WAG April 2022

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APRIL 2022 | WAGMAG.COM

Valerio “Val” Morano Sagliocco, president and CEO of the Morano Group LLC

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CONTENTS APRIL 2022

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Editor’s letter Recultivating the image of landscaping ‘Doing good by doing well’ Well-fed, well-rested at Bedford Post Inn Taking on climate change in Bedford More than a heating company GoGreen knows clean The long unwind Madrid, Meliá, marvelous Ready for horses — and horsepower Your own private club Trusting in flower power

52 54 56 60 64 66 70 72 74 78 80 82

The environmental home Go vintage to save the planet Touro becomes a university in New York Medical ethics, then and now Medicine with a personal touch Fit to live The climate crisis — not for millennials only Fighting inflammation Good eats ‘on the Avenue’ Saluting a Ukrainian tradition Wines from a charmed life When & where

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Dee DelBello

Dan Viteri

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Curated by Nancy Moore April 9 to May 8, 2022 Hours: Wed. to Sunday from 12 to 4pm Opening Reception: “What happens Saturday, April 9, 4-7pm to the passion, Library Artists Talk: vision and Wednesday, April 20, 4-5:30pm creative drive Coming of Age Celebration: of visual artists Friday, May 6, 5-7pm as they age?”

The answers to this question are as varied and deep as the work of the 70 artists Ridgefield Guild of Artists represented in 34 Halpin Lane Coming of Age. Ridgefield, CT 06877

EDITORIAL Georgette Gouveia EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ggouveia@westfairinc.com

Jeremy Wayne FEATURE WRITER jwayne@westfairinc.com

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PHOTOGRAPHY Alexandra Cali, John Rizzo

203-438-8863 rgoa.org/coming-of-age/

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Edward Arriaza, Gina Gouveia, Phil Hall, Peter Katz, Debbi K. Kickham, Justin McGown, Doug Paulding, Giovanni Roselli, Gregg Shapiro, Barbara Barton Sloane, Jeremy Wayne, Cami Weinstein, Katie Banser-Whittle

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Some readers think WAG stands for “Westchester and Greenwich.” We certainly cover both. But mostly, a WAG is a wit and that’s how we think of ourselves, serving up piquant stories and photos to set your own tongues wagging.

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All news, comments, opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations in WAG are those of the authors and do not constitute opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations of the publication, its publisher and its editorial staff.

No portion of WAG may be reproduced without permission.WAG is distributed at select locations, mailed directly and is available at $24 a year for home or office delivery. To subscribe, call 914-694-3600, ext. 3020. All advertising inquiries should be directed to Anne Jordan at 914-694-3600, ext. 3032 or email anne@westfairinc.com. Advertisements are subject to review by the publisher and acceptance for WAG does not constitute an endorsement of the product or service. WAG (Issn: 1931-6364) is published monthly and is owned and published by Westfair Communications Inc. Dee DelBello, CEO, dee@westfairinc.com

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On Page 51 of March WAG, we misidentified the school that now sits on the Simon property. It’s the King School. Our apologies.

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EDITOR’S LETTER

BY GEORGET TE GOUVEIA

IF THE COVID CRISIS AND NOW THE WAR IN UKRAINE HAVE TAUGHT US ANYTHING, IT IS THAT HUMAN NATURE REMAINS DIVIDED FROM NATURE AND WITHIN ITSELF. But around the world and in our own backyard, businesses and individuals have been trying to rectify our relationship with the environment at least by addressing climate change in practical ways, a subject we explore in April WAG. Eldercare columnist Abbe writes about how seniors in Fairfield and Westchester counties are demonstrating that climate action isn’t for millennials only. In another instance, a whole town has gotten into the act.

Building on the success of Bedford 2020, the environmental group Bedford 2030 seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the town by 80% this decade and to preserve the community’s natural resources.

It’s a challenge that companies are taking up in various ways.

“We need to invest in our children and future generations and for that there is no better time than right now,” says Val Morano Sagliocco, whose Morano Group of landscape businesses in Westchester and Fairfield counties and beyond has gone green with electric mowers and blowers. It’s just one of the ways that Sagliocco — a perennial WAG subject and now our cover story — is demonstrating his entrepreneurship. In recent years, his company has truly bloomed, adding hardscaping (such as patios and terraces); high-profile clients (including Richard Gere’s Bedford Post Inn — see Jeremy’s story) and new locations, with West Palm Beach, Florida, recently joining workspaces in Westchester County, Greenwich and New York City.

Nor is Sagliocco’s the only multigenerational family business engaged with environmental concerns. Dan Singer, president

Of monarchs and milkweed: This photograph shows a monarch butterfly feeding on milkweed, a subject of Robert Frost’s poem “The Tuft of Flowers.” From Dreamstime, which is giving 5% of sales of its images to NGOs supporting Ukrainian causes and refugees.

and CEO of Robison, explains why his home comfort company is about a lot more than oil and gas and offers numerous great tips on how you can conserve energy in your own home. (See also Cami’s and Katie’s columns.)

Meanwhile, GoGreen Dry Cleaners, with 11 stores in Westchester, Putnam and Fairfield counties as well as Florida, has not only eschewed the carcinogenic PERC (perchloroethylene, the most common solvent used for dry cleaning in the United States) for silicone, but, as Jeremy discovers, its sister business, Go Green Restoration of Norwalk, helps customers clean fire-, smoke- and water-damaged clothing, which left untreated can lead to disease.

Sailing on to global enterprises, Debbi — who recently savored a trending 33-day Caribbean odyssey with husband and frequent writing partner Bill as part of Regent Seven Seas Cruises — reports on its efforts to aid the environment, from giving every passenger a stainless-steel thermal water bottle to its new Eco-Connect tours, more than 150 programs that enable passengers to learn from businesses and community groups around the world how they are contributing to environmental conservation and renewal.

If you’ve been reading the new WAG — all about local business lifestyle — then you know we are no longer exclusively thematic. Each month we bring you thoughtful features and behindthe-scenes stories on home (in this issue, equestrian properties in Greenwich); food (Jeremy’s review of Hinoki in Greenwich); wellness (personal trainer Billy Goda and Sherri L. Sandel, DO, FACP, the recently appointed medical director of Northern Westchester Hospital/Northwell Health in Mount Kisco) and other topics that are vital to our readers.

But it’s always fascinating to me as editor to see the synergy among our stories, whether by design or happenstance. So the cover story on Val Morano Sagliocco has echoes in our interview with Fordham University dean Anthony R. Davidson and in Jeremy’s pieces on the Bedford Post Inn and Ruby & Bella’s restaurant, which as part of SaksWorks Greenwich serves as the Morano company’s Fairfield County conference and meeting hub. (Sagliocco is a founding member of SaksWork Greenwich’s board of directors.) And there are reverberations between Phil’s piece on Touro College — now Touro University in New York state, spearheaded systemwide

by Alan Kalish, M.D. — and Peter’s story on Boston University health

law professor George J. Annas, who will be among the featured speakers at the virtual April 28 Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) Symposium by New York Medical College in Valhalla — home of Touro’s School of Dental Medicine.

Both stories remind us that while we act locally, we must also think globally as Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine are never far from us. Rajni returns to us with a fusion recipe that offers an Indian twist on a Ukrainian favorite, deruny, potato pancakes. She wanted to pay tribute to Ukraine and did it in the way she knows best, through her cooking. Her pancakes of solidarity remind us of the Robert Frost poem “The Tuft of Flowers,” about two gardeners working at separate times of the day in a grassy space, the narrator, alone and perhaps also lonely, finally taking comfort in a patch of milkweed that the early mower has left for the butterflies to sup on and for him to delight in. No longer “alone,” the narrator concludes: “‘Men work together.’ I told him from the heart, ‘Whether they work together or apart.’”

A 2020 YWCA White Plains & Central Westchester Visionary Award winner and a 2018 Folio Women in Media Award Winner, Georgette Gouveia is the author of “Burying the Dead,” “Daimon: A Novel of Alexander the Great” and "Seamless Sky" (JMS Books), as well as “The Penalty for Holding,” a 2018 Lambda Literary Award finalist (JMS Books), and “Water Music” (Greenleaf Book Group). They’re part of her series of novels, “The Games Men Play,” also the name of the sports/culture blog she writes.

Last year, her short story “The Glass Door” was published by JMS and exhibited in “Together apART: Creating During COVID” at ArtsWestchester in White Plains. Her latest story, “After Hopper,” is also available from JMS Books. For more, visit thegamesmenplay.com.

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Valerio “Val” Morano Sagliocco, president and CEO of the Morano Group LLC, and wife Francisca Ferreira, founder of Bloom Holistic Wellness and Selva Beauty.

Photograph by Ally Cali.

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BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

RECULTIVATING THE IMAGE OF LANDSCAPING

When Valerio “Val” Morano Sagliocco was a Fordham University freshman — doing the books for the family landscaping business from his bedroom in his parents’ Harrison home — he had no thought of joining the business, let alone leading it. To be sure, he had had an intensely loving relationship with his grandfather, Angelo Morano, the business’ founder.

“He was my everything,” Sagliocco says over melt-in-yourmouth seafood cakes and grilled salmon salad at his homey Lago Ristorante & Wine Bar in West Harrison. Sagliocco remembers how his grandfather would take him and younger brother Andrea for Sunday breakfast at the International House of Pancakes (IHOP) and once a week for ice cream.

“He was a charismatic, largerthan-life figure,” Sagliocco says, one whom client and former New York state Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer called “Zorba the Greek,” after the exuberant title character Anthony Quinn played in the 1964 film. “But he was also tough to work for.” And Sagliocco — who set out to commute to Fordham’s Bronx campus in 2002, the year after his grandfather died — had his eye on a Bachelor of Science degree in finance and management, with a focus on international business.

But to paraphrase playwright Tennessee Williams, Sagliocco was more faithful than he intended. And in 2007, a year after graduating from Fordham, he found himself across the street at the New York Botanical Garden, taking horticulture and design courses, the perfect preparation for the company he would run — and run with.

Today, Sagliocco — a thoughtful, gracious man whom we’ve interviewed on several occasions — is president and CEO of the Morano Group LLC, which includes Morano Landscape in Mamaroneck, Ridgeway Garden Center in White Plains and Weaver Gardens in Larchmont. Celebrating its 70th anniversary, the company has expanded, indeed explod-

ed, adding hardscaping (such as patios and terraces); high-profile clients (actor Richard Gere and fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger among them) and locations (with West Palm Beach, Florida, recently joining workspaces in Westchester County, Greenwich and New York City). Small wonder, then, that The Business Council of Westchester last year presented the Purchase resident with one of its Rising Stars 40 Under 40 Awards.

Morano is truly a family affair, with Sagliocco’s parents, Rosina and Domenico, serving as president and vice president of Morano Landscape respectively, brother Andrea as president and co-owner of Ridgeway Garden Center and aunt Lisa Morano as compliance manager. Even Oliveto Morano — the lightly nutty olive oil that graces Lago’s tables, another enterprise of which Sagliocco is president — stems from the grove of 2,500 2-year-old olive trees that Rosina planted on 35 unused acres on the family’s ancestral estate in the Calabria section of southern Italy in memory of her father and a dream he shared with her older son.

Branding and expanding the family business is another way to honor his grandfather, Sagliocco says: “Family is at the root of all that I do, so keeping alive and expanding the dream of my grandfather and father was a great honor for me.”

But Sagliocco is also on a mission to make working with the earth as valued a profession as, say, health care.

“Growing up watching my

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grandfather and my father, I felt that what they did wasn’t appreciated on the level that it should be. Why were kids choosing instead to be policemen, stockbrokers or astronauts? Now I want not only to grow and cultivate a national landscape and hardscape company, but also to focus the next generation on what a landscape professional does and how it can help the environment as well as offer a profession.”

To this end, his company began using electric, lithium battery-operated leaf blowers and grass mowers on March 15, reflecting a trend among many municipalities and states to phase out gas blowers and mowers, which add to noise pollution and fossil-fuel consumption.

“So ultimately we don’t want the solution to be more damaging than the problem,” Sagliocco says. “We are pumping the environment full of harmful gases, sucking us of oxygen, while we work simultaneously to plant oxygenating plants. It is a contradiction. Landscape professionals should be on the forefront of trying to reduce and eventually eliminate gas-powered tools. We are leading by example, and that is why we are making a multiseason pledge to convert all our teams to electric mowers, blowers, trimmers and weed-eaters.

We will be one of the first fully electric lawn maintenance teams in our area this spring.

“We need to invest in our children and future generations and

Castle, Greenwich.

Arlo midtown exterior, Manhattan.

Modern house, Scarsdale.

APRIL 2022 courtesy WAGMAG.COM 13 Segram's Creek, Westport.

Photographs moranogroup.com.

for that there is no better time than right now.

“The key,” he adds, “is where we will get more electricity from?” The answer: This summer he will install solar panels at Morano Landscape — home to the company’s warehouse and the garage for its fleet, which is being outfitted with charging devices.

Sagliocco is on the cutting edge in other ways as well as a founding member of the board of directors of SaksWorks Greenwich, a coworking space that includes Ruby & Bella’s restaurant, which in turn serves as Morano’s Fairfield County conference and meeting hub. (It’s part of a larger venture between luxe retailer Saks Fifth Avenue and WeWork, a commercial real estate company offering businesses services and flexible, shared workspaces — virtual and actual — including an upcoming SaksWorks in the former

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Morano's fully electric lawn team.

Courtesy Morano Group.

Lord & Taylor Eastchester.)

It's a forward-thinking approach that Sagliocco has applied to every aspect of his business. He has done landscaping, patios and maintenance for Richard Gere’s Bedford Post Inn (Page 20), and site development, hardscaping (gazebos, patios and walkways) and landscaping for former Greenwich resident Tommy Hilfiger’s three Palm Beach estates. Other clients have included The St. Regis Residences, Rye, Greenwich County Day School, The Greenwich Hotel in Manhattan and the Four Seasons Hotel Miami.

Sagliocco’s not the only entrepreneur in his immediate family.

Brazilian-born wife Francisca Ferreira — an Institute for Integrated Nutrition-certified health coach, with whom he has two daughters, Sofia, 4, and Isabella, 2 — has created two businesses, Bloom Holistic Wellness and

Selva Beauty, a vegan skincare line. She’ll be holding her fourth Women’s Empowerment Meet Up on July 31 at Lago.

As for the Morano Group, Sagliocco says he envisions a flexible, international company that can follow his high-flying clientele around the world. He plans to expand marketing for Oliveto Morano, which took a production hit during Covid but is now back on tables at Lago and ready for sale at the restaurant and online. And he’s creating a bespoke book chronicling the company’s seven decades.

“Zorba the Greek” would be proud.

For more, visit the moranogroup.com. For reservations at Lago, visit lagoristorante. com. And for more on Bloom Holistic Wellness, visit bloomholisticwellnesscoach.com and selvabeauty.nyc.

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Anthony R. Davidson, Ph.D., dean of the School of Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS) at Fordham University and founder of its Real Estate Institute.

Photograph by Peter Katz.

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BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

They’re qualities he brings to his role as dean of the School of Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS) at Fordham University, whose Jesuit values, he says, dovetail with his Orthodox Jewish ones and his progressive approach to education. (On July 1, Tania Tetlow, J.D., a former law professor and current president of Loyola University New Orleans, will succeed the Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., as Fordham president — the first layperson and the first woman in the post in the university’s 181-year history.)

