PLAINFIELD TODAY

The needler in the haystack.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Sympathy to Dr. Harold Yood and family




Opening line of the Kaddish.


Veteran Plainfield-watcher and Council commentator Dr. Harold Yood's wife Helen passed away yesterday.

News of his loss was posted to his blog, Doc's Potpourri last evening (see here).

My deepest sympathy goes out to Dr. Yood and his family, whom many of us have been privileged and delighted to learn about through his regular postings to his blog.

As he wrote earlier on his blog about their initial meeting, Dr. Yood was swept off his feet at a party by Helen, the beautiful strawberry blonde (who was the date of his host) and they had been 'an item' from that day forward.

I am including below the magnificent Kaddish, a prayer of blessing of the name of God, also referred to as the 'mourners prayer', and an appropriate prayer for those who join Dr. Yood and his family in mourning their loss --

יִתְגַּדַּל וְיִתְקַדַּשׁ שְׁמֵהּ רַבָּא.
בְּעָלְמָא דִּי בְרָא כִרְעוּתֵהּ
וְיַמְלִיךְ מַלְכוּתֵהּ
בְּחַיֵּיכוֹן וּבְיוֹמֵיכוֹן
וּבְחַיֵּי דְכָל בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל
בַּעֲגָלָא וּבִזְמַן קָרִיב. וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן
יְהֵא שְׁמֵהּ רַבָּא מְבָרַךְ
לְעָלַם וּלְעָלְמֵי עָלְמַיָּא
יִתְבָּרַךְ וְיִשְׁתַּבַּח וְיִתְפָּאַר וְיִתְרוֹמַם
וְיִתְנַשֵּׂא וְיִתְהַדָּר וְיִתְעַלֶּה וְיִתְהַלָּל
שְׁמֵהּ דְקֻדְשָׁא בְּרִיךְ הוּא.
לְעֵלָּא (לְעֵלָּא מִכָּל) מִן כָּל בִּרְכָתָא
וְשִׁירָתָא תֻּשְׁבְּחָתָא וְנֶחֱמָתָא
דַּאֲמִירָן בְּעָלְמָא. וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן
יְהֵא שְׁלָמָה רבָּא מִן שְׁמַיָּא,
[וְ]חַיִּים [טוֹבִים]
לָנוּ וּלְכָל עַמּוֹ יִשְֹרָאֵל וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן.
עוֹשֶֹה שָׁלוֹם בִּמְרוֹמָיו,
הוּא [בְּרַחֲמָיו] יַעֲשֶֹה שָׁלוֹם עָלֵינוּ,
וְעַל כָּל [עַמּוֹ] יִשְֹרָאֵל וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן
.


The prayer can be read in English both here and here.

Christians will immediately recognize the roots of our own 'Lord's prayer' in this hallowed Jewish prayer.


Expressions of sympathy may be sent to Dr. Yood and the family to this address --

Harold S. Yood, M.D.
1353 Cushing Road
Plainfield, NJ 07062



-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Man shot Tuesday night




Plainfield has had yet another shooting incident.

Tuesday evening, a man was shot multiple times in the 400 block of West 5th Street (between Central Avenue and Liberty Street).




-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

A Plainfield swine flu runaround








Consider Pat Kavanaugh's Kafkaesque quest for a swine flu shot.

The Plainfield native, community activist, and retired Star-Ledger reporter told me she has been trying to get a shot for the better part of a month.

A newsie, she is well aware there have been both production and delivery issues with the vaccine. She was led by the story in Sunday's Ledger of Union County's misadventures -- in which fewer syringes than vaccine were supplied, leaving officials scrambling for needles (see here) -- to try once again.

You see, she had already been in touch with Plainfield's Health Division and suggested enlisting the aid of Assemblyman Jerry Green (as she notes, 'the third most important member of the Assembly'). The woman at the
Health Division thought that was a wonderful idea and suggested that Pat make the outreach, which she did.

Yesterday, she learned that the Assemblyman had instructed his aide to call Plainfield's
Health Division. Click, Kafkaesque happenstance number one.

That was in the course of reaching out the to the
Health Division (got voicemail), the mayor's confidential aide Barbara James (busy), and the City Administrator (answered by the Mayor's office, told he was 'in a meeting').

Called the
Health Division AGAIN, got a real person and asked for the Health Officer.

"He's out sick."

"Who's in charge?"

"No one's in charge."

Click, Kafkaesque happenstance number two.

Pat then called the Union County Senior Citizens office, which told her to call the Plainfield Senior Center. Pat countered by asking to be transferred to the Union County Health Department. The woman didn't know how to transfer the call.

Moving up the chain, Pat then called the Union County switchboard and asked for the county Health Department.

Connected, she asked for the Director, Lester Jones.

"He's in a meeting."

