The Social Committee of the Parish Council is sponsoring a Half-Way to Dyngus Day Party, featuring Stephanie and Honky Band on Saturday, October 16th from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. in the Main Hall of the Msgr. Adamski Social Center. Mark your calendar!!!!
Admission $ 10.00 per person; cash bar; kitchen available.
Tickets are now available before and after weekend Masses, at the rectory office during normal business hours or by calling Theresa Gonciarz at 893-3627.
I love the water. I especially enjoy the opportunity to experience water—be it rivers, lakes or oceans…. from the deck of a boat. Any type of watercraft will do, but I must admit I hold a special place in my heart for sail boats.
Recently I re-discovered a book about sailing from my youth. It once sat upon my parent’s book shelf, collecting more dust than notice. It is titled, Sail Ho and the cover of this tome is a gorgeous illustration of a 19th century tall ship set in full sail. The author is a Scotsman by the name of Sir James Bisset….who happened to be my grandfather’s cousin, as well my father’s namesake.
As the book tells his story, Sir James was a passionate sailor who began his nautical career at age 16. During his career he evolved into captainships of the Cunard Line’s Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth flagships, and eventually circled the globe a total of 5 times. Further, he was directly involved in the rescue of passengers from the ill-fated Titanic.
The beauty of finding this book at this point in my life is two fold. First, Im reasonably mature enough to appreciate its significance, not only to my family, but to the sea faring world that changed dramatically during Sir James’ career, from full rigged sailing to motorized floatillas. Second, the amazing advancements in technology now allow me to easily and fully research my long ago relative in mere seconds. And so I have discovered amazing collateral documentation about my long ago cousin, as well as photographs of Sir James and the vessels that he captained.
Sir James with Prime Minister Churchill
And I find that all of this helps to explain my great love of water and boating— and to further fan my passion to more fully explore world from the deck of a ship.
The Buffalo Bills have many unanswered position battles with one preseason game remaining on the schedule. The competition is likely to heat up even more heading into the final preseason contest Th...
So far, I’m liking the new WNYMedia.net. Then again, it’s easy to like the recent, new iterations of WNYMedia.net because Chris Van Patten knows what he’s doing and works within a deadline. So far the only major things I’m noticing are the omission of a blogroll (perhaps we can replace it with a blog-version of Twitter’s Follow Friday), the “sharing is sexy” thingy under comments that screams acid-washed jeans at me for some reason, and the fact that the body of posts is significantly narrower than the 630-ish px from the last site.
Every re-do of the site takes some getting used to, but I like the way the gang has better integrated the writers and partners into the site this time around, and it’s fun to see what we keep talking about actually get implemented. Great job.
By the way, it’s the slowest week of the year, save Christmastime. Posting will be light. Besides, the city is too busy navel-gazing over City Grill.
Today, we unveil yet another version of WNYMedia…we’ll consider it a “soft launch”. We’ve still got a few things to work out, but we’ll be working on them through the course of the day. The site design is based on feedback from nearly 1000 readers that we’ve received through various surveys we’ve done over the past six months.
Our plan is for WNYMedia to become a distribution point for what’s happening right now in our region. We plan to introduce new features including live feeds, streaming video, podcasts, streaming radio, twitter/facebook integration and a consolidated feed of articles from our bevy of writers. Our focus is on usability and ease of navigation, which were issues in the previous design. Including our partners (Artvoice, WECK1230 and YNN), we’re creating upwards of 40-50 pieces of content each day, but we weren’t making it very easy to find or share. We’ll have better tools for finding recent stories and an ability to track how they develop.
We’re adding all sorts of new functionality, but most importantly, this is a massive reorganization of content. A reorganization of how we create, display, share and comment on the various articles we write everyday.
Previously, we created content which was published to an individual blog where everyone would read, share, or comment on the article. We then aggregated links to the stories to the front page of wnymedia.net.
That’s changing.
Now, we will all be creating content on the front page of wnymedia.net. You’ll see the excerpts of the articles along with the photo of the author who wrote it. You’ll click the title to read, share or comment on it. We’ll also aggregate the articles from each writer on their own author page, which you can access by clicking their name.
For now, poke around, tell us what’s broken, tell us what you like and what you don’t like, etc.
We’re just hoping this goes better than the Digg relaunch from last week…
Kate Mini is a transplanted WNY’er with a vision of Lake Erie’s potential and a dream of engaging the school children of our region to help achieve that potential. However, unlike many, Kate is making her dream a reality and in the process is changing the lives of our youth. And just possibly shaping the future of our waterfront. I hope you enjoy watching this as much as I enjoyed making it.