She will lead a university — based in the Bronx but with campuses at Lincoln Center and in Westchester County — that has become increasingly global in this century. Fordham had already been offering programs in London

‘Doing good by doing well’

Whether the subject is soccer, teaching, leadership, dressing up for Purim as Elton John or the pastrami and corned beef sandwiches at Greenwich & Delancey, a kosher delicatessen in Cos Cob where we meet for lunch, Anthony R. Davidson, Ph.D., offers a playful sense of humor and a passionate sense of purpose.

for 15 years when in 2018 it opened the new Fordham London Centre.

Fordham’s partner programs include one with Oxford University.

Davidson himself offers another tie with the mother country. He arrived in the United States from his native England in the 1970s to teach soccer, whose life lessons have served him through various degrees (a bachelor’s in marketing, magna cum laude, and an M.B.A. in business policy and finance from the Bernard M. Baruch College of the City of New York, a doctorate in management and systems science from Cass Business School of the City University of London); the co-founding of the New York public relations and advertising firm Perfect Impression in 1980; and an academic career that has taken him from Baruch to Hofstra, Polytechnic, Adelphi, Yeshiva and New York universities and then on to dean at the School of Business at Manhattanville College in Purchase.

Prior to our luncheon, we emailed him a few questions about Fordham’s School of Professional and Continuing Studies, the Real Estate Institute he’s founded there and the role that the environment and leadership, a favorite subject, play in both: Dean Davidson, you became dean of Fordham University’s School of Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS) in 2016 and have since founded its Real Estate Institute. Why real estate?

“Real estate is a ubiquitous, essential component of our life as it affects us all as we work, live, learn, worship and play in real estate.

“Recent global megatrends —

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including emerging economies, fast-growing cities, technological innovation and sustainability — are changing the real estate investment and development landscape. As our society rethinks the future of our cities, work areas and living arrangements, the need and demand for professionals educated in real estate will be enormous.

“Although real estate has been the subject of academic as well as professional interest over a long span of time, perhaps centuries, scholarly attention has intensified significantly with the growth of institutional investment in this asset class, which represents a significant portion of the world’s wealth.

So, not only is real estate of enormous importance to the world’s wealth, but it affects the daily lives of our society and students. By offering programs in real estate and construction, we can make a major impact, sending future leaders out into the workforce who will create value and improve the existing skyline.

“And in recognition of the multidisciplinary nature of real estate — in which professional practice requires a working knowledge of real estate finance, investment, law, development, construction, management, urban planning, architecture, statistical analysis and operations — we believe PCS, with its inherent multidisciplinary approach to education, is the most appropriate home for the REI.”

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What does the institute offer students?

“The REI offers students cutting-edge academic and applied analysis, as well as the critical thinking and decision-making skills to compete in the global real estate and construction marketplace. By offering a comprehensive range of undergraduate, graduate and noncredit programs, students can choose their desired level of study and industry area to develop competencies essential for success and leadership.

“With input from industry thought leaders on the REI Executive Advisory Council, the programs offer an array of multidisciplinary learning opportunities that focus on experiential learning and help build lasting industry connections. An integral part of the REI experience is its Fordham REI Student Association and its mentorship program, which offer students the opportunity to supplement classroom learning with extracurricular networking activities and the counsel of a respected industry mentor. As part of Fordham’s School of Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS), REI understands that an interdisciplinary approach to curriculum and instruction provides students with optimal learning opportunities. As a result, we present professional development programs covering the spectrum of career tracks and disciplines within the commercial real estate industry.”

How then does this translate to the workplace?

“The focus of our programs is on development, financing, investment and construction as they pertain to real estate. Employ-

“

REAL ESTATE IS A UBIQUITOUS, ESSENTIAL COMPONENT OF OUR LIFE AS IT AFFECTS US ALL AS WE WORK, LIVE, LEARN, WORSHIP AND PLAY IN REAL ESTATE.

ment opportunities for graduates are extensive, with the number of persons directly employed in real estate (including commercial construction) exceeding 4.5 million, and several million others in related fields, including law, accounting and financial derivatives based on real estate. With total ‘institutional grade’ real estate now amounting to more than $6 trillion and perhaps an additional $4 trillion in more entrepreneurial real estate assets, the degree of sophistication required in this field is becoming increasingly advanced.

“As a result, the demand for individuals with the right skill set will only grow. REI’s programs provide that enhanced educational experience, including a sophisticated skill set that, along with our networking and mentoring opportunities, enables our graduates to advance in their current careers or transition into their own businesses.”

You oversee programs for adult and nontraditional students. Tell us about some of the other courses and certifications PCS offers.

“PCS offers programs for people who are looking to improve their credentials and update their skills or who wish to reinvent themselves completely. We began as a school for adults who were looking to finish their bachelor’s degrees, but we’ve expanded to be so much more than that and, of course, we pay particular attention to veterans, who make up about 25% of our population. We

person and protecting vulnerable people and places on the planet.

That’s what we do best.”

have a rapidly growing postbaccalaureate premed and pre-health program for career changers who have a bachelor’s degree but need certain science courses to apply to medical school or other health professions like veterinary medicine, physician’s assistantships, dental school, etc. We recently launched a Master of Science in Applied Health Informatics, which teaches students to use big data and artificial intelligence to improve patient outcomes — really cutting-edge work.

“As we speak, we are exploring new programs in hospitality, information technology and health care. We also have a number of noncredit offerings, including several youth programs. One of our newest programs is a sport business bootcamp for high school students that will be offered out of our Westchester County campus this summer. We’re a nimble group and if we see a need for a certain skill or training, we are able to ramp up and get it going in a short amount of time.”

April WAG focuses in part on business and the environment.

Do any of your programs — or will future programs — explore the relationship between business success and environmental stewardship?

“Absolutely. Fordham PCS students can major, minor or have a concentration in environmental studies, which looks at sustainable business from an economic, ethical, political, environmental, philosophical and global perspective.

In addition, the business courses we offer in conjunction with other schools at Fordham always incorporate environmental considerations into their curricula, whether in management, communications, economics or other areas. And our Real Estate Institute takes a practical approach to teaching proptech (property technology) and sustainable building practices to help developers learn not only how to protect the planet but do it in a way that is practical and profitable for a business.

“But even if a student doesn’t major in environmental studies or take a class in sustainable business practices, every student at Fordham will graduate with some type of education related to the environment. It’s part of our DNA as a Jesuit university. The Jesuits believe that spirituality cannot exist without a full respect for and understanding of the environment, and we have a responsibility to educate toward this idea. Environmental stewardship in business is not just a course. It’s a way of thinking. And you are not going to

change people’s actions until you address their values. We teach students to think about the root causes of environmental problems — and the social problems that are intertwined with them.”

So what then is PCS doing to help the environment?

“We at PCS have reduced our carbon footprint substantially, particularly in the last few years. We have gone paperless in our application process and in our student files — hundreds of pounds of paper — and we’ve moved a lot of our intercampus meetings to Zoom to decrease the need to travel. Most important, we educate people.

That’s what Fordham does. Our students can only graduate if they complete a senior values seminar, and one of those is an environmental ethics seminar. This helps students look at our moral duties related to the environment and the social factors related to them.

“We not only deal with topics like global warming, alternative energy and biodiversity loss, but we look at these through the lens of environmental justice and other scientific, economic, political and design dimensions. For example, we talk about environmental racism. Why are all of the toxic dumps located in minority group neighborhoods? How will these communities be affected as climate change worsens? Fordham is about educating the whole

You could’ve made your career simply as a consultant.

What drew you to teaching and college administration?

“A most perceptive observation.

I started teaching religious studies on Sunday mornings when I was still a teenager and then, when I came to the States and started a soccer program, I placed a great emphasis on the instructional and strategic components in addition to the practical side of the game.

It was during that period of time that I started to experience the incredible personal fulfillment and satisfaction of seeing one’s efforts bear fruit in others. It continued throughout my teaching career at the university level, watching former students excel and advance and receiving letters and emails from them extolling the value of what I had taught them and how instrumental it was in helping them. I’m still receiving them some 10 years later.

“It's a high that resurfaces with the same intensity as the one I experienced from the outpouring of adulation I received from my young teenage team of athletes-cume-soccer-debutants after we won a tournament against a team from an academy coached by the Brazilian great Carlos Alberto. Using my business and entrepreneurial skills to conceptualize, create, develop and administer programs gave me the opportunity to affect hundreds of students concurrently, not just the ones in my classroom, and it afforded me the opportunity to do good while doing well.”

For the complete interview, visit wagmag.com. For more, visit Fordham.edu.

BY JEREMY WAYNE

Well-fed, well-rested at Bedford Post Inn

Room No. 7. Photographs by Bret Wills.

Reflecting pool at The Bedford Post Inn.

As travel returns to normal and we recommence our wanderings to exotic and faraway places, one thing the pandemic may have done is to rekindle our joy in places close at hand. The Bedford Post Inn is one such place.

What makes it special?

In part, its location, location, location.

Set on 14 acres in bucolic Bedford, the inn is a member of the prestigious Relais & Châteaux organization — a collection of some of the toniest small hotels and inns across the globe, including a smattering in the American Northeast — which along with its locale lends it cachet. Last but not least, there is its unimpeachable celebrity status. The Bedford Post is famously co-owned by actor Richard Gere and wife Alejandra Silva, residents of North Salem, who by all accounts are handson, spending a good deal of time on the property.

Still, at the end of the day, and certainly at cocktail time, none of these elements would count for very much if the inn didn’t deliver a very decent bang for your not inconsiderable buck. Having last visited 10 or more years ago — during which time Gere had divested himself of the restaurants, which are now under the ownership and management of Alchemy Consulting, but retained ownership of the inn — I was interested in catching up with developments.

Arriving on a bitterly cold evening as winter was trying hard to have a last, nor’easterly laugh, I was greeted at the door by Lucas, a cheery young man who offered me a glass of good, cold Prosecco before escorting me with a minimum of fuss to my lovely, cozy room, No. 7. Cold be gone — the room thermostat was

turned to a toasty 73 degrees and further heat emanated from the flickering, not merely decorative, flame-effect fire in the corner.

What the room lacked in actual amenities — no snacks to speak of and no mini bar, although serve-yourself coffee, tea and sodas are available in the small downstairs living room — it made up for in comfort. I really appreciated the firm California king bed (so big I nearly got lost in it), with its crisp white linens, the soft lighting and the polished hardwood floors. And the bathroom was a veritable palace — a full-sized, clawfoot bathtub; inlaid marble floor; vast shower cabinet; Molton Brown products and Frette bath sheets the size of sails.

The casual, French-flavored restaurant at the inn, known as The Barn, is now under the baton of Alchemy partner, chef Roxanne Spruance, who arrived in 2020. She has a clutch of awards and excellent green and sustain-

ability credentials, having previously put in time at the former wd-50 in Manhattan and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills. (The inn’s more formal restaurant, The Farmhouse, is set to reopen next year).

What you’ll find, on entering The Barn, are tea lights on the tables and thick candles on the mantle above the stone fireplace.

It’s a veritable sea of hygge, with oak beams above and more beautiful hardwood floors underfoot. Quickly seated by the host at a comfortable table near the patio entrance, I observed, in a thoroughly non-PC way — but nevertheless as a sentient human being one cannot help noticing — that my fellow diners were unreasonably good-looking.

My skin-deep reverie was short-lived, however, broken by my server leaning over the table, peering into my eyes and asking me in the manner of a kindergarten teacher speaking to the neediest child in the class whether I wanted anything to drink. (“Apart from water, that is,” she giggled). She enunciated each word slowly and deliberately. I said I would — perhaps a glass of Pinot Gris? “Oh yes,” said Catherine — that was her name. “We have just the thing.” And she did.

A French-speaking threesome at the next table, whom I fancied, perhaps pruriently, were involved in a kind of “Jules et Jim” — style setup, added a François Truffaut-esque sophistication to the proceedings. You’d expect nothing less of this upscale inn.

Like you, I was brought up not to eavesdrop but sometimes it is plain unavoidable. At another table, two couples were already making seasonal beach plans.

“Come and stay two weeks, three if you like,” said the lady in the expensive quilted jacket. “We’ll be there all summer.” “Oh no, we couldn’t do that, a week at most,” her friend replied. Take the offer while it lasts, I thought to myself.

Bread with whipped lardo made a great introduction to

APRIL 2022

WAGMAG.COM

21

Chef Roxanne’s menu and her paper-thin Alsace tart was a truffled explosion of flavor. A little burnt at edges, this flatbread was a feat of engineering, which held its incredible crunch while still supporting the topping of cheese. It is pizza’s new, younger, sleeker model, I decided. Next up, beignets with a sauce gribiche — I’m a sucker for this condiment, a saucy French play on mayonnaise — and a side serving of Steely Dan. I was, I’ll admit it, on the lookout for the Geres, who were so far no-shows. What did arrive, on cue, was my steak entrée, the meat already sliced as I noticed increasingly is the preferred way of serving beef these days. It amplified the sense that I was a nursery child still learning to chew. At the other table, Jules said he’d have the ice cream sandwich and Jim added, a little suggestively I thought, that he’d have a bite. The lady seated between them, being French (or conceivably Belgian), declined dessert altogether.

It was an excellent dinner, overall. And since the restaurant takes center stage at this property, I think it is helpful to think of The Bedford Post Inn as more of what the French call a restaurant with rooms, rather than a hotel with a good restaurant.

That said, “regular” breakfast service at the Inn has been suspended during Covid and at the time of my visit had still not been reinstated. In its place, the following morning, breakfast arrived on a tray, brought to my room by a charming lady in a Shetland Isles jumper, who greeted me as if she knew me, so that for a moment I had the feeling of being a

The Barn Restaurant.

Yoga Loft.

22 APRIL 2022

guest in this lady’s very comfortable Scottish manor, rather than a paying hotel guest.

Later that morning, I had the pleasure of meeting Julia Vanburen, who manages the inn. She explained that some upgrades were made to the property during the pandemic, mainly to do with infrastructure, along with some routine maintenance and painting of the guest rooms, but nothing radical. (Some of the landscaping and hardscaping is the work of the Morano Group LLC. See our cover story on Page 10.) We agreed that there was no point in change for the sake of it.

“In fact, recovering from Covid is the hardest thing we’re dealing with right now,” Vanburen said.

Apart from eating and sleeping, the third main activity at the inn is yoga. Janet Schuman is the program director, operating out of a second-floor yoga loft.. “We are part of it (the inn),” she said, “but we have our own world-class yoga community.”

She pointed out, too, that in true, nonjudgmental yoga fashion, the studio was completely free from any sense of snobbery or elitism. “We add to guests’ experience by interacting with them, and vice-versa. Everything is super-relaxed.”

My night and short day at Bedford Post Inn came to an end all too soon. There had been no sign of the Geres, nor any other celebratory sighting, but as I drove out of the parking lot, I felt well-rested, well-fed and ever-so-gently touched with stardust. It was a nice feeling.

For reservations, go to bedfordpostinn.com

WAGMAG.COM

24 APRIL 2022

WAGMAG.COM

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

By 2017, Bedford 2020 had more than doubled its efforts, reducing emissions by 44%. But why stop there, particularly when the situation is so dire? This past February, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report that spelled out the consequences of global warming increasing by 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit over the next two decades. Heatwaves, droughts and floods leading to species extinction and food and water insecurity in Africa, the Arctic, Asia and Central and South America await us even with just a temporary exceeding of the 2.7-degree threshold.

