Welcome to Your Holiday Weekend+
News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
A song for Hanukkah; the pros and cons of high school football; must-eat Malaysian delights in Pleasantville; Westchester towns opting in or out of marijuana sales; what to do this weekend; and more
Good morning! Today is Saturday, November 27, 2021. You’re reading The Examiner+ Weekend Edition — the complete digital issue for this week.
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🎵 PRELUDE: The Klezmatics
Woody Guthrie wrote a series of Hanukkah songs including Happy Joyous Hanuka. Years later, the music was re-written for Guthrie’s lyrics by The Klezmatics, a Grammy Award-winning American neo-klezmer music group based in New York City. As explained by woodyguthrie.org, “Guthrie’s Jewish lyrics can be traced to the unusual collaborative relationship he had with his mother-in-law, Aliza Greenblatt, a prominent Yiddish poet who lived across from Guthrie and his family in Brooklyn in the 1940s.”
Klezmatics trumpeter Frank London said, “Each of us found our own way to confront Woody’s poetry. The words are all his, but the diversity of musical styles is quintessentially Klezmatic.” London says that some songs lent themselves to overtly Jewish klezmer music, others to more American forms, like classic dust-bowl country tunes.
— ELISA ZUCKERBERG, Founder of HearItThere.com, an online resource for live music events in the Hudson Valley and Fairfield County.
📰 ICYMI: This Week’s Features
Fantasy (Nightmare) Football
Supporting our teenage son’s interest in playing America’s beloved contact sport while coping with our worst fears about it.
Malaysian Persuasion
Tempt your tastebuds with these must-try Malaysian dishes on offer at Pleasantville’s Asian street food eatery.
Opt In or Opt Out?
Municipalities are under the gun to decide on the state’s marijuana law.
Events + Culture Calendar: What to Do This Weekend (and Beyond)
Holiday tours at Locust Grove; light show at Harvest Moon; holiday pop-up markets; Jose Feliciano in concert; 5K Jingle Bell run; and more
Last Year We Asked for Donations. This Year We Ask for Subscriptions.
Give the #GivingTuesday gift of Examiner+ and support great reporting and reporters this holiday season.
Conservative Comedy – in Westchester?
White Plains’ Chrissie Mayr Navigates Cancel Culture as a Conservative Comedian
📡 THE FEED: Curated News in Brief
Man Jailed for Scamming Cold Spring Woman of More Than $103,000: A man was sentenced to seven to 15 years in state prison earlier this month after being convicted in a jury trial of scamming an 85-year-old Cold Spring woman of more than $103,000. County Court Judge Joseph J. Spofford, Jr. (Examiner)
Racial Remark By Staff Member Prompts Student Walkout, Investigation At School In Westchester: Students at a school in the area staged a temporary walkout in solidarity for a classmate after a staffer reportedly made a racially insensitive comment to a student-athlete in Westchester County. (Daily Voice)
White Plains Unveils Final Segment of Greenway Walking Trail: White Plains officials opened the final section of the Jack Harrison Greenway walking trail during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Mamaroneck-Shapham Garage entrance last Tuesday afternoon. (Examiner)
Young Firefighter Dies In Fire In His Own Westchester County Home: A tragic fire on Thanksgiving morning took the life of a young firefighter in Westchester County. (CBS 2 TV)
Club Looks to Jazz Up Mount Kisco Music Scene, Nightlife in Coming Months: For years, Shaul Dover has been hoping to open a jazz club somewhere in northern Westchester that contributes to the county’s arts scene. Dover will finally see his dream realized early next year with the planned opening of Jazz on Main in downtown Mount Kisco. (Examiner)
Westchester’s Winter Wonderland Drive-Thru Begins: Make your reservations for the holiday lights extravaganza now. (Patch)
Ossining Man Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Hate Crime: An Ossining man was sentenced last week to 15 years in state prison for attacking and stabbing a Black female teenager multiple times while shouting racial epithets and anti-Semitic slurs last year in a North Highland Avenue apartment complex. (Examiner)
📅 FLASHBACK: 1924
The photos above are of Madam C.J. Walker’s Irvington mansion, Villa Lewaro — the bottom picture is from a 1924 convention of her company’s employees held at the estate by her daughter years after Walker had died. Walker was an African American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political and social activist. She is the first African American and first female self-made millionaire in the US.
Born as Sarah Breedlove, Walker was the child of freed slaves in Louisiana and was the first in her family born free. After being orphaned at six, escaping abuse from her brother-in-law, and having two unsuccessful marriages, Walker turned her luck around by developing popular hair products for African American women, and with a successful marriage to her third husband, Charles Joseph Walker, from whom she took her new moniker. By 1918, she became wealthy enough to build the Italian-style mansion Villa Lewaro in Irvington, which evolved into a gathering place for many figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Sadly, she died a year later of hypertension, but her products and legacy lived on. In 1976, Villa Lewaro was named a National Historic Landmark. — MADDIE STONE
🔢 BY THE NUMBERS
SOURCE: worldatlas.com
RESEARCH: Maddie Stone
🤣 LOL
👍🏻 IN APPRECIATION: Our Four-Legged “Ambassadors”
As a token of our sincere appreciation of our top-tier paid Ambassador subscription members for their generous additional financial support, we invited them to give their pets a special shout-out. Here are a few we’ve received so far:
“Littermates, Fred and George rescued me 15 years ago at the SPCA of Westchester.” — Sherrie Dulworth, Mt. Kisco
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Robert Schork is Examiner Media’s Digital Editorial Director.
