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If you’re at Stony Brook and looking for something different to do off campus, the Long Island in the 70’s exhibit at the Long Island Museum is definitely worth checking out this weekend. It’s right nearby in Stony Brook, and the exhibit dives into what Long Island looked and felt like during the 1970s, from local culture and music to politics, fashion, activism, suburban life, and the social changes happening across the island at the time. A lot of it hits differently when you realize how much of modern Long Island and even the SBU area still reflects that era’s influence.

What makes it especially interesting is how many different fields it connects to beyond history. STEM students might appreciate seeing how technology, transportation, communication, and environmental science were evolving during the decade, especially as Long Island suburbs rapidly expanded. Theater and arts students could probably get a lot out of the fashion, music, advertising, and visual culture of the era, since the exhibit captures the aesthetics and personalities that defined the 70s. Pre-med or medical students may find the exhibit’s references to public health, changing healthcare culture, and environmental concerns interesting in the context of how people understood health and community issues at the time. Psychology students might also appreciate the exhibit as a look into generational identity, social behavior, and how cultural anxieties and movements shaped everyday life during the decade. Even if you’re not usually into museums, it’s a pretty easy local trip from campus and gives a surprisingly relevant snapshot of the history behind the area around SBU today.

I’m an SBU alumnus and I’ve been thinking about a practical, low-cost app concept for the Stony Brook College Democrats called “SBCD Connect.” The idea is to create one centralized platform for organizing events, coordinating volunteers, sharing resources, posting announcements, and keeping members engaged. Features could include an event calendar, volunteer sign-ups, discussion forums, polling/surveys, push notifications, and a resource hub for voter registration and campaign organizing.

To keep development affordable, the app could be built using open-source tools like React Native or Flutter and potentially developed with help from SBU CS students or recent grads. I’d love feedback from current students on whether something like this would actually be useful, what features would matter most, and whether there’d be interest in collaborating on it.

The Video Games: The Great Connector exhibit at the Long Island Museum includes a full Miles Morales mannikin that stands out in a way you might not expect from a gaming history exhibit. It doesn’t come across as just another display piece, placed alongside decades of consoles and games, Miles ends up representing how Spider-Man stories and gaming itself have evolved for a newer generation. The exhibit quietly frames him as part of gaming’s future while still connecting him to the legacy that came before.

The exhibit also features playable NES, Genesis, and PlayStation systems, which gives it a more interactive feel than a typical museum setup. That combination of retro gaming nostalgia and a modern character like Miles Morales creates an interesting contrast between the games that shaped earlier audiences and the newer stories reflecting how much the medium has expanded over time. If you are a fan of Miles, Spider-Man history, or gaming culture in general, it’s definitely something worth seeing this weekend.

]There is something almost anthropologically fascinating about the fact that Wheel of Fortune has survived for over four decades without fundamentally changing its core intellectual challenge, which is essentially “recognize extremely common English phrases while a loud circle decides your financial fate.” It’s not that the show refuses to evolve, it’s that evolution itself seems to bounce off it. The categories remain a fixed set of linguistic recycling bins: “Phrase,” “Thing,” “What Are You Doing?” and the eternally confident “Before & After,” which continues to behave like two unrelated sentences were introduced at a party and dared to merge into one identity. The wheel functions less as a game mechanic and more as a brightly colored stress oracle that occasionally erases your progress for sport. And the puzzles are so culturally baked into everyday speech that viewers at home regularly solve them faster than the people being paid to spin the wheel and discover vowels like they’re rare minerals.

Then there’s Ryan Seacrest, who hosts the entire ritual with the emotional consistency of a well-programmed appliance. His presence doesn’t so much elevate the chaos as translate it into polite television language, where every outcome, big win, total loss, or confidently guessing letters that were never in the puzzle, gets the same carefully balanced reaction of “Isn’t that amazing!” as if he’s contractually required to treat all English phrases as equally groundbreaking discoveries. The joke is that he’s so stable he almost feels detached from the show itself, like a broadcast-safe atmosphere preserving the integrity of spinning objects and extremely obvious answers. A contestant could solve “GOOD EVENING” in seconds and he’d respond like they just decoded ancient prophecy, while gently reminding everyone that yes, this is indeed the correct outcome of spinning a wheel and guessing vowels.

The Video Games: The Great Connector exhibit at the Long Island Museum includes a full Miles Morales mannikin, which stands out more than you might expect in a showcase largely focused on gaming history. It’s presented as more than just a display piece, it represents how Spider-Man stories and video games have evolved toward a new generation, highlighting legacy, diversity, and a different kind of hero stepping into an established role. Placing Miles alongside decades of gaming helps frame him as part of where the medium is heading, not just where it’s been.

The exhibit also features interactive elements, including playable NES, Genesis, and PlayStation systems, so it’s not limited to static displays. That mix of hands-on nostalgia and modern representation creates an interesting contrast, classic games that shaped earlier generations alongside newer cultural icons like Miles Morales, who reflect how storytelling and audiences have expanded over time. If you’re around, it’s a fun and memorable thing to check out this weekend.