The Buffalo News: Local Columns

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.”

Bruce Andriatch: As a parent, it’s all about being there: Bruce Andriatch
Updated: 08/05/08 7:58 AM; The calendar on the refrigerator has so many numbers, abbreviations and acronyms jammed into the squares for each date that anyone who doesn’t live in the house could not know what they all mean.

Donn Esmonde

Donn Esmonde: Unpunished, Barton’s back at McKinley: Donn Esmonde
Updated: 08/29/08 7:52 AM; We found out the truth, and there were no consequences. About 1,200 kids will walk through the doors of McKinley High School on Wednesday to start another school year.

Donn Esmonde: County puts its beaches in order: By Donn Esmonde
Updated: 08/13/08 11:22 AM; One giant leap for beach lovers. One small step for county government. It was sunny and 81 degrees on a recent weekday afternoon. I crossed the foot bridge over Big Sister Creek and sank my feet into the warm, white sand of Bennett Beach.

Donn Esmonde: Media sent the mayor a message: By Donn Esmonde
Updated: 08/10/08 10:48 AM; Byron Brown buckled Thursday. After days of pummeling from various media outlets, Buffalo’s mayor relaxed the Police Department’s policy of sanitizing or withholding crime reports provided to reporters. He let the police commissioner, whom he appointed, ungag a few more of the top brass. And then the notoriously hands-on mayor stretched his credibility by blaming the mess on a “miscommunication.”

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.

Charity Vogel: Lessons left to us here by a patriot: Charity Vogel
Updated: 08/11/08 8:00 AM; Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn died of heart problems in Moscow last week at 89. This might seem an event far removed from our life here on the Niagara Frontier. But the opposite is true.

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/: Updated: 08/29/08 6:55 AM; OLAF FUB SEZ: According to Sen. John McCain, born on this date in 1936, “Your character is not tested on occasions of public scrutiny or acclaim. It is not tested in moments when the object of your actions is the regard of another. Your character is what you are to yourself, not what you pretend to be to yourself or others.”

Reporters’ Notebook/ Bits and pieces of news...: Updated: 08/27/08 6:50 AM; OLAF SEZ: ^FUB According to our 36th president, Lyndon B. Johnson, born on this date in 1908, “Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There’s nothing to do but to stand there and take it.”

Reporters’ Notebook/ Bits and pieces of news...: Updated: 08/26/08 6:56 AM; OLAF FUB SEZ: Advice on how to be discreet from former Louisiana Gov. Earl Long, born on this date in 1895, “Don’t write anything you can phone. Don’t phone anything you can talk. Don’t talk anything you can whisper. Don’t whisper anything you can smile. Don’t smile anything you can nod. Don’t nod anything you can wink.”

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.

Rod Watson: Inmate health is ignored at our risk: Rod Watson
Updated: 08/14/08 7:46 AM; No one ever lost an election by paying more attention to taxpayers than to inmates.

Pets/ By Steve Dale: Tribune Media Services
Updated: 08/29/08 6:55 AM; Q: My Chihuahua, Shasta, was diagnosed with pancreatitis in January and had another bout in March. She’s now on a special gastro diet. Can you suggest a type of treat or bone Shasta can either eat or chew on to clean her teeth. We’ve tried to brush her teeth but she gets very upset about that. Are there suitable items for dogs who’ve had pancreatitis to chew on? — K. D., St. Catharines, Ont.

Trivia Quiz /By Donald Saltz: Updated: 08/28/08 6:56 AM; 1. What is the more common name for the malar or zygoma bone in the body?

Trivia Quiz /By Donald Saltz: Updated: 08/27/08 6:51 AM; 1. How is the date of Easter determined each year?