The Bay Ridge Digest Podcast - EP010: Signs of Spring

In The Bay Ridge Digest Podcast episode 10 we welcome the first signs of Spring with a butterfly’s journey, holistic healing, throwing clay, delicious food, and a good bottle of wine. 

Highlights:

• Katie Coughlin, The Ovington Artist’s Colony, and Ovington Pottery

• March Books and Events with Jess from The Bookmark Shoppe

• Elias B. Dunn and an unexpectedly bad March 1888 rainstorm

• Connie Gibilaro Malone on her new children’s book Brooklyn Is the World

• March Wines and Favorite Wine Bottles with Catherine O’Rourke of Cellary

• St. Patrick’s Day jokes from Freddie Friday with a PSA for the Itty Bitty Kitty Bay Ridge Cat Rescue

• Dr. Marla Loughran on the Healthy Path Foundation and the upcoming 10 Annual Casino Night Gala

• The Great Blizzard of 1888 in Bay Ridge and Fort Hamilton

• News on the Merchants of Third Avenue’s upcoming Taste of Third Avenue with Chrisie Canny

• The Worst Storm Anyone Has Witnessed

• Radio Waves

• Looking ahead to Ramadan celebrations, sound baths, and a disco popup

The reading material used in today’s episode included:

• “The Mighty Blizzard of 1888” — By Edward Oxford for American History Illustrated, March 1988

• Blast from the Past: A Pictorial History of Radio's First 75 Years — By B. Eric Rhoads

• “The First Gentrifiers” — By Henry Stewart for BKLYNR Issue 38, November 6th, 2014

As well as articles from

• AmericanHeritage.com

• The Brooklyn Daily Times

• The Brooklyn Eagle

• The New York Herald

• The New York Times

• The Times Union

Script writing, Emceeing, editing, producing, mixing, directing. What are these? All things I do. In need of any of this and want to get in touch? Add me on Linkedin, reach me at James@TheWallBreakers.com, or go to TheWallBreakers.com to see what else I’ve been up to. 

I’ve got tours coming up this month, including one this Sunday March 15th and a special edition of Haunted Bay Ridge on Friday March 27th. For tickets and more info on all my tours please click on Linktr.ee/TheWallBreakers on either my @BayRidgeDigest or @TheWallBreakers instagram bios. 

Subscribe to The Bay Ridge Digest Podcast everywhere you get your podcasts.

To submit a story lead, please go to BayRidgeDigest.com

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bayridgedigest

Transcript

SPEAKER_14 0:24

A big part of our life with Irish cultural events all throughout the city. Proper and the Bay Ridge one and the Bay Ridge one and every like the Park Slope one, the Rockaway one, the Crazy Point One, all of it.

SPEAKER_08 0:41

Have any of your generation family members continued on?

SPEAKER_14 0:44

No. There's 21 cousins of my generation from my dad's side, and none of us are part of the pipe band.

SPEAKER_08 0:51

They're a great disappointment.

SPEAKER_14 0:53

Not from the elders, because I think what it was for my dad and his siblings, there was no choice. And they gave us all a choice to do it or not, and we were doing other things. But I was an Irish step dancer, and one of my cousins was an Irish step dancer, and now my niece is an Irish step dancer. It's really exciting. I haven't seen she just started this year, so I haven't seen her moves yet, but I've shown her some of the lines.

SPEAKER_07 1:27

Tonight, we welcome the first signs of spring with a butterfly's journey, holistic healing, throwing clay, delicious food, and a good bottle of wine. Subscribe to the Bay Ridge Digest Podcast everywhere you get a podcast. For more info on how to submit a storyline, please go to Bayridge Digest.com. You can also get in touch by emailing BayridgeDigest at gmail.com and follow on Instagram at BayridgeDigest. Tonight's episode will definitely have some unpredictable weather. But I think I can finally say I've got tours coming up this month, including one this Sunday, March 15th at 1 p.m., and a special edition of Haunted Bay Ridge on Friday, March 27th at 6 o'clock. For tickets and more info on all my tours, please go to Linktree slash the Wallbreakers. That's L-I-N-K-T-R.ee slash the Wallbreakers. Or follow either at Bayridge Digest or at the Wallbreakers on Instagram. Need of anything from script writing, MC, editing, producing, mixing, or directing, or get in touch with me on LinkedIn or by emailing James at the Wallbreakers.com. You'll also go to thewallbreakers.com to see what else happened up to.

SPEAKER_14 3:03

We would go to the park a lot, and I feel like one half of my whole family lived in the neighborhood, so we spent a lot of time at my grandparents' house, at my house, at my aunt's house, or my aunt's apartment, or so those are my memories of the neighborhood as a kid.

SPEAKER_08 3:21

If I say to you sledding an house at brain out the memory?

SPEAKER_14 3:24

Yeah, on Dead Man's Hill, obviously. I went flooding this past storm. Okay. It's one of my favorite things too. I feel like we have one of the best hills in New York City.

SPEAKER_08 3:34

I had the plastic discs.

SPEAKER_14 3:36

Oh yeah, the saucer.

SPEAKER_08 3:37

And you gotta bail out the city. I know.

SPEAKER_14 3:39

Well, now there's a lot more trees at the bottom. Right. So it's a bit more dangerous. Yeah. And the leaf, obviously, was the big family place where we would host all our things: confirmations, graduations, birthday parties, wedding, celebrate anniversaries.

SPEAKER_07 3:54

This is Katie Coglin. Katie grew up near Owlshead Park on the famed Ovington Avenue.

SPEAKER_14 4:00

My name is Katie Coglin, and I run Ovington Pottery. It's at 264 Ovington Avenue on the third floor, right off Third Avenue.

SPEAKER_07 4:12

In 1848, yellow fever swept through Newtrept. Wealthy fled the area, with many leaving their property behind. A prominent family here were the Ovingtons. Henry Ovington was the assistant chamberlain of New York City. Three of his sons owned Ovington Brothers, a China shop on Fulton Street. Artists, artisans, and other creatives soon moved in. Attracted to the area's natural beauty, they settled on the old Ovington farm, situated roughly between present-day 69th, 72nd Street, 3rd, and 7th Avenues. In 1850, they established an artist colony called the Ovington Village Association. Meanwhile, in the 1850s, the village of Yellowhook was expanding. It centered around what is today 3rd Avenue and 69th Street and used a dock that is today 69th Street Pier. One of the Ovington members was a local property owner and florist named James Weir. The group had been informally referring to the area as Bay Ridge. Weir suggested to town leaders that Yellowhook be renamed. Town leaders agreed. The area was officially rechristened as Bay Ridge in December of 1853.

SPEAKER_14 5:25

After I went to graduate school and then I came back here in 2018, I had known that there was this Ovington artist village that had happened because I started looking up Ovington pottery as and what was happening on here because of the farm, and then also the children of the farmers, and so then Ovington Brothers started coming up for Ovington Brothers pottery. I was like, oh okay. This is kind of a very sweet thing to be a part of and to know about. And so I'm trying to bring it back a little bit.

SPEAKER_07 6:05

Originally called Cedar Lane, the association opened Ovington Avenue westward as the major road between the village and the Athenaeum concert hall. Beyond concerts, it housed social events, speeches, plays, festivals, a library, and a post office. Members of the artist colony had plots of land on which they built their homes along the road. Ovington Avenue then extended east to Newtrick Avenue, connecting with the Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Railroad. The forerunner to today's West End elevated.

SPEAKER_14 6:38

This is the block I grew up on, as well as it was my dad's side of the family, and he also grew up on this block. So our family has lived here for about a hundred years, if not a little more. And this house my parents purchased in the 90s, but the family house was down the block that my other grandmother lived in.

SPEAKER_07 7:01

The village was eventually absorbed into Bay Ridge, with the original homes and their lovely gardens giving way to Brooklyn's grid and modern dwellings. Today the brownstones on Ovington Avenue between Ridge and Third are on both the State and National Register of Historic Places. It is in one of these brownstones at 264 Ovington Avenue. The Katie Coglin runs Ovington Pottery.

SPEAKER_14 7:24

So the studio that I have is on the third floor of my family house, and the third floor was my grandparents' apartment growing up. And in 2018, after I finished graduate school, I came back here, and this space was my personal studio for the past five years, and then I just opened last December, December 2024 to the public. So we've been going for about a year and a few months now.

SPEAKER_07 7:48

I was curious where Katie's background in ceramics came from.

SPEAKER_14 7:51

Ceramics wasn't something I had really known anything about, but my mom and my grandmother are amazing seamstresses. So my mom can sew anything, and so could my grandmother. And my grandmother was an incredible knitter as well. So I grew up with, we were always making stuff in the family. It was a very creative kind of childhood. And then I was a really big reader. And I had art in school, but nothing liked the extent of the pottery class that I started taking. And then once I started taking that, my mom saw that I liked that. I took pre-college courses, dark room photography courses at SBA, because they have a high school program on Saturdays. I took those all through high school.

