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retirement?What’s that?

Hell on Wheels at 52 • Political Heavyweight at 68 • ‘Iron Man’ Doc at 74 & more!

Pr i m eTi m eJanuary 2012

1944 Warwick Ave.Warwick, RI 02889

401-732-3100 FAX 401-732-3110

Distribution Special Delivery

PUBLISHERSBarry W. Fain, Richard G. Fleischer,

John Howell

EDITORMeg Fraser

[email protected]

MARKETING DIRECTOR Donna Zarrella

[email protected]

CREATIvE DIRECTORLinda Nadeau

[email protected]

WRITERSDon Fowler, Don D’Amato, John Howell,Joan Retsinas, Mike Fink, Meg Chevalier,Cynthia Glinick, Joe Kernan, Kerry Park

ADvERTISING REPRESENTATIvES

Donna Zarrella – [email protected] Soder, Lisa Mardenli, Janice Torilli,

Suzanne Wendoloski, Gina Fugere

CLASSIfIED ADvERTISING REPRESENTATIvES

Sue Howarth – [email protected] Wardell – [email protected]

PRODUCTION STAffMatt Bower, Joseph Daniels,

Brian Geary, Lisa Yuettner

A Joint Publication of East Side Monthlyand Beacon Communications.

PrimeTime Magazine is published monthly and is available at over 400 locations throughout Rhode Island. Letters to the editor are welcome. We will not print unsigned letters unless exceptional circumstances can be shown.

Pr i m eTi m eJanuary 2012

1944 Warwick Ave.Warwick, RI 02889

401-732-3100 FAX 401-732-3110

Distribution Special Delivery

PUBLISHERSBarry W. Fain, Richard G. Fleischer,

John Howell

EDITORMeg Fraser

[email protected]

MARKETING DIRECTOR Donna Zarrella

[email protected]

CREATIvE DIRECTORLinda Nadeau

[email protected]

WRITERSDon Fowler, Don D’Amato, John Howell,Joan Retsinas, Mike Fink, Meg Chevalier,Cynthia Glinick, Joe Kernan, Kerry Park

ADvERTISING REPRESENTATIvES

Donna Zarrella – [email protected] Soder, Lisa Mardenli, Janice Torilli,

Suzanne Wendoloski, Gina Fugere

CLASSIfIED ADvERTISING REPRESENTATIvES

Sue Howarth – [email protected] Wardell – [email protected]

PRODUCTION STAffMatt Bower, Joseph Daniels,

Brian Geary, Lisa Yuettner

A Joint Publication of East Side Monthlyand Beacon Communications.

PrimeTime Magazine is published monthly and is available at over 400 locations throughout Rhode Island. Letters to the editor are welcome. We will not print unsigned letters unless exceptional circumstances can be shown.

inThisissue

fOOD & DRINKChef series ........................................................................................12

PEOPLE & PLACESProject Undercover getsGuinness stamp of approval ..................................................13Glimpse of RI’s past .....................................................................17Doer’s profile ..................................................................................17A worthy cause .............................................................................21

LIfESTYLESThat’s Entertainment ..................................................................18What do you Fink? .......................................................................19

SENIOR ISSUESRetirement Sparks .......................................................................22Director’s column ........................................................................25Never too late to exercise your brain ................................26

onThecoverHellcat Lucy (PhoTo by GeorGe ross)

Meg Fraser editor

Editing a magazine geared towards readers over the age of 55, I’ve become pretty well informed when it comes to all things retirement. We’ve done stories on hob-bies and golf courses, volunteering and aging in place. Nine times out of ten, we’re focused on what to do when you’re not in work.

This January, we’ve done things a little differently.New Years brings a lot of resolutions, many of which are out the window by March,

but in this issue of PrimeTime, we caught up with people who are setting goals and achiev-ing them every day; people who are making their own rules. While the retirement age is increasing nationwide, according to the Social Security Administration, these Rhode Is-landers are taking things a step further. They’re vibrant, energetic and incredibly talented professionals who aren’t even close to throwing in the towel. They still have resolutions to accomplish.

For me, this issue was really enjoyable to put together. Part of that, I think, is that I’ve always had a role model who has forged his own path. One of our publishers, John Howell, turned 70 in September and still works a 60-hour workweek without breaking a sweat. He’s up at the crack of dawn (that’s something I don’t admire all that much – I need my rest) to row on the Bay, spends his days writing and editing and spends his nights covering every-thing from City Council to 100th birthdays. Because of John, the thought of turning 70 doesn’t faze me much. Hey, if he can do it, so can I.

That’s also been the attitude of Donna Lee Gennaro, Fred Silverblatt, Rhoda Perry, John Partridge and Bob Comerford. Whether they’re competing in the roller derby (52-year old Gennaro, also know as Hellcat Lucy) or practicing medicine (74-year-old Silverblatt, who is also an Iron Man triathlete), they’ve got a take no prisoners attitude toward life.

They love what they do, and they’re not go-ing to retire just because the SSA tells them they’re eligible.

Attitude is everything for people working into their later years, but a healthy mind and body don’t hurt either. In this issue, Kerry Park explains what exactly brain exercise entails and how health centers and nursing homes are using it to keep seniors in shape. And in the doer’s profile, Joan Retsinas shares the secrets of centenarians. To find out your chances of reaching triple digits, visit the Boston University Centenarian Study age calculate at www.Livingto100.com. I took the test and it turns out I don’t make the cut. The survey asks you about your health, eat-ing habits, family history, exercise routines and more, and when the results were tal-lied I found out my life expectancy could be more like 88 years old. If I learned to man-age stress better, took more time for myself and cut back on the caffeine, I might have a better go of it. The fact that I’m drinking a cup of black coffee right now probably isn’t a good sign for that attempt.

Also in this issue of PrimeTime, catch up with your favorite columnists, Elaine M. Decker, Don D’Amato and Mike Fink. When you’re ready to hit the town, grab That’s En-tertainment and take it with you; Don Fowl-er has a few ideas for dinner Saturday night at Buca and Better Burger Company. And remember our story in November on Project Undercover’s attempt to create the world’s largest sock? Well, they accomplished that goal. Read about their success on page 13.

Retirement is a great reward after a life-long career, but whether you’re still at the office or volunteering your time, be sure to stay active and passionate about what you do – there’s no better way to stay young at heart.

6 The DocTor is in

10 courT sTill in sessionJohn Partridge shows no signs of slowing down,in the courtroom or in the community

4 sTill rock & rollHellcat Lucy skates past the competition in Providence Roller Derby

14 The olD college TryProfessor Bob Comerford bringsdecades of experience to the classroom

Dr. Fred Silverblatt is still practicing medicine – and running marathons – at 74

8 FighT For The unDerDog Elder stateswoman of the R.I. Senate Rhoda Perry doesn’t shy away from a challenge

nexTmonTh In honor of Valentine’s Day, we’ll be taking on relationships this February. And if you’re not much of a romantic, our matters of the heart is-sue will serve as your guide to heart health.

retirement?What’s that?

4 | PrimeTime January 2012

b y MEG FRASER RetiRement? What’s that?

PhoTo by GeorGe ross

January 2012 PrimeTime | 5 4 | PrimeTime January 2012


Donna Lee Gennaro is not a senior - not even close. At 52 years old, it’s not surprising that she is still

working as a public relations and media specialist in the arts world.

What many people do find surprising, however, is Gennaro’s other passion.

Cross her path on the weekend, and she’ll correct you if you call her Donna. She prefers to go by Hellcat Lucy. Hellcat is the oldest member of the Providence Roller Derby.

“I didn’t realize how old I was com-pared to the others for a long, long time because they never questioned it,” she said. “I was never nervous because I could keep up with them. The derby includes women of all ages, and there are all body types. They’re tall, skinny, muscular - there’s no cookie cutter type of woman.”

The Providence Roller Derby was founded in 2004 as the first all-female, flat-track roller derby league in New England. It is a member of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), which provides rules and rankings for Rhode Island teams and the other 20 or so leagues across the country. Home games are played at the Rhode Island Conven-tion Center, and tickets benefit local charities like Amos House and the Rhode Island Community Food Bank.

In 2007, Hellcat went to a derby bout in Providence with a group of friends. They bought VIP tickets, and as the night wore on, Hellcat saw a future for herself on the track.

“I was watching the skaters thinking, ‘I roller skate really well. I could do this.’ I had too much beer,” she said, laughing.

It wasn’t the liquid courage talking, though. Hellcat had gotten into the disco roller skating craze while living in New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s. As a professionally trained dancer, she was drawn to the performing element of skating. The more she competed, the better she got, and even after she moved to Rhode Island, Hellcat held on to her roller skates.

After watching her first derby bout, Hellcat and her husband dug the skates out of the back of her closet.

“We went up to the Hope High School parking lot. There was falling ... some scraping involved,” she said.

With just a few weeks before recruit-ment workshops started, Hellcat started practicing right away. She spent a few spare nights at United Skates of America

and refused to listen to the warnings of her friends and family.

“I wanted to go, so I said if I get cut or if I feel uncomfortable, I won’t do it again,” she said.

In order to compete, skaters must be 18 or older and have to pass two assess-ments. First, they must complete a skating test. Then, they take on other skaters in a skills assessment that includes giving and taking hits.

