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Douglas MacKaye HarringtonPublisher and Editor-in-Chief

Charles G. McKennaPublisher and Director of Sales & Marketing

Thomas ReidArt DirectorGala Scibelli

Associate Art DirectorDylan SullivanLaura Kessler

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Jack FilaskyJennifer Garvey

Dan StahlAnthony FrascaElizabeth Bojsza

Mark Snyder, ChFCJim Bliss

Dr. Peter J. StumpfJoe NeuschatzHelene BredesCarol MathewsSusan Scholer

Tom AtkinsNancy Dorney

Janelle Brooke CouncillDavid WoodsLaura Kessler

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A Letter from the Editor

Letters to the Editor

Holy cow, it has actually been a year! Twelve issues on the street and still growing, thanks to you our readers, our incredibly talented writers and artists, and our devoted advertisers. This issue officially marks the start of our second year, Volume II / Issue 1, The Romantic North Shore! Without dreams you only have nightmares, so thank you for helping to make our dream a reality. We know you have waited a bit longer for this issue to hit the streets, as we, like many other local publi-cations, dropped our January issue and rolled it into February. As we start our second year you will notice some changes that we hope will be improvements in our publication. First and foremost, as you may have noticed, the word Improper has been dropped from the title of the magazine. It was included in the title when we started because so many of you had expressed how much you missed seeing The Improper Hamptonian along the North Shore after I left that pub-lication. I, of course, realize that you our readers and our present advertisers know that when we say “improper” we mean thought provoking and edgy, not salacious or inappropriate. However, we have some potential advertisers out there that, although they get it, are apprehensive about advertising in a publication with the word improp-er in its title. Don’t worry, we will still remain our version of improper in our content and the column titles will not change. You may also notice some subtle changes in layout, as we strive to enhance out visual presentation; some additions in our column count, as we will always try to improve and increase our subject matter; and the inclusion of more art and images to further visually compliment that added editorial content. To that end, let me remind all of you once again that I welcome unsolicited submissions of new fiction and poetry, interesting articles of a non-fiction nature and op-eds, and any suggestions or pitches for articles you may want to write yourself or see assigned to one of our writers. Please email me directly at dmharrington@optonline.net. In addition, you will very soon be able to access the magazine on-line in a sate-of-the-art website that is under construction. As always, I urge all of you to support the local advertisers that are respon-sible for the fact that this magazine is free to our readers. We are facing the most difficult economy in our memory and the advertisers in The North Shoreian realize that it is not a time to run and hide, but a time to reach out to customers and let them know that they are indeed here and doing their part to survive, flourish, and turn the economy around. China’s manufacturing industry doesn’t need any more of our help, so drive past the enormous Wal-Mart parking lot and find a parking space in front of a local merchant, you neighbor and friend! Make a reservation at a local restaurant, not a national chain eatery with a cookie-cutter, more-of-the-same menu. Pass on a month of Net-Flix and get out of the house and buy a ticket at one of the outstanding, but struggling, live theaters along the North Shore. Wall Street may have created the mess we are in, but I believe it will be Main Street that pulls us out of it. And if we want our Main Streets to survive, we had better start shopping on them! Enjoy the read this month and Happy Valentine’s Day! DMH

Dear Mr. Harrington, Your October cover with the orange pumpkins was another gem. You cap-ture the moment. The November issue was yet another striking cover with words of wisdom--very touching.Waiting for the December issue I was rewarded with finally obtaining your maga-zine at the Book Review in Huntington village. What a fine work of art! An utterly unique, fat snowman. Then, of course, one has to peruse the contents with great anticipation. I commend you! Your magazine gets better and better with every issue! I wish you and your family good health, prosperity, happiness and continued success in all your endeavors. PEACE!!!!!Sincerely,Ruth Semon FahlbuschHuntington

After years of attending A Christmas Carol at Theatre Three it was fun to get an actor’s back stage perspective on what actually goes on. Thanks for sharing. I also really enjoyed Mr. Zelenak’s piece on James Stewart, it was wonderful. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Elliot Johnson

Dear Doug, Loved the article--I thought the perspective was wonderful--honoring the Christ-mases Past and Present--a terrific account! Thank you for this kindness to the theatre (and to me on a personal level). Wishing you and your family a happy holiday sea-son.Best.Jeffrey Sanzel Artistic Director, Theatre Three, Port Jefferson

I THE COLUMNS IThe opinions expressed in the columns are those of the authors

and do not necessarily reflect the editorial viewpoint of the Publishers of the Improper North Shoreian Magazine.

I On Money With Mark

by Mark Snyder, ChFCFinancial Advice and Commentary

For Love and/or Money Rarely do any topics elicit more passion than love and money, but waiting until after the knot is tied can be a disastrous time to learn that the two of you financially do not see eye-to-eye. While no one can say for certain if a couple will be financially compatible, the sooner one brings their feelings into the open the better they’ll be able to react and plan. The good news is that money problems can often be resolved once a realistic discussion is held with an impartial third party. As always, there’s a finite amount of money to work with but a seemingly infi-nite amount of things on which to spend. Younger couples, at least initially, are often in agreement. But frequently they’ve yet to be financially challenged. Such issues as saving for a down payment and being able to handle mortgage payments generally top the list for those considering getting married. They should also try to put money aside in a “rainy day” fund in the event of a layoff or other sudden income loss. Other decisions, such as whether or not to purchase life or disability insurance or to

save for retirement, as fewer companies now provide such benefits, can complicate mat-ters. When children come along things can change. Hot-button issues: should one spouse stay home or should each continue working and

get child care? Should money be put aside for the child’s future or invested for retire-ment? Should you move to a larger house? A better school district? More subjective issues like ego and status can lead to a cycle of debt. Is it important for one spouse to have a new car in the driveway every other year? Maybe the other spouse would rather keep the old car and pay down the mortgage? The list can go on and on. One may like to shop while the other prefers to save. Is anyone balancing the checkbook? What about retirement plans and insurance? The basic question is: have you gotten to know each other financially? It’s sadly become common knowledge that about half of first marriages end in divorce, as do 60% of remarriages, according to the Center for Disease Control’s National Vital Statistics Report. Money conflicts generally play a major role when couples decide they no longer wish to remain together. Also consider the kind of household in which you were raised. This will often influence one’s views on money. Were your parents careless spenders – common among Boomer Generation members – or were they conservative savers – a trait prevalent among members of the Great Depression and their immediate offspring. Did you come from a household where money was hard to come by? Was there a major event in one’s life that had serious financial ramifications such as a divorce or a parent’s job loss? Events such as these can make a lasting impression on how one deals with money. Similarly, the financial issues an individual may have faced early in their life such as saving, spending and accumulating debt can drastically change from those one faces when becoming a parent as this generally causes a seismic shift in goals and priorities. Looking ahead, the landscape often changes again when one must begin to seriously plan for retirement. What to Do? While financial stress can wreak havoc on nearly any marriage, one of the most financially healthy things a couple can do is regularly discuss their feelings about money. The most constructive environment is when both spouses contribute to the formation of a financial plan. As their situation evolves, couples frequently will have the most success and the least amount of financial stress by continuing to commu-nicate and work together on an ongoing basis. The first step is to open a meaningful dialogue. It can help to do so in the presence of an unbiased but qualified third party, such as a financial adviser. It’s often recommended that newlyweds establish a “financial priorities list” by reviewing previously separate assets, liabilities, income and expenses. Savings should be directed towards meeting new financial priorities such as purchasing a home. It’s also wise to start a savings or investment account specifically to fund that

Are you and your mate financially compatible?

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Environmentally Attractive I was recently informed about a 1960’s study which found that environmental-ists enjoy a significantly better love life than the average person. My source couldn’t tell me the name of the study, and I thought everyone enjoyed an above average love life in the ‘60s, but the theory is food for thought, nonetheless. And so with the “romance” issue on the horizon, I set out to do a little analysis. First, I considered the people in my office. We are a small group, but a very happy one. Each of has a boyfriend or spouse, and the combined current relation-ship-length between the four of us is approximately 45 years. I can also report that these relationships seem especially positive – everyone appears noticeably happier with his or her significant other than without. Yet, between each couple differences of opinion abound, from favorite sports teams to political philosophies, so reenact-ments of a previous evening’s debate are often part of the morning coffee talk. Push-overs, we are not. But evidently our passion is endearing – or else we’d all be single. Next, I considered the people in other environmental offices. Most fall into the categories newly married, married for many years, engaged, dating for several years, etc. Clearly these folks are also highly lovable individuals, which is why they’re all taken. And why wouldn’t they be? They’re passionate, engaging people. All are energized and informed individuals, each ready and willing to stage a protest in front of bulldozers or spend a Saturday collecting petition signatures at the post office. Are traits such as these ever undesirable in a person? Then, I considered the community members we work with. And what did my analysis reveal? More fabulously likable people, most of whom come in married pairs. These environmentally-minded residents typically find their way to us because of an issue they’ve become involved with near their homes – an inappropriate devel-opment, a toxic plume, an interest in restoring a spoiled area, and so on. They are naturally conscientious about their surroundings, have a strong sense of social jus-tice, and encourage others to learn more and participate in the issues at hand. They simply give a damn. And people appreciate them for it. So yes, the environmentalists I know live full lives, and people care for them

Clean, Green and RenewEnvironmental Commentary

Jennifer Garvey

down payment. For older newlyweds or those starting second marriages the issue of whether to merge finances can be difficult, but this bridge can be crossed by gradu-ally moving finances together. Practical things like name changes for a new social security card and drivers license can help start the merger process. Beneficiary designations on retirement ac-counts and insurance policies should then be changed as should investment and bank accounts. For couples having trouble working together it can help for each partner to continue keeping track of their finances individually for three months after the marriage with no changes and then start a joint budget as needs present themselves. There are many couples who pay some expenses jointly and others separately. Others basic financial items couples should tackle are reducing credit card and college-loan debt, establishing a revocable trust, health care proxy and durable power of attorney. What’s the best way to keep finances from disrupting a marriage? Agree to keep talking together about them and if you think you need help, speak with a financial adviser sooner rather than later. If you cannot locate one through a friend’s recom-mendation, speak with a professional such as an accountant or lawyer for a referral. A good financial adviser should have a broad foundation that goes beyond investing and includes insurance, tax planning, budgeting and mortgage expertise, plus college and estate planning. Individuals with more complicated situations such as planning for children from a prior marriage or business-succession issues should seek an adviser skilled in such areas. The Financial Planning Association, a nationwide trade organization with a Long Island chapter, (www.fpanet.org) offers referrals based on geographic location, specialty or name. Your introductory meeting should be pressure-free and focus on articulating your long-term needs. Many advisers supply a questionnaire to better learn about prospective clients and often ask to review such items as tax returns, in-surance polices, financial statements and retirement accounts before making recom-mendations. Many do not charge for an initial consultation. An inability to agree on and manage long-term finances, especially in a new marriage, can present a major hurdle in the love nest. It’s important to prevent finan-cial matters from controlling one’s relationship. It should be the other way around, meaning money should be a means to an end, the tool in which a couple can increase its happiness and realize its dreams. As the Beatles sang, “money can’t buy me love.” But it sure can make life easier. It’s better couples learn this sooner rather than later.

Mark J. Snyder, ChFC, is an independent financial adviser in Medford. For a free, no-obligation copy of his newsletter, The Snyder Report, please call his office: 631-289-4224 or visit: www.markjsnyder.com. Haven in Brookhaven

(My New Year’s Wishes) The United States of America is our beautiful country, New York is our spectacular state and Suffolk, and (I am scratching my head waiting for inspiration), and Suffolk…is our county. The Town of Brookhaven is an important geographical component of all of the above. I recently learned that Brookhaven is not only larger than the entire Nas-sau County, but also bigger than two of the fifty states. I had no idea. When it comes to maps, I am geographically impaired. But, let me ask: is “being big” enough of a reason for us, town residents, to pay federal, state, county, local and other taxes and, in exchange, be forced to dig cesspools (instead of having sewers), buy water in the supermarkets (to avoid drinking from possibly polluted wells) and having to choose between bumper-to-bumper highway driving and snail-paced trains? In our days, when large groups of people living in the same geographi-cal area become unhappy with their fate, they request independence. Georgia (the country, not the state) has its problems, Czechoslovakia is now divided in two and good old Yugoslavia in five or six (I stopped counting). The Tibetans demand free-dom from China, the Irish from England, the Basques from Spain, the Bretons and the Corsicans from France and the Kurds, from both Turkey and Iraq. In Cyprus, the Greeks don’t get along with the Turks and, in Belgium, the Flemish speakers and the French speakers don’t speak to each other. Even Alaska has an Independence Party. How about us? During a recent desk drawer cleaning, I discovered an old article about the Monarchs Club, an organization which used to promote the Brookhaven Town Republican Party political candidates, are they still in business? As soon as I finished reading their commentaries, a light-bulb went on, inside my brains: what could be better than having Monarchs Clubs in our area? Having real monarchs, of course! Bye-bye Brookhaven Town, hello The Independent Kingdom of Brookhavia! A cross between the British royal system and the principality of Monte Carlo, Brookhavia will become both a human paradise and the tax haven of North America. Granted by King William and Queen Mary in 1693 and situated on the William Floyd Parkway, the geographical center of Brookhavia, the Manor of Saint George will be the perfect location for the Brookingham Palace. A chain of grandiose hotels built around the palace will accommodate the droves of local and international tourists, coming to watch the changing of the royal guards. All the income from the tourist tax will go into the Brookhavian treasury, to be added to the abundant receipts from the state-owned North Shore and South Shore casinos. Income tax, real-estate tax and sales tax will become a thing of the past. In-ternational tennis stars, rich retired soccer players, wealthy movie directors and other

A View AskewWit and a Little Wisdom By Joe Neuschatz

fully in return. If there is a study out there that proves this, so be it. But I don’t need charts and graphs to convince me that people who care about the environment are also lucky in love. There’s something sexy about trying to protect the planet – how-ever large or small your role may be. Environmentalism made Al Gore cool (and an Academy Award Winner), Ted Turner content and Teddy Roosevelt a visionary – it’s powerful stuff. Perhaps the best way to put this in perspective is to consider what life must be like if you’re not an environmentalist of any sort. Maybe you can throw garbage out the car window without a twinge of guilt. And there’s a good chance you think re-cycling rules do not apply to you. Or maybe you douse your lawn in toxic fertilizers because you cannot bear to jeopardize its vibrant green color. But if you are uninter-ested in taking care of your surroundings, you may suffer from a similar apathy in caring for the people around you. So if you don’t yet have the environmental bug and your love life is a little lackluster, head for the beach or take a walk in the woods; breathe in the fresh air and revel in the scenic peace and quiet. Relax. And if you look around and you don’t see anything worth protecting, so be it. But if you do – and I think you will – promise yourself you’ll find one new way to be a little greener this month, and maybe one more way the month after that. Don’t be alarmed if you begin to feel quite good about your new habits. You may even feel like others should try these new habits as well. And before long you could have a full-blown environmental conscience. If that’s the case, brace yourself, because love is headed your way.

A life-long resident of the East End, Jennifer keeps her ear to the ground on all is-sues environmental through her day job with the Long Island Pine Barrens Society. And while she thinks Long Island is one of the lovelier places to live, she wonders how anyone can actually afford to be here. Questions and comments always appreci-ated at garvey.jennifer@gmail.com.

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The “American” President As anyone who knows me will tell you, I am extremely excited and optimistic regarding our new president and the new political direction the nation is taking. I am not alone, even as we all feel fear and a certain malaise when it comes to the economy, I sense a definite feeling of hope for the nation among my fellow citizens. I think there is a palpable sense of real optimism on the surface, even though there is a just as real sense of anxiety that percolates in our stomach like brewing coffee. You could see that optimism on the faces of all the millions of people that braved the cold in Washington to be part of, if not actually see, President Obama’s inauguration. They traveled from around the nation and the world to be part of it. It was important to many of our fellow African-American citizens because our new president is a man of color. In his success, they see the potential success of themselves and, perhaps more importantly, their children. Regarding race, it was a day that many thought they would never see in their lifetimes. Obviously, it was not an entirely African American turn out. There were multitudes of white, Latino, Asian and, I am sure, Native Americans who were just as thrilled to share in this historic day in

The Improper HarringtonSmall Observations On The Big Picture

Douglas MacKaye Harrington

big spenders, will find refuge, in our beloved kingdom, hiding from the dreaded tax man. And let’s not forget the alimony avoiders. Eat your hearts out Swiss banks! To eliminate traffic jams, only Brookhavians will be allowed to drive their vehicles on our roads. Like in the British island of Bermuda, visitors will have to choose between taking taxis and using public transportation. The word “unemploy-ment” will be eliminated from local vocabulary. Our improved budget will also help improve the rate of the Long Island Railroad’s electrification. At a minimum, it will double from 46 to an electrifying 92 inches a year. At the new pace, we should have the historical inauguration of our first “bullet train” on April 1st 2437 (if it doesn’t rain). No more wasted money on electoral campaigns, no more staying in line for hours to cast your vote, no more tedious elections. No more Joe-the-Plumber. A royal

dynasty will be chosen once-and-forever by our beloved Brookhavian citizens. And who will be the first king of Brookhavia? I don’t really know but please, allow me to become the lead-ing candidate for the throne.

I came to the US of A 45 years ago as a LEGAL immigrant. Arriving here legally meant that I wasn’t just accidentally born here (like Barak Obama). I was SELECT-ED to come here. I passed an exam to become a citizen, a CHOSEN AMERICAN 5 years after my arrival. But today, 40 years later, I am still not allowed to run for the presidency. As far as I know, the US Constitution doesn’t forbid me to compensate by becoming a king. I am retired, I am available, I have an enormous experience with crowns (if you don’t believe me….ask my dentist) and, since retirement, I am use to sitting around and do nothing all day long. If I become king, I promise to do exactly the same thing, but this time, for the good of the country. I will receive in audience all the would-be investors and any other kind of important visitors. All I am asking for is a well padded reclining throne, with a high-definition television attachment, next to a beer cooler. And, to top it all, if the Grucci Brothers will be kind enough to offer me a royal discount, I promise to pay for the coronation fireworks with my own money. If you are still not sure who to vote for in the monarchical elections, please allow me to ask this important question: whose idea was it in the first place? Our new “Change We Need” president, will surely not mind the changes. Forget Joe-the-Plumber. Long live Joe-the-King! Could Brookhaven composers please start working on a Brookhavian national anthem?

Joseph J. Neuschatz M.D. lives in Port Jefferson and was born in Romania, hates writing...loves being published, retired anesthesiologist, refuses to become an Ameri-can Idle. Featured in the New York Times, Newsday, Vogue, The New York Doctor, Greenwood Press etc. and author of “terrO.R.”

A cross between the British royal system and the principality of Monte Carlo, Brookhavia will become both human paradise and the tax haven of North America

I Want My Money and I Want It Now Seven Point Eight Trillion. $7,800,000,000,000. Look at those zero’s! In a show of truly bipartisan idiocy, that’s how much the Federal Treasury is forking out to virtually every financial institution that shared Hank Paulson’s country club. Then came GM, Chrysler, and the State of California with a hand out. And now Barack Obama is proposing we add another trillion bucks. That makes $9 trillion. Even the porn industry is lining up Frankly, if my daughter came home announcing her new job, I’m not sure which institution would disappoint me worst. So here’s my burning question: Instead of showering trillions to the very dolts who screwed everything up in the first place, why doesn’t the government give that money to me? And maybe 300 million of my closest friends, the American citizens? Yeah…I thought that might make sense. So, I want my money, and I want it now. First, let’s acknowledge how deep we are. The sub-prime mess didn’t merely “lose money” that was collecting dust in bank vaults. We even lost money that didn’t exist. Fannie Mae committed massive fraud on such a leveraged scale it hasn’t been computed. Add in Wall Street credit swaps and derivative losses? We’re looking at

Conservative Conscience Conservative Political Commentaryby Tom Atkins

Barack Obama is a man of color, but he is first a man and that is the point I want to make

American history. Barack Obama is a man of color, but he is first a man and that is the point I want to make, as the forces of opposition are now mounting their attacks against our optimism. You know who I am taking about. Guys like Rush, who suggest we are giving the President a pass because his father came from Africa. Well Rush, his mother came from Kansas and he was primarily raised by his white grandparents. I actually feel badly for his mother and grandparents sometimes, as if their involvement in the President’s life is marginalized by the color of his skin. As I stated

earlier, he is first a man, in my opinion a very intelligent, articulate, moral man. He is this man because of the influence of his family, among others, but I

believe it is always family that influences our futures most. In truth, President Obama’s African father stepped out his life at a fairly early age and unfortunately died young. Does that mean he didn’t influence the President’s future? Of course not, but does the color of his skin diminish the impact of his other parent or his grandparents. For my part, as I have stated in other columns, I have always referred to Barack Obama as our first mixed-race President, or a man of color, not African American. In truth two races, and for me that should be the true symbol of our optimism. He cannot be called African American, he can not be called white, what we can call him is American! A reaffirmation of the melting pot that America was once so proud to claim as a quality. More importantly, he is an American from a middle class family that rose to the highest office in the nation. His is an American that loves his wife and is a devoted father. He is an American that took a Harvard law degree and went to work as a community organizer when he could have easily filled out the race quota of a corporate firm. He is an American that decided to run at one of the most difficult times in our nation’s history when he could have stayed comfortably in the Senate and waited it out. My optimism comes from the fact that I see him as a good man, an intelligent man, a good American man. So let’s drop the labels and give this new American President the energy of our gathered optimism. Don’t let the race baiting and negativity diminish the hope. Let’s revel in the diversity of this man, but let’s revel first in the quality of the man. I hope his presidency ushers in a new era in American politics, the era of color blindness.

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somewhere between $50-60 trillion. My business calculator literally doesn’t go that high. So doesn’t it make sense to give all that government money to the people? Yes. Not just morally, but economically. Can you imagine the power of a $9 trillion tax cut? Banks, of course, would be flooded with a cash rush, instantly solving their problem. And with all that ka-ch-ing in their wallets, confident consumers will buy cars, homes, trinkets, baubles and downloads to their hearts content. The economy would roar back to life instantly. That’s why we need a Total Tax Moratorium. But how about all that debt? Well, Treasury just gave away 7.8 trillion. (and nothing happened!) What’s the difference? Besides, at this point, treasury investors accept outrageous numbers. A tax cut offers them hope. Put that money into people’s

pockets, and the economy would go thermonuclear. We’d probably have to raise taxes just to slow it down. Phase taxes in as the econo-my grows, and we’d probably pay off the debt inside of 10 years, while enjoying im-

mense prosperity. Instead of re-arranging the money pile, we’d grow it. Other benefits? We get to rewrite the tax code. (Maybe a flat tax?) And we could eliminate those stupid government programs that don’t work. Lobbyists could go pester someone else. No capital gains tax means businesses can create and expand, hiring more workers. No corporate taxes means lower prices and greater profits. Good for your 401k. And last, we could end all speculation as to the effect of tax rates on the economy. Unfortunately, we are led by a collection of economic fools. To solve this crisis, Bush’s team tried corporate welfare. Obama is proposing government welfare. One is a band-aid, the other is hand cream. The patient is starving to death. The capitalist beast must be fed. Alas, there is a glimmer of hope. President Obama’s key economic advisor, Cal-Berkeley economist Christina Romer proved cutting one tax dollar creates $3 in the economy. A three year 9 trillion dollar tax cut would give a $27 trillion return. Over a decade, we could eliminate the entire national debt and create the best economy in world history. This offers Obama a unique opportunity. He inherits a severe emergency with few “outs.” Tossing a few dollars around the ‘hood won’t help. Wall Street and Main Street must sing “Kumbaya.” Like Bill Clinton, who circumstantially found himself cutting taxes, signing Welfare reform, and accidentally creating a good economy, Obama can triangulate. His dilemma? Cuts taxes, and he doesn’t merely flip-flop. He effectively surrenders the class warfare argument. But no tax cuts? No recovery. Simple as that. As Inauguration Day arrives, the most liberal President in American history may be forced into embracing the boldest possible conservative dream: mas-sive tax cuts. So why not make the move? A short moratorium on taxes would create the best economy in world history. He could out-supply-side the Republicans and redefine the Democrats. It certainly wouldn’t be the most radical thing he’s ever done. And he might just get reelected as an American hero. Worked for Reagan.

