Off the record, on the QT in WHB, and very hush-hush…
...'til recently, but the Justice Court, the Honorable Gair G. Betts presiding, of the Incorporated Village of West Hampton Dunes, may have a teensy li'l problem!
It may not have been sitting properly since it was first established in the mid-'90s. More...
Strictly speaking, this afternoon's meeting never took place. More...
I'm not sure whether to be amused or just puzzled, but this afternoon's mail delivery brought the damn'dest thing... an anonymous tip suggesting a possible subject for OtBB's attention.
It was, 54 weeks in, a first for the blog! More...
Updated 09/25/2008 - 09:11 pm
This evening's Village Trustees Work Session was about questions. More...
Updated 09/25/2008 - 08:48 pm
Perhaps it's something in the water... or maybe a residual effect of radiation leaking from the old nuclear warhead bunkers to the North of Gabreski Airport.
Something seems to cause moral compasses to whirl out of control. More...
Updated 09/24/2008 - 12:35 pm
Tuesday is Cheap(er) Movies Day... except at the Hampton Arts Twin where it's $4.00 all day long! That's really cheap!
The Hampton Bays multiplex isn't much of a big Tuesday deal anymore, but Seniors save $3.00 on admission, and with their in-house "rewards card" one accumulates points and then when a certain level is reached, something's supposed to happen. More...
Under the doctrine of We're Gonna Do This 'Til We Get It Right, Jewish People Opposed to the Eruv are returning to Starr Boggs next month.
Scheduled for 10:00 am on the traditional Columbus Day, this time the notice omits the description "Open Meeting," and states:
"We will have a meeting of JPOE for all those who support our mission and goals."
(Translation: "Alan Schechter, you ain't welcome! No Fifth Columnists, either!")
Although it's "off-season," it is a three-day weekend and comes immediately after Yom Kippur, so participation should be decent size.
One leeeettle thing: this time when you bring a microphone, don't forget the amplifier so those in attendance won't have to keep yelling "Speak up!" and "LOUDER!"
...of area youth acting out en masse on Main Street and Mill Road.
If anyone is likely to be offended by a teenage ritual accompanied by rock'n'roll, avert your eyes and turn down your speakers.
Jewish People Opposed to the Eruv earlier this day debuted their unimaginatively named StoptheWHBeruv.blogspot.
While not yet visually appealing, it's focus is on an appeal for funding in their attempt to prevent the establishment of the eruv in Westhampton Beach. It appears to be a grassroots effort.
Welcome to the local Blogosphere, JPOE... you're the third one from the area.
Updated 09/19/2008 - 02:11 pm
For sometime now it has been unclear just what role nutburger Irene Barrett plays within the current iteration of "The Alliance for Separation of Church and State for the Greater Westhampton Area, Inc."
In May when it was the original "Westhampton Beach Alliance for the Separation of Church and State," she hosted meetings at her home on Quiogue, and has for the past four months been the most consistently visible of the anti-eruvians, speaking out at Village meetings, leading the set-up of challenging candidates Tim Laube and John Roland, and bursting into the Building Department with exaggerated reports of "Jewish activity" within the Village. More...
The Alliance for Separation of Church and State for the Greater Westhampton Area, Inc. (née "Westhampton Beach Alliance for the Separation of Church and State") debuted inauspiciously, thudding onto the local scene with an ill-considered full page advertisement in the June 12th Southampton Press Western Edition.
Whether that adv. helped throw the Village election eight days later to the incumbents is a matter of some debate1, but it is clear that it was the Alliance's intention to do so. More...
...you probably haven't been formally introduced, but he seems to know you pretty well.
M'Gawd! An entire article devoted solely to you and your one-woman pogrom, Irene! More...
From a source close to the Synagogue:
"Last year there were two coaches, one leaving from the 5 Towns and one from Queens, each with 48 passengers. Several more people tried to make reservations but were closed out. Since some people drove from Manhattan and Brooklyn to the pickup locations last year, two additional stops were added this year."
This suggests that Selichot could become an annual event at Hampton Synagogue, and something which enterprising area inns and (licensed... 24 Oak Street need not apply) bed & breakfasts might do well catering to.
