MILLERTON — When Boston Corner resident Mike Burch was growing up in the 50s in Albany, life was very different for him. He’s now 5-foot, 8-inches tall, 198-pounds and 72 years old. He has long white hair, peppered with a bit of gray typically tied in a pony tail in the back and grown in a long, chest-length beard in the front.
He no longer has to train with weights and take part in sports to strengthen his lungs due to his childhood asthma. Yet train with hundreds of pounds of weights each day he does.
That’s how this grandfather came to be the new record holder for the 70-to-74-year-old age group in the 198-pound weight class in the American Powerlifting Association’s (APA) National Championship competition on Saturday, May 28, at the Steel Beach Gym in Oakville, Conn.
The national APA competition marked the 35th anniversary of its founding in New England, which is why it was held in the Nutmeg State.
As the APA noted on its website, www.wpapowerlifting.com, “powerlifting is a strenuous athletic event.” The competition included three categories: squat attempts, bench presses and deadlifts.
“I broke the world record with lifting 490 pounds,” said a beaming Burch, “before that the record was 485 pounds. I used to lift 800 pounds for five reps back in my 20s. I used to bench press 650 pounds.”
Considering the septuagenarian is a grandfather of one and father of three, dead lifting nearly 500 pounds today is still pretty impressive.
“I have three kids and a grandson,” said Burch, clearly proud of his family. “I started all of my kids with weight lifting, my two sons and daughter. I started weight lifting when I was 2 years old because I had asthma and I guess the weights increased my lungs. I tell these young kid to start lifting weights all the time.”
Burch said his father, who did not himself train with weights, became his personal trainer when he was a child. None of his other relatives lifted weights, but Burch said his dad somehow knew the exercise regimen would help his breathing.
“My father recommended it for the asthma, and guided me when I was young,” remembered Burch. “He was good at training me. As a student, I became a top sprinter in New York State, and ran the 100-meter race in 9.8 seconds — that’s pretty good for an asthmatic.”
The U.S. champ said he “felt pretty good” about his transformation from sickly to superstar. As he grew older, Burch continued to train and make a name for himself on the weight-lifting circuit.
“I became state and national champion on the bench, and today my grandson trains with me. Eli is my training partner,” said Burch. “He really motivates me; he’s 16 and lives in Great Barrington, Mass., and he can really psych me up.”
For this year’s national APA title, Burch faced off against the former U.S.-record holder from Ukraine, who set the former record of 485 pounds in 2017.
“I beat him,” said Burch. “I’m going to the worlds in September… and I’m planning to break it big this time. I’ve been going to the worlds and nationals all my life.”
While Burch could not explain why powerlifting has never made it to the Olympics, he said if it did, the U.S. would be assured a gold medal.
“It was never in the Olympics; I don’t know why. It should have been because the U.S. would dominate,” he said, noting athletes can partake for as long as their bodies hold out, and he would. “At 72, I would take part. Sure, why not?”
In 1983, writer and performer Nurit Koppel met comedian Richard Lewis in a bodega on Eighth Avenue in New York City, and they became instant best friends. The story of their extraordinary bond, the love affair that blossomed from it, and the winding roads their lives took are the basis of “Apologies Necessary,” the deeply personal and sharply funny one-woman show that Koppel will perform in an intimate staged reading at Stissing Center for Arts and Culture in Pine Plains on Dec. 14.
The show humorously reflects on friendship, fame and forgiveness, and recalls a memorable encounter with Lewis’ best friend — yes, that Larry David — who pops up to offer his signature commentary on everything from babies on planes to cookie brands and sports obsessions.
Koppel has good friends in the Pine Plains area and she calls the opportunity to present the piece at the Stissing Center a gift to her and her artistic process, which she shares with her son, Gideon McCarty, who serves as her director and dramaturg.
“He is the one person I listen to,” said Koppel.She credited him with helping her shape, in her own words, “real events from her life with Lewis.” For Mother’s Day this year, McCarty gave her the time to further develop the material and Koppel worked uninterrupted for 12 hours to hone and bring the piece to its current form. She plays 11 characters, not through impersonation but by presenting their authentic voices.
Koppel is clear that writing this piece was the right way for her to respond to Lewis’ passing in 2024, and that theatre is the right way to share it with others. “I wanted to have artistic control over the development process,” she said, and to bring to life her romantic relationship with Lewis, their experiences in New York City comedy clubs, and their neurotic New York friends. She also is open to opportunities to expand further on the material, perhaps in film or TV, as she still has a lot to say.
Koppel hopes primarily that people will be entertained by the world of the play. “I’m a pie-in-the-face kind of person and I want the play to give everyone a good laugh.” Considering her cast of characters, “Apologies Necessary” promises to offer plenty of laughs —plus much more.
