A scene from 'Raggedy Ann & Andy' at Theatre Three. Photo by Peter Lanscombe, Theatre Three Productions, Inc.
By Heidi Sutton
Every year Theatre Three’s children’s theater presents audience favorites like “The Adventures of Peter Rabbit” and “Barnaby Saves Christmas.” However, every five years or so, the theater retrieves an old gem from its vault and brings it out for some air. Sometimes it’s “The Golden Goose,” sometimes it’s “The Three Little Pigs.” This week it was “Raggedy Ann & Andy’s” turn.
Andrew Lenahane and Emily Gates star in ‘Raggedy Ann & Andy’ at Theatre Three. Photo by Peter Lanscombe, Theatre Three Productions, Inc.
Written by Jeffrey Sanzel and Kevin Story and suggested by the characters created by Johnny Gruelle, Theatre Three’s version of “Raggedy Ann & Andy” brings America’s most endearing rag dolls to life in a heart-warming musical about friendship and loyalty.
A talented cast of 10 adult actors, skillfully directed by Sanzel, whisks the audience away on a magical adventure to Tiwilliger’s Toy Workshop on an enchanted mountain and introduces them to the toys living there — a clown, a tin soldier, a queen wind-up doll, a lion and a rag doll named Raggedy Ann — all of whom, with the exception of the tin soldier, have been some child’s toy at one time or another.
When it’s Raggedy Ann’s turn to bring joy to a sick little girl named Marcella, toymakers Martha and Abby Tiwilliger decide to make her a brother to take along using magic from the mountain. Their evil brother Mortimer finds out and, along with his reluctant assistant Rose Carpet, tries to stop them in an attempt to keep the magic for himself. When his sisters decide to go ahead with their plan and create Raggedy Andy, Mortimer steals Andy’s heart, leaving the rag doll in a stupor.
The Cast
Melanie Acampora
Kyle Breitenbach
Jessica Contino
Ginger Dalton
Suzie Dunn
Emily Gates
Antoine Jones
Andrew Lenahan
Dylan RobertPoulos
Steven Uihlein
The toys decide to go on a mission to find Mortimer and get Andy’s heart back. Will they save the day or will they be trapped in the Circle of Darkness?
The cast of ‘Raggedy Ann & Andy’ at Theatre Three.Photo by Peter Lanscombe, Theatre Three Productions Inc.
Costumes, designed by Teresa Matteson, are on point, with special detail to the authenticness of Raggedy Ann and Andy’s outfits, and choreography is handled neatly by the one and only Bobby Montaniz.
There’s something very sweet and innocent about this musical. Perhaps it’s the types of toys, reminiscent of the mid-20th century, or the wonderful songs, accompanied on piano by Steve McCoy. Either way, the play is the perfect choice for younger audiences. Meet the entire cast in the lobby after the show for photos.
Theatre Three, 412 Main St., Port Jefferson will present “Raggedy Ann & Andy” through March 25. Up next is the spring break favorite, “The Adventures of Peter Rabbit,” from April 12 to May 6 with a sensory-friendly performance on April 23 followed by “The Princess & the Pea” from May 27 to June 10 with a sensory-friendly performance on June 4. All shows begin at 11 a.m. Tickets are $10 per person. To order, call 631-928-9100 or visit www.theatrethree.com.
‘Abacus: Small Enough to Jail’ will be screened on March 27.
By Heidi Sutton
Soul music, Asperger’s syndrome, circus life, terrorism, race in America — these diverse subject matters and more will be explored at length as the Port Jefferson Documentary Series (PJDS) kicks off its spring 2017 season Monday evening, March 13. Sponsored by the Greater Port Jefferson Northern Brookhaven Arts Council, the Suffolk County Office of Film and Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts, the PJDS, now in its 11th year, will present seven award-winning documentaries from March 13 to May 1, alternating between two venues — Theatre Three in Port Jefferson and The Long Island Museum in Stony Brook. Each screening will be followed by a Q-and-A with guest speakers.
‘Circus Kid’ will be screened on April 17 at Theatre Three.
