LISTEN, CHILDREN, AND REMEMBER this lesson: Good ideas always start at the top; those of us who pay the taxes and do the work will never be smart enough to figure out what’s best for us. That’s what government is for. Now go to sleep….

That apparently sums up the attitude of the state Department of State, according to local school officials. The school boards and administrators from the Ichabod Crane and Schodack school districts applied for a state grant last October, asking for money to study what they called “functional consolidation.” The two adjacent districts wanted to preserve their traditional identities but find ways to share services and save taxpayers some money. Read more…

WALKING THE DOG recently in the Village of Chatham we encountered two boys speaking Spanish to each other. We exchanged greetings in English, but as they headed up the street in the other direction, they giggled loudly, and one of them exclaimed, “Zapatos!”

He had it right. The dog was wearing shoes. Well, technically booties. He wears them every winter, and it’s easy to predict the human reaction based on gender. Men tend to chuckle dismissively, as if to say: Your dog’s a wuss. Women coo and say: That’s so cute. Seldom does anyone remark on the practicality of his footware. Read more…

IT TAKES ALL KINDS of ingredients to make a community, starting with people and their institutions. But after the basics like government and schools, the things that distinguish one place from another come from quirky, unexpected features–what you might call character. Put the Crandell Theatre on Main Street in Chatham under the heading of character.

Since 1926 the theater has been the central source of year-round public entertainment in the village. It started as a vaudeville stage but soon switched to movies. For the last quarter century it has been run by Anthony “Tony” Quirino and his wife, Sandy. Before that, it was owned by Mr. Quirino’s father. The younger Mr. Quirino died unexpectedly this week at 62. Read more…