For Now, Musharraf Has Muzzled Legal Critics in Pakistan

Abstract: KARACHI, Pakistan — Not so long ago, Muneer A. Malik was often photographed sitting on the roof of a Mitsubishi Pajero, fists raised, showered with rose petals and thronged by supporters as he accompanied the embattled Supreme Court chief justice on protest cavalcades that became the starkest symbol of opposition to President Pervez Musharraf ’s rule. Today, Mr. Malik, a lawyer who helped lead the movement of his colleagues, goes nowhere but the hospital and home. He is frail, his face is drawn, he walks through his house slowly and cautiously. He says he is happy to be alive. For speaking out against President Musharraf, whom the United States has held up as its bulwark against Islamic militancy in this country, Mr. Malik spent three weeks in jail, where his kidneys failed and he ended up, he says, close to death. He said his doctors told him it was a combination of dehydration, malnutrition and the presence of unknown toxins in his body. Only recently, after more than a month spent in and out of the hospital, medical tests confirmed that he was out of danger. He is now also free to talk. The government’s detention order against him was lifted Nov. 26, while he lay in a hospital in the capital, Islamabad. Some of his closest lawyer friends have not been as lucky, as Mr. Musharraf has muzzled his legal critics, at least for now. Since Nov. 3, when the president declared an emergency and dismissed the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry , who had been the chief justice, has been prohibited from leaving his house in Islamabad; his family is locked up with him, and their street is heavily guarded. Mr. Malik’s friend and the main leader of the lawyers movement, a veteran lawyer-politician named Aitzaz Ahsan, is under house arrest in Lahore, prohibited from speaking to outsiders, including the American and British ambassadors to Pakistan, both of whom came to meet him at home in recent weeks and were turned back. Two other leaders of the lawyers movement, Ali Ahmed Kurd, of Quetta, and Tariq Mehmood, of Islamabad, are also under house arrest. None of these leaders can talk to one another, except covertly. A protest strike by lawyers has begun to fizzle out. Mr. Malik said young lawyers in particular had been compelled to return to work and make a living. On Wednesday night, Mr. Malik sounded unbowed. “Repression increases as the strength of the movement grows,” he said at his home, dressed in loose white pajamas rather than his customary lawyer’s black coat. “Finally, one or the other has to break, but history teaches us the right always prevails in the end.” The lawyers movement began last spring with the suspension of the chief justice, Mr. Chaudhry, who had dogged Mr. Musharraf’s government on a range of issues, from human rights to the validity of elections. Mr. Chaudhry became a symbol of judicial independence, and Mr. Musharraf endured months of protests by black-coated men and women across the country. Four months later, the president backed down and reinstated Mr. Chaudhry to his post. Then, last November, days before Mr. Chaudhry’s court was expected to rule that Mr. Musharraf was ineligible for a third term in office, the president declared a state of emergency. He accused the court of meddling in state affairs, and had Mr. Chaudhry escorted out of his office and the leaders of the lawyers movement rounded up on orders of preventive detention. Mr. Malik said his arrest warrant described him as “likely to make inflammatory speeches.” He was plucked from a hotel in Islamabad, where he had gone to appear on a television program, and taken to a jail in Rawalpindi, where Mr. Ahsan was already in the next cell. “He was delighted to see me,” Mr. Malik recalled. The two men had been jailed years ago for bucking the military rule of Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq. Jail itself was not a frightening thing. But as Mr. Malik says now, he did not anticipate what came after. Three days later, in the middle of the night, he said, he was taken from Rawalpindi to another jail, in Attock, where he was held in a tiny cell. When allowed out, he repeatedly walked 60 steps from one end of the yard to the other, so he could at least stretch his legs. He was allowed no books, no newspapers. A table and two chairs were placed in the middle of his cell, as if to constantly remind him that he would be interrogated. He never was. “All I could do was lie down in that cell,” he recalled. “From one end to the other you could barely take four steps.” He was in solitary confinement for the first two days, and on a hunger strike. Slowly, the jail filled up with other lawyers and political workers. And then, one by one, everyone was released, except him. He could sleep only with sleeping pills, which the doctor at the jail prescribed. He was also given heavy pain killers, after complaining of problems urinating. Within days, his legs and stomach had begun to swell. He became short of breath. He became so disoriented that he was losing chronological memory. “If you asked me to recap what happened, I couldn’t,” he said. “I was all alone. All the people who had been detained were all released.” On Nov. 23, he was transferred to an Islamabad hospital, then to Karachi, where he underwent repeated dialysis treatments. He plans to go to the United States for toxicology tests. For now, he concedes, the lawyers movement seems to be on hold. Its leaders are prevented from talking to one another. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto has transformed the political landscape. Restrictions on the Pakistani media, Mr. Malik said, have pinched the lawyers’ efforts to publicize their campaign. Since Nov. 3, Pakistan’s largest television news network, Geo News, has been off the air, and it remains unclear whether it will be allowed to resume operations in time for elections, now scheduled for Feb. 18. “We have to change tactics,” Mr. Malik said. “It’s now or never. If we don’t succeed by February, we will not have any kind of judiciary.”

Pakistan
Leaders and Leadership
Chaudhry Iftikhar Muhammad
Musharraf Pervez


In Mexico, a Scarcity of Female Mayors

Abstract: CUERNAVACA, Mexico — The small-town party bosses told her to forget it. Her husband, too, scoffed at the idea as preposterous. And deep down, María Teresa Domínguez had her own doubts. Could she run for mayor of Cuernavaca, the capital of Morelos State and a haven for Mexico City weekenders? Was there any chance she, a woman in a city whose institutions have long been dominated by men, could win? Hadn’t her mother always told her that she belonged at home? “There were many sleepless nights,” said Ms. Domínguez, 54, a university professor and part of a vanguard of women seeking to run for mayor in a country where machismo, corruption and an insider political culture have kept them out. “I always believed I could do more. I can construct, transform this society.” Even as many Mexicans celebrate a milestone in Josefina Vázquez Mota, the first woman to be selected as the presidential candidate of a major Mexican political party, the number of women in office at the most basic level of government — in the small cities and villages that are a backbone of democracy — still falls notably short. Only in 6 percent of the country’s cities and towns do women serve as municipal president, as mayors are called in Mexico. By contrast, women hold one in four seats in Congress, for which 40 percent of a party’s candidates must be women. Political analysts who work with aspiring female politicians in Mexico say that the democratic process at the municipal level remains mired by a conservative and patriarchal culture, vague and unenforced gender quotas, and a lack of transparency and accountability. Mayors are the most visible of local politicians — a double-edged sword. Their power makes them prime targets for criminals (according to the monthly magazine Mayors of Mexico, more than 30 mayors have been killed or have disappeared since 2008), but they are also highly influential allies for state leaders. “They have the closest link to the citizens,” said Yunuel Cruz, head of the department of political participation at the Mexican National Women’s Institute, the government agency in charge of gender equality. “It is the most forgotten space of our democracy.” Now, a band of national and international experts on politics and campaigns is trying to kick open the doors of city halls to more women like Ms. Domínguez, who is participating in a training program designed to increase the number of women campaigning for local offices. The National Democratic Institute, an organization affiliated with the Democratic Party in the United States, has organized a “Future Women Mayors” academy here that teaches participants the basics of politics, how to devise a campaign strategy and what to do once they get elected. The organizers said more female mayors would likely mean more money put toward education and health programs, as well as a deepening public emphasis on quality of life. For Julian Quibell, director of N.D.I. Mexico, this would increase and diversify proposed solutions to some of the country’s growing problems, including violence and unemployment. “We have to break with the idea that women are from Venus and men are from Mars, because more than anything,” he said, “you are excluding a human perspective.” When Mariana López Vieyra, 25, finished giving a convincing mock campaign speech during one of the sessions — with an air reminiscent of an eager and subtly nervous student in an acting class — the group of 30 women engaged in a lengthy and lively discussion. Which parts were worthy of emulating? How could the message have been delivered more clearly? Many of them took meticulous notes during the exchange. The academy in Morelos, one of five Mexican states that do not have any female mayors, is the second of its kind organized by the institute. Mr. Quibell led the six-month inaugural program in the nearby state of Michoacán last year. Of the 52 participants, 15 ran for office after completing the course. Rosa Hilda Abascal, 55, who has served as a trustee and a comptroller in her town, is one of the three elected mayors. She called it a bittersweet victory after growing hostility with her husband pushed her close to giving up her political dreams. “If a lime was missing from the table, he would say, ‘It’s because you’re over there,’ ” said Ms. Abascal, the first female mayor in Zamora, her hometown. She said he finally came to his senses and threw his support behind her, though it took years of convincing. Ms. Domínguez knows all too well that a skeptical husband can be a major political liability. “My advantage,” she said, with a sheepish smile, “is that I’ve been a widow for five years.” Today, she walks around Cuernavaca’s streets, markets and malls, shaking as many hands as possible and taking note of what people tell her is lacking in the city. Ms. Domínguez, of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, is squaring off against three opponents within her party, all men. They, and her party, may prove to be as resistant to her political aspirations as her late husband. Gladis López, president of Mayors of Mexico, says that political parties often set women up for failure by giving them more visibility in strategically chosen places. “Where they don’t have possibilities of winning,” she said, “there is more generosity to support them.” If Ms. Vázquez Mota’s presidential nomination is to help close the gender gap in Mexican politics, the country’s parties will have to not only enforce gender quotas, but also provide women with special training, Ms. López warns. It is unreasonable, she says, that parties expect to move them from what she called “the casserole to the microphone” without any real support. For Ms. Vieyra, whose mock speech elicited thunderous applause from her classmates, it is only a matter of time before women’s participation in politics becomes fully acceptable. “It’s like a social cliché,” she said, “like getting a tattoo a few years ago,” mentioning a tattooed colleague within the party and explaining that for the younger members, it is not an issue at all.

Mexico
Mayors
National Democratic Institute
Women and Girls
Dominguez Maria Teresa
Politics and Government


Martin Buser Holds on to Lead in Iditarod Race

Abstract: The four-time champion Martin Buser held on to the lead in Alaska’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, but his closest chasers were gaining. Buser could become the second musher to claim a fifth title in the 1,000-mile race.

