Kalzonies Chases Calzone Crown

By Anna Scheglov

Thai, Indian, Mexican, Vegetarian, and European- food of all varieties and ethnicities can be found in Ithaca, New York. But often overlooked, calzone restaurants are taking the lead, ramping up their recipes, cutting down on costs, and finding themselves in a rigorous competition for hungry customers. The newly opened Kalzonies, on W. Buffalo Street is such an eatery.

Kalzonies opened its Ithaca location Nov. 8 and has driven the competition in the calzone market ever since. Lisa and Mike Travis opened Kalzonies’ first location in Syracuse, but as their daughters grew older, they felt that Ithaca was a better environment for them.

According to Ithaca resident Christopher Parks, DP Dough has heavily dominated the calzone market until this point.

“DP Dough is the veteran calzone place of Ithaca,” Parks said. “I can’t think of any place before DP Dough that you could get calzones. It wasn’t really well known. When you think pizza, you don’t think of a calzone as a type of pizza.”

Justin Kontur, a sophomore studying hospitality management at Cornell University, is one of five delivery drivers currently employed by Kalzonies. He says that he’s already seen regular customers developing over the past three weeks, mostly from Ithaca College.

Kontur said approximately, “50 percent of deliveries every night go to Ithaca College, 20 percent go to Cornell, and the rest are just people in town.”

Parks, a loyal fan of DP Dough, tried Kalzonies the first weekend it was open and he was not disappointed.

“I think that Kalzonies could really give DP Dough a run for their money if [DP Dough doesn’t] step it up,” He said. “Whenever I think calzone, I think DP Dough, and I think everyone I know from town probably shares the same opinion. But the quality of DP Dough has just constantly gotten worse over the past few years. You go to DP Dough and the dough’s overwhelming and there’s not that much flavor, but you go here and it’s overwhelming with flavor but not so well contained. It’s a little bit messy, but sometimes you like messy.”

Lisa Travis with two of her daughters in the newly opened Kalzonies

Kalzonies calzones are about one dollar cheaper than DP Dough’s, and there are no additional costs for calzone sauces, sides, or toppings.

Lisa said though Ithaca is primarily a college town, she and her husband aim to serve everyone in the area.

“We’re trying to focus on town too, giving good service to everybody in here, and like businesses and stuff because they don’t go home for Christmas break and they are here all year around,” she said.

The biggest challenge, Kontur said, is Kalzonies’ location away from the Commons. But he said late night business is just as busy as the dinner rush.

“It’s pretty much steady throughout the night,” said Kontur. “There might be a slow spot around ten to twelve, but after twelve o’clock it’s about as steady as it is in the evening.”

“After everywhere else closes, that last hour, hour and a half we’re open, that’s one of our busiest times,” Lisa said.

This late-night rush may be attributed to the college students, but Kalzonies is not specifically trying to market to them. This may be the biggest difference between the established DP Dough and new Kalzonies.

Unlike Kalzonies, DP Dough is a franchise. Parks has actually been to a number of their locations.

“It’s oriented more towards college students,” he said. “Every DP Dough I’ve ever gone to has been in a college town. Some people are brand loyal to DP Dough but, personally, they need to step it up or I feel they’re going to lose with all the other competition in town.”

For Travis, the challenge of DP Dough’s competition isn’t daunting. She says business has been booming.

For a more detailed account from owner Lisa Travis, click below.

Why People Eat Dirt.

By Anna Scheglov and Whitney Faber

Pregnant women are infamous for their strange cravings: pickles and ice cream in the middle of the night, chocolate covering any number of foods, sauerkraut with a side of Easy Mac, or maybe even a pile of dirt with a side of clay.

Pica, a disorder due to  which people have an appetite for non-nutritive substances, like clay, soil, chalk, ice or other materials, has been found to be most prevalent among pregnant women, says  Cornell University researcher and Ithaca resident Sera L. Young.

Young has spent more than a decade studying and researching this disorder and has published a book and articles about her findings. Her research began while she was studying anemic pregnant women on the island of Pemba, near Zanzibar. She was speaking with an expectant mother about the woman’s anemia when her first experience with pica occurred.

“One of them said, ‘Everyday, twice a day I take Earth from the wall, and I eat that,” Young recalled.

