NNY Living March/April 2014

L I v I ng NN Y

MARCH / APRIL 2014 Volume 3 No. 3

nnyliving.com

JoEllen Heukrath, Deer River

A BETTER YOU STARTS NOW

Reboot your health, fitness and live your best life yet $2.95

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ARTS

Screenwriter hopes to set career in motion

FOOD

English muffin bread even Dad can bake

WELLNESS A look at the year’s top 10 fitness trends

TRAVEL

Explore the City of Brotherly Love

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>> Inside MAR /APR ’14

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28 44 COVER STORY | 32 THE BEST YOU YET From diet to exercise to how you can break through the plateau, become your best.

DESTINATIONS | 20 FANTASTIC PHILLY FUN Take flight to the a city rich in art, history, local foods.

44 FOOD | 42 ENGLISH BREAD RISES This recipe for English muffin bread is one that even the chef’s father can manage without trouble.

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SOCIAL SCENE | 24 NNY SOCIAL LIGHTS Networking for a cause at premier local events.

HEALTH & WELLNESS | 26 TOP FITNESS TRENDS The American College of Sports Medicine released its top 10 list for the new year.

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FOLKLORE | 16 WORDS THAT WORK There is something powerful about our everyday speech.

28 BUILDING A ‘BETTER U’ After a 12-week program, two north country women see their health improve.

NNY LIFE | 18 DON’T LET SAD LINGER You have plenty of options to treat seasonal depression.

ARTS | 40 EYES ON SILVER SCREEN An Ellisburg native hopes to put his film career into action.

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HISTORY | 44 FOOTPRINTS OF FRANCE From food to culture, NNY still feels the influence of the French who once called the north country home.

MY NNY | 46 WINTER PARK SUN A Canton painter shares ‘The Parkview,’ an acrylic on canvas among a series of 12 about north country life. |

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CONTRIBUTORS Varick Chittenden is founding director of Traditional Arts in Upstate New York and a SUNY Canton professor emeritus. In ‘Modern Folklore,’ he writes about the power and beauty of everyday speech in the north country. (p. 16)

Michelle Graham is the wellness director for the Downtown Watertown YMCA. She lives in Watertown. She writes about the American College of Sports Medicine’s Top 10 fitness trends for the coming year and offers some advice of her own. (p. 26)

Katie Stokes is a blogger and freelance writer who lives in Hounsfield with her husband and two small children. She runs the blog www.nnylife. com. In ‘The NNY Life,’ she outlines steps people can take to cope with seasonal depression. (p. 18)

Lenka P. Walldroff is a former museum specialist, conservator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and curator of collections for the Jefferson County Historical Society.

She writes about the impact that early French residents had on many parts of the north country. (p. 44)

Boo Wells is a chef and owner of the Farm House Kitchen, a catering company and cooking school in Sackets Harbor. She shares a recipe for English muffin bread that’s so easy, even her 88-year-old father can master it. (p. 42)

Brian T. Ortelere is a law partner with the Philadelphia firm Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP and a published author of fiction.

In 36 Hours, he writes about the history, art and culture of Philadelphia, where he lives with his wife, Gretchen. (p. 20)

Victoria Wiseman is a freelance writer stationed at Fort Drum with her husband, a U.S. Army helicopter pilot. In our cover story, she writes about how people can take charge of their health to become the best versions of themselves. (p. 32)

Grace E. Johnston is a staff writer and editorial assistant for NNY Living.

She writes about the success that two women found while participating in the American Heart Association’s north country BetterU campaign. (p. 28)

Chairman of the Board John B. Johnson Jr.

Publishers

John B. Johnson Harold B. Johnson II

VP News Operations Timothy J. Farkas

Magazine Editor

Kenneth J. Eysaman

Staff Writer / Editorial Assistant Grace E. Johnston

Photography

Norm Johnston, Justin Sorensen, Jason Hunter, Melanie Kimbler-Lago, Amanda Morrison

Director of Advertising Michael Hanson

Magazine Advertising Manager Matthew Costantino

Ad Graphics, Design

Brian Mitchell, Heather O’Driscoll, Scott Smith, Todd Soules, Rick Gaskin

Circulation Director

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MARKETPLACE

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2014 Taste of the Town ........................ 10 AmeriCU Credit Union ........................... 2 Bach & Company ................................ 30 Bayview Shores Real Estate ................ 36 Canton-Potsdam Hospital .................... 3 Clayton Chiropractic .......................... 27 Clayton Dental Office ......................... 14 Clayton Opera House ......................... 35 Clipper Inn .............................................. 8 Community Performance Series ........ 37 Cruise Planners .................................... 22 DLaux Properties .................................. 36 Dr. Estella Verdouw, ND ...................... 27 Fred’s Quick Lube ................................ 13 Fuccillo Automotive ............................ 13 Gold Cup Farms ................................... 19 Hearing Health ..................................... 27 Hospice of Jefferson County .............. 39 Immaculate Heart Central Schools ..... 8 Kay Dreyer Watkins ............................. 27 Ken Piarulli/Ameriprise ........................ 45 LP Builders ............................................. 30 DeLuke’s Garden Center, Florist & Gifts ......................................... 19 Macar’s ................................................... 9 Massey’s Furniture ............................... 39

Meade Optical .................................... 39 MJL Crushing ........................................ 30 Morgia Masonry .................................. 30 NNY Builders Exchange ...................... 45 NNY Community Foundation .............. 17 Norts & Virkler ...................................... 13 Gerald A. Nortz Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep ........................ 34 Phinney’s Automotive ......................... 13 Reinmans Department Store .............. 34 River Day Spa & Salon ......................... 37 River Hospital ....................................... 17 McCue Dental ...................................... 23 Samaritan Medical Center ................... 5 The Little Barn Bulk Foods .................... 19 Thousand Islands Realty ..................... 36 TPACC ................................................... 47 Waite Motorsports ................................ 15 Waite Toyota ........................................ 46 Walmart Vision Center ........................ 38 Watertown Daily Times ........................ 31 Watertown Savings Bank .................... 31 Watertown Spring & Alignment .......... 13 Wratten Trailer Sales ............................ 38 WWTI-TV50 .............................................. 4 Vintage Doors by YesterYear’s ........... 48

Mary Sawyer

NNY Living (ISSN 2165-1159) is published six times a year by Northern New York Newspaper Corp., 260 Washington St., Watertown, NY 13601, a Johnson Newspaper Corp. company. © 2011-2014. All material submitted to NNY Living becomes property of Northern New York Newspaper Corp., publishers of the Watertown Daily Times, and will not be returned.

Subscription Rates Six issues are $10 a year and 12 issues are $15 for two years.

Call 315-782-1000 for delivery.

Submissions Send all editorial correspondence to keysaman@wdt.net Advertising For advertising rates and information in Jefferson and Lewis counties, email mcostantino@wdt.net, or call 661-2305 In St. Lawrence County, e-mail bward@ogd.com, or call 661-2507 Printed with pride in U.S.A. at Vanguard Printing LLC, Ithaca, N.Y. a Forest Stewardship Certified facility.

Please recycle this magazine.

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THIS IS NNY

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ABOUT THE COVER

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24 THE LUCK OF THE IRISH The 29th Annual North Country Goes Green Irish Festival painted Watertown emerald shades of spring during St. Patrick’s Day weekend all while raising cash.

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COLUMNS

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8 EDITOR’S NOTE 14 MODERN FOLKLORE

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DEPARTMENTS

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18 THE NNY LIFE

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UPFRONT BEST BETS CALENDAR BOOKS SOCIAL SCENE

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WELLNESS 36 HOURS IN ...

FOOD HISTORY MY NNY

For our cover shot, staff photographer Amanda Morrison photographed JoEllen Heukrath in her Deer River kitchen. An American Heart Association north country BetterU participant, Mrs. Heukrath is surrounded by some of the ingredients of her new healthy lifestyle. Amanda used a Nikon D700 with a 70-200mm lens, 100 ISO, f/2.8.

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EDITOR’S NOTE

CATERING BARTENDING

QUALITY & CONSISTENCY

"Bring the Clipper Inn to Your Wedding" Restaurant opens in April for the season

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April 23 & May 22, 6:30pm

IHC Elementary April 22 & May 21, 6:30pm

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WE’VE ALL DONE IT AT ONE POINT OR another in our lives, typically when the new year rolls around: resolve to get fit. Taking charge of your health is a personal commitment to a better way of life that, for many, can ensure years of happiness that might otherwise not have been.

For me, that journey began early last fall when I started to make everyday changes in my diet and renewed my long-expired exercise routine. On a recent visit to my doctor, he remarked about how I’d dropped quite a few pounds and, after looking deep into my chart to January 2013, told me that I actually had shed 40 pounds. Many of my friends and family have asked me what my secret to weight loss has been. I honestly don’t have one.

What has worked Ken Eysaman for me might not work for others. As wellness columnist Michelle Graham points out this month, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to better health and fitness. While she is absolutely correct, I say there is one thing that does work for everyone: the will to take the first step. As first-time NNY Living contributing writer Victoria Wiseman writes in this issue’s cover story, which begins on page 32, getting fit comes with a myriad of options. From regular exercise to routine visits to the doctor and eating a diet that is healthier and rich in fresh foods, the path to a better you can be overwhelming. But as I’ve personally experienced, it begins with just one giant first step. At my age — yes, I hit the dreaded 4-0 early in March — the alternative to living well is far worse. n

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SOCIAL SCENE — This issue’s Social Scene section, which begins on page 14, features 18 faces from across Northern New York. On Feb 27, magazine staff writer Grace Johnston joined Gari Greene for a packed house at her

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Chaumont restaurant, The Blue Heron, for the Fifth Annual Food & Wine Benefit for the Chaumont Food Pantry Feb. 26. On Feb. 27, we joined the North Country Arts Council and New York State Sen. Patty Ritchie, RHeuvelton, at Arts on the Square, Watertown, as the senator celebrated local artists “whose works illustrate the depth of talent and beauty of this unique region of Upstate New York.”

Congratulations to the many talented artists for earning well-deserved recognition. n

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BEST OF NNY — Rest assured, we haven’t pulled the plug on our best of NNY series. We are still working out the details of our first go at giving NNY readers a chance to name the best of the best that the north country has to offer. Our May/June issue will include details and a ballot for our series of seasonal “bests” that will culminate in an annual “Best of NNY” edition later this year. We will share information on how you can help us pick some of the finest that Northern New York has to offer in a variety of categories. Keep checking in with us online at nnyliving.com or visit our Facebook page for updates. n

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A TASTE OF THE TOWN — We are proud to partner with the Victim’s Assistance Center and Watertown Sunrise Rotary as a media sponsor for the 2014 Taste of the Town, set for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, April 26, at the Dulles State Office Building, Watertown. It’s great to see such a wonderful event return with a lineup that includes more than 40 food and beverage establishments. I hope to see you there!

As always, if you have any suggestions, feedback or story ideas for NNY Living, email me at keysaman@wdt.net or call me direct at (315) 661-2399.

Warm regards,

IN OUR NEXT ISSUE

n our May/June issue we present our first “NNY Bucket List” with a list of 51 things that every Northern New Yorker should do.

Also coming in May/June: n SPRING HAS SPRUNG: After a long, hard north country winter many are ready to dig in the dirt. Our garden columnist returns. n DESTINATION OLD FORGE: We head east to the foothills of the Adirondacks for adventure in Old Forge and Blue Mountain Lake.

n MINDING OUR BEE’S WAX: Despite its challenges, beekeeping is a fast- growing hobby for many local-food minded residents. n PLUS: Social Scene, Modern Folklore, Arts, Food, Wine, Wellness, The NNY Life, History, Homes, My NNY and Today’s Gardener. n FOLLOW US ON Twitter for updates at @NNYLivingMag and visit us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NNYLiving. Catch exclusive previews and unique content on our website at www.NNYLiving.com.

[ NORTH COUNTRY NEWS & NOTES ] Remington Museum names new director

The Frederic Remington Art Museum Board of Trustees voted unanimously to appoint Laura A. Foster as executive director of the museum last fall.

Foster, who has served the museum for more than 24 years as curator is an expert on Frederic Remington’s art. Ms. Foster’s Foster collections experience will enable her to serve the curatorial role while also directing the museum. Her work will benefit from well-developed relationships with professional colleagues, museum staff and trustees, donors and the local community.

Theater vet turns pro in ‘Four Play, The Musical’

Barry Pratt, Watertown, resigned Feb. 14 from his job as theater manager of the Clayton Opera House to co-star in a new comedy/drama.

He will play Vinnie in “Four Play, The Musical,” which has been described as the male answer to “Menopause, The Musical.” Mr. Pratt, a strong vocalist, has more than 40 years of experience on and off the stage and has been manager of the Clayton Opera House the past 12 years.

