Happy Birthday, New York Public Library and Ralph Waldo Emerson, UESiders!!
And happy, happy Memorial Day!!
Whether near or far… Whatever the weather… Wallow joyously in the long weekend!!
Then there’s the week ahead:
Saturday, May 27th: 82nd Street/St. Stephen’s Greenmarket
82nd Street between First and York, 9am–2pm
Compost & Clothes Collection, 9am–1pm
Whatever else we’re up to over the holiday, that the Greenmarket Great Regional Grains Project will be back at 82nd will make it just that much better!! You are listening, aren’t you, you bakers, brewers and pasta makers?? (And, really, do check out this particularly wonderful GrowNYC endeavor!)
With us, too, will be American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard’s Honey, Hudson Valley Duck, Rising Sun Beef, Ole Mother Hubbert, Alewife, Samascott, Sikking Flowers and, Gajeski Farms!!
Only two less than high notes: (1) At the last moment, the Master Knife Sharpener was called away and… (2) Given our crazy weather, Cherry Lane’s tomatoes are just not ready for Prime Time at 82nd and likely needing another couple of weeks to move toward ripening…
In the meantime, happily, Hawthorne Valley will still be with us!!
(You have noted next Saturday, June 3rd, as Cooking with Kallos Day, yes?)
Last week’s recycling totals – 43 lbs. batteries; 14 lbs. cords, corks, cellphones and cartridges; 3 pair of eyeglasses; 12 compost bins; 30 bags of clothes; 6870 lbs. paper!!
Yes!! So good to be back in the 12 bin zone!!
And then:
Thursday, June 1st: Free Mammography Screening
78th Street between First & York, commencing at 9am
All insurances accepted with co-pays and deductibles waived. Totally free for all uninsured women over 40 who haven’t had a mammogram in a year or more. Appointments a must, so call 800-564-6868. Funded by Cancer Program Services ofManhattan and Judges and Lawyers Breast Cancer Alert. Hosted by Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright. For questions and further details, contact AM Seawright’s office: 212-288-4607 or SeawrightR@nyassembly.gov.
Saturday, June 3rd: World Science Fair Great Fish Count
17 Waterway Sites in All 5 Boroughs, Westchester & New Jersey, 9am-4pm
And we quote: “From Lemon Creek in Staten Island to the shores of the Bronx River, New York’s waterways are teeming with life — and it’s up to you to find it! Led by top marine scientists and biologists in 17 sites, the Great Fish Count gives attendees of all ages the chance to strap on a pair of waders, cast a net, and discover the underwater world in their own backyard!” Gotta be great!! Free. For more and to sign up…
Saturday, June 3rd: Pier 90 Project – Summer 2017!!
Pier 90, East River Esplanade at 90th Street, 12-3pm
Another great day for New Yorkers of all ages by our wonderful river… Enjoying the music of the great John Putnam Trio… Getting your young face painted (even if you’re over 21, don’t hold back!)… Snacking on goodies from the great COFFEED… And every bit of it free!! (Rain date: Sunday, June 4th)
Sunday, June 11th: Open Tree Data for All Workshop!
St, Mary’s Recreation Center, 450 St. Ann’s Avenue, The Bronx, 9am-3:30pm
Whether you were a Tree Counter or not, master the NYC Open Data Portal and learn how to mine the info collected by 2015’s Tree Census! No question, this’s a unique opportunity that’ll will allow gardeners/tree people to explore, interact with and better understand the trees and overall greenness of our city (so we can improve both)!! For more and reserve a place (required)…
Sunday, June 25th: 92nd Street Greenmarket Re-Opens!!
92nd Street at First Avenue, 9am-4pm
Fruit! Vegs! Baked goods! Seafood!! Honey! Compost collection!! Less than a month now till 92nd Street returns!!
On to miscellany:
Eeek! Norway’s Svalbard seed vault came close to flooding…
Thank you, NY Times for identifying the 4 best roller coasters accessible by public transport!
Of course, Atlas Obscura would compile a list of The World’s Most Specific Museums…
NYC Restaurant Grades explained… (Really? 93% received an “A”?!!)
Nope, NYC buildings weren’t always giant glass/brick pallet monuments to banality… Witness the Anonymous Art Museum!!
Interesting research from Netflix via Cynopsis:
Netflix doesn’t release a lot of viewership data, but when it does it can be pretty intriguing. According to a new analysis from the streaming giant, which took a look at customer viewing behavior in 22 countries over a period of six months, viewers’ content preferences vary depending on what time of day it is. For instance, viewers prefer comedy in the morning, dramas during midday, and thrillers during primetime. Late at night, it’s back to comedies. And documentary content has its window of popularity as well, seeing a 24% increase in viewing from midnight to 6 AM. To gather the data, Netflix measured data from about 77 million accounts.