Since that first research trip, Young has spent her time studying pica and its history. She has since found that pica occurs mostly in pregnant women and children and is more common with people who live closer to the equator.

Pica does not only affect people in poor countries like Zanzibar. Cedric Ahn, a food service major at Cornell University and one of the student researchers working with Young, said this is why continuing this research is important.

“I hope to really keep finding out more about pica because it is definitely an unknown problem in the world,” he said. “Even people in the United States face this problem, not just third world countries.”

Young compiled data including information on the prevalence of pica by location, the effect pica has on the body, and the possible reasons for pica to appear, in her book, “Craving Earth: Understanding Pica — The Urge to Eat Clay, Ice, & Chalk.”

In her study, Young covers numerous animal species and found geophagy, or “earth eating” in 297 of them, taken to be a sign of pica’s possible evolutionary purpose.

The emergence of animals with pica occurred in the ’70s and ’80s, she said. And this, more than anything else, shows that geophagy may be an evolutionary tactic, as animals will not engage in activities that will not benefit their health in the long run.

“Animals don’t do silly things,” Young said. “If they’re taking great risk to get clay, there’s a reason. It is somehow adaptive or helping them.”

Young’s research has brought her to the current working theory that earthly substances like ice or clay can bind directly to harmful organisms or chemicals like parasites, toxins or pathogens and stop them from hurting the body. These same substances, however, can also absorb iron already being consumed by the body, which causes anemia.

This theory coincides with the fact that pica is found predominantly in pregnant women and children, Young said. Because these populations have weaker immune systems, the urge to eat earth may be greater.

Young will continue her research with animals next semester to see how her theories hold up with living organisms, rather than the single cells that she had been using to test the current theory. Gretchen Seim, a Cornell graduate student aiding Young in her research, said this is a necessary step.

“Next semester, we’re going to do the same thing but it’s just going to be with live animals because a lot of times, those cells aren’t necessarily a perfect predictor of what’s going to happen in a real living thing,” Seim said.

Young said she wants to continue her research to help people that have pica find what underlying reasons may be behind the disorder.

“People do not understand why they have these cravings,” Young said.”And  they’re so strong… so to figure out what would help them, or why they’re doing it, is to unlock the key to figuring out how to help them.”

Sera Young with her 19 month old daughter, Stella.

Click here to listen to more on Young’s Research and it’s value to society.

http://soundcloud.com/whitneyfaber/sera-young-and-her-story-with

The following graphic shows the absorption rate of the substances typically consumed by a person with pica. The amount of chemical or organism the earth substance absorbs shows how effective pica can be as a way of fighting harmful substances in the body.

The second following graphic shows the effect Pica substances have on the body. (Courtesy of Sera Young)

How Pica affects the body

Veteran Offers Alternate Look at Veteran’s Day

By Anna Scheglov and Becca Burns

Nathan Lewis was a senior in high school when he was recruited for the military.

He enlisted in 2001 when he turned 18, and said he joined so he could pay for college.

“They weren’t recruiting very heavily on the idea that our country’s at war,” he said. “They were really playing up the college angle.”

But September 11 happened during his first week of basic training and in less than two years, he was deployed to Iraq.

The ensuing experiences shaped Lewis into who he is now: Director of the Veteran Sanctuary in Tompkins County, NY.

 

The Veteran Sanctuary is an organization aimed at making the transition from war into civilian life easier for returning veterans.

“We want to try to make a different set of tools that veterans could utilize to heal themselves and return to civilian life and to move on with their life,” Lewis said.

Lewis said veterans are encouraged to participate in cathartic activities, like gardening or expressing their experiences through the combat paper project. This project creates sheets of paper from old combat uniforms and uses this type of art to help veterans reflect on their experiences.

After his return from Iraq in December, 2003 Lewis took a combative stance against war.

“I don’t believe in 2 trillion dollar wars. I don’t believe in a Pentagon that gives 800, 900 billion dollars a year plus,” he said. “I don’t believe in militarism; I don’t believe in imperialism, which means I don’t believe in having bases in 100-some countries around the world to protect America. It doesn’t make any sense… we’re trying our hand at imperialism.”

