Saturday, December 24, 2005

Season's Greetings












St. Luke's Episcopal Church

Bedford Road And Katonah Avenue

Katonah, New York


Thursday, December 15, 2005

A Site To Put A Smile On Your Face This Holiday Season






Here is a link to cuteoverload.com. Highly recommended as a happy fix this Holiday Season and beyond!

Monday, December 05, 2005

Bedford and Beyond

Here is a link to a publication - Beford and Beyond a guide to Northern Westchester. Some interesting stuff. Check out the Dining Guide.

Friday, November 11, 2005

Autumn Leaves

 
Time is like an arrow ------> oh so fleeting. This was shot less then two weeks ago and now all the leaves are gone from this tree. This moment is now a distant memory. Site: First Presbyterian Church of Katonah
 Posted by Picasa

Bedford Audubon Society Upcoming Golden Eagle Trip November 19, 2005


Bedford Audubon Society is scheduling a trip to
Franklin Mountain, near Oneonta, NY Saturday, November 19 / weather alternate Sunday, November 20, 2005 Departure (car pool) from Bylane Farm 7:00 a.m. The summit of Franklin Mountain are impressive. What is more impressive, however, is the number of golden eagles that migrate by this popular hawk watching spot every autumn.
Here is the link to find out more about this upcoming trip.

Monday, October 24, 2005

Post Card of Katonah Train Station 1910 Up for Auction On eBay!


This 1910 photo of the Katonah Station is up for auction on eBay. Here is the link Auction Ends Oct-30-05 17:20:12 PST

Katonah Museum Rated Best Small Museum In Hudson Valley

Katonah Museum has been rated the best small museum in the Hudson Valley. To learn more
go to this link.

Multimedia Presentation - History of "The What Me Worry Kid" Oct 25 7:00 P.M.


Comics historian Craig Yoe will present a multimedia presentation on the history of "The What Me Worry Kid" at the Yorktown Museum 1974 Commerce St. Yorktown Heights, NY on TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25 at 7:00 pm. This talk will take a fun look at the history of America's favorite grinning idiot without a care.
Yoe recently authored the book MODERN ARF, where the origin of Mad's mascot was one of those revelations covered in graphic detail.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Katonah Village Library Annual Fall Book Sale

Katonah Village Library Annual Fall Book Sale Begins October 22, 2005. Here is the link for details.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Budding Local Video Film Makers @ John Jay School

Here is a link to
students at John Jay High School that are taking a video art course and works produced to date. Video Art is a class that is offered in the Art Department, where students are introduced to video as an art form and means of personal expression - possible future Steven Spielberg's in the making.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Meet John Farr – Area Resident Online Film Enthusiast




I read a piece in the September 16, issue of Record Review about Bedford Resident John Farr, a life-long movie enthusiast.

John along with his wife, Olivia, have launched Farr On Film, with the byline Best Movies By Farr (he was an ad executive at one time) to share his knowledge and passion for timeless movies with others.

Here is great resource for that proverbial question “Have you seen any good movies lately?”

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Katonah Area Residents Offering Housing for Hurricane Survivors

I just came across this link of Katonah area residents offering housing for victims of the Katrina hurricane.

Craigslist>Hurricane Katrina

Here are Cragislist links to the following Gulf Coast Region cities that one can post what they can do to help or review all kinds of help to the Hurricane Katrina survivors in the Gulf Coast Region.



I have seen posting on Craigslist for jobs in other states for Hurricane Katrina survivors. Also, I have seen postings from people throughout America to provide housing for folks who have lost their homes as a result of Katrina. The bottom line is here is a way you as an individual can make a difference. It goes beyond giving dollars to really doing something to help people rebuild their lives.

This resource is limited only by your imagination of what one can do on an individual level.

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Hurricane Katrina - How To Help




Here is a link to the American Red Cross to donate online to help those who have been displaced by hurricane Katrina. Also, here is the link to the local chapter of the Red Cross if you want to volunteer your services to help in the days and months ahead.

