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2013
DECEMBER In ThIs Issue
sTaFF
The eXcerPT p.12
edIT christopher Twarowski
I Killed Breitbart...And Countless Other Causes of Conservative Consternation By Chris Faraone, DIG Boston News & Features Editor
Editor in ChiEf/ChiEf of invEstigations
spencer rumsey sEnior Editor
Timothy Bolger Managing Editor
rashed mian
The PorTraIT p.14
staff WritEr
Jaime Franchi
Daisy Khan: Knocking Out Stereotypes By Rashed Mian
“They had their tentacles everywhere.” InVesTIgaTIons p.16
Lufthansa Heist: After 35 Years, A Nassau Investigator Breaks His Silence By Shelly Feuer Domash
staff WritEr
Contributors:
anna dinger, shelly Feuer domash, Peter Tannen
44
arT Jon sasala art dirECtor
Jon chim
graphiC artist
Jim Lennon
Contributing photographEr
dIgITaL mike conforti
dirECtor of nEW MEdia
JusT sayIn’ p.24
The Ignorance of the Common Man. Like Me. By Peter Tannen
“YOU’VE AWOKEN THE MOMMIES, YOU’RE IN TROUBLE.” news FeaTure p.26
We Don’t Need No Education: L.I. Parents & Teachers Revolt Against Common Core By Jaime Franchi rear VIew p.36
Robert Moses: The Last Master Builder By Spencer Rumsey
40
arT & souL p.40
Winter Wonderwalls By Spencer Rumsey 4 corners p.44
Christmas: From Santa to the Bell Ringer By Timothy Bolger hoT PLaTe p.50
Sweetie Pies: L.I.’s Bakeries Heat Up for Holiday Suger Rush By Rashed Mian LeTTers p.6 sound smarT p.8 eXPress p.10
sTaFF PIcks p.46 eVenTs p.54 crosswords p.62
connecT
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ReadeRs React Reade Here’s w wH Hat H at you H Had to say... every one of the reTweeters should be disciplined [“bay Shore Teen Accused of School Shooting Threat,” Nov. 7]. When you sign your name to a statement, whether 140 characters or more, you are just as guilty of spreading a threat as the original asshole is. Larry Fox Knee-jerk reaction by #Suffolk to take from fund highlights the need for sustainable fiscal practices at the county level [“Advocates to Sue Suffolk Over Tapping environmental Fund,” Nov. 14]. @TheFoggiestIdea
For over half of a century, we’ve been fighting on behalf of Long Island’s working men and women for better pay, benefits, and working conditions.
. It is
ers
both candidates; however, mangano and Suozzi are both responsible for the huge deficits in this county. Sadly, neither candidate is proposing a solution, which is why I have a feeling that NIFA will be here for quite a while. As a 20-year county employee, I can tell you there are no more “cushy county jobs.” every pay week I hold my breath because I am sure one of these days I am going to be told there is no more money to pay me. my pay was frozen by mangano, lagged by Suozzi. Karen Brandon
There’s no way gun control would have stopped colin Ferguson [“LIrr massacre Film resurrects Horror, Hope & Familiar Questions,” November issue]. His goal was simple: to kill whites, and nothing short of being arrested beforehand would have stopped him. A mind like Ferguson’s could have come up with far deadlier alternatives. Jim Collins
dear Jed morey: recently I was reading the Long Island Press in the bay Shore-brightwaters Public Library and I want to tell you that I found the excerpt from your book very interesting [“The Great American disconnect,” Off the reservation, October issue]. Perhaps the library will make the book available. I will request it. Thank you for giving us something of substance. Marilyn Price
This is some article [“Hoisting Atrophy in the Nassau county executive’s race,” Off The reservation, November issue]. It is refreshing to see someone calling out
Thank you for raising awareness. It is so greatly appreciated #PlayForThePhillipines [“Long Islanders Send Aid to Typhoon Victims in Phillipines,” Nov. 19]. @keenabby
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Oxford University Press named
seLFIe its 2013 word of the year. The publication’s WOTY for 2012 was “GIF,” given the number of short videos that dominated social media. On a related note, Huffington Post named “sideboob” its 2012 word of the year. Stay classy, Arianna.
suPersonIc sanTa
You don’t believe that Santa claus can deliver presents to boys and girls all over the world in one night? According to the U.S. department of energy’s “Fermilab,” if Santa’s sleigh travelled at 99.999999 percent of the speed of light, he could visit 800 million houses over the entire surface area of the earth in 34 hours. That’s totally doable.
ralphie’s so money he doesn’t even know it. Peter billingsley, who played ralphie in A Christmas Story, is now a producer (Iron Man and The Break Up) often working with his close friends Vince Vaugh and John Favreau. If you thought ming ming the elf from the movie Elf looked familiar, we triple-dog-dare you to look closer: Favreau, its director, assigned the cameo to billingsley.
TrusT your guT
In a study with mice, scientists in california have recently discovered a connection between bacteria that’s secreted in the stomach and effects on the brain. This research could influence how brain disorders like bi-polarity and autism are treated in the future. dr. emeran mayer, a professor of medicine and psychiatry at the University of california, Los Angeles, believes “that our gut microbes affect what goes on in our brains. It opens up a completely new way of looking at brain function and health and disease.” Huh.
Aproximate number of atoms an adult human is made up of
7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 SNOW CONES…YUM!
Nobody Saves You More! 8
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According to the Farmer’s Almanac, snow comes in a variety of colors: yellow, orange, green and even purple. The snow itself is colorless, but dust or algae can give it different hues. Orange snow fell over Siberia in 2007, and pink snow (watermelon snow) covered Krasnodar, russia, in 2010. Watermelon snow is common in mountains, and has a sweet smell and taste. And yellow snow tastes like pineapple. Seriously—try it.
Seven score and 10 years ago, the Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Penn., dismissed President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address as “silly remarks of the president. For the credit of the nation, we are willing that the veil of oblivion shall be dropped over them and that they shall be no more repeated or thought of.” The paper is sorry now and regrets the error.
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aLec BaLdwIn
ParTIaL score The massapequa native draws sympathy when a canadian actress is convicted of stalking him and his wife. Shortly later, he gets fired from his mSNbc gig for allegedly using a gay slur in his latest run-in with a photographer covering the case. Way to make Long Island proud!
sTony Brook unIVersITy
oFF TargeT LI’s largest institute of higher education ranked as
one of America’s Ugliest college campuses—7th ugliest of 15—by Travel & Leisure, a magazine whose editors’ apparent view of universities as relaxing travel destinations explains this bizarre listicle’s origins.
PLane Phones
oFF TargeT The Fcc sparks controversy with a proposal to allow cell phone use on airplanes. Some say it’s long overdue while critics argue it would make flying even more annoying. Here’s a compromise: Allow phones on planes, but only if the
5,000
user calls in an order for better in-flight food delivery. Oh, and as long as they’re not baldwins—they’re not allowed to use the phone. Neither are any editors from Travel & Leisure.
suFFoLk Lawmakers oFF TargeT The Suffolk county Legislature approves raiding nearly $33 million from a drinking Water Protection Program fund established for the sole purpose of ensuring residents’ drinking water is always clean and safe. What
thE latEst dEath toll, WhiCh ContinuEd to CliMb as of prEss tiME, tallYing thE viCtiMs of tYphoon Yolanda, onE of thE largEst storMs in rECordEd historY WhiCh hit thE phillipinEs last Month, folloWing initial EstiMatEs that thE bodY Count Could bE tWiCE as ManY.
The TargeT T upstanding public officials. Glad to see they’ve got constituents’ best interests in mind!
doLan
BuLL’s eye Performing at a recent concert, the Jd & The Straight Shot frontman/ cablevision president & ceO/ mSG chairman James dolan successfully guarantees that
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viktor YanukovYCh CharlEs E. grasslEY MoniCa MartinEz John M. WalkEr, Jr. & JosÉ a. CabranEs & barrington d. parkEr, Jr. arnE dunCan & John b. king, Jr. tEd branCh & bruCE lovElEss CornElius gurlitt Craig rizzo trEY radEl to see why, go to longislandpress.com/pinkslip
rEindEEr gaMEs: four suffolk County men are facing fines for capturing two young deer in Calverton and uploading photos of them partying with the fawns to instagram last month. nYs department of Environmental Conservation officers say the men captured the deer “out of thrill.” (instagram photo)
his flailing New York Knicks will win the following night’s game. Soon thereafter, he disses the Knicks city dancers in an interview with the New York Post and says fans won’t be seeing them much until they learn new routines. Now here’s a ceO who’s got his priorities straight! Perhaps he’ll consider hiring Alec baldwin as new head coach next!?
“We know that many children cried during or after testing, and others vomited or lost control of their bowels or bladders.” —nov. 16 open letter to parents from nine new York state principals warning about Common Core’s effects on students.
news FeaTure p.26
HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Mangano bEats suozzi again
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YOUR TO-DO LIST fOR THIS MONTH
raIse awareness Dec. 1 marks the 25th anniversary of World AIDS Day, the beginning of a month of awareness and reflection among those all across the globe who’ve been affected by this deadly disease. Established by the World Health Organization in 1988, it’s a time for support, a time of raising funds for research, and a time for healing. AIDS has killed more than 25 million. More than 33 million are currently living with the HIV virus. Spread the word. Volunteer at a local nonprofit. Wear a red ribbon in solidarity for all those affected. Help end this disease before it claims yet another life. Together, we can do this.
geT an XBoX o one oX or P Ps4 youTuBe “LIke a roLLIng sTone”
Bob Dylan recently released an interactive video for his classic “Like a Rolling Stone” that pushes the boundaries of the medium and adds a whole new dimension to the tune. The uninitiated may be a tad confused, but the concept is pretty simple. Whenever the channel changes on the video, whether to the Shopping Network, HGTV, or the History Channel, for example, listeners hear Dylan’s track through the actors/broadcasters on TV. Tough to beat the floating cat.
…if you can find them. The new generation video game devices hit stores one week apart from each other last month and immediately sold out. While smartphone and tablet video game apps have grown in popularity, they don’t match Xbox or PS4’s amazing graphics and vast entertainment options. Simply amazing. Good luck!
Christmas Eve marks the 100th anniversary of this brutal tragedy, whereby 74 people at a packed Calumet, Mich., Italian Hall holiday party lost their lives (59 were children) in a stampede when someone yelled, “Fire!” (There was no fire.) Immortalized and inspired by Woody Guthrie, who wrote a song about the disaster, this documentary follows his son Arlo to the town in a quest for answers and features interviews with the last living witnesses. It’s a grim, moving, and important reminder.
Danny, Jules, Joey, and Howie make up the fictional band The Furious Overfalls in Ted Heller’s latest novel West of Babylon—but Long Island is the main character. LI is a place people feel strongly about and the group’s members are no exception. Their first order of business in becoming a rock band the likes of which no one has seen since the Rolling Stones has but one goal: never to end up back on the Island. And in their most successful years, when they are rocking out to stadium-filled crowds, when their groupies have all of their teeth and no visible moles on their faces, each member has a place in the City. But as the country-infused rock of the Seventies is drowned by disco and whatever it was that made up the Eighties, The Furious Overfalls become their worst fear: has-beens. Heller crafts a world in which he imagines a coulda-been Keith Richards who just missed the boat of super-stardom, waking up in his 50s, to a wife, kids, and a house in the godforsaken suburbs of Lawn Guyland. He paints this aging rock band in all of their advanced glory: with creaky hips, Viagra prescriptions and cardiologists. The reader accompanies them on a journey that rivals a trek on the LIRR—from Montauk to Mineola, hitting every bump on the road. —Jaime Franchi
SEE THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION Of SMAUG
The second installment of director Peter Jackson’s vision for the J.R.R. Tolkien masterpiece, Bilbo, Gandalf and the 13 dwarves continue their quest through Middle Earth toward the terrifying fire-breathing ancient dragon Smaug. Edge-ofyour-seat adventure is a guarantee, brought to life by undoubtedly mesmerizing special effects and battle scenes. Will the hobbit and his band of friends defeat the scaly fork-tongued beast or simply become a crispy snack for the giant lizard? Only one way to find out (besides reading the book). It premieres Dec. 13.
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Even if you can’t make the 81st annual lighting celebration on Dec. 4—which is sure to be mobbed by tens of thousands of people, anyway—it’s still worth the trek into Manhattan to marvel at the 45,000 twinkling lights strewn across five miles of electrical wire hanging from the gigantic Norwegian Spruce’s bows. The mammoth Swarovski crystal way up on its top is sure to be glorious, as usual. And there’s also the center’s ice skating rink, too!
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It’s really the best of several worlds—caffeine, cinnamon, ginger, honey, etc.—blending together to bring joy to the tongue, warmth to the belly and myriad revolutions of thought and imagination and miracles to the mind. And why not spread a little physiological joy, any way!? Sip gulp chug slosh that magic elixir around while you can—dunk a candy cane in there, too! You’re welcome!
Why!? A freshly baked, piping hot pie dripping with juicy fruits yet boasting a crispy, flaky crust will not only warm your gut but satisfy your soul. Try your best to cut those slices evenly, but the good ones, as you know, always slide apart, so you’re probably going to have to bare-hand that thing. No worries, winter is upon us, dear friends, so time to bulk up! For some of the great purveyors, check out HOT PLATE on P. 50. To vote for the truly best across Long Island, go to BestOf.LongIslandPress.com. Hurry, though, voting ends Dec. 15!
usher In The new year wITh sTyLe
Enjoy dinner with friends. Party with loved ones. Head into the city. Have a few drinks. Laugh out loud. Go dancing. Throw some confetti. Toot a whistle. Make some noise. Celebrate life! Kiss someone at midnight.