“We have just a short window to reverse this situation,” says Midge Iorio, executive director of Bedford 2030, which seeks to reduce

Taking on climate change in Bedford

In 2009, a group of concerned Bedford residents got together to see what they could do about climate change close to home. The Bedford Environmental Summit drew 1,000 community members and led the town to adopt Westchester County’s first Climate Action Now plan, which set itself an ambitious goal — reduce greenhouse gas emissions 20% by 2020.

greenhouse gas emissions in Bedford by 80% by 2030 and to preserve the town’s natural resources.

“We don’t want people to be paralyzed by this. We want them to act on it.”

In a recent conference call with WAG, Iorio and Karen Sabath, Bedford 2030’s board president, outlined a three-pronged approach: Buildings — Bedford 2030 enables homeowners in any community to have a free Zoom consultation with coach Bob Fischman to help make their homes more energy-efficient.

Transportation — “We are big proponents of encouraging people to make their next car electric,” says Sabath, noting that there are federal and New York state rebates available for electric and hybrid vehicles. (She is speaking to us from the road in her electric Hyundai Kona.) Bedford 2030 also encourages alternatives to automobiles — walking and public transportation — and is working with the town to add more bicycle lanes.

But even taking the bus adds to the carbon footprint, so Bedford 2030 is also working with local schools to acquire zero-emission buses, Iorio says.

Rooted solutions — “As we go into the next 10 years, we know that reducing emissions is not enough,” she adds. Bedford 2030 has conducted a Natural Resources and Carbon Inventory of the area to replenish trees, forests and wetlands, which mitigate the effects of climate change. Forests

absorb carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming; filter pollutants from rainwater and thus rivers and lakes; and enhance biodiversity. Wetlands also improve water quality, afford coasts flood protection and lessen shoreline erosion. Bedford 2030 has promoted what Iorio calls “an increase in our tree canopy” with sales and plantings of saplings.

“Providing opportunities for community members to plant trees will continue to be a priority going forward,” she adds.

Another way to help the environment, Sabath says, is to allow your lawn to go to meadow, thus eliminating the pesticides and herbicides used to maintain a green lawn.

And landscapers and other gardening enthusiasts can also contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions by using electric-powered blowers and mowers instead of gas-powered machines that add to noise pollution as well — something Bedford is considering, Iorio says.

Meanwhile, she adds, Bedford 2030 is encouraging the community to reduce food waste by buying only what it needs and engaging in more effective composting — returning vital nutrients to the soil instead of to the garbage pile.

As you might expect, Earth Day (April 22) is a red-letter day on the organization’s calendar, but it’s not the only one this month as Bedford 2030 celebrates Earth Month. The fifth annual Bedford 2030 Earth Day Festival will be

held noon to 4 p.m. April 24 at Depot Plaza in Bedford Hills. Bedford 2030 hosts a free energy coaching event with Bob Fischman, "Wine, Cheese and Bob," from 7 to 9 p.m.

April 28 at Bedford Playhouse.

Capping the month off at 9 a.m. April 30 on Zoom are the finals of the Greenlight Awards, a competition open to high school students in Westchester County that rewards creative solutions for environmental conservation and restoration, like a solar-paneled bus shelter and an elementary-school composting project.

Bedford 2030 is also teaming with the Boys & Girls Club of Northern Westchester.

“It’s their future,” Iorio says of the big emphasis on youth programs. “It’s their world.”

In the meantime, it’s one we can all enjoy with the organization’s Moon Dance fundraising gala at 6:30 p.m. May 21. The event, which will feature a farm-to-table dinner, will celebrate goals and accomplishments past, present and future.

Will there be a Bedford 2040?

Not if Bedford 2030 plays its environmental cards right — exceeding its goals and getting to zero emissions.

“Our greatest achievement,” Sabath says, “will be if we can put ourselves out of business.”

Supporting Bedford 2030's Climate Action Now movement.

Courtesy Bedford 2030.

For more, visit Bedford2030. org. And for more on the May 21 Moon Dance fundraiser, email Midge Iorio at midge.iorio@Bedford2030.org or call 914-6202411.

APRIL 2022

WAGMAG.COM 25

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

More than a heating company

Dan Singer, president and CEO of Robison.

Photographs courtesy Robison.

26 APRIL 2022

WAGMAG.COM

Dan Singer with employee John Smyth.

Dan Singer is a man made for the moment.

As president and CEO of Robison — the Port Chester-based, family-owned home comfort company — he must contend with oil and gasoline prices that have soared, first on the heels of Covid-fueled inflation and then due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

What customers and the general public need to understand, he says, is that “we don’t make the products. We have to buy and sell them and are subject to the same volatility and stress as our customers.”

It’s one of the reasons that Robison is about so much more than supplying natural gas and oil — actually biofuel, a clean, renewable blend of heating oil and biodiesel, which is made with vegetable oil (soybean and palm).

“Heating, cooling, air quality solutions, plumbing, electrical: What we like to say is that we provide everything to make you comfortable in your home.”

With the cost of oil and natural gas skyrocketing — up 80% and 60% respectively — Singer is bullish on clean energy. (Indeed the company has trademarked the slogans “Green is the new kosher”; “Green begins at home”; and “Making the world green one home at a time.”)

That green energy includes geothermal heat pumps, which Singer calls a “fascinating technology” and which operate on the premise that the ground below Earth’s surface maintains a constant temperature of 55 degrees Fahrenheit. In winter, the pumps

draw heat from the ground into your home, reversing the process in summer when they transfer hot air from your home to the ground.

Air source pumps work on the same principle, Singer says, transferring warm air out of your home in summer and using air outside the home to warm it in winter.

Air source pumps are less expensive, he adds, but they are also less efficient.

The vast majority of Robison customers in Westchester, Fairfield and Putnam counties use biofuel or natural gas, with the company the largest supplier of biofuel in the area and one of the largest suppliers of natural gas.

(Nationwide, half of homes use natural gas; 8%, oil.) Asked which is better, Singer demurs, saying he must remain impartial. According to experts like Bob Vila of PBS’ “This Old House” fame, natural gas is in general cheaper and cleaner but provides less heat per BTU (British Thermal Unit, the U.S. standard heat measurement) than oil and can carry the risk of carbon monoxide and explosion. Keep in mind that to use natural gas as your heat source, you must live in an area that can pipe it into your home. Despite Con Ed installing a large, New York state-mandated

main gas line in Scarsdale as part of a new transmission line extending from the Bronx to White Plains, the utility has placed a moratorium on new natural gas connections in all but the northernmost municipalities in Westchester. (Those unaffected by the moratorium include Buchanan, Cortlandt, Croton-on-Hudson, Lewisboro, North Salem, Peekskill, Pound Ridge, Somers and Yorktown.)

Meanwhile, New York state has good news for residents using a bioblend biofuel, offering a 10-cents-per-gallon tax credit for 2021. (That’s $100 on every $1,000 spent.) Robison uses a blend of 10% biofuel in their oil, which qualifies. Singer sweetens the pot for those customers who purchase biofuel and the company’s 100% green electricity — offering a free electric vehicle charger.

Singer sweetens the pot for

those customers who purchase biofuel and the company’s 100% green electricity — a free electric vehicle charger. (Singer, a Briarcliff Manor resident, husband and father of three, has driven an electric car for 10 years.) Electricity is just part of Robison’s versatile portfolio, which also includes which also includes plumbing, electrical, mold detection, chimney cleaning, and air duct cleaning.

Though Robison began in 1921, the Singer family didn’t acquire the business until 1984. By then the Singers had been in the heating business for 57 years, beginning with Singer’s great-grandfather Sol, grandfather Harry, father Saul and brother David.

Singer grew up in Ardsley and graduated from Syracuse University, working for 10 years at PepsiCo in human resources and as manager of labor relations.

Dan Singer with employee Mike Stewart.

But Singer — whose personability is immediately apparent in our phone interview — says his interactions were mainly with other executives. The more successful he became, he says, the more removed he became from the people PepsiCo served. Now he heads up a business of 175 employees in

which interacting with the customers is vital. The results speak for themselves. In 1984, Robison had 7,000 customers. Today, that number has nearly quadrupled, underscoring the company’s motto, “The House That Service Built.”

For more, visit robisonoil. com.

GREEN ENERGY TIPS FROM ROBISON The average American household spends almost $2,000 a year on utilities. But Robison says you can cut that number by 25 percent with these tips: •

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Schedule a home energy and indoorair quality audit. By ensuring that your home’s ducts, walls, attic surfaces, windows and doors are properly sealed and insulated, you can greatly reduce your home’s energy costs and impact on the environment.

Replace older energy systems and appliances with Energy Star models.

This can cut operational costs and energy dependency significantly.

Install a programmable thermostat to manage your home’s seasonal temperature requirements more effectively, including reducing the output when no one is home.

Only run your dishwasher when it is full, and air dry the dishes rather than using the drying cycle. The same goes for clothes washers. Also, hand dishwashing requires only four gallons of water per use, while automatic dishwashing requires 12 gallons.

Turn off lights, computers and computer monitors in all rooms when not in use.

Unplug any plugs when not in use (for example, phone and laptop chargers).

These items still use electricity while seemingly dormant.

Lower the thermostat on your hot water heater to 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

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Take short showers instead of baths.

Clean or replace filters once a month or as recommended by the manufacturers.

Clean air registers, baseboard heaters and radiators regularly – and make sure they are not blocked by furniture, carpeting or drapes.

If you have hot-water radiators, bleed trapped air from them once or twice a season.

Also drain a quart of water from your water tank every three months to remove sediment that impedes heat transfer and lowers efficiency.

Turn off kitchen, bath or other exhaust fans as soon as you can, within 20 minutes if possible.

When it’s cold outside, keep the drapes and shades on south-facing windows open during the day to catch sunlight – and closed at night to reduce the chill.

When it’s hot outside, keep window coverings closed during daytime to prevent solar heat from increasing your home’s need for cooling.

Install interior or exterior storm windows to reduce window-heat loss by 25% to 50%.

Install a whole-house fan to pull cool air through the house and send warm air out through the attic. This can save on alternative air-conditioning costs.

Don’t place heat-generating items such as lamps and TV sets near your air-conditioning thermostat. The sensor will pick up this nearby heat source and run the AC longer than is necessary.

Plant trees or shrubs to shade outdoor

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air-conditioning units, making sure not to bock airflow. If possible, place room air conditioners on the north side of the house. Units operating in shade use up to 10% less electricity than those operating in sunlight.

Position trees, shrubs or vines to provide shade or windbreaks. This can save up to 25% of the energy required for home-energy use.

Install aerating, low-flow faucets and showerheads.

Insulate your electric hot-water storage tank, being careful not to cover the thermostat. The same with your natural gas or heating oil hot-water storage tank, while not covering the top, bottom or burner compartment either.

Insulate the first 6 feet of the hot- and cold-water pipes connected to your water heater.

Consider installing a drain water-waste heat recovery system. The United States Department of Energy recently stated that this can save 25% to 30% for water heating.

Consider installing a natural gas on-demand or tankless water heater.

Researchers have found you can save up to 30%, compared to a standard natural-gas, storage-tank water heater.

Install compact fluorescent light bulbs in your home. They last six to 12 times longer and use far less electricity (saving about $30 per bulb over its lifetime) than incandescent bulbs.

They also produce about 75% less heat, which can cut home-cooling costs.

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Recycling: We accept clean concrete, blacktop, rock, stumps, logs, brush, and leaves at our yard for recycling. Go green by keeping your recyclable construction debris out of landfills and by purchasing inexpensive, high quality, and approved recycled materials!

Construction Materials: Sand, gravel, Item #4, Portland cement, re-bar, wire mesh, concrete block, filter fabric, silt fence, drainage pipe & fittings, plastic drywells, precast boxes & basins, and much more! Delivered or picked up at our yard.

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260 Route 100 • Somers, New York 10589 • 914 232-3275 • LawtonAdams.com • lic WC2139-H89

APRIL 2022

WAGMAG.COM 29

So how did the ‘building’ start? And why dry cleaning?

“I started working in a dry cleaners in Eastchester when I was in high school. The guy — the owner — seemed to be successful and so I got to thinking this was a good business and gradually got into it. I opened my first store in Yorktown, then another in Mohegan Lake and then just kept on going.”

And the state of play now?

“We have 11 stores — in Brew-

30 APRIL 2022

WAGMAG.COM

BY JEREMY WAYNE

Igor, thanks for talking to WAG. Before we get into the serious business of cleaning, tell me a little bit about your background.

“I’m originally from Latvia and moved here when I was 9. I grew up in Mamaroneck. Like any other immigrant child, it was tough for me in the beginning. I didn’t speak the language and really, I came from nothing. I built everything myself.”

GoGreen knows clean

“Water, fire, mold and storm” reads the wording on the fleet of vans lined outside GoGreen Dry Cleaners’ year-old dry cleaning store and processing plant on a bucolic stretch of the Long Island Sound shore in Norwalk. Recently, WAG met with GoGreen founder Igor Madrit to consider the meaning of those words for an entrepreneur as well as the increasing importance of the environment in a business that has often been singled out for harming it.

ster and Mohegan Lake, two in Mamaroneck, one in Pelham, two at Harbor Point and one in Norwalk, and now three in Florida — in West Palm Beach, Jupiter, Palm Beach Island. And we’ll soon be opening another in Miami. We also have a partnership with the Brightline (the new train service between Miami and Orlando) and plan to do drop stores in all their train stations.

How did Florida come about?

“My partner moved south and wanted to copy the model we had here. We considered franchising but have so far rejected it. Like nearly all businesses, ours took a tremendous hit during Covid, but I really believe that by the spring it will start coming back.

It’s been a tough time for sure, but things seem to be on the up.”

GoGreen processing plant in Norwalk.

What makes for being a great dry cleaner as opposed to being just an average dry cleaner?

“Number one, the quality of the cleaning. Number two, I would say, customer service.

Number three, pickup and delivery. Number four is going out there and getting the business, building relationships, marketing, being more strategic. We work with communities. We set up booths at green events (such as the Green Expo in Harbor

under the same umbrella. We help people with smoke-damaged clothes, with soot in their clothes. We have wet-cleaning systems and dry-cleaning systems that get out the smells and all the carcinogens that come from mold and smoke. With fire and water damage, we see what’s salvageable and what’s not. We can deal with insurance companies and even help finding temporary accommodation (for our customers) in apartments and hotels.”

Igor Madrit.

fewer suits, less collared shirts.

People are wearing yoga pants to their offices.”

And operational challenges?

“Finding the right staff is always hard and you have to stay on top of things. If you have one bad apple, it can hurt you a lot, just like in any business. But for my part I’m nice to people. I treat them the way I want to be treated. That’s my No. 1 goal.”

Point and the Green Event at the Hyatt Regency Greenwich).

And we also treat our employees right, so we hang on to them. We pay them a little bit more and get a little bit more out of them, because they’re happy to work here.”

And is it fair to say that effective dry cleaning is compatible with greener dry cleaning?

“Absolutely. We genuinely use greener cleaning. We use silicone, not PERC (perchloroethylene, the most common solvent used for dry cleaning in the United States). PERC is a carcinogenic, which causes a lot of problems.

A lot of old-school dry cleaners are very sick now because of that.

(With silicone), there’s no smell, clothes come out brighter and

softer and they last a whole lot longer, because silicon doesn’t interact too much with the fibers.”