Tom Adkins has left people laughing, crying, angry, but always thinking about the is-sues. Beneath Tom’s ironic style, lies deep theoretical detail. Tom has been published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Washington Times, City Paper, Insight, The Hill, and often picked up via wire services in most major newspapers. He’s also appeared on ABC’s “Politically Incorrect”, Fox “News Beyond the News”, “Hannity & Colmes”, CN8’s “It’s Your Call” and numerous other shows. Tom resides in the Philadelphia area, taking on liberals wherever he finds them. For more about or to contact Tom please be sure to visit www.commonconservative.com.

Instead of showering trillions to the very dolts who screwed everything up in the first place, why doesn’t the government give that money to me?

by Helene Bredes

Properly ImproperCommentary on All the NS Fuss

Love Me NOT, Thank You! So the editor who, thank goodness, has never said he loves me, asks me to write about love for this issue. “It’ll be easy. Everyone loves you!” Obviously, that wry Scottish sense of humor was in full bloom, or he was just being sarcastic as hell. It did actually sound easy...too easy! It is not like the subject hasn’t been writ-ten about before. Then I reached into the purse I had with me at the Bliss Happy Hour and found some guy’s business card. I had scrawled UGH across it, with a pen I had borrowed, ironically, from Harrington the night before. This guy had walked in, smiled broadly, and given me a big kiss with an even bigger, “Helene, I love you, haven’t seen you since the opening at Gallery North.” That particular opening was six months ago and this guy was just a bit too close and

Learn, dear reader, love is like expensive perfume, great but not in excess.

too full of love for comfort as he quickly added that we should “stay in touch” as he wrote his cell number on his business card. Okay, so am I the only one who thinks that we are watering down that very special expression known as, “I love you.” And what ever happened to a simple hand-shake? Do we actually have to kiss everyone we run into at a restaurant, the mall, the supermarket? I have many dear friends that I kiss hello, even Harrington. But the guy from the opening I hadn’t seen in six months and if he hadn’t given me his card, I wouldn’t have even remembered his name. This is too much! We beat everything to death trying to find a life. Well, get

one and love me not! Like me, com-pliment me on my outfit, particularly my hat, tell me you liked (or hated) my last column, but please don’t tell me you love me when you don’t even

know the names of my children or my home telephone number. Sure everyone loves me, everyone loves everyone, even the strangers who kiss me on both cheeks. Where are we, France? There, at least, it can be excused as a “cultural” expression. We throw love and kisses around like confetti on New Year’s Eve. Do we really love complete strangers? Do we really think they love us enough that they’ll follow us to the car dealership for a tune-up on a snowy day and drive us home? Won’t happen baby! My long time, real friend Chris, who I do love, drove me home. Love is like Harrington’s favorite single malt scotch...not to be watered down! Learn, dear reader, love is like expensive perfume, great but not in excess. Shake hands with me folks or maybe just wave if you see me at the supermarket, especially if you don’t even remember my name. Think when you end a letter or email with “Love” or “Love you” what you’re going to have left to say when you are communicating with someone you actually do love. Adore might work, until the marketers and Oprah get a hold of it. But in truth, do you actually really “adore” me? Let’s let the words and expressions truly mean what they mean. There is true love, there is friendship love, but

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Romantic North ShoreTables...

East to West 2009by Douglas MacKaye HarringtonEditor’s Note: Lily and I went in search of this year’s romantic North Shore tables and came up with a few more than we did last year. As always, these choices are completely subjective on our part and you may have some favorite spots that we have overlooked. If so, let me know and we will take a look at them for next year’s Valentine issue. All of the restaurants listed here have some very special plans for their customers this Valentine’s Day. Some have special menus and seatings, some have live music and dancing, some have special extras that might surprise you. Please call the restaurants directly to find out what they have to offer. Don’t forget, this year the love day falls on a Saturday and many of the restaurants are celebrating all week-end long. Happy Valentine’s Day! DMH

Blackwells RestaurantWading River 929-1800Although probably covered in snow, the vistas from the library dining room of this superb restaurant in the Great Rock Golf Course club-house nestle this white linen establishment in complete seclusion. The three separate dining areas are all remarkable in their own ways, but the warm and wood paneled ambiance of the library caught our eye this year and table 28 directly in front of the roaring fireplace is the Valentine table of choice. Brian Scotts

Miller Place 331-4848 Along the historic thoroughfare that is North Country Road in Miller Place, this landmark home was transformed into a restaurant decades ago as The Secret Road Inn. Now owned by celebrated North Shore chef Brian Burner, this warm and cozy spot is like coming home, while eating out. A small front dining room and a more expansive main dining room, walled in glass, with a view of the roman-tic night sky make any table the right table this Valentine’s Day. However, totally enclosed and com-pletely private, table 5 is without a doubt the place to pop the question or simply say, “I love you!”

Pace’s SteakhousePort Jefferson 331-9200Our favorite Port Jefferson steakhouse makes the list for the second year. Upscale and smart, for the carnivorous lovers Pace’s boasts a marinade that is legendary, and the staff is one of the most professional in the business. Always busy, this harbor town eatery is the place to be in every season for locals and tourists alike. Without a doubt, table 14 in front of the candle illuminated fireplace remains our choice for the most romantic table in this classic and tasteful restau-rant. GM Bernie is the host with the most and if you are lucky enough to get Frankie as your waiter, your Valentine dining experience will be perfect.

Bliss RestaurantSetauket 941-0430The French-American cuisine created by Chef Danny Avalos (with touches of his own culinary heritage) is worth the trip alone. When you add to it the exuberant warmth of the management and staff, the very urbane and understated Manhattan ambiance, and the smart and stylish crowd that frequents this popular nightspot, it is, indeed, pure bliss! Cozy in the corner is the place to be with a full view of the dining room at table 20. Small and intimate, reservations are always suggested.

The Country HouseStony Brook, 751-3332Another second time choice as a must reservation for Valentine’s Day, the Zagat guide describes this historic restaurant as “A midsummer night’s dream come to life!” Well deserved and rightly so, as it was voted Long Island’s most romantic restaurant in AOL’s City Guide 2007. If you are so in love that you feel like you are lost in a dream, this is the place to dream on and on and on! On top of all that the staff is charm-ing and attentive and the food seasonally fresh and extraordinary. Try and reserve one of the two tables in the garden room, our choice is table 3.

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Grasso’sCold Spring Harbor 367-6060One of the last great jazz spots on Long Island, the eponymous Gail Grasso has as heartfelt a dedication to live jazz as she does to fine cuisine and excellent service. A Main Street must in Cold Spring Harbor for many years, this Italian trattoria is a local favorite, but draws patrons from Man-hattan on a nightly basis. The lineup of musicians is a jazz Who’s Who, but our favorite is singer Ernie Bird. For a great, romantic view of the music we suggest table 44.

PentimentoStony Brook, 689-7755Earth toned sponge painted walls, beautiful and classic European Cocktail Art Posters, and a reputation for some of the finest Italian food in the country has given Chef Dennis Young’s restaurant its well deserved longevity. Exemplary and detailed service under the watchful eye of Lisa Cusamano will guarantee an very special Valentine’s evening at this beautiful and understated Stony Brook favorite. Our choice for the most romantic spot is table 15.

Panama HattiesHuntington Station 351-1727A Zagat Top Spot and we couldn’t agree more. The reputation of this very desired reserva-tion is well deserved. Don’t let the strip-mall location throw you, once inside you’ll melt into the perfectly lit ambiance of this taste-fully decorated and professionally staffed restaurant. The American cuisine served at PH has never lost it luster and is considered some of the best on the Island. There are several romantic tables, but we suggest corner table 3 in the front dining room.

Honu Kitchen & CocktailsHuntington 421-6900Breathtaking may be the only word to describe this extraordinarily striking restaurant. Crystal chandeliers from the enormously high ceil-ing hang like suspended galaxies over the expansive, yet warm, dining room. The lengthy bar and its beautiful backdrop makes one wonder why anyone actually would even want a table. The critically acclaimed small plate, seasonal menu put this restaurant on the fast track to be one of Long Island’s hottest destinations. And yes, the tables are worth a walk to from the bar, try one of the fireplace tables 40-45...we like 42!

Cafe Buenos AiresHuntington 603-3600Tango into this Argentinian landmark and you will not be disappointed. The ethnic food and exotic flavor of the ambiance makes you feel like a cast member of Evita. The bar is busy, as is the dining room in a restaurant whose unique cuisine draws patrons from far and wide in search of some South American flare. With a view of the bar and a peek at the street, our pick for a romantic table here is table 43.

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Ashley Wine & Andrew Wilkey, Huntington Harbor - Councill

EDITOR’S NOTE: As our North Shore winter is upon us, it does seem too cold to do many things. But what of love and romance? Should either ever be put on hold because of wind and weather, season or snow? Admittedly, all that know me know that I am a hopeless romantic. I cherish romance and hold fast to it in the face of all adversity, even the foulest of weather. Despite what the cynics may say, more than money, possessions, or status, love is what truly drives the joy in all of us. Love is that difficult to define emotion that can unravel all other ambitions, or bring them into pure clarity. Many an Irish couple have walked the Quays of the River Liffy in Dublin and looked at a full Valentine’s moon from the Ha’ Penny Bridge in February. The cold of winter doesn’t prevent lovers, young and old, in Paris from finding a cozy bench and kissing alongside the Seine. On the briskest of British days, couples stroll the Thames in London hand in hand. Of course, I reference here old, romantic European cities whose

Romantic Winter Strolls

Stony Brook Harbor - Romer

Miller Place Pond - Romer

Dana Indelicato & Erik McCormack, Northport Harbor - Councill

banks have been walked for centuries. Patroned by peasants and kings, po-ets and prostitutes, merchants and millionaires, love and passion is the only common denominator. Well, we may not have a single, quayed romantic river that runs the entire length of the North Shore, but we have our harbors and ponds, inlets and estuaries. For your consideration, we offer some suggested locations in this photo spread created by Robert Romer and Janelle Brooke Councill. Turn off the TV, put down the magazine (even ours), get out of the house and take the hand of the one you love, or hope to love, and stroll a watery sunset or dawn this winter. Wrap you arms around them and pull them close as you take in the romantic vistas that are purely North Shoreian. Whether young or old, find a romantic bench and make-out like crazy fools in love. I promise, your lips will not freeze together, but I guarantee, your heart will skip a beat and you will be left breathless by the passion of that perfect winter kiss. DMH

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and Kissing Benches

Setauket Inlet - Romer

Port Jefferson Harbor - Romer

Cedar Beach, Mt. Sinai Harbor - Romer

Melissa Rosen & Rich Toscani on Crab Meadow Beach, Centerport - Councill

Photo Essayby

Robert Romer and Janelle Brooke Councill

Frank Melville Jr. Park, Setauket - Romer

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Brian ScottsAMERICAN RESTAURANT

Where Dining out. . .is like coming home!

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Sixth Row on the AisleTheatre Criticism and Commentary Elizabeth Bojsza

Equus Begets the Career of a Rising Star Many of you have heard about the production of Equus currently running on Broadway. Written in the 70s by Peter Shaffer, who also wrote Amadeus, Equus focuses on the struggle of a psychologist to uncover and come to terms with the driving force behind a young man’s brutal act of animal cruelty. Doesn’t ring a bell? Okay, maybe I should have started with the sensational: this is the show in which Daniel Radcliffe (yes, the actor who became the face of Harry Potter) bears it all. “Oh, THAT Broadway production,” you might be saying. But this not a mere gimmick on the part of the producers and casting director, as many skeptics initially touted. Or if it was, they struck oil. Nineteen-year-old Radcliffe, whom the world has seen change from a boy into a young man in the Harry Potter mov-ies, is extremely well cast as Alan Strang, an isolated teenager on the cusp of sexual awakening. There is not a trace of the bold young wizard in Radcliffe’s portrayal of Strang, who vividly recounts and even relives Strang’s most private moments of obsession, pleasure, and shame. Reviewers of the London production and this current Broadway run echo similar sentiments: They entered the theatre expecting an average performance from an on-screen superstar, and left convinced of Radcliffe’s talents. In accepting this role in Shaffer’s psycho-sexual drama, Radcliffe seems to have found the perfect vehicle to broaden his career—equally as removed from the fantasy genre as it is from a smoking and boozing “bad boy” role. As psychologist Martin Dysart (played powerfully by Richard Griffiths) looks back at the toughest, most enlightening case of his career, he steps in and out of his memory scenes on a minimal set. Four rectangular blocks are shifted by the actors to create all of the locations in the play. In the original concept (described in Shaffer’s stage directions) the ensemble of actors also sit on stage to watch the action, but stage designer John Napier has morphed that concept of “witnessing” into a gallery

of on-stage audience seats. The effect of this choice is that not only does the audi-ence see the actors on stage, but they see themselves watching the action as well. We also see quite a bit of the horses Alan Strang loves so much. The six horses that appear in the story are played by men clothed in platform shoes fitted with horseshoes and wearing stylized horse head masks. The illusion of horses is achieved through careful movement work (choreographed by Fin Walker), in which the men mimic the twitching, hoof scraping and braying that is the essence of the equine. Director Thea Sharrock has made the horses a major presence on stage, mak-ing them a physical manifestation of the god-like omniscience with which Strang imbues them. In this production, the audience is taken on a journey with Dysart as our guide.

We get to know Alan Strang as Dysart did: who at first was only able to talk at the boy, who would spout commercial jingles instead of responding to questions. Gradually, the psychologist earns the boy’s trust and encourages Alan to relive his memories, which are then played out on stage. We also get more clues from Dysart’s interviews with the stable manager and Alan’s parents. We discover that not only is Alan willful, he is smart too, and he has created a private devotion to horses that becomes nothing short of his religion. (I don’t want to give too much away in terms of plot sum-mary, because if you are not familiar with this play already I want you to have the opportunity to discover Alan’s motives yourself). In the playwright’s note in the program, Shaffer speaks to his initial hesitation to reviving the play 35 years from its

premiere. Much has changed in the field of psychology and he was concerned that Dysart’s approach to treating Alan Strang might date the play and therefore make it less accessible to current audiences. From my observation, the costumes were quite neutral and the set is so stylized that it was not clear if the production team had tried

to update the story to the present or leave it set in the 1970s, but it somehow doesn’t matter. One can only assume that this ambiguity was intentional. The story is inspired by a very specific crime, but is really an explora-tion of the human psyche and spirit beyond the histori-cal incident. With this revival, Equus has proven that it withstands the test of time. Equus runs through February 8th at the Broadhurst theatre.

Elizabeth Bojsza is a dramaturg, director, and teacher. She has worked profes-sionally in New York City, Long Island, and in community-based theatre. Elizabeth currently teaches theatre at Stony Brook University, where she earned her MFA in dramaturgy in 2004, and is the Literary Associate for Young Playwrights Inc, a the-atre company dedicated to fostering the development of playwrights 18 years of age and younger. www.youngplaywrights.org.

Nineteen-year-old Radcliffe, whom the world has seen change from a boy into a young man in the Harry Potter movies, is extremely well cast as Alan Strang.

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“Mammy” role in Gone With the Wind (1939, dir. Victor Fleming). More common, however were the dim-witted antics of comics like Stepin Fetchit (the first black to receive featured billing in an American film) which could interrupt a movie at any moment to provide laughs and “comic relief.” By the 1940s a few light-skinned black performers started to gain acceptance to white audiences, e.g. Lena Horne in Stormy Weather (1943). The most noticeable thing, however, about the treatment of black and white relations in Hollywood films was its lack of treatment. Hollywood produced several films that had a “colored angle,” such as Imitation of Life (1934) and Pinky (1949, dir. Elia Kazan), nominated for three Academy Awards. Both films portray a light-skinned black woman who “passes” for white. Kazan’s film, in the late 1940s-50s “problem-film” tradition, gives a fairly accurate portrayal of racism and its effects. A young light-skinned African American woman (the white actress Jeanne Crain) has returned south from nursing school in Chicago, where for the first time she had “been treated like a human being.” She rejects her mother (Ethel Waters, in the mammy role)

and wants to leave her past and skin color behind by returning north to marry a white doctor. In the end, she decides to stay and open a health clinic for the poor: “You can change your name, but I wonder if you can change what you really are inside.” The master artist of film melodrama, Douglas Sirk, remade Imitation of Life in 1959, and the result is still controversial. Without any overt commentary Sirk meticulously depicts the unspoken racial dou-ble standard of American society. The white “star,” Lana Turner, a troubled actress who rises to wealth and stardom, chews through the scenery oblivious to the problems of her huge-hearted nanny (Juanita Moore, Academy Award nomination) and her light-skinned daughter, Sarah Jane (part-Hispanic Susan Kohner, who won the Golden Globe), who wants to be “white.” Kohner and her problems are con-trasted with Turner’s All-American daughter (San-dra Dee). Sirk starkly, but matter-of-factly, presents white racism and the inbred self-loathing forced upon African Americans. When Sarah Jane’s boy-friend (teenage heart-throb Troy Donahue) finds out that she is part black, he brutally beats her for her presumption. Sarah Jane insists: “I’m white, too. If I have to be colored, I want to die. I want to have a chance in life. I don’t want to have to come through back doors.” She escapes her racial identity by run-ning off to become a “white” chorus girl and bar room dancer. The film is unflinching melodrama, with no directorial commentary, and was one of the biggest box office hits of the year. The late 1950s saw the arrival of the “Barack Obama of American cinema” in Sidney Poitier. Poiter totally transformed both white and black Americans’ racial stereotypes in a series of brilliant

film performances. Here was a handsome, confident, articu-late and strong but non-threatening black man. In Stanley Kramer’s The Defiant Ones (1958), as Noah Cullen, he finds himself shackled to the racist “bo-hunk” John “Joker” Jack-son (Tony Curtis), as they escape from a chain-gang and are forced on the lam together. Even though Curtis never even learns Poitier’s name (he simply calls him “nigger” and then later “colored”), they both learn a grudging respect for one another and finally bond as friends. The film received ten Academy Award nominations and was so popular it re-ceived a “Merrie Melodies” cartoon parody D’Fightin’ Ones (1961), where Sylvester the Cat and Hector the Bulldog find themselves chained together while escaping the dog-catch-er. 1967 was the watershed year which produced two films that seared into America’s consciousness---Stanley Kram-er’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? and Norman Jewi-son’s In the Heat of the Night, each by Jewish-American directors and each featuring Poitier, who had already won an Oscar as Best Actor in Lilies of the Field (1963), which presented a remarkably integrated portrait of the American south-west. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? paired one of America’s iconic screen duos for the last time (Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy). The film (nominated for eight Academy Awards) was a splash of cold water in the faces of “progressive” white audiences who believed that racism

was confined to the backwaters of the deep south. Spencer Tracy’s (he died shortly after the film wrapped) Matt Drayton is “a lifelong fighting liberal who loathes race

Guess Who’s Coming to the Inauguration? Black and White in Hollywood Besides its entertainment and artistic values, film provides an unparalleled sociological documentation of its audiences and their values. Race is a giant scar that runs through the American consciousness and, not surprisingly, film, the American art form, has a complex and checkered history in its depictions of relationships between blacks and whites. For de-cades Hollywood settled for uncritical replications of American segregation and the racial ideology un-der which it thrived. Not until the crest of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s did Hollywood fi-nally begin to critically examine this issue head-on. Since then, a plethora of films have come at the race issue from every direction. The most important landmark in American film history, D.W. Griffith’s introduction of mon-tage and the full-length feature in The Birth of a

Nation (1915), for all its greatness, is so shamefully marred by the theme of white supremacy in its sec-ond-half as to make it difficult to watch today. In the Civil War epic’s depiction of postwar Recon-struction, blacks are literally depicted as barefoot, fried-chicken-eating animals that steal, pillage and seek to rape white women with gleeful abandon. The ending of the film is perhaps Griffith’s most distinctive and powerful montage sequence as the Ku Klux Klan (to the orchestral strains of Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyrie”) swarm to the rescue of the threatened white virginity of the pubescent Lillian Gish. Al-most as outrageous as the content is the fact that the rabid blacks are all played by white actors in black-face. Griffith, the son of a confederate soldier, was no philosopher, and his film followed his source material uncritically; the novel and play “The Clansman” by the Rev. Thomas Dixon. The NAACP organized demonstrations and several big cities, like Pittsburgh, pulled the film, and five states banned it out-right. Ironically, the Klan had ceased to exist by 1915. The film’s success led to its rebirth, and in 1924 over 100,000 hooded Klansmen proudly paraded through our nation’s capitol across the very spot from which 40 years later more than a quarter-million Civil Rights marchers would hear Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963.

From the 1920s through 1950s, the American film industry accommodated itself to the social realities of segre-gation and Jim Crow laws. Most theatres and movie-houses were segregated (in some cities blacks were allowed seating in the balcony of white theatres). Hollywood films featured all-white actors, with blacks occasionally passing through the scenes as bell-hops, shoe-shine boys, short-order cooks, chauffeurs or train-porters. Historical films set in the south often had large-black supporting casts, but in the roles of mammies, field and house Negroes, slaves and servants, such as the Bette Davis triumph Jezebel (1938, dir. William Wyler), set in pre-Civil War New Orleans, which actually had more black than white actors. Hattie McDaniel was the first black to receive an Academy Award, for the

The Improper Cinephile #13 Film Criticism and Commentary

Michael X. Zelenak (Member RPSL)

The late 1950s saw the arrival of the “Barack Obama of American cin-ema” in Sidney Poitier.

