Recently, Margaret Lundin’s family came visiting. Great nephews DJ Zuniga (left) and Xander Zuniga (right), took to Kendal right away.
Photo by Cynthia Ferguson
Recently, Louise Kikuchi discovered a fuzzy new Rockwood Park inhabitant on the prowl.
Photo by Carolyn Reiss
Bridge over still waters, by Edward Kasinec
Autumnal reflections, by Harry Bloomfield
Joyce and Ed Lannert took a trip upstate to High Falls. No vacation that. They were on a mission: cat sitting for their son and his wife while they were away from home. The cat certainly didn’t seem to mind.
In Lannert fashion, they decided to explore the area. The nearby town of Rosendale seemed particularly inviting.
Meanwhile, in their travels, they came across a particular creature that seemed to be ready for Halloween.
Turns out they’re Milkweed Bugs—a nuisance rather than a scary thing.
Photos by Ed Lannert.
On October 14, ten members of the Kendal Environmental Action Committee toured the Westchester Materials Recovery Center in Yonkers. Bob Abramovitz, Chair, Kendal Environmental Action Committee, reports:
From the third-floor viewing deck, we watched trucks unload paper and cardboard on one side and mixed glass, plastic, aluminum, and metal on the other. Our guide, Tom Higgins, explained how magnets, optical scanners, air jets, and lasers sort the materials into separate streams for shipment to buyers.
Kendal sends its recyclables here for free, compared with $46.37 per ton to burn our trash if sent to Peekskill. Last year, the center earned $4.5 million selling recyclables, helping cover its costs. The message is clear: recycling saves money, conserves resources, and helps protect our climate.
The 250th commemorative community quilts for Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown are complete and ready to be handed over to the two villages as part of the special event scheduled for November 1. (See “Coming Soon” section of Residents Website.) The quilts will be part of a procession from Sleepy Hollow Riverwalk, down to Pierson Park where they will be turned over to the villages around 1:30 pm. They will hang in the Town Halls of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow.
Here are pictures of the quilts made by people in Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown to celebrate the 250th birthday of the country. All the heart squares were made by the public at schools, libraries, farmers market, senior groups, and more organizations. Squares for Kendal on Hudson are on each quilt. Three Kendal residents, Sheila Benedis, Ginny Bender and Marilyn Bottjer provided eight squares for the quilts. Those squares are divided between the two quilts.
In six months, hundreds of community members of all ages sewed a total of 500 little hearts to small squares at 14 public events and in their homes and schools; and designed and sewed a total of 52 large squares; and all of the pieces were quilted together by talented volunteers.
And, and to their historical meaning, each quilt will be backed by Lenape cotton, seen below.
Don’t think you can make the great November 1 event, but still want to see the quilts? Or you want to see them closer up? Good news is here:
The quilts will be here at Kendal on display in the Craft Room on Friday, October 30, from 2 - 3:30 pm.
Come have a look at our present, past, and future.
Want to Vote Early?
Don’t Know How You’ll Get to the Polls?
Sharry Lukach Has the Answer!
Shelly Lukach was sandwich boarded on Friday. Her message was a simple one. Available: Rides to the Polls for Early Voting!
Here, again, are the days and times:
Thursday, October 29 3 – 8 pm
Friday, October 30 10 am – 4 pm
Saturday, October 31 10 am – 6 pm
Sunday, November 1 noon – 6 pm
Need a ride? Call Sharry: x 1322 or (917) 595-0845!
The Votes Will be Rolling In!
Planning to watch the election results? Join an evening of election watching, lively conversation, and community. Who knows what surprises the night will bring? What will the results mean for our country, our communities, and Kendal?
Let’s watch, talk, and find out together! Tuesday, November 3, 7:30 pm, in the GR
This is short notice, as the focus this week and next week will be finishing up the Palisades Dining Room and the new kitchen. The open house for both of those areas has been postponed until next Friday, October 30th. We are still working on escalating the pool issue again to the next level.
