Dissolution activist Kevin Gaughan was standing outside the Sloan polling place Tuesday when he stopped to admire one of the many anti-Gaughan signs. It read: “Sloan Stays. Kevin Gone.”

“What a terrific sign!” Gaughan gushed.

“My daughter made it,” responded 15- year Sloan resident Jim Roetzer.

Gaughan took the sign for a few moments and held it over his head as cars passed by.

Shortly afterward, some high schoolers stopped by and added to the anti-dissolution rhetoric before heading to a nearby park. Among them was Roezter’s daughter, Julia, 16.

Gaughan happily posed with the sign and Julia, along with her 12-year-old brother, Nicholas, and another friend.

He then quizzed all the kids about their knowledge of American history and culture: Name four American poets. Name five sports teams with nicknames that are animals. Name three American presidents from the 20th century. . . .

Roetzer seemed amused. He doesn’t agree with dissolution, he said later, but that’s no excuse for incivility.

“It was unfortunate how some people treated him,” he said.

The normal process for publishing an item for this column when it is suggested by a reader is this: Track down whether it’s true, contact the principals involved, write up what we know, double-check everything, and conclude with a smart-aleck remark.

But Joanne Janicki, coordinator of the Western New York Breast Resource Center at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, all but cut out the middle man. Here’s what she said:

“Chicago Blackhawk star Patrick Kane brought the Stanley Cup to Roswell Park Cancer Institute on his ‘day-with- the-cup.’

“Many patients, families and staff crowded the hospital lobby and atrium. Hospital chaplain, Father Ray Corbin, spotted an occupational therapist in a Black Hawks jersey (Editor’s note: It was Janicki’s sister Susan Oakley; we checked.), borrowed for a photo op.

“Father Corbin questioned what had been her undying faith in the Buffalo Sabres and she quipped ‘Bless me father, for I have sinned.’

“He granted her absolution, but we’re not sure what her penance is.”

Bass Pro is coming to Buffalo after all —according to its 2010 Master Catalog.

Under the Page 2 header, “Your Adventure Starts Here,” the proposed waterfront location that’s now dead in the water appears on the list of locations where stores are located.

Next to Buffalo is an asterisk that means “Coming Soon.”

Wonder if it will take nine years to remove it from the catalog’s annual list?

First, there was the duck, as in ducking questions, stalking Andrew Cuomo.

Now, it’s a chicken, as in too chicken to debate, stalking Rick Lazio.

We can’t give Buffalo Republican Carl Paladino, a candidate for governor, high marks for originality—a guy in a chicken suit is pretty passe—but we do give him kudos for not just crying fowl over Lazio’s reluctance to debate him.

“What’s he afraid of? I’m no Hillary Clinton,” Paladino said last week.

As you may recall, Lazio’s performance during a Buffalo debate against Clinton was viewed as one of the reasons he lost the 2000 U. S Senate race.