The Rogovoy Report 4.17.23

From around the corner to around the globe...

Apr 16, 2023

The Problem with the Retirement Age Is That It’s Too High

(The Atlantic) - As France is wracked by furious protests over President Emmanuel Macron’s plan for pension cuts, a bipartisan group of legislators on Capitol Hill is discussing how to make Social Security available to a smaller group of workers. People are living longer, the argument goes, and benefit programs are running out of money. Shifting the retirement age higher is a reasonable, desirable, and necessary fix. Except it is not reasonable. It is not desirable. And it is not necessary. Indeed, the opposite is true: Politicians should let Americans retire with security and dignity by making retirement benefits more generous and by promising to lower the retirement age.

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Stop telling everyone what you do for a living (WSJ)

The exhausting history of fatigue (New Yorker)

‘Amazon doesn’t care about books’: How Barnes & Noble bounced back (The Guardian)

Chef, pizzaiolo, and owner of Hilltown Hot Pies Rafi Bildner stands in front of the former John Andrews Farmhouse Restaurant after purchasing the property from former John Andrews owner Dan Smith.

Rafi Bildner and Hilltown Hot Pies Acquire John Andrews Farmhouse Restaurant Property

(Berkshire Edge) EGREMONT, Mass. - Hilltown Hot Pies, chef and pizzaiolo Rafi Bildner’s mobile and pop-up pizza business, is setting down firm roots in the Berkshires. On Friday, April 7, longtime chef and owner of John Andrews Farmhouse Restaurant Dan Smith sold the legendary Egremont restaurant property to Bildner. Bildner had long been looking for a property to evolve his mobile artisanal pizza operation, Hilltown Hot Pies, into a physical space. The John Andrews property was a natural fit for his dream of a rural pizza-focused destination, a place for building community, and a celebration of the New England landscape. Bildner built a reputation for his naturally leavened dough using regional grains and for his inventive pizzas featuring ingredients from area farms. Read also, Hilltown Hot Pies owner Rafi Bildner has big plans for John Andrews (Berkshire Eagle)

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House of Seasoning offering a taste of West Africa in Pittsfield (RI)

Noradamus Wilson’s Emporium Snack Bar opens in North Adams (iBerkshires)

The one granola brand Ina Garten always eats for dessert is made in the Berkshires (Tasting Table)

After working at Joe’s Diner for five decades, Margaret MacDowell, at 71, isn’t quitting anytime soon (B Eagle)

Shaina Lowe-Banayan of Hudson’s Cafe Mutton a finalist for James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef in New York State award (GoR)

Chatham Brewing burger nominated for best in NY (HV360)

Farmers cooperative to open in Catskill (HV360)

Chleo in Kingston is a vision of the foodie future (ATU)

Five new places to eat and drink at in the Hudson Valley (Chronogram)

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Photographer Gregory Crewdson on Blue Velvet and the Berkshires

(Interview) - When Gregory Crewdson’s newest body of work, Eveningside, premiered at the Gallerie d’Italia last fall, it was accompanied by a little-known selection of firefly photographs he took more than 25 years ago. At first blush, the two series have little in common: Eveningside, like much of Crewdson’s later work, is glossy and meticulous; Fireflies is grainy and instinctive. But a new monograph reveals that they have one important trait in common: both were shot in the Berkshires region of Western Massachusetts, where the artist spent summers growing up and now owns a home of his own.