The documentaries are chosen by a six-member film board, affectionately known as “the film ladies,” who each choose one film to present and then a seventh film is chosen unanimously by the group. The ladies, who include co-directors Lyn Boland and Barbara Sverd, Wendy Feinberg, Honey Katz, Phyliss Ross and Lorie Rothstein, recently found out that the PJDS was chosen by Bethpage Federal Credit Union’s Best of Long Island survey as the Best Film Festival on Long Island for 2017. The series beat out the Stony Brook Film Festival, the Hamptons International Film Festival and the Gold Coast Film Festival.
“Ecstatic would not be too mild a description,” said Boland. “We were really delighted [about the news].” Sverd added, “We never found out who had nominated us, but we are very grateful to that person!”
According to Sverd, the group started out 11 years ago sitting around a dining room table at the late Sondra Edward’s home “brainstorming about how to improve the Greater Port Jefferson/Northern Brookhaven’s existing film series. It was there that the idea of a documentary series began to emerge.” Back then, Sverd said, “We knew that documentaries were an emerging art form and that our community was missing opportunities to see them, as they mostly played in New York for a limited time. We now face new challenges in an age of streaming and HBO, but our mission [to present new documentaries] has remained the same.”
This past fall, the group traveled to the Tribeca Film Festival and the New York Documentary Film Festival in Manhattan and attended the Stony Brook Film Festival, searching for documentaries that generated a lot of interest and offered wide appeal.
‘I Am Not Your Negro’ will be screened on April 3 at the Long Island Museum.
This season, both Boland and Sverd are most excited about presenting “I Am Not Your Negro,” which is narrated by Samuel L. Jackson. Based on the writings of James Baldwin, it tells the story of race in modern America. One of the scheduled guest speakers, Prof. Michael Theiwill, was a colleague and friend of Baldwin. “It’s an exciting film, it’s very, very sophisticated and it’s so on point,” said Boland. “It’s a little demanding in terms of what it asks the audience to listen to and to be aware of, but it is very on point for what’s going on. You realize how you thought everything was changing, but there is still this basic unyielding racism that we find very difficult to understand.”
Boland is also looking forward to showing “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail” on March 27. “It’s such a great story about this little bank in Queens that the district attorney decides to pick on for financial irregularities” and how the family that owned the bank fought back and won.
The co-directors encourage the audience to stay after the screenings for the Q-and-A part which can get quite spirited. “A documentary is like taking a college course,” said Sverd, adding, “I believe that the reason documentaries have become so popular is because people love to learn about other people, places and things. Having a director for an up-close and personal Q-and-A after each screening makes it an even more special classroom experience.” “For me it is much more exciting to get a little bit of the backstory after the movie. Having the director or someone from the film there to answer questions right away was something that we really wanted,” said Boland. The group is always looking for volunteers to help distribute posters and flyers, taking tickets and program assistance. To sign up, please call 631-473-5200.
The Port Jefferson Documentary Series will be held at 7 p.m. every Monday from March 13 to May 1 at Theatre Three, 412 Main Street, Port Jefferson or The Long Island Museum, 1200 Route 25A, Stony Brook. Tickets, sold at the door, are $7 per person (no credit cards please). For more information, visit www.portjeffdocumentaryseries.com.
Film schedule:
▶ The spring season will kick off with a screening of “Marathon: The Patriots Day Bombing” at Theatre Three on March 13. The dramatic story of the April 2013 terrorist attack at the Boston Marathon is recounted through the emotional experiences of individuals whose lives were forever impacted. The film follows events as they unfolded that day and over the next two years, to the death penalty sentence for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Winner of the Audience Award Best Documentary at the Woodstock Film Festival, “Marathon” shows how cities and communities come together and find strength through dark times. Guest speakers will be directors Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg.
▶ “The Uncondemned,” the second film in the series, will be screened at Theatre Three on March 20. Both a real-life courtroom thriller and a moving human drama, the documentary tells the gripping story of a group of young international lawyers and activists who fought to have rape recognized as a war crime and the Rwandan women who came forward to testify and win justice for the crimes committed against them. The film won the Brizzolara Family Foundation Award for a Film of Conflict and Resolution and the Victor Rabinowitz and Joanne Grant Award for Social Justice at the Hamptons International Film Festival. Co-sponsored by the Africana Studies Department at Stony Brook University. Guest speaker will be director Michele Mitchell.
