New Haven magazine November 2007

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New Haven I November/2007

PHOTOGRAPH:

12 ONE2ONE Yale astrophysicist Megan Urry talks black holes, women in science and spirituality.

Steve Blazo

14 Who You Calling a Nerd? High-school kids blinded by science at a winner-takes-all physics ‘Olympics.’

16 Here Come the Judges Wonder where the three New Haven streets that collide at the Intersection From Hell got their names? Elvira Duran tells all.

24 Blinded By the Lyme Light A New Haven physician’s career is on the line as a consequence of the controversy over treatment of Lyme disease.

28 The Hardest Goodbye Advances in veterinary medicine complicate the most wrenching decision pet owners ever must make.

32 All Music, No Drama At a New Haven church nationally renowned for its boys choir, girls now get to play, too.

37 On The Inside Looking Out A remarkable Guilford residence gives Long Island Sound a great big hug.

OUR COVER Models (foreground, clockwise from left) Britt Anderson, Maria Isabel, Louis LaBarba and Tommy Michaels with Sherman, the English bulldog. Sherman, 1941 Packard ‘woodie’ station wagon and ‘chauffeur’ courtesy Christopher Getman. Apparel courtesy Bethny Uptegrove, Harvard Cooperative Society, YaleBulldogBlue.com and Christopher Getman. Photographed by Steve Blazo at the Yale Bowl. 4 new haven

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New Haven I November/2007

PHOTOGRAPH:

Steve Blazo

42 The Style of Elements Brittany Galla profiles a trio of area designers who have taken fashion accessories to the next level.

45 The State of the Stages Brooks Appelbaum reviews surprising new offerings from Yale Rep and Long Wharf.

56 Words of Mouth Who says Spanish and Japanese don’t mix? Not Liese Klein, who profiles Bistro Basque and New Haven’s new Dozo.

62 Puppets Who Need People In DISCOVERED, Joyce Faiola profiles a legendary puppet theater in need of some TLC.

New Haven Vol. I, No. 2 | November 2007 Publisher Mitchell Young, Editor Michael C. Bingham, Graphics Manager Larissa Wigglesworth, Design Consultant Richard Rose, Contributing Writers Brooks Appelbaum, Elvira J. Duran, Joyce Faiola, Felicia Hunter, Brittany Galla, Susan Israel, Liese Klein, Cindy Marien, Melissa Nicefaro, Tashema Nichols, Cindy Simoneau, Contributing Photographers Steve Blazo, Anthony DeCarlo, Olsen Photography Marketing Director Anthony Bonazzo, Specialty Publications Manager Laura Whinfield, Senior Publisher’s Representatives Mary W. Beard, Ronni Rabin, Publisher’s Representatives Cynthia Carlson, Kym Marchell, Diana Martini, Laura Peryer, Pat Peters, BNH Advertising Manager Roberta Harris New Haven is published 12 times annually by Second Wind Media Ltd., which also publishes Business New Haven, with offices at 1221 Chapel St., New Haven, CT 06511. 203-7813480 (voice), 203-781-3482 (fax). Subscriptions $24.95/year, $39.95/two years. Send name, address & ZIP code with payment. Second Wind Media Ltd. d/b/a New Haven shall not be held liable for failure to publish an advertisement or for typographical errors or errors in publication. For more information e-mail NewHaven@Conntact.com.

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L ETTERS Iran So Far Congratulation on your new magazine, New Haven. However, I found your story on Roya Hakakian (ONE2ONE) and her views on Iran revolting. Her lies about Iranian revolution are a repugnant display of ignorance of history which seems to be the hallmark of those writers who peddle in the style of writing collectively known as “genre in the service of empire.” The Iranian revolution was one of the greatest positive events for humanity — a whole nation rising to topple a vicious dictator and get rid of its foreign backers looting the country; and Iran — contrary to the propaganda that people like her spread against it — is one of the freest countries in the world. — Nader Iranpour Guilford

New Haven (Area) Blades My daughter gave me your New Haven magazine, which she received in the mail. I just had to let you know how much I have enjoyed reading it (even the ads are good). I am enclosing my check for $24.95 for a one-year subscription and look forward to the next issues. I would also like to make a suggestion. Team Esprit, a synchronized ice-skating team sponsored by the Hamden Figure Skating Association and comprised of approximately 50 members from many area towns, would I think make an interesting feature for your magazine. The team has been in existence for many years and consistently earns medals in local, regional and national championships. For a quick overview of this great team,

go to www.teamesprit.com. Again, thanks for this lively and interesting new magazine. — Lyndell Betzner Hamden

Surprise What a delightful surprise New Haven magazine was. When I saw it I was immediately impressed and as I turned through it, I found that I read it cover to cover! I was pleased to find how many of the articles were both local (the antique cars are two blocks away from my house every Tuesday) and relevant to me. I also was later able to engage in a lively conversation about New Haven redevelopment, bookmarked two new restaurants to try, and found a downtown clothing store I never knew existed.

Thank you for creating New Haven magazine! — Ann Lindsay Jackson Stratford

New Haven welcomes letters to the editor regarding subjects covered in these pages. Please e-mail to LETTERS@conntact.com.

CORRECTION In our haste to get our October edition of New Haven in the hands of readers last month, we neglected to include credits for the cover image. Models Anna Futyma and Kiva Sutton were photographed by Steve Blazo in front of Miya Japanese restaurant on Howe Street in New Haven. Makeup by Ashley Kenny. Suzanna Obert assisted. We regret the omission.

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What was once the most storied rivalry in all of college football has lost a bit of its luster in the two decades since — by 1997, attendance at The Game had fallen to a mere 26,000 in the 70,000-capacity Bowl. But as I write this, both the Bulldogs and the Johnnies were entering the climatic month of the season with unblemished records, foretelling the possibility of a November 17 collision of unbeatens. The last time that happened was 1968, when Harvard roared back to score 16 points in 45 seconds to earn a tie, immortalized by the Harvard Crimson headline, “HARVARD BEATS YALE, 29-29.” That was the last time both Yale and Harvard would ever both complete unbeaten seasons. (The NCAA’s overtime format has since eliminated the possibility of ties.)

LETTER S

The Game, of course, is about so much more than football: It’s about tradition, it’s about sociology, it’s about silliness. In this issue, two of their respective alma maters’ greatest scribes — Yale legend Stanley Flink and former Crimson President Frank Connolly — plumb the mystery and mythology of a rivalry unlike any other. Elsewhere in this issue, Liese Klein (Yale College ’88 — is there a trend here?) delves inside the Lyme disease controversy that has roiled the medical establishment locally and nationwide — and placed the career of a New Haven physician on the line.

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IN TEL Foreign Exchange

The Unkindest Cutter

The New Haven-based Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC), who’s mission is documenting the human rights situation in Iran. just released a legal commentary on “Using Prison as a Tool of Repression: A Legal Analysis of Harsh Prison Conditions During the Years of Reform.” The commentary discusses how Iran’s clerical regime organized non-governmental treatment of prisoners and secret detention facilities to punish and stop reform efforts. You can learn more about the group at www.iranhrdc.org

There’s a discomfiting disconnect between

The Eli Whitney, Yale Beinecke Museum Haveners’ image of their home burg as Rand West Rock were visited late last month EDNew I TO R ’ S LE T T E a great (great!) sports town, and the harsh reality that this month, for the first time in 109 years, no professional sports team exists in greater New Haven. On October 30 the New Haven County Cutters called it quits after four years at Yale Field. Team officials blamed the demise on lack of corporate support, but it’s hard to sell sponsorships to companies when your average attendance is just 1,653 a game — placing the Cutters eighth in the nine-team Can-Am League.

by Samir Sumaidaie, Iraq’s ambassador to the U.S. Sumaidaie took his cultural R&R while visiting Ala Bashir, an Iraqi artist and physician whose work is on view at the Corvus Art Center in Westville. Over the past year Bashir has painted (and continues to paint) more than 70 images of West Rock on view at the gallery (see HERITAGE, page 16) as part of his “Homage to West Rock Mountain” (sic). The Arab television network Al Jazeera explored Bashir’s homage in a documentary filmed at Yale’s studio late last month. Bashir told the Al Jazeera audience, “The mountain received me with great compassion and welcomed me to West Rock.”

Barcelona’s Boo Bash

PHOTOGRAPHS:

Steve Blazo

The Cutters’ brief stay marked the third run of professional baseball in greater New Haven, which supported a team from 1899 to 1932, then again from 1972 to ’82 with the West Haven Yankees, A’s and White Caps at Quigley Stadium. The MLB-affiliated New Haven Ravens played at Yale Field from 1994 to 2003 but likewise failed to build a critical mass of fans. Halloween revelers at a masquerade party hosted by Kristine LiVolsi and sponsored by Mayra Segovia’s f Studio at chic downtown eatery Barcelona on October 31.

Radio Daze

PHOTOGRAPH:

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A “short wave” drive up I-91 to Windsor will now bring you to the Vintage Radio & Communications Museum of Connecticut, which reopened October 26. The museum has been “off air” since 2000, when it closed for lack of support. The nostalgia craze has helped, as did Connecticut radio icon Brad Davis, who ran a live broadcast on Hartford’s WDRC (1360 AM) for the opening. The 5,000-square-foot museum houses an awesome collection of antique radios, televisions, motion picture and telephone equipment dating back to the 19th century. The reopening was made possible by support from the town of Windsor, the state, tons of volunteers and, oh yes, an anonymous donor who wrote a check for $40,000. To learn more visit www.vrcmct.org.

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his July, C. Megan Urry made history when she was appointed to a three-year term as chairperson of the Department of Physics at Yale University. An astrophysicist, Urry came to Yale in 2001 as the first female faculty member of the physics department. She is renowned for her research on super-massive black holes as well as efforts to expand opportunities for women in the physical sciences. Urry has worked at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and the Space Telescope Science Institute, which operates the Hubble telescope. New Haven Publisher Mitchell Young interviewed Professor Urry for ONE2ONE.

Where did you grow up, and were you one of those ‘little scientists’? I was born in St. Louis, lived ten years in 12 new haven

Indiana and then Boston, where I lived for a long time. I never was one of the nerdy science kids — for me it was just another fun subject. I didn’t know I was going to have a career in science until I was in college.

No, and I still don’t. But my husband and two daughters (ages 14 and 16) love it.

involved in science is to get them involved in a research project. Classes are about what we know; research is about what we don’t yet know. One of my projects was to scan pictures of the sky, where my advisor had found bright radio sources and to figure out if this was a galaxy or something else. I was the first person ever seeing those counterparts. It was the excitement about new things.

If you weren’t always thinking of the stars, how did you get to ‘outer space’?

This wasn’t an easy career path; there weren’t many women yet.

The turning point was a summer job at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Va.

I had a lot of support from my family: My father was a professor of chemistry, and my mother was trained in science as well.

That was first contact [laughs]. One of the most important ways to get an undergraduate

Where were you when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon?

When you grew up did you read science fiction?


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volume — an idea known since Einstein’s theory of general relativity. He assumed them? He described the behavior of a mass at a point in space. It turns out it will have a size, within which light cannot escape and outside of which light can escape. And that’s why it’s called black, because light doesn’t get outside of it. Has science fiction done a good job describing black holes and the like? From my limited contact with Star Wars and Star Trek, etc., it doesn’t do a good job. In the first Star Wars movie the planes in space were banking as they turned. The reason you bank is because you have air pressure. There’s no air in space, so you would never bank. Black holes were in a sense science fiction, because they were just in these equations and many people didn’t suspect that they really existed in nature. It turns out that we find evidence of a compact mass that has a certain value, but it is so compact it must be a black hole.

Steve Blazo

Light takes about ten hours to cross our solar system. The horizon of one of these black holes is a few [light] seconds across.

PHOTOGRAPH:

How big is a black hole?

While we’re on the solar system, are you to blame for losing Pluto as a planet? [Laughs] I had nothing to do with it; I wasn’t at the meeting where the voting took place. Had I been, I would have said leave it alone. I should tell you my colleagues at Yale had something to do with it: They built a very nice camera that is being used to find all these new planets. At least a few are more massive than Pluto, and that what’s precipitated it.

I was 13. We were in Europe visiting [family] friends in a tiny town in Germany, which maybe had 100 people and one television set in the entire town. We were all invited to the house that had the television. It was like five in the morning, we’re sitting in this house with 25 people watching this tiny TV. It’s easy to see how gender would matter in It was amazing. Throughout the summer, the study of law, say, or the social sciences everyone in Europe was talking about it. — but atoms, quasars and black holes? Not only was it a technical triumph, but a psychological shift for people on this planet I gave a talk with the title, “Photons Have — to suddenly realize our planet was this No Gender.” Clearly the practice of the fragile thing. science is influenced by gender. American science has rewarded individualistic When you say the planet is fragile, I visualize behavior and individuals are sometimes this massive black hole swallowing up prized for abundant self confidence, planets and I get nervous. What exactly is a arrogance even, people concerned not with black hole? the success of the group as much as their Simply a certain amount of mass in a small Continued on 17

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Anthony DeCarlo PHOTOGRAPH:

Taylor Gofstein of Bridgeport’s Central Magnet School may be just 13, but she already has her sights set on a Yale Ph.D.

Who You Calling a ‘Nerd’?

shirts with their names on the back. Some had multicolored hair.

At physics ‘Olympics’ at Yale, the smart kids rule the roost

Some wore togas. “I think in high school today, the smarter you are, the better,” said Michelle Chen, a member of the North Haven High team. “It’s cool to be smart.”

By Susan Israel

Armed and dangerous with a glue gun, n a freakishly warm October second try dribbled 11 inches away. Finally, Taylor Gofstein fastened coffee stirrers Saturday, you’d expect to see high- the third attempt — the one that counted to make a bridge in the allotted time that had to span a distance of 40 cm that would school students playing outdoors. — sailed three feet, eight inches away. support the greatest applied weight while But on the lawn beside Kline Biology Tower Not a record-breaker, not by a long shot. minimizing the bridge weight. on October 20 there was neither football nor But what mattered, said their teacher Bill Frisbee in flight. Schneider, was that the students saw others Force was applied to the students’ bridges Instead, several groups of four students enjoying physics and, he hoped, derived a until structural failure occurred. Gofstein held up her bridge and contemplated it. huddled together as they stuck Tinker sense of accomplishment out of it. Though only 13, she looked utterly at ease in Toy parts together to construct catapults “[Program coordinator] Peter Parker’s the lab environment and expects to spend a designed to launch ping-pong balls great philosophy is to teach kids that physics lot of time there. distances. Or any distance. is fun,” said Schneider. Though science The team from North Haven High School, whizzes have long been caricatured in the “I’m going to get my Ph.D in physics here at participating for the first time in the media as nerds with taped glasses and pocket Yale,” Gofstein crowed. tenth annual Physics Olympics at Yale, test- protectors, dancers and actors and soccer A student at Central Magnet School in launched its first ping-pong ball and groaned players and homecoming kings rambled Bridgeport, Gofstein is also enrolled in as the wind took the small sphere before it through the halls of Sloan Physics Lab from ConnCAP (the Connecticut College plopped nine inches in front of them. A one experiment to the next wearing team T- Awareness Program) at University of

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14 new haven


Bridgeport, which provides academic enrichment and tutoring during the academic year.

only simple equipment which the students perform as a team and for which they obtain a result or measurement.

Alexis Medina, 16, also a member of the ConnCAP team, said she is passionate about science — “and art and fashion and just being a teenager.”

