The news that community activist Martin Bernstein had died brought messages near and far. Here’s an e-mail from former Clarkstown Town Supervisor Charles Holbrook, now in South Carolina:

“I was saddened to learn of the death of Martin Bernstein. From the year he moved to Clarkstown ( 1955 ) until his death, Martin Bernstein was involved in community affairs. While people might agree or disagree with Martin Bernstein, no one could ever doubt his devotion to community involvement. He will be missed by all those who treasure community betterment before individual interests.”

So there I was, heading up the right lane of the westbound Thruway last evening, approaching Exit 14B at Airmont Road.
It was about 8:15, but even at that hour on the Thursday ahead of a long weekend, there was pretty good traffic. Up ahead I could see the usual line of cars waiting for the light to change to make a left onto Airmont Road.
I moved to the right, deciding to take the back route home. I’d make a right onto Airmont, a left onto Montebello and then pick up Hemion Road to get out to Route 59 for the last short hop into downtown Suffern.
But that’s when I realized the ramp was three lanes across and that I was actually in a new left turn lane.
The ramp’s been undergoing construction for a few months now, widening the roadway to allow for better flow from the Thruway onto Airmont Road, especially at peak hours.
For a while the traffic lights had been in place, but covered with plastic.
Then last night—at least that’s when I noticed it—the new configuration was in use.
The far left lane turns left; the far right lane turns right; and in the middle there’s a second turn lane from which you can also go straight ahead, which would put you right back on the northbound Thruway.
Across the bridge over the Thruway, the new, wider southbound ramp has been in use for a month or more.
Now there’s smoother going in both directions.

A Journal News article over the flap (sorry) about peacocks and guinea fowl traipsing around, and, er, dirtying, nearby Viola Elementary School in Montebello brought a very informative letter from Ivy Kirsch of Montebello. It seems Guinea fowl are well-known for their Lyme disease prevention capabilities. The birds eat deer ticks, which, of course, carry Lyme. (Rocklanders know the most interesting things. I didn’t know about this guinea hen Lyme prevention method. Did you?)
There’s lots of information on this, but here’s one Guinea fowl Web site that pretty much sums up the basics.
Kirsch’s letter will be published next week, but I called to talk with her about it. She lives near the school, and the neighbor who had the guinea fowl, and peacocks at the heart of the school and county health department complaints. She’s seen what Lyme can do, when family members have contracted the disease. Her feeling is that some bird mess is more than worth the inconvenience for Lyme protection.
Where did Kirsch first hear about the tick-clearing birds? On the former Rosie O’Donnell Show in April 2000 — yes! Another Rockland resident.

A few terrible crashes involving elderly drivers (including one in Westchester that killed a popular coach at Galaxy Gymnasics in Orangeburg) got me curious about crash statistics. For many years, the party line from insurers had been that older drivers, statistically, have fewer accidents than other groups. Ends up that recent studies point to a little bit more complex situation. (Surprise! Statistics aren’t always simple to interpret.)
“On the basis of estimated annual travel, the fatality rate for drivers 85 and over is nine times as high as the rate for drivers 25 through 69 years old,” according to the National Transportation and Highway Safety Association, which summarized 1997 highway statistics for older drivers in “Traffic Safety Facts 1997: Older Population.” Basically, older drivers simply drive less, and often limit night and highway driving, so accident rate statistics are skewed.
A neighbor last month was driving on Route 9W when an elderly woman rear-ended her car. Luckily, everyone was pretty much OK (all her kids were in the car.) Then yesterday, an 81-year-old man apparently stepped on the gas instead of the brake as he drove in the Provident Bank lot in Orangeburg and crashed into the bank. Luckily, again, he seemed to escape serious injury.
Of course, accidents happen, and there is no telling in any of these what role, if any, age played.
But, should there be mandatory road tests, or a doctor’s evaluation, for drivers over 80, or 85?

It’s the last week of summer camp, but two weeks until school starts. The panic begins. Really, we are lucky because we have great neighbors (and good jobs with good benefits, like time off) that it all will work out.
Though, as I reviewed the recently published Journal News’ Rockland late-summer tradition, the annual Back to School tabloid magazine, I thought the theme — inclusive ideas and diverse programs beyond one-size-fits-all — really summed up my kids’ summer experience.
My kids got to partake in a variety of camp experiences, all in (or two minutes from) Rockland. They were different, because, well, the kids are different.
We had: traditional summer sleepover camp, rustic cabins, lake swimming and even bear alerts, in Harriman State Park.
We had “theater” camp housed at a local middle school. They even put on their own play at the end. Yes, a musical.
We tried skateboarding camp in western Ramapo (yes, skateboarding camp.) This kid, of course, is already angling for sailing camp next year.
Now, we have gymnastics camp. And, we had the wonderful opportunity to join strings camp in the Nyack district (we have some great offerings in all our school districts.)
Now, I think we need a week of less structure (Camp Mommy) before the school routine sets in. That is, until I start hearing, “Mom, I’m bored!”
When does the school bus arrive?

