It's good news that the golf course in Durhamville (now called Old Erie) has new owners.
It's especially good news that those new owners, Dave Nieman and John Stewart, have groundskeeping expertise, and a real bonus that they're local guys.

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My son, George, and I  enjoy that course and it deserves to be kept better, especially the greens.
Like many, we started play there when it was called Brandy Brook. We played there often when George was on the OHS golf team, since it became the school's home course.
We played there a few times in the last couple of years, but to be honest, it wasn't in as good shape as it used to be.
So this comes as great news to me.
It's the closest course to my house and it's relatively easy (I'm not very good). I need the exercise.
George and I aren't members anywhere this year, so we plan to play all the local courses, Casolwood, Oneida Community, Pleasant Knolls, Rogues Roost, The Ridge, Valley View, Barker Brook and maybe Shenandoah.
As long as Old Erie's prices stay affordable, I plan to play there multiple times.
The owners have big plans for improvements and it all sounds great.
It will be exciting to watch the new course take shape.
Sports Editor Kyle Mennig interviewed one of the new owners read it here:

http://www.oneidadispatch.com/articles/2013/05/14/sports/doc518ecfcd4295e457124004.txt

John Haeger Photo

Jerry Althouse, right, and Kevin Evans

I used to see Jerry Althouse several times a week.

It seems every time I entered Walmart he’d say, “I’ve saved a cart especially for you.”

Now I know he told the same thing to every shopper, but it still was nice to hear. 

I’m no business expert. I’m sure Walmart’s managers know what they’re doing; they didn’t become the world’s No. 1 retailer by accident. But I miss the greeters, especially Jerry.

But he didn’t go away, prop up his feet and start watching daytime TV. At 75 years old, Althouse began a new career in woodworking.

He stopped in the office last summer wanting to put a letter to the editor in the paper bidding goodbye to all the people he met at Walmart and encourage them to keep donating empty bottles and cans to the Verona Food Pantry.

We got to talking about the changes in his life, and I knew others would be interested, too. So I assigned the story to Jolene Cleaver and she wrote a heartwarming story about Althouse and his business partner, Kevin Evans.

I thought nothing more about it until a couple of weeks ago when Althouse came into the office.

He had a brown paper bag and a firm handshake.

It seems the woodworking business is growing and he thinks The Dispatch was a key factor in that. In the bag he had a desk nameplate he made for me.

The front nameplate is in the foreground.

On the iPad in the background is a photo of the back

that says "The Buck Stops Here!"

On the front it says “Kurt Wanfried, Editor.” And on the back it says “The Buck Stops Here!”

I was stunned -- not just because my name was spelled correctly, and not because he used the dreaded exclamation point. And not even because he assumed I don’t have a boss. Everyone, even the president of the United States, has a boss (though the corporate honchos believe most decisions should be made at the local level).

I was taken aback that someone would give me something that took such obvious effort and thoughtfulness -- and I was worried that I couldn’t accept it.

In journalism school they always stress ethics; you’re not supposed to accept gifts from anyone who appears in stories anytime for any reason. 

And this gift violated this basic rule.

What to do?

To refuse it would be an insult to this nice man.

When publishers send us review copies of books and CDs, I donate them to the library. I couldn’t do that with this. Who, except me, would want it?

Besides, I love it; it’s great. It has real character.

I’ve decided to keep it.

But, full disclosure, I’ve decided to fess up in this blog. If readers want to castigate me for a lapse in ethics, go ahead. 

But in the meantime, I’ll just say, “Thank you, Jerry.”

Jolene Cleaver’s story about Jerry Althouse:

www.oneidadispatch.com/articles/2012/07/03/news/doc4ff398d9865cf885378880.txt

Jerry Althouse’s letter to the editor:

www.oneidadispatch.com/articles/2012/06/18/opinion/doc4fdf68717479c833460525.txt

On the left is Time-Warner's cable modem
and on the right is the one I  purchased
for $20 on eBay. This was shot before
the changeover and the "old" modem
is still providing the Internet service.