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prejudice” and a member of San Francis-co’s wealthy social elite. But he and wife Hepburn find that they have “a sort of a situation here” when pampered daugh-ter (Katharine Houghton) returns from college engaged to Dr. John Prentice (Poitier). The film has many reversals of expectation as the couple meets a wild twist of obstacles, not the least of which are Poitier’s parents’ objections and the outrageously memorable comments of the Drayton’s black maid Tillie Binks (Isabel Sanford): “Civil Rights is one thing. This here is something else.” At one point, she describes Poitier as “one of those smooth-talking smart-ass niggers.” Poitier and his white fiancée dream of a day when their mixed race “child will be president of the United States.” 41 years later a similar event, unthinkable even a few years ago, would actually happen, even though at the time interracial marriage was illegal in 23 states. Frank Rich in a November 1 ar-ticle in The New York Times has already pointed out the historic ironies and similarities to Poitier’s role and that of current president-elect Barack Obama. Even more blisteringly contempo-rary was In the Heat of the Night (Academy Award for Best Picture). Al-though Poitier had the starring role with top billing, Rod Steiger gave an ex-traordinary career-defining role (and Best Actor Oscar) as police Chief Bill Gillespie of Sparta, Mississippi. A dead body leads Gillespie’s “cracker” Keystone cops to arrest a black man at a train station, suspicious because he’s “dressed in white man’s clothes” (a coat-and-tie). The black man turns out to be Homicide Detective Virgil Tibbs (Poitier) from Philadelphia, PA. Instead of a jail-cell, Tibbs becomes involved in and takes the lead in the murder investigation, much to the amazement and anger of the local rac-ist elites and hoi-polloi. A pretty standard murder-mystery melodrama is turned by Poitier and especially Steiger into a densely textured character study of two men trying to do their jobs while also forced to confront their personal demons of racial stereotypes. Of course, Poitier finally solves the murder, but not before standing up to local Klans-men and in a landmark scene, slapping-back in the face, racist white cotton Baron, Eric Endicott (Larry Gates). Both men earn a grudging, but deeply-felt respect for each other after a terrifying glimpse at the true depth of the American racial divide. The 1980s and 90s saw a huge surge of films that treated American racism from every direc-tion. A major genre was the “Liberal White Guilt” films, where white directors and mostly white protagonists dealt with horrif-ic events manipulated to allow their largely white audiences a purgation of their real or imagined social guilt: Mississippi Burning (1988, dir. Alan Parker), Murder in Missis-sippi (1989), A Time to Kill (1996, dir. Joel Schumacher), Ghosts of Mississippi (1996, dir. Rob Reiner), Amistad (1999, dir. Spiel-berg) and The Hurricane (2000, dir. Jewi-son). Race is a highly charged issue, and as we all should have learned, one that can be easily fanned and twisted by emotions, and several of these films border on either overt reverse racism (Ghosts of Mississippi) or naïve imbecility (Amistad). Director John Singleton had powerfully depicted the cri-sis facing inner-city black youth in Boys’ N the Hood (1991), and in 1997 would drama-tize one of America’s least-known and most shameful outbursts of racial hatred and vio-lence in Rosewood. Rosewood, Florida was a prosperous middle class town where blacks owned their own homes and businesses un-til January 2, 1923, when neighboring whites went on a racial rampage, massacring dozens of black men and women and burning every home to the ground. Forget im-

ages of the Klan, we are brought closer to images of Nazis in Eastern Europe. Even if scenes in the film are “over the top,” it’s hard to know what that really means. As actor Ving Rhames notes: “Nigger. It’s just another word for guilty.” As both fact and metaphor, the lurid images of the film project the lynchings and hundreds of acts of racial hatred that mar our heritage. In 1993 the Florida Legislature granted millions of dollars in compensation to the survivors of the racial murders in Rose-wood. The late 1980s also saw the emergence of Spike Lee, one of America’s most important directors. Lee is not only a great director, but a superb actor and an often more brilliant screenwriter. His ear for dialogue and his ability to sharply distill

the rhythms of speech make him an urban American George Bernard Shaw. Like Shaw, some of his work has been uneven, and especially in recent years he has be-come prone to Black Muslim didacticism (which marred the last third of the amaz-ing epic Malcolm X, 1992), but he has al-ready created a body of remarkable films. Do the Right Thing (1989) which he di-rected, produced, wrote and starred in, is a masterpiece of American cinema. Set on a single block of Stuyvesant Avenue of Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood, he creates a microcosm of the American racial urban landscape. The only busi-nesses in the neighborhood are Sal’s Famous Pizzeria and a Korean-owned convenience store, and none of the lo-cals seem to have jobs except Mookie (Lee), Sal’s (Danny Aiello) 28-year-old minimum-wage delivery boy, himself the unmarried father of a mixed-race child by Tina (Rosie Perez). The mythic Sal’s Famous Pizzeria is a white Italian American island in an African American and Puerto Rican sea. Sal’s racist son Pino (John Turturro) hates the neighbor-hood and the people: “Everyday I come

to work it’s like Planet of the Apes.” The action spans a single typical but tragically eventful day in the midst of a record-setting heat wave. Lee’s brash imaginative sweep shows a bold mastery of camera work, edit-ing, music, and action. The script creates a range of performance styles from natural-istic ensemble acting to choral stylization and bravura linguistic arias. The pounding rhythm of the gangster-rap song “Fight the Power” by Public Enemy, echoes through-out the film. Lee peoples his world with an amazing array of fantastically real memo-rable characters, from Mookie, Sal and his two sons, Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn), Da Mayor (Ossie Davis), Sister Mother (Ruby Dee), Buggin’ Out (Giancarlo Esposito) to the chorus of Sweet Dick Willie, ML and Coconut Sid. The neighborhood gnarls with racial tensions on a razor’s edge, wait-ing for a flame and any stray wind to ignite it. A minor misunderstanding turns short tempers and misplaced anger into an apoca-lyptic frenzy of violence. “There is no end in sight for the heat wave” DJ Mister Señor Love Daddy (Sam-uel L. Jackson), another choric presence, pipes out as the neighborhood cleans up from the latest riot and senseless murder. Almost as great a film, Jungle Fever (1991), again written, produced, and co-starring Lee, sets off a series of seismic explosions when a married black architect from Harlem (Wesley Snipes) begins a passionate affair with an Italian American secretary (Anna-bella Sciorra). Lee has the courage to deal openly with racism and racial stereotypes from every direction and in every form, black and white. Don’t watch Lee if you

can’t deal with reality served up double espresso, in black and white. Another recent film, writer-director Paul Haggis’ Crash (2004, nominated for six Academy Awards,

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DVD Pick of the Month

Title: White DogDirector: Samuel FullerYear of Release: 1982DVD Publication Date: December 2, 2008Publisher: The Criterion Collection # 455 Retail Price: $29.95

Sam Fuller, the brash pulp poet of auteur directors, following the commer-cial success of his war epic The Big Red One (1980), was handed a large budget to film the novel “White Dog,” about a rabid canine who had been trained to attack and terrorize blacks. Hoping to duplicate the success of recent hysteria-

horror exploitation films, Paramount was hoping for a “Jaws with Paws.” Instead Fuller delivered a blister-ing over-the-top moral indictment of American racism that was pulled from release after only a single pre-view. Kristy McNichol played the young struggling actress Julie Saw-yer who adopts the wounded stray animal. After hunting down and rip-ping apart a black man in a church underneath a stained glass window of St. Francis of Assisi (protector of animals), McNichol takes the all-white German shepherd to the animal shelter “Noah’s Ark,” run by Carruthers (Burl Ives) and his trainer Keys (Paul Winfield). Winfield be-comes obsessed with the re-training of man’s best friend whose instincts have been twisted and polluted by

racism, constructing a huge caged arena where man (in heavily armored gear) and dog fight it out through a series of gladiatorial re-programming combats. Winfield’s character, an obvious double for director Fuller, re-educates the dog step by step until he has cured him of his hatred of blacks. When he is finally un-leashed to display his de-programming, the dog licks the hands of Winfield but then quickly turns and brutally attacks the white Burl Ives. The country was so confused and racially polarized in 1982 that the film got mistakenly dubbed “racist” and never released in America, but was criti-cally acclaimed in Paris and did a respectable box office in Europe. Only a single print survived, which was shown at a New York film seminar in 1991. Criterion’s digital restoration has saved the film for posterity, bundled with a number of interviews and extras. Incidentally, most of the film’s budget went to extensive animal training and stunt work by five separate similar-looking dogs under the supervision of Karl Miller, who went on to become Holly-wood’s top animal trainer in films such as Babe (1995). Fuller was never one for subtlety. The film’s message keeps slamming in the face, but it contains some absolutely remarkable visuals and amazing camera-work. -The Improper Cinephile

the same year he wrote Million Dollar Baby) is a perfect bookend to Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing. Both are episodically structured, and in each the melting-pot becomes a boiling-kettle, but instead of the grimy streets of Brooklyn where all races daily confront and brush up against each other, Crash is set in sprawling Los Angeles, where the city on wheels insulates the races behind the metal barriers of cars and free-ways. A crash sets off an exploration where everyone “loses their frame of reference” and leads to a total breakdown of the social contract as every race turns on each other---black, white, Asian, Hispanic, Middle-Eastern. The all-star multi-ethnic characters (Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, “Ludacris,” Brendan Fraser) and the audience are forced to confront the same powerful question, one that continues to haunt America as a repetitive refrain and seemingly inescapable leitmotif: “You think you know who you are? You have no idea!”

Michael Zelenak received his doctorate from Yale University in Dramaturgy and Criticism. He worked with Martin Scorsese as dramaturg on the Academy-Award-winning Age of Innocence (Columbia Pictures, 1993). His Gender and Politics in Greek Tragedy (Peter Lang) recently was reprinted in a second edition. He is As-sociate Professor in the Theatre Arts department at Stony Brook University, where he teaches theatre and film history.

Return to Music, Recorder Style This is article is co-published with The North Shoreian by BeYourArt.com, a website dedicated to providing business resources to artists.

I’m writing this for everyone who wants to play music, and especially for those who used to play but gave it up to focus on other things. Making music is fun and satisfying, but it can be a daunting prospect starting out. Assuming you can already read music at a basic level, major concerns are usually the cost of buying an instrument, deciding whether or not to take lessons, and finding opportunities to play the music that you enjoy. If these concerns are what are stopping you from pursuing music, either as a hobby or more seriously, I suggest you consider learning to play the recorder. I understand that the recorder carries with it a certain stigma - most of us recall the terrible screeching and whistling that was part of our elementary school musical education. The recorder is ideal as a beginning instrument because the fundamentals of the instrument are easy to grasp. That’s not to say that the recorder is a “simple” instrument. It is just as nuanced and faceted as many of our modern

instruments and an expan-sive repertoire of both solo and ensemble works has been written for the instrument. Recorders are far more

affordable than most student instruments, as well. You can pick up a good set of plastic Yamaha recorders (called a consort and comprised of a soprano, alto, tenor, and bass recorder) for what you might expect to pay for a decent trumpet or clarinet. There’s another reason for my suggesting the recorder, too. Long Island is home to many local and amateur ensembles, including a chapter of the American Recorder Society. RSLI, the Recorder Society of Long Island, “consists of a group of music-loving recorder players of all ages and levels, ranging from beginner to advanced,” according to Margaret Brown, former President of RSLI. The musical director is Rachel Begley, but each month features a different guest conductor. Ms. Begley is a professional recorder artist who holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in recorder and early music from SUNY, Stony Brook. (See the Sound Waves column on page.) RSLI has been in existence since the 1970’s and currently counts around 30 full-time members that, “represent a broad spectrum of careers and professions … includ[ing] teachers, physicians, scientists, homemakers, lawyers, information technology people, college professors, and artists.” Music does not have to be a full-time profession. You can add a little music to your life with a modest financial investment and a little practice at home. Dues for the American Recorder Society are $40 per year and RSLI charges $10 per session as a playing fee (which compensates the guest conductors for their time). Visitors and new-comers are invited to play “for free” on their first visit. The RSLI meets once a month and is invaluable both for guidance (ask to be paired with a mentor if you’re feeling unsure of yourself) and for being able to play with a full ensemble. I can speak from experience that RSLI’s members are welcoming, generous, and genuinely want you to succeed. Exploring music is a worthwhile and fulfilling activity. Don’t be afraid to test the waters! Inquire about affordable lessons at your local music store or college campus, check online for affordable instruments, and check the bulletin boards at libraries and community centers for beginner’s courses. If you’ve been looking for an opportunity to play music casually, or if you’ve been looking for opportunities to play early music repertoire, I urge to you to go www.rsli.info and contact RSLI. You’ll find that Long Island is home to a wonderful and supportive group of musi-cians who “just like to have fun playing together.”

Joseph Shortsle is originally from Michigan. He completed his studies in music there before moving to Long Island to explore its vibrant artistic community. He writes The North Shoreian’s monthly music column, Sound Waves.

I Practicalities of the Surviving ArtistBy Joseph Shortsle

The recorder is ideal as a beginning instrument because the fundamentals of the instrument are easy to grasp. That’s not to say that the re-corder is a “simple” instrument.

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performs medieval, renaissance, baroque and modern music, as well as arrange-ments of traditional/world music, and their collection of instruments numbers more than two dozen recorders from makers around the world.” They have appeared in concert throughout the New York tri-state area, and have performed with prestigious ensembles including the world-renowned Flanders Recorder Quartet. Their concerts have earned them both local “… and national acclaim and in 2004 they were featured in the inaugural New York Early Music Celebration, and appeared in concert at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.” As a performer, Begley is always aware of her influence over the audience. “When I’m playing … I try to bring some passion into it.” She understands that the audience will respond to the intensity of the performance and it’s that intensity that can enrapture even today’s over-stimulated audiences. In her words, she strives for a dramatic performance. “I do love drama because it engages people in that moment.” In her performance of “Daniel” at the Cloisters this past December she was, “In cos-tume! I sing, I dance, I play - all from memory. Each time it’s performed it’s a new interpretation because there’s much improvisation. Even the rhythm is un-noted. Whatever I performed today will not be what happens tomorrow.” It’s exactly this type of dramatic role that she searches for, and she knows that the audiences searches for it as well. “I think that’s why people love opera, there is music plus.” Begley doesn’t have much of a routine, preferring to do what she finds inter-esting. In addition to her performing career, Rachel teaches privately and at festivals and workshops in the US and Europe, and is Music Director for the Recorder Society of Long Island. As Music Director for RSLI her goal, “is to provide stimulating and varied opportunities for players,” and, “to provide an interesting program of opportu-nities for players of all levels.” She has a warmth and a humor about her that makes her very approachable. Working with students and workshop participants, she can answer questions and tell jokes almost simultaneously and never seems to lose sight of the goal. Her demeanor is not snobbish or elitist. Instead, she approaches music with a cross between business-like professionalism and the easygoing spirit of a sum-mer picnic.

Joseph Shortsle is originally from Michigan. He completed his studies in music there before moving to Long Island to explore its vibrant artistic community.

Sound WavesNorth Shore Music Review and Commentary

Joseph Shortsle

Rachel BegleyNS Recorder Virtuoso Appearing with prestigious orchestras and ensembles, teaching aspiring musicians, and traveling to and fro to perform, one North Shore resident is always seeking out the new and exciting. Rachel Begley is a recorder virtuoso and freelance musician living in Port Jefferson Station, but performing and teaching throughout Long Island and the United States. For Begley, early music has always held a special interest. She began her studies in England, but moved to the United States for Graduate work, eventually earning her Doc-tor of Musical Arts degree in recorder and early music from SUNY Stony Brook in 1997. She is a recorder virtuoso, but also plays historical bassoon (baroque and classical). “Older ones [bassoons] have a different number of keys,” she explains, referring to the number of finger holes of the older bassoons compared to the number of keys on a modern bassoon. She slips seamlessly into being the educator without breaking the humorous and casual nature of the conversation. She continues, “The older ones don’t have keys. Modern ones have keys that solve some of the problems.” It seems that the baroque and classical instruments experienced peculiarities in intonation which resulted in unique tonal colors when the instrument was played in different key centers. “Composers took advan-tage of the tone colors and wrote for the instrument with them in mind.” Begley’s studies in the United States began at Indiana University’s Early Music Institute. She moved to New York to pursue her Doctorate and has been based here since. She is active as both soloist and orchestral player, and appears regularly with such ensembles as the New York Philharmonic, New York City Opera, the American Classical Orchestra, New York Collegium, Concert Royal, the Long Island Baroque Ensemble, and Philomel. She has performed as a soloist at the prestigious Boston and Berkeley Early Music Festivals, in addition to performing concertos and giving recitals across the country. She co-founded the New Amsterdam Recorder Trio which, “… was founded in 2001 by three recorder virtuosi, from England, Israel and the Netherlands, now living in New York.” Their name is taken from the original name for New York, and it also reflects both the more recent recognition of Amsterdam as the “recorder capital” of the world and their desire to break new ground in the art of recorder playing. Her musical interests are not greatly restricted by the period in which her instruments flourished. “I swing through phases,” she says. “This precise weekend I’m in the 12th century because I’m performing ‘Daniel’ at the Cloisters. Last week I was in the 18th century. Generally, whatever I’m doing is what I want to be doing.” She finds that being a freelance musician gives her the freedom to go where the opportunities are best. “You do pick and choose [from] what comes your way. I do enjoy more interesting projects.” With NewART she gets to explore a broad range of material. “… NewART

“Generally, whatever I’m do-ing is what I want to be doing.”

Althoughnotyetnamed, The “Improper” North Shore-ian was officially created out of a cocktail conversation I had with my friend Nancy Weeks, telling her of the idea I had for a local publication. Sometime after, I told my friend and pub-lishing partner, Charlie McKenna, that I had a very editorially specific plan for a North Shore magazine. At first, I wanted to create a publication to serve the Port Jefferson/Three Village demographic, “Let’s drop 5,000 copies in this area and make it something so visually beautiful, demographically specific and thought-provoking that literally everyone will want to pick it up!” He said, “Let’s double the circulation and drop from Northport, where I grew up, to Port Jefferson!” Well, we did! Thanks to the support of our readers, our advertisers, our families, good friends, and all the brilliant writers and artists that make this magazine happen, we are actually celebrating our 1st Anniversary. And only a year later, we now serve a demographic from Cold Spring Harbor in the west to Baiting Hollow in the east with an estimated readership of 40,000. On a very specific level, Charlie and I would like to thank our loves, Cyndi and Lily, our children, Associate Publisher Nancy Weeks, Art Director Tom Reid, Associate Art Director Gala Scibelli, Events Editor Marie Ann Mordeno, Photography Editor Robert Romer, Advertising Editors Dylan Sullivan and Laura Kessler, and our Ambassadors-at-Large Helene Bredes, Patty Yantz, and Chris Oster. Here is a brief overview of the evolution of the magazine through the first twelve issues with a sampling of selected article excerpts.

I-1: The Holday Issue The very first editorial started when, before we even had a print date, I got Mike Zelenak, Nancy Weeks, our Photography Editor Bob Romer and myself unlim-ited-access press passes for The Hamptons International Film Festival based on my years as Editor-in-Chief of The Improper Hamptonian.. Before we ever had a dime to actually create the magazine you are reading now, some of the most creative and inventive editorial that has ever been written about that festival was penned by Michael X. Zelenak, The Improper Cinephile. Even though not a word about the Hamptons has probability been written since in these pages, they were the words that drove this magazine into existence. (And yes, we all had a hell of a time in the Hamptons that week. Long live, Hunter S. Thompson!)

Here I am! A celebrity-industry-only private-invite only open bar party for Mitchell Lichtenstein, writer, director and producer of Teeth. I went to Yale with Mitch and haven’t seen him in a quarter-century. We go over old times and all the

Church, our first dinning review (Bliss Restaurant), and our first The Creatives column (Christian White) featuring North Shore artists. Of course, our first issue signaled the debut of some of our regular and semi-regular columnists like Jack Filasky, Anthony Frasca, Dan Stahl, C. Aphrodite Spanos, Co-Publisher Charlie McKenna and Jim Leotta, among others. We will give you a taste of everyone before this article is finished.

I-2 Film, Theatre and RomanceThe second issue was devoted to film, theatre and romance with many more contributors, including myself in regards to theatre.

Shakespeare wrote that “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players.” His words certainly hold true across Long Island, as both Nassau and Suffolk counties are rich in playhouses that range from professional equity performances to small community acting companies. Within the demographic of this particular magazine there are four venues of note, The John W. Engeman Theater in Northport Village, The Smithtown Center for the Performing Arts on Main Street in Smithtown, Theatre Three in Port Jefferson Village, and The Staller Center for the Performing Arts at Stony Brook University.

Our fellow first contributor to this magazine, Zelenak, wrote a definitive piece celebrating the centennial of John Wayne and his films. To help round out the romance aspect of the issue, we featured our first article about romantic restaurant tables along the North Shore and a very romantic piece of original fiction, At Last Unfolded, submitted by J.T. Harrison.

Hecanbarelyremembertheirfirstwordsastheysatfacingeachotheraloneatthebar.Brightsunlightfilledtheroomandher last defense remained with her, her eyes where cloaked in her impenetrable sunglasses. The memory of those eyes that had been looked into a thousand times during his exile from her were now, in her presence, hidden from him. What would they reveal? What would they say to him? He longed to see love in them,butwouldbesatisfiedwithhope,anythingbutambivalence. “I can’t see your eyes.” She hesitated, as if she had known all along that this was her last defense. She lowered her head andwithherlong,beautifulfingersgentlyremovedtheshroud.She raised her head slowly and they looked into each other with an intimacy that had not paled. He did not see love for she, unlike him, was not yet ready to surrender. But in the beautiful azure of her perfect blue eyes he saw hope and the promise of a love lost and perhaps found again. It was as if his life had begun anew in her return.

This issue also ushered in Dr. Peter Strumpf ‘s health and wellness column, Elizabeth Bojsza’s monthly theatre column, Jim Bliss’s Spirit World column about potent potables, and the second installment of a column called Eye on Altrusim,wherein Charlie McKenna focuses on good deeds done by North Shoreians. In this case, Robert Frey and the Frey Family Foundation.

Inclosing,IfinditnecessarytosaythatalthoughRobertis the product of an Irish Catholic upbringing, his life has led himtodelveintoBuddhistfundamentalsandIfindthismostinteresting. The theory of karma in basic Buddhism tells us, essentially, what I have learned from my Irish mother: “What goesaround,comesaround.”RobertFreyandtheFreyFamilyFoundation do a world of good for our North Shore community and do not seek the limelight to be recognized for it. Simply put, they are just good people doing good things for the right reasons. It cannot be stated any better than the quote by Nelson Henderson found on the letterhead of the Frey Family Founda-tion: “The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” The Freys are another reason that it is a pleasure to be a North Shoreian.

I-3 The Annual Irish Issue Okay, let’s just say it, Charlie and I are as Irish as Guinness itself. (Well Charlie is, I am, thank God, half Scottish.) So, when

“boola-booola” stuff. I ask him how he was able to escape the kiss-of-death “X” rating with all the sex and violence in hisfilm.HewaspleasedtotellmethattheMPAAhadmadeaspecialexceptionforhisfilmandgivenitan“R”ratinginthe hopes that it would be “morally edifying” by discourag-ing teenage sex, especially among boys. We parted as he is mobbed by hundreds of fans in the wildest party so far. I walk outsidetoreflectonthefilmasIwatchdozenscongregatingoutback behind the old barn near the forest frolicking and revel-ing in what appears to be some kind of Dionysian autumnal fertility rituals. As I get squashed by the mobs, decide to go and have a few martini nightcaps in a more contemplative environment.

While Zelenak’s article drove the idea of The Improper North Shoreian into fruition, the very first words sent to the printer must be considered the very first words of our cover/lead story, written by Sharon Sudano. Our cover art was a painting of the venerable Three Village Inn done by Chris-topher DeVeau (Christopher Gallery), a designated historical site and the reservation made by multiple generations of our North Shore families, including my own, for more holidays than any of us can even possibly remember.

