Smart TalkSMART TALK

By Dr. Clark Chousie

PODIUM: At the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired, we're amazed at how many people know pod or ped are Greek for foot, understand why a three-footed stand is a tripod, and yet don't know what a lectern is.  A lectern is the standup reading desk that lecturers put their notes on.  A podium is for the feet.  It's what the conductor stands on.  That fine writers and other smart folks use podium for both doesn't make it right.  Most of them don't know the difference between that and which, either.

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Viewers of the Ithaca Community Fireworks will get a special musical treat to go along with this year’s aerial display as all seven (7) of the Cayuga Radio Group’s radio stations will simulcast music to the presentation.  Dubbed the 'American Spirit Soundtrack', it will be a simulcast across all the stations coinciding with the fireworks presentation.

“We want to give our community the audio experience of great 4th of July music to go along with the fireworks,” said Lite Rock 97.3 Brand Manager Dave Ashton.  “It’s totally listener driven, so our community is picking the music, and I am sure it will be a great diverse selection of tunes!”

The Hangar Theatre continues its 39th season with one of the greatest American musicals of all time, Gypsy, which runs from July 4-20. Distinguished by more than 45 awards and nominations - including the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Theatre World awards - Gypsy has been revived on Broadway four times.

Gypsy was inspired by the memoirs of the legendary burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee. This gripping story follows the ultimate stage mother, determined to catapult her daughters to stardom in the waning 1920s vaudeville circuit. It's filled with Styne and Sondheim's popular standards, including 'Everything's Coming up Roses,' 'Small World,' 'Let Me Entertain You,' 'All I Need Is the Girl,' and 'Rose's Turn'.

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An 80s parody, a touching love story, and non-stop on-stage parties make Running to Places’ production of the musical version of 'The Wedding Singer' perfect summer fun. The show runs July 12-14 at the State Theatre of Ithaca.

“The show rolls around in its own ridiculousness with utter glee,” says R2P co-artistic director Joey Steinhagen. “It embraces full on that it’s completely absurd, which makes it tremendously fun for the audience and the actors.”

"The Wedding Singer" takes us back to a time when hair was big, greed was good, collars were up, and a wedding singer might just be the coolest guy in the room. It's 1985 and rock-star wannabe Robbie Hart (St. John Faulkner) is New Jersey's favorite wedding singer. He's the life of the party until his own fiancee (Ilana Wallenstein) leaves him at the altar and the devastated Robbie proceeds to make every wedding as disastrous as his own. Enter Julia (Cali Newman), a lovely waitress who wins his affection. But Julia is about to be married to a Wall Street shark (Anthony Nigro), and unless Robbie can pull off the performance of a decade, the girl of his dreams will be gone forever.  Alongside Robbie & Julia as they find romance are Robbie’s Jon Bon-Jovi type best friend Sammy (Honor Meyerhoff), Boy George look-alike George (Felix Fernandez-Penny), Julia’s best friend Holly (Hanalei Berg), and sweet but spunky Grandma Rosie (Maddie Vandenberg).

Ithaca High School visual art students and Garden Club are collaborating on an Artful Garden, a community garden space to grow produce, display art and provide a natural refuge for students.

“Students are investigating issues around planning and gardening, creating an outdoor art space, planting seasonally and designing a pocket park within our school community,” explains Ithaca High Art Department Chair Carol Spence.  “With the Cooperative Extension’s Gardens for Humanity, as our community resource, the students are planning, building, planting and decorating the atrium garden space, adjacent to the school’s cafeteria.  The Drawing and Painting students were introduced to botanical illustration by illustrator, muralist and gardener Kellie Cox-Brady.”

SMART TALK

by Dr. Parley Speake




ANXIOUS/EAGER: "I'm so anxious to go!" remarked a patient. We were going on a picnic the Center for English as a First Language was having down at Moot Point on the River Rio just outside of town.

Staff nearby hesitated, wondering why this patient was anxious. Fear of water? Allergy to ants? Lack of cell phone service?

A second later, we all realized she was a new patient and hadn't been treated for Anxious-Eager Syndrome. Somehow, she had never learned that anxious means full of anxiety or negative anticipation. It's not pleasant.

Eager means full of positive anticipation. It's pleasant.

When this patient leaves us, she'll be eager to demonstrate the English really is her first language.

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Downtown Ithaca Alliance is bringing back Restaurant Week, which will take place from June 8th to 16th . With more than twenty restaurants participating county-wide, there are dining options tailored to please every palate.

Guests will satisfy their appetites and enjoy fresh ingredients at restaurants such as Hazelnut Kitchen, Ciao!, Boatyard Grill, Tokyo Hibachi, Simeon’s on the Commons, Ale House, Ports of New York and The Bistro at La Tourelle to name a few. Restaurants will be offering 3-course fixed price menus, as well as $10-lunch specials or $20-dinner specials.

Emily Scarpulla was named the 2013 Lee Strebel Memorial Award for Enthusiasm in the Performing Arts recipient.  Scarpulla accepted the award at the Ithaca High School’s Underclassman Award Night June 3rd in Ithaca High School Performing Arts Center Kulp Auditorium.  The Lee Strebel Memorial Award is presented each year to an Ithaca student who has not only participated in the performing arts at the high school level, but has shown extraordinary spirit in that pursuit.

The award is given in loving memory of Lee Strebel, an Ithaca High School student who died suddenly during his freshman year in February of 2006. In his short time at the high school, Strebel became a standout in the drama department after playing the leading role of George Gibbs in Our Town.