I know there are a lot of questions about when the Gathering Room and other areas will be open or closed. As frustrating as it is for you, it is as well for Administration as we go through our phasing issues. As of now, we are working to piece together all the moving parts to keep as much as possible in place for the next phase.
By the end of next week, you will receive a letter regarding dining on the opening and the process. The Palisades and the new kitchen are set to open either November 4th or 5th. We will let you know in the letter.
I will be trying to piece all this together over the next two weeks and reach out to certain committees. I know it is not the best answer for now, but I don’t want to give the wrong dates.
Thank you for your cooperation and patience. (Okay, not so short an update)
From the Office of Ellen Ottstadt
For a sloth, there’s no such thing as rushing through lunch — in fact, a sloth can take up to a month to process just one leaf through its digestive system. Their leafy diet is low in calories and difficult to digest, so they’ve evolved a slow metabolism and a digestive system that allows food to remain in the gut for a remarkably long time. Microbes help break down tough plant fibers and unlock nutrients and energy from the leaves they eat.
That slow digestion fits with the sloth’s energy-saving lifestyle. A sloth’s metabolic rate is just 40% to 74% of what would be expected for another mammal of the same body weight. Sloths conserve energy by moving slowly, eating relatively little, and spending much of their time resting. Because food can remain in the digestive tract for weeks, sloths typically defecate only about once a week.
Source: Britannica.com, “Animal Facts,” Kristina Wright
Contributed by Jane Hart
Contributed by Maria Harris
Art and photos by Sheila Benedis
4H was exactly the boost Runyon needed
Lacey, a fashionista, made bikinis out of cocktail napkins
Elberon liked to call himself the “Original Mr. Green Genes”
Dozing after a 3-day bacchanal, Flavia forgot that she’d invited her in-laws to brunch
Philmont’s building was getting stranger by the day
Art and photos by Jane Hart
Photo by Harry Bloomfeld
Former Westchester County Executive—now Congressional District 17 Representative—answered prepared questions from Moderator Joyce Lannert and questions from the audience about the world of Washington DC—and beyond. Photo by Ed Lannert
Photo by Louise Kikuchi
Photo by Edward Kasinec
Photo by Amanda Slattery
Photo by Amanda Slattery
Photo by Ed Lannert
Photo by Philip Monteleoni
Once a year, The Washington Post’s Mensa Invitational invites readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.
Here are the winners:
1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Ignoranus: A person who’s both stupid and an asshole.
3. Intaxicaton: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.
9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit)
11. Karmageddon: It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
12. Decafalon(n):The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
13. Glibido: All talk and no action.
14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
17. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you’re eating.
* * * * *
The WashingtonPost has also publishes the winning submissions to its yearly contest in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.
And the winners are:
1. Coffee, n. The person upon whom one coughs.
2. Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.
3. Abdicate, v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. Esplanade, v. To attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. Willy-nilly, adj. Impotent.
6. Negligent, adj. Absent mindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.
7. Lymph, v. To walk with a lisp
8. Gargoyle, n. Olive-flavored mouthwash.
9. Flatulence, n. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.
10. Balderdash, n. A rapidly receding hairline.
11. Testicle, n. A humorous question on an exam.
12. Rectitude, n. The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
13. Pokemon, n. A Rastafarian proctologist.
14. Oyster, n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism, n. The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. Circumvent, n. An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.
Contributed by Simone
This past week the Jacob Purdy House—General George Washington’s 1776 and 1778 headquarters—was the site for the 250th anniversary commemoration for the Battle of White Plains. Both Amanda Sattery and Henry Neale were there to look, listen, and learn. The celebration included:
Henry Neale awaiting speeches.
The “roll of honor” reading includes the names of local militiamen at the Battle of White Plains.
The militia’s fife and drum and flag carriers
The militia, ready for review
The essential blacksmith kept horses in the field. (Behind them, the abomination of modern horseless carriages.)
Photos by Amanda Slattery
They went low, they went high—and everywhere in between. Last week. the window washers arrived at Kendal and set about for a general, all-around cleaning.
