So The Nyack Villager will take a vacation in July and part of August—which means there will be no July and August issues this year.

The next Villager will appear in September, 2013, our ‘back to school’ issue.

If you have an ad to be printed, a Community Note or a column, the deadline for the September issue is August 15, 2013.

Have a happy Summer. We hope for pleasant weather. See you in September.

Some people do more research on what car to buy than what hospital to go to for medical care. The Hospital Safety Score provides data and research to help you make informed decisions about a critical aspect of your hospital stay—safety.

A hospital may have the best surgeons and greatest technology in the world, but unless it’s preventing infections and eliminating medical and medication errors and injuries, it’s not ensuring your safety or that of your loved ones. The goal of the Hospital Safety Score is to reduce the more than 180,000 yearly deaths from hospital errors and injuries by publicly recognizing safety and exposing harm. Harm ranges from infections and acquired injuries (such as bedsores) to medication mix-ups and other errors, some potentially fatal.

The Hospital Safety Score was created and is administered by The Leapfrog Group, a national leader and advocate in hospital transparency. They strive to make giant “leaps” forward in the safety, quality and affordability of healthcare in the US by promoting transparency and rating a hospital’s overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors.

Over 1,000 hospitals are rated. Look up Nyack and other hospitals at www.hospitalsafetyscore.org

How do cicadas keep track of the passing years when they’re underground, cannot detect sunshine and lack fingers to count on?

Perhaps their teeny-tiny brain contains a teeny-tiny clock?

That is what many thought until 2000, when researchers discovered that cicadas rely on trees to keep track of time. Every spring, trees blossom, sending a surge of sugar flowing through their roots. Now researchers suspect that cicadas detect the sugar to count the passage of years.

But why 17 years? The cicada lifespan of 17 years is one of the longest in the insect world and may be their strategy to avoid predatory insects that would enjoy eating them.

Another species of cicada emerges every 13 years. 17 and 13 are both prime numbers. Prime numbers can be divided only by themselves and the number one.

Having a working knowledge of arithmetic is smart way to avoid being eaten. If cicadas had a 12-year cycle, they would be on the menu for all insect predators that emerge every two, three, four, and six-years.

Now after 17 subterranean years, endless headlines proclaim their imminent arrival and cicadas with their are beady red eyes are popping out of the ground.

They’ll have a short 15 minutes of fame—and be gone again within four to six weeks. But while they’re here, they’re difficult to ignore. They swarm by the hundreds of millions. To call their mates, the males make an extremely loud buzzing sound. A swarm of cicadas has been measured at 90 decibels —much louder than the 80 decibels of heavy city traffic, a garbage truck or an alarm clock going off two feet from your ear.

So how can we cope? One scientist with the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University says cicadas are a delicacy. She calls them the shrimp of the land and suggests, that dipped in a fine batter and deep fried, cicadas could become a popular snack food. “They are arthropods,” she adds, just like shrimp, lobsters and crabs.”

If a dedicated group of Nyack village residents has its way, you may soon be able to add skateboarding to the list of fun things to do in Nyack’s Memorial Park.

Thanks to the grass roots efforts of the Nyack Needs a Skatepark organization, a new skatepark in Memorial Park is closer to becoming a reality. The group has already received the endorsement of Nyack’s mayor, Jen Laird White, and the Village Board of trustees, which recently passed a resolution creating a skatepark planning committee under the umbrella of the Nyack Park Conservancy to oversee the effort.

All stages of the design process will be public, so residents will have a say in what gets built in their park. The designs being considered all include lower, plaza-like features appropriate to the Memorial Park landscape, with integrated areas of green space and seating that can be enjoyed by park-goers when it’s not being used by skaters.

“The Nyack Skatepark will be a beautiful recreational space for people of all ages, especially youth, who in this era of increased screen time and obesity are in need of positive athletic outlets,” says Sarah Anderson, who has spearheaded the skatepark effort.