Hellcat made the cut.Despite being new to the derby scene,

she wasn’t worried about the physical, and often aggressive, nature of the sport. To her, it was akin to going on stage, and she wasn’t shy of the spotlight.

From its humble beginnings, the Providence Roller Derby has grown ex-ponentially, with championship bouts attracting as many as 1,300 fans to the Convention Center.

“Our local fans are really dedicated,” Hellcat said, adding that there are many seniors who attend bouts because they “re-member roller derby when it started.”

A bout consists of two 30-minute halves of playing time. There are five players on each team, including three blockers and one pivot, which is the last defender. The key player is the jammer, the only skater who can potentially score points. The blockers and pivots are given a head start before the jammers race off the start line and attempt to break their way through the pack. The first jammer to break out is considered the lead jammer, and is given points depending on how

many times she is able to lap the pack. She gets four points for passing the blockers, and an additional point for passing the opposing team’s jammer.

Slowing jammers down, however, are hits from the blockers and pivots. Use of hands or elbows to hit another skater is prohibited, but hip and shoulder checks are not only allowed - they’re encouraged.

It took time for Hellcat to learn that part of the game.

“When I first started, I didn’t have an aggressive bone in my body,” she said. “But it’s like any sport. You just learn that hitting is part of a strategy.”

Hellcat admits that roller derby can take up a lot of time. Skaters are on the track between four and 12 hours per week, and that’s not counting the additional work they do. Hellcat pulls double duty as the director of marketing and public rela-tions for the league.

All of the skaters practice together at a rink in Narragansett and practice year-round, with the exception of a three-week break. Skaters must attend 75 percent of practices in order to participate in bouts. There are four “home team” bouts be-tween Providence league teams, including Hellcat’s Sakonnet River Rats, and then travel bouts around the region.

The competition is fierce on the track, but when it comes to practicing and after-bout celebrations, the skaters are part of one big community.

“The love and support of these women is, to me, very touching. It’s such a com-munity of support. We all want our league

to be one of the best in the country,” she said.

Skaters support one another, and are friends off the track. When Hellcat suf-fered a compound ankle fracture in May that necessitated surgery, she was on bed rest for six weeks and relied heavily on the help of her fellow derby skaters.

“They did everything for me,” she said. “They fed me. They did my nails. People don’t always have that kind of support. These women are really wonderful.”

With that support nursing her back to health, Hellcat is ready to get back on her skates. Come the first of the year, she’ll be on the track with the River Rats again, ready for another year of competition.

And when people tell her she’s too old to compete, she just brushes it off.

“I’m not quitting anytime soon,” she said. “Some of the other skaters, they say they find me inspiring. They want to be skating when they’re 20 years older.”

For more information on the Provi-dence Roller Derby League, go to Provi-denceRollerDerby.com.

Still Rock Roll&


The Doctor is in

Dr. Fred Silverblatt admits that when it comes to career choices, he did things a little back-wards. Most doctors spend their younger years interacting with patients, and then re-

tire to a lab where they can work in peace until it’s time to hit the golf course full-time.

That’s not quite the path Silverblatt took.But then again, he’s not exactly known as a conven-

tionalist.

A graduate of Columbia University and the New York University School of Medicine, Silverblatt’s city roots ran deep. If not for the United States Navy, he may never have left.

“I like to say that the Navy dragged me, kicking and screaming, across the Hudson River,” he says.

Silverblatt spent a year on a destroyer in the Pacific, where his interest in medicine was piqued. Overseas, he was exposed to tropical and infectious diseases he had never seen before, and he soon realized that he had found his specialty.

“I thought it was the end of my research career but it was probably the start of my career because it led me to infectious disease,” he said.

The Navy had also uprooted Silverblatt’s New York allegiance, and he took a research faculty position at the University of Washington. There, he did a lot of work on urinary tract infections and kidney dis-ease. Silverblatt bounced around some more, working at UCLA and the University of Tennessee, but research became tiresome.

“I think I was ready to move on. Research is sort of a young man’s game and I had done it for 20, 25 years,” Silverblatt said. “I became interested in the way medicine was practiced and administered.”

It was his work with the Veterans Administration that would bring him to the Ocean State.

After four years in the VA in Seattle, Silverblatt was offered a posi-tion as the director of medicine at the Providence VA.

That was 25 years ago, and the VA was a different entity than it is today. Silverblatt recalls the hospital had a bad reputation, and many veterans were not taking advantage of the free services available to them.


Dr. Silverblatt with his wife, Anna Maura

6 | PrimeTime January 2012 January 2012 PrimeTime | 7

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“I did a lot of work on upgrading the quality of care through community outreach, which brought the hospital out to the veterans’ neighborhoods,” he said. “I was able to bring in a lot of dynamic young doctors and researchers.”

Under Silverblatt’s direction, the VA began to offer community care clinics and instituted electronic medical records to ensure each patient was treated ap-propriately. Though the VA has a massive community to reach out to, Silverblatt modeled the hospital after a primary care model that gave each veteran their own doctor. Continuity of care became a pri-ority.

Today, when Silverblatt encounters patients at the VA, he’s proud to hear their success stories.

“Everybody is very laudatory of the care they receive there,” he said. “Quality is among the best in the country. It’s re-ally a model for the nation.”

At the age of 65, he retired from the VA. For many career doctors, that would be the perfect time to fly south, buy a condo in Florida and take up Bridge.

But not Silverblatt. He wasn’t ready to leave Rhode Island, and he wasn’t ready to hang up his stethoscope.

“I really miss the research, but it was a conscious decision to give it up. I wasn’t ready to stop practicing medicine,” he said.

Instead, he opened up a lyme clinic at South County Hospital’s Occupational Health Services and Infection Control of-fice. Patients from all over the state go to Silverblatt, who is considered an expert on lyme disease and other infectious and hospital-acquired diseases.

Silverblatt enjoys working with pa-tients, and also trading information and feedback with other doctors.

“I didn’t have that when I was look-ing down a microscope at a rat,” he said.

And when he’s not in the office, he still keeps busy.

Silverblatt supervises residents and fellows at the Roger Williams Medical Center and is a professor at the Brown University School of Medicine. One of the courses he teaches is Introduction to Medicine, which focuses heavily on “doc-toring,” or how to interact with patients. Working with young medical students just getting their feet wet is one of the ways the doctor stays so enthusiastic about his work. He hopes to bring them perspec-tive and experience, while showing them

that doctors need to stay informed on new theories, practices and medicines in order to be on top of their game.

“I really enjoy teaching. The students are so fresh and eager; it’s a great group to teach,” he said.

At home, Silverblatt and his wife of 46 years, Anna Maura, maintain a seven-acre property with a two-acre garden. When they can, they visit their two children and five grandchildren, spread out in New York and Colorado. Every Friday, Silver-blatt brings home a dozen fresh roses for his wife.

If that isn’t enough to constitute a full plate, the doctor keeps in top physical shape.

Now 72 years old, Silverblatt’s defini-tion of fit is, not surprisingly, unconven-tional.

Since his 40s, he has run 30 or more marathons and last spring competed in his first Iron Man triathlon, which consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a full 26.2-mile marathon. He came in sec-ond place in the 70-74-year-old age divi-sion, sprinting the last mile. He trains six days a week, and three of those days con-sist of two full workouts. He often trains with colleagues half his age.

“I enjoy working out with younger people. It keeps me fresh and young,” he said. “I hear that people with whom I work are inspired to get back into some sort of physical fitness program because of me.”

To date, he has raised more than $16,000 for the Leukemia and Lympho-ma Society through his physical endur-ance competitions.

Silverblatt intends to make another go of the Iron Man next year, and is con-fident that he can come in first place in his age division. By then, he’ll be 75, and if he comes out on top, he can compete in the international Iron Man in Hawaii.

Silverblatt’s granddaughter told him he couldn’t compete in Iron Man com-petitions because it’s not an activity for an “old man” like him. He doesn’t see it that way.

“You’re not old as long as you have a dream and you have a goal,” he said. “People are old when they sit back and stop trying to improve themselves.”



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As the elder stateswoman of the Rhode Island Sen-ate, 68-year-old Senator Rhoda Perry has plenty of stories to tell. She has championed human rights legislation, blocked bills she thought were danger-

ous and increased the role of women in government.But if you want to hear her brag, you’re going to have to

bring up her two children or two grandchildren. Otherwise, Perry will just shrug and smile.

She’s used to fighting for the underdog.

Perry lived in North Carolina as a child, while her father finished up his military service and a degree at Duke University. At the age of 9, the family moved to Massachusetts, much closer to her paternal grandfather in New Hampshire. It was at that young age that Perry fell in love with nature.

To this day, she and her family own a historic home in Sunapee, N.H., which sits on 125 acres. She spends much of her time there in the summer, and makes the drive whenever she can year-round.

That juxtaposition of rural living against the urban Providence dis-trict she represents, is part of who Perry is. She’s a country girl at heart, but her causes have always been important to the East Siders living in her District 3.

b y MEG FRASER


Fight for the Underdog

“I love being from an urban area and I love the cultural and educational opportunities that I can avail myself to, but I am in great need of solitude and peace-fulness and open space,” she said. “That’s been one of the blessings on my life, having good things in both the environments of the city and the country.”

