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BAY RIDGE NIGHTS: Bay Ridge Nights is seizing the day

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By Dennis Lynch

Brooklyn Daily

There is too much activity in Bay Ridge to limit it to the nights!

We have a whole mess of things to do while the sun is still out this weekend! But some of it happens at the same time, so spend Friday night making your plan of attack for Saturday.

Parents of Bay Ridge can start Saturday at the Appletree Natural Market (7613 Third Ave. between 76th and 77th streets) at noon, where the Owl’s Head Park Horticulture Group offers a ton of free owl-centric kids’ activities, including making snow owls from pine cones and coloring owl images. And any donation to the group gets you a free potted herb! It is all part of the Bay Ridge Arts and Cultural Alliance’s Fourth Annual Embrace Winter Festival, which has other as-yet-unspecified activities happening at stores along Third Avenue between 69th and 81st streets, from noon to 5 pm.

At 4 pm you face a choice: The Canny Brothers Band will play an “Almost Saint Paddy’s Day” party at Red, White, and Brew (8910 Fifth Ave. between 89th and 90th streets). Or if you prefer the Grateful Dead, you can commune with the Dead Ridge Boys at Leif Bar (6725 Fifth. Ave between 67th and Senator streets).

After either show you can catch some rockin’ classic rock, blues, and alternative cover tunes courtesy of the Neighborhood Skells at Three Jolly Pigeons (6802 Third Ave. between 68th Street and Bay Ridge Avenue). They go on at 9:30 pm and will play past midnight.

Fans of the dramatic arts have two more chances to catch Narrows Community Theater perform local playwright Joseph Simonelli’s hilarious romantic comedy “Men Are Dogs” at Saint Patrick’s School Auditorium (401 97th St. between Fourth Avenue and Fort Hamilton Parkway). The final shows are on Saturday night at 8 pm and on Sunday at 2 pm. Tickets are $20 ($15 for seniors, so bring grandma!).

End your weekend at the Owl’s Head (479 74th Street between Fourth and Fifth avenues) for the Bay Ridge Poets Society open mic poetry night starting at 7:30 pm. Grab the microphone if you are a poet and you know it, or just sit back and enjoy the wine and verses.

Reach reporter Dennis Lynch at (718) 260–2508 or e-mail him at dlynch@cnglocal.com.

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BROOKLYN HEIGHTS: Face value: Photo exhibit focuses on refugees

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By Lauren Gill

Brooklyn Daily

It gives a world crisis a human face.

Inside a Brooklyn Heights church hangs a series of giant portraits — each an image of a recent refugee to the United States. The “Facing America” exhibit aims to counter scary stories about the asylum-seekers by showing that they are just ordinary people, says the photographer behind the images.

“I want people to understand they are regular people and we have to welcome them, because if you see their smile you see they’re no different from their neighbors,” said Hidemi Takagi, who lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Takagi will speak at an artist reception at St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church on Feb. 27.

The church commissioned the Japan-born photographer to shoot 19 refugees currently staying in Connecticut. Each subject is receiving assistance from Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services — a program run through the church’s Episcopal Migration Ministries to helps them find them housing and jobs.

Takagi’s subjects come from Syria, Sudan, Congo, Eritrea, Afghanistan, and Iraq — and none of them are Christian. That detail makes people focus on their duty to take care of each other without relying on common bonds of religion, says the show’s curator.

“We want to break down boundaries between Christians and non-Christians,” said Harry Weil, “It’s not just a Christian responsibility, it’s our responsibility as Americans to take care of people who we don’t know and not just group them as nameless others.”

The portraits, shot against a vivid red backdrop, hang above the pews. Each photo is almost four feet wide, and Weil says the larger-than-life scale of the images forces viewers to confront their own anxieties about refugees.

“Wherever you’re standing you have the eyes of all these people on you,” he said. “It’s easy to look away when you see these images on the internet and can just click onto the next thing. But when you’re in the church, they’re looking at you and you have to face them.”

All of the refugees featured in the show have been invited attend the artist reception on Saturday. Takagi says they are beaming to have the chance to participate.

“I think they’re pretty proud to be a part of this,” she said.

“Facing America: Portraits of Refugees Resettling in the U.S.” at St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church [157 Montague St. at Clinton St. in Brooklyn Heights, (718) 875–6960, www.stannholytrinity.org], On display until March 25. Artist reception on Feb. 27 at 4 pm.

Reach reporter Lauren Gill at lgill@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260–2511. Follow her on Twitter @laurenk_gill

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BOROBEAT: Singing their praises! Ridge civic honors ‘unsung heroes’

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By Dennis Lynch

Brooklyn Daily

They’re unsung no more!

Bay Ridgites awarded 15 of the neighborhood’s quiet do-gooders at the Bay Ridge Community Council Hidden Treasure Awards at Shore Hill Neighborhood Center on Feb. 23. The honor came as a “beautiful surprise” for one Saint Anselm Catholic Academy teacher honored for influencing kids in the classroom over the last 20 years.

“I feel very blessed and I didn’t expect it — I think that I’m the one who’s been blessed to be a part of the Bay Ridge community,” eighth-grade math teacher Janet Batista said. “ I didn’t realize I was nominated until I got a call that I was getting the award.”

The council also honored Batista’s colleagues Christine Deem and Pat Riley. Their fellow honorees were Eileen LaRuffa with the Fort Hamilton Citizens Action Committee, Rabbi Dina Rosenberg at the Bay Ridge Jewish Center, Roseanne Miller with the Knights of Columbus, Elizabeth Connors with the Daughters of the American Revolution, Dorothy Garuccio with Community Board 10, Kathleen Sinagra and Jill Rizzi with Saint Bernadette Church, Dr. Robert Flanzer and Eleanor Rosenblatt with the Bay Ridge Mental Health Council, and Richard Haugland, Jessica Amato and James Johnson with the Narrows Botanical Garden.

Community council member Alex Conti detailed each recipient’s work in the community and presented each with a plaque.

And the honors did not stop there — Councilman Vincent Gentile (D–Bay Ridge) and a proxy for state Sen. Martin Golden (R–Bay Ridge) handed out their own awards alongside the council’s recognizing the honorees.

The secret to building a thriving community like Bay Ridge is being ambitious and wanting good for the people around you, according to one honoree awarded for founding an open-mic poetry series at Narrows Botanical Garden.

“All the people that do this great work, we’re really rooted in the community,” Jessica Amato said. “It was a great honor to be among those great and talented people who give back to the community — that’s what keeps us so strong.”

Reach reporter Dennis Lynch at (718) 260–2508 or e-mail him at dlynch@cnglocal.com.

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HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS: Girls’ hoops coaches frustrated with changing Catholic state playoff criteria

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By Joseph Staszewski

Brooklyn Daily

Catholic high-school girls’ basketball coaches are demanding league officials pick a playoff plan and stick with it — rather than continually changing the league’s playoff structure.

The Catholic High School Athletic Association scrapped its often-tweaked five-to-eight team state tournament format to give dioceses equal postseason representation across the AA, A, and B divisions. It replaced the AA and A tournaments with a four-team playoff with a representative from each of the dioceses competing, but officials and coaches couldn’t agree on how to pick the representatives.

The Brooklyn-Queens coaches rejected the league’s original proposal in November. Athletic directors ratified a plan in January, but league officials unilaterally altered the plan a week before playoffs. Now, the diocesan tournaments’ top winner will appear in the AA playoffs and the tourney’s fifth- and sixth-place finishers (this year Nazareth and St. Francis Prep) will duke it out to see who will play in the league’s lower-ranked A division playoffs — the previous plan sent the tournament’s runner-up to the A state field. Similarly under the new plan, some A teams will have to play up in AA. The previous plan sent the tournament’s runner-up to the A state field.

But sending AA-level teams to play A teams is like setting a wolf among lambs, and conversely, forcing A teams to play up in the AAs is like throwing a lamb in the wolves’ den, coaches said.

“Why would our group agree to something like that when we were already complaining their fifth place team was playing in the A,” Morris said. “Now you are going to have your second-place team playing in the A. That is crazy. It absolutely ridiculous. It was supposed to be their last-place team people [in A]. That would have been kind of fair.”

Morris, whose team lost to Brooklyn-Queens third-place finisher Mary Louis by just four points. Three teams from the Brooklyn-Queens diocese have won Class-A state crowns in the last seven seasons after playing as AA teams for all of their regular seasons.

The Rockville Center diocese has already dubbed St. Anthony’s its AA team and Cardinal O’Hara (Buffalo) of the Monsignor Martin division earned the honor by winning the league’s regular-season title. An Archdiocesan representative has yet to emerge.

Three teams from the Brooklyn-Queens diocese have won Class-A state crowns in the last seven seasons after playing as AA teams for all of their regular seasons.

