From WXXI news.

This is connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Well, we have a packed hour to close the week here on connections.

Coming up, my colleague at Zaira.

Cal Steven is going to join us.

She has reported that both flu and measles cases are up in our area.

And the flu cases especially, are putting a strain on our hospital system.

The measles cases, experts say, very likely related to some declining vaccination rates.

We're going to talk about that.

We're going to close the hour with the national.

The strong National Museum of Play, Chris Bench is stopping by.

Maybe maybe Facebook and these social media know my age, but they all think I want an Atari for Christmas.

That's what's shown up all over the place.

And that's good timing.

We're going to talk about toys making the National Hall of Fame.

We're going to talk about possible sort of popular period toys like Atari from the 1980s.

We'll have some fun there.

But first, we're joined this hour by my colleague Gina Fanelli, talking about an issue that has generated a lot of buzz in the last several days.

Monroe County has become the first of the major counties in upstate New York to opt out of creating a registry for short term rentals like Airbnb.

And there is debate over the issue, and Gino's here to help us understand the different angles and what this is all about.

Hello.

Hello, welcome back to the program, Gino, and happy to be here.

Investigations in City Hall, reporter for Sky news.

So let's start with this.

The headline is Monroe County votes not to not track Airbnbs and other short term rentals.

For those not following people know what Airbnb is.

But why track?

What are we talking about here?

So in 2024, the state passed a law that counties had the option by December 31st to vote to opt out of this registry system.

And basically with the registry system is if you, the county would create a system for tracking each unit that is operated by a person that is using them of Airbnb, Vrbo, HomeAway, whatever you want to call them.

And the idea here is one, it's data.

You understand the kind of the scope of how prevalent these things are in the community.

A lot of what the concerns of proponents of opting into this were where, you know, we have a pretty tense housing situation in Rochester.

If you're trying to buy a house right now, you're probably well aware over the past few years, the they they go quickly and they go they usually go for higher than asking price.

And the amount of them, their housing stock is particularly in the city of Rochester, is relatively low.

So the concern is, okay, there's always been this rumbling about people are investors are buying up these properties and turning them into short term rentals.

And that's kind of a major player the issue here.

But the problem with that claim is we don't have any data to support that.

We don't know how many of these are actually being purchased and used for ads.

Airbnb.

So it does give you some kind of idea of what the scope of their prevalence is.

And that's just pure data.

As a as a journalist, you kind of want to see that data.

You want to see the numbers of what these things look like and, how much they do affect the housing market here.

And the other portion of it is to the tax collection for, for these things is how do you accurately, receive the taxes for, in Monroe County at the motel tax?

At 6%.

If you don't know the exact number of units that are here now, we already have a voluntary agreement with Airbnb.

Paid out a little bit over $1 million last year.

And, taxes that they willing were willingly doing through this, voluntary agreement.

And, I guess we're developing one with verbal right now, which also, operates as HomeAway.

And that's kind of where it stands.

Okay.

This the reason people want this to exist is really to understand the extent of Airbnb and whether or not we are owed more by the road less.

We don't really know unless we have like a full scope of what the data looks like.

An Airbnb.

Airbnb claims to have 740 active hosts in Monroe County.

Yes.

Alone?

Yes.

Okay.

And what are other counties doing about this?

So, the other major counties in upstate New York, the way this bill worked was, if you don't opt out by December 31st of this year, you automatically opt in Erie County.

We reached out to them and they basically said, yeah, we had no compelling reason to opt out of this.

So we just kind of went forward.

And again, the opt in meaning you create or you create a registry.

Okay.

Correct.

Onondaga County, Albany County, the major counties upstate New York also did the same thing.

They're creating register creating registries.

We voted to opt out and not create and not create a registry.

The only major county in upstate New York to do this.

And, there's, multiple questions of why, and, you know, in talking to the county, me and my editor, Brian Sharp, I were trying to understand, like, okay, what is the reasoning for this?

And I think the thing that stood out to me is like, well, there really isn't any clear reasoning of why we would opt out.

As far as what the tax implications are, the sales tax is going through, no matter what.

And if we are under a voluntary agreement with Airbnb to collect the motel hotel tax, which is, 6%, well, it's a voluntary agreement.

And the concern that the county brought up was that if we were to create this registry and, you know, caused some friction with Airbnb, we are jeopardizing the voluntary agreement that we already have.

And, I would argue that, well, if it's a voluntary agreement to begin with, what's stopping them from backing out in 30 days, anyway?

But here's what I guess I don't understand.

Why does Airbnb oppose counties having a registry of their, of Airbnb property?

It's regulation.

I mean, they just don't want the regulation.

Yeah, I that would be my best guess to it.

I mean, any large corporation is going to resist any kind of government tracking or regulation if they can do it.

Well.

And I guess looking down the road, if we continue to see a growth in the number of these short term rental properties and verbose on the list to.

And so there's very about Airbnb is the biggest I think Airbnb is by far the biggest, by far the biggest.

So there are communities like the village of Pittsford, like other, I think other towns who have tried on their own to kind of deal with this issue because in some places neighbors are saying like, we don't want all the houses on this block to be short term rentals.

We want permanent residents.

We don't want just Airbnb or we'd like some control over where Airbnb goes.

So maybe if I'm surmising, Airbnb thinks the bigger the register, the more you know about what we're doing, the more we get.

Make it regulated out of being in certain places.

That is, probably a likelihood.