For updated information regarding aftermath of Katrina, go to National Public Radio's Katrina blog.

Friday, August 26, 2005

Macaw Parrots Sighting







Early yesterday morning, I saw these beautiful Macaw Parrots on a neighbor's lawn - it was a moment to remember; the weather was perfect and for a brief moment one had thoughts of a tropical setting.

Friday, August 05, 2005

Local Fishing Message Board


Bedford Sportsman of Bedford Hills runs a message board on their site to keep the faithful updated on what is going on in the local fishing streams, lakes and ponds.
Here is the link.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Katonah Memorabila Sells on Ebay!


This Bedford-Katonah-Mt Kisco- Bedford Hills-Color MAP-1953 recently sold on eBay. Do you have stuff in the attic that relates to Katonah? You may be able to get $$$ for it on eBay.

Here is a link to stuff selling on Ebay locally and a search link to items selling on eBay with keyword Katonah.

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Katonah's Cultural Mile

Here is a link to Getting to Know Your Community web site with a blurb on Katonah's Cultural Mile.
interesting that the site uses a technology call audioblogs..a virtual radio station.

Bedford Magazine July/August 2005 Issue Available

Current Cover

If you have not seen or heard of it, check out Bedford Magazine. The publication cover reads:

People | Living | Garden | Arts | Restaurants
BEDFORD
Armonk . Katonah . Lewisboro . North Salem . Pound Ridge

It is one very upscale magazine on a local level. It looks like a national publication of the Town & Country variety with top writers to boot. The readership is directed at high achievers. Bedford Magazine cites 50,000 people fit that demographic in this area.

A review of the local real estate ads for asking prices on houses in this area and it is hard to question that stat.

The July/August 2005 issue of Bedford Magazine is currently available on newsstands at the following locations:

Bedford
> Village Green Deli
Village Green

> Stewart's Market
Court Street

> Bedford Wine
Village Green

Bedford Hills
> OÂ’s Variety
Adams Street
(across from train)

Pound Ridge
> Scotts Corner Market
Westchester Avenue

> Perfect Photo
Westchester Avenue

> Samuel ParkerÂ’s
Westchester Avenue

Katonah
> Charles Dept Store
Katonah Avenue

> StegerÂ’s Paper Mill
Katonah Avenue

Chappaqua
> Healthy Choice
Greeley Avenue

South Salem
> Food Basket
Route 123

> JNR Pharmacy
Route 123

Danbury
> Barnes & Noble
Backus Avenue

Ridgefield
> BalducciÂ’s
Governor Street

Purdys
> Swan Deli

Cross River
> Cameron's Deli

For more information, call 914-234-3338 or send an email to mail@bedfordmagazine.com

Saturday, June 25, 2005

A Quick Overview of Katonah@ answers.com

Here is a link about Katonah at answers.com. If you need a quick answer on some topic, this site seems pretty neat
in doing that and then some.

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Steve Jobs' Apple CEO Stanford Commencement Speech

Steve Jobs recently give a commencemnt Speech at Stanford University that I think any graduating senior from high school to college should read. If you know someone graduating this month share this with them.

Transcript of Jobs' commencement speech:

Thank you. I'm honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. Truth be told, I never graduated from college and this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation.

Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months but then stayed around as a drop-in for another eighteen months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife, except that when I popped out, they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking, "We've got an unexpected baby boy. Do you want him?" They said, "Of course." My biological mother found out later that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would go to college.

This was the start in my life. And seventeen years later, I did go to college, but I naïvely chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and no idea of how college was going to help me figure it out, and here I was, spending all the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back, it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out, I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me and begin dropping in on the ones that looked far more interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms. I returned Coke bottles for the five-cent deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example.

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer was beautifully hand-calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans-serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me, and we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts, and since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them.

If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on that calligraphy class and personals computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.

Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college, but it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later. Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever--because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well- worn path, and that will make all the difference.

