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Feb 07

My 5¢ – 02/06/2013

Posted on 02/07/2013 by Christopher Byrd

FIVE CENTS

What do we want Buffalo to be?

Muddling.  I can’t help but to feel that is what I am doing while working through the trials and tribulations of helping Buffalo’s East Side.  There never seems to be any order to the chaos.  The poverty, the vacant homes, the disorganization, the decline and the never ending sense that I am making only small dents in huge problems leaves my wondering if the time and energy spent is worth it.

It also leaves me wondering what we want Buffalo to be.  It is like we have this chaotic pool of problems and no clear understanding on how to change things.  Sure there are some cool things going on here and there…Canal Side, the medical campus, Richardson Towers and the like.  But do these things fundamentally change how Buffalo does business?  I think we need to take a long hard look at the core of how Buffalo operates and change the culture of this town.

Instead of people working against the system to change things, we need the system to change and work in unison with community efforts to fundamentally transform Buffalo and bring it out of its state of decline.

Sabres

If the Sabres don’t get on track soon, who knows what is going to happen.

There has been a lot of talk on social media and the local media about turning the page on Lindy Ruff.

This is where the Sabres are at.

1-Fullscreen capture 262013 114804 PM

Yep, it ain’t pretty.  But, not all is lost yet.  It is still early in the season.  They are two points away from bopping back up the ladder significantly.  The next two weeks are going to prove to be interesting.  If the Sabres continue on the slide to bottom feederdom, it may be the time to pull the plug on Ruff.

The keys to get the Sabres going in the right direction aren’t that difficult.  The defense needs to play better and they need to start getting scoring from other places besides the first line.

State Run Casinos 

Bad idea.  There is already a lot of state sponsored gambling to take advantage of the populace.  The geniuses in Albany can’t figure out ways to help better balance the state budget except to take advantage of people.

In New York, we have new laws on the books to better help protect people from guns.  I wonder how many more lives are ruined because of gambling than guns.

Intelligence Squared U.S.

I love this series by NPR where they bring in people to debate a variety of issues.  These are not the lame political debates we have become accustomed to.  These are thought provoking Harvard style debates…beats most anything you will hear in the mainstream media.

I listened to Is The Internet Closing Our Minds Politically? earlier today.  Good stuff.

Audio of the Debate:

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For the record, I think we tend to gravitate towards information sources to support our views.

Awesome Pics

Just go and check these travel photos out by users of CNN.com—>

Awesome.

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Feb 01

Don’t Panic, Call Vanek

Posted on 02/01/2013 by Christopher Byrd

Buffalo SabresThe Sabres’ win last night against those dreaded Bruins was the early highlight of this young season.  After the Sabres fell behind 3-1 in the second period, all of Hockey Heaven thought Buffalo was doomed to lose…me included.  But the Sabres dug down deep and didn’t give up.  It would have been easy to do that for them.  They didn’t.  Propelled by Thomas Vanek’s second 5 point game of the season and Ryan Miller making some incredible saves along the way, Buffalo turned the tables on Boston and walked out of Beantown with a 7-4 victory.

Thomas Vanek, could he be turning into the superstar we all hoped for?  He is the first Sabre since Pat LaFontaine and Alexander Mogilny in 1992-93 season to have two 5 point games in one season.  Awesome stuff.

When the book is written on this year’s Sabres and if they are successful, you will be able to look back at this game as the turning point of the season.  They didn’t give up.  They worked their tails off.  They came together as a team. They surprised a lot of us last night.

I used to do this before highlights were made readily available online.  I’d record the game and post the Sabre’s goals.  This game was worthy of my doing that again.

Sabres’ Goals (RJ on AM radio is great):

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Enjoy!

Go Sabres!

 

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Jan 31

My 5¢ – 01/31/2013

Posted on 01/31/2013 by Christopher Byrd

five cents

Welcome to Erie County

countyseal_bw_115

I can see it clearly now.  It is like I have an eighty inch top-of-the-line HDTV as a window into politics down at the Rath Building and old Erie County Hall.