▶ On March 27, The Long Island Museum will host a screening of “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail.” Directed by Steve James and produced by Julie Goldman and Mark Mitten, the film tells the fascinating David and Goliath story of the government’s decision to prosecute a small, immigrant-owned financial institution, Abacus Federal Savings of Chinatown owned by the Sung family, of mortgage fraud while overlooking far more egregious behavior at much larger institutions. The Sung family spent over $10 million in a five-year battle to save the family business, their honor and to stand up for their community. Producer Julie Goldman, Associated Producer Sean Lyness and bankers Jill and Vera Sung will be the guest speakers for the evening.
▶ The fourth film, titled “I Am Not Your Negro,” will be screened at The Long Island Museum on April 3. Built around James Baldwin’s unfinished 1979 book about the lives and successive assassinations of his friends Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, the film, directed by Raoul Peck, delves into the complex legacy of those three lives and deaths that permanently marked the American social and political landscape complimented by archival footage, photographs and television clips. Winner of the Audience Award at the Chicago International Film Festival, Best Documentary at the Hamptons International Film Festival, People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, short-listed for the Academy Awards and countless other accolades, “I Am Not Your Negro” has been called “One of the best movies you are likely to see this year” by the New York Times. Guest Speakers will include Prof. Zebulon Miletsky, African American Studies, SUNY, and Author/Prof. Michael Thelwell, U. Mass, Amherst. Co-sponsored by the Africana Studies Department at Stony Brook University.
Director Lorenzo Pisoni will be the guest speaker on April 17.
▶ The series continues on April 17 at Theatre Three with “Circus Kid.” A ring of daring, danger, spirit and lunacy can lead many a young child into a romantic fantasy of running away to join the circus. But for Lorenzo Pisoni, director of this autobiographical documentary, and guest speaker for the evening, the reality of growing up as the golden child in his family’s cult classic Pickle Family Circus, his dreams were about running away from it. Archival footage of vaudeville-style acts and interviews include Pickle Family participants, including parents Larry and Peggy, daughter Gypsy and Pickle member Bill Irwin.
▶ “Bang! The Bert Berns Story” will be screened at Theatre Three on April 24. Music meets the Mob in this biographical documentary, narrated by Steven Van Zandt, about the life and career of songwriter and record producer Bert Berns whose hits include “Twist and Shout,”“Tell Him,” “Hang on Sloopy,” “Here Comes the Night” and “Piece of My Heart.” Berns helped launch the careers of Wilson Pickett, Van Morrison and Neil Diamond and produced some of the greatest soul music ever made. Filmmaker Brett Berns, who will be the evening’s guest speaker, brings his late father’s story to the screen through interviews with Ronald Isley, Ben E. King, Solomon Burke, Van Morrison, Paul McCartney and Keith Richards and rare performance footage. Co-sponsored by the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.
▶ The final film for the spring 2106 series, to be screened at Theatre Three on May 1, will be “Off the Rails,” the remarkable true story of Darius McCollum, a man with Asperger’s syndrome whose overwhelming love of transit has landed him in jail 32 times for impersonating New York City bus drivers and subway conductors and driving their routes. Winner of Best Documentary at the DocUtah Film Festival, the Newport Beach Film Festival, the Woods Hole Film Festival and the Buffalo International Film Festival, to name just a few. Director Adam Irving will be the guest speaker via Skype.
Malcolm J. Bowman and R. Lawrence Swanson will receive The Robert Cushman Memorial Award at the TVHS award dinner. Photo by Heidi Sutton
On Wednesday, March 22, the Three Village Historical Society will host its 40th Annual Awards Dinner honoring volunteers and area residents who have made outstanding contributions to the Society and the local community.
Among the honorees will be R. Lawrence Swanson and Malcolm J. Bowman, who will receive The Robert Cushman Murphy Memorial Award in recognition of significant contribution to the preservation and conservation of our natural environment. Both are on the faculty of the Marine Science Department at Stony Brook University and are being recognized for their recently published book “Between Stony Brook Harbor Tides —The Natural History of a Long Island Pocket Bay.” This distinguished award has only been given eight times since 1987.
Carlton “Hub” Edwards will receive the Kate Wheeler Strong Memorial Award in recognition of significant contribution toward the fostering of interest in local history. Edwards is a lifelong resident of the Three Villages and his knowledge of the area is something to treasure, as are the memories he shares of his 85 years lived here and his work on the Three Village Society’s Chicken Hill, A Community Lost to Time exhibit.
