Hot Stuff & Cold

HOT STUFF. Our blog about the Dushane v. CCSD lawsuit generated a firestorm of comebacks, which are still igniting. If you can stand the heat, scroll down to our 10/25 entry The Secret Lawsuit. If the comments are not immediately visible, click on the word Commentary at the bottom of the text.

IMMINENT *Tonight+: Festival of Trees. Fortnightly Club’s annual event, this one dubbed “A Nautical Christmas” and held at Elks Lodge, 45 N. Jefferson Avenue, Catskill. Opening gala from 7 pm. ($25 per person, tickets required in advance). Continuing Saturday and Sunday, daytime ($3 admission). Information: 943-2044, 943-5616 or 943-6242. *Tonight+. ”Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” at Catskill Mountain Foundation’s movie theater in Hunter, from 8 pm. Also Saturday and Sunday night, and Sunday at 3. *Saturday & Sunday. "Chilly Willy" tours of Bronck family houses near Coxsackie, by Historical Society members, with tales about living in GreeneLand in the 1600's. Info: 731-6490. *Saturday from 6 pm.: “No Place Like Home” exhibition (“Petals, Photograms, Photographs…”) opens at BRIK Gallery, 473 Main St, Catskill. Runs to December 4. *Saturday, from 5 pm: Opening of exhibition of works by Gabe Brown and John Lippert at Wilder Gallery, 375 Main St, Catskill. Information: wilderstudios@msn.com; 578-3464.

BUSTED, for stealing $6586 from her dentist employer: former receptionist Christine Maddaloni, 39, of High Hill Road, Catskill. Her method consisted of accepting cash payments made by patients of Drs Catalano, Liefer & Bruno, recording the payments, then erasing the entries. She was caught and made a partial confession after, among other things, patients complained of being billed for payments they’d already made. Faced with a 49-count indictment for grand larceny and falsifying business records, she entered a plea of guilty to GL and is due on November 22d for sentencing by judge Daniel Lalor to a prison term of 3.5-7 years. The impending sentence comes in the wake of prior convictions for similar offenses.

BULLY RATES. The incidence of domestic violence in GreeneLand evidently is growing. According to Barbara Palmateer of Community Action, new cases handled by the Domestic Violence program during this year’s first nine months matched the load handled all of last year. And of course, the frequency of assaults against women and children is far greater than what gets reported. Have a nice day.

NEW CHEF at Stewart House, Jeffrey E. Marquise, 46, was not a student at the highly esteemed Culinary Institute of America. He taught there.

DAILY MAUL. “…brought down the house Saturday night performing at the Historic Catskill Point Saturday.” “…Rick Surrano has been chosen by the Athens Republican Committee to run for town supervisor in the November election two-term incumbent Albert Salvino” (8/24). “Every library in the county will be received some assistance, Seward noted” (11/2). “According to Ulscht, economic development is what is needed to bring tax relief and that a lack of business means higher taxes for residents” (11/4). 2=number of articles, in addition to the Calendar of Events, published Oct. 31 on the “Greene County” page. 0=number of articles on that page that pertained to Greene County. 4=number of articles appearing on 11/6 the “Neighbors” page. 0=number of articles that were not about Greene County. 7=number of articles on Monday (11/10) “Neighbors” page. 1=number of articles not about Greene County. 3=articles on Nov. 9th “Greene County” page. 0=articles about Greene County (while on “Neighbors” page, all 7 articles pertained to Greene County).

MYSTERY SOLVED. Among oddities in the late GreeneLand elections was a billboard facing eastbound motorists at the fork in Catskill of West Bridge Street and Route 9W. The billboard urged voters to elect Louis O’Connor to the Town Board and not Robert Antonelli. But O’Connor and Antonelli are fellow Republicans, they are pals, and they were standing for two vacant seats on the Board. The third candidate on the ballot, Evan Ulscht, is a Democrat and is not part of The Club. The key to solving the mystery is Sol Ferro, who paid for the billboard. He has a grudge against Antonelli.

RHETORIC DISSECTED. Also noteworthy about that billboard are the terms of Mr Ferro’s pitch. Preceding his endorsement of Mr O’Connor were three questions: “Are you sick of high taxes? Are you sick of being told how to live? Are you sick of being told what to do with your property?” Invited by those questions, in the context of a Town Council contest, is belief that electing the endorsed candidate will bring about, or will increase substantially the prospects of, cuts in taxes and in regulation. Invited too are inferences that your taxes are high, that you ought to be sick of same, that you are incessantly being thwarted, that you ought to be sick of same, that the pushing and prodding emanate from governmental agencies such as the Town Council, and that (consequently?) the election of O’Connor would alleviate the illness. With regard to property, the suggestion then must be that you have been bugged by regulatory constraints, that you should be sick of same, and that the election of O’Connor would be a liberating event. For sophisticated respondents, moreover, the message would be, specifically, that O’Connor would free you from the shackles of planning, zoning, permits and inspections. The blather was Ferro's, not O'Connors.

“DEAR KIWANIS. Thank you for the dictionary… It has all the words I need.” “I like using it for hard words.” “It is very usfull for our whole entire class!” “I can’t wait to meet the whole Kiwanis club. You help us get what we need. I really corrected correcting on this paper.” “They work really good. I like to use my dictionary because they have a lot of words in my dictionary.” “I’ll also use it for I think isn’t right.” “We also have been using them for when we don’t know to spell a really hard word.” “We like the realy much.” “Thanck you for the dictionary’s. I you’s mine for vocabulary. I you’s mine for spelling words correctly… “ “I’ve used it for reading and for looking up words I don’t know.” “I like to use it for when I don’t know how to spell a wourd.” “When we use them we use them with care.” “Dictionarys make you smart.” “They really come in handy! You are very nice to children. I just want to tell you.” “You are my favorite one who would give us dictionarys to the whole school. Please visit us another time.” “P.S. Thank you for coming all the way just to give us a dictionary.” ---from Abagail, Ada, Austin, Caden, Caitlin, Chase, Connor, David, Deborah, Glage, Joey, Kenneth, Megan, Meghan, Mike, Rachel, Seaver, Stephanie,Tyler and Victoria, of Mrs Brown’s 3d grade at Coxsackie Elementary School.