By Dana Jean Costantino Over the last several years we have seen the interest in, and demand for, healthful drinks climb to new heights. Whether it be kombucha, matcha, juice cleanses, herbal teas and tonics, bone broth, or flavored waters, people are turning, in great numbers, to using these drinks as key parts of their
-
-
On Writing My First Play
By Carol Yost I’d had an idea for this play since the 1970s, but it was hardly like the play I wound up writings. Still, it was inspired by what I saw when I was a secretary for tenants’ lawyers. It is my first finished play. A few months ago, during the Covid lockdown, I
-
The Broadway Bubble
By Gordon Hughes There is an amazing, sometimes controversial, movement occurring on the Great White Way. Right now there are more than 125 plays and musicals running on a variety of television screens. Some are traditional TV networks. Others are streaming on outlets such as Netflix and Apple. I mention those two networks because two
-
Black Holes
Abstracted from “A Scientists View of Almost Everything” by Mark M Green To get away from the earth’s gravitational field, objects have to accelerate to a speed of about 25,000 miles per hour. This so called escape velocity, needed to overcome the gravitational field of any body, depends on that body’s mass (how much matter
-
School Days
By Jeff Hodges Our daughter is a natural producer, director and performer. She says it was inevitable that she would become a teacher. She discovered her avocation after college when she began substitute teaching to make ends meet. Two years later, with a graduate degree in Education, she was a teacher in a brand new
-
Google Buys St. John’s Terminal
St. John’s Terminal has gone through many iterations over the years. When WVN first started writing about possibilities, several architects had already offered ideas. We offered this rendering, hoping a development would contain a hospital: COOKFOX first showed a mega-development with air-right-transfers: Later, when the north tower was separated from the south portions, and the
-
NYC Retiree Alert
By J. Taylor Basker & Jesse Kasowitz While you were enjoying the summer on the beach, sunning, swimming, or boating, the city unions sank the secure medical coverage you thought you had for life, as a retired city worker, behind your backs. Your sunscreen did not protect you from this dangerous change privatizing your Medicare.
-
Little Italy has almost no public green space.
@Adrian_Benepe tweeted: Little Italy has almost no public green space. Mostly it has asphalt yards. Why would the City destroy a beloved green space that provides pollution and storm water absorption and cooling in a known urban heat island? Adrian Benepe is a Senior executive with a career in government & non-profits working on parks,
-
Review of “Walk on the Wild Side: The Folk Scene, Before and After Bob Dylan”
By Anthony Paradiso On Saturday, September 18th, I went on a walking tour organized by the “Village Trip Festival.” The tour took me on a journey through the former homes of key members of the folk music revival that took place in the Village 50 years ago. Our tour guide, Jesse Rifkin, explained why the
-
Sigmund Freud and the Birth of Public Relations
By Bruce Poli Edward L. Bernays Sigmund Freud, “Uncle Sigi” to Bernays In the early 1940s my mother had lunch with Edward L. Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud and uncle of Peter Bernays, her “beau” (and Freud’s great nephew). She was to be interviewed the next day as a pioneering woman advertising copywriter. Edward carefully
-
When No Place Is Home
By Kieran Loughney While on an errand one sweltering summer day, I observed a woman covered in thick layers of soiled and tattered clothing crouched beneath a scaffold on 6th Avenue among brimming bags of her collected detritus. Her feet were bare except for a coating of greasy black filth. A few blocks away, an
-
Superhero XIII: The Hazards and Happinesses of the Short Sublet
By Robert Kroll Those of you, and I mean both of you, who regularly follow this series of columns on the meaning and essence of the co-operative ownership of residential apartments, know that I’ve tried to point out the pitfalls, the problems and the predators of co-op living in the Village. There are probably no
-
Possible Roadmap to Block a Cure for AIDS
By Kambiz Shekdar, Ph.D. According to the group US Inventor, large companies can use the Patent Trial Appeals Group (PTAB) process to challenge innovations that get in their way, and most individual inventors and smaller groups do not have half a million dollars to mount a legal defense. AIDS patients are like cash cows. A
-
Notes From Away: Sentinel of Democracy
By Tom Lamia On January 6 of this year, during the course of the chaos taking place below, one can only think that the saddest vision that day was in the eyes of the bronze figure atop the Capitol dome. That figure was commissioned by the government of the United States in the early 1850s
-
Sliwa for Mayor: NYC’s Guardian Angel?