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I Killed Breitbart... E xcErpt
and counTLess oTher causes oF conserVaTIVe consTernaTIon By chrIs Faraone, DIg BoSToN NeWS ANd FeATUreS edITOr
Post-Traumatic Press Syndrome
After visiting Occupy camps across the country in the final four months of 2011, I released a travelogue called 99 Nights with the 99 Percent in March of the following year. My promotional run was rife with rhetorical bloodbaths, one of which was with rightwing firebrand Andrew Breitbart, who died just two days after our spat on conservative radio. Along with tales of my ensuing war with his insanely xenophobic legionnaires, my latest project, I Killed Breitbart, revisits a number of intense confrontations including my violent arrest in Manhattan on the one-year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. Below is an excerpt from a chapter called “Center of Aggression,” some of which takes place on Hempstead Turnpike—outside of the second presidential debate between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama—exactly one month after my run-in with police. ocToBer 17, 2012
Due to limited movement in my crooked arm, I wasn’t supposed to cover the inevitable protests outside of the presidential debate at Hofstra University yesterday. But an emergency summoned me back to my native Long Island, so I skipped out on family responsibilities for about five hours to sample the madness, and to get away from the hospice where my grandmother was slipping away. Harsh reality of life and death aside, it felt good to be home; despite all of the warranted abuse that the Gold Coast gets for harboring shallow guidos, it’s a truly complex and diverse social arena that exposed me to the entire cultural and economic spectrum from a young age. As was made clear in the national debate coverage that obsessed over the wealth out here, outsiders don’t typically understand Long Island. Even their generalizations are misguided. It’s not exclusively for billionaires and Buttafuccos; even stereotypically, the stretch also claims blue collar cats like Billy Joel, and hood legends like the rappers PMD and Prodigy, the latter of whom was raised in the same town where last night’s presidential showdown took place. Even with its little rap fame, though, in the shadow of its glitz and glory, Nassau and Suffolk counties have some of the poorest communities in New York State. Because of those disparate groups, the same Island that’s best known for self-involved shoppers and East Hampton luxury actually turned out a substantial number of anti-establishment demonstrators. Hours before the debate, an excess of
12
200 heads showed up across Hempstead Turnpike from Hofstra, and that was before crews from Occupy the East End and Occupy Long Island arrived flanked by a brigade of Wall Street allies. I was on the ground for less than five minutes when two Nassau cops stopped and frisked a young man with a dark complexion. He was about 50 yards outside of the designated protest zone—not far from where America’s first black president was about to debate—and bothering no one. Officers let the kid go after their search yielded nothing—and after representatives from the New York Civil Liberties Union walked up to scare them. Still, the thought of getting arrested with my arm in such bad repair turned my stomach; for a split second, I felt a heightened pain as if my elbow was warning me to keep safe. In order to gain access to the allotted picket pen, people had to have their bags searched. So while the pink-clad Planned Parenthood parade and a handful of other pro-Obama cheerleaders entered the designated cage, most people who came to hoot and holler rejected the corral, and set up with their grievances about two blocks away, and closer to the main Hofstra entrance. There, the scrum was action-packed, with such magnificent annoyances as Catholics, Tea Partiers, and the Torah Jews against Zionism screaming at each other in a symphony of outrage. Also rolling deep were the cult of long-shot presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche, plus his perennial opponent
Vermin Supreme, and a requisite posse of right-wingers holding placards filled with images of mangled fetuses. In the orgy of agenda items, some of the most fascinating screeds came from a group called Young Evangelicals for Climate Action. They’re not a comedy troupe—I checked—but rather an anomalous sect of college students who live in equal fear of global warming and Jesus. YECA activist Curtis Witek says that, unlike older Evangelicals who think we’re all going to burn, he believes that God is restoring the world. Fine by me. The hardcore conservatives outside of Hofstra were less kind. After berating a group of Sudanese peace workers who were speaking in the designated zone, about two dozen Tea Partiers walked their flags down Hempstead Turnpike to scold passing cars. They shouted loudly for about an hour—overpowering thrice as many Obama boosters on the same corner—until more than 100 Occupiers showed up to piss in their kettle. Frustrated, the Tea Party faction screamed a bit, then fizzled out. Entertaining as they were, the aforementioned spectacles all came secondary to yesterday’s major protest moment—the arrest of Green presidential candidate Jill Stein and her running mate, antipoverty
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activist Cheri Honkala. After being jailed for trying to enter the arena, they were handcuffed in place and left in isolation for hours. As things go with third party candidates, the humiliation of Stein—for nothing more than seeking a fair playing field—hardly registered in the media. In the least, it all made for a relevant metaphor. Not unlike the Hofstra stage, where Barack Obama and Mitt Romney enjoyed a debate without any mention of the Green party or poverty, Long Island is populated by over-groomed douchebags; there are plenty of poor and middle class people here, too, but from the outside looking in, they might as well be invisible.
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Daisy Khan
KnocKing out StErEotypES The shiny red boxing gloves projected on a screen over Daisy Khan’s shoulder definitely didn’t fit her as a young child in Kashmir, India, when her father gave her a life lesson using the oversized mitts as a prop, and they would surely swallow her up now. Yet they forever have a use. Khan, just a toddler at the time, occasionally escapes to that moment in her life, as she did again at a recent event at Long Island University Post, her alma mater. Khan said her father hoped the gloves would resonate years later if his youngest child was ever faced with a foe or a challenge seemingly too daunting to overcome. “Why?” she asked him. “‘Because you were my third daughter, and I never wanted anybody to bully you,’” Khan remembers him telling her. “‘And if anybody was going to try and bully you, I wanted to teach you to defend yourself.’” The elder Khan wasn’t advocating future physical retaliation, she said. Instead, it was his way of empowering his daughter early on. Khan has adopted that lesson and tries to encourage Muslim women in America and in other countries to amplify their voices and become leaders in their own communities. Khan, now 55, is executive director and co-founder of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, a nonprofit organization that she founded with her husband, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. Both became the public faces behind the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque,” a project that stalled after intense pressure from opponents who blasted the plan as insensitive to families of victims who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Khan also launched WISE (Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality), an advocacy group that supports Muslim women across the globe. Khan, invited by LIU Post to speak Nov. 13 as part of its five-weeklong lecture series dubbed “Muslim Journeys,” told the female-dominated crowd that it felt good to be back at the university, which was “pivotal in shaping my world view.” She left India at age 16 and moved in with her uncle, Dr. Faroque Khan, one of the founders
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of Westbury’s Islamic Center of Long Island, in Jericho, and eventually enrolled at LIU, where she signed up for a Farsi class that gave her the opportunity to hang out with the “cool Iranian kids.” Khan took advantage of her LI education and later became a successful architectural designer for several Fortune 500 companies and even admitted to The New York Times in 2010 that she sometimes struggled with her faith during that time, partly due to its suppression of women’s rights. Sept. 11 changed everything. Khan was peppered with the same question that has become all-too familiar for many other Muslims who were suddenly forced to defend their faith: “Why is your religion so violent?” She was inspired to “unearth the truth of Islam,” she told the crowd. In 2006, Khan—“compelled to create a modern-day Muslim women’s suffrage movement,” she said—established WISE, while at the same time advocating for Muslim Americans through interfaith collaboration. “I believe…that by giving voice to women is our best chance to stop them,” she said of extremists. WISE’s official launch came during a conference in Times Square in ’06, which included 150 Muslim women from 25 different countries. “This faith-based activism is continuing with Muslim women today,” she said. “We cannot let the extremists hijack the discourse from us,” Khan added. “Our voices have to be the strongest because we are the strongest in numbers.”
the
Armed with the memory of her father’s boxing gloves, so dear to her heart, she passes their power on.
Portrait
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By Rashed Mian
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the On dec. 11, 1978, nearly $6 milliOn Was stOlen FrOm the luFthansa terminal at JFk airpOrt. it Was then the largest heist in american histOry and the mOney is still missing. aFter 35 years, a nassau investigatOr Breaks his silence. By shelly Feuer dOmash 16
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he masked men
had gone through endless weeks of planning and false starts before arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport in the middle of the night on Dec. 11, 1978. Despite the frigid air they were determined to execute a plan that would net them nearly $6 million—$21 million in today’s dollars— the largest theft of untraceable money in the country. Tonight they would score. A Ford Econoline van pulled into the cargo area of Lufthansa Airlines at 3:12 a.m. Inside were six hooded men, four of whom jumped out and entered the building. As expected, the guard was on his scheduled break. They ran up a flight of stairs, unfettered by security. Meanwhile, the van positioned itself inside a gated area while a late model car, its headlights off, pulled into the terminal parking lot. Tension filled the van, and despite temperatures in the 20s, the two men inside were sweating. They removed their masks to cool down. That was their first mistake. They did not expect to be confronted by two employees, who could now identify them. One witness was beaten and pistol whipped. Bloodied and bruised, the victim would be held up as the example to show other workers what would happen if they did not cooperate. Inside the cargo area, other Lufthansa employees were being threatened with their lives and ordered to lie on the floor. One employee was forced to open the vault and the gang took out cartons of money and jewelry. Just over an hour later, at 4:21 a.m., the robbers ordered their captives not to move for 10 minutes. Outside, the van pulled up and the loot was loaded in. Four men got into the Buick and both vehicles drove off. No one tried to stop them.
the perpetrators—until now. Through thorough police work and natural instincts, he turned a wannabe gangster into a witness whose testimony helped convict Werner.
opEning up: former nassau County police department sgt. bill buckley shares details of his involvement trying to crack the infamous lufthansa heist after 35 years of silence.
What happened that night, 35 years ago this month, is a story that spawned books and movies. Despite the media attention and teams of law enforcement agents investigating the case, a dark mystery still surrounds that night. So do the unsolved murders left in its wake. All those involved with the robbery who knew where the stolen money went are believed to have taken that knowledge to the grave, because they’ve either been found brutally murdered or been reported missing. Parnell “Stacks” Edwards, who was supposed to get rid of the van but instead went to his girlfriend’s house, was the first to turn up dead. Edward Eaton, who was depicted in the movie Goodfellas as dying in a refrigerator truck, was actually discovered in Brooklyn. His body had been lying in the truck for several days. Because it was so cold, it took days to defrost. Frank Vincent, aka Billy Batts, was murdered twice. He was shot in a bar and put in the trunk of a car. When his
rags tO riches
killers got upstate, they saw he was still alive, so they killed him again. Tommy DeSimone was cut in half with a chainsaw and dumped into the Atlantic Ocean. After buying an expensive car with proceeds from the heist, Louis Cafora and his wife, Joanna, were never seen again. Teresa Ferrara, the alleged mistress of Tommy Desimone, was last seen hurrying from her beauty shop in Bellmore. Later she was found murdered, her body dismembered. In total, at least 16 members of the original crew who both planned and executed the theft were reported missing or turned up dead. Louis Werner, who died in 2007, was the only one ever convicted for the Lufthansa heist. James Burke, the late gangster who planned the heist, was the only one convicted of a related homicide. Despite the story being told again and again, few people knew the key role a Nassau County police sergeant played in helping to identify
Bill Buckley’s story begins a week after the heist, when investigators were desperately trying to find evidence against the people who committed the crime. On the job for more than 10 years, Buckley, at the time a Nassau County Police Department sergeant, was by all accounts a good cop. Among his other duties, he was assigned to check on ‘licensed premises’ for violations of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law. He focused on the ones that openly catered to the mob. The mafia had found a loophole in the law that enabled them to incorporate as a not-for-profit fraternal organization, which then enabled them to serve alcohol without a license. Many members brought their own bottles at the clubs that were known for drugs and prostitution. “Most people going into a place like this signed their name in the membership book using a creative alias like Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck,” says Buckley, now 66, retired and living in Texas,. While investigating one of these clubs, Buckley noticed the name of Billy Fischetti, a man Buckley knew was part owner of the Bellmore Taxi Company at the time. Buckley describes Fischetti as “a half-assed wanna-be gangster” who was always getting involved in illegal scams. But, it appeared, he wasn’t all that smart a wise guy. Fischetti had used his real name. Buckley knew Fischetti from Buckley’s days working for Bellmore Taxi before he became a Nassau cop and once he was on the force he used Fischetti as an informant.
Fischetti was a known gambler with an eye for women. At about 6-feet, 5-inches tall, he towered over most of his associates and he was also overweight. Buckley described him as “a baby Huey type.” His affinity toward women would later pit him against the members of a very dangerous crime family. Fischetti’s majority interest in the taxi company was proving profitable. He owned two houses at the time, one a two-family in Merrick, and another a newly built large home in Bellmore. Covering all the angles, Fischetti was also a member of the Bellmore Republican Club. Buckley tried to get information on a club he wanted to bust from Fischetti. What the investigator didn’t know then was that Fischetti was in trouble and he was looking for Buckley—to ask for help. In plain clothes and driving an unmarked police car, Buckley approached Fischetti at the cab company. They left the office together and walked to his car. Fischetti told Buckley he would help him but in exchange he needed cash and protection from the mob. Buckley said that once Fischetti had given him the information he sought, Fischetti wanted him to go to the FBI and let agents know that Fischetti would become a witness for the feds if they paid Fischetti $40,000. Fischetti also said that if the FBI refused payment and still tried to talk with him, he would tell them Buckley had made it all up. Buckley was intrigued. So he let Fischetti talk. Fischetti then told Buckley that he was involved in the Lufthansa heist, and in fact had stolen money from Lufthansa—before the big heist in December. Months before, he had entered the warehouse, put on a company rain slicker and walked to the cONTINUed ON PAGe 18
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money room. He had picked up a canvas bag with $23,000 in it and walked out. Amazed at how easy it was, Fischetti said his experience became the blueprint for the infamous Lufthansa heist by the organized crime guys. “You really stepped in shit this time,” Buckley recalls thinking as he heard the story. “When I asked Fischetti why he wanted to become a federal witness, he admitted it was because of him needing the $40,000 for protection. When I asked why he needed protection, he said [it was] because after the job went down and he read about how much money they had gotten, he tried to shake them down. “Of course, the response from the bad guys was that if he opened his mouth, they would kill him,” Buckley says. “It was typical of Billy to think he could muscle, or extort, guys who had
“the Bad guys tOld him that iF he talked tO me Or any Other cOps he WOuld Be killed.” done a robbery of that magnitude. I also thought it was logical and realistic that they would kill him if he opened his mouth like he had threatened to do.” Immediately following their meeting, Buckley wrote down all the details of his conversation and went back to see his boss. Buckley knew the information was good. He knew Fischetti and the guys he hung out with. The investigation was being led by the FBI and involved myriad other law enforcement agencies. Now, because of Buckley’s snitch, Nassau County police had reluctantly become a part of it.
Walking in the sand
Some of the planning for the Lufthansa heist took place at the Sunrise Bowling Alley, now a parking lot in Bellmore, where there used to be a little bowling and a lot of gambling. The bar inside was a gathering place for the guys to drink, play cards, make and settle bets. Time had stopped there in the ’50s as red plastic topped turntable bar stools surrounded the horseshoeshaped bar. Small tables blended into the dim, smoke-filled light.
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The bar was often crowded, the noise level high and the stakes even higher. The bartender doubled as a bookie. Buckley had locked him up once while working undercover. Card games waited until the bowling alley was closed and locked up. This was a meeting place for some of the most dangerous men in the country, men who viewed murder and death as a way of life. Ironically, about a block away was Bellmore Bowl, a meeting place for off-duty cops which is now The Pool House Billiards & Sports Café. Back then organized crime was rampant on the Island. Joe Coffey, an expert on La Cosa Nostra, was commander of the Organized Crime Task for the New York City Police Department. After the Lufthansa heist, the NYPD commissioner asked Coffey, who had experience with both the mafia and homicides, to help investigate. Coffey knew immediately that it was James Burke, an associate of the Lucchese family, because the crime was too sophisticated for John Gotti, part of the Gambino family, to pull off, Coffey says. Those were the two crime families who controlled Kennedy Airport. They both regularly robbed cargo trucks in the area and routinely bribed law enforcement to look the other way. “They had their tentacles everywhere,” Coffey says. “Their corruption went right to the White House.” But knowing and convicting are two very different things. At that time, “going after criminals was like pissing in the ocean,” Coffey says. Even in jail they got special privileges.
