Update 1-28-14

Hi,

 

First, a note that got overlooked in an e-mail account I haven't checked since I got home mid-month.  Sorry.

 

From Mary Sipp-Green:  I thought you might like to know that I have a new show, The Poetic Landscape, opening January 11, 2014 at the Wally Findlay Gallery, 124 East 57th Street in New York.  The gallery is open Monday through Saturday, 10 AM to 6 PM, and the show will be up for a month.  I haven't been able to get to the city yet and still haven't seen it.

    My next biggest studio news is there's a monograph of my paintings in the works.  All good things, but they are coming all at once.  That said, I'd better get back to cataloging 35+ years of paintings, which is not so easy.  With any luck, the monograph will be published in autumn 2014.  I'm really excited about it, and I'll send you more information then.

    Meanwhile, from the Findlay site:  Mary Sipp-Green's trademark skies, with their layers of color, have a perception beyond the merely visible.  It's not the tangible qualities that are highlighted in her paintings; it's the softly washed memories of a place.  "When I began painting, I painted things as I saw them" Mary explains.  "Very recognizable, very realistic.  After eight years, I felt there was more to say about something than its surface reality.  I wanted to go deeper so was searching for a new direction.  In about 1990, I was walking in a meadow, one I had walked in many times before.  It was a green field with a gray barn.  That particular day, the field turned golden, with the flowering goldenrod and in the light, the barn became purple.  From that experience I painted Dusk on Goldenrod, a painting I consider a transitional work."

 

Next, some follow-ups from last week's notes:

 

From Neil Guberman:  Following up on DDT, I remembered to check out the dialogue, both pro and con, regarding Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, which is credited with the start of the environmental movement that led to the ban of DDT.  In the work, Carson included descriptions of planes dusting most, if not all, of Long Island.  I Googled "DDT spraying on Long Island" and accessed an amazing amount of information, including articles and photographs of both the trucks and planes spraying, some showing kids playing in the spray and being purposely doused by the guys on the truck.  Obviously, this is more than just another interesting childhood memory to share due to the possibility that DDT may have had a direct effect on the health of many who were exposed in this way even if their illnesses didn't manifest till later in life.  I don't know how or if that could ever be proven, but with the epidemic numbers diagnosed with various cancers, and tumors, I believe it's certainly a theory that merits further and deeper investigation.  Hopefully, that's being done. 

 

From Marc Fishman:   It was DDT.  They thought it was safe.  Some years later, fishermen were advised not to eat fish caught in the Adirondack mountains park because of high levels of DDT.  I never saw a good explanation of how DDT got into the park, since it was claimed that there was no spraying there, but we were exposed to a lot of toxins that were considered safe.  Probably still are.

 

And from Helen David:  We moved into North Woodmere -- just below Rosedale Road facing Dolores -- with our infant daughter and toddler son in 1953.  We definitely paid for the truck which sprayed our area, North Woodmere Park, against the mosquitoes.  Our daughter died of a brain tumor in 1996, and a neighbor and his son died shortly before her death.  Oddly enough, I never made the connection.  I forgot completely about the spraying until it was mentioned in the newsletter.

 

[Rich -- as I wrote Helen:  I'm sorry to hear about your daughter.  I had no idea.  Of course, you really can't guess at the causes, even with the compounding evidence of your former neighbor and his son.  We were all probably unintentionally exposed to too many things.  The only hope is that people are safer now.]

 

Some more cheerful follow-ups:

 

From Jay Berliner:  As I know, the last name "Berliner" is for someone from Berlin or someone who studied there.  It can also mean "Jelly Donut."

 

From Joanne Shapiro Polner:  Thank you for including the information about Jewish surnames.  I had seen a book on the subject a couple of years ago and was surprised to find that our last name, Shapiro, originated in Speyer, which itself is spelled in different ways when crossing to other countries.  One of our maternal aunts, who married into my mother's generation via my mom's brother, had the maiden name of Speir.

