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Thursday, June 26, 2014

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LARRY M. ELKIN Who Benefits From ‘One-Day Divorce?’ Page 5 SHERIF AWAD Sidewalks of Dakar Page 7 RICH MONETTI Dental Co-op Cuts Costs for Uninsured Page 9 CHRIS ROSTENBERG Abortion: The Choice Alone is Child Abuse Page 11 RAYMOND IBRAHIM Rape in Egypt Page 12

By Hon. Richard brodsky, Page 3

Barack’s Game Plan By Luke Hamilton, Page 4

Say “No” to RAPAFLO! By EVAN S. LEVINE, Page 5

WWW.WESTCHESTERGUARDIAN.COM

Dr. OREN LEVIN-WALDMAN

Why the Minimum Wage Is Important

Page 14

Mayor MARY C. MARVIN Guided by Manual on Uniformed Traffic Control Devices

Page 16

JOHN SIMON From South Dakota to Donogoo-Tonk Page 20

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

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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 .................................................................................................. 89 Fitness.................................................................................................... Najah’s Corner ...................................................................................119 Fitness.................................................................................................... Health ..................................................................................................10 Movie ....................................................................................12 Health ..................................................................................................10 HistoryReview ................................................................................................10 Music ...................................................................................................12 History ................................................................................................10 Ed Koch Movie Review ...................................................................12 Community ........................................................................................13 Ed Koch Movie Review ...................................................................12 Spoof ....................................................................................................13 Writers Collection.............................................................................14 Spoof ....................................................................................................13 Sports 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 ............................................................................20 Transportation ...................................................................................17 Government Section ............................................................................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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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 experiFeature Section....................................................................................................................3 ence working with sponsors/donors; 2) Operations TO THE .............................................................................................................................3 ABOVE-NAMED RESPONDENT(S) WHO RESIDE(S) OR IS FOUND AT [specifyManager- must have a Nation. good knowledge of computers/software/ticketing systems, duties include address(es)]: overseeing all box office, concessions, movie staffing, day of show lobby Barak’s Game Plan..........................................................................................................4 Westchester On the Level isaddresses: usually heard from to Friday, from NY 1010701 a.m. to 12 Last known TIFFANY RAY:Monday 24staffing Garfieldsuch Street, Yonkers, as#3, Merchandise seller, bar sales. Must be familiar with POS Whathttp://www.BlogTalkRadio.com/WestchesterOntheLevel. Your Doctor Won’t (or system Can’t) and Tellwilling You................................................................4 Noon on the Internet: to organize concessions. Last known addresses: KENNETH THOMAS: 24 Garfield Street, #3, Yonkers, NY 10701 Full time plus hours. Call (203) Because of the importance a Federal court case438-5795 purporting corruption bribery CommunityofSection............................................................................................................5 and ask for Julie orand Allison An Order to Show Cause under Article 10 of the Family Court Act having been filed with this Court allegations, programming with be suspended for the days of March 26 to 29, 2012. YonCalendar..........................................................................................................................5 Westchester On the Levelto ismodify heard Monday to Friday, from seeking the from placement for the above-named child. 10 a.m. to 12 Noon

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

kersthe Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor Sadewhite is our scheduled Friday, Westchester On the Level isCommentary.....................................................................................................5 heard fromJames Monday to Friday, from 10 a.m.guest to 12 Noon on Internet: http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com/WestchesterOntheLevel. Join Current 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 Economic Development.................................................................................................6 It is howeverby anticipated that theto jury will conclude its Please deliberation ontopic. either Mon- pm in the the conversation calling toll-free 1-877-674-2436. on afternoon of saidare day your to answer the petition and showstay cause why saidFebruary child should20th not be Richard Narog March and Hezi Aris co-hosts. Incase, thetowe week beginning day or Tuesday, 26 or 27. Should that be the will resume regular with theand ending on Education........................................................................................................................7 adjudicated to be a neglected child and why you should not be dealt withour in accordance Richard Narog and Hezi Aris are your co-hosts. In the week beginning February 20th and ending on February 24th, we have an exciting entourage of guests. programming schedule and of announce fact on theAct. Yonkers Tribune website. provisions ArticlePerspectives..............................................................................................7 10 ofthat the Family Court Film/Cultural February 24th, we have an exciting entourage of guests. Richard Narog and Hezi Aris are co-hosts of the show. Every Monday is Health. special..............................................................................................................................9 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. Monday, 20th, celebrated participant in http:// yer, and ifOn the Court finds youFebruary are unableKrystal to pay forKrystal a lawyer, you haveathe right to havewho a lawyer www.TheWritersCollection.com is our guest. Wade isWade, a mother of three works fifty miles Make itbyFun. .Court. ...................................................................................................................9 assigned the www.TheWritersCollection.com is our guest. Krystal is a novel mother threeaccepted who works fifty miles from home and writes in her “spare time.” “Wilde’s Fire,”Wade her debut hasofbeen for publication Music.............................................................................................................................10 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 and should be available 2012. Not farFURTHER behind is her second novel, “Wilde’s Army.” does she do it? noted in above, the Court and determine the petition as provided by law.Army.” How does she do it? Pro-Life.........................................................................................................................11 and available 2012. Notwill farhear behind is her second novel, “Wilde’s Tuneshould in andbefind out. Dated: January 30, 2012 BY ORDER OF THE COURT Tune in and find out. .................................................................................11 Co-hosts Richard Technology/Creative Narog2 and Hezi Aris Disruption. will relish the dissection column 1 column CLERK OF THE COURTof all things politics on Tuesday, February Co-hosts Richard Hezi..............................................................................................................20 ArisChuck will relish the dissection of his all things politicsfrom on Tuesday, February Eye onand Theatre. 21st. Yonkers CityNarog Council President Lesnick will share perspective the august inner 21st. Yonkers Council Lesnick will share 22nd. his perspective from the august sanctum of theCity City CouncilPresident ChambersChuck on Wednesday, February Stephen Cerrato, Esq., will inner share International......................................................................................................................12 sanctum of the City Chambers on Wednesday, February 22nd. Esq.,be will share his political insight onCouncil Thursday, February 23rd. Friday, February 24th hasStephen yet to beCerrato, filled. It may a propiMiddle East Forum. ......................................................................................................12 his political Thursday, February 23rd. Friday, February 24th has yet to be filled. It mayofbeThat a propitious day toinsight sum uponwhat transpired throughout the week. A sort of BlogTalk Radio version Was tious day toThat sumGovernment......................................................................................................................14 up what transpired throughout the week. A sort of BlogTalk Radio version of That Was The Week Was (TWTWTW). Public Policy..................................................................................................................14 The Week That Was (TWTWTW). For those who cannot join us live, consider listening to the show by way of an MP3 download, or on Reassessments. ...............................................................................................................16 For thoseWithin who cannot join us consider listening tofind the the show by wayinof MP3 that download, orlink on demand. 15 minutes of live, a show’s ending, you can segment ouranarchive you may Government..................................................................................................................16 demand. Within 15 minutes of a ending,paragraph. you can find the segment in our archive that you may link to using the hyperlink provided inshow’s the opening Legal Notices, to using the hyperlink provided in the opening paragraph. Mayor Marvin...............................................................................................................16 Advertise Today The entire archiveLegal is available maintained perusal. The easiest way to find a particular interview Notices,and Advertise Today for your The isLegislation.....................................................................................................................17 available and maintained forfor your perusal. easiest to findofa the particular interview is toentire searcharchive Google, or any other search engine, the subjectThe matter or way the name interviewee. For is to search Google, or any other search engine, for the subject matter or the name of the interviewee. Legal Ads. . .........................................................................................................................14 example, search Google, Yahoo, AOL Search for Westchester On the Level, Blog Talk Radio, or use For the example, Search for Westchester Before speaking to the police...On callthe Level, Blog Talk Radio, or use the hyperlinksearch above.Google, Yahoo, AOL hyperlink above.

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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, JUNE 26, 2014

Page 3

extract legislative concessions from Cuomo. Democratic statewide primaries have an unpredictable streak. Even Hillary Clinton faced an opponent who got 17 percent of the vote. Teachout has a fetching economic message but is inexperienced and not heavily funded. But then again, so was the guy who beat Cantor. The differences between Klein and Cuomo and Cantor are many. So are the differences between Democrats in New York and Republicans in Virginia. But there are arguments about Cuomo’s economic agenda and Klein’s empowerment of Republicans that resemble the arguments that brought down Cantor. Ideas and committed minorities exist in New York as well as Virginia. What’s most important is that these

conflicts are about actual ideas, with actual consequences for the people of the state. If these primaries occur, New Yorkers will have to choose, to think about how they want their party and their state to behave. The message of Virginia is that no candidate, no matter how well known, well funded or well liked, can ignore those ideas and the voters who support them. And that is a good thing.

FeatureSection NATION

Voters Can’t Be Ignored Senate, one way or another. Preferable is

By Hon. RICHARD BRODSKY The unexpected shellacking of House Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor was a genuine earthquake. Pundits will explain it variously, as evidence of their various, pre-existing political views. It’s much more interesting than that. It may even be important, but that’s not clear. Only in the right-wing echo chamber can Cantor be viewed as insufficiently conservative. He’s been the Republicans’ brains and brawn for repeal of the New Deal, the Great Society and Obamacare, and the architect of the most contentious and confrontational legislative tactics in recent memory. But primaries are the place where ideas really bubble to the surface, and where committed minorities can shape the debate. So it was in Virginia. Cantor probably fell from a combination of heretical views on immigration (let minor children stay) and his role as majority leader (it kept him a little remote from his district). “Amnesty” was not to be tolerated. A tea party true believer named David Brat focused on amnesty was outspent 40-to-1 and still beat him. This occurs just as New York is entering primary season. Congressional primaries in both parties occur in a week. Primaries for governor and the Legislature are in September, but that’s where the action is. Until last week, there were few primaries involving incumbents. Now, flowing out of the Working Families Party convention, it is possible — though not certain — that we are in for an interesting summer. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio committed to a Democratic

members Jeff Klein, Diane Savino, Dave Carlucci and Dave Valesky if there’s no deal. Cuomo is hedging, partially to keep relationships alive during the legislative session and partially because primary challenges are a

First published by TimesUnion.com on June 15, 2014. http://www.timesunion.com/ opinion/article/Richard-Brodsky-Voterscan-t-be-ignored-5554413.php Brodsky is a fellow at the Demos think tank in New York City and at the Wagner School at New York University.