BeyOnd the sea
When Buckley went to see his Nassau police commanding officer about how to handle Fischetti, he landed in a political quagmire. After the briefing, Buckley was asked to leave. A lieutenant was called in to discuss what to do next. Cops are usually not good with waiting. They are trained to take charge and react. Buckley was no different. About to get his first lesson in departmental politics, Buckley was “going crazy with frustration,” he says. Buckley knew his boss did not get along with his superior. Eventually, Buckley was ordered to report to the local FBI field office, but he was surprised the police department’s Robbery Squad did not take over. “My thoughts were that I would give our guys the information and they could feed it to New York City Robbery Squad so that they would be owed a favor back from [them] in the future,” Buckley says. “That would have been the logical thing to do, but many of the upper staff on Nassau County Police Department enjoyed attending the FBI National Academy for three months at Quantico, Virginia, and I think that because the local office of the FBI could say, ‘Yea’ or cONTINUed ON PAGe 20
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‘Nay’ on who attended, the big bosses wanted to keep the FBI happy.” Buckley was nervous. He felt out of his element. He already had had one negative experience with the FBI. But while Buckley was following orders to meet with the federal agents, members of Coffey’s group were already following up on their leads. Neither were fans of the FBI, which is not unusual for local law enforcement. Coffey’s group had their own name for the FBI: “Famous But Incompetent.” “Nobody likes working with the FBI,” Coffey says. Buckley went to the FBI office and gave his information to the local agents. As he read from his notes, he saw a notable change in their demeanor. By their reaction he knew that he was giving them information that had never been made public. He knew about Werner, who played a major role in the robbery. Werner was the employee at Lufthansa who had set up everything so Fischetti could walk in and walk out with a bag of foreign currency as a dry run. Werner was also part of the group that gambled at Sunrise bowl in Bellmore. Both Nassau police and the feds asked Buckley why he believed Fischetti, considering his past. “That was just dumb reasoning,” Buckley says, “because who would know about crime and street life if he wasn’t part of it?”
liFe is But a dream
Buckley was subsequently ordered to work with the FBI. Unfortunately, he says, he was not paired with one of their best agents—instead, his new partner was a rookie. “He had no background in working
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Job WEll donE: former nassau County police department Commissioner samuel J. rozzi (l) presents then-sgt. bill buckley the Medal of Commendation for his role in helping crack the lufthansa heist on May 6, 1980.
the streets and was not a native New Yorker,” Buckley says. Buckley wasn’t happy, but he had to follow orders. The pair’s first move was to call the Bellmore cab company where Buckley was told that Fischetti had taken the day off. Buckley didn’t want to call his home, believing Fischetti’s wife was not involved in the heist herself and probably knew nothing about her husband’s involvement, either. “I foresaw a lot of heartache coming to this lady as it was and I didn’t want to add to it,” Buckley recalls. They drove passed Fischetti’s house and all the places where Buckley knew Fischetti hung out. There was no sign of him. “The next day I remembered that Billy [also] owned a two-family house in North Merrick, and I thought there was a possibility he might be crashing there,” Buckley says. “Sure enough, when we drove past the house, I saw his taxi parked in the back of the driveway. The agent wanted to leave and find a phone to call in and get direction as to how to proceed next. I was strongly against doing that. Unfortunately, the agent was driving, so after looking high and low for this guy for two days, we left the scene so he could call his boss. “I was furious,” Buckley says. “His boss told him what I had said to do: ‘Sit on the house until Fischetti left, then stop him and pick him up.’ Even if he didn’t want to come with us, there was enough cause to bring him in anyway.” cONTINUed ON PAGe 22
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Eventually, Fischetti appeared. On their way to the local FBI office, Buckley asked Fischetti why he was avoiding him. Fischetti told him that he had received a threatening phone call warning him about talking to the cops. “He said that he was being watched and he had been seen sitting in my unmarked car talking to me,” Buckley says. “He told the bad guys that he didn’t tell me anything and that they should check with people from Bellmore who knew me as a cop when I often came around. The bad guys told him that if he talked to me or any other cops he would be dead. So that was why he was avoiding me.” Fischetti was surprised when Buckley found him, the sergeant recalled. “All this was occurring before the bodies started to pile up from fallout from the robbery,” Buckley says. “We drove back to the office, where they escorted Billy into the back and told me, ‘Thank you very much but we don’t need anything else from you from here on.’” “I had to agree that the jurisdiction of the robbery had been within New York City, and that the type of robbery made it a federal crime,” he says. “Since we had nothing that had happened in Nassau, I just had to bow out of the case.” Few people were even aware of what he had done. Meanwhile, the number of bodies related to the heist continued to climb. “In about approximately 65 percent of murders, the people know each other,”
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Coffey says. “But, the Italian mob killed for a reason; economic, vengeance or someone was disrespected. In addition, all gangland hits had to be approved by the commission,” or heads of the five mob families. With all the murders being committed, Buckley was happy to be back at his own job. “After the bodies began to mount up of the guys who had been involved in the robbery, I realized that the big crime bosses were eliminating anyone who could connect them to the crime,”
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Buckley says. “I never believed there was a code where organized crime guys didn’t hit cops, so I began to carry my gun off-duty, even around my house. “As far as I was concerned, if they had asked Billy who the cop was he had been talking to, he would have given me up in a heartbeat,” Buckley says. “If they thought he knew too much, they would kill him and maybe think about killing me.”
mannish BOy
Fischetti eventually went on to testify against Werner in open court, retelling the jury the same things that he had said to Buckley during their first meeting at the cab stand in Bellmore. “Werner called and said that I was stupid…that I had financial problems while he was set for life,” Fischetti testified, according to a report from The Associate Press at the time. “In late 1977, Lou had an idea on how to make a big hit…he said he’d grab a big package, and my job would be—a truck driver—to get it out of the airport.” Werner’s lawyer, Stephen Laifer, was quoted at the time saying that Fischetti’s testimony would cast “a doubt big enough to drive a Brink’s [armored] truck through.” The jury didn’t buy it. Werner was convicted for the robbery in May 1979. Buckley recalls that despite his fears Fischetti later returned to Bellmore and lived there until he died more than a decade ago. “I can’t understand why he wasn’t
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murdered like so many of the other people with knowledge of this crime,” Buckley says with amazement. The money was never found. Coffey says his guess is that “Burke’s daughter got it.” That mystery may never be solved. The string of violent killings will probably go unpunished. Coffey says that even though Werner was the only person ever convicted for the robbery— Burke was convicted of a related murder—he has no regrets. “I’m a believer in the criminal justice system, but the justice that they got was far greater than what we could have done to them so I was pretty happy,” Coffey says. “Burke died in prison and the other vermin died in the street. Who cares?” In 1980 Buckley received the Medal of Commendation, the second-highest award in the Nassau County Police Department, for his work on the case. During his career he also won the respect of those he worked with. “Good cops are always a step or two ahead of their peers,” said retired inspector John Sharp, “Bill Buckley was way out ahead of even the best cops. He was tenacious and a leader in every sense of the word.” Buckley had been ordered by the FBI not to tell anyone in the NCPD that he was working on the Lufthansa heist. He retired after 24 years on the job. Now, 35 years later, Buckley’s story is finally being told.
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J u S t S ay i n ’
The Ignorance of The Common Man. Like Me. By Peter Tannen
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I used to worry about whether our kids were learning anything in school. But these days, I think it’s time to worry about the rest of us. It seems to me that, after years of education, most of us are actually quite ignorant—particularly about the world around us and how it works. Take basic science, for instance. It’s clear that almost everything I learned in school is wrong. Were you taught, as I was, that the inside of an atom was like a tiny solar system? That the nucleus in the center of the atom was like our sun? And the electrons whirling around the nucleus were like the planets in orbit around the sun (including Pluto, which we all learned was a planet back then)? Sorry, but none of that is true any more. It seems that electrons don’t move around in orbits; they’re actually part of concentric shells that surround the nucleus. And electrons are always jumping back and forth, from one shell to the next shell. That would be like the Earth and Mars deciding to bounce around and switch places all of a sudden. And you might find yourself looking up one day to see an extra moon in the sky. Or a big red planet between us and the sun. We were also taught that nothing—absolutely nothing— travels faster than the speed of light. It’s one of the basic, immutable laws of the universe. Well, not exactly. Now it seems that some atomic particles can suddenly disappear from one place and instantaneously re-appear someplace else, even thousands of miles away. The particle just blinks out of existence in one place and blinks into existence in another. We’ve gone way beyond the speed of light here. Then there’s my brain. I was taught that the one inviolable rule about the brain was that you were stuck with the brain you had when
you reached, say, 21. You could never, ever grow more brain cells or create more neurons. Wrong. Brains, it turns out, are smarter than we thought—they are completely capable of growing new neurons as long as we live. And you heavy drinkers out there who were told that drinking destroys your brain cells—well, yes, it does. But new studies have shown that, after you stop drinking, the neurons grow right back—and so do lots of new brain cells! Feeling ignorant yet? And we haven’t even started talking about teaching ordinary people some basic survival skills: like operating the remote that came with your new TV, trying to understand the IRS tax code, figuring out which cell-phone company has the best deal, or translating that letter from Medicare to find out what your ear examination actually cost. And have you even attempted to understand our cutting-edge technology—like 3D computer printers? Well, if you haven’t kept up with the news, they can now print replacement bones and tissue if you’ve had an accident. This is obviously black magic and voodoo to most of us. Not to mention those millions of our fellow Americans whose primary science textbook seems to be the Bible. Enough said. One thing more: I recently came across a report that says physicists at the University of Rochester have coaxed light into moving backwards—and, weirdly enough, to do so faster than light itself. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the last straw. I think we should demand that Congress develop a new education plan for confused people over the age of 21, like me. Let’s call it: “Leave No Adult Behind.” JustSayin@LongIslandPress.com
PeTer Tannen is a humor writer who has won multiple awards from the National Press Club (Washington, D.C.), the Press Club of Long Island and the Florida Press Association. His columns can also be heard on select Public Radio stations across the U.S. WWW.tannEnWEEklY.CoM
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We Don’t Need No Education n E w S F E at u r E
L.I. Parents & Teachers revolt against common core By JaIme FranchI jfranchi@longislandpress.com
“Uncomfortable. Impossible. My chest hurts,” says Vincent Pepe, 10, pointing to his t-shirt where he feels his heart rate accelerating. He won’t make eye contact. He doesn’t like talking about the state tests he took last year. “There wasn’t enough time,” he says. “It makes you quit.” His older brother Ryan, 13, looks up from under a pile of homework. Ryan has served as Vincent’s protector since he was born. But Ryan can’t protect him from everything. Neither will be taking the state tests this year. And they’re not alone. A battle is being waged in New York State with Long Island on the front lines. The warriors come armed with manila folders of research on topics such as Common Core, data-mining and a billion-dollar company named Pearson. They have bags under their eyes from long, weary nights in front of sometimesincomprehensible homework. The battlegrounds are the classrooms, the kitchen table, and auditoriums packed with parents and teachers who are demanding a three-year moratorium on high-stakes testing, but will settle for the resignation of New York State (NYS) Commissioner of Education John B. King, Jr. and the head of Gov. Andrew Cuomo. They are an army formed on Facebook, with groups informed by a national movement but concentrated right here, mobilized and motivated by the stress of their children. Their vow is to defeat Common Core, the educational reform so extreme that kids are mutilating themselves in response to the psychological stress that experts are calling “Common Core Syndrome.” The Common Core State Standards, created by the National Governor’s Association and the Council of State School Officers, purport to make American students globally competitive, with skills that promise college and career readiness, with standardized testing in English Language Arts and math starting at grade three. Its dual purpose is also to hold teachers accountable for students’ achievement, using high-stakes test scores to determine teacher effectiveness. The financial incentive for states to adopt this
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shEll-shoCkEd: Eighth grader ryan pepe, 13, of East islip, reads his “intense” Common Core-assigned homework in his parent’s dining room (top). hundreds of parents and teachers packed Ward Melville high school nov. 13, 2013 to protest Common Core. (all photos Jaime franchi/long island press)
these tests are predictive of college success,” says Dr. Joe Rella, superintendent of Comsewogue School District. “How am I gonna tell a third grader, ‘Don’t bother showing up for the next nine years because you’re not college material?’ ” But the powers that be in government from President Barack Obama on down, support this education reform—financed with more than $4 billion of “Race to the Top” funds as part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. “I...want to congratulate @NYGovCuomo &...NY for having the courage to raise your standards for teaching & learning,” Obama tweeted Oct. 25. After all, the president—a father with two young daughters himself—had to have good intentions.
good InTenTIons
reform is considerable; New York received $700 million alone. Yet the parents and teachers opposing the program say they are fighting for something beyond a price tag: the minds of their children and students. More than 18,000 Long Islanders have signed a petition put forth by NYS Assemb. Al Graf (R-Holbrook), who, acting as a self-described “vessel of the mothers,” has staked his political career on fixing New York schools, effectively removing what many feel is a one-sizefits-all approach to education that fails the individual needs of children. Each
signature generates e-mail directly to Cuomo’s office. Opponents are also curious about Pearson, a company awarded a $32 million contract by NYS for testing services last year in addition to “Race to the Top” federal funding to provide textbook and teaching materials. Parents and teachers have begun a groundswell of opposition on the central concern that Common Core is hurting their children through its undue reliance on extensive testing and incomprehensible homework that has brought stress and anxiety to their kids. “The commissioner told us that
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During Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, he vowed to take a hard look at the nation’s public education system and make some much-needed changes. Community colleges reported that incoming freshmen increasingly needed remedial courses to bring them up to college level, at a cost to both schools and parents. The reform tried to reverse-engineer from the college level on down to kindergarten what students are expected to learn, both cognitively and developmentally, to an unprecedented degree. “We all share the same common goal: that every student in New York graduates college- and career-ready,” New York State Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl H. Tisch said in a prepared statement on New York’s National Assessment of Educational Progress results, which, he added, “confirm what we already know: Our students are not where they should be.” According to the state student exams, only 35 percent are college- and career-ready. “It’s just more evidence that New
York needs to stay on this road,” says King, who has become a lightning rod for criticism of the plan. Perhaps no one is more aware of how educational trends come and go than Dr. Arnold Dodge, a professor of education at Long Island University Post and chair of its department of educational leadership and administration. For 44 years, Dodge has served various roles in education, from teacher to superintendent of East Rockaway schools. This time, he says, is different. “In 1983, they issued a report called A Nation at Risk in which they say, ‘We are losing the education wars,’” recalls Dodge. “The famous line is, ‘If this were a battlefield, we’d have to declare war.’ Fastforward to 2000 and the idiot President George Bush comes in and says, ‘Is our children learning?’ Literally. He said that. “And then he, along with his cronies and with support of the Congress, in 2001-2 creates No Child Left Behind legislation. He says, ‘So what if you have to teach to the test? That’s what we should be doing.’ So I’m at a national conference in 2002, and I see what’s coming: a tidal wave.” The tidal wave came in the form of state standards that were tied to unfunded mandates. At the time, Arne Duncan, then the chief of Chicago’s public schools, called No Child Left Behind a “train wreck.” Yet Race to the Top and Common Core, Obama’s response to Bush’s initiative, appear to be extensions of the same ideals and framework. At the American Education Research Association conference in California earlier this year, where Duncan, now Obama’s secretary of education, was a keynote speaker, Dodge had the opportunity to address this inconsistency. “I said, ‘Let me ask you a question, Secretary Duncan: Have you even read your own law? Do you understand that you’re suffocating us? That there’s no oxygen left for the children? That the tests have all the meaning and everything else has no meaning? I’m going to ask you a question: Will you declare a moratorium until we get this right?’” Parents, teachers, and most recently, a collection of principals, have put forth the question of the moratorium, saying implementation of this contentious reform was too hasty and questioning why both the mathematician and the literacy experts on the Common Core validation committee refused to sign off on the new standards. They want the program halted, effective immediately. Laura Spencer, a Smithtown schoolteacher, expressed her opinion directly to the state’s education commission at a public forum last month at Ward Melville High School in Suffolk. “Teachers and administrators have been flexible working with the demands from the state,” said Spencer. “Commissioner King, we are asking you to be flexible. Will you consider a three-year
moratorium on high stakes testing? When making your decision, consider the fifth grade special education child screaming, ‘I am stupid!’ for one hundred and eighty minutes during just one day of the math state assessment. I know this, because I was a proctor. With a three-year moratorium, we can work together to get it right for our students.” But the answer from above is that New York will press on, full-steam ahead. To many, this means war.
