I don't use chemicals on my lawn or in my garden, but I get my daily overdose of pest-killer in the form of dipotassium phosphate, one of the ingredients in my Price Rite coffee creamer. The compound is also used to control fungal plant diseases on turf, ornamental plants, and non-bearing fruit and nut tree crops. However, the EPA does NOT approve dipotassium phosphate for pesticidal use on food or feed crops. Apparently Price Rite coffee creamer doesn't count as a food, even though humans swallow it. (http://www.epa.gov/opp00001/biopesticides/ingredients/factsheets/
factsheet_176407.htm)
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Philippe Petit
Previously published in The Berkshire Eagle, March 23, 2008
GREAT BARRINGTON -- Standing a quarter mile above the sidewalks of
lower Manhattan, he shot a steel cable from one roof to the other,
stepped over the edge, and took a 45-minute stroll in the void. In
doing so, the 24-year-old Frenchman became an icon.
Philippe Petit's high-wire walk between twin towers at the World
Trade Center in August 1974 certainly ranks as one of history's most
awe-inspiring feats of trespassing, and Petit will discuss the World
Trade Center event, and his other high-wire walks, at a free lecture
at Bard College at Simon's Rock on Tuesday.
Although the walk took place almost 34 years ago, the feeling has
stayed with him.
"I was the happiest man on Earth," the 58-year-old Petit recalls now,
at his home near Woodstock, N.Y. "I was elated to be offering the
world my dream."
The event took more than six years of planning, and Petit took every
minute detail into account, from the businessman and construction
worker disguises he and his helpers would wear so they could gain
access to the roof, to wind currents and the subtle swaying motion of
the skyscrapers.
"Uncertainties," says Petit, had been "completely eliminated" from
the act.
"I'm not attracted to risk," he added. "Risk is too dangerous, too
stupid. Walking on the wire is very intense."
Before the World Trade Center, Petit had one "giant illegal walk" on
his résumé: dancing, jumping, and yes, reclining on a wire between
the spires of Notre Dame cathedral, Paris, 1971.
How can he appear so relaxed when a three-quarter inch steel cable is
the only thing separating him from disaster?
"I'm in love with height," Petit said. "I feel very good up there.
I'm half-human, half-bird."
In the decades since his star turn in the muggy air 1,350 feet above
lower Manhattan, he has performed at the Eiffel Tower and the Opéra
in Paris, and at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan;
he's the artist-in-residence at the latter.
All in all, Petit has performed 50 high-wire walks on five
continents, and getting older has been a change for the better, he
said.
"I lean on a lifetime of knowledge," Petit explained.
In 2001, Petit was working on "To Reach the Clouds," a book about the
World Trade Center high-wire walk, and after the Sept. 11 attacks,
the way he thought about the Twin Towers was forever changed.
"During the many years of preparation [for the World Trade Center
walk], I thought of them as my towers," Petit said. "Now, they're our
towers."
"To Reach the Clouds" was published in September 2002.
Generations later, Petit's performance is still resonating. A
documentary about the planning and execution of the World Trade
Center walk made the rounds at the Sundance Film Festival this year.
"Man on Wire" won the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize in the
World Cinema Documentary category.
"[The film] has taken on a life of its own," Petit marveled.
A performance at Easter Island in the South Pacific is in the works,
but at this point, the planning is in "the paper stage," he said.
There's also a new book, a feature film, and an event in New York in
the works, but Petit is staying mum about the details.
Regarding his upcoming talk at Simon's Rock, Petit said he hated
school as a youngster, and his lack of a classical education helped
foster his intuitive thinking.
Petit says he chooses to "grab pieces of knowledge and glue it
together in a ridiculous way, like a child," and he wants to share
his way of creating with the students.
"Do they have a 'Breaking the Rules' course at Simon's Rock?" Petit
asked. "If not, we'll change it!"
GREAT BARRINGTON -- Standing a quarter mile above the sidewalks of
lower Manhattan, he shot a steel cable from one roof to the other,
stepped over the edge, and took a 45-minute stroll in the void. In
doing so, the 24-year-old Frenchman became an icon.
Philippe Petit's high-wire walk between twin towers at the World
Trade Center in August 1974 certainly ranks as one of history's most
awe-inspiring feats of trespassing, and Petit will discuss the World
Trade Center event, and his other high-wire walks, at a free lecture
at Bard College at Simon's Rock on Tuesday.
Although the walk took place almost 34 years ago, the feeling has
stayed with him.
"I was the happiest man on Earth," the 58-year-old Petit recalls now,
at his home near Woodstock, N.Y. "I was elated to be offering the
world my dream."
The event took more than six years of planning, and Petit took every
minute detail into account, from the businessman and construction
worker disguises he and his helpers would wear so they could gain
access to the roof, to wind currents and the subtle swaying motion of
the skyscrapers.
"Uncertainties," says Petit, had been "completely eliminated" from
the act.
"I'm not attracted to risk," he added. "Risk is too dangerous, too
stupid. Walking on the wire is very intense."
Before the World Trade Center, Petit had one "giant illegal walk" on
his résumé: dancing, jumping, and yes, reclining on a wire between
the spires of Notre Dame cathedral, Paris, 1971.
How can he appear so relaxed when a three-quarter inch steel cable is
the only thing separating him from disaster?
"I'm in love with height," Petit said. "I feel very good up there.
I'm half-human, half-bird."
In the decades since his star turn in the muggy air 1,350 feet above
lower Manhattan, he has performed at the Eiffel Tower and the Opéra
in Paris, and at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan;
he's the artist-in-residence at the latter.
All in all, Petit has performed 50 high-wire walks on five
continents, and getting older has been a change for the better, he
said.
"I lean on a lifetime of knowledge," Petit explained.
In 2001, Petit was working on "To Reach the Clouds," a book about the
World Trade Center high-wire walk, and after the Sept. 11 attacks,
the way he thought about the Twin Towers was forever changed.
"During the many years of preparation [for the World Trade Center
walk], I thought of them as my towers," Petit said. "Now, they're our
towers."
"To Reach the Clouds" was published in September 2002.
Generations later, Petit's performance is still resonating. A
documentary about the planning and execution of the World Trade
Center walk made the rounds at the Sundance Film Festival this year.
"Man on Wire" won the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize in the
World Cinema Documentary category.
"[The film] has taken on a life of its own," Petit marveled.
A performance at Easter Island in the South Pacific is in the works,
but at this point, the planning is in "the paper stage," he said.
There's also a new book, a feature film, and an event in New York in
the works, but Petit is staying mum about the details.
Regarding his upcoming talk at Simon's Rock, Petit said he hated
school as a youngster, and his lack of a classical education helped
foster his intuitive thinking.
Petit says he chooses to "grab pieces of knowledge and glue it
together in a ridiculous way, like a child," and he wants to share
his way of creating with the students.
"Do they have a 'Breaking the Rules' course at Simon's Rock?" Petit
asked. "If not, we'll change it!"
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