In City’s limits
A bit of confusion, sometimes. When our managing editor Chad Oliveiri spoke to a class at the University of Rochester recently, some students said they were surprised that we were writing about suburbs like Chili and Mendon. Aren’t we a “city of Rochester” paper? Well, no, and we haven’t been for years. We…
Reader feedback 2.25.04
Choosing a school in the neighborhood Regarding Christine Carrie Fien’s article on the school-choice policy (“Home-school Advantage,” February 4): Some parents in the School 46 neighborhood are seeking a guarantee that neighborhood kindergartners will be allowed to attend 46 if they want to. School Board member Rob Brown implies that those parents can only…
Seventy-seven pink slips
Feeling like a political pawn: Cris Zaffuto, acting president of CSEA Local 828, which represents all city school nurses and nurses’ aides. Christine Carrie Fien Seventy-seven pink slips by Christine Carrie Fien It’s about borrowing at a lower versus higher interest rate. It’s about pushing expenses into the future. It’s about 77 pink slips. …
Off the stump: Yes, there are issues
Note to registered Democrats on Primary Day: The eager beavers of TV journalism have nailed down the tough issues for you. Take what happened at a pro-Kerry news conference the other day. The local Democratic Party event was pretty canned, but some participants did mention foreign policy, war and occupation, jobs and trade. Then…
The Final Four
In this web voters’ guide, you’ll find information about the candidates in the March 2 Democratic presidential primary. (There is no Republican primary; President Bush has no Republican challenger.) We compiled the guide by studying candidates’ voting records, web sites, campaign material, media reports, and information from organizations focused on specific issues. New York…
Crossing time, the Channel, and convention
Tina Howe’s romantic play Pride’s Crossinghas something for everyone: re-creation of historic periods and events, Upstairs Downstairs-style social reflections on the role of women, time-shifts from 1920 to the present day, realistic New England local color, fantasy dalliances, and a climactic, exciting swim across the English Channel. Blackfriars Theatre has assembled an attractive, strong…
The Final Four
In this web voters’ guide, you’ll find information about the candidates in the March 2 Democratic presidential primary. (There is no Republican primary; President Bush has no Republican challenger.) We compiled the guide by studying candidates’ voting records, web sites, campaign material, media reports, and information from organizations focused on specific issues. New York…
Sex and science fiction
Forty years ago, Samuel R. Delany changed the face of science fiction. He won the field’s highest honors as a young man, and was seen as the most promising writer in a genre struggling to redefine itself. His book, The Einstein Intersection, which won the Nebula Award in 1967, is both action adventure and…
NASCAR: not just talking moonshine
Let’s do away with all your high-horsed jokes before we continue. Yes, NASCAR’s roots are in the Deep South, where terms like “y’all” and “you’ve got a pretty mouth” are common vernacular. Yes, NASCAR apparel is the most ungodly thing ever created, full of wraparound-print T-shirts and hats that are louder than a hot…
The night of the gilded statuettes
So the annual Award Ceremony of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science (it always seems so impressive written out in full like that), better known as Oscar Night, looms before us, haunted by the ghosts of stars and movies past. After weeks of the usual hype, assisted by the usual learned speculation…
Overkilling Jesus Christ
Director and co-writer Mel Gibson has brought us The Passion of The Christ with the stated intention of sharing his faith with the world. This he means to do by simply telling the story of the last days of Christ (told in the Gospels), albeit graphically. This might lead one to expect a sober,…
Oscars on the fly
Editor’s note: Every year, in the weeks leading up to Oscar Night, film critics and Academy members are flooded by screeners of the films up for big awards. The thinking here is that these films need to be seen again while the viewer stays mindful of the various awards they’re nominated for. This way, everyone…
Giving Alec Wilder the credit he’s due
Among composer Alec Wilder’s autobiographical papers is a story of kismet that begins in the Main Hall of the Eastman School of Music. Wilder’s writings betray the anxiety he felt every time he walked through Eastman’s Gibbs-Street entrance, as a lesson-taker and not a registered student. “It wasn’t a habit of mine to spend…
Your Mom’s Big Muff
I don’t know what it is with all these old black blues guys and their stereo chorus and flanger effects. Cats that came off rough-and-tumble raw in the rock ‘n’ roll dawn now sound like Andy Summers on a Thunderbird jag. Example numero uno: Fat Possum legend T-Model Ford — a truly murderous and…
Our choice for president: Senator John Kerry
On March 2, registered Democrats in New YorkState will have an important duty: helping select their party’s nominee for president. Voters’ decision is a difficult one; the editorial staff on this newspaper, in fact, is divided on our endorsement. The decision is also critically important. The Democrats must nominate the candidate best suited to…
What’s in store, part II
Last fall, Wegmans shuttered its Mt. Hope Avenue store, despite neighborhood objections. Now the company may be brewing up a different but oddly similar situation at another branch. Two years ago, City Newspaper reported that the supermarket chain was eyeing the possibility of expanding the popular East Avenue store. The evidence was mainly facts…
The XX files
In November’s County Executive election, I was an elections inspector. I lasted one hour. You can learn a lot about America in one hour. You learn that from 11 a.m. to noon on Election Day only 10 people from a 900-voter district will come in to vote. You learn that Republicans and Democrats alike…
