Who Can Turn the World on with a Smile?

TV Icon Mary Tyler Moore Dead At 80
"We’ll never forget the woman who “turned the world on with her smile.”
Moore, who was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1936 and grew up in Los Angeles, rose to international fame starring on the 1960s sitcom “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” She later starred on the beloved 1970s sitcom “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” which is one of the first shows to feature a never-married, working woman as its central character. Moore played single, 30-year-old TV news producer Mary Richards.

 The real-life Mary commanded just as much respect. Her namesake show came to fruition in 1970, when she and her former husband Grant Tinker co-founded production company MTM Enterprises and successfully pitched the show to CBS. In its seven-season run, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” held the record for most Emmys won ― 29 ― until “Frasier” broke it in 2002. Huffington Post

PILGRIM PIPELINES ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING

Come to an organizational meeting on Tuesday, January 24, 2017 at 6:30 pm at First United Methodist Church, 1 Gilligan Road, East Greenbush to learn about the proposed Pilgrim Pipeline transporting fracked oil and gas through our area.

Stephen Shafer of Citizens Against Pilgrim Pipelines (CAPP) will lead of team of knowledgeable activists in explaining the proposal and how we can organize to stop it.
The meeting is sponsored by Stop NY Fracked Gas Pipeline. Contact Ruth Foster, Board member of Stop NY Fracked Gas Pipeline, at: rmfoster@nycap.rr.com or call 518-588-0187.

Robert Connors, co-founder
Stop NY Fracked Gas Pipeline
https://www.stopnypipeline.org
https://www.facebook.com/stopnyfrackedgaspipeline

Schodack Chief says goodbye

Peter "piped out" after 45 years

Bernhard (Bernie) Peter led the agency for 15 years

Members from several town agencies were on hand to honor Chief Bernhard Peter with a traditional piping out ceremony Friday afternoon. Peter is retiring after 45 combined years on the force.

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Debbie Reynolds, America's Sweetheart.

1950s film star, Dies at 84

 Fisher watching  her mom on stage

By ANITA GATESNYTimes

Her death was confirmed by her son, Todd Fisher, according to her agent, Tom Markley of the Metropolitan Talent Agency. Ms. Reynolds was taken to a Los Angeles hospital on Wednesday afternoon. Mr. Fisher told the television station ABC 7 Los Angeles that she had suffered a stroke.

According to TMZ, she had been discussing funeral plans for Ms. Fisher, who died on Tuesday after having a heart attack during a flight to Los Angeles last Friday.

Carrie Fisher, Princess Leia in 'Star Wars,' Dead at 60
Rolling Stone
"Thank you to everyone who has embraced the gifts and talents of my beloved and amazing daughter," Fisher's mother, actress Debbie Reynolds, wrote on Facebook. "I am grateful for your  thoughts and prayers that are now guiding her to her next stop."

Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the trilogy, tweeted a brief, but poignant, message. "no words #Devastated"

SISP is for the birds.

A Beginner’s Christmas Bird Count
Saturday, December 17, 2016 09:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Schodack Island State Park

(518) 732-0187

Join bird experts from the Audubon Society of the Capital Region for a family-friendly introduction to the National Audubon Society's annual Christmas Bird Count. On this outdoor foray, beginning birders will learn all about the Count's history, methodology and contribution to conservation science. Schodack Island State Park is well positioned for open-water winter bird specialties such as Bald Eagle and Great Black Backed Gull, large and common residents which even novices can easily identify. Oh, you'll learn plenty of cool dickey-birds, too! Afterwards, field parties will re-group at the pavilion to compare notes and enjoy complimentary hot chocolate and coffee. 

Julie Madsen

Please call the Park Office at 518-732-0187 by c.o.b. December 14 to register or for more information. In case of inclement weather, this program may be cancelled. If in doubt, please call the Park office or consult www.capitalregionaudubon.org. The Schodack park property falls within Audubon's Albany County Count circle, which Count teams will more formally census on Sunday, December 18.

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Columbia Grad Enters STEM Field

Austin Fuller ’14 is one of the first students to go through Columbia High School’s STEM program. As a senior, he took Applied Engineering and Modern Materials with Career and Technical Education teacher Steve Ford.

“It was cool,” Mr. Fuller said. “We’d make different materials and test them. It was definitely different from any other class I had taken there.”

John Glenn, Dies at 95

To the America of the 1960s, Mr. Glenn was a clean-cut, good-natured, well-grounded Midwesterner, raised in Presbyterian rectitude, nurtured in patriotism and tested in war, who stepped forward to risk the unknown and succeeded spectacularly, lifting his country’s morale and restoring its self-confidence.

Mr. Glenn was reluctant to talk about himself as a hero. “I figure I’m the same person who grew up in New Concord, Ohio, and went off through the years to participate in a lot of events of importance,” he said in an interview years later. “What got a lot of attention, I think, was the tenuous times we thought we were living in back in the Cold War. I don’t think it was about me. All this would have happened to anyone who happened to be selected for that flight.”

Mr. Glenn did not return to space for a long time. [President]Kennedy thought him too valuable as a hero to risk losing in an accident. So Mr. Glenn resigned from the astronaut corps in 1964, became an executive in private industry and entered politics, serving four full terms as a Democratic senator from Ohio and in 1984 running unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Mr. Glenn began his journey to fame in World War II. In 1939, he enrolled at Muskingum College in his hometown to study chemistry, but he took flying lessons on the side. Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, he signed up for the Naval Aviation cadet program and after pilot training opted to join the Marines. As a fighter pilot, he flew 59 combat missions in the Pacific, earning two Distinguished Flying Crosses and other decorations.

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