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a reunification of regular Democrats with the Independent Democratic Conference, four breakaway Senators who joined a coalition with the Republicans. But de Blasio is pushing for primary challenges against IDC

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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, JUNE 26, 2014

Barack’s Game Plan

“I Know You Are, But What Am I?” By LUKE HAMILTON It was an honest mistake. We’ve all been there. You call the Internet Technology (IT) department and get nothing but the run-around, right? All you want to do is get back into your Outlook, but no dice. This is the situation in which poor Lois Lerner found herself in 2011. Her computer crashed and she lost gobs of emails. Gone forever—apparently Lois didn’t have Carbonite. And wouldn’t you know it, none of the 67,000 unhelpful emails which the IRS has turned over to congressional investigators were lost! Only the ones which involve Lerner’s efforts to use the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to intimidate conservative groups were lost. The additional wrinkle, which is just being discovered now by the Heritage Foundation and others, is that Lerner is only 1 of 6 IRS colleagues to suffer the exact same technological breakdown. The IRS has known about this difficulty since February, but was somehow too busy to

mention it until now. Among those who suffered a technological failure was Nikole Flax; she served as former chief-of-staff to IRS Commissioner Steven Miller. Commissioner Miller was one of the IRS employees fired during the uncovering of the intimidation scandal. A cleverly-filed FOIA (Freedom of Information Law Act) request has shown that Flax gave Lerner the approval to get together with Department of Justice (DOJ) officials, in order to explore criminal charges against conservative groups. The Congressional committee investigating the IRS scandal discovered last week that Lerner sent over 1 million pages of data to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), including confidential taxpayer information. Not only was Lerner discriminating against conservative groups on their applications for tax-exemption, she planned to solicit the help of the Feds to pursue criminal charges against them. Of course this is just an honest IT mistake, right? I mean, it could have happened to anyone. It’s got to be

Murphy’s Law at work since the computers of 6 individuals (all affiliated with the current investigation) were affected. Coupled with the fact that the emails that were irretrievably lost just happened to be those, which Congress was hoping to read; it seems pretty cut and dry to me. According to the new Minister of Disinformation, Josh Earnest, the idea that these emails were lost on purpose is “far fetched”. (Incidentally, when did WH Spokesmen begin adopting stage names?? Josh’s is particularly ironic.) After 6 years of the Obama-ganda machine, a pattern has emerged. It always begins with some sort of scandal which gets uncovered; not by an actual media investigation, but by independent efforts on the part of a citizen journalist or a non-profit organization armed with a crafty FOIA request. The Administration then tries to ignore it for a couple of news cycles. If the story doesn’t go away, they craft an implausible story to explain what happened. The more implausible; the better. At this point, the lapdog media immediately begins peddling this explanation as completely credible; usually taking the opportunity to fill in any perceived

gaps in the story that the Administration missed in its initial roll-out. If questions still persist, the questioner is either labeled a lunatic or a racist. This is orchestrated in textbook Alinski fashion: a crazy explanation becomes the honest answer, an honest inquiry becomes a crazy explanation. George Orwell would have been drooling over such an ironic juxtaposition. The switcheroo works because it trades on the power of “Ridicule”, one of Alinski’s favorite tools. He discovered that people don’t like to be ridiculed. This is even truer today, when everyone is raised to abhor conflict and even the losing team gets a trophy. The weaker we become, as a society, the more power Alinskian tactics will hold. Since most people today have a phobia of being ridiculed, they will accept an alternative to ridicule more readily than mockery, even if that alternative is a baldfaced lie. A surprising number of people would rather treat something outlandish as if it were plausible than to be branded a lunatic, even though they stand on a logical foundation. The only way to counteract this technique is to ignore the ridicule. A liar can’t redefine reality if his target refuses

to give the redefinition any legitimacy. We have seen them use this game plan during the birth certificate controversy, the Tea Party-Congressional Black Caucus spat on the steps of the Capitol, Benghazi, Fast and Furious, the Trayvon Martin case, the Bergdahl Trade, and again with the IRS Scandal. The fact that we don’t have citizens rioting in the streets is because they have been kept in check by the power of social ridicule… well, that and the militarized thugs in DHS (Department of Homeland Security) who keep buying ammo by the truckload. Luke Hamilton is classically-trained, Shakespearean actor from Eugene, Oregon who happens to be a liberty-loving, rightwing, 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 http:// www.PillarCloudProductions.com. He owes all to his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, whose strength is perfected in his weakness.

WHAT YOUR DOCTOR WON’T (OR CAN’T) TELL YOU

Say “No” to RAPAFLO! By EVAN S. LEVINE, MD FACC A patient came to me recently with a prescription for Rapaflo, given to him by his urologist. He was told not to fill it until he reviewed the medication and its risks with me, his heart doctor. I told him he should not take it. “Is it dangerous for my heart?” he asked. “No, but it is dangerous to your wallet,” I told him. I handed him a prescription for generic Flomax and suggested he take that instead. Rapaflo is one of several drugs, also known as alpha blockers, that are indicated in the treatment of symptoms related to benign prostatic hypertrophy, or BPH, and is sold, and aggressively marketed by Actavis Pharmaceuticals. Prescription drugs of this class work by relaxing the prostate smooth muscle around the urethra to improve the flow of urine and prevent lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) like hesitancy in starting the stream of urine or a frequent need to urinate. In an on-line advertisement for their product Actavis asks: What makes Rapaflo the right choice

for you? Your symptoms can be disruptive. Get rapid and continue relief? Learn how Rapaflo targets and relaxes the prostate to quickly relieve symptoms of an enlarged prostate. Explore why it works and its side effects to determine if Rapaflo is right for you. What is lacking in their ads is any comparison with similar medications that cost a fraction of what Rapaflo does. And that’s because they can’t! In a brilliant maneuver Activis labs, the maker of Rapaflo, never conducted any large randomized trials, comparing their expensive drug with less costly generics like tamsulosin, the generic version of Flomax; they just performed studies against placebo and Rapaflo clearly worked far better than nothing. Perhaps fearing that their drug might be equivalent to or not as helpful as a cheap generic, and because the FDA does not require Pharma to compare their drug to a standard treatment for approval, they didn’t. While generic Flomax has millions of patient-years of tried and proven use, the day Rapaflo was released to the market, after being tested on a far smaller population of patients, it had a very limited data

base. If you were to look up what the experts have to say and review the guidelines for the American Urologic Association, you would find this statement: “The older, less costly, generic alpha blockers remain reasonable choices.” The expert panel goes on to mention the newest alpha blocker noting that: “The older, less costly, generic alpha blockers remain reasonable choices. “ So why is it that doctors are prescribing Rapaflo to patients in record numbers if the American Urologic Association tells us that less costly generic blockers are reasonable choices and even the makers or Rapaflo can’t say their drug is any better than the older ones? It’s because Activis wants them too. It’s the same reason why millions of Americans are conned into taking other expensive, branded meds through directto-consumer ads: doctors who essentially prostitute themselves for Big Pharma. I suspect the patient I saw the other day should live at least another 15 years. At the current pricing for both Rapaflo and generic Flomax (tamsulosin — and prices should fall even further) it might cost him, if he paid out-of –pocket, around $27, 960 dollars for his Rapaflo. Generic Flomax would cost about $2,070 dollars for the same period of time (based on the current average price of $466 dollars for 90 day supply for Rapaflo and $46 dollars for generic Flomax). Other medications, like

generic Hytrin, although not suited for as many patients as Rapaflo or Flomax, cost just pennies a day. Many of you have some form of prescription coverage that will alleviate some of the additional expense of accepting a prescription for Rapaflo instead of generic Flomax. And yet you will be, in a way, as guilty as the drug rep who hawked Rapaflo, as guilty as the expert urologist who accepted payments for speaking for the makers of Rapaflo, or as guilty as the doctor who prescribed it for you, for the escalating cost of healthcare in America.

So why is it that doctors are prescribing Rapaflo to patients in record numbers if the American Urologic Association tells us that less costly generic blockers are reasonable choices and even the makers or Rapaflo can’t say their drug is any better than the older ones? It’s because Activis wants them too. It’s the same reason why millions of Americans are conned into taking other expensive, branded meds through direct-to-consumer ads and doctors who essentially prostitute themselves for Big Pharma. In 2014 , Paul M. Bisaro, the CEO of Activis seemed to be very happy with Rapaflo soaring sales when he wrote, “In our branded pharmaceuticals business, growth during 2013 was driven by strong sales of core products in the U.S., including the Rapaflo®” If you want to contribute to our country’s effort to provide affordable health care for everyone and reduce your health care expenses, then just say NO to Rapaflo! Evan S. Levine, MD FACC, is Director of the Cardiovascular Center at Saint Joseph’s Hospital and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center – Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is also the author of the book “What Your Doctor Won’t (or Can’t) Tell You”. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and children.

THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, JUNE 26, 2014

Page 5

Museum of Art is hosting a First Look Party on June 28th at 7:00pm, where you can enjoy Iceland-inspired hors d’oeuvres, music and cocktails, and watch ice be transformed to art as well as get a first look at KMA’s newest exhibition, “ICELAND: Artists Respond to Place.” This exhibit focuses exclusively on the rich and complex relationship of contemporary Icelandic artists to the singular geography of their island nation. The austere, beguiling landscape of Iceland functions as muse and material for its artists. Innately attuned to dramatic physical changes and extreme solar rhythms, Icelandic artists carry within them a heightened awareness of the environment as a dynamic living entity. How about some wild edibles for dinner? If so, then you’ll want to join farmer and naturalist Wilson Chang on June 27th, at Hilltop Hanover Farm in Yorktown Heights where you can learn to identify and sustainably forage a variety of local species found in forests, fields and wetlands.

The “Family Film Frenzy” continues with the upcoming showing of “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2,” on Wednesday, July 16th at Saxon Woods Pool in White Plains. Rain date is Thursday, July 17th. The evening event offers an outdoor movie as well as after-hours swimming. The park opens at 7:00pm for swimming and relaxing. The movie begins at sundown. Bring your own picnic, or purchase food at the concession stand. Admission is $5 per person (free for children under age 5) and includes the movie only. As you can see all the area parks and pools are in full swing, so go for a swim or a walk or if you’re like me, just sit on the bench or grass with a good book and enjoy all of our wonderful local recreation… See you next week.

CommunitySection CALENDAR

News & Notes from Northern Westchester By MARK JEFFERS It’s fireworks time again in northern Westchester, and I’m not talking about fighting over who gets to use the family car, so sit back and enjoy this week’s “explosive” edition of “News & Notes.” Celebrate our country’s Independence Day and the official grand re-opening of one of Westchester County’s most popular and iconic parks with live music and one of the area’s most stunning fireworks shows at the annual Music Fest & Fireworks on Thursday, July 3rd, at Kensico Dam Plaza in Valhalla. “Westchester’s Central Park” has been outfitted with new lighting that allows the park to remain open until after dusk. Pre-concert entertainment begins at 6pm and the Stolen Moments Band takes the stage at 8pm; fireworks will follow at approximately 9:15pm. Admission and

parking are free. Carpooling is suggested. Concert-goers should bring lawn chairs or blankets for seating as well as a picnic supper. The Town of Lewisboro will have its 16th Annual Fireworks Spectacular on June 28th at the Onatru Farm Park in South Salem. The event begins at 6pm and features live music, entertainment for kids, food, and even a visit from Uncle Sam. The Field Library in Peekskill will be hosting tons of events and reading incentives for students in middle and high school this summer. It will include the awarding of prizes for reading and reviewing books,r as well as tons of free events – gaming, guitar lessons, CPR certification, babysitting how-to, meet the library’s new 3-D printer, earring making, how to draw anime workshop and much more… all free of charge. To help with school summer projects, in addition to

the library’s Summer Reading book collection, the library will also be hosting School Summer Reading Project Help sessions for middle and high school. This event is generously underwritten by a grant from the H.O.P.E. For Youth Foundation, supporting Hudson Valley youth programs that foster healthy growth and positive achievement. For more details or to reserve your spot in events contact the library at (914) 737-0010. Learn to make earrings while helping a good cause… Join the fun on Tuesday, July 8th, at 4:00pm in the upstairs large meeting room at the Mount Kisco Public Library where for every pair of earrings you make, you make another pair that will be donated to a battered women’s shelter, for more information call the Children’s Room at (914) 864-0130. While it is hot outside you may want to attend this cool event… The Katonah

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

CURRENT COMMENTARY

Who Benefits From ‘One-Day Divorce?’ By LARRY M. ELKIN

Ricky R., colon patient

Continued on page 6 MY

CMY

Photo by and courtesy of Marcelo Duarte

“The doctors understood how important it was to get me back to work in a week.”

The question about one-day divorce, or do-ityourself divorce, is this: Is it a good thing or a bad thing? I think the answer is, “yes.” One-day divorce is a relatively new option, limited in the U.S. so far to certain courts in California. The program, as The New York Times reported, does not actually start and end a divorce in the same

day. But for couples who have met residency and notification requirements and filed the initial paperwork, the program helps get people through the legal system quickly when their divorce is relatively simple and uncontested. The eligibility requirements vary between jurisdictions, but for couples who meet them, the program is designed to alleviate long waits and potentially confusing court rules. Randall M. Kessler, a family law

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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, JUNE 26, 2014

CURRENT COMMENTARY

Who Benefits From ‘One-Day Divorce?’ Continued from page 5 specialist based in Atlanta, told The Times that such programs may be “the wave of the future” if California’s programs prove successful. The prediction seems all the stronger in light of the popularity of “doit-yourself ” divorces, an option that has proliferated in the age of Internet-based document preparation services and reference materials. Just because it’s possible to divorce without attorneys, though, does not mean that it is always a prudent idea. Almost any financial planner will probably tell you that divorce of any kind is one of the most efficient destroyers of household wealth around. You instantly nearly double the cost of maintaining two adults by separating their households. Divorced individuals also lose the security that comes from having a second income stream, at least in the typical dual-income

American household. Often, a divorce means you have to sell a residence or other assets at an inopportune or unwanted time. And in many cases, the operation of a family business is imperiled. With all of these concerns in play, the legal fees can seem to add insult to injury. Such fees are often significant and are sometimes exorbitant, especially if there are highly contentious issues to be resolved such as the custody of children or the division of significant property. Few would blame a couple for looking at ways to lower or avoid them. Still, nobody advises people to spend their lives in unhappy marriages for financial reasons. Many families find themselves better off when people who can’t live together happily chose to live separately instead. In the same way, I suspect few financial planners would advise pursuing a DIY divorce solely because it is cheaper.

