By Michael Kaufman
Last Thursday afternoon a group of Jewish high-school girls in the state of Washington gave the adults in the state a lesson in sportsmanship…

By Shawn Dell Joyce
Phthalates, called “plasticizers,” are chemicals used to make polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic soft, pliable, and in the case of water bottles, clear. This chemical is as American as apple pie, and is present in all of our households through things like toys, food packaging, shower curtains, vinyl flooring, lubricants, adhesives, detergents, and most cosmetics. Phthalates make baby’s teething rings soft, give your car that new car smell (by off-gassing), are in almost all perfumes and nail polish. They make medical tubing and IV bags flexible. …Here’s the bad news …

By Carrie Jacobson
Shawn Dell Joyce and I are showing our paintings at the Wallkill River School in Montgomery, starting in a week. Shawn is making paintings celebrating Montgomery’s bicentennial, and I didn’t want to be left out.

By Michael Kaufman
Scotty Lago isn’t the only one with sexually suggestive pictures on the Internet, just the only one sent home from Vancouver, in another example of Olympic hypocrisy that goes way back. Remember Jim Thorpe?

By Jeffrey Page
Kathy Nguyen was the only New Yorker to die from anthrax after 9/11. But who was she?

By Shawn Dell Joyce
As you read this column, we’re poised on the brink of yet another snow storm, with a few inches still piled up from the last one. Many people have taken this opportunity to wag their fingers at me and say “What global warming?”

By Carrie Jacobson
I was about as cold as you can get, as I stood on a bank of the Wallkill River and made this painting. It will be part of the Wallkill River School show that fellow Zester Shawn Dell Joyce and I are mounting in a couple weeks. Why don’t you come and see it? We’d love to have you!

“Hoeffner’s Farm” pastel by Shawn Dell Joyce is one of my favorite local farms. The Hoeffners are a multi-generational family farm, and pillars of the local community. They are always there for 4H as well as the nonprofit Wallkill River School. This is their Montgomery farm stand in full bloom! Visit them in the spring on Goodwill Road behind the Shop Rite plaza. Come and see more of my paintings of Montgomery, along with fellow-Zester Carrie Jacobson at Wallkill River School on March 13, 5-7pm.

ROPE – The strength of rope is its tiny strands, bound together, intertwined, with a beginning and an end. It can twist, get into knots, form links, carry heavy loads, help guide us, or end a life.

By Michael Kaufman
What ever happened to those East German judges? What would Chairman Mao think of the Nike logo on the uniforms of Chinese athletes? And should I get a sex-change operation and renounce my citizenship to become an Olympic athlete?