With its porch light always burning, you never know who’s going to stop by 150 Main Street in Stony Brook. Gloria Swan-son,JackieGleason,JamesCagney,RobertRedford,LouisArmstrong, Bud Harrelson and even Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet all have graced the Three Village Inn’s doorstep over the years. Most recently, former Supreme, Mary Wilson came to dine with friends at the Inn’s piano lounge, The Sandbar... And since the days of Jennie Melville’s tea room, The Three Village Inn has been a place for the community to celebrate - not only the holidays - but life in general. Just ask any one of the regulars, mortal or otherwise.

Add to that, the first recognition of the very first Proper Improper North Shoreian, Helene Bredes, who would go on to become our Properly Improper columnist. A celebration, written by Deborah Wolffe Lamson, of those lifelong North Shoreians, along with Helene, that not only revel in the joy that is the North Shore, but exemplify the attitude and lifestyle that makes all of us extraordinary because of the place we have chosen to call our home. Attheendofourfirstinterviewsheconfides,“Ihavedoneeverything I have ever wanted to, but I’m not anywhere near ready to die yet...there’s still TOO MUCH to do!” Yes, there is still too much to do, and it’s time that I get started doing some of it myself. And for you, gentle reader and long lost kindred kind, it’s time to “come out and just jump into the water of life!”Helenesaysit’sjustfineandIcertainlybelieveher.

In this first issue we also had a feature about the Caroline

RM

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A MAGAZINE OF NORTH SHOREARTS, CULTURE & POLITICS

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One Year Strong!

A Look Back On Our First Volume

byDouglas MacKaye Harrington

Editor-in-Chief

the March issue comes around, it is going to be The Irish Issue! Not the worst choice, considering that the US Census has established that the majority of North Shore residents do indeed claim Irish ancestry, and Michael McCormack’s feature about the AOH touched all of our Irish readership.

What history does tell us, how-ever, is that continued oppression andperiodiccrop failures forcedmanyIrish toflee tootherlands for survival. The inclination toward secret societies, which had developed in Ireland as a defense mechanism, went with them, especially those committed to the ethnic slums of thelandstowhichtheyfled.Initiallyformedasfraternalas-sociations to promote the welfare of its members and families, like the Hibernian Sick and Funeral Society, they soon found a militant dimension necessary to defend against bigoted op-position. In early nineteenth century America, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, with its motto Friendship, Unity, and Christian Charity, became a modern link in the evolution of those ancient societies. Organized with the same intention of defending Gaelic values under attack, it can claim continuity of purpose and motto unbroken back to the Defenders of 1565, for the need for a defensive society in America was the same as it was in Ireland.

AndBlack 47 lead singer, novelist and Irish renaissance man Larry Kirwan added his poetic reflection in this same issue. Across the aisle sits a countryman in his early 60’s - the type you see in Gaelic Park on a Sunday afternoon, tweed jacket, fawn trousers, gleaming brown shoes, hair slicked back and carefully creased. He stares off into the distance. He’s going home too and I know exactly what he’s thinking. A couple of seats further on, a woman in her late 30’s, stylish in an Ann Taylor suit, no stranger to the bistros of Greenwich Village. I recognize her faraway look too. I don’t know either of them, I probably never will, but they’re my people now and I’m no longer alone. For all we’ve gained, there’s something that we’ve lost; something ineffable that can’t be measured and all three of us are wondering how the hell we let it slip away. Get over it, Paddy, you made your choice a long time ago! Andbeforeyouknowit,you’reshufflingdowntheterminalhallin the soft morning; you stand in line, then the immigration of-ficialstampsyourpassportandwithoutlookingupmurmurs,“welcome home.”

Local historian Kenneth Brady contributed a brilliant piece on Port Jefferson during Prohibition.

The rum-runner eased his powerful motorboat pass the breakwater and made his way to the landing on the west side of the harbor. Several men waiting on shore came out of the darkness and quietly unloaded the vessel’s cargo of contraband liquor. Within an hour, $30,000 worth of high-quality whiskey was on trucks headed to speakeasies in New York City. Although this incident occurred in Port Jefferson during the Prohibition era, its history can be traced back to the early days of the tem-perance movement in the United States.

I-4 Health and Beauty

Issue four and it was time to actually create an issue that would be informative, but might also drive ad revenue. I could have devoted an issue to health clubs and beauty salons, as nothing more than a very profitable advertising circular, as many publications do. I chose in-stead, to devote an issue to Health and Beauty that was more substan-tive, and to lead in the issue with a piece by one of the most honest writers I know, Hope Glennon. I asked her to write about what our society physically asks of

w o m e n , t h a t t h e y d o n o t a s k o f m e n . Healthyvoluptuousnessisdefinitelymakingacomeback.Andwe do have our share of reasonable icons now, but what took so damn long? And at what cost? From her same book Caroline KnappquotedRenoir,commentingonhisownpaintingAPPE-TITE, saying, “The women linger at the water’s edge, and they are stunning in the most unusual way: large women, voluptuous, abundant, delighted.” He also once stated, “If it were not for the female body I never could have become a painter.” “This isclear’KnappcontendsofRenoir’spainting,“thereisaloveforwomen[healthy,full-figuredwomen]ineachdetailofthecanvas, and love for self, there is joy and there is a degree of sensual integration that makes you want to weep…so beautiful itseemsandsoelusive.”Letusreflectonthissentimentandknow that in this millennium, the re-celebration of women is in its dawning. The right to a renaissance is upon us… and however tragically, we’ve earned this triumph. Perhaps the feature, by Dr. Robert B. Goldberg, we ran about the loss of North Shore Doctors to the cost of actually practicing on the North Shore to the depth we did in this issue, might have touched, as well as alarmed, some of you.

There is a high probability that it is going to become more andmoredifficultforbothProperandImproperNorthShore-ianstofindadoctorwhois“intoday”oranyotherday.Thereason is that many physicians will only be treating low-risk cases, moving to another state or quitting the medical profes-sion altogether. The reason is the ballooning cost of medical liability insurance premiums, coupled with other rising costs andreducedorflatincome,whicharemakingitdifficultfordoctorstomaintainthepracticeofmedicineasafinanciallyviable profession in New York.

And in simple, straight-ahead, common sense health advice in our No Bones About It column, Dr. Peter Strumpf com-mented,

Believe it or not, there are things in this world that are addictive and good for you. Exercise is one of them. It truly provides you with more energy and a sense of accomplishment. The problem is that too often we try to overdo it. In a world of instantgratification,weareusedtogettingthingsnowifnotsooner, and the thought of waiting for results is unfathomable. How many crash diets have you begun just to get started? How many times have you begun an exercise plan by trying to up andrunthreemilesonthefirstdaybecauseyouusedtobeableto?

I-5 The Memorial Day Issue Memorial Day! We remembered those lost and those that serve, living daily with the possibility of being lost. As recorded in Mary Ann Donovan’s piece called LOSS.

I remember the photo that sat on my grandparents’ sideboard. It was a picture of their nephew, my mother’s cousin, Freddie. The man in the photo was handsome. He was wearing his army uniform. As I think back on it now, it was probably the photograph that is taken by the army when a soldier has completed his or her training. He looked back at the camera with a soft smile and trusting eyes. I remember staring at the photo for long minutes on those days that I accompanied my mother to my grandparents’ house. I thought if I looked at the picture long enough something of the mystery of who he was or why his picture was there would somehow become clear to me. Freddie was killed in action in the invasion of Italy at Anzio during World War II. He was the only son of my grandfather’s brother, my mother’s uncle, Tom. It seemed so ironic to me that Uncle Tom, and his wife Aunt Susie, who had left Italy to seek a better life for themselves and their children here in America, could have their only son, Freddie, die on the shores of the land they had left so many years ago. To his parents, Freddie

held the hope of their future and all of their dreams. But, that day, on the beach of Anzio, he was “cannon fodder”, part of the brave but expendable infantry that were doomed as they were sent in waves to their deaths trying to secure a piece of shoreline. The number of casualties in each of the invasions of World War II is staggering. Freddie was just one among many thousands who would bravely give his life to save freedom for future generations. For my grandfather’s brother and sister-in-law, it was a terrible price to pay.

We also celebrated the day that honors our Moth-ers, as readers submitted Mother’s Day memories in prose and poems, such as Ruth Semon Fahlbusch. My Mother was an exemplary lady and made our home life special. Mother was gifted with a glorious contralto voice. Mu-sic, therefore, was always in our home and lives. Long before today’s “green” became the thing to do, Mom would spread a newspaper on the kitchen table to catch the food peelings. She would then wrap the peelings up in the newspaper and tie it neatly with twine into a packet for the garbage. With Mom’s many attributes, she taught my sister and me life-long lessons of love, laughter and the golden rule. A very special lady, my Mom!

I-6 Home and Garden

This issue was devoted to the pure joy of where we live, the North Shore, and the possibilities of what we can make out the very place we call home. Nancy Dorney, of Samantha Drew, contributed our first interior design feature that in the following month became a regular column. In the true style of our magazine, it was anything but a cliched home décor article. Winding lanes leading to the sound, village streets lined with homes dating back to the 18th and 19th century, the new town-houses that are growing in popularity, estate homes with their lawns sloping to the water; they can all become “Summer Homes” if we let them. The media seems to be reminding us of all the reasons we ought to stay home this summer, vacationing on the North Shore of Long Island, in our own back yards, eating in our wonderful restaurants and lying on our very own beaches. It takes very little to turn our cozy dwellings of the chilly winter past into open, breezy harbingers of the warm days ahead. Converting a home into a “Summer” or “Beach” house, should not be a daunting task. I remember well, in my Grandmother’s once true New England summer house, how in lieu of the air-conditioning of today, a few transformations made the rooms feel and look cool and light.

On the development of our precious Island, our environmental columnist Jennifer Garvey wrote,

Truthfully, I think it is fear for Long Island’s future that moti-vates us most, in the land preservation business. The stakes are extremely high, and we are competing with the Island’s most powerful industry. Our intent is not to halt new development altogether. We simply want to be smart about where we build and where we preserve.

And Anthony Frasca, our Improper Vinophile, extolled the how-to and joys of a home wine cellar.

My friend Jack who lives in Miller Place stopped by my house a few weeks ago; he came to borrow a book from my daughter for his son. He was a little more cheerful than usual and I quicklydiscoveredwhy.Hewasinthefinalphasesofbuildinghis wine cellar and he gushed enthusiasm. He went on about the brick and the wood and the racking systems he planned to install. The more he talked, the more animated he became.

Jack has been collecting wines for some time and recognized his need to store the wines properly. Asking the question, “How do I know when I need a wine cellar?” is like asking, “How do

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Irish Emigrant Replica ShipThe Jeanie Johnston

Port Jefferson Harbor, July 2003

IN THIS ISSUEThe History of the

Irish FestivalPostcards from Galway

The Ancient Order of Hibernians

I know when I need to buy diapers?” You just know.

We were also joined in editorial this issue by Christina Davies, who has gone on to write several columns about skin care for us.

Recent researchhas revealed impressiveanti-agingandhealing effects from foods with high levels of anti-oxidants. These powerhouses are able to absorb free radicals which exist in our environment in many forms, such as pollution and chemical compounds found in products. Free radicals cause major damage to our skin and the DNA within its cells. Citrus fruits, strawberries, blackberries, cherries, grapes and broc-coli are a few of which are plentiful in vitamin C, a powerful anti-oxidant.

I-7 The Revolutionary

North Shore

Our 4 th of July Issue was her-alded as a definitive examination of the role of the North Shore in America’s struggle for inde-pendence. Bev Tyler’s piece on the role of Washington’s North Shore spies opened up the issue. When the British took control of Long Island and New York City (Manhattan) in 1776, after their defeat of General Washington, they established outposts or forts along both shores, forced residents to sign a Pledge of Allegiance to the British Crown and used Long Island as a supply base for their troops. It was not long before patriots on Long Island and refugees in Con-necticut began to disrupt British plans. Spying on the British and attacking their ships and outposts became an important factor in their eventual defeat.

From across the Sound in Connecticut, Chris Whitten contributed with an extraordinarily researched piece on the history of our flag, particularly the historical “Don’t Tread On Me” snake flag (our cover).

AftertheRevolution,rattlesnakeflagsbecamelesscommon.General Washington and many members of Congress preferred stars, stripes, and more conventional symbols, such as the eagle.OvertheyearstheGadsdenflaghasbecomemoreandmore associated with rebellion and totally disassociated with pride in one’s government. Some say that this makes it a lousy symbol for the Fourth of July. But I say that makes it a great symbol for celebrating the spirit of July 4, 1776. And David “Homer” Hughes contributed a piece called, TheWeaponsandTacticsoftheAmericanRevolution.

It is a myth that the Colonists won by using cover while the dumb British stood in the open ranks to be shot by the hid-den Colonists. Both sides fought primarily in the open and in formation. When General Von Stueben took over training at Valley Forge, he put a single standard and methodology into theContinentalArmy’s fieldmaneuvers. This allowedtheContinentalArmytofightasamorecohesiveforce.Theythen became a match for the British on the open ground in every respect. The Colonists had been hampered by various methods and commands of maneuver, with little large scale drill. General Von Stueben changed that by setting a single standard and then training the army to use it. The Colonists proved their ability to use these techniques combined with weapons such as the musket, bayonet, and cannon to defeat the greatest superpower of the 18th century.

I-8 The Annual Art Issue The cover art of this issue was the first of two Joe Reboli paintings to grace our publication and he was remembered fondly in a piece I wrote about Gallery North in Setauket. TheReboliCenterwillhouseamaingalleryforrevolvingexhibitions, two smaller galleries for smaller exhibitions and single artist shows, a gallery dedicated to the work of Joseph

Rebolionloanfromvariouscol-lections that will be changed at least six times a year, a small library with a collection of ma-terialsonReboliandotherLongIsland artists, a cafe, and a gift shop. Recently an out of stateowner approached the gallery and wished to sell a museum quality 1985JosephRebolipaintingtitledBellport Gate. (Our cover this month.) When the Gallery Trustees and Director saw it, they knew that it was such a special painting that the gallery should trytopurchaseitanduseitastheiconforthenewReboliCenter.Gallery North has launched a fund raising campaign called the Reboli100Fundtopurchasethatpainting.Foradonationof$100 per person, individual contributors will have their name on a plaque next to the painting and will also receive a 12 x 18 poster of the painting. Ms. Hanson explained that, “The dona-tion of $100 was purposely set low so that a maximum number of contributors could participate. Joe was always involved with community projects and frequently gave paintings to support local organizations. We think that he would love the idea that the community in turn has responded in large measure to sup-port this project for him.”

Local artist and long time friend of Joe Reboli, Dennis Coburn, was profiled by Laura Kessler in the start of her tenure asThe Creatives columnist.

A true lover of Long Island, Dennis has painted his way from Montauk to Mattituck to Manhattan. He began his adventure as anartistatthemereageoffive.Claiminghisgrandfatherwashis biggest fan, he would buy Dennis charcoals only to watch him eagerly draw away on every visit they had.

A m o n g t h e n u m e r o u s a r t i c l e s r e l a t -ing to our North Shore art scene, Mary Ann Don-ovan wrote about three extraordinary women artists. Some time in the early 1970’s, three North Shore artists met each other while taking a drawing class at SUNY Stony Brook. Eleanor Tyndall Meier, Jeanette Dick, and Flo Kemp, forged a friendship then, which has endured over thirty years. These colleagues have not only helped and encouraged each other to hone their artistic skill, but through their efforts, they have created an environment which has caused many other fellow artists to thrive. They are three exceptional women who share a common vision of a community of artists. They are dedicated to encouraging individual growth in artistic expression and to providing the means to give public exposure to an artist’s work.

I-9 The Annual Writers Issue Several months earlier I had put out a call for submissions of original fiction by North Shore writers. I was overwhelmed! Of the dozen or so submissions I felt were worthy of publication, I only had room to pub-lish six pieces. We also had related writing features like a piece I wrote in praise of independent bookstores and David Wood’s piece on uniting the computer and print age. Writing is in a state of change today, caught, like reading, between the old world of print and the computer age. The Improper North Shoreian was created almost a year ago to bridge both worlds, to express the beauty and stability of print and then link the print and computer worlds for all of you who know one but not the other.

And Claire Nicolas White’s, Private Correspondence, about the lost art of letter writing. Buthowmuchithasmeanttomethroughtheyearstofindletters in my mailbox! I used to have a mystique about my daily trip to the roadside to retrieve its contents. What the sea istothefisherman,theearthtothegardener,themailboxis

to the correspondent. My feelings got so confused about it at times that I was tempted to practice superstitious rites such as postponing my visit for several hours to let the mail “ripen”. The letters I wrote to solicit responses I thought of as “bait”. When the result was unsatisfactory I tended to blame the mail-man, but when successful my affection for him was almost like being in love. If really desperate I considered writing him letters.Thereshouldbesomeone,Ithought,atthepostoffice,composing consolation notes to the forgotten.

Even Jim Bliss got in the mix, tying his Spirit World column, as usual, into the issue’s theme.

When someone says the word writer, an immediate picture forms inmymind.Onadarkwoodendeskisarocksglassfilledwithice and some sort of amber liquid. Along side sits a black rotary telephone,ahalffilledashtraywithsmokeswirlingtowardtheceiling from a half burned cigarette, and next to this, centered in the middle of the desk, is a typewriter already loaded with asheetofpaperandtwofingernailbittenhandspoisedattheready to add more words to the next line of the story, while trying tomeetadeadline.Thiscomingfromamanwhoin2008finallyditched his beeper for something that’s called a cell phone. I’ll letyouknowhowitworkswhenIfigureitout.NowI’mtry-ing to envision the writer of the 21st century. I’m picturing the same desk, only this time it’s a laptop being operated by two handsthataremanicured.Replacingtheashtray,rocksglassand telephone, sits a tray of celery stalks, carrot sticks, and a cell phone alongside a glass of white wine.

I-10 The Harvest IssueAs October is the harvest month, the issue was titled appropriately. Two of regular columnist took on the roles of feature writers as An-thony Frasca, The Improper Vino-phile, contributed a brilliant piece on the Long Island wine industry and our gardening columnist, Jack Filasky, wrote about Agritainment. Long Island’s fall season has grown a whole new industry simply referred to as Agritainment. The traditional farm stand has morphed into an entertainment des-tination like never seen before. Corn mazes, U-pick pumpkins, horror houses, corn stalks, U-pick apples and so much more. Some of the best tasting apple cider and fruit pies in the North-east originate right here in Improper Suffolk County. There is more family oriented entertainment available on the East End than ever and Harbes Family Farm in Mattituck goes out of its way to prove just that! Several years ago Ed Harbes and his family ventured into the agricultural entertainment business. Since then they have become one of the East End’s leaders in farm stand marketing. With everything grown or produced on the family farm, it leads the list for destination produce buying and agritainment. They are one of many farming operations that offer corn mazes, hayrides and a slew of family activity. They even produce their own Long Island wines! In every issue we feature a dinning profile and here is, pardon the pun, a taste of our Epicurean Quartet writer, Shaughnessy Anne McKenna Dusling. Dessert at Grasso’s was nothing short of spectacular and nearly 100% of the selections available are prepared in house. The New York style cheesecake was rich and creamy. The chocolate mousse cake was chocolaty and sweet. Each of these two cakes was served with fresh fruit and the dish was preparedsoartistically,thecakesandfruitlookedtobeflowersontheplate.IhadtheTartufoanditwasanicefinishtomydelicious meal. The most remarkable dessert of the evening was what Kevin ordered. He ordered the Napoleon that was made with fresh mascarpone and fresh fruit. This dessert was inadvertently patriotic with the red, white and blue combination of the cream, blueberries and strawberries. Each dessert was scrumptious.

We also included some Halloween related reads in C. Aph-rodite Spanos’ piece on the troubled writer Edgar Allan Poe...

Joseph Reboli, Bellport Gate, 1985, oil on canvas, 60x60

Gallery NorthReboli 100 Fund

2008

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Joseph Reboli, Bellport Gate

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Despite these small leaps towards success, Poe remained on the verge of poverty and illness. Virginia’s health was on a steady decline, while Poe constantly fought his demons with drink.Stillinall,Poeremainedprolific.Hetriedtostartseveraljournals and literary magazines. He experimented with new genresoffiction,inventingwiththepublicationof“MurdersintheRueMorgue”thedetectivemysterystory.Healsoexploredthe workings of the unconscious mind in such stories as “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”. But fame and fortune still eluded Poe until the publication of the poem“TheRaven”in1845.Thepoemseemedtomakeadistinctimpression upon the literary circles that once shunned him. De-spite his newfound popularity, Poe continued to attack various literati, including Longfellow, who he accused of plagiarism.

...and Kerriann Flanagan Brosky’s article about the haunted North Shore. When the British soldiers eventually left the house the local townspeople murdered Annette in the house. Apparently she has never left. Country House owner Bob Willemstyn has actually seen Annette, as have several patrons and employees. One woman in particular, an artist, saw her so clearly that she made a painting of her which hangs in the restaurant today. Lightflashes,coldspots,candlesrelightingthemselves,foot-steps, overwhelming feelings of sadness, items being moved or misplaced, and the sounds of a girl crying are just a few of the many occurrences which have taken place and continue to take place at Country House.

I-11The Altruism Issue The words on the cover say it best, “All or doing without char-ity are nothing worth.” To that end our lead story profiled North Shore charitable organizations that deserve our support. My Editor’s Note lead in the feature. This represents a very small sampling of the altruistic, not-for-profit organizations on theNorthShore that serve the communities we call home. This is far from a complete list and I apologize to those noble organizations that were omitted. Be assured that there are many more, be equally assured that they all need your help. The information here was garnered directly from the organization’s websites and I urge all of you to use the Internet to further investigate the good work of these groups and the ways in which you can help, with bothfinancialandvolunteersupport.Youcansearchforotherlocal charitable organizations by simply typing the words Long IslandNotForProfitsintoyourwebbrowser.Inthisseasonofgiving thanks, let us relish and be thankful for the good in all of us and let us all try to wear that good on our sleeves, in action and deeds. There were several other features about altruism including a piece celebrating National Adoption Month by Jeena Belil. This weekend, my family will be celebrating my daughter’s fourth anniversary of her Adoption Day. We are planning to start the day with a big Mickey-Mouse pancake breakfast and end it with an ice cream cake lit with four candles. Adoption Day is a big event in our household – just as big as a birthday, as we commemorate the day Elaina became our forever daugh-ter. What an amazing day that was! One day we were a couple touring the sites of Beijing, China, and 48 hours later, we were theparentsofanadorable,spit-fireofatoddler.

As much as our columnists try to include issue theme in their columns, it not always possible. However their columns are always thought-provoking, as our financial writer, Mark J. Snyder, was clearly timely regarding the nation’s economic crisis

Part of this mess is due to Wall Street’s love affair with exotic investments – CMO’s (collateralized mortgage obligations) for one.Writingmortgagesforunqualifiedhomebuyers,followedby a bursting of the residential real estate bubble, caused the collapsethathaswreakedhavocinthefinancialmarkets.Now,ituptoourGovernmenttofixthemessbyloweringinterestrates,

injectingliquidityintothefinancialmarketsandallocatinganunprecedented $700 billion of taxpayer dollars into buying up mortgage-related assets.

