Can't beat a weekend of food, folks and fun

Amongst my many varied likes are tasty food, cold beer and cute brunettes. Not necessarily in that order.

So you can only begin to imagine my delight when I was granted a weekend jam-packed with all three.

This past weekend, I was honored to be able to serve as a judge for the pierogi contest at Buffalo's Dozynki festival on Saturday. I was also fortunate enough to judge appetizers at The Taste of Lockport on Sunday.

The weekend began normally enough - waiting for my girlfriend to get out of the bathroom. (Seriously, girls, what do you do in there and why does it take so long? Every man in America is dying to know).

Then we packed up the kids and headed to North Tonawanda for the Thunder on the Niagara jet boat races, which I knew would be a real treat for my girlfriend — who probably took 1,000 pictures of the boats— and her son — because what six year old boy doesn't want to watch jet boats race?

After we got our fill of jet boats (and the kids got their fill of PB&J), we headed to the heart of Buffalo for the Dozynki Harvest Festival at Corpus Christi Church where I saw some old friends, did some 12-ounce curls, and feasted on pierogi in an incredibly wide variety of flavors from standard sauerkraut to cheeseburger (with all the fixings). I was one of 20 judges for the pierogi contest and while it was certainly fun, in honesty, it wasn’t easy because there was not a single bad pierogi amongst the offerings. In all honestly, some were simply more awesome than others.

My favorite pierogi of the day a beef on weck created by Brian Marek. Sadly, our table didn’t get a chance to try the top vote getter in the non-traditional category, a reuben pierogi. But I had a reuben pierogi last year and can understand why it would win.

After pierogi, we bowled at the Corpus Christi Club across the street from the church. I won, of course, (with a measly 120) but Heather and the kids did great, too. Then we trekked back to Lockport to rest up for day two of my great Western New York eat-a-thon.

Sunday had been planned out for months. I took the night off work so I could spend it serving as Heather’s tag-along, carrying coffee, protecting her from her adoring fans and whatever other odd jobs I’d be given. Heather is, among other things, co-president of the Lockport Business Association, which oversees the Taste of Lockport.

However, early last week I secured a spot as a judge in the appetizer category of the Taste, a role I’ve served in a few times since the Taste began just over a decade ago. So what had been planned as a day of me following my girlfriend around became another day of hard labor, forcing down delicious goodies.

As was the case the day before, I can honestly say that there wasn’t a single poor offering put in front of me as a judge. There were some offerings, however, that were more spectacular than others. My personal favorite was a meatball on a stick from Middleport’s Alternative Grounds Caffe.

After the judging, there was some walking, more eating, and of course, washing all those tasty morsels down with cold beer. It was such a hard day.

Between Dozynki and the Taste, I ran into far too many people to even begin to name drop without leaving people out and offending, so I won’t. But it’s always nice to get out and see people — especially those I haven’t seen in a year or more.

Sadly, I missed the Erie County Fair this year — one of my favorite annual pilgrimages — but with so many other things going on, I barely missed it.

Scott Leffler is a professional food taster and an amateur columnist — at least in some people's eyes. Follow him on Twitter @scottleffler where he can name drop at will.

Mish Mosh Apple Sauce

So much to say. Only one column a week to do it in.

Recently I bid adieu to Summer, but if this weekend was any indication, Autumn is going to be just fine. Yes, I realize it's technically still Summer. That's not the point.

The Peach Festival parade was fantastic as always, although the politicians tend to ruin it a bit for me. But seeing the football players and cheerleaders and community groups out en mass is an awesome sight. I wish every parade could be so grand.

The Peach Festival itself is also always a treat. The kids and I wandered around, did some people watching, and played Skee Ball at a place that only took Loonies. How very bizarre. For cost purposes, I prefer the Skee Ball in Olcott Beach. A quarter is a much better price. But the Loonie bit did make me smile.

