Of all the things I’ll miss about the Miss Albany Diner … I’ll miss the Smile Merchant most of all.

The Miss Albany Diner closes today.  The diner that was once called Lil’s, and later known as the Street Car Diner – a place that, when the movie Ironweed was filmed here, was rebranded and repainted as the Miss Albany Diner – serves its final lunches and breakfasts.  No more MAD Irish Toast.  No more…

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Yeah, these commercials will make you buy this car, won’t they?

We joke about these cars.  Oh, they were unsafe at any speed.  Oh, they were a deathtrap.  Oh, my cousin had one of those and they were embarrassed to drive it. Well, someone must have bought these cars at some point in time – and I blame the commercials that were made for these cars.…

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A “Watchmen” prequel in the works? Has DC Comics lost their minds??

I grew up with a comic book collection.  My tastes gravitated toward Marvel’s lineup of comics – mostly Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man and Incredible Hulk and the like.  But I did have an appreciation for DC’s comics, including Green Lantern and The Flash and a few others. And, of course, I appreciated one of…

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Remembering AM 1540, WPTR

You might not know this, but radio station WPTR is gone again. If I were to say this to anybody under the age of 25, I would assuredly receive some glassy-eyed stare about “WPT-wha-a-a?”  And I would suspect there might be an equal amount of readers who will say to me, “Chuck, when did it…

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When I recycle a blog post… I REALLY recycle a blog post.

Some bloggers, when they can’t think of a new idea for a new blog post, or they don’t feel like writing one, simply go back to their archives, pull out an old blog post from last year or two years ago, change the publication date, and voila – instant blog post. Before anybody says, “Hey…

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In Praise of the Poky Little Puppy and What-A-Jolly Street

Sometimes, the simplest of texts are indeed the best of texts. Jason Purvis penned this blog post, asking people about what would be the most appropriate and enjoyable children’s books.  And for the love of me, the only book I could recall reading over and over again, and essentially begging my mother to read to…

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Thingamajigdoodadknicknack whatever you need… Schatz!

Thought you’d get a kick out of seeing that slogan once again. We’re currently spoiled.  We have Staples and OfficeMax and Office Depot superstores for all our stationery needs.  But if you grew up in the Capital District in the 1960’s and 1970’s and 1980’s, there was only one stationery store chain worth frequenting.  That…

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30 years ago this week, a very important rugby game was played in Bleecker Stadium.

Tomorrow will be the 30th anniversary of a rugby game at Bleecker Stadium, a game between the South African Springboks national team and the United States national rugby team.  It was more than just a game – it was a referendum on apartheid and race relations.  The following article was originally published in Rugby Magazine…

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Other September 11th memories

We are approaching the tenth anniversary of a horrible and tragic episode in our lives.  I’ve blogged about the events of September 11th twice in my blog, each on the 8th anniversary and on the 9th anniversary of that dark day. This year, I wanted to share with you some other events that happened on…

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