Seen in a number of prominent Jewish newspapers of recent:
("Selichot" refers to the services prior to the High Holy days of Rosh Hashanah.)
Ya gotta love the sheer chutzpah of the Rabbi's thinking here!
"So, they're worried about their diverse little Village being overrun by the Orthodox, eh? Well, watch this!"
But what will he do for an encore? C130s filled with Hasidim parachuting into the SCNB parking lot for Yom Kippur?
Or for Hanukkah recommission "Exodus 1947" out of mothballs and have it steam into Moniebogue Bay with a manifest of Lubavich Jews expelled from Crown Heights for their ultra-Orthodoxy.
I love it! This'll keep nutburger Irene Barrett on the ramparts from now 'til the big freeze.
...of the Five Towns.
From a New York Magazine story on Morris Talansky, the rabbi and businessman whose testimony "brought down" Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert:
"...the Five Towns (Hewlett, Lawrence, Inwood, Woodmere, which includes Woodsburgh, and Cedarhurst), the suburban homeland that Jews have carved out of Long Island sprawl."
And... More...
It appears to be official... Westhampton Beach, withstanding protestations to the contrary, is a "tony" seaside village1.
We've heard it on WCBS-TV, Channel 2, read it in the New York Post, and had it spread far and wide by... thank you, Rabbi Marc Schneier... the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. More...
A Guest Blog Exclusive to OtBB.
What follows opens up floodgates that do not exist for my core readership in various Jewish media.
As an individual who has devoted the greater part of his life to critical analysis of Biblical and Rabbinic texts including the context of their time and detail of their language and also lives a lifestyle that many unbiased observers would categorize as aligned with that of Orthodox Judaism, I feel a bit unnerved by one of the arguments the eruv opposition has tossed forth.
This idea can be most simply formulated as: "forget the lawyer, attack the law." While Rabbi Marc Schneier has risen to the task of advancing the members of Westhampton Beach (and surrounding municipalities) in their animosity toward the tenets of Rabbinic Judaism, others, not so qualified, have suggested he use his authority to issue variances to the law. More...
Updated 09/12/2008 - 01:09 pm
One would have thought that following the Planning Board's August Work Session, attorney James N. Hulme would have been on notice that the honeymoon is over for Hampton Synagogue's long-delayed (over 5½ years!) application to...
"...convert a single family (Rabbi's dwelling) to offices for the Synagogue on the second floor and a meeting hall on the first floor, which will provide kosher catering of private events, which are part of services or events sponsored by the Synagogue."
But after this evening's regular monthly meeting, it's apparent that Mr. Hulme works in mysterious and often opaque ways. More...
My Dune Road acquaintance, Jackie (a/k/a "Maîtresse de Microphone") insists that she is not very computer literate, but she still sends along some very interesting links on a fairly regular basis.
Her most recent contribution points to "Jewish Scene" section of Ynetnews and an item headlined "Don’t touch our eruv." More...
New from 27East.com and probably tomorrow's Southampton Press Western Edition:
Westhampton Beach Dep'ty Mayor Jim Kametler, on why he cast the lone dissenting vote in the Village Board's resolution to hire attorney Maureen Liccione as Special Counsel to advise the municipality on the eruv matter. More...
...for the Alliance for the Separation of Church and State in the Greater Westhampton Area, Inc., Marci A. Hamilton... remember the name.
She has "rockstar" potential, but appears to be somewhat to the Left of Keith Olbermann.
Updated 09/10/2008 - 1:45 am
Tom DeMayo felt slighted by the minor parties, the Conservative Party whose support he had always enjoyed, in particular.
When the power brokers... tha's a joke, folks... of the Conservative, Independent and Working Families parties emerged from their smoke-filled back rooms earlier this year and bestowed their respective formal blessings on last year's losing Town Justice candidate Andrea Schiavoni, again the choice of the Democrats, Republican DeMayo didn't take it very well.
The sitting Justice, with the aid of the still well-organized Southampton Town GOP, mobilized a crew of licensed Notary Publics with petitions to mount across-the-board primary challenges to Ms. Schiavoni. More...