SPEAKER_08 8:32

Now, was that as a way to photograph some of the ceramics you were making, or just to no, just to develop the skill.

SPEAKER_14 8:38

Yeah, so it was mainly portraits of people.

SPEAKER_07 8:42

Katie went to Alfred University in western New York for her undergraduate degree. Alfred is one of the four most ceramics institutes in the U.S. How did you hear about it?

SPEAKER_14 8:53

There was an artist in upstate New York in the Catskills. My parents bought a house in the Catskills in the 80s. We spent a lot of time up there as a family. My mom had her own business, so she was an entrepreneur, and my dad was a fireman, so they had very flexible schedules. And so my grandparents would come upstate with us as well. So basically, my siblings and I got to spend like 4th of July through Labor Day up there. Then we had lives and we had jobs. And so there was a potter up there who would let me weed her garden in exchange for working on the wheel for three hours or something. And she told me about Alfred, about the ceramic program there. And then I had a friend in high school whose family members, some of them worked at Alfred, and so that was kind of how I then started to really know. But the amazing thing about Alfred is that you don't know how lucky you are to go there until you're there. And then until you leave, and people are like, oh my gosh, the facilities, the professors. That was when I realized, like, wow, I was in this huge lineage of potters and pottery and skill building. That was really incredible. Basically, going to Alfred created every other part of my ceramic career for me.

SPEAKER_07 10:12

What's something about Western New York State that us Brooklynites don't know about?

SPEAKER_14 10:17

Well, up there, the landscape's incredible, but also when you're in college, you're in a bubble. It was a town of 5,000 people. There was a state school and the university, which is the one I went to. It's like a magical little place because there's a coffee shop and like two places to eat and one bar. And then you're on campus. And so everyone's happy to be there because you're like together all the time, no matter what. Most ceramic communities in the world are based around clay deposits. And so Alfred was there because of the clay deposit in the area. The Finger Lake region is your school of clay. So it makes sense that they were up there. And that there's other potteries that were up there and other tile facilities that were up there as well.

SPEAKER_08 11:03

So you're using Laguna number 40 here. So what makes the properties of Laguna number 40? Is there a Laguna number 39?

SPEAKER_14 11:11

Yeah, there are different numbers. So I'm using Laguna 40 for a few reasons. It's a stoneware, so that means that it's a really easy clay body to work with. It's a lighter colored clay body, which means it doesn't look as dirty in the studio as it could be if you're using a red clay body that has iron in it or a brown clay body that also has iron in it. It also is really good for hand building and wheel throwing. So that means it has a little bit of grit to it. So it helps when you're building, it helps things stay upright. And then when you're on the wheel, it helps things get more vertical. It's an easier body to work with.

SPEAKER_07 11:50

So what did Katie do after getting her undergraduate degree?

SPEAKER_14 11:54

I was not living in New York, actually. So I was basically living in all different parts of the country trying to make my artwork and then working full-time as well. So it was just like a constant traveling to the next opportunity. So I lived in Montana for almost three years. I lived in Alaska for 11 months, and then I lived in Colorado as well. And then I came back here for a year to help with my grandmother. And then I applied to grad school during that time, and then I went to grad school. So I took off, I think, five years between undergrad and grad school.

SPEAKER_08 12:30

And so graduate school is what two years, yeah?

SPEAKER_14 12:32

My program was three.

SPEAKER_08 12:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_14 12:34

Yeah. So there's often two-year programs or three-year programs. And I wanted to go to a program that was fully funded, that had a really strong interdisciplinary program. And one of my best friends was already in the program, and we had a really good, like I call her my studio soulmate. And so I wanted to be near where she was. And so I went to Ohio State for all of those reasons.

SPEAKER_08 12:58

Well, let me ask you about Montana real quickly. Where in Montana were you living?

SPEAKER_14 13:02

So I lived in Red Lodge, Montana, which they have a residency program. And I was pretty young. I was like 24 when I went there, and I got to live there for a year in Red Lodge, which is in the southern part of the state. And then I moved to Missoula and did a post back at the University of Montana there in Missoula. And then I stayed for another year making work at the Clay Studio of Missoula.

SPEAKER_08 13:26

Had you been to Montana?

SPEAKER_14 13:28

No, but I had always wanted to live there. I feel like Montana was this like beautiful place. And then when I got the opportunity to go, I was like, okay, and it still has my heart. But economy is just not very good there. So it's like if I could have figured out a way to be able to come home to New York whenever I wanted to, that would have been the place for me.

SPEAKER_08 13:49

Ever since I was a kid.

SPEAKER_14 13:50

You've wanted to come.

SPEAKER_08 13:51

Come to Montana.

SPEAKER_14 13:52

Yeah, it's it's incredible.

SPEAKER_08 13:53

I mean it's big sky concepts. Yeah. But for real.

SPEAKER_14 13:56

Yeah, but like really meat. After I moved back, sometimes I would like squint my eyes and pretend that the skyline was like a mountain range.

SPEAKER_07 14:06

We'll pick up with Katie later in this episode and find out how she came to open Ovington Pottery.

SPEAKER_11 14:19

Hi there. This is Jess from the Bookmark Shop, your local Bay Ridge bookstore. We're located at 8415 Third Avenue. We are open from 10 to 8 every day, and I have a few book recommendations for you. The first one is one that I actually got to read in advance. It came out in late February. It's by BK Borison. It's the second book in her heartstring series. It's called And Now Back to You. Perfect for anybody who loves rom-cons, especially if you love the grumpy sunshine, opposites attract dynamic, forced proximity, and there is only one bed for a lot of it. Another one that is coming up in March is Phases. It's a memoir by Brandy, the musician and actor. Really excited for that one. Moesha was a big part of my childhood. So can't wait to see what she has to say about that. The third one I have for you is The News from Dublin. It's a short story collection by Colin Tobeen. It's 11 short stories. If you liked his other work, he did Long Island, A Long Winter more recently. He wrote The Magician, Brooklyn, The Master. So yeah, if you're a fan of his, definitely keep an eye out for that one. That also comes out in March. And then I also have a few more local recommendations. One is Bay Ridge, etc. by Ted General, Jack Latour, and Peter Scarpa. They're from the Bay Ridge Historical Society. Also got Old Bay Ridge in Ovington Village, a history by Matthew Scarpa. And then this one is slightly less local, but still pretty local. Haunted Staten Island by Mariana Biazzo Rendazzo. Perfect if you are already waiting for Halloween. We are having a midnight release party for Unrivaled. It's the next book in the Game Changer series, which is what Heated Rivalry is based on.

SPEAKER_07 16:31

Is there something that you notice as far as when books come in that varies?

SPEAKER_11 16:35

Well, publishers like to get a jumpstart on things that are seasonal. So you'll see the books that take place at the holidays that are maybe set during Christmas or Hanukkah or just the winter in general. They're gonna come out as soon as like late summer or early fall. Halloween, those kinds of books are gonna come out in the summer. It's really just to kind of give people time to see them and get excited for them for when it actually is quote unquote appropriate time to read them. But yeah, publishers are usually anywhere from like three to six months out in terms of that kind of timing. We're on Instagram at the bookmark shop, T-H-E-B-O-O-K-M-A-R-K-S-H-O-P-P-E. We are also on Facebook, but I'm not gonna lie, everything you see on Instagram is on Facebook as well. We also have a newsletter that you can sign up for. Just scroll to the bottom of our website, and we have a lot of events coming up, so keep an eye out for those. You can also see those on our social media and on the homepage of the website. Alright, that's it for me.

SPEAKER_12 17:59

Yet our languor may be stirred at the prospect of telegraphing through the air and wood and stone, without so much as a copper wire to carry the message. We are learning to launch our winged words. The New York Times.

SPEAKER_07 18:17

It's 5 p.m. on Sunday, March 11, 1888. We're on the roof of the Equitable Life Building at 120 Broadway, between Pine and Cedar Streets in Manhattan. The movement you're hearing is coming from Elias B. Dunn, the city's chief weather defective. He's come up to the roof to take temperature and wind readings. Dunn man's one of the country's one of its seventh government weather stations. The Weather Bureau keeps in touch with the Coast Guard, the telephone, telegraph, and carrier digit. Dunley's forecast called for light rain. During the afternoon, the weather suddenly turned. The rain is now heavy to sleep with almost gale-force winds. After taking the temperature, Dunn rushes downstairs into his office to worriedly telegraph the conditions to Washington, D.C. He'll get no response. All communication from New York with the outside world is gone.

SPEAKER_16 19:38

There's these two little pink magnolia trees right across the street from me. They're very tiny. They're not the big, beautiful ones, but they bloom every year. There's only one year that they didn't bloom. There was like an extra cold spring, and they just never bloomed. It was really, really sad. But I love all the cherry blossoms. And I mean, we just have some of the most gorgeous parks. Just walking along Shore Road and seeing everything in bloom. I love nothing more than take. I'm not like a big gym person, but I love taking like an hour, two-hour walk. And there's so much to appreciate with the gardens and all the trees and flowers.

