West Side Spirit March 29, 2012

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March 29, 2012

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Notes from the Neighborhood Compiled by Megan Bungeroth

ESPAILLAT GUNNING FOR CONGRESS

ANOTHER GROCERY STORE GONE? Last week we reported on the labor dispute that may force neighborhood favorite Food City, on Amsterdam Avenue between 94th and 95th streets, to close its doors.

Now we’ve discovered that another nearby grocery store may be on its way out. A neighbor reports that the shelves of the Associated Supermarket on Amsterdam Avenue near West 99th Street are looking mighty bare, and a person answering the phone at the store on Tuesday said that they may indeed be closing for good. The store is slated to get the final word on its fate from the bigwigs this Friday.

ROSENTHAL SUPPORTS WORLD WATER DAY Last week, on International World Water Day, Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal highlighted this year’s theme of “Water and Food Security” by emphasizing the link between access to and maintenance of sustainable fresh water resources and the security of the global food supply.

“We live in an increasingly interconnected, globalized society, and we must be aware of how our consumption patterns, combined with the impact of global climate change, affect the availability of fresh water and food around the world,” said Rosenthal.

She cited the fact that climate change is expected to reduce the amount of rainwater available for agriculture, creating an increasingly competitive fight for resources in developing countries.

Joining in the public awareness campaign, Upper West Side company Rubicon Property invited people to walk through the still-unfinished doors of its new storefront on Columbus Avenue hauling jerricans, the

HEALTH CARE PLEA

andrew schwartz

Patients from the St. Mary’s Healthcare System for Children gather to deliver handmade cards to the district office of State Assembly Member and Health Committee Chair Richard Gottfried, asking him to protect Medicaid for the growing number of medically fragile children across the state.

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Several weeks ago, State Sen. Adriano Espaillat denied any interest in running in a primary against Rep. Charlie Rangel, who currently occupies the northern Manhattan congressional seat, in an interview with City & State. “He’s a well-liked guy and he’s a legend. It’s tough to run against a legend,” he said. Several weeks later, Espaillat opened a congressional exploratory committee. Now, sources close to Espaillat confirm that the state senator has begun circling petitions to collect signatures for a run for Congress.

He testified in federal court last week in support of a congressional district that solidifies an African-American voting block as well as the creation of a new Latino seat.

After all his advocacy for a Latinomajority district, Espaillat had little choice but to put his money where his mouth is. Rangel responded by releasing a laundry list of his 30-plus-year career in Congress and reaffirmed his intent to run for re-election.

PRAYER FOR THE VICTIMS IN TOULOUSE

After lighting candles, Rabbi Allen Schwartz (far left) leads a group at the Jewish Center in prayer during a show of support for the families of the victims of the shooting at the Ozar HaTorah Jewish School in Toulouse, France. Joining the rabbi on stage were Lea Tolub Frank from Toulouse, Emmanuel Fhal, Lyor Dahan and Ron Meir from the Anti-Defamation League. containers that many people in developing countries use to carry fresh water long distances. The company donated $1 for every person who did so to Charity:Water, the international organization that digs fresh-water wells in developing countries.

Rubicon confirmed that they raised about $600 during the event, including donations from curious passersby who wandered in, to be donated to the charity, and that they plan to host similar community events when their office is fully functional.

BROCKHOLST TENANTS UP IN ARMS Some tenants of the The Brockholst Apartments, at 101 W. 85th St., are once again decrying their landlord’s alleged disregard for safety. Resident and president of the tenants’ association Marta White says that the building’s management, a company called 85th Columbus Corp, is aiming to rent their improperly modified basement space to a preschool this fall, which the company’s website confirms.

White claims that the backyard the company purports to offer the little tykes is nothing more than a fire trap and is actually just the rear holding area for the building. White is also concerned about the noise and safety concerns that might result from having kids running around the very small, concrete-covered area.

“The yard is around my whole apartment,” White wrote in an email. “It also, of course, faces the whole of the interior block with the adjoining brownstones and big apartments on West 86th Street.”

The building has come under local scrutiny in the past, from elected officials as well as the Department of Buildings (DOB), for making illegal and unsafe modifications to the landmarked building. City Council Member Gale Brewer told the West Side Spirit last year that she didn’t “understand how the city can allow this kind of enterprise,” and the DOB continues to issue violations and stop work orders. It’s unclear who the supposed new tenant will be or if they really will move the little charges into the space this fall, but until they do, the tenants’ committee is fighting against it.

CARBON SQUEEZE, TAKE TWO Upper West Side group The Carbon Squeeze is hosting its second community event designed to educate and inspire locals to reduce their carbon footprints.

On Monday, April 2, 7 p.m., the group will welcome Colin Beavan, also known as No Impact Man, to speak about his experience living in Manhattan totally “unplugged.” Beavan led his family to produce no trash, consume no power from the grid, travel only by human power and buy nothing except local food for an entire year. He will share his experiences and tips for cutting back (though probably not as drastically) to reduce individual environmental impact.

The event is free, but an RSVP is required to carbonsqueeze@gmail.com. It will take place at Goddard Riverside, 593 Columbus Ave. N ew s YO U Li V e B Y

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Crime Watch

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Oh, the iRony An Irish tourist was visiting the Upper West Side Apple store, perusing the laptops, when she became a victim of theft.

An unknown man snatched the woman’s white iPhone 4, worth $500, from her unzipped purse. She told police that she couldn’t cancel her cell service until she returned home to Ireland.

Apartment Assault A man entered his apartment on West 62nd Street to drop off groceries last Tuesday night to be greeted at the elevator doors by a man known only as “Calvin,” his ex-wife’s new boyfriend.

The two got into a verbal altercation and Calvin whipped out a knife and stabbed the man in the left side of the chest. Calvin got away but is wanted for felonious assault, and the victim was taken to Cornell Medical Center for treatment.

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Loose Laptop Last week, a man reported that $300 cash and a $1,200 MacBook were stolen from his West 72nd Street apartment. He told police that the apartment was locked and there were no signs of forced entry, but that someone could have gained entry through his unlocked window.

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Missing Rings An 81-year-old woman reported to police that several rings and a green stone had gone missing from her dresser drawer. She said that she had last seen the items, which she valued at $3,850, about eight weeks ago, and that the only person who might have had access to them was her home health aide, who has been working for her for seven months.

Successful Stick-Up

Last Friday morning, a man walked into a Sovereign Bank branch on Broadway, sauntered up to a teller and slipped a note requesting $10,000 in cash.

The perp indicated that the teller should be quick about it and not include any dye packs in the loot. He was able to grab $2,000 in cash and flee on foot down Broadway. Police conducted a search and canvas but didn’t find the suspect, who is described as a 6-foot-1 black male in a blue baseball cap.

Suspicious Entry A legal assistant working at a commercial building on West 77th Street reported a suspicious break-in at her office.

Last Wednesday, she left the building at 12:30 p.m., locking the door behind her, and returned around 7 p.m. to find UPS packages sitting behind the locked front door, to which no one else was supposed to have access. She also noticed strange markings around the lock on the door; upon searching inside, she discovered a set of keys on a fifth-floor table. The woman told police that she suspects that the phantom burglar stole documents from a biomedical research office on the second floor of the building in connection with legal action between that company and a pharmaceutical company.

Polite Thief A woman dining at a Chinese restaurant on Amsterdam Avenue last Saturday was about to leave, forgetting her purse, when a nice young man stopped her outside the door and returned it to her.

The woman quickly checked her belongings and ascertained that $75 cash and her debit card were missing. The man denied taking anything from the bag, then promptly hopped on a bicycle and sped off. Another man who worked at the restaurant told the woman that he had seen the first man lift items out of the bag inside.

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feature

The Man Repeller Opens Up Leandra Medine, the 23-year-old behind the fashion world’s most influential blog, gives the scoop on her engagement, wedding dress, upcoming book and all things fashion

By Carson Griffith

F

“Leandra reminds me of what Katharine Hepburn was to fashion in a time when women only wore skirts and she wore pants. She stood for the modern woman in an era of glamor,” Rebecca Minkoff said. she admitted, when I asked her for her Fashion Week schedule. Among them are Calvin Klein and Derek Lam, both coveted first-year invites for the blogger, but she did not attend the show of one of her favorite young designers, Alexander Wang. Strangely enough for Medine, she missed the hot ticket taking place

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PHotograPHed by araM bedroSSian

or maybe the first time in her career, Leandra Medine is showing signs of opening up. The 23-year-old blogger, known to readers of her site as “The Man Repeller,” has followed a strict mantra of being “personable over personal” that has made her irresistible, if not entirely accessible, to her fans.

But with a recent engagement and an upcoming wedding at the St. Regis, she’s slowly coming out of her Thakoon cocoon.

Over a latté at The Smile in Noho on the Friday before Fashion Week, Medine almost looks like she’s wearing a disguise. Having made her living for over the past two years on the promotion of fashion-forward, often wacky attire, it’s slightly disappointing to find the native New Yorker in an oversized sweater and scarf. But a large, sparkly engagement ring and an “arm party” of bracelets—a term Medine herself has coined—make up for the lack of a tufted skirt with multiple layers or high-waisted shorts.

The Upper East Sider has made time for me in her morning between a flurry of meetings that include styling a Lila Horn show for Fashion Week and working on her popular blog, which garners 2 million hits a month and helped her top Adweek’s “Fashion’s Power 25 list” last September, beating out Lady Gaga, Anna Wintour, Michelle Obama and Kate Middleton.