Martin Buser
Iditarod
Alaska
Dog Sledding


Volunteers for Obama Face a Complex Issue

Abstract: ELKO, Nev. — On a recent evening here in eastern Nevada , Cathy Vance, a volunteer for the presidential campaign of Senator Barack Obama , went knocking on doors of voters who had been identified as potential Obama supporters. Elko County is largely rural, with few black residents, located in a state with a dearth of black elected officials. Among the people she found that night was Veronica Mendive, who seemed cautiously warming to Mr. Obama’s candidacy. But she had a thought. “I don’t want to sound like I’m prejudiced,” Ms. Mendive said. “I’ve never been around a lot of black people before. I just worry that they’re nice to your face but then when they get around their own people you just have to worry about what they’re going to do to you.” Ms. Vance responded: “One thing you have to remember is that Obama, he’s half white and he was raised by his white mother. So his views are more white than black really.” She went on to assure Ms. Mendive that she was so impressed with Mr. Obama the person, that she failed to notice the color of his skin anymore. The exchange, posted on The Caucus blog on nytimes.com , evoked outrage among many readers. “Amazing how even white people who support Obama and are canvassing for him default to classic white supremacist language,” wrote one reader. Another said, “What in the world is this volunteer thinking?” But Ms. Vance’s efforts reflect the complex task that many volunteers canvassing for Mr. Obama face. While she and other Obama volunteers may feel offended by remarks like Ms. Mendive’s, an admonishment would not persuade a voter on the fence to pull the lever for Mr. Obama. So she often takes another tack. “I meet people like that from time to time,” Ms. Vance said later. She described one woman she met who explained that she knew herself to be “prejudiced,” had come to abhor that quality in herself, and also saw it reflected through her young son, “who she said was full of hate,” Ms. Vance explained. “We sat and talked at her kitchen table for a long time that day,” Ms. Vance recalled. “I tried to explain to her that maybe the only way to heal those years of hatred and prejudice was to finally make the move and vote for Obama.” David W. Nickerson, a professor of political science at Notre Dame who studies campaign voter outreach, called it unusual for someone to admit racial bias to a stranger. A person from the community where the voter lives might be more persuasive on racial issues, he said. “If you were going to persuade someone on an issue like race,” Professor Nickerson said, “I’d imagine that it would have to come from a credible source. Having it come from someone you know or someone from your neighborhood that represents.” Darry A. Sragow, a political consultant based in Los Angeles who has worked on various Democratic campaigns, said volunteers were generally trained to “shift the discussion from anything that sounds like it may be race-based to arguments that are working best for the Obama campaign, like the economy.” He added: “It’s like selling a car. You’re not going to convince them it’s a beautiful car if they think its ugly. But you get back to whatever the strongest points are. You don’t get far trying to convince someone that something they think of as negative is positive.” Another person who posted a comment in response to the nytimes.com blog item from Elko wrote: “I’m canvassing for Obama. If this issue comes up, even if obliquely, I emphasize that Obama is from a multiracial background and that his father was an African intellectual, not an American from the inner city. I explain that Obama has never aligned himself solely with African-American interests — not on any issue — but rather has always sought to find a middle ground.”

Volunteers
Nevada
Blacks
Race
Presidential Election of 2008
Obama Barack


Political Ad Man Finds the Personal in Democratic Hopefuls

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Mark Putnam has convinced a Democratic political candidate to swim the Hudson River in February (Mayor Steven Fulop of Jersey City). He has cajoled one to sling luggage on the tarmac at the Baltimore-Washington airport (Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland). And more recently, he persuaded another to ride a snowmobile in subzero temperatures (Senator Mark Begich of Alaska). The result: a lauded, 30-second political ad — and frostbite to Mr. Begich’s right ear. As the 2014 midterm election season heats up, Mr. Putnam has emerged as a leading image guru in the lucrative world of political advertising. Democratic candidates are now turning to him for help in some of their most competitive races, hoping to harness his expertise for biographical spots. Though Mr. Putnam has been known to exasperate colleagues with artiste demands and acute attention to detail, he also has a record of delivering high-impact ads — both creative and unorthodox — that help his clients. “I do try to find an emotional hook to every ad — sometimes it’s humor, sometimes it’s a poignant story, sometimes it’s just passion,” said Mr. Putnam, sitting in a conference room in the Arlington, Va., offices of Putnam Partners, the firm he founded in 2011. “I’m always trying to move people to care enough to want to pay attention to the ad, to consider voting for that person.” Political advertising is big business for television broadcasters and local stations. During the 2012 cycle, campaigns, parties and outside groups poured record amounts into television ads — roughly $3.8 billion, according to Kantar Media/CMAG, which monitors political advertising. Kantar has projected that as much as $2.8 billion will be spent on local broadcast ads by the end the 2014 cycle, with local cable representatives anticipating as much as $800 million more than that. Mr. Putnam, who worked on President Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaign ad teams, has attracted a host of prominent Democrats running in red states this cycle, including Alison Lundergan Grimes, a candidate for Senate in Kentucky, and Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, who is seeking re-election. For Mr. Begich’s re-election campaign, Mr. Putnam — a native of Anchorage — wanted to produce a commercial that not only rooted Mr. Begich in the state, but also showcased his work to help Alaska’s energy industry. The ad, called “Road,” involved Mr. Begich cruising around on a snowmobile inside the Arctic Circle in minus-20-degree weather, resulting in frostbite. But the finished ad, like many of Mr. Putnam’s spots this year, became one of the cycle’s most talked-about commercials, lauded for its clean, cinematic quality, as well as the way he managed to cut through the clutter and capture an authentic slice of Mr. Begich’s Alaska. Image Mark Putnam created ads for President Obama in both runs. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times His spots have earned Mr. Putnam praise from operatives on both the left and the right. (In the world of political advertising, bipartisanship is basically nonexistent; ad makers and their firms tend to choose one party, and only make ads for their side.) “Mark Putnam is one of the few political media consultants who isn’t afraid to push the envelope and be different,” said Jon Downs, a Republican ad maker. “He has a high-risk, high-reward approach to his advertising and I respect that.” In one instance, Mr. Putnam drew criticism for pushing the envelope too far. A 60-second ad for Ms. Landrieu features footage of the Louisiana senator talking about how she “will not rest” in her work to help the state’s energy and gas industries. The ad for Ms. Landrieu came under fire for re-enacting comments she made during a Senate hearing last year. Because ethics rules prohibit using footage shot on Senate cameras in political ads, Mr. Putnam said the re-enactments were the only way to capture the moment. Mr. Putnam stills looks slightly boyish at 50, with floppy brown hair and rimless glasses. He remembers as a child watching a political commercial that featured a candidate handing out balloons and thinking, “Gee, I could make a better ad than that.” He majored in molecular biology at Brown University, but found himself drawn to political media. His interest was further kindled after an early conversation he had with the former Democratic vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, whose daughter lived in the freshman dorm where he served as the resident counselor. Those who have worked with him describe him as a gifted storyteller and a good listener. He often gets his candidates to open up by asking a lot of questions, and having them take him for a drive. “I like them to show me where they grew up, where did they go to elementary school and high school, did their parents drive them or did they take the bus,” Mr. Putnam said. “There’s some tidbit that will inevitably come up that they don’t think is important.” His services don’t come cheap. An elaborate Putnam shoot can run up to $30,000 a day, along with an additional $10,000 for editing and the score. A two- to three-day shoot, he said, usually produces up to six ads. Image Mark Putnam watching his spot for Steven Fulop, mayor of Jersey City, swimming the Hudson in February. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times For Senator Heidi Heitkamp’s 2012 race in North Dakota, Mr. Putnam managed to showcase the campaign’s chief asset: Ms. Heitkamp herself. His ads capture an apple-cheeked, North Dakota-nice candidate, with flashes of humor and real emotion — Ms. Heitkamp’s siblings talking about how she used to hide in the laundry room, “reading book after book,” when she had laundry duty; Ms. Heitkamp thwacking away in the batting cages (“When I decided to run for the Senate, I knew they’d try and hit me with all sorts of stuff,” she says, between swings); and Ms. Heitkamp talking about beating breast cancer (“When you live through that, political attack ads seem silly,” she says). “It’s the authenticity he brings, because he really listens to what the campaign wants and what the candidate wants,” said Tessa Gould, Ms. Heitkamp’s 2012 campaign manager. “And then he has the uncanny ability to see something before the rest of us can.” During President Obama’s 2008 campaign, Mr. Putnam led the development of a 30-minute program that ran across broadcast and cable networks in prime time the week before Election Day. His 2012 work included the quietly powerful ad that used Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” comments to narrate a commercial featuring the faces of the 47 percent — veterans, seniors, workers. David Axelrod, who worked with Mr. Putnam on both the 2008 and 2012 campaigns, first met him — and his fastidiousness — in 2004. The men wanted to make an ad using then-Senator John Kerry’s convention speech, where he accepted his party’s presidential nomination. In order to get footage he wanted, Mr. Putnam spent three days in the convention hall, fighting for position for his four cameras. The first serious problem came when he realized that the sign for the Ohio delegation was obstructing the side-angle shot he wanted — so he called in a hacksaw and had the sign cut down to a lower height. When Mr. Kerry’s speech ended, Mr. Putnam’s team was racing up the aisle of the arena to an editing booth, where he and Mr. Axelrod worked through the night, editing the ad to ship the next morning. “I thought I was pretty assiduous, but his attention to detail was pretty unbelievable,” Mr. Axelrod said. “We probably spent an hour on luminescence of the type that would appear on the screen.” The traits that make Mr. Putnam a good ad man — his cut-no-corners approach, his perfectionism, his dog-with-a-bone relentlessness — are the same qualities that sometimes frustrate his colleagues. Democrats who have worked with him say he can be reluctant to give up on his concepts, even if they don’t test well. “He can be stubborn, as anyone in the Ohio delegation knows,” Mr. Axelrod said. “But it’s always stubborn in the furtherance of quality. It drove me nuts sometimes, but I also appreciated it.”

