Manor Ink July 2020

20 | JULY 2020 | MANOR INK FEATURES
Worried about the ‘summer slide’? LMFL has the cure
The “summer slide” is a light-hearted
term for what a student may unlearn
during the summer. Between the heat and
longer days, summer is
the time when everything
tends to slow down – unfortunately.
And because
this year has been unlike
any other, the slide is
Henry Barish
likely to be even worse.
The best way to counter
the summer slide is to participate in summer
reading! Reading provides an opportunity
to continue learning, whether or not
you fully realize it. In addition to reading
and understanding words through context
clues, you also use your imagination when
LIBRARY
NOTES
following the story. That’s
why this year’s theme is
“Imagine Your Story.”
Due to the coronavirus
outbreak this past spring, the summer
slide may have started back in March.
Summer reading is in full swing at the
moment, and this is the year to sign up!
We are offering programs online as well as
Manor Ink file photo
providing crafts to take home, plus posing
weekly challenges. Please call the library
to schedule an appointment for picking up
supplies for these programs.
We understand this is a stressful time
right now. However, with certain businesses
reopening in town, we hope our
summer reading services also add a bit of
normalcy. We hope to see you when you
visit the library to pick up supplies and
borrow materials.
Henry Barish is director of the Livingston
Manor Free Library. For more information,
visit livingstonmanorlibrary.org.
PARTNER SPONSORS
Charter Communications, Inc.
Community Reporting Alliance and the Ottaway Foundation
Lazare and Charlotte Kaplan Foundation
Livingston Manor Central School
Barbara Martinsons • Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation
Sullivan County Youth Services Bureau
ADVOCATES
Apple Pond Farm • Brandenburg Bakery • CAS Arts Center
Foster Supply Hospitality • Rolling V Bus Corp.
Upstream Wine & Spirits
CHAMPIONS
Chatral A’dze • Sue Barnett & Jeff Christensen • Carolyn Bivins
Rose Brown & Lester Mattis • Catskill Abstract Co., Inc.
Catskill Brewery • David Dann • Dette Flies • Vic Diescher
Carole Edwards Realty • John Fawcett • George Fulton
Amy Hines & Dave Forshay • Inside the Blue Line • Marilyn Kocher
Sen. Jen Metzger • Gina Molinet, RM Farm Real Estate
Main Street Farm • Van Morrow, Mountain Bear Crafts
Peck’s Markets • Sheila & Terry Shultz • Snowdance Farms
Beth Sosin Jewelry • Art Steinhauer • Don & Vinny Simkin
Town of Rockland • Barbara Trelstad • Upward Brewing Co.
Remembering Bud Wertheim (and the Giant Trout)
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also welcome and are grateful for contributions of any amount. Manor Ink is a program of
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Manor Ink, 92 Main St., Livingston Manor, NY 12758. Thank you!
LIBRARY BOOK CLUB REVIEW
The Andromeda Strain
By Michael Crichton
PIEDMONT, NEW MEXICO.
Population 47. Until one
night when all but two
residents are found dead.
Most have just dropped
in their tracks, clutching
their chests. The few who haven’t died
immediately quickly went insane and
killed themselves. Only two somehow
survived: a two-month-old infant and a
69-year-old man with a bleeding ulcer,
living on aspirin and Sterno. The victims,
it would be discovered, have died from
an unknown pathogen brought to earth
by a military survey satellite that crashed
near the town.
The Andromeda Strain, published in
1969, was written by Michael Crichton
while he was still in medical school. It
launched his long and successful career
as an author. I read the book when it
first came out, but as our world struggles
to get ahead of a real killer virus, I
thought it might be interesting to reread
the book.
The idea of an alien pathogen, the
race to isolate it and prevent its spread,
and then to prevent an atomic disaster,
is still exciting. But not as much as it
was 50 years ago. Much of the cutting
edge technology Crighton describes is
now outdated. Our cell phones contain
more technology than the space capsule
that landed American astronauts on the
moon.
Set in an elaborate bunker in the
middle of the desert, a team of highly
trained scientists, picked some years
before for such a contingency, races
against time. Their job, to isolate, identify
and hopefully kill the alien organism.
After isolating it, they learn that it is
airborne. The race becomes critical.
I did not remember Crighton’s extensive
use of charts, graphs and formulae.
Now, I found them far too extensive,
mostly unnecessary and disruptive of
the story’s flow. They could have been
greatly curtailed, making an already
short novel even shorter.
What remains true today, despite
the book’s outdated technology, is the
human element which slows down the
characters’ progress, nearly derailing
needed discoveries. Hubris, competitiveness
and incompetence never seem to
go out of style, a condition as true today
as in this novel.
The Andromeda Strain is an easy read
and introduced the world to Michael
Crichton’s work which when it matured
was some of the finest in its genre. He
is missed.
Marge Feuerstein
The Livingston Manor Free Library is
currently closed, but to join the book
club, contact the library at 439-5440.
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