Hometown Oneonta - The Otesgo-Delaware Dispatch

Editorials

Monday, April 27, 2009

Someone, Preferably Bassett, Should Smooth Out Iffy Phone System

There’s an initiative under way at Bassett Healthcare that – particularly given its prospective melding with Fox Hospital – is critical to the health of the Otsego County region.
Bassett has a number of ways of collecting data to anticipate trouble spots. There’s a community advisory board. There are patient focus groups. There are patient satisfaction surveys. There are followup calls.
What these measures showed was people are generally delighted and impressed by the quality of the care – they just can’t get to it.
You call. The phone rings. You get a fairly complicated message. At the end, you wait. An operator comes on, you may have to wait some more – up to 20 minutes, it was found – and then get connected with the wrong party.
•
When Frank Panzarella joined Bassett a year ago as vice president of its Physicians Group, “phone access” kept coming back at him.
Moving here – with wife Jennifer (the couple met at Hartwick College), daughter Emma, 5, and son Frank, 3 – from Mass General in Boston, Panzarella was in awe of how much is being done here: open-heart surgery, the developing medical school, the daVinci Surgery System, which uses cutting-edge robotics, EMR – the electronic medical record – well ahead of the nation as a whole.
If all that can be accomplished, answering the phone and forwarding calls effectively should certainly be do-able, Panzarella concluded.
A Call Handling Work Group was already in place. “I expanded it,” he said. “I joined it. I raised the intensity.”
The goal: to have the phone answered in three rings by a human being, who could efficiently hand off the call to the person appropriate to the caller’s needs, be it a prescription renewal, lab results or a message to a doctor.
•
Panzarella – and his deputy in this mission, Nan Apps, director of service excellence – focused on Bassett Healthcare Herkimer, because it is a “microcosm” of the Main Campus in Cooperstown, with similar specialties and complexities, writ small.
A key concept was the “virtual team.” Take surgical scheduling. Someone calling Herkimer can be handled there or, if that expert is tied up, someone in Oneonta or Cooperstown can handle the call. To the caller, if the system works, the experience is seamless.
At Herkimer, the three-ring goal was being met only 60 percent of the time. When the new system was implemented in March, within 24 hours calls were being answered on three rings 80 percent of the time – the national benchmark.
A week later, a call came in out of the blue. “Thank you for fixing the telephones,” a grateful patient said.
In April, the system was implemented at the Bassett Cancer Institute in Cooperstown. Next month, it will be rolled out in the Department of Surgery. Panzarella hopes the system can be largely in place throughout facilities in nine counties by the end of the year.
•
This is encouraging for a couple of reasons.
It’s the rare patient who isn’t aware that overcoming the hurdle of Bassett’s switchboard is daunting, but other administrators will tell you it isn’t the case. Panzarella’s cadre has recognized the challenge, the first step in doing something about it.
Second, until the question of access is solved, further expansion of Bassett’s reach – after Fox, who knows where? – has to be viewed with some skepticism. Resolving this issue is important to Bassett’s future.
Speaking of skepticism, you don’t have to scratch too deep to find physicians skeptical of the new approach, viewing it as simply another manifestation of unsuccessful efforts to address a long-standing frustration. The proof of the pudding awaits.
Panzarella and Apps talk about “the perfect patient experience,” and that is a worthy goal with other dimensions.
For instance, patients have started to get calls a couple of days in advance of a hospital visit, where preliminary information is collected. When the patient gets to the registration at Prime Care, he or she can be whisked through to the appropriate doctor’s office. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but you may have noticed fewer people in waiting rooms lately.
More fundamental is physician recruitment, the challenge which caused Fox to finally call uncle. Through offering the final year of medical training, Bassett is seeking to introduce prospective physicians to the delights of Upstate New York. Some, the thinking goes, will decide to stay here, and that’s already happening to a degree.
•
As, of course, it should. It was that ruralness that excited Dr. Henry S.F. Cooper Sr. and his pals to talk Stephen C. Clark into reopening the hospital in 1927. With crime, congestion and pollution rampant in so many urban areas, what an inviting contrast.
The importance of Panzarella’s initiative can’t be overstated. What good is superb medical care if no one can get at it? Looking down the road, patients – the public – should insist that Bassett be reachable.
Perhaps an ombudsman would be a good idea. Perhaps state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, should set up a process where patients who run into a brick wall can get relief. Perhaps there’s a fuller role for state regulators.
Certainly, Bassett would prefer none of this. The preferred option – for everyone – is success, before further steps are necessary.

