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…

Welcome to the hoops capital for men and women

The games will be played elsewhere. Houston on Saturday and Indianapolis on Sunday, to be precise. But make no mistake about it. The folks who call Syracuse, N.Y., and its surrounding miles home can undeniably make claim as the basketball capital of the entire world this weekend. The Syracuse men’s and women’s teams both won…

Hitting the dome walls makes us happy

KP, Tater and I got our golf season off to its traditional indoor start last week. Too chilly and wet for us to comfortably put in our first swings of 2016 on an outside course, we once again gathered inside the Golf Dome at Turning Stone Resort and Casino, some 25 southeast of Syracuse in…

Smote one for the Wiffer over at the Blog of Funny Names

As we prepare to flip our mental calendars to April, thoughts turn to the outdoors. Green grass, sprawling acres of it to walk, inhale deep into our souls, feel under our toes. Pardon me, allergy sufferers and/or big lawn cutters. I’m talking golf here. Because, I do. And I’m hoping to get out there on…

They’re still a big, overwhelming family and Greek to the core

It took Nia Vardalos 14 years to get brave enough to follow up on her sleeper hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding. No wonder. The sneaky big popularity and box office success of that one lifted the novice screenwriter and actress into a major spotlight, including an Oscar nomination for her script and a Screen…

A special meal coming for a Happy Easter

My dear wife Karen asked a couple of days ago what I’d like to have for dinner on Easter. A ham steak? My answer had that question mark on the end of it, but that’s the way we left it. Then in those nether moments before I drifted off to sleep that night, a better…