LETTER from RICHARD STERNBERG Stay Vigilant! But There’s Actually Some Good News This marks the 50th column I’ve written in this series. It’s hard to believe on many levels: How long we have been restricted or locked down, that I am still doing this weekly when we figured we would need to do this for at best a few months, that there remain new things to write about (in fact, every week brings new information), that my publisher makes me…
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Columns - Page 72
LETTER from TERRY BERKSON Brussell Sprouts & Billy Joel Brussels sprouts are just about the last thing we harvest from our garden. I can remember many a deer season when I’d walk out in the snow-covered yard to get some. Alice likes to simmer them in chicken broth and later pour some honey on them. Several years ago I drove over to our local nursery to pick up some vegetable seedlings. Alice was weeding when I got home and she…
BOUND VOLUMES February 18, 2021 200 YEARS AGO Perjury – A fellow by the name of Herrrington was indicted and tried at the Court of General Sessions held in this Village (Cooperstown) on February 8, 1821, on the charge of Perjury, for having sworn in a vote for Governor at the last election, without possessing any freehold estate. He was convicted and sentenced to seven years hard labor in the State Prison. Thus, one man at least, has paid dear…
HOMETOWN HISTORY February 18, 2021 150 Years Ago Learn All You Can – Never omit an opportunity to learn all you can. Sir Walter Scott said that even in a stagecoach he always found somebody that could tell him something that he did not know. Conversation is frequently more useful than books for purposes of knowledge. It is therefore a mistake to be morose and silent among persons whom you think to be ignorant, for a little sociability on your…
LETTER from RICHARD STERNBERG Vaccine? Terrific. But What About Treatment I was asked to give a talk at the Center for Continuing Adult Learning recently in Oneonta. It was supposed to be on vaccine development and distribution, but two days before I was to give it, I was asked by a participant to address treatment of active COVID-19. Up to this point I have avoided discussing this because each physician chooses treatment for each patient based on many factors, including…
HOMETOWN HISTORY February 11, 2021 150 Years Ago Home & Vicinity: It is fortunate for people desiring to locate in Oneonta that plenty of desirable building lots are in market at reasonable prices. Buyers can take their choice as to streets and localities. E.R Ford, T.D. & H. Watkins. S. Huntington, S. Wood, C.L. Michael. H. Wilcox, J.H. Peters, H. Baker and S. Parish all have good lots ready for purchasers, many of them finely located. All of these men…
BOUND VOLUMES February 11, 2021 200 YEARS AGO Interesting Memoranda: It is 328 years since John Cabot first discovered North America; 236 years since Sir Walter Raleigh more perfectly explored it; 240 years since the first permanent colony was planted in Virginia; 208 years since the founding of New Amsterdam, now New York, was settled; 200 years since the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth; 44 years since the commencement of our national existence; and 31 years sincethe adoption of…
LETTER from TERRY BERKSON The Jumping Chicken Of Otsego County Got a call the other day from my friend Charlie in Brooklyn. He said that he was thinking of getting a couple of chickens to keep in his apartment so that he could get really fresh eggs. I got on my high horse and asked, “What do you know about raising chickens?” “I’m good with birds,” Charlie countered. “Remember how I taught my parrot to stand on his head for…
LETTER from JIM ATWELL No Need For A Brick How’d it happen? Suddenly it’s 2020, I’m 82, twice a widower, living in a comfortable assisted living home. Well cared-for. But, essentially, alone. The pandemic has us 18 residents quarantined, even from one another. Lots of time alone in one’s room, even with meals brought to us on trays. Just now, however, despite prescribed aloneness, I have kept my room crowded with vividly remembered adults; ones who, because or in spite…
HOMETOWN HISTORY February 4, 2021 150 Years Ago Home and Vicinity – Donnati’s Great Comet will be again visible in the year 3858. Those who wish to see it may cut out this paragraph for reference. (Ed: 1,837 years hence as of 2021) H.P. Skinner has done another good thing. This he has placed a large and attractive street lamp in front of his store door. Call in for he won’t skin[er] you on a deal. Morris Brothers pay more…