And sometimes our writers are just plain witty and our funniest, most witty writer has to be Joe Neuschatz. For me, giving up work included a psychological return to early days. But, instead of the ADD of yore, I am now suf-fering of AGDD, a common post-retirement disease. And, in mycase, this dreadedAttention-GettingDeficitDisorder isworsened by having younger, non-retired friends. Not only are such people seldom available when you need them but, whenfinallyaccessible,theyliketoaskthingslike:“Enjoyingretirement?”…. “What are you doing all day long?” and other painful to answer questions. Finally, in this issue our theatre writer, Elizabeth Bojsza, examining the suffering of dedicating one’s life to the struggles of art, in its own way, a form of altru-ism.

I have these romantic notions of shutting myself up in an attic a la Emily Dickenson and pouring out the next great mas-terpiece of theatre, stopping only to nibble my meager rations and add another layer of blankets to ward off the biting cold. Then I am in a theatre, again, so cold (it is always winter in the world of the starving artist)—this time the actors and I can see ourbreathaswerehearseinthecrumblingedificeofanagingand neglected theatre we are going to save. We are creating outofnothingbecausewearecompelled.Theatreisthefirstpriority: above adequate housing, regular meals, relationships, everything. It is art, Art that drives our lives.

I-12 The 2nd Holiday Issue In this issue, our lead story focused on the 25th year of Theatre Three’s A Christmas CarolandthePort Jefferson Dickens Festival. By the multitude, the residents of Port Jefferson Village, young and old, transform themselves into the characters of a street theatre production of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. They costume themselves as 19th century gentry, common folk, and street urchins. There are horse drawn carriages with top hatted drivers, there are dust covered chimney sweeps, there are Christmas carolers on street corners, there are harmless cockney pick-pockets as Main Street, Port Jefferson turns into Doughty Street, London. Eb-enezer Scrooge himself wanders about the street humbugging all who come in contact and the Town Crier, voice bellowing, announces each day’s events. Holly and wreaths adorn the street lamps and store fronts, particularly East Main Street which is transformed into Dickens Alley.

A Partridge in a Pear Tree is a Christmas classic, but our Of Woods and Water outdoor columnist, Dan Stahl, had a dif-ferent take on that subject.

The Holidays that are quickly approaching also bring together families and feasts. This year, we are heading north for a few days, to my brothers place in the Adirondacks. Here we don’t sing about a partridge in a pear tree, we have a par-tridge drizzled with a pear sauce for dinner. Now that is quite a bird, the ruffed grouse, or partridge, which is the ultimate huntingquest.Gamefishinghasitstopanglingspeciessuchasabonefishonaflyrod,ortarpon,andeventhatcowstriperweall long for. Hunting also has its legends. A partridge is one ofthem.Thisbird,whenitisflushedfromitscover,thundersaloft, zig zags through the trees, and it is gone. You are lucky to get a shot at it. We also featured articles on the North Shore’s best holiday shops and great restaurant New Year’s Eve choices. This issue included some new columnist including a music column called Sound Waves by Joe Shortsle, a women health column called Ask Abby by Abby Rockett, and a new Conservative Conscience columnist in Tom Atkins. On the other hand, due to personal time constraints, we are saying good-bye to our Cigar Loungecolumnist, Raymond Grinere, and in search of another cigar expert. (Email me at dmharrington@optonline.net.) Ray will

be missed and we are very grateful for his contribution to the magazine. Here is the last paragraph of his last column. The accessory choices we have discussed in this article are available at most quality tobacconists and I suggest that you ask them to demonstrate your gift choices for you before you buy them. For lighters and cutters, take them in hand to experience how comfortable they feel and try them out to determine ease of use. Open a humidor to check the seal and look at the thickness of the Spanish cedar lining the interior of the box. Most importantly, have fun shopping for that special someone knowing you will lift their hearts and harken memories of wonderful a Christmas past. Alas, my Tatuaje J 21 is now just a memory and it is time to venture out to shop for those I love (darn shame Linda doesn’t smoke cigars). May you have a blessed holiday season and may God Bless you and yours. Thank you for the gift you have offered me by stopping by and visiting the Improper North Shoreian Cigar Lounge...HO HO HO!

I am going to end this overview of our first year with the words of the writer that started it all. In this issue Michael X. Zelenak devoted his Improper Cinephile column to the 100thanniversary of the birth of American film icon Jimmy Stewart. In this excerpt Michael writes about the film that Stewart is best remembered for, A Wonderful Life. Read it carefully, as within this excerpt are words that should speak to all of us. I can tell you that it speaks to me and my original vision for the purpose of this magazine.

Stewart’s iconic performance as George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life is also powerfully relevant today. Capra’s filmisalivingNormanRockwelltableauvivantaboutamanwho spends his life not leaving his home town. Its action and back-story cover the great Depression, as banks were closing and the housing market collapsing. Eschewing his personal dreams of exploring the outside world and a college education, George Bailey stays in his hometown of Bedford Falls to keep alive his family’s independent Building and Loan Association, while money-grubbing capitalist Henry F. Potter (Lionel Bar-rymore)seekstoreducelifetoblindsurvivalofthefittest(andgreediest). Bailey had wanted to “do something big, something important,” but now feels himself a failure since he’s done noth-ing but stay in Bedford Falls, raise a family, help his younger brother through college, provide low-interest loans to average people who can’t afford the shark-rates of Potters big-business conglomerate, and found Bailey Park, which provides clean affordable housing for working class folk. A near death expe-rience gives George a vision of the world without him, where there is no Bedford Falls, but instead the grimy slum-riddled “Potterville,” the American dream turned on its head, to use Hamlet’s words: “An unweeded garden, things rank and gross possess it merely.” George Bailey realizes that he is not a failure, but has had a wonderful life, with family, friends and arealcommunity.ThisfilmistheultimateCapra-cornfantasy,but we could really use a belt of that dreamy drink today. The meaning of life and the road to true prosperity can’t be found through material wealth, big government bailouts or corporate buyouts, but somewhere in ourselves, one person at a time. We needtofindawaytore-imagineatleastthepossibilityofashared spiritual vision, to rekindle that American heroic ideal of populist-driven individualism, based on honesty, integrity, self-sacrificeand“gosh-darnplaincommonsense,”asaJimmyStewart character might put it.

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Nancy Dorney Interior Design

The Romantic Winter Bedroom Winter is here and it’s not hard to anticipate climbing under a pile of down comforters and quilts. How to create a romantic and calm bedroom? Where do you start? My suggestion is to start with getting rid of any clutter. The last thing we want is to walk into a bedroom that tells us there are things to take care of. Our bedrooms should be a sanctuary away from the noises of everyday life. Keeping the bedroom an orderly, tranquil place is so important. Any amount of embellishments will do nothing to a chaotic space. So, books go in shelves or neat piles, knitting or mending in baskets, chests tops, night stands and floor alike, free of disorder. Wall color is vastly important. Choose a cool color with blue tones, be it a gray, beige or indeed a member of the blue family. Yellows will bring light to a dark room, but keep it subtle. Generally colors in the red or orange families are not the best choice. They can be a little startling. Window treatments need not be exotic. I find that the simple flow of

wonder-ful fabric drift ing to the floor sets the tone for a peaceful s p a c e .

Keep the rods high and remember to set the treatments off the window so they don’t crowd. If room darkening is desired or privacy needed, they can be ad-dressed with a soft and classic shade. Window panels or draperies can be put on rings so they may be drawn across the window. On to the bed! First the decision as to how you like your bed made. Do you like the room kept very cool, perhaps choosing to crack a window, and thus prefer the bed made up with a feather bed covering the mattress, sheets and a blanket, topped off with a high loft down comforter covered with a duvet cover? Shades of “The Princess and the Pea” or memories of a winter in the Austrian Alps! Perhaps the room is warm and you prefer the neat look of a coverlet, quilt or bedspread. A happy medium is to make the bed with a blanket or quilt and fold the duvet covered comforter at the foot of the bed. Trust me, jumping into clouds of down may seem a bed and breakfast dream, but if the room is warm, you will be too! Too warm! Good pillows and large 26” “European Squares” to back them are fantastic. A place to nestle with a good book or breakfast in bed! Do finish the bed off with a dust skirt. This can be a simple white one or a gorgeous fabric that coordinates with the duvet cover and window treatments. If your room is large enough, a seating area is great. Two comfort-able arm chairs, small sofa or chaise can work well. Add a pair of good read-ing lamps beside the bed, lighting in the seating area and cozy rugs, just about finish it off. For an inviting, romantic room add a few whimsical touches. Try a spray of lavender linen spray on the sheets and pillow cases. You almost feel as if you were walking into a country inn. Light some candles, set a tray with two glasses and a bottle of wine or the makings for tea. Send the children and the dogs to another place. Let the snow fall and the wind howl. Maybe you can forget shoveling the drive way in the morning? How about that breakfast in bed? Delicious winter moments, mmm!

Nancy Dorney has lived on the North Shore for almost 20 years. She has a fine arts background and has been in the interior, merchandising, framing ,event and floral design fields for many years. The owner of Prides Crossing which once was a part of the Stony Brook Village Center, Nancy is currently with Samantha Drew on 25A in Stony Brook.

For an inviting, romantic room add a few whimsical touches. Try a spray of lavender linen spray on the sheets and pillow cases.

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Love Is A Four Letter Word What is Love? This is, of course, a discussion with no real answer. In fact, it has been discussed throughout the ages. We can love a movie. We can love our pets. We can love to eat certain things. But does this really answer out very heated question? I think not. Love is a strong emotion shared between beings that have come together and found things in common. It is chemical reaction within our very being that can make us do, say, and react in a particular way. When we look into the eyes of someone we love, we can actually feel what has come over us. Our blood pressure may rise. Our hearts might start beating fast. Our hands might begin to sweat. It is more than physical attraction. It is the desire to be with that person for-ever…to share our thoughts, feelings and emotions. We want to live with this person because it makes us happy, but it is also a selfish emotion. We want to take care of this person, but we also want to be taken care of. We want to be accepted for who we are, no matter what our shortcomings, but we also must accept our partner’s draw-backs and idiosyncrasies. Not an easy task. What happens when we love, but our love is not returned? Unrequited love turns our lives upside down, forcing us to look at ourselves and ask the question WHY? We can choose to accept our fate, or pursue our Valkyrie in ways that may be detrimental to ourselves, as well as to the person we are pursuing. We may win the fight, or we may lose that love forever. In the end, we still harbor these feelings, while our loved one may want to never see nor hear from us again. We have all been through some sort of emotional torment. We can only hope that our future quests produce more positive results. For the writer, their art prevents them from simply suffering heartache in silent solitude. The nature of their passion for expression forces them to confront their feelings and bring them to the page. For many of us, our definition of love and heartache, passion and romantic joy may derive from some of the novels we have read along the way. They may also, in their pages, provide a place of refuge for the broken hearted or affirmation for those in the ecstatic throws of true love. All of this is a prelude to the following books and films that reflect these heightened emotions. Our Editor asked that I offer a list of the dozen most romantic novels ever written. (Thanks a lot Douglas, no easy task!) As love is subjective, so are my picks! This is only my list. I am sure that you, as the reader, have your own special picks for the most romantic novels ever written. Here are mine, along with a dozen favorite romantic movies that I have certainly seen more than once.

BOOKS: ANNA KARENINA-Leo Tolstoy, WUTHERING HEIGHTS-Emily Bronte, PRIDE & PREJUDICE-Jane Austen, ROMEO & JULIET-William Shake-speare, JANE EYRE-Charlotte Bronte, REBECCA-Daphne du Maurier, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO-Boris Pasternak, THE ENGLISH PATIENT-Michael Ondaatje, TRIST-ESSA-Jack Kerouac, LOVE STORY-Erich Segal, LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOL-ERA-Gabriel Garcia Marquez, THE GREAT GATSBY-F. Scott Fitzgerald

FILMS: THE WAY WE WERE, CASABLANCA, GHOST, DON JUAN DE MARCO, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, A BEAUTI-FUL MIND, ARTHUR, DANGEROUS LIAISONS, NOW VOYAGER, YOU’VE GOT MAIL, THE AFRICAN QUEEN

These are just a few of my favorites. My list is actually quite a bit longer. I would like to hear some of your selections, as well. Here’s to love, won and lost. Here’s to all the pleasure, as well as the pain...because we all know that given a sec-ond chance, we would do it all over again!

C. Aphrodite Spanos is a novelist, essayist, critic, on-line purveyor of rare and unusual books and co-owner of the Bohemian Book Bin in Lake Katrine (Kingston), New York.

Novel Terms: Literary Criticism and Commentary

C. Aphrodite Spanos

For many of us our definition of love and heartache, passion and romantic joy may derive from some the novels we have read along the way.

Curses, foiled again!Bridge teachers tell their students that when the dummy is tabled, one is supposed to take time to make a plan. We caution them to count winners or losers, consider the alternatives and decide what the line of play will be. Should you draw trumps, set up a long suit or take a finesse (which we all know never works for you)?

Unfortunately, the best laid plans of declarer can be foiled by a clever defendant. Then it is time to go to plan B (hopefully there is a plan B).

Bridge It!Monthly Bridge Column By Carol Mathews and Susan Scholer

Consider this hand:

North ♠ Q J 9 8 ♥ K 6 3 ♦ A J 7 6 2 ♣ 7

West East♠ 6 5 4 ♥ 3 2♥QJ 10 ♥A 8 7 5♦ K 10 8 4 3 ♦ Q 9♣J 8 ♣ K 10 9 4 3

South ♠ A K 10 7 ♠ 9 4 2 ♦5 ♣ A Q 6 5 2

The auction was uneventful:

North East South West 1 ♣ Pass1♦ Pass 1 ♠ Pass4 ♠

Please note, North with a good hand should bid 1 Diamond in response to South’s opening of 1 Club and not 1 Spade showing his four card major. If South has four spades he will bid them at his second turn and the major fit will not be lost. The opening lead is the Queen of hearts (promising the Jack and possi-bly the ten of the suit-top touching honors). South ducks the first heart…..and the second…..to no avail as East wins the third with the Ace. East diabolically returns a trump at trick four. Here’s the “curses, foiled again” part Did you pay careful attention to the spots in the trump suit? With a single-ton in the minor suit in both hands, south’s plan was to play the aces and then happily execute a cross ruff for ten tricks; the two aces and eight ruffs using all trump cards separately to win ten tricks. Nobody could overtrump. What fun! With east’s trump switch this is no longer possible…one cannot ruff the four losers in the minor suits with only three trumps left in each hand. Time for plan B: south has no choice but to win the trump lead in the dummy and take the club finesse by leading his singleton toward the ace and queen. As you can see, the story has a happy ending as the king of clubs is in east’s hand and the finesse works. What would have happened if west had the king of clubs? Then south would not make his contract having been the victim of an excel-lent defense. Moral of the story: When you see shortness in the dummy, it is almost always a good idea to lead trump.

Carol Mathews and Susan Scholer are ACBL accredited bridge teachers and Club Directors: Smithtown Bridge Studio (631)360-8456

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Day One: There she was just as I expected. Her Western face beginning to glow as the sun broke the canyon’s walls. There was no glare as the light snow created a soft glow, the one a photographer prefers. The portrait was perfect to me as I peered out the window of my regular room. Not much to speak of inside: a Murphy bed with little room to walk when open, a bath and simple closet, no TV, comfortably simple. Even though we arrived at 2 am I was up early and felt well rested. I seized the mo-ment to sit in the gathering room by an open hearth fire and e-mail some photos that I had edited in flight. I checked with the office and responded to the morning mail then made my way down stairs to the dining room. I am not one to talk about food but I was hungry, dinner being some chips in flight. I filled my plate with some real oatmeal and grilled potatoes, then ordered an omelet from the chef, “Everything but mushrooms” I said. I was feeling hungry. Sometime later he delivered it to the table. “Nothing but mushrooms, as you requested sir.” I appreciated his wit. It is common here, young smart ski bums working as help at the lodge, always with a bright positive demeanor. The omelet was the best I have ever had and I named it the “EBM” so I would remember it. The buzz as always in ski lodges is the weather, specifically the snowfall. One of the staff, a young lady (the post-college type), unassuming but obviously very intelligent (my favorite type) gave a technical description of the storm coming in, above my ability to fully recreate in this writing, It included “the drop would be 10 to 12” and that the “wind direction is ideal for the Western facing slopes.” My portrait was getting better. As the day progressed the staff would say in a non-alarming but excited way, “We’re getting nuked.” I thought that this was an odd term for a heavy snow fall. Snow is cold and something “nuked” is usually getting burnt to a crisp or blown up. I rented these really cool “powder” skis; they are extra wide so you can float above the snow. With a full tank and all geared up we made our way to the shuttle, having learned years ago that although we can see the lift, walking to it at 8000 ft. with our gear will leave us totally drained, winded and crawling. Our chariot driver is another one of those post-college ski bums, except he is 50+ and just never left. In the five minute ride he spoke all about a gypsy and her band who just came through town. He was playing her CD in the van. She must have set a spell on him because he described her look, complete with 3 in. earrings and flowing hair, as mystical. I was not moved by the music but I under-stood how she moved him. Every time we took the shuttle she was on. On the lift the amount of snow falling was intense. As we traveled up, the density increased. By the time we reached the summit it might as well have been midnight, just all white instead of all black. It was then I understood the “nuked” comment. The morning was great skiing except for the visibility. Staying near the trees and rocks, while presenting increased risk, helps you see the flat snow better so that is what I did most of the day. After lunch the air became still and snow settled down to the point where the flakes seemed to be in suspended animation, as if the ground had a reversed magnetic field. It was a little spooky but I was not surprised as things related to weather are very different here in little Cottonwood Canyon. It was a very light and dry lake effect snow from the Great Salt Lake. The canyon is ideally situated to strip the perception from the sky which it does to the tune of 600 in. per season. It is so soft that you are prone to laughter if you fall in a big pile of it, something that I have experienced many times. I spent the morning with the iPod cranked, blasting down the groomed trails while adrenaline rushed through me. I always stay on the trails when I first go out to tune up. My playlist contained a number of classical pieces but I settled on rock band “Snow Patrol,” of course. After lunch I left the music behind as the day had calmed and I decided to make the afternoon runs more aggressive. I ski alone at times; it gives me time to think and take in the space. The light snow is silent as you traverse it and you can move quite briskly in this silence. At one point in mostly fresh powder I came through two towering ponderosa pines (think very tall and thin but full Christmas trees). Coming between these monoliths at speed, I did not know what I would find on the other side (which is what I want, of course). The interest in what is behind the curtain combined with the exhilaration of a chase. The scene was as perfect as if God had painted it: rolling hills with no

tracks and the ground giving way at each turn gave me that weightless feeling. You know the felling in your stomach when your dad used to drive fast over small hills. 30 seconds later I was back on a groomed trail but the moment was powerful enough to compel me to write this entire story. The rest of the trip down to the lift I could not help but think how skiing and being in the outdoors is such a wonderful experience. Last weekend I had been cav-ing and the weekend before, backpacking. This combination in addition to walking for an hour every morning has enriched my soul. I have come to the realization that there is much more life to live than many of us realize. We have boxed ourselves into a reality of perception, putting a greater importance on what others think instead of what we ourselves feel. I recommend the outdoors and specifically a dose of sun-shine to change your mood. Something I knew but have been re-taught recently. The real lesson I learned is to appreciate the moment; sometimes it’s all we have. The day was not perfect; there were a number of phone calls, a dozen or so e-mails and a conference call, which I participated in while getting ready for the hot tub. Dinner was at 6 pm. You sit with other guests. Tonight it’s Rich, an Englishman from Switzerland and his friend James from Ramsey, NJ of all places (really great guys because they picked up my wine bill), and a dentist and his son from Dearborn. Rich was well traveled and had spent eight years in Italy. He seemed to like holding court, so I sat back and listened, though I did interject a bit. I was a bit tired and he was interesting.Day Two: The morning started out with more phone calls and e-mails, some great and some not. When you open an e-mail or get a call it’s kind of like skiing a blind corner not knowing whether the ground falls away and there is an obstacle like a rock or there is an open untouched field of snow. With the communications complete I set off to the dining room for breakfast: more oatmeal, a waffle with blueberries, sausage and some fruit and coffee. I am spending time on the food because there are many “foodies” in my life, and some do not think I get it. For me a great meal includes more than a good tasting dish; it is visual, presented with accompaniment: a good wine, complementary appetizers, candles and of course, music. And it is never

rushed. This is in comparison to those who can seem to put away any amount of food. I am not about quantity, I am about the moment. Last night’s dinner started with a very sharp tomato soup, the Peruvian house salad and sesame seared tuna drizzled with wasabi over minced veggies. The tuna was excellent. The wine was a Caber-net from California. They say white with fish, but Cab is my favorite and the wine police weren’t looking. Those cool skis I mentioned earlier apparently were not cool enough, as a few of the staff were raving about these new Pontoon skis, again with the technical jargon, “They are reverse camber and are not for carv-ing but in the powder you can’t touch them.” I went to the ski shop downstairs. Everything is in one building like a little cruise ship but without the bathing suits, oh wait what am I saying there is a heated pool and two hot tubs. Well any way I asked the tuner (name for a ski shop guy) about the Pontoon skis. I told him I was interested but was taking an “off piste” (off trail) lesson and was concerned about changing to the new design. “You will be showing the instructor with these.” He pulled them out and they looked like shovels, the fattest ski I ever saw. There was even a graphic of a plane with pontoons on them, hence the name. I gave him my boot so he could set them up and then told Dave and he got a set too. We agreed to be at the lifts when they opened so I could get a run in before the les-son. There was already a line even though we were

15 minutes early. You see when there is a “major dump” (the old school term for “getting nuked”) skiers come out of the hills. The lifts opened and soon we were at the top. We arranged to meet at the lodge for lunch at 12:30 pm and off I went to the high traverse along with everyone else looking for fresh powder and a clean line. I broke off the traverse and shot a semi difficult line. I had to find out what these sticks could do early enough to exchange them. It was quite a ride. Skiing powder intro-duces a third dimension. You are floating on a layer of powder, suspended; turns are graceful and repeat with rhythm. It is a dance in total silence. The skis passed muster and I made off to a few trails I knew would not be tracked yet, floating between trees with the snow ripping off the bottom of my skies was exhilarating, and I was still “in bounds” as it were. Checking the time I blasted down to the lift by means of the first groomed trail, when all of a sudden I became a novice skier. These skis had no control whatsoever on the hard pack. And therein lies the problem with a lot of things in life. They’re really good at one thing and suck at another, and I knew at that mo-ment that these babies were not coming home with me, but I was happy to have them knowing what was to come. I met Steve, my instructor, at the base of Collins Lift. We spoke a few words and