Start with your feet on the ground. Photo by Amanda Slattery.
Getting to those out-of-the-way/hard-to-reach areas. Photo by Peter Roggemann.
Go a little higher. Can you reach that little spot right up there? Photo by Peter Roggemann.
And higher still! Photo by Peter Roggemann
But, if you think those guys had it tough:
Cleaning windows by Grand Central Station—Now that’s a reach! Photo by Peter Roggemann
The fire alarm that was set off last week was no test or training program. Also: no fire. Instead, it was due to a smoke condition in Adirondack. Given the old saying, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” the fire department quickly arrived and handled the situation. No fire. The smoke was caused by a piece of equipment. Whew!
Answering the Call
And then some!
In many colors, no less!
The Chief arrives and all is well.
Photos by Amanda Slattery
From the Office of Ellen Ottstadt
Background and purchase
Russia had offered to sell its North American territory to the United States on several occasions, but the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 led to the postponement of discussions. In December 1866, a year after the war’s conclusion, Baron Eduard de Stoeckl, Russian minister to the United States, was instructed by Emperor Alexander II to open negotiations for its sale. The cost and logistical difficulties of supplying the territory had made it an economic liability to the Russians, who were additionally struggling with debt accrued during the disastrous Crimean War (1853–56). Though Russian interactions with the native Aleut people had been largely peaceful, the Tlingit tribes were more restive, leading to sporadic episodes of violence and the interruption of provisions. Political forces in Russia increasingly looked instead toward Asian expansion and—in light of the American philosophy of Manifest Destiny and increased competition from the British Hudson’s Bay Company, which leased a southern portion of the territory—viewed the eventual control of the territory by the United States as inevitable and perhaps beneficial.
Stoeckl approached William Henry Seward, secretary of state under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, through an intermediary, journalist and politician Thurlow Weed. (Seward, an advocate of U.S. expansionism, had long desired Alaska.) The two statesmen began private discussions on March 11, 1867; Stoeckl remained coy about the sale until Seward expressed interest. On March 29, 1867, Stoeckl and Seward completed the draft of a treaty ceding Russian North America to the United States, and the treaty was signed early the following day. The price—$7.2 million—amounted to about two cents per acre. Reportedly, the popular dessert baked Alaska was created to celebrate the acquisition of the territory.
Reaction
Some newspapers—particularly Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune—savaged the decision, variously deeming the new territory “Seward’s Icebox,” “Seward’s Folly,” and “Walrussia.” However, most Americans were ambivalent; some supported the decision as a step toward the annexation of Canada. The treaty was submitted to the Senate for consent on March 30, 1867. Early opponent Sen. Charles Sumner—swayed in part by information about the territory’s abundant natural resources, gathered during Smithsonian Institution-sponsored expeditions in 1859 and 1865—spoke in its favor for more than three hours. It was passed on April 9. The United States officially took possession on October 18 in a flag-changing ceremony at Sitka. However, there was resistance to payment among members of the House, who were disinclined to support President Johnson, with whom they were unhappy over his dismissal of the Senate-appointed secretary of war (in defiance of the Tenure of Office Act). The House entered articles of impeachment in February 1868, but the attempt to oust him was unsuccessful. The necessary appropriations were ultimately passed on July 14, 1868. Extensive propaganda campaigns and judicious use of bribes by Stoeckl secured the required votes in each house of Congress.
Aftermath and statehood
Alaska remained under US Army control until June 1877, after which it was governed briefly by the Treasury Department and then by various military authorities. Most Russians who had occupied the territory were not permanent residents and had returned to Russia following the sale. Those who remained were given the option of applying for US citizenship within three years, but most eventually left. A civil government was installed in May 1884 after the territory became a district. Alaska was accepted into the union as the 49th state on January 3, 1959.
Source: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica and most recently revised and updated by Mindy Johnston.
Contributed by Hildegarde Gray
Contributed by Barbara Brunho
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Photographs of life at Kendal on Hudson are by residents.