Our Town April 12, 2012

Healthy Manhattan: Defining autism April 12, 2012

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Notes from the Neighborhood

their spirit of goodwill is an inspiration to all of us.”

SECOND AVENUE BUS STOPS RESTORED

Compiled by Megan Bungeroth

ISLAND CHERRY BLOSSOM WALK

As the Second Avenue construction saga continues, Upper East Siders can begin to savor the victories of small improvements that point toward a distant but construction-free future. Claudia Wilson, the community liaison for the Second Avenue Subway project, recently announced that contractors and the MTA are now able to reinstate two major bus stops along the construction corridor thanks to the completion of work that had directly interfered with the stops.

The crosstown westbound M86 bus stop has been reinstated on East 86th street between Second and Third avenues and the local southbound M15 bus stop has been reinstated on Second Avenue between East 86th and 85th streets. The express southbound M15 bus stops on Second Avenue at East 88th and 79th streets. Here’s to one more step toward a normalized Second Avenue.

STANLEY ISAACS RALLIES Parents, children and local officials gathered to protest proposed cuts to the Stanley M. Isaacs Neighborhood Center’s Beacon Program on Tuesday.

The mayor’s preliminary budget would defund the program entirely; the Department of Youth and Community Development has notified the Center that it would have to close the program July 1 if the cuts are enacted.

The Beacon Program provides child care after school, on weekends and during the summer.

It works to prevent students from dropping out of high school through attention to academic enhancement, career-oriented training, health and fitness education as well as through a focus on arts and culture. Isaacs Center Executive Director Wanda Wooten called the Beacon Program “a critical part of the efforts of this community to provide role models and quality programming,” and said that the young people it serves would be devastated if the program ended. The budget is still being finalized in the City Council.

MALONEY TAKES ON GOOGLE The National Association of Human Trafficking Victim Advocates, along with 37 other anti-trafficking organizations, applauded Upper East Side Rep. Carolyn Maloney earlier this week for her support of the investigation of Google’s role in perpetuating the trafficking of women and girls through the sale of online adult services advertisements. Many advocacy groups say these ads are barely disguised endorsements of prostitution and trafficking—they are often used to sell sex and traffic women—and are working for their removal from major publications and online companies.

Maloney, a Democrat, and fellow Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee, wrote a letter to Google CEO Larry Page, urging him to seek cooperative solutions by addressing some of the company’s advertising

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policies. “Their letter demonstrates that this issue is not about politics,” said Phil Cenedella, executive director of the Association. “It is about victims—and corporations like Google that need to take responsibility and behave ethically.”

WALK IN THE PARK The City Parks Foundation will kick off its spring season of yoga instruction and walking classes for seniors the week of April 30. The classes are free and designed for those 60 and older. In Carl Schurz Park, at East 86th Street and East End Avenue, walking classes will be held Mondays and Wednesdays at 8 a.m., while yoga takes place Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9 a.m.

In John Jay Park, at East 77th Street and Cherokee Place, yoga is on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:30 a.m. At Thomas Jefferson Park, at 112th Street and First Avenue, yoga is on Mondays and Wednesdays at 10 a.m. Call 718-7606999 for more information.

Even in Manhattan, you can still escape to an island for a spring getaway. On Saturday, April 21 at 11 a.m., the Roosevelt Island Historical Society (RIHS) will be leading a 75-minute tour of the cherry trees on the island while they’re in full bloom.

Judith Berdy, the society’s president, will lead the tour and lend her botanical and historical expertise to the experience. To get to Roosevelt Island, take the tram from 59th Street and Second Avenue; the group will meet at the visitor center kiosk at the tram plaza. Email rooseveltislandhistory@usa.com or call 212-688-4836 to make reservations. A $10 donation to RIHS is requested and can be made via PayPal on the website.

CELEBRITY LAWN CARE

VOLUNTEERS OF THE YEAR The Vanderbilt YMCA named Andrew Curtis, a vice chair of the branch’s Board of Managers, their volunteer of the year for his work in bringing positive changes to the youth programming there.

Damisha Fraser, 17, was named the youth volunteer of the year. Fraser has been involved with the Y’s early childhood, afterschool and summer camp programs, as well as helping out in the administrative offices. Both honorees were recognized at a ceremony at the Marriott Marquis in March.

“We are so proud of Andrew and Damisha’s ongoing commitment to the Vanderbilt Y,” said Executive Director Anita Harvey. “Their work, their commitment, their energy,

Aziz Ansari, a cast member of the comedy Parks and Recreation, ceremonially makes the first mow of Sheep Meadow to celebrate the seasonal reopening of Central Park’s lawns.

N EW S YO U LIV E B Y

SHEN YUN: Nothing Short of a Miracle…

Shen Yun Performing Arts. Audiences who have seen it recall the experience of a lifetime; a moment so powerfully beautiful, it touches the soul.

Shen Yun presents colorful and exhilarating performances of classical Chinese dance and music. A performance

by Shen Yun is a presentation of traditional Chinese culture as it once was: a study in grace, wisdom, and the virtues distilled from the five millennia of Chinese civilization.

Every year, Shen Yun unveils an entirely new lineup of dances, songs, and musical scores. At the core of Shen Yun’s performances is classical Chinese dance, with China’s numerous ethnic and folk dance styles rounding out the evening.

In a collection of short pieces, audiences travel from the Himalayas to tropical lake-filled regions, from the legends of the culture’s creation over 5,000 years ago to the story of Falun Dafa in China today, from the highest heavens down to the dusty plateaus of the Middle Kingdom.

During a single performance, Shen Yun transports audiences across time and space, offering a cross-cultural experience that not only entertains, but more broadly, educates and inspires. After seeing the show, one audience member marveled, “This production ... is nothing short of a miracle!”

storytelling.

Built on traditional aesthetics, classical Chinese dance was once passed down among the people, in imperial courts and

ancient plays. Over thousands of years, it was constantly refined, eventually developing into the vast and distinctly Chinese dance form we know today.

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Academy Award-winning actress

Classical Chinese dance—an art form tempered over thousands of years

At the heart of Shen Yun’s performance is classical Chinese dance -- one of the most demanding and expressive art forms in the world. Grounded in 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture, classical Chinese dance entails systematic training in movements and postures, as well as very difficult leaps, flips, spins and other tumbling techniques.

Richly expressive, it portrays personalities and feelings with unparalleled clarity, making classical Chinese dance ideal for

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Keep your cell phones in your pockets. The iPhone “Lone Ranger” is still on the loose, working the 90s between Third Avenue and Riverside Drive. The thief rides up to people on a bike while they are chatting on the phone and snatches it out of their hand mid-conversation, making a getaway before they can do anything about it. So far, there have been 18 reported incidents. Police are still on the lookout for him and advise people to safeguard their cells, only using them when necessary.

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An Upper East Sider got more than he bargained for when he purchased Knicks tickets off of Craigslist. The victim met up with the potential ticket seller at 68th Street and Lexington Avenue, where he paid $250 for a pair of Knicks tickets. Later, when he showed up at Madison Square Garden, he was told that the tickets were forged.

Cell Phone Commotion A young woman was walking on 82nd Street and York Avenue, talking on her cell phone, when two men jumped her, pushed her to the ground and tried to take the phone. The woman fought back, screaming as loud as she could, but it was to no avail. The men pried the phone loose and took off running down the street.

Waiting on a Train A 21-year-old woman was preparing to get on the train at the 59th Street

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station when a perp came up and struck her in the left side of her face, grabbing her wallet. The thief made off with $16.

All’s Well That Ends Well The police happened to be in the right place when a woman was walking on 88th and Lexington and a thief snatched her bag and took off running. Far from being scared, the woman chased after him and followed him back to a car the thief jumped into, starting the engine.

Seeing that the passenger side door was open, the feisty female reached in to grab her purse right as the thief gunned the engine, throwing her to the ground before she could take back her property.

But luck was on the victim’s side. A police sergeant happened to be passing by and she was able to flag him down.

The two went in hot pursuit and caught up with the thief, who had ditched the bag out the window when he saw that he was being followed. Too bad a couple of witnesses saw him trying to get rid of the evidence.

The criminal was arrested and taken to jail.

Early Commute Surprise A man was heading down the stairs of the 68th Street station to go to work when he felt a sharp object against his back and heard a voice say, “Don’t even call. You know what time it is.” The man handed over his wallet, $95 and a Metrocard. The thief headed east on 68th Street.

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By Megan Bungeroth The Upper East Side can expect to soon claim another landmark. The Yorkville Bank Building, at 1511 Third Ave., is under consideration by the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) for landmark designation, and the application is strongly supported by community members, preservation advocates and the building’s owner.

Late last month, the LPC met to hear

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The Yorkville Bank building is expected to East Side’s newest landmarked building. testimony about the historic building, which it described as “an elegant Italian renaissance revival-style structure.”