New Words by Kieran Russell

Moments in Utah

New Words

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then were interrupted by someone yelling, “Hey Steve!” This was to repeat itself the entire time we were out. It was like I was with the mayor. Steve was a stocky man in his sixties, who worked at the mountain for thirty years. In earlier years he was a contractor doing some projects and getting them done by winter to work at the moun-tain. He mountain biked, golfed and played with his black lab, but never mentioned wife or family. His statement about being a ski instructor (“My job is better than your vacation”) rolled off too easily. They must tell all the instructors to say that. I told him I was in electronics, my typical response when I know there is no potential for a sale. Steve was excellent, “It’s about balance. Staying centered over the ski is crucial. Don’t lean back. Keep pressure on your shins. Chin forward. Maintain a dominate ski always, and shit stop locking your down-hill knee!” It was as it needed to be to break old habits. Within a half hour I was skiing down runs that I would not have considered. Then, just after getting off the lift at the summit, Steve turned to me and said, “Brian, today is your lucky day.” He noticed that a guide was removing the safety rope to an off limits entrance, an area untouched. I was on his tail knowing that if I lost him I would be in trouble. We traversed a few thousand feet and I got to do a long run in virgin snow. With these fantastic skis, I felt like I was flying. We went through areas I had only seen from a distance, always wondering who was all the way up there. This time it was me. Later that day I pointed the area out to Dave. The skiers at the top looked like little specs; it was neat. We made our way down and to the right on the lift and to the same area. By this time skiers found the run so we took some detours, under the ropes stuff. After about an hour and a half I was feeling it. It’s hard to keep composure when your muscles are burning. Steve said, “Ski down and stop just before the ridge. Let the downhill ski dominate. Shift your weight quickly.” I did as he requested and carved through the deep snow. As I reached the ridge I turned back to see my instruc-tor’s comments. “Great” is all he said as he followed me down. Just then I heard a big scratching sound and he was down after hitting a hidden rock. He was ok but had lost one of his skis. I removed one of mine and my leg sunk in the snow to my crotch, the incline was steep and I quickly realized there was no way I was getting up the 150 ft. or so to help him. Another skier, a young lady he knew, stopped to help. 20 minutes later they still hadn’t found it and Steve shouted for me to meet him at 1:30 pm at Collins and we would continue the lesson. “Go back the same way we went last time.” “OK,” I said. Getting back was a little more difficult. I wasn’t following a thity year experienced skier and tracks were everywhere, through the trees, over the rocks, through some brush. Some better skiers were around but I didn’t know which one to follow. My confidence was high but I wasn’t interested in any serious aerial maneu-vers. I picked my way through and made it to the base. Just then Dave appeared as if on cue and we caught the shuttle back to the lodge for lunch. I explaining that I lost my instructor and the tuner was right about the skis. Lunch was chili, chicken with a fruit filling and an assortment of other options. I rushed through it and made more calls, then went back out to meet Steve for the rest of the lesson. The next hour was great fun. I had fresh legs and Steve took me to more places that I never knew existed. Near the end I did a short run on some difficult terrain while he watched. He high-fived me and said, “A few more runs like that and you’ll be ready for the whoop–whoop–whoop!” I looked at him oddly and he knew I did not understand. “A Helicopter,” he said. There it was, another moment. I had never told Steve of my plan to heli-ski for my 50th. His comment boosted my confidence which was already pretty high. I left Steve feeling like I was 25 and made my way to Alf’s slope side restaurant to meet Dave. He was just getting his stuff on after a break and we went right to the lift for the last couple of runs. I peeled off through the trees as often as I could. It was an excellent day. Après-ski is for me green ginger tea at the lodge and then the normal routine: shower, hot tub, shower again and dinner at 6 pm. The soup with chunks of shrimp and a spicy bite was great. I ordered the Lamb and when asked how I wanted it I told the waiter, “As the chef prefers.” The waiter seemed impressed and said, “I gotta re-member that.” It was the right decision as the lamb was excellent, and went perfectly with the Cab. I finished with chocolate cake, the perfect finish a near perfect day at Alta. Things at dinner were not quite perfect, however as we were joined by a know-it-all, been-everywhere, done-everything guy. You know the type, always has a one-up story. I had a girlfriend like that years ago. After you told a story or made a statement she would always say, “That’s OK but I did this…” It frustrated the hell out of me then, and I have been very careful to avoid these types, but I was stuck. If I ever get this way I implore anyone who cares for me to give me a smack right across the kisser. After dinner I was back at the fire listening to my iPod and writing. The music over those last two days has been great, mostly because I raided Susan’s CDs before I left. Many I had given her but had not downloaded; others were Susan’s. Every song was perfect and a reminder once again to pinch myself for having a friend with the same passion and similar taste. Another moment. But it was short lived as the know-it-all, done-it-all sat down and started speak-ing to me, even with the headphones on and the laptop covering half my face (I mean really)! He went on to say how he doesn’t want to go to sleep too early and then got into the real thing he wanted to talk about which was himself, and how he retired at

48, yada-yada. I need not put you through the pain, reading this “my rant” is enough. I waited till he needed to catch a breath to interject. I gave him a lame excuse that I am sure he did not believe. Why I would leave a comfortable chair next to the fire to sit in my little room? Since my rhythm was thrown off by you-know-who I decided to call it a night. It was 11 pm NY time and I did not want my bio-clock to be thrown off. Before settling in I went outside and took some pictures of the moon over High Rustler; it was magnificent. Tomorrow’s plan was to try the K2 Apache skis that replaced the Pontoons and photograph some of today’s great runs and vistas.Last day: Breakfast was terrible. Not the food (Oatmeal, sausage and an EBM omelet), it was the company. We again were joined by Mr. Know-it-all but there was another character at the table. A spooky type; one of the other guests called him Ted Bundy’s cousin. Asked a lot of questions and when you answered he would cut you off mid way as if he heard enough and ask another question. He made a comment a few min-utes into the meal. “Being Ivy leagued educated…” I couldn’t care less what he said after that. He and the know-it-all made some gray ethnic remarks and I was done and excused myself. Getting into the shuttle Tyler, the driver we have gotten to know, asked how we were doing. I said I was better now¸ feeling stupid after breakfast with a know-it-all, done-it-all. Tyler knew immediately who I was talking about “The real estate guy. He bent my ear for an hour. We have a kid on our staff who is the same way. We call him ‘I–E–R.’ Every sentence starts with ‘I’ and ends with ‘E–R.’ ‘I did it better, bigger,

faster.” We all agreed to have a little pity on these guys and concentrate on what was really important: skiing. Back on the slopes the new skis combined with my con-fidence quickly erased any negative aftertaste from break-fast. Took some cruisers with Dave as we had not skied together that much, so it was good to share a few runs. I peeled off into the trees whenever I could. A few runs in, I got more aggressive and took some air on a small bump,

but there was less ground underneath than I thought and my flight was a little longer but effortless. A shot of adrenaline was immediately delivered to my brain and I had, as Tom Cruise said in top gun, “a need for speed.” Pointing my skies straight down and picking the steepest line I built up more speed and was flying until my logical brain woke up and said, “What the hell is wrong with you?! You can’t do this!” At that point I lost control, jerking back and forth and about to “tomahawk” (another ski bum term for tumbling uncontrollably down the mountain). Seconds later I regained control and like a NASCAR driver I hit the accelerator, the result of another jolt of adrenaline I suspect. Another way cool moment! It was time for a break and we stopped in for coffee (as if I needed to put more speed in my body). Afterward I went off-piste to an ungroomed and very unpopu-lated area. Coming through a group of trees I entered a peaceful space surrounded by trees and then I saw her: a snow angel. It was only the second time I had seen one since coming here. The last time was three years ago at a ravine on Number 9 Ex-press (my favorite run). I was by myself looking down the field of small moguls and she came up behind me, in her thirties and very fit, in a light colored outfit, not too flashy. As she passed quite close she turned, stopped and stared right at me for a mo-ment. We spoke for a bit. I don’t remember the words; I was too overcome with her eyes. We started to ski synchronously side by side but after a few turns all I saw was her magic dust. Women are in the minority at Alta, as it is serious skiing and very little else to do. The ones who are here are serious and are not to be messed with. Steve had joked with one of his friends who rode the lift with us, about one of the bartenders, Rachel. A hard body, “She would ski Kieran’s pants off.” It wasn’t meant as it sounds, or maybe it was and I didn’t get it at the time. This time I came upon the snow angel, she stopped as before and stared, but this time I knew my place and just nodded and watched as she flew away. Snow angles are like butterflies: their beauty is captivating, and at times if you are fortunate they pause and let you look at them. Don’t look too long, lest their im-age be burned into your eyes and you spend your life chasing them. You can bet that this was another moment! I put the headphones back on and shuffled the Derek Trucks Band’s Soul Serenade album and skied down the next few runs to clear my head. I caught up with Dave to pick up the items we bought on the mountain. The on-mountain shops deliver your purchases to the base which is quite nice. Back to the lodge and returned the K2 Apaches. “Awesome skis,” I said to the tuner. I had to say something about the skies that kept me upright going faster than ever before. Then the routine you know by now: shower, tub, shower, dinner; then pick-up for the airport, to make an 11:15 pm flight, with time change will put us into JFK by 5:30 am. Dave will drop me at the office and the work day will begin with a full schedule of appointments. My trip is over and so is this little story. I must add that this is a great time of my life and I know it. It is because of my wife and many others who make it so; you know who you are. I send her and you my most sincere appreciation and love. Spe-cial thanks to Dave for introducing me to Alta, Utah and for being my ski buddy!

Moments become memories, which are the patchwork in the quilt of life.

3�

Fertile Ground for Romance Winter is indeed fertile ground for romance. Admittedly, I’m simply your outdoor columnist, but I also consider myself a romantic. I’m always quick to pause along some majestic bluff, while venturing out with my wife, and gazing at the beauty of our shoreline, only quickly to comment that it is only the beauty of her company that can take my eyes away from the landscape beyond her. (That’s sure to pay off when she sees this issue!) Okay, now its time to get outside and find a place to take that stroll. Luckily enough, you can just drive north, park, and walk the beach. Yes, you have to get out of the car, no fogging up the windows just yet. I like privacy, so often I will wander a bit, driving back roads along the shore until I find that little known entrance. These are small paths, probably made by teenagers on Saturday nights looking for their own meeting places to hang out. You found the beach, now for the outdoorsy part. Look at the wind, then look at the land, and find a bend in the beach that will create a little calm where the wind goes over the beach a bit for a more comfortable stroll.

From Eatons Neck through Smithtown, you have some wonderful bluffs that make for terrific winter jaunts. You also have trails and parks that offer

a wonderful setting for sharing our views of beauty, and just like in Vegas, what you do in the woods, stays in the woods. Often these State parks, like Caleb Smith, have wonderful wintry trails that lead to a frozen pond. Quiet and cold, you just have too snuggle up a bit and rub noses. For a shorter quick breath of wintry air you could take a ride down to North-port Village and stroll its little park at the end of Main Street. The large town dock with its gazebo at the end would be a great place to stop, gaze out at the harbor and, of course, give her a little cozy up time too. Then back up to Main Street where you can pop into a local café to have some warming up time. This town, once called Cow Harbor, is one of just many wintry romantic towns that dot our shores. Maybe some other couple will see you come in off the dock, and they will look at each other, grasp each others hands and venture out to see what it was you were looking at. Then when they reach that spot looking out onto our shorelines, they glance at each other, and add there gift of love and beauty to that of the North Shore. Okay guys and girls, now that those points were scored, its off to some of the February outdoor shows. The Outdoor Expo at the Nassau Coliseum is January 16-18, the Fishing Show at SUNY Farmingdale is January 30 - February 1 and the Rockland Community College Outdoor Expo is March 3 - 7. Grab some brochures at these events, pick a spot and plan a spring camping family adventure. These outdoor shows are great places to get information about our state parks and other outdoor adventures. It is fun and easy, so first timers don’t need to be intimidated. Go on-line! For less than the cost of airfare, you can outfit yourself for many adventures. You can even practice in some of our local parks. The kids may hesitate, but throw in that portable game thing, some DVDs for the drive and you’re there. Now, not to be too politically incorrect, but ladies don’t fret, the few days camping will be worth it, it is a priceless memory. No hair dryers, but smiles and stories galore. Now I probably just blew that whole getting lucky thing I started with...no, she knows I meant it all and she knows we will soon have that wintry stroll along the village dock. She will gaze out and say, “Isn’t it wonderful that we live here, just look at that sunset!” And I will reply, “It is a beautiful sunset, almost as beautiful as my wife.”

Dan Stahl is a hunter, fisherman, conservationist and life-long North Shoreian. He is a United States Coast Guard Licensed Captain and a New York State Licensed Guide. Check out Dan’s website at www.outsidenorthshore.com

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Roses, Among Other Things! On deck is the day of roses, candy and love….Valentines Day! The long stem rose has long been the symbol of undying love for those special romantic occasions and some times even the way out of the dog house. The source of the long stem roses comes from the hybrid “Tea” rose. Roses that were grown in China were introduced to the European varieties and soon were cross bred giving us those fabulous long stems, colors and most of all the fragrance. Whether a single stem is used to convey a message of elegant simplicity or a beautifully arranged box of long stems, it would be difficult to match the impact of long stemmed roses! After the lights and decorations come down and the holiday parties are over the house is going to look rather plain. The short days of winter and cold weather will keep us indoors with not much to look at. If you’re conserving your heat resources and keeping the house on the cool side, I’m going to suggest a few “easy care” houseplants with great foliage to liven up the interior landscape. I’ve used these plants successfully in many office situations that have low lighting and even lower humidity with hot air heat and they have performed well in spite of the climate. The following plants are child and pet safe! As with all the plants I am about to mention, water carefully as they don’t like “wet feet” meaning they don’t like to be kept wet and the best way to avoid over watering is check the water need by picking up the plant . If it is heavy, leave it be. If it is very light, give it a good soak. During the short days of winter, plants tend to slow down a little, so use fertil-izer sparingly and give the plants a chance to rest. In March, when the days are getting noticeably longer, increase the frequency of feeding your plants Fatsia Japonica is a handsome plant with dark green oak like leaves that toler-ates low light and cool temperatures (50-65 degrees) making it a good candidate for the living room or sun room. Although they can get to six feet high, they are easily pruned back to keep their shape and size. Other than that, let it be and enjoy. The Parlor Palm is one of my favorites. A popular houseplant since Victorian times, this plant blends with any décor and adds an elegant touch to any interior-scape. Parlor palms like medium, indirect sunlight and moist soil. Keep it away from cold drafts and direct sunlight, as either of these situations can brown the leaf tips. I have used this plant in low light and low humidity situations where it gets about 10 hours of fluorescent light and no humidity and it has performed well. Bromeliades are a smaller potted plant often with stripes running through the leaves and a colorful spike type flower. There are hundreds of varieties and sizes available and these beauties can be used as an accent or a highlight and garner their fair share of curiosity as they are very tropical looking. Care for these guys is a bit different. They need a good source of light to maintain the variegation and exotic colors. Watering is a bit unusual in that you water the “cup” form by the leaves at the base of the flower spike. In their native locations they grow on tree limbs and claim their water from the rain having very little in the way of a root structure. The flowers can last for two or three months leaving just the foliage behind . Pothos or “Devils Ivy” is one of the traditional workhorses of indoor plants. Low light, low humidity, too much dust and neglect doesn’t seem to affect this plant too much. Although it can adapt to almost any condition, it favors low light and moist soil. I exaggerated about the dust (someone once said, “Dust is the Devil’s snow.”) As with all houseplants, keep the leaves free of dirt and dust. A clean leaf is the best air cleaner you can own. Next month I‘ll introduce a few more easy care houseplants and we’ll look at some of the “All American Selections” for the garden. I welcome questions and com-ments from our readers at flbarnighl@optonline.net. So for now that’s what’s goin’on in Jack’s Backyard. Jack Filasky is the General Manager and Head Grower for Flower Barn / IGHL Greenhouses in Moriches.

Jack’s BackyardGardening Tips and Tales

Jack Filasky

Roses that were grown in China were intro-duced to the European varieties and soon were cross bred giving us those fabulous long stems, colors and most of all the fragrance.

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Lynn Spinnato: Forever in a Moment Being a gymnast is something that stays with you for life, and, although I thought it was far in my past, seeing Lynn Spinnato brought back some great memories. You see, her sister Jodi was my coach at Spins Gymnastics for many years and Lynn was very much a part of our gym family. While our reunion may seem irrelevant to most, after seeing what Lynn is capable of, it is nothing short of irony. Lynn is a person who has the ability to capture a moment in time that seems to last forever. Although once you have been somewhere you can never really go back, Lynn has a way of preserving those memories so that it’s as if you had never left. Growing up in Port Jeff Station, she has always been a part of the island we love to call home. If you talked to anybody but her, they would tell you she’s been an artist forever, and know-ing her free spirit I’d say I have to agree. Like many kids Lynn had a great imagination, but little did she know at the time that grade school would be the start of her career. Rounding up the neighbors and making plays with sheets for backgrounds and an audience of no more than twenty was where it all began. Although she started as an amateur, today Lynn is far beyond her days of sheets and folding chairs. At the age of fourteen Lynn took her first photo class. It was there she discovered her true passion, saying “The first time I saw an image in the developing tray it struck

me like a bolt of lightning and I knew that’s what I wanted to do.” She continued to learn and her talent grew. Years later she studied French and Art History at Stony Brook University. She then began taking graduate classes at the School of Visual Arts, and then expanded into film making at NYU and The American Film Institute in California. Her background in film is what inspires Lynn’s photography. She says “It’s the ability to capture a moment in time, to tell an entire story within one frame that makes it remarkable.” Unlike a landscape photographer she believes the magic is in the fact humans change constantly, and it is so special being able to tell a story that one could

The CreativesNorth Shore Artists in Profile Laura Kessler

never relive other than documenting a scene. Her cultural heroes like Ansel Adams, may seem old school to some, but when you see Lynn’s work it is no surprise why they inspire her. She owes her love of black & white to the great Alfred Hitchcock, and the ability to use commercialism in a thought provoking and beautiful way to good old Annie Leibovitz. Lynn’s suc-

cess in photography lies in allowing people to let her inside, to bring out the beauty others may never see. Through her lens, that is exactly what she does. Often in photography, subjects have their doubts, but Lynn is always confident. “The pressure of when people think it can’t happen is when I’m inspired most.” For example, Lynn was hired for the Suffolk Bar Associa-

tion to photograph US Attorney John McKay. Everyone told her “He won’t give you the time of day,” but Lynn ended up with nothing short of amazing photos as McKay told her, “Shoot whatever you want.” A great deal of her ability to capture the seemingly impossible comes with ex-perience. Having worked with a number of celebrities in her past, Lynn knows of the constant assault they encounter and that respect is really all they need. Working in areas such as film and music videos and gaining the trust of people like Ben Stiller,

Bill Cosby and even The Stone Temple Pilots is something Lynn has learned to grasp well. This is why when you visit Spinnato Gallery you will find her gold record among others hanging on the wall. The lady’s got talent, but she would probably be the last to boast about it. Lynn understands the power of humility and that is why she is able to capture such natural beauty. Like a fly on the wall, her portraits seem to choose her. Her subjects trust through her eyes, although unlike a fly, she only has two, and that’s what comes out as unusual and intriguing. By creating a story within her environment people open up and reveal something. “I feel I’ve touched their lives and they’ve grown because they see how beautiful they are for the first time.” By believing everyone has a par-ticular beauty, Lynn is blessed, for she has the gift to allow people to see it. “When I photograph I get just as much from them as they do from me.” “Time Out” is a particular piece of Lynn’s work that really speaks to her. During a photo study of dancers she told them she was done, and it was at that instant when they began to break apart that she got the best shot of the day. The candidness of that moment was beautiful. The feeling Lynn gets from this shot is not far off from those of other photographers she personally admires, such as a picture of a young Mick Jagger smoking backstage sans all sags and wrinkles. ”It’s about when you capture that mo-ment and it is captured forever.” Lynn believes to be a great artist takes passion and no fear. “You have to be brave enough to express what you’re feeling. I think most people are protecting themselves too much to become deep.” This fear is something she is now attempting to fully

Lynn’s success in photography lies in al-lowing people to let her inside, to bring out beauty that others may never see.

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conquer. Lynn is currently working with “her people” to raise money for a fi lm based on her journals of six years at Atlantic Records traveling and making music videos. “The hardest part for me is just to get really honest.” While she has very little of it, her spare time is used to decorate her new 200 year-old house. It has been a challenge balancing the character of the house with hers. “The house is so alive and speaks to me in a way that I feel like we’re decorating it together.” The house isn’t the only new thing in her life, so is her man. Settling down at home, however, will not in-terfere with her work. Next year she will be traveling to China, Africa and Israel so she can share some of their natural beauty with the world. The Spinnato Gallery will hold its opening on

March 28th from 2-5 p.m. The show is entitled; “Through My Eyes: Abstractions of the Human Body” and personally, I can’t wait to see what else Lynn’s eyes have to say. She is a woman who is constantly growing, yet, being young, has already seen so much. “If I can touch people and make them happy through my chosen fi eld then I

feel I have given back to the world.” And that she does! You can get a glimpse of her on the web at spinattogallery.com, but I think it’s something you really should see for yourself, from Lynn’s eyes to yours.

Laura Kessler is a recent Summa Cum Laude graduate from Savannah College of Art and Design and is aspiring to become the greatest advertising art director of her time. While she currently makes her living slinging drinks, creativity is really what she has in the mix.

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Menopause...When?Dear Abby, I am 46 years old. My periods are getting closer together. Sometimes I get it twice in one month. My friends told me that it means that I am starting menopause . Is more frequent bleeding a sign of menopause? K.L. More frequent bleeding is not necessarily a sign of menopause. The defi nition of menopause is absence of your period for one year. Most women will experience fewer bleeding episodes as they approach menopause. Eventually, the bleeding episodes stop all together. If your bleeding is accompanied by your normal PMS symptoms like cramping, breast tender-ness, bloating etc. then you can be reassured that the bleeding is hormonally driven and is alright. However, if you bleeding is “out of the blue” or you don’t feel it coming on, then you should check with your health care provider.

I am 50 years old, my periods have pretty much stopped. When will my hot fl ashes stop! S.A. There is more than just one answer to your question. My son who is 16 wants to know when he will stop getting acne. Hot fl ashes are a little like that. Each person

Ask AbbyWomen’s Healthcare

Abby Rockett

The definition of menopause is absence of your period for one year.

is different, and people will try different therapies. Some women will try natural soy remedies such as Peruvian yam, red clover, or soy supplements. Many women have tried the natural black cohosh. And women are still using prescription hormone replacement therapy for a short period of time. I have had clients have some success using these products. None of these products are safe for woman with a history of breast cancer, or other estrogen dependent cancers. Stress has been shown to con-tribute or exacerbate various health problems including menopausal symptoms like hot fl ashes. Managing stress and taking control of your body changes as you enter into this next phase of your life and is essential to your sense of well being. If you do not have a method for reducing stress consider including one of the many healthy options into your routine. There are many choices, such as: repetitive prayer, yoga, tai chi, and qi gong, breathe focus, mindfulness meditation, and guided imagery. Meditation and exercise are known to increase the endorphins in your body the make you feel good – they are good for you too.

My daughter is 15years old, when should I bring her to the gynecologist? T.J. For a well visit, I like to see girls as soon as they are thinking about dating or just when they start dating. Her fi rst visit can be scheduled as a consult only. This will give your daughter an opportunity to meet and feel comfortable with her health care provider in a non-threatening format. A health history will be taken and her questions regarding her gynecological care will be answered. Later, when she needs a full exam or if she comes for a problem, she will be more comfortable knowing who she will be examined by. The worse time for her to meet her gyneco-logical provider for the fi rst time is when she is having a problem. She may actually be too scared or embarrassed to come in at all. There are a lot of “old wives tales” out there that teenagers pass to each other that can steer your daughter in the wrong direction. It is better to have your health provider dispel them early.

Please keep the letters coming! You can reach me by Emailing me at Abby@AbbyRockett.com and include Ask Abby in your subject line. Abby.

Abby Rockett is a board certifi ed Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner and has been in practice for 11 years. You can visit her website at AbbyRockett.com to fi nd out about upcoming exercise programs that are being developed especially for women in their “Prime.” It is never too late to do something about your health.

