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Follow Up on the
News
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The
Economic Forecast
Locally, stirrings
of response to an unmanageably darkening financial picture
are preparing to cast a searching beam of light into the
gloom of impending tomorrows as area residents begin pooling
their thoughts on the restructuring of the regional economy
and lifestyle. Alternatives to our corporately dominated
culture have long been simmering on the backburners of rural
thought and it is now the corporate structure’s own
anti-human business schemes that are forcing a higher flame
on that simmer.
"There are already hungry people in Olive today, without
cold weather," says Charles Blumstein, who is involved
in a "relocalization" project to, in part, revitalize
Olive’s agricultural attributes and who details the
early stages of the planning in another story in these pages.
"The quadrupling of oil prices guarantees a disaster
this winter. Things are unfolding so fast, it’s hard
to keep up but we’ve got to start meeting the crisis
head-on, right here. Olive used to be net exporters of food
and the land has been fallow so long because of (cultural)
changes in values but we have the land and the sun and it’s
time to start networking to re-center ourselves."
Gerald Celente, CEO of the Trend Research Institute, predicts
that "the kinds of communities that thrived before
suburban sprawl are going to thrive again" as the cost
of transporting produce longer distances bloats the price-tags
of industries built upon massive production and shipping.
"Rural areas will do very well because microfarming
will become very big business as the whole corporate agricultural
model is breaking down."
Signs of community networking are sparking up in many rural
regions left stranded by the explosive expansion of the
major agricultural giants in the past half century as civic
and church groups are scrambling to meet the needs of a
sudden flood of Americans pressed by financial desperation.
As banks and mortgage houses lurch at the impact of an economic
iceberg and the newly jobless search the want-ads of the
Diminished Expectations Press and food and fuel prices skyrocket,
hauling a train of inflation behind them, we are told by
USDA Undersecretary Mark Keenum that the "cupboard
is bare," U.S. food surpluses are gone and food stamp
programs are newly swollen as food banks for the poor around
the country are overwhelmed.
In May, Germany called for a worldwide ban on oil speculation
trades and India suspended trading in key commodities as
the food and fuel crisis effected hundreds of millions around
the world.. The BBC showed British viewers the shantytowns
of homeless squatters springing up in California that U.S.
media tries to downplay. Mark Wolfe, head of the National
Energy Assistance Directors’ Association told USA
Today they were seeing a record number of gas and electricity
utility shut-offs "hitting people in the suburbs with
two cars and two kids." We can’t even begin to
mention the drain of long-term commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan,
the trillions lost by the Pentagon or dropped on incompleted
projects around Baghdad as major contractors like Halliburton
move their operations from Houston to Dubai, where some
perceive the world financial focus has shifted. And, as
the Los Angeles Times pointed out in May, the twentyfold
increase in commodity trading has given foreign investors
bargain rates for the buying up of America with likely long-term
results
As the White House pushes for an increase in the strategic
petroleum reserve (with prices well above $100 a barrel),
there is an outcry for the creation of a strategic grain
reserve and last week China announced an urgent increase
in its production of genetically modified crops. Therein
is a subtext to the situation which we’ll address
in a moment.
So, what happened? How did all of this come about? Although
Celente, who is a commodities trader himself, given to accept
the standard Wall Street line of increased energy demand
as the major culprit, other analysts are quite specific
in identifying the financial villains. One of them drawing
a good deal of attention right now is F. William Engdahl,
a former New York economic historian now living in Europe,
whose best-selling 2004 book, A Century of War, details
the role of the oil industry in world conflicts. Engdahl
is among those spurning the "peak oil" myth of
crude oil shortage (even OPEC admits there is no shortage
of oil) and spells out explicitly how price manipulations
not based on the supply and demand tradition are being worked.
Engdahl explains that the international cost of crude oil
is now controlled by NYMEX in the New York Stock Exchange
and ICE Futures in London, along with a new player, Dubai
Mercantile Exchange (DME), which has NYMEX President and
former CFTC chairman James Newsome on its board. In a nutshell,
oil futures contracts or "paper oil" are driving
the surge through "a process so opaque only a handful
of major oil trading banks such as Goldman Sachs or Morgan
Stanley have any idea of who is buying or who is selling
oil futures or derivative contracts." Citing a June
2006 U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
report which points to paper-oil speculation as the primary
culprit, Engdahl sees deliberate regulatory omissions by
the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as handmaiden to
the scam.
