The Maasai are a semi-nomadic, pastoral people living in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. Their total population is almost 900,000. Their origin is uncertain, but according to oral history, they migrated south from the Nile Valley between the 14th and 16th centuries AD.

The climate of The Serengeti varies between extreme wet and dry seasons. One of the most devastating droughts on record is currently ravaging much of this area, threatening not just wild game, but livestock, people and already limited resources. Yet many world organizations remain optimistic, believing that with support from the international community, Africa’s future is that of a significant leader.

The Serengeti hosts a wide diversity of animal species. Millions of game participate in one of the most expansive, majestic, larger-than-life collective movements on earth: The Great Migration. Typically occurring in April and October, the event is lately varying due to seasonal shifts. Non-migrating species that call Serengeti home include about 2,100 elephants, 2,800 lions, 540 bird species (the ostrich being the largest) and the baboon, Africa’s most common primate.

Audi has been making automobiles for over 100 years, but the Audi R8 Spyder is a car for modern times, you might even say it’s a car of the future. Due to be released in Germany sometime this year, it will make its film debut in the upcoming Iron Man 2.

Who else but Robert Downey Jr., AKA super hero Tony Stark, would have these wheels? Well, maybe Tom Brady or Scott Weiland or maybe even Rahm Emanuel (if he stayed in the private sector). Penelope Cruz might drive this car. You get the point, this vehicle is bold, beautiful, very now, and it is not the slightest bit interested in anyone’s personal opinion—on anything.

Recently, I snuck onto the Iron Man 2 set during filming to catch a glimpse. Once Stark tucked into his trailer, I approached. The full-LED headlights of the polished two-seater lock onto my eyes. I’m a frozen deer. Regaining myself, I walk over to it, running a finger along the folding soft top.

“My top folds down in 19 seconds,” it says. And just like that, it peels back the top like some old Rat Pack tipping his hat. The shining leather winks in a flash of light and I place myself behind the wheel. The seats are cool and comfortable, the interior is lush and spacious. Plenty of legroom here.

It reads my mind: “The special leather reflects the sun’s rays, so you won’t singe your legs in the summer.” The voice purrs through the Bang & Olufsen sound system.

Grinning, I grasp the steering wheel, which is flattened at the bottom, like in a racecar.

“Do it,” it taunts, “Whatever you got, my V-10 can handle. I’ve got 525 horsepower, and I weigh less than 4,000 pounds. I’ve been on this serious carbon-fiber diet…”

I look back at the trailer.
“A-Hem. Hello?”

The electric seat moves me into a perfect driving position and the leather warms. I zip past the film set’s security booth and out onto the highway. The car handles the sharp curves so well I wonder if it’s Hollywood special effects, but when we make the straightaway, the speedometer pushes to sixty in only a touch over four seconds. I forget I’m driving and almost let go of the wheel.

“I top out at 194 miles per hour.”

“Good thing,” I say to the rear view mirror, “so I know this place just up the coast…”

quattro AWD I MPG: 16 I Park & Nav Sys I Audi Space Frame I Aluminum Double Wishbone Suspension

The Audi R8 Spyder will launch early this year in Germany for €156,000. USA launch information is coming soon.

It’s a pale, cinder block room, one wall is in glass. Boxes of toilet paper are piled up at one end. The young man in the orange jumpsuit with a plump, almost babyish face edged by a thin beard sits at a conference table with a reporter, his voice cracking with emotion.

“I used to help the kids with their homework. We ate dinner together…put the kids asleep. We did everything as a family,” says Leonardo Valdez-Cruz, 24. “I still love her dearly. I’d give my life to get her back.”

If it’s a love story, it has a very bad ending. One that would see a woman dead and her ex-boyfriend awaiting trial for her murder.

According to her family, Jo’Anna Bird felt sure she was going to die by the hands of the father of one of her children. And she was convinced that police and prosecutors would do little to prevent it.

She was the third of nine children. She grew up in Hempstead, Roosevelt and Westbury, the daughter of a town maintenance worker. She took an after school job at age 14 and hoped for a career in law enforcement. But at 17, she became pregnant by a soldier who later was assigned to Iraq and apparently didn’t want the child.

Valdez-Cruz, who was already building a juvneile rap sheet and, by his own admission, “hanging around” with a gang first met her in Westbury. “I thought she was beautiful and I was attracted to her. I started talking to her,” he says.

According to Valdez-Cruz, he and Jo’Anna became close as the relationship with her then-boyfriend rapidly soured. He was there for the birth of Nana, Jo’Anna’s daughter with the soldier, and later moved in with her family. Leo, his child with Jo’Anna, was born in March 2005. He helped cut the umbilical cord.

Valdez-Cruz maintains he was getting along with Jo’Anna’s large family as well. But the family tells a darker story.

Shortly after Leo was born, they say, Valdez-Cruz grew possessive, following Jo’Anna to work, asking jealous questions, sometimes waiting in the parking lot until she got off. Before long, he was flying into rages and physically attacking her. Valdez-Cruz hasn’t admitted to that, but does acknowledge something changed after Leo’s birth. “I started hanging out with the wrong people then, then I started experimenting with drugs, and they took hold of me.”

Court records show Jo’Anna obtained an order of protection against Valdez-Cruz in April 2008, along with temporary custody of Nana and Leo. A few weeks later, Valdez-Cruz was arrested and charged with violating the order when he struck her. With that on his record, another violation would mean a high probability of jail time. Nevertheless, police reports show the following month, he climbed through the window of Bird’s second floor apartment while she was out, propped a chair against the front door and fell asleep. He woke up to the sounds of a Special OPS team breaking in. “I had nowhere else to go,” he told police.

Domestic violence experts say court orders of protection work in 80% of the cases, but the danger comes from the few violators who don’t worry about the ramifications of breaching an order. Professor Howard Kassinove, director of Hofstra’s Institute for Study and Treatment for Anger and Aggression, says serial abusers are “demanders” for whom punishment is an abstract concept. “These guys, you can have a restraining order against them, you can tell them they’re going to go to jail. But they don’t know what else to do.”

Whatever his state of mind, Valdez-Cruz was convicted and sentenced to 8 months in jail for the break in. While in prison, court documents indicate he placed at least four threatening phone calls to Jo’Anna. He was released on December 1.

Family members say when Valdez-Cruz got out of jail he began stalking Jo’Anna in earnest. He came through windows, hid behind furniture and followed her.

The family says they called police “numerous times,” but responders treated Jo’Anna’s tormentor more like a familiar nuisance than a criminal. They called Valdez-Cruz by his street name, “Pito, go take a walk,” they would say, according to Jo’Anna’s mother Sharon Dorsett. The police aren’t commenting on these allegations.

By now, word of Jo’Anna’s situation was out on the street. Her family says Pito was telling his friends that if she didn’t give him a “second chance,” he’d kill her. They say Jo’Anna knew she was in serious danger and told them, “I know I’m going to die. I know he’s going to catch me and kill me.”

It was January 2009, two months after Valdez-Cruz got out of jail. According to the family and police records, Valdez-Cruz jumped out from behind a couch when Jo’Anna arrived home one night. He forced her to drive to Westbury. There, he pulled out a gun. “We’re going to sit here, and you’re going to give me a chance, or you’re going to die right now,” the family claims he told Jo’Anna. When he tried to stuff her into the trunk, she broke away, but Valdez-Cruz caught up, threw her to the ground and started to choke her, “Do you think I’m playing with you? I’m going to kill you!” Begging for her life, Jo’Anna told Valdez-Cruz she loved him and wanted to stay with him. He relented, promising not to kill her if she kept her word.

This time, Jo’Anna Bird did not call police.

Frightened victims often don’t call police, especially when having an abuser arrested hasn’t worked in the past, according to Patti Jo Newell, Director of Public Policy for the NY State Coalition Against Domestic Violence. “Because if calling the police has an aggravating effect, as it often does, on the abuser, but nothing actually happens, nothing really comes of it in a meaningful way regarding accountability, survivors are sometimes reluctant to make that call again.”

The following day, Jo’Anna’s mother noticed, “she just didn’t seem like herself.” When Jo’Anna told her mother what happened, Dorsett rushed her to the hospital. What took place next, the family claims, began a final, tragic chain of official missteps.

According to Dorsett, a nurse sent the two women to hospital security, where police were called. Two female officers arrived, and Dorsett says, one of them warned, “Either press charges [or] don’t waste my time.” Jo’Anna agreed. Dorsett says she was standing in the doorway while Jo’Anna was being examined, photographed and questioned by both doctors and police detectives when the unbelievable happened—Leonardo Valdez-Cruz entered the room.

According to Dorsett, one of the detectives asked, “Pito, why are you here? Are you sick?” And he said, “No, I came up here because my ex-girlfriend is here and I came to find out why she’s here.”

Cops tackled and frisked Valdez-Cruz on the spot, arresting him for attacking Bird the previous day. But for reasons police have not officially explained, they didn’t charge him with violating her order of protection by coming within 100 yards of her, which would have immediately led to additional jail time for Valdez-Cruz. Without this charge, the case against Valdez-Cruz now rested on the assault and kidnapping incident the prior day. Unfortunately, there was only one witness to that incident: Jo’Anna Bird herself.

And Jo’Anna was very, very scared.  Pito was in jail, but for how long? State law provides that when someone is charged with a felony, he must be released after a week if insufficient evidence is presented. The D.A. had only that much time to either persuade the frightened victim to testify against her assailant, or come up with other evidence that would convince a judge to retain Pito until his trial.

Because of normal paperwork delays, prosecutors in the Special Victims’ bureau in Mineola say they didn’t even see the records until two days after the arrest. They wrote a letter to Bird and issued a subpoena. But on the morning of the hearing, Bird was a no-show at the courthouse. Prosecutors say they called her, and when they couldn’t reach her, sent a patrol car to her home. According to one assistant D.A., the officer reported back that someone at Bird’s house said she was not coming.

Bird’s family tells a completely different story: No one from the D.A.’s office contacted Jo’Anna after Valdez-Cruz’ arrest. She didn’t get a subpoena. And no one told her it would be necessary to testify at a court hearing to keep Valdez-Cruz in jail. Jo’Anna’s mother maintains that on the morning of the hearing, Jo’Anna was looking for a place to stay to get away from Pito. Yet, the D.A.’s office refuses to comment as to whether or not there is a record of the subpoena.

The hearing before County Court Judge Valerie Alexander lasted only a few minutes. “The people are unable to be ready for the felony exam at this time,” said the assistant district attorney. Alexander ordered Valdez-Cruz released.

Fred Brewington, the attorney representing Bird’s family, insists the office of Nassau County D.A. Kathleen Rice “blew it,” that prosecutors could have used police testimony and medical evidence from the assault to argue against letting Valdez-Cruz out of jail.

Former Nassau prosecutor Marc Gann is also critical. He says that when Bird failed to show in court, prosecutors could have used the incident at the hospital to re-arrest Valdez-Cruz after his release. “Knowing that they weren’t going to be able to go ahead with the felony hearing, they could have charged him at that point with contempt from the week before,” says Gann.

Facing a possible lawsuit from the Bird family, D.A. Rice has had little to say. In one of her only public statements on the case, she told a reporter, “There was no way to proceed without the cooperation of Miss Bird.”

No one disputes this: On February 2, one week after his latest arrest, Leonardo “Pito” Valdez-Cruz was released from the Nassau County Correctional Center—back on the street and determined to resume his relationship with Jo’Anna Bird.

Police say they offered Jo’Anna a personal “panic button” alarm to summon help, but she refused. In any case—according to the Bird family—Valdez-Cruz immediately resumed stalking Jo’Anna. Just days before her murder, her family says Valdez-Cruz broke into the house three times. Police were called, but again, family members say they failed to make an arrest. “They caught him trying to jump through the window—he couldn’t get it unlocked—and they still told him to take a walk,” Dorsett says. “Every time they came, they used to say, ‘Oh, it’s Pito.’ Like it’s no big deal because it’s him.”

On the morning of March 19, the day before friends and family claim Jo’Anna was planning to move to North Carolina, Jo’Anna called Dorsett, “Mommy, please get over here quick, I’m locked in the house, I can’t get out. Pito’s acting crazy and he won’t let me go.”

Dorsett and her daughter Melissa raced to Jo’Anna’s house. Melissa called 9-1-1 while Sharon talked to the frantic Jo’Anna. “I was trying to keep her on the line as I was driving…and she was still on the phone screaming at me. And then she stopped.”

The two women arrived at Jo’Anna’s home and banged on the door. There was no answer. Melissa called 9-1-1 again. When police came, Sharon told them what was happening and begged them to bust down the door. But they refused, citing protocol.

Police officials later explained that officers didn’t rush into the house immediately because they were concerned about a possible hostage situation. But to the family, the officers on Jo’Anna’s lawn seemed anything but concerned, casually “talking and laughing,” a sergeant remarking, “Oh, it’s the Pito thing.”

A small army of police gathered, including hostage negotiators and the Emergency Services Unit, as well as Leonardo’s sister, Aurea. Dorsett claims Valdez-Cruz’s confession came across Aurea’s cell phone speaker when he said, “I told you what I was going to do…I was going to kill Jo’Anna and that’s what I did. Jo’Anna’s dead and the body is in the house.”

Officers overheard the conversation and burst into action, breaking down the door. They found Jo’Anna on the steps, “with a severe injury to the trachea and the major artery in the neck,” according to Nassau Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey. Mulvey says ESU officers determined she was dead.

Both the family and Mulvey have confirmed that police removed Bird and laid her in front of the house, though the question remains as to when it was determined she was dead. Leonardo Valdez-Cruz was arrested in the Bronx a few days later.

Could Jo’Anna Bird have been saved if police acted more quickly? Brewington says what police did “borders on criminal…Jo’Anna Bird was injured at a time when police could have saved her, bleeding at a time when police and EMTs could have saved her, and died at a time when they were sitting outside cracking jokes and making snide remarks to the family.”

Mulvey argues police on the scene had no reason to believe they were looking at anything but a “domestic situation.” Police acted properly because “there was no information conveyed to responding officers that Jo’Anna was bleeding to death behind that locked door at the time.”

It’s an issue that is likely to be hashed out in a hefty lawsuit the Bird family is filing against the county. But it’s not the only question about what happened on March 19. The Medical Examiner’s report includes a statement that paramedics removed Bird “to a stretcher in the ambulance, and she went on to expire” with no mention about her being laid in the front yard. Does that mean Bird might have still been alive when cops first discovered her in the house? “Why would they say that if it weren’t true?” asks Brewington. “And if it were true, how come they didn’t treat her from the very beginning?” Family members insist they saw cops turn away an EMS crew who arrived on the scene shortly after police brought Jo’Anna out.

And then there is the question of how and when Jo’Anna’s killer escaped despite the heavy police presence at the home.

With a trial and civil litigation imminent, police have refused to elaborate further on how they handled events on the day of Jo’Anna’s death. But Commissioner Mulvey has admitted that officers disregarded procedures and barely took any notes when called to the Bird family home in the days prior to the killing.  “I wish we had provided better service to the family on the 15th and 17th. In that sense we failed,” Mulvey said.  Eight officers and one sergeant face departmental charges and possible disciplinary proceedings, though police brass has refused to identify the officers or discuss details of their cases. Nassau Police Commissioner Mulvey also ordered a department wide tightening of procedures for handling domestic violence calls. Police are now required to file a written form on every domestic violence call, regardless of the outcome.

In the attorney/inmate visiting room at the Nassau Jail, Leonardo Valdez-Cruz’ attorney won’t let him answer specific questions about the case, but he maintains his innocence.

“I have to go to sleep and wake up every day knowing I’m never going to see her face again,” he says. “I wasn’t allowed to go to the wake. I wasn’t allowed to go to the funeral. I’m being accused of murdering the love of my life.”

Just before a guard leads him away, Valdez-Cruz begs a reporter not to make him look like a “monster.” “I’m not an animal,” he says.

It’s that time of year when the kids are all sledded out and an impending snowstorm has inevitably lost its allure. If the weather outside is frightful, then pop some popcorn, fire up the DVD player and hunker down with the family. Here are some of the latest small fry flicks coming to a small screen near you.

Thomas & Friends: Splish Splash Splosh

Everyone’s favorite little blue engine is at it again, but this time, he’s all wet. Thomas & Friends: Splish Splash Splosh features four new episodes that take Thomas and viewers from sudsy spills to snowy situations, showing them they can always have fun—whatever the weather. Extras include two interactive games: Lift and Load Crane and Counting with Thomas. $14.98; http://www.thomasandfriends.com.

March On! How My Brother Martin Changed the World

“I Have a Dream” is a phrase that students have undoubtedly heard in the classroom. March On! How My Brother Martin Changed the World is a wonderful teaching tool that tells the story behind the legendary man as told by his sister, Dr. Christine King Ferris. This animated release includes other moving stories that celebrate Black History Month, such as “Rosa” and “Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story From the Underground Railroad.” $14.95; http://www.newkideo.com.

Meet the Instruments

Music lovers in the making will relish two new releases from the Meet the Instruments series. Grammy award-winning performers Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer introduce young viewers to a menagerie of eclectic instruments, from banjos and mandolins, to the steel drum and ukulele. Their energy is so infectious, it won’t be long before kids are clapping and stomping along. $15 each; http://www.cathymarcy.com.

Your mother thinks she can remember the color of her refrigerator, but she’s not really sure. Before you were born, she knew… but ever since you’ve been old enough to pick up a crayon, that fridge has been covered by your very best work.

You love to draw, paint, color, and sketch. Art is your favorite subject in school, and you’ve been told that you’re a creative person. But what do you really know about art? What do you know about other artists? Learn more in the new and very cool Children’s Book of Art.

Long ago, even before the Egyptians built pyramids, humans were painting and scratching artwork onto the walls of caves and on rocks. Archaeologists don’t know exactly whether the huge (some, over 17 feet long) artwork depicted a hunt or if it was meant to symbolize something else, but they think the paintings and scratchings were made nearly 15,000 years ago.

But art, as you know, isn’t just painting or scratchwork. Anyone can make art with pen or pencil, clay, camera, plastic recyclables, or little pieces of glass. Artwork can be sad, happy, or angry. It can be colorful or not. You can use your imagination or you can be realistic.

Best of all, did you know that art isn’t just for fancy galleries? Yep, if you’ve got a few comic books or manga laying around your bedroom, you own art!
Don’t know much about art, but know what you like? Me, too, and I like this book.

Children’s Book of Art is a broad overview of art in many forms, from ancient cave paintings through modern art and the most expensive piece of contemporary work you can buy (assuming you have $75 million lying around).

In between, your child will find hundreds of reproductions and pictures of artwork, including basic explanations for each style, how art is made (and how your kids can try it at home), examples of art and culture, and biographies of influential and notable artists and creators.

If you’ve got a budding artiste in the house, or if your children (or you!) are becoming interested in the Old Masters, pick up Children’s Book of Art. For anyone ages 8 and up, you can color this book fantastic.

The Maunder Minimum spanned the period from 1645 to 1715. Two lesser minima are also noteworthy: The Dalton Minimum, which took place from 1790 to 1820, and the Sporer Minimum, which extended from 1450 to 1540. What are these mysterious minima? They are periods during which the Sun was exceptionally “quiet” and lacking in spots.

Most people have seen sunspots in photographs; many have observed them through telescopes. Sunspots are common and usually easy to observe. But not anymore! For several years now, the sun has been virtually spotless. In 2008, the Sun lacked spots on 266 days; one has to go back to 1913 to find a year with so many spot-free days. The Sun has also been atypically quiet in other respects, hitting a 55-year low in radio emissions and a 50-year low in solar wind intensity. Needless to say, the trend continued in 2009.

So unusual is the Sun’s current behavior that scientists have begun to hold conferences on the subject. Even the press has taken notice: On April 21, 2009, the headline “Sun at its quietest for 100 years” appeared on the Press Association’s newswire; “The Missing Sunspots: Is This the Big Chill?” was a headline in The Independent on April 27, 2009; even the Times had a story. A big question is whether we are entering another solar minimum. This is of more than academic importance as previous minima have been associated with significant climate change: Europe suffered a “Little Ice Age” beginning with the Maunder Minimum; it snowed regularly in London in the early 1800s, at the time of the Dalton Minimum; and New York rivers often froze over in the early 1900s, a period when solar activity was relatively low. The past several decades have seen unusually high solar activity, which may have contributed to global warming. Since the Sun has lost its spots, however, the warming trend is reversing and even ocean levels (reflecting polar ice melt) have flattened. Perhaps a Solar minimum will call a halt to global warming and give us some time to break our fossil fuel habit. Stay tuned.

This February is a good time to examine Mars and Saturn. Both planets will grace the night skies, with Mars rising in the early evening and Saturn an hour or so before midnight. Around midnight, Mars will appear as a bright reddish star high in the sky. Mercury will be a morning planet rising in the Eastern sky an hour or so before the Sun. Most of the other planets will be up during daylight hours, and thus not visible in the evening skies. There are no significant meteor showers in February. There are about 9½ hours of daylight in February with a gain of about 12 minutes each week.

It may be February—which means we’re technically in the dead of winter—but if you’re a skier or snowboarder on Long Island, then it’s time to face a cold (or is it warm?) hard truth: Spring isn’t all that far off. With it comes warming temperatures and rain, and that means bad things for snow conditions at the closest resorts in Pennsylvania’s Poconos, New Jersey’s Highlands, New York’s Catskills and Massachusetts’ Berkshires.