SPEAKER_07 20:16

This is Connie Gibalaro Malone.

SPEAKER_16 20:18

Hi, my name is Connie Gibbelaro Malone, and I am an author of the new children's picture book, Brooklyn is the World: A Butterfly's Journey.

SPEAKER_07 20:29

Connie's a Bay Ridge girl.

SPEAKER_16 20:31

When I think about my childhood, I automatically picture my brother and I in the Ford Hamilton Army-based pool. And we didn't really make any friends. We speak to people now who were like, oh, we don't remember you and your brother, because there were these little cliques and friend groups. And me and my brother really just hung out with each other, and we would take a little walk, and there's the cannonballs. So we would come out of the pool and then we would be freezing, and we would both lay on the cannonball and dry off. Definitely strolling along the Shore Road Promenade, looking at the Verrazzano Bridge. I was never a good artist ever, but I would sketch the Verrazzano Bridge, and my mom would pretend it was really great. Go into the park, but we spent obviously a lot of time there.

SPEAKER_07 21:17

We both had the experience of feeling like we needed to leave Bay Ridge to grow and found our way back as adults and realized how good we had it.

SPEAKER_16 21:24

Exactly. James, I had this scene, I went to the Alpine a couple of months ago. You would have thought I was walking into uh like the Museum of National History. I know they renovated, but they did they do a historical renovation? Oh, they did. That makes me feel better because I'm looking up and I'm like, Sean, did it always look this beautiful? He's like, what are you talking about? I'm like, look how gorgeous the ceiling is. Okay, so it didn't look like that.

SPEAKER_08 21:52

Yeah, they not they're all few wearing.

SPEAKER_16 21:55

That makes me feel better because I'm like, I never appreciated this building. Wow, it's gorgeous! Just in there. And you know that's the cheapest movie ticket in Brooklyn. Still, right? Yes.

SPEAKER_08 22:06

And it's the oldest movie theater. If I say to you, say Once Upon a Sunday, is that's on the cover of my book.

SPEAKER_16 22:13

I love the one. Look, see, Once Upon a Sunday. We're on the same wavelength, James.

SPEAKER_08 22:20

Well, I guess I remember they had not only for like Belgian waffles with ice cream, but they had rock candy and things of that note. It's stuff you just don't see everywhere.

SPEAKER_16 22:27

The marshmallow, they had like a marshmallow topping, and I vividly remember walking in there and they would have the sterling silver little ice cream cups. And it was just so cute. Yeah. And that was the same owner's Hinches, where I can't believe when you just asked me some childhood stuff about Bay Ridge, Hinches was a staple that I went to all of the time.

SPEAKER_07 22:53

Connie's also a big fan of the history of Bay Ridge.

SPEAKER_16 22:56

I love the history of Shore Road and just the concept that Bay Ridge once upon a time was like a wealthy beach town for people leaving Manhattan and coming here. When you read how it once was, it reminds me of the Hamptons. Just to think of the Belt Parkway not being there, and that was all a rocky beach, and there were all these, I don't know if they're photographs or paintings, but like you could see it on Google the way that the waterfront once was, and it's gigantic. Like when you conceptualize 99th Street all the way to the ferry, I mean, that's a lot of land and it just looks gorgeous. So that whole idea of the history of Bay Ridge just having like a lot of sports clubs and high society vibe. Maybe when you listen to people, there's little hints of that where you're kind of like a little uppity-ness at times, which I love. I mean, I love a little dose of snobbery. That's great for everybody. That's not the mainstream here at all. But when you look at the history, it makes sense. The Crescent Club, and it's just interesting to look at it. Recently, I was looking up pictures, there was that hotel. It didn't even last like a decade. Yeah, the one that was short. Yeah, the Grand View Hotel, and just the architecture blows my mind to compare how you can barely get a building up on 86th Street after six years, but somehow a hotel that filled a thousand guests, every room had a balcony and it looked like a boathouse. Yeah, I'm just fascinated by that. Honestly, the beauty of the campus is what drew me in. And then when you're a senior, it's very common to live on the beach. It's the Long Island Sound. It's not like an ocean, but it's as charming as it sounds. I mean, eight of my friends and I, we rented the house. That was how I spent my senior year. And it's fantasy-like, and it's kind of Brooklyn-like in a way, because you're all living within a foot of each other. All these houses on the beach are very, very close to each other. It's very social in nature. That's just the history of that school, which I think got chipped away little by little because there are people that live there year-round. I mean, that's annoying to be living in this beautiful space, and then you have all these drunk college kids. So the culture of Fairfield with all these themed parties and all this fun, by the time I got there, a lot of it had been stripped away, which is probably better for the town itself. But there was still a lot of this culture of we go out Tuesday night, we go out Thursday night, we go out Friday night, where there was just so many events. I was kind of like, aren't I supposed to study? But there was this push of, no, we go to these events and it's at so-and-so's house and here and there. And on the beach, everything was very walkable. To me, it felt like a little bit of home. It felt that familiar feeling of, I'm gonna walk to so-and-so's house, and you didn't really need a car in that exact area.

SPEAKER_07 26:13

Although we're here today because Connie recently wrote Brooklyn is the World, she's very much a practicing lawyer. I was curious about what attracted her to the profession.

SPEAKER_16 26:23

I was always very opinionated, very talkative, very loud, just those stereotypes where, like, you see a kid like that, you're like, you would make a good lawyer. People would always say that to me. I didn't really take it seriously until college, where I was an English major. I would have loved to teach, but I just think academia is extremely competitive and cutthroat, and you sometimes might get placed in a school or an institution that's in a different state, and people moved to different states. At that point, I knew I wanted to at least live in Manhattan for a while, you know, in my early 20s, and I didn't really want to do that. So I took the LSAT and it was kind of like a thing I had told myself my whole life. At orientation on the first day of law school, the dean actually got up and said, These are the top 10 reasons not to go to law school. And they like put up a slide, and the one was make a lot of money. He's like, hate to break it to you, but maybe 1% of you are gonna come out of here making a lot of money. That's not a good reason. And he just went through all the worst reasons. And then the dean said, the number one reason to become a lawyer is because you want to help others. And I was like, Oh, I didn't know that that's really at the heart of what a lawyer is. But when you're a lawyer, you're in the hospitality industry. You have to care about your client. You have to pick up their phone calls, you have to return their phone calls. If they're really mad at you, you cannot meet their energy with the same level of aggression. You have to really care. So if you have this natural want to help others and to pick up, like I have clients, they're probably texting me right now, they're calling me. That doesn't bother me personally. Like, I don't find that draining because that's part of what I naturally like to do. I feel kind of lucky that I figured out that being a lawyer would be good for me while I already was in law school wasn't necessarily something I knew.

SPEAKER_07 28:29

After Fairfield, she enrolled at New York Law School and lived in the East Village. She passed the bar exam on her first try. Donnie married her high school sweetheart, Sean. They have two beautiful children. She mentioned to me that although she loves being a lawyer, it's nothing like what you see on TV. But I was curious what she felt her superpower as a lawyer is.

SPEAKER_16 28:49

Well, litigation is very creative, not in an artsy way, but I do jury trials. So the jury selection process is absolutely fascinating. And most lawyers don't do trials because most cases settle. Just most cases don't reach that point where you're gonna be picking a jury. For the first seven years of my career, I did commercial litigation. I did one trial in seven years, and it was a bench trial because it was in the commercial division in New York County. So there wasn't even a jury trial. The law that I do now it extends itself to these jury trials, and it's very fascinating. Because I told my dad once upon a time I want to be a psychologist, and he was like, oh God, if you like to psychoanalyze people, everybody needs that skill. No matter what you do, it's always good to have some insight into how others think and what makes others tick and what are people's triggers. So when you're in jury selection, you have to do that to get your client the best result possible. I really, really love that. So I think that is my superpower that I can understand and kind of catch on to what people care about and think without them explicitly saying it.

SPEAKER_07 30:09

Both of Connie's parents are doctors, a profession not usually associated with dreamers. Lawyers aren't either. So, where does a creative side come from?

SPEAKER_16 30:19

My parents are not creative at all. I would not describe them as dreamers. I think my brother and I both always were. My brother plays the guitar, he was always interested in music. He wrote poems when he was a little kid once upon a time. He's always been a bit of a romantic and still is. And so have I. I don't know. I remember being like seven years old, dreaming of a poem about something I did in school, and I would wake up and I would write it down. And although my mother is not a creative person, she saw that I was creative and she would reinforce that. So she always bought me journals and she would always encourage me to write. So in my parents' house, I have journals spanning age seven through 20 years old. That's why I always thought I was gonna write a TV show. It was gonna be based off of all the high school drama when then there was a lot of it. You went to Xavier, so I'm sure you have stories too. I'm the oldest out of cousins on my mother's side, and I'm the second oldest on my father's side. And there's nine cousins on one side, eight cousins on the other. So big Italian family from both sides, and we were all very loud, really excited kids, especially on my mother's side, my cousin Sarah and I, who's also a lawyer, we would do all these plays constantly. We would do a Halloween play, a Thanksgiving play. Like these poor kids are siblings. They should have been in SAG. They were really doing a lot of acting and a lot of memorizing of lines. It was always just a part of my personality that I liked writing and doing creative things. And then it was only in law school that that kind of all stopped.

