PRESORTED
STANDARD
PERMIT #3036
WHITE PLAINS NY
Vol. X, No. XXVIII
Westchester’s Most Influential Weekly
Thursday July 9, 2015 • $1.00
Will V2V Technology Be
Mandatory in 2016?
By Limus Woods, Page 6
Prosecutor’s Misstatements Lead
to Reversal of Conviction.
Editorial: Pg. 2
WWW.WESTCHESTERGUARDIAN.COM
Page 2
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, JULY 9, 2015
Community/GovernmentSection
EDITORIAL
NYS Court of Appeals Decision Overturns Second Degree Murder Conviction Due to Prosecutorial Misconduct
“While the prosecutor was
entitled to fair comment on the DNA
evidence available in this case, she
was not entitled to present the results
in a manner that was contrary to the
evidence and the science,” Judge Jenny
Rivera wrote for the majority in People
v. Wright, NYS Appellate Division,
Fourth Dept. July 1, 2015.
In 2007, Howard S. Wright was
convicted of the Second Degree
Murder of Patricia Daggett, who was
found dead in a residential driveway in
North East Rochester on the morning
of Nov. 29, 1995.
“We are presented in this appeal
with a confluence of prosecutorial
misconduct committed during closing
argument, and a series of critical lapses
by defense counsel when faced with
the prosecutor’s obvious transgressions
from the leeway generally afforded
attorneys during summation. As the
record establishes, defense counsel
failed to object, time and again, when
the prosecutor repeatedly misrepresented to the jury critical DNA
evidence as proof of defendant’s guilt,
in contradiction of the People’s expert
testimony. We conclude defense
counsel was ineffective, and, on the
record before us, defendant was denied
a fair trial as a result. Therefore, the
order of the Appellate Division should
be reversed,” wrote NYS Appellate
Court Justice Jenny Rivera in her July
1, 2015 decision. The court ruled that
the defendant is entitled to a new trial.
“Other than testimony that placed
defendant and others in the victim’s
company around the time of her
death, and defendant’s statement that
he engaged in consensual sex with the
victim, the People had no evidence
that linked her to defendant. To meet
the People’s burden of proof, the prosecutor relied heavily on the results of
DNA testing to connect defendant
to the murder. However, the DNA
analysis was also circumstantial because
it did not ‘match’ defendant’s DNA to
the DNA collected at the crime scene.
Instead, the test only indicated that
defendant could not be excluded from
the pool of male DNA contributors,
and the expert testimony provided no
statistical comparison to measure the
significance of those results,” wrote the
court, after reviewing the record.
In essence, Judge Rivera explained
that prosecutors are entitled to their
own opinions but not their own facts.
Making misstatements at a bail hearing
is also damaging, as someone’s right to
be free from incarceration to prepare
his trial defense is just as serious as
incarceration that results from misstatements during summation. It is a
fact that Mr. Zherka was born in the
Bronx, not in Albania, as was stated
in a document presented to the court.
It is a fact that while, many years ago,
Mr. Zherka traveled within five miles
of Montenegro he has never visited the
country of Albania. In their application
to deny Mr. Zherka bail, the prosecutors said no combination of conditions
would ensure his later presence in
court. However, Mr. Zherka has always
appeared in court and he has several
other on-going cases in progress.
At his bail hearing, the prosecutors asserted that he is violent yet Mr.
Zherka has never been convicted of
assault. The prosecutors asserted that
he is a flight risk although Mr. Zherka
does not have a current passport, has
not traveled abroad in more than 15
years and has small children at home.
The prosecutors also claimed that
much of the documentary evidence in
their case is from Mr. Zherka’s emails,
yet they have not even subpoenaed
relevant emails among his business
partners. Instead, they are fighting
the attempts of Mr. Zherka’s attorneys to obtain them, and they are
critical to his defense. “This is the
guts of the material and you have the
United States Government not even
asking for the e-mail correspondence
between the co-conspirators that
go to the heart of the transaction. Is
this not troubling?” asked defense
attorney Hafetz at Mr. Zherka’s June
19th pre-trial conference. “I share
the defendant’s curiosity about why,
if they exist, the government hasn’t
gotten them because I would think
the government would want to know
what is in them,” said Judge Seibel.
So what are the prosecutors afraid
they will find out if they subpoena the
requested emails? As Mr. Hafetz has
suggested, if the government’s theory
is correct, then these emails help the
government. However, if he is right,
“it’s exculpatory material and it’s
impeachment evidence.” The government has made other misstatements
that will be addressed in upcoming
editions.
Table of Contents
Editorial....................................................... 2
Community................................................. 3
Legal Ads.................................................... 4
Government................................................ 5
Sam Zherka, Publisher
Mary Keon, Acting Editor /Advertising
Publication is every Thursday
Community................................................. 6
Write to us in confidence at:
The Westchester Guardian
Post Office Box 8
New Rochelle, NY 10801
Cover Story................................................. 6
Creative Disruption..................................... 7
Eye on Theatre............................................. 8
Travel......................................................... 10
Local Lore................................................. 11
Calendar.................................................... 14
Cultural Perspectives................................. 15
Mary at the Movies................................... 16
Send publicity 3 weeks in advance of your event.
Ads due Tuesdays, one week prior to publication date.
Letters to the Editor & Press Releases can only be submitted via Email:
Original photos submitted for publication must have a resolution of 300
DPI.
WestGuardEditor@aol.com
Office Hours: 11A-5P M-F
Phone: 914.216.1674 Cell • 914.576.1481 Office
Read us online at: www.WestchesterGuardian.com
Commercial • Industrial
& Residential Services
Roll-Off Containers 1-30 Yards
Home Cleanup Containers
Turn-Key Demolition Services
DEC Licensed Transfer Station
www.citycarting.net
City Carting of Westchester
Somers Sanitation
B & S Carting
AAA Paper Recycling
Bria Carting
City Confidential Shredding
DEP Licensed Rail Serve
Transfer & Recyling Services
Licensed Demolition Contractor
Locally Owned & Operated
Radio Dispatched
Fully Insured - FREE Estimates
800.872.7405 • 203.324.4090
On-Site Document Destruction
8 Viaduct Road, Stamford, CT 06907
Same Day Roll Off Service
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, JULY 9, 2015
Page 3
scoring curve was highly irregular. To
loud applause, he asked how these lower
scores on student transcripts would help
students? Tisch answered she would not
“stand still” and watch these grades placed
on transcripts. Students should not be
penalized. “We must address the transcript issue.”
Ingenuity, according to a sixth grade
teacher, is what makes the United States
a great nation. An innovative thinker may
arrive at a different answer to a question
and this was considered a “gross injustice”
in the scoring key. Tisch replied that in
the coming years performance based evaluations such as portfolios could be used.
The state must move from one-size fits
all. Since 82% of teachers are not accountable through student testing, multiple
pathways and initiatives for evaluation are
needed.
When a parent wanted to know
what children need to learn to help them
hold a twenty-first century job, some
unsettling statistics emerged. Employers
in recent years have filled 20,000 New
York state jobs with people who were
not New York State graduates because
New York State graduates were not satisfactory. According to Tisch, this is an
“uncomfortable” discussion. She urged
that attention focus on professional and
curriculum development.
When New York City’s charter
schools were criticized, it was suggested
that there is a need to address this with
the Governor and legislators. A question
about the legislative duties of the Board
of Regents was broached, along with the
need for budget allocations, and the difficulties of the changes. Another example
given was that after New York City
college students attend a two-year (junior)
college for six years, only 25% graduate.
As the meeting continued, the New
Rochelle Superintendent of Schools,
Brian Osborne, expressed the sentiment
that the participants were “passionate.” The talented teachers in his view
were “second to none.” He spoke of his
previous position in New Jersey where
the state had approved Common Core
differently. He felt that in implementing
the program here, everyone gets an “A”.
When the use of test scores to
promote children in charter schools was
mentioned, Tisch replied it was “against
the law” to use a state test for promotions
and the New York City Chancellor was
attending to this matter.
There was an interest in having Tisch
return to speak to this group in the fall.
COMMUNITY
Teachers Confront Common Core
By Peggy Godfrey
Teachers in New York
State are facing extremely
stringent evaluation standards, but the Common
Core curriculum has also
become a contentious issue for students
and their parents. The New York State
Department of Education has mandated
that students achieve higher standards on
more difficult achievement tests. New
York State accepted $700 million in Race
to the Top funds, which were to be used to
develop Common Core curricula, at least
$300 million of which has been used for
developing Common Core assessments.
One of the first people to question
Chancellor Merryl Tisch at a meeting at
New Rochelle’s Albert Leonard School
on June 23, 2015, was a parent with three
children who attend the public schools
of New Rochelle. Expounding on the
diverse learning styles of her three sons,
she felt teachers were teaching them
with various appropriate strategies. She
wanted to know how the Common Core
curriculum addressed these differences.
Tisch answered this was a “wonderful
question” and she felt Common Core
instruction was appropriate for these
students. Emphasizing the higher standards adopted in New York State she said
this was the only state that tried to create
a current model that could be used by the
districts.
Not all students performed well on
the tests and the state did not explain to
parents what these new standards meant.
A child with a level 3 or 4 score on the
old tests might only achieve level 2 on the
Common Core testing. As an analogy,
she pointed out that a minor league player
doing well could be sent to the majors and
not have the same level of success because
he is up against a new standard. New York
State was testing on the fourth and eighth
grade levels for years, but the Federal government came along and made it a law
to tests grades 3 through 8. The number
of students passing was previously from
24% to 30%, “never more,” and this was
characterized as a “huge discrepancy.”The
federal government published results of
their tests, but New York State did not
want to be tied to a national test. However,
it was still important for New York State
to test its own students.
The new regulations for teacher
evaluations in New York State were
broached. Teachers rated unsatisfactory
for two years in a row must be terminated.
The state decided 20% of teacher evaluations must be based on student state test
scores; 20% on local measures, and the
rest on teacher observations. Tisch added
that state test scores impact only 18% of
teachers, (e.g. language arts and mathematics); the rest of the teachers would be
evaluated by local measures.
Apparently in the past according to
Tisch, 97% of teachers were rated effective or highly effective, and this became
“political”. Teacher evaluation was subjected to budget language, as state aid was
linked to the evaluation process. Another
point made was that state money would
be withheld if 95% of the students in a
district did not show up for the state tests,
but holding up money because adults
cannot get along was unacceptable, Tisch
continued.
A mathematics teacher with
thirteen years of experience lamented
that this year’s algebra regents test was
the “toughest exam” he had ever seen.
A question on compound inequality was missed by 30 of the 34 students
who took the test. After noting several
other examples, he illustrated how the
FOR TICKETS: (877) 469-9849 OR (800) 943-4327 (TTY)
NOTICE: For the safety of every Guest, all persons specifically consent to and are subject to metal detector and physical pat-down inspections prior to entry. Any item or property that could affect the safety of Yankee Stadium, its occupants or its property
shall not be permitted into the Stadium. Any person that could affect the safety of the Stadium, its occupants or its property shall be denied entry. All seat locations are subject to availability. Time, opponent, date and team rosters and lineups, including the
Yankees' roster and lineup, are subject to change. Game times listed as TBD are subject to determination by, among others, Major League Baseball and its television partners. Purchasing a ticket to any promotional date does not guarantee that a Guest will
receive the designated giveaway item. All giveaway items and event dates are subject to cancellation or change without further notice.
Page 4
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, JULY 9, 2015
COMMUNITY
John D. Calandra Lodge of the Order of Sons of Italy in Calandra Lodge of OSIA Awards
America is Fastest Growing & Youngest in State
Scholarship to 7th Grader Halle Ruiz
Mike Ruggiero, President of the
Calandra Lodge #2600 is ecstatic of
the team effort for growth, youth and
leadership involvement of the John D.
Calandra Lodge #2600 of the Order
of Sons of Italy in America (OSIA)
who swore in their new slate of officers
on Tuesday, March 10th. The Lodge
is named after John D. Calandra, a
renowned former NYS State Senator,
a legend who represented parts of the
Bronx and Westchester County; Senator
Calandra was a phenomenal lawyer, who
was nicknamed the “Accommodator” for
his great negotiation skills.
