West Side Spirit July 7, 2011

July 7, 2011 Since 1985

Joy of Shopping: Summer Scoops You Can’t Resist Page 9

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Sweet Lifeof Mr. Chocolate

Upper West SideWeathers Budget Storm

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2 • west side spirit • July 7, 2011 News YOU LiVe BY

CONSTRUCTION-PLAGUED SCHOOL RELOCATING—The students of P.S. 51 are being relocated after months of pro-test from parents and teachers about the unhealthy environment created by con-struction in the nearby area.

For the past two months, the school, located at 520 W. 45th St., has been sur-rounded by construction projects that will see new high-rise buildings on the block by 2013.

According to parents, children have been coming home with new, unexplained health problems such as skin rashes, eye irritation, headaches, nosebleeds and exacerbated asthma. They had been call-ing on the City Council and Department of Education to relocate the students with vocal requests and a rally last month.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced on Thursday, June 23, that P.S. 51 will be moving to Our Lady of Good Counsel on East 91st Street, a for-mer Catholic school building owned by the Archdiocese.

—AW

HYRDOFRACKING POSSIBLE IN NEW YORK—Last week, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced plans to lift New York State’s moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, a drilling method known as hydrofracking, used to extract natural gas. Many politicians and environmental activists have questioned the practice’s safety, citing the lax regulations in place and the need for more legal oversight and testing of the chemicals used in the process.

The State Department of Environmental Conversation issued a

recommendation to the governor to allow hydrofracking in many areas of the state, including 85 percent of the Marcellus Shale, the source of drinking water for New York City. Drilling within 500 feet of aquifers will be prohibited. This is a reversal of a 2009 study by the DEC that recommended the complete prohibition of hydrofracking.

“This report strikes the right balance between protecting our environment, watersheds and drinking water, and pro-moting economic development,” said DEC Commissioner Joseph Martens in a statement.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg applaud-ed the governor’s decision to abide by the DEC’s recommendations, noting the eco-nomic benefit to the state, but local state representatives have spoken strongly against it.

“There are still way too many unknowns when it comes to hydro-fracking,” said Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal in a statement. “Unless and until we can be sure that the process will not cause irreparable harm to the health and safety of New Yorkers and their water supply, the moratorium should not be lifted.”

Rosenthal joins most of her Democratic colleagues in the Assembly and Senate denouncing hydrofracking, and Representative Carolyn Maloney has been a strong anti-hydrofracking voice at the national level as well.

The DEC will open a 60-day pub-lic comment period on the proposal in August, and is also engaging in a study of socioeconomic impacts of hydrofracking, which it expects to be completed by July

31. If the state allows the process, individ-ual permits will still be subject to review and open to public comment.

—Megan Finnegan

BREWER RELEASES EDUCATION NEWSLETTER—City Council Member Gale Brewer has produced a newslet-ter for Education Council District 6, the Upper West Side and North Clinton, detailing information on every public school in the district. The newsletter lists statistics measuring teacher qualifica-tions and past student performance, Title I status, the Department of Education’s Report Card Grades, City Council Budget Allocations for new schoolyards, science

labs and technology, special program offerings and partnerships, essential school contacts and details on two new schools opening in the district, along with other information. To receive a copy, con-tact Brewer’s office at 212-873-0282 or [email protected].

—MF

FREE LUNCHTIME CONCERTS—The Lincoln Square BID presents free concerts at Richard Tucker Park every Wednesday, July 6–Aug. 31, noon–2 p.m. On July 13, the theme is “World Beat,” featuring duo Mecca Bodega and the six-piece Afro-funk band Underground Horns.

—MF

express

CAITY BIER

MAN

Honoring First responders

The Zadroga 9/11 Health Bill, which provides continued health care for those affected by the 9/11 attacks, went into effect on Friday, July 1. The bill’s authors, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and Congressman Jerrold Nadler, joined by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, celebrated the event with a ribbon cut-ting at Mount Sinai Medical Center, the site for one of the four Centers of Excellence in the New York City area created under the law.

The act, which was signed into law earlier this year, is named for James Zadroga, a New York City police offi-cer who died in 2006 of a respiratory disease that has been attributed to the time he spent during 9/11 recov-ery effort. It provides $1.5 billion in guaranteed federal funding and establishes the World Trade Center Health Program, which offers medi-cal monitoring and treatment benefits to both 9/11 first responders and resi-dents of lower Manhattan and parts

of Brooklyn. In addition, the law will re-open the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund, allowing those affected to file claims for economic losses due to harm or death caused by the 9/11 terror attacks.

For lawmakers who have been fighting to get the bill passed for years, this was a momentous victory.

“Today represents the culmination of nearly 10 years of work and strug-gle by so many people,” said Nadler. “Nearly 10 years ago, the heroes of 9/11 risked their lives and, with phenomenal bravery, ran into burning buildings and smoldering ash to save others. And, for nearly 10 years, they have suffered ill health and death as a result.”

For Maloney, the law finally means giving back to those who gave so much nearly 10 years ago.

“It is important that our country takes care of those who take care of us,” she said. “They were there to help us on 9/11, and we are here today to take care of them.”

—Ashley Welch

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Upper West Side Weathers Budget StormBy Megan Finnegan

The City Council officially approved the $66 billion, 2012 fiscal year budget last week. While teachers and firehouses were saved and some vital programs were preserved, the city was forced to tighten its belt a few notches, squeezing out some services and staff positions.

The Mayor’s proposed budget had included over 4,000 teacher layoffs and the elimination of 20 firehouses around the city, among other cuts, in order to bal-ance what Bloomberg said were slashes in state funding and a still-struggling city economy. The United Federation of Teachers and many city council mem-bers, including Speaker Christine Quinn, rallied against the proposed layoffs and vowed to restore the positions.

While no teachers will be laid off in the next year, the Department of Education was forced to make other concessions. Sabbaticals for the 2011-2012 school year have been canceled, and the Department will use teachers in the reserve pool instead of substitutes to save money. There are also about 2,600 teachers expected to retire, and they will not be replaced, decreasing the over-all number of teach-ers and forcing an increase in class sizes across most public schools.

Despite significant cuts to the over-all budget, the Upper West Side will still see some capital improvements. Council Member Gale Brewer said she’s proud to have worked to allocate much-needed funding to the West Side. Some of the funded projects include $400,000 for an American Disabilities Act-compliant entry to the Riverside branch of the New York Public Library, at 127 Amsterdam Ave.; $3 million to repair the roof of the American Museum of Natural History; $1.2 million to renovate an unused park-ing lot into a landscaped overlook of the Hudson River; and almost a million dollars for John Jay College to upgrade their out-of-date technology infrastruc-ture. Other funded projects include restoration of art institutions and preservation of school programs like Chess-in-the-Schools.

“The schools are incredibly important to our neighborhoods,” said Brewer. “I

tried to give as much as I can of the bud-get to the schools.” She said that other big issues for West Side residents are preserv-ing the cultural institutions in the neigh-borhood and providing services to the many seniors who live on the Upper West Side, as well as keeping libraries open.