I mean, then there's, the questions of zoning that comes up because right now, we don't know, we just don't know how many we're going by word of mouth.

And, you know, where we hear these things are and, Yeah, there there is.

This is kind of, differing from any other rental, short term rental property, which is usually be a motel or hotel, you know, where a motel and hotel is.

They are their presence is pretty clear.

But these are the only time you're going to find out that, like, a neighborhood, it's become a majority Airbnb neighborhood.

If the neighbors start to notice and then bring it up.

But still, you don't have the data to support whether or not.

So I think the question that comes up to me over and over again, we've been talking about this is like, what is the prevalence of them?

How how common are they?

And we still don't know.

I mean, the numbers provided by Airbnb where the number of hosts, but how many units of that host have, you know, 700 and, 40, 740.

One of those could have one property.

And they did say that about 80% of them, I just have one, one, one unit.

But could the other 20 have five each?

Ten, 15, 30, 40, 50, 100?

We don't know.

So that so is about getting an accurate track on just how many properties there are.

Yes.

Okay.

And when you when you did hear from some residents, neighbors, people who have demonstrated against Airbnb on this and want a registry, I understand not everybody listening that everybody's been locked into this issue.

But for the people who are, there are some pretty passionate people who talked to you for this piece.

Yeah, yeah.

There are some people that were pretty upset by this.

And I think their biggest thing is, like I mentioned before, is, the housing situation in the in the city in particular, I mean, most of the legislators that voted, against opting out, which, voted against not creating the registry, were city legislators.

And for the people we were talking to, the head of the North Wind Village Association, their office is right around the corner from an Airbnb where there was a mass shooting in 2022.

Now, the fact that that was an Airbnb did that caused a mass shooting to happen.

I don't think anyone could reasonably argue that, but it does.

Like, hey, like, you know, this thing happened and we would just like to know if there's, you know, a place that's probably being rented out to be used for parties or whatever they might be.

We would like to know where they are.

And as far as we can tell, that house is still being used as an Airbnb as well.

We drove by it.

They still had the lock boxes on the door and a Pennsylvania Place car in the driveway, so we assume it still is.

But, don't want to assume entirely.

But the point being that, yeah, the what people are saying is like, look, we don't know the extent of the problem if we want to call it a problem, we don't know the extent of the issue if we're not tracking the data.

And this was a move, Tim.

Move.

I my my position on it is it's a matter of government transparency.

And if you have the option to create more transparency, reasonably you could argue that they should and this was a case where like we're voting to, oppose, transparency in what kind of systems they're operating here.

I think the county is also saying that they, two things, as you've already mentioned, they don't want to upset the voluntary agreement.

I don't fully understand that, but I would love to talk to the county executive more, because I do want to understand.

I don't fully understand that either.

Okay.

But so the county executive is invited to come talk about that, because I would love to know about that.

But also, I think they're saying, look, the door is still open to creating this permanent registry.

In the future, right?

I mean, I don't think they're foreclosing on that possibility permanently.

Are they?

No.

They can opt in whenever they want to, anytime in the future.

And it's, very easy.

Comparison is, recently in recent memory is, the legalization of marijuana when, that happened, counties had the option of opting in or opting out.

And if you opted out, you could always opt in later.

But if you, opted in, you couldn't go back and opt out later.

This is a very similar kind of scenario.

Okay.

Got you there.

Lastly, some of the legislators who want this registry and voted in the minority in this case have raised a what they see as a political connection here.

Yes.

Can you explain that?

Okay.

So the lobbying firm for Airbnb is called Ostroff and Associates.

Ostroff associates, not and associates.

Their senior vice president is Nicholas Morelli.

Nicholas Morelli is the son of Congressman Joe Morelli.

Joe Morelli is a close ally, and they are arguably a mentor to Adam Bellow, the county executive.

Over the past several months, Nicholas Morelli had been in conversations alongside other people that have strong associates with the county administration and the attorneys there about this opt out mechanism.

And whether or not they wanted a registry.

They been in conversation about this for a very long time.

On May 1st of this year, we, county legislator Rachel Bernard had been hot on this.

She's a very frequent critic of Adam Bellow and, Joe Morelli and, you know, had brought up this concern and about three hours before the vote, they handed over some documents to her, which he handed over to me, that showed that, Nicholas Morelli had essentially provided the legal language for opting out of building a registry that was later used in the bill that, Bauer put up to opt out of creating the registry system.

So which, by the way, this wouldn't be the first lobbyist who helped write a bill.

They're absolutely not.

There are oil industry lobbyists who write energy policy bills.

Yeah, an unfortunate reality of our political system is lobbying is clean.

It's legal.

I mean, corporations lobby all the time.

I think the concern that really came up is like there's a very familial connection with all of this stuff.

And, you know, it's not I'm not going to sit here and say, like, yeah, and this was obvious corruption or anything like that.

I don't think that anyone could reasonably say that at this point, but it does raise the question of how did this play out?

That I think it's worth asking.

Okay.

And so as we close with Gino here, the way I would describe the dynamic between the Democrats and question legislator Barnhart frequently sees concerns about corruption, political backroom dealing, family members, etc.

and on the other hand, the administration which has dealt with that is essentially said, look, we are a small I mean, I can't speak for them.

They're not on this program, but we're not a large city.

We're not a large community.

We're not New York City.

And yes, it is true that Joe Morelli, son, is a lobbyist for essentially for Airbnb here.

