The Buffalo News: Local Columns

Bruce Andriatch: New traffic roundabouts are moving experiences: Bruce Andriatch
Updated: 09/02/08 7:52 AM; A funny thing happened to traffic on Harlem Road in Cheektowaga the other day: It kept moving.

Bruce Andriatch: Skeptics be damned: still taking the bus: By Bruce Andriatch
Updated: 08/19/08 10:33 AM; Are you still taking the bus?” is the second most common question I have heard in the past few months. The most common is: “You’re not still taking the bus, are you?”

Bruce Andriatch: Little Cherry Valley votes for bigger board: By Bruce Andriatch
Updated: 08/12/08 8:25 AM; Things are a little different in Cherry Valley, a community of about 1,300 people 30 minutes from Cooperstown. Try to contact an elected official there in the afternoon, and you hear this message: “Hi. You’ve reached the Cherry Valley village office. Hours are 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Please leave a message.”

Donn Esmonde

Donn Esmonde: Democracy marches with army of 35: Donn Esmonde
Updated: 09/05/08 8:02 AM; This is how change comes. This is how the revolution is won. It is won on the back of Ann Tworzydio, 65, who carried it door-to-door on a gimpy knee, walking as if her parts needed oil. It is fought in the heart of Tom Tworzydio, graying and nearing 70, his ropy forearms a legacy of years of driving a forklift in a Pepsi plant.

Donn Esmonde: On sliminess, cluelessness, recklessness: Donn Esmonde
Updated: 09/03/08 7:52 AM; The hands-down winner as slimiest campaign goes to both sides of the Sam Hoyt-Barbra Kavanaugh battle for Hoyt’s seat in the Assembly. It is a case study in the political hypocrisy and negative campaigning that prompt folks to stay home on Election Day.

Donn Esmonde: National Buffalo Wing Festival celebrates what we have: By Donn Esmonde
Updated: 08/31/08 9:38 AM; This is what happens when we claim what is rightfully ours. This is what happens when we make the most of what we have.

Charity Vogel: Buffalo tough sell to both candidates: Charity Vogel
Updated: 09/01/08 9:24 AM; The old woman with the pink-and-porcelain complexion and crown of snowy white hair leaned in close to me. We were sitting in her living room on the East Side. Her blue eyes glinted with worry.

Charity Vogel: Defenseless old churches lure vultures: Charity Vogel
Updated: 08/25/08 7:51 AM; This is what it looks like when the carrion begins to fall from the bones.

Charity Vogel: Commitment and need build ties: Charity Vogel
Updated: 08/18/08 7:47 AM; It’s lunchtime, and they’re hungry. Inside an Olive Garden restaurant on Maple Road in Amherst, the comfortable- looking pair sitting at a sunny window table ponders what to eat.

Off Main Street: One-track mind: Updated: 08/16/08 9:02 AM; NFTA Executive Director Lawrence Meckler kept it simple when speaking about the authority’s needs during a hearing this week about transportation priorities.

Off Main Street: Humor most fowl: Updated: 08/09/08 8:36 AM; At the risk of further angering PETA, the news Thursday that a truck carrying chickens crashed on the Niagara Thruway led to the following comments in quick succession from colleagues:

Off Main Street / The offbeat side of the news: Updated: 08/02/08 6:54 AM; Water-colored memories

Reporters’ Notebook / Bits and pieces of news...: Updated: 09/05/08 6:32 AM; OLAF FUB SEZ: According to Hollywood studio executive Darryl F. Zanuck, born on this date in 1902, “If two men on the same job agree all the time, then one is unnecessary. If they disagree all the time, then both are useless.”

Reporters’ Notebook / Bits and pieces of news...: Updated: 09/03/08 6:28 AM; OLAF FUB SEZ: According to actor Charlie Sheen, born Carlos Irwin Estevez on this date in 1965, “As kids we’re not taught how to deal with success; we’re taught how to deal with failure. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. If at first you succeed, then what?”

Reporters’ Notebook / Bits and pieces of news...: Updated: 09/02/08 6:44 AM; OLAF SEZ: ^FUB According to tennis great Jimmy Connors, born on this date in 1952, “Experience is a great advantage. The problem is that when you get the experience, you’re too damned old to do anything about it.”

Rod Watson: Truth hurts — like bullets that fell kids: Rod Watson
Updated: 09/04/08 7:41 AM; It is hard to see a way out — but it is there. You can hear it in the comments of people agonizing over the shootings of young girls in the Schiller Park neighborhood by young boys with more bullets than sense.

Rod Watson: Dads step up to show value of education: Rod Watson
Updated: 08/28/08 8:02 AM; When you throw in the overtime, 38-year-old Ricky Riley works practically seven days a week as a mechanic’s apprentice at General Mills.

Rod Watson: Budget battle has a lesson for teachers: Rod Watson
Updated: 08/21/08 7:44 AM; Teachers and school administrators dodged the bullet this time. But if they’re smarter than the kids they teach — and that’s not a high bar, given some recent data — they’ll learn from the effort to implement a statewide property tax cap.

Pets / By Steve Dale: Tribune Media Services
Updated: 09/05/08 6:32 AM; Q: My dog pulls me down the street during every walk until we get to the one place where she likes to do her business. I pick up, but unfortunately, the old witch who lives there doesn’t like dogs or people. She now has a warning sign on her lawn: “Beware of Rat Poisoning.” Walking down this street is the only way in or out of our block, so we have no choice but to go by her house. Any suggestions for me? — C. K., Tacoma, WA

Trivia Quiz /By Donald Saltz: Updated: 09/04/08 6:39 AM; 1. What leading character on a television show worked as a dock supervisor for Continental Flange, Inc.

Trivia Quiz /By Donald Saltz: Updated: 09/03/08 6:28 AM; 1. Apparently in the first such crossing, two 60-year-old gondoliers rowed a gondola across what body of water?