While no firehouses on the Upper West Side were slated to close, Brewer pointed out that the narrowly avoided closure of one on West 37th Street would have strained the rest of the companies on the West Side, affecting everyone in the area.

The city council was able to preserve $47 million for children’s services and $30 million for senior services, which includes funding for the creation of 10 new innovative senior centers around the city. On the Upper West Side, Project FIND has applied to become a geographically based Innovative center, and SAGE, which caters to LGBT seniors, has applied as a special population/citywide

center.“The Department

for the Aging is such a small agency, and much of their money comes from the City Council,” said Brewer. “We got their $14 million base-lined—all that means is that we don’t have to go through that budget dance as much. [It pro-vides] general operating funds for all the senior centers. It’s not perfect, but they don’t have to

worry about being eliminated.”Another important program that had

been threatened with extinction but was preserved by baselining its $1.8 million bud-get is the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART), which provides specially trained forensic examiners and rape crisis counsel-ors at acute care hospitals to examine and assist rape and sexual assault victims.

Brewer said that the relatively small amounts given to some local capital proj-ects are vital to the neighborhood.

“Small programs that get somewhere between three and 10 thousand dollars, it’s not a lot but it keeps them going,” said Brewer. “That’s a big deal, to be able to continue the housing clinic at Goddard Riverside.” She also fought to allocate $1.2 million to renovate the public bathrooms in Riverside Park, which will be converted using completely green technology, and to restore four seasonal worker positions in the Park, which she said were “desper-ately needed.”

“Small programs that get somewhere between three and 10 thousand dollars, it’s not a lot but it keeps them going. That’s a big

deal, to be able to continue the housing clinic at Goddard Riverside,” Gale Brewer said.

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WestSideSpirit.com July 7, 2011 • WeSt Side Spirit • 5

news

West Sider Awarded for Iraqi Human Rights WorkBy Megan Finnegan

Many good attorneys feel that their work has the import of life and death. For West Sider Eric Blinderman, that’s not merely a catchphrase.

As International Litigation attorney at Proskauer and the lead attorney behind his firm’s Iraqi Human Rights Project, Blinderman routinely deals with clients who are fighting for their and their fam-ily’s lives, and their only hope is often legal entry into the United States. Last month, the state bar association honored him for the 2,400 hours of pro bono ser-vice he’s devoted to the project.

The United States government and mil-itary, as well as American non-profits and companies in Iraq, rely on Iraqis to work as translators, drivers and logisticians, and these Iraqis are routinely threatened by insurgents. Under U.S. law, they can claim asylum here if there is substantial threat to their lives, and the Iraqi Human Rights Project is a legal team that brings Iraqi citizens to the country.

Tales of Blinderman’s professional life sound like plot lines of Hollywood over-seas rendition thrillers.

“There was an Iraqi who was working on behalf of an American non-govern-mental organization in Baghdad, work-ing for many years serving as a translator and a fixer for U.S. civilians working to train the Iraqi parliament,” Blinderman said. “Somehow a group of unknown insurgents found out what he was doing, so they left some threatening message at his home, telling him that if he didn’t quit working with the Americans that they would kill him, that they would kill his family.”

His supervisors told him to alter his routes to work and be careful—what Blinderman called “laughable sugges-tions” compared with the deadly persis-tence of the various insurgent groups. When the threats escalated, he quit his job and fled to Europe, where he remained until the government of this particular country—Blinderman didn’t want to say

which—deported him back to Iraq.“I was watching Funny People—the

movie with Adam Sandler—in the 42nd Street cinema, the midnight premiere, and my phone rang,” said Blinderman. “It was, ‘Eric, I’m back in Iraq, I’ve woken up this morning and there was blood smeared on my family’s door that says Death to the Traitor.’ So I missed the rest of Funny People.”

Blinderman set to work getting the man and his family to safe houses. Now the man, who had been a doctor in Iraq, is working through medical school here.

Blinderman knows firsthand how dif-ficult life in Iraq can be for those who oppose the insurgent groups. He spent three years there, arriving in March 2004 to assist the U.S. diplomat who was the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority at the time as one of his attor-neys. He worked with the U.S. Embassy when it was set up, advising the new Iraqi government, and also worked on the prosecution of Saddam Hussein.

When he came back to New York, he eased back into his regular legal work, but he couldn’t shake his experiences in the Middle East.

“I thought that, having served in Iraq for nearly three years, we had a very seri-ous moral obligation to assist those who had assisted us,” Blinderman said, so he founded the project that now has over 60 lawyers working for the cause.

Eric Blinderman.

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6 • WEST SIDE SPIRIT • July 7, 2011 NEWS YOU LIVE BY

By Beth Mellow

T he Green family as portrayed in Katharine Weber’s The Little Women are a creative and intellectual bunch living in

a sprawling and somewhat messy Upper West Side apartment. Mom is a professor and dad is an inventor. All three sisters engage in artistic pursuits including music, art and writing. When the fam-ily is shaken by infidelity, the two younger sisters decide to leave home and follow their oldest sibling to New Haven, where she’s beginning her junior year at Yale University.

Weber, whose mem-oir The Memory of All That comes out later this month, explained that she made the Upper West Side the home of the Greens because “they just seem to me like the quintessential Upper West Side family in certain ways that are hard to define—political, economic, per-sonalities and work.”

While a slew of novels, from Theodore Dreiser’s early 20th-century classic Sister Carrie to more recent books like Cathleen Schine’s The New Yorkers, are set against an Upper West Side backdrop,

the neighborhood’s character at first glance seems almost amorphous and, as Weber says, “hard to define.”

Compared to its northern neighbor Harlem, which is recognized as a hotbed of literary talent and inspiration, the feel and character of the Upper West Side can sometimes be much more subtle. Nevertheless, on closer examination it becomes clear that authors set their

books on the Upper West Side when they want their characters to engage in an enriching intellectual and creative life.

“The West Side has been an intellectual cen-ter because of Columbia University,” said Lewis Frumkes, director of Hunter College’s Writing Center. “In the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, there was a quaint little pastry shop called Éclair on West

72nd Street that catered to the German-Jewish psy-

choanalysts and intellectuals. You felt as if you were in Vienna.”

Laurie Graff, former actress and author of three novels including the best-seller You Have to Kiss a Lot of Frogs, which will be reissued next year, said the Upper West Side has always carried an artistic, intellectual cache that’s inspired authors.

The name of the new literary series came to him in his sleep.

Melvin Jules Bukiet woke up near midnight more than a decade ago with the concept and name “Scribblers on the Roof” in his head.

Bukiet, an author, professor at Sarah Lawrence College and co-owner of KGB Bar, which hosts literary readings for authors, started the Scribbler on the

Roof series with the adult education group at the Anche Chesed Synagogue on West 100th Street not long after his dream. Its goal, to bring Jewish authors across all genres to the community. Events are held throughout the summer on the Synagogue’s roof.

