Archive: Arts & Entertainment

SMART TALK

by Dr. Amelia Raitt Payne, M.D.



INNERACTIVE: As staff physician at the Center for English as a First Language, I often hear words mangled in a way that makes them sound medical. The words often have the prefix inter-.

For example, Internet. I'm told by the linguistic therapists that Internet still has a capital I, but I can't see that continuing much longer. Time was, linoleum always had a capital L.

More important (not importantly), Internet is often pronounced innernet. Please get this straight: If innernet were an official word, it would mean your brain. Don't try to tell me your innernet has several thousand videos of cats playing the piano. I'll be tempted to admit you for psychiatric evaluation.

And inneractive. Oy. Tums are inneractive. So are flu shots. [Dr. Weiss N. Heimer, you still need yours!] Linked text and touch screens are interactive. There's a difference.

My friend, Father Peter Holdoff, has a lovely word for the exclusive, unwelcoming, even hateful language used by some ultraconservative religious groups: innerdenominational.

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Pamela L. Poulin will portray Sufffragist-Abolitionist-Temperance and Dress Reform Advocate Amelia Jenks Bloomer in a talk, entitled “Amelia Jenks Bloomer:  More Than Just a Dress!” at 2:00 PM on Sunday, March 24th at the Solvay Public Library and share hither-to-unknown details of Jenks Bloomer’s life and information about the several causes for which she strove.

Aurora, NY —The Inns of Aurora are partnering with the William H. Seward House Museum—a National Historic Landmark in nearby Auburn, New York—to add to its experiential travel offerings. The package, which pairs a two-night stay at one of the historic and luxurious Inns of Aurora, guides area visitors to travel back in time on the Seward estate with Geralyn Huba, collections manager, to learn fascinating family narratives, handle priceless artifacts from around the world, and explore spaces closed off to the public.

SMART TALK

by Dr. Tilde Cedilla




DENNIS: Yesterday at the Center for English as a First Language, a long-term patient asked me to recommend a good dennis. He said he hadn't seen a dennis since last winner.

Fortunately, I understood the poor man, because we had discussed his case at the weekly staff meeting in Strunk Hall.

I told him my favorite dentist was in Los Libidos, near the Bedspring Tech campus.

"But that's twunny miles away," he complained. "I was hoping to get a handier dennis. I like to use my bike, and riding to the next cowny in hot weather is sweaty, to say nothing of riding back while the anniseptic wears off."

I could see his point, so I told him that our staff physician, Dr. Amelia Raitt Payne, has a brother, Dr. Max Payne, who's a dentist right here in Underbelly.

And I wished him luck.


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The Hangar Theatre's 2013 KIDDSTUFF Season, a series of sparkling live theatre based on favorite children's books and stories, returns with another exciting lineup of plays and musicals for young audiences. The season will kick-off with a cheery production of PINKALICIOUS the Musical (June 20 - 22), followed by an award-winning new play, With Two Wings (July 11 - 13). Next up is the jazzy, toe-tapping musical, A Year with Frog and Toad (July 18 - 20) followed by the beloved classic, James and the Giant Peach (August 1 -3). The season finishes with the "super-soul" musical The Wiz (August 15 - 17), a Tony Award-winning adaptation of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

This special version for young audiences features students from the Hangar's Next Generation School of Theatre.

San Francisco, CA -- HOT BUTTERED RUM will wrap up a nine stop tour at The Haunt in Ithaca on March 23 with special guests, Cabinet. The bands will be joining forces to play in the Northeast including New Jersey, Maryland, Vermont, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York.

Hot Buttered Rum lives for songs. Songs to sing in the shower. Songs to crank through your earbuds at the DMV. Songs to name your babies after, and then make more babies to. The band’s three songwriters — Aaron Redner, Nat Keefe and Erik Yates — spin tales about the good times, the bad times, and the roads in between, and belt them from the heart in three-part harmony.

In recognition of the 40th anniversary of Hip-Hop, Tompkins County Public Library-- in partnership with Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections and an impressive assortment of community groups-- will present 'Hip-Hop:  Unbound from the Underground—An Ithaca Community Celebration of Hip-Hop Culture', April 4 through 7.

A four-day celebration of all things Hip-Hop, Unbound from the Underground will feature events on campus and throughout the community, including:  exhibit openings, panel discussions, film screenings, concerts and three days of live, mural painting by some of the world’s most acclaimed and recognizable graffiti artists.

Read more ...

SMART TALK

by Dr. "Gabby" Macron



SAFE HAVEN: Having a drop after work in the Fowler Lounge, we therapists keep a kitty on the bar. Every time a self-important but clueless journalist commits a redundancy or other usage faux pas, each customer present contributes a quarter. Believe me, it adds up fast. Last year, it paid the bill for the Center for English as a First Language staff picnic at Moot Point, with open bar and a live band.

Safe haven is a real money maker. The reporter speaking so confidently into the camera has never applied the redundancy test. He or she has never realized that dangerous haven sounds as dumb as lag ahead.

A haven is a place of safety, a refuge (not a safe refuge) so safe haven becomes as redundant as surrounded on all sides.

Unfortunately, now the staff depends upon that kitty, much as many states have anti-smoking campaigns but depend upon their smokers to keep the revenue rolling in. We work to eliminate ignorant language by day and profit from it by night.

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Tompkins County Public Library will celebrate the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” during Downtown Ithaca’s Gallery Night, from 5 to 8 p.m., March 1.

Curated by Ithaca High School students-- under the direction of Maryterese Pasquel Bowen-- this exhibit features period materials as well as newly researched work by the student curators. From 5 to 6 PM, curators dressed in period fashions, will be available to discuss the exhibit.

SMART TALK

by Dr. "Windy" Prolix



UNSOLVED MYSTERIES: At the Center for English as a First Language, many of us are trying to forget that Unsolved Mysteries was, wit no humor intended, a TV show. We were very unhappy that the program actually ran for 14 seasons. Not that it was bad, please understand, but that title! Not only did it offend us users of English as a first language, but it also increased our work load.

We're still trying to repair the damage.

No doubt discerning readers share our distress. You know unsolved mysteries is redundant. It sounds as silly a two twins. If they were solved, would they be mysteries? But we're still getting patients who think unsolved mysteries is correct because it was repeated so many times, for so long.

The same people often think Clorox is the best bleach because the company says so, even though the commercials are careful to pit it against plain water. It's an excellent bleach, as are all other brands containing 6% sodium hypochlorite, but endless repetition convinces the gullible that it beats all others. That's not right.

Unsolved mysteries isn't right, either.

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The Hangar Theatre is presenting We Carry the Dream, a new play celebrating the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to rural elementary school students in Tompkins County. The play will be performed March 5 - 7 at five local elementary schools including Newfield, Dryden, Lansing, Groton, and Trumansburg.

Written by Hangar Associate Artistic Director and Head of Education Jesse Bush, We Carry the Dream is an original play for young audiences that is being produced in collaboration with the University of Central Florida (UCF). The play is directed by UCF Professor Belinda Boyd, who has previously worked with Stephanie Yankwitt, Hangar's Acting Artistic Director, at University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The play's cast is made up entirely of UCF theatre students. In addition, UCF students have frequently participated in the Hangar Theatre's educational Lab Company programs in the past.