Democrats
Mark Putnam
Mark Begich
US
Heidi Heitkamp
David Axelrod
Campaign advertising
Mary L Landrieu


Luxury Brands Are No Longer Wary of the Web

Abstract: BERLIN THE luxury goods industry, struggling through a recession that has threatened some well-known names with extinction, is trying to use technology to its advantage. Many in the fashion business remain wary of the Internet, partly because of continuing legal battles over online sales of counterfeit goods and concerns about diluting carefully honed brand images. Many companies also have failed to execute online storefronts successfully. But executives say that attitudes are softening as brands realize that the Web provides one of the last untapped sources of potential growth. Federico Marchetti, the founder of Yoox, a company in Milan that runs retailing sites for luxury brands like Valentino, Emilio Pucci and Jil Sander, said many labels were skeptical not long ago. “Now,” he said, “it is the opposite.” The move to capitalize on the Web has become a financial imperative. Analysts at Bain & Company estimate that the sales of luxury goods will fall to 154 billion euros this year ($229 billion), from 170 billion euros in 2008. It is unlikely that online revenue — still only a tiny fraction of the total — will make up the difference soon. One of the most successful ventures on the Web has been Net-à-Porter, a site based in London that sells high-end fashion and accessories, delivering them to homes or offices in black boxes. Though sales in the United States slowed during the depth of the recession, they have since recovered and have continued to rise at double-digit rates in other markets, the company said. It expects sales this year to top £100 million ($168 million), up from £82 million last year. “It just made a lot of sense to allow women to shop when they wanted to shop, how they wanted to shop — at work, at home, in bedroom,” said Natalie Massenet, the company’s founder.  At a time when trundling along high-end strips like Bond Street in London or Avenue Montaigne in Paris with an armful of shopping bags seems out of touch with reality, Net-à-Porter may have benefited from the greater discretion that its service offers. Last year, to cloak purchases even more, the company added a brown-bag delivery option. This year, in another bit of good timing that Ms. Massenet attributed to luck rather than foresight, the company added a new site selling fashions from previous seasons at reduced prices. Customer overlap between the sites is only 6 percent, Ms. Massenet said, with fashionistas frequenting the original Net-à-Porter and bargain hunters turning to the new site, outnet.com . That ought to comfort luxury executives worried that selling online might undermine the high-end appeal of their wares — and the high prices that come with such exclusivity. Some individual brands that previously refrained from selling online have recently embraced the Internet. Hugo Boss, the German clothier, started introducing Internet shops in Europe last year. Now it is accelerating its online efforts, planning to open similar stores in the United States early next year and in Asia the year after, said Claus-Dietrich Lahrs, the chief executive. Mr. Lahrs said Hugo Boss expected to sell more than 50 million euros of goods online within two years, up from a little more than 10 million euros this year.  While some labels are now trying to make up for lost time, others remain cautious about the pitfalls of the Internet. Led by the largest company in the business, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, luxury brand owners have fought a series of legal battles across several continents with Internet companies like Google and eBay, contending that they aided in the online sale of counterfeit goods. Courts have issued mixed rulings, sometimes siding with the brand owners and fining the technology companies, and in other cases agreeing that sufficient steps were being taken to root out fakes. Some executives also remain reluctant to invest heavily in digital initiatives because of costly failures in the past. Uché Okonkwo, a Paris-based consultant, said that brand owners are “many steps behind the clients, when they should be several steps ahead of them.” One brand that has won plaudits from analysts for its efforts is Burberry. This month, it created a social networking site that allows owners of Burberry’s trench coats to exchange stories about them. Christopher Bailey, Burberry’s chief creative officer, said high-end brands should go further in trying to give Web stores the rich texture of physical stores. “Whether they are walking into our store on Bond Street or tapping in from India or China, it’s about making sure the consumer is getting the same experience,” he said.

Luxury Goods
Advertising and Marketing
Computers and the Internet


A Scratch, but Little Concern for Zack Wheeler

Abstract: PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Throughout his young career and without the public’s knowledge, Zack Wheeler, the Mets’ right-handed starter, has pitched at times with tenderness in his right elbow. Last year, it flared up more than usual, but he still made every start, threw every bullpen session and had a fine season. When the Mets announced that Wheeler would not start Saturday’s Grapefruit League game because of his tender elbow and a blister on his index finger, Mets fans were naturally disappointed. But Wheeler had dealt with both problems for some time. He assured everyone that if this had been a regular-season game, he would have pitched. “Every pitcher pitches through pain at some point,” Wheeler said Saturday. “It’s just a matter of dealing with it. It wasn’t affecting me all that much — I could go out there and compete like I wanted to.” Manager Terry Collins said that Wheeler had two magnetic resonance imaging tests on the elbow during the off-season and that both had come back clean. Wheeler had another test on Saturday, but Collins said, “We don’t expect any damage.“ The Mets expect him to rest for a few days before rejoining the rotation. He has not received a cortisone shot for his elbow, and he said he did not receive one last season. “He has such tremendous torque in his arm, there’s always going to be issues,“ Collins said. Asked whether he worried about his elbow becoming a problem, Wheeler said: “For sure. I mean, you always have that in the back of your head. But you try not to change anything you’re doing — arm angle, mechanics, all that kind of stuff. “You just do what you’ve been doing and trust it.” Meanwhile, Vic Black, one of the Mets’ top setup men, will also take a day to rest his shoulder. Black had one M.R.I. test on the shoulder in January and another on Friday, and neither showed structural damage. He described his injury as shoulder fatigue and said that he expected to be throwing again soon. Josh Edgin, the Mets’ top left-handed reliever, is still considering whether to have Tommy John surgery or to try to rehabilitate his stretched elbow ligament. DUDA RETURNS TO LINEUP Lucas Duda, who has been recovering from an injury to an intercostal muscle for much of spring training, made his Grapefruit League debut. He went 1 for 4 as the designated hitter and struck out twice. He said it would take him about two weeks to regain his timing. Opening day is just over three weeks away. Image Alex Rodriguez, right, was unable to tag the Blue Jays’ Ryan Goins on Saturday. Rodriguez went 1 for 3 against Toronto. Credit Kathy Willens/Associated Press CONSIDERING SIX-MAN ROTATION The Yankees continue to mull the idea of a six-man rotation, but not necessarily in order to go easy on Masahiro Tanaka, who incurred a slight tear in the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow midway through last season after he had established himself as the staff ace. “It’s not just Tanaka; it’s all of our guys,” Manager Joe Girardi said. “You get in these long stretches early in the year, and you worry about guys bouncing back. The goal is 30 to 32 starts, so we don’t want to wear them out early on.” Still, the notion of a six-man rotation even into the heart of the season intrigues the Yankees. “If we saw that our guys are somewhat fatigued early in the middle of the summer, we might call a guy up to make a spot start to give him an extra day’s rest,” Girardi said. “It’s mostly in the first couple of months we’ve talked about doing it. And if it works, we might continue to do it every once in a while, sub someone in.” PETER KERASOTIS SOLID OUTING FOR RODRIGUEZ Alex Rodriguez impressed again at the plate, lining a single off the base of the wall in right-center field in a split-squad road game against Toronto in Dunedin, Fla., that the Yankees lost, 1-0. In his other at-bats, he struck out swinging and flied out to right. He also played third base. “Anytime I can be on time and put the ball in the air, especially to the big part of the field, that’s a good sign,” Rodriguez said. “Putting the ball in the air, specifically to right-center, is a good sign.” PETER KERASOTIS PINEDA IMPRESSES VS. TIGERS Michael Pineda, who the Yankees hope will be a top-of-the-rotation starter, pitched three impressive no-hit innings against Detroit in a split-squad game in Tampa. Pineda threw strikes on 24 of his 34 pitches, striking out four batters and walking one in a 4-1 win for the Yankees. He also picked off Andrew Romine to end the third inning. PETER KERASOTIS PUIG OUT WITH ILLNESS Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig was scratched from the lineup for a game against the Cleveland Indians because of an illness. Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly said Puig had arrived at training camp on Saturday feeling sick to his stomach. “We sent him home,” Mattingly said. Puig was scheduled to be the designated hitter against Cleveland. Yasmani Grandal replaced him. Puig, an All-Star last year, is batting .214 in six spring games with one home run and three R.B.I. (AP) MARINER HAS BROKEN WRIST Mariners infielder Chris Taylor is expected to miss four to six weeks because of a broken right wrist. The Mariners made the announcement on Saturday. Taylor was hurt Friday on what was ruled a foul ball. He told the team that the pitch had hit him. Taylor stayed in the game and singled on the next pitch against Milwaukee, but was pulled for a pinch-runner. (AP)