By Anastasia Kaliabakos As a native New Yorker born in 2002, I have been witness to the leadership of two mayors: Michael Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio. I remember that, in middle school, one of my teachers facilitated a debate about Mayor Bloomberg’s attempt to ban the Big Gulp, which was one of the many
-
Thieves Easily Walk Through Electronic Doors
By George Capsis I got a call: a young-sounding male voice that said he was my grandson, had been in an automobile accident the night before, his hands and face were hurt, and he needed my help. He admitted the accident had been his “fault,” and instructed that I needed to bring cash to his
-
Back in the Theatre District
By Gordon Hughes It’s about time. On August 18, 2021 I was back in Gotham for the first time in almost a year and a half. What better way to make reentry than attend the reopening of the venerable Joe Allen’s. The place was packed with actors, directors, dancers, singers, and, of course, producers. Laughs
-
The Digital Age or the End of the World as We Knew It
By Roger Paradiso Some say the digital age had its beginning with the transistor, which belonged to the analog age. Remember transistor radios? I remember walking around the neighborhood listening to WABC disc jockeys who played the top forty hits. Whether it was the Beach Boys or the Four Seasons, it was a special time.
-
Ramati, the Local Shoe Brand that is Changing Fashion’s Carbon Footprint One Step at a Time
By Karilyn Prisco As a fashion stylist I am constantly being introduced to new brands, trends and products. My love for fashion and my consumer responsibilities have always held a tense relationship. The devastating statistics speak for themselves. A 2021 report from the World Economic Forum identified fashion, and its supply chain, as the planet’s
-
DOT Fails Enforcement of Open Restaurants
By Brian J. Pape, AIA,LEED-AP In a damning report issued by Council Speaker Cory Johnson’s office in August, the long-standing safety rules for street rights-of-way are routinely violated with no apparent enforcement. At a time when the mayor’s office and its Department of City Planning (DCP) are pushing to adopt new zoning laws that shift
-
Brass Bands: Sounds and Smiles on a Summer Night
By Ede Rothaus Wafting through the hot, still, and damp air of an August summer night in Manhattan: the unmistakable melody of La Vie en Rose. I followed the music, towards the river, seeing glints of gold shining in the fading light. The glittering came from two of the instruments being played by a small
-
Beth Israel Hospital Has Been Saved
By Siggy Raible It’s mid-August and we Manhattanites with no summer retreat are living in the city during the dog days of summer…you know, “those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.” With time on my hands, I’ve decided to respond to the article by Arthur Schwartz, “Beth Israel Hospital Staying Open—What Should It Look Like,”
-
Why I Have Great Expectations for Eric Adams
By Arthur Schwartz For the last seven years New York City has suffered through one of the most ineffectual Mayors in its history. That even includes Abraham Beame (remember him?) the Mayor who reigned over the collapse of New York City in the 1970s, and the takeover of New York City’s finances by a State
-
The Children’s Free Opera
By Michael Feldman Recently, Terry Stoller, writing for the Westbeth, “Profiles in Art” series, interviewed me about my life’s work, which naturally centered on St Luke’s, China, the New York Collegium and the more recent St Veronica project and my admitted responsibilities in its demise. Somewhat forgotten were my early years in IS 70, an
-
Salvador Peter Tomas Sang His Farewell Aria at 101
By J. Taylor Basker Operas often have tragic endings. Some of their greatest music has been written for characters who are dying. Death is seen as a dramatic opportunity, a moment of truth about our human condition. It is not feared or denied, but celebrated with powerful heartbreaking music. Gospel music also celebrates death—as a
-
The Best Secret About Property Insurance Claims That You Need to Know
By Brian Evans, CEO Eastern Public, LLC, http://www.EasternPublic.com When the little newspaper that could suffered water damage, first from a suddenly leaky sink drain, and then from an abrupt roof failure, they did what millions of New Yorkers have done before them—they turned to their property insurance carrier for help. And just like the millions
