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.…

Martinfest enjoys the short February thaw

A late February day in downtown Syracuse with the high temperature hitting 68º F? Martinfest really does see it all. This gathering of great friends started four years ago by the Martins, of course, has weathered deep snow blown around by gusting winds and bone-deep cold that made one wonder if the coffee would freeze…

The Sapphires brings a needed shine to Aboriginal talent

The photo of Chris O’Dowd in a hipster singing pose with the interestingly arranged women surrounding him caught my attention on the Blu-Ray rack at the Liverpool Public Library. The Sapphires, I mused to myself, rolling the title around for a moment before I pulled it and checked it out at my workplace for viewing…

Hail, yes, this February thaw has been interesting

On the morning I posted all about the bulbs popping up around A Bitty Better in the Liverpool neighborhood of Galeville, I had to run out to my car in the pouring rain to let my dear wife Karen pull out from behind me to leave for her job at Syracuse Media Group. Lightning flashed…