Divorce, like marriage, is a significant financial transaction. And just as some marriages are best entered with a prenuptial agreement while others have no need, some divorces can only be prudently accomplished with the help of legal counsel while others could appropriately and cheaply be terminated quickly and on demand. Until recently, the bar held the key to the divorce courthouse because judges and legislatures were unwilling to establish simplified procedures that were accessible to laypeople. Thankfully, that is changing. While California’s one-day program is so far unique, many states offer “simple” or “summary” divorce in cases in which the split is amicable and there are no minor children or disputed assets involved. The precise requirements vary from state to state, and while such divorces do typically involve attorneys, they may serve as a template from which a more accessible process might be developed. Of course, many divorces must

proceed the traditional way, and that will not change any time soon. Not only do couples with minor children or significant wealth need legal counsel, but there are cases in which one spouse may suspect the other will try to hide or lie about assets, or take other measures to pursue an unfair outcome. Where a prenuptial agreement exists, couples will often want a legal team capable of making sure the agreement is executed properly. In cases where there are no children, no controversy and little in the way of assets, however, having each party hire a lawyer can simply be wasteful and timeconsuming. It is good to see the legal system evolving to provide alternatives. Some state legal aid offices provide their own free divorce packets, while services like LegalZoom provide document preparation for a fee that is still significantly less than the cost of retaining an attorney. If you are considering a do-it-yourself divorce, ask yourself this question: Are you comfortable preparing your

own tax return? If not, don’t even think about handling your own divorce filing. Same-sex couples should also be especially cautious because of the still-evolving legal status of their unions; an attorney’s advice may be essential. If you feel comfortable proceeding, carefully weigh the pros and cons of a one-day or DIY divorce before you proceed. In some cases, a cheap divorce could turn out to be a lot more expensive than you expect. 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

National Cooperative Bank Arranges $5.9 Million in Financing Activity for Yonkers and Bronxville Cooperatives Gateway Apartment Owners Corp. and Pondfield Apartments, Inc. Secure Mortgages for Capital Improvement Projects NEW YORK, NY—National Cooperative Bank (NCB), a leading lender to cooperative housing throughout the Tri-State area, originated $5.9 million in new loans for two Westchester, N.Y.based cooperatives. The activity included a $4.8 million first mortgage for Gateway Apartment Owners Corp., a 103-unit cooperative at 60 Gateway Road, in Yonkers, N.Y. Financing was arranged by Edward Howe III, managing director of NCB’s New York office. Additionally, Mindy Goldstein arranged a $650,000 first mortgage and a $400,000 line of credit for Pondfield Apartments, Inc., a 16-unit co-op at 133 Pondfield Road, in Bronxville, NY.

“Yonkers and Bronxville are the perfect communities for residents looking for a more suburban feel, while still maintaining close proximity to Manhattan,”

Pondfield Aparments, Inc, 133 Pondfield Road, Bronxville, NY. said Mr. Howe. “The mortgages for 60 in 1964 and turned into cooperatives in Gateway Road and 133 Pondfield Road 1982. Located between North Broadway will be used for refinancing and toward and Dehaven Drive in the City of Yonkers, future capital improvement projects.” 60 Gateway Road presents convenient Gateway Apartment Owners Corp. travel to Manhattan via the Greystone Metro North Station, and the Saw Mill consists of 11 three-story garden apartment buildings, which were constructed River Parkway. The neighborhood has an

Gateway Apartment Owners Corp., 60 Gateway Road, Yonkers, NY.

abundance of parks, including the nearby Untermeyer Park and Garden, restaurants, shops, and St. John’s Riverside Hospital. Pondfield Apartments, Inc. sits between Tanglewylde and Meadow Avenues, and offers access to the Sprain Brook and Bronx River parkways, as well

as the Bronxville Metro North Station. The four-story walk-up building was constructed in 1912 and has been a cooperative since 1921. The financing for Gateway Apartment

Continued on page 7

THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, JUNE 26, 2014

Page 7

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

National Cooperative Bank Arranges $5.9 Million in Financing Activity for Yonkers and Bronxville Cooperatives Continued from page 6

Owners Corp. and Pondfield Apartments, Inc. was part of NCB’s $22.3 million in financing activity last month, during which the financial institution provided loans to 12 New York area co-ops. As a full-service financial institution, NCB provides term loans, lines of credit,

commercial and residential mortgages and personal and business banking products to cooperatives nationwide. NCB offers an array of business banking products for cooperatives including cash management, competitive deposit rates and full service payment processing and lockbox.

NCB is dedicated to strengthening communities nationwide through the delivery of banking and financial services, complemented by a special focus on cooperative expansion and economic development.Headquartered in Washington, DC, the Bank has offices in Alaska, California, New York,

Ohio and Virginia. To learn more, visit www.ncb.coop, National Cooperative Bank on Facebook, or on Twitter @ coopbanking. The NCB Financial Group consists of the Congressionally-chartered National Consumer Cooperative Bank (NCCB)

and NCB, FSB, a federally insured savings bank wholly owned by NCCB. The NCB Financial Group provides financial products and services for the nation’s cooperatives, their members, and socially responsible organizations.

EDUCATION

Yonkers Public School District Did Not Apply for Pre-K Program Due to NYS Funding Constraints By HEZI ARIS YONKERS, NY – “A few years ago Yonkers lost our highly successful full day Pre-K program due to state cuts,” noted Yonkers Superintendent Dr. Michael Yazurlo. “We are not applying for this new grant because we cannot afford to lay out the money up front and we don’t have the staff to oversee the community-based programs that are part of Pre-K delivery. 123 school districts outside New York City submitted a letter of intent to apply for state funded full day Pre-K while 553 districts, such as Yonkers, did not. Those who have not applied stipulate the

program create financial impediments to pre-K expansion; this also includes the vast majority of high needs districts. “Governor Cuomo raised hopes and expectations when he promised full day Pre-K for every four-year-old in every part of the state. But the launch of the program outside New York City is sorely disappointing as the overwhelming majority of school districts simply cannot apply because Governor Cuomo requires schools to spend the money now and get it back next year. Unfortunately Governor Cuomo has pushed our schools into fiscal crisis and they don’t have the money to lay out,” asserted Billy Easton, AQE Executive

Director. “Any growth in Pre-K is positive, but the design of this program is actually an impediment blocking most children from the Pre-K classroom. The Governor needs to provide the money upfront if full day pre-K is to remain more than an unfunded promise for the vast majority of four-year-olds outside New York City.” “Governor Cuomo has made clear that his objective is to get universal, full-day Pre-K throughout the State and that he will make funds available for any district that is ready,” sadvised Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, President & CEO Kate Breslin. “If districts are expected to pay for teachers, facilities, materials and start-up without State funding until six or

twelve months after implementation, it is hard to see how this is going to be a win for the Governor, especially upstate.    “This September, we will have thousands of four-year-old children across New York State who are ready and waiting

to get into those classrooms and get a great start,” continued Breslin. “Will they lose that chance because our policymakers couldn’t make good on their promise to those children, families and schools?”

FILM / CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES

Sidewalks of Dakar By SHERIF AWAD Among the African films screened in the 17th edition of the Khouribga African Film Festival in Morocco that took place last week, is the Senegalese drama Dakar Trottoirs (Sidewalks of Dakar), from Director Hubert Laba Ndao. Shot on location in Dakar and on many of its streets, the story revolves around two friends, Sirou and Salla, respectively played by Charles Correa and Prudence Maïdo, who lived among the expansive “Dakar Plateau” neighborhood as two street children and then matured to become lovers in their adolescence. Sirou does not have any dreams; he only want to live a quiet life next to his beautiful Salla and to get away from the urban street crimes all about him despite having became some sort of gang leader. Salla has focused her eyes on the social borders that separate the privileged from the poor in Dakar and dreams of making a crossing to the other side. Her safe

passage comes in the shape of the wealthy crime boss Yacine (Eriq Ebouaney) who first offers to help. But then, seduced by her beauty, Yacine suggests that Salla must leave Sirou behind and become his lover instead.

Ebouaney, who is Cameroonian film star, is co-producer of the film alongside his brother Moctar Ndiouga Bâ. The film did not come to life last year. Only when the two producers got support from the European Union and La Francophonie Organization did the

Continued on page 8

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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, JUNE 26, 2014

FILM / CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES

Sidewalks of Dakar Continued from page 7

film complete the gauntlet from start to end. African cinema must still maintain its ongoing dependence on European and sometimes American funders to finalize many projects. “Dakar Plateau” is also one of the protagonists of the film’s story. It is a neighborhood subject to a dual societal milieu. During the day, hives of earnest inhabitants attend to their employ in great tranquility and peace. At night, when those same people return home, the dark “Dakar Plateau” alleys are transformed into disparate scenes of cor-

possible with the nocturnal fauna, I started to move away from the notion of a documentary to deal with the fictional environment”. Hubert Laba Ndao, the director of Sidewalks of Dakar, first studied law at the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar. He then ventured into filmmaking starting from the year 2000 with two short fiction films: Les Infortunés and Le Chemin des Ombres. In 2004, he co-directed a 52-minute documentary with Manuel Gasquet called Blanc de Mémoire. Ndao has been working as assistant director and casting director during the past ten years in Senegal. His telefilm Teuss Teuss, which he directed in 2007, received several awards including Le Python Children (public prize) at the Quintessence

Eriq Ebouaney is the co-producer of “Dakar Trottoirs” (Sidewalks of Dakar), as well as its co-star.

Charles Correa as Sirou, a gang leader and a lover. ruption, drug trafficking, and prostitution. The realistic view of Dakar at night does not only belong to the film’s director, but also to screenwriter Abdoulaye Tall, who previously worked with street children in social projects. His creation of the characters Sirou and Salla are realistic from their childhood years scenes through adulthood. “Even if it is a fictional narrative, I initially started working on the project as a documentary”, said Tall. “Once I immersed myself in this universe, living as closely as

Festival in Benin (January 2009), the Prize for the Best Feature-Length Drama in the Digital Africa category at the Vues d’Afrique Festival in Montreal (April 2008) and the Ébène du Public (Public Prize) at the International Neighborhood Film Festival (2007). Officially selected to compete at the 2007 FESPACO at Ouagadougou, Teuss Teuss was quite different from Sidewalks of Dakar as it took place in the glamorous world of publicity agents. It was the story of this young handsome agent who cannot

Prudence Maïdo as Salla, depicted defending herself from street gangs. sacrifice his nightlife of girls and alcohol for the woman he truly loves. Either they are set in the rich or the poor Dakar streets, Teus Teus and Sidewalks of Dakar teach us that true love is hard to find. 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 ).

THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, JUNE 26, 2014

Page 9

HEALTH

Dental Co-op in Purdy’s cuts Costs for the Uninsured By RICH MONETTI Every six months as you sit uninsured in the dentist’s chair and calculate the sting of a $200 cleaning, you can only hope that the pain deadening gel seeps into your cerebrum and alleviates the uncertainty of having the examination reveal something that sets you back even more. But if living in the moment is unavoidable, Dr. Michelle Verhave of Purdy’s offers a competitive alternative that can take quite a bite out of both the actual cost and the anxiety without the high price of purchasing individual dental insurance. “It’s not insurance, it’s more like a club,” she says from her office at 5 Main Street. So, an individual can start the year paying their annual fee up front and receive

Dr. Michelle Verhave of Purday’s Dental Co-op.

a 50% discount on all services throughout the year. “It actually pays for itself with the first cleaning,” says Dr. Verhave. Hoping members come in and drop $105 at the half price savings for their second cleaning, bringing the rest of the family into the club doesn’t progress at the exponential pace that the rest of healthcare costs typically do. “It’s $110 for the family membership,” she says. No way to lose, she had long noticed that her older clients would often lose their benefits upon retirement, and as a result, go on to ignore their oral health by foregoing care. “It’s a very reasonable alternative to losing your teeth,” she points out. A younger demographic in a similar spot had also gotten her attention over the years. “I started having children that were approaching that age where they were losing benefits under their parent’s insurance,” she says.

Just starting three months ago, she says the dotted lines are being filled as semiannual cleanings come due. “They’re signing up as we go along,” she says. Claiming 5% of her non-insured patients have joined, the shortfall received on fees will hopefully make up for itself in increased volume. At the same time, she’s spreading the dental health wealth by bringing more professionals into the fold. “Dr. (Anthony) Cuomo in Carmel is part of the group, and I’m looking for a few other doctors and specialists to join,” she says. In turn, the possibilities for an even greater expansion is a direct function of all those who are left with a gap when it comes to dental insurance. “I’m hoping it grows astronomically,” she says, and keeps the drilling down to the bare minimum – giving every insured person in the area a chance to join, she adds in conclusion.

Mary Curran, one of Dr. Verhave’s happy dental patients. For more info: 914-277-4656

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

MAKE IT FUN AND IT WILL GET DONE!

Do it Now – Write That Thank You Note Before Bed! By PAM YOUNG With graduations and weddings soon upon us, it occurred to me to write about the dreaded “Thank You Note.” I know we’re all grateful people and so are our kids, but somehow writing thank you notes can loom over us. One survey revealed that writing thank you notes was number seven on the top ten things we tend to put off doing. For me, it’s number three on my list of put-offs. My best advice is to keep a good supply of Thank You Notes on hand. It’d be a good idea to put a few in a Zip-Lock bag along with some stamps in your purse for those times you end up having to wait, like in the dentist’s office, on a flight or while you wait at the beauty salon. (Just think how thankful you could be when at a standstill in a traffic jam!) I found that The Dollar Store has a wonderful supply of Thank You Notes for; you guessed it, a dollar! When I was a little girl, my mom was relentless about making me send my grandparents thank you notes after Christmas and birthdays. Grandma Dot and Grandpa Buddy’s check came faithfully on those occasions and every day until I’d finally sit down and write the card, mom was on my case. I remember hating those nagging words, “Have you written your thank you note yet?”

I asked my friend Marci who is an exemplar mother with two adorable adult children, “Did you hound your kids to write thank you notes after Christmas, birthdays and graduations?” “Nope.” “Really? You mean they just did it without being badgered?” “Well, not exactly. I just said,‘You wanna play with that toy, read that new book spend that money? Write your thank you notes first and then you can.’” “You mean they had to write thank you notes BEFORE they got to have the gift?” “Yep.” There you go! I think that’s brilliant! The proverbial toy, book or money on a stick thing. I asked my three adult children if they remembered me being a stickler for them to write thank you notes and they don’t remember that. It’s probably because I wasn’t good at writing them myself. Just last year I put off sending a thank you note to our friends after a lovely dinner (mainly because I was out of thank you notes) and finally many months later I just sent them a thank you in a left-over Congratulations on Your New Job card explaining my reason for being late and why I used the inappropriate card.) Now as a grandparent, I’m more often than not on the receiving (or not receiving) end of the thank you note problem. With 12

grandchildren and half of them far away, I send cash, so I’m always a little antsy to know if a child received the money. I don’t fault them when they’re late in sending thank you notes, I just want to know they got the money, not some birthday card thief. I really understand how busy children are. I know our grandchildren love us and they truly appreciate getting the money. By the way, I have created a video with ten funny and clever ways to give cash as a gift. It’s called Everybody Loves Money (ELM) and if you go to my website you can order it. Just this month, I hadn’t heard from my 15-year-old granddaughter whom we’d sent money to for her birthday on May 1, so I called my son. Ring, ring, ring, “Hello?” “Hi, Michael. I was wonderin’ if Brooklyn got her birthday card and the money.” “Big sigh….yeah, she did and I told her, ‘you gotta thank the old people ‘cause they don’t have anything else to do but sit around waitin’ to know if you got your card and money.’” “Well! I beg your pardon Mister, is that what you picture us doing?” He snickered his way out of that,

Continued on page 10

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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, JUNE 26, 2014

MAKE IT FUN AND IT WILL GET DONE!

Do it Now – Write That Thank You Note Before Bed! Continued from page 9 blaming his opinion more on his father (my ex) doing that. Short and Sweet Marci and I agreed that one of the problems kids face when writing a thank you note is knowing what to say. We both agreed that the message can be very simple. Dear Grandma Dot, Thank you for the money, I really

appreciate it. I love you and miss you. Love, Pammy (The, “I love you and miss you” are very important things to say to those “old people.”) Incidentally, I hand wrote that thank you note and it took me less than a minute; another minute and I could have addressed an envelope and put a stamp on it. Because I know how busy our

grandchildren are, I have thought that I could include with the card and money, a thank you note already written and to include a self-addressed stamped envelope. All the kid would have to do is sign it and send it! It would say something like: Dear Grandma and Grandpa, I love you and miss you soooo much. You are the most wonderful, youthful, handsome and beautiful grandparents I have. Thank you for the money, I’m saving it toward college with some in a special fund so I can help take care of you when you need it.

XOXOXOXO Love, ______ I don’t know, maybe we shouldn’t let kids off the thank-you-note-hook. Maybe it’s good to teach them to be thankful and have the decency to write to their benefactors. If you think so, let’s adopt Marci’s thank you note model of thank before you use. And if you have older children who are graduating, give them a nice supply of thank you notes and hold all monies and gifts ransom until the notes are written and sent.

I read that Emily Post said the bride and groom have one year to send out thank you notes for wedding gifts, but I don’t think Marci would approve. I’ll bet she told her kids on their wedding day “You get those thank you notes out before you go to bed!” Speaking of thank yous, thank you for reading my column. To see more go here http://hub.am/R3ICtA To see what Pam’s got up her cyber-sleeve, check out www.cluborganized.com. Want to get organized? Join the club!

MUSIC

Dead “Dave’s Picks Volume 10”Thelma Theater THE SOUNDS Grateful Angeles, CA 12/12/69 OFBLUE Los www.Dead.net – www.Rhino.com By Bob Putignano Dave’s Picks, Vol. 10: Thelma, Los Angeles, CA 12/12/69 is a snapshot of the band just prior to when they would enter the studio to record “Workingman’s Dead,” and they’re hitting on seven of the eight tracks (“New Speedway Boogie” was the only tune not performed) that would be included on what would become their first commercial success. Pigpen rides high leading on (mostly) blues and soul classics, checkout his charge with the band on a thirty-two minute cover of “Turn On Your Love Light,” and the exotic “Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks)” for almost twentythree minutes, that morphs into over seven

minutes of “Feedback” and ends the night with a sweet rendition of “And We Bid You Goodnight.” It was at this time that the Dead were just about to be firing on all of their God given strengths, balancing blues, jazz, soul, and making their unique contributions to improvisational acid rock. They were also developing a performance playlist where many of the tunes performed on this night would eventually become longtime mainstays of the hundreds of shows that would come afterwards: like “Me and My Uncle,” “Cumberland Blues,” “China Cat Sunflower/I Know You Rider,” “Casey

Jones,” “Mama Tried,” “Good Lovin’,” and “Uncle John’s Band,” are well known successful war-horses that the band performed and developed for many years thereafter. Musicians: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals, Bob Weir - guitar, vocals, Pigpen - organ, vocals, Tom Constanten – keyboards, Phil Lesh - bass, vocals, Bill Kreutzmann – drums, Mickey Hart - drums Credits: Recording - Owsley Stanley, CD mastering - Jeffrey Norman Early subscription versions from www.Dead.net of Dave’s Picks 10 included a collectable bonus disc, I cannot

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comment about this bonus disc as it wasn’t included with the package I received. But I can tell you that if you are fortunate to find a copy of this single bonus disc, that it was recorded at the same venue, but one night prior to this three CD set. And it includes a twenty minute “Dark Star,” thirteen minutes of “St. Stephen,” that flows into nearly nine minutes of “The Eleven,” five minutes of “Cumberland Blues,” twentyfour minutes of “That’s It for the Other One – Cryptical Envelopment,” and seven minutes of “Cosmic Charlie.” Copies of this bonus disc can be found at the usual suspect sites like www.Amazon.com and

www.Ebay.com Good luck and happy shopping! For fifteen years Bob Putignano has been pivotal at WFDU http://wfdu. fm with his Sounds of Blue radio show: http://www.SoundsofBlue.com ; Previously a senior contributing editor at Blues Revue, Blueswax, and Goldmine magazines, and Music Editor for the Yonkers Tribune and The Westchester Guardian. Putignano can be contacted at: bob8003@ yahoo.com

THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, JUNE 26, 2014

Page 11

Who will do the most damage if wrong, nine-month pro-choicers or pro-lifers? If the pro-choice allegations are true, then pro-lifers stand to enslave women, which is very bad. But if prolifers’ claims are true, pro-choicers are perpetrating a baby holocaust that dwarfs the Nazi holocaust, and they are exploiting women, and this is more harmful than the enslavement-of-women scenario. So the debate places the burden on pro-lifers because the law opposes them and they are politically incorrect, but the issue places the burden on pro-choices because they are arguably committing so much harm. This contradiction is the injustice of our day and is a reversal of normal values. Not only is pro-choice pro-abortion, it is passionately so. The burden on pro-choicers is incredibly heavy. Imagine the burden one has to meet to justly kill me. First, the citizens get to vote on whether the death penalty should be legal. Then I have to be accused of a capital crime. I must be found guilty of the crime in a court of law and I get a legal team to defend me. I can appeal for

decades all the way up to the Supreme Court. Note that the unborn child isn’t even accused of anything and people are not allowed to vote on abortion! Prenatal homicide is one of the most difficult-to-understand phenomena mankind has ever had to deal with. Given how important it is, and how it pertains to so many aspects of our lives, it may be the central question society ever needs to wrestle with. We communicate in soundbites controlled by a media that favors prebirth infanticide, so it is difficult to even explain the alliance between pregnant mothers and their little ones. Ben helped abort his own child and that of his sister, so he shirks his responsibility to protect the unborn. He and his allies want cheap sex, and to avoid confronting their peers. They pretend they don’t have to debate us and I doubt they’ll get away with this forever.

of the Slender Man. In short, the character has gone viral and he is usually portrayed as a stalker, an abductor of children, and a traumatizer of adults. Knudsen copyrighted the character in 2010 and told “On The Media” radio host Alex Goldman in a January 30th

interview (http://www.onthemedia.org/ story/managing-monster/ -- the show was recently broadcast due to the attempting slaying) that the copyrighting had “less to do with money than artistic integrity”.

