 10549 J U LY / A U G U S T
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@jeanjacobsgallery
OUR BASKETS
RUNNETH OVER PHOTOGRAPHY: CARTER FISH
Here in the B&NC Mag area…our baskets runneth over ! On a budget, or sparing no expense, the picnic basket, blanket, linen, silver, plates and glasses, and even the games Picnics are a high art form. Meant to enjoy summer’s the group will play, each require focus. The food must be bounty, and set the scene for most memorable scrumptious, popular but not ordinary, matched to the gatherings. Anything from the most casual to the occasion, and easy enough to eat. And, of course, the wine full ‘dejeuner sur l’herbe’ warrants detailed planning and food pairing - noting that the rosés from Whispering and attention. Each and every picnic can be perfect! Angel go with just about everything - is essential.
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SUMMER PICNICS
Primped-up-picnics are all the rage this summer. Vogue devoted an entire section to picnic popularity. The New York Times has done piece after piece on picnic particulars. Picnic posts on Pinterest are plentiful. Plus Instagram is plush with picnic pics! Trends include: salads with watermelon and feta, and with corn and peaches; sliders; colorful veggie options, and; dragon fruit drinks and small-batch seltzers.
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The importance of the overall decor can not be overstated. Color schemes with highlights that pop, can set the mood. While the checkered tablecloth is de rigueur, quality linens will elevate the entire experience. …And flowers are always a fantastic flourish! B&NC Mag Readers: Throw down your blankets! Our baskets runneth over!
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SUMMER PICNICS
PROCURING YOUR PICNIC
LOCALLY
GAMES & COOLERS
FOOD
Important to any picnic’s success are the quality of lawn games! Darien Sport Shop provided a cute cornhole set for the day. And, just as important as staying entertained… keeping your food and drinks cold! Darien Sport Shop is the local spot to shop YETI, and that cooler seriously came in clutch; keeping the food fresh during transport, and the wine cold all afternoon long.
G.E. Brown in Bedford is family-owned and operated, and known for their high quality and delicious to-go food and catering. Whether you’re planning a more elaborate picnic that needs full-scale catering, or a more spur-of-the-moment afternoon outing, GE Brown has adorable sliders, delectable sandwiches, healthy and colorful salads… and even their own dessert shop - The Bedford Candy Bar - right across the street.
FLORALS Bedford Village Flower Shoppe creates spectacular and elevated arrangements that are perfect for any occasion – and what better way to zhush up a picnic than some fabulous florals?!
BASKETS, PLATTERS & SERVINGWARE: The Adirondack Store in New Canaan has attractive and useful baskets, blankets, throws, pillows and more, to make a picnic perfect. This picnic basket was a real hit! And for all other design needs, B&NC Mag enlisted the help of Tent, a design shop in Amenia, NY, who’s glassware, trays, plates and platters, and other gorgeous elements, will elevate any picnic.
WINE Every picnic needs the perfect wine pairings! Ancaona’s Wines is a great local shop with a massive selection of options – and they even deliver for free to New Canaan on orders over $50.
LINENS This Summer, New Canaan-based and world-renowned Léron is opening up a new storefront - right on Elm Street in New Canaan. Léron is thee source for gorgeous and intricate linens and sheets. Their tablecloths are pictured as used in B&NC Mag’s picnics.
exclusively at
Picnic Baskets: Adirondack Store | All catered food: GE Brown | Watermelon & Cake: The Market at Pound Ridge Square | Linens and base layer: Léron Linens | Glassware, Platters, Blue Wicker Tray, Serving-Ware: Tent | Flowers: Bedford Village Flower Shoppe | Games & Coolers: Darien Sport Shop | Gray Malin tray under the watermelon: Darien Sport Shop | Rosé: Ancona’s Wines 122
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PETER SPIEGELMAN
I
n 2003, at the age of 45, Peter Spiegelman had his first novel, Black Maps, published by Alfred A. Knopf. The book, set in and around Wall Street of the early aughts, follows the exploits of private-eye John March, the black-sheep son of a prominent banking family, and is a modern take on a hardboiled detective story. For his debut, Spiegelman won the prestigious Shamus Award, given annually by the Private Eye Writers of America for the best first novel in the ‘private eye’ fiction genre.
