New York Now

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July/August 2010

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 xotic Ice Creams, Can Housework Be Sexy?
Taste Paris In New York, Sidewalk Rage
 New York Now
“ONE OF AMERICA’S BEST FAMILY RESORTS”
~BETTER HOMES & GARDENS

It’s not how far away you go,

it’s how far away you get.
contents 6 City Spotlight
Can Housework Be Porn For Women?, Secret Speakeasies
On The Rebound, Louis Vuitton’s Sexy New Ad Campaign,
iPhone Mania

FEATURES
11 Beekeepers Swarm To New York
13 Gray Is The New Blond
14 DJs Create A New Word
16 Hell On Wheels
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20 Cities Lure Gay Tourists
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25 Journeying Along The Silk Road
800.WOODLOCH/966.3562 www. WOODLOCH.com
New York Now / July – August 2010 3
 ART

Why Pay a Fee?

26 A Filmmaker Struggles To Go Green
28 Interactive Design Marries Fashion And Technology
30 The Joy Economy

DINING
32 Superspices Boost Palates
No Fee Downtown Manhattan Apartments
33 Find Tastes Of Paris In New York
34 The Other Little Italy
36 Special Beers For Special People
Rent Direct from the Owners
37 Exotic Ice Creams Family-owned Real Estate Company Offers
38 The New Way To Smell Flavors Stunning Apartments In Superb Locations

FASHION
40 Women Hunt Far And Wide For Big Shoes Extremely Competitive Rents!
HEALTH
42 Pain And Pleasure At A Russian Banya
44 Can Caffeine Hurt You?
46 Retailers Promote Komubcha Tea As Cure-All
47 Oxygenated Water

FAMILY
48 Twitter In The Classroom

LIFE
50 Less Is The New More
52 Sidewalk Rage Drives Pedestrians
53 Vets That Cater To Exotic Pets

BUSINESS
54 MBA Grads Make Green While Helping Environment
56 Women In Finance Hit Glass Ceilings
57 High Tech Ads Target Your Cell Phone

LOCAL
58 Can Dry Cleaners Be Green?
59 Why New Yorker Hate House Guests

REAL ESTATE
60 Home Sellers Try Unusual Tactics
62 Young househunters

Editor and Publisher Sascha Brodsky Contributing Editors April Brucker, New York Now is published 12 times annually by New York Now Magazine, LLC,
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4 New York Now / July – August 2010 New York Now / July – August 2010 5
 CITY SPOTLIGHT
Natalia Vodianova (above), Christy Turlington and Karen Elson will appear in Louis Vuitton
ads shot by Steven Meisel, set in a movie star’s dressing room conjuring up a Hollywood
retro-glamor feel

Craigslie
By Megan Gibson

To the cute guy on the downtown 1 train – w4m – 26 (1train)

... If by some chance you see this, please message me.
Guess what? Craigslist’s Missed Connections – which started out as a ro-
mantic, whimsical way to reconnect with someone, and achieved fame as a
success story for couples everywhere – has devolved, as so many romantic
fantasies do, into a way for people to fake love for the sake of hooking up.
Or at least so I suspected.
To prove my theory, I conducted a brief social experiment, intended to
pierce the romanticized facade of Missed Connections – the love stories, the The majority of Craigslist’s Missed Connections seem to
poems, the sitcom plots born of the decade-old website feature. take place on the subway. Here, on the downtown 1 line,
I posted the above, entirely made-up ad on Missed Connections. I’ve never is the setting of my fictional connection.
Photo by Megan Gibson
posted on Missed Connections before or online dated or anything like that –
so I just copied other posters who seemed the least like raging sociopaths.
I’m generally pretty uncomfortable with lying, so I kept the description legiti- ity didn’t apparently use spell-check) all saying they thought they’d seen me.
mate even though I hadn’t been on the 1 train that day, exchanging glances One guy admitted it wasn’t him, but continued to send messages and even
with a total stranger. But if I had been, I very well could have been wearing his photo. Others, however, strained to make the connection. “it sounds like
a blue dress and reading New York Magazine. [me],” one wrote rather dubiously, “because I had a dark dark redish sweater.”
Within 48 hours I had replies from 12 different men (of whom the major- Um, close enough I guess?

Coffee guzzlers seek the perfect fit

By Joyce C. Tang

When Robin Warshaw goes to Dunkin’ Donuts for a caffeine fix, she never
gets the small coffee, even if she’s only hankering for a petite-sized wake-
up call. Instead, Warshaw has to order a larger size to get a dome lid instead
of a flat one.
“I will buy a medium to get the lid I want,” says Warshaw, who goes so
far as to boycott establishments that serve coffee topped with lids she
can’t stand, among them the flat lids with a flimsy peel-back tab. Warshaw

No straight
complains that they scratch her lip, making for an unpleasant drinking ex-
perience. “I don’t know whether it’s the shape of my mouth or whether it’s

sell for curly hair

By Sarah Breger
When Ruth Balinsky, 23, went for her first cut at
the Ouidad salon in New York City, she expected to be
dazzled. Instead, she left frustrated with a style that was
nearly impossible to repeat at home.
“Ouidad puts a lot of gel in your hair and charges you $100
for it,” says Balinsky, who has been fighting frizz for her whole life.
Her next try was Soho’s Devachan Salon, and there, it was love at
first cut.
“It changed my life,” says Balinsky, who now sports glossy, chin-length ring-
lets and refers to herself as the queen of curly hair.
When you talk curly, two names always emerge: Devachan and Ouidad. The two sa-
lons have starkly different philosophies on the cutting and care of curly hair, as well as
legions of loyal followers who view those philosophies as gospel.
“Curly Sue,” “Mop top,” “Brillo pad”: Curly-haired women have often struggled to manage their
hair in a world that can seem straight-centric, even though, according to hair stylists, 70 percent of
women in America have curly or wavy hair. For years, these women have used a flatiron or French
braid to control their hair. But now an increasing number are setting their hair free and looking to
Ouidad and Devachan for the best way to do so.
The price for haircuts is steep: Cuts at both salons can cost between $100 and $250. But both
Ouidad and Devachan train and certify stylists in their methods, letting curly heads in Arizona or
Maryland get a cut at a cheaper price.
sensitive,” she says with a measure of exasperation. That lid, she says, “was
only created by sadists.”
With nearly half of American adults drinking on average more than three
cups of coffee daily, the search for the perfect cup of joe often boils down
to the lid, and retailers seem to be taking notice with ever growing options
– flat, dome, tear-away, lock-back, twist and slide. These days, it’s not un-
common to find lids with strategically designed grooves where overflowing
coffee can pool, and interlocking, moving and removable parts.
“If I’m gonna pay someone for my coffee, I want the experience to be pleas-
ant,” Warshaw insists. Not even a recession can deter her. “It’s a measure of
our culture,” she says. “Everything’s crashing around us,” but it’s OK to com-
plain about the coffee.
Lorraine Massey, co-founder
of Devachan, cutting hair in
her Soho salon.
Photo by Sarah Breger
Jewelry that’s (almost) good enough to eat
By Richard Solash
Remember when you were a kid and you wore those candy necklaces?
You got them out of vending machines or as party favors – that elastic
string with sweet and sour discs in place of beads? Well, you probably
couldn’t have imagined then what’s available to buy now: luscious ice
cream necklaces, cinnamon bun earrings and even strawberry shortcake
barrettes.
Unfortunately, these appetizing accessories aren’t edible (unless you
have a taste for polymer clay). But today’s dessert jewelry makes up for
that with intricate designs, super-realism and even scents that remind
you of the real thing.
Now you can have your cake and wear it too.
“Desserts are huge,” says Abby Foster, editor of Crafts ’n Things maga-
zine. “Maybe it’s because the economy is bad and people want to be re-
minded of something comforting, but this is definitely the major trend
in crafts and craft jewelry right now.”
Foster recently attended the Crafts and Hobby Association Expo, re-
garded as the biggest show in the industry, and was “hit over the head
with cupcakes.”
“This is what you’re going to see on the shelves in six months,” says
Foster, “so I wouldn’t be surprised to see dessert jewelry really be a hit
on a large scale.”

6 New York Now / July – August 2010 New York Now / July – August 2010 7
 Former vp and sometime Columbia University prof Al Gore denies claims by a
masseuse that he demanded extra special treatment Katy Perry says she danced so • Lindsay Lohan says she is planning a reality TV show with her mom Mel Gibson •
files for a restraining order against his ex-girlfriend, model Oksana Grigorieva
hard she hurt herself, requiring 17 stitches to repair a mysterious injury

Stylish driving shoes

By Kate Balch
A stylish brunette puts on clear protective goggles. Shrill
screams escape from her power saw as she cuts off the four-
inch, right heel of her brand new Christian Louboutin
pumps. After desecrating the $600 pair of shoes, the
ruthless fashionista climbs into her royal blue BMW 3
Series and slams her freshly chiseled red sole against
the accelerator.
Regardless of whether women were outraged, or
men were turned on, by this 2007 BMW commer-
cial, it drew attention to one thing: the shoes in the
driver’s seat.
It is often an afterthought what shoes to slide on,
lace up or squeeze into before looking for the car keys
and zooming off to the next traffic jam. But the recent up-
heaval in the automotive world might change that. Deadly
crashes caused by sudden acceleration have been blamed on
The Piloti DTM was the first driving boot created by
Kevin Beard in 1999. Photo Courtesy of Piloti HOT STUFF
faulty software or defective floor mats that trapped the accelerator
pedal. But some investigators cited driver error, namely inad-
vertently pressing the accelerator when the driver thinks he
is braking. In any case, there has never been more public
attention paid to the interface between foot and pedal.
That is a potential windfall for a handful of design-
ers who have labored in relative anonymity to create
the perfect driving shoe. Brands like Prada, Tod’s, Pi-
loti and Puma feast on the fashionable rationale we
use to dress ourselves, but they also claim to know a
bit about braking and accelerating too. All boast the
most innovative designs, highest quality (and prices),
blending racing technology with everyday comfort to
ensure that wearers drive with precision.
Black may reconsider after he sees the sticker price of Minden’s gas grill
most high-end driving shoes. Prada’s Car Shoe retails for $430. will do everything from
burgers to filet mignon
perfectly. $600

Choreplay: Housework gets sexy?

By Michele Hoos

A “Porn for Women” calendar features a broad-

shouldered man with biceps and chiseled abs.
Staring seductively into the camera, he wields
a prominent, but unlikely, tool. The whimsical Deer Vase by Akari
He’s vacuuming. gives flowers an ironic touch. $75
The calendar is based on “Porn for Women,” a
book featuring hunky guys doing housework that
has sold 140,000 copies in less than a year. The
caption reads, “I love a clean house.”
For some women, the husband skilled in dust-
ing and diapering has become the husband who Cartier Tank Solo watch. $2300
Secret speakeasies alive and well knows good “choreplay,” defined in urbandictionary.com as “when a woman is turned Yakkay bike helmets are far
By Jodi Broadwater on by the sight of her husband/boyfriend/partner doing regular household chores more stylish than your aver-
that she would normally be doing.” age plastic cover. $175
Nestled in a corner near the entrance to the East Village’s For other women, insinuating that spring cleaning is as sexy as spring fever rein-
Crif Dogs restaurant sits a vintage wood-and-glass-paneled forces outdated gender stereotypes.
telephone booth. It’s a bit too refined for its somewhat seamy Most of the scenarios in the Porn for Women series “are based on what lovely
location – raising the question of what a phone booth is doing men in our lives have done
inside this deep-fried hot-dog joint? for us,” said Heather Peter- Garia’s latest golf cart has
The world of Tater Tots and Pabst Blue Ribbon merges with son, “spokes-pornographer” Ducati looks and a “For-
that of bacon-infused bourbon and masterful mixology beyond for the tongue-in-cheek Cam- mula One-inspired” frame.
the phone booth, which is the secret entrance to an exclusive bridge Women’s Pornography $17,000
bar known as PDT, short for Please Don’t Tell. Once inside the Collective, which created the
booth, patrons say their names into the phone, and what ap- book. “We all know what porn
pears to be the back wall opens into a latter-day speakeasy. for men is, but this is our ver-
The secret door, the dodgy locale, the nostalgic 1920s de- sion of porn for women.”
cor of dark wood and leather inside – it’s all very dramatic. But
PDT is not alone in its concept for a clandestine bar. In the
past three years, a host of bars across the country (including
26 rated by Zagat in New York City alone) have opened, albeit
cloaked in secrecy. Cover of “Porn for Women”
Though now perfectly legal, these modern speakeasies are from the Cambridge Women’s
throwbacks to the illicit bars that thrived between 1920 and Pornography Cooperative Apple’s latest iPhone 4 is sending even non-techies
Photographs by Susan Anderson.
1933 – when the sale of alcohol was banned by the Eighteenth Courtesy of the Cambridge Women’s into a swoon with its video camera and high-resolu-
Amendment. Pornography Cooperative tion screen. Starting at $199

8 New York Now / July – August 2010 New York Now / July – August 2010 9
 Sweet
Spot By Nicole Marimon
T
en-year old Julian is scraping dried wax off a
beehive screen with a metal hook, while his
dad, Patrick Gannon, in jeans and a polo shirt,
fiddles with the cornhusk smoker. When it comes time
to lighting the dried cornhusk leaves, Julian rushes
over to do the honors and sprays the bees with smoke.
The smoke calms the bees and as their quick buzzing
in and out of the hive slows, Patrick and Julian come
around to the front of the hive to finish checking it.
It is a sunny Saturday morning in City Island in the
©Frederick Charles Bronx, and these two are hard at work like the bees
they tend. Well, maybe not that hard at work.
After a few more minutes of cleaning beeswax off
“It is possible to be awestruck by the exotic honeycomb frames and filling a container with syrup,
a sugar water supplement for times of shorter nec-
splendor of this meticulously restored sanctuary.” tar supply, Patrick sits on the shaded grass in his back
yard.
“I call myself the bee whisperer,” said Gannon,
Edward Rothstein, The New York Times
chairman of the Department of Science Education at
the Hofstra University School of Medicine. He reads
the behavior of his bees, counts the bundles of pollen
Visit the Museum at Eldridge Street they bring into the hive and genuinely relaxes.
“I’m just reading the nature of the colony,” he said,
Based in the 1887 Eldridge Street Synagogue as a breeze from the bay stirred the trees. “I can sit
A National Historic Landmark here and drink a beer, smoke a cigar.”
12 Eldridge Street between Canal and Division Streets
Sunday through Thursday from 10 am to 5pm
Now that beekeeping is legal in New York City,
hundreds of prospective beekeepers are set-
ting up hives
His backyard retreat has become more pleasurable, now that his hives are
no longer illegal. In March, New York City legalized beekeeping. Before that,
beekeeping had been subject to fines of up to $2,000. For the estimated 200 to
300 beekeepers in New York City, it is a long awaited change in response to the
national trend to bring back honeybees, which have been disappearing in the
United States.
Not surprisingly, the trend has sparked interest in the local food movement,
with rooftop and backyard honey selling out at farmers’ markets and neigh-
borhood shops. That beekeeping was happening was already an open secret in
New York. Now that it’s legal, hundreds of prospective beekeepers are poised to
set up hives for pleasure or profit.
“Many people clearly said that they had held off on starting hives due to the
illegality,” said Jim Fischer, during the weekly beekeeping class he teaches in
Central Park. “There’s going to be a lot more bees.”
Eager Beekeepers
Even before the beekeeping ban was lifted, Fischer, who runs the Gotham
City Honey Co-op, saw a jump in attendance in his weekly beekeeping class,
and enrollment this spring climbed from 80 to 110. In April, Fischer and his
students met in Brooklyn to learn how to assemble their hives and put togeth-
er the equipment they ordered. The bees arrived in May, leading to about 100
new hives from his class alone.
A sister organization, the New York City Beekeeping Meetup, has more than
700 members. Another prominent group, The New York City Beekeepers Asso-
ciation, offers classes and talks, and helps aspiring beekeepers set up shop by
New York Now / July – August 2010 11

