Remember that one word of advice to Dustin Hoffman in "The Graduate"? Plastics.

Well, I'd like to offer one word of advice to the city of Kingston's road crews: SALT!

Icy conditions, like those that made driving difficult on Tuesday, and slushy conditions, like those we're having today, cannot be resolved with plows and sand. Salt is the one an only solution.

This was abundantly clear this morning on John Street in the city's Uptown business district. A stretch of sidewalk that business owners had treated with salt was merely wet. The adjacent road, which clearly had not been salted, was slushy, slippery and dangerous.

But don't take my word for it, Kingston officials. Spend a wintry day in Syracuse, Rochester or Buffalo; watch the heavy snow come down for hours on end; and wonder to yourself, "Hey, how come the roads are so clear?"

One word: Salt.