eedition The Daily Mail December 11-12 2021

The Daily Mail WEEKEND

Copyright 2021, Columbia-Greene Media Volume 229, No. 245

Serving Greene County since 1792

All Rights Reserved

Price $2.50

Saturday-Sunday, December 11-12, 2021

Deaths hit 88, virus cases at high level

By Ted Remsnyder Columbia-Greene Media

CATSKILL - Greene County tallied its 88th COVID-related death this week, as COVID positive cases continue to plateau at a high level across the county.

The latest reported COVIDrelated death in the county was an unidentified man in his mid-70s who had comorbidity issues. The man was not vaccinated against COVID-19 at the time of his death.

The unidentified man died in the hospital in midNovember, and his death was

announced by Greene County Public Health on Thursday.

“Because it was in the hospital, we wouldn’t normally get a notification,” Greene County Administrator Shaun Groden said Friday.

Currently, 65% of residents in Greene County have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine.

As of Thursday, the county had 282 active positive COVID cases, with 73 new cases identified in the previous 24 hours. There are currently 482 Greene residents under quarantine and the total number

of tests coming up positive in the county is at 5.2%. Over the past seven days, the rolling average of positive cases in the county stands at 8.1%.

The health department released a statement Friday noting unvaccinated people are between 5 and 29 more times likely to become hospitalized with COVID-related illnesses than those who are fully vaccinated, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The agency added that those statistics are reflected in the county’s hospitalization

numbers, as at this time last year (before vaccines were available) Greene County had 100 active positive cases and 10 hospitalizations.

The county currently has 30 hospitalizations, with 21 of those patients unvaccinated, one being partially vaccinated and eight having been fully vaccinated.

Groden said those statistics should be enough of a rationale for all residents to get fully vaccinated.

“All of our positive numbers See DEATHS A2

BRAD HORRIGAN/THE HARTFORD COURANT/TNS

Doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine

Athens, NB leaders testify about water problems

By Kate Lisa Johnson Newspaper Corp.

ALBANY — The village of Athens has a leak.

The Greene County municipality’s nearly century-old water infrastructure has recently given way in an undetermined spot, losing about 100 gallons each day, Athens Mayor Amy Serrago said during a legislative forum Friday.

“It’s a lot and we just don’t know where it is yet,” Serrago said. “So we know what’s coming. It’ll bust through ... but we’re on watch.”

Rural communities across the state and nation continue struggle to keep up with regular water main breaks and increased risk of contamination.

Several local government

officials, labor groups and environmental organizations testified to several senators Friday during a forum in the Legislative Office Building on Friday to examine funding and solutions to challenges burdening New York’s drinking water, waste water and stormwater infrastructure.

Sen. Michelle Hinchey, DSaugerties, invited all senators to participate and led the forum, which continued for several hours.

“Access to clean and safe water, as we all know, is a fundamental right, but in many communities across our state and government across the country, that access See WATER A2

KATE LISA/JOHNSON NEWSPAPER CORP.

Athens Mayor Amy Serrago, right, testifies to a group of senators in Albany on Friday about aging state water infrastructure in upstate communities beside New Baltimore Town Supervisor Jeff Ruso.

Town pauses commercial green projects for 6 months

By Ted Remsnyder Columbia-Greene Media

WINDHAM — The town of Windham is placing a six-month moratorium on commercial solar and wind projects as the town works to craft legislation for renewable energy farms.

The moratorium is focused exclusively on commercial solar and wind projects, not residential solar panels on residents’ homes.

The board passed the local law pertaining to the moratorium unanimously at its board meeting Thursday night

and the pause will be in effect through June 30.

“We have no guidelines currently,” Windham Town Supervisor Thomas Hoyt said following the meeting. “With this renewable energy push, I want to be prepared. So if somebody comes with a project for our town, we have the right guidance to say it’s got to have setbacks and there’s a plan to decommission it. All of that good stuff that has to be in a solar law.”

Hoyt noted that no outside company has approached Windham about establishing

a large-scale solar or wind farm in the town, but the town wants to make sure it has legislation in place if such a project emerges.

“The law allows a municipality that’s contemplating working on a substantive solar law to close the door and say for the next six months that we’re not accepting any applications because we have a moratorium as we work on the law that will address this,” Greene County Legislator Larry Gardner said. “So we’re

TED REMSNYDER/COLUMBIAGREENE MEDIA

Councilman Ian Peters, Windham Town Supervisor Thomas Hoyt and Greene County Legislator Larry Gardner at the Windham Town Board meeting on Dec. 9. The board approved a six-month moratorium on wind and solar farms.

See GREEN A2

2022 Nominations Have Begun!

Nominate your favorite Greene County Businesses, and help them move on to the finals!

Log on to www.hudsonvalley360.com/bogc ™

n WEATHER page A2

n SPORTS

n INDEX

FORECAST FOR HUDSON/CA

TODAY TONIGHT SUN

Breezy and mild with rain

A couple of evening showers

Partly sunny

HIGH 57

LOW 37

44 28

Catskill earns road win The Catskill Cats earned a tough win on the road 47-29 PAGE B1

INSIDE TODAY!

Region A3 Opinion A4 Local A5 State/Nation A6 ObituariesA6 Sports B1 Classified B4 Comics/Advice B7-B8

On the web www.HudsonValley360.com

Twitter Follow: @CatskillDailyMail Facebook www.facebook.com/ CatskillDailyMail/

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA • THE DAILY MAIL

A2 - Saturday - Sunday, December 11-12, 2021

Weather

Deaths From A1

FORECAST FOR HUDSON/CATSKILL

TODAY TONIGHT SUN

MON

Breezy and mild with rain

A couple of evening showers

Partly sunny

HIGH 57

LOW 37

44 28

TUE

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Mostly sunny Partly sunny Mostly cloudy and mild

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48 27

46 39 Montreal 45/31

Massena 51/32 Ogdensburg 53/34

Peterborough 54/28

Plattsburgh 47/34

Malone Potsdam 53/30 54/32

Kingston 52/32

Utica 57/33

Batavia Buffalo 62/33 62/34

Albany 54/39

Syracuse 61/37

Catskill 57/37

Binghamton 56/33

Hornell 58/32

Burlington 50/36

Lake Placid 49/27

Watertown 56/36

Rochester 62/34

Hudson 57/37

Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.

SUN AND MOON

ALMANAC Statistics through 1 p.m. yesterday

Temperature

Precipitation

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Low

YEAR TO DATE

43.11 42

Today 7:14 a.m.

4:23 p.m.

12:52 p.m. none

Sunrise Sunset Moonrise Moonset

Yesterday as of 1 p.m. 24 hrs. through 1 p.m. yest.

Sun. 7:15 a.m.

4:23 p.m.

1:13 p.m.

12:44 a.m.

Moon Phases

NORMAL

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First

Dec 18

Dec 26

Jan 2

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Community Life Church in Catskill. The clinic, which is by appointment only, is open to anyone who has received their first and second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine prior to June 16 or the Johnson & Johnson vaccine prior to Oct. 16. The agency is asking residents to bring their vaccination card with them to the clinic to be updated with their booster

Water From A1

Ottawa 50/26

Bancroft 51/25

have been as high as they’ve been in a year, but the few times when someone who is vaccinated gets positive, the symptoms are very mild,” Groden said. “I know a gentleman who didn’t get vaxxed and he wound up in

the hospital. So if that’s your option, would you rather just have a mild case of the flu with typical flu-like symptoms, or do you want to run the risk of being in the emergency room? I guess I just don’t understand why you wouldn’t get vaxxed.”

Greene County Public Health is hosting a Moderna vaccine booster clinic Dec. 16 from 10 a.m. to noon at the

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by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021

CONDITIONS TODAY AccuWeather.com UV Index™ & AccuWeather.com RealFeel Temperature®

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is threatened by aging and in many cases, crumbling water infrastructure,” Hinchey said.

The majority of Athens’ water and sewer mains date to the 1930s, Serrago said during initial testimony, with drinking water and wastewater pipes inches apart from each other.

“The risk of drinking water contamination in the event of a sewer pipe leak or break is incredibly high,” Serrago said during initial testimony. “The systems manager, who works with several other communities, told me he’s never seen this setup in any other municipality. This is not something we want to be known for.”

The village routinely has water main breaks, with six in the last year, but the projected cost to replace water and sewer mains is $250 per foot.

New storm drains, which would help with inflow and infiltration problems, cost about $150 per foot.

“We still have lead pipes in our infrastructure, although most of our pipes are made of cast iron, and those cast iron pipes are decaying,” she said.

“In addition, because of years of build up inside them, most 6-inch pipes now have a capacity of only about 3 inches.”

The village has borrowed nearly $7.8 million to update it’s waste water treatment facilities over the last 15 years, but will not pay off its outstanding debt

KATE LISA/JOHNSON NEWSPAPER CORP.

Sen. Shelley Mayer was one of several senators in Albany on Friday to question local officials about the state’s aging water infrastructure.

KATE LISA/JOHNSON NEWSPAPER CORP.

New Baltimore Town Supervisor Jeff Ruso testifies to a group of senators in Albany on Friday about aging state water infrastructure in upstate communities.

until 2040.

New Baltimore Town Supervisor Jeff Ruso reviewed a

significant water main break June 1, 2020, that impacted the town’s second water district

information.

The health department is also hosting COVID testing clinics each Monday in Coxsackie at 370 Mansion St. from 10:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m.

“We had 83 people that made COVID testing appointments the other day (Dec. 6),” Groden said. “We had 16 of those tests turn positive on us.” Testing is by appointment only.

serving 32 homes of its total 3,200 residents.

The break occurred in a pipe over 100 years old, with an estimated $600,000 cost for repairs.

“Under law, this cost can only be borne by the users in the water district, approaching $20,000 each,” Ruso said. “Thankfully, the Thruway Authority agreed to not make the Water District responsible for the repairs of the road bed, which still left the repairs to cost $330,000.”

Panelists stressed the need for additional investment in the state’s water infrastructure and additional grant opportunities, or expanding the criteria for communities to be eligible for assistance.

Small rural communities also need guidance writing grant applications to successfully acquire the assistance they need, Ruso said.

Friday’s forum was scheduled before President Joe Biden signed the historic $1.2 trillion bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed into law Nov. 15.

The state is expected to receive $2.6 billion over five years to improve water infrastructure, according to U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s office.

Sens. Daphne Jordan, George Borrello, Leroy Comrie, James Gaughran, Rachel May, Peter Harckham and Jim Tedisco attended and asked panelists questions about the same issues plaguing constituents in their upstate communities.

For more on this story, visit HudsonValley360.com

8 a.m. 9 a.m. 10 a.m. 11 a.m. Noon 1 p.m. 2 p.m. 3 p.m. 4 p.m. 5 p.m. 6 p.m.

The higher the AccuWeather.com UV Index number, the greater the need for eye and skin protection. 0-2 Low; 3-5 Moderate; 6-7 High; 8-10 Very High; 11+ Extreme. The patented AccuWeather.com RealFeel Temperature is an exclusive index of effective temperature based on eight weather factors.

NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY

Emma Court

Winnipeg 24/19

Seattle 47/37 Billings 38/34

Bloomberg News Montreal 45/31

Toronto 58/32

Minneapolis 29/22 Detroit 58/30

San Francisco 56/50

New York 64/45

Chicago 45/31

Washington 73/44

Denver 47/31 Kansas City 48/32

Los Angeles 65/44

Atlanta 72/39

El Paso 55/30 Chihuahua 62/38

Houston 67/41

Monterrey 75/48

Miami 83/72

ALASKA HAWAII

-10s

-0s

10s rain

Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.

Hilo 80/68

Juneau 29/12

0s

showers t-storms

Honolulu 82/71

Fairbanks 3/-1

Anchorage 11/3

20s flurries

30s

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snow

50s ice

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cold front

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Today Hi/Lo W 42/23 s 11/3 pc 72/39 t 59/44 c 72/41 t 38/34 pc 70/35 t 40/37 sn 64/43 sh 77/60 pc 67/31 t 70/45 t 39/33 pc 45/31 r 62/29 r 63/31 r 64/29 r 56/34 s 47/31 pc 41/29 s 58/30 sh 57/41 sh 82/71 pc 67/41 c 56/28 c 48/32 s 68/33 t 52/35 s

Sun. Hi/Lo W 50/28 s 7/-7 s 58/37 s 48/40 s 50/30 s 45/27 c 57/37 s 47/39 c 48/37 pc 63/41 r 48/27 s 58/31 s 53/26 s 48/37 s 47/31 s 45/34 s 45/30 s 63/41 s 60/32 pc 52/32 s 43/34 s 48/28 s 82/70 pc 64/44 s 47/32 s 57/36 s 50/29 s 55/38 s

The first omicron cases in the U.S. were detected mostly in vaccinated people who experienced mild illnesses, with only one hospitalization and no deaths reported so far, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

As of Dec. 8, the U.S. had investigated 43 cases of the COVID-19 variant that set the world on high alert last month because of mutations that may make it spread more easily.

About four-fifths of those

Green

warm front stationary front

From A1

NATIONAL CITIES City Albuquerque Anchorage Atlanta Atlantic City Baltimore Billings Birmingham Boise Boston Charleston, SC Charleston, WV Charlotte Cheyenne Chicago Cincinnati Cleveland Columbus, OH Dallas Denver Des Moines Detroit Hartford Honolulu Houston Indianapolis Kansas City Knoxville Las Vegas

Early US omicron cases caused mild illness in vaccinated

City Little Rock Los Angeles Miami Milwaukee Minneapolis Nashville New Orleans New York City Norfolk Oklahoma City Omaha Orlando Philadelphia Phoenix Pittsburgh Portland Portland Providence Raleigh Richmond Sacramento St. Louis Salt Lake City San Francisco Savannah Seattle Tampa Washington, DC

Today Hi/Lo W 52/30 pc 65/44 s 83/72 s 41/30 sn 29/22 s 66/29 r 78/49 t 64/45 sh 73/46 pc 51/29 s 44/30 s 84/65 pc 70/44 sh 67/44 s 64/31 r 51/39 r 49/40 r 61/43 sh 73/46 pc 75/44 pc 53/46 s 48/33 pc 37/28 pc 56/50 s 79/59 pc 47/37 r 82/68 pc 73/44 t

Sun. Hi/Lo W 57/30 s 61/44 pc 83/71 pc 47/35 pc 36/20 pc 52/31 s 64/52 pc 49/40 s 50/34 s 60/37 s 53/29 s 79/62 pc 50/34 s 72/47 s 42/31 s 44/31 pc 46/39 sh 47/34 pc 55/30 s 52/31 s 50/48 r 55/36 s 42/32 pc 56/53 r 67/42 r 44/35 sh 82/66 c 52/34 s

Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice.

pausing the process for anyone that wants to come in and do this.”

The local law states that Windham “desires to adopt regulations that govern commercial solar-fueled electric generating facilities and commercial wind-fueled electric generating facilities.”

During the public hearing for the moratorium on Thursday, no members of the public chose to speak for or against the local law.

During the course of the sixmonth moratorium, the law states that the town board will not grant any approvals which would result in the establishment of any renewable energy facilities, while the Windham Planning Board will not approve any permits or site plans

cases occurred in people who had been fully vaccinated, the CDC said on Friday, including one who was in the hospital for two days. Common symptoms included cough, tiredness and congestion or runny nose, according to the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Scientists are still trying to understand how omicron compares with the dominant delta variant. Among the big questions are how quickly omicron spreads, how well it evades immune responses and how sick it makes people. The CDC report,

while early, is the first detailed look at omicron cases in the U.S. The authors cautioned against drawing broad conclusions from the early numbers, including because those who have recently traveled internationally may be more likely to be young and vaccinated. The majority of the reported omicron cases were among adults under the age of 40, who tend to have milder cases of COVID. About a third of the early U.S. patients had also received another shot or booster dose, though several received that

extra dose less than two weeks before becoming ill. About 14% of the omicron cases, meanwhile, had evidence of a previous COVID infection.

Omicron cases had been reported across 22 states as of Dec. 8, according to the CDC. Additional omicron infections from late last month are likely to emerge soon, the authors said. Of the 43 cases, the earliest reported symptoms occurred in mid-November, the report said.

that would result in the creation of wind or solar farms in the municipality.

“This is for huge projects where people want to buy five acres and put down four acres of solar panels,” Gardner said.

There are no renewable energy facilities in the town currently, but the town wants to have guidelines in place if an energy company arrives to pitch one.

“There’s nothing here anyway, so someone could just come to our planning board and say, ‘Here’s my site plan,’” Hoyt said.

The town has also seen a surge in home buyers in the last 24 months, as Windham Assessor Richard Tollner explained in his report to the board that 560 home sales have been completed in the town in the last two years.

That figure represents 20% of the total homes in the town that have changed hands in

two years.

“It’s incredible,” Tollner told the board. “An average for this area is like four or five percent per year. We’re averaging over 10% per year. It’s working out quite well for everybody.”

Hoyt said the town has a quality of life that is attracting new people to Windham.

“There’s a lot of interest for people coming into the town, and without sounding like a jerk, we are Windham,” he said. “We have something that people want. It’s the beauty of our town.”

The supervisor said the influx of new residents in the town is coming at the same time as new businesses are investing in Windham, like the renovations the Wylder Hotel group is making to the former Thompson House resort.

“We take it as a positive,” Hoyt said. “It’s the same with the group buying the Thompson House. When someone’s

going to put $20 million into the town, we have something special here.”

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Saturday - Sunday, December 11-12, 2021 - A3

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA • THE DAILY MAIL

CALENDAR EDITOR’S NOTE: Most events and meetings are cancelled due to the virus outbreak. Please call ahead to confirm.

Monday, Dec. 13 n Ashland Town Board 7:30 p.m.

Town Hall, 12094 Route 23, Ashland n Catskill Village Planning Board 7 p.m. Robert C. Antonelli Senior Center, 15 Academy St., Catskill 518-9433830 n Coxsackie Village Board 7 p.m.

Village Hall, 119 Mansion St., Coxsackie 518-731-2718 n Greene County Legislature county services; public works; economic development and tourism; gov. ops.; finance; rep and dem caucus 6 p.m.

Greene County Office Building, 411 Main St., 4th Floor, Room 469, Catskill

Tuesday, Dec. 14 n Catskill Town Planning Board

6:30 p.m. Robert C. Antonelli Senior Center, 15 Academy St., Catskill n Coxsackie Town Board 7 p.m.

Town Hall, 56 Bailey St., Coxsackie n Coxsackie Village Historic Preservation Committee workshop meeting 5 p.m.; committee meeting 5:45 p.m.; committee meeting 6:30 p.m. Village Hall, 119 Mansion St., Coxsackie 518731-2718

Wednesday, Dec. 15 n Athens Village Board 6:30 p.m.

Firehouse at 39 Third St., Athens n Catskill Central School District Board of Education regular business 6:30 p.m. CHS Library, CHS Library, 341 West Main St., Catskill 518-9432300 n Catskill Library Board 6:45 p.m. at either the Catskill Library, 1 Franklin St., Catskill or Palenville Library, 3303 Route 23A, Palenville n Catskill Town Board Committee 6:30 p.m. Town Hall, 439 Main St., Catskill 518-943-2141 n Catskill Village Board of Trustees 6:30 p.m. Robert C. Antonelli Senior Center, 15 Academy St., Catskill 518943-3830 n Greene County Legislature public hearing No. 124 6:25 p.m.; legislature meeting No. 12 6:30 p.m. Greene County Office Building, 411 Main St., 4th Floor, Room 469, Catskill

Thursday, Dec. 16 n Athens Village Conservation

Advisory Council 6:30 p.m. via Zoom.

Join Zoom Meeting hhttps://us02web. zoom.us/j/82693515752 n Coxsackie Village Planning Board 6 p.m. Village Hall, 119 Mansion St., Coxsackie 518-731-2718

Sheriff’s Deputies hold annual toy drive

By Bill Williams Columbia-Greene Media

With the holidays getting closer, and with many families still needing help this year, local sheriff’s deputies in Greene and Columbia counties are working to make sure that area children will have a Merry Christmas.

In Greene County, the Deputies Association has partnered with the First Responders Children’s Foundation, CSX and Walmart to provide gifts this year to children and families of the county, said Deputy Kristopher Danko, who is president of the Greene County Deputies Association.

“They want to help families that may otherwise have not been able to celebrate this season due to financial hardships from the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the ongoing supply chain shortages,” Danko said.

On Dec. 18, county residents are invited to come to the Greene County Sheriff’s Office at 45 Haverly Memorial Drive in Coxsackie between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., where the gifts will be distributed.

There will also be treats available and photographs with Santa and Mrs. Claus. All children will receive a special gift, Danko said.

If anyone would like to donate toys to this occasion, they can bring them to the Sheriff’s Office on Haverly Memorial Drive, before Dec. 18, Danko said.

In Columbia County, they are also looking to help children and keep the memory of Deputy Bernard Roberts alive.

Roberts died unexpectedly at his home on Nov. 7. He was an 18-year veteran of the department.

The Columbia County Deputy Sheriff’s Benevolent Association is sponsoring the

BILL WILLIAMS/COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

A Life Net helicopter takes off for Albany Med from Cairo, with an injured skier onboard.

Injured teen skier airlifted to Albany Med

By Bill Williams Columbia-Greene Media

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

A toy collection box is set up in the lobby at the Greene County Sheriff’s Office in Coxsackie, for residents to donate for their annual toy drive.

Deputy Bernard A. Roberts Memorial Toy Drive in the lobby of the Columbia County Public Safety Building at 85 Industrial Tract in Greenport. Toys can be dropped of 24 hours a day, or by giving them to any sheriff deputy, said Lt. John Rivero of the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office.

“We wanted this to be a living legacy for him,” Rivero said.

The Deputy Sheriff’s Benevolent Association is collecting new, unwrapped toys for the children of the county who are in need this holiday season.

Donations are being accepted through Dec. 15.

The school resource deputies, working with the schools, have identified the families who

are in need of assistance this year, Rivero said.

The Columbia County 911 Dispatchers Benevolent Association recently made a donation of toys, games and dolls, and encouraged other community groups to do so.

Toy drive organizers ask that you not donate cash or gift cards.

WINDHAM — A teenager was airlifted to Albany Medical Center on Thursday following a skiing accident in Windham.

At about 1:19 p.m., Greene County Paramedics and Windham Ambulance were sent by Greene County 911 to Windham Mountain at 19 Resort Drive after receiving a report of an accident. The caller said a 14-year-old boy was unconscious and unresponsive, bleeding and had a possible head injury.

Details of the accident were not immediately available.

Medical officials requested a Life Net helicopter.

Medics treated the teen at the scene and placed him in a Windham Ambulance that took him to the State Police barracks on Route 23 in Leeds, where Cairo Fire Company had established a landing zone.

After the helicopter and ambulance arrived, the boy was places on the helicopter, and was flown to Albany.

WORK WO W O From From HOME OM ME E

Monday, Dec. 20 n Athens Town Board 7 p.m. Town

Hall, 2 First St., Athens 518-945-1052 n Greenville Town Board 7 p.m.

Town Hall, 11159 Route 32, Pioneer Building, Greenville

Tuesday, Dec. 21 n Athens Village Planning Board 6:30 p.m. Village Hall, 2 First St., Athens 518-945-1551 n Durham Town Board 7:30 p.m.

Town Hall, 7309 Route 81, East Durham n Hunter Town Board 7 p.m. Town Hall, 5748 Route 23A, Tannersville

Friday, Dec. 24 n Catskill Town Offices closed in

observance of Christmas n Coxsackie Town Offices will be closed in observance of Christmas n Coxsackie Village Offices closed in observance of Christmas n Greene County Office Building closed in observance of Christmas

Monday, Dec. 27 n Catskill Village Planning Board 7 p.m. Robert C. Antonelli Senior Center, 15 Academy St., Catskill 518-9433830 n Coxsackie Town Zoning Board of Appeals 6:30 p.m. Town Hall, 56 Bailey St., Coxsackie 518-731-2727

Tuesday, Dec. 28 n Catskill Town Planning Board

6:30 p.m. Robert C. Antonelli Senior Center, 15 Academy St., Catskill

Wednesday, Dec. 29 n Catskill Zoning Board of Appeals

6 p.m. Town Hall, 439 Main St., Catskill

Friday, Dec. 31

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A minimum of 2-3 years of previous education-based communications is preferred. The position is 3-4 days per week with a starting salary up to $44,000 plus a full benefits package. This is a Civil Service Provisional Hire and you must pass the School Information Specialist exam when offered by Columbia County and all applicants must be residents of Columbia County. For additional job description details, please refer to the job listing on the Ichabod Crane website:ichabodcrane.org

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n Catskill Town Offices closed in

observance of New Year’s Eve n Coxsackie Town Offices will be closed in observance of New Year’s Eve n Greene County Office Building closed in observance of New Year’s Eve

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COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA • THE DAILY MAIL

A4 - Saturday - Sunday, December 11-12, 2021

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OUR VIEW

A vivid symbol of gratitude Courage is the fundamental DNA of all emergency medical responders, including — and most especially in 2020 and 2021 — the bravery to treat a patient in a call that may involve exposure to the coronavirus. For Town of Catskill Ambulance workers, that courage will soon be rewarded.

Catskill ambulance workers will receive a one-time stipend of $1,000 for their labor during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In November, the Catskill Town Board approved $38,250 in stipends for a total of 65 employees, including full-time and part-time workers, the money to come from the town’s pool of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.

The town received $385,639 in its first allocation of funding, with the second half due in the summer of 2022 for a total of $771,279.

Town officials decided to use a portion of the federal funding to reward employees who continued to put their own lives on the line during the height of the pandemic.

The town is giving its fulltime ambulance employees a stipend of $1,000, while part-time ambulance employees will receive checks for $500. Employees in multiple town departments will receive stipends of varying amounts. The first checks to town employees are scheduled to go out in the next week.

It’s crystal clear that

Catskill’s ambulance corps has done an incredible job over the last 18 months.

They kept the local government employees healthy and working. They treated the sick and injured in their homes. They transported people of all ages to hospitals across the region. Catskill’s ambulance service went above and beyond the call of duty in all phases of its operation. Their dedication got us through the worst of the pandemic. It was a frightening time. Clearly, they ran toward potential danger when most if not all of us would shrink from it. The stipends may be small, but they are vivid expressions of our gratitude for a job well done under impossible conditions.

ANOTHER VIEW

Peddlers of fake news can wreak havoc in the real world St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial Board St.Louis Post-Dispatch

Normally, the St. Louisbased website The Gateway Pundit can and should be laughed off as right-wing, fake-news nonsense. But as Reuters recently reported, the site’s false allegations of election fraud in jurisdictions around the country have stoked harassment and death threats against two dozen election officials. The reason toxic platforms like this exist is because there is a market for them. Only when the news-consuming public learns to be more discerning in where it looks for information will those platforms loosen their damaging grip on political discourse.

The Gateway Pundit is a popular blog among America’s far-right political fringes, trafficking in the kind of half-truths and whole-cloth lies that fuel so much of that end of the political spectrum these days. After a right-wing fanatic killed a counterprotester with a car during the white nationalist demonstration in 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, The Gateway Pundit falsely attributed the attack to an “Anti-Trump protester.” After the Las

Vegas mass shooting that year, it wrongly accused “a Democrat who liked Rachel Maddow.”

The site was a prominent purveyor of the racist lie that former President Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States. And, more recently, it advanced the Trumpian big lie that the 2020 presidential election was rife with fraud.

A mother and daughter who together counted ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, sued the website and its founder, St. Louisan Jim Hoft, after the site promoted false allegations by Trump surrogates that the pair counted “suitcases” full of fake Biden ballots after hours. That August post drew a comment on Hoft’s site alleging the two women “are traitors to the country and should be hung by the neck until dead.”

The site also promoted the falsehood about “fake” ballots in Madison, Wisconsin, which led one commenter to specify the kind of bullet recommended for killing the city clerk there. Other public officials in Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona were inundated with racist or mi-

sogynistic hate email, allegations of “treason” and calls for their imprisonment after The Gateway Pundit lobbed baseless allegations of fraud at them.

Mainstream media outlets today are routinely accused by both the right and left of ideologically tilting their reporting, and it’s not difficult to find anecdotal evidence to back up such criticism. But those mainstream sources, including this newspaper, at least attempt to present factual coverage, because their business models rely on long-term credibility. The Gateway Pundits of the world and fellow travelers, like One America News Network and Breitbart News, rely instead on shock, outrage and an appeal to consumers’ worst instincts. Facts seldom come into it.

It’s easy to research assertions made on these platforms. Often, they’ve already been debunked by reputable sources such as FactCheck. org and PolitiFact. Such double-checking by consumers shouldn’t be necessary, but in a media universe polluted by such fake-news waste dumps as The Gateway Pundit, it is.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY ‘I’d rather risk an ugly surprise than rely on things I know I can do.’

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If Trump runs in 2024, he may find Chris Christie ready to rumble NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — The New Jersey political style is simmering truculence between brawls. Chris Christie, the state’s former two-term Republican governor, indicates — by his words and, as important, his demeanor of surplus pugnacity — that he is spoiling for a fight.

