A September Potpourri

Hurting businesses on Second Avenue; Sept. 11; and Rosh Hashanah

By Bette Dewing

Yup, a New York Times review’s claim that no one’s sensibilities would be offended by Eat Pray Love actually got me out to the movies. Except for a few offending words, I left the theater with a glow which made East 86th Street’s maddening crowds seem almost friendly. Do you ever miss the going-to-the-movie experience where your sensibilities weren’t offended and earplugs and deep pockets weren’t needed? Read more

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Harsher Penalties in Traffic Crimes

There must be zero tolerance in hit-and-runs like the one that killed Michael Ward

By Bette Dewing

“We need as much to be reminded as informed,” Dr. Samuel Johnson so rightly opined.

An August 5 Our Town letter about the death of Michael Ward, who was killed in a hit-and-run on the East Side, needs repeated informing of the desperate—but slighted—need to prevent what we need to call traffic tragedies, not accidents. Read more

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Weddings, Family and Heat Waves

Our culture’s hyper-individualism is harming us all

By Bette Dewing

Weddings—ah, but what’s needed is a great revival of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s wedding message to Diana and Charles; it applies to our culture’s hyper-individualism too:

“Any marriage which is turned in upon itself, in which the bride and groom gaze obsessively at one another, goes sour after a time. A marriage which really works is one which works for others: marriage has both a private and a public face and a public importance. If we solved all our economic problems and failed to build loving families, it would profit us nothing, because the family is the place where the future is created good and full of love—or deformed.” Read more

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The Scourge of Alzheimer’s

Finding a cure for that most insidious disease

By Bette Dewing

Why am I crying, I wondered, as I read Juliet Macur’s New York Times story, “Sensing His Own Mortality,” about George Steinbrenner.

More important to me than the avalanche coverage given Yankee baseball owner George Steinbrenner’s dying was how at 74, he spoke “with candor about regrets, death and family, how old age really stinks… and his fear of dying.” He cried several times, which also made the young reporter quite teary. Read more

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Recalling the Greatest Generation

A book and some flags to bring us together

By Bette Dewing

Happy birthday America?

“Well, I didn’t see one flag displayed this Memorial Day on the Upper East Side,” said East End Avenue doorman Bob McNicol, frowning. “In Queens, Far Rockaway and other much more diverse places, flags are everywhere! After all, there’s a war on!” Read more

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Mayoral Attention for Crimes of Traffic

Yield to pedestrians, stop speeding and support mass transit for safer streets

By Bette Dewing

Just before the mayor’s weekly John Gambling WOR radio show, I heard the following public service announcement: “Parking violations violate the rights of disabled persons. Call 311 to report.” But where are the warnings to drivers and cyclists against their moving violations, which take lives and physically injure and emotionally stress even traffic law-observant pedestrians? Read more

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Let’s Get Outraged

Without a high-emotion response, the most pressing problems go unsolved

By Bette Dewing

While I can hardly bear to think of the catastrophic Gulf oil spill, the president is wrong to say, “I’m hired to solve problems, not to show outrage.” Outrage is often essential to problem solving, including the following four. Read more

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More About Mothers

Betty White, Bette Davis and Memorial Day 2010

By Bette Dewing

Because columns, like exercise, diet and relationships, need continuity, here’s an update on the Share the Talk Club (“so nobody is left out,” remember?). It’s now my answering machine message, “and a little bell will ring to tell us we’re saying too much or too little.” Oh well, who needs those callers. Read more

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Share the Talk Club

Let’s discuss safe traveling and co-op and condo home transparency

By Bette Dewing

“If you see something, say something,” has long been my mantra, got me writing this column and countless letters to editors, and using 311 a lot (often about good or bad bus drivers). But speaking in public or in groups is forever a problem. I am shy, an introvert, which those who rule the world—“the talk”—mostly are not. Read more

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Pick Up That Phone

Overcoming the everyday social barriers that keep generations apart

By Bette Dewing

Here’s to more true public service messages, like this pre-cell-phone-explosion public phone booth Mother’s Day ad. Cell phones make it less physically “troubling” to pick up the phone, and most will be picked up on Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 9, to call you-know-who. But is there the follow-up to make the everyday difference that counts? And will talks be more about the weather than, heaven forbid, overcoming any one-sided sharing? Read more

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Pet of the Month

To submit your pet, send an email with photo attached to pets@manhattanmedia.com describing in 100 words or less why your animal deserves recognition. We will select one winner to appear on our monthly pets page. Photos will be judged on factors including cuteness, originality, artistic merit and how compelling the accompanying story is. Pictures must be at least 300 DPI.