Millie Mastrion a longtime member, past trustee and volunteer will receive The Maggie Gillie Memorial Award for contributions by a member of the society in recognition of overall dedicated service, and for significant contributions furthering the goals of the society.
From left, Katherine Johnson, Kristin Moller and Sean Mullen will be honored at the TVHS awards dinner. Photo courtesy of TVHS
A deep interest in history led Sean Mullen to the Three Village Historical Society. Mullen has applied his knowledge by volunteering at the society’s archives while pursuing his degree in history at SUNY Stony Brook. He has been working with the society’s collections, especially those relating to the Revolutionary era and the Culper Spy Ring. For that, Mullen will receive the Gayle Becher Memorial Award in recognition of volunteer efforts to help the society by performing those necessary tasks that facilitate its efficient operation. This award honors volunteers whose work consists of loyal support repeated on a regular basis.
Katherine Johnson and Kristin Moller, both students at Ward Melville High School, are this year’s honorees for the Sherman Mills Young Historian Award, a prestigious award presented for contributions to the society by a young person. Kristen and Katherine have both volunteered many hours to society exhibits and events.
Three community award certificates will be handed out this year. The first, for enhancing or restoring a building used as a commercial structure in a way that contributes to the historic beauty of the area will be awarded to Michael and Anthony Butera of ATM Butera Mason Contractors & Landscaping for the reconstruction of the 1892 chimney on the Emma Clark Library. The second, for house restoration or renovation and ongoing maintenance and preservation in keeping with the original architectural integrity, will be awarded to John and Christine Negus for their home at 34 Old Post Road. The third award, for ornamental plantings or landscaping that enhances the beauty of the Three Village area, will be awarded to John and Randy Prinzivalli of 6 Old Field Road in Setauket.
The Awards Dinner will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Old Field Club located at 86 West Meadow Road in East Setauket. A three-course dinner, which will include cheese/fruit/crudité, North Fork Salad, choice of entree (sliced grilled sirloin steak, herb-crusted salmon or grilled vegetable lasagna) and dessert, will be served. There will be a cash bar and music will be provided by Dylan Maggio, Alex Attard and Hugh Ferguson from Ward Melville High School Jazz Band under the direction of Jason Chapman. Tickets are $65 per person, $55 members. To order, visit www.tvhs.org or call 631-751-3730.
Throughout our brief but impactful history, America’s protesters have accomplished quite a bit. From the Sons of Liberty dumping nearly $1.7 million worth of English tea into Boston Harbor (talk about destruction of property) to Dr. King sharing his dream during the March on Washington. Protests, petitions, walkouts and other acts of civil disobedience certainly have earned their chapter in the American story, not always for good reasons, unfortunately.
My first protest was back in 1999 at Scraggy Hill Elementary in Port Jefferson. Things, as you may remember, were a bit simpler back then. Before the advent of social media, before digital petitions and fake news blogs we were forced to have conversations with one another.
Esther Fusco, my former principal, had an office tucked away behind the school’s reception area. Inside she had an old-fashioned metal candy dispenser that only accepted pennies. Whenever you were called into her office, she made sure you got to crank out a handful of M&Ms. Between that and her famed “Star Assemblies,” there was a lot to love as a student.
Unfortunately, for reasons beyond the comprehension of a six-year-old, Dr. Fusco had her assignment changed by the school board and was no longer working in the school. When I heard she was gone, I went home and asked quite innocently, “Where’s Dr. Fusco?” That unknowingly became the rallying call for the first protest I ever participated in.
My mom, an impassioned activist for early childhood education, organized with other community members to picket, protest and attend meetings. This was an extraordinary lesson in civics for a little boy and one that I treasure to this day. You can imagine my excitement when almost 20 years later I hear about petitions circulating through Ward Melville High School. Young people were speaking up about an issue they were passionate about.
The new cap and gown style at Ward Melville High School. Photo from Three Village School District
To provide a bit of context, Ward Melville’s principal introduced a new uniformed graduation gown that combines the school’s signature green and gold. In the past, they had been separated by gender. However, with the school’s growing transgender and gender-fluid population, they wanted to adjust with the times. Naturally, there was pushback as it was altering a 50-year tradition.