He is brimful of combativeness, even when, on a recent evening, his attention was divided among Republicans’ misadventures, President Joe Biden’s shortcomings and a plate of pasta. Christie might find an outlet for his spiritedness in the Republicans’ 2024 presidential competition. Donald Trump should not assume that he can avoid Republican opposition if he becomes the first former president since Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 to reenter presidential politics.

If Trump hopes to be the second president, after Grover Cleveland in 1888, to regain the presidency after losing a reelection bid, he might find Christie ready to rumble.

Trump’s most successful policies — tax cuts, deregulation, judges evaluated by Federalist Society criteria — did not differ from those of actual Republicans. His manner emphatically did. More than a smidgen of pugnacity might be needed by a Republican presidential candidate attempting to hold Trump voters while winning back those repelled by him. If combativeness without infantile name-calling and pathological lying is the recipe, Christie might be the chef.

For perhaps a majority of Trump’s voters, the former president’s bad-boy persona was the point. For them, policies mattered less than experiencing through him the cultural catharsis of offending those they find offensive. Among the 36% of registered voters with a college degree, 56% voted for Biden. Republicans need to regain ground with this cohort without forfeiting votes on the

WASHINGTON POST

GEORGE F.

WILL other side of the “diploma divide.”

Florida, the most important swing state, has become less White and more Republican, which suggests to Politico’s Zack Stanton that “non-college educated white people have more culturally in common with working-class Black and working-class Hispanic voters.” Christie twice won the governorship of a state that last voted Republican in a presidential race in 1988. He received 32% and 51% of Hispanic votes in 2009 and 2013, respectively, and 9% and 21% of Black votes, respectively. No Republican presidential candidate has received 21% of the Black vote since 1960.

Jeffrey H. Anderson, president of the American Main Street Initiative, argues (in the Claremont Review of Books) that the Republican road to the White House runs through Big Ten country: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa. In two elections, Trump won more victories in these states (7) than Republican presidential candidates had won over the previous seven elections combined. Christie’s implicit case for himself is that he can appeal to the Trumpist majority of the Republican base without further debasing it, the GOP and the nation.

With his new book “Republican Rescue,” Christie begins reacquainting Trump voters with reality. The book often is an awkward mixture of strategic

reticence and obvious evasions, but not on one important point: He demolishes what he calls the “drivel” about fraud stealing the 2020 election. Readers will be in no doubt about the identity of the prime driveler.

On election night, when Trump cried fraud, Christie says he was shocked. But he pointedly notes that weeks earlier, when Trump was asked if he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power, he replied, “Well, we’ll have to see what happens.” Christie writes that he thought Trump had “better have evidence” of fraud. But Christie mercilessly dissects Trump’s years of indifference to evidence — his original flight of “inflammation without information” — regarding Barack Obama’s birthplace.

The book’s schizophrenia is so undisguised it seems tactical.

Christie is daring to acknowledge, and demonstrating a willingness to undertake, the political contortions necessary to propel the Republican Party up from Trump, away from performative entertainment and back to politics. Christie is saying: No one worked harder than I did to put my friend of 20 years in office and keep him there, and he is a liar, and a relic.

Christie says he does not want to make his divergences from Trump “personal,” but he surely knows that for Trump everything is personal. Christie inveighs against “wallowing in the past” and “the quicksand of endless grievances.” In Florida, the thick man with the thin skin is not wondering to whom Christie refers, and will not be forgiving just because Christie was, as he repeatedly reminds readers, “the first major officeholder” to endorse Trump.

The Trump parenthesis in Republican politics will not end without a fight. One pugilist seems ready.

George Will’s email address is georgewill@washpost.com.

ANOTHER VIEW

An underground theater troupe flees Belarus, but the fight for democracy goes on The Washington Post

Dictatorships and art rarely get along. Totalitarian systems make heavy demands on writers and artists to follow the party line. Creative types know this destroys their integrity, and it presents an imperative to respond by seeking freedom for their endeavors. This is the reality in Belarus under the rule of dictator Alexander Lukashenko. Just ask the 16 members of the Belarus Free Theatre, who have fled their home country after years of harassment and persecution.

The troupe announced Monday that it is going into exile in Poland, no longer able to withstand the pressure.

Banned in Belarus for years, the ensemble courageously carried on, performing for audiences through the Telegram messaging service and staging underground productions in homes, garages, courtyards and forests. As The Post’s Karla Adam reported, the Belarus KGB stormed its shows, arresting both performers and people in the audience, and company members were detained for participating in anti-Lukashenko protests. It was after one such round of arrests that the married founders, Natalia

Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin, claimed asylum in London in 2011, but the company kept going in Belarus.

In August 2020, Belarus voters overwhelmingly elected Svetlana Tikhanovskaya their president, but Lukashenko, in office since 1994, refused to relinquish power. He forced her out of the country and claimed he had won. Mass protests erupted against this blatant theft of the election results, and Lukashenko responded with a bone-shattering crackdown.

Hundreds of protesters have been arrested and beaten in prison, and more than a year later, detentions continue.

There are 909 political prisoners in Belarus, according to the human rights group Viasna.

Several hundred nongovernmental organizations have been shuttered; news websites and newspapers have been closed.

Belarus was home to a rising generation of young people - including a thriving community of software coders - who have in recent months fled to neighboring Poland and Lithuania. The current regime is constantly arresting and interrogating journalists, artists, performers and others for such

things as social media postings.

An activist and mother of five children, Volha Zalatar, was recently sentenced to four years in prison for operating an online chatroom that challenged the results of the 2020 election.

Lukashenko has shown little sign of changing his ways. But his most recent gambit was a notable failure. He brought migrants from Iraq to Belarus on the false promise that they could enter the European Union by crossing at the border with Poland. He thought weaponizing the migrants would pressure the E.U. to lift sanctions, but it badly backfired.

Poland smartly stood firm, the E.U. has imposed a new round of sanctions, along with the United States, Britain and Canada, and Belarus is now repatriating the migrants to their home countries. The lesson is not to give in to pressure tactics

by Lukashenko.

Lukashenko presents a real-time challenge for those who would fight back against authoritarianism as it rises around the world. Fresh ideas are needed for how to effectively struggle for free thinking and an open society under despotic rule, as the Belarus Free Theatre admirably did for so long.

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Saturday - Sunday, December 11-12, 2021 - A5

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Dick’s annual Letter to Santa

By Dick Brooks For Columbia-Greene Media

December 2014 Dear Santa, It’s me again, Little Dicky Brooks from Cold Spring Road? I’ve tried to be faithful about writing to you on a yearly basis so here’s Letter # 68.

It certainly doesn’t seem that long. I still feel a little guilty about all the “gimme” letters in the beginning. I have been better about the last dozen or so, haven’t I? It’s been a pretty good year for our family, a few health problems but they’re pretty much gone now. The Queen’s mother and my Mom both left us last year so this is our first Christmas without them and they are missed. But Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the memories of Christmas past so they really haven’t left. My boys are fine, no incarcerations so far, and The Princess continues to fill the world with her music. We are so proud of them all.

How are things with Ms. Claus and the elves? I heard that she was looking good, “Weight Watchers” helped?

The Queen has worked hard and really looks nice also.

Maybe it’s time for us to think about shedding a few pounds too. We both have about the same body type, round, and neither of us is getting any younger. I’ll do what I can but it’ll be easier if I know you’re trying too. Misery loves company.

WHITTLING AWAY

DICK

BROOKS I hope you’re taking care of yourself. I know how cold weather makes me feel and I’m a lot younger than you are. Did you get your flu shot this year? Maybe you could start deliveries the day before Christmas so you wouldn’t be so rushed. Most children wouldn’t mind their presents a day early, at least I know I wouldn’t have minded that at all. I will leave you a couple of packages of hand warmers that I’ve found to work well. I’ll leave them next to the plate of cookies and the eggnog with our special sweetener in it.

Well, enough of the chit chat, time to get down to business, business being what I want for Christmas this year.

How about a new Corvette?

I knew that would give you a chuckle, I’ve been asking for one since 1954 so I couldn’t let this year go by without continuing the tradition. I still have the model of one that you put in my stocking so long ago and I thank you for it. One of my reader friends sent me one last year so now I have two. It’s

getting tougher and tougher to figure out what I want for Christmas. There’s little that I want and even less that I need.

I know I’m driving my wife crazy because I can’t come up with a list for her to shop with.

Here’s the best I could come up with; 1. Good health and happiness for all that I know.

2. A big can of kindness to rub on the hurts of those who are lonely and have no one to share the holidays with.

3. Shelter for those without any.

4. Love to thaw the hearts of those who hate.

5. Tender treatment for all things that are small and helpless.

6. The intelligence to see my blessings daily.

That should about do it. I know they’re not easy to find or get but I know you’ll try your best. I’ll try my best to help out, maybe I can find them on my own.

Well old friend, take care.

Travel safely, remember you can leave some of the cookies. Give Ms. Claus and the reindeer a hug for me. Should you ever have a need for an old whittler to help with making the toys, give me a call, I’d love to help. If all goes well, I’ll write again next year.

God bless.

Love you Santa, Dick Reach Dick at whittlingaway@ yahoo.com.

Catskill High School announces 2021-2022 first quarter honor roll CATSKILL — Catskill High School announces students named to the first quarter honor roll for the 2021-2022 school year.

GRADE 12 High Honor Roll: Serena Adsit, Tristan Arp, Kaelyn Bulich, Adam Carlson, Johnny Colon, Andrew Daisernia, Patrick Darling, Alyssa Deck, Jacob Devlin, Marco Dodig, Richard Edwards, Elizabeth Finnegan, Nicholas Fusco, Isis Gonzalez, Michael Jubie, Hannah Konsul, Lucas Konsul, Samantha Malkowski, Andre McCann, Willow Morehead, Auna Marie Muscarella-Bland, James Ogden, Brandon Phillips, Ryan Prasenski, Bridgette Reilly, Nathan Riordon, Nathalie Rodriguez, Alexandra Rose, Daniel Smith, Brianna Stevens, Jessi Watts.

Honor Roll: Michael Boan, Emily Carman, Ayanna Curless, Wisqueili Estevez Ramirez, Marissa Gardella, Joshua Gonzalez, Garrett Haskin, Isaiah Hayden, Sean Haye, Josiah Hill, Deresa Johnson, Littaliyah Johnson, Caden Legg, Jayden Lewis, Keaton Quinn, Justin Uvino, David Whittaker.

Merit Roll: Mairin Apjohn, Scott Baker, Azar Brantley, Joshua Buffa, David Dallas, Raven DiRaffaele, Tyler Duong, Robert Feurtado, Stephen Forbes, Gianna Frascello, Modesta Garcia, Kellen Gibbs, Robert Henry, Colin Ramos, William Rogers, Leonard Signoretti III, Imani Young.

GRADE 11 High Honor Roll: Janay Brantley, Emma Brown, Aryanna Burbas, Xiao Chen, Karsen Chiminelli, Ian Ciancanelli, Maya Dixit, Micah Doig, Charlotte DuBois, Harleigh Frascello, Cullen Fulling, Jenna Graham, Devin Guerrieri, Madison Hallam, Mya Hernandez, Anastasia Hummel, Adam Konsul, Christopher Konsul, Joseph Konsul, Nicholas Konsul, Lauren Liberti, Emonnie

McGriff, Olivia Mentessi, Jason Miller, Kaden Minkalis, Kaylee Nearey, Samantha Scalera, Liliana Seeley, Angelina Shanley, Isabella Shanley, Aaliyah Shook, John Shook, Cristina Signoretti, Ella Souza, Grace Sullivan, Carter VanEtten, Aiden Varade, Maya Weaver.

Honor Roll: Athena Campbell, Loretta Canzaniello, Ayden Cappello, Hananiah Clause, Abigail Cornelison, Dany Martinez Cruz, Meeghan Darling, Zachary Dugan, Ella Gille, Cristian Guerra, Mason Hendricks, Justin Hill, Charlotte LaRocque, Jared Lawton, Katelynne Reilly, Phoebe Smith, Nathaniel Timot, Owen Valentino, Serena White.

Merit Roll: Natalie Bellerose, Cassidy Bridgett, Marisabella Caraballo, Gavin Dixit, Daniel Forbes, Mia Glover, Hudson Kuter, Raffaele Mancini, JeDavia McGriff, Joseph Mirocco, Jarin Navarro, Nicholas Place, Edward Rogers, Richard Sprague III

GRADE 10 High Honor Roll: Jack Alexander, Emily Allen, Kaithe Andrews, Stevenson Arp, Abigail Beesimer, Brooklyn Benjamin, Lucian Benjamin, Madison Breunig-Smith, Rogan Byrne, Ryan Carter, Jillian Devlin, Breonna Dragon, Elizabeth DuBois, Xavier Engelin, Savannah Ferretti, Lucas Fisher, Devin Fitzmaurice, Ian Fitzmaurice, Lily Gallagher, Henry Goodell, Mia Gottesman, Grace Guenthner, Kevin Hatker, Nixon Hawksby, Andrew Holliday, Adrianna Jenes, Shawn Johnston, Madison Jones, Jasmine Keck, Dominic Lanuto, Carlos Lemus Argueta, Angelika Lopez, Zachary Maccaline, Catherine Malkowski, Dasean Mcgriff, Kyle McNevin, Robert Moore, Molly Osswald, Avery Riordon, Maeli Robinson, Gabriel Sanchez, Maya Segura, Lincoln Simmons, Emily Starr, Cyprus Thibeault, Karen Valentin, Isabella Woods.

Honor Roll: Chase Allen,

Oliver Dreger, Morgan Hurler, Gavin Near, Janiaha Pomales, Brandon Phillips, Joselynn Reid-Guzman, Simon Rogers, Adrianna Simmons, Zoe Synan, Cheyenne Teater, Kayleigh Timberger.

Merit Roll: Jesus Aguilar Trujilo, Cody Coleman, Aiden Davies, Daniela Hernandez, Jasmine Hicks, Logan Hough, Laurel Johnson, Etienne LaFleur, Nicholas Pacheco, Jesse Phillips, Amelia Sutherland, Gregory Thomas, Xavier Quispe Tubon, Jaydon Turczyn, Trinity Vital.

GRADE 9 High Honor Roll: Leif Abrahamsen, Kaylee Boan, John Breusch, Travis Bulich, Asia Bystrak, Morgan Chan, Ryan Chee, Chase DeGroff, Ava Edmond, Payton Frascello, Alexandra Hallam, Victoria Heim, Leon Hong, Noah Kubicek, Justen Lindsay, Dylan Lipski, Raven Lynch, Liam Mariani, Ingris Martinez, William McMullen, Adrianna Moon, Demetrio Morales, Bailey Morgan, Dine’a Rose, Alessia Salierno, Christian Slauson, Alora Stiles, Paige Thorpe, Jaycee Tomaszewski, Caleb VanDyke, Dylan Wamsley, Shyann Weaver, Olivia White, Noah Workman.

Honor Roll: Henry Bruno, Aryanna Bush, Chelsey Carlson, Wesley Cuckoo, Julia Davies, Anson Deosaran, Hunter Frascello, Tazyiah Green, Lillie Guilzon, Makhai Henry, Anthony Hoke, Erik Kirch, Morgan Hurler, Patrick Malkowski, Madison Mudge, Geoffrey Osborn, Ananda Rhymaun, Ryan Romaine, Emanuel Sanchez, John Signoretti, Leonard Sperl, Riley Street, Shaylyn Timot, Olivia Van Alstyne, Leanna White Merit Roll: Will Cummings, Anthony Davanzo, Elena Greene, Skyla Hutchings, Gianna Jeune, Sebastian Jones, Anthony Madera, Jordan Moore, Alyciana Salter, Jadah Scalera, Tempess Strong, Maria Quispe Tubon, Colin Tuey, Sophia Tushaj, Paige Yungandreas.

Firewood part 2

By Bob Beyfuss For Columbia-Greene Media

Last week I talked about using firewood as a home fuel source. This week I will continue with this topic. I will begin by defining some nebulous terms associated with trees in general.

“Hardwoods” are simply defined as deciduous trees and the term has little to do with the actual “hardness” or density of the wood itself.

“Softwoods” are conifers, but their wood may be far harder than some hardwoods, such as willow, basswood or poplar. Some softwoods, like pine or red cedar, produce lots of smoke and also shoot sparks due to resin pockets. Black locust is a hardwood that burns very hot, but it often has vapor pockets in the wood that explode and shoot sparks. It is not a good choice for fireplaces unless there is a sturdy screen to block the sparks.

The moisture content of any species of wood affects burning characteristics. The hardwood species which contains the least amount of water, while still alive, is ash.

Right now there is an abundance of ash firewood in NY, since so many of our ash trees have succumbed to the Emerald Ash Borer. If you are desperate for wood to burn, you can cut down some white ash and burn it somewhat green, but trying to burn very green hickory or oak will often put your fire out. A 16 pound bolt (a bolt is a small log) of green (freshly cut) red oak may be eight inches in diameter and perhaps fifteen inches long.

It will weigh twice as much as a well-seasoned (dry) piece that is the same size. Picture a gallon container of water or milk and consider that a single, sixteen inch bolt will contain that much water inside it.

Before the wood in the log begins to burn and yield those BTU’s, that entire gallon of

GARDENING TIPS

BOB

BEYFUSS water needs to be boiled off.

It takes just about one thousand BTU’s to evaporate one pound of water.

Sometimes dead elm trees will remain standing for years, providing almost instant, dry, firewood. Unfortunately, elm is the most difficult wood to split and it is really not all that dense. Unless you have access to a wood splitter, forget about splitting elm by hand. Ash wood that is straight, without many knots is perhaps the easiest wood to split but any wood with many knots or multiple branches can be difficult. There was a time when I split all my firewood by hand, with a splitting maul (sometimes called a “go devil”) or with steel wedges, but now I have neither the inclination nor the stamina to do this. The past few years I have only cut down trees with a small enough diameter to not need splitting.

I no longer need to burn as much wood as I once did, since I spend five months in warm Florida. I can get by now at home with perhaps a face cord, which is defined as a well stacked single row that is four foot high by eight feet long, but may be from twelve inches to twenty four inches wide. If you buy firewood, make sure you and the seller are specifying full or face cord volumes. Fireplaces in Florida are for show and not for survival. That’s OK with me. After breathing the fumes

of wood smoke for more than forty winters, I think I will be a bit healthier as a result of giving it up.

Breathing wood smoke fumes, which are loaded with carcinogens and particulate matter, is not the only downside to heating with wood.

No one who lives in a suburban area should ever consider burning wood as a main home heating source. Even outdoor wood furnaces pollute the surrounding air to a great extent and in my opinion, they should be banned from any suburban area. I don’t think that people, especially kids, should be exposed to breathing wood smoke while waiting for the school bus each morning.

Woodstoves are also responsible for chimney fires that can threaten a family’s entire life. Woodstoves require a dedicated chimney of their own and demand frequent inspections and maintenance by professionals. Firewood is dirty, often comes into your house with all sorts of insects living in it and leaves distinct odors indoors that many people find objectionable.

Cutting down trees and turning them into firewood is one of the most dangerous activities a person can engage in. Indeed, people who are engaged in the profession of logging pay the highest rate of workman’s compensation in America. The cost and maintenance of a chainsaw and associated wood working tools is also pretty significant.

A wood splitter, chainsaw, chaps, helmet, oil, gas and other assorted tools far exceeds the cost of the stove itself. Think hard before you decide to try to save some money by burning wood this winter.

Reach Bob Beyfuss at rlb14@cornell.edu.

Catskill Middle School announces the first quarter honor roll CATSKILL — Catskill Middle School announces the students named to the first qaurter honor roll of the 2021-2022 school year.

GRADE 8 High Honor Roll: Gabriella Amato, Carter Colon, Aiden Cousens, Trevor Duong, Isabelle Edwards, Haley Frieary, Connor Grasse, Gavin Hendricks, James LaBarre, Sasha Lemus, Kylie O’Connell, Owen O’Rourke, Rylin Quinn, Collin Shook.

Honor Roll: Sophia Hong, Austin June, Jacob Leigh, Nicholas Maccaline, Korben Raffo, Samantha Sherman, Elizabeth Signoretti, Lacy Soura, Forever Welch.

Merit Roll: Marcello Buono. Jiselle Caswell, Luis Marcial, Tegan Morehead, Benjamin Munoz, Cameron Newkirk, James Story, Julianna Wright.

GRADE 7 High Honor Roll: Chase Abrahamsen, Emmorsen Abrahamsen, Livie Beck, Anjoli Bosquez, Nolan Byrne, Lila Cartwright, Juliana Catanzaro, William Clanton, Preston Cruz, Caitie

Cummings, Justus Davies, Jenya Deyo, Julianna Di Giovanni, Thomas Doig, Sean Duarte, Viktor Gonzalez, Charlie Goodell, Leo Gottesman, Emily Heim, Aiden Houston, Lorenzo Ivery II, Isabel Johnston, Kamai Keyes, Samuel Kubicek, Waylon Lynch, Logan Maccaline, Nicole Miller, Ella Near, Kennedy Ormerod, Alyssa Pagan, Jude Palmer, Adriana Passero, Jadyn Rose, Macey Sanchez, Matthew Story V, Deanna Story, Mia Story, Kloe’ Witka.

Honor Roll: Parker Craig, Luisa De Leon Green, Kiara Dugan, April Lindsay, Xiomyra Marquart, Joshua Taylor Jr. Merit Roll: Emily Chung, Matigan Cramer, Avery Greene, Kaeleigh Greene, Elizabeth Gutman, Garrett Jeune, Christopher Keck, Civana Morales, Grace Mosher, Audrey Peters, Joshua Phelan, Victoria Reese, Camden Shutter, Eva Smith, Jonah Souza, Kaylee Sperl.

GRADE 6 High Honor Roll: Jordan Bonelli, Mya Chan, Aaron Cousens, Jackson Davies, Kourtney Dragon, Saydree

Holtz, Liam Jackson, Sofia Lanuto, Jaxx Marquez-Haberstroh, Alyssa Matson, Ryleigh Moore, Catalina Nicholos, Annika Passaretti, Kaitlyn Praetorius, Catch Pruden, Jose Reid Jr., Brianna Rossano, Owen Russo, Brooke Schumacher, Jackson Tedford, Austin Trischetti-Maldonado, Hanhan Zhang.

Honor Roll: Lily BaxterMackey, Chloe Buck, Sawyer Bulich, Seth Dees, Addison Dugan, Jozlyn Jones, Bella Keny, Jayden Nguyen, Edwin Reyes, Abrianna Rodriquez, Madison Saulpaugh, Jocelyn Schaefer, Anna Signoretti, Axel Soltys, Aiden Szepessy, Rogan Verdon, Keyari Wells, Alexander White, Silvia Youmans.

Merit Roll: Aliviaunna Ceron, LeGrand Cooper, Jaydyn Greene, Elizabeth Hill, Alexandrya Hummel, Armani Jackson, Raymond Mally Jr., Mark Mentessi, Gavin Neal, Raymond Oshana, Ellie Pullman, Jonathan Robins, Scott Schoonmaker, Elizabeth Shultis, Maniah Spears, Allison Sperl, Jason Tanaka, Eliana Wamsley, Ryan Winters.

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Thomas Lee Hotalen December 5, 2021 CASTLETON - Thomas Lee Hotalen, 76, of Castleton, passed away Sunday, December 5, 2021, at Home surrounded by family.

Thomas was born in Wellsboro, New York, the son of the late Delancy and Mary (Zahorian) Hotalen.

He earned a BS in pure mathematics from Mansfield State College, Pa., and MS in math education from Bucknell University, Pa. He retired in 2000 as a Math Teacher for Taconic Hills Central Schools, after 32 years of teaching. Among his accomplishments as a teacher, he brought Advanced Placement Calculus and graphing calculators to Taconic Hills. Countless students looked up to him for making math accessible and fun. After retirement he continued sharing his love for a teaching as a subsitute in many area schools, in most subjects.

He was wordsmith (notorious for the creation of puns), enjoyed “Jeopardy”, Trivia, and NYT crossword puzzles. He enjoyed attending movies, plays, and opera, and sang in church choir. Music was a passion, even leading to a brief stint as a rock star, performing a showstopping rendition of “Born to be Wild” to an auditorium full of screaming fans. His musical tastes ranged from Mozart to GWAR. An unquenchable thirst for knowledge led to a love of traveling, with trips throughout the US and Europe.

Survivors include wife Tanya Hotalen, son Jeremy Hotalen, daughter in law Heather White Hotalen, brother Delancy M. Hotalen, sister Marilyn Granger.

He was Predeceased by brother Charles W. Hotalen.

A memorial service will be scheduled in April 30th,2022 at 1:00 pm the Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany, 405 Washington Ave, Albany, NY.12205.

Friends may refer to Wjrockefeller.com to check service time / condolences/ covid restrictions.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made in Thomas’s name to the American Heart Association, Habitat for Humanity, or the Ghent Playhouse.

Former Fairfax County, Va., music teacher accused of aggravated sexual battery Justin Wm. Moyer The Washington Post

A former Fairfax County, Virginia, music teacher was charged Friday with aggravated sexual battery after allegedly unlawfully touching a juvenile during lessons at his home, authorities said.

Roger McKay, 69, was

arrested Friday after an alleged victim told a therapist of unlawful sexual contact with McKay between 2010 and 2013, Fairfax County Police said in a statement.

Police asked anyone with information about this case to contact them at 703-246-7800, option 3.

Hochul revives statewide mask mandate in NY

By Kate Lisa

Johnson Newspaper Corp.

Masks must be worn in all New York indoor public spaces unless the business or establishment has a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for patrons starting Monday, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday.

Acting State Health Department Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett issued a determination Friday to solidify the statewide requirement for all staff and customers ages 2 and older to wear masks or facial coverings or show proof of vaccination against the coronavirus.

The new pandemic regulation is aimed to combat rising new virus cases and hospitalizations and prevent shuttering businesses during the holiday season and start of the winter as the state’s virus positivity rate increased to 5% and 4.8% over a seven-day average Thursday.

“We’re not looking to have anything like last go ’round — no shutdowns,” Hochul said Friday after an unrelated press conference in New York City.

“This is a preemptive strike to make sure we can protect people and stop this from spreading ... so we don’t hurt the economy, but we do it in a smart, smart way. That’s how we’ll get through this.”

The measure will be reassessed Jan. 15 — the same date the state’s pandemic-related eviction moratorium expires.

Businesses found not complying with the mandate will be fined $1,000, Hochul said.

“I’m anticipating there will be compliance around the state. I’m not naive that there won’t be 100%, but at least there’s an opportunity for us doing what we can. Get vaccinated and get boosted — it’s in everybody’s hands.”

Local government officials in upstate communities with low vaccination rates have requested assistance from state officials in enforcing practices to slow community transmission of COVID-19 — especially with the prominent delta, and newly emerging omicron variants.

Hochul spoke with administrators in Jefferson and Broome counties about the mandate Friday morning. The majority of county leaders support the mandate, she said.

“I applaud our local

COURTESY OF GOV. KATHY HOCHUL’S OFFICE

Gov. Kathy Hochul makes an announcement in New York City on Friday before signing legislation to address city housing issues.

The new statewide COVID mandate announced earlier in the day was not the focus of her public event.

governments and county administrators and local public health departments for doing what they could do, but they’re asking for help,” Hochul said. “...It gives people who want to do the right thing the cover to do the right thing. This is about taking a moderate step — it’s not that big a deal.”

People not vaccinated against COVID-19 are 10 times more likely to be hospitalized with virus complications if they become infected.

The governor is not in favor of widespread shutdowns similar to spring 2020, and said the new protocol will help prevent economic disruption.

“I know this puts a lot on the counties, but I also understand the alternative is to have to tell people they cannot go out into businesses, their offices and gathering places,” Hochul said. “The businesses and the counties see this not as a compromise, but a position that allows us to protect public health while we don’t have to shut down and we’ve asked them to use their discretion and enforce that.”

Leaders with the state Business Council expressed support for the new rule Friday.

“As we have stated in the past regarding similar mandates, we support necessary measures to help stop the spread of COVID,” Business Council President and CEO Heather Briccetti said in a statement.

“Our hope is people respect the state’s directive and employees of business by not putting them in the difficult position of having to enforce the mandate through confrontation.”

New cases are expected to increase as people retreat indoors in the cold weather and will participate in more gatherings through the holiday season and Super Bowl at the end of January.

New York’s COVID infection rate has increased 43% over a seven-day average since Thanksgiving Day on Nov. 25.

The number of patients hospitalized with virus complications have increased by 29% over the last three weeks.

“Hospitals don’t have the capacity to handle a surge in cases,” the governor said, adding she must act before it’s too late. “I have to stop more people from getting sick so they don’t create that pressure on hospital systems that are already overtaxed.”

Fully vaccinated New Yorkers have increased by 2% in that same period, but is not enough to prevent widespread community transmission, particularly in communities with low vaccination rates, according to a statement from the governor’s office.

