COLUMNIST SEAN KIRST

News and Views from Syracuse and Central New York

• SU freshman helps feed the needy
Wayne Dawson is a busy guy. He's director of the Children's Aid Society Dunlevy Milbank Center, in Harlem, where his mission is helping thousands of New York City families.

• We could use some wisdom
The man and his children came out Tuesday to support the Blodgett School. They stood in the snow with hundreds of others during a public rally, before heading into the cafeteria for a public forum with superintendent Dan Lowengard.

• Child's speech a clear victory in defeat
Billie Murray was not impressed with her own performance. She was one of 70 entrants in Saturday's oratorical contest at Danforth Middle School in Syracuse, a competition open to any child in the city schools.

• A 9-year-old's lesson on power of words
This speech, entitled

• 'Sanatorium' Revisited
'SANATORIUM,' FROM PAGE B-1 the cemetery - permanently.

• Arch leads to local history
Not long ago, my oldest boy and I were out for a run when we took a shortcut through St. Agnes Cemetery, in the Elmwood neighborhood of Syracuse. The cemetery rises above the valley, offering a great view of the city. We also observed what I can only call the

• Paterson faces finances head on
There is talk of Rudy Giuliani running for governor of New York in 2010, and nobody can be sure that Attorney General Andrew Cuomo won't jump in. Even so, I'm more convinced than ever that either one of them would have his hands full if he ended up facing the incumbent.

• Real memorial was more than plaque
Katrina Egelston Oxley and her husband, Michael, live in Indiana, but they plan to move back to Katrina's hometown of Oswego. There is a house on the Lake Ontario shoreline they want to "spruce up," a house that's stayed in the family since it was built by Katrina's grandfather more than 60 years ago.

• Biden Left Mark in Syracuse
Kevin Coyne stuttered as a child. Other children were not kind. Once, as he played in his yard on Stinard Avenue, in Syracuse, several older boys taunted him relentlessly. Kevin tried to brush it off. This was nothing new.

• Obama's victory reverberates with Jackie Robinson's widow
Rachel Robinson is no stranger to the long delayed triumphs of history. Yet even she never really believed that she'd live to see what unfolded Tuesday night.

• Stopping the killing starts in the home
Frank Fowler, deputy chief of Syracuse police, has served with the department since 1989. During that time, dozens upon dozens have died violently on city streets.

• Listen closely, it's Halloween
Today is Halloween, which is an observance as much as a holiday. The basic theme, the whole wistful sense of passing, is hardwired into the bare trees and gray skies of the season. Halloween does not happen at this time of year because of some marketing choice in New York City.

• One wonderful life in Syracuse's Skunk City
My column Monday called on readers to send in memories and reflections about growing up around South Geddes Street, on the near West Side. The replies are pouring into my blog at www.syracuse. com/kirst, reminiscent of a similar response to a blog built around the old Elmwood commercial district.

• Memory Lane: South Geddes Street
Pat Ahern can still feel it. He spent much of his childhood running in and out of stores along South Geddes Street in Syracuse. Today, in every empty window on the street, he sees reflections of a district that once teemed with commercial energy.

• To Tarbell, museum's a new ballgame
Mike Tarbell finds symmetry in the timing of this month's World Series. Every day, he escorts visitors through a museum exhibit that features two especially memorable pitchers from baseball's fall classic.