In Obama Nation, 2 Democrats Best Choice For Us Right Now

Check ’em out now, the funk soul brothers.
OK, but it’s hard not to be a little giddy right now at the news that Democrat Scott Murphy will join his pal, Democrat Mike Arcuri, in representing Otsego County in Congress.
At this point in the history of our nation, we couldn’t do any better.
Instead of Republican Jim Tedisco and Arcuri jousting for the next two years – or however long – over policy and strategies, these two guys can work together to extract the maximum benefit for Otsego County, which sure needs it.
•
Since Murphy’s 20th District is predominantly Republican and Arcuri’s 24th is marginally so, both men should be looking to see how they can cement themselves in Otsego County’s affections.
After all, both races were so close that Otsego – gerrymandered into the outer reaches as it has been – can nonetheless play the role of kingmaker.
(Remember, fellas: A united Otsego County seized a Supreme Court judgeship – for Mike Coccoma – out of the jaws of Binghamton.) We can do the same for you two, too.
•
OK, here’s what you do: Make common cause to ensure $25 million in stimulus goes to Springbrook, the school for the disabled in Milford Center.
First, you don’t have to feel guilty: Springbrook’s plans are shovel ready, would create dozens of shortterm construction jobs and permanent jobs. (Springbrook is the county’s fifth largest employer, and the jobs are pretty good.)
Plus, an expanded Springbrook would allow 25 severely handicapped folks to move back from out of state, putting them closer to their families and saving the state expensive tuition.
It’s a perfect project on the merits, and perfect on the politics.
•
This would be the biggest federal allocation since I-88 was completed a quarter-century ago.
What’s the benefit of having a couple of Democrats representing us in a Democratic-controlled state, in a Democratic Congress under a Democratic president?
Do it, bros, and lock us into your camps.

Labels: 05-01-09, Editorial, Hometown Views

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 9:55 PM 0 comments

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Hometown People

Catskill Ensemble Features Conductor Doing Own Work

A conductor, Brian S. Wilson, a Lynn, Mass., native who teaches music theory and composition at Sonoma (Calif.) State University, directed the Catskill Valley Wind Ensemble in performing his own works at the spring concert Sunday, April 26 at the United Methodist Church.
The three works included “Orange Was Her Color,” commissioned by the Unatego Junior-Senior High School band in 2002 in memory of Sheri Mowers, their trumpeter classmate.
The concert’s first half was conducted by Scott Rabeler, who has led the wind ensemble since 2002. The Oneonta City School District’s chief information officer, he has conducted the OHS Concert and Jazz bands in the past.
Rabeler’s portion of the concert included von Nicolai’s “Overture to ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’” and Blankenburg’s “Gladiator’s Farewell March.”

SUNY’s Sheesley To Show Works At Roberson

At 6 p.m. on Friday, May 1, SUNY Oneonta Gallery Director and Master Printmaker Timothy Sheesley’s exhibition at the Roberson Museum and Science Center in Binghamton will open. Sheesley will provide comment on his work and process at 7 p.m.
Titled, “Timothy Sheesley Master Printmaker: Artist and Collaborator,” the show features 130 prints by 70 different artists – 25 done by Sheesley alone and another 105 that are collaborations with other professional artists as part of his business Corridor Press. Local artists include, Charlie Bremer, Irwin Hollander, Richard Kathmann, James Mullen, Yolanda Sharpe, Sean Scherer and Thomás Sakoulas.
Sheesley’s work is produced by drawing with a grease crayon on large slabs of limestone rock, ink clings to the crayon markings and repels from the bare areas. The limestone and print medium is then run through a press to imprint the image on the medium, visit the show and see the result.
The show will be open through March 2010.

Bernier Seeks To Replace Terry As Senior Judge On City Bench

Oneonta City Court Judge Lucy Bernier has announced she will run this fall for the senior position on the two-judge court being vacated by Walter L. Terry’s retirement.
Former Mayor Kim Muller appointed Bernier to a judgeship in 2004. One position on the court is elected, the other appointed, but the elected one is the senior judge.
Bernier, 54, has 28 years of legal experience, including the five on the bench.
She was city prosecutor in 1998-2003 and assistant district attorney in 1992-97, where she coordinated the county Child Sexual Abuse Response Team.
She and her mother, Patricia Pantaleoni, have been in civil practice together since 1981. In Family Court, she has been a law guardian for children since 1982 and counsel for the indigent.
She sings with Catskill Choral, was on the Oneonta Centennial Committee, and served on the boards of the Oneonta Concert Association, Opportunities for Otsego and Dollars for Scholars.
Raised in Oneonta, she is a graduate of Bugbee School, OHS and SUNY Oneonta, and received her law degree from Albany Law School, where she was editor of the law review.
She is married to Joseph Bernier, the city’s Community Development director/engineering administrator; they have two daughters, Genevieve and Emily.
City court handles civil and criminal cases, small claims and civil claims up to $15,000.