Perry’s professional experiences have also shaped her as a legislator.

Perry began her career doing social work at a state hospital, where she met her husband. She then became a director for a Planned Parenthood in upstate New York, where her family lived for some time. While at Planned Parenthood, she became pregnant herself.

“I was a walking advertisement for the need for good family planning,” she said, laughing.

Perry took three years off to raise her two sons, Sam-uel and Alexander.

“There were more cows than people up there,” she recalled.

When her husband got a teaching offer from Rhode Island College, the family moved back to civilization in the Ocean State. Perry got back to work as well, serv-ing as the director of health care at Thundermist Health Center for more than 20 years.

Perry has since retired from that job, but has been teaching English as a Second Language in Providence for several years.

And in 1990, she added State Senator to her ré-sumé.

“I’ve loved almost every minute of all three of my jobs,” she said.

At the time she decided to run for office, Perry was chairwoman of the Women’s Political Caucus. Her in-terest in politics came from her own parents, who were politically informed, and she had been working with the Caucus for eight years by the time a seat opened up in her district.

It was perfect timing for Perry, who felt strongly that women needed representation in the General As-sembly.

“Being the CEO of a large community health cen-ter, I had a big interest in material and reproductive care,” she said. “I was concerned about women’s rights, and preserving their right to choose. That was a big issue when I ran.”

Women’s rights and health care continue to be pri-orities for Perry. As the chairwoman of the Senate Com-mittee on Health and Human Services, she has worked with the developmentally disabled, the homosexual com-munity and child advocates looking to end abuse and neglect.

Among her most prized pieces of legislation that she supported is a bill that requires large commercial insurers to pay for therapies for autistic individuals. She is also proud of a contraceptive equity bill that requires insurers to pay for birth control for women.

Halfway through her tenure in the Senate, Perry passed adoption registry legislation that allows adopted children, or parents that have put a child up for adop-tion, to put their information into a registry so their fam-ily can choose to contact and reconnect with them.

None of these laws, she said, were easy to pass. Most difficult has been her efforts to block widely supported bills.

“Sometimes the best success that a legislator can have is keeping certain pieces of legislation from pass-ing. I have, as an advocate of the East Side, attempted to ensure that no anti-choice legislation would be passed,” she said.

Her choice of causes is deliberate, and ensures that underserved populations are accounted for. Of the 38 Senators at the Rhode Island State House, only 10 are women.

“Women and men do take on issues that are differ-ent. Women generally still take the lead on family issues, on health care issues, on childcare issues and on long-term care issues,” she said, adding that in her 22 years of political service, she has learned to be more patient and less adversarial, despite differences of opinion on the Senate floor.

Based on the issues she chooses to advocate for, Perry has been considered by many to be controversial. On the East Side of Providence, however, it appears from her winning record that those issues are what put her in of-fice.

“A good amount of my legislation is surrounded by controversy. You don’t see Rhoda getting a bill passed 38-0,” she said. “”I would have been considered contro-versial in some other areas of Rhode Island, but on the East Side of Providence, there’s a very strong progressive

element.”While taxes and the economy are paramount for all

voters, regardless of zip code, Perry’s constituents have expressed that they are likewise concerned about social issues like marriage equality, which Perry has advocated for all along.

“I do take on issues that other people don’t want to, but I think some of the issues are also exceedingly need-ed,” she said.

With another election on the horizon, Perry isn’t ready to slow down.

“At one time, I would have thought, ‘wow, that is really old,’” she said, laughing of her 68-year-old Sena-tor status. “But I think I’ve done a lot of good and I will continue to work very hard. I love what I do. If my constituents feel that I need to be replaced and put out to pasture, they’ll let me know.”

RetiRement? What’s that?


Court still in Session

In John Partridge’s Providence office hangs a neon sign that illuminates the name of his law firm, Partridge Snow & Hahn, and a great white shark. The bookcase is decorated with shark magnets and stuffed toys, given as gifts in good-

natured jest for the attorney dubbed a “shark” in his early years of practicing law. In person, though, the title seems an unlikely one. Partridge is soft spoken and modest, and his list of civic contribu-tions is as lengthy as that of his professional accolades.

Nowadays, he’s more focused on paying it forward.

As a founding partner of one of the state’s most esteemed law firms, you’d think John Partridge would have been destined for the courtroom; single-minded in his pursuit of legal notoriety. On the contrary, he had never given it much thought.

In fact, college became the goal only after he faced the alternative of military service straight out of high school. De-spite his reluctance, Partridge excelled in academia. He participated in Providence College’s Liberal Arts Honors Program and ultimately graduated summa cum laude with a degree in history. Still unsure of what came next, he went to Harvard Law School, more or less on a whim.

“I slipped into it. I didn’t think I wanted to be a lawyer, but I thought I would like the academic part of it,” he said. “It sounds crazy, I know. I figured if I could get through that, I could get through anything.”

“I am confident that if it weren’t for the Honors Program at Providence Col-lege, I wouldn’t have gone to Harvard Law School,” he added.

It was a financial strain on the fam-ily, but Partridge’s parents supported his decision, recognizing that a law degree would serve him well, regardless of where he ended up professionally.

After Harvard, Partridge served as an Army captain for a year in Vietnam. With his GI Bill in hand, Partridge and his wife, Regina, moved to London so he could study at the London School of Economics.

A John J. Partridge registered at the school, but by the first day of classes, he was nowhere to be found.

“I decided I didn’t want to go to school,” he said. “We ran around the Brit-ish Isles for the next couple of months.”

The adventure drained the couple’s savings. The way Partridge remembers it, they had little more than Regina’s sewing machine, a Plymouth Valiant and $27 when reality set in and Partridge set out to get a job. He was offered positions by then-Governor John Chafee and former Attorney General Herbert DeSimone, but accepted a position with Tillnghast Collins & Tanner.

The new guy on the totem pole, files would be dropped on Partridge’s desk and he’d have little time to prepare before he was in court. It was high stakes and high pressure, but he wasn’t fazed.

“I loved going to court. I learned on my feet how to do things,” he said.

Plus, he added, “I like to win.”Partridge learned on his feet, and that

education was varied. He started his ca-reer as a litigator, but has since worked in commercial lending, housing, non-prof-its, corporate practice, regulatory work, banking, insurance and now retirement planning.

“When you practice for 40 years, you get the chance to do a lot of things. I’ve always liked to learn new things. I like a challenge,” he said. “I’ve been extremely lucky to do as many things as I’ve been able to do.”

Once Partridge set out on his own, he had even more freedom to direct his own career.

In 1988, with seven colleagues by his side, Partridge left his former firm to become a founding partner of Partridge Snow & Hahn. It is a decision he does not regret, but it is the decision that earned him the title of shark.

“When we left, there was some bad feeling among some of the people who didn’t come with us,” Partridge said.

One of the partners who was left be-hind referred to the new firm’s leaders as “a bunch of sharks.”

“We were sort of amazed because we didn’t think of ourselves as sharks,” Par-tridge said.

Taking the comment in stride, the at-torneys adopted the shark as their unof-ficial symbol until a newspaper story re-vealed the private joke. With their mascot outed, they dubbed their company soft-ball team the sharks, adorned the office with shark memorabilia and put a shark in the fish tank in the lobby on South Main Street.

“I was the oldest so I was the Great White Shark,” Partridge said, laughing.

The shark nickname didn’t stick in the community, though, where Partridge Snow & Hahn has developed a reputation for excellence and was named as one of the best places to work in 2011 by Provi-dence Business News. Personally, Partridge has been named one of the top 5 percent of attorneys in the state in Rhode Island Super Lawyers and was selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America. PBN also named Partridge as one of the 25 driving forces of the Rhode Island business community.

“I want people to think of us, as a law firm, the same way a mother and father think of their child’s pediatrician,” Par-tridge said, adding that word of mouth is a law firm’s best marketing tool.

The cases have changed, but many of the clients have remained the same. The Blackstone Valley Community Action Program, for example, has been a client of

Partridge’s for 43 years.“That’s been terrific, having long-

term relationships with clients,” he said.Now 71 years old, Partridge doesn’t

find himself in court all too often, but he has no plans of retiring from the firm he started decades ago.

“I’m still in the trenches,” he said, explaining that he will be a presence in the firm for, “as long as I feel I can of-fer services to my clients, especially now with their personal planning, which is very complicated.”

In his free time, he has advised many candidates in their pursuit of elected of-fice, including gubernatorial and Senate campaigns. He served as the chairman of Common Cause for two years and was also elected to the Constitutional Con-vention in 1974. In the community, he serves on the boards for the Boys and Girls Club of Pawtucket and the Memo-rial Hospital of Rhode Island, is a trustee of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, treasurer of the Ocean State Charities Trust and is co-founder of the Pawtucket Foundation.

As Senior Counsel at Partridge Snow & Hahn, Partridge regularly offers legal advice to clients and mentors up and coming attorneys. He likewise serves as a mentor to students at Providence Col-lege, where he is chairman of the Liberal Arts Honors Leadership Council.

“I remain extremely impressed with the students I meet there. They’re enthu-siastic and they’re bright,” he said.

