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Towpath Merit Badge Midway Proposal

By Chris Carosa on September 27, 2010

Our council, our district and the units within our district have all done an excellent job promoting and providing camping opportunities for our boys. As we know, the outdoor experience – camping, hiking, etc… – represents a critical path for boys to learn leadership and other skills for life.

But we also know Boy Scouts is more than just camping. Indeed, the capstone of any Boy Scout’s career is the Eagle Scout project – an activity that emphasizes leadership and community service and may or may not include an outdoor element.

BSA offers boys a path of discovery beyond outdoor activities that may influence the direction of one’s Eagle Continue Reading “Towpath Merit Badge Midway Proposal”

Posted in Boy Scouts Tagged merit badge, roundtable, towpath

Can America Compete? (Part II)

By Chris Carosa on September 23, 2010

[This Commentary originally appeared in the September 21, 1989 issue of The Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel.]

Part Two – A Living Example of the Risk-Return Tradeoff

This is the second of two commentaries aimed at exploring a novel approach to determining our nations’ true standing in the world economy. Last week we looked at the risk-return tradeoff, the idea that risky investments are more likely to have higher returns (and larger losses) than safer investments.

Earlier this year, a Siberian valley explodes suddenly. The cause – a leaky gas pipeline. Low safety standards lead to a faulty job. People die. Property is destroyed.

You read about it all the time. Not-so-old bridges collapse, sending trainloads of passengers plummeting to an early demise. Third World ferries, overloaded with holiday travelers, capsize again and again. Athens and Frankfurt sport airports which appear to openly invite terrorists.

Across the globe, we see examples of why we are happy to be Americans. Not only do Continue Reading “Can America Compete? (Part II)”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged banking crisis, economy, finance, Glass-Steagall, Modern Portfolio Theory, regulation, return, risk

Misleading Headline? Baseless Buffalo Bills Bashing? Or Both?

By Chris Carosa on September 20, 2010

With friends like these, who needs enemies? It’s bad enough we find our region at the butt end of many late night comics’ monologues, but why does the local media have to gratuitously chime in, too?

Did you see the article “Buffalo Bills struggle to make dent on national TV map” in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle in Sunday, September 19^th? Placed on the cover of the sports section, it featured a map of the continental United States. The country, bathed in red, was speckled with smaller splotches of various other colors. A beautiful graphic, you would think the D&C would have been proud to have included it in the on-line version of the article. Alas, they didn’t and the article suffers.

But this isn’t about vivid art in a hometown newspaper. This is about the reckless Continue Reading “Misleading Headline? Baseless Buffalo Bills Bashing? Or Both?”

Posted in Western New York State of Mind Tagged Buffalo Bills, Democrat and Chronicle, NFL, Rochester, Western New York

Can America Compete? (Part I)

By Chris Carosa on September 16, 2010

[This Commentary originally appeared in the September 14, 1989 issue of The Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel.]

Part One – The Risk-Return Tradeoff

The following is the first in series of two commentaries aimed at presenting a unique approach to determining our nation’s position within the world’s economy. This week is expository, meaning some readers will already be familiar with the concept of the risk-return tradeoff. In the spirit of all mini-series, we save the real interesting part for next week.

Finance professors, like all other professors, find they can enhance their employment options (i.e., get tenured) by coming up with all these fancy dancy theories to describe the real world. They write scholarly articles and intricate textbooks (most of which end up on the “Required Reading” list of the courses they teach). Many of these theories remain in the academic realm (where they can take on a life of their own). Every once in a while, though, a really neat idea escapes the verbosity of pedantic journals and appears in the vernacular of the newsweeklies. (When this happens, the professor generally writes a book for the casual reader, appears on several talk shows and becomes a highly paid consultant.)

One of the more significant investment models developed by the academic industry goes by the name, in generic terms, Modern Portfolio Theory. It attempts to provide a Continue Reading “Can America Compete? (Part I)”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged economy, finance, Modern Portolio Theory, return, risk, Simon School

Surprise! Buffalo Bills Score in Nielsen’s New NFL Ratings

By Chris Carosa on September 14, 2010

When you look for smart business reporting, you look to the Wall Street Journal. Likely to have been Sergeant Friday’s (“just the facts, ma’am”) favorite newspaper, the WSJ sets aside all numbers and focuses squarely on cold, hard numbers. So, when this truly national paper of record offers a story (“Dallas Cowboys Are NFL’s Most Popular Team,” Wall Street Journal, September 9, 2010) spelling out how all 32 NFL teams rank in terms of popularity, you can be sure of one thing – no one gets extra points for rabid enthusiasm. It’s all about the bottom-line. And, unlike Forbes, this bottom-line is more than just money, it’s eyeballs. For the first time ever, Neilsen – of the famous TV ratings – ranks the NFL teams by incorporating both TV coverage and internet buzz.

