One problem with having a deadline 10 days before publication is that, sometimes, a lot of significant events just on the cusp of happening come too late for the deadline on Tuesday but are old hat by newsstand Friday. Naturally, we’ll take note of them in the next and final column, but it is a bit frustrating – the election, Perlberger Cup, Jogathon, and sundry other buzz will be over and un-buzzed by the time you see this, which of course will still be true even if you don’t see this.
The fireworks display that climaxed the bay picnic on August 2 was perhaps the best yet. Ideal weather, calm seas, zero-knot winds, and an offshore launch pad anchored at a distance offering a guaranteed 87% reduction in the incidence of firework-instigated brush fires, combined to envelop us in a sharp, brilliant, and colorful bath of light worthy of the most hardened pyromaniac’s pyrotechnical demands. Plus, Saltaire has, as ever, become a trend-setter. Within minutes of the final burst of our shower of sparks, no fewer than three similar events erupted over the mainland: the first almost directly across, the second in the vicinity of South Shore University Hospital, and further east, as the Long Island Ducks celebrated another victory. But none of these copycats could hold a Roman Candle to Saltaire’s show.
The question now is whether we do a redo next year or indulge in 21st-century tech by hiring a drone-based light show. Cleaner ecologically, safer firematically, more subdued aurally, and much less expensive pocketbookically, but not quite the same amusementally. Something to drone on about in the coming months.
We inaugurated August with the almost-but-not-quite-rained-out Stuffy Parade. Thank you, camp director Molly, for the great fun.
![“Unfortunately, and despite our warnings and advice to leave [Fire Island] while conditions allowed, many decided not only to stay but to come over to the island,” scolded Ocean Beach Mayor James Mallott in an emailed newsletter on the afternoon of Sept. 26, during the height of the nor’easter. “These decisions put themselves and their families in danger and jeopardized our first responders who had to answer calls that never should have been.”](https://www.fireislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/IMG_8692.jpeg?quality=51&w=700)
