What’s Up in the Neighborhood, December 4 2022

Good morning, blog readers, hope everybody’s got happy plans for this weekend. And if your plans include reading today’s blog and checking out the new entries from my friends on the blogroll, then you’re doing things right. Bill Dowd’s “Notes on Napkins,” “‘Cheers’ is for sale (in Johnstown). Norm not included.“ Jerry Papandrea’s “DerryX” channel,…

Read More

The Nightowl Radio Show playlist for December 2, 2022

The following is a playlist for the broadcast of the Nightowl Radio Show, a one-hour college radio show on station WHCL-FM.  The show can be streamed tonight at 7:00 p.m. Eastern at whcl.org. Tonight’s show features a “Sample Example” of a 1950’s Italian song that became a millennial hip-hop hit, and the return of the…

Read More

Candlepin bowling and a 1980’s computer program.

During my freshman year at Hamilton College, I spent most of my free time at the college’s computer center (well, aside from class time and radio station time). The Hamilton College Computer Center in 1982 consisted of several standalone desktop terminals known as TERAK computers. Software existed on 8″ floppy discs that held about 12…

Read More

1970’s Saturday morning cartoons that have not … aged … well.

I’ve blogged about Saturday morning cartoons before. Many times, actually. If you had the opportunity on a Saturday morning to get up early, fix yourself a bowl of Sugar Smacks and plop your 7-year-old tuchus in front of the television for 5 1/2 hours until your folks got out of bed and told you to…

Read More

Canadian Pacific Holiday Train Chase, 2022 Edition – DAY 3: The Surprise at Port Henry

This was the final day of my train chase. I had a fantastic time on Day 1 in Quebec; I made the most of a rainy situation on Day 2 in Albany. Now comes the hard one. A Day 3 chase from Saratoga Springs to as far north as I could comfortably travel. With surprises…

Read More

Canadian Pacific Holiday Train Chase, 2022 Edition – DAY 2: Albany in the Rain

The plan was to capture the Holiday Train as it passed the old Delaware and Hudson structure (the SUNY Administration building). It’s a popular shot for local train-chasing photographers, and I thought I had the perfect spot. Well, I did. What I didn’t have was perfect weather. Let me put it this way. It was…

Read More

Canadian Pacific Holiday Train Chase, 2022 Edition – DAY 1: Welcome to Quebec

Three years. I’ve waited three freakin’ years for this moment. I survived a broken ankle. I survived the pandemic. But I’ve waited, and waited, and waited. Patiently, mind you. Very, very patiently. Because this is the weekend. The weekend when that big, illuminated freight train with its traveling concert of Christmas music chugs through North…

Read More

The Nightowl Radio Show playlist for November 25, 2022

The following is a playlist for the broadcast of the Nightowl Radio Show, a one-hour college radio show on station WHCL-FM.  The show can be streamed tonight at 7:00 p.m. Eastern at whcl.org. Tonight’s show features a “Sample Example” of how an 1860’s folk song turned into a 1970’s double-entendre sing-along, as well as some…

Read More

So I’m not driving for Equinox this year … but it’s not for the reason you think it is.

For the past two decades, my Thanksgiving holiday tradition – between eating turkey dinner and watching non-Steelers football games – includes bringing turkey dinners to those in need. In other words, I’m a driver for the local Equinox Thanksgiving Day charity. Years ago, I would queue at the Empire State Plaza with hundreds of other…

Read More