Shooting at 327 Second Street

Albany is not a large city (not even 100,000 people) and so it’s easy to recognize people from the news. Officer William Bonanni was watching over the scene from the outside, monitoring onlookers. Bonanni is a bit notorious in this small city for his own legal problems. Still, he was quite accomodating and friendly enough to approach with a few general questions about what had happened.

Woman missing for 18 years located

Lately I’ve been reading a lot about crime (not quite sure why, but I usually develop an interest in something for a few weeks before it fizzles out). Each day for the past week I’ve been watching episodes of Cold Case Files on youtube and this morning awoke to a disturbing dream that my apartment [...]

The release of Abdelbaset Ali Al-Megrahi

It’s an image to that me is as indelible as any published in the media during my lifetime. The cockpit of a jumbo jet liner laying on its side on a Scottish field like a  discarded, crushed soda can. The words Maid of the Seas,  still legible below the cockpit windows, and despite a six-mile [...]

Murder where I jog past

On Sunday I drove home a teammate from a softball game.  Across the spot where I let her out we noticed Albany Police had cordoned off an apartment on Western Avenue. I haven’t seen it much in life, but I know when you see the yellow tape, it’s usually a crime scene. For some reason, [...]

George Sodini’s tormented blog lives online

For the last week I’ve been reading with interest – perhaps morbid – about George Sodini, the 48-year-old mass murderer in Pittsburgh, who killed three women at an LA Fitness. I’ve written a little bit about him for this blog but have yet to really delve into what this incredibly lonely and angry man let [...]

More sketchiness with the neighbors on the corner

I’ve written about them – and judging by the stats few have read – but the family on the corner has reached a new level of bizarre. When I went out this morning to take my dog for a walk I noticed some marker-scrawled graffiti on the side of their house. On the north side [...]

What does daytime commercials say about us

I’ve had the last three days off from work and have spent an inordinate amount of it in front of our elderly, wooden-cased television set. I have to say, daytime TV is really one of the most depressing things. Lots of commercials for the down and out; Cash For Gold, class action lawsuit attorney services, [...]

Kevin Youkilis has crossed the line

A day after I posted about how I think Kevin Youkilis has no basis for being angry about being plunked due to the fact that he girds himself with a big red bullet proof elbow pad and hangs out over the plate, Major League Baseball’s biggest whiner has charged the mound tonight in a game [...]

Stop crying, Youkilis. You and everyone else wearing an elbow pad do not deserve a free pass.

Tonight, in the bottom of the fourth inning between the Red Sox and Tigers at Fenway Park, Detroit pitcher Edwin Jackson came inside on Kevin Youkilis, drilling him in the side with a hard fastball. The normally dramatic corner-man grunted and mad a gesture towards Jackson, perhaps hoping to frighten him in return. The AL’s [...]

I wish I was one of hip folks in the Smirnoff commercials

I love these new Smirnoff Ice commercials that showcase young, fit, free-spirited people doing crazy things to beat the duldrums of summer life. I just saw the one posted above, where these whippersnappers escape the sweltering summer heat. I guess one could say I come across as a bit bitter, but it’s really not about [...]