I Didn't Know That

There’s an Elephant Orchestra in Thailand: the Only Non-Human Orchestra in the World

In 2000, musician Dave Soldier and conservationist Richard Lair co-founded the Thai Elephant Orchestra, a group of elephants who live—and make music—at a conservation center near the city of Lampang in northern Thailand. Back in 1957, scientist Bernhard Rensch posited that elephants could remember melodies and distinguish between basic scales. This inherent musical ability inspired Soldier (who also goes by David Sulzer in his professional life as a neurobiologist) to give elephants a chance to perform music of their own. He developed the concept with Lair, who believed it would be a great way to raise necessary funds and interest for elephant conservation.

The Thai Elephant Orchestra released their eponymous debut album in 2001, featuring six young elephants performing improvisational music. The band went on to release two more albums: 2004’s Elephonic Rhapsodies, and 2011’s Water Music. The tunes usually revolve around local Thai music traditions and incorporate giant, steel-enforced drums specially built for the elephants to whack. Some elephants can even play the harmonica by blowing air through their trunks. According to Soldier’s website, the orchestra features as many as 16 elephants at any time, and a group of four elephants performs for several minutes each day for guests at the conservation center.

These elephants are so musically gifted that, in 2012, a human orchestra performed an arrangement of their original compositions for a live audience in New York City. After the performance, when asked to guess the composer, audience members speculated that the music had been written by such great talents as John Cage or Antonín Dvorák. To the delight of everyone, the geniuses behind the music were later revealed to be a group of elephants.

Source: Interestingfacts.com

Contributed by Jane Hart

Made In NYC: Brands, Trends, and Inventions That Began in the Big Apple

Chef Boyardee

For a good chunk of the 20th century, Chef Ettore Boiardi was one of the most famous chefs in the world. His eponymous products are still sold around the world today, but Boiardi (aka Boyardee, which he thought would be easier for Americans to pronounce) made his start in New York City. The Plaza Hotel is where he received much of his training as he worked his way up to head chef.

Cincinnati Chili

Tom and John Kiradjieff were Macedonian immigrants who started out selling hot dogs in New York City. They would top them with a Tex-Mex chili before shifting into a version that reflected Greek/Macedonian influences. They moved to Cincinnati and the rest is midwestern culinary history. But it began in NYC.

Ex-Lax

A Hungarian immigrant with the unlikely name of Max Kiss founded Ex-Lax in 1906. The brand proved popular (he’d had the genius idea to flavor it with chocolate, which found a much more receptive public than castor oil). Kiss built a factory on Atlantic Avenue which is a landmark today, although it no long manufactures laxatives. It’s co-op apartments, and no longer houses grumpy test-animal monkeys on its roof.

Source: “Made In NYC,” by Ethan Wolff, March 2024, City Guide New York

Contributed by Bobbie Roggemann

Words of Wisdom From the Younger Set

Don’t pull dad’s finger when he tells you to. Emily, 10

When your mom is mad at your dad, don’t let her brush your hair. Taylia, 11

Never allow your three-year-old brother in the same room as your school assignment. Traci, 14

Don’t sneeze in front of mom when you’re eating crackers. Mitchell, 12

Puppies still have bad breath even after eating a tic tac. Andrew, 9

Never hold a dust buster and a cat at the same time. Kyoyo, 9

You can’t hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk. Armit, 9

Contributed by Bob Abramovitz

In and Around Kendal

November Birthdays

Marathon Time

The annual Pocantico Hills Marathon: a challenging and beautiful course begins and ends at the Rockwood Hall portion of the park overlooking the Hudson River and the Palisades. Both the half marathon and marathon are single loop courses almost entirely on wide-groomed carriage roads. The course climbs a lot, rocking and rolling past fields, stone walls and bridges, grazing livestock, rivers, forests and lakes. There’s an 9 hour time limit for the marathon, which capped at 500 runners this year. Walkers are also invited, starting an hour before the runners. Proceeds this year will support land conservation in the Hudson Valley.

Here they come . . .

. . . and there they go!

Photos by Carolyn Reiss

Rockland Park Photographer Turns to Gardening

Photo by Greg Lozier

The Long and, Well, Not-So-Long of Kendal

Photo by Cathie Campbell

That’s a Thing Now?!