So, where do you figure the Buffalo Bills – perhaps currently the worst team in the NFL – fall in this survey? It shouldn’t shock you Ralph Wilson’s team doesn’t find itself in the Continue Reading “Surprise! Buffalo Bills Score in Nielsen’s New NFL Ratings”

Posted in Western New York State of Mind Tagged Bills, Buffalo, Buffalo Bills, Greater Western New York, NFL, Western New York

A Personal Reflection of A. Bartlett Giamatti

By Chris Carosa on September 9, 2010

[This Commentary originally appeared in the September 7, 1989 issue of The Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel.]

I sat in Woolsey Hall with 1,300 other Freshmen nearly 11 years ago to the day. At the podium stood the newly ordained University President, who’s very pompous pontification my Gates-Chili classmates had earlier warned me to be wary of. “Remember, Chris,” they advised me prior to my departure in early September, “don’t let their fancy words and snobby accents intimidate you. After all, they’re only Continue Reading “A Personal Reflection of A. Bartlett Giamatti”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged family, Gates Chili, Giamatti, Growing Up, Italian, Yale

Rediscovering the Fighter Jock

By Chris Carosa on September 7, 2010

The weatherman had threatened early snow unsuccessfully for more than a week now, so it comes as no surprise when the early morning rain turns to wet snow. Still, the first snow always startles, and I pause in observance before entering my cherry red Z-28. I imagine slippery conditions as I pull from the Camaro from my driveway, but by the time I travel the more than twenty miles to the field, only a faint rain precipitates from the clouds.

The fullness of fall could only mean football, a ritualistic pastime beyond the understanding of most of those who play – and impossible to fathom for those who don’t.

* * *

I can’t remember when self-doubt originally entered my mind. Certainly, years of hard Continue Reading “Rediscovering the Fighter Jock”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life Tagged Bandits, football, quarterback

Has the NFL Provided the Answer to Promoting the Greater Western New York Region?

By Chris Carosa on September 4, 2010

I had lunch with a marketing and advertising professional in Buffalo the other day. When I told him about my crazy idea to promote the greater Western New York region, he told me it was crazy. I expected that. What he told me next I didn’t expect. Yet, I can see why it happened.

A couple of decades or so ago, some members of the Buffalo-Niagara community decided to join forces to promote their two communities. They initial suggested to do so under the banner “Western New York” since the local media commonly used that term to describe the area of Erie and Niagara counties (and sometimes even Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties). The grand poobahs of marketing gathered together and rejected the notion. “Everyone knows Continue Reading “Has the NFL Provided the Answer to Promoting the Greater Western New York Region?”

Posted in Western New York State of Mind Tagged Buffalo, Buffalo Bills, NFL, Niagara, Western New York

From a Bachelor’s Cupboard

By Chris Carosa on September 2, 2010

[This Commentary originally appeared in the August 31, 1989 issue of The Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel.]

WARNING: BUTTER IS COMBUSTIBLE.

Such a message never graces the sides of butter packages. As a service to all culinary illiterates (like me), I must urge you: pay heed to this warning! But, more on that story in a moment.

As much as I hate to admit it, everyone has certain limitations. Like a recalcitrant halfwit, I often refuse to abide by such diminished expectations. I have, however, never Continue Reading “From a Bachelor’s Cupboard”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Cooking, family, Growing Up, humor

Why I Got Religion – A Book Review of Philip Plait’s Death from the Skies!

By Chris Carosa on August 31, 2010

I’m normally an optimistic person. I regularly practice a “can-do” philosophy. It’s fun. It’s generated its share of success. It’s something I demand from everyone working with me. I can’t stand the lamentable “first you are born, then you die” way of life found too often among naysayers, doomsdayers and, in general, soothsayers of gloom. “There’s always hope!” I’ll shout from the highest mountain. Give me a “no-win” scenario and I’ll find the loop hole. It’s just the way I am. Deal with it.

So, when I say, “Philip Plait’s Death from the Skies bluntly stripped all hope from me,” you’ll know just how significant a statement that represents. As I turned each page, I could feel the Continue Reading “Why I Got Religion – A Book Review of Philip Plait’s Death from the Skies!”

Posted in Book Reviews Tagged astronomy, Plait, science fiction

Chris Carosa