Category: Western New York (Page 1 of 6)

Dear America: The Buffalo Bills Are Not Really Simple. But Thanks For The Attention.

29 September, 2011 / Kat

At this point, every Buffalo Bills fan has read Yahoo! Sports‘ “There’s No Place Like Buffalo In The NFL” article from Wednesday. It is an amazingly well written account of how ingrained Bills football is in the area, and how tied both fans, current players and former players are to the team.

The article proclaims Buffalo as the “last simple place in the NFL.” But the article shows the very opposite. The rest of the nation sees being so tied and loyal to a football team as simple; but actually, if the Bills and Western New York were in a Facebook relationship, we’d have to check off, “It’s Complicated.” Continue reading

Yet Another Sign That Western NYers Are Taking Over Massachusetts

10 September, 2011 / Kat

The following is yet another sign that Western New Yorkers are gradually taking over Massachusetts. This also could be a sign that Massachusetts kids spend their formative college years in Western or Central New York. Maybe it’s a happy mix of both.

While reading the Boston.com home page this afternoon, I glanced over at the “Most Popular” widget on their right sidebar. During this visit, the widget was showing their most emailed stories.

What is Boston.com’s most emailed story?

“Wegmans to open Burlington store.”

Don’t believe me? Here’s a screen capture, with my mouse hovering over the link for full effect:

Yes, more people have emailed a news story about Wegmans tearing down an office park in the most quintessentially suburban of all Massachusetts suburbs to build its first store within a half hour drive of Boston proper than anything about the giant Texas wildfires, secrets to anti-aging, and exercise recommendations.

(And I promise I wasn’t logged into any Facebook or other social applications to skew those results any.)

Soon enough, all Massachusetts residents will be able to know the wonder that is Wegmans. What can us Rochesterians, Buffalonians and Syracusans influence next? The second coming of Tim Hortons coffee in New England? The availability of real Buffalo wings in Boston? The garbage plate? Tully’s?

The possibilities are endless.

Everything Old Is New Again

25 June, 2011 / Kat

The Buffalo Bills new uniforms, one part of a throwback Friday in Western New York. (Photo: BuffaloBills.com)

For Western New York, Friday was a day where old things were new again in the world of sports.

One of the American Hockey League’s traditional franchises, the Rochester Americans, were purchased by Terry Pegula and the Buffalo Sabres. My hometown Amerks had fallen on some tough times in the past few years, with a declining attendance and a lack of talent coming with their 2005 affiliation with the Florida Panthers. Even with increased effort (which kept being promised, but rarely seen), it was going be very difficult for the Panthers to live up to the classic days of the Sabres-Amerks affiliation, where the Amerks developed Ryan Miller, Marty Biron, Jason Pominville, Steve Shields and many others. Continue reading

Pushing Through Till Summertime

21 January, 2011 / Kat

The reason the Canadian pop-rock-country band Barenaked Ladies always have appealed to me is because it is so obvious we all are originally from the same region of North America. When Ed (the remaining lead singer) crooned in 1998 about “the foam on the creek is like pop and ice cream/a field full of tires that is always on fire/to light my way home” on “Light Up My Room,” I could vividly remember taking the Greyhound with my Grandma on a late 1980s summer day trip to Buffalo, and seeing both out the bus window on the way home.

Last spring, the band released their first album without co-founder Steven Page. The second song on the album, “Summertime,” is an ode to Western New York-Southern Ontario weather; a response to those not from the area who ask, “How do you put up with all the lake effect snow, wind and cold?” The answer? “We’re all pushing through till summertime.”

I have been fielding many questions in the same vein lately now that Greater Boston has been hit with three snowstorms in a month’s time. “How did you put up with weather like this?! How does your family back there handle it?” So, Bostonians, my answer and advice to you in song form. “Keep on pushing through for summertime.” May it become your winter 2011 anthem.

Summertime – Barenaked Ladies (YouTube)

Find more artists like Barenaked Ladies at Myspace Music

Keeping The Faith: Why I Hold On To the Bills

3 December, 2010 / Kat

The glimmer of hope at the Bills-Pats game on September 26th. (Photo taken by Kat)

This is what being a Buffalo Bills fan in Boston is like.

It is going to work for sixteen Mondays every year and having your boss throw his hands in the air, sigh heavily and say, “Kat! Those Bills! So close!”

It’s your newest star wide receiver Tweeting his best Nancy Kerrigan impression (StarGames and Jerry Solomon, jump on that like a trampoline and sign him up.)

It’s your mother-in-law asking you for sixteen Sundays every year if your team lost again and asking you why you don’t root for that “Brady fella.” Continue reading