Spring Fling 2009 Black & White Photos

Bill Schere shot B&W photos of yesterdays Spring Fling in Katonah.

Here is the link.

24th Lasdon Memorial Day Antiques Fair - May 25th

The 24th annual Lasdon Memorial Day Antiques Fair at Lasdon Park, Arboretum and Veterans Memorial Katonah, NY on May 25th, MONDAY, (Memorial Day), between the hours of 10 AM and 5 PM
link

Spring Fling A Day of Family Fun May 16

The Katonah Chamber of Commerce is celebrating Spring by hosting its first ever Spring Fling — a day of family fun, live entertainment, crafts, rides, great shopping, demonstrations, discounts, and more — on Saturday, May 16, from 10 to 2 (a rain date is planned for Sunday, May 17).

Katonah Green - DIY Green Living

Are you thinking DIY green living? Here is a great resource for everything green on a local level. Also, Katonah Green has initiated meetups where you join up and meet with others interested in DIY natural health, organic lifestyle, and sustainable living.

John Jay Homestead News

You can now keep up on current activities at John Jay Homestead @ the recently created blog John Jay Homestead News.

Michael Skolnik - Independent Film Maker

It is always a joy to have kids you have known to grown up and really take off as young adults.

Such one kid (or rather young man) is Michale Skolnik. The son of Martha and Simon Skolnik, who are neighbors of mine.


As my kids, who are now adults and good friends of Michale since they were young kids, would say Mike is kicking it.

But what makes Mike especially unique is his approached to film making.

As he states in his Facebook profile -

"I am a filmmaker who is trying to tell the stories of those that normally do not have a chance to tell their own."

His latest film project is producing a feature this year, called Entre Nos, (the trailer is below).

Mike is a gifted person and he sums it up quite nicely in his facebook profile:

"I am only 30, and I know I have been very lucky to have success very young. This is not about me. This is about us."

His latest film project will have it's World Premier at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Here are the details:

We have three screenings at the Tribeca Film Festival

Saturday, April 25 @ 6pm
Wednesday, April 29 @ 4:45pm
Saturday, May 2 @ 3:45pm

For AMERICAN EXPRESS Card Holders tickets go on sale April 14th.

For the general public tickets go on sale April 20th.

Tickets will sell out fast, so hurry and click on the link below on those dates!!!

http://www.tribecafilm.com/festival/tickets/

We can't wait to see you there!

The Entre Nos Family

Bedford Town-Wide Clean Up Days/Tag & Rummage Sales

Spring activity in the Katonah area really get’s under way starting April 26.

• The Presbyterian Women of the First Presbyterian Church of Katonah will be having its 2009 Rummage Sale starting April 26 with donations accepted.
  

  
  PRESBYTERIAN WOMEN
  2009 RUMMAGE SCHEDULE
  
  
  April 26 Sunday NOON - 5:00pm Donations accepted
  
  April 27 Monday NO DONATIONS ACCEPTED
  8:30am - 6:00pm OUTSIDE SALE
  
  April 28 Tuesday 8:30am - 6:00pm OUTSIDE SALE
  
  April 29 Wednesday 8:30am - 6:00pm OUTSIDE SALE
  
  April 30 Thursday 8:30am - 6:00pm OUTSIDE SALE 9:00am - 6:00pm INSIDE SALE AND BAKE SALE
  
  May 1 Friday 8:30am - 6:00pm OUTSIDE SALE
  9:00am - 6:00pm INSIDE SALE AND BAKE SALE
  
  MAY 2 Saturday 9:00am - NOON OUTSIDE SALE
  9:00am - NOON INSIDE SALE AND BAKE SALE
  
  
  

• Katonah will have its SPRING CLEAN UP DAY – Saturday May 2, 2009--RAIN OR SHINE. Meet in front of the Katonah Library at 9 AM organized by the Katonah Improvement Society.
  
  
• The Town’s Department of Public Works Town-Wide Clean-Up Days will be held at the Crusher Road Highway Facility off Route 22, just North of Route 172, in Bedford Village.
  