He arranges a walk in the park. They stroll hand-in-hand. She wonders, “Will he ever ask?” He worries, “Will she say Yes?” He drops to one knee. “I love you. Wil you marry me?” Through tears of joy, she gushes, “Oh, yes! Yes!!” Not so much anymore, it seems. Marianne Bloomfeld came across the process of staging “the moment.” She’s all dolled up with shoes that do not speak to a walk in the park, knowing full well what’s afoot. The neon sign may just have given it away. How much did they practice beforehand? The rose petals are artistically spread. The sky dims to sunset. As choreographed, he drops to one knee. And—FLASH!—the moment is preserved for coming generations. Just as if it had just happened at the spur of the moment. Uh huh . . .

Photo by Marianne Bloomfeld

A Smoky Sunset

Photo by Bob Abramovitz

Out and About

Super Moon Rising

Friday night we witnessed the last supermoon of the year. Jeff O’Donnell was there to watch its rise:

6:54 pm

7:18 pm

A supermoon—aka a Beaver moon—is a full moon or a new moon that nearly coincides with perigee—the closest that the Moon comes to the Earth in its orbit—resulting in a slightly larger-than-usual apparent size of the lunar disk as viewed from Earth. The technical name is a perigee syzygy or a full Moon around perigee. Jeff O’Donnell captured in the morning sky: 6:45 and 7:18.

 Source: Wikipedia

Contributed by Jeff O’Donnell

I Didn't Know That

How Long Did It Take to Write the Oxford English Dictionary?

The Oxford English Dictionary, also simply known as the OED, is a massive reference book containing not just words—including obsolete ones—and their definitions, but also detailed information on the words’ history and usage.

The project was born in 1857, when the Philological Society of London, a group dedicated to the history of literature and words, established a committee to collect words that didn’t appear in existing dictionaries at the time. Their goal was to document the English language going back to Anglo-Saxon times, which ended around 1000 CE—so quite a lot of territory to cover.

Work started in earnest in 1879, after Oxford University Press signed on to finance and publish the dictionary, at the time called the New English Dictionary (NED). The staff buckled down and got to work reading and researching; editor James Murray estimated the dictionary would take about 10 years to compile.

In 1884, after working on the dictionary for 5 years, the first fascicle (meaning a part of a book) came out. It only covered the words “a” through “ant.” The project was clearly more ambitious than the Philological Society had originally imagined. Murray started working on the dictionary full time, and over the next several years he was joined by another editor and two co-editors, as well as a large group of amateur word-hunters.

The last fascicle was published on April 19, 1928, nearly 50 years after work began. The original plan was for the dictionary to contain 6,400 pages over four volumes; ultimately, the first edition of the NED contained 12 volumes with 15,487 pages, covering a whopping 414,825 words. Today, the OED continues to document the growing English language, and includes more than 600,000 entries, with new words and meanings added regularly.

Source: historyfacts.com

Contributed by Jane Hart

A Time of Drought: Something to Think About

Drought Watch: Please Conserve Water

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection has issued a drought watch for its water customers, which includes the Tarrytown Water System. A drought watch is the first of three tiers of warnings. In addition to the scant rainfall over the past month, the DEP is repairing an important aqueduct.

Please do what you can to conserve water.

  • Turn off the faucet while shaving, washing up, brushing teeth, and washing dishes.
    The average person uses 10.9 gallons of water from the faucet a day.

  • Fix dripping and leaking faucets and toilets.
    A faucet leaking 30 drops per minute wastes 54 gallons a month. See the USGS Drip Calculator.

  • Don't run the tap to make water cold or hot.
    Instead, keep a pitcher of water in the refrigerator.

  • Put a plastic jug filled with water in the tank of conventional toilets.
    You'll save that much volume in water each time you flush.

  • Throw used facial tissues into the waste basket instead of using the toilet as a waste basket.
    You'll save up to 6 gallons of water each time you don't flush.

  • Wash only full loads of dishes and laundry. The average dishwasher uses

8-12 gallons whether or not it's a full load.

  • Install water-saving plumbing fixtures. A low-flow shower head saves up to 7.5 gallons a minute.

  • Take shorter showers or fill the bathtub only part way.
    The average person uses 15 gallons a day in bathing and hygiene.

You can find more helpful tips on the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation website.

