In my column in the print edition last week, I lamented the foolishness of siting a Walgreens drug store (again, purely speculation on my part) at an intersection which already had two. 

Apparently, much like Rite-Aid seemed to make a habit of tearing down historic structures to build new stores (the Green House wasn’t the only victim), it seems Walgreens has got a thing for planting stores next to the competition.

Witness this little interesting tidbit a reader sent me from the Times-Union in Albany:

Walgreens proposes store close to rival

Plan for Schenectady highlights issue of clustering pharmacies

By LAUREN STANFORTH, Staff writer 

First published: Friday, February 22, 2008

SCHENECTADY — A new Walgreens has been proposed at Brandywine Avenue and State Street, across the street from a Rite Aid and an empty Eckerd building.

Such clusters are happening across the Capital Region as drugstore chains expand, often locating next to each other.

It’s unknown whether Walgreens would be interested in, or would consider, taking the corner occupied by the empty Eckerd. A representative from the Deerfield, Ill.-based company couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday.

Many Eckerd stores were closed after the company was bought last year by Rite Aid.

“It seems like overkill to me. One drugstore is plenty right in that neighborhood,” said Catherine Greene, president of the Vale Community Organization.

Walgreens is asking for a special use permit to allow a drive-through at the location, 1101-1115 State St. The zoning board will consider the request on March 5. The vacant property is zoned for business use. However, a new zoning code expected to win approval in March might mean greater restrictions on footprint size and design for that site, said zoning officer Steve Strichman.

City Council member Barbara Blanchard said any business can locate in the city if it meets city standards and the zoning code. But she said it’s unfortunate that the proposal involves another chain drugstore.

“It’s too bad we can’t attract more unique businesses,” Blanchard said.

Controversy has swirled around other drugstore sites recently. An online petition asks Troy officials to reject a plan for a new Rite Aid on Hoosick Street. Delaware Avenue residents in Albany have sued to prevent a Walgreens from moving to a vacant lot on Holland Avenue.

The Brandywine Avenue and State Street Walgreens would be the company’s first store in Schenectady. The company has said it wants to add 550 stores, mostly in California and the Northeast, by year’s end.

Amen, Barbara!

After a particularly harrowing day of work, it’s always nice to have that one defining moment that serves as an exclamation point on the entire day. 

I experienced that moment after work Monday, as I stopped by the P&C to pick up something I could un-freeze for dinner. Stepping up to the automatic doors, a gentleman (and I use that term loosely) breezed past me carrying a 12-pack of Bud Lite in one hand, and a copy of Monday’s Evening Sun in the other.

Seems just about right.

Those of you who picked up the print edition of today’s Evening Sun probably noticed a subtle change in the paper’s layout. At least I hope you did, ‘cuz I spent a whole lot of time putting it all together.

I’ve redesigned the look of The Evening Sun quite a few times over the past couple decades, some representing more wholesale changes than others. Sometimes the change is born of a physical or technological need; other times it’s simply because I’m easily bored.

The biggest change you’ll notice is right at the top … our Evening Sun “flag.” That’s what has changed the least in the past few redesigns, the last time being about ‘95, I think, when we switched to the Stoneprint Roman font and added the striated setting sun motif behind.

After a dozen years, I got a little tired of that, so the Venetian blinds are gone, replaced by the full-version sun seen on this very website for the past year.

Not too many other changes typographically – most of what you see different inside is in terms of page order and content.

• Page 5 is now “Viewpoints,” a second editorial page or reader’s forum. We’ve added a new daily column from NEA, “Frugal Living,” and a daily sidebar that refers to content found exclusively on evesun.com, in addition to more room for letters to the editor, guest columns and other local content.

• Page 7 is now Calendar, a full page of The Evening Sun’s events column, with a special feature photo each day.

• Page 10 is now “Hot Topics,” a colorful page of entertainment news, celebrity gossip, news of the weird and the weirdest of all – the new home of “30 Seconds.”

We’ve shuffled around the state and international news pages, and moved comics and the TV grid pages to the second section. And, perhaps the most sweeping change of all – we ditched “Peanuts” for a new comic strip called “Cow and Boy.” It sounded pretty Chenango County to me. We’ll see how it goes. For those who lament the loss of Charlie Brown and company … well, folks, Charles Schulz died a long time ago. It’s time to let go.