Zack Wheeler
Mets
Baseball
Terry L Collins


Events on Long Island

Abstract: A guide to cultural and recreational goings-on in and around Nassau and Suffolk Counties this week. Items for the guide should be sent at least three weeks in advance to lical@nytimes.com , or by mail to Long Island Weekly, 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018-1405. Comedy BAY SHORE Boulton Center for the Performing Arts “Big Laughs in Bay Shore,” featuring three comedians. Friday at 8 p.m. $15 and $20. Boulton Center for the Performing Arts, 37 West Main Street. (631) 969-1101; boultoncenter.org . PORT WASHINGTON Jeanne Rimsky Theater “The Two and Only,” featuring Jay Johnson, ventriloquist. Friday at 8 p.m. $30 to $40. Jeanne Rimsky Theater, 232 Main Street. landmarkonmainstreet.org ; (516) 767-6444. Film EAST HAMPTON Guild Hall Come Home to Main Street Tuesdays Film Classics: “Dark Victory,” film starring Bette Davis and George Brent. Tuesday at 2 p.m. Free. “The Women,” film starring Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell. March 15 at 2 p.m. Free. Guild Hall, 158 Main Street. (631) 324-0806; guildhall.org . HUNTINGTON Cinema Arts Center “Little Traitor,” screening followed by discussion with the filmmaker Lynn Roth. March 12 at 7 p.m. $9 and $13. “3 Backyards,” screening followed by discussion with Edie Falco, actress, and Eric Mendelsohn, filmmaker. March 18 at 7:15 p.m. $25 and $35. Cinema Arts Center, 423 Park Avenue. (800) 838-3006; cinemaartscentre.org . WESTHAMPTON BEACH Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center “The Housemaid,” thriller by Im Sang-soo. Through March 6. $3 to $10. “Another Year,” by Mike Leigh. March 11 through March 13. $3 to $10. “Poetry,” by Lee Chang-dong. March 18 through March 20. $3 to $10. Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, 76 Main Street. (631) 288-1500; whbpac.org . For Children CENTERPORT Vanderbilt Museum “Our Night Out: Story Time Under the Stars,” a one-hour program in which stories are read while pictures are projected on the dome under star-filled skies. Through April 17. $6. Vanderbilt Museum, 180 Little Neck Road. vanderbiltmuseum.org ; (631) 854-5579. DIX HILLS Dix Hills Performing Arts Center Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” musical. Through March 6. $5 and $12. Dix Hills Performing Arts Center, 305 North Service Road. (631) 656-2148; dhpac.org . GARDEN CITY Long Island Children’s Museum “Shape Up.” Build a creative collage using basic shapes. Tuesday through Friday, 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Free with museum admission. Celtic Fun, with Darlene Graham and the Shades of Green Band, performing traditional Celtic music. Ages 3 and up. March 12 and 13. $3 and $4 with museum admission, $8 theater only. “Lucky Leprechaun Finger Puppets.” Create leprechaun finger puppets to take home. March 12, 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Free with museum admission. Long Island Children’s Museum, 11 Davis Avenue. (516) 224-5800; licm.org . GREAT NECK Temple Emanuel of Great Neck “Happy Birthday Kids and Yiddish! A Perfect Tsen,” a family musical by the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene. March 6 at 1 p.m. $10 to $20. Temple Emanuel of Great Neck, 150 Hicks Lane. (516) 829-2570. MERRICK Merrick Theater and Center for the Arts Disney’s “The Jungle Book,” family performance. Saturdays at 2 p.m. through April 30. $9. Merrick Theater and Center for the Arts, 2222 Hewlett Avenue. (516) 868-6400. NORTHPORT John W. Engeman Theater “Rapunzel — a Tangled Fairytale,” youth theater performance. Through March 27. $15. John W. Engeman Theater, 250 Main Street. johnwengemantheater.com ; (631) 261-2900. OAKDALE CM Performing Arts Center “Willy Wonka Junior,” children’s musical by Roald Dahl. Through March 12. $9. CM Performing Arts Center, 931 Montauk Highway. (631) 218-2810; cmpac.com . PATCHOGUE Patchogue Theater for the Performing Arts “Peter and the Wolf,” family musical. March 13 at 3 p.m. $8 to $21. Patchogue Theater for the Performing Arts, 71 East Main Street. patchoguetheatre.com ; (631) 207-1313. PORT JEFFERSON Theater Three “Rugrats: A Live Adventure,” children’s performance. Through March 19. Theater Three, 412 Main Street. (631) 928-9100; theaterthree.com . RONKONKOMA Ballet Long Island “Princess Tea Party,” includes performance, photos with Princesses, cupcakes and cookies, (call for hours). Ages 3 and up.Through July 27. $15 and $25. Ballet Long Island, 1863 Pond Road. (631) 737-1964.balletlongisland.com . ROSLYN HARBOR Nassau County Museum of Art “Family Sunday at the Museum,” starting at 1 p.m. Gallery guides and art activities from 1:30 p.m. Sundays. $4 to $10; children 4 and under and members, free. Exhibition of drawings by Ronald Searle for the book “Let’s Have a Bite! A Banquet of Beastly Rhymes” by Robert L. Forbes. Through May 8. Tuesdays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Nassau County Museum of Art, 1 Museum Drive. nassaumuseum.org ; (516) 484-9337. WESTHAMPTON BEACH Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center “Harry the Dirty Dog,” family musical presented by ArtsPower National Touring Theater. March 12 at 3 p.m. $15 to $25. Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, 76 Main Street. whbpac.org; (631) 288-1500. Music and Dance BAY SHORE Boulton Center for the Performing Arts Strunz and Farah, guitarists. March 18 at 8 p.m. $35 and $40. Boulton Center for the Performing Arts, 37 West Main Street. (631) 969-1101; boultoncenter.org. BELLPORT Bellport United Methodist Church “Songs to Stir the Soul,” selections, like opera and Broadway, featuring the soprano Julie Meixsell and the bass-baritone Ron Meixsell. March 13 at 3 p.m. $20. Bellport United Methodist Church, 185 South Country Road. (631) 286-1832; umcbellport.org . BLUE POINT Bayport-Blue Point Public Library “Irish Times.” J. K. Hodge, Bayport pianist and composer, plays Irish music. March 6 at 2 p.m. Free. Bayport-Blue Point Public Library, 203 Blue Point Avenue. (631) 363-6133; bprt.suffolk.lib.ny.us . BROOKVILLE Tilles Center for the Performing Arts “Seventh Annual C. W. Post Band Festival,” with performances by Baldwin High School Wind Symphony, East Meadow High School Wind Ensemble, C. W. Post Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band, and Tilles Festival Band. March 6 at 3 p.m. $8 and $10. Michael Bolton One World One Love Tour. Wednesday at 8 p.m. $47 to $87. “ Star Trek Live,” featuring special effects and audience interaction. March 12 at 2 p.m. $14 to $30. Tyne Daly, cabaret show. March 12 at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. $42 and $52. Daedalus Quartet, performing chamber music. March 13 at 3 p.m. $42. Glenn Miller Orchestra, jazz. March 20 at 3 p.m. $32 to $52. Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, 720 Northern Boulevard. (516) 299-3100; tillescenter.org . EAST HAMPTON Guild Hall The Met: Live in HD: presents Donizetti’s “Lucia Di Lammermoor.” March 19 at 1 p.m. $15 to $22. Guild Hall, 158 Main Street. (631) 324-0806; guildhall.org. ELMONT Elmont Memorial Library “Elvis,” a tribute performance presented by Don Anthony. March 12 at 2 p.m. Free. “The Music of Ireland: A Celebration of Irish Heritage,” with Tyrone Noonan, musician. March 13 at 3 p.m. Free. Elmont Memorial Library, 700 Hempstead Turnpike. (516) 354-5280. MASSAPEQUA Berner Middle School Almost All Beethoven Concert, with Anna Lee, 16-year-old violinist, performing the Beethoven Violin Concerto. March 19 at 8 p.m. Free. Berner Middle School, 50 Carman Mill Road. (516) 795-4071; msd.k12.ny.us/berner.cfm . PLAINVIEW Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School North Shore Symphony Orchestra, with Anton Polezhayev and Jeong-Yoon Park, soloists, in works by Brahms, Verdi and Bizet. March 12 at 8 p.m. $8 and $10. Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School, 50 Kennedy Drive. northshoresymphonyorch.org ; (516) 695-4476. SOUTHAMPTON Southampton Cultural Center The Chamber Series presents Trio Kavak, performing works by Kaija Saariaho, Toru Takemitsu, Andrew McKenna Lee, Simon Holt and Victor Lowrie. March 6 at 3 p.m. $10 and $20. Flying Forms, composed of Marc Levine, violin, and Tami Morse, harpsichord, is joined by the lutenist Christopher Morrongiello for a program of Baroque classics by Biber, Castello, Corelli, Handel and more. March 12 at 7 p.m. $10 and $20. Southampton Cultural Center, 25 Pond Lane. (631) 287-4377; southamptonculturalcenter.org . STONY BROOK Charles B. Wang Center “New Butoh Space Dance: Tetsuro Fukuhara,” Japanese dance. Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Free. Mondays through Fridays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; or by appointment. Charles B. Wang Center, Stony Brook University. sunysb.edu/sb/wang ; (631) 632-6320. STONY BROOK University Cafe, Stony Brook University Angel Band, roots-blues. March 6 at 2 p.m. $22 and $27. University Cafe, Stony Brook University, 100 Nicolls Road. (631) 632-1093; universitycafe.org . STONY BROOK Ward Melville Heritage Educational and Cultural Center North Shore Pro Musica chamber music concert, featuring works by Brahms, Martinu and Elaine Kirkland. March 6 at 5 p.m. $18. Ward Melville Heritage Educational and Cultural Center, 97P Main Street. (631) 689-5888; wmho.org . Outdoors LATTINGTOWN Bailey Arboretum “Wilderness Survival.” Join Dan Kriesberg, inspiring naturalist and science teacher, and take Bailey Arboretum’s wilderness survival test. March 13, 2 to 3 p.m. Donations accepted. Bailey Arboretum, 194 Bayville Road. (516) 571-8020; baileyarboretum.org . WESTHAMPTON BEACH Cupsogue Beach County Park Seal walks with the Coastal Research and Education Society of Long Island; observe and photograph seals. Reservations required. Weekends through May 15. Cupsogue Beach County Park, Dune Road. (631) 244-3352; cresli.org . Spoken Word GARDEN CITY Ruth S. Harley University Center, Adelphi University “History, Documentary Filmmaking and Presidential Politics,” a lecture presented by Shola Lynch, filmmaker, writer and producer. Monday at 7 p.m. Ruth S. Harley University Center, Adelphi University, 1 South Avenue. (516) 877-3610; students.adelphi.edu/sa/uc . OCEANSIDE Friedberg Jewish Community Center “Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit and the Biggest Flop of the Season 1959-2009,” discussion with Peter Filichia, theater critic for The Star-Ledger of Newark and News 12 New Jersey. Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. $7. Friedberg Jewish Community Center, 15 Neil Court. (516) 766-4341; friedbergjcc.org . SETAUKET Gallery North “Extraordinary Voices,” poetry reading featuring local poets. March 20, 4 to 6 p.m. Free. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Gallery North, 90 North Country Road. (631) 751-2676; gallerynorth.org . STONY BROOK Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages “Decoy Day.” The folklorist John Eilertsen leads a discussion on decoy carving while local carvers demonstrate their craft. March 6, 1 to 4 p.m. Free with museum admission. Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages, 1200 Route 25A. (631) 751-0066; longislandmuseum.org . Theater BELLPORT Bellport Community Center “Steel Magnolias,” by Robert Harling. Through March 12. $15 and $18. Bellport Community Center, 4 Bell Street; bellport.com/residents/ccenter.htm . DIX HILLS Dix Hills Performing Arts Center “I Hate Hamlet,” dramatic comedy. March 17 through March 20. $12 and $15. Dix Hills Performing Arts Center, 305 North Service Road. (631) 656-2148; dhpac.org. EAST FARMINGDALE Arena Players Repertory Theater Main Stage Theater “One White Crow,” drama by Dale Griffiths Stamos. Through March 20. $20 and $25. Arena Players Repertory Theater Main Stage Theater, 296 Route 109. (516) 293-0674; arenaplayers.org . EAST HAMPTON Guild Hall Staged readings: “Lieutenant Angel,” by Penny Rock, directed by Jim Larocca; “Mr. Happiness,” by David Mamet; and “Dr. Kheal,” by Maria Irene Fornes; presented by the Naked Stage and Guild Hall. March 15 at 7:30 p.m. Free. Guild Hall, 158 Main Street. (631) 324-0806; guildhall.org. EAST ISLIP BayWay Arts Center “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” comedy based on the 1988 film. Through March 13. $14 to $25. BayWay Arts Center, 265 East Main Street. broadhollow.org ; (631) 581-2700. FREEPORT Lantern Theater “The Children’s Hour,” drama by Lillian Hellman. Through April 3. $16 and $18. Lantern Theater, 91 North Bayview Avenue. (516) 221-4485; lanterntheatreli.com . HEMPSTEAD John Cranford Adams Playhouse “62nd Annual Hofstra Shakespeare Festival,” featuring “The War of the Roses,” an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry VI trilogy, adapted and directed by Royston Coppenger. Thursday through March 20. $10 and $12. John Cranford Adams Playhouse, Hofstra University, South Campus. (516) 463-6644; hofstra.edu . LINDENHURST Studio Theater “1940s Radio Hour,” musical by Walton Jones and Carol Lees. Through March 12. $15 to $25. Studio Theater, 141 South Wellwood Avenue. studiotheatreli.com ; (631) 226-8400. MERRICK Merrick Theater and Center for the Arts “Dial M for Murder,” drama. Through March 6. $16 and $20. Merrick Theater and Center for the Arts, 2222 Hewlett Avenue. (516) 868-6400. NORTHPORT John W. Engeman Theater “Cabaret,” by Joe Masteroff, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. Through March 27. $60. John W. Engeman Theater, 250 Main Street. (631) 261-2900; johnwengemantheater.com. PATCHOGUE Patchogue Theater for the Performing Arts “My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish and I’m Still in Therapy,” one-man show featuring Steve Solomon. March 19 at 8 p.m. $27 to $67. The Duke Ellington Orchestra, jazz. March 20 at 3 p.m. $37 to $67. Patchogue Theater for the Performing Arts, 71 East Main Street. patchoguetheatre.com; (631) 207-1313. PORT JEFFERSON Theater Three “Woodstockmania: Woodstock in Concert,” musical created by Ellen Michelmore. Through March 19. $21. Theater Three, 412 Main Street. (631) 928-9100; theaterthree.com. Museums and Galleries EAST HAMPTON Guild Hall “Annual Student Art Festival Part II.” March 12 through April 10. Guild Hall, 158 Main Street. (631) 324-0806; guildhall.org. EAST HAMPTON The Drawing Room “Robert Harms: Paintings and Watercolors.” Through April 3. Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Drawing Room, 16R Newtown Lane. drawingroom-gallery.com ; (631) 324-5016. EAST ISLIP Islip Art Museum “Photo Finish,” an exhibition of works by African-American artists who have been in residence at the Center for Photography at Woodstock’s work space for emerging photographers. Through March 20. $3 suggested donation. Wednesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. Islip Art Museum, 50 Irish Lane. (631) 224-5402; islipartmuseum.org . FARMINGDALE Farmingdale State College “Reinvention Exhibit,” works by Nancy Stahl. Through Thursday. Farmingdale State College, 2350 Broadhollow Road. (631) 420-2000; farmingdale.edu . GREAT NECK Great Neck Arts Center “Mirage,” an exhibition of works by Fareen Butt, inspired by sacred landscapes and the Sufi and Vedic philosophies of light. Through March 20. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Wednesdays, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Fridays, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Sundays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Great Neck Arts Center, 113 Middle Neck Road. (516) 829-2570; greatneckarts.org . HEMPSTEAD African-American Museum “New Orleans Exhibition,” photographs by Martin Hochberg. Through March 30. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. African-American Museum, 110 North Franklin Street. (516) 572-0730; aamoflongisland.org . HEMPSTEAD Hofstra University Museum “Soweto Art: From the Collection of Violet and Les Payne,” an exhibition featuring 40 paintings and works on paper by artists of Soweto, South Africa. Through April 21. “1930s: Art in America,” an exhibition that captures the visual arts scene in America during the 1930s. Through May 27. Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. Hofstra University Museum, 112 Hofstra University. (516) 463-5672; hofstra.edu/museum . HUNTINGTON Heckscher Museum of Art “Identity Crisis: Authenticity, Attribution and Appropriation,” exhibition of works that explore issues relating to the artistic use of other artists’ styles and images. Through March 27. $4 to $8; members, free. Wednesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Heckscher Museum of Art, 2 Prime Avenue. (631) 351-3250; heckscher.org . HUNTINGTON Fotofoto Gallery “Works for Women,” group show. Through March 6. Free. “Umbra Photography Exhibition,” featuring works by Joan Powers. Friday through April 17. Fridays, 5 to 9 p.m.; Saturdays, noon to 9 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Fotofoto Gallery, 372 New York Avenue. (631) 549-0448; fotofotogallery.com . HUNTINGTON STATION South Huntington Public Library Paintings by Dan Christoffel, an exhibition featuring portraits of Abraham Lincoln and works inspired by the civil rights movement. Through Thursday. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. South Huntington Public Library, 145 Pidgeon Hill Road. shpl.info ; (631) 549-4411. MANHASSET, The Salamatina Gallery “Demi: One More Day on Earth,” an exhibition of paintings by the Cuban-American artist Demi. Through April 2. The Salamatina Gallery, 2032 Northern Boulevard. (516) 439-4471; salamatina.com . MELVILLE Art-Trium “Island Passions,” group show. Through April 4. Mondays through Fridays, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Art-Trium, 25 Melville Park Road. (631) 271-8423; huntingtonarts.org . MINEOLA PACE Center “Nikki Sclair Solo Exhibition,” mixed media. Through Thursday. PACE Center, 302 Willis Avenue. longislandcenterofphotography.org ; (516) 902-7012. OAKDALE Anthony Giordano Gallery, Dowling College “The Nature of Drawing,” featuring the artwork of Eric Beltz, Hugo Crosthwaite, Matthew Fisher and others. Through March 18. Free. Wednesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. Anthony Giordano Gallery, Dowling College, 96 Biltmore Avenue. (631) 244-3016; dowling.edu . PORT WASHINGTON Graphic Eye Gallery “Artists Invite Artists,” group show. Through April 3. Wednesdays through Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Graphic Eye Gallery, 402 Main Street. (516) 883-9668; graphiceyegallery.com . ROCKVILLE CENTRE Molloy College Art Gallery “Artists Choose Artists,” an exhibition based on the mentoring of established artists with young community artists. Through March 25. Mondays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Molloy College Art Gallery, 1000 Hempstead Avenue. molloy.edu/student/artgallery ; (516) 678-5000, ext. 6549. ROCKVILLE CENTRE Phillips House “African-American Dolls,” a collection of dolls from the late 19th century through the early 20th century. Through April 17. Saturdays and Sundays, 1 to 4 p.m. Phillips House, 28 Hempstead Avenue. (516) 764-7459. ROSLYN HARBOR Nassau County Museum of Art “Donald Baechler,” solo exhibition of sculptural and collaged works. Through May 8. “Milton Avery and the End of Modernism,” featuring works with intense saturated color fields. “Posters of the Russian Revolution 1917-1921,” an exhibition of posters from the Lenin Library, Moscow. Through May 8. $4 to $10; children under 5 and members, free. Tuesdays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Nassau County Museum of Art, 1 Museum Drive. nassaumuseum.org; (516) 484-9337. SOUTHAMPTON Parrish Art Museum “Esteban Vicente: Portrait of the Artist,” an exhibition of Esteban Vicente’s paintings and works on paper from the 1940s through the 1990s. Through April 10. Free to $5. Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. Parrish Art Museum, 25 Job’s Lane. (631) 283-2118; parrishart.org . SOUTHAMPTON Southampton Historical Museums “Ernesto F. Costa: Shinnecock Hills Painter.” Through April 30. Free. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Southampton Historical Museums, 17 Meeting House Lane. (631) 283-2494; southamptonhistoricalmuseum.org . STONY BROOK Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages “William Sidney Mount: The Education of an Artist,” an exhibition exploring the career development of the genre painter. Through April 17. $4 to $9; members and children under 6, free. Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages, 1200 Route 25A. (631) 751-0066; longislandmuseum.org. SYOSSET Syosset Public Library Serigraphs, by George Wybenga. Through March 28. Free. Syosset Public Library, 225 South Oyster Bay Road. (516) 921-7161; syossetlibrary.org .

