By Dee Richard
Monday afternoon, Mike Ricatto of Better Leadership America, after reading in my March 13 column that the Samuel Field Y in Little Neck was conducting its fifth annual Harmony Food Drive benefiting those in need of food to celebrate Passover, personally donated and delivered approximately 25 bags of kosher food to the Y. Gail Eisenberg, the executive director of the Northeast Queens Jewish Council, said she was very pleased with Ricatto's generous donation and that anyone else who wishes to donate can still do so up to April 11. Way to go, good guy Mike!Monday evening, the Ronald Reagan GOP Club in Howard Beach held their monthly meeting in the Old Mill Yacht Club. This month's first guest speaker was Staten Island DA Dan Donovan, who brought the club up to date on the upcoming presidential elections from a Republican point of view. I like Donovan – not only is he a decent man, but he's an interesting, informative speaker as well. The other speaker was Ignazio Terranova of the city Department of Sanitation, who warned everyone there that dumping your personal garbage in a city litter basket is illegal. He said that the Department of Sanitation will go through the bags of garbage and if they find a piece of paper or envelope with your name and address on it, you will receive a summons in the mail. So everyone, take warning.Tuesday, April 1, was my birthday and I celebrated by taking the day off and not working. Wednesday at noon, QPTV held a mixer in its studio for producer/director members, enabling them to meet each other and possibly volunteer their crews to help each other out. I've been neglecting my QPTV spot lately, but I've resolved to restart my program. Part of my plan to get active again is that I am signing up for the new field program, which should be interesting, as I've already completed the studio courses. Executive Director Daniel Leone and Outreach Director Francine Tobias are to be congratulated on the excellent job they do.Thursday evening, we went to Nettie Mayersohn's Stevenson Democratic Club. Nettie was not there, as she was stuck in Albany working on the budget. Their scheduled guest speaker was Marty Markowitz, who had to cancel due to a schedule mix-up. Marty has re-scheduled for another date. Too bad! I was really looking forward to hearing him, as he is a truly fun guy as well as a most interesting and amusing speaker. Catch you next time, Marty!Friday night, there was a fund-raiser for state Sen. Malcolm Smith at Antun's in Queens Village. The place was packed, as apparently everyone loves Malcolm, including yours truly. For those of you who read this column regularly, you must be aware of the fact that he is one of my favorite Democratic electeds. It was good seeing and speaking to so many old friends again.Later Friday evening, we stopped at the grand opening of a new restaurant, George Martin, on Douglaston Parkway in Douglaston that was formerly known as BK Sweeney's. The new owner seems to be a very pleasant, presentable guy. The place was packed like a can of sardines, but that's what usually happens when you offer free food and free drinks to the public. Everyone who we know was either invited or heard about the event via the grapevine. It was like old home week. Good luck in you new endeavor.Saturday night Chet Szarejko, Peter Boudouvas, Jim Darmos and I attended the “Sinatra Dances” musical dance fantasy at Hofstra University's John Crawford Adams Playhouse. For Sinatra fans, it was a great evening with a superb performance by Lenora Volpe and her dancers from the Metropolitan Repertory Ballet Company, accompanied by her seven-piece ballet orchestra, who also did an excellent job. The show was stolen by Bob Spiotto, the theater's executive producer, who wrote as well as performed the very witty running commentary during the entire show. He was a master of ceremonies par excellence. From the small world department, it turns out he is friends with Queens Theater in the Park Executive Director Jeff Rosenstock.There is something very magical about attending a live performance in a theater that just isn't there in a regular movie theater.That's it for this week.I always look forward to hearing from you directly with information on people, parties, politics or some plain old-fashioned gossip. I also like to receive your voice-mail at 718-767 6484, your faxes at 718-746-0066 and your e-mail at deerrichard@aol.com.Till next week, Dee.