PRO-LIFE

Abortion: The Choice Alone is Child Abuse By CHRIS ROSTENBERG I have a very dear friend, Ben, who seems to be compassionate, smart and socially responsible. For years I have tried to get him to concede that prenatal homicide is wrong and should be illegal, but one day he said to me, “You haven’t convinced me.” I said back to him, “But you are the one who is supposed to be trying to convince me!” It was very frustrating. Ben often acted like he was doing me a favor just to listen to my arguments. He said I was wrong to use the government to try to deter abortion. I thought the norm was, or should be, for the government to protect the unborn. Many people believe that the neutral, hands-off position on abortion is to favor legality, that if you don’t want to get involved in abortion, you should just leave it up to the woman. The opposite is true: if you don’t want to rock the boat

on abortion, you should insist that it be illegal. Why? Pro-choice is an attack. Nine-month pro-choicers (those who support unconditional abortion) claim to be concerned with the right to privacy, but they squash the unborn’s right to privacy and right to live. When pro-choice-tokillers banish the unborn, they viciously attack even those unborn children whose mothers have no desire to abort. The abortion choice alone is a crime against humanity. For these reasons, when the government allows abortion, it is endorsing and promoting the practice. “Pro-choice” is pro-abortion. Saying “abortion is a woman’s right” can mean it is a legal right, a moral / ethical right, or both, and this confusion is a strong weapon for the killers. The degree of hostility in the abortion endorsement is measured by how much prenatal homicide reverses normal values. Ben fails to understand that there are

two kinds of “burden of proof,” one determined by the debate and one determined by the issue. The debate places the burden on whoever is out of power or wants to convince another person to change their position. When segregation was legal, the debate placed the burden on those who opposed it. Now that segregation is illegal and considered evil, the debate places the burden on those who support segregation. The issue places the burden on whoever will do the most harm if wrong, regardless of who is in power. For example, in a criminal trial, our legal system places the issue-burden on the prosecution rather than on the defense, because the system considers it worse to let ten guilty people go free than to put one innocent person in jail. Where does the issue place the burden in segregation, today and when it was legal? Policies like segregation do more potential harm than policies of equality, so the issue burden is on the segregationist and always has.

Chris Rostenberg is a freelance writer. Correspondence may be directed to ChrisRosty@gmail.com

TECHNOLOGY / CREATIVE DISRUPTION

While We Pay Attention To The Big Issues… By JOHN F. McMULLEN In the last year, the majority of news in the mainstream press has been about “big issues” – Edward Snowden’s revelations – the NSA monitoring of e-mail and phone calls, the use of camera and drone surveillance, the NSA’s collection of facial images and their use in conjunction with camera surveillance, the FBI’s “Zero Day Bug” program to find ways of computer intrusion, “net neutrality” & “fast-lane” proposals, identity theft, and the ability to remove personal data from public systems such as Google’s search systems. These are weighty and important issues to be sure and are often misunderstood so it is natural that the press should spend a good deal of space on both reporting and analysis in these areas. There are, however, more things going on concerning technology and it seems to me that we should focus on one of them. This is a story that you may have read a little about in the press – On May 31st of this year, two 12-year-old Waukesha, Wisconsin girls allegedly stabbed a third 12-year old girl, described as their best friend, 19 times, almost killing her – the young lady survived

due to the help of a passing bicyclist. Why did these two girls commit such a heinous act? Allegedly, because, according to the authorities, they wished to commit a murder as a first step to becoming “proxies” of the “Slender Man.” Who? The Slender Main is a fictional character created in 2009 on the “Something Awful” website (http://www. somethingawful.com/) by Eric Knudsen (known on the site as “Victor Surge”). While Knudsen created the character, Slender Man has become a character used in narratives all over the Internet and was later the subject of calls on the “Coast-to-Coast AM” radio show (http://www.coasttocoastam. com/), founded by Art Bell and now hosted by George Noory (the show is, according to Talkers Magazine, heard “on nearly 570 stations in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Guam” with “approximately 3 million listeners, making it the most listened program in its time slot -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coast_ to_Coast_AM). In addition to the stories on various web sites, videos, video games (According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Slender_Man), the video game “Slender: The Eight Pages”(http://www.parsecproductions.net/slender/), released in June

2012 had, by August 2012, been downloaded over 2 million times) and a theatrical film have been developed around the character

Continued on page 12

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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, JUNE 26, 2014

TECHNOLOGY / CREATIVE DISRUPTION

While We Pay Attention To The Big Issues… Continued from page 11

What was the direct connection between Slender Man and the attempted homicide? One of the alleged assailants, according to police, “believed Slender Man watches her, can read minds, and teleport” and could be watching them. The girls, Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, have been charged as adults and could face up to 65 years in prison. Shortly after the incident occurred, a mother of a disturbed Hamilton, Ohio 13-year old daughter, who had written stories involving Slender Man said that the daughter attacked her with a knife. Also after the incident, Knudsen was quoted as saying “I am deeply saddened by the tragedy in Wisconsin and my heart goes out to the families of those affected by this terrible act.” (http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slender_Man). Why, oh why did this terrible thing happen? I don’t blame Knudson – he created

a fictional character as did Bram Stoker with “Dracula.” We may have had pseudo-vampires, even some believing in Dracula, attack people over the years. Who knows why these impressionable youths believed that by killing their friend, they would become part of Slender Man’s entourage. We may no more understand the reasoning than we may ever understand why John Hinckley believed that Jodi Foster would love him if he killed Ronald Reagan – nor why the Ohio girl thought that killing her mother was doing the Slender Man’s wishes. When the human mind seemingly goes somewhat off the tracks, the chances are that we may never be able to understand the logic that caused the detour. What I do know, however, is that for all the greatness of his work, Stoker never had the immediate audience that the Slender Man did – and that is a problem that should

be addressed. Impressionable minds get into things that they may not be prepared for and things posted on the World Wide Web or Facebook never go away. Take the cases of “bullying” on the Internet – if a child in the pre-Facebook days was bullied in school – called “fat,” “thin,” “ugly,” “stupid,” or a “dweeb,” the kid goes home and, after some time – a day, a week, a month, even a semester, the clock starts again. Either the nastiness is forgotten, a teacher puts an end to it, or new friends are found. In the Facebook days, the nastiness is there forever; the victim is always “fat,” “thin,” “ugly,” “stupid,” or a “dweeb” – and it goes “under the radar” for most of us – until there is a case, as in the not-so-distant past, that a young girl, unable to withstand the bullying, commits suicide. That gets our attention – as, hopefully, the Slender Man related actions do. I am not advocating in any way censorship. Knudsen was certainly within his rights – as was Stoker – in creating a character – and he is no more responsible for

InternationalSection

the other Slender Man tales done by others than Stoker was for the many silly films that Hollywood made about his character. The responsibility for all of this must rest with parents. There has long been debate about how much privacy a young teenager is entitled to – whether parents should have “key-logging” to monitor Internet use or have their children’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. We will never know but, perhaps – just perhaps – this girl would not have been stabbed, children – and they are children -- would not be faced with spending a good portion of their life in jail, a mother would not have been attacked or a bullied young lady would not be dead. We will never know; what we do know however, is that many parents do not monitor their children’s Internet access because they don’t know how to or they are “too busy.” The first reason can be fixed; the second probably can’t – until it is too late. If my tone sounds harsh, it is meant to be. The Internet is a powerful and wonderful

thing but it is OUR thing and we must take responsibility for it. We may be able to do little about the NSA or Congress’ final action on net neutrality but we should be able the make it safe for our own children. I don’t want government regulation of the Internet – what I want is parental regulation of their own children! 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. John F. McMullen is a writer, poet, college professor and radio host. Links to other writings, Podcasts, and BlogTalkRadio broadcasts at www.johnmac13.comhttp://www. johnmac13.com/. Your comments to johnmac13@gmail.com are welcome.

MIDDLE EAST FORUM

Rape in Egypt

The Muslim Brotherhood ‘Gets Even’ By RAYMOND IBRAHIM Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers recently went on a sexual assault and rape spree in Egypt as a way of “getting even” with those women who dared to celebrate the presidential victory of Abdel Fatteh al-Sisi—the former army chief who overthrew Muslim Brotherhood rule in Egypt. On June 8, 2014, when tens of thousands of Egyptians congregated in Tahrir Square to celebrate Sisi’s inauguration, dozens of women were sexually assaulted and many more harassed. According to a statement later released by the Ministry of Interior, seven men between the ages of 15 and 49 were arrested for sexually assaulting “a number of women.” One 19-year-old female student was especially brutalized—and videotaped as she was stripped naked and sexually assaulted by a throng of men. (I saw the graphic video on YouTube, though it has since been removed; a much less graphic clip of the initial assault appears here.) A gun-waving police officer eventually

managed to rescue the woman from her ordeal, though after sustaining injuries himself. Sexually harassing or raping those supportive of Sisi by way of “retribution” is not uncommon in Egypt. Earlier, a six-year-old boy was raped by a Muslim Brotherhood member who was “angered” at the child for singing praises to Sisi. He lured the boy into a shed, locked the doors, and proceeded to rape him, while saying, “You’re always holding pictures of this Sisi and singing his praises. Come, I’ll humiliate and break you—and your Sisi.” Although Western media never specify who is behind these sexual assaults—often citing “the mob”—Hala Sarhan, a popular TV host in Egypt alluded to the ultimate source that

legitimizes sexual harassment and rape in Egypt, namely, Islamist preachers and leaders: What was said to these people [rapists] to brainwash them into thinking that such violations on the person and body of this young girl [the aforementioned rape victim] were permissible? … I’ll tell you. The one in parliament who said this, is the same as the man who did that… And the one who told that girl that

she is an infidel, is the same as the one in parliament who said that it’s permissible to marry a 9-year-old girl [based on the prophet of Islam’s example when he married the girl-child Aisha]. The ones who in the mosques told him that they [women] are in the pits of hell and the lures of Satan—adulteresses, that Satan lives in their bodies… This is what they tell them in the mosques! And they’re so upset now [Islamist preachers] because they can

no longer continue to preach like this in the mosques! We thank you minister of religious endowments for stopping this mockery! [The new Egyptian government has cracked down on radical preachers.] Before [under Morsi], every guy that yelled and stomped got himself a pulpit to preach such thoughts into the minds of the youth—and then they went out thinking they are doing jihad. You see, they have this thing in their mind that says “If we curse or attack an infidel, that is jihad”…. Concerning the previous cases of sexual harassment, they [Islamist authorities] told people, “Why did she [any violated woman] leave her house in the first place? She deserves what she got!” They told them, “Your sister needs to be circumcised”; told them, “In the house, beat her and discipline her, break her bones; and if she refuses to have sex with you, saying she’s tired or sick, curse her with the angels till the sun rises.” We allowed these people to fill their minds with such ideas! Such honesty is reminiscent of an Egyptian op-ed that appeared after a young Coptic woman was murdered by a pro-Brotherhood mob because they identified her as a Christian: Those who killed the young and vulnerable Mary Sameh George, for hanging a

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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, JUNE 26, 2014

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MIDDLE EAST FORUM

Rape in Egypt Continued from page 12

cross in her car, are not criminals, but rather wretches who follow those who legalized for them murder, lynching, dismemberment, and the stripping bare of young Christian girls—without every saying “kill.” [Islamic cleric] Yassir Burhami and his colleagues who announce their hate for Christians throughout satellite channels and in mosques—claiming that hatred of Christians is synonymous with love for Allah—they are the true killers who need to be tried and prosecuted. At any rate, using sexual harassment and rape to force people to comply with Islamist agendas has a long history, especially in Egypt. In 2011, during the “Arab Spring,” when the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists were released from prison, legitimized and eventually rose to power, sexual harassment skyrocketed, as one graph showed. Moreover, UN research done in 2013, when Morsi was president, suggested that 99.3% of Egyptian women had experienced sexual harassment. Indeed, in February, 2013, hundreds of Egyptian women took to the streets of Tahrir Square to protest this nonstop harassment. They held slogans like “Silence is unacceptable, my anger will be heard,” and “A safe square for all; Down with sexual harassment.” “Marchers

also shouted chants against President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood group from which he hails,” wrote Al Ahram Online. The response was more sexual harassment and rapes. One woman was gang-raped for approximately 20 minutes and nearly died. And as Hala Sarhan pointed out, elements from the then Islamist-heavy government under Morsi blamed the women themselves, saying that: “Women taking part in protests bear the responsibility of being sexually harassed, [and] describing what happens in some demonstrators’ tents as ‘prostitution’.” Major General Adel Afify, member of the committee representing the Salafi Asala Party, criticized female protesters, saying that they “know they are among thugs. They should protect themselves before requesting that the Interior Ministry does so. By getting herself involved in such circumstances, the woman has 100 percent responsibility.” Likewise, popular Salafi preacher Abu Islam sarcastically blamed the victims: “They tell you women are a red line. They tell you that naked women [i.e., not wearing veils or hijabs]—who are going to Tahrir Square because they want to be raped—are a red line! And they ask Morsi and the Brotherhood to leave power!” Abu Islam added that these women activists are going to Tahrir Square not to protest but to be sexually abused because they

had wanted to be raped. “They have no shame, no fear and not even feminism. Practice your feminism, sheikha! It is a legitimate right for you to be a woman,” he said. “And by the way, 90 percent of them are crusaders [i.e. Christian Copts] and the remaining 10 percent are widows who have no one to control them. You see women talking like monsters,” he added. The only silver lining in this cloud of Islamist rape that hovers over Egypt is that the differences between Morsi and his Brotherhood government, and Sisi and the post-Brotherhood government, are already apparent. In response to the endemic sexual harassment in Egypt, the new government passed a law criminalizing all forms of sexual harassment… A new article, which has been issued into power, adds a harsh punishment to those found guilty of unwanted sexual contact…. Other amended laws, under article 306, declare that those found guilty of verbal sexual harassment in a private or public place will be sentenced to a minimum of six months in prison and fined no less than EGP 3,000 (US$420). When I recently asked some analyst colleagues in Egypt if Morsi ever took any such measures against sexual harassment, the quip I received most was along the lines of “Take measures? He was the one ordering sexual harassment against his female critics.” Still, and in keeping with Western MSM journalism, Sisi, who at least

appears to be trying to take some measures against sexual harassment, is now being portrayed by the Guardian in a cynical light—while Morsi who did nothing and whose Islamist allies were responsible for inciting violence against women got a free pass—just like the New York Times recently tried to blame Sisi for the plight of Egypt’s religious minorities, without mentioning that it was often Morsi and the Islamists who put them there in the first place. First published in  Human Events  on June 18, 2014. http://www.meforum.org/4731/ muslim-brotherhood-rape 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.

