A PS story on Pleasant Rowland’s apparent departure from the village of Aurora, her pet project lo these many years. Her improvements to the town and her relationship with Wells College were not universally applauded by the locals; here’s a website presenting that alternative point of view. Over 200 years ago, Aurora was the scene [...]

The New York Times has a story about the shakeup at the Empire State Development Corporation. Dan Gundersen’s name is not mentioned until the 18th paragraph, and is misspelled throughout.

The other week I read an online post from someone out in California who was traveling, Joad-like, across the country to resettle themselves in rural Otsego County. I wondered if dry, overbuilt Western exurbia would soon be producing more “lifestyle refugees” who would see the lush, green Northeast (or Appalachia) as the new promised land. [...]

I have a couple days off from work and since the weather is not cooperating, I’m getting started on painting my bedroom. This means moving bookcases and books around. I have a lot of books I don’t ever read and really don’t need, so I’m starting a donation box, which will probably sit in my [...]

From Friday’s Post-Standard courts column: Onondaga County DA Bill Fitzpatrick may not like criticism, but he doesn’t turn a deaf ear or a blind eye to it…At last week’s annual luncheon of the District Attorney’s Advisory Council… Fitzpatrick took note of a recent letter to the editor in this newspaper. The writer questioned why Fitzpatrick, [...]

Trucking companies are, understandably, quite angry about this week’s announced crackdown on garbage haulers using back roads in the Finger Lakes to get to upstate landfills. Will the downstate municipal garbage authorities ever figure out that it might be cheaper (if slower) to haul trash to Seneca Falls via the Erie Canal system? (Not to [...]

Up the Creek!, the blog project about Onondaga Creek, has made some self-guided walks available. You can download an MP3 file, put it into your player, and take a tour of the creek. Sharon Wager, a Camillus real estate agent, has a blog. I’ve linked to it because she has some occasional personal observations on [...]

This video from CNN about a foreclosure-plagued gated community near Las Vegas (75% of the houses are now empty) is a strange expression of the American dream. (Or maybe a disturbing suppuration of it.) Watching the homeowner featured in this report reminds me that one person’s idea of heaven can certainly be another person’s idea [...]

In an election year where Americans are analyzed in terms of demographics (black or white, young or old, “educated” or “uneducated”), with candidates choosing which ones “matter,” depersonalization is the spirit of the times. In Myanmar, the government is pretending that hundreds of thousands of its cyclone-hit people are not really there, even holding elections [...]

One of my favorite childhood books was Richard Adams’ Watership Down. His follow-up novel, Shardik, was very different (and less popular; I can’t remember if I finished it, to be honest). It was set in a fantasy world where the central figure of worship was a giant bear, whose mysterious appearance and journey across the [...]