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Tracy Ormsbee – Story of Albany Help write the Story of Albany and leave your mark on the city's 400-year-old narrative. With your help, we’ll create a book. Wed, 14 Dec 2016 20:06:36 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Our first event Fri, 05 Feb 2010 23:22:13 +0000 Times Union reporter Paul Grondahl spoke at a standing room only lunchtime event at the Pine Hills branch of the Albany Public Library. Here are a few photos of Paul signing copies of the Story of Albany:

A tale of two Jims, by William R. Keleher Sr. Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:12:24 +0000 Submitted by William R. Keleher Sr.

As a child, fishing was one of my passions. Being Albany bound during the early 50’s, the opportunities were limited and therefore the chance to engage in any fishing related activity was something to be relished to the utmost. In the spring when thoughts turned to angling, the problem was always where to get the necessary bait. Somewhere along the line, I discovered Jim’s Bait Shop. It was located in a basement at 190  Sheridan Ave. and operated by one James McDermott.  A small sign, visible from close up, was the only indicator to passers-by. However, once entered, a whole exotic world especially to a 10 year old, unfolded.
I recall the shop being poorly lighted, perhaps on the dark side. But what treasures it held. Huge tanks, with minnows by the hundreds and in all sizes lined the sides of the shop. These minnows were the ultimate bait, but because we never had any way to carry them to Washington Park Lake, they were unusable to us. Nonetheless we would stand at these tanks for as long as we could, dreaming the dreams of lunker fish just waiting to be caught. The most memorable and terrifying of the baits were the hellgrammites. It was rumored that their bite could inflict a terrible sting. None of us were ever brave enough to buy these or attempt to use them. What-is-its were another bait choice and we jokingly would ask “what is it?” Jim would just laugh and say “Sunnies will not bite those.” Other life forms we never bought were the infamous dobson crawlers and crawfish. This place was like our own private small animal zoo. Our purchases would ultimately be the old tried and true stand-by: nightcrawlers. These were the best and we reached this conclusion because Jim personally selected and counted out our hoard. From a long narrow box filled with the most pungent aroma of moist loam, our prize annelidia would be drawn. Jim worked the mixture with deft hands and seemed to be searching for just the right ones, as if he knew each personally. And Jim always threw in an extra worm to make a baker’s dozen! I remember working long and hard at collecting papers and discarded soda bottles to get the money to buy these gems. He would pack each of us a separate container so if we spilled them we would not lose them all in some freak accident.
One year Jim had some wooden rulers made with his business name and address and the various baits he sold printed on them. I still have mine, somewhat battered, 55 years later. In retrospect, Jim seemed to have endless patience with us. He was never loath to answer our questions no matter how many times we asked them and he was always glad to see us even though we were not big-spending customers.
With our bait needs filled, we would then turn our attention to replenishing our tackle supplies as many hooks, sinkers and bobbers were lost regularly in the waters of Washington Park Lake. Our store of choice was Jim Maher’s Sporting Goods at 214 Washington Ave. Though long gone and replaced by the present day parking lot, this venerable emporium was a dream for every young city boy interested in the outdoor sports. Upon entering you were in a world of fantasy and unlimited possibilities. The walls were covered with lures, tackle and other fishing accessories, all of which was framed by some deer head specimens and an assortment of mounted fish. The center of the store was filled by two floor racks, one holding a collection of rods and the other a display of firearms. The showcases were filled with reels of all types and as young kids we could only envy anyone who could afford these delights. It was a browser’s paradise and was overseen by a man who appeared to be the epitome of an outdoorsman. Jim Maher was always dressed in his khaki pants held up with suspenders, a long-sleeved flannel shirt and the requisite hunting boots. His pipe and mustache gave him the air of possessing infinite outdoor knowledge. To our young eyes he was our personal Gaddabout Gaddis, the famous “Flying Fisherman” of early television. Jim’s store was also a gathering place for the men interested in these outdoor sports and I can’t remember going in there when there were no other customers. It was a place to listen to the stories of fishing and hunting, of the successes and failures of the sportsmen and a place where we understood that someday we would be the men having these important discussions. In some ways, it was an initial entry into manhood, even though we were not aware of that fact.
Jim was also a customer service kind of guy and he never tired of helping us get adequately provisioned even though our total sale might just be a package of hooks and I believe he intuitively understood that we were his future customer base.
I sometimes think how sad it is that my children and grandchildren will never have these types of experiences. Big box super centers and giant sporting goods stores just don’t have the same aura as the two Jims.

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Coming to Albany from Mississippi, by Arthur T. Moore Jr. Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:57:29 +0000 PREFACE: Over the past 5 years I have been working as a Literacy Volunteer with
Arthur T. Moore, Jr., a 76 year old African-American man who has always
felt it important to work on his reading and writing skills, despite very little
formal education. As part of the work, Arthur dictates me stories about his
and his family’s past, I write them up in his own words, and he reads them
back to me. What follows is some of this material.
Kevin B. Kuhne, January 2010

Coming to Albany from Mississippi
by Arthur T. Moore, Jr.

My father, Arthur Moore, was born in Marvella, Alabama in

1905. His father (my grandfather), Harry Moore, was born about

two years after “the surrender”. That means that my great

grandfather was born a slave. I would like to know who he was.

Maybe he was a carpenter, like my grandfather.

I was born in Buckatanna, Mississippi, near Waynesboro, in

1934. I was raised up on a farm down there. One day the woods

caught on fire. It was windy and a spark flew up on the roof and

set the house on fire. My father thought there was a reason for it.

God wanted him to move North.The barn did not burn, so we

sold the corn and cows and moved to Albany. My father said if

the barn had caught on fire we would not have had money to

move north.

It was a sad day when our house in Mississippi burned

down. All those years of work we put into it…gone up in flames.

We were lucky the fire didn’t get to the barn. That’s where

everything was…the cotton and the corn. The cows were out in

the field. We had an ox, too. My older brother, Charles, who was

in the army, got a veteran’s farm program grant. We put in

electric lights. We had a corn planter. It could plant cotton, too.

We were the only house in the black community with electricity.

My eyes couldn’t believe it. I could not move.

After the fire we sold everything but the land. We got $50 for

each milk cow. We got $100 for each mule. We got $50 for the

ox which we sold to a white man named Earl West for a log team.

He said my father was a good man…a hard working man. He

told people to buy corn from my father.

My father went North to look for a job in Albany while we

were in Mississippi. He was walking down the street when some

guy asked him if he wanted to work. He said yes. He did not

even ask how much the pay was because he did not want to lose

a chance at a job. The job was at the State National Kosher

Plant owned by the Abram brothers on Westerlo Street. It paid one dollar an hour. That was more than he ever made. In

Mississippi he had his own farm, but not much money.

After my father found the job with the Kosher meatplant, we

came up from Mississippi, about 1951. We lived out on Rapp

Road, where Elder Wilborn, my uncle, and his wife (my mother’s

sister) Francis Wilborn lived. Reverand Wilborn would come

down to Mississippi and visit every couple of years. It was

Reverend Wilborn who told us to come up North after our house

burned. Rapp Road looked like Mississippi back then. My father

would say, “We came from the country, and went to the country.”

There were cows and mules and hogs. They used the old-

fashioned plows pulled by mules, just like Down South.

One thing was different: we didn’t have to sit down in the

back of the bus. We could sit wherever we wanted. Later we

found a place on Herkimer Street. My father did not want to live

out onRapp Road. He said he lived in the woods in Mississsippi

and he did not want to go back out in the woods. Remember

…this was 1951. There was not much out at Rapp Road…no

malls or anything. There were no buses coming through there to

Albany where he worked.

People called Rapp Road “the Holy Land”. It was all church

people from Shubuta, Mississippi, brought up here by Reverend

Louis Parson. One black guy from Shubuta told me, “you were

lucky you were no sharecropper, because sharecroppers had to

slip away at night to get away”

(NOTE from Kevin Kuhne: Louis Parson and William Toliver

bought 14 acresfrom Charles Smith on May 2, 1930…and more

land on March 30,1933, out in the western end of the City of

Albany in the Pine Bush. Between 1942 and 1963, 23 Black

families bought land out there. In 2001, 17 of the original families,

including 3 ofthe first residents, still lived on Rapp Road. *)

*For more information, see “Doctoral Student Secures Historic
District Designation for Rapp Road’s Black Community” by Paul
Alan Rosen at

I got working papers and got a job washing dishes at

Walgreens Drug Store on the corner of State and North Pearl

Street. I was part-time because I was just fifteen. I was still living

on Herkimer Street. There were a lot of black families down

there from all over the South…South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia,

Mississippi. It could be a rough neighborhood….lot of people

drinking and fighting.

It was bad for black people to get any kind of decent job in

Albany in 1950. I did not see any black girls working in banks then.

I knew one black guy who was a policeman in 1950 and his name

was Logan. Logan was a traffic cop downtown. There were no

black waitresses. Black girls would work in the back of kitchens.

Black people would work as cleaners.

It was hard for a black person to buy a house in a decent

Most black people had dishwasher and cleaning jobs. There was

some labor jobs and non-union jobs. Where my father worked

there were no black butchers, but there were some up at Tobins

Packing Company.

It was hard for a black person to buy a house in a decent

section. The only black businesses in Albany were little

restaurants that sold soul food. There were some black bars. Dr.

Robinson was a black doctor who lived downtown. His office

was off Jefferson Street. White people would go to him, too. A

white man sold him a house in Loudonville. The man said, “I’ll

sell you the house but I don’t know if you will be able to stay

here”. He moved up there, though. Dr. Robinson told my father

that the white doctors he worked with gave him the hardest time

about that.

Most of the black people lived below Northern Boulevard

back then. They lived in the South end, on South Pearl,

Herkimer, Dongan, and Westerlo. The Italians and the Jewish

lived down there, too. We lived on Herkimer Street. My father

bought a house at 238 Third Street in 1953. This is above

Northern Boulevard. We were the first black family there. A white

lady started a petition saying no black people should be allowed

in the neighborhood. The husband of the lady told her not to write

the petition because we were nice people who did not bother

anybody. After that there were no problems.

