Tom Barnaba

East of the Cross Island: Stretch'd and Basking Tom Barnaba

WHAT IS EAST OF THE CROSS ISLAND? Long Island, NY is! And that's Walt Whitman, Teddy Roosevelt, the Hamptons, Jackson Pollock, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and Donna Karan. There's vineyards, Carl Yastrzemski, Joey Buttafuoco, Roy Campanella, ice cream guys Ben & Jerry, Guy Lombardo, NFL Hall of Famer Jim Brown, and mysterious Plum Island. Let's not forget signer of the Declaration of Independence William Floyd, Stanford White, aviation and space pioneers and engineers, piano man Billy Joel, Jerry Seinfeld, William Cullen Bryant, JP Morgan, Leroy Grumman, and the birth of suburbia at Levittown. And what about Boomer Esaison, William Sidney Mount, the legendary Gold Coast mansions, and Mariah Carey? How about Bob Costas, Harry Chapin, Billy Crystal, John Coltrane, Jennifer Capriati, the wonderful Sarah & Emily Hughes, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Edie Falco, Julius (Dr. J) Erving? Rod Steiger, Debbie Gibson, Lindsay Lohan, and Natalie Portman are natives. The Miracle Mile, Tony Danza, Telly Savalas, Rosie O'Donnell, Kevin James, and Roosevelt Field are part of its make up. Howard Stern, the Amityville horror, Michael Crichton, Alan Alda, Isabella Rossellini, and Jennifer Lopez & Marc Anthony are all part of what is Long Island, and can boast of George M. Cohan, the Shinnecock nation, Perry Como, Alan King, Brian Dennehy, John Philip Sousa, Susan Lucci, George Kennedy, Vinny Testaverde, Otto Kahn, and the United States Merchant Marine Academy. Victoria Gotti, August Belmont, Jessica Hahn, and William K. Vanderbilt have added to the lore. There's Eisenhower Park, Walter Chrysler, whaling museums, Maude Adams, Fire Island, Linda Lovelace, Dick Cavett, Harry Guggenheim, Christine Jorgensen, Dutch Schultz, and ducks! Eli Wallach & Anne Jackson, Al Oerter, Patti Lupone, Eddie Murphy, Craig Biggio, Ed Begley (Sr. & Jr.), and John L. Sullivan have called it home. Montauk Point Lighthouse is the easternmost spot. Rick Pitino, Thomas (3 Fingers Brown) Luchese, Rupert Murdoch, and