When the vacation rain holds up, it’s for the dogs

When you wake up not in Syracuse and the grounds around the cottage are soaking wet and the sky is gray and more rain is coming down every now and then, you sit on the couch with your dear with Karen and Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle and you figure out what Cape Cod has…

Great Cape food, strolling, and a drink that could have laid me out

The first time my dear wife Karen and I snuck away from Syracuse to Cape Cod, she told me that Julie and Lisa said we should have breakfast at The Pancake Man. I loved the suggestion as soon as we pulled into the parking lot. Every single thing that unfolded inside the doors backed up…

Beachy keen

The second morning my dear wife Karen and I woke up not in Syracuse, we knew the car would be headed the mile or so down the road to the Atlantic Ocean. All the car unpacking and grocery shopping and cottage settling in and other-blog-duty-movie-going and neighborhood-walking and Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle-reacclimating had been…

It wasn’t history, and it wasn’t Syracuse

My dear wife Karen and I settled into a friendly enough neighborhood joint to watch the Belmont Stakes yesterday afternoon. It was the kind of place that was glad to pour us two pint drafts to take to sit down at a table, just Karen and I. It was the kind of place that puts…

A Taste of Syracuse in various bites

It’s called Taste of Syracuse, and the name of this June festival could not be more appropriate. For two days, tens of thousands of people flock to the blocks that surround Clinton Square in downtown Syracuse. They get to sample much music. Three stages worth, in fact. Around noontime Friday, three Syracuse music veterans played…

The garden cycle works out just right

The peony in the corner of the front of our home in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood gave us its all during a furious week of budding and beauty. A full 15 flowers shot out of that one sturdy green plant in one week. They lasted slightly longer than that. I let the petals…

Another talented journalist waves goodbye

A man who worked more than 30 years in a Syracuse newsroom wore a Hawaiian shirt proudly, worked the barroom like he owned it, shook hands, told stories, hugged people, told more stories, hugged more people, confidently gave a speech, choked up just a bit, listened to a little whisper in his ear, and thanked…

We can’t play pickup baseball on the Terps’ field?

Fresh to the University of Maryland campus, the three transfer students ran around the baseball field like the little boys we were just a few short years prior. We tested our throwing arms from shortstop to first base, and stood at home plate and did that little self-toss and crack-the-bat move to try to whack…

Listen to music, watch the people, taste the food

For more than two decades, when I went out to hear music, music was my sole focus. My job was to review concerts for the big daily in Syracuse. Hey, people, I’m trying to hear a band here. Even when I went to local series and bars and such, I knew I’d be writing about…

No, not that kind of pound, Dogamous Pyle

Ellie B, aka Dogamous Pyle, had her regular check-up at the vet’s yesterday afternoon. I marched her up on the scale, and she sat pretty still, as far as big rescue mutts in the vet’s office go. The nice lady behind the desk asked me the verdict, and I read out, “77 pounds.” Then we…