Klemens von Klemperer Dies at 96; Wrote of Nazi Era

Abstract: Klemens von Klemperer, a refugee from Nazi Germany who wrote what is widely considered the seminal history of the movement among the country’s conservative elite to overthrow Hitler, died on Dec. 23 at his home in Easthampton, Mass. He was 96. His death was confirmed by his son, James. Dr. von Klemperer, an emeritus professor of history at Smith College, was one of a generation of refugee historians who helped lay the groundwork for modern German and European studies in the United States, a group that also included Hajo Holborn, Fritz Stern and Peter Gay. A privileged child who came from a family of German bankers and industrialists, he had taken a leading role in demonstrations against Hitler as a student in Vienna before fleeing to the United States in 1938. Dr. von Klemperer, the author of seven books, was best known for his 1992 work, “German Resistance Against Hitler: The Search for Allies Abroad, 1938-1945.” On July 20, 1944, in the signature moment for the movement, Count Claus von Stauffenberg, a German Army colonel, placed a briefcase containing a bomb under the map table at Wolfsschanze, Hitler’s headquarters in a bunker in East Prussia. Hitler survived the ensuing blast, proclaiming divine providence, and set off a wave of executions of conspirators. Image Dr. von Klemperer was an intelligence officer in the United States Army. Dr. von Klemperer’s book explored the broader aims of the resistance movement and how its leaders — among them the aristocrat Helmuth James von Moltke and the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as well as diplomats and high-ranking military men — had made many contacts seeking support from the Western Allies. “He really charted the foreign contacts of that group; that’s the importance of von Klemperer’s work,” Catherine Epstein, chairwoman of the history department at Amherst College and an expert on German history, said in an interview. “These were very nationalistic resisters. They wanted to have an independent Germany, did not want to be occupied by the Allies.” Their outreach was thwarted by the Allies’ goal of unconditional German surrender and by a lack of trust in the resistance movement. Yet, for Dr. von Klemperer, their efforts achieved a higher goal. “He attempted to show that there were indeed good Germans, and that they were deeply, morally offended by the Nazis,” said Allan Mitchell, who profiled Dr. von Klemperer in his 2011 book “Fleeing Nazi Germany: Five Historians Migrate to America.” “That’s what was most important to him.” In “German Resistance Against Hitler,” Dr. von Klemperer wrote, “The determination of the German Resistance to reach the ‘greater world’ stands as an example for the many dissidents and freedom movements who in our day, still plagued by oppression, are appealing to the conscience of the world.” Klemens Wilhelm von Klemperer was born in Berlin on Nov. 2, 1916, into what had been a Jewish family until his grandfather, Gustav, the director of one of Germany’s largest banks, converted to Protestantism. Image Klemens von Klemperer Credit Elizabeth Leigh Klemens’s father, Herbert, was the president of a company that manufactured locomotives, submarines and torpedoes for the German military. That status and the family’s conversion mattered less and less after anti-Jewish laws were passed in 1933. In 1935, young Klemens joined his mother’s family in Vienna. He studied history at the University of Vienna and, after Hitler’s annexation of Austria in March 1938, took part in student street protests. But by November, with his family’s property seized, he had fled to the United States. Eventually, members of his family were killed at Auschwitz. He enrolled at Harvard under a program for refugee scholars, but his studies were interrupted by his service as an intelligence officer in the United States Army. After returning to Harvard, he received his doctorate in history in 1949 and soon joined the faculty at Smith, where he taught for 37 years. Among Dr. von Klemperer’s other books are “A Noble Combat: The Letters of Shiela Grant Duff and Adam von Trott zu Solz, 1932-1938” (1988), about the romantic relationship of a British woman and a German diplomat as they struggled with their concerns about the Nazi regime, and “Ignaz Seipel: Christian Statesman in a Time of Crisis” (1972), a biography of an Austrian priest who became chancellor in the 1920s. Besides his son, Dr. von Klemperer is survived by his wife of 59 years, the former Elizabeth Gallaher; a daughter, Catharine Utzschneider; and four grandchildren. Three years ago, Dr. von Klemperer’s memoir, “Voyage Through the 20th Century,” was published. “I was not an extraordinary person, but I did live in extraordinary times,” he wrote, “and my small mission was somehow to make sense of it all.”

Klemens von Klemperer
Germany
History
Books
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Holocaust and Nazis
Obituary
Adolf Hitler
Europe
World War II


In Tight Times, Nonprofits Feel Pinch as Contributions Dwindle

Abstract: “Could we have picked a worse time for a gala?” asked Richard J. Moylan, president of Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, regretting the disappointing turnout for the institution’s fund-raising dinner on Friday night. He could have spoken for hundreds of nonprofits of all sizes in all boroughs as they confront the high season of the benefit. The city’s vast and traditionally overstressed nonprofit community is already reeling from the crisis on Wall Street. “We have been in perfect storms before,” said Lorie A. Slutsky, president of the New York Community Trust, which distributed $166 million to 2,500 nonprofits in 2007. But given the cratering economy, “many charities rely on year-end giving, so they are nervous about the impact of the market turmoil,” she said, adding that the downturn was having an affect not only on private contributors, foundations, corporations and the availability of credit to nonprofits, but also the viability of government grants and contracts in a time of looming tax-revenue gaps. Beyond providing services to the young, the elderly, the poor and the sick, the city’s more than 10,000 nonprofit organizations are estimated to have some $50 billion in annual expenditures and employ at least 500,000 people. Some 85 percent of the city’s nonprofits have annual budgets under $3 million, “and most of them don’t have endowments or cash reserves,” said Fran Barrett of the Community Resource Exchange, which provides management and financial help to about 300 community groups. “Some smaller organizations will have to shut their doors.” If they do, many of their employees, neighborhood residents, “will be needing services themselves at a time when there will be less of them,” she said. The nonprofits most seriously affected by the economic meltdown depended on donations from financial icons brought to their knees by the crisis, including Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, the American International Group and Washington Mutual. Citymeals-on-Wheels — a nonprofit that provides three million meals yearly for more than 18,000 homebound residents through 83 agencies in the five boroughs — received major support from Bear Stearns and its executives. The loss of these contributions and others from a variety of donors, including a troubled hedge fund — as well as spiking food and gasoline prices — forced Citymeals to cancel a $2 million-a-year program in August. For most of a decade, Citymeals had been delivering a second daily meal, in addition to the standard single-meal delivery, to 1,400 people “who are slipping into malnutrition,” said Marcia Stein, the group’s executive director. During the first week of the financial crisis in mid-September, “many donors cut their contributions in half,” Ms. Stein said. “And after the uncertainty of this week, I shudder to think what will happen next week when we open the mail.” Similarly, the collapse of Lehman Brothers and other donors affected the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and beyond the possible consequences to its budget, the group had been looking forward to a landmark celebration of its 35th anniversary next year. “The times make it difficult for us to plan now,” said Margaret Fung, executive director of the fund, which offers educational training and legal assistance to poor Asian immigrants. Both Washington Mutual and Lehman Brothers were donors to the Food Bank for New York City, which works with 1,000 local organizations to provide soup kitchens and food pantries serving 1.3 million New Yorkers. The organization has also suffered a $200,000 cut in state funding. But aside from money, “much of our volunteer support came from corporations, especially from people in the financial sector,” said Gregory L. Boroff, a senior vice president at the Food Bank. Yet as volunteers have dwindled, the Food Bank’s own community kitchen in Harlem, at 252 West 116th Street near Frederick Douglass Boulevard, has had “a 35 percent increase in the number of meals served,” Mr. Boroff said, compared with this time last year. And at the same time, during the last two weeks, the group’s direct-mail donor revenues were down 27 percent, he said. In Brooklyn, in the heart of the fund-raising season, “we were expecting 100 to 150 people to join us,” Mr. Moylan said of the dinner at Green-Wood, the 170-year-old resting place of Boss Tweed and Leonard Bernstein. Gala contributions of $150 to $250 will help pay for preservation, education and community outreach projects. “We’ll only have 70,” he said under a festive white tent at the event, “but under the circumstances, we think it’s a success.” In other boroughs, nonprofits are worried, and wary. “The Bronx has been making such a comeback, and now a lot of hardworking people are going to have the rug pulled out from under them,” said Bill Aguado, executive director of the Bronx Council on the Arts. Last year the group gave about $500,000 to 80 arts organizations and 70 artists, but going forward “I am projecting that we will have cuts of from 10 to 30 percent,” he said. And in many city nonprofits, fears have already been validated. Carol Raphael, the president of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, said the organization had suffered a 3 percent cut in its 2009 New York State funding, amounting to several million dollars. The organization provides a network of home-based services to some 30,000 seriously ill and elderly people in the five boroughs and parts of Westchester and Nassau Counties, and “all of this is happening while the need for our services is increasing,” she said. As for nongovernmental donors, some have already told United Neighborhood Houses of New York that “there will be no new grants in 2009,” said Nancy Wackstein, executive director of the federation of 35 community centers and settlement houses in five boroughs. Its agencies employ 8,000 people, “many of whom are low-income,” Ms. Wackstein said. If there are layoffs, “fewer people will get services — and many of the people we employ are one paycheck away from want.” At least one of its community centers has already been affected by government budget-cutting. On Monday, Stephan Russo, executive director of the Goddard Riverside Community Center on Columbus Avenue and 88th Street, had to inform the staff of Public School 165 that Goddard’s 10-year-old Dropout Prevention Program there would have to be closed. The city cut the entire $90,000 budget of the program at the elementary school, at 109th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway. However, the picture is not universally gloomy. Some established nonprofits have so far eluded the bailout blues. The New York Public Library has not seen a decline in support for its annual Library Lions fund-raising dinner on Nov. 3 for 600 people. A spokesman said the library raised more than $2.6 million for the event, only $50,000 short of its goal. And the New-York Historical Society’s History Makers Gala, its annual fund-raiser, which will be held on Oct. 15, has already exceeded its goal of $1.3 million, said Louise Mirrer, the society’s president. She remains optimistic for the future, thanks to the loyalty of donors and “because with a maximum admission fee of $10,” she said, “we are a bargain.” But even for organizations that have not suffered funding cuts, it is planning season, “and we are going to have to be much less ambitious about our next budget than if we had been planning it four weeks ago,” said Andrew Friedman, a co-executive director of Make the Road New York, a nonprofit that has four offices in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. Mr. Friedman worries that the city and state will reduce support for the organization’s legal services, after-school programs and adult-literacy classes for 5,000 low-income New Yorkers. Although some nonprofits may fail, others may survive if “we see more strategic alliances between smaller agencies and larger nonprofits that can help them with administration and fund-raising,” Ms. Wackstein said. And in the long run, “nonprofits are very resourceful groups,” Ms. Slutsky said. “And New York is a city of very generous people.”