-
Why Exposing the Truth About 9/11 is Still So Important
By Craig McKee It’s hard to believe it has already been 20 years since the world was stunned by what we were told was a terrorist attack by Muslim extremists. We remember the images, the feelings, the disorientation we experienced on that clear Tuesday morning as we watched something unfold that we would never have
-
The Tallest Buildings in the World
By Eric Uhlfelder Twenty years ago he was in Hong Kong working on the AIG tower. He was having dinner with colleagues when he had first heard the news. It wasn’t the first time Leslie Robertson’s towers were attacked. When he surveyed the damage the day after the 1993 bombing, he found the Towers had
-
Refugees in Our Own City
By Jeff Hodges On the night of September 10, 2001, I was shooting the Marc Jacobs Spring Collection at Pier 54. Actually, I was shooting the celebrity arrivals, and when that was finished, I walked to the end of the pier to shoot some video of the Twin Towers. Although the client only needed a
-
Generation Z’s View of a Post 9/11 America
By Anastasia Kaliabakos When I was sixteen years old, I traveled on my first international flight on a trip to Italy. I had been to airports a few times in my life, but could never shake the awe of how secure New York airports like Laguardia or JFK were. There were endless lines, bag checks,
-
Summertime in August at the Jersey Shore
By Robert Heide with John Gilman During the 1940s War years I was a wee tot who spent every summer in nearby Olympic Park, New Jersey’s greatest amusement park, which opened in 1840 and sadly closed in 1965. My father enjoyed the beer garden there sitting at a table and listening to Joe Basile’s brass
-
The Digital Revolution and the End of the World as We Knew It
By Roger Paradiso You know you’re in another world when you call the 800 number for a product you have and get the following recorded message: “Hello and thank you for calling. Your call is very important to us.” Really? How come you can’t answer the phone if it is that important? The recorded voice
-
Restore Fairness
By Alec Pruchnicki One of the possible reasons American politics is so polarized is that supporters of both sides never hear the opinions, arguments, and “facts” from the other side. There used to be a partial solution to this called the fairness doctrine. It required that TV broadcasters address issues important to the public and
-
A Happy Heart Story, Featuring Non-Profit, Harboring Hearts
By Dana Jean Costantino For the last several years I have had the great pleasure of being on the Junior Board of a New York based non-profit called Harboring Hearts. They pride themselves on providing the best care and help for heart patients and their families. As many of us celebrate coming out of the
-
Surviving My Childhood
By Jeff Hodges My daughter often tells our friends she is glad she survived my childhood. We spent our workweeks in Manhattan and our weekends upstate, which meant that by kindergarten my daughter could hail a taxi and pick up a snake. She often juxtaposed her locales—I once overheard her instructing some hunters sitting around
-
Dr. Nicola Mertsaris: A Greek Immigrant’s Journey to His American Dream
By Anastasia Kaliabakos Everyone is familiar with the phrase “American Dream,” but what does it really mean? Is it a white picket fence in a suburban town? A brick house with a formidable garden? A stable office job, providing for a wife and two children (one boy, one girl) and a golden retriever? The American
-
Sleep
Abstracted from A Scientists View of Almost Everything By Mark M Green When you or any animal sleeps there’s no doubt of the increased danger from enemies or predators. Sleep means vulnerability. Sleep also means less time to get things done. So why sleep? What is sleep? For a wide range of animals, from human
-
Super Hero XII: Which is Worse/Better: An Israeli Kibbutz or a New York City Co-operative?
By Robert Kroll Being a co-op superintendent is not all glory, glamour, and pride. Much of the time, when the super is not busy making his residents’ lives infinitely better by eliminating as many of the daily annoyances of modern living in an ante-bellum tenement as possible, he is cogitating. He, she, or they have
