Winter 2012 - Volume 4, Issue 4

Finally, a magazine with personality!

Van Wyck Gazette

Fishkill • Hopewell Junction • Beacon • Newburgh • Wappinger Falls • Poughkeepsie

Dia:BeaconJoseph Caplan

EateriesDiane & Bev Cohen

Spy NovelsThor A. Larsen

Page 2Volume 4, Issue 4

3 Dia:Beacon Art MuseumJoseph Caplan

4 Music ReviewsMichael Jurkovic

5The Case for Inert Soil and Water in the GardenGreg Draiss

6Protect your Family from Lead Paint PoisoningCharles N. Rock, Esq.

7 Dear Business OwnerRandi Busse

8 Authors of Espionage NovelsThor A.Larsen

10 So Many RestaurantsDiane & Bev Cohen

12Lose 10 Pounds by Avoiding Certain FoodsMaster Robert S. Blum

13 Who Needs Broadway?Vivian Rose

14 The True Secret to HealingMarilyn Cramer, RMT, Cl.Ht.

Contents

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Van Wyck Gazette Page 3

Dia:Beacon Art MuseumSituated on wooded acreage along the Hudson River, the

Dia:Beacon Riggio Galleries occupies a former Nabisco factory replete with enough skylights to capture your attention, if only for a moment.

The aesthetics and holistic balance of the museum aside, on display is a tour of unfettered creativity tidily ordered to embrace the curious onlooker. The casual observer might readjust their preconceptions of artistic con-straints, as most pieces at the Dia have shattered those inhibitions decades ago. A brave new world of geometric shapes, reconfigured materials or ingenious allocation of space mystify the visitor.

What differentiates the Dia:Beacon from say, a museum in Manhattan?

First is the integration of the museum both aesthetically and ecologically into the environ-ment. The lush acreage embraces the museum, while the landscape compliments the contours of the river estuary.

Second is the interaction or role of the pieces on display with the visitor. Rather than a display of static artistic works isolated from the viewer, the Riggio Galleries nourish a tactile sense of cerebral connectivity with their sculpture by the juxtaposition of pieces with the architectural ele-ments of the gallery itself. Indeed, whether the geometric pieces in the floor of one gallery, or the volumetric pieces on the floor of another, spark the intellect to decipher whether art is what is there, or what is not.

Third, of course, is the introduction of radical artistic static and sculptural pieces to the novice audience. While the artistic pro-cess is both a function of time and material, here on display, is a selection of work which has both withstood the test of time and embraced unorthodox materials.

Fourth is the degree of involvement to which the Dia:Beacon cooperates with the local community to offer their Education Pro-grams and Community Free Day.

Fifth is the intellectual commitment to the Hudson Valley sus-tained, nurtured and shared by both the artistic and financial community of the Dia:Beacon. The sustained impact upon the

young mind, the uninitiated or even the developed connoisseur of contemporary art, is unarguably the magic of the museum.

Illumination is the final word about Dia:Beacon. The interplay of static, sculptural and visual art with the structural elements of a re-purposed factory, set within the gorgeous river valley is, without a doubt, a naturally invigorating event.

The Dia:Beacon merits applause for their innovative revitaliza-tion of vacant space and consequent financial boon to the near-by Beacon Business community plus the sheer prestige the mu-seum lends to the region.

Highly recommended, a tour of their Riggio Galleries simply inspires the imagination and creates a favorable impression. No photography is allowed, so leave your camera at home. How-ever, the imagery you leave with certainly might last quite a while. A word of appreciation to their attentive staff at the gift shop, cafe and, of course, the Riggio Galleries.

Dia Art Foundation is a nonprofit institution envisioned by Heiner Friedrich, Philippa de Menil with art historian Helen Win-kler. Dia:Beacon opened in May of 2003.

3 Beekman Street, Beacon, NY 12508www.diaart.org

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Page 4Volume 4, Issue 4

CD ReviewsMusic

Maria Muldaur - First Came Memphis Minnie

If there is a more authentic blues and Americana artist working the circuit like Muldaur you’re gonna have to prove it to me and show photo i.d. to boot because, First Came Memphis Minnie isn’t just a tribute disc to a blues pioneer. No, it’s also a fine, living testament to Muldaur’s endur-ing talent and passion.

Her 40th album finds Maria and her la-dies - Bonnie Raitt - pickin’ the acoustic like she hasn’t since them early, boozy, blues mama barroom days on ‘Ain’t Nothin’ In Ramblin’; Rory Block - revelin’ in the sexin’

‘When You Love Me’. Ruthie Foster fights off the devil’s details by advising ‘Keep Your Big Mouth Closed’. Muldaur gratefully and graciously pays homage to the late Phoebe Snow, gloriously remembered here with a her oh so slinky ‘n slippery rendition of ‘In My Girlish Days’ (from the ‘75 LP It Looks Like Snow), and the one and only Koko Taylor, from her Old School CD, blasting a blistering ‘Black Rat Swing’.