Last fall, he wowed local audiences with his role as Fagin in the musical “Oliver!” staged by Watertown Lyric Theater. “Four Play, The Musical” opens April 3 in Glens Falls and then moves to Clayton, Lake Placid and Loudonville, Albany County.

SLU to award North Country Citation

Nancie Battaglia will receive the 2014 St. Lawrence University North Country Citation. The On-Campus Honors Committee selected Ms. Battaglia for creating a regional aesthetic and enhancing the sense of community pride in the Adirondacks while bringing attention to the north country through photography.

Her pictures feature a variety of scenes and subjects, including outdoor recreation, especially in the Adirondacks, sports, people, places and other subjects that illustrate north country life.

Her work can regularly be seen close to home in Adirondack Life magazine, but she has also been widely published in several national periodicals, including Sports Illustrated, USA Today, The Boston Globe, The New York Times and National Geographic.

St. Lawrence University annually awards the North Country Citation to an individual or group from the region who, through professional and volunteer endeavors, has improved the quality of life in the north country.

The citation will be presented to Ms. Battaglia during this year’s spring commencement May 18.

Lewis County novelist hits big with Disney Jennifer Donnelly, a novelist from

Lewis County, has hit it big with the Disney series “The Waterfire Saga.”

The four-book deal from Disney Publishing Worldwide, is the story of six mermaids who set out to save their world. The first book, “Deep Blue,” goes on sale May 6.

UPFRONT “The Waterfire Saga” will be supported by a range of content and promotional partnerships. These include an original song, “Open Your Eyes,” video content in an enhanced e-book edition and a simultaneous audio book release read by Bea Miller, a finalist on TV reality competition “The X Factor.” Graphic novels and comics are planned, and an illustrated gift book is due for fall 2015.

Cape native has winning dog at Westminster show A dog owned by a Cape Vincent native took home honors at last month’s Westminster Kennel Club dog show in New York City.

The Rottweiler Kenzie is owned by Roxanne (Booth) Denboer of Parker, Col., whose parents are Richard and Sally Booth, Cape Vincent.

Kenzie won in best of opposite sex category in the Rottweiler division.

The 34-month-old dog has won numerous AKC competitions since she was 6 months old. The best of opposite sex award is given to the best dog that is the opposite sex to the best of breed winner.

SLC Arts Council hits pottery wheel goal

Suzy McBroom, grants and education coordinator at St. Lawrence County Arts will schedule additional pottery classes with pottery teacher Isaac Snell soon, thanks to a crowdfunding campaign through Adirondack Gives that raised more than $700 to buy a permanent pottery wheel for SLC Arts.

The new wheel will enable SLC Arts to offer intermediate level classes.

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MACAR’S

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BEST BETS

[ EDITOR’S PICKS ]

CLAYTON

SATURDAY, APRIL 15 n An Evening with Clint Black, 8 p.m., Clayton Opera House, 405 Riverside Drive. Tickets: $79, $59, $49, www.claytonoperahouse.com, or 6862200.

POTSDAM SATURDAY, APRIL 5 n The Vinyl Cafe with Stuart McLean, 7:30 p.m., Helen M. Hosmer Concert Hall, 44 Pierrepont Ave. Known as “Canada’s favorite storyteller,” author Sutart McLean will present The Vinyl Café. Tickets are $45 and available through the box office at 267-2277 or www.cpspotsdam.org.

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SATURDAY, APRIL 26

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n Orchestra of Northern New York Concert: Romantic Giants, 7:30 p.m., SUNY Potsdam: Helen Hosmer Concert Hall, Outer Main St. Featuring two of the most famous and most popular Romantic works, the great Piano Concerto No. 2 of Rachmaninoff and the passionate Symphony No. 8 by Antonin Dvorak. The concert also includes the World Premiere of the Silver Overture by Harold Levin. Information: (315) 267-2277, www.onny.org.

show. Put together your best Jackie Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn or other 50s-60s-inspired “look” for this fab fashion show emceed by David Zyla. At 7 p.m., visit the major exhibition of photographs

by LIFE photographer Mark Shaw and enjoy music, hors d’oeuvres and signature cocktails at a full cash bar. Fashion Show starts at 8 p.m. Information, tickets: 315-797-0055.

WATERTOWN FRIDAY, APRIL 4 n “Spamalot” Presented by Watertown Lyric Theater, 7 p.m. cocktails, 8 p.m. show, Fridays April 4, 11, Saturdays, April 5, 12, Dulles State Office Building, 317 Washington St. Tickets, information: www.watertownlyrictheaer.org.

SATURDAY, APRIL 5

UTICA SATURDAY, APRIL 26 n Vintage Fashion Show and Cocktail Party, American Royalty: The Kennedys, Fashion & Celebrity, 7 p.m., Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute, 310 Genesee St. Hosted by Emmy Awardwinning stylist and best-selling author David Zyla. $25 MWPAI members, $40 general admission, includes exhibition admission. Includes a 6 p.m. light catered dinner with wine, style advice from David Zyla, and front row seat to the fashion

n Brass-hoppers, featuring British trombonist Richard Harris and American trumpeter Tom Bergon, will perform at 7 p.m., Saturday, April 5, at Trinity Episcopal Church, 22 Sherman St. Tickets range from $10 to $16, based on seating and date of purchase. Students, kindergarten through 12th grade and in college, free. Information, tickets: www.trinityconcerts.org, 788-6290, ext. 3.

[ ARTS, MUSIC, THEATER, CULTURE ] ALEXANDRIA BAY SATURDAY, APRIL 12 n “Signs of Spring” With Thousand Islands Land Trust and naturalist Peter O’Shea, 10 a.m., Macsherry Trail, Crooked Creek Preserve, Indian Point Road. Meet at trailhead. Wear boots. Information, registration: 686-5345.

CANTON SATURDAY, APRIL 5 n Spring Bazaar, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., 37 Riverside Drive. “Elegant junk,” crafts and knitted items, silent auction, bake sale, drawings, doughnuts, chili, soup, apple pie, hot dogs, hamburgers, coffee and soda. Sponsored by Canton Senior Citizens. Information: Myrtle Regan, 386-8917.

TUESDAY, APRIL 8 n Art Cafe, sponosored by St. Lawrence County Arts Council, 7 p.m., TapRoom, St. Lawrence Brewing Co., 19 Commerce Lane. Free. Information: 265-6860, www.slcartscouncil.org.

CLAYTON FRIDAY, APRIL 11 THROUGH SUNDAY APRIL 13

The Tragically Hip Way. Tickets: $20, $25, $35, $45, $65, $90, harlemglobetrotters.com, ticketmaster.ca, K-Rock Centre box office or phone 855985-9000. Information: 1 (613) 650-5076.

LAKE PLACID SATURDAY, APRIL 22 n Art on screen, Munch 150, painter Edvard Munch, 1 p.m., Lake Placid Center for the Arts, 17 Algonquin Drive. Cost: $12; $5, students. Information: 1 (518) 523-2512, www.LakePlacidArts.org; info@LakePlacid Arts.org.

LOWVILLE SATURDAY, MAY 24 AND SUNDAY, MAY 25 n Second Annual Tug Hill Vintage Snowmobile Show & Swap Meet, registration and gates open at 8 a.m., Lewis County Fairgrounds, Bostwick St. $5 per sled, $15 for 3 or more sleds, swap meet vendor fee $15, gate entrance fee $3 per person.

Judging 9 a.m. to noon on Sunday. Trophy for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, 50/50 drawing, door prizes. Information: Kevin Kaldowski, 221-0383.

OGDENSBURG THURSDAY, APRIL 3

n Four Play, a musical comedy, Doors open and cocktails, 6 p.m., dinner, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., show, 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday. Doors open and cocktails, noon, early dinner, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., show, 2 p.m. Sunday, April 13, Clayton Opera House, 405 Riverside Drive. Cost: $40; show only, $25. Information, tickets: box office, 6862200 or www.claytonoperahouse.com.

n Adirondack Treasure: book talk and signing, noon to 3 p.m., Ogdensburg Public Library, 312 Washington St. With Matthew J. Glavin, coauthor of “Adirondack treasure-Isle Royal,” the second installment of the Adirondack Treasure series. Information: Stephanie Young, 393-4325.

THURSDAY, JUNE 19

FRIDAY, MAY 2

n “De-Stress in Nature” With Thousand Islands Land Trust and River Yoga, 9 a.m., Grindstone Island Picnic Point Pavilion. Meet at TILT office for transportation, 135 John St. With Liz Price-Kellog.

Information, registration: TILT, 686-5345.

n Art Walk, 4 to 6 p.m., organized by the SLC Arts Council. Village-wide event celebrating the beginning of a new round of Community Gallery Project exhibits. Take a self-guided tour of local businesses to meet exhibiting artists in person. Information: SLC Arts, 265-6860, www.slcartscouncil.org.

HENDERSON HARBOR SATURDAY, JULY 12

KINGSTON THURSDAY, APRIL 3 n Harlem Globetrotters, 7 p.m., K-Rock Center, 1

SARANAC LAKE SATURDAY, APRIL 5 n Young Playwrights’ festival, 10 a.m., Pendragon Theatre, 15 Brandy Brook Ave. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., workshop, “Playwriting on Your Feet,” children grades one to six; 2 to 4 p.m. discussion on playwriting with judges Fred Balzac, Karen Lewis, Karen Lordi-Kirkham; 7 p.m. plays of runner(s) read, winning play(s) performed. Reception to follow.

Information: 1 (518) 891-1854, info@pendragontheatre.org, www.pendragontheatre.org.

SYRACUSE SUNDAY, APRIL 6 n “Porgy and Bess” 2 p.m., Crouse Hinds Theater, 800 State St. Tickets: Syracuse Opera box office, 476-7372, or www.syracuseopera.com.

SATURDAY, APRIL 19 n The Glass Menagerie, 3 and 8 p.m. showings, Syracuse Stage, 820 E. Genesee St. This Tennessee Williams classic explores the illusory nature of dreams and the fragility of hope. The story of Amanda, her daughter Laura, son Tom and the gentleman caller is one of the masterworks of the American stage. Information and tickets: 443-3275, www.

SyracuseStage.org.

WATERTOWN TUESDAY, APRIL 1, THROUGH WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30 n Luggage With Love, Help Children Move With Dignity! Help local children in foster care gain a sense of self-worth by donating gently used or new luggage. Accepting items including: duffle bags, backpacks, tote bags, small suitcases. Drop-off locations: JCC HR Office, Humes Realty & Appraisal Service, Fairgrounds YMCA, Aubertine & Currier, Watertown Daily Times, CAPC. Hosted by members of the Jefferson Leadership Institute. Information: Jennifer, 773-5947.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, THROUGH SATURDAY, APRIL 26 n Muse 2014, Multi-arts presentation, Arts on the Square, Franklin Building, 52 Public Square. Information: www.nnyart.org.

THURSDAY, APRIL 3 n Arts on the Square Project Thursday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., weekly on Thursday, 52 Public Square. Bring whatever you are working on to Arts on the Square.

Open Studio with Cecilia! Coffee pot is on. Open to everyone. Information: George Stadalski, 7839003, george@manicmonkeymedia.com.

FRIDAY, APRIL 4 n Mixology Class and Open Mic Night, 6 p.m., Black River Valley Club, 131 Washington St. Class

by Javian Rafus, Jefferson Community College. Information: 788-2300 or events@brvclub.com.

FRIDAY, APRIL 11 n Parents Night Out, 5:30 to 8 p.m., Fridays, April 11, May 9 or June 20, New York State Zoo at Thompson Park, 1 Thompson Park. Cost: $15; members, $12. Pre-registration required: 755-0895.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23 n Contempory Quilt Design Workshop with Pat Pauly, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., All Souls Church, Gotham St. Participants will transform a line drawing into a quilt pattern using freezer paper. $40 for North Country Quilt Guild members, $50 non-members, register online at www.ncqg.org or contact Erin Rumsey: 210-667-5357, erumsey74@gmail.com.

TELL US ABOUT IT — Have an event you would like to include in NNY Living? Email us at nnyliving@wdt.net with the details or visit www. nnyliving.com and click Events.

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n 23rd Annual Henderson Harbor Triathlon, Boat Launch, State Route 178. Olympic race will begin at 8:30 a.m., Sprint at 9 a.m. Olympic event consists of 1.5K swim, 40K bike, 10K run; Sprint with a .750K swim, 20K bike, 5K run. Event proceeds benefit the Children’s Home of Jefferson County’s Community Based Programs and the CREDO Community Center. See website for complete details.

Information: Stacey Finley at 788-7430, sfinley@ nnychildrenshome.com. Register online at www. hendersonharbortriathlon.com, www.active.com or www.nnychildrenshome.com.

