Randomly Useless
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Saturday, June 14th, 2008So, I ran into someone I can only describe as a person who once drank at the same bar as I did, at least as frequently as I did. I wouldn’t even call this person a casual acquaintance. Truth be told, I struggle to remember her name. We were just people who on several occasions in the mid 90’s had drunken conversations due to nothing more than proximity. After the usual how’ve you beens, she informed me that she’s moving to Austin, Texas because she’s finally accepted that Buffalo is a dying city. I told her she’d miss it here, and she replied, no, she won’t. I then suggested that some of us fine Buffalonians think the problem is not that people are leaving because Buffalo is dying, rather Buffalo is dying because people are leaving. Chicken, egg. Egg, chicken.
Naturally I’ve been mulling over this nonsense ever since. I sit here, in a town I’ve hardly ever left, adamantly standing my ground in the second poorest city in the nation, drinking the Kool-Aid that Others Like Me are happy to poor. Buffalo NY is one of the worst managed, heavily taxed, hopelessly decaying cities in the country. Opportunities are slim (hence the paradox above), so the brain drain continues. Aside from very small pockets of prosperity, neighborhoods are collapsing in on themselves– literally. HUD grants are funneled not into the communities that need it, but into building luxury loft apartments which, while admittedly will help revitalize downtown, are just lining the pockets of their investors. The public school system is deplorable, in many cases horribly outdated, woefully understaffed and underfunded. The mayor is inaccessible and either blind to the plight or ridiculously naive.
And I love it here. Like some glutton for punishment, I stay.
I love it for the usual reasons. The architecture. The change of seasons (yes, I hate winter, but without winter, you never have that incredible first spring day of the year, the first day you can drive with the windows rolled down listening to the Housemartins). The Sabres. The people. The history. But I love it for less obvious, less Buffalo Chamber of Commerce approved reasons. I love that you can walk into any restaurant, order a meal, and know you’re taking some home with you because the portions are freaking ridiculous. I love that on the worst day, barring roadwork or a sporting event, you might sit in traffic for five minutes, tops. I love that I can walk out my front door and in five minutes be on one of the most vibrant city streets in the country, with nearly every type of food and drink, live band, and a few renown museums to choose from. I love that in winter months, you never know when the lake might decide the city needs to shut down for a few days and everyone needs to stay home and drink whiskey.
Most of all, I love the mindset– the cynicism, the inherent waiting for the other shoe to fall. I love the sense that we’re all kind of screwed, and therefore we’re in this together. You don’t get that in NYC or Toronto, or Boston. You don’t have that unspoken understanding that we’ve been dealt a lousy hand, but we’re better for making the most of it.
The easy thing is to leave. And as a parent, it might come to that someday– if not for me, certainly for my son. But right now, I want to be part of the solution, not contributing to the problem. If I can make a living and provide for my family, I want to stay. What will make that easier for me, and for people like me, is for Buffalo to realize that there isn’t going to be a panacea. Nothing will suddenly turn Buffalo back into the prosperous boom town that it was when people actually needed the Erie canal and had no choice but to go through this city. We need lower expectations. Buffalo needs to invest in its people. New York State needs to rethink the taxes and regulations that stop businesses from investing here. City Hall needs to apply some common sense to addressing the poverty and crime in the lower west and east sides (see http://pushbuffalo.org to see what at least one organization is doing to kill two birds with one stone– address the abandoned houses on the west side and make home ownership possible for people who wouldn’t otherwise even dare to dream it). Lastly, we need to play to our strengths and stop allowing the destruction of our architecture and heritage, because believe it or not, if you allow a building to stand, people will come to see it. And stay in a hotel. And eat. And spend money.
And for Christ’s sake, the last thing we need is another casino.
More if you’re interested:
http://www.buffalohistoryworks.com/
http://www.wrightnowinbuffalo.com/
The Tumor Rumor: Evolution Of A Headline
Wednesday, March 5th, 2008So, is Patrick Swayze going to be dead in a month?
Some sources say yes, and quite a few people are getting up in arms about it. Here’s one article on the subject, taken from TransWorldNews:
Patrick Swayze Diagnosed With Cancer, Five Weeks Left to Live
Patrick Swayze, best known for his role in Dirty Dancing, has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and told that he has just five weeks to live.
Swayze, 55, has been sick with the disease since he was diagnosed in late January with pancreatic cancer. The cancer has since spread to other organs and now the actor/dancer is dying.
For the past month, Swayze has been traveling to Stanford University’s prestigious cancer center in Palo Alto for radical chemotherapy, but his doctors are no longer optimistic that the treatments will be successful, according to the National Enquirer.
Swayze received three treatments of chemotherapy, causing the tumor to shrink, but less than his doctors had hoped for. He was then told that he should prepare for the end.
For more people news, please check out http://news.finditt.com/NewsList.aspx?cat=14&wcat=16
Note the source. Yup, that’s right, The National Enquirer. The same ‘newspaper’ that rose to fame by printing stories of celebrities getting raped by Sasquatch and giving birth to alien children.
The difference this time is that other news sources are picking this story up and giving it publicity. They’re treating the Enquirer as a credible source.
Since when is the National Enquirer a trusted news source? Is it becoming more credible on its own or are readers just getting dumber? Is this now a reliable source of news?
I suspect that the reports of his limited lifespan are being greatly exaggerated. It just pains me to see the National Enquirer taken seriously by other news sources that are supposed to be credible.
UPDATE: Fox News is now reporting this story citing the same sources. Apparently they’re using the Enquirer as a credible source as well. Here’s the link:
UPDATE: Celebrity gossip hound Perez Hilton is now reporting on his website that this story is in fact true. He claims someone representing Swayze released a statement confirming his illness.
