Letters

Letters to the Editor: Week of February 12, 2012

Goodbye, Alex

To the Editor:

It has only been a few short years since the last of our visits upstairs in the large bedroom in the Garcia house on Big Ram. Since then, we have maintained our close friendship via weekly telephone calls. We’d talk politics, tennis, Shelter Island, health issues and we’d reminisce.

There must be a few left on the “Rock” of the generation for whom Dr. Garcia was a medical patron saint. He operated on many, he counseled, he referred patients to his fellow top specialists at Columbia-Presbyterian, where he was the chief of orthopedics.

For many years, he and Helen Ann hosted the annual social for the Ram Island Association. She truly was his partner in all endeavors; a fellow physician, she was the staff doctor for the vast facility in Washington Heights. Cruelly, she succumbed to early Alzheimer’s disease and for decades Alex tended to and looked after her in the cottage he had built for his mother adjacent to the house.

He was a man of many parts: he supported the library, he was an emeritus member of the Mashomack board. One winter season, he and a friend built a boat in his basement and, from his dock in Coecles Harbor, he floated sacks of a budding oyster colony.

He loved the Island and the Island reciprocated.

In old vaudeville style, my calls to him always started with, “Is the doctor in?” And he would respond, “This is the doctor.”

Now, the doctor is out, permanently, and I will miss him.

HENRY GOLDSMITH, Palm Beach, Florida

 

Cablevision clarity

To the Editor:

Cablevision is in the communication business and yet for years now they would have us believe that they are incapable of clarifying whether we need a “box” or not. I believe that the “box” confusion is a scam and at this point the burden of proof is on them to convince us otherwise.

PETER BERGER, Shelter Island

 

Cablevision speaks

To the Editor:

There have been several recent stories in the Shelter Island Reporter related to Cablevision’s move to all-digital programming and we appreciate this opportunity to update our customers on this transition.

Cablevision now only delivers cable channels to Shelter Island in digital format, which means that a digital set-top box or CableCARD is needed on television sets receiving our service. It is worth noting that virtually all of Cablevision’s Shelter Island customers — and the vast majority of our customers across our entire service area — already have at least one digital set-top box in the home.

To help ease the transition to all-digital, we are providing free set-top boxes for a limited time. Customers who did not have any digital set-top boxes in their homes are being offered a box (or CableCARD) for every television in their household for free for two years. Customers who already had at least one set-top box can receive additional boxes (or CableCARDs) for every television in their home for one year.

Customers who require new or additional set-top boxes can request a free professional installation or can have them sent to their homes, free of charge, or can pick them up at any Optimum store location.

Some customers may ask why this transition is happening. The simple answer is that digital is the way television is delivered today, and will be in the future.  All of Cablevision’s satellite and phone company competitors are all-digital and require boxes on every television receiving service.

In Cablevision’s case, digital service offers a number of significant benefits including better picture, clearer sound, many more channels and choices, video on demand — with thousands of free titles — free high-definition channels and advanced interactive services such as News 12 Interactive, MSG Varsity Interactive and more. In addition to television sets connected to set-top boxes, Cablevision’s full television service is also available in the home on the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch through the company’s free Optimum app.  Cablevision is the only cable provider in the country to make this available and the service is free for iO TV customers.

Cablevision is proud of our history of serving Shelter Island residents and we are committed to offering customers the best possible experience and value in residential voice, high-speed Internet and digital television service.  We understand the challenges that changes such as these can create and we appreciate our customers’ understanding.

SARAH CHAIKIN, Director, Media Relations, Cablevision