I have been usig TypePad for a few years but have decided to switch to WordPress....in fact, I have been using WordPress for quite some time now. I made the decision after finding that WordPress is easier to use in many ways and it has features that are not available to me on TypePad.
My WordPress blog is called Wallace World and it can be found here. I hope that you will join me there. Thank you to those who followed Really Random Ramblings.
Hard to believe that it has been 25 years since my dear friend Mel Blanc passed away at the age of 81 on July 10th, 1989. A quarter of a century since we lost "the man of a thousand voices".
I remember that day well. Mel had been hospitalized since May 19th and there were news reports in recent days that Mel was now in "serious" condition. On the evening of July 9th I spoke on the phone with Mel's wife Estelle....and the news was not good. Estelle told me that Mel had gone deeper into his coma - something that made my heart sink because I had no idea that he was in a coma - and that the doctors were going to try again tomorrow to try to bring him out of it. I offered words of ecouragemet to Estelle as we ended the phone conversation....but I now knew that the end was near.
The following day at work was not easy....every hour I would tune in to the network radio news, expecting to hear confirmation of the inevitable. I prayed throughout themorning and into the afternoon that Mel's health would somehow improve....and then something occurred to me - what if Mel came out of his coma but wasn't Mel any more? It was then that I started to pray for whatever was the best for Mel, knowing full well what that probably meant.
After I got home from work and had dinner I tuned in to CNN's Showbiz Today and about halfway through, I finally allowed myself to relax on the couch....until a few minutes later when I bolted upright as host Bill Tush announced the breaking news that "one of Hollywood's brightest lights has gone out." And right then, the sound went out and there was no graphic up on the screen as Tush continued to speak. It seemed like forever until the sound returned but it did within a few seconds....and it was then that it became clear that Mel had indeed died. After the report was over I immediately called Walt Mitchell, my best friend, to tell him the news of our dear friend's passing.
The rest of the evening is sort of a blur, except for a series of phone calls with friends about Mel....and seeing another CNN story about Mel's death. This report included a clip from the Warner Bros. cartoon Rabbit Seasoning....this is pretty much the clip they showed:
The "Pronoun trouble" line made me laugh and it was then that I realized that Mel would continue to make people laugh long after he was gone....and that was a very consoling thought. I also realized that Mel would not want me or anybody to be sad that he died....he would want us to celebrate his life. That was true then and it's still true now....so the sad part of this post is over.
Mel did so many wonderful things during his career....radio, cartoons, television, records, films and his numerous talks at colleges all over the country. One of my very favorite things was the hilarious "Si-Sy" routine with the great Jack Benny, who could never get through the routine without laughing.
Here's a news story about Mel at his high school class reunion where he talks about some of his famous voices.
Mel loved talking about about the characters and doing their voices....the video above was pretty much what you got if you spoke with him. One rearely had to ask Mel for a voice because if you mentioned a character, it would just naturally roll out of him in the conversation. It was a joy to see little kids come up to Mel to request their favorite voices because when they heard Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck or any other WB characters, their faces lit up like it was Christmas morning....and the look on Mel's face made it clear that he was having the time of his life!
We took many photos of Mel, Estelle and their son Noel over the years and here are just a few of my favorites;
Mel was a dear man and a terrific friend. We still miss him but we have so many wonderful memories of him that he will live forever in our hearts.
My very talented friend Michael Airington is looking for people to help fund his terrific one man show OH MY GOODNESS, IT’S PAUL LYNDE
Michael gives an amazing performance as the late actor/comedian and has put years of hard work into this show. Unfortunately, the person who was supposed to be the show’s investor changed his mind and left Michael holding the bag for all the expenses that had gone into getting the show ready for a May 30 opening at the Coast Theater in West Hollywood.
Please watch this video to see Michael explain the situation:
I have seen Michael perform his show and he is terrific….he CHANNELS Lynde! You can help make Michael’s dream a reality by making a pledge to fund this show.
THAK YOU!!!!
It's funny how something so seemingly insignificant at the time can
actually be a turning point in one's life. 40 years ago today - June 2, 1973 - I was
looking at the tv/radio page of the newspaper and saw a listing for a
nostalgia program on WCNY-FM called All Our Yesterdays that
indicated that excerpts from Henry Morgan's radio show would be
featured. Curious, I tuned in and heard a sketch called "Long Distance"
that had me almost on the floor with laughter. I can't fully do justice
to this sketch by describing it but it was about Morgan trying to make a
long distance call from Truro, MA to Los Angeles and having to go
through 6 operators to get through to his party. Trust me: it was very funny.