The Brooklyn-Queens coaches have a problem with the plan, too, because it rewards St. Francis Prep and Nazareth for having losing seasons. The Terriers did not win a league game and Nazareth, who ended up being fourth-place Molloy in the diocesan quarterfinals, went 3–7.

“So we lose to a team that is going to play for an A representative in the playoffs and what is our status?,” Stanners coach Scott Lagas said. “Because we fought to win a couple of games during the regular season we don’t get a state bid.”

St. Francis Prep coach Kerri White said her team is happy to get a chance to play more games after falling 51–40 to Mary Louis its semifinal. She is just doing what the league decided and would have no mater what the format was.

Nazareth coach Ron Kelley — whose squad is defending A-Federation champions — will abide by the guidelines, despite believing other teams are more deserving of the opportunity.

“You reward the teams that played well throughout the year,” he said. “The top two teams going to Federation that was a sound idea. I don’t like the idea of giving the teams that didn’t play well or do well another chance. They didn’t deserve it.”

A last minute adjustment was also made to the Class-B state playoffs, causing frustration for those coaches, said Monsignor McClancy coach Dewey Hopkins.

“I’ve been coaching at McClancy for four years and for four years it’s been a different format for the playoffs all four years,” he said. “That’s the biggest issue I have.”

The boys’ league, which is intersectional, guarantees each of its teams two playoff games, much like the girls’ league did the last six years. The boys’ playoffs format has not changed in the last two decades, and girls’ coaches want similar opportunities for their players.

“Whatever it is, we have to change with it, but it puts an uncomfortability in coaches not knowing that,” Bishop Loughlin coach Chez Williams said. “That’s not good. The league has to be firmer with their rule.”

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Threes for one: De La Santos shoots Loins to first ‘AA’ diocesan title game

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By Troy Mauriello

Brooklyn Daily

Bishop Loughlin turned to its budding freshman star to carry the team past Mary Louis in a win-or-go-home game in the diocesan semifinals.

Freshman guard Laysha De La Santos had her coming out party in the biggest game of the season for Loughlin. Her career-high 21 points and five 3-pointers powered the Lions to a tough 62–54 win over Mary Louis in the Brooklyn-Queens girls’ basketball semifinals at St. Francis Prep on Feb. 25.

“I felt confident in my shot no matter what, miss or make,” said De La Santos. “My teammates need me to feel confident…I’m not gonna hesitate to shoot.”

Loughlin turned to its freshman star to deliver the biggest shot of the game after a basket by Minnesota-bound guard Jasmine Brunson gave Mary Louis its first lead since the first quarter at 48–47 with just over five minutes remaining,

A 3-pointer from De los Santos on the ensuing possession gave the Lions a 50–48 lead. It sparked a 15–6 run by Loughlin to end the game and give them the runaway victory. The Lions face two-time defending champion Christ the King in the final 6 p.m. Sunday at St. John’s Prep.

De La Santos was not the only player to have a big night for Loughlin, however. Star Milicia “Mimi” Reid recorded her first career triple-double with 12 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists. Eight of Reid’s 11 points came in the second half.

Lynette Taitt added 12 points for the Lions, while Ellease “Toucan” Billings scored nine, including a clutch pair of free throws with less than a minute remaining that all but put the game away.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Loughlin. Although the Lions went into the half leading 28-26, there was a reason for concern in the Loughlin locker room.

Reid, the Lions leading scorer, collided with an official late in the second quarter and was forced to sit the rest of the half. Although she would return after the break, she appeared to be fighting some pain on the court.

“I’m not going to lie, it was hurting,” Reid said. “I just didn’t want to…show that it hurts because then my teammates see that and they feed off of that.”

Reid returned during an exciting third quarter that featured five ties and a pair of lead changes. Mary Louis was able to take its first lead since the game’s opening moments at 39–37, however Loughlin fought back and took a 45–44 lead into the final frame.

While Brunson and Danielle Patterson were able to have their way all night against the Loughlin defense, the Lions made sure that the TMLA supporting cast was not a factor.

The pair combined for 47 points, with Brunson scoring a game-high 28 and Patterson adding 19, however the rest of the Hilltoppers scored only seven points combined and did not record a field goal in the second half.

“Defense is my game plan all the time,” said Loughlin coach Chez Williams. “It doesn’t matter how much you can score, if you can play D you always give yourself a chance to win.”

It wasn’t all positive for Brooklyn teams in the diocesan semifinals Nazareth was handled in the nightcap and suffered a 69-43 loss against Christ the King.

Nazareth was overmatched from the start against the powerful Royals. They fell behind 12-0 to start the game and trailed 35-13 at the half. Christ the King led by as many as 34 in the second half. Jasmine Murray paced Nazareth with 12 points and Erykah Russell added seven.

The Lady Kingsmen’s season is not yet however. Despite the loss, Nazareth, which placed fifth, will play sixth-place St. Francis Prep to decide the dioceses’ representative in the Catholic Class A state tournament.

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WILLIAMSBURG: Songs of the Sea: Nautical rock makes a splash

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Brooklyn Daily

This band is making waves with its new album.

Brooklyn five-piece the Morning Sea will sail onto the Knitting Factory stage in Williamsburg on March 1, playing tunes from its new album “Mal de Mer” — French for “sea-sickness” — released earlier this month.

With the album out, the band has not been coasting. Instead, the members are fishing for ways to hook as many new listeners as they can, said the band’s lead singer and songwriter.

“For us the idea is to figure out how we get this record into as many ears as possible through as many channels as possible,” said Adam Cohen. “With social media now there’s so much potential to reach a huge amount of people in an instant, but just as quickly you can be buried by the next new thing in the feed.”

The Morning Sea describes its sound as “Gotham Americana,” which might sound fishy, but is actually easy to describe, according to the band’s guitarist.

“It’s a combination of rock and blues with stylized New York City grit,” said Tony Long.

The album’s seven lushly-textured songs are shore to strike a chord with listeners. The Park Slope producer of “Mal de Mer” said that he tried to give the songs depth, but also make the sound current.

“Adam writes such great songs, so I wanted to feature his lyrics but also give the listener a deeper experience over multiple listens,” said Sonny Ratcliff, who is also the band’s bassist. “We were going for that timeless sound but with a lot of pop and artistic merit to it.”

The Morning Sea at the Knitting Factory [361 Metropolitan Ave. at Havemeyer Street in Williamsburg, (347) 529–6696, bk.knittingfactory.com]. March 1 at 8 pm. $12 ($10 in advance).

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LETTERS: Sound Off to the Editor

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Brooklyn Daily

To the editor,

I read with great interest Colin Mixson’s articles regarding the late Horace Bullard, and his attempts to rebuild Steeplechase Park and the former Loew’s Shore Theater.

The comments, by people whom I know and respect, about “his revenge” and “bitterness” are not the Horace Bullard that I knew. Let me first state that my children are fourth-generation Coney Islanders, my family beginning with my maternal grandfather in 1902.

When Fred Trump was building Trump-Warbasse Houses, I founded the Neighborhood Improvement Organization in 1964, and by 1968 our group supported his plan to build luxury housing on the Steeplechase site. The Coney Island Chamber of Commerce and the Board of Trades opposed him, and got the elected officials to turn him down. As a co-founder of the Astella Development Corporation we wanted to see Coney’s Amusement area rebuilt, and we saw that opportunity in Horace Bullard.

I met with him many times, and he was a gentlemen’s gentleman. His failure in Coney Island was not racial. It was because he was an “outsider” and the powers to be were not going to let him in on their “turf.” The Bullard family deserves every dollar they can get from their properties. Ralph Perfetto

Coney Island

Free therapy

To the editor,

I was very happy to read your article “New and improved rehab therapy” about the speech therapy services offered for seniors at NYU Lutheran (“Standing O,” online Feb. 11).

It sounds like a great program. Since speech therapy can help people at all ages in life, I would like to address a speech therapy issue that could benefit many children in Brooklyn with speech difficulties.

I just want to mention the little-known fact that every child in the U.S. has the right to free speech therapy. This amazing benefit of free speech therapy covers all speech problems and is open to all children, as it is not an entitlement based on family income. The result of federal legislation 42 years ago, the free therapy can begin as early as preschool and run through high school. All children are eligible as it is not an entitlement based on family income. The free therapy covers all speech problems. The best source for parents to gain information on this right to free speech therapy is a brochure entitled “Special Education Law and Children Who Stutter” on the website of the nonprofit Stuttering Foundation (www.stutteringhelp.org). This website also offers many free resources to people who stutter of all ages and there is a Spanish-language version at www.tartamudez.org.