“The adult education group at the shul thought it might be a lovely idea. The aim was to foster all good things lit-

erature and community,” Bukiet said. The series brings a host of authors to

the community. Past authors that have

participated include the edgy T. Gertler, author of Elbowing the Seducer, poets Adam Kirsch and Anna Rabinowitz, Steve Stern, winner of the Pushcart Writer’s Choice Award, and even Bukiet himself.

“Sometime we’ve made obvious matches and sometimes we have made counterintuitive choices,” he said.

For more information about the Scribblers on the Roof series, visit ans-chechesed.org.

Upper West Side Scribblers on the Roof

Katharine Weber.

Its goal, to bring Jewish authors across all genres to the community. Events are

held throughout the summer on the Synagogue’s roof.

Reading Upper West Side

Why the neighborhood continues to inspire authors, and some of the great reads (old and new) that are set just outside your door

the

WestSideSpirit.com July 7, 2011 • WEST SIDE SPIRIT • 7

“My first apartment was on West End Avenue,” she said. “I shared it with three other actors. It was the artsy and bohe-mian ’hood to live in.”

The idea of the West Side as the hotspot for artists and intellectuals is not only evident in Weber’s The Little Women, but also in other books set on the Upper West Side, including Ira Levin’s classic thriller Rosemary’s Baby. Rosemary’s husband Guy, who ultimately makes a deal with the devil in an effort to boost his floundering career, is an actor. The main character

in Saul Bellow’s Mr. Sammler’s Planetis an intellectual and occasional lec-turer at Columbia University. Leonard Schiller, the main character in Brian Morton’s Starting Out in the Evening, is an elderly, out-of-print author. The Last of Her Kind by Sigrid Nunez opens a window for readers into the cultural revolution of the late ’60s, having the main characters in the novel start out as students at Barnard College. One of the characters eventually leaves college to work at a magazine, but chooses to live on West 96th Street, where she finds a

boyfriend in her apartment building that is a drummer in a band.

Ron Hogan, a literary blogger and founder of Beatrice.com, said that the Upper West Side has “always been more than one kind of neighborhood,” with a cross-section of New York on display.

He points out that when subway service to the neighbor-hood became available, “it led to cheaper housing for service workers who would com-mute to jobs down-town, but also for young white-collar professionals.”

In The New Yorkers, Cathleen Schine tells the stories of a motley group of dog owners, including a thirty-something teacher named Jody, who found her rent-controlled studio apartment decades earlier when she was in college. Jody’s block is still not touched by gentrification and still affordable for secretaries and window washers, as well as struggling artists and musicians.

In addition to the artists, actors, teach-ers and writers who live on the Upper West Side of novels, there are also the psychologists who want to counsel them.

“I have tons of shrink friends up there. The area is rivaled only by all of the Greenwich Village shrinks,” said Susan Shapiro, author of Speed Shrinking, a book about a Manhattan-based self-help

author who sees eight psychologists in as many days.

In fact, Elizabeth Benedict, author of The Practice of Deceit, makes the Upper West Side the home of her main charac-

ter, a psychologist named Eric, at the beginning of her novel. While the setting may have fit because of his occupa-tion, Benedict had oth-er reasons for choos-ing the neighborhood.

“[Eric’s] a nearly middle-aged guy who’s economically low-key, unpreten-tious and not inter-

ested in any particular cul-tural scenes, which very much jives with my sense of the neighborhood. If I’d put Eric on the East Side or Tribeca, I think readers would have had different expectations of him,” she said.

Across literature, the West Side has also been recognized as the heart of Jewish culture. The main character in Bellow’s Mr. Sammler’s Planet also hap-pens to be a Holocaust survivor. More

recent books, like Graff’s The Shiksa Syndrome, a story about a Jewish woman who pretends to be a “shiksa” (non-Jew-ish woman) to catch a Jewish guy, details the Upper West Side Jewish singles scene.

Although some believe that the Upper West Side captured in the pages of our favorite books portray the neighborhood accurately, others disagree.

“I think the Upper West Side was like this 20 or 25 years ago, there were a lot of psychologists, actors, and run-off from Columbia. Now, it’s populated more by affluent couples and families,” Dorian Thornley, co-owner of West Sider Books, said.

Melvin Jules Bukiet, author, co-owner of KGB Bar and developer of Scribblers on

the Roof, a Jewish liter-ary series hosted by the West Side Synagogue Ansche Chesed, said that the Upper West Side described in books was as fanciful as it was in the novels that were set there.

“If only life here was as intelligent and literary as it is in the books we read. I think the concerns tend to be more finan-cial,” he said.

Bukiet does makes a clarification, though.

“Where you set a story is costume dressing. What you have to get right is the inner workings of the

characters.”

Did we miss one of your favorite nov-els set on the UWS? Email the editor at [email protected].

available, “it led to cheaper housing for service workers who would com-mute to jobs down-town, but also for young white-collar

The New , Cathleen

Schine tells the stories of a motley group of dog owners, including a thirty-something teacher named Jody, who found her rent-controlled studio apartment decades earlier

Eric, at the beginning of her novel. While the setting may have fit because of his occupa-tion, Benedict had oth-er reasons for choos-ing the neighborhood.

“[Eric’s] a nearly middle-aged guy who’s economically low-key, unpreten-tious and not inter-

ested in any particular cul-

cross-section of New York on

expectations of him,” she said.

the Roof, a Jewish liter-

was as fanciful as it was in the novels that were set there.

as intelligent and literary as it is in the books we read. I think the concerns tend to be more finan-cial,” he said.

clarification, though.

is costume dressing. What you have to get right is the inner workings of the

Even though Laurie Graff has lived on the Upper East Side and Los Angeles, the only place she has ever called home is the Upper West Side.

That is where she began her act-ing career, and where she authored and set parts of her three novels, The Shiksa Syndrome, Looking for Mr. Goodfrog and You Have to Kiss a Lot of Frogs, which will be reissued next year.

Graff, who played “Frenchy” in Broadway’s Grease, speaks nostalgi-cally of the early days of living on the Upper West Side.

“After the show the 104 bus would be filled with actors from all of the shows, still in makeup, riding the bus uptown to go home,” she said.

Her first book, bestselling You Have

to Kiss a Lot of Frogs, which features pro-tagonist Karrie Kline, Graff’s alter-ego and a fearless if sometime vulnerable woman searching for true love, was originally set on the Upper East Side. Partway through the writing, she switched the setting.

“The West Side, my soul, had to be my character’s soul too. Ever since the movie The Goodbye Girl, I just knew it was my spot,” she said.

The neighborhood continues to be her muse.

“Everything about the Upper West Side for me says home. When I walk down the street, run the res-ervoir, get my pants hemmed at Sammy the tailor, or fight my way through the tight aisles of Fairway, I know there’s no other place I’d rather be,” she said. “That speci-ficity lives inside me. It’s a perspective. And it’s mine.”

Upper West Side as Muselived on the Upper East Side and Los Angeles, the only place she has ever called home is the Upper West Side.

ing career, and where she authored and set parts of her three novels, Shiksa Syndrome, Looking for Mr. GoodfrogFrogs

Graff, who played “Frenchy” in Broadway’s cally of the early days of living on the Upper West Side.