Nonprofit Organizations
Citymeals-on-Wheels
New York City
Philanthropy
Subprime Mortgage Crisis
Bear Stearns Cos
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc


Congolese Politician, Jean-Pierre Bemba, Sentenced to 18 Years for War Crimes

Abstract: PARIS — A former vice president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jean-Pierre Bemba , was sentenced on Tuesday to 18 years in prison for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by militiamen under his command during a four-month rampage of looting, rape and murder in the Central African Republic. The sentence, handed down by an international panel of judges in The Hague, is considered significant for a number of reasons. Notably, Mr. Bemba was convicted even though he was far away from the militia fighting under his orders and was not present during any of the war crimes; the court said he was culpable because of his command responsibility. He should have halted or prevented the crimes, the judges said. Mr. Bemba, who is now 53, was a businessman and scion of a prominent Congolese family before rising to the vice presidency — successful, rich and believed to be untouchable. In 2002, he sent an expeditionary force of his political party, the Congolese Liberation Movement, into the Central African Republic to help put down a military coup there. Though Mr. Bemba rarely visited the troops, the judges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague found that he closely monitored their activities, and convicted him in March . Sylvia Steiner, the presiding judge in the case, read out a summary of the court’s reasoning at the sentencing on Tuesday, saying that Mr. Bemba’s “knowledge of the crimes was unquestionable.” He did more than tolerate them, he deliberately “encouraged attacks on civilians,” the judge said. The force of about 1,500 militiamen rampaged through towns on their path, claiming afterward that they had been poorly paid and that they were rewarding themselves by raping and pillaging. The sentence given to Mr. Bemba heavily emphasized the militia’s unrelenting campaign of rape, “committed throughout the operation,” against women and men, adults and children. The judges cited instances of gang rape, and took note of the lasting physical and social harm that rape victims suffered, including stigmatization, ostracism and disease. Because of the large number of rapes and what the judges called their particular brutality, rape as a war crime and a crime against humanity received more weight in sentencing even than murder — 18 years for the rape-related charges, with concurrent sentences of 16 years for murder and pillaging. Prosecutors had asked for a 25-year sentence, and may appeal the sentence as too lenient, experts following the case said. Victims’ groups had asked for Mr. Bemba to be sentenced to the maximum possible penalty, without citing a specific figure. Mr. Bemba had already been detained for eight years before and during his trial, so he would presumably now have 10 years left in his sentence if it stands at 18 years. It has been customary at international tribunals to deduct one-third of the total sentence, so Mr. Bemba may be eligible for early release in as little as four years. Largely because of pressure from human rights advocates and women’s groups, organized or mass rape is increasingly being recognized and prosecuted as a weapon of war rather than as a byproduct of war. Other international courts have convicted defendants of rape as a war crime and a crime against humanity, but Mr. Bemba’s was the first such conviction by the International Criminal Court. In two earlier cases involving Congolese warlords, instances of rape were widely reported but not prosecuted. In another twist, Mr. Bemba and four associates, including his former lead lawyer, are on trial in a parallel case at the same court, charged with trying to bribe witnesses in the war crimes case. Hearings in the contempt-of-court trial have been completed, and a verdict is expected later this year. Witness tampering has become a major issue at the court, with allegations of bribery or intimidation occurring in almost every case so far. Some critics have called the contempt prosecution against Mr. Bemba and his associates a waste of time and resources, but lawyers who follow the matter say the court wanted to send a strong message by pursuing it. In Kinshasa, the capital of Congo, members of Mr. Bemba’s political party, which he still heads, criticized the sentencing on Tuesday. “We will continue, and we will never cease, denouncing the selective justice of the I.C.C.,” Eve Bazaiba told a few hundred supporters, according to Reuters. Géraldine Mattioli-Zeltner of Human Rights Watch said the sentence offered a measure of justice to victims in a country where armed groups have preyed on civilians with impunity for more than a decade. Ms. Mattioli-Zeltner, who recently visited the Central African Republic, said that “many grave crimes, including the systematic use of sexual violence, remain unpunished” both there and in Congo. More than 5,000 civilian victims participated in the court proceedings and may be awarded reparations payments. Judge Steiner said the court would deal with reparations in a separate ruling.

War Crimes,Genocide,Crimes Against Humanity


Vail Resorts Chases After Australian Skiers

Abstract: SYDNEY, Australia — When the self-confessed snowboarding addict Risma Utami planned ski trips from her hometown of Sydney, Australia, conspicuously absent from the wish list of destinations were the slopes in the nearby Snowy Mountains. “Europe, Japan and New Zealand are cheaper, you have better quality snow there, more challenging slopes, great accommodation, less waiting time at the lift and more skiing,” Ms. Utami, 29, said. With climate change threatening Australia’s already meager alpine skiing resources, the Snowy Mountains might not seem an obvious choice for the first international foray by Vail Resorts, the United States ski hill operator, which last week agreed to pay $136 million for Perisher Ski Resort. Perisher is Australia’s largest and most popular ski resort, but in a country better known for deserts and beaches, it faces some significant natural hurdles. The summit of Mt. Perisher, at just over 6,500 feet, is nearly 2,900 feet below the base of Vail’s Breckenridge Ski Resort, one of the almost a dozen resorts it owns in the United States. Perisher’s annual snowfall has varied between 151 inches and a woeful three inches over the past five years, according to OnTheSnow.com, the snow sports website, forcing the resort to increasingly rely on artificial snow-making. But for Vail, the deal was as much about attracting more well-traveled and well-heeled Australian skiers to its United States resorts as getting its hands on Perisher’s limited, albeit profitable, assets — particularly as climate change bites. “Mountains in the northern hemisphere are generally more luxurious, bigger, better mountains than those in the southern hemisphere,” Robert A. Katz, Vail’s chairman and chief executive, said after the deal, which will offer Perisher season-pass holders access to Vail’s North American resorts. “In Australia, for somebody looking at Perisher and saying ‘should I buy a pass?’ on worries maybe the season won’t be that good this year, they now know they can also ski in the United States for free,” he said. The challenges facing the Australian ski industry are only expected to rise as the climate becomes hotter and drier. Since the 1950s, the Snowy Mountains’ snowpack has fallen by about a third and is expected to decrease by half or more before the end of this century, according to Csiro, the top Australian science body. With uncertain snow conditions, smaller mountains and hefty lift prices, many Australians already choose to ski in places such as Niseko, Japan; Queenstown, New Zealand; or Whistler, British Columbia. Colorado, Vail’s home state, is also popular. Australians love their adventure sports and the country is among the wealthiest per capita in the world, making Australians a small but important market for global ski resorts that target international visitors, who stay longer and spend more than locals. Some North American resorts credited Australian skiers with helping them weather the recent recession, said Ben Cardenas, marketing manager at Travelplan Ski, an Australian travel agency. About 900,000 Australians ski or snowboard, and in 2011 and 2012, when the Australian dollar was trading around parity with the United States dollar, almost half of the Australians who did snow sports on their last holiday went overseas, according to Roy Morgan Research. With a weakening yen, some of the world’s best powder snow and facilities, Japan has become a key competitor to American resorts, especially as the United States dollar has risen. “We’ve definitely noticed a big surge in bookings to Japan and we think this has a lot to do with affordable ski options,” said Kellie Carty, an executive at Flight Center Travel Group. Peter Murphy, a Sydney-raised surfer, snowboarder and skier who runs the tour operator SkiJapan, said he did not believe Vail’s move would threaten the “pre-eminent” position of resorts such as Niseko among travelling Australian skiers because flight times between Australia and Japan are shorter than those to the United States, time zone adjustments are easier and snow is reliable. But analysts were largely positive about Vail’s move, expecting cash flows from Perisher to prop up off-season earnings, while some speculated it could bring about a similar response from other international ski groups. “It is something that even New Zealand or Japanese ski resorts may get threatened by,” said Ryan Lin, a senior analyst at the research firm IBISWorld. “They might consider similar tie-ups with some Australian ski resorts.”