First Came Memphis Minnie, coming hot on the heels of Steady Love is Maria’s sec-ond for 2012. Enjoy my friends. It really doesn’t get much better than this.

Miss Tess - Sweet TalkWhere to start the hyperventilating hy-

perbole for Sweet Talk I have no idea. So I’m going to kill time with an introductory paragraph about this NY based band of hybrid visionaries led by a honky-tonkin’ chanteuse and her western swing jazzers that manages to not sound like New York at all, but somehow does, and then doesn’t. I think that’s a pretty neat trick.

‘Don’t Tell Mama’ opens with a muscular r’n’b fervor, our heroine swinging on a cres-cent moon singing in the groove, off the

beat “Don’t tell mama we’ve been makin’ love”, sounding like one of them old 78’s your grandpa used to play when grandma was at church. We then move seamless-ly into the country swing of “I Never Thought I’d Be Lone-ly.” Next we have the improbable New Or-leans second line sass of “Adeline.”

Then there’s the slinky, swampy “This Affair”; the waltzing, contemplative “Save Me St. Peter” with the killer line “Walking on water is a hell of a stand / With no solid ground and no help-ing hand”. Did I men-tion Tess wrote ten of the eleven songs on Sweet Talk? Yup, in-cluding the all out Sat-

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urday night dance hall swingfest “Every-body’s Darling.”

Pete Seeger - Pete Remembers WoodyHaving had the God-given privilege to

stand beside Pete both in performance and in conversation - engaged in Lincoln’s team of rivals, the Peekskill riots of ‘49, his cher-ished River Town Kids, listening to this wondrous 2CD set is like having the great man riding shotgun in your car, or filling your listening room up with recollections and stories of his dear friend, Woodrow Wilson Guthrie.

By his own humble admission, Pete’s “big, big education about America” began in 1940 when Seeger, then 21, met Woody, then 26, backstage of what was to become the first of many a benefit concert the two great spirits would perform. With these of-ten humorous, always poignant recollec-tions, Pete tells firsthand how they wit-nessed America’s emerging greatness, and how they held out the hope that that great-ness would sustain.

Keith Jarrett - Sleeper: Tokyo, 4/16/79While many of his peers fussed over fu-

sion, Jarrett in the 70’s went back to basics and was extraordinarily prolific. His concert length, solo improvisations (Bremen and Lausanne, The Koln Concerts) immedi-ately entered jazz legend. He spearheaded two continental quartets - the edgy, often combative American ensemble of saxo-phonist Dewey Redman, drummer Paul Motian and bassist Charlie Haden, (The Survivors Suite) and the European quartet, or ‘Belonging’ band, which is represented brilliantly with this revelatory, two disc ar-chival release.

Seven Jarrett originals free range and free fall. ‘Personal Mountains’ hurricanes out of the gate, ‘Innocence’ flails energeti-cally only to end as the softest of ballads. ‘Oasis’ builds and builds. We’ve waited thirty years for this - get it and marvel.

Other discs worth your listening - Brad Mehldau – Ode, Bonnie Raitt – Slipstream, Vijay Iyer – Accelerando, Jimmy Cliff – Re-birth, English Beat – Best Of, Bruce Spring-steen – Wrecking Ball.

Mr. Jurkovic’s first book, Purgatory Road, was published in 2010. He is co-director of “Calling All Poets” at the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon.

Van Wyck Gazette Page 5

The Case for Inert Soil and Water in the Garden BotanyAlmost all growing mediums sold for gar-

dening are under the name “soilless.” Cor-nell Peat Lite mix was one of the first de-veloped by Cornell University. Peat Lite mix was made up roughly of 2 parts peat moss, 1 part perlite and 1 part vermiculite. These three ingredients replicated everything that was needed for plants to grow without the drawbacks of dirt. Peat moss was the base, binding together the other two ingredients, as well as providing the light weight and moisture holding capacity of the mix. Per-lite, a volcanic by-product, provided not only light weight but air space and drain-age. Perlite has no ability to hold moisture or nutrients, serving only as a conduit for water and air to pass through the mix. Ver-miculite, a mined mineral, is not only light weight, but adds the ability to act as a sponge, gathering up nutrients and water to release to roots via the process of os-mosis. This Peat-Lite blend became the very popular Pro-Mix which is still used today by professional growers and home-owners alike. In fact with the advent of fer-tilizers in soils, Pro-Mix has enjoyed a comeback because it has no fertilizer.

There is a big advantage to having a soil-less mix for the professional grower. Dirt is full of all kinds of organisms good and bad. Soil is loaded with beneficial bacteria that break down nutrients into forms plants can use. However, with all the good stuff in dirt there can be many bad things as well. Soil can very easily be loaded with insects and have so much clay as to be poorly drained. Not to mention dirt is heavy!

With all the stuff in dirt, growers had a very difficult time determining what and how much fertilizer to use when growing a crop. For instance, tomatoes have certain nutritional needs that differ from petunias. When using dirt the grower would first have to determine what was already present in the dirt. They needed to test for ph, existing nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous and potash, as well as micro-nutrients like boron and zinc.

