By Laurence Lerman / New York City Before the craziness of actor Will Smith and his notorious slap of comedian Chris Rock in March, the onstage appearance of Native American actress and activist Sacheen Littlefeather at the 45th Academy Awards declining Marlon Brando’s award for The Godfather was one of the most memorable and controversial moments in the history of the Oscars. Littlefeather died on Sunday, October 2, at her home in Novato, California. She was 75. Though no official cause of death has been announced, Littlefeather disclosed in March 2018 that she had been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. At the Academy Awards on March 27, 1973, Brando was announced by presenters Roger Moore and Liv Ullman as having won the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance as Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather. Up from the audience rose not Brando, but rather an unknown, striking-looking 26-year-old woman named Sacheen Littlefeather. Clad in Native American garb, she walked onto the stage and refused to accept the statuette. In a short, prepared speech on behalf of Brando, Littlefeather said that the actor was turning down the award as a protest against “the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry.” She also cited an ongoing case of Native American abuse in the South Dakota town of Wounded Knee. The audience at Los Angeles’ Dorothy Chandler Pavilion reacted with a confusing combination of boos, jeers and a smattering of applause. Then, little more than a minute after Littlefeather had taken the stage, she exited to the right, followed by a slightly dazed Moore and Ullman. Littlefeather then headed to the press room to deliver a longer speech on the issues. Littlefeather, who is of White Mountain Apache and Yaqui descent, was the first Native American women to ever stand on the stage at an Academy Awards ceremony. For Littlefeather, who says she originally met Brando “through his interest in the Indian movement,” the effects of that fateful evening were long-lasting. Over the ensuing years, Littlefeather spoke of how her acting career came an abrupt halt after the Oscars. Though she appeared in a few minor, uncredited roles in the Hollywood productions The Laughing Policeman (1973) and Freebie and the Bean (1974), there weren’t many more opportunities forthcoming. Before the decade’s end, the acting chapter of Littlefeather’s life came to close. Littlefeather has spent the past four-plus decades since then working to provide healthcare education and advocacy for the Native American community and was, until recently, the president of the National Native American Affirmative Image Committee (with which she’d been associated since the 1960s). She has also pursued a career in hospice care and worked with AIDS patients alongside Mother Teresa in the 1980s. This past June, nearly 50 years later, the Academy Museum of Moton Pictures formally apologized to Littlefeather for the treatment she received that evening and in the years that followed. The apology began in the form of a letter sent to her that month from former President of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences David Rubin (his term ended in August). “The abuse you endured because of this statement was unwarranted and unjustified. The emotional burden you have lived through and the cost to your own career in our industry are irreparable. For too long the courage you showed has been unacknowledged. For this, we offer both our deepest apologies and sincere admiration,” read a portion of the correspondence. Littlefeather announced that she was “stunned” by the apology. “I never thought I’d live to see the day I would be hearing this, experiencing this,” she said. “Regarding the Academy’s apology to me, we Indians are very patient people—it’s only been 50 years!” she added. “We need to keep our sense of humor about this at all times. It’s our method of survival.” Additionally, the Academy held a special program with Littlefeather on September 17 at the Academy Museum. The activist and former actress participated in a conversation with producer Bird Runningwater, co-chair of the Academy’s Indigenous Alliance. “An Evening with Sacheen Littlefeather” was to be her final public appearance, which found her taking to an Academy stage again, in a wheelchair this time, and speaking graciously but firmly on behalf of all Native peoples: “I am here accepting this apology, not only for me alone but as acknowledgment, knowing that it was not only for me, but for all of our nations that also need to hear and deserve this apology tonight. Look at our people. Look at each other and be proud that we stand as survivors, all of us. Please, when I’m gone, always be reminded that whenever you stand for your truth, you will be keeping my voice, and the voices of our nations, and our people, alive.” Laurence Lerman is a film journalist, former editor of Video Business--Variety's DVD trade publication--and husband to The Insider's own Gwen Cooper. Over the course of his career he has conducted one-on-one interviews with just about every major director working today, including Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, Kathryn Bigelow, Ridley Scott, Walter Hill, Spike Lee, and Werner Herzog, among numerous others. Once James Cameron specifically requested an interview with Laurence by name, which his wife still likes to brag about. Most recently, he is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the online review site DiscDish.com.

Other News | September 28, 2022 By Jeffrey D. Sachs Former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski famously described Ukraine as a “geopolitical pivot” of Eurasia, central to both US and Russian power. Since Russia views its vital security interests to be at stake in the current conflict, the war in Ukraine is rapidly escalating to a nuclear showdown. It’s urgent for both the US and Russia to exercise restraint before disaster hits. Since the middle of the 19th Century, the West has competed with Russia over Crimea and more specifically, naval power in the Black Sea. In the Crimean War (1853-6), Britain and France captured Sevastopol and temporarily banished Russia’s navy from the Black Sea. The current conflict is, in essence, the Second Crimean War. This time, a US-led military alliance seeks to expand NATO to Ukraine and Georgia, so that five NATO members would encircle the Black Sea. The US has long regarded any encroachment by great powers in the Western Hemisphere as a direct threat to US security, dating back to the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, which states: “We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those [European] powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.” In 1961, the US invaded Cuba when Cuba’s revolutionary leader Fidel Castro looked to the Soviet Union for support. The US was not much interested in Cuba’s “right” to align with whichever country it wanted – the claim the US asserts regarding Ukraine’s supposed right to join NATO. The failed US invasion in 1961 led to the Soviet Union’s decision to place offensive nuclear weapons in Cuba in 1962, which in turn led to the Cuban Missile Crisis exactly 60 years ago this month. That crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. Yet America’s regard for its own security interests in the Americas has not stopped it from encroaching on Russia’s core security interests in Russia’s neighborhood. As the Soviet Union weakened, US policy leaders came to believe that the US military could operate as it pleases. In 1991, Undersecretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz explained to General Wesley Clark that the US can deploy its military force in the Middle East “and the Soviet Union won’t stop us.” America’s national security officials decided to overthrow Middle East regimes allied to the Soviet Union, and to encroach on Russia’s security interests. In 1990, Germany and the US gave assurances to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev that the Soviet Union could disband its own military alliance, the Warsaw Pact, without fear that NATO would enlarge eastward to replace the Soviet Union. It won Gorbachev’s assent to German reunification in 1990 on this basis. Yet with the Soviet Union’s demise, President Bill Clinton reneged by supporting the eastward expansion of NATO. Russian President Boris Yeltsin protested vociferously but could do nothing to stop it. America’s dean of statecraft with Russia, George Kennan, declared that NATO expansion “is the beginning of a new cold war.” Under Clinton’s watch, NATO expanded to Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic in 1999. Five years later, under President George W. Bush, Jr. NATO expanded to seven more countries: the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania), the Black Sea (Bulgaria and Romania), the Balkans (Slovenia), and Slovakia. Under President Barack Obama, NATO expanded to Albania and Croatia in 2009, and under President Donald Trump, to Montenegro in 2019. Russia’s opposition to NATO enlargement intensified sharply in 1999 when NATO countries disregarded the UN and attacked Russia’s ally Serbia, and stiffened further in the 2000’s with the US wars of choice in Iraq, Syria, and Libya. At the Munich Security conference in 2007, President Putin declared that NATO enlargement represents a “serious provocation that reduces the level of mutual trust.” Putin continued: “And we have the right to ask: against whom is this expansion intended? And what happened to the assurances [of no NATO enlargement] our western partners made after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact?” Where are those declarations today? No one even remembers them. But I will allow myself to remind this audience what was said. I would like to quote the speech of NATO General Secretary Mr. Woerner in Brussels on 17 May 1990. He said at the time that: “the fact that we are ready not to place a NATO army outside of German territory gives the Soviet Union a firm security guarantee. Where are these guarantees?” Also in 2007, with the NATO admission of two Black Sea countries, Bulgaria and Romania, the US established the Black Sea Area Task Group (originally the Task Force East). Then in 2008, the US raised the US-Russia tensions still further by declaring that NATO would expand to the very heart of the Black Sea, by incorporating Ukraine and Georgia, threatening Russia’s naval access to the Black Sea, Mediterranean, and Middle East. With Ukraine’s and Georgia’s entry, Russia would be surrounded by five NATO countries in the Black Sea: Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Turkey, and Ukraine. Russia was initially protected from NATO enlargement to Ukraine by Ukraine’s pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych, who led the Ukrainian parliament to declare Ukraine’s neutrality in 2010. Yet in 2014, the US helped to overthrow Yanukovych and bring to power a staunchly anti-Russian government. The Ukraine War broke out at that point, with Russia quickly reclaiming Crimea and supporting pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas, the region of Eastern Ukraine with a relatively high proportion of Russian population. Ukraine’s parliament formally abandoned neutrality later in 2014. Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas have been fighting a brutal war for 8 years. Attempts to end the war in the Donbas through the Minsk Agreements failed when Ukraine’s leaders decided not to honor the agreements, which called for autonomy for the Donbas. After 2014, the US poured in massive armaments to Ukraine and helped to restructure Ukraine’s military to be interoperable with NATO, as evidenced in this year’s fighting. The Russian invasion in 2022 would likely have been averted had Biden agreed with Putin’s demand at the end of 2021 to end NATO’s eastward enlargement. The war would likely have been ended in March 2022, when the governments of Ukraine and Russia exchanged a draft peace agreement based on Ukrainian neutrality. Behind the scenes, the US and UK pushed Zelensky to reject any agreement with Putin and to fight on. At that point, Ukraine walked away from the negotiations. Russia will escalate as necessary, possibly to nuclear weapons, to avoid military defeat and NATO’s further eastward enlargement. The nuclear threat is not empty, but a measure of the Russian leadership’s perception of its security interests at stake. Terrifyingly, the US was also prepared to use nuclear weapons in the Cuban Missile Crisis, and a senior Ukrainian official recently urged the US to launch nuclear strikes “as soon as Russia even thinks of carrying out nuclear strikes,” surely a recipe for World War III. We are again on the brink of nuclear catastrophe. President John F. Kennedy learned about nuclear confrontation during the Cuban missile crisis. He defused that crisis not by force of will or US military might, but by diplomacy and compromise, removing US nuclear missiles in Turkey in exchange for the Soviet Union removing its nuclear missiles in Cuba. The following year, he pursued peace with the Soviet Union, signing the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. In June 1963, Kennedy uttered the essential truth that can keep us alive today: “Above all, while defending our own vital interests, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war. To adopt that kind of course in the nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy–or of a collective death-wish for the world.” It is urgent to return to the draft peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine of late March, based on the non-enlargement of NATO. Today’s fraught situation can easily spin out of control, as the world has done on so many past occasions – yet this time with the possibility of nuclear catastrophe. The world’s very survival depends on prudence, diplomacy, and compromise by all sides. https://www.other-news.info/the-great-game-in-ukraine-is-spinning-out-of-control/ Professor at Columbia University, is Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University and President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He has served as adviser to three UN Secretaries-General, and currently serves as an SDG Advocate under Secretary-General António Guterres. Article sent to Other News by the author.