My second story is about love and loss. I was lucky. I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I was twenty. We worked hard and in ten years, Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. We'd just released our finest creation, the Macintosh, a year earlier, and I'd just turned thirty, and then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew, we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so, things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge, and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our board of directors sided with him, and so at thirty, I was out, and very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down, that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure and I even thought about running away from the Valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me. I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I'd been rejected but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods in my life. During the next five years I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer-animated feature film, "Toy Story," and is now the most successful animation studio in the world.

In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT and I returned to Apple and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance, and Lorene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful-tasting medicine but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love, and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking, and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it, and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don't settle.

My third story is about death. When I was 17 I read a quote that went something like "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "no" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important thing I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, because almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctors' code for "prepare to die." It means to try and tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next ten years to tell them, in just a few months. It means to make sure that everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope, the doctor started crying, because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and, thankfully, I am fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept. No one wants to die, even people who want to go to Heaven don't want to die to get there, and yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent; it clears out the old to make way for the new. right now, the new is you. But someday, not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it's quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalogue, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late Sixties, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. it was sort of like Google in paperback form thirty-five years before Google came along. I was idealistic, overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Stewart and his team put out several issues of the The Whole Earth Catalogue, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-Seventies and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath were the words, "Stay hungry, stay foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. "Stay hungry, stay foolish." And I have always wished that for myself, and now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay hungry, stay foolish.

Thank you all, very much.
--
"When you come to the fork in the road, take it" - L.P. Berra
"Always make new mistakes" -- Esther Dyson
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"
-- Arthur C. Clarke
"You Gotta Believe" - Frank "Tug" McGraw (1944 - 2004 RIP)

Friday, June 10, 2005

Sights & Sounds of Katonah Firemen Parade 6/8/05


Katonah Fire Dept Grand Marshals

Here is a link to photos and a short video of the Katonah Firemen's Parade on Wednesday night . The video was done with a Sony Digital Still Camera S75 Camera with a MPEG Movie option, so the "quality" is not that great. Enjoy!

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Katonah Annual Fire Department Parade & Carnival



On Wednesday the KFD has it's annual parade (at 7:00 p.m) and carnival Wed. thru Sat. June 8, 9, 10, 11.

Thur. & Fri. Opens at 6:00 pm

Saturday 1:00 pm to 11:00 pm

Ride Specials:
Thur. Jun 9th Ride All Night for One Price $16.00 (6 - 10 pm)
Sat. All Afternoon for One Price $16.00 (1 to 5 pm)

Special Event:

Sat., 12-6 pm
Monster Truck - GRAVE DIGGER

65 Bedford Road, Katonah, NY

A Heartfelt Thank You to the Katonah Fire Department
We Are Grateful For All They Do

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Bedford Audubon Annual Meeting May 11, 2005

Bedford Audubon Annual Meeting and lecture by noted author Peter Alden on “Bio-Blitz,” including slide show on diversity of living organisms in our area.

Wednesday. May 11, 2005 at 7:30.

Katonah Village Library

For information, call (914) 232-1999 or visit: www.bedfordaudubon.org

Saturday, April 23, 2005

First Presbyterian Church Annual Rummage Sale

The First Presbyterian Church of Katonah annual rummage sale starts Monday.






You cangoto the Katonah Presbyterian Church web site to learn more about this annual event.

Momentary Respite From The Day

My daughter-in law passed this on to me yesterday. It's
pretty neat! A visual "get away for a quiet moment" kind of thing. Enjoy!


Monday, April 18, 2005

National Poetry Month April 2005

April is National Poetry Month. Learn more at this poet site.


Also, there are a number of poetry books up for auction on eBay from the 1920s thru 1970s from a local book collector. The Auction ends
next Sunday.

Spring Is In The Air!

Sunday was a beautiful Spring Day. We are finally coming out of the winter doldrums.

This is a shot of the daffodils blooming on the lawn of the Town of Bedford Offie Building in Bedford Hills.

