By Dee Richard
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Just one more month till Christmas. It kind of crept up on us, didn’t it?
While the holidays are a lot of work, they do bring out the best in people. The spirit of giving and trying to make someone else happy makes the giver feel equally good as the receiver. It’s also a time when family and friends get together in a spirit of camaraderie as well as everyone smoking the peace pipe, which will ensure that they won’t start to kill each other again until at least after the New Year.
On Nov. 16, former City Councilman Mike Abel was the guest speaker at the Northeast Queens Republican Club’s November meeting. We haven’t seen or heard much from or about him in quite some time. He is an excellent speaker. At the meeting, he announced he is due to retire soon from the New York City Housing Authority.
Could it be our man Mike is exploring the possibility of running for an elected position again after he retires? If so, he would be an excellent candidate. Political pundits please take note, assuming he really might be interested in running again.
As far as I can remember, he ran three times for his Council seat and won three times. Mike Able, like many other councilmen, fell victim to the new term limits mandate. Whether or not his running would be desirable or feasible, it gives us something interesting to contemplate.
Last Thursday night, the Queens County Women’s Bar Association held its annual Judiciary Night at the Queens Museum of Art. It was well-attended and had a number of interesting guests.
Two of them were Therese and Catherine Troy, two of Matthew Troy’s children. When those present were informed that Matty had nine children, the question was, “When did he have time to take care of his job as chairman of the Queens Democratic organization?” The girls said they wished to thank me again for the lovely article I had written about their dad after he died.
Another snippet of conversation was with Judge Darryl Gavrin. Her daughter Brittany has taken and passed the New York and New Jersey bar examinations the first time out. Congratulations! The new barrister’s mom reminded me that the first photo I had ever taken of Brittany was a photo in the court on a Take Your Child to Work Day. Her mom says the newspaper photo is framed and still hanging in her chambers. That photo was taken in the 1990s.
With all these bits of Queens informational trivia floating around, it’s getting awfully hard to try and get away with the Jack Benny “I’m only 39” routine.
Then again, one of the evening’s honorees was 102-year-old Sadie Baris-Turck, who was admitted to the bar in 1935. Given those statistics, I guess I’m still a teenager.
Another bit of trivia: Sadie is Barry Grodencheck’s cousin.
You know, maybe I should consider playing matchmaker and introducing Sadie to 100-year-old Tony Cominite, but Tony, like most men, would undoubtedly prefer a younger woman. Maybe an 85-year-old might be more his speed!
You men! What’s a girl to do? No matter how old, fat and bald a man gets, they are still a prime target for a number of women. Unfortunately, that’s not the same as when women age. Now I ask you, is that fair?
Occupy Wall Street is still at it and I am afraid that sooner or later something will have to give. If so, we are bound to wind up with a not-too-pleasant situation occurring. At this point, you can see on both sides signs of frustration as well as the flare-up of tempers.
The dissidents claim they represent the common people, but it is these same common people that they are preventing from being able to go to work, operate their local businesses and to take their children to school safely and in some instances make it nearly impossible to gain access to their apartment buildings.
When you get to the point where only your opinion matters, and that’s the only one that’s important, you start trampling over the rights of others. That’s when support for you and your cause starts to vanish. We shall wait and watch to see how it all turns out. Let’s hope it does not end badly for anyone concerned.
Last Thursday evening, we wound up dropping by Joe Abbracciamento’s restaurant to catch the tail end of a fund-raiser for Karen Koslowitz. She also had an impressive group of supporters at her event.
Till next week, Dee.