By Carly Mitchell / New York City (The author, a public-school teacher, is using a pseudonym for professional reasons) September is one of the strangest months for teachers like me. If the school year were a solar system and September were a planet, it would be Pluto, a dwarf planet. Throughout the month, teachers and students kind of orbit around one another as we all try to figure things out (every year is a clean slate!). Classroom dynamics are not fully established yet, and it seems we haven’t really found our place in space. Some Septembers move slooowly (and if I may indulge in the Pluto metaphor once more, one year on Pluto is actually 248 Earth years), and others fly by. As I write this, it is a crisp fall Friday, and I cannot believe it is actually the last day of September. Like a NASA rocket on its way to the moon, September has flown by (okay, I’ll stop now, I promise!). Even my seventh-grade students at the school where I teach English in Brooklyn, agree with me. Now that is saying something. Now seems like the perfect time, then, to reflect back on our first month back to school. I feel so fortunate, especially for many of the wonderful educators I am lucky enough to work alongside. There is one such teacher in particular whom I admire, who I am going to refer to as Mrs. Courage. She is a sixth-grade teacher at my school. She comes from a small island in the Caribbean and has been teaching for some 20 years. She is one of the hardest working and best educators whom I know. Whenever I step into her classroom, I think to myself, “Now this is who I aspire to be.” Mrs. Courage’s lessons are engaging and her lesson plans are organized, so incredibly organized ,that she often has the entire month planned in advance. (YES, MONTH!) Student work covers the walls of her room, as well as helpful anchor charts that students can reference if they are looking for a transition word in their writing or they forget how to use a pesky quotation mark. Mrs. Courage is one of the first to arrive in the morning and one of the last to leave in the afternoon. She is rarely alone–students swarm to her like bees to a hive. One day last year, I went into her room during lunch to ask for some advice, and a student who is notorious for being quite difficult actually popped out of her classroom closet. That was quite a surprise. They just love her. The lessons Mrs. Courage teaches go beyond academics. She provides students with structure (and oh how young people crave structure, especially when they come from households that lack it!), love, and, when necessary, the occasional stern talking to. Did I mention that she is technologically more advanced than I am, even though she is almost 40 years my senior? Last year, Mrs. Courage raised enough money via DonorsChoose, an online platform that teachers can use to raise money to buy school supplies, to buy an entire set of classroom ChromeBooks. My new crop of seventh-grade students had Mrs. Courage as their English Language Arts teacher last year, and the magic she worked upon this group of 12-year-olds is apparent. Not only did they rock their ELA state tests as evidenced by their scores, but many of them are genuinely excited about English class. Sure, there are the occasional skirmishes and distractions (the other day a student called one of his classmates a “deflated water balloon,” whatever that means) but for the most part, my current group of students respect one another and are eager to learn. Of course, this is due to a variety of factors, but the way they speak about Mrs. Courage and all that she taught them last year is indicative of her lasting impact on them as young people. “Mrs. Courage taught us that!” “Oh yeah! We learned that last year in Mrs. Courage’s class!” “Well, Mrs. Courage said…” In sum, Mrs. Courage cares for her students and the school community, and making the world a better place. It is teachers like her who keep this Earth spinning. Mrs. Courage is the sun. Carly Mitchell (a pseudonym) is a public-school teacher in Brooklyn N.Y. who loves to learn, to educate, and to expose the hypocrisy of New York City politicians.

By Victoria Rolfe / Red Hook, N.Y. Let’s contemplate the ubiquitous lawn for just a second. They are such a common sight in our everyday lives that we rarely stop to give them any thought whatsoever. They’re just there. But how and why did our society get so addicted to these patches or expansive vistas of mowed grass? Well, the origins go back to long before there even was an America, in centuries long ago. Back in medieval times, those fortunate folks who lived in castles would keep their surroundings free of trees so that guards had an unobstructed view of approaching (possibly hostile) visitors. By the 16th or 17th century, lawns were more deliberately cultivated by the wealthy homeowners as a mark of status and affluence, as they were the only ones that could afford the tools and manpower it took to maintain such manicured perfection. Early immigrants to the U.S. brought grass seed with them to continue the tradition in the new land. And at first it was only the rich who could sport the very desirable rolling green fashion here too. But then something happened to change all that. WW II ended and G.I.’s came home in droves to marry and settle down to start families. And where were they all to live? Enter William Levitt and his revolutionary development of the modern American suburb. Now everyone could have the American dream! A chicken in every pot, and one’s very own little patch of aristocratic front lawn surrounded by a white picket fence. And we never looked back. Lawns were here to stay! Or are they? After 70 years of mowing, weed-whacking, watering, artificial fertilizer applications, pesticides, and herbicides, it’s becoming apparent that maybe there is a better way. Maybe it’s time to lose our obsession with the almighty lawn. What’s wrong with lawns? They’re just grass, right? And grass collects carbon. So how can that be a bad thing? Well, in and of itself, that’s true. But it’s when you look at the aforementioned practices in keeping that pretty green patch that the trouble begins. First, there are all the chemicals to maintain that greenery. The fertilizers and weed killers leaching into our ground water. The pesticides harming not only the “bad” bugs but so much more precious life on our planet–including we humans. Then there is all the pollution from the mowers, weed-whackers and leaf blowers. And all the water wasted to maintain that beautiful color. It’s been estimated that there are approximately 40 million acres of lawn in the U.S. today. That’s a lot of pollution and chemicals, and water waste. Are you still feeling as desirous of your little parcel of turf? There is a flourishing movement among the environmentally conscious to ditch the boring lawn. That monoculture of grass is doing nothing for our invaluable environment. Yes, lawns capture the CO2 that we’ve been spewing indiscriminately into the air for decades, but trees will sequester four times as much. A biodiversity of plants will do so much more than that by providing habitat and nourishment to a multitude of living organisms that our very existence depends upon. So, save the planet and enjoy something more beautiful in your yard than a monochromatic swath of green. It’s a win-win all around. Even if you live in an apartment, you might have a terrace that you can spruce up with some potted plants. You may be surprised at the diversity of wildlife, such as beautiful butterflies that can find you there. Or you might be able to take part in (or start!) some community projects to add some horticultural biodiversity to your city. We here at the Rolfe household, are doing our best to find better uses for our land other than lawn. We repurposed about 35’ x 75’ of our side yard to grow vegetables in, and have also planted raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries beyond that. Each year we continue to carve out other sections of lawn to plant a diversity of trees, shrubs and flowers, and even a tiny meadow of native wildflowers (which we are hoping to expand through the years). Victoria's foliage And as I look around our neck of the woods, I am happy to see others doing the same. One of the lawns in our town has been converted to a field of sunflowers, another to a gorgeous wildflower meadow. Xeriscape gardening has caught on as a popular practice to avoid excessive watering. This practice involves devoting a part of your property to plants that require little water other than what nature provides. A quick Google search will tell you how to set this up and which plants would work in your particular area. Fall is a great time to get started in transforming a part of your yard into a rich, ecologically friendly environment. If you would like a refresher course on how to convert lawn to garden