“Community spread requires a community-minded solution as the omicron variant emerges and the overwhelmingly dominant delta variant continues to circulate,” Bassett said in a statement. “We have the tools we need to protect against the virus, and now we must ensure we use them. There are tools each individual can use and there are actions we can take as government. Getting vaccinated protects you and wearing a mask is how we will better protect each other. Both vaccination

Supreme Court says Texas abortion providers may proceed with challenge of six-week ban, leaves law in effect for now

by Robert Barnes The Washington Post

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Friday left in place a Texas law that bans most abortions after six weeks, and provided only a narrow path for abortion providers to challenge what is the nation’s most restrictive law on the procedure.

The court’s splintered decision allows the providers to return to a district judge who once blocked the law, saying it violated the constitutional right to abortion.

But abortion providers and abortion rights advocates were pessimistic about the amount of relief the judge could provide. They said the conservative majority’s decision to leave in place a law that four of its members say is unconstitutional is more consequential for Texas and the rest of the nation.

“We are in a period of great threat to the abortion right,” said Julie Murray, an attorney with Planned Parenthood.

The court’s Friday decision restarts a legal process that has seen the law remain in effect since Sept. 1, when the five most conservative members of the Supreme Court refused to step in to block it.

The same group - Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett - turned down the renewed request.

But all except Thomas said the lawsuit could continue against a small group of Texas officials who could have a role in enforcing the law, called S.B.8. It effectively has stopped the

availability of abortion in Texas after six weeks of pregnancy, before many know they are pregnant. It has no exception for rape or incest.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for himself and the court’s three liberals, said the district judge should act quickly.

“Given the ongoing chilling effect of the state law, the District Court should resolve this litigation and enter appropriate relief without delay,” Roberts wrote.

Amy Hagstrom Miller, who as president and chief executive of Whole Woman’s Health and Whole Woman’s Health Alliance is the lead plaintiff in the case, said that while Friday’s outcome offered “hope,” the legal process has been “excruciating” for patients and staff alike.

“We’ve had to turn hundreds of patients away since this ban took effect, and the Supreme Court’s refusal to block the law means the heartbreak doesn’t end,” she said in a statement, imploring the lower-court judge to act expediently. “. . . We hope this law is blocked quickly so we can resume the full scope of abortion care we are trained to provide.”

Thomas, an avowed critic of the court’s abortion jurisprudence, wrote that he would not have allowed the lawsuit to continue. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, on the other hand, issued a blistering statement on the court’s refusal to block the law, known as S.B. 8.

“The Court should have put an end to this madness months ago, before S. B. 8 first went into effect,” wrote Sotomayor, who was joined by fellow

liberal justices Stephen G. Breyer and Elena Kagan.

The court’s refusal to block the law “betrays not only the citizens of Texas, but also our constitutional system of government,” she wrote.

While the case over Texas’s law is procedural, the Supreme Court has signaled that it is ready to make dramatic changes in the judicial rules governing abortion rights. In debating a Mississippi law that bans almost all abortions after 15 weeks, some justices earlier this month indicated that they are open to overturning Roe v. Wade, which for nearly 50 years has said there is a constitutional right to abortion before fetal viability.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the national antiabortion group Susan B. Anthony List, said in response to Friday’s decision, “We celebrate that the Texas Heartbeat Act will remain in effect, saving the lives of unborn children and protecting mothers while litigation continues in lower courts.”

“Meanwhile,” she added, “we anxiously await the Court’s decision in the [Mississippi] case in which the court is directly considering the constitutionality of laws that protect unborn children and mothers prior to viability.”

Access to abortion in Texas has been dramatically curtailed, and abortion providers have said that many who want the procedure have been forced to leave the state.

Nancy Northup, who heads the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing the providers, chastised the court for having “abandoned its duty to ensure that states do not defy

its decisions.”

“For 100 days now,” Northup said in a statement, “this six-week ban has been in effect, and today’s ruling means there is no end in sight.”

The court’s decision, wrote Gorsuch, was a procedural one.

“In this preliminary posture, the ultimate merits question - whether S. B. 8 is consistent with the Federal Constitution - is not before the Court,” he wrote. “Nor is the wisdom of S.B.8 as a matter of public policy.”

The Texas case raises complicated questions about legal procedure precisely because S.B.8 was intended to avoid federal court review.

The issue for the justices was whether the law could be challenged in federal court, where judges compelled to follow Supreme Court precedent have stopped other states from enacting similar bans on early abortions.

Texas officials said the challenges must come in Texas courts after the civil suits have been adjudicated, but the law sets up obstacles that could delay a final decision for years.

Texas calls S.B. 8 a “heartbeat” bill it prohibits abortions after cardiac activity is noted in the embryo. There is no exception for rape or incest, and the abortion patient cannot be sued.

The law is enforced by private citizens rather than the state government.

Any individual can sue anyone who aids or abets a prohibited abortion.

Successful lawsuits would result in an award of at least $10,000 to the person who filed the complaint - at oral argument, some justices referred to the award as a “bounty.”

and mask-wearing are needed to slow this COVID-19 winter surge.”

Hochul thanked the more than 81.2% of New York adults who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

“If others will follow suit, these measures will no longer be necessary,” she said.

State Republican leaders blasted Hochul for the new mandate, saying public resources should not be used to punish local business owners.

“Like her predecessor, I believe the governor has overstepped her authority with this order,” Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, R-North Tonawanda, said in a statement. “I am reviewing options with my colleagues to rescind this authority and restore these public health decisions to local communities where they belong.”

Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay, R-Pulaski, also sharply criticized the governor’s decision.

“Putting more costly restrictions on small businesses will do more harm than good to the job-creators still trying to regain their footing after the lockdowns of 2020,” he said in a statement Friday. “Executive Chamber edicts and policyby-press release aren’t making the situation any better. The staffing crisis we’re seeing in our hospitals is a self-inflicted wound exacerbated by Gov. Hochul’s employee mandate that offered no flexibility to frontline workers and removed caregivers from care settings.

There is no denying that it has severely compromised the state’s health care system at the exact moment it can least afford it.

“We are at a point where New York state should be shedding mandates, past the need for more sweeping executive actions and moving forward,” he added. “Unfortunately, today we took several steps backward.”

FUNERAL DIRECTORS Copake, N.Y. (518) 329-2121 Pine Plains, N.Y. (518) 398-7777

VITO LAWRENCE SACCO Sacco-McDonald-Valenti Funeral Home 700 Town Hall Drive Hudson, New York 12534 • 518-828-5000 e-mail: smvfh700@gmail.com

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ATTENTION FUNERAL DIRECTORS Obituaries, Death Notices or Funeral Accounts Should Be Submitted Before 2PM Daily For The Next Day’s Paper.

Notices should be emailed to:

obits@columbiagreene media.com

Call Patti to advertise your funeral home: (518) 828-1616 x2413

For

CURRENT OBITUARY LISTINGS be SURE to CHECK our WEBSITE: hudsonvalley360.com

Religion

www.HudsonValley360.com

Saturday - Sunday, December 11-12, 2021 - A7

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

Church Briefs Please send all Church news to editorial@thedailymail.net; or mail to Attention Church News, Register-Star/The Daily Mail, 364 Warren St., Unit 1, Hudson, NY 12534. For information, call 315-661-2940.

COOKIE WALK ASHLAND — The Cookie Walk hosted by the Ashland Community Church, 1216 State Hwy 23, Ashland will be held 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Dec. 11.

Take care of all your holiday cookie needs for $9 per pound.

Masks are required and gloves will be provided. Call Pat Ferris if you have questions at 518-734-3942.

COOKIE BAZAAR & CRAFT FAIR CATSKILL — The Catskill United Methodist Church, 40 Woodland Ave., Catskill, will host the “5th Annual Cookie Bazaar & Craft Fair” 10 a.m.2 p.m. Dec. 11, or until sold out. Take out only. We will gift wrap your selections for holiday gift giving. All proceeds will support the ministries of the church to serve our neighbors and the local community.

ADVENT SHARING WITH OUR NEIGHBORS CATSKILL — The Catskill United Methodist Church, 40 Woodland Ave., Catskill, will host “Advent Sharing with Our Neighbors” of children’s toys and clothes 9 a.m.-noon Dec. 18. All gifts are either new or very gently used. Everyone is welcome, free of charge. For information, call 518-9432042 or email catskillumc@ gmail.com.

COMMUNITY CHRISTMAS PARTY LEXINGTON — A Community Christmas Party will be held at 5 p.m. Dec. 19 at the Lexington/West Kill UMC in Lexington starting with a covered dish supper in the Fellowship Hall. Following the meal, we will go into the sanctuary for the reading of the Christmas Story and caroling and then back into the fellowship hall for dessert. All welcome.

SOUP KITCHEN OPEN CATSKILL — The Camp Grace Inc. Soup Kitchen, located at the First Reformed Church of Catskill, 310 Main St., Catskill, is open noon-1 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.

For information, call Director Lamont Taylor at 518-2497009.

CHRISTMAS CONCERT

CHRISTMAS EVE

GERMANTOWN — The Southern Columbia County Choir will present their annual concert at 4 p.m. Dec. 12 in the Germantown Reformed Church, 20 Church Ave., Germantown. They will be singing GLORIOUS LIGHT OF CHRISTMAS arranged and orchestrated by Marty Hamby. A free will collection will be taken for the Food Pantry and Germantown Library. For information, contact Donna Diehl at 518-537-6405.

ATHENS —The First Reformed Church of Athens, 16 North Church St., Athens, announces the Christmas Eve Candle lighting service will be at 7 p.m. Dec. 24. All are invited to join in this very special service. For information, call the church at 518-945-1801.

BLUE CHRISTMAS COPAKE FALLS — Church of St. John in the Wilderness, 261 Route 344, Copake Falls, will hold a Blue Christmas Service at 7 p.m. Dec. 15. All are invited to this low-key service designed for those who may be grieving a loss or for whatever reason find Christmas a difficult season, and anyone seeking a quiet respite from the hustle and bustle.

WEST GHENT — The Ghent Reformed Church, in cooperation with the Kinderhook Reformed Church, will hold a Blue Christmas Service at 7 p.m. Dec. 21 at the Ghent Church, 1039 County Route 22, West Ghent. This service is specifically designed to, perhaps, bring a degree of peace and comfort after a loss. This could be the loss of a loved one, a job, a home, a friend going away. And it doesn’t have to be a recent loss, all loss can rear its ugly head at any time. If you’re in need, please join us.

After the service, there will be a coffee time where personal discussion can happen, or not, as you wish. You are welcome and our prayer is that you will make the time to join us.

VALATIE — St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, 1010 Kinderhook St., Valatie, will hold a Blue Christmas worship at 7 p.m. Dec. 22. For those having difficulty feeling the joy of the season or needing a more quiet, contemplative worship experience, the Blue Christmas service may be for you.

This service will have candles and singing, but there will be quiet time to be in God’s presence. Join us as we remember and embrace the grief that often overwhelms us at Christmas time.

EAST JEWETT — The East Jewett UMC, 2252 County Road 23C, East Jewett, will hold Christmas Eve worship at 4 p.m. Dec. 24.

There will be a combined worship service with East Jewett UMC, Kaaterskill UMC and Lexington/West Kill UMC at the Kaaterskill church in Tannersville at 10 a.m. Dec. 26 There will be a combined worship service with East Jewett, Kaaterskill, Lexington/ West Kill United Methodist churches at the Lanesville UM Church at 10 a.m. Jan. 2.

TANNERSVILLE — Kaatersville UMC, 45 North Lake Road, Tannersville, will hold Christmas Eve worship at 7 p.m. Dec. 24.

There will be a combined worship service with East Jewett UMC, Kaaterskill UMC and Lexington/West Kill UMC at the Kaaterskill church in Tannersville at 10 a.m. Dec. 26 There will be a combined worship service with East Jewett, Kaaterskill, Lexington/ West Kill United Methodist churches at the Lanesville UM Church at 10 a.m. Jan. 2.

COPAKE FALLS — Church of St. John in the Wilderness, 261 Route 344, Copake Falls, will hold Christmas Eve service Dec. 24. Candlelight Service and Carols at 7 p.m. with the service at 7:30 p.m.

WEST GHENT — The Ghent Reformed Church, 1039 County Route 22, West Ghent, Christmas Eve Candlelight Service with scripture and carols will be at 6 p.m. Dec. 24.

There is also a coffee time following the service. All are invited to the celebration of the birth of our Savior.

HUDSON — The TriCounty Lutheran Parish has many opportunities to worship on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24. For many Christians, the

Christmas Eve worship service is one of the highlights of the church year. We sing carols, read the Christmas story from the Bible, and celebrate Holy Communion. Christmas Eve service schedule as follows: 3 p.m. Emanuel/St. John’s Lutheran Church, 20 South Sixth St., Hudson; 5 p.m. St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, 96 Oak Hill Road, Oak Hill; 6 p.m. Emanual Lutheran Church, 506 County Road 46, Stuyvesant Falls; 7 p.m. Trinity Lutheran Church, 68 Green Ave., Castleton; 7:30 p.m. Zion Lutheran Church, 102 North Washington St., Athens; 8 p.m. Christ Our Emmanuel Lutheran Church, 19 Park Row, Chatham; 9 p.m. St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church, 751 County Route 7, East Schodack; 10 p.m. St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, 1010 Kinderhook St., Kinderhook. Visit the TCLP website at TCLParish.org or contact clergy by email at clergy@tclparish.org,

face masks required. Live broadcast at 9 a.m. on facebook.com/ChristChurchEpiscopalHudson or at christchurchepiscopalhudson. org. For information, call 518-828-1329 or email christchurch1802@gmail.com.

FIRST REFORMED CHURCH OF ATHENS

KINDERHOOK — The Kinderhook Reformed Church, 21 Broad St., Kinderhook, will have in person and live online Sunday worship at 9:30 a.m.

Face masks and social distancing required. Live broadcasts at 9:30 a.m. on https:// www.facebook.com/KinderhookReformed Church or https://www.youtube.com/ channel/UCCTUNikeMHshkf_mqhMNxCw. For information, call 518-758-6401 or kinderhookreformedchuch.com.

ATHENS —The First Reformed Church of Athens, 16 North Church St., Athens, worships at 10:30 a.m. Sunday. All are welcome to join us. Communion is celebrated the first Sunday of each month. Senior Choir rehearsal is at 6:30 p.m. each Wednesdays. We ask that singers are vaccinated.

Hudson River Bells rehearsal is at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays.

Masks are worn during rehearsal.

The Sunday School will have a part in the worship service on Dec. 19.

For information, call the church at 518-945-1801.

LIVING FAITH COMMUNITY CHURCH MAPLECREST — Living Faith Community Church, 54 Route 56, Maplecrest, welcomes locals and visitors to worship together at 10:30 a.m.

Sunday. Adult Bible Study meets before service at 9:30 a.m. Fellowship meal follows service on the second Sunday of each month. For information, call 518-734-4275.

CHRIST CHURCH EPISCOPAL HUDSON — Christ Church Episcopal, 431 Union St., Hudson, worships at 9 a.m.

Sundays in person and live online. Social distancing and

after service. Please feel free to join us for service at 9 a.m.

Sundays. Sunday School begins at 10:15 a.m. Sunday for pre-school to middle school aged children.

TRI COUNTY LUTHERAN PARISH VALATIE — The following

SAINT PAUL’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH is the worship schedule for KINDERHOOK — St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 8 Sylvester St., Kinderhook, Holy Communion in person at 8 and 10 a.m. Sundays. Face masks and distancing required regardless of vaccination status. For information and news, www. saintpaulskinderhook.org/ or follow us on Facebook.

Subscribe to our newsletter: http://eepurl.com/cG4YSv; 518-758-6271 or saintpaulskinderhook@gmail.com.

Office open 1:30-4:30 p.m.

Tuesday-Thursday and by appointment.

KINDERHOOK REFORMED CHURCH

CLAVERACK REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH CLAVERACK — Join The Reformed Dutch Church, 88 Route 9H, Claverack, for Advent worship at 9:30 a.m. Sundays in the sanctuary. Pastor Derek DeJager, Chaplain at Ellis Hospital, will lead worship.

Christmas Eve worship will be at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 24 with music, spoken word, candle light...all are welcome. For information, call 518-851-3811.

GHENT REFORMED CHURCH WEST GHENT — The Ghent Reformed Church, 1039 County Route 22, West Ghent is, currently, mask-less. However, masks are welcome for anyone who feels the need to wear one, or for whoever hasn’t been vaccinated. Cleaning is as diligent as always. At present, we feel safe enough to have reinstituted coffee time

REPORTERS, EDITORS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS CREATE REAL NEWS. JOURNALISM YOU CAN TRUST.

the Tri County Lutheran Parish. Visit TCLParish.org website for weekly Zoom worship schedule and link.

Columbia County: Emanual Lutheran Church, 506 County Road 46, Stuyvesant Falls, worships at 8:30 a.m.

Sunday. St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, 1010 Kinderhook St., Valatie, worships at 10:30 a.m.

Sunday with Sunday School also at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday.

Emanuel/St. John’s Lutheran Church, 20 South Sixth St., Hudson, worships at 11 a.m.

Sunday.

Greene County: Zion Lutheran Church, 102 North Washington St., Athens, worships at 9 a.m. Sunday. St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, State Route 81, Oak Hill, worships at 11 a.m. Sunday.

Rensselaer County: Trinity Lutheran Church, 68 Green Ave., Castleton, worships at 9 a.m. Sunday. St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church, 751 County Route 7, East Schodack, worships at 11 a.m. Sunday.

GRACE BIBLE FELLOWSHIP CHURCH RHINEBECK — Grace Bible Fellowship Church, 6959 Route 9, Rhinebeck, worships at 10:45 a.m. and 6 p.m. Sunday. Sunday School for all ages meets at 9:30 a.m. Women’s bible study and Grace Bible Institute meets at 7 p.m. Mondays. Mid-week prayer meeting is at 7 p.m. Wednesdays.

For information, call 845-8766923 or cdfcirone@aol.com.

LUTHERAN PARISH OF SOUTHERN COLUMBIA COUNTY GERMANTOWN — The following is the worship schedule for the Lutheran Parish of Southern Columbia County, Rev. Jacqueline Jefferson, Pastor. St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Churchtown, 11 a.m.

Sunday; Christ Lutheran Church, Germantown (Viewmont), 9 a.m. Sundays in December; St. John Lutheran Church, Elizaville (Manorton), 9 a.m. Sundays in January.

#SupportRealNews

House of Worship

News & Services Catholic Community of Saint Patrick

New Baltimore Reformed Church

Church of Saint Patrick 21 Main Street, Ravena, NY 12143 • (518) 756-3145 https://churchofsaintpatrick.wixsite.com/church-ravena

24 North Washington Street, Athens 12015 · 943-3150 66 William Street, Catskill 12414 · 943-3150

518 756 8764 • Rt. 144 and Church St. NBRChurch@aol.com • www.nbrchurch.org

Rev. Rick L. Behan, Pastor

Fr. Joseph O’Brien, Parochial Vicar

Sunday Worship - 9:30 AM Communion First Sunday every month Fellowship before and after worship Thursday - Choir Rehearsal 4:45 PM Tuesday - Bible Study 10:00 AM 2nd Sunday - Helping Hands 10:30 AM

Weekend Masses: Saturday Vigil 4:30 p.m. Sunday 9:30 a.m. (also St. Patrick’s YouTube channel or Mid-Hudson 901) Weekday Mass: Tuesday 8:30 a.m.

Also Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament 8:30-9 a.m. Wed, Thurs Food Pantry Hours: Tues & Fri 10–11 a.m. and Wed 6–7 p.m.

Thrift Shop Hours: Thurs 1 – 3 p.m. Sat from 9 a.m. – Noon

Come to the Church in the Hamlet! Working together since 1833

You Are Welcome Here!

Janine O’Leary, Parish Life Coordinator Fr. Michael Melanson, Parochial Vicar Saturday* 4:00 p.m. *1st / 3rd Athens and 2nd / 4th Catskill Sunday 8:45 a.m. Catskill / 10:45 a.m. Athens

All Are Welcome!

St. Mary’s Church 80 Mansion Street, Coxsackie, NY 12051 (518) 731-8800 • stmaryscoxsackie.com

Fr. Joseph O’Brien, Parochial Vicar Weekend Masses: Sunday 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.

11:30 a.m. Mass is livestreamed at St. Mary’s YouTube Channel Weekday Mass: Wednesday 8 a.m.

Also Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament 8-8:30 a.m. Mon & Tues

You Are Welcome Here!

To list your Church Services please call Patricia Bulich at (518) 828-1616 x2413

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA • THE DAILY MAIL

A8 - Saturday - Sunday, December 11-12, 2021

BRIEFS We want to hear from you.

To send information to be included in Briefs, email to editorial@thedailymail.net; or mail to Briefs: The Daily Mail, Unit 1, 364 Warren St., Hudson, NY 12534. For information, call 315-661-2490.

DEC. 11 ATHENS — TGM American Legion Post 187, 94 Second St., Athens, will hold a craft fair noon-4:30 p.m. Dec. 11 at the Post. Set up begins at 10:30 a.m. Vendors are welcome and applications are available on the Facebook page or at the post.

SELKIRK — The Bethlehem Grange 137, 24 Bridge St., Selkirk, will be holding an indoor craft fair from 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

Dec. 11. Masks and social distancing required. All proceeds go towards the continual upkeep and improvements to the building.

ASHLAND — The Cookie Walk hosted by the Ashland Community Church, 1216 State Hwy 23, Ashland will be held 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Dec. 11.

Take care of all your holiday cookie needs for $9 per pound.

Masks are required and gloves will be provided. Call Pat Ferris if you have questions at 518-734-3942.

LEXINGTON — Santa is coming to town. On Dec. 11 Santa will be leaving the Lexington Fire Station at 2 p.m. on a fire truck and go into Lexington and then travel Route 42 onto Spruceton Road through West Kill and Spruceton.

HUDSON — The FASNY Museum of Firefighting, 117 Harry Howard Ave., Hudson, presents The Holiday Puppet Show at 10:30 a.m. Dec. 11.

Join us for the Catskill Puppet Theater’s show The Town That Fought Hate. This special holiday show features original music and almost life-size puppets. It also gently imparts some timeless life lessons, including the importance of standing up to bullies, the power of community and the power of each of us, including children, to make a difference! After the show, children can complete the holiday scavenger hunt. Can you find all the holiday scenes on the

firetrucks? Every child will get a prize just for trying. Admission is free.

ATHENS — The Athens Victorian Stroll will be held 1-5 p.m. Dec. 11. Free activities for the entire family, including strolling clown, mime, magician, “Pocket Lady,” petting zoo, balloon twisting, ice sculpture demonstrations, free drawings by caricaturist Phil Singer, bonfires, dancers (including fire dancers), music, Victorian Santa and much, much more. Visit www.athensculturalcenter.org for information. Arts and craft vendors will be selling their wares.

CATSKILL — The Catskill United Methodist Church, 40 Woodland Ave., Catskill, will host the “5th Annual Cookie Bazaar & Craft Fair” 10 a.m.2 p.m. Dec. 11, or until sold out. Take out only. We will gift wrap your selections for holiday gift giving. All proceeds will support the ministries of the church to serve our neighbors and the local community.

LEEDS — Adopt Families, an all day collaborative community event, will be held noon-7 p.m. at Anthony’s Banquet Hall, 746 Route 23B, Leeds. Community Life Church, Anthony’s Banquet Hall, Hyer Ground Rescue and Noteworthy Resources are joining forces to give back to the community. Hyer Ground Rescue is offering wine tasting, pet pictures with Santa, raffles and more from noon-3 p.m.; NWR’s Clothing Drive, bring what you can, take what you need will be held noon-4 p.m.; and drive up to Anthony’s and take home four chicken parmesan dinners 4-7 p.m. for donations per car.

There will be a donation box at the door. Learn more about this event at www.nwralbany. org.

STOCKBRIDGE, Massachusetts — Berkshire Botanical Garden, 5 West Stockbridge Road, Stockbridge, Mass., presents Late Fall Sausage 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Dec. 11. This hands-on workshop takes the participants through the process of making sausage at home incorporating seasonal botanicals. Jake Levin is a Berkshire based butcher,

educator and artist empowering people to connect more deeply with the food they eat.

Learn the history and process of sausage making. From the right cuts to the correct ratios, to stuffing and linking, you’ll be along for every step of the process. Not only will students get a chance to participate, they will walk away with samples to enjoy at home, a set of recipes, and the frameworks needed to create their own seasonal recipes. Non-members, $65; members, $55. For more information, visit http:// www.berkshirebotanical.org/ events; call 413-298-3926; or info@berkshirebotanical.org.

STOCKBRIDGE, Massachusetts — Berkshire Botanical Garden, 5 West Stockbridge Road, Stockbridge, Mass., presents Women’s’ Chainsaw Skills Workshop 8:30 a.m.3:30 p.m. Dec. 11. Are you interested in learning to use a chainsaw but feel intimidated to do so? Led by arborist Melissa LeVangie Ingersoll, this workshop is designed for the novice-to-beginner chainsaw operator who wishes to gain greater confidence with this powerful tool. The class combines lecture and handson learning and covers topics including personal protective equipment, the anatomy of a chainsaw, reactive forces, basic chainsaw maintenance and additional tools for use with a chainsaw. Techniques will include holding and starting a saw, hazard ID, escape options, log analysis (binds), planning cuts, overall plan and bucking and limbing. Attendees will cut logs on the ground and/or elevated on sawhorses and will leave with a better understanding of the safety features of a chainsaw and be able to operate a chainsaw based on safety fundamentals. No experience necessary. Note: Equipment will be provided; if you have your own chainsaw or personal protective equipment, please bring it with you. Dress and prepare for the weather including long sleeves, pants and boots. Bring a bag lunch.

Non-members, $140; members, $125. For more information, visit http://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events; call 413-298-3926; or info@ berkshirebotanical.org.

Keyser Well Drilling & Pump Company CALL (518) 828-1203

DEC. 12 CATSKILL — Catskill Elks Club, 45 North Jefferson Ave., Catskill will hold Breakfast with Santa either at 9 a.m. or 10:30 a.m. Dec. 12. Reservations must be made no later than Dec. 9. Adults, $7; children 4-12, $3; children 3 and younger, free. To reserve, call Brenda at 518-945-1179.

DEC. 13 CAIRO — The Friends of the Cairo Public Library will be hosting a pop-up cookbook sale 2:30-4:30 p.m. Dec. 13 and 4:30-6:30 p.m. Dec. 16 in the Cairo Library lobby, 15 Railroad Ave., Cairo.

DEC. 14 LEXINGTON — The Town of Lexington Fire Company

Ladies Auxiliary will hold their annual covered dish/meeting starting at 6 p.m. Dec. 14 with election of 2022 officers and collection of 2022 dues.

DEC. 16 WINDHAM — Mountain Top Cares Coalition in Windham is hosting its monthly virtual Narcan Training at 7 p.m.

Dec. 16. Help us defeat opioid use disorder by volunteering for training and distribution of Narcan. Register by going to mountaintopcarescoalition. com.

CAIRO — The Friends of the Cairo Public Library will be hosting a pop-up cookbook sale 4:30-6:30 p.m. Dec. 16 in the Cairo Library lobby, 15 Railroad Ave., Cairo.

DEC. 18 CATSKILL — The Catskill United Methodist Church, 40 Woodland Ave., Catskill, will host “Advent Sharing with Our Neighbors” of children’s toys and clothes 9 a.m.-noon Dec. 18. All gifts are either new or very gently used. Everyone is welcome, free of charge. For information, call 518-9432042 or email catskillumc@ gmail.com.

DEC. 19 WEST ATHENS — West Athens Firehouse 2, LeedsAthens Road, Athens, will host breakfast with Santa Claus 8 a.m.-noon Dec. 19. Menu includes choice of pancakes, French toast, eggs, sausage, home fries nad beverage.

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Sports

SECTION

Milestone victory

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

& Classifieds

Blackhawks’ Marc-Andre Fleury notches 500th career win. Sports, B2

Saturday - Sunday, December 11-12, 2021 - B1

Tim Martin, Sports Editor: 1-518-828-1616 ext. 2538 / sports@registerstar.com or tmartin@registerstar.com

GIRLS BASKETBALL:

Catskill earns road win over Ichabod Crane

B

Expect another low-scoring game in 122nd ArmyNavy meeting Scott Allen The Washington Post

Showing his allegiance during Army-Navy game week for the school where his father, Steve, was a longtime assistant coach and scout, Bill Belichick wore a Naval Academy mask for his pregame interview with ESPN sideline reporter Lisa Salters on Monday. In his familiar laconic style, the New England Patriots coach acknowledged that the extraordinarily windy conditions at Highmark Stadium for that night’s

showdown against the Buffalo Bills would “definitely be a factor in the game.”

