By Dee Richard
It’s terrible having your wings clipped. In my case, it’s a pinched sciatic nerve. Thank goodness this hasn’t been a terribly busy week, so I really didn’t miss that much.
The events I did manage to get to started on Thursday, when Jeff Rosenstock of Queens Theater in the Park gave a presentation of his Asian Cultural Festival to be held April 18−19 at QTIP. The promo for the festival started off with a cocktail party sponsored by Thomas and Stephen Chen of Crystal Windows and Doors. Thomas is one of my favorite Queensites. He’s truly an American success story and has always given back to his community. His son, Stephen, is a chip off the old block and a rising star in his own right.
To Jeff’s, credit he has tried to give representation to the diversity that is Queens in his venues presented at QTIP and, after all, diversity is what we in Queens are all about.
The second event on Thursday was the New Visions Democratic Club’s sixth annual dinner−dance at Joe Abbracciamento Restaurant on Woodhaven Boulevard in Rego Park. Its president is Yonel Letellier and its district leaders are Danny Dromm and Dorothy Phelan. The honorees for the evening were City Councilman Eric Gioia, Jacqueline Sung and Yolanda Anderson. It was a fun evening with a great turnout. Newly elected state Assemblyman Michael Den Dekker drove down from Albany to join the festivities, then he had to leave at 6 a.m. Friday morning to drive back to Albany to work on the budget.
The week’s big event that we attended was, of course, the grand opening of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s campaign headquarters at 116−49 Queens Blvd. in Forest Hills on Saturday at 11 a.m.
What a tremendous turnout! The place was packed to the rafters. Some of the more notable folks we saw from our vantage point, being squashed into a corner, were state Sen. Frank Padavan, former state Sen. Serf Maltese, former Councilman Anthony Como, Bart Haggarty, Matt Hunter, Myrna Littleworth, Janet Malone, Myra Baird−Herce, Chuck Wade, Michael Neubauer, Joe Gravagna, Peter Koo and hundreds of others. They were the ones I was able to rub elbows with in my corner of the room. There were so many others I just couldn’t get to.
The resounding chant was, “Four more years, four more years!” The crowd’s enthusiasm was overwhelming. I’ve never seen so many members of the press and TV channels represented at a local event.
From our seat, it looks like our guy Mike is about to do it again.
The upcoming week is going to be a busy one, with the annual Queens Top Women in Business Awards at Terrace on the Park scheduled for this week.
The Queens Village Republican Club, also on April 2, was slated to present the honorable Herman Badillo with its Educator of the Year Award.
On April 3, the Queens Chamber of Commerce, at its Breakfast Before Business Seminar, will present the topic “Protecting Your Intellectual Properties.” On April 4, the Alley Pond Environmental Center is having a square dance, which sounds like a lot of fun. On April 5, Dan Halloran is having his first fund−raiser at Uncle Jack’s Steakhouse on Bell Boulevard in Bayside from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. It’s a big week ahead.
That’s it for this week.
I always look forward to hearing from you with information on people, parties or politics or gossip.
I like receiving your voice mails at 718−767−6484, faxes at 718−746−0066 and e−mails at deerrichard@aol.com.
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Till next week, Dee.
