On the beaten path

By LOHR McKINSTRY
Staff Writer

On Thursday, April 26, I learned that my friend John Duval had died.

John worked for the Press-Republican in the 1970s, then got married and left for Saratoga County to start a family.

After his marriage ended, John slowly returned northward, first as a reporter for the weekly Times of Ti, then at the Adirondack Daily Enterprise in Saranac Lake and finally at the Malone Telegram.

He had to leave the Telegram early last year when his health worsened.

I saw John about a month ago. He was living in a small apartment on Catherine Street in Malone.

His heart condition and other health problems prevented him from driving, and he couldn’t go out without taking a small oxygen tank with him. He was prone to shortness of breath.

John and I both shared a love of science-fiction films and old movies, and I used to give him videos after I was done with them. We also liked movie serials from the 1930s and ‘40s, stuff like “The Adventures of Captain Marvel” and “Daredevils of the Red Circle.”

The serials are a cinematic form that no longer exists, and John was one of my few friends who even knew what I was talking about when I mentioned them. He spent hours watching the two “Superman” serials from the late ‘40s that were just released on DVD. Even a 12-chapter serial is about four hours long.

John’s apartment was piled with rows of tapes and DVDs, and he was always telling me about some new find he was watching, like the first season of “Wanted: Dead or Alive,” a 1950s Western series, or the 1950s “Superman” TV series that had finally come out on DVD.

John had a sort of cynical and satiric way of looking at life. He never failed to start me laughing about something.

I met John when the Press-Republican had a bureau office on Montcalm Street in Ticonderoga, and he was working for the Times of Ti just down the street. Newberry’s was still open, and we used to stop in before work many mornings for breakfast at the lunch counter.

John also ordered the works — eggs, homefries, toast, sausage and coffee. He was a hearty eater, but he said his doctor often warned him he had to lose weight.

He died on his way home, where he had the movies he loved to watch and his little cat, Patches.

He got Patches when he was in Ticonderoga. John and I were walking down the street one day when we saw a little kitten lying in the street.

Something had happened to his mother or he’d wandered away and for some reason he thought the side of Montcalm Street was a good place to take a nap.

John and I rescued him before he could get run over, and John named him Patches, because his fur was so many different colors. Patches traveled everywhere John went in the 12 years or so since then.

When I visited John a month ago, Patches leaped up on the arm of the chair I was sitting in, purring. I petted him.

“Patches remembers me,” I told John.

“I’ve had Patches a long time,” John said. “He sleeps in the room with me at night. He’s a great
cat.”

Soon after that, I shook hands with John and left. I had no idea I was seeing him for the last time.

Posted by Lois Clermont at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

By STEPHEN BARTLETT
Staff Writer

PLATTSBURGH — Defense Secretary Robert Gates has tacked on at least three more months to the tours of soldiers already dodging bullets and roadside bombs in Iraq.

Probably not anything soldiers wanted to hear, though they are bound to uphold the constitution and obey all lawful orders from their commander-in-chief.

Well, depending on who you listen to, that oath may provide them with the option of refusal.

Soldiers must uphold America’s constitution — it’d be tough to justify Iraq on those grounds — and they have to obey “lawful” orders.

Consider that Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11, but an empire’s policy inspired it, and Saudi Arabia had more ties to the tragedy in 2001 than any other country; the president’s family has business ties with Saudi Arabian royalty, and Iraq has its share of oil; and Halliburton, a company with ridiculously strong ties to Dick Cheney, is raking profits over the remains of innocent Iraqi men, women and children
.
Suddenly, the order to invade a sovereign nation doesn’t seem lawful anymore. In fact, it seems there’s a bucket of conflicts of interest at the White House, and the only positive that has come from what is now a bloody civil war is corporate profits.

The negatives are soldiers, forced to leave behind families, bearing witness to gruesome atrocities and losing their lives. If they return alive, some are disfigured and missing limbs, and many are wrecked psychologically.

I’ve been unfortunate enough to witness firsthand the tragic results of such psychological and physical horrors.

