WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

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WPCNR PRESS BOX. By John F. Bailey. October 26, 2002: After a gritty first three quarters, two touchdowns in the final quarter lead the No. 1 seeded Ramapo High Gryphons over White Plains Saturday, 28-6, after the Tigers had come back on their first drive of the second half to close within 7-6.

PIGSKIN DETECTIVE: SKID MARKS ARE EVIDENCE OF “IMMACULATE INTERFERENCE” CALL THAT SET UP RAMAPO’S CLINCHING TD: Darrell Mack was matching Ramapo’s receiver heading for the end zone, stride for stride. Both simultaneously lost their footing as skid marks show, on controversial 3rd and 15 pass play that gave Ramapo an automatic first down on the 9, and 4 more cracks at the end zone. Mack, immediately after the yellow flag alighted like a vulture behind the play, was on his knees pleading to the official that he had slipped. The call was big. The Tigers huddle with coaches after the game in the background.
Photo by WPCNR Sports

A controversial “immaculate interference” call when Darrell Mack and Gryphon receiver had clearly slipped on the same soft patch of endzone, gave Ramapo a first down and goal at the 9 to set up the clinching TD.

Turns Tide of the Game after Tigers Had them on the run.

Spencer Ridenhour’s brilliant 21-yard touchdown run around right end and down the sideline and recorded the only 6 points for the Tigers. The Tiger 6 came after they had marched 75 yards in 7 plays to start the second half, and it brought them within 1 point midway through the third stanza.

A facemask penalty (to be fair), set up the Tigers at the Ramapo 42, followed by a perfectly delayed pitch-back play, Mike Devere to Ike Nkuka who scampered to the Ramapo 23, setting the stage for Spencer’s sweep score.

The first half saw the Tigers stop three Ramapo drives inside the red zone, while their offense was stalled by motion penalty after motion penalty. Only one first down was achieved by the Tigers the entire first half, which was plagued with flags against them.

Two Tiger fumbles set up two meaningless late Ramapo touchdowns. The Tiger offense, you sensed, was not the same after the defensive pass interference call prolonged the Ramapo drive.

Quick and Big Is Not Good.

The Ramapo big guys up front were only solved on one drive the entire game when the Tigers used pitch plays to get Spencer Ridenhour and Darrell Mack outside, according to the way one veteran analyst saw the action from the stands. In the first half, hot pursuit and overwhelming pressure by Gryphon rushers nullified Mike Devere’s passing threat, not giving him any time to throw.

The Tigers presented one of their best defensive games of the season, effectively bottling up the Gryphon running attack, bending but not breaking, for three quarters before the Gryphs Ken Adams on counter plays and reverses moved Ramapo 70 yards in 12 plays for their second touchdown. The drive might have been stalled were it not for the “immaculate interference” call, on a pass clearly overthrown. You could see the heart go out of the defense on the next two plays, as they were pushed aside for two consecutive 5-yard gains to put Ramapo ahead for good, 14-6.

In a first half where the Tigers could not, it seemed, run a play without a penalty, it is to their credit and professionalism that they marched down the field at the beginning of the second half and give themselves a chance to win.

The loss effectively ended the Tiger season dropping them to a 4-4 record. Stepinac is next in the traditional White Plains Thanksgiving Day game.

On Sunday it was reported by The Journal News that White Plains will play at Carmel next Saturday in a “consolation game.”

High School Football is not what it used to be. The Ramapo stands were only half full for this contest.

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WPCNR White Plains Variety. Review by John F. Bailey. October 25, 2002:To put on a great show you have to have good material. The Fort Hill Players knew they had a winning show in the comedy of manners, Art, could they deliver the goods to hardened Broadway skeptics?

THE $200G “ALL-WHITE” CESSARANO: THE LEAD IN ART R. J. D Amato, R. Scott Faubel and Larry Reina as Serge, Marc and Ivan, three upwardly mobile sophisticates react to Serge’s new painting (which is all white), dominates the Fort Hill Players exact replica of the stage set for the Broadway version of Art. The all-white painting, (spotlighted), steals the show as a virtuoso player in its own right. It works its magic on you.
Photo by WPCNR Arts

WPCNR saw last Friday evening’s performance and we have to say that the exquisitely snooty R. J. D’ Amato, the impossibly cynical and judgmental D. Scott Faubel and the nauseatingly obsequious Larry Reina have done a great play “great honors” at Fort Hills Players production, the first Westchester County staging of the 1998 Tony Award-Winning play.