Vail Resorts
Australia
Travel,Tourism
Mergers and Acquisitions


Bridgeport Mayor Vows to ‘Fight Like Heck’ After Losing Primary Election

Abstract: BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — The day after Democratic voters propelled Joseph P. Ganim one big step closer to joining the ranks of comeback mayors, this city’s incumbent mayor, Bill Finch, said he would not easily give up control to Mr. Ganim. “This is a personal thing for me,” Mr. Finch said. “I don’t want my city to be turned over to the corrupt hordes. I’m going to fight like heck.” Mr. Ganim, who was removed from office in 2003 and served seven years in prison on felony corruption charges, took the Democratic nomination for mayor in the primary election on Wednesday with 47 percent of the vote. Primary Day can be as decisive as Election Day here in Connecticut’s largest city, where two-thirds of the 60,000 voters are registered Democrats. But the race may not be over, even after a blistering and expensive campaign for the Democratic nomination fought among Mr. Finch, Mr. Ganim and Mary-Jane Foster, a vice president at the University of Bridgeport and a co-founder of the Bridgeport Bluefish baseball team. Even Connecticut’s most jaded political watchers were shocked when Mr. Ganim, who was convicted of collecting kickbacks from contractors doing business with Bridgeport, announced that he wanted voters to give him a second chance to lead the city, and then again when Mr. Ganim secured the endorsement of Bridgeport’s police union. The contest revealed a city sharply divided over what it most needs. Mr. Ganim focused his efforts on making personal connections and promising to lower taxes. Mr. Finch, meanwhile, trumpeted the progress he has made in rebuilding the city’s economy after the recession. Ms. Foster distanced herself from both candidates during the campaign, saying Bridgeport needed an honest mayor. And maybe a female mayor, too. On Thursday, Mr. Ganim took phone calls and gave interviews to reporters. “It’s a great day for Bridgeport,” Mr. Ganim said, adding that he was not surprised that he prevailed. He knocked on doors, visited churches and talked with voters in coffee shops over the last several months. “I made a personal connection with thousands of voters,” he said. One of those voters was Louise Gregory, who has lived in the city for 60 years. Outside the Dunbar School on Union Avenue where she voted for Mr. Ganim on Wednesday, Ms. Gregory echoed a sentiment that Mr. Ganim has promoted and one that seems to have resonated in Bridgeport: Everyone deserves a second chance. “He was just one of the ones that got caught. He didn’t hurt anybody but himself. He didn’t take anything from me,” Ms. Gregory said. “He was just getting kickbacks, getting work done for other favors. So he didn’t do it to us. He just stepped out of bounds, you know, that’s all.” In the mayor’s office, Mr. Finch said he lost the nomination because his campaign did not effectively communicate how deeply Mr. Ganim’s crimes affected the city. And, he said, many of his supporters did not turn out for Wednesday’s primary. Image Bridgeport’s incumbent mayor, Bill Finch, is planning to continue his bid for re-election in November. Credit Christian Abraham/Hearst Connecticut Media, via Associated Press “They probably didn’t think it was possible for such a corrupt individual to make this much headway,” Mr. Finch said on Thursday during a telephone interview from his office. “But he has, and now we have to keep the mob at the gate.” Mr. Finch said he planned to continue his bid for re-election as a candidate for the newly formed Job Creation Party, and he feels confident that voters will support him in the November general election. Mr. Ganim’s traction with Bridgeport voters became apparent over the summer, when the city’s Democratic Party leaders battled over which candidate to endorse. Mr. Finch prevailed, but not without a struggle. “Frankly, I’m relieved,” Mr. Finch said on Thursday about losing the Democratic nomination. “I’m as far away from the corrupt local bosses as I can be.” On Wednesday, Glenn Marshall, who leads the Carpenters Local 210 union, stood outside Thomas Hooker school with a handful of Finch fliers. The mayor, he said, is moving the city in the right direction and should be re-elected to continue his work. “We’re supporting Mayor Finch,” Mr. Marshall said of the union’s membership. “With Mayor Finch there’s been great economic development.” Just one office — city sheriff — had more than one Republican candidate. Councilman Enrique Torres is the Republican candidate for mayor. Stanley A. Twardy Jr., the state’s top federal prosecutor for six years before leaving in 1991 to become chief of staff for Lowell P. Weicker Jr., then the governor, said that while he was surprised by Mr. Ganim’s post-prison candidacy, he noted that both Providence, R.I., and Washington had re-elected leaders who left office in disgrace, referring to Vincent A. Cianci Jr. and Marion S. Barry Jr. Still, he said: “It’s sobering that there would be enough support for someone who has abused the office of mayor, that people would support him running again. That’s very surprising to me.” At home on Thursday afternoon, Ms. Foster said neither Mr. Finch nor Mr. Ganim should lead the city. “Bridgeport deserves better than that,” she said, adding that Mr. Ganim is not the only candidate deserving criticism. “Mayor Finch has been such a bad mayor that he essentially opened the door for an even worse mayor to come back,” she said. Ms. Foster already has a place on the general election ballot as an unaffiliated mayoral candidate. But she planned to take the weekend off to relax with family and friends before making a final decision about whether to pursue her bid for mayor. Reggie Horne supported Mr. Finch in Wednesday’s primary because, he said, Bridgeport is on the right path, and the mayor deserves more time to continue his work. Mr. Horne, who works for the city’s maintenance department, said Mr. Ganim may have been more vocal in his courting of voters. And, Mr. Horne said, if Mr. Ganim is sincere in his promise that he has changed, he may still be the “best person for the city.” But, Mr. Horne said, he does not believe Wednesday’s vote was decisive. “Is it over with? No,” he said. “It’s not over with until November.”

Primaries
Democrats
Bill Finch
Corruption
Bridgeport Connecticut
Joseph P Ganim
Mayoral races


Do Quakes Push Earth’s Axis Enough to Alter Weather?

Abstract: Q. Do the shifts of the Earth ’s axis produced by earthquakes alter world weather? A. “In short, no,” said Allegra N. LeGrande of the Center for Climate Systems Research at Columbia University. “The changes are simply too small.” Researchers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory calculate that the recent earthquake in Japan pushed the Earth’s rotational axis more than 6.5 inches, while the quake in Chile in 2010 shifted it by 2.8 inches, through slightly altering the distribution of mass across the Earth. But “natural shifts in the Earth’s mass in the atmosphere and oceans also cause changes of about 39 inches in the rotational axis each year,” Dr. LeGrande said. “In other words, the shifts associated with earthquakes are much smaller than the unnoticeable shifts that occur each year anyhow.” Large shifts in the axis do cause climate changes, Dr. LeGrande said. The cyclical change in the axis tilt associated with astronomical changes, called obliquity, has a very long cycle, about 41,000 years, and changes the tilt from around 22.1 degrees to 24.5 degrees. Right now it is about 23.4 degrees. At high latitudes, greater obliquity means greater total annual irradiation. At low latitudes, the opposite is true, and at middle latitudes, there is almost no change. When obliquity is high, Dr. LeGrande said, the difference between the equator and the poles in total irradiation, and also in temperature, is larger, and as a result the seasonal cycle becomes more extreme. “But the changes that occur each year with obliquity are so tiny as to be unnoticeable,” Dr. LeGrande said. C. CLAIBORNE RAY

Earth
Weather
Earthquakes
Science and Technology


For Nascar Fans, High Price of Gas Fuel Decisions to Scale Back Traveling

Abstract: LOUDON, N.H. — Steven and Nancy Swiantek sat on the roof of their recreational vehicle before the start of a Nascar Sprint Cup race Sunday. The panorama was magnificent, but their perch cost more than it used to. It cost the Swianteks $900 to park on a grassy ridge overlooking the backstretch at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and another $250 for tickets to watch a weekend full of qualifying and racing. And that does not include the $250 in gas it took to fill their R.V. for the 175-mile trip from their home in Cromwell, Conn. The cost to fuel their vehicle was almost twice as much as last year, a factor that led the Swianteks to cancel trips this season to races in Dover, Del., and Richmond, Va. “We always have a good time and there are always good people wherever we go, but it’s just a matter of money,” Steven Swiantek said. The Swianteks are among many stock car fans feeling the pinch of rising gas prices and a sagging economy. Nascar fans are famous for traveling long distances to watch 43 gas-guzzling cars chug around a track hundreds of times, but with gas at $4 a gallon, or higher, they are being forced to rethink their travel plans. Four hours before last Sunday’s race, track officials announced that all 101,000 seats had been sold — the 27th straight sellout at the track. But there were large gaps of empty seats, their silver backs shining in the sun, outside the third and fourth turns of the oval. Nascar and the tracks that host Sprint Cup races do not release official attendance figures, but according to Nascar estimates, attendance figures have been lower at 10 of 17 races this season. Attendance has gone up at only one race, the season-opening Daytona 500. Attendance has dropped at four of the last six races, most notably at the LifeLock 400 at Michigan International Speedway, where an estimated 115,000 fans attended a Sprint Cup race June 15. A crowd estimated at 145,000 attended the same race a year ago. “Michigan was an eye-opener for us,” the Nascar spokesman Jim Hunter said. “That’s the heart of the automobile industry. That one hit home more than any other because of where it is.” Hunter said that a hard-core stock car fan usually attends four to six races a year. That number, he said last week, is down to two to four. Ratings for races televised by Fox increased 2 percent over last year, something Hunter said could be attributed to rising gas prices. “Our hard-core fan, if he’s feeling pinched, he’ll cut back on the number of races that he goes to, because he knows he can see it on TV,” Hunter said. The announced attendance at Pocono Raceway for a Sprint Cup race on June 8 was 105,000, the same as a year ago, but the infield at the two-and-a-half-mile track was significantly emptier than it had been during past races. Attendance for the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, near Charlotte, N.C., dropped to 160,000 from 175,000. A week later, attendance at the Best Buy 400 in Dover was 133,000, down from 145,000 in 2007. “The gas prices are probably the most visible of the obstacles that the customers face,” Denis McGlynn, the president and chief officer at Dover International Speedway, said in a telephone interview last week. “But it’s the hotel room, the food costs — it’s everything all blended in. Those discretionary dollars are just drying up.” Dover also hosts a Sprint Cup race in September that is the second of 10 races in the Chase to the Sprint Cup, Nascar’s version of the playoffs. McGlynn said some fans might have skipped the June race in favor of going to a more meaningful race later in the year. Eric Bourgeois, a fan from East Haddam, Conn., took his camper back to New Hampshire this year, but he had something new: a propane grill to cook food that he had bought at a supermarket. He was also parked in a new spot. “The guy who had it just couldn’t do it anymore,” Bourgeois said. “He just couldn’t afford to do it.” Gary Baber, a friend of Bourgeois’s, said: “It’s getting to the point where I’m picking and choosing which races I can go to. All the expendable cost is going into the fuel tank. It’s kind of putting a curb on what we love to do.” Higher gas prices also affect how fans spend their money once they get to the track. Corrine Gaskill, whose father is the president of Race Ready Communications, a company in Absecon, N.J., that sells scanners, staffed a trailer outside New Hampshire Motor Speedway that drew virtually no foot traffic Friday afternoon. Rita Wilkin of Romney, N.H., about 50 miles from Loudon, is a fan of Dale Earnhardt Jr., who switched teams in the off-season and has new sponsors and a new number, 88, on his car. Wilkin was resisting the urge to buy new Earnhardt merchandise. “I’m not going to do it this year,” she said. Meanwhile, Joe Baumann had decided to take the weekend off from Nascar. Baumann, from Erie, Pa., drew attention from Nascar in 2004 for attending all 36 races in what was then the Nextel Cup Series. He plans to attend 20 to 22 races this year. Many fans say they like to go to the races because they are gathering places as well as spectacles. But Baumann said he was cutting back because he said he thought the races, with boxier, safer cars, were not as exciting as they used to be. Races, he said, tend to become parades. “If you’ve been to Bristol, or Martinsville, you know that rubbin’ is racin’,” Baumann said in a telephone interview. He skipped a trip to Pocono, seven hours to the east in Long Pond, Pa., and attended the race in Michigan because it is 300 miles from his home. A trip to Daytona Beach, Fla., for a July 5 race would cost him $1,200 to $1,300 in diesel fuel to fill up his 40-foot trailer. “It’s craziness,” he said. Nascar and track officials cannot do much about the price of gas — which was running at $3.95 a gallon on Sunday at the two gas stations closest to New Hampshire Motor Speedway — but they say they can do more to give fans their money’s worth. Officials at the track, which was purchased late last year by the racing magnate O. Bruton Smith, announced earlier this month that they would hold drawings for $500 gas cards. They also announced that the music group Kansas would hold a prerace concert, and that the festivities would include a motorcycle show and an elephant race. (The elephant race was canceled because of a lack of permits and health certifications.) “My job, as a promoter here, is to convince people to come here — to make this race one of the two or three they go to,” said Jerry Gappens, the new general manager of the track. “I want this to be a state fair and a Super Bowl and everything in between.” Even if he accomplishes that, he knows his job is a lot tougher than it used to be. “We’re not just competing against race tracks,” he said, “but we’re competing against baseball and football, and we’re competing against all aspects of being entertained.”

