Sweet! The Buffalo Sabres are moving on to the Eastern Conference Finals, the first time since their cup run in 1999. I'm a bit surprised the Ottawa Senators collapsed in just 5 games, but Buffalo really seems to have their number in the playoffs, as the Sabres have taken the last 3 series in which the two teams have met. The likely Buffalo-Carolina matchup should be quite entertaining.

GO SABRES!!!!

- Posted by at 10:42 PM

I kept thinking so often tonight that the Sabres were going to lose. Silly me, I should have more faith than that, but this was a wild game that kept giving hope and taking it away. And leave it to the online radio feeds, they failed just before the game-winning goal. I got the feed back just in time to hear the post-goal excitement.

Lost opportunity for the NHL too - this probably would have been a great game to see on national TV. Instead, like every other playoff game save one this year, I have had to settle with listening to the radio.

- Posted by at 12:50 AM

Phew! An 8-2 spanking of Philly by the Sabres, which caused their goalie to drop his gloves in the first period, the team to drop their discipline, and their coach to drop the f-bomb in his post-game comments. The only bad part was not being able to watch the fun on Comcast's webcast, since it wasn't compatible with my system.

- Posted by at 11:22 PM

Nothing quite like listening to Rick Jeanneret calling a playoff hockey game, especially when the Sabres win. Granted, I would have liked it better if the Sabres hadn't let themselves get into a position where they needed a double overtime for a win, but a win's a win.

Game 2 is on Monday night.

- Posted by at 11:55 PM

The Buffalo Sabres play the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round of this year's NHL playoffs. The Sabres have been quite exciting this year, and hopefully they can be a royal pain in Philly's side again in the playoffs. I hope I get ahead enough on my papers to enjoy the games.

- Posted by at 10:43 PM

Well, this is mostly dead on. The pop wars with the downstaters at college were always fun, since they persisted in their error no matter how many times we corrected them. Not only do we have discussions over pizza places, we tend to be very critical of the wings they make outside of town. Most places make lousy wings - if you bake them, anathema sis!

HT: DD.

- Posted by at 1:50 PM

An updated post about the library closings in Erie County last year.

- Posted by at 6:40 PM

Mike Mularkey resigned yesterday as the head coach of the Buffalo Bills. It's being billed as a surprise to owner Ralph Wilson, who less than a week ago announced Mularkey was staying, but I don't buy the idea that Wilson was surprised by this, I think he was angling for it all along. Mularkey had three years to go on his contract, and Wilson hates paying coaches he's fired (he sued in 2000 trying to avoid paying the last year of Wade Phillips' contract). But by resigning, Wilson gets out of having to pay Mularkey anything, a situation that no doubt makes the owner happy.

I think it's hard to look at Wilson's actions any other way - he tells the coach that he's the man for next year, yet forces him to dump half his staff, many of whom he personally selected. He must have forgotten that in 2000, Phillips opted to be fired rather than dump one of his assistants; how could he have thought that asking for a whole bunch to be fired wouldn't upset his coach? In addition, it put Mularkey on such weak ground, he would have been hard pressed to find quality assistants for next year, dooming him to what likely would have been another year of dismal failure and further damage to his reputation.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out with the Bills, though Wilson getting more involved in the organization doesn't seem like the best thing if he's going to play these sorts of games with his staff to try and save a few bucks.

- Posted by at 1:43 PM

Based on the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library's newly released rankings, one can now assign playing cards to the branches, as there are 52 branches now open. By next year, the deck is more likely to look like the one used for Euchre, but I digress.

UPDATE - Now that the new year has come, the closed libraries have been crossed out.

Ace of Spades - Central Library (1964)
Ace of Hearts - Hamburg (1966)
Ace of Diamonds - Orchard Park (1971)
Ace of Clubs - Audubon (1987)
King of Spades - Julia B. Reinstein (1996)
King of Hearts - Merriweather (North Jefferson) (2005)
King of Diamonds - Clarence (2001)
King of Clubs - East Aurora (1963)
Queen of Spades - Riverside (1986)
Queen of Hearts - Kenmore (1976)
Queen of Diamonds - Clearfield (1968)
Queen of Clubs - Lancaster (1976)
Jack of Spades - Grand Island (1989)
Jack of Hearts - Crane (1955)
Jack of Diamonds - Niagara (1958)
Jack of Clubs - Reinstein Memorial (1964)
Ten of Spades - West Seneca (1953)
Ten of Hearts - Dudley (1962)
Ten of Diamonds - Collins (2001)
Ten of Clubs - Tonawanda City (1964)
Nine of Spades - East Delavan (1961)
Nine of Hearts - Newstead (2002)
Nine of Diamonds - Eggertsville-Snyder (1960)
Nine of Clubs - Concord (1964)
Eight of Spades - Fronczak (1965)
Eight of Hearts - Lackawanna (1922)
Eight of Diamonds - Northwest (1969)
Eight of Clubs - Elma (1959)
Seven of Spades - Williamsville (1960)
Seven of Hearts - Lake Shore (1966)
Seven of Diamonds - Depew (1967)
Seven of Clubs - Cazenovia (1925)
Six of Spades - North Collins (1999)
Six of Hearts - North Park (1928)
Six of Diamonds - Martin Luther King (1972)
Six of Clubs - North Cheektowaga (1966)
Five of Spades - Eden (1991)
Five of Hearts - Blasdell (1953)
Five of Diamonds - Angola (1971)
Five of Clubs - Fairfield (1897)
Four of Spades - East Clinton (1976)
Four of Hearts - Boston Free (1930)
Four of Diamonds - Kenilworth (1949)
Four of Clubs - South Cheektowaga (1967)
Three of Spades - Kensington (1925)
Three of Hearts - Greenhaven (1960)
Three of Diamonds - Brighton (1956)
Three of Clubs - Alden (Ewell Free) (1913)
Two of Spades - Marilla Free (1936)
Two of Hearts - Mead (1937)
Two of Diamonds - Parkside Village (1983)
Two of Clubs - West Falls (1930s)