lending out equipment.
At the Sixth Street Community Center in the East Village, volunteer
Ray Sage plans to put in its first rooftop hive this spring.
“I want to start and support them in every way,” he said. And it is not
only the bees he wants to support. He’s hoping the bees will help the
center’s community garden thrive and flourish. Helping local farmers
and gardeners with pollination is a goal of urban beekeeping. “It’s not
about the bees,” Fischer is quick to say. “Beekeeping is necessary to local
food. It’s about the farmer and the gardener.”
The Gotham City Honey Co-op is starting a true co-op program to help
beekeepers extract and bottle their honey. “Everybody is going to be sell-
ing their own honey, but we will provide the space and the equipment,”
said Fischer.
Veteran beekeepers already race to keep up with the demand for local
honey at farmers markets across the city.
“I see a big demand for it,” said David Graves, who sells his Rooftop
Magic from hives on three Manhattan buildings at the Union Square
Greenmarket. So many people are asking for local honey that Graves has
limited the sizes he sells to eight-ounce jars. The same is true in other
boroughs. John Howe sells his Fort Greene honey, from the three hives
on his rooftop, online at The Brooklyn Bee, while Brooklyn Honey sells
its rooftop honey at the Brooklyn Standard Deli in Greenpoint. Both har-
vests are sold out until fresh stocks are available in July.
The Veterans
New York’s thriving beekeeping community was outlawed in 1999.
The city’s health code banned the harboring of wild animals, which in-
cluded all venomous insects and thus, honeybees. The fine for violations
was $2,000. Though violations were uncommon, beekeepers were careful
to keep their neighbors happy and unaware.
With black bears threatening his hives in his hometown in Becket,
Mass., Graves started hives in the city in 1996, when there “wasn’t a law
in the books.”
Though glad to no longer have to worry about fines, Graves is con-
cerned that novices may not be properly trained and is “somewhat hesi-
tant” about the legalization of beekeeping. “If novice beekeepers are not
careful it can cause swarms,” he said. Swarms are bee clusters that move
away from the hive with the queen bee to tree branches and other spac-
es, usually because the queen needs more space to continue laying eggs.
Well-trained beekeepers know how to prevent swarming by making more
room within the hive.
“Even with the law in effect, it doesn’t give us any power,” Graves in-
New York City Beekeepers Association founding president Andrew Coté, whose
family has kept bees since the 19th century, sells honey, beeswax and pollen
(to treat allergies) at the greenmarket in New York’s Union Square.
12 New York Now / July – August 2010
sisted. Beekeepers are still subject to the whims and fears of neighbors
and building residents. He also worries that too many hives in the city
will reduce the food sources available to bees, “unless people take the ini-
tiative to plant stuff,” he explained. “We depend on this to make a liv-
ing.”
Andrew Coté, president and founder of the New York City Beekeep-
ers Association, sells honey, beeswax and pollen for allergies at the Union
Square greenmarket. A fourth generation beekeeper, his family has kept
bees since the 19th century. Coté has hives on his rooftop in the Lower
East Side and in Brooklyn. He likes to joke, “The honey was always legal,
only the bees were illegal.”
But he doesn’t see the movement growing exponentially. And while he
supports legalizing beekeeping, he favors controls. “I believe it is going
to lead to problems,” he said. Coté, a professor at Housatonic Commu-
nity College in Connecticut, said the new registration requirement is too
lenient. The New York City board of health is requiring that beekeepers
register their hives. He said that courses should have been a required part
of the process. “I hope we continue to grow responsibly,” he said.
Reviving a Decimated Population
With beekeeping popping up in cities like Denver, Cleveland, Minne-
apolis, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Washington D.C., and even on
the White House lawn, it is surprising to find that honeybees have been
severely depleted in recent years.
In the past several years, colony collapse disorder (CCD) has become
a frequent occurrence nationwide, in which bees leave the hive, lead-
ing to the death of the colony. In a recent study performed by the United
States Department of Agriculture, 26 percent of apiaries surveyed across
the nation suffered losses due to CCD. The causes OF CCD are still being
researched.
The disappearance of bees is one reason Gannon started his backyard
hives in City Island. But mostly, it’s a hobby. City Island Gold, the name
his son came up with five years ago when Gannon first started his hive,
is only sold at his neighbor’s bakery, Sugar & Spice. He also likes to give
it to neighbors and friends, all of whom were skeptical of his project at
first.
“You just ply them with honey,” he laughed, “and educate them.”
Gannon also claims a spoonful of local honey can help clear seasonal al-
lergies and his neighbors come “back in droves,” he said.
Now “local people are proud of something,” he said. They are proud of
his honey, but more so of their local honey – their delicious, nutritious,
liquid gold. NYN
Hofstra University School of Medicine science and education chair Patrick Gan-
non is also a New York City backyard beekeeper.
Gray Is The New Blond
Ally Kurn started going gray in high school. By choice.
By Megan Gibson
A
natural blonde, Kurn lightened her hair to almost white and
then added the toner to make it a steely gray. “I’m personally
fascinated with gray hair,” she said with a nonchalance that in-
dicates she’s years away from natural gray but also with an earnestness
that dispels any suspicions of satire. “It’s so beautiful.”
Kurn said she got a lot of compliments on her hair and that no one
questioned her choice to go gray, except for one discerning critic.
“Why did you dye your hair gray?” Kurn’s grandmother inquired. “I
dye my hair blond.”
Her grandmother has a point. Women and hair product companies
alike have long seen gray hair as a curse of Mother Nature and a loss of
the joie de vivre of youth. Cos-
metic companies have created
a multibillion-dollar industry
around the need for women to
color their hair as silver strands
start to spring up.
Middle-aged women have
long felt under pressure to hide
the gray, so the irony of teenag-
ers or 20-somethings like Kurn
now adding gray by choice is
apparent. And with the recent
crop of gray and silver streaks
sprouting up all over the fash-
ion world, some might wonder
if the gray taboo could be over.
But many of these young wom-
en don’t see the choice to go
gray as a social statement. For
them, it’s either just another
hair color to experiment with or a shade that’s unique. After all, despite
being the most naturally occurring hair shade – everyone except Barbara
Walters goes gray at some point – and some recent gray-pride activism,
gray hair on women remains a rare sight.
Kurn, now 31 and currently sporting black hair, runs Curl Up and Dye,
a salon in the Mission District of San Francisco, where she continues to
experiment with her own hair, as well as with her young clients’. Three
in the 25-to-35-year-old age range have recently asked for gray. Kurn
considers gray or silver a good choice for anyone looking for a unique or
alternative look.
“Anyone can go to Hot Topic and get their hair colored pink,” she said.
“Gray is different.”
Being different might just be what draws the fashion industry. New
York designer Katie Gallagher has also been going gray since high school.
And despite having a full head of gray, the petite, fair-skinned 23-year-
old wasn’t trying to make a social statement with her silver-hued locks.
Instead, her choice of hair color started by accident: “I have really blond
hair, and I was bleaching it. And then when you put toner in it, it gives it
a like gray hue. And I just liked that.”
The runways of spring fashion shows in Paris this year featured gray-
streaked models. British fashionista Pixie Geldof has been spotted with
gray, and at 13, fashion blogging sensation Tavi Gevinson already sports
bluish-gray hair. But it was at the Jan. 27 launch of a handbag line for
Longchamp that fashion icon Kate Moss lit up fashion gossip blogs when
she was photographed with silver streaks in her blond waves. Although
New York Now / July – August 2010
Moss’ delving into gray was rumored to be a dye job gone awry, bloggers
were excitedly reporting that gray was the new black.
Which naturally led to the question from the older set: if it’s OK to
color it gray, can we join them and toss out our L’Oréal bottles?
Author Anne Kreamer – who recently wrote “Going Gray: What I
Learned About Beauty, Sex, Work, Motherhood, Authenticity and Every-
thing Else That Really Matters” – had already been coloring her hair for
years before she began to go gray. Kreamer said that when her hair first
started to go gray in her 20s, coloring it was like a reflex, almost second
nature. But after several years, coloring her hair began to mean some-
thing else. “You shift from in your 20s and maybe early 30s to doing it
as a fun tool, to being something
you have to maintain,” she said.
Kristen Gladden of Humble,
Texas, joined the movement al-
most by accident. She had been
coloring her naturally dark hair
for almost 25 years – and now, at
the age of 40, the librarian has
decided to embrace her hair’s
natural progression, even adding
streaks of gray in as well. “I had
no idea it was fashionable. All I
know is that I’m starting to go
gray,” she said, “so why not put
some gray in instead of always
trying to cover it up?”
Colorist Marie Robinson of
the Sally Hershberger Salon in
New York City, who has colored
Fashion designer Katie Gallagher, 23, the tresses of Scarlett Johansson
is one of several women in the fashion and Anne Hathaway, said that
industry who have colored their hair while she has only one young cli-
gray. (Photo by Megan Gibson) ent who dabbles with gray, she
has observed an increase in the
number of women who are letting their natural gray be mixed into their
hair color. “Gray hair can also look eccentric, artistic and even command
a little respect,” Robinson said via e-mail. “There are so many ways to
naturally and cosmetically make ourselves look younger that gray doesn’t
mean it will age us anymore.”
Age has beome the real crux of the gray-hair issue. After all, there’s an
obvious difference between the fashionable teenager who gets a cutting-
edge hairstyle and the middle-aged woman who eschews a long-held
stereotype that gray hair is old and old is not beautiful. Kreamer says
it’s our society’s fear of aging that spurs middle-aged women to hide the
gray. “I think we are terrified to confront it,” she said, “at every level.”
Kramer is also quick to point out that covering gray doesn’t stop us
from aging, or even look like we are aging. “We only fool ourselves,” she
said. “We do not fool the public.”
But perhaps the gray fashion trend is a sign that for the next genera-
tions of women, gray will no longer be a hair color to be dreaded. Rob-
inson is even looking forward to the time when gray starts to show up.
“I’m only 35 years old,” she said, “and I hope to get larger gray patches
or white so I can let it grow in.”
Kurn is also enthusiastic about the gray that comes from age, not a
bottle. “It’s nature’s highlights,” she said. NYN
13
 And That’s
The Way It Ish
Ask Vivie-Ann Bakos and Anstascia D’Elene why they recently moved to London from
Montreal, and their answer sounds simple: “To spread the ish.”
By Megan Thompson
T
he ish? Yes, the ish. It’s the favorite word of these two DJs who
play music at raves, parties and clubs in Europe, North Amer-
ica and the Middle East. The duo, who market themselves as
Blond:ish, incorporated ish into their regular vocabulary about three
years ago. Ask them what time they’ll arrive for a meeting, and the an-
swer will be “noonish.” They also like to tell folks to “be careful what you
ish for,” says D’Elene. That its meaning is unclear adds to appeal.
“It gives us carte blanche,” says Bakos. “It’s a word that means abso-
lutely nothing, but everybody knows what it means.”
Whatever it means, ish has become popular. When membership to a
Facebook fan page, “Adding ‘ish’ onto the end of a word when describing
something,” reached 500,000, some of those fans responded with appro-
priate posts: “Half a millionish!” wrote one. “Wowish,” exclaimed anoth-
er. Other favorites cited on the page include hornyish, kindaish, World of
Warcraftish, and, just simply, ish. In a single week in late February, the
page gained 25,000 new fans to reach 565,474.
Ish is a suffix as old as the English language – and related to the an-
cient languages of India, Persia and Germany and to the romance lan-
guages. Now, a youngish generation is taking creative license and using it
as a standalone word and tagging it on to the end of almost any word. Its
expanded use as a noncommittal, imprecise mitigator offers insight into
youth culture and the way that language helps young people differenti-
ate themselves from their parents.
It also offers a window into the evolution of language.
People of all ages gravitate toward imprecise language that allows
them “wriggle room” and the ability to “guesstimate” exact time com-
mitments and facts, says David Carroll, the author of Psychology of Lan-
guage and a professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin at
Superior. Ish-speak lets them do so in shorthand. For example, “I’m go-
ing to be there about, oh, say seven,” is an elongated way of saying “sev-
enish.” Or, instead of saying that “Atlanta is a little like L.A,” an ish-er
would economize with “Atlanta is L.A.-ish.”
Shortening these elongated phrases with ish words helps a younger
generation connect with their peers and separate, either consciously or
unconsciously, from their parents’ way of speaking, says Carroll. It’s es-
sentially the linguistic equivalent of dressing differently and making oth-
er lifestyle choices that diverge from those of an older generation.
Like many ish-ers, Max Allyn, 25, a record producer in Los Angeles,
isn’t sure where he picked up the word, which he started using as an
adult, nor does he recall ever hearing his parents use it. For him, it’s a
convenient response when someone asks him to do something he isn’t
interested in doing. Its meaning in that circumstance: “Maybe, not so
much,” he says.
14 New York Now / July – August 2010 New York Now / July – August 2010
The Oxford English Dictionary cites 1986 as the earliest use of ish on
its own to imply vagueness. And its current popularity as a standalone is
the most innovative use of the former suffix, says Ariel Diertani, a doc-
toral student of linguistics and comparative philology at the University of
Pennsylvania.
“Suffixes are very, very picky about what they attach to,” Diertani says.
“Ish isn’t picky about attaching to nouns, and attaches to a whole broad
category of linguistic elements, which probably contributed to it becoming
an independent word. … You could say it’s become kind of promiscuous.”
Examples of picky suffixes would be “ity” as in “clarity” and “th” as
in “warmth.”
Aaron Peckham has logged ish’s modern evolution since its debut on
urbandictionary.com, a Web site he started in 2001. User submissions of
word definitions get vetted by hundreds of volunteers before being pub-
lished to the site. Most words have an average of 1.6 definitions posted,
says Peckham. Ish, on the other hand has 105 definitions.
For instance: “Use this at the end of everything and you’ll always
be right.” Or: “Ish is used as a stand-in for ‘sort of’ and ‘kind of,’ often
tacked on to the end of a statement.” The user offers this example: “Did
you like the sweater your Aunt Marcy knitted for you? Eh. . . . Ish.”
“Maybe it’s part of the whole texting culture,” says Peckham, noting
that 80 percent of urbandictionary.com users are under age 25. “People
use shorter and shorter words to say what they mean.”
“You can do all sorts of bizarre things in English,” says University of
Pennsylvania linguist Diertani.
Change is the nature of language, says Walt Wolfram, a professor of
English and sociolinguist at North Carolina State University. While it’s
unusual for a suffix to break off into a free form, Wolfram says its grow-
ing use as a mitigator may be related to another modern quirk in the
English language – a trend, since the 1980s, of creating intensifying suf-
fixes and words.
Ass is one such suffix. “A big-ass latte” or “big-ass head” strengthens
the word “big” and started being used only in the last few decades, says
Wolfram. The word “so” falls into this same genre. A person who says
“I’m so not into that,” exaggerates the emphasis of not liking something.
Similarly, many use “super” to add heft to an exclamation, saying “I’m
super excited,” instead of “I’m very excited.”
As such intensifiers have worked into the language, it may be natural
that a mitigator like ish has followed suit. There’s much to explore, and
Diertani says she would like to see linguists do more research on the re-
bellious suffix.
“There hasn’t been a lot of attention paid to ish,” she says. “Ish has
been very sadly neglected.” NYN
15
 Hell on wheels
Taxi TV drives New York’s cabbies insane
By Danielle Friedman
S
ome people envision Hell as fire and brimstone. Others buy into
the existential notion that hell is other people. New York City cab-
drivers have recently come upon their own definition of purgato-
ry: Being trapped in a small, enclosed space and forced to listen to Kelly
Ripa repeat to Regis Philbin: “Taxis are so much more fun than they used
to be, aren’t they, Reg?!” approximately 40 times in a 12-hour period.
“It feels like a violation of my right to sanity in my workspace,” says
Gil Avineri, 27, a driver from Queens.
Since 2007, when the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission first
mandated that screens be installed in the backs of its 13,000 cabs – along
with credit card machines and GPS tracking devices – drivers have strug-
gled to adjust to a host of irritating problems. They have no way of con-
trolling the TVs from the front seat – they can’t turn them on or off, up
or down. All power lies in passengers’ hands. So they end up hearing
the same roughly 15-minute loop of commercials, entertainment clips
and news clips, like a scratched record,
dozens of times per shift. Even Conan
O’Brien stops being funny the 10th time
you’ve heard him tell the same joke.
“Sometimes when I’m in bed, I hear
the TV in my sleep,” said Paramjit
Singh, a driver from Queens.
Most of the TVs feature program-
ming from ABC and NBC, altering it
slightly from day to day or week to week
– though some spots (like Regis and
Kelly’s) remain the same for months.
Newscasts are updated a few times a
day.
Then there’s the constant, repetitive
stream of ads: the MasterCard Priceless
commercial with Mr. Bill, the tiny gum-
my man, who’s always down on his luck
– and yelling a high-pitched “Oh Nooooooo” over and over again. Or an
annoyingly chipper ad for Panama. (“That one is too much,” says Clau-
dio Caba, a driver from the Bronx, shaking his head. Hastening to add:
“There’s nothing wrong with Panama.”)
Indeed, from drunk passengers who pound the TVs in frustration
when they can’t figure out how to turn them off (one driver once had a
woman ask him for a hammer) to smaller tips from passengers who get
carsick from the moving images, drivers are not entertained by their in-
cab entertainment.
Some say they’ve learned to tune out the noise, and most point out
that, relative to salary issues, the TVs fall lower on their list of com-
plaints. Still, some say the TVs have begun to affect their mental health.
“It’s like when you go home and your wife gives you bull over and
over again,” says George A., who’s been driving a cab since the 1960s.
(He preferred not to give his last name for fear that his wife would give
him bull over and over again for it.)
Why were the TVs installed in the first place? To “enhance customer
service,” says Matthew Daus, the TLC’s commissioner, at a time when
fares were going up. The revenue is split among the networks, cab own-
ers and “taxi technology” vendors – namely VeriFone Transportation
Systems, which broadcasts the local ABC affiliate, and Creative Mobile
Technology Inc., which has an alliance with Clear Channel and NBC Uni-
versal.
16 New York Now / July – August 2010
Gil Avineri, a New York
City cab driver, says taxi
TVs threaten his “right
to sanity” at work.
Photo by Sunny Shokrae
While the classic archetype of the old New York cabbie – eager to in-
teract with passengers, to listen to their problems and respond with in-
sightful quips – may have gone the way of subway tokens, drivers who
still enjoy engaging complain that the TVs have simply dehumanized the
cab experience.
Riding in a taxi “is one of the few times when New Yorkers can have
an intimate moment to themselves, or with someone they’ll never see
again,” says Avineri. “The anonymity of the experience allows people to
share things that they wouldn’t otherwise.”
Yet over the past 18 months, the TVs have created a barrier more im-
penetrable than the plexiglass separating him from his passengers, he
says. Customers get sucked in to the banal programming and are less
likely to want to chat.
Chip Stern, who’s been driving a taxi on and off since 1979 – and who,
last year, published an Op-Ed about his hatred for the TVs in The Daily
News, with the headline “Get this ob-
noxious TV out of my cab” – says the
TVs create a dangerous distraction on
the road.
He’s particularly incensed by what
he feels is hypocrisy on the part of the
city: Drivers aren’t allowed to talk on
cell phones while driving, yet there’s the
constant noise of the TVs. Unwilling to
accept this, he’s begun asking passen-
gers – nicely, of course – to turn them off
as soon as they get in his cab. “99 per-
cent are happy to do it,” he says.
The only passengers who seem to
genuinely enjoy the TVs, drivers say, are
tourists and kids. The latter, perhaps too
much. “Kids put on too much volume,”
says Singh, from Queens. As a result,
he’s begun to avoid picking up passengers with children in tow, which,
incidentally, is also against the rules.
Yet if kids can adjust the dials too easily, other passengers have a
tough time figuring out how to turn the TVs off, or down. Many driv-
ers report having to pull over to the side of the road, get out of the cab,
and adjust the TVs for passengers. Others complain of TVs that, thanks
to broken controls, can’t be turned off. They say such malfunctions have
caused them to lose customers.
“I just breathe deep, look out the window, and do what I have to do,”
says Avineri when he finds himself in these and similarly aggravating
situations.
Many drivers compare the TVs to an earlier Taxi and Limousine Com-
mission effort, its “Talking Taxis” campaign: A few years ago, every time
They have no way of
a passenger entered or exited a cab, the voice of Joan Rivers, Sesame controlling the TVs from the
Street’s Elmo, former Yankee Paul O’Neill or someone else would remind
the passenger to buckle up, ask for a receipt and remember personal be- front seat – they can’t turn
longings. That campaign, too, annoyed drivers – though it paled in com-
parison to the TVs.
them on or off, up or down.
Still, many drivers take solace in the notion that, like the recordings, All power lies in passengers’
the TVs won’t last forever; that their hell isn’t everlasting.
“In the city, nothing is here to stay,” said Bouba Ba, a driver for more
hands.
than a decade. “Everything is for a moment.”
If only the same were true of Kelly Ripa. NYN
New York Now / July – August 2010 17
 Mapping the
Trip of

everything
Your Dreams
(or Nightmares)
At this London travel emporium, you can
find satellite images of Mongolian glaciers
– or things stranger still
s t a r t s w i t h t h e v i e w.
By Andrea Libelo

“E
xactly what I was looking for,” Deo Persaud repeated as he tional staff.
tossed a canvas bag on the counter. The small Indiana bag “There are quite a few people from Eastern Europe now; last year it
was perfect, he said, for maps, a mobile phone, the basics. was a lot of Spanish and Italian,” said John Sayer, an Englishman who
He spread his new map of South America across the table, and explained has worked at Stanfords for several years.
his plan to drive from his native Georgetown, Guyana through the Ama- Sales advisor Goran Gacic, a Slovenian, traveled three continents be-
zon to São Paulo, Brazil. fore starting work here.
He’d found his supplies at Stanfords, a central London emporium that “I don’t know how long I’m going to stay,” Gacic said. “I’m just saving
claims to be the world’s largest map and travel bookshop. It seems to some money to continue traveling.”
live up to its slogan, with three floors of everything you might need to go Browsers in hiking boots or dress shirts dominate the aisles, or sit in
journeying: maps and travel guides, mosquito nets and jigsaw puzzles. cushioned chairs reading stacks of guidebooks.
Edward Stanford established the company in 1853, and in 1862 the As he tucked his new map of South America into his new travel bag,
firm created Stanfords Library Map of London, said to be the city’s first Persaud said with a grin: “You can come here; you can get maps. And
accurate map. have your dreams. Or nightmares.” NYN
Though the main store in Covent Garden is housed in a 1900 build-
ing (there are smaller shops in Bristol and Manchester) it’s a thorough-
ly modern operation, offering digital maps and a comprehensive website
via which it ships its products around the globe. The adventurer in Peru
who needs a satellite image of Baltoro Glacier in Karakoram, Mongolia,
complete with identification of trekking routes, can be as well served as
the Brit looking for a road map.
But the true adventure is walking around the mammoth store, where
globes wait to be spun and novels are organized by destination. Toward
the back, behind the magazines and the tidy map-spreading table, sit
rows of guidebooks and maps in Spanish, Polish and other languages.
The pink hotel on the boardwalk.
The lower floor is devoted almost entirely to the United Kingdom and
Ireland. There are mainstream guidebooks like Lonely Planet and From-
mer’s as well as unusual titles, like “The Organic Directory: 2006.”
Visiting Stanfords
Upstairs are Africa, Asia and the Americas. Mosquito nets hang on Olive Avenue & the Boardwalk ✦ Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971
hooks and Swiss Army knives spread their razor and corkscrew fingers Stanfords Covent Garden
behind glass cases. 12-14 Long Acre; Tel: 44-20-7836-1321 http://www.stanfords.co.uk/ (800) 33 BEACH ✦ (302) 227-7169
Many staffers are temporarily sidetracked travelers in search of a bit of
work to supplement their journeys. As citizens of EU countries can work
Open 7 days, generally M-F from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m-7 p.m.,
Sun. noon to 6 p.m.
www.boardwalkplaza.com
in London without special permits, Stanfords tends to attract an interna-

18 New York Now / July – August 2010 New York Now / July – August 2010 19
 Gay tourists are the T
he state has launched a campaign aimed at making it one of the
country’s most popular destinations for gay tourists. Advertising
in print and on the Web, the Massachusetts Office of Travel and
Tourism is touting attractions – from gay icon Bette Davis’ birthplace in
marriage in 2003. But some economists suspect that this campaign is a
response to concerns that gay dollars may shift to states that recently le-
galized gay marriage, such as Connecticut and Vermont.
“It reflects an awareness of increased competition,” says M.V. Lee

objects of affection
If you’re gay and thinking about taking a vacation,
Massachusetts has a message for you: Come visit, please!
By Brent Lang
Lowell to gay-themed nights at the Roxy, one of the state’s largest clubs
– that it thinks resonate with gay and lesbian travelers. If it’s successful,
a state best known for its rabid sports culture could rival places like San
Francisco as a gay hot spot.
“We’re trying to let people know that there’s a whole state here that’s
friendly to gay travelers, not just Provincetown and Northampton,” says
Lisa Simmons, the office’s spokeswoman. “We want gay couples to know
that they can take their kids hiking in the Berkshires or camping on Cape
Cod, and they’ll find that we’re open and accepting.”
Massachusetts isn’t the only place targeting gays and lesbians. Com-
petition for this demographic has grown
fiercer since the economy plunged into
recession. At a time when tourist dol-
lars are drying up, gay travelers have
even become a desirable demographic for
states, cities and towns not usually asso-
ciated with that community.
Gay dollars could be critical at a time
when U.S. domestic travel is dropping.
Part of the attraction is a perception that
gay and lesbian tourists may be more
immune to the recession than their
straight counterparts, experts say.
The gay travel industry accounts for
some $70 billion in spending in the U.S.
each year, according to Community Mar-
keting, a San Francisco-based research
and marketing firm. Some places re-
port that, on average, gay travelers shell
out double the amount each trip than
straight visitors. That’s not even fac-
toring in the growing number of states
moving toward legalizing gay marriage,
which one day could bring in millions
of dollars for destination wedding loca-
tions.
It’s difficult, however, to accurately
gauge the gay tourism market because
states and municipalities don’t survey
visitors’ sexual orientation. In fact, cer-
tain economists quibble with suggestions that gay Americans are better
positioned to weather the downturn.
That doesn’t jibe with what many communities are reporting, though.
Most places that market to gays and lesbians say business appears steady.
“The industry feels that gays and lesbians will continue to travel,” says
Jeff Guaracino, spokesman for the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Market-
ing Corp., who helped put the City of Brotherly Love on the map as a gay
destination. “As a group, they have more buying power. There are fewer
children in the household, which means more opportunity to travel at
the last minute and more discretionary income.”
Massachusetts wants to cash in on traditionally popular gay vaca-
tion spots like Provincetown, as well as its historic legalization of gay
Opposite page: Philadelphia is trying to attract gay and lesbian travelers
through its “Philadelphia: Get Your History Straight and Your Nightlife Gay”
ads. Courtesy Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation
This page: This brochure from the convention and visitors bureau in Bloom-
ington, Ind., is an example of the city’s innovative pitch to gays and lesbians.
Courtesy Bloomington Convention and Visitors Bureau
Badgett, an economist at the University of Massachusetts Institute for
Gay and Lesbian Strategic Studies. “Marriages are big business. The aver-
age wedding, even in a recession, costs more than $20,000. That’s poten-
tially big bucks in a tough economic climate.”
Massachusetts may have some obvious attractions, but other plac-
es eager to lure gay travelers to their communities face a tougher sell.
It typically starts with an introductory campaign. In Chapel Hill, N.C.,
for instance, that boils down to letting gays know that the city is “gay
friendly” – a pitch that the town’s tourism council is making in adver-
tisements that will run in gay publications.
“We’re still living down Jesse Helms,”
says Laurie Paolicelli, executive director
of the Chapel Hill and Orange County
Visitors Bureau. “But Chapel Hill is a lib-
eral bastion in a state that still has a lit-
tle bit of a conservative legacy.”
In addition to emphasizing tolerance
in its ads, Paolicelli’s team is hawking
attractions that they believe will appeal
to well-heeled gay tourists. Chapel Hill’s
proximity to the University of North Car-
olina gives it cultural cachet, and there
are antique stores and restaurants to en-
tice furniture buffs and food lovers. All
told, she anticipates spending $25,000 in
outreach to the gay community.
Paolicelli is modeling her campaign
on the one in Bloomington, Ind., anoth-
er unlikely gay tourist destination that
has courted the community in recent
years. Bloomington has fashioned itself
into one of the premier regional attrac-
tions for gays and lesbians. Its tourism
council spends roughly $20,000 a year
on brochures and advertisements tar-
geted at gays and lesbians and works in
concert with organizations like the Kin-
sey Institute at the University of Indiana
– named for the famous sex researcher
Alfred Kinsey – to organize gay-themed
exhibits. There’s also a pride film festival of movies and documentaries
relating to gay, bisexual or transgender life that was launched five years
ago and continues to grow.
Beyond special events, the city highlights attractions like the Indiana
University art museum and local wineries and breweries in its outreach
efforts.
“There’s an idea that both coasts have a monopoly on gay tourism,”
says Rob DeCleene, the city’s director of tourism. “There’s a significant
gay population between those coasts, and we have unique events and at-
tractions that appeal to the GLBT traveler. Not everyone is looking for a
city or coastal resort.”
Though it is tough to track how much money gay travelers inject into
places like Bloomington and Chapel Hill, communities that target gays
and lesbians report that they hear the market is still strong. Columbus,
Ohio, for example, believes that gay travelers are acting as an important
hedge against the downturn.
“The gay and lesbian market is an important part of our plans,” says
Scott Peacock, media relations manager at Experience Columbus, a des-
tination marketing organization. “What we’re seeing so far is that this
market hasn’t suffered as much. Time will tell, but we’re hoping and
planning that it will be recession-proof.” NYN