What is sad is that during the heated national debate on national healthcare policy over the last seven years, not once did the media ever make mention of this long-standing gem in our national healthcare policy. The U.S. has by far the best policy in the world for helping children with speech problems, and is a role model for the rest of the world. It is a shame that few people in the U.S. know about this amazing benefit of free speech therapy for all kids.

Ed Herrington

Longmeadow, MA

‘Bulldoze’ Brownsville

To the editor,

I’ve been living in Brooklyn in and around the Brownsville section for nearly 35 years. This neighborhood is terrible. I’ve heard stories about how, many years ago, this was a great place to live with some of the best shopping anywhere. Brownsville was a predominately Jewish neighborhood for many years, made up of hard-working, poor residents.

This neighborhood like most others always had a criminal element, but nothing like it is today. This small area — the birthplace of Murder Inc., — is full of public housing that is also full of gangs, drugs, guns, and crime. Young people in this area don’t have much of a chance of living a peaceful or long life. Either the gangs or the drugs will get you at a young age, and hold onto you until you’re either in jail or six feet under.

I wonder what the heck is going on here. Every day there are gunfights, rapes, robberies, no respect for anyone, especially not for anyone in authority — not for teachers, not for cops, not for neighbors, not for friends, not for family, not even for themselves.

The only thing to do in this area would be to bulldoze it and make a cemetery out of it, as a reminder to everyone around here that the people who lived here killed a neighborhood and everyone in it.

Shanequa Johnson

Crown Heights

English first

To the editor,

Jeez, it is bad enough that whenever I go into stores and into the subway I see all signs in English and Spanish. Now I’m seeing Spanish as first choice for a comic strip’s language, and English is written below the strip in fine print.

Jump Start in the Daily News is the comic I am referring to. What a bummer! Stop this baloney now. Why are you kowtowing to those who refuse to learn English? Do not grovel to non-English speakers, nor be servile to them. Thirty-one states have made English their official language. I’m sorry to say that New York still has not done this.

When I buy an English-language newspaper, and have done so since the 1950s when my dad was a linotype operator at the Daily News, I do not expect — and absolutely object — to seeing a daily cartoon written in Spanish. This upsets me to no end, seeing this as I am eating my breakfast. If this intrusion continues, I will be ending my “lifetime subscription” to New York’s “hometown paper.” That is a promise. Cross my heart.

The Courier (a weekly and delivered neighborhood newspaper) suits me fine!Joan Applepie

Mill Basin

Sean Penn-alty

To the editor,

Sean Penn who was never a stranger to controversy really crossed the line meeting with El Chapo. I’m not a lawyer, but this egomaniac had to break some serious laws interviewing probably the biggest drug kingpin on the world, not to mention the thousands of murders and thousands of families destroyed because of his greed and complete disregard for human life. They don’t get much worse than this monster.

I guess Sean Penn would also have met with Osama bin Laden after he killed thousands of innocent people on 9-11, and promised not tell authorities where he could be found so that he could get the interview and movie deal of his life. I guess fame and fortune is more important to El Chapo and “El Pompous Culo” than life itself. Maureen Parker

Gravesend

STEMed

To the editor,

I applaud the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in South Korea for taking the steps to promote S.T.E.M. Education to the students in the Far East District in South Korea (“Sparking Engineering Interest in Kids,” Jan. 15).

As educators we are always looking for ways to empower our youth. I came across a wonderful quote by Michael J. Fox that really gives meaning to the word educate: “If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.”

All students learn differently. You have verbal-linguistic, word-smart learners. These students learn best through reading, writing, listening, and speaking. You have the logical-mathematical learners. These students learn best by classifying, categorizing, and thinking abstractly about patterns and numbers. You have the visual-spatial, picture-smart learners that excel at drawing and visualizing things. You have the auditory-musical students that thrive on singing and listening to music. You have the bodily-kinesthetic learners that do extremely well when they work with their hands. You have the interpersonal learners that learn through relating to others and sharing ideas. You have the intrapersonal- intelligent students that work best alone, setting up their own goals. You have the naturalistic learners that love working with nature. These students excel in the sciences and are very passionate about our environment.

Let’s model the success of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and collaborate with its north Atlantic division at Fort Hamilton to help empower Brooklyn students and map out a plan for STEM education initiatives in our local schools. We need outside resources — such as the Office of Naval Research, and the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers — to help explore and discover education leading to successful career opportunities in the army and navy.

Scott Krivitsky

The author is a teacher a t PS 188 in Coney island.

Tricky Hill

To the editor,

Hillary has to be one of the luckiest people on earth. Could you imagine winning six coin tosses in a row for the Iowa delegates? Wow! What are the odds? She should play the stock market or commodities market. Oh, wait, she did — almost 40 years ago she turned $1,000 into $100,000 in no time, lucky her.

I think she might have flimflammed poor Bernie the Socialist, maybe they used some double-sided coins she supplied them with, in case a coin toss was necessary or maybe he agreed to the old “heads-I win-tails-you-lose” trick. I could just picture her having him pick the cup the little ball was under while she scrambled them around, or the old odd finger trick throwing out the whole hand and telling him that was wild, she wins. Or even the old eenie-meenie-minee-moe trick, and tell him “and out goes you!”

However she did it, I guess we’ll never know — she is a pro.

Cronin Miller

Midwood

Nuke mook

To the editor,

So now it’s the little fat guy with the bad haircut from North Korea trying to shakedown America by pounding his chest like a gorilla to show his strength so he doesn’t have to fight another gorilla. We used to call this “selling woof tickets” when we were kids growing up in Brooklyn — it was all for show.

Obviously President Obama, who is said to be a poker player, probably isn’t a very good one because he can be bluffed over and over again. I doubt Obama ever read Trumps’ book “Art of the Deal” or Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War,” a book written more than 2,000 years ago, and still used today by generals and leaders all over the world. Obama telegraphs his intentions to our enemies, telling them when we are sending troops and when we are leaving, complete with date and time. He traded five hardened terrorists for Bowe Bergdahl, a deserter whom he praised and who is now being court marshaled.

Obama made a deal with the devils of Iran, a country whose mantra is “Death to America,” giving them billions of dollars and withdrawing sanctions so they won’t continue making a nuclear bomb. They went back on their word and broke the agreement before the ink was even dry. So now the little fat guy with the bad haircut is going to see what he can get from Obama, like some other tyrants will certainly be doing soon because they only have about another year before he leaves office. They have to work fast, but they also know that if the new president has some cojones, like a Trump for instance, they will be out of luck.

Let’s not forget Iran held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days during the Carter administration. Jimmy Carter — a good, decent and very intelligent man, but a poor president in many ways — wasn’t respected at all by the Ayatollah of Iran at the time. Yet only hours after Ronald Reagan was sworn in, the hostages were released. Any guess why?

Maybe Trump is pounding his chest with his fists like the others who have been shaking Obama down, and maybe he isn’t, but either way I really don’t think those who bully Obama will try their crap on a Trump.

Peter G. Orsi

Marine Park

Reader wars

To the editor,

In response to J.J. Lauria (“Elliott Kibosh,” Sound Off to the Editor,” Dec. 18, 2015), I proposed sodium pentothal (truth serum) for terrorists and other violent criminals and suspects because I regard America to be very hypocritical in trying to preach and teach justice abroad when we can’t practice it at home.

Are not the members of the Ku Klux Klan — whose ranks included late President Harry Truman, late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W-Va.), and late Supreme Court Judge Hugo Black — and the American Nazi and Communist parties terrorists? Yet the First Amendment guarantees them the right to speak freely within the confines of reason.

Supreme Court Judge Abe Fortas, who served from 1965 until 1969, was a member of the Community Party, and even his most vocal critics — Sen. Howard Baker (R-Tenn.) and Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) — did not even bother to bring this issue up during his nomination because he was a hawk on the Vietnam War.

I would also like to point out to J.J. Lauria that if we engage in waterboarding what will our enemies do to our imprisoned soldiers? Remember, what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

Elliott Abosh

Brighton Beach

Chapter and verse

To the editor,

I am writing to convey my dismay at my treatment at a branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, where I went to replace a lost card. When I attempted to inquire about a new card at a room marked “staff” I was rudely told that I was in a staff work area. Someone vaguely gestured toward a hidden information desk, without standing up. At least four staffers were drinking coffee from large painted mugs.

I am a semi-retired, visually impaired senior citizen who has lived in Sheepshead Bay for 59 years. Two days after my family moved to the neighborhood in 1956, my father took me to the library to show me a place of “learning and safety.” He would be very surprised at the way library consumers are treated there today. When I reached the information desk and asked about renewing my card I was met with blank stares from two staffers. After repeating my question two times I was told to go to the computer behind the desk. A staffer expressed impatience when the computer was slow to reboot. She said she did not have time to hold my hand and said I should “just fill in the blanks and press send.” I asked how long it would take to obtain a new card and she clearly said one to two weeks.