“I’ve RSVPed to, like, 50 shows,”

Saturday, Feb. 11 to attend her own engagement party.

Donning a short white Marchesa dress at 583 Park, Medine’s friends and family came to celebrate her engagement to her long-term, on-and-off boyfriend, whom she keeps anonymous on her blog and won’t name here. When I asked what he does for a living, she said, “We’re fulfilling all the New York stereotypes, which means . . .” she trailed off. “Finance,” I said.

But getting back to fashion, the open-faced, long-legged brunette will not be slipping into a dress designed

by Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig for her nuptials. While her Hair by Laura PoLko MakeuP by Scott McMaHan millions of readers and StyLed by aMy MicHeLLe SMitH 60,000 Twitter followers have waited with bated breath to hear who will be designing her wedding dress, it sounds as if she’s narrowed it down to one hot designer, one she also considers a friend: Prabal Gurung.

Minkoff’s Fashion Week show, after, “We’re actually talk- Minkoff tells me, she challenged Medine ing about the prospect of to a walk-off after dinner on a rainy night. him doing my wedding Medine concluded her audition runway dress,” she smiled, almost strut with a funny routine from Saturday shyly, at the thought of a Night Live, which she watches regularly. custom-made gown on a It sealed the deal. “I love Becky,” Medine girl’s biggest day by one said, calling the designer by a pet name of fashion’s most popular when I inquire about the relationship. men. “I think Prabal Gurung The feeling is mutual. “Leandra is probably going to be the reminds me of what Katharine Hepburn most relevant and impor- was to fashion in a time when women tant designer in fashion five only wore skirts and she wore pants. She years from now. His collec- stood for the modern woman in an era of tions are insane.” glamor,” Minkoff enthused. “I appreciate As it is for any woman who has made her singular point of view; women love her career in fashion, it is easy for Medine the trends men hate. She’s fearless and to tick off a litany of favorite designers. empowers other people to be the same.”

The difference, however, is that a number Minkoff keeps Medine on her mind in the of them, such as Gurung, are personal workplace as well. “We consider her part friends with the famous blogger. Last fall, of the brand’s family. Our barometer. We Medine walked the catwalk for Rebecca always ask ourselves: ‘How would the

Man Repeller wear this?’”

Danielle Snyder, of the jewelry line Dannijo, created with her older sister Jodie, has developed an almost sister-like relationship with Medine since meeting her a year ago at a party for the blogging forum Tumblr. “It was love at first sight,” Snyder said, adding she thinks they’ve spent “364 out of the 365 days” that they’ve known each other together. “She’s like a fox on oversized clogs,” she said about the blogger’s ability to actually not repel men.

“I never tease her because just when I think she’s looking too hot, I realize she hasn’t shaved her legs in way too long.”

“I feel so blessed I’ve become so close with (Danielle and Jodie),” Medine said earnestly, despite Snyder’s joking commentary and despite the fact that she has never in her life owned a pair of clogs. Medine helped host a dinner with the sisters the night before Fashion Week last season and has another collaboration with Dannijo due out next month, called Mr. Dannijo’s Eye Spies, a take-off of their original Mr. Dannijo collaboration.

She admits not everyone is singing her praises though. The “haters,” as she calls them, are still lurking on the internet, ready to pounce on her every move, due to her quick, not unwarranted, success.

Despite receiving lengthy and numerous congratulations upon posting news of her engagement on her website, other sites condemned her for it as if it were a kind of betrayal. “I didn’t mean for the ‘man repeller’ to be me (initially),” she said, explaining that the name of the site and online persona was about making a “social comment about fashion.”

This story first appeared in the March issue of AVENUE. For the rest of the story, visit avenueinsider.com N ew s YO U Li V e B Y

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news

Debate Over More Middle School Seats Heats Up

By Megan Bungeroth Upper West Side parents are usually clamoring for more public school space, and now the conversation has turned toward the impending demand for middle school seats. At a joint Community Education Council (CEC) and President’s Council meeting last week for District 3, concerned parents and board members hashed out the issues facing the district’s number of middle school seats; some insisted that there is an imminent shortage approaching, while others viewed the prediction with skepticism.

Even those who agree that the district should ask for more seats were divided over how the request to the Department of Education (DOE) should be worded and where a new school would be located.

“No one can argue that we need more middle school seats,” said Community Board 7 chair Mark Diller, confirming that the board is supportive of the push. “The very next issue is, of course, where?”

Diller emphasized the need for the CEC to use data to back up their requests.

Stefan Koster, parent of a middleschool-aged daughter who recently went through the process of finding a school, presented data to the board showing what he and a group of other parent volunteers had determined regarding future middle school space in the district. They insist that the DOE is not taking into account an upcoming influx of middle-school-aged students that will create a severe shortage of seats by 2013.

“More and more young families like mine have decided it’s kind of cool to raise a child in the city,” as opposed to moving out to the suburbs, said Koster after the meeting.

Analyzing data from the DOE, Koster’s group concluded that an increasing number of students are remaining in District 3 for middle school based on the fact that in 2011 there were 765 “first choice” applicants for 480 middle school seats in the district, which they say points to a demand that will only continue to grow.

While many agreed with their premise, the question of how to successfully convince the DOE that the seats are eminently needed was still unanswered. Some advocated just requesting any available district space for middle school seats before deciding on the specifics about a new school.

“If we don’t take the space, Eva’s going to get it,” said Stefanie Goldblatt, the treasurer of the President’s Council, referWe st Si d e S p i r it . c o m

ring to the CEO of the Success Academy Network charter schools, Eva Moskowitz.

Others raised the issue of ensuring an equitable location that would serve the entire district, including the neighborhoods in the northern section that are composed largely of minority communities.

“The northern part gets charter schools; the southern part gets new schools,” said Camille Goodridge, a

CEC member and co-chair of the middle school committee.

Some members were cautious about jumping to conclusions and asking the DOE for a new school without further consideration of the data and the potential possibilities.

“I don’t question whether or not we need middle school seats,” said council member Noah Gotbaum in an interview later. “But I want to make sure as a CEC

member that it’s done by consensus, that it’s very much representative of the entire district.”

As the CEC continues to determine the best course of action, parents are rallying behind Koster and his group’s petition, hosted at MiddleSchoolBabyBoom. com, a name that speaks for itself. So far, 644 parents have signed on in support of explicitly asking the DOE to create a brand-new, separate middle school.

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Q&A

Stumbling to the Altar: Meet Mr. ‘I Would’ Devan Sipher’s ‘The Wedding Beat’

By Leonora Desar Devan Sipher made his living for more than five years writing about some of New York’s most lavish weddings for the New York Times’ Vows column, even though he’s a forty-something single Jewish guy who spends Saturday nights alone in his Chelsea studio. Sipher’s debut novel The Wedding Beat fictionalizes his life into the story of Gavin Greene, a wedding writer who’s still looking to find Ms. Right.

Over coffee, NYU grad Sipher, who will be teaching writing at The Open Center this summer, chatted about how true to life his book really is.

Was it initially difficult making your living in New York as a writer?

I received my Master of Fine Arts from NYU, and at the time I graduated, an MFA and a buck 50 would buy you a subway token—my typing skills were my most employable asset. While writing, I did day gigs like working for a television and news show. I also started doing IT work that paid well, but the danger is that you become too comfortable—it becomes

difficult to really focus on what you want most. I finally decided that I needed to either earn all of my money writing or find something else to do with my life. I made that decision in April 2004 and got hired by the New York Times in August 2004.

Gavin wrote about are weddings that I actually covered. But are there real-life elements in things that I saw and people that I met?

Absolutely.

What was your favorite wedding story that you covered as a Vows columnist?

I loved all of them and I hated all of them. I loved all of the people. But the day before my deadline, I hated all of them. My process is that when I sit down to write, I spend at least 24, if not 48 hours, going, I can’t write this story.

There’s no story to write. The best parts of the story are the parts I shouldn’t say or I’ll embarrass them. But that’s my process. I am actually moved by every story; if I wasn’t choked up at every single wedding, I couldn’t have done my job.

How heavily is Gavin based on you?

He has a healthier approach to dating than I do; he actually has lower expectations. Writing the character helped me become more aware of my own issues.

Is The Wedding Beat autobiographical?

It’s all emotionally true, but the story is completely fictional. I was very careful to make sure that none of the weddings

sider a long period of time may not be what the average person considers a long period of time.

Do you fantasize about your future wedding and family as much as Gavin does?

Truth be told, unless I marry someone who really wants a wedding, I’d be very happy not to have one. But I’d like to be married, I’d like to have children. I hope I’ll be fortunate enough to

How so?

Gavin gets the girl, so he gets his act together. I’m still getting my act together. But while writing the book, I dated much healthier—I don’t think there’s anyone I dated while writing it that I’m not still in touch with and that I don’t think highly of. And I dated for longer periods of time. Although what I con-

have them.

Devan Sipher will read from The Wedding Beat at the Upper West Side Barnes and Noble, 2289 Broadway (at 82nd St.), April 19 at 7 p.m. He is also doing a panel at the NYU Bookstore, 726 Broadway (betw. Waverly & Washington Pls.), June 20 at 7 p.m.