According to him, Veteran’s Day has been completely transformed from a remembrance day to a celebration day, where instead of remembering the pain and suffering war causes, victories are celebrated without a thought to the consequences. He said he wants to try to help some of that damage through the Veteran Sanctuary and also by trying to keep everyone he knows away from the military and from going through what he did.

Plants Promote Horticultural Therapy

By Anna Scheglov and Becca Burns

Thomas Weiler has always had a passion for houseplants. Even as a teenager, the now Emeritus Cornell professor of horticulture enjoyed watching blossoms grow.

Weiler specialized in greenhouse crops, a derivative of houseplants. “Most people didn’t know what they wanted to do, “ he said. “But I knew exactly what I wanted to do.”

Weiler was the speaker at a recent Cornell Cooperative Extension workshop on African Violets, an easy-to-keep houseplant. The workshop was aimed at discussing the violets’ grooming, repotting, propagation and general health concerns, like insects or diseases.

According to the American Horticultural Therapy Association, “horticultural therapy is a process utilizing plants and horticultural activities to improve the social, education, psychological, and physical adjustment of persons […]”.

On its website, the association says that horticultural therapy can help elevate self-esteem, alleviate depression, improve motor skills, and a number of other benefits. In addition, this type of therapy, “places the patient in the care-giving role,” says the association. “This often engenders confidence and a renewed sense of purpose.”

Weiler concurred, saying that horticulture can be utilized as a form of physical therapy “It’s a way of making [people] feel more comfortable.”

Horticultural therapy started in the 1950s and has been growing ever since.

Cancer Community Creates Lifelong Bonds

By Anna Scheglov

No one thinks of cancer as unifying, but that is exactly what it was for Craig Paiement and his father.

“We were able to really connect through treatments…we had different cancers, and different situations but were able to just connect with the overall experience.” Paiement, a two-time survivor continues, “My dad didn’t survive. For me, it’s like getting in a fight with a dog. Even if you win, it’s gonna tear you up.”

This past Saturday, Paiement was a volunteer for the 18th Annual Walkathon and 5k Run in support of the Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes. Hosted in Cass Park, the walkathon is the nonprofit organization’s largest fundraiser every year.

“Nearly half our budget comes from this,” said executive director Bob Riter. “We’re a small organization; what we do, we do through volunteers. We have people from Ithaca College, Cornell, lots of townspeople who just make this all come together.”

Breast cancer is very rare in males, only one out of 150 cases are male. Riter is one amongst those who survived it. He says the Center, which began as the Ithaca Breast Cancer Alliance, is a truly invaluable resource.

“My very first walkathon was back in ’96, and I remember looking out, seeing all these people and thinking ‘they’re kind of there for me’. Today, I see so many people who have been diagnosed this year, and I sense they feel the same sensation, they feel support from the community here.”

This sense of unity creates an energy that affects the entire walkathon.

“Knowing that you’re helping really makes you work harder,” says runner Valerie Jordan-Mount. “I usually run a faster time in 5K’s because of the energy.”

While other organization like the American Red Cross are also active in Ithaca, the locality of the Center makes it unique.

“We’re really by and for the people in Tompkins County and the surrounding counties,” said Riter. “All the money raised is spent here.”

Paiement says that this unity and locality is essential. “You may have friends and support, but you don’t get it till you get it. Nobody can relate to being told you have cancer when you’re thirty years old.”

Although some people may be hesitant to join a support group, Riter says it is much more of a friendship. “We have 16 guys who come together for breakfast every Friday. Sometimes we talk about cancer, sometimes we talk about sports or business, but it’s just this sense of community. I see so many lasting friendships come out of these groups.”

Saturday’s Walkathon and Run was one of the largest yet, with over 600 registrants. This translated into more than 98 thousand dollars for the center, much more than the four thousand the first walkathon produced in 1994.

This financial support funds crucial research like the one that helped save Paiement. “I had testicular cancer and once they figured out how to treat it, it went from a nearly fatal disease to nearly curable,”

Paiement recalls. “It was one whose cures were found directly through funding of research. If it wasn’t for these people…”

“No one should have to face cancer alone.” Riter says. “That’s what we do, we make sure that people are part of a community when they experience this.” The Center has helped so many people, and will undoubtedly continue to do so for a long time.

Click on the picture above to watch a slideshow and listen to an interview with a participant.

