Lookin

Rob Basch: Champion of Long Island City parks Rob Basch is not your average volunteer. While many might shy away from the idea of picking up trash for a living, Basch embraces it wholeheartedly. As the president of the Hunters Point Park Conservancy in Long Island City, he dedicates his days to nurturing the park and transforming it into a haven for the Queens community.
With picturesque views of Manhattan and Brooklyn, Hunters Point Park South holds a special place in the hearts of locals. Basch recognizes the importance of maintaining its beauty.
“We hate litter, but someone has to get down and pick it up."

He has served in his role since 2014, ensuring his presence is felt in the park daily. Beyond his efforts in park maintenance, he spearheads fundraising initiatives to support summer programming. From outdoor movie nights to waterfront 5k runs, Basch strives to offer enriching experiences that bring the community together.
When he is not taking care of the park or holding events, he is offering environmental education to K-12 students at the newly-opened Queens Landing Boathouse and Environmental Center. With lessons on topics ranging from flood mitigation to boating, he teaches students about the beauty of taking care of nature. 
“Hopefully a kindergartner or first grader can come here and learn something and be motivated,” Basch said. “In ten years, they’ll know how to save the planet.” 

wouldn't that be a hep cat?
 

A Manhattan townhouse once owned by Frank Sinatra just got listed.  The family who bought it from Sinatra has a fascinating story.  Photos look beautiful, but at just 16 feet wide, sounds like tight quarters.

The Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirmed are working to preserve a care model, rooted in love, for a growing older adult population. 
Since 1971, Ozanam Hall Nursing Home in Bayside has sponsored the Carmelite Sisters congregation to provide skilled, well-rounded care to seniors of all faiths through a traditional Catholic healthcare model. It is currently home to over 350 senior residents receiving around-the-clock care in their final years. 
Among the hundreds of employees are fifteen nuns, some visiting from other countries, who reside on the top floor. While their professional occupations include registered nurses, social workers and administrators, they are united by their pledge of poverty and service to others. Those working in the system say that their presence is a guiding force for the residents going through the physical and mental challenges of aging. 
The Carmelite System is currently exploring routes to preserve the footprint of the Catholic Church and grow the Catholic model of healthcare. In the process, they hope to continue serving people in need while adhering to their motto: “The difference is love.”
“We continue to carry on the values and charisms of the Carmelite sisters to ensure that we really have a focus on human dignity, especially as people age,” said Patrica K. Gathers, President and CEO of The Carmelite System. She began working in Catholic healthcare in 2001, and was inspired to become a Mercy Associate. 
She says that one key difference between Carmelite nursing homes and others is an emphasis on comprehensive palliative care measures to address the spiritual and emotional pain that comes up towards the end of one’s life. The goal is to allow the long-term residents to lead a dignified life as they become infirm, which includes offering private rooms, a range of daily activities for engagement, and spiritual care for people of all faiths. 
The Carmelite Sisters congregation was founded in 1929 by Mother Angeline McCrory, who also wanted to establish a care model for the middle class. She previously served as a superior of the Little Sisters of the Poor in the Bronx but was moved by the need to serve elderly people of all socioeconomic classes. 
Today, the Carmelite congregation is uniquely positioned as the only post-acute Catholic-sponsored entity in the country. It offers nursing homes and assisted living without being tied to a hospital system, which has a very different business model. The congregation is found in seven states with 13 entities, including one in Ireland.
“We want the residents to make sure that they understand that we are in their home, and we’re here to serve them,” said Gathers, giving an example of, “I don’t say I’m the CEO, I serve in the capacity of the CEO, I’m here to serve.”
While the number of nuns is dwindling—only 115 sisters remain in the Carmelite congregation according to leaders—the quality of care they deliver to patients and fellow staff members remains unwavering. The decline in numbers can be attributed to more opportunities for women to make an impact today than there were decades ago.
A 2014 report from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate found that only 1% of nuns today are under 40 and the average age of a sister is 80 years old. And since 1965 there has been a 76 percent drop in sisters around the country with less than a thousand anticipated to be left by 2042. 
“We all have a method of catering to others and my method is be available, be public and get the work done,” said Sister Philip Ann, Administrator at Ozanam Hall. “But everybody tries to give the best care they can.”
Sister Philip arrived in Queens in 2015 after working from locations in Boston, Cincinnati, Columbus and other boroughs in the city over the years. Originally from Ireland, she took a vow of poverty at 22 and has since worked in the Carmelite System in various roles, including registered nurse and director of nurses. 
“We all inspire each other,” she said about her current role in Ozanam Hall. “One person’s loving attention for a resident inspires compassion for another person. When one of us is having a bad day, another pulls them out of it.”
During the early days of the pandemic, when nursing homes had significantly high rates of infection and death, the sisters ramped up their efforts. Despite their ages and proximity putting them at a heightened risk, they continued their roles and filled in the gaps created by a shrinking staff. 
Before the pandemic government assistance came in, the St. Patrick’s Home in the Bronx was at risk of closing due to a significant decrease in the census. In an effort to save it, the Carmelite Sisters congregation gave $9 million of their own funds to keep the facility from shuttering.
“They took of their own resources, their own future pension money to take care of their congregation, and they invested it to ensure that our homes were able to survive during the pandemic,” Gathers recalled. “I think that that’s a beautiful thing.”
Gathers says it’s not the first time the nuns have used ingenuity and pooled resources to serve others. The history of the Carmelite Sisters is steeped with similar stories of women’s innovation and selflessness. This congregation was born during a period when the sisters were given male names so that they would be taken more seriously in a male-dominated society.
Gathers says that her goal now is to maintain a sound financial and business model so that the sisters do not need to underwrite their ministry in the future, even if their compassionate natures incline them to. She hopes that the Catholic business model remains viable and continues to survive amid the changes in the modern world. 
“This has been a women-led business since 1929 when it was unheard of. They really have made a material impact across this country that people don’t even necessarily understand,” said Gathers. “They pulled things together, and they just did it on faith, and a lot of prayers and a lot of grit not asking for anything in return. And that’s why I’m personally committed to trying to make sure that these assets are preserved.”
‘Love is the difference’: Carmelite Sisters work to preserve Catholic care model for aging residents  – QNS
QNS.COM The Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirmed are working to preserve a care model, rooted in love, for a...

