In December 2009, Governor Paterson made New York one of the country’s toughest states against drunk driving. The new law mainly protects children from the dangers of driving while intoxicated but the legislation also includes a provision that requires all DWI offenders to install a mandatory ignition interlock device in their vehicles.

The children in one Cayuga Heights family can no longer spend their days stealing chests of gold or shooting cannonballs into British ships, now that a large wooden pirate ship was stolen from their backyard. Police are on the lookout for the swashbuckling outlaws who stole it, in what the homeowner says must have been a carefully planned operation.

In a year that has tightened fiscal belts everywhere, Ithaca was forced to tighten its belt another notch when Cornell announced that it will decrease its annual voluntary contribution to the city by about $4,500. Ithaca Mayor Carolyn Peterson recently passed a budget of $58.63 million for the year, closing a $2.5 million deficit.

Last Sunday night at The Haunt, Ithaca Underground brought a touring trio of bands to town that represent a subgenre of music loosely dubbed as “post-metal.” Essentially, post-metal is the umbrella term for the expansive sound of heavy music in the wake of ’90s Neurosis, a wide range of influences from post-rock (another loaded term) to space rock to sludge to doom metal and psychedelic rock.

Let’s talk about driving. For those of you who do not drive, this also applies, so don’t just put down this column thinking it’s irrelevant.

It’s cold, it’s icy, it’s often snowy. The roads here are full of potholes, dents and other treacherous features. Driving can be fun. But driving in Ithaca in the winter is not fun.

Growing up outside Boston, I learned the ins and outs of driving in Northeast winters: Do drive slowly. Don’t brake on ice. Do watch out for animals. Don’t swerve into other cars. Do look out for idiots.

The face of music is changing. Quite literally. It used to look like this: :o$ but now it looks like this: :~) You see? Seriously though, the music industry is not the same as it was when Backstreet Boys were all the rage and the Hansen boys actually seemed attractive.

This year’s Apple Harvest Festival transformed downtown Ithaca into one giant stage for local artists eager to showcase their respective creative disciplines. From hypnotists to the amazing acrobats of the iCircus to street musicians with open guitar cases filled with all the Ithacan population’s loose change and single-dollar bills, performers lined the streets and brightened the atmosphere with a vivid stratum of sound and color.

Freshman: you’re a virgin. I’m a virgin to this whole column business. We have a lot in common. As a sophomore, I am infinitely older and infinitely wiser than the masses of you that have been storming campus since last Friday. You’re probably homesick, most likely lost and definitely out of your element. Not that I was ever in that position. But I can imagine what it must feel like.

Since I’m a pretty generous person, all things considered, I thought I’d christen this new column with a little spattering of advice for the otherwise clueless 4,000 students that will be aimlessly confined to their dorm rooms, cafeteria of choice and the Cornell Store, because that’s all there really is to see in Ithaca, right? Well, almost.

As the semester rolls to a close with bands booking their last shows at The Nines, a capella groups begging you to come to their spring performances and Slope Day just a week away from filling the East Hill with one final musical celebration, I’ve already started to switch the gears on my music agenda to focus on summer.