The Yorkville Bank, which was established in 1893 by German stockholders, first operated out of an office on Third Avenue and East 85th Street. In 1905, they commissioned Robert Maynicke, a German-born architect who had designed the Germania Bank Building, now a city landmark, to construct the current fourstory building of granite, limestone, brick and terra cotta.

The LPC and those supporting the effort cite the building’s cultural history as an important factor in the designation decision.

“This building is significant not only for its architectural integrity but its representation of the German-American community that once populated this part of Manhattan,” said Tara Kelly, executive director of Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts, who testified in support of the designation at the recent hearing. “This area of Yorkville centered around the ‘German Broadway,’ which had all kinds of businesses that supported the community, and unfortunately there isn’t much left of that.”

While architecturally valuable buildings are sometimes marred by haphazard additions, proponents of landmarking the bank building point to the 1923 addition by architect P. Gregory Stadler, designed to

replicate Maynicke’s original structure, as an enhancement and asset of the aesthetic. They also assert that while the facade has been slightly altered since it was constructed, the main features that make it stand out are still intact and are the most prominent aspects of the building.

“Although the ground-floor windows were elongated in the 1990s for use as show windows for the retail enterprise, the elegant arched openings, separated by full-height pilasters and flanked by delicate roundels, were left intact,” the LPC stated in their summary of the landmark merits. “The building’s massive sculpted bronze entrance doors, second-story triangular pediments supported by scroll brackets, classical window surrounds and two imposing cornices have all survived as well.” be the Upper Others pointed out that as the neighborhood continues to grow in popularity, it will be more urgent to protect worthy buildings with landmark status.

“Just as the opening of the Second and Third Avenue elevated railroads brought initial urbanization to Yorkville, work on the Second Avenue Subway has brought new construction to the area and development pressure will only increase with the line’s eventual opening,” said Nadezhda Williams of the Historic Districts Council.

The building has changed hands several times over the course of its history but continued to operate as a bank until 1991, when it was converted to retail space on the ground floor and a fitness center on the upper floors. It is currently owned by the Related Companies, which supports the designation, and houses the Gap and an Equinox gym.

“If the owner is for it, then typically, it goes right through,” Kelly said of the chances that the LPC will vote for the designation.

City Council Member Jessica Lappin has also expressed her support for the landmark, and Lo van der Valk, president of the Carnegie Hill Neighbors, praised the building, saying that its massive doors “remotely evoke a modern industrial counterpart to the Gates of Paradise of the Florence Baptistery.”

The LPC will likely agree, and is schedule to vote on the Yorkville Bank Building’s application on Tuesday, April 17.

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feature

No Horsing Around this Time Will the Central Park horses finally be outlawed?

By Anam Baig and Sean Creamer

C

andrew schwartz

entral Park’s horse-drawn carriages have been a traditional New York City tourist attraction since the 1930s, but animal rights activists have been pushing for years to close the stables, free the horses and find them a home outside the Big Apple.

Three recent incidents involving the horses have resparked the debate and shed light again on the horses and the iconic tourist experience. March 3, a horse was spooked on the Upper West Side and took off, dragging a tipped carriage through heavy traffic. Last December, a horse collapsed near Grand Army Plaza at 59th Street while pulling a carriage holding three adults and a child, tossing them to the ground. In October, another horse, Charlie, died while pulling a carriage on the way to Central Park.

Those in favor of the horse carriages claim that the incidents are sporadic and don’t reflect the high standard used by the industry. The opponents claim that it’s just another day at work for the horses.

Two dueling events happened last weekend when the groups gathered to build momentum on their side as the debate rages. A slew of equestrians from all over the country gathered March 30 to attend ClipClopNYC, where the Horse-Carriage Association of New York

A stable attendant sweeps in front of a horse about to leave the stables.

Star Equiculture of Palmer, Mass., where retired horses go to live after serving on

“These horses get easily spooked on city streets. It’s not their natural habitat.

It’s dangerous for them and the people in the carriage,” Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal said. “My aim is to relieve the horses of work that they are forced to do, dragging hundred and hundred of pounds of carriage and people all day long.” welcomed members of the public to see behind the scenes of the industry. The event included tours of the stables, a meet-and-greet with veterinarians who work with the horses and an informational session at Central Park. The event touted the industry’s partnership with Blue

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the streets of New York City.

To counter that event, the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages, working with other animals rights groups, held an event of its own Sunday, April 1, to protest ClipClopNYC and expose the carriage industry’s practices.

But things weren’t always so black and white for horses in the park.

Frederick Law Olmstead’s original 1870s design of Central Park was meant for horse-drawn carriages both as a means of transport and recreation. Now that those times have passed, many people are vying for the carriages’ ban, citing that the horses are put under unnecessary strain, suffer subpar living conditions and lack roaming space.

Upper West Side Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal and Queens Senator Tony Avella introduced legislation last spring that would ban horse-drawn cabs in the city.

“These horses get easily spooked on city streets. Its not their natural habitat,” Rosenthal said. “It’s dangerous for them and the people in the carriage. My aim is to relieve the horses of work that they are forced to do, dragging hundred and hundred of pounds of carriage and people all day long.”

At the City Council level, legislation sponsored by Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito would ban the use of

horse-drawn carriages in the park, allowing electric cars to take the place of the horses as a tourist attraction.

“We support any legislation that gets these horses out of harm’s way,” said Carly Marie Knudson, executive director of NYCLASS, a group that wants to end the use of carriage horses in the city.

“We think the City Council’s route has the advantage of offering an alternative that saves the horses while simultaneously creating new jobs and boosting revenue to the city through the vintage replica cars,” she said.

NYCLASS was founded by Manhattan Mini Storage and Edison ParkFast owner Steve Nislick and Ed Sayres, copresident of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). The ASPCA not only acts as the government watchdog for the carriage industry, it donated $250,000 to NYCLASS to support their electric car cause.

Animal rights activists such as NYCLASS, The Coalition to Ban HorseDrawn Carriages, Friends of Animals, the ASPCA and People for the Ethical N EW S YO U LIV E B Y

feature

andrew schwartz

Treatment of Animals (PETA) claim that the horse-carriage industry is equine abuse in its worst form.

But those who are a part of the carriage industry say otherwise. Carriage drivers interviewed for this story were adamant that there is no animal abuse. They claim that PETA and the ASPCA, among others, have stalked carriage drivers at the park and stables with video cameras, looking for instances of abuse. But, according to the drivers, they’ve left empty-handed every time.

Conor McHugh, a carriage driver of 26 years, said protesters of the industry have yelled at customers and at times thrown water or spit on them for taking a ride.

“It’s shameful to the city that allows it—that the customers, tourists of this city, get spat on by people because they decide to take a horse and buggy ride,” McHugh said.

In order to become a driver, applicants must go through oral and multiplechoice exams proctored by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which licenses New York City’s horse carriages. After they get their license, newly established drivers take a test run with an experienced driver for a week to ensure they pick up the skills needed to successfully and safely operate a horse.

New horses from the Pennsylvania stables in Amish country are tested for their ability to work the busy Central Park streets. If the horses do not become accustomed to the incessant traffic noise, bustling crowds and gawking tourists, they are sent back.

“Maybe sometimes they get used to it, but they can get spooked,” said Edita Birnkrant from Friends of Animals, a group that proposes banning animals in the park. “They have an innate instinct. Nothing can change that. There will be times when the horse will startle, and then you have 2,000 pounds of wild animal running out of control in a metropolitan hub.”

The horse-drawn carriage industry has faced scrutiny before. In 1988, when three horses died during a heat wave, the City Council enacted a New York City Administrative Code that regulated carriage horse operation, required licensure of the horse, carriage and driver, and established standards for horse treatment and a horse health advisory board to make recommendations to the commissioner of health.

Since then, the Code has seen many

Steven Malone, president of the New York Horse and Carriage Association with his horse Paddy. amendments focused on improving the quality of life and well-being of New York City’s carriages horses.

The horses are kept in four stables on the Upper West Side, an area that has been

Above them, the horses live in individual stables. The horses have constant access to water and food and their bedding is changed three times a day, according to various drivers who, like McHugh, keep their horses at the stable.

McHugh stood against a backdrop of stable workers cleaning out the empty stables of the horses that had left for work earlier in the morning and explained that if NYCLASS or Friends of Animals get their way, these men would lose their jobs.

“We have people in this business who inherited it from their fathers in the 1950s,” said McHugh. “That’s a long, continuous connection, and someone like the assemblywoman just proposes that we be banned? It just seems so draconian.”

Horses are supposed to work every other day and only for nine hours at a time, giving them the chance to rest after a day of lugging carriages and tourists around from the day before, a result of previous legislature to ensure the horses

“We have people in this business who inherited it from their fathers in the 1950s,” said Conor McHugh. “That’s a long, continuous connection, and someone like the assemblywoman just proposes that we be banned?

