Thursday, May 17, 2012
East Meadow's doctor takes a closer look.
This week the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a report on the long term use of biphosponates-the main class of drugs prescribed to treat osteoporosis. Sold under various brand names (i.e. Fosamax, Boniva and Reclast) these medications are given at the time of diagnosis, but whether therapy should be indefinite or time limited is not clear. Osteoporosis, or “thinning of the bones” is a major health threat to millions of Americans. The prevalence of disease increases with age, particularly in women who have gone thru the menopause and have lost the hormonal environment that helps maintain bone health during their first decades of life. The main threat from the condition is fracture of the bones-hip, vertebral (back bone) and …
Friday, May 11, 2012
A look at the early crisis years of Levittown.
The unprecedented and celebrated organizational genius with which Levitt & Sons meticulously planned the thousands of details that went into creating Levittown oftentimes obscures the fact that many features were impromptu or, of necessity, executed on-the-fly. It also obscures the fact that Levitt & Sons faced what would to lesser developers prove insurmountable in its endeavor to create the unprecedented. The first three years were as much about crisis management as about designing and building - a situation wrought by the reality that even visionary William J. Levitt could not, at the beginning of 1947, have foreseen the truly massive scale at which the development would evolve. By December of 1951, Levitt & Sons had built almost 90% …
Thursday, May 10, 2012
A new option could make a major difference for those in need.
Likes/dislikes? Favorite music? Organ donor status? This week Facebook announced an initiative, which, if successful, could have a major impact upon the availability of organs for the 113,000 Americans currently waiting for organ transplants. The company will offer its 900 million users the ability to indicate on their profile whether or not they would want to be an organ donor. It is hoped that the public discourse arising from this plan will lead to a greater awareness of the need for organs and more discussion among families regarding personal choices. Although many states use motor vehicle registration or licensing as a venue to encourage donation, the Facebook option may be a real game changer, with theoretically millions of people …
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
A letter to the editor from the President of the Long Island Federation of Labor.
The following is from John R. Durso, President of the Long Island Federation of Labor: It is the bedrock of American democracy that every citizen's vote carries equal importance. Whether or not one's vote truly finds expression in the final count is largely impacted by redistricting, a process we go through every 10 years. While the subject typically fails to garner much public attention, insiders know there's a lot at stake. The way that voters are segregated into districts has an enormous influence on who our representatives are, and can ultimately shape public policies for the next decade. Historically, the task of redrawing district lines has been left to the hands of the very politicians whose political futures will be impacted. Too …
Friday, May 4, 2012
Levittown Resident Rick Ekberg shares his thoughts on the proposed Crocus Lane project.
The following is from Levittown resident Rick Ekberg. A letter to the editor: A builder has currently filed plans with the Hempstead Town Board to construct several condominium units in our neighborhood. The first units are proposed to be constructed on the lot between Orchid Road, Blacksmith Road and Crocus Lane. These condos will house about 51 double and single units with parking for about 90 vehicles. In order for the builder to proceed with such a project, the board of appeals must rule in favor of such a development. If the lot is allowed to be re-zoned by the board of appeals, this will set a precedence to construct similar condos on the lot between Orchid Road, Woodcock Lane, Skimmer Lane and Heron Lane, which the same builder also…
Thursday, May 3, 2012
A recent study shows that the drug's effect is not as substantial as initially desired.
The efficacy of Botox as a treatment for migraine headaches was called into question this week in an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Approved for therapy of chronic migraine headaches in 2010 after a number of patients reported headache relief subsequent to Botox injection for wrinkles, the treatment had been the subject of multiple previous studies, and is a multimillion dollar health care expense on an annual basis. In the new study, authors reviewed the previous scientific literature and analyzed their combined results. Migraine headaches affect 15 percent of people in the United States. They are usually deep and throbbing in nature, and worsened by light, movement and straining. Although classically …
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Part 2 of Paul Manton's history of farmlands.
Editor's Note: Last week, we ran Part 1 of a two-part column from historical columnist Paul Manton. Below is Part 2. Popular though the cucumber was, the potato was king from the 1850s or so onwards and that popularity circumscribes the fact that so many people today, sum-up Levittown's pre-1947 history as little but nondescript potato fields. The potato survived the famous Colorado potato beetle infestation so of the 1870's and occasional flare-ups of the potato aphid, to become the principal agricultural product of the Levittown area before World War II. The Seligman and Stiehler farms on Hempstead Turnpike grew potatoes as did the Rowehl farm and Gellweiler farm on Bloomingdale Road, the Bartel farm on Newbridge Road and the Hohorst …
Monday, April 30, 2012
More memories of religious education past.
Editor's Note: This is a continuation of our series on former Levittowners' memories of their religious education growing up in Levittown. You can also read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. Susan Weldon, class of 1960 My father being a Jewish athiest and my mother a Jewish agnostic did not foster much religiosity in the Weldon household, even after my 'bubby' moved in with us. She kept a tiny kosher kitchen upstairs, but was perfectly happy to come down and eat Chinese food with the rest of the family. For some reason, my mother thought we should join the temple (Beth El I think) and my brother should be bar mitzvahed. He never forgave my parents for this torture. As we had to pay to join the temple, iI was 'encouraged' to take 'confirmation' …
Sunday, April 29, 2012
The Island Trees superintendent's weekly letter to his community.
Dear Island Trees School Community, At this point, our elementary and middle school students have completed their state assessments in English Language Arts and Mathematics. The new exams have received a lot of scrutiny from the media as well as the public. There were a number of errors on both the ELA and Math exams, but clearly the eighth-grade “Pineapple” passage received the most attention. I’m sure the State Education Department and their testing organization, Pearson, will learn a lesson from this year and minimize the number of errors in the future. Prior to the administration of these exams, school districts were told that New York State would focus their attention on more non-fiction works with the new their new Core …
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Island Trees Public Schools Superintendent's Office
72 Farmedge Rd, Levittown, NY
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Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Paul Manton's weekly history column.
At the northeast corner of Jerusalem Avenue and Hempstead Turnpike - where Friendly's, Lemon Tree, and the Verizon building now stand and where Henshaw's Furniture Store provided Levittown's "pioneers of suburbia" with everything needed to turn a mass-produced Cape Cod or Ranch into a comfortable family home - there stood an ancient grove of pine trees that so resembled an isle of trees amid a sea of undulating grass that it came to be called "the Island of Trees" and bequeathed northern Levittown and southern Hicksville with the name Island Trees which survives today as a school district. Although first mentioned in a 1747 deed, it's likely that this neighborhood was called that for sometime as the stand was sufficiently impressive to be …
Sean Hassett
8:35 pm on Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Until we have a preferential voting system that can properly handle more than two candidates, we'll continue to have scoundrels from both Ds and Rs playing with district lines and keeping themselves in office to spend most of their time putting down the other instead of cooperating to get things done. Since these two parties also control how the votes are counted, I cannot ever see that changing… more ›