A grassfire in an area more than twice the size of Prospect Park is blazing near Corral Hallow and Tesla Roads in Tracy. The 30 M.P.H. winds are causing it to spread. We can see the smoke from the farm.  From the Tracy Press:

At BAM: Some awfully good movies starring Cary Grant. Friday through next week. For schedule go here.

Philadelphia Story

To Catch a Thief

The Awful Truth

Big Brown Eyes

Only Angels Have Wings

People Will Talk

That Touch of Mink

Just got this info from the Coney Island History Project. Sounds like a fun way to explore Coney Island:

Two of the candidates in the 39th are really going after each other. According to the Brooklyn Paper, Skaller started the latest round of attacks:

Recent forms show Lander paid $7,300 to Data and Field Services for
“consulting” work, an amount that Skaller says is far below the true
value of the company’s street-campaigning for the candidate, who is one
of five men hoping to represent a Council district that includes parts
of Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, the Columbia Street Waterfront
District, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington and Borough Park.

The Campaign Finance Board has not found any wrongdoing by Lander,
though it said that it is monitoring for illegal “coordination” between
candidates and outside groups, such as the Working Families Party and
Data and Field Services, which are making their impact felt in other
races, such as DeBlasio’s quest for public advocate.

Perhaps in retaliation, Brad Lander’s campaign released this salvo:

Up until now, the 39th City Council race has been very civilized. But now things are getting nasty. And why not? Politics is a rough game especially in a tight race that is just four weeks away.

It seems that Brad Lander has made an issue out of the fact that Josh Skaller's son attends a local private school and not a public school like his kids. They are the only two Democratic candidates in the 39th with children. (The Green candidate David Pechefsky has two kids, one is in daycare, the other attends a public middle school). John Heyer's wife is pregnant and he's said that they will send their child to a public school. 

I think most people agree that the choice of where to send your children to school is a very personal matter that involves many factors. That said, private school is not an option for most New Yorkers and it certainly is a vote of confidence to know that a politician has enough faith in the public school system to send his or her own children there.

Still, I don't think it has to be a make or break factor for a politician. Obama doesn't send his children to public school. Nor did Bill Clinton.

The so-called attack was timed to coincide with a mailer that Lander sent out about his support for public school, which included photographs of local PTA members who have endorsed Lander.

Over the weekend, I saw this letter from Kelly Skaller, wife of Josh Skaller which was sent out to their supporters. By now she has probably given birth to their second child. I hear she wrote this letter from the hospital.

I'm away again. And that's why there were no posts yesterday.

We left Third Street in an Eastern Car Service car at 6 am Tuesday morning and got to the airport around 7 am, which was lucky because the Jet Blue Bag Drop lines were incredibly long at the terminal.

We had loads of time to explore the nicely designed newish Jet Blue terminal which is a huge, light-filled space full of shops, restaurants and and cool seating areas.

Our 9:15 flight boarded at 8:30 and we were goog to go at 9:15 as scheduled. For once there was hardly any wait for take-off and we arrived in Oakland 20 minutes early. Nice.

Once in Oakland we hopped on the AirBART, which is the bus from the airport to the Bay Area Rapid Transit stop across the street from the Oakland Stadium.

Hopped is a bit of an exageration when you're lugging three suitcases, three laptops, and three carry-on bags plus Hugh's camera bag.

Then we had to figure out how to buy tickets for the train. On Bart, your fare depends on where you're going. It's not a one-size-fits-all fare like NYC.

Luckily there's a homeless guy who helps all the tourists figure out the somewhat confusing user interface. What a service that guy performs. BART should just hire him to do that job full time!

Then we took the clean, quiet, fast BART train to Dublin/Pleasanton, a small city about 50 miles east of San Francisco. There we met Hugh's mom and drove to Tracy, a city in the Central Valley of California. Hugh grew up on a farm a few miles out of town. It's a very special place.

Hot and tired, we arrived in Tracy at around 4 pm Brooklyn time. It was lunchtime in Tracy, where it was a very dry 100 degrees. Luckily there's a pool and we were in it for most of the afternoon.

Ahhhhh.

Being a parent is about letting go. From the moment that umbilical
cord is cut, it’s all about making more and more space between you and
your child.

Here’s how it goes: breastfeeding gradually ceases to be the main
source of sustenance. Then the baby learns to crawl, then walk, then
run from you. Pre-school and kindergarten takes them farther away as
they make friends. And those connections only widen and deepens.

And then they go parasailing.

It wasn’t something Smartmom ever expected. In fact, it wasn’t
really an activity on her radar at all. It was just a day at the beach
on Block Island with Hepcat, the Oh So Feisty One and her friend,
Luvbud.