Restricted: Contains “Adult” Language.

Audiences should be warned that the script is seasoned with “realistic” language. The “F” word is used frequently as is the “S-Word.” But the three talented actors and Director Robert Kahn’s seamless timing make the salty syntax work with the script. The writing does not depend on profanity for effect. The 4-letter words, though obtain an eloquence in the elegant way the deftly performing trio deliver these late twentieth century euphemisms that replace more precise words. Every use of the profanity charts new depths of meaning of emotions in these “expletive deleteds.”

Expletives are not gratuitious, because when D. Scott Faubel as Marc in his smug tone describes Serge’s new painting as “S,” for the first time you know exactly what he really means, his precise staccato “t” at the end, drips with disdain.

All about the Ensemble

What makes Art tough on the actors is there is no intermission. The show runs one hour and 30 minutes, demands terrific bonding and attention on the part of the actors, when all three are on the stage, and the men of Art were up to the challenge. Robert Kahn, who directed the show, had his actors spend much time together bonding emotionally off-stage as well as on, and it showed in how hard and how well the show simply flowed between the three men

D Amato the elegant sophisticate to Faubel’s existential rebel, who take care of Ivan

The premise of Art is to explore the tenuous perceptions and mutual needs that bond men (and perhaps women, too). D’Amato’s tall, aesthetic Serge is very smug at having acquired a “Cessarano” for $200,000. Marc punctures this smugness and sophistication of Serge by expressing incredulity at the purchase of a “white” painting in the most belittling way, like some witheringly superior talk show host, pricking Serge’s confidence and sensibilities. As Serge extols the “confluence” of white lines he thinks he sees in the painting, Marc takes the audience into his confidence with marvelous stares of disbelief.

Serge and Marc’s posturings and reactions to each other’s sudden lack of confidence in what they have always come to expect from each other deteriates, the two actors satirize conversations about sports, politics, taste, finance that menfriends have every day. D’Amato delivers petulant hurt at an ever-increasing (and funny sequence) as he tries to explain his purchase to his friend Marc whom he has always shown off as one of his outrageous friends, only Serge is hurt now that Marc has turned his withering judgmental tendencies on him. Yes, we know that is a complex sentence, but this is a complex play that captures the protocol of male social interaction and its unspoken boundaries precisely. Men will laugh at this play, women will learn.

Ivan the Jester
Reaching you with the emotions of a friendship falling apart.

D. Scott Faubel is relentless as Marc, long the attacker who gains satisfaction of having his cynicism appreciated, only to find he is just as hurt when something he believes in is challenged. He and Serge come to blows when Serge, totally ripped that Marc hates his painting complains about the way Marc’s girlfriend waves her hand at cigarette smoke. This is a scene that tellingly and with great “yucks” shows how when we are really mad at someone we can seize on any small item to irritate us. (Any old flaw will do.)

Reina’s pitifully needy Ivan reaches the audience with his alarmed pleading for the two to show some reason (he does not want to lose them as friends.) It’s at this point that the demands of friendship, the point of the play, in WPCNR’s opinion, comfortingly wash over the audience like a caressing Caribbean wave.

Intellectuals watch it!

Along the way to Art’s crisis point, the audience enjoys some witty satire of typical preconceived notions, art analysis, and stereotyped fixtures of the Sotheby-Parke Benet set from psychiatrists to dentists. D’Amato and Faubel’s superb conversational diction lampoons sophisticated banter so they are not only understandable, but natural, too. It reminds me of those Hamptons sundeck conversations with New Yorker readers at sunset, or on an East 83rd street balcony trying to impress a good-looking woman not married to you.

Reina playing the unsophisticated Ivan who perhaps has more reason than either of his superior friends, quietly displays that strength through sacrifice of pride (like a good wife) that eventually brings his two friends to a happy ending, and preserves what he needs: his friends. Reina though not totally the image of the part, too aging a flower child in corduroys for this, I thought, but that is quibbling. He occasionally overmodulated but perhaps that is more real for a crisis of friendship.

