Dan's Papers - October 30, 2009

Every week I always enjoy getting to your column. But, the October 2 issue was particularly fun since I am the owner of a '67 Primrose Jaguar XKE Convertible.

Thank you for recognizing what I have always truly believed that it is probably one of the most beautiful car designs and this is a car that I have regularly enjoyed driving every summer in Southampton for the last 18 years.

It is. The Austin Healey of 1958 is pretty cool too. - DR

Thanks for the info on the size of the deficit. I assume that there simply would not be enough violations to cover something that large. However, I believe that if we had a public lynching of all the guilty politicians, charging $200 per person for viewing, we would end up with a surplus!

One further idea that just might make our elected officials actually do some good for a change just as we have to put our homes up for collateral when we borrow money from a bank, how about each public official having to do the same? We might actually end up with some real accountability for the first time.

The film Masquerade with the burning sailboat starring Rob Lowe, was filmed on Shelter Island, not Montauk, as is stated in the article. The boat burned behind Redding's Market on Bridge Street.

Oh. Thanks for the correction. - DR

Just in time for the observance of National School Lunch Week, the Baltimore City Public School system became the first in the United States to offer its 80,000 students a weekly break from meat and associated chronic diseases. It's a welcome start on a long road to improving our children's and our nation's health.

Traditionally, the National School Lunch Program has served as a dumping ground for USDA's surplus meat and dairy commodities. Not surprisingly, USDA's own surveys indicate that 90% of American children consume excessive amounts of fat, and only 15% eat the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables. Consequently, nearly half of American children are overweight, 25% have high cholesterol and blood pressure, and 30,000 suffer from Type 2 diabetes, once limited to adults. Their early dietary flaws become lifelong addictions, contributing to the escalating public health crisis.

But change is on the way. Hawaii, California, New York, and Florida legislatures have asked their schools to offer daily vegan/vegetarian options. According to the School Nutrition Association, 52 percent of U.S. school districts now do. President Obama is likely to call for similar measures when Congress reauthorizes the Child Nutrition Act later this year.

Parents and others who care about our children's health should work with PTAs and school officials to demand healthful plant-based school meals, snacks, and vending machine items.

They can get additional information at schoolnutrition.org, schoolmeals.nal.usda.gov, healthyschoollunches.org, and choiceusa.net.

I just saw "The Hamptons Subway Newsletter" and wanted to relay a story to you.

My husband (Rob) and I (Damia) have a small design studio in Northampton, Massachusetts. This past holiday we made a fake subway map poster of our area to give to friends and clients as a gift. We also gave several out to local cafés, restaurants and stores that we frequent. Enough people saw them and told us we should sell them that we started to look into it as a side project and possible business. So a few months ago, we launched Transit Authority Figures - purveyors of fake/highly unlikely/ideal world subway system maps. We now have nine posters, and included in the most recent set is a map of The Hamptons/North Fork/Shelter Island ().

Today I was doing research to figure out what blogs and press outlets we should send information to. In fact, I was getting ready to send some information about our version of The Hamptons/North Fork Subway Map to your blog. But when I went down to our studio, Rob was looking shocked. He had been to the Hamptons in May and had picked up one of your papers. It's been on a shelf since then, but today he picked it up and saw in the contents your subway newsletter. And then we saw your book One Year on the Hamptons Subway and momentarily panicked, as we thought it might actually be real. Then we realized that you have this amazing sense of humor about the place and how the subway might actually work. I wish we'd found you a few months ago!

So...I would love to send you one of our posters. And if you have time, I'd also love to chat about your vision of the subway. Please let me know if there is an address where I can send it.