So that’s a quick overview of the cosmetic nip/tuck The Evening Sun went through over the weekend. More changes and new features will be popping up in the coming weeks. Let me know what you think.

It wasn’t exactly the United Nations, but it was certainly a meeting of the minds. I had the opportunity to go to the “Downtown Summit” Tuesday night, put on by representatives of the Norwich BID, Commerce Chenango, downtown merchants and organized by my good friend, Martha Ryan.

There was, I’ll admit, a certain sense of deja vu in the concept behind the meeting – revitalizing downtown. In the last 17 years, I bet I’ve been to that same meeting at least a dozen times. I still eagerly await the revitalization.

I say that somewhat facetiously, of course, because I have in fact seem microbursts of revitalization in downtown Norwich throughout the years. I’ve seen scores of businesses start up with grand plans and fail miserably; precious few are those which started, stuck it out, and succeeded.

I’m no expert in the field of business, and certainly no entrepreneur, but I can smell a business that’s not going to make it a mile away. Those who fail to plan, as the saying goes, can plan to fail. Some stores or restaurants that have opened in Norwich over the years … it makes you wonder if the owners were just sitting around with a six pack watching UFC when they said, “Hey, we should open a business!”

The instances where inspired genius like that have actually succeeded are few and far between – and usually backed by a large amount of money and/or luck. Don’t count on that, folks.

I’m hopeful something good will come out of the Downtown Summit, and not just for downtown Norwich but for Oxford, Sherburne, Greene and New Berlin as well. A vital downtown is essential not only to the economic health of a community, but its cultural and spiritual health as well. There’s a lot of good to be found in our downtown – and a lot of potential to fill those empty storefronts with homegrown talent in businesses which augment what’s already here.

“Seventy-six trombones led the big parade, with a hundred and ten cornets close at hand …”

Or not. Not, anyway, in the case of the Firemen’s Parade at the opening of the Chenango County Fair Tuesday night. More like four trombones. And if I knew how to precisely identify a cornet, I’d say three.

That’s because our “big parade,” while big and certainly parade-ish, had only one marching band. One. From Laurens. The Laurens that’s not in Chenango County.

Granted, I didn’t brave the torrential downpour just to hear high school bands trot out a little Sousa or massacre some movie theme, but I did expect that there’d be more than one marching band in the parade. Or at least one from Chenango County.

As a self-proclaimed band geek, I marched at many a county fair (this county and several surrounding) under the Blackhawk banner back in the day. Following the extracurricular with avid interest in my post-high school years, I’ve certainly witnessed the steady decline of the form. Apparently, we’ve reached a point where not a single school in the county has a summer marching band anymore, and that’s sad.

Sherburne’s Pageant of Bands used to be the start of the season, and these days it’s the end. For many schools, it’s the one and only, save for perhaps a tepid Memorial Day appearance. I know there’s lots of reasons for the decline - budget and time constraints, competition from other interests, yadda yadda yadda - but I still think it’s a cryin’ shame that not a single Chenango County school - Norwich chief among them - can’t field a band for a parade which is supposed to represent the entire region.

Bagpipers are nice, but that ain’t a parade, folks.

“The Great American in Oxford will be closing very soon. It will be a big loss to the community. What are people who don’t drive or senior citizens going to do? The town fathers need to get busy to find someone to take their place. They should have been on top of this before it happened.”
Woman from Oxford

I couldn’t disagree more, Woman from Oxford. I’m all for blaming our local, state and federal governments for just about anything, but I can’t count among their responsibilities providing me with a decent grocery store in close proximity.

And yet, every time a business closes, or when a larger chain opens, the knee-jerk reaction of the people seems to be to blame the “town/city fathers” for “allowing” a business to close, or “allowing” a big box retailer to come in and crush the little guy. Someone on our ES Forum a few months back blamed the Norwich BID for “allowing” the sale of Eckerd’s to Rite-Aid!

These issues are not the purview of the government, folks. Familiarize yourself with the concepts of free enterprise and capitalism before you admonish the government for not being more involved in business. Sure, governing bodies can make an area more attractive to businesses, they can enact laws and tax structures that make it easier to actually do business here, but they cannot – and should not – make businesses come here, stay open, or stay away.