  Here are the details as quoted from the Town of Bedford DPW's web page:
  
  "Town residents can bring household debris and metal waste to the Crusher Road Yard during the following periods:
  
  Friday, May 1, 2009 7:30 AM-3:00 PM
  Saturday, May 2, 2009 7:30 AM-4:30 PM
  Monday, May 4, 2009 7:30 AM-3:00 PM
  
  Residents can also take brush and tree debris to the Beaver Dam Highway facility on Beaver Dam road off Harris Road during the same days and hours listed above.
  
  The Highway Department will not accept any of the following items: tires, batteries, computers, refrigerators, freezers, pressure treated lumber, air conditioners, propane tanks, paint, varnish, chemicals, medical waste, or other toxic materials.
  
  Proof of Bedford residency is required, and fees are as follows:
  $20 per carload
  $50 per pickup truck load
  $100 for small dump trucks (<6 yd)
  $200 and up for large dump trucks (>6 yd)
  Bedford Village Chowder & Marching Club will hold their Tag Sale on Friday May 1 st and Saturday, May 2nd at the Crusher Road Highway Facility.
  

  
  In addition a Mobile Shredder will be available on Friday May 1st and Monday May 4 th at the Crusher Road Highway Yard. This free Westchester County public service is intended for residents to shred their personal documents. Papers from businesses or commercial enterprises will not be accepted. Residents may bring a maximum of two file boxes. To speed up shredding and reduce waiting time, residents must remove all metal clips, fasteners, binders, folders and hard covers and place the papers loosely in a box. Hard covers – cardboard or plastic covers on items such as ledger books, marble composition books and hard-cover books – are not acceptable. Residents may rip away pages from these hard cover books for shredding and throw the covers in their household trash."
  

A New Way to View Your Desktop In 3D

This is a major shift in the way you can view and experience your computer desktop.

The demo is quite impressive and you can download a free version of this application.

Martha Stewart's Katonah Shopping Photo Tour

Or her blog, Martha Stewart. a resident of Katonah recently posted her photo tour of shopping in Katonah.

Here is the link.

Comments on your Katonah shopping shopping experience welcome - including photos and videos.

Building The Amazing Steam Candle

I came across this video today, and thought what a neat project and educational eye opener re: steam. The heart of the industrial age.

Share this with family & friend.


Building The Amazing Steam Candle - More bloopers are a click away

Katonah Library Reopen March 9, 2009

Last night I returned some books to the Katonah library on it's reopening day.

What a joy! The big take away for me was the carpet,lighting and ceiling makeover. A real visual treat.

Highly recommended. Take your family and enjoy this reading/lounging oasis in Katonah.

A Tool For Sellers - The Real Estate Marketing Report Card

There are numerous real estate sites and portals designed to help buyers find the perfect property. There have been few service offered with sellers in mind.

Withe the current trend in the Katonah Real Estate Market:

Katonah Homes For Sale

Katonah Recently Sold Homes

Katonah Recently Sold Homes

Katonah Homes For Sale

... sellers need all the help they can get.

The Real Estate Marketing Report Card

Today, the Real Estate Marketing Report Card (REMRC) is being launched in an effort to help sellers monitor their online reach. Rather than having to rely on an agents word that the property information has been placed on the Web, sellers can now easily check for themselves and make sure they're getting the best bang for their buck.





How it Works

Once you've entered the property details, street, city, state, zip code, and price, the
REMRC searches across the Web and looks a a variety of real estate portals including Trulia, Google Base, Vast, Zillow and FrontDoor for details on where the property is listed.

The results appear as a grade; getting an A means your property has decent exposure on the Web; a D means you need to take some action. In addition to the grade, the site will provide a link to your listing on the various sites so you can see how well or how poorly your property is represented.

USA Service - Obama's Initiative To Bring Service To Neighborhoods

USA Service - This is a recently announced follow up on Obama’s promise to bring change to the neighborhood level across the nation. From the website: “It’s a tool that will allow you to organize a service event in your community and recruit others to join you. Or, if you’d prefer to join an existing event, the site will direct you to what others have organized in your neighborhood.”