But ski season is far from over. There are months of skiing and riding still to be had, if you know where to go. It’s a simple game of chasing winter. And winning the game comes down to following two basic rules: Go north and go high (or both). Do those two things and you’ll find a deep, plentiful snowpack that’ll keep you happily sliding downhill on snow rather than slush. In fact, if you play your cards right, you can enjoy lift-served skiing until a month or so before the South Shore beaches officially open for the summer season on Memorial Day Weekend. Crazy, but true.

Here’s where to go to make it happen. Consider it your personal guide to the high North Country.

NEW YORK
Right here in the Empire State, bypass the Catskills (and everything else, for that matter) and make a beeline directly for the Adirondacks and Whiteface Mountain (whiteface.com). At 4,867 feet tall, it’s the fifth highest peak in New York State. With more than 3,100 feet of lift-served vertical (increase that number to 3,430 feet if you’re willing to hike a little), Whiteface dominates skiing east of the Mississippi. It also beats out Mammoth Mountain in California, and rivals places such as Vail in Colorado, for top-to-bottom vertical.

This season features expanded terrain at Lookout Mountain, Whiteface’s newest addition and third peak, which opened in January 2009. It hosts intermediate and expert groomers, as well as the brand-spanking-new Sugar Valley Glades. No matter where you ski on the mountain, you’ll have unsurpassed views of the wilderness of the Adirondack Park.

Sleep and eat in: Lake Placid
Fly there via: Adirondack Regional Airport
(commercial flights), Lake Placid Municipal Airport
(chartered flights) or the major airports in Albany or
Burlington (and drive the remaining distance).
Driving mileage/time from NYC: 288 miles / 5+ hours

VERMONT
In the Green Mountain State, forget about the seemingly endless (and some say, icy) string of ski areas in the southern and central parts of the state. Instead, head to the undisputed king of steep-and-deep powder skiing in New England: Jay Peak (jaypeakresort.com). Located in Jay State Forest in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, it gets consistently cold temps and a weather pattern that repeatedly drops the fluffy white stuff on the mountain. As a result, Jay is often one of the last ski areas in the East to close up shop at the end of the season.

Alternatively, make your way to Stowe Mountain Resort (stowe.com). Perched on the slopes of 4,395-foot Mount Mansfield, Vermont’s tallest peak, Stowe is also home to one of the longest ski seasons around, just one reason the skiing heritage here runs deep. In fact, at Stowe you’ll find the Mount Mansfield Ski Patrol, the first organized ski patrol in the country and the group that inspired the present-day National Ski Patrol system.

Sleep and eat in: Jay or Stowe
Fly there via: Burlington
International Airport
Driving mileage/time from NYC: 373 miles / 7 hours to Jay; 334 miles / 6 hours to Stowe

NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire may be the Granite State, but it sure doesn’t lack for snow. Just ask Bode Miller, whose skiing career was birthed at Cannon Mountain (cannonmt.com). The ski area stands tall above Franconia Notch, directly across from Mount Lafayette and the Franconia Ridge…a stunning alpine backdrop while you’re skiing Cannon’s steeps. This season, Cannon expanded into the once-abandoned and adjacent Mittersill ski area, adding 86 acres of ungroomed, natural-snow skiing. It’s just one more reason (aside from the rock bottom lift ticket prices) that Cannon is often considered the best “value” mountain in the East.

Perhaps the only ski area in New Hampshire to rival Cannon is Wildcat Mountain (skiwildcat.com), in White Mountain National Forest. Set directly across the valley from Mount Washington and Tuckerman Ravine, the views are unsurpassed. (In fact, SKI readers rated Wildcat number one in the East for scenery, while Cannon took second.) Plus, here you get the simultaneously quaint and bustling village of North Conway to use as your base camp.

Sleep and eat in: Lincoln for Cannon; North Conway
for Wildcat
Fly there via: Manchester (NH), Portland (ME) or Boston
Driving mileage/time from NYC: 330 miles / 6 hours to Lincoln; 350 miles / 6.5-7 hours to North Conway

MAINE
Maine’s ski areas typically stretch their seasons until the very end of April, longer than most others throughout New England and the Northeast. At the top of the pecking order, literally, is Sugarloaf (sugarloaf.com). At 4,237 feet above sea level, it’s the second-highest peak in Maine and the only mountain in the East with above-treeline lift-served skiing. From the pinnacle of the mountain, drop into the summit snowfields for a taste of that tree-less skiing. Or pick your way down any one of nearly 140 developed ski trails spread across an expansive 1,400 skiable acres.

Also located in Maine’s Longfellow Mountains is Saddleback (saddlebackmaine.com). Only 120 feet shorter than Sugarloaf, Saddleback is considered by many to be the crown jewel of the Rangeley Region of western Maine. Like Sugarloaf, Saddleback also boasts summit snowfields (though you’ll have to hike a short distance above the lift to access them).

Sleep and eat in: Carrabassett for Sugarloaf; Rangeley for Saddleback
Fly there via: Sugarloaf Regional Airport (chartered flights) or Portland International Jetport or Bangor
International Airport (and drive the remaining distance)
Driving mileage/time from NYC: 440 miles / 8+ hours to Sugarloaf; 450 miles / 8.5 hours to Rangeley

QUEBEC
For Long Islanders headed north of the border, the choice is obvious: Mont Tremblant (tremblant.ca). Located on the edge of a provincial park of the same name in the rolling Laurentian Mountains of southern Quebec, Tremblant is a perennial favorite among skiers. In fact, SKI magazine’s annual reader poll (published in October 2009) proclaimed Tremblant the best in the East (again…as in, for the 13th consecutive year). The resort also took top honors in seven sub-categories: Service, après-ski, on-mountain food, lodging, lifts, dining and overall satisfaction.

It’s hard to resist the exotic appeal of French-speaking Canada, coupled with Tremblant’s charming (if faux) European-style pedestrian base village. Of course, the skiing’s not too shabby, either. With a north and south side to the mountain, you can stay in the sun if it’s cold or ski in the shade if it’s warm. Off the slopes, check out the new Casino de Mont-Tremblant (call it “Mohegan Sun meets the mountains”).

If Tremblant proves a little too cliché for you, try Le Massif de Charlevoix (lemassif.com) instead. Standing above the St. Lawrence Seaway northeast of Quebec City, Le Massif is Mont Tremblant with more snow, more vertical (the greatest in Canada east of the Canadian Rockies) and fewer crowds. It’s where the locals from Quebec go when they feel like Tremblant is getting overrun with too many New Yorkers and other Americans. With an annual average snowfall of 21 feet (compared to Tremblant’s 15 feet), you can’t go wrong here.

Sleep and stay in: On-mountain or Saint-Jovite for Tremblant; Quebec City for Le Massif
Fly there via: Montreal for Tremblant; Quebec City for Le Massif; (also for Tremblant, Continental is offering flights from Newark direct to Mont Tremblant International Airport through the end of March)
Driving mileage/time from NYC: 450 miles / 8.5 hours to Tremblant; 520 miles / 9.5 hours to Quebec City The whole point of going north and going high is, of course, to find cold temps and good snow. But let’s be honest… by the very end of the season, you’re going to be skiing soft, slushy snow (and maybe through the odd puddle or two) whether you’re ripping it in Vermont or New Jersey or Colorado. That’s when it’s time to take part in an annual tradition at many ski areas: the pond skimming contest.

A resort’s snow crew digs a man-made crater in the snow at the base of a ski run, lines it with a tarp, and fills the hole with water to create a pond. Then contestants (preferably wearing outlandish costumes) take turns zooming down the run and (hopefully) skimming safely across the pond. Those that don’t make it across or crash in the process get a little wet. But that’s part of the fun.

Wanna try your hand at pond skimming? Saddleback’s event is on April 3; Gore (Whiteface’s little sister) and Le Massif are both on April 10; and Jay is on April 17.

The Double Daring Book for GIrlsFuroshiki. Say the word and you know it means either big trouble or bigger fun. How about batiking? That couldn’t possibly be boring. Would you do scoubidou? Would you do it if someone dared you?
Sounds wild and a little dangerous, doesn’t it? Read The Double-Daring Book for Girls by Andrea J. Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz, and find out more… if you dare.
So you’re looking for something to do on a rainy afternoon or a boring weekend. There’s nothing good on TV and you’ve played every video game in the house at least ten times. You know you’ll be put to work if you ask to go to the mall, so that’s absolutely out of the question. If you’ve got The Double-Daring Book for Girls, you’ll find plenty of awesome things to do.
Be a good sister by planning a party for a younger sibling. Learn to juggle and waltz, make paper lanterns and paper beads, and find some easy, fun games that will keep little kids happy. These ideas, by the way, could make you a very popular babysitter this summer.
If action is more to your liking, you can read about football, cricket, lacrosse and pool in this book. Oh, and be sure to memorize the part about making a rope ladder. You never know when you might need a skill like that!
Still feeling a little wild and crazy? Then get this book, because it has an entire chapter devoted to getting you out of trouble!
As a follow-up to 2007’s Daring Book for Girls, author Andrea J. Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz have once again collected dozens of quick crafts, rules for games and popular activities, empowering history tales, fun fashions and other things girls will love knowing and knowing how to do.
Moms and grandmas might note that this book is filled with things we used to do when we were kids. Because of that nostalgia factor, although this book is meant for 8-to-15-year-olds, big girls will love it, too.
If you’re running a church group or scout troop, or if you’re just looking to bust up the B-word (bored) this year, get a copy of The Double-Daring Book for Girls. Go ahead. I dare you.

On the 17th of May, 1969, the Russian Venus atmospheric probe Venera 6 arrived at Venus. Before being crushed by atmospheric pressure about 11 kilometers (7 miles) above the hot Venusian surface, it transmitted data showing that the planet’s atmosphere consisted of 93 to 97 percent carbon dioxide, 2 to 5 percent nitrogen, and less than 4 percent oxygen. Talk about greenhouse gases and runaway global warming!
Just four years later, on May 26th, the first American space station, Skylab, was launched. It was manned for 171 days by three crews. In 1974, it was abandoned. Skylab burned up on reentering the atmosphere in 1979. Now we have the International Space Station, which has been in operation for some time and is still in active use. The shuttle, however, looks like it may be scuttled in the not-to-distant future.
Throughout May, Jupiter will be a morning planet that rises an hour or so after midnight and will be one of the brightest objects in the sky just before sunrise. Venus is also a bright “morning star” this May; look for it south of the Moon on the 21st about an hour before sunrise. Mercury and Mars can also be observed before sunrise throughout May this year.
Saturn continues to be an evening planet with nearly edge-on rings. Look for this notable object north of the first quarter Moon in the early evening on the 20th. If the sky is clear, you can also take a gander at faint and distant Pluto. Although not a “naked eye” object, you are welcome to visit the Custer Institute where you can observe this (former) planet—and even see it moving across background stars—using our sensitive imaging gear.
There is a meteor shower in May—the Eta Aquarids. This shower will peak in the wee hours before dawn on the 5th and 6th. Look for meteors in an east-northeast direction after the Moon sets. If you are lucky, you may catch ten to twenty meteors in an hour of sky watching.
The days continue to lengthen as summer approaches, gaining a little over fourteen minutes of daylight every week.

Jeffrey Owen Katz, Ph.D., volunteers as the Observatory and Research Director of the Custer Institute. You can contact him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or meet him any Saturday evening at the observatory. For detailed information about upcoming events, see the events calendar in this magazine or visit http://custerobservatory.org.

How cool it would be to help save the planet with the wave of a magic wand? Kids can also kick up some fun this spring with a scooter that’s ready to ride and bubbles that keep on blowin’.

Presto planet! The Green Magic Set ($30, imagiplay.com) features three eco-friendly tricks that will bring out the environmentalist in everyone. A Green Energy Cube lets magicians read people’s energetic minds, while Pollution Paddle can make a toothpick “jump” from one hole to another. Eco Wands let kids grow a string and then shorten it again. Everything needed to perform these tricks is made of bamboo and rubberwood, and comes in a wooden box.

Bubbles can be a blast, especially when they keep on coming! The No-Spill Bubble Blitzers ($5-$7, littlekidsinc.com) continuously feed bubble liquid to the wand, so there’s never a “dry” moment. Kids simply fill the product with bubble liquid, close the cap and starting blowing. Bubble Blitzers are available in the Glitter Critter assortment—with wings that spin—and a Nickelodeon trio of Dora the Explorer, Go Diego Go! and The Backyardigans.

Kids can jumpstart their scooter riding with a little extra boost of energy. The Razor Spark Kick Scooter ($70, razor.com) boasts a specially designed Spark Bar that riders step on to watch sparks fly. Kids are bound to get all fired up when they’re out on the streets with this scooter.

Wine is a gift that never disappoints, no matter how well you know the person you’re buying for. The key is choosing an interesting, unpredictable cast of characters. Familia Mayol Lujan de Cuyo Malbec 2008 balances intense Malbec grapes and the essence of the soils found in the region. About $19. St. Innocent Pinot Noir Villages Cuvee 2007 with aromas of spice and black cherry, cherry cola, black raspberry and mineral notes is complex with a long finish. About $24. Shafer One Point Five, Napa Valley Stags Leap 2006 has a big blast of elegant, structured and complex Stag’s Leap District Cabernet that will age for a decade or so. About $75. Baton Chardonnay Charles Heintz Vineyard Sonoma 2006 is reminiscent of some of the world’s top Burgundies at a fraction of the price. About $50. All available at Hamptons Wine Shoppe—see them online. They ship almost anywhere!

Chefs and foodies the world over know that if you need a basic but well-made Skillet, Dutch Oven, Grill Pan or a Covered Casserole, the thermal characteristics of cast iron cookware make it an ideal vessel to prepare all manner of cuisine. Tennessee-based Lodge has been making them since 1896 and they are ubiquitous in the American kitchen. Signature Series 10” Skillet, $60, Signature Series 4 ½ qt. Dutch Oven, $125, Signature Series 12” Grill Pan, $84, Signature Series 2 ½ qt. Covered Casserole, $142 at http://www.lodgemfg.com. This is good, honest cookware in the style of sturdy, American craftsmanship that doesn’t disappoint.

These limited edition knives are an example of cutlery as high art. They commemorate Zwilling J.A. Henckels’ nearly 3 centuries of existence, and are forged with Cronidur Stainless Steel and sport a Makassar Ebony handle. The Chef’s Knife and Santoku Knife are $450 each, the Bread Knife is $400, the Slicing Knife is $350, the Paring Knife is $300, and the whole set is $2,400 at http://www.surlatable.com.

Vervacious Voyage Inspired Fancy Foods are offering interesting variations on Balsamic vinegar, a carefully crafted and revered Italian condiment. Try the Spiced Balsamic Reduction for a more traditional flavor or dare to experiment with the Espresso Balsamic Drizzle or Chocolate Balsamic. Each are $12, and are also available together in a special crate for $36. http://www.shop.vervacious.com.

Art lover? Tequila lover? Hybrid? Proximo Spirits has turned bottles of super-premium Agave Silver 1800 Tequila into showcases for 11 up-and-coming artists from across the US for the second straight year. Brooklynite Ian McGillivray was one of the chosen among 15,000 and his “Infinity” (shown here) is one of the works gracing the limited edition bottles. Retail: $25. http://www.1800tequila.com.

Give your special Scotch lover something to rejoice about—better yet, make it a double. For a distinguished single malt Scotch, choose Glenrothes Vintage 1985. Slow distillation plays a big part in its fruity, chocolate/coffee taste and creamy mouthfeel. Retail: $120. http://www.theglenrothes.com. Johnnie Walker Blue Label is the highest expression of a blended Scotch, rare and individually numbered. Added bonus: Custom bottle engraving to commemorate your sentiments. Retail: About $275. http://www.us.johnniewalker.com.

Guess style is unapologetically bold, adventurous, sexy and independent. It’s an explosion of style everyone loves and wants to wear. Not sure about sizes? Treat your special someone to any one, or all, of these accessories and s/he will know that’s how you see them. Men can enjoy the studded belt, black and copper tone watch, tag necklace and sunglasses with jeans or casual professional styles that take him well into the after-hours. Ladies’ handbags, belts and watches are exciting pieces that add glamour to jeans dressed up with the hottest (and highest) heels. Guess stores can be found in all LI Simon Malls, or you can shop online for the convenience of having it all a click away.

Ron Rizzo is the perfect place to shop for the Holidays. All pieces are hand created at the studio. Designs are brought to life by Ron Rizzo himself, the visionary who draws inspiration from his passion and love for jewelry. Featured are some of their recommended gift ideas for the season. The Oversize Silver Scroll Ring with 1.12 carats of blue sapphires, a Ron Rizzo Signature hand woven silver cuff also available in gold, from the leather collection a flower rave bracelet bejeweled with blue topaz and sapphires, and the Marrakesh Scroll Necklace with green tourmaline, yellow sapphire and citreen chain. Prices range $295—$2200. The Ron Rizzo jewelry design boutique and manufacturing headquarters are located at 62 Glen Cove Road, East Hills. Call (516)484-0030. And be sure to visit their website at http://www.ronrizzo.com where shopping online is now available!

Vivité skin care combines glycolic acid with other natural antioxidants to form a formula matrix that deeply penetrates skin and provides a rapidly accelerated rate of healthy skin cell regeneration.  Glycolic acid lifts hyperpigmentation (age spots), acne scarring, actinic keratosis, keratosis pilaris, hyperkeratosis, seborrheic keratosis, and wrinkles, while improving the condition and appearance of skin with enlarged pores.  These results translate into beautiful glowing skin unmatched by other skin care regimes.  In addition to the beautiful facial results you will see, glycolic acid can be used over the entire body to maintain skin tone and give complete rejuvenation.  Available at Long Island BeautyMD—Where Your Beautiful Skin and Body Begin! Call (631) 751-0542 or visit http://www.longislandbeautymd.com.

Give the gift that will be remembered long after the holidays: A therapeutic massage at Atlantis Health Network. The holidays are a happy but hectic time of year when we find ourselves with our arms aching and backs breaking from heavy chores. Stress and tension will slip away under the skilled hands of an experienced, licensed massage therapist. Professional skin care, body treatments, and day spa packages also available. Call (631) 584-2323 or visit the instant on-line gift certificates store at http://www.atlantishn.com.

Probably the closest you can come to visiting the dentist—on a daily basis. The Phillips Sonicare Flexcare+ has a patented cleaning method to get in all the crevasses and has five modes that specialize in gum cleaning, a full mouth clean, gentleness for sensitive teeth or a massage, respectively. It also comes with a UV brush sanitizer, timer and brush heads aplenty. $190 at http://www.store.philips.com.

Most men wear a suit everyday, limiting the ways they can herald personal style, taste and status. Watchwear is a symbol of not just who a man is, but where he’s been. A timepiece that speaks to class, sophistication, experience, precision and supreme engineering is a reflection of the man himself. And price is not always the marker. From the gold standards, like Rolex and Ebel, to the more modest, like Swatch and Seiko, a watch gives him a gift that gives and gives and gives. These pieces and more available at Rose Jewelers (Southampton & Patchogue). http://www.rosejeweler.net

There’s nothing better for a little one than cozying up in a hand-knit sweater. Sweaters by Lee feature cute 3D animals or kid-friendly themes like boats and hearts. Ten percent of all sales are donated to LI Cares and Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, a division of the American Cancer Society. These are one-of-a-kind boutique-style treasures for a bargain: $45-$60 at http://www.sweatersbylee.com. Oh! And they are machine washable!

The NHL hockey video games issued by EA Sports are the benchmark of the industry. Each year the graphics and gameplay have improved and 2010 is no exception. Choose your team, and watch the (virtual) ice fly. Available for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. $48 at eastore.ea.com. Where the Wild Things Are has become an adventure video game based on the movie. You are Max as you race across varying terrains and receive help from a plethora of Wild Things. Available for Nintendo DS for $30, Nintendo Wii for $40, and Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 for $50 at gamestop.com. The Shadow 6 Playstation 3 controller features a comfortable analog stick configuration with convenient triggers. It is wireless and has Rumble technology, which lets you really feel the game. $50 at http://www.dreamgear.net.

Since the early eighties, Swatch has been storming the watchwear industry with technologically advanced watches that also fit the fun, colorful lifestyles their consumers are drawn to. The same is especially true of their kids’ line, which is always a big hit for kids who know: Time is fun. This season, familiar characters adorn watches in the same, reliable, though far from predictable, style Swatch has become synonymous with. Shown here for boys and girls, available at Rose Jewelers (Southampton & Patchogue). http://www.swatch.com.

Fore! The golf lover on your list will love practicing at home with this nifty net/turf tee set. Perfect for any level, the 10’ wide and 8’ tall net has a strong but light fiberglass frame and a sturdy nylon net to receive the most epic drives. The turf tee is a stable, fully adjustable surface that keeps the backyard divot-free. $100 at http://www.sportsauthority.com.

The Specialized S-Works Tricross Carbon can cross the toughest terrain but also provides a smooth ride on regular surfaces. It combines a lightweight carbon frame, sturdy SpeedZertz forks and Houffalize Pro tires. $5500 at fine bike shops. For cycling through muddy hills and dales in inclement weather, Castelli’s line of rain jackets are par excellence. The unique design of the Dublino (men’s) and Amazzonia (women’s) jacket protects from outer moisture while providing top-notch ventilation. $160 each at http://www.realcyclist.com.