When I served in the Army, stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, I befriended a Vietnam vet who couldn’t work, 100-percent psychologically disabled. He would sit on his sweat-stained couch in a smoke-filled living room, a pair of tweezers on the coffee table to remove slivers of shrapnel rising to the surface of his skin as blisters on his beer belly.

I worked under supervisors at Fort Riley who served in Desert Storm under orders of our president’s father. It remains unexplained what happened to them, though there are many theories.
But theories matter little to adults who sweat profusely, suffer memory loss, are often overly fatigued and have children who are physically and intellectually far behind their peers. These soldiers don’t want theories, they want somebody to repair what happened to them.

Yet, these brave men and women march on; soldiers like Sgt. First Class Thomas Nunn, who told a New York Times reporter, “The way I look at it, you get bent out of shape about stuff you can do something about.”

I wonder as I write this, will Sgt. Nunn return home alive and in one piece?

Meanwhile, profits pour in, the war machine fills its belly, and the glaring consequences are thousands of dead American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of murdered Iraqi civilians.

E-mail Stephen Bartlett at:
sbartlett@pressrepublican.com

Posted by Lois Clermont at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

By ROBIN CAUDELL
Staff Writer

BURLINGTON — Thursday. 8:30 a.m. 44 degrees.

While crossing Lake Champlain on the ferry, I flipped through the May issue of Martha Stewart Living. Twenty minutes later, I sat in a chair awash in sunlight and skimmed the Burlington Free Press inside the Colchester Dental Group.

For those who don’t know Dr. Kenneth Palm, you will hear him before you see him. His laughter bounces through his office like sunlight in a prism. He is a big guy with big hands that work magic in small spaces like your mouth. I was getting fitted for a new appliance, let’s just leave it at that, when Donna Hayes, a dental assistant, asked me what I was doing afterward.

I thought about the stories bumping against Friday’s deadline, but once I stepped back outside, my itinerary changed. I was hot in my long-sleeved, peacock blue and midnight blue embroidered jacket made in India. My Corolla was hotter. I tossed the jacket and the olive green scarf that was around my neck on the passenger seat. It was 63 degrees.

As I drove toward Burlington’s Waterfront, I decided the Firehouse Gallery at 135 Church St. was the perfect place to dwell on a glorious day. Even with hunger pangs.

On exhibit was “Les Affiches Illustrées: Art Posters from the Late 1800s” featuring original Art Nouveau prints by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Alphonse Maria Mucha, Théophile Steinlen, Georges de Feure, Pierre Bonard and Jules Chéret.

I was greeted by exhibition curator Ruth Erickson.
The five-day show ends Saturday, April 21.

About the “new art” of the late 1800s and early 1900s Europe, the signage stated:

“As a movement, proponents sought to break down barriers between fine arts and the applied arts; artists worked on everything from architecture to furniture designs, adding decorative embellishments and creating alternatives to the mechanical precision of goods produced during the Victorian era’s Industrial Revolution. Graceful and sinuous lines, often derived from nature, unified the Art Nouveau style. The style was also influenced by Japanese art’s asymmetry as well as Rococo art’s dramatic flourishes.”

I thought it best for me to view these beautiful works, one-fifth of a private Burlington collection, while I could. This was only the second showing ever.

After looking at the posters of the beautiful and beautifully adorned women, Ruth, directed me upstairs to view more. She warned me that the gallery was being decorated for Friday’s “Burlesque Ball.”

A petite raven-haired woman was draping black velvet in a corner near the stairwell, so I took the elevator up. It was like riding inside a Christmas present, only the red, burgundy and gold wrapping was on the inside.

On the second floor, I saw four Sarah Bernhardt posters, “Médée,” “Lorenzaccio,” “Gismonda” and “Hamlet” by Mucha.

“As the story goes, the person doing most of Sarah Bernhardt’s posters at the time was Jules Chéret,” said Katie Attanasio, gallery manager/assistant curator.