When Time-Warner announced in the fall it would start charging $4 per month to lease me the modem that was already in my house, I decided to buy my own cable modem and stop paying this extra charge.
It turns out there are quite a few units that will work on TWCNY's Roadrunner system.
The modem that's installed in my house, a Motorola Surfboard SB5101N is a common model that's served me well, so that's what I shopped for.
Amazon has new ones for about $47; it would pay for itself in a year.
But what about a used one? I turned to eBay and snapped up  an SB5101, which my research has shown is functionally the same, for $20 (I've since seen them for $14).
At $4 per month, it won't take long to pay for itself.
Hooking it up was easy.
I plugged it in to an outlet and moved the cable and ethernet connections from the old box to the "new" box (be sure to screw in the cable connector snugly).
At this point you'll lose Internet service.
I made note of the modem's MAC address and called Time-Warner's helpline (I got through quickly for a change). I
gave the technician the MAC address, she punched some computer keys on her end, and in a few minutes my Internet was back on using my modem.
It seems as speedy as ever.
Now all I have to do is drive to Rome and drop off Time-Warner's modem and my cable bill will go down $4 per month.

I've circled the MAC address found
on the bottom of TWCNY's  modem.
The other MAC ID is for a USB port this
 particular model happens to have
(my "new" modem doesn't have one,
but I have no  need for this feature).

Below are some links I used.
Time-Warner's instructions on how to do this, including a lit of modems that have been tested:
http://bit.ly/TcYzLM

The Surfboard SB5101 on Amazon:
http://amzn.to/XNHzyB

The Surfboard SB5101 on eBay
http://bit.ly/140cHyD

Please note the modem I bought was a DOCSIS 2.0 model, suitable for most typical home accounts. If you're shelling out the extra bucks for one of the high-end data Internet plans, you'll need a DOCSIS 3.0 modem, which will cost you at least twice as much.
Since Time-Warner charges the same amount to lease one of these, and will replace it for free if it goes bad, leasing might not be such a bad deal if you need one of these.

Don’t you just hate it when you’re standing in the grocery checkout line holding three or for items and the jerk in front of you clearly has more than he’s supposed to? 

I’m sad to say a couple of days ago, I was that jerk.

It started innocently enough.

It was Sunday afternoon; the store was crowded.

As I went to check out, I scouted each lane. They all had at least two or three shoppers with overflowing carts waiting to unload, except the express lines.I hadn’t counted the items in my cart, but I knew it was close. Is a bag of four apples one item or four? 

When I’m waiting in the express line, I often count the items in the cart in front of me. But I didn’t want to count mine. There were now two people behind me, I figured the die was cast.  I decided to offload a couple of items to an unrelated display near the checkout aisle to reduce my total.

I never did count my items. When I stepped into the line, I figured I had about 22, but as I unloaded, it  clearly closer to 30. To his credit, the guy behind me was a nice guy; we even shared some chit-chat about carbs.

I checked out and paid as quickly as I could, feeling pretty guilty.

But here’s the worst part; just as I was approaching the exit, clear on the other side of the store, the checkout clerk came running up to me;  it seems I’d forgotten one of my bags.

Ouch!

So first I went through the express line with too many items, then I took the clerk away, so the next person had to wait even longer.

I don’t even know why I’m admitting this;  I should put it behind me and just not do it again. But it’s worth remembering it only takes one wrong move to turn a gentleman into a cad.