This year Yale hosted 50 teams of four students from 40 schools in Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York. There is no registration fee for participants. The program is supported by the Yale Physics Department and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

the fuel injectors at an auto supply shop on Whalley Avenue. “They asked me, ‘What kind of car is this for?’ I said, ‘Just give me the cheapest ones you have.’” “Buy, buy, buy!” students screamed exuberantly. “Sell, sell, sell — oh, [expletive]!” another team cried as the final bell sounded.

This was definitely not your father’s science In the third-floor student lounge serving field trip. Before winners were announced as cafeteria, members of Team Mars from and granted awards, Professors Steven Hamden’s Sacred Heart Academy devoured Girvin and Stephen Irons (collectively their box lunches, drank soda and wrote “This program builds interest in physics that referred to as Steve Squared) and guest their answers to the Fermi quiz that had gets around the dry and difficult reputation WTNH weatherman Geoff Fox conducted to be handed in by 1 p.m. “Some questions physics had,” explained Professor Meg Urry, several experiments for the participants, are estimation by the power of 10 because new chair of the physics department. “The most of which worked. A glass beaker we don’t have calculators. Others are logic,” students are enthusiastic and excited. They refused to shatter when exposed to highsaid Amymarie Bartholomew, 16, an SHA have a lot of fun and get to rub elbows with frequency sound. junior who wants to go into chemistry. She professors. Faculty members take the lead and teammates Elise Hebel, Steph Shaw in designing the experiments, volunteers The professors summed it up thusly: If an and Tricia Alber reap the fruits of new lab build the apparatus and the students take it experiment smells bad, it’s biology. If it facilities at Sacred Heart and “each of us from there.” explodes, it’s chemistry. If it doesn’t work, has a different activity every day,” ranging it’s physics. One apparatus, powered by fuel injectors, from science club to swim team to dancing. allowed compressed air to push stock prices And Team Retrograde from the Williams Since the first Physics Olympics in 1998, up and down as students were prompted School in New London, which won first the theme has been “Physics is fun!” The to “buy” Yale Blue Sky stock when the prize for Best Costume and third prize goal is for participants to enjoy themselves price was low and “sell” when the price for Irrational Exuberance, accepted their while applying basic ideas from physics in a shot up on their computers. Yale Blue Sky awards and sang physics’ praises — in rap. practical context. The event takes the form was part of the New Haven Yale Stock Susan Israel may be reached at of a pentathlon with five 35-minute events. Exchange (NHYSE — “The H is silent,” Each event is a task or experiment using said Professor Sidney Cahn). Cahn bought sisrael@conntact.com. 

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2007 november 15


Here Come the Judges Long before Geico were New Haven’s original cave men: Whalley, Goffe, Dixwell By Elvira J. Duran

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ew Haven not only has delicious, culturally-rich dining establishments (e.g. Tandoor, Zinc, Bespoke), educationally enriching institutions (e.g. Peabody Museum of Natural History, the Connecticut Children’s Museum), and an eclectic and international mix of full- and part-time citizens, it also happens to be the proud home of West Rock — a natural and very solid monument to where “We, The People” came from. Connecticut-born master American landscape artist, Frederic Edwin Church, immortalized the scenic beauty of this area of New Haven in his oil on canvas painting “West Rock, New Haven” (1849). Church possibly chose this landscape to capture the strength and beauty of Mother Nature while conveying a piece of Colonial history in showcasing the resolve of the earliest New Haveners to fight against the tyranny of the English monarchy in the late 1600s. Opposition to the throne came in the form of providing a safe haven for three of the 59 judges who tried and signed the death warrant of King Charles I of England. All three judges had been distinguished English military leaders, but fled England after the Restoration because of the passing of the Act of Indemnity and Oblivion in 1660. The Act pardoned supporters of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, but condemned those who tried and executed King Charles I. The first fleeing judge in New Haven was John Dixwell. Known locally as John Davids until his death in 1689, Dixwell married twice and fathered three children. 16 new haven

“Three Judges of West Rock” (2007), ink on archival paper by Ala Bashir.

He lived in a house at the intersection of College and Grove streets. It seems he was believed dead in England by the authorities. Two other regicides, Edward Whalley and his son-in-law, William Goffe, arrived first in Boston in 1660 and did not take assumed names. After a year of living it up in Cambridge, the pair decided to move on to greener pastures when talk of their impending arrest started to surface. The first pasture they headed to was New Haven. Their stay in New Haven was not so easy as Dixwell’s. Orders from England for their arrest arrived in Cambridge a few days after their departure and a search commenced. The people of New Haven Colony, including governor William Lete, assisted the regicides in evading capture and refused a reward for their capture. Whalley and Goffe were housed by the

Rev. John Davenport. When the search for them intensified, they were hidden by sympathizers in a cave atop West Rock and brought food by town boys. It is said they remained hidden in the cave for most of the summer, before heading to Hadley, Mass. The cave was later inscribed with the words “Opposition to tyrants is obedience to God” and appropriately named Judges Cave. It can be found along Regicides Trail. Another tribute to the judges lies at what is today one of the most confounding intersections in New Haven — where Dixwell and Whalley Avenue and Goffe Street collide. Perhaps a letter-writing campaign to textbook publishers is in order to secure for New Haven the place it deserves in the history book recounts (e.g. Boston Tea Party) of sticking-it-to-the-English-crown tales. They will already have an illustration (Church’s) to go with the story. 


Stars Continued from 13 own success. Girls are socialized to think more of the group. There’s a current debate about a return to the moon and a manned mission to Mars. What do you think? We will inevitably go back to the moon and to Mars. Whether it happens in my lifetime or not, I don’t know. I don’t think there’s any hurry — the moon, Mars should be around for a long time. Are you in no hurry because as an astrophysicist, you’re looking at old light —not new life? It could be that, but if you ask what are the most compelling questions that we don’t know the answers to, they tend to not be things about moon rocks or Mars rocks, [but about issues] like life on other planets. In the last decade we’re all thinking about it more because of the discovery of many, many planets around other stars and solar systems that are not unlike ours. Are astrophysicists more or less likely than the rest of us to believe in God? You certainly find scientists who are religious and those who are atheists. Some people confuse science and religion,

because they see science as an equivalent belief system. I would say it is observationbased. Most religions are a set of beliefs not to be tested — they’re your beliefs and not something you modify. I’m comfortable with uncertainty. It strikes us as kind of amazing that Yale didn’t have women in its physics department even in the year 2000. Most ‘women’s work’ issues were worked out in the 1980s and ‘90s. So, what’s the future for women in science? There are too few women in science, but it is changing in the right direction. When I was in college only ten percent of med students were women; now it’s over 50 percent. Over 50 percent of Ph.Ds in biology go to women; over a third in chemistry go to women. But faculty at medical schools are overwhelmingly male. Women have not penetrated elite sub-fields like surgery. As chair of the department, did your male colleagues participate in the [hiring] decision? They didn’t have a leadership problem with you? My colleagues are very welcoming and supportive; they would love to have more women. When you get to know someone well, you can judge him or her as a leader

or a scientist. When you’re hiring someone and you’re evaluating them, in these gatekeeping moments is where the internal biases which we are mostly unaware of [come into play]. This isn’t just men; it’s women — everybody expects men to lead. When you’re hiring you’re usually looking in an [academic] area and you may not have the right person — the key is to cast the net as widely as possible Harvard President Lawrence Summers lost his job after suggesting that women were different and that was part of the reason there are fewer females in science and math. Plenty of kids are good at math, but when it comes to calculus and fractals the crowd thins out quite a bit. Do some folks just have another way of looking at things? That’s a really good question. My belief is [that success in science and math depends on] how well you’re taught. Not everyone learns the same way. What you’re talking about may be: Who can respond to a certain way of learning physics? It is a circular thing: Teachers who learned it easily a certain way are likely to teach it that same way. You can teach anyone physics — I don’t think there is anything in physics that requires us to think a certain way. 

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Still the One — and Only Ohio State-Michigan? Mere parvenus. Yale-Harvard is the only Game that has ever mattered By Stanley E. Flink

A

t 12 o’clock on November 17, the 124th meeting of the Harvard and Yale football teams will take place at Yale Bowl. Overall, Yale has won 65 games, Harvard 50, and eight were ties. It is not just another football game. It is not merely the last contest of the season for two eminent universities. For those who share in its venerable traditions, it is, quite properly, The Game. The first meeting took place in 1875. The Centennial Game was played on November 19, 1983. There were several years during World War I, and World War II, when the game was not played. After the 1884 game, the Committee on Athletics at Harvard recommended “that all games of football be prohibited to students of the College, except those played by our men, on our grounds, and that these shall be allowed only in case it should proved possible to eliminate all objectionable features from the game.”

The committee had cited among other “objectionable features” the fact that the then-current rules allowed players to “hack, throttle, butt, trip, tackle below the hips, or strike an opponent with closed fist three times before he was sent from the field…It has been the custom since the beginning of football contests between Yale and Harvard for Harvard men to accuse Yale men of uncalled-for brutality, of a desire to win by maiming our men…” The writer goes on to acknowledge that the first part of the game had indicated “a continuance of this old roughness” but soon such shenanigans abated and “the second inning was to all appearances gentlemanly throughout.” According to Tom Bergin’s definitive history, this same report in the 18 new haven


Football with a Side of Folly To Cantabridgian Connolly, Harvard-Yale is not exactly an exercise in football artistry By Francis J. Connolly

I

t’s not really about football, and that’s a good thing.

The LSU-Alabama game is all about football. The Ohio State-Michigan game is all about football.

But The Game — which, to the vast majority of Americans who couldn’t pick Carm Cozza out of a police lineup, emphatically does not rate capital letters — is thankfully not about football at all. Because if it were, it would be about lousy football, and no sane citizen would pay it much attention. Let’s be honest: No one who files into the Yale Bowl November 17 will do so in the hope of seeing an awesome display of gridiron artistry. In fact, only the most wildly optimistic among us will expect even to see gridiron competence. What most of us will expect to see is in fact what we see every year: the sight of a great many aspiring investment bankers and federal judges running around, earnestly but inefficiently, all the while demonstrating that either team would be hard-pressed to hold its own in a fair fight against the Ohio high-school champion. Every now and then, of course, all this puzzling on-field activity does — almost as an afterthought — result in an exciting football game. The extraordinary finale of the 1968 encounter (Harvard’s twotouchdown, 45-second comeback that inspired the classic Harvard Crimson headline: HARVARD

2007 november 19


Advocate ended with the sentence: “Still there can be no excuse for the use of teeth in football.” Yale won the toothy game. The mayhem on the field inevitably produced the invention of protective clothing and, eventually, the forward pass which was designed to mitigate the bone-crushing line play. Helmets were not introduced until 1895. Tim Cohane wrote: “It got to be pull-and-haul football. Strain and groan football. Injuries, death, public hue and cry.” By 1889 Walter Camp’s rules allowed that “throttling, butting or tripping” would cost the offending team 25 yards. That same year Handsome Dan, the Yale bulldog mascot, made his first appearance. In 1897, after the cessation of play for that previous season because of the bloodletting on the field, a rapprochement took place. New rules were inscribed and Yale introduced the direct pass from the center to the punter. In 1900 the songs “Boola, Boola” and “Bright College Years” made their debut. Walter Camp was picking AllAmerican players after each season. In 1902 the crowd at Yale Field was 30,000 strong. In 1903 Harvard Stadium was built to hold 40,000 spectators. (It was subsequently enlarged to 55,000 seats.)

In the crowd each year nationally prominent figures appeared including Teddy Roosevelt, a Harvard man, who as President of the United States in 1905 invited representatives of Harvard, Yale and other football-playing institutions to discuss further reforms in an effort to diminish the number of injuries. In 1906, along with more elaborate rules, the forward pass was legalized and eligibility to play was confined to undergraduates. Harvard’s coach, Bill Reid, later wrote: “I lost as I recall it, seven ‘H’ men. I had at least six men all lined up for 1906 who were 25 or 30 years old, hard fighters…” The game that year was close nonetheless and marked by the first forward pass, thrown in the first quarter by Harvard, gaining 20 yards with the toss. The game, however, was won by Yale on another forward pass thrown 30 yards through the air to a receiver at the Harvard four-yard line. The New York Times observed that many automobiles were parked near the field and “small parties of automobilists eating tempting viands that had been brought in hampers…” So began the tailgate.

The heroics on the field, and the social life just off it, continued into the modern era. The uniquely constructed Yale Bowl was completed in 1914. Tom Bergin wrote: “It is a handsome and remarkable monument to the cult of pigskin.” It could, and did, contain 78,000 spectators. The formality and discipline of play developed inexorably. Precise punts, angled field goals, deceptive quarterback maneuvers, and long passes toR Tfleet-footed ends animated the style and P Osuspense. The R Emuch like rugby earliest games had been L L in, but before the with a bit of soccer thrown TE turn of the century I N — largely due to Camp’s determination — American football became authentically and distinctively American. Over time hundreds of colleges, and thousands of high schools, fielded teams in regularly scheduled autumnal contests — usually played on a Saturday afternoon. The concept of a scholar-athlete for whom an education comes first has been, by and large, adhered to by Ivy League colleges. This has meant fewer big-time players, their eyes on a high-paying professional contract, come to Harvard and Yale.

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BEATS YALE, 29-29) lives on in legend, and rightly so. But most years, The Game winds up looking like the blooper tape from the broadcast of a real college football game. Even the genuinely marvelous football players who’ve taken part in these contests over the years — the Calvin Hills and the Pat MacInallys of the world — would probably admit that your average Harvard-Yale game is no threat to eclipse professional bowling. All that means is that The Game isn’t about football. Luckily, it’s about other things. It’s about nostalgia: a harking-back to that distant time before, when The Game actually had an impact on the national collegiate football scene. It’s about tradition: specifically, the tradition of consuming large amounts of grain-neutral spirits while incurring frostbite in a seat that’s so high up that the action on the field is basically a rumor, largely unconfirmed. It’s about money: because, let’s face it, the ancient and honorable alumni in the stands pretty much own everything that the Japanese haven’t already snapped up. And it’s about college hijinks: a heartfelt

2007 football captains Brandt Hollander of Yale (94) and Harvard’s Brad Bagdis (81).

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Attendance at Ivy League games sank visibly after World War II. There was clearly a poignance when the Bowl looked empty, its symmetrically distanced portals worn away by the weather and the years and budgetary priorities until a bright multi-million-dollar facelift earlier this year. But for those who love the unpredictable conflict between young men who do not have spring practice or athletic scholarships, who go on to medical and law and business schools, and for whom the laboratories and classrooms are the central focus of their undergraduate years, The Game still quickens the pulse among the watchers and inspires athletic feats out on the turf fueled by the adrenalin of a long and friendly rivalry.

tested during the four quarters of action — on the field, on the bench, and among the football alumni in the stands who remember all too well their hard-won victories and defeats. Many individuals in the crowd will have associations — even degrees — of one sort or another at both institutions. Others will have come to tailgate with friends and observe somewhat dispassionately the ardent, familiar antics of the annual ritual.

A number of Harvard and Yale alumni were asked to write short reminiscences for the souvenir program of the 100th game. Among them was the oldest living Harvard football player, Hamilton Fish, a few days short of his 95th birthday. He was the tallest man on the field during pregame ceremonies. The Harvard Crimson in an 1897 editorial, Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, following the suspension of The Game Harvard ’29, vividly recalled the 1925 tie for that one season, stated: “Harvard joins — no points scored by either side. Nobelist hands with Yale and welcomes her heartily Murray Gell-Mann, Yale ’47, a theoretical and joyfully to her old place as Harvard’s physicist, wondered whether the Yale Band nearest and dearest foe.” was going to spell out “the equations of quantum chromodynamics at halftime.”