Church of Saint Paul the Apostle Columbus at W 60th HOLY WEEK 2012 DAY OF RECONCILIATION Monday, April 2nd 3:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. - Confessions HOLY THURSDAY – APRIL 5TH 7:30 a.m. – Morning Prayer 7:30 p.m. – Mass of the Lord’s Supper Night Adoration until Midnight GOOD FRIDAY – APRIL 6TH 7:30 a.m. –Morning Prayer 12:00 p.m. – Stations of the Cross 12:30 p.m. – Via Crucis 1:00 p.m. – Seven Last Words 2:00 p.m. – Scriptural Rosary 3:00 – The Lord’s Passion 5:30 p.m. – Siete Últimas Palabras 7:30 p.m. Pergolesi Stabat Mater Individual Confessions 12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

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news

The Walking Man

Cy Adler releases new book and prepares for The Great Saunter

By Sean Creamer Born in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, in 1927, Cyrus A. Adler, or Cy as he likes to be known, is the walking guru of Manhattan and an icon along the park trails of the Upper West Side.

His exploits have led to him publish books about two trails that he, with the help of his non-for-profit organization The Shorewalkers, created: The Great Saunter and the Battery to Bear Mountain.

His activism helped create Hudson River Park, which then fostered the growth of The Great Saunter, a 32-mile hike that circumnavigates Manhattan.

While Adler may have a yen for solid

The next Saunter will take place May 5, as The Shorewalkers celebrates the 27th year of the event and its 30th anniversary promoting walking and shoreline conservation.

The years and years of walking the rim of Manhattan led Adler to write the book Walking Manhattan’s Rim: The Great Saunter, which covers his history on the streets and shores of Manhattan.

He details the trail and each park, neighborhood and culture that he found along the way.

The Saunter leads wayfarers through over 20 different parks and promenades and a dozen historic communities and gives view to the many cultures of New York City. Those who finish are honored at the Heartland Brewery on Fulton Street about 12 hours later.

The Cherry Path is on the Upper West Side part of the 56-mile “Batt 2 Bear” trail, the focus of Adler’s newest book: Walking the Hudson: From The Battery to Bear Mountain.

The last hike Adler led was on this same trail about a month ago. He and the group passed over the George Washington Bridge onto the Palisades and down 400 steps to the shore of the Hudson River.

They walked along the edge and went back afterward.

“No New Yorker should die without walking over the George Washington Bridge,” said Adler.

andrew schwartz

Cy Adler takes a break from his saunter to smell the flowers in Riverside Park. ground, he originally studied the seas.

After working as an oceanographer, he turned to education, teaching oceanography, math and physics at City College of New York, LIU and other schools. It was around this time that Adler began to view walking as more than just a means to get around.

“I was married and I was teaching, so I decided to lead some hikes for a group called the Appalachian Mountain Club [AMC],” said Adler. “All the walks I would lead were along the water.”

The first unofficial Great Saunter was held in 1982. Adler put an advertisement in the Village Voice for people to join him on a stroll along the area. This walk helped to sow the seeds for Hudson River Park, one of the many routes of The Great Saunter.

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FIlm

Starve, Suckers!

‘Hunger’ plays TV games

By Armond White On the most superficial level, The Hunger Games is about a futuristic postwar society called Panem sacrificing its young people in a gladiatorial survival N ORDER - Email ArtEach district in Panem tournament. sends a female and male Tribute, chosen rth Media by blood-type lottery, to fend for themselves in the wild as part of a lethal game h St. overseen by surveillance cameras and Y 10018assorted holographic traps and menaces. all, a 268-0502 typical video game premise.

724 Fax:In (212) But at its only interesting level, The uction@manhattanmedia.com Hunger Games represents the latest th@manhattanmedia.com bread and circuses. Modern desperation is embedded in its simplistic tale .687”H,of1/8Tributes page Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), Ad on Thursday, 2.16.12 teenagers from the impoverished District 12 (formerly Appalachia). Their lack of political sophistication—worse than naïveté—matches that of the filmmakers.

To look at The Hunger Games only in plot terms avoids its dread significance: The smarter society thinks it becomes, the more gullible and dupable it is by the commercial and political forces that control it.

The oddest thing about The Hunger Games, given its cynical plot, is the absence of cautionary irony. Despite Lawrence’s Southern-girl warmth (well used in The Beaver), bow-and-arrow huntress Katniss shows as few intellectual resources as the mainstream media’s depiction of Sarah Palin. Gary Ross’ admittedly peculiar directorial style reduces Katniss and Peeta to post-Internet Neanderthals. Their extended battle royale is what movie shills routinely call “breath-bating adventure.” We are indeed through the looking glass if movies are designed to have no meaning beyond their immediate storylines or marketing points.

Based on novels by Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games is another demi-phenomenon like the Harry Potter, Twilight and Toy Story franchises. These movies are second-phase commercial exchanges whose only purpose is to confirm the first phase. Each is a paradigm of how perfectly badly the system works: substandard product relying on hype, not insight into the human soul.

If The Hunger Games was any good at

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A scene from The Hunger Games. all, it would have discussable themes— ambition, patriotism, faith, desire, disillusionment. Ross’ superficiality leaves only a time-killing preoccupation with “action,” a dulling substitute for narrative. This derives from the mobius strip quality of TV shows like 24 and Lost, superficial, never-ending stories. Look how blandly Ross depicts the dinner table conflict between contestants and their mentors (Elizabeth Banks and Woody Harrelson); Ross can’t even make beauty out of Katniss finding a blue butterfly in the woods. With no philosophy to think

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about, The Hunger Games’ aesthetic poverty is exposed.

The Hunger Games hits bottom when Katniss and Peeta kiss; the applauding audience becomes suckers for the exact same tricks played on Katniss and Peeta—Ross dulls their perception and lowers their responses. As with Stanley Tucci’s ludicrous exaggeration of an Oprah Winfrey-style TV host, bread-andcircuses ringmaster Ross offers a tent pole blockbuster that is essentially a television show. Its lack of satire invites the public’s dumb gullibility.

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arts

Petty, Humane and Perfect Sherman, Rembrandt and Degas in portrait

Apples and Oranges—that’s a colleague’s alternate title for Rembrandt

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exhibition. Place the name of either artist on a banner and a steady stream of visitors is guaranteed. Still, cynicism shouldn’t prevail—at least, not initially.

Part of a curator’s job is to explore the possible and render it revelatory.

Turns out Rembrandt and Degas isn’t revelatory in the least. Sure, Degas made a copy of Rembrandt’s “Young Man in a Velvet Cap” (1637) and paid keen attention to the Dutch master’s distinctive way with line, light and “the depth he is able to achieve.” The Frenchman was a voracious student of tradition; it’s fair to say every artist Degas came into contact with was funneled through his steely, elegant intellect. Rembrandt was one amongst many, that’s all.

As a study in contrasts, the Met exhibition has its uses. Degas’ exercises in self-portraiture are heady and pitiless, their rigor is risky, pointed and sure.

Psychological insight wasn’t alien to Degas’ vision, but neither was it a driving force. Rembrandt, on the other hand, couldn’t make a mark without embodying a distinctive and inquisitive generosity of spirit.

Even as a cocky young buck, Rembrandt was a mensch—take a look at the showy “Self-Portrait as a Young Man” (1629). In it, the 23-year-old artist daubs oil paint with a brilliance that borders on the vulgar. Then check the gaze, hidden in shadow: Rembrandt is both startled and haunted—as if he had become aware of, and daunted by, his own boundless empathy. It’s a disquietingly naked moment.

Forget historical illumination: As a tidy array of exquisite little pictures, Rembrandt and Degas is a welcome anti-blockbuster of a show.

Courtesy the artist and Metro PiCtures, new york © 2012 Cindy sherMan

By Mario Naves What would art be without fiction— that is to say, without the allusive sweep of metaphor?

Literature, music, painting, poetry, dance, film—you name it, every medium thrives when it embodies something beyond its material means.

“Art that conceals art” is old news, of course, but that’s not to say it isn’t desirable or, in fact, an ongoing necessity. The human animal has craved the stuff since Day 1.

Nowadays, you know, we’re more advanced than that. Fiction—it’s so passé. At least, that’s the lesson of Cindy Sherman, an eponymous retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. Devotees of the postmodernist pioneer would argue otherwise. Hasn’t Sherman been devoted to fiction or, at least, its attendant limitations since the first time she planted herself in front of a camera? She’s made a substantial career assuming an array of divergent identities, among them B-movie ingénue, corpse, biker chick, fashionista, fairy tale princess, Upper East Side dowager, pinup girl and, in a recent work, an Icelandic Norma Desmond.

Sherman’s photographs are purposefully ersatz in costume and affect.

Caked-on makeup, thrift shop wigs, garish mood lighting, cut-rate stage sets, desultory photographic technique and thank God for the advent of Photoshop—artifice is Sherman’s all. Arrant contrivance is a tool for investigating “the construction of contemporary identity,” “the nature of representation” and “the tyranny…of images.”

Reasonable avenues of inquiry, I suppose, but there’s a difference between inhabiting an invented persona and, as one wit had it, pretending to pretend. Novelty tits and a blank stare don’t prompt much in the way of sociological insight, let alone create a compelling fiction. The purpose they serve is to let us know that Cindy Sherman— front, center and oddly puritanical—is calling the shots. Here is an artist who doesn’t—or can’t—venture beyond the strictures of self. No amount of irony can redeem her cold, callow art.

Cindy Sherman Through June 11, The Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St., 212-7089400, www.moma.org.

Cindy Sherman, Untitled #137, 1984, Chromogenic color print. and Degas: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has a point: What commonality is shared between history’s most humane artist and its most perfect? (Really, did any-

March 29, 2012

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Rembrandt and Degas: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Through May 20, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 5th Ave., 212-5357710, www.metmuseum.org.

