Throwback: Fake cover for imaginary album by faux band. Really!

Back in the late 1970s, our two bedroom, one-bath apartment in Adelphi, Md., was always rocking. Yes, Twenty, Aggo and I were eyebrows deep into two years of hard university time within those walls in the cockroach-inhabitated complex we used to lovingly call Residential Plaza, dropping their officious P from the first name because that…

Cherry tree picking

A cherry tree will be going into the backyard of the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. My dear wife Karen and I took the trip to Chuck Hafner’s Garden Center in North Syracuse this past weekend, walking the aisles under the sun out back and inside the greenhouses, too. We spied…

As Baltimore considers the now, we remember the then and ponder the when

I watched the evening news with clips and recaps from Baltimore and flinched. Fires and riots and looting. We are in trouble, I thought. Why would we do this. Oh, I’d heard the back story of how our police force had done things that had led to the death of one of our citizens. A…

Chocolate, candles, coasters and cups of tea from across the big pond

Rachel and Steve outdid themselves. When my dear wife Karen stepped the door of the Little Bitty last night, she spotted the package on the kitchen table immediately. I announced that the BloggyVille mystery gift from across the pond, the prize I’d won because Rachel, Lundy Girl from the blog Could Do Worse: Adventures in…

The Blog of Funny Names goes to the movies

It’s my monthly turn on the wheel of writers with sharp oberservational eyes over at The Blog of Funny Names. I’m speaking of King Dave, and Arto, and Kerbey, and Fannie, and Liz, and Mark. Not myself. Over there, I’m the Other Mark, the Markie come lately, the newest scribe on the block. Here’s how…

The mystery prize from the other side of the big pond

Just this morning I received an email from my dear BloggyVille friend Rachel, putting me on alert that she’d put the prize from her Could Do Worse: Adventures in London anniversary sweepstakes in the post. A bit back Rachel had noted how she’d been publishing her words and photographs here for several years, and would…

‘The Age of Adaline’ adds up too easily

From the start, I wanted to really like “The Age of Adaline.” A woman who won’t age because of a lightning strike following a car accident … well, I won’t go all spoiler on you, but you can read Film Review blog at the Syracuse New Times site by clicking the link below. http://www.syracusenewtimes.com/may-grow-old-waiting-action-age-adaline/ I…

That fella singing in the coffee shop…

That fella singing in the coffee shop…. My BloggyVille friend from Washington State, Sassy, has started a new grassroots music-themed blog. House concerts? Hell, yes, I say. I look forward to her first big reveal. Click over and enjoy.

Striking skies over Syracuse

As Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle and I worked our way back toward the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood this half-and-half spring Sunday afternoon, we couldn’t help but note the sky above. April prepares to give itself up to May, and the see and the saw of this dance was somewhere…

Why whine about the Mets’ loss to the Yankees when there’s so much wine?

The end of the line greeted me Friday morning as I planned my strategy for the that night’s game for my New York Mets. The Subway Series, the New York Yankees, the Four Train from CitiField in Flushing to the Bronx with a team-tying-record 11-game winning streak lied ahead with great promise. On my wide…