What should have followed was a debate on the BEST method to preserve tradition while accommodating changing times and the needs of the student body. What actually transpired was unfortunately quite the opposite. Petitions began to grow and with them hateful comments about transgender and gay/lesbian individuals.
During a student walkout, several students held up signs saying “STRAIGHT LIVES MATTER” and imagery often associated with the former Confederate States. There’s a fundamental difference between fighting for tradition and using the guise of tradition as a means of marginalizing another group.
Here’s the unfortunate reality: 41 percent of transgender youth and 20 percent of gay/lesbian/bisexual youth will attempt suicide at some point in their lives. Just for perspective, 4.6 percent of the general population will attempt suicide. Words matter, and if you’re wondering how those numbers got to be so staggering, look no further than the comments on some of these petitions.
If someone is willing to keep something like that a secret for their whole life, if the pain of that secret is enough cause for them to take their own life, then who the heck am I to question who they are and why? We were not born wearing blue or pink. We were born human beings and being human isn’t always easy so let’s stop making it harder on each other.
Nonviolence and peaceful demonstrations remain the second greatest force of change in this country next to democracy itself. To my young friends at Ward Melville, on all sides, keep fighting for what you believe in. Do so however, while showing respect and civility. You are stewards not just of your own rights, but those of all Americans. Just remember, “Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong.”
Seriously though, where is Dr. Fusco? If anyone sees her, please tell her Michael Tessler sends his regards. I’m 18 years overdue for some M&Ms!
Joseph Schwartz, right, with a collaborator, Daichi Shimbo, the director of the Translational Lab at the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health at Columbia University Medical Center, in front of a poster they presented at an annual meeting of the American Society of Hypertension in New York City in 2013.Photo by John Booth, III
By Daniel Dunaief
The cardiovascular skies may be clear and sunny, but there could also be a storm lurking behind them. About one in eight people who get a normal reading for their blood pressure have what’s called masked hypertension.
That’s the finding in a recent study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology led by Joseph Schwartz, a professor of psychiatry and sociology at Stony Brook University and a lecturer of medicine at the Columbia University Medical Center. Schwartz said his research suggests that some people may need closer monitoring to pick up the kinds of warning signs that might lead to serious conditions.
“The literature clearly shows that those with masked hypertension are more likely to have subclinical disease and are at an increased risk of a future heart attack or stroke,” Schwartz explained in an email.
Tyla Yurgel, Schwartz’s lab manager from 2005 to 2016 who is now working in the Department of Psychiatry, wears the ambulatory blood pressure cuff that was a part of the study. Photo by Arthur Stone
Schwartz and his colleagues measured ambulatory blood pressure, in which test subjects wore a device that records blood pressure about every half hour, collecting a set of readings as a person goes about the ordinary tasks involved in his or her life. Through this reading, he was able, with some statistical monitoring, to determine that about 17 million Americans have masked hypertension, a term he coined in 2002.
Schwartz, who started studying ambulatory blood pressure in the late 1980s, has been actively exploring masked hypertension for over a decade. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring is more effective at predicting subclinical disease such as left ventricular hypertrophy and the risk of future cardiovascular events, said Schwartz. “There was some rapidly growing evidence it was a better predictor of who would have a heart attack or stroke than in the clinic, even when the blood pressure in the clinic was properly measured,” he said.
To be sure, the expense of 24-hour monitoring of ambulatory blood pressure for everyone is unwieldy and unrealistic, Schwartz said. The list price for having an ambulatory blood pressure recording is $200 to $400, he said. Wearing the device is also a nuisance, which most people wouldn’t accept unless it was likely to be clinically useful or, as he suggested, they were paid as a research participant.
Schwartz said he used a model similar to one an economist might employ. Economists, he said, develop simulation models all the time. He said over 900 people visited the clinic three times as a part of the study. The researchers took three blood pressure readings at each visit. The average of those readings was more reliable than a single reading.
The study participants then provided 30 to 40 blood pressure readings in a day and averaged those numbers. He collected separate data for periods when people were awake or asleep. A patient close to the line for hypertension in the clinical setting was the most likely to cross the boundaries that define hypertension. “You don’t have that far to go to cross that boundary,” Schwartz said.
