Fiction: The kid and the job search

The car pulled up to the front of the big box store, and the young man jumped from the cold pavement into the warm passenger seat. He looked over at his mother, who smiled genuinely as only somebody who loved and protected this fiercely could. “How’d it go, Stevie?” she finally managed through a tight…

David’s Offer

My dear blogging friend Paul writes about snowstorms in June for today’s weekly guest column. I always said he’s one cool Canadian. We dig Paul, right, like a snow shovel cutting through drift. Leaving the Hospital in a Snow Storm Welcome to the weekly coffee and tea garden. My name is Paul, I’ll be your…

A Taste of the 20th year

A couple of weeks back, Rick from Syracuse radio station TK99 sent me a Facebook request for a few minutes of my time. Could he talk to me for a show he was putting together for the 20th anniversary of the Taste of Syracuse, please? Sure, I replied. Then, I thought: Has it been that…

Peony gone, roses step in

The peony season indeed went fast in front of the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Syracuse. When I got home from the board of trustees meeting at the Liverpool Public Library on Wednesday night, my dear wife Karen had even picked up all the fallen blossoms from our lawn. Two weeks, not…

Good dog, you

Normally when Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle comes across another canine in our walks around our Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood, she goes at least a little off the center stripe. But not when the old dog above crossed our path. Or didn’t bother to get in our way, rather. And I don’t know if…

Not so mighty tacos

The new addition to the Central New York takeout food parade caught my attention as I drove down Route 11 coming home from the store one day. Mighty Taco. Didn’t you have those out in California?, I quizzed me dear wife Karen. She concurred. We went this past Saturday of our three-day holiday weekend, after…

Kids and dogs and the library

My hand-picked Saturday event at the Liverpool Public Library this weekend was titled Paws to Read. Handlers from the organization Paws of CNY bring their wonderfully trained dogs into the Children’s Room once a month. Children of all ages can sit on the floor and read to them. Three dogs are at their stations. It…

Taking a holiday from the movies

I took the three-day Memorial Day Weekend with my dear wife Karen seriously. I didn’t go to any of the Regal Cinemas around Syracuse to write our regular Monday movie review. Not Destiny USA. Not Shoppingtown. Not Great Northern. Not even the artsy Manlius Cinema. True confession: I didn’t feel like a movie by myself…

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day to all here in the United States. Let’s honor those who’ve served our country, and the world. I took the photo above at the Veterans Watchfire at the New York State Fairgrounds a year ago. They collected old flags, and then retired them with a proper burning. It was quite the stirring…

Wasn’t it 1986, like, yesterday?

My New York Mets are doing something cool this weekend. They’re honoring the last squad to bring a World Series title to the fans who started that little cheer of “Let’s Go Mets” when they were born as lovable losers in 1962 and the generations since who haven’t stopped reciting that phrase, if not on…