Chancellor Honors Walker, Beitzel

SUNY Oneonta faculty members Renee Walker and Brian Beitzel have been awarded 2009 SUNY Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching. They will receive them Saturday, May 16, at the college’s commencement.
A member of the SUNY Oneonta faculty since 2002, Dr. Walker teaches anthropology and archaeology and is co-director of the Archeological Field School at Pine Lake.
She holds a doctorate and a master’s degree in anthropology from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She taught at Skidmore before moving to Oneonta.
Dr. Beitzel joined the SUNY Oneonta faculty in 2004. He teaches psychological foundations of education, child growth and development, and survey of exceptional children.
He earned his master’s and doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Wisconsin/Madison.

St. Mary’s Honors JoAnn LaMonica

JoAnn LaMonica was honored as St. Mary’s School’s first Distinguished Partner in Education on Saturday, April 25 at the school’s Enchanted Evening fundraising dinner.
LaMonica was chosen for her dedication to building the new school outside of the city’s busy streets, her endless time spent making sure the school has plenty of flowers growing and she and her husband Diz’s donation of the school’s chapel.
Upon recognition, LaMonica received a citation from the New York Senate, presented by State Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, a plaque, a clock for all her time and an angel statue from the St. Mary’s students.

Labels: 05-01-09, Hometown People

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Hometown History

125 Years Ago
Letter to the Editor – Have our police or village officers any right to investigate or hunt out places in this village where intoxicating drinks are sold on the Sabbath day? If so, why not instruct our night policeman to look out for the guilty ones and have them dealt with according to the law?
Only last Sunday night, soon after church closed, several of our young men were seen, staggering drunk. One of them boisterously said to a friend, “Seven of us boys emptied three cases!” Result: Monday morning finds them sick, not able to go to business; or, if they go, incapable of doing justice to themselves or their employers – saying nothing of the misery it brings to their heart-broken. Signed, Parents.
May 1884

100 Years Ago
The barn of E.J. House in the rear of his residence at 24 Luther Street was burned last Friday evening. The blaze was first seen by Mrs. House at about 8:30 o’clock and the alarm from box 54 called the department quickly to the fire. The barn, which was not a large structure, was valued at about $500 and was a total loss. The hose, however, was used with good effect in keeping down the flames and in preventing the fire spreading to several nearby houses.
Regarding the conduct of a portion of the spectators at the fire, the facts may be stated briefly. While the fire was at its height and the firemen busy in their endeavor to save the building they were persistently assailed by cries of “scab” and other unworthy epithets. If any of those engaged in annoying the firemen while at work were former firemen of the city their conduct afforded the best possible excuse for the fire commission’s decision to disband and reorganize the department under the civil service law.
May 1909

80 Years Ago
Thursday’s presentation of “Bab,” by Edward Childs Carpenter, a comedy given by the dramatic club of Oneonta high school, played to a full house and a thoroughly delighted audience. Miss Agnes St. John carried the part of Bab.
Miss Audrey Koch portrayed her sister, Mrs. Leila Archibald. Miss Marion Pashley played Mrs. Archibald, the mother. James Archibald was interpreted by Howard Lambrecht, the father. Edwin Joslyn sustained the group in the character of Clinton Bereford, a typical Englishman and Kenneth Bailey played Eddie Perkins, the ridiculous adolescent who believes himself a grown man entitled to all the respect and privileges of one. Mr. Bailey earned one big laugh after another.
Also in the cast were Roger Hughes, Miss Marion Ford, John Allen, Miss Harriet Gardner and Maynard Crounse.
May 1929

60 Years Ago
Donald E. Estabrook, for 21 years an employee of the New York State Electric & Gas Corporation, has been named lighting representative in the Oneonta district according to A.R. Ewing, district manager.
Mr. Estabrook, a graduate of Oneonta High school, entered the company’s employment as a clerk in the Right of Way Department in 1927. He subsequently became assistant manager at Oneonta and Geneva and later served in various capacities in the company’s Commercial, Electric Distribution and Continuing Property Records departments in Oneonta. During WWII he served as a second class petty officer at the Sampson Naval Training Station. On Nov. 29, 1948, he was assigned to the Binghamton headquarters of the company’s State Lighting Department where he has since completed extensive training for his new position under the guidance of Earle C. Edwards, lighting director, formerly of Oneonta.
May 1949