After analyzing the information, he came up with a rate of about 12.3 percent for masked hypertension of those with a normal clinic blood pressure. The rate was even higher, at 15.7 percent, when the researchers used an average of the nine readings taken during the patient’s first three study visits.
William White, a professor of medicine at the Calhoun Cardiology Center at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine in Farmington was a reviewer for one of these major studies. “They are excellent,” said White, who has known Schwartz for about a decade. “We should be monitoring blood pressure more outside of the clinical environment.”
Indeed, patients have become increasingly interested in checking their blood pressure outside of the doctor’s offices. “We have a 200 to 300 percent increase in requests for ambulatory blood pressure monitoring from our clinical lab during the last five to ten years — in all age groups, genders and ethnicities,” explained White.
The challenge, however, is that tracking hypertension closely for every possible patient is difficult clinically and financially. “There are no obvious clinical markers for masked hypertension other than unexpectedly high self-blood pressure or unexplained hypertensive target organ damage,” White added.
Schwartz himself has a family history that includes cardiovascular challenges. His father, Richard Schwartz, who conducted nonmedical research, has a long history of cardiovascular disease and had a heart attack at the age of 53. His grandfather had a fatal heart attack at the same age. When Schwartz reached 53, he said he had “second thoughts,” and wanted to get through that year without having a heart attack. He’s monitoring his own health carefully and is the first one in his family to take blood pressure medication.
Schwartz, who grew up in Ithaca, New York, came to Stony Brook University in 1987. He called his upbringing a “nonstressful place to grow up.” He now lives in East Setauket with his wife Madeline Taylor, who is a retired school teacher from the Middle Country school district. The couple has two children. Lia lives in Westchester and works at Graham Windham School and Jeremy lives in Chelsea and works for Credit Suisse.
As for his work, Schwartz said the current study on masked hypertension was a part of a broader effort to categorize and understand pre-clinical indications of heart problems and to track the development of hypertension.
Now that he has an estimate of how many people might have masked hypertension, he plans to explore the data further. That analysis will examine whether having masked hypertension puts a patient at risk of having cardiovascular disease or other circulatory challenges. “We are very interested in whether certain personality characteristics and/or circumstances (stressful work situation) makes it more likely that one will have masked hypertension,” he explained.
On Feb. 4, 20 students from Harbor Country Day School’s Mandarin program in St. James performed for a full house at the Charles Wang Center during Stony Brook University’s renowned Confucius Institute’s 2017 Chinese New Year Celebration. First- and second-graders sang songs during the ceremony, and fourth-, sixth- and seventh-graders performed Chinese tongue twisters. Dozens of other performers from New York City, Flushing and other parts of Long Island participated in the institute’s annual show.
The school has developed a close relationship with the Confucius Institute, which enables Harbor Country Day’s students to participate in cultural events at the university. This year marks the third year Harbor Country Day has participated in the show, and Mandarin teacher Hong Snyder is grateful for such unique opportunities. “I believe it’s important for the children to have an intimate understanding of the culture of the language they are studying,” said Snyder. “Otherwise, they are learning the language in a vacuum, which makes it very difficult for them to fully understand and absorb what they’ve learned. Here at Harbor, we try very hard to give them many different opportunities to experience the Chinese culture, from dance and music, to cuisine, to performances like those at the Confucius Institute.”
Harbor Country Day also hosted a Chinese Lantern Festival on its campus on Feb. 11, to mark the end of the Chinese New Year with traditional Chinese music, performances and food and drink.
Attention job seekers! Middle Country Public Library, 101 Eastwood Blvd., Centereach will host a Job Fair on March 7 from 1 to 4 p.m.
Presented by the Suffolk County One-Stop Employment Center, representatives from over 40 businesses are scheduled to attend, including ACLD, Amneal Pharmaceuticals, BJG Electronics, Castella Imports, Catapult Staffing, Comfort Keepers, Developmental Disabilities Institute, DiCarlo Distributors, Dollar Tree, East End Bus Lines, East End Disabilities, Eastern Suffolk BOCES, EOC of Suffolk, Express Employment Pros, FREE, FJC Security, Goodwill, Home Depot, Home Instead Senior Care, HW Staffing, Ideal Home Care, Interim Healthcare, LI Cares, LIRR, Lowes, New Vitality, NRL Strategies, NY Life Insurance Co., NYS Civil Service, Options for Community Living, Precious Lambs Childcare, Prudential, Right at Home, SCO Family of Services, South Shore Home Health, Suffolk County Water Authority, UCP of Suffolk, Urban League Mature Workers Program, US Postal Service, Utopia Home Care and Windowrama.
