My mother was the most intense bargain hunter on earth. Raised during the depression by a single-mother working as a live-in nurse for babies, mom ended up in a quasi foster home. She witnessed a strong work ethic and the value of a dollar from an early age.

Growing up it seemed I had the only post war, middle class, mother who still tried to haggle with storeowners. She fed a family of seven on $100 a month. She drove to a farm to purchase cracked eggs at a reduced cost. She didn’t buy any junk food except for the occasional giant value pack of cookies. She loved to get bread at the Arnold Bread Outlet Store...

CATEGORY: General Society

TAGS: Upstate medical center,Upstate Medical University,Bill and marion Leahy,donating body to science,CNY health

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When you’re feeling like a limp lizard, where do you go? Luckily, in Syracuse that’s an easy – you meander over to the Limp Lizard Lounge –it’s right there on West Onondaga beyond Wegmans. I had never been, and beside the obvious – it is a cheap imitation of the Dino – it’s also a pretty good joint. This is how I measured: Good bartender, very good chicken tenders and clean beer.

On last Sunday the bartender was what my boyfriend would call, “Hot.” I called her “a–dore-able.” In that as physically attractive as she was, this young blonde was also very cordial, even lovely, making her a bit of a sweetheart. She had a bar full of guys thinking she was naughty, while I was thinking how nice. That’s an art...

CATEGORY: General Society

TAGS: Limp Lizard Lounge,West Onondaga street syracuse, survaillence cameras,Dinosauer BarBQue,Good bartenders,Syracuse bars,roadhouses

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Where do I begin? A difficult subject, because David Letterman is in essence a victim. And what do we do with victims in America but victimize them endlessly.

There are questions now about what he was doing that was worth $2,000,000 in hush money?

There are all the questions circulating about the appropriateness of his behavior with his staff. How he allegedly could have been pressuring his female staffers into sexual relationships.

This is not to say that I haven’t witnessed a couple of classic hard-edge sexual harassment situations. And, it sure is bizarre, and also hard to pin down...

CATEGORY: General Society

TAGS: Letterman distinction,ellen leahy,david letterman,Late Night,sex scandal,Letterman blackmail,FBI sting,talk show host,

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Now that Fall is in the air that means it’s time to think Fall fashion forward. And after rummaging through Vanity Fair’s recent style issue, I wondered, “Why are we still wearing jeans?”

Or, should I say, “Designer jeans?” Also known as really, really expensive, tight jeans in a variety of cuts.

I wondered this out loud and my boyfriend said, “What else are we going to wear?”

He has a point.

But I ask the question because I thought the whole jean thing was a bit of a movement that forgot to move on. So what is our connection? Because I find jeans to be pretty uncomfortable...

CATEGORY: General Society

TAGS: tight jeans,men in skirts,Vanity Fair magazine,Scots kilts,gladiators minis,jeans,men in dresses,fashion syracuse

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I first met the poet Hayden Carruth after he refused an invitation to the White House. As the managing partner of Pastabilities Restaurant in Armory Square in the mid 1990s, I resurrected a weekly poetry reading on Thursday nights. Michael Heaggerty (now a Syracuse Common Councilor) and Steve Potter (the inventor/barman) had started this type of evening during Michael’s tenure at the restaurant.

Having recently been introduced to the Syracuse based poet Georgia Popoff, by architect Jamie Williams (expert on The Landmark Theatre), I asked if she might want to organize the evenings...

CATEGORY: General Society

TAGS: Professor Bruce Bennett,creative writing department at Wells Collegecreative writing at SU,Hayden Carruth,Joe anne mclaughlin Carruth,pastabilities, the white house and the arts,poetry reading,poetry nights at Pastabilities,armory Square,syracuse,ellen leahy,Georgia Popoff,lucille clifton,Scrambled Eggs & Whiskey,recipe for scrabled eggs,bushmills black whiskey

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It’s funny the lack of manners today. I mean, I grew up with four brothers, which I imagine is quite similar to being weaned with a pack of wolves. My dad was on the road, my mom an only child - so it was mayhem, chaos, and well, you get the picture. But, nevertheless, we had manners.

Take for example at the dinner table, which could begin anytime after the nightly news to about 10 p.m...

CATEGORY: General Society

TAGS: manners,leahy family,wrestling ref,Bill leahy Jr.,Ellen Leahy,Leahys of Sea Girt,Marion and Bill Leahy,syracuse,Georgia Tech’s School of Computing,City Eagle

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I placed a colander of freshly washed cherries on the picnic table.

“Mom brought me cherries every day when I was in the hospital,” my youngest brother Steve said, “and she read to me from The Wind and the Willows.”

“Really?” I said, “I never knew that.”

Steve had accidentally lit himself on fire, when he was about six years old. He had been playing with those old-fashioned white tip kitchen matches back in the 1960s before the fire department’s dynamic program Stop, Drop and Roll.

My oldest brother Bill and I were playing catch in the backyard, when we heard Steve screaming. I assumed one of my other brothers was chasing him, until he came to our second story bedroom window...

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