This article first appeared in the March 7 issue of CityArts. For more from New York’s Review of Culture, visit www. cityartsnyc.com.

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new york family

Audra’s Song

Triumphant in her return to Broadway in ‘Porgy and Bess’, four-time Tony winner Audra McDonald would be the first to say her favorite role is being a mom

By Kat Harrison

A

Is it true that your daughter Zoe was born on Valentine’s Day? Yes—best Valentine’s present ever!

Do you two have any special traditions?

Usually, the night before her birthday, she likes to hear the story of her birth— [it] was crazy, I went into pre-term labor [when I was] five and a half months pregnant with her. [Before], I was on bed rest

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What’s it like raising Zoe in New York even though you had a Fresno, California, childhood?

We moved out of the city [to Westchester] when she was not even a year. So she has been growing up in the woods. She has a backyard but also has the added luxury of an apartment in the city. She has her piano lessons in the city, she’s seen every Broadway show that’s appropriate for a child to see—and maybe some that are not. I want her to be a theater kid. Her dad plays in orchestras everywhere. She’s been to Carnegie Hall, The New York Philharmonic—she’s getting all this incredible culture. She’s seeing the diversity of the city but she’s also fortunate enough that she’s getting the woods, catching frogs and hearing coyotes howl at night. The best of both worlds.

Do you have any advice for parents who want to nurture creativity in their children?

If dance or music lessons are a little difficult to afford because it’s a terrible economy right now, see what’s available within your community: check out community centers, the YMCA, your church and school activities. But follow the child and encourage it. Let it grow. Someone who studies music already has a different look on the world. Diversity and tolerance come along with pursuing the arts.

Besides her artiness, what other qualities do you love in Zoe? She’s a really kind, sensitive soul. She’s very concerned about other people’s feelings and puts other people before herself—a bit too much. And then she’s got this fierce wit on top of it, which usually doesn’t go hand-in-hand, so the combo of the two is hysterical.

We were at Disneyland and a couple of people were asking for my autograph.

March 29, 2012

Do you bring Zoe to the theater with you?

Yes, she’ll hang out backstage—reading, playing on her iPod or with my make up.

So [that way], at least I’m getting to be with her and she’s feeling like we’re together. [Plus], she can hear me. She’ll even say things like, “Mommy, you sounded like you were a little scared in that one scene.”

Who do you admire most within and outside of the theater world?

Zoe Caldwell, I named my child after her. Lena Horne, Judy Garland and Billie Holiday. Christine Quinn, I hope she’s our next mayor. I think she’s as smart as a whip, passionate and she’s living her life fully and truly.

photo by Josh Lehrer

yellow-and-red friendship bracelet is twisted loosely around Audra McDonald’s wrist, a daily reminder of her daughter Zoe, now 11. On the same hand, her engagement ring—an opal-set family heirloom from her fiancé, Priscilla Queen of the Desert’s Will Swenson—sits proud. This is McDonald’s quiet.

Now for her loud. McDonald, a four-time Tony winner and two-time Grammy recipient, perhaps most well-known for her performances in Carousel, Master Class and four-season run as Dr. Naomi Bennett on ABC’s Private Practice, is a woman of dynamics. Just close your eyes as she takes the stage in The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess.

With operatic grace, even when she stands completely still, McDonald’s voice cuts the air.

It’s this steadily swinging balance of crescendos and decrescendos that brings McDonald into focus—no matter if she’s singing or Tweeting about her daughter’s latest one-liner.

for three and a half months. I had to cancel everything and lay on my back or left side.

It was during the presidential election, the year with George Bush and Al Gore.

I watched a lot of TLC’s A Baby Story.

I was starting to get so emotional that my husband at the time [orchestral bassist Peter Donovan] was like, “You can’t watch this anymore. It’s making you worse.” I [also] ordered her entire nursery online and had to meet her doctor on the phone.

So she said to the person who was leading us around, “All I wanted to do was ride some rides and now my mom’s Mickey Mouse.” She’s got lots of great one-liners like that that come flying out of nowhere.

How do you balance such a hectic career with being a parent?

I think that any working parent will tell you that any time spent away from your child is frustrating. We miss each other a lot when we’re not together. It’s hard if you’re a theater performer because your child is gone at school during the day and then you perform at night. So we cherish all the time that we have together.

You trained at Juilliard. Did you always think you would be doing what you’re doing now?

Being on Broadway is the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do. Juilliard felt like a little bit of a detour but it turned out that it was part of a higher plan—something I definitely needed.

What drew you to the production of Porgy and Bess, besides the timelessness of it?

[Bess] is a role that I always dreamed about doing someday. I figured I would do it somewhere even if I sang it with myself.

I just wanted to come back to Broadway.

I was tired of commuting back and forth from LA [for Private Practice]—twice, sometimes three times a week. It was horrible but I had to; my daughter was here, so I had no choice.

You played a mother on Private Practice while being a mother off-screen as well. Did that affect you at all?

The whole arc with Maya getting pregnant and seeing how Naomi reacted to that—I got a lot of angry, angry mail. People were so furious that a mother would hit their child and then force them to have an abortion. For me, it was what Shonda Rhimes wrote. As far as Naomi saw it, her child’s life was now ruined and she wasn’t going to get to live a normal life. And in the heat of the moment, I totally understood that reaction. I was kind of glad that Shonda wrote that, because it was a real reaction. It was raw, but it was real. Some people just got really upset, but I understood it.

What lessons have you learned from motherhood—the good and the bad?

Motherhood means never sleeping again. Because for some reason, even if you are not with your child, you are still thinking about them. It’s something you don’t know until you give birth. I also never knew how fiercely protective I could be.

I would kill for my child. You don’t see that inside of you until you have [one]. And the level of love—it’s spiritual. Even on those days when you want to put them somewhere, find a mute button and say “STOP TALKING FOR 30 SECONDS!” Even on those days, the love is unbelievable.

This story first appeared in the March issue of New York Family. For a peek at more images from our photo shoot with Audra McDonald, visit newyorkfamily. com.

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Dining

Sugar Rush at Coco Le Vu andrew schwartz

By Beth Mellow The sweet melody of “Sugar, Sugar” and other candy-themed music greets customers as they enter Coco Le Vu candy shop, which recently opened at 202 110th St. in East Harlem.

Sisters Christine and Nalanie Milano, who co-own Coco Le Vu, decided to open a candy shop in honor of their father, who recently passed away. “Our father was a happy person, so we wanted to create a happy place. I mean, after all, who doesn’t love candy?” Christine Milano asked.

Coco Le Vu stocks all kinds of sweets, from novelty candy, such as popcornflavored gummies, to old favorites like Now & Later and Bazooka gum. Visitors will also find Hello Kitty-branded candy and other whimsical confections. The store features gourmet chocolates that are handmade by the owners’ sister, Francine, a trained dessert chef, and offers gift baskets, products at wholesale rates and candy stations for special events.

While both sisters are passionate about their business, neither had prior experience owning a store. Nalanie

The colorful interior of Coco Le Vuw. works in finance and balances her fulltime job with work at Coco Le Vu on weekends. Christine, who has over a decade of experience as an events planner, focuses solely on the shop. They are training staff and, Nalanie admits, “We’re learning along with them.”

The sisters went to the National Candy Expo in 2011, met with potential vendors and visited candy shops across New York City in preparation for their opening.

They also gave special consideration to the location of the store.

“We originally considered Park Slope since it’s such a family-oriented neighbor-

hood, but ultimately we decided to open in East Harlem because this is where we grew up and we still have a lot of support here,” Christine said.

While the women no longer live in the neighborhood— Nalanie lives in Midtown and Christine lives in White Plains—they still have lots of friends, former neighbors and relatives who stop in at Coco Le Vu on a regular basis. In fact, they have collaborated with other women they grew up with in East Harlem; the sisters are childhood friends with the founders of Amanesca, a catering and cooking education business, and have worked with them to host dessert-making classes for adults at the shop.

Besides drawing on support from the community, the goal of opening Coco Le Vu in East Harlem is to give back to the neighborhood, specifically the children raised there. “We want to be associated with education; we are currently working with local PTAs and some of the teachers who taught us when we were young,” said

Christine.

The sisters are developing a rewards program for local students launching at their alma mater, P.S. 206. Kids who earn good grades are taken on field trips to the candy shop and are awarded the opportunity to choose from a bevy of tasty treats available there.

In addition to celebrating the academic accomplishments of local children, Coco Le Vu also serves as a venue for other types of celebration. There is a party room in the back of the store where parents can host birthday parties, starting at $25 a head.

While the sisters are thrilled by the warm reception they have received from the neighborhood, the fact that they are establishing a family business is what brings them the most pleasure.

“All of our family works here. [Our dad] would always preach, ‘Family has to stick together,’ and enforced that, as sisters, we had to look out for each other,” Christina said. Even the Milanos youngest sister, Kaylene, who is still in high school, helps out on the cash register.

For further information, visit www. cocolevu.com.

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Dining

Mixing and Matching Wine and Food From blue cheese to spicy vindaloo, finding that perfect vino match A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a bit about the basics of pairing wine with food. I received a lot of questions from friends who read the column and wanted more specifics, so this week I’m going to expand on some of the principles I introduced in the last piece.

The first question, which I got from more people than any other, is, “What about wine and cheese?”

This seems to be an area that is more daunting and intimidating than it needs to be.

The ideas behind matching wine with cheese are as simple as the ideas behind matching wine with any other food—the three basic principles still apply.

There are an enormous number of cheeses that have a marked acidity to them. This is due to the natural acids that are present in cow, sheep and goat’s milk.