Essentially, if you want to organize to help others in your community, USA Service.org will be the place to go for people interested in working on Obama’s goal of “Renewing America Together.”

As this site was just launched, there should be local service events posted soon.
Share this site with others to get the word out and get involved in service to the neighborhood.

Scariest Suspension Bridge In Japan

For a YouTube IMAX experience. Click on this video.
This is walk through on an old (1950s) wooden suspension bridge in a remote area of Japan. - deep Southern Japanese Alps. The bridge is very narrow and is believe to be Japanese oldest remaining suspension bridge. Oh being remote means if you got stuck on the bridge you are very far from help.

You are walking on two planks and 3/4 through the walk through (around the 4:30 min mark of the video)you are walking on one plank and at times it appears to me there are no planks there. The utterance from the Japanese walker makes me think "Oh My God What Was I Thinking". Hearing the wind constantly adds to the drama.


99.99% of us would say no way no how would I ever do this. The .01% that would try this would definitely IMHO need a check up from the neck up.

P.S. You can view also this video in High Definition.

From Ice Storm To Beautiful Landscapes

With the weather the way it is today, ice storm, with the forecast of more snow and cold weather to come -



Here is a visual respite.


Today, I came across a link to this beautiful site of Ralph Cooksey-Talbott a landscape photographer who studied under Ansel Adams in Yosemite in the 1970's.
Cooksey is currently doing vertical panoramic photography.
He calls them Vertoramas. They are works of beauty.
Should help to brighten up your day.
Here are a few of them below:






Cooksey is offering these vertoroma as free downloads at his site, which one can add to their site or social web page. He also is also offering prints of these beautiful photos for sale.

Thinking Green About Christmas Trees

KatonahGreen has a very interesting post on thinking green about Christmas trees and where you can find one locally.

I'm Looking For Local Help

Are you sometimes in a quandary looking for local help? Or would like your
neighbors to know that you can provide personal services, especially now with the economy the way it is?

Here are some sites that you might find useful. Just put in the Katonah zip code 10536 at each site and let it rip.

BabySitters.com is a place for parents to find local babysitters. Babysitters can list their services, be reviewed by the site , and then start booking jobs. Has been featured on Good Morning America and in Oprah Magazine as a good way to earn extra money. Tell your daughters, grand-daughters, nieces, etc. about this site.

Care.com does background checks and assists people with finding babysitters, nannies, elderly care givers, tutors, house sitters and more.

HireAHelper.com -

The site helps you sign up as a mover, cleaner, lawn & garden helper or day laborer, then lets you post your availability and get hired by people in your area.

NannyAvailable.com - Site built specifically for matching nannies, au pairs, babysitters and more with families looking for help.

Top Rated Restaurants in Katonah

According to BooRah a restaurant review site, here are the top rated restaurants in Katonah:

• Blue Dolphin Restaurant - 87%
  
• Katonah Grill - 88%
  
• Willy Nick's Cafe - 50%
  
• Deer Park Tavern - 33%
  

How does BooRah do this?

BooRah uses semantic analysis and natural language processing to aggregate reviews from food blogs. Because of this, BooRah can recognize praise and criticism in these reviews and then rates restaurants accordingly.

If you eat out at any of the eateries in Katonah you can write a review of that eatery and influnce how it compares with other eateries in the Katonah area

To find out more go to BooRah.com.

Restaurant managers and owners are encouraged to join to promote their business.

Katonah Eateries Websites

Movie About John Jay's Life Filmed at Homestead In Katonah

Northern Light Productions, a video film company from Boston, filmed a video about the life of John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States, at the John Jay homestead in October. Here is a link to images of the shoot.

In The Kitchen With Heather and Karla

In the Kitchen with Heather and Karla is a new video series produced by KatonahGreen.com. The plan is to make short videos on healthy food choices, meal preparation and where one can purchase healthy foods in and around Katonah.


Heather and Karla in the Kitchen, Episode 1 from Heather Flournoy on Vimeo.

