Getting a Good Night’s Rest
Older people tend to sleep less deeply and wake more often
By Fred Cicetti
Q. Do older people need more sleep?
A: Seniors need about the same amount of sleep as younger adults—seven to nine hours a night.
Unfortunately, many older adults don’t get the sleep they need, because they often have more trouble falling asleep. A study of adults over 65 found that 13 percent of men and 36 percent of women take more than 30 minutes to fall asleep. Read more
Overcoming Heedlessness
An out-of-the-box message to new district attorneys
By Bette Dewing
For the record, what I wrote in the recent New York Times’ “Spokes” column (“I strongly fear there are too many bicycles in New York”) left out the next sentence after that: “I mean those who break every law in the books.”
And very much do I fear the increasing number of “private wheels” and walkers that are crowding these finite streets and sidewalks. By far, the safest way to travel is public transit and that has been cut back more and more. Read more
The Noiseless Crime
Are silent transgressions better than noisy ones?
It was the Lincoln Plaza Cinema—and a film I had been dying to see. I had the perfect seat. I had the perfect movie companion. I had the perfect popcorn.
The movie started and suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that a man in the row in front of me had begun to move his arm up and down in time to the music. The motion was elegant and practiced. His other hand was also moving a little; he was silently conducting his own imaginary orchestra! I found it very distracting, as the rise and fall of his arms kept pulling my focus away from the movie. Read more
Don’t Play Paladino’s Game
To The Editor:
In suggesting how Andrew Cuomo should react to Carl Paladino (“Inside the War Room,” Sept. 23), Alan Chartock asks, “Do you take him seriously…? (You bet you do, considering how he decimated his opponent in the Republican primary.)” Read more
Law Would Hurt N.Y.’s Ability to Stoke Innovation
Would impose obstacles for investors in telecommunications
By Jim Gerace
In these uncertain economic times, it is critical that our lawmakers in Albany make good decisions that promote jobs, investment and innovation. Wise public policy decisions are those that encourage job creation and investment in communities throughout by helping to grow the state’s “innovation economy.” Read more
Let Me In
By Armond White
Let Me In ought to be rated NC-17 due to the problematic nature of its vague concept: Spooky Abby (Chloe Grace Moretz), a child vampire, encourages her wimpy neighbor Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) to emulate some of her bloodthirsty rage in response to his school bullies. It’s a morbidly grim Afterschool Special. Yet some movies are not suitable viewing for those who cannot formulate the expediency of right and wrong—which usually means children. Let Me In proves there are unprincipled adult filmmakers who can’t tell right from wrong either. Read more
The Social Network
By Armond White
The Social Network glamorizes a new paradigm: How the Internet’s basic disconnect characterizes contemporary public discourse. Director David Fincher’s lustrous video images make instant, stylish mythology out of the way Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg re-popularized the Internet by founding the Facebook in 2003. This brainy, insular 19-year-old pinpointed the Internet as a personal, rather than formal, means of communication and thus became the nation’s youngest billionaire. TV’s Aaron Sorkin concocted a script that pretends to assess Zuckerberg’s sea-change, but it’s Fincher’s mythmaking (his usual yellow-green color scheme, more burnished than ever) that uncannily combines moral confusion, social decline and empire building—although leaving out such crucial details as where the money comes from and the moral consequences of all that glorified disconnection. Read more
The Sandwich with the Caviar Tattoo
Swirls of something resembling tan Cheez Whiz decorated the hardboiled-egg slices on thin, dense bread studded with sunflower seeds ($3). “Swedes like tubed food,” said Fisk’s owner Annika Sundvik, referring to Kalles Kaviar, smoked fish roe that comes in a kitschy blue tube. Read more
Three Generations of Cookbooks
Classic culinary text is guide through seasons of life
By Josh Perilo
In 1945, just months after the end of the Second World War, my grandfather, Jack Hatfield, returned home to Wichita, Kan., and married my grandmother, Florence. At that humble ceremony in my great-grandmother’s house, the young couple was given the 1945 Deluxe Edition of The Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book as their lone wedding gift. Read more
City Week: September 30 – October 7
A Selective Listing of Recommended Cultural & Community Events
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1
Forbidden Passion—A highly theatrical adaptation of the classic weepie Brief Encounter (itself based on a Noel Coward short play), this production has prestige and theatrical magic written all over it. Studio 54, 254 W. 54th St., 212-719-1300; times vary, $37-$127. Read more