Protestors took their anger and frustration about Sunday’s front page headline to the steps of the Buffalo News
Buffalo & Erie County Public Library Staff Review by Jack Edson
I had always wondered how my favorite poems by an American poet could have been written by a sad reclusive woman, dressed in white, standing in the upper story of a New England family home. Where did the author ever find the spark, the fire, which could ignite my emotions today, with just a few lines written one hundred and fifty years ago? We find the answer to this question (well, possibly the answer) when we read of the astonishingly wild adventures and the many secret loves of Emily Dickinson, the belle of Amherst, in the wonderful new novel, The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson by Jerome Charyn.
To make a long story short, we learn that Emily Dickinson was man-crazy. Naturally it began with her father, Edward Dickinson, who served as a congressman and had certain typical attitudes about what was improper for a woman, even if she might grow to become a poet of great genius. As a teenager, Emily attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary and her boy-craziness blossomed in earnest when she caught a glimpse of Tom, the school's blonde handyman, who later became a thief.
It is known that there were a number of male "mentors" throughout Dickinson's life including the clergyman Thomas Wentworth Higginson and her father's elderly friend, Judge Otis Lord, who proposed marriage to her late in life. Those relationships seem proper enough, but what about the handyman-thief and what about a certain night Dickinson spent in a gin-joint? Or, what about the night she left home, against her father's orders, and waited in a train station for a man so that they might elope?
Throughout the book, the reader will be shocked and delighted at Emily's actions. We forgive her irrational and risky behavior because she has given us so much in her writing and maybe because we want to see her happy and loved by someone, just as we love her today.
This book is full of touching moments and humor. It sketches a delightful portrait of a wonderful poet and it does give a plausible reason for the emotional spark in Emily Dickinson's work.
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I don’t understand how or why normal people cede the narrative on cultural issues to the cynical-hysterical ultra-right. I’m thinking specifically about the Park51 non-Ground Zero non-mosque, but it happens all the time. The right wing noise machine starts out with its daily talking points, Drudge, Fox News, which then morphs to talk radio and occasionally blogs. By the time the day is over, many people repeat the lies as fact, and they become the basis of the debate. All normal people are left to do is to try and rebut the lies, but the damage has already been done – the narrative has been set.
That’s why we’re busy rebutting the notion that this is an evil victory mosque set up by an extreme terrorist sympathizing imam who is taking money from al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Muslim terrorist groups that don’t get along at all. It’s why the Republicans who are demagoguing this nontroversy frame it as not so much a question of religious freedom, but one of feelings. Oh, sure it’s legal and they can’t be legally stopped, they argue. But that’s hallowed ground, near the Amish Market deli, the OTB, and the topless bar. That place is sacred! – it’s two blocks from Ground Zero, around the corner from two extant mosques in the neighborhood. It’s not that all Muslims are terrorists, but all the 9/11 terrorists were Muslim!
It’s a load of reverse-political-correctness bullshit. Hell, Carl Paladino – the forwarder of horse porn and emails containing the word “nigger” – the guy who idiotically calls the Governor a “drug addict” – the guy who wants to herd the poor and unemployed into decommissioned penitentiaries – the tea partier who wants to create a nouveau New Deal make-work program – the guy who (also) called Shelly Silver the anti-Christ – the guy who thinks the poors are so dirty that the state should teach them hygiene – the family values bullshit artist who has cheated on his wife, and fathered a child she didn’t give birth to – the candidate who wants to turn “three men in a room” to one man in a room – the guy who likened health care reform to 9/11 (I thought 9/11 was too sacred to sully or politicize).
Aside: Just look at that list – it says a lot that an admitted madman (see Beale, Howard) who has said, done, and advocated the things listed above in just four or five months is gaining traction in the Republican primary race. Then again, Lazio is MIA.
I’m sick and tired of the center-left being on the defensive from the get-go on these types of nontroversies, and it makes me quite depressed about the state of our republic that this kind of bullshit can happen so easily, and with such formulaic regularity. Whatever we’re doing isn’t working.
Meanwhile, a New York cabbie with 15 years’ experience named Ahmed Sharif was slashed by alleged drunken douchebag/asshole/slasher Michael Enright of Brewster, NY. Sharif had answered “yes” when Enright asked him if he was Muslim. It may have been alcohol-fueled, but it was also fueled by hatred and fear. That hatred and fear, in turn, was fueled by vicious demagogues like Carl Paladino, Pamela Geller, and other fascists like the little peasant on WBEN at 9am.
