And 26 percent of Americans are, keep an eye out for Island author and award-winning New York Times columnist Robert Lipsyte. He is the host of “Life (Part II)” — a 30-minute weekly PBS show on Boomer aging that had its first local run on Channel 21 last week and will continue each week for 20 sessions on Wednesday nights at 11:30 p.m. If you missed the first episode on “Boomer Marriage,” catch the series on Sundays, starting November 1, on Channel 13 at 3 p.m. 


Happy birthday to...


Peter J. Needham and Lion Zust on September 25; Gene Shepherd Sr., Tessa Laspia, Susan Mundy, Michael Tehan, Cassandra Bliss, Maria Rebecca Burger, Anne Marie McClean, Tyler Gulluscio, Emily Escobar, Suzi Power-Morris and Nancy Smith on September 26; Isabel Victoria Bowditch on September 27; Susan Hopke, Ellen Kornrumpf and Cash William Crawford on September 28; Diane Valentine on September 29; Eddie Brown, Eric Gershon, Ellen Endrizzi, Taylor Ashley Thomson and Sherry Treutler on September 30; and Jay Card, Robert DeStefano Jr., Richie Surozenski Jr., Rod Anderson, Jan Mahood, May Sherman, Jo-Ann Robotti and Mark Patykewich on October 1.


Happy anniversary to...


Janet and Bruce Jernick and Bruce and Susan Hopke on September 26; Joan and Chris Tehan on September 29; Susan and Brian Mundy on September 30; and Norma and Russell Russo on October 1.


Congratulations to...


Members of the Shelter Island Faculty Association, who raised over $400 in just a few short days for the “Walk to Defeat ALS” in memory of the Island’s former school superintendent, Ken Lanier. Every 90 minutes a new patient is diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and the average life expectancy is only two to five years from that time.


Donations to the faculty team, Lanier’s Peers, are still being accepted: “Walk to Defeat ALS,” 42 Broadway, Suite 1624, New York, NY 10024.