But the administration would probably say we're a small town.

We're not just doing the bidding of Nicholas Morelli.

We're doing what we think is right to regulate in this situation, and we'll let people decide if they're comfortable with that or not.

So I think that's the two sides of it.

People can decide for all they want, but we'll have to see going forward what happens with possible regulation of this issue.

For now, Monroe County will be a standalone.

It looks like, this issue in upstate County.

That's correct.

Yeah.

We we are the outlier.

Okay.

That's where we are.

You know, finale's piece for Sky news.

We'll link to it on our show notes.

Thank you sir.

Thank you.

Gina's going back to work.

We're taking a brief break.

We're coming right back with my colleague Raquel Stephen talking about rises and flu and measles cases.

I'm Evan Dawson, host of connections.

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This is connections.

I'm Evan Dawson, and this is Raquel Stephen, health equity and community reporter and producer for Sky news.

Busy day for everybody.

A very busy day for you.

Thank you for popping into the studio here.

Yes.

No problem.

No problem at all.

I'm looking at two stories or potentially two issues that you reported on concurrently here.

So let's start with flu.

Okay.

Oh yeah.

The story from this week here.

There's a new flu strain in circulation.

Yeah.

The big F word.

That's not the F word.

Oh no I was like oh boy we're going to have to Bleep Raquel and the flu.

Yes that's what you heard.

So there's a new flu strain in circulation.

And it was identified after this year's eve after this year's vaccine was created.

So experts you report that experts have said it has the ability to evade the immunity provided by vaccination, causing more severe illness.

So, yes, tough timing.

And my understanding, Raquel, is this is always a moving target because they're scanning what's going on in the southern hemisphere.

They see strains.

Flu is always mutating.

They try their best to to kind of create the vaccine.

The newest version that that matches the current flavor of the flu.

They did that.

But by the time the flu got here, mutated again.

Yes, yes.

Great.

But, but the positive thing is they haven't detected anything yet, but they haven't really tested for it yet.

In the labs or nor data has been, showing yet that that strain in particular is here, but it is it is spreading a three into.

Yes.

Okay.

And, you know, if anybody hasn't had flu, we talk about flu like, like stomach flu or whatever.

That's not flu or flu.

Flu.

Stomach flu is like you're throwing up flu is a respiratory issue.

And it can be pretty rough.

It can be severe.

It does lead to some in the very vulnerable communities.

It leads to some death here.

But I'm reading more about your reporting here.

Doctor Michael Pasta Lucas from your Medicine Strong Memorial Hospital and Highland Hospital says it is not unusual to see variants that are more resistant to vaccination.

So this is not the first time this has happened.

They're used to that in this community.

Is that fair?

Yes, that's fair to say.

And the vaccine is probably about 50% effective.

So it is possible to still get the flu even if you're vaccinated.

But it does prevent severe illness and hospitalization.

So let's listen to a little bit of a doctor, the Lucas told Raquel.

Stephen.

And, the first one is, just the doctor talking about earlier flu, declaration and an understanding.

What's going on.

Let's listen.

Ever since Covid, we've seen, in general influenza season has come earlier, and this is a couple weeks earlier, at least than pre-COVID, influenza season.

Usually it's the end of December.

Beginning of January is when this declaration is made.

So this is in a typical year earlier than most years.

So related to that, let's listen to that third piece of sound.

Because in this next piece you're going to hear doctor Pastor Locke is talking about what will just result in a longer overall flu season.

The concern with it coming early is that this may be a longer flu season, and the initial rise in flu could be a harbinger of a higher rate of of influenza and a longer season.

But it's too soon to tell.

You know how the spring is, and how much, how quickly it warms up when people can start going outside.

That's when we see, you know, people can separate more and there's less spread of respiratory viruses.

I mean, it's not what anybody wants to hear, but it's important to understand this right now because starting earlier could be going longer.

Especially for I mean, if everybody's vulnerable, but for people who've got kids, you feel like kids are germ mongers.

Kids really are all they really are.

They don't care.

They have no sense of like, personal space.

Right?

So it's like we should just bubble wrap all children the entire winter.

You say come out in the spring.

I mean, the reason we call it a cold is because it easier.

It spreads easier, yes, in the cold weather here.

So I am not an epidemiologist.

Can you tell?

But the doctor to like is one other piece.

Let's listen to on the subject of spread of influenza, I'm not so sure that being early is necessarily more concerning, although it could be, as you know, influenza tends to spread more when it's colder outside and people are inside.

People get the flu from each other.

It's not the cold weather that gives you the flu.

It's the concentration of people inside, that, increases the density of people in the ease of spread of influenza from person to person.

And that's why it's so important to consider getting the flu vaccine.

If you haven't gotten it.

It is the best protection we have from you getting the flu.

But, it's also important in keeping it from spreading to your loved ones, loved ones especially that have comorbidities or older.

And if you do get the flu, it will reduce your risk of getting severe illness, meaning the likelihood of having to come to the emergency department or get admitted with the flu.

Yeah.

So there's a little bit, still the value of vaccination, I think.

Recall, Stephen was laughing at me, listening to Doctor Lucas immediately explain why I was wrong.

So it doesn't spread easier in the cold.

We're just tend to be indoors.

Where and when it's not in the open air, it's not as dispersed.

It's more concentrated.

We we spend more time indoors together in the winter.

Okay, see, I am not immediately demonstrative, but it was hilarious.

