tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239993182009-04-24T15:25:52.268-04:00NCPR Blogs: QuirksA quirky look at New York's North Country from Sharie Derrickson.Dale Hobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13944539078439445007radio@ncpr.orgBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23999318.post-1163155761066103802006-11-10T05:43:00.000-05:002006-11-10T05:49:21.083-05:00Off My GameBy Sharie DerricksonMy husband and daughter have few things in common. This is for several reasons. My daughter is a teenage girl. That means she likes stuff like hair gel, the telephone, fashion accessories, and purses that match her socks. My husband has no interest in any of that, and has an intense dislike for hair gel, as I know when my daughter approaches him and says, “Dad, let me justSharie Derricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03496553532725680708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23999318.post-1160121061489622822006-10-06T03:44:00.000-04:002007-01-29T19:08:49.493-05:00The Kitchen Campaign: An All-Clear and Present DangerBy Sharie DerricksonBoth my husband and daughter have begun their latest campaign, which is to remodel our kitchen. They have made up cute little campaign buttons that say, “Vote Yes to Remodeling,” and they march around my kitchen wearing giant sandwich boards covered in kitchen remodeling propaganda, and scream, “WHAT DO WE WANT? A NEW KITCHEN! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? WE WANT IT NOW!” into one of Sharie Derricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03496553532725680708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23999318.post-1158235508816494602006-09-14T07:51:00.000-04:002007-02-02T05:14:10.983-05:00Things That Go Jump in the NightBy Sharie DerricksonI’ve seen some pretty strange stuff in my time, but none more strange than the one I saw the other night, and I must admit, I am still pretty creeped out by the whole affair. There is a stretch of road near my house that is right out of, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” The trees are all twisted and menacing looking and have these huge arms that I am afraid are going to Sharie Derricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03496553532725680708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23999318.post-1157025803180312922006-08-31T07:48:00.001-04:002006-08-31T08:50:26.330-04:00My Affair with Mr. CleanBy Sharie DerricksonMy husband and daughter are addicted to gadgets and cleaning products – in that they have this strange urge to just go out and buy them. It is some weird bonding ritual of which I am not included. If there is a newer or greater product that cleans, sweeps, dusts, or organizes, the two of them rush out and try and find it. Most of the time, they come home with some new cleaningSharie Derricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03496553532725680708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23999318.post-1155208274994854202006-08-10T06:57:00.000-04:002006-09-23T15:37:48.016-04:00Playing the Name GameBy Shirley/Shelly/Shane DickersonAKA Sharie DerricksonMy whole life, no one has ever gotten my name right. I was born Sharie Dawn Calhoun, and legend has it, I was named, rather auspiciously I must add, after two Frankie Valli songs; “Sherry,” and “Dawn,” although this has been widely disputed by Frankie Valli experts who I know. It seems that, while the song “Sherry” was, indeed, a number one Sharie Derricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03496553532725680708noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23999318.post-1153998743258795262006-07-27T07:04:00.000-04:002006-07-27T07:12:23.273-04:00The Camping GrinchBy Sharie DerricksonI believe that there are three things one should not do on the spur of the moment – get married, launch a space shuttle, and go camping – all three are recipes for disaster. I am happy to report to you that I have never indulged in any of these three, even this past weekend when my husband and daughter asked me if I would like to go camping.“Mom, dad and I are going to go Sharie Derricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03496553532725680708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23999318.post-1153305706331244322006-07-19T06:31:00.000-04:002007-01-14T21:38:01.546-05:00The Garbage That Keeps on GivingBy Sharie DerricksonMy sister routinely cleans out her house of unwanted stuff by gift wrapping it and sending it to me, something I call Rummage Re-gifting. Last week, I got a whole box of coptic jars, which, as you might know, are Egyptian jars used to hold organs after a mummy is embalmed. I am not sure why she has these jars, and I am even unsure why she is sending them to me. I have decided Sharie Derricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03496553532725680708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23999318.post-1151494359839977572006-06-28T07:25:00.000-04:002007-02-08T21:17:56.306-05:00Graduation Survival GuideBy Sharie DerricksonMy nephew graduated high school last week, and like the dutiful aunt that I am, I showed up ready to help push him out the door to college. The whole process sounds pretty easy, but apparently, it isn’t, which is why I have dubbed my trip, “Cry-fest 2005.” When I wasn’t helping make party arrangements, I was pulling my sister out of a sob spiral that would start because she Sharie Derricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03496553532725680708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23999318.post-1148643828215798192006-05-26T07:37:00.000-04:002006-07-17T14:36:14.166-04:00I Smell Barbeque – and Burnt HairBy Sharie DerricksonI have done a few things that have not only shocked (or humiliated) my family, but also had them running for their lives or running for the telephone to call an ambulance – like the time I used bleach AND sulfuric acid to clean out a clogged drain. See, apparently, and you should know