Thoughts of a Common Man

A couple of weeks ago a couple of kids started a dog on fire here in Buffalo. Thankfully the dog survived. This past weekend a couple of people decided to beat up a 96-year-old man during a robbery. The old guy is also hanging in there. Can you explain why those things happened? I get that there is a real disconnect between what should happen and what does happen. I do understand that there's just a meanness in this world, but seriously. Can you even imagine watching either of those things go down? Can you tell me why a young woman who'd been busted for drunk driving a few years ago would get back behind the wheel, again, drunk as a skunk, cross a center line and plow into a mother and her child? Mom has survived so far. The baby did not. Why, after all the time and effort put into it do we still have drunk drivers? Will it ever end? Can you tell me why a couple of men in the Niagara Falls area would drive by a car and open fire? The only person in the car was a t...

Every time I drive into Buffalo along Route 5 I think of bringing a bunch of college friends that way on our way into the city. "This place is a shit-hole," the ever eloquent Fluffy mentioned. And I think of a few certain sections of Buffalo as that way for sure. The old steel plant buildings are certainly an eyesore and despite the fact that we may not ever set up a waterfront as wonderful as that of some other cities, we can certainly do better. The old, tired, unused buildings that once gave the city life are now just sitting there...looking ugly and worn. There is talk of tearing some of the old dogs down and there are groups standing up in opposition. We need to preserve them as historical sites? For what? Exactly? Yeah, yeah a lot of people built their lives while working inside the walls of the place. It won't ever happen again. Not when they can do it cheaper in some other country. Not when no one works there anymore. My beautiful wife work...

The goofy kid from Two and a Half Men is causing quite a stir with his comments about the show, isn't he? Jake, or Angus T. Jones, as he's known in real life has had an awakening of sorts and he went off the other day about how people should stop watching his show because it's pure filth and will cause problems in eternity. He collects $350,000 a week for appearing on the filthy freaking show. Damn, that's a hypocrite, right? I'm just trying to get my definitions straight. And it's not that I don't agree with him. There were times when I thought the show was clever, hell, even funny. Since Charlie Sheen left its become downright stupid, and Angus has a point: It's filthy. Yet it's pretty hard to be lectured about morality from a 19 year old kid who actually became a millionaire off of the filth that was being presented. Has he given any of the money back? Donated it to his church? And what will happen to him when the show does ...

Every three years here in Buffalo we start chanting for the people who run the Bills organization to start firing people. Today on the job sites I gathered the following evidence. We want the head coach gone. We want the GM gone. We want the quarterback gone. Hell, we even want the owner real, real real gone. And then I heard it. "Sorry to say but we need the team to just leave," one guy said. "Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed and Bruce Smith were a long time ago. We can't keep up any which way and we can't afford them anymore." Perhaps it was just sour grapes from a 13th consecutive season down the drain. Maybe it's the fact that hope seems to be fading for a quick turn-around. "This is our rebuilding century," another guy said. "Personally I've had enough." The next shot came from the third guy sitting around the coffee truck: "I paid my money for season tickets - they ain't cheap," he ...

Always liked this song...listened to the lyrics really closely on Thanksgiving Day...Steve Winwood The Finer Things While there is time Let's go out and feel everything If you hold me I will let you into my dream For time is a river rolling into nowhere We must live while we can And we'll drink our cup of laughter The finer things keep shining through The way my soul gets lost in you The finer things I feel in me The golden dance life could be Oh, I've been sad And have walked bitter streets alone And come morning There's a good wind to blow me home So time is a river rolling into nowhere I will live while I can I will have my ever after The finer things keep shining through The way my soul gets lost in you The finer things I feel in me The golden dance life could be We go so fast, why don't we make it last Life is glowing inside you and me Please take my hand, here where I stand Won't you come out and dance with me Come see, wi...

Today is my Mommy's birthday. (It's my buddy J.C's birthday as well, but when it comes down to it...he loses big to Mommy. Happy Birthday anyway, second-fiddle). And I thought of Mom when I was finishing up the Bruce biography written by Peter Ames Carlin - a great read for Bruce fans - it ain't all money and sheer happiness. Yet towards the end of the book there was an interview with Bruce's mom and she was talking about the impact that her son's success had on the family dynamic. The money changed it all for all of them for generations and generations and she was putting that change into the context of the sadness they'd suffered through the years. "I look at him and I can't believe he's my son," she says. That's how I feel about my Mom. Her toughness is extraordinary. She wants to cry every minute but she disguises the sadness with a hearty laugh. Her work ethic exceeds her toughness. "What're you doing?...

I am just amazed at the people lined up at every store. I'm even more amazed that now people are actually skipping their Thanksgiving Dinner to do it. Perhaps it's just that I hate everything about the mall experience from the 'Can I help you?' the minute you walk in the door on to feeling nauseated while you stand in line behind someone who wants to talk to you about their putrid life just because you're standing behind them to the swiping of the credit card to throw something in your cart that you don't really want or need. Do you know that most kids of a certain age are content to play with the box that the shit comes in? And if you really held a gun to my head and asked me what I wanted for Christmas I couldn't mention a single thing. And they do hold guns to each other's heads out there. Someone shot someone else over a parking spot in Florida. Ah well, it was in Florida, who cares? But, yes, my beautiful wife was out there. She even dra...