It just seems so draconian.”

n y pr e s s. c o m

undergoing renovations over the past 10 years, according to Steven Malone, president of the New York Horse and Carriage Association, which represents the city’s 68 carriages, 293 certified drivers and 220 privately owned horses. The stable on 52nd Street has three levels that are connected by ramps, another facet that activists say is dangerous for the horses.

The bottom level holds the carriages.

are treated fairly. ASPCA veterinarians examine them twice a year.

Last year, the ASPCA did an intensive study of the horses for 281 days and found no instances of abuse, according to McHugh.

“The horses have to be groomed and presented everyday. We present them everyday on Fifth Avenue,” said McHugh.

“Inspection does not go on behind closed doors.”

But activists say that the abuse exists in the fact that the horses must endure the conditions of the city. Janet Restino, an artist who lives near the stables on the UWS, agrees with this sentiment.

“I don’t think it is a particularly great idea to have horses on the street during traffic and rush hour,” Restino said.

Ivanna Fairweather, a Harlem resident who was walking in Central Park on a recent bright, sunny day, said she’s in favor of a ban.

“We have so many other forms of transportation, why do we need horses?

People just want to say, ‘Oh, I took a horse ride in Central Park.’ But those pretentious people don’t know that taking a walk in Central Park is so much better,” she said. “New York is a place to walk; it’s a walking city. We don’t need horses to take us places. I mean, $50 for 20 minutes? What? Are they crazy?”

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news

High Society Party for the Birds

ber m me on e R om th M y 13 Ma

winged creatures in several pieces for The New Yorker. Franzen stood before a packed room to explain why he regards birds so highly and why he feels it’s imperative for people to care for the injured and sick of the flocks that pass over our city.

“They don’t really interact with you except to try to bite you. They really have very little to do with us directly, and that’s partly why I like them,” he said.

He called birds “the great other of the world,” the direct descendents of dinosaurs who had the earth to themselves for a good long while before we came along.

Now, Franzen said, there are roughly 100 billion birds in the world, but the 7 billion-strong human population is making it harder and harder for those birds to survive.

“We’re basically taking over the world rapidly and building cities like New York City, and birds have no choice but to interact with us, to accommodate us,” Franzen said.

New York lies directly in the East Coast flyway, the path that migratory birds travel on their way south for winter and north for spring. Thousands of birds

are killed every year when they fly into tall buildings that we’ve placed in their way.

“Like it or not, we’re the stewards of birds now,” Franzen said. “We claimed the planet.”

Rita McMahon, who was dressed in a kimono bedecked with pigeons that was one of the items up for bid in the silent auction, and Karen Heidgerd, cofounders of the nonprofit Wild Bird Fund, explained to the crowd why their Upper West Side location was so important and why they were asking for much-needed donations.

“It’s a great location, but it comes with a price,” Heidgerd said as a video of the rehab center, days away from officially opening, played behind her.

The expensive storefront on Columbus Avenue is right across the street from Animal General, where they can bring the birds for veterinary treatment, and the Center for Avian and Exotic Medicine.

“We have all the doctors right there for us, we have X-rays—we have everything we need.”

Both McMahon and Heidgerd are cer-

andrew schwartz

By Megan Bungeroth Last Tuesday night, over 250 bird lovers crowded into the Vanderbilt Mansion on East 93rd Street to give their attention and dollars to New York City’s first wildlife rehabilitation center, The Wild Bird Fund.

Men and women dressed in suits and sequined sweaters munched on vegetarian hors d’oeuvres and mingled with turtles, a snake, a few fledgling pigeons, baby squirrels and an owl in the grand chandeliered rooms, enjoying the company of fellow avian enthusiasts and an evening of bird-themed entertainment.

Attendees bid on silent auction items, took in a beautiful performance by two lithe and feather-appointed dancers and wandered the halls of the historic mansion, bedecked with photos of rehabilitating wildlife. The use of the mansion was donated, as were many of the auction items and services, by New Yorkers who feel a duty to protect the flightiest creatures among us, even that scraggly pigeon with the broken wing.

The headliner of the night was awardwinning novelist Jonathan Franzen, who has chronicled his affection for

One of the many baby pigeons to benefit from the event. tified by the state to rehabilitate wild animals and certified by the federal government to work with migratory birds. At one point, they had been housing many of their patients in McMahon’s Upper West Side apartment a few blocks away, but now the birds are nested safely in the center. The party raised over $55,000, which will help pay for equipment and medicine and put a dent in the $300,000 annual operating budget.

Franzen likened rehabilitating birds to a spiritual and moral mandate, the duty of an enlightened society.

“The fortunate birds get better and go back to being others, as they should be,” he said.

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ARE YOU THE BEST WRITER OF NONFICTION ON THE EAST END?

Enter the 2012 Dan’s Papers $6,000 Literary Prize for Nonfiction.

For the last 25 years, Dan’s Papers has showcased artists on the cover of the publication. Now Dan’s Papers wants to similarly showcase writers. We believe this is the first literary prize ever offered on the eastern end of Long Island for nonfiction in literature.

Visit Our Website for Official Rules and to Enter

Danshamptons.com/literaryprize Entries must be nonfiction and between 600-1500 words. You may send in memoirs, biography, autobiography, account of a day, opinion, history, profile of a person or institution, essay or humor.

Works must reference eastern Long Island in a meaningful way.

Contest begins March 31 and ends August 1.

First Prize $5,000 • Two Runners Up $500 each.

Winners announced at the John Drew Theater of Guild Hall in East Hampton on Saturday, August 25.

Entry fee is $20.

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film

Bouquet of Eccentrics Whit Stillman’s ‘Damsels’ in the clouds

By Armond White Whereas Mumblecore directors take “I like my characters to walk in their social advantages for granted, clouds,” said the great comedy director Stillman makes those advantages cruLeo McCarey. “I like a little bit of the fairy cial to his characters’ spiritual strugtale.” gles. (It’s in their romantic gamesmanThat confession well describes the ship and political one-upsmanship, as McCarey classics that execute a precari- when Violet jousts with the campus ous balance between realism and fan- journalist.) tasy—The Awful Truth, Make Way for Seven Oaks is a Cloud Cuckoo Land Tomorrow, Love Affair, The Bells of St. version of a WASP enclave, the class and Mary’s, even his Ruggles of Red Gap (cur- ethnic milieu that is now so foreign to rently in revival at Film Forum)—which mainstream comedy. Its identifying chartook a whimsical approach to the pecu- acteristics disappeared from view with liarity of America’s historical identity. the ’60s’ social upheaval (a loss addressed McCarey’s line also describes what distinguishes the films of Whit Stillman, whose new feature, Damsels in Distress, is his first movie in 14 years.

The volunteering girls at Seven Oaks College in Damsels in Distress occupy a peculiar world, set apart from working life. They walk in the clouds of the privileged pursuits of youth, enjoying the leisure of education and idealism about politics, romance A scene from Damsels in Distress. and religion—in that order of importance, though not obviously so. by a character in Stillman’s Barcelona, Violet (Greta Gerwig), a tall, healthy who reproves the vulgar ending of The sophomore, is full of private tastes and Graduate). This setting allows Stillman to philosophies—suicide prevention and observe and conserve the moral process tap dancing are her causes. She’s lucky of people fighting off their anxieties and enough to head her own beautiful-girl pursuing contentment, the telling niceties clique, a group who support each other of socializing that once belonged to that and invite newbie Lily (Analeigh Tipton) forgotten genre, the comedy of manners. to join them. They’re a bouquet of eccenBy bringing a sense of manners back trics, with names like Rose (Megalyn to the chaos of modern social license, Echikunwoke) and Heather (Carrie Stillman could inspire Mumblecore to MacLemore) and archly syllabic speech. rethink itself in less slovenly terms, as a Yet, like the vulgar beer-and-cocktail boys true aesthetic. (The already iconic Gerwig they are attracted to, each is so pretty and displays more delicate facets here than engaging she conveys Stillman’s fascina- her exploitation in Greenberg.) tion with the same human qualities and Stillman’s eloquent aphorisms and conflicts that made McCarey’s films so terse epigrams, too funny to repeat here, moving. are spoken in an atmosphere of serenDamsels in Distress is Stillman’s youth ity and halation (photographed by Doug movie. His previous films, Metropolitan, Emmett) that both satirizes and idealizes Barcelona and The Last Days of Disco, Ivy League seclusion. It is a world Violet surveyed young folk verging on the com- and her gang long to escape by improvplications of adulthood, but his long ing, bringing civility and joy in the courtly absence has added charitable distance form of dance. This recalls how The Last to Stillman’s take on maturity. This is, in Days of Disco, Stillman’s richest, deepest part, his response to Mumblecore and the film, dared to look back to the waning opportunity that movement provided for disco era as a modern pilgrimage. his brand of non-commercial class comeThat was Stillman’s version of dy, but Stillman is too focused and articu- McCarey’s whimsical approach to the late to be mistaken for Mumblecore. peculiarity of America’s historical idenHis awareness of class has always tity. His youth movie hopes strongly for made him the most idiosyncratic indie. our present.

