Chris Carosa

Save The Barns: Why RG&E’s Upgrade On Canfield Road Shouldn’t Undermine Mendon’s Rural Heritage

By Chris Carosa on March 18, 2025

In the last few years, I’ve perused old texts covering the Town of Mendon. I find the words useful for research. The pictures, however, captivate me. They allow me to effortlessly go back in time and immerse myself in the bucolic beauty of the town I call home. It’s like a time machine. Diving into those pictures gives me the feeling of tranquil bliss.

I didn’t know about these historic books thirty-odd years ago when I served on the Mendon Town Board. No doubt others, wiser than me, did. Despite my naivete, I played a role (albeit a minor one) in realizing a modern-day homage to those pleasant nineteenth century illustrations.

And you can experience the fruits of that realization every time you drive down Route 64 from Pittsford into the Town of Mendon. Just north of the Thruway bridge, look to the west on Canfield Road. You’ll see a peaceful array of agricultural buildings straight out of the late 1800s. As you pass it, if you think about it at all, you think, “That’s so… appropriate.”

Now, imagine that same spot occupied by an industrial eyesore of steel pipes and smokestacks oozing white clouds. Very shortly, if RG&E gets its way, that’s what you’ll see. As part of its upgrade project, the energy company hopes to strip away forever the barn façade and reveal the hulking gas transfer station concealed within it.Continue Reading “Save The Barns: Why RG&E’s Upgrade On Canfield Road Shouldn’t Undermine Mendon’s Rural Heritage”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged 1993, 19th century, agricultural age, Canfield Road, Empire State Pipeline, gas transfer station, industrial age, Jeanne Loberg, Joanna S. McCarthy, Mendon, Pittsford, pubkic hearing, RG&E, Sentinel, Town Board

Teach History, Not Historiography: Why Smart People Aren’t Smart

By Chris Carosa on March 11, 2025

The first duty of a historian is to seek the truth, however bitter it may be.”

Herodotus said that in Book 1, Chapter 1 of Histories.

Or did he?

What he really said, at least according to A.D. Godley’s 1920 translation, (via the Perseus Digital Library) was:

These are the researches of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, which he publishes, in the hope of thereby preserving from decay the remembrance of what men have done, and of preventing the great and wonderful actions of the Greeks and the Barbarians from losing their due meed of glory; and withal to put on record what were their grounds of feud.”

I lied. Herodotus didn’t say that, either. What he really, really, said was:Continue Reading “Teach History, Not Historiography: Why Smart People Aren’t Smart”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings, History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged 1776, critical, Croesus, Declaration of Independence, Founding Fathers, Greek, Herodotus, historiography, History, History of the Pelopennesian War, July 4, liberty, narrative history, revisionist, Thucydides, truth

Media Literacy Will Destroy Civilization

By Chris Carosa on March 4, 2025

A long time ago, in a galaxy not so far away, the idea of bringing computers into classrooms emerged as a real possibility. More than a possibility, it presented a strong controversy. “The kids lack the media literacy to judge what is real and what is make believe,” cried concerned citizens.

This was back in the 1990s. I was on what was then called the HF-L Technology Committee because of my computer background (and also because, as Town Board school liaison, I had to be on some committee). Today, those complaints seem naïve. And they were. But not for reasons you think.

It turns out secondary school students aren’t the only perpetrators of media illiteracy. We all Continue Reading “Media Literacy Will Destroy Civilization”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings, History, Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged 1960s generation, Alexis de Tocqueville, American Dream, American Exceptionalism, Baby Boomer, Bill Murray, Bob Woodward, Democracy in America, extreme skepticism, Founding Fathers, Gell-Mann Amnesia effect, George Carlin, George Washington, HF-L, hippie, historiography, History, Joe Rogan, John Belushi, media illiteracy, media literacy, Murray Gell-Mann, Nixon, question everything, skepticism, Technology Committee, Thomas Jefferson

The Empirical Past vs. The Remembered Past

By Chris Carosa on February 25, 2025

If you don’t know it by now, I like to tell stories. While I enjoy spinning yarns on historical events that captivate audiences, I much prefer those drama-in-(my)-real-life vignettes that allow me to explore fun lessons I lived through. Indeed, one of the first Carosa Commentary columns published in these pages told a coming-of-age tale that really took place at the bus stop when I was in fourth grade. It was a three-part series (that began with “Terror at the School Bus Stop—A True-Life Story (Part I),” Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel, January 11, 1990).

