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Day 2: Saturday, July 9, 2011 – Roman Connection Comes Through

By Chris Carosa on July 9, 2011

Here’s what strikes me right away: the landscape. Leaving the confines of the Leonardo DaVinci airport finds us quickly on an expressway heading towards Rome. Being a good distance from the city, farm land and open fields surround the airport. It’s that landscape which first struck me twenty-one years ago that entices me once again. I can’t tell you what it is. I’ve only been here once before but I feel so… at home. Maybe it’s the soft hues of subtle shades of green and aromatic amber. It’s like the feeling is on the tip of my tongue, and then I see it.

It’s a string of umbrella pines stretching across a small hill to our right. These trees. These trees have been part of me my whole life. I don’t know why I say that. They’re not indigenous to Western New York or even America. They are native to Mediterranean climes. Vague memories stir within the oldest parts of my brain. I faintly recall a home movie – perhaps from my grandfather? – shot through a window of a moving car, showing this exact scene. It’s odd. I don’t know if it’s Continue Reading “Day 2: Saturday, July 9, 2011 – Roman Connection Comes Through”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life Tagged Fontecchio, Italy, My Italian Journal - 2011, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Rome, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Umbrella Pine

Day 1: Friday, July 8, 2011 – All Planes Land in Rome

By Chris Carosa on July 8, 2011

I had my doubts about this whole thing. With my ever present fear of flying, I worried I unnecessarily placed the safety of my family at risk for some pipedream. I worried the office couldn’t survive my absence. I worried my writing schedule would suffer. I worried and I worried and I worried. And now the day is here.

Among the more typical travel worries, however, include the typical last minute packing and the eternal question, “Why does it feel like we forgot something?” Incredibly, we stand posed to leave on time, approximately 10am, but not without the usual squabbles.

Continue Reading “Day 1: Friday, July 8, 2011 – All Planes Land in Rome”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life Tagged My Italian Journal - 2011, Toronto

Summertime Stargazing

By Chris Carosa on July 7, 2011

[This Commentary originally appeared in the July 5, 1990 issue of The Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel.]

I love the summer. Longer daylight hours means we can do a lot more. It also means, after a good day’s work, we can still spend some relaxing time with our family and neighbors.

Sitting on the porch gently taking in the sights and sounds of nature and our community, we savor the twilight of the day. The last lick of sunlight long since set, we slowly mellow with the sky. Our light conversation goes as smoothly as the transition from dusk to dark.

It is this time of day I enjoy the best. Surrounded by close comrades and all the chores done, I can now look heavenward. For some reason, I still get a kick out of finding the Continue Reading “Summertime Stargazing”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Antares, Aquila, Aristotle, astronomy, astronomytop100, Cygnus, Kant, Lyra, Mars, Milky Way, philosophy, Plato, Sagittarius, Scorpio, Summer Triangle

A Graduation Song

By Chris Carosa on June 30, 2011

[This Commentary originally appeared in the June 28, 1990 issue of The Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel.]

School’s out… Forever!
– Vincent Furnier (a.k.a. Alice Cooper)

Or so to speak, especially for those going to college in a couple months. But for now, revel in the new found freedom of no more homework, no more books, no more teachers’ dirty looks. You have completed the first job your country has given you – getting a high school diploma. That in itself deserves a celebration.

As music can often be found in most celebrations, maybe a graduation song would be appropriate. Since a newspaper doesn’t offer the proper medium for carrying a tune, the most one could hope for out of this song would be melodious lyrics. But, since this Continue Reading “A Graduation Song”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged fun, graduation, Growing Up, philosophy, taxes, work

An Old-Fashioned Circus – RIGHT Here in Honeoye Falls!

By Chris Carosa on June 23, 2011

[This Commentary originally appeared in the June 21, 1990 issue of The Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel.]

I don’t have many childhood memories of going to the circus. (About the closest thing I can think of concerns the Big Tree Firemen’s Carnival, but that’s another story so forget I even mentioned it!)

It’s not like I never went to a circus or anything. The big circuses I visited, though, had too much bigness for a little kid to really enjoy. For example, from the upper level of Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, one needs binoculars to catch the funny magic tricks clowns like to perform. This cannot represent the kind of up-close-Continue Reading “An Old-Fashioned Circus – RIGHT Here in Honeoye Falls!”