“After the show the 104 bus would be filled with actors from all of the shows, still in makeup, riding the bus uptown to go home,” she said.

Her first book, bestselling Laurie Graff.

“I think the Upper West Side was like this 20 or 25 years ago, there were a lot

of psychologists, actors, and run-off from Columbia. Now,

it’s populated more by affluent couples and families,”

Dorian Thornley, co-owner of West Sider Books, said.


block party

Life Is Sweet for Mr. ChocolateBy Angela Barbuti

Jacques Torres has made a name for himself in the New York chocolate world, first as pastry chef for Le Cirque and then for opening six specialty stores through-out the city.

His passion for chocolate is evident when you walk into his shop at 285 Amsterdam Ave. Sample his choco-late-covered Cheerios and Wicked Hot Chocolate, and you’ll get an idea of why his shops are so popular. When he’s not giving cooking demonstrations for char-ity, he serves as the dean of pastry arts at the French Culinary Institute.

West Side Spirit: How did you get started in chocolate?Jacques Torres: I’ve been a pastry chef for the last 36 years. I was the pas-try chef at Le Cirque for 12 years, so it wasn’t a big jump. I developed a love and passion for chocolate. Ten years ago I decided to open my own chocolate store and dedicate all my time to that. I was afraid I was going to miss the res-taurant business, but I’m busy enough to not miss the restaurant world. I have

evenings off now so I’m more free.

Why did you choose the Upper West Side?It’s a young, dynamic, well-educated and hip “foodie” place. There are more things going on here than on the East Side. There are a lot of good chefs on the West Side. Zabar’s started the food trend here.

What makes your technique unique?I work like a chef, not like a scientist. I use real chocolate and real fruit. For lemon chocolate, we press lem-on. We use no preservatives, flavorings or non-essential oils. People want the real thing; I try to give them that.

Where is the chocolate made?There are two factories, one downtown on Hudson and King and one on Water Street in Brooklyn.

What’s the best part of your job?

Giving lollipops or chocolate goodies to kids. You can see their eyes light up. The day before Christmas, I went to Sloan-Kettering and brought chocolate to the children. Chefs love to make people happy.

What’s the worst part of your job?Running out of choco-late in any way. During the holidays, we can-not make enough. We order over 100 tons of chocolate a year from Belgium.

After making chocolate all day, do you still eat it?I do, unfortunately. Different chocolates at different times of the day. My wife has a chocolate store as well in Beverly Hills, Madame Chocolat.

What’s one of your most creative chocolate creations?I did a mold of body parts of the girls from The Girls Next Door.

Do people ask you to give them chocolate?No, but I do. Everywhere I go, I have chocolate with me. I always bring choc-olate to people. It makes me happy to make people happy.

Jacques Torres, Mr. Chocolate, owns six chocolate stores, including one on the Up-per West Side.

and

rew

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artz

Jacques Torres Chocolate

285 Amsterdam Ave. (betw. W. 73rd & W. 74th Sts.)

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information regarding services that are available from a variety of public

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If you are interested in this program, please contact The Unity Center by phone or e-mail

to indicate which workshop sessions you wish to attend.

© 2011 Disney

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WestSideSpirit.com July 7, 2011 • WeSt Side Spirit • 9

By Joy Sherwood

Grom 2165 Broadway, 212-362-1837There are plenty of places to get gelato in the city, but none compare to Grom, the shop that first opened its doors in Italy before coming to New York. The gelato is made from the freshest ingredients, the best fruit possible and has no artificial additives. Grom has also gone green, replacing plastic products with biodegradable spoons, retail and garbage bags. Their unique flavors change monthly and may range from Tiramisu to yogurt to pistachio.

Reflections Yoga250 W. 49th St., 2nd Fl., 212-974-2288Whether you’re a long-time yoga devotee or just starting out, you will enjoy Reflections yoga, as all levels are welcome at this studio. It is the perfect place to unwind and relieve the stress of the city. If you purchase a 10-class pack before August 31, you will receive a summer special and get two free classes!

Pappardella316 Columbus Ave., 212-595-7996 The charming Pappardella Restaurant is not only an expert in fine Italian cuisine like homemade pasta and perfected pizza, but they also offer one of the best summer specials on the Upper West Side. All you have to do is call at least one day in advance to order a hand-packed picnic for two. This romantic picnic includes two gourmet paninis, an antipasto platter, bread, pasta salad, gourmet cake, lemon soda, Biscotti and a tablecloth, all for just $45!

A Time for Children506 Amsterdam Ave., 212-580-8202This boutique sells everything a child needs, including designer clothing, accessories, toys and books. It may seem like any other children’s store in Manhattan, but A Time for Children has an important and unique difference. It donates 100 percent of its profits to The Children’s Aid Society, which helps New York families in need. Right now, they have a large selection of summer clothing on sale.

Central Park Summerstage69th Street at 5th Avenue/Rumsey FieldOn July 18, for just $40, you can experience the beautiful sounds of the Levon Helm Band and singer-songwriter Emmylou Harris at Central Park. The concert runs from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., and proceeds go to the free programs of SummerStage.

Rag & Bone182 Columbus Ave., 212-362-7138 This classy men and women’s clothing store is the place to shop if you’re a stylish professional. From chic accessories to an expensive ready-to-wear collection, fashionable adults will be able to find what they need.

Right now, they are having a 30–50-percent-off sale on spring

clothing, and it even includes shoes.

Avventura463 Amsterdam Ave., 212-769-2510For glassware fanatics and home decorators, Avventura is a boutique you must check out. Their unique collections

include such items as costume jewelry, Swarvoski crystal, champagne glasses, table settings and more. Until the end of July, Italian ceramics are up to 40 percent off and dishes, glasses and a variety of other merchandise is 10–30 percent off.

Surroundings Flowers and Events1351 Amsterdam Ave., 212-580-8982 Summer is the season that is filled with opportunities for gift giving and events. Surroundings Flowers and Events will provide you with a special gift to give to your loved ones. You can get their pre-made gift baskets like the “Healthy Snacks” basket or the “Ultimate Guys Basket.” You can also customize a basket to make it just right for a friend who has a special diet, loves a certain wine or is just a little particular! If you’re looking to decorate for a dinner party or even a wedding, you’ll love their beautiful floral arrangements. They offer same-day delivery in Manhattan if you call before 6 p.m., so there is no need to worry if you are in a pinch.

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1 0 • W E S T S I D E S P I R I T • J u l y 7 , 2 0 1 1 N E W S Y O U L I V E B Y

Host Chef Marcus Samuelsson

Master of Ceremonies FOX 5 Anchor

Rosanna Scotto

RESTAURANTS1770 House Almond Babette’sBeachhouse BeaconThe BoatHouseBlue Parrot CittanuovaD eli Counter Fine Foods

& Catering Dylan’s Candy BarEast Hampton PointEstia’s Little KitchenFresnoThe Frisky OysterGeorgicaThe Grill at PantigoGulf Coast KitchenG urney’s Pasticceria

and Beach BakeryJamesport Manor InnLa PlageLove Lane Kitchen

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Saturday, July 16th, 2011 Sayre Park

VIP Tickets:$225 General Admission Tickets: $150

VIP ticket includes complimentary admission to the Offi cial Taste of Two Forks After Party at Georgica

Must be 21+ to attend.