The feud brewing between Erie County Comptroller Stefan Mychajliw (R) and Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz (D) isn’t really about what’s best for the county or its residents. It is pure politics plain and simple.  Mychajliw has to do everything he can to ensure he gets re-elected come fall because the post is on the ballot again after he won a special election to fill the unexpired term of Poloncarz the former comptroller and now the county executive.  He has to make a lot of noise before November. In his short time in office, Mychajliw is doing exactly that. Poloncarz and his Erie County Democrat pals want to have the comptroller’s office back in donkey control come 2014.  Mix the number one and number two most visible elected county officials together in a political war and things are going to get interesting in the Rath Building.

If that wasn’t enough, all the county legislature seats are on the ballot this fall.  The balance of political power in the county could change on election night.  It will make for great political drama.

What I wonder about a lot is if the seeking of power and control of county government are done with the best interests of county residents in mind or is it done simply for power and control.

Forever Ruined on Fluff

FLUFF

When I was a wee little Byrd, my mom would make “Fluffernutter” sandwiches periodically.  The worst was when she would put them in the broiler with Fluff and peanut butter on one slice.  The smell sickened me.

Anytime I see Fluff in a store, I nearly convulse.

A Better Thing to do with Peanut Butter

When I was a wee little Byrd, my friend’s mom would eat mustard and peanut butter sandwiches.  She would make for us as well.  As weird as the combo sounds, it rocks.

I have evolved in my PBM sandwiches making. Take either Weber’s Horseradish Mustard or Famous Broadway Market Horseradish Mustard and apply over peanut butter on almost any kind of bread.  It does rock and is a guilty pleasure of mine.

If you think Weber’s Mustard is awesome, you have to try the Famous Broadway Market Horseradish Mustard at the Famous Horseradish stand in the Market.  It has a bit more bite than Weber’s.

The Sabres are Ruff

For as much as I love Lindy Ruff, there is this nagging voice in the back of mind telling me it is time for him to leave.  I try to tell the voice to shut the hell up, but it is persistent.

Ruff’s tenure is unprecedented in the NHL.  Though he has been successful in his 15 years here, the bottom line is he hasn’t taken us to the promised land of Lord Stanley’s Cup.  On the flip side of that, he has coached the team through some strange times…Ted Nolan leaving, the Rigas debacle, Sabres bankruptcy, Tom Golisano era and finally to the Terry Pegula era.  Ruff has definitely endured some challenges along the way.

These are his coaching stats.
Fullscreen capture 1312013 14656 AM-001

If the Sabres don’t make the playoffs this year, could it mean the end of Lindy Ruff as the coach?  Management will probably take a hard look at coaching if the the team misses.  The decision will probably come down to if they think Ruff  is the right fit to take the young core of team to the next level.

Google Doodles and Jackie Robinson

D o o d l e

I love Google Doodles!

This is how Google describes them:

Doodles are the fun, surprising, and sometimes spontaneous changes that are made to the Google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries, and the lives of famous artists, pioneers, and scientists.

As far as internet giants go, it is a fantastic idea.  It gives Google a soul.

Today Google doodled a Jackie Robinson theme in honor of his 94th birthday.

Later this year, a movie called 42 about Robinson’s life will be hitting the big screen. Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier on April 12th, 1947. The trailer for the movie looks great and I can’t wait to see it.

http://www.jackierobinson.com

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Jan 30

My 5¢ – 01/29/2013

Posted on 01/30/2013 by Christopher Byrd

Five Cents

Buffalo, We is Who We Be

Buffalo, New York

I wrote the below on Facebook.

I also agree with Deborah Williams up there in the comments in that we need to accept who we are and what we are now…let’s get really good at the things we are trying to accomplish. Buffalo can be great without making it on corny lists. Let’s celebrate what we have to have offer and build on that. There are still a lot of great neighborhoods around Buffalo beyond Elmwood that are holding their own. Let’s work on fixing the bad things. Let’s not lose our grittiness. We seem to be obsessed with proving to the world that we are cool. Cool cities don’t have to prove anything to anyone…neither do we. Can Buffalo grow…sure we can, but let’s not try to be something we are not.

This was in response to a post by Bernice Radle on how Buffalo could get on a list of Top Ten Hipster Towns in America.

Let me carry on with what I was getting at with my comment.

A lot of people in this town seem to think Buffalo constantly needs to prove its worth to the rest of the world and that we matter here.  The thing is we do matter.  It is time to stop having this mentality of tripping over ourselves to get the world to notice.