Reina’s Ivan is the most difficult part, so easy to overact, but ultimately he hit just-the-right note of pathos, mixed with reason and projection of the alternative to breaking up the friends brings the “odd trio” to higher ground. Reina a lawyer by trade is in the right part. D’Amato and Faubel have all the great lines, but Reina had to carry enough vulnerability to bring the two alpha males to their senses.

Moments to remember in theater

You will love the ultimate act of trust that Serge offers to Marc to close the argument over the painting and knits up the tattered fabric of their long friendship (It is completely silent and involves a magic marker that he offers Faubel to alter the painting.) D’Amato and Faubel get this absolutely right. The silence, the mutual acknowledgement of trust of giving in, giving responsibility is superbly acted.

The last lines sent the audience home with hopefully new perspectives on friendship:

“If I’m who I am because I’m who I am and if you’re who you are because you’re who you are, then I’m who I am and you’re who you are.”

“If , on the other hand, I’m who I am because you’re who you are and if you’re who you are because I’m who I am, then I’m not who I am and you’re not who you are.”

Simple. It’s a man thing, and perhaps a woman thing, too. See Art the way “The Odd Trio” of D’Amato, Faubel and Reina deliver it and you’ll understand.

The Fort Hill Players production is directed by Robert Kahn. Set design, tastefully and strikingly executed by Anthony Fabrizio and Joan Charischak. The just-the-right shade of lighting was created by David Ullman, and executed subtlely with deft hand by Light Board Operator Nancy Weiss. Terry Hanson colorcoordinated actors wardrobes and swathed the onstage chairs in their “distinguishing hues of white.”

Next production coming up is Charlotte’s Web for children, a free performance on November 10 at 2 PM at the White Plains Library.

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WPCNR Common Council Chronicle-Examiner. October 24, 2002: The White Plains Board of Ethics found Councilman Robert Greer to not be in conflict of interest in voting on the New York Presbyterian Hospital biomedical complex and proton accelerator facility proposal last August, in an opinion released Wednesday.
The ruling was in response to a criticism leveled by Lynn Huber of White Plains that because Mr. Greer’s wife works for the New York Presbyterian Hospital, he should not have been allowed to vote on the hospital proposal.

The Board of Ethics rejected Mr. Huber’s contention on two grounds: 1.) That the Board has no jurisiction, because, according to city code, “advisory opinions (of the Board of Ethics) are to on ethics-relateed matters involving prospective conduct and may be requested only by the individual officer or employee (Mr. Greer) whose conduct may be called into question.” Therefore, only Councilman Greer would have standing before this Board to seek an advisory opinion as to his prospective conduct.

However, the Board said, it was allowed “to receive from any person a written complaint questioning the compliance of any City officer or employee with the Code of Ethics,” and agreed to consider Mr. Huber’s letter a complaint, making the following accessment.

The Board of Ethics pointed out to Mr. Huber that Mr. Greer sought an opinion from Edward Dunphy, City Corporation Counsel, on just this ethics issue, and received an opinion from Dunphy at the time in 1998, in lieu of the Board of Ethics being operational at the time. The Board of Ethics noted to Mr. Huber that Mr. Greer, acting on Dunphy’s opinion disclosed his wife’s duties to the Council on April 6, 1998, and did so again at the August 5, 2002 meeting where the most recent NYPH proposal was considered and passed.

The Board in its letter to Mr. Huber concluds that, given Councilman Greer’s reasonable reliance on the Corporation Counsel’s opinion, the absence of any change in circumstances since the opinion was rendered, and his consistent disclosure on the official minutes of the Common Council’s meetings of his wife’s part-time employment with New York Presbyterian Hospital, there is no basis for an investigation of Councilman Greer’s vote…

The Board dismissed the complaint by a 3-0 vote, Gerald Stern, Nancy Barry and James Noonan voting for, with Mark Elliot abstaining. William Vrooman was absent.