Anyhoo, the point is that if I had not seen that item in the newsaper, I would not have tuned in to All Our Yesterdays. If I had not tuned in to All Our Yesterdays, I would never have become a fan of Old Time Radio, aka OTR. If I had not becomea fan of OTR, I would never have tuned in to the followup to All Our Yesterdays, The Sounds of Yesterday (a summer replacement that wouuld last for nearly 10 years). If I had never tuned in to The Sounds of Yesterday, I never would have met and become friends with the program's co-hosts, Allen Rockford and Don Richardson (and subsequently, another OTR fan named Gerry Orlando). If I had not met Allen and Don (and Gerry), I might not have bothered to attend the "Nostalgia Mini-Convention" that was held at the WCNY studios to celebrate the program's 3rd anniversary. Trust me...I'm getting to the BIG points of this post.
If I had not gone to the Nostalgia Mini-Convention, I never would have met my best friend of 37 years, Walt Mitchell. That, in and of itself, is something to celebrate....but there's more! If Walt and I hadn't met, we never would have attended the Friends of Old Time Radio convention and met so many wonderful friends....both performers and fellow fans. We attended FOTR 33 times (32 times for me, as I missed 2005 because of my stroke) and we have tons of great memories. But, of course, there is one other important thing that came out of all of this.
If Walt and I had never met, we never would have met and become friends with Mel Blanc, Mel's wife Estelle and their son Noel. No seeing Mel present his college talks in different cities....or seeing him honored at the Smithsonian in 1984. No visits with Mel out in California. No having that dear man in our lives.
As for Old Time Radio itself, it has given me countless hours of terrific entertainment....comedy, drama, variety. Radio was the theater of the mind, opening up a fantastic world of fantasy. There is nothing else like it....television can be wonderful (especially the "Golden Age" of television in the 1950s) but nothing can beat listening to radio actors and actresses (and let's not forget the sound effects artists!) ply their craft and take you on an adventure that is limited only by your imagination. These programs have given me a great amount of joy.
NONE of these things would have happened if I hadn't seen that little notice in the newspaper that a local nostalgia program was going to air excerpts from Henry Morgan's radio program. It's amazing how something so little could lead to so much.
It's hard to believe that 40 years have passed since that Saturday in June 1973....but it's been a great 40 years!
Well, according to the Syracuse Post-Standard, the Golden Snowball Award will be returning to the Salt City after spending a year in Rochester:
There may be nervous excitement throughout Central New York about how Syracuse University will do in this weekend's Final Four competition in Atlanta, but there is good news - so to speak - from Pat DeCoursey, the East Syracuse man who serves as oracle of the Golden Snowball:
After many weeks of running second or third, greater Syracuse has again climbed to the top spot nationally - our accustomed status - when it comes to total snowfall for large cities. As of Wednesday, according to Jessica Rennells of the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell, Syracuse was up to 114.7 inches of snow for the season.
The season's snowfall has certainly surpassed last year's record low total of 50.6 inches of the white stuff but so far we have not reached our average of about 120 inches, although we are just under 5 inches away from doing just that.
I'm not a greedy person and I am very much in favor of letting Rochester or Buffalo or Albany or Binghamton have possesion of the Golden Snowball Award for as long as they would want it....we've had it here far too many years in the past. Check out the history here.
Even though the recent weather has not been Spring-like, that will soon change and in a few months we will be complaining about the heat. Such is life in Central NY.
20 years ago today The Blizzard of 1993 hit Central New York with a vengeance. When it was over, 42.9 inches of snow had fallen at Hancock Airport in North Syracuse....the largest snow total for any metropolitan area affected by the storm.The only good news was that it happened over the weekend when most people did not have to work.
What I remember most about the blizzard is going out to shovel at 7:00 Saturday evening to shovel and the snow had ended for the moment. I spent the next 2 hours shoveling out the steps, the sidewalk and around my mother's car. I had just finished clearing out all that snow when the white stuff started to fall again. When I woke up Sunday morning there was no evidence that I had shoveled at all....if anything, there was more snow on the ground than there had been when I started to shovel. I don't even want to think about how much shoveling I would have had to do all at once if I hadn't dug out the night before. I am happy to say that by Monday afternoon, the city street were plowed out and life in Central NY was back to normal.
WSYR-TV in Syracuse has a page on their website recalling the blizzard. I am not able to embed the videos but you can see them by clicking here.
WSTM-TV produced a special broadcast about the blizzard called Blizzard '93: "The Storm to Tell Your Grandchildren About!"
