Apparently CNBC considers our Skyway to be the nicest thing about Buffalo.
They didn't have a picture of Brian Higgins being the nicest thing about Buffalo, did they?
It keeps amazing us, all the problems that are overdue for fixing, and yet our public servants, led by Mr. Higgins, just will not let our perfectly good Skyway be. They never listen to us. Perhaps they will listen to CNBC.
Buzz signed up to follow the Pope on Twitter. He goes by @Pontifex. We were something like follower 255,676.
As a Buffalonian it is our duty to do our part to draw the Pope into discussions of wings, the Bills and what is going on with the old FWS building. You know that once he starts Tweeting -- he is scheduled to start on Wednesday -- he will quickly become involved with Buffalo. You just know.
A lot of people are throwing very nasty messages up at the Pope. But some messages are sweet and funny.
One we loved read simply: "Habemus Tweet."
When they elect a new Pope the message that goes out is "Habemus Papam," Latin for "We have a Pope."
The Christmas trees are going up! And it is about time.
Above is the Tree @ the Lafayette. We asked the clerk at the check-in desk when it went up and she said yesterday.
Here is a shot of elves putting our tree up today at The News.
Buzz is not proud of our ability to enjoy Christmas well ahead of the fact. It dismays our friends, the eagerness with which we embrace the season, way too early. We do not mind the commercialism either. We like the tinsel and sparkle. We need that good cheer. Bring it on!
Here are cool decorations @ the Lafayette, over one of the fireplaces.
Last week, speaking of the Lafayette, someone raised an interesting question.
"Did the Lafayette ever look this good?" he mused.
Meaning, did it look this good when it first opened, back in 1901?
It is fun to track the news from a century ago! On Nov. 6, 1912, The Buffalo Evening News announced that the United States had elected a new president, Woodrow Wilson.
Wilson would be re-elected four years later to a second term. When he ran for re-election his slogan was "He Kept Us Out Of War." Of course it was during his second term that the United States did enter World War I.
Wikipedia tells us that Wilson is the president who played the most rounds of golf -- almost 1,000 rounds, or one every other day.
And now for the Buffalo connection: President Wilson drove a Pierce Arrow.
It is on display in a museum in his hometown of Staunton, Va. ...
This morning after voting, Buzz ran into Airborne Eddy Dobosiewicz, the comedian, Off Beat Cinema TV star, and Dyngus Day organizer. Eddy was driving a big Jeep and was sporting a loud tie patterned with American flags.
He was invigorated with Election Day drama. Dyngus Day people are all worked up because today is the day the American people finally get to choose. And they are thrilled with the high voter turnout.
So, let your voice be heard! What's it going to be ...
Being sent to Buffalo sure proved lucky for Oscar Torres.
He has been here for several weeks now, thanks to his job with the Federal Reserve Bank. He audits banks, as we understand it. But when we met him he was at E.B. Green's auditing Jackie Jocko. You never find a musician of Jocko's caliber, he enthused, and a steakhouse this good would be unbelievably expensive back home. That is Oscar with Jocko in the picture up above.
Oscar totally missed Hurricane Sandy. He says his home in Brooklyn is without power, but that's OK, friends are looking out for it.
He says, "It kind of feels awkward that people back in New York are suffering from this storm, and I'm here in Buffalo drinking wine."
Oh well, a little awkwardness never hurt anyone.
When we left Oscar, he had just met a Buffalo girl in the lounge and had bought her a glass of Riesling. She had joined him at his table next to the piano. Oscar, a classical music fan, was making plans to go to Kleinhans Music Hall tonight for the Buffalo Philharmonic's Shostakovich concert. "The tickets are such a bargain!" he rejoiced. "At Lincoln Center, they're around $150."
Secretly we wonder if he'll ever go back to New York.
Once you discover how good life is in Buffalo, it's hard to leave!
These things Choco Logo makes, you could not make them up. (We love that picture above that The News took earlier this year , showing founder Dan Johnson looking like Willy Wonka, surrounded by glops and cascades of chocolate.)
Last night, when we stopped in, a friend was buying skulls. They were coated with white chocolate and inside was dark chocolate and in the middle was a long thick nugget of toffee. They would be great other than that they are skulls. Yuch! We know they are candy but still.
Anyway.
At the checkout, Buzz was fascinated to learn that they are toasting Mitt Romney with a confection called Mitt Rum-ney. It involves rum, yum!
They also have an Obama bar that includes salty caramel, supposedly a favorite of his.
Both these bars get our vote!
Surely they will make the last week before the election all the more frenetic, as we all hit a bipartisan sugar high...
I am getting kind of into following the news of a century ago. It is kind of fun! If you do not like the current events of today you can always go back to 1912 and what was going on then.
100 years ago today there was sad news. The Vice President had died!
This was William Howard Taft's vice president, James Sherman. Sherman, I see, came from Utica ...
... and so Utica, and by extension Buffalo, was plunged into mourning. That is how Western New York is. Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Buffalo etc. are constantly at war with each other but when something this happens we put the wagons in a circle.
It is appropriate that on Halloween we do a few closeups to notice how newspapers used to describe death. In the first sentence, you read of Utica that "her principal citizen passed on to the great beyond."
