Chris Carosa, Author at Chris Carosa

Chasing the Iron Ghosts of Blasdell Junction

By Chris Carosa on April 27, 2010

A different year. A different time. A different era. A different culture.

Dry cinder and billowy steam painted the surroundings. The clanking and grinding of metal against metal pierced the air. The steady distant drone of heavy industry provided background color for the audio pallet.

Within less than one square mile of reshaped earth lay more than twenty-two linear miles of railroad. Stacked one above another, the tracks featured motive power from five Class 1 railroads and one industrial switcher.

Squeezed within a quarter mile wide swath of land included: two junction tracks (formerly the Terminal Railroad that bypassed the busy railroad yards of the City of Continue Reading “Chasing the Iron Ghosts of Blasdell Junction”

Posted in Western New York State of Mind Tagged Bethlehem Steel, Blasdell, Buffalo, Growing Up, Lackawanna, Railroad, trains, Western New York

Paper Airplanes: Pure Americana

By Chris Carosa on April 22, 2010

[This Commentary originally appeared in the April 20, 1989 issue of The Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel.]

I made a paper airplane today. It felt good. The act satisfied me even before I lofted the plane into the air. I made it at work while I waited for a printout. This is not the sort of thing I am normally paid to do. It felt good.

I used no ordinary paper. I used a confidential memo. Upon completing the folding, I flung the flyer purposefully towards members of the operations staff. Of course, I first requested “clearance” (i.e., asked somebody if the Boss was around). It felt good.

The flight lasted all of one second. The papyrus plane gently rolled over after leaving my fingertips, then nosed speedily down into the floor. It travelled all of six feet. The Boss’s Continue Reading “Paper Airplanes: Pure Americana”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Growing Up, Honeoye Falls, Lima, Mendon

What Secrets is The Weather Channel Trying to Hide?

By Chris Carosa on April 20, 2010

Why doesn’t The Weather Channel have a public tour? Why won’t they even allow the public in their building? Why can’t they place their name on the front of the sterile block of anti-septic concrete and dark glass in which their studios reside? What is The Weather Channel trying to hide?

My daughter wishes to become an on-air meteorologist. While traveling to Atlanta for the FIRST Robotics World Festival (my company sponsored one of the competing teams and my daughter was assigned to write an article on her school’s team), we thought it natural to let her visit The Weather Channel studios. Makes sense, right? High school student from Western New York seeks to learn the trade of communicating atmospheric phenomenon to the masses, the world’s leading purveying of such a mere few miles from the hotel; ergo, high school student arranges to shadow her dream job. Simple? One would think so.

And one would be wrong.

Try finding a telephone number for The Weather Channel on the internet. If you go to their site (www.weather.com) you will find nothing. If you Google “Weather Channel telephone number” you will get what appears to be good leads but once you click on Continue Reading “What Secrets is The Weather Channel Trying to Hide?”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings Tagged Atlanta, CNN, FIRST, robot, The Weather Channel, The Weather Channel Telephone Number

Mr. Spock’s IDIC

By Chris Carosa on April 15, 2010

[This Commentary originally appeared in the April 13, 1989 issue of The Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel.]

IDIC, to paraphrase the Star Trek Concordance (Bjo Trimble, 1976), represents the fundamental Vulcan philosophy of nurturing diversity to produce synergistic good. IDIC – short for Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations – sets Vulcans apart from other species by elevating their demeanor. Essentially, these green blooded people, by the very way they live their lives, demonstrate a courage unique to their race – they not only tolerate diversity, they recognize its advantages and readily seek it out. Spock, in the episode “In Truth There is No Beauty,” explains “diverse things come together to create truth and beauty” and “the glory of creation lies in its infinite diversity and meanings.”

Fine, so what does this mean to the average person, i.e., one who can’t tell the Science Officer of the USS Enterprise from a baby doctor?

Continue Reading “Mr. Spock’s IDIC”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Honeoye Falls, Lima, Local, Mendon, philosophy, Popular Culture, Star Trek

What’s With The Duke of Earl?

By Chris Carosa on April 8, 2010

[This Commentary originally appeared in the April 6, 1989 issue of The Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel.]

Like any typical driver, I listen to the radio a lot. In fact, I generally listen to only one type of station – the one that plays the most Beatles songs in an hour. (Every once in a while, though, I switch to the one which plays the most Frank Sinatra songs in an hour.) In either case, I limit my listening to “oldies” or “classic hits.”

I’ve begun to notice a disturbing tendency – people younger than me are requesting songs just slightly before my time! It’s acceptable, I guess, for kids born after Paul McCartney’s last number one hit (and well after the break-up of the Beatles) to request Beatles songs. I figure they like the Beatles for the same reason I like Sinatra. Even though I wasn’t around at the peak of his popularity, I know of his historical impact and, besides, I really like his music. Yet, I have trouble with these kids who think Apple is a computer, not a recording company (and apparently so does the recording company).

