*these days you might feel
a shaft of light
make its way across your face
and when you do
you’ll know how it was meant to be

this issue is brought to us by the letter o. o, in her perfectly honest stature, who stands at the fore of this month of the year. a month that is wonderfully romantic—both in the capital and lowercase sense of her brother, the letter r. the beauty of this vowel, ring of infinity as she is, is that she is both like and unlike her 25 brothers and sisters. she, like none other of our alphabet, can convey the full range of human emotion by simply stepping onto our lips: “oh!” for the sudden epiphany, “o.” for when we stand corrected, “ooh?” (and her slangish d’oh!) for the mea culpa of our tinier indiscretions and of course the ecstasy of voluptuous “ooooo” which i’ll leave to your imaginations…

these, and the countless other incarnations of this grand dame of our ABCs, are the inspiration for this issue. the gold of autumn calls from our pages and local harvests are front and center (ooh). north fork winery tours is a road map to the tasting rooms that white, red and fun lovers will enjoy in search of their next favorite vintage. cider rules captures a few new bottles making their way to market. we hipped you to the craft beer trend well before it happened seven years ago, you won’t be disappointed by following up on this one. and it turns out the hard sip has a history rooted in our region. better than pie focuses on apples, once a serious commodity for local farmers, and hard cider was one of the byproducts.

our live the arts section features interviews with giants in the worlds of art and music. rosanne cash is currently touring but caught up with our steve matteo to talk about her music, writing and growing up with johnny and june. billy talbot’s on hold from his tour with neil young, but he told writer roy abrams there are plenty of things happening with his own band. and chuck close, giant of all giant portraitists, spoke with brian kelly about the process of his art and the paradox of having face blindness, the springboard that launched this american master’s peerless oeuvre.

home design is our theme for this edition, in time for the many pre-holiday projects you can no longer ignore. our cover subject, stephen fanuka is the master builder who might be familiar to you for his DIY network show, million dollar contractor, or because you live in manhasset and have seen him around. he spoke with us about the makings of a successful project, the return of his show this season and working with some of the biggest names in entertainment. our great how-to is a concentration of a few successful home designs worthy of inspiration along with details, tips and do’s and don’ts. our bi-annual designer showcase returns, profiling a collection of powerhouses in the field. and the features within the segment will come in handy en route to the holidays: chasing paper is the ultimate reference on working with wallpaper (another trend making a comeback) and eclectic settings captures ideas for freshening up tabletops.

unfortunately october, and our sweet o, also mark a time for remembering two challenges of our human narrative: breast cancer awareness month and the anniversary of sandy. but where there is darkness, there is also light (optimism!). breast check is a look at cancer screenings that can augment traditional testing for early detection. and the inimitable billy crystal joins our pages. crystal, who needs no introduction, has been promoting tourism for his hometown of long beach (as well as partially delivering a sizable donation) to aid in the recovery efforts. in his interview with our aileen jacobson, he talks about his roots here, his new book and the return of his tony-winning play next month. suggestion: read the last paragraph of this story first, then read it front to back. hope indeed. o my.

these are the days you might fill
with laughter until you break

-nadA

* “These Are Days,” 10,000 Maniacs

Photo by Lynn Spinnato