On November 17 that spirit will be alive at the Bowl though, as always, it will be sorely

William F. Buckley Jr., Yale ’50, speculated playfully as to whether Yale should “lower academic standards in order to attract the players that are the equivalent of Harvard’s.” Continued on 22

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appreciation for the incredible ingenuity displayed by those wacky slide-rule jockeys from MIT who, in a valiant effort to prove to the world that they are not hopeless misfits incapable of any form of social interaction that does not involve a modem, annually disrupt the proceedings with some wonderfully nerdish high-tech prank. Mostly, though, it’s about Yalies. Those of us fortunate enough to have been educated in Cambridge share an undying fascination with the behavior of our New Haven-bred cousins. There’s something about them — the relentlessly preppy mannerisms, the impenetrably convoluted syntax made famous by former Eli-inChief George H.W. Bush — that never fails to stir up anthropological curiosity in your average Harvard alumnus. And, of course, the Yalies’ most wonderful tribal ritual is never more clearly on display than at The Game. I’m speaking, of course, about the singing of Yale fight songs. I want to be fair about this: I’m not claiming that Harvard can lay claim to any particularly nifty fight songs. “Ten Thousand Men of Harvard” is not on anybody’s Top Ten list, and “Harvardiana”

is not about to make the rest of America forget about “On Wisconsin.” One the other hand, none of those songs contains the word “boola.” What in the name of the sweet infant Jesus is a “boola,” anyway? Much less a “boolaboola”? Is this song Cole Porter’s idea of a bad joke, or was the old boy just having a particularly bad day when he sat down at the keyboard to compose an inspirational ditty for the beloved alma mater? Still, for those of us on the Harvard side of the field, the Yalies’ annual rendition of “Boola-Boola” is always a heartwarming experience. It’s like listening to very young children struggle through their first attempts at speech — you don’t really understand a word they’re saying, but you’ve got to admire their valiant attempts at self-expression. So sing your hearts out November 17, you Elis. We Crimson folk really enjoy it when you do. And that’s the God’s-honest veritas. Francis J. Connolly, Harvard ’79, is a former president of the Harvard Crimson. He is currently senior analyst at Kiley & Co., a publicopinion research firm in Boston. 

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To some, this New Haven doctor is a hero. To others, he’s a quack. But in the brave new world of patient-directed medicine, it may not matter By Liese Klein

T

here was something wrong with the boy. That much was clear.

The nine-year-old’s joints were painful, he had a fever and his vision was fading in and out. He had also just completed a three-week course of antibiotics after being bitten by a tick and diagnosed with Lyme disease.

But the boy wasn’t getting better, even though his Fairfield County pediatrician had pronounced him “cured” of Lyme. What comes next could be called a miracle, something out of a TV medical drama where a maverick doctor rides to the rescue with an unorthodox cure. It could also be called quackery, a treatment that endangers all who are subjected to it and can be called a cure only if you discount the placebo effect and the healing ministrations of time. The boy was put on intravenous antibiotics and hyperbaric oxygen continuously for five years. He is now well and attending college, his parents among the hundreds of fans of Charles Ray Jones — a New Haven doctor now on trial for his professional life. Lyme activists have turned out in force to support Jones at the hearings and are watching the process closely.

effort to shut down the physicians who do treat this disease.”

“These ideological groups are immune to evidence,” says Steven Novella, MD, a clinical neurologist at Yale, avowed skeptic As the now-healthy boy charts his future, and author of the NeuroLogica blog. “The the debate about Lyme disease is raging, best we can hope to do is marginalize them. with advocates increasingly turning away Facts don’t matter — that’s the problem.” from the mainstream medical consensus. Calling themselves “Lyme-literate,” the activists argue that Lyme can persist for years as a chronic infection and requires long-term antibiotic treatment. Like advocates for those with autism, chronic fatigue and other imperfectly understood ailments, Lyme activists are marshalling their forces with help from the Internet. They are also funding research and sponsoring conferences with the aim of finding their own answers. Frustrated with the “old-boy” network that dominates Lyme research, these advocates say they can no longer rely on the journals, universities and doctors’ groups that dictate how diseases are diagnosed and treated. They are making their own science. And they have some powerful allies. When the Connecticut Medical Examining Board decides Jones’ fate this month, it may mean the end of his career as a practicing physician. But the Lyme fight — pitting empowered patients against the medical establishment — is far from over.

“It’s very significant,” says Patricia Smith, “These are very powerful groups,” says president of the New Jersey-based Lyme Henry Feder, MD, a researcher at the Disease Association. “It’s indicative of what UConn Health Center who recently is being done to our physicians and, bottom published an article arguing against the line, to our patients. There’s a concerted existence of “chronic Lyme.” 24 new haven

When Charles Ray Jones tells his story, wise children play key roles. One wise child changed the way he treated Lyme. Another, one of his four grandchildren, tells him he’ll live until he’s 85, plenty of time to continue his fight with the medical establishment. Pictures of and by children paper the walls of Jones’ Madison Towers office, a worn suite of rooms on the ground floor with windows that open onto Crown Street traffic. Jones, a wrestler and runner in his youth, is heavyset and uncertain on his feet at 78, but speaks of his life’s work with passion. Some time in the 1970s, Jones started T R noticing that he was getting clusters ofP O E children coming in with symptoms of what R L looked like juvenile rheumatoid arthritis L T E saw (JRA). A typical pediatric practice N I one or two cases of JRA a year, but Jones and other Connecticut doctors were seeing several cases a week that looked like JRA, often in children from the same area. “I wasn’t the only one seeing it,” Jones says. “They were ill in the same way as JRA kids.


PHOTOGRAPHS:

Steve Blazo

Jones had moved to the New Haven area from New York City in 1968 at the start of a promising career as a pediatric oncologist, looking for a better place to raise his children. He arrived with top credentials — a graduate of New York Medical College and former chief resident at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center — and at first he collaborated with colleagues at Yale University on the mysterious new ailment. Because the epidemic was centered in Connecticut, a small group of local doctors and researchers established themselves as authorities, formally identifying the malady in 1975 and naming it for the shoreline towns that were home to many of the first cases, Lyme and Old Lyme. These scientists found that a spirochete, or wormlike bacterium, causes the initial Lyme infection when it’s transferred to a human via a tick’s mouthparts. Jones, and later the Lyme-literate community, argue that the spirochete can linger in the system and cause persistent symptoms even when it is not longer detectable in blood tests. Recently several companies have started to offer blood tests geared toward the Lymeliterate that often find evidence of Lyme infection not detected by other methods. Around the time Lyme was first identified, Jones encountered the first wise child: A boy who had been bitten by a tick and undergone several four-week cycles of antibiotics, then the universally accepted treatment for Lyme. He would get better on the drugs, Jones says, but then relapse when treatment ended. “He being the bright kid he was he said, ‘Dr. Jones, if I get better on antibiotics, keep me on antibiotics until I’m totally better,’” Jones recalls. Seven years of antibiotics later, the boy was back to normal. “This is when the rift took place,” Jones says. “Right from the very beginning there’s been a discrepancy between what Lyme is considered to be by some physicians, and what it is considered to be in academia.” Yale researchers and other Lyme experts were and are horrified at the prospect of years-long regimens of antibiotics, often administered intravenously. The IVs can cause deadly infections, they argue, and the antibiotics can breed resistant “superbugs.” Long-term antibiotic treatment for Lyme is also ineffective, several recent studies have indicated. This October, researchers at Columbia University’s Lyme and Tickborne Disease Research Center described limited benefits of long-term antibiotic treatment in a study published in the

The state medical establishment offered to spare Jones if he would quietly retire, but he vowed instead to fight.

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journal Neurology. Only 37 patients were studied and the journal partnered the study with an editorial blasting the regimen.

term antibiotics outweigh the risks.

“They do get better on antibiotics,” Jones says. “They say it’s the placebo effect, but “The disease has continued to have an how do their fevers go down? They gain articulate, populist constituency, advocating weight; why do little kids stop screaming for enhanced recognition and treatment,” all day?” wrote John Halperin, MD of New Jersey’s Jones’ current troubles began in the spring Atlantic Neuroscience Institute in the of 2004, when a distraught mother named editorial, which was titled, “Enough Is Robin Sparks called him from Nevada. Enough.” “Tension has resulted when Sparks’ two children had persistent coughs scientific fact has diverged from advocates’ and symptoms of what she believed was beliefs.” chronic Lyme. A nurse, Sparks also was “There are very substantial risks,” agrees in the throes of a bitter divorce, with Eugene Shapiro, MD, a professor of accusations of abuse on both sides. pediatrics at Yale who helped to identify Jones says he didn’t formally diagnose the Lyme. “People have died from this kind of children based on the phone call but did antibiotic treatment. agree to extend an existing prescription for “There are very serious consequences — it’s antibiotics for both kids. He also wrote to harmful to all of us,” Shapiro continues. “It officials at the boy’s school urging them to helps select for these antibiotic superbugs. let him be tutored at home because he might If there were evidence there was benefit to be suffering from Lyme. this, I would jump on the bandwagon.” When the children’s father, Jeff Sparks, Jones and other “Lyme-literate” doctors found out, he accused the mother of counter that the benefits they see in long- overmedicating the children and interfering


with the boy’s education. He also complained to Connecticut’s Medical Examining Board about Jones’ actions.

efforts if Jones loses his license, with a focus on winning over lawmakers and fighting for treatment through the political process.

With the backing of local Lyme experts, the state health department charged Jones with violating the “standard of care” for Lyme and medical protocol by extending the prescription without examining the children in person.

The power of advocates is also sure to grow as the number of cases grows. Annual reports of Lyme infections more than doubled between 1991 and 2005, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Those cases were concentrated in nine states, including Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York.

In eight hearings over more than a year, the Lyme treatment debate has been argued with testimony from experts on both sides. The board’s final decision is expected to be announced at its November 20 meeting.

Regardless of the outcome of the Jones case, few expect the Lyme debate to end soon.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal says he gets so many calls about Lyme that he had to take action. He launched an antitrust probe of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) last year after it issued treatment guidelines that limited antibiotic therapy to four weeks. Scientists on the IDSA panel had financial ties to drug makers, Blumenthal argued.

After a backlash from the local scientific “You cannot say that these patients are community, Blumenthal appears to have not suffering,” says Diane Blanchard, co- dropped the issue, although he still appears president of Time for Lyme, a Greenwich at Lyme-literate events. advocacy group. “People have to educate “There’s a group of individuals who have themselves and they have to advocate for a vast commercial interest in the disease,” themselves.” says Smith of the Lyme Disease Association. Blanchard says her group will redouble its “They know what’s best — they don’t know

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what [patients] do have, just what they don’t have.” Novella of Yale compares the Lyme debate with the controversy around the cause of autism, another neurological disorder that seems to target the middle class. Many educated and affluent parents blame vaccines for autism even as scientific studies that exonerate vaccines proliferate. Trust in the medical establishment is eroding as the Internet allows groups of like-minded people to organize and pass along information — and misinformation, Novella says. “These ideological organizations, some of them are getting hostile,” Novella says. “It’s to the point where they’re silencing scientists.” Lyme and autism advocacy groups are the most aggressive in fighting for their beliefs, Novella says, setting up their own journals, medical conferences and scientific societies. Every time a study is published arguing that chronic Lyme doesn’t exist or vaccines don’t cause autism, these groups twist the information to suit their ideology, he says. Continued on 61

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2007 november 27


By Melissa Nicefaro

Wallingford’s Kate Nicoll (center) founded Soul Friends, which provides animal-assisted and nature therapy programs for children. PHOTOGRAPHS:

Steve Blazo

28 new haven


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he vacation started like any other. The Soracco family of Milford loaded into their car, excited to spend the long Memorial Day weekend together camping.

With two young children and a chocolate Lab named Bear who seldom left his master’s side, camping was the perfect vacation for the family. What they didn’t know at the start of this trip was that this would be Bear’s last. He didn’t make it home. Bear was a 12-year-old dog who lived with Chris Soracco since the dog was just a few weeks old. Few knew Soracco without his dog. They were best friends before he met his wife Deb, before the two had children and well before Chris Soracco hit his 30s. “He was my buddy,” says a still-stricken Soracco. “We did everything together. We played, we went to Home Depot, we went to the bank. He was always there.” Soracco knew the end was coming for his dear friend. He’d been slowing down and having a hard time walking and keeping up with the family. Soracco dreaded the decision that he knew was inevitable and hoped he would know when the time was right to let his oldest buddy go.

a few more months, his death nevertheless came as a shock to the family. While camping, Bear wasn’t feeling well. Breathing became labored and he was having difficulty standing up. Chris decided to take the dog to a vet near the campgrounds, but Bear didn’t make it. He died on the way to the doctor as Soracco held him in his arms in the car. Unable to facing returning home to life without Bear, the Soraccos stayed a couple of extra days, camped and mourned.

Kate Nicoll is a Wallingford clinical social worker who works with people such as Soracco to help them grieve for a lost pet. She founded the non-profit Soul Friends four years ago. The group focuses on animalassisted and nature therapy programs for children. As a therapist, she deals with dozens of calls from people looking for help dealing with the loss of a pet.

Bear’s death caused indescribable heartache to his master and the rest of his family, but spared Soracco the decision that so many pet owners dread: when it’s time to put the pet to sleep.

“I tell people to listen to their own heart,” Nicoll says. “Society doesn’t give a lot of support to people in pet loss, and oftentimes you’ll have friends telling you to go out and get another cat or come and look at dogs with me at the pet shop. That can be insensitive. You have to listen to your own heart and create some sort of memorial.”

“I’m still not over it,” says Soracco. “Not even close.”

Many of Nicoll’s patients seek help in making that terrible euthanasia decision.

For Soracco, it wasn’t about the financial “Vet clinics around here would benefit cost of keeping his dog alive. Bear had from becoming more multi-disciplinary undergone Anterior Cruciate Ligament and offering a therapist on staff,” Nicoll (ACL) knee surgery to the tune of $2,000, says. “That would demonstrate that they but Chris Soracco considered every dollar understand the importance of the human/ well spent. But for many, the financial animal bond. consequences of reaching the end of a pet’s “There is a big hole in care there,” she adds. life complicates this emotional time. “These calls are heart-wrenching.” Veterinarian Morgan McKay knows the choice many pet owners face at the end of

Even though Bear was expected to live only

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a pet’s life is one of the hardest decisions they’ll ever make. In his 12-year career he has seen his profession grow to offer more healthy chances for animals than ever before. “Pets are becoming more and more a part of the family and their owners have expectations that veterinarians will be able to offer specialty care,” says McKay. “The quality of care has immensely increased as has the involvement of the owners. Pets are truly part of the family.”

For those who decide they can no longer, for whatever reason, care for a pet, or for those who have accepted the death of a pet and are now looking for a new animal companion, there are two excellent options. The New Haven Animal Shelter is run by the city’s police department. It is the largest shelter in the state and takes in around 2,000 cats and dogs each year and has an adoption rate of 75 percent. A group of volunteers known as the Friends of the New Haven Animal Shelter works diligently to make sure that as many adoptions as possible are made.

euthanasia rate. This Stratford group rescues dogs from shelters and cats from the streets. Most of New Leash’s animals have been discarded, lost or abandoned by their former families. The animals may be hungry, cold, sick, injured or pregnant and they may now be afraid of people. Volunteers give the animals food and water and do their best to place them in temporary foster homes where, it is hoped, they may slowly regain their trust in humans. Since some of New Leash’s dogs and cats are sick or injured, they are considered unadoptable due to the extra care they require before they are ready for adoption.

