Dispatches From Upstate NY

Read more about the article New book: A novel involving two of the 20th century’s most important events
The cover of my new novel (Created by Deanna Gallaro)

New book: A novel involving two of the 20th century’s most important events

This week I published my first novel, and second book. Now available as an ebook and paperback on Amazon, the story involves two of the 20th century’s most important events: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and NASA’s successful manned Moon-landing program. “The Answer From Surveyor 3” is a tense, suspenseful mystery surrounding the real story of those two events. The tale starts by asking the question: What if someone were accidentally present when Oswald fired those fatal shots from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas?…

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Read more about the article Into the wild blue yonder …
Next to the Mooney 201 aircraft I flew for over 10 years as part of the Scotia Flyers club in Schenectady, N.Y. I had just landed in Saranac Lake, N.Y.

Into the wild blue yonder …

This is the first time I post about flying airplanes: one of my passions. I flew for over 20 years after earning my private pilot's license in 1996. I'm including the first chapter of a book I'm writing about my experience learning to fly, and the adventures I had aloft over the next 20 years.

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Read more about the article One year later: a road trip to reflect on the pandemic
Am Amish farmer, somewhere north of Malone, N.Y.

One year later: a road trip to reflect on the pandemic

The dark 12 months that for me started in an Albany class of nervous students moved toward a hopeful finale with the passing of a horse-drawn cart on a remote Upstate New York road. The clip-clop of the horse’s hooves echoes loudly off nearby trees in the otherwise desolate, soundless scene. It was finally time to take stock—to reflect on my physically draining, gut wrenching journey that began at the University at Albany March 11, 2020. In the days, weeks, and months since then millions died. Hundreds of millions more were infected…

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Read more about the article Mars fever!
Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California celebrate the successful landing of Perseverance Feb. 18, 2021

Mars fever!

This is a good week for space exploration buffs like me. There’s a literal traffic jam in orbit and on the surface of planet Mars as three new arrivals complete their 300-million-mile sojourns from Earth at the same time, celestially speaking. Two of the new arrivals will remain in orbit, bringing to 14 the total number of unmanned spacecraft circling the planet. Six are active and collecting scientific data. The other eight, sent beginning in 1971, quietly circle, their sources of power or ability to operate long since expired. The third new…

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Read more about the article My love affair with bridges; soaring across the Hudson on foot

My love affair with bridges; soaring across the Hudson on foot

Most people consider bridges as structures built for convenience and safety. They are so ubiquitous that we take them for granted, scooting over them in cars, trucks, and trains without much thought. The only time we pay attention to them is when one of them fails spectacularly, like the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis 13 years ago. Fourteen people were killed and 145 injured in that catastrophe. In a similar disaster, a major bridge in Genoa, Italy, crumbled to the ground in 2018, killing 43. The public reaction to bridge tragedies is similar…

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