POTSDAM

CALENDAR

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BOOKS

[ MOST READ, LOCAL AUTHORS ]

Top titles by checkout at Flower Memorial Library

1) “Sycamore Row” by John Grisham 2) “King & Maxwell” by David Baldacci 3) “Gone” by James Patterson 4) “Invisible Code, a Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery” by Christopher Fowler 5) “Takedown Twenty, a Stephanie Plum Novel” by Janet Evanovich

Top five Ebooks at Flower 1) “Never Go Back” by Lee Child 2) “12th of Never” by James Patterson 3) “Simple Genius” by David Baldacci 4) “Death in Sight” by Bonnie Burnatowski 5) “Shoes to Die For” by Jaine Austen

Books of local interest

Aline Alexander Newman, Turin, has co-authored the children’s book “How to Speak Dog,” published by National Geographic.

Mrs. Newman co-authored the book with Dr. Gary Weitzman, chief executive officer of the San Diego SPCA and co-host of a weekly radio show about pets, “The Animal House,” that plays on many National Public Radio stations.

The publisher calls “How to Speak Dog” a “fun, informative, and photographically driven book that helps kids understand what their dog is trying to tell them through body language and behavior.”

The book sells for $12.95 and is available at www.shopnationalgeographic.com.

Mrs. Newman has written more than 50 cover stories for National Geographic Kids magazine and several books for National Geographic.

Mrs. Newman’s chapter book “Lucky Leopards and More True Stories About Amazing Animal Rescues” was published

by National Geographic in February.

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Myrtle A. Butterfield, Canton, has self-published “Cod Liver Oil and Pig Weed,”a compilation of essays, poetry and musings.

Mrs. Butterfield, 84, was inspired to write when she enrolled at SUNY Canton in August 2010. One of her first classes was expository writing. She earned her associate degree in liberal arts in 2012.

“My semesters at SUNY Canton reinforced my lifelong love of words. Putting my thoughts, feelings, experiences onto paper was such an epiphany,” Mrs. Butterfield said.

Her book costs $15.95 and is available at the NYSARC Gallery, 95 Main St., Canton; the St. Lawrence County Historical Association, 3 Main St., Canton; the SUNY Canton Bookstore; Pickens General Store, 83 State St., Heuvelton, and T&R Wines and Liquors, 145 Market St., Potsdam. n

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The History Press has released “St. Lawrence County in the War of 1812: Folly and Mischief” by John M. Austin of DeKalb.

The book examines how the fledgling United States struggled to keep its freedom from Great Britain during the War of 1812, and St. Lawrence County’s divided role.

The local region shared a border, as well as close personal and business associations, with British Canada and opposed the American embargo that disrupted these relationships.

While some St. Lawrence County men fought for America, smuggling was a common way of life. Several small battles and skirmishes took place along the river, and a local wealthy landowner even influenced President James Madison’s decision-making.

Mr. Austin recounts these and other events, as well as some of the north country characters who influenced them.

Mr. Austin has researched and compiled lists of soldiers from St. Lawrence County in both the Civil War and the War of 1812. He is a member of the St. Lawrence County Historical Society and enjoys genealogical and historical research.

The book costs $21.99 and is available at St. Lawrence County college bookstores, the St. Lawrence County Historical Association, all Kinney drugstore outlets in St. Lawrence County and on the publisher’s website at www.historypress.net. n

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Seventeen Northern New York writers have had their creative writing works anthologized in “The Northbound Writers Anthology.”

Readers will find science fiction, personal memoirs, historical fiction, war stories, song lyrics, family stories, action and Christian faith-based writings. Some of the contributions are stand-alone pieces, while others are sneak previews of upcoming novels and series. Topics range

from space travel, Santa Claus and to the tragic repercussions of suicide.

Before publishing, most members of the group went through a writers workshop from August through October, polishing drafts of their work for publication. Retired writing professor and Watertown native Robert Comenole spearheaded the anthology effort. This work represents the fourth book in a series of anthologies he has developed with more than 100 writers from across the state, with completed anthologies in Oswego, Binghamton and Auburn/Syracuse/Skaneateles.

Authors in the anthology: Brandon Amo, Cathy Anderson, Caitlin Beal, Charles Cirillo, Shari Culbertson, Paul Ferendzo, Holly Cordova Gaskin, Michael Paul Kiblin, Patrick Morgan, Darcy Moore, Mary Myers, Debbie Paine, Nanci Paroubek, Katie Stokes, Barbara Tifft, John Warakomski and Barbara Briggs Ward.

The book costs $10 and is available from its authors or at the front desk of the Watertown Daily Times, 260 Washington St. n

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The recently released “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Think Positive for Kids” includes a story by Carina Lamendola of Massena.

The book, published by Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, is designed to start conversations with children about making good decisions and having the courage to do the right thing. It is geared toward children ages 7 to 13.

The book contains 101 stories with topics ranging from bullying, disabilities, dealing with divorce and moving. It is part of the publisher’s “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series.

Ms. Lamendola’s story, “The Best Way To Get Even,” is about a girl who is criticized for her clothes but who “defeats” her critics without violence or insulting words.

The book sells for $14.95 at online bookstores or at www.chickensoup.com.

Kensington Publishing Corp. has released the novel “What She Left Behind” by Ellen Marie Wiseman of Three Mile Bay. Mrs. Wiseman’s debut novel, “The Plum Tree,” was published by Kensington last year.

That book received five-star reviews from Publisher’s Weekly, the New York Journal of Books and Jewish Book World.”What She Left Behind” concerns a daughter who visits a shuttered state hospital and finds artifacts left behind by patients who never checked out. Among those is a journal chronicling a young woman’s life, which causes her to rethink everything she has believed about herself.

The story is set at Willard State Hospital in the Finger Lakes.

Mrs. Wiseman was inspired to write her new novel after reading the nonfiction book “The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases From a State Hospital Attic” by Darby Penney and Peter Stastny.

“What She Left Behind” will be available at online bookstores at $15 for softcover and $9.39 for the e-book version. n

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MA RCH / APRIL 2014 | NNY LI VI NG

A Syracuse author has released a mystery novel as an e-book that includes scenes in Jefferson County, including a wintery car chase and an explosion at a summer cottage.

“Chasing Jenny: A Philatelic Mystery”

by Jeff Stage fictionalizes a true-life theft of an iconic postage stamp and offers a twist on the hobby of stamp collecting.

The story centers on a stamp error of 1918 that shows an upside-down airplane on the nation’s first 24-cent airmail stamp.

The stamp is known as an inverted Jenny. A block of four of the stamp was stolen in 1955 at a national stamp show in Norfolk, Va. No one knows who stole them, and two of the four stamps stolen remain missing.

“The book fictionalizes the theft, showing who stole the stamps and might even reveal where those missing stamps are,” said Mr. Stage, whose family had summer camps on Chaumont Bay that he visited as a child.

“Chasing Jenny” sells for $3.99 at online retailers.

Mr. Stage worked for 35 years at The Post-Standard in Syracuse, where he was an award-winning reporter, columnist, production editor and copy editor.

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SOCIAL SCENE

[ 5th Annual Chaumont Food Pantry Food & Wine Benefit ] The Blue Heron, Chaumont

From left, Mary Miles and Melissa Puccia, Arsenal Wine & Liquor, Watertown.

GRACE E. JOHNSTON PHOTOS | NNY LIVING

MARCH / A PRIL 20 14 | N NY LIVING

From left, Faye Waterman, Kevin Thompson and wife, LouAnn, all of Citizen’s Bank. The Blue Heron Restaurant hosted the Fifth Annual Food & Wine Benefit for the Chaumont Food Pantry Feb. 26.

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From left, Beverly Glerum and Elaine Bock, retired.

GRACE E. JOHNSTON PHOTOS | NNY LIVING

From left, Mark Cullen, retired, Diane Comins, Diane’s Beauty Salon, and husband, Leslie, retired.

[ State Sen. Patty Ritchie Celebrates Local Artists ] North Country Arts Council Arts on the Square, Watertown

From left, Angie McDougal, Lacona, and daughter, Sarah, Sandy Creek High School.

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Phil and Mary Randazzo, Coyote Moon Vineyards, Clayton. New York State Sen. Patty Ritchie, R-Heuvelton, and the North Country Arts Council held a “Celebration of Local Artists” reception at Arts on the Square, Watertown, Feb. 27.

From left, Kelly Coon, Watertown, and daughter, Rachael, Watertown High School.

KEN EYSAMAN PHOTOS | NNY LIVING

New York State Sen. Patty Ritchie, R-Heuvelton, and Noah P. Landers, Carthage High School.

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MA RCH / APRIL 2014 | NNY LI VI NG

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MODERN FOLKLORE

The power and eloquence of our everyday speech

BY VARICK CHITTENDEN

I’M OPEN TO THE BOUNTY OF THE woods. I still get excited when I find a hollow log or a dead lilac root deep in the ground and imagine what it might be. To me, it’s a gift of nature. I always say the find makes the fashion. I may not know how or when I’ll use it, but I like to store it, keep it in sight and, someday, make it into something functional for somebody. Even if it’s just for amusement, that’s useful, too.

— Barry Gregson, Schroon Lake, Adirondack rustic furniture builder

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I love words. I always have. From the days when I’d hide under my bed covers and read stories by flashlight after my mother’s curfew or I’d listen to some of my father’s very unusual old expressions, I have been fascinated with language.

That’s probably why I studied literature in college and taught it all those years.

While my friends in math or physics have sometimes seemed amused by this, I really do believe that there is an exactness in words that is almost scientific in nature.

Just try to find the right thing to say when the loved one of a friend dies or when you are so angry that you only see red.

If you’re like me, the words come eventually — an hour later — or on the ride home. And then there is the occasional turn of phrase — the perfect combination of words for the moment — that a good poet or novelist creates, which makes you think long after you’ve closed the book.

n n n We have one lady ... she brings in an apple pie and on the top of the pie after she gets it made, there is an apple drawn on the top of the pie, and she does it with a cutter of some kind. Puts it right on the top of the pie. It’s very attractive. So it’s almost appliqued, as in a quilt. You’d applique a piece of pastry

right on top. It’s just the way she does it. It looks lovely.

— Eunice Southworth, Bangor, Franklin County Fair official n

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My favorite American authors have most often been closely associated with place. When I was a student, their work was described as “local color.”

They included Bret Harte, Hamlin Garland, William Faulkner, Mark Twain, or Sherwood Anderson. I’ve especially liked Southern writers, like Eudora Welty, William Faulkner, and Flannery O’Connor.

They, like our own north country’s Irving Bacheller or Russell Banks, have captured a sense of place and the idiosyncracies of characters, especially in their dialogue. It is that folk speech, those special idioms and grammatical interpretations by local people, that give real life to these stories for me. n

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Years ago I used to make such an effort to — to do anything, like playin’ the guitar or the fiddle or rifle shooting. I did all of this after I lost my hand ... ‘course it’s actually a lesson to anybody. If you want to do something bad enough and try hard enough and — and pray a little, the Guy Upstairs will help you to do whatever you want done.

— Dick Richards, Lake Luzerne, fiddler and country music performer

n n n I’m frequently reminded of all of this, as I pore through interview transcripts and listen to the original tapes as I write exhibit labels or liner notes for projects at Traditional Arts in Update New York.

And it always comes back abundantly clear when we develop scripts for radio documentaries. For me, the language

of the people we work with is not only informative but inspiring. I get great joy from listening to them speak — with humor, passion, enthusiasm, sometimes with sadness or remorse. But in any case, they speak from the heart, and they speak in the rhythms and the intonations we find in families and communities here in the north country.

n n n The most important thing to me [about the annual Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel] is everything being centered around the procession. ... It used to be a longer route and it was very impressive. ... Years ago we used to have the band leading. ... We used to have the Blessed Mother, she had a long ribbon and the older people who could never come out to the feast would wait on the corners or in front of their homes and come out and pin the traditional money on the statue....Sometimes it would bring tears to your eyes, because they could hardly walk, but this was a big thing for them. It meant so much.

— Ida Jane Alteri, Watertown, St. Anthony’s parishioner n

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In the process of listening and reading, I am frequently moved by the power and eloquence of simple, everyday speech. I don’t have to go to great writers to find it. I can hear it in the oral traditions of my neighbors and local shopkeepers and friends. n

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VARICK CHITTENDEN is senior folklorist and director of special projects for Canton-based Traditional Arts in Upstate New York and Professor Emeritus of Humanities at SUNY Canton. He lives in St. Lawrence County.

MA RCH / APRIL 2014 | NNY LI VI NG

You like everything [about dairy farming], or else you would be crazy to do it. You have no control over the weather. Last summer, it didn’t rain from May to August. I couldn’t sleep. Crops weren’t growing, we didn’t have enough feed for the winter, it was a very difficult time. Farming is extremely hard. You have animals dying, you have crops failing, it’s not wet, then it’s raining too much. All these things you don’t have control over. You don’t even have control over the price you sell your product for. It’s really hard, but it’s awesome, too. That’s what makes it awesome — nobody else wants to do it. It’s a very honorable thing, you are making food. There is not much better than that.

