Fiber For Dessert

Consumer Lifestyle

By Randi Press

Fiber provides numerous health benefits. Not only does it help keep you feeling fuller for a longer period of time, but it also promotes regularity and heart health. However, if you are like most, you are falling short of the recommended intake of 25-30 grams of fiber per day. 

The problem is usually the fact that foods on the high end of fiber are usually on the low end when it comes to taste. But with GNU Foods three new dessert-like bars in their Flavor + Fiber line, Blueberry Cobbler, Carrot Cake and Blondie, you can have your fiber and taste all-in-one. 

In addition to having 12 grams of fiber (48 percent of your daily value) all three bars are completely all natural, contain 6 whole grains, have a soft baked chewy texture and best of all, taste just like their namesake! Right down to the soft and plump blueberries in the Blueberry Cobbler bar, the warming spices of nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice (not to mention real shreds of carrots) in the Carrot Cake bar, and the melt in your mouth white chocolate chips in the Blondie bar. 

They are available for purchase as a single bar, 5 pack or 15 pack at www.gnufoods.com. Enter to win a package containing all three flavors by visiting our blog at http://consumerlifestyle.blogspot.com.

Driving us mad

Wakefield Area News

By Mary Lauro

BRONX, NEW YORK, June 4- Owning a car in the Bronx is a real problem. Frequently, there is nowhere to park. The reasons are many but among them is that many families own more than one car. Some own several; one for each driving age child. A private home with a two-car garage takes one parking space for the driveway and two parking spaces for the other two cars the family owns. Multiply that by the number of homes on the block and you understand why you sometimes have to park three of four blocks away from your home. At night the problem is magnified.

Then, of course, there is alternate side parking which we believe is the number one cause of heart attacks in the Bronx. While the Mayor worries about sugar consumption in oversized sodas, he neglects the unhealthy effects of alternate side parking. And, incidentally, its phantom necessity.

But, for the elderly and the disabled, the chief cause of stroke, heart attacks and early death is the muni meter. They look innocent enough, but they are lethal. They force those who have difficulty walking to walk back and forth, first to put money in its greedy face and then to place the receipt on the dashboard. In the winter, with snow on the ground, in the spring with the rains and in the summer thunder storms, that walk back and forth becomes a route to knee and hip surgery thus increasing the burden on Medicare and Medicaid, to say nothing of how it steals money more slickly that an experienced pickpocket. Surely, there should be a law against muni meters.

However, there may be a knight in shining armor that plans to joust with the muni meters. His name is Councilman Jimmy Vacca who has introduced a bill in the City Council to use the muni meters to buy “parking time.” What this means is that when an hour's parking time is not consumed at the first stop, the driver can move the car to another area and use the same receipt to show he has paid for the time. This plan may be entirely too sensible for the Mayor to approve.

For the disabled, it means that when the cars moved to a new location, they don't have to get out and walk back and forth again. For them and for the strong and healthy, it may save a few nickels since they will not lose the time they had purchased and did not use. But that is precisely why our Mayor, whose pastime, it seems, is to nickel and dime us, may veto this bill which we understand has been cleared in the City Council.

Wow! Wouldn't that be wonderful? And it also would be wonderful if our representatives in government took time out to dream of these small ways that would simplify life for us rather than spend time trying to put pie in the sky.

Regarding the parking problem, we think some surcease can be achieved by more angle parking which would double parking space. Many streets, especially one way streets can accommodate angle parking at least on one side. Angle parking will also assist in calming traffic. The speed limit in city streets should be no more that 20 miles/hr.

Finally, regarding alternate side parking, our city leaders should stop the madness and face once and for all that Sanitation does not and cannot clean all the streets designated for the day. Alternate side should be reduced to one or two days a week. That should lower blood pressure.

Preston Bids Farewell to Graduating Seniors

BRONX, NY, June 1, 2012- On June 2^nd, Preston High School held its 62^nd annual Commencement Exercises. The 123 members of the Class of 2012 gathered on the South Lawn under sunny skies to receive their diplomas.  

Class salutatorian Deanna Ibrahim welcomed the invited guests with an address that paid tribute to her class’s unity and resilient spirit in the face of adversity as she acknowledged the poignant loss of several members of the Preston community in recent years. Weaving into her speech appropriate quotations from familiar Disney films such as Alice in Wonderland, The Lion King and Mulan, Ibrahim explained life lessons that applied to her class’s experiences and recalled favorite memories of their four years at Preston. Ms. Ibrahim will be attending Bard College in the fall.

