Of Trolley Parks and Kettle Lakes

The awards ceremony tonight will be held in a spot unique to our area, although once such places were all over New York State. The park that holds the CRT Pavilion is the last of our local trolley parks, in this case, a park built by the one-time Cortland County Traction Company. The idea was to build something so that people had to use the trolleys on weekends as well as during the week. Coney Island Amusement Park is another, much larger example.

Most trolley parks were built as amusement parks, but the one near Little York Lake was built expressly for family picnics and more modest entertainment. The pavilion was constructed as a restaurant and dance hall and fell into decline once the trolleys were gone, in 1931–32. The park was renamed Dwyer Memorial Park after the county highway superintendent who began restoration of the pavilion and park 20 years later. The lake in the park, Little York Lake, is an example of a kettle lake, one created by receding glaciers. There are plenty of those around here, but Little York is especially small and compact.

Cortland Rep, which now occupies the top floor of the pavilion (which always feels to me like a strong wind could knock it over), offers a nice story about the pavilion's history, complete with a lovely illustration.

CRT Awards

O's up for an award at tonight's ceremony at Cortland Repertory Theatre. And the nominees are:

Musical: Working (Cortland), Oliver! (Dryden), The Music Man (Groton), Wonderful Town (Homer), You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (McGraw) and My Fair Lady (Tully). Play: The Mouse That Roared (Cortland), You Can't Take It With You (Homer), and Clue (Tully). Ensemble (musical): Working (Cortland), Oliver! (Dryden), The Music Man (Groton), Wonderful Town (Homer), You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (McGraw) and My Fair Lady (Tully). Ensemble (play): The Mouse That Roared (Cortland), You Can't Take It With You (Homer), and Clue (Tully). Leading Actor in a Musical: Joel Twitchell (Groton), Josh Apker (Homer), Andrew Niver (McGraw), and Nathaniel Shahan (Tully). Leading Actress in a Musical: Allie Young (Dryden), Brenna Hahne (Groton), Lucia Helgren (Homer), and Lauren Ralbovsky (Tully). Leading Actor in a Play: Alex Klaes (Cortland), Alex Reynolds (Cortland), Richie Howell (Homer), and Erik Gustafson (Homer). Leading Actress in a Play: Caitlin Little (Cortland), Lucia Helgren (Homer), and Lauren Ralbovsky (Tully). Supporting Actor in a Musical: Jack Gerhard (Cortland), Will Hanson (Dryden), David Perfetti (Homer), and Noah Paccia (Tully). Supporting Actress in a Musical: Emma Cleary (Cortland), Margaret Hoeschele (Cortland), Breanna Jones (Cortland), and Bethany Ellis (McGraw). Supporting Actor in a Play: John Ruquet (Cortland), Nigel Van der Woude (Cortland), Jacob Elikins (Homer) and David Perfetti (Homer). Supporting Actress in a Play: Kaitlyn Newman (Cortland), Sierra Wilhoit (Cortland), Lilly Gustafson (Homer), and Liz Redenback (Homer). Featured Actor in a Musical: Dakota Hickey (Dryden), Zack Ossit (Groton), Benjamin Ackley (McGraw), and Drew Deal (Tully). Featured Actress in a Musical: Olivia Lutwak (Dryden), Rebecca Woods (Dryden), Bailey Kote (Homer), and Kailey Riddick (McGraw). Featured Actor in a Play: Brian Barnes (Cortland), Lukas Pizzola (Homer), Jackson Morris (Homer) and Zach Randall (Homer). Featured Actress in a Play: Brooke Campbell (Cortland), Kaige Gailore (Homer), Jordon Green (Homer) and Tori Anderson (Homer). Student Written One-Act Play: The 16th Hole by Y. BrIan Hughes, The Ruby of Venus by Brian Barnes & Conner Beattie, Mask by Lina Apte, and Secret of the Ocean's Depths by Iva Markicevic. All nominees are from Cortland High. Technical Achievement: Theo Moore (Groton), David Levitskiy (McGraw), and Kiki Lee (Tully. Theatre-As-Education: The Music Man (Groton), Wonderful Town (Homer), You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (McGraw) and My Fair Lady (Tully).

Imagine how well we'd do if Dryden reinstated the middle school musical and high school drama!

Another Damp Dairy Day

What's Most Shocking...?

...To learn that our government is spying on us (really? did you skim the Patriot Act at all?), to discover that small-government proponents heartily approve, or to witness the media crawling all over this as though it's something unprecedented and new?

Beware of White Boys

Leonard Pitts is on to something.

If, then, the reasoning is that we are entitled to demand extra scrutiny of people who meet a profile associated with random violence, can we expect arguments for the mass surveillance of young white boys any time soon? Of course not. You won’t even see random school shootings framed in racial dimensions by the media, even though those dimensions are glaringly obvious.

The Time Has Come

He is certainly a bully. We are supposed to be thrilled that he's not a crook like Bruno, but that doesn't make him ethical. It really is time for Shelly to call it quits, preferably before he pulls the whole majority down with him.

Election Results

Well, my candidate did not win, which isn't unusual. The only other halfway interesting results are that ALL budgets and propositions passed, ALL incumbents won, and the anti-merger candidate lost in Spencer-Van Etten.