This was a very time consuming and te-dious process. After finding out what was in the dirt, growers would then need to make their own fertilizer blends to take into account what was already present in the soil.

An inert or nutrient empty medium, like Pro Mix, solved this problem. Soilless mix-

es are dependable in that every batch is the same. There are no guessing games as the ph is always the same. Since there is no fertilizer put in the mix growers did not have to play mad scientist to get the right amount of nutrients for plant growth. So efficient are “manufactured soils” that there are mixes blended for specific crops.

Now what about water? An interesting question indeed. Water, like dirt, can be full of minerals and impurities. If the water in

your home comes from a municipal system it could very well be chlorinated. Chlorine is needed in small amounts by plants. But depend-ing on the amount of chlorine in your wa-ter it may detrimen-tal to plant health. Water softeners can

kill off plants with the high levels of sodium placed into the water.

Just like alternatives to dirt there are al-ternatives to municipal or high mineral con-tent in well water. Distilled water is a perfect way to achieve water with little if any of the impurities that inhabit well or municipal wa-ter. However using distilled water for all your gardening needs is quite expensive. Growing plants in wa-ter instead of soil makes having pure water even more im-portant. The best way to ensure pure min-eral and contaminate free water for hydro-ponic growing is to install a reverse os-mosis system. Small R/O systems for hy-droponics are inex-pensive and remove just about all the im-purities contained in well or municipal wa-ter. This is important for growing plants in water. Growing in wa-ter allows the greatest

flexibility in nutrient levels. As well, growing in water allows for instant changes in nutri-ent and ph content.

Having soil and water with the proper amount of nutrients, and from a consistent source, makes for faster crop cycles. Knowing what is in the soil or water before you start growing also removes the guess-ing game. For water, the ability to manipu-late nutrient levels at the drop of a hat makes all the difference in how fast your crop goes from seed to flowering and fruit-ing production.

Greg Draiss

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Page 6Volume 4, Issue 4

Protect your Family from Lead Paint PoisoningLegal Q: Anthony, why do you put paint chips in your mouth?

A: It tastes like cotton candy.

Anthony liked the taste of lead paint so much that he would pick chips off the wall in his home. His diagnosis of “high” lead poisoning remained elevated for years before his blood lead levels would finally return to a “normal” level. The harm from lead poisoning is directly related to the de-gree of exposure and the duration of the elevated blood lead levels.

Blood test results from 0-4 micrograms per deciliter (mcg/dL) is considered to be very little and no remedial action will be taken by the local Health Department. Levels of 5 - 9 mcg/dL is a little more than most children but still does not trigger intervention. A blood lead level of 10-14 mcg/dL is high and your doctor and lo-cal health department will contact you to discuss possible sources of the lead ex-posure. Levels from 15 to 44 mcg/dL are very high and will trigger a health depart-ment inspection of the home to test for sources of the child’s lead poisoning and levels above 45 mcg/dL usually require hospitalization.

Eating paint chips is not the only way lead can enter a child’s system. When toddlers first walk, they often stand at a window and put their mouths directly onto the windowsills. Windowsills are among the most common surfaces on which to find lead paint and dust.

Lead dust that has fallen to the floor (of-ten from window sashes or door frames) is readily ingested or inhaled when young children, who spend a lot of time on the floor, put their hands, toys and other things in their mouths. This method of ingesting

lead dust is the number one source of childhood lead poisoning. Often this dust is the most potent.

No matter how lead is ingested, lead is a neurotoxin and it is high on the list of dan-gers to young children. Even at low lev-els of concentration in the blood, lead can cause developmental delays, decreased IQ, aggressiveness & hyperactivity.

First banned in the United States in 1978 (lagging behind France, Belgium and Austria where it was banned by 1909) much of our housing stock was painted with lead paint. It was, after all, the highest quality paint with the smoothest finish. As the layers of lead would gradually fall off as dust to the floor, the paint would always retain its shiny and beautiful finish.

Even though the lead paint is now bur-ied under layers of latex paint, when the sub-surface (substrate) ages and be-comes unstable (cracked), the lead dust can again create the hazard.

Even more hazardous than the paint on the walls is the paint on the “impact surfaces” and “friction surfaces” - that is, door frames, windows sashes and frames - where the friction or pounding of the door or window almost always makes the “en-capsulated” lead accessible to the envi-ronment as a fine powder.

There is some good news. Lead paint poisoning is entirely preventable and the efforts by public health agencies coupled with effective legislation and regulation has made for a tremendous reduction in the incidence of childhood lead poison-ings. The disease is now diagnosed ear-lier than ever before and the level at which the regulations require action has helped prevent the high levels of lead poisoning

that we would often see only a decade ago. While these efforts are laudable on a societal level, no parent would ever consider that any amount of lead in their child’s blood acceptable since even slight amounts of lead can be hazardous.

So, how do we protect our children from lead?