The Music Is Art festival at the Albright Knox gets better every year. We ran into some friends, bought some art, ate that incredibly tasty Lake Effect Ice Cream we look for at all events, and heard some awesome music by some of Western New York's best bands. To Robby Takac, I tip my hat.

It's primary day for those of you registered in major parties. I'll be sitting it out, as the only Libertarian option is to relax and watch.

An email I received Sunday from Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Warren Redlich says he's going to “hold his nose” and vote for Rick Lazio in the Republican primary today. While Redlich is running with the support of my party, he's actually a Republican. This newfound information lost him points with me. I have a month and a half to work that issue out, though.

A recently released Siena poll found that Lazio and WNY developer Carl Paladino are in a statistical dead heat for the GOP nod. I'd like to think that this more shows Lazio's ineptitude than any sort of real support for Paladino. At the end of the day, I imagine we'll find that Lazio's downstate support will be too much for Paladino's upstate support to overcome, despite the fact that typically downstate Republicans usually stay home for the primary.

I imagine if I were a member of the Grand Old Party, I'd have to hold my nose in the voting booth today, too. Of course, if I were a member of the Democratic Party (as I was for years) I'd have to hold my nose while voting, too (as I did for years). This may explain why I'm not a member of either of those parties.

They say you can't fight City Hall. If that's the case, then fighting the Statehouse must be even more difficult. But a North Tonawanda mom is doing just that and I say, more power to her.

Rhonda Magnus felt she had reason to pull her son out of school in 2005, fearing for his safety and feeling that the North Tonawanda school system could or would do nothing to ensure it.

Mangus said her son's life was threatened because he was openly gay.

Having gone to high school myself, I have no trouble imagining this happening. Kids are cruel. And sometimes violent.

Granted, most death threats are bogus, but if this was your kid, would you want to take the chance that this incident was not the exception?

Mangus, a substitute teacher herself, decided to home school her son. But the state says that's not good enough and charged her with “educational neglect.”

You might think it would all be moot now, since her son got his GED last year, but the state is following through.

Rhonda, take this for what it's worth (not much), but I support you. Best of luck.

Watered down advice to officials

Our taxes are high. Too high. We've had the distinction a couple times now of having the highest property taxes in the country based on a percentage of our homes' values.

Add to that the fact that we have a boatload of special districts and usage fees and it's amazing we can find two nickles to rub together when we need to.
So any effort by local government to save us money should be looked upon kindly.

Niagara County's three cities are looking at possibly doing just that for it's residents.

Lockport, North Tonawanda and Niagara Falls each have their own water system and their own wastewater treatment plants. And they're looking at possibly sharing services and reducing costs.


Between the three of them, annual costs for their water and wastewater endeavors total $30 million.

Apparently a plan called the Tri-City Regional Water and Wastewater Optimization and Consolidation project came out of a three year old study that could create a blueprint to save you some cash.

If that $30 million annual price tag for operations is reduced to $29.9 million, that would be a good thing. And it would be even better if it were less than that.

The mayors of the three city's all say they are cautiously optimistic that saving will occur.

Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster says the project may not result in a “silver bullet,” but that it looks positive.

I would hope that our elected officials would understand that anything is better than nothing and reject the notion that there is any silver bullet out there.

Oftentimes is seems to me like our elected officials – and even we – seem to only want to find one solution to all our problems and in doing so, we look over several other smaller solutions. This is true in government as well as the private sector.

I can't tell you how many people I hear scoff about a new business opening up. “What? It's going to create 10 jobs,” they'll say, not seeming to recognize that those 10 jobs are 10 we didn't have before.

We need to stop searching for a panacea and just stop the bleeding. And once the bleeding has stopped maybe we'll get better.
I know many of you think I'm just a pessimist who only finds reasons to complain about everything and everyone. Sometimes that's true. But when I hear of something good, I like to promote it.
Saving money is good. Let's do that. And let's appreciate it when it happens.

I'm pretty jazzed about the upcoming concert series. The last two have been brilliant in my opinion and this years' lineup looks great.