Contact restored.
That was the message relieved NASA officials shared after the agency regained full contact with the Voyager 1 space probe, the most distant human-made object in the universe, scientists have announced.
For the first time since November, the spacecraft is returning usable data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems, NASA said in a news release Monday.
The 46-year-old pioneering probe, now 15.1 billion miles from Earth, has continually defied expectations for its life span as it ventures farther into the uncharted territory of the cosmos.
It wasn't as easy as hitting Control-Alt-Delete, but top experts at NASA and CalTech were able to fix the balky, ancient computer on board the probe that was causing the communication breakdown – at least for now.
A computer problem aboard Voyager 1 on Nov. 14, 2023, corrupted the stream of science and engineering data the craft sent to Earth, making it unreadable.
Although the radio signal from the spacecraft had never ceased its connection to ground control operators on Earth, that signal had not carried any usable data since November, NASA said. After some serious sleuthing to fix the onboard computer, that changed on April 20, when NASA finally received usable data.
In interstellar space
The probe and its twin, Voyager 2, are the only spacecraft to ever fly in interstellar space (the space between the stars).
Voyager 2 continues to operate normally, NASA reports. Launched more than 46 years ago, the twin spacecraft are standouts on two fronts: they've operated the longest and traveled the farthest of any spacecraft ever.
Before the start of their interstellar exploration, both probes flew by Saturn and Jupiter, and Voyager 2 flew by Uranus and Neptune.
They were designed to last five years but have become the longest-operating spacecraft in history. Both carry gold-plated copper discs containing sounds and images from Earth, content that was chosen by a team headed by celebrity astronomer Carl Sagan.
For perspective, it was the summer of 1977 when the Voyager probes left Earth. "Star Wars" was No. 1 at the box office, Jimmy Carter was in the first year of his presidency, and Elvis Presley had just died.
https://www.aol.com/contact-restored-nasa-voyager-1-192332625.html
 

When I’m in Europe, as I am now, I usually walk at least 8 miles a day, often more. I really do walk fast, especially in the morning, unless I spot a hot young German man! Then I slow down a bit.
Appreciate the responses!

Same here, and also with what I'm wearing.  Leather soles or sandals, I move at a pretty good clip.   
But I find it very difficult to mince in sneakers.  

OMG!! So, sneakers are straight-people shoes??

Same here, and also with what I'm wearing.  Leather soles or sandals, I move at a pretty good clip.   
But I find it very difficult to mince in sneakers.  

Same here, and also with what I'm wearing.  Leather soles or sandals, I move at a pretty good clip.   
But I find it very difficult to mince in sneakers.  

Same here, and also with what I'm wearing.  Leather soles or sandals, I move at a pretty good clip.   
But I find it very difficult to mince in sneakers.  

I walk much faster than my husband, who is 7 years older than I am, but then I have always walked faster than he did, even fifty years ago. It could be just because I have longer legs than he does.
Yesterday I was playing tennis for the first time with a young woman in her 20s; when I happened to mention my age, she said, "But you're older than my grandfather, and he couldn't possibly keep up with you!!" If I had read this thread, I suppose I could have just explained, "But I'm gay."

My gait varies depending on the neighborhood and the time of day.

I realized I liked guys during my first year at summer camp.  When I left for the Poconos, I had no older brothers.  If this theory is correct, the house should have been crawling with them by the time I got back.  But, no, it was still just my sisters and me.  

I realized I liked guys during my first year at summer camp.  When I left for the Poconos, I had no older brothers.  If this theory is correct, the house should have been crawling with them by the time I got back.  But, no, it was still just my sisters and me.  

I realized I liked guys during my first year at summer camp.  When I left for the Poconos, I had no older brothers.  If this theory is correct, the house should have been crawling with them by the time I got back.  But, no, it was still just my sisters and me.  

I realized I liked guys during my first year at summer camp.  When I left for the Poconos, I had no older brothers.  If this theory is correct, the house should have been crawling with them by the time I got back.  But, no, it was still just my sisters and me.  

I realized I liked guys during my first year at summer camp.  When I left for the Poconos, I had no older brothers.  If this theory is correct, the house should have been crawling with them by the time I got back.  But, no, it was still just my sisters and me.  

It's nice to have a lifestyle that is absolutely fabulous.

Of interest to me also: I was an only child, and my parents were 39/37 when I was born.

I am the oldest with two great parents. Even though I was the oldest my parents were older than average (36/40) when I was born.  Interesting to know if that correlation has been studied. 

My spouse is the oldest of four brothers; he and the next oldest are both gay. The two younger brothers are the straight ones. I always found it interesting that the two older brothers had a much stronger physical resemblance to one another than to the younger brothers, while the two younger brothers strongly resembled one another. A stranger seeing a photo of the four of them together as adults is usually surprised that they are all children of the same parents. The older two look more like their mother (small and slender), while the younger two look like their father (big football linemen).

As a gay only child, I just assumed it was a case of great good luck.