SPEAKER_07 32:09

Except that it didn't. Next time on the Bay Ridge Digest Podcast, we dive into the inspiration behind and the creative process to bring Brooklyn is the world to life. Can't wait? You can pick up a copy of Brooklyn Is the World at Connie Gibbilaro.com. That's C O N N I E G I B I L A R O dot com. You can also find out more by following Brooklyn is the world on Instagram.

SPEAKER_06 33:32

Hello, sir. What do you want? You know what I want. How could I possibly?

SPEAKER_07 33:43

You're roaming through the city. You have a voice. Use it. I'm trying to use it. Ah. But are you using it correctly? What do you mean? Isn't it obvious? Script writing, narrative nonfiction, audio fiction, editing, producing, mixing, directing, acting.

SPEAKER_06 34:09

What does this have to do with you following me through the street on a rainy night? Have you utilized any of this?

SPEAKER_07 34:18

No. Well then, it's time you launched a podcast or at least some kind of audio production.

SPEAKER_05 34:26

Why would I need to do that?

SPEAKER_07 34:28

You're in one already.

SPEAKER_05 34:32

I am?

SPEAKER_07 34:32

What do you think this is? Stocking! No, you're in my commercial spot. I'm James Scully, I do all these things.

SPEAKER_05 34:41

Wait, you mean you wrote, directed, produced, and mixed this?

SPEAKER_07 34:45

Yep. Reach me at james at the wallbreakers.com.

SPEAKER_05 34:51

Well do I get paid for my time at least?

SPEAKER_07 34:57

I hope you like a pepperoni on your pizza.

SPEAKER_02 35:06

Hello, I'm Catherine Lourk from Celery the Wine Shop here at 8916 Third Avenue in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. We have a two-part February and March Stalling Bundle. It is Oscar themed. So there are 10 nominees for Best Picture this year, and we're doing five two-packs, each one geared toward a double feature movie idea. So, for example, there's one for Hamnet and Sentimental Value with line pairings and playful ideas to go along with the whole thing. The cards will show the Oscar envelope and say, and the winner is, but we'll let you decide who the winner is in your heart.

SPEAKER_08 35:56

We're having an actual waiter. So when people are coming in, are you noticing particular things moving faster than other things?

SPEAKER_02 36:06

Folks are drinking more red, and that happens every year, but I think in the past years, people have been asking more for chilled reds or lighter reds during this time, and that is still happening, but more are just wanting something heartier, more concentrated, more depth. Maybe a vino di meditazione, if you will, which is just something a little fuller, a little more complex to sip by the fire or by your apartment heater while you punch the snowfall. We have a number of fuller ideas. The Satemolien Grand Cru Satamelian from Maseg. It's a 2014. It is really dark, it's really handsome, super polished, a little brooding. It's perfect for these kind of temps. Ooh, we have the 2021, the new vintage of this bandal rouge came in recently. That's pretty heady. It's a blend from Bandal in Provence. Dark fruit, Mediterranean Gary, blackberry, some cigar notes. It's really gorgeous.

SPEAKER_07 37:16

As a drinker of wine or a purchaser of wine for your shop, a label matters.

SPEAKER_08 37:21

Aesthetically, there's labels when you see that make your senses pop. What are they?

SPEAKER_02 37:28

Oh, well, a pretty label always delights me. I mean, I do have a classic with just the name and a good font and a good paper, you know, that's satisfying. But then there's something like this little Austrian red blend coming from Vogueweight from two gentlemen. One of them is from Germany. He studied winemaking in Bonn, France, in Burgundy, and has found himself in Austria making Burgundian-like wines. And his partner, whose family vineyards are where they source the grapes from, is actually an interior designer by trade. He just happens to only use vineyards and have fallen in love with a winemaker. And so this interior designer has made gorgeous, gorgeous labels. The one that I'm holding here for the Com Grande Bed Blend. You get these like deep vermeur blue and a little powder blue and a little kind of like rusty orange, just kind of splatters and I don't know. It's really pretty. And then, you know, there are playful little things like I love the innocent dove with all its little dots that just feels whimsical. I do appreciate something like the label and a new monastro from Hunia by the Red Sum winery. They have put every piece of information that anyone could ask right on the front label. Vegan friendly, no added sugars, native yeast fermentation, mineral preservatives, dry fond, organic, the whole thing.

SPEAKER_08 38:54

Yeah, well, there's something very high-end 2009 utilitarian house at label.

SPEAKER_17 39:00

There you go. We're all put. You know, then there's just silly fun kitschy ones like the loosings with their hiking yodeler or they're dancing with joy.

SPEAKER_02 39:10

What else? Ooh, I love the N Habawai label. It's a contra costa Tsabiamla. Got a little guy on a course. It looks like some kind of 1950s western wallpaper and a little boy's rose. And then on the cork, there's a little horse and horse rider. On the top of the notebook and print, the cork has just a little smiley face, like these kind of details. Make the experience of opening a bottle just that much more fun. The Pertel label, they are cutouts. It's the winemaker's wife. Did some really just very fun, detailed elements for that. And then the Hundred Suns is also done by Russell Grant's wife, Renee. All of their labels are just striking. Beautiful wines. They're out in the Willamette Valley. Where some of the best domestic wines, in my opinion, are coming from. There's so much soil variation they have. The Van Duzan wind gap out there that goes, you know, right through where the Willamette River is, and it's like a natural cooling system. So the grapes are allowed to hang for a longer time and just ripen steblily and achieve phenolic ripeness without ever being overdone. The Hundred Suns is celebrating the 100 days of the growing season from bud break to harvest. And this particular bottling, the old 8-cut, is coming from a few different plots. They think it shines like an 8-cut diamond. They have some land in the Ribbon Ridge out there in the Sequitur Vineyard. It's some of these just very noble sought-after pieces of vineyard space out in the Willamette. And our Friday tastings are back every Friday from 5 to 7 through the end of July. Our store hours, we are back to normal. We are 12 to 8 Monday through Thursday, 12 to 9 every Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 12 to 7. We deliver until 6 o'clock on weekdays and Sunday. We deliver until 8 o'clock, Friday, and Saturday. In Day Ridge, Decker Heights for Hamilton and Sunset Park.com. If we're doing one of our monthly promotions, it will be automatically applied there on the website. And if you ever have any questions, feel free to give us a call. You can send the shop number a text. Our phone number is 631-886-7345, and you can give us a call or shoot us a text. We are really happy to see you.

