Author Archives: jimholleran29

   Patrick Ashley is working meticulously to preserve Ogdensburg’s history. But you won’t find him at the library researching border skirmishes with the British, or French settlements along both sides of the St. Lawrence River.   He works from his home computer to post enhanced photographs of street scenes and homes of the Maple CityContinue reading “‘Burg native preserves history in enhanced photo restorations”

   Working the chute at the parish rummage sale means you see just about everything.    Cars arrive alongside our school building, donors unload their treasures, and you pass them through the window. The donations are sent down a wooden chute to the gym floor where sorters dispatch donations to any department imaginable – housewares,Continue reading “Spotting treasures amid junk at the church rummage sale”

   The game was entered into my lacrosse schedule weeks ago, but in truth I had been plotting this road trip for more than a year.    A game assignment at Haverling in Bath, N.Y., our southernmost school, requires an 80-mile drive and three hours back and forth in the car.     My colleagues inContinue reading “The road leads to friend’s grave, covering 50 years of memories”

   Throughout history, a cast of characters has emerged that did notable work but received little credit.    Long before the Artemis moon mission, mathematical genius Katherine Johnson calculated spacecraft trajectories, launch windows and emergency routes for the Mercury and Apollo space programs 65 years ago. But the credit was given to a horde ofContinue reading “The backstory behind names of North Country villages”

     I always have held an appreciation for one-liners. Sarcastic. Clever. Pithy. Concise.    So I bellylaughed recently on the basketball court when I was playing like an inept old man – fumbled passes, missed all my shots including an airball, threw a lame pass that was intercepted.     Then I made a heartening play.Continue reading “We love the sarcasm, quick wit of the humorous one-liners”

   When I stretched and stooped to save a loose basketball that was rolling perilously close to the sideline, you could almost hear my muscles creak and groan. My back tightened, my legs locked up and my arms refused to extend another millimeter. My body resembled an aircraft carrier trying to turn in the wind,Continue reading “The incident of the yoga rookie with the testy digestive tract”

     My favorite month is here. The snow is melting on the golf courses. Baseball’s regular season begins before the calendar turns its page. Yet the biggest happening arrives March 17 – St. Patrick’s Day.    There will be a moment in the coming days when I’ll meet someone decked out in green clothing orContinue reading “Did your mother come from Ireland? No DNA test needed”

    I shivered through a booster shot of Olympic euphoria last weekend.  Sure, I watched the jubilant dogpile of hockey players, skates and helmets on the Milan ice arena surface when the U.S. stunned Canada in overtime for the gold medal. I saw the ecstasy of San Francisco native Eileen Gu’s gold medal in freestyleContinue reading “The joy of sport rules Olympics from Alps to the Finger Lakes”

  The trip to the doctor’s office resembled Groundhog Day. Two years ago, my long-term blood sugar, A1C, had climbed to a risky 9.0. After she delivered that grim number, I worked to cut out carbohydrates and sweets and reduced the number to 6.2.    My doctor was ecstatic. I joked that I should be “PatientContinue reading “From patient of the month to the A1C poster child”