Like he heard you in in life timing.

But, Yeah, it is.

It is, easier to spread when you're, when you're indoors, especially holidays.

You know, our holidays, we had Thanksgiving.

Now we're, we're going to gather with family for Christmas and New Year's.

And this is a time where it's easily spread.

And a lot of times the symptoms of major symptoms, are not as detectable as people just think.

Like, I just have the sniffles or, maybe, maybe it's my allergies.

Or it could be a little cough and it could easily be influenza.

Yeah.

And so, a couple other parts from her reporting before we get to the measles here.

I don't want anybody to think hospitals are not capable of taking care of this.

In fact, Doctor Pasternak has told you that despite the challenge here, hospitals are absolutely fully capable of taking care of the community based on what they're seeing right now.

Yes, yes.

I feel like a lot of hospitals developed, that that tough skin or that, that ability to to really what's the word I'm looking for to really adapt.

Right.

During the Covid 19 pandemic?

Yeah.

I mean, I think everything feels a little bit like not if this isn't as hard as Covid, maybe like, oh, it's like Covid and we definitely can't can handle it.

So I think a lot of a lot of hospitals did gain that, that ability to, to maintain and sustain from, from the pandemic.

So yes, you still if you are severely ill, doctor like is did say please come in and see us, we'll take care of you.

But if there's something that you can manage urgent care, you can call your primary care provider or try telehealth and see.

See, that's interesting to me here.

Let's talk a little about that.

So because I have you done telehealth visits.

Have you ever done that.

I've done it for my son.

Yes.

Yeah.

I mean like it is obviously it's a lot more convenient for just about everybody involved here.

But in this case he's saying that will help system strain.

Yes.

So help.

Yes.

So that's just getting more people on board with I don't know anybody who's opposed to telehealth.

If you're like, do you want to go to the doctor or you want to stay home in time?

Well, some people are traditional where they want to be.

I guess there's something relieving about, a relief where the doctor is, you know, open your mouth and, you know, really looking at you physically and telling you like nothing is severe.

You're okay.

Just, you know, take these meds.

I think some people are traditional in that way.

I like to be able to roll over and click enter.

Yeah.

And describe my symptoms.

Sometimes you can't really describe your symptoms, and you do need to be checked.

So I prefer that is more convenient for telehealth visits.

But I do also understand, the relief that comes with being seen.

All right.

And then the put a fine point on this.

He is asking the public to avoid the emergency room in specific, unless the illness or the causes severe is severe.

Yes.

Okay.

And he says get your flu shot.

So there you go.

That is on the subject of flu.

Let's talk about measles cases.

Measles cases, on the rise.

And, know we're not talking about hundreds or thousands, I think.

What's the number I saw in your reporting?

35.

Yeah, 35.

In New York state.

In New York state?

Yes.

Confirmed cases of measles this year in the state.

So it's not a huge number, right now.

Yes, hopefully it will not become huge, but it's pretty huge if you if if we once said it was eliminated.

Right.

Not not completely gone but just eliminate not eradicated but eliminated which I learned is a huge difference in the medical world to be eradicated and eliminated.

So it is a possibility will come back.

That's what elimination means.

But we did think it was eliminated.

So 35 is is significant.

You talked to Doctor Jeffrey Weinberg, who, Doctor Weinberg, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at your medicine, Golisano Children's Hospital.

He has a lot to say about this.

In fact, he was on connections, about a month or two ago just talking about some of his frustrations on just making sure the public gets good information.

Yes.

Why we're doing this right now.

And I'm going to just to read a little bit of, for, reporting on this Doctor Weinberg said, quote, one of the common misconceptions of parents is we don't need the measles vaccine any longer because the disease isn't around and it isn't around precisely because vaccines are so good, end quote.

So that's to your point of when you hear eliminated versus eradicated, people are like, that's it, it's over.

Yeah.

It's done.

It's not here.

And it can never be.

Yes, can never be here.

Which can be especially difficult if you if you're not thinking that's even a possibility.

I wouldn't want to be one of the 35 people.

Some of them are children with measles.

That can be very serious.

Nobody wants to see kids suffer.

Yeah, everybody wants what's best for kids.

Doctor Weinberg goes on to say getting the disease is always worse than whatever side effects somebody has theorized about the vaccine.

So what is the vaccine like?

MMR two dose series, two doses?

Yes.

Okay.

And then the first dose does provide a significant amount of protection, about 93%.

The second dose, you, you know, you increase that to about 97%.

But you still have a good protection, if just in case you missed a second dose or, kind of slips your mind.

But you do have significant amount of protection with the with the first dose.

Okay.

So first shot, big protection second takes you close to 100%.

Yes.

Again, it's not 100%, but it gives you a much better chance of of dealing with this.

And I do hope that you never have to interview someone who's had measles.

Have you ever had to do that?

No, I haven't, I don't think anyone would want to.

Things like that.

People are very, private when it comes to.

Yeah, right.

Yeah.

I think after what happened in Texas and then Canada had a big outbreak, there was a lot more conversation about what was going on and what it is actually like, because a lot of people will tell you, like, well, I've never seen it.

Yeah.

I thought it was a limited limit.

Eliminate, eliminate, eradicate, eliminate.

But I, I hope I never have to because that probably means you're talking to someone who's, either been through hell themselves or maybe, you know, God forbid, lost a kid or something like that, and that's the last thing anybody wants.

So, okay, before we let you go, it is a busy.

Oh, yeah.

Oh.

Oh, I gotta go.

I thought you said it was a sad.

Oh, okay.

Well, you're a busy person.

Yeah, I've got a lot to report on.

Yeah, yeah.

Before we let you go here, there is a lot of concern in the community just about the spread of infectious diseases.

And, you know, I think back to the pandemic, when people were wondering, you know, is this are we going to have norms change?

Are people going to wear masks all winter, just kind of for the sake of it?

We mostly haven't seen, although I know a few people who do mask up even when they're healthy in the winter just because they don't want to risk grabbing Covid or flu or something else here.

But in terms of norms change, I haven't seen it.

I mean, post pandemic five years later in winter, I you almost only see a mask if you're in a hospital.

I don't know where else.

Where else do we see?

And this is funny and is is because when we do see someone wearing a mask, we automatically think, oh, they're sick, right?

That's a stigma, right?

They're like, oh my, I think they're sick, but they're probably just being proactive.

And I remember vividly during the pandemic, washing my hands like I never washed my hands before.

And for raw, raw, achy.

But those simple things are what our experts are really enforcing, right?

That really keeps you, safe.

During this respiratory virus season, washing your hands, covering your mouth when you cough, and staying home when you're sick.

I don't I underscore that so much because I feel like if we feel sometimes when we get sick, right, we feel like I can handle this, I can go out, but then the person next to your loved one that's that doesn't have a strong of immune system may not be able to handle it.

Yeah.

And I really I really underscore that because what you can handle does mean everyone can.

Well that part of the culture change I do wonder if it's taken more effect, people going to work sick now sometimes people feel like I can't miss work, like I can't afford it, I can't afford it myself, or I don't feel like the company would allow it or the employer would allow it.

But I at least hope that we've moved the needle a little bit, because you're losing a lot of productivity when somebody brings germs to a full office or, yeah, organization.

And I can say here I any sniffle, they're like, hey, I gotta go, we gotta go.

So we stand on that or we stand ten toes down on that, come into work sick.

But a lot of employees, employee employers, will demand that you come in to work.

Yeah.

Put a mask on.

I think I've gotten better about it over the years.

Although I could pull a tape from you from 20 14th November of 2014.

It is the sickest I've ever been on the air.

And you can.

I can barely talk.

Oh, my gosh, I was so sick.

Yeah, and what made you.

What made you come in?

Your duty.

Your sense of duty?

Well, I you know, I was younger than, No, I think I think it's just a culture where people feel like if I can stand up, I'm going to work.

Yes.

And I think that that is changing.

Post-pandemic.

Although, I don't know, I wonder if there's data on that.

That's a conversation for a different day.

Yeah, but I hope it's changed.

Yeah, I, I believe so I think now employers are you know, like you said, moving that needle and being a little bit more lenient when it comes to, getting giving their employees some time off to, to feel better because if you're not well, you can't be you're not a productive, employee.

Last thing I got for you.

I like the one thing in my mind I can definitely tell you that's changed is when people say to me like, oh, I still might stop over or I may still come into work.

I just have a cold.

I think pre-pandemic I would have thought, okay, I just have a cold.

Now I feel like the cold is a coronavirus, it is a coronavirus and the coronavirus.

I don't want a cold, even if it's just a quote unquote cold.

I don't want it.

I think I've changed my mentality about just a cold have.

Yeah, I well, you know, what is part I think is part of your personality.

Right.

If you have a strong work ethic and you you want to go into working productive, you're going to power through like a lot of times when we have news meetings and I know I'm not feeling well, I try to put the extra strength in my voice because I don't want to or I don't want you to hear that I'm sick because I don't want you talking over, all over a microphone.

Right, right.

And you don't want me at point.

And that's the selfishness of of human nature where we're like, I, I'm good or I can't afford to get sick.

Yes.

I can't afford to miss work.

And a lot of, a lot of times with, the black and brown community, the black families, a black mom just knowing, not knowing where that next meal will come from.

I can't afford to miss work.

But if you if you do go to work sick and you're not benefits anyone.

No, I'm.

But that's a powerful point of the inequality in the system.

When people feel like they just can't just can't like they're scared of what happens if they miss them, that's got to change somehow.

Hey, thanks for popping in.

Oh, yeah.

No problem.

This was great.

Great work.

Raquel.

Stephen reporting on flu and measles up to speed.

Their short break.

Coming right back to close the week with some fun here on connections.

I'm making Mac Monday on the next connections, we talk about a new body worn cameras project that's a collaboration between a local organization and the Rochester Police Department.

Then in our second hour, an annual special.

It's Hanukkah lights back on Monday.

Stay with us for the talk show.

We'll talk to you Monday on connections.

Support for your public radio station comes from our members and from Mary Carey Ola Center.

Proud supporter of connections with Evan Dawson, believing an informed and engaged community is a connected one.

Mary Carey ola.org.

This is connections.

Take your time getting set up here Christopher Bench here Christopher Bench is the vice president for collections at the strong National Museum of Play.

And if you're watching on YouTube, it is brought some stuff here.

So I see Play-Doh slime I see oh battleship I see Trivial Pursuit.

Simon I see a Rubik's Cube.

I don't know the mini mart stuff is well there, so get right on the microphone.

Welcome.

How are you?

I'm delighted to be with you here this afternoon.

You're hearing healthy.

You're not sick.

I'm not sick.

I'm here unless you're giving me.