— Blake Gendebien,Lisbon, Twin Mills Farm

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THE NNY LIFE

Break the silence: Seek out options to treat depression

BY KATIE STOKES

I’VE SUFFERED FROM SEASONAL Affective Disorder every winter since I moved to Northern New York. Because I figured out pretty quickly that I can’t just hibernate and cry all winter, I actively seek out methods to curb my depression well before it gets to the point of crisis.

I’m sitting in front of a light therapy device as I write this. It’s kind of nice. If I squint my eyes, I can imagine I’m sitting in front of a sunny window, sipping coffee. (Well, that may be a stretch, but it does help a little.) During the inhumane winter of 2014, light therapy alone hasn’t been a cure-all for me. I’m not afraid to admit that I’ve had to ask my doctor for help, and that I have my second round of acupuncture for anxiety and insomnia scheduled for this week.

I know I’m not the only one who suffers from SAD, or anxiety and insomnia, and

a few people who have never experienced depression may have gone beyond “blue” during this winter.

If you are depressed, or you think a friend might be depressed, here are a few do’s and don’ts to help you understand and hopefully begin to deal with seasonal affective disorder, clinical depression, or other mental health crises: n

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DON’T BE ASHAMED — I almost wrote “Don’t be afraid,” but that would be unreasonable. When you are depressed, not being afraid would be far too much to ask. Depression is called a “bottomless pit” for a reason. You have to go the other way. The only way to get there is to admit you’re slipping, and ask for hand up. n

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I understand it’s painful. Believe me. But not treating your depression is like not treating a fractured wrist. You can power through it with your arm in a sling, but then it heals wrong and you have to solve an even bigger problem.

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certainly not depression. Recent studies show that one out of every 10 people I know has probably been diagnosed with depression at some point. Still, even after 15 years, it surprises me that a majority won’t talk about mental health issues above a whisper. I understand it’s painful.

Believe me. But not treating your depression is like not treating a fractured wrist.

You can power through with your arm in a sling, but then it heals wrong and you have to solve an even bigger problem.

The reason I bring this up now is because I have a gut feeling that more than

DO TRY ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES — St. John’s Wort never worked for me, but some of my best results have come from a combination of treatments, including cognitive-behavioral therapy, light therapy, medication, and as much exercise as possible. n

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DON’T RULE OUT MEDICATION — The decision to take medication doesn’t make you weak. In fact, it gives you the strength to get past the depression, and get on with your real life. Don’t let others

tell you that you’ll be a one-note artificial “happy” on medication. That’s bunk, a myth, in fact a complete disservice to anyone suffering from a mental health issue. The right medication will, ideally, address the chemical glitches that are causing your depression so that you can address the problems that arise when you’re depressed (or while you wait for the sun, in my case). Whether your main difficulty is anxiety, lack of energy, or a general feeling of sadness, there is probably a specific medication to help fill that gap until you feel like your real self again. You need not stay on medication for the rest of your life. Think of it as getting yourself to higher ground in a flood.

The waters will eventually recede, and you’ll clean up and move on. n

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The end of depression is a lot like driv-

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DO EXERCISE — Don’t get me wrong. I’m not Tom Cruise, and I would never tell a clinically depressed person that diet and exercise alone will fix everything.

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KATIE STOKES is an Oklahoma native who has called Northern New York home for more than a decade. She is a freelance writer and blogger and the mother of two children, Diva and Hunk.

She and her husband are raising their children in Hounsfield. Visit her blog at www.NNYLife.com.

Her column appears in every issue of NNY Living.

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DON’T HIDE — We all go through periods of sadness and stress, but living with true depression is like being legally blind and not wearing your corrective lenses.

Everything is still where it’s supposed to be, but you can’t quite make out the details, and you have a lot more trouble getting from point A to point Z. Are you underperforming at work and worried about losing your job? The Americans with Disabilities Act prevents employers with 15 or more employees from discriminating against people with serious health problems, including depression.

It’s a tough decision to tell your employer, and I’m not suggesting you have to.

But if it’s a choice between a poor evaluation based on a sub-par performance that came as a result of your depression, and recognition that your poor performance and string of sick days is because you are being treated for a mental health issue, I think it’s a no-brainer. n

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ing into, then out of a lake effect snow storm — something all of us have experienced here in northern New York this winter. It’s sunny on one side, dark and blinding and terrifying through the worst of it. Then, you drive out of it into clear skies, amazed and grateful that you made it through in one piece.

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DO GIVE YOURSELF SOME CREDIT — Depression can make you feel really terrible.

Obviously. But often people who are clinically depressed also feel guilty about being depressed. Their well-meaning friends and family say, “But you have such a great life!” which makes a depressed person feel depressed and ungrateful. It’s okay that you’re depressed. Let’s be clear: you are not deciding to be depressed. n

But even if you can manage five good minutes of cardio, you’ll get a muchneeded natural boost. In fact, studies show exercising directly after waking up makes you happier and more productive all day. That said, there have been days when I was so depressed, I couldn’t force myself to do anything but lurch slowly along on a treadmill. But on the days I could muster the energy, a brisk walk or slow run often made the day not just livable, but glowing.

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The Philadelphia Museum of Art rises majestically at the end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Philadelphia’s sunset gets an assist from the city’s sparkling skyline and programmable lights that enliven the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. Built in 1926, the bridge traverses the Delaware River connecting Philadelphia and New Jersey. Now a National Historic Landmark, Eastern State Penitentiary was designed to instill fear in potential wrongdoers. Established in 1893, Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market is the nation’s oldest continuously operating farmers market. The centerpiece of Independence National Historical Park in Historic Philadelphia is Independence Hall. Built in 1753 to house the Colonial Legislature, the building gained renown for being the site of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the adoption of the U.S. Constitution.

36 HOURS

Take f light to the city of brotherly love Philadelphia combines history, art and great food

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TEXT BY BRIAN T. ORTELERE | PHOTOS COURTESY VISIT PHILADELPHIA/GPTMC businessmen and women, children and pets, all enjoying this carefully manicured patch of grass and trees, surrounded by elegant hotels and cafes. Head East on Walnut Street and gaze at the wares proudly displayed in the windows of the trendy shops while being certain not to miss the parade of sophisticates and their carefully manicured dogs hustling to and fro. Circle back to The Dandelion Pub, 124 South 18th St., for afternoon tea in a cozy English setting that features a variety of traditional pub fare. Those looking for something stronger to drink should try the Scotch honeysuckle, a mouth-watering combination of Dewar’s scotch, dry vermouth, honey, lemon and rose water. www.thedandelionpub.com www.visitphilly.com/museums-attractions/ philadelphia/rittenhouse-square

FRIDAY 1 P.M., GET YOUR SEA LEGS Upon arrival, stroll through Rittenhouse Square, the grand dame of the city’s four squares, all part of William Penn’s original plan for the city. Explore the collection of outdoor sculpture, including Paul Manship’s Duck Girl of 1911, a whimsical bronze of a young girl carrying a duck under one arm. Find a park bench and take in the city’s artists, musicians,

3 P.M., TIME TRAVEL Head toward Independence Hall and its Society Hill environs, a spectacular marriage of cobblestone streets and traditional colonial townhouses. Philadelphia is the cradle of American democracy, both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed here, and the city was the home of the nation’s first capital. This area includes the Independence National

Historic Park and its many museums and exhibits. One of the city’s most overlooked museums chronicles the life of Benjamin Franklin and stands on the location where he lived and worked. He remains Philadelphia’s iconic founding father and one of the most fascinating personalities of that (or any) time. Learn of his peripatetic wanderings and accompanying estrangement from his long-suffering wife. Visit the Constitution Center on the north end of Independence Mall and be sure to pose for pictures among the bronze statutes of the framers of the Constitution in Signers Hall. From Independence Mall, walk south down Sixth Street into Society Hill, one of the city’s oldest and most elegant neighborhoods and enjoy the tree-lined streets complemented by the colorfully painted window shutters and doors. www.nps.gov/inde/planyourvisit/benjamin franklinmuseum.htm www.nps.gov/inde/index.htm www.constitutioncenter.org www.societyhillcivic.org/aboutSH/glance.asp 5 P.M., RESTAURANT RENAISSANCE According to London’s Guardian newspaper, “[t]he cradle of America is being reborn as a food destination” because “[a] cclaimed New York chefs are relocating to

MA RCH / APRIL 2014 | NNY LI VI NG

PERHAPS ONE OF THE COUNTRY’S best-kept secrets, Philadelphia is a unique combination of history, natural beauty, home to some of the world’s most famous and eclectic art collections and a spectacular restaurant scene. While many large and well-known companies reside here, it is, first and foremost, a collection of residential neighborhoods, each with its own ethnic roots and modern-day charms.

Nestled between the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers, the city is also a vibrant college town, with the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, Drexel University, and Philadelphia University, just to name a few, enrolling many thousands of students, each contributing to the town’s youthful energy.

Old and new find a unique symmetry with the resulting mix sure to delight tastes and attitudes of all sorts.

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MARCH / A PRIL 20 14 | N NY LIVING

Philadelphia.” Talula’s Garden on Washington Square typifies the new chefs and attitude that have put Philadelphia firmly on the culinary map. Forget the cheesesteak (if you can’t, try www.patskingofsteaks. com), and head over to 210 West Washington Square to enjoy the cozy-chic décor and vibrant outdoor planter boxes along with the elaborate pink-granite cheese bar.

Go for a honey brined boneless pork chop or spice things up with the muscovy duck breast and crisp confit. And be sure not to miss the honey-soaked ricotta donuts for dessert. Make certain to pay a quick visit to the eternal flame that commemorates the many unknown revolutionary soldiers

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entombed below Washington Square. www.talulasgarden.com 7 P.M., CATCH A SHOW Catch a cab to University City to the World Café Live, the home of the University of Pennsylvania’s public radio station WXPN and a restaurant/night club that is host to enormously varied list of musicians including The Coors, Noah Gunderson and The Tribal Seeds. www.philly.worldcafelive.com 11 P.M., BED & BREAKFAST IN STYLE Stay at the Rittenhouse 1715 off the Square, a lovely boutique hotel a stone’s throw from all of the best that the city has

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to offer. If you choose to have breakfast here, be sure to select from the varied offerings of freshly squeezed juices at the juice bar — the first of its kind in any hotel in Philadelphia. www.rittenhouse1715.com SATURDAY 10 A.M., ART DAY Alternatively, head to Federal Donuts, 1632 Sansom St., for a hot strawberrylavender donut, a small, fried, beacon of sugary delight. Make sure to down a cup of coffee as well in this hipster haven, a full day exploring Philadelphia’s rich assortment of art museums awaits.

Head for the Barnes Foundation on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Before ducking inside, gaze down the parkway to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to the northwest. The broad, diagonal street connects City Hall with the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Lined with flowers, sculptures, and flags from around the world, its design was inspired by Paris’ Champs-Elysées. Philadelphia’s City Hall is the largest municipal building in the United States, and William Penn keeps a watchful eye on things from his perch at 548 feet. Just to the north you can see the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, the home of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and a stunning example of Roman-Corinthian architecture.

The brand new Barnes museum houses what might be the finest collection of PostImpressionist and early Modern paintings in the world, with extensive works

by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Henri Rousseau, Amedeo Modigliani, Chaim Soutine and Giorgio de Chirico, as well as American masters Charles Demuth, William Glackens, Horace Pippin and Maurice Prendergast. Consider buying tickets in advance on the foundation’s website so that you’ll be sure to see the collections, the museum has defied all expectations in terms of attendance. www.federaldonuts.com www.barnesfoundation.org SATURDAY 12.30 P.M., ART DAY Leave the Barnes and head a couple of blocks north to the Kite & Key, a quaint bistro in the Fairmount neighborhood that serves a mouth-watering variety of sandwiches and burgers washed down with a enormous assortment of craft beers and ales. Try the Kite & Key Burger, one half pound of ground angus beef, smothered with cheddar cheese and bacon on a toasted brioche. Churchill’s Pale India Pale Ale, a pale and hoppy draft IPA, is brewed with a high proportion of wheat and rye for a smooth, well-rounded flavor and mouth feel, pairs well with the angus beef. www.thekiteandkey.com

SATURDAY 2 P.M., ART DAY No trip to Philadelphia is complete without a visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, not the least of which reason is the relocation of the Rocky statute to the base of the front steps made famous by the Sylvester Stallone film. Because a visit to all of the museum’s galleries could take two or three days (the museum is one of the largest in the United States), consider visiting the website before coming to town to narrow one’s list of “must-see” art.

