Keeping abreast of this Happy Thanksgiving

After careful consideration, we went with the turkey breast instead of the whole bird this year. It’s going to be outstanding, I’m sure, what with all the other excellent accompaniments planned for our holiday table by my dear wife Karen here in our Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. I’ve seen the…

What might you say thanks for this holiday?

As we prepare for Thanksgiving tomorrow, I got to thinking about things I’ve taken in around the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood in the last year that have made my life richer in some way. In fact, I picked a dozen such memories I’ve written about over the last year —…

Hello, first snow, glad you’re so gentle

The weather guy on the morning show is using the word squall. Not here, not so far, this Monday morning in the backyard of our Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. As I let Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle out to greet our first snow of the season, there was no wind…

It’s over for The Hunger Games, and it’s epic

Talk about war and peace. Katniss Everdeen rests. The fourth and likely finale in the Hunger Games franchise that started with the girl who fired an arrow into the hearts of so many in 2012 landed in America’s theaters this pre-Thanksgiving weekend with its snowballing success and great expectations for star Jennifer Lawrence and the…

The 33 allows you to root for the winner you know

If you had your ears open in 2010, you likely heard the tale of the miners stuck deep down in belly of that Chilean mine. It was the kind of event that moves the world’s talkers to tell all. The horror of the collapse. The despair of repeated failure to connect with the possible pocket…

The Peanuts gang happily circles around Charlie Brown

The kids, a whole bunch of them piled into a Saturday afternoon matinée in the biggest and plushest of Regal Cinemas’ Syracuse theaters in Syracuse mall Shoppingtown, admired The Peanuts Movie enough to sit still and at attention through 119 minutes. The adults, parents and grandparents and others who’ve grown up with the screen and…

My photo return to Thornden Park in fall

Three seasons down at the pretty park at the top of the Syracuse University campus hill. When I parked in Thornden Park for the short walk for my business in the offices of Syracuse Public Media Site WAER, I noticed that all signs pointed toward fall. Upon return, I pulled out my iPhone 6. In…

My how you’ve grown

I’m in town, the direct message on Facebook said. Would you have time to meet for lunch? You betcha, Brandt Ranj. I sent back a suggestion of Applebee’s, across Erie Boulevard from where we used to meet twice a week in that Le Moyne College classroom the fall semester of 2010, when I taught eager…

A splash of pink brightens downtown Syracuse

Leaving the Syracuse Crunch hockey game in downtown Syracuse last Friday night, a bright building stood out among the usual skyline as my dear wife Karen and I walked from the Onondaga County War Memorial to our car parked in our favorite little lot a block away. It loomed, in fact, I’d say. I grabbed…

Do it

My polling place in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood is inside a Catholic Church on busy James Street. The best place — heck, the only place — to park is out back, where location to cast our ballot doesn’t look like much. Old school, red bricks, simple and to the point, this place is.…