My brother, Lenon, wanted to go to cooking school in

Albany, but it was hard for a black man to become a chef. So he

went to Detroit to go to cooking school. We had an aunt and

uncle there. He got his diploma and came back to Albany. He

worked as a chef for Sears Roebuck. Later he worked at a girl’s

school and some other restaurants. After that he became a

minister and was founder and pastor of the Arbor Hill Church of

God in Christ until he passed away in 2005.

After my job at Walgreens I worked a lot of jobs off and

on…a laborer, at the Ten Eyck Hotel, and other places. My ward

leader got me a job with the State around 1965. They were doing

a lot of building uptown. My father knew the ward leader. I

worked for the State for 30 years as a custodian and retired in

1996. I believe everybody gets a gift from God, but you have

to try to use it. I think my gift is that I am honest. If you’re

honest, somebody in the world will speak up for you if you’re

in trouble or looking for help.

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The Arbor Hill Hatchet Lady, by Jamie McDonald Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:54:00 +0000 Submitted by Jamie McDonald

When I was a young boy, growing up in Arbor Hill during the 1960’s, our parents would tell us stories of an escaped lunatic that roamed the hills behind our house on Colonie Street. I guess they thought that would keep us out of that area, but you know kids . . . they don’t listen. As I walked across our Street one Sunday afternoon, it was raining on one side of the street and sunny and dry on the other, which was the first time I had ever seen that happen. Little did I know that was not going to be the only weird thing I saw that day. I turned on to Lark Street and walked one block to where it ended at Van Woert Street, a little ways down the road on Van Woert was the Albany Fire Dept. Training Tower. In back of that was a baseball field called the Diamond. At that time the Arbor Hill Babe Ruth played there along with some girl’s softball teams. Some days, when the Firemen were at the tower, I would stop and watch them practice putting out fires, but not on that day. Across the street from there is where I entered the hills that ran from Lynn Park on Northern Blvd. all the way to North Pearl St. which went in as far as Shaker Road, after you crossed the train tracks. I started walking on a path that brought me behind the Arbor Hill Little League, where almost every young boy in the neighborhood played or watched baseball at one time or another. A lot of friendships were formed there, that most of us still have today. A lot of our parents were involved in the little league, helping us have some great times and memories that will last forever. Well back to my story. I decided to leave the path and go into the hills a little further. That’s when I saw something up ahead in between the trees; it looked like a black bear. As I got closer I could see it was a very short old lady that hadn’t seen a bathtub in quite awhile, setting up what looked like a place to stay for the night. She wore a very large man’s black winter coat that was two times too big for her. I think it was a three quarters length coat, but on her it went all the way to the ground. It made it appear as if she was floating around. This scared the b’Jesus out of me. It was about 90 degrees out that day, and when a drip of sweat trickled off my nose, I swear she heard it hit the ground. The lady turned around, the black coat came open and a hatchet came out. She started yelling in tongue, like a crazy witch possessed by the Devil. I couldn’t believe my eyes. This floating lady was coming towards me with hatchet in hand. I almost did something I haven’t done since I was a baby in diapers, then my brain kicked in and told my legs to run. I ran so fast that, if I was in the Olympics, I would have broken every Record in track & field that day. I didn’t stop until I reached the safety of my house & parents, unaware that I had ran through the dreaded pricker bushes, which filled my clothes with those pesky signs of where I wasn’t supposed to be. Back in those days, my father had his own version of a time out, he would say “you will not be spending any TIME OUTside for awhile”, and in the summer, that really sucked. I’d rather he gave me a whoppin’ instead, because that would be over in a minute or two. And what did I learn from this? To check my clothes for prickers next time of course. After that day I saw the hatchet lady a few more times, but never got close enough for her to see me. I ‘am sure she was called other names but this is what our group of friends had called her. I imagine she died in those hills and her ghost is still floating around up there, somewhere near what is now the entrance on Livingston Ave. to I-90 and the Apartments on Lark Drive.

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Whitehall Road and Delaware Avenue after WWII, by David L. Tenney Fri, 15 Jan 2010 23:03:00 +0000 Submitted by David L. Tenney

The taxicab drivers who lined up near the curb on Whitehall Road would sometimes give me sticks of gum as they awaited their assignments. Just regular, everyday gum would have to do – I really would have loved to get bubble gum, but that would not happen for me until after the World War II years were over. That’s how it was for a young boy growing up in the Whitehall Road-Delaware Avenue section of Albany in those times.

On nearby Ten Eyck Avenue, the Freihofer wagon truck driver would pull his horse and wagon over to the curb for a break, to rest his horse and to strap a feed bag over the horse’s muzzle. The horse had to keep up his strength to pull his truckload of bread and pastries around our part of town.

Normanskill milk wagons, also drawn by horses, could be seen moving around the area loaded with milk to be delivered to customers’ homes. And, frequently the rag men would be encountered coming down the street in their horse-drawn carts, calling “Rah-h-hgs …..rah-h-hgs” in their voices that carried into the farthest corners of the neighborhood. Ladies would step out onto their porches, hailing the rag man down to take away old clothing, papers, and the like. He’d give a crack of his long whip and the horse would speed up a bit to the next destination. Sometimes, a rag man would unhitch his horse and hire himself out to a city dweller to plow a spacious backyard, his large iron plow pulled by a horse getting a heavy afternoon’s workout.

On the corner of Ten Eyck Avenue and Academy Road, there was a well attended “Victory Garden” as folks back then called the vegetable gardens that they grew in their backyards to conserve on food so the troops would have more for the war effort. At this particular “Victory Garden”, chickens were also raised. The chickens scared me when they flew over the fence onto Ten Eyck Avenue in their menacing (I imagined) pursuit of me, but none of them came close enough to peck at me or scratch me.

There were no televisions for us kids to watch in those days. But, my friends and I had plenty of open fields, meadows, and woods right off Academy Road in which to capture butterflies and dragonflies during the warm, carefree days of summer. What is now Hackett Boulevard was not even there in those days. Instead, there were ponds in which to catch tadpoles and snails to bring home to put in our bathtub, much to my mother’s dismay. It was good land upon which to graze a cow – which was also done. It was also a fine place to just kick back on a lazy summer day with a friend and watch the fleecy clouds, as we tried to decipher what kind of figures they resembled.

There was plenty of time to wrestle with my friends, play marbles, mumbly-peg, or whatever games we could invent ourselves, or were taught to us by the older boys who were our models. We raced each other, played cowboys and Indians, or perhaps bought a candy bar for a nickel at Hanley’s variety store/newsroom, near the corner of Delaware and Ten Eyck Avenues. As I recall, Mounds bars were the most expensive of all the candy bars, at ten cents per package, two bars to a package.

There was no air conditioning in my neighborhood during those days. On warm summer nights, my family and our neighbors would retreat to our front porches or “verandas” as some would call them. Parents and children and neighbors would talk with each other, conversing in quieter tones so as not to disturb the peace of the evening. Later, as the night time deepened, it would grow cooler and the porches would slowly empty of occupants headed for a good night’s sleep.

It was war time, after all, and I vividly recall a blackout drill when Albany’s lights had to be put out all over the city. Dark shades, called “blackout shades”, had to be pulled down on the windows so that an unseen enemy would not have light as a point of reference to guide bombs down upon us. If a blackout warden patrolling in the street outside our homes saw any light, he would call earnestly to the homeowners to get that light off quickly!

Finally, I remember the trolley cars on which I traveled about the city with my grandfather on tracks embedded in the cobblestone streets. An electric power grid overhead powered the trolleys, and you could hear the sharp snaps and crackles of electricity as the trolleys maneuvered around town.

These are some long ago experiences and memories still fresh in the mind of a man who grew up as a young boy in a different time and a different world in the city of Albany.

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The Block—Northern Blvd., Second, Oak and Third streets, by Anne Molis Anderson Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:04:23 +0000 Submitted by Anne Molis Anderson

Being raised in Arbor Hill during the 1940s and 1950s was certainly a great, heart-rending and memorable experience.  Being able to go outside with the rest of the kids and not having to worry about strangers bothering us was the best part.  After school and when our homework was finished, we would go outside and play until dinner time.  There was no television or telephone in our house until my brother and I were nine years old—we were twins.  We would always be outside unless we were ill or had chores to do inside the house.

Going to Our Lady of Angels School blocks away was never a problem.  At first my mom would have an older girl, Margie Zoller, take my brother and me to school but as we got older, we went on our own.  We had to go home for lunch because we did not live far enough from the school to stay for lunch.  The Franciscan nuns were very strict about this policy.  Once in a while my brother and I would meet our mom for lunch at Woolworth’s, on The Avenue or we would go there if our mom would not be home for lunch.

One morning my brother and I and Margie Sedgwick rode the Freihofer’s horse-drawn wagon up one block from Oak Street to Lexington Avenue, and we were extremely late for school.  The horse would practically stop at every house for the deliveryman to make his deliveries of baked goods.

My mom worked at Broadway Bakery on Northern Boulevard between First and Second Streets, and which is now an empty lot.  It was a Polish bakery owned by the Pogoda family.  I remember that during the holidays they would roast turkeys in the bakery’s huge commercial oven for people who had ovens which were too small to roast the enormous turkeys at home.  Brooks Donut Shop was also on Northern Blvd. between Second and Third Streets.  They had the best donuts in town.  On the corner of Northern Boulevard and Third Street was the Moon Tavern.  The Moon had a ladies entrance to the dining room and there was also a bar entrance for the men.  Borden’s Dairy was located on the corner of Third and Swinton Streets.  I would always go to their retail store for milk or sour cream when my mom ran out of her usual milk delivery from Central Dairy.  My brother and I were allowed to go to the ice house to get the chunks of ice that the deliverymen did not use for our picnic coolers.  The first Polish American Citizens Club was across the street from Borden’s Dairy.  It is now located on Commerce Avenue near the Channel 9 Station.