 

[Rich --  And I'd always been told Eisbrouch was a place name.  The original, Eisenbruke, means "iron bridge," but there were probably iron bridges all over Germany.  Still, it could have been an eisenbruke in Eisbeberg.]

 

Finally, a bit more about Lee and Morty Kaufman, this time from The New York Times, January 22, 2014: 

    “I was retired for 30 years, until at the age of 90, I got swept up in this commercial bit,” Morty Kaufman said. He was referring to the popular TV spots for Swiffer, the maker of household cleaning products, which he stars in with his wife, Lee. In a series of unscripted 30-second ads, the couple discuss their blissful 44-year union and their division of household labor (Mrs. Kaufman does the cleaning; Mr. Kaufman the napping), and marvel at the Swiffer Sweeper and other supplies that have been left on their doorstep.  In one spot, Mr. Kaufman addresses the camera, saying: “There’s only two of us. How much dirt can we manufacture?” He and Mrs. Kaufman answer in unison — “Very little” and “More than you think” — in a perfect encapsulation of the male-female cleaning divide that has no doubt existed since before the invention of the broom.
    After the commercials began airing six months ago, the Kaufmans became Lee and Morty, TV personalities. The couple, whose names and alternating one-liners have the ring of a Catskills comedy duo, have appeared on the “Today” show and “The Ellen DeGeneres Show”; have been interviewed by the local PIX 11 weatherman Mr. G (“A hell of a nice guy,” Mr. Kaufman said); and were recently honored by the Senior Pops Orchestra of Long Island. Last week, they greeted a reporter on the set where the commercials were filmed: their tidy one-story ranch house on suburban Long Island. “I bought it 62 years ago,” Mr. Kaufman said from his favorite leather recliner in the living room. “It was new. I paid $15,000 for the house and another $1,000 for the garage.”
    He had dressed for the interview in gray pants, a white shirt and a tie. Mrs. Kaufman wore a sparkly purple ensemble and sat perched near her husband on a floral upholstered couch. Their daughter, Myra Allen, 62, whose friendship with a casting director led to the couple’s unlikely late-life career as pitchmen, looked on affectionately.
    The commercials were filmed over two days last winter. “Two days of work,” Mr. Kaufman said, shaking his head. “After that, it was all residuals and personal appearances.” He remains mystified by their popularity. “I look at commercials very casually,” he said. “It’s very hard to let it sink in that people are interested. My reaction was, ‘Why?’ ”
    For her part, Mrs. Kaufman found it strange to be recognized when she and her husband would go to Woodro Kosher deli and other local spots. “I didn’t understand why people would be looking at me, I really didn’t,” she said. “I looked down. I thought my pants fell off.”
    The ads’ success lies less with the magic of the Swiffer WetJet than with the Kaufmans, who project an appealing picture of marriage and old age. They are both 91 and still in their home, and they appear loving and physically spry on camera (to demonstrate her chandelier-dusting method, Mrs. Kaufman scales a dining chair). “Well, on the TV we look viable,” said Mr. Kaufman, who has twice battled cancer. “They’re not going to show me hobbling around.” Nevertheless, he drives two days a week to Nassau Community College, where he helps supervise a seniors learning program. And Mrs. Kaufman said she is active in the alumni association of Hunter College, her alma mater. “Make no mistake, we are goers and doers,” she said. “We are not stay-at-homes. We see a lot of opera in Manhattan.”  Mr. Kaufman pointed out that they have slowed down in recent years, and Mrs. Kaufman agreed. “We used to do a lot more, that’s very true,” she said.
    (Continued next week)  

 

The class of '65  50th Reunion dates:  April 24 through April 26, 2015

 

The South '65 e-mail addresses: reunionclass65 . blogspot . com  (remove the spaces)

 

The South '65 photo site: picasaweb . google . com/SouthHS65    (ditto)

 

 

Rich