The Patriots ran the ball 46 times and attempted only three passes in a 1410 win, employing a game plan that would make Navy’s football team - and Army’s, too - proud ahead of the schools’ 122nd meeting Saturday in East Rutherford, N.J. The forecast for the Army-Navy game at MetLife Stadium doesn’t See MEETING B5

Matt Fortunato Columbia-Greene Media

STEVEN RYAN/GETTY IMAGES

Zach Wilson (2) of the New York Jets throws the ball during the third quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles at MetLife Stadium on Sunday in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

VALATIE — The Catskill Cats earned a tough win on the road 47-29 over the Ichabod Crane Riders in Thursday night’s non-league girls basketball match-up.

Janay Brantley led all players in scoring, with 26 points on a night dominated by stingy defense on both sides. Ashley Ames led the Riders with 11 points, followed by Carolina Williams’ 10, and Delaney More with the remaining eight.

“We knew they (ICC) were going to be well-coached, we knew they were going to be fast, we knew they were going to run good sets. It was the test that I needed for my girls, to see if they could handle that,” Catskill coach Chris Quinn said. “They stuck to our gameplan, they contested three’s and made life tough.

We took care of the ball, we slowed the ball down for ourselves tonight, we got good shots and we made baskets. I’m very impressed with our effort.”

Zach Wilson needs to ‘stack’ another solid performance vs. Saints DJ Bien-Aime II New York Daily News

See CATSKILL B6

TIM MARTIN/COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

Catskill’s Janay Brantley holds the ball near center court as Ichabod Crane’s Emma Holmberg (2) defends during Thursday’s nonleague girls basketball game at Ichabod Crane High School.

LOCAL ROUNDUP:

Zach Wilson’s decisiveness and improved fundamentals vs. the Eagles helped produce his best performance since his electric outing against the Tennessee Titans in Week 4.

Wilson completed 60% of his throws (23-for-38) for 226 yards, with two passing touchdowns, a rushing TD, an interception. He netted

See WILSON B5

TH swimmers earn tie with Wahconah

Tim Martin Columbia-Greene Media

CRARYVILLE — The Taconic Hills girls swim team carried the lead throughout Thursday’s meet against Wahconah, but ended up with a tie, 66-66.

Jacquie Arre earned first place in the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke, Emma Avenia earned first place in 100 fly and 500 free and Daisy Plaza took first place in the 200 free and 100 back.

Plaza, Arre, Avenia and Isabelle Hamann combined to take first place in both the 200 medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay. Hamann earned second place in both the 50 free and 100 free. Charlotte Hermance earned a 3rd place in both the 50 free and 100 free.

For the boys team, Neil Howard III earned first in the 50 free and 100 free.

The Titans take on Monument Mountain at home on Tuesday.

WRESTLING C-A 66, Watervliet 12 COXSACKIE — CoxsackieAthens earned victories in 11

a passer rating of 83 in Gang Green’s 33-18 loss to Philadelphia.

No. 2 was confident, trusted his eyes and consistently let it rip.

“Just playing efficiently.

Just being decisive I think was probably the biggest thing,” Wilson said on Thursday. “Just how can I get the ball out of my hands as quick

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED

Taconic Hills’ Daisy Plaza finishes the 100-meter backstroke during Thursday’s meet against Wahconah.

of 13 matches to defeat Watervliet/Cohoes, 66-12, in

Thursday’s Patroon Conference wrestling action.

Taconic Hills’ Neil Howard III approaches the finish line during Thursday’s meet against Wahconah.

Results 102: Neil Murphy (C-A) over

Abe Ahmadzai (Fall 0:54); 110: TJ Shutter (C-A) won by forfeit;

118: Ryker Cox (C-A) over Cole Miglucci (Fall 1:11); 126: Daytwan Coleman (WVCO) over Gage Decker (Fall 1:23); 132: Max Rulison (C-A) over Kevin Brammer (Fall 2:48); 138: Finn Gallogly (C-A) over Ali Ahmadzai (Fall 5:23); 145: Schyler Caringi (C-A) over Jeremy Mayville (Fall 2:48); 152: Joseph Martinez (C-A) over Don Cesare (Fall 5:25); 160: Kendryek Flynn (WVCO) over Caleb Snowden (Fall 0:31); 172: Anthony Iamunno (C-A) over Tyler Senecal (Fall 1:16); 189: Jeremy Monington (C-A) over Chris Nichols (Fall 5:44); 215: Brendan Woytowich (CA) won by forfeit; 285: Hunter Donovan (C-A) over Brandon Fitzgerald (Fall 1:54).

Exhibitions 118: Fielding Pilato (C-A) over Cole Miglucci (Fall 1:30); 145: Nicholas Moyer (C-A) over Jeremiah Strong (Fall 0:28); 189: Dontae Powell (CA) over Anthony Beeman (Fall 0:48); 215: James Wais (C-A) over Zach Guilbault (Fall 3:23).

BOWLING Maple Hill 4, Chatham 1 See SWIMMERS B5

B2 - Saturday - Sunday, December 11-12, 2021 Tampa Bay Toronto Detroit Boston Buffalo Ottawa Montreal

Pro football NFL American Football Conference East W L T Pct PF New England 9 4 0 .692 350 Buffalo 7 5 0 .583 336 Miami 6 7 0 .462 254 N.Y. Jets 3 9 0 .250 217 South W L T Pct PF Tennessee 8 4 0 .667 304 Indianapolis 7 6 0 .538 371 Jacksonville 2 10 0 .167 180 Houston 2 10 0 .167 164 North W L T Pct PF Baltimore 8 4 0 .667 282 Cincinnati 7 5 0 .583 331 Pittsburgh 6 6 1 .500 272 Cleveland 6 6 0 .500 254 West W L T Pct PF Kansas City 8 4 0 .667 303 L.A. Chargers 7 5 0 .583 314 Denver 6 6 0 .500 237 Las Vegas 6 6 0 .500 274 National Football Conference East W L T Pct PF Dallas 8 4 0 .667 353 Washington 6 6 0 .500 246 Philadelphia 6 7 0 .462 337 N.Y. Giants 4 8 0 .333 211 South W L T Pct PF Tampa Bay 9 3 0 .750 377 New Orleans 5 7 0 .417 274 Carolina 5 7 0 .417 236 Atlanta 5 7 0 .417 216 North W L T Pct PF Green Bay 9 3 0 .750 283 Minnesota 6 7 0 .462 344 Chicago 4 8 0 .333 201 Detroit 1 10 1 .125 203 West W L T Pct PF Arizona 10 2 0 .833 343 L.A. Rams 8 4 0 .667 336 San Francisco 6 6 0 .500 303 Seattle 4 8 0 .333 239 Week 14 Thursday’s game Minnesota 36, Pittsburgh 28 Sunday’s games Dallas at Washington, 1 p.m.

Jacksonville at Tennessee, 1 p.m.

Seattle at Houston, 1 p.m.

Las Vegas at Kansas City, 1 p.m.

New Orleans at N.Y. Jets, 1 p.m.

Atlanta at Carolina, 1 p.m.

Baltimore at Cleveland, 1 p.m.

N.Y. Giants at L.A. Chargers, 4:05 p.m.

Detroit at Denver, 4:05 p.m.

San Francisco at Cincinnati, 4:25 p.m.

Buffalo at Tampa Bay, 4:25 p.m.

Chicago at Green Bay, 8:20 p.m.

Monday’s game L.A. Rams at Arizona, 8:15 p.m.

PA 200 196 288 367 PA 290 283 320 323 PA 260 267 322 267 PA 259 315 218 312 PA 267 297 291 273 PA 270 276 253 332 PA 242 333 287 316 PA 224 270 278 249

Vikings 36, Steelers 28 Pittsburgh Minnesota

0 0 7 21 — 28 6 17 6 7 — 36 First Quarter MIN—Ju.Jefferson 14 yard pass from Cousins(Kick failed), 3:31.

Second Quarter MIN—G.Joseph 38 yard field goal, 14:43.

MIN—D.Cook 29 yard rush (G.Joseph kick), 9:55.

MIN—D.Cook 7 yard rush (G.Joseph kick), 2:20.

Third Quarter MIN—G.Joseph 42 yard field goal, 9:36.

MIN—G.Joseph 25 yard field goal, 6:15.

PIT—Na.Harris 3 yard pass from Roethlisberger (Boswell kick), 2:11.

Fourth Quarter PIT—Na.Harris 1 yard rush (Boswell kick), 14:49.

PIT—J.Washington 30 yard pass from Roethlisberger (Di.Johnson pass from Roethlisberger failed), 12:11.

MIN—Osborn 62 yard pass from Cousins (G.Joseph kick), 10:51.

PIT—Freiermuth 15 yard pass from Roethlisberger (Di.Johnson pass from Roethlisberger), 4:14.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING-PIT, Na.Harris 20-94, Di.Johnson 1-7, Roethlisberger 1-5, Claypool 1-2, Snell Jr. 1-(minus 2).

MIN, D.Cook 27-205, Mattison 6-27, Cousins 2-14, Ju.Jefferson 1-(minus 4).

PASSING-PIT, Roethlisberger 28-40-1-308. MIN, Cousins 14-31-2-216.

RECEIVING-PIT, Claypool 8-93, McCloud 6-32, Di.Johnson 5-76, J.Washington 4-65, Na.Harris 3-10, Freiermuth 2-32. MIN, Ju.Jefferson 7-79, Osborn 3-83, T.Conklin 2-20, C.Herndon 1-17, D.Cook 1-17.

MISSED FIELD GOALS-PIT, NA. MIN, NA.

Transactions BASEBALL American League Kansas City Royals - Signed 2B Ivan Castillo to a minor league contract.

National League Cincinnati Reds - Signed RHP Kyle Dowdy to a minor league contract.

PRO FOOTBALL National Football League Arizona Cardinals - Activated RB Jonathan Ward from the IR/COVID-19 list. Added RB Tavien Feaster to the practice squad. Placed DB Charles Washington on IR/Designated for Return list. Placed LS Aaron Brewer and RB Chase Edmonds on IR/Designated for Return list.

Buffalo Bills - Added T Bobby Hart to the practice squad. Removed DB Greg Stroman from the practice squad.

Cleveland Browns - Placed P Jamie Gillan and LB Anthony Walker on IR/COVID-19 list.

Dallas Cowboys - Placed WR Noah Brown on IR. Detroit Lions - Added T Darrin Paulo to the practice squad. Placed DB Bobby Price on IR/COVID-19 list.

Las Vegas Raiders - Activated LS Trent Sieg from the IR/COVID-19 list. Signed P AJ Cole to a fouryear contract extension. Signed K Daniel Carlson to a four-year, $18.4 million contract extension.

Waived LS Carson Tinker.

Los Angeles Chargers - Placed C Scott Quessenberry on IR/COVID-19 list.

Los Angeles Rams - Added WR J.J. Koski to the practice squad.

Minnesota Vikings - Activated LB Tuf Borland and DE Kenny Willekes from the practice squad.

New Orleans Saints - Added DT Malcolm Roach to the practice squad. Placed RB Ty Montgomery on IR/COVID-19 list.

New York Giants - Added WR Travis Toivonen to the practice squad.

New York Jets - Activated WR Keelan Cole Sr. from the IR/COVID-19 list.

Philadelphia Eagles - Cut DB Mac McCain III. Pittsburgh Steelers - Activated T Rashaad Coward from the practice squad. Activated T Chaz Green from the practice squad.

San Francisco 49ers - Added DB Jarrod Wilson to the practice squad. Removed T Corbin Kaufusi from the practice squad.

Tennessee Titans - Acquired LB Zach Cunningham off waivers from the Houston Texans.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL Florida - Named Corey Raymond assistant coach.

Florida International - Named Mike Macintyre head coach.

Fresno State - Named Jeff Tedford head coach.

Nebraska - Named Mark Whipple offensive coordinator.

Nevada - Announced TE Cole Turner will enter the NFL draft.

Notre Dame - Named Brian Polian special teams coordinator.

Southern California - Announced WR Drake London will enter the NFL draft.

Southern Methodist - Announced WR Reggie Roberson Jr. and WR Danny Gray will enter the NFL draft.

PRO HOCKEY National Hockey League Chicago Blackhawks - Acquired RW Kurtis Gabriel from the Toronto Maple Leafs for D Chad Krys. Assigned D Ian Mitchell, D Wyatt Kalynuk, and RW Mackenzie Entwistle to Rockford (AHL).

Colorado Avalanche - Assigned G Justus Annunen to Colorado (AHL). Waived RW Jayson Megna.

Columbus Blue Jackets - Assigned D Scott Harrington to Cleveland (AHL). Recalled RW Emil Bemstrom from Cleveland (AHL).

Detroit Red Wings - Recalled D Brian Lashoff from Grand Rapids (AHL).

Los Angeles Kings - Recalled C Jaret AndersonDolan from Ontario (AHL).

Montreal Canadiens - Recalled RW Jesse Ylonen from Laval (AHL).

New York Islanders - Waived LW Anatoli Golyshev.

Ottawa Senators - Assigned D Lassi Thomson to Belleville (AHL). Recalled D Jacob Bernard-Docker from Belleville (AHL).

Philadelphia Flyers - Recalled C Jackson Cates and C Max Willman from Lehigh Valley (AHL).

Pro hockey NHL

Florida

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division GP W L OT SO Pts GF GA 25 17 4 2 2 38 96 71

26 17 5 2 2 38 28 18 8 1 1 38 27 13 11 3 0 29 22 12 8 1 1 26 25 8 14 3 0 19 24 7 16 1 0 15 28 6 19 3 0 15 Metropolitan Division GP W L OT SO Pts Washington 26 16 4 5 1 38 N.Y. Rangers 25 17 5 3 0 37 Carolina 24 17 6 1 0 35 Pittsburgh 25 12 8 1 4 29 Columbus 25 13 11 0 1 27 New Jersey 24 10 9 1 4 25 Philadelphia 24 8 12 2 2 20 N.Y. Islanders 22 6 11 3 2 17 Western Conference Central Division GP W L OT SO Pts Minnesota 25 18 6 0 1 37 St. Louis 26 14 8 2 2 32 Nashville 26 15 10 1 0 31 Colorado 23 14 7 2 0 30 Dallas 23 13 8 1 1 28 Winnipeg 25 12 9 2 2 28 Chicago 26 10 14 2 0 22 Arizona 25 5 18 0 2 12 Pacific Division GP W L OT SO Pts Calgary 26 15 6 5 0 35 Anaheim 28 15 8 2 3 35 Edmonton 24 16 8 0 0 32 Vegas 25 15 10 0 0 30 San Jose 26 14 11 0 1 29 Los Angeles 24 10 10 3 1 24 Vancouver 27 10 15 1 1 22 Seattle 25 9 14 1 1 20 Wednesday’s games New Jersey 3, Philadelphia 0 Colorado 7, N.Y. Rangers 3 Vancouver 2, Boston 1, SO Vegas 5, Dallas 4 Thursday’s games Tampa Bay 5, Toronto 3 Chicago 2, Montreal 0 Anaheim 2, Columbus 1, SO Nashville 4, N.Y, Islanders 3 St. Louis 6, Detroit 2 Carolina at Calgary, 9 p.m.

Boston at Edmonton, 9 p.m.

Winnipeg at Seattle, 10 p.m.

Dallas at Los Angeles, 10:30 p.m.

Minnesota at San Jose, 10:30 p.m.

Friday’s games N.Y. Rangers at Buffalo, 7 p.m.

Pittsburgh at Washington, 7 p.m.

Nashville at New Jersey, 7:30 p.m.

Detroit at Colorado, 9 p.m.

Florida at Arizona, 9 p.m.

Winnipeg at Vancouver, 10 p.m.

Philadelphia at Vegas, 10 p.m.

Saturday’s games Tampa Bay at Ottawa, 1 p.m.

Montreal at St. Louis, 7 p.m.

Washington at Buffalo, 7 p.m.

Chicago at Toronto, 7 p.m.

Anaheim at Pittsburgh, 7 p.m.

New Jersey at NY Islanders, 7:30 p.m.

Philadelphia at Arizona, 9 p.m.

Columbus at Seattle, 10 p.m.

Boston at Calgary, 10 p.m.

Carolina at Edmonton, 10 p.m.

Minnesota at Los Angeles, 10:30 p.m.

Dallas at San Jose, 10:30 p.m.

89 88 75 62 70 63 61

70 71 89 58 92 93 98

GF GA 92 65 77 66 79 54 75 68 81 82 70 79 56 82 46 68 GF GA 96 72 90 75 77 73 99 79 68 64 76 72 58 81 44 93 GF GA 84 56 91 79 87 74 86 77 71 71 64 67 66 81 73 90

Thursday’s games Predators 4, Islanders 3 Nashville 2 0 2 — 4 N.Y. Islanders 1 1 1 — 3 First Period—1, NY Islanders, Czarnik 1 (Wahlstrom, Bellows) 6:48. 2, Nashville, Johansen 8 (Kunin) 17:28. 3, Nashville, Sissons 3 (Jeannot, Benning) 18:52.

Second Period—4, NY Islanders, Lee 7 (Barzal, Wahlstrom) 1:56 (pp).

Third Period—5, NY Islanders, Dobson 2 (Greene, Johnston) 5:08. 6, Nashville, Trenin 4 (Jeannot, Sissons) 12:31. 7, Nashville, Tolvanen 4 (Josi, Johansen) 19:48.

Shots on Goal—Nashville 11-8-10—29. NY Islanders 6-8-7—21.

Power-play opportunities—Nashville 0 of 1. NY Islanders 1 of 2.

Goalies—Nashville Rittich 3-1-0 (21 shots-18 saves). NY Islanders Varlamov 0-5-1 (29-25).

A—17,255 (17,113). T—2:29.

Blackhawks 2, Canadiens 0 Chicago 0 1 1 — 2 Montreal 0 0 0 — 0 First Period—None.

Second Period—1, Chicago, Toews 1 (Jones, Kane) 13:48 (pp).

Third Period—2, Chicago, Borgstrom 2 (unassisted) 12:00.

Shots on Goal—Chicago 13-8-4—25. Montreal 12-6-12—30.

Power-play opportunities—Chicago 1 of 2. Montreal 0 of 1.

Goalies—Chicago Fleury 8-10-0 (30 shots-30 saves). Montreal Allen 5-13-2 (25-23). A—20,447 (21,273). T—2:15.

Lightning 5, Maple Leafs 3 Tampa Bay 2 2 1 — 5 Toronto 2 0 1 — 3 First Period—1, Toronto, Kase 7 (Tavares, Rielly) 1:44 (pp). 2, Tampa Bay, Bellemare 2 (Perry) 9:57.

3, Tampa Bay, Stamkos 13 (Killorn) 12:16 (pp). 4, Toronto, Nylander 12 (Matthews) 19:53 (pp).

Second Period—5, Tampa Bay, Palat 8 (Stamkos, Raddysh) 4:02. 6, Tampa Bay, Raddysh 3 (Palat, Stamkos) 9:11.

Third Period—7, Toronto, Kase 8 (Muzzin, Tavares) 9:36. 8, Tampa Bay, Palat 9 (Stamkos, Killorn) 19:31 (en).

Shots on Goal—Tampa Bay 9-9-9—27. Toronto 12-15-11—38.

Power-play opportunities—Tampa Bay 1 of 3.

Toronto 2 of 2.

Goalies—Tampa Bay Vasilevskiy 14-4-3 (38 shots-35 saves). Toronto Campbell 14-5-2 (26-22).

A—18,919 (18,819). T—2:29.

Blues 6, Red Wings 2 Detroit 0 1 1 — 2 St. Louis 2 1 3 — 6 First Period—1, St. Louis, Walker 1 (Schenn, Joshua) 6:17. 2, St. Louis, Walker 2 (Mikkola, O’Reilly) 16:47.

Second Period—3, Detroit, Fabbri 7 (Raymond, Larkin) 4:17. 4, St. Louis, Parayko 2 (Joshua, Mikkola) 16:01.

Third Period—5, St. Louis, Walker 3 (Krug, Scandella) 9:27. 6, St. Louis, Barbashev 9 (Krug, Buchnevich) 10:11. 7, Detroit, Fabbri 8 (Raymond, Hronek) 15:27. 8, St. Louis, Scandella 1 (unassisted) 19:54 (en).

Shots on Goal—Detroit 9-9-13—31. St. Louis 108-8—26.

Power-play opportunities—Detroit 0 of 1. St. Louis 0 of 3.

Goalies—Detroit Greiss 5-6-0 (7 shots-5 saves), Nedeljkovic 0-0-0 (18-15). St. Louis Lindgren 2-0-0 (31-29). A—18,096 (19,150). T—2:17.

Ducks 2, Blue Jackets 1 (SO) Anaheim 1 0 0 0 1— 2 Columbus 1 0 0 0 0— 1 First Period—1, Columbus, Texier 9 (Robinson, Kuraly) 8:02. 2, Anaheim, Lundestrom 7 (unassisted) 10:23.

Second Period—None.

Third Period—None.

Overtime—None.

Shootout—Anaheim 2 (Terry NG, Zegras G, Rakell G), Columbus 1 (Bjorkstrand NG, Texier NG, Voracek G).

Shots on Goal—Anaheim 10-7-8—26. Columbus 13-11-9—34.

Power-play opportunities—Anaheim 0 of 1. Columbus 0 of 2.

Goalies—Anaheim Gibson 11-6-4 (34 shots-33 saves). Columbus Merzlikins 10-5-1 (26-25).

A—16,029 (18,144). T—2:39.

Pro basketball NBA Eastern Conference Atlantic W L Pct GB Brooklyn 17 8 .680 — Philadelphia 14 12 .538 3.5 Boston 13 13 .500 4.5 New York 12 13 .480 5.0 Toronto 11 14 .440 6.0 Central W L Pct GB Chicago 17 9 .654 — Milwaukee 16 10 .615 1.0 Cleveland 14 12 .538 3.0 Indiana 11 16 .407 6.5 Detroit 4 20 .167 12.0 Southeast W L Pct GB Miami 15 11 .577 — Washington 15 11 .577 — Atlanta 13 12 .520 1.5 Charlotte 14 13 .519 1.5 Orlando 5 21 .192 10.0 Western Conference Northwest W L Pct GB Utah 18 7 .720 — Denver 12 13 .480 6.0 Minnesota 11 14 .440 7.0

Portland Oklahoma City

11 15 .423 7.5 8 16 .333 9.5 Pacific W L Pct GB Golden State 21 4 .840 — Phoenix 20 4 .833 .5 L.A. Clippers 14 12 .538 7.5 L.A. Lakers 13 13 .500 8.5 Sacramento 11 14 .440 10.0 Southwest W L Pct GB Memphis 15 11 .577 — Dallas 12 12 .500 2.0 San Antonio 9 15 .375 5.0 Houston 8 16 .333 6.0 New Orleans 7 20 .259 8.5 Wednesday’s games Philadelphia 110, Charlotte 106 Cleveland 115, Chicago 92 Washington 119, Detroit 116, OT Indiana 122, New York 102 Miami 113, Milwaukee 104 Oklahoma City 110, Toronto 109 Houston 114, Brooklyn 104 Dallas 104, Memphis 96 Utah 136, Minnesota 104 Denver 120, New Orleans 114, OT Golden State 104, Portland 94 Sacramento 142, Orlando 130 L.A. Clippers 114, Boston 111 Thursday’s games Utah 118, Philadelphia 96 Memphis 108, L.A. Lakers 95 San Antonio 123, Denver 111 Friday’s games Sacramento at Charlotte, 7 p.m.

Dallas at Indiana, 7 p.m.

Brooklyn at Atlanta, 7:30 p.m.

New York at Toronto, 7:30 p.m.

Cleveland at Minnesota, 8 p.m.

Detroit at New Orleans, 8 p.m.

L.A. Lakers at Oklahoma City, 8 p.m.

Milwaukee at Houston, 8 p.m.

Boston at Phoenix, 10 p.m.

Saturday’s games Orlando at L.A. Clippers, 3:30 p.m.

Utah at Washington, 7 p.m.

Sacramento at Cleveland, 8 p.m.

Chicago at Miami, 8 p.m.

Houston at Memphis, 8 p.m.

Golden State at Philadelphia, 8:30 p.m.

Denver at San Antonio, 8:30 p.m.

Thursday’s games Jazz 118, 76ers 96 UTAH (118) Gobert 6-11 5-8 17, Do.Mitchell 8-19 1-2 22, O’Neale 3-5 0-0 7, Bj.Bogdanovic 4-9 6-7 14, Conley 4-10 0-0 10, Clarkson 4-12 0-1 11, Ingles 4-9 0-0 11, Gay 4-5 1-1 10, Whiteside 5-8 4-5 14, Forrest 0-1 0-0 0, Paschall 0-1 0-0 0, Oni 0-0 0-0 0, Ja.Butler 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 43-91 17-24 118.

PHILADELPHIA (96) T.Harris 6-11 4-4 17, Se.Curry 7-12 2-2 18, Embiid 8-18 2-2 19, Maxey 5-10 1-2 11, Da.Green 0-5 0-0 0, Milton 2-7 3-3 7, Thybulle 3-8 0-0 7, Korkmaz 1-6 2-2 4, Niang 4-7 0-0 9, Drummond 0-1 0-0 0, Joe 0-1 0-0 0, Bassey 2-2 0-0 4. Totals 38-88 14-15 96.

Utah 27 34 27 30 —118 Philadelphia 32 22 22 20 — 96 3-Point Goals—Utah 15-40 (Do.Mitchell 5-10, Ingles 3-7, Clarkson 3-10, Conley 2-4, Gay 1-2, O’Neale 1-3, Bj.Bogdanovic 0-4), Philadelphia 6-33 (Se.Curry 2-6, T.Harris 1-2, Embiid 1-4, Niang 1-4, Thybulle 1-5, Joe 0-1, Milton 0-2, Da.Green 0-4, Korkmaz 0-5). Fouled Out—Embiid. Rebounds— Utah 52 (Gobert 21), Philadelphia 34 (Embiid 9).

Assists—Utah 22 (Ingles 7), Philadelphia 17 (Se. Curry 4). Total Fouls—Utah 14 (Gobert 4), Philadelphia 21 (Se.Curry, Embiid 5). A—20,272.

Grizzlies 108, Lakers 95 L.A. LAKERS (95) A.Davis 9-18 3-4 22, James 7-15 5-5 20, Westbrook 3-9 1-4 9, A.Bradley 4-5 0-0 10, Horton-Tucker 5-10 0-0 10, Monk 2-7 0-0 6, Ca.Anthony 2-5 2-4 7, Ellington 2-6 0-0 6, D.Howard 2-3 0-0 5. Totals 36-78 11-17 95.

MEMPHIS (108) Ty.Jones 5-14 0-0 12, Bane 9-20 0-0 23, Adams 1-3 2-6 4, Jackson Jr 9-18 5-6 25, Melton 4-9 2-2 12, Konchar 2-4 3-4 7, Tillman 2-6 0-0 5, Tillie 2-7 0-0 5, Culver 4-6 0-0 8, Anderson 3-7 0-0 7. Totals 41-94 12-18 108.

L.A. Lakers 29 24 25 17 — 95 Memphis 25 34 26 23 —108 3-Point Goals—L.A. Lakers 12-30 (A.Bradley 2-2, Westbrook 2-3, Ellington 2-5, Monk 2-5, D.Howard 1-1, Ca.Anthony 1-3, A.Davis 1-4, James 1-6, Horton-Tucker 0-1), Memphis 14-42 (Bane 5-11, Ty.Jones 2-6, Melton 2-6, Jackson Jr 2-8, Anderson 1-2, Tillman 1-2, Tillie 1-5, Culver 0-1, Konchar 0-1). Fouled Out—None. Rebounds—L.A. Lakers 54 (James 10), Memphis 53 (Adams 13). Assists— L.A. Lakers 26 (James 11), Memphis 28 (Ty.Jones, Melton 6). Total Fouls—L.A. Lakers 15 (Westbrook 4), Memphis 14 (Jackson Jr 3). A—16,334.

Spurs 123, Nuggets 111 DENVER (111) A.Gordon 9-12 7-8 25, Jokic 8-19 4-4 22, Mo.Morris 5-13 0-0 13, Barton 8-16 0-0 19, Je.Green 2-5 0-0 4, Campazzo 4-7 0-0 12, Nnaji 0-2 0-0 0, D.Reed 1-4 0-0 2, Jm.Green 3-6 1-1 9, Hyland 2-10 0-0 5, M.Howard 0-0 0-0 0, Cornelie 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 4294 12-13 111.

SAN ANTONIO (123) D.White 9-14 3-4 23, D.Murray 7-16 3-4 20, BatesDiop 3-8 0-2 7, Poeltl 4-7 1-3 9, McDermott 6-12 2-2 17, Walker IV 7-12 4-4 21, Vassell 4-8 0-0 9, Eubanks 5-8 3-3 14, Tr.Jones 0-0 0-0 0, Forbes 1-3 0-0 3, Th.Young 0-0 0-0 0, Primo 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 46-88 16-22 123.