...in yesterday's entry:
"Naturally, representatives of NYC media were more focussed on this (front lawn) confrontation than in what transpired within, and this is likely what will be most prominently featured tomorrow."
This morning's superficial and factually inaccurate NY Post report (mirrored at CJP.org):
Updated 09/08/2008 - 2:28 am
...for the JPOE kick-off "petite brunch" at Starr Boggs.
(Yes, OtBB was down for a period... not to worry, it doesn't appear to have been enemy action.
Now that we're back "up," our Technical guru in South Carolina revealed that he is following the Westhampton Beach eruv coverage on Fox News. O, boy!) More...
This date marks the first anniversary of OtBB, so Happy Birthday to us.
And it is an "us" observance... I write virtually all of it, but the contributions (Comments and "tips") of many others have made the blog as active as it has been... 340 entries in 366 days.
That's a fair chunk of bloggery. More...
Read with interest the story on the front page of the WHBPAC 2008 Summer Newsletter.
Then I went and got my reading glasses and read it again... and I still couldn't find the name of Rosaria "Ria" Del Bene, a curious omission considering that the focus of that story was the conversion of her family home and barber shop/hair salon on Sunset Avenue into the Performing Arts Center's new Administrative Headquarters. More...
A short meeting last evening, less than 35 minutes by the clock on the Village Hall wall.
The Deputy Mayor was present, his first sighting in the meeting room in over a month... but then Jim Kametler does have more pressing matters occupying his mind.
Trustee Joan Levan was not in attendance which led to at least two resolutions which carried with the minimum required three votes as Trustee Hank Tucker abstained in one instance, and Mr. Kametler voted "No!" on the motion to retain Maureen Liccione as Special Counsel to advise the Village on legal matters involving Hampton Synagogue's request for an eruv. More...
...and into the daylight. Free at last, free at last! Great G-d Almighty, free at last from the "closet Jews" domain into which Clint Greenbaum, according to Garcia Gottesmann, had relegated them!
(Rabbi Marc Schneier does not have the exclusive franchise to cite Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.)
As foreshadowed here last week and discussed in Gary Rosenblatt's "The Eruv Rav" column in yesterday's The Jewish Week, a second group in opposition to Hampton Synagogue's request has formed. More...
Gary Rosenblatt, Editor and Publisher of metro-based The Jewish Week has penned a column, "The Eruv Rav," which the most balanced look the Village's eruv issue yet seen in any of the Jewish media anywhere.
Rosenblatt "gets" it, and also "gets" Rabbi Marc Schneier, making several references to the man's personality as being one of the problems. More...
...to a time I'd only heard about in my youth, the days of the "Daffy Dodgers" when Brooklyn was the doormat of the National League and their greatest hitter, Babe Herman, tripled into a double play.
Then the '62 Mets practically replicated the entire decade of the '30s in just their first year of existence, setting a record for most losses in a season that still stands, making the name of "Marvelous Marv" Throneberry synonymous with ineptitude, and the man himself 20 years later a star of the Miller Lite commercials of the early '80s.
Impossible not to think of the antics of the "Daffy Dodgers" and the hapless "Marvelous Marv" when watching the 2nd inning of the Yankees-Tampa Bay game this evening. More...
...the Lita Grey Chaplin complaint for good ol' fashion juiciness, but for those who wondered, here's a copy of the Federal Indictment against Quogue Mayor George Motz.
This, of course, is only what the Government is alleging.
Mr. Motz' attorney, G. Robert Gage Jr., asserts:
"George Motz is innocent, and he is looking forward to his day in court where all the facts are presented, not just the ... allegations of the government."
I always get a little tingle inside when a lawyer says something like that.
...for just a moment.
I was fully prepared to drag myself to the polls this November and toss a vote to that ol' bushwacker Ron Paul, having no affection for John McCain and even less... despite my wife's incessant drum-beating... for Barack Obama.
Then came Sarah Palin... never mind her genuine creds as a Second Amendment supporter, she had me at "hockey mom."