Under certain conditions, when those cheeses age, the enzymes that are present can make the acidity even sharper. This is

the case with fresh goat’s milk cheese (or chevre, as it is called in France), which I mentioned a couple of weeks ago.

There are many other cheeses that have the same kind of sharpness to them.

Humboldt Fog, which is also made from goat’s milk, and Bûcheron both fall into this category. In this instance, I would match them, with a wine that has acidity, as well.

As I mentioned last week, this will hide the sourness and bring the more subtle flavors in the cheeses

By Josh Perilo front and center.

Then there is the entire palette of blue cheeses. Many of these are so strong that they are an acquired taste, but to those who appreciate them, they are among the highest regarded in the world. A classic pairing for most robust blue cheeses is port. This goes with the second principle I discussed last week: pairing opposite tastes together. In this case, it is salty and sweet.

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heels for the blue-veined curd, this pairing can make it palatable. Match a port with a blue Shropshire and you’ll taste caramel, toasted hazelnut and a host of other intense flavors you’d never thought were there.

The ultra-creamy cheeses present their own problems. With these, sometimes the fat content is so high that many people can only take a tiny portion before their palate is overwhelmed. The third principle is the best to use here; to match opposing textures. In this case, a rich and decadent Brillat-Savarin, which coats the tongue with every bite, should be matched with a heavier sparkling wine, like a blanc de noir. The bubbles clean the palate between bites, making the cheese less heavy and more enjoyable.

Aside from the flavor profiles, a popular idea in the wine and food world is to match wines and cheeses together that originate from the same area. This goes to the French idea of terroir, which is the concept that the land, the air and the spe-

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cific weather patterns and climate of any area can be tasted in the food and wine that are made from the produce of that place. If a wine from Burgundy tastes like Burgundy, then wouldn’t a cheese from Burgundy match with that wine? In many cases, the answer is yes. And, staying with the Burgundy example, there are a number of runny cheeses from the area, such as époisses, that match brilliantly with the delicate and complex pinot noirs from that region.

Then I got hit with the second big question, which is “what about spicy food?” I quickly touched on it in the opening to my last piece on pairing but didn’t fully unpack it. The basic concept here is to put out the fire. It’s similar to the idea behind opposing tastes, but what you’re doing is tempering the heat. The best way to do that is to drink something with a moderate amount of sweetness to it. A riesling from the Mosel area of Germany is exactly what a spicy vindaloo wants to help cool its jets.

Keep the wine and food questions coming! And don’t be afraid to experiment yourself to find out what works and what doesn’t.

Follow Josh on Twitter: @joshperilo.

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Alternative Health

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Relax, Fat Can Help Reduce Stress Complex carbohydrates and some fats in moderation ease stress

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By Paulette Safdieh tress manifests itself in physical ways.

People dealing with stress may see it reflected in weight gain or high blood pressure, while others see it in exhaustion or decreased productivity.

While a midday nap or yoga class can help in the moment, a proper diet can be the solid foundation to maintain positive changes and stress management.

“Stress in the No. 1 issue a lot of my clients have,” said nutritionist Ginnie Hill. “We don’t have control over stresses in our lives, like the kids or the job, but we can control what we eat.”

According to Hill, the goal is not to eliminate stress but to learn to manage it effectively by being mindful of what we put into our bodies. Refined sugars and packaged foods trigger our adrenal glands and stress hormones, like cortisol, the same way a bad relationship or a long day at work does.

A natural reaction is to try to boost the body’s levels of serotonin, a hormone that regulates the central nervous system.

“The fastest way to boost serotonin is with the consumption of sugar,” said nutrition therapist Barbara Mendez, 46. “So you see people selfmedicating with bad foods and then come crashing down—but you want to feel balanced, not erratic.”

Like Hill, Mendez works with clients to establish healthy diets and achieve overall well-being, weight loss and better stress management. While diets should be individualized—long-distance runners should stock up on carbohydrates and people with diabetes should steer clear of them—certain foods tend to ease stress all around.

Upper West Sider Alex Dolan, a client of Hill’s, said incorporating fattier foods into his diet helped.

“I was exercising six times a week and wasn’t feeling as healthy as I should, and my doctor recommended going to a nutritionist,” said Dolan, 40, who now eats more red meat, coconut butter and organic foods. “Stress [relief] was never the primary goal, but changing my diet certainly contributed to it.”

Eating proteins like grass-fed meat and free-range poultry and eggs help avoid toxins and chemicals.

They boost energy levels and increase focus and concentration through the release of hormones like norepinephrine and dopamine. Mendez suggests a serving size of 3-4 ounces per meal.

According to Hill, people hoping to manage stress should incorporate carbohydrates high in fiber, like

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Eating Your Way to Feeling Better Nutrition therapist Barbara Mendez recommends this sample menu to reduce your stress levels: BreakfaSt

Oatmeal with cinnamon, chopped nuts and berries. lunch

Mixed green salad with chicken, roasted vegetables and pumpkin seeds with oil and vinegar dressing. Small lentil soup. root vegetables, into their diet. Hearty, complex carbohydrates like brown rice, yams and beans also boost serotonin levels. Fats should include avocado, olive oil and some nuts and cheese. Alternative ways to add good fats to a diet include eating more salmon, replacing peanut butter with almond butter and sprinkling ground flax seeds over oatmeal.

Both Mendez and Hill agree that a commitment of four to six weeks to such a diet will yield some positive results.

“We live in a society where, when we don’t feel well, we run to the doctor and get medication but it doesn’t necessarily make us feel better,” said Mendez, who used to work as a pharmacist. “People are shocked by how much food can really affect how they feel.”

Eating foods rich in natural nutrients helps maintain the body’s energy reserve, which comes in handy managing pressure and anxiety. A body under stress uses a lot of glucose, and having nutrients on hand ensures it won’t deplete. The reverse is true when eating bad foods.

“Anytime you eat something devoid of nutrients, it takes more energy for your body to break it down than it actually gives you energy,” said Hill. “If your digestive system isn’t getting enough nutrients, it will go to other areas of your body, like your hair, nails and bones, and take it from there.”

Most people know to avoid high fructose corn

Mid-afternoon Snack

Handful of baby carrots and individual hummus pack. for dinner

Half a baked yam, salmon and broccoli.

syrup, refined sugars and packaged foods, but certain foods on Hill’s no-no list might surprise some. Cereals marked with “low-fat” or “healthy” labels often don’t have any natural nutrients, and the skim milk in your coffee can hurt more than that shot of cream will.

“Skim milk is highly processed; therefore its sugar content is higher than whole milk,” said Hill. “If you were breastfeeding a baby, would you skim the milk?

No, it’s 55 percent fat for a reason. You need it for brain function.”

The protein and fat in whole milk slows down the absorption rate of coffee, which spikes cortisol levels and adds stress on the body. One cup in the morning is OK, but Hill warns against sugary lattes and adding packets of Splenda. She said opting for the fattier version also provides much-needed Vitamin D. “We usually don’t get a lot of sun in the northeast,” said Hill. “The only foods that have Vitamin D are fattier ones like butter, liver and egg yolks. They’re probably the most nutritionally dense foods on the planet.”

Elinor Spielberg, a client of Mendez’s, saw success with that approach.

“One of the important things I’ve learned is that the more good fats we eat, the less we have on our bodies,” said Spielberg. “The good fats keep us from craving the refined stuff, the stress-inducing foods. I felt a big difference.”

N ew s YO U Li V e B Y

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continuing education

To Tutor Or Not to Tutor When all the other kids have one, it is hard not to want to give your child the same advantage.

But before you hire a tutor, there are issues to consider.

By Rebecca Tucker and Irene Daria The Reasons To ConsideR a TuToR

1. Your kid is falling behind in class. In private schools and competitive public schools, the academics are often accelerated, so naturally there are children who have a tough time keeping up in certain subjects. A good tutor should be able to give you an informed sense of how your child is doing, whether he can rebound on his own or could use some help, and if the school seems to be falling short in some way. A child may be struggling because she has a learning issue, she’s rebelling, she has a poor teacher or poor learning habits. Often, a child won’t swallow help from the people she’s unhappy with, which is why an objective third party who is not a teacher or a parent can be a good idea.

2. Your kid is applying to a competitive school. At almost every level, from nursery school to college, there are common tests used to help judge a prospective applicant. Specialized tutors typically can help boost your kid’s score.

3. You want enrichment for your kid. Parents (and students) can be so focused on performance and admissions issues that they never stop to consider a tutor for pure educational interest.

A child may want to nurture his or her interest in a particular subject, feel more challenged or get more individualized attention than they’re getting at school.

The Reasons To QuesTion iT 1. The work may be too advanced.

Some schools and some parents expect children to perform at academic levels for which they are not ready. We want children to know more and more at earlier ages, but knowing more doesn’t make them smarter. Cramming a kid’s head too full of information and not taking age-appropriate development into account could push him too far too fast and potentially turn him off to learning.

2. You could be inviting burnout.

Even if there seems to be a good reason to

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get a tutor, a child still has to have enough downtime to do the things he finds fun, like sports, video games or playing with his friends.

3. A child’s homework performance can be misleading. Trouble in one school subject might only be a piece of an underlying learning difficulty. Before going the tutoring route, parents should chat with teachers about a child’s performance.

A teacher may recommend testing for a child to see if there is underlying learning issue; if that turns out to be the case, you can hire a tutor specially trained to address that particular problem. But if your child’s teacher says your child is doing fine in most areas, then look for a tutor in the specific trouble subject. how do i find The RighT TuToR? 1.