Love a rebel, buy a Gravesend Motorcycle. Whether you’re shopping for that most special someone, or cashing in the holiday bonus for yourself, this is the bike of your dreams. Founded by the world-renowned master builder Copper Mike, a Gravesend chopper is hand built to meet your specs. Engineering starts with Harley Davidson parts, nodding to the power and authenticity of the mechanics. The design is not only authoritative, but one-of-a-kind, from hand stitched seats, to custom detailed embellishments to precious metal encaustic (like 14k gold, platinum, and yes, copper). Whether it’s for an aficionado or a newcomer, a custom Gravesend Motorcycle defies imagination like no other. Love a rebel. http://www.gravesendcycles.com.

Give a gift that turns that turn back the hands of time. Consider a gift certificate from J SPA Medical Day Spa or the New York Center for Facial Plastic & Laser Surgery in Great Neck.  Both operate under the steerage of Dr. Andrew Jacono, a leading Dual Board Certified Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon. At J SPA, Dr. Jacono offers a variety of non-surgical anti-aging services ranging from Botox, Juvederm and Radiesse, to peels, and laser treatments. Gift certificates for products and services at J SPA Medical Day Spa and the New York Center for Facial Plastic & Laser Surgery are available in all denominations. Call (516) 773-4646 or visit 440 Northern Blvd, Great Neck. http://www.jspamedspa.com, http://www.newyorkfacialplasticsurgery.com.

There’s very little difference between the naughty and nice—one of them just might have a little more fun than the other. If you’re shopping for a special, intimate gift that will make your lover feel sublime (and do wonders for you), Guilty Pleasures in Westbury is the only stop you’ll need to make. They carry fine intimates and novelties. Their premier lingerie includes La Perla, Betsey Johnson, Cosa Bella, Ed Hardy, Jezebel, Hanky Panky and more. They also feature an extensive line of luxury accessories, sleepwear and anything you could think of for that private party you’re planning. Plus, their line of best selling books and games might give you a few ideas, too. Guilty Pleasures offers all the sophistication and choices of an upscale department store but with the discretion, unique style and personal attention of a private boutique. Visit 915 Merrick Ave, off Old Country Rd, or call (516) 227-6969 for details.

Looking for luxurious skincare products with medical-grade results? LI’s renowned facial plastic surgeon Dr. James Marotta developed this unique skin care line in 3 strengths to help women and men achieve a more youthful and healthy complexion. Individual products range from $13—$90. The complete 6-piece kit is $170—$195, depending on strength. Call Marotta Facial Placstic Surgery at (631) 982-2022 or visit http://www.marottamd.com.

Since opening its doors in a very chic, very swank, renovated historic bank in central Bay Shore, Drew Patrick has been a gem for its clients. Featuring the best in spa, fitness and lifestyle gifts and furnishings, Drew Patrick guests quickly convert into loyal followers. If you’re not sure what to get that special someone on your list, a gift certificate here won’t go to waste—whether it’s a close loved one or a professional contact you want to thank for a good year. Gift certificates can be redeemed for day spa treatments, medical spa procedures, fitness and yoga classes, the home store or the café. http://www.drewpatrickspa.com.

Shopping for a natural beauty? The Eminence Organic Skin Care line offers a truly exquisite experience with products that are so natural you can smell the real herbs and see the fresh fruit pulps and seeds. The philosophy is focused on keeping it simple and natural. Skin care solutions featured here, $12—$39 each. Eminence is available at Polished, The Skincare Lounge, based in Bayport and at http://www.polishedskincare.com, (631) 218-5888.

How a person feels is often written all over their face. This holiday season, give that special someone the gift of feeling their best with a gift certificate to Laser Cosmetica. With locations throughout New York, Great Neck, Miami and Philadelphia, an appointment can be scheduled for laser hair removal, Titan skin tightening, skin rejuvenation and other advanced skin care when and where it fits any schedule. Laser Cosmetica’s holiday promotion offers 50% off any package so your gift can go that much further. http://www.lasercosmetica.com.

Alexander Graham Bell’s mind would be blown by the technology in today’s phones, but you’re shopping for a Here-and-Now hipster. Check out the Blackberry Storm 2 Smartphone. All the usual trappings are available—web browser, 3.2 megapixel camera and a sharp screen, but the Storm 2 also features the newest iteration of SurePress technology, which makes the virtual keyboard more responsive and accurate and it also has expanded WiFi capabilities. $179-$539 (depending on the contract) at http://www.verizonwireless.com. And it works great with 2D technology.

Whether perched precariously on a frozen mountain ridge or ocean wave, the Go Pro Camera Wrist Hero can capture the moment. Yes, it’s a camera. It boasts high quality resolution, a shockproof/waterproof housing and can be worn like a watch. $140 at http://www.goprocamera.com.

We love Cablevision, honest we do, but Apple TV brings your at-home viewing pleasure to a whole new level—think HD TV on Red Bull. Browse through endless titles of movies that you can rent (approx $5) or buy (approx $10). This little box can store up to 200 hours of video and travel with you so you can take your movies on the go. As if that’s not enough, you can use it to browse YouTube, your iTunes library, photos and other media stored on your computer. Set up takes under 5 minutes: fit the 2 plugs in, logon to your network and access iTunes. This is the best of home entertainment, media and web. $229, http://www.apple.com.

The Canon FS200 Digital Video Camcorder with Flash Memory combines light weight (7.9 oz.), with the high resolution DIGIC DV II Image Processor and image stabilization. The Canon Power Shot SD960 IS has Digital ELPH, a suite of features that enables HD video recording, the creation of sharp and colorful pictures and much more. Both are $300 at http://www.shop.usa.canon.com.

Burgeoning Paparazzi? National Geographic wannabes? Capture the moment! The Nikon Coolpix S1000PJ is the world’s first digital camera with a built-in projector. Along with 12.1-megapixel resolution, it is capable of throwing a bright 5-inch image from 10 inches away and up to a 40-inch image from 6 feet away. $430. With the Coolpix S230, you can be fashion forward and tech savvy at once. It comes in five colors and features 10-megapixel resolution and the new EXPEED image processor, which provides a leap forward in color and sharpness. $200. The Coolpix S70’s key feature is the Touch Panel OLED, which gives touchscreen access to camera and picture preview settings. $350. http://www.nikonusa.com.

Those who love to write the old fashioned way, with pens and pencils, know: Kate’s Paperie is the leader in world-class paper paraphernalia. Perfect as stocking stuffers or for secret Santa, there’s something for everyone: Leather-bound journals for him, stationary and note cards for her, and whimsical paper items for the little ones. They also offer customized printing for invitations and personalized stationary. http://www.katespaperie.com.

Shopping for a chocoholic? Someone you don’t know well? A bon vivant used to the best? Either of these are sure to please. Taza chocolate is about as authentic as it gets, stone ground organic chocolate with cacao from the Dominican Republic and sugar from Brazil. There are the conventional (Vanilla Bean, Salted Almond) and the daring (Guajillo Chili!). Taza also gets props for treating their suppliers well and staying as green as possible. $4.50-$99 at http://www.tazachocolate.com. Bella’s Confections Gourmet Fudge is made fresh in California and shipped within 72 hours after its creation. They offer classic chocolates and dark chocolates plain or with a variety of nuts and flavorings, seasonal fudges like peppermint stick bark as well as vanilla and peanut butter choices galore. $10-$13 at http://www.bellasconfections.com.

We know more about outer space than our polar oceans. During British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s first visit to President Obama’s White House, he gifted Obama a framed commissioning paper for the HMS Resolute, a barque-rigged Royal Navy Ship that came to symbolize British-American goodwill when it was trapped by Arctic icebergs, rescued by an American whaler and returned to Queen Victoria in 1856. Until I traversed these north polar waters in icebreaker mode and landed on an Inuit island named after that ship, I’d only imagined defining resolute.

Sea carnivalites seek tropical breezes while cruise extremists deliberately voyage into polar fog—before the top of the world forever tips off its icy hat. My 2,000 nautical mile Russian icebreaker voyage through the Arctic’s Northwest Passage navigated the same bays and narrow, ice-choked channels that immobilized or killed explorers (including Henry Hudson) for 400 years until a crafty Norwegian, Roald Amundsen, completed the Atlantic-to-Pacific voyage in 1905. Tracking those really real men, we explored Canadian Arctic islands, most uninhabited, others home to native Inuit. This polar history lesson is spiced with hikes, kayaking and encounters with fringe-of-civilization survivors formerly called Eskimos. It’s another galaxy up here, where note-takers clutch pencils because pens freeze.

These expeditions define the inescapable escape, as no one can bail out. You’re on the boat for the duration, no matter what—losing track of days, severed from email, phone, television and Internet. A time machine warp of two weeks with no need for wallet or keys—currency and technologies are worthless. There’s nothing to tune out and a lot to discover.

Heat takes on incredible value in this environment and the Akademik Ioffe, a Russian icebreaker, provides plenty. Expedition cruising means no set itinerary; weather and ice can reroute ships at any time. Swerving off the business-as-usual curve and backtracking along Amundsen’s odyssey—uncharted in a my climate-controlled shelter—makes you contemplate the sacrifices made conquering the unknown.

The Ship
The 117m-long Akademik Ioffe, an ice-strengthened Russian research vessel, was converted to a passenger boat when the previous Cold War stalled. Originally designed for acoustic research—though the salty bartender winks that it was really a spy ship—it can produce 20 tons of potable water per day and is equipped with 747-engine-sized thrusters allowing it to fishtail around roving icebergs. It seems Russia, with 30 icebreakers, is well prepped to navigate this new frontier while the US has just one working icebreaker.

The often shallow and rocky Northwest Passage requires careful navigation—only shallow draft boats can pass. While this sort of “cruising” usually attracts mostly educated, well-heeled adventurers, I overheard two doozeys:

“Are there anymore undiscovered islands?”

“Do they speak pole-ish up here?

The Journey
The voyage started in Cambridge Bay, an isolated frontier settlement on Victoria Island. Like every hamlet in the High Arctic, “Christmas” comes in the form of one barge delivery per year, which means realizing one annual shopping list. ATVs buzz along dirt roads.
Pointing at a teenager’s ATV, I inquire, “That ATV must be fun on the beach?”

“We don’t have a TV,” he replies, indicating that I’m surely off the grid.

Nunavut, a 772,000 square-mile territory (one-fifth the size of Canada) was carved from half of Canada’s Northwest Territories in 1999. Nunavut has 34,000 permanent residents, mostly Inuit—the same number of people living on my New York City street. None of the 26 High Arctic communities are accessible by road or rail.

Houses are built high on stilts to avoid snow drift build-up, each with two external tanks, one for potable water and one for waste, respectively imported and exported by trucks. This setup makes residents ultra-conscious of their usage and disposal. I hadn’t thought much about my personal water usage until recently when two-thirds of my Manhattan apartment survival water—a medley of quart and half-gallon jugs—was depleted to flush my toilet during a water main break. Whoa.

At first, the High Arctic land scenery, if beheld by unromantic eyes, resembles a lifeless Montana mine-scape shrouded in February mist. But it was early September and winter soon laid a snowy frost on the drab but dramatic, brown, ice age cataclysm rubble. This desolate, inhospitable tundra is windswept and treeless, though, up close, many rocks are fluorescent with orange lichen. Tundra vegetation includes flowering plants, grasses, sedges, mosses and dwarfed shrubs. Cold, dead-brown buttes sprinkled with glacial debris flank the waterways. Occasionally, rocky cliff faces loom over the dark waters, chock-full of floating ice sculptures that accentuate the dazzling Arctic radiance.

These Barrengrounds define rawness. The coastal Barrens are brown, rolling, rounded mountains. A Mars-ish landscape designed by glaciers, the desert bleakness is inconstant and forbidding. Much of the time, you’re looking at three-billion-year-old rock in the form of huge cliffs that were once layers of ancient seabed—at the equator! As we moved north, we found a massive blue-green glacier churning down a valley toward a pod of Beluga whales—capable of a wide range of facial expressions. We also saw on-land Stromatolite’s domes—beach umbrella-top sized volcanoes that are a first sign of geologic life on Earth.

Encounters included polar bears, whales and brave, lone-wolf birds. Treading these lands is a sacred privilege that comes with environmental responsibility. Nothing is disturbed, whether it be lichens or caribou, who endure the longest over-land migration—2,000 miles—of any animal. Due to weather, waves and other nautical surprises, many landfall decisions are last minute.

Whales are plentiful; we learn to differentiate their “blow types.” Bowhead whales, with side-by-side blowholes (like ours) create a bushy blow, while narwhal whales have a straight, geyser-like blow. Other wildlife sightings include bearded seals, grizzlies and Arctic fox.

Arctic sea ice begins to form when seawater temperature is about 29-degrees, depending upon its salinity. The higher the salt content, the lower the freezing point. 50-percent sea ice coverage resembles an inverted cloudy sky or, for the geometrically challenged, like peering down upon a cloudy day from a plane cruising at 30,000 feet. Sea ice hues range from white crystal to Tunisian blue. The supernatural whimsy of wind-blown ice is magical in a terrifying way—ice accidents sink ships.

There are options to kayak throughout the voyage—the main craft used for hunting by the Inuit. Quietly paddling up to an onshore Grizzly bear seems to lend more credibility than motoring past in a Zodiac. It’s also high time to pause and redefine silence.

Syncing with the onboard Russian theme are the occasional onshore DEWline stations (abandoned, US-built Cold War Distant Early Warning radar and radio facility mini ghost towns). These US paranoia graveyards, like exercise bikes converted into clothes hangers, were ill conceived in the mid 1950s. Big, empty utility sheds, that once held secret guy stuff that never really worked, all sit next to decommissioned (knocked over) radar towers. These stations were an early indication of US/Canada cooperative tension, since the US just showed up and built them without permission.

Inuit hamlets aside, the only other human structures are long-abandoned Hudson’s Bay trading posts, typically nothing more than two old wooden buildings near the shoreline. It’s funny to arrive at desolate places like “Fort Ross,” where side-by-side huts barely mimic forts.

Inuit Customs
Inuit is used to refer collectively to these Arctic peoples. Inuk is the singular form of Inuit and is used when referring to an individual. People actually live up here, unlike Antarctica, which by law has no population except for visiting scientists. Known for centuries as Eskimos, the Inuit look like very well fed Thai people. Inuit’s noses have low bridges, like Asians, whereas Indians from lower North America have higher, stronger nose bridges. Blood typing has verified that they’re not related to Native Americans, likely because they arrived via different migrations.

Before “civilization” they had no class structure or recognized form of government. Money traditionally meant nothing (except perhaps, cigarettes). Children seem to be interchangeable, and traded amongst family and friends. There are no rules for the kids—Inuit don’t like to say no. Adoption is an integral part of society. The fluidity of kid transfers remains undramatic. They’re also not big on small talk, silence is accepted and normal—hellos and goodbyes are unnecessary. Hospitality requires no thank yous and handshakes are pointless.

Experts still argue about whether the Inuit were Bering Strait wanderers or Mongolian boaters. There’s also a theory imagining that lower North American Indians bullied them northward into the igloo way of life. Known for their Herculean stamina and contemplative personality styles, an unspoken cultural mandate is the sharing of everything.

Today, many younger indigenous Inuit live in hamlets, listen to iPods, watch satellite television and chat on telephones. Boats with outboard motors have replaced skin kayaks, rifles have replaced harpoons, snowmobiles have replaced sled dogs and prefab cabins have replaced igloos. But you still get a sense that they’re connected to their departed spirits.

Holman’s Dave Kuptana
Our second landfall on Victoria Island (NWT) was Holman, a seaside village of 400 known by the local Inuit as Ulukhaktok (ulu-hock-tock), which means ladies knife made out of copper. A string of boxy cabin homes rim the shore with a rise leading to an austere, picket fence-rimmed, squash court-sized graveyard. Near that edge of town, I met mellow but judicious, Dave Kuptana, a retired wildlife guide cum stone carver. Sitting outside beside his carving table and wearing snug-fitting, oversized mechanics overalls, he gently explained that the key to winning over Holman’s young people was insisting that they “follow our tradition” by “listening to your teachers.”

“Last winter,” he emphasized with squinting eyes, “we only got two polar bears.” This fringe of the Northwest Territories mandates that Holman as a whole can only hunt 20 polar bears; 10 for local consumption and 10 for visiting sport hunters—who pay up to $35,000, a fee supporting the entire community. The meat of hunted animals is stored in underground permafrost freezer huts and shared communally. Permafrost freezes the ground up to 400 meters deep in these parts.

Kuptana, a rotund, hard-working, middle-aged Holman native, remembers decades past when local waters were completely frozen through July making the area perfect polar bear territory for most of the year. “Now,” Kuptana explained peering towards the bay, “there’s no ice, it’s open water, and we’re in boats by May. Now we have to go more than 100 miles for bears.”

Returning to his initial offering aimed at Holman’s youth: “Don’t lose our dialect.”

It is thought that Inuit may have learned many of their hunting techniques from the bears. Latitudes and attitudes prevail as the Arctic region progresses toward longer summers with open water; local appetites remain hardy. Dave’s final merry-eyed thought on the choicest part of bear dining: “The meat with the fat on it.”

Controversy in Gjoa-Haven
A zodiac run from the ship visited Nunavut’s Gjoa-Haven, another dirt-road survival hamlet with modest boxy homes upon stilts draped with various animal skins (caribou, musk ox, brown and polar bear) slung over porch banisters and other objects like drying laundry. These what-we’ve-been-up-to flags reveal more guts than mud splattered on a suburban SUV.

Most elders here speak only Inuit, but a young English-speaking resident explained that the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, curiously, are using the Inuit Inukshuk as their logo. An Inukshuk is an Inuit survival signpost of life or death, as well as markers/pointers signaling either food caches (no pointer means food right there) or a stone pointer showing the way to open water, hunting or fishing zones. These guideposts have nothing to do with the 2010 Olympics multi-colored representation. The Olympic committee bought the rights to a controversial human representation with two feet and two pointing arms. Traditional Inukshuk signposts do not represent people and have only one pointer. The Nunavut flag bears a legitimate Inukshuk. Furthermore, there are Native Indians in British Colombia and Vancouver, but they’re not Inuit.

Gjoa-Haven’s Throat Singers
These High Arctic hamlets receive three day-tripper ship visits per year, if that. While in Gjoa-Haven, I met two teenage throat singers, Janet Aglukkaq and Kathy Keknek. Haunting, but beautiful and mesmerizing, throat singing’s eerie harmonies resemble guttural, breathy electronic music. A tradition traced to Mongolia, the young women created multi-layered supernatural cadence, a duet of throaty growls and soaring repetitive rhythms. They’ve been training for four years for their performance that lasts about five minutes. In a culture where centuries-old survival skills are now sadly taught as arts and crafts, Ms. Aglukkaq noted, “We received a grant to go sing in Scotland…we hope it’s not too hot there.”
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For more information on Quark’s polar adventures visit http://www.quarkexpeditions.com.
Bruce Northam’s new show, American Detour, is on http://www.americandetour.com.

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SIDEBAR

The Wild North Braces for Battle

The Northwest Passage, the world’s most dangerous shortcut, is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Unlike Antarctica (the bottom), a continent shielded by an ocean, the Arctic is an ocean encircled by continents. Also unlike Antarctica, which was forever environmentally protected by the globally signed 1959 Antarctic Treaty, the five countries encircling and laying claim to the Arctic region (Canada, Russia, Norway, Denmark and the US via Alaska) have yet to agree on anything.

Without an Arctic Treaty, the vast Arctic Ocean, which is six times larger than the Mediterranean Sea, implores urgent geopolitical questions. Who is going to manage the Northwest Passage, which will, as the meltdown continues, outmode the Panama Canal’s 40 locks and 40 thousand per ship transit fee? Canada righteously considers these “internal waters” and seems to have the leg up for now regarding shipping lane control. The other geopolitical time bombs are the rights to tapping the region’s impending oil, natural gas, mining and tourism booms. The saber rattling over Arctic territorial claims has begun—with the USA declaring the passage international waters, Russia claiming the North Pole’s seabed and Canadian sovereignty simply pointing at their map. Add our globe’s rising fever—the disappearance of Arctic summer ice not only destroys polar bear, seal and Arctic peoples’ habitat, but also reinforces global warming because open water absorbs more solar energy than ice. Ouch. Eventually we’re all going to realize that we’re in this together—everyone on my boat did.

As the Northwest Passage opens for business, Arctic political diplomacy will shut down. The anticipated commercial shipping lane will further bleach the Inuit way of life, turning their knowing glimpses into the gaze of climate refugees. What happens next is largely up to us. Just as winds are designated by the direction they blow from rather than to, a polar adventure reminds us that the Earth’s warm-up is coming, not going. Man’s partaking in polar visitation is our last chance to do things right; footprints here can last a thousand years. Where the law is silent, ethics should speak.

Shhhhhhh.

Practically from the minute you were born, somebody was shushing you. Hushing your crying when you were a baby. Yelling at you so you’d be silent as a mouse. Giving you something to do so you’d leave them in peace for five minutes.

You’re a kid and kids make noise. But sometimes, it’s important to stay still and use your ears. In the new book The Listeners by Gloria Whelan, illustrated by Mike Benny, three children use their listening skills in a most important way.

All day long, starting well before daylight, Bobby, Sue, and Ella May have jobs to do. But after supper, the three children have more important work.

As the skies get dark, Bobby, Sue and Ella May sneak over to the great house, quiet as little bugs, and they listen beneath the window. Night after night, the children take secrets back to Daddy and Mammy.

Once while listening, Ella May heard that Daddy was going to be sold, but Master said that wouldn’t happen. Cotton picking is a hard job and Ella May has to pick lots to fill her basket. Daddy sometimes helps her by giving her his cotton.