Bernie DePalma, Sports Rehabilitation Revolutionary

By Anna Scheglov

Most people today would not think twice about the necessity of rehabilitation after a sports’ injury, but this was not the case when Bernie DePalma was first hired by Cornell University in 1980.

Graduating Quinnipiac in 1978 with a bachelor of science in physical therapy, DePalma then received his masters degree in athletic training/ sports medicine from the University of Virginia in 1980. These two degrees made DePalma one of very first few graduate students to have dual degrees in both sports medicine and physical therapy.   

DePalma helped establish the Cornell sports nutrition discussion group, and managed several programs he developed for both graduate assistantships and athletic trainer internships from Ithaca and other nearby colleges. Overall, his expertise has helped shape the way rehabilitation for athletes is seen, and the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) even honored him, for this, with their ‘Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer Award’ in 2001. This award acknowledges NATA’s certified members for their tremendous contributions to both the profession of athletic training, and to the association itself.

What causes one to choose such a career path? According to DePalma, his life was always been interwoven with sports and all he wanted was to combine this passion with his physical therapy bachelors’ degree. Before people like him, physical therapy was rarely applied to sports. Helping pave a way for the reality where athletes are always put through rehabilitation after an injury taught DePalma a lot about life, and about perseverance. He’s seen, first hand, how important sports can be to a person and this has truly made him love his job.

DePalma examines a student's injured knee. Click picture for audio interview with DePalma!

Australian Native is enjoying Ithaca community

Australian native Desiree is enjoying her first semester in the United States. Currently on a foreign exchange program to Ithaca College, sophomore Desiree was excited to see more of the world. She had previously traveled to the United Kingdom, and wanted to explore the states. While here, she says she’d like to travel to travel to places like Seattle, the coffee capital of the world. Her face tilts slightly and her face lights when she speaks of Hawaii, her most anticipated vacation destination.

Desiree has a very light accent, and unless you know she is Australian, it would be hard to tell her apart from every other American student. In fact, she says she’s really enjoyed the difference in the learning environment. In Australia, there are 2 types of main lessons within every class: tutorial and lecture. The lecture is when the professor speaks, and the students just take notes and the tutorial aspect of class is when the students are supposed to interact with each other. However, Desiree has found that there’s a lot more discussion within Ithaca College classrooms than in her past Australian ones.

Not only is the educational structure distinctive, but the weather in Australia is different from Ithaca as well. According to her, Australia never gets much colder than Ithaca is now, in the autumn. She is really looking forward to see leaves change, and to experience snow.

Collegetown bar’s business doubles; forces a change

Pixel Lounge used to be a lesser-known part of Collegetown, a place for graduate students to enjoy high-end cocktails and beer. But this year, with the closing of the two local bars Johnny O’s and Dino’s, it became the go-to club for undergraduate students.

Because of the changed patronage, the bar has seen double its previous years’ success but the general manager, Peter Failmezger, has had to make a lot of changes to ensure this smooth transition.

Pixel, longtime graduate bar goes undergrad

Composting Class Teaches Better Conservation

By Anna Scheglov and Peter Blanchard

It’s almost time for the “Compost with Confidence” workshops to end. The Cornell Cooperative Extension has held these classes every last Saturday for the past three months and aims to inform local residents about a growing sustainable environmental practice known as composting.

This workshop series, ending in October, focuses mostly on indoor composting methods more ideal for people living in an urban environment. In particular, this session focused on what balance to use in compost and what people can do in order to continue composting throughout winter.

The CCE offers a training program to those wishing to become ‘master composters’ and so furthers the reach of the Tompkins County Solid Waste Management Division in its efforts to reduce the amount of compostable materials going into landfills. Nancy Arif became a master composter when she recently finished her training.

“There all kinds of classes going on at CCE throughout the winter,” Arif said. “It is a really great, free source to keep our gardens healthy and vibrant, but we’re also not sending things into the landfill.”

Thomas Shelley has volunteered with the Master Composters for the past three years. He thinks that composting is very important, and says the organization often works to bring it to the attention of children.

“Almost every school now has some sort of composting setup,” Shelley said. “They all have little gardens, and they have worm bins, and they have the usual outdoor kind of stuff that kids can do with plants and compost.”

Shelley explains what he calls the simple science of composting.

