A Night at the Erie County Fair

Yesterday ended with a gloriously cool summer’s night – perfect to enjoy the food and midway at the Erie County Fair. Forget the burger with a donut; I recommend trying the arepas at the hut located almost immediately to the west of the Chiavetta’s chicken tents, by the northeast corner of the new casino building. An arepa is a sweet corn cake sandwich with a mozzarella cheese filling, pan fried.  Although mozzarella isn’t exactly Latin American, it’s still good & worth trying.

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(See the set at Flickr, which I’m beginning to re-discover).

 

Photography

Agendas

Anyone else catch Chris Collins on WBEN’s Hardline on Sunday? It was easily some of the most disingenuously hilarious radio I’ve heard, at least since hyperemotionalist Palinist comedian Tom Bauerle last called for an armed revolution and librul cull. Some highlights:

1. He’s sorry for calling Shelly Silver an anti-Christ, but Shelly Silver’s really bad.  Maybe not Hitler bad, but I-dunno-Castro bad. The people who piled on about this?  They all have an agenda.

2. Anyone who dares to question him about anything has an “agenda“.

3. Rod Watson is wrong about Chris Collins driving a wedge between the city and the county.  Some of Chris Collins’ best friends and favorite things are in the city, including his Petit-Machiavellian comrade Byron Brown.  Also, Rod Watson has an “agenda“, and he said, “I think we all know what that is” (I’m paraphrasing, I didn’t take notes).

4. He didn’t deny ever using the “anti-Christ” joke before, but did you know that Bruce Fisher is a really bad man?  Like, he was in county government during the Giambra administration bad?  Like sale of ECMC bad?  Yeah, also that Bruce Fisher? He’s got an agenda.

5. If you disagree with Chris Collins you have an “agenda“.

6. The people of the 5th LD had a totally fair election, choosing Dino Fudoli, a businessman, against Diane Terranova, who was formerly the Comptroller’s liaison to the Legislature, but whom Collins dismissively referred to as “Mark Poloncarz’s secretary”.  I think Mark Poloncarz and Diane Terranova each has an agenda.

7. OMG, Collins was like totally shocked that his former head of Environment and Planning suddenly quit right before it was too late to replace Kathy Konst on the Democratic, Independence, and Conservative ballots, so he searched far and wide for the best and brightest to be that department head and selected Kathy Konst, who has zero experience with either the environment or planning.  (She is a former teacher and owner of an advertising business). By Collins’ own she’s-a-businessperson metric, Dino Fudoli would have been a phenomenal choice for head of the Department of Environment and Planning.  Also, for asking about this question, I clearly had an agenda.

8. Prisoners in the lockup have no constitutional rights. Those who say they do and who wonder what’s up with all the lawsuits just have an agenda.

Here’s Kathy Konst last year explaining her vast experience with :

• Environmental Compliance
• Planning and Economic Development
• Sewerage Management

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Agenda!

Congressional Repubs to Limbaugh: STFU!

After Obama told congressional Republicans that you can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and expect to get anything accomplished, Limbaugh shot back that Obama was more scared of him than of Republicans in congress.

Notably, however, Congressional Republicans are telling Rush a fundamental truth:

“I think that our leadership, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, are taking the right approach,” Gingrey said. “I mean, it’s easy if you’re Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh or even sometimes Newt Gingrich to stand back and throw bricks. You don’t have to try to do what’s best for your people and your party. You know you’re just on these talk shows and you’re living well and plus you stir up a bit of controversy and gin the base and that sort of that thing. But when it comes to true leadership, not that these people couldn’t be or wouldn’t be good leaders, they’re not in that position of John Boehner or Mitch McConnell.”

Limbaugh runs his mouth, but he’s never accomplished anything substantive for anyone except himself. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but the people who do go out and try to do what’s best for their constituents are absolutely correct to take this tack with Limbaugh.

Secession

I’m not a big fan of upstate New York seceding from downstate, despite our constant effing in the a by such upstate-centric individuals such as Malcolm Smith, Carl Kruger, or Pedro Espada, Jr. I realize that tax revenue from New York City and its suburbs goes a long way; a far way.

But others have had it.

Upstate as 51st state, Wizard’s Mizard’s Gizard? I like it.

I think a 51st state naming contest is in order, BP.

I’ll start…South Canada.

Dandelion in an asphalt crack as state flower. Capital would be someplace remote (Potsdam? Wellsville?) to make the idea of a career as a state elected official seem as unattractive as possible.

Any and all major league sports teams looking for state support must first consider All-High Stadium and/or Riverside Rink as their home.

The possibilities are endless…

I’d suggest the Capitol should be in Syracuse, which is centrally located, and a large enough city to support an influx of lawmakers and associated cretinues. Barring that, it should be in Niagara Falls, which could sure use it and has fun stuff to do nearby.

The state flag would involve the color brown, a cog or gear, a hammer, and smokestacks.

The name of the state would be “New Ontario”.

All Done

On Saturday, while we were coloring eggs, Mia became bored with the idea sooner than anyone else, and kept repeating a particular mantra; a mantra I transfered to one of the last eggs we did:

Dance

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Buffalo ReUse Hosts The Snow Bowl

This coming Sunday, Buffalo ReUse will host the first annual SNOW BOWL in the field across from their warehouse at 298 Northampton Street.  Since we host the Official BuffaloReUse blog, we’ll be volunteering our beefy blocking and tackling services for Team ReUse.

ReUse has thrown out the challenge to other volunteer groups including PUSH Buffalo, Urban Roots and Habitat For Humanity. We’ll see who shows up to take the challenge. It’s a cool idea to raise awareness for local organizations and have a great time, something ReUse is well known for…

You can either join in on the game or cheer from the sidelines or just come and eat chili.  Whatever you like.

There’s an open invitation for potluck chili! Do you make a veggie, beef, turkey, gator, roadkill or 3-alarm chili? BRING IT!! Or you can bring cheese, fritos, cornbread, spoons, bowls, cocoa…or a first aid kit.