Some of the unheralded but no less enjoyable galleries include the Asian collection, Dutch ceramics, the costumes and textiles, armor and the mind-numbing post-World War One “Dada.”

Time permitting, head over to the Museum’s Rodin collection on the north of the Parkway on the way back toward the Barnes. Yet another slice of Paris in Philadelphia, the tranquil galleries and gardens are the perfect backdrop to the French master’s works. www.philamuseum.org www.rodinmuseum.org Before dinner, make your way to The Rittenhouse, the modern hotel on the west side of the square. Get up to the second floor to Bar 210 inside Lacroix. The bar features a lovely view of the Square and the afternoon sun typically turns the treetops a glowing yellow-red. Try the Lemongrass Sparkler, a delightful combination of Grey Goose Poire Vodka, Saint-Germain Lemongrass and candied lemon. www.lacroixrestaurant.com/bars

SATURDAY, 9 P.M., TIME FOR A DIFFERENT SORT OF ART Head to the Helium Comedy Club on Sansom to see an uproariously funny lineup of stand up comedians. Regular visitors include Rosie O’Donnell, Gilbert Gottfried, Jon Lovitz and John Oliver. www.heliumcomedy.com/philadelphia

SUNDAY, 11 A.M., THE PRISON Head up to Eastern State Penitentiary on Fairmount Avenue to find ample reason to stay on the straight and narrow.

The prison design is based on what was known as the Pennsylvania System, which held that keeping prisoners completely isolated from each other was the most ef-

ficient means to rehabilitation. To that end, seven cellblocks radiate from a central surveillance rotunda. Each prisoner had his or her own private cell, centrally heated, with running water, a flush toilet, and a skylight. Adjacent to the cell was a private outdoor exercise yard contained by a 10-foot wall. Its vaulted, sky-lit cells once held many of America’s most notorious criminals, including bank robber “Slick Willie” Sutton and Al Capone. www.easternstate.org/home GETTING THERE Beginning in May, U.S. Airways will offer nonstop jet service to Philadelphia from Watertown International Airport, Dexter.

Visit www.usairways.com for reservations.

Philadelphia is roughly a five-hour drive by auto from Watertown via Interstate 81 south to Scranton, where you will pick up the Pennsylvania Turnpike Northeast Extension, or Interstate 476 south. Continue on I-476 south until it intersects with Interstate 76, or the Schuylkill Expressway. Keep on I-76 into the city.

BRIAN T. ORTELERE, is a partner in the Philadelphia law firm Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, where he practices labor and employment law. He earned his law degree from the College of William & Mary. He is also the author of the legal thriller “American Jihadist,” which is available on Amazon.com. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Gretchen Santamour, also an attorney.

MA RCH / APRIL 2014 | NNY LI VI NG

SATURDAY 5:30 P.M., THE RESTAURANT RENAISSANCE, SOUTH PHILLY Run, don’t walk, to the phone and call for a reservation, now. The winner of season 11 of “Top Chef,” Nick Elmi, has opened a restaurant on East Passyunk Avenue in South Philadelphia, a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood blessed with an avalanche of hip new eateries. Locals agree that Mr. Elmi’s albacore starter may be the best raw tuna in the city and the fresh ricotta gnocchi will be remembered for months thereafter. By the way, the restaurant is BYOB, so have the taxi pause at the liquor store at 1237 South 11th St. www.restaurantlaurel.com www.finewineandgoodspirits.com

SUNDAY, 10 A.M., BREAKFAST AT THE READING TERMINAL MARKET The Reading Terminal Market is an enclosed public market found at 12th and Arch streets where more than 100 merchants offer fresh produce, meats, fish, groceries, ice cream, flowers, baked goods, crafts, books, clothing and specialty and ethnic foods. The market sits on the ground floor of the old Reading Railroad (of Monopoly fame) train shed, which now serves as part of the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The venue is a cornucopia of gastronomical and visual delights, including Amish merchants who ride wagons into the city from nearby Lancaster County to peddle their wares. Get a croissant and coffee from one of the merchants surrounding the communal eating area, or head into the Down Home Diner and try the French toast and scrapple (a Pennsylvania Dutch staple breakfast meat). www.readingterminalmarket.org www.yelp.com/biz/down-home-diner-philadelphia

23

IRISH EYES A SMILING’

THIS IS NNY

PHOTOS BY JUSTIN SORENSEN | NNY LIVING

C

all it the first sign of spring. Hundreds of north country residents turned out during St. Patrick’s Day weekend to celebrate the 29th annual North Country Goes Green Irish Festival in Watertown. From a Donegal Beard Growing Competition to traditional Irish music and dance to a parade and plenty of food and drink, organizers touted the weekend a resounding success.

When the first North Country Goes Green Irish Festival was held in 1986, it raised money for Project Children North, helping to pay the expenses of children from Northern Ireland traveling to the north country for six-week summer visits.

Over the years, the festival’s mission has expanded to include funding student scholarships, making donations to the community and supporting Fort Drum organizations.

In its 29-year history, organizers have awarded approximately $170,000 in scholarships, donated more than $500,000 to community agencies and purchased more than $700,000 in goods and services from local businesses.

Clockwise from left, Carol Degon, Watertown, enjoys a beer and chats with friends. A competitor takes aim during the festival’s regional dart tournament. Matt Kirkwood mugs for the camera for the fourth annual Donegal Beard Growing Competition. Runners in the 2014 Shamrock Run start the race. Giuliana Thompson, 3, poses with Alexandra Smith, Miss Ireland 2014, and Irish Princess Kathryn Beagle. Trillium Fiddlers perform.

WELLNESS

What’s hot, what’s not in 2014 American College of Sports Medicine releases Top 10 list

BY MICHELLE L. GRAHAM

IT IS ALWAYS INTERESTING TO ME TO see where the world of fitness is trending.

This is an ever-evolving continuum. It really is not unlike many things in life. It is always changing and always reinventing.

The American College of Sports Medicine has been watching and evaluating fitness trends for the past eight years. It compiles a list based on present information and insight from professionals all over the world. It is insightful to see where things are heading for the coming year. As we examine trends in fitness, it may shed light on some types of exercise or fitness that you might want to incorporate into your own world of keeping fit and overall wellness. Below is the American College of Sports Medicine Top 10 Fitness Trends for 2014.

pull-ups, but body weight training and it can take your fitness routine to a whole new level.

3. Educated, certified and experienced fitness professional takes No. 3 on the trend list. Individuals seeking fitness advice have become savvy. They want to know that the people they are dealing with actually know the field of fitness and wellness and have the education and a certification to back it up. Credentials in the field have and will continue to be very important. Also, one cannot undermine or discount experience. This means a lot in fitness programming and overall knowledge. Sometimes it is what you don’t learn in a classroom or textbook that can separate you from the rest.

4. Strength training continues to play

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Fitness trends are interesting to examine.

But they are just trends. It’s important to look at information with an open mind and find the right fitness program for you.

26

1. Topping the list of trends for 2014 is High Intensity Interval Training, also known as known as HIIT. This is different from past years as it did not even make the list for 2013. It is considered short bursts of high intensity exercise, followed by a small rest period. This format is usually 30 minutes in duration.

There is a risk of injuries and it might not be right for everyone.

2. Body weight training is next. With this format, little or no equipment is necessary, which makes it perfect to do in your home. It is also very inexpensive to do. This is no longer just push-ups or

a vital role in fitness programming. This is down two spots from last year. Many fitness professionals continue to incorporate some facets of strength training into training programs. We can never underestimate the value of strong bones and muscles.

5. Exercise and weight loss will continue to be high on the trend list for years to come. As our overall health and wellness continues to be at risk, weight loss programs will continue to be highly sought after. Combining exercise and healthy eating will be in the forefront for all of 2014.

6. Personal training is still a high prior-

MICHELLE L. GRAHAM, MS, is wellness director for Watertown’s Downtown YMCA. Contact her at ymca_mgraham@yahoo.com. Her column appears in every issue.

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MA RCH / APRIL 2014 | NNY LI VI NG

ity on the trend list. Individuals love the extra attention that they can get from a personal trainer. It can take an exercise routine from ordinary to extraordinary.

Finding the right trainer can be a challenge. Make sure that when you are seeking one he or she it is the right person for you. Meet with them to see if you make a connection and then build your routine with your goals in mind.

7. Fitness programming for older adults has become increasingly important. Our seniors today are looking to stay fit and age gracefully. It’s no surprise that fitness for older adults makes the top 10 list.

Across the country exercise programs for seniors are becoming more popular and in demand. Programs that focus on strength, endurance and activities of daily living seem to be the trend for 2014.

8. Functional fitness has dramatically gained in popularity. According to the ACSM, this can be defined as strength training where the focus is on coordination, balance, force, power and endurance to enhance daily living activities.

These types of classes are popping up all over and continue to gain momentum worldwide.

9. Group personal training has been a great trend for years. Participants enjoy exercising in a group, which can be motivating, fun and social. It is also less expensive than one-on-one personal training, as the cost for participants is spread out to the group. Training in groups is not only great for the clients but the trainers seem to really enjoy this type of training, too.

10. The final trend is yoga. This has continued to have a great impact in our culture and cultures throughout the world. There are many types of yoga and it seems to evolve and adapt over time.

Whether you are looking for mental clarity or physical freedom, you may discover that yoga might be just what the doctor ordered. It seems that yoga could be making a comeback this year.

Fitness trends are interesting to examine. But they are just trends. It’s important to look at information with an open mind and find the right fitness program for you. On your personal journey to get and stay fit, you will discover that any fitness model is not one size fits all. Try new things, challenge yourself and most important, have some fun along the way.

Live your best life starting today.

27

Chelsea A. Bango walks on the treadmill at her Watertown apartment complex.

Ms. Bango has recently become involved with 5k races as a result of her participation in the 12-week American Heart Association north country BetterU campaign.

HEALTH

On the long path to become a ‘Better U’ North country women commit to heart health, see results

TEXT BY GRACE E. JOHNSTON | PHOTO BY AMANDA MORRISON to encourage lifestyle and habit changes.”

Mrs. Smorol added that each participant met at least one of their goals.

But Mrs. Heukrath, Deer River, and Chelsea A. Bango, Watertown, became the embodiment of the program’s goal of positive lifestyle change.

“I’m a type A personality. I knew I would be a good ambassador for this program, and I embraced it,” Mrs. Heukrath said. “My level of exposure to the facts about heart disease exploded. I was ignorant of a lot.”

Miss Bango would agree.

“I didn’t realize how much I’d learned until I started integrating better foods into my diet and started seeing the results of good nutrition and portion control,” she said.

According to the American Heart Association, heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, and is more deadly than all forms of cancer combined. An estimated 43 million women in the U.S. are affected by heart disease.

While one in 31 American women dies from breast cancer each year, one in three dies of heart disease.

“It has to be a conscious effort on our part to make healthy, informed decisions,” Mrs. Heukrath said.

The keys to preventing heart disease, even in light of family histories, are to take preventative measures, to make healthy lifestyle changes, especially given the fact that 90 percent of women have one or more risk factors to develop heart disease, according to American Heart Association statistics.

Both Mrs. Heukrath and Miss Bango have family histories of heart disease, but through the BetterU program, they each learned strategies to dramatically reduce their risks.

Their participation in the program entitled them to baseline medical checks, a three-month membership to the Watertown Family YMCA, personal training, professional nutrition advice, supermarket instructional outings, cooking classes and life coaching to help stay the course and reach their heart-healthy goals.

Mrs. Heukrath’s primary goal was to start going to the gym regularly. Now, three to four days a week she goes, working out on a recumbent elliptical and

MA RCH / APRIL 2014 | NNY LI VI NG

JOELLEN HEUKRATH DIDN’T KNOW what quinoa was before the start of the BetterU program. Some sort of “what?”

But in the months since her participation in the American Heart Association’s north country BetterU campaign, Mrs. Heukrath has lost weight, regularly works out, and not only knows what quinoa is, but cooks with and loves it.

“I’m cooking stuffed pepper soup as we speak,” she said.

Eleven north country women committed to make healthy lifestyle changes and improve heart health through the Heart Association’s BetterU campaign, which ran from Sept. 20 to Dec. 17, 2013.

Women of all ages, goals, ethnicity, backgrounds and health risks were encouraged to apply. These factors were considered during the selection process, resulting in a diverse group of local women who ranged in age from 25 to 60, chosen for the 12-week heart health focused program.

“This isn’t intended to be a fad diet, but a makeover from the inside out,” said Kristy Smorol, American Heart Association Communications Director. “We’re looking

29

walking on a treadmill.

“The gym” had always seemed intimidating before, but after being taken under the wing of Michelle L. Graham, wellness director for the Watertown Downtown YMCA, Mrs. Heukrath realized the fallacy of her excuses not to go.

