ROUND-UP: Guns in schools

The debate over gun control was inflamed anew yesterday after ten people were shot at a school in Finland. The AP has released footage from YouTube, as well as stats on guns in Finland and the political fallout, as gruesome new details emerge about what happened. Blabbermouth.net takes a cultural angle on the shootings, noting the musical tastes of the killer. 

On the same day, the principal of a Christian high school in western Canada wrestled a pellet gun away from a young man who walked into the school's morning chapel services. The Canadian Press has footage. Meanwhile, in Oklahoma City, a high school is locked down after police arrested a student carrying a gun.

The day before, the National Rifle Association released an ad accusing Barack Obama of seeking to raise taxes on guns and ammunition, and banning shotguns and rifles. The ad is called "Hunter."

Memorable Moment: Standing in line for the first time at 62

Iris Dolphin walked briskly until she approached the place where about a dozen people were waiting in line. She gave them a glance, hesitated for a few moments, but then firmly took her place in the line.

Sporting red leather pants, matching sunglasses and an angry look on her face, Dolphin stood out from the crowd. That was, however, only the surface of what separated her from the rest of the people waiting in line at a food pantry at St. Benedict the Moor Center in Mott Haven, Bronx.

“I’m 62, and I’m standing on line for the first time in my life,” said Dolphin explaining the real difference between her and other people in the line. Her eyes sparkled with rage as she explained the circumstances she faces. “I’m in foreclosure. I’m forced to come here.”

Fifteen minutes later Dolphin was holding two bags of food in her hands. Pleased with the way she was treated by the volunteers in the food pantry, Dolphin seemed to have overcome the initial uneasiness about being there the first time.

“I guess I’m gonna be here every week,” she concluded, leaving the food pantry.

Link Round Up: Ahmadinejad at the United Nations

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday criticizing the administration of George Bush and declaring that the “American empire ... is reaching the end”.

He also blasted Israel saying “the Zionist regime is on a definite slope to collapse, and there is no way for it to get out of the cesspool created by itself and its supporters.”

Ahmadinejad spoke a few hours after President Bush made his final appearance before the U.N. General Assembly, urging the international community to stand firm against the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea. At one point during Bush's 22-minute speech, Ahmadinejad turned to Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and gave a thumb's down.

During interviews ahead of his speech Tuesday, Ahmadinejad blamed U.S. military interventions around the world in part for the collapse of global financial markets.

On the subject of Iran's nuclear program, he said that Iran would “resist” Western bullies attempting to prevent the country acquiring civilian nuclear technology.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/09/24/ahmadinejad.us.iran/

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran23-2008sep23,0,2913574.story

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94887472

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2008/09/2008923204537817894.html

http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=178539

http://news.yahoo.com/story/ap/20080924/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush

Coney Island: Links

Here’s a round-up of various media stories about the closing of Astroland:

Albert said she wanted a two-year lease this time, to cover the summers of 2009 and 2010, because her 300 employees needed more job security.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/09/05/coney.island.ap/

Joe Sitt, to whom Albert sold her property in 2006 for $30 million, said the developer won’t negotiate through the media or with a gun held to their heads.

http://gothamist.com/2008/09/04/coney_island_astroland_to_close_for.php

Astroland’s rides are already on sale on the Internet. Prices range from $95,000 for the merry-go-round to $199,000 for the bumper cars.