Syracuse has seen many snowstorms in the last 20 years but none can compare to the Blizzard of 1993....and I won't mind a bit if we never see another one like it.
30 years ago tonight the Korean War ended for the second time when CBS aired the M*A*S*H finale "Goodbye, Farewell & Amen". With an estimated audience of 105.97 million viewers, the broadcast beame the most-watched program in television history and remained so for 27 years until the Super Bowl in 2010. The broadcast, however, is still the highest rated episodic program ever and with cable tv and online viewing, it is unlikely to ever be challenged.
"GFA" was not the best episode of M*A*S*H but it was a very good episode, with a multitude of plotlines: Hawkeye's mental breakdown and subsequent return to the 4077th, BJ's erroneous discharge, Colonel Potter's efforts to deal with a growing number of P.O.Ws encamped at the 4077th, Margaret trying to decide her future, Charles's attempts to conduct a group of Chinese musicians/soldiers who surrendered to him, Father Mulcahy's hearing loss, Klinger's efforts to help the Korean woman Soon-Lee find her family while falling in love with her and, of course, the end of the Korean War.
Here is a clip from a tv special called Stay Tuned, in which Dick Van Dyke narrates the segment about "GFA":
Ken Levine was a writer for M*A*S*H for 4 years starting in Season 5 and offers his thoughts on the finale here. You can also read an article featuring "Where are they now?" profiles of 7 cast members here.
The M*A*S*H finale was an event which was well-covered by the media and it deserved to be....it was the end of a high-quality tv series that America had taken to its collective heart. M*A*S*H was and still is my all-time favorite program....I never missed an episode when it aired (with the exception of the pilot episode, which I did catch when it was rerun by the network) and friends knew better than to call me while the show was on. I did not attend any local "M*A*S*H Bashes" on that historic evening, preferring to say farewell at home. There were 3 moments that brought me to tears: Charles's reaction to the tragic deaths of the Chinese musicians, Hawkeye and BJ saluting Colonel Potter as he prepared to leave and this image from the final moments of M*A*S*H:
It is hard to believe that it has been 30 years since M*A*S*H left the airwaves....not that it ever really went away. Reruns air every day in syndication (not to mention TV Land and ME-tv) and the entire series is available on DVD....needless to say, I have all of the episodes. TV hasn't been the same during the 3 decades since the finale but it is comforting to know that M*A*S*H will always be around.
30 years ago tonight, January 14th, 1983, filming wrapped on my all-time favorite tv series, M*A*S*H. The final scene to be filmed was for the next-to-last episode, "As Time Goes By", which centered around Major Margaret Houlihan's idea to bury a time capsule in the compound.
Here is some behind-the-scenes video from the shoot:
This was a huge event , with mews media from all over convening on Stage 9 at the 20th Century Fox Studios to record the end of a televison era. Alan Alda talks about that day:
The countdown to the final episode - "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen", which would air on February 28th - had begun and the press coverage would be overwhelming. More on this on the anniversary of that historic broadcast. Stay tuned....
50 years ago tonight in Syracuse - September 9th, 1962 (9/9/62) - a new tv station, WNYS-TV, made its debut. The station was dubbed "Colorful Channel 9" even though all of its programming was in black & white at the time.
I was 5 & 1/2 years old when Channel 9 hit the airwaves so I have no memory of its premiere but this video highlights some of the moments from that evening....who knew Robert Conrad could sing? There are also some clips from the 1960's shows and the on-air personalities and programs I remember from my childhood....Romper Room, Charlie's Place (with Charlie Featherstone), Phil Markert and Carl Eilenberg doing a promo for The Markert Place and my personal favorite from the era, Mike Price as Baron Daemon (The Baron and His Buddies). One thing that is not mentioned in the video is the April 1967 fire that destroyed the studio (which would broadcast from Public TV station WCNY until it could be rebuilt) and ended our visits with our beloved Baron. Fortunately, Mike Price would remain with Channel 9 until his retirement 42 years later in July 2009.
Oh - a word of warning....the following videos take about 3 and 1/2 hours to watch. You'll probably want to watch the longer ones one or two at a time.
We turn next to Channel 9 in the 1970's, beginning with some clips of various newscasts, part of a press conference put on by John Lennon and Yoko Ono to promote Ono's art exhibit at the Everson Museum, the '70's revamp of Phil Markert's The Markert Place, the popular children's show Ladybug's Garden and Karin Franklin's talk show Open Line, which features many well-known celebrities of the day.
