The Daily Star, Oneonta, NY - otsego county news, delaware county news, oneonta news, oneonta sports

Columns

Related Photos

Discussion

COMMENTING ON STORIES:

Welcome to our story comments feature. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including the unpopular ones. We only ask that you keep your conversations clean, civil and on the topic of the story you are commenting on.

Coinciding with our websites redesign, we launched our new story comments feature through Disqus.

Disqus gives users the ability to log into our story comments feature so that they may be able to track their conversations, receive emails when their comments get a reply or to even have your comments update onto your Facebook or Twitter accounts.

For the time being, our story comments feature will continue to have the ability to post comments anonymously. We reserve the right to require registration in the future using your name and verified email address.

Not all comments are deemed printable. Some are disqualified at the newspaper’s discretion for a number of different reasons. Please follow our Online Rules of Conduct at all times.

RULES OF CONDUCT:

We reserve the right to remove comments that are unacceptable, to wit:

1. False and inacurate statements.
2. Personal attacks. Explicit name-calling.
3. Harassing, harmful, vulgar, obscene and defamatory language.
4. Threatening statements or statements that suggest violence.
5. Hate speech of any kind.
6. Intolerant comments on religion, race, age, gender, sexual preference or disabilities.
7. Accusations of criminal activity.
8. Content that is harmful to children and minors in any way.
9. References to any type of sexual activity and other private matters.
10. Random and inflammatory statements that are off topic.
11. Advertising of any kind.
12. Typing in all caps.

WE ENCOURAGE REASONABLE AND COURTEOUS COMMENTS THAT:

1. Create conversation on issues of interest and concern to fellow readers and local community members.
2. Express opinions and contrarian views.
3. Stimulate debate with respectful language.
4. Stay within the boundaries of these rules.

WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO SUSPEND OR TERMINATE ACCESS FOR:

1. Violating any of these Online Rules of Conduct.
2. Deliberately disrupting discussions with repetitive messages, meaningless messages or spam.
3. Misrepresentation of identity or impersonating another user.

WE WELCOME:

1. Flagging violations of these rules that you observe to our attention.

MONITORING:

We monitor comments regularly Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Approval of comments outside of this time (including weekends) will be sporadic.
comments powered by Disqus
September 8, 2009

Travels with Uncle Chet: The search for a college gets started

COLUMBUS _ The little miscreant has only two years left in high school and we’re sweating the next step, that leap off the cliff, college.

Fortunately, she’s a good student. She tests well and ever since she took her preliminary college board exam, scores of schools have sent her letters and e-mails, inviting her to take a look.

We’ve kept these correspondences, on computer and in envelopes, mostly without reading them, but Sunday evening, we decided to go through the pile.

``Let’s see what you’ve got,’’ said Uncle Chet, our retired teacher. He was sitting on the couch and she spread brochures on the coffee table and rug before him, everything from Adelphi to Yale.

``Ah, Bryn Mawr,’’ he picked up a glossy sheet. ``I knew a girl who went to Bryn Mawr once.’’

``Why did she go only once?’’ I asked.

``Good question,’’ he winced at me. ``All I know is she was the smartest girl I ever went to ...’ ``Didn’t Hillary go to Bryn Mawr?’’’’ Hon interjected. ``Wellesley,’’ I said.

``That’s right.’’

``Well, they’re both hard to spell,’’ said Uncle Chet. ``If you ask me, if you can spell either one, they ought to let you in.’’

``We should probably start with state schools,’’ said Hon.

``Out-of-state schools are going to be just as bad as private schools,’’ said Uncle Chet. ``But the SUNY schools are good and they only cost an arm, not a leg. It really depends what you want to do,’’ as he looked at the student.

She shrugged, ``I wish I knew. It keeps changing.’’

``What do you like to do,’’ he asked.

``Nothing related to washing dishes,’’ I said.

``Thanks, Dad.’’

``Just kidding.’’

``No you’re not.’’

``She does like to argue,’’ I said. ``And she’s good at it.’’

``Lawyer,’’ he nodded. ``Well, almost anything will do for undergrad. You can go get a traditional liberal arts education, a smattering of everything, just like I did.’’

``Where did you go,’’ she asked.

``SUCO,’’ he said.

``He majored in sour hour,’’ I said.

``What’s sour hour?’’

``Only the first year,’’ he said. ``After that, it was just a minor.’’

``I think I want to go farther away than Oneonta,’’ she suggested.

``She wants to travel, see a little of the world,’’ Uncle Chet said to himself, sorting through the pile. ``Well, how about this one, Finlandia University?’’ ``Where’s that,’’ she asked.

``Finland, I guess,’’ he scanned the sheet, looking for an address.

``How about this one,’’ she was looking at a brochure for Cornell.

``Ivy League,’’ said Hon.

``What does that mean?’’

``Expensive,’’ I said.

``How expensive?’’ asked Hon.

``Well, let’s see,’’ I was at the laptop. ``Looks like ... $52,414 a year.’’

``Can we afford that,’’ the girl asked.

``For about 11 days,’’ I said. ``We’re getting nowhere fast, but I know how we can narrow this down,’’ Uncle Chet said to her. ``Take the computer and write a letter we can send to all these schools. Tell them a little about yourself, what you’d like to study, and how you don’t want to graduate under a mountain of debt. ``That’ll be our bait and we’ll see what we reel in.’’

___

Cooperstown News Bureau Reporter Tom Grace is traveling with his Uncle Chet, who he says is imaginary. Grace’s column appears every other week.

Text Only
Big Chuck D'Imperio

Cary Brunswick

Chuck Pinkey

Guest Column

Lisa Miller

Mark Simonson

Rick Brockway

Sam Pollak

William Masters
CSS6284.jpg

Additional Content
Join the Debate
Helium
Additional Resources
CNHI News Service

Poll

Do you think women should serve in front-line combat situations?

Yes
No
     View Results