On Saturdays all the children in the neighborhood would go to the Paramount Theater on Clinton Avenue.  We would pay 14 cents each for an afternoon of cartoons, series of Buck Rogers, Lone Ranger, or Three Stooges plus a feature movie or two.  If you wanted to, you could stay for the next round of the same movies because they were played continuously.   In the winter it would be daylight when we got there and pitch dark when we left.  On the corner of Second Street and Northern Boulevard was Joe Blank’s Pharmacy.  My mom would go there to use the pay phone to call the doctor if we were sick and the doctor would come to the house—can you believe it?   Nu Life Cleaners, located at the corner of Second and Oak Streets, was so handy for my mom to take our mending, dry cleaning and items that needed to be steam pressed when necessary.  It was so convenient having such service across the street from our house.  Having a mom and pop grocery store owned by Mrs. and Mrs. Margolis at the intersection of Oak and Second Street was also a convenience.  Any time my mom ran out of bread, milk or lunch meat, across the street I would go with a dollar and come back with change after a purchase.

We only had one car, which my dad used for work at the Watervliet Arsenal.  If my mom had to go downtown to shop, she would take the Arbor Hill bus on Livingston Avenue or the Belt Line bus on the corner of Clinton Avenue and Northern Boulevard .  I vaguely remember the trolley cars.

My house is long gone and the Police Department Building is there.  Every time I drive through the old neighborhood, I think of the good old days gone by and wish the children of today could have such wonderful memories.

The filming of Ironweed Wed, 06 Jan 2010 23:35:02 +0000 Patty Bulger Setford wrote this post for the Story of Albany late last year about the filming of “Ironweed” in Albany, which brought stars Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep to the area (read it here). Stephen Sinkevich sent his own photos of the filming in Albany. Here they are:

Jack Nicholson while shooting "Ironweed" in Albany.

Jack Nicholson while shooting "Ironweed" in Albany.

Jack Nicholson while filming "Ironweed" in Albany.

Jack Nicholson while filming "Ironweed" in Albany.

William Kennedy, author of "Ironweed" as well as the screenplay for the movie.

William Kennedy, author of "Ironweed" -- the book and screenplay.

Actor Tom Waits played Rudy in the film.

Actor Tom Waits played Rudy in the film.

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Missing the old neighborhood, by Patricia Gathen Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:59:36 +0000 Submitted by Patricia Gathen

My life began in the late 1940’s when men were returning from WWII. A

purchase of a three family house on South Hawk Street would be my

home for sixteen years until the Rockerfella Plaza, as it was called

then, began its undertaking to make Albany a city to be proud of.

The New York State Museum sits on the lot where our home once was.

The South Hawk Street that held memories of street games

such as hide n’ seek, Red Light and Statues . South Hawk Street was

a steep hill with broken slate sidewalks that could cause great

agony if you fell while you would roller skate, run or ride a bike

down it. I attended Cathedral Academy for grammer school and

Cardinal McCloskey for my high school years. As a child I remember

running up to the convent, which was adjacent to the Cathedral

grammer school, just to open the gate for the nuns who seemed to

watch our every move. I have memories of hitting a ball against a

wall in the school yard and climbing the sliding walls on the far

side of the school yard. There was a hugh field in the back of my

yard and my friends and I would ride our bikes along the sidewalk of

that field, which was across from Lincoln Park. Oh Yes! Lincoln Park

pool. What an absolute joy for all us kids during the late 50’s and

early 60’s. Every sunny day you would find us running down the

concrete steps of the park landing us directly in front of the

lakehouse of Lincoln pool. We would run through the tile showers,

pass a police woman sitting on a folded chair and race to our side

of the pool where the hills began to gain height. We would spread

our towels at the base of the hill and claim it as our own. The pool

was a great place to cool off in the city heat. My friends and I

would spend hours at the pool but we always left right before 4:00

since the great exit would begin and everyone walked straight up

South Hawk Street. I remember going shopping downtown as a young

girl with my best friend. We would shop at Lerners or Woolworths and

end up at Peters’ restaurant for french fries and a cherry coke.

Even in the coldest weather we would walk home over Eagle, pass the

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, up Elm Street and down Hawk

Street. My mother worked at Ormonds on North Pearl Street, but she

would shop at the Wonder Shop for me and my sister. Every Easter we

would have the latest fashion, which included the American Girl

Shoes,navy blue shoes with a a double buckle. My little brother was

decked out in fashions from Myers or Whitneys, where every Christmas

Santa Clause sat on his Santa chair while we waited in line to tell

him what we wanted from his northpole workshop. As we became older

we started hanging around on the corner of Elm and South Hawk. Then

on to Burmettos grocery at Jefferson and South Hawk for a popsicle

and then Hunter’s Drugstore at Madison and South Hawk for a great

malted milk or ice cream cone. I remember that on election day there

were hugh bombfires in the middle of Jefferson and South Hawk Stret.

People would throw in old furniture, chairs, tires and whatever was

not nailed down. It was a strange tradition and yet it was not

frowned upon by anyone, at the time. Attending a Catholic

gradeschool had the advantage of being paraded down Elm Street for

mass on Holy Days of Obligation. We did quite a bit of parading down

this street. Holy Communions, Confirmations and eventually grammer

school graduation, which was held at the Cathedral. Mass at the

Cathedral brings back memories of singing in the chorus, hearing the

clicking that the nuns would make when it was time to kneel or sit

during service. Running in for confession every Saturday afternoon

with a kleenex and bobby-pin attached to your head. I remember 4th

of July when the day would begin with a picnic at Thatcher Park with

my best friend and then at night the street would be lit with

sparklers, cherry bombs and firecrackers. It was a wonderful place

to grow up with friends wherever you went. A place where you could

leave in the morning and return when the dark began to engulf our

little comunity. Playing with dolls on the stoop with your friends

to your first girl-boy party in someone’s living room. Finding my

teenage years extended to Eagle Street where new friends filled my

life with memories that still exist, as do the friends that were

I was very sad when we were forced to leave our home in the summer of

my senior year. I had just met a new guy at Lincoln Pool and was

sure he would not follow me to my new location in the Pine Hills Area.

Well, he did follow me and we have been married for forty-two years

with five children and two grandchildren. I owe my life to my parents

but I owe my growing years to that wonderful neighborhood.

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Albany connection, by Maxine Halpin Silver Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:07:09 +0000 Submitted by Maxine Halpin Silver

Marian Nash Surrano’s article of September 14, 2009 (”Memories of the 40’s and 50’s”) brought me back to the years I spent on North Pearl Street with Marian as my friend.

I am Maxine Halpin Silver and my dad was the “very friendly Mr. Halpin” whose grocery store Marian remembers so kindly.”
Maybe Marian and others remember how my dad always provided the ice cream (Dixie cups) for all of our parties at School 5. He not only deliverd to homes, but he had a BOOK that kept the names of those who would pay after payday. The store was located on the corner of Wilson Avenue, probably one of the steepest hills in the city! It was great fun to sleigh ride down the hill, but it was quite a chore to climb it to my piano lessons from Professor Rinaldo near Ten Broeck Street.

I have such fond memories of School 5. There were many different races and religions represented, and we all got along well and really enjoyed each other. Many Albanians will know the name Tony Toscino, presently a professional musician, who played the accordian for all of our parties. Our sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Kurris, even invited us to her home for a picnic at the end of the year!

Nearby on North Pearl Street was Evelyn’s Dance Studio, where I not only learned to tap dance (very popular in those years), but made many good friends. I can remember the dance recitals where we wore hand-made costumes by Evelyn’s mother. Also, there was the Neighborhood House, a 1940-50’s type of “Y”. The program included crafts, games, parties, and there even was a summer day camp.

Across the street from the store was Memorial Hospital. As a little girl, I used to put my comic books on orange crates and sell them to people who were going to visit children at the hospital. Another activity that kept my friends and I busy was writing a neighborhood newspaper which we sold to the neighbors from Clinton avenue to Livingston Avenue.

One of the summer delights was to walk to Broadway to watch the Barnum and Bailey circus animals march by—including magnificent elephants!

In Menands was Hawkins Stadium where I went to watch baseball games with my dad. Not far from there was Mid-City pool, a very large pool with diving boards and also a food stand and a picnic area. Lincoln Park pool was great fun, but it was a special treat to go to Mid-City.

For junior high, I went to Livingston, which I loved. I had looked forward to being a student there ever since I went with my dad as a youngster to deliver groceries to the home economics department. I was so impressed with the elevator and adored being allowed to play with the dolls in cribs that were used as part of the home economics program

Albany High was a marvelous experience–great teachers, a fine education, and good friends. In fact, I now participate in a 1955 alumni group, which meets regularly, After all these years, we just picked up our friendships as if high school was just a few years ago!

I believe you could say that my whole life has centered around Albany. I went to college here and taught at Hackett for over 30 years. I am grateful for all that Albany means to me, and I am proud to call myself an “Albanian.”

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Spring water, by Rita (Harzynski) Lawrence Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:25:17 +0000 submitted by Rita (Harzynski)Lawrence

On any given Sunday afternoon during the warm weather months in the year of 1929 Papa would gather two empty gallon jugs and we would set out to fill them with spring water. Our jaunt would take us outside the city limits about twelve blocks from our home at 234 First Street. It would be just the two of us. Mama would be at one of her church society meetings and my older siblings, John, Jane and Tony would be off with their friends and Papa was left in charge of me, who was not yet six years old.

