Operation Skunk Be Gone, so far, so …

I do not want to jinx it. The halogen light has been shining from the back porch for seven nights, flooding the area between the butterfly garden and the backyard shed, the space where our Syracuse city skunk shot its spray into Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle at dusk eight days ago. Saturday and Sunday,…

Yes, another good food film, ‘The Hundred-Foot Journey’

A lot can happen in 100 feet. Just look at the characters in “The Hundred-Foot Journey.” Thanks to great acting by Helen Mirren and Om Puri, and very good acting by Manish Dayal and Charlotte Le Bon, food movie fans can see good taste, tension, customs, passion, cultures, relations, recipes, Michelin stars and love. It’s…

One more Supermoon from Good Neighbor Tim

I must have been too busy Sunday night. Writing my review of “The Hundred-Foot Journey” for my Syracuse New Times blog, to be posted later this morning there (and teased here). Catching up on the DVR, with the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at nearby Watkins Glen, and the horrifying news of Tony Stewart’s involvement in…

3 pretty bushes all in a row

In the last week, my three sturdy backyard garden butterfly bushes have changed personality a bit. The white, in fact, became the loudest of the bunch, with blooms so big, so long, so wide, they threatened to drown out their neighbors. But the pink indeed morphed chameleon-like into the multi-colored beauty of seasons past, and…

What stories will this book tell these four months?

I read the text from my dear wife Karen as I sat on the short wall in little Perseverance Park a block from work at lunchtime Friday afternoon in downtown Syracuse. She told me I’d gotten three good things in the mail. Film blogger paycheck from the Syracuse New Times I immediately texted back. Correct.…

The skunk makes us miss the days of the gopher

My dear wife Karen let out Ellie B in the backyard for a few minutes just when the sun was setting Monday night. I heard the bark, the frantic one, the I’ve-got-an-animal-bothering-me pitch. I heard Karen calling my name with an equal amount of panic. I smelled the hint of trouble as I saw my…

When you used to be Governor, you can make up words

Arnold Schwarzenegger told the world on Instagram Wednesday that the fifth Terminator film will be called “Terminator Genisys.” The world laughed. Taunted. Asked him if he knew how to spell. Over on my Syracuse New Times Film News installment of my twice-weekly blog, I compared it to the way they willy-nilly come up with the…