The Senate report fingered the Commodity Futures Modernization
Act of 2000 (requested by the Enron Corporation and thus
known as the "Enron loophole") as opening the
door to electronic futures trading beyond extensive oversight
by the CFTC, as part of the final legislation of the 106th
Congress under President Clinton. The finishing touch came
in January 2006 when London’s ICE Futures market,
which is owned by Atlanta Georgia International Commodities
Exchange (founded partly by Goldman Sachs), started trading
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, routing the transactions
through opaque and unregulated channels. At that time crude
was $59 a barrel but, since the loophole allowed energy
trading without daily reports, paper-oil began taking off
without fear of market manipulations being observed. Engdahl
estimates that at least 60% of oil prices are pure speculation
and notes that "In the most recent sustained run-up
in energy prices, large financial institutions, hedge funds,
pension funds and other investors have been pouring billions
of dollars into the energy commodities markets to try to
take advantage of price changes or hedge against them."
There’s been a lot of selling the dollar short and
oil long.
In essence, in the eyes of Engdahl and others, this is a
gigantic fraud by a financial elite with transnational interests
at the expense of ordinary people and, in the end, it will
make the Savings & Loan affair of the Reagan years look
like a molehill. On a recent Canadian radio program, Engdahl
postured that we may see a temporary manipulated decrease
in prices in the run-up to the elections before they start
upwards again but, since the Democratic candidate, Senator
Obama, has Goldman Sachs as his largest contributor and
other such players on board, it may not be seen as necessary.
Obama is also a strong supporter of ethanol and that, too,
is a target of Engdahl’s analysis and, along with
the aims of the agribusiness giants (Monsanto, Cargill,
etc.) that re-engineered the genetics of our food supply
into patentable and profitable facsimiles, a huge subtext
of the current crisis. When a secret World Bank report was
leaked to the British daily The Guardian in June, we learned
that at least 75% of the recent food price hikes are the
result of the ethanol/bio-fuel initiatives which removed
too many millions of acres from the production of food rather
than the 3% claimed by U.S. representatives at the recent
UN food summit in Rome. The ethanol plan is also a scam,
according to a legion of experts, with much more viable
options less profitable to the transnational string-pullers.
There’a a lot more to this story, from the falsification
of U.S. economic data to the true designs of those who decide
who’s qualified to vie for the Oval Office, and never
enough space to work with. (Engdahl’s recent book
Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation
is an eye-opening place to begin for those who wish to learn
more about the current world agenda.) Many of us take a
myopic national view of what the power brokers see as a
global situation and by keeping our perspectives on that
level, we miss the obvious immediately around us, even the
fine print on grocery shelf boxes which, by U.S. law, cannot
say anything about genetically modified ingredients. Even
the very ground beneath our feet.
As the Wall Street Journal noted in 2003, Democratic Majority
Leader Tom Daschle announced his determination to "raise
U.S. fuel prices by $8.5 billion over each of the next five
years in order to feed the ethanol lobby" and has since
joined the Obama campaign, so any hope that McCain or Obama
will provide a political solution to the economic crisis
is undoubtedly less realistic than a stubborn and concerted
stand by local residents to reclaim control over their future.
"Sounds like getting back to what we did when I was
a kid," said Olive town supervisor Bertt Leifeld on
Tuesday with apparent interest in hearing more about the
Relocalization Project. "Victory gardens, we called
them during the war."
Gardens, yes, agrees Blumstein. But there’s more.
Much more.
Catskills
Relocalization!
They substituted manual labor, appropriate hand and renewable
powered technologies and traditional agricultural methods such
as crop rotation, composting and spreading of animal manure
to eliminate the petroleum based synthetic fertilizer, pesticide,
herbicide and tractor fuel inputs that are an integral part
of large scale industrial agriculture.
Dmitry Orlov, author of Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Example
& American Prospects, experienced the Collapse on his.wife’s
family homestead in a rural part of the FSU and describes the
return to the more traditional forms of local food production
and preservation. Heating fuel was harvested locally and the
village was largely immune to the breakdown of order occurring
in the cities after the financial collapse. He describes the
process of relocalization that occurred in the FSU and compares
it with the worldwide movement that is developing now.