All are welcome and no registration is required. Bring copies of your resume and dress to impress. For more information, call 631-585-9393.
Do your kids love to cook? The Chai Center, 501 Vanderbilt Parkway, Dix Hills will hold a cooking class, Kids in the Kitchen, for children ages 8 to 12 on Tuesdays, March 7, 14 and 21 from 5 to 6 p.m. Learn how to make some great kid-approved dishes such as personal pizzas, waffles and cookies in a large state-of-the-art kitchen. Fee is $20 per class, $55 for all three classes. Advance registration is required. Register online at www.thechaicenter.com or call 631-351-8672.
Ideally, window boxes should be filled with plants that bloom continuously throughout the growing season. Photo by Ellen Barcel
By Ellen Barcel
Depending on your home and gardening style, you may want to add window boxes to at least the first floor’s front windows. I also have window boxes on windows that look out on my back patio. I like sitting in the back yard, reading my newspaper and being surrounded by these colorful plants.
In general, since window boxes are not very deep, think in terms of smaller plants, ones where the tops can be seen through the windows from inside the house, but not so tall that they totally obscure the view.
Most people use annuals since perennials will usually grow too large. I have seen window boxes filled with hydrangeas, which presented a beautiful scene all growing season long, but there are a number of problems associated with keeping perennials growing in a window box such as overwintering them. The small pots needed to fit into a window box may not provide enough protection from the cold. For another, the plants really want to get much bigger and will eventually block the view. They will easily become root bound — all roots and no soil.
Geraniums are ideal, easy care plants for window boxes. Photo by Ellen Barcel
Ideal window box plants are those that bloom more or less continuously throughout the growing season. I particularly like geraniums (Pelargonium) because they are drought tolerant and are, for the most part, disease and insect pest free. In other words, once planted you can pretty much ignore them except during periods of drought when they do need supplemental water. Use a good-quality potting soil and add fertilizer, following package directions. If a little is good, a lot is not necessarily better.
Other annuals that look great in a window box include marigolds and petunias. Consider adding some Dusty Miller for its contrasting light blue-gray leaves. If your window boxes don’t get a lot of sunlight, use coleus, impatiens or fuchsia.
Adding some vinelike plants creates a charming effect, as they cascade down between the flowering plants. Consider orange nasturtium scattered between white geraniums, for example, or green potato vines between hot pink geraniums in a black window box.
Herbs are great in window boxes, especially boxes that are outside kitchen windows. Usually there is enough sun and it makes harvesting the herbs for use with a meal really easy — just open your window and pick what you need. There are many herbs that are suited to window boxes such as mints, thyme and parsley. But those that get very tall, like pineapple sage, may block out your view.
These early spring flowering plants may be replaced later in the season with ones that do well in summer and fall. Photo by Ellen Barcel
Unless you have very sturdy window boxes, it may be easier for you to transfer your small seedlings into larger pots and settle those pots into the window box, rather than filling the window box itself with soil. This is especially important if your window boxes are made of wood, which may soon rot away with the damp soil. To deal with this problem, I have liners of a man-made material in several of my window boxes.
For those more exuberant gardeners, you can change the plants in the widow boxes seasonally. Maybe you want mums in the fall or small bulbs in the spring. Deadheading is one chore that annoys me but really should be done with window boxes, since the plants in them are so visible, especially those on the front of your house. So, whether you go for a very formal look, a riot of colors or a way to grow your herbs, consider widow boxes this coming gardening season.
Ellen Barcel is a freelance writer and master gardener. To reach Cornell Cooperative Extension and its Master Gardener program, call 631-727-7850.
I like to think of muffins as healthful cupcakes. Basically individual-sized quick breads, they seem to be synonymous with comfort and warmth and coziness and goodness. According to Wikipedia, the word “muffin” first appeared in 1703 as “moofen,” possibly a derivative of the low German “muffen,” the plural of small cake. That sounds viable. Whatever their derivation, they’ve become a staple of the roster of edibles that Americans have come to think of as the companions for their coffee or tea, the takeout breakfast goodies that make getting up in the morning a worthwhile exercise.