Denver 29 36 25 21 —111 San Antonio 37 37 26 23 —123 3-Point Goals—Denver 15-39 (Campazzo 4-6, Barton 3-7, Mo.Morris 3-7, Jm.Green 2-4, Jokic 2-8, Hyland 1-4, Nnaji 0-1, D.Reed 0-2), San Antonio 15-35 (Walker IV 3-5, McDermott 3-7, D.Murray 3-8, D.White 2-6, Eubanks 1-1, Forbes 1-1, BatesDiop 1-2, Vassell 1-5). Fouled Out—Je.Green.

Rebounds—Denver 33 (Jokic 13), San Antonio 54 (Bates-Diop, Poeltl 9). Assists—Denver 29 (Jokic 10), San Antonio 32 (D.Murray 9). Total Fouls— Denver 22 (Je.Green 6), San Antonio 20 (Poeltl 5). A—NA.

College basketball MEN’S SCORES Thursday’s games EAST Fordham 73, LIU 57 Hampton 54, William & Mary 53 Pittsburgh 71, Colgate 68 Rutgers 70, Purdue 68 Seton Hall 64, Texas 60 St. John’s 88, Monmouth-NJ 83 SOUTH N.C. State 65, Bethune-Cookman 48 Nicholls State 95, Mississippi Valley State 80 North Carolina Central 102, Carver Bible College 50 Southern 86, Lindsey Wilson 68 MIDWEST Bellarmine 87, Asbury College 55 Kent St. 69, Detroit Mercy 52 WEST Gonzaga 80, Merrimack 55 New Mexico 87, Denver 67

WOMEN’S SCORES Thursday’s games EAST Boston U 66, Merrimack 52 Georgetown 68, George Washington 63 Lafayette 62, UMBC 55 Penn St. 52, Rutgers 48 St. Bonaventure 61, Colgate 56 Villanova 76, James Madison 67 SOUTH Alabama A&M 72, Samford 47 Florida Gulf Coast 80, Palm Beach Atlantic 52 Georgia Tech 57, Connecticut 44 High Point 76, King College 56 Houston 72, Jacksonville St. 65 Tennessee Tech 67, Western Carolina 50 Texas A&M 88, Texas Southern 43 MIDWEST Arkansas 66, Jackson State 62 DePaul 94, Kentucky 85 Eastern Kentucky 60, Chattanooga 55 Indiana 91, Fairfield 58 Michigan 93, Wisconsin 81 Michigan St 75, Illinois 60 SE Missouri St. 68, Purdue Fort Wayne 51 SIU Edwardsville 63, Saint Louis 57

ERIC BOLTE/USA TODAY

Chicago Blackhawks goalie Marc-Andre Fleury (29) makes a save and redirects the puck during the second period against the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre on Thursday.

NHL roundup: Blackhawks’ Marc-Andre Fleury notches 500th career win Field Level Media

Marc-Andre Fleury turned aside all 30 shots he faced to record his 500th career NHL win on Thursday, lifting the visiting Chicago Blackhawks to a 2-0 victory over the Montreal Canadiens.

The reigning Vezina Trophy recipient recorded his seventh victory in his last 10 outings to join Hall of Famers Martin Brodeur (691) and Patrick Roy (551) as the only NHL goaltenders to reach the 500-win plateau.

Fleury was born in Sorel, Quebec, approximately one hour north of Montreal. He gave the “home” fans a show by stopping all 12 shots he faced in the third period to secure his second shutout of the season and 69th of his career.

Captain Jonathan Toews scored his first goal of the season and Henrik Borgstrom also tallied for the Blackhawks, who have won seven in a row in Montreal.

Jake Allen made 23 saves for the Canadiens, who matched a season high with five straight losses (0-4-1). Montreal began the season by losing its first five games.

Ducks 2, Blue Jackets 1 (SO) Trevor Zegras and Rickard Rakell scored in the shootout to lift visiting Anaheim over Columbus.

Isac Lundestrom scored in regulation, and John Gibson made 33 saves for the Ducks, who are 2-0-1 on their five-game road trip.

Alexandre Texier scored, and Elvis Merzlikins made 25 saves for the Blue Jackets, who have lost six of their past seven.

Kings 4, Stars 0 Jonathan Quick stopped all 27 shots he faced, and Adrian Kempe recorded his fourth goal in five games as Los Angeles posted a rare home victory over Dallas.

Quick was solid all night, and stellar when needed, in recording his second shutout of the season for the Kings, who totaled 41 shots. Kempe’s goal early in the second period, Arthur Kaliyev’s fifth of the season late in the third and empty-netters from Viktor Arvidsson and Andreas Athanasiou were more than enough for Los Angeles to end a six-game home losing streak to the Stars.

Jake Oettinger made 37 saves for the Stars, who failed to rebound after their club-tying seven-game winning streak ended Wednesday in a 5-4 loss at Vegas.

Blanked for the first time this season, Dallas has dropped back-toback games for the first time since

Nov. 7 and 10.

Lightning 5, Maple Leafs 3 Ondrej Palat had two goals and an assist, Steven Stamkos had a goal and three assists as visiting Tampa Bay defeated Toronto.

Taylor Raddysh added a goal and an assist for the Lightning, who have won five straight. PierreEdouard Bellemare also scored, Alex Killorn added two assists and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 35 saves as coach Jon Cooper got his 400th career win.

Ondrej Kase scored twice and William Nylander once for the Maple Leafs. John Tavares added two assists. Jack Campbell stopped 22 shots for Toronto.

Predators 4, Islanders 3 Eeli Tolvanen scored with 11.5 seconds left in the third period for visiting Nashville, which overcame a late deficit to edge New York.

Ryan Johansen and Colton Sissons scored in the first period and Yakov Trenin scored the tying goal with 7:29 left for the Predators, who have won three straight and four of five. Goalie David Rittich made 18 saves.

Austin Czarnik, Anders Lee and Noah Dobson scored for the Islanders, whose point streak ended at four games. Their losing streak at UBS Arena hit seven games (05-2) – the longest arena-opening losing streak by a team at its new home in NHL history.

Hurricanes 2, Flames 1 (OT) Sebastian Aho scored both goals, including the overtime winner, to lead visiting Carolina to a victory over Calgary.

Goaltender Frederik Andersen made 26 saves for the Hurricanes, who are riding a three-game winning streak. Aho is now riding a four-game point streak in which he’s collected three goals and nine points.

Noah Hanifin replied for the Flames, who have lost three straight games – the first two in regulation time – but likely deserved a better fate on this night.

Goalie Jacob Markstrom stopped 24 shots.

Blues 6, Red Wings 2 Nathan Walker had a hat trick in his season debut and host St. Louis defeated the Red Wings.

Walker had only three career goals prior to his outburst. St. Louis played with only 17 skaters due to health and safety protocols and injuries. The Blues called up Walker from Springfield of

the American Hockey League on Wednesday due to their roster issues.

Colton Parayko, Ivan Barbashev and Marco Scandella also scored for the Blues, and Charlie Lindgren made 29 saves. Robby Fabbri scored both of the Red Wings’ goals.

Bruins 3, Oilers 2 Matt Grzelcyk’s first goal of the season with 2:33 remaining in the third period lifted Boston to a win over host Edmonton.

Grzelcyk unleashed a slap shot from the top of the right circle to beat Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner low stick-side. It was the defenseman’s first goal since Game 4 of the Bruins’ first-round playoff series against Washington last May 21.

Brad Marchand added his team-leading 10th goal of the season and Jake DeBrusk also scored for Boston. Linus Ullmark made 41 saves for the Bruins, who had lost two straight and five of their last eight games (3-3-2).

Jets 3, Kraken 0 Kyle Connor scored twice, and Connor Hellebuyck made 25 saves for his first shutout of the season and the 25th of his career as Winnipeg defeated the host Kraken.

Dominic Toninato also scored for the Jets, who won for the third time in their past four games.

Connor’s two goals gave him 17 for the season, tied for third in the National Hockey League behind Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl (23) and Washington’s Alex Ovechkin (20).

Seattle goaltender Philipp Grubauer stopped 30 of 33 shots.

The expansion Kraken lost their second in a row following a 5-1-1 stretch.

Wild 5, Sharks 2 Cam Talbot made 33 saves and Jordan Greenway had two goals as Minnesota extended their winning streak with a road victory over San Jose Sharks.

Minnesota won for the eighth consecutive game, marking the third-longest win streak in franchise history. Kevin Fiala, Joel Eriksson Ek and Kirill Kaprizov each had a goal and an assist for the Wild.

Jonathan Dahlien and Tomas Hertl each had a goal and an assist during a dominant third period for the Sharks, who outshot Minnesota by a 19-9 margin in the final frame.

NBA roundup: Without starting guards, Grizzlies get by Lakers Field Level Media

Jaren Jackson Jr. scored 25 points and Desmond Bane added 23 as the short-handed Memphis Grizzlies returned to their winning ways Thursday with a 108-95 victory over the visiting Los Angeles Lakers.

Tyus Jones and De’Anthony Melton added 12 points each as the Grizzlies won without starting guards Ja Morant and Dillon Brooks, who are in COVID-19 protocol. Brooks was a late scratch after playing Wednesday.

The Grizzlies have won six of their last seven games, all since

Morant originally went to the sideline last month with a left knee sprain.

LeBron James scored 20 points with 10 rebounds and 11 assists for the Lakers to record the 100th triple-double of his career. Anthony Davis had 22 points with eight rebounds for Los Angeles, which is just 3-5 on the road since Nov. 1.

Spurs 123, Nuggets 111 Derrick White poured in 23 points and Lonnie Walker IV added 21 off the bench as San Antonio rolled over visiting Denver.

Dejounte Murray added 20 points for the Spurs, with Doug McDermott hitting for 17 and Drew Eubanks scoring 14.

Jazz 118, 76ers 96 Donovan Mitchell scored 22 points, and Rudy Gobert had 17 points and 21 rebounds as Utah beat host Philadelphia.

Hassan Whiteside contributed 14 points and 10 rebounds, Bojan Bogdanovic had 14 points, and Joe Ingles and Jordan Clarkson chipped in with 11 each for the Jazz, who won their sixth in a row. Mike Conley and Rudy Gay had 10 points apiece.

Saturday - Sunday, December 11-12, 2021 - B3

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Demaryius Thomas, former Pro Bowl wide receiver, dies at 33 Nicki Jhabvala The Washington Post

Demaryius Thomas, the former Pro Bowl wide receiver and Super Bowl champion with the Denver Broncos, died Thursday evening, according to Roswell, Ga., police. He was 33.

Thomas was found at his Roswell home, and preliminary information pointed to a medical issue as the cause, police said. “Our investigators currently have no reason to believe otherwise,” a police spokesperson said via email.

“We are devastated and completely heartbroken by the sudden, tragic passing of Demaryius Thomas,” the Broncos said in a statement. “D.T. was beloved by our entire organization, his teammates and coaches, and our fans. Recently retiring as a Bronco, we were very much looking forward to celebrating Demaryius for years to come as one of the greatest players in franchise history.”

A first-round pick out of Georgia Tech in 2010, Thomas played nine of his 10 NFL seasons with the Broncos, earning four Pro Bowl nods, landing second-team all-pro honors twice and winning a Super Bowl 50 ring after the 2015 season.

He set numerous franchise records, including for receiving yards in a season (1,619 in 2014) and receiving touchdowns in a season (14 in 2013).

After his rookie season was beset by injuries, Thomas helped tie the longest pass play in Broncos history when he turned Tim Tebow’s first pass of overtime in a 2011 AFC first-round playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers into an 80-yard touchdown for an upset victory.

Thomas died about four weeks before the 10-year anniversary of that play - and about two weeks before his 34th birthday.

Beloved by teammates who respected his work ethic and quiet leadership, Thomas was a staple in Denver’s offense during some of its most prolific years with Peyton Manning as its quarterback.

From 2012 to 2016, Thomas topped 1,000 receiving yards each season to finish with the second-most 1,000-yard seasons in franchise history behind Rod Smith (eight). In those years, Thomas also became one of just four players in NFL history to have five consecutive seasons with at least 90 catches and 1,000 receiving yards.

KIRBY LEE/USA TODAY

New York Jets wide receiver Demaryius Thomas (18) carries the ball past Oakland Raiders inside linebacker Will Compton (51) during the first half at MetLife Stadium on Nov. 24 2019.

During his tenure with the Broncos, Thomas scaled the franchise record books to rank among the top two or three - typically alongside Smith and Shannon Sharpe - in most career receiving categories. He was second in career receiving yards (9,055), touchdowns (60) and consecutive games with a catch (107); had the most career playoff catches (53) and led all Broncos players with 36 100-yard receiving games.

“D.T. was a better person than he was a player, and he was a Hall of Fame player,” Manning said in a statement. “That tells you how good of a person he was. He treated my kids like they were his own. He was there for every teammate’s charity event. I texted with D.T. on Tuesday. He was talking about a TD audible we called vs. Arizona in 2014. Absolutely devastated.”

But what made Thomas’s story remarkable was not the production or rare athleticism, but

the obstacles he overcome to achieve it all.

In 1999, when Thomas was 11, his home was raided and his mother and grandmother were arrested for drug trafficking. His mother, Katina Smith, was initially sentenced to more than 24 years, while Thomas’s grandmother, Minnie Pearl Thomas, was sentenced to two life terms with the chance of parole after 40 years.

Thomas went to live with an aunt and uncle, while his mother and grandmother could only watch his budding football career from prison televisions. In the summer of 2015, President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of 46 imprisoned drug offenders. Smith was one of them, and later that year she watched her son play football in person for the first time, in Denver. The Broncos won Super Bowl 50 that season.

Minnie Pearl Thomas was released later in 2016.

On the field, Thomas recovered from injuries early in his career to start 122 consecutive games, a streak that started with the playoff victory over the Steelers in January 2012 and continued through multiple aches and nagging injuries.

“With pain, as long as you know it’s nothing super serious or nothing is structurally wrong, you start getting used to it,” he told The Denver Post in 2017. “If I get hit, I know the pain is going to be temporary. I’m going to hurt for a second and that might be one of those times I run off the field. But then it’ll ease up and I’ll go back in. But when you get those, you can’t run the next play, so you want to come off. It’s a mind thing. I’ve had to learn about my body and I’ve had to figure out things that will work for me - I had to change my diet and, having been injured, I’ve been in the treatment room and learning from those guys and people outside of the treatment room.”

Before the 2018 trade deadline, Thomas was dealt to the Houston Texans for draft picks. The deal marked the beginning of a swift end to his career. Seven games into his time with the Texans, he tore his Achilles’ - the second such injury of his career - and was released two months later.

After a brief offseason stint with the New England Patriots, he was traded to the New York Jets, with whom he played 11 games in 2019.

Thomas announced his retirement from the NFL on June 28, probably securing him a spot in the Broncos’ Ring of Fame Class of 2026.

When news circulated about his death, former teammates and players across the league reacted with an outpouring of messages and remembrances on social media.

Former pass rusher DeMarcus Ware posted a photo of himself with Thomas along with the message “heartbroken.”

Broncos kicker Brandon McManus shared two images of him standing alongside Thomas with the words: “This is who my friend was. Always Smiling. I love you DT.” And Terrell Davis, the Hall of Fame running back and the Broncos’ all-time leading rusher, tweeted: “I’m just shocked to hear that Demaryius Thomas has died. Gone way to soon. Honored to have known you brutha. R.I.P!”

Baseball’s money squabbles shouldn’t hide major on-field problems Scott Lauber The Philadelphia Inquirer

A few weeks ago, Dave Dombrowski attended an Arizona Fall League game that featured 18 runs, 21 hits, 10 walks, and 11 pitching changes. It didn’t lack for action. Phillies shortstop prospect Bryson Stott stood at the center of it all, with a double, a sacrifice fly, and a run scored.

But here’s the kicker: The game lasted only 3 hours, 3 minutes.

“It was great,” said Dombrowski, the Phillies’ president of baseball operations. “I mean, the action -- just boom, boom.

There’s always something going on. I really like that.”

Fans appreciate it, too, more than ever. But despite consumers’ shrinking attention spans and a growing number of entertainment alternatives, Major League Baseball plods along with longer-than-ever games in which less and less actually happens, an existential threat to the sport.

Inside Phillies’ offseason: Key dates, roster moves, free agency and more The average nine-inning regular-season major league game this year was played in an all-time high of 3 hours and 10 minutes, three minutes longer than last year and 19 minutes longer than in 2011. Meanwhile, hitters combined to bat

agreement. Introducing a debate about, say, a pitch clock or the electronic strike zone may not be particularly helpful.

At its core, though, this is about leverage. And money, of course.

Dombrowski isn’t the only team executive in favor of rules changes to improve pace of play. At last month’s general managers meetings in Carlsbad, Calif., several leading executives endorsed the 15-second pitch clock (17 seconds with a runner on base) that helped trim the average time of a nine-inning Arizona Fall League game to 2:46.

Phillies’ roster upgrade barely got started, but the talent is still out there — Scott Lauber Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said he “wasn’t sure what to expect” from the pitch clock. What he found was “a pace to things that I appreciated,” so much so that he said he forgot the clock was even there.

“I love it,” Toronto Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins said. “I think the challenge with it is just the buy-in from the players and what it means for a hitter’s rhythm and routine.

But I love the concept of thinking about how we can react to our fans’ desires and think about the health and vitality of this game and creating as much energy and excitement around

.244, tied for the lowest average since 1968, and reach base at a .317 clip, the second-lowest mark since 1972. But at least games averaged a brisk 2:27 back then.

Something must be done for the sake of the sport’s longterm survival. An owner-initiated lockout in the midst of negotiations of a new collective bargaining agreement would seem like a prime opportunity to also improve the on-field product.

Yet commissioner Rob Manfred said in a news conference last week that negotiations with the MLB Players Association will be limited to economics, not improvements to the onfield product.

“Frankly,” Manfred said, “based on the discussions at the table, we saw it as another contentious issue and tried to put it to one side in an effort to get to an agreement on the theory that we could deal with it midterm of the next agreement.”

Well, then.

There’s no denying the chasm between the owners and players on economic issues -service-time minimums for salary arbitration and free agency, revenue sharing among owners, competitive integrity, and more — is wide enough that it may take longer than the 2 1/2 months between now and spring training to reach an

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it as possible.”

There’s likely similar support among players and owners.

Over the last few years, MLB used the minor leagues as a lab to experiment with a pitch clock, limits on defensive shifts, and other rules designed to reduce dead time. Some are closer to implementation than others. (The electronic strike zone, for instance, is a work in progress).

The cases for and against Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard in Cooperstown Manfred, who works for the owners, has pushed pace-ofplay improvements. MLB hired Theo Epstein to consult on potential rules changes. Players Association executive director Tony Clark, a former player, told reporters before Game 1 of the World Series that he’s open to talking about new rules “and that’s not going to change.”

So, what’s the problem?

With the players fighting for massive changes to the league’s

economic structure, the owners argue that on-field improvements are separate from economics, mainly to prevent the players from using the pitch clock or other popular new rules as bargaining chips. But the players contend that economics and the on-field product are interrelated.

And so, both sides continue to whistle past the graveyard, ignoring the most serious threat to their future: the game itself.

Dick Allen’s son says his father is laughing at latest Hall of Fame snub Manfred said last week the owners proposed forming a joint committee to discuss rules changes. The expired CBA also gave him power to implement on-field rules even if they were rejected by the players. Assuming he retains that authority under the new agreement, he could institute a pitch clock, or any other new rule favored by the owners, without a rubber

stamp from the players.

“I’d prefer to do it by reaching an agreement with the players,” Manfred said during the World Series.

Key questions about the MLB lockout: What each side wants, how long it will last One way or another, changes to the product must be made.

Shorter, more action-packed games matter more to fans than whether players can become free agents before they accumulate six years of major league service time or how the owners share revenues.

“People like fast-paced events, more action,” Dombrowski said. “I think the game3/8 is screaming for a change in that regard. I think it’s fan-friendly, I think it’s player-friendly, I think it’s front office-friendly. However that’s created, that’s not my responsibility. But I think it would be helpful for the game. I do.”

Best that the owners and players don’t lose sight of that.

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Want to quickly sell your puppies or kittens?

For your convience, use the form at www.hudsonvalley360.com/site/ forms/online_services/classified_ad/ for quick submission.

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Announcements

Rentals ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS

332

Roommates/ Home Sharing

Rivertown Housing Development Fund Co. Inc. Owner

HOUSEMATE WANTEDSenior Citizen request person to share expenses of 3700 sq ft modern home, 1 mile from Hudson. Private bed. Requesting $1,100 / mo. Incls. heat, elec. direct tv, trash, one time cleaning, treadmill, W/D. Full use of residence. Must be clean, non-smoker, credit score of 650 plus. Proof of income References. No pets. Call or text (518)965-3563.

19 Third St. Athens, NY 12015 Address Separate sealed BIDS for the following contracts: Site Work Construction General Construction For the construction of Site Reconstruction & Renovations project outlined in the specification and drawings will be received by Rivertown Housing Development Fund Co. Inc. at the office of Rivertown Housing Development Fund Co. Inc. located at 19 Third St. Athens, NY 12015 until December 21, 2021, (Local Time) 2:00 pm, and then at said office publicly opened and read aloud.

The CONTRACT DOCUMENTS may be examined at the following locations:

Employment

Eastern Contractors Association, Inc., 6 Airline Drive, Albany, NY 12205-1095, 518-869-0963.

415

General Help NOW HIRING

Hawthorne Valley Farm Store is looking for motivated, upbeat individuals to join our team. Full-Time positions with benefits available. All candidates must be willing to work weekends and evening shifts.

Apply today https://hawthornevalley.org/employment-application/ Or email chandra@hawthornevalleyfarm.org VOLUNTEERS & COOK'S need for in Catskill Soup Kitchen, call Lamont Taylor - Director @ (518)249-7009.

420

THIS NEWSPAPER

Office Help Wanted

Seasonal Positions in the Chatham office.

Experience/Education in taxes preferred.

Flexible schedule.

Must complete tax training & IRS/NY requirements.

Apply today @

Copies of the CONTRACT DOCUMENTS may be obtained by contacting DataFlow, Inc, Inc., 2215 CENTRAL AVE, SCHENECTADY NY 12304. phone (518) 463-2192.

Online access will be provided to all registered bidders and suppliers. CONTRACT DOCUMENTS may be downloaded for a fee of $49.00 by visiting https://www.nyplanroom.com/. A deposit of $100.00 payable to Rivertown Housing Development Fund Co. Inc. is required for each printed set. BIDDERS shall arrange and pay for delivery.

A pre-bid Walk through will be conducted on December 8, 2021 at 10:00 am local time located at Rivertown Housing Development Fund Co. Inc. at 19 Third St. Athens, NY. Attendance by bidders is strongly recommended but not required to submit a bid. Bidders may visit the site during normal business hours, 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, Monday through Friday. Arrangements may be made by contacting Amanda Rose, Site Manager (518) 945-1751 or email amanda@rivertownhousing.org

JACKSON HEWITT 9 Railroad Ave. Chatham 518.392.6420 chathamtax@ymail.com

435

Rivertown Housing Development Fund Co., 19 Third St. Athens, NY 12015; Phone (518) 945-1751

Any BIDDER, upon returning the CONTRACT DOCUMENTS promptly and in good condition, will be refunded the payment, and any non-bidder upon so returning the CONTRACT DOCUMENTS will be refunded $100.00.

TAX PREPARATION

Professional & Technical

McGraw Hill Construction (Dodge): 71 Fuller Road, Albany, NY 12205, phone:1-800-393-6343, fax: 518-7254733, e-mail: Support@construction.com

IS RECYCLABLE

THE ICHABOD CRANE SCHOOL DISTRICT is seeking an experienced School Communications/Information Specialist.

A minimum of 2-3 years of previous education-based communications is preferred. The position is 3-4 days per week with a starting salary up to $44,000 plus a full benefits package. This is a Civil Service Provisional Hire and you must pass the School Information Specialist exam when offered by Columbia County and all applicants must be residents of Columbia County. For additional job description details, please refer to the job listing on the Ichabod Crane website: www.ichabodcrane.org

All contracts exceeding $10,000 shall contain a provision requiring compliance with Executive Order 11246, entitled, "Equal Employment Opportunity," as amended and as supplemented in Department of Labor regulations (41 CFR Part 60-1 subpart A).

November 29, 2021 Rivertown Housing Board DATE

Qualified candidates should submit a resume by December 24, 2021 to: Suzanne Guntlow, Superintendent Ichabod Crane Central School District 2910 Route 9 Valatie, NY 12184 518-758-7575 ext 3002

The Town of New Baltimore Highway Department is accepting applications for a full time CDL driver/heavy motor equipment operator. Applicants must have a minimum of a clean CDL Class B license. Applicant must be able to perform labor duties including but not limited to shoveling, raking, weed whacking, lawn mowing, operating chain saws, and brush clipping. Heavy equipment operation such as front end loader, backhoe, tractors, etc. a plus. Experience plowing snow with a large truck with plow and wing preferred. Must be willing and able to work long hours, including nights and weekend, during winter months for snow and ice removal. Applicant must pass pre-employment drug screen and alcohol test and random drug and alcohol testing at any time and authorize driver’s license check. The successful candidate will be considered probationary for six months beginning at hire date. For further information please contact Highway Superintendent Alan VanWormer at (518)756-2078, Ext. 3 M-Th 6AM3PM and F 6-10 AM. Applications are available at the Town Clerk’s office, 3809 County Route 51, Hannacroix, NY 12087 Monday-Friday from 9AM-4PM.

Announcements 610

Announcements

Have something to sell? Move it FAST with Classifieds!

GERMANTOWN CENTRAL SCHOOL The Germantown Central School Board is seeking transportation bids for one run for the remainder of the 2021-2022 school year.

Specifications may be obtained in the District Clerk's Office between the hours of 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM. Bids must be in the hands of the Transportation Director by 10: AM on December 14, 2021 at which time they will be publicly opened and read. By Order of the Board of Education Diane Palazzo Transportation Director

BUY IT, SELL IT, TRADE IT, FIND IT IN THE CLASSIFIEDS

FIRE POLICE MEDICAL RESCUE

Farm & Garden 674

Christmas Trees

Skliba Tree Farm Fresh cut Balsam fir Christmas trees & wreaths.

Real trees make scents!

518-731-2417

Saturday - Sunday, December 11-12, 2021 - B5

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

Wilson From B1

as possible, let guys do their job, get my eyes in the right spots.”

That’s why Wilson’s time to throw was 2.89 seconds, the second fastest all year for him, according to Next Gen Stats.

That’s the maturation the Jets needed from Wilson. He was below average in his first game back from his knee injury as he shook off the rust against the Texans. But the rookie bounced back against the Eagles and looked calm and poised in the process. One of the reasons was his comfort

Meeting From B1

call for quite as severe winds as the ones the Patriots and Bills experienced Monday, but expect a similarly run-heavy approach from both teams’ triple-option attacks. Army averages 7.7 pass attempts per game, the fewest in the country. Navy is right behind at 8.3.

Air Force, which also features a triple-option offense, throws the ball 8.6 times per game.

No other Football Bowl Subdivision program is averaging

Swimmers From B1

LJ Morse fired a 256-728, but it wasn’t enough to prevent Chatham from falling to Maple Hill, 4-1, in Thursday’s Patroon Conference bolwing match.

Owen Leahon led Maple Hill with a 241 single.

Cloe Weiner rolled a 405 triple for the Panthers, while Kate Ackerman hit a 501.

Taconic Hills 3, C-A 2 Tony Morales rolled a

within the offense.

“Probably just the most comfortable I’ve ever been from an offensive standpoint of understanding my job, what I’m looking for, my goal of what I’m supposed to be trying to accomplish every play,” Wilson said. “So I think it’s easier when you feel like you have that down you can just take more control of it.”

One area where Jets offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur saw growth from his young signal-caller was in his rhythm.

“One thing that we pinpointed was we’ve got to slow him down a little bit. What we meant by that is he’s a little too fast in and out of his drops, so he could be a little bit ahead

of plays and when you’re in a timing-based offense such as ours it’s so important that you read or defeat each play as its own tempo,” LaFleur said. “I thought he did a really good job of just owning this plan in terms of the tempo, getting his eyes in the spots that he needed to be in and it happened right from the get-go.”

Now the next step is for Wilson to build upon that. LaFleur mentioned the biggest key to the continual improvement is Wilson’s footwork.

Reading with your feet, as LaFleur labels it.

The Jets passing attack is a timing-based offense and Wilson’s timing in his dropbacks must sync with his receiver.

If Wilson gets to the top of his

drop too quickly and the receiver isn’t finished running his route, it throws off the cohesion.

For example, let’s say, Wilson wants to throw a threestep slant route to Elijah Moore. But Wilson finishes his drop before Moore cuts over the middle that could throw off the timing and accuracy of the play.

That could result in him throwing the ball half a second too early, which leads to an inaccurate pass.

It’s the small aspects that go unnoticed to the naked eye.