After locking up the house and placing the key on the lintel over it, where anyone could easily find it, we turned West towards Northern Boulevard a half a block away. We took a right onto the route that would take us directly to the gully where the cool sweet water gushed from a pipe, jutting out of the steep hill ascending it. It was a deserted street we walked on as the stores on this commercial boulevard were closed in accordance with the Blue Law. It was the shopping district for our day to day necessities and the shopkeers knew each family by name as we knew theirs. They were all Mom and Pop stores. There was Armony’s Meat Market on the corner of First Street where we bought our meat on The Book, paying something on account each monthly payday. Big burly Pete with his booming voice was the proprietor along with his softer spoken wife with a lady-like charm of her own. Their adult children, Richard and Mary helped out in the store and they all lived upstairs. It was the Armony’s that introduced us to Italian food when Mrs. Armony sent down to us a big platter of spaghetti and meatballs on the occasion of one of Mama’s surgeries. Once we got past the unfamiliar smell of parmesan it was loaded with we very soon acquired a taste for something other than Polish cooking.

Next door to Armony’s was Mrs. Gordon’s green grocers, where she sold fresh produce off the outside stand that was larger than the tiny store it fronted. Her ample hips and short body were ensconced on an upturned wooden fruit crate from whence she guarded, sold, and greeted her customers. She was born in a sztetl in Poland and was able to converse with her customers in Polish, Yiddish as well as in heavily accented English. Most of the proprietors up and down the street were foreign born.

On the corner of Second Street and The Boulevard was Schaefer’s Dry Goods with its tiny, but well stocked shoe department. All my shoes were purchased there; sturdy oxfords for Winter, flat heeled sandals for Summer, and Mary Janes for Sunday best. My brothers were fitted with their high top sneakers for the Summer and we all wore their galoshes in the Winter.

Kaplan’s Furniture was in the other direction but I was familiar too with the short and trim Mr. Kaplan  who owned it.   Mama and Papa were slowly replacing their second hand furniture that they started out with when they were newly wed.    They hadn’t yet reached the economic stability of owning a refrigerator, a radio or a vacuum cleaner.  Those luxuries would remain on my  mother’s  wish list longer than anticipated due to the impending “Crash” of which we were still completely unaware.  Our ignorance stemmed from our lower middle class status to whom stock only meant cattle.  We would however soon feel the effects of that October date in 1929 that started the Great Depression when Papa would be laid off from his job at the NY Central car shops in West Albany.

Leo’s Luncheonette where Leo Fisher served breakfasts and luncheons, was on the corner of First Street.  He abided by the Blue Law by choice.   It wouldn’t have done him much good to open on a day when working people were home to prepare their own meals.  Rare was the diner who ate out for the pure enjoyment of it.

Across from the lunchroom was Axelrod’s Variety where we bought our Kaiser rolls and Hagamann pies from Mr. and Mrs. Axelrod and their daughters.  They were very patient with their younger customers who came in to buy penny candy.  One of the daughters, whom I remember as having red hair and I think was named “Bessie”,  would sit down while we deliberated over the two for a cent root beer barrels or the three for a penny Mary Jane’s.  I would like to think we repaid their kind  tolerance  by pulling the electric light chain at their request  on a Friday night when darkness came early.  For a long time I thought they were all afflicted with a disability that limited their ability to raise their arm.   They had laws of their own to which they faithfully adhered.

Li’s Chinese Laundry was down this block before one reached Clinton Avenue.  Mr. Li washed and pressed the Buster Brown collars worn by my brothers when serving as altar boys at St. Casimir’s church on Sheridan Ave.

Interspersed amongst the stores mentioned were a few newsrooms.  I didn’t frequent them but a large portion of the city’s residents did.  Not so much for the newspapers as for the purpose of playing “Policy”, an illegal numbers game which the local officials winked at.   One of the best known bag men  was Eddie, a diminutive man who always wore black and a newsboys cap.  He conducted  his business from around the corner on Clinton Avenue.   His one horse carriage , which he used for  transport , was as  familiar a sight in our neighborhood as was the sound of the clip clop of his horse’s hoofs on the cobblestoned streets.

As we continued on our journey for spring water  we reached  Colonie Street  where we came upon Lynn Park which took up an entire city block along Northern Boulevard.  During the week it was filled with children but today was deserted as the street.   A few mothers sat on the benches airing their babies in their carriages or keeping an eye on a toddler playing in the sandbox with a coffee can and spoon.  All the playground equipment like the swings, see saws and volley ball nets were resting in storage.  Even the wading pool was drained to keep out any unattended bathers. After passing the Park we veered to the left and this part of Northern Boulevard became Dudley Heights.  Here the houses  near the city limits, were already acquiring a suburban look with tiny lawns enclosed in privet hedges and a driveway instead of a gangway between the bigger lots.            On the other side of the street was an empty lot which would one day be the site of Philip Livingston Jr. High School.  Presently it was used as the city dumping ground and was also the entrance trail that led down to Tivoli Lake.  The latter was more of a pond for the habitation and breeding of insects and other water loving small creatures.  I had  never been down there.  I didn’t need Mama’s verbal restriction to keep me out.  I was afraid to enter that overgrown path where hoboes from the freight trains made camp.  I was never afraid of them singly whenever one appeared at our back door seeking, and being given a sandwich by my mother.

Soon we came to the railroad overpass which led out to the posh suburb of Loudonville and outlying farms along Shaker Road.  Instead of crossing the bridge we began our descent into the chasm it spanned.  When we got to the bottom we crossed the railroad tracks of the New York Central.  When we got to the other side of the tracks the land began to ascend again.  We climbed its steep incline for just a few feet to where the pipe extended out of the hill with a steady flow of spring water.  Before Papa filled the containers he took a small cup from his pocket and filling it handed it to me.  Due to the long hike and the warm weather it tasted better on my parched tongue than any bottle of Orange Crush or mug of frothy Hires root beer.  Then Papa refilled  the cup for his quenching draught.  When the two jugs were filled and capped we retraced our steps down the hillside, across the tracks, and up again on the other side to return to the city sidewalk.  We stopped for a rest on one of the benches in Lynn Park.  Before we sat down we were greeted by the peanut vendor who worked that corner every day, including Sundays.  I guess push carts were not mandated by the Blue Law.  He always requested and was given a cup of the refreshing drink Papa carried.  As payment he would hand me a bag of hot roasted peanuts.  Facing the street and cracking  shells we would watch the sparse vehicular traffic entering or leaving the city on this main highway which was known as NY State Highway Route 9.

After  our respite we  would continue our journey home with me lagging slower and slower.  Finally I would stop and tugging on Papa’s sleeve I’d whimper, “Papa, I’m tired.”  He would scrunch down and  climbing  up on his back I’d ride  piggy back the rest of the way home.

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Improv club sparks creativity, brings laughs at TVHS

TVHS students and and Improv club members Dan Quinones, of Averill Park, and Alexus Negron, of Troy, perform a skit.

Shows such as ”Saturday Night Live” have showcased the best comics and improv actors in the world while bringing laughs to millions and launching the careers of many stars.

Tech Valley High School in Rensselaer is doing its best to foster the next ”SNL” star, while sparking the creativity necessary for workers to succeed in the 21st century.

The school’s Improv Club, which meets on Fridays, brings students together to learn the art of improvisation.

Club adviser Jen Smith said the students learn the finer points of improvisation through different games, which are modeled after the TV show ”Who’s Line Is It Anyway?”

The rules of improv at TVHS are pretty simple – don’t deny the “reality” established by your audience or partners/team, establish a relationship and place for each scene, don’t think too hard, and have fun!

Besides creativity, students in the club enjoy the benefits of laughter while boosting their presentation skills, creativity, and confidence, said Smith.

The students are planning a schoolwide performance for later in the school year.

Submitted by Mike McCagg, communications coordinator, TVHS

Joe Stalvey

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Saturday, October 18, 2008

The Long Shlep

It Doesn't Get Any Better
It Doesn't Get Much Better
Originally uploaded by toastfloats.
There is only one way to see San Francisco; You must walk it. I lived in the Bay area while attending college for nearly five years. I’ve visited by car, train, bike, and foot. If you only have one day, in my opinion the best way to savor the city is The Long Shlep. Dress in layers, wear really comfortable shoes, and bring a big appetite.

Start by taking the BART to the Powell Street Station. When you come up from the station, you’ll be confronted with the city at it’s most bustling and busy. You’ll be tempted to take the Trolley as the fare station is right in front of you, but frankly, that’s for tourists. It costs a lot and you miss some of the most interesting bits of the city. Enjoy the view of the Trolley, take pictures as it goes by, and feel smug in your knowledge that you’re seeing the better bits without paying the extortionist fare.

Follow the trolley line north on Powell Street. This will take you through the commercial district, past a million tourist shops, and up to Nob Hill. From here, you will see spectacular views of the TransAmerica building and the Bay. Just past Nob Hill, drop east from the top of the hill on Clay to dive two or three blocks into Chinatown. Wander freely through this area marveling at the shops, restaurants, and commerce. If you start late, you might find this a good place to grab a dim sum lunch. I can’t recommend a restaurant since all the names are in Chinese. They are all absolutely terrifying from the outside; The food is always outstanding on the inside. Don’t think too hard about what you’ve accidentally eaten.

Make your way north on any street paralleling Powell through Chinatown. This will send you directly into North Beach. North Beach is to Italy what Chinatown is to China. The smells wafting out of the restaurants shift to pasta, sausage, fennel, garlic and onions. On Columbus is one of the ten best chocolate truffle makers in the country. Stop for a cafe or cocoa and truffles. My favorite is lemon but the girls were partial to cinnamon (Mera), hazelnut (Jaime), and coconut (Aeron).

Continue north until you hit Fisherman’s Wharf. There is only so much of this massively touristy street you can stomach, but a little bit is a lot of fun. You’re probably not hungry, which is good. The seafood here is excellent but very very expensive for small quantities. If you do choose to eat, get a place that lets you sit outside and watch the people go by. An fun stop in Fisherman’s tucked over to one side is the Musee Mechanique. This is a warehouse full of old amusement machines: pachinko, cinemascope, the original Pac Man. The collection is eclectic, but tremendously enjoyable. There is no charge to enter, but be prepared to drop a roll of quarters in the machines.