The following video is quite long (a little over 1 hour and 6 minutes) and it is an extensive look back at Channel 9 during the 1980's. I won't list everything covered here but highlights include the Carrier Dome's opening night in 1980, a local MDA Telethon cut-in with Bud Hedinger and Bill "Salty Sam" Everett, The Phil Donahue Show in Syracuse for a week, Channel 9's move from Shoppingtown Mall to its new studios on Bridge Street in 1985, Mayor Lee Alexander's decision not to run for re-election as mayor of Syracuse for 16 years, Bud Hedinger's departure from Channel 9 to Orlando, FL (where he still works today), the 1987 murder of Sheriffs Deputy David Clark and the bombing of Pan Am 103, which killed 35 Syracuse University students 1n 1988.
Moving into the 1990's, highlights include coverage of Operation Desert Storm in Iraq (in which Channel 9's Mike Price served as a communications expert), the Blizzard of 1993 (including a report from future Congressman Dan Maffei), the death of former Syracuse Mayor Lee Alexander, the 1998 Labor Day Storm and what turned out to be a non-eventful Y2K.
This video is the longest of the bunch at just under 90 minutes and it takes Channel 9 into the 21st Century. There are too many stories covered here to mention them all but the highlights include the coverage of Hillary Clinton's election to the U.S. Senate in 2000, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the beginning of the Iraq War, the Syracuse University men's basketball team winning the NCAA championship and the inevitible announcement by Carmelo Anthony soon after that he was entering the NBA draft, the premiere and evolution of Bridge Street (spotlighting hosts Rick Gary, Julie Abbott, Carrie Cazarus, Christie Casciano, Chris Brandolino, Tanja Babich and the soon-to-be-depaering Kaylea Nixon), the May 2004 report that gas prices had risen to (gasp!) $2.00 a gallon, various reports thoughout the video of stormy weather in Central New York, Elliot Spitzer's resignation as New York's governor, the world premiere in Syracuse of the Ernie Davis biography The Express, the election of Barack Obama as president, and Channel 9 becoming the first local station to broadcast the news in High Definition. To be honest, I am somewhat disappointed that the passing of Channel 9 veteran Nancy Duffy and the retirement of Mike Price after 47 and 1/2 years with the station were not included but other than that, I thought that this was an excellent conclusion to the 50th anniversary videos.
So there you have it....50 years of Channel 9, from WNYS to WIXT to WSYR, from Shoppingtown Mall to Bridge Street, from Colorful Channel 9 to NewsChannel 9. It's been an amazing 5 decades and it will be interesting to see what the future brings. Happy 50th Anniversary, "Colorful Channel 9"!
At long last the new Centro Transit Hub has finally opened....I will present my opinions of it (mostly positive) but first here is some of what was reported by the Syracuse Post-Standard.
Centro opened its new $18.8 million downtown bus transfer station this morning to a few complaints about late buses and compliments about how clean and bright the new space is.
"Folks are unfamiliar with the lay of the land," said Frank Kobliski, the executive director of Centro. "We had a lot of questions we had to answer. On the whole, we are very, very pleased."
The Centro Transit Hub replaces the former transfer point at South Salina and East Fayette streets, where for decades riders waited outside for buses on crowded city sidewalks and streets.
The new hub, three blocks south on Salina at East Adams Street, is fully covered and allows 22 buses at a time to pull into bays to pick up riders. The station also has digital screens that display the arrival time and bay number for each bus line.
Okay....I'll get my gripes out of the way first. There are for entrances into the hub....2 on the south end at Adams Street and 2 on the north end, next to a parking garage off of Harrison Street. It is the northern end entrances that present a problem because there are no traffic signals....this means that buses entering or exiting the facility have to wait for traffic to let them turn. This happened to the bus I rode to the hub.
Leaving was a lot easier.
I don't know what can be done to improve the situation but something needs to happen or else there are going to be a lot of late buses...even more than usual. Granted, it was the first day of operations so one can only hope that they will work out the kinks.
One more shortcoming: Centro needs to install some digial clocks....large digital clocks that can be easily seen throughout the hub. Right now the only clocks they have are at the bottom of their electronic signs.
One thing that apparently recieved a lot of complaints will be resolved: not enough seating. However, Centro will install 30 extra chairs in the center waiting area. This will definitely be a welcome improvement.
So much for the complaints.....now for the compliments. The hub is laid out quite well and is easy to navigate. A map of the facility can be obtained at the information booth and diagrams are also posted.
