It's the last column prior to Election Day, and elections make me giddy. Nervous and giddy. I was a junior in high school during that historic, traumatic and game-changing election process of 1968 and ...
I ran into an old friend the other day and it really brought back some pleasant memories and good conversation. He's a dairy farmer and a family man, existing (maybe not thriving, but with a lot of 'pluck') ...
The Kavanaugh Senate hearings (the Ithaca High School Tattler newspaper said it better: The 'Supreme Court ordeal') left me drained. Almost speechless. Not that I've 'been around' forever, but I have ...
Parallax: n., from the Greek. To cause to alternate the apparent displacement of an observed object due to a change in the position of the observer. (from Dictionary.com). To give you a simple exposure ...
As you might imagine, a weekly adventure of 'writing a column' has a few challenges as well as lessons. Some would say a challenge IS a lesson waiting to teach a solution. One challenge I was not expecting ...
A lot of my reading sources come from what perhaps would be called somewhat less than traditional, or the normal streams of information. In other words, I can easily forsake the NY Times, Washington Post, ...
If I was asked by the census-taker about my current state of employment, I would look for the box marked 'semi-retired', if such a box exists. I put my fifty years in, starting as a paperboy at fourteen, ...
The brain wanders far and wide this week. And when it notices something of interest, it focuses, at least for a few paragraphs. The chest-thumper-in-chief appears quite upset about the newest nefarious ...
We've been hearing an innocuous-sounding phrase recently in this 'off-year' election cycle, and I felt it was time to examine it. The phrase is 'democratic socialism', and it took root years ago, but ...
There seems to be plenty to absorb and think about as the news continues to flow like a high pressure fire hose, and plenty to comment on as well. The insanity of tit-for-tat tariffs (read: new taxes ...
Meteorologically speaking, it's been a strange and variable summer, hasn't it?? The heat of May and June, the almost drought of July and now the tropical monsoons of August all combine to challenge us ...
Dateline: November (I think) 1969: I am sitting among a number of my male peers in the day room of Martin Hall, a dormitory on the campus of the University ('Da 'U') of Scranton, the Jesuit all male ...
Aside from political headlines (which frequently give me a sense of 'been there, done that, and I have the T-shirt to prove it...) my attention is often grabbed by science headlines, and this past week ...
Welllllllll... the 'trade war' continues to heat up, and it seems the U.S. is intent on messing up the friendships (no matter how lopsided they may be sometimes) that commerce and common defense have ...
I started thinking a few days ago about what I have called my 'techno-phobia', which I guess could be described as my sometimes irrational fear of technology and its effects upon human beings. My thinking ...
I have railed in the recent past about the way words are being changed in a political sense to benefit certain parties, to the detriment of the language. I don't mean the change of nouns to verbs, as ...
Even in the midst of the heatwave doldrums of this summer, it seems there are plenty of items to extemporize on, both local and national. I had originally planned on looking at the headline 'City To Attempt ...
I found a quote this week to justify my occasional usage of multiple abbreviated thoughts (in otherwords, jumbles... instead of allegedly coherent thought per column). It was Bertrand Russel who opined: ...
Bishop George Hume once wrote that "'"Words may be either servants or masters. If the former, they may safely guide us in the way of truth. If the latter, they intoxicate the brain and lead into swamps ...
My thoughts this week (ramblings, musings) seem shorter and somewhat more fragmented this week than normal. But, maybe there is optimism to be found in brevity. Well... maybe not. I was fascinated this ...
I spent three days last week at the United Methodist Annual Conference. As its name implies, it is a yearly get-together required by Methodist rules to convene and discuss matters affecting a Methodist ...
In last week's column I spoke of a cryptic, but telling answer by Chou En Lai when asked his opinion of the French revolution in a press conference in 1972. His reply was "Too soon to tell," a wiser observation ...
It was about this time of the year in 1972. I was a Specialist Five on Hill 327 outside of DaNang, Republic of Vietnam. The Stars and Stripes was doing its best to give Richard Nixon most of its red, ...
The ancient saying is that man does not live by bread alone. Variation number one: Man does not live on political thought alone, especially if he wishes to have a decent night's sleep. Information and ...
I imagine that some would object (at least strongly question) the objectivity of a white, aging, Anglo-Saxon male in post-modern America when he speaks of the question of race relations, and the apparent ...
