Post by Dan Cummings - Consider, please, 3 news events of the last week.  One is worth getting worked up over.  Two are not.  

In the "not" category:  The overwhelming rejection of a new stadium and artificial turf by taxpayers and other residents of the Fayetteville-Manlius School District.  Clearly, this was small "d" democracy in action.  Forget for a moment where you might stand, personally, on this spending proposition.  A full 25% of eligible voters cast ballots, two and a half times the normal turnout for a school budget vote in New York State.  A record turnout that will likely never be matched. Some 6500 people took the time to drive to an elementary school and cast a ballot.  The proposition went down in flames, by a 2-thousand vote margin.  It's very clear what the F-M voters thought of the plan.  Not much.  And unlike my take last week on both the Liverpool school spending proposition and the election of State Senator Aubertine...there's no question that the F-M voters knew what they were voting for and against.  A new stadium. With artificial turf.  And a little work in the library.  Expensive?  Sure.  But something this district and its taxpayers can't afford?  Guess not.  Not this year.  And yet, I can't help but ask:  What other messages did the "NO" voters want to send to the school board and superintendent?   

Also "not:" The state's plan to split up the 315 area code.  We're running out of numbers, and 315 will be "exhausted" by the end of 2010.  The Public Service Commission will eventually decide to either divide up the area, and assign a new area code to some of us, or...do something else.  There are choices.  We will all have many months to have our input to the PSC.  And whatever happens, it's just a phone number.  Same thing happened a number of years back in Western New York.  Rochester got a new area code.  Everyone survived.  Without too much blood, sweat or tears.

Now, here's something to shout about:  After a 20-year absence, The Big Red of Cornell is going back to the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament !!  Those 2 exclamation points are for each of Cornell's Ivy League basketball titles. Two.  In the HISTORY of the University. With Syracuse University's almost annual invite to the "Big Dance, " it's easy for Orange fans to take this March Madness for granted (granted, not this season...or last...I said "almost" annual).  For tournament-hungry Big Red fans, this is hoop heaven on earth.