Additionally, Partridge and his art-ist wife enjoy traveling, spending time with their three children, and Partridge is close to publishing his third novel.

It’s a full plate, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I think I’d be bored stiff if I wasn’t doing all of these things,” he said. “I like being a counselor to people. I really en-joy when people take my advice and it ends up working in their favor. I enjoy it now as much as I did 40 years ago.”



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Chef Bill Murphyfrom Sakonnet Bay Retirement Living

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What are the must-haves in your fridge?Without question – fresh fruit, jello, ice cream, sugar-free ice cream and always a ground item or spread like chicken salad, for example.

Where did you train to become a chef?I always wanted to be in the restaurant business, so I bought myself a sports bar and hired my best friend, an accomplished chef, to run the kitchen. He taught me the ins and outs of the kitchen – from how to determine the freshness of the produce we bought, to how to build a menu, to portion control, to proper food storage, to how to use a meat ther-mometer to assure the perfect doneness of a chicken breast, a pork chop or a sirloin steak. I learned by listening, observing and doing.

Have you had any other jobs in the culinary industry?I sold the sports bar many years ago and then met the Buonaiuto family, who founded Horizon Bay Senior Living. They assigned me as a floater, filling in and handling kitchen duties primarily at East Bay Manor in East Providence and North Bay Manor in Smith-field. Both communities had very talented chefs who refined my techniques and helped me build a library of recipes. I owe them a lot. I learned quite a bit from both.

What’s the most popular item on your menu?With Sakonnet Bay being the location of the former Coachmen Restaurant, we are the caretakers of a fond place in the memory banks of many, if not most, of our residents. But while the Coachmen was most famous for its prime rib, I can safely say our residents would call us famous for our seafood – any seafood – cod, striped bass, scallops, shrimp or a classic New England clam chowder. Seafood does it for our residents at Sakonnet Bay.

What’s the strangest menu request you’ve ever gotten?Believe it or not, a resident requested fried bologna. At the time, I didn’t have any on hand, so we ran out to a local market and prepared it as the resident requested. It was a big hit.

What’s the best part of your job?Without a doubt, the relationships I’ve developed with the residents and their fami-lies. They become family, so every meal I try to prepare as homemade as possible. My guiding light is “would I be proud to serve this to my mother and father?” No one can hit a home run at every meal, but when we don’t, our kitchen staff can be proud of all the triples.

Describe your perfect meal.My perfect meal would be what my residents have told me is their perfect meal: a simple one, but one they tell us we’ve perfected and they seem to talk about for days after. We start with a jumbo shrimp cocktail with a tangy cocktail sauce. We follow with grilled beef tenderloin served with a seasoned au jus. That’s accompanied by duchess potatoes, seasoned with salt, white pepper, chives and sour cream. We pipe it onto sheet pans topped with parsley and a sprinkle of fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. Then we bake it until toasty brown on top. We serve that along with grilled asparagus with lemon butter and glazed baby carrots.And, of course, every great meal must have a great finale. This one is our own Phila-delphia cheesecake, with whipped topping and fresh strawberries and a piping hot cup of fresh-brewed coffee.

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Project Undercover gets theGuinness stamp of approval

In November, the cover of PrimeTime depicted Donna Pirraglia from the Rhode Island Sewing Network, busily working on a 32-foot long sock.

It’s an unusual project, to be sure, but the work of 17 volunteers over three months and non-profit agency Project Undercover paid off. On Friday, Dec. 2, at the Rhode Island Con-vention Center, Project Undercover was awarded the Guinness World Record for the largest sock. Senior Corporate Adjudications Manager Danny Girton Jr., of London-based Guinness,

attended the Biggest Bash, a fundraising event, at the center of which was the 32-foot long, 17-foot wide sock. Girton personally measured the article of clothing in order to declare the sock the world’s largest.

The Guinness attempt drew statewide at-tention to Project Undercover, which raises funds to purchase new diapers, underwear and socks for the 40,000 children living in poverty in Rhode Island.

“These items cannot be passed down like other articles of clothing, and there is no safety net or federal organization that provides under-garments for children in need. It remains on the top of wish lists,” said Board President Richard Fleischer. “The result is that too many families go without.”

For more information about Project Under-cover, visit www.projectundercover.org.

Project Undercover President Richard Fleischer, Executive Director Abby McQuade and Senior Corporate Adjudications Manager Danny Girton Jr., of London-based Guinness, hold the official certificate from Guinness.


CollegeThe Old

Try

“If I start dribbling on my tie and become a total raving lunatic, tell me, and I’ll throw in the towel.”Leaning back in his office chair at the University of Rhode Is-

land’s College of Business Administration, Professor Robert Com-erford, PhD, doesn’t quite look like a lunatic. In fact, with a world map covering most of the wall to his right, and books and aca-demic journals filling his bookshelves, he looks very much the part of a college professor.

He’s had plenty of practice. At 70 years old, Comerford has been teaching URI students for 36 years.

After graduating from high school in 1959, Comerford immediately enrolled in the Naval Air Force. His family didn’t have much, and the GI Bill was his ticket to college.

His experience as an air crewman proved useful, though, when Com-erford was offered a job working on airplanes in North Carolina. He stayed on that track for six or seven years before heading to his home state of Massachusetts to study business at UMass Amherst. He stayed at the college for his Master’s, and finished up in 1970.

Comerford was offered a few jobs, but nothing that really appealed to him. He was unsure of where the future would take him, until a college faculty member pointed him in the right direction.

“He said, ‘what would you like to do?’ and I said, ‘I’d like to have your job,” Comerford recalled.

When he thinks of it now, he realizes that the teaching gene was there all along.

“I do remember very consciously for years thinking, I’d like to be a teacher, but I know my mother doesn’t make enough money to live on so I don’t think I’ll pursue it,” he said.

With the ability to consult on the side, and a salary more tempting than an elementary school teacher like that of his mother, Comerford’s mind was made up.


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Only a PhD stood in his way. That same faculty member pushed him along and, as Comerford says, “the rest is pret-ty obvious.”

Comerford had his pick of universi-ties once he had his Amherst doctorate in hand. He had focused on strategic management, which, at the time, was a hot commodity.

“It was great,” he said. “I got offers from schools all over the place.”

But when he and his wife (whom he has been married to now for 44 years) stopped at Narragansett Beach after a tour of URI, Comerford didn’t have much of a choice.

“My wife said, ‘I don’t care what happens. This is where I want to live,’” he said. “We take it for granted here but half of our world is the Atlantic Ocean.”

The couple dropped anchor near the beach and have considered themselves Rhode Islanders ever since.

In five minutes, they can take a dip in the ocean. In 10 minutes, they can set sail on their boat, and for a long time, Comerford’s plane was 25 minutes away at the Westerly Airport. He remembers one day, after an 8 a.m. class, jetting off on his Cessna plane to New York for a day of fishing. A few hours later, he was flying home for an evening class.

“Where else in the world could I have done that? It’s just the ideal location for someone like me, because of the proxim-ity to great cities and the proximity to the ocean. Everything I’m interested in is right here,” he said.

URI also offered one of the region’s few accredited business schools at the time, not to mention an “up and comer” in the world of higher education. Com-erford hitched his wagon to the Rams’ star, and quickly carved out a place for himself on the faculty.

“Here there was room to be a little entrepreneurial - to do your own thing and create your own niche,” he said.

In the nearly four decades that have passed, Comerford said things have changed, but not all that much.

“I don’t think, categorically, things are much different now,” he said.

Students were polite then, and are polite now. The abilities and goals of stu-dents ranged significantly then, as they do now.

The only real difference, he says, are the students’ interests, from music and fashion to technology and career goals.

“You’re interacting with young peo-ple all day long and that puts a lot of pressure on you to be relevant,” he said. “You try to ask them questions and see what’s important to them.”

His approach to teaching has stayed relatively constant, but Comerford has de-veloped a reputation for being strict.

“That’s what they tell me,” he said. “I try to be demanding. I try to push them a little bit beyond what they can accomplish easily.”

For example, one of Comerford’s classes is responsible for maintaining an online simulation of a multi-million dol-lar company. How that company fares over the course of a semester accounts for 20 percent of the student’s final grade.

A group paper on the experience, in-cluding a strategic analysis of the compa-ny’s decisions and vision for the future, is another major part of the final grade. It’s uncommon for students to earn an A or B grade on the paper.

“That final paper has got to be a mas-terpiece,” Comerford said. “I think it’s good preparation for the types of jobs they’re expecting to get.”

Besides, he doesn’t mind being seen as a tough grader.

“I kind of like the reputation,” he said, smiling.

Being tough doesn’t mean Comerford isn’t willing to work with students. He is proud that the university dedicates so much time and resources into helping stu-dents find jobs.

The students also impress him be-

cause, he points out, they have had to deal with much more than young people when he was growing up and yet they still get through college successfully.

Working with the students is as re-warding now as it was when he first start-ed.

“I just really like it. It’s the best job in the world,” said Comerford, who teaches three classes in small business and strate-gic management.

Spending time with his three chil-dren and five grandchildren is a tempt-ing pastime, as is the state’s coastline, but Comerford isn’t ready to clear out of his office just yet. He wants to make it to 75, and even then, he’ll see how he feels when it comes time to leave academia behind.

