The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Archives - Page 2 of 51

Story Weaving, Callbacks, And Self-Deprecating Humor

By Chris Carosa on October 15, 2024

Many years ago, a young aspiring columnist asked an established author what it takes to be a writer. “To write, you need to find your pen,” said the wordsmith. “To write well, you need to find your voice.”

“Find your voice?” What does that mean?

I never understood that expression. It seemed like a cop out. It’s what you tell a young buck when you don’t have a real answer. After all, everyone is looking for that magic bullet, that sure-fire secret that makes you a success.

Well, after years of writing, it dawned on me the answer to “How can I be a good writer?” is obvious. You need to find your voice. I can’t tell you what it means, but I can tell you it’s Continue Reading “Story Weaving, Callbacks, And Self-Deprecating Humor”

We All Thrive When We Balance Between Healthy Competition and Community Harmony

By Chris Carosa on October 8, 2024

We are built to compete. It makes us better. It makes our businesses better. It makes our nation better.

Think of the progress we’ve made as a country over almost two-and-a-half centuries. A theme of constant competition weaves throughout that history. The pioneers fought against nature. Early entrepreneurs vied for the same markets. Writers, artists, and other imagineers have confronted their own personal demons to produce outstanding work.

As author Nancy Pearcey said, “Competition is always a good thing. It forces us to do our best.”

Competition works because it drives us. So why do we see some bemoan it? Comedian Continue Reading “We All Thrive When We Balance Between Healthy Competition and Community Harmony”

Posted in Business Tips, Gray Matter Musings, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged automakers, collaboration, competition, cooperation, Crew Carey, Gianni Versace, Nancy Pearcey, partners, Stephen Covey, win win

Should You Slap A Simple Single Or Swing For The Fences?

By Chris Carosa on October 1, 2024

Photo by Ulrik on Freeimages.com

This could easily become a column on successful investing, but it’s not. It does, however, reflect a Noble Prize-winning concept that has propelled successful investors for more than half a century. It’s simple. I’ll explain it quickly.

Every investment option possesses two critical factors: risk and return. Scholars credit economist Harry Markowitz as the first to identify the correlation of risk and return. In his 1952 paper “Portfolio Selection,” Markowitz, the father of “Modern Portfolio Theory,” says low-risk investments can yield low returns and high-risk investments must yield high returns. The “can” and “must” refer to the price you should reasonably pay for the investment.

But this column isn’t about successful investing, it’s about life. Specifically, your life. More precisely, the choices you face in your life. Understanding the dichotomy between “low-Continue Reading “Should You Slap A Simple Single Or Swing For The Fences?”

Posted in Business Tips, Gray Matter Musings, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Confirmation bias, Dave Kingman, entrepreneur, fear of failure, FOMO, Harry Markowitz, instant gratification, Modern Portfolio Theory, Portfolio Selection, recency, return, risk, Risk-Return Tradeoff, Rod Carew

Are You More A Marxist Or A Lennonist?

By Chris Carosa on September 24, 2024

Karl Marx (John Jabez Edwin Mayal) and Vladimir Lenin (Unknown, presumably official), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

During dinner at the recent New York Press Association Publishers’ Conference, talked turned towards the misuse of the term “click-bait.” In a strict sense, the term applies to misleading descriptions of internet links. These phrases “bait” you to “click” the link; hence, “click-bait.” Links that have nothing to do with the sentence that lured you to click makes this technique unethical. That’s why “click-bait” has such a negative connotation.

Copywriters for more than a century have searched for sentences that “sizzle.” Elmer Wheeler documented the early years of this journey in his 1937 book Tested Statements That Sell. If you don’t recall the name of this Rochester native dubbed “America’s Greatest Salesman,” you will certainly know his most famous phrase: Continue Reading “Are You More A Marxist Or A Lennonist?”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings, Great Writing Tips, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged #9 Dream, click-bait, Elmer Wheeler, Gimme Some Truth, Give Peace a Chance, God, Groucho Marx, Happy Xmas, headline, How Do You Sleep?, Imagine, Instant Karma!, John Lennon, Karl Marx, layered comedy, Mind Games, Mother, New York Press Association, Publishers Conference, pun, Tested Statements That Sell, The Beatles, The Simpsons, Title, Vladimir Lenin, You Bet Your Life

Did The Pope Just Endorse A U.S. Presidential Candidate?

