The Goods

Details: Category: The Goods; Published: 13 February 2013

tenthofdecember With school vacation and a three-day weekend upon us some of you will be looking for a good book to read or a movie to watch at home. Lucky for you, you live in a community of readers and a Village with a great library.

To give you some ideas about what to take out of the library or download on your Kindle, we asked Elizabeth Bermel, Director of the Scarsdale Public Library to send us lists of the most popular books and movies among library patrons.

Here are her tallies of the most frequently downloaded books, borrowed books and movies this month from the Scarsdale Public Library:

What Scarsdale Is Downloading:

1.Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
2. Defending Jacob - William Landay
3. Tuesday's Child - Fern Michaels
4. 1Q84 - Haruki Murakami
5. Fifty Shades Darker - E.L. James
6. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
7. 15 Seconds - Andrew Gross
8. The Sandcastle Girls - Chris Bohjalian
9. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
10. The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg

What Scarsdale Is Reading in Print: gonegirl

1. My Beloved World - Sonia Sotomayor
2. Tenth of December - George Saunders
3. The Racketeer - John Grisham
4. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
5. Suspect - Robert Crais

What Scarsdale Is Watching:

1. Flight
2. Homeland
3. Skyfall
4. Pitch Perfect

If you want to share your recent reads with Scarsdale10583.com readers, please comment below:

Elizabeth (Beth) Bermel, Director of the Scarsdale Public Library, has been a librarian for 19 years. Before coming to Scarsdale, she was the Director of the Ossining Public Library, and worked for the San Antonio Public Library and the Queens Borough Public Library. In addition to her job, she loves reading, dogs, yoga, traveling, good food and the outdoors.

Details: Category: The Goods; Published: 07 February 2013

facebook25 Rob Fishman, a 2004 graduate of Scarsdale High School now covers the tech sector for Buzzfeed and also works as a media consultant to many leading websites. To celebrate Facebook's ninth birthday on Monday February 4, Rob interviewed Facebook's first 25 users to find out where they are now. Read about Mark Zuckerberg's earliest followers and see how some of them were forever changed by the birth of the social media sensation and others missed the boat.

25. Amie Broder amiebroder

Broder, two years ahead of the Facebook founders at Harvard, went on to NYU Law School and a job at the law firm Simpson Thacher. She's now an associate at Troutman Sanders, and in 2012, was named by Law & Politics as a "rising star" in tax law.

24. Ada McMahon

McMahon lives in New Orleans, where she works as a media fellow for Bridge the Gulf, a group of citizen journalists collecting stories from the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. McMahon also blogs for The Huffington Post.

billyolson 23. Billy Olson

Olson, the fourth roommate in Zuckerberg, Hughes, and Moskovitz's suite, was "an amateur thespian with an impish streak," according to David Kirkpatrick, author of The Facebook Effect. In The Social Network, Olson has the bright idea of comparing students to farm animals. While his friends all went on to become billionaires, Olson took time off from Harvard and never graduated, said a Harvard official. Still, he ended up making friends with a tight-knit group of younger students, with whom he is still close, according to a former classmate. Friends said Olson had become a firefighter in his hometown of Briarcliff Manor, New York.

22. Hilary Scurlock Cocalis

Previously with the Bleacher Report, Cocalis is now the marketing manager for MiresBall, a branding agency in San Diego.

gregfriedman 21. Greg Friedman

A trader at investment firm D.E. Shaw, Friedman met his future wife at Harvard, where they were chemistry lab partners.

See the rest of the crowd here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/robf4/the-first-25-people-on-facebook-433s

Also read a reflection on the birth of Facebook written by Rob Fishman here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/robf4/the-earliest-adopters-433s

(Full disclosure: Rob Fishman is the son of Joanne Wallenstein of Scarsdale10583.)

Details: Category: The Goods; Published: 23 January 2013

blackcat2 Joan Frederick of Scarsdale reports that she has found a cat in the Edgewood area. The cat, shown here, has long black hair and green eyes and is wearing a flea collar. Help the cat get home! If it's yours, call Joan at 914-714-4140 or email her at: jfrederick@HoulihanLawrence.com

Details: Category: The Goods; Published: 28 January 2013

annhathaway I am writing this during the most hectic week of my life, the second week of rehearsals for the elementary school play. I have been cast as a co-chair of the school play this year, and, as a method actress, I like to fill my role completely. That is why I have dropped everything, everything for my craft.

I'm like Anne Hathaway as Fantine. I'd cut off all my hair and extract a tooth, if anyone on the PTA were insane enough to ask me to do it. That's how committed I am to this production of Bye, Bye Birdie.

During production, I do not have any sort of a life outside of what happens in the school gym, which means I have to write this article frantically and in secret.
I am so into the whole thing that I call these two weeks "production."

Because I am never allowed out and I must be silent while I write, I'm the Anne Frank of volunteerism.

I mean, if word ever spread that I had smuggled a laptop into the elementary school and was writing a humorous essay during this sacred time of play rehearsal, the school board might kick me out and have me redistricted, perhaps to a horrible place, a place without a school play. And then what will become of my performance-loving children? That cannot be.

And so I only click-clack on the keys while the chorus of 90 are singing the big company numbers, which drown out the sounds I make when I laugh from rereading my own pathetic attempts at joking.

