An Oneonta resident will have an essay published in an upcoming book on Frank Sinatra. The contributor, Joseph Fioravanti, said he has been a fan of the singer since he was 13, when Sinatra came up with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in the 1940s.

"I took my pin money and went to Abraham & Straus (department store) and bought every Sinatra release, he said.

"I was one of the teenagers who went to the Paramount Theater in 1943," where Sinatra performed to sold-out houses.

There were 3,000 kids wanting to go into the theater, which seated 50, for that show, he said. "My friend and I got there early but we couldn’t get in."

There were a number of reasons Sinatra would became an idol for many during those years, he said.

It wasn’t only his deepening voice but also the orchestration of Nelson Riddle that gave his music a classical sound, Fioravanti said.

He didn’t sing just any songs, he took the great American classics and recorded them with his arrangements.

Fioravanti first read about the 1998 Sinatra conference at Hofstra University, at which he presented his essay, in Downbeat Magazine. He was not surprised his work was accepted because he has done a lot of writing over the years. He taught composition at State University College of Technology at Delhi from 1968 to 1990.

He has thought about doing a book of his own, building on his paper that takes songs and analyzes them.

"I think there will be an audience," he said.[an error occurred while processing this directive]

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Pollster John Zogby gave his opinions on a number of issues in the American political scene during a recent talk at State University College at the Oneonta. He called the current presidential campaign "the permanent election of 2008."

He noted, this election won’t be the same as the last two that were so polarized.

Especially in 2004, Zogby said, "it kept getting nastier and nastier."

Instead, the center has been reborn, although it may not be as big as usual, he said.

One of the issues concerning Americans in the upcoming election is immigration.

In 2008, Hispanics are expected to make up about 10 percent of the estimated 130 million voters. In 2000, the numbers were 6 percent out of 105 million. Both parties are trying hard to gain an edge on this issue, he said, but if it could hurt Republicans the most.

It is ironic, he said, that former President Ronald Reagan and former Rep. Newt Gingrich, both Republicans, taught Americans to worry about the national debt.

"High deficits have demoralized conservative voters," he said.

President Bush made a tactical error on solving problems with Social Security, he said, by making it into a crisis when the program won’t be insolvent for another 38 years.

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Former Gilbertsville-Mount Upton valedictorian and Ithaca College junior Chelsea Theis was understandably excited about the Matrix Awards luncheon in Manhattan on Monday, where she will be recognized for receiving the $10,000 Glamour Magazine journalism scholarship.

When she found out recently, she called her parents, she said.

She is allowed one guest at the gala celebration, she said, and thought about taking her mother, she said.

But her mom told her to take her sister Whitney, a G-MU senior, because she would get more out of meeting all the high-profile women who will be in attendance, Theis said.

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Staff Writer Mark Boshnack covers public education and agriculture.