‘The Best of Me’ almost brings out the worst in me

I did not want to sit through 2 hours, 15 minutes of a World War II movie, so I said no to “Fury.” Instead I picked the 1 hour, 51 minutes of “The Best of Me,” yes, the Nicholas Sparks melodrama, full of romance and twists and turns and beautiful actors. My first Nicholas Sparks…

At the Tin Rooster, we kick up our birth week heels

The Tin Rooster was a really big deal. The name may conjur up a dusky little backwoods joint where somebody’s playing banjo on the sagging porch, but certainly not at this place my dear wife Karen chose to celebrate the cornerstone dinner of her Birth Week celebration 2014. When we walked into the lobby of…

Mum

Paul Curran is a Canadian who can be found commenting often on this blog and many others. He always has much to say, and I find him to be wise, funny and smart. Paul definitely caught my attention when he sent me a photograph of he and his golfing buddies after they’d dunked their cart…

Looking out my back porch door

Stepping to the top step of the porch to let Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle out to do her backyard morning thing, I couldn’t help but look right and left to check out autumn’s progress in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. The empty lot to the right has a brightly yellowed tree hiding out…

A Big Ten clash with a pinky swear bet on the line

This move to the Big Ten for my Maryland Terps is serious stuff. We ran all over the Indiana Hoosiers in our first game ever in the new conference. At their place, yet. It made me very, very happy. And then Ohio State came to College Park and made Byrd Stadium Buckeyeville. After a bye…

Another superhero to arrive on the big screen, the Scarlet Speedster

“The Flash” is coming in 2018. As a fan of DC Comics over Marvel, that makes me happy. And, furthermore, as a lad who never had much zip to his running stride, the superhero who donned the Scarlet suit and zipped around in record time could capture my attention in a split second when The…

Carlos Santana soars, with no obstructions

It had been while since my dear wife Karen and I had gone to a concert in the Turning Stone Resort and Casino Event Center, but when I heard the word that Carlos Santana was bringing his guitar to the 5,000-seat room just 30 miles east of Syracuse, I knew that would make one heckuva…

Sure, it’s a birthday, but we celebrate longer than that

My dear wife Karen marks another year on our planet this week. Not today. And we haven’t reached the big day yet. We have, though, started our celebration. By now I am quite aware, and thoroughly pleased, that we do not have to limit the great joy for this occasion to one single day. Happy…

Duvall, Downey Jr. make love-hate relationship easy to judge

Some father-son relationships can never be mended. As the elder and the younger bicker and fight and squander every moment life affords them to look at themselves and each other through a different prism and, well, get over it, everybody around them tires of it all, throws up their arms, and wishes they’d just go…

No. 1 comes to town with a flurry of fans and the national title

When the defending national champions come to town still undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the country, it’s a big deal to me. So my dear wife Karen and I walked up the Syracuse University hill 90 minutes before the noon kickoff Saturday to take in the atmosphere. I had a pretty good inkling that…