Besides your own commitment to greenness, is the business changing generally, and if so, how?

“Yes, it’s changing… the old mom and pop store, with just the one shop, no pickup and delivery service… that’s going away at this point. And it’s not such a corporate environment either, you know, especially since Covid,

Any future plans?

“Day by day. I do have some ideas. We want to open up more stores in Florida, focusing more on pickup and delivery and the concierge service, as well as developing the restoration side of the business. “ Ah yes, I was coming to that.

Tell me about it.

“We’re really two businesses — Go Green and Go Green Restoration of Norwalk, which I got into a couple of years ago, although

And mold is a big one, right?

“For sure. Mold grows on dust — people don’t realize. They have allergies or get sick and a lot of the time they don’t even know they have mold in their home. So, it’s very important to educate our clients. We do testing. We send tests to the laboratories. We get the results back and see if the levels are high or low. People can (even) go to their doctor to check the mold levels in their blood.”

Fascinating. A very scientific approach.

“Yes, it is very scientific. You know, a lot of the time people will tell us, ‘Oh, we have a little water in our house,’ but what they won’t know is that it might be Category 3 water, which means it might be mixed with sewage water, with a lot of viruses and bacteria. And air — air is very important. You’ve got to clean your HV systems yearly, or at least every couple of years because you breathe this stuff…the same if you have a lot of rugs or drapery.”

You’re making me nervous.

“I don’t want to make you nervous, but let’s say… let’s just say, it’s especially important to be clean these days, with all these viruses that we know are around.”

For more, visit gogreendrycleaners.net and gogreenrestoration.com

32 APRIL 2022

WAGMAG.COM

BY DEBBI K. AND WILLIAM D. KICKHAM

The long unwind

When we say that our recent Caribbean voyage on Regent Seven Seas Cruises was typified by “going to great lengths,” we mean it in two ways. One is just how exceptional the service was. It frequently went aboveand-beyond the call of duty. Case in point: To be eco-friendly, Regent gave each passenger a stainless-steel thermal water bottle, no longer stacking boxes of singleserve plastic water bottles on ship. The laudable goal? Saving the Earth from millions of plastic bottles ending up in oceans and landfills.

When your own bottle ran low, you just visited any of the Vero Water dispensers sprinkled around the ship.

This luxury brand of still and sparkling water is the best-tasting water we have ever had. Reason: The water is ultra-purified using a five-stage, high-grade nanofiltration system, which is state-of-theart. This process not only yields especially pure and great-tasting water, it helps reduce pollution and reduces everyone’s carbon footprint. Impressive.

However, our main experience of “going to great lengths” is that we sailed for 33 days on Regent Seven Seas’ 718-passenger Mariner. Indeed, longer cruises are a trend right now, and short cruises are sinking in popularity. “The world cruises for Regent, Oceania and other cruise lines went on sale and sold out in just one day,” said Nancy Yale, luxury travel adviser at Cruise and World Travel in Fairfield. “The world cruise for 2023 sold out overnight. Also, people have been working remotely and now they know they can even work on a cruise ship.

People are going on longer cruises. They don’t want to go for one week. They are even combining three back-to-back cruises.”

With that said, one of our primary goals in taking a longer trip was to examine and experience what specific benefits might be obtained on an extended cruise — not your average 10- or 12-day itinerary. Would the experience be repetitive? Would it be difficult to be away from home so long?

Would the onboard experience lose its luster after two weeks or so? The answer to these questions was a resounding “No.” Almost every day, the ship was filled with wonderful, new discoveries — whether we were at sea or in port. No two days were alike, with entertainment, engaging enrichment and a wealth of other enjoyable experiences.

Just as we were putting the

Regent Seven Seas Cruises — like the 33-day voyage Debbi K. and William D. Kickham took around the Caribbean — are part of a touristindustry trend to give passengers more time to relax and immerse themselves in the experience.

Photographs courtesy Regent Seven Seas Cruises.

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finishing touches on this article, Regent announced two new shore excursion concepts. The 10 Behind the Design tours, exclusive to European destinations this summer, will focus on architectural marvels. The over-150 Eco-Connect tours enable passengers to learn from businesses and community groups around the world how they engage with the environment.

The new Behind the Design and Eco-Connect tours were created to offer experiences that even the most seasoned traveler has yet to enjoy,” Christine Manjencic, vice president of Destination Services, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, said in a statement. “We are immensely proud to add these two new touring concepts to our already varied portfolio of incredible destination experiences, which include Free Unlimited Shore Excursions, Regent Choice Shore Excursions, Go Local tours, Gourmet Explorer tours and Wellness tours.”

To us, however, our ship was so beautiful — it was a dreamboat — that it could’ve serve as the destination itself. We were consistently impressed with the quality of the attentive service, which almost always went the extra mile and which leads us to recommend longer cruises (14 days at a minimum).

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With a 10-day trip what typically happens is that, following a flight, it takes about two to three days to rest up and become acclimated to the ship, and by day four you’re getting mid-cruise or disembark notices. (Not fun).

When you are on a truly luxury cruise ship, you don’t want to deal with thoughts of disembarking.

You want to extend — and extend some more. Another advantage to cruising for a long period of time is the opportunity you have to make and cultivate new friends, versus just acquaintances.

In our travels, we have met many world-cruise passengers who became friends with other world-cruise passengers — and now they schedule their trips to-

gether. We have even met single folks who met other singles on a world cruise — and now they are couples, cruising the world together. Longer cruises really give you ample time to get to know others — the passengers and the crew — and you make wonderful friends. You even have access to the performers, and it’s always fun to meet them for coffee or dinner.

Even an extended itinerary passes far too quickly. After spending 33 days, there still weren’t enough hours in the day to absorb all that was offered and to see everything there was to see. During the last week we were still discovering private nooks and crannies, including a crackling fireplace in the library and the iced Frappuccino lattes in the Coffee Corner.

Becoming acclimated to new surroundings can easily result in falling into a pattern of following your own familiar routes on the ship each day, versus exploring parts unseen. This can short-change the overall experience, so we made sure to use the extended time to experience fully what every part of the ship had to offer, from stem to stern. Definitely worth it.

Spoiler alert: Yes, you will be spoiled. Just one example: We met a world-cruise couple who upon boarding, visited the Mariner bar and ordered a glass of scotch. The ship’s inventory only included The Macallan scotch, and this couple casually commented on this to the food and beverage director. Faster than you can say, “single malt,” one of the crew disembarked, and bought a bottle of The Glenlivet just for this couple. That’s stellar service. Our penthouse suite came with butler service — and our butler attended to a variety of items for us, from mending clothing, to mailing postcards, to purchasing Graham crackers especially for us, to doing all of our washing and ironing. Beds even come with a pillow menu, and you can also have your sheets changed daily.

One improvement needed in the penthouse suites is in the size of the TV screens. Perhaps Regent could swap the size of the art prints that grace the suites for the

size of the TV screens. Apart from this, the penthouse suites were spacious and comfortable.

One of our favorite things to do was to park our posteriors in the ship’s giant saltwater pool. We packed a pink tube, which our butler inflated. As we bobbed around in the bubbly water, we aimed to be mindful, to be grateful — to be in the moment. We weren’t the only ones who felt that way. We spoke to a world-cruise guest one afternoon around 4 p.m. and asked him what he was doing for dinner that evening. “To tell you the truth,” he said, with a big smile, “when I’m on a long cruise, I don’t think that far ahead.” Now, don’t you long for a longer cruise?

For more, visit rssc.com. And follow Debbi on Instagram at @ DebbiKickham.

BY JEREMY WAYNE

Madrid, Meliá, marvelous 36 APRIL 2022

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The hoteliers and developers of Madrid have been busy. The city — not short of good hotels, although in recent years, shall we say, lacking in great ones — has seen a recent explosion of new, top-notch hotel openings, reaching its apogee at the height of the pandemic. At the top end, Four Seasons, the luxury brand previously conspicuous by its absence, has entered the Spanish market with panache. Its first-ever Spanish property — bang in the center of town, just steps from Puerta del Sol —is the amalgamation of seven early-19th century buildings, many of which formerly functioned as banks or insurance companies. No wonder the full restoration took eight years. But the result is superb, with original, soaring marble columns, stone and marble fireplaces and exquisite wrought ironwork incorporated into typically contemporary Four Seasons design.

And hot on the Four Seasons’ unveiling last summer, the long-shuttered Ritz, which we are now obliged to call Mandarin Oriental Ritz Madrid — a mouthful that few Anglophone travelers can get their lips around — opened its (no longer revolving) new doors to universal plaudits. Renewed and refreshed and not before time, the Mandarin Oriental people have given this grande-dame — the Madrid hotel of choice for everyone from Mata Hari to Elton John — the full-on refurb treatment. With a reported renovation budget of $115 million, this Ritz was always going to be a radical refit. But money doesn’t always amount to good taste, so it’s lucky that finesse and

Twin chefs Sergio and Javier Torres double the delights at the Gran Meliá Palacio de los Duques’ Dos Cielos restaurant.

Photographs courtesy Gran Meliá Palacio de los Duques.

refinement are two things that the Mandarin Oriental group possesses in spades.

My personal choice of where to stay in the Spanish capital, however, is the only slightly less-grand but comprehensively box-ticking Gran Meliá Palacio de los Duques,

which opened in the heart of historic Madrid back in 2016.

Occupying the site of the 13th-century Convent of Santo Domingo, which later became a palace and home to the dukes of Granada de Ega and Villahermosa, Palacio de los Duques is the near-perfect hotel for a business trip or family vacation for style, comfort and, not the least, sympathetic pricing.

Converted into a luxury hotel by leading Spanish hotel company

Meliá, the reimagined ducal palace takes the work of the great Spanish artist Diego Velázquez as the inspiration for its interior design — the great storehouse of Velázquez originals, of course, being the Prado Museum, barely a half-mile away.

So, while on the one hand the hotel could be said to be gilding the lily, with its vast reproductions of the master’s paintings looming large on its walls, walkways and even guest-room bedheads, there is no mistaking this enchanting property’s profound sense of place.

As for its location, it is first-rate, right in the cultural heart of Madrid, with many of the city’s most important monuments — the Royal Palace, the Teatro Real and the magnificent Almudena Cathedral among them — just a short stroll away.

At the hotel entrance, a formally clad doorman with a fondness for winking sets the tone. Traditional in the best sense this hotel may be, but its staff is laidback and personable. No one stands on ceremony, a sense immediately borne out by the line of seated front-desk agents and concierges waiting to attend to you just inside the door. Switchedon, attentive and working harmoniously together, this friendly, helpful team contributed as much to the enjoyment of my stay as virtually any other element.

Assailed now by the heady scent of flowers as you make your way to the elevators, you will discover that these are not indeed fresh blooms perfuming the air but the hotel’s signature scent, called “Intuitive,” which is not for sale in stores but may be purchased at any Gran Meliá property, of which there are now eight in Spain and a further six worldwide.

You don’t get marble bathrooms at the Palacio, or at least I didn’t, but you do get the most generous room size per respective room category in the city, as well as Clarins products and the best water-pressure in the shower of any Madrid hotel I’ve recently tried. That in itself means a home away from home for Americans. Coupled with a whirlpool and small swimming pool on the roof —

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Gran Meliá Palacio de los Duques’ and rooftop jacuzzi.

A guest room at Gran Meliá 2022 WAGMAG.COM 38 APRIL Palacio de los Duques.

perfect for a restorative dip after a long day’s business meetings, museum-trudging or sightseeing — it means the hotel’s waterworks, so to speak, are fully turned on. Furthermore, there can be few more heart-stopping city-views in all of Spain than of Madrid laid out at your feet in the glow of the setting sun, as seen from the Palacio’s rooftop.

For further “watering,” repair to the hotel’s ground floor Coroa bar.

The bartenders mix fearsomely good, strong drinks and cocktails here, such as a G&T — Sipsmith gin and Fever-Tree tonic in equal measure — which you can enjoy in the well-appointed bar itself, or in the hotel’s beautiful and historically important garden, fragrant with box pines, bay trees and azaleas.

And at the hotel’s on-site Dos Cielos restaurant, run by Barcelona’s celebrated restaurant brothers, Javier and Sergio Torres, the Spanish art of sobremesa — spending hours around the table savoring dessert, coffee, liqueurs, even playing board games, long after the main event of dinner has ended — is a cultural practice actively promoted. For your part, all you have to do is bring along a reasonable constitution, the willingness to enjoy yourself and a disregard for the lateness of the hour. Very Madrid, that.

Besides, any overindulgence can be counteracted the following day with a visit to the Palacio’s Thai Room Wellness area, where expert Thai therapists offer a variety of massages, body wraps, facials and body scrubs against a backdrop of Burmese lacquerware, Chinese antiques and Tibetan art. My 50-minute Thaistyle massage, with elements of acupressure and incorporating Ayuverdic principals enjoyed early morning, struck me as thoroughly authentic. Along with pitstops taken at intervals for sootblack coffee, superb tapas and the odd ice-cold cerveza, it set me up well for my day exploring this profoundly rich, multifaceted, ever-evolving European capital city.

For more, visit melia.com.

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Amid the pastoral beauty of Greenwich’s great estates, Oldfield Farm, on John Street, is an equestrian property without peer.

The 14,956-square-foot villa sits on 18.39 acres of lush grounds that include a pair of stables, paddocks and a stick and ball field for polo practice.

French doors along the south façade open onto terraces, loggias, gardens, a swimming pool and a tennis court for those whose sporting passions lie beyond the four-legged.

Inside, an 18-month renovation reveals traditional interiors that include more gaming pursuits (a billiards room, a basketball court) as well as a gym, a paneled library, a wine cellar, a solarium, a home theater, multiple sitting and dining areas — perfect for entertaining — and a primary suite with a sumptuous bath. (There are 9 bedrooms, 10 full bathrooms and six half-bathrooms in all.)

A five-plus car garage and central air conditioning are among the amenities.

Saddle up for seclusion, convenience and timeless elegance.

For more on Oldfield Farm, which is listed at $14,900,000, contact Joseph Barbieri at 203940-2025 or 203-618-3112.

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Your own private club

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Lake Avenue is home to a 1934 equestrian estate on 4 acres. The 5,221-square-foot main Colonial was renovated in 2019, farmhouse-style. The intimate, modern result boasts a new kitchen, new bathrooms and an indoor lap pool with spa. (There are five bedrooms, four full bathrooms and 2 half-baths in all.)

Outside, a greenhouse, a tennis court and an in-ground pool await, along with a 15,000-square-foot outbuilding that includes an 11-stall stable, a tack room, a new three-room office, two caretaker apartments and a five-plus car garage.

Think of it as your own private club.

For more on this Lake Avenue property, which lists at $6,995,000, contact Steve Archino at 203-618-3144 or 203869-4343.

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Mark Buzzetto Sr., owner of Four Seasons Flower Shop.

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY JEREMY WAYNE

Trusting in flower power

When florist Mark Buzzetto took a phone call from his old boss, Frank Yozzo, asking if he would be interested in buying the Mount Kisco flower shop where Buzzetto had worked as a delivery boy 30 years earlier, the proposal seemed inherently right.

“He said to me, ‘I’m retiring and you’re the only person I’m going to sell to — make me a deal,’” Buzzetto tells WAG in a recent interview at Four Seasons Flower Shop.

The deal was duly made.