By Chris Carosa on September 17, 2024

Francis visits a favela in Brazil during World Youth Day 2013. Source: Tânia Rêgo/ABr, CC BY 3.0 BR <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/br/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons

On the face of it, the answer is “no.” But if you dig a little deeper into what the leader of the Catholic Church is reported to have said, you might begin to wonder.

Several media outlets on Friday, September 13, 2024, reported Pope Francis said regarding the upcoming U.S. presidential election, “Not voting is ugly. It is not good. You must vote.” As to who you should vote for, Francis said, “You must choose the lesser evil. Who is the lesser evil? That lady, or that gentleman? I don’t know. Everyone, in conscience, (has to) think and do this.”

Sounds perfectly reasonable, right? Maybe he was taking a page out of Patrick Mahomes and Caitlin Clark, both of whom avoided endorsing either candidate and simply reminded Continue Reading “Did The Pope Just Endorse A U.S. Presidential Candidate?”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged abortion, Caitlin Clark, Catholic Church, dichotomy, Donald Trump, evil, immigration, Kamala Harris, Patrick Mahomes, philosophy, Pope Francis, sin

Remembering Father Latus

By Chris Carosa on September 10, 2024

Father Charles Latus presides over the first Wedding Mass celebrated at the new opened St. Catherine’s Church in the hamlet of Mendon, NY on September 28, 1991.

My father and brother erected the family estate with their own hands. After a long search my parents found a perfect parcel on which to build. While I toiled away deskbound in some distant cubicle, the other men in the family conveyed materials in a beat-up Ford pick-up to the site. Reminiscent of “Carosa and Son” (the masonry business started by my grandfather with my father riding shotgun), the two constructed a home of their dreams.

Oddly, it wasn’t their dream home. That would come decades later.

Coincidentally, they located both homes in the Town of Mendon. The first was the ideal family home. The second was the ideal home for retirement.

That first home was more than the “ideal” family home, it was the last home that housed the entire family – Mother, Father, two adult sons, a high school daughter and an elementary school daughter. We were all there. Until the company my father worked for decided to shut down the Rochester office and transfer him to Albany.

But that’s another story. This is a story about melding into a community.

We quickly adopted Mendon as our home. There are three things that make a community a Continue Reading “Remembering Father Latus”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Andrea, Betsy Carosa, Carosa and Son, Catholic, Charles Latus, Chris Carosa, Chuck Latus, Dad, Father Latus, Hamlet, Heidi, Kenny, Mary Lee, Mendon, Mendon Community Preschool, Mendon Fireman's Carnival, Mendon Youth Baseball, mom, Monsignor Schnacky, Monsignor Schnacky Players, Pack 105, Pre-Cana, St. Catherine's, wedding

Faith, Reason, And The Shroud Of Turin

By Chris Carosa on September 3, 2024

Image of Shroud of Turin showing positive and negative displays by source: Dianelos Georgoudis, CC BY-SA 3.0 https:creativecommons.org licenses by-sa3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

As the “science guy” in school, I got a lot of questions. They weren’t science questions, unless it was for answers on the high school chemistry exam. (And they were asked during the actual taking of the exam!) No, my friends usually asked me questions about science fiction.

That irked me.

OK, so here’s something many people didn’t know about me back then. As much of a Trekker that I was (and still am – but only for Star Trek: TOS), I was no fan of science fiction. Sure, I liked 2001: A Space Odyssey (the movie, I hated the book). Yes, I read Isaac Asimov’s I Robot (during catechism class at St. Pius because I was bored, and it was on the bookshelf I sat next to).