No, I'm feeling great here.

And this is a really.

I mean, it's always a fun time of year at the strong, but this has got to be a really fun time of year for you guys.

Well, we are toy and doll and video game central, so this is a time of year that we love to celebrate.

So we're talking about inductees first into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2025.

The hall was established 27 years ago 1998.

Right.

It has some longevity now.

Not as long as the Baseball Hall of Fame or the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

But we are up there now.

The three winners were selected from a field of 12 finalists.

I'm going to read the finalists that did not get selected as toys for the Hall of Fame here.

K10 that Settlers of Catan.

Nice, right?

Okay.

Connect for not in there yet.

Okay.

Cornhole.

Furby, which is also known as creepy in my household.

Scooter.

The scooter isn't just like a scooter, right?

The sorts of brands snow.

Snow like snow outside.

That's right.

If we've inducted sand and the cardboard box into the Hall of Fame.

Snow what you have.

We have.

So snow has the capability.

I've heard very strong feelings on either side of the question about snow.

People who are totally pro snow and others who say, that's maybe the dumbest idea you've ever had.

Yeah.

And the way you've got sand.

Does anybody say to you like, sand is amazing.

You can make sand Castle into play.

And then probably others were like, so you've given up have you know, but it's a, it's a toy a it's a play element.

It is.

And if you got a sandbox for your birthday with no sand, you would be in terrible shape.

That's.

Well, I could not agree more with it.

If you went to the beach and there was no sand.

That's right.

Be a tragedy.

Okay, so continuing down the list did not make it this year.

Spirograph.

That's the one.

I don't know what that is.

It came out in the mid 1960s.

It's a series of interlocking cog wheels that with a pen lets you create these amazing sort of op art images.

Okay.

Star Wars lightsaber, like the like the toy.

Not the real killer.

Like the toy.

Right.

Okay, so because 1977 Star Wars people wanted to be Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker ever after, and they still love to have the lightsaber toys, very popular ones, so that these can still be considered in the future.

They can be.

And finally, Tickle Me Elmo did not get in tickle.

Is that a dated thing, or is are people still?

Is that still a thing?

People are still acquiring Tickle Me Elmo.

He's had technological upgrades since his introduction in 1996, so he's even more ticklish than he was before.

What is it?

Who is his big rival, Megan Mack?

Who does Elmo really gets upset about?

Oh, Rocko the Rock?

He he really just doesn't like rock.

Other rock there.

Yeah.

I would love it, for Elmo sake, if Rocco got into the Toy Hall of Fame before Elmo.

Ooh, you can start nominating right now.

Evan.

Christopher, I think you want to go viral next year.

Let get Elmo's reaction when Rocco goes in first.

I mean, Rocco representing rocks of all kinds.

That's right.

Okay, that's my nomination.

Now, here are the three that got in this year.

First of all, going to talk about is battleship.

You've got to we got electronic battleship here.

But battleship of all kinds.

Yes that's right.

And battleship has been around for more than a century.

It was originally a pencil and paper game often played on graph paper.

And it was in 1967 that Milton Bradley made the classic plastic molded version with a carrying case that was the block, so that your opponent did not see where your ships were.

It has been a hit ever since.

More than a hundred million copies sold.

I mean, and still is, I can report when my son turned six, it was like it was battleship all the time.

I just walked through the second floor of the museum on my way here, and saw a mother and son playing battleship, and I heard a lot of exclamations, oh, you sunk my battleship!

Can I ask you, before we get to the other two winners, here are the inductees you've got.

We've got the electric one, electronic one here.

But in an electronic world, in a digital world, aren't toys better if they don't have electronics?

I am a firm believer in the joys of analog play, and I think one of the things I've heard from toy makers is they sell the souped up versions of toys to grandparents.

So if it's teddy bear that can also speak and tap dance because it has batteries in it, that's the grandparent model, because grandparents always want to get the best version for their kids.

So some of that ramping up is aimed at the adult market rather than the kid market, who I hope still have a sense of imagination and can play without the augmented reality.

Okay, well said there.

The next inductee is slime.

Oh, and I see.

So that's mini mart slime there.

So you got two different kinds of slime.

We have Play-Doh slime.

There are so many slimes out there.

It's not just one slime that's getting in.

It's slime in general.

It's the entire field of slime.

It started in 1976 at Mattel, but it has kept on going.

Yes.

Retrait in there.

Evan, I think this is going to be a disaster if you're watching on YouTube here, because the one thing is, like, I feel like this is like the scene in Ghostbusters where they're walking through the library and the ectoplasm is on the shelves, and Bill Murray is going like, whoa, whoa.

I mean, like, it's.

So how do you how am I even going to clean my hands?

Now, this is a that is part of the joy and the downfall of slime.

And we had some parents who said, no, slime can't get in.

Slime ruined my living room carpet.

I mean, look at this.

It's it is a mess.

It's a but people love it.

They love that tactile quality of it.

But what do you do with this?

You basically do what you're doing even, which is stretching it, grossing people out with it.

Slime has been such a sensation.

I don't know whether you remember when there was a global shortage of Elmer's glue during the pandemic, because people were making homemade slime, and one of the basic ingredients in many recipes is Elmer's glue, and it was selling by the gallon.

I already regret this.

I've got the whole thing in my hand here.

Slime.

And as much as you say it can be fun if this gets on anything, it's going to be a total disaster.

Keep it away from your sweater, is my recommendation.