Ask around for recommendations. They should come from other parents, your child’s school or volunteer organizations like the Parents League of New York. Interview a prospective tutor. Don’t be afraid of being thorough. A tutor should be able to summarize his or her background, experience and successes. You might want to meet the tutor before introducing him to your child, but make sure your kid is there before sealing the deal, so he feels like he has taken part in the decision.

2. Confirm the tutor’s expertise.

Why do you want the tutor? Homework help for an elementary schooler might only require a college student. A high schooler who needs to catch up in a specific subject or a child prepping for a test might need someone who has either taught or tutored that subject or test for a few years. In the case of test help, you will want someone who is familiar with recent changes, such as the longer writing sample in the SAT. But lining up a biochemist to teach your child 7th grade science is not necessary. While a tutor should have a strong academic background in the subject in which the child is having trouble, the ultimate question is whether they can teach it, not whether they have a doctorate.

3. Know the plan. Prior to selecting

March 29, 2012

a tutor or learning center, a parent should speak with his or her child and come to a shared understanding of the goals they would like to achieve and then be prepared to discuss them in detail with the tutor. The efficacy of tutoring is significantly higher when parents and students are on the same page with regard to expectations.

4. Observe a mini-lesson before signing on for a set of lessons. You want a person who connects with your child. Check if the tutor is professional, patient and gives your child enough time to digest material. Also, if they’re meeting at your home or any other location that’s not the tutoring center, there needs to be an adult present.

5. Discuss the whole price. You should get a detailed pricing plan that

includes the number of sessions, the cost per session and miscellaneous fees for testing and materials.

6. Ask the tutor whether she can guarantee your kid’s improvement.

If she says yes, don’t hire her, because she doesn’t know what she’s talking about, says Sandi Ayaz of the National Tutoring Association. A tutor can guarantee that she will set forth a reasonable plan and work to achieve your goals, but “nobody can guarantee you can raise scores.”

7. Trust your gut. If something doesn’t feel right, look for somebody else. A strong child-tutor connection is essential to making the relationship work. Having that good rapport can really help take the learning where it needs to go.

N ew s YO U Li V e B Y

NYT Award-Winners_ManhattanMedia 1/13/12 3:47 PM Page 1

More CUNY Award Winners Than Ever!

Z

4 RHODES SCHOLARS 8 GOLDWATER SCHOLARS 7 TRUMAN SCHOLARS 9 NSF GRADUATE FELLOWS

in 6 YEARS in 3 YEARS in 6 YEARS in 2011

UJAJA TAUQEER, CUNY’S 2011 RHODES SCHOLAR, is exceptional but not the exception. CUNY students are winning more highly competitive awards and scholarships than at any time in our history. The City University of New York is attracting an ever-growing number of outstanding students. Our Macaulay

Honors College is home to many of this year’s winners. Assisted by a world-class faculty, they achieved their success studying at the nation’s leading urban public university. They are exceptional but not the exception.

Matthew Goldstein Chancellor

ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT: Zujaja Tauqeer, Macaulay Honors College at Brooklyn College, Rhodes 2011; David L.V. Bauer, Macaulay Honors College at CCNY, Rhodes 2009, Truman 2008, Goldwater 2007; Eugene Shenderov, Brooklyn College, Rhodes 2005; Lev Sviridov, CCNY, Rhodes 2005, Goldwater 2004; Ayodele Oti, Macaulay Honors College at CCNY, Truman 2011; Gareth Rhodes, CUNY Baccalaureate at CCNY, Truman 2011; Anthony Pang, CCNY, NSF Fellow 2011; Jamar Whaley, Queens College, Goldwater 2009; Christine Curella, Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College, Truman 2007; Celine Joiris, Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College, Goldwater 2011; Claudio Simpkins, Macaulay Honors College at CCNY, Truman 2005; Ryan Merola, Macaulay Honors College at Brooklyn College, Truman 2006; Don Gomez, CCNY, Truman 2009; Lina Mercedes Gonzalez, Hunter College, NSF Fellow 2011.

Visit cuny.edu/awardwinners WestsideSpirit.com

March 29, 2012

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continuing education

The Middle School Moment

How one educator helps to foster trust, passion and independence in students during adolescence

By Noah Reinhardt Seriously, middle school?

This is a question I’ve gotten a lot, having now worked for almost 15 years with middle school students.

I think the horror most adults experience imagining what it must be like working with middle school kids is because we remember the worst parts of middle school. We remember our awkward, anxious, ugly selves that looked back at us in the mirror every morning (whether we avoided them at all costs or were obsessed by them). We remember friends (if we had them) as mean, selfish and preoccupied with things that felt so important at the time, even if those things seem trivial, maybe even destructive, now. We remember middle school as unsafe, uninspiring, unfair—if we even remember that much.

When we picture what it must be like to work with middle school students we imagine being trapped in a room with unpredictable, narcissistic, socially obsessed, lonely misfits caught in that terrible place between the sweetness and wonder of childhood and the power and possibility of adolescence. Why would anyone want to throw oneself into a classroom with these creatures?

The truth is, we forget how wonderful and special this time can be. We forget how exciting it is to literally explode— undergoing in a few short years a kind of life-changing physical, cognitive, emo-

tional transformation that we never again experience (with some rare exceptions).

We forget how miraculous it is to have new independence, an opportunity to develop friendships, interests, passions and beliefs that are separate from our family’s. And we forget how earth-shattering tiny moments are—the gut-wrenching excitement and terror of the first kiss, heartbreak, failure or victory—that make us feel simultaneously all-powerful and powerless, brave and terrified.

We also forget how important it is to have adults around us who notice and care about these things, too. People who give us the space to try new things and the structure to moderate our experiences, to help temper our sudden swings from high to low and to see beyond the exact instant in time in which we’re living. One of our main jobs as adults, as we usher the next generation into adolescence, is to acknowledge that their feelings, thoughts, actions and decisions actually do matter and to help them make sense of that within a much larger context than they may at first be able to see.

At school, students have the opportunity to practice the skills, develop the habits and learn the truths that will underpin the adults they will become. As educators, we are charged with creating schools that shape these experiences. It is impossible to get this right all of the time. There are too many variables that impact a student’s

experience at school to imagine that even the very best, most thoughtful, wellresourced and compassionate schools could assure that every student is nurtured, supported, challenged and engaged every day. We can, of course, hope this for our children. As parents, we can try to do everything within our capacity and means to find schools that have the best chance of making this happen for our own kids.

And we can and should commit whatever resources we have (finances, time, expertise, influence) to support all schools to do their best work in the best way they know how.

I have chosen to work in schools and spend my days with students, teachers and families because I deeply believe in this work and in our responsibility—individually and collectively—to support chil-

dren at this critical time in their lives. It is the very moments when they push hardest against the adults in their lives and most fiercely claim their independence when they actually need us most. Not to hold them so tightly as to crush their spirit, but consistently and securely, so when they feel least tethered, most angry, desolate and confused, they know that they can depend on us to get them to a better place.

I work to help create a school that serves our students as well as it possibly can. The most important piece of what I do, however, is working with students, teachers and families at those times when what all of us are doing, despite our best intentions, isn’t working. What happens when things go wrong? When kids make mistakes, when they feel hopeless or terrible or when they make other people feel that way? What do we do to support the students who seem like they don’t want to be helped or have given up on the possibility of making things better?

The answers (if there are answers) may not always be clear. But one thing is for certain: it is in these moments that we define who we are as adults and who we want to be in our children’s eyes. This is hard but important work.

Noah Reinhardt is the head of the Middle School at the Packer Collegiate Institute. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and three small children.

New School: A Continuing Education Leader Parsons offers one of the oldest con-ed programs in the city

By Sean Creamer With the economy in the doldrums, many people have enrolled in continuing education courses to keep themselves up to date, attain a higher degree in their field of study or simply expand their pool of knowledge.

The Parsons New School for PreCollege and Continuing Studies is one of the oldest hubs of higher education in the city. Founded in 1919, it has provided many different avenues of education for New York residents. It currently offers more than 1,500 classes either for credit or not for credit.

“The New School was established nearly a century ago to provide education for the educated,” said Sam Biederman, the New School’s senior press officer.

“Even as the university has expanded into

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other areas, it has always remained at the forefront of adult and continuing education and now provides a wide range of CE courses both on-campus and online.”

Besides accredited classes, students can enroll in non-degree classes in such subjects as studio, history and businessoriented courses in art and design. These classes prepare people out of touch with their industry or who have not attended school in several years.

Their programs are popular because they cater to practitioners who need to keep up to date in their studies. They are also designed to work around the schedule of a working adult.

Continuing education classes are held on campus at three of the eight schools that are part of The New School. Many of the classes are also offered online

March 29, 2012

for people who have children or a work schedule that does not allow regular access to a classroom setting. Classes take place at The New School for Public Engagement, Parsons The New School for Design and Mannes College The New School for Music. Tuition at The New School is moderate, about $700 a class, according to Biederman.

“Those seeking graduate education can enroll in The New School’s MA, MS, MFA and PhD programs, which run the gamut from urban policy to creative writing to fashion design,” said Biederman.

“In addition, Parsons The New School for Design offers a pre-college academy for high schoolers interested in art and design.”

The New School for Public Engagement offers classes in the fields of

social sciences, humanities, media studies and film, writing, foreign languages, English language studies, visual and performing arts, management and business and food studies.