Sunday, March 27, 2005

How To Become An Instant Painter With Your Digital Camera

I took this photo with a Sony DSC-S75 Digital Camera

on Maple Avenue last Thursday morning and I wondered if there was a piece of software out on the Internet that could turn the photo into a painting!.


Well sure enough I found such a tool and here is the one of the 16 Direct Paint options you can use. In this particular instance I used air brush.



The software is call Virtual Painter and you can download it here for a free demo.

If you like it,pay up the $55 for the stand alone version and that next digital photo you take may end up a great work of art!

I found VirtualPainter to be a lot of fun.

I am not associated with Virtual Painter in any way. Just sharing info about, what I think is a nice piece of fun software to use with your digital camera.

Sunday, March 20, 2005

Join The Bedford-Katonah Tsunami Relief Fund



It takes a town to Rebuild a village
Rebuilding Denuwala




The relief fund's goal is that the people of Bedford-Katonah will "adopt" Denuwala, a small fishing village in Sri Lanka. The fund hopes to raise $250,000 to help rebuild
or repair homes, a school and a Buddhist temple is this village. Those interested in donating funds to the relief effort or traveling to Denuwala in late summer to work on the rebuilding effort can obtained more information at the fund's Web site.

We Can't Live Without Westchester Medical Center

Over the past ten years I have had three heart related procedures done at the Westchester Medical Center and I can personally attest to the fact that we can't live without the ONLY comprehensive 24-hour Heart Center in the region as well as the ONLY: Burn Center betweeen NYC and Canada, 24-hour Level 1 adult and pediatric Trauma Center between NYC and Albany, and Children's hospital in the region. Tell NY State Governor George Pataki and state legislators to act now to help this vital regional healthcare resource. Go to WORLDCLASSMEDICINE.COM to e-mail your support for quality advanced care in the Hudson Valley.

Friday, March 04, 2005

The Martha Stewart Media Frenzy


Here is a link to my "pictorial reporting" on the Martha Stewart Media Frenzy.

Current References To Katonah In the Blog World

Technorati (a real cool tool)is in one way a search engine for blog sites. Here is a link to bloggers that mention Katonah in their blogs.

Of course, today there is a lot of comments about Martha Stewart's release from prison and house confinement on her beautiful estate here in Katonah.

Why in my opinion, is Technorati such a cool tool? You can get a sense
of what people are collectively commenting on Martha Stewart in the context of Katonah (or any other topic for that matter) in one place.

I view Technorati as a comments/ideas synthesizer for the blog world.

Monday, February 28, 2005

Om My Closes

In October 2004, the Katonah Museum of Art commissioned Brooklyn artist Jennifer Zackin to create a site-specific installation in town to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The Om My exhibit ran from
November 4, 2004 to March 1, 2005.

Here are members of Katonah Village Improvement Society
helping to dismantel the exhibit.













 
Allison Chernow & Mary Beth Kass-
Co-Presidents-
KVIS
KVIS Volunteer Helping Out



The exhibit was made with the help of many volunteers who gave many hours of their time to bring this exhibit to life. More..


This was the Katonah Museum's first foray into the world of public art.


The goal of public art is:


  • To bring people together and engage them in the world they occupy.
  • To see art in unexpected places.
  • To stimulate conversation.
  • To access and enjoy art free of charge in the course of people's daily routine

The Om My Project was co-sponsored by
The Katonah Museum of Art and The Katonah Village Improvement Society


It is coincidental that today also marks the closing of the public art exhibit - The Gates - in New York City

Saturday, February 26, 2005

NY Lottery Allocation To Katonah-Lewisboro School District

I was looking up my lotto numbers at nylottery.org to see if by chance I was a winner - one can dream!

Since the NY Lottery is all about education, I
was curious as to what allocation was given to the Katonah-Lewisboro School District.

Here is the link.

Even shows the cumulative allocation since 1976.

With the way our school taxes are going up these days, do you think we should be asking our State Senator District: 40 Vincent L. Leibell, III can anything be done to up Katonah-Lewisboro allocation of NY Lottery money for education?