Anthony ‘Tony’ Naccarato, who is
the NYS Orator for OSIA, oversaw the
swearing-in ceremony, with help from
Louis Mazzacone (Lodge Deputy),
John M. Rubbo (NYS Trustee) and
Steve Troccoli (former-Lodge Deputy).
Mike Ruggiero said “My father
who was a founding member of our
Lodge, got me involved from the start,
and I’m thrilled to see the progress we’ve
made in the past few years. I thank
Brother New York State Second VicePresident Robert Ferrito, who is doing
a great job representing Yonkers and the
David Tubiolo (Recruitment Chair) and
Mike Ruggiero (President)
Brothers of the Calandra Lodge after the
Installation of officers.
Calandra Lodge on the State level. We’re
also blessed to have the energy of our
Recruitment Chairman David Tubiolo
who is tireless in his efforts to make this
the fastest growing lodge in the state.”
OSIA was founded in 1905 by
Italian immigrants who wanted to share
their proud culture and heritage with all
people. Today OSIA is the largest and
oldest fraternal organization for ItalianAmerican culture. The three major
charities that OSIA raises money for are
Alzheimer’s Association, Doug Flutie
Jr. Foundation for Autism and Cooley’s
Anemia Foundation.
Executive Board: Mike Ruggiero
(President), Phil Santise (VicePresident), Remo Carriero (President
Emeritus),
Richard
Ruggiero
(Treasurer) and Nicholas DiSalvo
(Orator).
Board:
Lorenzo
Cellamare
(Financial Secretary), Frank DiSalvo
(Recording Secretary), Bobby Ferrera
(Corresponding Secretary), John
Cellamare (Sentinel), Anthony Schiavo
(Commission for Social Justice) and
Nunzio Carpinello (Ceremonial
Officer).
Board of Trustee’s: Joe Cordasco,
Chris Lowry, Bobby Picone, Carl Villara
and David Tubiolo (Recruitment Chair).
Each year the John D. Calandra
Lodge #2600 asks the 7th graders of
St. John the Baptist School to submit
an essay regarding a different aspect
of Italian-American culture and how
it influences our lives. This year’s essay
asked 7th graders to discuss ‘How does
Stefani Germanotta influence our Lives’.
Stefani Germanotta, also known as
‘Lady Gaga’, is an international singer,
songwriter and actress, whose family
descends from the province of Messina
in the region of Sicily in Italy.
The Michael J. Amato Scholarship
is a $500 award and has been given
out annually for almost ten years to
a 7th grader at St. John the Baptist
School in Yonkers, NY. The scholarship is named in honor of Michael J.
Amato, who unfortunately passed in
1998. Michael J. Amato was a World
War II Veteran, active in St. John the
Baptist Parish, Ward Leader of the 12th
Ward for the Republican Party, the
President of the 12th Ward Republican
Club, Dunwoodie Youth Association
(DYA), V.F.W. Empire Post No. 375
and charter member of the John D.
St. Barnabas Hosted Theology on Tap at Rambling House
Good Drinks, Good Food, Good People, Good Philosophy & Religion
On Tuesday, June 23, 2015 St. Barnabas Parish hosted their renowned
‘Theology on Tap’ at 7:00 p.m. at Rambling House (Woodlawn, Bronx, NY).
‘Theology on Tap’ is an event, which gives parishioners an opportunity, especially young adults, to explore issues and topics that relate to the Catholic
faith in a fun and casual venue. Discussions vary every time ‘Theology on Tap’
is hosted, from family, friendship, life, love, marriage, work and many more,
to just to name a few.
“Theology on Tap” was hosted by St. Barnabas Parish for preparation of
Pope Francis’ visit to America this fall of 2015, which discussed the booklet
‘Love Is Our Mission’, published by the Pontifical Council.
Ben Smith - President of the St. Barnabas Men’s Group, Marnee
Wohlfert – Administrator for Yonkers-Bronx (YoBro) Young Adults, Eileen
Slattery – President of St. Barnabas Parish Council and David Tubiolo –
Member of St. Barnabas Parish Council, welcomed everyone for a great
night of learning and socializing.
“Everyone had a fun and relaxing evening with a great discussion on our
Catholic faith. A great time for all!” said Ben Smith.
Monsignor Ed Barry served as the guest speaker, speaking about “Love
is Our Family Mission”, in which he focused on the development of love and
family in modern times and the changing of our society in the 21st century.
St. Barnabas is arguably the most active parish in the Bronx and Yonkers,
NY, serving as a focal point for the communities of Woodlawn and McLean
Heights, with over 3,500 registered parishioners.
St. Barnabas Parish is located on the border of the Bronx and Yonkers,
NY, between the streets of St. Barnabas Place, Martha Avenue, E. 241st
Street and the legendary street of ‘McLean Avenue’. St. Barnabas Parish was
established as a Roman Catholic Church in 1910 by Monsignor Michael A.
Reilly, who is considered the founding father of the parish.
St. Barnabas Parish invites every one, of all backgrounds to participate in
its’ wonderful events, teachings and daily life of the community.
WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN LEGAL ADVERTISING
WestGuardAdvertising@aol.com
Calandra Lodge #2600 of the Order of
Sons of Italy in America (OSIA).
The presentation was made before
the morning Mass at St. John the
Baptist Church on Friday, June 19,
2015. Brothers who participated in
handing the $500 Scholarship Award
to winner Halle Ruiz were Mike
Ruggiero, Vinnie Grolli, Vincent
Pistone and David J. Tubiolo.
“I’m glad we keep our wonderful tradition alive and well in name of
our beloved brother, Michael J. Amato.
He was a man who cared more about
our community than anyone I know.
He is missed and will always be loved.
Halle Ruiz wrote beautifully about
how Stefani Germanotta, as an ItalianAmerican, has influenced our lives” said
Mike Ruggiero, President of the John
D. Calandra Lodge #2600.
The essays were reviewed by a
panel of members of the John D.
Calandra Lodge #2600, including
Remo Carriero, Anthony Cellamare,
Robert ‘Bobby’ Ferrito, Nick Longo,
Mike Ruggiero and Phil Santise.
LE G A L N O T I C E S
THE SIERRA GROUP HOME INSPECTIONS, LLC Articles of Org.
filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 2/24/15. Office in Westchester
Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC upon whom process may be
served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to Registered Agent:
Incorp Services, Inc 99 Washington Ave Ste. 805-A Albany, NY
12210. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation of New York Huaqi Bio-Engineering, LLC,
filed with SSNY on 5/18/15. Offc. Loc: Westchester Cty. SSNY
desig. as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may
be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, 2 Montross St,
White Plains, NY 10603. Purpose: Biosciences research.
Notice of formation of Makletta Enterprises, LLC. Arts. of
Org. filed with SSNY on 4/20/15. Office location: Westchester
County. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process
may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: US Corp. Agents,
Inc. 7014 13th Ave, Suite 202, Brooklyn, NY 11228. Purpose: any
lawful act or activity.
Notice of formation of NINEBAR, LLC. Art. of org. filed with
SSNY
on 06/11/2015. Off. location: Westchester County. SSNY
shall mail process to the LLC, 2828 Broadway 9E, New York, NY
11025. Purpose: Any lawful activity. SSNY designated
as agent
of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served.
Notice of Formation of Virtuous Systems LLC, filed with SSNY
on 6/3/15. Offc. Loc: Westchester Cty. SSNY desig. as agent of
the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY
shall mail process to the LLC, 302 South First Avenue, Mount
Vernon, NY 10550. Purpose: Technology company that install
and configures computer network systems, wiring, surveillance, video wall and more.
PUBLICATION EVERY THURSDAY: 914.216.1674 M-F 11A- 5P
SUBMIT ADS TUESDAY, 10 DAYS PRIOR TO RUN DATE
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, JULY 9, 2015
Page 5
GOVERNMENT
We Need Both Insiders and Outsiders in Congress
By Lee Hamilton
Insiders in Congress
put in long, tedious
hours on the minutiae
of developing legislation.
Outsiders mostly use
Congress as a platform to build a following beyond their own constituency.
Both types are needed to make the
system work.
Members of Congress get categorized in all sorts of ways. They’re
liberal or conservative; Republican
or Democrat; interested in domestic
affairs or specialists in foreign policy.
There’s one very important
category, though, that I never hear discussed: whether a member wants to be
an inside player or an outside player.
Yet where members fall on the continuum helps to shape the institution of
Congress.
First, I should say that the categories are not hard and fast. Some
politicians are insiders part of the time
and outsiders at other times. Still, most
fall on one side of the line or other, especially as they go on in their careers.
Insiders focus on making the institution work. They tend to give fewer
speeches on the floor, issue fewer press
releases, and spend less time considering how to play the public relations
game or how to raise money. Instead,
they put in long, tedious hours on the
minutiae of developing legislation,
attending hearings, listening to experts,
exploring policy options, and working
on building consensus. They’re dedicated to finding support for a bill or
a set of proposals wherever they can,
and they appreciate the necessity of
bipartisanship.
They’re constantly engaged in
networking and so tend to be popular
within the Congress —they have the
respect of their colleagues because
other members know these are the
people who make the institution move
forward. They’re the ones who do the
necessary work of legislating.
Outsiders pass through the institution of Congress, but many of them
are using Congress — and especially
the House of Representatives — as a
stepping-stone to another office: the
Senate, a governorship, the presidency.
On Capitol Hill, these people
behave very differently from insiders.
They raise money aggressively, put a
lot of effort into developing a public
persona, and are consumed with public
relations. They travel a lot and take
every opportunity they can to meet and
address conferences and large organizations. They churn out press releases
and speak on the floor on every topic
they can find something to deliver an
opinion about.
They miss votes more frequently
than insiders, and often do not attend
committee hearings. They tend not to
socialize with other members, and so
generally are not as popular as insiders.
When they do attend a committee
hearing, they use it as a platform to
help them build a constituency beyond
their own district or state. They tend to
be more partisan than insiders, because
they are seeking to build a political base.
They’re often impatient with House
and Senate traditions, and are impatient
with the democratic process.
I remember late one night —
actually, it was more like 3:00 or 4:00
in the morning— standing behind the
rail of the House talking with a charismatic, charming congressman from
the South. He’d been in the House for
only a term or two, and was chagrined
at the parliamentary tangle we were
working our way through that night.
“Lee,” he said, “how can you stand this
place? I’m going to go home and run for
governor!” And he did.
I want to be clear that I’m not
making a judgment here as to which
kind of member is more valuable. I
may prefer to spend my time with
insiders, but both are needed to make
the system work. You have to have
members reaching out to the broader
public, talking about the big issues and
engaging Americans in the issues of the
day. And you need people on the inside
who are dedicated to resolving those
issues by attending to the legislation
that will make this possible.
The truth is, Congress wouldn’t
work if everyone were an outside player.
The process is tedious: especially when
you’re trying to draft a bill, you get into
arcane arguments over language; you
have to go line by line over the bill and
each amendment. Outsiders have little
patience for this process, and often don’t
show up for it.
Yet if everyone were an insider,
the country would be deprived of the
dialogue, debate, and sheer spectacle
that give Americans a sense of stake
and participation in the policy-making
process.
Lee Hamilton is Director of
the Center on Congress at Indiana
University; Distinguished Scholar, IU
School of Global and International
Studies; and Professor of Practice, IU
School of Public and Environmental
Affairs. He was a member of the U.S.
House of Representatives for 34 years.
For a photo of Hamilton, click here.
For information about our educational resources and programs, visit our
website at www.centeroncongress.org.
Go to Facebook to express your views
about Congress, civic education, and the
citizen’s role in representative democracy. “Like” us on Facebook at “Center
on Congress at Indiana University,” and
share our postings with your friends.
The Center on Congress is a
research center of the Source URL: http://congress.
indiana.edu/we-need-both-insidersand-outsiders-congress
COMMUNITY
The Carl Bartlett, Jr. Quartet
Headlines Sixth Annual New
Rochelle Jazz Festival
take part in the wonderful New
Rochelle Jazz Festival.”
C
M
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
K
©2015 Hudson Valley Surgical Group | All Rights Reserved.
On Sunday, July 12, 2015, the
Carl Bartlett, Jr. Quartet, a NYC
based jazz ensemble will headline
the Grand Finale of the sixth
annual New Rochelle Jazz Festival,
at the historic Ruby Dee Park at
Library Green, in New Rochelle,
NY, from 8-10pm.
“I am deeply honored to not
only have been chosen to perform
at this major festival, but to actually
have my group be the grand finale
show as the actual headliner,” said
saxophonist/ bandleader Bartlett.
“Jazz is an integral part of history
in America, and the world, because
of its musical elements and its
ability to unite cultures, it is with
great joy that I lead my band and
Colon Surgery: The Advantages of
Laparoscopic and Robotic Procedures
Hudson Valley Surgical Group’s Minimally
Invasive Center now provides patients another
choice for colon surgery.
“The doctor’s understood
the need for me to be mobile
within days.”
Vincent L., colon patient
Robert Raniolo, MD & Har Chi Lau, MD
Castle Connolly’s Top Doctors™ in America
Hudson Valley
Surgical Group
MINIMALLY INVASIVE CENTER
777 N. Broadway, Suite 204, Sleepy Hollow, NY 10591
914.631.3660 | HudsonValleySurgeons.com
Page 6
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, JULY 9, 2015
COMMUNITY
Yonkers Philharmonic Orchestra
Perform at Untermyer Park
Summer Youth Nutrition Program
The City of New Rochelle
Department of Parks and Recreation
has announced the sponsorship of
the free Summer Youth Nutrition
Program for children within the
City of New Rochelle. The Summer
Youth Nutrition Program offers free
meals to eligible sites starting June
29, 2015 through August 21, 2015.
Acceptance and participation
requirements for the program are
the same for all regardless of race,
color, national origin, gender, age
disability, and there will be no discrimination in the course of the
meal service.
Any person who believes he or
she has been discriminated against
in any USDA-related activity should
write or call immediately to: USDA,
Director, Office of Civil Rights,
1400 Independence Avenue, S.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or
call, toll free, (866) 632-9992 (voice).
TDD users can contact USDA
through local relay of the Federal
Will V2V Technology Be Mandatory in 2016?
wheel moves in front of the motorist
they can feel comfortable and confident that they will get snugly into that
space every time.
Still, the most anticipated feature
is the auto braking one. This is where
sensors on a driver’s car tells him or
her that a collision is likely, and stops
in enough time to avoid or minimize
impact. This collision avoidance first
alert system shows a red warning to
brake on the dash, and many cars (such
as the Mercedes-Benz S-Class) even
detect if impact is going to occur to
the sides of the car. These two features
alone make the new technology a
Godsend, but there are a few more that
are very attractive to drivers across the
country.
For example, when people think
of this new technology they always
imagine it being used in metropolitan
areas that are packed with traffic, such
as New York. But there are things to
help the more rural drivers as well, such
as night vision. The Insurance Journal
reports that when it comes to deer and
car collisions, there are about 200 deaths
caused from them annually that cost
about $4 billion every year. That being
said, drivers who frequent country
roads will be happy to know that the
far infrared cameras have heat sensors
to not only sense these large (and sometimes horned) animals, but pedestrians
who are in the road as well. A highresolution display will show the driver
where they are clearly so that they can
avoid them. Lane centering, proximity
alert warnings, cross traffic alerts, and
even adaptive headlights are some of the
other great safety features that relate to
vehicle to vehicle technology.
Bring your chair and/or
blanket and come join the Yonkers
Philharmonic Orchestra under the
baton of Maestra Tong Chen on
July 18, 2015 at Untermyer Park,
945 North Broadway in Yonkers at
7:30 PM. Admission is FREE.
Highlights of the evening performance will include music from
Bizet, Elgar, Handel and Puccini.
Soloists include Luming Chan,
cellist from Hastings on Hudson,
1st place concerto competition
winner and Merissa Beddows,
soprano from Yonkers, 2nd place
concerto winner.
In case of inclement weather the concert will be held indoors at
the Saunders Trade and Technical
High School on Palmer Road,
Yonkers.
www.yonkersphilharmonic.org
relay at (800) 877-8339 (TDD) or
(866) 377-8642 (relay voice users).
USDA is an equal opportunity
provider and employer.
Meals are served with the
intention of giving the children a
nutritionally balanced meal.
Groups having a summer
program for youth that would like
to participate are asked to call Lisa
Tucker, Department of Parks and
Recreation, at 654-2115.
COVER STORY
by Limus Woods,
Contributing Writer
President Obama
has said many times
how good he feels about
Vehicle to Vehicle technology (cars
that communicate with each other
automatically on the highway), and car
manufacturing executives should take
note of his leaning towards making
“talking cars” the legal standard on U.S.
highways. In early 2014, he put forth
a plan to begin rebuilding the nationwide transportation infrastructure in a
majorly positive way. He tested the new
technology at the Highway Research
Center himself last year, and had
nothing but positive comments in his
speech to the workers and researchers
there afterwards:
“As the father of a daughter who just
turned 16, any new technology that makes
driving safer is important to me. And,
any new technology that makes driving
smarter is good for the economy. One study
shows that Americans spend 5.5 billion
hours stuck in traffic each year, which costs
us $120 in wasted time and gas – that’s
800 bucks per commuter. Then you’ve got
outdated roads and bridges that mean
business pay an extra $27 billion in freight
costs, which are then passed on to consumers. So, all told, transportation eat up more
of the typical family’s household budget than
anything except the rent of mortgage, which
means that the cutting edge research that
all of you are doing here helps saves lives
and saves money, and leads to new jobs
and new technologies and new industries.
And that’s why America has to invest more
in the kind of job-creating research and
development that you are doing here at the
Highway Research Center.”
-President Obama, Speech to
Turner-Faribank Highway Research
Center, July 2014
What Is the Technology?
Envision three vehicles going down
the highway at about 50 miles per hour,
one behind the other, with about 2 cars
length in between each one of them.
All of a sudden, the car that is in front
slams on the brakes, and the middle car
changes lanes quickly enough to swerve
around it. But, the last car is still going
about the same speed, and it is about to
completely demolish the back end of the
car that abruptly stopped. At this point,
even if the driver slammed on the brakes
he or she would likely still skid into the
vehicle at that speed, especially if the
road is wet; that is, if the car does not have
vehicle to vehicle technology.
Administrator for the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA) David Friedman said at a
2014 conference about the new technology that it is the game changing
potential to avoid a crash in the first
place (CBS News, Feb 2014). The
Department of Transportation says
that vehicle to vehicle technology could
possibly prevent up to 80% of accidents
that do not have to do with factors such
as drunk driving or mechanical failure,
and the U.S. government is planning
to require that all new vehicles have
the new technology installed on board
during their manufacturing by the year
2016.
Cars with the new technology have
small transponders that are most of the
time located at the top rear of the car,
just above the back windshield. Drivers
will have 360 degrees of protection from
their blind spot to the front of the car,
and their cars will be able to communicate with other vehicles wirelessly. The
cost to add this new helpful feature to
every new car that is manufactured will
cost almost $350 per vehicle, and Ford
is among the first automakers to dive
deeper into the research for this technology that has been in the making for the
last decade. Seemingly the only issue that
American motorists have with vehicle
to vehicle technology is the thought of
their personal information being swiped
or easily accessed. But, advocates of it say
that this is not true, and that the statistic
of 30,000 people who die annually from
accidents will decrease greatly once the
requirement that every new car have it is
finalized by the government.
What Are its Features?
The features of the new vehicle
to vehicle technology are numerous
and will help to ensure the safety of
many drivers and their families in
the U.S. (and very likely worldwide)
in the years to come. What is one of
the most popular ones, parking assist,
helps drivers by getting them into
tight spaces accurately without denting
the bumpers of the cars that they are
meticulously trying to fit in between.
Their car knows exactly where the
other ones are, and as the steering
How Does it Work?
When the average everyday
American driver sees a headline
that reads something to the effect
of “talking cars”, many of them get
wrinkled foreheads. Some may even
envision the car named “Kit” from
the old television series Night Rider
(like President Obama said he did
after a drive in a simulator). But, in an
era where things such as texting and
driving are taking many lives annually,
individuals and families should be
aware of the potential for vehicles
communicating with each other to
save lives. Of course, this new technology should not be used as an even
bigger excuse to use their smartphone
behind the wheel, which not be done
at all (not even with the approaching
technology of cars driving themselves
in the near future).
The way that vehicles communicate is through a wireless network.
It is even sometimes compared to
Wifi, which is why some people are
still suspicious about it even though
it does not steal personal information.
Still one of the possible frequencies,
5.9 GHz, is similar to Wifi, but not
exactly it. The range in which vehicles
can send message to each other can be
from 300 to 1000 feet in distance, and
this transferred information would
include things such as speed, loss of
stability, or which direction a vehicle
is traveling in. There is even adaptive
cruise control that will allow a vehicle
to pace itself based on the speed of the
cars around it.
With almost a mile of warning
that a collision could happen, even if
Continued on page 7
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, JULY 9, 2015
Page 7
prepared to move to the side of the
highway in these types of situations.
The weather indicators are also invaluable, such as if a driver is approaching
a bridge with ice, which many times
freeze before the road on the ground
does.
The
Department
of
Transportation is already moving
forward in their efforts to implement
this new technology nationwide, and
car manufacturing executives should
follow their lead and research. The
DOT is also currently developing
vehicle to vehicle applications that
focus on the most deadly crash scenarios, and are currently going over
all of the safety benefits, as well as
developing transit safety applications.
In addition to that, the department
is anticipating that the law that will
make vehicle to vehicle technology
mandatory in the manufacturing of all
future cars, trucks, and SUV’s will be
in effect soon.
wherever the future path takes us. He
begins by referring to The Millennium
Development Goals, a set of eight goals
that world leaders agreed on at the UN
Millennium Summit in 2000. The goals
are:
• Eradicate extreme poverty and
hunger.
• Achieve universal primary education.
• Promote gender equality and
empower women.
• Reduce child mortality.
• Improve maternal health.
• Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and
other diseases.
• Ensure environmental sustainability.
• Global partnership for development.
strikes some resonances with the reader
and provides a general area that may be
pursued further and hopefully gainfully
exploited as they develop.
In other cases, Canton defines a
concept, gives a list of the elements of
the concept, and provides some possible
scenarios related to the concept. An
example of this is what Canton refers
to as “Flash Zones,” places “where conflict
and clashes over culture and resources may
breakout in the future. Most of these are
due to other change consequences such as
climate, technology, energy, or even prosperity and progress, such as in Africa.” Having
defined Flash Zones, Canton listed
“Ten Flash Zones of the Future:”
• Arctic Race (fossil fuel resources race)
• India-Pakistan Clash (traditional
competitors)
• Resurgent Russia (flexing its muscles)
• Africa Rising (China exploits
rebuffed by leaders)
• Expansionist Islam (chief target:
Middle East oil kingdoms, panEuro-Islam, radical versus moderate)
• Cyberspace (new concepts of virtual
sovereignty, virtual geopolitics in
a virtual world, cyber hacking,
competition among nations and
corporations)
• Asian Ocean conflicts
• Dark Networks (criminal and terrorist groups)
• Deep-Space commerce (off-world
commerce, asteroids, planets, terraforming new worlds, space mining)
• Innovation Ecosystems (e-commerce, mobile, markets)
as well as cultures within nations will challenge global peace and security.”
After defining Flash Zones and
identifying ten zones of the future,
Canton lists fifteen possible occurrences,
which would create imbalance, including, as examples:
• China seeks to protect its interest in
Africa by direct engagement.
• Fully autonomous drones and robots
fight wars.
• Large multinational corporations
challenge sovereign authority.
• New energy technologies and
resources upset jobs and the economy.
COVER STORY
Will V2V Technology Be Mandatory in 2016?
Continued from page 6
a driver was texting or distracted by
maybe children in the car they would
have a big heads up and plenty of
time to brake if need be. V2I (Vehicle
to infrastructure) technology is also
incorporated into these new features.
This means a car could detect what
color an upcoming traffic signal is, or
even a stop sign ahead or a no left turn
indication at an intersection. Now
a driver will be aware of emergency
vehicles as well, and can be more
Creative Disruption
Future Smart
By John F. McMullen
Martin
Gee,
Alexander Ho and Josh
Raab begin an article in
a recent Time Magazine,
“See the Wearable Tech
of the Future” (http://time.com/seethe-wearable-tech-of-the-future/)
with the following “Ask anybody what
personal technology will look like 10
years from now, and you’ll probably get
a wrong answer. A decade ago, almost
nobody could predict that more than a
million people would buy a watch that
not only tells the time, but reads your
text messages, checks the weather and
tracks your workouts, too. But that’s
exactly what happened.”
While the authors’ comments refer
specifically to “wearable tech” (watches,
wristbands, etc.), they could apply to
any projection of the future more than
a few years forward. We only have
to remember that “Mosaic,” the first
graphic browser for the World Wide
Web, only appeared a little more than
twenty years ago and it did not take
long for it to revolutionize our whole
world -- shopping, banking, music listening, and research & education – as well
as changing the world through the
eventual evolution into social media.
None of this was predicted in the late
1980s and early 1990s.
So predicting the future is risky
business, particularly when writing
books. I referred to this in a previous
column when I wrote “if the book is about
the near-term economic aspects of technology, by the time the book comes out, the
future is already here or, in some cases, even
past; if on the other hand, the book is about
the long-term impact of artificial intelligence and robotics, the book often seems
too-far fetched to be taken seriously.”
James Canton has written a
book “Future Smart: Managing the
Game-Changing Trends That Will
Transform Your World” (Da Capo Press,
2015) which seems to be a book which
breaks the trend of others to make
specific predictions that turn out to be
short-sighted or incorrect.
He, rather, provides a framework
for how we much prepare ourselves to
face the future by giving us guidelines
to becoming “future smart.” He begins,
in the very first three paragraphs of the
book, by laying out what is at stake:
“Most people living normal lives
are unaware of what’s coming, how
extreme changes and trends may disrupt
every aspect of our world and lives.
Most people are not prepared for the
drastic changes on the horizon that will
change work, business, health, or population. They have not run the scenarios,
evaluated the risks, thought about the
possibilities, or fully understood the
drivers of change. They are not Future
Ready.
“Many of these changes will be
productive and helpful, but many
others, such as the future of work
or climate change, will require new
learning, adaptation, and global solutions. Understanding what the change
drivers that underlie the future are is one
of the insights you may take away from
reading this book. The opposite of being
Future Ready is being disrupted or at
risk from unawareness. This is what you
want to avoid.
“Are you Future Smart? Are you
ready for the future? Do you have a
clear idea of what is coming and how to
prepare?”
Canton’s goal is to make the reader
understand that “We need new thinking
for a new era.” To do this, he provides
many concepts, projections, and lists of
things to be thought about, understood,
and used to generate future thought and
research. In this manner, he is proving
us with the underpinnings to be able
to deal with the specific challenges
that may arise as we proceed along
These general goals each, in turn,
have agreed upon blueprints for their
meeting with ongoing published
progress reports (http://www.un.org/
millenniumgoals). This approach to
preparing for the future is a precursor to
Canton’s methodology throughout the
book. He provides many lists of things
to be considered, understood, and, then,
the details worked out as to how to
respond to challenges as they occur.
In some cases, he makes broad
predictions but they serve mainly as
‘thought-provokers,” points that we
should consider before “moving on.” An
example of such a prediction is what he
refers to as the “Global Microeconomies
of the Future:”
• The Nanotech Economy
• The Mobile Economy
• The Neuro-Economy
• The Drone Economy
• The Cloud Computing Economy
• The Renewable Energy Economy
• The Smart Machine Economy
• The Connected Economy
• The Big Data Analytics Economy
• The Health Enhancement Economy
• The Knowledge Engineering
Economy
Each of these “microeconomies”
He then points out that these
threats are new – “The changes in climate,
declining energy, resource scarcity, and
rogue technology were not issues twenty
tears ago. Non-state actors and dark
networks – global networks of criminals
and terrorists – were not a factor to the
extent that they will be in the future. We
are facing converging changes, and in the
future the complications between nations
As mentioned earlier, Canton uses
the same methodology of providing
broad new concepts, explaining them,
listing elements of the topic and moving
on to a new topic, throughout the book’s
360 pages as he brings us up to the year
2100. He does, in my judgment, an
excellent job of presenting concepts and
themes of importance, previously unfamiliar to most.
The tone of the author is positive
throughout – he seems to truly believe,
as he writes in the end section of the
book, “We can all become Future Smart
if we start now. We are all potentially the
Game Changers of the Future.” Canton’s
book is certainly a good place from
which to start and I recommend it
thoroughly.
Creative Disruption is a continuing series
examining the impact of constantly accelerating technology on the world around us.
These changers normally happen under our
personal radar until we find that the world
as we knew it is no more.
John F. McMullen is a writer, poet, college
professor and radio host. Links to other
writings, Podcasts, & Radio Broadcasts at
www.johnmac13.com, and his books are
available on Amazon.
© 2015 John F. McMullen
Page 8
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, JULY 9, 2015
GOVERNMENT
EYE
ON THEATRE
Siblings and Soul Sisters
By John Simon
Of Good Stock
As television drama
gets better, stage plays
seem to be getting more
desperate. So to call Melissa Ross’s “Of
Good Stock” a staged TV play is a kind of
compliment. Not a very great one, but not
unflattering.
This comedy drama or dromedy
concerns the three Stockton sisters (ages
31 to 41), inheritors of enough wealth
from their highly successful novelist
father to live as comfortably—or complacently—as they wish. This makes them
“of good stock,” free to indulge in a life as
active or idle, happy or miserable, as they
choose.
The scene is set in their wellappointed beachside summer house on
Cape Cod, whose inheritrix, Jess, the
eldest, now estivates companionably with
her husband of some years, the food writer
Fred. They have no children or cares,
except one: Jess’s mother died of cancer,
which has now resurfaced in the daughter,
(L-R): Nate Miller, Heather Lind, Jennifer Mudge, Kelly AuCoin a scene from OF
GOOD STOCK; photo © Joan Marcus
In Memoriam:
James Salter
By John Simon
Saturday, June 20, 2015: I read in the
Times that the writer James Salter has
died at age 90. He was a month younger
than I, and a schoolmate in my senior
year at the Horace Mann School (in the
Bronx, according to the Times, though
we thought of it as Riverdale). We were
friendly, if not quite friends.
But then, how was one to be friends
with Jim? All through the years I tried,but
he remained mostly aloof. On the other
hand, he was very affable when we talked
at a birthday party for Bill Becker of
Criterion Films, perhaps in part because
his second wife, Kay Eldredge (whom I
knew and liked at New York magazine)
had been my tablemate. She assured me
that they would soon get together, as
once before, with my wife and me, which,
however, did not come about.
Photo: Corina Arranz courtesy of Knopf
Publishers
My earliest recollection of Jim,
though surely not the first contact, was
at Commencement at Horace Mann.
I was going down to the basement to
empty my locker; he was coming up the
stairs having emptied his. Earlier, the
headmaster had introduced him to the
Jennifer Mudge, Heather Lind and Alicia Silverstone in a scene from OF GOOD
STOCK; photo © Joan Marcus
though she soldiers on uncomplaining
through its pain.
One summer guest is the middle
sister, Amy, a messy crybaby engaged
to Josh, accompanying her and making
great show of affection, but is it for real?
Their wedding (in Tahiti, of all places) is
in the offing. Another weekend guest is
Celia, the youngest sister, now pregnant
by amiable Hunter (sneered at by Amy
as the oldest undergraduate in America),
the two living off her money and preparing to join his mother and twelve siblings
in Missoula.
There is constant shuttling between
sibling affection and sibling acrimony
that also affects the sisters’ men. But Jess
and Fred stay mostly above the fray,
affably condescending to the others, with
Jess genuinely fond of them and Fred at
least pretending the same. Out of this,
playwright Ross makes a tolerable television-style entertainment.
But not without its flaws, the biggest,
for me, being the foul language of Celia
and, to a degree, some of the rest. As in
so many current plays, the f-word proliferates, even though, amid these people, it
seems rather out of place. It becomes especially flagrant in a second-act night scene,
with the sisters, after some strife, huddled
together on the property’s pier, with a
blanket for Celia and a shared bottle of
Scotch for the three of them to keep them
audience as “the schoolboy poet,”and me
as the country’s top Latinist on that year’s
College Board exams.
Jim was one of the five or six
members of the Poetry Society, to which
I also belonged, but whose meetings I
couldn’t attend because they conflicted
with a chemistry class. We had both
published poems in the annual poetry
yearbook, which I have kept until
recently when it got lost.
Anyway, on the staircase, Jim
greeted me with “Hi, John, I didn’t
know you were such a Latinist,” and I
responded with, “Hi, Jim, I didn’t know
you were a poet.” He was then known as
Jimmy Horowitz, his real name, which
he changed (eventually legally) to Salter,
to avoid anti-Semitism, first at West
Point, and later in the Air Force. I was
told that Salter was his mother’s maiden
name, though the obituary had it as
Mildred Scheff.
I then lost track of Jim until George
Plimpton’s publication party for his “A
Sport and a Pastime,” attended by too
many glitterati for Jim to have wasted
much time on me.
But I did acquire a copy of that
novel, yet cannot now remember
whether I read it or not, but must have at
least skimmed it, given that it contained
enough sex to be turned down by any
number of publishers.
It tells the story, I gather, of a Yale
graduate’s perambulations and wild sex
in France with a young French workingclass girl, as reported by a not entirely
reliable third party. Here I must note that
Jim was a tremendous ladies’ man, being
very good-looking and doubtless a silken
enough talker to melt many a maiden’s
resistance if any there was—resistance,
that is, not maiden.
I remained ignorant of much of
his early writings (several with flying
themes), as well as the dozen or so short
film documentaries he created with his
friend Lane Slate, such as “Team Team
Team,” about football, which surprisingly carried off the relevant prize at the
Venice Film Festival.
warm. And there is the f-word, as verb
and adjective, gaining in frequency and
intensity, as the sisters hurl it challengingly
at cancer itself, and beyond that, chorically
and defiantly, with “F--- everybody in the
whole f---king world.” This becomes a
climactic form of cuteness that began with
the opening stage direction describing Jess
as “hip-ish” and “sweet-ish,” and ends with
the penultimate scene in which Fred and
Jess (now wigless and bald) reassert their
coziness with each other, in a way that not
even the final noisy incursion of the others
can possibly subvert.
Matters are greatly helped by four
wonderful sets from Santo Loquasto,
good costumes by Tony Broecker,
and fine, summery lighting by Peter
Kaczorowski, and by terrific performances.
Under Lynne Meadow’s assured direction, Jennifer Mudge’s Jess exudes sensible
domesticity and spunk under illness; Kelly
AuCoin’s Fred perfectly balances skepticism with joviality; Heather Lind’s Celia
is charmingly headstrong; and Alicia
Silverstone’ Amy amusingly fluctuating
between strained gaiety and uncontrolled
sniveling. No less fine are Greg Keller’s
long compliance and ultimate rebellion as
Josh, and Nate Miller’s unsticky eagerness
to please as Hunter.
Still and all, what are we to make of a
play wherein every character tells another
Continued on page 9
In the Air Force, he flew over a
hundred missions and, in the Korean
War, downed one MIG. He had worked
his way up to colonel by the time he quit
soldiering in 1957, never forgetting those
precious years.
He made some features in
Hollywood, notably “Downhill Racer”
(1969), with Robert Redford, which
garnered good reviews, including mine.
I noted that the skiers “spoke in a kind
of Hemingway of the slopes, which,
however, does not lapse into parody.”
