Why “La Famiglia e Tutto” (Family is Everything)
Sicilians have a saying—La Famiglia e Tutto (Family is Everything)—and they live by what they say.
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Whatever Happened to Beggar’s Night?
I have to wonder why the holiday is no longer popular in more Buffalo communities.
Why I Wrote a “Love Letter” to Buffalo
I wanted to begin a narrative that would trace the city’s arc from the first warning signs of a collapsing economy to its eventual rebirth and revitalization.
Beyond the Library: The Quiet Evolution of Literary Buffalo
When visiting the city earlier this month, I learned that over the past half-century, Buffalo has become quite the literary town.
Secrets of the Scajaquada? Treasures of Tonawanda? Or…
This month I am asking readers, what are the undiscovered gems in Buffalo and the surrounding area that I need to visit this year?
Publishing My West Side Story: It’s About to Get Real
Like every would-be author discovers, if writing a book isn’t difficult enough, the ordeal of trying to get it published tests all one’s powers of endurance.
A Buffalo Christmas to Remember
Everyone in my hometown of Buffalo, NY will have a story to tell about the “bombogenesis” blizzard that hit the city late this December, just as many of its native sons and daughters were traveling home to be with family for the Christmas holidays. I was one of those making the journey. Fortunately, my story, […]
The Year I Met the Buffalo Bills
It was a beautiful summer day in early August, 1963. The Buffalo Bills, a young team that had been admitted into the American Football League just four years earlier, were wrapping up their annual summer training and getting ready for their first game of the season. The excitement in the city was palpable. My Dad, […]
The Most Prestigious Club You Probably Never Heard Of
Tucked away a discrete distance from busy Delaware Avenue, and a stone’s throw from the famous Wilcox Mansion where Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as President after the assassination of William McKinley, lies a stately Italian Renaissance-style structure that I suspect few people in Buffalo have ever noticed, let alone visited. It is the home […]
The Hullabaloo over Same-Sex Schools
The benefits of going to a single-gender high school can’t be proven scientifically, but I can attest to my own experience.
Merry West Side Christmas
Grandma was happiest surrounded by loved ones on Christmas.
My Mad Crush on Commander Tom
Alas, though Commander Tom was charming and kind to everyone, he never paid any attention to me, even when I won a giant Tootsie Roll.