Buffalo's Marble Gardens

It's been a hectic week. All you blog readers out there know that I just came back from Tampa last Monday evening. Unfortunately a week later I found myself in Buffalo for two and a half days on business. Calm down, all you naysayers out there who think I'm saying Buffalo is a hole. It's not, but may I recommend something? When you enter into the city of Buffalo the first thing you are greeted with should NOT be a sprawling cemetery. I'm a huge fan of cemeteries. It's a great place to reflect on your local history and family origins, but for the traveler (like myself) it doesn't really seethe welcomeness. It's like the city is screaming, "Come for the wings but stay for your eternal vacation!" I have never seen a city with so many cemeteries. It's like they're around every corner, and not tiny ones either. Massive bone zones. Acre after acre of them. No wonder people in Buffalo are depressed! The city is dwindling, the Bills may move to another country and they're surrounded in death! People have always wondered, "What happened to all those people that lived in Buffalo? Where did they go?" Well, we finally know. They went about six feet below your feet.

Another thing about Buffalo: it's like Syracuse but bigger. Buffalo has a lot of little neat hole in the wall type places that you'd miss if you blinked. Those are the places that give the town a ton of character. Great people, great food, great atmosphere, but they need to give it a good spring cleaning. Man is it dingy. Maybe I caught it at a poor time of year. Seeing a northeastern city in the end of March is like seeing a pretty gal puking into a toilet after a night of binge drinking. It started out great, but throughout the night you could see her start to go downhill. You know in a day or two, after she sobers up she'll like amazing again. Hope springs eternal... especially with some cover-up and a sandblaster.