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Finding The ‘One Thing’ In Life

By J. Paul Lombardo One of my favorite movies, (and its sequel, too), that almost always stops my channel surfing when I’m doing that is, the Billy Crystal, David Stern, Jack Palance Western, comedy, City Slickers. As many times as I have seen these movies, and even though I can recite most of the movie script, it never stops me from laughing out loud when the parts I find funny (and that’s a lot of laughing), occur. There was one conversation in the first movie which showed the soft, gentle side of the appeared rough, tough, “leathery” character, Curly (Palance) when he was ...

What’s With The Warmer Temperatures?

Let’s pick up where we left off 148 weeks ago. Not even you, faithful reader of this column, will recall that we were well into March 2023. By turning on the snow machine then, Mother Nature appeared to be trying to make up for a lack of snow during the preceding winter. “No,” we told Mother Nature that day. Winter sports enthusiasts of all ages need snow in December, January, and February. But in March, it was too late to make up for what hadn’t fallen from the sky when we needed it. * * * Fast forward to this winter. Children are looking forward to building snow forts, ...

For Old Times’ Sake

An old friend of mine, pretty much of the same vintage, sent me an email suggesting that the words of Auld Lang Syne (roughly translated as meaning “for old times’ sake”) might be an appropriate topic for a column at New Year’s. I will give it a try. Most of the research I have done attributes the song to the Scottish poet, Robert Burns in 1788. There were other similar songs written prior to that, but he made it famous. The other person who made it famous was Guy Lombardo and his band, the Royal Canadians, who started playing it on New Year’s Eve in this country in ...

Beware Lessons Of MTG

I am one who likes to keep up to date with news and politics, but I tend to avoid the back and forth soap opera that comes from the personality and who said what of Washington. But lately I haven’t been able to avoid thinking about what has become of Marjorie Taylor Greene. The once MAGA loyal to a fault bombastic warrior of the House has decided to call it quits after speaking out against Trump. MTG has made the rounds on TV on a forgiveness tour, cleaning up her appearance while also voicing her objections to Trump fighting the release of the Epstein files. She has been doing this ...

Fingerprints From The Same Hand

If issues are only seen through a partisan lens, you’ll miss the fingerprints besmirching them. There’s the issue of billions in alleged fraud perpetrated by Islamic Somalis in Minneapolis ripping off taxpayers through phony Medicaid and autism claims. As Democrat Governor Tim Walz curries favor with this burgeoning voting bloc led by Ilhan Ohmar, the classically sarcastic Babylon Bee ran a headline saying how city officials are considering a name change for the Minnesota Vikings to the Somali Pirates. There’s the issue of Zohran Mamdani assuming the mayor’s office in ...

State Needs Diversity In Energy

For manufacturers across New York, abundant and reliable energy is not a luxury or a choice. Around the clock power, 365 days a year, drives daily operations, keeps us competitive and allows us to grow our workforce and continue investing in communities. This is why we strongly support an all-of-the-above approach to energy policy—one that embraces natural gas, nuclear energy, emerging clean technologies, and above all, the core principles of affordability and reliability. This approach is critical now more than ever. New York’s energy systems are facing unprecedented challenges. ...