Cherry Blossoms, Boys Chorus, and Riverdance

Thunderstorms last nite gave way to a little sun today, and the forecast for tomorrow's start of the annual Branch Brook Park Cherry Blossom Festival is much improved over what we could have expected yesterday. There should be some sun in the morning and only the chance, rather than certainty, of showers in the afternoon. But wear a jacket, because it will be cool, around 50 in the morning, which may be ideal for those people kicking off the festivities with a 10K run thru the park starting at 10am. I won't be among them.

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Pix today are from prior years' flowering displays in Branch Brook Park. I have captioned them all on Picasa as from April 2006, but there might alse be some from 2007. April is the key piece of information, as in now. I suspect this year's blooms won't reach peak until late this coming week or sometime next, given how cold it has been (and the next three nites are supposed to be in the 30s). I keep waiting for global warming, but it just doesn't happen.

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The Park's Welcome Center has apparently been converted into a permanent display about cherry blossoms, and there's an open house on Monday all day, with dedication of a "Cherry Blossom Giving Tree" in recognition of people who have made generous contributions to the fund to plant more cherry trees. I tried to lift some text about that from the Essex County website to show here, but the stupid b*ds have disabled the "copy" function! What kind of idiot does that?, especially a public authority, all of whose materials are generated at public expense? Somebody should slap some sense into the b*ds. You don't want me to lift text into this blog to show people what's going on and perhaps solicit contributions to the planting fund? So either I type everything new, when there's already text I should be able to lift — and the whole world except Essex County allows people to copy text rather than retype — or I can choose to boycott the tree-planting fund. Is that a good stance, to make it difficult for people to find out how to contribute to the tree-planting fund? Very clever. No, I take that back. That is extremely STUPID.

See the ducks? There are trout under them, stocked by the state for fishing. I don't know if you need a fishing license to fish in Branch Brook Park. Maybe. I also don't know if the lake in Weequahic Park is also stocked with trout. Anyone?

I've got news for those morons: anyone who knows Internet functions can still lift text from that website, in at least two ways. First, in Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE), you can go to the "Page" menu and choose "View Source" code. You can then "Find" the text you want by typing a distinctive word that appears within it, then block what you want and copy it.

Unfortunately, AOL has dropped this feature from its version of MSIE, and equally hidden how to get to something called "AOL Desktop", which according to one Help article, may permit you to "View Source". More insane stupidity from the masters of the Internet. I discovered, by accident, that ordinarily, if you right-click on a webpage within AOL, a "View Source" option will appear, but the Essex County S.O.B. has disabled all right-click functions, so that approach is out.

Second, you can "Save" a copy of the webpage, call it up in a word-processor, search for the passage you want, and then block and copy it. Once you have it on your hard drive, you can in the alternative call it up into MSIE, where there is a "View Source" option, and proceed as above. But in the current version of MSIE, you can't simply go to a File menu and call up a file from your hard drive. No, that would make too much sense. You have to go to Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer), by right-clicking on the Start button in Windows and then left-clicking on the Explore option, then find the file on your hard drive, then double-click on it, whereupon it will open in MSIE, and only then can you "View Source" to block-copy text! Why is everything on the Internet so stupid now?

This entire area should be dotted with flowering trees, and I hope that the tree-planting fund has this part of the Park designated for one of the earliest mass plantings.

In any case, there are workarounds to the stupidity and arrogance of the Essex County website designer in trying to block people from copying text. So unless that webmaster can disable the "save" function as well as the "copy" function, all s/he can achieve is to IRRITATE people. Besides, a government has no right to protect text generated at public expense. My taxes and the taxes of my neighbors paid for that website. It's not the private property of the people who staff, for the moment, the county government. They must stop making the use of our property hard on us. Or we should find different people to staff our county government.

In the interim, if it was an unelected official who came up with the brilliant idea to make using the Essex County website difficult, s/he should be fired. But Newarkers and other residents of Essex County deserve more cherry trees, so despite my extreme irritation, I provide this information here, at great difficulty in finding and lifting the text. I am truly astounded by the incompetence of the webmaster or designer of that site. Trying to find the details about how much a tree costs and where you send the money, if they take credit cards online, or anything else is very time-consuming. We are told to call a phone number — (973) 325-1209 — but we can't even copy that phone number electronically without going all around the mulberry bush. How do people get to be that stupid? You'd think someone would have to dedicate his life to becoming that stupid.