New Leash provides a way for less-fortunate animals to join the ranks of the fortunate T Rand live the life such innocents deserve. P O Such animals go on to join families who E The cost to adopt a pet through R L a take them to places such as the Best Friends the shelter is $80 and includes L Pet Care’s Keystone Memorial Park in free neuter or spay. TE IN Bethany, which offers boarding, training, Sadly, not all of the animals grooming and vaccinations. survive. Last year more than 2,000 animals were put to sleep When the time comes, Keystone Memorial in Connecticut and about Park also has a pet funeral facility and 22 percent of them were at cemetery. For still-living furry friends, shelters and pounds, according boarding is done in two-room suites with to the Alliance in Limiting daily room service, premium food and Strays. Euthanasia statistics lambs-wool bedding. es. appier tim h are difficult to track, since in r ea B Susan Kordzek, owner of Two Smiling ilford with only municipal shelters and family of M o cc ro o S Dogs, a gourmet pet food shop in Hamden, T he veterinarians are required by law to report finds nothing unusual about these treats. Part of the process the number of animals they put to sleep. She has 30 years of animal-protection and of loving a family member is making If the New Leash on Life no-kill shelter -rights advocacy under her belt, and proudly tough decisions, but with new advances had its way, there would be a zero-percent believes that family pets ought to be treated in veterinary medicine, pet owners are increasingly faced with decisions colored by a significant financial dimension as well, as virtually all veterinary care is fee-forservice. “If we have an unfavorable prognosis, such as with cancer, the finances certainly come into play,” says McKay. You have to take a step back and look at the big picture. “With euthanasia, I want the pet owners to sincerely feel that they are doing a favor to an old friend,” says McKay. “The majority of the time, we have tried several different treatment approaches and we know it’s time. It has to be something that is in the best interest of this family member.” As a vet, McKay must see euthanasia as few pet-owners might. “I deal with this daily and I have to remind myself that I am doing my job — to help this animal,” he says. “We do not do euthanasia by choice. If it’s a case of someone moving to a new apartment, or that is not in the best interest of the animal, we will try to find other homes. But we will not take that animal’s life.”

30 new haven

Susan Kordzek of Two Smiling Dogs sells gourmet pet food —when she’s not rescuing beagles.


like something approaching royalty. She belongs to a beagle rescue group and serves as an adoption counselor to those needing help with beagles. A vegetarian, Kordzek wanted to incorporate a natural-foods store with products for pets and the humans who love them. “They’re just like people,” Kordzek says of pets. “We’re flooded with environmental poisons and dogs are getting cancer from not only what they’re eating, but what they’re breathing.” Since we can’t easily control the air our animals breathe, Kordzek believes we should control the food our pets consume. “You’re putting garbage into their bodies and then you’re paying for it with astronomical vet bills,” she says. “Years ago, dogs were healthier eating table scraps than they are today, eating all of this chemical junk.”

Getting back to simple was exactly the plan for Waterbury veterinarian Brenda Romaniello, who started her at-home veterinary practice three years ago.

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Over time she noticed that a great number of pet-owners would call looking for a special sort of help. They had a dog that needed care, but was too heavy to carry. Or perhaps they had a cat that went crazy at the prospect of leaving the house. “Many pet owners have a difficult time getting out and lifting their pets and I saw a big need for this service,” Romaniello says. She does vaccinations, blood work, heartworm, flea, tick and Lyme disease R T treatments, and visits sick animals in theP O RE pet’s own home. If there is a problem that L L requires anesthesia or surgery, she works out TE of Waterbury Animal Hospital. Romaniello IN also performs quite a few euthanasia procedures in a pet’s own home. “I won’t do a convenience euthanasia, though.”

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But if an animal is sick and the owners do not want to risk stressing the animal by putting it in the car to go to the hospital, she will come. “The animal is more comfortable at home, the owners are more comfortable at home and won’t have to worry about driving home upset and broken-hearted,” she explains. Broken-hearted is just one phase of being a pet owner. It’s the last part of the cycle that wouldn’t be possible without the undying love that so many have for their pets.

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By Melissa Nicefaro

Choirmaster R. Walden Moore (right) with his young charges in the sanctuary of Trinity Church on the Green. PHOTOGRAPHS:

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Steve Blazo

veryone knows little girls like to sing. Girls was actually quite natural, according “Without those men singing along, the girls In New Haven is a group of 20 girls to Choirmaster R. Walden Moore. can’t do that repertoire since it is very rare who come together from throughout to find the woman’s voice that can reach “In the old traditional Anglican Church of the region three times a week to sing their those lower notes,” Moore explains. “It centuries ago, men did the singing because little hearts out. gives the girls the opportunity, just as the women didn’t have a role in the church,” boys have it with the [Trinity] Men & Boys Ranging in age from nine to 15, these girls Moore explains. “Unfortunately, there are Choir, to sing the same repertoire.” don’t just like to sing; they love to sing. still a few churches that don’t have much of They live to sing. But as sweet and innocent a role for women, but for decades that has Women are the role models for the girls just as they sound, they’re actually a bunch of not been the case at Trinity.” as the boys model on the adult choirmen. rule-breakers. They’re singing where very Men had a primary role by default, but when Trinity founded its Choir of Men & Boys in few girls have sung before: in a church women were welcomed to the Episcopalian 1885. Today it is the oldest continuous choir liturgy with the men’s choir. priesthood in 1976, the path was paved for of men and boys in Connecticut and the Four years ago, Trinity Episcopal Church the girls. For Trinity, the move to form a seventh-oldest of its kind in the nation. on the New Haven Green broke through a girls choir made sense, both religiously and In addition to singing during weekend traditional barrier to form a girls choir to musically. Adult males sing tenor and bass services, both choirs perform throughout sing alongside the men. while the girls sing soprano and women greater New Haven for public events sing alto, so they mainly perform choral As groundbreaking as it sounds, the and also participate in concerts involving music written for four voice parts. transition to the Trinity Choir of Men & combined choirs. During the Christmas 32 new haven


 Moore, accustomed to showing boys and men the world through music, is also quite attuned to the needs of girls Rather than augmenting the male choirs, Trinity established a choir for girls that was separate from the boys. The reason was simple, Moore explains: “Young girls develop sociologically very differently from young boys. A big part of what you’re doing when you build a choir is to build a community. If you’re trying to build a community, you can build it a whole lot more easily — especially in America these days — if you build it with boys and girls separately.” Up until the age of 12 or 13, boys and girls mature physically at different rates. At that age boys are about to undergo a voice change. Girls’ voices change, too, but the change is not as noticeable since female voices don’t drop so dramatically in register at puberty.

season, they perform a concert at Trinity as well as performances of sacred and secular music in neighboring communities. The annual spring concert alternates between a sacred and pops concert. The choirs have also performed in Montreal and in New York City in a number of cathedrals as well as at Carnegie Hall and the Museum of Modern Art. In Washington D.C., they have sung at the National Cathedral and the White House. They have also appeared on NBC’s Today Show. The most exciting event for these boys and girls comes every four years when each choir travels to England to sing in residence with English cathedral choirs and their directors.

“I love expressing myself by singing,” says Lehman. When she grows up, she says she wants to be an artist, a singer and an actress. She’s off to a great start. Her family has known Moore for years, so naturally Meredith’s mom Allison was thrilled to learn that when her daughter turned eight, she could audition for the choir. The audition process is intense, yet casual. Moore might ask a girl to sing “Happy Birthday,” for example. Vocal ability is an important part of the audition, but equally important is the conversation Moore has with the parents and child to determine whether the family can make and keep the commitment. The girls’ choir rehearses for two hours Tuesdays and Thursdays, as well as Sunday mornings before the service they are to sing. If they make it, it’s just the beginning of a valuable life journey for the young choristers.

About 50 girls auditioned for the first year of the Men & Girls Choir in 2003, and Moore “They’re always going to be able to draw on offered spots to 20 girls. Rather than paying these skills,” says Moore. “How far you to participate in this rare opportunity, go will depend on your natural gifts. You the girls are themselves paid as young can work with any voice up to a point, and professionals. it depends on the natural gifts and the “Men were paid a modest amount for physical manifestation combined with how streetcar fare back at the turn of the 20th your brain works. century,” says Moore. “Of course inflation “Will power has a great role,” Moore adds. has kicked in, but the girls are now also “It depends on how much you want it.” paid a modest fee based on their years in the choir,” says Moore. The youngest make about $15 a month, while the oldest earn as  much as $50. Although for most girls it’s the first wage they’ve ever earned, they’re in it not for the money, but for the music — and much more.

The transition to the formation of a girls’ choir was natural for John Bloomquist’s children also. His son Ryan was in the Boys Choir and last year graduated to the Men’s Choir.

“I think 99 percent of these girls are looking for the musical aspect, not the stardom,” Moore says. “We may have had one or “My children have a deep love for music,” two who look at it as a [potential] career. the elder Bloomquist says. “I have interest, The musical knowledge that these girls are but nowhere near as deep as theirs. gaining will follow them throughout their “It’s a huge commitment for the kids and life.” the parents, but it is well worth it in the Moore may have found that one percent long run,” Bloomquist adds. “The musical looking for both musical education and education that they come away with is stardom in nine-year-old Meredith Lehman. priceless and they become part of a whole The Wallingford resident’s face lights up community of individuals.” when she talks about the choir. The Trinity choirs are renowned for 2007 november 33


For ten-year-old Victoria McCraven of Cheshire, it is about the vastness of the 192-year-old church and the sound that the music makes, “with all of our different voices vibrating through the church,” that excites her. It’s not just about the music for McCraven. She has made close friends in this group. With music as a common denominator, age is no barrier to the friendships that these young ladies have made. After watching her brother sing with the boys’ choir, 13-year-old Tess Bloomquist was familiar with the musical magic of Trinity long before the girls choir was established. “Everyone looked so uniform and the music was beautiful,” she says. “When I got the chance I took it and joined,” she says. The Bloomquists are parishioners at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Branford.

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since I started in the choir. But it’s also about common interest: their love for singing. all of the girls. They are all just so nice!” “We stay focused during rehearsal and know says Bloomquist, a sixth-grader at Hopkins that we can catch up and talk during our School. “Everyone was so welcoming and it breaks,” says Tess Bloomquist. has been such a great place to be a part of.” During the 11 a.m. Sunday liturgy, which As diverse as these girls are, they share a features the voices of the Choir of Men &

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Girls at Trinity most weeks, all choristers’ eyes are on the service unfolding before them. The interest is genuine. No yawns are being stifled and there is no fidgeting, picking at fingernails or playing with hair.

time,” says Maggie, now a ninth-grader at the Foote School. Her father Syd Bogardus was among those thrilled to see the girls choir launch.

“The church was unanimous in supporting “Mr. Moore teaches us not to yawn or move it,” he says. “The congregation thinks so around too much because it distracts from highly of Walden Moore. He treats the the service, but even if he didn’t tell us that, girls as adults, with such respect that they we don’t feel as though we should be doing respond to. The kids learn what will fly and anything distracting during the service,” what won’t, and that respect and knowledge Tess Bloomquist says. “We’re such a big is passed on to the new kids. example to the congregation that it would be disrespectful. “It is about so much more than music,” the elder Bogardus adds. “Walden Moore is an “I’m so grateful to be a part of this choir,” absolute genius and he makes it a wonderful Bloomquist adds. “I don’t know what I’d do social experience for the kids. They learn on my Tuesdays or Thursdays without it. It music, but they also learn now to behave in takes up a lot of time and sometimes I do public as professional performers.” question why I’m doing this, but as soon as get to rehearsal, I am so happy to be there. I All five of Syd and Julia Bogardus’ children forget I ever had a negative thought.” have sung with the Trinity choirs. Fellow chorister 15-year-old Maggie Bogardus was in the fifth grade when the Girls Choir was formed. The Bogardus family lives in New Haven and attends Trinity Church. “It was such a big deal for the church, since they’d wanted to start a girls choir for a long

Maggie’s youngest brother, eight-year-old Nate, is a novice in the Boys Choir. “The commitment is huge and I’m feeling it this year as a high school freshman,” Maggie Bogardus says. “But it’s definitely worth it.”

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She appreciates that the choir is about so much more than music. She says she has learned poise and respect and discipline that she wouldn’t have otherwise. The focus and friendship have been precious to her. “When people first said, ‘It’s not just a choir — it’s a family,’ I was skeptical,” acknowledges Maggie. “But it really is like a family. I love all of the people who are there. “It’s nice to be away from school and have friends who are not from your school. It’s nice not to deal with school drama for those few hours a day, a few times a week,” she laughs. “There’s really no such thing as choir drama.” “No, there is definitely no choir drama,” chimes in 11-year-old Jill Clough, as if the possibility were simply preposterous. Jill’s mother Mary Clough knows music is in her daughter’s blood. “She plays the piano, sings and is involved in school theater,” Mary Clough says. “She doesn’t know how not to sing.” Melissa Nicefaro may be reached at mnicefaro@ conntact.com. 

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Molly, the Dewar/Howland family’s Labrador Retriever, is bathed in natural light from the vast eastern oceanfront exposure to the right of this image. PHOTOGRAPH:

Olsen Photography

2007 november 37


Steve Blazo PHOTOGRAPH:

Michael Dewar and his favorite room in his family’s two-year-old Guilford home: the kitchen.

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hen Michael Dewar and his wife, Kimberley Howland, began to conceptualize their dream home on Indian Cove in Guilford, they envisioned a structure that would offer a refuge from their hectic and high-stress professional lives (he is a cardiac surgeon at the Yale School of Medicine, she an attorney in private practice).

But what kind of refuge, exactly? That question would be answered only after months of meetings, late-night phone calls and e-mails between the couple and Branford architect Anthony Terry. The result is a home that is rich, warm and inviting — but at the same time unself-conscious and even playful. With an eye toward the grand and formal New England oceanfront homes of a century ago, Terry created the design using the shingle-style idiom — but that style, he notes, was merely a point of departure. “What I set out to do was do something architecturally that characterized my clients,” he explains, “not only their 38 new haven

functional needs, but also gave some expression of their character to the project.” That character he describes as “lighthearted, witty and at the same time serious. There’s a certain playfulness to the shapes that comes from my interaction with them and their energetic lifestyle.”

than to caress. That mood is set from the first impression a visitor has of its welcoming and friendly entryway, bookmarked by a paid of Shaker-style rocking chairs. Dewar, Terry recalls, “said he wanted an entryway ‘that embraces me when I come home.’” And so it does.