Bold-faced entries denote libraries within the City of Buffalo, the year of the original building construction or space rental is in parentheses. Libraries below the rank of 8 are at the most serious risk of closing. Of special note, West Falls is the least expensive library to operate, costing less than $25,000 a year. Only 4 branches and Central cost more than $500,000 a year.

UPDATE - 16 libraries closed, though attention to location meant some poorer branches stayed open at the expense of others. Nothing higher than rank 8 closed. At present, at least 2 of the shuttered branches, West Falls and Mead, have been reopened independently of the system, and other locations also have private efforts ongoing to keep them open.

- Posted by at 10:28 PM

Having gone to the county fair this year, I've noticed that more and more it's not quite as wholesome as it used to be in years past. For one, New Age themed shops were more in force this year than I've seen in past years, coupled with a very sparse presence of the mom and pop crafts type booths. Scientology had a big bunch of tents set up - curiously closed from all sides I could see - wanting to check mental health. Then there's the new slots gaming facility, which everyone was enticed to go to with a free $2 credit with parking.

Most things for sale were repetitive and junky. Austrian crystal and expensive monogramed golf markers were this year's big thing. I can honestly say this was the first year ever where I absolutely didn't see a thing I thought was worth buying.

About the only good experiences were the food, some of the exhibits, and the lottery contests which netted me $30 in free scratch tickets.

- Posted by at 1:00 AM

Urban sprawl is a problem, which interestingly enough parallels the problem of with sin in modern times. I'll use my own region as a model of urban sprawl, simply because it's such a glaringly good example.

Fifty years ago, the city of Buffalo had over 500,000 people living in it. The greater metropolitan area had perhaps 1 million people in total. Today, there's still about 1 million people in the greater metro area, but only 275,000 or so in the city itself. Despite the 50% shrinkage in population over the last 50 years, the incorporated city has not shrunk.

Those who fled to the suburbs apparently thought city life was hell and left. As they left, conditions deterioriated, reinforcing and compounding the negative view of the city in a viscious cycle. Today there are a lot of bad neighborhoods in the city, with gangs and drug dealers bringing them down. Community activists are left to try holding things up in a city with long inept political leadership.

So, now the tie-in to sin. The city's problems have been compounded by the middle class turning and fleeing, instead of trying to fight the city's problems. As they leave, the problems get worse, overwhelming some of those fighting the good fight, and eventually, all that's left are the die-hards who won't knuckle under even with bullets flying at their heads.

Sin has taken hold in much the same way, with people fleeing from confronting it - retreating in many cases to their safe world of personally opposed but not going to say a thing about it - undermining those who are still trying to fight it, and which if things go far enough will lead to a world where sin is opposed only by those who are made of the stuff martyrs are made of.

To sum this up in short - if you see rot and don't do anything about it, the rot spreads. It gets progressively harder to fight as it spreads and there are only so many places to go before there's no place left to go.

- Posted by at 2:50 PM

The Erie County Fair opened this past Thursday and will run until next week Sunday. Around a million people pass through the gates during the 11 days the fair runs and it's a good place to go for the midway rides, games, bazaars, food, and music.

I'll be heading over this Friday as part of a family affair, and possibly another day if the opportunity arises. It's a good time all around.

- Posted by at 8:03 PM

Despite the fact that the 9/11 Commission's Report final conclusions didn't place the blame on either administration, or on anyone in particular, the local newscast was all a Bush-bashing event. They didn't even use the CBS national correspondents this time, it was entirely a home-grown affair.

Not a word was said against the Clinton administration, while the reporter used phrases like "the commission slammed the Bush administration" to make it seem like all the blame fell on his administration.

I will now be switching to a different newscast, in protest of this slanted reporting. You can let WIVB know about it too, if you like.

- Posted by at 11:29 PM

Tomorrow is the annual Burgerfest held in my hometown, the reputed birthplace of the hamburger by the Menches brothers. The town's name is Hamburg (no relation to our German cousin by the same name), and this has not surprisingly drawn the ire of PETA.

Last year, we had to deal with one of their people being dressed very scantily in only veggie leaves, trying to promote a petition to change the town's name to Veggieburg (the reward for caving would have been $15,000 in non-meat patties for the school district). I'm pretty sure they were also protesting the serving of burgers as the main food item.

I do believe that in the voting, the proposal was soundly trounced. If you'd like to show your support, go eat a burger this weekend. Or better yet, come here for the Burgerfest this year or next, or the National Buffalo Wing Festival, or the Erie County Fair, all of which will have meat aplenty.

- Posted by at 10:06 PM