Yeah, but electronics, your couch, your counter, your toaster.

How many things is slime ruined?

I'm opposed to slime.

All right.

Okay, well, I mean, it's good to have people.

You're on the record with it.

On the record.

So you want people with opinions?

I can't even put this back in.

What am I supposed to do?

Okay, producer, I can make like.

She's like, I never thought we'd have to deal with this problem.

I got a wet wipe here.

We're going to do our best here.

That is really slimy.

So that's slime.

And the final inductee is.

I try to get clean here.

Maybe some dry paper towels too.

Oh, my gosh, this is not well thought out.

The last one that's on the list here is Trivial Pursuit.

I love this one.

I mean, it's a classic.

I was surprised it wasn't in there already here.

You know, a number of people have that same reaction.

And if slime is pure tactile quality, the game Trivial Pursuit is essentially the brainiac version of the toys this year.

It is the one that proved to adults in the 1980s that play at card tables and kitchen tables wasn't just for kids.

Do you have a lot of heat from the public on what you choose?

We have taken heat in a number of dimensions.

The year we did not induct Pez into the National Toy Hall of Fame, Pez, the museum's president, received a little box, and he opened it up on his desk.

And inside it was a decapitated horse, Pez, in a bed of straw.

That this was very much a Godfather moment, that the Pez fans were not taking it well, that their favorite toy had not gotten it.

Are you serious?

I am absolutely serious.

This wasn't like a stunt from the museum.

No.

It was.

It was somebodies heartfelt opinion that we had made a serious mistake and we needed to be told about that.

Describe it again.

It was a little box with a decapitated horse, Pez, just like the horse head in the first Godfather movie.

And it was on a bed of straw.

And let's just say we have not had hugely positive feelings about Pez ever since as an institution.

Who sent that?

Was it like John Pez, who said some.

I think it was in an UN no return address box.

There are some very disturbed people in this world, but there are people with very passionate feelings about toys.

Toys bring out passions in people they feel strongly anti or strongly pro.

I hear from hundreds of, Bryer toy horse advocates every year.

The people who are fans of Tudor electric football, that jogging electric football game, they come out in droves.

I had one woman who nominated her father's toy barrel of monkey 600 times.

So she gets points for filial loyalty, but didn't get it through.

Didn't get it through.

Okay.

How do you nominate again?

How does how do you do that?

All you have to do is go to Museum of Play, dawg.

Navigate yourself to the Toy Hall of Fame page, and you can start nominating for November 2026.

Right now, talking to Christopher Bench, vice president for collections at the Strong National Museum of Play, he's kind enough to stop by to close the week here, talk about what got into the Hall of Fame this year.

Bring some other toys, and I've got a list of some fun stories of you know, we are talking about rocks.

1975 was the pet rock, and that was a little before my time.

I mean, I I'm not the youngest person in the world, but, you know, I feel young and that was before me was born in 1979.

And I never knew anybody who had a pet rock.

I don't know how long this thing lasted.

It was six months of an absolute craze.

For what?

Why?

What what happened to our collective psyche?

What was brilliant about the pet rock was not so much the rock, but the packaging of it.

When it came out in 1976 at gift shows, and it came in a carrying box with air holes in it, because you don't want your pet rock to stifle.

It was on a little bed of shredded wood.

You don't want your pet rock to stifle?

No, because it came with a 32 page and instruction manual for how to look after your pet rock.

If you think it needs to use the bathroom, put it on a piece of newspaper and let it sit there all these things brilliantly spoofing on how we think of our pets and how we care for our pets.

And if you want to train it to lie there and play dead, it.

Pet rocks are really good at that.

That probably the best at that.

But at some point, as funny as all of this is, you realize that you've paid some money for a rock, right?

It was not a lot of money.

It was $3, which was more in 1976 when this became a craze.

But it was one of those viral things before that was even an item that if I have one, oh, I want to give one to my sister in law or to my boss or whoever after.

Okay, so is pet Rock in the Hall of Fame?

It is not.

So.

I'm a Rocco nominee for next year, or Rocco and All rock Rocco and all rocks representing the pet rocks.

All just to inflame Elmo.

I mean, I'm telling you, you got some lizards.

If you haven't seen Elmo get upset at Rocco, it's it's really great.

It's really very good.

I'm going down your list here.

So the year I was born, the Atari 2600 and the Snoopy snow cone maker.

Now snow cones.

That's fun.

The Atari 2600, was it?

So that was after pong.

Pong, was it?

That's right.

Early 70s, couple years earlier.

Okay.

And so Atari comes out.

That was right around the time that you start to see this competition heat up.

There's Calico Vision.

And this is before Nintendo really hits the scene in the mid 80s.

I think if I'm getting the history right, right.

And for some reason on my social media pages, it thinks I want Atari for this is where I'm convinced that Facebook is listening to your conversation.

Because my 13 year old me, he plays some video games, not a ton, but he plays some and I kind of like there are times where I look at what he's doing and I'm like, I think I just want to play Zelda.

I think I want to play like my generation of games.

I'd rather play Donkey Kong Jr or something like that.

Right.

And I think it can hear me because now it is advertising you can buy for Christmas gifts, you can buy the Atari and give it to people who like old school systems.

I guess it is a classic, and it was the system that broke into most Americans households as a way of playing on your television set.

There had been earlier systems there, but earlier single use games like pong.

