Wg 2 27 fin by David Watterson

Vol. VI, No. IX

Westchesterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Most Influential Weekly

Taxes, Public Works, and Public Utilities

Moving Yonkers Schools Forward

Thursday February 27, 2014

$1.00

Peggy Godfrey NewRo Funds Armory Decisions Page 6 Chris Rostenberg Pro-Life Parable Page 9 Glenn Mollette Assisted Suicide in America Page 10 John Simon Novelistic Musicals Page 12 BARBARA BARTON SLOANE

By MARY MARVIN, Page 3 GOVERNMENT

By MIKE SPANO, Page 3 GOVERNMENT

Hi-Speed Tolls at NewRo GEORGE LATIMER, Page 4

2 Flood Mitigation Plans ROBERT ASTORINO, Page 4

WWW.WESTCHESTERGUARDIAN.COM

Gulf Coast Mardi Gras Page 13 SHERIF AWAD Seeds of Doubt Page 15 Lee Hamilton Alternative to Imperial Presidency Page 16 Luke Hamilton Calm Before the Storm Page 18

rience fundraising, knowledge of what development entails and experience working with sponsors/donors; 2) Operations Manager- must have a good knowledge of computers/software/ticketing systems, duties include overseeing all box office, concessions, movie staffing, day of show lobby staffing such as Merchandise seller, bar sales. Must be familiar with POS system and willing to organize concessions. Full time plus hours. Call (203) 438-5795 and ask for Julie or Allison

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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

THE WESTcHESTER GUARDiAn THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THE WESTcHESTER GUARDiAn

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Of Significance Of Significance

Community Section ............................................................................... 4 Community Section ............................................................................... 44 Business ................................................................................................ Business ................................................................................................ Calendar ............................................................................................... 44 Calendar ............................................................................................... 45 Charity .................................................................................................. Creative Disruption ............................................................................ 56 Charity Contest.................................................................................................. Cultural Perspective ........................................................................... 766 Contest .................................................................................................. Creative Disruption ............................................................................ Energy Issues ....................................................................................... Creative Disruption ............................................................................ Education ............................................................................................. 867 In Memoriam ....................................................................................1078 Education ............................................................................................. Fashion .................................................................................................. Medicine .............................................................................................10 Fashion .................................................................................................. Fitness.................................................................................................... 89 Najah’s Corner ...................................................................................119 Fitness.................................................................................................... Health ..................................................................................................10 Movie Review ....................................................................................12 Health History..................................................................................................10 ................................................................................................10 Music ...................................................................................................12 History Ed Koch................................................................................................10 Movie Review ...................................................................12 Community ........................................................................................13 Ed Koch Movie Review ...................................................................12 Spoof ....................................................................................................13 Writers Collection.............................................................................14 Spoof Sports....................................................................................................13 Scene .......................................................................................13 Books Sports Scene .......................................................................................13 Najah’s...................................................................................................16 Corner ...................................................................................13 People ..................................................................................................18 Najah’s Corner ...................................................................................13 Writers Collection.............................................................................14 Eye On...................................................................................................16 Theatre ..................................................................................18 Writers Collection.............................................................................14 Books Leaving on a Jet Plane ......................................................................19 Books ...................................................................................................16 Transportation...................................................................................17 Government Section Transportation ...................................................................................17 Government Section ............................................................................20 ............................................................................17 Campaign Trail ..................................................................................20 Government Section ............................................................................17 Albany Correspondent ....................................................................17 Economic Development....................................................................17 Albany Correspondent Mayor Marvin’s Column..................................................................20 .................................................................18 Education ...........................................................................................21 Mayor Marvin’s Column .................................................................18 Government .......................................................................................19 The Hezitorial ....................................................................................21 Government .......................................................................................19 OpEd Section .........................................................................................23 LegalSection ....................................................................................................23 OpEd .........................................................................................23 Ed Koch Commentary.....................................................................23 People ..................................................................................................24 Ed Koch Letters toCommentary.....................................................................23 the Editor ..........................................................................24 Strategyto...............................................................................................24 Letters Editor............................................................................25 ..........................................................................24 Weir Onlythe Human OpEd Section .........................................................................................25 Weir Only Human ............................................................................25 Legal Notices ..........................................................................................26 Legal Notices ..........................................................................................26 ..........................................................................................27

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Prime Location, Yorktown Heights UPON GOOD CAUSE, THE COURT MAY ORDER AN INVESTIGATION TO DETERMINE WHETHSq. Ft.: $1800. Wilca: 914.632.1230 ER THE NON-RESPONSENT PARENT(s) SHOULD1,000 BE CONSIDERED ASContact A RESPONDENT; IF THE COURT DETERMINES THE CHILD SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM HIS/HER HOME, THE COURT MAY ORDER AN INVESTIGATION TO DETERMINE NON-RESPONDENTCounty PrimeWHETHER RetailTHE - Westchester Thursday, FEBRUARY 27,Best 2014 PARENT(s) SHOULD BE SUITABLE CUSTODIANS FOR THE CHILD; IF THE CHILD IS PLACEDHeights AND Location in Yorktown REMAINS IN FOSTER CARE FOR FIFTEEN1100 OF THE RECENT TWENTY-TWO Sq.MOST Ft. Store $3100; 1266 Sq. MONTHS, Ft. store THE $2800 and 450 Sq. Ft. AGENCY MAY BE REQUIRED TO FILE PETITION FOR TERMINATION OF PARENTAL RIGHTS OF THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23,A 2012 Page 3 Store $1200. THE PARENT(s) AND COMMITMENT OF GUARDIANSHIP AND CUSTODY OF THE CHILD FOR THE THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 2012 Page 3 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2012 Page Suitable for any type of business. Contact Wilca: 914.632.1230 PURPOSES OF ADOPTION, EVEN IF THE PARENT(s) WERE NOT NAMED AS RESPONDENTS IN THE CHILD NEGLECT OR ABUSE PROCEEDING.

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HELP WANTED A NON-CUSTODIAL PARENT HAS THE RIGHT TO REQUEST TEMPORARY OR PERMANENT CUS-

A non profit OF Performing Arts Center is seeking two job positions- 1) DirecTODY OF THE CHILD AND TO SEEK ENFORCEMENT VISITATION RIGHTS WITH THE CHILD. tor of Development- FT-must have a background in development or expeBY ORDER OF THE FAMILY COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK rience fundraising, knowledge of what development entails and Feature Section.................................................................................................................................. 3 experience working with sponsors/donors; 2) Operations Mayor 3 have a TO THE Marvin............................................................................................................................... ABOVE-NAMED RESPONDENT(S) WHO RESIDE(S) OR IS FOUND AT [specifyManager- must good knowledge of computers/software/ticketing systems, duties include address(es)]: Mayor Spano................................................................................................................................. 3 lobby overseeing all box office, concessions, movie staffing, day of show Westchester On the Level is usually heard from to Friday, from NY 1010701 a.m. to 12 Last known addresses: TIFFANY RAY:Monday 24staffing Garfieldsuch Street, Yonkers, NewRo Toll Plaza......................................................................................................................... 4 POS as#3, Merchandise seller, bar sales. Must be familiar with Noon on the Internet: http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com/WestchesterOntheLevel. system willing to organize concessions. Call (203) Flood Mitigation Last known addresses:Projects........................................................................................................... KENNETH THOMAS: 24 and Garfield Street, #3, Yonkers, NY 10701 Full time plus hours. 4 Because of the importance of a Federal court case438-5795 purporting corruption bribery and ask for Julie orand Allison Community Section......................................................................................................................... 5 An Orderwith to Show Cause under Article 10 days of the of Family Court 26 Act to having filed with this Court allegations, programming be suspended for the March 29, been 2012. YonWestchester On the Levelto ismodify heard Monday to Friday, from seeking the from placement for the above-named child. 10 a.m. to 12 Noon Calendar......................................................................................................................................... 5

Westchester On the Level with Narog and Aris Westchester On the Level with Narog and Aris Aris and

kersthe Philharmonic Orchestra Sadewhite is our scheduled Friday, Westchester On the Level is Conductor heard fromJames Monday to Friday, from 10 a.m.guest to 12 Noon on Internet: http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com/WestchesterOntheLevel. Join Current Commentary................................................................................................................. 5 YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to appear before this Court at Yonkers Family Court March 30. on the Internet: by http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com/WestchesterOntheLevel. Join the conversation calling toll-free to 1-877-674-2436. Please stay on topic. located at 53 So. Broadway, Yonkers, New York, on the 28th day of March, 2012 at 2;15 pm in the Economic Development............................................................................................................. 6 It is however anticipated that the jury will conclude its deliberation on either Monthe conversation byafternoon calling toll-free 1-877-674-2436. on topic. of saidare day to to answer the petition and toweek showstay cause why saidFebruary child should20th not beand ending on Richard Narog March and Hezi Aris your co-hosts. Incase, thePlease beginning Health............................................................................................................................................. 6 day or Tuesday, 26 or 27. Should that be the we will resume our regular adjudicated to be a neglected child and why you should not be dealt with in accordance with the Richard Narog and Hezi are10entourage your In the week beginning February 24th,schedule we have an Aris of guests. programming and announce fact on the Yonkers Tribune website.February 20th and ending7on Lifestyle. .exciting ......................................................................................................................................... provisions of Article ofthat the co-hosts. Family Court Act. February 24th, we have exciting entourage ofshow. guests. Richard Narog and Hezian are co-hosts of the .Aris ............................................................................................................................................. 8 Every Monday is Music. special. On Monday, February 20th, Wade, participant in http:// PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE, thatKrystal you have the right toabecelebrated represented by a lawEvery Monday is special. On Monday, February 20th, celebrated participant in http:// yer, and if the Court finds you are unable to pay forKrystal a lawyer, you haveathe right to havewho a lawyer Politics. . ........................................................................................................................................... 8 www.TheWritersCollection.com is our guest. Krystal Wade isWade, a mother of three works fifty miles assigned by the Court.is www.TheWritersCollection.com our guest. Krystal is a novel mother threeaccepted who works fifty miles Pro-Life. .......................................................................................................................................... 9 from home and writes in her “spare time.” “Wilde’s Fire,”Wade her debut hasofbeen for publication from home and writes ininher “spare time.” “Wilde’s Fire,” debut has been publication PLEASE TAKE NOTICE, thather if you fail tonovel appear at the timeaccepted andHow placefor Society. .......................................................................................................................................... 10 it? and should be available 2012. Not farFURTHER behind is her second novel, “Wilde’s Army.” does she do noted in above, the Court and determine the petition as provided by law.Army.” How does she do it? and available 2012. Notwill farhear behind is her second novel, “Wilde’s Tuneshould in andbefind out. Creative Disruption................................................................................................................... 10 Dated: JanuaryGardener. 30, 2012 ................................................................................................................. BY ORDER OF THE COURT Tune in and find out. The Merry 11 Co-hosts Richard Narog2 and Hezi Aris will relish the dissection of all things politics on Tuesday, February column CLERK1 column OF THE COURT Co-hosts Richard Narog and Hezi Aris will relish the dissection of all things politics on Tuesday, February Eye on Theatre. . ........................................................................................................................... 12 21st. Yonkers City Council President Chuck Lesnick will share his perspective from the august inner 21st. Yonkers Council President Lesnick will share 22nd. his perspective from the august Travel. ............................................................................................................................................ 13 sanctum of theCity City Council ChambersChuck on Wednesday, February Stephen Cerrato, Esq., will inner share sanctum of the City Chambers Wednesday, February 22nd. Esq.,be will share Trivia............................................................................................................................................. 14 his political insight onCouncil Thursday, Februaryon 23rd. Friday, February 24th hasStephen yet to beCerrato, filled. It may a propihis political onwhat Thursday, February 23rd. Friday, February 24th has yet to be filled. It mayofbeThat a propiMiddle East Forum.................................................................................................................... 14 tious day toinsight sum up transpired throughout the week. A sort of BlogTalk Radio version Was tious day toThat sumWas upCultural what transpired throughout the week. A sort of BlogTalk Radio version of That 15 Was Perspectives................................................................................................................. The Week (TWTWTW). The Week That Was (TWTWTW). .................................................................................................................................... 16on For those who Government. cannot join us live, consider listening to the show by way of an MP3 download, or Lee Hamilton. 16link For thoseWithin who cannot join us consider listening tofind the the show by wayinof MP3 that download, or on demand. 15 minutes of live, a.............................................................................................................................. show’s ending, you can segment ouranarchive you may demand. Within 15Campaign minutes of ainshow’s ending,paragraph. you can find the segment in our archive that you may16 link Trail........................................................................................................................... to using the hyperlink provided the opening Legal Notices, to using the hyperlink in the opening paragraph. Lukeprovided Hamilton............................................................................................................................ 18 Advertise Today The entire archiveLegal is available maintained perusal. The easiest way to find a particular interview Notices,and Advertise Today for your Legal Notices.and ................................................................................................................................... 18 The entire archive is available maintained for your perusal. The easiest way to find a particular interview is to search Google, or any other search engine, for the subject matter or the name of the interviewee. 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The Westchester Guardian is a weekly newspaper devoted to the unbiased reporting of events The Westchester Guardian is aCriminal, weeklyMedicaid, newspaper devoted to the living unbiased reporting of events Medicare and developments that are newsworthy and significant to readers in, and/or employed in, and developments that areGuardian newsworthy significant readers in, and/or employed in, Fraud, White-Collar Crime & to Westchester County. The willand strive to report fairly, andliving objectively, reliable informa914.948.0044reliable informaWestchester County.tion The without Guardian will strive to report fairly, andT.duty objectively, Health Careor Prosecutions. favor compromise. Our first will be to the PEOPLE’S F. tion without favor or compromise. Our first duty will be fear to the RIGHT TO KNOW, by the exposure of truth,914.686.4873 without orPEOPLE’S hesitation, RIGHT TO KNOW, by themay exposure ofthe truth, without fearoforFREEDOM hesitation, no matter where the pursuit lead, in finest tradition 175 M AIN S T., S UITE 711-7 • W HITE P LAINS, NY 10601 no matter where the pursuit may lead, in the finest tradition of FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. OF THE PRESS. The Guardian will cover news and events relevant to residents and The Guardian will cover news and eventsAs relevant to residents and businesses all over Westchester County. a weekly, rather than businesses all over Westchester County. As a weekly, rather than focusing on the immediacy of delivery more associated with daily focusingwe onwill the instead immediacy more associated daily journals, seek of to delivery provide the broader, morewith comprejournals, we will instead seek to provide the broader, more comprehensive, chronological step-by-step accounting of events, enlightened hensive, chronological step-by-step accounting of events, enlightened with analysis, where appropriate. with analysis, where appropriate. Professional Dominican From &amongst journalism’s classic key-words: who, what, when, Hairstylists Nail Technicians From amongst journalism’ s classic key-words: who, what, when, Hair Cuts • Stylingwhy, • Washand & Set •how, Permingthe why and how will drive our pursuit. We where, Pedicure • Acrylic Nails • Fill Ins • Silkwhy, Wraps •and Nail Art Designs where, how, the why andand how drive our will use our •more time, ourwill resources, to pursuit. get past We the Highights • Coloring • Extensions • Manicure Eyebrowabundant Waxing will use our more abundant time, and our resources, to get past the initial ‘spin’ and ‘damage control’ often characteristic of immediate initial and often characteristic immediate Yudi’s Salon 610 Main St, New Rochelle, NY ‘spin’ 10801 914.633.7600 news releases, to ‘damage reach thecontrol’ very heart of the matter: the of truth. We will news releases, toto reach theof very heart of the matter: the truth. will take our readers a point understanding and insight whichWe cannot take our readers to a point of understanding and insight which cannot be obtained elsewhere. be obtained elsewhere. To succeed, we must recognize from the outset that bigger is not necesTo succeed, must recognize from theacknowledge outset that bigger is not necessarily better.we And, furthermore, we will that we cannot be sarily better. And, furthermore, we will acknowledge that we cannot all things to all readers. We must carefully balance the presentationbe of all things to all readers. We must carefully balance the presentation of relevant, hard-hitting, Westchester news and commentary, with features relevant, hard-hitting, Westchester news and commentary, with features and columns useful in daily living and employment in, and around, the and columns useful in daily living and employment in, and around, the county. We must stay trim and flexible if we are to succeed. county. We must stay trim and flexible if we are to succeed.