THE MOMMIES REVOLT
The Pepe brothers sit at their dining room table, their books and binders spread out over the flowered tablecloth. It
won’t be long before Ryan begins to plead with his mother to skip school tomorrow. “I hate waking up on Mondays,” says the eighth-grader. “Because I know I have another week of school to get through.” His mom says that before Common Core was implemented, Ryan was raring to go to school. Now, mornings are an ordeal. Ryan particularly dislikes the benchmark tests students must take in the beginning of the school. This is compared with the same test at the end of the year, where learning growth will be calculated. “I could handle the social studies one, because if you know stuff about social studies, then you could get some of the questions right,” he explains. “But
for the science one, there’s literally no way of knowing half the stuff that’s on there. They’re giving you a test on everything you’re going to learn throughout the year, except you don’t know any of it yet. So most people—all people—fail it.” Failing is especially hard on kids like Ryan, a high achiever who has never failed a test before. It’s even tougher on kids like his brother Vincent, who is autistic. “People on the low end of Asperger’s cannot tolerate being tricked,” says Mary Calamia, a clinical social worker. “They don’t accept failure well. And they need to please. They take it very personally. They don’t understand.” Continued on page 28
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“My heart feels upset,” Vincent says. “I was afraid that I would get in trouble if I asked to opt-out of the state test. I was uncomfortable.” His reaction was similar to that of the daughter of a teacher in Westchester. “My oldest is very bright,” says Michele, who asked that her last name be omitted from this story due to fears of retaliation from school officials. “Since last year in fourth grade, she would come home and would just be crying. A lot of it was the inferential thinking. Reading between the lines. And even though she’s bright, that part of her brain isn’t completely mature yet. That’s where that shift starts to happen—that upper-level, critical thinking, which really doesn’t develop in most kids until they go to junior high school. You can’t force that. So night after night, she’s spending over two hours on it. She’s perseverating on it. She’s like, ‘Oh my God! I’m so dumb, I just don’t get it.’” On Nov. 13, protesters lined Old Town Road carrying signs and shouting for “revolution” outside of Ward Melville High School. The ground was frozen with the year’s first snowfall but, undeterred, parents swarmed the school, lining up hours before the doors opened for a forum where Education Commissioner King and Regents Chancellor Tisch made their first LI stop on their re-instated “listening tour,” which had been postponed after protestors shouted King down in Poughkeepsie. The 900-seat auditorium was filled to capacity with more than 400 people spilling over into the cafeteria, where it was streamed live. Many wore green glow bracelets, an homage to the “Lace to the Top” movement in which children wear green shoelaces to bring attention to the opt-out movement sparked by Long Islander Jeannette Deutermann. Deutermann, a mom from Bellmore, has been consumed with creating templates for each type of assessment so parents like Meghan O’Hara can notify their school districts of their child’s intention to refuse testing. The reasons O’Hara listed to opt-out were numerous: “The hours of instructional time lost to
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Mad as hEll: nYs assemb. al graf, a selfdescribed “vessel of the mothers,” authored a petition opposing Common Core that garnered more than 18,000 long islanders’ signatures.
testing and prepping for the test; linking it to an invalid curriculum lacking empirical evidence therefore invalidating the results, setting kids up to fail; the tests serving no diagnostic purpose; using a child’s score to rate a teacher’s performance.” Parents want the governor, the commissioner, and the chancellor to acknowledge the emotional toll Common Core is taking on their children. “This year, from day one, I sent [my son Christian] into school all happy and excited, like a helium balloon,” laments GiGi Guiliano of East Islip. “And then he came out, all deflated. By the end of the first week, he says, ‘I am never gonna smile again.’” Jack Lewis, a ninth-grader from Plainview, fells the same way. “It’s taken all the fun out of the actual learning,” he says. “In English now, you have to read these articles. You can only do one paragraph per period. My teacher said she wants to move ahead, but I think she’s scared that she’ll get fired.” He ruffles through his backpack to produce an article he was reading in class. “This one is about doctor-assisted suicide.” Allie Gordon’s voice shook as she addressed the commissioner and the chancellor at Ward Melville High School. “Recently, my 10-year-old daughter asked me what it would take for me to let her stay home from school forever,” she said. “Not tomorrow. Not next week. Forever. She said: ‘I’m too stupid to do that math.’ Your child is broken in spirit when they have lost their confidence and internalized words like stupid. That damage is not erased easily.” Even school administrators themselves oppose the state tests tied to Common Core, alleging they were designed for children to fail. “The problem with these tests [is that] our kids believe everything we tell them,” says Rella, the Comsewogue School District superintendent. “They don’t know it’s a rigged game. They don’t
know that long before they sat down to put pencil to bubble sheet last April, it was already a done deal that only 30 percent would pass. I got two memos— one from the deputy commissioner, one from the commissioner. We don’t expect more than 30 to 35 percent to pass this test. And then—as if that weren’t enough—after the testing was all done, that’s when the passing score was set. “This isn’t a secret,” he says. “And then—imagine! Thirty percent of the kids passed statewide!” Principals statewide are also taking a stand. An open letter to parents from nine principals authored on Nov. 16 and signed by more than 3,100 principals of New York schools reads: “We know that many children cried during or after testing, and others vomited or lost control of their bowels or bladders. Under current conditions, we fear that the hasty implementation of unpiloted assessments will continue to cause more harm than good. Please work with us to preserve a healthy learning environment for our children and to protect all of the unique varieties of intelligence that are not reducible to scores on standardized tests.” Calamia, the social worker, says that the influx of children who have come to her seeking therapy for stress and anxiety has increased exponentially with the implementation of Common Core. It was the same thing, repeatedly: self-mutilation, such as the 8-year-old child who picks the skin off of his face. “It was constantly about: ‘I can’t take the workload. I feel stupid. I can’t take the pressure. It’s too much,’” she says. “All I was hearing about was the academics. I heard about a little boy in first grade who, when he does his homework, he scratches down his face. He has claw-marks down his face.” Calamia declares Common Core standards developmentally inappropriate. “There’s a part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex, where all abstract thought comes from,” she explains. “And that is developing until age 24. It isn’t fully developed even in adolescence. The curriculum right now is like asking a fish to fly. And try as it might to grow wings, that fish is going to be ashamed of its gills. I heard of a young lady who carved the word ‘stupid’ into her wrist after she got her math assessments back.” The detrimental impact the new regime is having on some children’s health is so rampant that it has resulted in what some call a new psychological condition. “There is now a ‘Common Core Syndrome,’” Port Jefferson Station Teachers Association President Beth Dimino told Commissioner King at Ward Melville’s town-hall meeting. “Psychologists are now diagnosing our children with a syndrome directly related to work they are doing in the classroom. I tell you, Mr. King—because you’ve awoken the mommies, you’re in trouble.” Education Secretary Arne Duncan cONTINUed ON PAGe 30 L o n g I s L a n d P r e s s f o r d e c e m b e r , 2 0 1 3 / / / w w w. L o n g I s L a n d P r e s s . c o m
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up in arMs: parents and teachers pack a new hyde park Elks lodge to protest Common Core in october (top). dr. Joe rella, superintendent of Comsewogue school district (insEt) has been a staunch opponent of Common Core.
In The crosshaIrs cONTINUed FrOm PAGe 29
dismissed these concerns, telling a group of state school superintendents at Richmond, Va., on Nov 15: “It’s fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who—all of a sudden—their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were.” To the mothers and teachers witnessing Common Core’s repercussions on children and students firsthand, the demeaning comment illustrates just how disconnected government administrators are to the reality in the classroom. The fact is, the children of the white suburban moms Duncan mentioned had been doing just fine. LI’s graduation rates have significantly exceeded those of the rest of the state. The average rate on LI for the 2011-12 school year was 87 percent compared to 74 percent statewide. Beyond white suburbia, the educational system has failed the nation’s children—with a direct correlation between poverty and failing schools. “It has to do with families and socioeconomic statuses,” says Michele, the Westchester teacher. “It goes so far beyond the walls of the school. We’re trying to put a Band-Aid on something that has been happening since the child was in the uterus.” “It’s about poverty,” agrees Dodge, the LIU professor. “I heard Bill Gates say, ‘Look at the scores in Shanghai! How come we can’t be like Shanghai?’ I’ve been to Shanghai. It’s Beverly Hills on the water. “You can’t compare the United States to Shanghai when our scores include poverty-stricken areas where people have nothing,” he says. “It’s like comparing Scarsdale to sub-Saharan Africa. Without the filter of poverty and without the beleaguered communities that you’re putting out there and disaggregating the data, you’ve got fraud. And that’s because you’re serving a political agenda and not the truth.”
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Rella, the Comsewogue superintendent, became a rock star of the anti-Common Core movement when he published a letter to state senators questioning the validity of the tests and requesting reform. “If not,” he wrote, “then I request on behalf of our residents—your constituents—you initiate proceedings to have me removed as superintendent.” Rella walked out to hearty applause at a forum at a New Hyde Park Elks Lodge in October, where parents gathered looking for answers and support. To demonstrate the program’s toll on students, Rella described an imaginary charter school, modeled after the Common Core standards, which would include “high levels of rigor” and “a totally test-centered approach to teaching. And as a result of our rigorous, gritty approach, students will experience increased anxiety, stress, behavioral problems, sleep deprivation, respiratory issues, self-destructive and self-abusive behaviors.” He paused. “This would be kinda funny if it weren’t so true,” he said. “It would be funny if children all over the state weren’t being hurt, if their teachers were not turning themselves inside-out trying to protect them. It would indeed be funny if it wasn’t so tragic.” His testimony illuminates the quandary teachers are in. Many teachers fear for their livelihoods, as the tests account for 40 percent of their Annual Professional Performance Review evaluations. If enough students don’t pass the tests two years in a row, even tenured teachers can lose their jobs. Carol Burris, principal of South Side High School in Rockville Centre, who was named 2010 Outstanding Educator by the School Administrators’ Association of New York State, was originally a champion of Common Core, co-authoring the book Opening the Common Core. Her blog from The Washington Post in 2012 demonstrates how Burris’ optimism soon soured. cONTINUed ON PAGe 32
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Continued From page 30
“I confess that I was naïve,” she wrote. “I should have known in an age in which standardized tests direct teaching and learning, that the standards themselves would quickly become operationalized by tests. Testing, coupled with the evaluation of teachers by scores, is driving its implementation. The promise of the Common Core is dying and teaching and learning are being distorted.” King asserts that “curriculum decisions are local decisions,” but teachers fear that with the tests determining their job security, there is too much at stake to retain local control of their classrooms. Instead, they are compelled not to stray too far from the state-supplied modules on which the tests will be based. Melissa McMullen, a Port Jefferson Station middle school teacher, told King: “We can’t say that curriculum stands alone when teachers are held accountable to a state test. That doesn’t cut it.” “The only purpose of this testing,” blasts Rella, “is to humiliate and embarrass teachers.” Craig Charvat, a history teacher from Center Moriches, has offered himself up as a sacrificial lamb to bring attention to what he calls a “fraudulent” teacher evaluation process. Muscular with a strong physical presence, he recently described his ordeal, sitting in a coffee shop in Patchogue, his bravado quickly giving way to emotion, tears welling up in his eyes. He spoke of benchmark exams that were used to measure the growth of learning across five subjects in his school. Teachers were told that the tests would take between 42 to 45 minutes, but classroom periods only run 40. “That was the first thing that got my attention,” he said. More red flags went up when Charvat noticed that not only was the history test for which one-fifth of his assessment was based not given in the spring, but that the answer sheets did not match up with the tests that were given. He brought the matter to his principal and superintendent, but his concerns were dismissed. So he went public. “I made peace with the fact that I could lose my job,” he said. “I love teaching. It’s my dream job. But the way they’re implementing these tests—it’s fraud.” He says that he isn’t adverse to accountability, but he refuses to comply with a system corrupted by shoddy implementation of tests and mismanagement, resulting in an “ineffective” rating, a badge he wears proudly to call attention to a failing system. “You do accountability with strong leaders, who understand protocol, who are fair with people but also understand what good teaching is,” says LIU’s Dodge. “As a leader, you should always be looking for student engagement. It’s more important than achievement. “It’s a false dichotomy to say those
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of us who are against the tests are against accountability,” he adds. “The most accountability I want is accountability to children’s well-being, and that’s what we don’t have. Because I feel accountable for all the children of New York State.” “The real agenda,” alleges Rella, “is to so shake confidence in public education and destroy it. Withhold funding, pile on unfunded mandate after unfunded mandate, make it impossible for public schools to get the job done. Once that happens, well, then the solution is, ‘Close them down. We need private schools. Privatize for profit.’ It’s not a big jump.” Dodge concurs. “The biggest pusher of that is Pearson...a huge multi-billion-dollar international company,” he says. “Obama knows that the economy is job numberone. It’s a multi-billion-dollar industry just waiting.” Critics allege that companies such as Pearson, whose North American headquarters are in Upper Saddle River, N.J., blur the lines between public education and private profit. Most of the creative work on the Common Core State Standards was contracted to Achieve Inc., which received millions in funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation also gave a $100-million grant to Atlanta-based data-storage company inBloom, which collects and stores students’ information, including mental health records and behavioral issues, in a database in “the cloud.” “We are 100-percent committed to data protection privacy,” says Education Commissioner King. “inBloom maintains all data in encrypted form. We believe that our project with inBloom is actually a step in the direction of raising standards in regard to privacy and protection.” Parents’ fears of school data thefts were bolstered on Nov. 22 when an accused teenage hacker was arrested for allegedly breaking into the Sachem School District’s records and posting thousands of private documents on the Internet. But, despite parents’ anger spilling into the streets over Common Core, there’s a way back, Dodge insists. “There’s an expression that we use in the leadership class called, ‘The Escalation of Commitment,’ which means: ‘I made a mistake. And just to show you that I know that I’m innocent but I’m not going to announce it, I’ll go down and I’ll make even more of a mistake.’ It’s time for politicians and leaders everywhere to stop the hubris, take a deep breath, and say, ‘We made a mistake.’” An increasing number of parents, teachers and students across LI are counting on it. “I feel like everything we’re learning about in school is becoming dark,” says Ryan Pepe. “The Great Depression,” his brother Vincent piped up. “That’s me: I’m great. And I’m depressed.”