N EW S YO U LIV E B Y

profile

It’s ‘Academic’ As Prof Runs for Lappin Seat

By Megan Bungeroth Hill Krishnan may be the only candidate for City Council who can speak with equal passion about his theories on national military spending and the fusion of disco moves with traditional Indian dancing.

A search for him on YouTube will reveal Krishnan asking U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron about the British government’s commitment to nonproliferation in the face of a nuclear-enabled Iranian government at an NYU forum, as well as a video of him exuberantly demonstrating the aforementioned dance moves. To say that’s he’s versatile is perhaps an understatement.

Krishnan first came to the Upper East Side by chance.

He came from his native India 10 years ago to earn a master’s degree in ergonomics and biomechanics and had so Hill Krishnan. little money that he initially spent nights sleeping in the library and showering in the gym. When a friend of a friend opened his East 88th Street apartment to him, he found a new home in the neighborhood.

While he scraped through school, only allowed to work a part-time, on-campus job, Krishnan met his wife, also a student at NYU. “Within a year we got married,” he said.

“It changed my life—not just in terms of living conditions and my ability to have opportunities in this country, but also the perception of what I want to do with my life. You come from a poor background in India, you come to America, you want to achieve wealth and economic success.

But my wife comes from a very different background,” one that emphasizes service, he explained.

While his expertise is wide-ranging— he’s currently teaching in the global affairs department of NYU’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies and finishing his Ph.D. dissertation on international relations and science and technology policy—Krishnan wants to focus on the local. He reads voraciously and cites different authors’ ideas as inspiration for his enthusiastic opinions on how to tackle the Upper East Side’s biggest issues. He has embraced Edward O. Wilson’s idea of consilience, a term that the scientist author conjured to mean n y pr e s s. c o m

a unity of knowledge, as a lens through which to approach city government.

“Democracy starts in the local,” said Krishnan. “Education starts right here in our neighborhood.”

He saw firsthand the discrepancy between the glorified visions of American life he had previously held and the shortcomings of underserved schools in the Bronx when he tutored math to high school kids—he wants to make education a central focus of his campaign.

“Small class sizes alone is just one part of the puzzle. We have to have a curriculum that is project-based,” he said, like bringing kids to a lake to study pollution, biodiversity, biology and geography all in one experiential lesson.

Like every local politician and candidate for City Council, Krishnan is against the East 91st Street Marine Transfer station but looks at it as part of a larger problem to be solved for the city: How to reduce the amount of waste created in

the first place instead of worrying about where to put it. He said that the jobs that will be created by the Cornell/Technion campus planned for Roosevelt Island is a major reason he has jumped into the race and would hope to use his own science background to help shape it.

“It’s great that we have lawyers and other intelligent people in the City Council, but we need people from different backgrounds represented,” Krishnan said.

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arts

From Self to City Susanna Coffey’s Outward Visions

Courtesy of steven Harvey

By John Goodrich evince a greater urgency of technique.

Most gallery-goers will be familiar Occasionally the paintings’ colors with Susanna Coffey’s self-portraits— don’t live up to this promise; the darks those upward-turning faces, small and feel immobile in hue or studied in their closely modeled, set beneath panoramic designs. But more often than not, colors views. One such painting greets visitors have a vitality equal to their brisk facto Coffey’s curture. In “Back Road” rent exhibition (1995), for instance, at Steven Harvey the rich glint of an Occasionally the paintings’ Fine Art Projects. ochre-green field, The rest of the simmering next to a colors don’t live up to this show, however, more absorbent, darkpromise; the darks feel concentrates on green, perfectly immobile in hue or studied in er another, littlecaptures the lightfall known facet of her their designs. But more often from a small moon work: the tiny, noc- than not, colors have a vitality above. In “Grant Park turnal cityscapes 3/27/10” (2010), a view equal to their brisk facture. and landscapes— from an upper floor of rarely larger than a Chicago high-rise, 8 inches across—that the artist has been pathways wind evocatively into the disproducing for at least 15 years now. tance, dimly lit by a scattering of orange Like the self-portraits, they convince and yellow street lamps. in plastic terms: trees, buildings and Best of all is “The Mill and Dipper” streets settle believably into their own (1998). Within its tiny dimensions, swirls spaces. Painted invariably in a single of tawny greens—trees—climb up one session, their looser, brushier strokes side, becoming bluer and straighter as they

Susanna Coffey, “The Mill and Dipper,” 1998. gather height. A single stroke of a barely lighter green, the denseness of a damp lawn, stretches across the panel’s bottom edge, anchoring the trees’ rise. A building’s retiring red answers across an interval of space, above which purple clouds slowly curl. An inverse arc is traced by a final series of delicate white specks—the Big Dipper, as the title tells us. But we really

don’t need to know this; as marks and colors, it captures the mysterious dance between the large and the small, the light and the dark.

Susanna Coffey Nocturnes Through April 22, Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, 208 Forsyth St., 917-8617312, www.shfap.com.

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arts

Spanish Steps Corella’s Barcelona Ballet Fulfills a Dream importantly—winning a strong Spanish following almost overnight. But last year, with Spain suffering from a severe economic recession, he lost his original backing. Undaunted, he found support in Barcelona, and in February, the Corella Ballet became the Barcelona Ballet.

Within two weeks, it had sold out the city’s historic Gran Teatre de Liceu. “Audiences were standing up and cheering at the end of our performances,” he says. “Over and over again, people came up to me and said, ‘Thank you for bringing ballet to our city.’”

When he brings his company to New York City Center April 17-20, Corella hopes for the same enthusiastic response.

Certainly the repertory should please.

He will dance with the company in Clark Tippet’s Bruch Violin Concerto and bring back Soléa, the hit flamenco-influenced ballet from 2010. “It’s such uplifting choreography,” he says. “It’s like a bomb exploding on stage.” But what gets him really excited is talking about Christopher Wheeldon’s For 4.

“I have 11:57 such AM amazing dancers 1/30/12 Page men 1 now,” he says. “Their turns and jumps are

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Photo by Manuel de los Galanes

By Valerie Gladstone Many great ballet dancers dream of starting their own companies, though few get the opportunity. Even as he performed with American Ballet Theater, Angel Corella was plotting to establish a ballet company in his native Spain.

Unlike most European countries, Spain had never been able to sustain a first-rate ballet troupe and ballet school, forcing Spanish dancers who wanted a career in ballet to leave home to make their names.

“Even though many of us have loved performing with the great companies of the world,” he says recently, “we miss Spain and bringing the art to our people.”

Corella went about the formidable task with determination, first establishing a foundation to support classical ballet in 2001 and slowly building enthusiasm among potential supporters and the government. By 2008, he had fulfilled his dream and was awarded a base in a small town near Segovia, not too far from Madrid.

The Corella BalletPlanning:Layout started touring 3 Q01244 FEC-Veteran Europe—and the United States, most

The Barcelona Ballet company in Pálpito. unbelievable. It’s a great showcase for male dancing.”

Then there’s Pálpito, by Ángel Rojas and Carlos Rodríguez, a dance that combines classical ballet and traditional Spanish dance.

And how does Corella feel about moving from a sleepy village in the countryside to Barcelona? “I didn’t mind the peacefulness of the country,” he says. “But my

dancers much prefer this elegant, exciting city, and the most important thing is to keep them happy. If they’re content, we are assured of success.”

Barcelona Ballet performs April 17-20 on the Main Stage at New York City Center, 131 W. 55th St., 212-581-1212, www.nycitycenter.org.

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Dining

A Market for All Seasons Épicerie Boulud fills every niche for the Upper West Side word “Boulud,” and you know you can stop trying to puzzle it out.

Boulud Sud is a Mediterranean take on his classic French training. Bar Boulud is a more casual approach to that classic French food, minus the starched tablecloths. And Épicerie Boulud is...everything else.

Going to Lincoln Center but have some time to kill beforehand? Taking a stroll in Central Park and want to take along a picnic?

Need to pick up something to make for dinner? Épicerie Boulud has you covered.

The market/cafe/ bar opened just under a year ago next door Just a few of the to the established Bar Boulud at Broadway and 64th Street, creating a mini-empire on the block. The glass-fronted shop is studded with elbow-

height steel tables, with a granite-topped bar along one side and a dazzling array of deli cases stretching the length of the back wall. Baked goods and cashiers take up the

Patricia Voulgaris

By Regan Hofmann The avenues of the Upper West Side, in spots, can feel like someone dropped the Mall of America in the Grand Canyon, a wide-open valley of enormous glassfronted chain shops and banks. And while elected officials and community members work to change zoning restrictions to prevent this disorienting trend from spreading, there are many spots where it’s already too late.

It’s a community of local favorites—residents know where to go for the best bread, the quiet drink before dinner, the best burger. But these aren’t always obvious to the naked eye. A casual stroller can end up pounding the pavement for hours just to find a non-Starbucks cappuccino, wondering all the while, “This can’t be it, can it?”