I went too far on Facebook.
In an effort to be more engaging, I invited Facebook readers to write a headline for a story about a man who, the county sheriff says, was caught smuggling pills into the county jail in a balloon stuffed into his rectum.
I said there were no promises the headline would appear in the much more staid print edition.
Facebook is has a different audience, a different tone than print. The rules are new, different and evolving.
It's apparent I broke those rules and offended a segment of the community.
That was not the goal.
Here was my thinking, which I now know to be flawed:
One of the most popular features in the Oneida Daily Dispatch and many other papers is the "Odd and Ends," short humorous stories, usually about somebody doing something stupid:
- The burglar getting stuck trying to climb in through the chimney.
- The Man getting arrested for DWI on a lawnmower.
- The woman selling chunks of crumbled sheetrock as crack to naive drug users.
- The political candidate getting arrested for DWI twice on the same night.
Each of these stories was funny and made its way around the globe because of that. I feel no guilt in running them even though, if you scratched below the surface, you'd likely find someone's disease-grade problem with drugs of alcohol, which clearly isn't funny.
But running the contest, even on Facebook, was wrong. While the goal was to be an engaging journalist, the reality was that I stepped over the line from journalist to not-so-funny comedian (even though I was soliciting the jokes from others).
For the record, I understand alcohol and drug dependence is a disease; my dad was an abusive alcoholic. But my opinion is that adults must accept responsibility for their actions.
These aren't the kinds of diseases one catches by touching a wrong doorknob or breathing the wrong air. You catch these diseases by sustained, repeated actions that everyone knows are bad choices.
And family members have often been dismayed by what they read about their loved ones, but we can't stop publishing facts.
But we can stop publishing ridicule.
The news business is changing; there are no models of how local news should be as we learn to use these new media.
We'll continue to experiment, especially with our online efforts to find the right balance;  I do believe our Facebook presence should be lighter and more informal than the print newspaper has traditionally been.
I'm labeling this experiment a failure; too many were offended to say it was anything else.
I'll fulfill my promise. Mike Hennagir wrote the most clever headline; it's not the one we used on today's story. But he'll receive his gift certificate.
But please note, that unlike the moderated comment feature on our website, we have no control over Facebook comments.
While this contest was my mistake, I'm sure people will continue to post observations that are stupid, clever, hurtful, supportive, liberal, conservative and everything in-between; that's How Facebook rolls.

Here what some people said:

Courtney Bennett -- What's the difference between actual print and Facebook? Offensive is still offensive regardless of the medium in which it was published. Just because this is not a "real tragedy" to you, it is for him and his family. Making light of someone with a disease (i.e. addiction) is never OK. Whoever hit the "submit button" on the initial post is a true disgrace to this community.

Angel Morales -- I'm sorry but addiction is not a disease. How can it be a disease when you have to first make a choice to do the drugs? Why should we have pity on someone who endangers their life, their family or any other human who chooses to do the right thing? You say pity them I say pity us as we are the ones who are paying for people to be in jail where they are kept warm and fed and relatively take it easy all while people can't afford to heat their homes, buy food or put gas in their cars. If they take a humorous approach and were to put it in the paper then kudos to them because the ones reading it spent their money buying the paper instead of buying drugs.

Kalenna Maire -- Well if he was not stupid enough to get caught maybe people would not overreact. It's so sad and funny at the same time. Don't feel sorry for him at all… Only people I feel sorry for are the decent people in his family that have to say they are related.

Robin Collins -- Yeah, I have to agree, this was a bad idea! Poor judgement on someone's part.  It's a drug problem; it's not funny.

If you visit our Facebook page, you'll see the opinion is pretty split. I'll assume that the many who offered headlines were not offended, and the poll has gone both ways, but remained close.
But what matters most to me, is how this sits on my conscience, and it's not well. We often publish news items that are distressing; that's our job and I can live with that.
I took people's reactions to heart. I wasn't wrong to publish the story, and even give it prominence.
I was wrong to encourage ridicule and apologize to those who were offended.

We produced our first Sunday paper on Saturday. 

It wasn't perfect, but we did get it completed on time. I expect each edition will be better than the last.

A group of people came into the office on Sunday and shared their opinion about the three-day printing schedule, the bold new design, some errors we overlooked and at least one awful mistake that hits you in the face.

Yes, I'm talking about the unreadable first page of out new Sunday comics section.

The only thing to do about that is to re-run it. You'll find it on page B5 of today's edition.

Sorry. The people who handle that page have figured out what went so horribly wrong and are changing their procedures to ensure it never happens again.

From talking with readers on the phone and those who came out to Sunday's Community Media Lab event, many readers have some similar objections:

• They want the paper to continue being printed and delivered six days a week. In earlier columns and blog entries, I explained why this decision was made and how 6-day delivery would be unaffordable for us and for our subscribers . I know many people, especially older people,  like newspapers printed on paper. I'm one of them. I liked newspapers so much, I chose producing them for my career. But it's clear that younger people prefer their news on their computers, tablets and smartphones. If we are going to survive another 163 years, we must provide what these readers want, too.