“‘Apologies Necessary’ continues Stissing Center’s tradition to serve as a platform for new works of theater, providing playwrights with the opportunity to showcase their work and hone their craft,” said Patrick Trettenero, executive director of the Stissing Center. “We are excited to have Nurit present this reading of her new work in progress.”
Running time: approx. 90 minutes. Sunday, Dec. 14 at 7 p.m., Downstairs at Stissing Center. Tickets are vailable at thestissingcenter.org or 518-771-3339.
Richard Feiner and Annette Stover have worked and taught in the arts, communications, and philanthropy in Berlin, Paris, Tokyo, and New York. Passionate supporters of the arts, they live in Salisbury and Greenwich Village.
A stand of trees in the woods.
Did you notice that some sugar maples lost their leaves far earlier this fall than others, missing out on the color parade? The leaves wilted from dull yellow to brown in August before falling off in early September. Where we live, it has happened for several years to a few older maples near the house.
I called two arborists to get as accurate a diagnosis as possible by phone and received two opinions on the issue, both involving fungal pathogens. Skip Kosciusko, a West Cornwall arborist, diagnosed the problem as verticillium wilt, which he says has reached pandemic levels among the area’s sugar maples. “It looks like we have climate conditions that prevent the really cold air from settling in the winter. Cold is helpful in killing the fungus deep inside the tree.” Verticillium wilt enters through the roots and blocks the tree’s vascular system, preventing water from reaching the leaves. It will most often kill the tree, especially young or poorly maintained ones.
Chris Roddick, formerly head arborist at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, blames anthracnose. You may be familiar with the way anthracnose affects sycamore trees, a type of maple. Infected sycamores lose their first set of leaves in early spring, after which another set grows back. In the case of sugar maples infected with anthracnose, the leaves fall in August — about six weeks early — and they do not grow back until the following spring. We don’t yet know what this shorter life cycle will mean for the long-term viability of infected trees.
Skip has been treating infected sugar maples with a product called Kphite, which he describes as a salt from the minerals potassium and phosphate, known as phosphonate. He has found that it works well on beech trees, too, but he does not claim it is a cure. Rather, it bolsters trees’ natural defense mechanisms and their ability to deal with fungal infection. This product is available only to commercial entities, so homeowners need an arborist for its application.
Chris does not use any fertilizers on trees aside from compost. He is concerned about the long-term effects and unintended consequences of chemicals — even mineral supplements — that can leach into the water supply. He is “okay” with trees dying, and he’s “not doing nothing”; instead of applying chemicals, he is planting other species. His approach encourages a diversity of native plants so he can see what thrives in this new environment.
“Understanding disease pressures in plants is difficult. We often isolate an individual maple tree and see what happens. It’s different in the woods or for a stand of trees — here we have a system. If you manipulate one, you have consequences for the others. We think there are things to be done; we just don’t know what.” What we do know: fungi are quickly adapting to a warming climate, and changes in precipitation patterns may also favor fungal spread to trees.
As with humans, plants require minerals for healthy functioning. Humans can eat nutritious food or take supplements for overall health or to improve immunity; plants rely on the soil. There seem to be at least two reasons why plants are not getting what they need. One is that necessary nutrients have been depleted from the soil. Research suggests this may result from the recent Asian jumping worm infestation. The worms voraciously ingest soil — and the minerals that would otherwise be available to plants. In doing so, they turn the topsoil into a porous texture best described as coffee grounds. Rain can more easily wash through soil in this state, carrying away nutrients trees and other plants rely on.
A second reason is that trees may no longer be able to access needed minerals. This can happen if naturally acidic soil becomes alkaline or vice versa. Plants thrive at certain pH levels; a shift can inhibit nutrient absorption. We are seeing soil chemistry change in our woodlands as invasive plants proliferate. A 2003 study examined forest soils and mycorrhizal fungi associated with sugar maples and found that “a profound change in the mycorrhizal system will be one component of the potential ecosystem effects of invasion of new forest habitat by nonnative earthworms.” Mycorrhizae are the underground fungal threads that help trees share and trade nutrients. The study found that Asian jumping worms are breaking up the mycorrhizal network that helps sugar maples share and trade nutrients. (See theungardener.com for full citations of this and other studies.)
Can trees wait for science to help them? Should we experiment with possible solutions without understanding the full consequences, even if doing so might save trees? What actions do we take in the face of continuing species decline? It’s a subject we are obliged to explore here in the Northwest Corner, where so much of our experience relies on the view-enhancing, shade-giving, wind-breaking, habitat-restoring tree population.
Dee Salomon ‘ungardens’ in Litchfield County.
