It takes load of good acting jobs to sum up The Goldfinch

A great novel might not be the easiest path to a glorious movie. And Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2014. Director John Crowley and screenwriter Peter Straughan obviously were devoted to their project a half-decade later. The CinemaScope is grand. The cast is wonderful. The storytelling … well, it’s…

Sometimes I can’t help myself

The other day I was reading my friend Ann Koplow’s blog and a photo jumped out at me. I’m pretty sure that one of her workplace mates had put a sign up that that Judgement. My brain couldn’t help but scream at the e in the middle. Once an editor, always an editor. My library…

Yes, we will take some more meat, thank you, Texas de Brazil

Texas de Brazil served up one delicious Valentine’s Day dinner. Terrific daughter Elisabeth and sensational significant George Three gifted for Christmas my dear wife Karen and I with a more-than-generous card from this restaurant tucked into the canyon at Syracuse mega shipping, dining and entertainment complex Destiny USA. We’d never been to this particular keep-the-meat-coming…

Maybe I’ll try one of their non-beers

Walking recently in downtown Syracuse, I noticed the logo for an old joke-telling emporium on a corner awning. Oh, yes, Wise Guys Comedy Club. I recall seeing many comics at a handful of different spots around Syracuse during my decades as a Central New Yorker. At this corner? I remember eating at various restaurants here.…

Judi Dench wrings really old sorrow out of Red Joan

Milita Norwood went through her golden years as quietly as she could, a retired British servant who’d given to her country proudly and humbly. Then that shoe everybody talks about fell. Heck, two shoes. An anvil. Red Joan is taken from a real-life tale, they say, though the movie directed by Trevor Nunn from Lindsay…

A big, cold moon over Tipp Hill

My dear wife Karen and I went out to meet friends for a burger and beverage at the Blarney Stone early Saturday evening. When we stepped out into the weekend chill, I had to strip my gloves and clutch my iPhone 8. The big moon over Syracuse’s Tipperary Hill neighborhood simply was magnificent. And then…

Be gone, snow piles

They didn’t want to let it pile up in the Village of Liverpool. I was surprised on a recent work break walk to notice workers amid the snow hauling process even though only a few inches had piled up. They were getting ready for a bigger snow to come later. Which, of course, it did…