by Chris Clemens Like so many of his fellow World War II comrades, when my grandfather returned home in 1945 he had done his share of traveling. He was ready to be at home and enjoy his own bed, his own kitchen table, his own garage, his own workshop. Part of a generation that valued […]
intro by Chris Clemens For 2015 I gave myself a challenge. Each month I’ll be choosing a topic and attempting to find 15 examples of it from my jaunts around New York. My inaugural ’15 for 2015′ was cobblestone buildings and the second was spiritual sites. March has been way busier for me than I anticipated, so […]
by Chris Clemens While we’ve been either loving or hating this winter, the Sugar, Red and Black Maple trees of Upstate New York have been using the frigid months to store the starches that in some cases have already begun to change to sugars. As farmers around our region tap the trees and extract the […]
by Chris Clemens I spend nearly all of my free time trying to discover new and interesting off-the-beaten path stories and places. During one of my let’s-see-what-cool-new-stuff-I-can-find-today sessions on the internet, I stumbled across a website called ‘Cool Craniums’ run by Nikki Kellogg out of Bergen, New York. Cool Craniums sells skulls, bones, shrunken heads (sadly, […]
by Chris Clemens In certain Middle Eastern countries it’s considered to be incredibly insulting to throw your shoe at someone. Some Eastern religions remove their shoes before entering a temple, but consider it insulting if the soles of one’s feet are facing a deity. In Slovakia, it’s tradition to stand with your back facing the door […]