SJ Rozan

WQXR, the classical music radio station in NYC, is holding an instrument drive. You donate a musical instrument you don’t play anymore, they repair it if needed and get it into the hands of a public school kid. The drive’s on until Monday and drop-off locations abound. Now there’s something to do on a sunny weekend!

Spring seems to be finally here, after a very tough winter in NYC. Last week the crocuses started popping, and now the daffodil buds are all swollen and even some of the early tulips are up. Not that it’s early anymore, which is why all these plants are falling over each other in their eagerness to bloom. All the wintering waterbirds are still here, and we’ve had quite the abbondanza this year: the resident mallards, Canada geese, and Gadwalls; the expected buffleheads and Brant geese; and this year, a pair of American black ducks who came last winter, hung around all summer, nested, and are still here; and a pair of common mergansers, who generally fish alone but when they want company hang around with the buffleheads. I saw a flock of about forty Brants this morning heading north in a sloppy V. They were too low to really be leaving, so I figure they were just practicing, but I’m sure they and the buffleheads will be gone soon. Maybe the mergansers, too; we’ll have to see if they like it here enough to stay.

The most exciting river news, though, is in the photos below. One icy day I noticed white splotches on one of the pilings. Luckily for me I ran into Urban Naturalist and before I could get a word out he asked me if I’d seen them. I said yes, and he said, “Oysters!” And by golly, that’s what they are. Oysters used to be a huge crop in this area, so huge that oyster shells were used as ballast for ships and to pave the streets. Pollution destroyed them, but in recent years river and bay cleanup has made it possible to re-introduce them in oyster farms on Long Island. We have a successful one near us at the Rancho. What’s happened on the Hudson is thrilling if you’re a geek like me, because this is no oyster farm. Tiny oysters have come around the bay on the tide and glommed onto the seawall. You can see little white dots in the photos; those are the new ones. The big white spots are last year’s, or maybe even the year before’s. Now the bad news is, the ones you’re seeing here are all dead. That’s why you can see the white — it’s the inside of the shells. It’s not clear why they didn’t make it, though my theory is they attached themselves too high and were unprotected in the many hard freezes we had this winter. If oysters make it here it’ll be the ones that float by at low tide and grab the wall and the pilings then, so they’re almost never exposed. That theory is supported by the biggest one, which you can see attached itself low inside the drainage culvert, where it would have been more protected than the other spots and gotten a chance to grow bigger. That, of course, is just luck: they attach themselves whenever the tide brings them by. We’ll see in future years how it goes. But knowing the river clean-up’s gone far enough that oysters are making a comeback is quite a thrill.

oyster in drainage culvert

oyster in drainage culvert gets its close-up

oysters on piling

oysters on wall

Icy, sleeting rain.

Robin on water-slick branch

Cleaning his feathers.

In yellow slicker,

Blue boots, red umbrella up,

Man follows white dog.

Sun breaks through black clouds,

Outlines trees, chimneys, bushes

Beyond our window.

Is there a traveling song with “Indianapolis” in it? Anyway, I have a Saturday gig at the library there. Should be fun — if you’re around, come check it out!

Talking about the ruling on college athlete unionizing, and actually, I am sure how I feel. Given the reality — that college sports programs are the farm system for the major league sports that don’t have a farm system — that is, all but baseball — it’s a good thing. I wish the reality were different, though: less cynical, closer to what college sports were when they started: students with athletic ability playing for their schools. That ship sailed long ago, though.

A friend emailed me to ask: “What do you think of the cerebral, philosophical Mr. Jackson joining the Knicks?” I was going to post on this burning subject anyway, so here’s my answer to him.

Well, I think the cerebral, philosophical Mr. Jackson is kind of a jerk. I never liked the guy. But players do, and that’s what’s important: guys might want to come to NY, or stay here (Tim Hardaway comes to mind) if they think it gives them a chance to play for Jackson. Of course, it doesn’t really, unless he coaches, but I don’t think he will. Coaching is just too physically hard for him anymore — the travel, etc. But that cerebral stuff might excite players anyway, thinking Jackson has a plan for the team. Which he might have. Certainly that’s how the players were talking at the game they played his first day on the job. Though if Woodson were deliberately trying to show what an ineffectual coach he was, he couldn’t have done better than that fourth quarter. But they pulled it out, so Jackson was happy and so was everyone else. (Me too.) The real issue is, will he be able to stand up to that d-bag, James Dolan? As long as Dolan owns the Knicks and insists on running the show, the team will be a train wreck. Dolan needs to sit down and shut up, let the GM and the coaches decide whom to keep, when to trade, etc. (A friend of mine calls Dolan “the George W. Bush of basketball: he only got the job because of who his father was and doesn’t have even his father’s dubious qualifications for it.”) Not that the Knicks have much deciding to do: they’re over the salary cap and they won’t have a decent draft pick for like a decade. Still. It’s Jackson’s team to fix and Dolan’s to ruin. It’ll be interesting to see who comes out on top. Pessimistically, I have to say my money’s on Dolan, because his swollen ego is bigger. But on the other hand, I tell myself, Jackson knew all about Dolan when he took the job. He wouldn’t have come here if he didn’t think he could win out, and that kind of a challenge — beating down James Dolan, as much as making the Knicks a winning ball club — is right up his alley. So all in all, I think it’s a good thing. In the context of: having watched the Knicks all season, what is there that could be a bad thing?

