The Buzz: ‘Sweet Street,’ public baths
The ghosts of plumbing past
In this unruly time between Halloween and Friday the 13th, Buzz is haunted by the ghost stories in the air. Surely this was a banner year! On Tom Bauerle’s show, one caller was haunted by Frances Folsom, the wife of President Grover Cleveland. Only in Buffalo! Saturday, even the home guys on WBEN-AM were doing a ghost show. When we tuned in, a handyman was telling about an unexplained thumping noise at a Lockport country club. “Yep,” quoth he, “I got in early, to get going on the job, and …” Hey, we hear that remodeling brings out the ghosts.
Theater of the absurd
Yep, you can’t do over a building and expect the old spirits to leave. Last week, Buzz toured the backstage of the New Phoenix Theater after seeing “Sweet Street,” Richard Lambert’s musical based on the songs of Leonard Cohen. There was a table of mannequin heads. Weird artwork. Creepy! Turns out the building used to be a seance house. ... Seeking calm, we moved on to dark, swanky Club 31. We’d heard it was quiet, elegant, frequented by celebrities. The celebs panned out— we saw jazz chanteuse Diane Armesto. But what was with the disco beat? Oh, right, the place used to be Buddies.
Immodest proposal
Here’s a powerful new weapon against flu germs. Public bathhouses! We got the idea from a letter that ran in the Buffalo Daily Courier in 1880. “Isn’t it about time that free public baths were established in Buffalo?” a Buffalonian wrote. “There are few cities with our size and wealth that do not provide free baths. They are not so much a luxury as a necessity of the times.…Free baths would undoubtedly ensure to the morals and the health of our citizens. The City Council is very free with the people’s money for many unworthy objects. Free baths ought to recommend themselves to its attention.” Signed: “One of the Unwashed.”
The Buzz…
Don’t laugh, we might need those public baths. At a convenience store, admiring cute 99-cent mini-hand sanitizers, Buzz asked the clerk: “Do you sell a lot of these?” She said, “Not really.”…Got to love the culture vultures who skipped Halloween parties to go hear Mahler at the Philharmonic. One of them was Buffalo Teachers Federation President Phil Rumore, seen in the lobby perched precariously on the balcony railing. He’s on the edge!
Quote
“Doh! I just found a great job that pays ridiculously well, but it requires moving to Buffalo!”
—Unhappy person on Twitter
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