The brain (mine, that is, the part that still functions in a normal manner) is going in several different directions this week, and somehow it is trying to convince me that if I look real hard, all of ...
I noted in the news last week that media outlets had a temporary focus on the Supreme Court's hearing on sales tax. To wit, whether states had a right to charge sales tax on internet vendors such as Amazon ...
Taking a week off was a difficult thing for me to do. Always has been. My brain has always imagined the world saying upon my return: "Oh, you were gone?" When I retired from radio, it turned out I had ...
No surprise to anyone who has known me for awhile, or newer acquaintances to this column, that I am a self-confessed 'technophobe'. Translation: I have a healthy distrust (not quite fear/phobia, but a ...
Here's a little bit of idle thinking for you who give an occasional passing thought to that 800 pound urban gorilla that dominates the county and all the towns that surround it (10 square miles surrounded ...
Are we again sitting in our home or car, watching and listening to another wave of horror and revulsion, helpless at another mass shooting? Are you like me, numb and feeling bereft of feeling, not even ...
Some random, non-unified thoughts this week. Observations, comments and possibly unjustified frettings. My interaction with the medical community and medical attention have been mercifully and gratefully ...
Our country is rife with divisive arguments these days, months, but as an amateur history buff I can truthfully state that there seems never to have been a time when America wasn't arguing about something. ...
OK. I'm a news 'junkie'. I say one thing, then turn around and do another. I say I am avoiding the news (no television makes that a bit easier, you would think) for two, maybe three days, then go right ...
I spent a fascinating and difficult morning last week at the Schuyler County Human Services Building in Watkins Glen. I don't get to that corner of the woods often, and it was truly a glorious, sunny ...
It was two years ago today that I packed the last of my framed credentials, favorite shelf chatchkies and various 12 Step how-to volumes into a few remaining boxes and said goodbye to my last full time ...
Even though I spent almost twenty years on radio in the 'news/talk' format, and am also a self-admitted 'news junkie', there are days when I just don't want to listen to it all. Not having owned a television ...
Since writing my column on the Hamilton Square development in Trumansburg, I've had the distinct and wonderful pleasure of more than a few people approach me in person, and by personal email, with very ...
During my radio days, I would utilize an hour about once a month inviting a couple of friends into the studio to talk about the future of computing and technology. I called it Technophobia, not without ...
One of the advantages of cold weather is that I find it a perfect opportunity to snuggle in and do some serious reading. I mean, I read voraciously anyway, but give me hours on end with an excuse to stay ...
It wasn't too long ago (maybe about two weeks or so) that I was driving south on Route 96 from Trumansburg back to Ithaca. At a decrepit and abandoned building that was formerly a notorious 'bar', just ...
I'm sure you have heard (and probably also expressed) the popular lament that the Christmas season seems to begin the week after (or even before?) Halloween. I'm pretty sure that a local/national drug ...
You and I have been surrounded (inundated, if you wish) by the stories which are being described as 'sexual harassment', although I would describe them in more horrific and destructive terms. It has been ...
My phone had rung four times in the past two hours with the same unrecognized return number. Since I don't call or talk to that many people these days, the number was unfamiliar and I didn't answer it. ...
My partner of sixteen years has always been slow to anger and quick to forgive. She has had plenty of opportunity to prove these admirable traits, putting up with me and my own less than admirable traits ...
Today I'd like to return to a topic which has received as much media coverage as any in the past year (and that's saying something isn't it??), perhaps more. What the media continues to describe as the ...
Dateline: Moscow, The Kremlin When: Spring, 2016 In a nondescript conference room, deep in the Kremlin, several men and women sit around a highly polished rectangular conference table. There are no decorative ...
It was forty five years ago this month that I returned home to Ithaca from what John Prine slyly called 'the conflict overseas'. VietNam was beginning to be relegated to backstory, not yet high school ...
"Just a castaway An island, lost at sea, Another lonely day With no one here but me. I'll send an SOS to the world I hope that someone gets My message in a bottle. Walked out this morning Don't believe ...
Not yet being in receipt of any overnight reviews from my first contribution to the Lansing Star Online, I'll once again dive deeply into another topic that has been on my mind for, say, almost twenty ...