The shingle style emerged as an alternative High among the owners’ original goals, to the fussiness and elaborate ornamentation Terry says, “was to respect the property” common toVictorian-era architecture. — a breathtaking two-acre promontory that In fact, in the late 19th century shingles tumbles gently downward to the Indian were commonly used as ornamentation Cove shoreline and that affords commanding on houses in the Queen Anne and other views of Hammonassett State Park and, on “fancy” styles. a clear day, the mouth of Long Island Sound on the distant eastern horizon. Later, though, when architects such as Henry Hobson Richardson and Stanford Part of the architectural objective was to White began to experiment with shingle “paint” the spectacular view into the home’s siding, they used natural colors and interior — but at the same time do so “in informal compositions to recall the rustic a way that doesn’t overwhelm the interior,” homes of the earliest New England settlers. Terry says. “It’s a focal point, but also a Thus shingle style came to symbolize background.” architecture that doesn’t stand on ceremony, Speaking of overwhelming, Terry says but is proud of its honesty of form. he was mindful of his clients’ desire “not Similarly, one might say that the Dewar/ to put up a house that would overwhelm Holand home is designed less to impress, the property.” Indeed, only once indoors


does a visitor appreciate the expansiveness “We were trying to [frame] outdoor space In his spare hours Dewar is a gourmet of the 4,000-square-foot structure. From relative to the interior such that the use of chef, and the kitchen is lavishly outfitted virtually every exterior angle, the house that space was a logical extension of the with commercial-grade appliances, expanappears more compact than it in fact is. A house,” the architect explains. sive marble countertops and luscious neat architectural trick — and refreshingly cherry cabinetry. Its ergonomic layout Equally surprising as the abundance of at odds with the look-at-me braggadocio of accommodates the sometimes frantic multientryways is the relative absence of firstmodern McMansion architecture. tasking chefs must do, with cabinets and floor walls: Instead of barriers, Terry drawers whose contents are visible and employed such architectural elements as built-in spice racks at task level. Doric columns atop pedestals and quartersawn oak bookcases to divide living spaces Terry explains that the kitchen area is more softly and transparently than a wall the hub of the ground-level living space, would. The result is living areas that flow “designed around the family being together The ground level of the home, which was organically from one to the next, and invite during meal preparation,” Terry explains. completed in 2005, is remarkable for the the visitor to move about freely, to explore. This design, he adds, “puts most of the proliferation of one common architectural most commonly used spaces in a very Entering the spacious foyer, the visitor element — and the absence of another. advantageous position.” is confronted with a panoramic view of Symbolizing the structure’s harmony with the Sound from the opposite side of the In the initial meetings between clients and its surroundings, the first floor has no fewer ground floor. Turn left or right and you find architect, “We literally went through dozens than nine doors — a symbolic invitation at yourself in the living room and dining room and dozens of floor plans,” Terry notes. nearly every turn (literally) for those inside or into an inviting family area just off one “We kept shifting and juggling pieces until to encounter the surrounding terrain with its of the most important spaces in the home: something clicked — and then everything terraces, alcoves, herb garden and flower beds. the kitchen. fell into place.”

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Olsen Photography PHOTOGRAPH: PHOTOGRAPH:

Olsen Photography

Architect Terry employed books and bookcases as key design elements throughout the home. This curved bookcase fronting the kitchen area holds (naturally) cookbooks.

The owners wanted to create an entryway (left) that ‘embraced’ them when they returned home from their busy professional lives. That feeling too symbolizes the overall harmony between their home and its surroundings environs.

40 new haven


Many of those meetings unfolding around a leisurely home-cooked meals, as if to underscore the role that food preparation and the importance of family meals together would play in the final architectural product.

Another whimsical element of the finished architectural product is the playful use of light, both natural and artificial. Subtle recessed lighting contrasts with unusual sculptural light fixtures. On the top floor, a disguised electric light dances around the loft space leading up to twin skylights. Of the rich oaken flooring throughout the Guilford house, Terry notes, “Dark floors sometimes actually brighten a house by providing contrast — making the brighter spaces seem brighter than they are.” On the exterior, wavy shingles at the peaks T of the gables recall a common elementO R P of Northeastern seaside architecture ofE a R L noncentury ago, as do surprising (mostly L functional) towers and spires. T E

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A porch extending out from the secondfloor master bedroom suite has 240-degree exposure to the oceanfront view. A widow’s walk — scarcely visible from ground level, since the house was build on the highest elevation of the surrounding land — soars 28 feet into the sky. Books and bookshelves confront the visitor at every turn — and comprise a fundamental design element of the home. “Books are very important” to Dewar and Howland, Terry says — “they would never throw a book away. So we sprinkled books throughout the entire layout” — sometimes in surprising ways, including a semi-circular case specifically for cookbooks that helps to frame the entryway to the food-preparation area.” Terry characterizes the back-and-forth process between architect and clients: “It’s kind of like making wine,” he says. “It’s all about time in the barrel. We’re really trying to bring up the flavors so that it has a level of richness and resonance.”

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That it does — but in a fashion that’s never still or overformal. “This house is very low-key,” says the architect. “It’s meant to be a very happy home.” 

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I NST YLE By Brittany Galla

A

s a ten-year-old, Alice Smith’s favorite part of visiting a Native American reservation with her father was something many young girls love: visiting the bead shop and playing with all the colorful, bright beads. But for Smith, her love of beadwork turned into a passion — and then into a career.

Today Smith designs necklaces, earrings and bracelets made from gold, pearls and precious gem beads. After studying off and on since age 12 at New Haven’s Creative Arts Workshop, Smith knew jewelry was her future. So at the age of 22, she completed a BFA degree from University of North Texas in metalsmithing and jewelry. Although jewelry has always been Smith’s passion, painting is also something she loves — but unlike her jewelry, she keeps her paintings private and does not sell them. “I’ve always been interested in art,” says Smith as she twirls her own favorite selfmade piece — her gold coiled wedding ring. “Jewelry as a career choice really worked for me; I did not want to be a starving artist.”

Kristin Merrill’s jewelry is part and parcel of the Connecticut shoreline.

PHOTOGRAPH:

Steve Blazo

Two years ago, while working at Peter Indorf Jewelers, she and Indorf decided it was time for her to launch her own jewelry label. Smith’s pieces, which she describes as “elegant and classy,” are priced from $200 to $5,000. Her designs are now sold at Peter

Alice Smith’s elegant pieces combine striking contrast of color and texture..


Steve Blazo

Indorf as well as by word of mouth.

PHOTOGRAPH:

Smith says that sometimes she struggles to find a creative spark. But often the materials themselves inspire the designs. “You never know when you’re going to hit an inspiration streak,” she says. “If I’m on with a creative mind I can do five or six pieces a day, but there’s always a dry spell.” Smith, who lives in Seymour, has learned what works and doesn’t work in jewelry. “Over the years, when it comes to jewelry designs, it’s the simpler, the better. “Really complicated pieces I’ve done haven’t been as successful as something more simple and elegant. When the body moves, the jewelry needs to move properly with the body — it shouldn’t be rigid or uncomfortable.” Reaching success in the jewelry industry has posed one challenge for Smith — parting with the pieces she invests personal time and thought in.

Following a life crisis, Luckey introduced holes into her elegant knitwear. They’re mostly still there.

A

fter years of working in wholesale and producing 30 pairs of the same piece of jewelry, Kristin Merrill felt burned out — and needed a break.

“The first piece I ever did for [Indorf] was a design that we both collaborated on,” she says. “It was so beautiful, and when it sold, I was so happy, but so sad. I detached myself “I stopped doing any work,” she says of the eight-year hiatus that followed. “It got from my jewelry — if it’s sold, fabulous.” boring and it just wasn’t inspiring.”

Fast-forward to three years ago, when she changed the direction of her designs to one-of-a-kind pieces that she could sell personally. After meeting with a spiritual guide, Merrill says new design ideas just came flooding into her — one being to gather driftwood and design fragments of it adorned with pearls or copper.

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These wall pieces quickly became a second passion for East Havener Merrill, who on summer weekends travels by boat out of Short Beach with her husband and their two children to collect driftwood to work with. In fact, everything she works with — driftwood, fresh-water stone, shells — come from the Branford shoreline and nearby islands. Her vision of driftwood is quintessentially feminine, she says: “I see the female body; the egg; a protected nest that the pearl has a special place to be in.” As her jewelry designs have evolved, she finds herself working more with warmer colors and earth tones. Merrill, who earned a BFA from Rochester Institute of Technology, says her greatest challenge is balancing time among her family, her designs and her other job as a consultant. “Sometimes you want to be in the studio, but you have to let it go,” she explains. Merrill markets her designs at trunk shows and studios, and hopes to participate in trade shows. Her jewelry starts at $22 and goes up to $320, while wall pieces range from $280 up to $2,200.

Merrill says, is losing herself in the beauty of nature’s work.

“Knitting is very comforting, and I was piecing my life back together — literally knitting my life,” she says. “I like my holes. “All of these have come from somewhere,” They’re definitely more purposeful now.” she says, examining the hand-picked driftwood and jewelry in front of her. Luckey also washes all the hand-knitted, hand-dyed angora and silk fabrics she makes t first glance, Owen Sea Luckey’s to create the fuzzy texture of her designs. purplish-greenish-greyish fuzzy scarf looks like something’s wrong “They don’t look like that when I first finish,” — it’s ripped with four large holes. But the she says. “There is no fuzz, and frankly, holes aren’t a result of an accidental tear; they’re just not as beautiful until washed. Luckey put the holes there — on purpose. Washing forces fibers to bloom, changes the layering and creates the fuzz.” “I’m breaking the rules in my knitting,” says Luckey, who lives in Branford, while poking Besides knitting each night, she also sews her two index fingers inside the holes. “I’ve velvet shawls two days a week. Luckey’s never seen anything like this. People who knitted scarves and shawls sell for between are traditional knitters will ask me, ‘Why $285 and $600; hats from $85 to $110; and did you do that or how did you do that?’” velvet shawls $65 to $100.

A

The answer has a lot to do with her own life: Three years ago, she was a cancer survivor who also endured a family tragedy and her designs started to change — and holes began finding their way into her work.

A mother of two young girls and married to a carpenter, Luckey finds motherhood reflected in her designs. “Being a mom and an artist, knitting is a personal outlet that keeps me sane,” she says.

“I was trying to find a source of what I needed, and I wasn’t inspired to do traditional knitting, so I went digging in my soul,” she says. “I started allowing there to be holes and spaces that you may not know what’s going to be there.”

Check out Luckey’s and Kristin Merrill’s designs at the Shoreline Arts Trail, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. November 17-18 at 250 Thimble Island Rd., Stony Creek, and at the annual Trunk Show, 4-8 p.m. November 29-30 at Cheney & Co., 20 Grand Ave., New Haven. 

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Spirits in the Material World The Price, by Arthur Miller. Directed by Gordon Edelstein. Through November 18 at Long Wharf Theatre, New Haven. 203-787-4282.

I E. Faye Butler in Trouble in Mind at the Yale Rep.

Sound & Fury, Signifying Little By Brooks Appelbaum Trouble in Mind, by Alice Childress. Directed by Irene Lewis. Through November 17at Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven. 203-432-1234.

N

ow playing at the Yale Repertory Theatre, Trouble in Mind, Alice Childress’ fascinating drama, has the dubious distinction of having a historical background that all but overshadows its own plot. A groundbreaking hit off-Broadway in 1955, the play was slated to move to Broadway as soon as Childress provided a new (read, “happy”) ending. She refused; the play closed. It is rarely performed today. This irony will be appreciated by New Haven audiences. Director Irene Lewis’ Trouble in Mind is a troubling production, but not always in the ways it should be. The plot revolves around a group of actors, mainly African-American, who are rehearsing a so-called “anti-lynching” play, helmed by a film director, Al Manners (Kevin O’Rourke), directing his first Broadway production. We know trouble is at hand when he informs the cast that his methods will be idiosyncratic, but they must trust him: their play, Chaos in Belleville, will elicit sympathy from a white audience and provide a stepping stone toward true equality between blacks and whites.

Instead, what the black actors find are the same stereotypical roles that they have always been handed: the Old Yes-Man (expertly played by Thomas Jefferson Byrd), the Young Rebel (pitch-perfect John Nevins) and, most disturbingly, the Mother. Wiletta Mayer (the astonishingly powerful E. Faye Butler) is at first just glad to work. But as Wiletta begins to understand the implications of the Mother’s role, she begins to ask for script changes that will tell a more truthful story, and tension builds between her and Manners, who believes himself to be fair-minded, but who proves by his every action to be otherwise. It’s here that Lewis’ production runs into difficulties. While Wiletta’s awakening is believably gradual, O’Rourke has been directed on a two-note scale: loud and smarmy, and then louder. Manners is fighting for his integrity (as he understands it) as honestly as Wiletta is fighting for hers. But Lewis has neglected to give O’Rourke nuances to play, and without them, the crucial second act becomes mainly an all-out yelling match between these two: furor without power. That said, there are lovely performances, especially by Garrett Neergaard as the putContinued on 45

t seems that a giant furniture store has been transferred onto the thrust stage of Long Wharf Theatre for its production of Arthur Miller’s remarkable The Price. Yet on closer inspection, we see that this is the attic of a particular family from a distant, obsolete time. An ornate harp stands prominently downstage; carved chairs wait expectantly in rows; heavy armoires and tables perched on tables comprise the back wall; and every kind of object imaginable hangs from the ceiling, even a deer’s head. Spectacular — indeed. But this is not spectacle for spectacle’s sake. This attic, and the ghosts who inhabit it, are prominent characters in a play about how our past determines our present, especially when we’ve tried to ignore its hold.

The play opens with a forced return to that past. Having lost their fortune in the stockmarket crash of 1929, the Franz family and their belongings were relegated to the attic of their ten-room brownstone, where Victor Franz’s father sank into paralyzing despair. To insure his father’s survival, Vic gave up his love of science and became a policeman, a career utterly unsuited to his idealistic nature. Now, in 1967, the building is slated for demolition; and Vic and his wife, Esther, must finally decide what to do about the attic’s contents. Vic’s brother, Walter, a wealthy surgeon, may or may not want his share. But the brothers have not spoken in 16 years, and those 16 years, like Chekhov’s gun on the mantelpiece, lie waiting to be explained, or to explode. Because Miller’s characters are so complex, each role is rife with minefields for an actor. Vic cannot express his feelings or fight for himself, and in his essential idealism, he is an isolated man. To avoid appearing morally superior or simply dull requires Continued on 61

2007 november 45


DowntownMilford NOVEMBER 23rd

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The annual tree lighting celebrating the arrival of Santa Claus to our Town Green will feature carriage rides, music & prizes, photos with Santa! Area businesses will be decorated in holiday style with free food & beverage! Rain or shine! Free to everyone! Milford town green & surrounding businesses.

DECEMBER 7th & 8th

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Environmental Visions: Beauty and Fragility. Paintings, prints, drawings, photographs and installations that explore the beautiful, fragile and impermanent world around us. Through November 23 at Haskins Laboratories, 300 George St., 9th Floor, New Haven. Open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Wed.-Fri. Free.