Made In NYC: Brands, Trends, and Inventions That Began in the Big Apple

Red Velvet Cake

By Hennem08 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

Although associated with the South, the standard recipe for this classic dessert actually originates with the Waldorf-Astoria. Red velvet cake was a staple at the hotel in the 1920s (that’s their version of it pictured above).

Tootsie Rolls

64 million Tootsie Rolls are made every day. Legend has it that each daily batch picks up from the leftovers of the day before, meaning there’s a trace of the 1907 original in every Tootsie Roll sold today. Like so many New York stories, it began with an immigrant in Brooklyn. Leo Hirschfield came up with the concept, borrowing his daughter Clara’s nickname for its branding. Over a century later, it’s still one of the world’s most popular candies.

Marvel Comics

The Avengers have a place of origin, and it’s New York City. Moe Goodman was born immigrant parents in Brooklyn and went on to found Timely Comics in 1939. From offices in the McGraw-Hill building, and later the Empire State Building, a franchise empire was born. In October 1939, Marvel Comics #1 was published. MCU. movies have gone on to gross more than $29 billion, “making the franchise the most successful in entertainment history,” per a recent New Yorker profile.

Source: “Made In NYC,” by Ethan Wolff, March 2024, City Guide New York

Contributed by Bobbie Roggemann

Art by Hart

Daniel’s underwater hair salon served a niche market

Pendleton felt safer with the full moon watching over him

Florrie’s files were almost all miscellaneous

Roy had planned to get a canary or a parakeet, but Hazel’s blue eyes won his heart

It was hard to recognize Rubber Ducky after his beak surgery

Art and photos by Jane Hart

I Didn't Know That

From The Sissman Chronicles

A Brief Discussion of Photographers

In 1955, the Museum of Modern Art mounted an exhibition of over 500 photographs, called “The Family of Man.” Its enthusiastic reception, followed by foreign showings in most western countries, firmly established photography as an art in addition to being a form of documentation.  

The list of famous photographers over the last century and a half is long, and there is not enough room to list them all. One of the earliest Americans was Matthew Brady (no relation to our beloved Kendal photographer, the late Arthur Braady), who created a portable studio with which he traveled to record the carnage of our Civil war battlefields, he also took famous portraits of Lincoln and Grant.

Matthew Brady

In the 20th century, the most famous and accomplished was Henri Cartier-Bresson, who coined the phrase “the decisive moment” as the important component of his work. Equally accomplished, but much less known, is a Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, who roamed South America recording the abominable condition of workers in factories, farms, and mines.

Cecil Beaton portrayed the rich, beautiful, and famous of Britain; his American counterparts were Richard Avedon and Irving Penn. Ansel Adams and Eliot Porter brought us the beauty of America’s wilderness. Adams’ photos were recently featured on a sheet of US stamps.

Ansel Adams Forever Stamps

Among others of note were Margaret Bourke-White, Dorothea Lange, Alfred Stieglitz (who is most famous for his remarkable photos of his nude wife, the painter Georgia O’Keefe), Man Ray, Alfred Eisenstaat, Yousef Karsh, and Robert Capa.

“Migrant Mother,” Dorothea Lange

“D-Day Landing,” Robert Capa

One remarkable but little-known figure is Vivian Maier, whose biography has always fascinated me. She worked her entire life as a nanny to the children of New York’s richest families. But on her time off, she roamed the streets of Manhattan with her Rolleiflex, capturing on film citizens of all levels of affluence and of all ages and identities pursuing their ordinary public activities.

Vivian Maier

After her death, a carton containing thousands of her negatives was discovered. Once they were recognized as extraordinarily beautiful and moving, the best were published in book form!

Vivian Maier

My favorite photograph, after decades of viewing thousands, is by Salgado. While traveling through Ecuador, apparently, he asked a middle-aged peasant couple to pose for a portrait. They stand side by side in the sun with an out-of-focus mountain behind them. They are dressed in their best clothes, neat but black and shabby. Their faces are lined, probably from long hours farming in the open. They gaze benevolently into the camera. Their faces express a calm, unassuming self-satisfaction with their lives and accomplishments, despite their poverty and isolation—conveyed with total dignity. He is holding in his arms a small white lamb; she is cradling, in her cupped hands, a tiny bird!

“The Family,” Sebastião Salgado

Norman Sissman

© Kendal on Hudson Residents Association 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 all rights reserved.  Please do not reproduce without permission.

Photographs of life at Kendal on Hudson are by residents.