U.S. Representative Peter King of Long Island is pushing a new meme: Native Americans in Upstate New York are in cahoots with radical Islamic terrorists and are using untaxed smuggled cigarettes to fund their plots. As reported in the Buffalo News, the evidence for this conclusion from King’s House H#^$&*#land Security Committee “study” […]

A New York Times story on disappearing regional foods has an interactive map dividing North America into “food nations.” We’re part of the Maple Syrup Nation, and some of our endangered foods include the Java chicken, Seneca hominy flint corn and the beautiful Cayuga Duck.

It rained on Saturday evening, and then again all day on Monday.
Was anyone upset?
I wonder if mainstream American society will ever get to the point where, no matter what we have planned outdoors for the day, a rainy day is first and foremost seen as something to be grateful for. Thoughts of […]

This is the best commentary I’ve read on the whole “small town America” brouhaha lately…
…Struggling towns are props, not issues. One side rushes to drape themselves in flags, guns and the kind of Norman Rockwell hagiography that is far removed from the 2008 reality of meth labs and foreclosure frontiers. The other side says religion […]

A quick word on Wordpress themes and such… I actually am pretty fond of the blog layout I had been using here for the last 8 or 9 months or so (called “Silhouette,” by Brian Gardner, designer of the famous “Revolution” Wordpress theme). I found it amazingly functional. It does, however, have a […]

Spring just hit this area with a POW! this week. Everything seems strangely accelerated, almost as if summer is just around the corner. I can definitely feel a slowdown in the vibe on the University hill (in summer, of course, everything there slows down). I wonder if this is one of those […]

New York Cowboy reviews Small is Beautiful, a 1973 book about how to manage growth and sprawl.
Steve Balogh, writing at Groovy Green, reviews James Kunstler’s World Made by Hand, a novel about life after “peak oil.”
Steve has been reading mainly schoolbooks lately and here is his report .
Josh Shear reviews The Lost.
(What I’m reading […]

David Paterson was in Syracuse today for his first official visit as guv. (If you didn’t hear him on WSYR, they’re re-running it at 7 p.m.)
I’m getting the sense that Paterson has a much better public relations staff than Spitzer ever did. Maybe he studied at the Schumer School of Press Releasing, but […]

Some thoughts on blogging’s prehistory, and on current local practices.

Very briefly: the latest Quinnipiac poll on Paterson, Spitzer, congestion pricing, the 2010 governor’s field… Paterson holding his own. Spitzer still firmly in doghouse of public opinion. NYC residents love Bloomberg, Upstaters couldn’t care less.
P.S. Did you know? The only thing you need to pass your New York State blogger’s license […]