Back in the late 1970s, while still at high school, Buzzetto had been introduced to Yozzo, who was his best friend’s uncle, and gone to work for him in the afternoons, delivering flowers.

“He was a great boss, a father figure, and a genuinely nice guy to work with,” reflects Buzzetto.

“During those years, I was able to learn most of the skills that, unbeknownst to me, would be the foundation for my future.”

He developed, he says, a true passion for the flower business and, under Yozzo’s supervision and training, discovered a natural ability to design arrangements. But as he continued to learn and perfect his craft, he inevitably wanted to forge his own path. With 10 years of experience under his belt and encouraged

by Yozzo, he took “a leap of faith” — opening the Brewster Flower Garden in 1988, owning and running it for the next 30 years.

Now he has come full circle, looking happy and relaxed among the orchids and the lilies on East Main Street in Mount Kisco. Clearly the flower business suits him. “Yes, it’s a great business to be in,” he concurs. “I just don’t get to have holidays like everybody else.”

His son, Mark Jr, has worked with him for the last seven years — first in Brewster, now in Mount Kisco. “I’m teaching him the whole business so eventually — whenever I retire — I’ll help him out a couple of days a week. He knows what he’s doing.”

Together, they are also upgrading the business, which previously had no website, not even an email address. “(Frank) did no advertising. No one even knew about him unless they were local.” Now, new customers are coming to Four Seasons simply

by Googling the business and loving the reviews. Also, people from New York City will send flowers to people in central and northern Westchester County, because they know there’s a florist they can trust. Having faith in the florist is a big part of the business. Buzzetto notes how people who send flowers will often mention that they are going to be seeing the arrangement themselves in the recipient’s house, implying it had better be nice. His response is to say, “You can’t intimidate me. It’s going to be pretty no matter what.”

He adds that it is not just about price. He cares about what he does and it shows. “I don’t count every little thing like some other shops might. If (an arrangement) needs another couple of roses, or stock or Gerber daisies to look right, we do it. I sleep good at night.”

Trends — styles of arrangements — as well as taste in flowers themselves change over time, says Buzzetto. So, what are people in Mount Kisco enjoying right now? “Hydrangeas are always nice. Personally, my newest favorite flower is (the multilayered, bell-shaped perennial) lisianthus — it comes in different shades.

Snapdragons, stock, dendrobium orchids are really big, and they last a couple of weeks. And always roses.”

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There is a certain snobbism, too. “People will say, ‘no carnations, please’ or ‘no chrysanthemums.’ Carnations get a bad rap, which is a pity, since they are a beautiful flower and they come in beautiful, rich shades. And the scent is gorgeous.” Color and variety, too, can be something of a minefield. “A lot of people do like the same hues together,” Buzzetto says diplomatically.

“Whites and greens, for instance.”

For greens, he currently favors seeded eucalyptus as well as dusty miller.

As for styles of arrangement, the tied bouquet is still “pretty popular,” although shapes tend to be tighter and fuller than the typical dozen long-stemmed roses of yore.

Four Seasons also does event flowers, “weddings, bar mitzvahs, (all manner of) parties.

“And funerals, too — too many unfortunately,” says Buzzetto,

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pointing to an extravagant purple and white arrangement ready for delivery.

Part of Buzzetto’s success in the business stems — forgive the pun — from understanding that his customers always want quality. So, orchids come from Hawaii, Gerber daisies from Canada. And he raves about his roses from Ecuador. “They’re the very best you can get. They hold up two weeks and their heads don’t drop.”

Also, after 30 years in the business, he has great relationships with his distributors. “Like today, somebody wanted peonies for tomorrow. Well it’s too early in the season. But one of my distributors, he said, by hook or crook, I’ll find them for you. And you know what? He did.”

Four Seasons Flower Shop is at 322 E. Main St., Mount Kisco, or visit fourseasonsflowershop. net.

The entrance to Four Seasons Flower Shop in Mount Kisco.

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THE ENVIRONMENTAL HOME

BY CAMI WEINSTEIN

Our homes are our personal spaces in which we live, work, play and recharge. Living through the pandemic these past two years, we have realized that our homes have become — have always been — a central part of our lives, and we want them not only to nurture us but to keep the environment healthy.

In our ever-connected world, there are ways to help achieve these goals.

If you are building a new home or adding on to your home, consider a modular built home or addition. Modular homes are no longer unattractive, box-like structures. Increasingly, there are architects who specialize in prefabricated homes, customizing them to rival any traditionally built home.

Constructed completely indoors in a controlled environment, they are energy efficient, environmentally friendly and can withstand extreme weather. Another consideration is the paint you use in your homes. As a designer, I always recommend low VOC (volatile organic compounds) paints. Low VOC paints have minimal odor and less toxic fumes while offering durable finishes. These paints are much healthier for the environment, humans and pets.

Green building or sustainable building uses many materials that reduce your carbon footprint as well. Although many of these features are more expensive to

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implement, they are also healthier for you and your family in the long run. There are many builders and contractors who specialize and are certified in green building — well worth exploring. If going all green is not an option for you, there are still areas in which a sustainable direction is worth the initial costs. Solar installations will decrease your energy costs, and you will probably have enough energy left over to get an electric car. Tap into that energy and not only save in your wallet but help the environment, too.

Replace old light bulbs with high-efficiency LED bulbs. These bulbs now come in warmer colors, so that you can be comfortable in your home and workspaces. Look for 2700K or 3000K color warmth for the most accurate daylight

color. But any bulb uses energy, so turn off those lights when you leave the room.

Indoors, I like to use organic fabrics, and carpets made of wool or natural fibers that are sustainable. I try to opt for organic cleaners without harsh chemicals. Instead of using plastic containers, I go with glass ones. I often include vintage and antique furniture as well as lighting in my home. It’s truly a stylish way to recycle. (See Page 54.)

So be a traditionalist in some ways but a modernist in others.

Smart homes include thermostats that can be regulated by a touch of your phone from a remote location. These thermostats are amazing and can be huge energy-saving devices.

There are many small ways to improve and care for your environment by taking a little extra time and doing the following things. Save energy and stay healthy by riding your bicycle.

Garden: Growing your own vegetables is not only fun but being active in the garden is a great way

Installing solar paneling on your roof can help power your home and help you save for an electric car, too, writes WAG interior design columnist Cami Weinstein.

to get in some exercise. Instead of blowing your leaves, rake them, adding to the health benefit and cutting down on noise pollution.

Compost: Composting is great for the environment and your garden.

Save water by using rainwater whenever possible to water your plants.

Being aware of nature makes you appreciate it more. Take walks through the woods, meadows and beaches and look at the way nature coexists with animals in their habitats. You’ll appreciate nature and, we hope, will want to help take care of it.

Happy Spring.

For more on Cami Weinstein Designs LLC, email Cami@ camidesigns.com or call 914-4476904.

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GO VINTAGE TO SAVE THE PLANET

BY KATIE BANSER-WHITTLET

Sustainability. Renewable resources. Environmental consciousness.

Recycling. These words and phrases are essential guidelines for a healthy future. It’s not just unfashionable to use things for a short while and then send them to the landfill. It’s plain self-destructive.

Until mass production evolved in the late 19th century, making possible a huge variety of inexpensive goods, almost everyone lived by the old adage “Use it up; wear it out; make it do; or do without.” The concept of disposability, the idea of one-time use only, is a recent development and largely limited even today to well-off people in first-world countries.

A Mira Nakashima Minguren Dining Table (circa 1997), made from maple burl, cherry-sap cherry (two sustainably harvested hardwoods).

Sold for $20,910 at Skinner Inc. Courtesy Skinner Inc.

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Most people who collect antiques and vintage pieces aren’t primarily motivated by a concern for the future of the planet.

But a great side benefit of adopting, adapting and reusing beautiful, well-made older objects is a reduction in new stuff, often created from less durable and less sustainable materials and also sometimes made under questionable labor conditions.

Skinner Inc.’s auctions regularly offer furniture, rugs, tableware and decorative items in a near-infinite range of styles and materials. These are pieces with

a past and a future. And having stood the test of time and use, they are likely to retain and, in many cases, increase their value.

Antique, vintage, old: These terms don’t mean outdated, quaint or useless. Good design and good construction are ageless. Many pre-owned articles are still ideally suited to their original uses and fit seamlessly into current lifestyles and surroundings. It’s no longer considered “risky” or “daring” to mix pieces from different periods.

Indeed, that mixing creates a personal, distinctive look.

Office furniture has to be functional and comfortable.

Vintage, leather-upholstered swivel chairs can offer perpetual bonuses as well, including

durability and good looks. An icon of mid-century Modern design, Eames chairs have been in continuous demand since their introduction in the 1950s. Although supremely businesslike, they are also "at home" in the increasing number of offices.

One of the key design elements of any space is floor covering. It doesn’t have to be run of the mill, mass produced beige/gray blandness. Auctions offer a range of distinctive rugs and carpets, from high-style Persian palace rugs to Scandinavian abstract designs and everything in between. Vintage floor coverings possess a variety of color, pattern and texture that can only be found in handcrafted textiles.

We’re all increasingly aware of the costs of fast food and fast fashion to our personal and environmental health. Fast furnishings present the same dilemma. Thoughtful choice of antique and vintage items for homes and offices makes sense, both in terms of style and cost.

The math is simple. The planet has limited resources for making new things and limited room and methods of dispose of the things we no longer use, need or want.

Going vintage just adds up.

For more, contact Katie at kwhittle@skinnerinc.com or 212-787-1114.

Bidjar Carpet, (Iran, circa 1915), 10 feet by 13 feet, 8 inches. Sold for $8,750 at Skinner Inc. Courtesy Skinner Inc.

Clockwise from left. Alan Kadish, M.D., president of the Touro College and University System; Touro's School of Dental Medicine at New York Medical College in Valhalla, and the Sunshine Cottage at New York Medical College, where Kadish has his office.

BY PHIL HALL

Touro has 35 schools in five states and four countries — including a School of Dental Medicine at New York Medical College in Valhalla — serving nearly 19,000 students. It had already achieved university status at its California and Nevada schools, but with the New York designation, the institution will undergo university-wide rebranding to unify all of its programs and schools under one Touro University umbrella.

Overseeing this transformation at a time when geopolitics (Touro has schools in Moscow and Jerusalem) has dovetailed with heath care is Alan Kadish, M.D. — president of the Touro College and University System, a man whose entrepreneurial skills have been as crucial to his personal and professional success as his medical gifts and Jewish faith.

Born in Brooklyn, raised in Queens and educated in yeshivas, Kadish graduated from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University. He did his postdoctoral training at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, and at the Hospital of

Touro becomes a university in New York

In February, Touro College — the largest Jewish-sponsored educational institution in the United States — kicked off its yearlong 50th anniversary celebration with a special gift: The school was granted university status by the New York State Board of Regents.

the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a fellow in cardiology. He is board-certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease and cardiac electrophysiology.

Before joining Touro in 2009 as senior provost and chief operating officer, Kadish taught at the University of Michigan and had a 19-year tenure at Northwestern University, where he held several posts.

His medical accomplishments extend to the research field, where he has published more than 250 peer-reviewed papers and received many grants, including from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, and contributed to several textbooks.

Kadish is a past chair of the Clinical Cardiology Program Committee of the American Heart Association and has been elected to scientific research and education societies, including the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) and the American Society of Physicians (ASP).

Recently, Kadish — who is married with four children — spoke

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with WAG about the new chapter in Touro’s story at a time of war and lingering pandemic: First, congratulations on the college being granted university status by the New York State Board of Regents.

Why was it important for the school to get the university status?

“We really function as a university. We've got graduate schools and doctoral programs, and the titles simply reflect the reality of what we do as an institution.

“Sometimes, when there's a dissociation between what's real and the title, people don't get to see what's real. So, the university designation was simply an affirmation of the work we've been doing as a university. And it's a reputational thing that matches our name with the reality of what's going on.”

In this process, what goes into the rebranding from college to university?

“From a regulatory standpoint, it has to be approved by the New York State Board of Regents — and the board recently changed some of its rules, although Touro was close to qualifying under the old rules.

“The rules still require graduate programs in three different disciplines. But New York state has 10 different disciplines in which they organize university studies, so you need graduate programs in three of those. It used to be that you needed Ph.D. programs… in three of those, but they changed the rules to be any graduate program in each of those three areas.”

The school recently announced it is planning to build a new 243,000-squarefoot main campus at Times Square in New York City.

What is that project going to entail?

‘We currently own a lot of our facilities. Unfortunately, we don't own facilities (in midtown) Manhattan, so we are taking several current places in Manhattan and combining them into one facility.

What that will allow us to do is have more collaboration among different schools, better student services, outcomes and more efficiency in operations. But the most important thing is that it's going to be a state-of-the-art, brand-new facility. And we think that will improve the quality of what we're able to do for our students.”

In your opinion, what goes into creating high-quality education? What are the key elements that are needed to make a school the finest seat of learning?

“A great question. I would say, first, a faculty that is skilled and caring is by far the most important thing; and education that's focused on developing core skills, but also on preparing people for the job market. I think those are the two most important things.”

We are, we hope, finally emerging from paralyzing impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. In regard to your medical school, are you finding a lot of young people are eager to pursue medical careers today?

“In most cases, applications shoot through the roof, but the exception is the nursing school where we have not seen a spike

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in applications. I think the whole Covid experience created a lot of concern for nurses who, in many cases, were overworked and left on the frontlines — not because anyone wanted to do anything bad, but because the situation was just unprecedented.”

What percentage of your students are coming from outside of the United States?

“It's a very small percentage for us, probably on the order of 2% — other than the students who are on our campuses that are abroad, obviously, where the numbers are very different. We have a campus in Jerusalem and a campus in Moscow.”

What are the college's operations like today in Russia?

Have they been suspended because of the war?

“They haven't been suspended. But we've tried to be responsible to our students but also understanding of the geopolitical complexity. We continue to operate, but we're carefully evaluating what's going to happen in the future. We can't suspend operations regardless of what we think about the political situation, because we have an ob-

ligation to our students. Most of our students in Moscow are in two programs — that is, they get a Russian degree and an American degree.”

How are the students in Moscow? What are you hearing from them in terms of the conditions on the ground there?

“In Moscow, other than the anti-American sentiment — which I think is going to impact our plans for the future — conditions on the ground are fine.”

You also mentioned the Jerusalem campus. (Touro is, of course, known for expanding its offerings to Jewish and underserved communities.)

Israel has been deepening its relationships with countries in the Persian Gulf. Do you have any plans to create campuses or new relations in countries like the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain or any of the other Gulf States?

“We are not planning a campus, but we are working on several possible collaborations. It's too early for me to talk about those in detail, but we are working on several collaborations. We also recently announced a possible collaboration in Turkey.”

For more, visit touro.edu.

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BY PETER KATZ

Medical ethics, then and now

Aug. 20, 1947 marked the end of the Nuremberg Doctors' Trial, in which criminal proceedings had been brought against 23 German physicians and administrators before an International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany.

The defendants were accused of willingly participating in war crimes and crimes against humanity during World War II. These included the systematic killing of people the Nazi regime decided were not worthy of life and conducting medical and pseudoscientific experiments on thousands of people without their consent.

Boston University health law professor George J. Annas will be among the featured speakers at the virtual April 28 Yom Hashoah Symposium by New York Medical College in Valhalla. Courtesy bu.edu.

