Odd couple, maybe, odd Oscar, definitely

Let’s talk about Oscar Madison. You know, the fictional sportswriter. Cigar-smoker, beer-drinker, poker-player, buddy to Murray the Cop. Forever cranky roommate to fussbudget Felix Ungar. Oh, yes, that is the crux of the long-lived male tale born in the mind of playwright Neil Simon for the 1965 Broadway production “The Odd Couple,” with Walter Matthau…

Well it looks pretty nice

Things were looking pretty as Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle raced to do her morning thing off the back porch of the Little Bitty my dear wife Karen and I share in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Syracuse. The sun was inviting. Postcard alluring, perhaps. Vivid skies invited birds to the treetops off in the…

You win some, you lose some

Snow and cold, hot Italian food, snow and cold, hot college basketball, cold and snow. A happy Valentine’s Day it was for my dear wife Karen and I in Syracuse, N.Y. We started with a drive through the snow to Carrabba’s Italian Grill in nearby Fayetteville. The 2 p.m. late lunch/early dinner plan was perfect…

A Valentine’s Day story about a dog and a bird

My Valentine’s Day started with an Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle clamor. Bed to floor to French doors to bed to my face. Get. Up. Da! I know the language of our beloved 4-year-old rescue mutt well. The 7:30 a.m. door-open resulted in a quicker exit than usual, and Ellie B scampered haphazardly around the…

Cementing a Bond between boss and writer

Yesterday afternoon I drove to the offices of Syracuse Public Media site waer.org to pick up tickets to today’s Syracuse-Duke men’s basketball game. I was offered the tickets after another blogger saw my story that mentioned Valentine’ Day plans that included taking my dear wife Karen to see the game on the movie screen at…

Slap a couple steaks on the grill

I hear the boasts here and there from the toughies who claim they’re always ready to burn up a couple of sirloins for dinner out there in their backyard no matter the season. Yeah, buddy, you master of your own universe, captain of the propane flame, king and queen of coal, grillmeister extraordinary. Not me.…

So about this Syracuse snow

I know the snow that’s fallen in the last three or four days cannot compare to the way in which my blogging friends Ann Koplow and Austin Hodgens in Boston and Bangor have been blasted this winter. And besides, our winter-of-2014-15 fate had been relatively tame except for some early December storms until now. But…