The Rogovoy Report 5.1.23

From around the corner to around the globe...

Apr 30, 2023

America Fails the Civilization Test

(Atlantic) - The true test of a civilization may be the answer to a basic question: Can it keep its children alive? For most of recorded history, the answer everywhere was plainly no. Roughly half of all people—tens of billions of us—died before finishing puberty until about the 1700s, when breakthroughs in medicine and hygiene led to tremendous advances in longevity. In Central Europe, for example, the mortality rate for children fell from roughly 50 percent in 1750 to 0.3 percent in 2020. You will not find more unambiguous evidence of human progress. How’s the U.S. doing on the civilization test? When graded on a curve against its peer nations, it is failing. The U.S. mortality rate is much higher, at almost every age, than that of most of Europe, Japan, and Australia. That is, compared with the citizens of these nations, American infants are less likely to turn 5, American teenagers are less likely to turn 30, and American 30-somethings are less likely to survive to retirement.

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Lean into negative emotions. It’s the healthy thing to do. (NYT)

Why we must read fiction even as terrible times loom (WaPo)

Jenny Odell’s search for a new kind of time. (The Nation)

Dottie’s Plans Expansion to Former Mission Bar and Tapas

(iBerkshires) PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A North Street staple is expanding to the former Mission Bar and Tapas. On Monday, the Licensing Board approved a transfer of premise, license, and pledge of license from On A Mission LLC to Dottie's Coffee LLC. Owner Jessica Rufo plans to reopen the eatery as "Dorothy’s," an expansion of the business that is open later. The wall between the two spaces will be taken down to allow access between them. Rufo opened the coffee lounge and eatery about 15 years ago. Mission closed last fall after 15 years in business.

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More than just selling groceries, Loeb’s Foodtown in Lenox cultivating community (Berkshire Edge)

Berkshire Bounty founders fighting food insecurity — one delivery at a time (Berkshire Eagle)

Hot Tomatoes pizzeria in Billsville closed after almost 30 years in business (B Eagle)

Adams Tavern and Inn closes after just two months in business (B Eagle)

A Brazilian market and bakery, Brazzucas, is coming to downtown Pittsfield (B Eagle)

Casa Susanna in Leeds, N.Y., is a modern take on traditional Mexican cuisine (ATU)

Blackbarn Hudson Valley restaurant charms in Saugerties (Chronogram)

The underrated pleasures of eating dinner early (New Yorker)

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Mitch Nash (left) and Seth Nash in the offices of Blue Q in Pittsfield (photo E.M. Marcus/courtesy Berkshire Edge)

Blue Q: A Cultural Revolution with Cat-itude

(Berkshire Edge) PITTSFIELD, Mass. - The social anthropologist, philosopher, and psychedelic pioneer Terrence McKenna once famously opined that “culture is not your friend.” From jacked-up, militaristic blockbusters to supermarket-pumped corporate pop music to unaffordable designer luxuries produced with child labor (we’re looking at you, Big Tech), how healthy are our society and its products? This is what brothers Seth and Mitch Nash, owners, managers and gurus of Pittsfield-based gift company Blue Q, want to talk about most. In an age when “corporate culture” is increasingly prized as a means of attracting investors, employees, and customers, or is held up as a reason why a company should change and adapt to the times (or be shuttered forever), there could never be a better time to have new ideas about the way we conduct our society in the workplace. The Misters Nash have them in spades.

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BIFF announces 2023 lineup (Berkshire Edge)

Ellsworth Kelly’s life, work and philanthropy will be celebrated at Spencertown Academy (B Eagle)

Carrie Schneider’s ‘Sphinx’ at MASS MoCA is an intervention for the photo weary of the digital age (B Eagle)

A little-known singer named Connie Converse made haunting music that combined strains of American folk, blues and country. Then her work was nearly lost. In a new book, Howard Fishman rediscovers the life and music behind the mystery. (WSJ)

The 'sad dads' of the National now make their music at a home studio near Hudson, N.Y. (New Yorker)

NEWS FROM THE BERKSHIRES

Legendary Dream Away Lodge Reopens

(Berkshire Edge) BECKET, Mass. - After three years of being closed, hundreds of people attended the reopening of the Dream Away Lodge on Saturday, April 22. Customers eager to come back to the legendary lodge lined up outside of the building for quite some time before it reopened. The decor of the lodge remains mostly the same as it has throughout the years, with artifacts and photos of famous visitors on its walls from throughout its history. Musical entertainment was provided by Michael Merenda and Ruth Ungar of the band The Mammals. The reopening was the closure of a three-year-long saga in the Dream Away’s long and storied history. The lodge, which operates out of a more than 200-year-old farmhouse, has a legacy that goes back 90 years from its founding by Mamma Maria Frasca.

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Lenox restaurateur Ryan Salame, a former top FTX executive and a prolific Republican donor, faces mounting legal pressure for his role in Sam Bankman-Fried’s business empire. The FBI has searched his Maryland home. (NYT)

Select Board candidates agree that Great Barrington needs young families and workers (Berkshire Eagle)

Walgreens abruptly closing Great Barrington store (B Eagle)

South County Recovery Center to receive Great Barrington’s opioid settlement funds (B Edge)

North Adams residents and officials have a lot of unanswered questions about a proposed homeless shelter in an MCLA dorm (B Eagle)

New pot dealership opens in Pittsfield (iBerkshires)

April showers bring ... May showers (B Eagle)

Northampton named one of the ‘most hippie towns’ in US (WWLP)

NEWS FROM THE HUDSON VALLEY

Hudson ‘Wellness Hub’ Would Divert Those in Crisis from Courts, Motels and ER

(ATU) HUDSON, N.Y. - For the past two years, elected officials, police, social workers and mental health professionals in Columbia County have been meeting to hash out a plan that could change the way homelessness, drug addiction and mental illness are treated in the area. They are focused on plans to build The Wellness Hub, which backers say would address persistent problems faced by the city of Hudson and the wider county while genuinely helping those going through crises, as well as taking pressure off local police and the emergency room and saving the county money. The hub would serve county residents in crisis by offering a range of resources, including a “safe haven"-style shelter, therapy, peer counseling and social services, steering them away from the court system and the emergency room.

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Hudson’s educational program Kite’s Nest gets $1.8 million for new campus (HV360)

Columbia County ‘hungry for change,’ DA hopeful says (HV360)

City council weighs Hudson parking bureau (HV360)

Tourism rebounds as pandemic recedes (HV360)

Todd Farrell of Hudson, N.Y., was saved by an organ donor. 400 New Yorkers a year aren't so lucky. (ATU)

Ulster County subsidizes squalor at well-known Kingston motel (HV1)

Complaint alleges Molinaro violated election campaign law (HV360)

Control of the House goes through the Empire State (Politico)

The Rogovoy Report