“I love the challenge of trying to mo-tivate people,” he said. “I’m having fun now.”


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PEOPLE AND PLACESA GLiMPSe OF Ri’S PASt h i s t o r y w i t h d o n d ’ a m at o

Rocky Point and the Shore Dinner HallThe Shore Dinner

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, one of the most celebrated events in New England was the Rocky Point Clam Dinner. These dinners were so popular that more than 1,000 bushels of clams a day were consumed. Under master showman Randall A. Harrington, the Shore Dinner Hall grew to a seating capacity of 2,500. One of the most memorable clambakes was held for the 40th reunion of the Army of the Potomac in 1904, when more than 250 veterans of the Civil War and their guests came from all areas of the United States.

Bands & BaseballAdvertising brochures in 1913 pointed out, “In short, Rocky Point is a park of 89 acres bristling with

attractions at every turn, so varied that everyone finds his favorite recreation so tremendous in extent that with a throng of 75,000 people on the grounds, there is still room for many thousands more.” In the early 1900s, the park had a large bandstand on the Midway, a “New Carousel” with “four rows of jumping hors-es, and an $8,000 organ, largest and finest in America, which produced the effect of a 60-piece band.”

Under Harrington’s leadership, Rocky Point always presented something new and exciting and catered to many different interests and tastes, from opera presentations to the latest vaudeville acts. For those whose love for baseball was great, Harrington arranged for the Providence Grays to play their Sunday home games on the park’s baseball diamond. Here, on almost any Sunday, 1,000 spectators would pack the bleachers and grandstand to watch the Grays create baseball history. The Rocky Point Ball Grounds were also available for field sports or contests of any kind, and this was a major attraction for ethnic groups and mill-sponsored teams.

Rocky Point FiresIn 1906, Rocky Point suffered another in a series of devastating fires. In the 1890s, the Rocky Point

hotel, ice cream parlor and Shore Dinner Hall had been totally destroyed, as there was no fire apparatus to aid in putting out the blaze. Once again, in 1906, it was reported that, “There were no means at hand with which to combat the flames.” Buckets of water were the only means available and, as there was a shortage of men on hand to man the buckets, women from the area rushed to the scene and volunteered their services. Col. R. A. Harrington, in true showmanship style, accepted the loss and “genially added that he will charge his patrons nothing extra for a view of the ruins.”

One of the most popular events at Rocky Point was the famous clambake. At the height of its popularity, the bake was prepared under the supervision of Charles E. Lyon. Clams in tremendous quantities were needed to take care of the thousands who poured into the park. To seat the throngs, the Shore Din-ner Hall had to be enlarged and even with a seating capacity of 2,500, there were long lines waiting to dine. Here, the staff is making sure that all is ready for the crowds that were sure to come.(From the Henry A. L. Brown Collection)

the century for centenariansMethuselah lived 969 years.We moderns will not top that, but some of us will see

100. At least, that is the promise of statisticians.In Britain, the Office of National Statistics predicts that

a girl born in 2011 has a one-in-three chance of living to 100, a boy has a one-in-four chance.

Geographically, the planet has a few well-publicized outposts of longevity: Okinawa, Barbados, Sardinia, the “longevity belt” of Nova Scotia. But we needn’t tie longevity anymore to these enclaves. Throughout the developed world, people are living longer. In the United States, the Bureau of the Census estimated the count of centenarians at 70,490 in 2010.

We even have super-centenarians – people aged 110-plus. The Gerontology Research Group has counted 73 women and five men worldwide who have reached super-centenarian status. The New England Centenarian Study at Boston University has included more than 100 supers in their study.

Simply by virtue of reaching 100, these long-livers gar-ner accolades. Presidents, parliaments, monarchs, mayors – all fete them. In Ireland, centenarians receive a special pension. The National Centenarian Project, which began in Arizona but in 1989 encompassed the nation, sends out certificates of honor.

Much as Ponce de Leon searched for the fountain of youth, scientists are probing the combination of lifestyle, diet, genes and environment responsible for the longevity of some people.

Consider one nifty tool from the New England Cente-narian Study at Boston University: The Living to 100 Life Expectancy Calculator. Researchers at the Study have been compiling data about centenarians, as well as super-centenar-ians. That information has yielded a test anybody can take. Click on to www.Livingto100.com to see your predicted lon-gevity. Enter your age, gender, medical history, information on lifestyle, diet and environmental toxins. Entering the data takes a few minutes. Seconds later, the tool predicts your lifes-pan. In my case, the number was 91.

Not enough to earn a card from the president or a cita-tion from the mayor.

The good news, though, is that you can change your an-swers to some questions. You can’t change some basics: age, gender, number of children born to you, medical history or marital status. And you cannot change your genes. The test asks the age at which your parents died; for many people, that statistic looms as the big predictor.

But the test asks for information where you can change the answers. If you smoke, you can stop. If you have high cholesterol, you can lower it by medications, diet and exer-cise. As for exercise, if you checked “rarely” exercise, you can beef up your routine. If your blood pressure is high, you can lower it by medications. If you drink what you concede is a lot, you can cut back. You can use sunscreen when outdoors. The test asks about stressors: we all have them, ranging from financial debacles to loneliness to the death or illness of loved ones. Even if we can’t eliminate the stressors, we can cope with them. The test asks how you cope. The optimal answer: “very

PEOPLE AND PLACESDOeR’S PROFiLe b y J O A N R E T S I N A S

well. It helps me keep motivated” may be too sanguine, but we can try for “good. I use techniques to reduce stress,” as opposed to coping poorly.

We cannot alter our basic personality: introverts cannot, presto, morph into extroverts; but even introverts can work to stay connected with friends and family.

So 100 is within reach for more people now than a few generations ago, when childhood diseases, accidents and wars decimated the population. People who live past 70 have survived many of the deadly maladies. And, thanks to modern medicine, more of us are surviving. Indeed, once we reach our 70s, even those who have chronic illnesses may live another 30 years.

Dr. William Hall of the University of Rochester, writing in the Archives of Internal Medicine, credits physicians who aggressively treat patients’ illnesses, rather than assuming that treatment would be futile, with lengthening the years of “survivors.”

As for the fear that we may be buying not just more years, but more years of disability and pain, the New Eng-land Centenarian Study reports that long-lived people are, in general, living well. On average, the centenarians in the study didn’t confront disability until their 90s; 15 percent of the centenarians were basically healthy. The Study dubbed these lucky ones, “escapers,” because they escaped the mala-dies of aging.

The challenge may be not to add to our years, but to fill those years with joy.


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Buca

Buca, the family-style Italian restaurant with locations in over two dozen states, opened at a busy location on Route 6 in Seekonk, next to TGIFriday’s and the now closed Bugaboo Creek.

We gave it a try on a recent Friday after reviewing movies at the Seekonk Showcase around the corner.

The restaurant chain is overloaded with photos, memorabilia and bright lights, and tends to be a bit noisy, with many large families taking advantage of its Buca small meals (serves up to three) and Buca large meals (serves up to six).

It is an interesting concept, but not aimed at a couple with different taste interests.

Pasta dishes run from spaghetti marinara ($10.95/$17.95) to shrimp fra diavlo ($20.95/$31.95).

Pizzas go from $12.95 to $21.95, and family-style salads from $10.95 to $19.95.

Garlic bread seemed a little steep at $8.95/$10.95, so we settled for their free bread basket of thinly sliced Italian bread with a slight taste of cheese, serve with oil, and oddly, vinegar.

We agreed on the Buca small bowl of linguini frutti di mare, shrimp, baby clams, mussels and calamari in a spicy red clam sauce for $20.95. By our standards, it just fed two. It was good, but we could have used a bit more sauce and linguini. If we had ordered a salad or garlic bread it would have been enough.

If you are feeding a family of four with young children, you can get away quite inexpensively with a bowl of spaghetti marinara for $10.95. That’s less than $3 each, or order the large for $17.95 and take home what is left.

Pig out atBetter BurgercompanyBurger joints seem to be the

fastest growing eateries in Rhode Is-land.

And I’m not talking fast-food burger joints.

LUXE came along with one of the earlier upscale establishments, complete with white tablecloths and valet parking.

We now have Red Robin in War-wick Mall, where the wait on week-ends can be nearly an hour long.

Restaurants like Twin Oaks and Ted’s in Cranston serve gourmet burgers.

And now we have BBC, or Better Burger Company, at 215-217 Thayer St., a block from the Avon Theatre, where you can order a burger that is antibiotic and growth hormone free, and from a cow that is organic and grass fed.

BBC broils their burgers over an open fire with olive oil on artisan buns. What more could you ask for?

The classic burgers, with lettuce, tomato and their homemade ketchup come in three sizes: 5.3 oz ($4.49), 8 oz. ($5.99) and 10 oz. ($6.99). They have seven specialty burgers at $5.49, $6.99 and $7.99.

We tried the 8 oz. (plenty large enough) blue moon, and loved it. Joyce ordered hers rare, and that’s the way it came. Mine was a perfectly cooked medium rare.

Toppings include crumbled blue cheese, mushrooms and fried onion rings, in addition to the lettuce and tomato, and made the sandwich a challenge to get around…but, oh, so tasty. You can get free extra toppings of their special BBC spicy aioli; on-ions cooked raw, fried or caramelized; jalapenos; roasted peppers and a vari-ety of other sauces.

