That close one is mine

Three-wood to three feet. Maybe even 2 1/2. I don’t get to see that lovely result too much as I near the green after hitting an approach shot. The blind pig found the acorn last night during our informal little formal league at Northern Pines in Cicero, N.Y. Adding to the surprise, and fun, was…

Call of Duty

Originally posted on I Don't Get It:
In 1943, the USA was smack dab in the middle of WWII, and graduating college students were faced with the inevitable: enlistment. A cartoon in the Jayhawker magazine shows the four steps awaiting them: graduation and swearing in… …securing fatigues and heading into combat. How frustrating it must…

They’re ruining the Redwoods for a thousand bucks

Redwoods are dying at the hands of tweakers for a couple thousand bucks. My “Damn!” made Ellie B, aka Dogamous Pyle, jump at the story that closed the NBC nightly news two weeks ago, words and pictures that put a furrow in the brow of host Brian Williams as he related this ugly story. Williams…

Two athletes from India, one agent from L.A., half a movie from Disney

Sitting through the two-hours-plus of Disney’s “Million Dollar Arm,” I witnessed mounds of hope, greed, failure and success. Filtered through the lens of two cultures, in fact. Short synopsis: In a true story, Jon Hamm plays a sports agent who tries to save his bankrupt business by holding a talent contest in India to locate…

A wheelie good time at the park

Sometimes when you take a lot of pictures, a really good one can get away. This image from my walk last week at Onondaga Lake Park was among my 100. It shows a woman and children enjoying a wheeled ride on a pleasant afternoon on the fitness trail, front, center and behind. I do believe…

Angie’s back, with a promise to stop fiddling with the password

Friday I told you all about how Angie from Kentucky had given up on her excellent blog because she couldn’t log into WordPress anymore. She’d tried to change her password for security’s sake, it turns out, and that was it for that blog. But instead of giving up, this retired woman with MS gathered her…

Congratulations to a hard-working George III

George Venditti III put on the cap and gown in Oneonta and went up there with a whole bunch of other young people to mark the occasion of receiving that coveted academic degree. As a bunch of proud parents sat around a table at the Retreat in Liverpool, N.Y., during a celebration dinner, my marvelous…

the speed of the boss is the speed of the team – lee iacocca

Today I present guest blogger Beth, esteemed Ann Arbor author of I Didn’t Have My Glasses On. Beth and I engaged in the baseball bloggers death match, Syracuse Chiefs vs. Toledo Mud Hens style, the past two weeks. Take it away, Beth: and in the end, the mud hens tried to cross the road to…

Guitar strings and more, wonderfully arranged by Mark Doyle

I had a vivid dream last night, in color and stereo. I was in a 200-seat theater filled with people thrilled to be there on a Friday night, smack dab in the proud little upstate New York city of Auburn. The air was charged by wonderful music set forth by the guitar and mind of…

Starring in ‘Adult World,’ Emma Roberts, John Cusack, the city of Syracuse …

Of course I walked into the Palace Theatre last night wanting to like the movie ‘Adult World.’ Director Scott Coffey took writer Andy Cochran’s poet-graduates-college-and-then-gets-an-education story and set it in Syracuse. There was a fair amount of huzzah around these city streets while the Hollywood production was being shot here in 22 days in February…