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Childhood Obesity Okay, so it has been quite a bit chilly lately, and everyone seems more than willing to hang up the running shoes in favor of snuggling on the couch with the remote and surfing listlessly through countless television shows rather than brave the cold outside. I have to admit that I have done my fair share of lazing around under the premise that it is simply too cold outside to even take the garbage to the curb, let alone try to exercise. However, this mentality during the winter months can severely cut down on overall health and well-being. And although you may be willing to sacrifice a little of your own personal gains over the last few months in favor of some hot chocolate and a Law and Order marathon, it should be another matter entirely to promote this lack of physical activity in your children. Childhood obesity has more than doubled in the past 25 years and about 30 percent of U.S. children are now overweight? Research indicates that there is an 80 percent chance that an overweight adolescent will be an obese adult. I remember a veterinarian telling me once that you can’t blame a pet for being overweight – you need to blame the owner! Children, just like pets, have that innate response to want to just be kids and run around and play all day. Somehow, over the years, our society has transformed youth into a sedentary fast food and technology lifestyle. Children need the adults in their lives to set limits and present good models for healthy living. It is extremely important to instill a healthy lifestyle in our youth today, so that they can grow up to be healthy adults. Child obesity increases the risk dramatically for diabetes, heart disease, and a host of other disorders. There are many factors related to childhood obesity, but there is one in particular that has been studied recently and that is the targeting of children through fast food advertising on television. Studies have concluded that a ban on fast food advertising during children’s programming would drastically reduce obesity in kids. My personal feeling is that television does not have much to offer anyway and cutting down on children’s exposure to it would have an overall positive impact on them.

No Bones About ItNatural Health Care and Wellness

Dr. Peter J. Stumpf

Child obesity increases the risk dra-matically for diabetes, heart disease, and a host of other disorders.

Childhood obesity continues to rise in the United States and watching too much television has statistically been proven to be one of its causes. Additionally, the num-ber of fast food advertisements that are streamlined over the airwaves only adds to the obesity problem. Add to this research that demonstrates that television is linked to a variety of other maladies and you should be alarmed and compelled to limit the amount of television your children watch. Winter is a difficult time of year in New York. I remember when I lived in the Atlanta area and activity was promoted by the warmer climate, it was definitely much easier to stay active throughout the year. Although the weather may seem like an

obstacle, there are many activities that children can enjoy which will enable them to flourish even dur-ing the cold winter months. Be-gin by thinking back to your own childhood. How did you spend your winter afternoons? Bundle the kids up and take them outside

for a brisk walk, sleigh ride or snowball fight. Remember to dress warmly in layers, have fun, and allow children’s imaginations to reign free. The fresh air will refresh them, they will get some needed vitamin D from the sun’s rays, and they will be mov-ing around expending calories instead of zoning out in front of a screen. If outside activities are out of the question, there are still a number of options available. Countless parenting and children’s websites provide a myriad of craft ideas. Even activities as simple as teaching kids how to help around the house allow them to be active and learn important life skills. Of course, it is easier to allow them to play video games or watch a favorite show while you cook, clean or focus on that last minute paperwork, and sometimes an alternative activity is not an option. However, we should all continually monitor how much television we allow into our family’s life. Being conscious of the time will allow your family to prioritize what you truly want to watch and provide your family with more time to reach its full potential, both regard-ing physical as well as mental health. Until next time, be well.

Dr. Stumpf owns Sunshine Chiropractic, a family practice located on Route 25A in Miller Place. He can be contacted through his website – www.sunshinechiropractic.net.

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Jim, you have recently retired as proprietor and official “Innkeeper” of the famed Three Village Inn located in Stony Brook. The awards you and your son Lou won include Restaurateurs of the Year, Man of the Year, and Business People of the Year. You are one of the most respected and beloved men in our community. Tell us about your upbringing and how you got to where you are today. I was born in a small mountain village called Fourna in Greece where life was very simple. We were self sufficient with everything harvested from the land. Meat, cheese, wine, etc. It was an idyllic upbringing until we were attacked by Mussolini and endured the German occupation. It was a terrible existence, but nothing could compare with the Civil War that followed. Why was that? In the civil war, it was the communists vs. the loyalist. It was friend against friend, father against son. You were afraid to talk with anyone for fear that someone would turn you in. The peo-ple were starving to death. There was no bread, no salt, no eggs, or milk. The communists would break down your doors in the middle of the night to take any food that you may have had. The com-munists were taking the young men of Greece to Europe to indoctrinate them. Over 35,000 were al-ready snatched from their homes. Since I was an American citizen because my father had already emigrated to the U. S., I decided to seek safety in the states. That must have been a difficult decision to leave your family and friends. Yes, but I had a dream that changed my life. In the dream, I was saying goodbye to my family when I was approached by an older woman dressed in black whom I had never met. She said that she was my deceased grandmother and told me never be afraid of anything for I would succeed in everything I would ever do. I believed her. From that day forward, I was never afraid of any deci-sion I ever made. What happened when you came to the states? I lived in Hell’s Kitchen in a cold water flat. We had to go to the public bath to pay a nick-el to get a shower. We were snowed in for seven weeks during the worst snowstorm since the bliz-zard of 1888. During that time, my friend and I bought an English/Greek dictionary to study the language since we couldn’t speak a word of English. One of my first jobs was as a dishwasher where I worked 6 days a week, 12 hours a day for $28.95! We felt very safe in the city. We were free as birds going to Central Park in the middle of the night or traveling on the subway for a nickel. Other than your dream, was there anything else that had a profound effect on your life? The owner of the restaurant in Hells Kitchen had promised me that I could eat some corn beef and cabbage if I worked very hard all day. When the time came, he gave me moldy meat from the refrigerator which I thought was an inhumane thing to do. This was another turning point in my life. I refused to work for him anymore. I also vowed that I would never treat anyone like that. I promised that I would work hard to reach a position where I could help someone and never demean them. How did you get to work in the John Peel Room at the famed Island Inn? Among other jobs, I found my way to the Pennsylvania Hotel where I worked as a waiter. I felt that it was an honorable profession to serve someone. I was drafted to the Army during the Korean War where I became a corporal. When I returned to the Pennsylvania Hotel I earned $20 a day. I truly believed that the streets of America were paved with gold! I eventually came to the John Peel Room where I worked for 30 years as a waiter, captain, matre de and finally associate director. I was honored to have met and served hundreds of famous people including a president, actors, astronauts, athletes, senators, and Supreme Court justices. Whom did you admire the most? I admired Angela Lansbury because she was so kind. I used to chat for hours with Steve and Edie Gorme. Boris Karloff was another of my favorites. There were hundreds of others since many came to the John Peel Room after performing at the Westbury Music Fair. I have autographs and photos from many of them.

How did you come to purchase the Inn? My dream was to climb the ladder to the mountain top and for me that was to own my own restaurant. When the opportunity came, I remembered what my grand-mother told me in my dream and never hesitated. In the fulfillment of my dream, my son Lou played the greatest role. I thank God for his help in reaching the mountaintop. The Inn is such a special place. There might be better places, but there is no place like the Inn. I treated it with the respect and affection it deserved. I had a respect for the history of the place too, knowing that the Inn was even bigger than the thousands who frequented it. I always wore a suit and a tie while there. People responded and knew it was different, a place where you would be proud to bring your family or busi-

ness associates. I believe that The Inn symbolizes everything beautiful and special about the Three Village area. What advice could you give someone starting out today in the restaurant business? Remember that your job is to serve the customer. You must give them a reason to come back and they will in turn be your good will ambassador. No job should ever be beneath you from sweeping the floor to clearing tables because each job is a step-ping stone to another. If you love what you do, you will never tire. I walk about 6 miles a day at the Inn! There is great pleasure in giving, in serving someone, in making them happy. You can never run out of smiles! What advice would you give anyone about life? Always believe in yourself. Never let stress enter your life. Work as hard as you can, give it your all and then don’t worry about a thing. Never harm anyone and never hold grudges. It is up to you to climb the ladder of success. You have a wonderful family. Do you have any ad-vice for families today? Yes, stay out of debt by living within your means. Give children love, not things. Teach them history. Give them respect and affection because that alone is worth a fortune. I couldn’t have accomplished what I did without the loyalty of my wife and fam-ily. What would you like to say to the people who came to the Inn over the years? I want to say a special thank you the people of Long Island for supporting the Inn. After 19 years, it is the fulfillment of a dream and will be in my

heart forever. I was not only there Innkeeper, but their friend. It was my honor and privilege to serve them over the years. And I am deeply humbled and touched by the party organized for me by Helene Bredes at the Old Field Club. I thought it was sym-bolic that I even had corn beef and cabbage! Do you have any final words for us? I would like to end with a poem that I wrote on the anniversary of the Statue of Liberty. When you have lost your freedom as I had, you appreciate every day, every liberty. No one can stop you from succeeding in this country. I believe and trust the American people and the American way of life. We are the shining city on the hill. Never forget that!

The Grand Old Lady Oh, say can you see

What’s that statue above the sea? It stands there for all to see

Her name is Liberty Her torch all lit and bright

She’s greeting people day and night She gives them courage; she gives them hope

For all the people from abroad May God bless and keep her free

The Grand Old Lady named Liberty

Three Village Innkeeper Jimmy Miaritis RetiresAn Interview with a Proper Improper North Shoreian

by Irene Ruddock

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Epicurean QuartetFine Dining Review and Profile

Shaughnessy Anne McKenna Dusling ICosta De Espana: A Taste of Spain in Port Jeff For the past quarter century, tucked away and nestled into a cute corner of Port Jef-ferson Village known as Trader’s Cove is a little bit of Spain’s culture and flavor. Family owned, Costa de Espana has been a North Shore staple with its authentic Spanish menu and ambiance. Upon entering the bright red door, diners are greeted with a warm and cozy feeling. Stone walls, wooden ceiling and dim lighting provided by beautiful glowing chandeliers create a welcoming atmosphere that has a relaxing effect. The sultry Spanish voices and rhythmic beats of Latin music flowing throughout the res-taurant, combined with Spanish art-work and deep red table linens and curtains, is something to experience. The combination of the sensational atmosphere and the friendly wait staff left me feeling as if I had left the bubble of Port Jefferson and was sitting seaside in Spain. The authenticity of this ex-perience was compounded by the va-riety of menu items that were being offered, and as we were soon to find out, the taste and quality of the food. Our party was welcomed with an in-credible half pitcher of homemade Sangria ($10.50), the recipe was not to be shared when Cyndi later asked. It is something that you need to visit to experience. The rich and fruity flavor was enjoyed by all who tried it. Charlie was happy to find that his thirsty taste buds were not going to go unattended to. Costa de Espana carries O’Douls for those who prefer non-alcoholic beverages. To get our meal started we were provided with a sampling of the Tapas menu. Each and every item was beautifully presented and prepared, however some of us were much more timid to venture in trying them. Costa de Espana prepares food that would be found commonly in Spain, that includes Octopus and Escargot, two items at which a

typical American might cringe. The more dar-ing of us (okay, fine, everyone except me) tried everything and found it enjoyable and unique. Included in our sampling was Serrano Jamon y Man-chego Queso ($14.50), this combination was a fine Spanish ham and cheese served cold. We also tasted Gambas Al Ajillo ($10.25), this jumbo shrimp in garlic sauce was delicious. The Champinones Rellenos (Stuffed Mushrooms, $8.25), and Calamares Fritos (Fried Calamari, $8.75) were also enjoyed by all. As I previously mentioned that I am too timid to have tried the Caracoles (Escargot in white cream sauce, $10.25) and Pulpo a la Gallega (Galician Style Octopus, $9.50), however Kevin and Charlie found each dish to be wonderful and they were happy to experience this authentic dining opportu-nity. As we dined on the Tapas, all of which are available on the bar menu, we or-dered our entrees. I ordered the Mariscada a la Marinera ($26.75), this gigantic meal was prepared and served in a large pot. The seafood combination included lobster,

crab, clam, mussels and scallops cooked in a marinara sauce. It tasted fresh and delicious, and there was enough to feed two people. Charlie tried Lengua-do a la Parrilla ($17.75), this broiled filet of sole was served alongside spinach. Charlie men-tioned several times that the fish was cooked to perfection, and once again, the portion size was very generous. Cyndi sampled the Ternera a la Chef ($21.75), this veal was the specialty of the chef and was tender and smoth-ered in a sweet tomato based sauce. Pollo Costa de Espana ($15.25) was Kevin’s choice. This chicken dish was prepared in a wine and tomato sauce with onions, and mushrooms. Kevin enjoyed this dish and found it to be a little on the sweeter side. Each entree comes with the choice of yellow rice or Span-ish potatoes. Each of these two sides were exceptional. For dessert, Charlie enjoyed the

Spanish style Rice Pudding ($5), and Cyndi tried the Natilla Pudding ($5.25), a cin-namon flavor pudding with fresh cream on top. Kevin devoured the Flan ($5.25), a traditional Spanish custard dessert and enjoyed a strong Espresso ($3.25). I enjoyed the Tortufo ($6.00), chocolate and vanilla ice cream with a chocolate shell and cherry center. Overall, we were very impressed with the service, our water glasses were always attended to, and crumbs were cleared away from the table with record timing. Costa de Espana was a lovely escape from the ordinary and was an authentic experi-ence that is hard to find. Costa de Espana would be the perfect setting for a romantic evening or a special event to celebrate with friends and family.

Overall Consensus: Unique! Tasty!Prices: Tapas - $8.75 to $25 Entrees - $15 to $32 Dessert - $5/6Handicap Accessible: No, there are steps to enter the building and inside the dining areas.Points of interest: Open year-round, weather permitting beautiful outdoor dining and smoking area, reservations are accepted, Bar Menu available until 10pm weekdays and 11pm weekends. Private parties are available.Costa de Espana9 Trader’s Cove, Port Jefferson, NY 11777(631) 331-5363www.costadeespana.com

Costa de Espana was a lovely escape from the ordinary and was an authentic Spanish experience that is hard to find.

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What’s New For 2009? Whew, we made it! 2008 was a pretty tough year, but we can put that all behind us now because 2009 is the year of promised change. The lesson for me, that which I take from 2008, is the realization and application of the Peter Principle both in government and business. No, it can’t be, it’s a silly concept I used to think. Lo and behold weren’t the events that took place in 2008 the epitome of proof that this principle is a reality? That being said let me tell you that a lot of things are going to change around here when my bail-out comes through. I guess buying rum futures from Guyana wasn’t such a good idea. I should have listened to my buddy Warren and went with rums from Trinidad. In this article we are supposed to talk about what’s new. How about this, how about we abolish this common innocuous greeting of “what’s new?” I don’t know about you but I’m a little annoyed by the pressure that is instantly placed upon me when asked this question. Do I now have an obligation to relate my knowledge of new world events or worse, an obligation to tell some intimate new detail of my personal life, or even worse yet, to explain that I have no life by saying the all too common response of nothing is new? Here are some of the new spirit products, ideas and hap-penings that are coming forth for the year 2009.Hendrick’s Gin is looking to get your attention with an advertising campaign explain-ing that it is a most unusual gin by featuring the infusion of cucumber and rose petal.Blue Ice American Vodka is four times distilled and five times filtered and is made from russet potatoes from Idaho.Snow Queen Vodka commits to growing the brand more effectively. The bottle pack-age is extraordinary, as the product hails from Kazakhstan Russia and has mostly,

an on premise placement. Look for a new de-vice for pouring this vodka that will light up the bottled when it is being tilted for pouring.

The Imperial Collection is a super premium vodka from Russia and is self described as fit for a king. The vodka undergoes a multiple refinement process nine times distilled and has a shelf price between $40 and $46 for a 700 ml. sized bottle. This company indeed has the gift for the person that has everything. They offer their vodka in care-fully crafted Fabergé eggs made in Italy of fine Venetian glass, and have a richly gilded decoration, golden decals, and a decorative gilded cap with a red Swarovski crystal on top. The top of the line costs $1,800 per bottle. Move over Louis XIII you’re not the king of price anymore.Orzel Vodka from Poland is six times distilled and filtered over Quartz.Ed Hardy Vodka with a bottle design by Christian Audigier is imported from France. The vodka is distilled and filtered five times. The packaging on this baby is insane. Does either of these two fellow’s names ring a bell? Christian Audigier is a French designer and entrepreneur who designed for Lee, Diesel, Liberto Kookai, and Von Dutch. Don Ed Hardy has achieved his life’s long ambition of becoming a tattoo artist. Again the package is insane.The rare Courvoisier Erte collection will be made available for the year of 2009. Erte is a unique collection of rare blend Courvoisier Cognac reserves in seven limited edi-tion bottles designed by Erte, an acclaimed artist from the art deco movement. A bottle has a suggested retail value of $1,450.Michelob Shock Top Belgian White and Stone Mill Pale Ale will be the first nationally available organic beer. Miller lite for coming out in 2009 with the first screw top can that will reseal for fresh-ness. Test marketing for this product will be done in the Midwest and Southern United States. Does Joe Six pack really have a need to reseal his beer for freshness? I’m so confused. Isn’t buying rum futures from Trinidad a better idea? I was just thinking the other day that what the world needs now is another ale. Budweiser thinks so too. For the first time ever we are about to be blessed with Budweiser American Ale. In 1968 Lawrence J. Peter and Raymond Hull announced their findings that employees were promoted to the level of their incompetence. Is the Peter Principle true...at least in the spirits industry? Jim Bliss is a 35 year veteran of the liquor business on Long Island. You would be hard pressed to find a restaurant or bar owner on the North Shore whose hand he hasn’t shook.

The Improper VinophileAdventures in Wine

Anthony Frasca

The Spirit WorldCommentary on the Potent Potables

Jim Bliss

The Wine Bubble Has Burst! If you have been down to your wine cellar recently you may have heard a decidedly ominous crash. Breathe easily; it was not one of your precious bottles crashing to the floor. It was, sadly, the value of your collection that has taken a nosedive along with the rest of the economy. It may be shocking, but it was certainly inevitable. The wine bubble has also burst. The evidence for the distressing news came from a recent auction of fine wines held in Manhattan by the wine auction house Morrell & Company. The November auction proved to be a morose affair. Typically at these auctions in the past, nearly all of the lots sold at their asking price, or above in some cases. The success rate has typically been 90 to 95%. Not so at the last sale. Of 1138 lots, 453 lots went begging for an anemic 60% sale rate. At one point early in the auction 11 consecutive lots of Colgin Cel-lars wines went unsold. You can imagine the collective gasp of the participants and auctioneers alike as only 22 of 82 lots of boutique California wines found buyers; a pathetic 26% sale rate. 1982 Bordeaux was no exception. 1982 Bordeaux prices have seen a steady, nearly astronomic, climb over the past two decades for a number of reasons. To borrow an axiom from real estate, they’re not making any more of it. Long the darling of the auction market, only 10 of 40 lots sold for a pitiful 25% sale rate. For the lots that did sell, the news was just as grim. Of 685 lots sold 547 sold at or below the low estimate of the auction house. That leaves a paltry12% of lots sold above the low estimate. Talk about a softening market. Clearly Wall Street bankers are in no mood to splurge on fine wines. Wine auctions in general provide a vehicle for buyers to obtain aged wines, and wines that are nearly impossible to get from your local retailer. Many California boutique wineries maintain mailing lists, some with waiting lists years long. Some have closed their mailing lists altogether. You can find these wines at auction, but it’s costly. Aside from being costly, buying wine at auction can be fraught with hidden perils. Although the auction houses makes an effort to be sure that the wines they procure have been stored in a temperature-controlled environment, there is no guarantee that the wines have been stored that way since release. In addition, every lot sold is as-sessed a buyer’s premium. In the case of the Morrell auction the premium is an eye-popping and wallet unfriendly 18%. And if you don’t have the luxury of being able to pick up the wines yourself in Manhattan, the auction house charges to ship the wines. Wines shipped within New York State cost $35 per case to ship. Add to that the mandatory insurance of 1% and it’s no wonder why the auction market has slipped considerably. The real question is, how did the wine market sustain its meteoric rise over the last two decades? Did the irrational exuberance that fueled the rise of the stock market carry over into auctions of fine wines? The global demand for elite wines has increased steadily over the last two decades, but with the economies of many countries in disar-ray the demand has dropped precipitously. Nevertheless, where there is despair there is also hope and opportunity. If you are contemplating establishing a wine cellar this is a good time to search for bargains and value. The unsold lots from the Morrell auction were available for purchase after the auction and some lots found eager buyers. You may have looked at a number of your own wines, and instead of seeing an opportunity to enjoy the fruits of your labor, you may have seen dollar signs instead. Have no fear. You can now consume these wines knowing they have been devalued to the point that they will give you much more pleasure in your glass than the sadness of seeing them passed over at auction. Instead of feeling indigestion in the pit of your stomach, you can have Colgin Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon swirling around instead. Cheers!

Anthony Frasca is a freelance writer and photographer. He lives in Setauket with his wife and three children. If any readers have any comments or suggestions for the wine editor you can e-mail him at mnkymn1956@gmail.com

Nevertheless, where there is despair there is also hope and opportunity.

Look for a new device for pouring this vodka that will light up the bottled when it is being tilted for pouring.

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ART

Adult Workshops at Gallery NorthWatercolor Workshop with William Oberst Saturday Feb.7 10-5, Sunday, Feb.8th 12-5Two-Day Intensive Oil Painting Workshop with Christian White: Sat. & Sun. Feb.28th &Mar. 1st 10-5Oil Painting Color Workshop with Eileen Sanger; Sat. Mar. 7 & 8 10-5Calll for more info and registration. Workshops for begin-ners and advanced students. Workshop fees are $140; $140 for Friends of North.Gallery North @ 751-2676 or email gallerynorth@aol.com

Adult Classes At Gallery North

Watercolor Class with Elizabeth Greaf: Monday 7-9PMFebruary 2 through March 30th; Closed February 16 and March 9Printmaking Class with Linda Prentiss; Tuesday 7-9PM;February 3rd through March 31; Closed February 17Understanding and Using Alberttian Perspective with Chris-tian WhiteWednesdays 7-9PM February 4th to March 25th; Closed Feb. 28thCartooning with Doug Reina; Thursdays 7-9PMFebruary 5th to March 26th’ Closed February 129th.Classes are open to beginners and advanced Students.To register or for more info: Call Gallery North at 631 752-2676 or wwwGalleryNorth.com

ENDGAME……New Work by Mel PekarskyInspired by the Mojave Desert, his landscape pictures are intellectually as well as perceptually provocative.Runs to February 8th - Gallery hours: Saturday 10-5 and Sunday 12-5. Closed Mondays.ArTalk on Sunday, February 1 3PM by Mel PekarskyGallery North 90 No. Country Rd. Setauket, NY 11790For info call (631) 751-2676 or www.GalleryNorth.org.