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WPCNR High Noon News. From the Sayegh Campaign (EDITED) with John Bailey Reporting.October 23, 2002. UPDATED:Three community leaders in the 88th Assembly District came out strongly criticising Assemblywoman Amy Paulin’s conduct Wednesday, in drawing attention to the ethnicity of her challenger’s financial supporters, said a news release from Tony Sayegh’s Campaign.

Thursday, the Journal-News endorsed Ms. Paulin as their choice over Mr. Sayegh in the 88th Assembly District three days after the introduction of Ms. Paulin’s anti-Arab remarks.

In related fallout from the “Amy Tape” released by Mr. Sayegh Monday afternoon, the Journal News printed a correction Wedneday to its report that the reporter heard on the “Amy Tape,” Robert Fois, who conducted the interview, was fired. The Journal-News today printed a correction on page A-2, saying he was on “leave of absence” from the Eastchester Town Report. WPCNR interviewed Mr. Fois Tuesday on “his side of the story.”

The news release from the Sayegh campaign says, “Miles Ehrenkranz, Jewish community leader in Scarsdale and New Rochelle, said today that Assemblywoman Amy Paulin should issue a full apology for her remarks.

Ehrenkranz’s sentiments were echoed by Sam Spady, New Rochelle civil rights activist and Sebastian Bulfamante, who is president of the New Rochelle Italian-American club.

“Unacceptable.” Pursued Ethnic Issue.

“The Assemblywoman’s response thus far is unacceptable and falls short of what the public deserves,” said Ehrenkranz, “The tape is clear: Amy Paulin raised the issue of ethnicity, she continued to pursue the issue of ethnicity, and she suggested that race should be a consideration in the campaign for the Assembly.”

Sayegh’s release notes that “Ehrenkranz, Spady and Bulfamante noted that Paulin attempted to defend her remarks rather than acknowledge they were inappropriate.

“Appalling.”

“It is appalling that Assemblywoman Paulin would raise the ethnicity of Tony Sayegh’s supporters under any circumstances,” said Spady, “Those of us who have devoted years to erasing ethnicity as an obstacle to achievement know that nothing short of an apology will do.”

Spady went even farther in the news release: “This time Amy Paulin was complaining about Lebanese-Americans. Perhaps next time it will be African-Americans or Italians,” said Bulfamante, “The whole idea is repugnant.” In the taped interview, Paulin compained that many of Sayegh’s supporters were Arabs. “The sad thing is that Tony’s parents, who are Lebanese Christians, personally know the scourge of discrimination and thought that in America they had left it behind.”

Jewish leader particularly offended.

The news release goes on to quote Ehrenkranz extensively, taking Ms. Paulin to task:

“Unfortunately Amy Paulin is trying to hide behind the motive of a reporter or arcane rules of what is on the record and what is off the record. But there is only one motive that counts, which is Amy Paulin’s, and so far it seems devoted to playing upon ethnic divisions. As a member of the Jewish faith, I am embarrassed by her remarks and feel that Ms. Paulin should have known better than to take issue with people’s ethnic backgrounds.”

Paulin Does Not Issue Statement on WPCNR Request. Fois claims she screened his stories.

WPCNR contacted Amy Paulin’s office Tuesday, after learning from Mr. Fois, the reporter on the tape, that he was on Leave of Absence taken at his request, and had not been fired. Mr. Fois also reported that there was more conversation on the “Amy Tape” he was uncomfortable in releasing.

WPCNR requested a statement from Ms. Paulin on the matter and requested she contact WPCNR because WPCNR wanted to verify that there was more of the taped conversation that had not been released by Mr. Fois to Mr. Sayegh.

WPCNR wanted to find out whether or not she had repeatedly gone over and complained about Mr. Fois’ stories about her before as they appeared in the Town Report, actually prescreening them with Eastchester Town Report editors, as reported to WPCNR by Mr. Fois, and as alluded to in the Journal News report.

However, at this point, (Wednesday afternoon), Ms. Paulin has not responded to clarify whether she said more on the telelphone that day in July, and whether she did complain to the Eastchester Town Report about Mr. Fois’ reporting and went over the stories with the editors.

Reporter vs. Editor

After speaking with Mr. Fois twice Tuesday, WPCNR learned from Mr. Fois that he decided to take the tape to Mr. Sayegh in early September when his editor Mike Moritz twice refused to listen to the tape, once in July and again in August. Mr. Moritz denied to WPCNR that Fois offered to let him hear the tape.