The next step for the committee is issuing a Request For Proposal (RFP) for both the design and construction of the skatepark, and raising the funds needed to build it. No Village money will be spent for its construction. The proposal calls for a 5,000-square-foot state-of-the art concrete skate plaza to be built just east of the new basketball court. Since this area was previously designated for a second basketball half-court in the Memorial Park Master Plan, there will be no significant loss of green space in the park. The skatepark committee estimates it will have to raise between $100,000 and $150,00 to build the park.

Melody Partrick, Nyack’s new recreation director, said she hopes to be able to run skateboarding programs for Nyack youth, adults, and families at the facility once construction is completed.

As part of its efforts to raise awareness, share design ideas, and raise funds, the Nyack Chamber of Commerce, in conjunction with 2nd Nature Skateshop, is holding a YouthFest and Game of S.K.A.T.E on June 22nd in the Riverspace Parking lot. Because the skatepark is likely to draw interest from out-of-town users, it is expected to help generate new business for Nyack’s stores and restaurants. You can find out more about the skatepark and the upcoming Game of Skate and Youthfest at http://www.nyackskatepark.org/

The skatepark isn’t the only Memorial Park project underway. A children’s playground committee has also been formed within the Park Conservancy to help rebuild the children’s playground in the park. Among the planned activities: removing the rubber mulch and replacing it with natural fill material, buying new play pieces to replace the equipment removed last fall due to safety issues, and bringing the park into ADA compliance for access by children with disabilities. You can find out more about the projects at http://nyackplayground.org

—Jim Willcox is Chairman of the Nyack Parks Commission

In 1997, the US Senate and House of Representatives passed a joint resolution recognizing Juneteenth Independence Day in America.

On Sat, June 15 a Juneteenth Independence Celebration will be held in Memorial Park sponsored by The Tappan Zee Lodge No. 79 Free and Accepted Masons, the African American Historical Society of Rockland County, the Pan-Hellenic Council, the Ministerial Alliance, Women in the Nyack Branch NAACP, and the Historical Society of the Nyacks.

• 8 am—1.6 mile Fun Run begins at the corner of Depew and Piermont Avenues

• 9 am—Registration for free walking tour begins at 9am near the basketball courts

• 12-6pm—vendors, food and activities for people of all ages

• 12-12:45—The Herve Alexander Quartet

• 12:45-1:30—Nyack High School Band under the direction of Michael Smith

• 12 –4:30pm Celebratory program keynote address from Pastor Roger Williamson of Berea Seventh-Day Adventist Church

Emotions ran high as 223 of my fellow graduates and I walked across McCalman Field towards our graduation ceremonies on a warm and muggy Thursday evening, June 27, 1963. Oh, we all looked calm and collected waving to friends and family, but deep inside most of us knew our world was about to change. We’d made it. We were going to graduate and begin the next phase of our lives. We finished our public school education, and we were ready to take on the world. There are a number of my fellow graduates who share this anniversary with me, and to them I dedicate this short look back at what the world was like in 1963. Come along with me for a visit back fifty years ago.

Nyack was the everyday shopping destination for those who lived along the Hudson. We enjoyed shopping in women’s stores, like Kerchman’s, Ellish, The Blue Bird Shop and Van der Wals, or three fine men’s stores: Neisner’s, Lucky’s and Zabriskie’s and shoe stores: Glynn’s, Herbet’s, National and Endicott & Johnson. Nyack supported two supermarkets back then: Grand Union on Main and A&P on Broadway. I checked back to find Grand Union was selling Top Sirloin Steak for 89¢ a pound, and a full pound can of Nancy Lynn coffee at the A&P was only 59¢.

