Big Chuck
- Big Chuck
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- Monday, September 13, 2010
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I Was Just Thinking: Oneonta buses offer tribute to Insetta’s legacy
Last Friday afternoon, my wife and I were walking in front of the Huntington Library. It was 88 degrees by the NBT clock/thermometer. All of a sudden a young man burst by us running as fast as he could. His shirttails were flailing along behind him, beads of sweat ran down his red face and his armload of books was jostling around so they were on the brink of ending up on the sidewalk. He was waving his right hand furiously. It took me a moment to realize the object of this frantic pageant playing out before my eyes.
- Monday, August 30, 2010
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I Was Just Thinking: Area had its fair share of female 'crack makers'
After her campaign for president, Hillary Clinton was famous for saying that, although she didn't win, she "helped put 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling." Let's talk about three "crack makers" in our own area. Two are gone, but one is very much still with us.
- Monday, August 16, 2010
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I Was Just Thinking: Upcoming show will connect me with my grandma
I have been thinking about my grandmother a lot lately. The one I never knew. Her name was Sarah Day D'Imperio, and she married my grandfather a century ago. She was a Unadilla girl. Old-timers, and they get fewer and fewer as the tempus fugit, remember her as the prettiest girl in town. I can vouch for this, because of the one or two hand-tinted old portraits I have seen of her.
- Monday, August 2, 2010
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I Was Just Thinking: Dads are doomed when daughters become brides
Stop the presses. All is good in the world. The gusher of oil polluting the Gulf of Mexico has been stanched (for the time being), unemployment is down to 9.5 from 10.2 percent (still awful), Spain has just banned bullfighting (at least in Catalonia), Betty White is still everybody's sweetheart and Chelsea Clinton is now (finally) Mrs. Chelsea Mezvinsky.
- Monday, July 19, 2010
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I Was Just Thinking: Searching for a brand that fits the community
Saddle up, pardner. It's branding time at the ol' Oneonta corral! On Aug. 5, a new branding logo will be revealed to all at a special ceremony at the Oneonta Theatre. Branding is the idea that a community should have a slogan, logo or saying that is concise, sharp and so focused so that the image of the community comes immediately to mind.
- Tuesday, July 6, 2010
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I Was Just Thinking: Time to check on the electronic mailbag
Six months of doing this column. Boy, that went fast! You can’t say The Daily Star doesn’t reach far and wide. (The online readership is amazing!) I thought it would be fun, say twice a year, to take a sampling from the (e)mailbag.
- Monday, June 21, 2010
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I Was Just Thinking: Hitting milestone helps remember parts of journey
I hit a bit of a personal milestone last week. I spoke at my 50th New York state historical society meeting. I have been on a whirlwind book tour speaking about my Upstate books since 2008, and last week the counter clicked past No. 50. I have spoken in old restored firehouses (Stamford), historic homes (Herman Melville's home in Lansingburg), one-room schoolhouses (Kings Ferry), restored train depots (Oxford), old churches (Fabius), grand old Victorian homes (East Rochester), restored village halls (Dryden) and ancient Grange Halls (Fly Creek). And yes, even a nostalgic 1930s ice cream parlor (Oneonta).
- Monday, June 7, 2010
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I Was Just Thinking: Future as hard to predict now as in my day
Recently I had the pleasurable experience of addressing a student assembly at the Sidney High School. I graduated from SHS in 1967. When I asked what they were looking for as far as a message was concerned, I was told to keep it “motivational and inspirational.” After my introduction, I approached the speaker’s lectern and looked out over the large student body and it hit me. In an instant.
- Monday, May 24, 2010
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I Was Just Thinking: Holiday meanings have been masked over time
What has happened to our holidays? Can anybody name the date of Washington or Lincoln's births? Of course not. We do know we celebrate a wacky hybrid known as Presidents Day on the third Monday of February each year, but the reasoning behind that is to guarantee another three-day weekend for federal employees (as dictated by the Uniform Holidays Act of 1968).
- Monday, May 10, 2010
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I Was Just Thinking: Conversations with a local history-maker
Every day, history is made in Bloomville, New York. No, really. History is made there! George Haynes Jr. is the owner of Catskill Castings. I stopped by for a visit with George last week, and all the while we chatted, we were literally surrounded by history. George’s company is the sole maker of New York state historical markers _ you know, the blue and yellow signs ubiquitous on country roads and city parkways.
- Monday, April 26, 2010
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I Was Just Thinking: Memories of my old friend Kate Smith
Saturday will be a very big day for a very big lady with a very big voice. Kate Smith, she of the great girth and the legendary voice, will finally receive the most singular honor any American can achieve. "The Great Kate" is getting her own postage stamp.
- Monday, March 29, 2010
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I Was Just Thinking: Rogues' gallery of lieutenant governors past
The funhouse carnival that is Albany these days is, in my opinion, about ready to present us with another gift. Another unelected governor!
- Monday, March 15, 2010
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I Was Just Thinking: I'm more than a little Irish
They say everybody is a "little bit Irish" on St. Patrick's Day. Because my last name has two capital letters, an apostrophe and ends in a vowel, everybody assumes that I am a paesano through and through. Well, I am always looking for a meatball with my name on it, but on St. Paddy's Day, I have a lot more in common with an Irish jig than I do with an Italian tarantella.
- Sunday, February 28, 2010
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I Was Just Thinking: Sock hop brings back memories of dancing days
Recently, my radio station, WDOS, was one of the hosts of a giant 1950s sock hop at the Oneonta Moose Club. It was a charity event, and it sold out immediately. It was great fun.
- Monday, February 15, 2010
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I Was Just Thinking: Smoking wasn't always taboo
Recently I had a chance to visit with the "younger set" for a while. A set, unfortunately, that is getting much, much younger, or I am getting much, much older. A funny thing came up: TV cigarette advertising.
- Monday, February 1, 2010
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I Was Just Thinking: Near or far, tragedy is tough to take
It has been a rough couple of weeks since we last communicated. We said goodbye to two young people who really made a difference. Marine Cpl. Nick Uzenski, 26, died in combat in Bar Now Zad, Afghanistan, on Jan. 10. He died in a place about as far away from his home in Franklin as you can get on a map.
- Monday, January 18, 2010
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I Was Just Thinking: 'Final exits' of other celebrities also of note
While the headlines last year certainly belonged to the marquee obituaries of Ted Kennedy, Michael Jackson, Patrick Swayze, Walter Cronkite and others, I'd like to give a final month-by-month tip of the hat to a dozen who left the national scene in 2009, but maybe, somehow, we missed their final exits.
- Monday, January 4, 2010
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I Was Just Thinking: 'Big Chuck' brings experiences, ideas from behind mic to new column gig
“HELLO, THERE!” Hey, wait a minute. I’m a radio guy! When I first received an invitation to join The Daily Star as a columnist, I had to stop and think about it.