We went back to try their gyro burger, with lamb-beef gyro, tzatziki (great sauce), tomato and onion; and the Ivy League burger with Swiss, mushrooms and caramelized onions (Joyce), which were also great.

I stole a few of a friend’s sweet potato fries that were better than the Greek fries, which were just fries with feta cheese and oregano thrown over them ($2.95).

They also serve “wholesome” burgers made out of salmon, turkey, falafel, black beans or veggies, plus other sandwiches and wraps, includ-ing chicken, tuna and turkey.

The fries include sweet potato, cheddar, chili and Greek fries. The Greek fries were the only disappoint-ment. We couldn’t taste the oregano and the feta fell to the bottom of the dish.

BBC also has a full breakfast menu and a beer and wine license. A rarity on Thayer St. is free parking, although there isn’t a lot of it. Check them out at www.betterburgercompany.com.

for family-style dining


lifestyles lifestyleswhAt DO YOU Fink? b y M I K E F I N K

the heart of a homeIn Rome on New Year’s Eve, householders toss down

from their balconies, into the streets below, whatever big junk items they want to get rid of to make way for new things. Italy has the tradition of preservation and also of in-novation. I have experienced that night of the falling furni-ture and old appliances, and here are my thoughts on the general topic:

What room holds the heart and soul of a house? The basement because it keeps the furnace going and the wines or brandies to get you through the winter of your discontent? Or the bedroom, which offers rest and dreams? Or maybe the attic, where you store your old love letters and diplomas? The parlor, where you open the door to guests?

Dr. Freud compared these rooms to the id, the ego and the super-ego.

How about the kitchen? Well, in Manhattan, there are no more kitchens, or

hardly any. People eat out, send out or heat up their provi-sions in a tiny pantry half hidden by a blind. But here in New England, the kitchen is the very center and meaning of the homestead. The hearth, the oven, stood centrally and served multiple purposes: to cook supper, to focus the at-tention on stories or simple daily gossip or conversation, to warm up and radiate good cheer in all directions.

My tale is of stoves themselves.We inherited an electric GM mini-model that doubled

as a radiator and a clean white cooking range. A few sum-mers past, it finally gave out and just quit. Rather than toss it out into the dump, we summoned a fix-it guy, who told us off.

“Get a new one,” he shouted in disgust.

We let him go – not the stove – and found a handy-man who rose to the challenge, willingly and creatively. He seemed to like the thing for itself and for the sake of the honor of the task. A few more seasons rolled past and once again the stove died on us. And, of course, we made a second effort to save its life. This time the repairman said, “I can send away for the parts, but, really and truly, it has served honorably far, far longer than most appliances. Over 50 years: that’s a lifetime for a manufactured item. You can replace it more cheaply than squeezing another year or so out of it.”

Nevertheless, that was the choice we made.I believe my wife wobbled a bit and changed her mind in

the course of the visits and the parts that arrived via UPS, in the big brown truck. The man did his job, but sure enough, as we were preparing a nice dinner, there was a very loud pop and one of the burners had exploded with a great noise and then a shocked scream. No, the stove didn’t entirely give up its ghost, only the one burner that hadn’t been purchased and installed. Come next June, we will have to bite the bullet and surrender, white flag a-flutter like a nervous butterfly.

So, I guess this is something of an elegy as well as a soliloquy. It has its own city-house winter version, in a way. My late mom used to paint bird-murals on the walls of the kitchens of my boyhood. I wasn’t a good eater, and she want-ed to put a bit of weight on me. So she dabbed with brush and oils bright images of baby birds with their beaks open to accept worms and caterpillars their loving mother-birds of-fered. So many decades later, I try to keep them from flaking entirely off the walls, which have been carefully re-patched many times, always sparing the areas around the murals.

They can’t last much longer, but they give the kitchen a sense of history.

One summer, my wife said to me, “It’s time we got a dishwasher.”

I hid out in Narragansett beyond September to avoid watching the process, and in terror that some harm would come to my beloved bird-pictures. I have to admit, though, that I now love and am devoted to that dishwasher. My fingernails get through December, January and Febru-ary, without drying, cracking and splitting, especially my thumb. What a relief and pleasure!

I am not the endless enemy of gadgets, of “progress,” just slow to accept the latest and newest inventions. The book I should write in the last decade of my life should be the saga or debate or dilemma of the richness of the bygone versus the inevitability of the search for improve-ments, with all the sacrifices and indignities associated with the passing parade.

Shabby-chic, that’s where I am at.I had a former student, a great motorcycle traveler, who

had majored in industrial design. We took a late season swim at South Kingstown Beach and floated pretty far out, while we chatted and reminisced.

“You know,” Jeff said philosophically, “no matter what you do, you are recycling. Nothing lasts forever. Even if you try to make something durable, it will still, in the long run, melt and go back to the elements.”

I found the concept not threatening, but reassuring. In the words of the Bard – I AM an English teacher.

“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will.”

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The Music of ABBAHead to the VETS Theater at One Av-enue of the Arts in Providence on Jan. 6 to see Arrival from Sweden, the only ABBA tribute group to get the exclu-sive right to reproduce ABBA’s original outfits and trademark. The group has toured over 35 nations and appeared on television and radio shows world-wide. The show starts at 8 p.m. and tickets are $30 or $36. Call 222-1467 or go to ppacri.org for details.

“festen” at GammFrom Jan. 12 to Feb. 12, “Festen” will take the stage at the Sandra Feinstein Gamm Theatre. The show follows the 60th birthday celebration of Helge and the shocking family secrets that come out over cake. The Gamm The-atre is located at 172 Exchange Street in Pawtucket. For tickets, call 723-4266 or go to www.gammtheatre.org.

Back in the dayGo back in history at the Smith-Appleby House Museum on Jan. 14 from 1 to 4 p.m. Tours and demonstrations will bring Colonial holiday history to life, including hearth-side cooking and baked treats. The event is hosted by volunteer historians dressed in Colonial costume and admission is only $5 for adults. Children get in for free. In case of snow, call 487-2473 to confirm hours. The mu-seum is located at 220 Stillwater Road in Smithfield.

January 2012 PrimeTime | 21

PEOPLE AND PLACESA wORthY cAUSe b y M I C H A E L J . C E R I O

Putting service above selfThe notion of good corporate citizen-

ship to benefit the community at large has a strong presence in today’s society. But what happens to those who want to continue their community involvement as they approach retirement?

For many, the answer is Rotary Interna-tional.

Rotary International, made up of local service groups called Rotary Clubs, brings together business professionals to provide humanitarian services. As a secular organi-zation, Rotary International currently has 34,000 clubs with more than 1.2 million members. Here in Rhode Island, the Rotary Club of Providence is not only the largest lo-cal group, but also one of the oldest in the world.

Established in 1911 as the 22nd Club of Rotary International, the Providence Ro-tary currently boasts more than 120 men and women dedicated to the Rotary motto of “Service Above Self.”

“A good percentage of our members have reached a stage in their lives where they want to continue giving back to the community,” said Barry Fain, president of Providence Ro-tary. “We see a society that is economically challenged, with a widening gap between the haves and the have-nots. Those who join feel that they have the skills, expertise and con-tacts to address this inequality.”

In a society hit hard by the economic downturn, Rotary’s work has never been more important. Drawn together by a desire to help neighbors and causes in need, Rotar-ians come from all walks of life and profes-sional backgrounds.

“To me, the strength of Rotary is that it’s open to everyone who shares the common commitment of helping society,” said Fain. “We all bring a useful skill set to the table to address the problems and needs of our com-munities. But, above all, working together to help others creates a sense of accomplish-ment.”

The most notable project of Rotary In-ternational is the organization’s global effort to eradicate Polio. Inspired by a commit-ment to the World Health Organization, Rotarians have contributed more than $850 million and tens of thousands of volunteer hours to lead the inoculation of 2 billion children worldwide.

Providence Rotarians also have the op-portunity to initiate international service projects that have a direct connection to Rhode Island.

Just last year, Providence and Woon-socket Rotarians collaborated on a Clean Water Project to help families in the village of Esperanza in the Dominican Republic, an area with close ties to Providence’s Hispanic community. As part of the effort, eight mem-bers spent a week installing ceramic water fil-

ters in 600 residential homes.In addition to supporting international

efforts, Providence Rotarians are heavily in-volved with local initiatives that address issues such as hunger, homelessness, literacy and health. As a way to provide financial support to non-profits, the group coordinates special events that raise funds for its Rotary Founda-tion.

In fact, last year alone, the Providence Rotary awarded $70,000 in grants to nearly two-dozen organizations.

The largest event of Providence Rotary is its signature Street Painting Festival. Held each September at the Bank of America Skat-ing Center, the annual event draws thousands of visitors to view chalk drawings of local art-ists. Spectators enjoy live entertainment and prizes are awarded to top artists.

“This year’s Street Painting Festival, which was our 10th annual, raised $40,000 for char-ity,” said Fain. “We’re fortunate as an older club to have created an endowment fund over the years that our special events help to re-plenish. We also have many members who make annual contributions that ensure our ability to provide financial support to com-munity organizations.”