I am really irked, though, by obvious prepubescents calling in to request such songs as Continue Reading “What’s With The Duke of Earl?”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Honeoye Falls, Lima, Mendon, Popular Culture

In Search of Virtue: How Boy Scouts Helped Me Do the Impossible

By Chris Carosa on April 6, 2010

In 1748, the French philosopher Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, anonymously published his opus The Spirit of Laws. Two years later, Thomas Nugent published the initial English translation. This work, from where the term “separation of powers” first appeared, greatly influenced our Founding Fathers.

Montesquieu outlined three essential forms of government – Despotism, Monarchy and Republic – each dependent on one vital and defining character trait among its citizens. Under despotism, it’s fear. In a monarchy, it’s honor. But in a republic, Montesquieu maintains, those governed must be disposed to nothing less than virtue. Our Founding Fathers understood this. They possessed high expectations of both their new country as well as its citizens.

Oddly enough, the nation’s forebears did not see it as the role of government to imbue virtue upon its citizens. Rather, they expected the people to embrace virtue of their own volition. Nothing said this more than Benjamin Franklin’s answer to a woman who Continue Reading “In Search of Virtue: How Boy Scouts Helped Me Do the Impossible”

Posted in Boy Scouts, Memoir of a Real Life Tagged Ben Franklin, Boy Scout, Growing Up, Montesquieu, virtue

Rumors Resolved

By Chris Carosa on April 1, 2010

[This Commentary originally appeared in the March 30, 1989 issue of The Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel.]

Why did we pick Easter week as our first week of publishing the Sentinel? Rumor has it we chose last week, which also happened to fall on the first week of Spring, because of the symbolism of rebirth and resurrection. Sure, the Sentinel represents both – a revitalization in the tradition of local hometown newspapers. This explanation makes a great story, but, unfortunately, it fails the truth test. Perhaps the best way to describe how we came up with our starting date is by showing why we didn’t choose other dates.

The week of March 16^th would have been an ideal starting date with the Village elections coming up and all. As luck would have it, I found myself away on business that week, and, besides, we saw no reason to place undue pressure on ourselves. We selected March 23^rd primarily for this reason, and because we definitely did not want to Continue Reading “Rumors Resolved”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Honeoye Falls, humor, Lima, Mendon, Monroe County, Rochester

3 Essential Public Speaking Lessons I Accidentally Learned While Playing the Violin

By Chris Carosa on March 31, 2010

There I sat, fear pulsing through my veins. I had never seen anything like this before. The page had so much black ink it seemed more like a string of incomprehensible Chinese characters than the opening music to the Overture of My Fair Lady. Mind you, I had dwelled with the elite of the orchestra pit since my freshman days in high school. Nothing scared me. Usually. This thing did.

Bluntly facing me lay four measures of thirty-second notes – a “run” in the vernacular of the musician. I had easily tackled runs of eighth notes and, perhaps with a little more practice, runs of sixteenth notes. I’ve even snuck in a furtive trill of a thirty-second note – but never a four measure run of these speedy bars. I looked at my teacher and agonizingly admitted, “I can’t play these.” What she said next stunned me.

Continue Reading “3 Essential Public Speaking Lessons I Accidentally Learned While Playing the Violin”

Posted in Great Speaking Tips Tagged behavior economics, Dick Shawn, I Could Have Danced All Night, My Fair Lady, Powerpoint, primacy, recency, violin

Only Heels Can Be Heroes

By Chris Carosa on March 25, 2010

[This Commentary originally appeared in the March 23, 1989 issue of The Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel.]

This flows in the same vein as “No Guts, No Glory.”

Essentially, Heels and Heroes come from the same stuff. Only the outcome of their deeds differs (or at least we view them differently). Ultimately, the critical factor leading to labeling a man (or a woman) may result from nothing more than mere luck.

Today’s essay, however, does not concern what distinguishes Heels from Heroes. Rather, it will focus on the fundamental traits shared by, indeed vital to, the soul of both. You see, only Heroes can be Heels and only Heels can be Heroes.

Within us lies a drive from the moment of our very birth. Each of us has an innate desire Continue Reading “Only Heels Can Be Heroes”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Honeoye Falls, Lima, Mendon, philosophy

Interested in Discovering My Time Machine?

By Chris Carosa on March 23, 2010

The years 1989 through 1991 proved significant. The world saw the end of communism and the beginning of the first Gulf War. Like any other person in his late twenties/early thirties, I led a life of wonder and excitement. Busy creating a new division at work, I found time to earn an MBA, successfully woo the woman of my dreams, begin a successful political campaign and help start a weekly community newspaper.

This is about the latter.

By the time I reached my twenty-eighth birthday, I had decided I liked to write. More significantly, after several popular Continue Reading “Interested in Discovering My Time Machine?”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries