Friday, April 25, 2008

Greene Sweep

RECENTLY, according to Press reports and other sources: The body of Joshua Szostak, a college student who been missing since December after a party in Albany, washed up near Coxsackie Boat Launch. Windham’s Chamber Music Festival and its VFW post received grants from the Legacy Banks Foundation. Ray Rivera, co-manager of Wal-Mart’s Catskill Commons outlet, was feted, at a Second Baptist Church event, for services to the community. Earth Day (4/19) was observed in New Baltimore by means of a Conservancy-organized Hudson shoreline cleanup party; in Acra by means of a three-hour program, at Cornell Co-operative Extension’s Agroforestry Resources Center, on living in GreeneLand more greenishly; and in a Dick Nelson newspaper column opining that “Between air pollution, acid rain, high levels of mercury and PCB’s in fish, viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS), Chronic Wasting Disease, oil spills, global warming and our troops fighting a war in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s a wonder there is anything left.” So “go out and enjoy” the day. At the Athens Cultural Center, for the Greene County Camera Club, Fawn Potash adumbrated “Art and Work.” A State Department of Transportation traffic engineer warned that completion of the giant Walgreen’s store at the Grandview Avenue/Central Avenue/West Bridge Street intersection, will likely bring—or add to—automotive gridlock. Cairovians celebrated, on April 6th, the 200th birthday of their town’s name change; from Canton. (Why? Didn’t they speak Cantonese?). Meanwhile, stores in downtown Cairo were hit by break-ins, and the fighting feuding Cairo firefighters carried on. Sgt Rick Jacobs completed 25 years of service with Catskill’s police department, and made big travel plans, but first gets to be the centerpiece, at Anthony’s Restaurant next Saturday, of a retirement roast. In an article in the professionally eminent Journal of Cosmetic Dentistry, Dr Theodore Belfor dilated on the efficacy of his Homeoblock device, as compared with the hyaluronic acid injection approach, in achieving adult facial augmentation. (So: If I am disfigured before the treatment, what am I afterward: refigured? figured? eufigured?). GreeneLand artist Tim Watkins, creator of wondrous facilities for bestowing active esthetic experiences on children, has been relieved surgically of a big (6 inches across), fat (6 pounds), squishy, gut-crowding, non-cancerous tumor. The Catskillians-only brush dump reopened, for use only on Saturdays; according to a print advertisement it is located on “Five Mile Toad.” Second-graders at Arthur Elementary School in Athens completed a science project that started last October, with fish eggs and water tanks and nutrients in their classroom: into Kaaterskill Creek they dumped 225 brown trout.

PURRING along splendidly is the accumulation of creations for Catskill’s second Cat ‘n Around show. Last year’s artists did not exhaust the stock of imagination and word play. Among already-delivered felines are Bror Karlsson’s “Aviator Cat” (biplanes, Fokkers, Spitfires…); “Postal Kitty,” coated with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of cancelled stamps from all over, by Hizzoner, Daniel Lalor; “Catfish,”” by Stephanie Lopez (daughter of State Assemblyman Peter L.), destined to grace the sidewalk in front of the new West Bridge Street store called—of course--Fish & Friends; and a piece by N.J. Wheelock, whose 100 hours of work at gluing 106,000 bugle bees and then applying 18 coats of glaze brought forth a glowing, glittering “Starry Night in Catskill” that, we venture to predict, will challenge last year’s auction record of $4600.

SHORT-HANDED: GreeneLand’s chief public defender, Dominic J. Cornelius. His recently sidekick, Joseph Meaney, has gone back to Albany, whence he came. Mr Meaney, who was well regarded here, has joined the Public Defender’s office there, for a boost in salary and a shorter commute. He had joined the PD office here in January, as the first authorized full-time assistant. For now, Mr Cornelius can only share the work with three part-timers.

THIS WEEKEND, as depicted in the Daily Mail’s “Calendar,” the only noteworthy local Saturday event is an afternoon Social Delight hosted by Cairo-Durham High School juniors. Other sources, including www.welcometocatskill.com, call attention to the “Seussical” that will be performed tonight, tomorrow night, and Sunday afternoon at Catskill High School. And tomorrow morning, starting at 8 o’clock, Catskillians (in particular) are invited to gather at the Village Hall (422 Main Street) for doughnuts, coffee, and the distribution of equipment for commencing a downtown Clean Sweep program. That exercise would be the perfect lead-in (with messy work clothes being a badge of honor) to the Wine & Cheese festival commences at 1pm at Beattie-Powers House in Catskill. Hosted by the Fortnightly Club in support of Village Parks, that event offers treats contributed by 16 providers plus live music by the lively luscious Lex Grey and ace piano player Albert Garzon. $22 per person, or $20 if you buy in advance at Hood & Co. That experience in turn could whet one’s appetite for the Sunday “Food and Wine Pairing” (=super dining and drinking) at Bell’s CafĂ© & Bistro in Catskill, in collaboration with Hudson wine merchants, from 4pm. The menu is stunning. The blurb says “70$” per person. 943-4070. bellscafebistro@aol.com

Those experiences could make some of us fogies ready for a Tuesday program at the Washington Irving Senior Senter, where Hollie Gray (New York Alzheimer’s Association) will dispense advice on the subject “Maintain Your Brain.”

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