Fire Prevention Week isn’t until October (it’s coordinated to fall on the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871) but I ended up hearing a great story about how those preschool “stop-drop-and-roll” lessons, etc. really do sink in.
Gordon Wren, Rockland’s fire and emergency services coordinator, was visiting today. He recalled a New Year’s party he was at some years ago in which the hostess left a dessert, set to heat in the microwave for three minutes, cooking away for 30 minutes. Smoke alarms — and that acrid microwave fire smoke — alerted her, and her guests, to her mistake.
So, as all the adults ran around the kitchen, inhaling the smoke and coughing, opening windows (mistake — you’re feeding the fire, too), one little girl, about 7, lay on the floor and began to crawl to an exit. Gordon crouched down with her, and noted that she was doing the right thing — smoke rises, and you are supposed to stay low (this from the American Red Cross: “If smoke is present, crawl low to escape. Because smoke rises in a fire, breathable air is often close to the floor.”
Where did she learn this key fire safety technique? During a Fire Prevention Week visit from her local volunteer fire department at her preschool.
“Adults think they know it all,” Gordon said, “but kids are sponges.”
Those little lessons, of course, can save lives.

Vacation is wonderful. We headed to the beach for several days (yes, I still checked LoHud.com at the local library. I even had to buy a $10 “temporary� library card.)
So, we come home late Sunday evening. No food in the house. Laundry everywhere. Lots of sand.
Monday morning, everyone’s back to the drill — camp for kids, work for grownups.
Well, it seems no one in Rockland politics has been relaxing much. The politicking for fall elections is already in full swing. Key legislative races skipped the simmer and have been at full boil.
(And I thought we’d never get all the politicians’ letters published on the Federal Aviation Administration flight plan that’s ruffled so many Rocklanders.)
I’ve been bracing for the onslaught of accusation-response-accusation letters from politicians and their family and friends. A steady flow started in late spring, but now, the flood approaches.
Well, it’s never boring. And, I’m afraid, I’ll never finish the laundry, sand and all.

So there I was, sitting in traffic because of an accident and listening to a comedy channel on satellite radio, when who pops up but Myron Cohen.
Cohen, who lived in New City until his death in 1986, was the leader of a pack of Borscht Belt comics from Rockland who made their living at the resorts in the heyday of the Catskills. Of course there was Vegas and later Atlantic City, but when Freddie Roman, Lenny Rush, Vic Arnell, Morty Gunty and Myron Cohen played the Catskills, they were commuters.
Cohen broke into comedy when his customers at haberdashery shops made it clear his talent wasn’t in selling men’s clothes.
He was a fixture on the Ed Sullivan Show and after spending each morning in his office in Manhattan, at a table at the rear of the old Maxi City Deli in New City.
The master of dialect jokes was so gracious that if you walked in and he knew you—and maybe even if he didn’t—you were invited to join him for a late lunch.
Myron is worth a full column some one of these days, but for now, it was good to hear his perfect pronunciation, mellow tones and flawless timing again.
He told five minutes of jokes about old Jewish men and women living out their somewhat tarnished golden years in Miami.
If only for five minutes or so, it was good to have him back.

This just in.
Kids got fooled into thinking the food they were served tasted better when it was given to them in McDonald’s wrappings.
Oh, those gullible kids.
A wire service story today quotes the study’s leader as saying that the kids’ opinions were “physically altered by the branding.”
Adults would never fall for that, would we.
Let’s all lift our bottled tap water and toast our more sophisticated taste buds.

Sophie Werner, who died last week at 94, was a darling of the members of the Ramapo Over 90 Club.
She was one of them, to be sure, but if it had been up to her she’d have been back in the workforce.
Twice that I remember, she wowed the club with the story of her retirement from the Town of Ramapo Justice Court at age 92.
She had worked there for 17 years and liked it so much that she talked about wishing she hadn’t left.
At one Over 90 Club lunch, it prompted an impromptu Town Board meeting.
Supervisor Chris St. Lawrence and several council members held a quick voice vote and hired her back on the spot.
Not really, but the moment was funny and heartwarming all at once.
It was a nice moment for a devoted person and for all her contemporaries.