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CALENDAR WHAT’S HAPPENING AT THE PORT WASHINGTON LIBRARY
Registration for all events is required. Please visit PWPL.org/events for registration information.
THURSDAY, MARCH 17
Baby Rhyme Time
9:30 a.m. in Lapham Meeting Room (in-person program) A lap-sit story time filled with songs, music and bouncing rhymes that emphasizes early literacy skills and introduces babies to the magic of books. For children ages birth to 12 months with an adult.
FRIDAY, MARCH 18
Story Time
9:30 a.m. (in-person program) Stories, rhymes, and songs emphasize early literacy skills and help instill a lifelong love of learning. For children ages birth to kindergarten with an adult.
Sandwiched In with Monica Randall -Legendary Women of Long Island
12:00 p.m. (in-person program)-During the glory days of Long Island’s Gold Coast, society was ruled by an elite group of glamorous women. They were the first American super-stars as their lives, loves and scandals played out on the pages of our newspapers. Join Monica Randall, who is a historic preservationist, filmmaker and author, who will deliver this entertaining program about these colorful social icons.
SATURDAY, MARCH 19
Creative Readers
10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. for kindergarten to second-graders and 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. for third-to fifth-graders (in-person program) Creative Readers is an arts and literacy inclusion program where children in kindergarten through fifth-grade will use theater, art, movement and music to bring books to life. Professional behavior support will be at all sessions.
SUNDAY, MARCH 20
Friends of the Library University (FOL U)
1:30 p.m. in Lapham Meeting Room. (hybrid program) The FOL’s lecture series, FOL U, returns with Dr. Shaireen Rasheed, Professor of Philosophy, Social Justice and Issues of Race and Multiculturalism in the College of Education at LIU Post, speaking on “9/11 Twenty Years Later: Does Islam Need Reform and Do Afghani Women Need Saving?”
MONDAY, MARCH 21
Teen Craft-Take and Make
(Pre-recorded program) Teens in grades 7-12 are invited to create an agate slice necklace with mosaic gift box at home. Teens will be emailed when supplies kits are available for pick up.
Eight-Week Financial Workshop: Stocks - the Nuts & Bolts
7:00 p.m. in Hagedorn Meeting Room (in-person program) As you consider your long-term financial goals, how do stocks measure up? During this presentation, participants will learn the differences between common and preferred stock, the importance of dividends, ways to craft your stock strategy, and different ways to own stock.
TUESDAY, MARCH 22
Story Time
9:30 a.m. (in-person program) See Thursday, March 17 for event description.
Vegetable Gardening Series - Part Four: Maintaining a Healthy Growing Environment
7:00 p.m. (virtual) Design principles for getting the most out of your space and maximizing growing time to insure a productive season will be presented. Things to consider include annuals vs. perennials, heirlooms vs. hybrids, and the importance of compost and mulch.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23
Chess
4:00 p.m. (virtual) Learn the rules and strategies of chess via Zoom and then practice what you have learned by playing against your peers on an online platform. For children in third-to sixth-Grade.
College 101: How to Maximize your Eligibility for Financial Aid
7:00 p.m. (virtual) Come join Richard Milella, founder and director for Long Island Funding for Education (L.I.F.E.), as he discusses methods to maximize your family’s eligibility for college financial aid. High school teens and their parents may register for this virtual event. SoundSwap: Duo ‘Cold Chocolate’
Performs ‘Live at Lapham’
7:30 p.m. (hybrid program) Cold Chocolate is a genre-bending Americana band that fuses folk, funk and bluegrass to create a unique sound all their own. Join us for a very special SoundSwap event! To register for Zoom, visit: www.PWPL.org/events For in-person registration, visit: pwplcoldchocolate.brownpapertickets.com
—Submitted by the Port Washington Public Library
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NASSAU COUNTY MUSEU M OF ART
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New York Presidents: The Famous and The Forgotten, Part I
BY JOE SCOTCHIE
jscotchie@antonmediagroup.com
In the nation’s early years, Virginia was the nation’s most populous state. Presidents came from Old Dominion: Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John Tyler and Zachary Taylor. With its busy port a destination for the world’s commerce, New York would replace Virginia as the most populous state. It too, would become a breeding ground for chief executives. The first New Yorker to be elected was Martin Van Buren, who had served as Andrew Jackson’s vice president. Others followed: Millard Fillmore, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Donald Trump. In today’s New York, the upstate region is at best an afterthought. At one time, it produced presidents. Academics regularly come up with presidential rankings—first (usually Abraham Lincoln) to last (the hapless James Buchanan)—that few pay attention to. Here’s our homage to Empire State Presidents.
