By Joe Rankin A guy down the road has been working in his woods for the last couple of years. He’s cleaning them up-—and I mean cleaning. He cuts the underbrush, takes out the dead trees, the downed logs, the dead branches. Okay, I confess. The neatnik in me is envious. Part of me would…

“Saturday Night Live” recently did a sketch that mocked Kanye West’s latest awards show-related apology, which came two and a half weeks after Kanye rose in protest at the Grammys when alt-rock legend Beck beat out R&B star Beyoncé for Album of the Year. The begrudgingly contrite tweet was funny in part because it came…

If you like Pink Floyd, then head to the Pickle Barrel on Thursday night to see the next best thing to Floyd: The Machine. I have seen The Machine numerous times and they put on a great show. If you close your eyes, you would swear you were listening to Floyd, and when you open…

By Tom Joyce “Give everyman his DEW!”  Tullamore D.E.W. that is. How’s that for a whiskey slogan? It’s not as effective as being mentioned in a country or rap song but for 1873 it’s pretty impressive. Daniel E. Williams used his initials to market this Irish Whiskey after rising though the ranks at the distillery,…

By Dom Cioffi I first started hearing about the product with the code name of “Ginger” in the early months of 2001. Secretive press releases called it a “paradigm shift in the way humans will live” and “the next big thing.” I craved any and all information about this mysterious device, but little was available.…

By Dom Cioffi I learned at a very young age that a sport coat is a highly necessary life item. After all, you never know when someone is going to die or get married or ask you to interview for a new job. In each of these cases, a sport coat provides a level of…

By Daris Howard I couldn’t get off work until almost 5 p.m., and since it was February, that meant I couldn’t get my scout troop to the campsite until after dark. We had prepared everything we could the Tuesday before, so it was pretty much just a matter of loading up and heading on our…

Anyone growing up in today’s world would be pretty amazed to learn what a person went through to talk on the telephone back in my youth. I am pretty sure they would not want to take a step back in time for that experience. As fond as I am of the “good ol’ days” I…

What do you do when you’ve already watched all the good movies on Netflix Instant? Reevaluate your life, maybe? No, you move on to the digital movie library at Amazon Instant Video. Like Netflix, Amazon.com offers a subscription service for unlimited streaming access to a collection of thousands of movies and TV shows, including its…

By Janet Pesaturo My town had the job of removing a dead beaver from a culvert pipe cage, a rather sad and odorous affair, but also an opportunity. I alerted the usual suspects–there’s nothing like a rotting carcass to bring camera trappers together–and we moved the body into the woods and set up a few…

Do you make your bed in the morning? And if not, do you think you’re a terrible human being? I myself do not make the bed. Since I don’t enjoy doing chores, I do them only as necessary—and making the bed has always struck me as perhaps the most useless of all the prescribed “daily…

Garden State Radio is not only a band not-to-be-missed, it’s a concert experience not-to-be-missed. They play all the top hits and have the best lights in the business. They describe their show as the ultimate experience in sight and sound, an audio visual event like no other. They transform a venue’s atmosphere. Having seen a…

By Carolyn Dean Let’s be honest, with a shortened amount of sunlight and days when the thermometer barely rises above 10 degrees, going outside can be miserable without proper preparation. Dylan Davis, 23 from Butler, Penn., knows this firsthand. He recently was one of nine finishers in the Winter Death race held in Pittsfield, Vt.,…

By Tony Crespi It’s really cold. Really, really cold! My teeth are chattering and my feet feel frozen. It’s just bitter cold out there! Now, understand, a lifetime of mountain escapes and repeated bouts of frostbite, when I worked as a race coach and ski school supervisor, explain the problem. Still, if you are a…

By Dom Cioffi My son’s fifth grade basketball team was just beaten in the first round of the playoffs to officially end their 2014-2015 season. Like all defeats, this one was difficult to swallow. But as any athlete will likely admit, losing doesn’t have to detract from all the great experiences enjoyed during the season.…