The Cheesecake Factory will open in Syracuse with a Big Bang for us

A cheer erupted within The Cheesecake Factory-to be at the mega shopping, dining and entertainment complex Destiny USA in Syracuse, N.Y. This I know because my face was pressed up against the window, like the proverbial kid and the candy store. (Grown me, though, made sure not to leave any tell-tale nose prints.) We’ve been…

Cold night, warm lights in Syracuse

Oh, cold, cold Syracuse winter. Sometimes I must drive through the deep freeze. I pilot my car with freezing hands, despite the leather gloves. The heater churns to bring some small level of comfort inside the vehicle. This week I found myself stopping my car at the curb because a certain sight had the potential…

A monster and good deeds come to our theaters this weekend

The two movies opening this weekend couldn’t be more opposite. In ‘I Frankenstein,’ we will have the latest incarnation of the scary, zipper-necked fellow, taken from the pages of a graphic novel, by the creators of “Underworld.” I am scared already. And then there’s the Hindi-language film “Jai Ho,” a remake of a Telugu movie,…

I fondly remember The Snurfer, that early yellow snowboard

I was a pioneer in the snowboarding movement. This I discovered yesterday, when my sister Fran started a look-back Facebook thread because they were expected a good bit of snow on Long Island. Our neighbors two doors down on the Suffolk County hill that cascaded on our suburban street, the Carrs, chipped in with memories…