In Sight

Morgan Crosby, 21, and her two children Tyler Hines, 21 months, and Amena Hines, 1, spend a quiet morning in their new home.   Morgan is one of the young women participating in the Partnering Success program through the Malta House.

Kathleen O’Rourke/The Advocate

7/23/09

Advocate reporter John Nickerson and I spent some time yesterday with Morgan Crosby and her two young children.  Morgan, a 21-year-old single mom hoping to make it on her own, seemed to have a pretty good grasp on the challenges that lie ahead.  As I tried to stay as unobtrusive as possible, Tyler was determined to be in front of my camera at all times.  What struck me about this little boy was his obsession with looking at his picture on the back of my camera.  I recently dragged out my old Nikon film camera and watched the confusion on one of my young nephew’s face as he tried to understand why there was no image to view on the back.  “I want to see it, I want to see it,” he pleaded.  It reminded me of another assignment where a group of campers toured an apple orchard.  In the corner was an old record player spinning a Frank Sinatra vinyl record, something most of these kids had never seen.  Forget the apple picking, cider mill or baking pies – the children on that field trip stayed glued to the spinning disc with that little needle for the rest of the afternoon.  It left me wondering where all the 8-tracks and Walkmans are now.

Kathleen O’Rourke/The Advocate

ABOVE: The grounds crew work on a sand trap on the new 11th hole at Sterling Farms Golf Course.  The course has undergone a multi-million dollar renovation and the latest changes include a complete redesign of holes #11 and #12.

7/16/09

It had been quite a while since I ventured up to Sterling Farms Golf Course and it was long overdue.  So I was happy to get this assignment from our sports department on the renovations at the club.   The course was a buzz of activity with foursomes on every hole, golfers on the putting green perfecting their short game, a group of campers gathered on the driving range,  young tennis players dressed in white volleying on the newly resurfaced courts and cast and crew preparing for Shakespeare on The Green.  But amid all this summer activity I actually heard a man say “Football season is just a few months away.”  So before we find ourselves gathered on the sidelines in 30 degree weather, get up to Sterling Farms and enjoy.

Kathleen O’Rourke/The Advocate

Paul Nanos, co-owner of Engel’s Furs, works on the sewing machine in his Bedford Street store.

Paul and his brother Denis tell their story in The Advocate’s new series “In Their Own Words”

VIEW AUDIO SLIDESHOW: HERE

ABOVE: Tourists sit in beach chairs in one of the new pedestrian zones on Broadway near Times Square.

6/27/2009

I made this photograph while on a freelance assignment last week at NASDAQ for Marine Money. It was the first time I was in Times Square since portions of Broadway were shut down to vehicular traffic.

There was an interesting profile of Janette Sadik-Khan, the city’s Transportation commissioner, in New York Magazine recently, which explains the project in greater detail. It’s worth a look.

–CP

6/27/09

Kathleen O’Rourke/The Advocate

Swimmers enter the water at Greenwich Point for the start of the “3rd Annual Swim Across America” event to benefit the Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy.   In 2008, the Greenwich / Stamford swim raised over $200,000 for the cause.  This year, according to the “Swim Across America” website,  an anonymous “angel” donor underwrote the costs of the event. Therefore, 100% of the money raised by the Greenwich / Stamford swim will go directly to ACGT.

I arrived early for this event anticipating a line of cars waiting to enter Greenwich Point.  But swimmers and spectators were brought by bus from the finish line so I was virtually the only person on the beach at 7:20am.  The buses arrived shortly thereafter and the beach was bombarded with swimmers in black wetsuits and bright yellow caps.  When the sun hit just right they looked like creatures from the black lagoon entering the water.   I lost count at 100 swimmers but as they pulled away from the beach the term “making waves” to fight cancer became a reality.

6/21/2009

NOTE: This is the first in a series of audio slideshows we are calling “In Their Own Words” featuring people in our community with interesting stories and lives. Look for Kate King’s story in Monday’s Advocate and check back for more profiles in the future.

Father George Poulos retired today after serving 53 years as a Greek Orthodox priest at Church of the Archangels in Stamford, one of two Greek churches in this city.

Standing on the altar with Archbishop Demetrios, Poulos first cracked a joke about the Archbishop’s long-windedness, then paraphrased Gen. Douglas MacArthur, saying “old priests never die, they just fade away.”

–CP

6/19/09

Kathleen O’Rourke/The Advocate

A group of Stamford High School seniors gather in the student parking lot after receiving their caps and gowns for Monday’s commencement ceremony.  Monday is proving to be a busy day for the city’s graduates with AITE’s ceremony at 1:00pm, Westhill High School at 4:00pm and Stamford High School at 6:00pm.

ABOVE: Car guys discuss the authenticity of paint schemes on a 1970 Dodge Dart in the Stop & Shop parking lot on West Main St.

6/17/2009

SEEN IN STAMFORD: I was heading over to Stop & Shop to pick up a couple of things I forgot to get at Shoprite on the way home from work and saw a few classic American cars lined up in the parking lot.

The Stamford ‘Vette and Classic car club meets Wednesdays at 6 in the grocery stores parking lot, with up to 50 members from NY and CT showing their classic rides.

This particular Dart is not your grandma’s grocery getter, with a Mopar 400 under the hood.

FOR THE RECORD: That’s 248 cubic inches more than my Subaru.

–CP