“He invented the three-stone lithographic process. According to the story, Mucha was in the print shop where Sarah’s posters were normally made, and the printers were talking about how they were worried about Chéret completing the poster for ‘Gismonda.’ They had only a few weeks.

Mucha said, ‘I can do it.’ From that moment on, he was the sole poster creator for Sarah Bernhardt, and they had a wonderful relationship.”

A “High Roller Bar” sign was propped against a wall. Behind Katie, lengths of red and gold ribbon fluttered against a wall. She enthusiastically told me be about the “Burlesque Ball,” a follow to last year’s highly successful “Moulin Rouge” event.

“Montmartre was north of Paris, so they paid no taxes,” Katie said. “You could do everything you wanted. It was so Bohemian. People who love ‘Moulin Rouge,” this is where they should be Friday. It has that same vivacity.”

The Burlington City Hall is the gateway to the “Red District” of Montmartre. The celebration includes live music, can-can girls, games of chance with celebrity dealers, a silent auction, flame throwers, marching band, an absinthe bar and delectable catered food.

Creative dress is encouraged, though Attanasio assured me many would hardly be dressed.

Overdressing is an impossibility. Top hats and boas will be on sale for those who desire them.

The mid-afternoon sun glazed the gallery’s hardwood floor. It was a fluke that I stood there.

In the gilded elevator, I rode to the third floor and paid $50 for my extremely limited ticket. If you’re feeling Bohemian today, hurry up and call (802) 865-7292.

Look for me in Montmartre. I’ll be swishing in something à la Bernhardt.

E-mail Robin Caudell at:
rcaudell@pressrepublican.com

Posted by Lois Clermont at 1:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By LOIS CLERMONT
News Editor

Here’s what was scheduled to happen Wednesday, April 18, that we knew people might be interested in reading about:

> A public hearing in Tupper Lake about the ski resort project.

> Another public hearing, in Plattsburgh, about the money Laurentian Aerospace wants to borrow for its big project at the former Air Base.

Here’s what happened that day:

> A plane crashed at the airport in Lake Clear, killing a Saranac Lake man.

> A major agreement was reached to help bring cell-phone coverage to the Northway.

> The Essex County manager won his lawsuit against the county.

> A car hit a stopped Ticonderoga school bus, seriously injuring the mother and daughter in the car.

> The Supreme Court made a landmark ruling on abortion that is of great interest to local pro-life and pro-choice advocates.

> Commonwealth Home Fashions, a major industry in Willsboro, laid off 12 people and rumors spread quickly that they would close.

> Some kind of disturbance happened at the prison in Ray Brook.

> The Mountain Lake PBS transmitter tower on Lyon Mountain collapsed.

You can imagine the scrambling that went on in the newsroom as one after another of these stories broke through the day.

Kim Smith Dedam, Joe LoTemplio, Andrea Van Valkenburg, Alvin Reiner and Lohr McKinstry all had to drop what they were doing and try to track down what they could on these stories.

Kim, who was all set to head out to Tupper Lake, instead rushed to Adirondack Airport.

It's part of our job to write about deaths or serious accidents, but it's not easy. It wouldn't be an easy day for Kim, but we knew it would be a whole lot harder day for family and friends of the person who died.

Joe, Andrea, Alvin and Lohr began making all kinds of phone calls to find out about the cell agreement, Commonwealth layoffs, abortion-ruling reaction, car-bus accident and county lawsuit.

On some of these stories, sources were hesitant to part with information. That makes it difficult when readers are not only expecting to read details the next morning but also checking our Web site throughout the day, looking for breaking news.

We love our growing ability to get news up onto the Web, but we are careful that we don't rush so much that we are inaccurate. Some news organizations want bragging rights to getting a story posted first; we want to be able to say we got it right first.

This is what makes the news business so exciting, even in a relatively small community such as the North Country. It stretches us, sometimes beyond what we think we're capable of, but we try to meet the challenge because people count on us to tell them what's happening around here.

Most people have a pretty good idea, when they go to work in the morning, how they're going to be spending their day. Monday was a prime example of why we never do.