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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, JUNE 26, 2014

MIDDLE EAST FORUM

Second Front Opens in the Sunni-Shia War By Dr. JONATHAN SPYER The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) organization swept into the city of Mosul in western Iraq last week. No one has any right

to be surprised. ISIL has held a large swath of western Iraq since January – including the city of Fallujah. The organization was clearly planning a larger scale offensive action into Iraq. In January it had carried out a strategic withdrawal from large swaths of Idleb and Aleppo provinces in Syria. This was intended to consolidate its lines in northern Syria, so as to move fighters out toward Iraq. ISIL controls a contiguous bloc of territory stretching from western Iraq up through eastern and northern Syria to the Turkish border. Its “Islamic State” is already an existing, if precarious fact, no longer a mere aspiration. So, like a state at war, it moves its forces to the front where they are most needed The rapid collapse of Nouri al-Maliki’s garrison in Mosul in the face of the ISIL assault should also come as no surprise. These forces are hollow. Saddam Hussein maintained a huge army by coercion. Shirkers and deserters could expect to be executed. But Maliki’s army consists of poorly paid conscripts and often corrupt officers. The Shia among them in Mosul saw no reason to fight and die for what seemed to them to be Sunni, alien territory. Sunni officers among the garrison, meanwhile, may well have been working with ISIL itself or with one of the other

Sunni Islamist or nationalist formations fighting alongside them. So what will happen now? The pattern of developing events is already clear, and much may be learned from the experience of Syria. Bashar Assad, when rebellion broke out against him in March 2011, sought to use his huge conscript army to crush it. But the Syrian dictator rapidly found out that his supposedly 295,000-strong army was largely a fiction. Sunni conscripts refused to engage against the rebels, and Bashar was able to make use only of certain units composed largely of members of his own Alawi sect — units such as the Republican Guard and the 4th Armored Division. How did Assad address this problem? The answer is that he didn’t — Iran did. Realizing that their Syrian ally was facing defeat because of an absence of reliable

manpower, the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps stepped in to effectively create a new, sectarian military for the Assads. In addition, Iran introduced its various regional paramilitary proxies into the Syrian battlefield. By mid-2013, the new, sectarian infantry force trained by the Quds Force and Hizballah – named the National Defense Force – was beginning to be deployed against the Syrian rebellion. In addition, Hizballah, and Iraqi Shia volunteers of Sadrist and other loyalties began to fill the gaps in manpower for Assad. These units turned the tide of the Syrian war. But they have brought Assad survival, not victory.The dictator rules over only about 40% of the territory of what was once Syria. The rest is under the control of ISIL, the Kurds, and the Sunni Arab rebels. It is likely that a similar pattern will now

emerge in Iraq. Quds Force commander Qassem Suleimani has been in Baghdad since Friday. He is in the process of organizing Iraqi Shia volunteers, who in the months to come are likely to be transformed into a sectarian military force resembling the Syrian National Defense Force. In addition to the new volunteers, Iraqi Shia militiamen in Shia southern Iraq and in Syria are flocking toward the battlefront, eager to do battle with ISIL on their home soil. These hastily assembled forces, along with the reliable elements of Maliki’s military, are likely to prove sufficient to defend the capital and perhaps to prevent further gains by ISIL, which may have over-reached itself. But the new, openly sectarian Shia forces behind Maliki are unlikely to succeed in retaking the entirety of ISIL’s territorial gains in Anbar and Ninewah provinces. Iran is a leading world expert in the creation of proxy sectarian military forces. But given the demographic balance in present day Iraq, and in Syria, Iran’s assistance is likely to ensure the survival of the non-Sunni population only in a part of the country in question. That is – ISIL and Iran’s intervention into Iraq may well portend the de facto partition of that country, and its plunging into a prolonged conflict, along the lines of what is currently taking place in Syria. Indeed, given the players engaging in Iraq, it is more sensible to see the Syrian civil war and the renewed Iraq conflict as different battlefronts in a single, sectarian war — in which Sunni and Shia/Alawi forces are clashing. The latter are backed crucially by Iran. The former receive far less systematic and determined backing from a variety of sources, including private elements in the

Gulf and perhaps the intelligence services of a number of Gulf states. Only in Lebanon, which lacks a native Sunni military tradition, have the Iranian proxy forces managed to secure near complete military domination of the country. In the very different and far more consequential contexts of Iraq and Syria, Sunni rebellion and Iranian reaction are likely to produce the fracturing of the countries in question along sectarian lines. The Kurds, possessors of a strong, largely secular nationalist tradition and identity, may emerge as major winners from this process of fragmentation, in the context both of Syria and Iraq (as witnessed by the rapid gains made by the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces in recent days). As for the warring Arab Islamic sects, they are set to continue to battle one another, with ready foreign help, over the ruins of the countries once known as Iraq and Syria. This war is just beginning. Any attempts to portray either of the warring sides as “anti-terrorist” or “pro-western” should be stubbornly resisted. Acceptance of such definitions is the entry hall to new policy failures and wasted lives. ISIL and the Quds Force differ in organizational structure, but are similarly anti-western — and similarly vile. They should be left to bleed one another white.

the constitutional language of “liberty of contract,” meaning that both employers and employees could freely negotiate the terms of employment. But the only liberty of contract that workers really had was take it or leave it. In short, workers were being exploited by unscrupulous employers who could also rationalize their exploitation on the basis that workers were no longer people but factors of production, and that the language of economics dictated that they minimize costs at the same time they maximize profit. This behavior gave rise to the parasitic industry argument that employers that paid

low wages were parasites on the community who only imposed larger social costs on the community. The minimum wage was seen as a way to give these workers, who weren’t covered by collective bargaining agreements, a degree of monopoly power. Prior to the FLSA, various state minimum wage measures only applied to women. Men were joining unions, but women weren’t allowed to join, and low wages, it was believed, only drove them into prostitution that at the time was still legal in many places. A minimum wage would then protect their morals too.

First published in PJ Media on June 15, 2014 http://www.meforum.org/4728/ second-front-opens-in-the-sunni-shia-war Jonathan Spyer is a senior research fellow at the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and a fellow at the Middle East Forum.

GovernmentSection PUBLIC POLICY

Why the Minimum Wage Is Important By Dr. OREN LEVIN-WALDMAN Amidst the debate over whether the minimum wage really helps those at the bottom or whether it causes more unemployment, we often lose sight of why it was needed in the first place. Today the debate over the minimum wage has become a side show between those who argue that

it results in disemployment and those who argue that it benefits the poor. We conveniently forget that the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which established the federal minimum wage, was about redressing power imbalances between workers and managers, reducing industrial strife and ensuring stability, and also about economic development. The minimum wage, in short, was about stabilizing labor-management relations.

Early reformers pushing for a minimum wage at the beginning of the Twentieth Century were concerned about the power imbalance between employers and employees. Employers possessed monopoly power and were able to set wages, and workers whose only options were to work in sweatshops had no choice but to accept the low wages that were being offered. Typically this imbalance was rationalized with

Continued on page 15

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Thursday, JUNE 26, 2014

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PUBLIC POLICY

Why the Minimum Wage Is Important Continued from page 14

But there were those reformers who saw the minimum wage, as it was originally a woman’s wage, as a larger family wage. Employers would then opt to hire their husbands instead at a wage sufficient to support them and their families. The minimum wage was also about efficiency and achieving economic development. English Economist Sidney Webb argued that people who are paid better are able to work harder because they have greater energy, due in large measure to their ability to better sustain themselves. Moreover, the greater morale among employees deriving from higher wages would also lead to greater loyalty. Known as the “Webb” effect, this would lead to greater productivity and hence overall efficiency. This wasn’t merely an academic argument because members of the business community, most prominently Edward Filene, the founder of Filene’s Basement, argued that minimum wages were needed to achieve greater efficiency. Arguments for the FLSA only built on these earlier arguments. The principal problem during the Great Depression was depressed wages and prices. Inflating wages was seen as essential to lifting us out of the

depression. The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 was enacted specifically to end labor-management strife. By effectively giving legal sanction to unionizing, employers would be encouraged to bargain collectively with their employees, and this would ensure greater harmony and stability. But if workers through collective bargaining could achieve higher wages they would also have greater purchasing power. The FLSA, then, would provide a minimum wage to those uncovered by collective bargaining agreements. Again, it would boost the purchasing power of workers, which could only help the economy because increased spending would lead to increase demand for goods and services, which in turn would bid up prices. New Deal planners also saw the minimum wage as a tool for economic development. Much of the opposition to the FLSA and other New Deal measures came from the South that viewed them as new examples of northern carpetbagging. Southerners particularly opposed the minimum wage as an intrusion on their southern way of life, which was traditionally agrarian and based on a system of patronage. Wages were typically lower, and those

in the North, along with a few in the South, saw the minimum wage as a way to develop the South, modernize it and improve its efficiency. As an extension of the Webb effect, employers forced to pay higher wages would find it more prudent to invest in new technologies that could also achieve greater efficiency. From the perspective of New Deal planners, a minimum wage would force a restructuring of the southern wage structure, and along with other federal initiatives help to overthrow some of the region’s traditional political and economic arrangements. This thinking wasn’t mere ideology, but was driven by a report titled Report on Economic Conditions of the South, which only underscored how much the South lagged behind the rest of the nation. This report was only embraced by President Franklin Roosevelt who was eager to bring economic development to the South. It was no accident, then, that the original bill known as the Connery-Black Bill was cosponsored in the Senate by Hugo Black who would later become a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. As more and more states and localities continue to pass new minimum wage laws amidst the failure of the federal government

existed in so-called negotiations. It was certainly intended to help grow the economy by enhancing workers’ purchasing power, and it was intended to serve as a foundation for economic development by forcing modernization in an otherwise backwards region of the country. Because we have lost sight of the original purpose, it is easy to dismiss the minimum wage as being inconsequential in a global economy where the loss of manufacturing is seen as one of the primary reasons for growing inequality. But as this brief history shows the minimum wage is anything but inconsequential.

to do so, it is easy to lose track of the original purpose of the minimum wage. It was never intended as a feel-good measure as critics would like us to believe. It wasn’t specifically intended as an anti-poverty measures, although it can certainly help. And it was never intended to encroach upon liberty of contract or the freedom of both employers and workers as the late Milton Friedman used to claim. Rather it was intended as a measure to help shore up good labor-management relations, by redressing the power imbalance that

Oren Levin-Waldman is professor of public policy in the School for Public Affairs at Metropolitan College of New York (olevinwaldman@metropolitan.edu ) and author of several books on wage policy. They include the just published: Wage Policy, Income Distribution and Democratic Theory (http://www.routledge. com/books/details/9780415779715/#reviews); The Political Economy of the Living Wage: A Study of Four Cities (M.E. Sharpe 2005); and The Case of the Minimum Wage: Competing Policy Models (SUNY Press 2001). He is a researcher for the Employment Policy Research Network (EPRN), and some of his work can be found at http://www.employmentpolicy.org/ people/oren-levin-waldman.