No, it can’t. Thankfully, one of the city’s most beloved chefs, Daniel Boulud, has taken it upon himself to relieve these huddled masses, opening not one but three of his eponymous establishments as a beacon to the confused, the hungry, the frustrated. If you have no idea what’s good around you, just look for the magic

market offerings at Épicerie Boulud. other wall, while minimal market shelving separates the shopping and eating zones.

At breakfast you can take your pick from a delicate yogurt parfait to a Spanish egg tortilla. Lunchtime will get you anything from a thoughtfully composed cheese plate to a classic Parisian jambon beurre sandwich (with housemade ham, naturally) and lobster bisque. In the evening, choose from a selection of East and West coast oysters shucked to order or pick up a few éclairs for a late-night treat.

It’s rare that an all-things-to-all-people approach to food is successful, but

Épicerie Boulud makes it work. Much of this is thanks to the strength of Boulud’s talent and approachable charm. He comes from a now-endangered species of chef who, while armed to the teeth with accolades and training, ultimately wants to make people happy. He is a chef who, if you want a hamburger, will make you a hamburger—not a deconstructed hamburger or his evocation of the memory of a hamburger, just the best possible hamburger he can make.

This is why one of his perennial bestsellers, so popular it made the leap from his Lower East Side menu to the bar here, is the DBGB dog. Using his impeccable French charcuterie training and his decades of American service, Boulud created a hot dog so perfectly hot doggish it needs no innovation.

Similarly, the banh mi uses those same charcuterie skills to make the ubiquitous Vietnamese sandwich a thing both Lincoln Center doyennes and Saigon natives would happily call their own.

It’s a genuine delight to pop into Épicerie Boulud in any state of mind and be able to find just the thing to sate your appetite, but it’s at its best around 7 p.m. That’s when theatergoers lean against the bar with a glass of wine and a dozen oysters, nannies stop in with their charges for a final treat before handing them back to mom and dad and commuters pick up a loaf of bread for the next morning’s breakfast. It’s when it feels most like a community—which, after all, the UWS is.

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Dining

What’s Old is New

The difference between wines grown in Europe and the rest of the world After my article last week about syrahs from northern Rhone, I had a friend ask me a question that I’ve fielded numerous times about that region and many, many others: “If Syrah and Shiraz are the same,” he asked, “why don’t they taste the same?”

It is the question that has haunted sommeliers since the 1970s: Old World vs. New World. No phrase is as bandied about as those five words in the world of wine. Is it really a “vs.” situation? Is one better than the other? And what is the difference—if there is, indeed, a difference at all?

The concept of Old World/New World didn’t really exist in the early 1970s.

Respectable wine came from France, straw-bottle chianti came from Italy and Gallo came from California. Then the revolution happened. Innovators like Robert Mondavi and landmark events like the Paris Tasting of 1976 changed the landscape forever.

The new world of wine emerged, and

for the next several decades, wines began to fall squarely into two camps: Old World and New World.

The first thing that distinguishes whether a wine is Old World or New World is where it is made. Areas of the world that have been important in winemaking for hundreds of years tend to fall into the Old World category—Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhone and the Loire Valley regions of France; the Piemonte, Tre

By Josh Perilo Venezie and several other smaller regional spots of Italy; Germany; much of Spain; and Portugal are all considered Old World. The United States, Australia, South America, New Zealand and South Africa are considered New World.

There are confusing areas, however, like the Languedoc-Roussillon area of southern France and the Rioja area of Spain, which make wines that can be considered, tastewise, both Old and New World.

Which brings us to the second category that distinguishes the two types of wine:

taste. Generally speaking, New World wines are what wine snobs call “fruit forward.” What that really means is that when you take a sip of one of these wines, the first thing you taste is bold fruit flavor.

Old World wines may have a fruitiness to them, but it may not be the main event, so to speak. There are many other earthier, spice-driven, herbal flavors that are hallmarks of the Old World-style wines.

Also, while New World wines are simpler, easier to drink on their own and, by some accounts, more immediately accessible, Old World wines are more complex and are oftentimes better to pair with food.

Another very important part of what differentiates Old World wines from New World wines are climate and soil. Old World areas tend to have soils that are less fertile and are sometimes downright rocky. This may sound terrible for growing grapes, but the struggle the grapes go through to grow in these areas produces a lower yield and, therefore, more intense grapes with a stronger flavor. Very often, these regions also have cooler climates, which also prolongs the growing season,

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adding to the complexity.

In many New World areas, the soil is fertile and the climate is warmer. This produces a higher yield of grapes that ripen quicker, making a wine that is, very often, simpler, fruitier and higher in alcohol.

The final component of what differentiates New World from Old World is winemaking technique and philosophy.

This is part of the reason New Worldstyle wines can be made in Spain and the south of France. With New World wines, new American oak is often used, which imparts a stronger flavor and smell than French oak. With Old World wines, the emphasis is often put on making wines that are complex and layered. Oftentimes, wines are made that aren’t meant to be opened until many years after they’ve been released.

To get a good idea of how Old World and New World wines compare, get two wines made from the same grape but from different areas, like the Domaine Carneros Pinot Noir (New World) and the Chateau de la Maltroye Bourgogne Rouge (Old World). Both are pinot noir, but the difference will astonish you and your palate will be illuminated.

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new york family

The Gilted Age How Gilt Groupe entrepreneurs Alexandra Wilkis Wilson and Alexis Maybank built the hottest online shopping experience–and took on Manhattan motherhood

By Erika Thormahlen

I

Hot Tip of the Week

The Muppet Man Celebrate the life and work of Jim Henson, the creative force behind The Muppet Show and Sesame Street, in a musical, puppetled journey at Carnegie Hall this Saturday.

The tribute will be performed by the New York Pops with special guest John Tartaglia.

Shows at 12:30 or 3:30 p.m., and tickets begin at $9. For more information, visit carnegiehall.org. And for even more family fun, visit newyorkfamily.com.

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You both live in New York City. How do you spend a typical weekend with your families?

AM: We’re always out playing in Central Park. In the snow, rain—any time, any weather. We bundle [Thomasina] up and we go out. We also do the museum thing quite a bit. The craziest one we went to was the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. Oh my, I felt like afterward I needed a cocktail, it was so crazy. But [she] loved it.

AWW: We live really close to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and one Saturday afternoon, Conrad was running around the Temple of Dendur and saying hi to all the Roman and Greek statues and looking at the Egyptian mummies. I looked at my husband and, even though I grew up here, I’m still amazed at how lucky we are.

Tell us about some of the challenges of having children fast approaching the Terrible Twos.

AWW: I expect that there are going to be challenges in parenting at all ages. At this stage, Conrad is opinionated but he can’t always communicate it. That must be frustrating for a child.

AM: The most challenging thing is obviously balancing work and family.

Each day, you either feel like you’re a better professional woman or a better parent. You never feel great at both.

How did becoming a parent change your approach to work?

AWW: The first two years of building Gilt Groupe were so physically and emotionally demanding I think it would have become very tough to enter motherhood at that stage. For those who know me, both professionally and personally, they

PhotograPhy by ChristoPher Logan. styLing by beCkiemartina, re-styLists

n just four months, New York City moms Alexandra Wilkis Wilson and Alexis Maybank grew their passion for sample sale shopping into a membersonly “flash sale” ecommerce site alluringly coined Gilt Groupe, a lunchtime guilty pleasure at first only whispered on the lips of in-the-know fashionistas.

Aimed at motivated customers with some disposable income and limited time, Gilt reaches a sophisticated and dynamic clientele—much like its founders. In just over four years, the pair of Harvard Business School grads who met as undergraduates at Harvard in a Portuguese language class, have grown their “shop by appointment” model into the web’s ultimate source for deals and steals on high heels and high-end handbags.

Now, with over 5 million members and a bevy of incarnations of their brand— from Gilt Baby & Kids’ apparel and accessories to Gilt Taste’s gourmet foods, from Park & Bond’s menswear offerings to Jetsetter’s luxury travel packages—the duo shares more than a penchant for bargain shopping and business strategies; both are working wives and mothers to children under the age of 2.

And while they’re often mistaken for one another—using that to their advantage during hectic times when they need to stand in for each other at the office— Maybank and Wilson are two moms with similar hopes for their children, but each with a parenting style all her own.

We sat down with the sample-sale savvy pair to talk motherhood and Mr. Valentino and the world they’ve created in which the two actually can coexist.

Alexis, your second child, a boy, is due in two and a half weeks. Rumor has it you were wearing über-high heels very far into your pregnancy. Has your daughter Thomasina followed in the footsteps of nom and caught the fashion bug yet?

Alexis Maybank: She’s 16 months old now and is obsessed with anything that can be a necklace, but that’s all in terms of fashion. I think she’d prefer to run around in a bathing suit as opposed to dresses.

