COLUMN ‘Love Unknown’ Travisano’s Elizabeth Bishop Biography Is Pinnacle Of 45 Years Of Scholarship By ROBERT BENSEN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com ONEONTA – Randall Jarrell (a friend of Elizabeth Bishop) said that a poet is one who, in a lifetime of standing out in thunderstorms, manages to get struck by lightning six or seven times. It doesn’t work that way. And don’t try it at home. And don’t let your kids try it either. But Jarrell’s outlandish savvy underscores one…
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Opinion - Page 292
LETTER from CHIP NORTHRUP Hotter World = More Fires To the Editor: Like everything else, the wildfires in California have been politicized by President Trump, who blames them on “bad forest management.” Catch is, most of what’s burning are not trees, much less “forests” but grass and shrubs. We lived in California for years. Except for the Sierras, most of California is a desert – right up to the beach. When the hot Santa Ana winds blow in from the…
LETTER from R. SCOTT DUNCAN If Laws Don’t Work, Let’s Try A Little Tenderness To the Editor: It always amazed me to see the picturesque and charming villages in Vermont. How is it that the townsfolk work together to create what I think are charming well keep towns? What you see with your eyes effects your health. This is an ancient concept that has now been proven by modern science. Isn’t that one of the reasons we live in the…
COLUMN THE VIEW FROM WEST DAVENPORT The Haves And The Have Nots Possibly the most important outcome of the recent meeting to discuss the future of the Schenevus Central School District is a quote from the superintendent: “The District’s revenues are inflexible.” She went on to say, “the District does not have property wealth or the income wealth to raise taxes enough to cover the deficit.” Finally someone in a position of authority has admitted the truth! We live in…
Column ONEONTA MAY BE AHEAD OF CURVE In Our Brave New World, No Parking Lots Needed! Editor’s Note: In sending this along, Oneonta’s Laurie Zimniewicz observed, “Based on these predictions, Oneonta is ahead of the curve regarding the parking spaces at the Dietz Street lot,” focus of a public debate on whether 80 parking spaces should be given up to allow construction of the Lofts on Dietz, 64 artists’ lofts and studios, and middle-income apartments. Auto repair shops will go…
ISSUE & DEBATE Frazier: County Manager Job Won’t Pay For Itself Editor’s Note: Mr. Frazier’s letter arrived after this week’s editions of Hometown Oneonta & The Freeman’s Journal had gone to press, and is published here so the public may review it before the first information meeting on the county manager position, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. this Thursday, Nov. 14, at Oneonta City Hall. A second is planned at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 19, at the county courthouse…
We’re All In This Together Spend Money To Fight Internal Threat: Bad Health Government exists to protect a self-defined group – a tribe – from outside existential threats. Long ago the threat was other tribes. Today it includes fire, crime, disease, drunken drivers, natural disasters and more. But government’s first reason is to protect us from them – to ensure that which our tribe holds dear is successfully defended. Be that property, principles or our basic human right to exist.…
A Front Porch Perspective My Right Leg Has Always Had Bad Karma I’ve been on the porch this afternoon, enjoying one of the last days of sitting out there. A windy Halloween’s just past, and Delaware Street is full of fresh-fallen leaves spinning in whirlwind gusts of chill air from the northwest. Above me are repeated flights of honking geese, hell bent for the South and warmer climes. My right leg’s propped on a second chair. Right foot and calf…
WHO MIGHT BE COUNTY MANAGER? You Can Read County Manager Job Description Editor’s Note: Here are the qualifications for a county manager the Otsego County board was scheduled to consider Wednesday, Nov. 6. ►Section 3. Appointment and Term of Office The County Administrator shall be appointed by the Board of Representatives and shall serve a term of three years at the pleasure of the Board of Representatives. In the event of a vacancy in office, the County Board of Representatives…
LETTER from JOSEPH SKOVIRA Keep Town Justices, Police Separate To the Editor: Delaware County, where I previously served as Delhi town justice, did not have the apparent problems as indicated in Otsego County concerning the arraignment of arrestee. I was available for those early morning arraignments, sometimes covering for an unavailable justice court judge. One such arraignment was for a burglary committed at a far end of this county. The arresting officer thought it was to his advantage to disregard…
