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Wondering about


Award-winning columnist, photographer and news writer Ellen Leahy is back as the editor of the Skaneateles Press, in beautiful Skaneateles New York.

She is the former editor of the Skaneateles Press and the Marcellus Observer, and most recently the Syracuse City Eagle. She makes her home in Skaneateles where she is also a freelance photographer and caregiver for her parents, Bill and Marion Leahy.

She began her formal writing career as a columnist with one of her hometown papers, The Duxbury Clipper, in Duxbury, MASS. Born in California, she then moved to Sea Girt, NJ. She is a product of small town America - and the late great American Middle Class.

The photo at right is the drive down to Brook Farm off of West Lake Road - one of my former Skaneateles haunts.


Currently reading...

CLEAN, as well as other assorted reads on my dad's Kindle.

Blogs I like

Amy Fancher Mosaics
An improv theater in atlanta with major talent
art made out of sand
Barrigar brothers - talented entertainers extraordinaire
blackwell on more than just sports
Center of Festivus and author of Surf's Up
Charlie Rose's favorite chick Web site
Creative services
great girl writer who loves good food maybe even more than I do
great syracuse history site
Jack - a baby boy in my life
Kanjira - trio
Ken Jackon's award winning pub - Syracuse
local NPR podcasts
My dad's and my favorite show
My first favorite blog - ever
my own food journal
original snowflake photographer
Rethinking our world
Talk on creativity and genius
The Asbury Park Press - my first paper
The Duxbury Clipper - my first writing gig
The Whitney's of Cambridge food blog
urban cictionary - new words, expressions

 

Wondering about


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Rating: 2.2/5 (5 votes cast)


Nov
03

Do our Halloween costumes define us?


eleahy, Wondering about
The only two costumes I can remember as a child are a pilgrim and a beatnik.

As a pilgrim I paraded around in our small town fire hall, and then, as a beatnik I scampering about the neighborhood in black with a pillowcase for candy.

Now that I think about it, I have always had a serious work ethic, and I do tend to dress in black...

As an adult I spent several Halloweens dancing the night away at the Creamery in LaFayette. That party tended to draw big from the SU art scene. It was a great gathering because the crowd was not averse to dressing up and the DJ was always, as they say, righteous...
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CATEGORY: General Society

TAGS: halloween,beatnik,lafayette creamery,tinkerbell,pilgrim,costumes

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Nov
07

Remembering Michael Tew


eleahy, Wondering about
“Michael Tew dies in jail”
This was a shocking sunny Monday morning headline.
As the day wore on, an incredible gloom set in over Central New York. Or was that just me?

Michael Tew was a student of mine in the food service department at Onondaga Community College. I’m an adjunct lecturer teaching one class a semester, as well as the editor of the City Eagle. I really enjoy the student population at OCC. It’s diverse and interesting, which often makes for a rewarding teaching experience.

Michael actually started coming to one of my classes with his girlfriend, who was taking the class. The thing was that he really participated in that class, doing class work and assignments...
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CATEGORY: General Society

TAGS: Michael Tew,Onondaga community college,OCC,food service,suicide,

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Nov
14

Governor ain’t holding back


eleahy, Wondering about
Governor David Paterson held one of two recent town hall meetings right here in downtown Syracuse at the John H. Mulroy Civic Center on Tuesday Nov. 11. He was here to discuss the budget deficit and to take people’s questions, but also he told his first questioner, “I came here to listen.”

Basically, he is calling the legislature back to Albany to work on cutting the budget another $2 billion for the current fiscal year, as New York’s Wall Street crisis continues to have an negative effect on state’s revenues.

“We are in an extreme situation, so I wouldn’t rule out any measures,” he said.

As he answered citizens’ questions, he appeared to have a balanced grasp on the crisis...
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CATEGORY: Government

TAGS: paterson,governor,New York governor in Syracuse,town hall with paterson

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Nov
20

Home is where you are cared for


eleahy, Wondering about
At age four, my mother was taken by her mother, Helen Smith, a registered baby nurse, to Patrick “Uncle Pat” and Margaret “Auntie” McCrory’s house on St. Claire Avenue in Spring Lake, NJ and dropped off, – pretty much for good.
Mom said Auntie was a formidable woman. I know what she meant, as I had met her when I was also a little girl and she scared the heck out of me, too. Even more so when they waked her body at home in the dining room, but I am getting ahead of myself.
My grandmother Smith found herself a single parent with a profession that required her to ‘live in’ – having a child herself would not suffice, when caring for others’ small children. That’s the official story...
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CATEGORY: General Society


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Nov
26

We aren’t the land of gas a plenty


eleahy, Wondering about
When I filled my gas tank this week the cost was around $25, which is almost half of what I have been paying for the past six-ish months. It struck me how during that time I was basically turning over an additional $200 plus a month to the oil industry; not to mention more taxes as these are based on a percent of the sale rather than a flat fee. That $200 would have gone to other businesses, not savings. And now that the gas has come back down to what I consider to be a bloated price, even at $2 a gallon, we should all have that extra money back in our hot little hands to either save or disperse in anyway we see fit. Of course, if we listen to the nightly news, we shouldn’t be spending, rather saving it in one of the nation’s crazy banks...
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CATEGORY: General Society

TAGS: gas, alternative fuel,onondaga county,heating with corn,gas tax,gas prices

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Nov
28

Honk if you love Skaneateles


eleahy, Wondering about
This Friday grab your ‘Friday night band concert in the park’ chairs and a thermos and wander on down to the village for a doubleheader. No, it’s not the annual “Turkey Trot,” as that’s Thanksgiving morning at 10:30 a.m. Instead, the opening of “Dickens Christmas 2008,” will be accompanied by “Big Trucks -Village Style.” And there’s no admission for either event. That’s free folks. F-R-E-E!

The television newscasts have been broadcasting how those Skaneateles people don’t want the big bad trucks rumbling through their purty little village, so the truckers, according to their spokesperson, will stage a “Drive In” to Skaneateles on Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year. I thought, well, sounds like fun...
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CATEGORY: General Society

TAGS: truckers,skaneateles,dickens christmas skaneateles,skaneateles chamber of commerce,governor Paterson,chief lloyd perkins

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