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Good Tuesday Morning,
Yesterday was a glorious day and today promises to be the same. There is a slight chance of rain this evening and for us gardeners, that's good.
What to do with your zucchini? Bread! Here's a recipe I've adopted that works for me.
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil (for moister bread add another 1/2 cup of oil)
- 1 cup white sugar (for sweeter bread add another cup of sugar but I use the raisins instead)
- 3 cups grated and packed zucchini (two cups, if you're using the full cup of oil)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 3 cups flour
- Cinnamon to taste (I use 3 teaspoons)
- 1 teaspoon baking SODA
- 1/4 teaspoon baking POWDER
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds
- 1/2 cup toasted sunflower seeds
- 1 cup raisins
Beat the eggs until they're frothy then mix in the sugar and the oil and keep beating to maintain that consistency. Add everything else, stirring thoroughly after each addition. Pour into greased and floured loaf pans or, I use the round tin pans that come from the Chinese take-away and it uses three of those. Fill about half way. Bake at 325º for about an hour and a little more. These freeze very well. Topped with vanilla yogurt and fresh blueberries it's a dessert to die for especially after Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.
Yesterday I reported on an article in the NY Journal News wherein Paul Camarda lays out the idea that Patterson could annex a portion of the town of Kent in order to build Patterson Crossing. But an NtM reader, DK of Patterson, wrote to ask why it couldn't be the other way around? Perhaps Kent should annex the portion of Patterson that runs along I84 from Route 311 to Towner's Road? If you look at a map it makes good sense, the current line being thrown out of sense when I84 was built. I like the idea and urge you all to write the Kent Board and suggest they begin the annexation process right away.
Is it just me or is Assemblyman Greg Ball breaking town laws in Southeast by having his election signs posted all over the place? First it was Congressional candidate Michael Lalor (see below) and now it's Ball. If I'm wrong please let me know. If I'm not wrong, call the Town of Southeast and make those signs disappear.
Mr. Lalor is at it again, this time with a long op-ed piece in the Journal News. In it, he wants to drill for oil and gas pretty much everywhere you can put a stick in the ground. He insists this will lower gasoline prices and make the nation more secure. He blames Democrats, and specifically Congressman John Hall for high gasoline prices which is like blaming the goat for the holes in your angora sweater. He also wants to remove the federal tax on gasoline and encourage nuclear power plants, forgetting that we have a problem disposing of the waste and that, for example, all the spent fuel at IP is still sitting at IP!
But he has no plan on how to maintain our highways without that cash revenue stream. I'm guessing he's not suggesting we just print the money, as we do sometimes, to pay for upgrades of railroads and mass transit, bus lines and other forms of transit. I'm also guessing he has no desire to prepare our children's future today by preserving what's in the ground. He'd rather leave them with nothing so long as you vote for him today.
At the same time, Mr. Lalor wants to (I hope you're sitting down) lower the taxes oil companies pay believing in his Alice-in-Wonderland way that they'll pass the savings on to you. It's not enough we give them millions of dollars in tax breaks already, he wants more.
He will gain some votes from those too easily swayed by the dangling promise of money in their pockets and a continuation of that unsustainable and non-negotiable "American Way of Life". He's really getting on my nerves and I wish George Oros would have stayed in the race.
And, to make things worse, even Barack Obama is now on the side of emptying our oil reserves to garner votes. You liberals out there... I warned you about him. Cynthia McKinney is looking better each and every day.
The Feds are insisting that Salim Hamden, a driver for Osama bin Laden, is a dangerous terrorist that must be killed or tortured or whatever it is we do to these guys. The fact that he's illiterate and did no more than change lug nuts and the oil matters not to the Feds when they can't find Osama and need someone to blame. "He's an al Qaeda warrior. He has wounded - and the people he has worked with - have wounded the world," prosecutor John Murphy said. Next up, Osama's dry cleaner, landscaper and the nursemaid who changed his diapers.
From LocalPutnam.com: The Garrison Art Center Annual Fine Arts & Crafts Fair will be held on August 16th and 17th. Garrison Art Center’s 39th Annual Fine Arts & Crafts Fair (ACF) continues its tradition as a premier event in the Hudson Valley for collectors of fine art and craft. Organized by Garrison Art Center (GAC), a not-for-profit community cultural organization, the event is a longstanding community event and an important annual fundraiser. High standards, and the beautiful Garrison’s Landing riverfront site, attract over 80 regionally and nationally known artists. Stately willows, views of West Point, the visiting Sloop Woody Guthrie, gourmet food artisans and wineries, delicious picnic options from GAC’s Food Tent & Grill, and remarkable crafts will likely attract over 8,000 visitors this year. Parking is free and admission to the fair is $5 (children under 12 free).
On August 19, 2008 at 7:30 PM the Concerned Residents of Carmel and Mahopac (CRCM) will be hosting their primary debate at the Mahopac Library. With the Degnan/Ball race on it should be quite a show.
As I look over the candidates for the County Legislative district that covers most of Carmel I'm seeing that each candidate is pretty much a clone of the other. Mr. Kiernan was once involved with the Oasis Garage in Putnam Valley and the environmental nightmare that has turned in to, and both Mr. DiBattista and Ms. LoBue want to enlarge the tax base which means more malls. Yes, it's okay to check into an asylum and wait this one out.
And now, for what it's worth, other news from around...
- Town to discuss ex-psych center proposal (Hyde Park)
- Beach pollution levels stir concern
- Assembly Democrats Push Home-Heating Measures
- Naked cyclists protest oil dependence
- In the Hills of Nebraska, Change Is on the Horizon
- Dreaming Of Living In A Green Building
- Homeownership In Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Linked To Increased Political Participation
- Doctors Must Be Held Accountable For Complying With Torture, Experts Argue
Town to discuss ex-psych center proposal Developer's plan to be reviewed
By Michael Valkys
Poughkeepsie Journal
The plan to develop Hudson River Psychiatric Center's 156-acre former campus off Route 9 is due before Town of Poughkeepsie leaders Wednesday.