National Assn of Stock Car Auto Racing
Prices (Fares Fees and Rates)
Oil (Petroleum) and Gasoline
Travel and Vacations
Automobile Racing


GTT ★

Abstract: Our quirky, discerning picks for the most interesting things to do around the state this week. HOUSTON Good Vibrations A theremin — the instrument played by waving one’s hands, like a symphony conductor, around antennae — produces a hypnotic sound that has provided the soundtrack to science-fiction movies like “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and “The Thing From Another World.” Cressandra Thibodeaux , proprietor of 14 Pews , an art-house movie theater, has fallen under the spell of the device, which Leon Theremin , a Russian scientist, invented in 1920, and has made it the star of her annual Bayou City Music and Film Festival . “I got sucked in, so much so that I write this after hanging out and filming Leon Theremin’s granddaughter and great-grandson here in Moscow, Russia,” Ms. Thibodeaux said. “My belly is full of borscht and vodka, and my soul is filled with the good vibrations of this unique instrument.” The four-day event will include movies, a workshop and performances by the world’s top theremin players, including Dorit Chrysler , an Austrian musician who founded the Kid Cool Theremin School in Brooklyn and who has collaborated with rock acts like Marilyn Manson and Dinosaur Jr. Ms. Thibodeaux is shooting a documentary about the theremin that follows Ms. Chrysler as she travels from Russia to Asheville, N.C., (the location of Moog Music, a theremin maker) to New York on her journey to play a concert with Kenneth Anger, an experimental filmmaker. 14 Pews, Dec. 4-7, 14pews.org SAN ANTONIO Mercado de Paz Through the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center , goods from the indigenous cultures of Mexico and Latin America reach American consumers. Each fall, the nonprofit hosts a two-day Peace Market, now in its 25th year featuring folk art, apparel and books. Skip the mainstream brands this gift-giving season, and choose from the wares of more than 50 vendors from Peru, Guatemala, Mexico and Texas, with items like retables , bordados and lotería. With each purchase, patrons enter a raffle for treasures they may have had their eyes on but couldn’t fit into their budgets. Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, Nov. 28-29, 10 a.m., esperanzacenter.org AUSTIN Write for Life The Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin has one of the best Master of Fine Arts programs in the world, with recent graduates including Smith Henderson ( “Fourth of July Creek” ), Philipp Meyer ( “The Son” ) and Kevin Powers ( “The Yellow Birds” ). Those who mentor the writers in training are a big reason for the program’s stature. Two of the center’s visiting professors this fall are Naomi Shihab Nye, a San Antonio novelist and poet, and Cristina García, a journalist and novelist who splits time between Austin and San Francisco. Ms. Nye will read from her 2011 short story collection, “There Is No Long Distance Now,” about the attraction of opposites, and her 2014 children’s novel, “The Turtle of Oman,” an immigration tale, while Ms. García will read from her 2013 novel, “King of Cuba,” about an aging Castro-like dictator. The audience (full of Michener students, no doubt) will learn from two National Book Award finalists with cultural backgrounds foreign to Texas: Ms. García is a Cuban émigré, and Ms. Nye grew up near Ferguson, Mo., and spent her high school years in Ramallah on the West Bank. The University of Texas, Dec. 1, 6:30 p.m., utexas.edu/academic/mcw TODD MISSION Fantasyland For the last month and a half, on a 55-acre plot of wooded land, people dressed as kings, queens, knights, barbarians, maidens, centaurs, nymphs, pirates, wizards, blacksmiths, goblins, fairies, jesters and other characters of fantasy and bygone eras have frolicked at the 40th annual Texas Renaissance Festival , considered the largest of its kind. On this final weekend, the theme will be a Celtic Christmas . While the niceties of the season will be on display in the Candy Cane Hunt and the Guess the Present contest, there will certainly be elements of the original Celtic Christmas, thought to have been borrowed from pagans who would seem to have preferred being naughty over nice. Todd Mission, Nov. 28-30, 9 a.m., texrenfest.com FORT WORTH Awareness Via Film The short films screened nationwide on World AIDS Day as part of the 25th annual Day With(out) Art event — coordinated by Visual AIDS, a nonprofit that builds awareness about the disease through creative expression — might encourage us to re-evaluate our obsession with Ebola and concentrate on eradicating one of the top 10 killers in the world. Fort Worth Contemporary Arts, Dec. 1, 5 p.m., visualaids.org DALLAS How We Roll Women may be discouraged from participating in football, but the bad-to-the-bone female competitors in the 2014 Roller Derby World Cup , with 30 international teams vying for supremacy, probably consider the action on the gridiron child’s play anyway. Dallas Convention Center, Dec. 4-7, rollerderbyworldcup.com


Polls Say Medicare Is Key Issue in 3 Swing States

Abstract: The Romney-Ryan proposal to reshape Medicare by giving future beneficiaries fixed amounts of money to buy health coverage is deeply unpopular in Florida , Ohio and Wisconsin , according to new polls that found that more likely voters in each state trust President Obama to handle Medicare. The Medicare debate was catapulted to the forefront of the presidential campaign this month when Mitt Romney announced that his running mate would be Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, who is perhaps best known for proposing a budget plan, supported by Mr. Romney, to overhaul Medicare to rein in its costs. After more than a week of frenzied campaigning on the issue, Medicare ranks as the third-most crucial issue to likely voters in Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin — behind the economy and health care, according to new Quinnipiac University/New York Times/CBS News polls of the three swing states. The Republican proposal to retool the program a decade from now is widely disliked. Roughly 6 in 10 likely voters in each state want Medicare to continue providing health insurance to older Americans the way it does today; fewer than a third of those polled said Medicare should be changed in the future to a system in which the government gives the elderly fixed amounts of money to buy health insurance or Medicare insurance , as Mr. Romney has proposed. And Medicare is widely seen as a good value: about three-quarters of the likely voters in each state said the benefits of Medicare are worth the cost to taxpayers. “On Medicare, I don’t like the Paul Ryan plan,” said Beverly McLaren, 72, an independent from St. Petersburg , Fla., who said in a follow-up interview that Medicare worked well for her and that she planned to vote to re-elect Mr. Obama. “I can’t see how it will help at all, and we’ll have more out-of-pocket expenses, and I’m not really clear how it will work.” About 60 percent of independent voters in the three states support keeping Medicare as it is today, as do at least 8 in 10 Democrats. Republicans are closely divided on the issue in Florida and Ohio, but in Wisconsin, Mr. Ryan’s home state, a majority of Republicans support changing it along the lines he has proposed. The polls — the first in this series of swing-state surveys taken since Mr. Ryan joined the Republican ticket — showed that at least in Mr. Ryan’s home state, he may be helping Mr. Romney. A majority of likely Wisconsin voters said they approved of the way Mr. Ryan has handled his job in Congress, and 31 percent said his selection made them more likely to vote for Mr. Romney, while 22 percent said it made them less likely to do so. The race appears to have tightened a bit in both Florida and Wisconsin in recent weeks. In Florida and Wisconsin, where Mr. Obama had led Mr. Romney by six percentage points in polls conducted before the selection of Mr. Ryan, the race is essentially tied. Mr. Obama is ahead in Florida by 49 percent to 46 percent and in Wisconsin by 49 percent to 47 percent — differences within the polls’ margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. Mr. Obama retains a six-point advantage in Ohio, where he leads Mr. Romney 50 percent to 44 percent, unchanged from last month’s survey. The polls were largely conducted before the uproar over remarks on rape and abortion made by a Republican Senate candidate in Missouri , Representative Todd Akin , which officials in both parties agree could alter the dynamic of the race, especially among women. Mr. Obama enjoys solid support of a majority of women in each of these three states, the surveys found, but in Wisconsin his healthy lead among women has narrowed since the last poll and now trails the levels of the 2008 election, when he won the state. The polls’ findings on Medicare underscore the risk Mr. Romney took when he chose Mr. Ryan to be his running mate. Mr. Ryan rose to prominence among conservatives who lauded his willingness to propose unpopular measures to balance the budget and cut the rising costs of Medicare — costs officials in both parties agree are on an unsustainable path. But while the polls found that Mr. Romney enjoyed a wide advantage in all three states on the question of who is better equipped to tackle the budget deficit, it found that he lagged on other questions voters feel strongly about — including who is better equipped to handle health care, Medicare and foreign policy. Some voters give them credit for campaigning on a politically contentious issue. “It may be political suicide, but at least Romney and Ryan are willing to stand up and say we can’t keep shoveling money into this program and other programs like this,” said Michael Behnke, 59, an independent from Solon, Ohio. When it comes to the running mates, Mr. Ryan comes out ahead with independents. On balance, they feel more favorable toward Mr. Ryan but have a more negative view of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. , who has drawn criticism in recent days for saying that Mr. Romney’s policies would unchain the financial sector and “put y’all back in chains.” But many voters in Florida and Ohio said they did not yet know enough about Mr. Ryan to form an opinion — and many in all three states said the choice of running mate would have no impact on their votes. The polls were conducted by telephone (landline and cellphones) from Aug. 15 through Tuesday among 1,241 likely voters in Florida, 1,253 likely voters in Ohio and 1,190 likely voters in Wisconsin. All three are states Mr. Obama won, but where Republicans have since made gains in state and local elections. Mr. Romney has taken pains to stress that his Medicare plan would not change the benefits for people 55 or over. But voters over 55 have strong feelings about it, including in Florida, the electoral-vote-rich state where Republicans will hold their convention next week. Jim Ryan, 75, a retired executive from Bradenton, Fla., who is an independent, said it was an important issue because he and his wife were on Medicare. “We’re enjoying the benefits now, and the Paul Ryan program of making it into a voucher system would change things,” he said. “I know it’s not intended to apply to people in our age group, but I’m concerned about the future. I think it’s a wonderful program, and I’ve got middle-aged children and I don’t want to see the program destroyed. It’s probably one of the best programs sponsored by the federal government that we’ve ever had. It does have to be made fiscally sound, but there are ways to do that without destroying the whole concept or the substance of it.” Mr. Romney has been attacking Mr. Obama for counting on $716 billion in Medicare savings to help pay for his health care law — savings that Mr. Ryan also counted on in his budget plan but which Mr. Romney has promised to restore. The poll underscored how unpopular deep cuts to Medicare are. Only about a tenth of the voters in each state said they would support major reductions in Medicare spending to reduce the federal deficit. Nearly half of the voters in each state said they would support minor reductions, and about a third said they would not support any reductions at all.