Posted by Lois Clermont at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

By BOB GRADY
Editor

Editorial cartoons are no laughing matter. At least, to an editor. At least, to this editor.

We used to have a whole stable of syndicated editorial cartoonists, including all the famous ones: Marlette, Oliphant, Horsey. They were costing a fortune and were being used only very occasionally, as we had so many of them coming in.

Besides, we had Mark Wilson, from Lake Placid — the husband of an old friend of ours, Mary
Thill (she used to patrol the Tri-Lakes for us out of our Lake Placid Bureau and is now editor of Adirondack Life magazine). He’s as good as any of the national cartoonists, and he’s local.

That’s a hard combination to marshal — a local person with the talent to draw good cartoons that make a biting political point. Wilson does it well, and we’re lucky to have him.

See, here’s the thing that most casual readers misunderstand about political cartoons: They make their own points, not our points. The Press-Republican isn’t generally trying to present political cartoons that reflect our viewpoint, if we even have one on a given topic.

We are not liberal or conservative, and very often, the cartoonists aren’t, either. They are just trying to be funny, or poignant, or reflective ... or something ... on the topic they are drawing about at the time.

Our goal, as a newspaper, is to try to present different viewpoints — certainly not the same one all the time. Most cartoons skewer President Bush, if they skewer anybody, but that’s understandable: He’s the guy in charge, the guy making most of the decisions. When Bill Clinton was president, he was the one on the cartoonists’ hot seat. The same was probably true of Abraham Lincoln in his day.

My point here is that the newspaper doesn’t have a point in running political cartoons except to present as wide a variety of points of view as possible, with the hope of amusing as well as enlightening.

The cartoons we run are a tiny part of the large tapestry that constitutes a newspaper.

Don’t read too much into them as a reflection of the paper’s political bent.

Posted by Lois Clermont at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

By STEPHEN BARTLETT
Staff Writer

PLATTSBURGH — The powers that be in Utah are attacking homosexuality with a new law that governs school clubs.

Ultimately, though, gay/straight alliances inspired the law that dictates how student groups can form, who can join, what can be discussed and how to address rules being broken.

Fortunately, the Utah law cannot supersede the federal law that was enacted more than 20 years ago, ironically, to protect religious study groups, but which also enables students to form gay/straight alliances.

What I find disturbing about this entire issue though is that once again, Christian conservatives are trying to ram their morality down everyone else’s throats.

Once again, they must scramble to make sure everyone around them believes like them, and if they don’t, in no way opposes the morals they hold dear.

It is amazing that in a country where there is supposed to be a separation of church and state, the way in which consenting adults are allowed to live their lives is dictated by Christian morality.

When lawmakers act in opposition to issues such as polygamy and homosexuality, they are basically saying, “Hey, we know you are consenting adults, but since we have the power and don’t agree with your lifestyle choice, then we are going to restrict your rights to fit our standards.”

Oddly, people seem to forget that belief systems existed before Christianity that celebrated sexuality and permitted much of what Christianity outlaws. Of course, supporters of Christianity ensured the elimination of such beliefs, building their own churches atop pagan places of worship and adopting pagan traditions as their own. But despite its overwhelming propaganda campaign, there isn’t much originality in Christianity.

But I digress and am, in fact, not trying to attack Christianity. I know may terrific Christians and see nothing wrong with people’s individual choice to believe as they see fit.

Maybe I should have simply began and ended this blog with the following question:

How is it okay for Christians to force their morality on others, especially consenting adults who may be atheists, may or may not share their beliefs and are living in a country where church and state are supposed to be separated?

And please don’t answer the question with something like, “Well, homosexuals are trying to force their lifestyle on us.” No they are not. They want to live their lives as they see fit and want you to mind your own business.

There are many people who disagree with Christianity and don’t try to force everyone to live as they do.

E-mail Stephen Bartlett at:
sbartlett@pressrepublican.com

Posted by Lois Clermont at 1:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)