The 75th anniversary of the trial is scheduled to be marked on April 28 during a Yom Hashoah Symposium held virtually

by New York Medical College (NYMC) in Valhalla. Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, was first marked in Israel in 1949.

This year's commemoration

by NYMC is scheduled to feature a presentation by George J. Annas, the William Fairfield Warren distinguished professor at Boston University and director of the Center for Health Law, Ethics and Human Rights at its School of Public Health. He is also a member of the university’s Department of Health Law, Policy and Management at the School of Public Health and a professor at BU School of Law and its School of Medicine.

According to the Harvard Law School Library's Nuremberg Trials Project, 16 of the Doctors' Trial defendants were found guilty and seven of them were sentenced to death. Seven other defendants were acquitted. Harvard reported that the exper-

iments included “the effects of and treatments for high-altitude conditions, freezing, malaria, poison gas, sulfanilamide, bone, muscle and nerve regeneration, bone transplantation, saltwater consumption, epidemic jaundice, sterilization, typhus, poisons and incendiary bombs.”

The Nuremberg Code — which defines boundaries governing medical experimentation, including the concept of informed consent — grew out of the Doctors’ Trial.

“It talks about consent being volunteering, competent, informed and understanding,” says Annas, who has written or edited 20 books on health law and bioethics. “No one should've been asked to be part of a human experiment unless they volunteered, they did so of their own free will and they knew what was going to happen. They (needed to be) informed not only that they didn't have to take part in this experiment but what the experiment was and what the risks of the experiment were and that they also had a right to end the experiment at any time.”

Annas said that experiments conducted by the Nazi doctors often ended in death and treated the human subjects, primarily Jews in concentration camps, worse than animals. Annas pointed out that even the Nazis had laws against cruelty to animals.

“It was a big deal for the judges to say not that the problem with the German experiments was informed consent but that an issue for all experiments, for anyone who did them in the future, was informed consent,” Annas says.

“The potential subject had to be

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informed and, more than that, had to understand what the risks were of the study that he or she was getting involved with.”

Annas adds that while the medical experimentation that takes place today does not have evil intent, the concept of informed consent is important to protect those who volunteer to participate in clinical trials of new drugs or accept the use of experimental treatments to combat diseases they may have.

“The challenge of taking it seriously remains a core issue. What we've done in the West, actually most of the world, in order to say that we're taking informed consent seriously, is we've set up two procedural devices, which were not known at the time of Nuremberg,” Annas says. “One is the consent form. We now have a form where we write down all of this information that we think everybody should know. That's evidence primarily to protect the research institution that the subject was told about the risks.

The second procedural device is called the institutional review board, in which a group of peers at an institution reviews the research protocol to see if the risks are outweighed by the benefits and that the subject actually understands what he or she is getting involved in.”

Annas expressed a belief that most physicians and public health officials will say they consistently try to take ethics into consideration, but war and pandemics, two current world realities, have always been exceptions to not adhering strictly to rules.

“You have to act fast to save lives. That's the general rationale,” Annas says for bending normal rules of ethical conduct.

“The Nazis used that rationale, too. They said, 'We were at war and in wartime you have to do things for the survival of the country that you might not be able to do in peacetime.'”

When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved administration of Covid vaccines

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through emergency-use authorization, it could not tell people all of the risks and the benefits, because it didn't know. It had only done quick studies, which indicated the vaccines would not kill people.

“It's reasonable. This is a pandemic. Literally, millions of people are dying around the world, and we've got to get something out there to try to save their lives,” says Annas, a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “It's not that informed consent is not an issue. It's not as central an issue as it is in peacetime or without a pandemic. We do let people say 'no,' We're not going to require you to take it if you're going to stay away from people.”

“When we're talking about mask requirements or a vaccine passport, those are not conditions that physicians have set on patients. They're conditions that public health authorities have set on citizens,” Annas says. “We have this big debate, 'We're going to follow the science, we should follow the science, I'm not going to be political.' I think that public health is inherently political, that the judgment about whether everybody should be masked

THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TRIAL IS SCHEDULED TO BE MARKED ON APRIL 28 DURING A YOM HASHOAH SYMPOSIUM HELD VIRTUALLY BY NEW YORK MEDICAL COLLEGE (NYMC) IN VALHALLA. YOM HASHOAH, HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY, WAS FIRST MARKED IN ISRAEL IN 1949. or be able to go to restaurants or travel with or without wearing a mask or requiring a vaccine passport are not inherently medical decisions or scientific decisions.

Those are decisions based on public perception and public health perception of the risks to society, not the risks so much to the individual.”

Annas says that people should be informed by history and he hopes people attending the NYMC virtual event will realize that matters of informed consent, risks and public-health decrees are modern day problems.

Co-founder of Global Lawyers & Physicians, an organization dedicated to promoting health and human rights, he expressed concern about what Russian targeting of medical facilities and personnel during the war in Ukraine shows about how some people view the medical community. The World Health Organization reported that as of March 20, the Russians had deliberately attacked at least 52 Ukrainian hospitals and other health-care facilities.

“This is a big issue. Historically, this concept of medical neutrality was that physicians, nurses, health workers, people bringing food and clothing even, as long as they were neutral, as long as they didn't take up arms, they should be outside the fight,” Annas says.

“They should be free to go wherever they want to go. They should not be captured, not be part of the war at all. That was more or less observed until about the last 20 or 25 years. It just went away.

To blow up hospitals is a war crime. But we haven't taken it seriously enough. We haven't been horrified. We have to get that back. The white coat and the Red Cross and (Red) Crescent should give you freedom to practice medicine in a war zone without being targeted. It's just barbarism right now.”

For more on the Yom Hashoah Symposium, visit nymc.edu/ news-and-events.

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BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

Yet that was the case when WAG called Sherri L. Sandel, DO, FACP. Our reputation had surely preceded us. But we quickly realized that this was key to Sandel’s perspective on medicine: “I love a person-centered approach,” she says. “It starts with the patient and making the process all about that.”

It’s a philosophy that has guided her to her new post as medical director for Northern Westchester Hospital/Northwell Health in Mount Kisco, where she continues to implement the kinds of programs that integrate staff and give patients a starring role in their own care.

“It used to be that each department was separated by profession,” she says. “The nurses did nursing. The doctors did their thing. But it’s a team that takes care of the person. And one of the most important people on that team is the patient. The patient has to have a voice….”

At Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan — another Northwell Health hospital, where Sandel served in various capacities, including physician adviser for patient experience and chief of the hospitalist division — she was cited by the health network for two innovative, large-scale programs. Goodnight Rounds found doctors and nurses checking in on patients together in the evening to review their day and see what was coming up in the next. Let’s Connect enabled staffers to voice their needs and those of

Medicine with a personal touch

Usually when you meet a new doctor — and especially as a journalist when you interview one — you try to find out all you can about the physician beforehand.

It’s rare that you discover that the doctor knows all about you.

the patients — anonymously and in weekly huddles.

This integrated approach continues at Northern Westchester Hospital, which Sandel joined in 2018, serving as associate medical director, director of hospital medicine and director of medical education before becoming medical director last October. House Calls involves a team — including a case manager, a nurse, a nurse practitioner and a doctor — caring for the homebound. Presurgical Home connects the patient with everything and everyone s/he needs before surgery, thus eliminating last-minute pressures and anxiety. And Readmission Reduction takes a multidisciplinary, SWATteam approach, Sandel says, to cases involving those who make more frequent hospital visits, usually at the end of life, to see if they need to be in a hospital or at home — thereby decreasing hospital stays and infections. (Sandel says that the hospital has not seen a urinary tract infection in four months and few cases of C.diff (Clostridioides difficile, a bacterial infection that causes severe diarrhea and colitis).

Another area of interest and

expertise is teaching. Sandel — who has been an assistant professor at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell in Hempstead, New York, since 2017 and remains director of medical education at Northern Westchester — says the hospital has medical students from New York Medical College in Valhalla and physician-assistant students from Pace University in White Plains. It does not yet have residents but will apply at the end of the year to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) to establish an internal medicine residency program at the hospital. Applications would then be accepted in 2023, with residents arriving in 2024.

Sandel — who grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and holds Bachelor of Science degrees in biology and Spanish from Muhlenberg College and a doctor of osteopathy from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine — started out in the more research-oriented field of immunology before switching to the more holistic one of internal medicine. She completed her internal medicine residency at Lenox Hill, becoming chief medical resident. There she also received an HIV Fellowship certification under Ladan M. Ahmadi, M.D., whom she still considers a mentor.

Sandel sees parallels and differences between the HIV/AIDS

crisis of the 1980s and the Covid pandemic of today, which has killed more than six million people worldwide, about a sixth of them in the United States.

From the 1980s when it was first identified — it actually developed in Africa in the first half of the 20th century — until 2020, AIDS has killed 36 million people. Some 37 million are living with the disease, more than half of them in Africa.

And while there are reports of two people being cured of AIDS, a more virulent HIV variant has been discovered in The Netherlands. In general, AIDS remains an illness that can be treated, but not cured, with an antiretroviral drug therapy.

It took, however, years for that drug therapy to be developed, Sandel says, whereas it was only a few months before we had the vaccines to mitigate Covid-19. She marvels at the “wonderful therapies” that have become the chief weapons in combating these infectious diseases but notes that just as AIDS has become a chronic disease, like certain cancers, Covid will remain with us like the flu, moving from pandemic to epidemic status.

What Covid has taught us is the importance of the basics — hand-washing, which is most important, she says; other forms of hygiene; and something that always went against the American grain: “If you don’t feel well, don’t go to work.”

At the same time, she says, “People need to get back to living, to be outside and socialize.”

Sandel is a black belt in mixed-martial arts and does kick-boxing and Krav Maga, a kind of military self-defense and fighting system developed by Israel.

The Somers resident is also married with two boys ages 10 and 7.

Of them, she says: “They take it all away at the end of the day.”

Sherri L. Sandel, DO, FACP, the recently appointed medical director of Northern Westchester Hospital/ Northwell Health in Mount Kisco.

Courtesy Northwell Health.

For more, visit nwh.northwell. edu.

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Personal trainer Billy Goda seen here with Dobbs Ferry client Jocelyn Brose believes that his objectivity helps spur his clients: “I’m a fitness professional who’s a friend, not a friend who’s a fitness professional.”

Photograph by Ally Cali.

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BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

But, he says, 80% of Americans don’t work out. Also, 80% of the people who belong to gyms don’t use them. Thus some 70% of Americans are “deconditioned,” having lost fitness and muscle tone through lack of exercise.

These people are not lazy, Goda says. What they could use is a personal trainer, such as himself, to show them how to work out properly, which will in turn garner results and continue to motivate them.

Trainers, of course, cost money. Goda will not say what he charges but notes that an industry standard is $100 to $200 an hour. But, he adds, 95% of Americans can afford to pay a trainer $100 a week for one session or $1,000 for three months, to learn how to work out properly and achieve results. All they have to do is give up eating out once a week.

An initial workout with Goda — who calls his business Bull Fit Health and Wellness — involves an assessment, particularly of the body’s core (the upper and lower abdominals and the sides, or obliques), which is key to alle-

FIT TO LIVE

For fitness professional Billy Goda, fitness is the essence of life.

“What do you get from fitness?” he asks. “You get more energy. You sleep better. You’re more confident. And you alleviate pain.”

viating back trouble, he says.

“If the core is strong, everything can be strong.”

After warming up the heart and waking up the body, he has the client engage in more challenging movements. Variety is important.

“You can’t do the same thing over and over again. You can’t just walk on a treadmill for 30 minutes.”

With a trainer, you don’t have to reinvent the fitness wheel.

“You learn what the trainer has been doing his whole life.”

Growing up in Ardsley, where he attended public schools, Goda was passionate about sports and writing. At Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, Goda majored in English and theater and wrestled. Why wrestling?

“It’s one on one and there are no excuses, just you and another guy.”

It’s also a team sport that can teach you how to confront fear.

Goda says that the nerves you face before taking to the mat prepare you for other challenges you’ll face. (These are life lessons that the Croton-on-Hudson resident passes along to his children, both of whom play team sports — his son, basketball, baseball and football; his daughter, lacrosse and field hockey.)

It was his love of writing that led Goda to a career in fitness.

At Columbia University, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in playwriting, Goda applied for a work-study job and wound up managing the university’s fitness center on weekends, helping others who were also working out. When he graduated, he went to work for Definitions Private Training Gyms in an era (the early 1990s) when there weren’t as many gyms as there are now. He taught fitness and he coached high school basketball.

At the same time, he obtained a number of writers’ grants so that he could concentrate on writing plays that he describes as “existential thrillers.”

“I made sure I had a lot of time to write,” he says. “I was writing, living in (New York City), young and loving it.”

His “No Crime” (1999) was included in the anthology “Best American Short Plays.”

“Dust” (2008-09) was produced Off-Broadway.

“It got mixed reviews,” he says.

“But I’m proud of it.”

Having tasted that success, however, Goda found his relationship with writing changed.

“I always think writers are people who can’t not write,” he says. He likens it to a love affair.

You finish a work and think the affair is over. But then come the rewrites and you think, “Thank

God, we’re dating again.”

Yet after “Dust,” he says, “I didn’t feel compelled to write.”

He went to work for New York Sports Club in Dobbs Ferry and started creating a system that led to his book, “The Personal Trainer’s Roadmap to Success.” He read business books like Jim Collins’ “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t.” He left New York Sports and joined the teams at the Saw Mill Club and Saw Mill Club East, both in Mount Kisco, leaving once Covid hit to start his own business. His goal now is to get three to five clubs to implement the fitness system he outlines in his book. He also wants to put his video on alleviating back pain on YouTube.

Along the way, he adds, he has acquired the 10,000 hours that journalist Malcolm Gladwell says you need to master a skill — “10,000 hours of writing, 10,000 hours of fitness and 10,000 hours of training.

“The key to being a trainer is you have to be passionate about it,” he says. “You want your clients to believe in the dreams they thought they no longer possessed.”

Among those clients are people who are 93 and 98 — mentally acute and playing tennis and golf.

“When you work out, you have a better quality of life. It sharpens you intellectually.”

Or as one client told him: “I can’t believe I have muscles at 75.”

For more, email billygoda@ gmail.com.

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KENYA & TANZANIA

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Drive through breathtaking views of Mountains and Highlands.

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Hundreds of game living in their free and natural habitat.

One of the seventh wonders of the world.

Boat excursion.

Colorful cultural experience.

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WAGMAG.COM 69

BY ABBE UDOCHI

Bullard is widely known as “the father of environmental justice.”

Newsweek named him among the top 13 environmental leaders of the century. His words take me back to 1979, the year I first heard about “the environment.” I was in the fifth grade and, on a sunny day the teacher taught us about the dangers of pesticides in the food we eat and pollution in the air we breathe. She talked about the value of clean water and the benefits of solar power. Now that I think back, she may have been the first environmental activist I’d ever met. Here was a 20-something teacher speaking passionately to a group of 10-year-olds about the responsibility we each had to protect not only our planet but vulnerable people who could

THE CLIMATE CRISIS — NOT FOR MILLENNIALS ONLY

“The right to breathe is a basic right,” says Robert Bullard, Ph.D., distinguished professor of urban planning and environmental policy and director of the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at Texas Southern University.

“The right to have access to clean energy and food and communities that are not under water… these are basic rights elevated above civil rights. These are human rights.”