The closing of the Oxford Great American is surely a great loss to the community (or, more precisely – the lack of a decent, clean and friendly full-service grocery store is a detriment to the village), but its impending closure is a business decision. For whatever reason, I’m assuming that it was no longer profitable for that business to operate in Oxford, so they’re closing for good in August. The operators of that store were under no obligation to inform the “town fathers;” nor, do I believe, is it the obligation of the “town fathers” to find a grocery store to replace it!

For years I’ve fielded comments to ‘30 Seconds” saying “they” should put in a Target. Or “they” should put in a Ponderosa, Old Country Buffet, Microsoft chip plant, you name it … and I always wondered who the caller thought “they” was. There is no “they.”

Town of Norwich Supervisor Dave Law has enjoyed an embarrassment of riches lately in new business ventures coming to the town, and while I’m sure he aided in the process, I highly doubt that he (or any other elected official) is what “brought” Lowe’s to town. Lowe’s came to town because Lowe’s thought they could make a buck here. Great American is skipping out of Oxford because Great American can’t make a buck there. Stop and think how it works before you go blaming “they.”

Oprah is evil.

I’m not sure when I came upon this brilliant assumption, but it’s been building for quite some time. Sure, you could say that she’s a talented interviewer, a generous philanthropist or inspiration for women everywhere. You could even say that I’m just jealous of her enormous success or the fact that she has more money than God. But I say it again … Oprah is evil.

I saw Oprah’s true form the other night, as by circumstance (mainly that I was too lazy to get up off the couch) I was coerced into watching a DVR-ed episode, a variation of her “Oprah’s Favorite Things” motif telling us what’s allegedly hot this summer.

Oprah didn’t use any market research or trend-watch analysis to determine what these “cool things” were for summer ‘07; she simply, and admittedly, picked things she liked. But what’s inherently wrong and evil about that, I surmise, is that these Oprah-ordained “cool things” now suddenly ARE cool entirely because Oprah said so.

It’s the same problem I’ve always had with her Book Club. Sure, she’s encouraged millions of housefraus who otherwise would be content reading TV Guide (or Oprah’s magazine, in which she’s suspiciously on the cover every month) to actually pick up a novel and read it, but these Oprah-sanctioned tomes are instant best sellers simply because Oprah told her audience to go out and buy them. And what’s shockingly apparent from watching the show is that Oprah’s audience, who were perhaps heretofore free-thinking women, do exactly what Oprah tells them to do. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, good intentions or not.

On the “cool things” show, Oprah of course, and quite generously, gave every member of her studio audience each and every one of the can’t-do-without items that the O deemed cool. By the way these women in the audience (and yes, they were all women) hooted and hollered and were brought to near-orgasm by each of Oprah’s gifts, you would have thought she’d cured cancer, delivered a lost gospel or opened a freakin’ Ponderosa in Darfur. Sure, I’d like a gift bag with the latest iPod, a $200 pair of designer sunglasses and even the wretched Beyonce’s latest CD, but I darn sure wouldn’t prostrate myself on national television for it.

That’s what’s scary, and downright evil, about Oprah Winfrey: her power over millions. OK, maybe it’s being used for good things like reading books and giving to charity and building schools in Africa right now, but who’s to say that Oprah might not turn her evil eye toward a more insidious cause? Like enslaving the nation’s housewives into a Stepford-like killing army, finally forcing Stedman to marry her .. or even a run at the White House? The mind reels.

Well, whaddya know? One of the entries I commented on in “30 Seconds” is currently the highest rated.

Here’s the entry:

“Seeing what actually gets posted in this forum kinda makes me want to see the garbage that they don’t print.”
Man from Sherburne

I’m saving them all for a tell-all I’ll write in my retirement. Somewhere around 2033 …
-Ed.

As I write this at 7:30 Tuesday night, waiting for Idol to come on (shameless Idol plugs seem to garner the most response on the blog side - Go, Lakisha!), it’s currently got 21 greens and 2 reds, making it the top of the heap when you sort by “Highest Rated.”

I have no idea what that means, either.

Do readers really want to see the garbage we don’t print? Do they think what we print is garbage? Are they anxiously awaiting my future best-seller, or are they just anxiously awaiting my retirement?

