The test covers ten situations that measure how well the dog obeys and behaves with other people and dogs. I won’t go through all ten of them, but there were two sections in particular that we weren’t sure how he’d do. The first was having a stranger approach him and first pet him and then gently groom him. The second was being left alone with a stranger for 3 minutes without us in sight.

The day of the test we went to Prospect Park at 8am (yes, I was there this time) to give him a good workout. If you’ve never been to the Park before 9am on a weekend, I highly suggest making the trek. Dogs everywhere. We spent the morning playing fetch, practicing walking-on-leash, having strangers pet him, etc. We arrived at the location at 10am and found out that the actual testing wasn’t going to start until 12pm. We practiced some more. After the first six dogs (they all passed) went through the process it was finally our turn. Anna took Poncho by the leash and walked him in to the testing area. Since the petting and grooming was the first portion, I figured we’d know fairly soon if Poncho was going to pass or not. The evaluator walked up to Anna and Poncho, reached out to shake Anna’s hand, then bent down to pet Poncho, and finally groomed him for a few strokes. It took about 10 seconds. Poncho was great. He was a perfect gentleman. He did well in all the other sections and then it was time for the last test: the 3 minute isolation. Anna walked with him around a bend and dropped him off with another evaluator. She walked away. The next thing I knew, Anna and Poncho were on their way out. The other dog owners started to applause and Anna walked through the gate with a big smile on her face. Yup, that’s right folks, he passed. She truly looked like a proud parent.

It’s kinda funny depressing that we need a specific day in the year to remind us of how important the big rock we live on is. It does make our planet more marketable though. I mean think of all the “save the earth” merchandise that you can buy…then realize it’s no longer cool the day after Earth Day…and then toss it into trash like everything else you bought but don’t really need. Hmm…maybe we should rethink this whole Earth Day thing. All kidding aside, it is actually pretty important to raise environmental awareness. As they say, knowledge is power. In this case, our power is to make informed choices, and though these choices we can bring to bear changes on a global scale.

There’s no doubt that sometimes change is slow to occur. It’s taken decades for environmental awareness to fully penetrate America’s consciousness. Granted, the “Save the Whales” campaign had a pretty good run in the 80′s. Even Star Trek IV (the one that not only Trekkies went to see) had a pro-whale message. But today, damn, you can’t watch TV for more than a few minutes without seeing a commercial touting their company’s greenness. Yes, there is some greenwashing going on, but it’s a welcome start. As consumers we have the power to drive this change.

I consider myself an environmentalist, but not an annoying, preachy one so I’ll stop here. If you want to learn more about the issues check out the following link. If you want to take immediate action go here.

If anyone attends please leave a comment on your experience. Thanks!

“I continue to love Tribeca, though I’ve been going to Brooklyn a lot because of the new Bouley; a lot of the artists and stone cutters are in Brooklyn and I’m starting to fall in love with Brooklyn, particularly down by the Navy Yard. It reminds me of what Tribeca was like here in the early ‘80s. There’s not as much of a rat race as other parts of the city.”

I’m not sure that we’ll ever see the level of development that TriBeCa went through, but it’s nice to know that I’m not the only one that finds the raw, industrial landscape of our ‘hood appealing.

It’s been a while since we’ve been to Bouley, but I still remember the simple elegance of the space, extraordinary food, and spot on service. The short ribs were perfect. And the petits fours were really, really good. Check out the article to find out more about his new Japanese restaurant in the works.

Yeah, I’ll admit it, once you get past Park Avenue on the North side of Fort Greene it starts to feel like a very different neighborhood. For years I’ve been trying to introduce a new acronym to describe this nether region in hopes to attach some cachet and spur some growth to this area. It hasn’t helped…yet. Some people might say that it’s already identified as Wallabout, or “yeah, that’s still Fort Greene (wink, wink)”. But really, in these times of DUMBO, BoCoCa, and most famously, TriBeCa, isn’t only fair that we get in on the abbreviated fun. Anyways, here it is: SoNYa, or South of Navy Yard. Actually, there’s a local arts group using a variation of this moniker as SONYA, South Of the Navy Yard Artists (notice the subtle, yet graphically striking differences). Incidentally, SONYA is having their spring studio stroll coming up this May 17th & 18th. Check out their website for more info.

Thanks to Brownstoner for keeping me informed.

Now that you’re all caught up. Tune in this Friday. It’ll be worth it.