AM: We had Alexander McQueen’s last collection on the site. On a happier note, we had Mr. Valentino’s last runway collection; it was his very last show before he retired. We also sold men’s skirts from Thom Browne, which surprised me at how quickly they flew off the shelf!

AWW: The first time we did Christian Louboutin was pretty crazy, too. We warned our engineers that it was going to be big, but even with all the warnings, they didn’t anticipate the online frenzy that the brand created.

How do you continue to grow Gilt Groupe when it was originally built around exclusivity?

AM: When we launched the business as members-only, it was the antithesis of ecommerce.

You’re not supposed to draw up a wall and not let people pass, but we did it and it’s allowed us to do some really unique things. Every time Alexandra Wilkis Wilson and Alexis Maybank. someone comes to visit the site, we know exactly who she or he is, know it was hard for me not to be multi- what they tried to buy, what they like to tasking, so I was on email pretty quickly buy, the colors, the sizes, what they look after becoming a mother, but I did actu- at—every stroke of the mouse, if you will. ally take 12 weeks physically out of the So when an email goes out to millions of office. people, there are over 3,000 versions of that one email reflective of what a person Alexandra, you often travel on behalf is interested in shopping for. of the company. How do you get your Conrad fix when you’re overseas?

Your book, By Invitation Only, which AWW: We Skype, we video chat and releases this month, shares the story now he can talk on the phone to me, even behind Gilt Groupe’s meteoric rise. though there’s no replacement for putting Was writing the book similar to runa baby to bed and reading a bedtime story. ning a business?

AWW: It’s a slow process. It’s a lot What about the idea of an online slower than how quickly we moved with sample sale attracted you both as Gilt. businesswomen?

AM: When [the publisher] told us it AM: We felt that if we’d drop any- would be a year and a half to get the book thing—if we’d shape our own workdays out the door, we were like, “Really? It around popping in line for 10 minutes only took four months to get the business to check out what was at the Valentino out the door!” sample sale—then it was something that might have legs.

What do you hope readers take away from the book?

You’ve sold everything on Gilt, from AWW: Hopefully, there’s a message an opportunity to ski with the U.S. in there for anyone, whether it’s entreSki Team to tickets to Fashion Week preneurs looking to start a business or shows. Which sales have amazed or people who can adapt entrepreneurial excited you most? lessons to their day-to-day jobs or lives.

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Healthy Manhattan a monthly advertising supplement

Autism Not Specified But Pervasive The hardest condition to define on the autism spectrum: PDD NOS

By Ashley Welch Autism now affects one in 88 children in the United States, according to a recent study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month. That’s a 23 percent increase over the last two years and a 78 percent increase in the last decade.

Doctors and experts agree that this staggering jump may bring feelings of fear and confusion to an already little understood disorder.

The cause of autism, a neurological developmental disorder, is still unknown, though most science currently available points to a mixture of genetic and environmental factors.

Similarly, the cause of the recent increase is not fully understood; it’s unclear whether the number represents more cases or simply better detection and screening.

“The most important thing is that there are more kids who are identified with autism spectrum disorders, so we need to plan accordingly for services that address that,” said Dr. Catherine Lord, director of the Center for Autism and the Developing Brain at New YorkPresbyterian/Weill Cornell and Columbia. “No matter why they’re there, they clearly exist.”

The actual diagnosis of autism can be just as confusing.

The three most common disorders on the autism spectrum are autism, Asperger’s syndrome and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD NOS). Autism is characterized by difficulties in social interaction and verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors.

Asperger’s syndrome is considered to be on the high end of the autism spectrum; the symptoms are less severe and people with this disorder tend to preserve linguistic and cognitive development. PDD NOS is the diagnosis used

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Class at Rebecca School, which teaches children with autism. Photo courtesy of Rebecca School

to describe individuals who do not fully meet the criteria for autism or Asperger’s syndrome.

Dr. Andrew Gerber, assistant professor of clinical psychology and director of the Developmental Neuropsychology Program at Columbia University, said this last diagnosis tends to be the most difficult for parents to understand because it does not seem to be defined.

“It can be terribly confusing,” he said, “because it could mean so many different things.”

However, Gerber emphasizes that the focus should not be on the diagnosis but on the individual needs of the child.

“The optimal model of care is to focus on a description of your child’s strengths and weaknesses and what we can do to bolster the child’s strengths and address his or her weaknesses,” he said.

The diagnosis is important, however, to help families get the services they are entitled to.

While it varies from state to state,

children in New York with PDD NOS are entitled to the same services as those with other disorders on the autism spectrum, though they may be entitled to fewer hours of service. These include early intervention for children under 3, which can consist of at-home educational treatments and occupational, language and speech therapy. When kids get older, they are eligible for special preschools, which are run by both forprofit and nonprofit agencies.

All school-aged children are entitled to “free and appropriate” public education, according to the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Insurance companies may also pay for some services like speech, language and behavioral therapy, as well.

Children and adults with PDD NOS are treated similarly to those with other disorders on the autism spectrum. The most well-studied method of treatment is applied behavioral analysis, which relies on intensive behavioral intervention and teaches targeted skills and behav-

iors through positive reinforcement.

“It encompasses a lot of different techniques, but they all involve the idea that you learn to do things in a certain situation by recognizing the signs that now is a good time to act in a certain way, then you are rewarded for acting in that way,” Lord explained.

A perhaps lesser-known model, the developmental individual differences relationship-based model, is utilized by Rebecca School, a private day school for children with autism in Manhattan.

“We focus on relationships as the foundation of learning and pay close attention to each child’s individual needs,” said Dr. Gil Tippy, the school’s clinical director.

Instead of using reinforcement, Tippy said, children learn to relate, communicate and think critically about the world through developing relationships with teachers, staff and each other.

There has been an ongoing push to change the definition of autism in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

The new criteria is more restrictive and would combine the three subgroups of the autism spectrum into one category, requiring children to exhibit more pronounced symptoms to qualify for the diagnosis.

Some fear that these changes will reduce the number of people who are diagnosed with autism and qualify for treatment.

“The main concern that I have is that state and federal governments and health care providers will use the new severity scale to exclude those people who look like their ASD [autism spectrum disorder] is less severe,” said Tippy.

However, opposing voices say the new changes will help improve autism diagnoses.

“These redefinitions are part of a general effort to improve all diagnoses in mental health,” Lord said. “It’s not that autism was picked out specifically.

The American Psychiatric Association periodically tries to look at what has been learned in the last decade or two to make the definitions more accurate.”

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April 5, 2012

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A Colonoscopy Can Save Your Life Get screened for colorectal cancer.

A colonoscopy is one of the few tests that can help in early cancer detection and prevention.

Dr. Forrest Manheimer is the Chief of Gastroenterology at New York Downtown Hospital.

He oversees an interdisciplinary group of physicians and the skilled endoscopy nursing team.

The Hospital’s multi-lingual endoscopy staff has decades of experience, which ensures safe, efficient and comfortable examinations.

Dr. Manheimer is a board certified gastroenterologist with more than 20 years of experience in the field.

For an appointment with Dr. Manheimer call: (212) 238-0189 or (212) 312-5090

156 William Street, New York 10038 www.downtownhospital.org 22

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Healthy Manhattan

Sneezing Early and Often This Season

Spring, when a hay fever sufferer turns to thoughts of tissues

By Joanna Fantozzi The early arrival of spring in New York meant a March filled with returning birds and budding flowers. But the season also means the miserable return of hay fever.

Hay fever, or allergic rhinitis, is the allergic reaction to indoor and outdoor allergens such as pollen and dust. Usually brought on by a genetic predisposition early in life, seasonal allergies affect a little under half of the American population, or 150 million people, said allergist Dr. Morris Nejat. This year, because of the dry, mild winter, hay fever symptoms began early and strong for allergy sufferers.

Even in an urban environment like New York, pollen counts are high because pollen can travel airborne for almost 100 miles, said Dr. Marjorie Slankard, director of the allergy clinic at New York Presbyterian/Columbia Medical Center. Pollen counts in the city have been registering at medium/high levels, or around a 10 out of 12 on the pollen scale, according to Pollen.com. Slankard said that some of her patients even feel better in the suburbs or more rural areas than in the city.

“In New York City, people are miserable,” said Nejat. “With the early spring, you want to enjoy the outside, as opposed to stay inside and work.”

But if you suffer from allergies, enjoying the spring weather is probably the last thing you can do. Slankard said hay fever sufferers should cut down their exposure by keeping their windows closed and turning on air conditioners to cleanse the air of pollen. She also suggested that allergy sufferers shower and wash their hair when they come inside to avoid increasing the pollen in their homes.

Many people experience only minor hay fever symptoms, such as sneezing, lethargy and itchy, watery eyes, but for more uncomfortable cases of wheezing and difficulty breathing, ther e are many options. Nejat said treatment should be based on the range and severity of symptoms. For allergies affecting the nasal passageways, use a nasal spray; for itchy eyes, eye drops may be the answer.

