Stepping away from the Twilight Zone of the NYS state parks for a moment, I just had to post these ancient videos of Rod Serling talking about the craft of writing for television.

Also: Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5… and I think there are 10 parts in all, which you can find […]

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 unconventional Senate reapportionment map, courtesy of Andrew Sullivan, would divide the U.S. into regions with more or less equal representation by population. As usual, upstate NY gets cut into pieces, but that’s not surprising.

CNY is handcuffed to WNY in this scenario, but I suppose worse things could happen. The name […]

Noticed this at Dmitry Orlov’s website-
In all of my experience, communities — of people and animals — form instantaneously and rather effortlessly, based on a commonality of interests and needs. What takes a lot of work is not organizing communities, but preventing them from organizing — through the use of truncheons and tear gas, or […]

And what it would say if it wasn’t.

The State of the State makes one want to cry for help.

I am sorry to report that one of my tater tots has died. I don’t know what caused the problem, but it doesn’t look like the dreaded late blight (especially since the one right next to it is doing fine). It all started after a heavy rain which flattened the plant. Some […]

I have no idea whether systemic sexual harrassment is going on in the athletics fundraising department at Binghamton University… but I have even less of a clue as to why anyone would get excited about Binghamton University athletics. (I guess it doesn’t excite too many people, so they seek excitement in other ways?)
It seems […]

I have sometimes considered where in New York (or the Northeast) I might like to live if I weren’t living in Syracuse. It might seem crazy, but in addition to the usual factors (jobs, politics, weather etc), I find myself considering the history of a place. To me, it’s like the character of […]

Wilmers quits ESDC (HT Buffalopundit)…
Just one year after becoming the state’s economic development czar, Robert Wilmers is stepping down from the post, the latest in a growing line-up of officials departing the Paterson administration.
Wilmers, who is also chairman of the Buffalo-based M&T Bank, made his resignation known in a letter to Paterson, a government official […]