see my Insider story from last year, “Weed it and Reap – Getting Down in the Dirt” You don’t even have to go for a high maintenance garden if that’s not your cup of tea, just replacing the lawn with some easy-care ground covers will eliminate some of that nasty mowing, fertilizing, pesticide and watering. Whether you just replace a small patch of your lawn with some shrubs, trees, flowers, or a veggie or herb patch, or you go all out for a full lawn replacement, whatever you can do helps. Every square foot of those 40 million acres of lawn that is eliminated goes towards reclaiming our healthy environment. Together we can save our beautiful blue orb, one less lawn at a time! A long, long time ago, after the birth of her third child, Victoria made the life-changing decision to leave the work world behind and devote herself to being a full-time mom and homemaker. Along with her new title of Domestic Engineer, she took on the role of the Chief Home Economist for the family. At first, it was scary to try to live on less than half their income, but Victoria found that she not only rose to the challenge but thrived in the enjoyment of learning to live their best life with limited resources. She embraced this new frugal lifestyle of the at-home-mom and went on to add a fourth child to the mix. And their family was complete. Along the way she acquired a great deal of wisdom in how to not only avoid debt, but pay off mortgages early, buy cars for cash, travel on a shoe-string budget, and send kids to college with no student loans, all while also saving a tidy nest egg for retirement. She currently educates others in these skills through her business Bright Future. Now living the life of a modern homesteader in the Hudson Valley, New York, Victoria has added gardening to her list of skill sets as she grows many of her own vegetables to supplement her family’s primarily vegan diet. And she has come to realize that this waste-not, want-not, carbon-friendly, sustainable life she is living is not only benefiting her own family but also our Mother Earth, and that each of us has the obligation to live a responsibly sustainable life not only for ourselves, but for the greater good of our community, and our planet. We can all do this one household and backyard at a time. We are the world! And it all begins right at home. Victoria can be reached at brightfuture2budget4@gmail.com

By John Rolfe / Red Hook, N.Y. Given the baleful state of American politics, it should come as no surprise that Mitch McConnell attracted skunk cabbages and rotten tomatoes from the party faithful for realistically stating that “Candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome" of the November midterms. He was speaking about Republican prospects of retaking the House and Senate and didn’t mention any names, but he didn’t have to. The GOP’s rightward rush into delusional extremism during the Trump Era has created a clown boxcar full of alarming candidates. Fortunately (for them), persistent, soaring inflation and a rapidly tanking stock market will very likely save the hides of these ordinarily (is there an ordinary anymore?) unsavory choices: Mehmet Oz (U.S. Senate, Pa.): Celebrity easily trumps lack of legislative experience these days, so the former host of the Dr. Oz TV show benefits from the kind of star power that Donald Trump brought down the golden escalator in 2015. Oprah Winfrey has yet to retract her bestowment of the title “America’s Doctor” on Oz, despite his fondness for promoting dubious remedies like hydroxychloroquine for Covid and raspberry ketones for losing weight. In 2015, a group of prominent physicians sought to have him removed from the faculty of Columbia University’s medical school, charging that “he has manifested an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain.” Those unfortunate facts have not threatened Oz’s chances of victory quite as much as his viral lament about the soaring price of crudities, which exposed him as the kind of wealthy (he owns seven mansions), elitist snob the party’s base professes to loathe even if its Dear Leader eats his pizza with a knife and fork and lives in a gaudy palace in Florida. Nonetheless, thanks to his Marxist (Groucho, not Karl) “whatever it is (the Democrats want), I’m against it,” stance, Oz still has more than a puncher’s chance of beating his opponent, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman. Kari Lake (Governor, Ariz.): A former TV anchor who has as much governmental experience as Dr. Oz (none), is proving to be quite the MAGA buffoon. Lake recently announced “some really painful, hurtful news” about her Democratic opponent: Ariz. Secretary of State Katie Hobbs fought in 2018 to keep the Pledge of Allegiance, the national anthem, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution out of public school classrooms in their state. (What, not Mom and apple pie, too?) The only problem was that Hobbs had merely objected to the addition of “In God We Trust” and “Ditat Deus” (God Enriches) to an already approved bill that included the Constitution, Declaration, Pledge, etc., as perfectly fine for display in the classrooms in question. (Hobbs had concerns about adding religious wording.) Republican strategist Chuck Coughlin was left to sigh, “It’s disappointing that somebody that’s running for governor can’t read a state statute, especially for someone who claimed they triple-checked their facts.” Fellow Republican Wes Gullett, who served as chief of staff to former Gov. Fife Symington, lamented, “That’s why we have campaigns, because we see if people are qualified to be governor. Reading bills is a qualification of being governor. You have to know what a bill says, how a bill changes, how a bill becomes a law. Those are fundamentals that Kari Lake doesn’t understand.” That doesn’t matter to many voters. Recent polls say Lake and Hobbs are neck-and-neck. Herschel Walker (U.S. Senate, Ga.): The former NFL and University of Georgia football star is, like Lake, a paragon of the “I’ll vote for a crate of kumquats as long as it isn’t Democrat” mentality that could carry Republicans to glory in November. You’re probably well aware by now of Walker’s observation about global warming: “Since we don’t control the air, our good air decided to float over to China’s bad air, so when China gets our good air, their bad air got to move. So it moves over to our good air space. Then, now, we got to clean that back up.” Or his, “A lot of money, it’s going to trees … We’ve got enough trees. Don’t we have enough trees around here?” Pulitizer-Prize-winning columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr. noted that Walker seems almost proud of his ignorance, which is no disadvantage in an age when millions of voters scorn expertise and consider honesty entirely optional (as long as it’s their candidate being dishonest). Walker has lied about having a criminal justice degree and experience in the F.B.I. Even so, he may turn out to be too much of a stretch for too many voters as polls say he’s trailing his opponent, junior Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock, by five points. Blake Masters (U.S. Senate, Ariz.): He’s got Lake’s bona fides — particularly Trump’s endorsement — and is closing in on his popular opponent, Mark Kelly. Like many GOP candidates who’ve gotten hip to the fact that they’ve stirred up a hornet’s nest on the left and very possibly in the center, Masters has begun downplaying his once fervent stolen election and abortion ban talk in favor of a more reassuring moderate sheep’s outfit like the one Glenn Youngkin donned in his successful bid to become Virginia’s governor. Nonetheless, the McConnell-linked Senate Leadership Fund super PAC recently yanked nearly $10 million worth of ads for Masters. Perhaps it was in retaliation for Masters uttering unflattering criticism of McConnell, and calling for the minority leader’s replacement. After winning his primary and finding himself in need of McConnell’s support, Masters took a page from the minority leader’s time-tested volume of waffle recipes and started sounding much more conciliatory. Imagine that. J.D. Vance (U.S. Senate, Ohio): Locked in a tight, pivotal race, Vance is a poster boy for the McConnell-Graham-McCarthy brand of weasel hypocrisy: You’re against Trump, you’re for him, you’re against him. Just check the windsock outside. These days, Vance (a venture capitalist, conservative commentator, and author of the memoir Hillbilly Elegy) is for all for Trump, having tacked furiously away from his growing and likely fatal faux liberal image in deep red Ohio. Now backed by a Who’s Who of MAGA stars including the Big Man himself plus Marjorie Taylor Greene, Josh Hawley and billionaire Peter Thiel, one of the right wing’s most robust cash cows, Vance’s platform of battling inflation should help moderate voters overlook