I returned to the library in the given time period to inquire about my card. Two staffers ignored me until I asked to see a supervisor. Within five minutes I had a new card. One of the unnamed staffers asked me why I had waited so long to come back to the library. When I asked the supervisor what she was going to do about the way I was treated, she said she would meet with the staff “sometime in the future.” I returned to the library a few days later to pick up a book for my wife and asked a staffer about the supervisor that I had spoken to. I was told that she was at an all-day meeting. I went back to the library the next day and asked to talk to a supervisor. I was told they were off until the following month.

That Saturday I went to the library to read a newspaper. The supervisor I originally talked with suddenly appeared and asked to speak with me. With her voice raised so that all of my friends and neighbors in the room could hear, she said she hoped that we could be good friends and that I could be a “star” of the library. I told her that I had called the New York City Human Rights commissioner to lodge a complaint for discrimination. She said loudly that was my right. As she continued to talk to me in a raised voice she was joined by two other staffers. I left the library immediately because I felt embarrassed and confronted.

Martin Adelstein

Sheepshead Bay

****LARRY PENNER****

Off-track Andy

To the editor,

There is more to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s announcement that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority- New York City Transit will increase rehabilitation for subway stations to a state of good repair by 10-percent to 50-percent from originally 20 planned in the proposed 2015-2019 capital plan. The original $34 billion plan announced in Oct. 2014 proposed $448 million for bringing 20 subway stations to a state of good repair. The plan was cut by $6 billion to $28 billion. The MTA Board approved this revision. That was prior to Cuomo’s declaration about increasing the number of stations (or dollars) for New York City Transit’s renewal program. This plan still needs approval by the State Capital Program Review Board. It also requires the State Legislature to find $8 Billion promised by Gov. Cuomo. The City Council must also come up with $2.5 billion to meet commitments made by Mayor Bill DeBlasio to fully fund the capital plan..

If you increase the number of stations, the overall station renewal program would grow by $224 million to $672 million. Just what other transit capital projects and programs would have to be cut to support finding $224 million? Cuomo was silent on this key question.

According to a New York City Citizens Budget Commission report released several months ago, it will take 52 years or until 2067 for all 468 city subway stations to reach a state of good repair. Cuomo’s math just doesn’t add up. He reminds me of the cartoon character Wimpy who famously said, “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” When the bills become due, taxpayers will end up paying Cuomo’s bill.

Larry Penner

Great Neck. N.Y.

Tarnished Silver

To the editor,

The legacy of former State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in the area of transportation leaves much to be desired. Consider the schedule, budget, and the cost for four major transportation projects that he took great pride in promoting.

Washington paid twice with your tax dollars for building the new South Ferry subway station. First, for almost $600 million in 9-11 funding, a second time with more than $300 million in Hurricane Sandy funding to rebuild what was damaged. The downtown Manhattan Fulton Street Transit Center was first paid for with 9-11 funding. Cost overruns of several hundred million were covered by American Recovery Reinvestment Act funding.

Fourteen years after 9-11, the Cortland Street World Trade Center subway station is still several years away from being back in service. If there are no new delays, perhaps the station will reopen by December 2018. Transit officials fought for years over budget, funding sources, scope, and schedule. Construction for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority portion of the project just started a few months ago.

There is no funding in the agency’s propose 2015-2019 capital program to initiate construction for the second segment of the Second Avenue subway, north from 96th Street to 125th Street. It will take several decades and $20 billion more for completion of the next three segments of the Second Avenue subway, north to 125th Street and south to Hanover Square downtown in the financial district. The project was originally proposed in 1929!

Silver claimed to be a friend of both commuters and the 99 percent. In reality, he lived the life style of the one percenters. He frequently traveled around town with a personal driver at taxpayers’ expense. I doubt if he ever purchased a MetroCard or rode the subway, like several million New Yorkers do daily.

Larry Penner

Great Neck, N.Y.

Two-fare drone

To the editor,

The proposal by state Sen. Marty Golden (R-Bay Ridge) to offer two free transfers for those who have to ride two buses before boarding a subway is wishful thinking. People who moved to Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst, Marine Park, Gerritsen Beach and Gravesend — areas represented by Golden — knew full well that they would be living in a two-fare (bus to subway) and sometimes three-fare (bus to bus to subway) zone with longer commutes to and from work.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority services continue to be one of the best bargains in town. Since the 1950s, the average cost of riding either the bus, subway or commuter rail has gone up at a lower rate than either the consumer price index or inflation. The MetroCard, introduced in 1996, affords a free transfer between bus and subway. Prior to this, riders had to pay two full fares. Purchasing either a weekly or monthly pass further reduces the cost per ride. Many employers offer transit checks, which pay even more of the costs.

For years, local politicians would stir the pot on this issue. Now the latest cause is the cost for those handful of people out of several million daily riders who have to pay two fares versus one. An overwhelming majority can afford and already purchase either a weekly or monthly unlimited MetroCard, which makes the “double fare” issue moot.

Residents, taxpayers, and commuters in Golden’s district would be better off if he worried more about how the State Legislature will find the $8 billion Gov. Cuomo promised to bridge the $8.3 billion shortfall in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority-proposed $28 billion, five-year capital plan when they reconvene in January.

It all comes down to the availability of increased funding for additional transportation service to serve residents of two fare zones in the outer boroughs. Operating subsidies are required to increase the level of service and reduce the amount of time one waits for a bus on existing routes. Same for adding more off-peak, late night and weekend service.

Larry Penner

Great Neck, N.Y.

MTA delay

To the editor,

No one should be surprised by the recent news from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that the Second Avenue Subway won’t be open by next December. The agency reminds me of Capt. Renault from “Casablanca” when he said, “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on!”

Riders who have been waiting since construction restarted in 2007 with an original service date of 2013 may not be able to pick up their “winnings” until 2017 or 2018. The project was originally proposed in 1929!

Larry Penner

Great Neck, N.Y.

****ROBERT LOBENSTEIN*****

Crooked pols

To the editor,

First Shelly, then Skelos, then others. So our dear New York State democratic leader, Shelly Silver, has been convicted on all counts of bribery and other misdeeds of directing clients’ money to his own pockets. Shelly lamented in his defense that it is standard practice by all legislators in Albany to do what he did.

A few months ago the State Senate refused to fund an expansion of jails. It was sad to hear that, as the good citizens of New York are eagerly waiting to hear about the next round of indictments and convictions of crooked politicians who infest Albany. Their next stop should be a few years in this fine state’s overcrowded jails.

Robert W. Lobenstein

Marine Park

Hill-n-Donald

To the editor,

Hillary Clinton was complaining that the Muslim terrorist groups were using Donald Trump for video recruitment purposes. That lie was quickly exposed and Hillary wound up with egg on her face. Then a video surfaced where Muslim terrorists actually were using footage from Trump’s campaign to recruit new terrorists. I wonder how much Hillary paid them to do this?

Robert W. Lobenstein

Marine Park

Pie in the $ky

To the editor,

Our dear Gov. Cuomo has been on a media blitz unveiling grandiose building schemes — rebuilding the old Pennsylvania Station to an almost former glory, expanding the Javits Center to house the world’s largest ballroom and exhibit center, and other fantastic municipal works endeavors.

One thing that was silently spoken about, off camera, was the way the multi-billion-dollar projects will be paid for. Yes, it will be you and I, and our children and future grandchildren, who will be paying off his follies for decades to come. To build any project on time and within budget is a pipe dream, knowing the ineptness of state and city governments. After these clowns leave office, we all will be saddled for years with the debt load created by their schemes.

Maybe most of these plans should be voted down until Albany straightens up its own corrupt financial mess though, as these politicians are busy picking our pockets, I doubt it.

Robert W. Lobenstein

Marine Park

*****ED GREENSPAN****

Roving Randi

To the editor,

It’s bad enough when elected officials are running for other offices and they are away from their official positions. It is just as bad when people, such as American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten will be criss-crossing the country for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Randi, you have responsibilities that await your urgent attention. In the city more teachers are resigning than ever, they’re throwing the towel in because of the discipline procedures you and other liberal lunkheads have created. Hillary does not need you directly, but teachers throughout the country do, as they struggle with burgeoning class sizes, unruly pupils, overly aggressive administrators, and parents who rule the teacher and principal.

If Randi Weingarten and other officials can’t fulfill their responsibilities, they should take a leave of absence without pay.