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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, FEBRUARY 27, 2014

Page 3

the Department of Public Works facility on Palumbo Place. Never modernized since its construction in the mid-1940’s, a thorough evaluation is long overdue. The goal of the review is to determine whether the existing facility is worthy of modifications to meet the needs and equipment of a 2014 department or rather it is more prudent/cost effective to construct a new or pre-fab structure. Our current facility will be evaluated with regard to vehicle maintenance needs, equipment and material storage, material handling, electrical needs, environmental regulations and energy efficiency. Add to this list, the now unprecedented costs for salt and snow removal resulting in another challenging budget process. All of the above variables are set in the backdrop of the Governor’s continued emphasis on a 2% tax cap increase despite the fact that State government unfunded mandates continue unabated while State aid to communities continues to decrease. The fallacy of the 2% tax cap is that well before its inception, no

communities were increasing staffing and/or services by 2%, rather they were trimming services to deal with the often double digit tax increases sent directly from Albany. At the February Trustees meeting, the Trustees, as is custom, voted to set the process in motion to override the tax cap, though we have only exceeded the 2% cap once and that by only $40,000. Our vote is rather a statement of support for local control of budgetary decisions. The Trustees believe we are elected to be stewards of the local taxpayers’ dollars and answerable only and directly to them and not be an instrument to advance the political aspirations of others. Finally, we have added a special meeting/work session of the Board of Trustees for Wednesday, February 19th to chiefly discuss our upcoming Capital Program.

School, and served as the principal at Hawthorne Jr. High and Roosevelt High before taking the job as Superintendent of Tuckahoe Schools. Dr. Yazurlo also has private sector, academic and finance experience that will serve him well as the BOE copes with its financial challenges. As we work with the State and City Council to help the BOE manage these budgetary issues, we also have a responsibility to taxpayers, parents and students to ensure these accounting errors don’t ever happen again. It’s a matter of common sense – more than $500 million is paid to the Board of Education by taxpayers with little oversight or accountability; that’s more than half of the city’s overall budget. We’ve already made progress on this front. Earlier this month we entered into an inter-municipal agreement with the BOE and my finance team has begun to open the BOE’s books. Later this year I will also ask the State Legislature to pass school governance reform legislation that will provide

the City with greater oversight over the BOE’s finances. Doing so could save taxpayers millions of dollars by consolidating overlapping operations in the Board of Education’s front office. It just doesn’t make sense for Yonkers to have two law departments, two IT departments and two HR departments – one on the municipal side and one on the educational side. We should put those functions under one roof because we are one city. Despite our challenges, Yonkers has come a long way in the last two years. We’ve moved our city in a new direction and together we will move Yonkers Schools forward.

FeatureSection

MAYOR Marvin’s COLUMN GOVERNMENT

Taxes, Public Works, and Public Utilities By MARY C. MARVIN At the February monthly meeting, the Trustees acted on a myriad of substantive issues in the areas of taxes, Public Works and public utilities. The Board joined a consortium with neighboring communities - which includes New Rochelle, Eastchester, Ardsley, Tuckahoe, Dobbs Ferry, Hastings, Pelham and Pelham Manor - to challenge a proposed astronomical raise in water cost and hydrant maintenance by our water purveyor, United Water. United Water is asking the State’s Public Service Commission for a 22.95% increase in water rates and a whopping 36.99% increase in hydrant maintenance fees. Sadly for the consumer, the Public Service Commission has been very willing to grant double digit increases to the utility. As example, the Village’s hydrant maintenance fees were

$84,244 in 2011 and in just two years escalated to $126,637. This number is now the base for the proposed 36.99% increase. The above scenario underscores why all water users, not just property tax payers, should share in the cost of hydrant maintenance. Unfortunately, we have no recourse to change water providers since United Water owns all the purveyance infrastructure. All we can do is present a united front with our neighbors and legislators and fight the increases. In the same vein, the New York State Power Authority recently authorized a 12.6% increase in the cost of municipal electrical rates and the hike was reflected in our January invoice. The Trustees also voted to engage the services of a local consultant, Donald Marra, to assist in the search for a new Village Treasurer and Village Administrator. We are also taking advantage in this unprecedented sea

change in Village management to step back and review Village staffing in totality to ensure that we have the right combination of skill sets, full and parttime staff, and the level of efficiency and services that taxpayers deserve. The Village’s tax collection was recently reconciled. As a refresher, the Village collects approximately $8 million to run the Village and $38 million to operate the School. As of January 31, 2014, $1,138,892.86 was uncollected, representing 2.46% of the levy. The Village must make the School District whole, so tax liens will be sold on March 13, 2014. Per New York State Law, the lien sale will be noticed in the paper of record, The Journal News. A list of real estate parcels identified by section, block and lot on which taxes remain unpaid is available in the Village Treasurer’s office. Funded in past capital budgets, the Trustees voted to engage Calgi Construction Management to evaluate

Mary C. Marvin is the mayor of the Village of Bronxville, New York. If you have a suggestion or comment, consider directing your perspective by directing email to mayor@ vobny.com.

THE MAYOR’S BLOG

Moving Yonkers Schools Forward By MIKE SPANO

Last month after former Superintendent Bernard Pierorazio announced his retirement following the revelation that the Board of Education mistakenly accounted

for $55 million in state aid that never existed, many Yonkers parents, students and school personnel were understandably upset and uneasy about the state of Yonkers Schools. After all, Yonkers’ families and teachers are still reeling from several years of cuts. Last year, my second in office, I

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Designated a “Featured” BlogTalk Radio program, has been operating for over two years via the Internet with Co-Hosts Richard Narog and Hezi Aris every weekday, from 10 a.m. to 12 Noon. Listen to the show live or on demand. Share your perspective by calling (347) 205-9201 or by clicking onto the following hyperlinks: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ westchesteronthelevel

passed a bipartisan, unanimous City budget that actually increased school funding. Our historic investment in education provided the BOE with resources to restore positions, sports, art and music. The BOE’s budget error not only jeopardizes those restorations, but the entire school system and every Yonkers taxpayer too. An error of this magnitude requires that those responsible be held accountable to the taxpayers who fund our schools. That’s why I am pleased that this week the Board of Education Trustees accepted Mr. Pierorazio’s retirement and appointed Dr. Michael Yazurlo as Interim Superintendent. Dr. Yazurlo is a great fit for Yonkers Public Schools. A Yonkers resident and product of Yonkers Public Schools himself, Dr. Yazurlo taught at Enrico Fermi Middle School and Lincoln High

Mayor Mike Spano is the 42nd Mayor of the City of Yonkers, NY.   Mayor Spano is a lifelong Yonkers resident, husband and father of three who has dedicated his life to standing up as a voice for Yonkers’ families and communities.

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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, FEBRUARY 27, 2014

GOVERNMENT

Latimer Calls for High Speed Toll at New Rochelle Toll Plaza ALBANY, NY -- On February 3rd, Senator George Latimer sent a letter to NYS Thruway Authority Chairman Thomas Madison to request that installation of high speed EZ Pass tolls be prioritized for installation at the New Rochelle Toll Plaza for the New England Section of the NYS Thruway (I-95).

In his letter, Latimer stated, “With each passing year, toll booths in numerous locations have established these high-speed lanes, which speed traffic flow, reduce congestion, and reduce the effects of air pollution for resident adjacent to the Thruway toll booths.”

Latimer further asserted that, “when the toll booths are filled with traffic, many cars seek to avoid the toll booth back-ups by using adjacent local roads, clogging the business districts in the East End of New Rochelle as well as in the Village of Larchmont, by those seeking an alternate route.”

Latimer’s letter concluded by asking the Thruway Authority to identify any existing plans (with accompanying time frames), for installing these high-speed lanes, or absent that, the Thruway Authority’s rationale offered if there are no plans to do so anytime soon.

Astorino Advances Two Flood Mitigation Projects Rehabilitation Work Planned for Bronx and Mamaroneck Rivers County Executive Robert P. Astorino has submitted legislation to the County Board of Legislators to advance two flood mitigation projects, together totaling $1.85 million. The projects employ best practices in stormwater management to

enhance each site’s capacity for storing and absorbing floodwaters, as well as improving water quality and enhancing the sites’ visual appearance. At the county’s Saxon Woods Park, located in parts of Mamaroneck and Harrison, nine acres of floodplain along 1,400 feet of the Mamaroneck River will be restored at a cost of $600,000. The severely eroded riverbank will be stabilized with rock revetment supplemented by vegetation. Along the river, invasive vines will be replaced with hundreds of tree saplings and other vegetation that will stabilize the soil and greatly improve water absorption and filtration. In 2012, the county completed similar improvements to nine acres along 1,600 feet of

the river directly to the north. In Eastchester and Yonkers, south of the Harney Road Bridge in the county’s Bronx River Parkway Reservation, 750 feet along both sides of the Bronx River will be stabilized at a cost of $1.25

said. “Last year we completed the rehabilitation of the Oak Street Pump Station in Yonkers that was damaged by Superstorm Sandy. The County Center is now buffered from the impacts of flooding thanks to stormwater manage-

completed in 2013 was at Scout Field in Mount Vernon, where stormwater management and in-channel stone diversion structures were constructed and river buffer was restored. Under construction next to Fisher Lane and the Bronx River

View of Bronx River and parkway southbound from Harney Road Bridge. million. Severe erosion and sedimentation are aggravating flooding conditions and threatening the park pathway. River sediment will be relocated, thereby widening the river channel, and the riverbank will be re-graded. Stone structures within the channel will re-direct water flow to lessen the threat of bank erosion and sedimentation. “These projects are part of a larger and ongoing effort to address the impacts of flooding in the county,” Astorino

ment projects along the banks of the Bronx River. There are many complex factors that cause flooding and we will continue to maximize our resources to address them.” In 2011 and 2012, the restoration and stabilization of 1,000 feet of the west bank and 1,200 feet of the east bank of the Bronx River between the Bronx River Parkway and the County Center parking lot was completed. Another Bronx River flood mitigation project

Parkway in Greenburgh is the restoration of a stormwater and flood management wetland next to the Bronx River. This project will be completed by summer at a cost of $850,000. The Blind Brook Dam Retrofit project at Bowman Avenue in Rye Brook was completed last year by the City of Rye and is eligible for up to a 50 percent cost match or a maximum $1,083,550 from the county. Other flood mitigation projects now

moving forward include: • Mamaroneck: Replacement of the Anita Lane Bridge to improve the flow in the river channel during severe storms; at a cost of $1.5 million. • Eastchester and Yonkers: Redirect the river channel away from the supporting wall of the Bronx River Parkway at Garth Woods; at a cost of $2 million. • White Plains: Stormwater management practices and embankment stabilization along Fulton Brook in the Bronx River Reservation near the County Center; at a cost of $600,000. “We will continue to move as quickly as possible to address projects on county property, as we have been,” Astorino said. “Where state, federal and other approvals are required, it adds time and complexity to the project, however we continue to make progress.” The county also is studying and addressing the impacts of flooding via the County Stormwater Advisory Board (SAB). Staffs of the departments of Planning and Public Works and Transportation are working on Stormwater Reconnaissance Plans for Westchester’s five major watershed areas. Three plans have been approved by the SAB. Once the plans are approved by the County Board of Legislators, the flood mitigation projects in the plans, which were identified by municipal officials, will be eligible for a 50 percent project cost match from the County. SOURCE: Ned McCormack, County Executive Communications Director

THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, FEBRUARY 27, 2014

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make all 183 in just 13 days, but sure will try. The Pleasantville Community Synagogue presents “Life in Stills” (2011) as part of their 2014 film series on March 20th at 7:45pm, all are welcome to this free series and refreshments will be served. John Jay High School’s select Vocal Jazz ensemble placed third out of 17 groups in their division at the Berklee High School Jazz Festival recently up in Boston. Thirtyeight students represented the school under the direction of Steven Morse where they performed three pieces. This is the groups’ 12th year attending this event and they have placed in each of the last four years. You think they’re good, you should hear me singing in the shower… How about some seed saving from expert Shanyn Segalon on how to plan your garden for effective seed saving from the start, then head over to Hilltop Hanover Farm in Yorktown Heights on March 8th. I think I may sign up my wife for this… as all three Westchester County Cornell Cooperative Extension offices are looking

for new master gardener volunteers. The training starts this fall and there is a February 28th deadline to sign up. The Armonk Antiques Show is set for its 31st year, opening with a cocktail preview party on Friday February 28th at its new location at Brynwood Golf & Country Club. The Sci-Fi Book club meets Saturday, March 1st; all are invited to join in a causal discussion about “Probability Moon” and other sci-fi books and movies. The meeting will be held in the Katonah Village Library where books for discussion are available. Congratulations go out to Lori Ensinger as she has been named the new president of the Westchester Land Trust. I’ve raked leaves, I’ve raked a garden, but this is the first time I’ve raked the roof, if I don’t fall off… see you next week.

The deception, in most cases, comes in the form of a “straw buyer,” someone who will conduct the actual purchase on behalf of the

exporter. In some cases, straw buyers simply allow dealerships to think they are making

CommunitySection CALENDAR

News & Notes from Northern Westchester By MARK JEFFERS My youngest daughter just completed a paper on procrastination, as she is an expert; especially when it comes to doing her homework …a skill she learned from her father, but we put our heads together and she finished her biology studies and I finished this week’s “procrastinated” edition of “News & Notes.” The Katonah Museum of Art will be showcasing the Young Artists 2014 Exhibition on Sunday, March 2, through Sunday, March 9. Young Artists is an annual program for local student artists to participate in all aspects of a museum exhibition. The exhibition will feature artwork from nearly 400 local high school seniors. We like to read our books the old fashioned way… by actually picking up a book,

not by downloading it onto a tablet of some sort. That being said, it seems that we have read every book in the house during this housebound winter! So we will be heading over to support the Friends of the Ossining Library this Friday, Saturday and Sunday as they have their general book sale in the Gallery on the lower level. Much to my wife’s dismay, I love to collect hats, they’re all over our house… so you know I won’t miss “HATtitude: The Milliner in Culture and Couture” at ArtsWestchester where they will be showing unique headwear through April 12th, more than 160 hats will be featured in this exhibition that has gathered over 40 contemporary milliners, many of whom are sought after by fashionistas around the world. Through hats that range from playful expressions of individuality to symbols of propriety or sculptural masterpieces, the show highlights the hat’s function in global cultures, as well

as its prominent position in 20th and 21st Century couture fashion. Want to dig into your family history, but don’t know where to begin? … Come to The Field Library in Peekskill on March 19th for a Genealogy Computer Class. Discover the amazing resources available through the library, and “Ancestry Plus.” This class is free of charge and open to the entire community. The Clarke Preserve on Autumn Ridge Road in Pound Ridge is offering a volunteer work session with the Pound Ridge Land Conservancy on March 1st at 10am; learn the best practices of trail maintenance and to identify invasive species. Spring will come and this is a great way to give back and to get outdoors! Here is one my favorite events… the 10th annual Hudson Valley Restaurant Week is set for March 10 – 23 with over 180 restaurants participating, I’m not sure I can

Mark Jeffers resides in Bedford Hills, New York, with his wife Sarah, and three daughters, Kate, Amanda, and Claire.