his more strident positions on a host of culture war issues. Donald Bolduc (U.S. Senate, N.H.): The retired brigadier general is yet another one of at least 10 shamelessly flip-flopping fish on the national dock. He’s gone from trumpeting Trump’s Big Lie and conspiracy theories before his primary win to voicing craftily nuanced BS now that he has to win over voters outside his party. “The narrative that the election was stolen, it does not fly up here in New Hampshire for whatever reason,” Bolduc said on Fox News. “What does fly is that there was significant fraud, and it needs to be fixed.” It’s just a naked attempt to have it both ways while hoping that no one thinks about it while the price at the gas pump gives them agita. Doug Mastriano (Governor, Pa.): A Jan. 6 participant (though he claims that he didn’t actually enter the Capitol during the festivities) and fierce election denier, state senator Mastriano urged Pennsylvania’s legislature to award its Electoral College votes to Trump after the state went for Biden. In 2019, while sponsoring an abortion ban, Mastriano argued that women who terminate their pregnancies, and the doctors who perform the procedure, should be prosecuted for murder. More recently, he has been an avid opponent of Covid masking and vaccine mandates. Also accused of racism, Mastriano is certainly a big ol’ slice of MAGA red meat, but despite Trump’s endorsement, his campaign is sputtering in purple Pennsylvania, forcing him to resort to 40 days of prayer in hope that the Almighty (God, not Trump) will intervene on his behalf. Lauren Boebert (U.S. House, C0): Likely to win re-election due to staunch support in her district, Boebert is Marjorie Taylor Greene’s equally unsavory twin: not as a big a loose cannon loaded with comic relief (e.g. Nancy Pelosi’s “Gazpacho police”), just more sinister. An unabashed Christian Nationalist, she has declared that she’s sick of “this separation of church and state stuff” and committed to influencing the nation as her God commandeth folks like her to do. She also defiantly packs heat. Boebert is proof that it takes a special talent to fail in MAGA country, but former Rep. Madison Cawthorn (NC) succeeded at doing just that last May. He was denied a second term by a primary defeat … not because he offended mainstream voters or anyone of any decency for that matter. He offended his party by claiming he’d been invited by fellow congressmen (some of them presumably Republican) to cocaine and sex parties in Washington. So the GOP machinery worked overtime to can him, running ads that claimed Cawthorn will “lie about anything” and is “an attention-seeking embarrassment.” Sounds a lot like the GOP’s standard bearer in Mar-a-Lago, but pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. The GOP needs to win in nine districts that Biden carried in 2020 and take five seats in the House in order to secure a majority. Thanks to gerrymandering in Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas, Republicans are almost guaranteed to grab at least three no matter how kooky or deficient they sound. Perhaps sensing that the party’s historically guaranteed slam dunk — in the 22 midterm elections from 1934 to 2018, the incumbent President's party has lost an average of 28 House seats and four in the Senate — is in danger of going pear shaped due to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Republicans are trying promote at least some sensible candidates. However, the prerequisites for candidacy in many places are still blind allegiance to Trump and an appeal to the base with promises of vengeance against the Biden Administration and liberals in general. Across the country, a total of 201 Republicans who deny the legitimacy of the 2020 election are on the ballot for federal, state or local positions. And it’s telling that McConnell, who has dutifully held his nose and carried Trump’s bilge water at key moments (such as publicly condemning Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 riot, then acquitting him in his impeachment trial), is now considered a RINO (Republican in Name Only) by the MAGA wing. It’s no wonder America has a Rust Belt, given the abundance of irony. It’s also telling that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy felt compelled to unveil the GOP’s “Commitment to America,” a breathtakingly light-on-details screed that attempts to convince the undecided that his party actually has a legislative agenda (starting with crippling the IRS’s ability to police tax cheats) along with obstructing and impeaching Biden and calling the legal dogs off Trump’s rump. Lost in this ridiculous, tumultuous shuffle are reasonable centrists like Marc Molinaro, who is running for Congress in New York’s 19th district. Molinaro recently urged that diplomacy be our main focus in Ukraine while we require that country to account for the millions of dollars the U.S. has sent for its defense against Russia. It’s a reasonable request given the possibility of corruption and skimming (Afghanistan was a sinkhole of waste), but the nuances of Molinaro’s argument are sure to be lost in the miasma of oversimplification that political races naturally become. That Donald Trump and the GOP’s current basket of deplorables are even remotely viable candidates is a sad commentary on this country. That any of them can actually win is truly horrifying. Despite the threats to democracy and personal freedoms such as marriage, contraception, gender-affirming medical care, and a woman’s right to control her own body, if enough Americans don’t give a hoot who is in office as long as gasoline remains cheap, the nation’s future will be ruled by this kind of people. John Rolfe is a former senior editor for Sports Illustrated for Kids, a longtime columnist for the Poughkeepsie Journal/USA Today Network, and author of The Goose in the Bathroom: Stirring Tales of Family Life. His school bus drivin’ blog “Hellions, Mayhem and Brake Failure” is parked on his website Celestialchuckle.com (https://celestialchuckle.com) with the meter running.

By Naomi Serviss / New York City Good news for Broadway producers: A steady stream of tourists (and a motley crew of regulars) are contributing to standing-room only and capacity theater audiences. After being shuttered for nearly a year and a half, creating widespread unemployment, during the pandemic’s peak, that’s cause for celebration. Audiences are beelining back and tourists are queuing up once again in droves at box offices. It still bothers me when I see waves of maskless theatergoers hurtle towards Into the Woods. I’ll never get used to it. So it goes… Tickets for the remaining days of Phantom are being snapped up fast. Broadway’s longest-running show recently announced a February, 2023 closing performance at the Majestic Theatre, after 35 years. Fans are flocking to see the show one last time before the brilliant red rose steals the final spotlight. Phantom garnered more than a million dollars in late September, up considerably from the weeks before the closing announcement. The Majestic was packed, literally Standing Room Only, with capacity audiences upwards of 100 percent at the Andrew Lloyd Webber mega-musical. The first time since 2017. Broadway 2021 was historic as well, with numerous musicals and plays starring, directed and written by women and people of color. With 18 openings this fall offering a diverse smorgasbord of talent, there’s something to appeal to all comers. Granted, the mask optional laxity of most theaters might be troubling to some (me!) but wearing a mask (me again!) is the only way to go for some. Those looking for a refresher course on American history should consider the gender-bending 1776. This traditionally white male cast has been upended. In its place, you’ll discover a compelling roster of female, non-binary and trans people-of-color portraying America’s Founding Fathers. The production bends gender stereotypes and challenges audience perceptions and expectations. A revival of Arthur Miller’s classic 1949 Death of a Salesman features Black actors Wendell Pierce, Sharon D Clarke and André De Shields. They bring to desperate life the tragic Loman family, typically played by white actors. Clarke won an Olivier Award this year for her portrayal of Linda Loman in the British production. She was sensational in last season’s Caroline, or Change. The theater community is abuzz with raves for this iteration of Miller’s masterpiece. It’s easy to see why, with an exceptional cast that includes De Shields, fresh out of Hadestown. The assemblage of Black talent, from Broadway’s storied past to contemporary filmdom’s stars, promises to attract and appeal to appreciative audiences. Black playwright Adrienne Kennedy’s Ohio State Murders, directed by the esteemed Kenny Leon, will star Audra McDonald, whose talent soars as majestically as her voice. 