20 New York Now / July – August 2010 New York Now / July – August 2010 21

Bollywood Magic
Watching a melodramatic Indian musical in Bollywood’s home city of Mumbai
is a great way to tap into local culture.
W
atching a Bollywood film in its home city of
Mumbai (Bombay) relays a true sense of In-
dian culture, one you can’t pick up by just
walking the streets or touring historic sites.
You’ll see glittering, neon cinema billboards and post-
ers of the latest release pasted all over the city. Lenghas,
a skirt with a top, and saris imitating the outfits worn by
the lead heroine of the recent blockbuster are modeled
in shop windows. Discos blurt out remixes from Bolly-
wood songs, and men frequent salons asking their hair
to be styled like Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan,
two of the industry’s hottest male actors. A rare sight-
ing of a Bollywood star will lather the crowds up into
a frenzy, with streets blocked and scores of extra police
present.
22
You’ll see glittering, neon cinema billboards and posters of the latest
release pasted all over the city.
tional scene between lovers might suddenly break into a song and dance
sequence, transporting viewers to the pyramids of Egypt, the hills of
Switzerland or the snow-capped peaks of New Zealand.
To an outsider, these songs may seem unnecessary, even inoppor-
tune, but to Indians, they are the heart of the movie. The first question
someone will ask after you tell them you’ve seen the latest release is
not, “How was the movie?” but “Gana kese the?” How were the songs?
Though the songs are all lip-synched, since few actors can sing, they
showcase elaborate jewelry and clothes that set the fashion trends for
that year. Few movies, even serious war films, are made without at least
one song and dance number.
You won’t see much sex, though. Indians consider even kissing on
screen too risqué. At most, lovers may hug or kiss each other on the
cheek. Yet Indian directors like Yash Raj and Rakesh Roshan, known for
their soppy love stories, have devised ways to make their movies seduc-
tive, with alluringly exposed skin or the caress of an arm. Lack of physi-
cal intimacy may leave a Bollywood newcomer frustrated. After all, when
lovers unite in Western films, it is the kissing scene that leaves the view-
er with a feeling of completion. In Bollywood, though, the satisfaction
comes from knowing that the lovers will be together. Though in the ear-
ly 1990s the government did away with the law that forbade on-screen
kissing, movies that incorporate too much sexual promiscuity have noto-
riously bombed.
Don’t be surprised if the audience participates in the movie. “Lagaan,”
a movie about cricket and a 2003 Oscar nominee, featured several scenes
where fictitious Indian and British cricket teams played against each oth-
er. The fervor with which viewers stood up, cheered, booed and clapped
made it feel like a live sporting event. During screenings of “Kabhi Kushi
Kabhi Gham” (“Sometime Happiness, Sometime Sadness”), audience
By Shivani Vora
Bollywood’s appeal is in its ability transport viewers
to a magical, dreamlike world, where the burdens of ev-
eryday life disappear. Lovers run across wheat fields to
meet in a passionate embrace, the poorest men become
rich, and the deadliest illnesses are overcome. Though
all of the films are in Hindi, they are increasingly sub-
titled in English.
Plots tend to be melodramatic and employ recurring
themes such as star-crossed lovers, corrupt politicians,
kidnappers, long-lost relatives and siblings separated
by fate. You’ll witness dramatic reversals of fortune and
convenient coincidences.
Bollywood films are almost always musicals. The
three hour-plus extravaganzas include elaborate song
and dance numbers filmed in exotic locales. An emo-
New York Now / July – August 2010 New York Now / July – August 2010
members stood and sang the national anthem along with a small boy on
the screen.
There is usually at least a half-hour intermission. It is during this
break that Indians enjoy their snacks. To Bombayites, the food is almost
as important as the film. While the more modern theaters offer typical
American movie snacks, for an authentic experience, you should try a sa-
mosa, the quintessential Indian moviegoer treat. You’ve probably tasted
the triangle shaped, potato- and pea-filled pastries at your local Indian
restaurant, but as the long lines attest, there is nothing like the taste of a
samosa at the movie theater. They are always prepared fresh and emerg-
ing hot from the fryer, glistening with oil, crisp and begging to be dipped
in the accompanying coriander and tamarind chutneys. The ideal partner
for the samosa is a steaming cup of masala chai, a sweet milky blend of
tealeaves and spices, like cardamom and ginger. For 30 rupees – less than
$1 – you can get two large samosas and a tea.
At about $1, a Bollywood ticket is cheap for a foreigner. Of course, that
is for a theater with no air conditioning, old-fashioned squat toilets and
broken seats. Admission to an upscale theater costs about $8, an exorbi-
tant sum for the average Indian middle-class person, though manageable
for the increasing legions of wealthy Indians. Whatever the sum they
pay, Indian audiences expect full value for their money, with good enter-
tainment referred to as “paisa vasool” or “money’s worth.”
When the movie is over, viewers awaken from their dream. As they
stream out of the theater and back into their normal lives, part of the
fantastical quality of the movie lingers within them and makes them be-
lieve that true love prevails, poor men become rich and the sickest people
healthy. It leaves them with a feeling of hope. You may not relate to that
emotion and might even think it’s over the top. But the experience will
leave you with an indelible impression of Mumbai’s people. NYN
23

Carpets for sale in Tolkucha Market,
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
Photos by Deirdre Tynan
Trader in Tolkucha Market
in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
Photos by Deirdre Tynan
24 New York Now / July – August 2010
On the Trail of the Silk Road in
Turkmenistan
By Deirdre Tynan
A
millennium ago Turkmenistan straddled the Silk Road, the most
important and lucrative trading hub in the known world. Today
the Turkmen trading instinct survives. But it’s focused on those
few travelers who come to peruse the Tolkucha bazaar, one of Central
Asia’s largest markets, near the capital city Ashgabat.
“For you, $40,” a middle-aged woman says, as I pause in front of her
stall. She’s selling antique pottery fragments and silver jewelry, battered
pewter kitchenware and Soviet lapel pins, all lain out in white shoe boxes
and cream-colored cotton handkerchiefs on top of a worn burgundy carpet.
Turkmenistan, a gas-rich desert nation trapped between Afghanistan
and Iran, has spent a lifetime languishing in not-so-splendid isolation.
Saparmurat Niyazov, the megalomaniacal president-for-life, promised
that the 21st century would be an Altyn Asyr – a golden age. Niyazov
died in late 2006, of heart failure, after a 21-year reign. But the police
state he built lives on.
The morning sun tempers a chill spring wind, which wafts the smoky
smell of shashlik, a stick of mutton served with vinegar, onion and
chopped herbs, across the crowded market.
The saleswoman’s brown leather coat slips to reveal an aubergine vel-
vet dress with an intricate embroidered neckline. She pushes her green
and crimson floral headscarf, elaborately knotted at the nape of her neck,
behind her ears. She pulls out another clay figurine which she says was
found at Merv, an ancient and important desert citadel on the Silk Road
linking Persia with China.
“Forty dollars,” she says again, this time in Russian, waving her hand
and smiling to reveal a set of gold teeth.
I examine the stone figurines. There is something too fresh about their
contours. I’m intrigued by the fakes, but envision customs officials con-
fiscating all my money as punishment for attempting to smuggle out
something that looks vaguely valuable.
The woman speaks to her partner in Turkmen, a language closely re-
lated to medieval Turkish, a cascade of rolling Ls and long vowels with a
dash of soft cha-ka-ta sounds.
They speak quietly, like somebody might be listening. But nearly ev-
eryone does this in Turkmenistan. A uniformed officer is never far away;
an informer might be closer.
Niyazov was a grand master of the secret police, of closed trials
for unspecified charges and of indefinite prison sentences in facili-
ties not marked on any map. Gold statues and giant portraits of the
dead president adorn the squares and buildings of Ashgabat, the seat of
government and home to the gilded but opaque ministries that run Turk-
menistan like a fiefdom.
Most Central Asian countries have gingerly embraced imported no-
Turkmenistan, a gas-rich desert nation trapped between Afghanistan
and Iran, has spent a lifetime languishing in not-so-splendid isolation.
New York Now / July – August 2010
tions like democracy and human rights. But Turkmenistan has pulled
down the shades.
The new government is a coven of Niayzov loyalists, drawing their le-
gitimacy from their proven ability to survive his frequent purges. Their
policies are modeled on his vision of power – a supreme head of state
presiding over a one-party system.
The Miras Bookshop, located not far from the country’s leading uni-
versity, bursts with Niyazov paraphernalia. Six women in ankle length
gem-hued skirts stand behind polished glass counters. They are sur-
rounded by evidence of Niyazov’s cult of personality – old calendars
featuring the dead dictator in a gray suit, and copies of his book, the
Ruhnama, an epic of self-aggrandizement. There are also secondhand
copies of Tolstoy and Pushkin. But no shoppers.
Odes to Niyazov can also be caught on state television. Pretty girls are
placed in parks for readings, which are then beamed into every home be-
fore breakfast, after dinner and late into the night.
Turkmenistan was invaded, conquered and exploited, by Alexander
the Great, Genghis Khan and a succession of Tsarist and Soviet generals.
Ancient and medieval caravan trade routes once traversed the Caspian
region. Before sea passages were discovered, Turkmenistan was at the
crossroads of the world.
But its importance faded as the tribal economy degenerated into one
centering on camels, sheep and what booty could be lifted from pass-
ing caravans trading between Russia and Persia, usually along with the
heads of the luckless merchants.
The empirical leftovers are underfoot at the hundreds of unexcavated
archaeological sites that dot the countryside like muddy outdoor muse-
ums. Whole sides of vases lie upturned like rubble. Anything eye-catch-
ing is bagged by scavengers, then finds it way to market and into private
collections.
I decline the stone figurines and cross the market to the shashlik ven-
dors, weaving my way through an alley of carpets and religious stalls
selling both Sunni and Shiite religious posters in tropical colors. I sit
down to a plate of crispy mutton, doused in vinegar with a side of dense
white bread to mop up the juices. The air is thick with white smoke and
the smell of fennel and coriander.
Suddenly I see the figurines again. Not one but three. For good mea-
sure a small clay head has been added. Forty dollars, says the trader, who
has cannily waited to close the deal over lunch.
Although much of Turkmenistan’s recent past and probable future will
conspire to keep to keep it off even the most intrepid traveler’s map, the
traders of Tolkucha bazaar are ready for business. I hand over two $20
bills and pocket a little bit of Turkmenistan. NYN
25
 ARTS
Eco Movie, Take 1
A filmmaker struggles
to go green O utside Jack’s Stir-Brew Coffee in Man-
hattan, the gasoline generator strained to
provide power for the set of Carmen Angeli-
ca’s independent film, “Grounds.” Inside, crews
By Sam Osborn rigged lights and charged battery belts, sucking
electricity from the coffee shop outlets. But de-
spite her concessions to the usual, energy guz-
zling methods of movie production, Angelica had
painstakingly set out to make an eco-friendly
film.
As concern over global warming has spread, a
growing number of directors and producers chafe
at the amount of energy spent on a film set. Al-
though it’s rarely examined, moviemaking stands
as the most wasteful artistic medium. With its
Making a green movie was a challenge. high-powered lighting, transportation, food ser-
Photo by Sam Osborn vices, and reams of paper for scripts, the indus-
26 New York Now / July – August 2010
With its high-powered lighting, transportation, food
services, and reams of paper for scripts, the industry
extracts a huge toll from the environment.
Scaring Up Free Food
At first, the plan seemed promising. Craft ser-
vice, the food brought to set each day for the
cast and crew, usually soaks up a hefty chunk of
a film’s budget. For a short film on the scale of
“Grounds,” $2,000-3,000 is generally put aside.
But Angelica got away with spending about $300.
“Every day I would send out six emails to or-
ganizations that were green for food donations,”
she said. Soon, people were pitching in bottled
water, vegan cookies and food supplies for free.
“The fact that the film was green turned out to
be a selling point,” Angelica said.
But her eco-ambitions were tested throughout
the rest of pre-production.
It’s Tough to Be Green
Many elements of a film must be worked out
in the months before arriving on set. A crew must
be assembled, actors auditioned and cast, loca-
tions secured, dates set, transportation planned,
equipment rented, sets designed, costumes cho-
sen. And for Angelica, each task would be a chal-
lenge.
“As we started trying to find solutions to our
green problems, we realized that we couldn’t fix
everything,” she said.
First she attacked the problem of location.
“Grounds,” can essentially be pitched as The Of-
fice inside a coffee shop.
“I originally thought I would find a location
where we could use only natural light,” Angeli-
ca said. “Turns out that’s just impossible.” And
try extracts a huge toll from the environment.
Angelica is among a scattered collection of
filmmakers looking for a better way. The results
have been mixed, but the idea is catching on. Al-
though the new alternatives can be expensive,
filmmakers are attracting interest from investors
looking to support the movement.
“How hard could it be to make a short green
film?” said Angelica as she recounted her deci-
sion to turn “Grounds” – about a group of young
people who work in a coffee shop instead of
choosing college – into a green production. “Ap-
parently, really hard.”
“I had $10,000 to make it, and all anybody told
me was that it was going to cost $15,000 to make
it green,” she said.
if lights had to be used, then the location had to
provide green power.
Enter Jack’s Stir-Brew Coffee. Located at
Manhattan’s South Street Seaport, Jack’s en-
joys energy provided by one of 10 1,500-foot deep
geothermic wells nearby. It was the ideal location.
Except that Jack Mozzola, the owner, wanted
nothing to do with Angelica and her crew.
Hello Jack
“Jack originally told me that it was never going
to happen,” she said. “It’s hard getting someone
to shut their shop down for a few days so a bunch
of people can make a movie.”
After much pleading, Mozzola agreed, but with
restrictions. “We had to shoot on the weekends
and at night,” Angelica explained. “We weren’t
allowed to touch the espresso machine, and they
wanted to be paid.”
The final agreement was for a $1,500 location
payment, along with $10 gift cards for every cus-
tomer turned away.
Danush Parvaneh, one of three producers,
tried to solve the problem of gasoline. Since wall
outlets alone can’t provide enough electricity
to power the lights on a movie set, a generator
would be required. But generators require gas-
oline.
“Every company we went to with generators
outfitted to use biodiesel or some other renew-
able energy source went bust before they could
rent us their equipment,” Parvaneh said. “We
ran into a ton of companies trying to do green
New York Now / July – August 2010
ARTS
Director Carmen Angelica brought “Grounds” in
under budget, her movie costing less for being
“green.”
Photo by Sam Osborn
filmmaking, and going bankrupt because of it.”
“We just ran out of time,” Angelica said. As
an alternative, she required her crew to plug only
two lights into the generator, and use what she
called the “dirty lights” only when absolutely
necessary.
Pulling it Off
“There were definitely some eye-rollers when
we got to set,” Angelica said. Brian Streem, the
crew’s gaffer, who arranged the lighting setups
for each shot, was rattled.
“I need power,” he said. “If you know what I
mean, I need electricity to do my job.”
But instead of empty plastic bottles filling
trash bags, each crew member carried around a
canteen. A compost bin was kept outside, sprin-
kled with oat bran to limit the odor.
The night after the shoot, Angelica debriefed
her producers.
“We came in under budget. Way, way under
budget,” she said to a weary round of applause.
Weeks later, she sat in front her laptop and a
stack of blinking hard drives editing her film on
Final Cut Pro.
“I’m not sure if you can totally call this a green
film,” Angelica said. “But would I do it again?
Hell, yeah I would. It’s cheaper. And now that
I can prove that to people, it’s just going to get
easier.”
Take 2! The filmmaker had to agree to give $10
gift cards to coffee shop customers turned away
while the crew was shooting inside.
Photo by Sam Osborn
27

ART
Interactive design:
where fashion, technology and
art meet and mingle
By Gayathri Vaidyanathan
Designer Younghui Kim sits with her
Hearwear bag (designed by Kim and Milena
Berry) which lights up in response to
Manhattan’s noise levels
Photo by Marc Vose
28
Y ounghui Kim floated in the dark waters of
Bio Bay in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. Tiny flashes
of light went off around her, as tiny water crea-
tures called dinoflagelletes lit up at the slightest
friction, like stars on water.
“It was a very peaceful moment,” said Kim.
“And I thought, ‘Ah, I’d like to make a skirt that
lights like just like this Bio Bay.”
And she did.
Her Stir-It-On skirt, the latest piece in her in-
teractive wearable collection, is made up of layers
of deep blue fabric. Within its folds, light-emit-
ting diodes light up with the gentlest of touches
detected through a sensor.
Kim laughed as she thought of wearing it on
the New York subway.
“It’ll be like Bio Bay,” she said. “People will
New York Now / July – August 2010
The HearWear skirt designed by
Younghui Kim and Milena Berry lights
up in response to noise
Photo by Kate Kunath
pieces that promote social interaction.
Di Mainstone, 33, who calls herself a
“future fashion researcher,” is at the fore-
front of this field at the Eyebeam gallery
in New York.
Her journey started four years ago in a
shared studio space in London where in-
teractions with architects, dancers, film-
makers and engineers launched her into
interactive design.
Soon, she made the Skorpions kinet-
ic garment line in collaboration with XS
Labs in Montreal.
The heavily quilted Skorpions dress
moves on the skin, parasite like. Flaps lift
slowly as the garment breathes and molds
itself to the human body beneath. It is a
creature that lives on the skin, a second
shell independent of the wearer.
“We treated the dresses as living sculp-
tures that breathed and moved of their
own accord,” said Mainstone. “It was an
exploration into performance, creating
dresses that had their own behavioral patterns.”
Mainstone’s clothes are interactive and modu-
lar, part of the aesthetic movement that promotes
social interaction and play. She experiments with
these ideas of interpersonal connectivity through
clothing at the Eyebeam gallery in New York.
“We are so reliant in today’s society on the
Internet,” said Mainstone. “We are missing out
on true face-to-face connectivity. As a child, we
play, we move, we touch each other. As we get
older and more immersed in urban society, this
becomes difficult to access.”
But with a new crop of designers like Main-
stone, interactive fashion that creates new ave-
nues for social interaction may become the norm.
By combining the latest in materials and technol-
ogy, these designers create fluid pieces that bor-
bump into each other and light up. Sometimes I
think about these things and smile because I can
see it in my head.”
Kim’s creations are simple but point to a new
era in design, often labeled smart fashion. At its
forefront are young designers who grew up on
the creations of Hussain Chalayyan, a runway
designer who has inspired a new generation of
interactive design.
But these clothes are not of a metallic-cyborg-
meets-Spock variety. They are high fashion cou-
ture that has consistently made appearances on
runways since 2001 when wearable technology
first burst on the scene.
Some are more art than high fashion, but they
hint of a future where clothes are more than
just a covering, when they become performance
der on the edge of performance art.
Her inspiration, as for so many others in the
field, is Chalayan, a U.K.-based fashion designer
who has experimented with the intersection of
fashion and design.
In 2007, Chalayan placed 15,000 light-emit-
ting diodes inside a dress to create an ethereal
glowing garment. His 2008 collection had dresses
embedded with Swarovski crystals. A laser light
illuminated the crystals to create a breathtaking
array of light and color.
Wearable technologies have existed since the
1970s, when Dr. Edward Thorp, a mathematics
professor, embedded his shoe with a computer to
help him cheat during blackjack.
At this point wearable technology “just seems
inevitable,” said Zack Eveland, 29, an adjunct
New York Now / July – August 2010
professor at Tisch’s Interactive Telecom-
munications Program in New York City.
“You are already seeing it.”
“People are carrying around sophisticat-
ART
ed technologies – cell phones, iPods – and
the idea of wearable technology is getting
closer and closer.”
Eveland said that works like Main-
stone’s will have a future in the perfor-
mance arena. And in the short term, less
interpretive and more do-it-yourself de-
signs, like those of Alison Lewis, 34, will
dominate the market.
Lewis is a self-described “romantic
technologist,” a blond-haired, shoe-lov-
ing, techie diva who sees a future for do-it-
yourself wearables in a wavering economy.
She wrote Switchcraft, a book that in-
structs crafters on how to create, among
other things, a cell phone-embedded pil-
low and a motorized voodoo doll.
Smart fashion of the future is likely to
promote physical interaction, because it
is currently missing in our society, accord-
ing to Lewis.
“We need to get back to making things
again,” said Lewis, who comes from a
long line of crafters. Her grandmother
Alice Driver Merriman’s work is displayed in
the Smithsonian.
After Lewis displayed her wearables at a re-
cent event in New York, people gathered to stick
a metal pin into the gray voodoo doll. It writhed.
“Whenever I teach somebody, the first thing
they do is create something that connects them
with someone else in their lives,” said Lewis. “It
is something innate to human nature that we are
still trying to figure out.”
Di Mainstone’s Skorpions collection, designed
together with XS Labs, intersects performance art,
technology and fashion
Photo courtesy Di Mainstone
29