With the recent dramatic change in values and prices of essential
goods and services it not only makes economic sense to produce
our basic needs locally but it will also contribute to neighborhood
employment and more importantly neighborhood resiliency in the
case of a temporary supply disruption of essential goods and
services. Quintupled petroleum prices are essentially a major
supply disruption that could easily turn into a disaster this
winter for moderate income households if advance planning is
not carried out. Oil and gas tanks will run dry this winter,
indeed some have been dry for a while in town. Everyone in town
must have at least one buddy with warm refuge in case of service
or supply outage. Hopefully householders will stock up on food
and fuel as our elders used to do hereabouts.
I remember back in the ‘70s old man Terwilliger of Terwilliger
Real Estate in Kerhonkson always had the wall to wall shelving
in his office covered with 600 quarts of everything that he
put up from his huge garden out back. This is beginning to happen
in our towns again with numerous new and expanded gardens appearing
along the highways and byways of Olive. Large fire wood piles
are appearing also which is very comforting indeed.
The first formal meeting of Olive neighbors to discuss remedies
and opportunities available in the Tompkins County NY Relocalization
Project manual will be held at The Ashokan Center on Beaverkill
Rd., Olivebridge, on Saturday, July 19 at 10:00 AM. Contingency
plans to enable and ensure a safe warm winter for those neighbors
in dire need will be discussed. Augmentation of the food bank
and meal distribution system seems another pertinent topic.
The agenda will be set by consensus. A wood fired potluck pizza
brunch will be available. Bring cheese, grated or not and colorful
tasty toppings. Dough and sauce supplied unless your sauce is
fab. Salad and dressing is cool too.
Lemonade? Food coordinator anyone? Call 845-657-2030 for more
info or to help with the food coordination.
With today’s quintupled oil price the supply has essentially
been shut off to those of modest means. With slim food and fuel
budgets here and now, how will many stay warm this winter? Make
no mistake, this is a disaster for those of modest means who
are wholly dependent on fossil fuels for heating and transportation.
Given that it takes so much petroleum to grow, process and ship
food to your table, the growth in the number of communities
around the world that are intentionally relocalizing is no surprise.
The wisdom of our elders is coming home to roost. When you grow
food locally and biologically, you can reduce the calorie input
by 90%. Petrochemical farming may be labor efficient but only
at a great cost of fossil energy. With agricultural inputs suffering
huge increases in price it now makes much more sense to produce
locally for both local consumption and export as done here in
centuries past. The new twist today is the need for the processing
to happen in town. The value added to food when it is processed
into a shippable storable form is a multiplier of approx. 8
to 10 times. This means that a local entrepreneur, grower, farmer,
under or unemployed family can grow an acre of cabbage worth
about 3 to 4 thousand and convert it into retail packaged sauerkraut
worth about 30-35 thousand keeping the wolf at bay for another
year. When properly cultivated and enriched, the land will increase
in fertility and productivity over time.
With a 6 month investment of elbow grease, almost anyone can
produce, process and retail or wholesale the preserved product
until the next harvest. Lucky for Olive neighbors there is an
abundance of pasture which is now organic due to being fallow
for decades with which to produce the new bull market commodities,
being pastured livestock of all kinds. A brief perusal of any
farmers market reveals that a frozen pastured organic chicken
sells for about 4.50 a pound or about 20 dollars per frozen
and wrapped bird. Twenty bucks for a chicken.
We could be in the same position as any oil producing country,
being a producer of valuable commodities excepting that pastured
livestock production is biologically based, improves the fertility
and productivity of the soil and is environmentally benign.
The missing ingredient needed for a real farm revival in Olive
is a certified commercial kitchen where someone can take the
fruits of their labor and produce packaged bar-coded product
from raw local ingredients.
A revival will only work if an executive income is possible
in return for a commensurate amount of labor. In days of yore
the agricultural sector served as a safety release valve for
a slackening industrial sector and this can indeed occur here
again but only if the full value of the finished product is
captured by the grower/ processor. The preserved and packaged
products can be retailed at farm markets or fed into the regional
distribution system.
A marketing logo such as Olive Farms featuring Krumville Spicy
Kraut could become a regional delicacy brand that generates
substantial income for Olive coffers.
There is always a bull market in something and we have the now
well rested pastures which are really solar powered biological
factories ready to be re-fenced and brought back into production.
New methods of low energy input agriculture such as Permaculture
can be adopted in a widely distributed landscape that features
more edible perennials every year. With periodic visits by local
newly formed herds of livestock, the land will steadily increase
in fertility and productivity .
