Queens Art Express

An under-publicized but wonderful way to spend some time over the next 3 weekends–

Details here.

Kugel for a Rainy Day

Today is the first day of Shavuot, the holiday in Judaism that celebrates the Jews’ receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai after 40 years of living and, more importantly, changing generations in the desert. If you’re not Jewish, or are but not observant, you’re probably celebrating the suspension of alt.-side-of-the-street parking today. If you’re an observant Jew, you’re likely relieved that it’s not a 3-day yontif (and you are most definitely not reading this blog). 

Besides getting over to shul for the holiday liturgy, one of the traditions of Shavuot is eating dairy foods. There are a number of reasons why this is so, and as with all things religious and ancient, some are more of a stretch than others, but there is also a bit of literary beauty to the custom as well. 

Anyway, whatever the reason, it’s still a good excuse to go dairy. Here’s a nice recipe for Quadruple Dairy Noodle Kugel from the Zen Kitchen. The writer of that blog tied this recipe to Chanukah, which I would say is misplaced. On Chanukah, the emphasis is on the miracle of long-lasting oil, thus any kugel recipe would be sweet and oily to nail down the food metaphor. On Shavuot, the food-tie is dairy. And on this rainy day, what could be more comforting?

 

1 12 oz. bag wide egg noodles
2 TB unsalted butter, cut into cubes
8 oz. cream cheese
4 TB sugar
2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
8 oz. sour cream
1 cup whole milk
6 large eggs
8 oz. cottage cheese
1 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350F and grease/spray a 13 x 9 baking pan.

Boil the noodles in salted water according to the package directions. Err on the side of underdone, as they will continue to cook in the oven later. Drain and toss with butter to prevent sticking. Set aside.

Cream together the cream cheese, sugar, salt, and nutmeg until noticeably lighter in texture. Add the sour cream and mix until combined. Add the milk and eggs and beat for another minute or so. Add the drained noodles and stir until moistened. Fold in the cottage cheese.

Pour mixture into the prepared pan and sprinkle with cinnamon. Place on a middle rack in the oven and immediately decrease the temperature to 325. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until the center is just set and no longer jiggles. Remove from the oven and serve warm or allow to cool to room temperature.

For New Moms

When my son was a baby, I was part of a short-lived mother’s group in FoHi that was run by a social worker. There were 5 of us, and it was a very valuable experience because it was a place to connect with other new mothers and to express bewilderment at some of the challenges of early parenthood–e.g., having a sick child. I still run into 3 out of 4 of the members (one moved away), and remain very close with one of them even though our kids are not at the same school. So, in short, you never know what goodies you may find if you put yourself out there. When it comes to parenthood, we are all in the same boat, even if we’re using different oars.

An Important Alert

A rapist attacked a woman in Forest Hills this week. Please spread the word to all you know.

Eyewitness News’s story with a composite sketch is here.

The attack happened on Wednesday morning at 4:45. Police said the suspect followed the victim as she was walking home near 69th Road and Queens Boulevard in Rego Park.

The suspect confronted the woman in her 20s and forced her to the rear of a nearby apartment building and raped her.

The suspect is described as a black man, 40 to 50 years old, 5′7″ tall, medium build, dark salt and pepper hair, and wearing black leather scandals.

The victim was able to provide enough of a description for police to create a sketch of the suspect.

Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of this individual is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). You can also text tips to 274637(CRIMES) then enter TIP577.

Safari 7

Much more enjoyable than swine whine is this podcast project that captures the sounds of the wild beneath the #7 train. It is original and great fun.

The podcasts can be found here, with site details below–

This past Saturday at 11:00 a.m. sharp, a group of architects, artists, and students boarded the 7 Local at Times Square Station to participate in the launch of Safari 7, a self-guided tour of urban animal life along New York City’s No. 7 subway line.

The 7 Line is a physical, urban transect through New York City’s most diverse collection of human ecosystems.  Affectionately called the International Express, the 7 line runs from Manhattan’s dense core, under the East River, and through a dispersed mixture of residences and parklands, terminating in downtown Flushing, Queens, the nation’s most ethnically diverse county. Here, in territories excavated by Robert Moses’ transportation networks, watersheds constructed by the World’s Fair, and tree canopies stretched across residential street grids, species find systems necessary for survival, develop mating rituals and behaviors amidst inter-species competition and cooperation, and respond to migration, colonization, and disturbances of this dynamic urban landscape. By mapping the complexity, biodiversity, conflicts, and potentials of our urban ecosystems Safari 7 aims to unpack the role of architecture and the related disciplines in the construction of networks, spatial patterns, enclosures, grounds, rituals, and policies that are the city’s life support mechanism.

The project uses a range of media – podcasts, maps, signs, schedules and social networking tools – to create a platform where commuters, school children, subway operators – and yes, architects – can connect to New York City’s ecosystems as they travel through it.  New York’s transit system acts as an eco-urban classroom, and passengers become their own park rangers, or safari guides.

More Schools Get Smart

The Times City Room blog reports that another 6 schools are closing because of the/a flu. The closest one to Forest Hills is in Corona, PS 143, where “38 of 1,311 students experienced flulike illnesses during the last three school days.” Starting to feel hemmed in yet?

Okay, so we’re not calling it swine flu, but meanwhile, we all know people who have been knocked over by some kind of type-A flu. At this point, does it matter what we call it? I don’t get the sense that there is much accuracy to the numbers being batted around by the media. And many people ride it out at home, so their cases go unidentified. 