Art
Theater
Culture (Arts)
Long Island (NY)


Attack on Mosque in Saudi Arabia Leaves 2 Worshipers Dead

Abstract: RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Two worshipers were killed and seven others were wounded when a suicide bomber and a gunman struck a mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia on Friday, the Interior Ministry said. The attack was the latest in a series carried out against Shiite mosques in the country’s east, where most Shiites in the predominately Sunni kingdom live. The Interior Ministry said the attackers targeted the mosque, in Mahasen, during Friday Prayer. One of the attackers blew himself up when approached by security forces, and the other exchanged gunfire with police officers before being wounded and arrested, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency. In a video that appeared to have been filmed inside the mosque and that was distributed by Shiite activists, a blast is heard and worshipers chant “God is great,” followed by gunfire. A second video showed congregants surrounding a man struggling on the mosque carpet and removing a broad belt, presumed to hold explosives, from his waist. The authenticity of the videos could not be immediately confirmed. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has claimed to be behind similar attacks over the past year. The group, which considers Shiites to be heretics who should be killed, has also attacked and killed Saudi security forces. Saudi officials have said that a few thousand citizens have joined the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The government periodically announces arrests of dozens of people suspected of having ties to the group.


Wall St. Whistle-Blowers, Often Scorned, Get New Support

Abstract: Becoming a whistle-blower by reporting wrongdoing on Wall Street or in a federal agency that regulates Wall Street takes lots of guts. And a strong argument can be made that whistle-blowers should be celebrated and rewarded for their courage. Incredibly, though, all too often the opposite occurs, and Wall Street whistle-blowers are shunned, ostracized and ignored. Often, they are fired from their jobs and blackballed from the industry. The wrongdoing they witnessed and reported gets covered up. This is a typical outcome, despite the promises from such prominent Wall Street regulators as Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in the Southern District of New York, and William C. Dudley, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, who have encouraged whistle-blowers to come forward and report wrongdoing, both because it is the right thing to do and because it will enable regulators to root out the bad behavior and prosecute those responsible for it. But the real world of Wall Street does not work that way. Take the much-discussed case of Alayne Fleischmann, a former associate at JPMorgan Chase who, as I have written before , was one of the people responsible in the years leading up to the financial crisis for making sure that the mortgages that the bank was buying from third parties — and then packaging into securities and selling off as investments around the world – met the bank’s credit standards. In late 2006 and early 2007, she told her bosses that the bank was manufacturing and selling mortgage-backed securities that did not meet its own credit requirements, but she was ignored. Then, in February 2008, she was fired, and effectively blackballed from the industry. Appalled by her experience, she turned over information about what she had witnessed to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department. In March 2013, Ms. Fleischmann gave a deposition to Richard Elias, an assistant United States attorney for the Eastern District of California, in which she laid out all the wrongdoing she had witnessed at JPMorgan Chase. Her information was pivotal in the $13 billion settlement that the bank reached with the government later that year. The bank’s settlement with the Justice Department also resulted in an anodyne “statement of facts” that essentially glossed over the precise details of what JPMorgan Chase had done wrong and what Ms. Fleischmann had told the department. A complaint prepared by the United States attorney for the Eastern District of California, whose team had been investigating the wrongdoing at JPMorgan Chase, was used to get the bank to agree to the $13 billion settlement, but it has never been filed and remains a much-sought but publicly unavailable document. For her part, Ms. Fleischmann has moved back to her native British Columbia and, since November 2015, has been counsel to the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation. Now, four former whistle-blowers who have suffered fates similar to Ms. Fleischmann’s – all fired and blackballed after reporting wrongdoing — have banded together to form Bank Whistleblowers United, an advocacy group that aims to improve the status of Wall Street whistle-blowers and change the way Wall Street is regulated. Among its goals is to try to force the presidential candidates to agree that they will not take donations from any financial firm (or more than than $250 from any of its officers) that has been charged with committing “legal elements of fraud,” in other words, virtually all of them. The group’s manifesto, released Jan. 29, pledges to hold “the elite financial leaders who led the fraud epidemics that caused the financial crisis and the Great Recession personally accountable” and to help “to implement the urgent changes necessary to prevent or at least reduce the frequency and harm of future crises.” The whistle-blowers behind the new group are not unknown. One is Richard M. Bowen III, a former senior executive at Citigroup, who like Ms. Fleischmann saw that his bank was packaging shoddy mortgages and selling them as securities. He took his concerns to the highest levels of Citigroup, including to Robert E. Rubin, the former Treasury Secretary who was then chairman of the bank’s executive committee. Mr. Bowen was fired. Another is Gary J. Aguirre, a former S.E.C. lawyer who was fired from the agency after he refused his supervisor’s demand that he give preferential treatment to a Wall Street banker that the S.E.C. was investigating. There’s also Michael Winston, a former managing director at Countrywide Financial, the originator of billions of dollars of home mortgages that should never have been issued, who saw wrongdoing and tried to do something about it. But instead of being rewarded, he was “punished, isolated, tormented, financially harmed and ultimately dismissed,” he has said. Then there is William K. Black, an associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, who describes himself as “a serial whistle-blower” when he was a federal regulator during the savings-and-loan crisis of the 1980s. Charles H. Keating Jr., the infamous owner of Lincoln Savings & Loan Association, once wrote a memo, metaphorically, of course, that his “HIGHEST PRIORITY” was to “GET BLACK…KILL HIM DEAD.” In addition to encouraging presidential candidates to reject donations from big banks, the four whistle-blowers have created what they called a “60-day plan” that would allow President Obama, or his successor, to “restore the rule of law” in the banking sector and end the era of financial institutions that are “too big to fail” without requiring new legislation. Among their proposals are ending the “revolving door” that exists between Washington and Wall Street and that often curbs regulators’ willingness to prosecute the powerful law firms or Wall Street banks they hope to return to when their government service ends. In addition, the group seeks to stop the use of “deferred prosecution agreements” for “elite” white-collar criminals and to get 500 F.B.I. agents reassigned to investigate white-collar crimes. It is also asking Congress to allocate money to hire 3,000 new F.B.I. agents, 250 Justice Department lawyers and 250 S.E.C. investigators and enforcers. It’s an ambitious plan and one worth paying close attention to, especially if there is to be any hope of returning Wall Street to a place that works for the benefit of the American people and not just the people who work there. “It is our firm belief that, if these actions are not taken,” Mr. Bowen said to me in an email, “our country will experience another financial crisis again caused by the same misbehavior we have witnessed in the past.”

