Off Main Street: Deep roots
The offbeat side of the news
Miss California Carrie Prejean might not be getting a lot of love from people who disagree with her highly publicized views on gay marriage, but she has tons of support in Western New York.
Prejean never lived here, but she has deep Buffalo roots. Her mother, Francine, grew up on Payne Avenue in South Buffalo before moving to California about 30 years ago.
All of this information comes courtesy of Amherst Council Member Mark Manna, whose mother is the first cousin of Francine Prejean.
Manna said he and other family members almost flew to Las Vegas to see the Miss USA Pageant, where Carrie Prejean famously said she opposed gay marriage and finished as first runner-up. The subsequent media firestorm that erupted helped unearth what some called provocative photos of her. Despite the controversies, pageant owner Donald Trump this week said Prejean can keep her title.
All the hub-bub has been a bit much for her family in Western New York, but Manna said it hasn’t changed anyone’s feelings about their California cousin.
“We love her and her sister,” he said. “They were raised with good, working-class, Western New York values.”
Quinn feels gay barb . . .
Sometimes, it doesn’t pay to take a stand.
Assemblyman Jack Quinn was leading the Republican opposition to gay marriage this week when the other side took a not so subtle jab at his own marital status.
Assemblyman Danny O’Donnell, who is gay, suggested at one point that New York should not be in the business of discriminating against people who want the same license Quinn “once” had.
Quinn acknowledged that, yes, he was married at one time. The Hamburg Republican then tried to make light of it by asking why O’Donnell would seek the same fate.
“Some marriages take better than others,” O’Donnell shot back. “I’ve been engaged for 28 years. I’d like to give it a shot.”
A taxing issue . . .
When President Obama said recently he wanted to change the tax code because companies pay less tax to “create a job in Bangalore, India, than if you create one in Buffalo, New York,” the reference seemed like a throwaway alliteration.
But in India, people are freaking out.
According to the New York Times, the president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, Sajjan Jindal, said the tax proposal could “kill the spirit of competition.” The Indian affiliate of CNN asked economists and politicians whether they thought Mr. Obama was “anti-India.” And an editorial in The Times of India said Bangalore had become a “catch-all term to hang U.S. economic woes on.”
It’s funny. At Off Main, our reaction was, “Hey! He’s heard of Buffalo.”
Plaintiff’s Exhibit No. 1 . . .
Some people will go to great lengths to make a point or win a battle.
Like the man who showed up at Ellicott Square downtown last week pushing a dolly with a large hunk of metal aboard.
“I’m going to show them,” the man said as he pushed the dolly into an elevator.
Bobby Liguori, a tenant in the building, couldn’t help but wonder what the man was up to, so he asked, “Where are you going, sir?”
The man explained that he was headed for the state Department of Motor Vehicles armed with a formal complaint about a mechanic.
And to make his point, he brought along proof—the vehicle’s transmission.
While the sight of a man and his transmission traipsing through Ellicott Square struck Off Main as odd, even bizarre, state officials insist it’s not. They point to the large number of regulatory hearings held at the downtown Buffalo office.
OK, but what’s next?
Maybe beer distributors will start showing up with kegs of Genny Cream Ale at the State Liquor Authority.
Written by Bruce Andriatch with contributions from Phil Fairbanks.
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