Having picked the bones from my usual targets, I am left with what the city desk used to call “B matter.” Think of old “B” movies.

This is not to suggest that everything isn’t important in some ways. It’s just that some things seem more important than others.

Let’s go to the videotape! (I just love dating myself.)

Roll Out the Barrel

Kingston dedicated the opening of The Barrel Factory in Midtown last week, though a few familiar names were absent. Normally, a Democratic event in the former state capital draws like-minds from across the spectrum. Most were out campaigning, I suspect.

But two leaders who aren’t on the ballot were there for the obligatory ribbon-cutting for the 100 affordable apartments the former Barrel Factory land will provide. Mayor Steve Noble and county executive Jen Metzger wielded the prop scissors with true enthusiasm. After all, chances are that at least 90 percent of the Barrel’s future occupants will ride the donkey.

When I first looked at the line-up in the photo that accompanied the announcement, I wondered what Metzger was doing there. Other than the fact that Metzger is everywhere.

Some stealthy snooping revealed that the county in fact, had a significant stake in this project, $840,000, all told. At about $400,000 per unit, the going price for multiple housing projects these days, the county’s share was but a pittance, but worth, apparently, an invite to the grand opening party.

As a footnote, the Barrel Factory was the first in-town housing project to be completed under the new zoning code the city put into effect a few years ago. The building occupies the entire lot; on-site parking, a pain for developers but a boon for tenants, is no longer required.

Auringer Swings and Misses

Not everything is going to stick to the wall.

Congressional candidate Jackie Auringer whiffed recently in calling on Democratic opponent Pat Ryan to back term limits in Congress. Ryan’s campaign was swift to remind Republican Auringer if she ever knew that Ryan, as county executive, inaugurated term limits in the legislature. As always, there was a political element. At the time, legislators seemed to be raising their salaries every other year. Term limits, 12 years for legislators – and they call that a limit? – were an unspoken trade-off.

Rain Can't Dampen Italian Fest

Having worked on the Irish Hooleys in younger years, I know firsthand how sponsors of outdoor events worry about the weather. Months and months of planning and organizing go into these events. Cloudy skies on go-day have everyone clutching their pearls.

Depending on where you stood, apparently, last Sunday’s 12th edition of the Italian Festival, rainfall was either a “chilly drizzle” or a torrent blowing sideways, the latter viewed from the comfortable confines of my home uphill a mile from the Rondout.

No matter. One person’s monsoon could be another’s “sparkle.”

The good news is that God is fair. The odds tend to even out. The Irish Hooley has only been rained on once in 25 years. Next year’s lucky 13th Italian festival should be all sunshine, and yes, sparkle.

Freeman Went Digital

Actually, the Kingston daily, founded in 1871 as the Rondout Freeman, has been a digital news operation for quite a while now. It comes at the expense of a drastic drop in print circulation.

The paper’s Postal Service-required statement of circulation published on Sept. 20, shows 15,823 in digital circulation against only 2,329 in print for a total circulation of 18,152. By comparison, 20 years ago when Freeman corporate owners were just beginning to figure out how to deal with the digital threat, paid print circulation was around 25,000 on Sunday.

Obviously, the Freeman is not being kept afloat by its print circulation, now little more than that of a small country weekly. How much it makes on digital is privileged information, but I’m pretty sure of one thing: I won’t be enjoying, if that’s the word, my morning daily over coffee much longer.

Catskill Game Farm Documentary

Filmmaker Tim Travers Hawkins’ documentary on the former Catskill Game Farm called American Zoo, will kick off this year’s Woodstock Film Festival with a showing at the movie theater on Catskill’s Main Street on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

I have two memories of what used to be a booming tourist attraction for some 40 years. The first was when I took my four-year-old son to visit. He had never seen so many large animals up close. What also attracted him was the petting zoo, where people could feed the young, harmless animals from machines supplied by the zoo.

David had a handful of feed as he approached a small herd of baby goats. Apparently, the goats had not been fed for a while. They chased the terrified toddler back to where his dumbass father was taking pictures. I wish I had never lost that photo.

Then there was the flight of the emu.

It seemed an emu had escaped from the farm and was spotted fleeing down the Thruway by patrol vehicles. Near Exit 19 (Kingston), it took a sharp left turn into the Town of Ulster. A number of residents called the cops about a weird looking big bird in their backyards.

Ulster town police, a bunch of young guns known as “the cowboys” for some of their cutting-edge behavior, moved to the “rescue.” An officer cornered the frightened bird and threw a lasso around its long neck. Scratch one emu.

Fortunately, animal rescue personnel and police officers are better trained these days.