Millard Fillmore
As with Van Buren, Fillmore was a native of upstate New York, in this case, Cayuga County. In 1848, Mexican War hero Zachary Taylor was elected president with Fillmore as his running mate. Two years later, Taylor succumbed to Washington’s humid summers and died unexpectedly at age 66. Fillmore’s presidency was marked mostly by foreign policy, especially the famed opening to Japan as conducted by Commodore Matthew Perry, one that was consummated after Fillmore left office. In 1852, Fillmore failed to win the Democratic Party’s nomination. Four years later, he attempted a comeback as standard bearer for the anti-immigration American Party. That bid fell short, too. When Civil War broke out, Fillmore, although elderly, did not sit on the sidelines. He formed a home guard, the Union Continentals, which remained active throughout the conflict.
Millard Fillmore
(public domain)
Chester Arthur
Arthur followed the same pattern as Van Buren and Fillmore. An upstate New York native, he served as James Garfield’s vice president. Taylor died a natural death. In Chester Arthur (Charles Milton Bell/ public domain)1881, Garfield was assassinated by a deranged gunman, who reportedly wanted Arthur to become chief executive. Arthur, too, served only one term as president. His one term focused heavily on civil service reform as the nation now coped with a rising urban population and the bureaucratic problems such a demographic change entailed. Historian George F. Howe has singled out Arthur as an honest politician in a time of widespread corruption. “Arthur adopted [a code] for his own political behavior but subject to three restraints: he remained to everyone a man of his word; he kept scrupulously free from corrupt graft; he maintained a personal dignity, affable and genial though he might be,” Howe maintained. “These restraints ... distinguished him sharply from the stereotypical politician.”
Grover Cleveland
With Cleveland, the upstate dynasty rolls on. “Grover the Good” was born in Caldwell, NJ, but reared in Clinton, a town in Oneida County. In 1881, Cleveland was elected mayor of Buffalo as a reformer Democrat. He parlayed that success into winning the governorship of New York only a year later. Cleveland topped off his incredible run by being elected president in 1884. Four years later, Cleveland was defeated by Benjamin Harrison. Undaunted, Cleveland was promptly elected again in the 1892 election. Cleveland was a Democrat in a time of Republican Party domination. His policies were similar to GOP presidents, including trade protection, anti-immigration measures and armed neutrality. Cleveland kept government spending to a minimum, regularly wielded his veto pen. He was both the first president to marry while in the White House and the first to be captured on film.
Martin Van Buren
(MatthewBrady/public domain)
Grover Cleveland
(public domain)
Martin Van Buren
Van Buren was a native of little Kinderhook, an attorney turned politician who was elected president in 1836 and defeated for re-election in 1840 by William Henry Harrison. Van Buren is forgotten today, save for a high school in Queens County, but he has his fans. In a 2001 collection, Reassessing the Presidency, libertarian author Jeffrey Rogers Hummel gave “The Little Magician” high marks: He avoided potential conflicts with both Great Britain and Mexico, while resisting the impulse to increase government spending during the Panic of 1837. During Van Buren’s sole four-year term, Americans, Hummel claimed: “[Enjoyed] greater freedom from government intervention than any other people on the face of the Earth.”
