Dog Days of Summer

I thought I had the shedding dog problem all figured out. Twice a year I have my lab mutt Willamena shaved. Her short hairstyle is all the rage, all the cool dogs are doing it. However, upon interviewing Talia Senna, a kennel manager and trainer at Dog Gone Smart in Norwalk on how to keep your pets safe during this heat wave, she tells me my dog's coat is there for her protection. That it actually helps her stay cool.

But what about my floor?

To my relief the trainer said as long as I wasn't shaving her as a means to keeping her cool, its okay. Whew. She did warn, though, that close cutting the fur on a dog that is outside a lot, can risk sunburn and skin irritation.

While much hot weather safety is common sense, such as not leaving your pet in the car where temperatures can reach 140 degrees, there are a few things you might not have thought of.

I could tell Willamena wasn't liking something about the hot weather, since she's been trying to pull me back into the apartment after only a third of her usual walk. It turns out her paws might have been sensitive to the hot sidewalk. Unlike popular belief, Senna says dogs' paws aren't leather-like and tough. She says they are the most sensitive part of the dog's body and can burn very easily. So advice is to not take your dog on a log walk on the pavement. Try to get to grass as soon as possible.

Here is Willamena after a long walk on not-so-hot pavement to see magician David Blaine.

If a situation occurs where you need to check for dehydration, Senna says to look at your dog's gums. Lift up its jowls and look right where the gumline meets the tooth. If it's white, your dog is in the first stage of dehydration. Also, if you pinch your dogs skin and it doesn't snap back right away, Senna says you need to get your dog to the vet for fluids.

While cooling off in a lake or swimming pool is fun for many dogs - did you know dogs die in swimming pools because they can't figure out how to get out? They can't see the stairs and panic when they can't pull themselves up. Willamena loves to swim, she'll jump into any lake, mud puddle or fish pond she sees. But did you know places like Dog Gone Smart offer doggie swimming lessons? The trainers there also advise the use of life jackets for your dog. Not because it can't swim, but because, like Willamana, it might not want to get out! With a life jacket, you can use a long line and pull your pet in if it gets tired.

Learning from Past Mistakes

Mistake

One morning a couple of weeks ago you might have heard me tell you about a fire on "Harold Avenue" in Bridgeport. Photographer Lori Golias heard it too and corrected me. "Heather, it's Harral Avenue. Not Harold. I shot that video last night. Don't you know Harral was a Bridgeport leader?" 

No, I replied, what did he do?

"I don't know."

Lesson Learned

After correcting the writer's mistake in the copy, I googled Henry Harral and found he was Bridgeport's 8th, 10th and 12th mayor. There wasn't much else about the successful saddle maker. No biography. No Wikipedia entry. No campaign website. But I did find an old Time magazine article and a mention in Antiques and the Arts.

Harral commissioned the great American architect Alexander Jackson Davis to build him a grand Gothic-style home fit for a mayor. Davis was also the man behind  Lyndhurst, in Tarrytown, New York. Work began on Harral's home in 1846 and was complete about a year after  P.T. Barnum's mansion, Iranistan, modeled after the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. Executive Director and Curator of the The Barnum Museum, Kathy Maher, points out how magnificent it must have been in Bridgeport at that time with two architecturally important structures. Iranistan was destroyed by fire in 1857.

Click to enlarge. Replica of Iranistan courtesy of The Barnum Museum.

Harral died of Tuberculosis in 1854. His family lived in the Gothic villa in Bridgeport until 1866 when it was sold to Nathaniel Wheeler. The mansion on Golden Hill Street came to be known as "Walnut Wood." Wheeler's son Archer lived in the home until his death in 1956. He willed the house to the city of Bridgeport, allegedly for preservation.

Mistake?

However, within a year, the longtime socialist mayor of Bridgeport, Jasper McLevy ordered the mansion torn down to make room for a new city hall. Running on an "urban renewal" yet "save the mansion" platform, democrat Samuel Tedesco beat out McLevy in the mayoral election of 1957. But within less than a year, Tedesco went back on his election promise, and the mansion was torn down in 1958.

