The Ridgewood Parks and Recreation Department has invited Marcia the Musical Moose to entertain preschool and early elementary children during the holiday recess, Thursday, December 27th, 11a.m. The show will be held in the Anne Zusy Youth Center, 131 North Maple Avenue.
In a nutshell (as Marcia’s friend Sally the Squirrel puts it), this variety show is filled with audience participation and includes music, sing-a-longs, silly magic, and puppets. You won’t want to miss it!
Tickets are $5.00 (ages 2 and up). As space is limited, it is suggested they be purchased in advance at the Recreation office at the Stable, 259 N. Maple Avenue, weekdays between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
For additional information kindly contact the Recreation office at 201-670-5560.
Martha Mooke is a pioneer in the field of the electric viola/violin performance who uses her classical music training along with digital effects processing and improvisation to create a unique musical voice. She has toured internationally as a member of Barbra Streisand’s acclaimed orchestra during the North American 2006 and European 2007 tours and traveled throughout North America with “Star Wars In Concert”. In addition to being a performer and recording artist, she is an award-winning composer and a clinician who introduces students to new concepts of playing and listening.
The Ridgewood Concert Band is excited to be working with Ms. Mooke this season. She will be performing her own composition “X-ING” with the RCB at their upcoming concert in December. This piece was born out of conversations between Ms. Mooke and RCB Music Director Chris Wilhjelm, who had played in various orchestras together over the years. According to Ms. Mooke, the thought of the combination of sound worlds between the electric viola (with electronic processing) and concert band was “incredibly inspiring” and her goal in creating the piece was to make the collaboration “as organic and unique as possible.”
A string soloist and a concert band is not a traditional pairing in music. However, because she plays an electric/amplified string instrument, the usual “audibility handicap”, as Ms. Mooke said, of an acoustic string instrument is removed.
The title “X-ING” was inspired by road signs (i.e. Deer XING, Pedestrian XING). This piece is an “Electric Viola-Concert Band X-ING” with three movements that portray three different “X-ING” concepts: Pegasus (as in winged horse X-ING), X-ING Over and Double X-ING.
Martha Mooke invites the audience to experience the music – not merely listen to it. She said, “If it moves the listener, feel free to respond – a smile, applause, a sigh, a tear, a grin, or even a grimace. A performance is equal parts give and take. The performers feel the vibe of the audience as much as the audience hears the sounds of the performers.”
You can’t hike taxes on the rich enough to balance the budget
by Michael D. Tanner
This article appeared on National Review (Online) on November 21, 2012.
The fiscal cliff is now less than six weeks away. Negotiators are reportedly locked away behind closed doors working on a grand bargain to avoid the tax hikes and spending cuts that will hit on January 1. Most of the debate so far has centered on how best to raise taxes on the wealthy: whether to increase tax rates, as the president demands, or eliminate deductions and loopholes, as some Republicans seem to be open to considering. Unfortunately, these priorities are almost entirely upside down.
Therefore, let me offer some unsolicited advice for the negotiators:
You can’t hike taxes on the rich enough to balance the budget. President Obama has called for $1.6 trillion in tax hikes over the next ten years. While that is large enough to do serious damage to the economy, it would amount to just 16 percent of the combined deficits that we are projected to face over that period. In fact, the president’s proposed tax hike doesn’t even cover the $2.6 trillion in spending increases that he has called for over the next ten years. Obamacare alone will add $2.15 trillion in federal spending by 2022.
Worse, none of this accounts for the rapidly accumulating unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare. Washington tends to focus on our $1.1 trillion budget deficit or our $16.2 trillion national debt, but our real debt, including those unfunded liabilities, is somewhere between $78.5 and $128.2 trillion. As I have pointed out before, you could confiscate — not tax but confiscate — every penny belonging to every millionaire and billionaire in America, and still not have anywhere near enough money to pay for all that we owe.
15% of America Is Shopping Today, 11% Are Already Done
Friday, November 23, 2012
The holiday shopping season keeps starting earlier and earlier.
This year, 11% of Americans had finished the gift-buying before Black Friday, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. That’s up from seven percent (7%) who finished shopping early a year ago. The day after Thanksgiving is often considered the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season.
Restaurant review: La Bottega
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2012
By ELISA UNG
RESTAURANT REVIEWER
The casual cafés that make up the La Bottega chain are tailor-made for shopping towns with foot traffic, offering people a place to set down their bags and, over a light meal, enjoy a respite from walking.
So Ridgewood was a logical choice to open the first La Bottega in New Jersey, says owner Frank DiMaiuta, who is eyeing Englewood as another possibility. His goal: to offer laidback dining, much of it aimed at women — a place “where people can come in and have a nice panini, a salad, get something light and fresh and not really be worried about, ‘Oh, I’m going to a fancy restaurant.’ ”
Therein lies the allure of this small, classy spot that opened on Oak Street last spring, offering simple, upscale fare for eat-in, takeout or delivery. Its menu is so enormous that a waitress came over to offer a tour when she saw us reading quizzically. And that’s the other thing — the service here may not be formal, but it’s more welcoming and attentive than I’ve experienced at many pricier restaurants in the village.
Black Friday Sale at Femmebot!
Fri, November 23, 2012 – Mon, November 26, 2012
Time: 9:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Femmbot Clothing, 203 E. Ridgewood Ave., Ridgewood, NJ 07450
Femmebot is offering 20% off all merchandise and 50% off of all sale merchandise for BLACK FRIDAY WEEKEND.