ARTS
The Joy Economy
How do those tiny basement comedy clubs stay afloat, when even
the ten-dollar DVD meccas are closing?
By Elizabeth Johnstone
K eemo, a smooth-talking young man with
a friendly smile, spends his Friday nights
on the corner of West 43rd and Broadway wear-
ing a blue shirt and yellow sign. He might ask
you if you like stand-up comedy. If you say yes,
he’ll whisk you three busy blocks west – dodg-
ing tourists and hurtling past the closing Virgin
Megastore – before ushering you down a dingy
flight of stairs under Sweet Caroline’s Dueling
Pianos.
The club down there – Ha! Comedy Club NYC
– is anonymous and unheralded. More impor-
tantly, it’s in a basement. One wonders: how do
little places like Ha!, in such a bad time for any
sort of business, stay open, when even the ten-
dollar DVD meccas cannot keep up?
According to stand-up comedian and Ha per-
former Shawn Cornelius, the club stays afloat
mostly due to its tourist-centric location (West
46th and 7th Avenue) and the efforts of guys
like Keemo, who are paid to grab tourists off the
streets of Times Square and fill the seats.
But comedy is also verifiably popular in times
like these.
Three years ago, Cornelius quit his day job as a
mentor to focus on comedy full time. He usually
found work around this time at ski resorts, but
thanks to the souring economy, fewer people are
taking trips, and the pay dwindled. But his reg-
ular comedy gigs, for college performances and
clubs, weren’t affected.
30
“People are gonna come out and laugh,” Cor-
nelius said. “We laugh at stuff like this, you
know, we laugh at the economy. “We as comedi-
ans, it’s our duty to keep things going.”
History seems to support theory of comedy
thriving amid economic crisis. Over 300 comedy
clubs opened across the country between 1978
and 1988, and the number of stand-up comedi-
ans rose. Wall Street was devastated after October
19, 1987, when the Dow Jones Industrial Aver-
age sank 22.6 percent, the second largest one-day
percentage decline in U.S. stock market history.
But subsequent New York Times headlines, such
as “Market for Humor Still Bullish” (1987) and
“Laughter: the Best Medicine for Stress” (1989)
suggest that the humor business was relative-
ly stable.
Stand-up comedian Liz Miele pointed out that
comics have always been good at making fun of
finances.
“We all have our struggling artist jokes,” Miele
said. “What I ask [audience members] is, ‘what
do you do?’ I would say that at least a third of
the audience is unemployed. They’re in between
jobs; they are bartending now when they didn’t
before.”
Miele works part-time as a nanny and still
comes up short on rent. She plans to move to a
cheaper apartment, a goal that conflicts with her
desire to quit the nannying job.
“With the economy…it’s actually a scary time
New York Now / July – August 2010
The Gotham Comedy Club is thriving while other
entertainment businesses struggle.
ARTS
to let go of that safety net,” Miele said.
Lee Camp, a stand-up comedian and writer
who recently appeared on the PBS series “Make
‘Em Laugh: America’s Funny Business,” might
recommend she hang on to it. Camp quit his day
job about five years ago. Now, the college perfor-
mances he relies upon are threatened by univer-
You’ll never believe what
sity budget cuts.
“If you have a secondary job, then I think it’s
a fine time [to be a comedian]. But in terms of
throwing off the second job and giving it a go, I happened on the subway...!
would imagine it would be difficult,” Camp said.
“Clubs are falling back on comedians that they
know can fill the room, and obviously a new-
comer can’t do that.”
He added, “It’s a very tough time for me, and
I’ve been making a living at it for five years.”
Kevin Carolan, a performer since 1993, thinks
comedy will continue to thrive, because a night
in a comedy club is still a relatively inexpensive
way to spend an evening.
“If things get slow enough, a club could cut
back on its number of shows, and that will trickle
down some hurt to the comics that have to fight A New Comedy
for less slots,” he said. “But that’s on a smaller,
local level. Bookers will be the ones responsi-
ble for filling the bigger clubs, and I don’t think
that’ll slow down too much.”
Written and Directed by
Troy Diana and James Valletti
www.TalesFromTheTunnel.com
Laura Newmark, a comedy talent manager
with the New York City-based Beatrix Klein Man-
agement, confirmed that bookers are looking for
well-known talent to draw crowds.
“If you don’t have a fan base, they don’t really
want you,” Miele said of the bigger clubs. “They
want somebody who can put people in the seats.
Our business, for club owners, is about alcohol.
It’s not about comedy.”
Though recession has hit Illinois especially
hard, Cate Freedman, an improvisational and
sketch comic who performs at Second City and
Improv Olympics in Chicago, said Second City’s
comedy conservatory continues to flourish. The
conservatory started with one classroom behind
the theater and now occupies several floors in an
adjacent building.
Facebook, MySpace and YouTube have also
become new outlets for humor, and marketing
tools for comedians, who can book themselves
into shows if they can parlay online success into
a club-going, drink-buying fan base.
“People aren’t going to sit by their TVs all day,”
Camp said. “As long as you’re still in your house,
you’re not truly free of your daily grind, your
fears of unemployment, your fears of the mort-
gage. So a bad economy could actually create a
resurgence for live comedy.”
w w w. K a m p F I R E f i l m s P R . c o m
 DINING
This year’s tasty
trend: Superspices
By Alex Sundby
S tuffed with lump crab salad and accompa-
nied with a sweet pea risotto and crispy sage,
the roasted wild Alaskan halibut attracts many
hungry diners in Detroit’s Rattlesnake Club.
But it’s the addition of the fennel to the hali-
but’s stuffing and risotto that gets the attention
of Maria Caranfa, director of Mintel Menu In-
sights, a national restaurant-tracking service.
This year, based on data Caranfa has been collect-
ing, the use of the slightly licorice-flavored spice
and other such seasonings will permeate into
more mainstream commercial kitchens across
the country.
Last year’s popularity prize went to what Min-
tel calls superfruits – antioxidant-rich fruits such
as pomegranates, blueberries and acai berries.
This year, it’s “superspices” like fennel, cinnamon
and ginger that are showing up in more menu
items nationwide. Superspices, also rich in anti-
oxidants, appeared in 1,805 menu items during
the first nine months of 2007, according to data
collected by Mintel. That’s up from 1,516 dishes
during the same time period of 2006.
Caranfa believes that superspices appeal to
diners curious for more global flavors just as su-
perfruits drew in people eager for their supposed
health benefits.
“There’s an interesting conjunction between
the medicinal and the delicious,” said Annema-
32
rie Colbin, founder of the Natural Gourmet Insti-
tute in New York and author of a book on healthy
dieting. “There’s going to be a meeting between
the healthful and the tasty.”
Although Colbin doesn’t follow restaurant
trends, she’s not surprised by the new popularity
of spices. She said ginger is becoming fashionable
in restaurants where it’s not traditionally used,
such as places specializing in French cuisine.
Rattlesnake Club’s executive chef, Chris Franz,
marinates steaks with the pungent spices cumin
and turmeric, each of which appear on Caran-
fa’s list of superspices. The spices add a nutty
flavor and enhance the flavor of the marinade’s
other ingredients, said Franz, who’s actually been
using these spices for most of his 10 years at the
restaurant. Their inclusion on the menu is un-
usual because cumin is normally associated with
Spanish dishes and turmeric is a common sea-
soning in Indian cuisine. Rattlesnake Club offers
many mainstream steakhouse standards such as
short ribs, rack of lamb and chicken in addition
to its steaks and seafood.
Many spices help the body digest food. For
instance, people with a gluten intolerance have
found that sweet cardamon can help them pro-
cess food made from wheat, Colbin said. She
added that ginger can help battle nausea, es-
pecially the kind caused by morning sickness.
New York Now / July – August 2010
From left to right, cayenne pepper, ginger root,
cinnamon, fennel seed and turmeric are among
the so-called superspices making their way into
mainstream restaurants.
Photo by Alex Sundby
She also treats colds and chest congestions with
ginger.
Spices are a great addition to diets, but they’re
not a cure-all, said Marissa Lippert, a registered
dietician in New York who owns Nourish, a nu-
trition and lifestyle counseling business. While
spices may be a source of antioxidants and ease
digestion, they have to be used frequently and be
part of a well-balanced diet, she said.
“Sprinkling cayenne pepper on french fries
isn’t really going to do much for you,” Lippert
said.
The rising use of spices “makes a lot of sense,”
said chef Christopher Burgos, culinary chairman
for Career Academy of New York. “People are get-
ting more health conscious and getting back to
the natural way of cooking.”
That’s not news to Elliott Prag, a culinary in-
structor at New York’s Natural Gourmet Institute,
a school that teaches its chefs to cook healthy
meals.
“We’ve kind of been doing that in the kitchen
since ’78,” Prag said.
Many of Caranfa’s superspices have long been
used in dishes served in ethnic restaurants. With
the increased popularity of ethnic cooking, rec-
ipes from Africa, India and other parts of the
world are showing up on the menus of main-
stream restaurants.
“It’s not something new that people just dis-
covered; it’s been around for a long time now,”
Colbin said.
Colbin has been using natural remedies to
treat minor medical problems for 30 years. When
her children were young, she never gave them
antibiotics, and she used cayenne peppers to heal
small cuts, she said.
“There are a lot of grandmothers who have
used this over time,” said Colbin, now a grand-
mother of three. “It’s nice to catch up with what
the grandmothers did.”
Paris in
New York
With its Francophone enclaves, arrondissement-style
nabes and standout French jazz and food, the city
offers a captivating Parisian experience
By Blake Gernstetter
I f you pine to hear French, see classical art and
architecture and bite into a fresh baguette, but
can’t make it to Paris just now, consider an alter-
native: Paris in New York.
With over 100,000 native speakers of French,
New York is home to an entire Parisian world.
And Manhattan, divided into neighborhoods
much as Paris is made up of 20 distinct ar-
rondissements, makes it easy to pretend.
Start by picking up a copy of the venerable
French daily Le Monde at Universal News, New
York’s biggest international news vendor, then
peruse it over madeleines and baked sweet tarts
at the Once Upon a Tart, nearby in Soho. Owner
Jerome Audureau, who is from Avignon, has
been baking at the café since he opened it 10
years ago. There’s intimate indoor and outdoor
seating, ideal for morning conversation and soli-
tude. The sweets pair perfectly with a cup of café
au lait or decadent hot chocolate.
The métropolitain, famous for its iconic signs
by artist Hector Guimard, is the most popular
way to get around in Paris. In New York, too,
underground is the way to go. Avoid the impulse
to take a cab, and walk over to Greenwich Vil-
lage’s Astor Place subway station, which opened
in 1904 and has historic landmark status as one
of the city’s original stations. Take the 6 train up-
town to 59th Street.
Friends relax at Once Upon a
Tart, a French café in New York.
There, you’ll find New York’s answer to the
Champs d’Elysees. Fifth and Madison avenues
between 50th to 59th streets host the power-
houses of fashion: Escada, Ferragamo, Versace,
Fendi, Gucci and Bulgari. The luxury department
store Bergdorf Goodman is stocked with fine and
frivolous fashion, and the glittering jewelry dis-
plays and designer shoe department will leave
shoppers salivating. A pair of champagne-col-
ored Christian Louboutin peep-toe heels is al-
luring up until the moment you see the equally
opulent price tag. Nearby, at the Henri Bendel
boutique, the scent of Chanel No. 5 permeates
the air like a heavenly cloud above every cosmet-
ic, accessory and garment indulgence a woman
could dream up.
Clutching packages, or not, walk west across
town – a stroll along the southern perimeter of
Central Park, along 59th Street, is a pleasant
route – for lunch at the modest French eatery
La Bonne Soupe, a New York institution that of-
fers delicious homemade quiches and soups. The
décor is minimalist yet welcoming, with artist
Carlos Spaventa’s photographs of France adorn-
ing the walls. Owner Jean-Paul Picot named
the restaurant after a French comedic play from
the 1950s. Besides “the good soup,” the restau-
rant’s name means the good life. The mostly
French-speaking staff is hospitable, and prices
PARIS IN NEW YORK
Alliance Francaise
22 East 60th between Park & Madison avenues
(212) 355-6100
http://www.fiaf.org/
The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd between Fifth & Sixth avenues
(212) 708-9400
http://moma.org/
Universal News
10 New York locations, including 484 Broadway
between Grand & Broome streets
(212) 965-9042
http://www.universalnewsusa.com/publisher/
docs/stores.html
New York Now / July – August 2010
DINING
are reasonable. For $15.75, you’re served a fresh
baguette, a dark, leafy salad, a deep crock of pip-
ing hot soup, dessert and a glass of house wine.
The onion soup is a must-have, but the minestro-
ne is equally flavorful and filling.
The Museum of Modern Art, a great place to
appreciate French art, is a few blocks away. The
sleek new museum is designed in stark white and
metal, a clean canvas to display the paintings of
Gauguin, Cezanne, Monet and Matisse. (On the
east side, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has
its own excellent French collection, of Seurat,
Renoir, Degas, and Rousseau).
The Alliance Francaise, the French organiza-
tion devoted to spreading French culture around
the world, is particularly active in New York, and
a rich resource for all things French in the city.
There’s a lending library of French literature,
plus steady offerings of French films, theater,
music and dance.
New York bursts with French restaurants,
from the formal and stratospheric to the relaxed
and reasonable. Jules Bistro in the East Village,
with its lively, Parisian atmosphere, falls into
the latter group. The walls are adorned with old
French signs, posters and photographs, the escar-
got in garlic are excellent and, once the nightly
live jazz begins, you’re transported to another
time and place: old Paris, that is.
Bergdorf Goodman
754 Fifth Avenue between 57th & 58th streets
(800) 558-1855
http://www.bergdorfgoodman.com/
Once Upon a Tart
135 Sullivan between Prince & Houston streets
(212) 387-8869http://www.onceuponatart.com/
La Bonne Soupe
48 West 55th Street between Fifth &
Sixth avenues; (212) 586-7650
http://www.labonnesoupe.com/
Jules Bistro
65 St. Mark’s Place between First &
Second avenues; (212) 477-5560
33

DINING
Tasting New York’s
Other Little Italy
You can shop for beef hearts and tongue, along with the usual
olives and sun-dried tomatoes, in this earthy Bronx neighborhood.
By Stu VanAirsdale
O n an average day, nothing overtakes Arthur
Avenue but the lyrical medley of Italian and
English, the exchange of spirits and laments. The
sound provides the humming lifeblood of an Ital-
ian neighborhood, this avenue its main artery.
Lampposts rise at the sidewalks’ edges with flags
announcing the avenue’s legend: “Little Italy in
the Bronx.”
The appellation is technically accurate, but vis-
itors won’t spot signs of hoary Mulberry Street
– the cultivated storefronts and sidewalk cafes
that lure tourists to Manhattan’s guidebook Lit-
tle Italy. Even in the throes of a blizzard, Arthur
Avenue, a 45-minute subway ride to the north,
can be warm, earthy and genuinely welcoming.
The avenue has classically Bronx roots, and its
surrounding character reflects that. Slums and
housing projects encroach from every direction.
I see a junkie wandering along a weedy block of
vacant lots. Wind carries the smell of gasoline
south one block from a service station at the in-
tersection of Arthur and Fordham Road. A rotund
Hispanic woman thrusts a handwritten note in
front of visitors to the Arthur Avenue Retail Mar-
ket: “I have 4 babys at home and no money to
buy food. Please help. God Bless.”
The market is as good a place as any in the
area to pursue charity. Its red façade looms over
the avenue like a firehouse, its customers flock-
ing in out of the cold with pockets full of cash for
34
fresh meat, cheese, produce, bread, cookies, even
cigars and ceramics. The City of New York has
owned the place since 1940, when Mayor Fiorello
LaGuardia set up the market to get the growing
number of handcart merchants off the avenue.
Few other establishments here have the same
community center ethos. Across the avenue, even
the famous communal tables at Dominick’s are
empty, since the restaurant has closed early in
anticipation of the snow. The weather appears
to have scared away many regular market-go-
ers, too, as idle merchants joke with each other
in Italian, gripe in English or just quietly lean
against the wall behind their product cases.
A butcher names Luciano wipes his hands on
a towel and paces on the other side of a refrig-
erated meat case. He runs the “specialty” side
of Peter’s Meat Market, the side purveying ani-
mals’ spleens, feet, snouts and tongues. He nods
toward a sallow pile of beef tongues. “Those are
small, you know. Smaller than usual. You can
get them…” He raises his hands and holds his
palms 15 inches apart, then rotates them 90 de-
grees to approximate a less precise measurement.
He drops his hands and nods again toward the
tongues, maybe 10 to 12 inches long by five inch-
es wide. “Those are small.”
What about the beef hearts? They sit still and
immense and membranous between pans of kid-
neys and spleens. He confuses being asked how
New York Now / July – August 2010
The Calabria Pork Store,
on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx.
much a heart costs with how much it weighs.
“Oh, I don’t know,” he says, scooping a heart out
and lifting it above the others. “Seven pounds,
maybe eight.” He moves to his right, pointing out
tripe, chicken livers, lamb’s heart, sweetbreads. A
bowl full of blood and veal brains sits at the back
of the case. Luciano barely looks at it. “Um, about
maybe five pounds a day,” he replies when asked
how much he sells. Who buys it? “Lots of fami-
lies. The Italians, the Armenians.” They also buy
whole lamb’s heads, he says, usually four or five
at a time. The heads come skinned, all tissue and
eyes and teeth, wrapped in plastic.
His colleagues staffing the more conventional
side of the operation are far busier, making brisk
business of pork tenderloin, veal and rabbits that
curl embryonically without heads or skin. Down
the way, Mike’s Market sells buckets of rich red
sun-dried tomatoes by the pound. A row of more
buckets comprising nine varieties of olives lines
the walkway. Homeless men are known to shuf-
fle along beside the olives and scoop out handfuls
that they will jam into their mouths and chase
with a piece of French bread from across the way.
They do this on the way to the market’s public
restroom, up a flight of stairs past the tiny four-
table loft where diners eat sandwiches or meat
and cheese selections with red wine.
A pair of men navigate around one of many
candy machines along the walkway. One says to
the other: “I always thought they smelled so good
you should be able to eat them.” He is describing
the handmade cigars being rolled at the La Casa
Grande cigar shop. The tobacco indeed smells
sweet, enough to make you consider trying out
the hobby, no matter how faded or ostentatious
owner Paul DaSilvio’s pictures of himself with the
likes of ex-New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani
or President George Bush might be.
The market is the warmest thing on Arthur
Avenue today, though, now that the storm has
paved over the sidewalk with an inch of snow.
Cars crawl south through a layer of slush, and
beyond your breath, the horizon disappears. The
neighborhood is quiet, calm and illuminated in
white, offering no reason to leave besides look-
ing forward to coming back.
Getting to Arthur Avenue
The Little Italy section of Arthur Avenue is just
west of the Bronx Zoo. The Arthur Avenue Retail
Market has take-home or eat-in Italian delicacies,
the Enrico Fermi Cultural Center features special
events, and the Belmont Italian American Play-
house interprets the community experience. The
neighborhood also has thriving Latino and Alba-
nian communities.
Directions: By subway, No. 4 or D train to the Ford-
ham Road stop. By Metro North Commuter Rail, to the
Fordham Road stop. Then walk or take bus BX12 or
BX22 to Arthur Avenue.
New York Now / July – August 2010 35