Now that we’ve hit the water, we start drifting westward towards the Golden Gate. You will pass through a series of historical landmarks, each offering their own attractions. First, you’ll see the Cannery. This monument has been converted into a shopping mall. If you like to shop, I recommend here or at the next stop -- Ghiradelli Square. At Ghiradelli, you need to at least enter the ice cream salon as you’ll get a free square of chocolate just for walking in the door. In the main dining area, you can watch the chocolate being made. You’d think you would be full, but good luck getting out the door without splitting a hot fudge sundae or picking up a pound of mixed chocolates.

Head for the water front and walk around San Francisco Maritime Historical Park. As a sailor, it’s hard to resist marveling at all the boats at anchor or on balls who managed to get themselves situated without the use of motors.

Up up UP the hill and over, you are now enjoying a bird’s eye view of the Marina District. As boaters, we now yawn a bit at the beauty of the marina and yacht club. Just how many boats can you see in one life without coming somewhat jaundiced. However, a walk down the small streets near Marina Blvd will reveal some of the most expensive and beautiful real estate in San Francisco. The long walk through this residential neighborhood is rewarded on the west end by the Palace of Fine Arts. Currently under renovation, you can not walk under it or through the park, but you can enjoy the view or visit the new Exploritorium.

Marina District
Marina District
Originally uploaded by toastfloats.
Do you have any energy left? If so, keep walking another mile and a half up the hill to the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge. It is a serious hike up a very long hill. Remember that you have to gain roughly 250 feet from the Marina District. From either a block from the Palace of Fine Arts or from the parking area at the end of the bridge, you finally get back on a bus back to your origin at the Powell Street Station.

The Long Shlep is 5.6 miles if you leave from the Palace, 7.2 if you start home from the Golden Gate. By the end of the day, you will feel as though you have truly seen San Francisco, enjoyed some amazing food, and started to fall in love with this wonderful city. I could spend weeks in San Francisco and never run out of things to do. But one spectacular day with my girls was enough for this trip.

1 comment:

Larry Smith said...

Our girls showed us SF after a school field trip there years ago. They learned the bus routes, and subsequently took us everywhere when we went as a family. Now we sail to SF marina, hop on the bus, and do the town. Advice, don't stay at Pier 39 marina -- it has a wicked surge and sea lions that complain all night. Good luck heading south.
svpleamar at


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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Cronulla Street Exhibition in Canberra

I dropped into the University of Canberra’s Inspire Centre today and had a tour of the "Cronulla Street Exhibition" by James Steele. The work is a series of photographs showing changes in the Sydney suburb of Cronulla, as documented by photographs by the same photographer, at the same places, forty years apart. The work is on display until 28 September 2012. Also on display on the the large screen in the Inspire main space is a multimedia work, in collaboration with centre staff.

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Saturday, 29 November 2008

A week is a long time...

I promised earlier on in the week that I would post more about the general public's reaction to Pre-Budget Report, but in a way it almost feels unnecessary. There has been so much negative comment in the papers that it hardly seems worth reporting that almost everyone I have spoken to thinks it was all spin and no substance.

Those that work in shops were telling me that people are walking into their shops, looking around and then walking back out again - this reminds me of a report I saw on the BBC news of lots of people in a shopping centre but hardly anyone carrying bags. If people are worried about their jobs - which they genuinely are - then it is hardly a surprise that they are not making frivolous purchases.

The temporary VAT cut appears not to have fooled people into thinking they have more money in their pockets and most now know that it could go up as a high as 20%. I am not sure I have met one person who thinks they are going to be better off in the long term because everyone knows that with all the debt building up we are going to have to pay it off somehow and sometime soon.

And if the sceptical reaction to the PBR wasn't enough, the arrest of my former boss Damian Green has caused total consternation - especially amongst those I was talking to in Snodland this afternoon. Damian received and revealed information that 5000 illegal immigrants were working in the UK...and promptly got arrested for it. Everyone I spoke to think that he was doing this country a service, not committing a crime and the running joke now is to say "ssh, they are listening..." every time someone talks about Damian. It is ridiculous but sadly not untypical of the Big Brother Government we currently have. The sooner the election is called, the better.

Snodland's Christmas Lights

The team took a break from campaigning today which given the poor weather was probably a very good thing. So instead of knocking on doors I went down to Lenham Primary School to help my sister, who is on the PTA, set up the "messy room" and spoil my two nephews and niece whilst mummy wasn't looking. And it was great!!! At one stage, and thankfully there is no photographic proof, I had 3 little ones painting my nails all different colours on a glitter covered table. I was trying not to enjoy myself but it is incredibly hard being a grouchy Crouchy when you are being asked to help make a peg angel with wet, badly varnished fingernails by some small child with a painted face, jumping up and down with the excitement of being able to use glue and glitter with impunity.

Anyway after having more fun than I let on, I headed off to Snodland to watch the Christmas lights get turned on. Despite the cold and drizzle, half the town turned out to watch the Mayor of Tonbridge & Malling arrive on Santa's sleigh. Unfortunately in the process of getting to the sleigh the Mayoress slipped over and hurt herself. Thankfully the paramedics arrived quickly and were able to patch her up so that she could continue with the ceremonial duties. I managed to get a couple of shots of Santa before he headed back to Lapland - he was at Lenham Primary School too so he has clearly had a very busy day!

With so much early Christmas cheer it is no wonder I can't get Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer out of my head..."then one foggy Christmas Eve, Santa came to say..."

Tuesday, 25 November 2008

Andrew Rowe

I was very sad today to hear the news that Andrew Rowe, the former MP for parts of Chatham, passed away on Friday. I had the pleasure of meeting Andrew who served as the MP for Mid-Kent from 1983 to 1997. He had a keen interest in the voluntary sector and was a keen campaigner on both local and national issues.

My thoughts and prayers are with his family at this time.

Pre-Budget Report - a visual response!

More on what local people have said to me about the Chancellor's statement later this week. So far, it has not been good! Put it this way...they have not been fooled.

Saturday, 15 November 2008

Out in Ditton

This morning I joined County Council Candidate Peter Homewood and others for an enjoyable canvass in Ditton. I had canvassed the same area myself last year during the local elections so was pleased to hear about some of the improvements with anti-social behaviour thanks to the hard work of the local warden, the community officers and the council - but also the residents themselves who have come together to take responsibility for some of the issues in their specific streets.

Although pretty groggy from a heavy cold I was really interested in hearing what people on the doorsteps had to say about the national political scene. If you believe everything you read in the papers or watch on TV it appears that Gordon Brown is universally considered the world's economic saviour. Well clearly the people of Ditton haven't been asked what they think.

I spoke to a number of people who said that whatever happens they "won't be voting Labour again" and another who said "you work hard, you try to bring up a family, and all you get is grief".

Clearly the credit crunch is beginning to hit hard but most recognised that there is still worse to come. Let's hope the Government is listening and that they use the forthcoming Pre-Budget Report to help hard hit families, like those in Ditton, through the tough times ahead.

Snodland Quiz

Last night I attended the annual Snodland Quiz which this year took place at the Methodist Church. I both love and loathe quizzes - which basically means I love it when I get the answers right but hate it when I don't! Thankfully I was on a good team and my lack of knowledge about musicals or stars from the screen was more than made up for by my colleagues. We ended up coming a respectable 5th but the winning team were the same lot as last year...and the year before that (mental note - join their team next year!).

Thursday, 13 November 2008

Dinner with Nicholas Soames

Last night local Conservatives met for their annual dinner with this year's guest speaker Nicholas Soames, MP for Mid-Sussex and of course Sir Winston Churchill's grandson. We had a very enjoyable evening at the excellent Kits Coty restaurant, nestled into Blue Bell Hill with wonderful views over Aylesford and beyond, where we heard a fabulous speech from Nicholas which ranged from the current economic crisis to the wonderful work of the armed forces. I am delighted he came to visit not least because he was affectionately reminiscing about his childhood cricket lessons just down the road at Mote Park - it felt like he was enjoying being back in glorious Kent!

Sunday, 9 November 2008

Walter's War

I have just watched the most amazing programme on BBC4 called Walter's War. It is about a young black man born in Folkestone who after playing for Tottenham Hotspur (during which, as my Spurs encyclopedia tells me, he scored 2 goals in 10 first class games) went on to become the first commissioned black officer in the Army to lead British troops in World War I. He died in the second battle of the Somme. I am ashamed that as someone who was educated in Folkestone and previously took a real interest in the history of the area, and of course as a committed Spurs fan with numerous books on the club, I had never heard of Walter Tull. I hope that someone with influence in Folkestone was watching and maybe generations to come will be less ignorant about Walter Tull and what he achieved.

If you missed it you can watch it on BBC iplayer HERE.

A day of remembrance

As I previously reported on this blog I helped the Poppy Appeal earlier this week and today I, along with hundreds of other local people, wore their poppy with pride in remembrance of those who lost their lives in World War I. I went to two very different services - one in Aylesford church this morning and one at the Royal British Legion Village this afternoon. Both were packed and far busier than last year which I think is down to it being so hard now, with so many young men and women fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to think about those who have more recently lost their lives - something that the Poppy Appeal now reflects in its assistance programmes. I was talking to a lady whose son was stationed "somewhere in Afghanistan" who wanted to celebrate his service by remembering those who had died on duty. She found it comforting to be with people who understood what the call of duty meant and I found her courage and focus incredibly inspiring and I wish her well.

And as I sang the national anthem and watched the lowering of the union jack by a young army cadet I felt incredibly proud to be British and silently I thanked all those who had died to keep our country free. We shall never forget.

