Apr 15, 2010
Save Stonybrook Southampton ( update)
The battle to keep Stonybrook Southampton’s campus open continues with new fronts being opened daily. The latest coup is that Alec Baldwin, the actor and local resident, stepped into the fray and slammed the closure in Newsday ( http://bit.ly/9KVukd ). Other celebrity friends of the campaign, possibly including RFK Jr., are also being lined up. There will be a benefit at Stephen Talkhouse club in... read more
Apr 12, 2010
Bail out colleges – not banks ! Save Stonybrook Southampton !
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/savesbs/ Last week it was announced that as part of its cost cutting plans Stonybrook University is to close its Southampton L.I campus. The news came like a bolt out of the blue, leaving students, staff and the local community shocked and upset. I don’t directly have a dog in this fight but my partner, Heather Dune Macadam, is a professor at the campus. She now... read more
Apr 2, 2010
Happy Easter
I am back in England for three weeks. It’s terrible weather ( as usual): rain, snow, wind, with the occasional blast of bright sun. I have a heavy sweater on and an open fire in the grate. The river outside my door is a swollen vein of mango-coloured water. It’s a hard time to be born for the lambs, struggling to their feet in the fields. I live on the English-Welsh border, smack under the... read more
Mar 22, 2010
Happy Birthday, Heather ( & Luce Acres)
On Saturday night we celebrated the 50th. birthday of a wonderfully talented writer, Heather Dune Macadam, author of one of the classic accounts of Auschwitz, Rena’s Promise, and my partner. There were about 30 of us at Indian Cove restaurant here in Hampton Bays, we had the most perfect evening, warm enough to stand outside on the deck and look at the sunset ( and the seals). Many of Heather’s... read more
Mar 2, 2010
Open Road Media/ Digital Publishing
I’m getting excited about my meeting, on Thursday, with Jane Friedman, the CEO of Open Road Media. Jane is the ” Sybil ” of the digital publishing revolution, someone who really ” gets ” the extraordinary potential of the new e-book medium. Hopefully, we will find plenty of common ground and exciting projects to develop together. Hail, the digital revolution... read more
Feb 25, 2010
Hubris At Seaworld
Hopefully, the tragic death of Dawn Brancheau, the trainer who was killed by an Orca at Seaworld in Orlando yesterday, will impel the owners/shareholders of Seaworld to end these shows. Orcas are wild creatures that belong in the ocean. Turning them into performers for profit in so-called amusement parks to be gawked at by popcorn-munching crowds degrades and banalises both them – and the people... read more
Simon Worrall was born in Wellington, England and spent his childhood in Eritrea, Paris and Singapore. He has written for publications all over the world, including National Geographic, Smithsonian, London Times, The Guardian, Paris Review, GQ, The New Yorker, The New Republic, Conde Nast Traveler, Maxim, Playboy,Die Zeit and the New Statesman. He divides his time between Herefordshire and the East End of Long Island.
