It’s a great little city. It’s diverse, has one very good art gallery and several lesser museums, parks, some great architecture, several colleges and universities (including some very affordable State ones), a first rate library system, restaurants (including lots of ethnic places– Italian, Lebanese, Indian, Irish pubs, all night Greek diners, Chinese, Thai, Japanese), theaters and pretty much everything one could want in a small city. And unlike Boston or New York or Chicago, it’s VERY affordable.

Our bad weather is greatly exaggerated (and with global warming it’s only getting better) and our summers are glorious. Like the rest of upstate NY, the economy isn’t great (although it seems to be getting better of late) and there seem to be administrative jobs aplenty. So stay here until you get your degree, then decide where you may want to live.

Live in Allentown, or near Delaware Park (an Olmsted park), or North Buffalo. Experience a city that’s big enough to keep you busy but small enough so that it won’t overwhelm you. And check out bigger cities while you’re here. New York, Boston and Chicago are all a quick flight away. And Toronto is close enough to drive to for a ball game or to go to the opera or just for dinner.

Theft of photos at Lyndonville includes at least 1 topless image

(May 5, 2007) — LYNDONVILLE — The Lyndonville Central School District is continuing an investigation into the student theft of a teacher's "private and personal" photos from her cellular phone, including at least one image of the teacher topless.

The student forwarded the photos to another phone, then forwarded the photos to others...

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070505/NEWS01/705050334/1002/NEWS

While I don't think toplessness is a big deal and certainly don't believe this woman should get fired (or disciplined in any way for that matter), taking the photos to a high school -- even on a cell phone -- then lending it to a student -- does show poor judgment. [That’s what you get for trusting your students and treating them like responsible human beings.]

…It certainly puts the “offensive” pirate photo into perspective.

They're expensive in the short term (esp. as I plan to drive my current car as long as it lasts -- and one should factor in the energy it takes to build a new car into the equation) and it wouldn't save me a great deal of money in the long term.

I currently drive a 99 Saturn SL2. It gets about 38mi highway/30mi city. My commute to work is only 6mi each way. The $30 it takes to fill up my tank every two weeks isn't any more painful than the $15.00 it took two years ago.

I only drive maybe 7000 miles per year. At that rate, even if I was to buy a new car, it would take me years to make up the $10,000 price difference between a Prius and a Ford Focus (or something similar).

Just for fun, I've run the numbers through one of those hybrid savings calculators (http://www.mixedpower.com/modules.php?name=Gas_Savings)and even with gas at $10/gal, I'd only save $10,000 over 10 years. And that's if the battery lasted 10 years. And that's also assuming I wouldn't cut back on my driving at 10/gal, and I'm sure I would.

And that’s why I won’t buy a Prius.

Anonymous,

While I absolutely agree that "Cost is not the only reason to buy a Prius"; however...

1. I bet at 7000 mi/yr in my saturn I'm generating fewer pollutants than than chickadee driving about 35,000 mi/yr in his/her prius.

2. Building a new car generates pollutants. I'm not sure how much, but it needs to be factored in.

3. While cost is not the ONLY factor, it is a factor. And over the last 3 years I've spent the money I could have spend on a prius fixing up a small (800 sq/ft) brick cape in an inner ring suburb and much of that money want into insulation (walls, basement and attic), new high efficency furnance, new 40 yr roof adding attic ventilation and fan... Now I'm starting to replace all the windows.

It's all a trade-off. Here's hoping an electric car will be on the market when it's time for me to replace my saturn.

http://www.npr.org/stations/pdf/nprstations.pdf

Last week, at age 11, my parents’ dog died – a Pit Bull/Amstaff Mix and reading the article made me think of him.

Jack was the BEST DOG EVER! Sweet, happy, friendly, huggable. He loved everyone. Any guest in the house was likely to find Jack sitting on their lap (somehow this 70lb dog had the ability to sneak onto your lap – and you didn’t have to be on the sofa – you could be sitting on something as small as a lawn chair). And it wasn’t just people he loved. He slept with the family cat and enjoyed the company of other dogs (including my mini- daschund who he allowed to steal food out of his bowl while he was eating – wagging his tail at her while she did it). And as he got older, all he really wanted to do was (1) sit on your lap while you read or watched TV, or (2) take a nap with you, sleeping under the covers with his body touching yours the entire time. He was such a baby.

It makes me sad that I’ll probably never own a pit bull. For while I don’t mind the comments from strangers (their loss), there are practical concerns like homeowners insurance that will likely keep me from getting one. And while I am happy with my wiener dog and my big hairy mutt, my best friend was a pit bull.