A portion of the proceeds benefi t Have A Heart Community Trust

For information, call 631-227-0188tasteoftwoforks.com

W e s t S i d e S p i r i t . c o m J u l y 7 , 2 0 1 1 • W E S T S I D E S P I R I T • 1 1

What are you doing Saturday July 16th?

A. Wine Tasting at Duck Walk VineyardsB. Drinks at East Hampton PointC. Dinner at Nick and Toni’sD. Dessert from Dylan’s Candy BarE. Dancing at Georgica

If your answer is all of the above, you’ll be at

Dan’s Taste of Two Forks!One night. Forty restaurants. Twenty wineries.

Get tickets now at tasteoftwoforks.com


By Maria RileyAs the school days wind down and sum-

mer rears its lazy head, parents and teach-ers struggle to find creative ways to com-bat summer learning loss, or “brain drain,” drawing a thin line in the sand between sun-stroke fun and intuitive instruction.

“The data shows that nearly every stu-dent in this country experiences summer slowdown,” says Matthew Boulay, Interim CEO of the National Summer Learning Association and the co-editor of Summer Learning: Research, Policies, and Pro-grams. “It’s more severe in math but it still happens in reading.”

CReative ClassRooMAccording to researchers, children

spend two or more months playing catch up at the beginning of each school year. And keeping young minds active through-out the entire year, especially in compre-hension, proves to be a key factor in over-all student success.

“Summer is really the time when you can innovate,” Boulay says. It’s more about creative learning, rather than more of the same.

Since parents deserve a much-needed

break during the summer too (we see you nodding), it’s important to make learning engaging throughout the warm weather months, leaving the stress and deadlines far behind for both parties. It can be as easy as having your child read up on anticipated vacation spots, play word and math games, or oversee an entrepreneurial adventure. Think of it as a treasure hunt—á la Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter or The Goonies—discovering buried treasure of enticed learning in the simplest of places.

What’s old is NeW agaiNSmaller children gravitate towards the

familiar. Finding activities that morph into bigger and more mature versions of them-selves guarantee a child’s long-term devo-tion. In as little as ten minutes, parents can teach a child an important lesson in reading, science, social studies, spelling or math.

Try turning a morning breakfast rou-tine of eating Cheerios (or sugar cereal of choice) into a spelling lesson. Kids can cre-ate letters and words out of multigrain loops before devouring their bowl. Challenge your little ones to build three, four, and five-letter words like d-a-y, h-e-a-t and l-e-a-r-n.

And if you’re craving something sweet: “You can teach fractions with a Her-shey’s bar,” suggests Dr. Judy Blanken-

ship Cheatham, Vice President of Literary Services for Reading is Fundamental, the largest children’s literacy nonprofit in the United States. “I did—of course, I kept eating up my teaching materials.”

sCReeN tiMeChildren between the ages of 3 and 5

crave learning new concepts. If your little ones haven’t started using a computer, it’s a good time to make the introduction. Many programs are available for free on-line, like funbrain.com or pbskids.com, and provide toddlers with basic computer skills while they learn numbers, colors and beginner’s phonics.

“I think there’s good screen time and there’s bad screen time,” Boulay acknowl-edges, “You want to limit the bad but en-courage the good.” Parents should use discretion in setting appropriate limits—if you see your child browsing YouTube for the latest Lady Gaga video or checking out “Jersey Shore” episodes, suggest they go outside instead for some Vitamin D. It’s the better option.

stop, dRop aNd ReadThen there are books—the reigning

king of summer stimulation (and heck, all-year-round) for all ages. For the younger set, we like Me…Jane, written and illus-trated by Patrick Goodall. Its softly drawn pages bring naturalist Jane Goodall to liter-ary life. “The goal for the parent is to teach some type of literacy every day,” says Dr. Cheatham. For the middle range, we sug-gest Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth, the series’ fifth go-round for comical relief.

“Do something every day,” says Cheath-am, warning that everyone becomes “rusty” when skills become dormant.

tRavelogue Whether near or far, exploration pro-

vides an excellent opportunity for 6-8 year olds to help plan and document family visits, day trips and vacations. Use a globe or map to locate areas you’ll be exploring during the summer months. Have children create (and more importantly, be responsible for) photo journals and scrapbooks with pictures, cap-tions, souvenirs and mementos. This proj-ect, like so many others recommended by educational experts, grows along with your child, from scrapbook creation to Power-Point presentations. Instead of battling one another over the top vacation spot, each family member can build their own presen-tation, including tourism links, pictures, vid-eos, and reviews, culminating in a preview night where everyone presents and ulti-mately votes on the winning trip.

A teacher for more than three de-cades, Cheatham knows firsthand the importance of continued learning during summer months and encourages parents to keep it simple, exploring opportuni-ties in their own houses, neighborhoods or cities. “One of the greatest gifts we can give to children,” Cheatham says, “is to talk about the world around us.”

Build-a-BusiNessAs children age, the willingness to

engage in any form of learning over the summer diminishes. You remember what it was like—too young to hang out with the teenagers but way too cool for the kids table. Inspiring this group involves out-of-the-box propositions. So why not promote the next young entrepreneur?

Some of the more popular and easier businesses include walking dogs, help-ing with groceries, tutoring younger kids, babysitting, or watering plants and check-ing mail for traveling neighbors. Invest in your child’s business venture with time, a bit of money, and most importantly, by im-parting your own work experience. Guide your tween in marketing skills, lending a hand with making business cards, flyers, t-shirts, a company name and/or logo. This is a prime opportunity for enhancing math skills and teaching financial responsibility.

“Reading at night is a part of our daily routine where as nobody is practicing math over the summer,” says Boulay. Open a savings account at your local bank branch, introducing your mini-mogul to the staff, and set a certain time each week for making deposits. Together you can use the online banking site for checking balances and savings dividends.

Summer learning occurs naturally if parents and children welcome the break from a productive perspective. Concen-trate on reconnecting with your children and rediscover the wonderment of youth. Feed the brain, don’t drain it.

In honor of SummerStage Kids, pre-sented by Disney, Central Park will host a free Family Day this Sunday afternoon. The extravaganza prom-ises music, puppetry, workshops and dancing. There will be live music

from The Verve Pipe and The Zany Umbrella Circus with Oko and dancing performances from the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers, as well as the Brooklyn Steppers. To learn more, visit summerstage.org.

Hot Tip of The Week

Central Park SummerStage Family Day

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weekly email newsletter at newyorkfamily.com.

Summertime & the Learning’s EasyHow to battle your kid’s inevitable summer ‘brain drain’ with books, business and worldly babble


PRESENT THEBUILDING SERVICE WORKERS OF THE YEAR

+

NominateYour favorite doorman,

Do you know a great doorman, porter or “handy-man” where you live?