Bank Whistleblowers United
Whistleblower
Banking and Finance
Regulation and Deregulation


Daily Report: How Tech Is Sapping the Silicon Valley Food Scene

Abstract: Silicon Valley has disrupted many industries worldwide in the last few decades, but what is less talked about is how much it has also disrupted itself. With all the jobs and riches brought by tech companies in Silicon Valley, the area’s home prices have soared , making it increasingly unaffordable for some residents. Local transportation has been upended by a network of buses that ferry tech workers to their companies. Some Silicon Valley cities are just fed up with the cash-flush tech enterprises and want them to go away. Image The ripple effects have also reached Silicon Valley’s local restaurant industry, writes Nicole Perlroth , who delved into the once-bustling restaurant scene in Palo Alto, Calif. There, she found that with tech companies luring away chefs and restaurant workers as well as more start-ups pushing up local rents, many restaurants could no longer keep afloat. More than 70,000 square feet of Palo Alto restaurant and retail space was lost to offices from 2008 to 2015, she writes. The changes don’t mean people will starve, but the character of Silicon Valley is transforming. What’s left are often national restaurant chains, well-heeled restaurants funded by venture capitalists and fewer of the mom-and-pop operations that once gave Silicon Valley towns like Palo Alto a distinct local flavor.

Silicon Valley
Restaurant
Palo Alto
Computers and the Internet
Tech Industry


Utility Bill Is One More Casualty of Recession

Abstract: PROVIDENCE, R.I. — For the Cardente family, the shutoff of their electricity and gas in September was a wrenching marker in a two-year downslide. A run of mishaps, including illness and the husband’s workplace injury, extensive structural damage from a burst water bed and the mother’s layoff from a nursing job, had already upended their middle-class lives. Then the pile of utility bills emerged as a headache to rival the past-due mortgage . “You always try to pay your mortgage or rent to keep a roof over your head,” said Debra Cardente, the mother. “Then you ask, do you pay your electric or gas bill, pay your telephone or put food on the table?” The recession has accentuated what was already a growing home-energy challenge for low-income and many middle-class households across the nation. Rising numbers have had their utilities shut off, causing desperate scrambles to pay arrears and penalties to get them restored. In 2009, some 31,000 households in Rhode Island will have their utilities shut off, and the effort to juggle energy bills and mortgages is helping push some homeowners into foreclosure, said Henry Shelton, director of the George Wiley Center, a consumer advocacy group here. (Here, as in many states, utilities may not disconnect the poor in the winter.) Since 2000, the cost of heating a home with fuel oil has more than doubled and the cost of heating a home with electricity has risen by one third, outpacing many incomes. The recent surge in unemployment has thrown even more people into energy debt. Last winter, applications for federal energy assistance soared and Congress nearly doubled money for the program, known as Liheap , to $5.1 billion. In 2009, a record 8.1 million households, up from 6.1 million in 2008, received one-time grants, averaging about $500, according to data released Friday by the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association . Congress kept the financing at $5.1 billion for the coming year. Energy prices have dipped slightly, but applications this fall are up an additional 20 percent, so grants will shrink or more people will be turned down, the association said. “Households will do just about anything to stay connected,” said John Howat, an analyst with the National Consumer Law Center in Boston . If they cannot pay, some people move and open a new account under a different name. Some run extension cords from a neighbor’s house, others spend weeks getting heat from dangerous kerosene stoves and light from candles. The Cardentes got their power turned back on by borrowing money from relatives and paying $3,500 toward arrears of more than $10,000. But they defaulted on a plan that called for them to pay $723 each month, and the utility demanded the balance of almost $5,000. They are applying for Liheap aid and plan to appeal to the utility for more time. For some low-income families, the federal grants have been welcome but just too small. Suzette Orazi, 50, and her husband, Juan Lizardo, 45, live with a teenage son in a house in Providence that is heated inefficiently with electric room units. As energy prices climbed over the last several years, so did their utility bills, while Mr. Lizardo lost his job as a jewel polisher. The $1,000 they got from Liheap last winter hardly made a dent in their growing arrears, now over $11,000. The power company recently threatened to cut them off but later said that in accord with state protections for low-income customers, it would not do so in winter. It is still pressing for an immediate $2,456, however. “We just can’t make that payment,” said Ms. Orazi, who receives disability. The couple fears losing the house as well as the electricity needed to live in it. California , like Rhode Island, requires lower electric rates for low-income consumers. Even so, as unemployment in California climbed past 12 percent, the number of shutoffs among such families rose by one-fifth in the year that ended in August, according to a report last month by the state’s Division of Ratepayer Advocates . In Connecticut , the number of shutoffs for all incomes rose from 86,074 in 2008 to 105,300 in just the first nine months of 2009, according to the state’s Public Utilities Commission. New Jersey is widely praised for its program for low-income residents: a family of four making less than $38,588 pays only about 6 percent of its income on utilities. Those one step up, with incomes up to $49,612 for a family of four, are eligible for Liheap grants. But many families just above that level, with incomes between $50,000 and $66,000, have found themselves in energy trouble in a high-cost state where unemployment is 9.7 percent. New Jersey Shares , a nonprofit organization that provides up to $1,000 in energy assistance to that group, has already helped a record 19,000 families this fall and turned away an additional 18,000 for lack of money, said its director, James M. Jacob. Many seeking aid are facing imminent shutoffs, he said. With energy costs becoming a chronic challenge, consumer advocates in Rhode Island and elsewhere are pushing for alternatives to one-time grants, citing the program in New Jersey and a similar one adopted this year in Illinois , setting bills as a share of income. Such an approach would make a world of difference for the Cardente family, for example; in hard times, their bills would have been cut, and when Ms. Cardente and her husband find work, the bills would rise. New Hampshire already has income-linked subsidies, but in mid-December, citing rising hardship, the governor and legislative leaders said they would rush through a bill for still more aid. Indiana , Nevada , Ohio and Pennsylvania are among states that reduce utility bills according to income levels, said Mr. Howat, the consumer advocate. The subsidies are usually paid for by raising rates for household, commercial and industrial customers, posing political risks. In Rhode Island, a bill to cap utility bills for the poor at 6 percent of income has been introduced by State Representative Arthur Handy, Democrat of Cranston. But in a statement last June, the state’s Division of Public Utilities and Carriers expressed “reservations” about the proposal, and its prospects remain uncertain. James E. Lanni, the state’s associate administrator of utilities, said the plan would place an unreasonable burden on consumers, raising the average electric bill by 3.7 percent and the average gas bill by 5 percent to yield $15.2 million in subsidies. He said that the doubling of federal energy aid, along with other programs, had reduced need and that if fees were not linked to consumption, people would have no incentive to conserve energy. In an interview, Mr. Handy countered that with his plan, utilities would save money on dealing with delinquent accounts and spend less money disconnecting and reconnecting homes. The Rhode Island legislature is expected to consider the measure early next year.

Income
Recession and Depression
Electric power


Mayweather Plans to End Layoff

Abstract: Floyd Mayweather Jr. said Tuesday on his Twitter account that he would end a 16-month hiatus and face the World Boxing Council welterweight champion Victor Ortiz on Sept. 17. The site has yet to be determined. Mayweather has not fought since a unanimous decision over Shane Mosley on May 1, 2010, and has repeatedly declined a bout against Manny Pacquiao, the World Boxing Organization welterweight champion.