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New Works by Blinn Jacobs and Amy Browning. Through November 25 at Kehler Liddell Gallery, 873 Whalley Ave., New Haven. Open 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Wed.-Fri., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. weekends. 203-3889-9555, kehlerliddell.com. New works by White Space Gallery resident artist Denise Parri as well as Thomas Eaton, Meredith Passabet, Jane Dell, Clinton Deckert and Karen Recor comprise Necessary Objects. On permanent view: hand-signed, limited-edition lithographs by Surrealist masters including Dal, Miro, Chagall and Picasso. Through November 28 at White Space Gallery, 1020 Chapel St. (second floor), New Haven. Open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. daily (until 7 p.m. Thurs.), Sun. by appt. Free. 203-4951200, whitespacegallery.com. New paintings by Frieda Howling & Sal Naclerio. Through November 28 at Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library, 146 Thimble Island Rd., Branford. Open 10 a.m.-8 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 1-4 p.m. Sun. Free. 203-488-8702. The City, an exhibition of paintings by Constance LaPalombara. A landscape and still-life painter, LaPalombara is well known for her city scenes of her New Haven hometown. Her artwork has been the subject of 25 solo shows as well as of numerous group shows, and she was profiled in Cheever Tyler’s 2006 book Artists Next Door: A Great City’s Creative Spirit. Through December 5 at the Gallery at the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale, 53 Wall Street, New Haven. Open 3-5 p.m. Mon., Wed. or by appointment. Free. Call 203-432-0670. Gods, Demons & Generals: Icons of Korean Shamanism. Paintings in this exhibition, organized and 48 new haven

Landscape painter George H. Durrie (1820-63) lived most of his brief life in New Haven, where he painted ‘East Rock, New Haven’ (1862) in oil on canvas. Connecticut has long been a center for the visual arts in America. Even before the Revolutionary War, artists captured the likenesses of the colony’s prosperous inhabitants. After independence, painters depicted the state’s proud citizens and employed their brushes to celebrate the new republic through its landscape. Other works, such as “East Rock, New Haven” (1862) by George H. Durrie, suggest that, even as industrialization progressed during the mid-19th century, many landscape painters still viewed Connecticut as a pastoral paradise, helping to cement the image of southern New England as old-fashioned and rural. For The Artistic Heritage of Connecticut: Highlights from the Hartford Steam Boiler Collection, Curator Amy Kurtz Lansing chose more than 40 works from the Hartford Steam Boiler Collection, donated to the Florence Griswold Museum by the company in 2001, to tell the story of Connecticut’s role in American art history. Through April 20 at the Florence Griswold Museum, 96 Lyme St., Old Lyme. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily except Mon., 1-5 p.m. Sun. $8 ($7 sen. & students, $4 children. 860-434-5542, flogris.org.

curated by the Korea Society, explore the indigenous Korean shamanic tradition, a force that exists at the nexus of Korean religion and culture. Through December 9 in Freeman Center for East Asian Studies Gallery, Wesleyan University, Middletown. Free. 860685-2330.

Remembering, works by local artists Irene Miller and Jan Murdock. Through December 14 at Gallery 195, 195 Church St., 4th Floor, New Haven. Free. One of the most significant photographers working in the UK today, Jem Southam creates photographic narratives of

landscapes transformed by time and man. Jem Southem: Upton Pyne chronicles six years in the life of an unprepossessing pond near the photographer’s home in Exeter, Devon. From 1996 to 2001, Southam returned regularly to the site, recording the changing seasons and tenants attempts to make improvements to the landscape. Shown in the context of the British traditions of landscape representation, Southam’s photographs ask us to reexamine notions of meaning and beauty in the landscape. Through December 30 at the Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St., New Haven. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily except Mon., noon-5 p.m. Sun. Free. Art & Emancipation in Jamaica: Isaac Mendes Belisario & His Worlds. Organized to commemorate the bicentenary of the abolition of British slave trade, Art & Emancipation in Jamaica is the first exhibition to focus exclusively on the visual culture of slavery and emancipation in Jamaica. Chronicles the iconography of sugar, slavery and the topography of Jamaica from the beginning of British rule in 1655 to the aftermath of emancipation in the 1840s. At the center of the exhibition is the remarkable lithographic series Sketches of Character, In Illustration of the Habits, Occupation, and Costume of the Negro Population in the Island of Jamaica by the Jewish Jamaican-born artist Isaac Mendes Belisario. Through December 30 at the Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St., New Haven. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily except Mon., noon-5 p.m. Sun. Free. The Architect’s Table: Swid Powell and Postmodern Design. Celebrates the promised gift of the Swid Powell Collection and Records to the Yale University Art Gallery. Founded in 1982 by Nan Swid and Addie Powell, the company produced innovative housewares designed by the foremost architects of the 1980s, including Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Robert A. M. Stern and Stanley Tigerman. Swid Powell


helped the architects transform their ideas into finished objects, many of which have become icons of postmodern design. Exhibition includes drawings, promotional material, silver, ceramics and glass, and rare prototypes for unexecuted objects. Through January 6 at Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St., New Haven. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily except Mon. (until 8 p.m. Thurs.), 1-6 p.m. Sun. Free. 203-4320600, artgallery.yale.edu. Royalty of Rock: Images of Richard E. Aaron. Never-before-seen images of the Police, Ray Charles, Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley, Jerry Garcia and more from one of rock ‘n’ roll’s best-known photographers. November 15-January 8 at the Exposure Gallery of Photography, 1 Whitney Ave., New Haven. Open noon-6 p.m. Wed.-Sat. or by appointment. 203-494-9905, www. XGphotography.com. Celebrating Italian Festivals. Exhibition of books produced between 16th and 19th centuries documenting religious, civic and public festivals in towns and provinces of Italy. Through January 9 at Beineke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, 121 Wall St., New Haven. Open 8:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Mon.-Thurs., 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat. Free. 203-432-2977, library.yale. edu/beineke. The annual members show for the Photographic Arts Collective, Spectra 2007 will feature dozens of photographs by a host of regional photographers. The Photographic Arts Collective is a program of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. Through January 31 (reception 5-7 p.m. December 13) at Arts Council of Greater New Haven, 70 Audubon St., New Haven. Open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays. Free. 203-772-2788. The Swiss Guard: Celebrating 500 Years of Papal Service. Includes uniformed mannequins, suits of armor, helmets, swords, lances and other weapons, paintings, prints, documents, metals, flags and pennants from the world’s oldest military organization. Through February 3 at the Knights of Columbus Museum, 1 State St., New Haven. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Free. 203-865-0400. More than 350 artists from across the country will present handmade, one-of a kind crafts as part of Artistry ‘07, the Guilford Art Center’s annual holiday sale. Wide-ranging assembly of crafts

‘Dining Out in Turin’ by Penrhyn Cook. From Spectra 2007 at the Small Space Gallery. including ceramics, candles, glass, fine art, metal, jewelry, fiber, wood, ornaments, cards, condiments, soap, leather, toys, more. All proceeds benefit the Guilford Art Center, its school and gallery programs. October 22-January 6 at Guilford Art Center, 411 Church St., Guilford. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, noon-4 p.m. Sun. 203-453-5947, guilfordartcenter.org.

BELLES LETTRES Rita Dove, the youngest person ever named Poet Laureate of the United States and the first AfricanAmerican to hold that honor, visits Yale as a Chubb Fellow and gives a free, public reading of her poetry. The Commonwealth Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Virginia, Dove served two terms as Poet Laureate and Consultant to the Library of Congress, 1993-1995. Her poetry collections include The Yellow House on the Corner (1980), Grace Notes (1989) and On the Bus with Rosa Parks (1999). 4:30 p.m. November 7 in Room 127, Yale Law School, 127 Wall St., New Haven. Free. A 13th-century Persian poet, jurist and theologian will be honored through literature, music and Sufi-dance at An Evening with Rumi: Poet of Peace. Event will feature University Choir singing Rumi poems, Columbia Professor Hossein Kamali lecturing on Rumi

and Islam, Allen Godlas of the University of Georgia lecturing on Rumi and Sufism , poetry readings in Persian and English, and musical performances by Hossein Behroozinia and Pejman Hadadi, members of Dastan Ensemble, a world-renowned group of classical Persian musicians. Sufi dances will be presented by Khadija Julia Goforth and her Whirling Dervishes. 6:30 p.m. November 13 at Edgerton Center for Performing Arts, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield. Free. 203371-7908. Poetry reading by Graham Foust and Elizabeth Robinson. 4 p.m. November 15 at Beineke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, 121 Wall St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-2977, library. yale.edu/beineke. Poet Frank Bidart (b. 1939) reads from his work. A professor of English at Wellesley College, Bidart has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award. 4 p.m. November 27 at Beineke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, 121 Wall St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-2977, library.yale.edu/beineke.

BENEFITS In the tradition of past Peabody extravaganzas as A Night on the Nile and A Night on the Yangtze comes A Night Back in Time. Celebration of the museum’s fabulous Zallinger murals on the 60th anniversary of “The Age of

Reptiles” and the 40th anniversary of “The Age of Mammals.” Dinner, auction, dancing, live entertainment. Proceeds to benefit public and outreach programs of the museum. 7 p.m. November 10 at Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, 170 Whitney Ave., New Haven. $175 ($150 members). 203432-5050, peabody.yale.edu. An evening of wine-tasting, nibbles and light entertainment at the Elm City’s chic new boite — all to benefit the Elm Shakespeare Company. 5-7 p.m. November 13 at 116 Crown St., New Haven. $40 ($30 students). 203-393-1436. The Junior League of Greater New Haven presents its fourth annual Wine Tasting and Live & Silent Auction. Master of ceremonies Jocelyn Maminta of WTNH-TV. Proceeds to benefit the Junior League’s programs. 6-9 p.m. November 15 at New Haven Country Club, 160 Hartford Tpke., Hamden. $40 advance, $45 at door ($85 patron). 203-562-5076, jlwinetasting@yahoo.com. The Trinity Church Holiday Bazaar ffeatures homemade crafts, silent auction, tag sale, raffles, food court, surprise packages and more — a must for the serious holiday shopper. 3-8 p.m. November 15, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. November 16-17, 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m. November at Trinity Church on the Green, New Haven. 203-624-3101.

2007 november 49


CINEMA Life & Debt (1971, 80 min.), directed by Stephanie Black. Documentary examination of the impact of globalization on Jamaican industry and agriculture. 2 p.m. November 10 at Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St., New Haven. Free. 203432-2800, yale.edu/cba.

BET personality Jeff Johnson tackles the controversial topic of ‘Sexism & Hip-Hop’ November 13 at Quinnipiac. Marrakech Inc., which provides services to people with challenging behaviors, families with complex needs, at-risk youth and people without disabilities who are unemployed and underemployed, presents its seventh annual Black & White Ball Gala & Auction. Dinner, dancing, auction, raffle, more. Black tie optional. 6 p.m.-midnight November 17 at Woodbridge Country Club, Woodfield Rd., Woodbridge. $175/person. 203-389-2970, ext. 1060, lfoster@marrakechinc.org.

A “first annual” luncheon and fashion show, Women of Note, celebrates noteworthy women for outstanding community service. The inaugural Women of Note honoree is Norma Kelly, and the whole shebang benefits the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. 12:30 p.m. November 18 at Pine Orchard Yacht & Country Club, 2 Club Pkwy., Branford. $75. 203-865-0831, newhavensymphony.com.

Quinnipiac University communications professor Rebecca Abbott will screen her documentary No Unwounded Soldiers (U.S., 2007, 78 min.). Work illustrates devastating and persistent effects of war on combat veterans, their families and communities, but that healing is possible through the arts. 3 p.m. November 11 at Educational Center for the Arts, 55 Audubon St., New Haven. Free. The Cinéma du Monde series at SCSU presents Wild Strawberries (Sweden, 1957, 91 min.), directed by Ingmar Bergman. Discussion hosted by Wes O’Brien of Southern’s Department of Media Studies follows. 7:35 p.m. November 14 in Engleman A120, SCSU, 501 Crescent St., New Haven. Free. 203-392-6778.

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COMEDY One of the hottest comics from the cast of The Chapelle Show is Donnell Rawlings, who visits Southern for a live set of standup. 8 p.m. November 17 at Lyman Center, Southern Connecticut State University, 501 Crescent St., New Haven. $12 ($5 staff, students). 203-392-6154. The dean of American comedians is George Carlin, whose act (in case you’ve been living under a rock since the 1960s) is not suitable for children. 7:30 p.m. November 30 at Chevrolet Theatre, 95 S. Turnpike Rd., Wallingford. $55-$35. 203-624-0033.

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Federico Fellini’s masterpiece La Strada (Italy, 1954, 108 min.). Presentation of the Cinéma du Monde series. Post-screening discussion led by Pina Palma of the SCSU Foreign Languages Department. 7:35 p.m. November 28 in Engleman A120, Southern Connecticut State University, 501 Crescent St., New Haven. Free. 203-392-6778.

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DANCE El Baile Flamenco de Dionisia Garcia. Renowned flamenco artist Dionisia Garcia performs newly choreographed work in homage to Spanish composer Manuel de Falla. Garcia will interpret movements from de Falla’s El Amor Brujo as well as various palos (rhythms) from the traditional repertoire. Also featuring Wesleyan Ensemble of the Americas under the musical direction of Angel Gil-Ordoñez. 4 p.m. November 11 at World Music Hall, Wesleyan University, Middletown. Free. 860-685-3355, Wesleyan.edu/cfa.

FAMILY EVENTS Following a 15-year absence, New Haven Symphony Orchestra Family Concerts — 45-minute musical adventures preceded by a 30minute, hands-on pre-concert activity — make a welcome return. Opening concert, “Water, Water Everywhere,” an imaginative journey on the world’s waterways, from London to Egypt, features members of the NHSO’s woodwind section. Recommended

for children ages three to 12. 2 p.m. (pre-concert activity 1:30 p.m.) November 10 at Omni-New Haven Hotel Ballroom, 155 Temple St., New Haven. $12 adult, $5 child. 203-5625666, newhavensymphony.org.

England. 2 & 7:30 p.m. December 8, 1 & 5 p.m. December 9 at Shubert Performing Arts Center, 247 College St., New Haven. $53-$18. 203-5625666, shubert.com.

MUSIC/ CLASSICAL

Thirty-five cats! One dog! Five clowns! Walking tightropes! Death-defying balancing acts! Exclamation points galore! International family smash hit from Russia, the Moscow Cats Theatre, comes to the Shubert. 1 & 4 p.m. November 18 at Shubert Performing Arts Center, 247 College St., New Haven. $59.90-$49.90. 203562-5666, shubert.com.

LECTURES/ DISCUSSIONS

The Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale performs new music by Yale composers: Marshall, Hearne, Li, Schindler, Vazza, Wang. 8 p.m. November 9 at Woolsey Hall, New Haven. Free.

Musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ holiday classic A Christmas Carol features period sets and costumes, special effects and angelic voices singing favorite carols of the season. November 23-25 at Shubert Performing Arts Center, 247 College St., New Haven. 203-562-5666, shubert.com. The traditional story of The Nutcracker comes to life in this classical ballet performed by students of the New Haven Ballet with music by Orchestra New

Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward tells the inside story of the Bush administration’s efforts to manage the war in Iraq in State of Denial, a presentation based on the Pulitzer Prize-winner’s bestselling book of the same name. 7 p.m. November 12 at Edgerton Center for the Performing Arts, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield. $10. 203-371-7846. Jeff Johnson discusses Sexism and Hip-Hop. On Black Entertainment Television Johnson hosts the hip-hop show Rap City and is a correspondent for the news show Meet the Faith. Johnson previously was national director of the youth and college division of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. 7 p.m. November 13 at Alumni Hall, Quinnipiac University, Hamden.

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Classical guitarist Frank Wallace presents “A Season of Light,” including popular Christmas carols arranged for solo guitar by Wallace, as well as his own works in the spirit of Christmas. Season-opening concert of the New England Guitar Society. 8 p.m. November 10 at Center for the Arts, 40 Railroad Ave., Milford. $15. 203878-6647, milfordarts.org. The Yale Symphony Orchestra, with Music Director Toshiyuki Shimada, performs BARBER Piano Concerto, Op. 38 (Daniel Schlosberg, piano), VAN DE VATE Western Front (U.S. premiere), BERNSTEIN Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, COPLAND Lincoln Portrait. 8 p.m. November 10 at Woolsey Hall. $10 ($2 students). 203-562-5666, shubert.com.