There is also an indoor waiting area where bus riders will be able to stay warm or cool (depending on the weather) during longer waiting times to make a transfer.
Restrooms and water fountains are also available and there is security 24/7....plus the entire facility is very well lit so this should make riders feel safe, especially at night.
It is nice to be able to wait for a bus without having to contend with rain, snow or intense sunshine, not to mention no longer having to cross the street to make the bus connection or scrambling to see where the bus is in the lineup....we now have the convenience of a permanent dedicated departure bay for every bus line.
After decades of catching buses at South Salina and Fayette streets, it will take people a while to get used to the new Transfer Hub but I firmly believe that when Winter rolls around, they will be quite happy to make their transfers out of the elements. I know I will!
This is the Japanese guy who used to win the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog eating contest at Coney Island every July 4th until Joey Chestnut came along. Kobayashi is the new ambassador for (and an investor in) Hofmann Hot Dogs.
Syracuse, NY - How do you eat 110 hot dogs in 10 minutes?
For competitive eater Takeru Kobayashi it was bend, stuff, wiggle, a shot of water and a little dance for each dog. With that,With that, he set an apparent world record Sunday afternoon at the New York State Fair for the most hot dogs eaten in 10 minutes.
Kobayashi ate the hot dogs in front of a packed Chevy Court just before dinner time. But it wasn’t a performance that would make someone want to eat. People gasped as Kobayashi stuffed hot dog 100 in, waiting for what’s called a “reversal of fortune” in competitive eating.
But Kobayashi jumped up and down a little in his red sneakers and jiggled his body, as if to force the food downstream. Then he moved on to eat 10 more hot dogs. The hot dogs were Hofmann’s, and the stunt was part of an effort to promote the brand. Most hot dog eating contests include buns. Sunday’s event didn’t, and the promoters didn’t know whether there already was a world record for eating bunless hot dogs.
Hofmann’s, the regionally famous hot dog and sausage company was recently bought by a team of investors that includes former Syracuse native Frank Zaccanelli, Syracuse University Basketball Coach Jim Boeheim, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach, the Oneida Nation and Auburn native Phil Romano, the creator of national chains including Macaroni Grill. They are focused on selling the hot dogs nationwide.
Before Kobayashi began, he ripped off his red T-shirt to reveal a Hofmann’s hot dog shirt underneath. Then he lined up his glasses of water and launched into eating the hot dogs. He attacked each dog the same way — fold, stuff, chew, and take a shot of water.
MORE FROM THE SYRACUSE POST-STANDARD.
Back in May I posted this about the work that was being done on Martineau Park, which is just a few yards from my home and I realized today that I never followed up on the progress of the spruce-up. What reminded me was this article that appeared in the Syracuse Post-Standard earlier this month. It read, in part:
It’s dry.
It’s dry in Eastwood, and one morning recently neighbors of Martineau Park, a tiny triangle of city land at Sunnycrest Drive and Caleb Avenue, were signing up for watering duty. “I’ll take Tuesday,” one of them volunteers.
Watering the 0.076 acres is just one of the ways the neighborhood in southeast Eastwood has adopted the bit of greenery they used to call the “Poop Park,” because it was such a mess. Folks thought nothing of letting their pets relieve themselves there.
Two apartment houses that front the park weren’t much better, by neighbors’ accounts.
“The cops were there a lot,” according to Realtor Jan Nastri, whose company, Nastri Realty, bought the apartments last year.
That was the start of the “rebirth” of the park, according to one of the neighbors, Rachael Perkins, who moved back into the city after years in the suburbs.
“I liked the hum of city life,” she explained.
The neighborhood suited her, except the apartments and the park; both of them, she said, had been neglected.
Things have changed around Martineau during the past year, mostly with the help of Nader Maroun, the 5th District councilor, who’s serving his second term on the Common Council. Nader, a Navy veteran who’s retired, does not seem to be afraid of getting his hands dirty.
Martineau now has a complete makeover, including beds of flowers, park benches, a sign (Nader Maroun took the name from a Parks Department listing), a new sidewalk (on the south side, replacing a broken-up walkway on the park’s north); solar lights, planters and even a new evergreen that’s to be decorated for Christmas.
Martineau Park certainly has become a very nice part of the neighborhood and here are some pictures to prove it.
A new sidewalk:
Benches:
Flower planters:
A picnic table:
The Evergreen tree that will be decorated for Christmas:
A view of Martineau Park from the end of my street:
Granted, it's no Central Park....but this is a very nice improvement over what it was and Martineau Park is a welcome spot in the neighborhood!
