Sorry, Rick, I didn’t feel much sympathy for you

Yes, this kid truly was put in many tough situations. It was not easy being one Richard Wersche Jr. in Detroit circa 1973. Richard Sr. thought it was a good idea to cart his just-turned-teenager son around to gun shows with him to exploit his knowledge of assault weapons. For buying and selling. The FBI…

Yes, we will go visit the Syracuse Mets’ open house, thank you

The new old baseball team in town opened the doors to the stadium Saturday. Thank you, Syracuse Mets. Today marks one month until opening day for the first year moving to the Triple-A squad of my favorite team. The uniforms are planned out, as the placard in the locker room showed us during the very…

We’re on the road to nowhere

In mid-winter, the trails at Onondaga Lake Park surely looked barren. To think that they’d been parading cars this way nightly from Thanksgiving past New Year’s for Lights on the Lake.

Now that’s winter

Even with the wind blowing and the temperatures well below freezing, I got the urge to run down two blocks from the library during my morning break a few weeks ago. Onondaga Lake was still there! More scenes from what I considered our winter mid-point in the next few days.

Give me the green grass of spring training baseball

I set the DVR to take in my New York Mets’ opening spring training game this past weekend. When my dear wife Karen and I returned from Martinfest, we got to playing the contest on the living room flat screen. We saw a pitcher we did not know starting the game against the Atlanta Braves.…

Chip away at the Winterfest spirit

I knot of us took a stroll from Martinfest on Saturday, wandering from the downtown Syracuse parking lot to Clinton Square to take in the Winterfest ice sculptures. The sculptor with the saw was still creating. Hover over a gallery photo for a description. Click on an image for an enlarged slide show. We returned…

Another year of Martinfest brings more innovation

I never know what my dear wife Karen and I will find at Martinfest. The family that brings the big party to the little parking lot in downtown Syracuse for a winter break of friends and fun never stops coming up with new wrinkles. This year’s newbie was a portable pizza oven. I did enjoy…

Ryan Gosling’s Neil Armstrong keeps all his emotions encapsulated in First Man

Fifty years ago, Neil Armstrong stepped down that Apollo 11 ladder and made history. First Man takes us inside many places. Airplane rides to the edge of the atmosphere that led to the Gemini series, onward and upward. The tight-knit crew of men NASA tapped to ride into space. The capsules that took them. And,…

What’s behind a name?

On the way to pick up takeout Thai, the big sign of the restaurant next door caught my eye. BulBul. Middle Eastern. I may be making another trip.

Use your inside bark, dear dog

My dear wife Karen discovered that our cherished rescue mutt Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle had placed one of her Christmas toys just so on the living room couch. She does indeed favor this big set given to her by fantastic daughter Elisabeth and sensational significant George Three. There used to be more squirrels that…