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not speak up about such things for themselves. Unfortunately, 43 years later, that fifth-grade lesson plan is just as relevant to children today-actually far more.

Many environmental activists, including revolutionaries like Bullard, now age 75, and my fifthgrade teacher, began this journey when they were young. While studies show that activity and financial support to combat climate change and move to carbon neutrality is driven by younger groups, many seniors remain actively engaged and continue to make significant contributions to the cause.

FLO BRODLEY, ‘SMALL-TIME ACTIVIST’

Flo Brodley of Somers, 84, defines herself as “a small-time

activist” who became an environmentalist in 1970 on the first official Earth Day — April 22.

In the 1980s, as a teacher at P.S. 89 in the Bronx, Brodley launched recycling programs for her students and encouraged kids and parents to join environmental organizations such as the Rainforest Alliance, the World Wildlife Fund and Greenpeace.

Students gathered newspapers and donated funds collected from recycled bottles and cans.

Fast forward to 2019 when she lamented the melting icebergs on a trip to Antarctica with her granddaughter. “The ice shelves are disappearing into the sea, drastic signs of a warming planet.

It’s pathetic,” says Brodley.

Today, she is on Somers’ all-volunteer Energy and Environment

Committee, which held an Earth Week in 2016, and serves as energize ambassador with Sustainable Westchester, continuing a role she began through New York State Energy Research Development Authority (NYSERDA). She hopes the monthly programs on making homes more energy efficient will resume as Covid wanes.

“The less energy you use, the less cost for you and the better for our planet,” she says. She also contributes to the maintenance of a solar farm that credits her energy bill.

“Right now we’re in a crisis,” she says. “It was about making sure the world doesn’t fry. It’s gotten worse. Now it’s not just fossil fuels. It’s methane fires and peat bogs that release carbon. When I started, I was trying to help

Robert Bullard, Ph.D., distinguished professor of urban planning and environmental policy and director of the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at Texas Southern University. Courtesy drrobertbullard.com.

make a better world for my children and my students. Now it’s to make sure we all survive.”

Should more people of all ages take action? “Absolutely,” Brodley says. “It’s critical and even a small role helps.”

SUSAN SCHWARZ, PRESERVING THE PLANET

Susan Schwarz, 84, became involved in preserving the planet in the 1980s. She organized a committee on the environ-

ment through her local League of Women Voters, which drew 2,000 to an environmental fair in 1991. She worked on environmental shopping tours that showed how to choose eco-friendly products and helped distribute 400 videos on the movement, garnering awards from the White House and others.

After retiring, Schwarz moved from Chappaqua to Tarrytown, where she has chaired the League of Women Voters Environment Committee for Westchester County for a number of years. The group is currently supporting a package of legislation that includes electrification of new buildings, similar to a law recently passed in New York City.

She is a member of the Westchester chapter of the Climate Reality Project, founded by former American Vice President Al Gore.

Last year, Schwarz helped put together a Zoom meeting on NYSERDA’s Climate Smart Communities. This year, on April 13, she is organizing a program on the perils of plastic, “one of the most serious health threats of our time.”

A grandmother of eight, she says, “We need an international mobilization to become fossil free. There’s no reason we can’t use solar power and windmills.

It’s a tragedy that it doesn’t seem to be happening. Too many people in positions of power are looking at their own self-interest.

Most people are keeping their heads in the sand.”

THE ANDERSENS, RIVERLOVERS AND MORE

Gunnar and Cynthia Anders-

en of Croton-on-Hudson, in their 70s, are active in the Riverlovers Sloop Club, an affiliate of Hudson River Clearwater Sloop Inc. in Beacon, the group launched by folk singer-activist Pete Seeger in 1969. Gunnar is the president while Cynthia is the editor of Riverlovers Currents, the newsletter, and the secretary.

The group, largely on hiatus since Covid, had monthly potluck meetings, visited recycling and other sites, and assisted in beach cleanups. While Riverlovers welcomes all ages, members happen to be 65-plus. “We try to be sure an activity won’t involve many stairs as some use walkers,” he says.

Cynthia says the couple moved out of New York City because “We couldn’t breathe with all the pollution. I want a good environment. Climate Change is wreaking havoc with our forests.”

Kirsten Andersen, 77, Gunnar’s sister, is a member of Riverlovers, plus NYCD 16-Indivisible’s environmental committee, Concerned Families of Westchester and Food & Water Watch. She regularly participates in programs and rallies.

RAGING GRANNIES AND ELDERS CLIMATE ACTION

If anyone doubts the commitment, witness Elders Climate Action, seniors “determined to do all we can to leave a sustainable planet for future generations,” and Raging Grannies, an international organization of social activists.

Clearly, older people are not only aware of climate change, but active in the fight.

For more, visit cocierge-care. com.

GINGER AND TURMERIC

Ginger helps tame inflammation by halting the body's production of cytokines, which are proteins that trigger chronic inflammation. Bonus: It can also help alleviate an upset stomach and regulate blood sugar levels.

Turmeric is part of the ginger family and is often used in Indian cooking. (See Page 78.) It is actually the curcumin found in turmeric that makes it so potently anti-inflammatory. Research has shown that turmeric reduces inflammation related to arthritis, diabetes and other diseases.

CINNAMON

Cinnamon is one of those foods that can help you fight inflammation, writes Giovanni Roselli, WAG’s wellness columnist.

FIGHTING INFLAMMATION

BY GIOVANNI ROSELLI

“Inflammation is in the background of every single major illness.”

— Julie Daniluk, nutrition expert

Inflammation has become one of the buzzwords in the health and wellness industry over the last several years. It is the body's natural reaction to injury and infection and can be either acute or chronic. Acute inflammation would go away within hours or days.

Chronic inflammation can last months or years, even after the first trigger is gone. Let me be clear, in some circumstances inflammation isn’t a bad thing and actually quite necessary. What I will discuss here is the inflammation that we don’t want to hear about.

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The most common reasons for chronic inflammation include autoimmune disorders, exposure to toxins such as pollution or industrial chemicals and untreated acute inflammation, such as from an infection or injury. Other conditions linked to chronic inflammation include arthritis, cancer, heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.

What you eat plays a big role in preventing and fighting inflammation. The power of nutrition can once again play a major factor. Here are some top anti-inflammatory foods that have been shown to be very helpful. It will come to no surprise to many of you that this list is filled with foods we have all heard about before.

FATTY FISH

Research shows that the omega-3 fatty acids in fish such as salmon, tuna and herring help significantly decrease serum concentrations of inflammatory markers.

They also help boost brain function and heart health. To reap the benefits of omega-3s, aim to eat 3 ounces of fatty fish daily.

This spice has been shown to help lower and balance blood sugar, improve memory and alleviate menstrual cramps. Its high concentration of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds protects the body from oxidative stress, fights infections and repairs tissue damage.

GARLIC

Along with its antibacterial, antiviral and antioxidant properties, garlic contains a sulfuric compound called allicin, which has an anti-inflammatory effect.

Plus, it's so easy to add garlic to almost anything you cook. The finer you chop it, the more allicin is released.

Do your best to keep inflammation in check by choosing a wide variety of anti-inflammatory foods to lower inflammation and reduce risk of illness. Given the circumstances of the past several years the inflammation in our bodies is something we should most certainly consider and prioritize.

Wishing everyone a wonderful spring season and as always, please feel free to reach out to me with any questions.

Reach Giovanni at giovanniroselli.com.

YOUR NEXT

CHAPTER: Estate Planning Considerations for the Newly Retired By: Lauren C. Enea, Esq. Congratulations on your retirement! Like many, you probably have a bucket list of things you would like to accomplish such as travel the world, spend more time with your grandkids and take up a new hobby.

While these are all excellent ambitions, the milestone of retirement is also a good time ensure your finances, beneficiary designations, estate planning and longterm care strategy is in proper order. The following are some bucket list additions the newly retired should consider: 1. Create an inventory of all your assets, accounts, safety deposit boxes, retirement accounts, beneficiary designations and digital assets.

Throughout your life you have accumulated a variety of assets that are held in different ways. Creating an inventory of all your assets will not only help you prepare to meet with a financial advisor or estate planning attorney, but will also be invaluable to your family and/ or spouse in the event you are unable to handle your own finances or pass away.

2. Review your monthly income needs and create a budget for your expenditures.

One of the most obvious changes in lifestyle after retirement is your monthly income. It is important to make sure that you have reviewed and made any necessary Social Security and/or Pension elections, and determined the Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) you will receive from your retirement assets (IRAs/401ks) on a monthly or annual basis. Qualified monies typically do not require the RMD be taken until age seventy-two (72). That being said, your monthly income needs may require taking the RMD from these accounts early. This decision, along with your Social Security and Pension elections should be reviewed with your financial advisor, plan administrator or perhaps an individual who specializes in optimizing Social Security and retirement elections.

3. Meet with an Estate Planning and Elder Law Attorney Ensuring your estate planning documents are updated is crucial during this next chapter of your life. You will want to make sure that you have designated an agent to make medical decisions for you in a Health Care Proxy, along with an agent(s) to make financial decisions for you in a Power of Attorney, in the event you are unable to make said decisions yourself.

Your Last Will and Testament and if you prefer, a Revocable Living Trust should be created or updated so as to ensure you have taken advantage of all estate planning options available to you and have properly named the beneficiaries, executors and/or trustees in accordance with your wishes. If your assets are held in a revocable and/or irrevocable trust, upon your death you will avoid the need of a probate proceeding. Having a trust can also allow for ease of transition to those you want handling your affairs in the event you become incapacitated and can no longer manage your affairs.

In addition to avoiding probate, an Irrevocable Medicaid Asset Protection trust can be used in order to do Medicaid Planning.

4. Engage in long term care planning Engaging in long term care planning will help you determine if and how you will be able to pay for the cost of your long-term care, in the event you need assistance in your home (a home health aide) or in a facility (assisted living facility or nursing home). Paying for long term care can be

done in a variety of ways, including by using your life savings, using long term care insurance, or taking steps to become eligible for Medicaid benefits. Having a conversation in with an Elder Law attorney may be beneficial to determine what your exposure to the cost of your long-term care is, and what steps you can take to minimize said exposure.

Lauren C. Enea, Esq. is an Associate at Enea, Scanlan & Sirgnano, LLP. She concentrates her practice on Wills, Trusts and Estates, Medicaid Planning, Special Needs Planning and Probate/ Estate Administration. She believes that it is never too early or too late to start planning for your future and she enjoys working with individuals and families to ensure that their estate and long- term care plan best suits their needs.

Ms. Enea is on the executive committee of the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) Elder Law and Special Needs Section and is also the Co-Editor of the NYSBA Elder Law and Special Needs Section Journal. She is admitted to practice law in New York and Florida. She can be reached at (914) 948-1500.

245 Main St Suite 500, White Plains, NY 10601 www.esslawfirm.com

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BY JEREMY WAYNE

A sister restaurant it may be, but Hinoki quickly parts company with Miku and a third sibling, Kumo Sushi in Scarsdale.

The new joint has a smoochier, jazzier vibe, underscored by its “speakeasy”-type cocktails (a live DJ will soon be installed in the booth near the entrance). And the menu, while originally conceived as sushi-based, has developed into more of a pan-Asian, tapas-style affair, with many more hot and “main” dishes than Miku. Hinoki is also considerably bigger in size than its older relatives and set to grow even bigger when it expands into the recently acquired clothing store next door later this year. When it does, with more than 4,000 square feet, it will be the largest restaurant in Greenwich. (Hinoki is also set to launch in Darien, with further branches in Fairfield County coming shortly.)

Hinoki is divided into three distinct areas, with the first, slightly sunken room, which also houses

GOOD EATS ‘ON THE AVENUE’

Less than a month before the onset of Covid, I wrote in WAG about Miku, a new Japanese restaurant in Greenwich. Smart and sophisticated, Miku survived and indeed flourished through the first year of the pandemic, so much so that last May, its plucky owner, K. Dong — always known as K — opened a second site, across the street and down the hill, at 322 Greenwich Ave.

the restaurant’s long, attractive bar, being the most “high energy.”

Here, the music volume is amped, service is swift and cocktails are poured with an almost manic urgency. Even early in the week, it offers a great vibe. Farther in is a narrower, slightly calmer space with comfortable booths, adjacent to the part-open kitchen, for some added theater. Lastly, at the rear is a brightly lit sushi bar, where the sushi chefs work tirelessly behind the gleaming counter — irresistibly Instagram-able in their gleaming white jackets, black chefs’ caps and masks. Along with six stools at the counter, there are three large, comfortable tables for relatively quiet, civilized dining, and the entire third-room space can be closed off for small, private events.

The menu, which is the same for lunch and dinner and covers all areas of the restaurant, is divided into raw bar, soup and salad, dim sum, hot and cold appetizers and “signature mains.”

Added to this are classic and “signature” rolls; nori taco (taco cases made of nori and holding luxury assemblies, like king crab and wagyu beef); and an à la carte section to build nigiri sushi or sashimi combos of your own.

Of the many dishes we tried, the nori tacos of top-grade A5 wagyu and Spanish-caught tuna presented on a vast block of Himalayan salt, with a delicate topping of olive, avocado and mustard soy sauce were among the most spectacular, as visually arresting as they were delicious to eat. Hot on their heels came an extravagant Toro tartar with caviar, served over ice and bathed in soy sauce, and a dim sum sampler.

These were four beautifully presented, individual ‘jewel-cases,’

Hinoki’s front bar.

Photographs courtesy Hinoki.

with edamame, crystal shrimp and shredded duck, fresh and piping hot in the steamer.

Next up came that old dependable, miso black cod — here cooked slightly “wetter” than is usual, so that the pearls of flesh did not fall so uniformly but none the worse for that. In a second main dish, meanwhile, slices of deep-flavored prime ribeye, sizzled under a beguiling wafu (slightly sweet, slightly sour, with a touch of fruit) sauce.

The pièce de résistance, a king crab rice hotpot, a winning combination of starch and flaked crab, lay somewhere between an Italian risotto and a Chinese congee, or porridge, although the subtle flavors were somewhat traduced, at least in my view, by the overuse of commercial truffle oil. Still, washed down with silky, ever-so-slightly fruity Soto sake, served at room Dim Sum delights.

temperature, this was a wonderful supper overall, in which the finest, most authentic ingredients were treated with absolute professionalism by a highly skilled kitchen brigade.

Incidentally, if you want to enjoy this kind of quality Asian fare at home, Hinoki will cater small or even large parties for you, setting up an exact replica of its sushi counter, or laying-on an omakase (or “leave it to the chef”) feast, in your home or at a specific venue.

Another crab dish, meanwhile, less ambitious in its preparation than Hinoki’s hotpot but no less enjoyable — certainly hitting the spot when you fancy it ¬— is the jumbo lump crab cake available at another Greenwich Avenue newcomer, Ruby and Bella’s Restaurant & Bar. Located in the SaksWorks store (Page 10), this new restaurant comprises an all-day bar and French-style café, complete with French bistro-style chairs at

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Ruby & Bella's restaurant and bar. Courtesy saksworks.com.

the front and on the street, with a slightly more rustic, full-service restaurant at the rear. Undoubtedly upscale and agreeable though the Avenue is, there are only a handful of cafés worthy of the name, so this neophyte is a welcome addition to the scene.

True, the café menu, with some good breakfast items, including house-made yogurt and fresh pastries, is a little limited (and not enhanced by distracted service on the day of my visit).

