Title Search

“BE GREENE WITH ENVY” is the title of an article (by Amy Lubinski) in the latest Chronogram magazine. It is billed as the first in a six-part series on GreeneLand.

“FROM FARMHOUSE TO FABULOUS” is the title of the cover story in the Life-Home section of the TimesUnion last Saturday (10/4). It’s all about an early-nineteenth century riverside home that has undergone a lavish transformation as designed by architect Scott Wallant for summer residents Richard and Jean Bassin. They call the place Bassinova.

“DIANE KEATON: The Actress’s Passion for Art and Design Are On Display in Her Beverly Hills Residence” is the title of the cover story in the current (“November”; “Hollywood at Home”) issue of Architectural Digest, with many pictures featuring interiors of the lady’s Spanish Colonial Revival mansion in Beverly Hills, as designed by GreeneLand’s Stephen Shadley. “Stephen is a fantastic collaborator,” says Ms Keaton, “and he…makes people feel good about what they’re doing to their homes.”

“WOODY ALLEN: On New York’s Upper East Side, An Old World Feel for the Writer and Director” is the title of another article in the current A.D., with lots of pictures of interiors as designed by—who else?—Stephen Shadley, who “was introduced to Allen by their mutual friend Diane Keaton.”

PRINCESS TEA PARTIES is the title of an incipient book by GreeneLander Janeen (“Cooking With Class”) Sarlin. Targeted for girls aged 4 through 10, it offers guidance on decorations, costumes, crafts, food, and beverages suitable for specially themed tea parties: African Princess, Lotus Princess, Cowgirl Princess, Indian Princess, and so on. Publication by Chronicle Books of San Francisco is set for June 2009.

“PRESIDENT of the New York State Magistrates Association” is the official title acquired recently by GreeneLander Richard Roberg. As reported in The Daily Mail (10/5/08), the association represents the State’s part-time Town and Village judges, in whose company, in Coxsackie, since 1981, Judge Roberg has belonged. He also is a retired teacher of high school mathematics.

BAILOUT FALLOUT. GreeneLand’s U.S. Representative, Kirsten Gillibrand, voted Nay on the so-called “bailout” bill last Monday (9/29), and she voted Nay again on Friday’s revised version. So did neighboring Ulster County’s Representative, Maurice Hinchey. They accordingly did not join the 58 Representatives--33 Democrats ( including 13 members of the Congressional Black Caucus), 25 Republicans—who switched from Nay to Yea.

------On both occasions, Ms Gillibrand and Mr Hinchey parted company with the Hudson region’s other Representatives (Mike McNulty, Eliot Engel, Nita Lowey, John Hall), and from all but one of the 22 other Democrats in the 29-member New York State delegation. On both occasions, too, they bucked the recommendations of the Bush Administration, their Congressional leaders, their home State’s U.S. Senators (Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer), and their presidential nominee (Barack Obama).

-------Ms Gillibrand’s votes were not assailed by her electoral challenger. In successive statements the Republican candidate in the 20th district, Sandy Treadwell, said he would have voted against the revised “bailout” bill as well as the original, which “should have been tossed out completely.”--

-------In a Press release, Ms Gillibrand characterized the original version of the bill as “not the right approach” to economic rescue; it “has insufficient oversight and protections and does not address the root causes of the crisis or the poor economy.” She later said that the revised version still was “fundamentally flawed.” She did not identify what provisions would have made the bill acceptable to her. She did not post her statements on her web site.-------

-------Mr Hinchey did post his comments, saying the bailout bills did not do enough in the way of “real regulation” of financial markets and of job-promoting direct “economic stimulus” provisions.

-------Congressional voting on the bills exhibited odd alignments. Staunch opposition came from reputed arch-“conservatives” such as Senators Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts of Kansas and James Inhofe of Oklahoma, as well as from former Republican Representatives Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay. At the same time, some of the steadfast opponents were reputedly arch-“liberals” such as Senators Russ Feingold (Wisconsin) and Bernie Sanders (Vermont) and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio).

-------David Brooks, a New York Times op-ed columnist who is usually classified as a centrist conservative, stigmatized the 228 Representatives who voted Nay on Monday as adherents of a “revolt of the nihilists. They showed the world how much they detest their own leaders and the collected expertise of the Treasury and Fed.”

FIGURING.

532 = cost in cents to post a message by certified mail (return receipt required), even if it only travels a half-mile and is part of a bundle of messages to nearby addresses.

66 = number of addressees of a certified mail message that went out from Catskill post office in early September. The message notified recipients that a meeting of the Catskill Village Zoning Board of Appeals would be held on September 15th at the Washington Irving Senior Center, in the matter of variances sought for the Union Mills Lofts project on Water Street.

35112 cents=cost of that mailing, billed to variance applicant.

500 = number of feet from Union Mills site defining outside limit of eligibility to receive notice of Planning Board hearing on variances. (In other words, all owners of properties located within 500 feet of subject site shall by law receive such notices).

0 = number of addressees who came to the hearing.

66=number of addressees to whom certified mail notices were sent again, at $5.32 apiece, following the no-turnout meeting. The notices announced a second ZBA hearing on Union Mills matters, on October 1.

0=number of neighbors who attended the October 1 meeting.

“DEVELOPER’S SELLOUT.” Twenty condominium units of the Catskill Creek development are going up for auction. Three- and four-bedroom dwellings, originally priced in the range of $280,000 to $480,000, will be offered for bid on November 1st at the Teaneck NJ Marriott Hotel by SheldonGood & Co, whose publicity touts a “fabulous auction event” offering a“truly unique opportunity” to achieve “affordable access” to “the vacation mecca of the Hudson Valley” and to “the wondrous Catskill community.” Eight units, ranging in size from 1600 to 1900 square feet, will be offered without reserve price. Successful bidders must pay the auctioneer a fee (euphemistically called a buyer’s premium) amounting to 10 per cent fee of the sale price. They also become responsible for condo fees of $247 per month. The units, located off the south end of Main Street in Catskill, will be open for inspection on weekends before the auction date.

THE B.I.G. CAMPAIGN is under way. Visitors to Catskill Point for Saturday’s farmers’ and artisans’ market, plus the spicy Chili Cook-Off, were welcomed by county legislator Karen Deyo with gifts of special “Think BIG” shopping bags touting the Buy In Greene campaign. The idea is eminently worthy of support. But when locally baked bread is priced at the market at $5.75 per loaf, and big cookies (such as chocolatey “Chip Van Winkles”) at $2 and $2.50, and tamales at $4 apiece, and apple pies at $20, and so on, it’s not easy being Greene.