I further opined that it “does not get
beyond the level of competent,intelligent
entertainment,”but also learned, possibly
from Jim himself, “how much guff the
scenarist had to take from Paramount,”
and “to what extent the script had to be
softened and watered down.”
So formidable had Jim become as a
writer of fiction, travel, drama and even
poetry, that a group of writers living like
him on Long Island, who had their own
club, never invited him to join, feeling
Continued on page 9
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, JULY 9, 2015
Page 9
EYE ON THEATRE
Siblings and Soul Sisters
Continued from page 8
“I love you—in my fashion,” a kind of
facile set piece in which the show abounds.
No wonder Jess exclaims “I am trapped in
a bad chick flick,”with which, if only intermittently, we can all concur.
Barbara Barrie and Gideon Glick in a
scene from SIGNIFICANT OTHER.
Photo © Joan Marcus.
Significant Other
Rather more substantial, yet still a
trifle too slick, is “Significant Other” by
Joshua Harmon, even more patently autobiographical than his previous somewhat
undeserved success with “Bad Jews.” It is a
thoroughly homosexual play, with author,
protagonist, his interpreter, and probably
some others, compellingly gay. I make a
point of this because the topic and tone are
so archetypically homosexual that the play
must elicit empathy from gay spectators,
and sympathy from liberal others.
The theme, best known from
Christopher Isherwood’s “Berlin Stories”
and from the movie “Darling,” is the
love between a homosexual man and
heterosexual woman—or in this case
women—that cannot be consummated
yet deeply moves both.
Take here thirtyish Jordan, in strong
reciprocal affection with three young
women—Kiki, Vanessa, and especially
Laura—who drift away into marriages
leaving him a heartbroken loner.
To make the topic of interest to
James Salter
Continued from page 8
that he was way too much above the rest
of them. As the obituary stated, he had
married Ann Altemus in 1951, living
with her for a quarter century before
their divorce, mostly in the Hudson
Valley, a very genteel, gentile life, both
spouses having affairs on the side. It is
that divorce that inspired Jim’s masterpiece, “Light Years” (1976).
In it, Jim’s special talents became
most manifest, eliciting praise from all
sides, especially for his sentences. The
editor and critic Michael Dirda wrote
that “Salter is the contemporary writer
most admired by other writers . . . He
can, when he wants, break your heart
with a sentence.” James Wolcott, who
called him ostentatiously America’s
“most underrated underrated author,”
also mentioned that “even his verbless
sentences remain sturdy.”
In reviewing Salter’s 1985 memoir,
“Burning the Days,” for the Times,
greater audiences, the pathos is permeated
with a good deal of humor. Thus, too, the
three women are amusingly differentiated: silly narcissistic chatterbox Kiki, more
sophisticated and introspective Vanessa,
and genuinely sensitive Laura. But the
outcome with each is ultimately alike.Take
the following:
“JORDAN: I never thought I’d say
this, but you seem . . . happy. VANESSA:
I know! It’s freaking me out! Cause you
know me I am not a happy person.” Or
this: JORDAN: Can I have the sticker on
[your] apple? KIKI: Why? JORDAN: I
need something that will, like, touch and
cling to me right now.” Or this outcry of
JORDAN’s: “I hate being a person. I wish
I was a rock, you know? Or anything. A
salamander. Dental floss. Rain.”
At a dance, Jordan observes the three
women dancing with their men The stage
direction reads: “There is so much love
in this dance, it could break your heart.”
Certainly Jordan’s.
Or consider the following.“LAURA:
Don’t you think ‘love’ is a strong word at
this point? JORDAN: Well, what is the
word for what happens when you masturbate thinking about someone and have
the most intense orgasm you’ve ever had
in your entire life, because that happened
to me last night. LAURA: Wonderful.”
The someone in this case is handsome
seemingly heterosexual Bill at Jordan’s
workplace, who will accept a movie date
with Jordan but go no further. At one
point Jordan gets to smell a t-shirt Bill has
just changed out of. Laura inquires, “How
does it smell?”And Jordan mimes without
words, “Incredible.”
There is another woman in his life, his
loving and beloved grandmother, Helene,
who keeps asking him whether he has yet
found a special love, and, upon his negative
answer, keeps assuring him that he will.
The two of them look at family photographs, and Helene says one of the play’s
finest lines, “Don’t get old, Jordan. Don’t
die young—but don’t get old.” Sadly he
comments, “I spend all weekends at bachelorette parties, and weddings, and now
baby showers.”
What makes Jordan fascinating is
the terrific performance of Gordon Glick,
although he is a bit too good-looking.The
script, more realistically, calls him pudgy.
Richard Bernheim praised the “chiseled
sentences and deft evocation of moods.”
And the novelist Richard Ford wrote
elsewhere, “It is an article of faith among
readers of fiction that James Salter writes
American sentences better than anybody
writing today.” And when he received the
Pen/Malamud Award, the citation stated
that his writings show the readers “how
to work with fire, flames, the laser, all the
forces of life at the service of creating sentences that sparkle and make stories burn.”
So what are we to make of this
recurring motif, the extolled sentence in
Jim’s writing? I would say that it proclaims him preeminently as a stylist, with
reference to the great attention paid to,
and effect achieved with, every single
sentence, so as to maximize that expressivity also known as beauty.
I am glad to learn that he was also
lauded for what turned out to be his
ultimate work, the novel “All That Is”
(2013), a fitting coda, I gather (I haven’t
read it), to a major literary life.
A life, be it said, not lacking in
tragedy, as when one of his children, a
grown daughter, took a shower in his
unfinished house in Aspen, and was
electrocuted, with him having to retrieve
her dead, naked body. He remarked, “I
have never been able to write the story.
I reach a certain point and cannot go on.
The death of kings can be recited, but not
of one’s child.”
The obituary cites a number of
notable honors, but also points out that
he never achieved the wider popularity
that he believed constituted true greatness. The most a book of his sold was
12,000 copies. There is something elliptical verging on ever so slightly cryptic
about his writing, forcing the majority
reader into doing something he wants to
avoid: stop and think. A favorite device
is skipping in a rendered conversation to
specify who said which.
We once ran into each other
in the men’s fashion department of
Bloomingdale’s, and I recall his commenting with a certain amount of envy
about how well I dressed, though I am
sure that he did it just as well. Another
time I got a phone call from him inquiring about how good a certain actor was
who was interested in getting produced
and starring in one of Kay Eldredge’s
plays. I gave the actor an acceptable grade,
but the play was never heard about again.
And then there was the single time
when Jim, Kay (whom he married after
many years of their living together), my
wife and I were dining at a fairly fancy
downtown Chinese restaurant. At a
nearby table sat Yoko Ono, whom, at
Jim’s instigation, I intercepted as she
was leaving. In a brief conversation she
recalled that I was the only critic to give a
good notice to a revue she had mounted
from her own writings. This led to an
acquaintanceship and her sponsoring my
blog. Thank you, Jim!
As concrete evidence I have only one
1994 typewritten picture postcard from
Jim, which I came across in my copy
of his Pen-Prize-winning “Dusk and
Other Stories,” one of which, “Cinema,”
I discussed with my students at the
Sarah Lawrence College Center for
Continuing Education.
Lindsey Mendez Cara Patterson, Sas Goldberg and Gideon Click in a scene from
SIGNIFICANT OTHER. Photo © Joan Marcus.
But he expresses brilliantly homosexual
theatricality in both joy and despair. The
rest of the cast—Sas Goldberg, Carra
Patterson and Lindsay Mendez is pretty
nifty too, as are John Behlmann and
Luke Smith playing three guys each. And
Barbara Barrie is the grandest granny one
could wish for.
Mark Wendland has cannily
designed a giant box containing rooms,
corridors, a stairwell, allowing for quick
changes of locale and simultaneity of
actions. The gifted Japhy Weideman has
come up with a plethora of diverse, varicolored lights that provide a dazzlingly
dreamlike quality to wish-fulfillment fantasies. And Trip Cullman has directed it all
with resourceful acumen.The author has a
liminal note:
“The scenes . . . should bleed into each
other. Because love bleeds.” That is mere
bravado, but the clever production almost
achieves it.
John Simon has written for over 50
years on theatre, film, literature, music and
fine arts for the Hudson Review, New
Leader, New Criterion, National Review,
New York Magazine, Opera News, Weekly
Standard, Broadway.com and Bloomberg
News. He reviews books for the New York
Times Book Review and for The Washington
Post. To learn more, visit his website: www.
JohnSimon-uncensored.com
Anyway, the card is clearly a
giveaway from a stay at New York’s
Ritz-Carlton, and reads in full: “Dear
John, what beautiful handwriting. If I did
not know you I would say it shows an
orderly mind of great intelligence [Note
the irony in that statement]. I’m going
to be away in Wyoming and Colorado,
not for sport, for about 10 days. Will call
you sometime after I get back. Best, Jim
Salter, Sagaponack
The call, of course, never came. But
the card is puzzling. On hard, cardboardtype paper, it had to have been run
through a typewriter, yet, miraculously,
shows no sign of any sort of mangling.
Next, what did Jim need a hotel in
New York for? And why is the return
address Sagaponack, when he resided
in Bridgehampton? And why does the
postmark read Hicksville? The signature
is handwritten, sort of like J i m—why
the spaces?
As I said, there was something a bit
mysterious about James Salter.
Page 10
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, JULY 9, 2015
TRAVEL
South Beach­“Art Deco-Ville”
By Richard Levy
Imagine a sophisticated tropical place
right on the ocean with
powdery white sand
beaches, crystal clear water, breathtaking Art Deco buildings, world-class
restaurants, museums and art galleries;
high end fashion shopping and endless
water sports, all a mere 2 1/2 hour flight
away.
This place could only be South
Beach, or “SoBe” as the locals refer to it.
Luxurious, spectacular and somewhat
decadent, Miami Beach is where the
beautiful people escape. (Ironic, since
they’re destined to bump into the same
folks they’ve just escaped from!) You
know who they are: the folks sitting in
First Class on the flight to West Palm
Beach, serenely sipping champagne as
you schlep your carry-on past them to
your cramped Coach seat. They look
so pampered, pretentious, polished and
oh-so-entitled in their fashionable attire;
not wrinkle in their botoxed faces while
you look as if you really need a vacation.
(Don’t dare wear a sweat suit or shorts
on the plane to WPB and for sure, don’t
bring a Selfi Stick, as it will be confiscated! If you spring for an “airbrush
golden tan” before you go, you will arrive
looking very posh.)
By the way, be prepared to pay
through your “possibly modified” nose
with every move you’ll make in SoBe.
It is very expensive, but trust me, absolutely worth it. Luxury reigns and it’s
contagious. If you just let yourself go,
you’ll quickly feel as if you belong and
you’re “one of them” --deserving to be
there. Your senses will quickly become
completely expanded, refreshed and
sometimes violated; but you’ll love every
minute of it and will beg for more.
Now If I haven’t scared you away,
fasten your seatbelts, you’re in for an
amazing vacation. First, you must
know that SoBe is unequivocally the
“people watching” capital of the world
and it’s worth the price of admission.
Everywhere you go, whatever you
do in SoBe, 24/7, you’ll find yourself
gazing upon more bronzed, bejeweled, plastic-enhanced, runway fashion
clad women there then anywhere else,
including Rodeo Drive, Positano and
Cote d Azur. Women in string bikinis
line the beaches, including the occasional topless French beauties. It’s been
called “The American Riviera” which
sounds absolutely right to me. And the
men who accompany these très chic
women are not too shabby either in their
“Vilebrequin” bathing suits, gold Rolex
watches, Gucci loafers and Armani
sunglasses.
SoBe is fabulous, even during the
summer. In December, the international
art world descends upon SoBe for Art
Basel, to see, be seen and spend millions
on the artwork of emerging artists they
think will become the next Picasso,
Rothko or Haring. South Beach has
become an international playground, so
you’re sure to hear a lot of French, Italian
and Russian.