40 Years Ago
The death of Robert G. Leamy, 59, a prominent Oneonta attorney and a former Otsego County and Children’s Court Judge, occurred Friday in Fox Hospital following an illness of several months.
He was born in Albany on May 2, 1909, a son of Michael and Jennie (Fox) Leamy. He was graduated from Oneonta High School in 1924, St. Michael’s Preparatory School in 1925, Holy Cross College in Boston in 1929 and Columbia University Law School in 1932. He served in the U.S. Navy in WWII as a lieutenant in European and Pacific theaters. He married the former Miss Marian O’Hagan on April 14, 1941. In 1937, at the age of 28, he became the youngest County Court Judge in New York State, when he was named by Governor Herbert H. Lehman to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Lee Van Woert of Oneonta.
May 1969

20 Years Ago
New York’s smokers and drinkers woke up Monday to the reality that butts and booze will cost them more dearly as “sin taxes” went up dramatically to help ease the state’s budget woes.
Faced with a potential $2.7 billion deficit, the state legislature approved a $47 billion budget measure that calls for about $1billion in new tax revenues. That sum includes an estimated $250 million from increased taxes on tobacco and alcohol.
May 1989

10 Years Ago
The Girls Choir of Harlem will present a program of classical, spiritual and gospel music at Hartwick College on Sunday.
The Girls Choir of Harlem was created in 1979 by Dr. Walter Turnbull, founder and conductor of the Boys Choir of Harlem, Inc., to transform the lives of young women through music, to help them build self-esteem, find positive role models and experience the pleasures and rewards of artistic creativity.
The Girls Choir has grown into an active and fully integrated part of the Boys Choir operation. More than 200 girls, ages eight to 18, are in the choir and attend the Choir Academy of Harlem.
May 1999

Resources for Hometown History have been provided courtesy of the New York State Historical Association Library.

Labels: 05-01-09, Columns, Hometown History

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 9:47 PM 0 comments

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Keep Wild Leeks Flourishing

Marguerite Uhlmann-Bower

AS YOUR GARDEN GROWS

If you’re thinking about picking wild leeks this year, or if you’re just thinking about eating some, please consider their longevity.
A lily family wild perennial and relative of garlic and onion, wild Leeks are a highly nutritional spring-time wild green edible for humans as well as turkey and deer.
They are also known to many as ramps and are a preferred onion because they don’t have the bite of garlic or the eye-watering intensity of onions.
Naturalized from Quebec to the Appalachians, they can now be purchased from many sources: farmers markets, roadside farmstands and restaurants, or bought over the Internet and shipped fresh to your door.
Many southern festivals are dedicated solely for the ramp season and ramp eating.
The wild leek has been a traditional choice spring pot herb, not only for the lure of its flavor but also for its nutritional value.
Their green leaves have 3-4 times more selenium and flavanoids over the bulbs, both powerful anti-oxidants and are no less potent in flavor.
Their great demand brings on much concern for me for their future viability.
Considering the ratio of supply and demand, this fragile wild edible could very easily end up in decline, unavailable and very endangered in a short time.
To those who harvest or buy wild leeks, please consider and share the following suggestions so everyone can enjoy wild leeks for our future and our grandchildren’s children’s future.
Suggestions are followed by statistics and supportive evidence.
Consider this:
• Invest in Ramps.
Leave 80-90 percent of the plants for adequate self propagation. For instance, for every group cluster of plants, remove only one or two single leeks. It takes 2-3 years for a leek seed to germinate, and up to six years to fully mature.
• Keep their life source in the ground.
Leave at least ½ inch (preferably more) of the bulb root in the earth. Cut the green leaves at or just above soil level. Studies show that keeping ½ inch or more of the bulb root in the ground allows the plant to continue to grow for future seasons.
• Rotate harvesting stands.
Have at least 3-4 sources to harvest from. Visit only one of them each year. It takes 2.5 years for a stand to fully recover from general harvesting. In Quebec, permits are given for ramp harvesting with only five ramps allowed per person!
• Lastly, think sustainability.
Share this with everyone and especially our children on ethical wild crafting. Ask local merchants and eateries to buy only bulb-less plants from their harvesters. This
is the right thing to do for all of Nature to prosper.
Further reading: “Having Your Ramps and Eating Them Too” by Glen Facemire, Jr. 2009.

Marguerite Uhlmann-Bower, R.N., is an herbalist in East Meredith.