The trouble with these personal stories is that they’re personal. Unless I can figure out a way Continue Reading “The Empirical Past vs. The Remembered Past”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings, Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Abbott Parkway, acausal, Carosa Commentary, classical physicist, determinism, entanglement, future, Kenny, memory, past, philosophy, Physics, present, psychology, quantum philosophy, quantum physics, retrocausality, School Bus Stop, Schrodinger's cat, superposition of states, Teresa, Time, Time Travel, wave-particle duality

My Life With AI—Part IV: Curses! Foiled Again!

By Chris Carosa on February 18, 2025

Many years ago, I sat in a strategic planning session for our local school district. My kids were young, not even in school yet. My participation represented a legacy of sorts. When I served on the Town Board, I was the youngest member by a generation or two. They figured that made me the perfect person to serve as liaison between the Town Board and the School Board. I soon found myself sitting on quite a few school committees, from capital projects to technology.

This strategic planning committee was a little different. For one thing, it was ad hoc. For another, it involved a lot of big mucky mucks from every facet of the school district. Still closer to my twenties than my forties, I kept my mouth shut for the most part. Oddly, despite my Continue Reading “My Life With AI—Part IV: Curses! Foiled Again!”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged 1987, AI, AI Agent Framework, artificial intelligence, Borland, Chinese, computer, CrewAI, database, debugging, English, FORTRAN, grammar, hack, internet, kludge, Latin, left field, Mendon Town Board, Microsoft, Multi-Agent Systems Platform, outside the box, programming, Prolog, Python, School Board, scientific method, strategic planning, Turbo C, Turbo Prolog, Visual Studio 2022

My Life With AI—Part III: What Comes Around Goes Around

By Chris Carosa on February 11, 2025

If you recall from past columns in this space, you might remember one of the first things I did during my second run at publishing this esteemed periodical was to replace myself.

Allow me to explain.

Among the software we found buried deep within the bowels of one of the two extremely outdated computers we inherited was an ancient DBase III program. For those not old enough to recognize the name or even the purpose of that old code, it allowed you to collect and update a customized database you could then manipulate in any way you desired. I installed this program in 1989 when we started the newspaper. I then created a database in which we could keep our subscriptions on. We used it not only to know when people needed to renew but also to print out the mailing labels to attach to the newspapers every week.

Nearly thirty years later, the previous owners of the Sentinel were still using this archaic software. The very first thing I did was extract the data (into a comma-delimited file for all you nerds out there), which I promptly imported into an Excel spreadsheet. From that spreadsheet, I wrote a mail-list merge routine in Word to print out the mailing labels.

And with that, I had replaced myself. (For those keeping score at home—and who notice how Continue Reading “My Life With AI—Part III: What Comes Around Goes Around”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings, Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged AI, AI chatbots, AI tools, artificial intelligence, ChatGPT, Claude, DBase III, DR-LINK, Gemini, generative AI assistants, Grok, hallucination, Large Language Model, LLM, Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel, New York State Press Association, programming, Publishers Conference, Textwise, Wikipedia, X

How Psychic Numbing Weirdly Helps You… Or Doesn’t

By Chris Carosa on February 4, 2025

If you read a lot of spy novels or watch a lot of action-adventure movies, you’re used to scenes involving at least the threat of torture. Now, we know torture might happen in real life. As a dramatic element, however, it has very limited appeal. This is especially true in shows that want a family-friendly rating.

