As Others Blog It.

Here are a handful of posts from other blogs that I have wanted to point out for a long time.

York Staters wrote a great piece back in June on the meaning of the name of the town of Niskayuna. The names of cities and towns in New York State seem to have at least four major sources: Indian names (Niskayuna); Classical names (Utica, Troy, Ithaca), names from the old countries (Albany, Amsterdam), and Biblical names (Sodom, Goshen).

The state has been wanting to ban open burning for years, thus depriving kids of one of life’s simple pleasures--bonfires. I-Saratoga blogged in June about Schenectady's health officer wanting to shut down another of life’s simple pleasures--the potluck supper.

Albany Eye blogged recently about another of life’s simple pleasures--drive-in movies. If you live out in this part of the Mohawk Valley you can choose between Ozoner-29 in Broadalbin or El-Rancho in Palatine Bridge. Ozoner 29 was built in 2003. El-Rancho has been around since 1952. At one point, in the late 70s or early 80s, District Attorney Howard Aison had to shut down El-Rancho. At the time, it was only showing pornographic movies, and the locals dubbed the theater, El-Rauncho. It has long since returned to family fare.

Finally, Dave Lucas of Capital Region People blogged about a number of people who have unexpectedly died or disappeared, then asks one of life’s ultimate questions, “If this was the last day of YOUR life, would you ‘be ready?’”