I will nonetheless show the URL to the place on the Essex County website where more info on giving to the tree-planting fund can be found: http://www.essex-countynj.org/index.php?section=pr/print/032508. Gaetano alerted me to that page some weeks ago, but I delayed mentioning it until the Cherry Blossom Festival was imminent, as it is now. There is apparently no page on the Essex County website by means of which visitors can donate to that fund by credit card. Nor do I find any indication that people can use a credit card to donate via the phone number. In any event, only a fool imposes upon staff the obligation to handle by phone what can be done more quickly, and at any hour of day or nite, via the Internet.

Each new Cherry Blossom tree can be purchased for $250 with the donations being made to the non-profit Essex County Parks Foundation. Contributions to the foundation are tax deductible and checks can be made out to “Essex County Parks Foundation” and mailed to the Essex County Parks Foundation, 115 Clifton Avenue, Newark, NJ 07104. Please write "Cherry Blossom Campaign" on the memo line of the check. The public fundraising campaign is anticipated to purchase 1,000 Cherry Blossom trees. The Essex County Recreation and Open Space Trust Fund will provide a matching grant to purchase another 1,000 Cherry Trees once the goal is reached. The trees will be planted in 2009 and 2010.

Donations are being recognized in a "Cherry Blossom Giving Tree" located inside near the entrance of the Essex County Cherry Blossom Welcome Center. Donations of $250 are recognized with a leaf on the Giving Tree and donations of $1,000 or more are recognized with special plaques on the Giving Tree wall. Donors can choose to have their name inscribed on the Giving Tree or make the contribution in memory of a loved one.

The Branch Brook Park Alliance is another, and much easier, way to go to contribute to the purchase of cherry trees. You can pay by credit card at their website: http://www.branchbrookpark.org/support/index.htm, or send a check to:

Branch Brook Park Alliance
Attn: Cherry Blossom Tree Fund
PO Box 978
Newark, NJ 07101

I was able to copy that address from the Alliance's website without difficulty, because the Alliance's webmaster is not a moron. I do not, however, know if you'd get a leaf on the donor's wall in the Welcome Center if you buy a tree thru the Alliance. If that is important to you — and why not get credit for a good deed? — you might prefer to mail a check to the Essex County government fund, at the address above. But first check with the Alliance (mail@branchbrookpark.org or (973) 268-2300), because all contributions may qualify for recognition in the Welcome Center, no matter how they reach the fund.

In any case, the blossoms may reach their height over the next week or two, and if you haven't been to Branch Brook Park for a while, you might want to venture in. The Alliance has a map showing the prime viewing areas, at http://www.branchbrookpark.org/contact/maps/parkmap.htm. The map is sideways from what one expects of a map, with up being west rather than north, and north thus being toward the right. I don't know why.

If you are a former Newarker, this would be a great time to visit relatives still in Newark, at home or in the family plot. If you haven't visited family graves in a long time, this would be a good time to ease your conscience, reconnect, and make up for that neglect. See the cherry blossoms, stop in to the Cathedral or St. Lucy's, have a meal in one of Newark's many great restaurants, and maybe see a show at NJPAC before you head home.

The sensational Newark Boys Chorus is performing in the Victoria Theater, NJPAC, starting at 2pm tomorrow. If you've never seen them, you should go.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet performs Friday nite. Yes, Dave Brubeck is still alive, and still touring.

On Saturday the 19th, comedian Katt Williams performs in Prudential Hall, and Trinidadian singer David Rudder performs in the smaller Victoria Theater that same nite.

And on Tuesday the 22nd, Riverdance, the worldwide sensational program of Irish dance, plays the first of 8 "Farewell Performances" at Prudential Hall.

If you've been thinking of visiting Newark for a while now but just haven't stirred yourself to action, this would be a wonderful time to do so.