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The newly established Yale Baroque Opera Project presents its first production, Ardo, Ardo: Monteverdi in Motion. “Ardo, Ardo” (“I burn, I burn” — words that recur throughout the text of the libretti) is a theatrical entertainment created from a series of madrigals and other works by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), the last great madrigalist and first great opera composer. More than 35 costumed singers and dancers will be joined by an early-music ensemble playing on strings, theorbo, lute, harp and harpsichord. 4 p.m. November 1011 at Sprague Hall, 470 College St., New Haven. Free. Yale School of Music’s Horowitz Piano Series presents Severin von Eckardstein, piano. BEETHOVEN Sonata No. 23 in F minor (Appassionata), LISZT Sonetto 123 del Petrarca, Ballade No. 2, SCHUBERT Sonetto in A Major, D. 959. 8 p.m. November 13 at Sprague Hall, 470 College St., New Haven. $18-$10 ($5 students). 203-432-4158, The New Haven Oratorio Choir, under the direction of Music Director Mark Bailey, performs Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem and other works. 8 p.m. November 17 at Christ

Church, 84 Broadway, New Haven. $20 ($15 seniors, $10 students). 860280-6061, newhavenoratorio.org. Tuning and the Marquand Organ: A Cure for Irregularity, lecture by Ross W. DuffiN professor of music, Case Western Reserve University. One of a series of events to inaugurate the new Taylor & Boody pipe organ in the Yale Divinity School’s Marquand Chapel. The first major pipe organ built at Yale in 35 years, the new instrument is tuned in meantone temperament, a tuning system prevalent in the 17th century. It allows certain harmonies to sound “sweeter” or more “pure” than the same intervals played in equal temperament. 4 p.m. November 29 at Marquand Chapel, Yale Divinity School, New Haven.

Duffy. MILHAUD La Création du Monde, MASLANKA Symphony No. 4, TAKEMITSU Day Signal & Night Signal, GILLIS Tulsa: A Symphonic Portrait in Oil. 7:30 p.m. Nov. 30 at Woolsey Hall, New Haven. Free.

Sacri Affetti Musicali with mezzo soprano Judith Malafronte and friends. Music of Strozzi, Monteverdi and others. A presentation of “Fanfare!” series of events to inaugurate new Taylor & Boody organ (see above). 5 p.m. November 30 at Marquand Chapel, Yale Divinity School, New Haven. Yale Concert Band under the baton of Music Director Thomas C.

As It Fell on a Holie Eve: Early English Christmas Music by the viol ensemble Parthenia with soprano Julianne Baird. 16th- and 17th-century English Christmas music including works by William Byrd and Thomas Morley. 8 p.m. November 30 at Crowell Concert Hall, Wesleyan University, Middletown. $21$6. 860-685-3355,

MUSIC/POPULAR Branford Folk Music Society presents Mellow with Ale: English Folk Songs. John Roberts and Tony Barrrand perform songs of the sea, of rural pursuits, sociable situations, industrial toil and strife . 8 p.m. November 10 at First Congregational Church, 1009 Main St., Branford. $12 ($10 BFMS members, $3 children). 203-488-7715, folknotes.org/branfordfolk/. To Grover with Love, an all-star tribute to Grover Washington Jr.

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Featuring Walter Beasley, Najee, Chuck Loeb, Gerald Veasley, Buddy Williams, D-Train and musical director Jason Miles. 8 p.m. November 16 at Lyman Center, Southern Connecticut State University, 501 Crescent St., New Haven. $30 ($25 SCSU staff and seniors, $15 students). 203-392-6154. Legendary singer/songwriter/ hitmaker Neil Sedaka in a special benefit concert to celebrate a century of caring at New Haven’s Hospital of St. Raphael. 8 p.m. November 17 at Shubert Performing Arts Center, 247 College St., New Haven. $103-$53. 203-562-5666, shubert.com. Fiddler, guitarist, accordion player and singer with the Grand Bois Cajun Band, Craig Edwards performs traditional Cajun dance music from southwest Louisiana. 3 p.m. November 18 in Russell House, Wesleyan University, Middletown. 860-685-3355. Those classic Brit rockers of the Baby Boom, Jethro Tull, cruise the Chevy. 7:30 p.m. December 1 at Chevrolet Theatre, 95 S. Turnpike Rd., Wallingford. $55-$35. 203-624-0033.


Critics Pick Wigging Out Over the Classics

Maestro James Sinclair and Orchestra New England perform ‘new’ music by composers such as Mozart and Haydn at the annual Colonial Concert at United Church. PHOTOGRAPH: Harold Shapiro

For more than a quarter-century, the unofficial kickoff of the holiday season in New Haven has taken place on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. That’s when Music Director James Sinclair, ONE instrumentalists and guest soloists don powdered wigs, silk breeches and other various finery to perform “new works” by composers such as Haydn and Mozart in candlelit United Church as part of the annual Orchestra New England Colonial Concert. 8 p.m. November 24 at United Church on the Green, New Haven. $40$20. 203-562-5666, orchestranewengland.org.

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66 Brian Culbertson’s Soulful Christmas features smooth jazz stylings of the season performed by Culbertson, Gerald Albright, Nick Colionne and a guest vocalist. Culbertson’s most recent recording, 2005’s It’s on Tonight, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s contemporary jazz chart. 8 p.m. December 1 at Lyman Center, Southern Connecticut State University, 501 Crescent St., New Haven. $30 ($25 SCSU staff and seniors, $15 students). 203-392-6154.

Revues/Cabaret Sellati & Martin Cabaret, and evening with soprano Robin Sellati and pianist Thomas Martin performing works by Sondheim, Gershwin, Arlen and Kander & Ebb. 7:30 p.m. November 17 at Mellon Arts Center, Choate Rosemary Hall, Christian St., Wallingford. $25 ($22.50 seniors, $15 students). 203697-2398, choate.edu/boxoffice.

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Bing Crosby and George H.W. Bush. Through February 4 at Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, 170 Whitney Ave., New Haven. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, noon-5 p.m. Sunday. $7 ($6 seniors, $5 ages 3-18). 203-432-5050, peabody.yale.edu. Small Things Considered. From a nutmeg to a strand of George Washington’s hair to the classic Wiffle Ball, discover the big impact small objects have made on history and our lives. Through February 23 at the Connecticut Historical Society, 1 Elizabeth St., Hartford. Noon-5 p.m. Tues-Sat. $6 ($3 seniors, students). 860-236-5621, www.chs.org.

SPORTS/ RECREATION Cycling NATURAL HISTORY Seeing Wonders: The Nature of Fly Fishing. Overview of the history of the sport and the techniques of fly

fishing and fly-tying with displays of historical rods and reels and fly fishing entomology. Also, fly fishing stories and equipment of celebrity and Presidential anglers including Babe Ruth, Ted Williams,

Elm City Cycling organizes Lulu’s Ride, weekly two- to four-hour rides for all levels (17-19 mph average). Cyclists leave 10 a.m. from Lulu’s European Café as a single group; no one is dropped. 10 a.m. November 11, 18, 25 at Lulu’s

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Road Races Mothers Against Drunk Driving presents annual MADD Dash fivemile road race, plus kids’ fun run. 10 a.m. (fun run 9:15) November 11 at Edgewood Park, New Haven. $16 by 11/8, $20 after (Kids $5). 203-2346521, msrunningproductions@ yahoo.com. Downtown Wallingford is the site of the Turkey Trot five-miler. 1 p.m. November 18 at Stevens Elementary School, 18 Kondracki La., Wallingford. $15 by 11/10, $20 after. 203-294-1700. Commodore Hull 5K Thanksgiving Day Road Race through downtown Shelton and Derby benefits Boys & Girls Club of Lower Naugatuck Valley. 8 a.m. November 22 at Farmers Market, Canal St., Shelton. $18 (advance only). 203-944-0445, www.electronicvalley.org/derby/ HullRace. Stratford Masonic Bodies present the sixth annual Turkey Day Trot, USATF-certified 5K course through

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center of Stratford. 8:15 a.m. November 22 in Stratford Center. $15 by 11/19, $20 after. 203-377-6056. Sound Runner presents the Madison Turkey Trot. Event includes 5K road race and two-mile family fitness walk. Both starting from West Beach area of Hammonassett State Park (but on separate courses). 10 a.m. November 22 at Hammonassett Beach State Park, Madison. $18 advance, $22 day of race. 203-483-8222. It’s not a road race, but a crosscountry run. It’s the 12th annual Cow Chip 5K. But it’s even exactly a 5K, as the application notes, “Exact race distance is at the whim of the race director and may not be decided upo until after his Thanksgiving dinner.” 9:30 a.m. (8 a.m. regisstration) November 24 at Trumbull High School, Trumbull. $17 advance, $20 day of race. msrunningproductions@yahoo.com. The Nichols Improvement Association presents its 18th annual Jingle Bell Run, a 5K race beginning and ending on the Nichols Green. CT-USATF-certified

course. 9:30 a.m. December 1 at Nichols Green, Trumbull. $17 before 11/27, $20 after, 203-337-6132.

Spectator Sports The 124th edition of Harvard vs. Yale Football returns to New Haven. Yale leads the storied series, 65-50-8. Noon November 17 at Yale Bowl, New Haven. $30-$7 (under 15 free accompanied by adult). 203-432-1400. It’s an ECAC men’s ice hockey rivalry: Princeton vs. Quinnipiac at the TD Banknorth Center. 3:30 p.m. November 24 $13-$11.

THEATER University of New Haven Theater Program presents the New England premiere of Columbinus by Stephen Karam and P.J. Paparelli. Inspired by the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., play weaves together excerpts from discussions with parents, survivors and community leaders as well as diaries and home video footage

to illuminate the dark recesses of American adolescence. With dramaturgy by Patricia Hersch, Columbinus earned four Helen Hayes Award nominations. 8 p.m. November 7-10, 5 p.m. November 11 at Dodds Theatre, University of New Haven, West Haven. $10 (free to UNH community, $5 non-UNH students). 203-479-4512. LWT Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein helms Arthur Miller’s The Price on the Long Wharf Mainstage. With a comically philosophical antiques dealer hovering in the background, estranged brothers confront each other about their feelings, the tangled memories of their family life and their respective places in the world as they divide their recently deceased father’s estate. Through November 18 at Long Wharf Theatre, 222 Sargent Dr., New Haven. $61.25-$41.25. 203787-4282, longwharf.org. Trouble in Mind, Alice Childress’ wise, witty and moving comedy about an African-American actress who struggles to break through the racial stereotypes that bind her onstage characters. An OffBroadway smash in 1955, an

announced move to Broadway was cancelled when Childress refused to accommodate the producers’ request to brighten the ending for a commercial audience. Irene Lewis directs. Through November 17 at Yale Repertory Theatre, 1120 Chapel St., New Haven. $58-$35. 203-4321234, yalerep.org. American Idol winner Ruben Studdard and Robin Givens star in Kendrick D. Young’s Heaven I Need a Hug, the inspirational story of a former championship boxer who faces the fight of his life to save his marriage, family and future. 7:30 p.m. November 20-21 at Shubert Performing Arts Center, 247 College St., New Haven. $45.50. 203-5625666, shuberet.com. Everyone’s favorite grasping schemer and rapacious voluptuary, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Moliere’s Tartuffe, has kept audiences laughing since 1664 — even as it reminds that hypocrisy, greed and cupidity are a limitless resource. Daniel Fish directs. November 26-December 22 at Yale Repertory Theatre, 1120 Chapel St., New Haven. $58-$35. 203-432-1234, yalerep.org.

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WO RD S of MOUTH

By Liese Klein

INTEL NEW EATS

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in Wong is a firm believer in getting the details right — the gleam of sunlight on bamboo floors, the perfect amount of seaweed in a clear soup, the tang of roasted rice in a cup of green tea. At his new noodle bar and Japanese eatery, Dozo (47 Whalley Ave., New Haven, 203-785-1325), Wong brings his perfectionism to a stretch of Whalley Avenue mostly known for fast food.

Dozo’s specialties are udon and ramen noodles in Southeast Asian-spiced broths and inventive sushi rolls. The prices are lower than Wong’s other restaurant — Ninth Square fixture Miso — to appeal to nearby Yale students, says Fun Wong, who runs Dozo with her husband.

56 new haven

Steve Blazo

With its flavorful, well-executed fare, Dozo opens a promising new frontier for the Chapel/ Howe area’s Asian “restaurant row.”

Samurai sushi master: Lin Wong inside gleaming new Dozo.

PHOTOGRAPH:

In addition to the fiery soups, Japanese standbys like sashimi and gyoza come in generous portions and are best enjoyed in one of Dozo’s “lunchboxes,” or combo meals. The interior is spacious and light-filled and an expansive sushi bar can accommodate a dozen people at a time in comfort. Street parking can usually be found within a block or two, or walk to the restaurant from the Broadway District pay lots.


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hy can’t we all eat like the Spanish? Those lucky Europeans enjoy small portions of intensely flavored food in a relaxed atmosphere with lots of wine. In fact, Spain has arrived in the New Haven area in force in the past few years with the opening of Barcelona, Ibiza and other eateries focused on small plates and Mediterranean flavors. Now a bit of Spain can be found in downtown Milford, a stone’s throw from the train station. Bistro Basque opened earlier this year at 13 River Street in Milford (203-878-2092) and has found a following with its well-chosen selection of tapas and entrées. Start with a mojito cocktail of lime and mint — but only if you’re not driving. Drinks come in supersized portions that can quickly catch up to you. A good range of Spanish wines

and passable sangria are also available. Follow with a selection of tapas — six or seven will fill up two people and still keep the bill under three figures. Notable were the airy codfish croquettes nestled in endive with a dollop of mustard sauce: a winning interplay of taste and texture. Also outstanding was seafood escabeche, marinated nuggets of shrimp and scallop with an impeccable fresh tang. The restaurant’s homemade bread was put to good use mopping up the last traces of wild mushrooms in a beefy wine sauce. Entrées range from Basque-style chicken to rack of lamb and top out at around $30. Bistro Basque’s clamorous interior lends itself to a convivial, lingering meal, so take your time and enjoy life, Spanish style.

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Connecticut Restaurant – Zagat

Now Booking Holiday Parties Up to 50 People – Private Room Available

501 New Haven Ave. Milford, CT (203) 878-1910 jeff reysofmilford.com

Assaggio Within steps of the historic Green, downtown Branford Minutes from the ocean.

Mark Bittman, cookbook author and “Minimalist” columnist, New York Times.

Enjoy the Fall weather on our HEATED outdoor patio, with our Martini special: Buy 1 Martini – get the second one for free!

168 Montowese St. Branford 203-483-5426

Specializing in Fresh Fish Exquisite Steaks

Seasonal Menus, Dinner Seven Nights a Week, Lunch Monday - Friday & Sunday Brunch.

YellowFin’s

New Fall Menu

Seafood Grille

yellowfinsseafoodgrille.com

203-250-9999 1027 South Main Street • Cheshire Lenny & Joe’s

Fish Tale

Fresh, Fun & Casual Restaurants

Open Seven Days Come and See What Everyone Is Talking About 127 Wooster Street, New Haven 203-777-4825 www.anastasiosrestaurant.com 58 new haven

Now Bittman, who writes the “Minimalist” column for the New York Times, has brought his epiphany to the masses. The latest in his How To Cook Everything series is How To Cook Everything Vegetarian. Sections on trendy meat substitutes like tempeh and seitan share space with explorations of vegetarian dishes in major world cuisines. Echoing his Minimalist column, Bittman also riffs on basic dishes with dozens of variations on themes like “the simplest yogurt sauce.”