One night Daddy says that listening is doubly important, and that Ella May, Bobby and Sue must remember everything they learn at the window of the great house. What they hear makes Ella May think that their listening job may be over, but Daddy says it’s only just begun.
Sometimes—most times—it’s hard to get small kids to sit still and use their ears. But if you’ve got this book, The Listeners is a self-fulfilling title.

Author Gloria Whelan tells a story of a little girl who does a big job for those in her community, as well as a subtle tale of life as a slave from a kids’ point of view. Little Ella May is spunky and smart but with a sweet innocence.

Or, maybe that adorableness is due to the excellent illustrations by Mike Benny. Benny is generally stingy with color (using mostly earth tones), which gives this book a somewhat furtive tone, which seems just right.

If you’re looking for something that will keep kids quiet for awhile, find this book. For kids ages 3-to-8, The Listeners will have them sitting ears forward.

It won’t be long before that shiny new PlayStation has been tossed aside for the next big thing. Instead of putting yet another box under the tree, why not invest in your children’s interests by offering them lessons in their favorite sport or activity? From acting to yoga, here’s a small sampling of what’s offered across the Island for kids of all ages. These are gifts they’ll continue using long after the decorations have been packed away.

ACTING LESSONS
Been bitten by the acting bug? Your resident thespians can flex their acting chops at the John Engeman Theater at Northport School of the Performing Arts (Northport, engemantheater.com, 631-261-2900), a full-service acting school housed next door to the professional theater company. Classes run the gamut in terms of age and interest, from Mommy & Me for 2-4 year olds, to Broadway for the Little Tyke for 5-6 year olds, to Broadway Teens and Broadway Glee Club for the preteen and high school actor. The 16-week winter session begins January 25 and pricing ranges from $400-$600.

Seasoned actors serious about a professional career in the arts can go Way Off Broadway (locations in Bellmore, Garden City, Huntington, Manhasset, Plainview, Rockville Centre and Syosset; http://www.wayoffbroadway.org, 516-741-1682). In February, a special workshop for middle and high school students will focus on audition monologues during which New York City theatrical agents will provide feedback. Acting and musical theater classes for kindergarteners through 12th graders run on an ongoing basis, with free trial classes available.

GYMNASTICS
If you have miniature Mary Lou Retton at home, give her a leg up—literally—by providing a place to demonstrate all the right moves. At Twisters Gymnastics (Westbury, twistersli.com, 516-333-0010), there’s something for every skill and age level. Classes range from Tumblin’ Toddlers, a 45-minute class for 18 month to 3 year-olds, to Gymnastics, a 1½-hour intensive program for ages 6 and up. Winter session begins January 19 (for 17 weeks) and ranges from $369 to $425.

Looking for something different? Check out Tumbling Tunes (Northport, tumblingtunes.com, 631-697-0140), which combines music with movement and specializes in beginning gymnastics for active preschoolers. The 45-minute weekly classes for ages 3-6 warms up using rhythm sticks, followed by a series of skill-building exercises, including dismounting, rolls and tuck jumps. Winter session starts January 4 (for 10 weeks) and costs $200.

MUSIC LESSONS
Whether your child is a budding bassist or a violin virtuoso, he’ll find the right teacher at Music School Inc. (musicschoolinc.com, 516-280-6191), which offers instruction either in your home or at its Amityville studio. A large staff of “artists in residence,” as the teachers are called, is skilled at all levels, ages and instruments. Special programs include Drum Fight, an annual competition held at the Crazy Donkey in Farmingdale, and Rock ‘N Tots for music lovers under the age of 5, currently held at Tutor Time in Patchogue, The Children’s Center at SUNY-Farmingdale and also available in private residences. Cost depends on the length of the lessons, but interested parents can inquire about special introductory packages.

YOGA
Just say “Om.” At Yoga Rocks (Oyster Bay, yogarockskids.com, 516-624-YOGA), kids won’t just learn how to do a downward dog; they’ll learn to think creatively, observe and reflect—a great way to de-stress after a hectic school day. Classes range from the novice, which includes game play, songs, exercise and meditations for ages 3-7, to the more advanced yogi where they will learn how yoga affects both physical and mental health during a physical workout. The 6-week winter session begins on January 5 and costs $60.

For many, 2009 was the unofficial Year of the Staycation. Now, with the economy on the rebound—and with ski resorts eager to court skiers with great deals—it’s time to spread your wings and set your sights on destinations a bit farther afield than the Northeast, New England and Quebec. If that isn’t incentive enough, it’s an El Niño winter, which means bad things for local ski areas, but good things, including increased precipitation, out West. (For evidence, I submit to you the October 2009 storm that dropped up to 40 inches of snow on Colorado.) You could certainly focus on the “standards”—Aspen, Jackson Hole, Whistler—but why not buck the trend (and the crowds) and score more powder all for yourself at these choice locales?

Crested Butte Mountain Resort, CO

The Mountain
Think of Crested Butte (http://www.skicb.com) as Aspen without the in-your-face opulence. Tucked within the rugged Elk Mountains, this is a skier’s mountain with big terrain. Here, at the home of the US Extreme Skiing Championships, you’ll find beyond-double-black-diamond runs appropriately labeled “extreme.” The high point—literally—is The Peak, hiking-only terrain that takes you to the 12,162-foot pyramidal summit of the resort. Of course, you’ll also find runs suited to all levels of ability, so there’s no need to be intimidated by CB’s big reputation. If you do want to dabble in the more committing parts of the mountain, but you’re not sure you want to go it alone, consider hiring one of the CB Adventure Guides to show you the ropes.

Where to Stay
If slopeside lodging is your thing, then your choices here are easy: The Lodge at Mountaineers Square, The Grand Lodge or Elevation Hotel and Spa, are all located within a short walking distance of the lifts. Off the mountain, the town of Crested Butte (http://www.gunnisoncrestedbutte.com) offers a variety of options. Try the comfortable and economical Cristiana Guesthaus (http://www.cristianaguesthaus.com), Elk Mountain Lodge (http://www.elkmountainlodge.com) or Old Town Inn (http://www.oldtowninn.net). For more rustic accommodations, rent one of the 8 historic Pioneer Guest Cabins (http://www.pioneerguestcabins.com) located in Gunnison National Forest in the nearby Cement Creek valley.

Where to Eat
While there are plenty of on-mountain dining options, make like the locals and head to Elk Avenue, CB’s historic main drag. The Eldo Brewery and Taproom (http://www.eldobrewpub.com) is the town’s only brewpub and a popular local watering hole. For sampling the local fare, head to Timberline Restaurant (http://www.timberlinerestaurant.com) for smoked trout, elk tenderloin, Gunnison beef and Colorado lamb.

Grand Targhee, WY

The Mountain
Located in Wyoming, but accessed from Driggs, Idaho, Grand Targhee (http://www.grandtarghee.com) sits cradles by three mountains—Fred’s Mountain, Mary’s Nipple and Peaked Mountain—which are all just shy of 10,000 feet in elevation. The resort is a gem often overlooked in favor of nearby Jackson Hole. But here’s a little-known fact about GT: Because it sits on the western slopes of the Teton mountain range, it gets the first dumps of snow from winter storms, meaning a greater average annual snowfall (more than 500 inches worth!) than legendary Jackson Hole.

Even better, you’ll pay just $69 for a single full-day lift ticket, compared to $91 at JH.

Where to Stay
The Targhee, Teewinot and Sioux lodges offer slopeside lodging options. Or, consider renting a condo, townhome or vacation home (http://www.grandvalleylodging.com) located along Ski Hill Road, the access road between Driggs and Grand Targhee. Driggs itself offers a variety of B&B and basic hotel options (http://www.tetonvalleychamber.com), while Teton Valley Cabins (http://www.tetonvalleycabins.com) offer rustic log cabins both with and without kitchenette.

Where to Eat
Grand Targhee’s après ski scene isn’t exactly bustling, though it has improved in recent years (of course, folks don’t come here for the après ski… it’s all about the Tetons’ cold smoke powder). Nevertheless, the Branding Iron Grille and Watering Hole is the “it” place for on-mountain dining. For a more unique experience, make a reservation for the sleigh ride dinner. Cowboy Paul Martin and his team of horses will take you on horse-drawn sleigh through a winter wonderland en route to a high-altitude yurt where you’ll be served a Western-style dinner. Forage Bistro and Lounge (http://www.forageandlounge.com) is a good option in Driggs. If you’re still looking for more, the restaurants of Jackson Hole are an easy drive away over Teton Pass.

Snowbird, UT

The Mountain
Utah boasts of having the Greatest Snow on Earth. It’s a bold claim, but with Great Salt Lake providing a punch of moisture (the “Lake Effect,” in local lingo), and the Wasatch Mountains providing the continental climate and the topography to wring the clouds dry, the skiing conditions are indeed sublime. Witness Snowbird (http://www.snowbird.com), one of the top ski resorts in North America. Perched high in Wasatch-Cache National Forest in Little Cottonwood Canyon, the snow here is blower light, dry and super deep. Snowbird has something for everyone, including big mountain terrain that’ll challenge even the best skiers. A single day, all-access lift ticket costs $72, but for $13 more you can double your pleasure with a ticket good at both Snowbird and neighboring Alta, which together provide 4,700 acres of stunning terrain. Best of all, Snowbird is very close to Salt Lake City, such that you could be off your plane and on your skis in an hour.

Where to Stay
Snowbird offers five on-mountain options for lodging, including the Cliff Lodge and Spa, Snowbird’s flagship accommodations, which completed a $5.6 million renovation in 2006. Of course, Salt Lake City serves up more options than you’ll ever need. However, be aware that if it dumps, E Little Cottonwood Road leading from Salt Lake to Snowbird can close for avalanche control work. If you’re not staying at Snowbird, consider the town of Alta (http://www.discoveralta.com), which will keep you close to all the action.

Where to Eat
Like any world-class resort, Snowbird knows how to serve up fare to hungry skiers. American at The Atrium, Italian at The Wildflower, Mexican at El Chanate and more are all on-site. As with the skiing, nearby Alta roughly doubles your dining options. Earlier in 2009, Utah legislators repealed a decades-old law requiring bars to be private clubs, and for patrons to be members of those clubs. Traditionally, bars offered inexpensive two-week memberships to tourists, but now you can drink up free of that red tape.

Squaw Valley USA, CA

The Mountain
With no fewer than seven ski areas—including Heavenly, Kirkwood and Northstar-at-Tahoe—Lake Tahoe (http://www.skilaketahoe.com) offers no shortage of options. Among the choices, though, Squaw Valley USA (http://www.squaw.com) is the grand-daddy. This winter, the resort celebrates its 60th anniversary, and the 50th anniversary since hosting the Olympic Winter Games. It’s 4,000 acres large, encompassing six peaks (including Squaw Peak, Emigrant, and Granite Chief) and 33 chairlifts to access all that terrain. It’s also the proving grounds of Olympic gold medalist Jonny Moseley. You’ll probably fly in to Reno to get here, and if you do, be sure to stop in at Reno Mountain Sports, REI or other local ski shops to pick up discounted lift tickets before you get to the mountain.

Where to Stay
Slopeside lodging opportunities abound, but the newest is The Village at Squaw Valley (http://www.thevillageatsquaw.com), which comprises the chic pedestrian base village at Squaw. For additional options—both on-mountain and farther afield—try Squaw Vacations or the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority (bluelaketahoe.com) to get plugged in to the area’s many choices. If you’re looking to stay in an actual town (with historic roots to boot) then undoubtedly set your sights on Truckee.

Where to Eat
The resort offers more than 30 dining options, from bakeries, pub food and Mexican, to French, pizza and bistros and much more. Don’t miss the Ice Lounge, constructed of more than sixty 350-pound blocks of ice. In nearby Truckee, Donner Pass Road is the main thoroughfare and where you’ll find plenty of additional choices to satisfy your hunger. Try the Trio Wine Bar (http://www.triowine.com), or the restaurant trio of Pianeta Cucina Italiana, Pacific Crest Grill and Bar of America (http://www.barofamerica.net). The Cottonwood Restaurant also gets rave reviews from diners.

Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, BC

The Mountain
Sure, British Columbia’s Whistler-Blackcomb, located in the Coast Mountains, is hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics Games. But that also means the resort will be mobbed with athletes, spectators and skiers. Instead of fighting the crowds, head to Kicking Horse Mountain Resort (http://www.kickinghorseresort.com). Also located in BC, Kicking Horse sits perched in the Purcell Mountains, surrounded by six national parks (Banff, Glacier, Kootenay, Yoho, Mt. Revelstoke and Jasper). With more than 4,000 vertical feet of lift-served terrain, it tops the five mountains in this list. By far the most striking aspects of KH are the CPR and Redemption ridges, which feature the kind of ski terrain normally reserved for ski porn flicks (think Teton Gravity Research, Matchstick, and Warren Miller). The on-site Big Mountain Centre offers private guides who can show you the way and teach you how to ski the ridges safely, including assessing avalanche hazards. Oh yeah, and with a favorable exchange rate, KH’s cheap rates are even more attractive to Americans heading north of the border.

Where to Stay
Kicking Horse offers a variety of lodges, townhomes, vacation home rentals, suites and more to suit the needs of any traveler. Especially set your sights on Copper Horse Lodge (http://www.copperhorselodge.com), which Ski Canada Magazine named the Best New Lodge in 2007. In the nearby town of Golden, you can take your pick of lodges, hotels, B&Bs, cabins and hostels. One of the newest and best is Kicking Horse River Lodge (http://www.khrl.com), whose on-site Bugaboo Café is a great spot to grab breakfast before you hit the slopes.

Where to Eat
Without a doubt, the Eagle’s Eye Restaurant is the must-do dining experience at Kicking Horse. Set atop the mountain at 7,705 feet, it’s the highest-elevation restaurant in all of Canada. Otherwise, take your pick of the resort’s many offerings. In Golden, the dining and nightlife are more limited, and keep in mind that many of the better restaurants are located outside of town at the region’s many luxury lodges. Try the Cedar House Restaurant (http://www.cedarhousechalets.com), just five minutes outside of Golden, which features acclaimed Rocky Mountain cuisine. In-town, Eleven 22 (eleven22.ca) is the place to go.

Savvy Skier Tips
This winter, resorts are going out of their way to entice skiers with attractive deals that are kind to the wallet in this rebounding economy. Follow these simple rules for maximizing your budget:

1. Buy lift tickets before you arrive at the resort. As with the above example from Squaw Valley USA, you can often save on the cost of lift tickets by purchasing ahead of time. At Crested Butte Mountain Resort, you can save $4-5 per day on your lift tickets if you buy them online via the resort’s website. In Utah, the Ski Salt Lake Superpass can be purchased for anywhere from 1-7 days of skiing, for as low as $56 per day (far less than you’ll pay at lift ticket windows) and can be redeemed for full-day, all-access lift tickets at any of four resorts (including Snowbasin and Alta). It’s also worth stopping in at local ski shops and asking about discounted lift tickets for nearby resorts. Also, don’t forget to ask about free or discounted lift tickets for kids.

2. Package your skiing with transportation and lodging. Almost all resorts are offering incentive packages if you book lodging and/or transportation as part of a ski package. At Grand Targhee, if you book three nights of lodging, the fourth night is free. At Squaw, you can book four nights lodging with four days of lift tickets for the price of three days and nights. At Crested Butte, if you book a trip for three or more people, every third airline ticket is free. Or, get your fourth day of skiing and fourth night of lodging free. Or, kids (age 2-12) ski, stay and fly free with a paying adult. (Some restrictions and blackout dates apply, so always check the fine print.)

Christmas of 1968 was very special in that, for the first time in history, human astronauts orbited the Moon, took up-close photographs of its surface and transmitted television images of the stark Lunar landscape for all the people of Earth to see. New York Times called the Apollo 8 mission “the most fantastic voyage of all times.” On a darker note, the first documented case of space sickness took place during December 1968, when astronaut Frank Borman became seriously ill for several hours. December is clearly a most historic month in space history. Like December, January is also a special month for things spacial and astronomical. It was in January, 1610, that Galileo Galilee discovered craters on the Moon, moving spots on the Sun, four moons revolving around Jupiter and the innumerable stars of the Milky Way, which we now know is our home galaxy.

The Winter Solstice, which marks the shortest day (and longest night) of the year, falls on December 21st. As with equinoxes and solstices generally, celebrations and festivals often take place around the Winter Solstice. These celebrations of the “death” and “rebirth” of the Sun usually involve gatherings of close friends and relatives, elaborate feasts, singing, dancing and fire. Perhaps Christmas is, amongst other things, a Winter Solstice celebration replete with a rebirth and resurrection theme, family gatherings, caroling, and lights (fire)!

There are two significant meteor showers coming up this winter—the Geminids and the Quadrantids. The Geminids will peak on the 13th and 14th of December with up to 60 multi-colored meteors every hour. Viewing will be excellent as the Moon will be nearly new and the skies dark. With up to 40 meteors every hour, the Quadrantids peak on the 3rd and 4th of January. Look towards the constellation Boötes (directly off the handle of the Big Dipper). Best viewing for both showers is after midnight, but many meteors can be seen earlier in the evening. Why not come to one of our “Meteor Parties” to view these showers at the Custer Institute?

On January 29th, Mars will be at opposition (fully illuminated by the Sun) and closest to Earth making for fine viewing, especially through a telescope. The planet will rise in the early evening and set early in the morning. For those up in the wee hours, Saturn will again be coming into view. Uranus will be setting in the early evening hours, making the viewing time convenient, but can only be seen through a large telescope.

There will be a partial Lunar eclipse on December 31st, the night of the full Moon, and a Solar eclipse on the 15th of January, the day of the new Moon, but neither of these astronomical events will be visible from our region.

Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, so why not take the time to celebrate beyond the usual dressing up, going trick-or-treating and popping candy corn?

Vampires are overexposed lately—with Twilight, True Blood, and The Vampire Diaries saturating the media—but don’t let that stop you from picking up the sequel to Bram Stoker’s classic, Dracula. One hundred and twelve years later, Stoker’s great-grandnephew decided to continue the storyline with Dracula: The Un-Dead. Stoker and documentarian Ian Holt added some new characters to the mix such as the infamous Hungarian Countess Bathory, known for torturing young girls and bathing in the virgins’ blood to maintain her youth. http://www.draculatheundead.com/

The novel is only as good as the setting, so why not visit a haunted site to set the mood? At the Fire Island Lighthouse, you could hear sounds of odd laughter, or doors slamming. And the seemingly unreachable top windows have been known to open by themselves.
http://www.fireislandlighthouse.com/index.html

Once dusk falls upon Long Island, put on your disguise and head out for some dionysian fun at the Crazy Donkey in Farmingdale. The Donkey is hosting a Halloween party with music from the Misfits, White Zombie, and King Diamond tribute bands. And if you dress as something other than the King of Pop or Balloon Boy, you could be up for the $200 prize for Best Costume. http://www.thecrazydonkey.com/ Happy Halloween!

Now that the weather has officially turned cooler, playtime moves indoors. A perennial preschool game gets a makeover, finger painting goes to the next level and aspiring spies find new means to protect their privacy.

How sweet it is! In honor of Candy Land’s 60th anniversary, kids are invited to party with King Kandy in the Sweet Celebration Game ($19.99, http://www.hasbro.com). Instead of the traditional candy-colored game board, players can now build their own paths to his castle with puzzle pieces and gather treats to bring to the celebration. Along the way, be sure to check out two new calorie-free spots: Captain Kidd Cone’s Ship and the Chunky Chocolate Mountains.

If finger painting elicits a ho-hum response from your artiste in residence, let her try her hand—literally—at Finger Prints ($21.99, http://www.creativityforkids.com). After painting on a plastic sheet, kids can create a cool transfer print of their painting. This set comes with six washable paint colors, printing tray, printing mat, roller, squeegee, sponge and reusable apron. Just bring your creative juices.

Spies will now have the answer to “whodunit?” as they protect their home turf with the Evidence Kit ($16, http://www.shopwildplanet.com). This full-ledged forensics kit contains everything for savvy sleuths to figure out who’s guilty. Dust for fingerprints with a special glow-in-the-dark powder, collect fibers, hair and crumbs as potential clues with tweezers and analyze them under a high-power microscope. With so much proof on hand, investigators will be able to call it “an open-and-shut case.”

You are one smart cookie.

Don’t believe it? Well, look… you’re back in school and you’re not in the same grade, right? That officially makes you smarter than the kids who are now in the grade you were in last year. And that counts for something, doesn’t it?

So how can you best display this incredible intelligence you’ve got in your noggin? Get even smarter by reading Ask Me Anything: Every Fact You Ever Wanted to Know. And then warn your family, because your smarts might scare them.

Let’s say you’re studying space travel in school and the teacher asks the class a question. Put your hand up and keep it in the air if you’ve read this book. You’ll know all about how space affects the astronauts’ bodies, what kinds of things they like to do while in space, where the word comes from, and how you can become an astronaut.

Or let’s say your brother or sister is a big dummy. You’ll be able to help him or her with homework if you’ve read this book. Learn about the top five most dangerous spiders, how your lungs work, when toilet paper was invented, and why you should think twice before moving to Istanbul.

Ask Me Anything is a great book to have lying around the house for several reasons: For kids who need a homework break, it’s a quick, fun diversion. For young brainiacs, it’s informative but not stuffy. For curious kids, it fills their minds with kid-friendly information. And for adults, it’s browse-able and a great argument-ender.

If you’re looking for something light but informative to have around for your 7-to-15-year-old this is just the ticket. Ask Me Anything is a book they’ll be asking for.