A Red & Tan bus charged 50¢ to ride to the city. It was also 50¢ to cross the new Tappan Zee Bridge and drive down to the World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows. Movies at the Rockland Theater also cost a half a buck. The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm was featured, but all the guys were waiting for Baby Doll to be shown. Carroll Baker was stunning movie-goers as the thumb sucking nymphet who disrobes entirely—a first for the flicks! Down at the 303-Drive In, King Kong vs. Godzilla was the thrilla we all piled into my Buick Skylark to view. On AM radio we listened to H.O.A.—Herb Oscar Anderson on WABC and Jack Sterling on WNBC in the mornings. Our afternoons were filled with Rock & Roll played by Peter Tripp (The Curly Headed Kid in the 3rd row). Evenings found us watching TV with Howard Cosell on Speaking of Sports, or Leave it to Beaver, My Three Sons and the Twilight Zone. If we stayed up late the Tonight Show had a new host—Johnnie Carson.

Those heading to college in the fall found work at the Joy Acres Day Camp in Valley Cottage as summer counselors and made a great salary of $1.10 an hour. Sol Walter’s Dress Factory on Burd Street was hiring dress packers for $1.50 an hour. Nyack Hospital was seeking nurse’s aides and paying $2 an hour. I found a full-time job in West Nyack building radios for the new Apollo Space program. I earned $2.25 an hour, and for the first time in my life I had medical benefits.

A few graduates were rewarded for their years of hard work with new wheels. Nyack dealers were ready. Manley Chevrolet was featuring a slightly used 1962 Covair for $1,595. At Kessler Plymouth a new car was $1,953. Faulkner Ford featured a 1954 two-door hard top for $295. I found a 1961 Buick Skylark $1,200 bucks and my first car loan.

For graduates moving out on their own, Warren Hills Apartments were renting three and half room digs for $150 a month. If that strained the budget there was a charming 3-room apartment on Fourth Avenue for $95 a month. Maybe mom & pop sprang for a small house. Up on Cedar Street in Upper Nyack there was a builder’s special listed at $17,500 with an annual tax bill of $300.

1963—50 years ago—seems like yesterday, certainly not a lifetime. Nyack was the center of my life and that of my fellow graduates. The decades ahead would bring enormous changes to our village. Urban Renewal would change Main Street forever. Quite a few of my fellow graduates would journey half way around the world to a little place called Vietnam. Some would never come home, and many who did return were changed; not the same happy kids who walked across the field to receive their diplomas. My classmates who remain have fifty years of memories to share with their kids and grandkids. As I reunite with many of them this year I can report that they are all proud to have graduated from Nyack High School and just as proud to be a Nyack Indian! I wish all the 2013 graduates will have as many great memories as I do!

The Nyack Villager thanks Jim Leiner for helping us all ‘Remember the Days .’

When Hollywood was mostly filled with scrub brush and the occasional orange tree, Fort Lee, New Jersey, was a booming movie town.

Thomas Edison, of course, started it all in West Orange with a small movie studio covered in black tarpaper. The studio was built over circular railroad tracks and could revolve to make the most of the sunlight.

Edison needed actors—so what better place to find them than right across the Hudson River, acting on the Broadway stage?

Only problem: there was no ferry that could easily connect downtown NY City to West Orange, NJ. There was ferry service in Fort Lee and Edgewater and there was also a Yonkers Ferry.

Near all these ferries, situated high on a bluff over the Great Palisades stood the small village of Fort Lee, noted mostly for the historic fort that stood there during the Revolutionary War. This little town and its environs had scenic spots that were useful in making movies—and some rich history:

• In 1900, Maurice Barrymore, Broadway actor and Father of John, Lionel, Ethel and great grandfather of Drew Barrymore, moved to Coytesville (a section of fort Lee).

• In 1907, Thomas Edison used the Palisades to film Rescued From am Eagle’s Nest, starring a young actor from Texas named D.W. Griffith.

• In 1908, Mack Sennett had the original Keystone Kops running amuck on Main Street, being comically incompetent in a film entitled, The Curtain Pole.

• In 1909, Universal Studio’s forerunner, Champion Film Company, established a studio that was hidden in the lush foliage near what is now Exit 1 on the Palisades Parkway. He hid his studio so detectives of the newly formed Patents Trust Company wouldn’t find it.