That said, what's with the banners downtown with the concert series sponsors names on them?

I hear we lost last years' banners that said “Historic Lockport” and replaced them with these.

In a city that has a fit over signs, it's kind of amazing that our city fathers would be willing to cheapen the look of our downtown like that.

Dear Mayor Tucker: Find the old banners. Put them up. These ones are tacky.

I have to give a quick special note of thanks to the Tonawanda Fire Department for their speedy arrival at my home on Sunday.

What started out to be fried eggs turned into “stove flambe.” And I'm told it was a very short while before it turned into “kitchen flambe” followed shorty by “Homeless Leffler surprise.”

I didn't actually time them on how long between when I called and when they arrived, but it seemed like seconds. Once on scene, they quickly assessed the situation and put out the fire.

As a result, I only had to get a new stove on Monday. Not an whole new home.
Firefighters: Whatever your salary is, you're worth it.

Scott Leffler, xenophobe

Every so often, I have an “aha” moment. Just such a moment occurred this past weekend when I realized that I am, indeed, part of the problem.

My friends at WNYMedia.net recently had a NCAA-style bracket tournament to determine who is most responsible for the regional failure in Western New York. And the answer was us. That's right. Us.

When the results came out, I said to myself, “Yeah, 'us' collectively, but I'm not to blame.”

But my “aha” moment told me I was wrong. I hate being wrong. And even more so, I hate being part of the problem. So I'm going to work to fix it.

I've always said one of our biggest problems in Western New York is the provincialism displayed by our elected leaders. They all have their fiefdoms and they refuse to work with other communities for the betterment of the entire region.

I've even called out non-politician friends for showing the same type of provincialism.

For example, I've complained to friends from Lockport dozens of times about what seems to be a common interest in the city: Never leaving Lockport.

“The world does not end at the county line,” I've said repeatedly over the last decade.

I enjoy a particular watering hole in West Seneca. I don't go there as often as I used to, but when I did, I would have people ask my why I go “all the way to West Seneca for a beer.”

When I lived in Ohio, I traveled 54 miles one way to work. An hour there. An hour back. Every day. Five days a week. So a half an hour drive to go to “my bar” doesn't seem like a big deal to me.

This past weekend, I took the kids to the “Buffalo Pizza Fest” in the Marriott on the Millersport Highway. It happens to be Amherst right there. Based on the reactions on a local website, people were offended that the “Buffalo Pizza Fest” was held in Amherst - outside of Buffalo.

I thought this reaction was silly. I mean, it's all Buffalo, isn't it?

And that's when I had my “aha” moment. I've been guilty of the same thing.

You see, I grew up in the Town of Niagara. When I would tell people this, they would say, “Oh. Niagara Falls.” I have always been quick to correct them. The Town of Niagara is most certainly not Niagara Falls, I would explain.

Oddly enough, when I was in Ohio, I would tell people I was from Niagara Falls. Those who were familiar with a map would say, “Oh, I didn't know you were from Buffalo.” And I would correct them as well. Niagara Falls is not Buffalo.

Why didn't I want people thinking I was from Niagara Falls? Is the Town of Niagara somehow better than the City of Niagara Falls? Is the City of Niagara Falls somehow better than the City of Buffalo?

The clearcut and obvious answer to both questions is, “no.”
We're all in the same boat together. Niagara Falls and Lockport. Buffalo and West Seneca. Tonawanda and North Tonawanda. And yet we act like the border to each and every single community in Western New York is the Mason-Dixon line.

There's nothing wrong with civic pride. But the xenophobia reflected in this region is the wrong kind of pride. Until our civic pride overlaps our community borders, we're all part of the problem.

And I'm not going to do it anymore.

From now on, I'll be from Niagara Falls – even though I grew up in the Town of Niagara. I'll be from Buffalo – even though I live in Tonawanda. And I'll do my best to remember that we're all collectively from Western New York.