“It’s become a part of my routine now. I enjoy it,” she said.

Mrs. Heukrath has lost 14 pounds and gained healthy muscle mass since the program’s start.

“Everything’s better because of it,” she said.

For Christmas, Mrs. Heukrath’s children now know the surefire way to their mother’s heart. They go in on a one-year membership to the YMCA for their mother.

“It’s all I really want or need,” she said.

“I go to the gym for my heart.”

Main goal. Check.

Weight loss was Miss Bango’s chief concern.

“I knew it was going to catch up with me eventually,” she said.

Miss Bango continues to work out five to six times per week and has lost 31 of the 35 pounds she hoped to shed.

“I feel let down when I don’t go to the gym,” she said. “I want to go now — I look forward to going. I just feel so much

‘‘

I feel let down when I don’t go to the gym. I want to go now — I look forward to going. I just feel so much better when I do.

— Chelsea A. Bango, Watertown, on participating in the American Heart Association north country BetterU campaign

better when I do.”

Participants also gained exposure to nutrition and cooking classes — visual aids being key to put faces and names to good and bad heart health foods.

Classes were effective. Mrs. Heukrath hasn’t touched prime rib since she saw a demonstration of its fat content.

“When I think of that test tube,” she said. “That sticks with you.” Literally and figuratively.

Miss Bango has started to integrate fruits and vegetables into her diet more than ever before. Portion control has also

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been key to her weight loss success.

“I’ve learned to take things more in moderation,” she said.

And, in conjunction with a consistent workout regimen, Miss Bango has even been motivated to take up running 5Ks. “I never thought I could do it,” she said.

But she has since trotted the Turkey Day Run, the Philly Freeze Run and plans to do participate in the Dirty Girl Mud Run in Buffalo as well as a color run.

Because of healthy choices and knowing the signs, more than 627,000 women have been saved from heart disease, and 330 fewer are dying each day, the American Heart Association reports.

Mrs. Heukrath and Miss Bango are among those women who choose to firmly embrace heart health through the impetus of the north country BetterU program.

“I’ve learned to love whole grains,” Mrs. Heukrath said.

This is a simple change in taste, but reflective of broader changes in lifestyle choices — choices that are crucial to ensure overall heart health and many heart happy years to come.

GRACE E. JOHNSTON is staff writer and editorial assistant for NNY Magazines. Contact her at gjohnston@wdt.net or 661-2381.

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Call 315-782-1012 or (800) 724-1012 for details on how you can get delivery started today!

MA RCH / APRIL 2014 | NNY LI VI NG

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A total body

reboot

32

COVER STORY

How to find the best version of you TEXT BY VICTORIA WISEMAN ILLUSTRATION BY LAUREN HARRIENGER

“HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?” IT’S A SIMPLE QUESTION. WE HEAR IT OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN, AND OUR RESPONSE IS THE SAME: FINE. WE FEEL FINE. BUT THAT’S NOT THE WHOLE TRUTH. UNDERNEATH THE CONVICTION THAT WE’RE FEELING JUST FINE, THANK-YOU-VERY-MUCH, IS THIS: YOU COULD BE FEELING BETTER. YOU COULD BE LOOKING BETTER. YOU COULD BE PERFORMING BETTER. “A LOT OF PEOPLE DON’T KNOW WHAT HEALTHY FEELS LIKE,” SAID JULIE GRASER, A WATERTOWN-BASED FITNESS TRAINER AND NATUROPATHIC DOCTOR. “BUT ONCE YOU GET A TASTE OF WHAT HEALTHY IS, YOU’LL NEVER WANT TO FEEL ANOTHER WAY. YOUR QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVES, BIG TIME. WHY WOULD WE NOT WANT TO LIVE A GREAT QUALITY OF LIFE?” SO LET’S GET STARTED. down how you feel. Things to watch out for are dips in energy, waking up feeling tired, or anything that just feels off. There are literally hundreds of other possibilities. For instance, if you’re using medication constantly to control things like headaches or acid reflux, something’s out of whack. The trick is to be honest and consistent — just a week or two of record keeping can make a big difference. “A lot of times we’re just missing a little attentiveness to ourselves,” Ms. Graser said.

DOCTOR’S ORDERS It’s smart to talk to your primary caregiver about what you’ve noticed. They can also check the objective data: Blood pressure. Cholesterol. Weight, and the dreaded Body Mass Index (BMI). Do some blood work, even.

Lucky for us, having bad numbers doesn’t mean a lot of finger-wagging at the doctor’s office. “I’ve had people come in who are the picture of health and I’ve

MA RCH / APRIL 2014 | NNY LI VI NG

SEE NO EVIL Do you feel tired? Hungry? Stuffy? Always hot in the middle of the winter, or freezing cold in a heat wave?

Are you visiting the bathroom a lot? Visiting the bathroom not enough?

All of these observations are key to unlocking our healthiest self, but to understand our bodies, we need to pay more attention.

“We get out of our 20s and beyond, we have kids and responsibilities, we’re busy and we have stress.

We start shoving things to the side,” said Nicole Garnsey, a registered dietitian and owner of Feed The Soul Nutrition, Watertown.

“People say: ‘I’ve had chronic sinus infections since my son was born,’ or ‘I haven’t been able to go to the bathroom regularly.’ They blow that off, thinking that’s normal aging. It’s not. Having a cold for five years, that’s not normal.”

Set aside some time throughout the day to write

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checked their cholesterol and it’s ridiculous,” said family nurse practitioner Laurie Brown, who has been caring for patients for 30 years. “Sometimes it’s just genetic.”

We all know that blood pressure is important, but did you know that having sky-high pressures can be symptom-less?

“We call it the silent killer,” Ms. Brown said. “No one has symptoms until it’s out of control and you have a stroke. So having someone monitor you is very important.”

Embarrassing tests like colonoscopies, pap smears or mammograms are often delayed, Ms. Brown said, because people don’t like doing them or are afraid of what they might find. “‘Why would I go looking for cancer?’ Some of my patients say. If you find it early, it’s curable, not just manageable. There’s only a few cancers you can say that about — but that’s if you find them. The problem is they don’t have a lot of symptoms until it’s too late.”

IT’S NOT EASY BEING BLUE We tend to forget about the big, gray organ at the top of our bodies — our brain.

Ms. Brown suggests taking stock of our emotional and psychological health, too.

“Depression is one of the biggest things I see,” she said.

You should be able to maintain healthy, loving connections to your partner, friends and colleagues. Excessive fatigue, lack of interest in activities of daily life and thoughts of helplessness are red flags.

“People suffer from depression because they don’t want to be categorized,” she said.

But everything you talk about with your doctor is confidential.

“The whole world doesn’t have to know,” she added.

And since the discussion happens at the same office where you get your blood pressure checked, no one will be the wiser.

GO WITH YOUR GUT Next let’s look at what you’re eating.

It seems like a no-brainer: You need to put good things into your body for you to feel your best. But with so many diets and opinions about food out there, what’s the right way to eat? Mansville resident Karen Miller thought she knew.

She had joined a popular weight-loss program and shed more than 100 pounds for her wedding, just to watch half of it creep back on during the years that followed.

“I couldn’t get the weight to come back off,” said Ms. Miller, a 37-year-old teacher.

Last year, it came to a head.

“I wasn’t feeling well. I was sluggish tired all the time. I didn’t have the energy to get up and do all the things I wanted to do,” she said. “The doctor took my blood work and said I wasn’t diabetic yet, but I was headed down that path if something didn’t change. I thought I was doing things correctly.”

Ms. Garnsey introduced her to a radical new diet fad: Not dieting.

“We use a lifestyle approach,” Ms. Garnsey said. “We come up with a plan for what they’re already doing, so they don’t turn their life upside down. Small changes first add up to big benefits.”

Small changes. Good choices. Radical idea.

Ms. Garnsey encourages an approach called clean eating. It’s simple, and you can start doing it yourself right now: Add more fruits and vegetables. Keep your sugar and sodium intake low. Buy things that are grown and raised close to home — like locally sourced meat and produce.

Avoid processed foods.

Any packaged foods should have five ingredients or less, and only list as ingredients words you recognize as food.

“Basically if it sounds like a science experiment, it is. Why would we want all those things in our bodies?” Ms. Garnsey said.

Ms. Miller has seen huge changes in her body and in the way she feels.

“The weight has not come off as fast as I’d like it to. It’s slow, steady and constant. But I know what I’m doing is healthy and that even though I’ve only lost 20 pounds I know that it’s 20 pounds that won’t come back.”

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND FEELING YUCKY Ms. Miller was surprised at being able to eat foods that she had been taught were “bad.”

“Bacon was one of them. We’d eaten turkey bacon for a long time. The first time I was in the office with [Ms. Garnsey], she said: ‘You can have bacon.’ I said: ‘I can have bacon?’ And then she said: ‘You can have a potato.’ I said: ‘You’re kidding me’ — I haven’t eaten a potato in years.”

Equally surprising were the “good” diet foods that she found out weren’t healthy.

At all.

“I had been taught that I could drink all the diet soda I wanted. But now I can’t drink diet soda,” Ms. Miller said.

“It’s poison for your body. If I really want one, I can have it, but I know how it makes me feel.”

DISCUSSING DETOX That yucky feeling Ms. Miller gets after drinking a calorie-free soda can also happen eating wholesome, healthy food groups, Ms. Garnsey said. She believes that many of us have hidden food sensitivities.

“We’re seeing more and more inflammation — systemic inflammation. The role of inflammation is something we don’t know a lot about, yet,” Ms. Garnsey said. “We’re not sure what genetically modified foods are doing. Is that what’s causing the inflammation?”

Whatever the cause, she suggests doing a detox to help you figure out what food groups are potentially causing inflammation. It’s a great step for people who already eat cleanly, but still don’t feel their best.

“You literally get rid of everything processed: Soy, wheat, dairy, sugar, caffeine, preservatives and alcohol for 30 days. It’s not as hard as you think,” Ms. Garnsey said. “It’s just getting back to the basics, things like grains that don’t have potential allergens.”

Then, you add back in each food group one-by-one every three to four days to see how they make you feel.

MA RCH / APRIL 2014 | NNY LI VI NG

CLEANING UP YOUR ACT You probably knew that more vegetables and fruits are a good idea. But what if you hate to eat them, or are bored with salads?

“Try roasting your vegetables. It’s so quick and you can do it on a weeknight,” Ms. Garnsey said.

People who hate vegetables also might not be using garlic, herbs and spices, all of which add flavor.

Before starting to eat clean, Ms. Miller ate nary a fruit or vegetable.

“Canned vegetables are disgusting.

That was my only vegetable experience as a kid. It’s taken me until I was 37 years old to figure out that vegetables don’t taste so bad if you know how to cook them,” she said, laughing.

Whether you already like vegetables

or not, cleaning up your diet takes a little planning.

“I spend quite a bit of time looking for new recipes. I also joined a wholeshare group — it’s a way to get organic fruits and vegetables at Green Thyme in Adams Center. Before this, I would never have eaten kale or beets. But they’re really good.”

35

“It’s amazing,” Ms. Garnsey said.

“People with rheumatoid arthritis can move — people who’ve been on sinus medication — it’s gone.”

Some clients, she said, find they can’t eat cheap Velveeta cheese, but homemade cheese curds are fine.

“Or milk doesn’t bother them but cottage cheese does,” she said. “It’s very individual.”

Ms. Miller realized she was gluten sensitive, so she avoids breads and pastas.

PORTION PROPORTION For Cape Vincent resident Colleen Knuth,

eating foods in the right proportion was what jumpstarted her body transformation.

“I guess you could call me a professional dieter. I’d do different programs and they’d work for a while,” Ms. Knuth said. “I’d join gyms that told you what to do, and I found them pretty boring.

My husband’s a diabetic so we eat very healthfully, but I continued to struggle.”

At 66, she decided to start a training program at Page Fitness, Watertown.

Part of its program gives clients nutrition guidelines.

“We make sure they’re eating a bal-

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anced ratio of 40 percent carbohydrates, 30 percent protein and 30 percent fat, at every single meal and snack,” said Chris Page, a personal trainer and co-owner.

Although eating for a diabetic spouse had been healthy, it took the idea of proportion — and portions — to help Ms. Knuth lose weight.

“I always had an issue with portions.

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have a huge salad, too. Now I’ll have a half cup of a vegetable, a small potato and maybe a little more chicken to keep the balance of the protein.”

The best part for Ms. Knuth has been ending her obsession with food.

“With diet plans, I would obsess. But there’s no magic fix,” she said. “You have to exercise and you have to eat right. That’s it.”

LIFE: AN OBSTACLE COURSE Ms. Knuth has faced many obstacles on her journey to good health.

“I struggled with weight since my kids were born and I honestly didn’t know what to do about it,” she said.

Then there was a knee replacement in 2000, which limited her mobility.