“If you’re in the more moderate to severe case, you really want to cut down your exposure to allergens,” said Nejat.

For an over-the-counter symptom alleviator, allergy specialists suggest Claritin or

Allegra. But in moderate or severe cases of hay fever, prescription antihistamines like Clarinex are a better option than over-thecounter medication, said Nejat.

If allergy symptoms persist, an allergy shot, which alleviates symptoms in three in four people, may be the answer, said Slankard. She also said that children with allergies should take allergy shots to reduce the risk of asthma later on in life.

Because of the range of symptoms and their severity, doctors suggest visiting an allergy specialist to get the medication you need to end the suffering.

Hay fever is affected by the pollen count, which can increase with dry, windy days and warm weather. This year, Slankard said her patients began seeing symptoms in February, which is unseasonably early. This is bad news for hay fever sufferers, because early high pollen counts may mean worse symptoms.

Dr. Beth Corn of Mt. Sinai Hospital said that early pollen counts prime the immune system, so it takes less pollen to feel uncomfortable.

And the sneezing and wheezing will most likely not abate.

“It’s still early April, so it will get much worse in the next few weeks,” said Nejat. “I expect pollen counts to get much higher.”

N EW S YO U LIV E B Y

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You may qualify for this study if you: • Are 18 years of age or older • Are on your first anti-HIV drug regimen • Are currently taking Atripla or Complera • Currently have an undetectable viral load for at least 6 mo What the Study involves: • Study medications, physical examinations and laboratory testing will be provided at no cost.

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April 5, 2012

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Healthy Manhattan

Isabella House

Independent Living for Older Adults Join us at our

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JOB #: B012641300 CLIENT: Isabella House PUBS: our town SIZE: 4.91 x 5.541 DATE: 4-2-12 There’s one thing to feel young but another to act young.

The residents at Isabella COST: MJ House have found an entirely different way of acting young. During performance ARTIST: days you might be walking by and hear a COMP: dramaticbayard rendition of Macbeth or a famous line from King Lear may capture REV. your0attention. But these are not profesOK to Release

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Partnering with the People’s Theatre Project of Northern Manhattan, Isabella began to offer acting classes for their residents. The classes provide the opportunity for our residents to live someone else’s life for a few hours each day. Classics such as Macbeth and King Lear are performed live in front of their fellow residents—who can be the harshest critics. The classes’ help our residents feel lively and vibrant and more importantly, it keeps them fresh.

The acting classes are in addition to Isabella House’s Tai-Chi, Chair Yoga, Posture Exercise, poetry and painting classes. For more leisure-oriented activities they offer Game Nights and Movie Nights.

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For more information or to arrange a visit, please call (212) 342-9539. Isabella House is located at 525 Audubon Avenue, New York, NY 10040. Visit their website at www.isabella.org

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Pay Attention to Children’s Hyperactivity “Boys will be boys” attitude can delay help for attention deficit disorder

By Dr. Cynthia Paulis Donna Greenstein knew something was wrong with her son, but no one believed her. The mother of four first had two daughters and went through the usual pediatric milestones with them.

Then her son was born and began to grow up.

“He would have tantrums that would last for hours and went above and beyond the normal realm of the terrible twos,” said Greenstein, a nurse. “He would rip wallpaper off walls, urinate on walls and throw feces at his sisters.”

Preschool and kindergarten teachers kept saying, “Boys will be boys. It’s noth-

ing. He’s immature, he’ll catch up; this is typical boy behavior.”

When he started first grade, she received a call from his teacher, who told her, “‘We need to have a meeting; something is wrong.’ Finally someone was listening to me. Before, everyone told me I was crazy,” she recalled.

Her son was tested and diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorder and bipolar disorder. Now 16, he is active in school and sports and is preparing for college. Without intervention, therapy and medication, his story would have had a different outcome.

ADHD is a chronic condition that affects millions of children in this country, and it affects boys four times more often than girls. There are three types of the disorder: inattentive, hyperactive-impulsive and combined ADHD, the most common, which involves all symptoms.

Continued on page 26 N EW S YO U LIV E B Y

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Continued from page 24

With the inattention type, a child has difficulty paying attention to details, is easily distracted, procrastinates and fails to complete homework or chores. These symptoms are often missed until a child faces the challenge of a structured classroom.

Hyperactivity symptoms present themselves in very young preschoolers.

They include talking excessively, always being on the go, fidgeting, running or climbing excessively. Impulsivity symptoms involve inappropriate behavior, conversations, blurting out answers before questions are asked, interrupting others in social situations, knocking over objects or banging into people.

Dr. Lenard Adler, professor of psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical Center, said, “Girls are less likely to be diagnosed in childhood because they carry a higher load of the inattentive symptoms. So in a classroom, if you are daydreaming and not paying attention and distracted, you may be seen as underperforming, as compared to a boy, let’s say, who is behaviorally disruptive, in and out of his chair, interrupting his teacher.

“That doesn’t mean that girls don’t have any hyperactive impulses and boys don’t have any inattentive. But the balance is different,” he explained.

The causes of the disorder remain a mystery. ” We think the lion’s share of the transmission of ADHD—probably about 80 percent—is familiar,” said Adler. “It’s a disorder that tends to run in families.

“That being said, we also look for environmental causes that might be contributing; certainly it has been shown that maternal smoking during pregnancy may raise the risk for ADHD,” he said.

“Another environmental factor that has been shown has been maternal abandonment.”

Other possible causes linked to the disorder are lead exposure, certain food additives and, possibly, gluten.

Children with ADHD without proper intervention often struggle in the classroom, tend to have more accidents and injuries, are more likely to have trouble interacting with peers and adults and are at increased risk for alcohol, drug abuse and delinquent behavior.

Making the diagnosis of ADHD is not always easy, since there is no one specific test such as a blood test or CAT scan that can make the definitive diagnosis. Instead, it is usually made by gathering the child’s history, first with the parents and later from the observations of teachers, before the child is brought in for evaluation.

Standard treatments for ADHD include medications and counseling.

Often, children can go on to lead productive lives. Typical medications include stimulants such as Ritalin, Adderall and Dexedrine, but there is no one perfect medicine, and it is often a trial to see which one or combination of them will be the most effective.

The stimulants help boost and balance the neurotransmitters, or brain chemicals, that help improve inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity.

There are side effects to all meds; some may include decreased appetite, weight loss, insomnia and irritability. It

Four times more boys are diagnosed with ADHD than girls.

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Healthy Manhattan

• April 12, 2012

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E E R F

may take several rounds of fine-tuning to find the perfect combination. Nonstimulant medications, along with antidepressants and clonidine, have also been used successfully.

Greenstein advises parents like her to seek treatment early.

“A lot of parents, I have found, are afraid of medications, so they allow their children to suffer for so many years because ‘I don’t want to put my son or daughter on medication,’” she said. “I think they do more harm than good, because the child’s self-esteem takes a major blow when they are not able to function in a classroom with other children.

“Once you medicate them and get them under control, their self-esteem starts to blossom, they learn, they start to feel better about themselves.”

Her son had difficulty maintaining friendships his first years in school. Now as a teenager, he has friends, is active and is looking forward to college.

“I have him burn off energy so he does mixed martial arts and track,” Greenstein said. “You have to keep all of that energy focused in a positive direction.”

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open forum

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• April 12, 2012

Extending Whistleblower Protections To employees of companies doing business with New York City

By Dan Garodnick New Yorkers periodically hear about private contractors who are caught ripping off the city, with the CityTime scandal only the highest-profile example in recent years.

Clearly, we need better tools to stop fraud and corruption to better protect city taxpayers.

Safeguarding taxpayer money from misuse is one of the reasons the city has whistleblower protections for its public employees.

These protections are meant to empower workers to report suspected or known corruption without fear of retaliatory action by their employers.

However, employees of businesses that contract with the city are not afforded any such protections under the law, even though New York City’s Fiscal Year 2012 budget includes more than 17,000 contracts totaling about $10 billion (more than one-seventh of the city’s entire $67 billion budget).

Last week, I introduced legislation

that would prohibit companies with city contracts in excess of $50,000 from punishing employees for reporting suspected or known corruption, criminal activity, gross mismanagement, conflicts of interest or abuse of authority.

The CityTime payroll project scandal speaks to why this legislation is needed. Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) defrauded New York City taxpayers of hundreds of millions of dollars over several years, tens of millions of which will never be recouped. Although SAIC’s settlement with the city included adopting new whistleblower protections (in addition to $500 million in penalties), prudence dictates that those protections are put in place—along with outreach to make employees aware of those protections—before work commences on any new contract.

Congress extended these kinds of protections to employees of federal contractors and, by extension, to federal taxpayers three years ago. City taxpayers

deserve the same protection.

Extending whistleblower protections also complements a bill that the New York City Council passed in March 2012, authored by Council Member Letitia James, which requires capital project cost overruns to be reported to the Council on a quarterly basis, along with details of additional project costs. Responsibility for 17,000 contracts means that we need to have the best methods to manage taxpayer dollars and limit cost overruns.