• The story type is too small; the photos and headlines are too big. I agree. While there are many aspects of the bold, modern redesign I love, ultimately it's about the reader. Since many newspaper readers tend to be older, the type should be larger and easier to read. This is a corporate-wide look the Journal Register newspapers are adopting, and we're one of the first. I'll emphatically pass on the feedback, I'm sure they will listen. I wish I could just wave my hand and fix it, but it will take time.

I've been talking to a lot of readers, and I don't want make it sound like all I'm hearing are gripes.

People are noticing that there's more local news.

Some people love the new design (these people have good eyes).

Since we're pledging to provide more content, we've received some excellent suggestions we're already working on.

Some people said the new design looks too much like a big-city paper; we've lost our small-town neighborly feel. I smiled at this one; it's the same thing people were saying almost 12 years ago, the last time this newspaper installed a new computer system and took on a new look. 

Over the coming weeks, we'll get better at using this new equipment and format; I know readers will get used to finding the new spots for their favorite features.

The news staff will work hard to gather more local news and I'll do my best to lobby for some tweaks in the new design.

Meanwhile, look for more frequent updates to our website, Facebook page and even this blog as we begin to master these powerful tools.
It's your newspaper; we only work here.


Read my earlier blog about the 3-day decision: http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7776139599083959135#editor/target=post;postID=3274458841749805219

We made the big announcement last week.

We told the world that beginning Feb. 3:

• We’re starting a Sunday print edition;

• The schedule for our print edition will be thee times per week instead of the current six;

• There will be no layoffs from this change;

• We’re installing a state-of-the art computer system which will allow us to share national and international news and sports with other Digital First Media newsrooms, freeing our staff to spend more time on local news.

This is a big change for us, one that hasn’t made all our readers happy. I thought I’d share some background.

If the Feb. 3 date sounds familiar, it should; it’s the same day the Syracuse Post Standard is also going to three-days-per week publication.

It’s no secret the Post Standard provides our printing and delivery services.

But those services are now only available on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

When Syracuse announced their changes (we had about 15 minutes’ advance notice) we examined our options. Here’s what we came up with:

• We could find somewhere else to print our paper (relatively easy) and assemble a carrier force and set up routes (not so easy, and frighteningly expensive). On the one hand, we could probably pick up some subscribers who’d leave Syracuse because of their 3-day publication; on the other hand we’d have to jack up our prices to pay for it all. I don’t think that would work out so well.

• We could stop printing altogether and become an Internet-only publication, but although our website is growing quickly, print still represents more than half our business.

• We could go with the flow and publish our print edition on the same day Syracuse does.

We chose the third option; it was the only logical choice.

We were reluctant to make this move. I know a lot of people like newspapers and want them delivered at the same time every day.

And not everybody uses the Internet.

But there are big advantages to this plan.

It’s expensive to print a newspaper and expensive to drive to thousands of locations to deliver it; the costs of both of these are only going to rise.

By printing and delivering half as many days, we can afford to provide at least twice as many pages of local news each of those days.

And all the local news (and daily features, puzzles and comics) will be in those three newspapers.

In other words, our newspaper readers won’t miss out on anything, except a few weekly visits from their carrier. 

We didn’t take this decision lightly. Hey, I’m a newspaper reader, too.

But anyone who’s been following current events at all knows it’s tough these days for the newspaper business. 

And we are a business. Yes, we serve the public, but we need to make a profit doing it.

We think this 3-day model will allow us to keep doing it for a long time.

Meanwhile, we will use our new digital tools to continually improve our online offerings.

We will give people the news faster and better on home computers, smartphones and tablets.

We’ll use video, Facebook, Twitter, SMS, live-streaming and any new tools that hold promise.

While I’m a bit wistful about the end of our 6-day newspaper publication, I’m excited about what we’re going to be able to do online.

The newspaper will have all the features of the old one (and more), plus will have a modern new look.

I ask that you give it a chance. Read it, kick the tires, get to know it.

I’m holding a pair of 1-hour Community Media Lab events in The Dispatch offices on the days the first two editions come out. I’m hoping people attend, in person or via an Internet live-stream, and share their observations and suggestions.

The sessions are:

• Sunday, Feb. 3, noon to 1 p.m.

• Tuesday, Feb. 5, 7-8 p.m.