Finally, in 2006, she woke up with a shaved head in a Syracuse hospital bed. A devastating brain hemorrhage had struck in the middle of the night.

“I have very little memories about what happened after [the ambulance came]. I remember them saying that I had bleeding on the brain and I said to them: ‘That doesn’t sound good,’” she said. “The prognosis at first was that if I survived it, I would be a vegetable. They told my sister that I’d not be able to write a check again,

and that I’d need care. But here I am. They don’t have an explanation.”

GETTING TO GOALS Thanks to the obstacles she’s faced, Ms. Knuth exercises for the right reasons.

She wants to be able to get the most out of her life. That means she measures her progress in what she’s able to do, not numbers on the scale.

“I’ve lost 25 pounds, but more importantly I’m so much stronger than when I started. My daughter and kids came up to me at Christmas time, and my daughter said: ‘mom, you’re running.’ I actually ran with the stroller,” she said.

But diet or exercise alone isn’t enough.

“You can’t expect miracles in your body if you’re only focusing on diet. You also need to exercise. They go hand in hand,” Mr. Page said. “We see people all the time who look in the mirror and say: ‘I’m not fat,’ and think they’re fine. But they can’t do daily activities.”

By anyone’s measure, looking fine on the outside, but not being able to bend or stoop or climb stairs without being breathless is not fine. For many, simply reorienting their motivation for exercise can provide better, more lasting results.

Baby steps to meditation 1. Sit in a quiet place in a comfortable position, one minute every week 2. Use a timer 3. Keep your eyes closed 4. Your back should be straight but relaxed as if a string is pulling the top of your head 5. Listen to any sounds, feel any sensations, smell anything, watch any images that form in your mind 6. Observe, with your eyes closed, what’s happening right now without responding or reacting to it in any way 7. If it happened five seconds ago, that’s not right now 8. When your mind starts thinking about the past or future, gently observe your thoughts happening and then return your focus to what is happening right now: your breath, the sounds, the smells— whatever is happening 9. When you feel bored or frustrated, gently observe that emotion happening and return to what is happening right now 10. If you feel an overwhelming emotion or physical pain, observe it or watch it, then go into it, instead of avoiding it or running away from it 11. Your thoughts and emotions are like the weather, clouds come and go, it rains and then it shines. The contents of your mind may be constantly changing, but the sky in which it happens does not change.

Identify with the sky and not with the weather.

12. When the timer goes off you are done.

13. For week two, practice two minutes every day, week three, three minutes. Work up to 10 minutes by week 10.

— Dr. Nick Knowles

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Then, there are those who want to chase bigger goals.

Leslie Robare, founder of the 1812 Challenge and Half-Marathon, knows firsthand how motivating crossing over that finish line can be. She and a group of running friends started the annual event in 2012 because they love to race.

“Originally it was 5Ks and 10Ks and then we were looking for marathons and half marathons, but we couldn’t find any local ones,” Ms. Robare said. “One of our favorite training runs was to Sackets Harbor. We’d meet in Watertown and run out there.”

The reason it was a favorite? The Main Street restaurant Tin Pan Galley.

“If we wanted pumpkin pancakes, we had to run. We made training shirts that said: ‘Will run for good food.’”

Now, in its third year, the race includes between 600 and 800 local athletes, equally motivated by the goal of crossing over that finish line.

HELPING THE HABIT “I’ve met some of my best friends running,” Ms. Robare said.

Groups can provide a boost when you’re not feeling particularly motivated.

“The more we ran as a group, the more we encouraged one another. No matter how fit you are, you can have a bad run.

But you’re running with someone else who’s pushing you along.”

It’s also a way to build camaraderie and manage stress.

“We had a running joke that whatever happens on a run, stays on a run. We’re all so busy — all of the ladies in the running groups have families and careers, it’s the one hour per week we get to hang out and get some physical fitness at the same.”

Ms. Knuth said her group at the gym has a great time, laughing and joking as they sweat.

“I go to the active aging group two times a week, one hour each day. Then a half hour session each week with a personal trainer,” she said.

Joining a group or hiring a personal trainer can be the key for those who are just starting out. There are groups that cater to young mothers so they can bring their kids in strollers, there are running clubs and clubs for retirees.

“When I think about how much money I have spent over the years on DVD programs, exercise programs. I have a spare room. I said: ‘I’m going to work out three days a week.’ I bought a bike and all of that. But I didn’t do it. So I needed some accountability.”

A BALANCE OF FITNESS Seasoned athletes and beginners alike can get caught in a rut.

“If you only do one thing, you’ll get results for a little while,” Mr. Page said.

Then, you plateau.

To accelerate results, everyone should incorporate cardiovascular training to get their heart rate up, strength training (lifting heavy things) and flexibility (stretching), into every workout.

Mr. Page said to examine weaknesses, and don’t shy away from what you’re not good with. Strength training, in particular, is often neglected. But it’s key in encouraging mobility and increasing bone density. If you’ve never lifted before, hiring a personal trainer for a session or two or joining a weightlifting group at your gym can help build your knowledge base and keep injuries at bay.

Like in diet and health, the key to exercise is balance.

“So many people want to be dripping in sweat after a workout,” said Page Fitness co-owner Jessica Page. “But in yoga, you’re still working and leaving with a clear frame of mind.”

Flexibility helps us restore our bodies and achieve more mobility in workouts and in daily life, but it’s often neglected by even seasoned athletes. But adding some stretching, yoga, or pilates can have a profound effect on mind and body.

complicate our life, without either obsessing over them or trying to pretend they don’t exist.

“When people practice meditation they become aware of their interior, and it creates a level of depth that was lacking before,” Dr. Knowles said.

So take some time and be quiet. It may just be the perfect reboot to complete your whole body makeover.

VICTORIA WISEMAN is a freelance writer stationed at Fort Drum with her husband, a U.S. Army helicopter pilot, and two young children. She has written for Hawaii Business magazine, Honolulu Magazine and Honolulu Family. Contact her at victoria.wiseman@gmail.com.

MA RCH / APRIL 2014 | NNY LI VI NG

BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER We all neglect our brains. We spend hours thinking about our food, our weight, our fitness, but nary a thought to care for the brain that controls how we feel about the very life we lead. The good news is there’s an ancient, effective and disarmingly simple way to bring our brain into the mix: Meditate.

Though it may conjure images of elderly men in faraway lands, cross-legged under a banyan tree, meditation doesn’t have to be fussy. And the health benefits are compelling. Lower blood pressure. A brain that actually creates more neurons in long-term meditators. A brain able to ward off the stress that causes a host of health problems.

“Most people, they try meditation and think ‘I’m not good at it.’ No one’s really good at first,” said Dr. Nick Knowles, an osteopathic practitioner in Canton and longtime meditator. “They give up way too soon. It takes years and years. You have to build a practice into your life.”

Dr. Knowles suggests spending just one minute a day at first, sitting quietly and observing your thoughts. (See sidebar,

page 37, for his tips). Build by a minute per week, so by week 10 you’ll be spending 10 minutes a day in quiet meditation.

People also have the misconception that you have to clear your mind of all thoughts, or it will be boring, a waste of time. What’s interesting is that meditation is about observing thoughts, not eradicating them.

“It’s watching thoughts as objects rather than identifying as the thoughts. You can have lots of thoughts and you watch them and you’re doing it right,” Dr. Knowles said.

That gives the meditating person space from all those emotions and thoughts that

39

ARTS

Following his own script Screenwriter from Ellisburg hopes to set career in motion

MARCH / A PRIL 20 14 | N NY LIVING

BY CHRIS BROCK

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AN ASPIRING SCREENWRITER FACES long odds of having his work on the big screen, but Ellisburg resident Bryan W. Stumpf is determined to beat those odds.

Advice from a Golden Globe-winning actor is helping to propel his dream.

Mr. Stumpf began writing screenplays in 2005 after dabbling in short stories.

He’s attracted the attention of a couple of producers, and two of his screenplays have done well in competitions. “What I’ve learned is that you can win a contest, but getting a producer to option it is a different challenge,” Mr. Stumpf said.

Mr. Stumpf turned to screenwriting after he moved back to the north country from Seattle to be closer to family. He is the son of Willard and Karen Stumpf of Cape Vincent. Mr. Stumpf lived in Seattle from 2000 to 2005, teaching writing, film and literature at Highline Community College, Des Moines, Wash.

He talked about the challenges and rewards of trying to get noticed as a screenwriter.

“I’ve always loved movies, and I was in a writers group in Seattle,” he said.

“When I came back here, I found myself with some downtime.”

He even got Bryan Cranston, who won a Golden Globe this year for best performance by an actor for his “Breaking Bad” role as Walter White, to read one of his scripts.

Mr. Stumpf has learned that his craft involves the compression of words and situations. If a few years of his life were to be compressed into a screenplay, it would include honey extraction, furniture making, teaching at colleges, developing renewable energy projects and a marriage that inspired a zombie comedy/drama.

He wrote two screenplays simultaneously: the action/thriller “Wreckage” (“College friends visiting their hometown beach become prey to a robotic monstrosity

Aspiring screenwriter Bryan W. Stumpf of Ellisburg talks about his craft recently at Starbucks in Watertown.

NORM JOHNSTON | NNY LIVING

controlled by wealthy clients looking for a thrill”) and the horror story “The Making of Merciless,” about a film crew that unintentionally awakens a demon while filming a horror film in the deep woods.

“Wreckage” was a second-round quarter-finalist in the 2012 PAGE International Screenwriting Awards and the 2012 Scriptapalooza Screenwriting Competi-

tion. That was enough to further inspire Mr. Stumpf.

He sent “The Making of Merciless” to screenplaycoverage.com, a paid service.

Its website says its “Hollywood readers give coverage reports to their supervisors on screenplays coming across their desk, grading them on multiple categories, with analysis.”

Mr. Stumpf said “The Making of Merciless” was one of the top three highestscored screenplays in November 2012.

“Based on those experiences, I thought I should really pursue this,” Mr. Stumpf said.

He said “The Making of Merciless” and another screenplay he wrote, “Commute,” have piqued the interest of producers.

“Commute” is about a “mobile podcaster” who discovers that a mysterious van he’s following is a crucial component of an alien invasion.

Mr. Stumpf said producers are reading the screenplays, but he’s a realist. “’Reading’ is the operative word here,”

‘‘

the cinematographer.”

During one late-night/early morning shoot, Mr. Stumpf became Mr. Cranston’s double.

“Around 3 in the morning, they decided that the rest of the shots were not going to be showing Brian Cranston’s face at all, just the back of his head,” Mr. Stumpf said. “They said, ‘Bryan Stumpf - can you stand next to Bryan Cranston?’”

It was determined the back of their heads looked similar.

“They asked me if I would mind shaving my head a little,” Mr. Stumpf said.

“I said, ‘Sure, whatever.’ From then on I became kind of a body double. I’m in the

You just have to make sure everything connects. I like the challenge of building and connecting everything until it has a satisfying resolution.

— Bryan W. Stumpf, aspiring screenwriter, Ellisburg movie, but you don’t see my face.”

Instead it could be his leg, hand or the back of his head as he doubles those body parts for Mr. Cranston.

But Mr. Stumpf did have some valuable face time with Mr. Cranston. The actor read one of Mr. Stumpf’s scripts — a “short” — during shooting of “Cold Comes the Night.”

“He told me I was being a little bit too creative in my writing,” Mr. Stumpf said.

“He said I needed to be a little bit more direct.”

Mr. Stumpf doesn’t have any more plans to work in films or to act.

“I think if there were a role where someone has to look like they were thinking about something important, I could probably do that,” he said, laughing.

A DIVERSE CAREER If this screenwriting thing doesn’t work out, Mr. Stumpf, a 1993 graduate of Thousand Islands Central School, has a few things to fall back on. In January, he received a master’s degree in business administration from Syracuse University.

This is on top of a master’s degree in critical studies in English education that he received in 2000 from Michigan State University. In 1997, he earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature from SUNY Plattsburgh.

He has been an adjunct English instructor at SUNY Oswego, Utica College and

Aspiring screenwriter Bryan Stumpf of Ellisburg n www.stumpffarm.com/BryanStumpf

Highline College and he taught in China for a semester in 2004.

His has been a project development manager for the renewable energy company Acciona Energy, developer of the St. Lawrence Wind Farm, and is a licensed real estate agent. He also makes furniture and raises honeybees on his parents’ farm in Cape Vincent.

He is considering a move back West to be closer to the film industry, but he often goes to New York City to pitch his work there.

“I’m still looking for something where I can combine all my teaching, business experience and writing,” he said.

Some of that writing is based on his life.

He was married for seven years to Adams native Laura A. Halfery, now an adjunct instructor at SUNY Oswego.

“We were married for a while and then we decided we’d be better off as friends,” Mr. Stumpf said. “We’re still good friends.