And then OSFO noticed a tiny yellow parachute with a smiley face on it flying high above and behind a speeding motorboat.

“There’s a person attached to that thing,” she said.

And so began the longing to be that person flying high above the Atlantic Ocean.

“Can we do that?” OSFO asked with just the slightest amount of pleading in her voice.

Smartmom didn’t even answer because she figured the urge would pass
and OSFO and Luvbud would soon settle on a safer beach pastime, like
collecting seashells or burying each other in the sand.

But the urge didn’t pass. And, believe it or not, Hepcat started to egg them on.

“You really want to do it? You want to give it a try?” he goaded.

Smartmom was shocked. Hepcat was usually the hyper-cautious one.
From a family of engineers, he knows how everything works and,
therefor, just how dangerous everything is. He’s the parent who always
puts the kibosh on kooky ideas that will result in emergency room
visits or major surgery.

The fact that he was encouraging this was irksome — and it made Smartmom mad.

“It’s ridiculously safe,” he told Smartmom. If the string breaks
there’s the parachute, if the parachute breaks, they just fall into the
water.”

Smartmom put the whole thing out of her mind as they walked along
the beach. She figured it was a remote possibility until she heard
Hepcat say.

“Let’s walk over to the harbor and see how much it costs.”

Smartmom was game only because she figured the cost would be prohibitive.

But Smartmom didn’t factor in salesmanship. When they got to the
motorboat, a woman selling tickets on the dock was determined to get
the girls into the boat.

“It’s the experience of a lifetime, girls. You’ll love it. You can
go up together. The captain has been doing this for 20 years. Nothing
to worry about. Everyone loves it. We’ve got a boat leaving in a few
minutes.”

When Smartmom found out that it cost $75 per person for a
seven-minute ride or a 14-minute tandem ride she was dead set against
it. This trip to Block Island was already costing them plenty. Why did
they need to add this unnecessary expense? But Hepcat felt differently.

“This is one of those confidence-building activities,” he said. “One
of those things that makes you feel like you can do anything. It’s
great for girls.”

Smartmom hardly recognized her ever-cautious husband. Then again,
hadn’t he regaled them with tales of a youth spent riding motorcycles,
hot-dog skiing, skateboarding and driving sports cars?

He wanted his little girl to fly and there was no way around it.

Reluctantly, Smartmom said yes. But first she wanted to call
Luvbud’s mom back home in Brooklyn. In a moment of crystal-clear great
parenting, Smartmom thought it seemed right that she should call
Luvbud’s mom for a signoff on her daughter flying 500 feet in the air.
Luvbud’s mom gave her OK. The girls cheered.

As the girls got on the boat, the captain said that Smartmom and Hepcat could ride along for free.

Smartmom was pleased. Of course she had no intention of letting her
baby fly up in the air without her being on board — free or not free.

By the time OSFO and Luvbud were strapped into the harnesses,
Smartmom had a lot of confidence in the captain. A lovely guy licensed
by the US Coast Guard, he’d flown more than 40,000 people since 1989.

Smartmom stopped herself from asking OSFO if she was feeling all
right, if she really wanted to go up there, if she wanted to change her
mind. She and Luvbud didn’t seem to have any reservations. They looked
excited and ready to go as they watched the previous tandem couple
being lowered down.

Smartmom watched nervously as the girls were slowly released into
the air like a kite. Before she knew it, they were soaring high above
Block Island’s waters.

The view was probably breathtaking for them. For Smartmom, it was
anxiety inducing to see her daughter in the sky. She could barely see
her face and kept asking Hepcat how they looked through the viewfinder
of his camera.

“Do they look scared? Are they all right?” she asked.

“They’re fine,” he said. “Can’t you see, she’s making the thumbs-up sign? They’re kicking their feet.”

It was true. The girls were flailing their arms and swinging their
legs like they were on the big girl swings in JJ Byrne Playground in
the newly misnamed Washington Park. They looked like they didn’t have a
care in the world.

Big deal. Smartmom was an emotional wreck the entire time they were
up there — not that she let on! She made small talk with the captain
and his young mate. She asked the previous couple how it felt to be up
there.

“It’s so quiet. It’s so peaceful,” the woman said.

On the boat, the captain played Steely Dan songs at high volume and
Smartmom felt a blur of feelings that included elation, pride in her
brave girl, and even shame. What mother would send her daughter 500
feet in the air? What a crazy thing to do?