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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, JUNE 26, 2014

REASSESSMENTS

Yonkers, Greenburgh and Ossining Select Tyler Technologies to Conduct Property Reassessments PLANO, TX – Tyler Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: TYL) announced that the City of Yonkers and the Towns of Greenburgh and Ossining, in Westchester County, NY, selected the company’s appraisal services business to conduct property reassessments on Tuesday, June 17, 2014. “This is a great opportunity for Yonkers, Greenburgh and Ossining to set fair market values, and we’re pleased they selected Tyler as a partner.” All three municipalities are members of Westchester County’s Multiple Municipal Reassessment Consortium (MMRC). The MMRC selected Tyler after a competitive bidding process. The goal of the MMRC is to ensure all property is valued uniformly and bring a

fairer property tax to taxpayers through reassessment of all properties. The agreements collectively are valued at approximately $9 million, including reassessments of all real property; it’s the first time in decades that the municipalities’ property values will be revalued. In addition to data collection and appeal services, Tyler will also use its iasWorld® appraisal and tax administration software for data management during the project. iasWorld Public Access will also be used during the project to provide taxpayers with project updates and, as the project progresses, a gateway to access property and tax data online. Greenburgh, Yonkers and Ossining have a total of about

75,000 residential and commercial properties in Westchester County, a northern suburb of New York City. The reassessment projects will be complete in 2016. “The MMRC is committed to delivering fairness, equity and transparency to taxpayers, and we will work closely with each municipality, under direction of the

assessor, during the reassessment process to help them deliver exactly that,” said David J. Johnson, president of Tyler’s CLT Appraisal Services. “This is a great opportunity for Yonkers, Greenburgh and Ossining to set fair market values, and we’re pleased they selected Tyler as a partner.”

Tyler is the country’s oldest, largest and only national mass appraisal services firm. Through its appraisal services business, founded in 1938, it has successfully completed projects in 46 states, including 23 state capitals and has appraised more than 30 million parcels. Tyler’s Appraisal & Tax Division recently relocated its northeast regional office to Tarrytown, New York, to meet the expanding needs of clients in the area. More information about the MMRC can be found on its website: www.mmrc.tylertech.com.

GOVERNMENT

MAYOR MAR VIN’S COLUMN

Village of Bronxville Guided by The Manual on Uniformed Traffic Control Devices By Mayor MARY C. MARVIN At the June Board of Trustees meeting, residents residing near the proposed Kensington Road development were in attendance to add their thoughts to a parking discussion. In addition to dealing with the needs of the overnight parkers who will be temporarily displaced, which is a paramount issue for the Village, we had a very informative give and take about speed, safety and traffic concerns. The conversation prompted me to meet with our Chief of Police to review traffic standards and regulations in response to residents’ ideas. As example, residents often suggest increasing the number of stop signs in the Village as a way to slow traffic.

The Village is guided by the Manual on Uniformed Traffic Control Devices. Decisions made contrary to their advice can impact liability. The Manual on Uniformed Traffic Control Devices explicitly states that, “a stop or yield sign should not be used for speed control.” They are also not intended for a thru-street, only those with intersections. Historically, placement of stop signs that run contrary to the above guidelines have actually proven to increase speed as a result of drivers accelerating after coming to the stop. In addition, there is an increase in the incidence of rear end collisions at locations of improperly placed stop signs. Residents throughout the Village also frequently ask for speed bumps, rumble strips or “rough road” in an effort to reduce speed. Again, the Village follows The

Manual on Uniformed Traffic Control Devices and State and Federal standards concerning the use of traffic calming devices. Before any speed bump can be constructed, a traffic engineering study must be undertaken to determine both its necessity and proper location with accompanying data on traffic volume, speed and accident rates. Even if proved helpful, a series of signs must be placed at intervals leading up to the bump in both directions and the bump and road markings required must be brightly painted. “No Parking” zones need to be created before and after the installed speed bumps. Speed bumps you see without this extensive signage and reflective paint are incorrectly installed, thus exposing a municipality to liability. As for rumble strips or “road

roughing”, there is no study that supports their use as an effective traffic calming device. Also, the noise made by vehicles crossing these rough spots is extremely loud and incessant to neighboring dwellings. As an alternative, residents have suggested the Village lower the 30 mph speed limit. Speed limits in New York are regulated by the State and 30 mph is the lowest permitted Village-wide, save for 20 mph in school zones. Only under very special circumstances can it be lowered to 25 mph. Sagamore Road met this criteria and the limit was changed to 25 mph in 1998. So far no other streets have met the data threshold. The factual support required is a threshold level of traffic volume, speed and accident frequency. In the recent past, on request of residents, sections

of Middle Road, Willow, Summit Avenue and Hobart Street have been reviewed. The resulting collected data did not meet minimum criteria for the exception. However, since traffic conditions constantly change, the Village will review and revisit areas of concern at the request of residents and collect required data. Also, in the interest of safety, residents have proposed the use of “Children At Play” or “Slow Children” signs in child rich neighborhoods. Again, The Manual on Uniformed Traffic Control Devices and State and Federal traffic standards reject the use of these signs because they openly suggest that playing in the street is an acceptable safety practice. The signs also give parents and especially children a false sense of security as the sign is assumed to provide

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MAYOR MAR VIN’S COLUMN

Village of Bronxville Guided by The Manual on Uniformed Traffic Control Devices Continued from page 16

protection, when in reality, it does not. Studies demonstrate no evidence that these signs result in reduced pedestrian accidents or lower vehicular speed. If the Village placed these signs, it would imply that the Village condones children playing in the street and expose us to greater liability.

On the other hand, signs that alert drivers to nearby playgrounds are extremely beneficial because these parks, such as our own Sagamore Park, are often located in areas where a reasonable driver would not expect a large group of children to be congregated. The “right of way” in crosswalks is a frequently asked question, especially

near our school zones. When a pedestrian enters a designated crosswalk at an intersection that is not controlled by a stop sign or traffic light, the law gives pedestrians the exclusive right of way. The law not only requires the car in the immediate lane to stop, but also the cars traveling in the opposite directions. A good example of

this would be the intersection near the former Botticelli Bridal Shop. If the intersection at a crosswalk has a stop sign or traffic light as in the configuration near Rosie’s Restaurant, the pedestrian must obey the traffic control device and yield to cars as directed. Pedestrians crossing a roadway at any point other than within a marked

crosswalk must yield the right of way to all vehicles. As in any case, if you think there is an issue of safety in your neighborhood, contact our Police Department and they will follow up. Mary C. Marvin is the mayor of the Village of Bronxville, New York. If you have a suggestion or comment, direct your perspective by e-mail to: mayor@vobny.com .

LEGISLATION

Assembly Passes Abinanti Legislation to Authorize Hotel/Motel Occupancy Tax ALBANY, NY – June 19, 2014 -- The New York State Assembly passed Assemblyman Tom Abinanti’s (D-Greenburgh/Mt. Pleasant) legislation that authorizes the Town of Greenburgh and all of the villages within the Town, and the village of Sleepy Hollow in the Town of Mount Pleasant to impose a hotel/motel occupancy tax within their boundaries. “These municipalities provide additional services because of the presence of hotels within their boundaries,” said Abinanti, who represents the Towns of Greenburgh and Mount Pleasant. “Property taxpayers need relief and municipalities need additional non-property tax sources of revenue to fund basic services.” The bill also requires that the municipality levying the tax set aside one-sixth of the taxes collected to promote economic

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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, JUNE 26, 2014

LEGISLATION

Governor Cuomo and Legislative Aides Announce Agreement Medical Marijuana Program ALBANY, NY –Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and Legislative Leaders on June 19, 2014, announced an agreement on a bill that will establish a medical marijuana program for New York State. The legislation includes provisions to ensure medical marijuana is reserved only for patients with serious conditions and is dispensed and administered in a manner that protects public health and safety. “This legislation strikes the right balance,” Governor Cuomo said. “Medical marijuana has the capacity to do a lot of good for a lot of people who are in pain and suffering, and are in desperate need of a treatment that will provide some relief. At the same time, medical marijuana is a difficult issue because there are risks to public health and safety that have to be averted. I believe this bill is the right balance, and I commend the members

of the Legislature who worked so hard on this measure.” Senate Co-Leader Jeffrey D. Klein said, “Under this legislation, New York will have one of the safest, most effective Medical Marijuana programs in the country. By taking this historic step thousands of desperate patients will get the relief and treatment they need. This program will evolve in real-time as science develops ensuring a long-term, self-sustaining, patient-centric program.” Speaker Sheldon Silver said, “On behalf of the members of the Assembly Majority and the chair of the Health Committee Dick Gottfried, let me say how pleased and relieved we are that this agreement has been reached. There are New Yorkers all across our state, men, women and children, with severely debilitating illnesses or life-threatening conditions,

whose only source of relief is safe and effective treatment with medical marijuana. I would like to commend Governor Cuomo and our counterparts in the Senate for working in concert to reach a consensus that is so important to suffering New Yorkers and their families.” Senator Diane Savino said, “Today marks an historic victory for thousands of New Yorkers who will no longer have to suffer needlessly during their courageous medical battles. Under this bill, New Yorkers will now have the same access to life-changing treatment options that others around the country have had. Today we celebrate this victory with the countless patients, families, advocates, health care professionals and physicians who have all fought passionately for the safe and reliable use of medical marijuana as part of a comprehensive course of treatment for disease and illness.”

Medical Marijuana Reserved for Patients with Serious Conditions:

To ensure medical marijuana is available only to patients with serious conditions who can most benefit from the treatment, the legislation establishes a certification and registry process for physicians to administer the drug. To be prescribed medical marijuana, a patient must receive a certification from a licensed practitioner who must register with the Department of Health and be qualified to treat the serious condition for which the patient is seeking treatment. The serious conditions for which medical marijuana can be prescribed are cancer, HIV/AIDS, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), Parkinson’s

Disease, multiple sclerosis, damage to the nervous tissue of the spinal cord with objective neurological indication on intractable spasticity, epilepsy, inflammatory bowel disease, neuropathies, Huntington’s Disease, or as added by the commissioner by DOH. To ensure medical marijuana is in the hands of only individuals in need and their health care provider, Registry Identification Cards will be issued by DOH to certified patients. The card would contain any recommendation or limitation on form or dosage imposed by the practitioner as well as other information. The Department would be able to suspend or revoke the card of a patient who willfully violates any provision of the new law. Health insurers would not be required to provide coverage for medical marijuana. Continued on page 19

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Thursday, JUNE 26, 2014

LE G A L N O T I C E S

GOVERNMENT

Governor Cuomo and Legislative Aides Announce Agreement Medical Marijuana Program Continued from page 18

Administering Medical Marijuana Safely:

Any form of medical marijuana not approved by the Department of Health is prohibited, and under no circumstances would smoking be allowed. DOH will issue guidelines regulating the allowed dosage amounts, and patients would not be allowed to possess an amount of medical marijuana in excess of a 30 day supply. Additionally, the patient would be required to keep the medical marijuana in the original packaging in which it was dispensed. The legislation puts in place a process for patients to obtain, and manufacturers to dispense medical marijuana. Organizations seeking to manufacture or distribute medical marijuana must be registered with DOH and conform to a specific list of requirements. Registration would be valid for two years at a time, renewable, and subject to revocation. Registered organizations would be required to comply with strict security and record keeping requirements. The legislation allows for five registered organizations that can each operate up to four dispensaries statewide. Registration identifications and registrations for organization would be issued 18 months after the effective date of the bill, unless DOH certifies that the new program could not

be implemented in accordance with public health and safety interests. Registered organizations would be able to dispense medical marijuana to individuals who present a registry identification card. The organization would not be able to dispense an amount greater than a thirty-day supply to a patient. The medical marijuana would be dispensed in a sealed and properly labeled package with a safety insert included. All manufacturing and dispensing of medical marijuana by registered organizations would take place in New York and registered organizations would contract with an independent laboratory to test the medical marijuana.