Foodies will be constantly delighted
as local restaurants relentlessly try to
out-innovate each other. The late night
“very selective” clubs here compare to
the best ones in St. Tropez, Berlin and
Paris. (To gain entry, dress to the nines,
wear designer sunglasses and say something flamboyant in French or Italian.)
Everyone in SoBe appears to be
better looking, more beautifully tanned,
more successful and more fashionably
dressed then you are. Don’t be intimidated: it’s just an illusion; perhaps you’ve
had too much sun or one too many
Margarita’s.
The three reigning hotels to
consider are the art deco Ritz-Carlton,
the Sagamore, an all-suite hotel that
looks like an edgy art gallery, or the
gorgeous Setai, which looks like an
Asian Museum. These are all so decadently fabulous, you can’t miss.
For a classic beachfront Art Deco
hotel consider The Tides, in the heart
of SoBe, the tallest art deco hotel on
the strip and all of the rooms have a
dramatic ocean view. Or stay in my
very favorite Art Deco boutique hotel,
the Albion: beautiful inside and out,
located near Lincoln Road and close
to a private beach. The rooms are minimalist-modern, with service to-die-for
and surprisingly it costs a lot less then
any of the luxurious trendy places. Also
consider the Ocean Surf Hotel located
on a secluded stretch of sand; a great
escape from the South Beach hustle and
bustle. The porthole windows in their
oceanfront rooms will make you feel like
you’re aboard a cruise ship.
If you are bringing kids, the best
place to stay is Loews Miami Beach
Hotel, with spacious rooms and special
Kids Camp programs for children ages
4 to 12. If you want to get away “alone”
for a few hours, Loews has lots of activities to keep kids entertained, like pizza
parties and movie nights.
In the roaring 20’s, Miami became
the winter warm-weather playground of
the rich, famous and notorious gangster
bootleggers. Then in the 30’s, middle
class tourists started coming down, so
they had to build some affordable new
hotels.
During the Depression, architect
Henry Hohauser chose Art Deco as his
primary design because it was affordable, distinctive and the perfect antidote
Continued on page 11
ADVERTISE YOUR DISPLAY HELP WANTED ADS IN
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN!
Do you have jobs available at your business?
The Westchester Guardian
publishes every Thursday and we would love to run your
Help Wanted Display Ads,
due Wednesday one week prior to publication date.
Call today to reserve
Display Ad Space in our next issue:
914.216.1674
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, JULY 9, 2015
Page 11
One of my favorite places to eat is Pied a
Terre, a small, classic French Restaurant,
located inside the Cadet Hotel, which
feels like a cozy neighborhood restaurant in Paris.
One of the hottest people watching
places with some of the best food in
SoBe, is Pubbelly, serving Asian-Latin
inspired small plates filled with inventive treats.
No trip to Miami is complete
without sending time in “Little
Havana.” Take a taxi to colorful Calle
Ocho and just wander around. It’s like
being in old Havana without the vintage
cars. The street is lined with old world
cigar factories and cafes playing Cuban
music. You must try their guava paste
pastries and rose petal flan.
When you get to 27th Ave and 8th
St you’ll be astonished to discover huge
paintings of giant roosters on the walls.
For authentic delicious Cuban lunch,
stop at any of the small family run restaurants and order their daily special.
For a memorable day trip head over
to the lovely Villa Vizcaya, an Italian
Renaissance-style villa built for industrialist James Deering in the 1900s, just
a few miles south of downtown Miami
on Biscayne Bay. Visitors can tour the
historic house museum, filled with
furnishings, tapestries and artwork purchased during Deering’s buying sprees
throughout Europe.
SoBe’s best shopping is located
three main areas: Washington Avenue,
The Espanola Way and the Lincoln
Road Mall. The mall has been transformed into an spectacular, endless
shopping and dining experience of
outdoor cafes, boutiques and galleries.
Since 1987 the New World
Symphony at Lincoln Theater has been
the must go to place for classical music
in Miami Beach. Here the best young
musicians in the country compete for
the symphony’s 85 positions in national
auditions.
For one of the best views in Sobe.
head to the glitzy Gansevoort Miami
Beach hotel on Collins Avenue, have
drinks on their rooftop lounge bar 18
floors up with spectacular views of
South Beach and the Ocean. No matter
how many times you stroll along Ocean
Drive during the day, just wait until the
first time you stroll here after 6pm. Every
evening Ocean Drive is transformed
into a magnificent neon wonderland: its
palm trees and art deco buildings light
up like an electric rainbow on speed.
Which airline to fly to WPB? As
usual I love Jet Blue, they go out of their
way make you feel at home and once
there, you don’t have to rent a car in
SoBe, you can walk to just about everywhere or take a taxi. By the time you’re
ready to leave, I’m sure you’ll surely be
tanned, well-clad, and well-informed on
the subtle body-language of the beautiful people. So don’t be surprised if when
you are strolling down Ocean Drive, or
dining in a trendy restaurant, wide-eyed
tourists start “people-watching you!”
When that magical moment happens,
it will make the fortune you just spent
on your luxurious week in Sobe worth
every penny! Bon voyage.
TRAVEL
South Beach­
Continued from page 10
to the doom and gloom of hard times.
He and other architects added all kinds
of whimsical touches to buildings like
portholes, racing bands and wedding
cake designs. Images of rolling waves
were painted on the walls of buildings.
These candy-colored buildings helped
create a fantasy world where people
could escape from reality. Other innovative architectural flourishes included the
addition of bold silver and gold industrial motifs influenced by the dramatic
curves of ocean liners.
I suggest you take both the day and
night tours of South Beach and then
come back at your own pace to linger in
awe. (If you take just one tour, go at night
when the art deco neon is all aglow). Go
to the Art Deco Center for information,
to book a tour or rent a Self-Guided
Audio Tour: www.mdpl.org. The tours,
given by knowledgeable local historians
and architects, are fabulous. Ninetyminute tours are sponsored by the
Miami Design Preservation League
and begin at the Art Deco Welcome
Center.
SoBe has been called a living
museum, not only for its spectacular art deco but also for its 1920s
“Mediterranean Revival” and 1950s
“MiMo” (Miami Modern) buildings. Pick up a map of architectural
walking routes from the gift shop at
the Art Deco Center. In SoBe even the
Lifeguard Stands are art deco, manned
by lifeguards who look like they’ve been
sculpted out of bronze. (Let’s hope they
can also swim.)
Be sure to visit the fabulous Rubell
Family Collection, housed in an old
warehouse. Don and Mera Rubel have
accumulated some of the most important works of artists, from the 70’s to
the present, including Jeff Koons, Keith
Haring and Cindy Sherman. This collection is considered to be one of the
finest collections of new modern art to
be found anywhere Take their complimentary audio tour to learn more about
the artists who have shaped the modern
era. Art aficionados will also want to
visit the Perez Art Museum Miami and
the Bass Museum of Art. Don’t miss the
very moving Holocaust Memorial: a
huge 42 ft. tall bronze sculpture depicting refugees desperately clinging onto a
huge bronze arm that reaches up out of
the ground.
Golf fanatics should head straight
for Crandon Golf, located on Key
Biscayne, a tropical barrier island. (Make
reservations before you leave NY.) For
entertainment, check out the sensational
Adrienne Arsht Center that includes an
Opera house, Concert Hall, Theater and
an outdoor Plaza for the Arts where
there’s always an event going on, so
make reservations early.
Kids will enjoy a visit to the
Seaquarium, which is not far from
South Beach and fun even without kids.
There’s Lolita the Killer Whale, Flipper,
thousands of tropical fish and huge
sharks.
If you’re into water sports you
can go deep-sea fishing for Marlin or
Sailfish on a Charter Boat for the day,
rent a sailboat, go windsurfing, go water
skiing, snorkeling or go scuba diving by
an old reef or ship wreck. Or relax and
enjoy a romantic cruise at sunset. I love
having breakfast or hanging out anytime
at the iconic outdoor News Café on
Ocean Avenue where you can watch
the South Beach parade pass by 24/7.
Opened in 1988, the café has become
the place to crash, read the NY papers
and linger over their freshly made coffee.
You can order their signature eggs
Benedict, French toast or bagel with
nova all day long and don’t forget their
fresh squeezed Florida orange juice.
It’s going to be hot, so be sure to
stop at the famous Frieze Ice Cream
Factory on Lincoln Road. Try as many
flavors as you can. I can personally recommend: Chocolate Decadence, Indian
Mango and Key Lime.
Your hotel will probably have its
own private beach, but be sure to also
venture out to the Public beach on
Ocean Drive. Rent a portable cabana
to escape the hot mid-day sun. Later,
linger over drinks in any of the chic
Ocean Drive outdoor cafes for some of
the best people watching in SoBe where
the parade never ends.
Suggesting the best SoBe restaurants isn’t easy, but three places I love are
Bianca, serving Italian food, as good as
I’ve had anyplace in Italy. You absolutely
must go to Azul, where you might be
sitting at a table next to George Clooney
or Catlin Jenner. Order anything the
Captain suggests and you’ll be in heaven.
LOCAL LORE
‘How Hard Is My Fate’: The Arnold-André Drama, Act 3
By Robert Scott
succeeded.
The curtain now
opens on the third and
final act in the drama
of a treason that nearly
In American hands, West Point
immobilized and neutralized British
forces in the lower Hudson Valley. With
its fortifications on high cliffs, it was
almost impregnable from the landside
and beyond the reach of guns on ships in
Diana O’Neill
Holistic Health
Services
the river below.
Aside from the loss of its garrison
and a large store of ordinance, capture
of this strong point by the British would
have made King’s Ferry, a crucial link
between the colonies, no longer tenable.
Loss of control of the Hudson
would have driven a giant wedge between
the colonies. With the river opened to
British warships and supply vessels, the
Continued on page 12
Fidelity Medal awarded to the 3 captors
of Major Andre:: John Paulding, Issac
Van Wart and David Williams
I will journey with you during challenging times such as
grieving the loss of a loved one or recovering from a negative relationship.
Counseling • Energy Healing • Hypnotism • Spiritual & Psychic Healing
By appointment, only • Free consultation given on first visit
Holistic Health Services • 240 North Ave. Suite 204 A, New Rochelle, NY 10801
• 914.630.1928
Page 12
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, JULY 9, 2015
GOVERNMENT
LOCAL
LORE
prepared for any fate to which an honest
zeal for my King’s service may have
devoted me,” he tells him, ending with
assurances of his good treatment in captivity.“I receive the greatest attention from
his Excellency General Washington, and
from every person under whose charge I
happen to be placed.”
André’s meals have been sent to him
from Washington’s own table. Since his
capture, Washington has not seen him.
‘How Hard Is My Fate’: The Arnold-André Drama, Act 3
Continued from page 11
consequences for the Patriot cause would
have been catastrophic.
Friday, September 29, 1780,
morning.
Traitorous American Major
General Benedict Arnold has reached
British-held New York City after his precipitous escape.
felon. Washington does not answer
André’s appeal. His feeling is that it is
more considerate to keep the truth about
his fate from him for as long as possible.
Benjamin Tallmadge’s tomb in East
Cemetery, Litchfield, Connecticut.
Benedict Arnold’s tombstone, St. Mary
Church, Battersea, England, UK
British Major John André and
American attorney Joshua Hett Smith
have been transported to the Continental
Army’s encampment at Tappan, N.Y.,
and are being held there for separate trials.
The board of officers convened by
General Washington meets in the Dutch
Reformed Church in Tappan. (The
original building was replaced in 1835 by
the handsome Federal-style brick church
now on the site.)
The board includes six major
generals and eight brigadier generals,
with Nathanael Greene as its head. This
Patriot’s Park Sleepy Hollow, NY
(Source Wiki Images)
The Reformed Church, Tappan, N.Y.
Built around 1830 on the site of the Old
Dutch Church.
is in sharp contrast to the British treatment of American patriot Nathan Hale,
who was arrested as a spy on the night of
September 21, 1776, and hanged the next
morning without a trial.
Major John Andre’s memorial in
Westminster Abbey, London, England,
UK
Taking no part in the proceedings,
Washington remains in his headquarters
at the DeWint house in Tappan (now a
museum).