I urge the Bloomberg administration to support the extension of whistleblower protections at the Council’s Governmental Operations Committee hearing on April 16. It’s time to empower employees of companies doing business with New York City with the same whistleblower protections afforded to public employees. They are in the best position to report corruption and should be encouraged to help safeguard our taxpayer dollars without fear of retaliation.

Council Member Daniel R. Garodnick represents New York City’s 4th District and is running for city comptroller.

capital connections

The Governor’s Speech

By Alan S. Chartock Did you see The King’s Speech, starring Colin Firth? I loved that movie, which told the story of how King George VI, the present Queen Elizabeth’s father, overcame a stutter by going to an eccentric speech pathologist.

I understand there may be a sequel in the offing called The New York Governor’s Speech.

We all know that Andrew Cuomo is one of the shrewdest and most ambitious politicians in the country. Cuomo holds grudges, big time, but he doesn’t take things personally.

If he makes a peace offering to anyone who stands in his way and if that offer is accepted, past unhappiness will be forgotten.

If Cuomo sees an opportunity to change something that stands in his way, he will do what he must. And when a move to Pennsylvania Avenue is in the offing, that’s where the king’s (or gover-

nor’s) speech comes in.

Many of us don’t know what we sound like. Cuomo has a distinct Queens accent.

Lots of folks tell me that he sounds exactly like his father. I have always maintained that he doesn’t, and that his style of speaking comes more from his lovely mother, Matilda.

In the case of Cuomo’s speech, the governor has a defined liability. In New York, his speech is, well, acceptable. I was recently talking to Rex Smith, the brilliant editor who originally hails from South Dakota. He told me that George McGovern was so conscious of his accent that he took speech lessons. I believe Cuomo’s accent will be a turn-off for most of this country. In fact, I suspect McGovern’s speech problems would have been far less insulting to the ears of Manhattan dwellers than Cuomo’s thick Queens brogue would be to the folks in South Dakota.

This is where Cuomo’s self-knowledge

becomes so important. Clearly, he has enough insight to get it. I have been listening to Cuomo’s public utterances and he is beginning to sound more and more like King George. I suspect, but cannot prove, that he is getting speech coaching.

He’s still dropping consonants at the end of words, but his words are coming out softer.

Of course, we don’t know who is helping Cuomo with his speech. He may be practicing in front of a mirror. Maybe his girlfriend, Sandra Lee, is helping him—or it could be his brother, Chris, the TV news guy. Maybe it’s one of the actors or directors with whom the Cuomos hobnob at the 21 Club.

We’ll just have to wait for the movie release to find out. This could be the start of something big. I wonder if Shelly Silver will be next? I hope not; I love his accent.

Alan S. Chartock is president and CEO of WAMC/Northeast Public Radio and an executive publisher at The Legislative Gazette.

N EW S YO U LIV E B Y

ironic hopes

The Defiant Ones

Cautiously surprised as Mets initially defy budgets and predictions

By Josh Rogers It looks like the baseball season is going to last more than a week for me.

The season does go at least six months for all teams, but it’s tough to root for a “small-market” ball club once it gets to the point where the postseason appears to be a fantasy.

I used to root for a big market club, but then something changed. Not to me—to it. I didn’t switch teams, my team switched on me. The New York Mets still play in the largest market in Major League Baseball, but since the owners’ finances have been jeopardized by their dealings with Bernie Madoff, they’ve shown me and other Met fans what it’s like to root for a team in a small city, where big-money cable contracts are not possible.

The Mets entered the season with universal predictions of doom, but have defied them for now, coming out strong

with three straight wins against a good team, the Atlanta Braves.

The pitching is exceeding expectations so far, and the new crop of young, homegrown players have started out well. Meaningful baseball for most of April appears assured.

If they can somehow make it to August, training camp for the football Giants will be in full swing. I’m constantly and pleasantly reminded of that by my toddler, who on an almost daily basis says, “J.P.P., Osi, Eli won the Super Bowl.”

By the summer, I’ll be able to push the Mets out of my mind if their cost-cutting ways catch up with them.

Does a true fan stay interested even when his team has no hope of going further? Maybe, but I have logged more than enough losing seasons with too many teams, and I just don’t have the time or motivation anymore. I also used to follow the Knicks (I still check in for things like

Linsanity) and Rangers (perhaps they’d win me back with a trip to the Stanley Cup finals), as well as college basketball and football. I’m not sure where I found the time.

Back to the Mets. Unlike most fans, I was OK with them not re-signing Jose Reyes. As rare a talent as he is, he is typically not able to play a full season and is probably not worth the large contract he got with the Marlins. The problem is that the team had no ability or interest in using the Reyes savings to improve the team. The owners appear to have escaped the worst of the Madoff fallout, but they are not likely to convince fans that things have changed until they make a smart, budget-hurting baseball move.

Their predecessors brought me my first pain as a sports fan when they traded “The Franchise,” Tom Seaver, during a contract squabble.

The plight of Met fans now highlights the fundamental problem with baseball

today: A majority of teams are made to be perennial longshots because they can’t compete with richer teams. It’s certainly possible for a low-budget team to win it all, but the field is not level.

The solution is obvious. If teams shared more revenue like the savvy, socialist billionaires who own NFL teams, it would generate broader fan interest and probably more revenue. Baseball owners would be wise to have a salary floor to insure small city teams didn’t pocket the riches from clubs like the Yankees.

Unfortunately, there is little chance owners would ever go for this, since they have always focused on artificial ways to limit how much they spend on players.

So Met fans are left to root for the team becoming a big market club again and for small joys this season, like, perhaps Wednesday night, when a recovered Johan Santana takes on the Nats’ ace, Stephen Strasburg.

Let’s go Mets. August isn’t that far away.

Josh Rogers, contributing editor at Manhattan Media, is a lifelong New Yorker. Follow him @JoshRogersNYC.

Dewing Things BeTTer

Another Battle to Advance the Cause Whatever happened to helping old folks cross the street?

By Bette Dewing “Wind gusts today accelerate the brush fire risk.” This was the Good Friday and first day of Passover morning radio weather warning.

For several years I’ve wished high wind gust warnings stressed the danger to walkers whose balance is not stable, especially in a city with a great many elders. Not that we can gentle the wind, nor should the vulnerable remain homebound, but we can (if enough of us try) make the able-bodied aware of this danger and routinely—yes, even gladly— offer a helping hand.

Whatever happened to Boy Scouts helping old folks cross the street? And how to revive Hubert Humphrey’s core belief that “the impersonal hand of government can never replace the helping hand of a neighbor”? But we must demand that government make streets safer to cross!

Shouldn’t faith groups be on the vanguard of advancing this down-to-earth, “love one another” type of helpfulness? n y pr e s s. c o m

There’s a lesson from Deacon Susan, who gave me a helping hand to and from the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church Easter service. The intergenerational talk we shared was mutually helpful.

Here’s praying that this kind of helpfulness in one’s own congregation becomes even more of a norm—and in civic groups, too.

Incidentally, this column couldn’t be a stronger advocate for the worth and growth of faith and civic endeavors, but they’re never above needing some candid critiques.

And this whole society needs some consciousness-raising about those wind gust warnings, which last Friday were personally poignant because a valued neighbor had just died from complications resulting from a wind-related fall.

And yes, Larry was “up in years” and suffered other health problems, but had it not been for the fall, he likely had, to

quote poet Robert Frost, “miles to go before he [slept].”

Ah, and those many miles already traveled were surely enabled by Larry and Georgette’s sickness-and-health, 55-year marriage. Of course, his family will miss him most profoundly, but his neighbors will miss him keenly for his continued concern for the apartment house that in 1972 was converted from rent control to coop status.

Larry was one of the key tenant organizers who managed to get the asking prices significantly lowered. Non-evict clauses did not exist, and Mary, a Holocaust survivor, and widowed Helen, age 80, were among those who most reluctantly moved because they either could not afford to buy or feared future unaffordable maintenance hikes.

An original board officer, Larry was the kind of person that co-op and condo dwellers always hope to elect, one with extensive and common-sense business

smarts and a genuine concern for the common good, like keeping down costs without jeopardizing the building’s integrity. This, he believed, kept the proprietary lease’s promise that “the primary purpose of the corporation is to provide homes.”

Although long off the board, his continued interest included letters to tenants recommending board candidates. Whatever the outcome, old lion Larry would at meetings roar (civilly, of course) for or against board actions.

He also offered ideas and praise.

Larry and his family were good neighbors—truly neighborly. And don’t we need that.

We won’t forget you, Larry, nor will the building staff for which you had the greatest respect and affection.

And now—whew!—to keep advancing all of the above not-impossible dreams, which can be done if enough of us share them. I hope you will. dewingbetter@aol.com A p r il 1 2 , 2 0 1 2

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