For many of us, Thanksgiving is a joyful gathering of family and friends with a bounty of food and drink to stuff ourselves with and maybe a football game. But for some, Thanksgiving means a lonely vigil with an empty plate and stomach, the children toyless and hungry. There are organizations on Long Island that are dedicated to helping out such individuals, and you and the kids can bask in the altruistic glow of volunteer work.

Long Island Cares Inc., The Harry Chapin Food Bank, Hauppauge
(631) 582-FOOD
http://www.licares.org
Although they have a wide variety of volunteer openings, the most kid-friendly, with adult supervision, are sorting food in the warehouse, staffing the onsite food pantry, tending to the community garden and helping with food drives.

Island Harvest
Mineola, (516) 294-8528
Holbrook, (516) 805-4783
Uniondale, (516) 805-4782
http://www.islandharvest.org
They have a variety of kid-oriented volunteer programs such as the Turkey and Trimmings Collection Campaign, where holiday food for the needy is collected and sorted as well as opportunities for kids to plan and execute their own food drive.

Toys of Hope, Huntington
(631) 271-8697
http://www.toysofhope.org
This organization provides toys, books, clothing, activities and other items to needy and homeless children and their families. Kid-friendly volunteer opportunities include bake sales, car washes, placing donation boxes and handing out flyers.

rockCANroll, Inc., Jericho
(516) 822-3457
http://www.rockcanroll.org
Kids can volunteer at arts, music, school and other events to help acquire food for this organization that will stock LI food pantries, soup kitchens, safe homes and shelters.

Helping Hand Rescue Mission, Huntington Station
(631) 351-6996
http://www.hhrm.net
Through their “Youth Making a Difference” program kids can help the needy by cooking, stocking the food pantry, carrying things, tutoring and more.

Long Island Food Not Bombs
(631) 223-4370
http://www.lifnb.com
The ultimate in altruism. Kids and adults can become involved in “food shares,” but anything else that is a necessity for the needy will also be available. Food shares occur every Sunday at 1:30pm at Hempstead train station, every Tuesday at E. 6th St. & Fairground Ave. in Huntington and every Thursday at 6:30pm at Horseblock Rd. and Granny Rd. in Farmingville.

November is quite a significant month in space history. In a small book published in November 1923, Hermann Oberth, a Transylvanian scientist, became the first writer to use the term “Space Station” to describe a wheel-like facility that could serve as a base from which to launch astronauts to the Moon and Mars. He is regarded, along with the Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and the American Robert Goddard, as one of the three founding fathers of modern rocketry. Oberth’s work foreshadowed Wernher von Braun’s vision of a spinning wheel structure in space upon which the space station in Kubrick’s 1968 classic film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, was modeled.

In November of 1984, aboard the shuttle Columbia, astronaut Joseph Allen performed the first salvage operation in space when he retrieved the $35 million Palapa B-2 communications satellite. Fourteen years later, on November 20, 1998, the first module of the International Space Station was launched. Finally, Season 3 of the series The Universe begins on November 11 at 9pm on the History Channel with “Deep Space Disasters”—a show that could prove to be quite interesting.

The Moon will be full on the 2nd of November and new on the 16th. The Moon and Mars can be seen together on the 8th, while Jupiter and Mars will align in the early evening on the 23rd. In late November, Mars will be amongst the five brightest objects in the sky. Venus will be a bright morning planet, visible in the Eastern skies just before sunrise. It may be interesting to note that, on November 18, the Sun will rise at 6:40am at the Custer Observatory in Southold, but at 6:47am in Manhattan (the difference in time results from the distance between the two locations and the rotation of the Earth).

The Leonid meteor shower, first recorded in 1833 when millions of meteors streaked across the European skies, falls on the 17th and 18th of November and should yield an average of 40 meteors every hour this year. The Leonid shower peaks approximately every 33 years, with the last peak taking place in 2001. Some Leonids can be seen anytime between the 13th and the 20th of the month. Look towards Leo, the radiant (apparent point of origin), after midnight. The Moon will be out of the way so this year’s show is likely to be superb.

If you have access to a telescope, you can glimpse the asteroid Vesta just before sunrise on November 24th. Several comets also appear in the skies this November: 22P/Kopff, 81P/Wild 2 and 118P/Shoemaker-Levy 4. These are all fairly dim comets that require a sizeable telescope, or even sensitive imaging gear, to be seen. Of course, you are welcome to view these objects live at the Custer Institute any Saturday evening.

As 100 people settled in their seats in a stuffy Wyandanch auditorium, politicians checked to see if their hair was camera ready, activists scrawled in the margins of prepared remarks, television news crews snapped tripods into place, print photographers maneuvered for the better lines of sight, reporters clicked pens and flipped open notebooks. Everyone was good to go. And as the crowd quieted this August day, the buzz of anticipation continued to build for the first of two dozen speakers.

No, this was not another late summer scream fest over health care reform, the issue that drew large crowds and coverage to the consternation of so many in Congress. This was not a protest over a proposed new incinerator or some other civic insult that can rouse even the most apathetic community to action. On this day, the media mélange had assembled for the first hearing of the Suffolk County Hate Crimes Task Force, convened in the outcry after the murder in Patchogue of Ecuadorian Marcelo Lucero by teens out looking for Latinos to beat.

And with every passionate speaker, the softening light of sunset collided with the darker reality of racism on Long Island.

Many of the speakers, polished professional and curious passer-by alike, talked poignantly a “climate of fear” created by “anti-immigrant” politicians, as a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center also would assert. They spoke of immigrants assaulted and robbed as they strolled through their neighborhoods, victims not just of ethnic stereotyping but expediency: The thugs assume the workers are carrying cash (“walking ATM cards,” as activist Luis Valenzuela put it) because they’re paid “off the books,” or so the stereotype goes. And the victims are reluctant to report a crime against themselves or someone they know because, undocumented or not, they fear that the police won’t believe them or, worse, will report them to immigration authorities.

“We are hard-working people, working to build the economy,” exclaimed a frustrated Enrique Licea, who described himself as “illegal for seven years but legal the next 20.” “Nobody complains when we paint their houses, mow their lawns or take care of their mothers in a nursing home. And we’re not all undocumented. We’re also doctors and lawyers, but the media doesn’t focus on them, only arrests, gangs, not the good things.”

Licea is correct, of course. As a journalist for more than three decades, I can tell you it’s rare to see so many reporters, especially from the network affiliates, in a community that often can’t get attention, much less aid, for its social and economic problems. It’s just as rare to see so many politicians, especially white ones. But as helpful as their spotlight may be in publicizing the plight of these vulnerable people, the focus on low wage workers, or gang bangers for that matter, distorts the fuller picture of what immigrants— all immigrants—experience on Long Island.

And what they contribute: Despite the stereotypes, research suggests that even undocumented workers put more into the local economy and government coffers than they take out in public services – through dollars spent on food and other purchases and through the sales and property taxes they pay as consumers, renters and owners.

The plight of these victimized visitors is a small part of the bigger immigrant story. A study by the Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI), based in Albany, showed that low wage day laborers comprise a fractional part of the growing Latino community, which itself is only the foam on a wave of increasingly affluent newcomers. A broad spectrum of immigrants—including those from India, Korea, China, Haiti, Africa, Iran and many other lands—are transforming America’s oldest major suburb. And it’s not accurate to say they are making merely a positive impact throughout Nassau and Suffolk. They have become the key to our region’s social and economic survival.

Immigrants are not only the new employees and customers, but also entrepreneurs and investors; and while not always without the controversy that comes with gentrification and other manifestations of change, they are reviving neighborhoods and business districts by buying homes and stores that once were owned, and sometimes abandoned, by aging whites and impoverished blacks.

“It is sometimes a bumpy road, but the downstate suburbs are gradually becoming more diverse and global,” the FPI found. “In 2005 about 30 percent of residents of the downstate suburbs were Hispanic, Asian or black. As recently as 1980, that figure was just 10 percent.” In 2030 it will be 50 percent.

The Adelphi study declared: “Immigrant[s] added $10.6 billion to total Long Island output and generated an estimated 82,000 jobs in 2006 as a result of their consumer spending… Immigrants are an economically productive force on Long Island.” The data is clear; diversity may be Long Island’s greatest asset.

Like the Italians, Irish and Jews, such as my parents, who led the first wave of suburbanization on Long Island after World War II, the latest newcomers say they are arriving for better schools, more open space and opportunity – especially as older whites die off or retire to the Sunbelt and, as a recent Long Island Association study showed, younger ones don’t return after graduating college or leaving for less expensive or more exciting neighborhoods. But the newcomers bring more than their dreams and a down payment.

Unlike the ethnic pioneers who transformed a mostly Protestant farming and fishing region into the nation’s fastest growing post-World War II suburb, the more recent foreign-born arrivals generally don’t spend a generation or two in a city living with people from their own homeland. Either they are moving with their children directly to the suburbs or spending less time in the cities before they do. They don’t need the comfort and security of living in an ethnic ghetto because, by and large, they speak adequate or better English, are well educated, experienced in business and often have nest-eggs from careers where they lived overseas.

The FPI study showed that day laborers account for less than one percent of all foreign born. The top occupation of foreign born workers is nurse. In fact 29 percent of highly trained registered nurses, 41 percent of physicians and surgeons and 22 percent of accountants are foreign born.”

Important to Long Island’s success in the global economy, the new arrivals are hardly eager to cut their ties to the homeland, as their predecessors did in fleeing from oppression and poverty generations ago. There are many examples of immigrants now using their ties overseas to create businesses that succeed on two continents. For example, Tai Wang’s parents fled China for Taiwan after the Communists took over. She and her husband left Taiwan for America as well-educated professionals who wanted to build a business in a country, she says, that was more accommodating to entrepreneurs. Now, she and her husband, who moved up from a middleclass Queens neighborhood to a Gold Coast waterfront mansion, are a well-known maker of lighting fixtures. They employ 160 people on Long Island and 600 in China.

And now, her own daughter Shelley, has returned to Long Island to be groomed to run this global family business. This is more than a nice family story: Shelley and immigrant children like her are crucial to replacing the whites in her age group who are leaving Long Island in droves.

“If you are willing to work hard, the door to success is open here,” said Wang, who organized the Asian American Festival of Long Island, which last spring drew several thousand people to the Farmingdale College campus. “I wanted my children to know what it meant to be Chinese and American,” she said. “And I wanted to present our culture to Americans so they can learn more about us.”

Many immigrant groups are setting up cultural schools to supplement public school educations, as the diversity is religious as well as ethnic and racial. While the majority of new arrivals are Catholic Latinos, nearly 70,000 Muslims—as diverse a group as there is on Long Island—are found throughout the region with the 21 mosques and two schools. Nassau and Suffolk are home to at least as many Hindus and Sikhs, mostly from India. Korean Christian churches are ubiquitous.
Change has even come to Levittown. The iconic “first suburb,” which was notorious for the deed restrictions that barred non-whites for years after it grew out of central Nassau potato fields, is experiencing a small but significant surge in Latino and especially East and South Asian homebuyers.

A month before the hate crimes hearing, the only cameras at Jessica Kaur Taneja and Maneep Singh Karla’s engagement party at Akbar’s in Garden City – attended by 450 people, including Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi and other influential political and business leaders—were those provided by the parents of a young Indian couple. Jessica, who wore a traditional duppata, a long, colorful scarf, is a lawyer-lobbyist in tailored suits. Mandeep (known widely as Bobby) is an analyst at J.P Morgan on Wall Street.

“I am very Indian—I love Indian movies and clothing—and I’m very American,” said Jessica. “When we moved to East Meadow I was only the second Indian and the first Sikh in the school. Now there are dozens of Indians yet my friends are a mix of many cultures. We like it that way.”

Jessica’s father, Mohinder Taneja Singh, is a leader in the Sikh community and his hiring by Suozzi for “community outreach” is itself a reflection of the growing influence of Sikhs and other Indians. The increasing clout also is reflected in Suozzi, Steve Levy and other politicians setting up advisory committees representing not just Indians but a range of ethnic and religious groups. Then there’s Harry Anand, an Indian, elected mayor in the nearly all-white enclave of Laurel Hollow—a milestone noted on the front page of the New York Times.

Just as Great Neck has become a Mecca for Iranian Jews and Brentwood and Elmont for Latinos, Hicksville has become a center of Indian commerce and culture. Less than a year ago, the Indus American bank opened a branch there. Store after store in downtown Hicksville is owned by Indians, many featuring either features Indian clothing, food and other products that an Indian could only find on Long Island with great difficulty. “I only imagined that one day I could walk down a street like this,” said Apindergit Toor, as she shopped for padda, a sweet milk confection, and ladoo, a deep fried pastry ball and other Indian treats at the Bengali Sweet Shop in Hicksville. “You couldn’t even find the ingredients to make real Indian food. But now there is so much that it’s like we have a Little Punjab here!”

Two months before the hate crimes hearing, no reporters were there to scribble notes about the graduation day speech by the valedictorian of Oyster Bay High School, a teenaged girl who didn’t speak English fluently until she was eight years old. Ginny Lee, born to Korean parents, David and Mary Lee, is one of a half dozen Korean valedictorians on Long Island in recent years. David, a computer analyst and former fighter pilot in the South Korean Air Force, founded the Korean American Public Affairs Committee to help the tens of thousands of Koreans on Long Island increase their influence with local and state officials.

“The beauty of America is that if you work hard and show respect, people will help you and your children,” said David. “The school asked us to come in to tell them about our culture so they could do a better job. We are very happy on Long Island.”
And while some school districts have experienced “changing” pains in adjusting to non-English speakers, even in districts with substantial resources, today’s newcomers tend to adapt quickly to their new cultures. Herricks, for instance, has undergone a radical transformation. Heavily white even into the 90s, this high-achieving district in west-central Nassau is now believed to be the only majority Asian school district in any American suburb.

The exception to the success rule seems to be the children of the relatively few poor immigrants who, like their parents, aren’t literate even in their native tongue and who attend schools in districts ill-equipped financially to give them as much help as they need. These schools have been called the shame of the suburbs, islands of want in a sea of wealth—Hempstead, Roosevelt, Wyandanch and about a dozen others—that defy the educational excellence that defines Long Island. As social policy, I see this as morally offensive. As economic policy, it is simply stupid: Giving the worst education to kids who need it most, and who are most likely to remain on Long Island beyond their youth, can only weaken the quality of the work force and thus the region’s competitiveness.

Overall, however, the children of newcomers are doing well, rising to the tops of their classes in some of the nation’s finest public schools, including Half Hollow Hills, Syosset, Great Neck and Jericho. And as Rockville Centre schools proved, the poorer Latino and black students can keep pace with their more affluent white classmates if the district raised expectations, redirected some resources so high and low achievers sat in the same classrooms.

Many immigrants are arriving or have worked for a generation to be the new entrepreneurs and ambitious employees whose ideas, energy and skills are reinvigorating neighborhoods like Hicksville, Bay Shore, Glen Cove and Brentwood, the largest concentration of Latinos in the state outside New York City. Some are building huge enterprises. Two decades ago, Charles Wang, who came to the U.S. with a few bucks in his pocket, created thousands of jobs on Long Island when he grew Computer Associates into a commercial software giant. Bobby Kumar, who came over from India as a shoeshine boy with nothing, is a State University of New York trustee and successful businessman. He rose to be the first minority to chair a national political organization, the Reform Party (known in New York State as the Independence Party). And there is William Yeh of Mill Neck, who parlayed his brilliance in math to become one of Wall Street’s biggest and most innovative traders.

“The suburbs aren’t being transformed by immigrants—they are transformed,” said Kumar. “Go to any hospital—the doctors, nurses, maybe even the chair of the board are foreign born.”

Like I was raised a generation ago, as an American and a Jew. And like my friend Terry, American and Irish and Italian. And if the children of the Kumars, Lees, Yehs, Prieto-Rosales’ and other newly loyal and productive families don’t stay and save Long Island—save it from a “brain drain” of young workers, an aging of population and lack of new investment—then who will?

Collection of stories celebrate freaks

Freak. Weirdo. Just because your hair isn’t long (or is) and you wear make-up (or don’t) and have a piercing (or several). Just because you happen to like clothing that’s nothing like what most of your classmates wear. Just because you value your individuality, you hear those words whispered as you walk through the halls.

Words that follow you like leaves in the wind of a passing car—Freak, whack job.

You’re not alone. In the new book Sideshow by various authors and edited by Deborah Noyes, you’ll meet some people just like you. People who are a little bit different.

It’s 1924 and Tia Nafretiri dances the shimmy in front of sarcophagi just the way Mama taught her. Though the sideshow giantess and the bearded lady scoff at her theatrics, Tia knows her tale brings customers coming back. But in The Mummy’s Daughter by Annette Curtis Klause, there are a few things Tia doesn’t know.

When money is tight and all you can afford to do is watch TV, it’s easy to get wrapped up in a fanciful tale. In Those Psychics on TV by Vivian Vande Velde, young Cody and his mother finally get a chance to meet someone they’ve seen on television. Because they’re skeptical, they try to set her up to prove she’s a fraud. But could the psychic’s words be dead-on?

Now that school’s back in session, it can be hard for teens to find time for something that’s not class-related. Sideshow is a book they’ll make time for.

Editor Deborah Noyes explains, in her introduction, the history behind “freaks.” A hundred years ago or more, being put on display was sometimes the only way to make a living if you were born less than perfect and, although it surely seems cruel now, “the sideshow was America’s most popular form of entertainment” until the 1940s.

In this book, ten authors—three of them, also illustrators—bring the creepy and macabre to readers hungry for a few shivers. Each is quick to read and features kids who are “wondrous strange” in situations that are even stranger.
If you’re too old to go trick-or-treating but you still need a treat, find a copy of this book and enjoy. Sideshow is pretty freaking good.

According to consumer marketing data, the most popular Halloween costumes in 2005 were Spiderman, princesses, witches, vampires, Sponge Bob, Barbie, and Harry Potter. Yet, despite the astronomical significance of Halloween, there were no Galileos, astronomers or even a Hubble!

How is Halloween astronomically significant? The answer is that it falls halfway between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice, on the last of the four Cross Quarter days of the Solar Calendar. A Cross Quarter day is a day midway between an Equinox and a Solstice. For pre-Christian Celts and traditional Japanese Shinto societies, Equinoxes and Solstices signaled the midpoints of the seasons while Cross-Quarter days marked their beginnings. This contrasts with our own calendar where each season begins with an Equinox or Solstice. Nevertheless, vestiges of ancient celebrations tied to seasonal transitions remain in that each Cross Quarter day continues to be associated with a holiday: Groundhog Day (February 2), May Day (May 1), Lammas Day (August 1) and, of course, Halloween (October 31) or, in Mexico and some other Spanish speaking countries, Los Dias de los Muertos (the Days of the Dead), which takes place in late October or early November.

Another Halloween factoid: Currently, the Pleiades reach their zenith in mid-November; in ancient times, however, the Pleiades rode highest around Halloween and were considered a harbinger of cataclysmic events, including the return of the dead, as were comets and eclipses. Finally, I would like to remind my readers that comet P-17 Holmes, which burst into brilliance on October 24, 2007, is now sometimes referred to as the “Halloween comet.”

This October, the full Moon falls on the 4th. Just two days later, Mercury reaches greatest western elongation. The fiery planet will rise 35 minutes before the Sun and will grace the morning sky throughout the month. A close conjunction of Venus and Saturn takes place on October 13 when the two planets will be only half a degree apart in the early morning sky. Also on the 13th, Jupiter’s westerly retrograde motion will cease and the gas giant will again begin it journey to the east against the backdrop of stars. Look for it near Capricorn, high in the evening sky.

The Moon is new on the 18th, hence the skies will be dark for viewing the Orionids. This meteor shower yields about 20 meteors every hour, although irregular bursts of greater activity are often observed. Look for the Orionids in the eastern skies any time between the 20th and 24th. Why not join us at Custer, which will be having a meteor party on Saturday, October 24, from 8pm until after midnight?

Finally, humanity’s fascination with the sky is the subject of the sixth annual conference on the “Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena” to be held in Venice, Italy, from the 18th to the 23rd of October, 2009. It is a part of the International Year of Astronomy, 2009, that celebrates the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first astronomical use of the telescope. The conference was organized jointly with the Vatican Observatory. For further details, check out http://www.astro.unipd.it/insap6. This event might make for an interesting trip.

In the breezy cool and the kaleidoscopic leaf color of autumn is a great atmosphere for traipsing around LI farms and enjoying corn mazes, hot cider and good company. But at night, dark forces converge to give you frightening experiences in haunted houses and now-sinister mazes, ghouls and horrid visages around every corner. Here are some locations for fun or fright:

Darkside Haunted House
Oct 2-4, 9-12, 15-18, 21-Nov 1
Wading River
(631) 369-7227
http://www.darksideproductions.com
Celebrating 12 years of scaring the pants off of LI. Not for children or those with medical conditions. Admission: $18, discounts available.

Haunted Mansion/Haunted Nighttime Corn Maze
Oct 3-5, 10-13, 17-19, 24-26, 30-Nov 2, 7-11pm
Schmitt’s Family Farms, Melville
(631) 271-3276
http://www.schmittfarms.com
For a family-friendly corn maze adventure, visit 12-5pm. After that, things get scary. Mansion: $16; corn maze: $11; combo: $22.

Wild West Corn Maze
Saturdays and Sundays, Oct 3-Nov 1
Harbes Family Farm, Jamesport
(631) 722-2022
http://www.harbesfamilyfarm.com
This huge 8-acre maze sends you on a treasure hunt where you receive an old map with clues of how to complete the maze.
Harvest Festival Hayride Hoedown
Saturdays and Sundays, Oct 3-Nov 1, 11am-6pm
Palmer Vineyards, Aquebogue
(631) 722-9463
http://www.palmervineyards.com
Receive a free hayride with purchase of a glass of wine or Kool-Aid for the kids. Live bluegrass music with Miller’s Crossing, 1-5pm.

Spooky Walk
October 16-17, 23-24
Camp Pa Qua Tuck, Center Moriches
(631) 878-1070
http://www.camppaquatuck.com
Frankenstein’s monster, mummies and lost pirates, make appearances along with the rest of the horror. Cost: $10 at the gate. All proceeds go to Camp Pa Qua Tuck’s handicapped children.

Halloween Boat Burning
Oct 30, 5pm
Long Island Maritime Museum, West Sayville
(631) 447-8679
http://www.limaritime.org
Called the biggest bonfire on the South Shore. Will also feature apple cider, snacks and magic.

Ghosts and goblins aren’t the only creatures out and about this Halloween. Dress-up plush pals make festive playmates for those at home this holiday, while a costumed character from a hit movie takes to the streets. A lollipop with a special surprise will delight trick-or-treaters. Happy Haunting!

This witch, vampire and Frankenstein ($10.99 each; fiestatoy.com) are too cute to be scary. At 14” high, each creature holds a mini version of itself—the perfect companions for imaginative pretend play or the makings of a spook-tacular holiday display.

Make like Hugh Jackman from the X-Men Origins films, and suit up in your very own Wolverine costume ($39.99; disguise.com). Boys will be able to act out their favorite scenes from the movies in a convincing get-up that comes with a belt, mask and claws sharp enough for snatching up tasty tricks and treats.

Here’s a pop that really pops: Surprise Airheads Pops ($1.49; candyrific.com) aren’t just any lollipop. Simply push a button to release a scary creature that jumps out of the bottom of the pop. Reserve these tricky treats for your favorite trick-or-treaters.

See the video on our homepage or go to http://www.storyofstuff.com

Many people may not realize that Canada has a rich and significant space history, especially in the realm of communications satellites. Canada became the third country to design and build its own satellite when Alouette 1 was launched into orbit way back in 1962. Just ten years later, Canada became the first country in the world to have its own geosynchronous communication satellite, the Anik A1. More recently, in 1991, Anik E1, another communications satellite, was launched into a geosynchronous orbit.

The idea of a using a geostationary orbit for a communications satellite was first proffered by the British science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke (2001: A Space Odyssey) in 1945, at least a decade before the dawn of the space age. A communications satellite in a geosynchronous orbit, because it orbits above the equator at the same angular rate as the Earth rotates on its axis, always appears at the same position in the sky, thus always remains visible (and useful) over its area of coverage. Another feature of a geosynchronous orbit is that the dish used to communicate with the satellite can be mounted in a fixed position—there is no need for tricky steering and tracking. The satellites used for Direct-TV and its brethren reside in geosynchronous orbits and are good examples of geosynchronous communications satellites.

On the 2nd of September, for about two hours, Jupiter will appear without its Galilean moons (they will all be on the side of the planet facing away from Earth). This is a very rare event.

There will be a full Moon on the 4th of September.

On the 17th of September, Uranus will be at opposition—the planet will be frontally illuminated by the Sun from the perspective of Earth. This is the best time to view this distant planet, which will appear as a small green dot in all but the largest telescopes. Why not come to Custer and see it on our large 25-inch reflector!

The Autumnal Equinox takes place at 21:18 U.T. (about 4pm) on the 22nd of September. This marks the first day of Fall and a time when the days grow rapidly shorter.

There are only weak meteor showers expected this September, most notably the a-Aurigids between August 25 and September 8 with about 5 to 7 meteors per hour.

I remember shooting up in the shadow of the Williamsburg Bridge, my decaying Buick parked in a lot of 5th Street on the Brooklyn side. My friend Eddie sat in the passenger seat, sharing bottled water with my syringe. He flinched each time I stabbed my veins, piercing scar tissue and drawing blood as I tried to get a hit.

Eddie said snorting dope separated him from real intravenous addicts and street junkies. I used to agree, but that pretense had long since evaporated. Poking holes in my flesh had become routine, more so than bathing.

On heroin, I believed my life was a dark and beautiful mess, a unique outlaw’s story waiting to be told in a Vintage paperback. Instead, I wasted years hammering at my veins and painting over my soul just to become a statistic and a cliché––one more recovering junky lost in the sprawl of Long Island.

It could happen to anyone.

That fact was made all too clear in June 2008 when an18-year-old honor student from Massapequa, Natalie Ciappa, took a fatal dose of heroin at a summer party. Her death grabbed the attention of local parents, law enforcement, government officials and media, all of them asking, “What’s happening to our kids?”

Ciappa was young, smart and attractive. She sang in her church choir and was headed for college at SUNY Old Westbury in the fall. Because of heroin, she died in a garage in Seaford.

Recovering teen heroin addict Ash Cavallaro, who shares memories of Ciappa in a memorial on DrugFree.org, said she had thought her friend was clean. “She always looked so well put together and always had a smile on her face,” Cavallaro said of Ciappa, proving that addiction can be hard to spot, even for the initiated, and heroin does not discriminate.

The drug slithers in without prejudice. It welcomes stockbrokers, teachers, soccer moms, honor students, politicians, cops, doctors, lawyers, grandmothers, fathers, athletes, priests and anyone else in need of sweet relief.

As a boy, I was never molested, beat up or emotionally abused by a trusted adult. I wasn’t born into poverty, nor was I cursed with the insatiable appetites of the spoiled rich, bored to tears with life and wanting for nothing. I never witnessed a horrific incident, battled repressed homosexuality, fought back suicidal urges or spent my childhood choking on some painful secret that required the blissful escape only opiates provide.

I’m a normal, 30-something man of respectable intelligence, some talent and slightly above average looks. Aside from my parents’ relatively-amicable divorce and a few dead pets and grandparents I barely knew, I have no major disappointments or tragedies in my past. I didn’t grow up as a child star, fighting my way out of the crushing pressure of the pageant circuit or under the whip of maniacal coaches in a bid for Olympic gold.

Like most hardcore drug addicts, I started with my parents’ booze at a very young age. I moved up to pot, then LSD, mescaline and psilocybin mushrooms in high school before slowly navigating my course toward ecstasy, pills, powders, syringes and speedballs. I didn’t turn to crime, I never sold my body and I’ve always had a home. Most assume heroin addicts are a tragic bunch, fighting to silence their long-lived suffering, but sometimes people just make poor choices.

I don’t know what went on in the dark corners of Natalie Ciappa’s past or what drove Ash Cavallaro to become an addict at 16, drop out of school, overdose four times and “die” twice in the hospital, only to be revived. I do know that heroin—for all the carnage and pain it inflicts—feels good. It feels really fucking good.
And that’s reason enough for some to fall willingly into its grasp.

Two stints in rehab, dozens of Narcotics Anonymous meetings, outpatient care, counselors, monthly doctor visits and a lot of reflection have done little to help me find the root of my addiction. The drug was around me, friends were using it and I wanted in on the adventure. I snorted one tiny line and fell in love.

Heroin filled a hole in me I never knew existed. I immediately felt complete, at ease and bursting with energy and a flood of creativity all at once.

Fast forward five years and I’m parked at a Bronx Getty station with 120 bags of dope hidden in my center console. I still lived with my mother in eastern Suffolk and spent my days selling heroin at overly inflated prices to other young, middle class suburban addicts. I had customers waiting back home, but my needs always came first.

The Getty bathroom was a filthy Hollywood stereotype, perfectly designed for addicts, prostitutes and degenerates of all stripes. The walls were a mosaic of crumbling tiles, dark stains, graffiti and exposed building materials. But I reveled in the seedy things, the desperation and grit my homogenized upbringing failed to include.

I ripped the tops off two bags of dope and dumped the brownish white powder into my blackened spoon, which teetered precariously on the edge of the sink. I tried to twist the faucet on, but no water came out. I needed to make my injection solution and with no other water source in sight, I headed for the toilet.

The bowl contained a putrid soup of disintegrating paper, cigarette butts and brown muck. Above it, the tank’s porcelain cover had been broken or removed, and a thick layer of dust and oil floated on the surface of the exposed water. I submerged my syringe to avoid the grime and pulled in a half cc of Bronx toilet water.

That incident in the Getty bathroom was a minor blip in what seemed to be an eternity of degradation, but it was my Alamo, my last stand, and the final moment before my dignity slipped completely away.

Maybe the growing number of kids getting high in Smithtown, Port Jefferson, Massapequa, Seaford, Levittown, and all the other towns in Nassau and Suffolk are like I was—attracted to the low life until there’s no way out of it. Maybe their well-to-do upbringing and loving parents, so often described in the wake of a fatal overdose, are exactly why teens and twenty-somethings turn to the blackness of addiction. Maybe it’s an escape from their politically correct world, a rebellion from years wrapped in the safety of video games, rumpus rooms, backyard pools, dance classes, swimming lessons, student government and after school sports.

It’s possible they didn’t get to climb trees, explore abandoned buildings or wander off in search of mad adventure, but there are so many reasons, what ifs and could’ve beens. The neglected kids are far more likely to use, but there are no certainties with this drug or any other, really.

Dr. Robert Z. Goldstein, one of Long Island’s foremost addiction experts, said that heroin and opiate painkillers have become a “major problem” in the region. He said the drug has gotten cheaper, more potent, plentiful and easier to use. “You can smoke it, you can snort it, you can shoot it, you can eat it––what more do you want?”
The doctor said his addiction patients are mostly upper or middle class people and many of them found heroin after getting strung out on painkillers, such as Vicodin and OxyContin. “It’s all around us,” Dr. Goldstein said, noting, “Everybody is susceptible to this.”

I didn’t take a lot of pills during my darkest days, but I followed a trail of them to my last relapse. A pharmacopoeia of opiates, benzodiazepines and amphetamines is available in most medicine cabinets, and I never had a problem stealing them from family, friends, clients and even strangers. Unfortunately, once you’ve tasted heroin—the true forbidden fruit—Lortab, Darvon and even Percocet are small potatoes, and I needed handfuls of them to catch a buzz.

I moved on to pulverizing decorative poppy pods and boiling them into opium tea—a surprisingly potent and physical high—but it wasn’t long before I bought some dope.

For most, especially young teens and unsuspecting adults, pills can be deadly. Moms and dads get them after dental surgery or a broken leg, and their recovery becomes a little too enjoyable. The reprieve from crying kids, housework or a soul-crushing job makes their return to real life that much harder to take. Pretty soon, mom gets a refill, dad grabs a few pills from a coworker and their daily grind begins to feel a little less Sisyphean.

Opium inspired some of our greatest artists and poets, but for centuries the dark nectar has also helped legions of the working class battle fatigue and depression. The image of the listless junky is mostly a false one. Work is easy when the body feels no pain and the mind is blanketed from the hard edge of reality. An addict can be the most prolific worker in a crew, held back only by covert lunchtime trips to meet dealers and periodic sick days when supply runs dry. I used to call in with the “flu” or some kind of vague food poisoning whenever my withdrawals were too much to bear.

My charade of normalcy depended on a complex web of my lies, other people’s denial and the pervasive, uninformed image of how a drug addict appears.

For kids, pills facilitate the transition from pot and Budweiser to powdered narcotics. Heroin is cheaper and easier to get than prescription painkillers, and new users don’t have to inject it.

I started out snorting dope recreationally, but in time I needed it just to feel normal and keep from getting sick. Most addicts spend years chasing that first, amazing high and the pursuit led me to inject the drug. Before long, I added cocaine to the mix and the deadly rush is still something I find difficult to resist.

No matter how hard they tried, no one could stop me from running back to my drug. All the rehab, therapy, ultimatums and interventions were fruitless. No addict will stop until he’s ready. I’d stop or cut down when money ran low or my habit got crazy, but dope is a patient and welcoming mistress and I always returned to her embrace.

I’m not sure exactly how or why I stopped, but I found love and purpose in my life and the rest fell into place. No matter how good a speedball or a shot of dope felt, addiction was a painful, exhausting existence and I’d had enough. I saw a glimmer of light through the fog and I became determined to reach it.

My habit never landed me in jail and I’m still alive, but heroin took its toll. The world was a bleak place after I stopped using. It took months before I believed life wasn’t a boring and insignificant endeavor, and I still struggle to pay bills and manage adult responsibilities.

Young addicts do go to jail and die every day, but there are more subtle and certain consequences. Survivors of this malady are left as faded shadows of their former selves. An old-timer in Alcoholics Anonymous once told me, “If you walk five years into the jungle, you need to walk five years to come out.”

I used to wear my track marks and, later, my long healed scars as a badge of honor. I used to recount war stories from the frontlines in Bushwick, the Bronx and Manhattan’s Lower East Side. My memories of buying bags from nine-year-old kids, dodging cops in burnt-out buildings and buying methadone from vagrants used to seem cool, but today they’re well-guarded secrets.

I joke around with in-laws and coworkers, talking politics, cell phone plans, mortgage rates and careers. No one in my office could imagine that I regularly shot cocaine until I vomited bile or picked my face until it was a mask of bloody sores. My boss doesn’t know that I’ve lived through two interventions or that I take medicine every day to ensure I never do dope again.

My old life is more foreign every day, but part of me will always recall that time with fondness, like an ex-smoker running his fingers along each familiar dent and scratch on his battered Zippo lighter.

Sometimes I feel like I’m an interloper in the straight world, smiling like a fool, fumbling through the motions and waiting for the other shoe to drop, but life gets better with each passing day. Now, the line between performance and reality is blurred and I don’t think I’m acting anymore.

I’ve regained the trust of family and friends, and they now assume the best from me instead of fearing the worst. I have a wife, a nice place to live, a good job, health insurance, cash in the bank, and I’m working toward attainable goals and a real future rather than rambling about pipe dreams.

Everything has improved for me, but I’m hearing about more and more addicted kids, overdose victims and massive heroin busts on Long Island. Suffolk County police recently seized 17 pounds of nearly pure heroin in Melville and they said it could be cut into 500,000 doses.

The barbarians are at the gate and the noose is tightening. Odds are that the next big shipment will make it to the street and this blight could continue to spread to every high school, park, local bar, gas station and hidden corner of the Island. Our police may be powerless to stop it and eventually I’ll stand face to face with my former master.

Worse still is that I may be looking forward to it.

How to Spot an Addict

Pinprick pupils is a BIG one. Heroin constricts the pupils.
Weight loss
Constipation
Cut straws, cd cases with lots of scratches and maybe powder residue (lots of people sniff drugs off jewel cases)
Falling asleep at inappropriate times
Leaving suddenly or at odd times to run “errands” or disappearing for periods of time
Gravelly voice
Wearing long sleeves in summer
Picking at skin
Becomes removed from family and friends
Finding little cotton balls, spoons, blood stained clothes or napkins, rags-whatever

Need Help?
Getting Help for Addiction–Inpatient or Outpatient

Behavioral Health Services, Brookhaven Hospital, East Patchogue
Inpatient: (631) 687-4357
Outpatient: (631) 854-1222
http://www.bmhmc.org

Quannacut Rehabilitation And Detoxification, Eastern Long Island Hospital, Greenport
Inpatient: (631) 477-8877
Outpatient: (631) 369-8966
http://www.elih.org

Behavioral Health Services, Mather Hospital, Port Jefferson
Inpatient: (631) 473-1320, ext. 4360
Partial Hospitalization: (631) 473-3877, ext. 27
Outpatient: (631) 331-8200
http://www.matherhospital.org

Long Beach Medical Center, Long Beach
Counseling Center: (516) 897-1270
Family Alcoholism Counseling and Treatment Services: (516) 897-1250
Methadone Therapy Program: (516) 897-1330
http://www.lbmc.org

Department of Psychiatry, Community Health Center, North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset:
(516) 562-3051
http://www.lij.edu

Behavioral Health Services, Mercy Medical Center, Rockville Centre
Crisis: (516) 705-2248
Inpatient: (516) 565-0215
Partial Hospitalization/Outpatient: (516) 705-3419
http://www.mercymedicalcenter.chsli.org

Psychiatric Services, South Nassau Communities Hospital, Oceanside
Inpatient: (516) 632-3937
Outpatient: (516) 377-5400
Substance Abuse Counseling Center: (516) 766-6283
http://www.southnassau.org

South Oaks Hospital, Amityville
Inpatient: (631) 608-5610
Outpatient: (631) 608-5028
http://www.south-oaks.org

Chemical Dependency Rehabilitation, St. Charles Hospital, Port Jefferson:
(631) 474-6233
http://www.stcharles.org

Psychiatry Department, Nassau University Medical Center, East Meadow
Inpatient Detoxification: (516) 572-6394
Inpatient Substance Rehabilitation: (516) 572-9419
Outpatient: (516) 572-6822
http://www.numc.edu

Pederson-Krag Center
Huntington: (631) 920-8000
Smithtown: (631) 920-8300
Coram: (631) 920-8500
Wyandanch: (631) 920-8250
http://www.pederson-krag.org

Seafield Center
Inpatient Westhampton: (631) 288-1122
Outpatient:
Amityville: (631) 424-2900
Medford: (631) 451-6007
Mineola: (516) 747-5644
Patchogue: (631) 363-2001
Riverhead: (631) 369-7800
Yaphank: (631) 369-7800
http://www.seafieldcenter.com

Goldstein Addiction Services, Hicksville
Outpatient: (516) 935-1312
http://www.addictionlongisland.com

New York State Office of Alcoholism & Substance Abuse Services Help Line:
1(877) 846-7369
http://www.oasas.state.ny.us

Nassau County Drug & Alcohol Hotline:
(516) 481-4000
http://www.longislandcrisiscenter.org

Crisis Response of Suffolk County:
631-751-7500

Narcotics Anonymous: (for the addict)
(818) 773-9999
http://www.na.org

Nar-Anon: (for the families of addicts)
http://www.nar-anon.org

Harvest and Seafood Festival
September 12 & 13, 11am-5pm
Captree State Park, Babylon
(631) 321-3510
http://www.Nysparks.state.ny.us/parks
Get in touch with your seafaring side with Long Island seafood, music, boat rides and crab races. Fee $6 per car load for adults.

2nd Annual Long Island Pirate Festival
September 19, 10am-8pm, September 20, 10am-5pm
Bald Hill, Farmingville
(631) 375-7451
http://www.Longislandpiratefestival.org
Throw on a bandana and one big hoop earring and experience pirate culture with music, vendors and costume contests. Fee $10 per person, children under 5 are free. Proceeds go to John T. Mather’s Lymphedema Center.

Kite Festival
September 19, 10am-4pm
Long Island Maritime Museum, West Sayville
(631) 447-8679
http://www.Limaritime.org
Create your own kite and participate in a kite-flying contest for prizes. Fee $2 per person.

Maritime Festival
September 19 & 20, 11am-5pm
Village of Greenport
(631) 477-2100
Kicking off the weekend with a parade on Saturday at noon, kids can enjoy Captain Kid’s alley, arts and crafts, boat races and dancing.

Long Island Apple Festival
September 20, 11am-4pm
Sherwood-Jayne House, 55 Old Post Rd, East Setauket
(631) 692-664
A chance to visit historic times with colonial games and pony rides. Learn colonial cooking styles from a food historian and enjoy traditional music. Admission: $6 adults, $4 seniors and children 2-12.

Long Island International Arts Festival
September 26, 6am-2pm, September 27, 6am-1pm
Eisenhower Park, East Meadow
(631) 421-1590
http://www.Nassaucountyny.gov
Enjoy the art styles of over 200 original sculptures and paintings, as well as clothing and jewelry.

The Long Island Fall Festival
October 9, 6-10pm, October 10, 11am-10pm, October 11, 11am-10pm, October 12, 11am-5pm Heckscher Park, Huntington Village
(631) 423-6100
http://www.Lifallfestival.com
Be a part of one of the biggest festivals on the Island. The weekend includes band performances every hour with Push Play on Friday night, rides for the kids and plenty of vendors.

26th Annual Oyster Festival
October 17, 6:30-10:30pm, October 18, 11am-7pm, October 19, 11am-6pm
Waterfront at Theodore Roosevelt Park, Oyster Bay
(516) 628-1625
http://www.Theoysterfestival.org
This festival on the water includes a plethora of seafood from local vendors, thrill rides (Friday only), a firework display on Saturday night, and boat races on Saturday and Sunday.

Just because kids are back to the books, doesn’t mean they can’t have fun. Geography lessons go hi-tech with an intelligent globe, preschoolers gear up for their first day with all the essentials and a classic board game is updated for a new generation of players.

The SmartGlobe Elite ($350, http://www.OregonScientific.com) isn’t your father’s globe. This savvy sphere teaches kids tons of international facts, from currency calculations to the actual flight time from Tulsa to Tokyo. Staying on top of the world—and current events—is simple since the SmartGlobe’s data bank is updated weekly via Wi-Fi. And if you have more than one scholar in your household, you can customize your globe for different age groups: 5-8, 9-14 and 15+.

Start her first learning experience off right with the Ready, Set, School! kit ($29.99, http://www.alextoys.com) Preschoolers will keep busy with 15 pages of activities, including drawing, coloring and stenciling. They can practice their cutting skills with scissors or try their hand at lacing with a shoe that’s fit to be tied. Kindergarten, here they come.

Do you remember which American Idol contestant won an Academy Award? Find out once and for all who’s the brightest in your family with Go to the Head of the Class ($17, http://www.winning-moves.com). The classic board game includes lots of new quiz questions that let you move up the ranks and graduate with flying colors. (The answer, by the way, is Jennifer Hudson…but you knew that already, didn’t you?)

Pamela Brill, a freelance writer based in Northport, also blogs about new kids’ and baby products at http://www.talkingwalnut.com.

Let’s say somebody came up to you on the first day of school and started telling you about a guy with thousands of pins in his face and it didn’t kill him, and a ginormous snake that swallowed a wallaby (a kangaroo-like animal) whole!

Pretty amazing, right? And you don’t believe a word of it, do you?

You should, because you’ll read about (and see) those things and more in Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Seeing is Believing!

Without a doubt, your great-grandparents probably remember reading Ripley’s Believe It or Not! That’s because it started out as a newspaper column almost 100 years ago when Robert Ripley (a real person, believe it or not) became fascinated with oddities and weird things. Everything in Ripley’s column was authentic and everything in this book is absolutely true, too.

There are plenty of challenges in this book. For instance, a boy in Florida made a huge ball of rubber bands—over 700,000 in all—which weighs nearly five tons. Look around your house. Getting any ideas?

You’ll find curious creatures in here, like the four-eared cat, the two-headed kitten and the two-faced calf. Then there’s the house hippo whose “parents” adopted her as an orphan. You’ll find a pink turtle with a Mohawk, dogs on wheels and, yes, plenty of gruesome snake stories.

Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Seeing is Believing looks like a children’s book. It’s probably going to be found in the children’s section of your bookstore or library. The cover certainly will appeal to kids, but believe this—this book is way too good for adults to skip.

Page after page after page of this Ripley’s book is packed with bite-sized nuggets of goofy stories, horrid happenings, there’s-no-way themes, improbable (but real) pictures and tons of those silly-human stories you’d normally find in the smallest corner of your newspaper. The articles are family-friendly (like the Ripley’s column of old) and can be enjoyed by kids ages seven-to-great-grandpa.

Be aware that reading Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Seeing is Believing may result in gasps, I-can-do-that’s and time-loss—but you won’t mind. This is a pretty cool book, and you can believe that.

At the peak of the family road trip season, all things portable are big hits with kids and parents alike. A set of miniature games may be small in size, but big on fun. Budding builders will keep busy with a construction-themed playset, while a fashionable notecard set makes old fashioned correspondence cool again.

To-Go Games ($24, patchproducts.com) packs a lot in one pouch. Among the six pint-sized games are traditional favorites like checkers, tic tac toe and backgammon, along with Chinese checkers, snakes & ladders and mancala. Don’t fret over all those pieces; everything zips up neatly in a carrying bag.

No need to tote all those tools for your Bob the Builder in tow. The Take Along Construction set ($60, playmobil.com) features a garage fit for a construction king—tons of room for all his tools and then some. This playset comes with two construction play figures, traffic cones, hand cart and lots of other accessories, and closes up for easy transport.

Get a change of scenery and go low-tech. The Handy Notecard Set ($29.50, thepiggystory.com) has everything kids need to keep in touch with their best buds when they’re on the road. One dozen notecards, postcards and an assortment of stamper markers in whimsical designs—all packaged in a vintage miniature suitcase—beckon “Wish you were here.”

By Judith Mogul

A painfully full bladder wakes me up. I hurry to the bathroom, sleepy and annoyed. By the time I’m done, my eyes are unglued. Early grey light. And warm. I yawn and think of my kayak, which lies stored on a quiet beach along Peconic Bay in Cutchogue Harbor. One of the prettiest spots on the North Fork.

Should I go back to bed? I know that if I let my body return to those sheets, I’ll be asleep in seconds. But now is the coolest part of a summer day, when the sun is just as sleepy as I am.
My kayak beckons. I jumpstart my senses with coffee and peanut butter toast, throw on some clothes, grab my gear and leave. Across the road, on East Creek, swans float gracefully by the shore, seeking breakfast. I pause to absorb their loveliness and then pick up the pace for the two blocks to the beach.

I stow my gear in my kayak, a bright red, 14’ Arcadia Perception. We have been together for more than a decade, sharing the serenity of the bay and its creeks. I drag my boat the short distance to the shallows, hop in, push off and paddle hard. The birds are active, hungry, and their coos and screeches contradict the peaceful slosh of my paddles.

Gliding rapidly across the surface, I’m lost in the joy of the morning and don’t stop to drift until I’m approaching the deeper part of the bay. That’s when I notice the jellyfish, all around me, sliding against each other and bouncing off my boat.

Jellyfish creep me out. Their deceivingly gentle tentacles sting and leave nasty rashes and they feel slimy against my skin. Milder winters and warmer water are increasing their numbers. Yuck! I paddle slowly, peering into the water, my kayak slicing through their masses. When I pause again, they cluster around me, the water agitated by their numbers. I’ve never seen this many jellyfish. I’m alarmed and anxious. I slam my paddle down onto the water, smashing into their soft, round bodies. I do it again. And again.

Suddenly, a large grey crane whooshes overhead. The whirring of its wings distracts me, and I start paddling again. My thoughts turn to memories of my mom. She taught me to respect all creatures. I try, but I don’t like things that sting. And slither and ooze. Like jellyfish. Sometimes, when I’ve done away with bugs or other creepy crawlies, I offer up an apology to her. Did she see me today? I tell her I’m sorry, just in case.

I kayak often, lift weights and can do close to 100 sissy push-ups, but something strange is happening. It’s become increasingly difficult to paddle and I’m wondering why there is so much resistance. I notice that more jellyfish are swarming around me. Like bees to a hive. My paddle is overburdened with their bodies as I lift it out of the water.

Oh God, I want to be back at the beach. Now! I dig my paddle into the water. I strain to turn my kayak towards home. My arms are starting to tremble and my hands are sweaty.

I feel as though I’m paddling in mud. I go back to beating the water, slamming them, cursing and screaming. “Help me. Please help. Help!” My nose is running. I wipe sweat out of my eyes and feel it trickle down between my breasts and under my arms. I’m losing this battle.

How can this be? Jellyfish hijacking a kayak? I can’t turn my boat. My kayak is heading back out into the bay. I’m shivering, my teeth are chattering and goose bumps break out on my sweaty skin.

The beaches are empty. Not a boat in sight. No one knows that I am here. Except hundreds, maybe thousands, of jellyfish.

My kayak has started to rock but there are no waves. It’s tipping to the left. Leaning over the right side, I see the jellyfish, a tightly clustered, gelatinous mass, piled on top of each other, pushing my boat. I lean as far to the right as I can, clinging to the sides, desperate to be level. No help. A frantic, continuous scream pours from my mouth as my kayak tips farther and farther to the left. Then it flips, dumping me into the bay. Kicking and flailing, I try to thrash myself back to the surface, to grab a breath, to stay alive, but I am immersed in thick, disgusting slime. Tentacles invade my mouth and my eyes. They are everywhere, stinging me. I’m being sucked down deeper. Water is pouring into my open mouth. The bay rushes into my lungs.

I think of my mother and wish that I had listened to her. “Respect and kindness,” she preached. For the last time, I send her an, “I’m sorry” and then everything fades to black.

Way back in 1959—when radios were built with tubes, transistors were barely out of the laboratory, and computers were something most people encountered only in science fiction—the Explorer 6 satellite transmitted the first television image of Earth as it appeared from space. A mere two years later, more history was made when the first Americans rode off into that mysterious realm beyond our atmosphere. Twenty-two years after that historic flight, Guion “Guy” Bluford became the first African-American to experience space travel; he served as mission specialist on the STS-8 flight of the Challenger Space Shuttle, which launched on August 30, 1983. The Magellan spacecraft arrived at Venus on August 10, 1990 after a 15-month trip from Earth; it spent the next four years producing a detailed map of the planet’s surface. Finally, on the 29th of August 2008, a computer worm crawled its way into a laptop aboard the International Space Station! It is amazing to consider that today’s typical laptop has thousands of times more computing power than the largest mainframes of the 60s and 70s and, with the right software, can easily serve as a spacecraft’s on-board navigational computer!

Although it will not be visible to the naked eye, there will be a penumbral lunar eclipse on August 6th. Of course, as with all lunar eclipses, the Moon will be full. The new Moon falls on August 20th.

August will be a great time for viewing planets. Saturn will appear without rings (something that happens only once every 14 or 15 years) from May 10th through September 4th and, consequently, its moons will be easily observed. Jupiter will be at opposition (closest to Earth and frontally illuminated by the Sun) on the 14th of August. Throughout the month, it will be one of the brightest objects (aside from the Moon) gracing the late night sky. Seen through a telescope, it should be easy to discern bands of color as well as several moons. Just three days later, on the 17th, Neptune will reach opposition. Compared with Jupiter, Neptune is a more difficult planet to observe, being much farther away, so you really want to view Neptune through a powerful telescope. Uranus will also be up in the late evening and, like Neptune, is primarily a telescope planet. Of course, you are welcome to visit Custer and take a look at both planets (and a whole lot more) through our new domed 25-inch telescope.

The Perseids will peak between the 11th and 14th of August, with some meteors being visible from July 23rd through August 22nd. Look high in the northeast sky, especially after midnight. At its peak, one can expect up to sixty meteors per hour. The shower is noted for meteors that leave long and persistent trails.

By Bruce Northam

A VACATION IN ZIMBABWE? Survey the media on any given day and horrible news about the country formerly called Rhodesia ignites—here’s what you’re not hearing.
I’ve met a thousand very wise lifetime travelers with unofficial PhDs in globetrotting—and not one of them worked for the State Department. Who are these State Department folks making up most people’s minds about where it’s safe for Americans to travel? Hang in there—the heavy ideas come first. I’ve tackled this issue before and still disagree that traveling in countries run by wicked governments, like Myanmar or Cuba, is irresponsible because the money spent by vacationers only reinforces a dictatorship. A recurring goal of travel journalism should be challenging and disproving erroneous US State Department blanket travel warnings about the world’s no-go zones. I’ve made challenging such warnings a tradition, because it’s wrong to let paranoid bureaucratic generalizations eliminate tourism cash injections where they’re needed most.

Theoretically forewarned, my recent forays to Kenya (immediately following the 2008 post-election violence), the southern Philippines (Mindinao’s Abu Sayef “terrorist cell region”) and several “unstable” Arab nations all proved vacationer-friendly. In that same timeframe, at home last Labor Day weekend, I was robbed by a vicious gun-pointing duo on New York’s Williamsburg Bridge pedestrian walkway. No municipal caveat for that.

Zimbabwe’s constant flood of appalling reports including starvation, 75 percent unemployment, a cholera epidemic, an abandoned currency, and the silencing of dissidents and journalists cloaks at least one reality—as I just found out, Africa’s Adrenalineville, the Victoria Falls region, is still open for business—detached retina rumors and all. My amazing, safe holiday there doubled as targeted charity, whether in the form of guide and server tips, supporting local businesses, or gifting locals with staple goods. The large tips I gave to nearly every guide, driver, animal caretaker and hotel staffer I met, those workers fortunate to still have jobs, all delivered most of that money back to their families in the other troubled parts of the country. The NGOs—and the State Department—aren’t wired that way.

The poorest 40 percent of the world’s people share just five percent of the global income, while the wealthiest 10 percent benefit from 55 percent of it. Tourism, however small, can start redeveloping a fallen nation’s economy. Zimbabwe’s lingering tourism holdout sector needs you now more than ever. Harare, the desperate capital 500 miles away, really is a world away. The other significant city, Bulawayo, is 250 miles away. Vic Falls, as they call it, is an oasis defying Zimbabwe’s current curse.
When a country is politically ripped apart, only a shred of balanced news escapes. Zimbabwe’s troubles are not what typically troubles African nations: Border conflicts, in-country racial tensions or attacks on innocent foreigners. As opposed to the corporate crime wave that consumed a chunk of America’s savings, Zimbabwe’s implosion seems to be a singular manmade crisis. Less than 300 skilled white farmers remain in Zimbabwe, as opposed to 4,500 when President Mugabe’s invasions began in 2000—and the remaining white farmers maintain only small portions of their original property. The people inheriting these lands as rewards for their allegiance to Mugabe don’t know how to farm the land. Previously known as Rhodesia, this country was Africa’s second largest agriculture producer. How many more false dawns can the people of Zimbabwe endure?

Visiting one of the most screwed up places in the world is ground zero for the redefinition of hyperinflation—a 500 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollar note couldn’t buy a loaf of bread. Before being completely abandoned, the Zimbabwean dollar became a laughing stock with the introduction of a $100 trillion note. Today, the US dollar and the South Africa rand are the official currencies.

SEEDS OF HOPE
With bank wire transfers discontinued and irrelevant banknotes, Zimbabwe has resorted to the old-fashioned barter by using foreign currencies that are worse for the wear. Have you ever turned back a wilted five-dollar bill at your local deli? The US Government routinely pulls wilting bills out of circulation and literally burns that money and replaces them with crisp bills. Zimbabweans handling precious foreign bills are inspected and exchanged like precious treasure.

Another lesson in economic survival is how the unofficial Vic Falls’ goods and services trade coalition redefines the old-fashioned barter. Zimbabwe now imports 95 percent of manufactured goods—prior to 2001 they only imported 45 percent of manufactured goods. The businesses still running are incredibly resourceful, and lucky.

This was a difficult story for me to write. Typically, I can crank out a feature in a day or two, but as I attempted to translate my notes into something user friendly, the idea of sending readers to a place portrayed as hell on a daily basis was disquieting. While in this tattered country, which was not long ago a prosperous exporter, the government denied visas to Jimmy Carter (a first for him), Koffi Annan, and Nelson Mandela’s current wife—the team had only a humanitarian agenda to assess food shortages. The same day, with some guilt, I enjoyed an awe-inspiring helicopter ride over the stunning Victoria Falls.

THE ENCOURAGING NEWS
Most safaris cost about $1,000 a night. The South Africa Rand, for instance, is very strong against the US dollar. Travel to Zimbabwe is extremely affordable compared to the rest of Africa. Victoria Falls area safaris cost 50 percent less than similar products (luxury or otherwise) in South Africa. Accommodations are 5-star but with 3-star price tags. Americans also need to be informed about The Falls, spas, adventure options, fine hotels, shopping and great cuisine. It’s also friendly to the backpacker set. This corner of Zimbabwe, though not part of their gruesome reality, is a beacon of hope for the rest of the country.

Victoria Falls, a village of 45,000 people in Zimbabwe’s northwest corner, shares a border with Zambia that is the Zambezi River. The gracious, proudly-dressed locals speak eloquent English and share wide, white smiles—and there’s a reason for those white smiles. Many locals I met, who lived in non-electrified villages, ate only organic foods and had never ingested a preservative in their lifetimes.

Built in 1905, the Victoria Falls Bridge crosses the 1200-mile long Zambezi just below the Falls and connects Zimbabwe and Zambia by both road and rail. This bridge over Africa’s fourth longest river is a platform for many adventures, including an entertaining attempt at “suicide practice.” I’d never bunji jumped until now. The world’s third highest bunji jump (New Zealand and South Africa rank first and second) enjoys a 110-meter freefall. With rumors banging around in my skull about faulty equipment, strokes, people wetting their pants and overstretched cords jolting participants so they’re retinas detach, I was also fighting a nasty cold. Again, I realize that engaging in entertainment-danger in a country replete with severe real-life danger sounds ridiculous—but remember, I’m also attempting to compete with the State Department and reallocate money back to the people who truly need it.

The mile-wide Victoria Falls spills 55 million gallons of water per second (in springtime) into the deep gorge that is a whitewater rafter’s nirvana. Viewed by spiritualists as Africa’s umbilical cord, once the Zambezi River tumbles over the Victoria Falls shelf into a gorge, it creates a massive, steamy spray that can be seen from space. Then, the whitewater rages through a beautiful, winding canyon. This natural wonder combination makes for some serious recreation, including many class-V rapids.
I recommend starting with an upriver Zambezi cruise, a floating happy hour that quietly passes bands of hippos peering from the waterline. Hippos, who have an eight-month gestation period, exemplify nonchalant game, from a distance. Once you’ve enjoyed being calmly on the river, it’s time fly over it, dangle over it and then ride in it. This corner of Zimbabwe could be renamed Adrenaline-ville. Heart-pumping activities based along the Zambezi River gorge also feature a gorge swing. Imagine jumping backwards off a plank on the gorge’s edge for a 70-meter freefall over a hairpin river turn 120 meters below. You are attached to wires set up like a pendulum—but that doesn’t prevent an involuntary gasp followed by a near blackout. Richard Branson took several long pauses on the same platform, eventually giving in to fate on his fourth attempt.

Another highlight was the Lion Encounter, a conservation-based activity where guests walk alongside lion cubs aged between 6-18 months with no leads or collars in their natural environment. A once-in-a-lifetime experience that invites epic photography, these orphaned lions will remain in captivity for life, however, their offspring are returned to the wild. Trained guides and scouts accompany guests on their 60-minute walk after receiving a full safety briefing—although they do share many house cat mannerisms, they’re still unpredictable 400-pound beasts with fangs. Administering a strong neck massage, I had one of the lions purring—until she was done with the affectionate moment and whirled her head around to knock my hands aside.
The elephant-back safari seemed silly to me at first, but it was high time to talk politics, and life, with my elephant pilot. These rescued elephants walk as a team, mothers nurturing their babies, along trails teeming with views, birds and foliage.

WILD KINGDOM LESSONS

The Victoria Falls Safari Lodge redefines the good life under thatched grass-straw roofs, but not without one challenge. A persistent Ververt monkey visited my balcony religiously to check to see if my door was locked. A burglar extraordinaire, every two hours he jumped onto my balcony, marched over to the base of my hinged wooden doors and punched at the other side of the floor door-locks to see if I’d slipped up on my security regimen between his balcony visits—unashamed looter testing. Each time, he (I named him Mugsy) bounded away, defeated, my gaze stretched out over the verdant Zambezi River jungle basin to remind me that this was his world. As payback for my tightened security, twice a day he jumped up and down upon my roof like a rebellious teenager or a warped prison guard reminding a caged man of who’s in charge.

I later found out that the monkey burglar bounds from balcony to balcony, 72 in all, on a predictable schedule. Robbery tactics include frenzied snack investigations that devastate a room in ten seconds. Prized targets include coffee and sugar packets, toothpaste, and medications—they rummage through everything. I heard stories of baboons sending their small babies through small windows to loot refrigerators and then hand the groceries back out the small window to mom.

Obligate carnivores, the vultures also had a lesson to share. These bulky, vicious, flying eagle-roosters feed like a loose rugby ball swarm. The White Back and Hooded varieties, along with other shapes and sizes all have different beak designs that contribute to a phenomenon that is apropos to Zimbabwe today. You’ll see vultures of varying species simultaneously feeding on one carcass in a seemingly cooperative manner. Larger birds, with specialized beaks, rip open the carcass while others with smaller beaks stand by to eat the flesh between ribs and joints—back to basics, just like Zimbabwe’s vulture economy, surviving via foreign currencies and bartering.

MORE INCREDIBLE DIGS

Jungle accommodation means a 24-hour bird/insect chorus as loud as midtown Manhattan’s rush hour din—but mother nature’s soundtrack soothes. Nearly 100 years old, the palatial, 180-room Victoria Falls Hotel is still worthy of a Queen’s visit—Queen Elizabeth stayed there in 1947 and celebrities including Bono continue to visit. Surrounded by great lawns and gardens dotted with wandering warthogs and darting monkey-burglars, the views of Victoria Falls Bridge and the gorges below the falls are unmatched. The 15-minute end-to-end walk across the Grand Old Lady of Africa is a lesson in grand Edwardian-era architecture. Bow-tied, red and white jacketed waiters and bellman provide eloquent service—many on staff have been there more than 35 years. Tastefully furnished in elegant period pieces, its walls are an adorned tapestry of the history of intrepid early explorers, and the birth and growth of Victoria Falls town. Another stunning accommodation option is the Gorges Lodge, 10 cliff-side chalets all looming 800 feet over the Zambezi River gorge.

Victoria Falls emerged, as did the other reputed dangerous places I’ve recently visited, as a wonderful memory. I’m still having dreams of freefalling in Zimbabwe—and I’m not talking about their economy.

Bruce Northam’s wandering continues on AmericanDetour.com. For everything Victoria Falls, visit gotovictoriafalls.com. South African Airways flies to Vic Falls via Johannesburg. (800) 722-9675 or visit flysaa.com.

PS
Northam filmed three episodes of American Detour in Honduras shortly before the June 2009 military “coup” exiled their president. The U.S. State Department immediately issued a warning for all non essential travel there—- which, as these often ill-conceived warnings routinely do, immediately devastated tourism. Northam’s civilian contacts in Honduras insist that visiting is still safe. Go see for
yourself.

Train Wreck: My Life as an Idoit
By Jeff Nichols
Touchstone

Jeff Nichols is a walking, raving lunatic. A former drug and alcohol abusing stand-up comic, he suppresses his raging inner-demons, the byproduct of these former addictions, through excessive amounts of caffeine and sugar, compounding his diagnosis of attention deficit disorder, dyslexia, Tourette syndrome and God only knows what else into an eternal state of manic rambunctiousness. His admitted madness, laziness and warped sense of values have not equated with the traditional societal benchmarks for success. Living a step away from homelessness and in relative obscurity for much of his adult life, Nichols alerts his readers that his memoir is not about overcoming disabilities to achieve greatness. This type of honesty permeates throughout all of Train Wreck, with the one exception being the title, where Nichols refers to himself as an “idiot,” misspelled intentionally. His witticism, knack for storytelling, and exploration of the human psyche and social interaction are surprisingly profound, hilariously capturing a perspective of the human experience that is rarely available for public consumption.