“When you take something like food scraps that have a lot of nitrogen in them, and mix them with something like dried leaves or straws which have a lot of carbon, naturally occurring organisms will then populate that pile, and will decompose the food scraps and the browns. There are several thousand species in the average compost bin.”

Shelley says it is all these species combined with everything in the compost pile that cause the pile to decompose.

The worm bin technique demonstrated on Saturday is used for indoor composting, which requires warmer temperatures and more attention than an outdoor pile.

Although Shelley appreciates that the artificial environment created by the bin makes growing things very effective indoors, especially during Ithaca’s cold winters, he says indoor growing only works with smaller quantities. “You can do a couple pounds a week in the average worm bin.”

Ava Ryan is a junior, sustainable agriculture major at Cornell University who took the composting training last spring. Ryan feels that composting is extremely important for everyone, both for economical and ecological reasons.

“You pay $15 and get a Styrofoam bin and your worms, and that’s basically everything you need to set up your own home worm bin,” Ryan said.  “You add your food scraps to the worm bin, they eat it and decompose it, and you have compost. It’s just good for the environment.”

Although composting can be done either inside or outside, it requires the temperature to remain between 50-75 degrees. When colder, growing necessitates an indoor environment.

“We’re oriented more towards people in their households and making food scraps and composting the food scraps and things like that.” Shelley explained when speaking of the CCE’s shift towards winter.

The Compost Education Program will be holding their last workshop of the semester on the last Saturday of October, focusing on techniques to compost during the winter.

"Stealth" Composting class held this past Saturday.

Jungle Residents Strive for Freedom

By Anna Scheglov and Gabrielle Waldvogel

On September 15, 2011, the drafted eviction notice designed to uproot the inhabitants of the wooded area known as “The Jungle” was postponed. The eviction notice, although not issued directly to the residents, was met with fervent protests from those living on the site, as well as Ithaca community members.

Lorraine Tunnicliff, a resident of “The Jungle” for almost 30 years said she wished that the residents could be free to live as they please.  “We’re not hurting nothing down here, we’re not bothering nobody. It’s our home; it’s our second home. We just want to be left alone.”

“The Jungle” is located on a strip of land between the South Norfolk Railway and the Cayuga Inlet where homeless people established a year-round campsite, over 70 years ago.

“We don’t like to be inside all the time, 24 hrs a day, seven days a week. “ Tunnicliff explains, “It’s a place for us to go to have peace and quiet and just sit here and drink a cold beer.”

One of the resident sites at the Jungle

Fellow resident, Penny Shaffer, has lived in “The Jungle” for the better part of the past 15 years and says there are usually about four or five permanent residents, even through the coldest winters.

“We just like it outside, we just like to sit around with our friends and family that passed along down here. We want to be with them,” said Shaffer.

The Jungle, and those who inhabit it have a long history built upon a deep-rooted sense of community, loyalty and trust. “We trust being down in the jungle more than we do in the streets. You guys [in the city council] are worrying about us so much down here, why aren’t you guys worrying about the people that’s getting stabbed and shot?” Tunicliff demands.

Many people who are without permanent homes seek protection in the woods of the Jungle. Shaffer explains, “You go on the street and someone might pull a gun or knife on you nowadays. If there was any fighting amongst our families… Next morning we’re back to brother and sister again! Basically, that’s what we call it, sibling rivalry.”

Community members who know the true nature of the Jungle seek to help in any way they can. Eric Lovett, Ithacan resident since 1969, has actively volunteered at the Friendship Center for the past 5 years. He has always had a house, but visits the Jungle once a year and says he wishes he could do more. “I don’t think nobody should go homeless in Ithaca. I figure if I come here and eat and drink the coffee, I can work and scrub a floor and clean a bathroom.” A Friendship Center official, Aloja Airewele, was unable to comment at the time of this publication. “I won’t be able to talk about the Jungle, it is a very sore subject right now, and I am not going to discuss it,” said Airewele. The Ithaca police and the Ithaca fire department also refused to comment.

“If they’re friends, they’re like family to us. We try to stick together and help ot each other. We try to keep a close family. It’s the Jungle… it’s freedom,” said Tunnicliff. It appears The Jungle is a truly collective community, where the residents are not just neighbors, but family.

A Look into the Jungle…