Five years ago Sunday Hurricane Katrina made landfall in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast leaving a path of death and destruction. In its aftermath people traveled to the devastated region to help restore vital services and rebuild.
The Bills had another encouraging performance as they bested the Cincinnati Bengals 35-20. C.J. Spiller kept fans buzzing about his highlight reel runs, scoring two touchdowns to lead the way for a suddenly sound offensive attack.
Spiller continues to get Bills' fans excited about the offense's sudden potential
After the offense’s first drive was stifled due to a couple of negative runs by Spiller, it looked as if it was the same old Buffalo offense. But following a Carson Palmer touchdown pass, the Bills continued to look reinvigorated under Chan Gailey. The numbers tell a lot of the story. Trent Edwards was 13-17 for 153 yards and a touchdown, with no ints. C.J. Spiller overcame a few negative runs early to wind up with 52 yards on 12 carries and two touchdowns, one of which required a spectacular burst of speed down the left sideline from 20 yards away. Roscoe Parrish, yes the punt returner, was the leading receiver with 4 catches for 56 yards and a touchdown.
“If we can stay healthy, we can be a very explosive team,” a confident Spiller said after the game. “We can be one of the best in the NFL, if not the best.”
Slow down C.J. Let’s try and finish in the top 20 first.
It was nice to be able to get excited about a Buffalo offense, but there was some cause for concern.
Carson Palmer had absolutely no trouble in torching the Bills’ secondary. He finished 9-11 with 95 yards and 2 tds, routinely beating the Bills’ starting defensive backs. J.T. O’Sullivan also had success, at times against members of the starting defense.
While the defense may have been ahead of the offense throughout most of camp, it appears that is no longer the case. The pass defense received a lot of praise for finishing second in the league a season ago, but they need to prove that wasn’t just because other teams could pound the run with little resistance from the front seven. It also was good for the pass defense’s numbers that opposing teams didn’t have to worry about trying to outscore the Bills. If the Bills can field a competent offense, the defense will be under a bigger lens and need to perform.
Other notes from the game:
-Ryan Fitzpatrick was the second QB in the game and played well completing 6 out of 9 passes for 77 yards and a touchdown. Brohm hardly saw the field, throwing just one incomplete pass.
-James Hardy was targeted three times in his first preseason action. He caught one pass for 30 yards.
-T.O. had 3 catches for 35 yards with no touchdowns.
-Reggie Corner intercepted a Jordan Palmer pass and returned it 20 yards for a touchdown.
-David Nelson scored Buffalo’s other TD, on a 20 yard pass from Fitzpatrick.
During yesterday’s press conference announcing that the Buffalo Police had arrested Riccardo McCray in connection with the murder of four people at Buffalo’s City Grill restaurant on August 14th, Police Commissioner Dan Derenda requested that the media not publish photos of the suspect.
Photo Courtesy of The Buffalo News, Photographer John Hickey
While he released the name and address of the suspect, Derenda claimed that publication of a photo would compromise identification of the suspect in a witness lineup. Earlier today, community activist Darnell Jackson claimed that a photo of McCray had been posted in the Ferry-Grider projects, where McCray lives, as well as in other parts of the surrounding community. He showed the media a copy of the photo for confirmation.
Buffalo Police spokesman Mike DeGeorge said, “This is absolutely incorrect. The Buffalo Police Department never posted photos of McCray in the neighborhood. Officers were issued ‘Be On The Look Out’ (BOLO) photos to aid in the search, but those photos were police confidential and not for distribution to the public. If those pictures were on the street, the Buffalo Police Department did not have anything to do with it.”
It’s quite possible that lineup identification has already been compromised due to the photo being widely available in the community. “Posting McCray’s photo in the neighborhood was reckless, I mean, there was a street contract on him. Posting it in the streets, but not for the whole community to see in the media just encourages street justice”, said one neighborhood activist who requested anonymity.
Like most media outlets, WNYMedia had been in possession of McCray’s BOLO photo since late last week and had refrained from publishing the photo so as not to interfere with an ongoing investigation. The official line from the BPD was that McCray was a “person of interest” who was “sought for questioning”. However, our sources in the police department and in the community had told us he was being sought as the shooting suspect. We made the decision to err on the side of discretion until we had more details.
We were unaware that the photo was already available in multiple locations of the city. If we had known, we would have posted the photo to advance the story and inform the public writ large about the identity of the suspect.