While the Street Painting Festival is its signature event, the group organizes a num-ber of additional programs that support lo-cal children. Each year, Providence Rotarians host a Christmas party for the young students of San Miguel School and Sophia Academy - complete with gifts and an appearance by Santa.

The Club prides itself on its Fishing Der-by as well; a hands-on program that teaches children from urban communities how to fish. But perhaps no project is more repre-sentative of Rotary’s dedication to local youth than its Dictionary Project.

In support of their focus to improve literacy, the Providence Club purchases and distributes dictionaries to each third grade student in Providence every year.

“For many of the students that we give dictionaries to, it’s the only book they own,” said Fain. “The Dictionary Project is a big part of our literacy outreach efforts, and for the past seven years, our members have re-ally enjoyed the opportunity to meet with the children when the books are delivered.”

Providence Rotarians are active volun-teers in Providence schools, and created a Job Shadow program that provides students the opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at different careers.

Providence Rotary participates in an am-bassadorial exchange program, and currently hosts a student from Germany who is study-ing at Johnson & Wales University.

As part of its 100th anniversary, Provi-dence Rotarians are in the midst of special projects to lend additional support to the community. Each month, the group is col-

about the organization’s work.“As part of our meetings we bring in very

interesting speakers, from local personalities such as Gene Valicenti, to folks from other parts of the country like those involved with the Wounded Warrior Project,” said Fain. “I encourage anyone who is interested in becom-ing a member to join us for a meeting and see if it’s something you’d like to be a part of.”

For more information about joining the Rotary Club of Providence, contact Barry Fain at 305-3391 or by e-mail at [email protected]. You may also visit the organization’s website at www.ProvidenceRotary.org.

“What makes Rotary special is that if even one member has an idea and takes it to their local club, and people get excited about it, it can go national and even international,” Fain said. “It’s really exciting and stimulating to see the wide reach our members can have.”

As part of its literacy outreach efforts, Providence Rotarians purchase and distribute dic-tionaries to every third grade student in Providence each year.

lecting much-needed items in increments of 100. So far, they have successfully collected hundreds of canned goods, spent 100 hours volunteering for environmental protection and are putting the finishing touches on knit-ting more than 100 hats for infants at area hospitals.

Along with their positive impact on the community here and abroad, Rotarians are a group that enjoys each other’s company. Throughout each year, Rotary hosts a number of social events that build camaraderie among members, from a book club to bowling and golfing, to annual pilgrimages to attend Paw-tucket Red Sox and Providence Bruins games. And, with a membership that’s been steadily growing in recent years, the group hopes to expand its reach.

The Providence Rotary meets every Monday at noon at the Providence Marriott on Orms Street. Each meeting is open to any-one who would like to attend and learn more


senioR issues

RetiReMent SPARkS b y E L A I N E M . D E C K E R

retirement Beatitudes –blessed are they

Someone pointed out that the proverb with which I ended one of my recent Re-tirementSparks blog posts was more of a beatitude. Not surprisingly, this got me to thinking that those who are retired deserve to have a set of beatitudes all their own. And more than eight of them. So here with are my Retirement Beatitudes.

Elaine Decker is publishing a collection of RetirementSparks posts. It will be available at Spectrum India on Thayer Street in Providence. E-mail [email protected] for more information.

Blessed are they who have suffered through preparing Medicare Part A and Part B applications, for their health care shall be covered by Plan A (or was it Plan B?)

Blessed are they who are already on Social Security, for they shall obtain their benefits from a secure lock box.

Blessed are they whose knees have succumbed to arthritis, for they shall possess robotic replacements.

Blessed are they who are losing their sense of balance, for they shall be lift-ed upon the wings of angels (or else on a really good walker).

Blessed are they who are on statins, for their arteries shall not get clogged with plaque, provided they stop eat-ing deep fried food and cut down on saturated fats.

Blessed are they who downsized to a condominium, for they shall have their lawns mowed and their snow cleared for them.

Blessed are they who serve on their neighborhood watch, for they shall be known by where they live and some-one will direct them there if they get lost.

Blessed are they who volunteer in their community, for they shall be called “goody two shoes” even if they wear orthopedic oxfords.

Blessed are they who had the fore-sight (and financial wherewithal) to purchase long-term care insurance, for their children shall inherit their estates.

Blessed are they who have signed do-not-resuscitate orders, for they shall not burden our beneficent govern-ment (and their fellow taxpayers) by being put on life support when their mental faculties have gone on to greener pastures.

Blessed are they who do crossword puzzles and sudokus, for they … oh, dear. I forget why they shall be blessed.

Blessed are they who do not com-plain to their spouses all day long and drive them crazy when they stop working, for they shall not be suffocated under a pillow in the dead of night.

That makes an even dozen and you didn’t have to go to the mount to re-ceive them. I think my job is done for this month, except for one more thing – Bless you!


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It is easy to like Reggie Wilcox. He exudes compassion, friendliness, warmth, optimism and professional-ism – all the qualities you hope to find in a nursing and rehabilitation facility whose primary responsibility is the care of your loved one. As the Director of Admissions at the South County Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Reggie is also your first con-tact person when considering this comprehensive facility as a potential care-provider. South County Nurs-ing and Rehabilitation Center, a member of Revera Health Systems, is a licensed 117 bed, skilled nursing facility with its own rehabilitation department, offering short-term care, long-term care, respite care, and hospice care. When someone you love is in need of such care, Mr. Wilcox invites you to choose this patient-oriented and compassionate facility to provide that care.

Reggie Wilcox, Administra-tor Jennifer Fairbank, and the staff members of South County are very excited about some changes that are

happening at this skilled nursing facility. Construction is well under way on a 3.5 million dollar renovation project, including the new “Specialized Rehabilitation” unit, known as “STAR”. This is an intensive, personalized and service-oriented program whose aim is to not only to literally “get you back on your feet” but also to make you feel as comfortable and cared-for as possible during your stay. As with other Revera Health facilities, they will offer an even higher level of personal attention and unparal-leled amenities such as two state-of-the-art rehab gyms, an updated dining room and a spa-like bathing center.

The goal of the STAR program is to promote independent living by raising pa-tients’ mobility and lifestyle capabilities to their optimal level. To achieve this, the staff at South County works closely with a patient’s doctor to create a customized “Milestones Plan” tailored to meet their specific needs. The center also assembles an interdisciplinary team for the patient, composed of physicians, rehabilitation nurses, physical and occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists, social workers and other clinical specialists. Everyone on the team works together to ensure that the patient meets rehab goals, as well as monitors the patient’s progress in a special “Mile-stones Handbook” – a helpful guidebook that documents every aspect of a patient’s personal rehab journey.

The primary objective at South County Nursing and Rehabilitation Center is to improve the residents’ function to the highest level of independence possible. In ad-dition, it remains one of only two centers in the state that provides “Total Parenteral Nutrition” or TPN care to patients needing this degree of intervention. TPN is a liq-uid nutrient that is administered to people whose digestive systems fail to absorb food taken by mouth. As this can be a difficult process, patients have found great support from the experienced staff at South County.

For more information and to learn more about the STAR program visit South County Nursing and Rehabilitation Center at 740 Oak Hill Road in North Kingston, just off the first traffic light when heading south on Rte. 4. Ask for Reggie Wilcox, Director of Admissions at 401-294-4545 ext. 4102, or to get started, visit their website at www.reverasouthcounty.com.

Meet Reggie Wilcox, Director of Admis-sions at the South County Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and he will make you feel right at home.

24 | PrimeTime January 2012Living

CLUES ACROSS 1. Easy as 1-2-3 4. Goat and camel hair fabric 7. A women undergarment10. British bathrooms12. Assemblages of parts into one entity14. Semitic fertility god15. Dull & uninteresting16. Yemen capital17. Stare impertinently18. Banished persons20. Heart failure & energy supplement22. Reduction in force23. Women’s ___ movement24. Polynesian wrapped skirt26. Double-reed instruments29. Own (Scottish)30. Summer window dressings35. Many not ands36. Paddle 37. Being a single unit38. Silly behavior44. Insecticide45. A blank area46. Reduces stress48. Morning moisture49. Tear away roughly50. Elevated53. Cristobalite56. Baseball’s Ruth57. Indian monetary unit59. Contest of speed61. Having a slanted direction62. Gross receipts63. A river in NE Spain64. The brain and spinal cord (abbr.)65. Dynegy Inc. on NYSE66. Japanese monetary unit

CLUES DOWN 1. Vestment worn by priests 2. The trunk of a tree 3. Transmission line cable 4. Freshwater duck genus 5. Bulk storage container 6. Oil obtained from flowers 7. Shopping containers 8. Abnormal breathing 9. Brew11. Bake eggs in their shells12. Serviceable13. A person in the navy14. A child’s slight injury19. Fain21. Supports trestletree24. Parian Chronicle discovery site25. Greek famous for fables27. Farcical afterpiece28. Dispatches by mail29. Hall of Fame (abbr.)31. Aah32. Unnaturally pale33. Before34. Fixed in one’s purpose39. Madames40. Frosts41. City drains42. Baseball playoff43. Cruise47. Steeple50. Precipitation51. Ancient Greek rhetorician52. A unit of two53. Viewed54. Taxis55. 4840 square yards56. London radio station58. Perform work regularly60. Longest geological time

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senioR issues b y C A T H E R I N E T E R R Y T A Y L O R direc tor, r i depar tment of elder ly affairs

RIPAE members can save money on prescriptionsIn 2011, under provisions of the Af-

fordable Care Act, Medicare Part D enroll-ees receive a 50 percent discount on brand name prescription medications and a 7 percent discount on generic medications in the so-called “donut hole,” or coverage gap of their prescription drug plans.