McDonald portrays a writer who revisits her alma mater to speak about her incendiary work. In whatever role she commands, McDonald, a national treasure, is a wonder to behold. Word of mouth is loud and strong for this one. Don’t miss it. August Wilson’s brilliant 1987 play The Piano Lesson is another hot ticket. Directed by LaTanya Richardson Jackson, it features her husband, Samuel L. Jackson, in the role of Doaker Charles. Jackson originated the role of Boy Willie in The Piano Lesson at the Yale Repertory Theater in 1987. This go around, he’s Boy Willie’s uncle who schools Willie on the piano’s history and its importance to the family. Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama unfolds with siblings fighting over selling an heirloom piano that illustrates depictions of their enslaved ancestors. It’s one thing to watch psycho Jackson unspool in the Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction but live, before your eyes, on stage! Acting in real time, projecting his enigmatic energy all the way into the balcony heights. A castmate, Danielle Brooks, starred in the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black and made a lauded Broadway debut in The Color Purple in 2015. John David Washington, a theater newcomer, will be making his Broadway debut in The Piano Lesson. He's also Denzel's son. Another on my list is the revival of Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Topdog/Underdog. The drama follows the daily routine of two impoverished brothers named Lincoln and Booth. Irony isn’t dead. For comedic musical fans comes Some Like It Hot, based on the classic film starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemon. Some Like It Hot is the madcap story of two Prohibition-era musicians forced to vamoose from Chicago after witnessing a Mob hit. Gangsters on their trail, they hide from the Mob by becoming the newest big band members ever to cross the country. Even if you know the film backwards and forwards (who doesn’t?) the antics of the cross-dressers will be well worth the price of admission. With two-time Tony Award-winner Christian Borle, J. Harrison Ghee and Adrianna Hicks star in this newbie musical with songs by Scott Wittman And Marc Shaiman. Tony Award-winning Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon) directs and choreographs. The show will feature a diverse cast in this rollicking farce, opening in November. Undoubtedly, more theatergoers would attend if tickets became less exorbitant. Dream on. Naomi Serviss is a New York-based award-winning journalist whose work has been published in The New York Times, Newsday, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Highroads (AAA magazine), in-flight publications, spa and travel magazines and websites, including BroadwayWorld.com

By Judi Markowitz My house is filled with a vast number of family photos. Most rooms contain pictures of my children, siblings, grandchildren and parents. As I ascend the stairs to the second floor, and look at the gallery hanging on the walls, I can readily see how quickly the years have passed. When my parents and in-laws were alive, I would marvel at how great they looked at bar and bat mitzvahs, anniversary celebrations, birthday parties, and just everyday life scenarios. These framed memories are precious to me — they are imprinted in my mind. When I stand on the landing now and slowly approach the last two steps leading up to the bedrooms, I think about their ages. I contemplate my own age as well and make comparisons. The photos have taken on new meaning now that my parents and two sets of in-laws are no longer with us (I remained close with my ex-husband’s parents and the rest of their family). I often smile as I gaze at their faces and think about how lucky our family was to have them in our lives. Occasionally a tear is added into the equation and the loss becomes fresh once again. No matter how many years have flown by since they left us — the hurt remains. I turned 70 last December and while going up the stairs, as I do every day, a thought suddenly crossed my mind. For the first time in my life, I contemplated my children looking at pictures of me after I am gone. I wondered how they would handle this transition in life. We are a close family and knowing I was no longer a phone call or a visit away would be challenging. Saying good-bye to a loved one is never easy. I know my sons will eventually adjust to the situation, but when you have a severely disabled child, the image of this time is even more devastating. The very thought is gut-wrenching. How do you explain this phase of life to your child who has special needs? To this day, I constantly talk to my daughter, Lindsay, about her grandparents who loved her dearly. But their presence is missed, and words only go so far. My dad passed away in 2001 and my mom in 2010. It was at the latter date when my husband Jeffrey and I started to talk about the prospect of buying burial plots in the same cemetery as my family. These discussions are not exactly easy. We agreed that it was important but decided to put it on hold until the summer when I would be on vacation from teaching. Summer came and went. Then each proceeding summer we said that it was time to do the deed, but nothing happened. Shopping for cemetery plots was not my idea of a good time — after all, I was on vacation. I genuinely enjoy shopping but investigating the intricacies of a cemetery plot and all it entails is distressing. Facing one’s mortality is not an easy chore. Jeffrey, and I were at a funeral last summer, and it happened to be at the cemetery where my parents are buried. He asked if I liked the site. I looked around and said there weren’t any trees — I need trees. I also added that it was very close to the main highway — too much noise from traffic. He gave me a quizzical look that spoke volumes and said, “Does all that really matter in the end?” I suppose it doesn’t, but while I’m alive, it certainly fits into the equation. When my parents completed their funeral arrangements, my dad handed me their cemetery plot information in a neat folder. On the cover was my dad’s handwriting. “Lakeside – section H” — it was a double header for him and my mom. My dad also wrote on the cover it would be their new “retirement home.” He was quite the comedian. Years later it occurred to Jeffrey and I that purchasing plots by my parents would be a fine idea. They were lakeside, and the view was pleasant. We discovered there were three spaces available — exactly right for us and Lindsay. But as usual, we hesitated, and the march of time continued. Upon our next visit to the cemetery, we observed that my parents had new neighbors. Our idea went down the tubes. As each proceeding year went by, and there was still inaction on our part, we realized that we had to kick it in gear, whether we liked it or not. So, shopping for cemeteries truly began last year. We had to expand our network of Jewish cemeteries and consider the top prospects along with their price tag. Leaving this work to our children would not be fair. I’m glad that our parents had similar thoughts. I began by calling the prospective cemeteries on my list. I didn’t need to set up a visit since, unfortunately, I attended many funerals at all of them. Also, I wanted to minimize our exposure to people outside of our family and friends because Covid cases in the Detroit area were still on the rise. So, I let my fingers do the walking. The specific sites of interest within the cemetery would have to wait until we made our final decision. Everyone I spoke with was genuinely kind and congenial. I thought that their jobs had to be quite taxing. After introductions, I inquired about rates. I learned there were varying sections in most cemeteries which escalated in price accordingly. As in real estate it’s all about location, location, location. I never realized how much was involved in purchasing cemetery plots. I began to compare it to purchasing a house. For instance, how much am I willing to pay for this piece of property with my new address on it? Will there be a lake, a pond, and are there enough trees and flowers for my liking? Landscaping is important. Another question that begs answering — is the location close enough for my children to visit or, at least do a drive by to say hello? I also learned that a cemetery was like a department store – there are a wide range of prices for the prospective customer. Plots may cost anywhere between $500 to $10,000. There are also costs for opening and closing the plot. Decisions must be made concerning the purchase of an outer burial container (the cement work surrounding the plot). Next, weather is a consideration — is there a need for a tent? This is an extra charge as well. According to Jewish custom an unveiling, (placement of a gravestone and its installation) are usually done within a year after the funeral. This can be quite costly as well. Flowers can be billed yearly, or, for a flat fee, one can have perpetual care for the plot. Last, but not least, there are administrative fees. That darn paperwork! Once tallied, these items can range from the low end of $2,300 and to the high end of $14,500. And these items are just estimates— it’s enough to make your head spin! I am pleased to report that our shopping venture is nearly complete. A final decision for our final resting place is on the horizon. We are narrowing the prospects and won’t be putting this off any longer. After contemplating the best fit, our retirement home will be purchased. However, we don’t intend to notify the post office of an address change anytime soon. Judi Markowitz is a retired high school English teacher of 34 years. She primarily taught 12th grade and had the pleasure of her three sons gracing her classes. In addition, she taught debate, forensics, and Detroit film. Judi has four adult children and seven wonderful grandchildren. She is married to Jeffrey Markowitz, whom she met in high school. Judi grew up in Oak Park, Mich. which had a stellar school district, with excellent teachers. The city provided activities for all–and there were even sidewalks. Judi moved to Huntington Woods as an adult, which is a half mile from her childhood home. She wanted the same experience for her children as she had growing up, and Huntington Woods provided that. The View from Four Foot Two is Judi’s first book.