I’m finding this so fascinating because it just shows the evolution of a headline story. By tomorrow this will be all over the news, if in fact the confirmation is true.
UPDATE: People.com has revealed that the rumors regarding the actor’s diagnosis of pancreatic cancer are true, but his imminent demise is not. Here’s the statement from his doctor as reported by People:
“Patrick has a very limited amount of disease and he appears to be responding well to treatment thus far,” Dr. George Fisher says in a statement. “All of the reports stating the time frame of his prognosis and his physical side effects are absolutely untrue. We are considerably more optimistic.”The actor’s rep adds: “Patrick is continuing his normal schedule during this time, which includes working on upcoming projects. The outpouring of support and concern he has already received from the public is deeply appreciated by Patrick and his family.”
And that, kids, is how the media works. I hope you enjoyed today’s foray into its inner workings. I guess the lesson here is this: Tabloids aren’t credible. They publish anything they can get in order for you to buy their publication. Thanks to some pretty resourceful folks on the internet, tomorrow’s issue of the National Enquirer which features the story of the Swayze’s battle for his life will sell far fewer copies as the truth has come out.
But don’t get me wrong here, I’m not trying to make light of Patrick Swayze or his condition. I actually like him as an actor, and have enjoyed many of his films. I hope he makes a full recovery. My purpose here was to use it as an example of how rumors spread because of the media. I was lucky to catch this one in its infancy stage, so I ran with it.
Does It Matter Where Your Food Comes From?
Wednesday, February 6th, 2008Or for that matter, what you eat?
If you’ve seen Supersize Me, the answer is abundantly clear. So, obvious health concerns aside (red meat/everyday=premature death on a stick), what difference does the matter you force down your gullet truly make?
Almost a year ago, I was diagnosed with diabetes. Coupled with that was an alarming cholesterol level and triglycerides that were off the chart (for the uninitiated, triglycerides are basically the level of fat in your bloodstream– healthy is considered a rating less than 150, I was at 1400). Doctors refer to this as Metabolic Syndrome– a cluster of factors that could lead to a plethora of health issues, not the least of which is the aforementioned early deadsies.
Faced with this news, and the fact that I was 37 and the father of a then 4 month old, I found myself forced to re-evaluate my diet. I like to cook, I like to eat. It was just as easy to whip up a batch of alfredo sauce as it was to call the local pizza joint for a delivery of steak pizza and BBQ wings.
Naturally suspicious of the medical profession and HMO’s in general, I shunned a referral to a dietitian and researched the issue myself. I came across a few studies that suggested a vegan diet was found to help diabetics manage their blood sugar effectively– so I gave it a shot. Within three months, I was off Insulin and just taking pills. I wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination 100% vegan, but probably a good 80%.
Like I said, I like to cook. So I started reading vegetarian and vegan cookbooks and found plenty of recipes that were acceptable– none of them were slow smoked ribs or strip steak, but hey– 80%, right? However, I found that the vegetarian magazines that I was buying at the local co-op were just a little to preachy, a little too extreme: here were people who attached their eating style to their sense of being. They were no longer people, they were vegans. It smacked of the same lemming-like behavior that people who referred to themselves as “goth” or “Republican” flaunted with ironic non-conformity.
Furthermore, I started coming across references to “eating locally”– this seems to have become the current progressive food trend, taking the space that “eating organically” occupied a few years ago. The thinking is that What You Eat is tied intrinsically to the planet itself, an argument popular amongst strict vegetarians and vegans– for example, the land required to raise a single cow could be used to grow enough agriculture to sustain a small town. Proponents of “eating locally” suggest that, given global warning, eating locally would have a profound effect on the levels of emissions in the atmosphere because of the reduction in fuel needed to transport out of season foods into a given area– think strawberries available in Buffalo in winter. Furthermore, if people strictly ate locally, they would support small local farms and companies, thus reducing the stranglehold that a small number of corporate food conglomerates (Nestle, Beatrice, etc) have on our global economy.
It makes sense when you think about it, but it also suggests a certain degree of isolationism and promotes the unfortunate arrogance and elitism that plagues any hippie-driven movement– never mind the personal economics involved; eating strictly organic foods alone downright cost prohibitive. Factor in restricting oneself to local products is downright bankrupting. Keeping my kid in organic milk alone is cleaning out our checking account. To switch to strictly organic, locally farmed chicken would be disastrous.
I like the fact that I can get tomatoes (albeit shitty ones) year round. Restricting our diet to only locally available produce, I’m sorry, would suck in the winter. No cucumbers. No lettuce. No onions or garlic! No fresh herbs– come on!
Ultimately, I don’t suggest to have an answer– I can’t deny the effect eating local, organic foods has had on my health, and in some little way, my family’s little corner of the world. But I’m not maxing out my credit card the next time I want to hold a barbeque.
The wife is bringing home Burger King tonight– haven’t had any in about six months– and I’m looking forward to it.
Poor Richardson, He Just Wanted To Cuddle.
Monday, January 7th, 2008Anyone else find this picture funnier then it should be?
(Photo Credit: AP)
Also, here is one I made.
Print it up and stick it somewhere so it may remind you.
Steaming Pile of Blog’s Deprograming Foundation.
Saturday, January 5th, 2008A service we only usually offer to friends and family members of Scientologists, furries and drinkers of light beer has been expanded to Ron Paul fanatics.
We will deprogram any member of any of the groups listed above. Just send them our way and we will return them to you with their brains back in working order.
We guarantee our results and will re-deprogram anyone who relapses for free.
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