And interesting Citibike insight, courtesy of Kayleigh Campbell and Candace Brakewood…
In the Action You Might Want To Take Department:
Like encouraging City Hall to better support our public libraries…
As opposed to some members of our state legislation, should you think NYS would benefit from more rather than less wind power…
Supporting a ban on child-brain-damaging insecticide chlorpyrifos…
And in the Who Knew? Bailiwick (as related by “The Writer’s Almanac”):
When Clara Barton was only 10, her brother David fell off the roof of the family barn. At first, he seemed fine, but the next day he developed a headache and fever. The doctor diagnosed “too much blood” and prescribed the application of leeches to help draw out the extra blood. Clara took over as her brother’s nurse and spent two years at his bedside applying leeches (though David did not get any better until he tried an innovative “steam therapy” several years later).
As a girl, Clara was shy and had a stutter, and her worried mother asked a phrenologist (phrenologists, who were fairly common in the 1800s, examined the bumps on a person’s skull as a way to determine their personality traits) to help her. The phrenologist said that she was shy and retiring and that the solution to her problem was to become a schoolteacher. Barton did not want to teach but she began teaching in 1839 at the age of 18. She overcame her shyness, became a sought-after teacher, and believed in the value of her work. She once said, “I may sometimes be wiling to teach for nothing, but if paid at all, I shall never do a man’s work for less than a man’s pay.”
Several men proposed to Barton, but she remained single her whole life, at one point telling her nephew that on the whole she felt that she had been more useful to the world by being free from matrimonial ties.
In 1854, she gave up teaching and took a job in the United States Patent Office in Washington, D.C. She worked hard, got promoted, and within a year was making a salary equal to the men in the office (which angered the men). She left Washington for three years when the administration changed, but she returned in the early 1860s and resumed her job in the Patent Office. By 1861, war was breaking out, and when supporters of the Confederacy attacked Union soldiers in Washington, D.C., Clara helped nurse wounded soldiers in the same way she had nursed her brother.
During one of the first major engagements of the war, the Battle of Bull Run, the Union suffered a staggering defeat and as Clara read reports of the battle she realized that the Union Army had not seriously considered or provided for wounded soldiers. She began to ride along in ambulances, providing supplies and comfort to wounded soldiers on the frontlines.
After the war, she traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, where she learned about the International Red Cross and its mission to be a neutral organization that helped wounded soldiers. When Barton returned to the United States, she pressed for the creation of a national branch of the Red Cross. But many people thought there would never again be a war as monumental and devastating as the Civil War and didn’t see the need for the Red Cross. Barton finally convinced the Arthur administration that the Red Cross could be used in other crises.
The American Red Cross was officially incorporated on May 21st, 1881, with Barton as its president.
Clara Barton said, “I may be compelled to face danger, but never fear it, and while our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them.”
And she said, “The door that nobody else will go in at, seems always to swing open widely for me.”
She also said, “Everybody’s business is nobody’s business, and nobody’s business is my business.”
Time for some animals:
As ever during May and June, be watchful for turtles crossing roads…
May 27th marks the opening of NYS’s (Huh? Say what?) muskelunge fishing season!
Surprise-surprise!! Last week’s Sunday Times Magazine was all but entirely devoted to critters!! Check out feline contributions to understanding the endocrine system!!
Then there’s The Great Virginia Cat Shaving Mystery…
So-so NYC: Birding by subway!!
Many and loud cheers for the 213 American cities that now require all animals for sale in pet stores be rescue animals!! (Many, many in NJ; an embarrassing 5 in NYS.)
And from the Hudson River Almanac:
5/18 – Kowawese, HRM 59: The heat was intense on the beach (95 degrees Fahrenheit) so we had to limit each of the three groups of 20 third-grade students to a half-hour of seining in the sun. Our catch mirrored yesterday’s – American eel, tessellated darter, and spottail shiner – but there was a bonus: baby blue crabs 35-85 millimeters [mm] across. The students wanted to know why these small sandy-colored crabs were called “blue” crabs, so we explained the value of camouflage, and how these crabs, as they grew, periodically put on a new set of “clothes” (moulting). Our net also caught all manner of rocks and sticks, even an ancient piece of planking, probably part of an old wooden barge from the days when Kowawese was a commercial port. – Cristin Sauter, Tom Lake
Spottail Shiner
[Even though the spottail shiner (Notropis hudsonius) is found throughout the Great Lakes, it could be called the “Hudson River fish.” All known biological organisms on earth have a scientific name, usually Latin, Greek, or a combination of the two. Following the protocol for naming a fish, spottail shiners were described and named by De Witt Clinton in 1824, between his two terms as governor of New York State. Clinton provided a detailed physical description of the spottail shiner and delivered it to the forerunner of the International Committee for Zoological Nomenclature (founded in 1895). They determined that this was a new species and accepted his name Clupia hudsonius (trivial name hudsonius in honor of the Hudson River). After several iterations of the genus, New York State Ichthyologist J.R. Greeley settled on Notropis hudsonius (1935). Tom Lake.]
Green as can be on Memorial Day and beyond,
UGS
This Week at The Markets 