CURRENT COMMENTARY

The Crime of Selling Your New Car By LARRY M. ELKIN The right to resell personal possessions drives everything from neighborhood yard sales to Craigslist to eBay. Say Kate sells John a radio. At some point, John buys a new model or simply tires of it, and offers it for sale to Jack. Kate is unlikely to know when and under what circumstances Jack buys the radio. After all, John paid her fully and fairly for it. Such a transaction seems to be entirely straightforward. Now say that instead of a radio, Kate sells John a luxury car. And that Kate is a saleswoman at a dealership. John purchases the car legally and pays for it in full. Then John sells the car to Jack – only this time, Jack happens to live in China. Evidently we now need to involve federal prosecutors. So it seems, at least, based on a recent article in The New York Times, which examined federal prosecutors’ efforts in six states to prosecute buyers who purchase luxury vehicles and resell them in China where demand – and prices – are high.

United States Attorney John Kacavas, of New Hampshire, told The Times, “What we have found is a scam or people looking to make a fast buck.” Fraud is a crime. Wanting to earn money, on its own, is not. I thought I owned a car once I bought it, and that ownership lets me do with it what I want. These cases raise some questions, such as: How long do I have to keep the car before I can resell it without triggering alarms? Why does it matter if the buyer is American, or Canadian, or Chinese? And how on earth did federal prosecutors get involved in sorting these questions out? I am not the only one to ask. Aitan Goelman, a former federal prosecutor, questioned whether limited resources might be better applied elsewhere. “If you can prove some kind of deception, that usually is enough to let you bring the case as a legal matter,” he said. “But the more interesting question is, should you, considering scarce prosecutorial resources.” Actually, I thought that in most cases of fraud, someone must be not only deceived, but also injured. (Otherwise, beware of inviting your romantic partner out to dinner as a pretext to arrange

a surprise party. You might be charged with defrauding them out of dinner.) Back to the subject of car exports.

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CURRENT COMMENTARY

The Crime of Selling Your New Car Continued from page 5

personal purchases. Other buyers are actually deceptive, giving prosecutors a jumping-off point for their pursuit. In New Hampshire, two men fraudulently obtained local driver’s licenses as part of their operation, triggering the only instance of the federal investigations known to involve criminal charges thus far. The straw buyers pay for the cars, usually with cashier’s checks, and register them under their own names.They then turn over the cars, receiving payment for their labor, and the exporters have technically used vehicles in hand that can be sold overseas. Exporters are fighting back against

prosecutors’ efforts to seize vehicles and bring lawsuits in what is, they argue, essentially a civil dispute. Michael Downs, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has proactively filed a lawsuit in federal court, attempting to secure a declaratory judgment that his business is legal. Downs told The Times that his company complies with all state and federal laws, though New York prosecutors have sought to freeze a company bank account and seize cars. Ely Goldin, an attorney representing a couple who have also run afoul of federal prosecutors’ efforts to stop this practice, told The Wall Street Journal that the government should not make a criminal case out of a civil

dispute between car dealerships and their customers. “Why should a buyer of a car be prohibited from exporting a car after he paid top dollar for it?” Goldin asked. The question is a good one, and the government has yet to provide a satisfactory answer. And as China’s used car market continues to grow, the large gap between the cost of a new luxury car in the U.S. and a pre-owned car’s resale value in China will continue to attract the attention of entrepreneurs willing to expend the time and effort to pursue the venture. Automakers have rules forbidding dealerships from willingly selling cars to known exporters. Those rules should make this business a struggle between auto manufacturers and resellers – a dispute in which

federal prosecutors have no clear place. But until someone like Downs can get a judicial opinion, the threat of criminal prosecution will continue to dominate what should be a matter for, if anything, private litigation. People looking to make a buck, absent any fraud, is just capitalism. Federal prosecutors should have better things to do than serving as the muscle behind car makers and their dealers. My approach when evaluating Albany tax policy is skeptical to the point of cynicism: I assume any new taxes are permanent, any repealed taxes may be resurrected at any time, and any deferred tax cuts may or may not actually occur, with roughly the probability of the Mets winning the World Series. It isn’t scientific and it may not even

be fair, but my approach does not let me down too often, either.

Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®, has provided personal financial and tax counseling to a sophisticated client base since 1986. After six years with Arthur Andersen, where he was a senior manager for personal financial planning and family wealth planning, he founded his own firm in Hastings on Hudson, N.Y., in 1992. That firm grew steadily and became the Palisades Hudson organization, which moved to Scarsdale, N.Y., in 2002. The firm expanded to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in 2005 and to Atlanta in 2008.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

New Rochelle’s City Council Flouts Armory Decisions By PEGGY GODFREY The Armory proposals are in limbo in New Rochelle. None of the recent deadlines that were given for the City Council to make decisions have been met. Ron Tocci, former New York State Assemblyman and New York State Deputy Commissioner of Veterans Affairs at the New Rochelle Citizens Reform Club meeting said that nothing has been done about the Waterfront Design Competition for the Armory competition award. There were four finalists: Arch Techtonics, CDR Studio, Hariri and Hariri Architects, and SHOP Architects (for the Save Our Armory proposal). Dates were projected as December 10, 2013 for the top ranking teams to present to the City Council; December 11, 2013 announcement made by Architects Newspaper and City of New Rochelle on the top ranking team; and December 16, 2013 - January l0, 2014, exhibit of winning competition proposal in the Waterfront Design Competition. The

person chosen to lead this endeavor, William Menking of Pratt University the City Council now wanted presentations from all four finalists. But the city council still has not heard their presentations. The next challenge according to Tocci for residents is “not to spend $40 million to move the City Yard to Beechwood Avenue.” He had personal concerns about this proposed site’s adequacy including how the New Rochelle Public Work’s Department of Sanitation’s long distance trucks which would have to travel to the city’s north end from the southern part of the city. He reminded the group that Shop Architects, a leading architectural firm, had shown residents how their Armory plan could be developed. Shop Architects are known for their work on the Barclays Center at Atlantic Yards for Forest City Ratner and several waterfront projects. Financing was possible. Interested developers include Jones Lang LaSalle which sent a letter to the Department of Development on the Save Our Armory project and another is PIKE who also contacted the Development

Department. A restaurant owner proposed a second floor restaurant of 10,000 square feet. However, nothing can happen, Tocci warned, without the needed memorandum of understanding (MOU) for one year from the City Council. These developers are interested in the general area as the initial Forest City plan. They feel nearby parcels such as the Fire Islands Park could be used for a restaurant and museum. Tocci suggested the last election results are “beginning to pay off ” and the public has been taking notice of what is happening in New Rochelle. A few “swing votes” are needed on council to move the Armory proposal forward. Citing the diverse opposition to the Echo Bay proposal, he urged everyone to stay involved, and summarized, “It makes a difference.” Looking back at the recent council history on the Armory, two proposals were originally submitted for the building: one by Good Profit and the other by the Save Our Armory Committee in collaboration with

the United Veterans and other arts groups. Good Profit had proposed as a primary indoor use, vendors of locally raised and harvested food, and other space for a restaurant, displays and possibly space for the American Legion. The Save Our Armory Committee in collaboration with the United Veterans Memorial and Patriotic Association and the New Rochelle Opera group had projected a theatre complex, two restaurants and a local history museum for the Armory building, veteran facilities and an educational gallery in the hall. Peter Parente, President of the United Veterans Memorial and Patriotic Association, had stated their plan was l00% compliant with the deed for this Armory. In contrast the Good Profit proposal did not meet these requirements. The Save Our Armory group had engaged Shop Architects. They were asked by the Save Our Armory group and several neighborhood groups to show their plan to the residents at City Hall. This meeting took place the night before a City Council meeting. However, suddenly a new August 24 “deadline” for proposals was imposed

by the then Development Commissioner Michael Freimuth. Subsequently City Council at their September 2013 meeting voted for the Good Profit plan. Several months later it was learned that the Good Profit developer had failed to comply with the letter of agreement with the city. In a new search, the proposal by the veterans was again turned down by the jury for the design competition initiated by the city. Soon after, Development Commissioner Luiz Aragon said one applicant had backed out and the Save Our Armory proposal was back in the running. The members of the New Rochelle Citizens Reform Club have had a continuous interest in saving the Armory. One question Tocci was asked about was the Armory’s roof that is in desperate need of repair and the murals, which Forest City Residential is storing for the city. Tocci was concerned about the present condition of the Armory, but alluded that nothing could happen until the MOU for Forest City expires in February 2014. Peggy Godfrey is a freelance writer and former educator.

HEALTH

More On What We Put Into Our Bodies A Summary of Items in Our ‘Medications’ By GLENN SLABY My last column (January 30th, 2014) focused on the quality of specific foods placed in our bodies when eating out. Now, I look at

our medications. From sensitivity to religious beliefs to toxicity in our medications, there are issues with what is placed inside the drugs we place inside our bodies. My Obsessive Compulsive Disorder has led me to this topic. (Maybe a little bit of good can come out of mental

illness). I am insecure about the power the profit motive may have on this industry combined with the cultural trend that smaller government is better government, (thereby reducing oversight) and the use of foreign manufacturing facilities. Background: To make medications

function properly there are certain ingredients added other than the active component needed to keep us healthy.These items in our medications, vitamins and supplements are called excipients. Wikipedia defines them as: inactive substances formulated alongside the active ingredients of medications, with various objectives from bulking-up formulations to therapeutic-enhancing purposes, such as facilitating drug absorption. The choice of excipients depends on factors such as the manufacturing process, route, dosage

form and the active ingredient. Some of the various names and types are: binders, coatings, fillers, flavors, colors, lubricants, preservatives and sweeteners. “Pharmaceutical regulations and standards require that all ingredients in drugs, as well as their chemical decomposition products, be identified and shown to be safe. As with new drug substances and dosage forms thereof, novel excipients themselves can be patented; sometimes, however, a

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one-third showed outright substitution, meaning there was no trace of the plant advertised on the bottle. • Many were adulterated with ingredients not listed on the label, like rice, soybean and wheat, which are used as fillers. • “The regulations are very appropriate and rigorous,” said Duffy MacKay, Council for Responsible Nutrition, a supplement industry trade group. “But we need a strong regulator enforcing the full force of the law. F.D.A. resources are limited, and therefore enforcement has not historically been as rigorous as it could be.” • “Unfortunately, we are seeing a very high percentage — approximately 70 percent — of firms’ noncompliance,” Shelly Burgess, FDA spokeswoman. Problem, Red dye. Various web sites report: Allura Red AC, a red azo dye going by several names including: Allura Red, Food Red 17, Red 40. Originally manufactured from coal tar, is now mostly made from petroleum. It has fewer health risks compared to other azo dyes. Some studies have found some adverse health effects. In

Europe, it’s not recommended for consumption by children. It’s banned in Denmark, Belgium, France, and Switzerland. Also banned in Sweden until the country joined the European Union. The European Union approves Allura Red AC as a food colorant, but EU countries’ local laws banning food colorants are preserved. In the United States, Allura Red AC is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in cosmetics, drugs and food such as soft drinks, children’s medications, and cotton candy. It’s the most commonly used red dye in the U.S. In June 2010, the Center for Science in the Public Interest called for the FDA to ban Red 40. Summary, Tips from various sites: Make friends with your pharmacist. Ask your doctor for first-choice and second-choice prescriptions. Call the drug company yourself and recheck periodically. Prepare to argue with your insurance company.When generic medications are available, your insurance company will probably not approve the brand-name drug. Generic medications are not the same as

the brand name formulation. If you need a brand-name medicine because no safe generic alternative is available, call your insurance company to learn what you’ll need to get approval for the more expensive form. Give an advance call before any outpatient medical tests, verifying the status of whatever they’re going to give you. If you require an unusual medicine for which no formulation is commercially available, ask your pharmacist to put you in touch with a pharmacy that does customized compounding. Every life is temporary. Each life must be lived as meaningful and productive as the individual soul warrants. Every individual deserves the right to know and live as healthy as possible especially in our materially advanced culture.

sumptuous plate of chocolate decadence that was offered to me. It was at that moment I suggested to her that we use our “vicarious bite” exercise I wrote about in my book The Mouth Trap: the butt stops here! In it, I discuss how to use our ability to watch someone else

enjoying eating something we’d like to eat and get imaginary pleasure just by watching. I picked Shannon. She’s the woman on the cover of The Mouth Trap: the butt stops here! She was such a great sport and allowed being photographed with a mousetrap on her

lips. I told her about the “vicarious bite,” and she immediately understood the concept. Then I asked her, “Could I watch you take a few bites of your cake?” She laughed and said, “Sure, let’s sit over there.” We sat on bar

HEALTH

More On What We Put Into Our Bodies Continued from page 6 particular formulation involving them is kept as a trade secret instead (if not easily reverse-engineered).” Generic Drugs: Scientific American. Nov 12, 2009, by Molly Webster. “A generic drug contains the same active ingredient, which provides therapeutic benefit, as does brand-name versions. But having the same medicinal component doesn’t mean the two pharmaceuticals are identical. They may contain different inactive ingredients, for pill coatings and color or to bind the constituents into tablet form.” The Administration has posted staff in certain regions (including China, India, Europe, and Latin America) for oversight of imported, processed, medical products. What are the details of these inspections? Who monitors the monitors? Problem, Vegetable or Animal. British Medical Journal, Feb 4, 2014, summarized: • Most medications prescribed in primary care contain animal derived products. It’s unclear whether they’re suitable for

vegetarians. • Labeling of animal content is poor and variably instituted. • Patients with specific dietary restrictions are likely to be consuming animal products unwittingly. The website, The Examiner, February 23, 2013, via the British Medical Journal: Quoted the authors: “We already know that doctors are fairly ignorant about the issue of excipients in medication”. “Vegetarians and those on restricted diets unwittingly eating animal gelatin in meds.” “Clearer content labeling, the adoption of a vegetarian symbol as is done for foodstuffs, and changes in the manufacturing process could all help patients make informed choices as well as promoting best practice in medical care, they suggest.” Problem, Supplements. The New York Times, Health, November 3, 2013, by Anahad O’Connor. An estimated $5 billion a year industry on unproven herbal supplements. • Of 44 herbal supplements tested,

Glenn Slaby is married and has one son. A former account with an MBA, he is a freelancer with The Westchester Guardian, writes part-time, and struggles with mental illness, yet works at the New Rochelle Public Library and at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Harrison, New York.