Polls
Medicare
Florida
Ohio
Wisconsin
Mitt Romney
2012 Presidential Election
Federal Budget
Barack Obama


Nets’ Avery Johnson Is Named East Coach of the Month

Abstract: Avery Johnson was selected as the Eastern Conference coach of the month for November — not a particularly meaningful honor, except for what it says about the Nets ’ rapid growth. Johnson earned the award Monday after guiding the Nets to an 11-4 record, their best start ever through 15 games. The 11 wins set a franchise record and instantly established the Nets as a credible force in the East. They finished the month tied with the Knicks for the Atlantic Division lead. The early success was most striking because of where the Nets have been. They endured five straight losing seasons before this one and fell into irrelevancy in their final years in New Jersey. The Nets won 12 games in the 2009-10 season, a total they will match with their next victory. The November schedule was not particularly grueling, but the Nets did defeat some top-tier opponents: the Boston Celtics (twice), the Los Angeles Clippers and the Knicks. Seven of the 15 games were on the road, including a trip to Miami and a tough back-to-back set against the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors. After adding nine new players — six of whom are in the regular rotation — the Nets figured it would take a little longer to gain traction. Yet they found their stride quickly, despite losing Gerald Wallace, their best defender, for seven games because of an ankle injury. The Nets’ second unit has been one of the N.B.A.’s best, with surprising contributions from Jerry Stackhouse (who was, in Johnson’s words, “semiretired”) and Andray Blatche (who was waived by the Washington Wizards last summer). Johnson’s imprint has been most evident in the Nets’ newfound stinginess on defense. The Nets were projected as a weak defensive team based on their personnel, but they were 10th in the league as of Dec. 1, and ranked No. 1 over all during their recent five-game winning streak. The coach-of-the-month award is Johnson’s fourth, after he won three with the Dallas Mavericks. He is the third Nets coach to earn the honor, and the first since Lawrence Frank in April 2007. NETS WITHOUT LOPEZ The Nets will be without Brook Lopez again when they host the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night. Lopez is recovering from a sprained right foot and is considered day-to-day. A magnetic resonance imaging examination on Monday confirmed the original diagnosis and did not reveal any new concerns. “That’s really good news,” Coach Avery Johnson said. Lopez is no longer wearing a walking boot, but he still walked with a slight limp on Monday. Johnson wants Lopez to practice at least once before returning to the starting lineup. The Nets are taking a cautious approach because Lopez missed nearly all of last season after breaking a bone in the same foot. It is unclear yet whether he might be ready for Friday’s home game against the Warriors. COST OF GAME FOR FAMILY INCREASES A family of four attending a Nets game will spend $365 on average — the seventh highest total in the N.B.A., according to the latest research by Team Marketing Report. The price of taking a family of four to an N.B.A. game increased by 4.4 percent from last season, to an average of $316, according to the Fan Cost Index study released Monday. The Knicks have the N.B.A.’s highest average ticket price ($123) and the highest Fan Cost Index ($644). Fourteen teams raised prices this season, according to the study. The Nets charged the biggest increase after moving to Brooklyn from New Jersey. The average ticket price at Barclays Center is $56, the ninth highest figure in the league and a 50.8 percent increase from last season. The Fan Cost Index figure reflects the cost of four average-price tickets, two small beers, four small soft drinks, four hot dogs, parking for one car, two game programs and two adult-size hats.


Kansas: Students Picket Secretary of State

Abstract: About 50 college students who are in the United States illegally marched on the Kansas secretary of state’s office to urge him to stop working on immigration laws and do his state job. The students delivered a letter on Tuesday to a staff member, who said the secretary, Kris W. Kobach , was unable to meet with them. Mr. Kobach is a Republican and former law professor at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. He has helped shape immigration policies around the country and continues to litigate immigration issues in other states.

Kansas
Demonstrations Protests and Riots
Colleges and Universities
Kobach Kris W
Immigration and Emigration
United States Politics and Government
Illegal Immigrants


Michael Janeway, Former Editor of The Boston Globe, Dies at 73

Abstract: Michael C. Janeway, a former editor of The Boston Globe and executive editor of The Atlantic Monthly who wrote two books chronicling what he saw as the intertwined decline of democracy and journalism in the United States, died on Thursday at his home in Lakeville, Conn. He was 73. The cause was cancer, said his wife, Barbara Maltby. Mr. Janeway joined The Globe in 1978 as the Sunday magazine editor and worked his way up the ranks during the end of the era of its influential and much-loved editor Thomas Winship . He served three years as managing editor before being appointed in 1985 to succeed Mr. Winship, who was retiring. Mr. Janeway’s tenure was brief. His analytical style contrasted sharply with Mr. Winship’s hale-and-hearty approach to the newsroom. He encountered resistance from newsroom lieutenants who had been rivals for the top job. Mr. Janeway left the newspaper in 1986. He was named dean of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., in 1989, and held that post until 1996, when he was named head of the arts journalism program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. At the same time, he began writing books. The first, “Republic of Denial: Press, Politics, and Public Life” (1999), was a dark vision of a near future in which journalists and politicians, having lost touch with their essential roles as binders of the social fabric, help splinter society and promote its disintegration by pandering to people’s lowest instincts. The process of “public alienation from politics and government, and the erosion of optimism and belief in progress,” which was already underway, he wrote, amounted to “a contemporary democratic crisis.” The second book, “The Fall of the House of Roosevelt: Brokers of Ideas and Power From FDR to LBJ,” published in 2004, measured some of the ideas in his first book against the history of the New Deal. It focused on President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s inner circle of advisers, a group of political operatives and thinkers often called Roosevelt’s “brain trust,” who helped conceive ideas like the minimum wage, Social Security and federal bank deposit insurance. Mr. Janeway’s father, Eliot Janeway, an economist, Democratic hand and columnist for Time magazine (a portfolio not unheard-of in those days), was a prominent member of that group. Michael Janeway suggested that in undertaking the radical changes necessary to yank the “shattered American capitalist system into regulation and reform,” Roosevelt and his team manipulated the political process with a level of ruthlessness that may have been justified by the perils of the times. But in the years that followed, he wrote, the habit of guile and highhandedness devolved into the kind of arrogance that defined — and doomed — the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, Roosevelt’s last political heir. Mr. Janeway’s father, who later became an adviser to Johnson as well, serves in the book as a symbolic bridge between the beginning and the end of the New Deal. Reviewers cited Michael Janeway’s unblinking examination of his father’s career as both brave and historically illuminating. “Mr. Janeway is, again and again, honest about things that it is hard to be honest about,” Christopher Caldwell wrote in his review in The New York Times, “above all his father’s gradual abandonment of the life of the mind for the life of influence.” Michael Charles Janeway was born in Manhattan on May 31, 1940. His mother, the former Elizabeth Ames Hall, was a novelist. He graduated from Harvard in 1962, served two years in the Army and then became an assistant editor at The Atlantic Monthly, which since 2004 has been known as The Atlantic. After rising to executive editor there, he worked from 1977 to 1978 as an aide to Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance before joining The Globe. Besides his wife, he is survived by two children from a previous marriage, Daisy Bowe and Samuel Janeway; two stepsons, Nicholas and David Maltby; a brother, William; and 10 grandchildren and stepgrandchildren.