For students who yearn for careers in the study of architecture or the creative side of education, Parsons offers majors such as digital design, fashion design, fashion business, fine arts, graphic design, and interior and architectural design.

Finally, the Mannes College tends to musically inclined clientele who can enroll in classes in the fields of instrumental and vocal performance, composition, theory, music history, early music, opera, music technology and career development.

For more information, visit newschool.edu.

N ew s YO U Li V e B Y

New York Institute of Technology U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently said: “If we want to strengthen the American workforce, we must continue to invest in education. These investments are absolutely critical, not just for our nation’s students, teachers, and schools, but for our country’s economy.”

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RSVP by April 2, 2012 to Damaris Carrion, Parent Coordinator Dcarrion@schools.nyc.gov or call 347-563-5064 March 29, 2012

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By Alexander Tucciarone and it’s so important we make sure Catherine Harbourt sipped her coffee they know we all care about this,” and looked across the auditorium of the Alvarez said. “Seniors have seen their Lenox Hill Neighborhood House as her medication costs go from $20 to $200, fellow senior citizens filed into the room. and they’re getting sticker shock.”

A retired social worker, Harbourt arrived Bobbie Sackman, director of pubearly that morning to learn about what lic policy for the Council of Senior sort of long-term care will be available Centers and Services of New York City, to her through Medicare in the coming has been working on senior issues for years. decades. Before getting into advocacy, About 100 people joined Harbourt Stack ran a senior center and started that Friday morning to hear from the transportation programs for the elderpanel assembled by State Sen. Liz ly in the city.

Krueger. Senior citizens across the coun“I got into this business because of try and here in New York are growing my own grandma,” Stack said. “When we concerned about how budget cuts at the started, it was the good old days, when federal and state level will affect the ser- the federal government actually sent vices they depend on. These include cuts real money to the states to provide real to Medicare, housing and other health services.” care programs. Advocates for seniors Sackman touted her organization’s are ready to organize these concerned record of success. In 2011, her group citizens politically and demand these pushed back against proposed cuts to programs be protected.

Title XX, which would have closed 40 “I’m just percent of the getting really city’s senior cenconcerned ters.

Mounting about what a 16,000-person “Seniors have seen their will still be letter writing there for me campaign, they medication costs go from in the future,” convinced Gov. $20 to $200, and they’re Harbourt said.

Andrew Cuomo getting sticker shock.”

“As someone to take the cut off with no family the table. to look after The Council me, I really of Senior Centers want to know what options I will have.” is now hoping to rally New Yorkers Alice Fisher, Krueger’s director of against Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s outreach, called on the attendees to get proposed cuts to the workforce of involved in the political process. She social workers who manage cases for spoke on the senator’s behalf, who was the elderly. unable to attend because of legislative “One in three New York City seniors business in Albany. lives below the poverty line,” Sackman “We need to find the voice that we had said. “In some neighborhoods, it’s one in in the 1960s when we marched for civil one—we’re better than that.” rights, women’s liberation and to end The panel also provided some guidthe war in Vietnam,” Fisher said. “If we ance for seniors on navigating the condon’t all 48advocate, Sen. Krueger has no fusing world of Medicare coverage. ammunition.”

Frederic Riccardi, director of programs During last year’s state budget battle, and outreach at the Medicare Rights $114 million was cut from the Elderly Center, explained which long-term care Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage pro- options Medicare covers and which it gram. The program has 280,000 enrollees does not. The Medicare Rights Center statewide and was created to help senior in a nonprofit created in 1989 to inform citizens pay the out of pocket cost for seniors about what benefits are available medications they are prescribed under to them through the federal entitlement Medicare Part D. program.

Maria Alvarez, executive director of “Medicare and Medicaid are easy the New York StateWide Senior Action targets in today’s political climate,” Council, has been helping lead the charge Riccardi said. “It’s important for seniors against these cuts. to know which long-term care options are “The budget fight is coming up soon available.”

N ew s YO U Li V e B Y

Can an invisible hearing device be your secret to getting the most out of life?

Dennis Kisiel, PH.D, General Hearing Services There comes a point in life where you realize that you’re not hearing as well as you should be. You miss a word or two in conversations. Fast talk, whispers and conversational nuances are a little harder to sort out. Crowds and noisy rooms can be challenging at times. You wouldn’t describe the feeling as “impairment,” but you know you’re not getting 100% of what an active life has to offer. And you’re not ready to accept that .... not yet. If ever.

The new hearing technology: Nobody sees it.

But you hear it all.

You’ve seen what’s happened to electronics lately.

Ordinary gadgets are getting incredibly small, incredibly smart, and incredibly efficient. So it probably wouldn’t surprise you that something as sophisticated as hearing technology has also been improving by leaps and bounds.

In fact, now there’s a generation of hearing solutions that fit deeply inside your ear canal to the point where they are absolutely invisible. Only you know they’re there. And yet, they do an amazing job of delivering the detail and richness that you’ve been missing.

You’re “not a hearing-aid kind of person?”

Then this is the hearing solution for you.

“Invisible-In-the-Canal” (IIC) technology has opened up the world of better hearing to millions of people who wouldn’t otherwise consider a hearing instrument — and might go on struggling. This is the device you slip into your ear and forget about. Not only is it invisible, you can also barely feel it. And it doesn’t interfere with playing sports, exercising, using your phone, wearing a hat, or even listening to music with earbuds or headphones.

Invisible hearing technology may be the closest thing yet to your own natural hearing. Here’s why.

Intigai from Oticon represents the latest thinking in IIC design.

Intigai fits completely inside your ear canal and disappears from sight. There, its microphone is protected from wind noise and other external disturbances, delivering clear, fully balanced sound, programmed to match your individual hearing profile.

Intigai is also designed to use your ear’s natural acoustics to help your brain determine the direction of sounds. So you can be as active as you want without worrying about how you look — or how you hear.

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Intigai ’s advanced design is the only IIC device on the market that’s available with Oticon’s patented Speech Guard technology. Speech Guard’s breakthrough microprocessor design and audio signal processing work in harmony with your brain to help you recognize speech cues.

So you’re better able to hone in on a conversation in a wall of party noise, and shift attention from one voice to another as you choose. With Intigai and Speech Guard, it’s easier to understand and respond to a soft, high-pitched voice — a child, for example — because your hearing instrument helps you distinguish it from background noise.

Invisible means just that: Invisible.

How can a device like Initigai fit deep inside your ear canal, be invisible to the outside world, and still be convenient and easy to manage? It starts with a precise fit. Each Intigai unit is customized to conform to the unique size, shape and curvature of your ear canal, and to position itself exactly where it’s supposed to, every time you put it in. It sits behind the first bend of the canal, close to your eardrum, for the most transparent and pleasing sound possible. No one, even people close to you, will know it’s there. Even the clear pull-out string you use to remove it hides from view.

Intigai is easy to take care of.

Intigai’s tiny onboard microprocessor is programmed to provide the best sound for your unique hearing profile.

And once it’s set up, Intigai is completely automatic and hands-free, requiring no attention from you. Intigai ’s advanced battery technology delivers a strong, steady signal for up to 118 hours. And changing batteries is a simple drop-in operation you can do at home.

Is it right for you?

Every person’s ear canal anatomy varies. So, Intigai isn’t right for everyone. But, if the idea of a hearing instrument as “something you wear” is keeping you from getting 100% of what life has to offer, it’s time to find out if Intigai will work for you. Simply schedule an appointment with us.

Want to hear more?

You love the freedom that comes with being active, and you’re not ready to let hearing loss slow you down. You don’t have to with Intiga from Oticon. Discreet and stylish, Intiga offers you two of the most innovative, high performance hearing solutions on the market today.

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open forum

The Numbers Tell the Story (Again)

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Tom Allon tallon@manhattanmedia.com CFO/COO Joanne Harras jharras@manhattanmedia.com grOuP PuBLisHer Alex Schweitzer aschweitzer@manhattanmedia.com direCtOr OF interaCtive Marketing and digitaL strategy Jay Gissen jgissen@manhattanmedia.com

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West side spirit is published weekly Copyright © 2012 Manhattan Media, LLC 79 Madison Avenue, 16th Floor New York, N.Y. 10016 editorial (212) 284-9734 Fax (212) 268-2935 Advertising (212) 284-9715 General (212) 268-8600 e-mail: editorial@manhattanmedia.com Website: WestSideSpirit.com West side spirit is a division of Manhattan Media, LLC, publisher of Our town, Our town downtown, Chelsea Clinton News, the Westsider, City Hall, the Capitol,the Blackboard Awards, New York Family and Avenue magazine. to subscribe for 1 year, please send $75 to West side spirit, 79 Madison Avenue, 16th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10016 Recognized for excellence by the

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By Helen Rosenthal. three years ago, the Upper West side public school community raised a ruckus about the shortage of elementary school seats throughout district 3. Well, it’s déjà vu all over again: the Community education Council’s Middle school Committee ran the numbers and, to no one’s surprise, district 3 needs more middle school seats. We also know that the New York City department of education is notoriously terrible at planning when it comes to addressing classroom shortages. so what’s a community to do? there are two ways to address the public school seat shortages throughout district 3: build new space and tweak the land use review policy. the solution staring us in the face is to increase the size of the new school that will be built in the riverside south Center

(rsC) complex, p.s./i.s. 342. including this public school in the first building that goes up at rsC was codified by the City Council in its underlying zoning regulations. they are currently slated to build a 100,000-square-foot K-8 school there, bringing an additional 480 seats.