Director Yael Melamede and her mother Ada Karmi Melamade in ‘Ada: My Mother the Architect.’
When “Ada: My Mother the Architect” arrives at the Millerton Moviehouse this weekend, it may not immediately seem like your typical holiday fare. But looks can be deceiving. As the title suggests, director Yael Melamede has made her mother’s extraordinary architectural achievements the subject of a documentary. Ada Karmi Melamade is a mother of three, a central figure of Israel’s contemporary Bauhaus design, and a trailblazer for women who has reached dizzying professional heights over the course of a long and storied career.
What the title leaves unsaid, however, is the difficult personal choices the architect had to make along the path to success. Motherhood couldn’t always take priority — and while all’s well that ends well in this stirring portrait of family and fabrication, that underlying tension elevates what might have otherwise become a study in monotonous adulation.
The buildings are the easy part: Ada’s creations are unequivocally beautiful, and her daughter is up to the challenge of capturing their essence on film. Using a combination of unique perspective, time-lapse sequences and archival material, we’re treated to a symphony of light.
Provided
“I think that with one beam of light that falls right, it can change everything,” Melamade says, and we see her buildings — Jerusalem’s Supreme Court building and the Ben Gurion Airport among them —bloom and glow in some of the most breathtaking sequences.
But the film’s heart lies in the sometimes strained relationship between mother and daughter. “How [did] you love me for so many years?” Ada asks her daughter during one interview. “I wasn’t with you.” It’s a cutting message that has special resonance during the holiday season: Where are the lines between work and life, and how do we know when they need to be redrawn?
“Ada: My Mother the Architect” will screen at the Moviehouse in Millerton on Saturday, Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. A Q&A with director Yael Melamede will follow the film. Tickets at themoviehouse.net.
Graham Corrigan is a writer and musician from Philadelphia currently living in Lakeville.
The Orvis Guide hip pack as seen on the Orvis website.
What do you get the angler that has everything?
You start by realizing there is always something the angler does not have.
Such as a hip pack instead of a vest. After years of lugging around too much stuff in a vest, my back hurt, so I switched to a hip pack from Orvis, which I promptly overstuffed.But getting the weight off my shoulders helped some with the back pain. The pack in question is the Orvis Guide model at $179. The “PRO” version is waterproof, a little bigger and $100 more expensive.
I use a lanyard for tippet, clippers and clamp. There are any number of lanyards on the market. I use one from The Fly Shack at $14.95. I actually use two of these, one set up for trout and one for bass.
For tippet and leaders, I use Bozeman Flyworks. The 55 yard tippet spools in nylon and fluorocarbon start at $5 and have more material than the standard 30 yard spools from bigger outfits. The fluorocarbon is nice and stiff, even at thinner diameters, which I like for droppers. The nylon and fluorocarbonleaders come in packs of five in standard lengths and diameters, starting at $9.50, which is significantly less expensive than the above-mentioned bigger outfits. I change and rebuild leaders constantly, so these savings add up over the course of a season.
For those of you who don’t tie flies, you can pick up the basics inexpensively at The Fly Shack and Big Y Fly Company. For wet flies I recommend Ligas Discount Flies in Boulder, Colorado.Their soft hackle wets work better than anyone else’s, why I don’t know. Plus Wally will call to confirm your order and there’s a good chance you’ll wind up yakking with him for a while, which is both entertaining and instructional.
Also check out Brent Auger’s flies at Dragontail Tenkara. The Utah Killer Bug (12 for $15) and the War Bird flymph ($24 for 12) are very effective flies, especially in a tight-line nymphing rig.
What you should also do is drop in at the fly shop wherever you are and buy some flies made by local tyers, and buy something else for the good of the house. Or, if you’re shopping for someone, get a gift certificate, bearing in mind that fly fishing is hideously expensive and $50 barely flips the meter. Around here that means UpCountry Sportfishing in Pine Meadow, and you can get a gift certificate online.
Books: Pocketguide to Eastern Streams by Thomas Ames is in a new edition ($29.95). This sturdy paperback is loaded with info and photos of the bugs we love, including a few I never heard of and I’ve been around some.
John Gierach died earlier this year, and he was so good at writing about this sport it makes me want to bail out completely and take up macrame instead. Any of his titles would make a good present for your grumpy winterized housebound angler, but I am partial to “Trout Bum” and “Standing in a River Waving a Stick.”
And I still think Taylor Streit’s “Instinctive Fly Fishing”($14.95) is the single best general introduction to the sport. There is something for every angler, from the newbie to the crusty and certifiable (me) in this slender volume.
These books are in print and while Amazon is certainly handy, I urge you to get them through one of our independent bookstores if possible. UpCountry has a good book selection as well.