Michael Janeway
Boston Globe
Boston
Atlantic Monthly
Newspaper
Obituary


Events on Long Island for May 18-24, 2014

Abstract: A guide to cultural and recreational events on Long Island. Items for the calendar should be sent at least three weeks in advance to lical@nytimes.com. Comedy SAG HARBOR Bay Street Theater Paula Poundstone. May 24 at 8 p.m. $65 to $125. Bay Street Theater, Main and Bay Streets. baystreet.org; (631) 725-9500. PATCHOGUE Shand’s Loft, The Brick House Brewery Live comedy featuring both aspiring and veteran comics. May 18 at 7 p.m. $12. Shand’s Loft, the Brick House Brewery, 67 West Main Street. (631) 438-0083; plazamac.org. Film HUNTINGTON Cinema Arts Center Rock Legends Live! Rare concert clips and footage of Neil Young from Shelley Archives. May 20 at 7:30 p.m. $10 and $15. Screening of “It Felt Like Love” with Eliza Hittman, the director. May 21 at 7:30 p.m. $10 and $15. “Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq,” screening of the documentary with Nancy Buirski, the director. May 22 at 7 p.m. $10 and $15. Cinema Arts Center, 423 Park Avenue. cinemaartscentre.org; (800) 838-3006. LEVITTOWN Levittown Public Library “Captain Phillips” (2013), directed by Paul Greengrass. May 23 at 1:30 and 7 p.m. Free. Levittown Public Library, 1 Bluegrass Lane. (516) 731-5728; liwg.com. PATCHOGUE The Plaza Cinema and Media Arts Center “Singin’ in the Rain” (1952), directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly. May 22 at 1:30 and 7:30 p.m.; May 24 at noon. $11. “Casablanca” (1942), directed by Michael Curtiz; screening followed by discussion with Isabella Rossellini, actress, director, producer, and daughter of Ingrid Bergman. May 22 at 7:30 p.m. $13. The Plaza Cinema and Media Arts Center, 20 Terry Street. (631) 438-0083; plazamac.org. ROSLYN HARBOR Nassau County Museum of Art “Outdoor Life,” 50-minute film exploring humans’ relationship to the countryside. Tuesdays through Sundays (except for special programs) at 11 a.m., noon, 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Through July 6. Free with museum admission, $4 to $10; children 4 and under and members, free. Museum hours: Tuesdays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Nassau County Museum of Art, 1 Museum Drive. nassaumuseum.org; (516) 484-9337. For Children GARDEN CITY Long Island Children’s Museum “Sweet Spring Collage.” Create a garden full of collage flowers. May 27 through 30. Free with museum admission, $11 and $12. Long Island Children’s Museum, 11 Davis Avenue. (516) 224-5800; licm.org. HUNTINGTON Cinema Arts Center “Eleanor’s Secret” (2009), animated feature film directed by Dominique Monfery. May 18 at noon. $5 to $11. Cinema Arts Center, 423 Park Avenue. (800) 838-3006; cinemaartscentre.org. NORTHPORT John W. Engeman Theater “The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley,” book by Timothy Allen McDonald, music by Mr. McDonald, Jonathan K. Waller, David Weinstein and Stephen Gabriel. Through May 18. $15. John W. Engeman Theater, 250 Main Street. engemantheater.com; (631) 261-2900. OAKDALE CM Performing Arts Center “Tilly the Trickster,” musical. Saturdays at 2 p.m. through June 14. $12. CM Performing Arts Center, 931 Montauk Highway. (631) 218-2810; cmpac.com. PORT JEFFERSON Theater Three “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” family musical. Through May 24. $10. Theater Three, 412 Main Street. (631) 928-9100; theaterthree.com. ROSLYN HARBOR Nassau County Museum of Art Family Sundays at the museum, gallery tours starting at 1 p.m., supervised art activities starting at 1:30 p.m. Through July 6. Free with museum admission, $4 to $10; children 4 and under and members, free. Nassau County Museum of Art, 1 Museum Drive. (516) 484-9337; nassaumuseum.org. Music and Dance BAY SHORE Y.M.C.A. Boulton Center for the Performing Arts Lisa Loeb, singer-songwriter. May 21 at 8 p.m. $40 and $45. Ottmar Liebert and Luna Negra, flamenco-style, funky, jazzy blues guitar. May 31 at 8 p.m. $50 and $55. Y.M.C.A. Boulton Center for the Performing Arts, 37 West Main Street. (631) 969-1101; boultoncenter.org. BOHEMIA Connetquot Public Library Barynya, an ensemble featuring Russian music and dancing led by Mikhail Smirnov, artistic director, and Valentina Kvasova, choreographer. May 18, 2 to 3:30 p.m. Free. Connetquot Public Library, 760 Ocean Avenue. (631) 567-5079; connetquotlibrary.org. DIX HILLS Dix Hills Performing Arts Center “Got Talent? Long Island,” a competition for performers 18 years and under. May 31 at 7:30 p.m. $10 to $35. Dix Hills Performing Arts Center, 305 North Service Road. (631) 656-2148; dhpac.org. GARDEN CITY Cathedral of the Incarnation Music in the Cathedral: Organ Recital by Andrew H. Yeargin. May 18 at 4 p.m. $10 and $15. Cathedral of the Incarnation, 50 Cathedral Avenue. (516) 746-2955; cathedralmusic.info. LONG BEACH Long Beach Public Library “Artists in Partnership’s 12th Annual Cabaret Festival,” performances honoring the Great American Songbook. Through May 18. Free. Long Beach Public Library, 111 West Park Avenue. (516) 432-7201; nassaulibrary.org/longbeach. MONTAUK Montauk’s Village Green Montauk Music Festival. Through May 18. Free. Montauk’s Village Green. montaukmusicfestival.com. PATCHOGUE Patchogue Theater for the Performing Arts Atlantic Wind Symphony presents “Band Selections to Dance By,” featuring music of various cultures. June 1 at 3 p.m. $7 to $25. Patchogue Theater for the Performing Arts, 71 East Main Street. patchoguetheatre.com; (631) 207-1313. PORT WASHINGTON Landmark on Main Street The Band of Long Island, performing works by Hamlish, Sousa, Copland, Reed, Debussy, Stravinsky, Ravel and Brahms. May 18 at 2 p.m. $15 and $20. Landmark on Main Street, 232 Main Street. (516) 829-8709; landmarkonmainstreet.org. SHOREHAM North Shore Public Library The Sheridan Trio, featuring Moritz Winkelmann, pianist, Elizabeth Fayette, violinist, and Carl-Oscar Osterlind, cellist. May 24 at 2 p.m. Free. North Shore Public Library, 250 Route 25A. (631) 929-4488; northshorepubliclibrary.org. SOUTHAMPTON Rogers Memorial Library Sunday Afternoon Concert with Misuzu Tanaka, pianist, performing works by Bartok, Chopin and Schumann. May 18 at 3 p.m. Free. Rogers Memorial Library, 91 Coopers Farm Road. (631) 283-0774 ext. 582; rmlfoundation.org. SYOSSET Long Island High School for the Arts Huntington Center and Long Island Ballet Theater Spring Gala, an evening of dance, music and song performed by the teaching artists and students of Huntington Center. May 31, 7 to 9 p.m. $25. Long Island High School for the Arts, 239 Cold Spring Road. (631) 271-4626; huntingtonperformingarts.com. Image EAST HAMPTON Victor Slezak, left, as Mark Rothko and Christian Scheider as Ken, his studio assistant, in “Red,” a drama by John Logan at Guild Hall, 158 Main Street, May 21 through June 8. Tickets are $10 to $35. Information: (631) 324-4050; guildhall.org . Credit Brian Leaver WATER MILL Parrish Art Museum The HooDoo Loungers, New Orleans party band. May 23, 6 to 8 p.m. Free with museum admission. Parrish Art Museum, 279 Montauk Highway. (631) 283-2118; parrishart.org. WESTHAMPTON BEACH Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center A Midsummer Night’s Dream Ballet, ballet based on the Shakespeare play, with music by Mendelssohn. May 18 at 3 p.m. $15. Blackmore’s Night, folk/rock. May 22 at 8 p.m. $48.50 to $76. Rickie Lee Jones, pop and jazz. May 24 at 8 p.m. $50 to $75. Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, 76 Main Street. whbpac.org; (631) 288-1500. Outdoors COLD SPRING HARBOR Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Museum “Captains and Merchants Historic Walking Tour,” guided tour. May 25 at 11:30 a.m. $10 and $15. Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Museum, 301 Main Street. cshwhalingmuseum.org; (631) 367-3418. RIVERHEAD Hallockville Museum Farm and Folklife Center “Long Island Fleece and Fiber Fair,” artisans demonstrate sheep and llama shearing, spinning, weaving and dyeing. May 18, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. $5; Free for children under 12. Hallockville Museum Farm and Folklife Center, 6038 Sound Avenue. (631) 298-5292; hallockville.com. WANTAGH Jones Beach State Park Bethpage Air Show at Jones Beach featuring the U.S. Navy Blue Angels. May 24 and 25. Free. Jones Beach State Park, 1 Ocean Parkway. bethpageairshow.com. Spoken Word LEVITTOWN Levittown Public Library “Back in the Bronx,” Stephen M. Samtur, magazine editor and author, will give a retrospective of the borough as it was in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s. May 29 at 2 p.m. Free. Levittown Public Library, 1 Bluegrass Lane. (516) 731-5728; liwg.com. Theater EAST HAMPTON Guild Hall “Red,” by John Logan. May 21 through June 8. $10 to $35. Guild Hall, 158 Main Street. (631) 324-4050; guildhall.org. NORTHPORT John W. Engeman Theater “Plaza Suite,” comedy by Neil Simon. May 29 through July 13. $55. John W. Engeman Theater, 250 Main Street. (631) 261-2900; engemantheater.com. OAKDALE CM Performing Arts Center “Guys and Dolls,” music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. Through May 18. $18 to $27. CM Performing Arts Center, 931 Montauk Highway. (631) 218-2810; cmpac.com. PORT JEFFERSON Theater Three “Bingo! The Winning Musical,” by Michael Heitzman, Ilene Reid and David Holcenberg. Through May 24. $17 to $30. Theater Three, 412 Main Street. (631) 928-9100; theaterthree.com. QUOGUE Hampton Theater Company, Quogue Community Hall “God of Carnage,” comedy by Yasmina Reza. May 22 through June 8. $10 to $25. Hampton Theater Company, Quogue Community Hall, 126 Jessup Avenue. (631) 653-8955; hamptontheatre.org. SAG HARBOR Bay Street Theater “Conviction,” by Carey Crim. May 27 through June 15. $59.50 to $75. Bay Street Theater, Main and Bay Streets. (631) 725-9500; baystreet.org. SMITHTOWN Smithtown Center for the Performing Arts “The Marvelous Wonderettes: Caps and Gowns,” musical by Roger Bean. Through May 18. $20 and $35. Smithtown Center for the Performing Arts, 2 East Main Street. (631) 724-3700; smithtownpac.org. WANTAGH East Line Productions “The Fantasticks,” musical with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones. May 23 through June 1. $20. East Line Productions, 2123 Wantagh Avenue. (516) 749-5047. Museums and Galleries BELLPORT Gallery 125 Large paintings by David Cappella. Through June 8. Thursdays, 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Fridays, 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturdays, 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sundays, 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Gallery 125, 125 South Country Road. (631) 880-2693; gallery125.org. BROOKVILLE Tilles Center for the Performing Arts “Sea Change,” installation by Sally Shore and Barbara Grossman Karyo in the atrium. Through July 1. Mondays through Fridays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays, 1 to 5 p.m. Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, 720 Northern Boulevard. tillescenter.org; (516) 299-3100. CUTCHOGUE Alex Ferrone Photography Gallery “Metropolis,” three regional photographers. Through June 8. Alex Ferrone Photography Gallery, 25425 Main Road. (631) 734-8545; alexferrone.com. DIX HILLS Jeanie Tengelsen Gallery “Transcendence,” sculpture, installations and two-dimensional works. May 18 through June 21. Reception: May 18 from 3 to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Jeanie Tengelsen Gallery, 107 East Deer Park Road. (631) 462-5400; artleagueli.org. EAST HAMPTON Ashawagh Hall The East End Photographers Group Spring Exhibition. May 31 through June 8. Ashawagh Hall, 780 Springs Fireplace Road. eastendphotogroup.com; (631) 324-9612. EAST HAMPTON Guild Hall “76th Annual Guild Hall Artist Members Exhibition,” group show. Through June 7. Fridays and Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Guild Hall, 158 Main Street. (631) 324-4050; guildhall.org. EAST HAMPTON Lawrence Fine Art “Linescapes,” Carol Sears. May 22 through June 24. Fridays and Saturdays, 1 to 7 p.m.; Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays, 1 to 5:30 p.m. Lawrence Fine Art, 37 Newtown Lane. lawrence-fine-arts.com; (631) 604-5525. EAST HAMPTON Pritam and Eames “The Furniture Art of Mark Larson and Dan Cramer.” Through July 8. Free. Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. Pritam and Eames, 29 Race Lane. (631) 324-7111; pritameames.com. EAST HAMPTON The Drawing Room New drawings by Linda Etcoff, and photographs and knitted sketches by Laurie Lambrecht. Through May 18. Free. Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Drawing Room, 66 Newtown Lane. (631) 324-5016; drawingroom-gallery.com. EAST ISLIP Islip Art Museum “Redacted,” group show. Through June 1. Suggested donation, $5. 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. GARDEN CITY Ruth S. Harley University Center Gallery, Adelphi University “Outdoor Sculpture Biennial,” 10 sculptors. Through May 31. Mondays through Fridays, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Ruth S. Harley University Center Gallery, Adelphi University, 1 South Avenue. adelphi.edu/artmuseum; (516) 877-3126. GARDEN CITY Long Island Children’s Museum “Alice’s Wonderland: A Most Curious Adventure,” traveling exhibition based on Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” May 30 through Aug. 31. Free with museum admission, $11 and $12. Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Long Island Children’s Museum, 11 Davis Avenue. (516) 224-5800; licm.org. Image COLD SPRING HARBOR “Front Street, Hempstead” (1869), oil on canvas by John Evers, is one of the works in an exhibition on Long Island’s past at the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, 161 Main Street, on display through Nov. 1. Admission is $1. For information: (631) 692-4664; splia.org . Credit Courtesy of the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities GLEN COVE Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center “Exit Berlin,” the American Jewish Congress’s new exhibition based on selections from the new book “Exit Berlin.” Through Sept. 7. $4 to $10. Mondays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, noon to 4 p.m. Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center, 100 Crescent Beach Road. (516) 571-8040; holocaust-nassau.org. GREENPORT The Gallery at Greenport Harbor Brewing Company “Working Girls of New York Harbor: A Sketchbook of Tugs, Dredges and Ships,” by Christina Sun. Through May 31. Fridays, 3 to 7 p.m.; Saturdays, noon to 7 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 6 p.m. The Gallery at Greenport Harbor Brewing Company, 234 Carpenter Street. (631) 477-6681; harborbrewing.com. GREENPORT The South Street Gallery “North Fork Modernism,” recent paintings by Colin Goldberg. Through May 26. Closing reception: May 24, 5 to 7 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays through Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. South Street Gallery, 18 South Street. thesouthstreetgallery.com; (631) 477-0021. HEMPSTEAD Hofstra University Museum “Don Resnick: Essence of Place,” paintings. Through Aug. 15. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Thursdays, 7 to 9 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 1 to 4 p.m. Hofstra University Museum, Emily Lowe Gallery, South Campus. “Spirit and Identity: Melanesian Works From the Hofstra University Museum Collection.” Through Aug. 29. Daily, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free. Hofstra University Museum, David Filderman Gallery, South Campus. hofstra.edu/museum; (516) 463-5672. HUNTINGTON B.J. Spoke Gallery “Naked Stones and Intimate Landscapes,” members’ exhibition. Through May 31. Tuesdays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Fridays, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. B.J. Spoke Gallery, 299 Main Street. (631) 549-5106; bjspokegallery.com. HUNTINGTON Fotofoto Gallery “Whisper Loudly,” photographs by Patricia Beary, and “Tulips,” photographs by Holly Gordon. Through May 25. Fridays, 5 to 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 1 to 8 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 4 p.m. Fotofoto Gallery, 14 West Carver Street. (631) 549-0448; fotofotogallery.org. HUNTINGTON The Heckscher Museum of Art “Exposed: Eadweard Muybridge and the Study of Motion,” featuring Muybridge’s studies of horses and zoo animals, men engaged in athletic pursuits and women in domestic activities. Through Aug. 3. “Rhythm and Repetition in 20th-Century Art,” artists who use repeated shapes as a method to organize their compositions. Through Aug. 10. “Picture Perfect: Selections From the Permanent Collection.” Through Aug. 10. $4 to $8; children under 10, free. Wednesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Heckscher Museum of Art, 2 Prime Avenue. (631) 351-3250; heckscher.org. HUNTINGTON Huntington Public Library “Susan Phillips: Observations,” photography and mixed-media collages. Through June 24. Huntington Public Library, 338 Main Street. hpl.suffolk.lib.ny.us; (631) 427-5165. NORTHPORT Northport Historical Society and Museum “Window Shopping Through Time,” on 10 stores on Main Street and Woodbine Avenue from the 1880s to the 1980s. Through Dec. 31. Tuesdays through Sundays, 1 to 4:30 p.m. Northport Historical Society and Museum, 215 Main Street. northporthistorical.org; (631) 757-9859. OYSTER BAY Coe Hall, Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park “Fabulous Interiors by Elsie de Wolfe and Charles Duveen, 1915-1945.” Through Sept. 30. Free with museum admission. Coe Hall, Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park, 1395 Planting Fields Road. (516) 922-9200; plantingfields.org. PATCHOGUE The Patchogue Arts Gallery “Projections: New Installations From Michelle Carollo and Jason Paradis.” Through June 21. The Patchogue Arts Gallery, 20 Terry Street, Suite 116. (631) 627-8686; patchoguearts.org. QUOGUE Quogue Library Art Gallery “Photographs From Early Girl Farm,” Andrea L. Parker. Through May 28. Mondays, noon to 5 p.m.; Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Quogue Library Art Gallery, 90 Quogue Street. quoguelibrary.org; (631) 653-4224. REMSENBURG Remsenburg Academy “Here Comes the Sun,” group show. Through June 1. Reception: May 23, from 5 to 7 p.m. Remsenburg Academy, 130 South Country Road. (631) 325-1834; remsenburgassociation.com. RIVERHEAD East End Arts Gallery “Line,” an all-media art exhibition. Through June 13. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. East End Arts Gallery, 133 East Main Street. eastendarts.org; (631) 727-0900. ROSLYN HARBOR Nassau County Museum of Art “AftermodernisM Spring 2014,” works by Michael Bevilacqua, James Busby and Ridley Howard. Through July 6. “Garden Party,” exploring imagery of outdoor entertainments through paintings, sculpture, costume, fabrics, et al. Through July 6. $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. SAG HARBOR Dodds & Eder Home Works by Rossa Cole, who creates art from discarded materials in nature. Through June 23. Thursdays to Mondays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dodds & Eder Home, 11 Bridge Street. doddsandederhome.com; (631) 725-1175. SAYVILLE Bay Area Friends of the Fine Arts Gallery “From Patchogue to San Francisco,” Carole J. Amodeo, images of her cross-country journey. Through June 1. Reception: May 18, 1 to 4 p.m. Bay Area Friends of the Fine Arts Gallery, 47 Gillette Avenue. (631) 589-7343; baffa.org. SEA CLIFF Sea Cliff Museum “Secrets of the Sea Cliff Museum ... Celebrating Our 35th Year,” works from the museum’s collection. Through June 1. Sundays, 2 to 5 p.m. Sea Cliff Museum, 95 10th Avenue. seacliff-ny.gov; (516) 671-0090. SOUTHAMPTON Southampton Cultural Center “Abstraction: 4 Perspectives,” paintings by Tracy Harris, David Geiser, Josh Dayton and Fulvio Massi. Through May 20. “25th Annual Memorial Day Show,” group show. May 21 through June 1. Mondays through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Southampton Cultural Center, 25 Pond Lane. (631) 287-4377; southamptonculturalcenter.org. SOUTHAMPTON Southampton Historical Museums “Southampton Blue Book, 1930 to 1960: Photographs by Bert Morgan.” Through Oct. 18. $4; free for members & children. “Hail to the Beach: Paintings by Dinah Maxwell Smith.” Through Oct. 18. $4; members and children under 17, free. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Southampton Historical Museums, 17 Meeting House Lane. southamptonhistoricalmuseum.org; (631) 283-2494. STONY BROOK Charles B. Wang Center, Stony Brook University “Boundless Fantasy: Multimedia Art From East Asia.” Through May 31. “Seas of Blue: Asian Indigo Dye,” site-specific installation of traditional and contemporary indigo-dyed textiles from India, Indonesia, Japan and Korea. Through July 27. “Marvels and Monsters: Unmasking Asian Images in U.S. Comics, 1942-86.” Through July 27. Charles B. Wang Center, Stony Brook University. (631) 632-6320; sunysb.edu/sb/wang. STONY BROOK Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages “Jackson Pollock’s Prints,” abstract art featuring intaglios, printed from the original plates by the artist, with silk-screens. Through June 8. $4 to $9; members and children under 6, free. Thursdays through 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. longislandmuseum.org; (631) 751-0066. STONY BROOK Staller Center for the Arts “Senior Show 2014,” paintings, sculptures, ceramics, photographs, prints and videos by graduating art students, at the Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery. Tuesdays through Fridays, noon to 4 p.m.; Saturdays, 7 to 9 p.m. Through May 23. Staller Center for the Arts, Nicolls Road, Stony Brook University. (631) 632-2787; stallercenter.com. SYOSSET Syosset Public Library “Music and Dance,” photographs by John Micheals. Through May 28. Mondays through Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Fridays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Syosset Public Library, 225 South Oyster Bay Road. syossetlibrary.org; (516) 921-7161. WATER MILL Parrish Art Museum “Look and Look Again: Contemporary Observation,” large-scale contemporary works. Through Oct. 26. “Changing Views: Expanding the Horizon,” landscape paintings. Through Oct. 26. “Jennifer Bartlett: History of the Universe — Works 1970-2011.” Through July 13. Roy Lichtenstein’s outdoor sculpture, Tokyo Brushstroke I & II. Continuing. $5 to 10; children under 18 free. Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Fridays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Parrish Art Museum, 279 Montauk Highway. parrishart.org; (631) 283-2118. WATER MILL Water Mill Museum “Water Mill Postal Service,” posters, news clippings, stories, postcards. May 22 through Aug. 12. Mondays and Wednesdays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Water Mill Museum, 41 Old Mill Road. watermillmuseum.org; (631) 726-4625.


