Opinion | East End Beacon

Opinion

The Cesspool Diaries

August 31, 2013September 10, 2013 Beth Young

[caption id="attachment_2139" align="alignnone" width="600"] My idea of modern art. Copyright ME! Don't steal my ideas.[/caption] We all want our summer to go out with a bang: A bunch of parties, extra days on the beach, houseguests in every spare nook of our houses, the pool put to good use before autumn weather snaps us back to reality. It hasn't been that kind of summer's end around here. Last Monday, my

Opinion

Weeping over the willow motel

August 16, 2013August 27, 2013 Beth Young

[caption id="attachment_1937" align="alignnone" width="600"] This is where the Weeping Willow Motel used to be. The willows are still weeping but the motel is gone.[/caption] This plan Riverhead had to close the old Weeping Willow Motel and build a park hits close to my heart. I've been trying to understand exactly why for weeks, as the town readies the park for its grand opening this afternoon. Every time I drive past

Opinion

For Lady Jeanne

July 30, 2013August 9, 2013 Beth Young

[caption id="attachment_763" align="alignnone" width="600"] The Lady Jeanne on The Lady Jeanne in Maine[/caption] We'd all been expecting the call when it came in mid-June. The Lady Jeanne, my grandmother, had not been well since Mother's Day, and the doctors had expected Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Jeanne knew on the day of the diagnosis that she would go home, say goodbye to everyone she loved, and go to sleep for the last time.

In the World Opinion

The Women’s Open can kiss my cash register

June 30, 2013July 15, 2013 Beth Young

[caption id="attachment_844" align="alignnone" width="600"] Tuckahoe Road, Shinnecock Hills, Wednesday. The police send you down this road when you try to drive to Sebonack.[/caption] I'm all for women playing sports. Really. It's good for women and it's good for society. But I'm so steamed at the U.S. Women's Open in Southampton this week that it would take a barista to pour me out. Now, people say that golf is a perfectly

Opinion

Learning to love the Strawberry Festival

June 14, 2013June 12, 2014 Beth Young

[caption id="attachment_582" align="alignnone" width="598"] This is the beginning of a Ray Bradbury novel.[/caption] I'm afraid of hulling night. I have to admit it and I'm very sorry to the Mattituck Lions Club and to all the people who love the Mattituck Strawberry Festival. I will learn to love this festival some day. You see, my fear of hulling night dates back to a time, a long time ago, in Mattituck,

Opinion

Oh, you live in a duck? Where is Flanders?

June 11, 2013November 11, 2013 Beth Young

[caption id="attachment_531" align="alignnone" width="600"] Shannon Merker's Big Duck flag flies over Flanders today.[/caption] It's difficult to not have an inferiority complex when you live in Flanders. People in Riverhead think you're uptight about reminding everyone that you live in Southampton Town, and therefore in The Hamptons. People in The Hamptons spit the word Flanders as if they're hacking up a lung when you mention where you live at a cocktail

Opinion

The ocean doesn’t like you

June 1, 2013June 7, 2013 Beth Young

[caption id="attachment_244" align="alignnone" width="600"] This beach is in Sagaponack somewhere. photo b. young[/caption] Sand fleas. BMWs stretching to the horizon. Sandy bottoms. Dirty feet. Stinky bathrooms. Rancid hot dogs. Rip currents. Disinterested lifeguards. And you think the ocean likes you? It's time once again for the media's annual glorification of the East End's beaches. This whole phenomena came about, in part, because a guy named Dr. Beach, who sometimes hangs