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How Will We Spend 2026’s 525,600 Minutes?

The Broadway Play, Rent, based on the 1896 Opera La Boheme by Giacomo Puccini, Luigi Illica, and Giuseppe Giacosa, which made its first appearance on stage in 1994, told/tells the story of a group of “starving” artists living in Lower Manhattan’s East Village, trying to survive in the shadows of the HIV/AIDS epidemic/pandemic which became more prevalent in the mid-to-late 1970s. Rent, the Play, also became popular on the big screen, and starred many of the same stage performers who brought it to the big screen in 2005. Included in that cast were Idina Menzel, Jesse L. Martin, ...

Years Of Fulfilling Christmas Dreams

Marcy’s vacation week offers a holiday column excerpted from her book, Rounding Third … originally from 2006. Christmastime is pure nostalgia. Many of my holiday memories began with our children’s arrival. I will never forget the total exhaustion of falling into bed after filling the last stocking and cleaning up the toy construction evidence. The elves who visited our house weren’t super handy or organized. Depending on how successful last-minute wrapping and battery searches were, bedtime followed – during a lucky year at 2:00am. Often much later. I never felt as stringy ...

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

This axiom has been my belief since I can remember. It was a part of my upbringing. It was taught to me by my parents and reinforced by teachings from the Bible— “By their deeds you shall know them.” As kids we also soon learned that there are usually more “talkers” in the world than there are “doers.” People are to be judged more by what they do than by what they say. This translates, of course, into observing the actions vs. the words being daily issued by our President. He is always tweeting or saying things to get people stirred up, but he is also doing ...

Patience Is Needed For Chautauqua Lake

Chautauqua Lake is one of the most important assets our region has. We all want the quality of the lake to improve. The condition and use of the land around our lake are what have most dramatically impacted the quality of our lake water. Chautauqua Lake water quality began to decline over 200 years ago due to deforestation and industrial activities. Formal water sampling began here 88 years ago due to water quality concerns. More than 25 years ago, Chautauqua Lake was placed on the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s “impaired waters list” due to excessive ...

Ripley Solar Questions Persist

“There are several factors impacting the [Ripley Solar] project, including import tariffs, high interest rates and federal trade policies that bring uncertainty to cost of materials [that] have made this project not economically viable in its current state.” This was a sentence in a recent letter to Ripley landowners who have signed leases with ConnectGen, the developer of the 3000 acre solar project that has been looming over the southwest corner of Chautauqua County since 2018. There has been much opposition to the project from Ripley residents during that time but the ...

Taxing The Left Would Balance Budgets, Too

IRS data indicate that the top 1% of US taxpayers pay about 45% of all income taxes in the United States. The same data indicate that 49% of the US population contributes absolutely nothing. Yet we still hear the nonsensical “Tax the rich!” mantra on infinite replay (yawn). It started with Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto in 1848. Marx – the quintessential socialist who mooched off others all his life - thought that confiscating the earnings of productive people would be fun. Socialist movements always start with “Tax the rich!” and always end in economic ruin. It’s a ...