Is there an office cleaner, security officer or maintenance worker who helps

make life a little easier at work? How about a school, theater, event or

stadium cleaner who you believe deserves some extra recognition?

Once again this year, Manhattan Media and 32BJ SEIU, the property service workers

union–is honoring the workers who keep the city's commercial, residential and other

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Nomination Deadline is Wednesday, September 15th.For more information contact Jessica Christopher at 212.268.8600; [email protected],

or Kwame Patterson 212.388.3676; [email protected]

office or school cleaner!



PRESENT THEBUILDING SERVICE WORKERS OF THE YEARWORKERS OF THE YEAR

+
















+















Do you know a great doorman, porter or “handy-man” where you live? Is there an

offi ce cleaner, security offi cer or maintenance worker who helps make life a little

easier at work? How about a school, theater, event or stadium cleaner who you

believe deserves some extra recognition?


union–is honoring the workers who keep the city’s commercial, residential and other buildings

running smoothly. This fall in a special awards ceremony, we will feature building service

workers who go above and beyond to make tenants’, residents’ and New Yorkers’ lives better.

GO TO: WWW.WESTSIDESPIRIT.COM TO VOTENomination Deadline is Tuesday, September 6th, 2011. For more information contact Jessica Christopher at 212.268.8600; [email protected].

14 • OUR TOWN • July 7, 2011 NEWS YOU LIVE BY

I have told all of my friends, count-less times, that 95 percent of all wine made worldwide is meant to be drunk

within the first three years of production. But it doesn’t seem to matter what I say. Everyone thinks they’ve found that special bottle of wine that they just have to save for some occasion in the distant future. It’s the logic behind buying a lottery ticket. “This bottle could be the one.”

But how on earth could anybody know what or where these exceptional bottles are? How can you tell by looking at a shelf of wine in a liquor store that one wine will be amazing in 10 years, and the other will be vinegar?

I will try to illuminate using a favorite producer of mine from Napa Valley. Diamond Creek Vineyard was established in 1968 and produces wine made from only one varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon. Recently I was able to taste their 2008 line release, which is their most recent effort.

The wines of Diamond Creek are divid-ed into the subdivisions of land within the estate. The first wine from the larg-est area is the Diamond Creek Volcanic Hill Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 ($175 at Sherry-Lehmann Wine and Spirits, 505 Park Ave. at E. 59th St., www.sherry-lehm-ann.com). In the glass, the wine’s scent is predictably Cali-Cab: cherry, vanilla and cedar. On the palate, the first thing that stands out is the heavy-handed, under-ripe cherry flavor. This carries through to a mouth-drying middle with a massive amount of tannin. The finish is nothing but bitter herbs and black pepper.

The Diamond Creek Red Rock Terrace Cabernet Sauvignon 2008($110 at Manhattan Wine Company LLC, 1 Penn Plaza Ste. 6130 at W. 33rd St., www.mwcwine.com) is from the second larg-

est parcel of land and tends to be the wine that most serious collectors clamor for the most from this vineyard. After pouring, I must have stuck almost my entire face into the glass to coax out anything other than the walloping scent of cedar that smacked my olfactory senses. Once I took a sip, the palate presented an equally simplistic yet harsh profile. Very little fruit, but a great deal of new leather, smoke and earth.

Finally, my personal favorite yearly offering, the Diamond Creek Gravelly Meadow Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 ($180 at Park Avenue Liquor, 292 Madison Ave., betw. E. 40th & E. 41st Sts., www.parkaveliquor.com). Again, the scents out

of the bottle were very closed and harsh. And the palate offered, predictably, tan-nin as the main

event. The difference here was a touch more cinnamon and clove on the finish.

Sound yummy? Probably not. That’s because none of these wines should be touched for the next 10 years. The reason I know this is because, after tasting past vintages in both the year of release and years later, I have been able to see for myself the slow evolution of these wines as they have come into maturity.

So, what are the earmarks of a wine worth waiting for? And what exactly hap-pens during those years waiting around in the bottle? Generally, wines that are meant to be cellared are more expensive. But not all expensive wines are meant to be cellared! The telltale signs to look for are tannin and overall body. What time in the bottle is going to do is soften all of the characteristics that are already present in the wine. It won’t improve anything, per se, but simply refine the attributes that are already there. So, a tannin bomb with

a spiky, cinnamon candy finish might end up, in 10 years’ time, to be a hearty and refined wine with a sturdy tannic struc-ture, ripe cherry fruit and a complex hint of cinnamon on the finish.

The other caveat is that, if you are even

entertaining the idea of storing wine long-term, you must have the proper facility. Even a six-bottle wine fridge is enough to keep that handful of special wines safe through the years.

So, if you have the resources, I recom-mend investing in any of these wines for that special day in a decade or so. If not, drink what you’ve got when you get it.

Follow Josh on Twitter: @joshperilo.

By Josh Perilo

If New York City is, indeed, a melt-ing pot, then Korea Town’s Food Gallery 32 is evidence that the stew in it hasn’t completely melted. This “International Food Emporium” sells only Asian (mainly Korean) fare. You bring your items upstairs where food quotes from Anglophone authors line the walls—“Kissing don’t last, cookery do”*—and you chew to the beat of thumping American pop tunes while watching Crepe Monster dish out Tokyo versions of a French staple.

Taiwanese stand Bian Dang was the only venue with offerings in my snack budget. I think I could have eaten much bet-ter at Food Gallery 32 if I spent more. Still, the $4 Snack Platter included a huge bowl of sticky rice doused in a homey minced pork sauce, accompa-nied by bright green bok choy and dark green pickled greens, topped with a “tea egg.” While some Yelpers complain about the sour greens, I felt they gave this rather workaday lunchbox meal an interesting

sweet-n-sour taste. The chocolate brown tea egg, however, tasted like a

plain old hardboiled egg, not the tea and Chinese five spice mix that should have flavored it. Would I have had a tastier experience if I had ordered the Zongzi, dubbed a “Chinese tamale” ($4)? The melting pop keeps simmering!

*George Meredith

—Nancy J. Brandwein

Got a snack attack to share? Contact [email protected]

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16 • OUR TOWN • July 7, 2011 NEWS YOU LIVE BY

By Susan Reiter

By all means, buy your tickets to the rich and international array of Lincoln Center Festival offerings

that will keep theaters busy this month. But one of the festival’s highlights is avail-able without charge and offers a unique experience nightly once darkness falls. Portraits in Dramatic Time, David Michalek’s latest outdoor video installa-tion, projects brief performances by a wide array of theater artists on a vast screen on the façade of the David H. Koch Theater. Each individual or group “portrait” is a miniature in extreme slow motion, a momentary dramatic narrative of 10 to 15 seconds which Michalek has filmed using ultra high-speed, high-definition cameras, and shown in extreme slow motion so that the action lasts as long as 10 minutes.