New York State Department of Health recommends that if you live in a home built before 1978, that you wash away lead dust. Wash children’s hands and toys often, even if they don’t look dirty. Mop floors often and use damp cloths to clean windowsills. Pour the dirty water into the toilet and remember that dry cloths spread the dust. Vacuuming, unless done with a HEPA vacuum and sweeping lead dust will only spread the hazard.

If you live in a house or apartment built before 1978, before you undertake any repairs of peeling paint or cracked walls, call your local health department before to learn how to paint and repair safely. Any home renovation which might activate lead dust should trigger a pre-renovation testing for lead based paint.

How do you know if your home has lead in the paint? While some hardware stores offer test kits, most require that the sam-ple be properly taken and then sent to a lab for flame analysis. While having an en-vironmental inspection company properly test the home will be more expensive, the cost for a basic testing is not very expen-sive and the peace of mind in either know-ing there is no lead or, if there is lead, knowing what needs to be done, is well worth the price. When it comes to our chil-dren’s health, prevention is the best cure.

Charles N. Rock, Esq.

Dear Business Owner,I am in need of the product or service

that you offer. I already know that. I called you or came into your business because I know you have what I want. I don’t have to be “sold”. But I can change my mind and decide to buy the product or service from someone else. See, you’re not the only game in town. Actually, you probably have many competitors. And their product or service is in all probability very similar to yours. The price is likely comparable as well. So why should I buy it from you in-stead of “Joe down the street”?

What happened when I called you on the phone? The person who answered sounded like I was bothering them. They didn’t sound happy that I was calling TO DO BUSINESS WITH YOUR COMPANY. And actually, come to think of it, they were downright rude to me.

When I came into your business or store, I wasn’t acknowledged or greeted by anyone. As a matter of fact, the two employees behind the counter were actu-ally standing around talking to each other about the movie that they saw last night. They didn’t even glance my way. When they finally did look at me, their lack of

interest in me and what I was looking for was apparent. I asked where a particular product was and they pointed to an area “over there”.

Neither or those situations made me feel all warm and fuzzy, and certainly not important.

Now, there is a lot of talk about a reces-sion and people not spending money. I’ll tell you what, me not spending money on your product or service has nothing to do with how much money I have in my pock-et, which by the way, is plenty. Instead, it has to do with how you treated me when I WANTED TO BUY what you were selling, but I didn’t get the feeling that anyone was interested in HELPING me to do that.

My advice to you? When you hire a new employee, BEFORE you teach them about your products and services, how much they cost, how to ring them up, and where the shipping department is, teach them that customers are the most impor-tant part of your business. Teach them how to treat them and how to make them feel important.

Let me know when that happens, and MAYBE I’ll come back. Unless of course

“Joe down the street” has already done that!

Signed,

Your former customer.

Randi Busse is the President of Work-force Development Group, Inc. and is widely recognized as a Customer Service Expert. Randi is a trusted resource for many diverse companies and organiza-tions that have relied on her guidance to help improve their customer service and increase their customer retention. Randi writes a monthly customer service news-letter, “Customer Service: It’s Not Just a Department; It’s an Experience”. You can sign up for her newsletter and learn more about her services by visiting her web-site, www.workdevgroup.com.

Van Wyck Gazette Page 7

BusinessDear Business Owner

Page 8Volume 4, Issue 4

Leading Authors of Espionage NovelseReader Having lived and trav-

elled in Europe and Mid-dle East, I became par-ticularly interested in espionage authors that enable me to become immersed and able to visualize these locales. The plots need to be be-lievable, fast moving, complex, educational, with fascinating main

characters, unpredictable yet plausible struggles and able to maintain my interest until the end. The authors that I have found, after a number of years of reading their works, are John Le Carre, Alan Furst, and Daniel Silva.

I find that my view on these writers of espionage is also shared by Alan Cheuse of NPR amongst others. According to Alan Che-use, in his review of the latest novel by Daniel Silva, stated the following: The vision of espionage and the execution of the plot

in powerful, persuasive prose, such as one finds in the works of John Le Carre, Alan Furst set for me the highest standard.

John Le Carre, born in 1931, still lives in Eng-land and became well known with his spy novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, published in 1963. This novel and another eight spy novels published until the mid-1980’s focused on the

struggles between the British Spy network and their counterparts behind the Iron Curtain. Mr. Carre certainly could write convinc-ing stories in this arena since he was himself an English Spy until the early 1960’s. The main character in these novels was a middle-aged spy who was a thinking man, not really a man of action, however Mr. Le Carre was very adept in creating intense suspense. Several of the spy novels of this period were adapted for film and TV. As the international situation changed in Europe, Mr. Le Carre changed the focus of his spy novels. The mischief in Panama was de-scribed effectively in The Tailor of Panama. The book The Constant Gardener took place in Af-rica where the villains were international drug firms. Both of these books were adapted into movies.

The villains in Le Carre’s more recent books, A Most Wanted Man, published in 2008 and Our Kind of Traitor, published in 2010 include Russians, who now are effectively wealthy gangsters. The former focuses on a Chechen terrorist, where the latter deals with a very wealthy Russian gangster who

wants to come over to the other side. This latter book, published 49 years after his first book, is considered by Michiko Kakutani, reviewer for the New York Times as a bullet train of new thriller, part vintage John Le Carre and part Alfred Hitchcock.