“One of the things I think Zach is going through right now that he’s working through is you’re trying to run that system and when all things are

perfect and receivers are getting from point A to point B, when they’re supposed to get there, he’s been pretty consistent,” LaFleur said. “All of a sudden now there’s disruption of timing because they’re coming up and they’re bumping us or they’re rerouting, so it’s going to be thrown off a little bit. ... I thought he did a really good job last week when there was disruption of timing being able to slow himself down, understand that, but still get the ball out at the appropriate time, letting the receivers work.”

This aspect of Wilson’s game will only continue to grow with repetition and playing time. It doesn’t need to be elite in his ninth start.

And the former BYU standout understands that.

“I think it’s improving every single week and I feel like last week, it’s getting better,” Wilson said. “I don’t think it’s ever gonna come in time where you don’t keep improving that part of the game. Finding that balance between when to step up and when to just get a ball out of your hands, when to take off. It’s something I’m still trying to figure out. I think it’s just gonna keep improving.”

As Wilson prepares for the Saints, the goal must be continual growth in the fundamentals of his game. The Eagles performance was a step in the right direction. Now it’s time to, as Robert Saleh says, “stack the days.”

fewer than 20 pass attempts.

It’s no coincidence that the service academies run this type of offense. Height and weight restrictions make it impossible to recruit an offensive line of 325-pounders to protect a traditional pocket passer. Instead, Army, Navy and Air Force rely on deception and quick decision-making on the part of the quarterback to move the ball on the ground, often only a few yards at a time.

Air Force leads the nation with 340.8 rushing yards per game, while Army (301.2) and Navy (228.2) rank second and seventh, respectively. Fewer

passes mean fewer clock stoppages, which mean fewer possessions for both teams.

When two triple-option teams square off, both defenses have plenty of experience facing ground-based attacks, and the result is often a low-scoring battle of attrition. Air Force defeated Navy, 23-3, in September. Army knocked off Air Force, 21-14, last month in a game that went to overtime.

“We know each other very well,” Army Coach Jeff Monken said Monday. “Their team knows ours, and we know them. We recruit the same guys, and we compete over the same things all the time. It’ll

be the toughest game we’ve played all year. We know that.”

In Army’s 15-0 win over Navy at Michie Stadium last season, the teams combined for 15 punts, 279 total yards and 12 first downs. Navy was 1 for 7 through the air; Army completed its only pass. The 15 points were the fewest in an Army-Navy game since the last tie in the series, a 3-3 stalemate in windy, near-freezing conditions at Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium 40 years ago.

“It’s not quite as bad as a loss, but I see what they mean when they say a tie is like kissing your grandmother,” Navy

kicker Steve Fehr, who missed a 49-yard field goal with 2:28 remaining, said in 1981 after the first Army-Navy game without a touchdown since 1934.

The Black Knights’ shutout last season marked the 15th straight year that the ArmyNavy game went under the oddsmakers’ over-under total. The average over-under during the streak is 48.2, according to the Covers.com database, with a high of 64.5 points in 2007. The teams have combined for an average of 34 points over their past 15 meetings.

The over-under for this

week’s game dropped to 34 points at some sportsbooks, which, according to ESPN’s David Purdum, matches the lowest total in college football over the past 20 seasons. Ohio State defeated Penn State, 2110, in a 2004 game that closed with an over-under of 34 points.

Army (8-3) is a seven-point favorite over Navy (3-8) on Saturday.

“It’s hard to move the ball against each other. We know that,” Navy Coach Ken Niumatalolo said. “It always has been that way. . . . You just kind of go into games and see what you have to do to win.”

185-500 to spark Taconic Hills to a 3-2 victory over Coxsackie-Athens in Patroon Conference bowling action on Thursday.

Leo Woytowich hit a 185490 for C-A. Taconic Hills had a total pinfall of 2,050. C-A had a 2,013 total.

“Very close and exciting match to watch,” Taconic Hills coach Matthew Osterhoudt said.

Catskill 5, Hudson 0 Catskill defeated Hudson, 5-0, in Thursday’s Patroon Conference bowling match.

The Cats rolled games of

910, 976 and 980 for a 2,866 total. Hudson had games of 876, 853 and 943 for 2,672.

Nick Place had a 236-625 for Catskill. Zach Porreca led Hudson (2-2, 10-10) with a 215-529.

“Catskill did a great job converting spares,” Hudson coach Steve Markowitz said.

“We, on other hand, struggled with one-pin spares.”

VOLLEYBALL PATROON TH 3, New Lebanon 0 Taconic Hills rolled to a 3-0 victory over New Lebanon in Thursday’s Patroon Conference volleyball match.

The Titans won by scores of 26-24, 25-18, 25-15.

Adonias Mercado had 15 digs and 5 kills for Taconic Hills. Bryce Atwood contributed 12 kills and Ryan Miller had 10 assists, 3 kills and 3 digs.

Catskill 3, C-A 2 Coxsackie-Athens took a 3-2 loss to the Catskill Cats on Wednesday in Patroon Conference boys volleyball.

C-A came out ready to battle, but suffered from several errors on offense and defense.

In the first set, the two teams battled point for point with the Riverhawks pulling out the set win, 25-23.

In the second set, Catskill was able to drop the ball a number of times where the Riverhawks were just unable to get there to return the ball and lost the set, 25-9.

C-A came back in the third set determined to get the win.

Point for point they battled again and were able to get on top in the end for a 26-24 set win.

Into the fourth set, C-A entered with continued momentum but errors and lack of communication got the best of them and they lost the set, 25-16.

Heading into the fifth and

final set, C-A was ready to take on the Cats. They started strong by taking a 4-point lead. Then Catskill was able to maintain control and won the set and game, 15-6.

For C-A: Brandon Morehouse had 6 kills, 2 assists, 2 aces and 3 digs; Matthew Burch 4 kills, 1 assist and 1 dig; Robert Rebussmen 6 kills, 1 block, 1 ace and 1 assist; Matthew Clark 10 kills, 2 assists and 1 block; Alex Moore 2 kills and 3 blocks and Setter Sam Mozzillo 30 assists, 2 kills, 1 block and 4 digs.

Top 25 roundup: Rutgers stuns No. 1 Purdue at the buzzer Field Level Media

Ron Harper Jr. made a 40-foot 3-pointer as time expired to lift undermanned Rutgers to a shocking 70-68 upset of No. 1 Purdue on Thursday night in Piscataway, N.J. Harper hit a turnaround jumper in the lane with 13.1 seconds left to put Rutgers ahead 67-66, but Trevion Williams’ running bank shot with 3.4 seconds to go gave the Boilermakers a one-point lead. Harper took the inbounds pass, dribbled past midcourt and let fly with a shot that beat the buzzer.

Harper finished with 30 points and 10 rebounds.

The Scarlet Knights (5-4, 1-1 Big Ten), who knocked off a top-ranked team for the first time in program history, were without star guard Geo Baker (hamstring), who missed his fourth consecutive game. The Scarlet Knights also had been dealing with a flu bug that limited many of their players during practice, according to coach Steve Pikiell.

The heavily favored Boilermakers (8-1, 1-1) were ranked No. 1 for the first time in school history, while Rutgers was coming off a 35-point drubbing at Illinois six days

before.

No. 5 Gonzaga 80, Merrimack 55 Preseason All-American Drew Timme scored a game-high 22 points on 8-for-8 shooting as the Bulldogs defeated the visiting Warriors in a nonconference game in Spokane, Wash.

The Bulldogs (8-2) rebounded from a 9182 loss to then-No. 16 Alabama on Saturday in Seattle. Freshman 7-footer Chet Holmgren had a double-double with 15 points and 15 rebounds and added four blocked shots for Gonzaga. Julian Strawther also had 15 points.

Jordan Minor led Merrimack (4-7) with 17 points and seven rebounds.

No. 23 Seton Hall 64, No. 7 Texas 60 Bryce Aiken hit a crucial 3-pointer and a pair of free throws over the final 33 seconds as the Pirates outlasted the Longhorns in a Big East-Big 12 Battle contest in Newark, N.J. The game was tied at halftime and went back and forth in the second half before the Pirates took a 58-56 lead on Jared Rhoden’s jumper with 5:29 remaining. Texas missed

eight shots in a row before Timmy Allen’s layup with 52 seconds left pulled the Longhorns to within a point.

Aiken then canned his only 3-pointer with 33 seconds remaining to put Seton Hall up by four before another layup by Allen pulled Texas to within 62-60 with 24 seconds to go. Aiken netted two free throws with 14 seconds to play, and that was enough to get the Pirates to the finish line.

No. 17 Iowa State 73, Iowa 53 Izaiah Brockington poured in 29 points on 11-of-14 shooting to help the host Cyclones cruise past the Hawkeyes.

Tyrese Hunter added 11 points, eight rebounds and six assists for the Cyclones (9-0), who matched the third-best start in program history. Brockington fell one point shy of his career high and collected 10 rebounds as Iowa State snapped a threegame slide against the Hawkeyes.

Jordan Bohannon scored 17 points, but Keegan Murray had just nine on 4-of-17 shooting for Iowa (7-3), which lost its third straight game. Murray entered the contest as the nation’s leading scorer at 23.9 points per game.

Steelers take little consolation in late comeback after troubling performance in loss to Vikings Mark Maske The Washington Post

The Pittsburgh Steelers are desperately trying to hang around the AFC playoff race in what could be quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s farewell season.

They did themselves no favors with an uneven performance Thursday night in Minneapolis. Their effort was listless and uncompetitive well into the third quarter. The Steelers regrouped in a big way and managed to make things interesting in the fourth quarter but nevertheless lost to the Minnesota Vikings, 36-28.

“We stayed in the fight,”

Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin said. “But they were up 29 damn points at halftime, whatever it was.”

Not that it’s much consolation, but it was only 23-0 at the half. It wasn’t 29-0 until the third quarter.

“We’re getting beat at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. ... I’m not going to make it more complex than what it is,” Tomlin said in his postgame news conference. “Football is a complex yet simple game. ... You’ve got to make tackles.

You’ve got to sustain blocks. ...

We’re not doing those things.

We’re not doing those things nearly consistently enough to

hang our hat and find the type of footing to have consistency in performance.”

The Steelers scored 20 unanswered points after facing that 29-point deficit. They got a touchdown and a two-point conversion to make it a onescore game with just more than four minutes remaining. They moved down the field in the closing moments and had a final-play pass into the end zone.

But they could not quite complete the comeback.

“We’re running out of time,” Roethlisberger said. “I don’t look at moral victories. I told the guys that as I walked around with the linemen and some of

the skill guys. I’m not going to tell you all, ‘Great moral victory. Great fight-back,’ because it’s not that. But I’m proud of them.”

The Steelers suffered a serious letdown after Sunday’s last-second victory over the Baltimore Ravens. Their record fell back to .500, at 6-6-1. This was a performance reminiscent of the one that the inconsistent Steelers gave immediately before the triumph over the Ravens, when they suffered a 41-10 defeat at Cincinnati.

“It’s Groundhog Day,” defensive lineman Cam Heyward said. “And it’s unacceptable.”

Bryce Young wins Maxwell; Kenneth Walker III nets Camp, Doak Walker Field Level Media

Alabama quarterback Bryce Young won the Maxwell Award, given annually to college football’s player of the year, on Thursday.

A Heisman Trophy finalist, Young also took home the Davey O’Brien Award for the best quarterback in the country.

The Heisman will be awarded Saturday in New York.

Young passed for 4,322 yards, 43 touchdowns and four interceptions as the Crimson Tide’s starting quarterback in 2021. Alabama beat Georgia in the SEC championship game to land the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff.

In that showdown with the then-topranked Bulldogs, Young set an SEC title game record with 421 passing yards.

Michigan State running back Kenneth Walker III, considered a snub for the short list of Heisman finalists, also collected two awards Thursday. He won the Walter Camp Award for the most outstanding player in college football and the Doak Walker Award for the nation’s

top running back.

Walker became the first player to win the Walter Camp Award while not being named a Heisman finalist in the same year.

Walker amassed 1,636 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns with an average of 6.2 yards per carry. He scored five of his touchdowns in the Spartans’ win over playoff-bound Michigan, the Wolverines’ only loss of the year.

Pitt wide receiver Jordan Addison won the Biletnikoff Award for the top wideout in the country. He teamed up with Heisman and Maxwell finalist Kenny Pickett for 17 touchdown catches, which led FBS. San Diego State punter Matt Araiza won the Ray Guy Award for best punter after a breakout season in which he’s on pace to set an NCAA record for net average per punt (51.3 entering the Aztecs’ bowl game; the record is 50.3).

And Georgia defensive tackle Jordan Davis earned the Chuck Bednarik Award for defensive player of the year and the Outland Trophy for most outstanding interior lineman.

www.HudsonValley 360.com

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

B6 - Saturday - Sunday, December 11-12, 2021

TIM MARTIN/COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

Ichabod Crane’s Delaney More (13) goes to the basket as Catskill’s Hannah Konsul defends during Thursday’s non-league girls basketball game at Ichabod Crane High School.

TIM MARTIN/COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

Catskill’s Aaliyah Shook (33) brings the ball up floor while guarded by Ichabod Crane’s Abby Dolge during Thursday’s nonleague girls basketball game at Ichabod Crane High School.

TIM MARTIN/COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

Ichabod Crane’s Ashley Ames (4) contests a shot by Catskill’s Jayden Lewis during Thursday’s non-league girls basketball game at Ichabod Crane High School.

Catskill From B1

Midway through the first quarter, each team struggled to convert shot attempts thanks to the hustle of the defense on each side. The Cats took the lead 6-5 on a threepointer by Brantley and after looking a step behind the Riders’ passing attack, they took a timeout to reassess the game plan. As the period closed out Catskill led 9-7, but Ichabod Crane was right there within striking distance.

Brantley found her stroke in the second quarter as she made three point shots from the left and right wings to put the Cats up 15-9. She stayed aggressive driving through the painted area on multiple possessions but was not getting any foul calls after clear contact.

Delaney More hit a midrange jump shot to cut the lead to 15-11 with a chance to get it closer at the line but she missed both free throws.

Catskill got a foul call go their way at last, but Aaliyah Shook also missed both foul shots.

Brantley had the ball for one last chance before the break, and made a short range floater from the right side of the glass to give the Cats a breather and extend the lead to 17-11.

Catskill came out aggressive in the third quarter, not afraid to draw contact in front of the officials so they had no choice but to send them to the free throw line. Brantley made one of two foul shots, and Hannah Konsul got a bucket and the foul to complete a three point play to fire up the team.

Kiana Salierno hit a shot from downtown as well for Catskill, and Brantley found her rhythm and hit another shot to force a Riders timeout.

The referee called a technical foul on Riders coach Dave Ames for complaining about foul calls and that gave the Cats two shots and the ball.

The game was falling apart at the seams for Ichabod Crane and Catskill did not ease off on the pressure. Catskill had the ball for the final shot of the quarter, lost it as the shot clock expired, and the Riders’ desperate heave from halfcourt was not close.

The Cats led 32-13 as the fourth quarter began, and the confidence returned to their offense. With just over five minutes to go, the Riders called timeout trailing 36-18.

Brantley and Shook converted layups through fouls and the Cats looked to close out the Riders in a matter of minutes.

Multiple traveling violations were called on both teams in the fourth, shifting the momentum each time.

The Riders did hit two consecutive three pointers late in the game, but they trailed by 16 points with 1:27 left in regulation.

Catskill (3-0) stayed the course through the final buzzer, and earned a hard fought road victory over the Ichabod Crane Riders 47-29.

“All the girls did a very good job of playing off Janay tonight,” Quinn said. “We knew we’d have to keep the ball in

TIM MARTIN/COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

Catskill’s Janay Brantley drives against Ichabod Crane’s Carolina Williams (5) during Thursday’s non-league girls basketball game at Ichabod Crane High School.

TIM MARTIN/COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

Ichabod Crane’s Carolina Williams (5) drives the lane as Catskill’s Aaliyah Shook defends during Thursday’s non-league girls basketball game at Ichabod Crane High School.

TIM MARTIN/COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA TIM MARTIN/COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

Ichabod Crane’s Ashley Ames puts up a shot surrounded by Catskill defenders during Thursday’s non-league girls basketball game at Ichabod Crane High School.

TIM MARTIN/COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

Ichabod Crane’s Delaney More (13) attempts to steal the ball from Catskill’s Janay Brantley during Thursday’s non-league girls basketball game at Ichabod Crane High School.

her hands a lot. The other girls did their thing. They set solid screens, they made the baskets. Just a solid effort from my girls tonight.”

Ichabod Crane coach Dave Ames was pleased that his team played hard until the final buzzer.

“Defensively we played a good game,” Ames said. “We weren’t as aggressive offensively as we usually are and I would attribute that to the

Catskill defense. Catskill is a very well-coached team.”

CATSKILL (47): Shook 2-16, Lewis 2-0-4, Salierno 1-0-3, Konsul 2-2-6, Brantley 9-4-26, Edmond 1-0-2. Totals 17-7-47.

3-poiters: Brantley 4, Shook, Salierno.

ICHABOD CRANE (29): More 3-1-8, Williams 4-0-10, A. Aes 5-0-11, Dolge 0-0-0, H. Ames 0-0-0. Totals 12-29.

3-pointers: Williams 2. A. Ames, More.

Catskill’s Aaliyah Shook (left) and Ichabod Crane’s Haley Ames battle for a loose ball during Thursday’s non-league girls basketball game at Ichabod Crane High School.

Saturday - Sunday, December 11-12, 2021 - B7

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

Neighbor wants to express thanks for help Dear Abby, I went for a jog the other morning, and when I returned home I discovered I was locked out of my house because the garage door keypad wasn’t working. I had left without my cellphone or a key, so I tried DEAR ABBY to contact my wife through our Ring doorbell. My wife told me she’d phone a friend and my mother to see if they could deliver a key.

In the interim, I fidgeted with the garage door keypad and discovered I could remove the battery. I knocked on the door of a neighbor who’d previously popped their head out and asked to use their cellphone and also asked if there was any chance they had a replacement battery, which they did. My neighbor invited me inside to call my wife and wave off a key delivery.

I later stopped and bought a thank-you card, a replacement battery and $20 in Amazon gift cards with the intention of gifting all three to my neighbor. My wife thinks the gift cards were unnecessary and a “weird” thing to give my neighbor.

The neighbor and their partner are in their late 30s or early 40s, seemingly financially well enough off, and I thought a gift card was a universally accepted gift. I thought it would be a nice gesture without being too over-the-top. Was I too generous?

Or is it too forward of an offering?

Saved In The Midwest

JEANNE PHILLIPS

Your offering wasn’t weird, too generous or over-the-top. The gratitude you were expressing was from your heart and a reflection of how desperate you felt at the time. Your wife should have stayed out of it.

Dear Abby, Forty years ago, I had an affair with a married man. When he broke up with me, I didn’t think I could live through it, but I had a 2-year-old daughter from another relationship and I had to hold it together. A few years later, I met and married my husband of 35 years.

Three months ago, I received a message on Facebook saying, “If this is who I think it is, how are things?”

I know I never should have, but I answered.

My former lover lives hundreds of miles from me, but we text almost every day. I am just realizing how narcissistic he is, and I need to end this.

My husband and I have had problems over the years, but we have raised three very successful children and have three beautiful grandkids. It was nice to hear how my ex always loved me and how we are soul mates — saying everything I wanted to hear. But now that I’ve been dragged down that rabbit hole, I need to get out and quit falling for his lies. Please help.

Muddled In Massachusetts If this emotional fling continues, it will destroy the life you have created with your husband of 35 years. If there are issues in your marriage that made you vulnerable to your old lover, I urge you to deal with them. Please reread the first paragraph of your letter, then GHOST AND BLOCK THIS PERSON. You owe him nothing — not even a goodbye.

Pickles

Pearls Before Swine

Classic Peanuts

Garfield

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

Horoscope

Zits

By Stella Wilder Born today, you are perhaps the most loyal individual born under your sign, able to commit yourself to others wholeheartedly, and to love fully and without any concern for yourself at all. This doesn’t mean that you don’t want any return for your affectionate efforts; on the contrary, you enjoy being loved as much as loving — but you believe the former is a direct result of the latter, and you will always find more immediate value in loving than in being loved.

You fear being left to your own devices, and yet you are perfectly capable of performing well in situations that require you to remain solitary and aloof. You also fear being unseen or unrecognized, and yet you are not always good at self-promotion; you want others to recognize your value without having to blow your own horn in any way.

Also born on this date are: Nikki Sixx, musician, author, fashion designer; Monique, actress and comedienne; Jermaine Jackson, singer; Rita Moreno, actress; Brenda Lee, singer; Mos Def, actor, rapper, activist; Donna Mills, actress.

To see what is in store for you tomorrow, find your birthday and read the corresponding paragraph. Let your birthday star be your daily guide.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 12 SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) — You may want to track someone’s progress as you assess your own, but know that comparisons may not reflect your unique situation.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) — You may be surprised by someone’s choices today, but because they are not yours, they aren’t likely to be binding to you.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) — Someone

reaches out to you today in a way that will make sense with time — but you will want to conceal your surprise for the time being.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) — You will have good reason to start your day earlier — and faster — than usual. As the competition heats up, you must stay ahead of the pack.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) — That which you expected to pass quickly is likely to take a good long time, and vice versa — but watching the clock will prove frustrating!

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) — Your contribution to a group effort will be appreciated for all the right reasons, but not all of them. Remind others of what really counts.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) — The natural progression of things may not seem to favor your endeavors today — but soon you’ll find yourself in an advantageous position.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) — If it’s consistency you’re after, you’re likely to be quite frustrated today — but if you take things as they come, you can adjust and prevail.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) — You may find yourself engaged in a head-on contest with a rival today — but things are not really as serious as others would have you believe.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) — You may have to pay for someone else’s mistakes for a time today — until you make it clear you cannot cover these costs indefinitely.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) — You should be able to combine inspiration and hard work in a manner that puts you squarely at the top of the competitive heap today. Enjoy!

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) — If you find yourself waiting on someone today, your frustration is likely to grow — but you can free yourself from such unnecessary bonds.

Dark Side of the Horse

Daily Maze

COPYRIGHT 2021 UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.

Goren bridge WITH BOB JONES ©2020 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

WEEKLY BRIDGE QUIZ Q 1 - Neither vulnerable, as South, you hold: ♠ A J 7 ♥ Q 8 5 ♦ 6 5 3 ♣ A 10 7 4

Partner opens 2NT, 20-21, and right-hand opponent passes. What call would you make?

Q 2 - North-South vulnerable, as South, you hold: ♠

A K 10 ♥

K5♦K8754♣

J94

Partner opens 1D and right-hand opponent passes. What call would you make?

Q 3 - East-West vulnerable, as South, you hold:

EAST 1NT 2♥

SOUTH Dbl ?

WEST Pass

NORTH Pass

What call would you make?

Q 4 - Both vulnerable, as South, you hold: ♠54♥63♦8♣KJ986532

Q 5 - North-South vulnerable, as South, you hold: ♠ K 8 ♥ K 7 5 ♦ 10 ♣ A K Q J 9 7 6 SOUTH 1♣ ?

WEST Pass

NORTH 1♥

EAST Pass

What call would you make?

Q 6 - East-West vulnerable, as South, you hold: ♠A9764♥A2♦875♣K86 NORTH 1♥ 1NT 2♠

EAST Pass Pass Pass

SOUTH 1♠ 2♣ ?

WEST Pass Pass

What call would you make?

Look for answers on Tuesday.

(Bob Jones welcomes readers’ responses sent in care of this newspaper or to Tribune Content Agency, LLC., 16650 Westgrove Dr., Suite 175, Addison, TX 75001.)

Columbia-Greene

MEDIA

♠ K J 10 9 8 ♥ K 10 7 ♦ A J 10 ♣ A 8

Partner opens 1S and right-hand opponent bids 2D. What call would you make?

Sponsor Comics 518-828-1616

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

B8 - Saturday - Sunday, December 11-12, 2021 Close to Home

Free Range THAT SCRAMBLED WORD GAME

Level 1

2

3

4

NIHEW RPTAA CPIRST DBOYNO 12/11/21 Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit, 1 to 9.

For strategies on how to solve Sudoku, visit

Get Fuzzyy

©2021 Tribune Content Agency, LLC All Rights Reserved.

Answer here: Yesterday’s

sudoku.org.uk © 2021 The Mepham Group. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency. All rights reserved.

Heart of the City

Dilbert

B.C.

For Better or For Worse

Wizard of Id

Crossword Puzzle

ACROSS 1 Fish tank wall buildup 5 Sand particle 10 As __ as a baby’s bottom 14 Ice cream scoop holder 15 AM/FM device 16 Remedy 17 Leave out 18 Not feeling well 20 Selleck or Arnold 21 Table supports 22 Plucked instruments 23 Show to be true 25 Way off 26 Desert illusion 28 Lifts with effort 31 Put on a pedestal 32 Baby’s utensil 34 Grown-__; big people 36 Speak wildly 37 Gave walking papers to 38 Annoying faucet sound 39 “__ Loves You”; Beatles song 40 Alfalfa bundles 41 Early autumn baby 42 Most peculiar 44 Slow graceful dance 45 Polish off 46 Hut 47 Goblet parts 50 Achy 51 CD followers 54 Disloyal 57 Joint with a cap 58 Broadcasts 59 Tenant’s contract 60 __ tea 61 All __; used up 62 Kick out 63 Disarray DOWN 1 Robert Burns or Sean Connery 2 Singer Perry 3 No better than before 4 Bumped into 5 Mourn

Andy Capp

Bound & Gagged

Created by Jacqueline E. Mathews

6 Andes or Rockies 7 __ up; totals 8 Three, in old Rome 9 Refusals 10 Scrubs 11 Remove from power 12 Unrestrained 13 Kennedy & Koppel 19 Unadorned 21 Theater box 24 Extraordinary 25 Vittles 26 One of the planets 27 Montana’s neighbor 28 Does garden work 29 Reason for a bumpy flight 30 Church topper 32 Gritty residue 33 Prefix for school or paid 35 Quarrel 37 Swift 38 Enjoy a feast 40 Cruel man

12/11/21

Friday’s Puzzle Solved

Non Sequitur

©2021 Tribune Content Agency, LLC All Rights Reserved.

41 Not taped 43 Death 44 Tidbit 46 Monopoly player’s purchase 47 Antlered animal 48 The Bee Gees, e.g.

49 Make money

12/11/21

50 Daytime serial 52 Charges 53 Diploma equivalents, for short 55 Vaudevillian Olsen 56 Actor Harrison 57 Novak or Basinger

Rubes

Now arrange the circled letters to form the surprise answer, as suggested by the above cartoon.

-

Solution to Friday’s puzzle

Get the free JUST JUMBLE app • Follow us on Twitter @PlayJumble

By David L. Hoyt and Jeff Knurek

Unscramble these Jumbles, one letter to each square, to form four ordinary words.

AnswersMonday) Tuesday (Answers Jumbles: UNFIT HOUND HOAGIE ZEALOT Answer: It makes expert poker players happy to welcome an inexperienced player — INTO THE FOLD

Saturday - Sunday, December 11-12, 2021 - C1

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

YOUR 2021 GUIDE TO

Hallmark Christmas movies What’s new on the schedule and when you can watch

A prince finds his way to Queens during Christmas when a local woman enlists his help with a children’s Christmas show. Premieres 8 p.m. tonight

By TANYA WILDT Detroit Free Press

Hallmark Channel’s Countdown to Christmas has already begun and this year it’s packed with plenty of new holiday movies to binge for hours — or days.

You’ll see appearances from a lot of familiar faces like Candace Cameron Bure and Tamera Mowry-Housley. There’s also a double serving of real life sisters Kimberly Williams-Paisley and Ashley Williams in two “Sister Swap” movies.

Here’s a guide to the new movies premiering this year. You can check out the full schedule online on the Hallmark Channel website at www.hmnow.com.

Jennifer and Meg Swift are sisters who couldn’t be closer despite living in different cities. Meg comes to Salt Lake City from her hometown in Hazelwood to see her sister Jennifer, who runs a local restaurant in town. Still feeling the effects of losing their Uncle Dave, a change of scenery and a project to dive into are just what she needs. When Jennifer and her teenage son, Simon, return to Hazelwood home for a pre-holiday visit with their family, Meg offers to help Jennifer’s staff prepare for a competition among local restaurants that awards the winner money for the charity of its choice. As effusive Meg works alongside the more reserved Joe, the restaurant’s manager, the two find their differences are what make them a great team. Swapping cities with her sister leads Meg to her next chapter and just might also bring her an unexpected romance.

Premieres 8 p.m. Dec. 12 DID YOU

‘EIGHT GIFTS OF HANUKKAH’ An anonymous suitor sends optometrist Sara a gift for each night of Hanukkah. On her journey to find her secret admirer, she learns her one true love might be someone she never expected.

‘A VERY MERRY BRIDESMAID’

‘SISTER SWAP: CHRISTMAS IN THE CITY’

KNOW?

‘SUGAR PLUM TWIST’

33%

Professional ballerina Natalia returns home to Richmond at Christmas and works with a ballet student who has a flare for Latin dance. Premieres 8 p.m.