As a life-long bus rider (going back to when the buses were operated by Syracuse Transit), I will be delighted when the new Centro Transit Hub in downtown Syracuse opens soon. No more waiting out in the rain and snow. No more having to look down the line of buses to see if the one I need to take is indeed in the lineup...each bus route will have it's own dedicated departure bay. No more having to dodge all the cigarette smoke. And, with any luck, no more avoiding the street preachers. As the Syracuse Post-Standard reports:
Read the full story from TheSyracuse Post-Standard.Starting next month, Central New York bus riders won’t be able to smoke a cigarette and will be discouraged from having a snack while waiting for their bus at the new Centro Transit Hub in downtown Syracuse.
But for the first time, they’ll be able to wait for a bus indoors, out of the snow, rain and sun.
Security guards will patrol Centro’s new $18.8 million facility day and night. In the indoor waiting room, there will be public restrooms and chairs.
Centro officials, along with local politicians, will officially cut the ribbon at 1:30 p.m. today on the new hub, a facility that’s been planned for more than a decade as passengers waited for buses outdoors in America’s snowiest city. Buses and riders will begin using the new hub Sept. 4.
This will give you an idea of how things are at the current (and long-time) transfer hub, formerly known as "Common Center"
Here is a preview of the new Centro Transit Hub
When the hub opens on September 4th, I will take some photos and video for an update.
JULY 21ST UPDATE: Ester surpassed her goal and raised $7.730 but if you would like to help her out with a donation to make her show even more fabulous just go to Ester's blog Views From a Broad and click on the PayPal link at the upper right....your donation will be honored as a pledge toward the show!
How would you like to help fund a truly fabulous stage show that will have audiences convulsed with laughter? You would? Well, here's your chance!
My dear friend Ester Goldberg is bringing her hilarious act to KING KING in Hollywood, CA on September 13th, with the plan to make this a monthly event that will eventually move to NYC. But in order for all this to happen, Ester needs your help!
Ester has started a campaign on Kickstarter to raise at least $7,000 by July 21st to cover the expenses that go into putting on first-class show. Here's Ester to explain more about it:
To see even more information about the show AND videos of Ester making audiences laugh in past performances, just click here to view Ester's Kickstarter page.
Ester Goldberg is a genuine talent who deserves the support of people who love to laugh. She works very hard to entertain her audiences. Please pledge any amount you wish....believe me when I tell you that ALL pledges, no matter how small or large, will be deeply appreciated by Ester.
PLEASE help make this show a reality!
I can't say that this news gives me great joy but it does give me great satisfaction. This horrible act of terrorism brought great pain to the Syracuse community that is still felt here to this day.
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) -- Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer who was the only person ever convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, died at home in Tripoli Sunday, nearly three years after he was released from a Scottish prison to the outrage of the relatives of the attack's 270 victims. He was 60.
Scotland released al-Megrahi on Aug. 20, 2009, on compassionate grounds to let him return home to die after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. At the time, doctors predicted he had only three months to live.
Anger over the release was further stoked by the hero's welcome he received on his arrival in Libya - and by subsequent allegations that London had sought his release to preserve business interests in the oil-rich North African nation, strongly denied by the British and Scottish governments.
Al-Megrahi insisted he was innocent, but he kept a strict silence after his release, living in the family villa surrounded by high walls in a posh Tripoli neighborhood, mostly bedridden or taking a few steps with a cane. Libyan authorities sealed him off from public access. When the one-year anniversary of his release passed, some who visited him said al-Megrahi bitterly mused that the world was rooting for him to die.
His son, Khaled al-Megrahi, confirmed that he died in Tripoli in a telephone interview but hung up before giving more details.
Saad Nasser al-Megrahi, a relative and a member of the ruling National Transitional Council, said al-Megrahi's health had seriously deteriorated in recent days and he died of cancer-related complications.
Among those killed in the Pan Am bombing were 35 Syracuse University students, one Colgate University student, two students from Oswego State, and a couple from Clay
MORE FROM THE SYRACUSE POST-STANDARD.
The following story has created some concerns on my part, which I will share further down. First, read the following:
Syracuse, NY -- Syracuse police are investigating a stabbing at Fayette and South Salina streets this afternoon.
A man was stabbed at 1:03 p.m. on the southeast
corner of Fayette and South Salina streets near the Centro bus stop. The man was stabbed multiple times in front of the Rite Aid store, Sgt. Tom Connellan said. The victim ran across the street and collapsed on the northwest corner.