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“My family has been doing business on Long Island for generations. Today Posillico, Inc. is committed to the revitalization of our most environmentally compromised areas of this island we call home. We support the Long Island Press because of their positive editorial influence on environmental matters and believe that independent watchdog journalism is critical to maintaining good governance.”
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PUTTING THE COMMUNITY FIRST IS WHAT MAKES BETHPAGE FEDERAL CREDIT UNION A SPECIAL PLACE TO DO BUSINESS WITH. AT BETHPAGE WE RECOGNIZE THAT ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT INDICATORS OF A HEALTHY COMMUNITY IS THE VITALITY AND INDEPENDENCE OF ITS LOCAL MEDIA. EACH OF US HAS A ROLE TO PLAY ON THIS BEAUTIFUL ISLAND WE CALL HOME AND WE KNOW THE STAFF AT THE LONG ISLAND PRESS ENJOYS THEIR ROLE AS MUCH AS WE DO.
MICHAEL BROWN Vice President of Operations, NY Auto Giant
CHARLES VIGLIOTTI President and CEO, Long Island Compost
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KEVIN LAW President and CEO, Long Island Association
“I have the greatest job in the world because I get to proudly promote what Long Island has to offer to people all around the state and speak on behalf of our business community. In this role, I also recognize that a strong and independent press is vital to the health of our region. It’s why the Long Island Association is proud to support Long Island’s diverse and vibrant media community.”
I have always had a love and fascination with cars, so doing business in a place with a deeply rooted car culture like Long Island is a dream come true. Along the way I’ve also had the opportunity to meet and help thousands of Long Island families. There are so many things to love about this Island and personally I include the Long Island Press among them. It’s authentic, straightforward and cool. As a car guy, these are traits I can appreciate.
I GREW UP ON LONG ISLAND AND RAISED MY FAMILY HERE. I CANNOT IMAGINE LIVING ANYWHERE ELSE. THROUGHOUT MY ENTIRE ADULT LIFE, I HAVE BEEN A PART OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT. FOR ME, MAKING PEOPLES’ LIVES BETTER BY GIVING THEM A VOICE IN THE WORKPLACE THROUGH THEIR UNION IS A CALLING, A SACRED RESPONSIBILITY. I KNOW THAT A FREE AND INDEPENDENT MEDIA IS A VITAL BUILDING BLOCK OF OUR AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. WITHOUT IT, NEITHER OUR POLITICAL SYSTEM NOR OUR LABOR MOVEMENT WILL THRIVE. THE LONG ISLAND PRESS HAS EMERGED AS A SIGNIFICANT VOICE ABOUT CULTURE, POLITICS, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, AND EVENTS ON LONG ISLAND. I LOOK FORWARD TO ITS PERSPECTIVES, AND I ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO SUPPORT IT.
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JOHN R. DURSO President, Local 338, RWDSU/UFCW and President, Long Island Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO
“Those that know me know how passionate I am about life and all that makes it interesting, fun and worthwhile. Being blessed with a wonderful family, great friends and a profession I love, I have the opportunity to not only protect our natural environment in my daily work but also enjoy its beauty on a regular basis. My favorite place is the beach especially when I’m surfing. All this would not be possible without living on Long Island. I can’t imagine living anywhere else. It’s why I support the things that make our Island great and I count the Long Island Press among them”.
DR. ROBERT SCOTT President, Adelphi University “ADELPHI UNIVERSITY HAS ALWAYS BEEN COMMITTED TO NURTURING THE MINDS OF LONG ISLAND’S YOUTH, OUR MOST PRECIOUS COMMODITY. WE VIEW OUR SUPPORT OF THE LONG ISLAND PRESS AND ALL INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM AS PART OF THAT PLEDGE, AS NO REGION OR NATION CAN EXIST WITHOUT A THRIVING FREE AND INDEPENDENT MEDIA.”
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Robert Moses
The Last Master Builder By Spencer Rumsey SRuMSey@LongiSLandpReSS.coM
he one person who did more than any other human being to shape the future of Long Island was born in Connecticut on Dec. 18, 1888, and died at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip in 1981. Robert Moses never got a driver’s license but Long Islanders would get nowhere fast without his roads today—even though his Northern
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Parkway and the Southern State have long been obsolete. He regarded Nassau and Suffolk as the state’s playgrounds for New York City’s middle-class whites but without his vision for open space, there’d be far fewer parks here bigger than a village green. He never held elected office yet he wielded an unprecedented amount of political power. “If there wasn’t a Moses, New York
State and Long Island would be a far poorer place,” says Dr. Lee Koppelman, Suffolk County’s former master planner and the director of Stony Brook University’s Center for Regional Policy Studies, where he still teaches. “There will never be another one in the State of New York— the politicians wouldn’t tolerate it.” Moses was full of contradictions: a builder, a bigot, a reformer, a bully,
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a social engineer, a misanthrope, and, without a doubt, a genius. Robert Caro, the former Newsday reporter who wrote the masterful 1974 Pulitzer-Prizewinning biography, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, called him “a dreamer,” “a very courageous idealist” and “a visionary” who could all too easily overlook “the human cost” of his projects. In his monumental
book, Caro depicted Moses’ heartless destruction of a Bronx neighborhood, East Tremont, to make way for the Cross-Bronx Expressway, his callous disregard of Suffolk farmers shoved aside to accommodate the Northern State Parkway and the breathtaking transformation of “a barren, deserted, windswept sand spit,” which Moses had first seen in 1922, into the spectacular oceanfront park called Jones Beach, which draws millions and millions of people every summer. In 1967, Caro met Moses for the first time at his summer cottage in Oak Beach, where the second-floor living room had a large picture window at one end with a stunning panorama encompassing the Robert Moses Causeway and the 200-foot high red brick tower that is the centerpiece of Robert Moses State Park. Caro wrote later in an article for The New Yorker that it had taken him two years to arrange that interview because Moses had made it crystal clear that a biography was the last thing he ever wanted to see. “He was then at the very height of his power,” wrote Caro, “with absolute discretion over the awarding of contracts by city or state in every field of public works, and the word had gone out that no architect, engineer, or contractor who spoke to me would ever receive another such contract.” But Caro, like Moses, would not be deterred until he could tell the whole story. Moses held power from 1924 to 1968, until opposition that had begun building on Long Island finally coalesced into a force strong enough to derail him once and for all. Moses had outlasted six governors.
Look on his works “He was not a planner, he was a builder,” says Koppelman. The distinction has made all the difference to Long Island’s development. When Moses built his parkways to connect the sweltering urban masses to his verdant parklands, he laid the groundwork for the suburbs. Builders followed his infrastructure, snapping up the property while it was still the boondocks. Nassau and Suffolk were the two fastest-growing counties in the 1950s, according to Koppelman. “The municipalities were the handmaidens of the developers,” he says. “There was no real planning. The politicians and the developers were calling the shots.” “All the ills of suburbia weren’t really Moses’ fault,” says Robert Murdocco, a former project coordinator with the Long Island Pine Barrens Society now at Teachers Federal Credit Union in Suffolk, whose master’s thesis at Stony Brook University dealt with Moses’ impact on the Island. “He
“if there wasn’t a Moses, new york State and Long island would be a far poorer place. There will never be another one here. The politicians wouldn’t tolerate it.”
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—dr. Lee koppelman, the first suffolk county planner
wasn’t a subdivision builder.” H. Lee Dennison, the first Suffolk County executive, took Koppelman, his new master planner, to meet Moses for the first time in 1960 when “RM,” as insiders knew him, was then the Long Island State Park commissioner, among a dozen other job titles he held simultaneously. “I knew that he hated planners with a passion,” Koppelman says. Moses, who was in his shirt sleeves, asked them if they wanted lunch. “Stupidly, I said no!” he says. Then Moses’ private chef brought in a “simple plate, with lettuce and tomato and some roast beef.” After Moses finished eating, he told them there was going to be a $100 million bond issue to help counties and cities acquire open space for parks. “I said I hadn’t heard of this bond issue, and he said he hadn’t presented it to the legislature yet—that’s how he operated!” says Koppelman with a laugh. After the measure passed, Suffolk got “the overwhelming majority” of the money from Moses, he explained, “so Long Island was the major beneficiary of his programs.” In the 1960s, people were beginning to see the other side of the progress Moses promised. Take his goal of running the Ocean Parkway out to the Hamptons, which meant replacing seaside residencies on Fire Island with a four-lane fixed roadway atop an 18-foot sand dune. Homeowners suddenly realized that their houses would be wiped out by RM, not by a hurricane. “The opposition to Moses,” says Koppelman, “started on the South Shore with the people of Fire Island.” As Caro so brilliantly reported, Moses had previously only bowed to the robber barons of the Gold Coast—the
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estates “clustered around the little village of Old Westbury” and those wealthy holdings in western Suffolk like Otto Kahn’s private golf course—by bending the Northern Parkway away from Wheatley Hills and Dix Hills, and agreeing never to connect it to a state park, which explains why the route stops today just short of Caleb Smith State Park in Hauppauge while the Southern State runs directly into Heckscher State Park, the former Taylor Estate in East Islip. Moses’ plan to extend the SeafordOyster Bay Expressway north to Bayville for the Oyster Bay/Rye Bridge was his Waterloo. “He was going through all the freshwater wetlands in the Town of Oyster Bay,” Koppelman says. “Second of all, he was going through Gatsby country—that’s where the estates are and where the multi-millionaires are, and they were not too happy with the thought of an expressway going through their community.” On the other side of the Sound, Connecticut’s powerful Democratic Sen. Abraham Ribicoff, an ardent environmentalist, denied Moses any federal highway dollars for the project. Add in the resistance of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, and that’s why all that exists of the proposal today is a dilapidated row of orange traffic barrels on a stretch of pavement just north of Jericho Turnpike in Syosset. But much of Moses’ major roadwork was done here decades ago: the Southern State Parkway dates to 1927; the Northern State Parkway started in the 1930s; the Wantagh State Parkway was in 1929; the Meadowbrook, 1934; the Sagtikos State Parkway, 1952; the Sunken Meadow Parkway, 1957; the Long Island Expressway began in 1940 and reached Riverhead in 1972. When Moses designed his parkways, he never imagined that sections of them would ever be dubbed “Blood Alley,” as parts of the Southern State between Exits 17 and 22 are known today. “Both [the Southern and Northern State] were literally meant to be parkways,” says Robert Sinclair Jr., manager of media relations for AAA New York, based in Garden City, so motorists could “take leisurely drives through park-like environments at very leisurely speeds.” The sad truth today is that the parkways are “dangerous, and in large measure they’re obsolete, to be honest,” Sinclair says. “You can’t do anything with them! They need to be widened, straightened and flattened.” Moses’s parkways are also defined by ultra-low seemingly impenetrable bridges, designed, says Koppelman, to keep buses of poor city people out. Koppelman even once measured the
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“Both the northern and Southern State were literally meant to be parkways [so motorists] could take leisurely drives through park-like environments... Today [they] are dangerous and obsolete.” —robert sinclair, Jr., the media relations manager for aaa new York
overpasses on the Wantagh Parkway himself to verify that they were in fact deliberately built too low. “The only way you could get to Jones Beach was by automobile,” Koppelman says. “So Jones Beach was lily white.” Sunken Meadow, he continues, which was reachable by buses going north from Jericho Turnpike, was “supposed to be the park for blacks because the theory was that blacks were too poor to own cars.” The Long Island Expressway is wide, smooth and fast—when conditions are right. Moses, who adamantly opposed mass transit, nixed Koppelman’s proposal to run a railroad track down the median strip, which would have gone a long way to alleviating today’s traffic snarls. There’s another drawback to the LIE’s design. The expressway adds stress to our aquifers because its route along the terminal moraine interferes with the absorption of rainwater and adds to potential groundwater contamination. “Love him or hate him, he was necessary,” says Murdocco. “He’s a product of his time. You can’t fault a man for not being transit-oriented when the rest of the world wasn’t.” But there’s another point to be made. “Moses basically facilitated corridors of growth, which allowed Long Island to expand as it did,” says Murdocco, “but...look at Valley Stream State Park, Belmont Lake. You can see amidst all this suburban development that there are these patches of open space that would have been basically paved over if it weren’t for Moses’ foresight.
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art + Soul asia lee’s swirling “painted Canopy” unfolds at the new grumman gallery space in bethpage.
Winter Wonderwalls
o
By sPencer rumsey srumsey@longislandpress.com
ver the holiday season people often tend to have more time off and more reason to do something indoors that might take them to some place they never expected—even if it’s only in their mind’s eye. What follows is an arbitrary assortment of some of the more interesting offerings in the art and cultural scene on Long Island. But don’t wait until spring—or they’ll all be gone like melted snow.
nassau counTy museum oF arT
Let’s start with one of the more unusual solo shows on the roster, unusual in part because we never associate black and white with the psychedelic palette of colors used to perfection by the great pop artist Peter Max, whose distinctive style that he pioneered in the Sixties when he first befriended the Beatles has continued to influence our culture in so many ways today. Billions of people have seen his colorful creations, from the cosmic to the fanciful, and millions have taken his work home in some form or another, making him one of the most commercially successful artists in the world. He’s done U.S. postage stamps and Super Bowls, the World Cup and even the World Series. His work is owned by more than a thousand museums. But thanks to the inspiration of Karl Willers, the enterprising director of the Nassau County Museum of Art, who curated this
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never-before-seen, in-depth look at Max’s original drawings, we can see for ourselves that Max is fundamentally a prolific drawer in black and white first, then a colorist. It’s an inspired choice because these drawings let us glimpse how this iconic artist actually approaches a canvas. He picks up a pen, watches black lines emerge on a white sheet of paper and then take shape in his mind. Sometimes the shapes become purple birds, gleaming rainbows, pink sailboats or the iconic blue-suited “Cosmic Runner,” striding over a green planet in wide orange boots, a yellow star shining on his back and a yellow top-hat with a maroon lightning bolt on his head. Sometimes it’s something darker. The exhibition includes about 119 drawings as well as 60 paintings.
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prolific pop artist peter Max shows off his colorful palette with his classic “Cosmic runner” and his album cover for alice Coltrane, above, while his black and white work, like the 1980 drawing on the next page, takes center stage at the nassau County Museum of art.