In 2012, the discount for generic medications will increase to 14 percent.

A recent report released by the Cen-ters for Medicare and Medicaid Services documented the impact of this new assis-tance. According to the report, it was pre-viously estimated that the average Medi-care beneficiary would spend $1,504 for Part D-covered medications in the “donut hole” in 2011. The latest estimates indi-cated that the beneficiary would pay only $901. The new law is helping beneficia-ries to a greater extent much more quickly than had been anticipated.

The news is especially promising for members of the Rhode Island Pharma-ceutical Assistance to the Elderly (RIPAE) program, which since 2006 has paid a portion of the cost of generic prescrip-tions purchased by eligible seniors and adults with disabilities during the deduct-ible phase of their Part D plans, as well

as during the “donut hole.” In 2011, the General Assembly added a benefit for en-rollees who enter the “donut hole” in their Part D plans. While members are not able to receive immediate help from RIPAE when they purchase their prescriptions at the pharmacy, they may apply to DEA for partial reimbursement of those costs – a benefit in addition to their Medicare Part D benefit.

RIPAE members must file a request for reimbursement. Applications and instructions for filing a claim can be ob-tained by calling DEA at 462-3000 (TTY users can call 462-0740), or on the DEA website at www.dea.ri.gov and go to the RIPAE link.

Once members have entered the “do-nut hole” of a Medicare Part D plan, they must complete and sign the RIPAE Reim-bursement Program application and mail it, along with a year-to-date pharmacy expense printout, a current Explanation of Benefits (EOB) document from their Medicare Part D plan, a copy of their Medicare card and a copy of their RIPAE eligibility card, to Rhode Island Division of Elderly Affairs, 74 West Road, Hazard Building, 2nd Floor, Cranston, RI 02920.

Should members have any questions related to the RIPAE Reimbursement Pro-gram or need help applying, they may con-tact the Regional POINT agency in their community (listed below), THE POINT at 462-4444 or TTY 462-4445, or DEA at 462-3000.

Child and Family Servicesof Newport County – 849-2300

Eastbay Community Action, Inc. – 461-1000

Johnston Senior Center – 944-3343 (Johnston, North Providence)

Leon Mathieu Senior Center – 728-7582 (Central Falls, Pawtucket)

United Way of Rhode Island 2-1-1 (211) (Cranston, Scituate)

Senior Services, Inc. – 766-3734(Cumberland, Woonsocket)

South County Community Action, Inc. – 785-3340

St. Martin dePorres (Providence) –274-6783

West Warwick Senior Center(Warwick, West Warwick) – 822-9175

If it is determined that a member is eligible for a RIPAE program reimburse-ment based on his or her 2011 brand or generic medication costs while in the “do-nut hole” of the Medicare Part D plan, the member will receive a reimbursement check in the mail.

All other aspects of the RIPAE pro-gram remain the same, including auxil-iary benefits such as the Verizon Lifeline discount, free entrance into state beaches, a discount on extended Cox Cable plan services and additional time to address issues with emissions testing on vehicles. Until further notice, current RIPAE cards do not expire.

All RIPAE members who may have reached the coverage gap are encouraged to avail themselves of this opportunity to apply for reimbursement, and to take ad-vantage of the help that DEA and partner agencies can offer in understanding how the program has changed.

Never too late to exercise your brainsenioR issues b y K E R R Y P A R K

While there are many organizations working to bet-ter the care and services available in nursing homes, RI Generations is a group that has come together with the mission of educating providers, regulators and consum-ers in ways to enhance the lives of nursing home residents through “person-centered” care. To that end, each year RI Generations hosts a yearly symposium where organi-zations showcase their programs to hundreds of Rhode Island’s senior care providers. This year, the symposium brought to light the benefits of “virtual brain games” through a presentation by Vigorous Mind of Newton, Mass. Vigorous Mind offers a web-based brain wellness and social networking platform for seniors.

Attending the symposium was Ken DeLisi, admin-istrator of West Shore Health Center in Warwick, who was already well aware of the multiple benefits offered by virtual brain fitness programs.

In 2008, he became one of the first in the area to subscribe to the Vigorous Mind program. As the admin-istrator of a 145-bed skilled nursing facility, DeLisi was impressed with the variety of applications the program could have for the center’s residents and was one of the first to sign on for an annual subscription. Three years later, he remains convinced of the benefits of online “brain gyms” intended to stimulate memory and brain activity, and recommends them to other administrators.

The Vigorous Mind website offers four primary components for users: a profile and calendar component that sets individual user preferences and tracks daily events; a communication module that includes tools like e-mail and Skype; a “browse and create” module where users, families and friends can upload photos and stories for use in reminiscence activities; and a games component to stimulate memory and brain fitness. The games provide exercises that strengthen cognitive skills such as memory, reasoning, perception and information processing. They grow more challenging as users prog-ress. Similarly, Skype permits the user to see the person communicating with him or her, helping to strengthen memory by associating faces with names. The platform is offered in several languages and families and staff can participate along with the resident, making the experi-ence more meaningful.

Many studies support the claim that brain fitness can help to delay cognitive decline, an important goal of long-term care providers. DeLisi and his team, however, believe that cognitive improvement or decline isn’t the only way to benchmark the effectiveness of an online brain fitness program with nursing home residents. Pro-grams, like that offered by Vigorous Mind, he says, offer a myriad of benefits.

“It appeals to residents at all acuity levels,” said

DeLisi. “Everyone can benefit. At first, we started using it primarily with those with Alzheimer’s disease. Then we realized that the touch screen games promote hand and eye coordination.”

In fact, the touch screen maneuvers can become a form of occupational therapy for people who have suf-fered an accident or incident such as a stroke.

“Activities staff use group games to encourage social-ization and our nursing staff can use it to monitor the progress of an individual over time. There’s a learning curve and some take to it quicker than others. But there’s no doubt there are a lot of benefits, for residents, family and staff,” said DeLisi.

According to Nelia Silva Odom, one of the event planners for the RI Generations Symposium, the virtual brain games are one component in a multifaceted system of care.

“We try to bring a variety of new and exciting pro-grams for nursing home residents to the forefront,” Silva Odom said. “Any exposure we can provide to the health care community to include individualized care practices into their day-to-day is wonderful.”


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CORRECTIONIn the December issue of PrimeTime, Cantor Richard Perlman’s religious affiliation was incorrectly identified. Perlman, who is now a rabbi at Temple Am David in Warwick, is Conservative and the synagogue is a member congregation of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. We regret the error.

letters to the editor

toast to yourtelomeres

If you should be toasted with “May your telomeres be extra long,” take it well. You are being wished a long life!

Every chromosome has a sequence of repeating DNA at its end. Known as a telomere, this sequence protects the chromosome when it is copied during cell division (50 to 90 times during a lifetime for most human cells). However, each time a cell divides, the telomere becomes shorter. Eventually, it is too short to protect the chromosome and the cell dies. This is thought to play an important part in determining how long we are in this world.

Saul RicklinBristol

PrimeTime values the opinions of its readers and wants your feedback -positive and negative. Whether you want to drop a line of thanks to one of our writers or you disagree with something in the magazine, we want to hear from you. Letters, comments or questions can be sent directly to the editor [email protected] by mail to1944 Warwick Avenue,Warwick, RI, 02889I look forward to talking to you soon! Meg Fraser

cALenDAR of eventSvalue of the BookJoin the Newport Historical Society at Colony House in Washington Square for an interactive program about what makes a book valuable. Ray Rickman will provide insight about what types of books have the highest retail value and he will offer complimentary estimates of up to three books for each guest. Admission is $5 and the event will take place on Jan. 19 at 5:30 p.m. Visit www.newporthistory.org or call 841-8770 for more information.

Chinese culture comes aliveInspired by the spirit of an ancient cul-ture, Shen Yun Performing Arts brings to life classical Chinese dance and music on Jan. 19 at the Providence Performing Arts Center. Tickets range from $50 to $125. For tickets, call 421-2787. For group tick-ets, contact Paul Hiatt at 574-3162.

A gala concert for the artsOn Jan. 21, at 7:30 p.m., there will be a gala concert celebrating the rededication of The Vets, a Rhode Island treasure. Pro-ceeds will benefit The Vets and education programs at the Rhode Island Philhar-monic Orchestra. Entitled, “An Evening with Rene Fleming,” soprano Fleming will captivate audiences with her voice and her stage presence. Tickets range from $35 up to $250. For details, contact Don-na Santos at [email protected] or by phone at 574-3145.

Beatles tributeRAIN, the Beatles tribune concert, returns to PPAC on Jan. 27 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $33 to $63, and are worth the cost for guests who love the Beatles. Sing along with your favorites, and head to this con-cert. Visit ppacri.org or call 421-2997 for tickets.


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January 2012 PrimeTime