The spy novels written by Alan Furst are historical spy novels because they all take place in the years, 1933-1944, i.e., before and during World War II, mostly in Europe. Born in New York City in 1941, Furst now lives in Sag Harbor, Long Island. Alan lived many years in Europe, primarily in Paris, a location that almost always played an important role in his spy novels. Alan Furst has written 11 historical spy novels since 1988 and all have had con-siderable success.

Cheuse in his review of the latest novel by Daniel Silva “As one starts reading Alan Furst’s fast paced spy novels, one quick-ly realizes that the author has done considerable research on the locations and historical events in the areas where the stories takes place.” The stories are about various heroes fighting the Nazis or the Italian Fascists. The locales include Warsaw, Istan-bul, Paris and numerous smaller cities in Europe. The actual fighting is limited in violence, but much more descriptive in pro-viding knowledge, supplies and means of escape to those who oppose the oppressive regimes. Often the stories involve senior personnel in the various governments and Mr. Furst provides the reader with significant historical details of the time and setting to make the reader feel he is really there. As Mr. Furst has stated, “I want them (novels) to read as if they had been written then. I think of them as ‘40’s novels, written in the conservative narrative past.” One of Alan Furst’s fans, Patrick Anderson of the Wash-ington Post, describes him today as one of the finest spy novel-ists active.

The settings of the stories often include the intra-European

Thor A. Larsen

trains, sitting in cafes in Paris, the alleys, the woods always in the shadows. Initially these historical spy novels did not catch on as they were neither conventional spy novels nor conventional historical fiction. ‘It took a while for them to catch on, and they were cult before climbing on the best seller list’ according to Alan Furst. Mr. Furst was a journalist before writing spy novels and, according to David Ignatius of the Washington Post, Furst utilized those skills to realize spy books that ‘combine exhaustive re-search with exceptional narrative skills.’

Spies of the Balkans, published in 2010, takes place in Greece with the hero as a young Greek policeman with many political connec-tions. He is able to arrange for Jews to escape from Germany and France using his connec-tions in France and Yugoslavia. There are also several female liaisons with our hero, as well as the pending invasion of Germany into

Greece, to keep the reader constantly surprised as the pages unfold.

Daniel Silva was born in 1960 in Michigan and now lives with his family in Washington DC. As was the case with Alan Furst, Mr. Silva was also a journalist before he became a full-time writ-er. As a journalist Daniel Silva spent time in the Middle East as a correspondent for UPI and lived in Cairo Egypt. As evident from his novels, Daniel has spent significant time in Israel, as well as Europe.

Daniel Silva’s first novel was published in 1997. Titled The Unlikely Spy it became an in-stant New York Times best seller. All of Mr. Silva’s eight subsequent spy novels became best sellers on the NY Times list. The Unlikely Spy drew my interest back in the late 1990’s, as I have had a long interest in WWII, the setting for this book. The particular uniqueness of the

main character in this book is that the female spy is a German Nazi. She lands in England to seek the answer to where the Al-lies plan to invade the continent in 1944. A very fast moving story with many twists and surprises and yet, plausible.

After two spy novels with American CIA officer Michael Osborne as the hero, Daniel Silva has written 11 novels with the Israeli spy/assassin Gabriel Allan as the hero. These spy novels take place in the present in several venues in Europe and the Middle East. As one begins to read some of Daniel Silva’s novels, one quickly realizes the depth of his research in order to make the

stories plausible. Mr. Silva spent essentially a year researching the subject of his forthcoming novel. The Confessor fo-cused on the inner, corrupt circle, including old Nazis within the Vatican, and threats to the Pope, all overcome by heroics of Gabriel Allon. In

The Messenger, Gabriel Allon saves the Pope from the Saudi Muslim fundamentalists. In both of these novels, it is clear that Daniel Silva had gained a signifi-cant knowledge of the operations within the Vatican.

Van Wyck Gazette Page 9

Leading Authors of Espionage NovelsMuslim fundamentalists and the broader Islam radical funda-

mentalists play important roles in The Secret Servant. Mr. Silva has studied these groups in depth and provided very plausible and very fast-moving, exciting action with the hero, Gabriel Allon, winding up in the winner column.

Two recent books by Mr. Silva, Moscow Rules and The Defector, examine the corrup-tion, power and range of the modern Russian oligarchs in Europe and the challenge and close calls of the perennial hero, Gabriel Allon.

Finally, The Rembrandt Affair released in 2010 focuses on the art world, corrupt Swiss bankers and their connections back to Nazi wealth. Actually, art often plays a role in Dan Silva’s books since the hero, Gabriel, is also an art restorer. This is a profession he thoroughly loves until he is asked to come back into the Israeli Spy Network solving international crimes.