One film journalist’s stream-of-consciousness cinematic journey through the pandemic, Part 102 By Laurence Lerman / New York City In the new romantic comedy Meet Cute, stars Kaley Cuoco and Pete Davidson have their first encounter in a divey downtown Manhattan bar. Kaley spots Pete sitting at the far end of the bar, she approaches him with the offer of a drink, he shyly accepts, and she launches into a mile-a-minute explanation on how she’s caught in a time loop where the same day keeps repeating itself over and over again. A reluctant but curious Pete accepts what she has to say and the pair set out on their first “date,” one that is destined to repeat itself again and again until the loop is broken. Meet Cute is the latest spin on the time loop story gimmick that was first and best used in 1993’s Groundhog Day, as well as a number of other titles across the genre spectrum. (The 2014 Tom Cruise futuristic thriller Edge of Tomorrow is a solid sci-fi example.) But the “meet cute” script element—a romantic couple-to-be meets for the first time, typically under humorous, unusual or, yes, cute circumstances—is a staple of romantic comedies, and has been for many decades. The origin of the term goes back to the great German-born filmmaker Ernst Lubitsch, whose command of English was spotty when he was trying to describe the initial encounter between Claudette Colbert and Gary Cooper in his 1938 romantic comedy Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife. In this case, wealthy businessman Cooper seeks to buy the top part of a set of pajamas and the store refuses to break up the set, but the lively Colbert pops up and offers to purchase the bottoms. Thus, they meet and it’s cute! The notion of the meet cute is an easy one and it has become a nearly indispensable ingredient in the rom-com oeuvre. When it’s a good one, a meet cute hints at both things to come for the film’s characters while also suggesting the tone audiences can expect in the movie. I’d conservatively estimate there have been approximately, oh, a zillion meet cutes in the movies over the past century or so. Not all of them have clicked, but I’m thinking that the following 10 could coax a smile from even the most cynical of us. When Harry Met Sally (1989) Directed by Rob Reiner After they meet while sharing a cross-country drive that starts in Chicago, and subsequently discuss modern relationships until they pull into the Big Apple, it’s clear that Billy Crystal’s Harry and Meg Ryan’s Sally are destined for true love. They just don’t realize it through all their bickering and subsequent years-long friendship. The performances and chemistry of the two leads, a winning Nora Ephron script, crisp direction from Reiner and a romantic NYC backdrop turned this one into an instant rom-com classic. Out of Sight (1998) Directed by Steven Soderbergh Jennifer Lopez’s U.S. Marshall and George Clooney’s gentleman bank robber get to know each other when they share the very cramped and darkened trunk of the car of one of Clooney’s buddies. There are a number of bumps and grinds on the road that follows, but none as intimate or delightful as the one they encounter while sharing such close automotive quarters. Bringing Up Baby (1938) Directed by Howard Hawks The day before his wedding to a society gal, adorably dorky paleontologist Cary Grant meets free-spirited heiress Katherine Hepburn on a golf course when she accidentally plays his golf ball. Enter a brontosaurus bone, a leopard named Baby and an increasingly wacky set of circumstances in this beloved screwball comedy romance. Something Wild (1986) Directed by Jonathan Demme A yuppie investment banker gets taken for a ride (literally!) by an out-there downtown gal with a Louise Brooks bob after she catches him skipping out on the check in a Soho coffee shop. Cue a road trip to Virginia, a high-school reunion and her nasty ex-con husband. It all proved to be career-launching stuff for Jeff Daniels, Melanie Griffith and a very scary Ray Liotta. (500) Days of Summer (2009) Directed by Marc Webb One of the aughts’ sweetest romantic comedies begins when greeting card writer Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) meets executive assistant Summer (Zooey Deschanel) in the company elevator and they both realize their common love of The Smiths (who Summer overhears playing on Tom’s headphones). Their romance thus begins…and ends some 500 days later, but not before they’ve lived, loved and grown. Love Jones (1997) Directed by Theodore Witcher Poet Darius (Larenz Tate) and photographer Nina (Nia Long) meet while waiting for a drink at a jazzy Chicago nightclub, prompting Darius to change the title of the poem he later reads onstage to include Nina’s name. Nina is fresh off a breakup, but decides to give in to gut feeling…and all the tingly vibes that accompany it. The Lady Eve (1942) Directed by Preston Sturges Traveling aboard an ocean liner, con artist Barbara Stanwyck makes her move on nerdy but wealthy beer heir Henry Fonda with the time-honored method of tripping him as he walks past her table in the ship’s dining room—and then giving him hell for breaking the heel off her shoe. Over the next hour-and-a-half of this Sturges classic, the two fall in and out of love—and then do it again. Body Double (1984) Directed by Brian De Palma They all don’t have to be rom-coms, right? How about this De Palma thriller that finds Craig Wasson “meeting” adult starlet Melanie Griffith in an anonymous tryst while filming an orgy scene in an L.A. porn flick? This flashy Eighties flick represents Melanie’s second appearance on the list and I haven’t even mentioned her meet cute with Harrison Ford in 1986’s Working Girl! Top Gun (1986) Directed by Tony Scott Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’.” Before Sunrise (1995) Directed by Richard Linklater After they both peek at a bickering German couple on a train ride to Vienna, American guy Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and the oh-so-French mademoiselle Celine (Julie Delpy) find themselves chatting it up themselves. The small talk prompts the two to spend the night talking and walking the streets of the Austrian capitol—and to continue their budding romance over the course of two subsequent films, Before Sunset (2004) and Before Midnight (2013). Laurence Lerman is a film journalist, former editor of Video Business--Variety's DVD trade publication--and husband to The Insider's own Gwen Cooper. Over the course of his career he has conducted one-on-one interviews with just about every major director working today, including Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, Kathryn Bigelow, Ridley Scott, Walter Hill, Spike Lee, and Werner Herzog, among numerous others. Once James Cameron specifically requested an interview with Laurence by name, which his wife still likes to brag about. Most recently, he is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the online review site DiscDish.com.

By Bonnie Fishman / San Francisco Bay Area For those of you who grow your own tomatoes, you know what I’m talking about. How many ways can you deal with your massive crop of one of the most versatile vegetables (actually a fruit) in your garden? Don’t you wish the season would last for months and months so you could continue to enjoy that undeniable wonderful taste of homegrown tomatoes? By now, in the beginning of fall, the purveyors at the farmers’ markets aren’t just offering tomatoes by the pint or quart. Look down at your feet at most of these stalls and you’ll see bushels of them lined up under the table. They gotta go! Our family friend, Joyce, a master gardener, raised the most beautiful crop of tomatoes this year. We were lucky enough to be the recipients of her plum tomatoes. My husband, Bob, and I happened to go shopping with Joyce last spring to a plant sale for a fundraiser at a school. We planted the same plants. His crop was small, with small tomatoes that had interesting shapes and patches of weird colors. Needless to say, it was not a successful tomato season for Bob. On the other hand, Joyce’s crop was spectacular! The difference between her crop and ours was astounding. Same plants, same climate, hmmm. Joyce offered to school Bob about tomato growing for next season. We visited her lovely garden last week. Joyce generously shared her knowledge, Bob got the lesson, and I got nice tomatoes to cook. Win, win. One thing I’ve learned from my readings is that plum tomatoes are a particular group of tomatoes. In general, these tomatoes have a lower water content and a chewier texture. Three common varieties are Roma, San Marzano, and grape tomatoes. The first two are commonly used for sauces and pastes because of their meaty consistency. They cook down beautifully in a saucepan to create rich pasta and pizza sauces and tomato paste, which add body and flavor to a stew or soup. Since their skins are thick, before turning them into sauce, I always remove the skin. (See recipe below for the technique). When winter is upon us and the only tomatoes to buy are shipped from faraway places, I only buy plum tomatoes. They still keep some semblance of flavor, texture, and color. When eating them raw, it’s a must that they have a good taste. Don’t you just hate it when you order a salad in a restaurant and the tomatoes arrive with an unappealing pink color? Those puppies were probably ripening on the truck in transport. Obviously, they were picked way before their time and the natural sugars never had an opportunity to develop. Why bother serving or eating them? My go-to method for saving tomatoes has always been to make sauces and freeze them. Even though I make jam, I’m not a tomato canner. One has to be so precise with the method, I can’t muster the energy for the task. Recently, I learned that you can freeze raw tomatoes with a good result. The texture, of course, will not be great as the freezing process draws the water out of the tomatoes. Upon defrosting, they are quite watery. To freeze raw tomatoes, you can cut the tomatoes into 1/2” slices, lay them on a cookie sheet and freeze them. When the pieces have frozen, gather them into a Ziploc bag and return to the freezer. Alternatively, one can cut the tomatoes in half, remove the core, and put the halves in a Ziploc bag. Same method, just cutting the tomatoes differently. Joyce tells me when she gets to the end of tomato season, after she has made sauce, risotto, salsas, caprese salads, tomato salads, ratatouille, gazpachos, and so on, she’s out of new ideas. Today, I have a delicious way to use up 1 1/2 pounds of tomatoes for an entrée, and it’s not pasta! The vegetables are roasted together and topped with fish at the end. Truth be told, these are really great cooked vegetables on their own. I’m using fresh tilapia from Mexico but those in the East or Midwest can easily substitute whitefish or walleye. Are you up to your neck in tomatoes? Tell us here at The Insider what you do with the overflow. We’ll compare war stories! Tilapia with Roasted Tomatoes & Green Beans Yield: 4 servings 1 1/2 lb. firm ripe plum tomatoes, cut into 6 wedges if small tomatoes, 8 wedges if large 1 lg. onion, halved through root end, each half cut into thin wedges 8 oz. fingerling potatoes, cut in half lengthwise 2 garlic cloves, minced 2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil 8 oz. green beans, trimmed, cut diagonally into 2” pieces 2 tsp. minced fresh ginger 2 tsp. curry powder 1 1/2 lb. Tilapia filets fresh lemon juice 1 Tbsp. fresh chopped parsley Preheat oven to 400°. Cover a jelly roll pan with foil, spray with pan release. Combine tomatoes, onions, potatoes, and garlic on prepared pan. Drizzle on oil; toss to coat. Spread in an even layer. Sprinkle generously with coarse salt and fresh ground black pepper. Roast until the onions begin to brown, stirring occasionally, about 35-40 minutes. Mix beans, curry, and ginger into tomato mixture. Roast another 10 minutes. Remove pan from the oven. Increase temperature to 450°. Top with fish. Season with salt and pepper. Roast another 10-12 minutes or until the fish is opaque and heated through. Put vegetables on dinner plates. Top with fish. Squeeze on fresh lemon juice and sprinkle with parsley. Bonnie Fishman attended the Cordon Bleu Cookery School in London. Later, she owned and operated Bonnie’s Patisserie in Southfield, Mich. and Bonnie’s Kitchen and Catering in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. She has taught cooking for over 35 years and created hundreds of recipes. She is now living in Northern California.