There can, however, hardly be a more appealing place to sit and enjoy a morning cup of coffee than in the sun-dappled front room. But it’s the restaurant be-

hind where Ruby & Bella’s really comes into its own. Carefully made New England chowder, a classic Caesar salad and the aforementioned crab cake all make good starters, while Faroe Island salmon, served with spaghetti squash and a punchy, Black Label burger cooked rare, especially impressed in the mains.

And since there are few bargains to be found on the ambitiously priced wine list, you might just

want to settle for a bottle of Pol Roger Champagne — Winston Churchill’s favorite — and call it a day with an elegant drink at a not-too-inelegant price, served with a flourish on Connecticut’s most elegant “Avenue.”

For more on Hinoki, including reservations, visit hinokigreenwich.com.

For more on Ruby & Bella’s, including reservations, visit saksworks.com.

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Photograph by Aditya Menon @ adimphotography.com.

SALUTING A UKRAINIAN TRADITION RAJNI MENON The siege of Ukraine is a sorrow beyond words. Like most of you, I feel for the people of Ukraine, and I’d like to dedicate this recipe to its amazing, strong people. One of the popular brunch items in Ukraine has been deruny, or potato pancakes, usually served with a dollop of sour cream.

I have come up with my own Indian twist on this Ukrainian favorite.

May the people of Ukraine one day once more enjoy deruny in peace.

For more, particularly information on Rajni’s cooking classes, visit creativerajni.com.

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AN INDIAN TWIST ON DERUNY INGREDIENTS: 1 potato, grated 1/8 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 cup white onions, grated 1 ½ teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon garam masala A pinch of turmeric powder 1 egg 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

INSTRUCTIONS: 1. In a mixing bowl, combine all the spices well. Set aside.

2. In another mixing bowl, line a sieve and grate the potatoes and onions into it. The liquid will drain into the bowl. Discard it.

3. Squeeze the potato-onion mixture so that any remaining liquid is drained out. Add the potato-onion mixture to the spice mix and combine well, adding the rest of the ingredients — the ginger, baking soda, all-purpose flour and egg. Mix well.

4. Heat a skillet with grapeseed oil and spoon 3 tablespoons of the mixture into the pan, cooking the pancake for 3 to 4 minutes. Once brown, flip the pancake to cook it on the other side.

5. Repeat for the remaining batter. Serve with a dollop of garlic mayo and scallions.

FROM WAG’S EDITOR COMES A TRUE STORY OF A YOUNG WOMAN COMING OF AGE AND FINDING LOVE AND LOSS IN WARTIME NEW YORK. THEGAMESMENPLAY.COM

WINES FROM A CHARMED LIFE STORY AND PHOTOGRAPH

BY DOUG PAULDING

Everyone knows that guy, or woman, who saunters through life and wonderful opportunities just seem to fall in place, day after day, year after year.

I have met any number of famous wine people. Georges Duboeuf (Beaujolais), Michel Rolland (wine consultant), Adrian Bridge (Fonseca Port), Kevin Zraly (“Windows on the World Complete Wine Course”) and Ed McCarthy (“Wine for Dummies”) are but a few of the industry leaders I have had the opportunity to meet and taste wines with and discuss what they are promoting.

But I got downright giddy when I was invited to a one-on-one tasting in Manhattan with Paul Hobbs of Paul Hobbs Winery and Hillick & Hobbs.

Paul’s parents, Joan Hillick and Edward Hobbs, were from Niagara County outside of Buffalo, New York, where they had 600 acres of farmland planted to fruit trees.

A tight labor market didn’t deter them and as their plantings grew, so did their family. Soon enough, after bringing 11 children into the world, they had created their own work force. At some point in 1970, as second-born Paul was coming of age, Edward asked Paul to plant some grape vines. The vines and Paul’s interest in wine grew as his college career flourished. He was accepted into medical school, but Edward urged him to go to the University of California at Davis to learn about wine. At the time, mother Joan was not happy with that decision.

Paul received his master’s degree with an emphasis on comparing French to American oak barrel-extracted flavors in wine.

Robert Mondavi heard of this and immediately put him on the Mondavi oenological team. Paul admits he knew very little at the time but in a short while was asked to partner in the winery with Michael Mondavi to create Opus One, a collaboration between Robert Mondavi and Château Mouton Rothschild, one of the five first-growth wines of Bordeaux.

As Opus One took off, Paul found himself moving toward management and corporate board rooms, but he wanted to pursue his passion for working in the vineyards and creating wine in the cellars. So he bought

Paul Hobbs, of Paul Hobbs Winery and Hillick & Hobbs, with daughter Agustina in Manhattan recently.

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some grapes and found a facility that would allow him to create a wine on its equipment when it was available. And with that, in 1991 Paul Hobbs had a label and some wine to sell. Soon enough he bought some land and planted vines. Then some more. And more, until today Paul Hobbs Winery has 300 acres in California's Napa and Sonoma counties planted to Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir. The region’s Pinot Noir at the time was mostly planted with clippings that had been heat-treated to protect against viruses. Paul is certain this heat treatment essentially killed the “heart” of the vine, akin to Randle McMurphy’s lobotomy in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” None of the Paul Hobbs Pinot Noir vines have been subjected to this heat abuse, resulting in a wine much smoother with pronounced nuance.

Through all of this, wineries in many different countries and a few different continents have asked Paul to come and consult with them on how to improve their wines. He says he has never sought out a client, yet new ones keep calling him. He can never guarantee results, but he insists, “I can contribute in a meaningful way.” Consultant Rolland, a colleague and friend, calls Paul the “world’s second-most important wine consultant” — after himself, of course.

Paul has always had a fascination with German wines of the Mosel River region, notably Riesling. He has visited the Mosel region many times, learning about the river, the mineral-driven soil and Riesling styles. In 2011, Paul returned to upstate New York and began researching ideal planting sites. Two years later, he found the perfect setting on the southeast edge of Seneca Lake on a steep parcel facing the lake with lots of slate and glacial shale to contribute that mineral backbone to the wine. He went on to plant 21 acres of Riesling vines and named the winery for his parents, Hillick & Hobbs. Vines are planted perpendicular to the lake on a western exposure. This allows for less direct sunlight

throughout the day — creating longer hang time for the grapes, which always brings more flavor.

We tasted three of his wines.

Our first was the Hillick & Hobbs 2019 Riesling, its first vintage.

Showing pure Riesling expression and tasting dry, it had flavors of fresh fruit, lemon zest, hints of pineapple and orange flowers. At $35, this wine is a brilliant lakeside-picnic wine, a perfect welcome wine and will pair with any lighter dinner fair, notably fish and ceviche. Our next wine was the 2019 Paul Hobbs Pinot Noir from Sonoma County. Made of grapes strictly hand-harvested at night, this wine presented red cherry notes with strawberry accents and a pleasant, textured spiciness.

At $65, this wine way overdelivers.

And finally, we tasted the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon, which was an ideal vintage for Napa wines.

Showing rich, dark fruit flavors of black cherry with hints of balsamic and a pleasant tannic textural mouthfeel, this $120 Cab will notably anchor any meal.

At 68 years of age, Paul appears a decade or so younger. He clearly hasn’t slowed down a bit and his contributions to the wine world as a winemaker or as a consultant should continue for a long time.

I don’t mean to suggest Paul's direction in life was all luck-driven.

He told me his passionate work ethic and attention to detail were instilled in him by his parents and fully embraced. These played a great part in his success.

Any or all of his wines will impress the wine lover. These wines are available nationwide or by direct purchase. Paul’s seemingly charmed, effortless life is reflected in his wines. They are honest and unmanipulated, from ideal locations. Open some soon. Happy times.

For more, visit paulhobbswinery.com and hillickandhobbs.com. And write me at Doug@dougpaulding.com.

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WHEN & WHERE THROUGH MAY 5 The Greenwich Library’s Flinn Gallery hosts its fourth show of the 2021-22 season, “An Uncommon Planet.” The exhibit features the work of two photographers, Jonathan Pozniak of New York City and Eric Seplowitz of upstate New York, and is curated by Greenwich residents Nancy Heller and Alexis Abram. Both photographers are interested in the natural world, depicting it from different perspectives. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, with evening hours through 8 p.m. Thursdays. 203-622-7947; flinngallery.com

THROUGH JUNE 5 MoCA Westport presents “Punk is Coming,” an exhibit featuring more than 50 photographers, filmmakers and artists whose work defined the punk era that began in the 1970s but really helped define the ’80s.

The exhibit includes rare, neverbefore-seen videos and photographs as well as artworks created by punk musicians and contemporary works heavily influenced by the era. Noon to 4 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays; noon to 7 p.m. Thursdays. 19 Newtown Turnpike. 203- 222-7070; mocawestport.org

APRIL 3 Tarrytown Music Hall presents a concert by The Wailin’ Jennys, an international folk group. 7 p.m., 13 Main St.; 914-631-3390, tarrytownmusichall.org

APRIL 7 THROUGH AUG. 28 The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum spotlights “Fragments of Light, Impressions of Color,” an exhibit of Contemporary Impressionism that opened April 7.

295 West Ave., Norwalk; 203- 8389799, lockwoodmathewsmansion. com

APRIL 7 THROUGH 9 In a return engagement at Fairfield University’s Quick Center for the Arts, Montreal-based

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Through June 5: Roberta Bayley’s photograph “Ramones New York 1976” is part of MoCA Westport’s “Punk is Coming.” Courtesy the artist and TMPG Gallery.

choreographer-dancer Frédérick Gravel presents the American premiere of his newest work, “This Duet That We’ve Already Done (so many times),” in which he investigates what it means to be human.1073 N. Benson Road; 203254-4010, quickboxoffice@fairfield. edu

APRIL 8 AND 9 WSHU Public Radio and the SHU Community Theatre offer “Romeo and Juliet — The Choice,” a live performance of a musical and dance work by pianist Frederic Chiu and choreographer Sandra Shih Parks that reimagines Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet with a unique twist: The audience will vote on the ending.

7:30 p.m. April 8 and 2 p.m. April 9; 1420 Post Road, Fairfield; 203-3717956, shucommunitytheatre.org

APRIL 8 THROUGH 10 The Harrison Players present “Priscilla Queen of the Desert.” The musical follows two trans women who perform

a drag show at a resort town in the remote Australian desert, all while encountering a number of unusual characters, as well as incidents of homophobia. 8 p.m., The Veterans’ Memorial Building, 210 Halstead Ave. harrisonplayers.com

APRIL 8 AND 10 The Westport Library will hold its first immersive three-day festival and conference, VersoFest 2022,” exploring music and media in an intimate environment. 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. 20 Jesup Road; westportlibrary.org

APRIL 9 Friends of Music Concerts Inc. presents a concert with cellist Jonathan Swensen. The performance will feature works by J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Khachaturian and Prokofiev. 8 p.m., Kusel Auditorium at Sleepy Hollow High School, 210 N. Broadway. friendsofmusicconcerts.org

APRIL 9 AND 10 Pinchas Zukerman returns to Stamford to play the Bruch Violin Concerto with the Stamford Symphony. The concert also recognizes the retirement of orchestra board chairman Alan McIntyre with a performance of Mendelssohn’s “Scottish Symphony,” a nod to McIntyre’s homeland. 7:30 p.m.

Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. The Palace Theatre, 61 Atlantic St. 203-3254466; stamfordsymphony.org

APRIL 10 The Ridgefield Playhouse presents “Black Violin — Impossible Tour,” featuring two classically trained violinists and their DJ. 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. 80 East Ridge; 203-438-5795, ridgefieldplayhouse.org

APRIL 13 Deborah Willis, Ph.D., joins photographer Adger Cowans at Fairfield University’s Quick Center for the Arts to discuss the artist’s

CELEBRATING LIFE, LOVE, & THE POWER OF FLOWERS SINCE 1925 4th Generation, Locally Grown & Locally Owned

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WHEN & WHERE

work in a conversation moderated by Halima Taha, curator of the university’s “Adger Cowans: Sense and Sensibility” (June 18). The conversation will be followed by a reception with light refreshments at 6 p.m. Kelley Theater, 200 Barlow Road; 203- 254-4046, fairfield.edu/museum/adgercowans

APRIL 21 THROUGH JUNE 5 The Stamford Museum & Nature Center presents “Robert Dash: Food for Thought — Micro Views of Sustenance: Threats and Prospects,” featuring 36 large-scale color photographs related to the subject of climate change. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Mondays through Saturdays, 11 to 4:30 p.m. Sundays. 39 Scofieldtown Road; stamfordmuseum.org/dash

APRIL 22 THROUGH MAY 7 Hudson Stage Company presents “Off Peak,” a new play about forgiving, forgetting and the healing power of a good delay. The play tells the story of two old flames who run into each other on the evening commute.

However, different views of the same past threaten to derail their connection. Times vary. Whippoorwill Hall at North Castle Public Library, 9 Whippoorwill Road East., Armonk. hudsonstage.com

APRIL 22 THROUGH MAY 8 White Plains Performing Arts Center presents “Side Show,” a new production of the 1997 musical based on a true story of entertainers Violet and Daisy Hilton, conjoined twins who became famous during the 1920s and ’30s. 2 and 8 p.m., 11 City Place, third floor. Wppac.com

APRIL 23 From 2 to 5 p.m., the opening reception for the springtime exhibit at the Colorblends House & Gardens, curated by Bridgeport’s Ursa Gallery. “Ephemeral Utopia” (through May 8) showcases the work of 11 contemporary artists, including Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County (CAFC) members Tara Blackwell, Cris Dam and Emily Teall. The evolving display of springtime blooms in

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April 21 through June 5: Robert Dash’s “Requiem for Pollinators” (2020), archival c-print on aluminum with protective lamination, is part of the Stamford Museum & Nature Center’s “Robert Dash: Food for Thought — Micro Views of Sustenance: Threats and Prospects.”

Image © Robert Dash.

the garden, designed by Dutch garden designer Jacqueline van der Kloet, accompanies the exhibit in the restored 1903 Colonial Revival mansion. Exhibit hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays.

Garden hours: Every day from dawn to dusk. 893 Clinton Ave. colorblendsspringgarden.com

APRIL 23 AND 24 Studio Theater in Exile will screen the documentary “Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band.”

The film follows the jazz pianist as she fought to create a world that could see past her race and gender.

Times vary. 1701 Main St., Peekskill.

Studiotheaterinexile.com

APRIL 24 New Choral Society presents its season finale, “Music of Rutter, Copland and Lauridsen.” The program will feature a cycle of folk songs by John Rutter, paired with choral favorites

by Morten Lauridsen and Aaron Copland. 3 p.m., Hitchcock Presbyterian Church, 6 Greenacres Ave., Scarsdale. newchoralsociety.org

APRIL 28 Fairfield University’s Quick Center for the Arts presents “Open Visions Forum: Isabel Wilkerson on Zoom,” showcasing the Pulitzer Prize winner and National Humanities Medal recipient. Wilkerson is the author of two New York Times bestsellers —

“Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” and “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration.” 8 to 9:30 p.m. 1073 North Benson Road; 203- 254-4010, quickboxoffice@fairfield.edu

APRIL 30 Hudson Valley Writers Center presents its 11th annual “Westchester Poetry Festival,” with seven poets reading from their most recent work. 1 p.m., The Masters School, Estherwood Mansion Lawn, Dobbs Ferry. writerscenter.org Presented by ArtsWestchester (artswestchester.org) and the Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County (culturalalliancefc.org).

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