Labels: 05-01-09, AS YOUR GARDEN GROWS, Marguerite Uhlmann-Bower

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 9:36 PM 0 comments

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Bear On The Prowl

SAM GOODYEAR

ART BEAT

On two occasions already, we have described in these pages our delight in following the bear go over the mountain, and now that the fine weather has begun to bless our region, we followed him once more to another precious find:
The B. Sharp Gallery at 736 State Highway 28, just beyond the crest of Franklin Mountain coming out of Oneonta.
Its reputation preceded us (along with the bear). Opening in November 2008, it has had phenomenal success, with exceptionally fine offerings and impressive attendance.
After meeting Mr. B. (for Bobby) Sharp, we find this not surprising in the least.
This is a gentleman, 43, and originally from Oneonta, who has the rare combination of commanding artistry and a sharp talent for business. The pun is intentional, for he fully lives up to his name.
He is a sculptor, with numerous one-of-a-kind creations of high-end furniture to his credit. He finds unusual materials and fits them together like a satisfying mind-expanding puzzle.
The results are stunning.
He also works in architectural design as well as in floral art. A quick visit to his Website will give you a taste of this artist’s compelling singularity. (bsharpstudio.net)
A quick visit to the private houses of some heavy-hitting tycoons nationwide will stop you in your tracks, if you’re on the circuit in those august heights.
If you thought that the days of old-fashioned patronage were over, think again.
Bobby Sharp has benefited from the keen eye and largesse of several New York supporters of artists, in the old European style of Esterhazy and Haydn, for example.
How did he get himself noticed?
He went from gallery to gallery in New York City, dressed in black from head to toe and toting a large black portfolio. He stuck to it.
People quickly saw that this was someone with a rich personality and extraordinary gifts into the bargain.
He has flourished, having withstood the classic struggle of the artist’s boot camp on the way up.
There will be a group exhibition at B. Sharp Gallery. The opening is 4-8 p.m. Saturday, May 9. We saw the last one and are champing at the bit for next weekend to come. The show will run through May 31.
Make sure to introduce yourself to Mr. Sharp, though you may have to wait in line. He is exceptionally personable and cordial, someone you will feel lucky to have met.

Labels: 05-01-09, Art Beat, Columns, Sam Goodyear, The City of the Hills

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 9:34 PM 0 comments

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Guilty Man’s Plea Didn’t Move Judge

November on the twenty first
For murder of a fellow dust
He was arraigned before the bar
And tried by his country there

On Sept. 3, 1827, Levi Kelley (nephew of Cooperstown’s founder William Cooper) shot and killed his tenant farmer Abraham Spafard in front of Spafard’s wife and seven children. On Nov. 21 Kelley was brought to trial in Cooperstown, before a special session of the Court of Oyer and Terminer (“Hear and Determine”).
Presiding was Judge Samuel Nelson (1792-1873), then a Circuit Court judge. Nobody then knew he would rise to the U.S. Supreme Court, where, as an associate justice for 27 years, he participated in the famous Dred Scott case of 1857.
Born in Hebron, east of Albany, Judge Nelson attended Middlebury College, became a lawyer, and in 1823 was appointed to the state Sixth Circuit Court. Following the death of his first wife in 1822, he married Catherine Ann Russell (1805-1875) of Cooperstown, and became a life-long Cooperstown resident.
Leading the prosecution was District Attorney Eban B. Morehouse (1791-1849), also from Cooperstown. Though he rose to become state Supreme Court judge, he is best known locally for building Woodside Hall, the stone mansion that overlooks the east end of Cooperstown’s Main Street. It was there, in 1839, that Morehouse entertained President Martin Van Buren, the only sitting president known to have visited Cooperstown.
Levi Kelley’s defense was led by two prominent Cooperstown lawyers, Samuel Starkweather (1786-1853) and Robert Campbell (1781-1847), who sought to convince the jury that since Kelley had acted in a fit of passion, his crime should be reduced to that of manslaughter.
But the jury deliberated for only a short time on the evening of Nov. 22 before bringing in a verdict of first degree murder.
The following day, Nov. 23, Kelley told the court that “he was duly sensible of his fault in killing Spafard.... But though he...had perpetrated a great crime, yet he called God and those assembled, to witness that he was guiltless of premeditated murder, and never through his whole life had deliberately harbored the thought of killing any one.... He was not conscious of what he was doing, and of any thing that passed on the fatal evening...until the flash and report of the gun awoke him....”
Judge Nelson replied:
“You have been born and educated in a well informed and Christian community, and during your whole life, now past middle age, have been in habits of intercourse and association with respectable society and connections.... The bounties of Providence have been bestowed on you in reasonable abundance.... Your irascible and impetuous passions, unreasonable and unfeeling conduct, assailed (Abraham Spafard) in every mode your relative situation permitted, to outrage and exasperate his feelings, yet he bore your insults and abuse with that evenness and meekness of temper, that humility and forbearance of spirit, which should have softened and subdued the most ferocious passions....”
“You causelessly and violently attacked a boy, for the time, under his care and protection. He would have been wanting in his duty as a citizen, and in humanity as a man, if he had not interposed -- he was bound to do so.... When the fury of your passions were turned from the boy against him, he besought you to desist.... You repeatedly refused to let him alone. He at length unclenched your hands from his throat, and retired quietly into his house.... You seized your gun...followed the deceased into his room, and...in the midst of his family, in the presence of your own affrighted wife, you shot him in the heart....”
“The sentence of the law is – that you Levi Kelley, on Friday the 28th of December next, between the hours of 12 at noon and 3 thereafter, be taken from the prison to the place of execution, and there hung by the neck until you are dead – And may God have mercy on your immortal soul.”

