The Barn Blog

Evan Goldenberg is the ultimate connoisseur.  He shared his passion with us, told some great stories, and answered questions about the finer things in life. We discussed wine, scotch, cigars, clothing, architecture, and women. Evan made some great value recommendations (see comments) and even offerred to assist any of us with wine selection when we’re at a restaurant and are not sure what to order. The highlight of the evening was when Evan shared a bottle of 1970 Fonseca Port with all of us. How generous of him!

Donato Vaccaro, who lives across the street from the barn, is an Associate Director at Consumer Reports. He’s responsible for overseeing the online version of the Annual Questionnaire, when more than 800,000 subscribers report on their experiences with a range of products and services. Donato gave us an overview of this 75 year old organization and answered questions about how products are evaluated and rated. Most of us were impressed by the steps Consumer Reports takes to insure that its tests are unbiased and its reporting impervious to outside influence.

Peter McCartt is Chairman of the Eastchester Environmental Committee. By discussing the initiatives he’s involved in, we learned how it’ s possible to make a difference in our communities and in the quality of our lives. Khalil Shalabi, who servers on Peter’s committee, contributed to the discussion as well.

Local architect John Iannacito lead an open discussion on architecture and home renovation. Although he didn’t have a prepared talk or presentation, he fielded a continuous stream of questions for an hour. Clearly this is an interesting topic for men, and John did a great job of educating us. Besides being highly experienced and knowledgable, we all appreciated John’s sincerety and authentic demeanor.

Mark Allen of Mark Allen Racing gave an excellent presentation on NASCAR, which stands for the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. NASCAR is said to be the most popular spectator sport in the world. Mark gave us insight into the business behind NASCAR and shared info on the new venture he formed to race in the Nationwide Series this year.

Timothy Mooney of Symantec shared his insights on Internet Safety. His presentation made us aware of the extent to which our privacy and the personal information on our computers is in jeopardy. Tim told some interesting stories about security breeches affecting large corporations and even governments. He gave us practical advice for keeping our data as safe as possible. This event marked the end of 4 years (48 consecutive months) of barn nights.

Steve Quigley invited Ron Pramschufer of Self-Publishing, Inc. to share his experiences in the publishing busines. Finding an agent or publisher that will take on your book can be difficult. So using a service like Ron’s to publish your own book may be a viable option.  Ron recommended that every man over 50 years-old write down his life story, publish it, and distribute the book to his family. Imagine having this from our grandfathers, great-grandfathers, etc. Ron distributed free copies of his own book, Publishing Basics: Navigating the Self-Publishing Minefield. There are extra copies in the barn if you missed the event and would like one.

Comedy Night was back by popular demand. John Sirabella knew a comedian, named Bob Luparella whom he used to work, so he coordinated the event. Bob brought another comedian with him, named Vinny, so we had 2 acts. The humor was appropriately crude for a barn full of guys. Everyone agreed that they were very funny – definitely better than the first Comedy Night.

Rescue Night was led by Ralph Stupple, Asst. Chief/Operations of the Eastchester Fire Department. Ralph gave us an overview of how the department works and contrasted it with that of other municipalities.  He shared many true stories from the rescue missions he’s been involved in. They ranged from hair-raising to hilarious, and from heroic to disgusting. Two other fireman were in attendance and added to Ralph’s stories with interesting details and anecdotes. We received a real appreciation for the challenges involved in this line of work, and gained respect for the brave men who serve our community in this way.

We all took turns standing in front of the room introducing ourselves and explaining what we do for a living. Many of the guys knew each other socially, but knew little or nothing about each other’s professional lives. Sure enough connections were made. One man is a dentist in town and another man needed a dentist. One man sells new mover address lists while another is a contractor who wants to send out a promotional mailing. Networking works.