Monday, 3 November 2008

The Poppy Appeal

This afternoon, alongside local Councillors John Balcombe and Dave Smith, I joined volunteers outside Aylesford Sainsbury's to help sell poppies before next week's Remembrance Day. The Poppy Appeal is a hugely important campaign and each year the nation expresses it support for the work of the Royal British Legion through the appeal. Millions of poppies are sold every year and the poppy itself has become such an important symbol of reflection, remembrance and of course hope. Getting involved today made me really appreciate the support our armed forces of past and present have from ordinary members of the public - people were not just putting notes into the bucket but were commenting on what it meant to them. And what I found even more touching was how many children were coming up and putting money into the bucket in return for a poppy - and knowing what it meant: it was nice to hear a young child nagging their parents for a poppy rather than sweets!

It was always nice to be supporting such an important national charity which has a huge local presence. With the Royal British Legion Village and Royal British Legion Industries being based across the road from the Sainsbury's, it genuinely felt like I was doing more for the cause today than just turning up at a service on Sunday. The Royal British Legion provides financial, emotional and social support to 10.5 million people in the UK and because of the continued underfunding from the Government the Poppy Appeal provides a significant proportion of the funds. I hope that my two hours selling poppies helped raise a little more for the vital service that the Royal British Legion continues to provide.

Sunday, 2 November 2008

A football high

What an amazing week of football. The Arsenal v Tottenham match on Wednesday was phenomenal but then to watch Spurs beat Liverpool last night made it a wonderful week for Harry's Hotspurs. I spoke to a friend who had been at the game and he could hardly talk because he had lost his voice cheering, and then one of the older Meridian girls was telling me that she had been to the match with her Dad and that it was awesome.

But despite all the excitement at Tottenham during the week, I still thought today's under 11s game was the best match I have seen all week. We won 11-nil but it was the passing and movement off the ball that made us all feel like the coaching sessions are beginning to work. I have never seen so many smiles on the faces of the players and parents alike (apart from one of the dads who always promises a tenner for a hatrick - and today there were two!!). Well done girls.

Saturday, 1 November 2008

Shoebox Appeal

It is only November and I hate to use the C word so early on in the year, but today I did my small bit for the Christmas appeal being run by the The Church of Christ the King in Princes Park.

The annual shoebox appeal, organised by Blythswood Care, sends thousands of donated shoe boxes filled with gifts to people around the world who are less fortunate then ourselves. Since 1993, the scheme has delivered over 500,000 boxes to countries such as India, Romania and Albania.

I took two boxes along, one for a girl and one for a boy. It is amazing that a few small items like colouring pens, a teddy, a skipping rope and a packet of marbles - as well as some haribo - will bring such huge joy to someone somewhere. And I am told that often our shoe boxes are the only presents that a child might receive. Wrapping a shoebox is harder than you might think but the thought that on Christmas Day a boy and girl in a country far worse off than ours is opening up a few gifts from me makes it all worth it.


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txwikinger's blog

AskUbuntu reaches 7000 questions - 15000 answers - 9800 users - 70000 votes

Less than 4 months after the successful launch as permanent Q&A site in our new Ubuntu design, we have reached the 7000 question threshold. Those 7000 questions have been asked and answered to 90% more than 15000 answers by 9800 users. 70000 votes have been cast for the questions and answers.

Here some more statistics from

February 2011 Ubuntu Hour in Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada

The February 2011 Ubuntu Hour for the Waterloo Region in has been announced.

It will occur on Wednesday, 2nd February 2011 at the Little Bean Coffee Bar in Kitchener. Please register beforehand so that enough seats can be reserved.

Why is Ubuntu Using Google Maps and not OpenStreetMaps?

For using online maps, users have a variety of choices. In the spirit of FLOSS, openness and user rights, OpenStreetmap is clearly the best solution. However, Ubuntu is still using Google maps with all the terms and restrictions that come with it on the LoCo website. Does anybody know why?

AskUbuntu reaches 6000 questions - 13000 answers - 8000 users - 60000 votes

3 months after the successful launch as permanent Q&A site in our new Ubuntu design, we have reached the 6000 question threshold. Those 6000 questions have been asked and answered to 91% almost 14000 answers by 8600 users. 60000 votes have been cast for the questions and answers.

Here some more statistics from

# of questions: 6185
# of answers: 13950
# of comments: 21447
# of votes: 61137
# of badges: 13313
# of users: 8604

LibreOffice Now Available in ppa for Ubuntu 10.10 and 10.04

Libreoffice is now available and installed easily for Ubuntu 10.10 and 10.04 by adding the libreoffice ppa.

The following steps allow the addition of the ppa and the installation of LibreOffice:

Warning: This installs from a ppa and not from the official Ubuntu repository, hence there still might be problems with either the software itself, or the installation process. The installation will remove OpenOffice.

Optionally OpenOffice can be removed with the command

sudo apt-get purge "openoffice*"

Was 2010 Really a Big Year for Linux?

Sean Michael Kerner claims in this article that 2010 was a big year for Linux. However, while the FLOSS community made good strives in some areas, as described in the article, there also have been some set backs. Oracle's take-over of Sun resulted in a change of attitude towards the FLOSS community by the projects maintained by Sun, which in turn lead to the very public fork of LibreOffice, and some lesser known forks in regard of the databases, like mariadb.

Mastercard Taking on Functions of Courts?

According to an article on the MyCE (My Consumer Electronics) Website, the RIAA ( Recording Industry Association of America) and the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) have recruited Mastercard to "govern" the Internet.

According to the article, Mastercard will in essence stop payments made to websites who the RIAA and MPAA claim to violate their copyrights. While technically this can all be done according to the law, it seems to be a big issue of anti-trust and at least violation of due process.

Only 4% of People Think Patents Drive Innovation

The Inquirer has currently, due to Nokia's patent suit against Apple, an Internet poll asking people about their opinion about patents.

FCC's Regulations for Net Neutrality - Good or Bad?

As described in this Wall Street Journal article and many others on the Internet, the FCC is planning to stronger regulate the Internet in the future. There will be an important vote this week, and a lot of Democratic politicians are leaning on the democratic members of the FCC board to vote for the proposal of its chairman.

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Monday, 16 February 2009

A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria, Vol. 1

This 1883 book by Georges Perrot and Charles Chipiez has just been released by Project Gutenberg as an eBook.

As always with these books, the attraction is the wonderful “period” artwork like that above and there are over 400 in the book.  However, in this case I was also attracted because the book provides a 100 plus page historical overview in Chapter 1:

The General Characteristics Of Chaldæo-Assyrian Civilization.
  1. Situation and Boundaries of Chaldæa and Assyria
  2. Nature in the Basin of the Euphrates and Tigris
  3. The Primitive Elements of the Population
  4. The Wedges
  5. The History of Chaldæa and Assyria
  6. The Chaldæan Religion
  7. The People and Government
You have to visit the site to find out bout the wedges!  I’ll be keeping a lookout for Volume II.

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Sunday, 11 January 2009

The Journey

I write this quite quickly, I have to go on drive in less than 30 min. Someone asked me for a few pictures of the journey of giraffes WE have been seeing over the last many days, the group of females with the two beautiful young calves.
I had lots to mention and coming up with some funny puns isn't such a tall order, but I also don't want to go on for too long. . .and of course, I now have to almost run for the drive. . .and long stories can be such a pain in the neck. . .
But, before I end this, I do want to stick my neck out one quick time, and tell you something. . .sharing excitement and information is after all in our nature!
Karula's cubs were seen this morning!! Yes, cubs!! Two of them. Rexon heard from Efraim who saw them and also from Charles who found them. WE went there to try and see or show, but no luck. . .yet. They were apparently shy and a bit skittish and also in some thick, riverine terrain, all of this is to be expected. . .but they have been seen, on Djuma!! WE are obviously very excited and will talk about it on drive and around the fire tonight, WE might even see them tonight, keeping in mind of course other game-drive vehicles and more importantly, the needed space and respect for these little leopards. . .but certainly the Karula and new cubs journey is entering a new stage, and I thought you might want to know!
Hope to see you on the safari, and know you are part of OUR journey, naturally!
Pieter Pretorius

1 comment:

Barb said...

These are gorgeous photographs, and I am so glad you posted them. I was watching the drive the day these were posted, and though I was disappointed not to see the cubs, it was great footage of Karula.

It's the first drive I've ever watched (just got introduced to WE, by way of Twitter) but it certainly won't be my last. I was staggered by the beauty of the country, and by you all.

When Pieter stopped to show us a patch of wildflowers, I was hooked forever. :)

Thanks for what you all do. And thanks to Rexon and Pieter for making my first-ever drive such a pleasurable experience.


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Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Holiday Instant Wins and Sweepstakes are Heating Up

The holiday prize games are starting to come in and there are some really good ones this year.  Big brands are really trying to outdo each other with big prize numbers.

Here's a sampling of some of them we've come across the last few days.

27 Days of Giveaways Contest is giving away 1,602 prizes over 27 days, worth $200,000!

Bake Sweet Memories Game (Bake Your Holidays Merrier) is giving away 10,000 free product coupons.

Chevrolet and Conan O'Brien are giving away Twenty Pine Tree Air Fresheners in Twenty Nights (oh, each one "wrapped" in a 2011 Chevy Cruze).  That's 20 cars being given away, worth over $580,000 in total!

American Express Season of Surprises is giving away one $100,000 check, ten $10,000 checks and 2,000 $25 gift cards.  That's over 2,000 prizes with a total value of $250,000.  (See the "more info" button on for the secret to getting a free code without purchase).

Wow.  That's over thirteen thousand prizes worth over one million dollars in just those four.

There's plenty more and new ones are coming in each day.  Now is a good time to really get in the habit of playing every day to get the most out of this fun time of year for prize hunting.

Don't forget to sign in to and mark these as your "Likes" to remind you to play each day.

Good luck!  Let's see how many members take a home one of these prizes!