Pat read the list of the towns the Ledger reported had received the vaccine.

"That's because Freeholder Proctor is the health officer for those towns."

Click, Kafkaesque happenstance number three.

Ever resourceful, Pat called the county switchboard yet again and asked to speak to Freeholder, and Plainfielder, Rayland Van Blake.

Was told Freeholder Van Blake would be back in touch.

Then the man in the freeholder's office called back to tell Pat she could go to Linden for a shot on the 10th, the
12th, or the 16th.

"You mean tomorrow (the
10th)?

"I don't know today's date, so I don't know if tomorrow is the
10th."

Click, Kafkaesque happenstance number four.

Pat called his attention to the fact that as a government employee he would be off on Wednesday the
11th (for Veterans Day), so he should be able to figure out that the day before is the 10th.

She says she noted to him that in mental hospitals, the date is posted to help keep patients oriented, and perhaps the County should try that to help its employees do the same.

Still no word of if or when swine flu shots will be coming to Plainfield.

Perhaps after the season? Perhaps never?

Kafkaesque?



-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Plainfield shocker: Somerset Street milled, paved!





As of yesterday, drivers entering Plainfield via Somerset Street no longer need endure the bone-jarring corduroy road which the block from the North Plainfield line to Front Street has been for decades.

In a SINGLE WORK DAY, the stretch of street about which I and many others have complained was reborn.

What was so hard about that?

(Make a mental note though, that it was only milled and paved, not rebuilt as some think it needed. We'll see soon enough if this will fail like the South Avenue work done a decade ago, when a lack of funds caused ITS reconstruction to be skipped in favor of a cosmetic mill-and-pave.)

Where was the mayor? This was an occasion TRULY WORTHY of Her Honor doing a star turn -- say a ceremonial snapshot in a red blazer and atop a road roller.

Could have been part of the new communications strategy.

Maybe even some free donuts for the workers and passersby.

Coulda... shoulda... woulda...

At any rate, enjoy your new silky smooth roll into town!




-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Monday, November 9, 2009

Plainfield's Veterans Day Observance: Incontrovertible, inscrutable, inexplicable




Veterans Day annouccement on City's website.
(Click to enlarge.)



Plainfielders who read the city's official (and presumed official) pronouncements on this year's observance of Veterans Day may find them alternatively i
ncontrovertible, inscrutable, and inexplicable, or perhaps all three.

Above is a screen shot of part of the City's official notice posted on the City's official website (view the complete page here, PDF).

Herewith a transcription of the
information (presumably officially released, as not even a cub reporter would make a submission such as this) in today's dead-tree version of the Courier News (couldn't find it online, sorry) --


PLAINFIELD

The city will break in its new veterans' hall with a special Veterans Day ceremony Wednesday.

The hall is located on the ground floor of The Monarch, an unfinished condominium development at 400 E. Front St. An extremely short parade, starting at 10:30 a.m., will include a march from the city's current senior center at 305 E. Front St. to The Monarch, which also is site of the city's new senior center, which has yet to open.

Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs and others will speak during the 11 a.m. Veterans Day ceremony. The event will include free refreshments, giveaways and live music, plus performances by the Plainfield High School ROTC and marching band.

Earlier in the morning will be the city's traditional prayer and wreath-laying at the war monument at the corner of East Seventh Street and Watchung Avenue.


Some may wonder whether some of the information truly needed to be given ('unfinished condominium development', the refreshments are 'free', and the senior center 'which has yet to open'). We must take it on faith that the observance will actually take place in 'the new Veteran's Center', since the developer's agreement explicitly states the veterans' center will be used as the sales center for the condos until all units have been sold.

At the same time, other valuable information is absent (are the veterans organizations playing no role at all? else why are they not mentioned? When exactly 'earlier in the morning' will be the wreath-laying at the war 'monument'?).

Mayor Robinson-Briggs was quoted in Sunday's Courier (see here) as saying,
"We know we have to do a much better job of getting information out to the public," she said, in particular mentioning what she labeled occasional misinformation appearing on some of the city's many popular blogs — which she said could be cleared up by greater transparency. "It's obvious in some cases that they (bloggers) only had a little piece of what the reality of a situation was ... and not enough to tell the real story or the whole story," she said.
So, there you have it.

The mayor, in her own words, says 'a much better job of getting the word out to the public' needs to be done, and that 'it's obvious that [the bloggers] only had a little piece of what the reality of a situation was ... and not enough to tell the real story or the whole story'.

As you can see from this example of a simple, straight-forward public event, Mayor Robinson-Briggs is absolutely right, on both counts.

About a) what must be done by her administration, and b) how what her administration says (or doesn't say) helps or hinders the bloggers.

This is the mountain up which, by her own admission, she must climb in her second term.





Honor Guard at a Veterans Day observance.



-- Dan Damon [follow]

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