The victim, who has not been identified, had been in an altercation with up to three men in front of the Rite Aid, Connellan said.
"These guys walked up on him or got out of a car and attacked him," Connellan said.
The victim was "extremely serious," Connellan said. "When he left here, he was suffering traumatic cardiac arrest."
Complete (and updated) story here.
This incident yesterday got me thinking about Downtown Syracuse and, more specifically, the corners of South Salina Street and Fayette Street that make up what has been known for decades as Centro's "Common Center"....and what kind of security will be present at the new Centro Transit Hub when it is supposed to open in late June. I am hoping that there will be police stationed at or near the center during the hours of operation. The last thing we need there is the possibility of violence similar to what took place at Common Center. Time will tell.
The new location is about 3 or 4 blocks south of Common Center and an additional concern, unrelated to the safety issue, is how the new bus routes will be configured through Downtown....will buses still stop at Salina and Fayette even though it will no longer be the main bus stop? I am assuming that the answer is yes because of all the businesses in the area....it will just be less congested because the buses will no longer "line up" at that intersection. We shall see.
The Transit Hub will certainly be a more comfortable place to transfer from one bus to another since there will be protection from the elements and I also like the idea of there being a permanent designated bay for each bus route. This should prevent any confusion about where to wait for any particular bus.
Here's a video tour of what the Transit Hub should look like. When it eventually opens I will check it out and share my thoughts (and video).
There have been some things happening at the little park that is located just a few yards from my house. Martineau Park, to be specific. A sign with the park's name on it was installed a few weeks ago, along with a pair of benches. The other day the City of Syracuse began a new project in the park.
Friday morning, right after the grass in the park had been mowed and trimmed, heavy-duty equipment moved in and began to dig up the sidewalk on the south side of the park. This was not unexpected. The sidewalk has been in pretty bad shape for years and really needed to go. I'm not sure if it will be replaced or filled in with more turf. Time will tell.
For anybody who may be interested, here are some photos of the work that went on in my neighborhood Friday morning.
As the work on the park continues and the trees fully bloom. I will post again on the progress. In the meantime, here is a video walk through the park that I recorded a couple of weeks ago. (Yes, I realize that I made a typo when I titled the video on YouTube. It should be A Walk in Martineau Park. Sue me.)
We lost a true broadcasting icon today with the death of Dick Clark from a massive heart attack at the age of 82. His passing has been big news, of course, and it is being felt keenly here in Syracuse. Dick Clark was a graduate of Syracuse University and was a disk jockey on local radio station WOLF, hosting the popular late night program Sandman Serenade. His ties to Central NY also included work at Utica radio station WRUN and tv station WKTV before moving on to Philadelphia tv station WFIL, where he would become the host of a local program called American Bandstand. The rest, of course, is history.
Besides American Bandstand, Clark will be remembered for other programs such as $10,000 Pyramid (which would become $25,000 Pyramid and then $100,000 Pyramid), TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes (with Ed McMahon), The American Music Awards, Dick Clark's Live Wednesday (an atypical failure) and, of course, New Year's Rockin' Eve.
It was New Year's Rockin' Eve that would eventually show America a vulnerable Dick Clark after he suffered a debilitating stroke that would force him to miss the broadcast in December 2005. He returned the following year, looking gaunt and speaking with slurred speech. It was somewhat jarring to hear how he now sounded but as a stroke patient myself (my own stroke also affected my right side but not my speech), I admired his tenacity and his obvious hard work in his recovery. He would return 5 more times to ring in the New Year (with most of the hosting chores done by Ryan Seacrest).
New Year's Eve just won't feel the same again.
So long!
Looks like Rochester, NY will indeed be the winner of the Golden Snowball Award this year, with Syracuse in second place for a change. This photo from 9wsyr.com shows the snow totals as of today, April 3rd, and Rochester leads the race by six and a half inches of the white stuff.
Of course, Mother Nature has been known to throw some curveballs our way, including the infamous Mother's Day snowstorm of 1996, so I hope I'm not jinxing things....but here's hoping the Golden Snowball Award is getting a new home!
Around this time of year, I usually am totally fed up with Winter. Glaring at each snowflake that falls, cursing the local meteorologists and wondering when the temperatures will finally start to warm up is the norm. But not this year....2012 has turned out to be the year of the Winter That Pretty Much Wasn't. Our average hig temperature for March 18 is around 42 degrees but today was not your typical March 18 in Syracuse, as we shattered the previous record high of 72 degrees. Here's a screen shot I captured from my computer at 4:26 this afternoon:
This week won't be your typical entrance into Spring in Syracuse, either:
You will notice that there will be a 20 degree drop in the projected high temperatures between Wednesday (which happens to be my birthday) and Sunday. Such a downturn in temperatures would usually be very unwelcome in late March but the high of 62 on Sunday is still way above normal.