For those who experienced Slow Dancing, Michalek’s masterful 2007 instal-lation that drew huge crowds to the plaza nightly, this will sound somewhat familiar. That project featured three side-by-side screens on the same theater’s façade, each with a dancer performing a movement

sequence in extreme slow motion. For Portraits, viewers will have a single image on which to concentrate, projected on a much larger space—85 feet by 45 feet.

Although Portraits doesn’t offer the frisson of the earlier work’s side-by-side juxtapositions, it does offer, in succes-sion, an especially broad range of theatri-cal performers.

Among them are such New York stage regulars as Reed Birney, Jane Houdyshell, Neal Huff, Marin Ireland, David Patrick Kelly, Alison Pill and Scott Shepherd. Also included are some actors with a par-ticularly high profile and name recogni-tion: Holly Hunter, Patti LuPone, William H. Macy, Roger Rees, Alan Rickman, Liev Schreiber and Lili Taylor.

As Lincoln Center Festival’s artistic director, Nigel Redden co-commissioned Slow Dancing—which has gone on to be seen in over a dozen cities worldwide—and nurtured this project which, like its predecessor was conceived with the Lincoln Center Plaza in mind. “The tech-nique for this one is similar, but conceptu-ally it’s a whole different animal,” he said of Portraits.

In the four years since Slow Dancing wowed crowds, much has changed at Lincoln Center. The vari-ous pieces of the major campus renovation have been completed, and the new look is sleeker and features more high-tech amenities. The theater that serves as Michalek’s “canvas” (formerly known as the New York State Theater) has undergone its own interior renovation and acquired its new name. Noted Redden, “One thing that’s true about his work in both cases is that it’s gorgeous to look at. It draws you in imme-diately. To some extent, it is very much the esthetic of the campus at the moment the plaza has become a wonderfully pris-tine place, which it wasn’t in 2007. I think the new work will look all the better in the renovated space.

“I feel that David’s work is a wonderful bridge between the visual and performing arts. One of the things I feel is particular-ly brilliant about it is its site-specificity.

Obviously Slow Dancing and this new work could have been done somewhere else, but there is something very right about doing it at Lincoln Center, espe-cially in conjunction with the Festival, because in both projects, there’s a wide range of genres that are being explored. That’s very much in keeping with what we are about as a festival.”

Portraits in Dramatic TimeThrough July 31, Lincoln Center’s Josie Robertson Plaza, West 63rd Street & Columbus Avenue; daily from 8:45 p.m., free.

Projecting ‘Portraits’David Michalek thinks outside the box (and the walls) at Lincoln Center

Eric Dyer (seated), Mark Jaynes, Maggie Hoffman, Erin Douglass, Kourtney Rutherford (seated) and Jim Findlay in Portraits in Dramatic Time.

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PUBLIC NOTICENOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, PURSUANT TO LAW, that the NYC Dept. of Consumer affairs will hold a Public Hearing on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 2:00 p.m., at 66 John Street, 11th floor, on a petition from 2799 Broadway Grocery LLC to establish, maintain and operate an unenclosed sidewalk café at 2799 Broadway in the Borough of Manhattan, for a term of two years.

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18 • west side spirit • June 30, 2011 News YOU LiVe BY

By Bacchus G’uesShore houses, Hamptons shares,

street fairs and sunning in Central Park. Summer in the city is known for many things, but one of my favorites this siz-zling season is the singles scene. So as we bar hop and barbecue our way to September, it’s just as important for us single ladies to know what kind of wolf packs we’re dealing with out there as it is to reapply our SPF-50 every two hours. Drum roll please! Here’s the rundown (aka warning) on which single men of the city to be on the lookout this summer.

The Sugar FiendTypically Sugar Fiends can be found

populating bars with extensive scotch menus and a wine list that Thomas Jefferson would envy from his grave. These men are either eternal bachelors or divorcees looking for un-Botoxed, childless women that will serve as the “sugar” to their “daddy” role. If you’re looking for a fatherly figure that will sweep you off your feet to East Hampton for a long weekend, given that he is able-bodied enough to still oper-ate a mobile device, give this man your number. But if a few gray hairs and ali-mony freak you out, focus your sugar on a guy that won’t potentially have a daughter your age.

The Pick-up ArtistOpening lines such as, “Excuse me,

I think you have something in your eye. Nope, it’s just a sparkle,” or “I was blinded by your beauty so I’m going to need your name and number for insurance reasons,” are blatant warning signs that you’re on the verge of being had by a Pick-up Artist. Their lines sometimes make us laugh, are usually flattering and can often lead to a free drink or a future date if you’re so inclined to hear the punch line. The Pick-up Artist gets a lot of hate, but his success rates are admittedly much higher than that of a guy who is too shy to do more than smile across the bar. If their line wasn’t offensive and delivered with a cute smile, give a Pick-up Artist some props for his skewed attempt at gallantry and take him up on his drink offer.

The GnatSo maybe you had a too few many

margaritas, your beer goggles fell off, and in a blind haze of tequila, salt and lime you gave a less-than-appealing man your digits. Somehow, ignoring his phone calls and giving one-word answers to his texts are taken as a sign you’re interested in happy hour next week. The bad news? You’ve got yourself a Gnat. The buzzing won’t stop even with the endless swat-

ting and call-ducking you’re doing. The best route here? The truth. Let him know you’re not interested and apologize for giving the wrong impression. Hey, Cuervo makes us all do crazy things at least one night a summer!

The Danny ZukoSummer lovin’ can be a blast

with this boy of summer! He’s cute, he’s witty, he loves Golden Retrievers and looks sexy in swim trunks. You fantasize about walking hand-in-hand through Central Park next fall as the leaves turn and your relationship deepens. But beware: If there’s

no talk of tailgates for Giants games, or any type of future for that matter—you’ve just been Sandy-ed and we can only hope that you’re not wearing black Spandex from head to toe. If you find yourself fall-ing hard for your Danny Zuko, lay it all on the line before you’re singing on the bleachers by yourself come October.

Whatever happens this summer, don’t give up ladies! It wouldn’t be a single summer in the city without a few Danny Zukos and Pick-up Artists, after all.

Bacchus G’ues drinks, dates and dwells in Manhattan.

A Single Girl’s Guide to Summer in the City: Typecasting

Member

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Big Bucks in Auto FraudTo the Editor:

The State Legislature accomplished a lot this year, but one important reform was conspicuously left out—passage of the legislation know as the “Fraud Tax Bill” that would crack down on crisis-level auto insurance fraud in New York State.

No-fault auto accident fraud is one of the fastest growing crimes in New York State, yet it is not expressly illegal. It is one of the reasons New Yorkers pay 53 percent more for auto insurance than drivers in other states. According to studies, almost $1

billion has been stolen from New Yorkers in the past five years alone by organized

criminal enterprises that stage accidents and run up phony bills with the help of a handful of crooked doctors. But the Legislature refused to do anything about it this year.

The state didn’t even pass a common-sense measure called “Alice’s Bill” that would make staging an auto accident in New York a standalone crime. The bill was named after a 71-year-old New York grandmother who was killed when she was struck during a staged accident.