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/09/coney-islands-astroland-park-closes/

More information about the Astroland rides on sale on the Internet:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1017580/goodbye_to_coney_island_astroland_hello.html?cat=8

Carol Albert stresses she hasn’t given up on Coney Island, as Thor Equities has stated. She has given up on negotiating with Thor.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/09/04/2008-09-04_coney_islands_astroland_owner_calls_it_q.html

The Coney Island Development Project is working to make Coney Island a yeat-long recreational destination.

http://www.thecidc.org/Index.html

The president of the Coney Island Development Project accuses Joe Sitt of buying up boardwalk land and

cleaning out rides to force the mayor to let him build luxury condos.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09192008/news/regionalnews/city_rides_bizman_over_coney_closure_129814.htm

Coney Island Development Project presents “Coney Island 2009?” A presentation about the future of Coney Island, considering new rezoning laws.

http://www.observer.com/2008/real-estate/be-very-very-scared-coney-island-without-rezoning-warns-city-0

PROFILE: Happiness is a small white truck

Columbia Business School graduates end up in a lot of places, but selling food out of a truck isn't usually one of them. So it's fun to imagine how Chris Chen's parents reacted when he told them that instead of joining an investment bank like many of his classmates, his recipe for success after graduation would be a little different: recruit (1) pastry chef from Le Cirque; buy (1) white truck; offer (6) restaurant-quality desserts; charge (5) dollars for each; sprinkle with stops throughout the East Village; and make lots of ($). 

So far, the recipe looks pretty good. Chris and his partner Jerome Chang launched the Dessert Truck last year, and the critics went wild. The New York Times called the pair's creme brulee "textbook and top-notch." New York Magazine warned that the hot chocolate was "nearly lethal." The Dessert Truck even made USAToday's top-ten list of America's best movable feasts.     

Running a Dessert Truck isn't all glory. At the end of a late night, Chris returns the truck to a garage in the outer boroughs, schleps home to his apartment in Manhattan, then gets up early the next day to begin preparing that night's chocolate bread pudding and goat cheese cheesecake. But that's he's making money and making people happy. He may even start getting applications from his classmates at Lehman.

MEMORABLE MOMENT: First July 4th

For Canadians, an excess of patriotism is as enviable as an excess of stomach gas. So I grimaced when the man in uniform announced, from the side of the stage, that all servicemen and women, veterans, or their families, were asked to stand during the appropriate portion of the Armed Forces Medley. 

It was last July 4th, and I had decided to spend my first Independence Day in the United States by seeing the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center. To celebrate the occasion, the conductor had invited the United States Military Academy Band to join the Philharmonic onstage for the second half of the show, and sitting through the Medley seemed to be the price of an otherwise enjoyable review of Aaron Copland greats. So I buckled down and waited for it to be over. 

A few bars into the Medley, the man in uniform shouted out "Coast Guard." An old man in the third row stood up; a handful of others followed, gingerly at first, then with more confidence. The man in uniform shouted "Navy," and more stood up, faster this time, and different ages--old men, but young men too. He shouted "Marines," and more young people stood up, men but also women, standing on their own or holding the hands of young children. At the shout of "Air Force" whole groups of people sprang up around the room, older men with their wives, their children, friends they had served with, young families too. 

Finally, the man cried out "Army," and great swaths of the auditorium were on their feet, old and young, men and women, children raised up out of their seats by mothers and grandparents and aunts and uncles, smiling at them as if to say, See, it's alright, other people's fathers are over there too.

Patriotism may be a foreign concept for Canadians. But that one moment, on my first July 4th in America,  I got the idea.

Mini-Profile: Preserving Prospect Park

Richard Engquist, 75, is a devoted volunteer at Prospect Park. For 35 years, the Brooklyn resident has been keeping the park's trails and grounds looking their best. Engquist volunteers three times a week, with duties ranging from planting and mulching, to picking up litter to removing exotic plants that are taking over native flora. On Sunday, September 21 he showed off a nearly full trash bag, the sixth bag he had filled in just 3 hours by picking up trash along the walking trails, and laughed, "I'm keeping busy."

When Engquist first started volunteering with Prospect Park, there weren't many others dedicated to keeping the area clean. Now he says there are lots of volunteers and a variety of jobs for them to fill, from operating the carousel in the children's area to running the historic Leffert House. With his woodland crew focusing on keeping the natural areas of the park in good condition, Engquist shows no sign of stopping soon; as he puts it, "There's always something to do."