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“The beauty is that I have a rectangular piece of paper and I start composing on the paper so the shapes are all different from each other,” he tells the Press, from his studio on West 65th Street across from Lincoln Center. “Then a drawing comes out of it. I never know where I’m going with it, so I get surprised. I love it!” As for his more commonly seen posters, lithographs, prints, album covers, and paintings, he says, “I have a tremendous love and sense for color. Sometimes I use a lot of flat colors with an outline, sometimes I paint with heavy thick brushes and there is no outline so it’s very painterly...Wherever I think the art wants to go is where I go.” Max is commonly mistaken for doing the animation of Yellow Submarine, but that was really an homage to him done by the animator Heinz Edelmann, who literally called himself “The German Peter Max” on his business card. As Max recounts it, he was annoyed at first by Edelman’s imitation but then he realized it was a compliment. “He was such a fan,” Max says. “I said to him, ‘Look, I really like what you did and it’s okay you’re inspired by me, but do me one favor, Hans, take my name off your card!’” Max may have his flatterers but no one can imitate his unique background. Born in Berlin as Peter Max Finkelstein, his Jewish parents fled the Nazis when he was a toddler and found refuge in Shanghai, before moving to New York and settling in Brooklyn. Now 75, he is constantly drawing “every day, from the time I wake up until I go to sleep...I always have a pad near me, on an airplane, everywhere.” Before making the selection for this exhibition, Max went through “hundreds and hundreds” of drawings. Helping him make the cut was the noted art historian, Charles A. Riley II, Ph.D., author of The Art of Peter Max, an important book about the celebrated artist.
“His influence is still everywhere, in art, in fashion, in graphic design,” says Riley. Here’s the chance to look inside the mind of “a very important figure in pop culture,” he adds. “There have been tons of Peter Max shows in color,” says Riley. “Living color is his idiom, really.” Riley applauds Willers for showing him in black and white, bringing out drawings that have been sitting in the flat files in Max’s studio for years, and then putting them up on display. “I think it’s a really bold show...This is the most original way to go about a Peter Max survey, so it’s good to see.” Do the drawings hold up with his color work? Riley believes it does. “For those who like art and drawing, and especially are interested in the process of art, there’s an intimacy to it,” Riley says. In other words, he explained, before there’s a final image that goes into a commercial print run to be mass produced, there’s a special moment captured only once in each of his drawings. “Instead of the quantity, this is one on one,” Riley enthuses, “and I think that’s what makes the show valuable... One drawing, for one moment, and for one viewer.” Max says his “closest relationship to art” is through his drawing. Then comes painting. But the process is always ongoing. “I look at my palette, I’m creative; I look at my pen and paper, I’m creative,” says Max enthusiastically. “I listen to music, I can get creative about it... Creativity is, like, the biggest gift. Look, what do we call our whole thing? We call it creation, right?” Indubitably.
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the peter Max show runs until february 23 at the nassau County Museum of art, which is at one Museum drive, roslyn harbor. to check for times, call 516-484-9338. cONTINUed ON PAGe 42
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art patrons see another dimension at huntington’s b.j. spoke gallery’s annual holiday show, above. giovanni deCunto’s “steve Jobs” portrait, below, is on display at the new grumman gallery in bethpage. cONTINUed FrOm PAGe 41
B.J. sPoke gaLLery
Our next exhibit features a group show of local artists who may not be as well known around the world as Peter Max but they are no less dedicated to their artistry as shown by their annual “Holiday Sell-a-bration of Fine Arts and Crafts,” a tradition going back decades. Thirty artists, all members of the co-operative gallery, have their works on display and for sale, with prices ranging from $50 to $1,000, all specially reduced for the holidays. The styles run the gamut. “The artists are all different,” says Katherine Criss, a painter and a photographer who is currently the co-op’s vice president. “You never know what to expect when you walk into the gallery—that’s what’s wonderful about it. It becomes a festive marketplace for art.” Criss, who went to the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, said she uses “the photography medium as a painter uses paint...with layered images.” To become a member of the gallery, artists have to get their work first approved by the co-op. Then they become eligible for a solo show. For the holiday sale, each co-op member gets about four feet of space in the gallery’s three rooms, so the pieces tend to be manageable rather than gigantic. There promises to be a wide assortment of ceramics, jewelry and flat work as well as a few solid pieces on an art stand. Art patrons “can take it right off the wall and take it home,” says Criss. But they have to pay first, of course. the holiday sale runs seven days a week through Jan. 12 at b.j. spoke gallery, which is at 299 Main st., huntington. for gallery times call 631-549-5106.
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grumman gaLLery
An ambitious new art space has opened up in Bethpage appropriately named the Grumman Gallery. Internationally renowned expressionist painter Giovanni DeCunto shared the grand opening honors with the popular landscape photographer Asia Lee. The Gallery is located in Suite 1 of Grumman’s Suites at 500 Grumman Road West. “Grumman Gallery will be a hub for exhibitions of all kinds and all mediums: photography, digital art and more,” said Vanessa Ferrelli, the new gallery’s owner. The centerpiece of the show is DeCunto’s “The Spirit & The Modern,” which explores the duality of “our innermost selves and our nearly fanatical obsession with celebrity, the afterlife and technology,” according to Ferrelli. “’The Spirit & The Modern’ is both transformative and provoking, while Asia Lee’s landscapes show us the beauty of a non-digital environment,” said Ferrelli. “Those are two completely different experiences that we’re inviting our guests to have.” for more information on this show, which will be running through december, contact Michelle Chorney, the grumman gallery’s director, at 917387-7277 or go to www.grummangallery.com.
Give an Experience They’ll Never Forget for the Holidays
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It’s the age-old dilemma of holiday shoppers everywhere – What to buy this year for that special person in your life? A big gift, wrapped up in a box, isn’t the norm anymore. According to the National Retail Federation, 52.8% of people surveyed would like to receive a gift card for the holidays, up from 48.4% two years earlier. Experiential gifts are the ideal solution to the giftgiving dilemma, by enabling consumers to give the gift of enrichment, with life-enhancing experiences. Know a budding photographer or somebody who’s ready to take their skills to their next level? A gift certificate to a photography class would be the perfect experiential gift. Berger-Bros Camera stores offer over 60 hands-on seminars, workshops and classes at all three of their locations (listed below). Topics cover everything from camera instruction and lighting to software, portraiture and more. In addition, they hold special off-site workshops with exciting topics such as “Shoot the Moon” on December 9th and Shooting the Orchid Show” at the New York Botanical Garden next March. Photographer and Instructor Yvonne Berger says “Giving an experience that speaks to the interests and passions of the person receiving the gift, shows you really have taken the time to select something that brings a new experience, dimension and insight into someone’s life.” They also offer a free DSLR 101 class with each new camera purchase along with one free class from the manufacturer for that particular camera model. To register for a class immediately call 516-762-3056. Gift certificates can be purchased online at Berger-Bros.com or at any of their locations in the Long Island area.
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/// The BLack FrIday shoPPer
When it comes to sniffing out the best deals on black Friday, Jordan malik, 43, of Levittown has it down to a science. He’s been braving the herds of holiday shoppers packing retailers nationwide the day after Thanksgiving for the past decade and issuing advice to those looking to get in on the action since 2009 on his website, resellblackFriday.com. “When the crowd is going one way, I’m going the other,” he says. “You want to be able to go back to your friends to say ‘I got the latest PlayStation.’ but nobody wants to hear that you got a great deal on a toaster or a crock pot.” but he’s found that the odds are slim for most people scoring those insane deals on a 50-inch flatscreen TV, so he targets the best deals on toys, kitchenware and small electronics, such as a knife set for $9.99 after rebate that sells for at least triple that. His best tip? check out Slickdeals.net. He’s not one to camp out overnight and cautions against unnecessarily sacrificing sleep over the hype. recalling the trampling death of a 34-year-old Valley Stream Walmart worker on black Friday five years ago, he asks: “Is any deal worth your life?”
/// The chrIsTmas Tree Farmer Michael Koutsoubis is one of the few people who can say his money grows on trees. The owner of Mike’s Christmas Tree Farm in Manorville sows saplings in the Pines Barrens all year, same as he has for the 31 before, for the one month when families annually flock to saw them down, $11 per foot ($16 for Blue Spruce). It’s among the closest chop-your-own-tree farms to New York City. “I love to plant trees,” the 76-year-old Greek immigrant says in his greenhouse. “This kind of business is not to be rich; it’s just to pay the taxes and maybe a couple extra dollars.” It helps when the snow waits until the end of December and deer don’t scratch their horns on the merchandise. Fifteen years ago, he sold half the 10-acre plot to Matthew Marple, who named his cut Matt’s Christmas Tree Farm, halved by a dirt road made by a developer who wanted to build houses. The two work together and patrons tell them which farm they found their tree on. “It’s a really short season, but we do the best we can,” Koutsoubis says. “If you love something and want it to be right, you have to put a lot of work.”
FOUR CORNERS
///saInT nIck
ONE COMMON THREAD
--By TImoThy BoLger tbolger@longislandpress.com
/// The BeLL rInger If every time a bell rings an angel gets their wings, as is said in the classic movie It’s a Wonderful Life, then Sharon Williams is making countless spirits fly. The 61-year-old Riverhead woman is a bell ringer for the Salvation Army, reminding Long Islanders that the holiday season is not just about receiving, but giving as well. “It just touches my heart to see how generous people are,” Williams says as passersby stuff change and bills into the red kettle beside her outside the King Kullen in Hampton Bays. “We cannot receive if we don’t give back.” There are the regulars who donate daily, kids who stop by to empty their piggy banks to the charity and the occasional giver of a big bill. They all make it worth standing outside in the frigid air for eight hours, she says with a permanent smile, while shoppers stock up on supplies for a coming winter storm. “I embrace the cold,” Williams says. “I don’t let the weather stop me.” It helps that she makes plenty of friends who share their stories all day long. “I think I was chosen to do this because I’m very spiritual,” she says. “At my age to stand here, I’m just so blessed.”
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It’s not always posing for pictures under a 30-foot Christmas tree at Roosevelt Field Mall with children asking for puppies or the occasional monkey. Sometimes, such as after Sandy, the requests Santa Claus hears are more serious. “The children were asking not for toys,” says Kris Kringle of the North Pole. “They were asking for homes, heat and light.” He can’t make any promises, just replies: “I’ll see what I can do.” It doesn’t take a superstorm for heavy hearts to land in his lap, either. A terminally ill woman got on her knees and begged him for help. The father of a soldier killed in action handed him a thank you card—addressed to Santa from Dad—that read that “he really didn’t know if [Santa] was real or not and he had just lost a son in a war he didn’t believe in and he wanted to believe.” But, the endless supply of hugs ease the tough days. “Some people around the holidays, they really carry some heavy burdens... so Santa’s job is just to get a smile,” he says. “When they start doubting, I say to the children: If you don’t believe in Santa Claus, think of all the fun that you are missing!”
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Our Recommendations for the Month
chrIs’ PIck MILES DAVIS: THE ORIGINAL MONO RECORDINGS (coLumBIa/sony Legacy) released just as the cold, blustery arctic winds of winter solidify any recollections of the summer into memories frozen in time, this historic box set likewise blows away all previous early collections of The Price of darkness, further transforming the unfolding season’s icy lonely tundra into somber-yet-triumphant notes of glorious colors, heat and beauty. It consists of nine albums recorded between 1956 and 1961—in mini-LP replica jackets— and includes rare editions previously unreleased in any miles davis collection in the United States. Let the jazz blizzard begin.
sPencer’s PIck WINNING ALBANY: UNTOLD STORIES ABOUT THE fAMOUS AND NOT SO fAMOUS By Jerry kremer (new Idea Press) This charming little book recounts the odyssey of Arthur “Jerry” Kremer, once dubbed by The New York Times as Long Island’s “most effective Legislator,” who went from selling custard on the boardwalk in Long beach to sponsoring more than 250 state laws in Albany as a democratic Assemblyman and a powerful committee chairman. He’s hobnobbed with Nelson rockefeller, robert Kennedy, Hillary rodham clinton, Pope John Paul II, and a colorful assortment of characters in between. It’s not literature but it is invaluable as a heartfelt, honest history lesson on New York politics because Jerry sheds light on what really went on in those smoke-filled rooms behind closed doors. And along the way, we learn what good government is all about—and how hard it is to achieve.
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TomoThy’s PIck Trees Just because winter starts this month, doesn’t mean gardeners’ green thumbs must hibernate until spring. The cold months are the best times to plant trees, horticulturists say, because they can use the time to establish roots and will be ready to bloom when the weather gets warm again. Aside from the joy of watching something grow, planting a tree can be timed to mark a special occasion—or dedicated to someone’s memory—and, when it’s fully grown, save homeowners’ money on their energy bill by providing shade. Of course, it’s best to stick with trees native to Long Island, such as this pitch pine, rather than invasive species such as Norway maple, Japanese barberry or rusty Willow.
rashed’s PIck saVor Thermos TumBLer Secret’s out, LI: I’m getting married— which, of course, is pretty awesome. Her name is Jennifer, and she’s pretty awesome, too. but here’s the thing: I need to seriously start saving some cash. So during one of my trips to Target I stumbled upon a Savor thermos tumbler, which is advertised for tea drinkers and claims to keep liquids hot for up to six hours. I bought it, tested it, and poof—it works! Instead of tea, I fill it up with coffee (my name is rashed, and I’m an addict) and pour it into a mug religiously at about 2 p.m. every day. Sadly, I have removed myself from the Press’ legendary coffee runs—for now. It’s time for penny pinching, and I’m willing to do my part. I’m pretty sure this thermos is just the start.
I’m meant
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piE dElight: loafers bakery in locust valley offers sweet pies for the holidays.
hoT PLaTe
Sweetie Pies
Chef Tasting
L.I’s BakerIes heaT uP For hoLIday sugar rush
Happy Hour Seasonal Menu Wine & Beer Tastings Speakeasy Cocktails Catering for All Events 399 MONTAUK HIGHWAY WEST ISLIP NY, 11795 631 587 2844 www.rootsli.com
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By rashed mIan rmian@longislandpress.com
The sweet, intoxicating aroma of pies and other heavenly treats inside Loafers Bakery greets the mom-and-pop’s chilly customers with a warm, sugary hug. This old-fashioned Locust Valley bakery with country charm and cheery workers has been filling bellies with sweet delights for 27 years under its current ownership. The bakery has evolved from its humbling beginnings as a basic cheese and bread shop to become a bustling store that offers everything from salads and homemade soups to wraps and frozen dinners. But it’s the pies, cakes, cookies, baked brie and delicious pastries—all homemade—that drive its customers wild. And this is the season when everything comes to life inside the bakery. Lauren Foley owns the shop with her brother and her parents—her father proud to be dubbed the administrator; her mother, especially cheerful in the face of a hot oven. The four of them are excited—and genuinely honored—that their sweet and floury creations will end up on hundreds, if not thousands, of dinner tables this holiday season. Yet this time of year is “bitter sweet,” Foley admits. Orders need to be completed in a hurry and the shop will have to quickly transition for Christmas because Thanksgiving fell so late this year (Nov. 28). The tired staff will have to get right back to work.
