A walk with Ellie B takes flight

A long loop walk with Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle this week took us behind the apartment complex more than a few blocks away from our home in the Syracuse city neighborhood home of Eastwood. I noticed a Fed Ex truck stopped on the extreme right side of the lot, hugging the bit of unkempt…

How far have the lines moved these days?

I couldn’t quite believe the news story the other week when I read deeper into the particulars about a honcho losing a prestigious position because of something said in public. Or, more precisely, something this middle-aged white American male tweeted to the world in reaction to comments made by a European golfer about an older-generation…

Our Trader Joe’s does seem pretty cool after all

I wasn’t sure what to expect when my dear wife Karen and I stepped into Syracuse’s Trader Joe’s at last a few weekends ago. The buzz was big. But I knew I couldn’t eat the cookie butter. Which is actually ice cream, I found out. Still can’t eat it. I saw not one no sugar…

In our garden, still a bit of seasonal confusion

As I read the east coast blogs and, most significantly, looked at their pictures of the driving and piling snow, I felt a bit conflicted. Hell, no. I felt bad for my brethren who were already taking to the shovel. Sorry, Austin, who was moved in Maine to post this headline and all it entailed…

I kept everybody clear of the pitchfork

A good time was had by us. Everybody, actually, to my two eyes that looked out through the lens-less frames of my spectacles used to top the American Gothic portrait used as this year’s Halloween party costume for my dear wife Karen and I. Yes, we wore our classic painting get-ups in my car as…

I can hear music: An afternoon with the Heath Brothers

Jimmy Heath said he’d love to meet me. Albert “Tootie” Heath said I should check in to say hello. But when you talk to great musicians on the phone — legends of jazz, this time — it’s always a judgment call as to whether somebody’s merely being polite as an interview is winding down. This…

A movie on HBO makes me think about my little slice of America

I started to watch my HBO-recorded version of “Lone Survivor” on my flat screen with my movie critic eyes. Mark Wahlberg was cool under fire as soldier Marcus Luttrell, caught with his team in the mountains, battling the Taliban on its terms. Peter Berg wrote and directed this true story from Luttrell’s book with a…

Three hats off to the San Francisco Giants

Madison Bumgarner is bigger than life. The San Francisco Giants are the newest sports dynasty. Major League Baseball had a season to win back fans. Grand statements all, most certainly. As I watched the happy squad from the city by the Bay hop around the field in Kansas City after holding off the brash-to-the-last Royals…

Halloween has become quite the adult holiday

For a while there, I was a Halloween Scrooge. Didn’t care to dress up anymore. Kept the porch light off. Skip my place, kiddies. No candy here. Bah. But you can’t be that way and live in Syracuse, N.Y., I am convinced. Halloween is pretty darn big up my way. So big, in fact, that…

Why she’s always my dear wife Karen

After hauling the 50-pound bag of gourmet food preferred by Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle to the car Sunday, I was informed by my dear wife Karen that I was getting dropped off at home before so she could tackle the supermarket stop all by her lonesome. Something about special ingredients for a surprise anniversary…