In 1909, D.W. Griffith directed Mary Pickford in The Lonely Villa, the first firm to incorporate the technique of cross cutting and the cut-back, used to promote tension.

• In 1911, The Battle, a film about The Civil War was shot on a hill near present day Route 4, featuring a young Lionel Barrymore (It’s a Wonderful Life.)

• In 1912, on Main Street in Fort Lee, D.W. Griffith directed the first superstars—Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, and Lionel Barrymore in The New York Hat, written by Anita Loos.

Other firsts: the word cliffhanger came into being because so much movie action took place on the cliffs over the Palisades.

Theda Bara, an early femme fatale, began her famous film career in Fort Lee

• In 1918, part of the first film version of Les Miserables was filmed in the place now occupied by the George Washington Bridge toll booths.

• In 1922, Kodachrome, the first successful color film, was introduced and tested in a studio that later became Universal, just off Main street in Ft. Lee.

• In 1922, The Marx Brothers made their first film, Humor Risk, in Fort Lee. The film was shown once at a movie house in the Bronx, then promptly disappeared never to be seen again.

• In 1931, the first talking version of Alice In Wonderland, was filmed in Ft. Lee at the Metropolitan Studios, later renamed Fox.

The history of cinema is firmly rooted just over the border from Rockland County.
Most of the studio sites are long gone now, but some still stand and are used for other venues. Finally, in 1947, 20th Century Fox returned to the home of the birth of movies to shoot the film noir classic, Kiss Of Death.

Ric Pantale writer and director, is an independent film maker.

Spring is in the air, and if you have an inquisitive pooch, there is a good chance he may encounter the smelliest of our suburban wildlife, the skunk! Newer evidence reveals that in addition to the “rotten egg” “skunky” smell, dogs exposed to skunk spray can suffer some serious medical problems.

Skunks are most active during dawn and dusk. Skunks have excellent hearing and sense of smell. They do not have very good vision which sometimes leads to a chance encounter with a human or their canine companion (cats rarely get “skunked”).
Passive in nature, skunks will avoid contact with humans and domestic animals; however, when challenged they are amply prepared to protect themselves.

If a skunk feels threatened, it will give a warning which includes hissing, stomping of feet, and elevation of the tail. Failure to heed the warning signs will result in the unlucky aggressor being sprayed with the skunk’s anal gland secretions. Skunks are highly accurate in their aim and can spray 7 to 15 feet away!

A skunk’s spray contains 7 different sulfur-containing chemicals. The chemical group responsible for the majority of the horrible rotten egg smell is not water soluble, not even with soap. Most skunk bath remedies use a combination of peroxide and baking soda which change these chemicals so they can be washed off with soap and water. Additionally, a second group of chemicals in the skunk spray remain on the hair coat and become activated (and smelly) when they are exposed to water in future. This explains why pet owners frequently complain that the skunk smell comes back when the pet gets wet long after the first encounter.

Symptoms associated with being “skunked” will vary depending on the proximity to the skunk and the location on the body that is exposed to the spray. The spray is not well absorbed from the skin, so symptoms are usually minimal.

Dogs that have been sprayed in the face will rub their faces, roll, sneeze and vomit.
Direct injury to the eyes can include ulcers, inflammation, and sometimes temporary blindness.

Internal absorption of the toxic chemicals from the spray may occur via inhalation or absorption through the eyes or the mouth. In rare instances a toxic reaction can cause anemia, or serious damage to the red blood cells. This reaction may occur within hours or up to 24 hours after exposure. In serious cases, a blood transfusion may be necessary. One documented fatality occurred in a dog with multiple repeated heavy exposures to skunk spray.

Treatment for most cases of skunk spray exposure involves decontamination with a skunk bath. Dogs that have been sprayed in the face and show symptoms of irritation to the eyes should be seen by a veterinarian. Any dog that has received a heavy spray or multiple exposures should have blood work performed.