SPEAKER_07 42:09

Yes, it is, Freddy. Why don't you tell him why we're here, you know? Well, before our jokes, as usual, we like to mention the itty bitty kitty Bay Ridge Cat Rescue. Wayne Parris at Henry Hardy's mentioned to me that over the winter he helped catch 26 straight kittens on Shore Road. The good news is, most have been adopted. But if you stop in the Henry Hardy's at 9314 Third Avenue, you can donate 25 bucks and get a free t-shirt for helping to save these cats. All the proceeds go to vet visits, cat food, and supplies. Yeah, you can also go to their website, ittybittykittyny.org and donate that way, you know? And I hear t-shirt shipping is available. That's right, you can get it shipped to you. And to see more of the cats they're helping, visit the Instagram page at itty bitty kitty ny Bay Ridge. Yeah, help save these kitties, people, please. So Freddie, I hear St. Patrick's Day is one of your favorite holidays. Yup, it's true. It's like the first inkling of a spring kind of holiday, you know? Can we do something big for it? Uh yeah, Freddy, of course. Well, you know, Scullia is a pretty Irish last name, but uh, so is Friday. It is? Why is Friday such an Irish last name? It just is, you know. When you're Irish, you don't need to explain yourself, people. Hey, you know, it's also a week I like to call the many holidays of March. The many holidays of March? Yeah, you know. No, I don't know. Well, listen. We just celebrated International Woman's Day on March 8th. Happy belated International Woman's Day to all the women out there. I hope the mm the people that care about you in your life give you the flowers, you know. If not, come see me. Well, what else? Well, you know, this episode coming out on March 12th, right? Yeah, March 12th. So what is March 14th? Uh High Day. Okay, High Day. And March 15th? The hides of March, you know. Caesar, Caesar, Caesar. Well that that's That's true, yeah, yeah. And what about March 16th? March 16th? I have no idea. 316? 316? Austin 316 says I just whipped the air. Oh boy. And we know St. Patrick's Day is March 17th. And St. Joseph's Day is March 19th. So first eat the Irish soda bread and then you gotta have the Sweden's happily, you know. I guess I never thought of that, right? Well, there's a lot of things you obviously don't think about, you know, but that's not my fault. But basically, people listen, it's the season of serendipity. The season of serendipity yeah, you know, when you begin again in the new year, you know, and allow yourself to be vulnerable for love in February. You find serendipity and good luck in March. You know? I guess I do now. Are you ready to tell some jokes? I'm always ready to tell some jokes. Even when people don't want to hear them. But I don't care. Okay, people, you ready? Uh yeah, I think they're ready. Well, you know the saying true blue, you know? Yeah. Well? How do you know you're in a true green St. Patrick's Day celebration among Irish people? Is this the joke? A coomer? Yes, it's a joke. How do you know you're in a true green St. Patrick's Day celebration among Irish people? Well, I don't know, Freddie. Because even the priest shows up with a pint. Oh, it's so true. Oh, a coomer! Well, what else you got? Why won't the golfers leave the course at the end of their St. Patrick's Day match? Why won't the golfers leave the course at the end of their St. Patrick's Day match? Yeah, they could understand me. You don't got to jump on everything that I'm trying to say. You don't got to piggyback on my success. Because they like being on the green. Oh my god. Hey, what do you call a fake Irish diamond? What do you call a fake Irish diamond? Yeah, what do you call a fake Irish diamond? I don't know what. A sham rock. I'm sure some of you ladies out there have gotten one of these. Maybe a little bit. Play us out, producer. Tell them where else they can find more content. Well, if you'd like us to mention a specific animal rescue center, please email at bayridgedigest at gmail.com or DM me at BayridgeDigest on Instagram. Yeah, and since you know I'm so funny, you can also see my archive of jokes and stories at Freddy Friday Story Funtime on Instagram and at Freddy Friday on YouTube. And I spell my name F-R-E-D-D-I-E, you know. Yes, you do. Well, Freddie. Well until uh March 26th, you know, producer, when it's officially spring, you know the clocks are now ahead, you know what, people. Tudos to the ones you love. I'm so funny. Happy Saint Patrick. Let's go have a key in this one.

SPEAKER_13 47:20

Yeah, I think it's a motivation to be outside. We're lucky, we're on a ridge, we have a beautiful view, we get a great breeze, you can walk down to the water, you can see Manhattan, you know, you can see out. So I think it makes you want to get outside, it makes you want to walk. I loved exercising, always have. So that was my like retreat. I'd come home from high school, I'd change, I'd walk down to short road, I'd walk to the water, and I would just try to relax. Walking towards Caesar's Bay, walking towards 69th Street Pier, just enjoying what we have to offer. We're lucky, we're not landlocked, we're in a beautiful area.

SPEAKER_08 47:53

I always get short road kids. Sledding an owlside park.

SPEAKER_13 47:57

Yeah, of course. Yeah, sledding an owl's head of an even sledding down on 94th Street. Those hills going down. My mom used to take me all the time there, but owlshead for sure. And a lot of good memories of just being outside all the time. You'd want to be outside because there were so many places to go.

SPEAKER_08 48:12

As you got a little older, what were some of your favorite places in beerage to get to?

SPEAKER_13 48:17

Okay, so there was an old restaurant, Keynesi, on 86th and 3rd.

SPEAKER_08 48:20

Yeah, which is where Leila's.

SPEAKER_13 48:22

So we used to go to Keonce a lot for dinner. We certainly used to go to like Gazebo and there were some other going out places on Third Avenue. But we love the restaurants. I mean, Beayridge has great restaurants, and so we would hit all the restaurants on Third Avenue, but Keonzi was like our favorite at the time. Family-style Italian food, you couldn't go wrong.

SPEAKER_07 48:41

This is Dr. Marla Lagren.

SPEAKER_13 48:44

Hi, it's Dr. Marla Logren at Brooklyn Chiropractic Partners. We're located at 268 Bayridge Parkway, suite 1A, between 3rd and Ridge Boulevard.

SPEAKER_07 48:53

I've been going to the chiropractor since I was a kid. But for those who don't know, what does a chiropractor do?

SPEAKER_13 48:58

No, it's a good question. A chiropractor's goal is to look at the whole structural system of the body. So that means how your spine is lining up, how it's moving, and then how the attachment points, all the muscles are moving. And that takes into account how you're moving when you're walking, when you're sitting, when you're standing, if there's any curves developing that shouldn't be there, most common is the scoliosis. So chiropractors really goal is on the nervous system, and what's encasing the nervous system is the spinal column. And then obviously, now we also work on extremities, we work on arms and legs and feet. But our focus is making sure that the spine is lines up, moving correctly, and that it's strong enough to hold itself up in the right position.

SPEAKER_07 49:39

Marl is a Greek and Italian-American Bay Ridge girl. Both are very close-knit communities in our neighborhood. She also grew up in a chiropractor home. Her father has a doctorate in mathematics, but both her mother and older brother became chiropractors.

SPEAKER_13 49:52

Grew up in Bay Ridge, second generation chiropractor. My mom had a chiropractic practice for 35 years on 91st Street and Short Road. So I still see some of her patients to this day. I went to local schools, PS 185, that's still up and kicking on 86th Street. So I was there from kindergarten through fifth grade. They had a great Delta program. It was a gifted and talented program at the time, one of the newer ones. So I was there, and then I went into McKinley Honors, and then I went into Fort Hamilton Honors.

SPEAKER_07 50:22

As you just heard at the beginning of this segment, growing up on 91st Street near Shore Road, the park and bicycle path influenced Marla's life. Also, I hadn't thought about Chianti's in years. My family had plenty of parties there, like my grandparents' 40th wedding anniversary, way back in 2003. But back to Dr. Marla. What are some of the things that made growing up with a mom who was a chiropractor different?

SPEAKER_13 50:43

When you would have a cold as a kid, or you would be under the weather as a kid, not feeling good stuffy nose. My mom's first go-to is not only like the soups and the broths, but come downstairs, we're gonna adjust you. And not only adjust you, we're gonna drain your sinuses, which is lymphatic drainage, which is like a very big thing going on now. But she was doing that then. So that was my thing. I was sick, I would eat really well, I would rest, and I would get adjusted. And then she was also really smart because she was really objective. So at some point, I developed some other health issues, and she wanted to make sure she, as a chiropractor, wasn't missing anything because it's her daughter. So she had a very close friend who practiced in Bay Ridge as well. And she would take me there once a week, and then she even would drive me to Long Island, sometimes to another chiropractor, pediatric chiropractor, to get a more objective assessment of me and to make sure that it wasn't too subjective on her ends. So she was, I think, really ahead of her time utilizing it both ways, using it on me as her daughter, and then taking the bull by the horns and saying, you know what, I'm also gonna go to other providers just to make sure I'm doing a thorough job and I'm not clouded.

SPEAKER_07 51:56

How did she develop this passion?

SPEAKER_13 52:00

My grandfather was from Italy, came here when he was younger, and he always had a really big interest in health and wellness. He was a plumber by trade, but he was very interested on his own, on health and wellness. So he bought every book on any type of natural endeavor. And then he met a chiropractor somehow who was based in Manhattan. Dr. Helga Schrager, I believe her name was, thought it was the coolest thing. And when my mom turned 18, he enrolled her in New York Chiropractic College, which was based in Manhattan at the time, and set her up with an apartment. And she was in chiropractic school at 18, like one of two women in her whole class of men.

SPEAKER_08 52:39

Wow. Well, was this something that she was all in for?

SPEAKER_13 52:42

Or was she introduced to this chiropractor, became a patient of the chiropractor Manhattan, and my grandfather kind of facilitated her entree to school, and she was really diligent in it. She graduated, you know, with people who were developing all the techniques. So when you hear about certain chiropractic techniques that are named after people like the Palmer method or SOT, she was taught by the people who were developing the technique at the time. So then she was in a different class of chiropractic. These were the people that were on the forefront developing techniques. They didn't have anything else, they only had their hands, they didn't have fancy modalities like we have now to help with healing. They had to really be on point with their assessments and interpretation of how I'm gonna just retreat this patient. When there was no laser, there was no electrical stimulation, there were no modalities.

SPEAKER_07 53:40

But she found it wasn't for her and went to the University of Bridgeport, earning her doctor of chiropractic in 2008.

SPEAKER_08 53:48

You become a chiropractor. Was it immediate I'll work with my mother? It was.

SPEAKER_13 53:53

Yeah, it was because my brother was in the practice before me, and I thought how cool it is, you know, to work with my brother. So yeah, that was definitely the goal to like continue a family tradition, serve her patients, and see where we could go with it.

SPEAKER_08 54:07

And this was still at 91st Street. Correct, yeah. Now that was your childhood home. Okay, your family doesn't live there.