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

Western New York’s Bread of Life Fills Both Spirit and Stomach

By Chris Carosa on June 21, 2011

Brother James looked just the way I would picture a monk looking. Tallish with an angular face, he wore the kind of retro heavy-rimmed glasses that aren’t really retro, merely that old. His soft caring voice spoke with the peaceful contentedness so appropriate for the part you’d swear a Hollywood casting agent placed him. Only you wouldn’t swear here – and here is about as far from the superficial celebrity of Tinsel Town as you could get.

Where exactly is “here”? It’s the Abbey of the Genesee located in the hamlet of Piffard in the Town of York, Livingston County. About a mile west of the Genesee River, this community of Trappist monks belongs to the Roman Catholic order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance. The Abbey of the Genesee came about from a Continue Reading “Western New York’s Bread of Life Fills Both Spirit and Stomach”

Posted in Western New York State of Mind Tagged Abbey of the Genesee, Cistercians, Constantine I, Genesee Valley, Kentucky, Letchworth State Park, Livingston County, monk, Monk's Bread, Piffard, Roman Catholic, St. Benedict, St. Bernard, Trappist, Wadsworth, York

Mendon Water Tower Redux

By Chris Carosa on June 16, 2011

[This Commentary originally appeared in the June 14, 1990 issue of The Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel.]

You can look elsewhere in this paper for a report on the June 7 meeting between concerned Mendon citizens and the Monroe County Water Authority (MCWA). The following merely comments on those proceedings in as fair and unbiased a fashion one can expect from a resident of Mendon.

The meeting last Thursday night showed a few interesting things. First, it looks like everyone agrees we’ve got a water problem in southeast Mendon. Second, those Continue Reading “Mendon Water Tower Redux”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Mendon, Monroe County Water Authority, politics

D.C. Turf Wars

By Chris Carosa on June 9, 2011

[This Commentary originally appeared in the June 7, 1990 issue of The Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel.]

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) currently has regulatory responsibility for stock index futures. The Bush administration recently announced plans to introduce legislation shifting control to the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). Both Investor’s Daily and The Wall Street Journal have faithfully presented both sides of the debate.

The critical questions, however, relate not to who’s in charge, but to the impetus behind the territorial maneuvering. In analyzing the 1987 stock market crash, official Washington, the news media and even some well respected financial gurus have blamed stock index futures – in particular their use in program trading – for the Continue Reading “D.C. Turf Wars”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged derivative, finance, futures, politics, Stock market, volatility

Rocky’s Gloves

By Chris Carosa on June 2, 2011

[This Commentary originally appeared in the May 31, 1990 issue of The Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel.]

One of the great things about an ethic upbringing is ethnic pride. Growing up Italian meant adopting the many Italian-American heroes of my parent’s and grandparent’s time. Two particular heroes stand out above the rest in my childhood memories – Joe DiMaggio and Rocky Graziano.

Truthfully, I can’t say I saw either of these athletes perform. Both retired nearly a decade before my birth. Yet, honoring these men pays respect to the judgment Continue Reading “Rocky’s Gloves”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Boxing, Ossie Sussman, philosophy, Rocky Graziano

In Praise of Honorable Men

By Chris Carosa on May 26, 2011

[This Commentary originally appeared in the May 24, 1990 issue of The Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel.]

The scrawny, recently-graduated Ivy Leaguer found life full of joy and happiness. With the magic of oratory, he astounded his elders who eagerly nominated and elected the young man as their state representative. Of course, he didn’t let this go to his head – he knew those in authority chose him in part because no one else wanted the thankless job. Still, he felt the position gave him the opportunity to show his true worth.

Then, at the tender age of 26, life as he knew it collapsed. The realities of the adult world consumed him. He lost his whiz kid innocence. Things seemed more difficult than they had been. He could no longer afford to think on his feet. Finally, with his life at a Continue Reading “In Praise of Honorable Men”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Cowboy, JJ Dalton Bandits, Theodore Roosevelt

Chris Carosa