If your canine companion has had previous encounters with these critters, consider being prepared. Effective skunk shampoo, such as “Skunk-off” Pet Shampoo can be purchased from your veterinarian to have on hand. Keep the “home recipe” for the skunk shampoo readily available. Saline eye drops can be used immediately after exposure to start the decontamination. A trip to your veterinarian will be necessary if there is a spray in the face, a heavy exposure or if your pet has red eyes, lethargy, vomiting, or shows any signs of illness after the exposure.

Skunk Odor Removal Formula
This recipe needs to be mixed and used promptly; it cannot be stored for any length of time. Do not store in a closed container due to gas production.

Mix the following ingredients:
1 quart fresh 3% peroxide
¼ cup baking soda
1-2 tsp liquid dishwashing detergent.
*add 1 quart warm water for large dogs to ensure complete coverage
Bathe your pet outdoors (to prevent bleaching of fabric). Keep the mixture on your pet for 5 minutes, then rinse off. Repeat.

The following journal article provided the informational content of this article: Means C. Skunk Spray Toxicosis. Veterinary Medicine Apr 2013: 172-178.

Co-owner of The Valley Cottage Animal Hospital, Dr. Diane Tortorice earned her Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine in 1991 from North Carolina State University. She is a board certified Diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners specializing in canine & feline practice. Dr. Tortorice volunteered at both the World Trade Center and New Orleans animal disaster sites

According to the etymologists, ouch is an interjection. Experts long assumed it was a sound made spontaneously by humans under the stimulus of sudden pain.

Oh, yeah? Then how come every language has a different sound?

French speakers cry aïe when they are hurt, Italians say ahi, oh or ohi, a Spaniard says ay the Dutch utter ai, au or oei, in Portugal they say ai or ui, in Sweden, it’s aj, while the Russian interjection is Ой. In Japan, it’s itai. In the ancient world, Greeks used ah, the Romans exclaimed au, hau, or vau, and Hebrew speakers said oi.

We English-speakers almost certainly got our ouch from the Pennsylvania Germans’ interjection, autsch, pronounced ouch. It is not clear where autsch came from—its use is relatively rare in Germany.

Comic strip cussing
Seek and ye shall find. A couple of years ago, we asked our readers if anyone knew what to call the string of glyphs that take the place of swear words in comic strips. AKA kid-friendly cussing.

A nice reader named Ken passed the question onto the on-line site, Grammarphobia, and learned the following: These !@%$#%@ are called grawlixes or obscenicons or expleticons.

The word grawlix, well known since 1964 in the cartooning community, was coined by Mort Walker, author of the comic strip, Beetle Bailey.

It seems Mort invented the word without reference to existing words, leaving some to prefer obscenicon a portmanteau of obscenity + icon—a word with family ties in the English language. It was introduced in 2006 by linguist-lexicographer Ben Zimmer. More recently, NPR’s Leonard Lopate offered epleticon.

Those who wish to read more can google http://www.statoids.com/comicana/grawlist.html

The Word Hound welcomes readers’ questions & comments

“Pet ownership, particularly dog ownership, is probably associated with a decreased risk of heart disease,” reported professor Glenn N. Levine, of Baylor College of Medicine, citing a study by the AHA of more than 5,200 adults. The study indicated dog owners were more physically active than non-owners because they walk their pets.

Other studies show that pets have a calming effect on people. The loyalty and love pets display increases their owners’ sense of well-being, reducing stress, anxiety, depression and loneliness.

Blair Justice, PhD, a psychology professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health reports, “Like any enjoyable activity, playing with a dog or cat can elevate levels of serotonin and dopamine—nerve transmitters that are known to have pleasurable and calming properties. People take drugs like heroin and cocaine to raise serotonin and dopamine, but the healthy way to do it is to hug your spouse, watch sunsets, and pet your cat or dog.”