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‘Save the Triplex’ group moving forward in forming a nonprofit organization to purchase the theater (Berkshire Edge)

Donald Morrison asks, Can Great Barrington muster a Bedford Falls-style rescue to give the Triplex Cinema ‘A Wonderful Life’? (Berkshire Eagle)

Matt Cusson soaked up all sorts of music as a kid. When he was nominated for a Grammy Award, ‘It was like a dream’ (B Eagle)

Manhattan Chamber Players making Close Encounters With Music debut with ‘Bach Brandenburg to Appalachian Spring’ concert at Mahaiwe (B Eagle)

Emmet Cohen, Houston Person and Anton Kot Quintet to perform during Pittsfield CityJazz Festival (B Eagle)

At Spencertown Academy, Rachelle Garniez and Erik Della Penna to play old and new music of New York City (B Eagle)

In ‘Black Stars: Writing in the Dark’ at MASS MoCA, artist-musician Jason Moran is influenced by a deep material history (B Eagle)

Renowned ballerina Misty Copeland to receive 2023 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award (Boston Globe)

Berkshire Nonprofit Awards to honor Julianne Boyd with lifetime achievement honor (Broadway World)

Hillsdale’s LABspace offers a visual feast of radical bodies and isolated city landscapes (RI)

The ultimate guide to drive-in movie theaters in the Hudson Valley (ATU)

Bard’s historic Blithewood Garden to get much-needed restoration (RI)

NEWS FROM THE BERKSHIRES

Jamie McCormack, a Great Barrington psychotherapist and mother, opened Refill GB on Main Street last week to create nontoxic and reusable solutions for people anxious about the plastics problem and a changing climate. (photo Heather Bellow)

Pollution Was Keeping Her Up at Night. So Jamie Mccormack Opened Refill GB, Where Customers Can Buy Sustainable Products

(Berkshire Eagle) by Heather Bellow, GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. - The thought of climate change and of so much toxic plastic befouling the earth was keeping psychotherapist and mother Jamie McCormack up at night. It was also troubling her clients. So, McCormack decided to do something about it. “One of the ways to deal with anxiety,” she said, “is to do what you can. I know I can't do it all." From Refill GB, a small new shop on 152 Main St. where the fragrance of essential oils takes the edge off, McCormack is selling refillable bottles and natural, nontoxic bulk products to go into them.

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Great Barrington police investigating swastikas, racist slurs carved into the sand at Lake Mansfield (Berkshire Eagle)

Community activist Sharon Gregory running for Great Barrington Selectboard seat (Berkshire Edge)

After rocky discourse, Great Barrington approves Habitat for Humanity’s affordable housing project (B Eagle)

A developer has proposed a second affordable housing complex in Lenox, just north of his Brushwood Farm project (B Eagle)

After summer tease, spring weather arrives (B Eagle)

Camp Emerson in Hinsdale to continue as summer camp under new ownership (B Eagle)

Marijuana dispensary chain owner in Williamstown has license suspended due to ‘threats of violence’ (B Eagle)

Gov. Healey takes action to protect access to medication abortion (iBerkshires)

Berkshire Harm Reduction begins installation of boxes filled with free, overdose-reversing drug naloxone for public use (WAMC)

NEWS FROM THE HUDSON VALLEY

A Haven for Bookworms in the Catskills

(Boston Globe) HOBART, N.Y. - Hobart Book Village is not too far away, in the northern Catskills. It’s a bucolic, blink-and-you-miss-it hamlet of fewer than 500 souls that was reinvented as a book village in 2005 through the efforts of local entrepreneur, Don Dales. Dales is Hobart Book Village’s prime mover, unofficial mayor, and, as it happens, an accomplished pianist. He sought to revive a faded and economically depressed community and, after hearing about Hay-on-Wye, hit upon the idea of using books to do so. He bought up a few key buildings on Main Street and rented them to bookshops at drastically reduced rates (initially zero dollars). And it worked. Now, according to Dales, “instead of tumbleweeds, we have pedestrians walking down Main Street.” He adds, somewhat emphatically, that the name of the village is pronounced “Hobert.” So now you know.

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Holmquest marks 80 years of farming in Hudson (HV360)

NYS may redraw election districts (WAMC)

Riley will challenge Molinaro for 19th Congressional District seat; so might Michelle Hinchey (Daily Freeman)

Galvan to rehabilitate and build single-family homes in Savannah, Ga. (Savannah Agenda, h/t GoR)

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