Keynote speaker was Annalea Canzoniero Ricci, who received this year’s Distinguished Alumna Award. Mrs. Ricci, PHS ’62, was recognized both for her long career as an outstanding science educator and for her ongoing support of Preston High School and its mission. Several years ago she and her husband Ken established the Mary Ricci Memorial Scholarship to honor her mother-in-law. This scholarship provides yearly tuition support that enables a deserving, hard-working young woman to remain at Preston until her graduation.  

Among graduates being recognized for their achievements were Kelly Simpson, recipient of the Divine Compassion Award for Integrity, Generous Service and Exemplary Leadership; Clarisa González, recipient of the Helen and Anton Wagner Memorial Award for Outstanding Service and Compassion in School and Community; and Stephanie Ashly Cabán, recipient of the Sr. Mary Carmella Stapleton Alumnae Association Award for Exemplary Preston Spirit. Mrs. Linda Youngren, Dean of Studies, announced to the audience that the 123 members of the Class of 2012 had earned a remarkable total of more than $11 million in scholarship awards from their various colleges and universities.

Commencement exercises concluded with a rousing call to action from class valedictorian Sofia Ahsanuddin, who urged her classmates to strive to become metaphorical “linchpins”—small but absolutely essential components of a larger entity.  Citing author Seth Godin, she challenged the class to become people who “can steer, innovate, provoke, lead, connect, and make things happen.”  Ms. Ahsanuddin will be entering the eight-year-long B.A./M.D. program at CUNY’s Brooklyn College, administered in conjunction with SUNY Downstate Medical Center,  in the fall.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the graduates gathered on the South Lawn to participate in the traditional “tossing of the caps” to celebrate their graduation.

Preston High School is a private, Catholic, college preparatory school for girls located in the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx. It is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and charted by the New York State Board of Regents. For more information about Preston High School, contact Jennifer Geideman at (718) 863-9134 x143, or email  HYPERLINK "mailto:jgeideman@prestonhs.org" jgeideman@prestonhs.org.

Manhattan College Captures MAAC Championship

By Howard Goldin

BRONX, NEW YORK, June 4- In the early weeks of the 2012 college baseball season, few Manhattan College rooters would have expected their favorites to be facing the two-time defending NCAA champions, South Carolina, in the first game of the NCAA playoffs on June 1st.

During the off-season, Kevin Leighton, the coach who headed a resurgence of the Jaspers during the past half-dozen years left the college to accept the vacant head coaching position crosstown at Fordham University. He was succeeded at Manhattan by Jim Duffy. Duffy, a standout player at Seton Hall, served as an assistant baseball coach at his alma mater for seven years.

The year started very disappointingly for Duffy and his players as the Jaspers only won one of the first 15 games they played. At that point, things changed. Manhattan won 32 of the remaining 43 contests to capture the MAAC regular season title, the MACC Championship Tournament and enter the NCAA Tournament with a 33-25 mark. 

Duffy explained the change, “We just worked really hard, strung together some wins and battled back and figured out what worked.”

Manhattan’s 18-6 record in the MAAC earned it the regular season title for the fourth time in the last five years, missing it only in 2010. The Jaspers were victorious in the conference championship for the second straight year. The only other conference title won by Manhattan was in 2006.

The team was exceptionally comfortable in its own home field, a public park, Van Cortland Park, as it was the only Division I club to go undefeated at home, 18-0, during the 2012 season.

Manhattan dropped its first game in the double elimination MAAC championship, which took place in Troy, New York.  The Jaspers then relied on their submarining righty Taylor Sewitt to go all the way to the title.

The senior from Highland Mills, New York won each of Manhattan’s final three contests. He began by hurling a nine-inning shutout. On the following day, he pitched the last two innings without surrendering a run and earned the win after the jaspers came from behind. In the final game he won with an 11 inning relief appearance victory over Canisius. His tournament mark was 22 innings of scoreless pitching during which he threw 296 pitches. His efforts earned him the award as Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week.

Manhattan’s reward for winning the MAAC title was a trip to Columbia, South Carolina for the first round of the National Tourney. In the opening contest, the Jaspers were scheduled to meet the two-time defending national champion University of South Carolina Gamecocks.

Sewitt, Manhattan’s starter, entered the game with a scoreless streak of 33.2 innings. Sewitt and South Carolina starter Colby Holmes hooked up in a sterling pitching duel in which neither hurler gave up a hit or a run in the first five innings.

Sewitt’s scoreless streak ended at 39.1 innings Adam Matthews doubled in two of the gamecocks with two out in the sixth. Two more scored in the inning to put South Carolina ahead, 4-0.

Joe Rock of Manhattan singled to left with two out in the eighth. The hit was the first given up by Holmes. The winning pitcher left the game after the eighth having surrendered only one hit and one hit batsman while fanning nine.

Manhattan relievers gave up three runs in the eighth to conclude a 7-0 victory for South Carolina.