YES WE (CAN) DID IT

In Memorium: Dr. William H. Smith

Dr. William H. Smith, 88, of Katonah, died on October 22, 2008.
In 1950 he settled in Katonah to work as the first pediatrician at the newly formed Katonah Medical Group.
An interest in scouting led to his role as Scoutmaster of Katonah Troop #1, BSA, a position he held for the past 52 years.

More.....

Presidential Election Count Down Nov 4 2008

Google Voter Info Site - New

With the upcoming U.S. elections only 13 days away, Google has released a new web site to help simply and centralize information about voting locations and voter registration..

Just enter your home address and it will show you where to go to vote - Kind of neat,especially for new registered voters.

Here is the link.

Interactive Piece - Sarah Palin As President

Some one has gone through a lot of work to make this funny interactive piece on Sarah Palin as President.

Here is the link to the site - use your mouse to move over the images, when the arrow turns to a hand click on that image - cleverly done.

You are What You Say John McCain!

As John McCain/Sarah Palin have now gone into mud slinging in this campaign, I find this Youtube piece so revealing! You draw your own conclusion!



At last count 6 million plus have viewed this!

To me (the bashing by McCain/Palin Obama's character)is Joseph Raymond McCarthy revisited -"McCarthyism"

Joe McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957.

The term "McCarthyism," coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy's practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist pursuits. Today the term is used more generally to describe demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents.

It would seem that this is McCain/Palin's current strategy! If you can't beat them
then try "McCarthyism," them!

McCain's "That One" In Last Night's Debate Starts a Business

Talk about turning a negative into a positive, some enterprising person has taken the McCain comment about Obama in last night debate and started an online business with it the next day!!

Here is the link to the store.

And here is the part of the debate that created this novelty business.



The Internet is the Game Changer in so many aspects - we are seeing that played out
in the 2008 Presidential Election.

It is just ironic that McCain's "That One" turns into a "Vote for That One 08" Obama
campaign marketing tool - within 24 hours of the debate!

THE WORLD HAS CHANGED IF YOU DON'T GET IT YOU ARE TOAST!!

Sarah Palin Programmed

The Sarah Palin factor is getting a lot of lampoon play lately. It is open season on Sarah Palin - many would say thanks to John McCain's pick for VP.

This site interviewpalin.com is a parody. The answers are computer generated based on probabilities calculated from Sarah Palin's actual speech. We think it is hilarious.

The Markov chain generated answers are surprisingly close to her actual answers.

Here is the link to the site.

HPCI Reveals Katonah Most Expensive Market In NY

According to the 2008 Coldwell Banker® Home Price Comparison Index (HPCI) released September 9, 2008, Katonah ranked as the most expensive real estate market in New York State. Here is the link.

Currently, this $8,200,000,5 br, 6 ba, 10,000 sqft, Single-Family Home tops the list of over 20 plus homes in the $1,000,000 plus price range.



Here is a link to realtor.com showing current property listing in Katonah.

Bedford Twenty By 2020

The Town Of Bedford has a goal under way to reduce CO2 emmissions 20% by the year 2020.

You can join the campaign for BEDFORD TO GO GREEN by clicking here.

If you sign on, they will send you a great looking Bedford twenty by 2020 decal to show you’re part of Bedford’s solution to global warming.

In addition the site provides tips on how you can help in this effort.

Today I came across this site:






ecomii™ is in beta and bills itself the definitive destination for objective information about Conscious Consumerism and green living on the net.

It seems to be a great site as a tool to make one very savvy about all things GREEN.

Map of Places To Eat In Katonah

umapper.com is a great site to create maps of all kinds of interest that you can embed in your own blog or website. 

Here is one I have done of 12 places to eat in Katonah. 

Tip: Use your mouse to scroll around the map as well as the + (zoom in) and - (zoom out) tags.

I am sure all kinds of ideas come to mind as to how one could use this site for business or

ideas of interest that you could plot on a map.

If you come up with an idea for using umapper as it relates to Katonah, like to know about it.

An Idea For Local Teachers

In KatonahBlog, I have previously posted about sproutbuilder as a great tool to built widgets for anyone. I presently have one on the home page of katonahny.com - an interactive welcome widget.

