| Issue #30, October 20, 2006 |
Letters
ARE WE THERE YET?
Dear Dan,
I enjoyed your article (9/29) about the aviation air-marking program in this country. For thirty-five years it was under the direction of a remarkable female aviator named Blanche Noyes. A Broadway actress in the 1920s, Blanche Wilcox met and married a US Airmail pilot named Dewey Noyes who taught her to fly in 1928. She soloed after less than four hours of dual instruction and was Ohio’s first licensed female pilot. Unfortunately, Dewey was killed in a plane crash in 1935. The following year, Blanche was the co-pilot for Louise Thaden in the Bendix Cup Race from NYC to Los Angeles, which the pair won, in a world record time of 14 hours and 55 minutes. It was the first year in which women were allowed to compete against the men. Laura Ingalls, another outstanding female pilot, finished second.
Under Blanche Noye’s leadership, 75,000 air markers were constructed in the US and its territories. She authored the Air Marking Guide, Air Marking Bulletin 12 and many magazine and newspaper articles. Blanche designed a set of air marking templates and devised a simplified method for spacing of letters and numerals. She also designed numerous heliport procedures and programs. Blanche Noyes died in 1981 at age 81. It was a privilege to know her.
Your article was very correct in its discussion of the air markers during WWII. Many of the West Coast aviation plants camouflaged their entire operations areas with communities containing cloth houses and fabric bushes constructed atop large nets suspended from poles. Ingenious. The Warner Brothers Movie Company sound stage in Burbank, which could be mistaken from the air for a defense plant, displayed a twenty-foot arrow and the cryptic message; “Lockheed Thataway” painted on the roof. Interesting times.
Regards.
Dennis Wrynn
Cutchogue
Via e-mail
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Dear Dan,
I enjoyed reading your article, “Right Us,” but, ironically, you explain that “minyans” are “groups of twelve Jewish people who get together to pray” and that isn’t true.
Please see below for an accurate definition of the word “minyan” (it’s not at all necessary to read the entire piece, but I thought you might be interested to learn more; I know I was).
A minyan (Hebrew: plural minyanim) is traditionally a quorum of ten or more adult (over the age of Bar Mitzvah) male Jews for the purpose of communal prayer; a minyan is often held within a synagogue, but may be (and often is) held elsewhere. It is also used as a collective noun, as in “do we have a minyan?”
A single minyan may be one of several simultaneous prayer services within a synagogue. One synagogue (or any building) can have two or more minyanim meeting at the same time; for example, one Ashkenazi minyan and one Sephardi minyan, or one Orthodox minyan and one Conservative minyan, though the latter would typically only happen in a community center or other communally owned building.
Women are counted as part of the minyan in most non-Orthodox synagogues and prayer gatherings.
With best wishes.
Dr. Charles Adés Fishman
Distinguished Service Professor
Director - Distinguished Speakers Program
Farmingdale State University
Poetry Editor - New Works Review
Via e-mail
I’ll pass this on to the minions. –DR
ZIP IT
Dear Dan,
Re: Traffic Cones
Just wondering if it has ever been suggested that instead of moving all those cones by hand – they could use a setup like on the Tappan Zee Bridge? They move the median by machine to accommodate the traffic flow. I like to call it the zipper. It would do the job of the cones. Of course there is that ugly median but it is an idea.
Maureen Stewart
Via e-mail
A good idea. –DR
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
Dear Dan,
Now that the 2006 “Hurricane Season” is 99.99% over, I would like the entire East End, (and probably the whole “Island’) to join me in a class action suit against the Weather Channel and every home insurance company doing business in New York State.
Thanks to the Weather Channel’s 24/7 hurricane predictions for “above normal activity” which obviously never happened; and the obscene doubling and tripling of homeowner’s premiums (if they could be insured at all), we are all now trying to recover enough to pay another obscene bill, the winter heating season oil bill.
It doesn’t take much to understand, according to Newsday’s recent series, why people are leaving “the Island” in droves. Very soon, the only people left here will be insurance company executives, weather fanatics and oil barons.
Thanks again for letting me vent, and keep up the good work. Oh yes, to join the lawsuit, call 1-800-SUE-EM-All.
Lloyd Booth
East Quogue
Sign me up. –DR
PRETTY AS A PICTURE
Dear Dan,
That is a beautiful painting on the cover by Mr. Gebhardt. Nice to see someone documenting the area with such an honest feel for the environment.
I’d like to see more of Mr. Gebhardt’s work.
Thanks.
Drew LaVera
Via-mail
ASK SILVIA
Dear Dan,
Dear Ms. Lehrer,
I have enjoyed and followed your column in Dan’s Papers for many years. Some of your recipes are among my favorites. I am the cook in my house and I recently decided to try to can sauces, jams and jellies.
Would you be kind enough to recommend a book or web-site that would be helpful to learn the methods of preparation and some recipes that would be appropriate for a beginner?
Thanks so much.
Again, your column is great.
John Dobise
Via e-mail
We forwarded this to her. –DR
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