Ah!, but there must be a fly in the ointment and indeed on the
surface there does seem to be a deficit of people who really
know how to work anymore but I have to believe that between
the recently developed technologies, materials and designs,
a low energy and labor input system adapted to local conditions
can thrive practically, economically and contribute materially
to local self reliance and resilience .
The magnitude of the recent change in values and prices of food
fuel and fiber makes careful planning a necessity going forward.
Help start the community conversation and help ensure a warm,
safe and well fed winter for all. See you at Ashokan!
Remember: The first formal meeting of Olive neighbors to discuss
remedies and opportunities available in the Relocalization Project
manual will be held at The Ashokan Center on Beaverkill Rd.,
Olivebridge, on Saturday, July 19 at 10:00 AM. Be there!
Electric
Reservoirs?
The DEP, a spokesperson for the City-agency said this week,
is currently operating hydro electrical plants at five of its
reservoirs within the watershed.
“We have one at the Ashokan, one at the Kensico, and three
in Delaware County,” said spokesperson Mercedes Padillo
when asked about reports that the Olive-based reservoir’s
old aerators had been shifted to hydro power in recent years.
“Two belong directly to the DEP and are managed by the
New York Power Authority, two belong directly to NYPA, and one
belongs to Brascan, a Brazilian-Canadian enterprise. I can’t
tell you more about any of them at this time.”
Addressing his grass roots energy cooperative’s big push
to harness more of the reservoir system for local benefit, DCREC
CEO and General Manager Greg Starhein said that he has kept
his present requests, which the Catskill Watershed Corporation
has joined Schumer in writing letters of support for, concentrated
on overflow for the moment… and only reservoirs within
his company’s membership area. But he added that the hydro
system of renewable energy creation he is proposing would be
just as usable at other reservoirs throughout the system. Furthermore,
Starhein noted that hydro-electric engineering is being developed
both here and abroad that would allow for clean turbines harnessing
non-filtered aqueduct flows from the city’s vast reservoir
system in the coming years.
He added that, barring any major opposition from the city to
their request, he envisions having the requested hydro systems
up and operating within four years. Combined with new landfill
gas release technologies his company has been developing, Delaware
County Rural Electrical Cooperative could be well on its way
towards majority sustainable energy resources within a decade.
“Residents in the watershed region have been good neighbors
and done their part to ensure the high quality of the watershed,
which supplies up to 90% of New York’s drinking water.
To accommodate this important mandate, the region’s residents
have faced flooding issues, limitations on their capacity for
economic development and other curtailments to their ways of
life,” Schumer wrote in his July 7 letter to Lloyd. “Currently
in the watershed system, the water that is released from the
Schoharie, Cannonssville, Pepacton and Neversink Reservoirs
is left unutilized and offers no economic benefit, either to
New York City or to the region. As you know, New York State
has made a laudable commitment to have 15% of its energy supply
generated from renewable sources. At a time when we are facing
record high energy costs, alternative energy sources are a critical
component to ensuring the long term success and viability of
New York. This unused resource presents an excellent opportunity
to develop an inter-regional partnership to develop New York’s
renewable sources of energy.”
Schumer’s letter goes on to reference the Cooperative’s
filing of a proposal with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
to generate electricity using proven technology from the drop
in elevation associated with the water’s release from
the reservoirs.
“The development of hydro plants that convert the release
and spillover of water from these reservoirs into a clean sustainable
form of energy will provide benefit to the surrounding communities,
these same communities that support the watershed,” Schumer
says. “The hydro plants are an innovative way to generate
power from water released from these reservoirs, while protecting
the high quality and quantity of drinking water supplies and
making no alterations to the proscribed monitoring of these
facilities already under the purview of DEP.”
Schumer’s letter, according to CWC Corporate Counsel Tim
Cox, was preceded by a July 3 letter to NYC Deputy Mayor Edward
Skyler.
Asked for a response to the Electrical Cooperative’s request,
Pardillo stated the City’s official reply as: “We
look forward to reviewing it and to further discussing it.”
According to Starhein, the Schumer and CWC letters come after
several months of conversation with city officials about the
pending hydro hook-up. He said the current plan involves water
releases that flow into the Delaware River Basin, which comes
under the jurisdiction of its own four-state commission…
and is looking at hydro opportunities on its own, according
to its website.