By Alan Resnick / Detroit Part of being a sports fan is engaging in endless debates about “Who’s on Mount Rushmore” or “Who was the greatest of all time?” (recently reduced to the acronym GOAT), in reference to a favorite team or player. While these arguments can pop up at any time, they tend to be most frequent and heated when a superstar athlete retires, as Serena Williams did at the recent U.S. Open tennis tournament. Serena announced her intention to leave tennis and evolve toward other things in her life in an Aug. 9 Vogue essay. After winning two matches at the U.S. Open, she lost to Ajla Tomljanovic on Sept.3 in a thrilling three-set match. Serena was hailed by the television announcers covering her three matches as the GOAT. During the planned, choreographed, on-court celebration after Serena’s first match, Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best” played as background music during a video montage. Television cameras cut to fans holding up signs with the word GOAT or a picture of one. Serena has been a marvelous, spectacular, absolutely dominating tennis player, but she is not, in my humble opinion, the GOAT among female players. That designation would go to Martina Navratilova. My rationale is actually quite simple – Martina both won and lost to much better players in the major tennis tournaments than Serena. Sports arguments about the GOAT are rooted in statistics. For tennis, the most-referenced measuring stick is the number of singles victories in the sport’s four major tournaments – Wimbledon, and the French, Australian, and U.S. Opens. Collectively, these are known as Grand Slam events. Serena won 23 Grand Slam singles titles over her career. However, Australian Margaret Court holds the most major singles titles, 24, and did so playing seven less years than Serena. Additionally, Court won another 40 Grand Slam titles in doubles, 19 in women’s and 21 in mixed. And Court also had a baby in the midst of her career. But many fans and tennis writers omit Court from their Mount Rushmore of the greatest female tennis players. One reason is that 13 of Court’s 24 major titles occurred before 1968, when the four major tournaments were open only to amateur players. The logic goes that the fields she played against were lesser because professionals were barred from these tournaments. In a Sept. 4 interview in the Daily Telegraph, Court speculated that there is another reason her tennis achievements have been discounted. She posited that recent public statements of her faith have not been well-received by either the tennis community or the general public. After retiring from the game in 1977, Court became associated with Pentecostalism, becoming a Christian minister in that denomination in 1991. She later founded Margaret Court Ministries. Court has since been associated with opposing same-sex marriage and making assorted homophobic comments. For example, a bbc.com article last year reported that Court sparked widespread condemnation when in 2017 she said tennis was “full of lesbians” and that transgender children were the work of “the devil.” She has also said she would avoid flying on Australian airline Qantas ‘where possible’ in protest at its support of same-sex marriage.” In comparison, Martina won 18 Grand Slam titles to Serena’s 23. And Martina lost 14 finals matches while Serena lost 10. But the number of major wins and losses only tells a portion of the story. Let’s dig down deeper to see who these two supremely talented athletes competed against in the four majors. Martina battled Chris Evert (also with 18 Grand Slam titles) for a large portion of her career. In fact, the two of them were ranked the No. 1 female tennis player in the world for 592 (Martina 332, Chris 260) of the 615 weeks between Nov. 3, 1975 and Aug. 16, 1987. Astonishingly, there were only 23 weeks during this nearly 12 years that anyone else was ranked No. 1. It is a staggering level of dominance in any sport for two players to be on top for more than a decade. It certainly compares to the rivalry of Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer in the 1960s, and the tennis triumvirate of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Roger Federer for the past 15 years. (Federer announced on Sept. 15 that he was retiring and played his final match on Sept. 23.) During this time period, Martina defeated Chris for 10 of her 18 Grand Slam singles championships. And Martina lost in the finals three times to Chris. Later in her career, she lost to Steffi Graff (another all-time great with 22 major championships) in six Grand Slam finals matches. Graff was rated the No. 1 female player during these defeats. Serena was ranked as the No. 1 female player for 319 weeks (not consecutively) from July 8, 2002 to May 14, 2017, a period of almost 15 years. Surely she would have been ranked No.1 for even longer if it had not been for an assortment of injuries as well as the birth of her daughter, Alexis Olympia. But notably there were also 11 other players who achieved the No. 1 ranking during this 15-year period, including two who were each ranked No 1 for at least a year. And Serena’s sister, Venus, was ranked No.1 for 11 weeks during this same time period, all in 2002. It’s hard to believe, but of the 33 Grand Slam finals matches in which she appeared, Serena only played two matches against opponents ranked as No. 1 at the time of the match. One was her sister, Venus, in the 2002 U.S. Open, and the other was Victoria Azarenka in the 2012 U.S. Open. Most but not all of Serena’s other finals opponents had been or would eventually be ranked as No.1, but were not at time she played them in the finals of the four majors. More succinctly, Serena both beat and lost to a number of good, very good, and near-great players, but not Hall-of-Famers like Martina did. Both Serena and Martina also played doubles in some Grand Slam events. The Williams sisters won 14 major doubles titles together. But Martina won 31 major women's doubles titles, and 10 major mixed doubles titles. The last of her doubles titles occurred one month short of her 50th birthday at the 2006 U.S. Open. She was also ranked as the No. 1 doubles player in the world for a period of over three years in the 1980s. Statistics aside, both Serena Williams and Martina Navratilova are remarkable women. Both have compelling backstories that demonstrate courage and resilience. Serena’s childhood was documented in the 2021 feature movie King Richard, starring Will Smith as Serena’s father, Richard. The family moved to Compton, Calif. at the time that city was developing a reputation for the type of gang violence depicted by local gangsta rap groups Compton’s Most Wanted and N.W.A. Serena and Venus were home-schooled by their dad, and both he and his wife served as their daughters’ initial tennis coaches. The sisters learned the game on the public hard courts of the city until moving to Florida to attend a tennis academy. But Richard again became their coach when Serena was in ninth grade. Martina grew up in equally challenging circumstances. She was born in Czechoslavakia, but fled in 1975 at age of 18 at the height of the Cold War. The Czech government denied her the right to compete in professional tennis in the United States, so Martina asked for political asylum after a loss in to Chris Evert in the semifinals of the U.S. Open. She was granted temporary residence and became a U.S. citizen in 1981. In 2008 Martina acquired Czech citizenship, thus becoming a dual citizen. Both women have also had an enormous impact outside of tennis. Serena has served as a role model for young girls and women of color, showing them that it’s possible to do almost anything. She has been at the forefront of pushing for equal pay in tennis. And in March Serena announced the formation of a venture capital fund, Serena Ventures, designed to invest in company founders with what she calls “diverse points of view.” Martina came out as a lesbian in 1981, just a little while after defecting. In 2011, Donna Lopiano, then executive director of the Women’s Sport Foundation said of her: “Martina was the first legitimate superstar who literally came out while she was a superstar. She exploded the barrier by putting it on the table. She basically said this part of my life doesn’t have anything to do with me as a tennis player. Judge me for who I am.” In 2000, Martina was the recipient of National Equality Award from the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay and lesbian activist/lobbying group. All said, I can’t really argue with anyone who, after reading this, still feels that Serena is the GOAT, or for that matter if it is Margaret Court, Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, or Billie Jean King. It doesn’t really matter. I just consider myself fortunate to have been able to watch all of them play. Alan Resnick is an industrial psychologist with over 40 years of professional experience. He and his wife are sheltering at home in Farmington Hills, Michigan. He is passing the time by cooking, exercising, catching up on friends’ recommendations of must-see TV and writing.