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EU opinion & policy debates - across languages |

Archives for Europe's East

Guest blog post by Frank Engel MEP Frank Engel (1975) is a Member of the European Parliament from Luxembourg (EPP), and the Vice-Chair of the Delegation for the relations with the People’s Republic of China. He is also the Honorary Consul of Armenia to Luxembourg, and co-author of the book “Europe’s Next Avoidable War: Nagorno-Karabakh”.… » read more

  Posted by The Guest Blog

Ahead of a referendum in the Netherlands on the association agreement between the European Union and Ukraine, Olexi Pasyuk from the National Ecological Centre of Ukraine discusses the agreement’s importance for Ukraine’s civil society and why Europe must still improve how it engages with the country. by Olexi Pasyuk, cross-posted from the Bankwatch blog. (The… » read more

  Posted by Bankwatch

Guest blog post by Leo Watson, freelance writer.   Prime Minister Beata Szydlo has stated that Poland will not take any refugees, a day after the terror attacks on Brussels. In January, Szydlo announced that 400 refugees would be accepted by Poland, but has now gone back on that decision. Szydlo did not cite security… » read more

  Posted by The Guest Blog

Current EU support is not just a distraction from the energy path Ukraine needs to take, it also puts countless communities in Ukraine and abroad at risk. by Iryna Holovko, Ukrainian campaigner for Bankwatch (cross-posted from the Bankwatch blog) European decision makers had good intentions, but in their efforts to help ensure Ukraine’s energy security,… » read more

  Posted by Bankwatch

Leaders across the continent have made it one of their priorities to move towards greater energy independence for the European Union. But who is the driving force here: The EU or its individual member states? Two interconnected factors which are essential to the issue may help us explore this question: Energy infrastructure and Geopolitics. Infrastructure… » read more

  Posted by Global Perspectives - Antonia Colibasanu

Guest blog post by MONICA FRASSONI A cold wet wind is on us and on the soaked policemen, who in front of the makeshift barrier prevent our delegation of MEPs and Turkish ecologists to enter Derik a Kurdish village 70 km from Dijarbakir. Derik is the last on the list of locations suffering an amazing… » read more

  Posted by The Guest Blog

An energy scenario that could prove a valuable lesson for Europe is playing out on its borders. Before Russian-Turkish relations tanked in November of 2015 over the Turks’ downing of a Russian warplane in Turkish airspace, Russia had provided Turkey with half its natural gas. Now Turkey is scrambling to come up with alternative suppliers,… » read more

  Posted by The Eurasian Policy & Energy Hub

‘I wish to separate from as many Palestinians as possible, as quickly as possible.’ (Isaac Herzog ) The failure to reach an agreement to Israel-Palestine conflict during last two decades has destroyed the belief within the respective societies that an agreement is possible in the foreseeable future. With this history the only conclusion to solve… » read more

  Posted by AriRusila's Conflicts

The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) review released in mid-November 2015 has defined a new overarching goal for the EU – ‘stabilising the neighbourhood’. Does this shift in objectives signal a new era for the EU’s relations with its neighbours? Will the ‘new’ ENP become more political, more strategic and more impactful after its failure to… » read more

  Posted by CERiM

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Monday, June 27, 2011

Morality, Evolution, Disgust

The following two books will be of interest to those studying the "evolution of morality" and its possible skeptical implications:

Peter Singer, The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress, with a new afterword by the author (Princeton University Press, 2011). More information can be found here.

Daniel Kelly, Yuck! The Nature and Moral Significance of Disgust (MIT Press, 2011). For information, go here.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Nietzsche's Political Skepticism

I recently found out about Tamsin Shaw's Nietzsche's Political Skepticism (Princeton University Press, 2007). For more information, click here. A positive review of this book was published in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Argument from Possible Disagreement

A paper of mine, "The Pyrrhonian Argument from Possible Disagreement," has just been published in Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie. In case you're interested, you can check it out here. In this paper, I deal with an argument based on the possibility of disagreement that is used in five passages of Sextus's Pyrrhonian Outlines. The argument has been examined in a couple of books and articles, but only briefly.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Review of The Demands of Reason

Last week, a new review of Casey Perin's learned book, The Demands of Reason (OUP, 2010), by Eleni Kaklamanou, was published in Bryn Mawr Classical Review.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

New Paper on Sextus

Shaul Tor (Cambridge) recently published an insightful article on Sextus: “Argument and Signification in Sextus Empiricus: Against the Mathematicians VIII 289-290,” Rhizai 7/1 (2010): 63-90. Articles published in this journal are available online here, but unfortunately the last two issues have not been uploaded.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Call for Papers

Stéphane Marchand has let me know about the following call for papers.

Papers are invited for presentation on the topic “Academic Skepticism: Philosophical Reflections on Knowledge and Rhetoric,” for a two-day workshop in the frame of the 13th International Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas (ISSEI). This will take place at University of Cyprus, Nicosia, on July 2-6, 2012. The workshop will be devoted on one day to Ancient Academic Skepticism and on the other day to Modern Academic Skepticism.

Please submit an abstract (one page) by January 1st, 2012 to Luiz Eva, in charge of the workshop on Ancient Academic Skepticism, at, or to Sébastien Charles, in charge of the workshop on Modern Academic Skepticism, at

Speakers will have 20 to 30 minutes to present their papers in English or French (exact length to be confirmed, depending on the number of papers accepted).

Monday, June 6, 2011

Pyrrho in Cicero

The latest issue of Vita Latina (183-4, 2011) features François Prost's "Pyrrhon chez Cicéron". Unfortunately, I don't know anything about the specific content of the paper or its author (but Brigitte Pérez has now let me know that he teaches at the Sorbonne University). There's not much information on the journal's website.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Reviews of the Cambridge Companion to Ancient Scepticism

Harold Tarrant's review of The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Scepticism (CUP, 2010) was recently published in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.

Some time ago, I too wrote a review of this volume, which has just appeared in British Journal for the History of Philosophy. You can check it out here.


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OREO cookies Archives - Blog By DonnaBlog By Donna
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Blog By Donna

A Mom Navigating Life

Tag Archives: OREO cookies

Meet Dunkin, it’s how we do the OREO Dunk Challenge #OREODunkChallenge

By: Donna Chaffins | Date: February 17, 2017 | Categories: Contests, Family, Food

If you know me and/or my family, you know we are very competitive. We are competitive among each other and as a family. We also love OREO cookies. So when I heard about the OREO Dunk Challenge, I knew we were up for the challenge. Dunking OREO cookies into cold milk? What’s not to love […]


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Saturday, November 12, 2016

Being who you are (#2843)

     What is that anyway? How do I know who I am? Well, generally, first consider how you feel not only about yourself but others as well. Do you care about other people or are you satisfied with only caring about yourself. That will tell whether you are generous of spirit or self centered. Second, do you want to know the who's what's why's how's and where's about all of this existence that we inhabit? If so, then you are open minded, bold and curious enough to move toward the answers. If you are not curious enough about the questions of life then you are unadventurous and comfortable with things being as they are most agreeable to you. In other words you are just a life, marking time instead of actually living life within time.
     There is enough information there to give you a clue to who you are. Of course there are many more specific questions you can ask yourself but those are more of a personal nature and require you to be honest with yourself. Now if you have a problem living life in honesty and truth without bias then there are deeper problems that need to be addressed professionally. But most of us are aware that truth and honesty are paradigms that tell us the most about ourselves. I can look into the mirror and ask myself a question without anyone else hearing and know that whatever I say back to my question out loud is the real me, whether the answer is yes, no, maybe or I don't know. I can be honest with myself because life is short and there is no time for being dishonest.
     So once you have a good clue as to who you are without fear if what others think, which is not easy by the way, then you are ready to define the parameters of your life. You are ready to choose who you want to be around, including whether to have old friends or family continue to absorb your time, or disassociate and find new friends who share your values. I will reiterate this one more time, life is short. It seems like I was just a young boy full of hope and dreams just yesterday and now I find myself in my 7th decade. It is your life and only you can define how to live it, so do that!

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Thursday, December 02, 2010

Chop, Chop, Chop!

My cute furry assistant
My furry assistant & I packed up the last orders of '10 from my Etsy shop this morning.
Packaging up my Etsy orders
They didn't have the regular Kraft foam-board I always use to protect the prints
so I bought black instead.
Etsy orders
I decorated them with some of my 'Christmassy' stamps and white ink.
My furry supervisor on a break.
Here's my cute assistant taking a little break to look at the birds outside.
Thank you so much to all of you that bought my art this year!!!

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Photography Tips for Beginners

Photography is a fascinating subject because its spectrum of uses and disciplines levels is so diverse. You can become a novice photographer with as little as £25 worth of equipment; taking photographs for fun. Equally you can spend thousands upon thousands of pounds as a professional photographer.

Photography is also a subject in which you can never stop learning – this is because the skills required to practice it well are also extremely diverse.

representation of photo that takes advantage of photography tips for beginners

Photography Tips for Beginners

Regardless of your level of expertise, there is a serious amount of fun and enjoyment to be had from practicing photography.

In this article we are going to assume you are a beginner, and will provide a list of photography tips for beginners to give you a broad view of how best to go about learning and practicing photography.

Photography Tips for Beginners

We have categorized our photography tips for beginners into several sub-sections so that depending where abouts you are on your photography journey, you can easily apply this guide to your situation, and hopefully pick up some useful tips as starting points to further learning.

Photography Tips for Beginners: Equipment

Whilst its very easy to start learning and practicing photography on a budget, equipment is something that you should think about seriously. It may be that you plan to spread out your investment in equipment over a long period of time, but as the saying goes: always use the right tools for the job.

Which type of Camera should you buy?

there are lots of different types of cameras on the market and they range massively in price. Budget will always play an important part in your choice of camera, but some other things you should think about are:

  • features – does it do everything you need it to do? Is it designed for the area of photography you are interested in?
  • Size – is the size and weight of the camera appropriate for the sort of places you are going to be using it?
  • Expandability – Assuming you are a beginner, you photography requirements may change drastically as you grow in experience – is the camera capable of being expanded to suit your needs?