For Hotels.com’s Campaign, the Answer Was Obvious

Abstract: TO the pantheon of brand mascots that includes the Most Interesting Man in the World , who pitches Dos Equis beer, and the Wisest , who peddles Campbell’s Soup, a website for booking accommodations is hoping to add an advertising character meant to be regarded as the Most Obvious Man in the World. The character, played by an actor named Brandon Moynihan, is called Captain Obvious, and is being introduced this week in a humorous campaign for Hotels.com. The idea is for the character to personify the concept that Hotels.com is “the obvious choice” in a crowded category, with the phrase becoming the company’s new ad theme. Captain Obvious gets around, as befitting the symbol of a website for travelers, and is dressed in a Ruritanian uniform comically festooned with medals. He is bearded like the Most Interesting Man in the World or Commander Whitehead , the venerable brand mascot of Schweppes beverages. The captain is modeled on a Captain Obvious meme in popular culture, found widely online and in social media, that is used to describe someone whose utterances are just that — obvious. The new character is no genius, but neither is he intended to be an idiot or Captain Oblivious; it is just that everything he says is self-evident. “You can’t use the Hotels.com mobile app until you download it,” Captain Obvious says in an ad. “Getting free nights is always cheaper than paying for not free nights,” he declares in another ad. In a radio commercial, the character tells listeners, “If your hotel balcony lacks a railing and a floor, it’s probably just a window.” And in a television commercial , he offers that “the hotel gym is short for ‘gymnasium’” and “the hotel pool is usually filled with water.” When a bellhop helping him check into a luxurious hotel room says, “Welcome back, Captain Obvious,” he replies cheerfully, “Yes, I am.” The campaign, with a budget estimated at $40 million to $50 million, is the first work for Hotels.com from Crispin Porter & Bogusky, part of MDC Partners, which was awarded the company’s creative account in October after Hotels.com had worked for five years with Y&R Chicago. Image Captain Obvious, as portrayed by Brandon Moynihan, is the personification of the new Hotel.com theme, “the obvious choice.” Characters seem to be growing more prevalent in advertising these days, as evidenced by the examples above for Dos Equis and Campbell’s, along with the Geico camel , gecko and pig ; Mayhem , who appears in commercials for Allstate; and the walking, talking candies in ads for M&M’s. A reason for the trend is the increasing adoption of aspects of storytelling to make ads more compelling for consumers — and, as Captain Obvious might ask, what is a story without characters? “A strong character helps tell the story well,” said Jim Haven, managing partner and chief creative officer at Creature, an agency in Seattle and London, and can “bring synergy” to ads across disparate media. “But you can’t predict” whether a character will succeed or fail, Mr. Haven said, and “it takes a great client, a great agency and a really good talent” playing the character “to pull it off.” That is why many campaigns opt for making the consumer the protagonist in the story-cum-ad, he said. When working with Y&R Chicago — part of the Young & Rubicam Group division of WPP — Hotels.com became known for campaigns that featured an Everyman character named Smart, who made smart decisions — i.e., using Hotels.com. Initially, he “was breakthrough in terms of being different,” said Neha Parikh, vice president and general manager of Hotels.com North America in Dallas, part of Expedia Inc., but after the commercials were changed to animation from Claymation, “they lost a little bit of what made them unique and weren’t helping us stand out in the cluttered travel landscape.” “We wanted our personality to show through” in a campaign, Ms. Parikh said. “We’re fun. We’re quirky. We love travel.” Enter the captain, whose obviousness is intended to suggest that because of “everything we offer, like verified reviews and a best-price guarantee,” she said, “our customers should think: ‘Why would I book anywhere else? There’s really no other.’ ” Ms. Parikh added: “When Crispin came to us with the ‘obvious choice’ platform, it was a no-brainer. I love that we’re taking something that has existed in pop culture since Year 3 and bringing it to life.” As for consumers perceiving the character as clueless or ignorant, Ms. Parikh said: “I don’t think so. I think he’s going to be pretty interesting. He travels all the time.” Dan Donovan, vice president and executive creative director at Crispin Porter & Bogusky, based in Boulder, Colo., said the character was inspired by the “literal name” of the product in that “Hotels.com is an obvious place for people to start searching” for accommodations. Captain Obvious is meant to “bring a sense of energy and fun and memorability to the brand that was maybe missing a little,” Mr. Donovan said. “Usually, saying ‘Captain Obvious’ is sarcastic, but we twisted that a little bit to make stating the obvious a good thing.” According to Kantar Media, a unit of WPP, Hotels.com spent $48.4 million on ads in major media in the first nine months of 2013. By comparison, Kantar Media reported, Kayak.com spent $37.3 million; Expedia.com spent $34 million; Booking.com, a newcomer to the United States market, spent $29.3 million; and Travelocity.com spent $25 million.