SPEAKER_13 54:14

No, no, no longer out there in New Jersey, and like I said, my brother's in Florida now. So but we started there and we were there for like five years.

SPEAKER_07 54:21

I was curious how Dr. Marl has seen people's relationships with their chiropractor change over the years.

SPEAKER_13 54:28

I think instead of not only being thought of as like a pain management, come into the chiropractor when you're in pain, like we were touching about before, is that it's getting to all ages, so children are getting more involved, parents are more interested in a holistic method for their kids. People want to come in and get checked before they have a problem. So people who are like in their 20s and they're working out and they're going to yoga, they're coming in because, oh, I feel a little tight, or oh, I want to make sure I'm in good shape. So they're really utilizing it in a way that's different than prior, where chiropractic was really one of the only modalities that dealt with like spinal pain. There weren't as many physical therapists. And so it was really seeing that population, where now we're seeing a greater patient population and for different reasons. More recently, with I think technology and people being sedentary, certainly everybody can speak about a tech snack, forward head posture, a lot of pain in the shoulders and the neck, headaches, migraines from looking at a screen. And certainly that's I think a newer stressor that's come on in like more recent years. And then there's physical stresses like having a job where you're lifting a lot all the time and you're just constantly straining your back, and maybe you're not doing enough to exercise and balance the other areas of your body, and that creates it. And mental stress can go to those weak areas. So if you are, for example, under a lot of stress at work and you're rushing to get through a project, your breath pattern might change and you might do short panting breaths, and you're not activating all the muscles around your ribs and your diaphragm, and you can create unwanted tension in areas that really shouldn't be there, but are just trying to keep up with you because you're fighting all day long instead of relaxing. And that's where that whole fight or flight sound comes from. You know, am I running throughout my day, or am I having an opportunity to like rest and allow my body to digest and relax? Most of us are in fight or flight. We're running morning till night, and that creates tension. Shoulders, neck, lower back, stomach issues.

SPEAKER_07 56:27

What's the age range of the patients she treats?

SPEAKER_13 56:30

So an adjustment in different ways, but a couple weeks old, I see babies to seniors. It's just that the treatment is different. It's tuned for you know people who aren't as familiar with the baby. You're not doing, you know, manipulation, you're doing a lot of like gentle pressure, positioning, some little stretching, and it's a lot of patient to parent education. How should I carry the baby? What can I do to help stimulate strength in the baby?

SPEAKER_07 56:58

This is a good time to bring up the Healthy Path Foundation, but first, what are some changes in this generation of kids?

SPEAKER_13 57:06

I think what I'm seeing overall from a chiropractic perspective, and something that we've talked about with the Healthy Path Foundation, is there's not enough movement in general for children. Kids should be strong and should have good posture and should sit erect. And a lot of kids come in and they sit like a C. They're bent forward. If you ask them to stand up straight, it's an effort. They can get some headaches, they just cannot really stand in a really good strong posture. So I think I'm starting to see more weakness in children, especially like in their core and in their spine. Less overall movement, agility, just good muscle strength and development. And so that has become more of an issue over the years. And I think particularly was highlighted during COVID when kids were on iPads and home and remote learning. And that kind of, I think, also spiraled, especially for the younger kids at the time. They weren't getting again that socialization, that movement. And so that's what I would say is the biggest change. Definitely their strength and the way they hold their bodies.

SPEAKER_07 58:13

So was there anything that you were with your kids during those two years of COVID basically, right? Was there anything that you were immediately saying, I've got to make sure what I and Z happens or doesn't happen?

SPEAKER_13 58:25

Yeah, we got out every day. Every day we went for a hike. I'm big into kids connecting with nature. I think it's good for them to be calm, to be outside. Can't just look at four walls. We're natural beans. We need light, healing sounds, take that for what you want. I think we need to be outside in nature and connect, even if it's her an hour. So every day without fail, they won't go anymore. We went to the green belts in Staten Island. There's lots of different trails, and we went hiking almost every day. Weather was cold, weather was hot, we were outside every day. That was my non-negotiable. We'll be in, but between like lunch and dinner, we were out for two hours. My neighbors joke it looked like a baseball camp in my backyard because we had baseball going, we had football nets, we were outside in the yard, so I tried to integrate without fail movement every day. So at the time I was having my first son, and then I had my second son. Friends of mine were using him as a pediatrician, and he has a holistic approach. He's not quick to give medications to children. He really cares about how they're developing, what they're eating, what their life looks like, are they social? All of these things that are very crucial to healthy development. And then he formed in 2014, he got the Healthy Path Foundation, a not-for-profit status. And he forms a board to try to take this mission, you know, to the community, research, education, promoting prevention over illness treatment. And he asked me at the time, because we had been working together with similar patients, would I be interested in joining the board and helping out? And from there, we just, you know, I never left.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:09

On March 20th, Healthy Path Foundation will be hosting their 10th annual wellness gala with a casino night at the Diger Beach Golf Club.

SPEAKER_13 1:00:18

This is our 10th year hosting the gala. This is our major fundraising event for the Healthy Path Foundation. This is what funds our now first ever Healthy Path Club in DGK, Holy Cross School. This is where we fund our community outreach, like fairs and festivals. We have an honorary every year, so we try to fix someone from generally the healthcare industry that makes a difference. Last year was a physical therapist that is really a pro on dealing with people and families and preventative medicine. So strengthening, very passionate about what they do, go above and beyond and cutting edge. So this year is a functional doctor, Dr. Jalal Hamza, who is a functional medicine doctor for adults. When you leave your pediatrician, where do you go? And so he's our person we want to honor for all the good work he's doing on trying to find a balance for adults on how to stay healthy in a holistic manner. And it's a lot. We have sponsors we have to reach out to that are recurring every year. We have our followers that we want to come and grow. So we invite our followers who attend our other events to come to this, see what we're about. We're gonna thank Holy Cross School, who's again hosting our first Healthy Path Club. So we have teachers from the school we're inviting. This is our way to kind of showcase what we've done through the year, what we're putting our funds to, and what we're about.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:41

Before we talk more about the casino night itself, Dr. Marla mentioned that the Holy Cross Elementary School is hosting the first Healthy Path Club. I asked her to explain.

SPEAKER_13 1:01:52

So because you know we're community-based, we knew of the school, we have members that are teachers there or have attended, and they were open since they're a private school to allowing us to come in and have a class every Monday afternoon, 3:15 to 415, teaching kids basically about their body and how to stay healthy and doing activities associated with it, like how to eat healthy, how to move properly. We have a whole movement every day that they do.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:17

What are the positive changes you've seen since?

SPEAKER_13 1:02:20

The feedback from the parents are that the kids come back really excited and they'll talk about the lessons they learned. So whether it's about avoiding processed food or having to move more, they're picking up those tidbits of information from the class and they're bringing it home. And they're starting to change some of their habits. You know, it's a slow process, but they're starting to change some of their habits of maybe not eating the right foods or not moving enough to doing that. So it's rewarding to we changed the Vencing machine, so we took out any artificial sweeteners and drinks. So they only have good options to drink from the Vencing machine if they choose. And same with their snacks. We took away the like the Doritos and we replaced it with better options. So change is small, but we have to do a little bit at a time.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:02

Okay, now for the details about the March 20th casino night. It'll be at the Diger Course Club, located at 1030, 86th Street at 7:30 p.m. It's open to the public, and tickets are$175.

SPEAKER_13 1:03:13

Yeah, it's like a well-known spot. People go to other fundraisers like a month earlier there, so there it's in the community. It's open to the public. It's casino night. It's super fun. We have lots of raffles, lots of prizes. It's set up like a cocktail party. There's food everywhere, pastor d'oeuvres, open bar, food stations everywhere, desserts. We will have our honoree, Dr. Hamza, speaking to the audience, giving a lot of great information that you might not hear other places. And we'll be honoring these like great kids who are facilitating the Healthy Path Club. There's music going on, there's dancing. It's just a lot of fun. It's a great venue if you're interested at all in health, wellness, supporting a good cause to come and just meet other like minds of people too. We're gonna be about 200 people, maybe even a little bit over. And it'll be a lot of fun. But there's an open bar? Yeah, there's open open smoothies too. We're doing open bar for the adult side.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:10

Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. Great. I mean, when you say casino night, what are we talking about?

SPEAKER_13 1:04:14

Like Yeah, we're talking about like Wheel of Fortune, I think we're having roulette, blackjack.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:19

If you're interested in attending the March 20th Gala, the easiest place to grab tickets is through either healthypathfoundation.org slash events or through at Healthy Path Foundation on Instagram. I'll be raffling off two tickets to my upcoming Haunted Bay Ridge Walking Tour on March 27th. Hey Dr. Marla, any additional thoughts?