LIFESTYLE

Make It Fun and It Will Get Done! The Vicarious Bite of Chocolate By PAM YOUNG My husband and I went to a neighbor’s surprise birthday party last Saturday night. It’s always exciting to go to this home. The couple is exotic. The birthday man was a concert pianist turned executive of a large company. He has an adorable Belgium accent and is movie star gorgeous. His wife, who is also stunningly beautiful with a tall, slim body crowned by a head of flaming, (not from a bottle) red hair, was an opera singer turned wife, homemaker and mom. The house is enchanting. It actually looks like an Italian villa perched high on the hill overlooking its own vineyard (all the neighbors are wondering when our resident herd of 36 elk will decide to frisk among the rows of pinot gris grapes). We arrived with our donation to the potluck, hot chili from my freezer. I always make double batches of stews, soups and chili and freeze half. For this party I mixed three different batches (no two are ever alike) spanning three different seasons from last year. The combination was an interesting melting pot of past chili feeds. Michelle, one of our neighbors brought

a homemade German Chocolate Cake for dessert. She’s the best baker in the neighborhood and the cake looked alluringly attractive. Nelly (my inner child) said, “We can have some can’t we?” “No, sugar is poison, remember what we read in Why We Get Fat?” “We’ll it’s Pascal’s party and it wouldn’t be nice to not join in the cake part of his birthday. And you’ll hurt Michelle’s feelings if you don’t eat her cake.” “No, we won’t be stepping on anyone’s feelings by passing on the cake.” “But, I WANT some!” “Don’t get sassy with me Nel, and if I stare much longer at that cake, somebody’ll think I’m stoned or something. Now let’s go find someone to play with.” I left the table and found several good conversations to take Nelly’s part of my mind off the treat. The party was fun and I was basking in the collection of happy people. Suddenly I heard the tinkle of a spoon on someone’s wine glass and Nelly piped up, “It’s time for the cake!” After singing Happy Birthday, Pascal blew out the candles; the cake was cut and passed around. Nelly was upset when I declined the

Continued on page 8

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LIFESTYLE

Make It Fun and It Will Get Done! Continued from page 7

stools surrounded by a throng of busy cake eaters who had congregated in the most inviting room in a home, the kitchen. Shannon cut into the cake with her fork and scooped up a bite about the size of a cherry tomato. I sat with my eyes about eight inches from her mouth and carefully watched as the cake-filled fork moved

slowly from the plate to her mouth. When she opened her mouth and put the bite in, I moved within four inches of it and watched as she began to delight in that first bite. “Ummmmm,” she moaned, her eyes slitting to enhance her sense of taste. I watched as her mouth moved and her tongue did its perfect work until it was time to swallow. She opened her eyes to see my face far into her comfort zone, as I expressed

utter joy in her experience. She burst out laughing and I could smell the rich chocolate on her breath. “Oh, Shannon, that was good! Take another bite.” “You direct where.” “Right there in the frosting between layers. Get the cake on both sides of the frosting.” “Here?” “No a little to the right!!” “Oh yeah, this is gonna be good. Oh my,

ummmmm, ohhhh, this is so good! ”Ummm, yes, I can taste it! Wow, wow.” Just short of making a scene like Meg Ryan made in the restaurant in When Harry Met Sally, Shannon and I enjoyed those two bites of chocolate cake. It was as good for me as it was for her. And I didn’t have to eat sugar! February is, one of candy company’s biggest sales months. If you made a New Year’s Resolution to cut out sugar in 2014, don’t let the push of candy in beautiful heart

shaped boxes, jerk you off your resolve. Get your candy fix vicariously. For more from Pam Young go to www. makeitfunanditwillgetdone.com . You’ll find many musings, videos of Pam in the kitchen preparing delicious meals, videos on how to get organized, ways to lose weight and get your finances in order, all from a reformed SLOB’s point of view.

MUSIC

THE SOUNDS OFBLUE By Bob Putignano

“True to the Blues: The Johnny Winter Story” Johnny Winter turned seventy on February 23, 2014. In acknowledgment Columbia/ Legacy has issued a four-CD box set that collects fifty-six tracks extracted from twenty-seven albums released on eight different labels (Imperial/Capitol, Columbia, Blue Sky/Epic, Alligator, Point Blank, Friday Music, Megaforce, and now Columbia/ Legacy) ranging from1968-2011. Johnny Winter has/had been a force that has been on the music scene for nearly fifty years. “True To The Blues: The Johnny Winter Story” kicks-off with two tracks from his (still available) 1969 Imperial/ Capital and raw album “Progressive Blues Experiment,” (with Stevie Ray Vaughan’s soon-to-be bassist Tommy Shannon.) That debut LP captured my ears some forty-five years ago, and is still meaningful. Onto the Fillmore East where you’ll hear

Johnny jamming with Al Kooper, Michael Bloomfield and friends on a lengthy “It’s My Own Fault.” Not long thereafter Winter signed with Columbia Records and releases “Johnny Winter,” “Second Winter,” the studio (and often forgotten classic) “Johnny Winter And” with second guitarist Rick Derringer, and again with “Johnny Winter And/Live.” Note: The live “Johnny Winter And” set is immensely riveting, wild and fiery. For me this period was the zenith of Johnny Winter’s creativity capturing him at full-flight and exploding with energy, with a band that was up to his lofty guitar expressions. Their cover of B.B. King’s (also credited to John Lee Hooker) slow blues “It’s My Own Fault,” this version is mindbending, as is their hair-raising rendition of the Stones “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” Whew! There are also two previously unreleased tracks from the 1970 Atlanta Pop Festival:

“Eyesight To The Blind,” and “Prodigal Son” that are very welcomed inclusions. Moving forward in the seventies (and out of rehab) “Still Alive and Well” and “John Dawson Winter III” finds Johnny moving closer to a more rocking sound in a power trio. Back to the blues there’s a classic jam “I Done Got Over It” with master bluesmen Muddy Waters and James Cotton. Other noteworthy additions are a live take of “Highway 61 Revisited” from Bob Dylan’s 1993 thirtieth anniversary concert. Finally this compilation closes with two recent tracks from Johnny’s recent 2011 “Roots” album: “Maybelline” featuring the talented guitarist Vince Gill, and “Dust My Broom” with the always outstanding Derek Trucks who will soon depart the Allman Brothers Band. For the most part the sound throughout is solid. The informative liner notes by (Guitar World magazine editor Brad Tolinski) offers a biography of Johnny’s historical accomplishments and musical contributions, mostly from the dialect of the blues. Bob Putignano continues to be the heart of WFDU (http://wfdu.fm) for over fourteen years with his Sounds of Blue radio show: www.SoundsofBlue.com. Previously a senior contributing editor at BluesWax, Blues Revue, and Goldmine magazines, and a regular contributor to The Westchester Guardian: http:// www.WestchesterGuardian.com. Bob can be contacted at: bob8003@yahoo.com.

POLITICS

Astorino Needs to Decide, Tea or Me? Maybe Bramson was Onto Something By BOB MARRONE The Westchester County Republican Committee has sent out a tea-laced email inviting the faithful

to attend an event this week to meet with County Executive Rob Astorino. Astorino, his stature still growing following his decisive win over New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson, is considered by some to be the

favorite to run against Governor Andrew Cuomo. The email’s tea flavoring is included in the header advertising a fight against HUD and Obamamcare. As for the two banner issues, to be fair,

Astorino has always been very clear and upfront about the HUD affordable housing debate. The public knows what he believes and voted for him. That is how our system works and no matter where you stand on the issue, that is that. But the Affordable Care Act is another matter entirely as it affects all of us, not just those with million dollar homes among Westchester’s upper crust. You and I can actually die from this one and,

as such, a life and death issue demands that we take a harder look at the county executive, and perhaps a still deeper look into the failed tactic of the Bramson campaign of labeling Astorino a Tea Party guy. I too, was highly critical of the Bramson strategy right here in this space. And I still believe it was a lazy, nationally-based campaign in a local race with an effort

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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

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I might be working two of them… have coverage. During those same forty years I developed a heart condition, or lung failure, or kidney failure, or prostate cancer, or sicklecell anemia… no one will cover me. I have years to wait for Medicare. I have made early withdrawals from my retirement to pay my medical bills, and if anyone else in my family gets sick, or even needs tests, I may lose my house. Obamacare, warts and all (By the way those warts come from the viruses that your tribe used to poison the AFA in the hopes of killing it) saves my life ,as I see it, both real and financial. So, once again, I ask you, what is your plan? What do you propose to do? Tell us?

And to you, Rob Astorino, I still can’t believe that the Republican Party is hanging their single minded tea-laced plan on you; you, a father, son, husband and familyfriendly conservative breath of fresh air? Was Bramson right? Will we now witness the bait and switch, reasonableness for Tea Party extremism, now that the election is over? Our lives depend on it, and so does your future. I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely Bob Marrone

POLITICS

Astorino Needs to Decide, Tea or Me? Continued from page 8

reminiscent of a national agenda. But now I find myself asking the following question: Are the Astorino people going to pick up the dodged label and wear it as a new badge of honor? I wonder, and you should too… again, your life depends upon it. These are not easy words to write. Rob Astorino is a good and decent man who has done what he said he would do if elected. It is, I believe, the primary reason he won a second term. He has always been fair to me on the air, and even helped me critique a demo I once made. But, still, this is life or death.

You see, it is the healthcare thing that sticks in my craw and burns with indignity. I loathe that it is used across the Republican universe to gain votes from those who don’t have to worry about their health or future, and others whose fear and aversion to those less fortunate makes them think they will suffer if they have to share anything with the great unwashed, whom they have vanquished in our winner take all system. It makes me so sick that I best not dwell on it. For without Obamacare, I will be out in the insurance cold when my own COBRA runs out. So what follows is an open letter to Rob

Astorino and any other tea addicted party members, candidates or office holders. Let me preface that this incorporates a question that no one in opposition to Obamamcare has answered in my ten years of wearing headphones that hear well; nor has it been answered anywhere in the press or from policy statements of the GOP. Also, while the following has elements that are rhetorical, it holds true for millions of people: Dear County Executive: I am between 50 and 64 years old. Like many my age I have been laid-off in favor of younger and cheaper alternatives. I have been working for forty years and always had health insurance. Now, none of the available jobs, which pay much less… indeed

Bob Marrone is an author and freelance writer.

PRO-LIFE

A Classic Young Adult Novel Contains a Pro-Life Parable Chris Rostenberg

Part Two of Four

Cowslip and his associates do not have a chief, which is strange in a warren, and don’t want one. A leader’s – and a government’s – first job is to protect the weak from the strong. Any legitimate human leader would oppose the extreme bigotry that kills babies. A leader makes judgment calls, and we know how the unborn-child-killers hate “judgmental people”. Those on the Left hate having a functional constitution, where words retain their original meaning. Liberals’ idea of a “living constitution,” where the judges discover whatever meaning they want, or whatever policies those who put them into power want, is a dead law. When a friend of Hazel states that rabbits will always need tricks, a young poet rabbit named Silverweed, who is a member of Cowslip’s warren, says No, “Rabbits need dignity and above all, the will to accept their fate.” Cowslip explains, “We think Silverweed is one of the best poets we’ve had for many months.” Not for many seasons or years or generations, only many months, because, as Cowslip refuses to acknowledge, his kin keep getting killed. Cowslip says of Silverweed, “His ideas have a great following.” Silverweed is a politically correct entertainer and his name is not unlike “Hollywood”. The word “dignity” is used by euthanasia supporters in “death with dignity.” When Cowslip says rabbits need “the will to accept their fate” we are reminded of pro-choicers saying unborn babies must be denied legal protection against those who would kill them because, “There’s no way you can stop people from having irresponsible sex,” and, “Women will always pursue

abortion, and if it is illegal, women will die.” Nine-month pro-choicers are fatalistic in more ways than one. Pro-choicers, and Cowslip (and friends) share a hostility toward the natural order. In all their talk about “women’s empowerment” in the “right” to kill children, do pro-choice anti-life activists accept women for what they are? Is pregnancy naturally reversible? Do wombs come with a kill-switch? No and no. Do pro-choicers accept this? Resoundingly, NO! Pro-lifers accept women’s bodies as normal and natural and the way it is supposed to be. As one pro-life feminist puts it, pro-lifers change society to suit women’s bodies while pro-choicers change women’s bodies to suit society. Pro-choicers are so furious that healthy women can be pregnant

New Anti-Matriarchy. As nine-month prochoice abortion fanatics detest the nature of the womb, and the natural limits put on sex for those who don’t want to create and raise children, or create and kill children, Hazel and his friends are constantly amazed that Cowslip’s countrymen are so unnatural: [Cowslip] did not seem aggressive. On the contrary, there was a curious, rather unnatural gentleness about the way in which he waited for them to come nearer … The baby killers do not consider themselves aggressive either: It’s not that I like abortion, I hate it. Nobody is ‘proabortion,’ I’m only pro-choice. In a perfect world there would be no need for abortion. We should discourage the surgery, but not make abortion illegal. Now let’s kill unborn

“That wasn’t why they destroyed the warren. It was just because we were in the way. They killed us to suit themselves.” Toadflax, Watership Down when they don’t want to be, they tear apart the bodies of millions of children. They treat the healthy wombs of healthy women as a sick curse upon women by a twisted Mother Nature both malicious and mad. In fact, the deity of the nine-month pro-choice childsacrificing cult is an Unnatural Anti-Mother who hates the female face of the human condition and “spites” females with a womb that “demands” that all mothers have the liberty to chop up their own children, then sell the corpses for medical experiments or flush them down toilets. Today, the real threat to women is not the Old Patriarchy, but the

children through all nine months under all circumstances in every state by the millions and lie about it to women. “Were they likely to be attacked? The stranger’s manner told nothing. [Cowslip] seemed detached, almost bored, but perfectly friendly. His lassitude, his great size and beautiful, well-groomed appearance, his unhurried air of having all he wanted and of being unaffected by the newcomers one way or another – all these presented Hazel with a problem unlike anything he had had to deal with before. If there was some kind of

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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

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PRO-LIFE

A Classic Young Adult Novel Contains a Pro-Life Parable Continued from page 9

trick, he had no idea what it might be.” No, neither America nor the world has ever dealt with an issue like prenatal homicide before. Yes, of course there has been abortion through the ages, but not like this. Unborn children are essentially slaves, and we’ve seen that before, but these are killable, which is a bit different. The idea of the government deciding that certain human beings are not people with a right to live, leading to the killing of millions of such human beings has been done before, but Nazis and nine-month pro-choicers are

psychologically and ideologically very different (but not completely different). So Hazel, like people today facing the issue of whether children should be rendered killable, is really dealing with something new. Another interesting matter is that Cowslip does not value his own life: “[Cowslip] moved easily, without haste and showed less caution than they in crossing the field. Hazel felt more mystified than ever. The other rabbit evidently had no fear that they [Hazel and his friends] might set upon him, [many] to none, and kill him. He was ready to go alone among a crowd of suspicious strangers, but what he stood to gain

from this risk it was impossible to guess.” Hazel simply cannot understand how divorced from reality Cowslip is. Dina Madsen, who worked in an abortion clinic in Sacramento but then became pro-life said, “So I was looking at these babies as something to be disposed of. I didn’t see them as important. I didn’t see life as important. I didn’t value my own life so how could I value anyone else’s life?” Fiver is Hazel’s runt of a brother and a psychic, and he comes as close to being a clergyman as any other character in the book. Appropriately, Fiver recognizes at once the menace of the deadly warren but

he is ignored. Pro-lifers can identify. Fiver says the entertainers in the strange warren were squeezed under the terrible weight of the warren’s secret until they gulped out fine folly-about dignity and acquiescence, and anything else that could make believe that the rabbit loved the shining wire. Meanwhile, today’s leftists love the choice to kill children and call it a fundamental human right, without which women would be enslaved by their own bodies. Also, self slaughter is loved as a part of basic human nature. But one strict rule they had; oh yes, the strictest. No one must ever ask where another rabbit was and anyone who asked ‘Where? -except in a song or a poem-must

be silenced. To say ‘Where? was bad enough, but to speak openly of the wires-that was intolerable. For that they would scratch and kill.” This is why pictures of unborn children, dead or alive, intact or broken, do not appear in the media. Imagine if the media did not show the 9/11 images of violence. Fiver also criticizes the sick warren for having abandoned their folk hero or god, El-ahrairah and for adopting weird culture. Hazel’s bunch are religious conservatives while rabbits of the shining wire warren are atheist radicals.

