The smoking saxophonist Tomoka Nomura, who went to City Honors and UB and played in a number of Buffalo jazz bands -- including one with Buzz -- now lives in California with her husband, trumpet ace Jeff Jarvis.
She was playing a gig last night for the Hawn Foundation and Goldie Hawn was there.
"I was pretty excited," says Tomoka, pictured above. "The event was for her foundation and I end up getting an autographed copy of her book. She was elegant and seems very nice. She was very petite and had a
beautiful figure. I saw her close but she can easily pass for early
50s. Her son Oliver and Kurt Russell was there, too."
Wow, this is a far cry from back when Tomoka and Buzz and our band mates played 57 weekends straight at the Holiday Inn on Niagara Falls Boulevard! Buzz cheers Tomoka's supremacy in the jazz world.
Hawn cheered it, too.
Tomoka says: "Goldie Hawn gave me a hug and told me I could blow!"
Buzz was not a Wegmans shopper for a long time. But suddenly we have become a fan! We love the displays and the packaging and the prices on a lot of things are good. There will always be things we buy at Tops and things we buy at Aldi and things we buy at the Broadway Market, etc. But we get a kick out of Wegmans.
However.
What is with Wegmans customers?
Everyone at Wegmans acts driven and entitled and stressed out. It seems most of them are better dressed than the customers at the other supermarkets, and they stride around like stormtroopers. Just to ratchet the stress level up a little, there are those cobblestone floors, and the carts make a tremendous racket as they clatter over them.
The Wegmans carts have coffee holders and a lot of people have coffee in them. They don't smile and they barge past you without an "excuse me." And when you step aside to let them pass they don't glance at you or thank you. They just stride past as if it is their right. Every once in a while you find an exception but not often.
Buzz is not really that annoyed. We are more amused and fascinated. It is like a puzzle.
What is it with Wegmans shoppers?
We put the question to a friend, a colleague here at the The News, and she knew immediately what we were talking about.
"I think I know why it is," she said.
"Why?" we asked.
"There aren't that many Wegmans stores here," she explained. "So there's a kind of desperation."
In other words, people are aggressive and grabby because their Wegmans opportunities are limited and they have to get their ...
... while they can.
Buzz had never considered such an explanation before.
The wave of library closings a few years ago was like a bad novel. North Buffalo was hit the hardest. We lost that cute 1800s Fairfield Branch (a historic Unitarian church charmingly converted to public use) and then the 1920s North Park Branch. The North Buffalo branch library is now -- O shameful day! -- a storefront in a strip plaza.
However.
Now there is the new Little Library at 120 Greenfield Street!
Organizer Rachael Vella is sending around a notice:
"Our Parkside heroes stocked it with some starter books. Feel free to take a book, take one and drop one off, or just look. You can keep it as long as you want and we'll never come after you for a late fee. I will be keeping an eye on things and stocking it up with some faster moving materials as often as possible. We're hoping to eventually appeal to all ages and I added some young adult books this afternoon. For those of you house bound, send me a note and I'll deliver something."
It does not hurt to check and see if your daffodils are up yet. Even if you figure the chances are nil, it does not hurt to make sure.
And so this morning, Buzz checked.
We saw nothing.
That's OK, we said. We knew this was a long shot.
But then ... voila!
The daffodils are up!
This is not to say that spring is right around the corner. The daffodils will be in a holding pattern for months. But still, it gives you a boost, you know?
Especially since it was just last week, in Delaware Park, that we took this picture:
All about how we are a vernacular, indigenous kind of place? That is a combination of adjectives we love, vernacular and indigenous.
We have just been laughing watching this video's country cousin.
There is so many things funny about this "other" Buffalo video!
The warmongering voice. The accusing beginning: "People see Buffalo as the end of the line." Etc. Then the shot of wildfires. "We don't have wildfires." And "We have neighborhoods. Try to find that in Phoenix."
Some Buffalonians got a lot out of their systems putting this together.
Back in September, The News' popular Pet Tales column told of three dogs that added joie de vivre to a nursing home, the Delaware Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The paper ran the picture up above.
Today, long story, Buzz wound up stopping by that nursing home. And we beheld Cooper, the dog in the middle, in person.
That was when we remembered that story!
We could not believe our eyes -- big, cuddly Cooper, that massive American Bulldog, sitting in a chair. It was like seeing a sports hero or something. That massive head. That thick neck!
We had to take his picture for ourself.
Hahahahahaa!
Cooper has gained several pounds since September and he is not done growing yet.
