BIG TALENT AT JUNIOR OPEN
HARLEM SQUASH PROGRAM BRINGS 'ELITE' SPORT TO THE MASSES
By Adam Bloch
For a high-level competitor heading in to the semifinal match of a big tournament, Mason Ripka had a somewhat surprising air of nonchalance. For a 12-year-old, on the other hand, the relaxed demeanor was pretty much par for the course. Read more
A LETTER TO OBAMA
YOU'VE GOT SOME CAMPAIGN PROMISES TO KEEP
By Malachy McCourt
Dear Citizen Obama,
’Twas not too long ago you were roaming the country fearlessly expounding on the wrongs wrought by the right and telling all within earshot what you were going to do to restore our country to its honorable place among the nations of this earth. At least some of the populace voted for a Congress they thought would bring the thugs, thieves and killers who had been ruining the country to trial. But the spineless, sniveling Democrats in the person of their leaders, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, announced that impeachment was “off the table,” confirming that law, justice and the Constitution were also off the table.
You, Citizen Obama, pounded podium after podium with your message of change. Well, sir, banks make change without changing anything. What we need is progressive thinking. Read more
QUITTERS NEVER WIN
NOTE TO CAROLINE: TRY ASKING, 'WHAT WOULD JACKIE DO?'
By Lorraine Duffy Merkl
Caroline’s a quitter, and I’m quite incensed.
Not because I thought she was the best choice, but because out of nowhere she threw her hat in the ring and was henceforth treated like a butterfly emerging from her chrysalis. Caroline, who never made a show of herself, was going public. People took her seriously enough to invest emotionally in an opinion as to whether or not she should get the Senate job, debated it, held press conferences about it, and when it came to her competitors, started swigging Mylanta straight from the bottle over it.
OUR NANNY TAX PROBLEM
GEITHNER'S CONFIRMATION AND THE LINGERING GENDER BIAS AGAINST WOMEN
By Katherine B. Huang
There’s no such thing as an honest mistake in politics, just like there’s no such thing as gender parity when it comes to the scrutiny that candidates face when nominated to powerful positions in government.
Much has been made of the “tax” problems of President Obama’s choice to head the Treasury Department. Tim Geithner failed to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for a domestic household employee whose legal immigration status lapsed during her employment. Supporters praised his stellar credentials and stints as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and as a senior official of the International Monetary Fund. They insisted it was an “honest mistake.”
Geithner has been confirmed as Secretary of the Treasury (which fined him for his errors). But his “nanny tax” problem reveals the lingering two-tiered litmus test for nominees. Read more
FORDHAM NEEDS TO GROW
In the latest of many development debates facing the Upper West Side, Fordham University has asked the city to grant it several variances so that the school can expand its Lincoln Center campus. Important questions about the project have been raised during recent community board meetings, but we believe that with some key modifications, the school should be permitted to move forward with the plan.
The need for Fordham’s growth is clear. The school says it currently handles almost 8,000 students on a campus designed for 3,500; by 2032, that number is expected to grow to more than 11,000 students. The amount of space per student here is exceptionally low as well: only 106 square feet per student, compared with 388 square feet per student at Columbia, and a national average of 360 square feet per student. Read more
AS WRITER-PRODUCER IN TAKEN, LUC BESSON PROVES HIS MASTERY OF THE ACTION FILM
By Armond White
If French producer-director Luc Besson worked in Hollywood, he’d have won his Irving G. Thalberg Award by now. That particular Oscar, presented to “creative producers whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of Read more
RENEE ZELLWEGER ONLY INDUCES YAWNS IN TRANSPARENTLY POPULIST NEW IN TOWN
By Armond White
The funniest thing about New in Town is the title. Its fish-out-of-water story of Miami-based corporate executive Lucy Hill (Renée Zellweger) sent to small town Ulm, Minnesota, to downsize a snack-food plant is old as Zellweger’s clumsy female Bridget Jones formula—and old as Hollywood’s hills. Yawn-inducing déjà vu descends upon scenes of Read more
BLESSED IS THE MARTYR
SHE MAY BE A HEROINE, BUT HANNAH SENESH SEEMS UNBEARABLY SMUG IN HER POSTHUMOUS FAME
By Mark Peikert
Hannah Senesh is the Jewish Joan of Arc. As part of the only military operation to attempt a rescue of Jews held in concentration camps, the Hungarian Senesh left Palestine to parachute into Yugoslavia, where she was arrested, tortured and eventually executed. Her story has inspired millions, so why does she comes across as such a pill in the new documentary Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh?
Narrated by Joan Allen, with a wealth of Senesh’s poetry and diary entries quoted, the film makes a fatal misstep by including reenactments. Seeing Senesh brought to humorless life and watching actresses wordlessly portray Jewish prisoners turns Senesh’s story into a lackluster installment of a TruTV television series.
But there’s a larger problem than the flat-footed recreation of Senesh’s final days: Hannah herself. Idolized as a Jewish heroine, the story that comes together from interviews with her ancient friends, fellow parachutists and her own letters and diaries is an intriguing one. Safe in Palestine, Senesh insisted on returning to war-torn Eastern Europe to do her part; then, despite being warned by her colleagues not to continue on her mission into Hungary, Senesh stubbornly went anyway, and was captured in a few hours.
Gradually, the picture that we form of Senesh is that of a woman determined to martyr herself, even drawing comparisons to Joan of Arc by lambasting the men putting her on trial as a traitor. Grossman’s documentary never stops to examine what inner fire made this particular Jewish woman so willing to put herself in such highly dangerous situations; we’re expected to accept that some people are capable of selfless heroic actions—even if their heroics are disastrous failures—and some are not. There remains, however, a sneaking suspicion that Senesh’s motives weren’t as pure as they’re presented to be. After all, who doesn’t want a little credit for their good deeds?
Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh
Directed by Roberta Grossman
At Landmark Sunshine Cinema
Running Time: 86 min.
TRANSIENT ATTACK DESERVES SERIOUS ATTENTION
INTERRUPTION OF BLOOD FLOW TO THE BRAIN COULD BE SIGN OF FUTURE STROKE
By Fred Cicetti
Q. How serious is a TIA? I heard that they’re really nothing to worry about.
A. TIA stands for “transient ischemic attack.” A TIA is an interruption in the flow of blood to a part of your brain. Its symptoms are the same as those of a stroke. A TIA lasts anywhere from minutes to many hours. It goes away and leaves no apparent permanent effects. Read more
ITALIAN, AS YOU LIKE IT
EAGER-TO-PLEASE CHEF TURNS OUT AUTHENTIC DISHES FROM TUSCANY AND ABRUZZI
By Tom Steele
Like so many dedicated restaurateurs, opening his first restaurant was a lifelong dream come true for Nick Nubile. In fact, there is a dreamy quality to the dining room, with its crimson accents, gigantic reproductions of paintings by Raphael and Da Vinci all along the west wall, stately clothed tables and dark cherry upholstered banquettes. A shoji screen ends the main dining room. The space is effortlessly poised, but also quite comfortable. Read more