River empty, calm.

Ferries, barges, tugs all docked.

Waves break on far shore.

Sliding into view,

Blue kayaks on gray water,

Black paddles flashing.

Fisherman walks by.

No poles, buckets, bait. He smiles.

Still too cold to fish.

You probably remember about a year ago I told you about the legal proceedings involving my sister and the puppy she was raising to be a service dog. The wheels of justice, as we know, grind very slowly, but finally, the case is coming before the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. Here’s my sister’s letter on the subject:

March 1, 2014

Dear Friends,

This letter is to bring you up to date on my complaint against the Haverford Township Free Library.

As many of you know, the Haverford Township Free Library refused to let me and Henry, the puppy I was raising to become a service dog, visit the library. As a puppy raiser I was required to take Henry to public places so that he would become familiar with these varied environments for his future service dog work. The Library takes the position that a puppy-in-training like Henry, and a puppy raiser like me, are not protected by the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act. I have challenged that position, and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission legal staff has agreed with me, issuing a detailed decision finding probable cause to credit my claim that the Library unlawfully discriminated against me. I feel that it is important to clarify the law to enable puppies-in-training, along with their puppy raisers, to enter “public accommodations” like libraries, restaurants, subways and buses. Without such exposure and socialization, the puppies are certain to fail as service dogs.

Since the incident almost two years ago, I have approached the library several times in writing, as well as at a Conciliation meeting facilitated by the PA Human Relations Commission, making every effort to avoid a public hearing. I asked only that the library reverse its position and allow service dogs in training to enter their facility. On each occasion Haverford Township Free Library has unequivocally refused to even enter into discussion.

The next step is to proceed to a public hearing before one or more representatives of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, possibly as soon as May. The Commission lawyer feels that the case is so important that he will be sitting as “second chair” at the hearing with my lawyer. In the meantime, both the Library and I will have an opportunity to conduct discovery, including taking depositions, to determine the other side’s positions and the reasons for them.

I will let you know as soon as I learn of the time, date and location of the public hearing.

I would encourage any and all to attend, and please do forward this email to anyone you feel might be interested.

Thank you very much for all your support over these past two years.

Deborah Rosan

Wanted to fill you in on the rest of the Singapore trip before I started the Shanghai report. Yes, I know I’m behind. Trying my best for you guys, really I am.

The conference I was in Singapore to attend was in honor of Shirin Fozdar, an early Singaporean feminist. I gave the closing plenary, and enough people have asked about my talk that I think I’ll put it up on the blog in a couple of days. Meanwhile, here are about a third of the speakers, gathering for dinner.

I also got to hang around in Singapore, courtesy of various friends. You already saw some of those photos; if you missed the earlier blog entries they’re not hard to find, and if you click on any of these photos you can see the rest. I spent a day with my friend Roberto Cartelli, a great guy, and his friend Ann Hill, my new buddy. We went to the Barrage, to Marina Bay, to the Gardens, and for a long walk, lunch (more laksa!) and a boat ride. We looked like this:

Roberto

Me and Ann on the river taxi

]

Me proving I’m in Singapore

Carefully organized remains of lunch

As photogenic as we clearly are, Singapore has even more photogenic objects.

Old police HQ, now a building for arts and youth

Colors even at a construction site

Singapore skyline

Decorations for the Year of the Horse

Flame tree in Fort Canning Park. I was lucky: it doesn’t bloom every year, only when conditions are right, and only for a week or so.

Churchyard at St. Gregory the Illuminator

They also want to make sure that you understand where it is they don’t want you to go.

This is at the downtown reservoir. When they say “off limits” they really mean it.

Staying in downtown Singapore, I began to miss greenery. Never mind that it’s sunny and beautiful (which the locals are describing as “beastly hot”) and the streets are tree-lined. I had a morning date with Ovidia Yu, a Singaporean writer,

and we decided to not go to the Botanical Gardens, our original plan, but to head for the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve instead. I set my SINGAPORE NOIR story in the area, and I mentioned the monkeys in the nature reserve though I hadn’t seen them. Well, Ovidia and I had a lovely stroll through a bordering neighborhood,

a walk in the reserve itself,

and a delicious laksa lunch.

And the monkeys? As were were leaving the reserve, they came close to the road to see what we were all about.

Photo’s not so good, but I’ve never seen wild monkeys before, so I thought it was grand.