Chronicles of Crankiness at City Hall

Abstract: As of Tuesday, the record for craziest remark of the week was surely held by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg , who announced that a weekend visit to New York by the first lady and the president showed that even people of modest means can enjoy a night of dinner and theater. President Obama “does not get paid that much,” Mr. Bloomberg said . Just $400,000 a year. Last week, Mr. Bloomberg muttered, “You’re a disgrace” at a reporter who questioned his rationale for seeking a third term. It is tempting to say that Mr. Bloomberg, who can buy anything and many, many people, is spoiled silly by his billions. That may be true, but it has almost nothing to do with these remarks. They fall into the category of garden-variety mayoral crackups. Every mayor has them. Sometimes they are only hairline cracks, but they are bound to show up eventually. What human being could sound remotely sensible seven days a week, year in and out, answering questions in front of every television news camera ever made? “The only person in the world who gets tested every day is the mayor of New York,” said Edward I. Koch , who served three terms as mayor. In 1968, the city schools were shut down by a strike , the cops were in a slowdown, and the sanitation workers had struck . One day, after no garbage had been picked up for two weeks, Mayor John V. Lindsay — famously cool, handsome and collected — got on the phone with the governor. A crowd stood around his office, trying to find out if the city would ever get out from under the mountain of trash. The mayor was having a hard time hearing what the governor was saying. Mr. Lindsay looked up from the desk. “Close the [expletive] door!” he shouted. The mayor’s order, including the expletive door, went out live over the radio, thanks to the microphone held by a reporter in the crowd. “You spend your days trying not to make mistakes, and when you do, you’re trying to cover for them,” said Sid Davidoff, a Lindsay aide who recalled the episode. “You’re human, apologize, and move on.” Mayors get cranky. “Their patience wears thin, the longer they’re in office,” said George Arzt, who covered City Hall as a reporter, then served as a mayoral spokesman. “The questions get more pointed and the mayor gets testier. You don’t know what events are going on in the background, and they get upset about things you know nothing about.” The opportunities for trouble are endless. Mayors are in charge of crime fighting, garbage collection, hospitals and ambulances and schools and roads and parks and bridges and so on.“I used to say, if a sparrow has a heart attack, they blame me,” Mr. Koch said. In Mr. Koch’s final term, a string of seedy scandals took down several allies. The scandals unraveled after a borough president cut his wrist. Mr. Koch speculated that the suicidal impulse had been prompted by a liquid diet. Later, it turned out that grand jury subpoenas were a far more likely cause. “I believe I actually went into a state of depression, I was so enraged that at the end of my term this should have occurred,” said Mr. Koch, who was never accused of taking a dime. BEFORE the scandals, he enjoyed dueling with reporters so much that he made himself available six or seven times a day. The encounters became a trial. “If they didn’t ask questions that were outrageous, I thought that they were thinking them,” Mr. Koch said, laughing. “You become paranoid.” He told a group of visiting Russian schoolchildren that their government was “the pits” — a view that many shared, but that hardly anyone besides Mr. Koch felt compelled to share with young kids. His successor, David N. Dinkins, who maintained a painfully polite public posture, almost never showing a blink of anger, was apt to let loose with choice language behind the scenes, particularly later in his term. He was followed by Rudolph W. Giuliani , who was as cranky in his first days in office as other mayors get after four or five years — a contentiousness that he claimed helped him reform a city frozen in bureaucratic time. Offering another perspective, Mr. Koch wrote a book titled, “ Giuliani: Nasty Man .” Mr. Koch is far more sympathetic to Mr. Bloomberg. “I think they’re beginning to pick on him, and examine every word,” he said. “Sometimes you eat the bear. And sometimes, the bear eats you.”

Mayors
New York City
Politics and Government
Bloomberg Michael R
Koch Edward I
Giuliani Rudolph W
Lindsay John V


With Tattoos, Young Israelis Bear Holocaust Scars of Relatives

Abstract: JERUSALEM — When Eli Sagir showed her grandfather, Yosef Diamant, the new tattoo on her left forearm, he bent his head to kiss it. Mr. Diamant had the same tattoo, the number 157622, permanently inked on his own arm by the Nazis at Auschwitz. Nearly 70 years later, Ms. Sagir got hers at a hip tattoo parlor downtown after a high school trip to Poland. The next week, her mother and brother also had the six digits inscribed onto their forearms. This month, her uncle followed suit. “All my generation knows nothing about the Holocaust,” said Ms. Sagir, 21, who has had the tattoo for four years. “You talk with people and they think it’s like the Exodus from Egypt, ancient history. I decided to do it to remind my generation: I want to tell them my grandfather’s story and the Holocaust story.” Mr. Diamant’s descendants are among a handful of children and grandchildren of Auschwitz survivors here who have taken the step of memorializing the darkest days of history on their own bodies. With the number of survivors here dropping to about 200,000 from 400,000 a decade ago, institutions and individuals are grappling with how best to remember the Holocaust — so integral to Israel ’s founding and identity — after those who lived it are gone. Rite-of-passage trips to the death camps, like the one Ms. Sagir took, are now standard for high school students. The Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and other museums are trying to make exhibits more accessible, using individual stories and special effects. Arguments rage about whether that approach trivializes symbols long held as sacred and whether the primary message should be about the importance of a self-reliant Jewish state in preventing a future genocide or a more universal one about racism and tolerance. “We are moving from lived memory to historical memory,” noted Michael Berenbaum, a professor at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles who is among the foremost scholars of the memorialization of the Holocaust. “We’re at that transition, and this is sort of a brazen, in-your-face way of bridging it.” Mr. Berenbaum said that “replicating an act that destroyed their name and made them into a number would not be my first or second or third choice,” but, he added, “it sure beats some of the other tattoos that some of the young people are drawing on their skin.” It is certainly an intensely personal decision that often provokes ugly interactions with strangers offended by the reappropriation of perhaps the most profound symbol of the Holocaust’s dehumanization of its victims. The fact that tattooing is prohibited by Jewish law — some survivors long feared, incorrectly, that their numbers would bar them from being buried in Jewish cemeteries — makes the phenomenon more unsettling to some, which may be part of the point. “It’s shocking when you see the number on a very young girl’s hand,” Ms. Sagir said. “It’s very shocking. You have to ask, Why?” Tattooing was introduced at Auschwitz in the autumn of 1941, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, and at the adjacent Birkenau the next March. They were the only camps to employ the practice, and it is unclear how many people were branded, briefly on the chest and more commonly on the left forearm. Only those deemed fit for work were tattooed, so despite the degradation, the numbers were in some cases worn with pride, particularly lower ones, which indicated having survived several brutal winters in the camp. “Everyone will treat with respect the numbers from 30,000 to 80,000,” Primo Levi wrote in his seminal memoir, “Survival in Auschwitz,” describing the tattoos as part of “the demolition of a man.” After the war, some Auschwitz survivors rushed to remove the tattoos through surgery or hid them under long sleeves. But over the decades, others played their numbers in the lottery or used them as passwords. Dana Doron, a 31-year-old doctor and daughter of a survivor, interviewed about 50 tattooed survivors for the new Israeli documentary “Numbered,” which she directed with Uriel Sinai, a photojournalist; it will make its premiere in the United States next month at the Chicago International Film Festival. When she asked survivors whether lovers kissed the number as they might a scar, Ms. Doron said, “some of them looked at me like, ‘What are you nuts?’ and some of them said, ‘Of course.’ ” “To me, it’s a scar,” said Ms. Doron, who grew interested in the numbering while drawing blood from a tattooed arm in an emergency room. “The fact that young people are choosing to get the tattoos is, in my eyes, a sign that we’re still carrying the scar of the Holocaust.” “Numbered” follows Hanna Rabinovitz, a middle-aged woman who puts her father’s number on her ankle after his death. The film also tells the story of Ayal Gelles, a 28-year-old computer programmer, and his grandfather, Avraham Nachshon , 86, both of whom bear the number A-15510 on their arms. “Like an inheritance or something,” Mr. Gelles said of his tattoo. “It’s provocative, I guess. Everyone is kind of appalled at first, kind of shocked by it.” Mr. Gelles said he had an epiphany seeing cows branded at a ranch in Argentina, leading him to get the tattoo and to adopt a vegan diet. He did not tell Mr. Nachshon of his plan. “If I knew, I would have said to you not to do it,” the grandfather told his grandson one recent evening. “I dream every night about it,” Mr. Nachshon said as he told his Holocaust story, which includes several months at Birkenau, where his mother and sister were killed in the gas chambers. “Many times we’re running away from the Germans. Sometimes the whole night I was running. Maybe this time they won’t catch me.” Mr. Nachshon swims, does yoga or runs on a treadmill each morning, returning home by 2 p.m. to feed the neighborhood cats and pass the hours in front of the TV. A couple of times a week, Mr. Gelles comes for supper at his Tel Aviv apartment, and they watch TV together. “Every time I see it, it’s a reminder to call him,” Mr. Gelles said of the number. “I find it kind of hard to relate to people I don’t know and places I haven’t been to and this thing called the Holocaust. The thing I relate to more is my grandfather.” The Israeli who tattooed Livia Ravek’s number, 4559, on her son, Oded Ravek, and grandson, Daniel Philosoph, did it free. It was a Friday. Mr. Ravek, a 56-year-old glass artist who lives in Ottawa and was here visiting family when he was tattooed two years ago, brought Sabbath flowers to his mother. “She was really upset about it at first,” he said. “When I explained the reasons for why I did it, we cried together. I said, ‘You’re always with me.’ ” The 10 tattooed descendants interviewed for this article echoed one another’s motivations: they wanted to be intimately, eternally bonded to their survivor-relative. And they wanted to live the mantra “Never forget” with something that would constantly provoke questions and conversation. Ms. Sagir, a cashier at a minimarket in the heart of touristy Jerusalem, said she is asked about the number 10 times a day. There was one man who called her “pathetic,” saying of her grandfather, “You’re trying to be him and take his suffering.” And there was a police officer who said, “God creates the forgetfulness so we can forget,” Ms. Sagir recalled. “I told her, ‘Because of people like you who want to forget this, we will have it again.’ ” One recent Friday, Ms. Sagir accompanied her uncle, Doron Diamant, 40, a carpenter and father of four, to the tattoo parlor. He was the fifth descendant of Yosef Diamant — who died last year at 84 — to be tattooed. It was done in 15 minutes, for about $40. When the tattoo artist, a Russian immigrant, joked that he is “not so patriotic” to do it at a discount, Mr. Diamant quietly seethed. “This is the reason he sits here, this tattoo and what this number represents,” Mr. Diamant said. “We got the country because of these people.”