Perhaps media publication of the photo prior to McCray’s surrender would have more quickly led to an arrest. It certainly would have alerted people in the community to the presence of an allegedly “armed and dangerous” criminal who could have been walking the streets. In his interview with WIVB’s Rich Newberg, McCray claims that he did not turn himself in because he didn’t see his name or face in the media. McCray had only heard from others on the street that he was being sought, he didn’t believe he was really being sought for questioning.
At this point, media outlets are still cooperating with police requests to not publish this photo. Why? McCray has surrendered, been formally charged and arraigned for the crime. People have a right to see the alleged face of the most heinous crime in Buffalo’s recent history. What other criminal, after being formally charged with a crime has continued to have his identity protected by the media? What other criminal has surrendered to a media outlet? The media and our actions thus far are absolutely central to the larger story.
It’s not just about the photo, it’s about the role of media in this new era of information dissemination. An era in which the Buffalo Police pays a former reporter to manage media relations and construct a narrative for the reporters to follow.
At what point does the media morph from being a watchdog for transparency and oversight of government agencies into an arm of the public relations operation of the Buffalo Police Department? Certainly, journalists have to balance the need of the public’s right to know with public safety, but has the local media overextended courtesy in this instance? We live in one of the most racially divided cities in America, it seems to me that the disconnect between the media, the police and what actually happens on the streets of Buffalo has never been more obvious.
We’ve spent the better part of 24 hours having an internal debate with our staff as well as with members of the establishment media whom we consider to be mentors. I want to publish the photo as I believe people have the right to know. Marc Odien does not. We established a compromise to let the community have input into what we should do with the photo and also gather feedback on how you feel the story has been handled thus far. The era of informational decisions made in a closed editorial board room are over, information deserves to be free.
Are we doing the right thing complying with police requests to withhold his photo or do people have a right to know?
You tell us.
Over the next couple of minutes I want you to think of all of the great restaurants in Buffalo that don't deliver food. Places like Kuni's, Europa and Trattoria Aroma. Then think about all of the times that you are stuck at home on a weekend, flipping through the same ten delivery menus that have been sitting in your kitchen drawer for years. Not Chinese again... or pizza. Fortunately the limited menu days are over thanks to BuffaloMunch, a weekend bicycle food delivery service that has just launched in the city.
Now you can get just about anything you want in a speedy (and green) kinda way. Do you crave a Po Boy from Lagniappes? Or a fish fry from The Place? Maybe some barbecue from Fat Bob's even. All you have to do is call the bike couriers at BuffaMunch and they will not only place the order for you, they will deliver it right to your door. They will even make trips to the convenience store if you ask nicely. For a flat $5 fee, you can call them up and they'll take care of your needs. The service opens the doors to so many different culinary delivery options that it's hard to know exactly where to start. So get those wheels turning and test out the latest offerings that Buffalo restaurants have to offer.
Downtown Buffalo, Elmwood Village, West Side, and Buffalo State College.
716-22-MUNCH(68624)
Hours are 8pm-5am Friday, 8pm-5am Saturday and 12-9pm Sunday.
The postponement of the Justin Bieber concert sent shockwaves through Bieber nation. Many came to the fairgrounds Sunday specifically for Justin, which was bad news for a lot of people traveling from outside the region. Our Andy Mattison has details on how those already stricken with Bieber fever handled the news.
With Mark Croce and James Eagan stepping up to submit a bid to buy the Statler tomorrow, the head of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership has a better idea for the landmark: Demolition. Instead of encouraging private investment, Andrew Rudnick, who apparently was speaking as BNP president when talking to The Buffalo News, says a vacant Statler site may be an incentive for development.
The News' Matt Glynn has the head-scratching quote:
"It can't stay the way it is," said Andrew Rudnick, president of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership. "It's a huge, vacant property in a strategic location, even before the [neighboring] federal courthouse is finished and occupied.
"At the same time, I don't know if the public cost that's inevitably part of its redevelopment is something we can afford," Rudnick said. "At some point, does the community have a serious discussion about the cost of reuse versus the competitiveness of a vacant site?"
"The Aud when it was standing was a barrier to development. The vacant Aud site was an incentive for development. We may have to come to that same thinking about the Statler, just given what everyone believes is a minimum of $100 million of subsidy that would have to go into it, at a tough time for any subsidies."
Croce and Eagan have not publicly disclosed their intentions for the Statler, but a mixed-use project that will be completed in phases is expected. The development team has also not publicly asked for a subsidy. On the eve of a sale, the Partnership's advocacy for "increased private sector investment and jobs" seems to have gone sideways.
