Buffalo Bill$ Ticket$ in Toronto

There are still tickets available for the upcoming Buffalo Bills-Miami Dolphins game that is to be played in Toronto on Sunday. They're a bit on the pricey side. "Too expensive!" is the word on the streets via WIVB. I believe that was the point.

No one ever intended to market the Toronto Bills to the blue collar crowd of western NY. Rather the plan was to reach into the deep pockets of Toronto's upper crust.

Face it, sports in general has come a long way from being a diversion for the common man. Now you have to have connections or win a contest in order to attend the Super Bowl, even if it's being played in your home town.

The athletes themselves have risen above the masses. Even the most insignificant players are knocking down some pretty serious bucks. Not too many lunch buckets in those locker rooms.

I wonder though about how moneyed people express their disgust with the product on the field. Rather than boo and throw things they probably just ignore them.

Wild guess says there won't be too many people wearing bags over their heads. We'll see.

The Cookie Cutter "System"

Most of the sports blogs that I read on a regular basis have had a post on the trials and tribulations of Buffalo Sabre Max Afinogenov - mostly the trials part. I thought enough of his hockey playing skills to buy my first (and probably only) sports jersey with his name on the back. Yet I've been rather quiet on the whole subject, except for when he became an American citizen.

I'm pretty much sick of Max being the scapegoat every time things don't pan out for the Sabres. He was a healthy scratch in last nights game, again. It's been said that he makes too many mistakes. What do you call what the rest of them were doing - Whoopsies?

If you only listen to radio you're missing the whole effect of Jenerette saying one thing while another is unfolding on ice. He tends to gloss over the mistakes of a lot of players. Not that I think I could do much better at the speed of play by play, just saying.

It's a team effort after all, and as a team they are not living up to expectations. They seem to have lost focus, although what else they could be paying attention to in the middle of a hockey game in which they are playing is beyond me.

They keep saying that they just have to "stick to the system" and everything will be hunky dory. As far as I can tell, the system is that any player can play any position in any situation (like interchangeable parts) and generate the same results. Trouble is, for the most part, the results are not good.

Maybe the much vaunted "system" just sucks the life out of players after a while. No individuality allowed. Instead of concentrating on bringing out a player's strong points it squashes everyone into the same mold, a cookie with a number. So here's the Max cookie (I know Wegmans got into trouble for making Sabres cookies; hope this doesn't count). Make a bunch of different players so another team can have them for lunch.

Maybe it's time for Lindy to think outside the cookie box and, while he's at it, get over the grudge against Max. After all, it's not like the rest of them (except Vanek) are contributing to the sweet smell of success.

Shopping

After the initial rush of Black Friday shopping was past, the crowds really died down. Granted, I usually pick non-peak times due to my total abhorrence of mobs and lines, but this was something else.

When I was at JC Penney's on Friday about 11am I was able to pick up a USB Turntable and check out with minimum wait. I chose a different register than in that area, as it was in an awkward place, but still. Saturday the kids and I went to the Sabres Store, WalMart, and Target from 4-7pm. No lines. Then yesterday around 8pm I returned to Target to get a sale price adjustment and pick up something else. Again, no lines.

It's not like it was planned down time. There were plenty of cashiers and other personnel hanging around, just no shoppers and no trashed out aisles. It was totally eerie.

The good news is that if this holds up I may get my shopping done in record time. It's bad news for retail if people are sitting on their money on the biggest shopping weekend of the year. Many stores are already rumored to close, making them a bad bet for gift cards and warranties. It's even worse news if people don't have any money to be sitting on, or are scared of what the future may bring.

Then again, maybe it took a death to get people to stand back and reexamine their priorities. Maybe this is the year people will remember the reason for the season and act accordingly. Maybe.

Parker Alumni - Life Master

Parker alumna ('35) Ella Hartwig Kart has led a very interesting life. She started out as a registered nurse at Children's Hospital where she met her future husband, Hamilton Kart. That's when the adventures begin. You might say that she's a Life Master - a bridge title that she's also earned.

You'd never know that the quiet little woman at family reunions had such a standout life. Everyone seems to converse in the here and now or shared memories, and not so much on individual accomplishments. Luckily the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette picked up the scent of an interesting story:

"Ella has never shot a moose in Alaska, but she bagged a black bear north of Sudbury, Ontario, in 1946.

Furthermore, a year after she shot the bear, Ella, her husband and their infant son were caught in a South Dakota blizzard, and in the early 1960s she was deputized as a pistol-packin’ registered nurse while working at the Colorado State Home for the Aged in Trinidad, Colo.

Now 90, the Fort Wayne resident is extremely proud of the card issued to her by the sheriff of Las Animas County making her a deputy sheriff and authorizing her to carry the loaded pistol. She has it tucked in her wallet to this day.

Most of Ella’s escapades, unlikely for a girl who grew up on a farm near Clarence Center NY, are directly related to her husband’s love of hunting and fishing and their moves around the country for his teaching jobs and pursuit of various college degrees.

It’s been a full life."

The article goes into a lot of detail, so be sure to read it all.

We tend to think of older relatives and acquaintances as merely...well...old. Much as our children tend to view us, like it or not. It's a reminder that we should remember to listen and to write down the memories of our elders, maybe even of ourselves.

Maybe not everyones lives were as varied as Ella's, but everyone has a story or more to tell. It is fascinating to look back at, to fill in the blanks, so to speak. All too often a life history is lost and a person becomes just another branch in the family tree.

"Ella Kart has lived a full life: wife, mother, grandmother (three grandchildren, two stepgrandchildren). She killed a bear, survived a blizzard and was a deputy sheriff.

She’s also a breast cancer survivor and an avid bridge player. When she talks about bridge (she plays at least seven times a month), her face lights up. “It’s absolutely the most marvelous game because it makes you think.”

The thinking has paid off: she’s a Life Master, “which means,” she says, laughing, “I have the necessary red, black and gold points.”

Ella thinks she might like to write a book about her life. I hope she does!

Google Chrome

Google Chrome is the newest internet browser out and I've been messing with it this morning rather than thinking of something to write. I installed it when it first came out a few months ago, but more or less ignored it up until now.