Sticking my neck out

There was a running gag in My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 that hit close to home. The elder women, whenever they posed for a photo, grabbed hold of the back of each other’s necks and, just as the taker took, gave the person next to them a little tug of support. Wow, I’ve noticed…

Grisham takes to the mountains to battle Big Coal

Sometimes we fall behind, even on our favorite authors, don’t we? And so after I put down Gray Mountain, I wasn’t totally surprised that John Grisham had released this tale centered around a promising young woman attorney who descends from bustling Big Law in New York City to the mysterious and perhaps not-so-sleepy mountains of…

No lie about that great coverage

Welcome to the club, my colleagues said. That did not make me feel better. I spilled paint at the store. Setting up the scene: My boss handed a work sheet to all in the paint department. One of my assignments was to down stock and fill in two bays in the major paint aisle. So…

Looking fast and fit for football

My dear wife Karen and I have attempted to attend the Syracuse Orange’s annual spring football game, loyal season ticket holders that we’ve been for seven seasons now. It’s not always been so much fun, through the four years under the guidance of Doug Marrone, even though that Orange alum turned a bad team around…

The shirts were still Orange

Hopes were high. Stores were selling shirts, fast. My dear wife Karen and I were up on the Syracuse University hill to catch the spring football game Saturday — more on that here tomorrow — so we ducked into a couple of stores on Marshall Street to see for ourselves what was hot. We walked…

Sally Field hits the young crowd as Doris

Sally Field is so good as Doris Miller that you don’t know whether to love, hate or feel sorry for the sixtysomething running from her home on Staten Island to the office in Brooklyn. And what makes Hello, My Name Is Doris Miller so darn interesting is that it seems perfectly natural to do all…

Snow apparent reason

I set this morning’s alarm for 5:10 a.m., to ease my way back into tomorrow’s opening shift at the store. My first stop was the kitchen, to push the button on my coffee maker, loaded with Dunkin’ last night. The view out the front window of our Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of…

Of Birds and Bunnies

It’s time for our weekly installment of Paul Curran’s wit, wisdom and wonderful way with words. Here’s to you, my Canadian friend. Birdies and Bunnies You Say? Welcome to the weekly coffee and tea garden. My name is Paul, I’ll be your barista today and I’m happy to be here at Mark Bialczak’s Little Bitty…

The store makes me hungry

I had spent the day working the opening shift at the store. That’s 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., helping customers, hustling paint, stocking shelves, whatever it takes. My dear wife Karen worked her equally tough day in the advertising department at SMG, making sure her many and varied tasks are done right and well. When…

Love, Love Me Do, for Beatlecuse and Orange

Paul Davie plans long and works hard to put on the annual BeatleCuse show in Syracuse’s Landmark Theatre. The promoter and musician picked Saturday night as the date for the third edition of his merge between a large and talented collection of the city and its surrounding area’s best musicians and a couple of special…