Hence, in Mr. Silva’s stories, not only do we journey to Moscow, London, Paris, but also Jerusalem but also inside the Israeli Secret Service, the CIA and the British Secret Service. As a break, we venture into the world of fine art and restoration. The windows provided seem realistic and keep the reader engrossed as the plots keep evolving and the final resolution is often not realized, surprisingly, until the last page.

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Page 10Volume 4, Issue 4

So Many Restaurants by Diane & Bev CohenEateriesHello again from The Famous Cohen

Sisters! We’re back by popular demand and are pleased to again review some of our favorite eateries.

Since our last article, several new places have opened in our immediate area. One such place is Grand Centro Grill, from the owners of Antonella’s. This comfortable eatery is located at 738 Route 9 (in the ShopRite Plaza), Fishkill, NY, and serves up great appetizers, salads, burgers, sea-food and wonderful desserts. We espe-cially enjoyed the skirt steak dinner, and the salmon with scallops was delicious. We also recommend the baby back ribs that fall right off the bone. They have a full bar, and there’s music on certain nights for your listening pleasure. And, we just learned that they have started serving Sunday Brunch from 11:00 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. at a very reasonable cost. The Brunch offers French toast, scrambled eggs, hash browns, ba-con, and sausage, as well as homemade pasta, chicken francese, filet of sole, and lots more. There are assorted breads and desserts too. We love Sunday brunches and can’t wait to try this one!

When we moved to this area in 2005, there was a sign on Route 9 stating “Com-

ing Soon – Diner.” Year after year we saw that sign and began to ignore it. Finally, the sign was removed, and we watched the Red Line Diner being built. Knowing that the diner’s owners also own Palace Diner, Daily Planet, and Table Talk in the area, we couldn’t wait for it to open right here on Route 9 in Fishkill. We were there the first week, and within this past year, it has be-come a local meet and eat place for us, providing comfort food at its finest. For those of you who haven’t been there yet, treat yourselves to a great breakfast (24/7) or choose from their huge menu, which guarantees something for everyone’s ap-petite. Their burgers and salads are won-derful, as are their daily specials. Or, try the sampler of Greek specialties. If you still have room, the carrot cake cheesecake (unheard of) is a must. You will never leave hungry and most likely will be carrying a doggie bag home for later!

The Pizza Shop is another new estab-lishment in town, brought to you by the Cosimo’s family, and located at 703 Route 9, Fishkill, NY. When this opened, we said “just what we need, another pizza place,” but we were wrong. This is more than that. If you haven’t discovered this small restau-

rant, you are in for a nice surprise, as we were. Especially wonderful are the appetiz-ers, which include rice balls and garlic bread with toasted mozzarella. We’ve also enjoyed their chicken wings in a variety of flavors, ranging from mild to enjoyably spicy! The salads are delicious, particu-larly the Gorgonzola walnut salad with cranberries, walnuts, Gorgonzola crum-bles, and served with a roasted pepper dressing that is soooo good. Did we men-tion that they also have pizza – traditional round and artisan varieties, as well as pasta and hot and cold sandwiches. And, they deliver. Do you know what’s for dinner tonight? We do!

Receiving an honorable mention is the Piano Piano Wine Bar located at 1064 Main Street, Fishkill, NY. If you want to re-lax with friends and drink some great wine, this is the place. Sample a flight of red or white wine, have some delicious snacks, and enjoy the live entertainment on certain nights. The owners are friendly and knowl-edgeable about wine.

So, until next time, Happy Eating and Drinking (responsibly, of course)!

Van Wyck Gazette Page 11

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Page 12Volume 4, Issue 4

Lose 10 Pounds by Avoiding Certain Foods!Fitness Below is a list of 4 foods that you should

never eat.

These foods will derail your fitness and weight loss efforts every single time.

1. Do-Not-Eat: Anything FriedFried food is loaded with fat and calories

while offering zero nutritional value. It’s a lose-lose! Sure, fries and chips TASTE good, but healthier items also taste good. Just say no to the deep fried items on your menu. You’ll be thinner, healthier and won’t have greasy fingers.

Substitute with: BroiledIf you simply must have a French fry,

then make them at home in your oven. Use sweet potatoes, as these are a more complex carbohydrate. Cut into match-sticks, drizzle with a tablespoon of olive oil along with a dash of salt, then place in your oven on broil. Mix every 5 minutes until the fries are tender on the inside and crispy on the outside.

2. Do-Not-Eat: White BreadWhite bread products have zero nutri-

tional value and are quickly converted by your body into sugar. So you may as well eat a cupcake. Even breads that are tech-nically wheat, but are as soft and smooth as white bread, should be avoided. Don’t

be afraid to discard the bread from your sandwich or to push away that bread bas-ket. Your waist will shrink and you’ll lose that bloated feeling that high carbohydrate meals give you.

Substitute with: Sprouted Grain BreadIf you must have bread, then stick with

sprouted. Sprouted grain bread is a lot easier on your digestion and is packed full of nutrients. Two delicious brands are Food For Life’s Ezekiel bread, and Manna Organics. Sprouted grain breads are often kept in the freezer section since they don’t contain preservatives to prolong shelf life.