But we’re friends who had a temporary marriage.”

The relationship includes a humorous rapport. Those talks led to the comedy screenplay “Annulment,” about a recently divorced couple who must get along in order to survive a pandemic. He said the story could be seen as a metaphor for marriage.

Mr. Stumpf said he has met people who are in marriages which they entered “blindly” and don’t seem happy. Those same people, he said, often encourage others to be married.

“And yet, people I have talked to say maybe marriage hasn’t been the best thing for their relationship,” Mr. Stumpf said. “I’m just kind of playing with that idea. It’s a pandemic where everybody is acting mindlessly and they want to spread this infection.”

One couple finds refuge in a cottage.

“They have to make nice and deal with the situation,” Mr. Stumpf said.

The fictional couple uses mettle and moxie to succeed — the same traits Mr. Stump is using in his dogged pursuit of screenwriting success.

“You just have to make sure everything connects,” he said of writing screenplays.

“I like the challenge of building and connecting everything until it has a satisfying resolution.”

CHRIS BROCK is a Johnson Newspapers staff writer. Contact him at cbrock@wdt.net or 661-2409.

MA RCH / APRIL 2014 | NNY LI VI NG

Mr. Stumpf said. “Each producer was interested enough in my logline and pitch to request a copy of the script, but it’s still in the early stages and I haven’t heard back from them yet.”

THE CRANSTON CONNECTION A writer/reviewer at screen playcoverage.com told Mr. Stumpf that he should get some experience on an actual film set to get a feel for the dialogue. That’s where Bryan Cranston enters the scene.

Mr. Stumpf went to the website of the Hudson Valley Film Commission, which lists opportunities for people who want to get involved in the film industry there. Mr. Stumpf got a position as an assistant on the film “Cold Comes the Night,” shot in the fall of 2012 in Windham, Green County. In the credits, he’s listed as a “set intern.”

“Cold Comes the Night” stars Mr. Cranston as a career criminal. It was his first role since the end of AMC’s “Breaking Bad.” The movie will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 4.

During filming, Mr. Stumpf was asked to stand in for Mr. Cranston in certain scenes so the lights and other technical elements could be adjusted prior to filming.

“They’re not going to have the actor stand there for half an hour to get that right,” Mr. Stumpf said. “They grab someone else. It’s a good place to be as a writer because you are hearing the director and

On the Web

41

FOOD

Move over, June Cleaver, Ward has found his place in the kitchen n English muffin bread an easy-to-follow recipe for anyone

MARCH / A PRIL 20 14 | N NY LIVING

BY BOO WELLS

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WHEN I WAS GROWING UP, THE KITCHEN WAS MY MOM’S domain and the basement workshop was my dad’s. My parents were the stereotypical “Leave It To Beaver” type parents.

My father worked a regular office job. He left for work early in the morning, usually before I was even awake for school, and returned home in the evening with a newspaper and briefcase in hand. He played golf and did yard work on the weekends.

He taught me how to ride a bicycle and was — and still is — the dispenser of incredibly sage advice. He has an enormous workshop in the basement of my childhood home, where he could build, create or repair absolutely anything. He taught himself to be a silversmith; he rewired lamps and hung wallpaper, built dollhouses and reroofed our garage.

I can’t say I have very many memories of my dad in the kitchen. He made popovers on special occasions, the crispiest corn beef hash ever and the most perfect coddled eggs when my mom was out of town. Like Ward and June Cleaver, my dad brought home the bacon and my mom cooked it Times have certainly changed. I know plenty of men who are “the cooks” of the family. I have one friend who makes breakfast

for his daughters every day before he drives them to school. That same father cooks all the family’s major holiday and special occasion meals. My brother does most of the cooking for his family, during the week and on special occasions.

Since my mother passed away a few years ago, my father has become quite the master of the kitchen. He cooks for himself partially out of necessity, but increasingly it has been for pleasure. To satiate his colossal sweet tooth, he has been experimenting with baking cookies. He will ask me to send him a recipe for a specific cookie that he is craving or he will find a recipe to experiment with on his own from the Internet.

There has been a slight role reversal in our relationship, which I am thoroughly enjoying. For once I have bits of wisdom to share with my dad: the difference between baking powder and baking soda, the importance of an oven thermometer, why butter is best and margarine is just gross and why using a reliable recipe will save you time.

My father’s newest venture has been making his own bread.

He still bakes cookies every week but now he has added breadmaking to his long list of accomplishments. As was the case with the cookies, he asks me for recipes or finds them online.

We discuss how a recipe turned out or what might need to be changed when a recipe is a disappointment. My father’s bread baking has inspired me to welcome spring with renewed energy — I have been making English muffin bread for the boy’s breakfast. There is nothing better in the world than when it is toasted and smeared with butter and honey and if my father can make his own bread, I can, too.

The kitchen is no longer June Cleaver’s exclusive domain.

Make room in the kitchen for the men in your life — husbands, sons, boyfriends, brothers and even fathers can learn to cook and might even teach us mothers a few new tricks. It has been fun to discuss cooking with my father and I have to say I am pretty impressed with his culinary skills. How many 88-year-old men do you know who make their own bread?

BOO WELLS is chef and owner of the Farm House Kitchen, a catering company and cooking school in Sackets Harbor. Contact her at sacketsfarm housekitchen@gmail.com or visit www.thefarmhousekitchen.com.

English muffin bread Yield: Makes two loaves INGREDIENTS ¼ cup yellow cornmeal (for dusting the loaf pans) ¾ cup luke warm water 1 Tablespoon sugar 2 Tablespoons instant dry yeast 2 cups milk (I have always used 2 percent milk for this recipe) 2 teaspoons kosher salt 6 cups all-purpose flour ¼ teaspoon baking soda INSTRUCTIONS Grease two loaf pans with cooking spray and dust the bottoms and sides with cornmeal.

In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, stir together the warm water, sugar and yeast. Set aside.

In a heavy saucepan, combine the milk and kosher salt. Heat until the mixture is lukewarm (90 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit). Pour into the bowl with the water and yeast and stir to combine. Stir in 3 cups of flour, along with the baking soda. Once combined, add the remaining 3 cups of flour and stir well.

The dough will be sticky.

Divide the dough between the two loaf pans. You might need to smooth the dough with a spatula or wet fingertips to get it to spread out in the loaf pans. Cover the pans with a clean kitchen towel and set in a warm, draft free spot for 30 minutes or until the dough has risen to the tops of the loaf pans.

While the bread is rising, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake the loaves in the center of the preheated oven for 30 minutes, until the tops are golden brown. Let cool completely before slicing.

This bread freezes beautifully — enjoy one loaf after it has cooled and freeze the other loaf for another day.

AMANDA MORRISON | NNY LIVING

Top, English muffin bread with Earl Grey tea jelly. Below, Chef Boo Wells spreads Earl Grey tea jelly on English muffin bread. The easy-to-follow recipe for English muffin bread is so simple it will surprise.

A partnership of the Development Authority of the North Country and Jefferson, Lewis & St. Lawrence Counties.

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MA RCH / APRIL 2014 | NNY LI VI NG

Your Regional Recycling Resource

43

HISTORY

Napoleon leads the 44th Annual French Festival Parade down Broadway in Cape Vincent in July 2012.

The French left a legacy of culture and language that is celebrated in Cape Vincent with the annual French Festival every July.

AMANDA MORRISON | NNY LIVING

Vive la France!

French left legacy of culture, food in Northern New York

MARCH / A PRIL 20 14 | N NY LIVING

BY LENKA WALLDROFF

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IF THE NORTH COUNTRY WERE TO speak a foreign language, it would certainly be French. LaFargeville, Chaumont, Cape Vincent and De Feriet, among others, are towns whose eponymous founders numbered among the first French- Europeans to settle the area.

The years 1789 to 1821 marked an intense phase of French immigration into the north country. This period was marked by political upheaval and war in Europe in general and France specifically. Notably, 1789 marked the beginning of the French Revolution and its subsequent open season on the French aristocracy — including the confiscation of title and property, imprisonment, exile or execution. In November 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte’s coup d’état toppled the French Republic and installed him as first consul and, eventually emperor, of France. The brutal Napoleonic Wars soon followed.

Whether it was voluntary or forced via exile, the wilderness of Northern New York became home to thousands of French émigrés. In 1782, shortly before the French

Revolution, a French aristocrat named James LeRay de Chaumont, perhaps sensing trouble in the air, moved to Northern New York to develop a large tract of land that he had purchased here. After his arrival, he built an estate and promoted settlement of the area back in France — Cape Vincent, Chaumont, Le Ray, Theresa, and reputedly, the village of Plessis, are among the areas named after him or members of his family.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this immigration, however, is the connection that it forged between the north country and one of the most famous — if not infamous — figures in the history of the Western world: Napoleon Bonaparte.

After Napoleon Bonaparte’s final exile in 1815, the north country experienced another wave of French immigration- this time of staunch Bonapartists who were leaving France after the restoration of the French monarchy.

While Napoleon appeared never to have visited North America, his brother Joseph, under the assumed name of Count de Survilliers, established an estate in Borden-

town, N.J. Joseph, the former King of Spain, lived in exile in New Jersey after Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo. Joseph lived in America for 15 years starting in 1817 after which time he returned to France. During that period, he traveled frequently between New Jersey and the wilderness of the north country, which he nicknamed “Little France.” Joseph had a home near the town of Diana in present day Lewis County, and a hunting lodge close to Lake Bonaparte, which was named after him.

After his arrival in the north country in 1818, Joseph Bonaparte was met by old friends, political sympathizers, grenadiers, and officers from Napoleon’s army who had also immigrated to the area. It was the hope of these loyal Bonapartists that Napoleon would manage to escape from St. Helena and make his way to the north country, where he could advance his political objectives. In preparation for what was thought to be Napoleon’s imminent arrival, a stone house was built for him in Cape Vincent

by Count Pierre Real, an émigré who was associated with Napoleon in France. Due to

LENKA P. WALLDROFF is former curator of collections for the Jefferson County Historical Museum.

She is a former museum specialist and conservator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. She lives in Jefferson County with her husband and daughter. Her column appears in every issue.

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its unusual architecture that resembled an upturned tea cup and saucer it was dubbed the “Cup and Saucer House.”

Unfortunately for Napoleon, he was not rescued, and Count Real sold the house to another Bonapartist named Theophius Peugnet. Peugnet and his family lived there until the house burned down in 1867. The Cape Vincent Community Library, 157 North Real St., now stands where the Cup and Saucer house once stood.

The Bonaparte connection doesn’t end there. In addition to two French children with his wife Julie Clary, and two Italian children by his mistress, the Countess of Atri, Joseph Bonaparte fathered two daughters with his American mistress, Annette Savage. The youngest, born in 1822, was named Catherine Charlotte but called “Caroline” in honor of Joseph and Napoleon’s sister Caroline Murat. Caroline and her mother moved to the north country in 1832 and in 1838 Caroline married Jefferson County native Zebulon Howell Benton, the son of an Oxbow doctor.

During a trip to France in 1859, Caroline claims in her book “France and Her People” to have had her birth legitimized by Emperor Napoleon III, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte and her first cousin. She also states that the emperor appointed her daughter Josephine as a lady-in-waiting to the Empress Eugenie.

After her return to the north country, with the glamour of her days in France past, Caroline operated a small shop in Watertown for a while and also earned a living as a teacher. She lived a quiet life and died in Richfield Springs Otsego County, in 1890.

She is buried in the Presbyterian Church cemetery in Oxbow.

After the political situation seemed to have calmed in Europe with the exile of Napoleon Bonaparte and his subsequent death on St. Helena in 1821, the pattern of immigration began to reverse. Many French ex-patriots who immigrated to New York seeking refuge from the instability of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic years began to return to France. The French émigrés were replaced by New Englanders who were attracted to the north country by the richness of its timber and mineral resources.

While gone, the French left a legacy of culture and language behind — a heritage that is celebrated in Cape Vincent with the annual French Festival every July.

45

MY NNY

‘Canton Park Under January Sun’

BY DENNY MORRALE / CANTON

MEDIUM: Acrylic on canvas SIZE: 40-by-60 inches DATE: March 2013

MARCH / A PRIL 20 14 | N NY LIVING

ARTIST’S NOTES: “As the title suggests, the painting features Canton Park. The acrylic on canvas is presently on display in “The Parkview” in Canton above Blackbird Café. Café owners Kenneth M. and Katrina G. Hebb approached me last January about

46

doing a series for the space. This piece was one of the first completed. Two others are on display with it, and several more are close to completion. The series will eventually feature about 12 paintings, each focusing on different aspects of the north country.”

Give us your best image. If you have captured a slice of life in Northern New York through your lens or on canvas, email us a high-resolution image to nnyliving@wdt.net.

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