Next Week: The Execution

Labels: 05-01-09, Columns, The City of the Hills

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 9:30 PM 0 comments

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‘You Write To Write ... It’s Like Going Dancing’

by JIM KEVLIN

GILBERTSVILLE

Call her the accidental writer.
If you listen to Ginnah Howard, it certainly sounds that way.
“Some people are naturals,” she said in an interview at a friend’s home on Chicken Farm Road that looms above Sand Hill Creek. “I was not.”
To jump to the end: Now 70, she has just had her first novel published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, “Night Navigation,” about a mother’s struggles in an Upstate New York setting with a bipolar son’s drug addiction. (Fiction, the author emphasizes, not her story.)
Born in West Virginia in 1939, Ginnah moved to Albany at age 12 when her mother’s new husband got a job there. She never thought of writing, but she read a lot as she went through Milne High School and earned an English degree at the University of Vermont.
After a “dreadfully boring” stint at AT&T in New York City, dictating letters to stockholders, she moved to Boston as a field director for the Girl Scouts. Never a Scout herself, she found “I loved going to camp.”
Before long, she returned to New York and Columbia Teachers’ College. “I fell into it,” she said. “But it turned out to be a great thing.”
She taught in Chittenango for a year, then at New Berlin, then at Unadilla Valley. Still, no inkling she would be a writer.
In the 1980s, when the future writer was in her mid-40s, the state Department of Education implemented “competency tests” based on the premise that English teachers could only teach writing if they could actually write themselves.
“It was terrifying,” said Ginnah, who, an only child, is someone who still likes to keep to herself. “That sort of got the adrenalin going.”
In the required four-day workshop, however, she began to write love poems to her companion, Leonard. The couple is still together today.
And so it began.
A while later, she struck up a conversation with a Native American woman in a bar, and heard a terrible tale of excess and strife.
“I went home and tried to write down her story,” said Ginnah. “It was pretty awful what I wrote.”
By this time, she was coming to the conclusion she was, indeed, a writer.
She began to attend annual seminars at the Skidmore Writing Institute – Russell Banks inspired her there – to get what help she could.
Meanwhile, back home at Unadilla Valley, Mrs. Howard started to have her English high school students read novels out loud, as if they were plays.
Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried,” about Vietnam, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “This Boy’s Life” and others.
“They would sit in a circle and read these books out loud. And they loved it.”
If the exercise helped the kids enjoy literature, it enhanced the writer’s growing appreciation for the rhythm of language.
Another breakthrough: At a SUNY Oneonta seminar, Charlotte Zoe Walker advised, “You have to show it instead of telling it.” She heard Lynn Barrett, whose “Elvis Lives” won the Mystery Writers of America’s 1990 Edgar Allan Poe Award, drive home that point.
“I had written nothing but bad stuff until then,” said Ginnah. “I went home and wrote my very first good thing.”
She was on her way.
If you have trouble getting into New Yorker articles, someone was saying the other day, start in the middle, then go back to the beginning.
Try it. It works.
Inadvertently, or advertently, Ginnah Howard plugged into that same dynamic: Her post-Barrett strivings actually resulted in her first book, “Rope & Bone,” about the Merrick and the Morletti families.
“Night Navigation” is the second book of a prospective trilogy.

Labels: 05-01-09, The City of the Hills

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:31 AM 0 comments

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‘Italy Makes Me Realize How American I Am’

Editor’s Note: Cherry Valley’s Dana Spiotta, whose second novel, “Eat The Document,” was a runnerup for the National Book Award in 2006, is completing a year’s fellowship at the American College in Rome, with husband Clem Coleman and their daughter Agnes. She answered these questions by e-mail.