Tough Penalties for Individuals and Physicians Who Abuse Medical Marijuana Program

The legislation makes it a Class E felony for a practitioner to certify an individual as eligible to facilitate the possession of medical marijuana if he or she knows or reasonably should know the person who is asking for it has no need for it. The legislation also makes it a misdemeanor for recipients of medical marijuana to sell or trade the medical marijuana, or retain beyond what is needed for treatment the marijuana for their own use or the use of others.

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Distribution of Tax Revenue from Medical Marijuana

The legislation puts in place a 7 percent excise tax on every sale of medical marijuana by a registered organization to a certified patient or designated caregiver. Proceeds from the excise tax would be allocated as follows: 22.5% to the county in New York state in which the medical marijuana was manufactured; 22.5% to the county in New York state in which the medical marijuana was dispensed; 5% to the State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services to be used for additional drug abuse prevention, counseling and treatment services; and 5% to the Division of Criminal Justice Services to support law enforcement measures related to this legislation. The legislation grants DOH the authority to issue any necessary regulations to implement the state’s medical marijuana program, as well as set a price. The Governor would also be allowed to suspend or terminate any provisions of the program based on the recommendations of the Commissioner or Superintendent. The bill would take effect immediately and sunset in seven years. SOURCE: Office of New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo

SURROGATE’S COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF CLINTON In the Matter of the PROBATE of the Will of CITATION JEAN LOVELL MARLEAU a/k/a Deceased. File No. 2013-251 THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK: TO: John Lovell and William Lovell and TO ANY AND ALL PERSONS WHO MAY CLAIM as heirs at law, next of kin, devisees, distributees, assignees, legal representatives, successors in interest, creditors, mortgagees, lienors, and legal representatives of them and the successors in interest of all of the aforesaid parties and generally anyone having or claiming to have an interest in this proceeding or who is in any way related to the decedent, JEAN LOVELL MARLEAU, late of PLATTSBURGH, NEW YORK; TO THE CHILDREN, IF ANY, THE ABOVE NAMED PERSONS whose last known address was the area of Yonkers, New York on or about 1966; Craig Olsen of Aniwa, WI having presented a Petition for the Probate of the Will of JEAN LOVELL MARLEAU, decedent, dated December 17, 2013, relating to both real and personal property; YOU, THE CHILDREN OF, IF ANY, THE ABOVE NAMED PERSONS ARE CITED TO SHOW CAUSE before the Surrogate’s Court of Clinton County, at the Surrogate’s Office, Clinton County Government Center, Plattsburgh, New York, on the 21st day of July, 2014 at 9:30am why a decree should not be granted admitting said Will to probate and directing issuance of letters testamentary to Petitioner, Craig Olsen. IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, we have caused the seal of our said Surrogate’s Court to be hereunto affixed. WITNESS, HON. PATRICK R. MCGILL, Surrogate, this 4th day of June, 2014. (s) _________________________________(L.S.) Debra Babbie, Chief Clerk TO THE ABOVE NAMED PERSONS, the foregoing Citation is served upon you by publication pursuant to an Order of the Hon. Patrick R. McGill, Judge of the Surrogate’s Court of the State of New York, County of Clinton, dated the 4th day of June, 2014, and filed with the Petition and other papers in the Office of the Clerk of said Surrogate’s Court in Plattsburgh, New York. The object of the preceding is to probate the Last Will of JEAN LOVELL MARLEAU, County of Clinton, State of New York. James J. Coffey, Esq. Attorney for the Petitioner 39 Broad Street Plattsburgh, NY 12901 Tel: 518-561-5510 S&G WEALTH MANAGEMENT, LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 4/14/14 Office in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to C/O Donald Giannattasio Seligson & Giannattasio, LLP 723 North Broadway White Plains, NY 10603. Purpose: Any lawful activity. BELMONT CORONEA LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 5/7/14 Office in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to The LLC 26 Belmont Ave Yonkers, NY 10704. Purpose: Any lawful activity. CYPRESS CORLISS LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 5/7/14 Office in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to The LLC 18-20 Cypress Street Yonkers, NY 10704. Purpose: Any lawful activity. Notice of Formation of The Beauty Parlor, LLC. Articles of Organization filed with NY Sec. of State on 1/14/14. Office located in Westchester County. SSNY is designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: the LLC, 100 Main St., Dobbs Ferry, NY 10522. Purpose: any lawful activity.

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CASSIDY & SONS PROPERTIES LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 5/16/14 Office in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to The LLC 771 Nepperhan Ave Yonkers, NY 10703. Purpose: Any lawful activity Law Offices of Nichelle A. Johnson, PLLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 4/16/2014. Office in Westchester Co.; SSNY design. agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the PLLC at 240 North Avenue, Ste 215, New Rochelle, NY 10801. Purpose: Any lawful activity. Notice of formation of Mazhavil FM Radio LLC, a domestic Limited Liability Company (LLC). Articles of Organization filed with the NY State Secretary of State on 05/21/2014. NY office location: Westchester County. The secretary of State is designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. The secretary of State shall mail a copy of any such process against the LLC to 1101 Midland Ave, Bronxville, NY 10708. Purpose: Any lawful activity

Page 20

THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN

Thursday, JUNE 26, 2014

EYE ON THEATRE

From South Dakota to Donogoo-Tonk By JOHN SIMON A play can be so bad as to deserve a full-scale review, if only as punishment and a warning to others. Such is the case of “Fly-by-Night”: not just bad, but actually a horrible mixture of inanity and pretension. A worthwhile show can be written by two collaborators, but not by three, all of them functioning or malfunctioning as book writer, lyricist and composer. Michael Mitnick, Will Connolly, and Kim Rosenstock whose idea it was, were fellow students at the Yale Drama School, and apparently wrote or composed whenever one of them could take some time off. It was their teacher, playwright Paula Vogel, who surreptitiously sent out the work to various producers, leading to mountings in Palo Alto and Dallas, and five years of rewriting

Joey Storms keeps rewriting; Miriam, who inherited her late father’s love of astronomy, and likes to count the stars. There is an all-important, loquacious Narrator, who tells much of the story and also plays both of the girls’ parents along with other minor roles. Crabble, the curmudgeonly deli owner, hounds Harold, who makes the sandwiches, and the two have a wonderful duet, “Mayonnaise, meat, cheese ‘n lettuce/ Till eternity,” which indeed gets reprised rather extensively. There is also a musical fragment, rendered as “La dadadadadadada/ Ladadadadadadada” that keeps popping up a good deal as a leitmotif. As for the quality of the writing, the Narrator’s opening speech is representative. “The map of this story is both tiny and vast. And beginning is as simple or complex as choosing a path to travel and trusting it will connect to all other parts . . .

(Harold), Patty Murin (Daphne) and Allison Case (Miriam) are equally unprepossessing. Henry Stram does a decent job of the Narrator, but cannot quite overcome the fact that the character is a metaphysicising busybody and a smug know-it-all, an unappetizing combination reeking of device. As widower McCram and deli owner Crabble, Peter Friedman and Michael McCormick, reliable actors that they are still cannot pump much interest into boring nonentities. Especially absurd is the former’s carrying about a record player while constantly singing the opening bars of “Libiamo, libiamo ne’ lieti calici” from “La Traviata,” and supposedly able to sing the whole opera to which his wife had to drag him. He also sometimes tosses the record player high up, so it crashes down in smithereens, then tosses another into the bathtub he enters fully dressed (a sight we are happily spared), qualifying him as a nutcase. That Harold takes none of his father’s endless phone calls is also pretty nutty. The really sad thing is that such junk can get respectful reviews, and, sadder yet, that the audience seems to groove on it. Venue: Playwrights Horizons, Mainstage Theater, 416 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues, New York, NY 10036. Playwrights Horizons’ Ticket Central Box Office: (212) 279-4200.

and polishing. It feels like a carriage with three horses pulling each in its own disparate direction. Two sisters from small-town South Dakota—Daphne, who wants to be a stage star, and Miriam who is contented with waitressing—come to New York, where both get involved with Harold, a dreamy youth who toils in a deli. His father, Mr. McClam, has recently lost his wife, and now eats at The Greasy Spoon where Miriam is a waitress, and where he is once joined by son Harold. A connection evolves. Mysteriously, Harold finds a guitar among his mother’s things, which she merely hid, but which Harold can immediately play and compose a song on. It is about sea turtles, with which Harold identifies, but which he never finishes. He gets involved with both sisters, Daphne, who improbably gets an immediate starring role in a play the nerdy

. I suppose I could begin by telling you that there is an invisible world woven into the fabric of our daily lives. Don’t go looking for this invisible world. Because you won’t find it. Because it’s invisible.” It is clearly in this world that the authors’ talents lie. The liberties taken are preposterous. Joey Storms, the nerdy author of the play in which Daphne is to star, has been rehearsing for eleven months. Even so, Daphne needs Harold to help her to her theater because she easily gets lost. And the only way the authors can resolve the play’s triangle is to have one member seemingly run over by a car. I say seemingly, because this is not made clear.The authors want to be both realists and symbolists, a task way beyond them. Carolyn Cantor has directed conscientiously, but none of the actors are particularly appealing. In fact. Adam Chanler-Berat

Jules Romains (1885-1972) was an important French novelist, playwright, essayist and poet, whose wonderful comedy “Dr. Knock” the Mint Theater Company recently successfully produced. His rather less wonderful comedy, “Donogoo” (in the original, “Donogoo-Tonka”) is now on offer there. This 1920 work is less unanimist (a philosophy of the individual’s true identity lying submerged in that of the group, whether a city or a religion or whatever) is less evident here than in some of Romains’other writings. It began as a work of fiction into which the multitudinous characters could more readily be fitted. Lamendin, a hapless nonentity, is about to drown himself in a Paris canal, when his friend Benin runs into him, prevents the suicide, and refers him to the fancy Dr. Miguel Rufisque, a specialist in preventing suicide. Submitting him to the determination of a fantastic apparatus, the glorified quack sends him on a peculiar errand, which leads Lamendin to the study of a geographer, Le Trouhadec, whose desperate ambition is election to the Academy of Sciences. For

this, he invents a city, Donogoo-Tonka, deep in the jungles of Brazil. The way this fantasy becomes a reality involves a cast of 13 playing 51 roles, as the action keeps shifting hither and yon through 23 scenes. There are some comic moments and some satirical observations, but I find the goings-on too diffuse, the characters too numerous to register properly, and the 2 ½-hour duration too lengthy for its own good. The resources of the Mint are limited in space, technology and financing, considering which the lavish projections of Roger Hanna and Price Johnston have wrought modest marvels. Hanna also designed what sets there are, and Johnston provided appropriate lighting. The costumes of Sam Fleming and music and sound of Jane Shaw also contribute manfully or womanfully. But there is no doubt that a richer, more elaborate production in a grander, better equipped theater could be more evocative. Gus Kaikkonen, who, as with “Dr. Knock,” also translated and directed, did a

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solid, if occasionally ungrammatical, job of it, and most of the actors do well, notably James Riordan as Lamendin, Mitch Greenberg as his friend Benin, and Ross Bickell as the baker and expedition-supporter Margajat. But think of it: 13 actors as 51 characters—some of them, to be sure, mere walk-ons—is too much to ask, especially so in the case of Megan Robinson, who must play all ten women’s roles required. Still, if you like curios, here certainly is one. Venue: Mint Theater, 311 West 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036.Tickets: (866) 811-4111 or www.MintTheater.org . 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. He reviews books for the New York Times Book Review and Washington Post. To learn more, visit the www.JohnSimonUncensored.com website.