The night the Knights went too far

Today, I am thoroughly embarrassed to say I am a member of the Knights of Columbus. Since 1997, I’ve been an official member of the organization-and some of my dearest friends are knights. But after news I read the other day, coupled with a letter written by the grand knight of the council to which [...]

Reflections on 9.11.01

EVERY YEAR WHEN SEPT. 11 GETS CLOSER, I wind up saying to someone: “I can’t believe it’s been (however many) years since the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa. Such is the case again this year—seven years after that awful day that saw nearly 3,000 people lose their lives. On [...]

Part of my childhood ended yesterday when Dog got out

Yesterday, part of my childhood died.

On a September day in 1989, like may others who fell quickly in love with sports radio, I was tuned into WFAN to listen to the first-ever Mike & The Mad Dog program. I had usually tuned into the Fan at that time slot because I always enjoyed Mike Francesa [...]

Shenandoah Pa. could easily be Kearny

It could very well have been Kearny. A small town. A once bustling economic structure. A loss of a lot of tax money when plants closed. A town once dominated by Irish and Scottish immigrants now with many Latino (and Portuguese-speaking) people.
Enter Shenandoah, Pa., a small town (around 6,000 residents) where there were once a [...]

‘Boys from Baghdad High’ is a riveting HBO documentary worth sitting down to watch

The other night, I had little to do. So, as I do every time I’m bored, I searched my digital cable lineup for something to watch. Though it wasn’t on when I’d be awake, I saw something called “The Boys from Baghdad High.” It was a documentary about four teenagers — all living in the [...]

Edwards: Not the first, hardly the last

I am hardy ashamed to admit that I am a liberal. Call me whatever you want. You can use all the Rush Limbaugh-Sean Hannity adjectives to describe me if you’d like — I’ve heard them all hurled at me at one point or another. Yet the liberal in me gets a little less liberal anytime [...]

Savage’s autism comments cross the line

The other day, I received an e-mail from a friend of mine who read my short call for Michael Savage to be yanked off the air for his comments about autism. He called the affliction “a fraud.” He also made some other disparaging remarks about autism — and you can hear those in the [...]

Hodgepodge on sports

For the newest edition of The Canessa Corner, I thought I’d take a hodgepodge look at the Tri-State Area sports situation. So here it goes.
• You’ve got to really feel for Willie Randolph. Unquestionably, he’s got to be aware of what his former team is doing of late — and that includes a 9-game winning [...]

I’m back after a little hiatus

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged forcefully (I’ve been very backed up the last few weeks, and quite frankly, I needed a little break after a long stretch without much of a break). But I am back now, and I thought I’d start off with a hodgepodge Corner, something I haven’t done in a [...]

Helms is hardly a big loss for the country

Not even the Fourth of July could stop me from writing about this one.
Former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., died today. He was 86.
In his obituary, the Associated Press, which often prepares these kinds of obits well in advance of the actual death, wrote of Helms’ undying conservatism, his hatred of gays and lesbians, his [...]