July 3, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Local Life

Horrific seizures since the age of 5
Painting is the salvation of brain cancer survivor
By JENNIFER ZARRO

Cathy Hozack, 28, is a talented Chestnut Hill watercolorist who had sucessful brain surgery (to make seizures stop) in April.

Cathy Hozack, 28, creates beautiful watercolor paintings. When I meet her, she’s standing at the kitchen counter of her mother’s home on Crefeld Street in Chestnut Hill, and she’s leafing through her small sketchbooks. On one page there’s a subtle painting of blue sky and water, with the shapes of the sailboats made by letting the white of the paper show through.

Another painting is abstract. It looks like a zigzag line running across a colorful background. In fact, the peaks and valleys of this line are just like the ones on Cathy’s recent EKG strip. It was the first painting she made after coming home to recover from brain surgery.

The small paintings in these sketchbooks are revealing because they form a picture of the artist, a sort of self-portrait. There are watery blues and greens in her sketches of Bermuda, a favorite family vacation spot. There are the tall buildings of Center City where she lived until early spring, when she had the first of two surgeries to fix a seizure disorder she’s had since she was five years old. On each page is evidence of her command of the medium. Her watercolor technique is layered. She uses a combination of light washes of color behind opaque shapes that can suggest buildings, windmills or the shaded arch of a bridge. 

‘My nightmarish personal experience with George Carlin’
by LEN LEAR

This is the cover of Brain Droppings (Hyperion Publishing, 1997), one of three books authored by the late George Carlin. The others are Napalm & Silly Putty (2001) and When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? (2004)

There probably was no bigger fan of the late comedian and social critic George Carlin than myself, even though I had a nightmarish personal experience with him 35 years ago that I was sure at the time would sour me on Carlin for the rest of my life. It didn’t. (Carlin died on June 22 at the age of 71 as a result of heart failure.)

My run-in with Carlin happened in 1973. (I have never written about this before in any publication.) At the time he was one of the most popular and successful comics in the country, partly because of his take-no-prisoners style. George was one of the most iconoclastic and political comics in the U.S., which endeared him to anti-Vietnam, anti-Nixon, pro-civil rights young people like myself. He was almost certainly the first ever to slam Christianity on national TV — Saturday Night Live in October, 1975 — which unleashed a torrent of criticism from all over the country and probably caused apoplectic seizures in NBC-TV network executives.

In addition, several people told me in the early ‘70s that there was a strong facial resemblance between myself and George Carlin. Therefore, when I saw in a TV promo that Carlin would be co-hosting for an entire week of the Mike Douglas Show, a highly-rated national talk/entertainment show that originated at the NBC-TV 3 studio, 5th and Market Streets, I cooked up a plan.

Newlyweds (almost), 90 and 86, still caring for others at hospice
by Mary Price Lee and Richard S. Lee

Shirley and Art Rowe, married since 2003 and Keystone Hospice volunteers for longer than that, pose at “our table,” where they met. (Photo by Richard S. Lee)

“Nothing is more important than a loving relationship,” said 86 year-old Shirley Rowe shortly after we had met her and her husband, Art, 90, in the comfortable dining room at Keystone Hospice, 8765 Stenton Ave., Wyndmoor. When we met them, the Rowes were seated at what they call “our table,” filling envelopes for a mailing. The table is where they met in 2002. They immediately felt a connection, and were married a year later.

The Rowes, who live 13 miles away in a Fox Chase retirement community, drive to Keystone two or more days a week to volunteer. (Art just bought a new car!) They are early risers, usually up and active by 5:30 each day. On their Keystone days, they are there by 8 a.m. and work until about 1 p.m. They’ll do just about anything that needs doing, from packing envelopes to socializing with Keystone’s residents, and being available to help with special events.

Indian man hitches American Dream to Mexican Post
by LEN LEAR

The red snapper Veracruzana entree and the “Big Max” enchilada — three soft corn tortillas layered with jack and cheddar cheeses and ground beef, topped with a sauce and served with rice and sour cream — are two of the popular entrees at Mexican Post.

You would not expect a Chinese man to open an Italian restaurant or an Irish man to open a Japanese restaurant, so I was surprised to meet Nilesh Desai, owner of the Mexican Post trio of restaurants at 1601 Cherry St. and 104 Chestnut St., both in center city, and at 3100 Naamans Rd. In Wilmington.

Why would a man who grew up near Bombay, India, decide to open a Mexican restaurant? (The Old City location was the first of the three, having opened 19 years ago.) The answer is quite uncomplicated. “I wanted to open an Indian restaurant,” explained Desai, 50, “but I could not find qualified Indian cooks. On the other hand, I knew some Mexican chefs from working previously at a place called Margarita’s in University City. I felt I could trust them, so I opened a Mexican restaurant instead. Some of the workers have been with me almost the entire 19 years.”