“That is 100% incorrect,” Moritz said in a phone interview with WPCNR. “Lynda Wyssing, (another editor) asked for the tape. He never produced that tape. Never brought the tape in. We (he and Fois) had a conversation that he had serious concerns about what Amy Paulin said, containing “derogatory” comments about Mr. Sayegh made “off the record.”

Moritz told WPCNR that he advised Fois if it was “off the record” he did not want to hear the tape:

“I asked, well what is it? On the record or off the record, and he indicated it was off the record.”

At which point, Moritz said he did not want to know about it.

Unethical action.

Moritz advised WPCNR that he considered Fois’ turning over the tape to Mr. Sayegh unethical:
Fois shocked.

Mr. Fois was distrubed to hear this recollection of his two approaches to Mr. Moritz on the matter. Fois said, “I told him the tape contained remarks derogatory to not only Arabs, but Jews, Catholics, all ethnicities,” saying he was very explicit about the contents. He said that Mr. Moritz and Ms. Wysing were always “too busy” to listen to the tape.

Took it to another editor for an opinion.

Fois said he was so disturbed about what Paulin had said on the tape that he spoke with Mr. Sayegh about it in July, but did not divulge the contents of the tape.

He also said he took it to another newspaper editor, whom he did not identify, for an opinion on how “on the record,” or “off the record” the first portion of the tape was. After review, the editor advised Fois that he was within his journalistic ethics to release a portion of the tape.

Matter of Conscience over alleged “Whispering Campaign.”

Fois told WPCNR he agonized over whether or not to release the tape. He said he felt Mr. Sayegh’s family, his background, had been hurt and unfairly maligned, especially when he encountered evidence of a “whispering campaign” against Mr. Sayegh circulating within the Assembly District 88 confines from Ms. Paulin and Jim Maisano.

Asked if he could bring forth persons who had heard these “rumors of Arab-funded” involvement, Fois said he did but would not identify them because they were “fearful.”
Mr. Moritz, Eastchester Town Report Editor said he had heard nothing of such a “whispering campaign.”

Scarsdale Today editor, Sean Cover, of the Westchester Network said he had heard nothing about a whispering campaign, and said Paulin, a resident of Scarsdale, had Scarsdale all locked up, but he did not know how strong she was in Eastchester or New Rochelle which were more Republican.

Fois said he worried greatly about what he called “the tragedy of the untold story, that never appears,” and that was why he ultimately decided to release the tape to Sayegh. He said he agonized over it.

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WPCNR Afternoon Trib & Post. October 22, 2002: Tony Sayegh, Amy Paulin’s challenger in the 88th Assembly District, played a cassette tape on television Monday evening, which revealed Amy Paulin, in her own voice, the incumbent Assemblyperson, making what Mr. Sayegh characterized as “a display of blatant racism and discrimination.”

Here is the complete transcript of that tape recording. This was a telephone conversation between Robert Fois, the reporter, whose comments are preceded by the prefix “RF.: Ms. Paulin’s comments are identified by the suffix, “AP.”

According to Robert Fois, there is more incriminating comments from Ms. Paulin on the tape (that was agreed to be off the record at the time the conversation was recorded in July) that he has not made public.

Fois is debating whether or not to disclose to WPCNR, in light of Ms. Paulin’s remarks in today’s Journal News report, the rest of that conversation. Here is the transcript of the tape disclosed so far, which was disseminated at Mr. Sayegh’s Monday evening news conference to all media:

When we join the beginning of the telephone conversation, Mr. Fois (RF) and Ms. Paulin (AP) are about to discuss the Financial Disclosure Filings just filed in July. Let’s listen by way of the printed word. WPCNR identifies the documents in question, all characterizations of interruptions and speech are part of the transcript. Here we go:

RF: So what’s up?

So ends the released portion of the transcript of Mrs. Paulin’s conversation with the Eastchester Town Report reporter, Robert Fois, recorded by Mr. Fois last July. The audio of the tape may be heard on the Sayegh campaign website, www.tony2002.com/tape.