He followed this triumph with two successful additions to the John March series: Death’s Little Helpers (Knopf, 2005) and Red Cat (Knopf, 2007) - which was nominated for the 2008 Barry Award for ‘Best Novel.’ After these came two powerful standalone books, the heist tale Thick As Thieves (Knopf, 2011), which Kirkus Reviews editor Elaine Szewczyk recognized as one of 2011’s best novels, and Dr. Knox (Knopf, 2016). In between, Peter published numerous short stories, and edited the crime fiction anthology Wall Street Noir (Akashic Press, 2007).
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This Summer, Alfred A. Knopf is publishing Spiegelman’s latest work, A Secret About A Secret. It’s a thriller that he wrote during lockdown - and that takes place in a world that is not quite our own. And B&NC Mag is honored to provide an exclusive excerpt - at page 136. Spiegelman explains, “A Secret About A Secret is the first in a series set in a world my editor describes as ‘fifteen-degrees off our own’ – a place where the security state looms large, and the rule of law is optional. Its protagonist is an investigator named Myles, an agent of Standard Division, the most-feared element of his country’s security apparatus. Myles is dispatched to look into a murder at the remote headquarters of Ondstrand Biologic, a biotech firm. The set-up is that of a classic ‘country-house’ mystery, but this mystery has a modern twist.” .
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amoung crime fiction’s most respected authors
PETER IS NOW AMONG CRIME FICTION’S MOST
RESPECTED AUTHORS, and he and his wife, Alice Wang, a high-powered but low-key Managing Director at JP Morgan Chase, split their time between New York City and a tranquil hilltop property in Pound Ridge.
Given his success, being a novelist may seem like Peter’s obvious calling, but his path was anything but a straight line. Born in New York City to parents who were both doctors, he and his older sister (their much younger brother would not come along for another 14 years) spent their early lives on Long Island and in Forest Hills. He recalls, “My parents were physicians of a sort for whom the work was nearly a religious calling. They were loving and well-intentioned, but things like child-rearing and homemaking came a distant second to the demands of the job. As a result, there was always a degree of chaos in my childhood, which was punctuated by a couple of coast-to-coast moves and a stint in military school. Maybe a bit of chaos is good for making writers.”
The first of the cross-country moves came just after Spiegelman finished 3rd grade, when his family headed west, to Beverly Hills. The next followed just three years later, when his parents decided – on very short notice – to return to New York City. “It was pretty typical of them. They got off the plane at JFK with two school-age kids in tow, no place to live and no jobs, but with the confidence, I suppose, that things would work out. Which, somehow, they did.” As Peter describes it, “It was yet another spur-of-themoment scramble, but they moved us to Garrison, New York. And only after they’d decided on Garrison did they discover that the local school system was, at that time, pretty bad. Suddenly they had to figure out where their kids would go to school. My sister had always been an excellent, well-behaved student, so plenty of private schools were happy to have her. But I’d been very disruptive out in California, not to mention truant, and schools were less enthusiastic about taking on someone like me. Which is how I ended up at The New York Military Academy for a year.” While Spiegelman excelled academically there, his memories of the place are not fond. “Lots of hazing – institutionalized and otherwise. Lots of violence. Think ‘Lord of the Flies’ with spit-shined shoes.”
He has fonder recollections of his next school: a small, pre-prep boarding school in Garrison, New York called The Malcolm Gordon School. Though he was there for just a year, he describes it as a watershed experience. “It was a ‘sound mind in a sound body’ sort of place – very sporty, but very demanding academically. I learned to play squash there, to play soccer and hockey, and, most importantly for me, there was a huge emphasis on writing. I worked on the school paper, contributed articles and started writing poetry. I didn’t know it at the time, but that was life changing.” His academic journey continued at The Millbrook School, a boarding school in Dutchess County horse country. “The school was a very different place then,” Spiegelman observes. “Very homogenous, very ‘waspy’ – not exactly diverse. But it had its pluses and for me it was that the school placed a premium on writing. I worked as an editor on the school paper and continued my own creative writing.” After Millbrook, and after a false-start at Trinity College, in Hartford, which Spiegelman found “much too much like prep school,” he matriculated at Vassar College, where he flourished. “It was everything I thought college would be: a diverse student body, a vital, almost urgent intellectual life, great friends, passionate debate, passion generally. My passion found focus in Vassar’s exacting English department, and particularly in its creative writing classes. I arrived there under the impression that I was a good writer, but I was soon disabused of that notion. I learned rigor there: that being glib or facile is not the same as writing well, and that discipline is the ally of talent, not its adversary. It’s where I internalized the truth that clear writing is clear thinking,
AND WHERE I REALLY CAME TO THINK OF MYSELF AS A
writer.”
