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Colonie-Plant a Tree!

Posted by acohn | 05/02/08

The Town of Colonie wants its residents to help make the town beautiful, starting with their own backyards.

Seedlings of the following trees will be given away-free-this weekend:

Paper Birch
Silky Dogwood
Toringo Crabapple
Lespedeza Bicolor
White Pine
Austrian Pine
White Ash
Pitch Pine
Norway Spruce

My personal favorite of the bunch is the Lespedeza Bicolor. It buds lovely little purple-ish flowers. Seeds will be given away at the William K. Sanford Library Saturday from 9-12 a.m.

CATEGORY: Environment

TAGS: Town of Colonie,William K. Sanford Library,Lespedeza Bicolor

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Colonie Center getting snazzy

Posted by acohn | 05/06/08

I consider myself an avid shopper. I like to spend hours on end at the mall. In fact, I consider it my time away from the "real world." But shopping to me is more than just buying clothes and eating small pieces of chicken that are thrown at you by the kitchen staff of the Food Court Chinese restaurant. Walking through the mall should be an experience that soothes you and leaves you feeling satisfied about your purchases.

Which is why I'd like to say that I think Colonie Center has come a long way in the past year toward enhancing my shopping extravaganzas. Last night, as I shopped, my ears were tickled with music from the Colonie Town Band (www.colonietownband.org)as they performed the first concert in their summer series in front of Boscov's department store...

CATEGORY: General Society

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Where have all the people gone?

Posted by acohn | 05/09/08

It has only been seven weeks since I kicked off my coverage of Colonie. In seven short weeks I've been able to explore the Ciccotti Center ( http://www.colonieyouthcenter.org/ciccotti_center/
), watch senior citizens from my laptop through the Colonie Senior Resource Center ( http://www.brighthorizonssocialcenters.org/ )and seen a few of the interesting programs the William K. Sanford Library ( http://www.colonie.org/LIBRARY/ ) has to offer, among many other things.

But on top of my busy schedule filled with events of children planting trees and square dancers dosie-doing, every second and fourth Thursday of the month, at exactly 7:00 p.m...

CATEGORY: Government

TAGS: Colonie,Ciccotti,chairs,Town Board

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Regal Cinemas: party room!

Posted by acohn | 05/12/08

I just returned from a tour of the new Regal Cinemas. Let me first say, pretty cool. Thousands of brightly colored lightbulbs make the entire hallway leading up to the theatres look like a carnival!
There are also some comfy seats with adjustable armrests, "In case a couple wants to snuggle," I was told.

But perhaps the neatest thing about the new Regal Cinemas is something I instantly wished was available when I was a kid...

CATEGORY: General Society

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When I'm not dreaming of Colonie...

Posted by acohn | 05/15/08

I'm dreaming of fire. At least I was last night.

{Warning: this posting is almost entirely unrelated to Colonie, however, I thought ya'll might enjoy it)

So last night, I was dreaming that I was involved in an intense fire. So intense that only one limb of my body was burning: my right leg. The heat became hotter and hotter until finally I woke up to check if it was real.

Oh, it was real all right. But to my surprise, it was not fire.

It was a stream of fresh urine from my 5-month old puppy to my right thigh.

I guess it could have been worse, but terrible nonetheless. So I call out for advice, Colonie animal owners...

CATEGORY: General Society

TAGS: animal,dog,fire

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silence helps no one...especially not me!

Posted by acohn | 05/22/08

I think I speak for all my colleagues here in the Spotlight newsroom when I say there is an ever-growing unwillingness of the average civilian to offer up their names in the course of an interview.

I've often wondered why this is, but it's beginning to get a bit ridiculous. It seems as though everyone has something to say, but only a few are willing to take credit for their words.

Those words are your words. You produced them. Wouldn't you want to be the first one to say that prophetic thought was yours?

Please people, for the sake of your towns and your newspapers, be proud of your name, and be willing to put it behind what you say. It will help everyone around you...

CATEGORY: General Society

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It's going to be a musical summer

Posted by acohn | 05/28/08

Flipping through various calendar events as I try to pick out this week's stories, I'm seeing a lot of concerts lined up for the summer in Colonie. I've got to say--I'm pretty excited to boogie in the upcoming weeks.

For example, the Pruyn House concert series at the Buhrmaster Barn. They are not just having different performers throughout the series. They're having a different theme for each concert. There's going to to be a jazz night, polish night, german fest, golden age of rock and roll and irish night! I'm pretty glad that they're not all on the same night though because I wouldn't know whether to be jigg-ing or head-banging or doing Polish folk dancing.
Another exciting concert series is the Tuesday night series at the Frank A...

CATEGORY: General Society

TAGS: music,summer,Colonie

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