By Marieke Slovin Lewis / Prescott, Ariz. I have always been a bit wary of the idea of normal. I have spent most of my life working to embrace my authentic self, and I try very hard not to censor elements of myself in order to fit in. Certainly, normalcy has taken a back seat since the start of Covid and the pandemic in 2020. I think common sense and kindness have gone with it. I have moved a lot in my life, and I think part of my propensity for migration has stemmed from the desire to find a place where I can belong and be accepted (maybe even celebrated) for who I am. I have been living back in the United States for just over a year, and it is becoming very clear that this is not the place. My husband and I spent four years living in Brussels, Belgium and one year in Bailleul, France before returning to the States in June 2021. To say that I have been experiencing culture shock and a strong desire to run far away would be an understatement. When we returned to the U.S. last year, we moved back into our home in Prescott, Ariz. My husband had lived there for many years before I left my job as a park ranger at Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts to join him. I spent just under two years in Prescott before we picked up stakes and headed to Brussels so he could study for his doctorate at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels. Having grown up in liberal Massachusetts, studied abroad in Africa, Europe, and Russia, and then lived all over the United States, I found the conservative perspectives and politics of people in small-town Arizona very challenging. Elements of life were seriously grating on me before we left, and I was very ready to go to Belgium. And this was pre-Trump. There is a way to get to know the flavor of a place by the bumper stickers people put on their cars. I call it “bumper sticker politics.” Before I left Arizona, I would regularly read anti-abortion stickers, slogans about gun rights, or anti-Obama sentiments with the words “A village in Africa is missing an idiot.” I remember being really excited to finally see Hello Kitty on a bumper sticker one day. It was such a relief to see the familiar figure. Upon pulling up behind the vehicle at a stoplight, however, I found that Hello Kitty was holding two AK-47s. The population in Prescott is varied. There are artists, cowboys, veterans, hippies. And certainly I do have a rare “coexist” or “be kind” bumper sticker sighting. I just feel a stronger despair arise from the other messages of entitlement and hatred. Before we left for Brussels, I told someone at the dog park about the upcoming move. He told me that he would never move to Europe without his gun and that I should have someone from Prescott mail a Stetson hat to me in Belgium and then open the box in front of all of my Belgian friends. I wasn’t really sure what this show of Southwestern culture was meant to communicate to the people of Belgium, but I didn’t inquire any further. I never did follow his advice. The cost of shipping to Belgium from the U.S. was exorbitant, and I really had no need for a Stetson hat. Now returning to Arizona, the elements of life that were grating before have become disturbing on an even deeper level. And people are much more outspoken, thanks to the behavior of our former president. There are the usual gun rights stickers, and there are bumper stickers for Trump 2024 to “Make votes count again.” In addition, there is a local man whose primary pastime seems to be driving around in his large, black pickup truck, upon which he has painted several unfounded claims: NASA is a hoax NASA knows UR stupid Flatearth101 Since returning to Arizona, I worry more about gun violence when I leave the house. I bought a temporary pass to use the pool at a local community college, and within a couple of weeks of my pass expiring my husband received an alert that there was possibly an active shooter on the campus. Pandemic health precautions are another source of stress. In Europe, people were not allowed to enter any establishment without wearing a mask and using the hand-sanitizer station at the entrance. In Arizona, I get strange looks if I wear a mask, and I am often the only person with one on. When I run an errand, I find myself weighing the importance of protecting my health against the many viral mutations by wearing a mask, against the desire for better customer service if I don’t wear one. I find myself feeling more and more isolated, staying close to home and interacting with very few people and then, only those with similar politics. In an increasingly polarized place, the pool of possible people to socialize with seems to get smaller and smaller. And I have to psyche myself up just to leave the house because I feel so bombarded by bumper sticker politics. With upcoming elections, I am trying to avoid peripheral vision so I don’t have to read the deeply disturbing platforms candidates are running on. Just the other day, I drove by a sign with a person’s name in bold, capital letters with a one-line slogan beneath: Stop Critical Race Theory. I am heartbroken by the lengths people take to paint someone who is different as a threat. What galls me the most is seeing this in religious fervor. It’s cliché, I know, but I just cannot imagine Jesus supporting any culture of fear and hatred. And yet, his name appears in even larger, bolder letters on signage all over town. There are multiple trucks with Jesus advertisements painted on all sides. I see the trucks parked in different places for their messages to be seen by passersby. The Jesus truck advertisements include messages like: Got Jesus? I came for you ~ Jesus Keep Calm - Jesus is Coming Soon Normal is not coming back….Jesus is Before we moved to Europe, I used to laugh and roll my eyes at these advertisements. The emotions I feel now are more fraught. Each time I see a message born of fear, bigotry, and ignorance, I feel an increasing sense of danger and urgency. The repercussions feel higher, people’s behavior more reactive and extreme. Our very humanity is at stake. Normal may not be coming back, but perhaps if Jesus did he could remind everyone to act from a place of love and compassion. Marieke Slovin Lewis is a writer, musician, singer-songwriter, yoga teacher, and editor. She holds a Ph.D. in Sustainability Education and writes music from people's life stories, using a method called Story-to-Song that she developed with a fellow doctoral student. She was recently recognized as a finalist for the 2021 Amateo Award for arts participation projects in Europe for her project, "On the Move: Poems and Songs of Migration," for which she wrote songs with refugees and asylum seekers in Brussels, Belgium about their migration experiences. Marieke is a wandering soul and has lived all over the world. She is currently living with her husband, three cats, and a big white husky in Prescott, Arizona.

By Carly Mitchell / New York City (The author, a public-school teacher, is using a pseudonym for professional reasons) For ten years or so, I have spent summers vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard, the small island off the coast of Massachusetts that has become the subject of so much controversy over the past two weeks. My aunt has a home on the island, and she generously hosts family get-togethers every summer. I am fortunate enough to consider Martha's Vineyard a second home of sorts. The island has blessed me with some of my favorite memories. Hot days and breezy nights spent on South Beach, countless bike rides along the jagged green coast, our family’s annual Jaws viewing (the 1975 movie was primarily filmed on Martha’s Vineyard), and of course my aunt’s famous Fourth of July party, which is always a wild time. A few years ago, I worked as a server at a restaurant on the island (which has since shuttered its doors). The restaurant was in Oak Bluffs, one of the island’s six small towns. My colleagues were a mixture of folks from all different walks of life. A small percentage of the people I worked with were like me–“summer people”; others were island locals. And many of my co-workers were from countries in Eastern Europe such as the Czech Republic and Albania. I was lucky enough to stay at my aunt’s for the duration of the summer. I had a car readily available to me and my own room to sleep in after the end of a long and tiring shift. But I was the exception. My friends who were locals were constantly moving, it seemed. Housing was (and is) scarce and expensive, and rental prices skyrocket in the summer. I remember many conversations with stressed friends who were born and raised on the island (which is a point of pride), in which they explained the island’s housing crisis. Usually they lived with a bunch of roommates who also worked seasonal jobs. Often these houses were farther away from the places where they worked (it’s worth noting that island traffic in the summer is outrageous–the population goes from roughly 17,000 year-round residents to 200,000), and they were very expensive. Angry migrants are suing Gov. DeSantis for having tricked them into flying to Martha's Vineyard Many of my Eastern European friends had it worse. A few of them lived in cramped rooms in old houses, sleeping four to six per room on cots or bunk beds. They often did not have cars, so they would rely on the island’s hit-or-miss public buses or cabs. Everyone I worked with had a love-hate relationship with the summer tourists, including myself. Yes, these were the people bringing in the money. We all needed the money. But there was an unspoken understanding between us seasonal workers (I now considered myself to be “one of them”) that the summer people were, well, different. Having always been a summer person, I suddenly understood the island in a whole new light. Many of these locals had three months to make enough money as servers or bartenders, landscapers or cleaners, to last them the entire year. I will never forget a conversation I had with a friend of mine, an island native whose mother owned a small landscaping business, who explained to me that some of his friends and family members actually went on food stamps in the winter. In an encounter this past winter, another friend of mine who is a local singing/ songwriting legend, lamented to me that she was facing some difficult times and was currently missing out on gigs because she didn’t have the gas money to get there. So when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flew a bunch of unsuspecting Venezuelan immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard two weeks ago in order to prove some sort of sadistic political point, I understood the difficult position in which island locals had been put as far as dealing with this humanitarian crisis. An estimated 63 percent of the island’s homes belong to seasonal residents. So, Mr. DeSantis, does dropping off 50 immigrants on an island that cannot even house the people who live there year-round seem like a solution to the immigration problem? And Mr. Jesse Watters, when you proclaimed on Fox News that “The town has never been more mobilized than when they kicked out their new neighbors. You could say it brought the community together,” did you consider the facts? Or are you an ‘ignorance is bliss’ kind of person? There is a serious economic divide on Martha’s Vineyard, and the housing crisis is dire. To assume that the entire population of those who call the island home is a group of wealthy elitists is so very wrong. And so when the islanders welcomed the Venezuelan people with open arms, I felt so proud. St. Andrews, a small Episcopalian Church in the center of picturesque Edgartown, housed folks, while Edgartown Pizza and the (best) island coffee shop Mocha Motts made sure that bellies and cups were full. Islanders donated clothing (my aunt included) and volunteers worked to make sure that even though this was unexpected, the men, women and children who had been brought so uncaringly to the island would be comfortable. That is the island way. Carly Mitchell (a pseudonym) is a public-school teacher in Brooklyn N.Y. who loves to learn, to educate, and to expose the hypocrisy of New York City politicians.