Dec. 17

of readers polled at nny360.com watch at least a few Hallmark Channel Christmas movies at this time of year.

Leah’s 30th birthday is Christmas Eve but this milestone takes a back seat when her future sister-in-law claims Christmas Eve for her wedding and asks Leah to be one of the many bridesmaids. But the return of Leah’s childhood crush Drew may be exactly what she needs to push her to the forefront of the overlapping festivities and determine a new direction in her life.

‘SISTER SWAP: A HOMETOWN HOLIDAY’ Jennifer and Meg Swift are sisters who couldn’t be closer despite living in different cities. Jennifer runs a successful restaurant in Salt Lake City, which she started with her late husband and is raising her teenage son Simon on her own. Jennifer is thrilled when Meg comes to Salt Lake City for a fun Christmas weekend. Meg agrees to stay in the city and help out at the restaurant while Jennifer and Simon return home to Hazelwood for the holiday, where they become wistful for one more Christmas at The Madison — the local movie theater owned by their Uncle Dave. The trouble is the theater is for sale and in need of repairs. With help from Eric, Jennifer’s former high school debate team rival, and the community, they just might pull off one last encore. As she and Eric work together, Jennifer is reminded that new possibilities are both where you least expect them and exactly where you left them.

‘A DICKENS OF A HOLIDAY!’ To make the 100th anniversary of her hometown’s Victorian festival a success, Cassie invites action movie star and former high school classmate Jake to play Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol.”

‘THE CHRISTMAS HOUSE 2: DECK THOSE HALLS’

Excited for a calm Christmas, Mike Mitchell unexpectedly gets roped into a Christmas House decorating reality TV show against his brother. Premieres 8 p.m. Dec. 18

‘TIS THE SEASON TO BE MERRY’ Looking for a fresh angle to her book on relationships, Merry heads to snow covered Vermont. She finds a new perspective and Christmas cheer with charismatic aid worker Adam. Premieres 8 p.m. Dec. 19

‘NANTUCKET NOEL’ Christina is a toy store owner who inherited the shop on the Nantucket wharf from her mom, who recently passed away, and she is having a hard time moving on. Andy is a confident, driven, real estate developer who is visiting his father on Nantucket with his young daughter Wink. Christina is dismayed when she learns Andy and his father plan to redevelop the wharf into a new marina. If this happens, she may have to give up the toy store that has such deep personal meaning and is part of her family’s legacy.

Christina also discovers she has feelings for Andy but being on opposite sides of the development project could nip their romance in the bud.

‘MAKING SPIRITS BRIGHT’ Grace Ryan, the co-owner of a home staging company, returns to her hometown to be with her family for the Christmas holiday. The Ryans, seasonal holiday decorators, are competing in the annual Bright Nights contest for the opportunity to not only secure a lucrative contract to decorate every municipal building in town next season, but also a substantial

See HALLMARK C2

‘A ROYAL QUEENS CHRISTMAS’

‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ star thinks the time is right for a sequel

By BRIAN NIEMIETZ New York Daily News

Will a sequel get its wings?

Karolyn Grimes has brought tears of happiness to moviegoers since 1946, when flower petals belonging to her Zuzu Bailey character turned up in the pocket of leading man Jimmy Stewart, thus beginning his new lease on life in “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

Grimes, now 81, could see a followup to that Christmas classic being born.

“I think a sequel might be kind of fun,” she told the Daily News.

While it wasn’t a blockbuster when it was released, “It’s a Wonderful Life” has become the quintessential holiday picture. Paramount is celebrating the film’s 75th anniversary this year with a new two-disc set on Blu-ray.

The film — which for years was seemingly on every TV channel at

all hours during the holiday season because it had fallen into the public domain — now gets two showings a year on NBC. This year it will be Dec. 4 and Christmas Eve. The movie revolves around Stewart’s down-and-out George Bailey character meeting up with a guardian angel, who shows him how much his seemingly mundane existence meant to his family and their community in the bigger picture.

The actress who played that character’s young daughter envisions a followup in which George Bailey’s children continue his legacy.

“It’s the rest of the story,” Grimes said. “The kids would grow up and they’d have lives that are different. I think there’s a story there.”

In 2013, there was buzz of a sequel in the works, but it never

came about, according to Screen Rant. It was reportedly to focus on Zuzu Bailey, whose character famously brought the film to a perfect ending with her classic line: “Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.”

Grimes, who said she may now be “a little long in the tooth” for a project of that kind, said she had no idea how important “It’s a Wonderful Life” would turn out to be.

“I was 6 years old and ... I’d already done four movies,” she said.

“It was just another job, so I didn’t give it much thought. And apparently, the audiences didn’t give it much thought either because it wasn’t a success.”

Grimes, a Hollywood native, appeared in 16 films as a child, including “The Bishop’s Wife” with See SEQUEL C2

James Stewart as George Bailey, hugs actor Karolyn Grimes, who plays his daughter Zuzu, in a still from “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Hulton Archive/Getty Images/TNS

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

C2 - Saturday - Sunday, December 11-12, 2021

Two new docs aim to change ‘missing white woman syndrome’

By LORRAINE ALI

‘BLACK AND MISSING’

Los Angeles Times

Off the top of your head, try to recall the names of the women behind the most notorious missing persons cases. It’s likely they’ll include Elizabeth Smart, Gabby Petito, Laci Peterson or Natalee Holloway — all tragic disappearances that garnered nationwide media attention.

But in that same time frame, hundreds more young women went missing whose names — such as Keeshae Jacobs, Henny Scott, Akia Eggleston — did not make the morning talk shows or the nightly news, likely because they were Black women or women of color. It’s a phenomenon commonly referred to as “missing white woman syndrome,” in which the disappearance of white women is swarmed by law enforcement and the media, while disappearances of Black women and women of color tend to generate far less attention, despite occurring at a higher rate.

Of the more than 250,000 women and girls reported missing in 2020, 34% were Black, a staggering number

Hallmark From C1 cash prize. With Grace’s father’s furniture business on the ropes financially, this prize could turn his fortunes around. But they will have to compete against Mr. Ryan’s ex-business partner-turned-archnemesis Frank Sotto and his family, as well as a tech-heavy newcomer.

As Grace reunites with her childhood friend, Tony Sotta, Frank’s handsome son, they realize the only chance the families have to defeat the new tech-heavy company is to team up. Can the two families put aside their differences to work together towards a common goal, and possibly mend a decadesold feud?

‘A CHRISTMAS TOGETHER WITH YOU’ When widower Frank finds a picture of his first love, Claire, his young friend Megan, proprietor of the cafe he frequents, convinces him to go on a road trip to track her down. Though reluctant, Frank agrees to the trip when he sees that it might help Megan recover from her recently broken engagement.

The two set off on their adventure and find themselves opening up to each other. Along the way, Megan has an awkward run-in with a man and his dog that she can’t seem to shake off. The pair soon arrive at Claire’s address only to find the home vacant. Not deterred from their search, they stay at a nearby lodge where a surreptitious clue ultimately leads the pair to Claire.

However, when they don’t get the reception they expected, the story of how Frank’s first love ended slowly reveals itself. Meanwhile, Megan learns that the man she’d met earlier, Steve, is the lodge’s owner. She helps him with some of his holiday responsibilities and they soon warm to each other and find that they are each grappling with their hopes for the future. As Megan helps Frank pursue a second chance at love and he reminds her not to give up on her dreams or her heart, these unlikely friends find that sometimes the closest family is the kind we make.

‘THE CHRISTMAS CONTEST’ Business consultant, Lara and retired baseball star, Ben learn that their local Denver television station is hosting a Christmas contest with a cash prize for a charity of the winner’s choosing, they seize the challenge. Lara is playing for the local senior center that her mom, Donna attends, which is badly in need of repairs. Ben claims that he’s in the contest to help a local youth sports team but might be more interested in the press it could bring for his failing career. On the first day of competition, they both show up not realizing the other is about to compete. Lara and Ben previously dated, and the relationship didn’t end well. As the contest heats up with Christmas-themed challenges, our competitors realize they have far more in common than their love of Christmas. Now, Lara and Ben must decide what’s more important, winning the contest or finding true love.

‘A KISS BEFORE CHRISTMAS’ Real estate development executive Ethan Holt is a married father with two teens. On Christmas Eve, Ethan is disappointed to learn he’s losing out on a promotion and laments that his “nice guy” way of doing business has held him back in his career. Thanks to some Christmas magic, Ethan’s casual wish that his life had taken a different course

RATING: TV-MA (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 17) WHERE TO WATCH: HBO

‘MURDERED AND MISSING IN MONTANA’ RATING: TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children) WHERE TO WATCH: Peacock and Oxygen.com

given that Black people represent around 14% of the U.S. population.

Another statistic: 710 Indigenous people — 85% of them children, and 57% female — were reported missing between 2011 to 2020 in Wyoming, the state where Petito’s remains were found. You might not know that, though, because their names were lost to the wind when it came to coverage.

Two powerful documentaries, HBO’s four-part “Black and Missing” and Oxygen’s feature-length “Murdered and Missing in Montana,” break the true-crime mold of chasing names from the headlines and instead

becomes reality. He wakes up the next morning and is shocked to find everything is different — he isn’t married to Joyce, he doesn’t have two teenaged kids and he’s CEO of his company. Joyce is the key to Ethan being able to reclaim his original life and the family he loves — he must convince her that their happily-ever-after is waiting for them ...and he only has until Christmas Day.

‘A HOLIDAY IN HARLEM’ After her grandmother, Mama Belle, turns away her usual gift delivery, expecting “presence over presents,” jet-setting executive Jazmin heads uptown to Harlem for a quick visit. However, when Mama Belle is injured, Jazmin agrees to stay in the neighborhood and take over co-chairing their block’s annual Christmas Jamboree with her old best friend Caleb. A successful corporate fixer, Jazmin expects the job to be easy but quickly finds that she has a lot to learn about the community and her heart.

‘MY FAMILY CHRISTMAS TREE’ Vanessa has never had a real family to celebrate with during the holidays, but when she receives the results from her family tree DNA test, she discovers a family she didn’t know existed. Richard, her biological father, invites her to spend the Christmas weekend with him and his family. Richard asks a family friend, Kris, who joins them every Christmas, to pick her up on his way. Kris knows all the details of her new family and helps break the ice when she meets Richard’s wife and their three children for the first time. It’s a bit uncomfortable at first but the family takes part in their Christmas traditions. As the weekend progresses, Vanessa meets her grandmother and other relatives, and even helps her little sister overcome stage fright before performing at the Christmas pageant.

Vanessa is having a wonderful time getting to know her new family until she gets a message from the DNA testing company with some surprising news that she worries may jeopardize her holiday.

‘OPEN BY CHRISTMAS’ While helping her parents move, Nicky discovers a card given to her in high school that she never knew existed. In it, a secret admirer confides their true emotions. With the support of her lifelong best friend Simone, Nicky embarks on a quest to find and thank the anonymous author. Meanwhile, Simone is a working, single mother who feels like she’s losing touch with her teenage son, especially as she plans to marry again and start a new chapter in life. Simone turns to Nicky, who helps her understand she’s holding on too tight in fear of her son growing up and everything changing. Nicky and Simone help each other find answers to the past and present, all kindled through the special bond that has long made them feel like sisters.

‘CHRISTMAS CEO’ Christmas ‘Chris’ Whitaker always believed she was destined to spread Christmas joy through her love of toy making. When Chris was 10 years old, instead of a lemonade stand she sold homemade toys at her neighborhood Christmas stand, always with her best friend, Joe Sullivan. Chris and Joe fulfilled their dream of running a toy company together, forming CJ Toys while in college. As their company grew, Chris began to lose sight of why she loved toymaking in the first place and focused on profit margins instead of making quality toys. Disheartened by the new direction of the com-

highlight cases of Black and Indigenous women, respectively, who’ve gone missing. Each production explores why law enforcement and the national media pay far less attention to a disappearance when the victim is Black or a person of color, and how much of the apathy is rooted in systemic racism.

“Black and Missing,” which premiered Tuesday, follows the founders of the Black and Missing Foundation, sisters-in-law Derrica and Natalie Wilson, as they push the police and news media to help the families of missing women find their loved ones. The series, from Geeta Gandbhir and journalist Soledad O’Brien, explores how racial bias has contributed to a lack of action from law enforcement and the media when a Black woman goes missing as opposed to a white woman. “When white children disappear, they’re called victims,” they explain. “When Black kids do, they’re disproportionately labeled runaways.”

Shot over three years, the cameras trail Derrica, a former law enforcement officer, and Natalie, a master at public relations, as they push to raise

pany, Joe stepped back from the business rather than sacrifice the craft of quality toymaking. But when Chris gets a once-in-a-lifetime offer to merge with a mega toy company and become its CEO, she needs her estranged, ex-business partner Joe’s signature to seal the deal. While Chris tries to get Joe to sign the papers, what Joe helps Chris rediscover just might change both their lives.

‘AN UNEXPECTED CHRISTMAS’ Jamie travels home a week before Christmas but he still hasn’t told his family he broke things off with his girlfriend Emily, whom they adore.

When Emily arrives in town unexpectedly for work, Jamie offers her a deal — he’ll get the governor to deliver the Christmas Day address for her marketing campaign and in return, Emily will stay with his family for the week under the pretense she and Jamie are still together.

What follows is a week of awkward fumbling and near misses as Jamie and Emily try desperately to keep their true relationship status a secret. Eventually, their ruse begins to unravel. Just when it seems like Christmas has been ruined, Jamie pulls out all the stops to make things right, resulting in a very unexpected Christmas.

‘NEXT STOP, CHRISTMAS’ Angie is a successful surgeon in New York City but finds herself wondering what her life would be like if she had married her former boyfriend Tyler, who is now a successful sportscaster. She takes the train home after work one night but instead of arriving at her apartment in Yonkers, she somehow finds herself transported to her hometown in Connecticut 10 years in the past.

At first, she’s naturally disoriented by her unexpected time travel but slowly acclimates. With the advice of the train’s enigmatic conductor (Lloyd), Angie navigates her visit to this Christmas past. As she works to figure out how to get back to the future, Angie has the chance to reconnect with her family and longtime friend Ben; she even teams up with her sister Kristen to help her parents, Evelyn and Marty, rekindle their romance. Along the way, Angie gains a new perspective and discovers what — and who — is truly important to her.

‘CHRISTMAS IN TAHOE’ Claire is an aspiring talent booker who’s been working at her family’s hotel and casino in Lake Tahoe and is on the brink of landing a prestigious job with a major Las Vegas venue. But when the act she booked for her the hotel on Christmas Eve backs out last minute, she is back to square one. Jackson, her best friend and the concierge, reminds Claire that she knows someone famous to turn to — her exboyfriend Ryan, is the lead guitarist for a hugely popular band. Though Claire helped Ryan’s band break out initially, the two haven’t spoken since they cut her loose in favor of a bigger management company.

Back home in Tahoe on a break from his tour to spend the holidays in Tahoe with his family, Ryan offers to help her find a replacement act.

While Claire tries to prove she has put the past behind her, feelings come back to the surface and they both realize they may need each other more than they remembered.

‘GINGERBREAD MIRACLE’ Maya is a freelance attorney who, after a minor setback, has been living in the apartment above her parents’ garage and using the Casillas Panaderia as her unofficial office for the past couple of years. The Mexican bakery has held a warm spot

awareness about the stark realities of human trafficking, inform the community about how to deal with the police if something should happen to a loved one, and educate whomever they can about the inequity that exists around locating missing people of color. They tirelessly pressure the authorities to throw more resources at finding vanished Black women, and stage lectures at the local and national level to help inform the public about the problem.

Kennedi High, a Baltimore high schooler with autism, was lured at the age of 16 by someone through a dating app. Her mother tells the story, but hers is one with a happy ending thanks to the collaboration of the foundation, police, media and the community: Kennedi was found within a week, though still has problems talking about her ordeal. This outcome constitutes the bright side of a troubling epidemic: Cases of missing Black people remain unsolved four times longer than those of white people, the documentary points out. Grieving family members, former detectives, news anchors and even John Walsh of “America’s Most

in her heart ever since she worked there as a teenager alongside her high school crush, Alejandro “Alex” Casillas, the handsome nephew of the owner. When Alex’s uncle asks for Maya’s help in selling the bakery, Alex decides to return home to celebrate one last Christmas in the bakery and help Maya find a buyer for the bakery, whether or not she actually wants his help.

‘CHRISTMAS SAIL’ When single mom Liz Darling finds out her estranged father, Dennis has been injured in a minor accident, she returns to her hometown of Portside for the first Christmas in years. Not much has changed except for Luke, her childhood best friend, who’s definitely not the same boy she remembers.

While this might not have been the holiday she’d imagined, Liz sees this as an opportunity to show her daughter Hannah the kind of magical Christmas she’d once shared with her own mother. One of their favorite traditions was participating in the town’s annual Christmas Eve Sailboat Parade of Lights but after her mother passed away, the family boat was docked for good along with her father’s Christmas spirit. When Liz discovers he may lose their family home, she comes up with a plan: enlist Luke’s help to fix up the boat and create a floating light display spectacular enough to win the parade’s $25,000 grand prize. Unbeknownst to her, Luke has a plan of his own that may finally win her heart

‘BOYFRIENDS OF CHRISTMAS PAST’ Marketing executive Lauren has always appreciated her best friend Nate. After all, her father and stepmother adore him and he’s always there to support her with gingerbread and hot cocoa — her favorites. She tries to be there for him, too, and promises to help him decorate the Christmas tree at the community center where he works.

However, when Lauren’s office is tasked with putting together a lastminute pitch for a client by Christmas Eve, she backs out. That night, she wakes at 2 a.m. to a confusing surprise — the boyfriend she’d had as a teenager is in her apartment and hasn’t aged a day. Just as he warns Lauren, she is soon visited by three more ex-boyfriends, who help her revisit past their Christmases together in hopes of getting her to see the pattern in her relationships. During these trips to her holiday history, Lauren sees the one person she could always count on is Nate, but in the present, she is too scared to recognize the love that is right in front of her. She must learn from her past and open her heart or

Sequel From C1

Cary Grant, before leaving the business. But “It’s a Wonderful Life” is her signature film — even though it took a while to catch on.

The film initially failed to recover its roughly $3 million budget. Though nominated for best picture, it didn’t win the 1947 Academy Award. But audiences later came to appreciate Frank Capra’s masterpiece, a movie Roger Ebert said “improves with age” in 1999.

According to Grimes, these days of uncertainty and unrest make for a fine time to revisit “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

“I think a lot of people turn

Wanted” fame are also interviewed, driving the point home that there are missing folks out there we need to find.

“Murdered and Missing in Montana,” out now, explores the unsolved cases of Indigenous women who’ve gone missing. The murder rate is 10 times higher than the national level for women living on reservations and the third leading cause of death for Indigenous women. In Wyoming alone, Indigenous people make up 3% of the state’s population but accounted for more than 21% of homicide victims over the last decade.

Attorney, investigative journalist and former criminal prosecutor Loni Coombs focuses on the cases of Henny Scott, Kaysera Stops Pretty Places and Selena Not Afraid — three women whose deaths on and around the Northern Cheyenne and Crow Reservations remain a mystery. Along with former Montana Sheriff Phylliss Firecrow, Coombs exposes the chilling similarities between the three cases, stressing the urgency to solve them before more women and children fall prey.

risk losing Nate forever.

‘COYOTE CREEK CHRISTMAS’ Paige offers to plan the annual holiday party at her parent’s hotel in the Rockies, the Coyote Creek Inn, which will surely help her score a promotion at the upscale event planning company she works for.

She decides on a “Christmas around the world” theme, to showcase the universal magic of the season through the diverse Christmas traditions of the Inn’s guests. Dylan, a charismatic real estate developer and single father, is visiting Coyote Creek for the holidays with his son.

What Paige doesn’t know is that her parents are planning to sell the Inn and that the potential buyer is her new acquaintance Dylan. The fate of the Inn and Paige’s relationships are both left for the magic of the holiday season to decide.

‘CHRISTMAS IN HARMONY’ A company merger pushes Harmony Matthews out of a job at Suprasonic Records and back to her hometown. Mama couldn’t be more thrilled to have Harmony back home and to help with the church’s annual Holiday Hallelujah Chorus. Celebrity Melo D Star is a client of Harmony’s and threatens to leave unless Harmony is back.

Harmony has the perfect idea to showcase Melo D. Star and reinstate her career but when things go south, Harmony is tricked into auditioning for the lead solo in the chorus — directed by her scorned high school sweetheart, Kyle Noah.

By Christmas Eve, Harmony and Kyle could be singing a different tune and harmonizing in the key of love.

‘THE SANTA STAKEOUT’ Tanya is a police detective who is reluctantly paired with fellow detective Ryan to solve a string of recent heists that have taken place during high-profile holiday parties around town. They go undercover as newlyweds Tasha and Rupert and move into the vacant house next to Mr. Miller, the jovial chair of the community’s Christmas committee ... and the prime suspect in the case. As Tanya and Ryan participate in the neighborhood’s holiday happenings to keep up appearances and crack the case, they become swept up by Christmas, begin to see each other in a new light and start to fall in love.

from Jack, a Christmas tree farmer in need of her skills to figure out what mystery illness is causing their trees to die out and ruining their business, which has been his family’s legacy for 100 years.

After calling off her Christmas wedding six months earlier, Olivia isn’t eager to head home for the holidays so she agrees to make a detour and stop at Jack’s farm in Avon to examine the trees. Unable to immediately discover the cause, Olivia is determined to get to the root of the problem and extends her stay to run advanced tests. With time to kill while she waits for test results for the trees, Olivia joins Jack and his friends at the holiday festivities around town and finds their traditions a welcome change to the reserved holidays she grew up with. As they spend more time together, they begin to fall for each other and Jack helps Olivia reconnect to Christmas, her parents and herself. In the end, her tenacity pays off and Olivia not only devises a way to preserve Jack’s trees but she discovers the shocking truth about why his firs were fizzling — much to the dismay of Dwayne, a rival local tree farmer

‘A CHRISTMAS TREASURE’ Christmas in Pine Grove will be extra special this holiday season as the Webb family plans to open a 100-year-old time capsule that was buried when the town was founded. While enjoying all the town’s festivities surrounding the big reveal and continuing to work at her family’s newspaper, Lou finalizes her plans to further her writing career by moving to New York after Christmas. But after opening the time capsule and finding her grandfather’s old journal, she begins to question whether she should move or stay in Pine Grove to carry on her family’s legacy. Having also met charming chef, Kyle, who is also at a crossroads while visiting Pine Grove for the holidays, only makes Lou doubt the future she had planned even more.

‘THE NINE KITTENS OF CHRISTMAS’ Cat lovers Zachary and Marilee are thrown back together at Christmas when they’re tasked with finding homes for a litter of adorable kittens.

‘CHRISTMAS AT CASTLE HART’

Olivia is Connecticut’s resident expert on evergreens. Days before Christmas she gets a plea for help

Brooke Bennett goes to Ireland for Christmas to search for her Irish roots. While there, she meets charming Aiden Hart, Earl of Glaslough. Mistaken for an elite event planner, she’s hired to host his castle’s epic Christmas party.

to this film to give them hope and it’s a film that touches peoples’ lives,” she said. “It’s very positive, but there is a sense of negativity in the film, too. But everybody survives it and I think that’s a reminder of today’s times that if we have hope and if we try to make a difference, if we give of ourselves, I think it can all turn around.”

Her favorite part of the film is when George finds the flower petals Zuzu had given to her father, which disappeared when a clumsy angel played

by Henry Travers was showing him what the town of Bedford Falls would have been like had he not braved his taxing but virtuous life.

“I like the scene where George is on the bridge and he wants to come back to life and

he says, ‘Please God, please God, I want to live again’ and the snow starts to fall so then you know immediately he is back,” she told The News. “He learns a really valuable lesson and that’s really good. He learns about faith, family and friends and the possibility of miracles.”

Grimes laughed when reminded of a 1986 “Saturday Night Live” parody of “It’s a Wonderful Life” in which — rather than practicing kindness and forgiveness — the townspeople of Bedford Falls form an angry mob and attack the elderly curmudgeon who was largely responsible for George Bailey’s hardships.

“And they beat him with a bat?” she chuckled, adding, “It might be (how people would behave) today.”

‘YOU ME & THE CHRISTMAS TREES’

Saturday - Sunday, December 11-12, 2021 - C3

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

Food

Your weeknight hero Panettone From Roy interior. Scott Suchman/Washington Post

Where to find the best panettone this season For some, the holidays aren’t complete without this light, golden sweet bread

By G. DANIELA GALARZA Washington Post

Golden as sunbeams and almost as light and feathery as goose down, a good panettone is hard to find. Those red, green and gold boxes at the drugstore and supermarket are laden with artificial flavors and preservatives — and not worth your time.

A well-made panettone, on the other hand, is an extraordinary thing. It traditionally begins with a starter that’s almost as dense as a brick. Days or weeks later, when it’s ready to be baked, the dough would be best described as a slick, stretchy batter. “It could almost be a cake, but there was never a cake this silky and soft and stratospherically built,” baker Jim Lahey writes of panettone in “The Sullivan Street Bakery Cookbook.”

“Perfect panettone has a big, domed top, a fine, tender crumb, and a lot of holes in it. It is incredibly involved and tricky to make,” Melissa Weller writes in “A Good Bake,” where she shares a recipe for cherry and pistachio panettone that, though adapted for the home cook, still takes several days to prepare.

Professional bakers begin panettone production in September or October.

They sun-dry fresh grapes and candy strips of fragrant citrus zest. A stiff sourdough starter, called a lievito madre or pasta madre, imparts a characteristic flavor and aids in producing an airy internal structure. It must be fed and refreshed for days or weeks before it’s ready to become the base of a batch of panettone.

Once the starter is ready, many, many eggs and sometimes extra egg yolks are added, along with lots of butter and sugar. Raisins, candied fruit, citrus zest, nuts, chocolate or other flavorings are folded in last. All of these expensive ingredients make the dough extremely wet and difficult to handle. Even skilled bakers struggle to produce consistent results. Some sleep with their dough, so that they can See PANETTONE C6

Settepani chocolate panettone interior.

Scott Suchman/Washington Post

Molletes (Refried Bean and Cheese Melts). Scott Suchman/Washington Post

Mexican molletes, the cheesy open-faced refried bean sandwiches, are a great mid-week go-to

By ANN MALONEY Washington Post

MOLLETES (REFRIED BEAN AND CHEESE MELTS)

T

his time of year, I’m on the prowl for dinner in the fewest minutes possible.

That’s because, this holiday week, not only am I super busy at work, but I’m prepping dishes each night after work for my own Thanksgiving feast, so that Thursday morning I will be able to rise, shine and dine without being a zombie by the end of the day.

We’ve got more winter holidays on the horizon, so, when I stumbled across molletes (moh-YEH-tehs) on cookbook author Pati Jinch’s website, I was delighted. Crispy bread.

Love it. Refried beans. I’m there.

Pico de gallo. Yes, please. The headline that caught my eye said: “No Way Not to Fall in Love.” Totally agree.

As Jinich pointed out, the recipe requires only three ingredients and can be ready in about 10 minutes.

She calls the open-faced refried bean and cheese melts “one of the most comforting foods I have eaten since I can remember.”

In Mexico, molletes are eaten at breakfast, lunch or dinner, and they are typically served with a side of pico de gallo.

The first night I made them, I ate them that way, but then felt a wave of DIY freedom when I read Jinich’s note that she gathers optional toppings to make her sons “feel empowered in the kitchen, different from one another and like they are fully enforcing their free will on my territory.” (I haven’t yet, but, when I have more time, I plan to try them with crumbled bacon or crispy chorizo, as Jinich, host of the public television series “Pati’s Mexican Table” and author

Active time: 15 minutes Total time: 25 minutes 4 servings Food writer Pati Jinich describes molletes (pronounced moh-YEH-tehs), open-face sandwiches of refried beans, melted cheese and pico de gallo, as “one of the most comforting foods I have eaten since I can remember.” In Mexico City, individual bolillos are commonly used. Here a loaf of French or Italian bread stands in. To get crispy bread, hollow out the loaf and toast it first before filling.

Use one of the cheeses recommended, or queso fresco or cotija. Serve them as is, or dress them up as we suggest with a few extra toppings.

1 (16-inch) loaf French or Italian bread 1 (15-ounce) can refried black or pinto beans 2 scallions, white parts separated from green, thinly sliced and divided 2 cups (about 8 ounces) grated or crumbled Oaxaca, mozzarella or pepper jack cheese 1 cup pico de gallo, store-bought or homemade 1 avocado, pitted and sliced (optional) Pickled jalapeño slices (optional) Fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems (optional) 1 lime, quartered (optional)

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

Halve the bread across the equator, then remove all but about ¼ inch of its interior. Place cut side up on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 5 minutes, or until lightly toasted. (If you place the bread removed from the interior of the loaf on the same baking sheet, you can toast, cool and then blitz it in a food processor to make breadcrumbs.)

