Do I re-up or let is lapse? Loyalty or finances?

Shortly after my latest edition of Sports Illustrated arrived in my mailbox, a renewal notice came, too. I’ve been a subscriber for many decades. Heck, in the Wayback, I signed young people up for Sports Illustrated for Kids, hoping it would foster the love for the well-told story (and maybe sports too) that burned in…

My short days at The Post taught me so much, so well

Watching The Post tossed me into my own personal Wayback Machine. Tom Hanks as managing editor Ben Bradlee and Meryl Streep as owner/publisher Katherine Graham might as well have been speaking directly to me. Once upon a time, they did. Romanticize those short encounters with a copy aide from the sports department circa 1978/79 I…

Where’s Mark amid the Diamondback crew?

Yes, my two years toiling for the University of Maryland’s campus daily The Diamondback surely helped shape my career. As much as what I learned in the academic buildings, yes. More? Probably. I wrote hundreds of stories covering the soccer, women’s basketball and lacrosse teams as my primary beats, with coverage about football and men’s…

The end of an era for the little program that could

Brian McDowell took the podium at his final year-end Journalism Convocation at the State University of New York at Morrisville last week. The professor looked somewhat happy to be able to pack away his books and belongings and go back home to spend more time with his wife. And he looked somewhat sad in the…

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…