Nov. 23-Nov.24
Friday 9:00am-9:00pm
Saturday 10:00am-7:00pm
North Jersey towns acquiring high-tech surveillance gear
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2012 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY NOVEMBER 23, 2012, 12:03 AM
BY ZACH PATBERG
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
A federal anti-terrorism program has drawn North Jersey deeper into the practice of hidden surveillance, equipping police departments with high-tech cameras, infrared technology and automatic license plate readers to keep tabs on people as they travel to local reservoirs, financial hubs and malls.
The stepped-up security around potential terrorist targets links the region into a network of clandestine monitoring. Some of the departments are already putting to use the equipment provided by Homeland Security; others are gearing up.
Oradell, Emerson, Closter and Harrington Park police have car-mounted night-vision technology and video and recording equipment that can watch over the Oradell Reservoir and dam — and the hikers and anglers entering it. West Milford can do the same around the Newark watershed. Wayne police are scanning scan the license plates of vehicles outside the Willowbrook Mall, while East Rutherford officers patrol hotel parking lots near the Meadowlands and the Federal Reserve building off Route 17.
Local police signed onto the Homeland Security network have broad discretion in deciding what to monitor and when to share surveillance feeds with federal agents. And when national security isn’t calling, they can use the equipment for day-to-day police work, such as enhanced tracking systems to catch suspects and better radio communication among officers.
Ridgewood News editorial: The shopping season
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2012
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The turkey leftovers are in the fridge, and maybe a bit of stuffing. If you’re lucky, there’s still a piece of pumpkin pie. But if you want to work off some holiday calories, check out the tradition of post-Thanksgiving shopping.
Today is Black Friday, when retailers begin the big commercial push to the Christmas holidays, and brave shoppers looking for bargains battle crowded malls and highways leading to the stores. If you’re up to the physical challenge, head out and face the crowds.
Bergen County forms task Force Protect Public against Home repair Contractor Scams
November 22.2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ , Under the direction of Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan a new County wide task force has been formed to inspect contractors making home repairs in areas damaged by superstorm Sandy. The Task force is charged with looking for contractors committing fraud .
Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan said in a statement. “My administration will have zero tolerance for fraudulent home improvement companies,” .
The task force will include members of the county’s Consumer Affairs Division and the Bergen County Police Office of Consumer Protection. Capt. Victor F. Cuttitta Jr. of the Bergen County police,will lead the task force and will focus on areas hit the hardest by the storm, like Moonachie and Little Ferry. but not limit itself to those areas.
Donovan asked residents to “watch out for their elderly neighbors” because they “are often targeted by con artists posing as legitimate contractors.”.She asked residents to call the county’s Consumer Affairs Division to find out whether a contractor is registered or has been the subject of complaints. The Consumer Affairs Division can be reached at 201-336-6413 or the county police Office of Consumer Protection at 201-336-6400, extension 6424.
Obamacare : Same type of rules that created the banking crisis , Insurers have no way to asses risk
Federal government releases long-awaited health reform rules
By Maggie Fox, NBC News
Long-awaited federal rules for health insurance plans came out Tuesday, and they make clear that insurance plans that people can buy on the open market next year will look a lot like some of the most popular plans on offer now – with a few big differences.
As the 2010 health reform law requires, insurers will no longer be able to dump patients who are starting to cost too much, they won’t be able to charge women more than men, they have to cover anyone who can pay and they’ll have to pay for maternity care, eye exams for kids and for mental health services.
“Insurers will not be able to charge someone more just because she is sick or because she used to be sick,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters on a conference call.
Advertise | AdChoices
The new rules from the Health and Human Services Department cover the new state exchanges, where people will be able to buy health insurance starting in 2014.
The rules lay out how much extra insurers can charge to cover certain groups of people, like smokers and people who are older. They also say when states outline so-called essential health benefits – the minimums of what health insurers should cover – they should use the best existing plans as a guideline. HHS also issued some guidelines for employers and insurers who want to offer wellness programs, which encourage people to keep themselves healthy.
Sandy-Ravaged New Jersey Families Face $6,933 Tax Hike in Fiscal Cliff Stalemate
By Christopher Goins
November 21, 2012
Subscribe to Christopher Goins’s posts
(CNSNews.com) – Families in Hurricane Sandy-ravaged New Jersey will face the highest tax increase as a percentage of their income – 6.82% or about $6,933 more in taxes — if Congress does not reach an agreement on the fiscal cliff tax issues during the lame-duck session, according to an analysis by the Tax Foundation.
In its study of how the fiscal cliff would affect typical families in each state, the Tax Foundation reports that if the numerous tax provisions that are due to expire on Dec. 31 are not changed, a four-person family in New Jersey with a median income of $101,682 will see its taxes go up at a rate 6.82 percent of its income, which translates into about $6,933.
Peace, turkey pardoned by President Obama last Thanksgiving, euthanized
White House Officials insist timing of death not suspicious
Posted: 5:52 AM
Last Updated: 1 hour and 11 minutes ago
By: Mike M. Ahlers, CNN Senior Producer
Washington — Peace, one of two turkeys pardoned by President Obama last year, was euthanized Monday, according to an official who insisted the timing of the death – days before the Thanksgiving holiday – was not suspicious.
Rebecca Aloisi, vice president for marketing at the Mount Vernon Estate, confirmed that Peace had been dead after a weekend “illness.” But Aloise knew neither the nature of the illness, the manner of death, nor what had been done with the remains of the large, edible bird.
Proclamation of Thanksgiving Washington, D.C. – October 3, 1863
This is the proclamation which set the precedent for America’s national day of Thanksgiving. During his administration, President Lincoln issued many orders similar to this. For example, on November 28, 1861, he ordered government departments closed for a local day of thanksgiving.
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.
