Chris Carosa

The Difference Between Wright and Rose

By Chris Carosa on May 20, 2010

[This Commentary originally appeared as Rose vs. Wright in the May 18, 1989 issue of The Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel.]

I spent my formative years growing up in Buffalo, home of the original Buffalo Bisons and an upstart American Football League team. By the end of the 60’s, football had taken hold of the city. The Bisons, who had been a farm club for the Cincinnati Reds, were on their way out. Naturally, then, I became a football fan prior to becoming a baseball fan.

The first baseball game I remember watching – the 1970 World Series – featured the Baltimore Orioles against the Cincinnati Reds. Without a favorite, I put my Continue Reading “The Difference Between Wright and Rose”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged baseball, Growing Up, politics, Sentinel, sports

Groucho Speaks! A Book Review of The Groucho Letters

By Chris Carosa on May 17, 2010

Who’s the best comedic commentator too many people haven’t really seen? Long before Jon Stewart, ages prior to SNL’s Weekend Update, decades in advance of Johnny Carson and even years ahead of Bob Hope, the world had Groucho Marx. A biting satirist when needed, Groucho had an advantage over all these heirs: He had no pretentions about his own humble beginnings (vaudevillian slapstick can do that to anyone). How did Groucho achieve this while Stewart, SNL and, at times both Carson and Hope, fail the snideness test?

Many credit Irving Thalberg with the successful relaunch of the Marx Brothers. After a five year run with Paramount, the Marx Brothers left the studio over a disagreement. Thalberg picked up the act for MGM. Though their Paramount movies proved popular, those pictures lacked something. Thalberg knew what the films overlooked. Besides a traditional story line, Continue Reading “Groucho Speaks! A Book Review of The Groucho Letters”

Posted in Book Reviews Tagged Groucho, Marx Brothers

Coke versus Pepsi

By Chris Carosa on May 13, 2010

[This Commentary originally appeared in the May 11, 1989 issue of The Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel.]

Dateline: ROME, August, 1988

The third day had been the worst. The muggy Mediterranean weather combined with the smoggy sky to produce a parched throat. This searing summer air in the land of my ancestors’ roots evoked memories of hot hazy August days and my grandfather’s pizza stand at the Erie County Fair. Perspiring and exhausted, my mind drifted back to those 16 hour days when, as I stood selling saucy slices, the sizzling sun seared one side of me as the fiery oven cooked the other. Only the frequent Pepsi breaks could quench my body’s sweaty thirst (despite my grandfather’s complaint, “You’re drinking all our profits!”).

Walking among the dusty ruins under the torrid Roman sun created an unnatural thirst. The Aqua Minerale (senza gas), offered only temporary reprieve. I knew my ultimate Continue Reading “Coke versus Pepsi”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Italy, Pepsi, Yale

Top 5 Biggest PowerPoint Mistakes: #5 Using PowerPoint in the First Place

By Chris Carosa on May 11, 2010

When the going gets tough, shoot the messenger. Don’t laugh. According to the New York Times (“We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint,” April 26, 2010), we can blame the ubiquitous PowerPoint for stultifying creativity, a false sense of security, and thousands of hours of lost productivity. (Disclosure: I drafted the bulk of this article – the first of a five-part series – the weekend before the Times published their story.) How could something that feels so right be so wrong?

Let’s start with something a mentor told me before the Trash-80 even made it to the shelves of your neighborhood RadioShack® store. I had to give a presentation to the board of directors of the radio station I so happily spun disks for. These various music directors had no idea what I intended to spring on them – I wanted to add sports broadcasting! I felt a handout might ease their concerns.

“Good idea,” said the mentor, “but don’t pass it out until you’re done with your Continue Reading “Top 5 Biggest PowerPoint Mistakes: #5 Using PowerPoint in the First Place”

Posted in Great Speaking Tips Tagged Chris Brogan, Powerpoint, public speaking, WYBC

Lemonade, Minimum Wage and Daddy’s Tough Decision

By Chris Carosa on May 6, 2010

[This Commentary originally appeared in the May 4, 1989 issue of The Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel.]

Many people in the Mendon, Honeoye Falls and Lima area have been reading in the national news about the minimum wage. Like most of the people in our country, they are sympathetic with increasing the minimum wage, but remain anxious about the impact the boost will have. The threat of an increasing wage-price spiral worries everyday folks the most. Unfortunately, we see Democrats saying one thing and Republicans saying another, with no one trying to take the time to explain what the real effect will be.

Being trained as a scientist, I never took economists seriously. Still, the issue of minimum wage and inflation provided too much confusion to go unanswered. “Sure,” I said to myself, “it seems fair to up the level given the increased cost of living over the past eight years. If it appears so fair, then why do so many people say it will actually Continue Reading “Lemonade, Minimum Wage and Daddy’s Tough Decision”

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

My Greatest Sale

By Chris Carosa on May 4, 2010

I had worked the graveyard shift on the AM dial for more than two years when the idea struck me – Why don’t we have a sports department? I knew from first-hand experience the Yale hockey team had a fan base well beyond the campus borders. New Haven, back then at least, thrived on the skates of its minor league hockey team. Yalies and townies alike delighted in the drama provided by the Yale icemen and their young new head coach – but only during home games. When the team went on the road, it left the fans high and dry, yearning for a shred of news. Until I had my idea…

The AM dial – my home – had a limited audience due to FCC restrictions on its signal. The FM side, however, reached halfway into the Long Island Sound. This fact, given few people actually lived on the Long Island Sound, was less impressive than it seemed. More impressive, however, lay in the detail that radio signals swept a circular area, meaning two-thirds of the signal strength seeped into homes along the southern Connecticut shore and into the very heart of the state. Within these homes lived tens of thousands of hockey fans. It was the call of these people that brought me to the Continue Reading “My Greatest Sale”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life Tagged sales, WYBC, Yale, Yale Hockey

An Open Letter to Governor Cuomo

By Chris Carosa on April 29, 2010

[This Commentary originally appeared in the April 27, 1989 issue of The Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel.]

Governor Mario Cuomo
c/o New York State Executive Chamber
State Capitol
Albany, New York 12224

Dear Governor Cuomo:

HONEOYE FALLS – Wednesday, April 18, 1989 (5:30am). Despite accidentally erasing the final two pages from the computer an hour earlier, a couple of exhausted devotees put the April 20^th edition of the Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima SENTINEL to bed. Once again, the desire to serve the public call causes another sleepless night, but knowing the importance a Continue Reading “An Open Letter to Governor Cuomo”

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

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