As Niagara Falls / Tales of the strange but true
Bill and Joe
Last Tuesday, Nov. 25, marked a key milestone in Niagara County history. It was the 75th birthday of County Legislature Chairman William L. Ross.
Ross marked his birthday in a very special way: by presiding over an exceptionally dull Legislature budget work session that lasted well over two hours, including an executive session.
However, the ladies in the Legislature clerk’s office obtained a birthday cake, which was cut before the meeting.
“The fire codes wouldn’t allow us to put candles on the cake,” observed Legislator Peter E. Smolinski, R-North Tonawanda.
“We’ll follow the old man wherever he goes,” sang Legislator John D. Ceretto, R-Lewiston.
Vice Chairman Clyde L. Burmaster, R-Ransomville, said Ross “doesn’t look [75]. He doesn’t act it. I still want to be in his will. I don’t want any money. All I want is his memory.”
“I really appreciate this,” said Ross, who invited legislators to eat cake at their desks so as not to hold up the meeting.
Incidentally, Ross shares a birthday with County Attorney Claude A. Joerg, 53, and “the greatest baseball player of all time, Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio.”
Not the cable guy
While many people were out at the shopping malls on Black Friday searching for the right gifts for family members, a Niagara Falls man had other ideas up his sleeve — or up a pole.
An anonymous caller tipped off city police Friday that a man in the area of Willow Avenue and 17th Street was climbing telephone poles and allegedly hooking up illegal cable TV service.
Chester G. Haugabook, 38, of Welch Avenue, was found at the scene standing near a telephone pole with pliers sticking out of his jacket pocket. When police searched him, they said they found many more tools and cable connectors used to perform cable services. He was charged with possession of burglar tools.
Haugabook told police he happened to be in the area and was on his way to a relative’s house, which was 100 yards from the site where he was charged.
Next year, may we suggest gift cards?
Say what?
New York City artist Zoe Leonard has turned 4,000 vintage postcards depicting Niagara Falls into an art installation titled “You see I am here after all” in Dia: Beacon gallery in Hudson Valley.
The cards, collected online and at flea markets, are organized by viewpoints and provide “an almost overwhelming impression of standardization and repetition,” wrote Dia Curator Lynne Cooke.
“En masse, they reflect decades of changing technologies during which the motif of the Falls, shot from a few standard vantage points, was revisioned: hand-colored, over-painted, cropped, or otherwise manipulated in accordance with changing notions of truth and taste,” Cooke wrote on the exhibit.
In another description on Dia’s Web site, the postcards are described this way: “Rendered stereotypical and generic through repletion over decades, these landscape motifs are emblematic of mass culture’s transformation of natural sites into tourist destinations.”
Perhaps it is possible to see too much of Niagara Falls.
Too many Stans
Chuck Norris pal John Presti, a local karate champion who teaches the martial art at schools he owns in Niagara Falls and Lewiston, travels throughout North America conducting seminars with the “Walker, Texas Ranger” actor, a karate champ and icon to all black-belt hopefuls.
Presti, 52, is taking his teachings even further — to the republic of Uzbekistan.
A group of martial artists from Uzbekistan contacted Norris’ United Fighting Arts Federation trying to gain membership in the organization. Before they can be admitted, they must train under one of the master instructors — in this case, Presti, one of Norris’ highest ranked black belts.
Presti is currently in the middle of negotiations to get them all visas to come to the United States.
First, you’ve got to find the place. Uzbekistan is a landlocked country bordered by Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and — finally a country we recognize — Afghanistan.
“The paperwork is taking longer than expected,” Presti said.
With contributions from Thomas J. Prohaska, Nancy A. Fischer, Denise Jewell Gee and Bill Michelmore of the News Niagara Bureau.
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