Ed Greenspan

Sheepshead Bay

Get a grip

To the editor,

There is always an excuse for outrageous behavior. As the years have gone by, the new one is that the perpetrator was off their medication. In a recent case, several women were slashed by someone in and out of hospitals for mental illness. Why was he always released after each episode, only to cause additional mayhem? Same thing in school. Any teacher can tell you which of their students will go on to commit crimes. No one bothers to listen to them as children, when they are literally crying out by acting out for help. Instead, we either play their friend or just pass them on.

Since the family of the slasher knew what he was capable of, it was their responsibility that this individual be looked after. That is what families are all about. Don’t throw your problems on society and expect them to clean up the mess.

I just love when they say that the recalcitrant was in the process of getting his or life together. It is time for individual initiative and responsibility for one’s actions to rest on the individual and family members. Sure, many of these recalcitrant people and family receive welfare benefits and therefore they feel that everything is coming to them.

Ed Greenspan

Sheesphead Bay

Classroom sham

To the editor,

Politicians have conveniently ignored the problem of discipline in our schools. The lack of discipline is the major cause for teachers leaving the public school system within five years of starting to teach, or retiring as soon as they are eligible to do so.

No matter how good a teacher you are, you can’t teach without effective discipline and everyone knows that. Discipline problems start as early as kindergarten and with nothing done, the child goes from year to year in elementary school and will only cause havoc. If a parent doesn’t sign for special education placement, the child remains in a regular classroom and the disorder continues. As important as class size is, all you need is for one child to be continuously disruptive and little to no learning results. Years ago the 600- school concept for disruptive children was done away with. At least hard core troublemakers were kept out and sent to alternative settings.

When a disruptive child enters intermediate school (grades 6-8) the situation worsens because the child now has the added freedom of roaming the halls during change of periods. The problem is exacerbated now by principals who never taught a day, but are now rating teachers. If these principals taught they would see directly what is going on and change their attitudes about blaming teachers for everything. No matter how much money you pump into the school system, without discipline, the results will be the same, year after year.

The mayor and schools chancellor should be ashamed for weakening disciplinary codes. Lord only knows what else is covered up on a daily basis. Our deteriorating schools have become schools for scandal. Where is the union? It’s so happy to be out of the classroom that it couldn’t care less. Union officials get in overwhelmingly each time they come up for reelection, and the hierarchy within the union collects double pensions.

Ed Greenspan

Sheepshead Bay

Teaching trenches

To the editor,

As Warner Wolfe used to say, “Let’s Go to the Videotape,” when he would want something investigated further. Similarly let’s go to the school records of violent criminals, or better yet, do something with them in their formative years so that they don’t resort to such violence. If you opened the school records, you would see evidence of cutting class, constantly disrupting the class, roaming through the hallways, cursing, screaming, fighting, and causing all sorts of mayhem.

The city’s school system has failed these students and others by their complete refusal to deal with disruptive youth. As a result, the latter become more emboldened with each passing year, and their deviant behavior worsens until an innocent life is lost.

We keep such students in regular classes if the parent refuses to sign for special placement. As a result, chaos results as teachers desperately try to keep order with burgeoning class sizes. When are we going to face this problem head on and not keep sweeping it under the rug? This is not a racist problem. Disruptive pupils come in all races, religions and all backgrounds.

Empty out the regional and district offices and get teachers back in the classroom. We need more psychologists and psychiatrists in the schools. Less suspensions will not solve anything.

So-called staff development is a complete joke and everyone knows it. Let all the militants, ultra liberals and critics of teachers get themselves teacher licenses and get a taste of what it is like in the trenches.

Ed Greenspan

Sheepshead Bay

‘Demagogue’ Donald

To the editor,

It has become apparent to me that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump would be absolutely perfect in still another remake of the great film, “All the King’s Men.” After all, as demagogue Willie Stark, Broderick Crawford received a well-deserved, best-actor Oscar. Trump could easily pass that, if not do even better in the part. He gives new meaning to the term demagoguery. Hollywood should definitely take notice.

Ed Greenspan

Sheepshead Bay

Pledge allegiance

To the editor,

Of course the Pledge of Allegiance should be recited in schools. As a student of public schools in the 1950s, I remember “the lord is my shepherd” being recited from the Bible in the auditorium until someone finally realized that this was a violation of separation of church and state.

Religion does not belong in our public schools. This means that all symbols representing a religion should not be in the school either. After all, by doing this, we are doing a disservice to those students not of a particular religion, as well as students who are atheists.

Ed Greenspan

Sheepshead Bay

Bernie Panders

To the editor,

Bernie Sanders, what’s so bad about living in a rent-controlled building? You bemoaned that fact about living in such a building in Brooklyn at the last debate.

The rent-controlled buildings on Kings Highway were, and are still, lovely buildings with affordable rents. Ditto for rent stabilization. You’ve been away so long that you probably don’t know that since 1970, if a rent controlled apartment is vacated, it becomes rent stabilized. May the Lord bless rent control and rent stabilization.

At the first sign of any change, you and so many other phony liberals are the first to move out of neighborhoods. Your remark about rent control shows that you’re a landlord’s man. Without rent control or rent stabilization, rents would be over the roof and this would lead to more homeless.

Apparently in Vermont, where you fled to, no such problems of homelessness exist to the degree we’re facing in New York.

Ed Greenspan

Sheepshead Bay

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HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS: Stanners slip past Xaverian in second half of diocesan semifinals

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By Joseph Staszewski

Brooklyn Daily

Jack Alesi’s mind couldn’t let the third quarter go.

The coach’s No. 4-seeded Xaverian team led No. 1 Archbishop Molloy by seven points at halftime of the diocesan semifinals, but let the game — and a return trip to the final — slipped away. The Stanners dominated the final frame and handed Xaverian a 63–47 loss in the Brooklyn-Queens boys’ basketball semifinals at St. Francis Prep on Feb. 24.

Freshman Stanners guard Cole Anthony shot his team back in it with 11 points in the first three minutes of the third quarter — including a hail of three treys.

The spree came after what Alesi called “a mix-up” between two players — something he wished he had called a time out to correct. Molloy ended up taking a one-point lead in the fourth and never looked back.

“You could see all the air come out of us,” Alesi said.

The Clippers (14–11) were out-scored 23–8 in the fourth.

“I just think we ran out of gas,” Alesi said.

Khalil Rhodes and Nyontay Wisseh led Xaverian with 13 points each, and Jordan Guzman chipped in nine points. Anthony scored 19 of his 23 points in the second half, and Isaac Grant tallied eight of his 16 for Molloy (21–4) in the fourth. Undersized Xaverian wasn’t able to sustain its level of play from the first half, when it benefited from Grant and Stanners center Moses Brown being in foul trouble.

The Clippers will face Mount St. Michael in the second round of the intersectional playoffs on March 2.

“I just think if we didn’t make that mistake, and if we took a lead into the fourth quarter of six, seven, eight, I really think we were going to win the game,” Alesi said.

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SPONSORED CONTENT: Mat attack! Take the drudge out of rug cleaning

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Carpet Cleaning NY

Brooklyn Daily

A plush, cozy rug can vamp up the dreariest decor, but don’t treat it like a doormat if you want your floor covering to stay fresh and toe-friendly.

Clean your rug the professional way with these tips from the pros.

Keep your shag happy

• Make note of its material, constriction, and size — they are important players in its proper care.

• Large area rugs should be thought of as a wall-to-wall carpet, and vacuumed regularly, minus the fringe. Reversible rugs should be cleaned on both sides to remove grit and grime, and prevent premature wear and tear.

• Turn reversible rugs once or twice a year to make sure they wear evenly, the rotation alleviating stress from sun and foot traffic.

• Vacuuming doesn’t always remove pet hair, which should be brushed out — always towards the nap — using a stiff-bristled brush.

• Take small rugs outside, to be beaten or shaken vigorously to remove grit and dirt.

Specialty rug care

Keep care tags and labels handy to prevent costly mistakes because some rugs require an extra touch of TLC.

• Braided or woven rugs: check label to see if they can be washed, and look for stitching breaks before and after cleaning.

• Washable rugs can be placed in a mesh laundry bag or zippered pillowcase.

• Use cool water and the gentle cycle on a washing machine. Rinse thoroughly. Use a low setting to tumble dry.

• Large braided rugs should be placed on a concrete or vinyl floor. Old blankets can also be placed beneath them. Using commercial carpet-cleaning foam, sponge the product and rub according to directions. Finish by vacuuming or rinsing. Before replacing the rug, make sure it has dried thoroughly.

• Oriental, antique, hand-knotted, and handmade rugs should be vacuumed in the same manner as wool area rugs and carpets.

