FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM FEBRUARY 24, 2022 • BUZZ • THE QUEENS COURIER 43
Victoria’s
SECRETS
Victoria
SCHNEPSYUNIS
vschneps@schnepsmedia.com
It’s very special when friends
become extended family.
Launching Dan’s Papers
Palm Beach has transplanted
me into a new world and allowed
me to make new friends there
who have become like family.
Th ey embraced me, making me
feel welcome and giving me joy
to be there.
In addition to writing my
weekly column, I host my
Power Women podcast. Th is
week, I interviewed old and
dear friend Judge Judy
Sheindlin, who is like
family, about our growing
up in Brooklyn and
her new, entertaining
streaming TV show “Judy
Justice.” Listen to the podcast
at podcasts.schnepsmedia.
com/2022/02/17/
judge-judy-sheindlin/.
I’m also now hosting a TV
show, “Dan’s Papers Palm
Beach Roundtable,” with Emmy
Award-winning broadcaster
Jane Hanson. Th e show will
soon be streamed across all of
our media’s websites that reach
nearly 10 million page views
every month.
We have had such fun doing
it and I’m so grateful to Enzo
Morabito of Douglas Elliman
in Westhampton for becoming
the sponsor of the series, which
we are taping at the beautiful,
elegant and iconic Colony Hotel
in Palm Beach.
But, of course, it’s the guests
who make the series great!
Th is week, we interviewed
my favorite friend, the indomitable
and brilliant writer Dan
Rattiner, the founder of and
now contributing editor for
Dan’s Papers.
My extended family
He and I bonded when Josh
and I bought Dan’s Papers in
September 2020.
I had admired him for decades
from a distance and when we
closed on the purchase, my fi rst
request to the seller Richard
Burns was, “Can I meet or talk
to Dan?” I wanted to tell him, “I
will take good care of your baby.”
Dan had created his paper as
a 20-year-old kid living with his
parents who owned a pharmacy
in Montauk. Rather than work
there, he decided to start a community
newspaper.
I met Peter McCracken, a
top real estate broker in
Shelter Island for Corcoran,
at a Palm Beach restaurant.
Our lives were almost parallel
in that he wrote every story,
he sold every ad and he distributed
it locally in Montauk, now
63 years ago.
Ironically, I started The
Queens Courier in my living
room in 1985 with John
Toscano, a retired political editor
from the New York Daily
News who had started a weekly
newspaper in Astoria, where
he lived.
We wrote every story, took
every photo and sold every ad.
John’s son Louis delivered
every paper.
I vividly remember
our fi rst issue in May
1985. After hours of
working with the
Taping “Dan’s Papers Palm Beach Roundtable” at The Colony Hotel with
(l. to r.) Dan Rattiner, Jane Hanson, Bill Boggs and Jane Rothchild.
typesetter/designer, we fi nally
drove to Long Island City at 1
a.m. to watch the paper come
off the presses.
As we entered the massive
press room, smelling
of ink and chemicals, we
took our layout boards
into the camera room.
We watched as they
“shot” each page, creating
a plate that was then
transferred to the massive
presses. It felt like time
stood still until they brought
us the fi rst run of our “baby.”
To my shock and dismay, the
picture of a newborn baby we
had chosen to represent the birth
of our fi rst issue was printed
as a black blob. I immediately
screamed out over the din of the
presses, “STOP THE PRESSES,”
and they did!
Fortunately, the baby photo
was in the back seat of our car.
We retrieved it and ran back
to the camera room, where the
printers reshot the photo, made a
new plate and replated the presses.
About an hour later, they
said, “Well, lady, are you satisfi
ed?”
With a proud smile on my
On Ted Vassilev’s boat with artist Clarence James,
Ted, Adele, Chris, Dan and Derek.
face, I said “yes,” and then off
went the rumbling, noisy presses
running at full speed!
By 3 a.m., I was home sleeping
with a smile on my face.
We did it!
Fast forward, and I was so
excited to learn that Dan totally
has the same sense of fervor and
passion for community journalism
that I do.
On our fi rst call, we immediately
bonded and, to my delight,
he invited me to his and his wife
Chris Wasserstein’s charming
Easthampton
home perched high
on a hill overlooking
Gardiners Bay.
We have since
become fast
friends, and
I am happy
that Dan is
still involved
with the paper,
writing a weekly
column and
more for our
Dan’s subscription
newspaper
fi lled with his
genius ideas and
thoughts.
He visited me
while staying at his
Manhattan friends
Adele Fuchsberg and
Dr. Derek Enlander’s
home in Palm Beach.
While there, Jane and I invited
Dan to join us for a taping
of “Dan’s Papers Palm Beach
Roundtable,” where we were also
interviewing iconic broadcaster
extraordinaire Bill Boggs,
who is an author, lecturer and
raconteur, with his partner, Jane
Rothchild.
Jane had been a producer of
Th e $10,000 Pyramid TV show
aft er beginning her career with
Johnny Carson. She is now with
Brown Harris Stevens, living in
Easthampton, Manhattan and
Palm Beach, that I now call the
“Golden Triangle.”
During the interviews, we all
laughed as they each recalled
special memories, but nothing
topped Bill’s graphic and dramatic
telling of John Belushi’s
visit/interview on his TV show.
What fun it was to do this
interview and fi ve other shows,
as well. Stay tuned — more to
come!
You will be able to stream the
shows across our media outlets,
as well as iTunes and Spotify.
To my delight, our newest
media outlet, Dan’s Papers Palm
Beach, has been a great success
in this picture-perfect piece of
the world and has introduced me
to many new friends that feel like
family in my adopted city.
What a joyous time!
Eric Lemonides, co-owner of Almond,
with Dan and Chris.
Donna Schneier (c.) with Dan and
Chris at the Antique and Art Fair.
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