Names & Stuff

TIN & SKIN is name of design business run out of 8055 Route 9W by Kipp Gertz. What they do there is (i) customize motorcycle bodies (hence the tin) and (ii) tattoo human bodies (skin). Well, they don’t do both things. Kipp and Steve Ramos do bikes, while Jody Putman and Jim Kane do people. (943-6588). But beware of commissioning verbal tattoos. Somebody there misspells outrageous and treats plural of tattoo as tattoo’s. HOME SWEET HOME ON THE HUDSON has succeeded St Joseph’s Villa as name of riverside nursing home on Prospect Avenue, Catskill. Business under new ownership has not been brisk. RECUPERATING: John Huszar, program director (formally speaking) of Catskill Public Library; from quintuple bypass surgery. Officially he’s on leave of absence, but is not expected back. The leave was not prompted by medical imperatives. . Though much esteemed by patrons (and by Friends, the support group) John did not have support of Board members or his boss. He’s one of four employees who, in past year, have been pushed out. SPRING CLEANING is apt title of Arts Council show that opened Saturday (5/7) at 398 Main Street gallery in Catskill. On show are found objects--stray bits, junk—transmuted into objets d’art by clever people, including McDowell Bryson, Maj Kalfus, Laura Jackett, and Arthur Tieger. HEART OF A HEROINE is what GreeneLand’s Brahma Kumaris Center calls forthcoming (May 13-15) “experiential weekend retreat for women” ([518]589-5000; www.peacevillage.com). “Discover how spiritual awareness can improve the quality of your life and enable you to become the heroine in your own life story.” THE BRONX is called The Bronx because that island borough of New York City was settled and farmed earliest by members of GreeneLand’s first family, the Broncks. That’s one of many things visitors learn here when they tour the restored, County Historical Society-maintained Bronck House. PUZZLEMENT. He’s not father of school kids. Did not attend public school. Acquired bare minimum of higher education. Has not taken part in school-related functions or in education issues. So why is Mike Battaglino running, again, for election (May 17th) to Board of Catskill Central School District? Could it be just that Board President Jim Garafalo wants another ally in his drive to control janitorial personnel matters? BOULEVARD AVENUE is actual name of a GreeneLand thoroughfare. If same redundancy-prone nominator is still around, we’ll be driving soon on Alley Lane, Road Street, Highway Way. MISNOMER DEPT. Page one Daily Mail story of 4/26/05 carries headline “Panel refutes firemen’s charges.” But text only reports rejoinders or rebuttals. To refute is to disprove or otherwise discredit. No basis for this judgment is laid in article. HOBO’S JOURNEY, Music For An Exorcism, Machine to Transform Illegal Aliens to Legal, Voice of a Tree, Mask to Scare Homophobia, Diskette With Master Plan of the Universe, and Totem Against Lesophobia are names of objects on display at Open Studio since April 16th opening. But you need to see the pieces (402 Main St, Catskill; catskillstudio@aol.com) in order to appreciate the wit. CLOVE as name for topographic feature seems to be a Catskills-only usage. It’s not recognized in Webster’s or O.E.D. That’s surprising in view of popularity of Kaaterskill Clove as subject for top American artists of 19th century. Maybe our Kaaterskill, Stony and Plattekill are world’s only geological, inedible cloves. In his splendid book The Kaaterskille Clove (2004), Raymond Beecher makes free use of that noun without pausing to define. By picture and usage, of course, he shows kinship of clove with gorge, ravine, arroyo, defile, gulch, gully…. GROSSMAN could be name of gent who might have been nabbed years ago in what could have been vice raid. He could have been caught because he tried to escape by a window. He could have been caught there because he got stuck. He could have gotten stuck because his body was, uh, gross. WEIRD SIGHTS. Firefighters (from Hudson and Athens, as well as Catskill) emerging from a house (such as 103 Bridge St, Catskill), shedding heavy gear, taking a swig of water, then lighting cigarettes. TIFANIE SONDAK topped Current Events competition at Greenville Central Middle School recently, just ahead of Jonah Coe-Scharff, Ross Bentley and Cordelia Kenney. But Tifanie was NOT rewarded with pen and pencil set, ostensibly made in USA, that included this Usage guidance: “Dipping pen point into ink, circumgyrating sopping up instrument for ink and revolving penholder tight.” RED RUMOR holds that quartet of erstwhile student radicals, now superannuated and no longer able to afford Berkeley or Woodstock living, will move to Tannersville and establish new headquarters of Peoples Uprising. Bakery.