There were protests, but at least the city of Bridgeport, the Smithsonian and the Barnum Museum were able to save some of the molding, mirrors, art work, furniture, doors - and doorknobs- of the home. A room is recreated at the Barnum Museum. Be sure to look for the Tiffany clock from the 1860s and the famous semi-nude Pandora sculpture by Chauncey Ives.

Lesson Learned

If the Harral-Wheeler house still stood today, it was be of great importance to the city and the country because of the rarity of Gothic architecture in America. But according to Mayer of the Barnum Museum, the country actually benefited from the loss of the home. She says the destruction of such buildings led to the preservation movement in this country. Less than ten years after the Harral-Wheeler home was destroyed, in 1966, the Historic Preservation Act  was instated.  Just this year the city of Bridgeport was designated a Preserve America Community by the the White House for its role in recognizing the cultural heritage and realigning it with redevelopment and growth.

Capturing the Moment

On the same day last week that I saw Crunch 'n Munch for the first time in the vending machine at work and decided to try it since it was just a small bag and only 50-cents, I found the picture I was looking for in April when writing about the month in 2004 that Crunch 'n Munch was sold at Yankee Stadium instead of Cracker Jack.  See "Take Me Out to The Ballgame" in the April archives.

Okay, this this picture is back lit and not as good as I remembered, but it made me think about how we take pictures in our personal lives compared to the way we shoot the news.  In the news world, this cute picture of the salesman happily smiling and showing me his box of Crunch 'n Munch is a no-no. Its called "staging." Yes, I asked him if I could take a picture of him holding a box so I could see. In news, we are supposed to capture the moment without interfering. Actually, that's what I tried to do with this other picture, but I knew you wouldn't be able to tell what he was selling. In shooting news, the photographer would have had to somehow get close enough to shoot a tighter shot of just the box, of course without disrupting the vendor's selling. Often when we are shooting a story, the subject will ask us what we want her to do. My line is, "Pretend we aren't here."

So here is a tip if you see a news crew out in the field. If you want to be on camera, don't start waving at it. Remember, we are supposed to be capturing what's going on as if we aren't there. So what are you waving at? 

This next problem you might have encountered with your home video camera. Out comes the camera, you are rolling, yet everyone stands in line as if to take a family photo. Or have you noticed as soon as you pull out the camera, whatever action is going on ceases, or the story they are flawlessly telling turns into "uhhs." It can be a challenge. But it's so much fun.

Your Part in Art

Here in southwestern Connecticut, artists of all sorts seem to be able to develop talents. The area boasts topnotch performance halls, stages, art galleries, schools and programs and mentors. The proximity to New York City doesn't hurt either.

However, young art and creators can't prosper without patrons.

Last month, Deborah Gibson played a supporting role in a new musical, "Saint Heaven" at Stamford Center for the Arts. During an interview, she told me that while she always prefers a larger role, she in part took this role to help support the new production. She questioned, "What art and plays will our generation produce?" She said unless you want to continously see only revivals, young people need to be involved in the production - and viewing- of new ventures.

The World Premiere of "Saint Heaven" at Stamford Center for the Arts was part of the Center's SCA Stages. The program was previously known as "the Fringe Festival." The mission of SCA Stages is to provide a supportive environment where new works can progress to the next stage of development. 

Saint Heaven has finished its run in Stamford. However, the producers hope the musical will either go on to Broadway or other stages in the future.  Currently, Deborah Gibson says she is in Los Angeles working on a musical of her own.

If you are not familiar with Gibson, at the age of 16 in 1986, she became the youngest person ever to write, produce, and perform a number one single. Since then she has managed to stay alive in the entertainment industry in various ways.  Here is a picture of me with her back in 2000 while she was promoting a new album in upstate New York. Click to enlarge.

Declare Your Independence

This Fourth of July holiday, instead of having the hamburgers first and then something sweet for dessert, why not have them together, all in the same bite. Be a good American and break away from conventional rule. Actually, I think its appropriate our chef on "What's Cooking" this weekend shows us how to make a Turkey-Whaffle-Burger using chocolate ice-cream. Be a good American. Declare your independence from the norm.