should always be our priority. My heart screams out, “No to any assisted suicide.” We need to put our priorities on finding new cures for disease and enabling people to live to ripe old ages so that one day while watching Andy Griffith we just sort of nod off and wake up in a better place. Our society’s priority must never focus on how we can more readily help our sick and aged die faster but how we can heal and help life to be more enjoyable. However, life cannot be very enjoyable if we are imprisoned in a body that will not function. Physician assisted suicide is also legal in Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Vermont. Terminally ill patients in those states can now have their doctors prescribe a fatal prescription. Patients must make the request. Keep in mind this is illegal in most

of our country. Also, in many cases persons get beyond the point of making such a decision and linger often in vegetative states. This is where a living will comes into play so that life support can be removed and Hospice can assist. I will be redundant. I don’t like the idea of ending anybody’s life. About a month before my wife died our doctor called me off into a corner and said, “Glenn, there comes a time. She has struggled with this for so long. We have done all we can do. My response was, “ I want you to help her live.” “Okay, we will do all we can, “ he assured. They did try and she lived about another month. I will always be glad for that one more month as we talked about things I would otherwise have missed. The end of life is a tough conversation

for anybody facing it regardless of which side of the bed you are sitting. The Bible says there is a time to die. Having someone we love voluntarily make that decision about ending his or her life just doesn’t seem like that is what the Bible is talking about. However, keep in mind that God is bigger, more loving and far more forgiving than are we.

companies, such as Compaq, Tandy, Gateway, Dell, AST, and the many cheap clone imports, could build totally compatible systems -- some more powerful, some much cheaper – was looking for a way to recapture leadership in the market and saw a new powerful operating system as a springboard to do so. With benefits apparent to both firms, IBM and Microsoft signed the “Joint Development Agreement” in August 1985 to provide a new Operating System to answer the perceived limitations of MS-DOS, provide the Graphic User Interface that Microsoft had been trying to “get right,” and re-position IBM in the microcomputer hardware competition. Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft would be the owners of the basic OS/2 and the right to license it to any PC vendor, while an enhanced version “OS/2 Extended Edition” (“OS/2 EE”) would

support new high-speed peripherals usable, at least initially, only in a new line of computers from IBM, the “PS/2” (all of the faster new models of the PC, based on the 80386 chip, were 32-bit processors but only transferred data to peripherals at 16-bit speed. The PS/2s would have new I/O slots, called “micro-channel” to provide for 16-bit transfer). I was at the Announcement and Press Conference for OS/2 in April 1987 – and it was an impressive rollout. In addition to Microsoft and IBM, the leading developers of software for MS-DOS, including Lotus Development and Word Perfect (neither of which had embraced Windows), were there to pledge to have GUI versions of their software available for OS/2. During the question period, two hardly-noticed answers that would have great impact on the industry were elicited -- Bill Gates, when asked whether the

development of a GUI-based OS/2 would mean the end of the Windows effort, said, something like “No. OS/2 will be for the business market. We will continue to develop Windows for individuals and home office users;” a little later, Jim Manzi, Lotus CEO, when asked if Lotus’ development of a GUI-based OS/2 version of its industry leading “1-2-3” spreadsheet meant that it would also provide one for Windows, replied with something like “No, you heard Mr. Gates’ earlier comment about the audience for Windows. That is not our market.” Word Perfect, the provider of the industry leading “Word Perfect” word processing program, followed Lotus’ lead in the decision not to support Windows – a decision that led to the ultimate demise of both firms. Meanwhile, in the Macintosh world,

SOCIETY

Assisted Suicide in America By GLENN MOLLETTE Physician assisted suicide is becoming a bit more popular in America. A New Mexico judge recently ruled that terminally ill, mentally competent patients have the right to ask a physician to end their lives. This would make New Mexico the fifth state to make it legal. My first wife died progressively over a twelve-year time frame. Multiple sclerosis diminished her capacity from a vibrant active person to a total invalid, able only to speak – nothing more. She was a prisoner inside her own body, incapable of functioning to

any degree whatsoever. On New Year’s Eve three years before she died she begged me to call Dr. Kevorkian, who became famous for assisting 130 people in their deaths. She later tried suicide and once begged me to put her in our closed garage and start the car. She did not want to die and leave her family but living trapped inside of a body ravaged by disease was excruciating for her. I know how I personally feel. Should I get to the point where I am without hope of ever enjoying this momentary world I would like to simply go on over to the other side to be with my Lord. There are some problems herein. Life

Glenn Mollette is the author of Silent Struggler: A Caregiver’s Personal Story, and nine other books. Contact him at GMollette@aol.com. Like his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ glennmollette.

CREATIVE DISRUPTION

Mr. Gates Is In The Building! The OS/2 fiasco and the “Browser Wars” – Part II By JOHN F. McMULLEN Despite the great success of MS-DOS and the PC platform, it became obvious, as more sophisticated uses of PCs developed and the hardware became much more powerful, that MS-DOS was too limited to keep pace with both user demands and the improvements in hardware. The major deficiencies seen in MS-DOS were: No ability to address main memory above 640K (although new processors such as Intel’s 80386 (“386”) processor could address much more – people were buying 386-based machines for the greatly increased speed of

the processor and then complaining about the inability to use additional the memory). Inability to have more than one application program in memory at the same time and flip back and forth between them – called “multi-tasking” or “multi-programming,” a feature contained in operating systems, such as UNIX, designed for larger computer systems. No “network ability,” having a number of PCs able to work on the same data, transfer information from PC to PC, and perform other multi-user functions found in UNIX and more robust operating systems. IBM, which had seen its monopoly in the early PC market erode once other

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computing world until after 2000. The shortsightedness of this became rapidly apparent and, in 1996, when the paperback version of the book appeared, it had been substantially revised to focus on the Internet. More importantly, Microsoft had been re-tooled to play catch-up with the Internet. It put a crash effort into developing “Microsoft Network (“MSN”), a network, similar to AOL’s, providing users with mail, search, and browsing capability. It licensed a version of Mosaic from “Spyglass” (which had, in turn, licensed it from NCSA), modified it, and released it as a free download under the name “Internet Explorer” (“IE”). While Microsoft had been getting its act together, the lead developer of Mosaic, Marc Andreessen, had, with Jim Clark, one of the founders of Silicon Graphics, Inc., and four other former students and staff of NCSA founded Netscape Communications Corporation (originally called Mosaic Communications Corporation until it was sued by NCSA) and released “Navigator,” a free web browser that rapidly became the leader among computer users. When Microsoft released IE, users now could have choices between it and Navigator and / or have both downloaded into Windows 95 (the successor to Windows 3.x) and do comparisons. In many cases, those satisfied with the earlier available Navigator just continued with that choice and did not bother to download IE. The “terms-of-battle” changed when Microsoft announced plans to make IE part of its Windows 98 operating system upon its release. Netscape immediately cried “foul,” complaining that Microsoft was using its

monopoly position in operating systems unfairly – a view that many industry pundits agreed with – as did the Federal Trade Commission and eventually the Department of Justice. As the debate concerning Microsoft’s action raged on, I heard Gates speak at a conference in New York where he laid out the technical reasons for the browser “belonging in the operating system” – “browsers needed to handle audio and video ‘plug-ins’ and operating systems were used to that with ‘drivers,” “the browser, with its multiple open sites, requires memory management and interchanging windows and operating systems do that best” and other technical reasons. After hearing his presentation, I sent him e-mail stating that his talk reminded me of his debates with Dan Fylstra over where the GUI belonged. He replied that it all belongs in the operating system – voice would ne next (and, while he wasn’t right that the browser had to be in the OS – think of “Chrome” on non-Chromebook systems, “Safari” on non-Apple systems, and “Firefox,” he seems to have been right about voice – think of “Siri” in iOS and voice on Android systems). The US Department of Justice (“DOJ”) filed suit against Microsoft on May 18, 1998, accusing it of being a monopoly and engaging in abusive practices contrary to the Sherman Antitrust Act 1890 sections 1 and 2. DOJ was represented by Joel Klein (later Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education). The case dragged on until November 5,1999 when Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled that Microsoft was indeed guilty of Sherman violations and, on June 7, 2000, the court ordered a breakup of Microsoft into two separate units, one to produce the operating

system, and one to produce other software components. Microsoft immediately filed an appeal and the DC Court of Appeals overturned the penalty, sending it back to the lower court.The DOJ announced on September 6, 2001 that it was no longer seeking to break up Microsoft and would instead seek a lesser antitrust penalty and on November 2, 2001, the parties reached a settlement under which Microsoft agreed to share its interfaces with third party companies; it was not prohibited from tying IE or other future software into Windows. A number of states that were involved with the suit objected to the settlement, complaining that it was too lenient but, June 30, 2004, the U.S. appeals court unanimously approved the settlement with the Justice Department, rejecting those objections. Netscape was sold to AOL in 2000 and AOL stopped supporting Netscape software in 2008. IBM discontinued OS/2 support on December 31, 2006. Microsoft was undeniably “king of the hill” with its Operating System, Office Suite and Web Browser!

that peak and wane. They will be more than happy to get back to their regular diet once the snow is gone. What to feed them? Birds are not picky eaters. Bread is fine. (It is an urban myth that it will swell up in their stomach and is bad for them.) Most any kind of left over baked goods will be gobbled up. Crumbs for the ground feeders like the slate gray juncos and sparrows, larger pieces for the jays and cardinals. Watch the jays fly away with pieces only to return a minute later. They are stuffing it in nooks and crevices for future eating. Dry cereal works, especially if it has raisins in it. Oatmeal, cooked or uncooked is a treat. A couple dollars’ worth of beef suet (fat) from the grocery store is excellent. Nail it to a tree trunk or hang it is net bag and the downy woodpeckers will love you until it is all gone. Most grocery stores carry wild bird feed in their pet section. Black oil sunflower seed is by far the best. It is cheaper by the ounce to get it at Home Depot but you have to buy a

much bigger bag. What you are offering is some temporary help to get our feathered friends over a particularly hard time. They deserve it, if only for all the mosquitos and other insects they

will eat this summer. So, do your part now and feed those birds!

CREATIVE DISRUPTION

Mr. Gates Is In The Building! Continued from page 10

Microsoft had implemented GUI-based word processing (“Word”), spreadsheet (“Excel”), and presentation graphics (“Power Point”) programs in 1984, 1985, and 1987, respectively and bundled them together into a “suite,” “Microsoft Office” (“MS-Office”), released in 1989 – the same year it also announced but did not release MS-Office for Windows and OS/2 -- they were released in 1990. 1990 was also the year that Microsoft released Windows 3.0. Although slightly buggy, Windows 3.0 was the first really usable version of Windows as, by this time, computer monitors were sufficiently developed to allow clear presentation of bit-mapped text and, with MS-Office, users had quality productivity software available. Windows 3.1, introduced in 1992, eliminated many of the bugs and provided a number of enhancements. By 1992, there were many problems in the OS/2 world. The PS/2 micro-channel feature that was supposed to have resuscitated IBM’s position in the marketplace hadn’t worked out.The slots weren’t “backward compatible” with the older peripheral cards so a firm would have to buy all new modems, hard-disk and net-work controllers, etc. when purchasing a PS/2. Competitors rapidly addressed this by coming together in “a gang of nine” (AST Research, Compaq Computer, Epson, Hewlett-Packard, NEC, Olivetti,Tandy, WYSE, and Zenith Data Systems) to develop the “Extended Industry Standard Architecture” (“EISA”) a “BUS” (slot) standard that would

accept both the shorter 16-bit cards and the longer 32-bit ones. Additionally the relationship between IBM and Microsoft had begun to deteriorate. IBM was particularly resentful that Windows was given away with MS-DOS with every new Intel-based computer sold while OS/2 was an expansive add-on. It appeared to IBM that Microsoft’s head might be in both operating systems but its heart was in the Windows one. Even with the technical success of Windows, its deployment was fairly slow as corporations, wedded to “1-2-3” and / or Word Perfect were unwilling to take the leap into a new platform and software that would require retraining, purchase of MS-Office software, and a general disruption of its operations. Moreover, most pure techies were not taken with Windows – “I can do more at the command line” and “It has an overhead that slows it down.” The deployment picked up dramatically with the announcement of the first Graphic Web Browser, “Mosaic,” by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (“NCSA”) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Available free in 1993 for Windows, X-Windows (UNIX) and Macintosh, the browser opened the door to end-users for information gathering and shopping, and to businesses for advertising. It led a charge to the use of Windows. In 1995, Gates’ book, “The Road Ahead” was a big seller but did not focus on the Internet as coming to being the center of the

Creative Disruption is a continuing series examining the impact of constantly accelerating technology on the world around us. These changers normally happen under our personal radar until we find that the world as we knew it is no more. (Next week – The Resurgence of Apple and the Emergence of Google) John F. McMullen is a writer, poet, college professor and radio host. Links to other writings, Podcasts, & Radio Broadcasts at http://www. johnmac13.com.

THE MERRY GARDENER

Hungry Birds By MARILYN ELIE You think we humans are having a hard winter? Try looking at it from a bird’s point of view. Just as the days are getting longer and you are starting to feel like singing and looking around to establish a nice nesting territory and maybe attract an attractive mate, winter comes roaring back. Snow and more snow, covering the bushes, including those that still had a remnant of berries, covering the ground so that there is no chance to scratch around and find a bite to eat. Keen eyed starving predators are waiting to pounce from the air or from behind big drifts of snow. And the colder it gets the more food it requires to stay warm. No wonder so few birds choose to stick around for twelve

months and not go south. Claiming your territory and holding on to it, impressing the opposite sex, building a nest that is safe from predators and feeding all those hungry babies is enough to turn the brightest of feathers gray and worn. And that is in the spring when the sun is shining. In other words – feed those birds! The snowy winter has covered up most of the food sources birds would normally depend on. Right now they really are relying on humans for a few extra calories to tide them over until the snow is gone and they can forage on their own. If you have a bird feeder and regularly watch who comes to your back yard you know exactly what I mean. If you have not been putting anything out for our feathered friends, now is the time to start. Don’t worry about making them dependent or think that you will have to do this for the rest of your life. This is a temporary situation and birds are used to seasonal food sources

Westchester resident Marilyn Elie is completing her studies for Master Gardener certification from Cornell.

