Do the hustle

Hustle and bustle take on a whole new meaning this week as I observe (and participate in) last-minute holiday details being wrapped up in the final countdown.

Keenly observing that the Hanukkah celebration fades to black this year just as the curtain rises on Christmas, I carefully put away Grandma’s menorah and hung the stockings on the mantle with care.

I took a quick run into Middletown, NY to drop local poet Hillary Keel off at the train station. Having spent the last 27 years in Vienna, Austria, Ms. Keel has returned to her roots—to teach, write and ruminate—relocating to Callicoon, NY, close to where her parents still reside.

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Taking the fractiousness out of fracking

As the prospect of natural-gas development draws nearer, no issue has caused more concern than hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” and no one has been more concerned about fracking than the members of the Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance.

As many know, fracking involves pumping millions of gallons of water and fine sand down a well bore to crack open rock thousands of feet beneath the surface and to keep the cracks open so the gas trapped in the rock flows out.

Drillers add substances to enhance the water’s fracturing power: surfactants to reduce friction so the water penetrates the rock more easily, gels to help sweep the sand into the cracked rock, biocides to kill bacteria that could choke the cracks and chemicals to fight mineral deposits and scales.

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