The next opportunity for the Jaspers in the double elimination tourney was a Saturday contest against Coastal Carolina. The game was tightly contested during the first five innings as the score stood 1-1.

The Carolina tide covered Manhattan as the Chanticleers scored 10 runs during the next three innings to end the season for the Jaspers.

Although the Jaspers lost both games at the NCAA in South Carolina, Duffy and his players can savor the pride of a MAAC regular season and tournament title and the opportunity to represent the Bronx on the national collegiate baseball stage.

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Pharmacy Burglarized

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Pharmacy Burglarized: PHARMACY BURGLAR: Cops are asking for the public’s help in trying to catch a man who broke into a Riverdale pharmacy. Surveillance vide...

Pharmacy Burglarized

PHARMACY BURGLAR: Cops are asking for the public’s help in trying to catch a man who broke into a Riverdale pharmacy. Surveillance video shows the suspect breaking into the Hudson Parkway Pharmacy at around 3:30 a.m. on May 31.

Anyone with information is urged to call CRIMESTOPPERS at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls are confidential..

Finally for Mets Fans

"MLB 16 oz. Crystal Freezer Mug - New York Mets""New York Mets Citifield Bronze Infield Dirt Keychain""MLB Canvas Chair - New York Mets"

Santana no-hitter one of those good moments for a Mets fan

By Rich Mancuso

BRONX, NEW YORK, June 3- There I was, night off from the ballpark, listening and watching my favorite alternative rock band “Weezer” in Atlantic City New Jersey in the Bogata Hotel showroom. It was planned, the birthday gift from three weeks ago. What wasn’t in the plan was Johan Santana throwing a no-hitter at Citi Field on the first day of June.

A Friday evening at Citi Field where, I would usually be situated, upstairs in my perch in the comfortable press box, but the first no-no in New York Mets history, 50-years of futility and I was not there to see it.

Yes, frustration. And moments after Mets SNY Television voice Gary Cohen said after being questioned, ‘did he ever think it would happen, his response, ‘No, but now it has’ Weezer would finish their last number.

That number, “Say it Ain’t So.”

But it is true. After 8,020 games, Mets radio voice Howie Rose, and fans of the second baseball team in New York, can now say, the New York Mets have made baseball history. They are no longer one of two teams to not have a pitcher throw the illustrious no-hitter.

It is so, and the San Diego Padres have that lone distinction.

Mike Baxter, the kid from Queens, crashed into the center field wall on the warning track to keep the suspense going. The Carlos Beltran ball that hit the chalk beyond third base appeared to be an extra base hit. The umpire, according to replays may have got it wrong.

To Mets’ fans, and to Santana, the call went their way. The no-hitter is in the record books and well deserved for a pitcher who many said was finished.

It was back in late March. Santana was not supposed to come north with the team at the end of spring training. The comeback from shoulder surgery, which shut Santana down all last year, was slow and cautious. However, it was soon, according to Santana, working according to the plan.

That plan, which was heard since his opening day start in early April, was continue to make adjustments as this Mets team had trouble scoring runs, but staying competitive. Then the last three starts you sensed the plan was ahead of schedule.

Santana was throwing more pitches, going deeper into games. The change up was effective, so was the slider. The fastball was getting close to his velocity, clocked close to 90, or more.

The manager, Terry Collins was more concerned about the pitch count. Last Saturday, at Citi field, Santana threw 94 pitches, the complete game shutout over the San Diego Padres. Collins let him continue, as he did Friday night with a career high 134 pitches, concerned about the shoulder.

After that sixth inning, Collins asked Santana, “How do you feel?” The ace, who said afterwards, he came to New York “to win a championship for the organization and fans,” told his manager, ‘I feel good, let me continue.’

It was a momentous occasion for a franchise that has been troubled with financial issues .And nothing has seemed to go right since that last game of 2006, when Beltran struck out with runners on base, at Shea Stadium, in game seven of the National League Championship Series. 

That was against the same St. Louis Cardinals who go in the record book as victims of the Santana no-hitter.

It was the first and real significant moment at Citi Field for Mets baseball. Santana erased the close calls of Tom Seaver, the last Mets pitcher to take a no-hitter into the ninth inning. The first one, of three close calls, a perfect game broke up by Jimmy Qualls of the Chicago Cubs in 1969.

It will be remembered what Johan Santana did Friday night. The umpire, Adrian Johnson, at third base, may have missed that Beltran call in the sixth inning. But that does not matter now. Johan Santana may have put the New York Mets back on the map with that outing on the mound at Citi Field.

Just hope “Weezer” does not get in the way again for another possible and maybe another no-hitter in New York Mets baseball history, or perhaps another first, a perfect game as they go into game number 8,021.

E-mail Rich Mancuso:  Ring786@aol.com