Tripod Stand

If you are interested in taking scenery photographs or other subjects that require concentration and patience, a tripod may be a good purchase. It will enable you to get a very steady shot. It will also allow you to have everything set up correctly in anticipation for your subject to become available.

Photography Tips for Beginners: Subject Matter

Subject matter is an area where there is a lot of photography tips for beginners. Its easy to decide that you like taking pictures of a certain subject – people for example – and then give no more thought to it. There is however much more thought to be given to subject matter.

Firstly, its a good idea to keep an open mind about the subjects you will photograph – for example if you like taking shots of people, nature may also appeal to you.

Once you have a few ideas in mind for subject matter, its a good idea to make a note on these on paper, or at least to keep a mental note of them. That way, when you are out with your camera, you will be alert to those subjects becoming available.

If you have a physical list, you can also “tick off” or make notes when you get shots in each particular area of interest.

Don’t rule out subjects because they are not visually appealing to you in every day life. Some of the most interesting aspects of photography – such as light and composition can add an entirely new layer to an otherwise uninspiring scene.

Photography Tips for Beginners: Composition

Once you have purchased your equipment and have a good idea of the sort of things you are interested in photographing, its time to really get out there and start shooting.

This is where the fun starts and you will really start learning all about the various aspects of a good photograph. Composition is one of the key foundations and of all the photography tips for beginners, its probably one of the most important.

Composition is the word used to describe the layout of a photograph – the positioning of each of the features in a scene, in relation to each other.

For the viewer, composition is ultimately about balance and attraction. A good stating point when thinking about balance is the famous rule of thirds. This rule will have you separate the view from your camera into 9 equal parts. The intersection of each line in that separation denotes a focal point for the viewer. Subjects should be aligned with those focal points.

For more complex shots you can use the rule of thirds and the alignment of features with line intersections to lead the viewers eye through the scene that you have captured.

Having said all of that, its good to read up on the principals of composition theory, let it sink in and then simple get out there and start snapping. In reality, when you look at the photographs you have taken, you should have a natural feel for the composition. It will come in the form of how the photograph makes you feel. If it has a bad composition it will generally feel unbalanced and not as aesthetically pleasing.

Photography Tips for Beginners: Exposure

Exposure is controlled by several factors including the speed of the shutter on your camera and the size of the lense on your camera when it opens (or the aperture). It is a vast and complicated subject that you will learn more and more about as you delve into the world of photography.

In simple terms though, the exposure is about how much light you let in whilst taking a photograph and how long you let that light in for. Taking a night scene for example would demand a long exposure time. With limited available light you would want to intake as much of it as possible.

On the other hand, taking a photograph of a fast moving subject such as a moving race car, you would want a very short exposure in order for the camera to capture the car before it had moved and blurred the shot (unless of course that was your intention).

Exposure is also an area that can bring much enjoyment from experimenting with. You can produce all sorts of wonderful effects by manipulating exposure – such as blurring high speed objects or creating light effects with nigh-time cityscapes.

Further reading

Hopefully these photography tips for beginners have given you some food for thought as well as some ideas to put into practice. If your interset has been sparked and you would like to find out more about a particular area mention in this article, we would recommend “110 Perfect Photography Tips for Beginners” by written by Alan Turnrose and available online from Amazon.

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Tänään on 30.04.2017 10:14 ja nimipäiviään viettävät: Mirja, Miia, Mira, Mirva, Mirjami, Mirka; Mirkka, Mirjam ja Mia. MOBIILIVERSIO M.BLOGIVIRTA.FI

Universal Rule: Macbook Pro hiccups

Julkaistu: · Päivitetty:

After using the new Macbook Pro for two weeks of so, I have mostly good experiences, but also some problems have turned up. What is interesting about the MBP is that when you are using it, it seems quite large, even big - plenty of room for typing, using the trackpad and working on the screen - but when you look at the machine, especially closed, on a table, it seems small, almost diminutive. It is probably the rounded edges and the aluminium color which produce this effect. The problems which I have had are twofold. I'm using the machine lid closed on my desk, connected to an external display and through a USB 1.0 hub to a keyboard and a mouse. (The MBP needs to be connected to the power supply to use the machine like this - this is the same as with the TiBook.) I had a single instance when the machine was not waking up when pressing the mouse button or keys on the external keyboard. Fortunately, this problem never appeared again. But there is another problem which appears once in a while. When woken from the sleep, the external display starts to switch on, goes off, wakes again, goes off, etc. The display does not function properly until disconnected and reconnected, or until the display (not the MBP) is put to sleep and then waken up. You can use define the "sleep display" command to one of the corners of the screen to do this easily. Perhaps connected to this "waking display" problem is the occasionally slow startup when connected to a video projector - my old TiBook can do it faster. But this doesn't happen always, and may be due to some software settings (PowerPoint of the new MS Office etc.). I would imagine these problems will soon be fixed in a software update. At least they are quite minor, and don't much diminish the joy of using the MBP.

Avainsanat: macintosh you video usb update they table startup starts some software small slow single screen problems problem pro power old need ms machine like large keys joy it imagine effect easily desk connected button big


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Celebrated Engineers and Researchers Presented with the Wesley W. Horner Award

January 30, 2015

Steven C. Chapra, Ph.D., F.ASCE; Kyle F. Flynn, Aff.M.ASCE; and J. Christopher Rutherford are the recipients of the Wesley W. Horner Award for the paper “Parsimonious Model for Assessing Nutrient Impacts on Periphyton-Dominated Streams,” published in the June 2014 issue of  ASCE’s Journal of Environmental Engineering.

 The Wesley W. Horner Award recognizes papers that have contributed to the areas of hydrology, urban drainage, or sewerage.

In this nominated work, researchers illustrate how parsimonious process–based models can be used to assess the impact of nutrients on shallow periphyton-dominated streams. After a brief overview of previous research, a simple model is developed to predict periphyton levels below a point nutrient loading to a uniform geometry, steady-state stream. The model is then used to address 2 eutrophication management questions. First, it is shown how simple models can be employed for nutrient loading calculations, that is, to determine the nutrient loadings necessary to maintain periphyton below nuisance levels downstream of a point source. Then, it is shown how the model can be used to establish nutrient criteria to directly calculate the required in-stream nutrient concentrations to achieve the same objective.

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Inside The Bills

Gragg recovered from knee injury

Posted by Chris Brown on April 27, 2013 – 6:14 pm

Bills seventh round pick Chris Gragg is a TE-H-back type out of Arkansas who had a knee injury, but showed he recovered from it in pre-draft testing at the NFL Combine.

Gragg ran a 4.5 40-time, had a 37.5 inch vertical and a 10’5″ broad jump, showing his explosion was still there. I’d expect him to be used as a move tight end in Buffalo’s offensive system.

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| October 3, 2010, 11:23 pm

Avs sneak over the salary cap floor

According to our geeky friends at, the Avalanche is now officially over the NHL’s salary cap floor of $43.4 million.

While they aren’t infallible (they didn’t have Mark Olver and his salary on the books when I checked Sunday night), even without his minimum-wage deal, the Avs had a cap-averaged payroll right now of $44,071,066.
One of the things a lot of people forgot (me included) is that Tom Preissing’s contract is still on the books, for the next two years.

The Avs bought out the final year of Preissing’s contract, but the Avs still must have a hit of $916,667 this year and next. A lot of people forgot about that near $1 million on the books.

A lot of you have asked if, when Peter Mueller goes on injured reserve as expected, his $2 million cap hit will come off the books? The answer is yes — but only if the Avs choose to do do. The Avs have the choice to apply for long-term injury relief if he is expected out for 24 or more days. But they don’t have to. With Colorado still having the lowest payroll in the league right now (doesn’t it seem weird that teams like Edmonton and Florida and Nashville have higher payrolls right now?), they don’t have to apply for the relief.

Jonas Holos, by the way, will earn $785,000.

| October 3, 2010, 4:49 pm

Duchene and Stewart: No worries. Plus, more on Stoa demotion

Well, the final cuts were made today and players seemed relieved the preseason is now over. The results on the ice (2-5, 11 goals scored) were less than stellar.
But Matt Duchene and Chris Stewart, at least, aren’t worried about that, nor the near-term future.

And a few words from No. 25, who didn’t record a point in five games.

It was a tough day for Ryan Stoa, no question about it. Just a week ago, he was talked about as a possible replacement for Peter Mueller at left wing on the second line. Today, he was back on a plane to Cleveland for another stint with the Lake Erie Monsters. Joe Sacco had some interesting things to say about Stoa, and why he didn’t make it. Click here to read them.

Stoa effectively was beaten out for a job by Phillipe Dupuis and Mark Olver, and that’s a real setback for him at this stage of his career. With as much AHL (and NHL) experience as he’s already had, for those two guys to step in and beat him out is a definite setback.

I enjoyed talking with Olver today. He’s definitely excited at sticking, and I could tell the kid has a real burning desire. I think he’s going to be one of those good heart-and-soul guys for a team and will work his butt off. He’s from Burnaby, B.C., too, where a certain former Av is from. When I told him that his practice-facility locker is the same one Joe Sakic used for years, you should have seen the kid’s face light up.

To follow Adrian Dater on Twitter, click here. To follow the Post’s Avalanche Twitter news feed only, click here.

Categories: General Avs
| October 3, 2010, 12:22 pm

Avs cut Stoa, Cohen and Bordeleau

Avs just made three cuts – Ryan Stoa, Colby Cohen and Patrick Bordeleau. That means Jonas Holos has made the team on defense. It also means Phillipe Dupuis and Mark Olver also appear to have made it -at least as long as Peter Mueller and David Koci are still out.
Also, Milan Hejduk is out day to day with a bad back.

Categories: General Avs
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