Antique and delicate vintage rugs require special care. Place nylon screen, weighted down with bricks or books, over the rugs to protect them while vacuuming. Vacuum the rugs over the screen. A piece of nylon mesh can also be placed over the attachment of the vacuum. As dirt accumulates, the mesh will need to be frequently changed. These rugs should be professionally cleaned each year. To ensure even wear and reduce fading from direct sunlight, rotate rugs once or twice per year.

• For hair-on hides, sheepskin, and fur rugs, shake unscented talcum powder and let stand for several hours. Brush the powder through the rugs and shake. Repeat several times — long hair rugs require more repetitions. Clean backs with a clean, cotton cloth, dipped in lukewarm soapy water. Wipe off spills and dirt. Rinse with a clean cloth and clean water. • • Let the rugs dry completely before returning them to their spots.

Courtesy of Sunlight Fine Rug Care & Restoration, a leading rug care service based in Brooklyn, and offering free estimate, pickup, and delivery .

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IT’S ONLY MY OPINION: Stan wants revenge on Montezuma

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By Stanley P. Gershbein

Brooklyn Daily

“Americans of all political persuasions are coming to the sad realization that our First Lady — a woman of undoubted talents who was a role model for many in her generation — is a congenital liar.” —William Safire, New York Times, 1996

• • •

According to the front page of the New York Daily News, Donald Trump and those Americans who exercised their rights in New Hampshire by voting for Donald Trump are “brain dead.” Really? What does the newspaper have to say about the Americans who used their time and energy, attempted to stay warm in the cold snowfall, and drove in traffic to vote for a woman who was called a “congenital liar” in a column written by William Safire, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for the New York Times?

I asked my readers to Google the column to truly understand who we were dealing with and prove that very little has changed about her in 20 years. She continues to lie and lie and lie. Volumes have been written by many writers about this fabricator. Obviously, Mr. Zuckerman prefers a liar in the oval office? If he and others really want to learn about the Lying Queen, hop on over to the library and take out the book “Unlikeable” by Edward Klein. It is very fast reading and, as it says on the cover, you will learn about “The problem with Hillary.”

• • •

Hey there Governor Christie, congratulations on your pyrrhic victory. You did a great job delivering a knockout punch to Sen. Marco Rubio but you didn’t seem to do anything to help yourself. Instead of wasting time and effort beating up on Marco, you would have done a lot better if you worked over Hillary. You would have been given credit for Sanders’ big win over her. There is a whole lot left to say about the Lying Queen, but you said nothing. For a smart guy, you lacked common sense. Maybe next time.

• • •

This was all over the news a week ago, but just in case you were away, here’s a bit of information you might have missed:

Sen. Chuck Schumer is calling Republicans “obstructionists” for threatening to block President Obama’s lame-duck Supreme Court nominee. This is the same Chuck Schumer who, a few years ago, called for Democrats to block any new Supreme Court nominations by President Bush — a full 19 months before he left office. Hey there Mr. Senator, it was a great idea then, and it is just as good now. Oh, I understand — the shoe is on the other foot, and that gives you the right to change your mind. Yea! Right!

• • •

Nobody really likes wars, but if I had to find something good to say about them, it would be that we learn a bit about geography. Be honest. Up until now, how many of you knew where Falluja, Mosul, and Benghazi are? Sad to say, even though they’ve been in the news quite a bit, so many of us still don’t know. But I did learn, after singing about it all of my life, where “the shores of Tripoli” are. I am StanGershbein@Bellsouth.net looking forward to learning where “the halls of Montezuma” are.

Read Stan Gershbein's column every Monday on BrooklynDaily.com.

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GREENPOINT: Bad girls: Brooklyn author writes about teen boy band fanatics

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By Julianne Cuba

Brooklyn Daily

These girls are Nsane!

A group of teenage girls obsessed with a boy band wind up kidnapping one of the band members in the out-of-control new young adult novel “Kill the Boy Band.” The author of the black comedy, who will appear at Word bookstore on March 1, says it ain’t no lie — she can relate to the obsessions displayed by by by the characters in her debut novel.

“I definitely recognize that as a fan myself, I know what it means to be a very passionate fan in general. I know where that passion comes from,” said Gravesend author Goldy Moldavsky.

However, Moldavsky’s devotion to the band Death Cab for Cutie never got to the point of stalking the band members and holding them against their will, she says. But the felonious (and potentially murderous) actions of her characters are just an exaggerated result of feelings any fan can undertand, she says.

“I hope that people can relate to it even though it is outlandish,” said Moldavsky. “A lot of people know what it is like to be a big fan, to be passionate about something. I take that passion and make it into an extreme.”

Moldavsky was inspired to write the book after watching a British documentary about boy band-crazed teenage girls. She became fascinated by the outlandish things the fans said about the tightly-choreographed objects of their obsession, she said — “dark things about what they would do if they had access to these boys and if anyone came between them.”

She created her own fictional band “The Ruperts,” but used details from real-life fans she had witnessed or heard about, including a story about a teenage girl with the face of pop star Enrique Iglesias tattooed on her chest. The idea was so outlandish she had to include it in her book, Moldavsky said.

The Brooklyn native declined to reveal much about her follow-up novel, but it seems to involve a similar macabre combination of youth and violence.

“I can’t say too much about it,” she said. “But it’s about kids at a summer camp who are cut-throat idealists.”

“Kill the Boy Band” reading at Word [126 Franklin St. between Milton and Noble streets in Greenpoint, (718) 383–0096, www.wordbookstores.com]. March 1 at 7 pm. Free.

Reach reporter Julianne Cuba at (718) 260–4577 or by e-mail at jcuba@cnglocal.com. Follow her on Twitter @julcuba.

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HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS: Smith’s sizzling shooting sends Jefferson to semifinals

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By Joseph Staszewski

Brooklyn Daily

Curtis Smith got hot in warm–ups and never cooled down.

The senior guard hit nine three–pointers and scored a game–high 30 points to lead No. 9–seeded Thomas Jefferson to a hard–fought 75–66 win over No. 7 Curtis High School in the Public School Athletic League Class AA boys’ basketball semifinals at Baruch College on Feb. 28.

Smith was so happy with his pre-game shooting, he took some chances when it counted, he said.

“In warm-ups, I was just making some shots, and I felt like I could hit a couple of them,” Smith said. “That’s why I was taking them [in the game].”

Smith — whose nickname is “Big Shot C.J.” — bucked the trend of Orange Wave shooters not performing well at Baruch, according to coach Lawrence “Bud’ Pollard. He told Smith about the jynx pregame, but quickly realized it wasn’t going to be an issue.

“Coach Kenny [Pretlow] said, ‘C.J. is going to be on fire today,’ telling me how C.J. shot in warm ups,” Pollard said. “He sure was.”

Smith hit seven of his treys in the first half to help give Jefferson a 39–33 led at the break. He missed most of the third quarter after picking up his fourth foul, and Curtis took advantage of some sub-par Orange Wave defense after the break.

“Our defense sucked today,” Pollard said.

The Warriors (22–7) broke the press and pulled within two points with 5:20 remaining in the game. Jefferson again turned to Smith. He came off the bench and connected on his first two treys to ignite the Orange Wave. Sitting out had no affect on him.

“I don’t think I was cold,” Smith said. “I don’t think I get cold a lot.”

Jefferson (20–9) put the game away with a 7–0 run capped by a three–point play from St. John’s-bound guard Shamorie Ponds that put his team up 65–57 at the 1:59 mark. Ponds finished with 23 points, and Rasheem Dunn, who is headed to St. Francis College, chipped in 11.

“C.J. stepped up a lot,” Ponds said. “I’d say he won the game for us…[Those two threes] pretty much gave us our momentum.”

The Orange Wave and Smith refused to let Curtis end its season early, and now Jefferson goes to the semifinals at St. John’s University on March 5.

“That’s is what a senior is suppose to do,” Pollard said. “Go out shooting.”

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FORT GREENE: Magical mystery tour: ‘Pericles’ becomes a fairy-tale travelogue

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Brooklyn Daily

The little-produced Shakespeare play “Pericles” is pretty much bonkers, and this new production leans right into it.

“Pericles” feels more like an forerunner of an action movie than the poetic drama we expect from the Bard of Avon. The production currently running at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center, from celebrated British director Trevor Nunn, working with an American cast for the first time, fills every inch of the stage with vivid colors and original music.

The plot is packed: During the show’s two hours and 45 minutes, we get three shipwrecks, two foiled assassinations, a joust for the hand of a princess, a pirate kidnapping, the 17th-century equivalent of trafficked sex workers, a burial at sea, a famine, an incestuous king struck by lightning, and a hero constantly on the run from would-be killers. The poet Gower (Raphael Nash Thompson) sonorously narrates the action as if it were a Grimm’s fairy tale. Nunn has reassigned some dialogue and added a few lines — which stuck out a bit, to my ear — to make the poet a master of ceremonies, guiding the action with a cluster of musicians at his beck and call. The narration and the music give the evening an archetypal, folk-tale feel.