I really do get why the city is loathe to close down more schools around here (even if I don’t agree with it). And it’s obvious that no matter what Bloomberg does, he’s going to get socked by criticism. But there’s also something illogical going on: The city keeps the schools open because whatever is floating through the hallways may or may not be swine flu and parents need the childcare coverage. Then some kids start getting sick and miss a full week of school during which they are completely incapacitated. Other parents see this happening and decide to keep their kids home, leading to a cascade of further absences. The cycle continues until the school has no choice but to close. Now we’ve got a real childcare problem, as well as an onslaught of visitors at the hospital. 

What stands out in situations like this is that our institutions–the ones we placidly believe exist to protect our interests and feed us the information we need to make good decisions–react with crowd control first, analytical thinking a distant second. 

Sorry to wax so cynically about this, folks. I’m really concerned about how this is playing out and what it will look like in a few short months.

_____________________________

Update: the total is now 8 more schools closed–In New York City on Thursday, eight more schools were closed, bringing the total to 38 citywide: in Queens, Public School and Intermediate School 499 in Flushing, P.S. 143 in Corona, P.S. 203 in Oakland Gardens and I.S. 73 in Maspeth; also P.S. 111 in Eastchester, the Bronx, and Middle School 113 in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, which also houses a special education school.

Cyber Clean-Up Needed

Here’s a vestige of Dave Kerpan’s 5-minute run for Queens Borough President. Cyber FoHi, and all of Queens, now has a Web site called “This Is Our Queens” that is dead on arrival. There’s also Dave’s less subtle look-at-me Web site, still up and collecting dust. Last sign of life: March 7. Not to mention his Facebook sites(!) where we can “Join the Conversation!” I’ll take a pass, since all of this rubs me the wrong way. 

I hope he takes these things down because Queens already has its fair share of crap.

Is My Kid’s School Closing?

That’s really the big question this week in Forest Hills, as the number of school closings throughout NY, and esp. Queens, ticks up–though it seems to be down today, 21 instead of 26 yesterday. The other question: Why Queens?, which we ask with some bewilderment but also a smirk about this not quite being what we have in mind when we lament our fair borough’s lesser profile. 

This blog–and I’m sure the others in this area–is getting a lot of queries about the flu and school closings. Unfortunately, there is no blog that can accurately report the news as it is happening. Blogs are reactive, not proactive, in general. But the buzz is that there’s a number of cases at 144 and at least one at 196. If you know about others, please post as comments here. 

My daughter attends a preschool where the alert-word has gone out that some of the kids have sibs at the various PSs. That’s not enough for me to keep my daughter home from school (I think some parents are doing just that), but it has prompted me to bring her to school late each day so that I can check with her teachers as to the state of health of the kids–has anyone called in sick suddenly? Is anyone coughing? 

As much as I would like to believe that all parents are keeping an eye on their kids’ health and are using precautionary discretion, the reality is that some parents simply can’t not send their kids to school, even if they seem to have a bit of a fever going on, because their jobs will be at risk if they do. Therefore it is up to each parent to make his or her best decision, and not rely on other parents or even their child’s school to give them the information they need. Schools like blogs are reactive rather than proactive.

I hate to sound survivalist about this, but in most situations, you’re best off doing the research and then trusting your gut.

When Swine Flu Hits Central Queens

That refers to a very good article in the Times (online as of late yesterday afternoon) by Roni Caryn Rabin, a central Queens resident whom I’ve noticed regularly contributes excellent pieces to the NY Times, especially the Science Times. Her daughter, who does not go to St. Francis, got the flu, and it turned out to be a mild case, as most of them have. But the cautionary tale is there for all of us, including what the next round might look like.

By evening she was over the worst of it. She sat with us at dinner but had drunk so much tea she wasn’t really hungry. Every time she coughed we dove under the table. But I knew she was much better when, as she prepared for a world history exam, she had just one question, “What am I going to do about my chem test?”

And I have one lingering concern myself. If–and when–this rolls around again, in a fiercer form, will people think health officials are crying wolf and be blase about it? If this current flue does turn out to be much better than feared–and we all hope it does–the public health campaign must not stop. People need very clear explanations about why and how this virus could mutate into something worse. 

My impulse is to stay away from crowded places, and I’m going to go with it. Rabin’s daughter is high school age, but imagine those symptoms in a much younger child? The Times has to be “responsible” in what it puts out to the public, but sometimes, our own critical thinking (read the comments in response to the article) needs to come into play. 

 

Major Treat at the Y

Good news for 2nd- and 3rd-wavers.

Bestselling novelist Anne Roiphe will speak on her new memoir, Epilogue, on Tuesday, May 5, at 1:30 p.m., at the Central Queens Y.  Occasionally the focus of controversy, Roiphe’s best-known work includes an earlier bestselling memoir, 1185 Park Avenue, and critically acclaimed novels and nonfiction, including Lovingkindness, as well as an early memoir Up the Sandbox, which was made into a film with Barbra Streisand.

Critics and readers have noted the candor with which Anne Roiphe has written about childhood, motherhood, and marriage.  And so it was natural that after her beloved husband of almost 40 years died, Roiphe would write with the same honesty of the experience of becoming a widow.  Roiphe’s new memoir moves with grace and occasional humor through the reluctant journey following her husband’s death.  Knowing her husband would want her to be happy and bowing to her daughters’ wishes, Roiphe even reluctantly enters the Internet dating scene.  “I will not let grief become my constant companion,” she writes.  “I will refuse its offer to accompany me to the corner, to the night, to the next month.”

• Central Queens YM & YWHA,
• 67-09 108 Street
• $4.50 donation suggested. 
• For more information, call 718-268-5011, ext. 151, or e-mail pkurtz@cqyjcc.org.