Hotels Hotels.com advertising,marketing Travel,Tourism


Texas Hospitals Reflect Debate on Immigration

Abstract: DALLAS — The doctors and nurses at Parkland Memorial Hospital knew a lot about Zahira Domínguez, a maternity patient who was beginning to feel the squeeze of her contractions. They knew that she had been born in Mexico, was a 15-year-old student at a Dallas high school and had gone to her prenatal checkups. They knew she was scared about giving birth. What the hospital staff did not know, because they did not ask, was whether Ms. Domínguez was an illegal immigrant. “I don’t want my doctors and nurses to be immigration agents,” said Dr. Ron J. Anderson, the president of Parkland. Patients like Ms. Domínguez — uninsured Hispanic immigrants with uncertain immigration status — have flocked in recent years to public hospital emergency rooms and maternity wards in Texas , California and other border states. Their care has swelled costs for struggling hospitals and increased the health care bills that fall to states and counties, giving ammunition to opponents of illegal immigration who complain of undue burdens on local taxpayers. As a result, health care has become one of the sorest issues in the border states’ debate over illegal immigration. Facing harsh criticism from residents, public hospitals are confronted with an uneasy decision: demand immigration documents from patients and deny subsidized care to those who lack them, or follow the public health principle of providing basic care to anyone who needs it. In Texas, two of the biggest public hospitals chose differently. The Parkland Health and Hospital System, which serves Dallas County, offers low-cost care to low-income residents with no questions asked about immigration status. “We decided that these are folks living in our community and we needed to render the care,” Dr. Anderson said. In Fort Worth, in neighboring Tarrant County, JPS Health Network requires foreign-born patients to show legal immigration documents to receive financial assistance in nonemergencies, like elective surgery and the treatment of routine or chronic illnesses. Executives said that their first responsibility was to legal residents, but that they were uncomfortable about having to make such distinctions. “I don’t think you should ask the hospital to make moral decisions for the State of Texas or, for that matter, for the United States,” said Robert Earley, a senior vice president of JPS. To some Fort Worth residents, the hospital — which does provide emergency and maternity care to illegal immigrants — has nonetheless sent a message that illegal immigrants are not welcome. “Whenever immigrants go to the hospital, the first thing they are asked is, ‘Who are you and where are your immigration papers?’ ” said José Aguilar, a leader of Allied Communities of Tarrant, a coalition of church-based community groups that has pressured the JPS board to reverse its policy. “They are being scared away.” Across Texas, the debate over illegal immigration has spilled into county commission hearings and hospital board meetings. A study ordered by commissioners in Harris County, which includes Houston, found that about one-fifth of the patients in its health system last year were immigrants without documents, most of them from Mexico. Their numbers had increased 44 percent in three years, the study found, and their care had cost the county $97.3 million, about 14 percent of the health system’s total operating costs. “We have a lot of United States citizens that need our help in health, and we should pull them up before we pull up someone here illegally,” said Tim Gallagher, 45, a software salesman from Plano, north of Dallas, who in an interview expressed views widely shared in the state. Mr. Gallagher said he favored deporting illegal immigrants who sought care from public facilities, even if the patient was a mother who gave birth to an American citizen. “If somebody here needs health care, they should get it, and then if they are illegal, they should go bye-bye,” said Mr. Gallagher, who wrote a letter on the subject to The Dallas Morning News. In California, hospitals spent at least $1.02 billion last year on health care for illegal immigrants that was not reimbursed by federal or state programs, according to federal government estimates. Hospital officials there said the ailing health care system was being pushed to its limit. “Emergency rooms and hospital doctors are forced to subsidize the lack of immigration enforcement by the federal government,” said C. Duane Dauner, president of the California Hospital Association. “It amounts to an unfunded mandate for us to treat everybody.” California received $66 million in federal money in 2005, the first year of a four-year national program to help pay for emergency care for illegal immigrants. But it was “not even a down payment” on the total cost, Mr. Dauner said. With more than 1.4 million of California’s residents uninsured and more than half of California’s hospitals operating in the red, Mr. Dauner warned that care for illegal immigrants could tip some hospitals into bankruptcy. Even so, the surging numbers of illegal immigrants in the health care system have fed some misconceptions, hospital administrators said. While Texas border hospitals often get “anchor babies” — children of Mexican women who dart across the border to give birth to an American citizen — most illegal immigrants who go to major hospitals in Texas can show that they have been living here for years, said Ernie Schmid, policy director at the Texas Hospital Association. Many immigrant families have mixed status; often a patient with no documents has a spouse or children who are legal. Most immigrant patients have jobs and pay taxes, through paycheck deductions or property taxes included in their rent, administrators at the Dallas and Fort Worth hospitals said. At both institutions, they have a better record of paying their bills than low-income Americans do, the administrators said. The largest group of illegal immigrant patients is pregnant women, hospital figures show. Contrary to popular belief here, their care is not paid for through local taxes. Under a 2002 amendment to federal regulations, the births are covered by federal taxes through Medicaid because their children automatically become American citizens. These cases are not affected by new regulations that went into effect on July 1 requiring Medicaid patients to provide proof of citizenship, Texas health officials said. They said they believed that only small numbers of illegal immigrants had received other Medicaid benefits. Administrators at Parkland said the hospital delivered 11,500 babies last year to mothers who were probably illegal immigrants, representing at least 56 percent of its maternity patients. One was Ms. Domínguez, whose family brought her to Dallas from Mexico 11 years ago. Guided through Parkland’s prenatal care, the frightened teenager had an unexceptional labor and a robust baby girl. Many immigrants have sought low-cost care by going to Parkland’s emergency room, where, by federal law, they must be examined and treated, as is the case in any emergency room. Leticia Martínez, 24, walked into the emergency room one morning weak with cramps, fearing a miscarriage in her two-month pregnancy . Ms. Martínez said she had been sure she would get care at Parkland because her first baby had been born there. “They help economically,” she said. “They don’t ask the immigration question.” Dr. Anderson fiercely defends Parkland’s open policy. “It’s much wiser to render care than to wait until they are very sick,” he said. In Fort Worth, JPS Health Network also provides low-cost prenatal care and delivery for illegal immigrant mothers. It does not offer them help for other nonemergency care. In January 2004, the JPS board of managers voted to offer its financial assistance program to all Tarrant County residents, legal or otherwise. But eight months later, with illegal immigrants starting to fill the hospital, the managers reversed course in a meeting where they agonized over their votes, the minutes show. The policy has given the hospital a mixed reputation among Hispanics in Fort Worth. Edy Patricia Rodríguez, 18, an illegal immigrant whose husband is an American citizen, cuddled her newborn recently in a private, state-of-the-art room at the JPS hospital. The child, Pablo F. Ibarra, born June 28, thrived in the network’s care, and his mother was satisfied. But misunderstandings about immigration status clouded the case of Victoria Canales, a Mexican immigrant who had sought care for advanced liver disease, said her husband, Jesus Canales, 36. Mrs. Canales was a legal resident and a member of the JPS network’s low-income program. But hospital staff members seemed confused about her case, Mr. Canales said, and twice sent her home when she had gone to seek relief from the liquid filling her body. Humiliated, Mrs. Canales was reluctant to return to the hospital until she could no longer manage at home, Mr. Canales said. She died June 26. JPS officials say they do not refuse care to people who need it, but are wrestling with the demands of county residents and changing state laws. Mr. Earley, the JPS vice president, said, “We have been bounced around like a basketball on this issue.”

Texas
Hospitals
Illegal Immigrants
Immigration and Refugees
Medicine and Health
Hispanic-Americans


Wal-Mart Receives Restricted Approval for Deal in China

Abstract: Wal-Mart Stores has received restricted approval to raise its stake in and become the controlling shareholder of a Chinese e-commerce company, Yihaodian, China’s Ministry of Commerce said on its Web site on Tuesday. With more than 200 million Chinese people shopping online, China is expected to become the world’s largest e-commerce market by 2015, the Boston Consulting Group said in a report. Wal-Mart said in February that it would raise its stake in Yihaodian to around 51 percent by buying into its parent. Wal-Mart did not provide any financial details of the deal. The acquisition was subject to an antimonopoly review that was extended several times and finally approved with restrictions after China’s commerce ministry decided the deal could have a negative impact on competition given Wal-Mart’s and Yihaodian’s leading positions in the market. Wal-Mart said in a statement that the transaction remained subject to some closing conditions. The restrictions include: Yihaodian must use its current e-commerce platform for sales; Yihaodian’s parent is not allowed to host third-party transactions on the platform; and Wal-Mart cannot use variable interest entity arrangements to conduct telecommunication services now operated by Yihaodian. Variable interest entity arrangements are a popular way for foreign investors to circumvent China’s restrictions on foreign ownership in certain sectors. Since the late 1990s, a number of non-Chinese companies have used them to secure financial and operational control of domestic Chinese companies through a series of service agreements, rather than by buying shares.