Q: What’s been your most memorable experience? One that perhaps will show up in one of your future novels?
DS: If I had to pick, I would say showing my mother Caravaggio’s “Conversion on the Road to Damascus” in Santa Maria Del Popolo on a rainy winter afternoon. We were the only ones there. I put a euro into a little box and the chapel lit up. And there it was, across from another beautiful Caravaggio (“Crucifixion of St. Peter”), where it has hung for 400 years. It is on a side wall and we had to lean over the rail to really look at it. She had never seen it before. Then we stumbled back out to the piazza in a daze.
Q: How has the year changed you – personally? Artistically? The more specific the better.
DS: The most dramatic way Rome changed me is I put on about 10 pounds. It was worth every pound – the food lived up to our rather big expectations.
Q: Give us your take on the American Academy. Is it simply a junket for artists (to a degree, I hope so), or is it valuable, not just to you, but generally. What’s it like? Who have you met of interest? What do you think the outcomes generally are?
DS: The American Academy in Rome is a great place for collaborations across disciplines. It is designed for that – scholars and artists all living in the same community. I think this year was a great success for the Academy. I guess it depends on the luck of your year’s draw, the personal chemistry and so on. I really found the other Academy fellows inspiring and supportive. We have made some good friends.
Q: How has Agnes adapted to living abroad?
DS: Agnes speaks pretty impressive playground Italian. She puts her parents to shame (my meager Italian seems to have gotten worse). She loves the gelato and pizza bianca (just crust with olive oil and salt). The Italians fuss over all the bimbi, and old ladies have even given their seats to Agnes when we ride the public bus. Shopkeepers regularly give her treats and toys. So, yes, Agnes loves Rome, but she also loves and misses the U.S. She told me she really misses tadpoles in the pond, bagels, cows, and the Quickway.
Q: What’s Clem been up to? I checked out the NYTimes article he referenced; very interesting. (Any new recipes for the R&K?)
DS: Clem has been lounging around in his pajamas drinking wine and smoking cigarettes. Just kidding! Clem cooked for a time with the Rome Sustainable Food Project, which was set up by Alice Waters of Chez Panisse. The Italian attitude toward food really inspires him. Food is so central to the culture here. Every meal, no matter how simple, is judged on the freshness of its ingredients and the care and skill in its craft. They never put up with mediocre meals or bad coffee. I think the coffee part is even in their constitution. He put up some food pictures in our blog at http://roseandkettle.blogspot.com/. Clem has also been recording and playing music with some of the people at the Academy.
Q How’s Novel #3 coming along? What can you tell us about it? (Not much, I’m sure, but any scraps would be appreciated.) Have you found your way of writing, or approaching writing, has changed through your experience, and how? When will it be ready?
DS: This third book will be twice as good as the second book but only half as good as the first book and will ultimately be overshadowed by the brilliance of the fourth book (due sometime in 2035). It was truly a great year for my work, and I am slowly moving things along.
Q: I seem to remember you went to high school in Rome. Has revisiting awakened any dormant memories? Anything that feeds in to your work?
DS: I love Italy and feel very comfortable here. However, it also makes me realize how American I am. Everyone wanted to be in the U.S. on election day – we got up in the middle of the night to watch the returns on the Academy’s TV.
Q: What do you miss about Cherry Valley and O-County? Anything? Or nothing? Is everyone looking forward to coming back, or doing so with regret?
DS: It will be good to come home. We had a great time, but we miss Cherry Valley and New York. Absolutely. We miss our family and friends so much. We miss the Rose & Kettle and look forward to reopening. We miss our dog Scrapford and cat Pearl. And we miss the peace and solitude and beauty of rural New York. We missed the leaves in the fall, and we even missed the snow. Although we did see some snow while we were in Venice – perfect Palladian snowflakes, of course.
Q: Anything else?
DS: Yes, we will be back very soon. We will be reopening the Rose & Kettle the end of June. We are as excited to return and open up and have our old restaurant back as we are to come home with a few new recipes and tricks up our sleeves. With the economy in its current state, our biggest focus will be on more casual everyday meals, affordable-but-delicious specials and great wine and beer options that won’t bust a budget. Rome is the perfect place to see these things in action. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to eat and drink well in Rome. We will still be the Rose & Kettle and have our old favorites, but we will also have some interesting new ideas. See everyone soon!

Labels: 05-01-09, The City of the Hills

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:26 AM 0 comments

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City of The Hills

Huey Lewis Headliner At Benefit

‘The Heart of Rock & Roll.” “The Power of Love.”
Grammy Award winning Huey Lewis & The News will be performing at this years’ “Charity Event of the Summer” July 1 at Brewery Ommegang, to benefit Catskill Area Hospice & Palliative Care.
This all-inclusive event includes parking, hor d’oeuvres and dinner, open bar, mingling with sports celebrities and silent and live auctions, as well as the Huey Lewis performance.
Tickets sell out quickly. Call 432-6773.

ON A ROLL: Patrice Macaluso of The Friends of the Oneonta Theater spoke at the Greater Oneonta Historical Society’s Monday, April 27, fundraiser at The Farmhouse. The Friends will update the public on 3 p.m. Sunday, May 3, at the GOHS History Center.