DINING
Have your beer – and
drink it gluten-free
too
By Leslie Barrie
T y Powers, a 43-year-old diabetic, has always
been diligent about what he eats and drinks.
But three years ago, a new diagnosis upended the
normal life he had struggled to maintain. Pow-
ers learned that he has celiac disease, an auto-
immune disorder aggravated by the gluten found
in many grains, including wheat, barley and rye.
Ingesting just a small amount of gluten can trig-
ger a reaction, so Powers needed to become even
more vigilant about his diet.
“It was very difficult,” says Powers, an adver-
tising copywriter who lives outside of Nashville,
Tenn. “I’ve been through diabetes growing up,
and then to find out about celiac, it was just like
‘here we go again.’ ”
Social situations presented the biggest chal-
lenge. “My friends say, ‘Just try a sip of this new
beer I got,’ ” says Powers, who loved to drink
dark, full-bodied brews prior to his diagnosis.
Because most beer contains wheat or barley, he
had to decline. “There went my beer hobby,” he
laments.
Or so he thought. As awareness of celiac dis-
ease has risen in the U.S. in the past few years,
so has the availability of gluten-free foods – and
now beer. “It’s become such a hot trend in the
food market that it’s transferred over to beer,”
says Lynda Calimano, who helps run the Spring
Craft Beer Festival in New York’s Nassau Coun-
ty. The festival highlights beers from indepen-
dent breweries.
That’s good news for beer aficionados like
36
Powers. Since 2004, more than 10 craft brewer-
ies in the U.S. have started making gluten-free
beer. In 2006, beer giant Anheuser-Busch intro-
duced its own take on the variety, Redbridge,
which sells in all 50 states. By 2007, gluten-free
beer was taken seriously enough to have its own
category at the Great American Beer Festival, the
premier U.S. beer event, in Denver. In past com-
petitions, gluten-free beer was relegated to the
nondescript Specialty Beers category.
Gluten-free beers are made without the wheat
or barley used in traditional brews. Most U.S.
breweries make gluten-free varieties with sor-
ghum, a grass originally from Africa. Other
brews, like Japan’s Sapporo, use rice as the chief
grain. Green’s, from Britain, mixes sorghum,
buckwheat, millet and brown rice in its beers – all
acceptable grains for those on a gluten-free diet.
About 3 million people in the U.S. suffer from
celiac disease, and very few of the sufferers know
they actually have it, according to the Celiac Dis-
ease Center at the University of Chicago. Those
who are diagnosed often don’t find out until later
in life – after they’ve already become acquainted
with beer, says Dr. Peter Green of Columbia Uni-
versity’s Celiac Disease Center.
“For many people, beer has become their re-
laxation,” says Carolyn Smagalski, a beer writer
and editor of BellaOnline, an Internet women’s
magazine. “That’s hard to give up.”
Now they don’t have to. “We have been hav-
ing trouble keeping up with the demand of the
New York Now / July – August 2010
The gluten-free beer selection at Risotteria
Restaurant in New York City’s West Village, one
of the best-known gluten-free restaurants in
America; Green’s, Bard’s, Redbridge and New
Grist sit on the countertop.
Photo by Leslie Barrie
beers,” says Jordan Fetfatzes, brand manager of
Bella Vista, a beer-distribution company based
in Philadelphia. Bella Vista currently ships three
gluten-free beers: Shakparo and Mbege, made by
Sprecher Brewing Co., and Lakefront Brewery’s
New Grist. New Grist, the only gluten-free beer
among Lakefront’s 13 offerings, ranks as one of
the Milwaukee brewery’s top three sellers, says
Lakefront manager Dan Aleksandrowicz. Last
year, the brewery expanded sales of New Grist
to Israel and Ontario. It may soon ship to Ire-
land as well.
Bard’s Tale Beer Co. of Norwalk, Conn., has
also expanded its gluten-free sales. The company,
founded by two celiac disease sufferers, makes
one beer – Bard’s, formerly known as Dragon’s
Gold. When distribution began in 2004, the beer
sold in 13 states. Now it sells in 30.
Celiac disease sufferers aren’t the only ones
drinking the gluten-free varieties. “There’s a cu-
riosity with beer lovers,” says Julie Hertz of the
Brewers Association. “They’ll say, ‘Hey, I want to
see what that tastes like.’ ”
But will they stick with it? On the Beer Advo-
cate Web site, where drinkers can rate beer, one
reviewer from Lexington, Ky., described Bard’s as
“better than most and leaves a crisp, dry finish
rather than the tacky residue.” However, this re-
viewer added, “Most typical beer drinkers won’t
follow this one very far, but it was quite drink-
able for the style.”
Perhaps knowing that it’s a gluten-free prod-
uct affects a reviewer’s opinion. Smagalski, the
beer writer, recently sponsored a blind taste test
without even knowing it. “I brought home my
Bard’s Tale the other day, and my son pulled one
out of the fridge,” she recounts. “He said, ‘Wow,
this is really good. It’s my favorite.’ And then I
told him it’s gluten-free.” Her son doesn’t have
celiac disease, but she said he’s a convert to the
brand.
Will many other drinkers who don’t need glu-
ten-free beer become converts? Richard Scholz,
owner of Bierkraft, a specialty beer shop in
Brooklyn, N.Y., doesn’t think so. “There are peo-
ple who are regulars, who always come in to get
their gluten-free beers,” Scholz says. “Occasion-
ally, others will try it because it’s there. But the
people who come back to it are those with ce-
liac disease. People who can have other things
move on.”
Here’s a scoop:
Gorgonzola and
garlic ice cream have
arrived
By Jodi Broadwater
F or a tiny ice cream parlor in Queens where
flavors run rampant but seats are scant, Max
& Mina’s Homemade Ice Cream and Ices shop
packs a powerful punch. Sure, its menu board
boasts the usual flavor staples – chocolate, straw-
berry, coffee. But as one goes down the list, the
flavors become more, well, out of the ordinary:
garlic, beer, grass, sour cream – and that’s but a
sampling of the day’s offbeat offerings.
On deck awaits everything from corn on the
cob to horseradish, ketchup or Nova lox. But as
surprising as these quirky, untraditional flavors
might be, the idea for such experimentation is
becoming more common, as ice cream shops
across the nation are beginning to think outside
the cone. Now, they fold ingredients like wasabi,
Gorgonzola, black truffle – even lobster – into
the mix of their traditional ice cream repertoires.
“We’re trying to get people away from what
something looks like and toward what it tastes
like,” explains Bruce Becker, co-owner of Max &
Mina’s. After inheriting his grandfather Max’s
recipe book, which was filled with the organic
chemist’s own unusual ice cream creations, Bruce
opened up shop with his brother Mark in 1997.
Together, they have since embarked on a flavor
crusade, pushing patrons “out of their comfort
zones and helping to expand their palates.”
Their crusade has gathered quite a few con-
verts. On a recent Sunday afternoon, a line of a
dozen patrons wound out the door, with clusters
of daring souls standing at the counter and tast-
ing flavors like cola, rose petal and chive blossom.
“Huh … interesting,” said Maureen Lovett,
a 23-year-old artist, after succumbing to her
friends’ nudgings to try pilsner beer. “I actual-
ly really like that.” Her risk-taking side satisfied
with samples of sour cream, munn (poppy seed)
and grass, she settled for a scoop of red velvet
cake.
These days, the market is ripe for adventurous
eating, says Dr. Alan Hirsch, founder and neuro-
logical director of the Smell and Taste Treatment
and Research Foundation in Chicago. “People are
The menu board at Max & Mina’s Homemade Ice
Cream and Ices shop in Queens. Among the daily
flavors are beer, garlic, cola and sour cream.
Photo by Jodi Broadwater
seeking unique experiences that reach beyond
the norm,” he says, and they look to everything
from flavors of toothpaste to jelly beans or soda
– and now ice cream – to do so.
Rising to meet those demands, small ice cream
shops across the country have been busily creat-
ing flavors – and stretching their limits – in re-
cent years. At Ben & Bill’s Chocolate Emporium
in Bar Harbor, Maine, adventurous eaters can
take a lick of lobster ice cream, which has a but-
ter base with actual lobster meat folded through-
out. Udder Delight Ice Cream House in Rehoboth
Beach, Del., scoops up Memphis barbecue, vanilla
ice cream with ribbons of spicy barbecue sauce.
Flamingo’s in Berwyn, Ill., offers flavors like Par-
mesan, jalapeno and sweet potato.
“All types of food developers are toying with
unique combinations of flavors, mixing sweet
with salt or sweet with sour,” says Donna Berry,
product development editor for Dairy Foods mag-
azine, and ice cream is a perfect carrier for such
combinations. “When you’re eating ice cream,
it’s small. It’s a lick or spoonful – it’s not too
overwhelming.”
But just because untraditional flavors are
widely available doesn’t mean they are wild-
ly popular among ice cream patrons. Capogiro
Gelato Artisans in Philadelphia makes Italian
New York Now / July – August 2010
ice creams and sorbets daily, including flavors
like sea salt, purple yam, avocado and paprika.
DINING
“But you can’t fill the case with weird stuff,”
says Stephanie Reitano, the shop’s co-owner and
chef. “It turns people off.”
Out of the shop’s 27 daily offerings, only four
spots in the gelato case are reserved for the “re-
ally unusual fun ones,” she adds. “But by doing
strange things, you do garner attention.”
Gabrielle Carbone, co-owner of The Bent
Spoon in Princeton, N.J., blames industrialization
for those ice cream purists among us. “Whole
generations of people lost their flavor,” she says,
when mass production started churning out only
the flavor triumvirate. “Back in Thomas Jeffer-
son’s day, oyster ice cream was not unheard of,”
she says, partly defending her own taste creations
like avocado, asparagus and carrot ice creams
and sorbets.
“Familiarity breeds fondness,” she adds, “and
if you’re not exposed to oyster, it’s clearly not
going to be your favorite.”
The Beckers know that theory well. When
they first opened Max & Mina’s 12 years ago,
there was no precedent for the innovative ice
creams for which the shop is now known. “It’s
been a slow process, but people eventually got
attuned to our creations, and then their barriers
fell down,” says Bruce Becker. “We built a rep-
utation for awesome mainstream flavors, and
that helps people be willing to venture toward
the quirky side.”
But have their aspirations for quirkiness ever
completely bombed? “Pickle sucks,” says Becker.
“I love pickles and I love the idea of it, but it just
sucks.” Joining pickle in the flavor graveyard:
hamburger and tobacco.
As for Reitano’s philosophy for innovation
at Capogiro, “If it’s edible, I’m going to try and
make something out of it. And if it’s horrifying,
you just don’t do it again.”
But she does hold one caveat: “I don’t ever
want to make a bacon gelato,” she says. “That’s
just not kosher” – in both senses of the word.
37

DINING
Umami: the new
C hef Margaret Happel Perry spooned a thick,
red puree into a student’s mouth at a recent
way to smell flavors
tasting, but the aspiring connoseur couldn’t de-
cipher the flavor.
The blindfold across her face and the cotton
without paying
stuffed up her nose didn’t help.
Like many who are learning to recognize
umami for the first time, the taste was some-
through the nose
what foreign. Known as the “fifth child” of fla-
vors (after sweet, sour, salty and bitter), umami
is the savory taste found in foods like Vegemite,
demi-glace and, yes, roasted tomatoes.
Umami is undeniably trendy among connois-
By Amy Tennery seurs, but some familiar with its broader uses
say it could serve practical purposes for the non-
gourmet.
Chefs like Perry, who works at New York City’s
Astor Center, believe that foods rich in umami
flavors provide a decadent experience in tight
economic times.
At Astor Center in New York City, students learn
to recognize the umami flavor through a series of “Where there (is) desperation, there is inter-
food samples. est in nutrition,” said Perry. “It’s poverty cook-
Amy Tennery ing. When people don’t have as much, this is just
38 New York Now / July – August 2010
Chefs like Perry, who works at New York City’s Astor class because of their shared love of cooking at
home together. By learning more about umami,
Center, believe that foods rich in umami flavors
DINING
both hoped they could broaden their at-home
provide a decadent experience in tight economic
dining repertoire.
Chef Marton said many amateur food lovers
times. come to the class for the same reason.
“People who work full time are willing to give
up a Saturday to learn about this one thing,”
said Marton. She thought at first that the class
as satisfying.” ing example is a glass of beef bouillon over ice “would be for foodies, but we’re getting a high
In Milwaukee, San Francisco and Seattle, with lemon and mint,” that gives the expectation percentage of professionals.”
umami restaurants recently opened to much ac- of iced tea. “There is disgust and often expec- Perry, who became interested in cooking and
claim. toration when the tasters discover it is not so.” nutrition growing up in the United Kingdom
The Umami Information Center recently host- One student at the Astor Center learned about during World War II, said that umami-centered
ed a successful symposium on the elusive flavor umami only when her husband gave her tickets cooking is a major draw to working individuals
in Silicon Valley, and Umami Moto Milwaukee to the class for Christmas. who want to stretch their budgets.
was the first Asian restaurant to receive four stars “I told my mom I got an ‘umami class’ and “Every culture has a tradition of introducing
by The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. my mother – who desperately wants to be a it into even the most impoverished diets,” said
“Certainly, that fullness of flavor was evident grandmother – thought I said a ‘new mommy Perry. “An Italian friend tells of her grandpar-
from the beginning,” wrote food critic Carol Dep- class,’” said Ranae Heur, 31, a digital marketer ents chopping up two anchovy fillets – high in
tolla in her review. “Ever sit back and give up a and umami class participant. “She was disap- umami – and tossing them over spaghetti with
contented sigh after finishing a plate of deeply pointed.” dried bread crumbs and chopped parsley: the din-
satisfying food? I did that a lot.” Oliver and her roommate decided to attend the ner before payday.”
Despite its success in gourmand circles the
concept is new to many.
Commonly associated with different Asian
cuisines, the umami flavor is the result of the
presence of glutamic acid – also known as the
infamous MSG. Although MSG has been reviled
in nutritional circles in the past, proponents of
the ingredient argue that MSG is a naturally oc-
curring substance, the result of various protein
compounds found in certain foods.
“There is no reason to have a negative reac-
tion to MSG,” Perry said. “It’s been tested and
tested and tested. It’s found in breast milk – it’s
the first thing your baby has!”
Nancy Degner, executive director for the Iowa
Beef Industry Council, said that embracing
umami flavors helps people learn cooking skills
that will save them money.
“Many people today didn’t grow up in homes
that cooked,” said Degner, referring to the past
trend of microwave friendly food. “Looking at
umami, to me, helps people understand what
makes food taste good.
“If you look at some of the classic beef dishes
that have lasted a really long time, they have the
combination of flavors that makes the umami
pop.”
Researchers at the University of Miami first
identified the umami taste receptors on the
human tongue in 1997. Since then, chefs and
nutritionists have identified savory foods like
mushrooms and roasted beef as umami-friendly.
Perry and her co-instructor, chef educator
Renee Marton, employ sensory deprivation tech-
niques – including blindfolds and nose plugs – to
help students learn the umami taste.
The instructors said identifying the umami
flavor in food is a new experience, so students
must slowly learn to recognize the taste without
the assistance of their other senses.
“Eliminating the sense of sight means the
‘cues’ that give a preconceived idea as to what
taste will be are not there,” said Perry. “My teach-
New York Now / July – August 2010 39
 FASHION Barkoff told me that wide-footedness is frequently

FASHION
caused by one of several things over the long term:
pregnancy, weight gain or wearing improper shoes.

to find out whether a correlation exists between
foot size and foot health. Barkoff told me that
wide-footedness is frequently caused by one of
several things over the long term: pregnancy,
weight gain or wearing improper shoes. Since
none of those apply to me – well, perhaps the
final one, a bit – I was back to blaming genetics
and feeling sorry for myself.
When I feel sorry for myself, shoe-wise, I usu-
ally browse longingly online. One of my favorite
sites is Zappos.com, which has been around since
1999 and boasts a wacky company philosophy
(one of their core values: “Create Fun and a Lit-
tle Weirdness”) and unfailingly loyal customers.
Zappos, and many of its competitors, provide free
shipping as well as free return shipping – a huge
draw if you’re hard to fit. I spoke with Kathy Ko-
ziatek, an extended-size buyer. Not surprisingly,
Koziatek touted the online retailers’ ability to
provide more wide shoes because of their space
advantage – Zappos’ warehouse in Kentucky is
280,000 square feet.
But I was relieved to hear her say that the
company encourages customers to order multiple
sizes if they’re unsure what will fit them. This is
implicit in the generous return policy – but some-
how I always felt guilty for doing it. Koziatek
added, “Don’t give up. There’s plenty of brands
out there. Don’t try on the first shoe and decide.
Try on numerous sizes and brands. You should
actually find what fits so you’re comfortable and
you can look stylish as well.” For what it’s worth,
Zappos carries 50 extended-size brands.
But while it’s fun to shop online, it’s less fun
to sit in your living room surrounded by shoe
boxes that you have to schlep back to the UPS
Store. So I decided to check out the good old-
feet was impossible. Tip Top carried about three
extended-size brands – all therapeutic-looking
and incredibly expensive. And although Tip Top’s
limited space made it impossible for the shop to
stock a significant inventory of wide sizes, they
still thought online shopping was, predictably,
inconceivable.
“Fuhgeddaboudit,” said a salesman named
Steve Miller. Most of the salesmen claimed that
they had customers who had been burned by the
online experience and slunk back to the store in
frustration. But I wasn’t sure I was one of them.
Tip Top did its best with the limited space it had,
but it had nothing for me. A pilgrimage to Wide
Feet Warehouse was starting to seem like a strong
possibility.
My next stop was at Eneslow Shoes, another
New York City institution that’s been around for
100 years. Eneslow trains its employees in pe-
dorthics – the practice of applying a prescription
from a podiatrist or other doctor to the shoe-buy-
ing process. When I was there, its salesmen were
helping a fashionably dressed young woman buy
off-the-rack orthotic inserts so she could avoid
the expensive customized ones her doctor had
prescribed. And they were also customizing a
pair of boots for a woman with multiple sclero-
sis – replacing the existing sole with a smooth
one to reduce the friction when she dragged her
foot on the ground.
But what really fascinated me about Eneslow
was its approach to crafting shoes. Most cobbler
shops will stretch a pair of normal-size shoes.
But Eneslow maintains a subterranean workshop
with elderly Italian craftsmen who will take the
shoe apart completely and re-create it on a wider
last. It’s pricey, but in an extreme enough case
might be worth it.
I left Eneslow feeling humbled. Surrounded
by the plaster casts of clubfeet, amputated toes
and true deformities, my hobbit feet felt normal
for the first time. And I remembered a discussion
I’d had with Patrisha Sweeney, chief merchandis-
ing officer at Shoebuy.com. “There’s no one way
to shop for a customer. Customers are going to
shop how they want, whether it’s researching
online and then picking it up in a store or win-
dow-shopping and then buying in the privacy of
their own home.”
So I will continue to buy online and schlep to
the UPS Store, and I will keep trying to find a
store in New York that can accommodate hob-
bits. And maybe I’ll take a ride to Richmond for
shoes and a little therapy. “One person even told
me that because of the name of our store, she
thought it was embarrassing to come in, like
going in a plus-size store or something,” Nancy
Oser told me. “But having a wide foot isn’t a
character flaw. It’s just a size.”

Searching Far and Wide

Women Hunt
for Extra-Wide Shoes
I inherited my mother’s feet. They look more
hobbit than human – wide and flat, with the
beginning of a bony bunion on the left one. They
would be perfect for fording streams or climbing
By Andrea Riquier mountains barefoot. But in contemporary Man-
hattan, in a world of rail-thin women in spiky
Manolos, my feet are like a fat friend who’s per-
petually single.
There are shoes for wide feet. There are even
fashionable options, though they often come at
a premium. But after a lifetime of watching my
friends wander into Macy’s and wander out with
whatever is on sale, I am jealous. I wish it were
A Tip Top Shoes salesman. that easy for me.
Photo by Andrea Riquier Nancy Oser, owner of the Wide Feet Ware-
house in Richmond, Va., a place I imagine as a
kind of mecca, feels my pain. “Oh, it’s very frus-
trating,” she said. “I’m not all that young, but
I don’t want to wear something that looks or-
thopedic.”
Neither do I. I don’t need stilettos for every-
day wear, but I have never been able to under-
stand why running a search for wide shoes on a
shoe Web site returns a preponderance of ther-
apeutic shoes and clogs. It’s as if the manufac-
turers have decided that wide feet are a result of
old age, standing on your feet all day or a medi-
cal deformity.
I called Dr. Matthew Barkoff, chief podiatrist
at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan,
fashioned brick-and-mortar stores to see if any-
thing had changed since the explosion of online
retailing. Tip Top Shoes, a Manhattan institution
that’s been around since 1940, still features a
staff of nattily dressed salesmen who will fit you
with the old-fashioned metal sizer. Any question
I might have had about the added value of a shoe
salesman was gone in about three minutes flat.
I mentioned to one of them, Ron Rubin, that I
suffered from a small bunion. “Right there,” he
said, motioning to my left foot. In my heavy Luc-
chese cowboy boot, the small ridge wasn’t notice-
able, even to me.
But the Tip Top salesmen were unanimous in
their view that buying fashionable shoes for wide
Julio Caballero, a salesman at Tip Top Shoes.
Photo by Andrea Riquier

40 New York Now / July – August 2010 New York Now / July – August 2010 41
 HEALTH Depiction in the mid 1920s of a rural banya by
Russian artist Boris Kustodiev: Russian Venus

HEALTH
(armed with birch twigs)

You Have Back Pain?

On a Saturday afternoon, aging men built like
kegs, their great stomachs protruding beneath
towels slung around their necks, lounge around
the pool in the main room. They drink beers and
snack on vobla, salt-dried fish. Their younger
counterparts scour the room for girls, who smirk
on the sidelines, crossing and uncrossing their
legs. The room smells, not unpleasantly, of chlo-
rine, fish, and freshly laundered towels.
Three men circle the room, masseuses com-
peting for clients. They are insistent: “slushai,
slushai,” they say. Listen, listen. They promise a
discount if you pay them directly, cash, no need
for the front desk to know. You have back pain?
They’ll work the spongy discs between your ver-
tebrae to get the blood flowing again. Headaches?
They’ll find your pressure points and release the
tension. There’s no problem they can’t fix.
Children run in occasionally, complaining of
hunger, thirst. A tow-headed boy, skinny as a
wild dog, pleads with his father: “papa, papa,
papa,” but the man is too busy walloping his
wife to hear; the leaves of the venik falling to
the ground in clumps. “Khorosho?” he asks her,
good? Da, da, she says.
It’s my first time, and so I go where everyone
goes: the Russian steam room. There are also
Finnish, Turkish, and Roman saunas, each heat-
ed to a different temperatures with dry (Finn-
ish) or wet (Turkish) heat, but no one seems to
go in them much. The banya itself is a kind of torture, but there’s
pleasure in it, too.
After a few minutes in the sauna, I’m so hot
I can barely speak. Masha implores me to wrap
a towel around my head; the Russians are all

Suffer – It’s Good For You

My day at the Russian banya
A stocky man appears from the shadows,
wearing a fat gold chain and speaking in a
thick accent. For $25, he offers to beat me.
By Tania Barnes This isn’t a fight club: it’s Royal Palace baths,
a Russian bath-house, or banya, on the edge of
Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, where Russians and
intrepid foreigners pay $40 to roast inside wooden
rooms heated to as much as 200 degrees F. They
also thump themselves with veniki, oak branches.
It’s all to improve circulation and health.
The spa is one part paradise to two parts kitsch
nightmare, decorated in the faux lux style so be-
loved by Mafia kingpins and chain Italian res-
taurants: the main room, replete with large aqua
pool and plastic patio furniture, is done in fake
marble, its vaulted ceilings held up by fat Roman
columns.
“Welcome to Royal Palace!” two beautiful
women – skinny jeans fitted snugly into boots,
gloss-slicked lips, eyelashes like the sharp points
of a star – greet visitors in Russian at the en-
trance. The Betty and Veronica of Brighton Beach,
with mismatched personalities: the blonde is
cool, taken with some secret text exchange on her
phone; the brunette chatty, making jokes with
customers and reminding them to tip.
The name, Royal Palace, is fitting: “We like ev-
erything royal,” my Russian friend Masha says.
No matter that the Russians killed their own
royal family. “Yes,” Masha demurs, “but we like
what they like.”
The banya itself is a kind of torture, but there’s
pleasure in it, too. Here is the Russian national
psyche: suffering is edifying, and the banya’s
cleansing fire makes you pure again. Through
pain, pleasure – the two are never far apart.
already wearing shapky – felt hats – to protect
their heads from the heat. I can barely under-
stand what she’s saying; the blood is thudding
in my skull.
A group of men in their 30s catch sight of me,
this WASPy American girl suffering their Slav-
ic inferno, and laugh, “It’s nothing yet!” one of
them says. He decides I’m an amusing specimen.
“We’ll get undressed,” he smiles, “then it’ll re-
ally be like Russia!”
I put my head down and listen to feet squish
across the floor in sandals and flip-flops as peo-
ple come and go, wishing each other “s legkim
parom” – a good steam. After a spell in the heat,
Russians go out into the snow to roll around or,
as here, dunk themselves in frigid baths. The
ritual lasts hours, whole days: steam room,
snow-roll or ice cold bath, maybe to the pool for
a swim and a snack, then back into the steam
room again. In between, the women rub honey
and salt over their faces, and some slick on a
mint green paste. When they leave, their skin is
as smooth as the flesh of a peach.
Failed Escape
I sneak out of the steam room, hoping to find
some relief in a tepid shower. But one of the men
from the group catches me, and shakes his head.
“You have to go in,” he says, gesturing toward the
glowering green square of ice water in the corner.
I demur, but it’s no good: things must be done
the proper way. I jump; the pain is as if I’d hurled
myself against a glass table. I claw my way out
and collapse on a stone bench.
Back in the steam room, a young man enters:
the executioner. With a ladle and a few deft flicks
of the wrist, he flings water, scooped from a buck-
et, on the hot stones inside the small oven. The
stones hiss and growl as they release steam into
the air, producing heat. Then the man – from Ta-
jikistan, he tells me later – waves a towel around
in great lazy circles, jostling the angry atoms of air.
Surely this is some circle of hell. But the men
assure me: “the heat is half what it would be
in Russia!” They soften at the look on my face.
“You’re doing well! The American we brought
only came in here once. When we told him to
go in the cold water, he said, ‘you guys are f__
ing nuts.’ ”
Plenty of visitors to Russia have thought as
much. In the first written account of the banya,
recorded in the Russian Primary Chronicle of
1113, the Apostle Andrew visits the area that
was later to become Russia. Observing the bath-
house ritual, he remarks: “They [the Russians]
lash themselves so violently that they barely es-
cape alive. They think nothing of doing this every
day, and actually inflict such voluntary torture
on themselves.”
After five hours of torture, I’m exhausted, ban-
ya-drunk. Its only 8 p.m., but I fall asleep up-
right at the table while waiting for my “salad in
a glass,” a Moscow-priced ($10) juice made from
red peppers, lettuce, tomatoes and carrots. “Ah,”
Masha says, looking at me, “and that’s how you
know you’re done with banya.”