SPEAKER_13 1:04:38

We're constantly looking to network with others. You don't have to only be in the health and wellness business to help us. This is to create community. We want people in our community to be to socialize, to know one another. So it's really important for us to meet like our other partners in the community. So for like other Bay Ridge and Brooklyn businesses or businesses within the whole city that are just interested in our message or have talents that they want to give. People like to give back. People are very talented in arts and crafts or woodworking or experiences like yourself with tours. We want to encourage people to have real experiences, not just sit at home behind a screen. If they want to contribute to us, we'll find a way to use you.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:27

She's here Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and one Saturday per month by appointment. To book an appointment, please call 718-680-2222.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:36

You can also find more info at Brooklyn Chiropractical Partners.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:00

Forth from its sunny nook of sheltered grass. Innocent golden. Calm as the dawn. The Springs first dandelion shows its trustful face. Walt Whitman. New York Herald. March 12th, 1888. It's noon on Monday, March 12, 1888. We're crouched on the fifth floor veranda of the Grand View Hotel looking north into town. Overnight the freezing rain has turned to snow. We're engulfed in a hurricane blizzard. Snowdrift, or at least two stories. People are trapped inside their homes. Those who attempted to make it into places of business this morning either had to turn back or seek shelter. Schools are now closed. Down telephone and telegraph wires everywhere. All bells in town are ringing. Houses are rocking like cradles. Those along the shore road are being damaged. Behind me, waves are battering against the grand view staircase down at the shore. Tugboats are trying to break through the ice, but the conditions are making it impossible. All roads out of Newtricht are blocked. Supposedly a train carrying 50 men with troubles departed from Atlantic Avenue to help. They never got here. The bar room at the Grand View will be busy today. There's not much else to do. But pray, this passes swiftly.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:14

The whole republic is going to collapse. Gentlemen, gentlemen.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:21

Will you make the right deal?

SPEAKER_12 1:08:23

Memories are short in New York. If you don't make a fortune, someone else will.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:28

I know you've been bringing Rosemary into port illegally. I have eyes and ears and noses and tongues everywhere.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:36

Or fall to greed.

SPEAKER_09 1:08:38

If I was caught with diamonds at any time, any time, my sister and I would have been gang raped and murdered. I do this for you. Look at what we got here, bricked up!

SPEAKER_01 1:08:48

Looks like we're caught as a dandy and a whore all alone on South Street with nowhere to hide. Ain't that right, boys?

SPEAKER_07 1:08:56

But whatever you choose. There's the choice. You just always make the same choice. The one for yourself. Just make sure you get out in time.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:08

Lord have mercy on us all.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:11

Out now on your favorite podcast app. Burning Gotham, the 2022 Tribeca Select Audio Soap Opera. About the fastest growing city in the world, and the opportunists who shaped it. To find out more, go to Burning Gotham.com.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:47

I came back here in November.

SPEAKER_14 1:09:50

The end of November, so like Christmas time, back into the Ridge. And I was not planning on it. I had a whole other like chart of my life planned out in a different place when all these other things happened. So I came back here and moved into my grandmother's apartment. It was her full apartment with still here. And then slowly went through everything and converted it into my space. And I feel like that took about a year to really feel like it was my apartment.

SPEAKER_08 1:10:21

Did you feel like you were emotional?

SPEAKER_14 1:10:25

No, I didn't, but it's emotional. And it wasn't really my stuff to get rid of her. I had to love my mom, which is really emotional for her and the other members of the family. I still have a lot of her stuff because she was a prolific hitter. And so I have all her materials still. I had all her cleaning supplies. Some cleaning supplies I still have from when she was alive because she had so many. And like when Doug doesn't go back.

SPEAKER_08 1:10:56

Well, and I guess in a way you're still getting to use it. I'm sure she'd be happy.

SPEAKER_14 1:11:00

Yeah, I think that her and my grandfather would be happy that there's a part being made in this debate.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:08

Five years after getting her degree from Alfred University, Katie Cogland enrolled in a three-year graduate program at Ohio State. After she graduated in November of 2018, she found herself living back in Bay Ridge. As you just heard, Katie had other ideas, but life can present different plans. And something we all have to learn is how to live with loss. Katie slowly turned her grandmother's third-floor apartment at 264 Ovington Avenue into her pottery studio. There she spent the next five years working on her own projects and working for other studios. So why did she decide to open her studio up to the public in December of 2024 and teach courses within?

SPEAKER_14 1:12:04

Then I realized that there was no studio anywhere. Then once I started thinking about converting my personal studio into a community space, I felt serendipitous that I was here because of the Ovington pottery and the Ovington Artist Village, but also just that I have this space to do this. Because my family could have very easily been like, no, we're renting that out at full market value. But my landlords who are my parents are very flexible. I have kilns in the basement. You know, there's people coming in and out of the house all the time. And it is a totally separate entrance. It's the third floor, but it does disrupt things. Right, you know.

SPEAKER_08 1:12:46

Because it's a professional studio.

SPEAKER_14 1:12:48

Yeah. And so I feel lucky that I have this space to share because I wouldn't be able to do this in a storefront at this intimate of a scale.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:57

What's the reaction been?

SPEAKER_14 1:12:59

The people who come here, basically I have had like 50 to 60% re-enrollment of students throughout the whole semester. And I think they feel lucky that this is here in the neighborhood. And a lot of them feel like it's a break from their lives, which everyone's so involved in the computer, you know, that it's like a nice place to have.

SPEAKER_07 1:13:20

Prior to turning it into a public-facing studio where you're going to offer classes and stuff, how much of an inkling did you have that this could be a viable thing that people are interested in?

SPEAKER_14 1:13:30

Ceramics as a trend for hobby has in the last 10 years has become a huge thing. There are now so many ceramics studios in Brooklyn and in Manhattan and in Queens. It's nuts. And there's like wait lists at every studio.

SPEAKER_08 1:13:45

Is that, do you think, a response to how digital our lives are?

SPEAKER_14 1:13:48

Yeah, and I also think a response to like social media because social media makes it look very easy. Oh, I'll come in and I'll make a bowl first try, no problem. I'll make a mug, no problem. And it's actually a bit harder than that. But I think social media has allowed people to see it as an accessible material. It's hard to be an individual ceramic because you need so much equipment. And so community studios facilitate people being able to make work because you don't have to purchase the kiln, which is quite an investment, and electric is quite an investment for it. And just material and clay disposal and community studios allow for it to be a viable thing that people get to do. Whereas, like if you're a painter, you can paint by yourself. You don't need to like shift things in your plumbing, you know.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:38

So, what does Ovington pottery offer?

SPEAKER_14 1:14:41

So the main thing that I offer are weekly classes. I offer four sessions a year based on the season spring, summer, winter, fall. They're 10 weeks long, so you know that's a commitment that you have to make as an adult to do this. Once a week. Once a week, you meet for two and a half hours. So I offer morning classes as well as evening classes on the wheel. And then I also offer hand building classes. And the wheel classes are just three students and a teacher, and the hand building classes can fit seven students and a teacher. So pretty small in comparison to other studio spaces. Then I also offer family lessons, which I just had one this morning, which was so fun to have two little kids and their parents. Date nights, which I try to add a little romance. We have candlelight, chocolate, some flowers. And then private lessons as well. Or birthday parties or kind of anything as long as it fits in the schedule.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:40

Who has access to the studio?

SPEAKER_14 1:15:42

The only way you have access to the studio is if you are a student. I have open studio times. So if you're a student, you can come in. The times in general are Monday through Thursday, 1 to 8 p.m. And that varies. Like if I have a hand building class going on, you can work in the wheel section. If I have a wheel class going on, you can work in the hand building section. But I do have a membership program called a home membership. So if you have clay experience, I offer my studio as a place to come glaze the pots, which is the glass layer on the outside of the pot that makes the pot food safe, and to fire your work in the kiln. Because those are the two things that are really inaccessible to the community. Like you could make at home. So people make at home and then bring their work here and I fire it in the kilns, and then they can come in and glaze and use the space.

SPEAKER_08 1:16:32

And how much flea time do you need from somebody who says, like, hey, I need to fire this by well.

SPEAKER_14 1:16:44

I also offer the option, like, if you make your own work at home and are not part of my studio at all, you can fire work in the kilns, but we just have to have a conversation about it and there's a fee for it. But that's an option as well. People contact me all the time for that. Because kilns are hard to put in apartments.

SPEAKER_07 1:17:03

Katie and I chatted in late February during the middle of our winter session.

SPEAKER_08 1:17:08

As we're recording this, and definitely by the time this airs, we're wrapping up your winter session. So where are people working?

SPEAKER_14 1:17:15

So right now we're in the right smack in the middle of the winter session. So we've already had one go-through of work processing through the kilns. People have already had finished work, and now we'll keep going on. So like my beginner wheel students are just starting to learn about how to make an intentional bowl and to add handles to mugs. And my hand building students were learning about slabs. We've been learning about slab building this past week, and next week we'll learn about different types of slab building.

SPEAKER_07 1:17:45

So, how does Katie feel about living in Bay Ridge these days?