Inner Space at The Art-rium Gallery in MelvilleThe gallery is open Monday through Friday from 7am to 7pm.Huntington Arts Council For info call 631 271-8423 ext. 15 or www.huntingtonarts.org

RED……….A GROUP SHOWTHEMED SHOW OF MANY ARTISTS…Eleanor Meier, Baron Krody, Jane McGrawTeubner and others.Exhibit runs to February 22ndAlso Joe Reboli paintings on view in the gallery.For more info: Christopher Gallery 631 689-1601 or email: www.christophergallery.net

Heart With Soul , an exhibition of paintings by Marie Finnegan @ Artastic DestinationA Huntington Village Gallery Exhibit runs from February 4th to March 1stGallery open : Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays 12-8pm, Fridays & Saturdays 12-9pm..Artastic Destination 372 New York Avenue Huntington, NY 11743For info call: Claudia Markovich @ (631) 424-7074 or online artasticdestination@gmail.com

A COLLECTION OF ORIGINAL JOSEPH REBOLI PAINTINGS ON EXHIBITPaintings are on exhibit and available for purchase.Christopher Gallery, 131 Main Street, Stony Brook VilllageFor more info call (631 689-1601) or online at info@.christo-phergallery.netRuns to February 22nd

NS Events: where to go, when to show!Welcome to The Improper North Shoreian Events Calendar. After many months of preparing this calendar, it still amazes me what our area offers people of all ages

and interests in entertainment and culture. Hopefully, I will see you out and about at one of these amazing events. If you see me, let me know that you read about it in TINS.

This column will endeavor to be the definitive source for events along the North Shore and will feature music, theater, film, dance, opera, literature, poetry, lectures and sports listings, as well as community and charitable events. If you would like your event listed, please email me at nsevents@optonline.net at least 30 days prior to the event date. Marie Ann Mordeno, Events Editor

CHILDE HASSAM; AN AMERICAN IMPRESSIONIST ON LONG ISLAND ART MUSEUMEnjoy a different exhibition one Tuesday each month from 10am to noon.Free admission for seniors 62 and older.The Long Island Museum 1200 Route 25A Stony Brook, NY 11790 631 751-0066 or online @ www.LongIslandMu-seum.org

BOOKS

BOOKSIGNINGS AT BOOK REVUE– Authors will speak about books as well.Book Revue, 313 New York Avenue, Huntington. Call (631) 271-1442 / online: www.bookrevue.com All signings at 7pm.Tuesday, February 3rd – Amy Dickinson and new memoir, The Mighty Queens of FreevilleThursday, February 5th – Dr. Robert Melillo and new book, Disconnected Kids: The Groundbreaking Brain Balance Pro-gram for Children with Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia and Other Neurological Disorders.Friday, February 6th – Steven Gaines and new book, Fool’s Paradise: Players, Poseurs and Culture of Excess in South BeachThursday, February 12th – Jimmy Breslin and new book, The Good Rat: A True StoryTuesday, February 24th – Beth Harpaz and new book, 13 is the new 18….and other things my children taught me while I was having a nervous breakdown being their motherThursday, February, 26th – Peter Morgan Kash & Jay Lom-bard, M.D. and their new book, Freedom from Disease The Breakthrough Approach to Preventing Cancer, Heart Disease, Alzheimer’s and Depres-sion by Controlling Insulin

DANCE

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21ST

DRUMLINE LIVE at STALLER CENTER8PM – Main Stage $38 – Sponsored by WALK 97.5 RadioThe new Broadway – style musical based on the movie, Drumline, brings the colourful, athletic and percussion – driven marching band tradition of Southern /Black colleges to the theatrical stage.Tickets and info: 631 632-ARTS or online @ stallercenter.com.

FILM

HOT NEW MOVIES! COMING SOON!THE WRESTLER, CHERR BLOSSOMS, REVOUTION-ARTY ROAD, CHE, DEFIANCE, WINDY AND LUCY, THE READERTickets $9/Public, $6/CAC members unless otherwise noted.. Contact www.cinemaartscentre.org for schedule.

Staller Center Film SeriesFriday, January 30 – The End of America – 7pm The Dark Knight – 9:30pmFriday, February 6 – Man on Wire – 7pm The Lucky Ones – 9pmFriday, February 27 – I’ve Loved You So Long – 7pm Happy – Go – Lucky 9:30pmTickets and info: 631 632-ARTS on online @ stallercenter.com

FUNDRAISING

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23RD

HOPE FOR JAVIER – DINE AWAY DUCHENNESpeaking on the most promising scientific Research Stuart Peltz Ph.D., CEO, PTC therapeutics to be introduced by Dr.

Steven L. Strongwater, M.D., CEO, SBU HospitalJoin us for an intimate 5 course dinner with wine pairing at BLISS in Setauket oncocktails at 6pm and dinner at 7:30PM.Ron Hoffman of Bliss has joined Hope for Javier in the fight to make Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy History.Adhering to Bliss’ Meticulous standards for excellence, Ex-ecutive Chef Danny Avalos and sous chef Evan McDonough have created a culinary masterpiece.RSVP by February 9th.to blissrestaurant @ 631 941-0430. HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1

Chinese New Year CelebrationWMHO Educational and Cultural Center Stony Brook Vil-lageCelebrate the Year of the Ox with festivities including Lion Dance by Wu Mei Kung Fu Association, Spotlight Dance Academy and Stony Brook Taiko Drum Ensemble.Advanced reservations required. Adults: $10; Seniors: $8 and children under 12 including craft activity $8. For more info and reservations call 631 689-5888.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7TH

Dinner & Dancing with Tony DellaWMHO Educational & Cultural CenterTreat your favorite Valentine to aromantic event featuring Vocalist Entertainer, Tony Della, known as “the Romantic Voice of” John Mathis, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and others. Buffet dinner and wine provided by “The Country House”, a Godiva Chocolate & free gift for your Valentine.Advance reservations required; $75 per person..call 631 689-5888.SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 8TH

VALENTINE’S DAY & CHOCOLATE AT THE LONG ISLAND MUSEUMLEE PERROTTA FOUNDER OF RR CHOCOLATE IN BELMORE PRESENTSGet a head start on Cupid with a program including a choco-late display, a chocolate lecture and of course a tasting. Free program with regular museum admission. @ 2PM.The Long Island Museum ,1200 Route 25A, Stony Brook 631 751 1066

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14TH

THE PUPPINI SISTERS AT STALLER8PM - Main Stage The sensational singing musical trio from England! Modern-day Andrews Sisters specialize in close harmonies providing a perfect night out with your special Valentine.Tickets and info: 631 632-ARTS or online @ stallercenter.com.

FEBRUARY 24TH TO March 27th

Suffrage and Courage: A Woman’s Quest for EqualityWMHO Educational & Cultural CenterA thought provoking drama debating a Women’s Right to Vote, circa 1917, as seen through the eyes of Suffrage Advo-cate Alva Vanderbilt Belmont & Caroline Astor.WMHO Educational and Cultural Center Call for registra-tion 631 689-5888

MUSIC

WEDNESDAYS

ACOUSTIC LONG ISLAND8-10PM – Free Admission Music ONE Wednesday .each monthDeepwells Mansion , Route 25A, St. James, NYOnline @ thisweek@acousticlongisland.com

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JAZZ IN THE LIVING ROOM AT MILL POND HOUSE IN ST. JAMES7:30pm Bring your own instrument. Beginners welcome; everybody playsStarted by Ranny Reene over 40 years ago. Free for listen-ers. $5 for participants.Smithtown Township Art League Mills Pond House Rte 25A St. James, NY

Trevor Davison at BLISSDinner or Bar Menu and The Piano ManCome to Bliss for dinner or bar menu and music!Trevor plays from 8–11 pm. Proprietor: Ronald Hoffman Chef: Danny AvalosBLISS RESTAURANT & BAR, 766 Route 25A, East SetauketReservations: (631) 941-0430 or email: blissli.com

Wally Alysse At The Piano – Wednesdays In The LoungeWAVE Restautrant & Lounge Danford’s Hotel & Marina 25 E. Broadway Port Jefferson, NYFor info call 631 928-5200 or www.danfords.com

THURSDAYS

MUSIC AT PENTIMENTO’S EVERY THURSDAY 6-8PM Rudy Perrone, classical guitarist and composer performs.Bocacinni and specialty Martinis Chef/Owner: Dennis YoungPentimento 93 Main Street Stony Brook, NY 11790 631 689-7755

FRIDAYS

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27TH

BUCKWHEAT ZYDECO - & HOMECOOKED LOUSI-ANA DINNER AT IMACBlues and Jambalaya! Show at 8pm. Tickets $40. Dinner: $23.Contact box office for more information.IMAC Inter-Media Art Center, Inc. 370 New York Avenue Huntington, New York 11743Box Office: 631-549-ARTS e-mail: boxoffice@imactheater.org

Rick Anzalone at The Fifth Season in Port Jefferson Every FridayMusic 5-8PM; Happy Hour Specials 4-6PM; Bar Menu beginning @4PMThe Fifth Season, Route 25A, Port Jefferson Villagewww.thefifth-season.com

TREVOR DAVISON AT THE COUNTRY HOUSETONIGHT AND EVERY FRIDAY NIGHTPrix Fixe Prime Rib dinner at $19.95; expanded lounge area and beautiful white piano bar. Country House Restaurant & Club at Stony Brook, Route 25A, Stony Brook, NY Reservations not necessary except for dinner. For more info call: 631 751-3332

Jazz Duo; Chris & Andrew @ The Fifth Season Saturdays in Port Jefferson VillageMusic Saturdays 7-11PM; bar menu beginning @ 4PMMusic 5-8PM; Happy Hour Specials 4-6PM; Bar Menu beginning @4PMThe Fifth Season, Route 25A, Port Jefferson Villagewww.thefifth-season.com

SATURDAYS

ERNIE BYRD AND OTHER MUSIC GREATS AT GRASSO’SFor a great dinner and an amazing jazz quartet in the heart of Cold Spring Harbor.Music also on Tuesday through Sunday. Check restaurant for exact schedule.Grasso’s, 134 Main Street, Cold Spring HarborFor reservations and exact schedule call (631) 367-6060 www, grassosrestaurant.com

OPEN MIC NIGHT WITH RICH & KYLE AT COOL BEANZ ST. JAMESSATURDAY NIGHTS, Sign up 7:30PM, from 8PM – 11PM For schedule of Poetry Night, Teen Open Mic Night, Psychic Night and Music Events. Call: 862-4111 email: saintjames-coolbeanz@optonline.net. Cool Beanz Coffee House, 556-04 North Country Road, St. James, NY

Saturday, January 24th

KEIKO MATSUI – Jazz pianist extraordinaire @ 8PMCall IMAC for tickets IMAC Inter-Media Art Center, Inc. 370 New York Avenue Huntington, New York 11743Box Office: 631-549-ARTS e-mail: boxoffice@imactheater.org

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7TH

Rhythm Kings Acoustic Duo At The Bench in Stony Brook on Saturdays7PM-10PMThe Bench, Route 25A Stony Brook

MAXI PRIEST AT IMAC – REGGAETickets $45/$34 for members One show at 8pmIMAC Inter-Media Art Center, Inc. 370 New York Avenue Huntington, New York 11743Box Office: (631) 549-ARTS e-mail: boxoffice@imactheater.org

SUNDAYS

CAROLYN BENSON PERFORMS AT BLISSEVERY SUNDAY @ 6pmCarolyn comes to us from her recent performance as “Mae West”but sings everything from Evita to Clooney. Takes re-quests……“Come on down and see her some time.” to Bliss that is.BLISS RESTAURANT & BAR, 766 Route 25A, East SetauketReservations: (631) 941-0430 or email: blissli.com

MICHAEL KHORB - SOOTHING GUITAR AND SONGPEFECT FOR SUNDAY AFTERNOONDinner, bar menu and beverages.Oscar’s Restaurant Route 25A St. James, NY

SUNDAY, JANUARY 25

North Shore Pro Musica Concert at WMHO in Stony Brook VillageFeaturing the French horn and various instruments.Adults $! 5 and Students $10. For info call: 631 584-8945.

SPEAKERS AND PROGRAMS

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17TH TO THURSDAY, FEBRU-ARY 19TH

WINTER BREAK WORKSHOP – Design & Build Your Own Model House & GardenWith Art Teacher & Historian, Bob Sternlieb @ WMHO Educational and Cultural CenterInstruction and discussion of the architectural details of homes such as those designed by Stanford White and Frank Lloyd Wright.Classes for ages 10-13, Minimum of 10 students; $45pp includes all materials.WMHO Educational and Cultural Center Call for registra-tion 631 689-5888

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20TH

AARON W. GODFREY PRESENTS TO THE LUNCH GROUPAT THE COUNTRY HOUSE IN STONY BROOK

He is DIRECTOR TEACHER of OPPORTUNITY CORPS EUROPEAN LANGUAGES AND CULTURES …..Lunch and presentation…….starts at 12 noonFor reservations contact thelunchgroup@verizon.net as early as possible.

SPORTS

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28TH

38th Annual Decoy, Fishing Tackle & Sporting Collectibles Show9am to 4pm at Patchogue Manor 9-11 Railroad Avenue Patchogue, NYFeatured Exhibits by Verity Family Decoys

For more info and table reservations call 631 537-0153 or online @ www.LIDecoyCollectors.org.

WINTER ON THE L.I. GREENBELT TRAILSHIKING TRAILS………….GET OUT AND WALKFor full schedule contact:L.I. Greenbelt Trail Conference P.O. Box 5636 Hauppauge, NY Call 631 360-0753 or ligreenbelt@verizon.net

THEATER

RUNS TO JANUARY 31ST

LITTLE BO-PEEP & THE GREAT LOST SHEEP CAPERA TIMELY TALE OF MEDIA MISINFORMATION USING PUPPETS AND LIVE ACTORS.THEATRE THREE, 412 Main Street, Port Jefferson. Call (631) 928-9100 or www.theatrethree.com.

THE NERD BY Larry Shue at Theatre Three in Port Jef-fersonHilarity takes center stage in this laugh-out-loud comedy!Larry Shue is the author of The Foreigner.THEATRE THREE, 412 Main Street, Port Jefferson. Call (631) 928-9100 or www.theatrethree.com.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13@8PM

NEIL BERG’S 101 YEARS OF BROADWAYFor more info and tickets call 516 299-3100 or online @ tillescenter.org.

RUNS FEBRARY 14TH TO MARCH 21ST

CASH: RING OF FIRE at THEATRE THREE in Port Jef-fersonCreated by Richard Maltby Jr.; Conceived by William MeadeFrom the heart of the songs of singer-songwriter Johnny Cash comes a unique musical show about love and faith, struggle and success. Captures the Man in Black.THEATRE THREE, 412 Main Street, Port Jefferson. Call (631) 928-9100 or www.theatrethree.com.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22ND

SWEENEY TODD – A MUSICAL THRILLERFor more info and tickets call 516 299-3100 or online @ tillescenter.org.

RUNS FEBRUARY 2ND TO MARCH 1st

Disney’s High School Musical 2Smithtown Performing Arts Center, 2 E. Main Street, SmithtownFor Tickets call (631) 724-3700 or email: smithtownpac.org

Runs through FEBRUARY 22ND

The Foreigner by Larry Shue at John W. Engeman in North-port VillageAn award winning comedy set in rural Georgia in a fishing lodge. Froggy Le Seur andCharlie keep you laughing.John W. Engeman Theater, 250 Main St., Northport. Tick-ets:631 261-2900 or www.engemantheater.com

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR!

SATURDAY, MARCH 7TH

STALLER CENTER GALA 2009An Evening with Patti Lupone and Mandy Patinkin8pm Main Stage…..Two Broadway giants onstage together for an electrifying evening.Show tickets are sold out. A limited number of Gala spon-sorships that include a reception are available. Call 631 632-7469.

FRIDAY, March 20th & Saturday, March 21st

DUCKS UNLIMITED NEW YORK STATE CONVEN-TION DANFORD’S HOTEL & MARINA, PORT JEFFERSONFor more info email: rmehc@optonline.net.

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Back to Romance is the thread that seems to go through Steve Tyrell’s life. From early on, he had a love of music, then the love for his wife, Stephanie, and through his philanthropy, a love for humanity. Love and romance are also com-mon threads in the music he listens to, produces and now per-forms. Steve Tyrell returning from a stint at The Café Carlyle in Manhattan performed at the Tilles Center on January 3rd. Dur-ing an hour long inter-view, Steve shared his life story, his musical career and his philan-thropy with The North Shoreian. Steve Tyrell was born in Houston, Texas to Sicilian/Calabrese parents who owned a grocery store in a mixed com-munity. His parents loved music and were very proud of Steve, who at age 3, although not yet reading, could iden-tify any song on an LP. At 15, he had a few R&B hits and at 19 was working in New York at Scepter Records, adjacent to Baby Monica Pub-lishing Company. He was surrounded by Carole King, Ash-ford & Simpson and Barry Mann. When he met Burt Bacharach and Hal David, the rest as they say, was history. As a musical producer, he was one of the first to release hit songs with films.The Look of Love by Dusty Springfield for Bond’s Casino Royale, Al-fie by Cher and Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head by B.J. Thomas for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Raindrops won Bacharach and David an Oscar in 1969. Steve moved to California in the 70s and with Barrry Mann co-founded Tyrell Mann Music. Steve won a Grammy for Rod Stewart’s Stardust: The Great American Songbook in 2004. Another groundbreaking hit was the first super hit ever con-nected to a children’s film; Somewhere Out There from Steven Speilberg’s An American Tail. From that time on, all children’s movies had key songs that became hits. Producer Steve Tyrell, became performer, when he sang The Way You Look Tonight in Father of the Bride. He loves Diane Keaton and says that

he hopes she keeps making movies for a long time because he sings in all her movies. When asked how it feels to not be behind the scenes and be on stage and considered a heartthrob, he blushed. Steve said

he enjoyed per-forming in both small and larger venues and that they offer differ-ent advantages to a performer. One of his first big jobs was singing with Rosemary Clooney at the Chandler Pavil-ion in Los Ange-les. W h e n asked what his biggest thrill in performing was,

he quickly pointed out how great it is to have people you admire come to see you and like what you do. Then he listed sports figures; his idol Yogi Berra,

Bernie Wil-liams, Joe Tor-res and Frank Gifford. They came to see him at the Car-lyle. S t e v e also pointed out how diffi-cult it is to se-lect songs for a show, when people have there favorites from his al-bums. It was

pointed out that This Guy’s In Love With You was this writer’s favorite. He guaranteed it was in the program. His albums include his first, A New Stan-dard, Standard Time, This Time of Year (A Christmas album), and This Guy’s in Love and his new one Back to Bacharach. Steve assured us that “Although I loved Cole Porter, God Bless Him. I never knew Cole Porter, but I knew Burt Bacharach and Hal David and that was my music.” It seems like Steve Tyrell lead a charmed life. However, when he had just recorded two songs for Back to Bacharach, tragedy struck. You could see the faraway look in his eyes as he told about

I Out and AboutBy Marie Ann Mordeno

his wife,Stephanie’s diagnosis of colon cancer. He stayed by her side for 18 months, until she passed away at age 51. When talking about Burt Bacha-rach, he reminds us that he played and sang A House Is Not A Home for her memorial service. “You can’t write a bettersong than this.” he said. This is one of his favorite songs, as is One Less Bell to Answer. He wasn’t sure if he could include it since it was Dionne War-wick’s song and was written for a woman. Burt and Steve realized they only had to change one word to make it work. ”One less gal to pick up after, I should be happy but all I do is cry.” Changing guy to gal made it work. He shared his photographs of Yogi, Bernie and his son with us. He talked about his work with Katie Couric, a good friend and television journalist who lost her husband Jay Monahan to colon cancer. Their work for the National Colorectal Cancer Re-search Alliance (NCCRA) has been tireless. Since his wife’s death they have worked to raise funds to benefit Colon Cancer Research and are co-host-ing an annual benefit in Seattle called Making the Evening Matter. The Dodgers also raised $350,000 for the cause. The Bacharach song What the World Needs Now Is Love, Steve believes is more relevant than ever. Once the anthem to end the Vietnam War, it does seem relevant to our times. It is also being used as an anthem to raise money for NCCRA.He gathered James Taylor, Rod Stewart and others to record the song on Back to Bacharach and all the proceeds for the single will go to colon cancer re-search. Steve pointed out that we may not be able to cure colon cancer, but if we can improve the quality and increase the length of the patient’s life, then we have accomplished something. Steve Tyrell will return to the east coast next November and December to perform at the Carlyle. He is working on a CD of bluesy standards with an Etta James tone. Could he be including the Obam-as’ dance song, At Last? Love, romance and music have certainly played a large part inSteve’s life and he continues to share this with family, friends and people in need. When choosing romantic music for your Valentine, look for one by Steve Tyrell! You won’t be disappointed. We must thank Doris Meadows of Tilles Center for arranging the interview. And I personally thank Debra Lebel for playing ace reporter. The dy-namics would not have been the same without her. When we parted, he was warm and friendly and re-membering his connection to Yogi. I said, “When you come to a fork in the road...” He finished with, “Take it!”

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� e � ree Village Holiday Parade, S� auk�

Nancy Weeks, John Mutch (Earring Taboo), Helene Bredes and Phyllis Kessler

Grand Opening Party, Brian Sc� s American

R� taurant, Miller Place

Legislator Vivian Viloria-Fisher and Assemblyman Steve Englebright

David Woods, Colleen Hanson (Gallery North), Dr. Andy Polan (Vision-World) and others gather in front of the new Three Village Chamber of Commerce headquarters.

Realtor and Chamber President Michael Ardolino, Chamber Execu-tive Director David Woods, and Legislator Vivian Viloria-Fisher

The Man of the Hour...Santa!

Brian Scotts Owner-Chef Brian Burner

The bar crowd at Brian Scotts

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Opening R eption forArtist Mel Pekarsky, Gallery North, S� auk�

Helene Bredes, Jack & Jane Faigle, Elena Reitta

Gail Halbicht, Lily Shen, and artist of the hour, Mel Pekarsky

Win McDermott & Birgit Thomas

NEW YORKER cartoonist George Booth & his beautiful wife Dion

Editor DMH with poet Clare White, Staller Ar-tistic Director Emeritus Terry Netter, and artist Christian White

A “Winter White” Holiday Party, Stony Brook

Ray Trinkle, John and Patty Yantz and Alison Orlick

Helene Bredes, in the thick of it...as usual!

Pianoman Trevor Davison with our Events Editor, Marie Ann Mordeno

Dave and Mary Ann Donovan, Karen Smith, Frank Fallace and Vinny Ruffi ni

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� e February “Red” Show at Christ opher Gallery, Stony Brook

New Year’s Eve at � e Old Field Club

Cover Artist Barron Krody (notice the the original painting in the background) and Marianne Taylor-Smith

Artist Eleanor Meier

Artist Marlene Weinstein

Photographer Jeff Foster and Christo-pher DeVeau of The Christopher Gallery

Artist Jane McGraw-Teubner

Bob and Kathleen Depasquale, David Woods, Desi Burgess

Lily and DMHFred and Kathleen Swedish, Tim and Carolyn McNamara

Tom Hess of The Old Field Club

Helene Bredes and Irene Ruddock

Margo Dimech and Chris Oster

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Senator John Flanagan congratulat� Smithtown HS 10th Grader Robert Bernardini, a People to People Amb� ador

Michael Ardolino’s Holiday Party at Mario’s, East S� auk�

David Prestia, Dawn Viola and Michael Ardolino

Colleen Hanson, Marie Ardolino, Liz Miastkowski

Rob Emmerich and John Tunis

John and Marie McKinney

Lou P� rucci and students at booksigning for Heart � the Hide at Bl� R� taurant, S� auk�

� e Playb� � the W� tern World Cast, Stony Brook University(Who the hell’s the old guy?)