42 New York Now / July – August 2010 New York Now / July – August 2010 43

HEALTH
Starting the day with
caffeine?
You need to know this
The shaky hands, the anxiety, that “buzz” you get in your bones –
caffeine has some curious side effects.
By Amy Tennery
T hought of by many as one of the last few legal
“drugs” (along with nicotine and alcohol),
caffeine is a staple of academic and professional
life, getting you through that final exam or that
all-nighter before work.
Caffeine has long straddled the line between
cultural meme and societal ill. Yet some nutri-
tionists claim caffeine consumption has gotten
out of control, even as dozens of Facebook groups
make fun of the so-called “caffeine addiction.”
In past years, caffeine was found largely in cof-
fee and sodas. Today, it’s added to candy and nov-
elty items that appeal to kids. This recent influx of
caffeinated products has raised serious questions
about caffeine’s health effects, a topic that con-
sumers and health experts have debated for years.
“If you look at caffeine without all the posi-
tive social stigmas you will realize that it is just
another legalized drug,” said Nikita Alexandrov,
an Auburn University sophomore who uses Face-
book to educate others on what he sees as a caf-
feine epidemic.
44
“Caffeine has the same characteristic as other
dangerous drugs: It is psychoactive; you build up
a tolerance requiring more to achieve the same
effect; it has negative withdrawal effects once
you stop consuming it; and it is very possible to
overdose at larger doses.”
“SumSeeds” – caffeinated sunflower seeds
– made their debut in 2007 and became an in-
stant hit. Treats like caffeine mints and “Jolt” caf-
feinated candy that promise to keep consumers
awake – with an added minty touch – are popular
among kids and high school students.
Caffeine has even infiltrated the cosmetics mar-
ket, with companies selling “caffeinated lotion,”
claiming that the that face cream makes users
look younger and – dare we say it? – more alert.
This past January, a Swedish woman checked
herself into a rehabilitation clinic to deal with her
addition to Coke – not the powder, the fizzy kind
that comes in a plastic bottle.
Jonathan Ulaszek became passionately inter-
ested in spreading the anti-caffeine message in
New York Now / July – August 2010
2004, the year he graduated from Beloit College.
Like many students his age, Ulaszek was fond
HEALTH
of new of caffeinated products like RC Cola’s RC
Edge, which boasted a higher caffeine content.
After reading “The Great American Detox
Diet” by Alex Jamieson, Ulaszek said, his per-
spective on caffeine changed.
“I find myself surrounded by people that are
hooked on coffee or soda,” said Ulaszek. “I watch
people all day stay slaves to coffee and soda. If
they don’t have it, they can’t seem to function.”
Many experts agree
“It’s the type of drug that shouldn’t be taken
lightly,” said xBill Aronson, a representative with
the Caffeine Awareness Association, a group
claiming that caffeine has long-term adverse
health effects, such as high blood pressure and
anxiety disorders. “Caffeine is the type of drug
abused frequently because it’s so accessible.”
Particularly popular among college students,
caffeine has become an increasingly central part
of many young people’s lives, said Aronson, add-
ing to the risk of chronic health problems as a
result. He believes that young people use diet
sodas and coffees for a variety of irresponsible
activities, like extreme late-night study sessions
and weight loss.
“The more that you take it, the more that you
want to take it,” said Aronson. He said conditions
such as depression, mood swings and irregular
heartbeat can emerge after prolonged consumption.
But many medical experts believe this height-
ened awareness of caffeine consumption is un-
warranted.
“There are no harmful health consequences for
using caffeine over a long period of time,” said
Dr. Herbert Muncie, a clinician and professor of
medicine at Louisiana State University who has
written extensively on the issue of caffeine con-
sumption over the last 10 years. “There are some
short term affects – people can get a little nervous,
a little jittery. Probably there are some withdrawal
symptoms, although studies find it hard to prove.”
He said many studies that evaluate the effects
of caffeine consumption are flawed because they
fail to take into account the tolerance the body
builds over time to caffeinated products.
Aronson encourages caffeine users to quit, de-
spite the withdrawal symptoms they might ex-
perience. He said that a morning craving coffee
or tea isn’t the result of exhaustion, so much as
it’s related to the body’s overnight caffeine depri-
vation. As with other addictions, once the habit
runs out of users’ systems, they should be able
to function without their fix.
These withdrawal symptoms are hard to iden-
tify – and even harder to prove they exist in clini-
cal studies, said Muncie. He believes that caffeine
addiction is, in part, a myth.
“For me, for something to be truly addictive,
you have to have adverse health consequences,
withdrawal – which there may be – and neuro-
logical changes in the brain,” said Muncie. “We
don’t normally see people engage in criminal ac-
tivity to get caffeine.”
New York Now / July – August 2010 45

HEALTH
Kombucha Tea Cures All.
Or Does It?
By Alexandra Waldhorn
L ast summer, 29-year-old Rana Chang was
craving a bottle of kombucha, a type of tea
brewed from fermented yeast and bacteria cul-
tures. But Chang, then an unemployed lawyer,
couldn’t justify spending the $4 asking price at
her local health food store in San Francisco. “I
was feeling poor – and thirsty,” she says.
So Chang took her thirst and turned it into
a business. She and a friend, Asad Modarai,
launched House Kombucha (pronounced kom-
BOO-cha). Just six months later, they’re brewing
the effervescent, murky pink liquid in a commer-
cial kitchen and distributing it to restaurants and
bars around the city. As of late February, they
were selling 18 cases (12 bottles each) a week
and adding an average of two businesses per
week.
“It’s the new coffee, tea and wine – all in the
same product,” says Chang.
Never mind that the product often tastes, well,
putrescent. Kombucha is touted to be a cure-in-
a-cup that will fix all ills, including cancer, AIDS,
bad eyesight, acne and erectile dysfunction. The
list goes on, and the supporting science is slim.
46
Effective or not, people want it. Some large
corporations, like Coca-Cola, are getting into the
market. It owns 40 percent of Honest Tea, which
introduced a kombucha drink in January. But
many purists – and people on tight budgets – are
opting to either brew at home or buy locally from
small businesses like Chang’s. “Every day, more
people are joining the bandwagon,” she says.
Part of kombucha’s appeal may be its ancient
history. It began as a fad 2,000 years ago dur-
ing the Chinese Tsin dynasty. Called the drink of
immortality, the elixir spread around the world,
from China to Russia, Japan, Germany and even-
tually to the U.S., where it first gained popularity
in New Age circles in the early 1990s.
The taste may have improved since the 1990s,
Kombucha is touted to be a cure-in-a-cup that will
fix all ills, including cancer, AIDS, bad eyesight, acne
and erectile dysfunction.
New York Now / July – August 2010
but kombucha’s tangy, hard apple cider essence
is not for everyone. Sometimes a leftover lump
of the soused bacterial culture or a slimy culture
lingers at the bottom of a bottle. But as the drink
evolves, brewers have learned to add a variety of
flavors appealing to more customers. At House
Kombucha, Chang mixes in rose petals, jasmine
tips and crushed pears.
On a recent winter evening, Eric Childs, known
as Kombuchaman of Kombucha Brooklyn, was
outlining brewing techniques and working to
refine the palates of new kombucha drinkers.
“I don’t really believe that kombucha is a bot-
tle of Tylenol,” Childs says, “but it has the ability
to do awesome things to you.” Childs, who tried
kombucha four years ago, says his first bottle
helped his heartburn symptoms.
Blowing bubbles
in new extreme
bottled waters
By Richard Solash
T he air is pretty thin at 30,000 feet. Thankfully,
airplane cabins are pressurized so, instead of
worrying about the lack of oxygen outside, pas-
sengers can sit back, open an in-flight magazine
and worry about the amount of oxygen in their
drinking water.
The Big Pitcher is one of the items for sale in
the SkyMall catalog, distributed by 38 airlines in
the U.S., and it claims to increase the oxygen level
in drinking water from 2 to 11 parts per million.
That boost, the company says, will lead to “in-
creased energy and metabolism, improved sleep
patterns, reduction in circulation problems and
healthier, younger-looking skin and hair.”
Back on terra firma, the Big Pitcher has com-
petition, as other companies tout their own oxy-
genated water products. Oxygen-saturated water,
however, is not the only unusual take on nature’s
oldest form of refreshment. At a time when sales
of bottled water are at an all-time high, a number
of surprising water products are trying to carve
out niches in the market. Consumers can indulge
in deep-sea water drawn from 3,000 feet below
the surface of the Pacific Ocean and purported
to be unrivaled in its purity. For those of a more
religious bent, holy water is available for drink-
ing, complete with “Sinners Beware” labeling.
But many experts argue that attempts to im-
prove on plain old H2O are more marketing than
science. Even as unusual forms of water gain in
popularity, skeptics say their claims are pretty
hard to swallow.
“If you need oxygen, it’s through breathing,”
says Dr. Joshua Barzilay, a Georgia-based in-
ternist and co-author of “The Water We Drink:
Water Quality and Its Effects on Health.” “This
is just playing on people’s desire to be healthy.
There’s no scientific evidence for any of this.”
People’s desire to be healthy was one of driv-
ing factors behind the bottled water industry’s
explosive growth in the past few decades. By the
1970s, the environmental movement had hit its
stride, and concerns over the contamination of
tap water encouraged a shift to bottled and fil-
tered water. By the 1990s, millions had made
the switch, and bottled water started to be seen
as fashionable and convenient for an on-the-go
lifestyle. Backed by aggressive marketing, the
size of the bottled water industry in the United
States expanded to more than $12 billion in 2008.
With hundreds of brands of water on the mar-
ket today, along with a wide variety of filtration
devices, new companies have relied on their cre-
ativity – and the distinctiveness of their prod-
ucts – to try to find a niche. But Teri Mathis,
the inventor of the Big Pitcher, says it is unfair
to write her product off as merely marketing. In
her former career treating industrial wastewater
on the Texas Gulf Coast, she learned purification
techniques involving oxygen. Starting in 2000,
she began conceptualizing the Big Pitcher – an
electrical appliance about the size of a blender
that takes oxygen from the air and bubbles it
through a volume of water. The dissolved oxy-
gen content increases, she says, which leads to
health benefits.
“Besides the chemical property of water that
we all know, H2O, there are also physical prop-
erties that include oxygen saturation,” Mathis
says. “Our system brings oxygen content to its
natural maximum saturation, and drinking our
water is one of the ways to have an oxygen-bal-
anced body.” That, in turn, leads to a host of ben-
efits, from the maintenance of a healthy weight to
better sleep, according to Mathis. A promotional
brochure for the Big Pitcher even says, “Drinking
oxygenated water discourages cancer cell growth.”
But the opinions of experts may be irrelevant
when it comes to other types of water. Faith heal-
ers might be better suited to comment on H2Om,
or “Water With Intention,” a product from Los
Angeles that prides itself on “hydration vibra-
tion.” Flavored waters can’t compare to the va-
rieties of H2Om, which include Love, Perfect
Health and Prosperity, each infused with its re-
spective property based on, among other things,
the music played at the bottling plant.
Churchgoers might be the experts when it
comes to drinkable holy water. Now sold by at
least three distributors around the country, the
holy water is blessed by men of the cloth before
it is shipped.
Brian Germann is president and CEO of Cali-
fornia-based Wayne Enterprises, a company that
sold computer software for law enforcement be-
fore diversifying into drinkable holy water. His
inspiration for the product came on a special day.
“It happened to be June 6th of 2006, which was
6-6-6 day, and I was saying to my niece that of
course this is the day where the devil is going to
try anything he can to get as many people as he
can,” Germann recalls. “I looked up at a bottle of
holy water on my mantel and I thought, ‘Too bad
we don’t have some holy drinking water that we
can drink and that will help protect us.’”
Wayne Enterprises has sold around 10,000
New York Now / July – August 2010
HEALTH
The Big Pitcher promises to oxygenate your
drinking water and thereby improve your health.
Photo courtesy of The Big Pitcher
bottles since then, each featuring a “Sinners Be-
ware” label that warns of burning, vomiting and
rashes among the other maladies that may befall
an unfit drinker. Germann says that the warning
is not meant to be taken seriously and instead
serves a dual purpose: to safeguard his company
against lawsuits and to attract a younger (and
more curious) clientele.
Germann says he is not hoping to make a prof-
it from his holy water. Instead, his main aim is to
promote good behavior. As the business grows,
he plans to use the profits for charity or to fund
scholarships. But he is sure that his water is al-
ready making a positive impact. As proof, he
notes that customers have paid for approximately
85 cases of water to be sent to troops in Iraq. On
home soil, there are other stories, including one
with a decidedly Old Testament ring to it: Mem-
bers of a family were driving across the country
when their car overheated. With nothing but a
case of Germann’s holy water on hand to fill the
radiator, they decided to give it a try. “They never
had to fill the engine back up with any water
for the rest of their vacation,” Germann insists,
“and they drove through seven different states.”
Germann’s product, called simply Holy Drink-
ing Water, will soon be available in 5-gallon jugs
for home and office. It is also meant to be com-
patible with a variety of faiths. “So far, we have
a Catholic priest, an Anglican Communion priest
and a first Presbyterian clergyman to bless the
water,” he says. “We have applications from
representatives of many different faiths who
are willing to bless the water, but we’ve only
had three pass all the background checks. We
wouldn’t want anything to come back on the
product in a negative sense because of something
that happened in this person’s past.”
When it comes to water, it seems, even faith
has its limits.
47
 FAMILY Teachers, professors and students from Quebec to Texas are using Twitter to
follow conferences or news events, to manage class assignments, and to build

FAMILY
a network of contacts for students to draw on when doing research.

tries, one 140-character sentence at a time.
Mayo and his students produced the final book
on Lulu.com, a self-publishing site, complete
with illustrations drawn to match the fantastic
scenes about a girl turning into a mermaid. As
a gesture to the service that gave them the idea,
Mayo made sure that the science fiction book
ended on the 140th tweet.
“It made the students think about what they
wanted to say,” said Mayo of the authors, who
were from Canada, China, England and else-
where. “It was a good exercise in creative writing.
It took a lot of thinking about making
sure each sentence is just right.”
Many teachers are studying how to
adapt social networking sites to aca-
demia rather than try to eliminate it
from the classroom. They are finding
places for Twitter in schools around the
country, both inside the classroom and
for assignments outside it. Students
ranging from seventh-graders to those
in doctoral programs are signing on.
Collaborative writing is a popular
use for the networking tool, but it’s
certainly not the only one. Teachers,
professors and students from Quebec
to Texas are using Twitter to follow
conferences or news events, to manage
class assignments, and to build a net-
work of contacts for students to draw
on when doing research.
Still, some teachers prefer to stick to
the old-fashioned way. More tradition-
al educators continue to bar the use of
electronic devices – such as laptops and
smart phones – in classrooms, citing
them as distractions.
Twitter, which started in 2006, is a
free social-networking and microblog-
ging site that allows users to send mes-
sor of new media at Fordham University in New
York, has made Twitter part of his curriculum.
“I study what impact it’s having on society,”
Levinson, 62, said. “The very first assignment was
what importance did Twitter have on the surpris-
ingly elected Scott Brown in Massachusetts?”
Levinson has his students follow current
events and the news on Twitter to establish and
study trends in politics, new media and TV. His
students must get Twitter accounts and blog
about popular subjects, like politics.
“It gives them a very good handle on how to
teach,” Penny, 37, said. “For example, if you are
teaching about the presidential election, you can
follow who’s running for president.”
By following them on Twitter, the students
can see how the candidates promote their poli-
cies based on what they do and where they trav-
el, Penny says.
Another way to use Twitter is to manage class
assignments and responses to it. Paul R. Allison,
a teacher at the East-West School of Internation-
al Studies in New York, built his own site called
Youth Twitter. On Youth Twitter, Allison says, stu-
dents must post their work but can also
socialize on a smaller network within
the site called Youth Voices.
“There are two kinds of things this
does,” Allison said. “It allows students
to have immediate personal connec-
tions. They don’t have to stop in the
middle of class to say what they’re
thinking now. They can just post it. It
also encourages more revised, carefully
written responses.”
Students in Allison’s English class
use Twitter in the middle of class, while
he is lecturing, so that students may
post their thoughts immediately and
without interrupting the flow of class.
Allison says it’s a good way to encour-
age all students to participate, especial-
ly those who might be too intimidated
to raise their hand or find it tough to
remember their comment while they
wait their turn.
Twitter’s ability to encourage re-
sponses and initiate discussion is one
of the main reasons so many teachers
say they like using it.
Not everybody, however, believes that
Twitter should be an integral part of the
classroom. Vincent Atchity, dean of Uni-

Inviting Twitter Into

sages to people who sign up to follow versity of California, Berkeley, School

T he idea came to the students’ language arts

teacher George Mayo, 42, over lunch one day,
them. Each message, or tweet, can be
only 140 characters long. While advo-
of Public Health, is one academic who
is against it.

The Classroom
Most students use Twitter to chat with friends about their week-
ends. Seventh-graders in a Montgomery County, Md., public school
English class, however, used Twitter to write a book, collaborating
with other students they never even met.
By Della Hasselle
when he tweeted the notion into cyberspace.
Within moments, he got his first response, from
a class in Canada. By the end of the week, the
first 10 sentences were composed.
George Mayo’s seventh-grade English class in
a Montgomery County, Md., public school used
Twitter to create a book with students from five
other countries. The book, called “Many Voices,”
is about a girl who turns into a mermaid, and it
contained illustrations like these. (Image licensed
under Creative Commons)
Within six weeks, Mayo and his student col-
laborators had published a book, “Many Voices,”
written by more than 100 students in six coun-
cates say that the networking aspect of
the service is invaluable, opponents claim that
almost half of all tweets can be categorized as
“pointless babble.”
A 2009 Pew Internet and American Life survey
found that younger people are becoming more
interested in Twitter. Some 37 percent of Twitter
users are ages 18 to 24, an increase from 19 per-
cent in 2008. This shifts the demographic of Twit-
ter users from those ages 25 to 34, who had been
the largest group, to a much younger population.
The trend for younger people to flock toward
Twitter is precisely the reason so many teachers
are interested in using it. Paul Levinson, a profes-
interact with people much more important and
famous than them,” Levinson said.
By following and reaching out to people who
would otherwise never respond to, say, a phone
call, Levinson says, his students are put on a
much more level playing field.
Chris Penny, a technology instructor at West
Chester University in Pennsylvania, also encour-
ages the educators he instructs to teach their
students how to follow important people using
Twitter.
“One of my suggestions is to take a look at how
you can use Twitter based on the class you will
“We do so much of our communicat-
ing these days with digits moving on keyboards
that we risk losing the art of conversation en-
tirely,” said Atchity, 45.
Many details are lost in translation when using
technology rather than having person-to-person
interaction, Atchity said. These particulars include
reactions on other people’s faces, listening to into-
nations, talking over each other in excitement and
encouraging looks or thoughtful pauses.
“So … if this work … of paying live attention
to one another is not taking place in our English
and history (and other liberal arts) classrooms,
where is it being done?” Atchity said.

