Off Main Street / The offbeat side of the news
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Help out, or Muzak for you
A legislative aide at City Hall was leaving work Thursday when his elevator got stuck around the 14th floor.
Buffalo firefighters, on the scene within minutes, spent the next half hour trying to free our young captive, who asked not to be named by Off Main Street.
When the doors finally opened, one of his saviors greeted him with a quip.
“What,” one firefighter said, “you didn’t put in your eight hours for Brown this week?”
That, of course, was a reference to the now infamous e-mail sent by a top aide to Byron W. Brown that suggested her employees were required to work eight hours per week on the mayor’s reelection effort.
I shall call him Mini Me
Ralph Hernandez has been a high-profile member of the Buffalo Board of Education since being elected five years ago, but his public visibility is not matched by his physical stature.
And now that he’s board president, Hernandez—who is just over 5 feet 4 inches tall—looks even smaller, seated at meetings next to James A. Williams, the towering, burly superintendent.
So when he made some introductory remarks at his first meeting as president, Hernandez surprised board members and spectators by standing at the head of the table.
“I’m standing,” he said, “because if I sit, you probably won’t see me.”
We know how she feels
In the middle of Monday night’s Amherst Town Board meeting, an infant started crying. Audience members watched sympathetically as the little girl was hustled out of the council chambers by her mother.
After the mother and daughter returned a little while later, Supervisor Satish Mohan interrupted the meeting to introduce the now sleepy infant.
“I invited my 1-year-old granddaughter to attend,” he said. “Look, she is not liking public service too much.”
Everyone laughed.
“A chip off the old block,” replied Council Member Mark Manna.
A Christian and a comic
Guess who was one of the first people to confront new U. S. Sen. Al Franken with a good-natured question about the former comedian’s prior career, which included some biting jokes about Christian beliefs.
Hint: He’s a former Western New York pastor and pro-life activist. Another hint: He’s a twin.
Yes, the Rev. Rob Schenck, president of the National Clergy Council and its lay affiliate, was among the invited guests at a special reception earlier this week for the new junior senator from Minnesota.
Earlier in the day, according to the Christian Newswire, Schenck sent Franken a letter “gently” suggesting a Franken apology to American Christians.
“Senator, you’ve really thrown some zingers at Christians over the years,” the newswire quoted Schenck as telling him. “We don’t know whether or not to take you seriously.”
The former comedian’s quick comeback: “Well, I’m married to a Christian.”
A litter beemer, not a bug
The Missed Connections section of craigslist typically carries ads from people desperately seeking the cute man or woman they spotted at the gym, the grocery store or a bar.
The author of one ad placed this week on the Buffalo Missed Connections page had a different mission in mind.
“To the woman in the Burgandy BMW on Parkside Ave., I LOVED how you threw your trash out of the sun roof. You’re a real class act. Way to show civic pride,” he wrote Tuesday.
We can only hope she got the message.
Written by Stephen T. Watson with contributions from Phil Fairbanks, Peter Simon, Sandra Tan and Gene Warner. offmain@buffnews.com
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