No thanks....I'm full Gram! Oh well....okay just one more!

I am convinced that Grandmothers of the world are indirectly or directly responsible for every single good thing in the world. It’s absolutely impossible to act rude around them, to deny more food on your plate when they ask and to turn them away when they ask for kisses. They are the bringers of unconditional love and the one person in your family that should be above and beyond criticism or ridicule.

My Grandmother, Madeline, passed away a year ago and there is not a day that goes by where I do not think of her and the absolute joy she brought to her family and to the world. If meatballs were currency she would have been a millionaire.

Like all Italian mothers, Gram could cook. Cook like nobody’s business. Her sauce was the stuff of legends (as it should be) and she always, always thought she was cooking for a party of thirty. Even if it was just me and Amy coming over, the BIG pot would be on the stove and here would be this immaculate little woman reaching up to stir its contents.

“Hiiiii theeeere!” would be the greeting that welcomed you into her home. If you were a first-time visitor to her home, the first ting you would notice would be the amount of pictures that she had about her place. Her parents, siblings, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, relatives and friends were all represented throughout her place. If there was any free shelf or wall-space it did not remain that way for long. She was a one woman historian for anyone that wanted to know the history of our family. She embraced it and never missed chance to tell a story about a family member from the old country.

Her strength and fortitude should be mentioned as well. This is a woman who raised three children by herself. She was the mother and the father in the lives of my father and two aunts. She never complained about it or used it as any type of crutch or excuse. It simply was what life had dealt her and she’d be damned if she didn’t make the best of it.
Her reward for this was a fulfilling life filled with children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She has family on both coasts and friends sprinkled in every nook and cranny on the planet. Her personality was contagious in the sense that she could make friends with someone almost immediately. It was never hard to get her to care deeply about someone or something, it always came natural. Her love was unconditional, unwavering and unending.


Gram & I - June '92.

If you knew her, no matter how remotely, you know exactly what I am talking about. If you did not know her, believe me she would have wanted three things for you:

1. To see you smiling.

2. To have you call her.

3. To have some more food (no matter how full you were).

Now #3 usually took care of #1. For me, it was #2 that will always sit uneasy. I always had the opportunity to call her but only took advantage of it a fraction of the time. Yes, our family made light of the way that she answered the phone and how she spoke to us, but it was always, always done out of love and with the unspoken thought of “man, I should call her more often” going through everyone’s head. We teased her about the amount of tin foil she had in her apartment. I mean the amounts of it would make your fillings hurt if you knew. I’m sure she could pick up radio signals from space in her refrigerator, but I digress. The point is, we loved her for everything that she was…absolutely everything.

Hers was the kind of life that deserves to be remembered with love and smiles. Her last thoughts, I am sure, were about how she could help somebody with something. She is directly responsible for every good deed that I have done or will do .

We love her, we miss her and will always have her with us.

Off to Never Neverland...

There are only a few things in this world that can put me in a car for hours on end. Like Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music" these are a few of my favorite things. I don't know why I'm thinking of them right now. It could be because the Bonnies just got trounced by Dayton 78-48 to end their season at 2-26.

When you're in college, especially if you're a guy, you know all about road trips. Movies have been made, songs written and books published on the subject. When executed with the right balance of timing, courage and spontaneity it creates lifelong memories and limitless amounts of stories...all which begin with the phrase, "remember that time when...."

Hey Cappy, remember that time when we drove up to Rochester on a Monday night for the midnight release of Sammy Hagar's new album? We got to the great, great, great House of Guitars only to find the doors closed and the lights out. Man that was so funny, getting all psyched up to get the album and then...nothing. However, that was only one goal of our trip.

The other is pictured below...



Garbage Plate

That's right folks. Nick Tahou Hots. Home of the Garbage Plate. Five pounds of heaven for only five bucks out of your pocket. What you have there are two cheeseburgers smothered in hot sauce on top of a bed of macaroni salad. Take a bottle of ketchup and empty half of it on top and mix it all together for one of the best tasting meals you will have outside of your mother's kitchen. Sure it looks exactly the same in both directions but that's a small price to pay, yes?

Securing our Plates we then got back into our borrowed car for the trip back to Bona's. About 1/4 of the way back I looked down at the gas gage.....to see it firmly pointing to "E".

Now you have to remember, this is western New York state. On a weeknight, everything, and I do mean everything closes at 9 pm. This includes gas stations. Oh man, Cappy, you had the master plan...you put in Metallica's black album and off we went. Two hours later we pulled into SBU. That's right....Metallica got us all the way back. It fueled the car. I can't make this up.

That's just one of a ton of memories that come from road trips. I encourage you to act on the impulse the next time it strikes you.

Good Day!

South Bethesda

Hey gang......just a quick update. In case you were wondering, here is the view from my desk here at North American Network. Not bad digs.....Bethesda is the unch capital of the world. It has everything you could possibly want and more...all located withing a two block radius.


The view from the 14th Floor