Saturday, February 22, 2014

This Old Man

Roger Angell and Andy ~ Central Park, January 2014
Photo by Brigitte Lacombe
Roger Angell is best known for his writings over several decades about America's pastime, baseball, in The New Yorker magazine.

In this week's issue, he writes elegiacally about getting old: This Old Man - Life in the 90s.
"Getting old is the second-biggest surprise of my life, but the first, by a mile, is our unceasing need for deep attachment and intimate love. We oldies yearn daily and hourly for conversation and renewed domesticity, for company at the movies or while visiting a museum, for someone close by in the car when coming home at night. Rowing in Eden (in Emily Dickenson's words: 'Rowing in Eden - Ah - the sea') isn't reserved for the lithe and young, the dating or the hooked up or the just lavishly married, or even for couples in the middle aged mixed-doubles semifinals, thank God. No personal confession or revelation impends here, but these feelings in old folks are widely treated like a raunchy secret. The invisibility factor - you've had your turn - is back at it again. But I believe that everyone in the world wants to be with someone else tonight, together in the dark, with the warmth of a hip or a foot or a bare expanse of shoulder within reach. Those of us who have lost that, whatever our age, never lose the longing: just look at our faces. If it returns, we seize upon it avidly, stunned and altered again."
He also poignantly quotes Laurence Olivier on aging: "Inside, we're all 17, with red lips."

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Shoveling Snow


Suburban living has certain advantages over apartment living in the city, but shoveling snow isn't one of them, at least according to the grousing in the steam room at the gym this morning. It always strikes me absurd how middle-age men will complain endlessly about things like shoveling their walk and driveway, but will dress up like candy canes and wear their de rigueur $200 shoes and heart monitors to sweat in a spinning class. And the silent majority keeps their comments to themselves since they just pay someone else to do it.

Perhaps it's my family's agrarian roots, but shoveling snow is just one of many outdoor chores like mowing, raking, weeding and pruning, that offer natural, zen-like rewards and have the extra bonus of being good exercise that helps balance the hours spent inside in a chair before a keyboard and monitor. Why wouldn't you?

But, according to a recent Washington Post article, Should you shovel snow?, many Americans, for one reason or another, shouldn't. The fact that the only rationale for shoveling your own snow (gasp, it's good exercise!) comes in the article's final paragraph speaks volumes.
“Shoveling snow is a significant physical effort,” said John G. Harrald, president of the American College of Cardiology. “Patients who have known coronary artery disease under management and treatment are obviously a group that would be advised not to shovel snow.”
A second group consists of people with a variety of risk factors but no history of coronary disease. Smokers, anyone with a strong family history of heart disease and those with high blood pressure are some examples, Harold said. If you fit those categories and are middle-aged or older, take particular caution, he said. Across the population, more heart attacks occur in winter than in summer.
If you do get out there, watch for symptoms of heart difficulties: unexpected chest tightness, shortness of breath, and pain or burning in the chest, jaw or shoulder, Harold said. Do not assume that a strange muscular pain is due to exertion. Symptoms of a heart attack include pain referred to other parts of the body.
“It’s all about common sense and logic, and when you sense something is going wrong, don’t force yourself through it,” he said.
Speaking of forcing: In 2012, 34,200 people were treated in hospital emergency rooms for snow-removal-related injuries, said Claudette Lajam, an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at NYU Langone Medical Center’s Hospital for Joint Diseases.
The most common, not surprisingly, are musculoskeletal strains, especially to the lower back, shoulders and knees.
Lajam’s advice: Warm up and stretch a bit indoors before layering up and heading out to shovel. Push the snow instead of lifting it, and don’t twist to throw it. Use a smaller shovel to keep the load down. Practice proper lifting technique: Squat with legs apart and back straight. Pace yourself and take breaks. Don’t get dehydrated.
“A lot of people aren’t in great shape . . . and instead of your muscles taking on the weight of the snow, the burden of the task is taken on by the bones,” she said. Disks in the spine also take a beating on days like today, she said.
All that considered, shoveling is actually an excellent workout if done properly. According to a 1999 surgeon general’s report, 15 minutes of snow-shoveling qualifies as a “moderate amount of physical activity,” the kind the government wants you to do nearly each day."
The government? Great, does that mean my snow shovel is tapped?

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

"Ladies and gentlemen, The Beatles!"

The Beatles in Limo ~ Curt Gunther ~ February 1964
It was 50 years ago this week that The Beatles performed three times on The Ed Sullivan show.



And just under five years later, they played their last live performance from the rooftop of their Savile Row Apple Corps headquarters.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

The New Yorker in Westport


Albert Hubbel ~ August 20, 1973 ~ Compo Beach
Noepe readers are familiar with our penchant for sharing covers and cartoons from The New Yorker magazine. We grew up reading it every week, and favorite covers and cartoons were often hung in picture frames, shellacked to bathroom walls, or stuck to the refrigerator door. We're now third-generation subscribers, still save some covers now and then, but mostly share favorite images digitally. An added family twist was that Rea Irvin's cover of the monocled dandy Eustace Tilley inspecting a butterfly, the magazine's inaugural cover in 1925 and published every February since, coincided with my parent's February 20, 1954 wedding day and anniversary.

Imagine our delight when the Westport Historical Society chose to mount its current exhibit, Cover Story: The New Yorker in Westport. We were always aware while growing up there in the 50s, 60s and 70s that Westport was home to many artists and illustrators. What we didn't know was that "between 1925 and 1989, 16 New Yorker artists living in and around Westport produced a remarkable 761 covers for the magazine, including 44 inspired by Westport scenes."

Here are three additional covers from the exhibit with special meaning given our childhood home off Green's Farms Road and years at the Green's Farms Congregational Church. Thanks for the memories.

Arthur Getz ~ May 21, 1960 ~ Connecticut Turnpike
Edna Eicke ~ June 6, 1957 ~ Green's Farms Congregational Church
Rea Irvin ~ Eustace Tilley ~ February 20, 1954