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“It’s great because you get a rush off of the work, and it’s great that you see all your stuff out there, and the people just absolutely love it, and they’re saying how great everything is, but it’s exhausting also,” she says. The pies are the one constant. Pies are by far the dominant Thanksgiving dessert, but it’s not like customers forget about them once Christmas rolls around. Loafers, along with many of its baking brethren across the Island, will continue to churn out pies for the holidays, while completing other orders of Christmas-themed cakes and cookies. Cherry pie is a December hit (probably because it’s red, Foley says). Also on top of people’s lists are apple pie, chocolate cream pie, and apple crumb pie, she notes. There’s also mincemeat, a traditional English pie which Loafers marinates with brandy and is stuffed with candied fruit instead of meat. Loafers makes 8-inch and 10-inch pies fresh to order, but also offers 9-inch refrigerated pies that are made out of gram-cracker crust. “Thanksgiving is our rehearsal for Christmas,” Foley says. Things are a little different over at Youngs Farm in Glen Head. The farm, founded in 1892, was exclusively wholesale until owner Paula Youngs Weir opened a farm stand in the 1970s. A bakery soon followed. cONTINUed ON PAGe 52
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Wild flours bake shop (top) has loyal customers that swear by its gluten-free menu. Youngs farm (bottom) prepares about 3,000 pies thanksgiving week, and expects to sell just as many for Christmas. cONTINUed FrOm PAGe 50
VOTE FOR US!
EXPIRES 12/30/13
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“I think it’s something that’s grown a lot lately,” says Tim Dooley, Weir’s son-in-law and the farm’s manager, on a recent weekend. Customers can choose from baskets filled with fresh fruits and vegetables and other grocery items before making their way to the rear, where a line of shoppers chooses from the farm’s large selection of pies: apple, apple crisp, pumpkin and cranberry nut, among others. Dooley expects pies to be in high demand once shoppers’ tryptophanturkey coma dissipates. Youngs offers both small ($15.50$16.50) and large ($18-$24) fresh pies. The bakery’s staff of about 10 to 15 workers makes all the dough from scratch. It also helps that the bakery sits on 12 acres it owns and an additional 25 acres it rents from Nassau County, which allows them to use the fresh ingredients they grow themselves. “I think that’s what the secret is, just old-fashioned hard work,” Dooley smiles. In three years, Carolyn Arcario, co-owner of Wild Flours Bake Shop in Huntington, has developed a devoted following of customers delighted to have a bakery that offers gluten-free sweets, dairy-free, organic and vegan items. “It’s basically a natural bakery, and people love that aspect of it,” says
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Arcario, who was inspired to open the bakery with her sister because of her own gluten allergy. Nestled in the heart of Huntington’s busy shopping district, the bakery strives to “have everything taste as delicious—or more delicious—than the standard” bakery desserts, she says. The bakery/café offers an assortment of 10-inch pies for Thanksgiving that will be available through December. Wild Flours’ menu is replete with flavorful baked goods, including apple pie, pumpkin pie, crumb-top caramel apple pie and chocolate moose pie. Some will be cut from the menu come Christmas to make room for its seasonal cakes. “It used to be that Thanksgiving was just the eating holiday,” Arcario says. Not anymore. Bakeries across Long Island have enjoyed brisk sales since the calendar turned to fall, and things aren’t expected to die down until after the New Year. Foley says the six-week period from mid-November to Christmas is responsible for 40 percent of annual sales. And there’s plenty of more baking to do. “You put in a lot of 18 hour days; you have no choice,” she says. “You just have to work until the work is done.” LI’s many hungry holiday bellies are thankful.
Market bistro opened in Jericho two years ago and its farm-to-table menu has become an instant hit.
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Long IsLand PRess event LIstIngs foR deceMbeR 2013
Spacehog
Megadeth
These ’90s anti-grunge Brit glam rockers, formed in NYC, are out with their third album, As It Is on Earth, after a long hiatus—minus lead singer Royston Langdon’s brother, Anthony. “I think our experience in life has softened the edges of that particularly glittery thing that we had when we were 21 year olds running around the East Village freebasing our own underpants,” Royston tells the Press. Read the interview on LongIslandPress.com. With Sponge, Lionize, Trapper Schoepp & The Shades. The Emporium, 9 Railroad Ave., Patchogue. theemporiumny.com $17-$20. 6 p.m. december 5
Presented by WBAB, this “Super Collider Tour” lightning strike is heavy metal mayhem at its finest. Will Mega frontman Dave Mustaine bust out some “Rust In Peace” and “Hangar 18”? One can only hope. With Fear Factory & nonpoint. The Paramount, 370 New York Ave., Huntington. paramountny.com $44.50-$99.50. 8 p.m. december 3
Kenny Rogers The Country Music Hall of Famer will be performing hits from his more than six-decade career, hopefully including crowd favorite “The Gambler.” With Linda Davis. NYCB Theatre at Westbury, 960 Brush Hollow Rd., Westbury. www.westburymusicfair.org $39.50-$62.50. 8 p.m. december 4
Rachael Ray
The lovable Food Network star will be signing her latest cookbook Week in a Day. Book Revue, 313 New York Ave., Huntington. www.bookrevue.com 6 p.m. december 4
Christmas With the Roosevelts
The Cult
British rock mystics Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy will undoubtedly be bringing down the house with their addictively ferocious cannon of hits, including (hopefully) “Edie (Ciao Baby)” and the bombshell “Fire Woman.” Join up. The Paramount, 370 New York Ave., Huntington. paramountny.com $39.50, $49 & $75.9 p.m. december 6
Dennis Miller
Presented by the Paramount Comedy Series. The Paramount, Caroling, arts & crafts, hot apple cider and cocoa, Mr. James Foote!? Of course! 370 New York Ave., Huntington. paramountny.com The Theodore Roosevelt impersonator is a fixture at these sorts of galas—he $39.50-99.50. 8 p.m. looks just like the big fella and will be sharing stories about how the Roosevelts december ecember 5 spent their Christmases! Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, 20 Sagamore Hill Rd., Oyster Bay. Free. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. december 7
Daughtry The Long Island Rail Road Massacre: 20 Years Later Filmmaker Charlie Minn resurrects the tragic rush-hour slaying that still lingers on the minds of many Long Islanders in this powerfully moving documentary, screening at CAC on the tragedy’s 20th anniversary. He’ll be on hand to discuss the film, along with Rep. Carolyn McCarthy and several survivors. Cinema Arts Centre, 423 Park Ave., Huntington. www.cinemaartscentre.org $10 members/$15 public; includes reception. 2 p.m. december 7
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Unplugged with his acoustic trio and the Adam Ezra Group. The former American Idol finalist belts out hit after hit in support of his latest album, Baptized. The Paramount, 370 New York Ave., Huntington. paramountny. com $30-$75. 8 p.m. december 9
Thomas Maier
The investigative journalist will sign copies of his book Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the Couple Who Taught America How to Love Love, which is now a Showtime hit. Book Revue, 313 New York Ave., Huntington. www.bookrevue.com 7 p.m. december 6
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Matisyahu
Stan Wiest
The self-professed Hasidic reggae superstar is touring in support of his Festival of Light. With Kosha Dillz. The Space at Westbury, 250 Post Ave., Westbury. www.thespaceatwestbury.com $30 advance/$35 DOS. 7 p.m. doors/8 p.m. show. december 10
After years touring the world playing piano with The Rat Pack, in soap operas and in movies, this 70-year-old Fort Salonga resident has released his brilliant debut solo album, Music to Drive By, which he’ll sign for fans at Forest Books, 182 Birch Hill Rd., Locust Valley. Free. 7 p.m. december 12
Pink
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
The sexy songstress knows how to put on one hell of a show; possibly with aerial gymnastics, always with killer songs. Don’t miss this. With The Hives. Barclays Center, 620 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn. Barclayscenter.com $39.50$142.85. 7:30 p.m. december 8 & 9
The holiday classic, on the big screen. Oh yeah. The YMCA Boulton Center, 37 W. Main St., Bay Shore. Boultoncenter.org $8. 7:30 p.m. december 11
Nick Kroll
Avril Lavigne
The Paramount, 370 New York Ave., Huntington. paramountny. com $45, $55 & $75. 8 p.m. december 11
The Comedy Central and The League funny man is sure to leave you in stitches. Literally!? Hope not. Can guarantee at least your belly will hurt from laughing so damn hard. The Space at Westbury, 250 Post Ave., Westbury. www. thespaceatwestbury.com $35, $25. 8 p.m. december 14
Eileen Ivers
Experience An Nollaig, “An Irish Christmas,” the way you should: surrounded by friends and loved ones, enjoying great traditional Irish songs, and of course, doing the jig! The YMCA Boulton Center, 37 W. Main St., Bay Shore. Boultoncenter.org $45. 8 p.m. december 13
Seal Walks Take a leisurely two-to-three-
Queens of the Stone Age
hour stroll among these whiskery, flippery friends—just don’t try to bring one home, as Press contributor Peter Chin and his family once did—or you’ll be receiving a visit from the DEC! Montauk Point State Park, nysparks.com $4 adults/$3 children 3-18 years old. Call 631668-5000 for times. december 14, 15, 28 & 29
The self-professed California desert “robot rockers” hit NYC in support of their latest … Like Clockwork and rip through tunes spanning their nearly two-decade long career. With The Kills. Barclays Center, 620 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn. Barclayscenter.com $29.50-71.35. 8 p.m. december 14
governors is comedy
gift cards available
the biggest names in all of comedy, coming to a club near you! reserve your tickets now online before they’re gone!
dave attell c
vic dibitetto
general hospital soap show
rachel feinstein
@ m guires in bohemia one night only friday, 12/6
@ the brokerage friday, 12/6 @ mcguires saturday, 12/7
@ mcguires saturday, 12/7
@ the brokerage in bellmore friday, 12/13 saturday, 12/14
rich vos
jessica kirson
robert kelly
rosie o’donnell
@ the brokerage in bellmore friday, 1/3 saturday, 1/4
@ the brokerage in bellmore one night only friday, 1/10
visit our websites for a complete listing of upcoming shows & to buy tickets online 56
laura wright
@ the brokerage in bellmore friday, 1/24 saturday, 1/25 governor’s 90 Division Ave., Levittown (Behind Tri-County Shop Center)
@ governors in levittown friday, 1/31 saturday, 2/1 the brokerage 2797 Merrick Rd, Bellmore (Corner of Bellmore Ave)
nick dipaolo
@ governors in levittown friday, 12/13 saturday, 12/14
gilbert gottfried
@ the brokerage in bellmore one night only saturday, 2/1
mcguire’s 1627 Smithtown Ave, Bohemia (Across from The Holiday Inn)
516-731-3358 516-781-LAFF 631-467-5413 5
2 3 3
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GOVERNORS COmEdy
dATE: 11-29-13 Publication: LI Press Size: 8.75 x 2.719 (¼ Page Horizontal)
jackie “the jokeman” martling c
new years eve shows
tom cotter
sebastian maniscalco c
@ m guires one night only saturday, 12/14
@ governors friday, 2/7 saturday, 2/8 @ mcguires sunday, 2/9
@ all 3 clubs 7:30 & 10:15 showtimes
@ m guires thursday, 4/3 @ governors fri 4/4-sun 4/6
www.govs.com
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Linda Ronstadt A one-night-only cinematic tribute to this legendary singer and recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominee documenting her accomplished career through rare concert clips and archival footage. Cinema Arts Centre, 423 Park Ave., Huntington. www. cinemaartscentre.org $10 members, $15 public. 7:30 p.m. december 17
Newt & Callista Gingrich The Newtler and his latest squeeze will be signing their newest books Breakout: Pioneers of the Future, Prison Guards of the Past, and the Epic Battle That Will Decide America’s Fate and Yankee Doodle Dandy, respectively. Book Revue, 313 New York Ave., Huntington. www.bookrevue.com 7 p.m. december 17
Gavin DeGraw
With Austin Lucas. The Paramount, 370 New York Ave., Huntington. paramountny.com $49.50, $59.50 & $99.50. 8 p.m. december 15
Brand New
Long Island emo at its gushiest. The Paramount, 370 New York Ave., Huntington. paramountny.com $35, $39 & $42. 8 p.m. december 20
Theresa Caputo
John Mayer
With Phillip Phillips. Barclays Center, 620 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn. Barclayscenter.com $55-$99.95. 7 p.m. december 17
The sassy Long Island Medium star will be channeling the audience’s loved ones and passing along messages from the other side. NYCB Theatre at Westbury, 960 Brush Hollow Rd., Westbury. westburymusicfair.org $59.50$79.50. 8 p.m. december 18 through 21
Inside the Mind of Llewyn Davis
The latest from Ethan and Joel Coen finds a struggling folk singer navigating the 1960s Greenwich Village and us gathered at CAC watching him do it. Killer soundtrack, btw. Cinema Arts Centre, 423 Park Ave., Huntington. www.cinemaartscentre.org $10 members, $15 public. Check website for showtimes. december 20
LIRR wrapped its holiday packages with special savings.
Taking the LIRR into the city for the holidays isn’t just about avoiding traffic and gridlock. It’s about saving money, too. Package deals to The Radio City Christmas Spectacular® and A Christmas Story, The Musical® at The Theater at Madison Square Garden include free round-trip rail travel and $10 off select show tickets. Planning to stroll 5th Avenue or Bryant Park, shop at Macy’s,® see the tree and skate at Rockefeller Center, visit a museum or dine? Save with Off-Peak Ten Trip discounted tickets. Or choose our Family Fare of $1 per child each way for up to four children (age 5-11) when travelling with an adult (18 and over). And our extra Christmas, New Year’s and weekend service will let you enjoy it all even more. For details, call 511 and say “LIRR” or visit mta.info/lirr.
# LIRR MTALIRR
©2013 Metropolitan Transportation Authority
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20 Years Of Live Music • 14 Craft Beer Taps • Salty Conversations
SIX BANDS FRI. DEC. 6 WHO DO LOUNGERS SAT. DEC. 7 BEERYS ANNUAL CHRISTMAS PARTY SUN. DEC. 22, 3PM X-MAS SPECIAL $3 SHOTS $7 PINTS LIVE MUSIC EVERY FRI & SAT NIGHT IN DEC. FINALLY BALANCED & BOFUNK BROS. SAT. DEC. 28 EAST ROCKAWAY 451-453 Atlantic Ave. East Rockaway N.Y. 11518
WWW.MRBEE W ERYS.COM OM
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These Events Going On At MrBeerys Bethpage
B E T H PA G E 4019 Hempstead Tpke. Bethpage N.Y. 11714
w w w . m r b e e r y s . c o m
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Bayside Queens emo sensations. With Man Overboard, NK & Modern Baseball. The Paramount, 370 New York Ave., Huntington. paramountny.com $20, $35. 8 p.m. december 27
Beyonce
The multitalented siren shares her soulful blend of funk, R&B, rock and roll, and African beats with NYC in a show sure to dazzle all those in attendance. The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour. Barclays Center, 620 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn. Barclayscenter.com $49.50-$254.50. 8 p.m. december 19 & 22
Ms. Lauryn Hill
The former Fugees member and multiGrammy Award-winning singer brings a whole lotta groove, soul and heart to Huntington, performing rhymes and melodies from her colorful career and hopefully several from 1998’s mega-hit The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Fresh off a three-month stint for tax evasion, she’s come to educate, and of course, rock. The Paramount, 370 New York Ave., Huntington. paramountny.com $75 & $100. 9 p.m. december 26
Patti Smith
The punk poet rocker and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s performances bend and twist at the magnetic fields that bond together the expressive worlds of music and words and art; somehow always resulting in beauty. Not to be missed. The Space at Westbury, 250 Post Ave., Westbury. www.thespaceatwestbury.com $35. 7:30 p.m. doors/8:30 p.m. show. december 27
Billy Joel
Pitbull
It’s not a beach in Ibiza, but it’ll do just fine. With Prince Royce & Jump Smokers. Barclays Center, 620 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn. Barclayscenter.com $40-$148.95. 7:30 p.m. december 26
Serenading the ivory, in New York City, solo, for the first time since 2006, LI’s Piano Man will be ushering in the New Year with a bottle of red, a bottle of white and an extra-huge bottle of champagne. So will we. With Ben Folds Five. Barclays Center, 620 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn. Barclayscenter.com $64.50-$239. 9:30 p.m. december 31
fOR MORE EVENTS THROUGHOUT DECEMBER CHECK OUT LONGISLANDPRESS.COM
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Holiday Events
December AT PLANTING FIELDS
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PLANTING FIELDS FOUNDATION’S CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION, DECK THE HALLS
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CONNOISSEURS DAY AT COE HALL
Friday, December 6th, 2013 / 6:30pm – 9:30pm at Coe Hall Cocktail buffet, live music by Bob Merrill’s Band, silent auction, sushi bar and live ice sculpture carving. For details, reservations, or sponsorship opportunities, contact Jennifer Lavella (516) 922-8678 or jlavella@plantingfields.org.
