News Briefs 5.14.03
Our expert couldn’t tell the difference Plenty of Rochester’s indigenous exports have put the Flower City on the big map. Bursting with Rochester pride, I love to see hometown products hit the market. I’ve got a few ideas of my own, too. How about Zweigle’s White Hot — the other whitening toothpaste? Or Genesee Cream…
Reader Feedback 5.14.03
Invest in schools As I began to read Charles Deering’s comments on the Rochester school budget (The Mail, April 23), I settled in to enjoy his sarcasm as he imitated ignoramuses who believe that schools are not the most important investment we can make. Imagine my shock when I realized that his ludicrous comments were…
Gates: a gateway for canal development?
True or false? Gates is a Canal Town. Trick question: T and F are both correct. Not that the bedroom-and-strip-mall township just outside the city limits is a Canal Town in the Realtor’s sense. Gates will never be taken for Fairport, Brockport, or others that have highly developed commercial zones right on the Erie…
Great moments in Rochester’s future: 2003-2013
A City Newspaper special project about public stuff you should care about Folks, in times like these, it’s easy to get down about the state of our fair area. The economic picture looks bleak at present, and if you peer far enough into the future, it begins to resemble Picasso’s “Guernica.” But despair not!…
Big debt downtown
Economic development can be a gamble between public officials and private real-estate developers. When the gamble pays off, everybody wins. The developer attracts tenants to a property, such as businesses that create jobs, pay taxes, and improve the general economic climate in the area. The developer makes a profit. And the public entity that…
“Rags” becomes riches at Blackfriars
Ragswas a legendary Broadway flop. Starring opera diva Teresa Stratas, it had alot going for it. It was based on a bookabout Jewish immigrants by Joseph Stein, who wrote Fiddler on the Roof.It had music by Eastman School alumnus Charles Strouse, who composed operas and shows like Annie and Bye, Bye Birdie.It had lyrics by…
Down with the clones
When I was about eight or nine, my dad got sick for the first time I could remember — I think it was the Hong Kong Flu or something. I remember being pretty concerned, seeing him abed all day in a fairly weakened state. But then, a few days into the illness, he perked up…
A Christopher Guest folkumentary
The historic success of This is Spinal Tap, directed by Rob Reiner way back in 1984, demonstrates the curious position of parody in a culture that now seems to have lost any sense of irony. The film so precisely nailed its ostensible subject, a horrible British rock band (though neither discernibly better or worse than…
How sweet it is
From the raunchy wail of his slide guitar to his gutsy, truck full-o’-sugary-gravel voice, George Thorogood is a musical icon, a man who embodies the enduring link between the blues and rock ‘n’ roll. And his new album, Ride ‘Til I Die, is standard-issue Thorogood — simple, straight-ahead, rockin’ blues. “Technically, I learned the…
I kissed Ruth Brown
It was with an odd feeling of sorrow that I discovered the Black Dahlia murder had finally been solved. I always found an odd comfort in her death’s horrific black-and-white savagery, and in the fact that some things are unsolvable. This doesn’t make me a bad person, does it? Maybe she won’t haunt me so…
It’s not your problem
Only about a quarter of Rochester’s 9th graders graduate four years later — and only 4 percent of those freshmen get Regents diplomas. In 2001, only 11 percent of Rochester’s 8th graders passed the state math exam. If you live in a Rochester suburb, that’s not your problem. It’s not the State of New…