48 New York Now / July – August 2010 New York Now / July – August 2010 49
 LIFE
Less is more
Finding the freedom in frugality
By Jonah Engle
O ne night in 2006, a handful of friends sat
around a dinner table, drafted a manifes-
to and posted it online. It began, “Tomorrow is
the start of our 12-month flight from the con-
sumer grid.”
The Compact, as the manifesto was called, was
named after the Mayflower Compact, the found-
ing legal document of the Puritans in America.
Instead of freedom from religious tyranny, this
new group sought freedom from the tyranny of re-
lentless consumption. The rules were simple: They
couldn’t buy anything new for a year except for
the essentials – food, medication and underwear.
In the three years since it was born, the idea
has attracted thousands, and “compacting”
groups have sprouted up from Indiana to Iceland.
A happy customer leaves a FreeMeet at New
York University with a bag full of other people’s The groups are one example of a larger trend
unwanted items. Freecycle groups have been of people joining networks built around a desire
gaining in popularity. to opt out of what they see as a consumption-
Photo by Dave Sanders obsessed society.
50 New York Now / July – August 2010
Instead of freedom from religious tyranny, this new
group sought freedom from the tyranny of relentless
consumption. The rules were simple: They couldn’t
buy anything new for a year.
when she decided to try compacting at the be-
ginning of 2008. The Atlanta native had recently
lost her job as a project manager at a design firm.
But she also wanted to get rid of clutter, physical
as well as mental.
She admits she loved to shop and didn’t think
she’d go a full year without buying anything new.
By February, the urge was getting hard to bear.
Shropshire called her friend who’d been com-
pacting for a year.
“Oh my God, Amy. I’m dying for a shopping
trip. It’s killing me,” she remembers saying. Her
friend suggested thrift stores.
“I got my shopping fix, spent a total of $30,”
Shropshire recalls. Over time, she says, she no-
ticed a shift in her behavior. She learned to ex-
amine urges to spend more consciously, and
gradually they faded. “I’m happy to report that
that craving is pretty much gone,” she says.
The real challenge came when she had to at-
tend eight weddings in three months last year.
“Regifting is not usually what you think of for a
wedding gift,” Shropshire says.
For her brother and his new wife, she found a
carved wooden Asian screen at a local consign-
ment store.
Shropshire, who did get through the year, says
not being able to buy whatever she wanted on
a whim taught her how to be much more pa-
tient and creative. It also gave her back her time,
which she could now spend with friends, by her-
self or with her new fiancé.
Millions are joining Freecycle, an online mar-
ketplace in which people give away, rather than
sell, items they no longer need. And growing
numbers are gathering in self-help groups called
simplicity circles to support one another as they
try to break free of habitual consumption.
For many, the attraction to such groups is
about more than reining in spending habits. They
are seeking to redefine themselves and their val-
ues after decades of materialism.
“More people now are more conscious of the
environmental consequences of their actions
than ever before,” says Daniel Horowitz, a pro-
fessor of American studies at Smith College who
has written two books on America’s vexed rela-
tionship with consumption.
Despite shifting attitudes, Horowitz acknowl-
edges the obvious – that many are driven more by
economic anxiety caused by the faltering economy.
Both were at play for Kate Shropshire, 34,
Freecycle groups also aim to make it easier for
those who want to avoid buying anything new.
The idea for the online group began six years
ago in Tucson, Ariz., with a frustrating problem.
“I wanted to give away a bed,” says Freecycle
founder Deron Beal. But Goodwill and the Salva-
tion Army didn’t take beds. “I had this perfectly
good item that was destined for the landfill,”
Beal says.
At the time, Beal was working for a recycling
nonprofit. The group received many donations
of items that were in great condition but weren’t
recyclable, so he would drive around town trying
to donate them to charities. Sometimes they’d
take the goods, but just as often they wouldn’t.
So Beal started an e-mail group in which peo-
ple could list items they wanted to give away and
others could list things they needed. It went out
to about 30 or 40 friends and a handful of local
nonprofits. Today, Freecycle groups have spread
from Tucson to more than 4,600 communities
in 85 countries and have 6.5 million members.
Beal says since October, the growth rate has gone
from an average of 30,000 new members a week
to anywhere from 40,000 to 75,000 a week. The
whole operation runs on a staff of two salaried
employees and 10,000 volunteers, who moderate
the online forums.
Beal estimates that by finding new homes for
old objects, the network diverts 700 tons a day
from landfills. The Freecycle founder is proud
of the environmental benefit, but he’s most ex-
New York Now / July – August 2010
LIFE
Freecycle members at the Autumn Clutter Harvest
FreeMeet at New York University.
Photo by Dave Sanders
Spring-cleaning FreeMeet in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Photo by Dave Sanders
cited about the relationships that are forged be-
tween members.
“The first time you give away something,” Beal
says, “you get this super infusion of warm fuzz-
ies. That’s what really makes it work.”
The new spirit of self-reliance and thrift has
made its way into the political discourse. Horow-
itz says since the repudiation of President Jimmy
Carter’s policies, as expressed in his “malaise”
speech, with the election of President Ronald
Reagan, “excess became increasingly the domi-
nant cultural mode.”
But he says President Barack Obama’s inaugu-
ration speech, with its emphasis on responsibil-
ity, marks a shift back toward a sense of excess
being immoral.
Still, Horowitz thinks after a few years of aus-
terity, society will regain its hunger for greater
consumption. “There is a tension at the heart of
this,” he says, “between saving and spending,
between pleasure and restraint, and the balance
between those historically shifts constantly.”
Whether it’s a fad or a harbinger of a deeper
change, more and more are learning to enjoy
less. Shropshire is now planning her own wed-
ding and trying to stick to her vows of simplicity.
“I’m borrowing a friend’s dress, which is ex-
quisite, which I never could have afforded on my
own,” she says excitedly. And she found an an-
tique ring on eBay that ended up being appraised
at 2 1/2 times what she paid. “So far,” she says,
“it’s been really easy.”
Christina Salvi, a coordinator of Freecycle New
York City, organizes items at a FreeMeet. Freecycle
groups organize FreeMeets to give away goods.
Photo by Dave Sanders
51
 In a rush?
Sidewalk rage drives pedestrians off the deep end
LIFE
By Aaron Cahall
I t might be the tourists in front of you who act
like they’ve never seen a building taller than
three stories. It might be that elderly lady who
just can’t run a 100-yard dash anymore. It might
be the teenagers walking six wide down the block
like they’re on parade. It might be the hedge fund
manager rushing full speed ahead on the wrong
half of the sidewalk, “CrackBerry” glued to the
side of his head.
For 76-year-old Walburga Schaller, the trig-
ger for a nasty sidewalk altercation was the man
glaring at her squarely in the face, just inches
away. Schaller had been on her way to the bank
that June morning, using a cane to move care-
fully down the west Toronto street.
On the other end of the street, Robert Smith,
52, was on his way to a medical appointment
and also walked with a cane, nursing a foot in-
jury. He walked toward Schaller on the same half
of the sidewalk, and like two slow trains on the
same track, the two moved inexorably toward
a collision.
Neither moved to give way, and they soon stood
just inches apart. Insults were exchanged, and
then obscenities. Soon the two began hitting each
other with their canes, each combatant landing
several blows. When it was over Schaller dropped
to ground and Smith faced a charge of assault.
Whatever it is that sets someone off, urban res-
52
idents are no strangers to the pavement equiva-
lent of road rage. Anger experts say that just as
with its notorious cousin, sidewalk rage has little
to do with the person who just won’t get out of
your way, and everything to do with you.
Some 20 percent of pedestrians in crowded
areas deviate from the accepted rules of walk on
the right, pass on the left, according to Dr. Leon
James, a professor of psychology at the Universi-
ty of Hawaii. They may walk “upstream” against
the flow of traffic or wander across multiple
“lanes” of traffic, frustrating those behind them.
“People are used to this pattern,” James said,
“but there are conditions that make them forget,
for instance, when they walk in a group, when
they don’t know where they are going, when they
are foreign and use the wrong norms.”
The escalation of an everyday annoyance into a
heated confrontation comes from both a sense of
entitlement by one or both parties, according to
Geraldine Katovich, an anger expert with Anger
Clinic in Chicago, an anger counseling center. But
Katovich says the root cause of an incident is an
individual’s need for control.
“It’s like being in line at the grocery store and
someone hits you with their cart to move you
up. That reasserts control,” Katovich said. “You
think, ‘Did they do that on purpose?’ If they can
get you to move up a few inches, they’re re-es-
New York Now / July – August 2010
tablishing control.”
The jump to engaging another person depends
on an individual’s desire to act out, what Katovi-
ch calls “mischief.” The trait stems not from the
situation but from a person’s background and
upbringing, the core of their personality.
“We’re all mischief makers, we all are, that’s
how we show we’re angry,” she said. “It comes
down to your attitudes, how you were raised.”
Perhaps nowhere are grumbling pedestrians
more at home than on the streets of New York,
where 8 million people jockey for position on
slabs of pavement that never seem wide enough.
Kelly McMann says she’s been a target of side-
walk rage as a dog walker on the city’s streets,
but has also found herself giving it right back.
“I’m from Maine, I’m not used to it; you don’t
see it [there],” she said. “Sometimes it catches
you off guard; someone says something to you,
you might get heated and yell back at them.”
In extreme cases, that appetite for mischief
can lead to serious consequences, just as road
rage has led to severe injuries and even fatali-
ties. Smith, one of the participants in the Toron-
to incident, found out how far some sidewalk
confrontations can go. Smith admitted hitting
Schaller but said he was acting in self-defense.
Ontario Court Judge Howard Borenstein appar-
ently wasn’t buying Smith’s story.
In a February judgment, Borenstein found
Smith guilty of assault with a weapon in the June
2005 incident and handed him a two-year sus-
pended sentence. But in his decision, Borenstein
made it clear that Smith was not the only one to
blame for the altercation with Schaller.
“Despite her age, and her cane,” Borenstein
said of Schaller, “she is not a shrinking violet.”
Pedestrians cross the
intersection of 34th Street and
8th Avenue in New York City,
a busy Midtown crossing. Too
many people and not enough
pavement can lead to incidents
of sidewalk rage, the walker’s
equivalent of road rage.
Aaron Cahall
Where the wild
things say aah: vets
that cater to exotic
pets
By Ana Elena Azpurua
Y oung Charlie was not doing very well. “Does
he eat?” the doctor asked, inspecting a lump
on Charlie’s cheek. “Has he ever had any other
problems?”
Within minutes, the doctor, Alexandra Wilson,
diagnosed the problem. Charlie had an ear infec-
tion. Her recommended treatment: slice into the
lump and drain it.
Cutting open a lump to cure an ear infection
may seem rather extreme, but when the patient
is a red-eared slider turtle like Charlie, that’s the
standard remedy, according to Wilson, a veteri-
narian at the Center for Avian and Exotic Medi-
cine in New York City.
Like Wilson, a growing number of veterinar-
ians are treating reptiles, birds and other “pocket
animals” – as rabbits, ferrets and guinea pigs are
called. The range of procedures they offer include
treating constipated frogs, removing tumors from
rats and providing dental care to rabbits.
These vets work in offices stocked with spe-
cialized equipment: tiny masks and mini-blood
pressure bands sized to fit smaller patients and
heating pads to keep them from getting cold.
Some clinics offer laser surgery to minimize the
loss of blood, because losing even a few drops can
be fatal to tiny exotic animals. Behavioral advice
may also be available.
“Exotic-animal medicine is the most rapid-
ly growing field in veterinary medicine,” says
James Carpenter, professor of zoological medicine
at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas
State University. Carpenter says that veterinary
students are showing a “very strong interest”
in this field.
Two decades ago, those interested in taking
the exotic-animal path would have had a diffi-
cult time. “Most of the veterinary schools offered
little to no training in this specialty” Carpenter
says. “Now, however, most of the 28 U.S. vet-
erinary schools offer some training, and some
offer extensive opportunities, in exotic-animal
medicine.”
Last year, the American Veterinary Medical
Association granted provisional recognition to
the “exotic companion mammal practice” spe-
cialty. It accepted its first round of applicants this
year. The Association of Exotic Mammal Veteri-
narians plans to advocate for the AVMA to add
a reptile specialty. An “avian practice” specialty
already exists.
“We have people out there saying, ‘OK, who
can handle my little exotic companion animal,
and who can demonstrate that they know what
they’re doing?’ ” says Michael Dutton, who runs
the Exotic & Bird Clinic in Weare, N.H. “A spe-
New York Now / July – August 2010
Simon Starkey takes a sample of a parrot’s
possible tumor.
Photo by Ana E. Azpurua/CNS
LIFE
cialty is one way to demonstrate that they know
how to do that.” In 2000, Dutton founded the
AEMV, which has grown from 20 initial mem-
bers to more than 700 from the United States,
Canada and other countries.
What attracts vets like Dutton to treat animals
that many people would sooner ignore than have
as pets? “Variety,” says Simon Starkey, a veteri-
narian who is board-certified in avian medicine.
“You never get bored.” And because research on
these animals is still limited, there’s room for
practitioners to make new discoveries. Specializ-
ing can also give young vets an edge when they’re
job hunting.
The rising number of exotic-pet veterinarians
reflects the increased demand for care from own-
ers of nontraditional pets. The number of U.S.
households with exotic animals has grown from
nearly 14 million in 2001 to around 18 million in
2007, according to the AVMA.
Many of these owners want quality care for
their pets – even if the treatment costs more
than they paid for the animal. Neutering a rab-
bit at Wilson’s New York clinic, for instance,
costs around $250. Removing a rat’s tumor can
range from $250 to $400. The fee for Charlie’s of-
fice visit, which included draining the lump and
other procedures, totaled $250. A typical turtle of
his variety rarely costs more than $20.
Charlie’s owner, Savitri Sukhu, agreed to have
his lump drained because she couldn’t bear to
know her pet was sick and do nothing about it.
She did, however, decline an expensive follow-
up test the doctor recommended.
Many animal owners believe that the special-
ized training of exotic-pet vets is worth the cost.
Laura Budean, a native of Romania who now
lives in New York, says she lost a guinea pig be-
cause of the inadequate care of a vet who didn’t
have experience treating pocket animals. She
believes that seeing a specialist is cheaper than
having her 14 guinea pigs get sick frequently.
Three of Budean’s guinea pigs have had major
surgeries to remove tumors or abscesses. In years
past, guinea pigs rarely came in contact with a
surgical knife unless it was part of some clinical
experiment. Budean says she understands why
some of her friends think she’s crazy for taking
her rodents for treatment. But for her, caring for
the pets is not optional.
“I really think that the moment you assume
responsibility for a pet, you assume responsibil-
ity when they get sick as well,” Budean says.
“You get a pet when you know you can provide
for that pet.”
53
 BUSINESS
MBA graduates make
Students at the Presidio Graduate School of
Management learn to emphasize the “triple bottom
line” of people, profit and planet.
some green while
Courtesy of Patty Nason
helping the
J anet Smartt just landed her dream job. But
Smartt, a 33-year-old business student, isn’t
environment
going to a plum position at a Fortune 500 compa-
ny; instead she accepted an offer to help the state
of California in its marketing campaign to clean
up the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Smartt, an MBA student at the Presidio School
By David Fusaro of Management in San Francisco, is part of a
growing number of young professionals interest-
ed in environmentally conscious business prac-
tices. In recent years, her school, like two others
nationally, has opened what it calls a “green”
MBA program. And some mainstream programs
are also incorporating courses on environmen-
tal sustainability into their traditional business
curriculum.
“I feel like I’m getting a fantastic education
on how to be a true leader in business and at the
same time a leader of change,” Smartt said. Ob-
taining both business and environmental cred-
ibility will give her an edge. “You can play the
Bainbridge’s Cob game so you can win,” she said, “but you can not
House classroom just win financially, you can also win socially and
on Cortes Island,
environmentally.”
British Columbia, is
made of sand, straw, Gifford Pinchot, president and co-founder of
driftwood and clay. the green MBA program at the Bainbridge Grad-
Courtesy of Bruce uate Institute, says traditional business schools
McGlenn have long neglected social and environmental
54 New York Now / July – August 2010
Wal-Mart has set a goal of reducing its solid waste
by 30 percent in the next three years and recently
asked more than 60,000 of its suppliers to improve
efficiency and cut costs by reducing packaging.
concerns in favor of the bottom line. A third pro-
gram is offered at the New College of California,
in Santa Rosa, Calif.
In traditional MBA programs, Pinchot said,
“graduates are less concerned about those issues
coming out than they were going in. They not
only didn’t focus on it, they beat it out of people.”
The two-year Bainbridge program, which is
located outside Seattle, emphasizes the “triple
bottom line,” teaching students to analyze the
effect business decisions have not only on profit,
but on the planet.
Josh Wright, a part-time student at Presidio,
says none of the business graduates he’s worked
with as a senior financial analyst for the Gap have
ever brought up the issue of sustainability. “In
general, it’s ‘how do we make the most money in
the shortest period of time?’” he said.
But increasingly, companies are seeing busi-
ness opportunities in the environmentally con-
scious sector. Wal-Mart has set a goal of reducing
its solid waste by 30 percent in the next three
years and recently asked more than 60,000 of its
suppliers to improve efficiency and cut costs by
reducing packaging. The retailer has already re-
duced packaging on its Kids Connect line of toys,
saving about 1,000 barrels of oil and $2.5 million
in freight costs in the process, according to Wal-
Mart spokesman Kory Lundberg.
Wal-Mart’s increased focus on sustainabil-
ity suggests that business people with environ-
mental expertise will be increasingly in demand.
“We’re always looking for top people,” Lund-
berg said. “Certainly an educational background
in sustainability would be a plus for any candi-
date looking to come to Wal-Mart.
Hewlett-Packard’s Erin Gately started as a
manufacturing engineer in 1991. After a stint in
the marketing department, she became a product
steward, working with the research and design
teams to help make products more environmen-
tally friendly. In 2002, the company paid for her
to enroll in Bainbridge’s first MBA class.
Gately said when she returned to the com-
pany full-time in 2004, her improved business
knowledge helped her promote the production
of greener products.
“When I went back, it was a whole different
experience for me,” Gately said. “Now I under-
stood more where the marketing people were
coming from and where the finance people were
coming from.”
Gately has helped the company make its print-
ers and copiers more energy efficient – and more
profitable – because the company was ahead of
the curve when new, tighter criteria for “Energy
Star” designations were announced last year.
The increased emphasis on sustainability in
the business world has prompted administrators
at some other institutions to take notice. Marl-
boro College in Brattleboro, Vt., opens the doors
to its new MBA program in September.
“This is not a loosey-goosey, feel-good, hippie
green MBA,” said Richard Meima, program direc-
New York Now / July – August 2010
BUSINESS
Gifford Pinchot founded the Bainbridge Graduate
Institute with Elizabeth Pinchot and Dr. Sherman
Severin in 2002.
Courtesy of Bruce McGlenn
tor at Marlboro. “We care about the same things
as the hippies, but we’re preparing our students
to do a lot of analytical work that requires quanti-
tative skills and rigor because those are the skills
that are going to be needed in this new wave of
green investment.”
Meima says Marlboro’s program grew out of
the demand from companies like Ben and Jerry’s
and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters for business
graduates with an understanding of social and
environmental issues. “You could say there was
a manpower shortage of the kind of people these
companies want to hire,” Meima said.
“Businesses see opportunities and some real
downsides if they don’t pay attention to this,”
said Richard Brownlee, a professor at the Uni-
versity of Virginia’s Darden School of Business,
which has added environmental studies into its
business ethics curriculum as well as courses in
sustainable innovation and entrepreneurship.
“They’re going to want to hire people that have
a mindset that is a little more informed than pre-
vious people have been.”
Brownlee says the start-up schools like Presi-
dio, Bainbridge and New College are a welcome
addition to the business education community.
“The idea of finding different educational ven-
ues to approach this issue is wonderful,” he said.
“You talk about innovation and entrepreneur-
ship, that’s what you see. I say good for them.
Go for it.”
Presidio graduate Lori Kandels has joined a grow-
ing number of professionals with business degrees
in sustainable management.
Courtesy of Karen Preuss
55
 An Ad on Every Block?
BUSINESS

BUSINESS
As you walk down the street – ping – another ad arrives on your
phone. But the visionaries promise this won’t drive you mad.

By Jay Yarow

Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzt.

tion to promote women.

The report said 71 percent of the companies
surveyed had policies to promote diversity in the
workplace, compared with 56 percent in 2001.
But the percentage of women in analyst positions
declined from 16 percent to 13 percent over the
last 10 years, the Emory study found.
If women still faced discrimination on a large
scale “perhaps only the super bright ones would
I ’m walking around lower Manhattan, cell
phone stashed in my pocket. Each time I pass a
major retail outlet or restaurant, my phone buzz-
es. I yank it out. First, it’s Starbucks, offering me
a special price on a latte. A few feet further, I’m
advised that I could get a giant Coke for free – if
I’ll just veer into McDonalds and buy a Big Mac.
When the Banana Republic tells me to STOP! and
take advantage of its great prices on… I slam my
cell phone to the pavement.
Its plastic and circuitry scatter, joining the rub-

Glass Ceilings
get the jobs,” said Green, one of the authors of
the Emory study. But figures don’t support that
either.
Women analysts often have a lighter workload
Finance sector proving unattractive for some women and their earnings estimates of the companies
they cover “tend to be less accurate” compared
with men, the Emory study said.
Whether gender-based discrimination still
By C. Onur Ant prevails in the most profitable departments of
financial firms is still a question waiting to be
ble from all the other cell phones whose owners
were driven to violence by the endless stream of
coupons beamed in.
This nightmare isn’t upon us yet. But it is a
real possibility, if the marketers promoting loca-
tion-based ads as the next big advertising mon-
eymaker have their way.
For most of the past decade, they’ve been tout-
ing the appeal of sending hyper-targeted – un-
solicited – advertisements through cell phones.

