A lake in October catches the eye and iPhone 6

That lake sure looks pretty, I thought. You must park and pull out the iPhone 6 to share this October sight with the world. My trip some 35 miles southwest from Syracuse for my weekly WAER community blog column last week took me through Skaneateles, a quaint, pretty village of note. The folks that live…

Mets are happy they signed hometown kid Matz

If ever a man was born to play on a certain sports team, it is Steven Jakob Matz. When the New York Mets take the field tonight in Queens, N.Y., hosting game four of the National League Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the 24-year-old rookie left-hander will be on the pitching mound. Let’s…

You can’t help but get pumped when he’s up on the wire for The Walk

When Philippe Petit is up there on his wire, I couldn’t help but love The Walk cowriter and director Robert Zemeckis made sure of that. The master of cool special effects made the most of the true tale of the French tightrope-walker, who had the audacity and nerve to pull what he calls The Coup.…

Make them play it again, 2-2, with the Dodgers out in the seventh

As a Mets fan, I was livid from the moment Chase Utley knocked over Ruben Tejada somewhere around second base Saturday night. As a baseball fan, I was appalled how the umpires called the Dodgers’ runner safe on an appeal that the Mets’ shortstop’s toe came up a smidge short of touching the bag before…

A ‘shroom with a view

It’s been an odd and off growing season around our Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. The roses that bloomed were too few, and far later than usual. The hydrangea refused to flower. Even the lawn gave me two weeks off between cuttings. Now, this. Wild mushrooms are sprouting out of nowhere,…

Still not much pop to the leaves, but there’s orange to be found

I’m still lamenting the lack of color in the changing-of-the-leaves in my Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. Hover over any gallery photo for a description. Click on the bottom right photo in any gallery for an enlarged slide show. Too much green still, and way too much brown in what has decided to give up…

With Livelong Day, Chip Prior rocks his belief

Chip Prior, Livelong Day Odd Mann Out Music Before she started this summer of retooling of her PriorHouse blog, my friend Whyvette dropped me a package by U.S. Post that included the new CD by her husband, Chip Prior. She wondered to me if his music would be too Christian for my liking. Livelong Day…

Now’s the time to put in that tree, dig it?

This is the time of year when Robert Hoadley’s business barks at him seven days a week. Hoadley owns Lakeview Nursery and Hoadley’s Wholesale Nursery on 140-plus acres of land in Auburn, N.Y., some 30 miles west of Syracuse. It’s a tree farm, the 34-year-old’s baby, really. He bought the business from his parents some…

So that’s where socks go to hide

The strange sound started in our LG dryer more than a week ago. It whined. It whirred. It sounded, well, broken. After shutting it off — oh, I am that smart, at least — I poked around the back of the stack, and noticed that the metal part that attached the exhaust hose to the…

neither rain nor hurricane nor turtles, can stop the wolverines.

As I feared, it wasn’t much of a game. Beth’s Michigan stomped my Maryland at Byrd Stadium. This will not be a good second season in the Big Ten for my alma mater. Too many interceptions thrown and passes dropped. And this Saturday my Maryland faces defending national champ Ohio State. Oy. Take it away,…