Supervisor Patricia Myers said New York City-based developer CPC Resources has asked the town board to become lead agency on the project that could add 750 housing units and 350,000 square feet of commercial space along Route 9, just north of Home Depot.
Myers said the board is expected to act on the request Wednesday at town hall. The town planning board will also review the proposal, still in its early stages.
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Beach pollution levels stir concern By Larry Wheeler and Robert Benincasa
Gannett News Service
The nation's ocean, bay and Great Lakes beaches continue to suffer from water pollution that puts swimmers' health at risk, according to a leading environmental group.
Last year, beach closings and no-swimming advisories reached their second-highest level in the 18 years that the group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, has monitored the health of recreational waters.
The closest beaches to Dutchess County examined were in Westchester County. Of the 25 beaches reviewed, 10 closed for at least one day in 2007. Many of the closures were preemptive, because of concerns about stormwater runoff.
Beaches close or post advisories when water samples exceed state or federal standards for bacteria that indicate the presence of human or animal waste.
Last year's test results are cause for concern, council officials said.
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Assembly Democrats Push Home-Heating Measures State Assembly Energy Chair Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston, and his Democratic colleagues lobbied today for a home-heating-relief package that the Assembly passed in June.
Democrats are pushing the home-heating package instead of a school-property-tax cap, saying the problem is more immediate.
“A tax cap will have no immediate effect to save taxpayers’ money,” said Cahill, right, with members of AARP. “We are concerned about this winter.”
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Naked cyclists protest oil dependence ST. LOUIS, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Hundreds of nearly-nude bikers and curious onlookers have descended on St. Louis for a 10-mile ride protesting U.S. dependence on oil, participants said.
The World Naked Bike Ride, which has been held in about 70 cities across the globe since 2004, came to St. Louis for the first time Saturday night as nude and nearly-nude cyclists rode their bikes from the city's Tower Grove Park to the Grove neighborhood, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Monday.
Spectators said many of the riders got creative with strategically covering up certain body parts, with thongs, pasties and body paint becoming common sights at the event.
Onlooker Don Biekert, 50, of Centralia, Ill., said the ride made for an amusing spectacle, but "this ain't nothing like Mardi Gras."
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In the Hills of Nebraska, Change Is on the Horizon By DAN BARRY
AINSWORTH, Neb.
Driving south out of the agricultural town of Ainsworth, you can’t miss its newest crop: wind turbines, three dozen of them, with steel stalks 230 feet high and petal-like blades 131 feet long, sprouting improbably from the sand hills of north-central Nebraska, beside ruminating cattle.
Though painted gray, the turbines stand out against the evening backdrop of battleship-colored thunderclouds and bear an almost celestial whiteness when day’s light is right. Airplane pilots can spot them from far away, and rarely does a bird make their unfortunate acquaintance.
The sound of 8.5-ton blades, three to a turbine, turning and turning, only enhances their almost supernatural presence. Standing at the base of a turbine’s stalk, you hear a whistling whoosh — whuh ... whuh ... whuh — as steady summer winds come like the breath of gods to toy with pinwheel amusements.
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Dreaming Of Living In A Green Building Eco Homes For Organic Moms:
August 3, 2008 at 11:56PM by Alexandra Zissu
Buzz up!
After yet another mini tussle with my building's management over asking them to use green materials for work that genuinely needs to be done, I found myself surfing the website for The Riverhouse, a new LEED-certified gold building in New York's Battery Park City. Imagine living in an eco building!? It has twice filtered air, a wastewater treatment plant on site, solar-powered energy, and will even boast a highly organic outpost of City Bakery (a personal favorite) plus a New York Public Library branch. I love to swim but don't often - I'm not comfortable in highly chlorinated pools. Their "green" lap pool beckons me from its online rendering: dive right in. I'm gushing. I don't care. It's a fantasy.
It's so ecofabulous, Leo DiCaprio is said to have bought an apartment. But he's not what entices me. I have the site bookmarked because it's the ultimate family building: from the no to low-VOC finishes to the filtered water to the City Bakery snacks, living there would really take the guesswork out of being an organic mom. My life would be so much easier, I thought as I drooled over various floorplans, if I didn't have to lie in bed smelling the heinous fumes from the cleaning product being used to mop my hallway floors. After a while, asking management to switch the products to greener versions to no avail gets exhausting. There would be no such requests at The Riverhouse!
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Homeownership In Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Linked To Increased Political Participation ScienceDaily (Aug. 5, 2008) — Homeowners in disadvantaged neighborhoods are more likely to vote than renters and those who own homes in more privileged communities, according to research to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA).
A University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill research team led by sociologist Kimberly Manturuk investigated the relationship between homeownership and political participation and found that as neighborhood disadvantage increases, homeowners become more likely to vote while renters are less likely to do so.
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Doctors Must Be Held Accountable For Complying With Torture, Experts Argue ScienceDaily (Aug. 4, 2008) — Doctors who assist in torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment should face prosecution and licensing punishments, says an editorial on the British Medical Journal website.
Steven Miles from the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota, says that more doctors are involved in torturing prisoners than in treating torture survivors. But doctors who assist in torture rarely face professional consequences. He argues that the medical profession must not only dissociate itself from torture but actively investigate and sanction offenders.
More than 100 countries condone the use of torture and up to half of torture survivors report that a doctor was present and oversaw the abuse.
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