Sunday Light Bar Menu

Tradional Italian Cuisine

It’s a simple peasant dish that New Haven Italian eateries do especially well: beans and bitter greens. Food writer Mark Bittman says a version of pane cotta — a savory mix of escarole, white beans, garlic, Italian bread and olive oil — from Antonio’s Ristorante in East Haven helped open his eyes to the possibilities of vegetarian food.

Voted th e Best Seafo o d in CT! Resta u ra nt CT Magazine 2007 Route 1 Madison & Westbrook

“We eat too much meat and it’s not good for us” Bittman says. “From a health perspective we’d all be better off if we ate more vegetables.” After 30 years in the New Haven area, Bittman moved to New York this year. But whenever he’s passing through town he makes sure to stop at Edge of the Woods natural food market, where he stocks up on bulk items. There’s nothing like it in his Upper West Side neighborhood, he notes. Honest, wholesome food is the core of his message, Bittman says. “It’s not so much of an anti-meat thing as much as it as an anti-junk food thing,” he says. “This is an attempt to get people back into the kitchen to do from-scratch, basic, healthy, simple cooking.”


BEST OF THE REST

Dine-In • Take-Out • Catering

Editor’s picks: American cuisine with a seasonal flair. Bespoke, 266 College St., New Haven (203 562-4644). Save the best seasonal treat for last at this trendy successor to Roomba — a decadent pumpkin cheesecake. Also on tap for the fall and winter is a rack of lamb and chupe, a seafood chowder of clams, shrimp and scallops in a clear broth. Foe, 576 Main St., Branford (203-483-5896). A sweet potato-and-ginger bisque will get your meal off to a warming start at this Branford bistro, followed but the hearty black fig and cherry-glazed duck breast on a pillow of sweet potato hash. Other fall flavors include a rack of lamb and a port tenderloin enrobed in a rosemary, garlic and Parmesan pesto. Sage American Grill & Oyster Bar, 100 S. Water St., New Haven (203-787-3466). Sagerubbed chicken over autumn root vegetables such as parsnips, turnips and sweet potatoes is one of the seasonal treats at this harborfront eatery. Winter brings a rich and warming lobster ravioli with fennel. Tenderloin Fish & Steakhouse, 2 East Main St., Branford (203-481-1414). Branford favorite’s filet mignon over portobellos with cognac-gorgonzola cream will warm you as the mercury drops. Fall specials include butternut ravioli with brown butter and sage. Zinc, 964 Chapel St., New Haven (203-6240507). Think game for fall and winter at Zinc, a consistently inventive downtown treasure. Start with a wild boar sausage with ricotta gnocchi touched with sage, then move on to applewood-smoked duck breast with pear jam and porcini-onion glaze.

MEXICAN Baja, 63 Boston Post Rd., Orange (203-7992252). Salsa bar and fish taco entrée appeal to homesick Californians and big eaters. Guadalupe la Poblanita, 136 Chapel St., New Haven (203-752-1017). Simple, authentic cuisine from Puebla in a down-home atmosphere.

Re al Pit BB Q Quality, Full Service Catering 389-2065

Tues–Sat: 9–8 Sun: 9–7 1302 Whalley Ave. New Haven

GREAT MEXICAN FOOD 161 Park Street New Haven, CT 203-562-2499

The

Playwright Irish Pub, Restaurant & Banquet Facilities NOW BOOKING HOLIDAY PARTIES 144 Temple Street • New Haven • 752-0450 1232 Whitney Avenue • Hamden • 287-2401 WWW.PLAYWRIGHTIRISHPUB.COM

An Italian Supper Club Where

EVERYBODY IS “FAMILY”

Open for dinner nightly with weekend live entertainment from an era gone by

Sunday Family Dinner: 11–3 We do Fabulous Events Now Booking Holiday Parties

FUSION ASIAN CUISINE HIBACHI STEAK HOUSE, SUSHI BAR & LOUNGE

Jalapeno Heaven, 40 N. Main St., Branford (203-481-6759). Tasty Americanized fare in a cozy setting with excellent margaritas. Long Wharf Taco Trucks, Long Wharf Drive near Veteran’s Memorial Park, weekdays at lunch. Tacos as they’re served in Mexico — just corn tortillas, meat, cilantro and a spicy sauce — eaten al fresco by the Harbor.

- EST. 1974 -

203.926.11933 848 BOSTON POST RD, WEST HAVEN 934-7726 WWW.WISEGUYSCT.COM

702 BRIDGEPORT AVENUE, SHELTON WWW.ASIANBISTRORESTAURANT.NET 2007 november 59

FUS


PHOTOGRAPH:

Steve Blazo

CHEF ON THE GRILL

Just what Hamden ordered!

An elegant and comfortable Mediterranean Restaurant & Bar with a Neighborhood Feel & Authentic Homemade Taste

Our New Fall Menu is Here! Catering On & Off Premises Book Your Holiday Party Now LIVE Music Every Weekend GIFT CERTIFICATES AVAILABLE

Lunch Mon – Fri: 11:30–4 Dinner Mon thru Thurs: 4–9:30 Fri & Sat: 5–10:30 (at the corner of Dixwell and Whitney)

2323 Whitney Ave Hamden

203.288.4700

www.mickeysgroup.com

60 new haven

T

he intimate interior of Foe would be a draw even if the food weren’t superb, but chef Alfonso (Foe) Iaderosa has all his bases covered. The Branford eatery (576 Main St. No. 1, 203-483-5896) is a local favorite and has won praise from the New York Times and Chowhound.com posters alike for its hearty yet refined cuisine. Standouts are the crab cake-encrusted tilapia and a glazed duck breast with homemade sweet potato and ginger noodles. Iaderosa, 33, was born and raised in Branford and honed his craft at restaurants in Guilford and New Haven after graduating from Johnson & Wales University’s culinary program. NHM: What inspired you to become a chef? AI: My father used to work the midnight shift at Pratt & Whitney and my mother and I would stay up on Friday nights and make him pizza — homemade pizza with fresh mozzarella. We would hang out and make the dough — she let me stay up late! Growing up I just cooked with my mom. I always knew it was what I wanted to do. What is your favorite cuisine? I’m very, very Italian; my parents are right off the boat from Naples. I grew up with Italian food, which you can kind of turn into Mediterranean food — flavors like tomatoes and lemons.

Your most memorable meal in Italy? I try to go as often as possible, every couple of years. There’s something about walking in your back yard over there and picking wild asparagus. Just eating something real simple, real fresh, like fresh-picked wild asparagus with a little olive oil. What is your signature dish at Foe? My seafood succotash: roasted corn, fava beans, peppers, cream and crispy bacon with shrimp, scallops and clams. It’s a takeoff on a traditional succotash, my version of Italian zuppa de pesce. It’s a great combination. I like to play around with the classics. What’s your favorite restaurant in the New Haven area? For me and my wife, it’s Le Petit Café [in Branford]. Roy Ip is an amazing chef. His food is real clean; it’s all about great flavors. I’m a real steak-and-potatoes guy and he’s got a real au poivre with great frites. What about Branford’s restaurant scene? Branford’s got a lot of great restaurants — the better the restaurants the more food people populate the area. It’s become easier to play around a lot more with food; a lot more chefs are doing it. It’s a lot harder to scare people with a particular dish; people are a lot more willing to try things now. It’s a lot easer to have fun.


Yale

Continued from 22

Writer Teddy White, Harvard ’38, addressed the players with this thought: “Nothing is at stake here, I repeat, but memories — and they will grow immeasurably more important when, in a few short years, you too will join us as spectators.”

Lyme

Tom Bergin should most appropriately provide the last words: “The Game has had a long, robust life, flourishing in all kinds of political and economic climates, surviving wars and depression and the more insidious mildew of ever-changing taste and fashion… it is still in the prime of life.”

Yale Rep

Continued from 27

“It is spreading,” Novella says of the advocacy. “This is part of a multifaceted attack on the scientific basis of health care.”

But even the most skeptical agree that the illness is still new and that mainstream science doesn’t have all the answers yet.

Scientists and doctors are partly to blame for the activism, Novella continues, because they have been reluctant to engage critics and rely on an outmoded model of the doctor-patient relationship. The days of a doctor’s word as law are over, he adds.

“One of the reasons it will not go away is because many of these patients have severe problems,” Yale’s Shapiro says. “There’s no question physicians have not been very good dealing with these chronic symptom patterns.”

“It’s a bit naive to think the institution of scientific medicine is beyond being harmed,” Novella says. “It’s naive to be complacent about that.”

But advocates’ zeal to diagnose more and more people with Lyme does more harm than good in the long run, Shapiro asserts.

Lyme activists counter that they’ve been ignored for too long, even as treatment protocols evolve and the epidemic spreads.

Stanley E. Flink, Yale ‘45W, became, in 1972 the first Director of Public Information and Alumni Communications at Yale University, a post in which he served until 1980. He is currently a lecturer in political science at Yale. 

“There’s no question that it’s avoiding other diagnoses and approaches,” Shapiro says. “Hopefully as people are made more aware of the scientific evidence, fewer and fewer people will be seduced into thinking there is such a thing as chronic Lyme disease.

“For 20 years they’ve been putting down our patients,” says Smith of the Lyme Disease Association. “They said our patients have “The science is very clear is that there is no ‘housewife’s disease,’ ‘yuppie’s disease’ such thing.” — anything to try to disparage the patient. Charles Ray Jones has four grandchildren, Every other disease has activism; that’s but one is special. He was adopted from what our Lyme groups do.” Guatemala and has accurately predicted The Lyme debate also appears to expose several deaths in the family, Jones says. fault lines of class and gender. This child says Jones will live until he is 85, Jones says many of the challenges to his and the doctor hopes that’s enough time to treatments come from fathers in divorce clear his name and establish the legitimacy cases, angry men who think their ex-wives of his treatments. If the Medical Examining are obsessed with illness. Board rules against him on November 20, he vows to appeal. Lyme’s prevalence among affluent women and their children ranks it with chronic “I acted prudently and compassionately,” he fatigue and fibromyalgia as a modern- says of his treatment of the Sparks children. day analogue of Victorian “hysteria” — a “The physicians in academic medicine were women’s ailment dismissed by the male really maligning me a lot instead of doing medical establishment. Chronic Lyme the work they should have been doing.” sufferers say they’re often told they suffer “My wife is deceased, my children are from depression or even “empty-nest grown,” Jones says when asked why he is syndrome.” risking his license. State officials offered to “They don’t like that we’re very forceful,” let him retire without prosecution, he says, says Blanchard. but he is resolved to fight. “We’re watching too many people suffer. “It’s really amazing that they’ve taken this We’re vocal, we’re aggressive — we will get stance, almost with a religious fervor. It’s the answers.” an inquisitional type approach,” Jones adds. “The facts are there, it has to be dealt with a “I can understand the desire to have answers,” court of law. I’m going to keep going.” counters Novella, “but it’s counterproductive when you make up the answers.” Liese Klein may be reached at lklein@conntact.com. 

Continued from 45

upon stage manager, Lawrence O’Dwyer as the old stagehand, Starla Benford as sassy Millie Davis and Natalia Payne as the ingénue. One only wishes that Lewis had trusted Childress, and possibly her audience, more. Al Manner’s anger, poignancy and complexity are all in the script, and one can’t doubt that O’Rourke could play them. But Lewis’ production doesn’t give him the chance. 

Long Wharf

Continued from 45

an actor who possesses coiled mystery and quiet charisma. Marco Barricelli draws us straight into Vic’s dark heart. Now that Vic is close to retirement, Esther urges him to pursue science again, or at least do something that will ensure that they can live well. She could easily be seen as a pushy materialist, but Kate Forbes’ Esther is delicately sweet; she struggles not to push too far. Frustrated by her husband’s passivity, she nonetheless wants to help him embrace what he deserves and ultimately find peace. Jeff McCarthy has relatively little time in which to argue Walter’s case, and he must work against his own appearance: tall, tan, handsome and impeccably dressed. We distrust him on sight. He makes it all too clear, however, that the family’s damage has spared no one. The Price’s most dangerous role is that of the Jewish appraiser, Gregory Solomon. As the source of the play’s marvelous comedy, an actor could easily be tempted to play for laughs, and such a performance would be disastrous. David Margulies’ Solomon gives us the kind of joy that comes from absolute conviction; he casts a glow that both modulates the story’s pain and magnifies its pathos. Director Gordon Edelstein deserves much credit for subtly plotting the characters’ movements as they thread their way through the obstacle course of their past. And he has either guided these fine actors to the pure truth that we see onstage, or at least allowed them to discover their own ways.  2007 november 61


Puppets Who Need People in Stony Creek

By Joyce L. Faiola

B

lazing across the sky over the harbor in Stony Creek is a horizon of deep pink as rain-heavy clouds breeze past the tiny Thimble Islands and the rhythm of lapping waves echo in the night air. Illuminated from within, the solitary island houses resemble houseboats floating on the water, reminding a spectator of miniature props in a holiday village.

Steps away at the Puppet House (128 Thimble Island Rd., 203-488-5752), director Carol Penney is sweeping the old wooden floor as actors run through their lines for that night’s performance of Count Dracula. Hanging on the walls of this slowly fading theater are life-sized 100-year-old puppets from Sicily, whose expertly painted faces and costumes still glitter with life even in the dim lights. The Stony Creek puppets are the last remaining of a collection of some 300 built at the turn of the century by Sebastiano Zappala, who was renowned as the greatest craftsman in his (admittedly narrow) field. The figures were made of steel-reinforced hardwood covered with hemp and canvas. Built in 1903 as a silent movie theater, this still-proud barn-like structure has undergone many reincarnations ever since, including a summer stock theater in the 1930s with Orson Welles and William Gillette (of Gillette Castle fame), a parachute-assembly depot during World War II, and a woman’s 62 new haven

A recent Alliance Theater production of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire at the Stony Creek Puppet House, which hopes to stage a revival featuring productions with human actors.

clothing factory whose sewing machines left deposits of oil still visible on the floor.

Now operated as a nonprofit, hope springs eternal with the indefatigable Penney — founder of the Alliance Theater whose Grace Weil purchased the theater in 1960 credits include the Yale Repertory and Long as a home for her puppets with hopes of Wharf theaters — on board. She’s a fellow creating a puppet showcase and puppet at the Yale/New Haven Teacher’s Institute PHOTOGRAPH: Steve Blazo theater, as well a new career for her son, and teaches drama at Nathan Hale Middle Jim Weill — the current owner and last School. When asked about her dreams for surviving puppeteer. the future of the Puppet House, she replies, Because these life-sized puppets are quite “A sponsor!” heavy, they are difficult and complicated Now in its 30th year, the Alliance Theater is to maneuver and it often takes months a part of the community outreach program for apprentices to master. Jim Weill is of the Department of Performing Arts worried that they may never come alive at the University of New Haven and is again. The characters represent old fables currently producing performances at the of war, redemption and unrequited love. Puppet House. Upcoming productions in The unscripted dialogue that characterize November and December are The Member of the puppet scenes require that puppeteers the Wedding and Babes in Toyland. also be accomplished actors whose voices and words can weave a linear story in Contact Joyce Faiola at jfaiola@conntact.com. impromptu fashion. 


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