I'm not sure at this point what the weather conditions will be at the very end of the month but since March came in like a lamb, instead of going out like a lion - it just may go out like a kitten.
Back on February 14 I shared this post about how Rochester was on track to defeat Syracuse in the race for the Goldn Snowball Award. It is now March 13 and it still looks like that will happen. At the moment, however, that race is stalled by Mother Nature's apparent inability to remember that it is still Winter.
As I type this, the temperature in Syracuse is 61 degrees with a precicted high temperature of 67 degrees. Yesterday we set a record with a high temperature of 68 degrees and one local meteorologist is saying that this warming trend could last for another 2 weeks. Syracuse could very well have the least snowy Winter on record if this continues and I'm sure that Rochester is in the same situation.
Yesterday's Syracuse Post-Standard published this article which contained the following information:
Mark Hare, a metropolitan columnist for the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, is a student of the cruel late-season history of baseball. Told Sunday that his city might finally wrest away the Golden Snowball from Syracuse, Hare responded with a baseball parallel.
“I don’t know,” he said. “To me, it has the feel of a Red Sox collapse. It’s like you’re ahead by six games on Sept. 1, and everything looks good ...”And then — say it ain’t so — Syracuse gets a foot of snow.
That hardly seemed probable Sunday, with the Clinton Square ice rink turned into one big puddle. Rochester, at 56.1 inches, had the most seasonal snowfall of any big city in the state. Syracuse, once behind by more than a foot, remained within striking distance at 50.6. Binghamton was at 42.8 inches and Buffalo at 35.1, while New York City — which piled up more than 60 inches a year ago — had a grand total of 7.4 inches.
Could the Golden Snowball finally leave Syracuse City Hall? That was the idea when it was created nine years ago by Rosanne Anthony, owner of the A-1 Trophy shop on the North Side. “I figured if you were going to have the kind of winters we have,” Anthony said, “you might as well have fun with it.”
She envisioned a little presentation every spring, where the mayor of the new state champion would accept the trophy. What she didn’t anticipate was a hometown dynasty. Since 2002 — when Buffalo had the most snow of any big city in New York — Syracuse has blown away the competition. Last winter was especially impressive: We had 179 inches of snow, the most snowfall for any large city in North America.
This year, everything turned upside-down. To finish off a winter of remarkably modest Upstate snowfall, the forecast for March is unusually mild, according to Jon Hitchcock, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Buffalo. “For the next two weeks, it looks very warm with no chance of snow,” Hitchcock said.
While that doesn’t preclude snow in April or even May — anyone who had a kid in Little League will recall the April storm of 2007 that pushed back opening day — it certainly makes a Rochester victory seem likely.
I think it's about time for Rochester to share the honor of being a Golden Snow Ball winner - and just to share the wealth, maybe next year they can pass it on to Buffalo.
Of course, no tribute to Davy Jones would be complete without the words of fellow Monkees Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz.
Michael Nesmith wrote on his Facebook page:
"So many lovely and heartfelt messages of condolence and sympathy, I don't know what to say, except my sincere thank you to all. I share and appreciate your feelings.
"But let's not get ahead of ourselves here. While it is jarring, and sometimes seems unjust, or strange, this transition we call dying and death is a constant in the mortal experience that we know almost nothing about.
"I am of the mind that it is a transition and I carry with me a certainty of the continuity of existence. While I don't exactly know what happens in these times, there is an ongoing sense of life that reaches in my mind out far beyond the near horizons of mortality and into the reaches of infinity."
"That David has stepped beyond my view causes me the sadness that it does many of you. I will miss him, but I won't abandon him to mortality.
"I will think of him as existing within the animating life that insures existence. I will think of him and his family with that gentle regard in spite of all the contrary appearances on the mortal plane.
"David's spirit and soul live well in my heart, among all the lovely people, who remember with me the good times, and the healing times, that were created for so many, including us. I have fond memories. I wish him safe travels."
Peter Tork shared some memories of Davy with Joe Causi of CBS.FM in NYC and told a very funny story about the first time the foursome met for lunch. I wasn't able to embed the audio clip but it will pop up in a new window when you click here.
Micky appeared on Piers Morgan Tonight to pay tribute to Davy.
Micky's recollections are the perfect way to conclude this post.
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