This tree’s a hard one to dress up

Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle and I came across another eccentric tree during a recent stroll around our Liverpool neighborhood of Galeville. First we noticed the tree itself. Worse for wear, for sure. Seen better days. Victim of something that led it to a big blade of some sort. Then the face really popped out…

I couldn’t believe what was on the sidewalk

Seen in the Village of Liverpool on Ash Wednesday. I saw this pastor from the Liverpool First Presbyterian Church and his Ashes-to-Go station while on a coffee break from my job at the library, outside of Nichols supermarket. I posted this photo on the LPL Facebook page. Then I shared it to my own page.…

How do you top off a five-beer afternoon?

Well satisfied from our five craft beers served in the Brewery Ommegang sampling, my dear wife Karen and I got to peruse the goods in the souvenir store for just a few moments before the red lights started flashing to signal that our table for a late lunch in the adjoining cafe was ready. There’s…

A sample of Ommegang goes down well

Brewery Ommegang is expanding. Popular this Cooperstown craft beer brand is. I’d been to the rolling hill a few miles outside the village while I worked covering the music scene for the big daily. Cool promoter Dan Small puts on a warm weather series using the natural amphitheater behind the brewing operation and cafe. But…

Who’s the real outcast in Table 19, you’ll wonder

Oh, Eloise seems so put together as she makes her entrance way back there to sit with the other (very) strangers sitting around table in the way back in the reception of her best friend, whose brother is the best man. And also is the guy who dumped her two months ago. By text. Which…

Yes, the music scene in Syracuse is lovely

Joe Driscoll smiled widely from the podium on the stage of The Palace Theatre on James Street during Friday night’s Syracuse Area Music Awards show. He gripped his shiny black Sammys trophy for best Jam Band recording with Sekou Kouyate and told the capacity crowd of 600 or so how he always laid claim to…

Meet the Mets? Just go to the Hall of Fame

Of course I know the lyrics to the song Meet the Mets. It’s been playing in my brain since the early 1960s when Jane Jarvis would play it on the Shea Stadium organ and the crowd would be coaxed to sing along “bring your kiddies, bring your wife, guaranteed to have the time of your…

So much baseball has hit my senses

I started following baseball before kindergarten. No kidding. So when I consider exhibits from the Hall of Fame and Museum that cover my lifetime, yes, I must include the striking photograph of great Pittsburgh Pirate and humanitarian Roberto Clemente. He had 3,000 hits, sure. Of greater importance, the native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, died…

A must for baseball fans of all ages

I closed my eyes and imagined … They wore those uniforms. They hit that ball, swung that bat. They were the heroes of so many throughout the world. Put your favorite baseball dream at the start of each sentence, and you’re likely to find it at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown.…