that I flunked chemistry class, this combination of chemicals makes a pretty green iridescentSharie Derricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03496553532725680708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23999318.post-1148045798946919232006-05-19T09:24:00.000-04:002006-12-16T09:51:44.480-05:00Off My GameBy Sharie DerricksonMy husband and daughter have few things in common. This is for several reasons. My daughter is a teenage girl. That means she likes stuff like hair gel, the telephone, fashion accessories, and purses that match her socks. My husband has no interest in any of that, and has an intense dislike for hair gel, as I know when my daughter approaches him and says, “Dad, let me justSharie Derricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03496553532725680708noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23999318.post-1147364637208926012006-05-11T12:11:00.000-04:002006-05-11T12:23:57.226-04:00The Ancient Art of Bathroom ZenBy Sharie DerricksonFor several months now, my husband, daughter and I have had to do the unthinkable – share one bathroom, something my husband says is against the Geneva Convention and has contacted Amnesty International lodging charges that his basic human right to leave hair in the sink is being repressed. But, my daughter and I are close to having our own bathroom – a project that has taken Sharie Derricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03496553532725680708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23999318.post-1146743229902032502006-05-04T07:35:00.000-04:002006-08-25T01:17:16.493-04:00Handing Over the Purse StringsBy Sharie DerricksonThere are several things that make men and women different. Aside from the obvious – that men like to eat their sandwiches uncut like barbarians and women don’t – I have found a fundamental dissimilarity between the sexes – handbags.I am no fashion plate. In fact, if you know anything about me, you know that I could care less about any event that requires me to dress in Sharie Derricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03496553532725680708noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23999318.post-1146142712955050122006-04-27T08:42:00.000-04:002007-02-06T18:50:07.383-05:00Garlic Cheese Speaks for ItselfIt all began with a single bag of cheese – an event so ghastly and unspeakable, that it will go down in the “Sharie Derrickson List Of Unspeakable Events That She Will Never Speak Of, Except In A Column To Make A Few Bucks.”I bought a bag of cheese – but not just any cheese – River Rat Garlic Curd Cheese – a cheese that has so much garlic, vampires can’t come within a mile of the stuff, which is Sharie Derricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03496553532725680708noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23999318.post-1145469093233719442006-04-19T13:34:00.000-04:002006-04-21T08:01:20.973-04:00I Don’t Buy ItAccording to a recent $3,500,000 study, people hate television commercials. Apparently, it took some think tank of rocket scientists to tell us something that I would have gladly told them for a cool three mil. Also, according to another study done by “The People Who Have Nothing Better To Do With Their Time,” consumers who own VCRs and digital video recorders actually skip the commercials Sharie Derricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03496553532725680708noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23999318.post-1144850264696387342006-04-12T09:44:00.000-04:002006-11-17T12:55:25.833-05:00Send in the ClownsThey wore me down – they being my husband and daughter. We now have a dog – but not just any dog – we have a four-pound Guinea-pig-looking dog whose favorite hobby is trying to chew off my left arm and to consume every shoelace in the house. For years, I successfully fought off attempts by my family to get a dog. Because I am afraid of dogs, I had a list of reasons why a dog is not in the Sharie Derricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03496553532725680708noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23999318.post-1143653749046167352006-03-29T12:26:00.000-05:002007-02-03T15:57:38.620-05:00A Series of Unfortunate-Cookie EventsBy Sharie DerricksonI love fortune cookies – in fact, until recently, I collected them, and sometimes, the little sayings I get in my fortune cookies come true. But, I don’t get just any old fortune cookie – I always get the odd ones that say stuff like, “Confucius say, ‘You only fail by failing, but you know that already,” and “Confucius say, ‘He who smelt it, delt it.” I absolutely love the Sharie Derricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03496553532725680708noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23999318.post-1143062172256779002006-03-22T16:13:00.000-05:002007-02-07T15:45:24.430-05:00Digesting Gas Pricesby Sharie DerricksonBecause I am a journalist, I am supposed to know a lot of stuff. By stuff, I mean who is president of the United States, who Alan Greenspan is, where most of the continents are, and my own address. I know these, but often, people approach me and ask me questions that I have no answer to, like, “How many moons does Jupiter have?” or, “What is a cumulous cloud?” or, “What is Dale Hobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13944539078439445007radio@ncpr.org8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23999318.post-1142276306997480782006-03-13T13:55:00.000-05:002007-01-27T13:42:43.223-05:00Stuck AgainBy Sharie DerricksonLast week, I had what is now referred to as “The Incident.” I have more incidences than most people, I think. I attended a meeting in Cape Vincent and on my way home, I remembered that I had promised to call my sister early that evening, so, being the law-abiding citizen that I am, I pulled my car over to make a call on my cellular phone. First, I pulled the car over to the Dale Hobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13944539078439445007radio@ncpr.org8