However, when negotiations began for this site—i was chair of Community Board 7 at the time—the developer initially offered 150,000 square feet of space. the city should now take them up on this original offer. it’s also critical that the developer and the city move to get that building—and school—built as quickly as possible. in the long term, however, we need to make changes to the land use review process. CB7 and the city were only able to require the developer to build a new school at rsC because the developer

needed a zoning variance and therefore the approval of our Community Board.

However, much of the real estate development that is bringing more families to the Upper West side is built with no variances required and therefore no reviews by the Community Board or the planning department.

Going forward, the city needs to create some mechanism through which developments that contribute to population growth help fund the corresponding increases in necessary infrastructure, like schools. this would ensure that as our communities grow, we are able to meet the needs of our residents at the level we deserve.

Helen rosenthal is a member of Community Board 7 and a candidate for New York City Council.

capital connections

Unions Will Have Last Laugh on Cuomo The governor has some repair work to do to recapture working vote

By Alan Chartock it was organized labor unions that gave working people in this country a chance to share in the American dream.

Now these same unions are under attack, and it shows in the decreasing numbers of Americans who join unions. some of the problems, of course, have to do with the often incorrect perception on the part of many Americans that unions have been infiltrated by shady characters and are led by fat cats who smoke big cigars and ride around in fancy cars. this narrative continues to claim that the initiative that made this country great has been drained out of the American spirit because of unions. in a lot of places, when people are asked to join a union, they do not, fearing that their already low wages will be drained even further and they will have little to show for their investment.

Nevertheless, my bet is that unions will rise again. Many of the worst among them have been purged of the bad seeds or have at least learned their lessons. in fact, those elected leaders who have harnessed the public antipathy toward unions do so at their own risk. My bet is that the sleeping tiger

March 29, 2012

may well wake up and bite them in the posterior.

Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, and his compatriot, Andrew Cuomo, who some of the state’s workers are calling “Governor 1 percent,” have waged a somewhat successful campaign to cut down on the benefits that civil service unions enjoy. in fact, there are rumblings among organized state, county and city workers that portend big trouble for anyone who thinks it’s wise to scapegoat the people who carry the bedpans, repair the roads, teach the children, nurse the sick, risk their lives on our mean streets and in our prisons and care for the mentally ill and the addicted. My labor sources tell me “we will never forget Cuomo’s perfidy.” in order to understand why the leaders of both the republican senate and the democratic Assembly said no to much of Cuomo’s plan, you must understand the history of the relationship between both houses and the unions.

Many years ago, under the direction of labor leaders like Norman Adler, a deal was cut with both the Assembly democrats and the senate republicans that they would be the beneficiaries

of union money and campaign help. in fact, when it looked like the democrats would take the senate, organized civil service unions still supported the senate republicans. it should come as no surprise that the very aggressive governor who was going for far more was held to a minimum by the two leaders, sheldon silver and dean skelos.

Now, it remains to be seen whether the unions are angry enough to get even with the governor. Many—myself included—believe that Cuomo, the Machiavellian pragmatist, will find a way to win back the unions.

From the beginning, the number 2016 has been on everyone’s lips. the theory is that Cuomo will run for president that year, but something interesting happened last week. sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who succeeded Hillary Clinton, announced that she would be the first to support Mrs. Clinton for president in 2016.

What is that old saying, “revenge is a dish best served cold”? Cuomo has some repair work to do, and fast. But is it too late?

Alan s. Chartock is president and CeO of WAMC/Northeast public radio and an executive publisher at the Legislative Gazette.

N ew s YO U Li V e B Y

ironic hopes

Health Care Fantasies and Reality ‘Obamacare’ debate overlooks how the health system actually works

By Josh Rogers John Edwards’ name resurfaced in the news last week with a report that he was a client of the Upper East Side’s “Millionaire Madam” during his 2008 presidential campaign. Regardless of the truth in the allegation, there was a better reason to bring him up again.

It’s hard to remember, but before the first caucus four years ago, Edwards appeared to have a plausible chance to win the Democratic nomination over the two betterfinanced candidates, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

All three had roughly similar plans to provide health insurance to more Americans, but Edwards talked about a strategic maneuver he planned to pull in the face of certain Congressional roadblocks. His idea was to introduce a bill to end health coverage for Congress, thus challenging opponents to vote for their health care while denying it to others.

With the two-year anniversary of the passage of President Obama’s health care law coinciding with the Supreme Court debating its legality, congressional opponents have had a chance to revive their “rationing medicine” criticism. It’s as if they believe we live in a country where doctors, not insurance companies, decide on the best treatment for patients.

It may work that way under Congress’s gold-plated health plan, but it is not typical in the United States, where medications, tests and doctor referrals are often held up for approval by insurance companies.

When Republican opponents debated “Obamacare” two years ago, they clung to fantasies about what health care is like for many people with insurance. It was so easy for them to say that Obama’s plan would “lead to rationing” that it sounded like a misstatement borne out of genuine ignorance.

Rationing has been going on for a long

time. Bureaucrats do make medical decisions. Those decrees are just not the ones we usually hear about because they are made in the private sector.

It still has not sunk in that Obama’s plan was an outgrowth of what used to be conservative mainstream thinking.

The Clintons probably could have gotten a similar plan passed almost 20 years ago, but they rejected Republican counter-proposals. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich were not only for Obamacare before they were against it, they were for it before Obama was.

In more recent years, Republican health care plans have become less reality-based. When Rudy Giuliani ran for president four years ago, he repeatedly said that he would let individuals shop for the best health insurance at the lowest price. While it’s possible to imagine companies getting into bidding wars to insure young people who have no health problems, the free market is not so kind to people with red flags in their medical records.

Health insurance has become so expensive it can often be an overriding factor in families’ job decisions. I left my full-time job a few years ago to take care of my infant son. It’s something I wanted to do, but it was also something my wife would have wanted to do. The difference was that I worked for a small company with a health plan that would have cost me many thousands of dollars more to add my wife and son. She works for a large corporation which can bargain for better rates—it costs her an extra $10 a week to cover me.

Ours is by no means a hard-luck story.

We were fortunate to have options and were able to pick one we liked. For too many others, health costs force people to make choices they hate and live in fear.

That’s the real-world health system Obamacare is trying to change.

Josh Rogers, contributing editor at Manhattan Media, is a lifelong New Yorker. Follow him @JoshRogersNYC.

Dewing Things BeTTer

Roarin’ Against Generational and Cultural Breakdowns Bridging the ‘ageism’ divide, one stereotype at a time

By Bette Dewing For now, some short takes on cultural breakdowns and one breakthrough Rx you may not read elsewhere.

But first a correction from my last column: 19th Precinct officer Chris Helms, not officer Liam Lynch, warned the East 79th Street Neighborhood Association about a cyclist swooping down on pedestrians and stealing their iPhones.

NY1 News aired surveillance footage of one such thief. Long overdue are mandatory bicycle license plates so red light cameras can catch cyclists who routinely fracture this law of the land.

Hope springs not so eternal that civic and political leaders may acknowledge such commonsense notions. No one “up there” picked up on my urging that the able-bodied help those who are not get to civic meetings, as exemplified by Mary Ford escorting Loretta Ponticelli to the recent 19th Precinct Community Council meeting on traffic safety. Isn’t that what community is all about, east side civic We st Si d e S p i r it . c o m

leaders Betty Wallerstein and Nick Viest?

We need to hear about community group lapses as well as those of the elected officials who honor someone for “blazing trails” for traffic safety and the rights of elderhood, then never bother to consult them.

Primarily, the loudest citizens and accredited experts are the ones who get consulted, and even the few who know the elder experience have little ageism awareness. So I handed out copies of my related columns at two separate events mostly attended by boomers and many post-boomers at the 2012 Age Boom Academy, sponsored in part by Columbia Journalism School.

Although not chosen this year as one of its 20 participating journalists, I was allowed to observe the “Why Family and Social Relationships Matter” session.

These essential connections are often missing, said the Cornell Institute for Translational Research on Aging’s Dr. Karl

Pillemer, due in part to age segregation.

Not unrelated was a brief news report: “Although Al Sharpton’s mother died today, he is off to Florida to join the many protesting Trayvon Martin’s tragic shooting death.” But was he there for his mother during her ordeal with Alzheimer’s (I call it brain failure)? Did he protest the government’s relatively meager support of this most dreaded human disorder?

While The Age Boom Academy and State Sen. Liz Krueger’s forum, “Who Will Take Care of Me?” were surely informative, they had me feeling that maybe I’d stayed too long at the fair. Doctors know when to die, said one Krueger handout. They resist even certain quite common procedures so they don’t burden loved ones or society.

But I knew there was still more work to do when I heard Brian Lehrer’s interview with Kate Stone Lombardi, author of The Mama’s Boy Myth: Why Keeping Our

Sons Close Will Make Them Stronger.

Mothers of sons, make this book a perennial best seller! And support your neighborhood bookstore, which must be preserved with vital connections between mothers and sons.

And because nobody else will, I must write a letter protesting the paper of record’s 3/24 story “With a Poison Tongue, Putting a Smile on the Nation’s Aging Faces.” A wildly popular 61-year-old male comic in Japan makes the most demeaning jokes about natural aging conditions, and even boomer-age women there pay big bucks to hear him.

Robert Nicholas worries that the new Betty White sitcom, Off Our Rockers, where the old play outrageous pranks on the young, may further divide generations and tell elders to laugh off their troubles often caused or worsened by an ageist and age-segregating culture. If so, old lion Bette is sure gonna roar! You too?

March 29, 2012

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