How do writers deal with this? They bring us right up to the edge of the actual torture and maybe a little beyond because Continue Reading “How Psychic Numbing Weirdly Helps You… Or Doesn’t”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings, Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged beatnik, behavior, Buffalo Bills, Cold War, coping, Death In Life, emotion, Gates-Chili High School, hipster, Hiroshima, Holocaust, Kirk, peer pressure, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, psychic numbing, PTSD, rational, Reykjavik, Robert Jay Lifton, Ronald Reagan, Soviet Union, Spock, torture, Vietnam War, wide right, Yale

The Layers Beyond The Image Reveal Mesmerizing Rabbit Holes

By Chris Carosa on January 28, 2025

Take a look at this picture. What do you see? What do you feel? Does it spark your curiosity? Does it inspire you? Or are you simply left wondering if you’re coming or going?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but those thousand words often represent just the start of a great story. Here are the thousand words (and beyond) prompted by this picture.

First, just the facts. I took this picture in August of 1988. It’s just outside the medieval village of Fontecchio in the Province of Abruzzo, Italy. That’s the hometown of my father’s father. I was the first of his descendants to visit there. (My father and his sister wouldn’t get there until a year or so later.)

But it’s not like we didn’t have family there. It’s just that I didn’t know any of them, and I assumed they had no idea who I was. Indeed, during a scouting trip to Fontecchio the day before, it certainly seemed that way. After all, despite my pedigree, I felt I looked a lot less Continue Reading “The Layers Beyond The Image Reveal Mesmerizing Rabbit Holes”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged a picture is worth a thousand words, Abruzzo, Angelo Rosati, Buffalo, Fontecchio, great grandfather, Mike Morris, Nunzia, Rhode Island College

A Good Show Must Always End, But A Great Story Lasts Forever

By Chris Carosa on January 21, 2025

A fragment of the Odyssey, via Wikimedia Commons

Have you ever been involved in a performance? Any kind of performance? It could have been a high school play, a ceremony at church, or a major presentation at work. In all cases, you practice, practice, practice. Whether it’s a musical or a wedding, you have a final rehearsal before the actual “show.”

On opening night, you have jitters. Throughout the event, your shoulders remain tense. You try not to let them see you sweat. At some point, however, you get past the hump. You can see the end. You begin to relax. Ironically, adrenaline pumps through your veins until it reaches euphoria when the final curtain falls. Your emotion peaks to such heights that, even today, you can barely remember the celebratory after-party.

And then it’s over. You wake up the next morning to an unexpected emptiness. The routine is gone. What do you do now?

Alas, all good shows must come to an end. Such is the nature of the business. Such is the Continue Reading “A Good Show Must Always End, But A Great Story Lasts Forever”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings, Great Writing Tips, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Abbey Road, Across The Universe, George Bailey, Get Back, Homer, It's a Wonderful Life, James Bond, John Lennon, Odysseus, Odyssey, Patrick Stewart, performance, Star Trek, story, The Beatles, The Next Generation, The Original Series, TOS, William Shatner, Yesterday

The Terrible Reality of Story Arcs

By Chris Carosa on January 14, 2025

Bob Denver Gilligan’s Island, 1966, CBS Television, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Think back to all the great stories you’ve heard, read while relaxing on a sunny beach, or watched in front of the big screen. What do they all have in common? Your first answer might be, “They kept me on the edge of my seat and their ending nailed it.”

OK, that might be true. But if you dig deeper, you’ll find they all stayed true to the narrative structure of the traditional story arc—Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Resolution. In good stories, you don’t see this structure. The transition from one element to the next flows seamlessly.

The 1942 film Casablanca, often cited as one of the greatest movies ever made, offers a good example of this. You don’t even notice as the Exposition rolls through a series of Continue Reading “The Terrible Reality of Story Arcs”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings, Great Writing Tips, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged cartoon, Casablanca, climax, drama, exposition, falling action, Gilligan's Island, Gunsmoke, James Bond, live-action, Nickelodeon, resolution, rising action, Star Trek, Star Wars, storytelling, The Fugitive, The Lord of the Rings, The Simpsons, writing