He added that although continuous flow with a drop of 140 to
165 feet is best for hydro-electric production, “what
makes for an attractive hydro opportunity includes the amounts
of water flow, which in the case of some of our reservoirs such
as the Schoharie, can be very strong.”
Starhein noted that even with hydro-electrical engineering science
advancing fast these days, he didn’t want to push the
City too hard with his requests. At least for now.
But is his plan for using reservoir overflow doable for other
parts of the reservoir outside of his cooperative’s reach?
We mentioned Jay Ungar and Molly Mason’s dream of achieving
energy sustainability at their Ashokan Center once it’s
split off from City property that includes the nearby reservoir’s
mighty Wastewater Channel, re-opened in recent years when the
Schoharie Reservoir was being drained for dam repair work.
“What we look forward to is developing a portfolio of
renewable energy sources that would allow us to potentially
play a more significant role as an energy provider in the wider
region,” Starhein said, noting that as one of 900 rural
electrical cooperatives across the country, he’s part
of a larger, grass roots movement… and dedicated to helping
other rural residents and businesses find sustainable, affordable
energy on a non-corporate level.
New York State currently has four rural electric cooperatives,
including Delaware County’s, which were created in 1941.
The movement stems from a state “Rural Electric Cooperative
Law” enacted during the war that permitted farmers to
serve electricity to themselves that went national by 1943…
. A National Rural Electrical Cooperative Association was formed
the next year as a means of helping to overcome World War II
shortages of electric construction materials, to obtain insurance
coverage for newly constructed rural electric cooperatives,
and to mitigate wholesale power problems across the nation.
Today, NRECA has more than 900 member cooperatives serving 40
million people in 47 states. NYSRECA has built up a long-term
partnership with the New York Power Authority, the nation’s
largest non-federal public power company, but also started a
major push towards renewable resources. The Delaware County
Association has over 5,000 members in 21 towns… and is
open to growth, as well as helping other counties and municipalities
set up similar cooperatives on their own.
And yes, Starhein said, he has been talking with Ulster County
officials of late. As for his cooperative’s ideals, Starhein
referred to a mission statement that focused on taking “pride
providing our members quality electric service and being good
stewards to our local communities” through member controls
giving all equal votes, ”autonomy and independence,”
cooperation with other cooperatives, and a concern for community
that reflects working, “ for the sustainable development
of their communities through policies accepted by their members.
Sure, there have been stumbles of late. Starhein said that his
cooperative was involved in several initiatives for the development
of wind power that ran into significant opposition in a number
of Delaware County communities. But that just opened his eyes
to the subtleties of energy development these days… and
doing it cleanly, in the right places. He feels, for the moment,
that harnessing the region’s hydro potential is a key
means of moving the Catskills, and eventually entirety of Upstate,
past its current economic fears brought on by higher fuel prices.
“We’ve got a diamond in the rough here,” he
said. “And in our grass roots, cooperative approach, a
uniquely homestyle way of doing things new.”
Hotel
Debris Draws DEC Ire
Gutierrez is the contractor that demolished the remains of the
Phoenicia Hotel a couple weeks ago. While much of the debris
remains on the site in huge pile, some amount was allegedly
trucked off site to Jameson’s property.
Rumors spread quickly that the material was being dumped at
Jameson’s, although the stories of large dump truck loads
appear to have been exaggerated.
Regardless, someone made a complaint to the DEC on June 25th.
DEC Police investigated and charged Jameson with operating a
solid waste management facility without a permit. Gutierrez
was charged with unattended open burning, open burning without
a permit and open burning for commercial purposes. He was also
charged with two counts of unlawfully disposing of solid waste.
Jameson said that a DEC Officer came to Romer Mountain Park
during a wedding party and asked to inspect the premises. Jameson
said he knew what the visit was about.
“I cooperated completely,” he said.
Jameson confesses that he asked that the material be brought
to his place for use as firewood when he makes outdoor bonfires,
much like the one he had set up for the wedding. While that
particular bonfire did not have any of the hotel material in
it, Jameson expected ones later this year would.
Not any more though.
“Dave (Gutierrez) needs to come back here and take the
stuff away and dispose of it properly,” Jameson said.
According to Declan Feehan, the owner of the hotel property
and personal friend of both Jameson and Gutierrez, the matter
has been blown out of proportion. Feehan agreed that some wood
from the hotel was trucked to Jameson’s for use later
this summer when Jameson holds his annual community party, the
focus of which is a large bonfire come twilight.