Our Hockey World Without RJ

With the surprise absence of Rick Jeanneret from the announcer’s booth to begin the Sabres season, it reminded me that the clock is winding down on his career.

Rick Jeanneret

When he finally calls it a day on the air, it is going to be weird for awhile. I know fans will move on and someone will come in and start a new legacy.  Nothing you can do except embrace the time RJ remains behind the mic.

Battery Travesty

Battery

So I bought this super duper mega pack of AC Delco AAA batteries for different devices around the house for $4.00.  The name AC Delco was the sell. I figured if these batteries are anything like their automotive counterparts, it was a great deal.  One word, wrong.  They suck.

This is definitely one of my worst purchases lately.  Damn you AC Delco.  My best guess is that AC Delco probably licensed use of their name to some crappy battery company to get people like me to buy their product.

Super Overkill

The lead up to the Super Bowl is sooooooooo overdone now. The coverage is never ending and over analysis of every little thing is a too much.  I really don’t care about the game until Sunday. If the Bills were in the Super Bowl, I would probably have a different attitude.  :-)

Mitch Albom on the Manti Te’o Craziness

Mitch Albom put together a great piece about the Manti Te’o fake girlfriend story.

From it:

Te’o is not the only victim of such ruses, which carry the nickname “catfishing.” MTV already has a reality show about it. A “reality” show about being fake. If that’s not an irony for our time, I don’t know what is.

I feel sorry for Te’o — not over this news media hailstorm (which will be over soon) but because he referred to his relationship with Lennay in a released statement as “what I thought to be an authentic relationship.”

It’s not authentic when you don’t even meet. Nobody kept Te’o from visiting Lennay over the years, or insisting on seeing her — long before he became a household name. Yet young people today live in such a virtual world, some actually consider romance a body-less enterprise.

Te’o said he would sleep with his phone next to him, his “girlfriend” on the line, which is sad, but still better than a college star who sleeps with lots of real women, then leaves them. Anyhow, it doesn’t warrant such righteous anger. We are way too infatuated with other people’s stories. Is it any wonder people keep embellishing them?

As I tried to process the T’eo craziness, I kept on thinking about how we love to see  people portrayed as good fall.  If we loved T’eo’s story before the fake girlfriend came to light, we loved it even more to see him knocked off his pedestal.  I guess that is just human nature, but it also sad.

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Jan 26

My 5¢ – 01/26/2013

Posted on 01/26/2013 by Christopher Byrd

My 5¢

The Sabres Were Up and Now They Are Down

With a 48 game season, the little ups and downs are going to be scrutinized a lot.  After the Sabres started 2-0, people were excited.  Now that they are 2-2 after a two game skid against the Hurricanes, people are starting to get down on them.  This is what a shortened season is going to be like for the fans.  I like it.  There is less room for error with this version of the blue and gold and the games mean a lot more.  Four games in and it is difficult to get a gauge on what this team is going is going to be like over the long haul of the short season.  It is going to make for some interesting hockey over the next few months.

No More Paperboys/Girls

As the newspaper biz has drastically changed over the last decade, the extinction of paperboys/girls as the prime delivers of the daily news is upon us. The last time I actually had a kid deliver my paper was early last decade.

Being a former paperboy for the Courier Express, it makes me sad.  It was great way to earn cash and helped teach me the value of working to make a buck.

The Middle East is Just Crazy

Will the madness in the Middle East ever end?

I was just reading about what’s been going on in Egypt over the last couple days and find all of it crazy.  And as you know, it is not only Egypt.  Everyday there is something new atrocity coming from the region from any one of the many countries in turmoil there.

The Younglings of Preservation

Today I had that opportunity to take Dana Saylor on a tour of Broadway-Fillmore.  Dana is not original from Buffalo, but has really dived into helping make a difference for this crazy city of ours and is part of this new wave of young preservationists who have popped up over the last few years.  She has been a driving force behind efforts to save the old Bethlehem Steel administration building in Lackawanna.

For someone who has been doing things on the East Side to help for awhile now, this group of kids are a welcomed force to be reckoned with.

Louise Slaughter Celebrating Abortion

Louise Slaughter

When I saw this pic on Louise Slaughter’s Facebook, I thought it was weird.

Regardless of where you stand on the abortion issue, celebrating Roe v. Wade 40th anniversary with a picture of a girl prepared to blow out birthday candles just seems wrong.

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