In a medium bowl, combine the refried beans and scallion whites. Spread the refried bean mixture evenly inside the toasted bread. Top generously with the grated cheese. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the bread is lightly toasted around the edges. (This is a good time to slice your avocado or make pico de gallo, if you choose to do so.)

Transfer the bread to a cutting board and slice crosswise into 4-inch lengths. Serve warm, topped with pico de gallo, and avocado, jalapeño, cilantro, scallions greens and lime wedges, if using, on the side.

Adapted from cookbook author Pati Jinich.

of three cookbooks, “Pati’s Mexican Table,” “Mexican Today” and the new “Treasures of the Mexican Table,” suggests.)

For the version shared here, because I didn’t have access to a bolillo or telera, I picked up a baguette.

It’s this simple: You slice the bread in half along its equator. Add a generous portion of canned (what I used) or homemade refried beans, top with your favorite cheese that melts well — I chose a pepper jack — and bake it in the oven until the

bread is crisp around the edges and the cheese is bubbly.

I chose to pull some of the plush bread from the interior of the baguette and to crisp the bread in the oven before adding the beans, but that’s strictly optional. I just like the crunch this produces. (I’ve read that some people slather the bread with a little olive oil or butter before toasting, but I didn’t find that necessary.)

Then, serve the Mexican comfort food with whatever you like, such as

store-bought or homemade pico de gallo, sliced avocado, pickled jalapeño, cilantro leaves and a squeeze of lime.

Biting into the warm, cheesy sandwich after a long day at work feels like a reward for my diligence.

And the good news for me and mine is that we love them so much, we can eat molletes several nights in a row, jazzing them up with various salsas and cheeses. Perfect for this busy week and the hectic, wintry weeks to come.

Start the day with chorizo breakfast burritos

By GRETCHEN MCKAY Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Everyone agrees a good breakfast is a great start to your day. All the better if you can make it ahead of time and carry it with you in the a.m. Grab-and-go breakfast burritos are a lifesaver on those busy mornings when just getting out the door on time seems like an accomplishment.

These warm flour tortillas wrapped around bacon, potatoes and the optional egg have been a runaway hit ever since they appeared on a menu at Tia Sophia’s in Santa Fe, N.M., in the mid1970s. Today, even McDonald’s and Taco Bell include them among their breakfast items.

Yet homemade is always better, and this breakfast burrito hits on all cylinders. Filled with a zesty mix of scrambled egg, chorizo sausage, crispy tater tots and Mexican cheese, it’s a hearty and sublime

mix of contrasting textures and flavors. It also includes a zesty sour cream sauce for some smoky heat.

I was inspired to make these burritos after spying a package of Salvadoran-style chorizo sausage from Logan’s Sausage Co. in a grocery store near my daughters’ apartment in Arlington, Va.. Seasoned with vinegar, paprika, garlic and other spices, it’s not as spicy as Mexican chorizo but still wonderfully tangy and bright.

The best thing about burritos is that they’re incredibly versatile. If you don’t care for chorizo, you can substitute bacon, ham or Italian sausage, or black or refried beans.

You can also replace the tater tots with pre-cut hash browns.

For a tamer burrito, cut the amount of minced chipotle or sauce in the sour cream or omit it altogether. Don’t forget pico de gallo or your favorite salsa for dipping.

These can be eaten fresh from the skillet or be reheated the next morning in the toaster oven. They also can be wrapped in aluminum foil, placed in a resealable plastic bag and be frozen and reheated as needed.

CRUNCHY CHORIZO BREAKFAST BURRITOS For chipotle sour cream 1/3 cup sour cream 1 or 2 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, minced, plus 1 tablespoon sauce Juice from 1/2 lime Salt For burritos 3 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil, divided 2 cups thawed frozen tater tots 12 ounces chorizo sausage, casings removed (I used Salvadoran style) 8 large eggs, beaten with a little water or milk

2 green onions, diced 1 cup shredded Mexican-style cheese 1/2 cup roasted tomato salsa or pico de gallo, optional 6 10-inch flour tortillas In small bowl, stir together sour cream, minced chipotle chiles and sauce and lime juice until well blended. Add a pinch of salt, stir and then set aside while you prepare the burritos.

Make burritos: In large nonstick skillet, heat 2 tablespoons oil until hot and shimmering. Add tater tots to pan in a single layer and, using a spatula, press into bottom of pan to flatten. Cook tots until they are golden brown and crispy, about 2-3 minutes on each side. Transfer to a paper-towel lined plate and set aside while you make the eggs. A flour tortilla stuffed with chorizo sausage, scrambled eggs, crispy potatoes and Mexican Wipe skillet clean with a damp

cheese makes the perfect breakfast-on-the-go.

See CHORIZO C6

Gretchen McKay/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

C4 - Saturday - Sunday, December 11-12, 2021

Books & authors

Best feel-good books of 2021 meets Margot, who’s 83 and wrestling with her own approaching end. After realizing that their ages add up to 100, the two set out to create 100 paintings that represent their combined century of life. While, yes, there’s a terminal illness at the center of the novel, it’s a beautiful, tender ode to friendship, love and our chosen legacies.

By ANGELA HAUPT Washington Post

Another year of pandemic life is almost in the books — and once again, we needed soothing reads to get through it. Some of these titles are funny; others made us want to cry happy tears. All were tonics during a difficult, uncertain time.

Here are 13 of the year’s best feelgood reads.

“The Party Crasher,” by Sophie Kinsella After Effie’s parents divorce, her dad rebounds with a significantly younger, money-grabbing woman. Then Effie’s childhood home, Greenoaks, goes up for sale. She sneaks into the “house cooling” goodbye party to recover her beloved Russian dolls, and while she’s hiding under tables and peeking through doors, she makes a kaleidoscope of discoveries. It’s a delightful read, full of Kinsella’s signature warmth and charm.

“Good Eggs,” by Rebecca Hardiman An 83-year-old firecracker of a woman can’t stop shoplifting, so her son hires a caretaker to monitor her — and gets more than he bargained for. Such is the premise of Hardiman’s debut novel, which centers on three generations of a rowdy Irish family with a lot going on. There’s joy, dysfunction and, ultimately, heartfelt second chances.

“Eight Perfect Hours,” by Lia Louis Depending on your reading speed, “Eight Perfect Hours” also might describe the time you spend with this novel. It’s about Noelle, who gets stuck on the road in a blizzard with no food, drink or phone charger — but wait, who’s that handsome man knocking on her window? Lest you think this sounds like the start of a horror story, it’s a poignant rom-com about two strangers and the power of fate.

“Piglet: The Unexpected Story of a Deaf, Blind, Pink Puppy and His Family,” by Melissa Shapiro and Mim Eichler Rivas Piglet is a social media superstar.

But before that, he was a two-pound deaf, blind pup without a home. Shapiro, a veterinarian, took him in and fell in love. This sweet story details Piglet’s transformation from a traumatized, anxious puppy into a confident, spirited pink dog and his adventures with his new family.

“The Road Trip,” by Beth O’Leary Addie and her sister — a lovable pair — are road-tripping to a wedding when a car slams into the back of theirs.

It’s occupied by Addie’s ex, Dylan, who’s headed to the same place and soon sitting in the sisters’ back seat, along for the ride. The next 300 miles

“Unfollow Your Passion,” by Terri Trespicio (forthcoming Dec. 21) At last, here it is: permission to ditch everything. Trespicio helps us reevaluate what society has taught us we need, like passion and plans and a bucket list. It’s quite liberating to realize that there’s more than one way to live a life that means something, and that you can do so without leaving your comfort zone.

are hilarious, awkward, frustrating and utterly charming. O’Leary’s latest is an entertaining and quirky rom-com.

“When Sharks Attack With Kindness,” by Andrés J. Colmenares Colmenares describes his popular Instagram comics as “a big visual hug that tickles you at the same time,” and this hardcover collection delivers the same. It’s about sharks — ostensibly predators but, in Colmenares’s world, cute creatures that strike only with kindness and positivity. Prepare to smile a lot, just as widely as those friendly finned fish.

“The Comfort Book,” by Matt Haig Do you ever wish your future self could pop in and reassure current you

that everything is going to be okay?

Haig’s book is exactly that kind of tonic. For years, he wrote notes to himself that he intended to read in dark times; “The Comfort Book” is a compilation of those short meditations. It’s a validating and hopeful gift.

“Miss Eliza’s English Kitchen: A Novel of Victorian Cookery and Friendship,” by Annabel Abbs Step right into a Victorian kitchen in Abbs’s new novel, which is based on the life of Eliza Acton, one of the first modern cookbook writers. In this retelling, Eliza — who wants to be a poet — is convinced to instead learn how to cook. She discovers she loves it, and she and her assistant develop a unique partnership as they evolve as humans

and chefs.

“Little Pieces of Hope: HappyMaking Things in a Difficult World,” by Todd Doughty On the day the coronavirus was declared a global pandemic, Doughty made a list of the things that made him happy: the music that opens “All Things Considered,” a juicy burger, yellow tulips. This joyful book features lists, essays, playlists and quotes that circle back to that central idea: finding the good in even the darkest circumstances. Keep it on your nightstand and read a few pages every day.

“The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot,” by Marianne Cronin Lenni, a terminally ill 17-year-old,

“Carla and the Christmas Cornbread,” by Carla Hall This children’s book by Hall is almost as comforting as digging into one of the chef’s famous dishes. It draws on an event from her youth: On Christmas Eve, Little Carla eats a sugar cookie intended for Santa and then enlists her grandmother to right the wrong. Expect a cozy holiday read-aloud and a hankering for homemade cornbread.

“Bliss: Beaches,” by Randall Kaplan If you’re beach-starved, Kaplan’s gorgeous collection will help fill some of that void. Expect stunning coastline photos of California, Hawaii, French Polynesia and many other spots. Leafing through it is almost as good as meditating on a real beach — and who knows? Maybe you will be soon.

Short stories designed to push readers out of their comfort zone

By SHERRI DALEY Booktrib.com

The trouble with short stories is that you get caught up with the characters and the emotions, and maybe the mystery, and suddenly, the story ends. You’re disappointed, wishing that turning the page would bring more of the stuff you’d been engrossed in.

But Carol Dines’ collection of short stories manages to capture something more than reader attachment to the characters or the tease of a plot.

Each of her stories in “This Distance We Call Love” (Orison Books) is a powerful elbow to the gut, which leaves you eager for the next situation, the next cast of characters, the next elbow.

She zeroes in on family, trust, marriage, fear, sex, loss, abandonment and the strength and danger of a child’s imagination.

The 13 stories that are as different in focus as they are alike in emotional power.

A HAUNTING AND EMOTIONAL COLLECTION OF STORIES In “Almost,” the opening story, the hapless sister of a compassionate woman lives a life that strains the patience — the forbearance and the credulity — of everyone around her. She’s hard not to love. Her insouciance is remarkable, yet when the woman defends her sister: “She doesn’t hurt anyone,” her husband replies, “She hurts you.”

The love triangle in “Ice Bells” is juxtaposed against a family gathering where Willa, our protagonist, is agonizing over the inhibitions of her own heart, her capacity for betrayal and her biological identity.

When there is an opening, an icy escape route, she takes it, but it’s short-lived and damaging. Dines leaves her readers there, having created an ending to the story that is almost a relief.

A little girl named Grace, enrolled in a progressive school that bases the curriculum around saving rain forests and their inhabitants, takes participation in her classes a little too far, perhaps, unsettling her parents. The story is visual and clingy, the ending, like many

others in the collection, abrupt and haunting.

LEAVES READERS FEELING BOTH UNBALANCED AND EMBRACED Dines is masterful at dancing around emotions and commitment, teasing her readers with promises of happy endings and stopping just short of them. She mines the world around her for situations that seem ordinary on the surface but, once examined, provide stories that merge together, sometimes uncomfortably.

The result may leave readers unbalanced on occasion, but they’ll also feel embraced. A family buys a dog; a daughter is stalked; a husband misses the

Each story in Carol Dines’ collection “This Distance We Call Love” is a powerful, emotional blow to the gut. TNS

wife he resents; a child is killed; a marriage suffers.

“This Distance We Call Love” is a perceptively adult collection of works, yet Dines is the author of three novels and a collection of short stories for young adults, which probably accounts for the authentic characterizations of the children in this collection.

They are wise, inscrutable, and sometimes catalytic. “People disappear in many ways,”

says the daughter wistfully in “Disappearances.” Another daughter, disappointed in love and friendship, cleans out her locker at the tennis club where she has just lost a match, but it didn’t matter. Not anymore.

“This world, too, had begun to feel small,” she decides.

Dines’ world is anything but small. “This Distance We Call Love” is a magnificent sweep of fine writing and unforgettable characters.

SLU professor’s award-winning book of stories questions reality Times staff report

CANTON — St. Lawrence University Professor of English Pedro Ponce has published a book of stories that explore human reality and possibility through the power of storytelling.

The book, “The Devil and the Dairy Princess,” published

by Indiana University Press, includes 10 stories that are described by the publisher as “perfect for any reader who enjoys literary realism or speculative fiction.”

Inspired by the television show “The Twilight Zone,” Mr. Ponce was eager to explore how story structure can encourage readers to question and alter human reality and possibility.

“I think of this book as stories about stories brought to life through the flesh and

blood of difperspective on ferent characthe power of stoters,” Mr. Ponce ries.” said in a news In 2020, the release. “This book won the Indiana Review’s type of storytelling can often be Don Belton Ficseen as the option Prize which posite of realistic “recognizes infiction-abstract telligent sense experiments in of language, assumes a degree language and of risk, and has structure that consequences don’t involve ‘rePedro Ponce . al’ emotions and beyond the world situations but I of its narrators.” don’t think this is the case. We “I found ‘The Devil and the arguably build the world and Dairy Princess’ to be strikingly our views of it story by story, original,” said Charles Yu, the starting with the earliest nar- author of Interior “Chinaratives we hear as children. To town,” and who served as the play with story structure-to prize judge. “Each piece is disquestion and even revise it- tinctive, innovative, and full takes us deeper into human of fresh surprises. Yet the colreality and possibility. I hope lection as a whole is cohesive readers will appreciate this in tone and voice, evocative,

playful, haunting spaces both dreamy and nightmarish.”

An instructor of several English courses at SLU, Mr. Ponce hopes to share his experience writing this book with students.

“The process of assembling the collection taught me a lot about how to put together a book — what gives a book coherence, especially one made up of distinct episodes?” he said. “I look forward to opening up this process to my students, particularly in advanced fiction writing and senior seminars, where we study and practice the craft of turning individual pieces into publishable manuscripts.”

At SLU, Mr. Ponce regularly teaches techniques of fiction, methods of critical analysis, and advanced fiction writing.

His research interests include

narrative theory, conspiracy theory and dystopian literature and he is the author of several works including “Stories After Goya,” “Alien Autopsy” and “Superstitions of Apartment Life.” His work has appeared in several journals including Alaska Quarterly Review, Gigantic, PANK and Copper Nickel. Also, his stories have been anthologized in “New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction” and “Boundaries Without: The Calumet Editions 2017 Anthology of Speculative Fiction.”

Mr. Ponce is a 2012 National Endowment for the Arts fellow in creative writing and holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Denver, an M.F.A. in fiction from Western Michigan University, and an M.A. from The Johns Hopkins University.

“The Devil and the Dairy Princess,” published by Indiana University Press, includes 10 stories that are described by the publisher as “perfect for any reader who enjoys literary realism or speculative fiction.” IUP

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

Saturday - Sunday, December 11-12, 2021 - C5

Puzzles

Last week’s puzzle answers

Horoscope

By Stella Wilder Born Sunday, you want nothing more in life than to be allowed to go about your business in a peaceful manner, free of conflict and hardship. This is not something that is likely to come to you as a matter of course, however; ironically, this kind of peacful existence is something that you’re going to have to fight for on at least two or three occasions during your lifetime!

When someone tells you “no,” your first instinct is to say “yes” and carry on as you were — but you are always better off to stop and think about the context and the reasons for that “no” so that you come to understand it and avoid it in the future. The peace you want, in other words, comes to you when you understand the world around you, the good and the bad, as fully as possible.

Also born on this date are: Frank Sinatra, singer and actor; Bob Barker, game show host; Jennifer Connelly, actress; Bill Nighy, actor; Connie Francis, singer; Cathy Rigby, gymnast and actress; Edvard Munch, painter.

To see what is in store for you Monday, find your birthday and read the

corresponding paragraph. Let your birthday star be your daily guide.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 13 SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) — You’ll receive help today from a surprising source — but not everything that is done in your name will promote your cause at this time.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) — Your plans may not pan out as hoped today if only because you haven’t taken into account the effect an uncooperative associate can have.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20—Feb. 18) — Start slowly today and pick up speed gradually.

Focus on the things that present themselves as expected — but be ready for the unexpected.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) — You are eager to see how someone’s efforts play out today, as you’re considering making a temporary change in your methods.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) — You’re finding it hard to be enthusiastic about what lies ahead, and today’s extra duties do not help the situation. This is only a phase.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) — Turn your back on another today and you’ll surely pay

for it — not now, perhaps, but soon. Engage with others as creatively as you can!

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) — Things may not “add up” as expected today, but you’re able to maneuver in such a way that a truly negative development can be avoided.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) — Though you’re trying to learn as much as possible from those around you, today your experience is likely to make all the difference.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) — Are you truly suffering physical symptoms, or is your mind playing tricks on you? You must be sure to ask all the right questions today.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) — It’s a good day for homework, and you have plenty to do! What you learn about a loved one makes you question plans the family has made.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) — You’re nearing a turning point today, and you must be ready to make a decision on the run. You won’t have time to consider all likelihoods.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) — You find the options available to you intriguing today, but none give you that initial thrill you’re looking for — at least not yet.

COPYRIGHT 2021 UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.

Answers on C6

Answers on C6

Answers Next Week

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

C6 - Saturday - Sunday, December 11-12, 2021

A look at 45 resorts across 14 states ‘Great Escapes USA: The Hotel Book’ is a sort of hybrid travelogue catalogue

By REBECCA POWERS Washington Post

Travel accommodations so often amount to practical pit stops on the line between Point A and Point B. But some hotels are the point, serving as far more than a necessary pillow for the night.

In a new release, Taschen, the art book publisher, highlights American hotels worthy as destinations all on their own. “Great Escapes USA: The Hotel Book,” written by Christiane Reiter and edited by Angelika Taschen, is a sort of hybrid travelogue catalogue, a look book showcasing 45 rarefied resorts in 14 states. It is the latest in Taschen’s globespanning Great Escapes series, which also includes Africa and South America, among others.

Several of the featured U.S. inns were built as sprawling estates with Gilded Age pedigrees that evoke writer Joan Didion’s observation: “Of course great hotels have always been social ideas, flawless mirrors to the particular societies they service.” She wrote that of the famously pink Royal Hawaiian in Waikiki, which is not featured in this book.

The lodgings included in Taschen’s book reflect current-day travelers’ needs to escape, to experience genteel ministrations in an increasingly self-serve world.

That pleasure can come in the form of minimalist, nearly

stark decor, such as the accommodations at the Spruceton Inn in West Kill, or it can be as luxurious as opulent manors from another time.

Spartan surroundings offer a refreshing change from our overstuffed lives.

“Nine rooms. A bar. And so many stars.” That’s how Casey Scieszka, who runs Spruceton with her husband, Steven Weinberg, describes their essential offerings. Firewood and a hammock in a meadow are among the guest luxuries.

That, plus surrounding trails, swimming, skiing and fly-fishing.

Featured hotels range from the rustic pleasure of Spruceton to Gatsby-esque locations built by titans of industry. Other featured inns were initially artists’ colonies whose natural beauty attracted the likes of Ansel Adams, or once attracted intellectuals and early civil rights activists.

“Great Escapes USA,” a hefty coffee-table tome, opens in the Atlantic coastal town of Kennebunk Beach, Maine, and it closes with its final destination in Death Valley, Calif.

Kennebunk’s White Barn Inn is a bucolic East Coast classic, with a historical barn and surrounding structures. The 1927 Inn at Death Valley, with its mosaic-bottomed pool and towering palms, is an oasis that stands in stark contrast to our hottest national park.

Detailed on the pages between Maine and California are images of hospitality housed in onetime mansions, working ranches, classic travel trailers and freshly envisioned surfside motels.

All the locations feed the

The Urban Cowboy Lodge in Big Indian, N.Y., is among the properties included in Taschen’s “Great Escapes USA: The Hotel Book.” Ben Fitchett/Urban Cowboy Lodge/Taschen.

fantasy of checking out of reality and in to a place carefully staged for our delight, a portal to another place. It’s no wonder hotels play a supporting role in so many movies.

They’re a set, populated with characters passing through.

The book showcases a parade of styles. There is the venerable, with patinated wainscoting, seafaring oil paintings, fireplaces, wallpaper and tufted upholstery; the modern, with Tivoli radios and ultra-minimal chambers bathed in white; the retro, with mid-century breezeblock walls, a disco ball above a pool and record players; the beachy, with rattan seating, string lights and surfboards; and the woodsy, with antlers, snow shoes and woolen Pendleton blankets.

The architectural profiles range from low-slung to imposing.

Whatever the setting, the hotels invite us to check in to a space that is probably nothing like the address we’ve

temporarily left behind. That’s the intrigue of hotels: We can try on another life, if only for a night or weekend.

Accompanying the photofilled pages is text in English, French and German, a reminder that the American style has international appeal.

Editor/writer duo Taschen and Reiter include insider tips for making the most of a stay.

They divulge in-the-know details, such as signature cocktails. There is, for example, the Summer Fling, concocted with vodka, ginger and melon, at Sunset Beach on New York’s Shelter Island, or the tequilaand mezcal-based libations at El Rey Court, in Santa Fe, N.M. They also suggest books to read or films to watch that have a connection to or fit with the context of each lodging.

For Twin Farms, in Barnard, Vt., they suggest “Babbitt,” by Sinclair Lewis, who summered at the former residence with his wife, journalist Dorothy Thompson.

Other recommended

reading for mood includes: — “The Age of Innocence,” a portrait of the Gilded Age by Edith Wharton. She lived near Wheatleigh, a Lenox, Mass., palazzo built by a New York banker who hired more than 150 artisans from Italy to build his country estate.

— “Moby-Dick,” by Herman Melville, in keeping with the maritime heritage of Greydon House in Nantucket, Mass., where the bar looks like a good place to ride out a nor’easter.

— “The Rainbow,” by D.H. Lawrence, for the Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos, N.M. Lawrence was among the celebrated guests who stayed at the adobe-brick-style onetime haven for writers and artists.

— “Big Sur,” by Jack Kerouac, for the Post Ranch Inn at Big Sur, Calif., which may offer the most breathtaking ocean view of any location in the book.

Interior views also are a treat on the pages. Look for green-leather dining chairs at Twin Farms and tropical wallpaper at the Drifter Hotel in New Orleans.

Chandeliers and Oriental rugs make frequent appearances, as do Navajo blankets, twig furniture, striped awnings, terra-cotta pavers and horses on the range.

Rustic is the style at Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn, a cozy compound of 1930s cabins in Big Sur. There, on the scenic Central Coast, what’s missing in TV and cell signal is made up for with candlelit dinners and a hideaway appeal.

The book’s hotel-hopping tour spotlights organic menus

with Michelin stars, seaside cottages whose living roofs are planted with grass and wildflowers, cars with surfboard roof racks, courtesy sunscreen, nude bathing, Elvis on vinyl, a library of Western book titles, painting classes, homemade ice cream, pop-up fashion shows and natural acreage to explore.

In addition to kindling dreams and, yes, interiordecor inspiration, “Great Escapes USA” aids travel planning, not so much in the go-here, go-there sense as in helping readers identify their personal accommodation style: the grounds they would like to roam, the veranda where they might savor morning coffee or take afternoon tea, or the rooms they would admire when they have nothing more demanding to do than gaze upon their surroundings.

Taken in full, the book allows readers to consider an alternative to popular accommodations that entail pushing door-code buttons before entering a solo space with an armload of groceries. “Great Escapes USA” entertains the fantasy of hospitality that’s more akin to accepting an invitation to stay at the country home of friends who own very nice real estate.

A flour tortilla stuffed with chorizo sausage, scrambled eggs, crispy potatoes and Mexican cheese makes the perfect breakfaston-the-go. Gretchen McKay/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS

Chorizo From C3

paper towel, bring to medium heat and add chorizo. Cook sausage, breaking it up with a wooden spoon as you go, until it is crumbly (it should look like ground meat), and is well browned and slightly crispy.

Add beaten eggs and cook until they start to set, using a rubber spatula to toss and turn the eggs as they cook to keep them from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Stir in chopped green onion and toss gently to combine.

Reduce heat to low, and sprinkle shredded cheese on top of eggs, then gently fold in. Cook until cheese starts to melt, about 30 seconds. Remove from heat and cover to keep egg mixture warm while you prepare the tortillas.

Wrap tortillas in a damp paper towel and microwave

for about 10 seconds to soften.

To assemble burritos, spread a tablespoon of chipotle sour cream on the bottom third of each tortilla, leaving a ¾ -inch border. Layer one-sixth of the tater tots on top of the sour cream, followed by one-sixth of the egg mixture.

Fold sides of tortilla over filling, then fold up the bottom and roll tightly around filling.

Wipe the skillet clean again with a paper towel, then add remaining 1 tablespoon oil and heat until shimmering over medium heat. Place burritos in pan, seam side down, and cook until they’re golden and crispy, turning once, about 1-2 minutes per side.

Serve warm with salsa or pico de gallo on the side, or slice and wrap in aluminum foil for breakfast on the go.

Makes 6 burritos.

Gretchen McKay, PostGazette

Panettone, back row: Bread and Salt, Settepani, and Biasetto. Front row: Sullivan Street Bakery, Olivieri 1882, From Roy, and Muzzi.

Scott Suchman/Washington Post

Panettone From C3

check on its progress overnight.

The final test comes just as the bread finishes baking: Because it contains so many large air bubbles, and so much butter, it can collapse in on itself like a cake that’s bumped before it’s finished baking.

To prevent this, panettone is hung upside-down to cool as soon as it comes out of the oven.

The rigor and patience involved in making panettone — and the high likelihood of failure — makes it a sort of holy grail for bakers. It also means that well-made panettone, the kind a skilled baker shapes with their hands, the

kind that can take months or years to perfect, the kind laced with butter and studded with candied fruits, nuts and chocolate, does not come cheap.

Almost all panettones are dressed up in pretty packaging, but this can be mere marketing makeup.

Here’s where to order the best panettone to ship nationwide in the United States. Some purveyors may be temporarily sold out; add your name to their waitlist or check back for updates on new batches.

Bread and Salt (Jersey City, N.J.): Baker Rick Easton’s obsession with panettone involves every ingredient that goes into each of his limited number of loaves. He makes his own butter. He dries grapes into plump raisins. He candies almonds, quince and orange peel. He sleeps with the dough overnight. The supremely pillowy, gently sweet panettone that results will almost melt in your mouth. ($55, plus shipping) Settepani (Brooklyn): Nino Settepani is behind all the bread at this long-standing bakery. Settepani bakes panettone year-round, so the shop almost always has loaves available for shipping. The

most striking is one that’s pumped full of a river of Nutella after it’s done baking. This makes it remarkably dense for panettone. In fact, it can pass for cake — gently warm each slice and pass the whipped cream. ($69, including shipping) Biasetto (Padova, Italy): Thanks to Bronx-based importer Gustiamo, pastry chef Luigi Biasetto’s plush panettone is available stateside. Biasetto’s loaves are remarkably airy and fragrant with candied orange, lemon and citron zest as well as candied cherries. ($60, plus shipping) Sullivan Street Bakery (New York): A bit denser than its competitors, Sullivan Street Bakery still makes a fine loaf of panettone. Rum-soaked raisins and candied citron add character to the traditional Milanese-style loaf. A chocolate version is also available. ($55, including shipping) Olivieri 1882 (Arzignano, Italy): Golden raisins and candied orange peel flavor this simple but special loaf. A gentle yeastiness comes through in each bite. The bakers behind Olivieri have been making panettone from the same recipe

for over 140 years, and their expertise is evident. ($75, including two-day shipping) From Roy (Richmond, Calif.): Baker Roy Shvartzapel’s panettone is also a process borne of obsession. Indeed, it is a marvel, with a deeply golden, webbed interior pocketed with oblong holes. Bits of candied fruit cling to the gossamer webbing and give you something to chew while the butter-scented bread dissolves on your tongue. ($75, plus shipping) Muzzi (Foligno, Italy): It takes the bakers at Tommaso Muzzi, a pastry shop founded in 1795, four days to make their panettone. Grass-fed butter goes into each one, and its pastoral freshness plays off the flavor of the long fermentation. Denser than some, Muzzi’s panettone is ideal for French toast or bread pudding. ($26.90, plus shipping) Two other sources — Vetri Cucina in Philadelphia and Manresa Bread in Los Gatos, Calif., — have offered exceptional panettone in the past, but they did not have ones for us to sample before publication. They are worth checking out.