Uncategorized
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Tornado Warnings with Cake
It always rains on my birthday. That’s not a complaint or a lament. It’s just a fact. I know it’s going to happen, so I never plan anything weather-dependent for that day. Yesterday, Mother Nature provided the expected rain early in the day then, later on in the evening, she took things to the next… Continue reading
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Three Cheers for the Red, White, and Blue
The Buffalo Bills’ first preseason game is today. That means it’s time for this household’s time-honored annual tradition (started last year) of the Switching of the Flags. Old Glory, which has been displayed on the house since Memorial Day weekend, comes down, and the Bills flag goes up. The latter won’t be taken down until… Continue reading
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Like It’s 1999
Ever since I found that 1990s Orioles jacket a few days back, I started wondering where some of my old Baltimore caps were stashed away. I looked in the most obvious places and came up empty-handed. Tonight, on a whim, I decided to check the basement. Bingo! I found the cap I wore a lot… Continue reading
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This Highway Sponsored By: Mr. Madison’s War
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” William Faulkner Documentaries and articles about the War of 1812 tend to refer to it as a “forgotten war.” That’s probably true in most of the United States, but there are pockets of the country where the story of that war is intertwined with a community’s identity. In New… Continue reading
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Old Baseball Cards
Residing now in the same house I grew up in, I’m always coming across long-forgotten items from my childhood whenever I venture into the recesses of the basement, attic, or garage. Tonight, I discovered a cache of my old baseball cards from 1980. Most of the cards were of obscure utility players and guys who… Continue reading
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A Meeting of the Minds?
Seeing Jim Boeheim and Josh Allen standing next to each other shouldn’t seem so weird to me, but it does. Boeheim’s visit to Bills training camp reminds me of when I was in elementary school and I’d see one of my teachers out in public, in a store or something, and the scrambled contexts would… Continue reading
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Burn On, Big River
There is a saying that every great city has a great river. While the greatness of both cities and rivers is subjective, it is certainly true that most larger cities tend to be located on rivers; at least that’s the case here in the water-abundant Northeast. In New York, almost all of the state’s biggest… Continue reading
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Out of Mothballs
There was a point within my lifetime, when baseball was probably still a more popular sport among Americans than football. Personally, up until the 1990s, I cared a lot more about baseball than any other sport. The team I followed daily in the box scores and on TV whenever I could watch them was the… Continue reading
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A Secluded Beach
One of my favorite local places to walk is Sterling Nature Center. It’s just over the county line in Cayuga County, about a 20–25-minute drive from my house. (It took a bit longer to get there today as the nature center is just down the way from the local RenFaire, which is now in full… Continue reading
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Vegemite
This afternoon, I was one of many men at work across the world. It was business as usual. Then my phone buzzed with a text. “Who can it be now?” I asked myself, picking up the phone. It was a message from Jen: Edible cargo from down under? I was game to give it a… Continue reading
About Me
Researcher. Marketer. Teacher. Father of adult children and dogs. 20th Century holdover. Central New York native. Long-suffering Buffalo Bills fan. History nerd. Traveler. Vintage advertising enthusiast. Hat wearer.
a.k.a. V.J. 