A lthough executives in the finance indus-

try say they have worked hard to promote
women, the last decade has seen a decline in the
percentage of women working in the most prof-
itable business units.
Some people attribute the decline to what they
say is sex bias and hostility against women in the
workplace. Citing figures detailing the break-
down of the work force in Wall Street’s higher-
paying jobs, they say sex discrimination may still
be holding women back.
Catalyst, an advisory group that seeks to ex-
pand opportunities for women at work, recent-
ly released a report showing that a significant
number of women working in the financial ser-
vices industry believe sex bias is prevalent in the
workplace.
But another recent study suggests that sex bias
may not be the only explanation for the small
number of women working at high levels on Wall
Street. Some women do not have some of Wall
Street’s more lucrative jobs, the study says, be-
cause they don’t want those jobs.
Clifton Green, Narasimhan Jegadeesh and Yue
Tang of Emory University’s Goizueta Business
School in Atlanta have recently published the
findings of a study they began in mid-2006. In-
spired by the question of sex bias against women,
the three men looked at how well women equity
analysts did their jobs.
“That’s the big question we are trying to ad-
dress in this paper,” Jegadeesh said.
The 52-year-old Jegadeesh said the focus of
the study was limited to a small group of high-
level analysts, but that the findings may be ap-
plicable to the entire industry.
The last decade was a troubled one for Wall
Street as some major finance companies fought
claims that widespread sex bias was holding back
female workers.
Many companies responded by increasing the
number of women on their staffs. But the high-
er-level jobs were not appealing to some women
because they were so demanding, the research-
ers said.
Shruti Aggarwal of Merrill Lynch is an associ-
ate in the company’s municipal finance depart-
ment. “It affects people’s lives a lot,” Aggarwal
said of her demanding work schedule.
“Man is still the main bread earner,” said Ag-
garwal, who has been married for two years. “The
good thing for me is my husband is also work-
ing in finance.”
Lorraine Maikis, a research analyst at Merrill
Lynch, said that “primarily, the burden is on the
women” when couples have children and that
this might hold them back in their careers.
“I think women who have children, if they
take on the primary caretaker role, it’s harder for
them,” said Maikis, who is single. “It definitely
affects their preferences.”
The Emory study found that neither affirma-
tive action nor gender discrimination were prev-
alent in the equation between gender and job
performance.
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets
Association said in a 2005 report that finance
companies increasingly turned to affirmative ac-
answered.
Industry giants like Morgan Stanley and
Smith Barney have paid hundreds of millions of
dollars combined to settle complaints. And Mer-
rill Lynch alone paid more than $100 million to
settle discrimination claims.
Meanwhile, Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission reports indicate that the number of
gender discrimination complaints the agency re-
ceives has decreased slightly over the last decade.
The Emory study showed that women who
are financial analysts are more likely to emerge
as industry stars than men, probably because
women perform better than men in areas that
are hard to measure.
Maikis, who in 2006 was named one of the
best analysts of the year by Institutional Inves-
tor magazine, said that even though women may
be less effective in calculating earnings estimates,
they make up for that with other skills.
“Women are better at explaining things from
scratch,” Maikis said, noting an important part
of an analyst’s job is to explain to investors why
they should buy certain stocks at certain times.
“I think the reason they used earnings fore-
casts in the study is because they are easy to eval-
uate,” Maikis said of the Emory study, which
primarily focused on analysts forecasts to grade
their performance. “Not because it’s necessarily
the most important thing.”
When asked if he had received any negative
feedback from women’s advocates about the
Emory study, Green said: “There’s not much in-
terpretation. The data speaks on its own.”
These intrusions are, some argue, inevitable,
given the captive audience of almost 263 million
mobile phone owners.
Yet revenue from location-based advertis-
ing hasn’t yet materialized. In September 2000,
Ovum, a Boston-based research company,
thought the mobile ad market would reach $16
billion by 2005. But research firm eMarketer fur-
ther lowered its already conservative forecasts, to
$3.3 billion (from more than $6 billion) by 2013,
after 2008 brought in only $648 million, against
eMarketer estimates of $1 billion.
What happened to the grand plans?
First, most people in the industry have a
slightly different scenario in mind.
“The example everyone cites, McDonalds or
Starbucks sending a coupon and how that would
be annoying. It drives me nuts,” wireless con-
sultant Derek Kerton said. “It was never a good
idea to do it like that. It’s not how it’ll get done.”
Second, the concept requires that phones be
equipped with GPS so advertisers can track con-
sumers’ movements, a technology upgrade that
has taken longer than expected. Now that more
phones are equipped with GPS – 180 million were
shipped in 2007, according to research firm In-
Stat – the flame of location-based services and
advertisements is once again burning white-hot.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt certainly has high
expectations. “We can make more money in mo-
bile than desktop eventually…we can do a very,
very targeted ad,” he told host Jim Cramer on
CNBC in August 2008. “Over time we will make
more money from mobile advertising.”
“The way location-based ads will be offered will
be opt-in,” argued Brent Iadarola, Mobile & Wire-
less practice global program director at the consul-
tancy Frost & Sullivan. The buzzed-alert style of
ads will kick in only if you request information by
filling out a profile on your phone, he said.
For example, if I’m in the market for a new
flat screen television, I can tell my phone exactly
what I’m looking for. I want to spend between
$800 and $1,200. I want it to be no smaller than
42 inches. I’m not interested in off brands, just
Sony, Panasonic, or Sharp, and it damned well
better be an LCD screen. Every time I’m near a
store that is selling a television that fits my crite-
ria, I get an alert. If I’m lucky, I get a discount too.
Iadarola sees this as a value-added feature from a
consumer’s point of view, so long as the wireless
companies protect users’ privacy and security.
Kerton says he agrees with Iadarola’s model,
but that such a level of tracking is years away.
“For now, if you are in New York City and you
want pizza, you pull out your phone and you
search for pizza. At the top of the first page of
results for pizza is an ad for a pizza place or a
coupon.”
In this way, companies advertising on mobile
phone searches gain a competitive advantage.
Sure, there’s a pizza place every half block, but
when I ran a search on my phone, Angelo’s Piz-
zera was at the top of the list, only three blocks
away, and offering me two slices and a Pepsi for
five bucks. In this economy, that’s enough of a
deal to draw me right past 10 other pizzarias.
Schmidt believes the company will earn so
much more from mobile advertising because, ac-
cording to Kerton, “When people browse the web,
it is leisurely, not active. When interacting with
Google on a mobile phone, however, they are look-
ing for something specific, they are ready to act.
They’re not trying to read articles, they need to
know where the Kinkos is, what the stock price is.
It’s not all commerce, but it’s mostly commerce, so
more money will follow a mobile search.”
Landy Ung, founder and CEO of 8coupons.com,
agrees, and is designing her business on the con-
cept of search advertising. Her start-up, which of-
fers New York businesses web coupons, just struck
a deal with outalot.com, which makes applications
for mobile phones. “We are for people that are ac-
tively looking for something,” Ung says.
If Schmidt and Ung prevail in the coming
struggle over how mobile phones will fit into the
vast advertising market, fears that my phone will
become a spam box that could drive me to mo-
bile-cide will be unfounded. Instead, my phone
might just turn into the most expensive little
coupon holder in history.
Not exactly the next slogan for the iPhone,
but I’ll take it.

56 New York Now / July – August 2010 New York Now / July – August 2010 57
 LOCAL New Yorkers Face up
to houseguests

LOCAL
Dry cleaners advertise themselves as organic but
consumers are confused. A customer leaves an
Dear friend and guest: I love you,
Upper West Side Manhattan dry cleaner that adver- but I want my couch back
tises organic cleaning.
Photo by Manuel Cortazal

By Candy Cheng

using perc found some charging as much as $8

to clean the same item.
Shehawk Bryan, at Revolution’s downtown
store, said the cleaners keep prices as “reason-
able as possible” to better compete with tradi-
tional cleaners.
Not all dry cleaners promoting themselves as
organic or green fit the bill. An increasing num-
ber are adopting hydrocarbon solvents manu-
factured by petroleum giants like Shell and
ExxonMobil. Critics of hydrocarbon solvents rec-
ognize that while the petroleum-based product is
less toxic than perc, it is not as environmentally
N ew York City resident Brandon Rose now
hosts three visitors every two months. But
when he first moved to Manhattan, five years
ago, it was often three weekends in a row. That
made it nearly impossible for him to juggle two
part-time jobs, six master’s-level film courses at
Columbia University and homework.
There’s a downside to living in a popular place:
too many visitors. It’s not uncommon for a con-
stant host or hostess in top-ranked tourist cities
to feel stressed and overwhelmed by the pressure
of planning itineraries and the extra expense of
drinks, lunches, dinners and shows. When does

It would get to a point where I got really nervous

safe as water or CO2. the host do such everyday things as laundry and

Green clean
“It’s the same way as a Hess gas station or
Exxon saying they’re organic,” said David Kist-
ner, the co-owner of Green Apple Cleaners in
Are eco-friendly cleaners the real deal?
Manhattan, which bills itself as the only cleaner
in the Northeast using CO2.
Kistner complained that a lack of standards
regarding use of environmentally friendlier prod-
ucts in the dry cleaning industry is unfair to cus-
By Manuel Cortazal tomers who seek out green businesses. He said
only the food and cosmetic industries are covered
errands?
“It would get to a point where I got really ner-
vous and anxious before they came to visit and I
and anxious before they came to visit and I just
just wanted to push a fast-forward button to have
it all be over,” says Rose, 28, an administrative
wanted to push a fast-forward button to have it all
assistant at New York University’s College of Arts
and Science. “I know it’s wrong, I know they are
be over.
my friends, but under the circumstances, I just
felt too run-down.” “What’s important is to plan in advance so friends are doing while going in and out of meet-
Experts say having houseguests is a life distur- you and your guest can set aside a budget for ings at work.”

L eslie Horn believed she did her part to protect

the environment when she switched to a new
dry cleaner because the business advertised itself
as an “organic cleaner.”
“After I found out that the new cleaner did
‘green cleaning’ I thought I’d switch,” Horn said.
She said she didn’t even mind giving up her the
two-minute walk at her regular dry cleaner near
her home.
As Americans snap up hybrid cars, step up
their recycling efforts and worry about global
warming, some are also turning to an increas-
ing number of cleaners that tout their services
as “green.’’
But while environmentally conscious consum-
ers embrace this new service, confusion about
what constitutes green dry cleaning may make
it difficult for the trend to catch on.
Traditional dry cleaning typically requires the
use of a toxic solvent, perchloroethylene, known
as “perc” among cleaners. Peter Sinsheimer, a re-
searcher with the Pollution Prevention Center at
the Occidental College in Los Angeles calls perc
a “bad actor’’ chemical.
“There all sorts of adverse health outcomes as-
sociated with it,” he said.
For example, the Environmental Protection
Agency classifies perc as a probable cancer-caus-
ing chemical. In 2002, California imposed a ban
on perc, requiring cleaners to adopt less harmful
chemicals by 2020.
Sinsheimer said that environmentally con-
scious cleaners are giving up perc for nontoxic
agents like liquid carbon dioxide, CO2. Though
climate scientists label the compound a green-
house gas that causes global warming, the new
dry cleaning equipment recycles CO2 that would
otherwise have been released into the atmo-
sphere.
“CO2 is net plus for the environment,” said
Sinsheimer, who has studied commercial clean-
ing methods for 12 years. However, installing the
new dry cleaning equipment is often too expen-
sive for an industry composed mostly of mom-
and-pop businesses.
Sinsheimer said cleaners can opt for simpler,
less costly equipment that uses plain water. By
adding special detergents to the water, clean-
ers avoid garment shrinkage, the main draw for
using traditional processes.
These new methods aren’t forcing consumers
to pay heftier prices, a concern Horn weighed
when she switched cleaners.
At Revolution Dry Cleaners in Denver, Colo.,
which uses CO2, the price to dry clean a pair of
pants is $5.99. A check of Denver-area cleaners
by federal regulations that govern what products
can carry the label “organic.” Dry cleaners, he
said, can use any process they want and adver-
tise their services as organic.
Alan Spielvogel of the National Cleaners As-
sociation acknowledged that the lack of indus-
try-wide standards is a problem for consumers
interested in protecting the environment.
“Technically what organic means is that the
solvent contains carbon,” he said. Spielvogel
added that using petroleum-based hydrocarbon
solvents doesn’t mean the cleaning process is
“any safer or better for the environment.”
“Unfortunately a lot of cleaners are using this
for a marketing piece or to promote their busi-
ness,” he said.
The confusion was on display at the Alec Sut-
ton Cleaners on Manhattan’s Upper West Side,
a neon sign in the store window reads “Organic
Cleaners.” Even though the cleaning is done on
the premises, the workers behind the counter
couldn’t describe or name the organic process
used to clean the garments.
Even cleaners that still use perc advertise their
methods as organic. A check with Horn’s new
cleaner revealed that despite a sign behind the
counter promoting organic methods, garments
are cleaned with perc.
bance that can trigger stress. One way to man-
age is to let your visitors know what the limits
are. “Let your guests know you are not the host-
ess with the mostest,” says Carol Scott, a stress-
relief coach and physician in Baltimore. “Make
sure you maintain your routine of self-care. If
you go to the gym every morning, offer them a
guest pass for $10 so they can come with you.”
It also creates a host of etiquette issues. “Hav-
ing a guest, no matter how much you love them,
is an imposition on people,” says Naomi Poulson,
founder of the Etiquette School of Dana Point in
Dana Point, Calif. As a host, you should always
set out the house rules “so there are no hard feel-
ings and miscommunications before and after,”
Poulson says.
Hosting can also be a budget buster. Isabelle
Vassilakis, 27, says she usually spends about $40
more a night when visitors come to her home in
Brooklyn, N.Y. “You want to show them a good
time, and they usually want to go to a show or
go into Manhattan, so you end up spending more
money than usual.”
According to Zagat, the average cost of a meal
in New York City is $40.78, $6.69 above the na-
tional average. Add up dinners, cab rides, theater
tickets and drinks and a weekend visit could cost
a host $400 or more.
the visit,” says Scott, who has been a stress-re-
lief coach for six years. “Remember, it’s a lot of
money, effort and time to have a guest, so you
have to establish the expectations.”
Then there is the problem of visiting the same
tourist attractions – over and over again.
“I can’t stand Times Square, but my friends
always want to see it because it’s like MTV told
them to,” Rose says. He prefers visits from what
he calls repeat offenders – friends who come to
see him more than once. “Then we can go to
Woodside, Queens, for some amazing ethnic food
or a cool part of Brooklyn,” Rose says. “It opens
things up so I can do more of what I actually
enjoy and less of the touristy things.”
Although she hates Fisherman’s Wharf, Pet-
tus, 24, will take her visitors to Golden Gate Park,
which she finds peaceful and relaxing. She gets
dinner or drinks with out-of-town friends at least
once a month in San Francisco, which was voted
the No. 1 U.S. city in Condé Nast Traveler’s Read-
ers’ Choice Awards in 2008.
“When you have visitors, your priority some-
times becomes them, and it definitely gets in
the way of my job,” says Pettus, a catering di-
rector at the St. Francis Yacht Club. “I have a lot
of moments where I am stressed because I am
trying to give directions or figuring out what my
Pettus says she has had to put off everyday
chores because so many of her friends come in to
visit her midweek. “I end up having to do laun-
dry at 11 at night just so I can have clean clothes
to wear the next day.”
Dixon, a 24-year-old skydiving instructor,
bartender, waiter and student at the College of
Southern Nevada, says it’s hard to have any per-
sonal time when his guest room is occupied at
least three out of four weekends each month.
“Vegas is a place that never shuts down, and
people who come are in party mood. But it gets
out of control sometimes,” Dixon says. “What
they don’t understand is this is my real life. To
me, it’s just another Friday night, and I have
work and school the next day.” After two years
of living in Sin City, Dixon is considering mov-
ing out of town.
Of course, not everyone has to fend off fre-
quent visitors. Tim George, 25, an associate at
a transportation- and engineering-consulting
firm, lives in Lebanon, N.H. (population 12,568,
according to the 2000 census). He has not had
houseguests in almost two years.
“My folks have been here one or two times,
but other than that, nothing,” George says. “Peo-
ple visit so infrequently that when it happens, I
actually enjoy it.”

58 New York Now / July – August 2010 New York Now / July – August 2010 59
 REAL ESTATE
Sales pitch
Home sellers try unusual tactics to lure buyers
By Lisa Cupido
W hen Adriana Loschner really needs to sell
a home, her secret weapons are choco-
late-covered strawberries and Champagne. Ma-
ribeth Boisvert will hire a local chef and wine
connoisseur and ask them to show off their cu-
linary skills in the owner’s kitchen.
Both real-estate professionals are willing to do
whatever it takes to sell a client’s home. Some-
times these measures even include wine, a local
band, prizes and parties to draw potential buyers.
“In order to make money, you have to spend
money,” said Loschner, a real estate agent at Long
Realtor Company in Tucson, Ariz. “You need to
be thinking outside the box – that’s what the
market calls for.”
Taking a more innovative approach to sell-
ing property has become so popular, it’s even ac-
quired a nickname: extreme open houses. These
days it’s not unusual for sellers to offer luxury
trips along with the purchase of their home. Oth-
ers have opened their doors to invite prospective
buyers to party at their expense.
Christian Jorgensen, the owner and chef at
CJ’s Deli & Diner in Maui, Hawaii, said he ca-
tered more than 30 open house events last year.
He recently hosted a live omelet station with full
breakfast and Champagne at a $20 million estate.
Entertaining in the home has another appeal
60
besides offering free food, brokers say.
“People already know where the closets and
bathrooms are,” said Boisvert, a sales director at
Thorndike Development in Norton, Mass. “Now
you really want to simulate their experience in
the home.”
As a seller since the mid-1980s, Boisvert has
seen real-estate prices fluctuate and says that
the idea of creating a visual example of what life
in that home might be like has become neces-
sary. With so much competition in the housing
market, it helps when buyers can picture them-
selves living in a certain community, entertain-
ing in their new home, and using the home’s
appliances.
Over the past year, Loschner has found a
need to step up her sales approach in order to
sell homes in several affluent areas of Tucson.
Instead of opening a home to everyone and any-
one embarking on a Sunday drive around town,
she delivers her open house invitations to country
club members or customers of a particular bank.
Recently she was trying to sell a home that
featured an exotic cactus landscape. She learned
all of the names for various cactus plant species,
threw a catered party at the house, and invited
horticulture enthusiasts who might be interested
in making the buy.
New York Now / July – August 2010
A concert on the Commons in Norton, Massachu-
setts to drum up interest in local real estate.
provided by Maribeth Boisvert
About two years ago, Boisvert couldn’t drum
up traffic for a million-dollar property that she
was trying to sell in Massachusetts. One day, she
noticed a painting of the house hanging on the
owners’ wall that they commissioned an artist
to create for them. She made copies of the paint-
ing on open house invitations, targeting buyers
from nearby neighborhoods looking to “buy up.”
Her open house event developed into an ex-
travaganza. The house featured a state-of-the-art
kitchen, so Boisvert hired a chef to demonstrate
cooking techniques using the owners’ gear. She
also hired a chocolate company to make confec-
tions for potential buyers.
But for some sellers, the outcome is not worth
the effort.
Suzy Anderson, an agent at Coldwell Banker
Brokers in Napa Valley, Calif., said she tried to in-
troduce extreme open houses, like parties, into
her market but homeowners wouldn’t go for it.
The risk of property damage is often a concern,
as is the chance that 500 people will happily ac-
cept the party invitation without having any in-
tention of making an offer.
Denise Donlon, a sales representative with
Taylor Warner Realty in Garden City, N.Y., said
that property is still selling is many areas.
“We were so far ahead a few years ago,” she
said, referring to the price of property. “Now that
the market has leveled off, it’s where it should
be. Extreme methods sound like fun, but are not
always necessary to sell a property.”
New York Now / July – August 2010 61

REAL ESTATE
Young househunters
snap up bargains
By Adriana Loeff
M arianela Cordoba and her husband, Abra-
ham Telechanski, a professional couple in
their mid-30s, are comfortable in their brand-
new rented apartment in New York’s Spanish
Harlem. They have a concierge dressed in red, a
garage, and a shuttle to take them to the train
station. Four months ago, they weren’t even
thinking of leaving. But now they’re looking for
a house to buy.
Though some are losing their homes in the
U.S. mortgage crisis, for others, crisis is oppor-
tunity, as the Chinese proverb would have it.
Younger and first-time buyers with solid credit
can suddenly afford homes.
“For those who lose, someone else will gain,”
said Robert Aalberts, professor of Real Estate Law
at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and edi-
tor of the Real Estate Law Journal.
Imagine a person who bought a house in Las
Vegas two years ago for $300,000, and later found
he could not pay the loan, he suggested. “And
another person comes along – like a former stu-
dent of mine – with good credit, a good job, who
buys the house for $150,000. In two, three or five
years, perhaps that house is up to $300,000. And
my friend will have pocketed $150,000.”
Americans still want their own homes as
much as ever, in the opinion of Daniel McGinn,
author of “House Lust: America’s Obsession with
Our Homes.”
62
If during the boom many bought or renovat-
ed property compulsively, expecting an eventual
profit, most people buy houses “because of stuff
that’s going on in their lives,” like a baby on the
way or a job offer in another city, he said.
Matt Zahler, a 28-year-old student at Carnegie
Mellon University in Pittsburgh, is getting mar-
ried in May, and he and his wife hope to buy a
place in Boston. Zahler thinks the timing is right:
“The prices are going down to some degree, and
there’s room for negotiation,” he observed.
The National Association of Realtors is trying
to seduce buyers into acting now.
“If you purchase one of the millions of homes
that will be sold this year, the National Associa-
tion of Realtors wants you to know you’re making
a good move,” one of its TV commercials declares.
The spot is part of an Association ad campaign to
convince buyers that the timing is just right.
Cordoba and Telechanski agree. They’d always
dreamed of buying a house.
“We had the feeling that we were throwing
our money away paying a rent in Manhattan,”
said Cordoba. At the same time, for a long time
they’d felt that “it wasn’t the right time,” she
said. They calculate they’ll pay more than their
nearly $2,500 rent– but believe the difference
will be worth it.
In fast-growing areas like California, Nevada
and Florida, the subprime mortgage crisis has hit
New York Now / July – August 2010
Marianela Cordoba and husband Abraham
Living well in Manhattan
Telechanski were happy in their rented New York
apartment. But now that prices have dropped in
some area suburbs, they are hoping to buy.
Photo courtesy of Marianela Cordoba
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