Sunday, December 8th, 2013 / 12:00pm - 4:00pm / $3.50 Non-Members / Members and children under 12 are free Planting Fields celebrates its Centennial in December 2013.One hundred artifacts and works of art have been acquired to furnish Coe Hall. For more information contact Gwendolyn L. Smith (516) 922-8680 or gsmith@plantingfields.org.
13 9TH ANNUAL TREE LIGHTING & VISIT FROM SANTA
Friday, December 13th, 2013 / Free Admission & Activities! / No Parking Fee! / 6:00pm – 8:00pm / Tree will be lit at 6:00pm Caroling by the Barber Shop Quartet, Hot Cocoa and refreshments at the Hay Barn/Visitor Center. Coe Hall Mansion decorated for the season will be open for self-guided visits. Visit with Santa until 7:30pm in Main Greenhouse Classroom.
13 MUSIC AT THE MANSION – A NEW CONCERT SERIES – VIS-À-VIS
Friday, December 13th, 2013 / 6:00pm at Coe Hall Mansion / $20 Non-Member / FREE for Members / No Parking Fee Eurasian musicians mix East with West, classical with rock, acoustic with electronic. For tickets contact Antigone Zaharakis (516) 922-8668 or education@plantingfields.org, or Jennifer Lavella (516) 922-8678 or jlavella@plantingfields.org.
14 HOLIDAY WEEKEND AT COE HALL 15
Sat. and Sun., Dec. 14th & 15th, 2013 / 11:00am – 4:00pm / $10 Admission Fee / FREE for members and children under 12 Coe Hall Mansion decorated in holiday style. See Santa, the Madrigal Singers, and watch Scrooge (Sat.) or Jack Frost (Sun.) by Plaza Theatrical Productions in the Great Hall. Show times for Scrooge and Jack Frost are 2:30pm.
GINGERBREAD HOUSE MAKING SESSIONS
11:00am – 4:00pm at Coe Hall / Every hour on the hour – 10 children per session, first come, first served
POINSETTIA & CYCLAMEN GREENHOUSE DISPLAY 22
10:00am – 4:00pm Daily in the Main Greenhouse
HOLIDAY SING-A-LONG AND SING-IN
Sunday, December 22nd, 2013 / 2:00pm and 4:00pm / Coe Hall / $10 Non-Members / Free for Members Featuring the FAMOUS "12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS" audience participation blockbuster! Your favorite holiday songs, performed by Frances C. Roberts and Company. For tickets contact Jennifer Lavella (516) 922-8678 or jlavella@plantingfields.org.
FoR MoRE iNFo viSiT PlANTiNGFiElDS.oRG oR CAll 516-922-8678 Planting Fields Foundation • Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park 1395 Planting Fields Rd., Oyster Bay, New York 11771 L o n g I s L a n d P r e s s f o r d e c e m b e r , 2 0 1 3 / / / w w w. L o n g I s L a n d P r e s s . c o m
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Double Xword Pt.1 Body hITs ACROSS 1 ill-chosen 6 see 126-across 13 grand - (sporty pontiacs) 16 tattoo fluid 19 port south of Milan 20 Milan opera house 21 “Citizen x” star stephen 22 “oh, give - home ...” 23 1988 hit for breathe 25 lax letters 26 poor review 27 Co. kingpin 28 1972 hit for the o’Jays 31 Water color 34 answer an invite 38 dot- 39 invention’s origin
40 1974 hit for John denver 47 “Evita” star lupone 48 “sugar, sugar” group, with “the” 49 parts of dols. 50 1975 hit for america 54 Machines near mice 57 provide relief 58 see 59-across 59 With 58-across, guys-only 60 kansas town 61 Moves on ice 63 Cordial 68 take a dip 69 Jazzy horne 70 1982 hit for the alan parsons project 74 funny Jay
Last Month’s Answers SOmethiNg iN COmmON
ANSWerS cAN ALSO be FOUNd ONLINe! GO TO FAcebOOK.cOm/LONGISLANdPreSS.
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75 Eons 76 absorption process 77 Mafia’s code of silence 79 overly quick 80 “spring forward” hrs. 81 - beach (atlantic coast city in florida) 83 “- dieu!” 84 raised trains 85 2000 hit for Creed 92 sue grafton’s “for undertow” 93 statistic in a used-car ad 94 Mentions 96 1976 hit for Elton John and kiki dee 102 gulf country 103 lago feeder 104 “- i say!” 105 assassinate 106 1994 hit for boyz ii Men 112 biblical suffix 114 Cotillion girl 115 always, in a sonnet 116 1985 hit for tears for fears 123 before, in a sonnet 124 brow’s curve 125 goddess of the hunt 126 With 6-across, “all shook up” singer 127 barrett of rock 128 Mao follower? 129 one who’s hardly saintly 130 tickle a ton DOWN 1 “disgusting!” 2 Museum-funding org.
3 raggedy 4 Web feeds 5 stun with a charge 6 fatah’s gp. 7 Cheering cry 8 Jargon suffix 9 antiunionist 10 volcano flow 11 Certain util. 12 pull sharply 13 retort to “am not!” 14 brand of fiber powder 15 swedish car 16 hamper 17 not so far 18 olathe locale 24 “Crucify” singer amos 29 learning inst. 30 offers 31 Cleo’s doom 32 somewhat within the law 33 Messy state 35 Copy a cur 36 border (on) 37 a little, in music 41 blackjack request 42 bruins’ gp. 43 prefix with life or wife 44 “- -haw!” (rodeo yell) 45 irs form info 46 piece of mail: abbr. 51 tranquility 52 linden and prince 53 supermodel Wek 54 hard rock subgenre 55 Most of the 1990s, politically 56 person from pago pago 57 harshly bright 60 dot in a lake
62 bit, as of salt 63 point a rifle 64 trio before p 65 “tgif” part 66 Yellowfin tuna, on some menus 67 Wanna- - (imitators) 71 baseballer Eddie or footballer fielding 72 book before Job: abbr. 73 long ago 78 be a sponge
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80 ailments 81 actor Mortensen 82 abnormal plant swelling 85 freak (out) 86 “botch- -” (1952 hit) 87 narrow estuary 88 Jan. b’day honoree 89 six, in italy 90 Mage’s stick 91 lower pastry crust 92 - reader (bimonthly magazine)
95 hog’s place 96 some electron tubes 97 really testy 98 hauled in 99 satirical dictionary writer ambrose 100 diviner’s tool 101 belgian river 107 not messy 108 genghis 109 stout’s Wolfe 110 “... could - horse!” 111 blissful plot
113 fare-well link 117 texter’s “Wow!” 118 “C’est la -!” 119 Class for aliens: abbr. 120 longoria of the screen 121 kindled 122 vane abbr.
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Double Xword Pt.2 scIence oF FLIghT ACROSS 1 “slow down!” 5 Come again 10 Cather who wrote “o pioneers!” 15 sport of rowing 19 sacred vow 20 all by oneself 21 brand of fat substitute 22 Jokey Jay 23 start of a riddle 25 hair tint stuff 26 two of Caesar’s last words 27 potpourri bag 28 stubborn 30 scottish kid 31 riddle, part 2
35 inebriate 38 “- to recall ...” 39 recounts 40 hosp. test in a large tube 41 three, to aldo 42 pacific yellowfin tuna 45 bar on “the simpsons” 46 riddle, part 3 54 like most crossword puzzle grids 55 butyl ender 56 diminutive, like abner 57 Call home 59 spanish ayes
Last Month’s Answers FACtuAl VAlue
ANSWerS cAN ALSO be FOUNd ONLINe! GO TO FAcebOOK.cOm/LONGISLANdPreSS.
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61 novelist lucy Montgomery 63 Moises of baseball 67 soda holder 68 riddle, part 4 74 gold, to aldo 75 professional org. 76 tribe of the southwest 77 santa -, California 78 1980s dodge model 80 nuptial affirmation 82 usCg officer 84 northern terminus of i-79 88 riddle, part 5 94 “Would - to You?” (1985 hit song) 95 implore 96 prince - khan (rita hayworth’s third husband) 97 freud’s “one” 98 owner of tv’s fantasy island 102 trompe - (visual illusion in art) 105 abrupt 107 End of the riddle 111 suleman who’s called “octomom” 112 dark genre of modern film 113 arctic sight 117 at the apex 118 alternative to marinara 119 riddle’s answer 122 state bird of hawaii 123 natty scarf 124 “that’s what telling you!”
125 plus others: abbr. 126 sweet drinks 127 film director sergio 128 kid watcher 129 Car part, in britain DOWN 1 bowls over 2 “how funny” 3 Ear-relevant 4 “gesundheit” preceder 5 lots and lots 6 rEo part 7 singer david allan 8 remove cargo from 9 Cochineal or eosin, say 10 fishing lures 11 hipbone-related 12 beatle John 13 first survey datum, often 14 actress sue langdon 15 oxy 5 rival 16 hue anew 17 Main course 18 injuries 24 Weight 29 shoot for 30 soldier’s cap 32 Weary 33 1972 bill Withers hit 34 gator cousin 35 sporty autos 36 la salle of the screen 37 in - (as found) 41 dissertation 43 kept free, as a date 44 “see - care” 47 “slung” food
48 “from girls to grrrlz” author robbins 49 “don’t tread -” 50 beach area 51 tent part 52 Caesar’s “i conquered” 53 “almighty” one of film 58 surrey loc. 60 high figs. for geniuses 62 alien vehicle 64 Jean- - ponty of jazz
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65 Model of the solar system 66 lay claim to 68 all - often 69 author bombeck 70 state west of r.i. 71 platoon, e.g. 72 bathtub stain 73 israeli burp guns 79 individuals’ sets of genetic determinants 81 give the name 83 iberian land
85 Water jug 86 frat letters 87 superior 89 bow who had “it” 90 breezy 91 toy dog type 92 icy house 93 “- Enchanted” 98 “hasta -!” 99 like many non-family films 100 Worked over 101 Composer georges 103 root
104 “that’s it!” 105 burrito’s kin 106 hole for a lace 108 boarded 109 govt.-issued security 110 hardly brave 114 french statesman rené 115 petri dish gel 116 tv marine gomer 118 Crony 120 five pairs 121 nightfall, in verse
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Horoscopes sagITTarIus November 22 to december 21
caPrIcorn december 22 to January 19
aquarIus
January 20 to February 18
PIsces
February 19 to march 20
arIes march 21 to April 19
Taurus April 20 to may 20
gemInI may 21 to June 20
cancer June 21 to July 22
decemBer By PsychIcdeB
financially you’ll probably be in good shape as long as you pay extra attention to details throughout the first half of the month. Your luck in monetary matters will be excellent but you might shoot yourself in the foot by making simple mistakes that squander your opportunities.
avoid important monetary decisions until midmonth. later in the month you can improve your communications with your boss or co-workers. if various things have been left unsaid on the job, get them out into the open. no need for shouting, a cool comment or two will do.
Your mate or closest partner could be doing a slow burn about something, making you figure out what the problem is. Expect to be met with resistance in your attempts to improve the situation. You might want to rearrange your portfolio during this period of financial stagnation.
one area of happiness now will be your relations with a group of friends or professional associations. do plenty of socializing and concentrate on being a good team player. be prepared for some surprises and shake-ups on the job after midmonth. You may feel as if everything you do to advance a romantic relationship backfires. it’s possible that your relationship is in a testing period. You and your mate feel the unconscious need to shake things up just to be sure you’re on solid ground.
if there’s been a serious misunderstanding between you and your employer, it can be cleared up after mid-month. define the terms of the problem as clearly as possible and end the confusion. You’ll also have a second chance to take an opportunity you’ve missed earlier.
long-distance communication continues to give you headaches after the 16th. You won’t be able to trust information unless you can verify it personally. it’s not that you’re being deceived, but rather that things are getting lost in translation. You may have to do some traveling to clear up a confusing issue. after the 4th, amorous venus in your solar 7th house of significant others gives you the celestial green light to take a chance on romance. if you’re single, by all means, get out and meet some new people.
Leo
You need some down time; soon you’ll have a renewed sense of direction and your energy will be at its peak. before that happens you must give your inner life its due. You need rest and some space to think things over.
VIrgo
intimate venus spends most of the month in your solar 5th house of romance. if you’re looking for love, this is the best time to take some chances. do what you can to socialize and meet new people.
July 23 to August 22
August 23 to September 22
LIBra
September 23 to October 22
scorPIo
October 23 to November 21
You may suffer some setbacks in your pursuit of an important goal and even consider abandoning a long-held dream. don’t give up hope, the problems are only temporary. if possible, put such matters on hold for a couple of months to avoid frustration. professionally, you continue to endure a period of frustration. Cheer up, it won’t last forever. put yourself on automatic pilot for a month or two, soon you’ll have both the energy and the opportunity to advance.
IF YOU KNOW YOUR RISING SIGN, CONSULT THE HOROSCOPE FOR THAT SIGN AS WELL. PsychIcdeB has been a professional astrologer for over 25 yrs. Self-taught, she began her studies in astrology when she was 8 yrs. old learning what she could from her mother’s astrology magazines. As she got older and learned geometry, she searched for books on Astrology and taught herself how to construct a chart. She teaches Astrology for a nominal fee. Psychicdeb also uses the tarot to do psychic readings channeling her spirit guide Helen. Reiki is one of her obsessions. She is a Reiki Master and loves to teach others the benefits of Reiki. Namaste. You can find her at the Original Psychic Fairs on Sundays. A listing of the Fair dates can be found on her website at: www.astro-mate.org
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266736N1127
What Do You Want For Christmas? A Lower Mortgage Payment? A Principal Reduction? Stop A Foreclosure? You could have Them ALL! JUST MAKE THE CALL!
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