SPEAKER_14 1:17:50

I feel great about it. I feel like I am meeting all these creative people who are interested in creativity. I've made like a community. I have to like wear nice outfits on the street now. I see people all the time. And I feel like it has given me a sense of Bay Ridge from a different perspective. Because I only had the perspective that I had when I was a kid. And so this has changed it. And most people who come take classes didn't grow up here. And so they all love Beyridge and they love living here. And so that's kind of a nice thing for me to see.

SPEAKER_07 1:18:27

By the time you're hearing this, it's very possible that Katie's spring session will have filled up. The easiest place to find additional info on classes is at ovingtonpottery.com. Or on Instagram at ovingtonpottery. Katie's email is ovingtonpottery at gmail.com. Before we go, hey Katie, what are some of your favorite local food places?

SPEAKER_14 1:18:53

I mean food, basically, that's what I go out in search of every day. So like my number one coffee is Clockface Coffee. They make exceptional espresso there. So I go every day for a daily walk so that I leave my studio and apartment. And I've been eating a lot of food from Makuba, which is our new Lebanese restaurant very close by on 71st Street. I always go to Samiya's to get some vegetarian sponge pies. I love peppinos for Italian food. That's probably my favorite. They're eggplant farms exceptional. And I go into the East Bakery a lot to get fresh pizza bread.

SPEAKER_15 1:19:45

Hi, my name is Chrissy Cannie, and I'm the special events coordinator for the Merchants of Third Avenue. So the taste of Third Avenue is going to be an amazing event that we're having at St. Patrick's Auditorium because last year we had a facality dog and we needed more space. So it's going to be even bigger and better. And we have 28 restaurants or cafes that have said yes to being a part of the day. When you come to the Avenue, maybe some of us tend to pick the same restaurant over and over again and we don't want to go the 20 blocks to the other end to try something new. So this is a chance to go to one spot and try 28 restaurants from 3rd Avenue that goes as far as 67th Street all the way up to 94th Street. Tickets are$55. And then there is a special ticket for$80 that gets you to the after party at BarCuso with the influencers Brooklyn Bites. It's going to be in the lounge on the side of Bar Cuso, and Ronnie's going to be our DJ. It's just going to be a fun night. So$25 just gets you in the door. Drinks or food are not included. It's just a moment to hang out, take some photos with Brooklyn Bites, and hang out with some other people and just have fun. And we're going to like dance the night away or the afternoon away because it's kind of starting at like a 5 30. So how it's going to work is that you're going to receive a ticket and they're going to punch you. So you're going to get 20 taste or sips because we have one cafe that's giving us a coffee sample. And then you really get two from each table. So 56 bites or sips that you're going to get. And depending, you know, the restaurants last year were so, so generous. People had to go containers that they took home. We fed the NYPD, the FDNY. I'm hoping that people buy their tickets in advance so we don't waste any food and we have the right numbers or we're not short food. So I really encourage people to buy tickets so the day goes even smoother. By having everything packed, the restaurants now really get to have some space and really get to show off who they are. This year they'll get six to eight feet each. So they'll bring photos, they'll bring menus, they'll be gift cards that they'll sell at a discount, or maybe some products they want to give away. So I think you really get to know the owners and we're not on top of each other. And you can hang out and talk to some of the chefs and owners as well. School of Rock is performing. The house band's gonna do two steps. But Steffi and Sabrina, the influencers Brooklyn Bikes. I want people to get to know the owners or the chefs. So I said to them, hey, I would love you just to take the mic and just go ask some questions to people and just get an idea of what their heart is and why they love Bay Ridge so much and why they chose Bay Ridge. You are allowed to buy tickets at the door. We're not going to turn anybody away, but I really, really wish that people will buy them in advance so the restaurants can be prepared. So the easiest way to find tickets right now is you can go to the merchants website, so merchantsofthirdavenue.com, and you can go to our Instagram page, Merchants of Third Ave, and it's up in the link in the bio. And it's a Zeffi link, so it's great. So with Zefi, if anybody wants a tip, you don't have to pay the fees, roll that back to zero, and you're playing the flat rate.

SPEAKER_07 1:23:35

As if Manhattan Island was in the middle of the South Sea. The New York Times, March 13th, 1888. Wednesday, March 14th, 1888. Nightfall in Bay Ridge. The worst of the blizzard hurricane has finally passed, but the damage is considerable. We're on Ovington Avenue, near the Ovington Brothers store. They're using a steam heat pipe in the basement. It leads through the manhole and the pavement to the gutter. The steam is pumping out while men dump snow over hot vapor, melting it away. Unfortunately, most don't have this option, even as horse cars try to make their way through. Several boats are wrecked off the shore, and many more have drifted out to sea. There are crews stuck in the ice all over the upper and lower New York Bays. The end of the pier at the tip of Bay Ridge Avenue has been torn off and destroyed. Farm homes and mansions along the shore road are badly damaged. In some places, the snow drifts are 40 feet. Most of the smaller homes in Fort Hamilton have been nearly buried on whatever side the wind was blowing. No trains have run on the Coney Island Railroad. No mail has arrived since Sunday. The grocery supplies are exhausted. Milk dealers have not served their roots since Monday. Bakers can't deliver bread. Coal is going for a dollar a bushel. Last evening, most of Fort Hamilton and Bay Ridge were in darkness. Many lampposts have been blown down, and others are almost entirely hidden by snow drifts. A Cub reporter for the New York Star, hearing that a tidal wave struck Coney Island, set out to cover the event. He died along the way. We fear many others, along with birds and animals, are frozen beneath the snow. Almost all telephone and telegraph lines have been destroyed. In places where electricity is prevalent, downed wires have electrocuted people. There's already talk that going forward, power lines would need to be buried underground. It's being said by all that this is the worst storm anyone has witnessed in their lifetime.

SPEAKER_10 1:26:06

Before invention, mainly on fruits and nuts and pine corns, and slept in caves. Reginald Fetton.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:19

More than 400 people, including 200 in New York City, died during the Great Blizzard of 1888 within the first 48 hours. Many were buried beneath snow drifts. Multiple rainstorms later in the month of March caused massive flooding. It took months for both New York City and Kings County to repair damages. Overhead communication wires. Numerous telephone, telegraph, and electrical poles were destroyed. The highest snowdrift on Long Island was 52 feet recorded in Gravesend. In the aftermath, the City of New York passed legislation necessitating all power lines on Manhattan Island be buried underground. The storm exasperated the need for reliable communication without wires. The previous year, German physicist Heinrich Hertz proved the existence of electromagnetic waves, first theorized in James Clerk Maxwell's electromagnetic theory of light. The transmitter was a Leiden jar that stored electricity and a coil of wire, the ends of which were left open so that a small gap was formed. The receiver was a similar coil on the other side of the room. When the jar was charged, electricity flew across the gap and was received on the other end. At first, these waves were nicknamed Herzian waves. Today, they're called radio waves.

SPEAKER_10 1:28:18

Actually, you know, it's beyond my expectation, I'd say. Even though I haven't done any paid marketing, so I'm discounting on the word of mask. And since pay rate, it's more of a like the village, not the city. So the word of path counts a lot. And and this is bringing a lot of people to the copper shop just because someone comes in here, have a good experience, or just show us and it's like, oh, they have a good coffee, oh, the owner's friendly. So the outcome so far, without spending a bother on marketing, is way is amazing.

SPEAKER_07 1:28:54

Next time on the Bay Ridge Digest Podcast, we celebrate Ramadan, take a sound bath, head to a disco pop-up, and march in the St. Paddy's Day Parade. The reading material used in today's episode included The Mighty Blizzard of 1888 by Edward Oxford for American History Illustrated, March 1988. Last from the Past, the Pictorial History of Radio's first 75 Years by B. Eric Rhodes. The first gentrifiers by Henry Stewart for BKLYNR, issue 38, November 6, 2014. As well as articles from AmericanHeritage.com, the Brooklyn Daily Times, the Brooklyn Eagle, The New York Herald, The New York Times, and The Times Union. Thank you to the guests, Chrissy Canney, Katie Coglin, Tony Gibalaro Malone, Jess Goodwin, Hassan Haider, Dr. Marlar Lagren, and Catherine O'Rourke. I've got tours coming up this month, including one this Sunday, March 15th, and a special edition of Haunted Bay Ridge on Friday, March 27th. For tickets and more info on all my tours, please click on Linktree slash the Wallbreakers, L-A-N-K-T-R.ee slash the Wallbreakers. Or you can go to either my Bayridge Digest Instagram or at the Wallbreakers Instagram accounts. If you're interested in more info about advertising rates or other various audio production capabilities, please go to thewallbreakers.com or email me at james at the wallbreakers.com. For more info on how to submit a story lead, please go to BayridgeDigest.com. You can also get in touch by emailing BayridgeDigest at gmail.com. So until March 26th, my name is James Scully. This has been the Bayridge Digest Podcast episode 10, and I'll catch you on the flip side. Thank you very much.