But, in general, I found most science fiction too dystopian, too depressing, and, well, too Continue Reading “Faith, Reason, And The Shroud Of Turin”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings, Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alexander Friedmann, Arthur C. Clarke, Big Bang, Catholic Church, Charles Darwin, Faith, First Vatican Council, Fred Hoyle, Friedmann Equations, Galileo, God, I Robot, Isaac Asimov, Jesus, On The Origin of Species, Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Pope John Paul II, Pope Pius XII, reason, Red Giants and White Dwarfs, religion, Robert Jastrow, science, Shroud of Turin, Star Trek, Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas, yang, yin

The Day ‘The Democracy’ Died

By Chris Carosa on August 27, 2024

JFK Campaign Poster. Source: Unidentified Artist, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Two hundred years. It was a great run while it lasted.

I wrote eight years ago how the establishment Republicans’ alienation of Donald Trump signaled the end of that party, (see “The Night the Grand Old Party Died,” Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel, April 14, 2016). A week ago, their counterpart decided to return the favor.

To fully appreciate the significance of this, understand I was raised a Kennedy Democrat, pretty much like every other Catholic who grew up in the 1960s. Every home in my family and every home of my family’s friends had two pictures hanging somewhere among their walls. One was of the Pope. The other was of John F. Kennedy.

How effusive was the Kennedy aura in our family? My brother’s name was “Kenneth.” We called him “Kenny.” My great-great aunt Zia Pepe (that would be my mother’s great aunt and my grandmother’s aunt) watched us when my mother had to substitute teach. She called my brother “Ken-eh-dee.” It was a badge of honor for him. He collected all things Kennedy, at least for a short time.

Zia Pepe was babysitting us when JFK was assassinated. The three of us watched it on TV. She cried. We didn’t know why Zia Pepe was crying. As we were watching, our mother Continue Reading “The Day ‘The Democracy’ Died”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings, Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged 1980 Presidential Election, Buffalo, California, Catholic, Cheryl Hines, Democrat, Donald Trump, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Grand Old Party, JFK, John F. Kennedy, Kenny, New Hampshire, Reagan, Republican, RFK Jr., Ricky, Robert F. Kennedy, Teddy Kennedy, The Democracy, Zia Pepe

The Joy Of ‘Mission Accomplished’ (With A Lafayette Bonus At The End)

By Chris Carosa on August 20, 2024

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The wild whirlwind wound down last week to a satisfying conclusion. The following column reveals the inside story of what really happened over the last eight months.

Okay, truth be told, it all started ten months ago. I was in the middle of producing a series of “The Greater Western New York Minute” and decided I needed to beef up my studio hardware and upgrade my software. That took a little longer than expected, making it difficult to continue production of those sixty second vignettes.

Well, there’s no such thing as a void in my life. There are merely a never-ending series of windows of opportunity forever opening and closing. It seems like when one window closes, I find another window opening. It happens all the time.

Does that make me special?

No.

Actually, this same situation exists for you, too. You have to look for it, but it’s there. Always.

Do you want to know the secret to discovering these open windows of opportunity? It’s Continue Reading “The Joy Of ‘Mission Accomplished’ (With A Lafayette Bonus At The End)”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged interest stack, Lafayette, opportunity, talent stack

On Fried Dough and Kettle Corn

By Chris Carosa on August 13, 2024

Loud and proud in familiar environs, hawking books in the Historical Building at the Erie County Fair on Saturday, August 10, 2024. Source: Author

It’s a ritual that takes place every August. For me, it started when I was too young to remember. It later intensified when I just turned old enough to learn. Then, after a long period of dormancy, it came back not just with gusto, but with the pleasant perfume of honeyed nostalgia.

We create routines that become habits that end up as traditions. They seem quite random at first, a series of oddly connected dots with no obvious meaning. Later, their regularity brings comfort. Finally, they emerge as rites of passage.

Think about your own life. If you’re like most of us, you can map this template onto certain Continue Reading “On Fried Dough and Kettle Corn”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings, Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries