Off Main Street
The offbeat side of the news
First class sushi
When Sgt. First Class David Dispenza returned home after a year serving in Iraq’s Camp Stryker, he had told his wife, Nancy, he had a taste for one thing: sushi from Wegmans.
Little did he suspect that a story in The News reporting that fact would lead to a knock on the door of the 58-yearold’s North Buffalo home the following day.
His wife opened the front door to find the beaming and congratulatory chef of the Amherst Street Wegmans bearing a huge tray of you know what.
“Every kind of sushi you can imagine was on that tray — every kind they carry,” a laughing Nancy Dispenza told us. “It was a wonderful welcome home for David.”
In case anyone at Wegmans is reading this column, we at Off Main Street are quite fond of your muffins. Blueberry. Lemon poppyseed. But we’re not picky.
We do know, Caroline
Caroline Kennedy is, you know, angling for an appointment to the United States Senate.
The political novice, whose recent upstate listening tour included a brief stop in Buffalo, finally opened up last weekend in a series of interviews with major media outlets.
Unfortunately, she’s taking a lot of heat online for some of her, um, verbal tics.
The Associated Press has this sentence from its interview from the Ivy League-educated Kennedy:
“You know, I think, really, um, this is sort of a unique moment, both in our, you know, in our country’s history and in, you know, my own life, and, um, you know, we are facing, you know, unbelievable challenges.”
Numerous other news organizations cite similar examples, and audio transcripts of the interviews have been transformed into popular videos on the Internet.
“The More You Know: Caroline Kennedy,” one of several found on YouTube, uses sound effects to count 30 “you knows” in 147 seconds of excerpts from her interview with the AP.
Hey, Barack Obama was picked on for saying “Uh” a lot, and he’s doing just fine now.
Jauron fiddles, fans burn
With a third consecutive 7-9 season under his belt, and a 2-8 bender to conclude his most recent losing campaign, Dick Jauron did all he could to get himself fired.
It wasn’t enough, as Bills owner Ralph Wilson this week decided to bring Jauron back as coach.
No one should be happier at the news than Patriots coach Bill Belichick, who has won 16 of his last 17 games against the Bills.
Gregg Easterbrook, a Kenmore West High School graduate who writes the Tuesday Morning Quarterback column for ESPN.com, had some fun with the Patriots’ most recent victory last Sunday.
“Watching Bill Belichick utterly out-coach Dick Jauron at Buffalo was like watching Itzhak Perlman give a violin lesson to an 8-year-old,” he wrote.
School official of rock
Will Keresztes, associate superintendent for the Buffalo School District, took exception to Rolling Stone’s recent list of the 100 greatest singers of the rock era.
So much, in fact, that he let the magazine know about it in a letter published in the Dec. 25 issue.
“The voters were distinguished, but I urge you to let the readers decide next time. How could a list of singers from the rock era exclude Grace Slick, Ann Wilson or Cat Stevens?” wrote Keresztes, a longtime Rolling Stone reader.
Patti Smith, who came in at No. 83, agrees with Keresztes on Slick.
Smith, one of the 179 rock critics, musicians and industry insiders who voted, placed Slick, the onetime singer for Jefferson Airplane and later, Jefferson Starship, at No. 5.
Kind of boggles the mind that Slick, Stevens and Wilson — let alone Laura Nyro, Eddie Vedder and Levi Stubbs — could be left off when Karen Carpenter was selected at No. 94.
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