You can write to Senator Leibell here.

Saturday, February 19, 2005


The Weather Forecast for Monday is snow. We have been lucky so far this winter. Here is what it was like two years ago around this time. Posted by Hello

Classic Disneyland promo movie from 1956


With the winter blahs upon us and the idea of getting away to a place like Disneyland
here is a retro (almost 50 years ago) link to the 1956 film "People and Places - Disneyland U.S.A.". A Disney made film to promote the less than one year old park!


Part one starts with a flyover of the park


Part 2 starts in Adventurland and has footage of the Jungle Cruise.


Be aware that both videos are over 77MB in size. You must have a broadband connection
to watch these films. I just looked at Part 1 via Windows Media Player. It runs for 20 minutes.

This is an absolute classic.



Link to various media
clips - disneyattracions

Sunday, February 06, 2005

Community Board Re-Build

If you have not been by the Katonah Train station of late, there has been
a wonderful re-build done of the Community Board by the Katonah Village Improvement Society.

Community Board Before



Community Board After




Kudos! To Katonah Village Improvement Society


Idea: Gazebo- Katonah Information Center



Some years ago, in the heart of Katonah we had this beautiful Gazebo pictured above.
It was an interesting space in town. Some say too interesting, because it drew a lot
of teenagers and become a "hangout" if you will. I myself enjoyed the space and thought
it a welcome addition to the community.


Unfortunatley, it burned down. I don't recall the year, and yet since that time it stands as vacant unused space
in the heart of Town.


This is the way it looks today.



It struck me that would it not be a great idea to take the concept of the Gazebo,
and enhance it to house an Information Kiosk Center? The information center could be viewed as
a hybrid information and web site center.The Katonah Information Center would
blend Katonah's past, present and future in one central location. Local merchants could advertise
on the Kiosk to help support the operation and maintenance of the Katonah Information Center.


The Kiosk Information Systems, Inc. is a leading producer of kiosk centers in the
country. They have developed oudoor kiosk centers as well, which would more
then likely be the requirement for a Katonah Information Center.


Here are examples of outdoor kiosk currently on the market:




Here are examples of operational Community Information Center.


Informal Poll


Could you take a moment to register your opinion as to whether or not the Gazebo/Katonah Information Center is a good idea for this
unused space in Katonah.


Thanks






Saturday, January 08, 2005

He Called Himself Katonah!




"on the train ride up i was fascinated to pass through the town of Katonah,
where my first love lived and made his namesake. the one who i later found
out commit suicide. he called himself Katonah! (with an explanation point)
for his last name. of course i couldn't see much from the train station.
i imagined walking around that town just to see where he lived, just to
see a glimpse of his life that by rights i should never know, a stray
ragment puzzle piece to his past. i guess i wanted to see the town,
to walk its streets in order to feel superhuman - to see and experience
what was immediately personal to his life but what he can never experience again.

it's like i would get to recreate him, or reinvoke him in myself, but a part of
him i never knew. the thrill would be any number of these things. but in
actuality, all i could see was the train station sign "Katonah" and
a few non-descript buildings and a street just behind the train station
called Katonah avenue.

how odd that he chose to call himself the name of the discarded town of his past,
a past which he renounced and refused to discuss beyond a few repeated words of scorn.

but it is a cool name. Katonah! i can even see why he liked the exclamation
point.

it's an American Indian name, i'm sure. i wonder if it means something. maybe
he actually liked the town. maybe he just knew that no one else in the U.S.
would have heard of it, so he could borrow it for his name. i remember how
i discovered his real name on one of his prescription bottles and how upset
he was when i saw it, as if his cover were blown. i think i can still remember
his real last name. i feel sorry for his parents though i don't know what kind
of people they were since i never met them. i wonder if they still live in that
town and mourn him."

Source: excerpt from Dear World blog.


Sunday, January 02, 2005

A New Year Greeting






KatonahBlog Wishes You A Prosperous & Healthy 2005