André describes in detail the circumstances of his coming ashore, his
inadvertent penetration into Americanheld territory and his capture at
Tarrytown on his way to the British lines.
He is asked whether his impression
Sir John Beverly Robinson, Loyalist
(source Wikie Images)
was that he had come ashore under the
protection of a flag of truce. André virtually seals his doom by testifying that he
does not believe that he did. He adds that
if he came ashore under such protection
he certainly would have returned under it.
André is excused following his testimony. Letters from Beverley Robinson,
Benedict Arnold and Sir Henry Clinton
are read. All three insist that André had
come ashore under the protection of a
flag of truce. However, under the etiquette of war, no flag of truce can cover
an act of treason. Anyway, André’s own
testimony belies their claim.
After deliberating, the board concludes that André had come ashore (1)
“in a private and secret manner”; (2) “he
changed his dress within our lines and
under a feigned name and in a disguised
habit”crossed at King’s Ferry and traveled
to the place where he was captured,
“being then on his way to New York”
with “several papers which contained
intelligence to the enemy.”
The unanimous verdict: “Major
André, Adjutant General to the British
Army, ought to be considered as a spy
from the enemy; and, agreeable to the
law and usage of nations, he ought to
suffer death.”
Saturday, September 30, morning.
Washington approves the sentence
and orders the execution to take place
the next day at five in the afternoon.
Now aware of his fate, André sends a
gracious letter to Sir Henry Clinton. In it,
he absolves his superior of “any suspicion
that I was bound by your Excellency’s
orders to expose myself to what has
happened.”
“I am perfectly tranquil in mind, and
Photo of portrait of Gen.Nathanael
Greene attributed to Gilbert Stuart
hanging in parlor of Gen. Nathanael
Greene Homestead Coventry RI.
Photo copyright Gen. Nathanael Greene
Homestead Association
Saturday, September 30, afternoon.
Sympathetic to André, Washington
arranges for a message to be passed to
Clinton. It suggests that if the exchange
of Arnold for André were to be proposed,
the Americans would agree to it.
The same trial balloon has been
floated within Clinton’s staff, but he is
not about to accede to the suggestion. To
him, Arnold’s desertion is not a crime but
an act deserving of high praise; his crime
had been his service in the rebel cause.
Having promised to reward and protect
Arnold, Clinton cannot give him up to be
hanged, whatever André’s predicament.
Clinton writes a letter to Washington
telling him that three royal officials will
be at Dobbs Ferry (across from Tappan)
the next day. They are British Lt. Gen.
James Robertson, governor of New York,
Andrew Elliott, lieutenant-governor, and
William Smith, the colony’s chief justice.
They desire a meeting to present “a true
state of the facts.” Washington postpones
the execution to Monday “at twelve
o’clock precisely.”
Sunday, October 1, morning.
André sends a note to Washington
asking for a soldier’s death before a firing
squad instead of being hanged like a
Isaac Van Wart’s tombstone in the Elmsford
Reformed Church, Elmsford, N.Y.
Sunday, October 1, afternoon.
The British ship Greyhound
anchors off Dobbs Ferry. Only General
Robertson is allowed to come ashore to
meet with General Nathanael Greene.
(Greene would emerge from the
Revolution with a military reputation
second only to Washington’s.)
Robertson offers to produce
Beverley Robinson and the officers of the
Vulture to attest that André had gone
ashore under Arnold’s flag of truce. He
shows Greene a copy of Arnold’s letter
to Washington claiming responsibility
for André’s use of an assumed name--although André has used the name John
Anderson in secret correspondence for
Continued on page 13
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, JULY 9, 2015
Page 13
monument at the execution site. It was
attacked by vandals within a few years
but was restored.
The British welcomed Benedict
Arnold, but his defection caused violent
reactions among Patriots. Philadelphia,
Boston and Providence all held public
demonstrations against Arnold. Some
suggested that September 25th be made
a holiday to remind future generations
of “the eternal disgrace of the traitor.”
Benedict even fell into disfavor as a name
for male children.
Arnold never enjoyed the full trust
of the British. Because of his penchant
for telling any who would listen how they
had mishandled the war, he made few
new friends among them.
In December of 1780, he led a force
of Loyalist troops by sea to Virginia.
During this campaign, he asked a subordinate what he thought he might expect
if Patriots should capture him. He was
shaken by the response.
“They will cut off that leg of yours
wounded at Quebec and at Saratoga, and
bury it with all the honors of war, and
then they will hang the rest of you on a
gibbet.”
In the summer of 1781, Arnold
attacked New London, the Connecticut
seaport and center for privateers. One
objective was Fort Griswold, where
Patriot defenders were brutally bayoneted
to death after they had surrendered. New
London was put to the torch.
After Cornwallis surrendered at
Yorktown in October of 1781, Arnold
sailed for England aboard a British manof-war. He did not dare risk a crossing in
a vessel likely to be taken by the enemy.
His wife and children followed separately
in a merchant ship.
By the time he reached London, to
his dismay he found peace sentiment rife
and negotiations already under way.
Arnold became obsessed with a
desire to make a large fortune quickly.
He fought a duel in 1792 with the Earl
of Lauderdale, who had impugned his
character. After several unsuccessful
attempts to start mercantile ventures in
Canada and the West Indies, he died in
London in 1801. Arnold’s wife, Margaret
Shippen, died three years later. Some of
their male descendants became officers
in the British Army. One son rose to
the rank of lieutenant general, and a
grandson was a major general in the First
World War.
Benedict Arnold is buried beneath
St. Mary Church in Battersea, England,
in a crypt shared with his wife and their
daughter, Sophia Matilda Phipps.
The lone monument to Arnold in
America has stood since 1887 at the site
of the Saratoga battlefield. On one side it
shows in high relief a boot, much like the
one he wore when he received his crippling leg wound.
The inscription on the back of the
stone reads, “In memory of the most brilliant soldier of the Continental Army
who was desperately wounded on this
spot.” Arnold’s name discreetly does not
appear.
In the Old Cadet Chapel adjoining the West Point Cemetery and open
to the public, shield-shaped black marble
plaques on the walls are incised with the
ranks, names, and birth and death dates
of all Continental Army generals. One
reads only “Major General,” and the
notation, “Born 1740.”
The general’s name has been chiseled
from the stone, leaving a deep rectangular
indentation. The missing name is that of
Benedict Arnold.
Readers interested in seeing this
curious and little-known artifact can
easily find it by climbing the stairs to the
organ loft, where it can be found clearly
visible on the east wall.
Joshua Hett Smith was tried by a
court martial and acquitted, only to be
arrested by local authorities and held
in the Goshen, N.Y., jail as a suspected
Loyalist sympathizer. In May of 1781 he
escaped and made his way to Manhattan.
When the British evacuated the city in
1783, he sailed to England. He left there
for South Carolina eighteen years later
and died in obscurity in New York in
1817.
Col. Beverley Robinson, whose
confiscated home in Garrison had been
Arnold’s headquarters, retired to England
devoutly believing he had done his duty
for his king and country. He died near
LOCAL LORE
‘How Hard Is My Fate’: The Arnold-André Drama, Act 3
Continued from page 12
sixteen months.
Greene points out that André has
already taken responsibility for wearing
a disguise and has testified that he
did not have the protection of a flag.
Greene promises to report to General
Washington the substance of their
meeting. Washington takes no action to
change the method of execution or to
stay it.
Monday, October 2, morning.
This will be André’s last day of life.
His personal servant has been allowed
to bring him clean clothing, and André
dons his full dress uniform--scarlet tunic,
buff vest, knee breeches and high boots.
Five hundred Continental soldiers line
the road to the execution site on a hill
outside of Tappan (today known as
“André Hill”).
Fifes and drums play as André is
conducted from his cell in the Mabie
Tavern (now a restaurant named the ‘76
House) for the march to the execution
site. He still hopes he will die a soldier’s
death by firing squad.
Ever polite, André compliments the
officers escorting him, “I am very much
surprised to find your troops under such
good discipline, and your music is excellent,” he tells them. André hesitates when
he catches sight of the gallows silhouetted against the sky.
“I have borne everything with fortitude,” André protests, “but this is too
degrading.”
Major Tallmadge, the American
escorting officer assures him, “It is
unavoidable, sir,” explaining that the
manner of his death had been fixed at the
trial and could not be changed.
“How hard is my fate,” André says
with uncharacteristic self-pity, then
consoles himself with, “It will soon be
over.”
Major Tallmadge, who has been
impressed with the prisoner’s composure
and personal conduct throughout his
ordeal, shakes hands with André under
the gallows.
Built of two forked trees with a
horizontal crosspiece, the gallows is
high. The wagon bearing André’s coffin
is positioned under it. Without being
prompted, André leaps up into the
wagon and stands on his coffin, surveying the assembled troops and spectators.
The order for his execution is read.
André is asked if he has any final words.
In a clear voice he says, “I have nothing
more to say, gentlemen, than this: I pray
you to bear witness that I meet my fate
like a brave man.”
The hangman is a captive Loyalist
named Strickland, recruited for the task
in return for his freedom. He has tried
to conceal his identity by blackening his
face, but only succeeds in achieving a
ridiculous effect.
Repelled by the hangman’s blackened hands, a proud André passes the
noose over his own head and tightens it
around his neck. He offers the hangman
two handkerchiefs; one is to cover his
eyes and the other is used to bind his
hands behind his back.
At a signal, the wagon moves
forward. The body drops and stops
abruptly, swinging like a giant pendulum
in a wide arc.
The Aftermath
Self-portrait of Major John Andre on the eve of his execution (Wikipedia)
David Williams is buried in the Old Stone Fort Cemetery,
Schoharie, N.Y.
John André was buried at the spot
where he died. His capture and tragic
fate became the subject of folk ballads,
engravings and lithographs. In 1821, a
request was made by the British for the
return of his body to his homeland.
After locating the gravesite, the
coffin was taken to the British frigate
Phaeton and brought to Portsmouth.
André was buried in Westminster Abbey
with full military honors.
In 1879, Cyrus W. Field, of
Irvington, N.Y., the industrialist who
planned and oversaw the laying of
the first transatlantic cable, erected a
John Paulding is buried in Old St. Peter’s Churchyard,
Peekskill, N.Y.
Millionaire Cyrus W. Field’s monument to Andre
in Tappan, N.Y., to mark the site of his hanging
and burial. Intended to improve British-American
relations, it was vandalized twice
Continued on page 14
Page 14
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, JULY 9, 2015
LOCAL LORE
‘How Hard Is My Fate’: The Arnold-André Drama, Act 3
Continued from page 13
Bath in 1792.
Maj. Benjamin Tallmadge, who
had immediately perceived the treason of
Benedict Arnold, was in charge of André
as a prisoner and developed a deep respect
for him, as did others who guarded him.
He served in Congress from 1801 to
1817 and died in Litchfield, Connecticut,
in 1835.
Lt. Col. John Jameson, whose
actions were responsible for Arnold’s
escape, returned to his home in Virginia
and died there in 1810.
Washington later said about
Jameson’s conduct in the André case
that “because of his egregious folly or
bewildered conception, he seemed lost
in astonishment, and not to know what
he was doing.”
The three militiamen who had
participated in André’s capture were
each rewarded with a silver medal and
a pension for life.
John Paulding died in 1818; his
grave is in St. Peter’s Cemetery in Van
Cortlandtville, near Peekskill, N.Y.
Isaac Van Wart died in 1828 and
is buried in the cemetery adjoining the
Elmsford Reformed Church on Route
9A just south of Route 119.
David Williams died in Schoharie
County in 1830 and is buried in the Old
Stone Fort Cemetery in Schoharie, N.Y.
The Arnold-André affair is a classic
tragedy in every sense of the word--a
dramatic series of events culminating in
the fall of someone, often of high degree.
It captures the tragic sense of life because
the protagonist is doomed--through
frailties or errors or fate--to fail, suffer
and die. Not only was John André the
victim, but the villain, Benedict Arnold,
went unpunished.
history of the railroad…see how the
village has grown and how it has been
impacted by the railroad. The show will
be open on Thursdays and Saturdays
throughout the summer.