PLAY BALL! The Leatherstocking Baseball League is looking for men, 22 and up, to play on five teams from Oneonta, Milford and Cooperstown this summer. Call 435-0672.

DAY OF SERVICE: “Into the Streets,” sponsored by SUNY Oneonta’s Center for Social Responsibility & Community, will turn out 48 teams, hundreds of students, Saturday, May 2, to paint, clean and wash windows at non-profit agencies.

TOWERING PLANS: First United Methodist of Church will host “Celebrate Music!” by the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton at 4 p.m. on Sunday, May 10, to benefit the Bell Tower & Window Restoration. $15 tickets available at SportTech, CNY Radio Group, First UM, or by calling 432-4102.

Labels: 05-01-09, Front Page

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:17 AM 0 comments

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‘Drogen’s Dreams’ Come True For 8 Needy Area Families

Program Grew Out Of Devastation Of 2006 Susquehanna Flood

By LAURA COX

Dreams came true to eight families Saturday, April 25, thanks to the third annual “Drogen’s Dreams” giveaway.
Started in response to the Flood of 2006, appliance mega-store owner Arnie Drogen and his staff wanted to do something for their customers, neighbors and friends who had lost their furniture and appliances due to water damage, “We thought we would giveaway what we know best, furniture.”
The first year they gave away items to three deserving families. Their donations were so appreciated that the next year they gave items away to five families.
This year, after receiving more than 200 letters nominating many more deserving families, Drogen’s staff and media sponsors did the “impossible job” of selecting eight individuals and families for this year’s Drogen’s Dream event. Amongst them was Oneonta resident Kim Burke.
“This will be the first new bed I have ever owned,” said Burke who received a new full-size mattress set as part of the giveaway. Her “Drogen’s Angels” – the name for the individuals writing the letters nominating families – were her daughters Jessica, 23 of New York City, and
Shawna, 24 of Georgia.
Burke’s daughters wrote in nominating her because she has ongoing back pain from a back injury. She currently sleeps on her daughter’s old twin-size mattress, which causes her pain because she does not have room to roll from side to side during the night. She wakes up multiple times during the night.
“I feel really special, usually mothers are always doing things for their children, and now my children are doing something for me,” said Burke as she tested out the firm and plush versions of that mattresses she could choose from. Her sleepless nights will hopefully be sweet “Drogen’s Dreams” from now on.
Dale Webster of Cherry Valley was another recipient of Drogen’s giveaway; her Drogen’s Angel was her niece Merri Hubbell of Cooperstown.
“I nominated my aunt, because she is the strongest woman I have ever met, she’s had it very rough…but she goes out of her way to help everybody,” said Hubbell.
Webster has recently lost two children as well as her husband; last year her house started on fire and she lost all of her appliances except for her stove. On Saturday she received a new dishwasher.
“It makes me feel good to think I am deserving of such as honor,” said Webster, whose house is now done being rebuilt, by a construction company owned by family.
When Hubbell nominated her aunt, she indicated any appliance would be greatly appreciated.
“If you can do something nice for someone it makes life better for everyone,” said Drogen, “with the economy impacting people who may have been fine a year ago, we are happy to be helping out our neighbors.”
In addition to Burke and Webster, four other families were at the reception. Two of the families are still being sought.

Labels: 05-01-09, Front Page

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:12 AM 0 comments

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20+ Pair Seeking Top Job

Mayoral Candidates Multiply As Parties Narrowing Choices

By JIM KEVLIN

Democrat Jason Corrigan, 21, wants to be the next mayor of Oneonta.
So does Republican Jordan Shephardson, 26.
But the field isn’t limited to a couple of 20-somethings.
Richard P. Miller, retired Hartwick College president, has been interviewed by the Republican City Committee and said, if he decides to run – he’s given himself a deadline of Monday, May 10 – he will seek both parties’ backing.
On the Republican side – Carol Bollinger is city chair – three candidates were interviewed Tuesday, April 21:
• Shepardson, who focused on merging the city and town of Oneonta, as proposed by the state Commission on Local Government Efficiency & Competitiveness.
• Miller, who discussed his plan for revitalizing downtown.
• Erik Miller, the city councilman, who focused on how to encourage and maximize productivity at City Hall.
On the Democratic side – there is no official chair, but former mayor Kim Muller often speaks for the committee – two “serious” candidates have been interviewed at some length, and two briefly.
Muller said she intends to conduct one more lengthy interview before making her recommendation to the committee.
The field started filling early after one-term Mayor John S. Nader announced last month that he has accepted the demanding position of provost at SUNY Delhi, effective next Jan. 1, and therefore would not run for a second term in November.

Labels: 05-01-09, Front Page

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:10 AM 1 comments

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