Trying to make sense of “30 Seconds” is like trying … oh, why even bother to complete the analogy? It’s just darn right impossible. When our webmaster came up with the Red State/Green State voting scheme for the online “30 Seconds,” I said sure, why not, it can’t get any more inane, can it?

Oh Ed., sometimes you’re so silly.

If nothing else, the voting system gives some instant interactivity to “30 Seconds” that it’s never had before, which is cool. And it puts some pretty primary-colored numbers off to the side, which is also cool. And I’m particularly fond of the new sorting feature, though I still think we should add a drop-down choice for “Most Inbred.”

Of everything I’ve done in my celebrated 16-year career here at The Evening Sun, nothing has garnered me more fame and glory than the comments that I occasionally intersperse in ‘30 Seconds.’

Sad, but true.

Very early on in the cultural phenomenon which is ‘30 Seconds,’ I decided that while the whole idea for it was to be a reader response line, I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut. So, when the sheer stupidity of a certain call moved me to break my silence, I’d chime in with a comment of my own – in bold italics, and signed with a simple “Ed.”

It wasn’t long, of course, before Ed.’s pithy retorts became an integral, and anticipated, part of ‘30 Seconds’ lore. Pretty much every time I shot back in print, level-headed people would encourage me to do more of it. Well, those people who recognized that “Ed.” and I were one and the same … I have a feeling that most ‘30 Seconds’ readers think there’s some guy here named Ed making fun of them.

Either way, it works for me.

When “30 Seconds” spread via this site to the rest of the universe, it took on a new life of its own, another permutation of the virus. But something was missing – the fetid ramblings were unchecked by Ed.’s rapier-sharp wit.

So, this week, Ed. makes his debut in the online version of “30 Seconds.” And the fun never ends here at evesun.com ….

“Progress may have been all right once, but it has gone on too long.”
– Ogden Nash

Oh, the things that amuse me when I’m stuck at the office after 11 on a Saturday night. Yes, friends and neighbors, it’s time once again for that little special section we like to call “Progress Chenango.”

The 2007 edition will start appearing in your Evening Sun with the first two sections in Monday’s edition. Progress, for the uninitiated, is our annual comprehensive review of the business and community organization climate in Chenango County. It is a Herculean task, requiring stellar efforts on the part of our editorial, advertising and press room staffs. It is undeniably our biggest undertaking of the year, and arguably our best. Many newspapers publish similar “Progress” sections annually, but I’d stack ours up among the best in the state.

That said, it is also a tremendous pain in the ass.

I say that with love, of course.

Anyone who’s ever been anywhere near me during the last two weeks in January for the past decade or so knows just what a bear I become during this project. While the sales staff and my reporters spend the first part of the month soliciting ads and gathering stories, my own personal hell doesn’t begin until theirs is over.

There not being enough hours in the regular work day to put out what is essentially another edition a day for an entire week, I accomplish most of my Progress editing and layout tasks at night – and sometimes into the wee hours of the morning.

Some casual observations after spending the last 48 hours chained to this desk:

1. I should never drink coffee past 8 p.m.

2. I should not try to compensate for drinking coffee past 8 p.m. by taking anything called “Simply Sleep” when I get home. It is definitely not that simple.

3. Pat Newell seriously needs to clean up his cubicle.

4. I should crank the heat up to 75 here more often.

5. Lackawanna Avenue is not a pleasant neighborhood at midnight. Lots of people must walk to and from Beadle’s. Drunk, both ways.

6. One of them left a crockpot in a plastic bag right outside our office door. Perhaps it’s some sort of message.

7. Before I get too loopy from a serious lack of sleep and an overdose of Snickers and Crackerjacks, I think I’ll wrap this up …

Being largely alone in the office at night toiling away on Progress not only allows me to revel in my own martyrdom, it also allows me to reflect on the state of affairs at the newspaper, and dream up new ways to entertain and inform my readers and torture my staff.

So please, enjoy the fruits of our labors as Progress Chenango 2007 rolls off the presses this week, and then look forward to some hopefully exciting upcoming changes in The Evening Sun as we ‘progress’ into the new year.

Tags: Ogden Nash, Progress Chenango, Evening Sun, Chenango County