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Spiegelman majored in English at Vassar, but there were other influences on his undergraduate studies – including family pressure: his doctor parents expected him to follow in their footsteps and apply to medical school. “I was an indifferent pre-med at best,” Spiegelman recalls. “It wasn’t lack of interest – there’s definitely an engineering part of my brain, and I have no problem with math or science. But for me, as the child of two doctors, I think the notion of a career in medicine came with a lot of psychological baggage. That said, I’m deeply grateful for that aspect of my education, as my coursework in math, physics and computer science laid a foundation for the first 20 years of my professional life.” As graduation approached, Spiegelman considered attending an MFA program. He’d won the Beatrice Daw Brown poetry prize at Vassar, and received much encouragement from professors to go the grad school route. But conflicts with his parents grew when he told them he didn’t intend to pursue medical school. “That was a rough period,” he recalls. “Basically their message was ‘If you’re not going to medical school, you’re on your own’. I took them at their word and packed my bags.” At that juncture, Spiegelman’s ‘long and winding road’ led him to Washington, D.C., and a friend’s sofa, from which he launched a job search. “I had nothing close to a plan, and only a vague notion of trying to find something writing-adjacent, maybe working on a publication of some sort. But there weren’t a lot of those openings in the job market back then, and the few available went to folks who were faster typists and better proofreaders than I was. It was a sobering experience.”
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"I always knew that I would write crime fiction"
Peter found work eventually at a small consulting firm on K St., initially as a research assistant, at a time when that meant actually going to a library and plowing through books and periodicals. He found it stultifying. Fortunately for him, there was another division of his firm engaged in something more interesting to him. “They developed and maintained large databases under contracts with government agencies, and used that data in statistical analyses to support research projects for the agencies. They needed programmers and, amazingly enough, that was a skill I actually had. My undergraduate work at Vassar had given me a knowledge of the now nearly defunct programming languages FORTRAN, COBOL and APL, and while my employers weren’t using any of those to develop software, I made the pitch that he was a quick study and could do the work. My employers were willing to give me a chance. They dropped some sample programs on my desk late one afternoon, along with some manuals and the specs for a new program that they needed the following morning. Then they wished me luck. It was an all-nighter, but by morning I had something that ran.” It was also the beginning of what would blossom into a successful, nearly twodecades long career in software development and fintech. After two years in DC, and then a move to NYC for another opportunity as a partner in a start-up that fizzled, Peter joined JP Morgan. He enjoyed the intellectual and technical challenges of building systems for trading businesses, and learned much from navigating a global firm. Notably, Peter met Alice Wang on his first day at Morgan - and years later they wed. “She’s the smartest person I’ve ever met, and the most creative. I thought so when we first met, and thirty-five years later I still think that. And in that time I’ve also learned that, as smart as she is, she is equally as compassionate, generous, tough and good-humored.” Spiegelman thrived at Morgan, departing in 1994 as a Vice President, to become a partner in The Frustum Group, a young fintech company that had brought a new product to market. It was a fortuitous move. “We had the right product at the right time,” Spiegelman says. “We basically sold a ‘bank in a box’ software that could support the full array of front, middle and back-office processing for a huge variety of treasury and capital markets instruments. It was easily customizable, secure, robust, and it could integrate seamlessly with a firm’s existing systems. And it ran on a client-server platform at a time when firms were eager to ditch their old mainframes. The firm quickly became the leader in its market, with a
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global client-base of banks, brokerages and central banks. It was a tremendously exciting time,” Spiegelman recalls.
Spiegelman’s latest novel, - is dedicated to Mehta. Reflecting on twenty years as a writer, Spiegelman says: “I’m very lucky. I get to do this thing that I love, that I’d do even if no one paid me to do it. And there are people out there who grant me the privilege of their precious time – who let me be a voice in their heads for a few hours while they read what I’ve written. I’m keenly aware that there’s a lot of competition for people’s leisure time – other books, streaming video, films, games, social media, etc., and I’m incredibly grateful to people who decide to spend some of their time, not to mention their money, on my books. I’m not particularly interested in fame as an end unto itself, but I still get a kick out of seeing my books in bookstores, and few things are more thrilling to me – even twenty years in – than meeting my readers. I’m always struck by the diversity of the audience, and the different story elements they respond to.”