3. Do-Not-Eat: Creamy Salad DressingYou were so good to order a salad, but

then you ruined it by drenching the salad in fattening creamy dressing. Just a few tablespoons of creamy dressing contain more than 20 grams of fat and hundreds of calories.

Substitute with: Vinegar DressingSalad dressing is meant to lend flavor

to the salad, not fat and calories. Vinegar-based dressings pack amazing flavor in with minimal fat and calories. You can even mix your own dressing at home. Take high quality vinegar, fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper, your choice of dried

herbs, and a bit of olive oil.

4. Do-Not-Eat: White RiceI’m sure by now you’ve heard that white

rice is not a healthy choice. Just like white bread, white rice has zero nutritional value - other than calories. Fiber and vitamins have been removed and the glycemic load will quickly prime your body for storing fat.

Substitute with: Brown RiceBrown rice has three times the amount

of fiber, more B vitamins as well as other nutrients, won’t sky rocket your blood, and will keep you feeling fuller for longer. That should be enough to convince you to swap your large pile of white rice out for a small pile of brown rice.

Eating right, along with challenging exercise, is the formula for a toned, lean body - so guarantee your results by team-ing up with us here at Hudson Valley Kick-boxing Centers.

Together we will come up with a fitness plan that is uniquely yours, one that fits your lifestyle and brings you promptly to your goals. Plus you will have a great time in one of the most awesome fitness pro-grams in the Hudson Valley.

Van Wyck Gazette Page 13

Who Needs Broadway? There’s no need to travel all the way

to Manhattan for great comedy and mu-sicals. The Hudson Valley has many lo-cal theaters that offer high quality acting, singing, dancing, comedy, and children’s shows.

In this issue, we focus on The West-chester Broadway Theatre, located at One Broadway Plaza in Elmsford, NY 10523.

Imagine! I was seated in this year-round Equity Theater’s audience in 1975. As a new teacher, I arranged for our entire fac-ulty and staff to attend a show with din-ner included as a way to celebrate the school’s end. Although, I do not recall our menu, I do remember that we saw the musical Oklahoma! What a great way to celebrate and create memories that have endured these decades.

Back then, the theater was known as An Evening Dinner Theatre owned by Bob Funking and Bill Stutler. Since then, these two go-getters have generated more shows than most Manhattan Broadway producers. Some favorite programs in-clude: Guys & Dolls, the Sound of Music, Oliver, and Fiddler on the Roof.

In their 38 years of collaboration, they have produced nearly 200 main-stage shows with Broadway casts and over 950

Monday-Tuesday special events and con-certs, featuring top-tier talent such as Tom Jones, Paul Anka, Harry Belafonte, Andy Cooney, and the cast of Beatlemania.

How is WBT Unique?This theatre combines two experiences.

First, a complete sit-down dinner (menu choices) is served. Then, a full perfor-mance is presented. The seating is gra-cious and comfortable within a festive at-mosphere. Parking is free and handicap accessible.

Why is WBT so Popular?There are four main reasons:

1. Convenience – no need to schlep into NYC and pay for parking.

2. Location – central to the tri-state area.

3. Sumptuous lunch or dinner.

4. Top quality performers

Private luxury boxes are available for small parties – great fun.

These include a special menu and your own private wait staff.

What’s Next?“New ideas abound at WBT,” reveals

Ms. Pia Haas, Director of Press and Pub-lic Relations.

Pia noted that the theatre does plan ex-tra events in addition to its on-going musi-cals and comedy nights. As possible, they rent the theatre for:

• Bar/Bat Mitzvahs• Sweet 16s / Quinceañeras• Birthdays / Anniversaries• Bridal & Baby Showers• Engagement & Anniversary Parties• Proms & Graduation Parties• Christenings, Communions,

Confirmations• Fund-raisers and auctions• Breakfast Events

Tickets are a Lovely GiftGift certificates are available for purchase at: http://www.broadwaytheatre.com or, at the box office: 914-592-2222.

Visit their website or call for further details about this season’s shows.

Theater

Vivian Rose

Dining area and stage at theatre

Page 14Volume 4, Issue 4

The True Secret to HealingHolistic

Toxins are everywhere in the food we eat, the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the house we live in.

I won’t go into depth of all the toxins in our environment, because you already know about most of them. There are many ways to rid your body of these toxins, but one of the best ways is with alkaline water.

According to Sang Whang in his book, Reverse Aging, the process of aging is the accumulation of non-disposed waste prod-ucts. Even when there are no toxic sub-stances in our food, there are waste prod-ucts that we must eliminate through our body’s natural processes. If there are some harmful substances in our food, they change into poisonous wastes. The body must detoxify the poison and get rid of it.

Our cells deteriorate because waste products are being accumulated. If the ac-cumulated waste products haven’t caused irreparable damage to the tissues and or-gans, their functions could be revived by ridding of these toxic wastes.

Unfortunately, the American diet is filled with acid forming foods such as bread, pasta, sodas, sugar and meats. Physical and mental stress causes us to produce

even more wastes that are acid – ulcers are an outcome of this. Storage of wastes that our body can’t get rid of naturally will be stored away from the flow of blood in our fat cells.

