Last week there was a particularly disturbing news story out of the hamlet of Copake, in Columbia County east of the Hudson. A despondent dairy farmer committed suicide, shooting dead 51 of his cows before killing himself. Although the scope of this private tragedy caught the collective breath of nationwide news consumers (for […]

This quote is just one small excerpt from another blogger’s much wider-ranging reflection on human civilization and achievement. But since Syracuse’s litter problems seem to come up time and time again, I thought it worth highlighting.
Almost every driver has carefully checked to see who’s around before thinking about innocently chucking an empty gas station […]

In Rwanda, every last Saturday of the month, from 7 to 11 a.m., the entire nation rolls up its sleeves and (by law and custom) cleans up stuff. This is called umuganda (”contribution”), and has been a tradition in the country since before the Europeans arrived. Officially, if you don’t come out of […]

I was going to call this post “Giant Tit Spotted on Offramp to Herald Place.” But this is a family blog, and “tit” is one of the Seven Words You Can’t Say on Family Blogs, so I didn’t. Instead, I’m going to try, in the spirit of the late George Carlin, to analyze […]

Recycling is a fact of life in Onondaga County. Not only does it take energy (mental and physical) to recycle, but it probably takes constant PR pushes to make it work or, at least, deliver the illusion of success. OCRRA, a state authority, has kept up the steady drumbeat for almost 20 […]

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? […]

OK, so maybe we’re so down that we’re seeing “miracles” everywhere, but I wasn’t the only one pleasantly surprised by Joanie Mahoney’s abruptly announced decision to flush the Armory Square sewage treatment plant, which hit the news on Saturday. A rare headline that makes you feel like it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood […]

Back to the future…?

Singing about OnTrack is like dancing about architecture, but maybe we should do it anyway.

There is no sugar-coating the possibility that cleaning up after people day after day is a spirit-killer.