Like many good-for-you foods that I write about, muffins can be adaptable to what you have on hand and what your tastes dictate. Below is a basic recipe for sweet muffins to get you started. I’ve also included a couple of my favorite muffin recipes that are a little different from the basic one. I can pretty much guarantee that when you slip these into the oven on a cold winter morning, the aroma will elicit smiles and maybe even a little conversation from the usual grumps and grouches.
Basic Sweet Muffin Recipe
YIELD: Makes 12 muffins
INGREDIENTS:
¾ cup whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup milk
½ cup honey
One egg, well beaten
1/3 cup oil
DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 400 F. Stir together both flours, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, thoroughly mix milk, honey, egg and oil. Make a well in the center of dry ingredients and add liquid mixture. Stir until just moistened. Let rest for one minute. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin pans two-thirds full. Bake 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Serve with butter, jam, honey or cream cheese.
Banana Oatmeal Muffins
Banana Oatmeal Muffins with Chocolate Chips
I don’t remember where this recipe came from — I just know I’ve been making it for years and it’s always a hit. Sometimes I add a cup of chopped nuts or chocolate chips; sometimes I don’t.
YIELD: Makes about 14 muffins
INGREDIENTS:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup quick-cooking oatmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
One egg, well beaten
½ cup milk
1/3 cup oil
2/3 cup mashed ripe banana
DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 400 F. Stir together the flour, oatmeal, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mix the egg, milk, oil and banana and add to dry mixture. Stir until just moistened. Let sit for one minute. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin pans two-thirds full. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Serve with butter, honey, jam, peanut butter or cream cheese.
Pineapple Ginger Almond Muffins
Pineapple Ginger Almond Muffins
With the tang of the pineapple, the zing of the ginger and the crunch of the almonds, these muffins are especially good with tea, but great with coffee too.
YIELD: Makes 16 to 18 muffins
INGREDIENTS:
2½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¾ teaspoon powdered ginger
One egg, well beaten
1 cup buttermilk
¼ cup oil
½ cup dark molasses
1 cup finely chopped canned pineapple, well drained and patted dry
1 cup toasted crushed sliced almonds
DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 400 F. Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, cinnamon and ginger. Mix egg, buttermilk, oil and molasses and add to dry ingredients. Stir until just moistened. Gently fold in pineapple and almonds. Let sit one minute. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin pans two-thirds full. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Serve with butter, cream cheese, jam, honey or yogurt.
Suggestions and tips: Add half a cup to one cup of any of the following. (If adding more than one ingredient, adjust amount of each accordingly.)
Chopped walnuts, almonds or pecans
Raisins or other dried fruit(chopped)
Pared, cored and grated apple or pear
Berries
Chocolate chips
For a nice surprise, fill muffin cups with half a cup of batter, add a heaping teaspoon of jam or brown sugar, then top with remaining batter.
▶ “The Uncondemned,” the second film in the series, will be screened at Theatre Three on March 20. Both a real-life courtroom thriller and a moving human drama, the documentary tells the gripping story of a group of young international lawyers and activists who fought to have rape recognized as a war crime and the Rwandan women who came forward to testify and win justice for the crimes committed against them. The film won the Brizzolara Family Foundation Award for a Film of Conflict and Resolution and the Victor Rabinowitz and Joanne Grant Award for Social Justice at the Hamptons International Film Festival. Co-sponsored by the Africana Studies Department at Stony Brook University. Guest speaker will be director Michele Mitchell.
The school has developed a close relationship with the Confucius Institute, which enables Harbor Country Day’s students to participate in cultural events at the university. This year marks the third year Harbor Country Day has participated in the show, and Mandarin teacher Hong Snyder is grateful for such unique opportunities. “I believe it’s important for the children to have an intimate understanding of the culture of the language they are studying,” said Snyder. “Otherwise, they are learning the language in a vacuum, which makes it very difficult for them to fully understand and absorb what they’ve learned. Here at Harbor, we try very hard to give them many different opportunities to experience the Chinese culture, from dance and music, to cuisine, to performances like those at the Confucius Institute.”
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