The actors, led by Thompson and Christian Camargo’s Pericles, have a fine sense of when to keep it simple and when to indulge in a little scenery-chewing for comic or melodramatic effect. Two of the villains, the incestuous Antiochus (Earl Baker) and a wicked foster mother (Nina Hellman) are deliciously bombastic. The boldly colored costumes, live music, and clever design give the piece a bright freshness. But there is so much journeying hither and yon, and so much parallel action in different locations, that any deeper themes get obscured. Still, there are plenty of incidental pleasures: the parade of knights vying in the jousting tourney; the genuinely touching reunion between Pericles and his daughter after 16 years of separation; and the racy brothel scenes — especially a terrifically entertaining sequence in which a madam (Patrice Johnson Chevannes) and her enforcer (John Keating) attempt to turn the virtuous Marina (Lilly Englert) into a prostitute, but are defeated by her implacable goodness.

It hardly feels like Shakespeare, but it is thoroughly enjoyable.

“Pericles” at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center [262 Ashland Place between Lafayette Avenue and Fulton Street in Fort Greene, (212) 229–2819, www.tfana.org]. Through March 27, Tue–Fri at 7:30 pm, Sat at 2 pm and 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm. $75–$100.

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FORT GREENE: Heart to art: New doc shows power of sharing stories

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By Alley Olivier

Brooklyn Daily

He stumbled into something great.

An international documentary screening at the Brooklyn Academy of Music next month highlights the power of art to transform the lives of children. But the director of “Art Connect” had no idea what would result when he brought his camera to Laventille, a region of Trinidad and Tobago with a dangerous reputation.

“What was supposed to be a three-week project with a five-minute video ended up being a year project with a feature documentary,” said director Miquel Galofre.

Instead of focusing on the area’s violence, the Spanish filmmaker put the spotlight on a group of children participating in a community arts project. His film follows eight of the 40 children participating in the “Arts Connect” program, which brought them together with local artists. The kids created visual art, music, and mini-documentaries of their home lives with GoPro cameras — an element that Galofre said added a whole new element to his movie.

“My favorite moment in the film is probably the GoPro footage that the students filmed by themselves. It gave us an access that is priceless and it showed how open and engaged with the project they were,” Galofre said.

Galofre hopes audiences will look at the struggles of these young people as an international topic, and will realize how instrumental art can be to making positive changes.

“To talk, to share your concerns, to open yourself and to get a passion can really completely change your life,” he said.

“Art Connect” will screen as part of the quarterly Caribbean Film series, a collaboration between BAMcinematek, the Brooklyn Cinema Collective, and the Caribbean Film Academy. The co-founder of Academy says that the screening shows the universal power of art.

“To quote one of the young men in the film, ‘Art is a picture of life.’ To see these Trinidadian youths lives transform on screen is amazing. We’re ecstatic to finally be able to present this documentary to Brooklyn and New York City audiences,” said Justen Blaize.

“Art Connect” will not be a one-and-done type of documentary. Galofre intends to shoot a follow-up about the children’s lives 10 years after their participation in the program.

The film will be preceded by a showing of “Auntie,” a short film by Bajan filmmaker Lisa Harewood about “barrel children” – kids shuffled between homes in the Caribbean and the United States.

“Art Connect” at BAM Rose Cinema [30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Place and St. Felix Street in Fort Greene, (718) 636–4100, www.bam.org] March 15 at 7:30 pm. $14.

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BRIGHTON BEACH: Bazaar accusation! Local publicly claims politically connected community board member of trying to kill grocery store

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By Dennis Lynch

Brooklyn Daily

She’s got this market cornered!

A Brighton Beach property owner exploded at the leader of a neighborhood business group during Community Board 13’s Feb. 24 meeting, publicly accusing the commerce honcho of using her influence to try and shutter his tenants’ grocery business as a favor to members of her trade group.

“You’re a crook!” property owner Aron Bronstein shouted at community board member and Brighton Beach Business Improvement District director Yelena Makhnin before the board’s chairman had him removed from the meeting.

Bronstein owns the Brighton Beach Avenue building housing the Master Theater and the Gourmanoff supermarket. A sliver of the structure — about 10 percent — is actually zoned for residential rather than commercial uses, and Bronstein wants the community board to support his request for a city variance letting the grocery store operate despite the zoning quirk.

Makhnin suggested the board table the ask until tenants finish upgrading a fire-sprinkler system covering the upstairs theater and a ground-floor lobby the venue shares with Gourmanoff.

Bronstein contends that Makhnin is obstructing the process because the business improvement district’s president owns an adjacent building that houses a competing supermarket. But Makhnin denied political motivation and said she is only interested in making the building safe.

“I don’t have any objections to any business or any landlord — the only objection I have is I believe crucial violations and issues such as fire safety should be cleared before any application with the city is cleared,” Makhnin said.

Bronstein is upgrading the building’s fire system “above and beyond” what law requires, he said. But Fire Department inspectors would not approve the new system during a December inspection — and that’s cause enough to wait, Makhnin said.

The board ultimately voted on the proposal, but members didn’t render enough affirmative votes, so the motion died, according to officials from Borough President Adams’s office that the board had to call in to officiate the contentious tally.

Bronstein’s attorney can still ask the city for the variance — but without a letter of approval from the board, the lawyer said.

Reach reporter Dennis Lynch at (718) 260–2508 or e-mail him at dlynch@cnglocal.com.

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FLATLANDS: Holy rollers! Proposed church-adjacent bus stop a sin, parishioners say

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By Julianne Cuba

Brooklyn Daily

This church’s doors are always open — just not for a new bus stop.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority must repent and put the brakes on a plan to put a bus stop outside of a Utica Avenue church, parishioners are demanding. The authority wants to create a B46 Select Bus Service stop in front of the Mamre Seventh-day Adventist Church at the corner of Avenue H. But the constant come-and-go of straphangers would make it tough for worshipers to keep focused, the flock’s leader said.

“Every time a bus comes in, people standing at the bus stop, that kinds of distracts your service,” said pastor Kenneth Jones. “If you’re going to worship God, you need to give him the respect he deserves.”

Officials picked the spot because it’s close to the existing stop and can accommodate the service’s sidewalk ticket kiosks, transit officials said.

Plans are still in the works but transportation honchos believe “the corner in front of the church is the best location for the SBS bus stop for both the safety and convenience of our customers,” according to an authority statement.

But the idea is a sin, because it would hamper church, funeral, and wedding services and even endanger the most vulnerable of the church’s 600 congregants, Jones said.

“When we have weddings — you can’t have the limo. We have funerals. And we have a lot of children. So a bus stop right in front, you never know what could happen,” said pastor Kenneth Jones.

Reach reporter Julianne Cuba at (718) 260–4577 or by e-mail at jcuba@cnglocal.com. Follow her on Twitter @julcuba.

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SHEEPSHEAD BAY: Dead in the water: City-state disagreement killing storm resiliency project

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By Julianne Cuba

Brooklyn Daily

Is it money down the drain?

Officials must make good on state-funded coastal resiliency projects promised in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, locals are demanding. Residents griped to city reps for failing to enact major sewer and flood-barrier projects following the historic storm at a Manhattan Beach Community Group meeting on Feb. 24. The mayor’s office is more interested in building a streetcar in gentrifying Brooklyn than pushing forward resiliency improvements locals have demanded, such as a tidal barrier on Plumb Beach and sewer backflow-prevention valves for homes, one frustrated Manhattan Beach man said.

“You don’t need a trolley line — spend the money here,” shouted the resident, who declined to give his name. “What they’ve done in many places where literally you have to build a [flood] barrier. For starters, we need a very low-tech situation — it’s called a check valve.”

Residents demanded major infrastructure improvements, but Manhattan and Albany can’t even agree on small projects, such as some sidewalk planters locals picked for a state-funded storm redevelopment grant. Community members selected the $500,000 project — which includes planters and drainage improvements on Emmons Avenue — as part of the state’s New York Rising program, which allocated $13.3 million to Sheepshead Bay and Gerritsen Beach for storm resiliency in March 2014. But locals have seen bupkis in the two years since, an area leader said.

“All of this money, we have not seen anything proceed,” said Community Board 15 chairwoman Theresa Scavo, who also sat on the state-impaneled committee that dreamed up the street-scaping. “We specifically allocated funding for plantings. It should be a no-brainer — go out on Emmons Avenue and do the planting — but we have not seen anything done.”

Citizens created the plan — which includes planters called “bioswales” that feature water-hungry plants and additional sewer drains — and the state signed off on it, but the city’s Department of Environmental protection put the kibosh on the project because it is too small —and now the story is on indefinite hold, a state representative said.