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Thursday, FEBRUARY 27, 2014

EYE ON THEATRE

Novelistic Musicals By JOHN SIMON “The Bridges of Madison County” was first a novel, then a movie with Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep, and is now a Broadway musical with much younger actors, which makes better box office but a little less sense.

This is the story of Francesca, an Italian war bride whom Richard “Bud” Johnson, an Allied soldier in Italy, brought back as his wife to his Iowa farm, where she bore up well enough, bore him two children, and was a not unhappy but bored housewife. Then one day a photographer from National Geographic drove up in a truck, asking for directions. His assignment was the picturesque covered bridges of the region, the seventh of which he was unable to locate. Francesca’s husband and children were away at the state fair for a few days with a potential prize-winning steer and Francesca was perfectly willing to ride with the photographer, Robert Kincaid, to guide him to the hard-to-find bridge. This leads to her inviting him for dinner, then to a meeting at dawn when, apparently, covered bridges are at their most photogenic. This brings about another dinner invitation and a nascent mutual attraction, and, what do you know, getting under the covers together. But what will happen when Bud and the kids return? Will Francesca run off with Robert to new-found excitement, or will she stay dutifully with her family for the rest of an uneventful life? There is a bit more to the story. There is a very ordinary friendly neighbor couple, Charlie and Marge, who, thanks to Marge’s

nosiness about Robert, provide comic relief. There are the small-town Iowa folk who allow for choric numbers and, under director Bartlett Sher’s clever direction, also serve as scene-shifters. There is a trip to Des Moines for the lovers, and a brief vision of Italy and Francesca’s sluttish elder sister Chiara, as well as a detour to where Robert’s guitar-playing ex-wife gets a song about her

ultimately unhappy life with Robert. It is not the ideal material for a musical, although Michael Yeargan has provided nice scenery, even an estimable skeletal covered bridge that descends piecemeal from above and must, like various houses, remain mere contour, so as not to block our view. The real problem, though, is how to convey the gradually increasing feeling between Robert and Francesca and its eruption into passion, which might be more convincing if the characters were portrayed older, as intended by the novelist, with more of a sense of a last chance to fill in for a lack of romance. I would not fault the libretto by Marsha Norman for not being able to do in detail what the novel has ample opportunity for, but I do question the achievement of the composer / lyricist Jason Robert Brown. Most of Brown’s music severely lacks melody, and it’s not till near the end of act one that he manages to grind out a tune or two. With the lyrics he is in even deeper trouble, though it is admittedly hard to find words both striking and suited to very ordinary people. Consider only this from Robert: “But wouldn’t it be fine to share/ The weather in her eyes, her hair,/ Her footsteps as she climbs the stair,/ The shadow in her light.” And a

bit further: “And everything that makes you you/ Collides against the night,” whatever that means. Moreover, Brown is obsessed with repetition; in one lyric, “It all fades away” recurs sixteen times. Granted it is the song’s title and serves as a refrain, but even refrains should refrain from too much entitlement. The principal actors are extremely fetching. Kelli O’Hara is an extremely appealing Francesca from top to bottom. Stephen Pasquale is a fine Robert, handsome without excess, masculine in

an understated way. Hunter Foster’s Bud manages to be, strong Midwestern accent and all, a likable enough hayseed. Other characters are insignificant, but similarly well handled, notably by Michael X. Martin and Cass Morgan as the neighbors.

Nevertheless, the story has its obvious appeal. What spouse does not recollect a brief affair from his or her youth that in the afterglow of nostalgic retrospect becomes a periodic bittersweet pang murmuring “It might have been”? Venue: Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, 236 West 45th Street, between Broadway and 8th Avenue, New York, NY 10036. Tel: (212) 239-6200 or www.telecharge.com. The Irish Repertory Theatre offers “Transport,” a musical about those Irish women who, for the most minute or even invented crimes, were shipped off to Australia to provide wives for the genuine felons deported to the penal colony of New South Wales, and alleviate the region’s underpopulation. We get the imagined goings-on on a real transport ship ironically called The Whisper. Thomas Keneally (author of, among others, Schindler’s List) who wrote the book for “Transport,” has a wife whose greatgrandmother, back in 1838, was such a deportee for merely stealing a bolt of cloth. The ship is carrying four females: the doughty, rebellious Kate O’Hara, Bride Riordan brutally separated from her husband, childlike Polly Cantrell who brings along her hapless infant, and Maggie Carroll, a fierce older woman with dread prognostications of the future. The men are Captain Winton, a tough, uncompassionate old salt; Father Manion, a none too happy priest; Surgeon Delamare, a humane doctor who feels for these women, especially Bride; and Henessy, a yokely sailor who develops a crush on Kate, the rebellious girl who tries to kill the captain and divert the ship to democratic America.

The story is interesting enough, but suffers from mere utility music and pedestrian lyrics by Larry Kirwan, and a book that does not allow for sufficient development of any of its characters. An even bigger problem is that the small stage and limited technical and financial resources prevent conveying the furious winds and waves that sweep one of the women to watery death. Tony Walton has directed decently and also designed a creditable but not quite credible abstraction of a ship that precludes our full involvement. Still, all the performers are good actors and estimable singers— notably Edward Watts as Dr. Delamare and Jessica Grové as fiery Kate--but there is no escaping that what is meant to be a horrific mass transport buffeted by monstrous storms when reduced to only four women and no palpable danger smacks somehow of today’s tourism on cargo ships. A worthy dramatic subject unfortunately suffers shipwreck. Venue: Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 West 22nd Street, Suite 2, New York, NY 10011. Tel: (212) 727-2737. Website: www.IrishRep.org . Tickets: www.irishrep.org/boxoffice.htm

John Simon has written for over 50 years on theatre, film, literature, music and fine arts for the Hudson Review, New Leader, New Criterion, National Review, New York Magazine, Opera News, Weekly Standard, Broadway.com and Bloomberg News. Mr. Simon holds a PhD from Harvard University in Comparative Literature and has taught at MIT, Harvard University, Bard College and Marymount Manhattan College. To learn more, visit the JohnSimonUncensored.com website.

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LEAVING ON A JET PLANE

Playin’ Dirty In Some Mississippi Mud

that tossing the beads was to be taken seriously. We threw and threw and threw. Rest the arm? …you didn’t dare! By the same token, because this was a more up-close-and-personal event, it was so much more special. Our float stopped frequently along the route and the spirit and frenzy on the sidewalks below rose up to gob-smack us directly in the kisser - and in the heart. This is what it was all about, the sweet connection between people. Hey, we’ve waited all year for this! Mardi Gras 2014 promises to be every

The Gulf Coast’s Merry Mardi Gras Festivities By BARBARA BARTON SLOANE It’s that time again – Mardi Gras time, that is. The Carnival season of “Fat Tuesday” is widely and wildly celebrated around the world in places such as Rio de Janeiro, Trinidad and Tobago, Venice, and of course New Orleans. None, however, can make the claim that their Mardi Gras offers the chance to get down and dirty – literally – in the famed Mississippi Mud! I was sitting on the dock of the bay in Biloxi last year just about this time, but, unlike Otis Redding, I wasn’t wastin’ time. No, there was far too much to do and see on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and I wasn’t about to miss any of it.

Costumes fit for Queen

A fine place to start Mardi Gras meanderings is at Biloxi’s Mardi Gras Museum. Located in the historic Magnolia Hotel, this museum traces the three hundred year history of Mardi Gras on the Gulf Coast. The costumes are outrageous and quite beautiful and the photographs of bygone celebrations gave me a true understanding of the history and continuing importance of the Gulf Coast’s strong Mardi Gras tradition. Speaking of costumers, the man is Carter Church. In fact, this gentleman bears the title of “Costume King.” Meeting him was a delight. He regaled us with tales of his experiences through decades of creating exquisite designs. Church’s mentor was none other than Romain de Tirtoff, the Russian born painter and designer known around the world as Erté.They met in New Orleans and later in Paris; a strong friendship developed and Erté’s influence can be seen in much of Church’s work today. When he sees his creations walk on stage at the balls, Church says “It feels like a million dollars… the pomp, the pageantry… it all comes alive…” If you don’t happen to be invited to one of the majestic balls during Mardi Gras, the next best thing is to pay a visit to the Mardi Gras Museum. Another museum with an entirely different Biloxi bent is the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art, a five-building campus designed by architect Frank Gehry to “dance” with the ancient live oaks on the four-acre site. Dance it does. As I gazed up at the commanding façade, it seemed there could be no better design than the one Gehry realized – it so perfectly “fits” its surroundings. Construction began in 2004 and was delayed by damage during Hurricane Katrina. Finally three of

We never have enough beads! the buildings opened in 2010 including its affecting Gallery of African Art; the last two openings quickly followed.

Food, Glorious Food

The Gulf Coast is a lively destination that seems to just about have it all: casinos, beaches, historic sites, and unique activities like kayaking the backwaters of the bayou and bird watching in quaint towns filled with legends and lore. And food? You’ll forgive me if I use a very New York phrase here: fuhgeddaboudit! Simple, complex, off the boards – it is all amazing and you must not miss it! I had breakfast at Daddyz. Is there anything more soothing than smooth,

Everyone Enjoys Mardi Gras. for over 40 years. Well, shut my mouth… and I mean this literally as I returned home with an extra five wholly unwanted pounds. Throw Me Something Mistah! Perhaps the New Orleans Mardi Gras is the ne plus ultra of this celebration, but for me, I prefer doings that are slightly less frenetic and a lot more intimate. That is the Gulf Coast Mardi Gras. I had the exceptional, once-in-a-lifetime chance to ride on a float in one of the parades. Wow. It is more fun than one can possibly have while still sober (did I say sober?) Tons, yes tons of green, silver, gold, and purple “throws” (beads) lined the walls of our float and it was clear to all of us from the outset that, for the next several hours, this was our job – we were the “throwers” and just one look at the faces of the “throwees” on the street below told us

bit as gay and lively as ever. There’s the Mardi Gras Mayhem with a Jambalaya Cook-Off in February and non-stop from there, parades every day. On March 3, there’s a teen Mardi Gras Ball and a Children’s Walking Parade for kids 12 and under. This is a

Continued on page 14

Before speaking to the police...call

George Weinbaum ATTORNEY AT LAW

Throw me somethin’ mistah!

It works swell. creamy grits and cheese to wake up one’s palate? I think not. Another morning found me at McElroy’s on the Bayou, besotted by biscuits and sausage topped with pepper gravy. For dinner, I loved Mary Mahoney’s Old French House Restaurant situated in a mansion dating back to 1737. The “Mary” of her namesake restaurant actually once catered a party for President Regan on the White House lawn and she’s served many celebrities and dignitaries in her restaurant

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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, FEBRUARY 27, 2014

LEAVING ON A JET PLANE

Playin’ Dirty In Some Mississippi Mud Continued from page 13

non-motorized event so it’s bikes, skates, skateboards, scooters and wagons. On the Big Day, March 4, Fat Tuesday culminates in scores of events, including the Mystic Krewe of Seahorse Parade, the Krewe of Neptune Parade and the yearly Gulf Coast Carnival Association Parade.

Whew… right now don’t you just wanna find some cute bar, hike up on a stool, look around at all the others as dazed and confused as you and order yourself a nice, long Pensacola Bushwacker. I know I did works every time! There are loads of fun festivals coming up in the Gulf Coast Region this spring and

summer. In April, the Southern Miss Jazz and Blues Festival, in May the Live Oaks Art Festival; there’s the St. Paul’s Seafood Festival in June, July ushers in the Gulf Coast Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo and at summer’s end, the Shedhead Blues Festival in September. Oh, and one mustn’t forget the Piece de Resistance: Christmas on the Bayou, a lighted boat parade at night in December. Exceptional. People, mark your calendars and come on down to play on land, on sand, and for

sure in that rich and lovely Mississippi Mud!

Gulf Coast 411:

Mississippi Gulf Coast www.gulfcoast.org

Mardi Gras Museum www.biloxi.ms.us/museums/mardigras/ Beau Rivage Hotel & Casino www.beaurivage.com

Photos by Michael Sloane and courtesy of Michael Sloane Travel Photography. Travel Editor Barbara Barton Sloane is constantly globe hopping to share her unique experiences with our readers; from the exotic to the sublime. As Beauty / Fashion Editor she keeps us informed on the capricious and engaging fashion and beauty scene.

TRIVIA

Wednesday Night Trivia at the Finn Tavern By RICH MONETTI I love trivia - especially when I get to show off my chops. So upon hearing of the Finn Tavern’s Wednesday trivia night in Somers, New York, I unglued myself from my couch and was ready to put the competition in its place. I teamed up with Polly Peace, whom I know from the Country Children’s Center in Cross River where she is the executive director. We proceeded from a very similar mindset. “You have knowledge, this gives the chance to test yourself, and you get the opportunity to bring it out,” said the Somers resident. Not much a TV watcher, she was happy to know I’d have that area covered and I delivered almost immediately. What recent SyFy original featured Tara Reid, asked MC Rick Peace, who is Polly’s husband. I

pounced on the pen and slid Sharknado into the five spot. Letting her bewildered look go, we coasted through, what war did the Treaty of Versailles end, which ocean is Pitcairn Carne Island in, and what century did Julius Caesar live. Finishing with eight out of ten in the first of five rounds, we tied for first and won an appetizer. Yeah, we were going to clean up, and I was ready to let the room know. The back table heard from me first. John Stam and Matt Murphy weren’t ready to concede and knew what Wednesday is about. “Winning,” said Stam, whose team has won the last two of three competitions. Taken aback, but not tipping my hand, I was curious how they did on the math question that tripped our team up. “We made it our b**ch,” Stam said with joking confidence.