But despite all the demands of his career in fintech, Spiegelman never left his identity as a writer behind. “It was on the back-burner,” he says, “but it was always there. I still wrote poetry, which is where I began as a writer, and I wrote fragments of prose that I thought, one day, might turn into a story. And I think I always had a writer’s turn of mind. Part of which is being interested in people and being a bit voyeuristic too – watching people, paying attention to how they speak, how they treat other people, how they behave under stress. Whether in a restaurant or on a plane or in a business meeting – the overheard scrap of conversation or the odd mannerism always stayed with me, and got me wondering about who this or that person was, what their backstory might be. As it happened, trading floors were a great place to observe human behavior. I definitely saw a lot of people under a lot of stress, and often in the grips of some of the most toxic human impulses – fear, anger, arrogance, greed.”
On his writing process and work habits, Spiegelman explains, “Character and setting are always the drivers of my stories–they’re where everything begins. Once I have a good grasp on those, I do an outline, though my finished product always departs from those. For me the outline functions as more of a security blanket–it gives me comfort that I have a path through the book, even if the path I end up taking is not the one on the outline. I write nearly every day, for at least a couple of hours. Then I edit and plan the next day’s work. My best editorial tool is to read my work aloud. It probably springs from my roots in poetry, but it’s the surest way for me to tell if things like tone, atmosphere and pacing are working well. Another important part of writing productivity, for me, is physical activity. The writing goes better when I’ve gone for a run. If I get two pages done, it’s a good day.”
In late 1996, Spiegelman and his partners sold their company to a U.K. firm, staying on for a period of time to manage the business and integrate it with its new parent. By late 2000, that work was largely done. At that point, Peter and his wife were living in Ridgefield, Connecticut, raising two young sons, and he realized that – at last – he had the opportunity to try his hand at writing professionally. “I’d thought about it for a long while and knew it was time. I also knew that I would write crime fiction. It’s a genre I’ve always loved and it’s been a mainstay of my own literary diet. The Maltese Falcon was one of the first ‘grown up’ books I remember reading, back in eighth grade. I had developed a protagonist, had a setting and a plot in mind, and I’d started working on the story at night and on week-ends, while I was still in the software business. Things moved quickly after that. By the end of 2001, I’d finished a draft of my first novel, Black Maps. By the Spring of 2002, I’d found an agent, and by the Summer I had a multibook deal with Alfred A. Knopf – who has been my U.S. publisher ever since. I was lucky to have Sonny Mehta, the long-time head of Knopf and a legend in publishing, as my editor until his passing in late 2019, and I’m beyond fortunate to work with Knopf,” Spiegelman acknowledges. “They have been fantastic – incredibly supportive over the past nearly twenty years, and my team there is smart, talented and tireless. And my relationship with Sonny was very important to me – I considered him a friend and a mentor, and his loss was really tough.”
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About his own reading diet, Spiegelman says, “It’s pretty wide-ranging: poetry, short fiction, personal essays, non-fiction–often on topics of science, technology, politics or history. In genre, I read science fiction, and of course crime fiction and thrillers. Authors I return to again and again, and in no particular order) include Elmore Leonard, Larry Block, John LeCarre, Alan Furst, PD James and Joan Didion. And concerning the business of writing, Spiegelman comments, “It’s definitely a tough business. There are lots of books out there for people to choose from, not to mention other forms of entertainment, and getting a book on someone’s radar is always a challenge. I’m definitely better at the writing than I am at the marketing part of the business!” J U LY / A U G U S T
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EXCERPT:
CHAPTER ONE
The great house was behind stone pillars and iron gates, down a brick drive bordered with pollarded trees and boxwoods still in burlap, and with brown lawns rolling away. The drive ran for half a mile and rose steeply at the end, to where the house loomed above the sea.