In a Sproutbuilder blog post today, a wonderful idea is presented for how local teachers can raise money for special projects.

"Every year schools and teachers run out of money. Zero monies are left for individual teacher requests.

A ChipIn component added to a Sprout on a school web site or teacher web page would make it easy to raise money for special projects, and parents and community members could donate to one or more projects that held special interest for them."

Here is a demo of how the ChipIn component works:



If you know of any teachers, locally or otherwise, share this with them.

Dipity - A Time Line Web Service for Anything

Dipity is a cool web service that lets users create interactive multimedia timelines for anything.

Here are a couple of dipitys I found for Katonah:

Katonah TimeTube by Dipity

Katonah TimeLine Ticker by Dipity.

I would imagine the timelines you can create with dipity are endless. For those of you who like to look behind the hood, you can build multimedia timelines with the Dipity API.

Anyone Can Now Animate

GoAnimate is a new site where you can create your own animations. Even if you can not draw a lick. So if you ever wanted to be an animator, here is your chance. Very user friendly program with features being added all the time. You can even bring in your own images, paste photos of yourself or family members/friends in your animations. GoAnimate has features for tailoring any animation to your liking.

Your end product can be distributed anywhere on the web (except YouTube for the moment but they are working on it). If you have a website or blog you can add your animation to your site.

They have a contest going on where you can win $5,000.

Here is the link to how it works.

Now GoAnimate and if you do let us know so we can link to it.

Video Slide Show Your Home For Free!

In the process of selling your home in this tight market and need an edge? Here is a free service that you should look into.

Add another feature to your listing by working in a little video slideshow for potential buyers.

PropertyPreviews is a free service that automates the process of creating such video clips without need for any software downloads. Just upload your images, include any relevant information, and the service will do the rest.

Katonah Grill Sues To Regain Cabaret License

Katonah Bar and Grill this year was denied a cabaret license renewal after complaints about noise and other disturbances. It has sued to the State Supreme Court that the Town of Bedford with relying on spotty evidence and failing to the give the business a fair hearing on its application.
At issue:

• The lawsuits ask the court to grant the license and to rule that Bedford's cabaret license is unconstitutional because the Town Board Decided both the initial application and the appeal.
  
• Katonah Grill maintains under state law the town clerk should make the initial
  decision on whether to grant the license. The Town Attorney argues that it is up to the Town Board not the Town Clerk to decide whether granting a license would affect the public.
  
  
• Some patrons of Katonah Grill don't agree and some compromise should be made; do not play above a certain volume or to play only on certain nights.
  
• Owner, Doug Crossett sites only once (maybe) of receiving a complaint when live music was playing
  
• There are a large number of police incidents report that were presented to the Town Board. The attorney for the Town Joel Sachs cites that the record would show that the last several years, Katonah Grill was put on notice that there were issues there and they needed to take corrective action.
  

Attorney Sachs also point out that the town's cabaret law provides a "full and fair" hearing for applicants, noting that the Town Board can change its mind on appeal if evidence shows that's warrant.

In Doug Crossett's view the greater issue is it (the denial of a cabaret license) denies local musicians a place to play and the local people a place to hear live music.

For those of you curious here is the link to the
Town of Bedford Code

Search on Cabaret License to bring up Section 44 of the Town of Bedford Code covering Cabaret license.

Should the Katonah Grill be granted a cabaret license? --see side bar and take the poll.

20 Plus Tools To Sell Your House

Thinking of putting your Katonah house on the market in this current real estate market :(

Here is a listing of Real Estate online tools that might be of help.

Katonah Walk Score Widget

Update July 14, 2008: The commenter (Petr) to this post cites a driving score service for those who don't live
within walking distance of the business area of Katonah.

"I ve found one more service called drive score at
http://drivescore.fizber.com/ -

---

Walk Score is a widget that shows you a map of what's nearby and calculates a Walk Score for any property.

Selling your house or thinking of buying in Katonah?

See how your Katonah Walk Score stacks up. Enter your address and Katonah NY below.

Baby Boomer Animation

For all baby boomers plus - Enjoy!