Actually, Chef Joe Ciminera from the TV cooking show "Taste This TV" is touring with and promoting Blue Bunny Ice Cream. He has created several recipes for main entrees using their flavors. He explained to me you can use the frozen treat for almost any recipe that calls for cream because that's what it is, it's just flavored and frozen. For the turkey burger, he grilled a patty the normal way, but used the ice cream for a sauce. All he did was put a scoop of chocolate ice cream in a pan, melt it down and add a spicy bar-b-que sauce. You can find more of Ciminera's recipes by by clicking here.

His recipes remind me of a burger you can get at a ball park outside of Saint Louis- The Black Angus Burger. It has meat, two strips of bacon, cheese - all between a Krispy Kreme donut. The creator says they are a hit. Definitely American.

SUPER- the sequel

I'd like to share some responce I've received to my prior blog "SUPER-sized and in 3D."

Chris R. from Bridgeport writes: Hello Heather, I read your blog and I agree with you. That movie was too long. Nowadays hollywood sticks you with 3 hour plus movies or something similar. I hope you can cover that in a future "What's Bugging You Segment". Have a great 4th of July Weekend!

Connecticut Post Movie Critic Joe Meyers told me he wasn't crazy about "Superman Returns." He wrote: " I didn't think the actor who played him was very good (compared with C. Reeve) and Lois was too young and naive (I hated them having her tote that little boy around all the time, too).
CLICK HERE to read his full review for the Post. You might remember Meyers helped me out with a previous "What's Bugging You" segment by explaining why you might not find the raving reviews found in movie ads in the critic's actual review. He says many times publicists call critics and ask just for a quote before their review is written so it can be used in ads. He says he doesn't think the practice is really ethical, because then the critic faces the challenge of having to write that quote into the review.

Back to Meyer's response of what he thought of "Superman Returns."  He says  it had to be a lot more fun in 3-D. I thought so, but I've also been told some people think the 3-D made it too jarring. Here is more of Meyer's responce. I did read in the Times that the IMAX theaters had their biggest advance sales ever for this picture. Hollywood does need to do special, big format material to blast people off their couches and into theaters. When I was young there was a a big screen process called Cinerama that was very popular (and so much more fun that watching a movie at home on TV).

Superman received mixed reviews from the critics. You can read the articles from most of the major papers on Metacritic.

SUPER-sized and in 3D

In order to draw people out of their make-shift theatre living environs and into movie theatres, Hollywood needs to sweeten the deal. Besides, it's much more comfortable on my couch with the ability to pause and rewind while wrapped in a blankie than it is sitting nearly straight up in a hard chair in an either freezing or hot room with two heads right in front of me.

However, entice me with a screen that is 72 feet wide and 52 feet tall and have the characters jump out into my lap, and I might pay the ten to 14-dollar ticket.

With Superman Returns: An IMAX 3D Experience, which opened Wednesday, Warner Bros. has released the world's first live action feature with segments converted from ordinary two-dimentions into IMAX 3D. I saw a screening of the movie Tuesday night and it is interesting that you don't have to wear the large goofy glasses throughout the entire movie. Flashing icons tell you when to put the glasses on or to take them off. I enjoyed the experience,  but now worry my own 50-inch screen won't suffice.

I just hope the current trend of making two-hour-plus movies doesn't last. Maybe it's meant to make you feel like you got your ten-dollars worth, but I still don't want to sit in a non-childproof kick chair for that long. The only criticism I have for Superman Returns is that it was too long. Two-hours and 34-minutes in all. (No, that is AFTER previews.)

A local link to the film: Kate Bosworth, who plays Lois Lane, lived in Darien from the age of nine to 13. The new Superman, Brandon Routh, grew up in Norwalk, but not Connecticut, rather Norwalk, Ohio. He's cute anyway. To see the movie in both IMAX and 3D, you might have to drive to Manchester, Connecticut, or New York. Find out here.

To see compare figures at the box office from this weekend to last weekend to a year ago, click here.