Saturday Evening
The road was long and secret: a tunnel of trees that leaned overhead and wept like mourners in the wind. It ran beneath iron skies, past vacant fields and the lichen-crusted stones of ragged walls. It ran past a farmhouse, dark and empty, and through a stone village with few lit windows and no signs that named it. It ran on then towards the coast, and even in the hermetic car I smelled salt and rotting seaweed. My driver had excellent posture, a glossy brown ponytail, and perfect silence. I trusted that she knew our destination—what else could I do?— though she had shared nothing about it with me, instead maintaining a near-statuary stillness as she drove. Nor had I any idea of why I’d been dispatched. To examine, to investigate, to discover, to take a confession, to punish, or simply to bear witness? I was authorized to do all of these, though I wondered lately about my qualifications for any of them. If nostalgia was called for perhaps, or distraction, equivocation, worry, longing, or bone weariness, then I might be useful. But in all these years, my masters had never sought such things from me, and I didn’t think this Saturday in March would be the first time. The rear seat was deep and enveloping, the doors were distant, and the windows were tinted. Between the tidal sway of the car’s suspension and the thrum of pavement rolling away, I lapsed into a sort of fugue. It was not quite sleep, yet not quite dreamless—an unmooring, a drifting, and as I drifted, I crossed a frontier. There was no razor wire or striped barricade, no skeptical guards or surly dogs, no customs shed for stammered declarations, but a border nonetheless. When I came around, on the far side, it was to another world.
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It was an ancient pile of ginger-colored stone, with a massive central section and two long wings that reached towards me. Scrolled and fluted stonework framed dark windows, and stone birds brooded beneath the eaves of a copper roof. The wings embraced a brick forecourt with a fountain in the middle, in gray stone that had fared poorly in the salt air. Its figures were blurred and blunted, and in the failing light I couldn’t tell if the squat shapes spouting water were fish or frogs or demons, or if the male form they aimed at was bearing the world or heaving against a boulder. In either case, a thankless job. The car swept around the court and stopped beneath a columned porte cochere. The driver remained still and mute behind the wheel but unlocked the rear doors. I’d barely wrestled my bag and briefcase to the bricks when she drove off again. The evening air was cold and briny, and a swirling wind raised funnels of stone dust and dry leaves. Beneath the lapping of the fountain and the sound of the receding car I could hear the heavy, restless shift of the sea. Lights came on in the porte cochere, and one of the massive double doors swung back. A young woman stood there, small in the yawning doorway. She was slender and pale, in black boots, a gray skirt, and a black jacket with a mandarin collar. Her straight blond hair was parted in the middle and bound in a braid that hung over her left shoulder like the business end of a riding crop. Her white hands curled into fists, her lips made a skeptical line, and her large gray eyes narrowed. She looked at me for a long time—my battered luggage, my dark suit and coat, creased from the journey, my creased face and dark hair, tangled by the wind—before she spoke. “You’re from Security?” she asked. Her speech was precise, her voice low and controlled, as if it was perilous to give it rein. “Yes,” I said. “The Division of Security Standards—Standard Division.” “You have identification?” I drew ID from a breast pocket and handed her the case. She flipped it open, studied it, studied me, and flipped it shut. “Agent Myles,” she said, and returned my ID. “ ‘Myles’ will do.”
To an uncertain season, neither winter nor spring, under dark, colliding skies—the clouds swollen and malign, obedient to no known physics. To a fading sun pinned wrong in the heavens, casting shadows too long, too dark, and irreconcilable with their antecedent objects. To birds hurtling wildly—careening, tumbling, shedding feathers like confetti, as if they’d been shot from a circus cannon. It was as if the planet had been knocked from its axis, jarred fifteen degrees from true—and not just the planet.
“Why is it ‘Standard Division’? Why don’t you call it ‘Standards Division’?”
The city, so many miles behind me, seemed even more distant now—a dying ember in my memory. My life there, even my Saturday morning, seemed suddenly remote and abstract—barely a pantomime. The people on my street and in the metro, in the shops and cafés, were like figures in an ancient film—silent, stiff-limbed silhouettes, thinner than smoke. The grocer, the sour man at the newsstand, my garrulous neighbor—it seemed any breeze could take them all into this alien sky. I might’ve been away from the city for minutes or hours or for a year or more—I had no idea, or any notion of what I’d find when I returned. If I returned. I shuddered and rubbed my eyes, but the feelings of dislocation, strangeness, and dread persisted. It was almost dark when we arrived.
“The cafeteria is this way,” she said.
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I looked at her and shrugged. “Even we cannot control how the vernacular develops.” The woman shook her head. “We expected you earlier.” “It’s a long drive.”
“There’s no need, I’m not hungry.” She tilted her head at me as if I’d spoken in tongues. “The cafeteria is where we found the body,” she said, and beckoned me on.
Excerpted from A SECRET ABOUT A SECRET by Peter Spiegelman. Copyright © 2022 by Peter Spiegelman. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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