Tattoos
Israel
Holocaust and the Nazi Era
Auschwitz (Poland)


N.F.L. Season Brings Ad Campaigns From Tide and General Motors

Abstract: LIKE children anticipating the arrival of Santa Claus, the marketers of Madison Avenue have circled next Wednesday on their calendars to herald the arrival of the 2012-13 National Football League season. For advertisers and agencies, the annual N.F.L. season may actually be better than Christmas. For one thing, it lasts longer than the holiday shopping season. For another, professional football is probably the most effective advertising delivery system ever invented. Ratings data provide evidence of the passion for the sport. The most-watched series in prime time during the 2011-12 television season was not a drama, a comedy or a reality show: it was “Sunday Night Football” on NBC. Likewise, Super Bowl XLVI on Feb. 5 was the most-watched program in American television history. And most people watching football are watching the games — and the commercials — live rather than taping and replaying them. Advertisers far prefer live viewing because so many people skip commercials during taped replays. “The N.F.L. has an amazing fan base,” said Sundar Raman, marketing director for North American fabric care at Procter & Gamble . That base, estimated at 181 million, is almost twice the 100 million people who “wake up every morning and wear clothes washed in Tide,” the nation’s best-selling detergent and a mainstay Procter brand, he said. To tap into “what the N.F.L. means to fans,” Mr. Raman said, Procter has signed a multiyear deal designating Tide as the official detergent of the league, with Drew Brees, quarterback of the New Orleans Saints, serving as the spokesman. All 32 teams are taking part in the agreement, making Tide the only brand besides Gatorade “with ties to all the teams,” Mr. Raman said. The Tide campaign will include national elements like a video series online and in social media, and local elements like Tide bottles decorated in team colors. The campaign will, in fact, be centered on team colors, with ads proclaiming, “They’re not just colors. They’re your Sunday best” and, “When colors mean this much, you can only trust them to Tide.” The N.F.L. also has an official vehicle, GMC trucks, which is the official vehicle of the “Monday Night Football” series on ESPN, as well. GMC’s parent company, General Motors , is planning a season-long campaign for 2012-13 with the theme “never say never.” The campaign will include ticket giveaways; a weekly contest where fans can vote on crucial game moments at nfl.com/gmc , leading to a GMC Never Say Never Moment of the Year award; a two-day event next week in Times Square, involving 33 GMC Sierra pickups; ads on television, in print and online; and outreach on Twitter and other social media, with posts from players like Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers. “We’re trying to build something that becomes part of the fabric of the N.F.L.,” said Craig Bierley, advertising and promotions director for Buick and GMC at General Motors. Previously, Mr. Bierley said, the company “invented a new thing,” like a Keys to Victory promotion, each football season. But this will be the third year for the “never say never” effort, and significant growth in consumer involvement indicates “the value of continuity and consistency,” he said. In May, General Motors made headlines and raised eyebrows when it said it would not buy commercial time in Super Bowl XLVII in February 2013. But Mr. Bierley said GMC would still have a presence during game week through events like the N.F.L. Experience, which will be held in New Orleans. He said efforts like the “never say never” campaign were meant to “create shared interest” among football fans, who “have a larger propensity to buy trucks” than other consumers, by “showing we value what they value.” Another marketer seeking to do that is the New Era Cap Company, which has for the first time been awarded the contract to make the caps N.F.L. players wear on field during games, replacing Reebok. To usher in the five-year agreement, New Era will introduce a tongue-in-cheek campaign by the Brooklyn Brothers agency that is centered on a mythical Laboratory of Headwear Science and Capology, which creates caps for players like Marcell Dareus of the Buffalo Bills and owners like Jerry Jones. “We had to have a little fun with it,” said Kelli Coppola, global director for brand marketing at New Era. The company’s ad campaigns for its official Major League Baseball caps are also infused with humor. “It is sport,” said Guy Barnett, creative partner at Brooklyn Brothers. “It isn’t life or death.” That brings to mind a saying: “Football. It isn’t life or death. It’s more important than that.” The presence of Condoleezza Rice, the former secretary of state, in a campaign for N.F.L. -licensed apparel for women certainly underscores that sentiment. One ad, by Grey New York, part of the Grey Group unit of WPP, shows Ms. Rice in a Cleveland Browns jersey. “Forty-five percent of our fan base is female,” said Tracey Bleczinski, vice president for consumer products at the N.F.L. “We’ve really expanded the roster of women” appearing in the ads for the coming season, she said, to be “diverse in ethnicity, age and occupation.”

General Motors
National Football League
Football
Television
Advertising and Marketing
New Era Cap Co
Procter & Gamble Company


Countdown to 2014 World Cup in Brazil: Day 36

Abstract: The 2014 World Cup begins on June 12, when Brazil plays Croatia in the opening match. Reporters and editors for The Times will count down to the start of the tournament each day with a short capsule of news and interesting tidbits. There will be a changing of the guard in Australia’s defense at the World Cup after the coach of the national team, Ange Postecoglou, announced Tuesday that the team’s former captain, Lucas Neill, 36, would not be a part of his provisional 30-man roster. “He’s shown an enormous determination to go to this World Cup,” Postecoglou told The Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday. “From my perspective, I had to make a decision, and over the past six months, in terms of form and fitness, there just wasn’t enough evidence there for me that he’d be able to hold up in a World Cup. “For somebody as decorated as him, it’s a tough decision to deny him going to a third World Cup. It’s a decision that weighed heavily on me. I wanted to make sure I was absolutely clear on the premise of my decision.” Neill has played 96 times for Australia, including the 2006 World Cup in Germany and the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. He was a teammate of Red Bulls midfielder Tim Cahill on Australia and for a time with Millwall in England in the late 1990s. After playing in Turkey for Galatasaray in 2010-11, Neill struggled to find top-flight soccer in Europe. After leaving Turkey, he had short spells with clubs in the United Arab Emirates, Australia and Japan. This past season he signed with Watford of England’s League Championship in February, but finished the season on loan to Doncaster Rovers, which ended up being relegated to League One. Postecoglou intimated that Neill’s club-hopping did little to aid his cause. “He was probably a bit unlucky, in terms of the moves he made,” Postecoglou said. “Certainly, from January onwards, if he’d had four months of football under his belt, I guess a different decision would have been made. But it’s not easy. He’s shown outstanding determination and it’s a credit to him. You can see why he’s played for his country many times and he’s a leader. He’s certainly gone down fighting, if you want to put it in that terminology.” It is now believed that Cahill or Mile Jedinak will be named captain of the Socceroos. “We’ve still got to announce the squad and then get into camp,” Postecoglou said. “It’s a decision for the immediate future.” Australia is in Group B in Brazil with the defending champion, Spain; the Netherlands, a 2010 finalist; and Chile.


Miroslav Klose Retires From German National Soccer Team

Abstract: LONDON — Miroslav Klose will never score another goal for Germany. The only person who could make that statement definitive was Klose himself, and on Monday, one month after breaking the all-time World Cup scoring record, he did precisely that. “Lifting the trophy in Brazil was the fulfillment of a childhood dream for me,” he said. “I had a unique and wonderful time with the Nationalmannschaft and enjoyed many unforgettable moments,” he went on. “I cannot think of a better time to bring the international chapter of my career to a close.” And with that farewell, posted on the German football federation website, he was gone. Or almost. For not even Klose, the prince of stealth in his game, can slide so silently away from his fame. For 12 years, he had been like the house party guest who you barely knew was there, except when he left with the silver. Goals, invariably simple, sharp, direct, were his calling cards. He stacked them up at four successive World Cups — in Korea and Japan in 2002, Germany in 2006, South Africa in 2010 and Brazil in 2014. Every defender on earth knew his method and his movement, every coach preached how never to let your eyes off Klose in the goalmouth. And yet every defender, every goalkeeper, lost sight of him for the split second it took for this Polish-born German to eclipse the record set in the 1970s by the redoubtable Gerd Müller, and then by the only other man to surpass Müller’s total, the Brazilian Ronaldo da Lima. Don’t compare him to Müller, Klose pleaded years ago. Such comparisons, he said, would be a joke. Don’t put him up there with Ronaldo, he said more recently. Everyone knows that Ronaldo was the best ever. Too bad, then, Klose. For it was Müller and Ronaldo who led the chorus of tributes to your guile, your longevity, your seemingly inevitable ability to steal a yard of space and turn a half chance into a goal which few even suspected might happen. The pure goalscorer is a breed apart. He is born with something akin to the homing instincts in a pigeon. “Something inside your head says, ‘Gerd, go this way, or Gerd go that way,’ and I go,” Müller had said 40 years ago. “Welcome to the club,” Ronaldo tweeted in Belo Horizonte the night that Klose stole a goal from five yards against Ghana during the past World Cup in Brazil. Klose had been on the field less than two minutes, he evened the score with his first touch after Ghana led, 2-1, and the rest, as they say, became history. “What a nice World Cup,” Brazil’s Ronaldo had concluded his message that night. What a defining World Cup it was in the semifinal match, as Brazil wept while Germany swept the host nation out of the tournament, with, of course, Klose contributing to the 7-1 hiding that was unprecedented in the 90-year history of the event. That was also the night Klose closed his account with his 16th goal in World Cup finals. It took him 23 games to compile that total, one more goal than Ronaldo (15 goals in 19 games) and two more than Müller (an astonishing 14 goals from 13 games). For the record, the French-Moroccan Just Fontaine scored 13 times, all at one World Cup in only six games. And Pelé’s record ended at 12 goals from 14 games. Special, special men, these historic players. Pelé, of course, was much more than a striker, and Ronaldo da Lima was perhaps the closest in modern times to his range of skills and his physical dexterity. But cold statistics count in the goal scorer, and from Day 1 of their meeting when Joachim Löw became the assistant to Germany’s coach Jurgen Klinsmann a decade ago, a bond of trust was formed. “Miro was already in the national team when I joined the DFB as assistant coach in 2004,” Löw said Monday, “so we have now spent 10 years working together. His aerial strength, presence in the penalty area, understanding of the game and tireless commitment are without equal, and yet I have rarely encountered a player so down to earth, modest, fair, professional, reliable and team-spirited.” The mutual respect between coach and striker was such that even when Bayern Munich felt Klose’s time as a top class finisher was up and released him to go to Lazio in Rome, the German national coach kept on picking him. All that Löw asked was that Klose, now 36, keep his six-foot frame lean and his appetite keen, and he would take him to the three World Cups ahead of any other striker. And all the while, on every continent, Klose would repay that faith by doing his thing. Not one goal from the finisher came from outside the penalty box, but after each of them, scored with the right foot, the left or the head, the only flamboyance was his trade mark flip in celebration. Over the years, we watched his instinctive stealing of goals and the acrobat’s forward somersault which, again, was the ingrained mark of a natural athlete whose father had been a soccer pro and whose mother played handball for the Polish national side. The family left Silesia for Germany when Miroslav was 2. He trained in his youth to be a carpenter, but stripping down defenses became his life’s work. One other trait that is uncommon in the modern pro is that twice, playing in Germany in 2005 and in Italy in 2012, Klose owned to referees rather than accept gift goals to add to his tally. He declined a penalty awarded him while playing for Werder Bremen, and he told a ref in a key game for Lazio against Napoli that he had handled the ball before scoring. Rare acts for the predator who otherwise finished off opponents without compunction. Klose is the second German, following Philipp Lahm, to retire from the German national team since the World Cup. Both will continue to play club soccer, and both are to be honored when Germany plays in Düsseldorf on Sept 3 — a friendly repeat of the World Cup final against Argentina. The new era starts then, with Lahm and Klose in the stands.

Miroslav Klose
Soccer
Germany
2014 World Cup
Bayern Munich Soccer Team