For obvious reasons this event
caught my eye… On “Sinful Sunday”,
July 26th from 3:00pm to 5:00pm,
the Hudson Valley Center for
Contemporary Art in Peekskill is
looking for the 18 and older crowd to
help bid a Bacchanalian farewell to their
LUST art exhibition! The event will
feature open sessions of LIVE figure
drawing of a nude model in the center
of the Lust show. A roving drawing
instructor will help guide anyone who
feels moved to rub pencil on paper. They
will lavish you with sketching materials.
Plus, you can dive into a wine coupling
session where grapes of gluttony will
be exquisitely paired with little bites
of pleasure. If that is not enough to
tempt you, then you can belly dance in
a Dionysian frenzy along with graceful
dance teacher, Belle Ritter. Marcy B.
Freedman will then dazzle us with her
Little Red Riding-hood Lust performance. The LUST art exhibit which
opened in April will close on July 26th.
Join the Friends of the Trailside
Museum in Cross River at the Ward
Pound Ridge Reservation for the
Fourth Annual Firefly Festival on July
17th from 7:30pm to 9:30pm. Bring
a chair or blanket to learn about and
admire these amazing insects as they put
on their show at dusk. The Friends are
also offering a free ice cream social for all
ages to enjoy! Reservations not required,
the rain date is July 24th. Trailside
Nature Museum is located at Routes 35
and 121, in Cross River.
Don’t you just love the standard
seven-day weather forecast in the
summer months; a cloud, a sun and a
thunder bolt…see you next week.
calendar
News and Notes From Northern Westchester
By Mark Jeffers
I can’t believe we are
already half way through
the year; soon there
will be trick or treaters,
turkeys and Santa Claus
coming to our house. I better stop
thinking and start writing this week’s
“Time flies when you are having fun”
edition of “News & Notes.”
The Westchester Land Trust
is seeking volunteers to assist in the
planting and harvesting of crops to
support the Food Bank of Westchester.
No experience is necessary to lend a
hand. To volunteer individually or to
schedule a group, contact Kate Sann at
(914) 234-6992 ext. 15.
It’s time to rock on at the 11th annual
Pleasantville Music Festival, Marshall
Crenshaw and a host of musical talent
from all genres will perform on July
11th. This family event also features kids’
activities, food and much more.
The Katonah Museum of Art’s
latest exhibit opens on July 19th and
will feature highlights from the art collection of the William Louis-Dreyfus
Foundation, taking a look at self-taught
artists.
On July 20th tweens & teens can
play games on the XBOX 360, bring
your Magic: The Gathering / Pokémon
/ Yu-Gi-Oh! decks to battle, play board
games, and enjoy snacks at The Field
Library in Peekskill, free of charge and
open to middle and high school age.
Butterflies are back; thank
goodness…fly to the Greenburgh
Nature Center in Scarsdale through
Sunday August 2nd to walk among the
Butterflies in the newly renovated native
plant meadow. Open daily 10am to 3pm
except Friday’s when the center is closed.
All you movie and toy fanatics
will want to attend a screening of “The
Lego Movie” to kick off the “Entergy
Screenings under the Stars” free
outdoor movie series on Friday, July
10th at Kensico Dam Plaza in Valhalla.
The event is presented by Westchester
County Parks.
The Boys & Girls Club of Northern
Westchester announced its selection of
Erik Kaeyer as president for a two-year
term beginning July 1, good luck Erik…
If you are a railroad fan like my
brother-in-law Ken then you will
not want to miss the new exhibit at
the Bedford Hills Railroad station.
The Bedford Hills Historical Society
presents “All Aboard,” tracing the
FLEETWOOD
THE ROMA BUILDING
RENOVATED APARTMENTS FOR RENT
Prime Yorktown Location
Beautiful, Newly Renovated Apartments
COMMERICAL SPACE FOR RENT
Great Visibility • Centrally Located
STORE
950 Sq. Ft. Rent: $3250 /Month
OFFICE SPACE:
470 Sq. Ft. Rent $850/Month • 1160 Sq. Ft. Rent $1650/ Month
914.632.1230
2022 SAW MILL RIVER RD., YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, NY
1 Bedrooms Starting at $1400/month • Studios Starting at $1200/month
Brand New Kitchens, Living Rooms & Bathrooms • Granite Counter Tops • Laundry On-Site
New Cabinets, Stoves & Refrigerators, Credit Check Required
Elevator Building • 1 Block from MetroNorth Fleetwood Station • Monthly Parking Nearby
Available Immediately Call Management Office for details:
914.632.1230
80 West Grand Street, Fleetwood
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, JULY 9, 2015
Page 15
CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
Remake, Remix, Rip-Off
Sherif Awad
The art of cinematography has fascinated many
great directors since their
youth, exactly as we have
seen in the classic film,
Cinema Paradiso (1998) by the Italian
director Giuseppe Tornatore. In this film,
narrated by Tornatore, we learn the story
of one great Italian director returning to
the small Sicilian village where he grew
up, to re-discover his childhood love
of watching movies at the little theatre
there, an experience that inspired him to
become a filmmaker. An occasion of art
imitating his life, Tornatore echoed this
theme in two later films, Malena (2000)
and Baaria (2009).
The
Turkish
director Cem Kaya
might have a background similar that of
Tornatore and the plot
of Cinema Paradiso but
Kaya chose, instead, to
make a documentary
about the films that
Director Cem influenced him rather
than providing an
Kaya
autobiographical film
about his own life. Kaya
moved to Germany with his parents
when he was a child and grew up
watching Turkish films on VHS tapes
rented from video clubs that were often
set in a corner inside Turkish grocery
stores throughout German cities.
Kaya later became a film editor and
then the director of the Remake Remix
Rip-Off documentary that shows how
Turkish films made in the sixties and
seventies of the last century lacked logical
plots and technical aspects. Extreme
violence or exaggerated melodrama characterized these Turkish films, mindlessly
and laughably imitating American films
of the era. Kaya kept on seeing more
and more of these films, called Yesilcam
Cinema, after a street by the same name
located at Beyoglu district of the Turkish
The Turkish Exorcist
capital Istanbul. Filmmakers and stars of
the era use to live on Yesilcam and this is
where Kaya went to meet dozens of them
for the interviews of his documentary.
Using a quick editing style, navigating between the current interviews
and bits and pieces from footage of
the films, Kaya explains how Yesilcam
Cinema lacked the budget to create
innovative scripts and this drove its directors and screenwriters to remake films
from all over the world. So viewers were
exposed to Turkish versions of Tarzan,
Dracula, The Wizard of Oz, The Exorcist,
Rambo, Superman, Star Wars, James Bond,
Flash Gordon, Zorro and many others,
readapted to suit local audience across
rural Anatolia districts.
The proliferation of television in
Turkey in the mid-seventies along with
the weak financial and structural aspects
of these films brought the Yesilcam genre
to an end. At that time, there was no film
institute in Turkey, no laboratories for
processing and printing of films and no
production values or equipment. All the
directors and scriptwriters did was meet
the demands of the public by recycling
the same stories over and over again.
Plots such as the poor young man who
falls in love with rich girl, the story of two
brothers separated at birth or the rural
Get Part 4
countryside boy who comes to big city
proliferated. The directors of Yesilcam
also benefited from the lack of copyright
laws, ripping off story lines and music
soundtracks.
Among the film interviewees,Turkish
director Cetin Inanc appears and describes
how he helmed his sci-fi Turkish movie
The Man Who Saved the World (1982) with
action star of the era Cuneyt Arkin. Inanc
did not have enough money to create the
visual effects for a film that mixed the plots
of Star Wars and Flash Gordon.So what did
he do? He bribed a film theater clerk to
“lend” him the copy of Star Wars, playing
locally and sliced some scenes featuring
spaceships to add to his own film. Inanc,
who is quite funny, then explains how he
was invited to Columbia University in
New York to talk about this film in particular in front of hundreds of students
of cinema who were eagerly asking him
about his filmmaking process. The young
enthusiastic students thought his film was
a work of a genius.
Yesilcam Cinema began disappearing when American films started
to dominate Turkish theaters during
the early eighties but was saved in its
last days when its directors started to
produce some musical films starring
older singers, a subgenre that was nicknamed “Arabesque Drama.” During the
following years, many new laws for copyright and syndication were implemented
while new generations of filmmakers
were born, who eventually presented
new cinematic trends and more mature
films. However, due the absence of an
underlying strong production structure
and sound archival procedures within
the Yesilcam Industry, many film positives and negatives were lost for various
reasons whether poor storage or bad
accidents. The rest were sold in quantities to several German companies for
redistribution.
Cem Kaya spent seven years making
this film, in the process meeting dozens
of Yeslicam directors and film stars of
Yesilcam to synthesize them into his
valuable and quite funny documentary,
Remake, Remix, Rip-Off.
Born in Cairo, Egypt, Sherif Awad is
a film/video critic and curator. He is the
film editor of Egypt Today Magazine
(www.EgyptToday.com) and the
Artistic Director for both the Alexandria
film Festival , and the Arab Rotterdam
Festival in The Netherlands. He also contributes to Variety, in the United States and
is the Film Critic of Variety, Arabia (http://
amalmasryalyoum.com/ennode189132
and The Westchester Guardian: www.
WestchesterGuardian.com
Open 10AM - 8PM Mon-Sat.
Juice Bar • Smoothies • Salads
Paninis • Rice Bowls
Dine In -Take-Out • Dobbs Ferry Delivery
914.479.5555
MIXONMAINNY.com
63 MAIN ST., DOBBS FERRY, NY
Page 16
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, JULY 9, 2015
MARY AT THE MOVIES
Movie Review: Max
Max is the story of a canine warrior
–a Malinois German Shepherd, who did
a tour in Afghanistan, sniffing out bombs
for American troops. In this interest of
complete disclosure, I must caution you
that my family has had two German
Shepherds and I love them for their
beauty and their intelligence.
The Wincotts are a patriotic, heartland two-generation military family
whose oldest son, Kyle, is in Afghanistan.
Justin, their younger son, is a fairly selfinvolved teenager with serious gaming
skills. Most things are going right for the
Wincotts until the day a military honor
guard shows up at their door to offer their
condolences upon the death of Kyle, who
was killed in action.
Kyle was Max’s handler and Max has
been taken out of action due to PTSD.
He will not let anyone but Justin get near
to him as he slowly learns how to become
integrated back into the community. The
intrepid Max reads human personalities
pretty well, a skill that the family comes to
appreciate over the course of the movie.
As the story develops, Justin and his
friends uncover a crime ring that threatens the lives of their families.
Max pretty much spends most of
Josh Wiggin as Justin Wincott with
MAX Photo © by and Courtesy of
Warner Bros. Pictures
(L-R) ROBBIE AMELL as Kyle
Wincott with MAX. Photo © by and
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
July and August Summer Specials
WWW.WESTCHESTERGUARDIAN.COM
(L-r) Thomas Haden Churchas Ray
Wincott, Lauren Grahamas Pamela
Wincott, Josh Wiggin as Justin Wincott and
Jay Hernandez as Sergeant Reyes. Photo
© by and Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
this movie trying to stay off death row.
The storyline of a family coping with
the loss of their loved one in war is one
that sadly, will resonate with too many
American families, however, the writing
is uneven though the actors are very
talented. (Don’t let your kids do stunts like
these on their bikes!) Carmen (Mia Xitlali),
a smart-mouthed Mexican teen who is
infatuated with Justin, tends to have the
best lines in this action-drama, while
the mother, played by Lauren Graham,
has lines that just don’t sound real. The
writers do a somewhat better job with
the other characters. Justin is not initially
very likeable, although he does grow over
the course of the movie and he needs a
surprising amount of encouragement to
bond with his dead brother’s dog. Who
couldn’t love this dog on sight?
Screenplay by Sheldon Lettich
and Boaz Yatkin. Directed by Boaz
Yatkin. Produced by Karen Rosenfelt.
Distributed by Warner Brothers. MPAA
Rating PG for action violence, peril, brief
language and some thematic elements.