Notations 21
By Theresa Sauer
Mark Batty Publisher

Drawing on musical scores from over 100 composers from around the globe, Notations 21 is a highly visual menagerie of annotated works that can be described as nothing short of confounding to flip through. Playing with our perception of what written music is supposed to look like, this behemoth of a book is filled with perplexing abstractions of the medium that is sheet music. This collection of kaleidoscopic and geometrically driven compositions should not just be considered a piece of artwork for the pure aesthetic beauty of its contents, but also for the fact that it allows the reader to conceptualize music in a way previously unimaginable. A close read of Notations of 21 offers a method to many of the composer’s perceived madness—the detailed notations throughout serve to illuminate the artist’s intended vision. There is but one caveat in picking this book up: Trying to play these compositions on the family keyboard may prove next to impossible.

Spirits and Oxygen
By Yolanda Coulaz
Purple Sage Press

When we think of summer reading or a beach read, the type of book that comes to mind is some kind of page turner that doesn’t require too much heavy mental lifting – maybe a Danielle Steele or Maeve Binchy novel for women and something of the James Patterson or Dan Brown ilk for men. Essentially the “summer book” is easy to dive into, doesn’t involve a ton of energy to comprehend and can provide hours of escapism from whatever stress life may bring your way. Spirits and Oxygen by Farmingdale poet Yolanda Coulaz is an alternative choice for the summer reader looking to challenge themselves from the comfort of their beach chair. An award winning collection of works that is part of the curriculum for advanced poetry courses at Stony Brook University, Spirits and Oxygen is an honest, passionate, introspective compilation of verses that explores a wide array of aspects of the human experience. Whether you’re just looking to supplement your reading with a poem or two before bed or are ambitious enough to attack the collection as a whole, consider Coulaz’s volume an intervention from another summer of literary relapses.

The Legend of Mickey Tussler
By Frank Nappi
St. Martin’s Press

It’s 2009 and even with autism now being accepted terminology in the national lexicon, those who can give you an intelligible explanation as to what the disorder actually entails are still few and far between. Turn back the clock to the 1940s and autism doesn’t even have an official name. Any semblance of understanding or empathy for the condition is virtually nonexistent. Long Island author Frank Nappi’s second novel, The Legend of Mickey Tussler, is the tale of a prodigiously gifted teenage pitching prospect, recruited to the Boston Braves farm system and called upon in 1948, despite being autistic, to save the minor league Brewers squad from a historically bad season. Thrown into the circumstances he was previously sheltered from, seventeen-year-old Mickey Tussler must now find his way in a world that may not be ready for him.

Born to Explore: How to Be a Backyard Adventurer
By Richard Wiese
HarperCollins

If you and your family are looking to tap into the natural human inclination to explore but aren’t quite ready, for obvious reasons, to commit to an African Safari or Himalayan expedition, then Born to Explore is your tour guide to endless outdoor adventure without the need for a passport or plane ticket. Stony Brook native Richard Wiese, an adventure enthusiast who’s résumé includes the ascent of previously unclimbed Alaskan summits and a cross-country ski campaign to the North Pole had not only a plethora of practical outdoor knowledge to impart on readers but a desire to bring the thrill of the wilderness to anybody that seeks its wonder. With sections ranging from navigating with the stars to building an igloo to how to harvest coffee beans, don’t confuse Born to Explore with the your cookie-cutter outdoor survival guide. Consider it an outline to maximizing enjoyment with the natural world.

Historic Photos of Long Island
By Joe Czachowski
Turner Publishing Company

Doubling as a coffee table showpiece and a richly detailed visual history of the largest island in the continental United States, Historic Photos of Long Island is a captivating volume with an educational backbone. Covering a century of images (1865-1960s), and beginning with pillars of the island’s development, Hard Work and Railroads, this photographic history spans the Automotive and Aeronautic advancement periods and concludes with images of LI during World War II and the Post-war boom. Particularly poignant is this book’s ability to capture a sense of idyllic suburban simplicity while also providing a backdrop as to how the island forged its identity.

HIDE & SEEK: How I Laughed at Depression, Conquered My Fears and Found Happiness
By Wendy Aron
Kunati Inc.

What do you do if you’re a 40 year old neurotic author with suicidal thoughts and your doctor, who serves as the gatekeeper to admittance for your comforting psychiatric hospital of yesteryear, chokes to death on a chicken bone as you’re on the brink of a mental breakdown? Answer: Write a humorous memoir of your yearlong quest throughout the self-help industry in search of happiness. Author Wendy Aron, who dedicates her book to “everyone that needs help,” takes a unique approach to writing about depression, using her quirky wit, self-deprecating humor and newly found perspective to speak candidly on a mental condition debilitating to millions, exposing trendy alternative remedies as the farces they are while providing plenty of hope for recovery.

You and Your Big Ideas
By Brian Fried
WingSpan Press
So you have a great idea for a new product, business or invention but have no idea what the next step is towards making your conception a reality. That’s to be expected; there’s a ton that goes into being a successful inventor other than having the best idea. To start, how are you going to protect your invention, improve upon it, get it known, licensed, manufactured, and marketed? What’s the inventor to do when he or she faces hardships like mental blocks, barriers to access, or a shortage of capital? Melville native and inventor extraordinaire Brian Fried’s invention manifesto, You and Your Big Ideas, cogently elucidates these very questions as well as other potential landmines the would-be inventor must navigate through in order to successfully launch a concept into the public domain. Beginning with the fundamentals of becoming an inventor – timing, attitude and open-mindedness – and gently guiding the reader through the entire invention process, You and Your Big Ideas makes it clear that you need not be the next Da Vinci or Edison, and you certainly do not need to reinvent the wheel to get your idea on the map.

101 Glimpses of the North Shore
101 Glimpses of the South Fork
By Richard Panchyk
The History Press Inc.

There has been no lack of tabloid ink spilled documenting and glamorizing the opulent Hamptons summer homes that celebrities, like clockwork, flock to annually. Likewise, who hasn’t read The Great Gatsby and envisioned the stately elegance of the North Shore or East and West “Eggs,” as F. Scott Fitzgerald so memorably referred to them. When we discuss the Island in terms of these two distinctive shores, north and south, it’s not merely a vast geographical difference we Long Islanders speak of but a disparity that exists between the respective locations in character and culture. Accomplished Long Island historian Richard Panchyk, in his dual edition 101 Glimpses, thoroughly chronicles the particular uniqueness of the North Shore and South Fork, drawing upon history and a bevy of archival photography to capture each location’s essence, thereby showing why and how these two dissimilar regions became the “playgrounds” of choice for the wealthy.

Why?

That’s a question you ask your parents at least ten times a day. Why can’t I go to my friend’s house? Why can’t I have cookies for dinner? It’s enough to make a kid crazy.

So did you ever wonder why boiling-hot lava melts rock but doesn’t melt volcanoes? Or why we don’t live on other planets? In the new book Why is Snot Green? by Glenn Murphy, you’ll find answers to the things you’ve been wondering about science, nature and your body.

Let’s start with something big, the biggest thing you can think of—the universe. How big is that? Well, let’s say you’re in a space car going 60 miles an hour and you want to drive to the Milky Way. Better pack a good lunch, because it would take you around a million billion years to get there.

While you’re taking your trip in the galaxy, be sure you don’t fart in your spacesuit. That’s because you can’t open or unzip your suit in space; doing so would boil your insides and freeze your skin solid.

Speaking of passing gas, did you know that almost all animals do it? Yep, even snakes make smellies.

And as for snot…? It’s “the result of a fight between nasty bugs and body cells that make green-colored goo.” Think about that next time you pick your nose.

Worried that your kids may get out of the learning habit during summer vacation? You won’t need to fret if you hand them this book.

Why is Snot Green? is a fun-to-read book that answers a lot of things kids have thought about and quite a few they haven’t—yet. What makes it such a delight is that author Glenn Murphy writes in a back-and-forth format that reads like regular conversation, including arguments, answers that lead to more questions and a more than just a few snickers. Best of all, if your child leaves this book lying around, you won’t feel silly if you read and enjoy it, too.

If your 8-to-13-year-old is complaining of boredom, missing school, or is looking for something to take on vacation this year, Why is Snot Green? is a good book to pick. And for under ten bucks, why not?

Sand Castle Contest
June 25, 9:30-10:30am
Hither Hills State Park, Montauk
(631) 668-3781
nysparks.com
Vehicle use fee: $8.

18th Annual East Hampton Sand Castle Contest
August 1, 9am-4pm
(631) 324-6250
ehsandcastle.com
Cost: $10 for groups up to 6.

Sand Sculpture Festival
August 9
The Beach Hut, Smith’s Point County Park
(631) 281-7788
thebeachhuts.com

Sand Sculpture Festival
August 15
The Beach Hut, Cupsogue Beach, Westhampton
(631) 288-7670
thebeachhuts.com

Sand Sculpture Festival
August 16
The Beach Hut, Meschutt Beach
(631) 728-2988
thebeachhuts.com

What do you like best about your neighborhood?

Maybe you like the park that’s nearby or a pool to splash in on a hot summer day. Perhaps you like having your friends close by or your abuelita (grandmother) or your tia (aunt).

In the new book El Barrio by Debbi Chocolate, illustrated by David Diaz, you’ll read about the neighborhood that one boy calls home and the things he likes best about living there.

El Barrio is a wonderful neighborhood with colorful walls, painted artwork, beautiful graffiti, sparkly tenements, bodegas (grocery stores) to visit, and elegant iglesias (churches). People from many different places—Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Colombia— come to Spanish Harlem. They call El Barrio “home.” El barrio is a very busy neighborhood!

And what will you hear in El Barrio? The sounds of the city, of course, but you might hear a soft bolero or a slow ranchera that your parents might think sounds romantic. There may be trumpets and mariachis to play tejano and salsa music.

Talk about your double-whammy. Author Debbi Chocolate was a winner of a Coretta Scott King Award. Illustrator David Diaz is a Caldecott Medal winner. Put them together and you’ve got a book los niños will love.

The book is written mostly in English but includes plenty of Spanish words (with a glossary in the back of the book for pronunciation and definition). Every page is covered with vibrant, bright, eye-popping artwork with a Mexican flavor, making it fun to look at and a definite kid magnet.

For 2-to-8-year-olds who are curious about other cultures or for kids who are interested in becoming bilingual, El Barrio is a great place to start. Pick up this book y diviértete!

They won’t ask, “Are we there yet?”

And so begins the annual rite of passage—the summer road trip. Help kids keep busy while on the go with engaging word games, a coloring kit that’s practically magical or whimsical playthings that make strolling a breeze.

A plain old pad and pencil is so ho-hum. The TRIPtivities activity book ($10, klutz.com) offers 120 pages of puzzles, brainteasers, mazes and word games that are bound to satisfy your most trying traveling companion. There’s even plenty of doodle pages for the daydreamer who’s ready to give his iPod a rest.

Coloring in the car can be a bit difficult, even for the most dedicated artist. The Crayola Color Wonder Stow & Go Studio ($10, crayola.com) offers a sturdy drawing surface with oversized clips that keep masterpieces in place. The included Color Wonder markers help colors magically appear on special black paper, ensuring that the car ride is nothing short of spectacular.

Thanks to the Musical Nature Stroll ($23, tinylove.com), the only sounds you’ll hear coming from your little one will be giggling and cooing. A stroller bar of colorful toys in the likenesses of a lion, parrot and other fun friends will delight and amuse babies out and about. This playful menagerie can be positioned within your child’s reach, giving plenty of opportunity to explore her world from the comfort of her stroller.

Young people interested in BMX biking, skateboarding and rollerblading have certainly chosen an interesting life path. Hey, it beats sitting in front of the TV. Here are a few places in which to hone each of those skills. Each can accommodate both the beginner and the advanced skater. Most require the wearing of regulation pads and helmets as well, so don’t forget them.

Huntington Skate Park
Greenlawn Park, Huntington
(631) 757-0696
town.huntington.ny.us
9,200 square feet with grind boxes, wedges, rails, spines, ramps, subboxes, quarter pipes, and half pipes. Residents: $40/annual, $5/session; Non-residents: $80/annual, $10/session.

Inline 1 Sports Center & Extreme Park
Mt. Sinai
(631) 474-2900
inline1.com
The largest outdoor skate park on Long Island. Initial fee: $40-$55; all subsequent visits: $15-$20. Also features private lessons and summer camps.

Oil City Skate Park
Oceanside
(516) 442-0703
oilcitysk8.com
15,000 square feet, indoor, open 7 days a week. First session: $12, each additional session: $7, insurance waiver: $15. They also offer private lessons and summer camps.

Greenport Municipal Skate Park
(631) 477-1133
greenportvillage.com/skatePark.htm
An award-winning outdoor facility for with a street course, 6-foot half pipe, table top, 12 foot vert and more. Free to skate.

Nickerson Beach Skate Park
Lido
(516) 571-7700
nassaucountyny.gov
Features a variety of ramps and rails. Free to skate, parking fee: $8-$20.

Commanded by Neil A. Armstrong, Apollo 11 landed on the Moon in the Sea of Tranquility on July 20, 1969, at 4:18pm Eastern Daylight time. Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. piloted the Lunar Module for this mission; he was also the first man to indulge in spirits on the moon—in the comfort of his spacecraft, he took a sip of wine from a small chalice. (It may be noted that later spacefarers discovered beer produces unpleasant “wet burps” due to the absence of gravity.) Neil A. Armstrong and his crew spent a total of eight days in space.

Just two years later, on July 30, 1971, the Apollo 15 spacecraft landed on the surface of the Moon. The crew traveled several kilometers in a lunar rover vehicle and collected 76.8 kilograms (roughly 170 pounds) of now-famous “Moon Rocks.” It was during this mission that Alfred M. Worden took the first “deep” spacewalk. The 60s and 70s were truly incredible times as far as space exploration was concerned. It is depressing to think that over 35 years has passed and still we do not have a Moon base.

Look towards the eastern skies after midnight.

Talking about the Moon, there will be a penumbral (less than partial) Lunar eclipse visible in most of Australia and the Americas, but not in our region of the country, on July 7th, the night of the Full Moon. The New Moon occurs on the 22nd and will be accompanied by a total solar eclipse. Sorrowfully, this eclipse will only be visible from central India, Nepal, China and parts of the Pacific Ocean.

On the 28th and 29th of July, the Southern Delta Aquarids will streak the sky with about twenty meteors per hour. Some meteors from this shower may be observed all the way from July 18th through August 18th. Look towards the eastern skies after midnight to enjoy the sight—the radiant for this shower is the constellation Aquarius, which reaches its highest point in the sky just before dawn when best viewing will occur. There is a bit of a mystery surrounding the Delta Aquarids—for most meteor showers, the comet responsible for the debris trail that gives rise to the event is known. This is not so for the Southern Delta Aquarids, despite the fact that this shower is still a fairly active one.

Jeffrey Owen Katz, Ph.D., volunteers as the Observatory and Research Director of the Custer Institute. You can contact him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or meet him any Saturday evening at the observatory. For detailed information about upcoming events, see the events calendar in this magazine or visit custerobservatory.org.

Saratoga Springs, New York

When “The Sport of Kings” comes to Saratoga Springs every summer, it brings horse racing enthusiasts and seasonal revelers from near and far to this quaint and historic locale just north of Albany. Fortunately, Saratoga has been welcoming visitors for well over a century and knows how to show them a good time. This is evident in the Visitors Center, which has a wealth of information about the doings around town.

Officially established in the mid-1800s, Saratoga has a proliferation of natural springs whose mineral waters are reputed to possess medicinal properties. That said, spas come in all shapes and sizes here, from the venerable Roosevelt Baths in Saratoga Spa State Park (where you can immerse yourself in a private mineral bath for just $15) to the Sanctuary Spa, the Crystal Spa and more.

Broadway is the main drag through town and this Hamptons-style boulevard boasts a plethora of trendy shops, eateries, inns and pubs. There is plenty of shopping, from antiques and local “tchotchkes” to designer boutiques. Culinary choices run the gamut from pub grub to elegant dining. Some local favorites include Olde Bryan Inn, originally established in 1773 (though the menu has been upgraded, try the French onion soup), Hattie’s, whose chef Jasper Alexander won a fried chicken “throwdown” against Bobby Flay, Chianti for Northern Italian, the funky Grey Gelding Bistro & Bar and Brindisi’s, where you can sip their award-winning martini. For a casual breakfast, visit the Country Corner Café. Their superb homemade preserves on thick sliced bread will set the tone for the day.

From July 29th through Labor Day, the racing season takes center stage in Saratoga. The 350-acre Saratoga Race Course is the oldest continually-operated thoroughbred track in the US and has something for all ages. In addition to first-class racing (held daily except Tuesdays), visitors can picnic in the spacious backyard grounds or enjoy an early morning buffet breakfast while watching the horses work out.

While hoping to spot the next Seabiscuit, you can choose from many tiers of food and drink at the Race Course. Note: The running of the $1 million Travers Stakes is August 29, 2009 and the party starts the week before. For all-season gaming, visit the Saratoga Gaming and Raceway, which has over 1,700 slot machines, live harness racing and the multi-level “Vapor” nightclub.

Accommodations come in all shapes and sizes from charming country inns to amenity-laden major chains. The Saratoga Hilton (thesaratogahilton.com) offers comfortable, well-appointed rooms, fine dining and is conveniently located on Broadway. Also on Broadway are the venerable Adelphi Hotel (adelphihotel.com) circa 1877, and the Saratoga Arms (saratogaarms.com), a “concierge hotel.”

Saratoga also offers an active arts and cultural season, with numerous festivals and special performances at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (spac.org), including the Philadelphia Orchestra, which is in town from August 5-22. SPAC is a one of the favorite spots in the northeast for concert-goers and always has a great lineup. This summer is no different with Coldplay (July 27), Crosby, Stills and Nash (July 28), Phish (August 16), Allman Brothers (August 18) and many more. For information on events, dining, accommodations, spas and deals, visit saratoga.org.

~~~

Atlantic City, New Jersey

The comeback kid of ocean resorts, Atlantic City has been a seaside destination for over 120 years. When the casinos arrived in the late 1970s, it reinvented itself as a gambling mecca. Though casino hotels still dominate the scene, the “always turned on” Atlantic City now provides added pizzazz, with boutique shopping, fine dining, world-class spas and more.

The famous boardwalk, started in 1870 to keep the sand out of grand hotel lobbies, is a four-mile feast for the senses. Here, delightfully retro “Jersey Shore” staples such as salt water taffy shops, skee ball arcades and psychic readers share space with new, upscale establishments.

The $175 million Pier Shops at Caesars is a high-end retail shopping emporium sitting over the ocean waves with everything from Tiffany’s and Gucci to Armani and Baccarat. It also has the best view from any Starbucks you are likely to sip a latte in. For something stronger than a latte, try the $5 Friday night “Happier Hour” cocktails at participating restaurants including Buddakan and The Continental. Other new shopping/entertainment venues include The Quarter, inside the Tropicana (tropicana.net), and The Walk, a $76 million off-the-boardwalk multi-block compilation of shops and eateries.

Recent hotel expansions include the $250 million Chairman Tower at Trump Taj Mahal (trumptaj.com), which boasts spacious ocean view rooms. Note: While at Trump, treat yourself to an exquisite dinner at Il Mulino, a superb dining experience. Meanwhile, The Chelsea Hotel (thechelsea-ac.com) is the first non-gaming “boutique” hotel on the Boardwalk since the 1960s. Dripping in retro-chic, it offers a 1940s-style steakhouse/supper club, outdoor pool with cabanas and a happening scene.

In the marina section of town, the elegant and subdued Water Club (thewaterclubhotel.com) is a gorgeous new $400 million “signature hotel” by Borgata. It emphasizes R&R so there is no casino, but the indoor walkway to The Borgata Hotel (theborgata.com) leads to plenty of gaming action. While in the marina area, don’t miss an opportunity to make a splash at The Pool, Harrah’s (harrahs.com) glass-enclosed year-round tropical paradise with a funky 50-seat bar.

Full-service spas have arrived in Atlantic City, so prepare for some serious pampering. The new and luscious organic seaweed skincare treatment at the Roman-themed Qua Baths and Spa at Caesars (caesarsac.com) is highly recommended as are The Red Door Spa at Harrah’s, the Spa at the Taj and the ethereal Immersion Spa at the Water Club.

No longer just the buffet capital of the northeast (though you can still gorge at plenty of groaning boards), the city has attracted major culinary talent. This includes Bobby Flay and Wolfgang Puck, both with restaurants in The Borgata. If you want something less grand, try “the best submarine sandwich on the Jersey Shore” at the venerable White House Sub Shop. Note: You’ll also find plenty of funnel cakes, fudge and delightfully gooey Philly cheese steaks all over town.

Last, but not least, there is the magnificent beach, which comes alive with revelers and sun worshipers during the summer. In between gaming, dining, shopping and pampering, I suggest you cozy down to a beach front tiki hut to drink in some true “thalasso” therapy.

For information on summer deals and events, visit atlanticcitynj.com. If you want to leave the car at home, try ACES (acestrain.com), the new direct train service from Penn Station or Classic Coach Buses (classictrans.com) from Long Island.