If you or anyone you know or love has ever run a school production, volunteered for such an endeavor, or been in charge of costumes, props, or tech for a school play, then you know just how insane I am right now. But, in case you aren't sure if this is you or not, here's a little quiz to take. If you can answer 'Yes' to three or more of these statements, then you have experienced School Musical Volunteer Insanity.

1. I haven't slept in three days because, when I try to sleep, lyrics from Bye, Bye Birdie (or insert name of other musical here) run through my mind in a compulsive loop that makes me friggin' batty. ("Did they really get pinned? Did she kiss him and cry? Did he pin the pin on? Or was he too shy?") The fact that my husband is sleeping soundly next to me seriously pisses me off.

2. I think I told everyone everything there is to tell, say, or do, but I can't remember now because there is just so much to tell, say, and do.

3. Last week I got a trickle of emails from my friends about lunch plans and play dates, but this week, I am getting 30 emails a day from different parents asking me if it's okay that their children wear off-white socks instead of white as per costume requirements. If I say yes, I'm a sock fairy, and everyone's hero. No means I'm a complete bitch.

4. I have not made dinner for over a week.

5. I have accidentally offended at least two individuals, been misunderstood by five others, and strained what was previously a good friendship, all in the name of helping out the school.

How did you do? I hope you scored a 3/5 or higher! Now, here's the tricky part. This quiz has a second section. Same rules. Here it is:

1. I enjoy teaching my children the musical numbers during dinnertime and I love hearing them break into song in the car or at a random place like a Chinese restaurant. (Long story.)

2. I have been working with such nice volunteers and have had fun in the way you have fun when you are pulling an all-nighter with friends in college. You are bleary eyed and crazy, but it's all good in the end when you ace the test. (Or, in my case, get a solid B plus.)

3. The emails aren't really that bad. I just made them sound that way above because I like to exaggerate and complain. In truth, it sort of makes me feel useful and important that so many people are emailing me about socks! My opinion matters!

4. I LOVE not making dinner!

5. And I LOVE the way a play comes together, just the way it should, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in good weather and in sleet, so help me Conrad. I get to play an active role in my children's memories of elementary school, and for that, in the end, I can only do one thing and, yes, I'm going to say it...Put on a Happy Face.

Break a leg, everyone!

Columnist and blogger Julie Gerstenblatt writes with humor and candor about her life in Scarsdale, her friends and family, and the particular demands of motherhood and wifedom in modern-day suburbia. Read about her new book Lauren Takes Leave and keep up with the latest from Julie Gerstenblatt here.

Details: Category: The Goods; Published: 15 January 2013

carriediaries If you are anything like me (and you are, my dear, you are), then you loved Candace Bushnell's wildly successful column-turned-book-turned-HBO hit-turned movie Sex and the City. The fashion, the dramas, and, best of all, the relationships between Carrie Bradshaw and friends had us hooked faster than you can say "Jimmy Choo."

But, alas, all good things must come to an end.

But, where did it all begin? With The Carrie Diaries, of course! In this television prequel to Sex and the City, based on the Young Adult books by Candace Bushnell, we meet high school junior Carrie Bradshaw. The year is 1984. The story begins on the first day of school, three months after Carrie's mom has died of cancer. Carrie, her younger sister Dorrit, and their dad are doing the best they can to get by without her, but they are each struggling in their own ways.

As expected, Carrie (played by AnnaSophia Robb of "Soul Surfer") has a great posse of best friends to cheer her up and keep her moving forward. There's The Mouse, who comes back from summer vacation having lost her virginity to a college boy, and Maggie and Walt, who are dating each other although Maggie is cheating on Walt. It's okay; Walt likes boys, but isn't quite ready to admit that he's gay.

Oh, and then there's the new guy, bad boy Sebastian Kydd, who plays Carrie's love interest. And let's not forget Donna LaDonna, the popular girl at school and Carrie's nemesis. Donna comes outfitted with big hair and earrings and a duo of mean girl sidekicks.

In the first episode, Carrie gets an internship at a Manhattan law firm and life begins to take off for her, as she's romanced by her favorite man, Manhattan. We see Carrie find her sense of style, taking vintage pieces of her mother's and polishing them with her own creative flair, and we see her test the boundaries of young adulthood with drinking, shoplifting, and sex.

It's all very Carrie Bradshaw.

I love love love it.

The 80's music in the background is perfection. The fashion, the friendships, the drama, the city: it's all there. I was hooked faster than you can say "Capezios."
AnnaSophia Robb does an amazing job of filling the spirit of young Carrie Bradshaw without trying to be exactly like Sarah Jessica Parker. There is enough distance between the two actresses to feel like each one is putting their own mark on the character. But watch young Carrie bound across a city street in heels, and you'll see: she's got it just right!

Finally, at the end of the hour, when young Carrie opens a notebook to write her reflections - while seated at her desk in front of an open window in her bedroom, of course - you just might cry a little.
Welcome back, Carrie. We missed you.

Watch it:
The Carrie Diaries
Mondays @ 8 pm on the CW

Read it:
The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell
Summer and the City: A Carrie Diaries novel by Candace Bushnell