But then she got hit with something like the world’s biggest
metaphor. Isn’t that rope up to the parasail the umbilical cord that
Smartmom has never actually been able to cut? Shouldn’t a mother let
her child soar (even if it is frightening and stomachache inducing?)?
If her daughter felt ready to do something new (within reason),
shouldn’t her mom go along with it and be brave. Isn’t that what
growing up is about?

Yes, dammit, it’s all about letting go.

When the captain’s mate started pulling in the string, Smartmom felt
her beating heart slow down. As the girls got closer she could see
their smiling faces. They didn’t look scared; they looked accomplished
and happy, especially when the captain let them dip their toes in the
water before getting back on the flight deck. They squealed with
laughter.

And so did Smartmom, who was happy to have her daughter in her arms as the motorboat speeded back to shore.

It felt like they both had accomplished something important

Let this iPhone photo  suffice until No Words Daily Pix wakes up.

The showing of Purple Rain last night at Celebrate Brooklyn was an unadulterated blast.

A really diverse, interesting. good-looking, multi-age and ethnicity, well-dressed and/or costumed crowd looked like they were having a ball.

It was a Purple Rain Sing-a-long and that's what everyone did. They sang-a-long to the sub-titled film. But who needed sub-titles? Everyone knew the lyrics to the songs featured in Prince's 25-year-old movie.

But it didn't feel like a nostalgia fest. It felt like a good time.

And the crowd was too young for nostalgia. Heck, my son was there with a bunch of friends.

There was dancing but whenever people in the seats stood up they were booed by the people on the lawn in back.

So much for dancing. Other than that it was a good- natured crowd who were happy to be bopping, clapping, singing, moving in their seats…

How can u just leave me standing?
Alone in a world that's so cold? (So cold)
Maybe I'm just 2 demanding
Maybe I'm just like my father 2 bold
Maybe you're just like my mother
She's never satisfied (She's never satisfied)
Why do we scream at each other
This is what it sounds like
When doves cry

The movie itself is so bad that it's good. "I forgot just how bad the non-musical sections were," Hugh said.

But I enjoyed just about every minute of the film and the atmosphere of last night's fun, sexy, Purple Rain sing-a-long.

My cousin Meg Fidler, Executive Director of the Petra Foundation, sent me this article about an organization that sends breast milk to South Africa. Read more at NEED. which describes itself as the "first independent magazine dedicated solely to global and domestic humanitarian issues."

"Every day, around 1,500 people in South Africa become infected with
HIV. This epidemic has led to about 1.4 million orphans in South Africa
alone. Many of these young children are malnourished and are in
desperate need of care. Jill Youse, founder of the International Breast
Milk Project (IBMP), is here to help.

"To date, IBMP has sent 65,000 bottles of breast milk to South
Africa. This amount of “liquid gold,” as Youse calls it, has the
ability to feed 2,188 babies for a month. If you do the math, it’s easy
to see that there’s still a need for milk. Youse and two thousand other
mothers are determined to meet this demand.

"The
idea of donating milk first came to Youse after her daughter was born
and she had a freezer full of breast milk. Not wanting the food to go
to waste, she turned to Google. Youse soon found an orphanage in South
Africa that needed donor milk. After personally sending her milk to
Durban, South Africa, Youse had no idea that her actions would turn
into an international nonprofit.

"“I didn’t think, ‘Oh I’m going to go start a nonprofit organization
and start a worldwide movement. I just thought, ‘This is a simple
solution. I have a whole lot of something, and here’s this baby that
has nothing. Certainly this is least I can do,’” says Youse.

News of this unique donation quickly spread, and mothers started
calling Youse asking where to send their milk. When the Oprah show
called and left a message on her cell phone Youse didn’t believe it. “I
didn’t return their call because I thought it was my best friend
playing a joke. When I got the second message I looked at the area code
and thought, ‘I better call back.’ And it was a good thing that I did,”
Youse explains. After Oprah gave her approval of IBMP,
the 10 donating mothers turned into 1,500, the IBMP website quit
functioning and Youse’s inbox was overwhelmed with new inquiries."

Is it typical for national politicians to endorse City Council candidates? This year it certainly is. First we had Howard Dean endorsing both Josh Skaller and Brad Lander in the same race in the 39th district.

And now Senator Charles Schumer will endorse Stephen Levin for City Council in the 33rd district.  I'm wondering how this came about.

You know, of course, that young Levin is the nephew of both Carl Levin, the Senior United States Senator from Michigan and the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Congressman Sander Levin, Democratic representative from the 12th congressional district in Michigan.

Levin is also chief of staff for Assemblyman Vito Lopez's probably one of the most demonized—and powerful Democratic figures in Brooklyn.

Today there's a press conference at Borough Hall. More later.