Start wining, or, how to spend a sunny spring Saturday

The morning to yield wine tasting quickly turned sunny in Syracuse, N.Y. The group of 23 day-trippers gathered in a parking lot outside Syracuse mega shopping, dining and entertainment complex Destiny USA. Stories were shared. Some folks had taken a tour of the wineries an hour to the west in the Finger Lakes region of…

Catching up with Kaitlyn Jackson as ‘American Idol’ goes on without her

Kaitlyn Jackson has put her moment in the national eye to very good and wise use. The 16-year-old from Norwich, N.Y., had just finished presenting her program “Dream Big” to a big room full of kids, Jackson says during a phone conversation Friday morning. “I’m basically a motivational speaker,” says the teen. She talks about…

‘Draft Day’ is bound to make NFL fans more eager for draft day

It worked as a longing baseball fan. It worked as a quirky golfer. Will Kevin Costner’s sports charm work as a crafty general manager in charge of the Cleveland Browns’ strategy in “Draft Day” is the question of the weekend. Costner gets help from Jennifer Gardner as his salary specialist in front of the hunting…

A man with a tin can, a street corner institution in Syracuse

Originally posted on Jim McKeever:
Gertis McDowell is a familiar sight on the campus of Syracuse University. You hear Gertis McDowell before you see him. The steady rhythm of coins shaking in his tin can gives him away before you spot him in his wheelchair on the street corner. Gertis is an institution in Syracuse,…

And it was you

Once upon a time, a dad-to-be climbed into bed after another night of work and fell asleep to the world. After five or so hours, the mom-to-be shook her husband’s shoulder. Not used to opening his eyes this early in the day, the man may have grunted. The woman said it was time. The man…

A Masters-ful start to our golf season

As the best pro golfers in the world were traversing the hills and negotiating the fast greens that mark the Masters in Augusta, Ga., this morning, KP, Wags and I were rapping putts on the ruddy greens of Westvale. I have to hand it to my two playing partners on this first day of our…

A family resemblance can sneak up and floor you

Sometimes the pieces to complete a startling vision sit pages apart in the scrapbook of your mind. For all my life, I’ve been comfortable with the premise that out of us three kids, my youngest sister, Dory, had the most family resemblance to either of our parents. My sister Fran, the middle one, kind of…

Give us a good time, please, say Syracuse Chiefs fans

At the beginning of April in Syracuse, N.Y., the grass was not yet green. Not even at the big ballpark that the Syracuse Chiefs baseball team calls home. That did not stop 6,661 fans from welcoming the start of another Triple-A season to NBT Bank Stadium. But first, they had a pretty big party in…

The biggest star at this concert was the Dalai Lama

Just the other day when I was reading a post from my friend at Peace, Love & Great Country Music, recounting a blog conversation we’d had about the band Train, the thought hit me again. I had some truly great moments in the 21 years that I covered music and entertainment for the big daily.…

It’s the Connecticut women again

The Connecticut women’s basketball team made it two straight tonight by beating Notre Dame. That earns national championships for the Huskies two nights in a row, following last night’s crown captured by the men’s team with a win over Kentucky. And it’s two national titles in a row for the Connecticut women. Let’s talk sports…