The underlying causes of adult diseases such as cancer, heart disease, arterioscle-rosis, diabetes, arthritis, gout, kidney dis-ease, constipation, fibromyalgia, asthma, eczema and other skin disorders, osteopo-rosis and hyperacidity is the accumulation of acids in our body, poor blood circulation and poor cell activity, according to Sang Whang. Tim McKnight, MD states the same thing in his book, Confessions of a Skepti-cal Physician.

An excellent way to remove toxic acid wastes from our fat cells is by drinking al-kaline water. There’s a detailed explanation in both books by Tim McKnight, MD and Sang Whang, but I won’t go into details here – I’m just giving you a quick overview.

The True Cause of CancerIn the book, Acid & Alkaline by Herman

Aihara, the author states, “If our extracel-lular fluids become acidic, our body will manifest pain. Our body will deposit these excess acidic substances in some area of the body (usually in our fat cells) so that the blood can maintain an alkaline condi-tion. Cells will die in the acidic environment, and the dead cells will turn into acid wastes. Some of the cells may adapt in the acidic environment, and they become abnormal, mutated cells – or malignant cells. This is cancer”.

Cancer cells form because of accumula-tion of acidic wastes in our cells. The cells mutate, and they do not behave like normal cells anymore.

The Healing Properties of WaterWater is a living organism. Hexagonally

structured water is the water that living or-ganisms thrive in. That is why snow-melted water is good for the growth of algae and plankton. Our water has been structurally compromised because of fertilizers, chem-ical treatments and pollution. All of these things are highly acidic. As a result, the once pure hexagonal-shaped water crys-tals are now pentagonal-shaped structures instead.

Distillers and reverse osmosis filters take all the minerals out of the water; therefore, this water is not healthy to drink. Alkaline water has all the essential minerals. Alka-line water can help flush out the dead, acidic cells and help to keep your body in its natural alkaline state.

My husband and I purchased the Kangen Water Ionization System, and it filters out the impurities in our water while it changes the structure to become alkaline water loaded with antioxidants – as it should be. It is the same molecular structure as glacial water.

If you are interested in learning more, please feel free to contact me, and I will put you in touch with a knowledgeable person in your area (in the U.S.A. or in your coun-try).

Marilyn Cramer is a gifted bio-energetic practitioner, assisting people with healing on all levels: physically, mentally, emotion-ally & spiritually. She is an author, editor & Wisie™ Wisdom writer (for children & adults). Please go to www.LightHealer.net & www.Wisie.com for more information.

Marilyn Cramer, RMT, Cl.Ht.

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Van Wyck Gazette Page 15

The Hudson Highlands is the nearby area where the Hudson River cuts through the Appalachian Mountains. The core area covers roughly a 15-mile stretch of the river from the Beacon-Newburgh Bridge to the Bear Mountain Bridge, and from I-87 to the Taconic Parkway. Running along either side of the river, routes 9D and 9W form an easy driving loop from bridge to bridge through tremendously beautiful landscape.

Along this Highlands Loop, there is a wide variety of op-portunities to stop and explore: scenic overlooks, hiking trail-heads, river towns and hamlets, cultural & historic destinations,

golf courses, and restaurants and shopping. There are many treasures to be discovered along the way. For example, An-tipodean Books, Maps & Prints is a serious dealer located in a charming building at Garrison’s Landing, along the river near the Garrison Train Station. The summertime Shakespeare Fes-tival at Boscobel presents wonderful and fun productions in an extraordinarily beautiful outdoor setting overlooking the Hudson

River. Dia:Beacon combines awe-inspiring ar-chitecture with an incomparable art collection, as well as education programs and exhibitions.

The Hudson Highlands has a long history of parks and outdoor recreation, including a net-work of trails on both sides of the river offering some of the best walking and hiking in Amer-ica. Did you know that the first section of the Appalachian Trail was opened here in 1923, running from Bear Mountain through Harriman State Park?

In Garrison, Highlands Country Club on Route 9D and The Garrison on Route 9 are two of the area’s hidden gems for dining out, golf, parties and overnight accommodation. Both have critically-acclaimed restaurants (Val-ley and Tavern). In the summertime, Highlands Country Club is a low-key family and recreation club offering memberships for golf, swimming

and tennis. Club activities include everything from tennis pro-grams for all ages to senior-oriented golf leagues.

Fireside dining in an 1800s landmark. Rustic New American cuisine.Dinner Th ursday - Saturday 5:30 - 9:30. Lunch Saturday & Sunday 12 - 3.

Rated “Excellent” by the New York Times.

Your host - James BrownExecutive Chef - Vinny Mocarski

955 Route 9D, Garrison, NY 10524(845) 424-3254 highlandscountryclub.net

Appr. 10 miles south of Beacon on Route 9D

Exploring The Hudson Highlands Hudson Valley

For more information on the area: visitthehudsonhighlands.org

845-297-1600www.thewatersource.com

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