“As it stands now, the funds allotted to it in the planning process, it would fund 12 bioswales, and it wouldn’t have an effective impact,” the regional head of the Governor’s office’s New York Rising program Chelsea Muller told this paper.

The news really riled Scavo, who found out the project was on hold after a reporter from the Bay News called seeking additional comment.

“Unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable,” she said. “The amount of time that we put into this committee — and this is what we get out if it? There were professionals at the meetings that stated it would be a great idea. Pathetic.”

Reach reporter Julianne Cuba at (718) 260–4577 or by e-mail at jcuba@cnglocal.com. Follow her on Twitter @julcuba.

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JOE KNOWS: Tensions pushing Catholic girls’ hoops leagues further apart

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By Joseph Staszewski

Brooklyn Daily

Can’t they all just get along?

It might be the best way to describe the state of Catholic High School Athletic Association girls’ basketball right now. In recent years, the dioceses appeared to be moving closer to creating a three-tier intersectional league — much like the boys’ league — but the latest struggles with the Catholic state tournament make it seem like peace between the Hatfields and McCoys would be more realistic.

No one is happy under the current state playoff format, which requires each of the four dioceses to send at least one representative to a class AA, A, and B tournaments. Forcing them to come together simply isn’t working, because teams are being asked to move up and drop down from the classification they play in during the regular season.

“Lets make the rule — whatever the rule is — and abide by the rule,” Nazareth coach Ron Kelley said.

League officials unilaterally changed the rules a week before playoffs.

Brooklyn-Queens coaches are upset about the last-minute change. The new rules send the post-season tournament winner to the AA tournament and rewards their fifth and sixth-place finishers with a one-game playoff to go A.

The Archdiocese isn’t in love with the idea of forcing one of its A-league teams to compete in the AA tournament. Up in Buffalo, Cardinal O’Hara, which was a Class-B team two years ago, will be the diocese’s AA representative after winning its regular season title.

“Quite honestly it’s not fair,” Cardinal O’Hara Athletic Director Angelo Sciandra told the Buffalo News back in late January.

It is easy to see the current system must be scrapped next season, and league officials need to take another crack at this. In an ideal world, the Archdiocese (Bronx, Westchester, and Staten Island) and Brooklyn-Queens would form an intersectional league and solve all the problems. With that seeming unlikely, the leagues may need to go back in order to move things forward.

Teams would simply declare before the season what classification they are — like was done prior to the Catholic state tournament’s formation seven years ago. The state playoff format would then be determined based on the number of teams in each classification, much like the state’s independent school athletic association does.

Here are two added rules:

You cannot be a classification lower than your league, and you can moved down from AA to A with league approval if a player suffers a season-ending injury that severely hampers your level of play before Feb. 1. Call it the “Rosalyn Gold-Onwude rule,” because the eventual Stanford standout had that happen to her at Archbishop Molloy.

This format, while not ideal, should limit complaints, because everyone gets to play at the level they want to. No team is being forced to play up or down, and no coach will have to explain the playoff structure to their team more than once. The punch line — “It may change tomorrow” — goes away.

Either the Catholic league officials need to get serious about truly bringing everyone together or they must stop trying to slowly force it to happen. All it is doing is hurting the league’s credibility, hurting the girls, and potentially widening the gap between the parties at be.

Can’t they all get along?

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HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS: Leaders of the pack: Packer’s Pelicans win private-school Class-C crown

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By Trey Rodriguez

Brooklyn Daily

Blake Martin’s poor shooting in the league playoffs didn’t carry over into the state tournament.

The Packer Collegiate standout got off to a good start and led his top-seeded team to a convincing 70–44 victory over Staten Island Academy in the private school Class-C state title game at Fieldston on Feb. 28. The junior forward single-handedly out-scored Staten Island Academy 12–10 in the first quarter, hitting three after three.

“In our league tournament, he shot really poorly, and I think he just had the eye of the tiger today,” said Packer coach George Boutis. “When he hit his first few shots, I could tell that he’s on.”

Martin finished the game with six threes — three of them coming in the first quarter — and a game-high 28 points. Martin’s treys drew No. 2 Staten Island Academy’s defense to the perimeter, creating plenty of easy opportunities at the rim for his teammates.

“I want to get everyone in the game,” Martin said. “I don’t like all the attention, even though I know I can score. I like to give.”

Senior forward Zach Pine was one major beneficiary of Martin’s defense-baiting. Pine finished the game with 15 points, and when he wasn’t receiving feeds from Martin, he was making hustle plays to energize both his teammates and the crowd.

“We got the ball moving and Blake [Martin] hit his shots,” Pine said. “He’s an incredible player. It just made it so much easier for us and helped us loosen up. It was fantastic.”

The Pelicans’ offensive success created a confidence boost that translated into a better defensive effort as the game went on — largely thanks to coach Boutis who, despite the team’s lead, never stopped preaching intensity.

“That’s kind of been our mantra this year,” Martin said. “Keeping it intense and doing everything for 32 minutes. Just continuously keeping the pressure on, because we are a fighting team.”

Packer’s defensive efforts were evident after every quarter — it held the Tigers to just 10 points in each of the first three frames. Staten Island Academy guard Jordan Caruso struggled to get good looks at the rim, finishing with a team-high 12 points.

“We just made sure that we don’t step off the gas,” Pine said. “In the past, we’ve played against teams and gotten up on a lead, they’ve pressured us and gotten themselves back in the game. We weren’t going to stop until the final buzzer sounded.”

Collegiate 66, Poly Prep 31: Top-seeded Poly Prep continues to wait for a state title as star player Najee Taylor wasn’t his usual self while trying to play through a sprained ankle. The Bay Ridge school lost handily on Feb. 28. Poly Prep never got it going, trailing 20–2 after a quarter. Poly, which lost regular-season meetings with the Dutchman, has not won since 2004.

“Taylor’s absence really effects the way we play on offense,” said Poly Prep coach Ben Kettering. “We like to go through both of our post players and they work really well off of one another. It’s a different kind of game.”

Taylor did start and attempted to play. However, after a tough first half, coach Kettering benched him to allow him to rest his ankle. Poly Prep’s lack of offense buried the team’s chances of winning with Jason Cam putting on a dominant performance for No. 2 Collegiate.

“When things are going against you like that, we had to take it a possession at a time,” Kettering said. “They played an outstanding game. Jason Cam was incredible, and it was tough to stop him.”

Cam finished with 22 points, out-scoring Poly Prep for most of the first half. Griffin Walsh finished with eight points for Poly Prep.

“Our guys battled — that’s what I was proud of,” Kettering said. “We battled for four quarters, when things weren’t going our way on either side of the ball. They continued to play hard. It was tough to beat Collegiate.”

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Relentless Royals dash Loughlin’s title hopes

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By Stepeh Zitolo

Brooklyn Daily

Bishop Loughlin’s girls out-played a tired Christ the King squad the last time the teams met — but a rested Royals club was a different story.

The Lions gave the Royals the fits at times, but the Queens team’s relentless senior attack in the second half overwhelmed Bishop Loughlin, handing it a 96–71 defeat in the Brooklyn school’s first Brooklyn-Queens Division I basketball final on Feb. 28.

“They played better,” Loughlin coach Chez Williams said. “Congrats to Christ the King. They played better. They were the better team tonight.”

It was a game of runs early on in the match-up. The Lions got out to a roaring 7–2 start, holding Christ the King’s offense at bay for the first three minutes.

Then the Royals exploded, going on a 14–0 run and jumping out to a 16–7 advantage. The Lions (19–7) got close, but Christ the King (17–8) ended the quarter on a 7–0 run — and a 25–18 lead.

The Lions clawed back the lead early in the second quarter, but control was brief — the Royals’ seniors stepped up. Dominique Toussaint drained two threes, and Sydney Zambrotta made two free throws in the half’s final minute to propel Christ the King to a 41–35 lead it would not relinquish.

“I feel that my girls have to learn that you cannot allow a team like that to come back once you put them down, you have to put them down,” Williams said. “We just didn’t do a good job of that.”

Christ the King outscored Loughlin 55–36 in the second half. Creating offense became tougher as Laysha de los Santos, Lynette Taitt, and Skydajah Patterson got in foul trouble.

The defeat ends the Lions’ season, because the league changed its Catholic state tournament criteria a week before the playoffs. Under the previous plan, Loughlin would be the diocese’s Class-A representative — instead it is going home.

“It’s disappointing the way it was done,” Williams said. “It’s not disappointing that we lost — it’s what happens. But you change the rules a week before, so kids were set on what we told them the rule was already. So that’s the bad part. When you do that to kids, it doesn’t set a good precedent.”

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