The state legislature is rumored to be returning this summer to clean up unfin-ished business from the 2011 legislative session. Auto insurance fraud reform must be on that list.

Rafe LiebeR ExEcutivE DirEctor

NEw YorkErs staND agaiNst

iNsuraNcE FrauD

Letters have been edited for clarity, style and brevity.

L E T T E R S

June 30, 2011 Since 1985

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WestSideSpirit.com June 30, 2011 • WeSt Side Spirit • 19

By Lorraine Duffy MerklThe minute Governor Cuomo signed a

law legalizing same-sex marriage, I began hearing how wedding planners, catering halls, florists, DJs—as well as divorce lawyers—started licking their chops at the new crop of potential clients.

Manhattan’s own City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is planning her nuptials, and I just read that Neil Patrick Harris got engaged to his long-time boyfriend. Yet, I’m also reading ad nauseum how mar-riage is broken, outdated and on the way out. So, all that waiting for the day when New York’s gay citizens could say, “I do” was for something not worth having?

As someone married for 23 years, I take umbrage with the wisdom of peo-ple like Cameron Diaz, who in the June issue of Maxim pronounced the institu-tion “dying” and lumped it in with “old traditions that don’t suit our world any longer.” That’s tame compared to some of the matrimony-bashing remarks I’ve heard (usually right after a celebrity

break-up), including this gem from a straight/divorced gay-marriage advocate: “Everyone has the right to be stupid.” This is supportive?

The fact is that marriage is still the gold standard for a relationship. That’s why so many are always trying to knock it off its pedestal, diminish it and prove that monogamy is unsustainable.

The aforementioned 38-year-old actress and those like her remind me of the heyday of Sex and the City, when the “girls” seemed to feel oh so much bet-ter about their unmarried lives when their espoused acquaintances were miserable.

It all smacks of “If I can’t/don’t have it than I have to believe it’s not ‘all that,’ so I don’t have to feel like I’m missing anything.”

If getting hitched wasn’t worthwhile, why would our governor have fought so hard to legalize the right of gay men and women who wanted so badly to be able

to call their significant others “husband” or “wife”?

I think mature same-sex couples, just like their opposite sex counterparts, know it is not a fairy tale, nor a guarantee that your life will be perfect or work to

your liking. It will not solve your (past, present or future) prob-lems or make you complete.

It is a committed union tak-en to a higher level. Hence the reason same-sex couples were not satisfied just being in long-standing relationships. They wanted what they had to be seen

as more than the equivalent of boyfriend/girlfriend.

I can hear some of you screaming at me now: but wedded people get divorced! There are people whose co-habitation has lasted longer than a lot of marriag-es! Some people never even want to get married!

And this all is true. Fifty percent (the number usually bandied about) of cou-

ples get divorced. Some of them chose wrong. Some got married for the wrong reasons. Some fell out of love. It happens, and they move on to live their lives suc-cessfully, alone or with new partners. For others, the non-married relationship is all they want or need. May their live-in love last. For those who, like George Clooney, never want to marry: don’t. (And I hope you stick to it, because if you get married when you know in your heart that it’s not for you, you will surely end up as one of the 50 percent.)

None of this, however, means that mar-riage doesn’t work. It means it doesn’t/didn’t work for them.

Now that the hard won fight for legal-ized gay marriage in New York is behind us, I look forward to the fight for respect-ing marriage, in general, to begin.

Lorraine Duffy Merkl’s debut novel, Fat Chick, from The Vineyard Press, is available at amazon.com and barne-sandnoble.com.

By Thomas R. PryorThe midnight heat created a film of

sweat between me and my underwear. I couldn’t take it. Dragging my mattress through the doorway, I heard Dad yell, “Be quiet!”

With the mattress pulled around me, I squeezed through the doorway, eas-ing aside the sheet that served as a door. I policed the area, my father’s ongoing grunts and moans drowning out the other sound in the room, the hum of our fam-ily’s first air conditioner. Rory had arrived in our parent’s bedroom earlier, dropping himself alongside their bed, his mattress curled up in the space between the dress-er and the wall. I laid mine perpendicular over the bottom of his, making a mattress sandwich.

Once in place, four bugs in a rug, the curtain rose on our summer passion play. Rory bellowed, “Good night, Momma. Good night, Dada. Good night, Thommm.” I answered lower, “Good nigh, Ma, good nigh, Da and good nigh, Rorio,” then I went high, “Rorio, Rorio, where art thou Rorio?”

Dad said, “Everyone shut up or get back in your bedroom!”

After a spell, a slow, steady “Whistle While You Work,” rose from the ashes of the silence. It had momentum and an additional passenger onboard as Mom entered the studio, stepping up to the mic, hand cupped to her ear. The trio in song, in tune, in danger. Through the shadows we watched Dad squirm under the covers. He was a plutonium heap and fusion was imminent.

Mom, Rory and I moved to another tune, singing loud with pride, “Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile!” As the song hit its second verse, the negative energy in the room imploded, turning into vapor as Dad’s anger transformed into sweet nos-talgia. We began our sentimental journey.

World War I tunes, World War II tunes—give him a war, Dad gave you a tune. Civil War? “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.” Revolutionary War? “Yankee Doodle.” Crimean War? OK, no song there, but you could see his eyes calculating.

Sadly, during his youth my father’s emotional development was stunted. In 1945, hanging over the mezzanine at the Paramount Theatre, Dad swayed dreamily side-to-side listening to the Artie Shaw Orchestra. In mid-swoon, while admiring his new suit, Dad flipped over the railing, landing headfirst on an usher flirting with a floozy in the orchestra’s 10th row. Luckily, neither was killed. Both bleeding, they were taken to Polyclinic Hospital for stitches and X-rays. Dad begged the theater’s man-ager for a rain check as the medics led him through the lobby. Dad sustained perma-nent injury that became apparent as the years unfolded. He could no longer make a decision or form an opinion that’s basis did not derive from something that hap-pened in 1945 or before.

As a child, I thought Warner Brothers was the government. Its films played around the clock on our TV. I knew who Edith Head was before my first commu-nion. James Cagney surfaced on our tube

more than the latest edition of Pravda on a Moscow street. Nothing intoxicated Dad like a nostalgic trip through film land that included gray battleships roll-

ing over the cold Atlantic waves. The World at War documentary series brought Dad to attention during its theme music.

In song we soared and dove through the dark chilled bed-room together as a family like no other time. Our tune marched to a happy conclusion when all

the lines were lost to exhaustion except, “Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile.” The four of us, twin Laurel and Hardys, skipped arm in arm out of the last scene in the last reel, as the credits rolled across our dusty pants.

Thomas Pryor’s work has been pub-lished in The New York Times, he has recently completed his first book and he curates a show at Cornelia Street Cafe. Read his blog at YorkvilleStoopstoNuts.blogspot.com.

Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Married Single or married, let’s respect each other’s decisions

Sentimental Journey on a Hot Summer Night Even dad wasn’t adverse to the charm of family song-time

new york gal

City StorieS: StoopS to nutS

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West Side Spirit July 7, 2011