As for the open burning charges leveled at Gutierrez, Feehan
said a small amount of wood from the Hotel was also brought
to another location in Lanesville for use as a fire starter
to get a pile of recently cleared brush burning.
Feehan added that he feels disappointed because the charges
make it sound like there was some diabolical, large scale operation
to remove the debris.
He said that as a result of the publicity, Gutierrez has lost
over $50,000 worth of work that had been scheduled for this
year. Feehan further noted that someone has been driving around
to places where Gutierrez is working and telling the landowners
of the charges and urging them to think twice about using the
contractor.
Both Jameson and Gutierrez were expected to appear in Shandaken
Court on July 29th, but Jameson later noted that the TownJustice
on duty that night, Thomas Crucet, is also his attorney. So
a postponement is likely.
The current charges come as many in the area have grown heated
over a new set of DEC regulations get reviewed that would ban
all open burning in the state except for three foot by three
foot camp fires, controlled agricultural burns on farms, and
ceremonial bonfires.
The deadline for public comment on the proposed regs, which
state officials have said were aimed primarily at stopping pollution
caused by the burning of toxic matter in burn barrels, has been
extended to August 14. Further hearings have also been set on
the proposed laws…
A
Jar Of Olives...
Searching Out 4 Bars
Cell Service IS Coming To Town Soon - Now Prompts County Call
To Boycott Greene
The good news, however, which I heard from somebody who knew
somebody, is that someone actually took pictures of some technicians
actually working up on the cell tower on South Mountain. The
rumor is that by the time this paper is published, or at least
by the next one, we might be able to ask, “Can you hear
me now?”
It does seem that cell service will be a reality by Olive Day.
This is certainly a boon to that need for emergency communication,
but it will be life altering for those of us who have existed
for so long on landlines. Will we develop the posture of a cell
phone user? Notice that cell phone users always are looking
down to below waist level to punch in numbers or letters. They
also have a tendency to lean left or right depending on which
ear they have the phone. I predict that massage therapists and
chiropractors will do a booming business soothing stressed necks
until our bodies adjust to this new connection.
I will have to start carrying the phone with me along with my
reading glasses so I can read the tiny buttons and menus. I
have one of those designer phones that will take pictures, text,
play music and do everything else except wash the dishes. So
far I have mastered answering it and pushing “end.”
I vow that I will not be one of those obnoxious people who carry
on a very personal conversation in a very public place. I have
been privy to romantic, sexual, financial and health information
that I would not share with my best friend as I overhear strangers
talking as if no one could hear them. I’m so glad I retired
when I did. I can’t imagine a thousand school kids texting
and calling each other with a thousand ring tones producing
cacophony and chaos in the classroom.
On the other hand, I am glad that I taught at Onteora when I
did because I have the privilege of being Bert Breitenberger’s
colleague for so many years. Mr. B passed away, but no teacher
or student will ever forget him. Bert would challenge students
to wheelchair races up and down the main hall, and when no one
wanted to coach the cheerleaders, Bert volunteered. Teachers,
like Bert, live on in the minds and hearts of their students.
How about that politician who said we should stop “whining”
about the economy. This is America. I am sure that “The
Right to Whine” was implied in the Bill of Rights. I have
confidence in my fellow Americans that the war will end soon,
a car will run on some alternative fuel, that solar and wind
will energize our houses, and that someone will develop a chocolate
flavored dessert guaranteed to vaporize a pound of cellulite
with each serving. In the meantime, I will lightheartedly whine
about the new technology or the old fossil fuel problems, but
I will conclude with some good news.
Brittany Maouris, Kim Alexander’s daughter and one of
my favorite students, graduated from St. Rose College in Albany.
Sherrett Chase celebrated his 90th birthday.
A company that sells liquidated and surplus hardware, houseware,
and lumber operates out of the old Singer-Denman building. It’s
a treasure hunt.
The Tongore Garden Club hosted a floral arranging demonstration
by Andrew Kern who is the Master Gardener at Mohonk. Members
brought flowers from their gardens, and dozens of arrangement
were enjoyed and shared. I have a fragrant bouquet of yellow
lilies on my sideboard. They are so magnificent that I should
take a picture of them with my cell phone. Of course, I will
never be able to retrieve, email or print that picture until
someone gives me lessons on “How to use this new-fangled
gadget.”
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