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Roping in a little something from the buffet
Posted by wkiernan | 07/15/08
Roping in a little something from the buffet
Welcome, you are about to read the editor’s On the Job column. You have read the page one headlines, perhaps even a story or two; you’ve skimmed over the calendar listings on page two and you’ve registered the homespun charm of the community on page three. Now you find yourself on page four, to the right of this week’s editorial and just above the mailbag.
Perhaps you frequent this column weekly, maybe even turn directly to page four after skimming the front page headlines without even reading the stories. Maybe you’re reading this column for the first time and you feel like you are more involved here than the writer of this column. Relax, there won’t be a test or anything. This column is merely here for your entertainment...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: verbal, buffet, column
Greetings from vacationland
Posted by wkiernan | 07/15/08
Greetings from vacationland
Allow me to offer greetings from my time away from time, my work away from work. Yes, I am on vacation right now, not as I write this but as you read it, unless you’re reading this paper late, in which case I’m already back to work. Vacations do seem to unfairly rush along, especially when you’re spending a week in such an exotic tourist magnet as Cazenovia.
I use the word magnet because Independence Day always attracts a massive invasion into my house from travelers all over the country. There will be three from Florida, one from Louisiana, three from New York City, one from Long Island, four from Central New York and four from Buffalo, plus the crowd we already are...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: vacation, host
Change comes in many sizes
Posted by wkiernan | 07/15/08
Change comes in many sizes
Change is something that people avoid even though it is unavoidable. It is what it is… and then it’s not. It’s like the concept of now; as soon as you say the word, the now that is being mentioned is already gone. And yet it is a curious human foible that we sometimes refuse to change, at least for now.
Did you know that railroad tracks are four feet eight and a half inches wide? They’re built that way because that’s what they had in England. And they’re that way in England because they used the same measurements and tools as they did for the horse drawn wagons. The wagons were that size because they had to fit the ruts in the country roads. The ruts in the English country roads were made by the chariots of the Roman Empire...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: change
Emerald City we’re not
Posted by wkiernan | 07/15/08
Emerald City we’re not
So Cazenovia has adopted the Comprehensive Plan, now what? According to the powers that be, there is still much work to be done regarding zoning. People like to say the devil is in the details, but there is no such thing as the devil; there are only devilish details.
Things have changed considerably in the two years it has taken to come up with this 200 page document. Back in 2006, gasoline was still in the two-something range, P&C had not yet expanded and food was affordable. Now we have soaring rates at the pump to the tune of four-something per gallon, a brand new supermarket and smaller wagons, because we can no longer afford to fill one of those big ones.
Where will we be in two years from now? We can guess but we don’t know...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Plan, green
Forty years of redemption and one Saturday night
Posted by wkiernan | 07/15/08
Forty years of redemption and one Saturday night
It was the year 2000, the Y2K hairball had been coughed up and we were enjoying our first year in our new home on William Street in Cazenovia. My parents were invited over for a barbecue to celebrate Father’s Day.
The parents loved the new house and my father said, “I can die now; you finally have a house of your own.” He was always joking. But when we were alone, he pulled me aside. Imagine my surprise when he calmly toasted me and said I was the best father to my kids as any father he’d ever known. The sarcasm I expected never followed. He just hugged me.
Then there was another party for my son Jackson’s high school graduation...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: house, family
Have a good cry, without hesitation
Posted by wkiernan | 06/18/08
Have a good cry, without hesitation
One of the hardest things in life is coping with loss. No matter how common place or natural it is, loss hits hard. Whether you lose money, a job, a friend or a life, there is no easy way out but to keep on keeping on, sometimes through tears.
There’s an old adage – He who hesitates is lost. In other words, finding your way requires quick action as opposed to inaction.
There is a motion-activated light in my office bathroom. You don’t touch anything; the light just goes on when you enter the room. I was sitting in there one day, motionless in thought between Dostoevsky vs. Dickens and Yankees vs. Red Sox when the light went out. Totally in darkness, I was wondering if it was the end of the world or just a power outage...
CATEGORY: General Society
Expecting the unexpected
Posted by wkiernan | 06/18/08
Expecting the unexpected
A friend of mine is floating on an ice chunk of depression. He’s broken from a glacier in a sea of cold denial. I can’t help but notice a generational epidemic and somehow without meddling I have to answer the call. I’m thinking limericks and whoopee cushions won’t do the trick.
The complexity of the issue is way beyond my wheelhouse, but I would have to guess we’re all just an intimate catastrophe away from being there ourselves. I can keep my nose in my business and pray that I don’t catch it, but misery is the river of life and there comes a time when you have to grab the oars and row.
Words are easy when times are tough, but results are harder to come by...
CATEGORY: General Society
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