But what made Atari so different was that you had interchangeable cartridges and you could swap out different games, and it sort of killer app was Space Invaders that people wanted to stop dropping their quarters at the arcade.

And let's just do that at home.

Let's make the investment once and keep on playing.

There you go.

There's the Atari system.

1983 cabbage Patch Kids came out.

They were, absolute mania.

People went crazy for them.

They look so different from every doll that had been successful before that.

Some people call them cute, homely.

They are definitely not the standard form of doll beauty, with their closely set eyes, their pudgy cheeks.

But they had the hook that you are not just buying a doll.

You were adopting a kid and they came with their unique names and adoption papers, and people once again felt really strongly about that, and the media picked up on it like the pet rock.

And once people heard that this is the hot toy of the year, Grown-Ups went crazy.

They would do anything to get their Cabbage Patch Kids.

There were brawls in parking lot.

Oh boy, I loved the prank.

That one radio station played announcing that I think over the the Milwaukee Brewers stadium, there was going to be a B-29 that would drop Cabbage Patch Dolls, and people were out there with their baseball.

But it wasn't true.

It was not true.

They were staring up at the sky with their empty baseball mitts, hoping to catch a cabbage Patch doll from the sky.

That is a great story.

I'll tell you what I remember.

I remember Cabbage Patch Kids, but as a boy growing up in the mid 80s, I remember the countercultural counterpoint to Cabbage Patch Kids, which were the Garbage Pail Kids, Garbage Pail Kids, and there were collection cards.

I remember the cards more than anything.

You're right.

They were trading cards at school on that.

They were a big product.

And in fact, you're tapping into one of our new exhibits coming up in 2026.

And exhibit called gross ology.

They were gross.

Garbage Pail Kids.

If you don't get enough slime, you can come and check that out.

And we're going to have examples of Garbage Pail Kids on display there.

I just want to say on behalf of my, thing one, my older son, Beyblades, he's going to be very happy, is getting any mention here.

He had a craze with Beyblades for a while where that was a lot of fun.

That was 2002.

The paperweights came out, so that's a fun one.

They are, and they remain popular and fun and I've just come back from the archive of toys at Hasbro in Rhode Island and seeing things like Beyblades, they're really sends people to their childhood, whatever era that is.

Well, listeners, I hope you've sparked some nostalgia for you as we close the week with Christopher Bench, vice president for collections at the Strong National Museum of Play.

What do you have going on now and what do you want people to know?

It's coming up at The Strong.

Well, of course, in the school break for the holidays, there is a winter wonderland happening at The Strong, and it's the last chance to see our fantastic display of about 50 dollhouses from our collection.

Our founder, Margaret Strong, loved dollhouses.

She had so many of them.

She had some of them out on her lawn.

They did not survive Rochester winters really well, but some of the outstanding dollhouses from her collection and more recently are on display.

It's a fantastic miniature world that you can step into.

So the strong is, of course, open year round.

But if you've never been to the strong, what do you want people to know about?

You know, it's for all ages.

Really.

It is for all ages.

More than half of our attendance are people over 16, some of whom come with kids and some of whom come alone or with friends or family.

Just, last night we had one of our annual, happiest hours, which are grown up only nights for adults over 21.

We had, I think, about 1500 grownups there playing.

I say it's a wonderful opportunity to not feel guilty shoving a seven year old out of the way so you can run the cash register at our miniature Wegmans supermarket.

Well, if you're like me this time of year, you can remember if you're fortunate, like I was, to have these really lovely Christmases, there was always one toy or one something that stood out, and a lot of them are on the list here that the strong has covered or put on in collections.

Or you can go see them and touch them and play with them.

There was one Christmas, I think it was 1987, where there was a gift that said to Mario from Luigi, and I knew it.

I knew it was Super Mario two.

That was very exciting.

But I also loved that wooden thing that you could tilt in the marble, would you would avoid the little holes with them.

I don't know what that was called.

I'm not sure the name of that, but I can picture it exactly.

I can hear the sound that more that in my head and I can.

I can see myself on Christmas morning sitting next to a tree and just trying to convince myself that it was possible to get the marble all the way to the end.

And it turned out it wasn't.

It was a scam.

But, the memories are amazing, people.

Nostalgia is very powerful.

Let's let me close with this.

What?

What is your one toy memory that stands out the most for you?

My parents were tended to be a little cheap, and I rarely got the brand name toy that I had requested.

But one year in the 1960s, I had requested a motor Riffic torture test track that ran cars around this little simulated, test for new vehicles.

And I loved the heck out of that one.

What was it called?

The motor Riffic torture track.

Oh, wow.

That that's still a thing.

Have you seen it at the strong?

I we have some examples of that, and I try to avoid it being, delayed gratification.

My job at the stroke.

Andrew, who's listening, tells me that the game I was thinking of is called labyrinth.

That might be correct.

That sounds about right.

Christopher Bench have so much fun there at the strong.

Thank you for bringing the three new inductees.

Trivial Pursuit, Slime Battleship in the Hall of Fame and telling some great stories.

And really, for the outreach you do for families in this community.

It's a lot of fun.

Thank you very much.

You're very welcome.

Happy holidays to you and everyone over there.

Merry Christmas.

Thank you very much for the whole team at connections.

And the newsroom at six.

It's been a busy hour here.

They're doing such great work.

We hope that you are members of your public media.

If you are not, today's a great day to do it.

A Corgi gift from all of us.

Have a great weekend.

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