Bluster aside, he welcomed the Wednesday change of pace in comparison to what can be found elsewhere. “People drinking too much, this is something different,” said Stam. His teammate brought a more cerebral point of view. “Its a little brain exercise,” Murphy said describing their weekly participation. Returning to my seat, I felt poised to sweep into the next round. But not knowing the dimensions of a chord of wood set the tone, and we lost our bid for free shots. Unable to duck for cover as part of the job description, I took my questions to Brittany Gray and Danielle Crecco, who both seemed a bit overmatched by the minutia. “We got a four that round,” Brittany sighed in resignation. Still, they bantered with the boys sitting by their side, and weren’t shy about pointing

out the ungentlemanly advantage held in the standings. “They stink,” said Crecco, while also being certain their competition would share some of their winnings in the form of drinks and food. But Will Galli stopped that idea in its tracks. “No, I got my own team to worry about,” he poked at the girls. Removing myself from the crossfire, Polly put my so-called literary advantage to shame. What do you call a word that imitates the sound associated with the objects or actions they refer (such as buzz or hiss), asked Rick Peace. Fortunately before my incompetence could reveal itself, Polly penned out “onamonapia”. I would redeem myself of my armchair expertise in astrophysics. Nine minutes, I’ve long known it takes light to reach the earth from the sun. And having never heard of the 1972 sinking of a famous vessel in Hong Kong Harbor, I was able to piece together the right answer. The former British Colony, I had the

country of origin, and knowing of the QE2, I figured out something bad must have happened to the first one. Then collaborating on the year Jimmy Carter lost the presidency and the number of Supreme Court Justices, we certainly did not overlap on two queries involving stone settings and fashion. But there’s no “I” in team, and we would win the final round. Unfortunately, it was not enough to win the evening. Will Galli’s team took the honors. Licking my wounds, I thanked owner Gina Shaub for a fun night out. “We try to keep it social and current so it’s a good time throughout and everyone can do it,” she said. Very quaint, but I have work to do.

else could they say but what they were told to say? Even if one of them dared to say the “wrong thing,” it naturally would have been edited out. Who knows how many takes it took to get the video—which includes a bizarre clip of the nuns having a snowball fight with their abductors—just right? One thing, however, although minor, speaks volumes concerning the nature of their captivity. Although these same nuns, in pictures before they were kidnapped, often appear wearing the large pectoral crosses that nuns often wear, these are all gone in the recent video. This is to be expected, considering the “pious” nature of their captors. According to strict Islamic teaching, Christians and other non-Muslims are forbidden to show any signs or expressions of their “polytheism” (shirk in Arabic). Indeed, this is spelled out clearly in the Conditions of Omar, which mainstream Muslim teaching attributes to

the second caliph of the same name. After the seventh century armies of Islam conquered a particular Christian region—possibly and ironically in Syria— Omar stipulated several conditions for Christians to accept, including “Not to display a cross on them [churches], nor raise our voices during prayer or readings in our churches anywhere near Muslims; Not to produce a cross or [Christian] book in the markets of the Muslims” (see Crucified Again, pgs. 24-27 for my new translation of the entire text of the Conditions of Omar). From here we understand the true plight of the captive nuns: to their captors, not only are the Christian women hostages to be used for leverage, but ideologically speaking, they are “infidel” inferiors—near sub-humans who are more akin to animals. Indeed, the same Caliph Omar whom Syria’s jihadis are hearkening to regarding

Rich Monetti has been a freelance writer since 2003 and lives in Westchester.

MIDDLE EAST FORUM

Kidnapped Nuns No Longer Bear the Cross By RAYMOND IBRAHIM A new video of the twelve Christian nuns kidnapped in Syria recently appeared. In it, the nuns are taped sitting in a room and being questioned by an unseen man, presumably a member of the kidnappers. He asks them how they are, if they’ve been mistreated, etc. They respond that they are being treated fine, that they very much look forward to being returned to their convent, that they heartily thank the world for its concern, and that they continually pray that God grant peace to all nations. Their words say one thing, their expressions and demeanor another. Put differently, as female captives of Islamic jihadis, what

Several of the kidnapped Syrian nuns. (Image source- YouTube video by kidnappers).

Continued on page 15

THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, FEBRUARY 27, 2014

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MIDDLE EAST FORUM

Kidnapped Nuns No Longer Bear the Cross Continued from page 14 the ban on Christian crosses is also on record saying that the life of a non-Muslim is equal to the life of a dog (Western readers should bear in mind that in Arab/Muslim culture, dogs are among the lowest life forms.) As such, the plight of the kidnapped nuns remains precarious—all their scripted words aside. (See here for more on the

history of Islamic jihad on Christian nuns.) As for the effects of removing the nuns’ crosses, an Arabic column by one Father George makes an interesting point highlighting the difference between outwardly observant “Salafi” Muslims, presumably like the kidnappers—with their beards and prayer callouses on their foreheads—and inwardly observant Christians like these

nuns: St Paul says “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Galatians 6:14). You removed the cross from the nuns’ breasts. Remove it! We do not rely on the visible. But know that the cross is firmly planted in the hearts of each and every one of those nuns.

18, 2014; http://www.meforum.org/3734/ qaradawi-us-jihad Raymond Ibrahim, author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (Regnery, April, 2013) is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

First published in  World Magazine  February

CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES

Seeds of Doubt By SHERIF AWAD Samir Nasr was born in 1968 in Germany to an Egyptian father and a German mother. His family moved to Libya when he was a young child where they lived for four years, and Nasr subsequently attended school in Cairo. He graduated with a degree in Business Administration in Germany. Thereafter he applied to various film schools and was accepted by Germany’s prestigious Filmakademie in Ludwigsburg, where he specialized in documentary filmmaking. Nachttanke (Night Station), the documentary he made in his final year of study, was shown at several film festivals and garnered a number of prizes. His debut feature Folgeschöden (Seeds of Doubt), has already won several awards in Germany, including the CIVIS Media Award, which was presented for work that promotes cultural diversity, coexistence, integration and tolerance in Europe, and the Tankred-Dorst Award. Folgeschöden -- literally translated

Egyptian German filmmaker Samir Nasr.

means damaging after-effects -- begins at the intersection where seemingly fixed notions of identity crumble under the pressure of politics, the place Graham Greene termed “the dangerous edge of things”. “The original script of the film,” says Nasr, “was radically different from the final

version”, so much so that Nasr was unsure whether the TV editors who had commissioned him would want to continue

with the project after he had voiced objections to the original plot. The original script included a Pakistani secret agent protagonist who insinuates himself into the life of a German woman and her Muslim husband, the purpose is to follow the gradual radicalization of the husband. Nasr suggested the story be drastically changed so as to avoid the stereotypical concepts and clichés attributed to Arabs common in German TV and film. Nasr suggested the character would be best understood if he were seen contending with the disparate cultural intrusiveness upon their marriage. Nasr wanted to shoot a love story that would appeal to the audience both emotionally and visually. “I like to create an atmosphere of complicity between the spectator and the camera and then expose the spectators at the end of the film; showing them that they have been involved in a process of stigmatizing someone out of sheer ignorance.” Weeks of silence followed Nasr’s initial objections to the script and he had already

forgotten about the project when the producers contacted him once again. They agreed on the basic plot: Tariq, an Algerian Muslim living in post-9/11 Germany, married to Maya, a German woman, suddenly embroiled in politics when he finds himself the subject of a police surveillance. Nasr is a conservative and pragmatic filmmaker. He favors clear, cleanly cut films. He does not take his audience on a conducted tour of experimental film aesthetics intended to subvert their expectations, nor does he engage in shaky Dogma--like camera shots. There are no narrative ellipses, no traces of the melancholy so characteristic of German auteur films portraying fallen angels in soulless urban landscapes as they engage in a futile search for love. Folgeschöden is a TV movie, heir to the long and successful tradition of TV crime thrillers. Narrative continuity remains uninterrupted until the unexpected denouement uncovers the story and reveals the spectator as an accomplice in crime.

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Page 16

THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, FEBRUARY 27, 2014

CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES

Seeds of Doubt “The spectator sees the whole story through Maya’s eyes; she is the main protagonist, the one who undergoes a painful development - from loving wife to police informer, yet finally realizing that she had erred. The spectator usually identifies with protagonists who undergo change,” says Nasr. The basic plot is simple, occasionally bordering on kitsch, especially when Nasr tries to elaborate visually on emotions between the couple and on Maya’s cultural ignorance of Tariq’s Algerian background. Tariq Slimani, played by Algerian actor Mehdi Nebbou, is a cosmopolitan scientist living in Hamburg -- he speaks German with a French accent -- where he is conducting research on Ebola viruses. His wife Maya is a successful art director and they have a son, Karim. The film opens with the couple preparing to go out for dinner. So far so good; but the atmosphere at the dinner party with Maya’s colleagues and editor-in-chief is tense. Maya’s boss makes anti-Muslim comments, telling Tariq that he read the

Quran after 9/11 and came to the conclusion that Islam was a backward religion. Tariq responds with seemingly insouciant sarcasm, but the dinner party provokes the first crisis in Maya and Tariq’s hitherto idyllic relationship. Maya, the good-natured, blonde provincial wife with no clue as to where her husband comes from or what he undergoes comes to realize that her husband is no longer willing to silently accept sudden hostility for the sake of peace. Then the unimaginable happens: Maya’s angry superior denounces Tariq to the police, reporting his allegedly anti-American comments. The police then discover, via a video of a wedding party, that Tariq had attended the same function as one of the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks. Rumors spread and his son Karim faces growing difficulties at school, where his classmates begin to describe his father as a terrorist. Tariq is then denied entry to the US, where he has been invited to give a guest lecture at Harvard. Finally his jealous, and soon to be jobless assistant Doro lies to the police about the loss of virus stems from the laboratory, implicating Tariq in the hope of taking his place. Tariq is accused of having

yet they remain so popular in Egypt. AbdelHalim Hafez would certainly not have seen the songs as propaganda. How did he manage to make these songs come alive for us even today when the reality we live in has proven so painfully different from past expectations?” And there is more to come. Nasr’s next film project will be an adaptation of Sonallah Ibrahim’s novel Sharaf, that Nasr says made a great impression on him in terms of frankness and courage. He will write the script, again a portrait of Egyptian society, this time reflected from within prison walls.

Mehdi Nebbou and Silke Bodenbender in “Seeds of Doubt”. stolen the viruses to plan attacks in Europe. from criticism of all sides -- remains a point Cornered, Tariq seeks to leave Germany, of reference in his work. He is currently considers returning to Algeria, but then working on a documentary -- Abdel-Halim heads for Paris. Meanwhile, his relationship Hafez and Songs of the Revolution in which with Maya is unraveling; she submits to he will trace Egyptian history from 1952 cooperating with the police who persuade until 1970 through the music of Abdelher of her husband’s guilt and convince her Halim. “The question I was asking myself is to spy on him. why it is that patriotic songs -- and AbdelDespite Nasr’s deeply-rooted Western Halim’s songs were propaganda -- are no longer heard in any other part of the world upbringing, which does not prevent him

Born in Cairo, Egypt, Sherif Awad is a film / video critic and curator. He is the film editor of Egypt Today Magazine (www.EgyptToday. com), and the artistic director for both the Alexandria Film Festival, in Egypt, and the Arab Rotterdam Festival, in The Netherlands. He also contributes to Variety, in the United States, and is the film critic of Variety Arabia (http://varietyarabia.com/), in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Al-Masry Al-Youm Website (http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/ node/198132) and The Westchester Guardian (www.WestchesterGuardian.com).

GovernmentSection LEE HAMILTON COMMENTARY

There’s an Alternative to the Imperial Presidency By LEE H. HAMILTON In his State of the Union speech to Congress last month, President Obama drew widespread attention for pledging to use his executive authority to advance his priorities. He insisted he intends to act with or without Congress, and listed well over a dozen actions he plans to take by executive order. “Wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families,” he said, “that’s what I’m going to do.” Plenty of people were happy about this. The speech was applauded by pundits who have given up on Congress, and believe the only way to move forward is by strengthening the presidency. Our political system, they say, is weighed down by too many interest groups; too many checks and balances, and too few avenues for circumventing a Congress that is both polarized and highly susceptible to the wishes of its donors. The

present government is paralyzed, they believe. A stronger presidency would get Washington moving again. As you’d expect, others are alarmed by this approach. The President, they say, is trampling on the constitutional separation of powers, grabbing powers for himself that were meant to be shared with Congress. They point out that the Constitution gives Congress a primary role in making policy. The problem with this debate is that it’s missing a key part of the equation. Yes, our system needs a strong presidency. But it also needs a strong Congress. We are best off as a nation when the two consult, interact, and work together as powerful branches. In truth, every president in recent memory has expanded the power of his office and been accused of a power grab. They’ve had plenty of motivation to do so. The modern world demands quick, decisive action. Americans tend to support presidents who act forcefully.

Congress is complex, convoluted, and hard to work with; it is far easier for an administration to act on its own. Even members of Congress often defer to the President, counting on him to address issues they don’t want to tackle or can’t agree upon. And presidents have wielded executive orders to great effect. Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, FDR’s Works Progress Administration, John Kennedy’s Peace Corps, affirmative action under Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan’s enshrining of cost-benefit analysis as the key to regulatory review — all came about through executive orders. Yet there are limits to this approach, because in the end there is no substitute for legislation. Presidents cannot write a budget, raise the minimum wage, or reform entitlements by themselves. Because executive orders lack the permanence and force of law, they can be hard to implement and can be summarily

cancelled by a later president. They are more subject to legal challenge than legislation. And most important, executive orders are a unilateral exercise of power and do not benefit from a process of consensus-building and consultation with voices independent of the President’s. Consensus-building can’t happen in a vacuum, however. Without a strong Congress able to find its way effectively through the thickets of lawmaking, this President and his successors will surely continue to address the nation’s challenges on their own. The question is, how far down that road can we go before Congress becomes irrelevant, with too much power — and too much potential for the abuse of power — in presidential hands? Like our founding fathers, we should be skeptical of the concentration of power. Politico recently detailed a spate of executive orders planned by this administration, which would affect everything from how power plants operate to how we commute to how the environment will be regulated. Taken together, they will “push deeply into everyday life” for

Americans, the article noted. Whether a president oversteps his authority with these and other executive orders is inevitably colored by whether you agree with the proposed order. But my point is different. It is that the march toward presidential unilateralism, whether the president is a Democrat or a Republican, dangerously undercuts our constitutional system. Before we give up on the separation of powers, let’s try strengthening Congress. This may not be the easy route, but if we don’t take it, representative democracy itself is in doubt. Lee Hamilton is Director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years.

Now on Facebook you can find information about the Center on Congress at Indiana University’s educational resources and programs, and you can share your thoughts about Congress, civic education, and the citizen’s role in representative democracy. “Like” them on Facebook at “Center on Congress at Indiana University.”

THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, FEBRUARY 27, 2014

CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Astorino Away From the County 20% of the Time After Being Elected By NANCY KING The dead of winter is traditionally a quiet time in local politics but that is hardly the case here in Westchester County. This week three Democratic leaders had more than a few harsh comments about the manner in which County Executive Rob Astorino is governing Westchester County. County Legislators Peter Harkham (D), Ken Jenkins (D), and Westchester County Clerk Tim Idoni held a press conference in White Plains where they claimed that Astorino had been out of the county nearly 20% of the time since he was re-elected back in November 2013. Though he hasn’t formally announced it yet, it is widely believed that Rob Astorino will challenge incumbent Governor Andrew Cuomo. Astorino has already opened an exploratory committee and there is already a Facebook page with Astorino for Governor online. According to those three lawmakers, within a Nano second of being elected to a second term as County Executive, Rob Astorino hit the road; literally. Starting with a trip to the Los Somos Conference in Puerto Rico, and almost immediately after that, a trip out to Arizona to meet with the nation’s other governors. When he’s not out of the state, he’s crisscrossing it hoping to raise enough money to finance a gubernatorial campaign and to gain some face time with voters and donors throughout the state. But, while Astorino is out on his meet and greet campaign, who is running the County? Presumably it is Deputy County Executive Kevin Plunkett and Chief of Staff George Oros. Both of these chaps, with their years of experience and intellect are certainly able to “mind the store” while the shop keeper is away. Is this really what the voters and residents of the county were expecting when they overwhelmingly re-elected him back to office. Astorino said he needed the extra four

years to finish the work that he started in his previous term. And just what is needed to be done?; plenty! First up is HUD. We all heard an awful lot about that debacle during Astorino’s first term, but lately not too much (with the exception of the fine residents of Chappaqua who are screaming “NIMBY”, pretty loudly NIMBY). To be honest, I actually agree with them on this complaint. Hunts Lane in Chappaqua is where HUD wants to plop an affordable housing building in a largely heavily industrialized area, on the banks of the Metro-North tracks and quite a distance from a bus stop. If I were about to be plopped up there, without a car, perhaps not proficient in English, I don’t think I’d want to live there either. Next up is the county’s aging infrastructure. An example, is our old stone bridges which are already fatigued by virtue of their age; add a severe winter complete with a couple of polar vortex incidents, multiple snow storms and the constant plowing and salting of these old structures, and you can see them crumbling before your eyes. A few of them are in such bad shape that they’ve gotten protective orange fencing surrounding their crumbling facades. I know I’m not the only motorist who holds my breath when traveling either over or under them. Nobody really heard much about this when Astorino addressed the Westchester County Association (WCA) last month; what we heard was that there would be $270 million in capital improvements in the county, most of which will focus on the I-287 corridor. Job creation was also high on Astorino’s campaign platform. Touting that the county had saved and helped create 35K jobs during his first four years in office, there isn’t really any talk of job creation this time around. I suppose we’re going to have to rely on the construction of the new Tappan Zee Bridge to bolster those numbers. What folks don’t realize is that many of those construction workers who will

be constructing our new bridge aren’t hopping on a Bee-Line Bus to build that bridge; these men and women are from all over the country. In the meantime, Rob Astorino is traveling the state from Suffolk to Erie Counties, hunting for money and taking jabs at his potential contenders Carl Paladino and Donald Trump. This past Wednesday, Astorino took aim at Donald Trump stating, “This circus stuff has to come to an end,” after Trump criticized Astorino’s leadership, or lack thereof, in Westchester County. Another potential challenger, Conservative Carl Paladino was overheard at the Conservative Party’s Conference late last month in Albany telling conference goers that if Trump doesn’t run against Astorino he will. And finally you have Rob Astorino himself happily telling those same conference goers that he had never seen so many extreme Conservatives in one place. Oh happy, happy; joy, joy. Finally, Astorino’s biggest hurdle continues to be Governor Andrew Cuomo. Sure the Conservatives are peeved with Cuomo offering free college to inmates and his closure of the New York State Thruway during this winter’s snow storms and the loss of the Remington Firearms factory. But Cuomo has well over $35 million in his campaign coffers as opposed to Astorino’s $1 million - catching up to the sum garnered by Cuomo is going to be tough. And so, I have to agree with Harckham, Jenkins, and Idoni… we need a full time County Executive. I’m all for reaching across the legislative aisle and working together as it’s supposed to be but what is the sense in making the effort of cooperation when the governing body of the county has a part-time leader. As usual, the voters and the residents of the county have been duped into voting for a leader who lied to them and has failed to show up to do the job he was elected to do. Nancy King is a freelance reporter.

ECONOMIC FORECAST

Using the Calm Before the Storm It’s Time to Prepare

By LUKE HAMILTON The lull is almost over. Now what?

I don’t need to tell the savvy readership of The Westchester Guardian that this economic “recovery” has been a combination of smoke and mirrors,

held together with a shoestring and bubble gum. The plummeting economy, triggered by the collapse of our government-inflated housing bubble, was temporarily slowed in its break-neck decline by the Obama administration’s decision to shovel astronomic amounts of taxpayer money into a hole. In June 2010, after the first round of

Quantitative Easing, the Fed had holdings of $2.054 trillion. In November 2010, deciding that things weren’t improving fast enough, QE2 was launched and we bought up another $600 billion of assets/debt. When that failed to stimulate the market into a full-on recovery, QE3 was announced in September of 2012. At that point, the Fed declared that they would be buying $40 billion/month for an open-ended duration. Should be sufficient, right? Even the

Continued on page 18

The New The New

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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, FEBRUARY 27, 2014

ECONOMIC FORECAST s world? On a most basic Using the Calm Before the Storm today’ level, we need to be prepared phys-

Continued from page 17

piggish appetites of our central bankers should be sated by an open-ended allowance of $400 million EVERY SINGLE MONTH, right? Wrong. Just 3 months after the announcement of QE3, the Federal Open Market Committee declared that the bond-buying would be increased from $40 billion a month to $85 billion, more than doubling the amount of debt the American people were being given every month. Make no mistake; there is no money to spend on these debt purchases. This is referred to as “fiat money” as it is created by fiat, not by any market mechanisms or wealth creation. Each time money is created in this fashion, the dollar you hold in your wallet or your 401(k) gets a little weaker. The greedy progressives behind this diabolical process have discovered that they can rob you without ever touching your billfold, simply by watering down the funds they already control. This has worked, to a degree. Along with a slavish press, the sheer volume of money spent has provided them a little cover over the past couple years. The same way that 200 gallons of plasma would keep an abdominal gunshot victim alive for a time. But if the plasma runs out and surgery hasn’t been undertaken, the dude won’t be around too much longer. Our cupboard is now running dry. China is too highly leveraged to give us any more actual money and inflation is starting to creep into the economy. The Consumer Price Index for 2013 was the highest it’s ever been, with a price inflation of 133% over 1982 prices. We’re starting to look like the Town Drunk, hunched over a half-full glass of warm beer, 10 minutes after Last Call. So now what? We know that Washington doesn’t care about us once we’ve punched their chad in the voting booth. There are only a handful of politicians in DC who are willing to serve the people they represent and those few are increasingly ostracized from the legislative process by the statists on both sides of the aisle. It’s true that things are looking increasingly hopeful for November’s election; but even if we repeat the success of 2010, the fruits of this election will not be felt for months (perhaps years). As the remnant has done throughout history, we must prepare. The storm is coming, there can be little question about that. Even Doctor Evil himself has tipped his hand enough to show that he believes a major market slow-down is likely. If even cretinous Marxists like Soros are openly preparing for another economic disaster, shouldn’t we? There has never been a better time for the American people to batten the hatches and our window of opportunity might be closing soon. What does preparation look like in

ically to protect and provide for our families. That means equipping ourselves with the means to survive even if the social structure breaks down. Yes “prepper” supplies are a great idea, both for social collapse and disaster preparedness, but we should also be inculcating our families with survival knowledge that extends beyond the gear and supplies. There are plenty of good resources for this level of preparation, but two I follow and recommend are Creek Stewart of Willowhaven Outdoor and David Morris of Urban Survival. Additionally, we should be preparing to protect ourselves and our families. In any scenario where the social compact breaks down, the predators emerge. Whether it is during a natural disaster, riots, or a targeted attack, the chaos which follows provides enough distraction for the asocial predators in our midst to operate. We must be prepared and aware enough to protect ourselves from them. Purchase a firearm. Practice with it until you are comfortable and accurate. Apply for your CCW permit, even if you don’t plan to use it. By the time you need to use a firearm, it’s too late to prepare. Finally, we need to prepare mentally and spiritually. As much as we need to elect strong conservative men and women to office, our responsibilities do not stop at the polling place. We need to develop our knowledge of the issues facing our country. Gone are the days when we had scrupulous “experts” which could be (at least provisionally) relied on to do the right thing. Romans 3:10-18 has never been more apparent than today. Have you read Saul Alinski and Karl Marx? Are you familiar with the teachings of the Koran? Do you have a copy of The Coming Insurrection? These are the foundations upon which our opposition has built their campaign. There is no excuse for us to be unfamiliar with the enemy’s foundational tracts and tactics. We can no longer afford to be ignorant of the repugnant. As Oliver Cromwell so aptly stated, “Keep your faith in God, but keep your powder dry.” Luke Hamilton is classically-trained, Shakespearean actor from Eugene, Oregon who happens to be a liberty-loving, right-wing, Christian constitutionalist. When not penning columns for ClashDaily.com, Hamilton spends his time astride the Illinois-Wisconsin border, leading bands of liberty-starved citizens from the progressive gulags of Illinois to [relative] freedom. Hamilton is the creative mind/voice behind Pillar & Cloud Productions, a budding production company which resides at www. PillarCloudProductions.com. He owes all to his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, whose strength is perfected in his weakness.

LE G A L N O T I C E S SUMMONS, NOTICE AND BRIEF STATEMENT OF NATURE OF ACTION CONSUMER CREDIT TRANSACTION SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER Index No. 60186/2013 GENERATION MORTGAGE COMPANY, Plaintiff, -against Thomas A. Reale as Heir-at-law to the Estate of Albert Reale; Donna Mills individually and as Beneficiary of the Estate of Albert Reale; Secretary Of Housing And Urban Development; All Unknown Heirs, Devisees, and Personal Representatives of the Estate of Albert Reale and any of his, her or any of their successors In right, title and interest; United States Of America; New York State Department Of Taxation And Finance; “JOHN DOE #1- #50” and “MARY ROE #1- #50”, the last two names being fictitious, said parties intended being tenants or occupants, if any, having or claiming an interest in or lien upon the premises described in the complaint, Defendants. TO THE DEFENDANT ALL UNKNOWN HEIRS, DEVISEES AND PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVES OF ALBERT REALE AND ANY OF HIS, HER OR ANY OF THEIR SUCCESSORS IN RIGHT, TITLE AND INTEREST: YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED and required to serve upon plaintiff’s attorneys an answer to the complaint in this action within twenty (20) days after the service of this Summons, exclusive of the day of service, or within thirty (30) days after service is complete if the Summons is not personally delivered to you within the State of New York. The United States of America, if designated as a defendant in this action, may answer or appear within sixty (60) days of service hereof. In case of your failure to answer, judgment will be taken against you for the relief demanded in the complaint. Trial is desired in the County of Westchester. The basis of venue designated above is that the real property, which is the subject matter of this action, is located in the County of Westchester, New York. NOTICE YOU ARE IN DANGER OF LOSING YOUR HOME IF YOU DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS SUMMONS AND COMPLAINT BY SERVING A COPY OF THE ANSWER ON THE ATTORNEY FOR THE MORTGAGE COMPANY WHO FILED THIS FORECLOSURE PROCEEDING AGAINST YOU AND FILING THE ANSWER WITH THE COURT A DEFAULT JUDGMENT MAY BE ENTERED AND YOU CAN LOSE YOUR HOME. SPEAK TO AN ATTORNEY OR GO TO THE COURT WHERE YOUR CASE IS PENDING FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON HOW TO ANSWER THE SUMMONS AND PROTECT YOUR PROPERTY. SENDING A PAYMENT TO YOUR MORTGAGE COMPANY WILL NOT STOP THIS FORECLOSURE ACTION. YOU MUST RESPOND BY SERVING A COPY OF THE ANSWER ON THE ATTORNEY FOR THE PLAINTIFF (MORTGAGE COMPANY) AND FILING THE ANSWER WITH THE COURT. HELP FOR HOMEOWNERS IN FORECLOSURE New York State Law requires that we send you this notice about the foreclosure process. Please read it carefully. Summon and Complaint You are in danger of losing your home. If you fail to respond to the summons and complaint in this foreclosure action, you may lose your home. Please read the summons and complaint carefully. You should immediately contact an attorney or local legal aid office to obtain advice on how to protect yourself. Source of Information and Assistance The State encourages you to become informed about your options in foreclosure. In addition to seeking assistance from an attorney or legal aid office, there are government agencies and non-profit organizations that you may contact for information about possible options, including trying to work with your lender during this process. To locate an entity near you, you may call the toll-free helpline maintained by the New York State Department of Financial Services at to 1-800-269-0990 visit the Department`s website at www.dfs.ny.gov. Foreclosure rescue scams Be careful of people who approach you with offers to “save” your home. There are individuals who watch for notices of foreclosure actions in order to unfairly profit from a homeowner’s distress. You should be extremely careful about any such promises and any suggestions that you pay them a fee or sign over your deed. State law requires anyone offering such services for profit to enter into a contract which fully describes the services they will perform and fees they will charge, and which prohibits them from taking any money from you until they have completed all such promised services. The foregoing Summons is served upon you by publication pursuant to an order of Honorable William J. Giacomo, Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, signed on the 27th day of January, 2014, in White Plains, New York and to be duly entered in the Westchester County Clerk’s Office, in White Plains, New York. The Nature of this action pertains to a note and mortgage held by Plaintiff on real property owned by the above named defendants as specified in the complaint filed in this action. The above named defendants have failed to comply with the terms and provisions of the said mortgage and said instruments secured by said mortgage, by failing and omitting to pay the balance due and owing and the Plaintiff has commenced a foreclosure action. Plaintiff is seeking a judgment foreclosing its mortgage against the real property and premises which situates in the Village of Irvington, County of Westchester and State of New York and is commonly known as 12 Grinnell Street, Irvington, New York 10533 and all other relief as to the Court may seem just and equitable. DATED: February 11, 2014 SCHILLER & KNAPP, LLP BY: WILLIAM B. SCHILLER, ESQ. Attorneys for Plaintiff 950 New Loudon Road Latham, New York 12110 Telephone: (518) 786-9069

THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, FEBRUARY 27, 2014

Page 19

LE G A L N O T I C E S 30 EAST 76TH STREET #3B, LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 1/7/14. Office in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to C/O Stern Keiser & Panken, LLP 1025 Westchester Ave Ste. 305 White Plains, NY 10604. Purpose: Any lawful activity. Notice of Formation of ASH ST. PROPERTY LLC Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY on 10/31/2013. Office location: MOUNT VERNON. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail process to LUIS MORILLO 75 PARKWAY EAST, MOUNT VERNON, N.Y., 10552. Purpose: any lawful act or activity. EMER LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 1/29/14. Office in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to C/O Zussman Law PLLC, Attention: Michael J. Zussman, Esq. 425 East 79th St Ste. 1F New York, NY 10075. Purpose: Any lawful activity. COPYWRITE COMMUNICATIONS, LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 10/18/13. Office in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to The LLC 2983 Sherman Ct. Mohegan Lake, NY 10547. Purpose: Any lawful activity. Registered Agent: John D. Ellis 2983 Sherman Ct. Mohegan Lake, NY 10547

BLUEPAC ADVISORS, LLC Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/27/13. Office location: Westchester Co. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 9/17/13 SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to The LLC 20 Oscaleta RD South Salem, NY 10590. DE address of LLC: 1209 Orange ST Wilmington, DE 19801. Arts. Of Org. filed with DE Secy. of State, PO Box 898 Dover, DE 19903. Purpose: any lawful activity. BLUEPAC PARTNERS, LLC Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/27/13. Office location: Westchester Co. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 9/17/13 SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to The LLC 20 Oscaleta RD South Salem, NY 10590. DE address of LLC: 1209 Orange ST Wilmington, DE 19801. Arts. Of Org. filed with DE Secy. of State, PO Box 898 Dover, DE 19903. Purpose: any lawful activity. BLUEPAC PARTNERS FUND, LP Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/27/13. Office location: Westchester Co. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 10/8/13. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to The LP 20 Oscaleta RD South Salem, NY 10590. DE address of LP: 1209 Orange ST Wilmington, DE 19801. Arts. Of Org. filed with DE Secy. of State, PO Box 898 Dover, DE 19903. Purpose: any lawful activity.

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GLORIA LOUZAO LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 1/29/14 Office in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to C/O Zussman Law PLLC, Attention: Michael J. Zussman, Esq. 425 East 79th St Ste. 1F New York, NY 10075. Purpose: Any lawful activity. TRINITY SHARP REALTY LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 9/17/13 Office in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to C/O Solomon Borg 630 Third Ave New York, NY 10017. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, FEBRUARY 27, 2014

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