The Berkes

Together Again

Bobbie & Brixton

Bobbie In the Snow

Sweet Home - Champs

Winners of 26-straight, the Sweet Home High Panthers won their second straight state title:

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Who Robbed Joe Mesi?

Mesi reports theft of items worth $20,000 from car

December 04, 2009, 7:20 AM /

Former heavyweight boxer Joe Mesi reported Tuesday to Buffalo police someone stole $20,000 in valuables from his vehicle.

Mesi, a medical salesman, told Northwest District officers the thief removed a backpack containing medical supplies from his 2009 Chevy Impala, which was parked outside Millard Fillmore Hospital.

The theft, Mesi said, occurred at some point between 6 and 8 p. m. Monday. In addition to the supplies, the backpack also contained Mesi’s wallet, according to police.

Me Too

Wing King

Remember Drew Cerza? I used to rent a house from Drew when I lived in Buffalo. He is now the Wing King!!!

Dickie Dance

Check out Dickie breaking it down at Genna's graduation party...it is all grainy because the original video was pitch dark:

Emily Likes the Buffalo Bills

Last Monday Emily, Grandpa Dickie and I made our way down to the Buffalo Bills store at the Field House. We spent a bunch of dough, and Emily got her very own T.O. teddy bear!

Here is a short video of Emily crawling around our hotel hallway, and a quick shot of her at the Bills store.

Crossing the Street

After Genna's graduation last night we had to cross Main St. to get to our car. Well, my mom and dad tend to get a little silly. Check this video out while they are standing in the median. My dad throws a dirty tissue at me and I catch it. Oh, and that is me screaming...

Baby is 10 Months Old!

Today was a very difficult day.  Our hearts go out to all of our family and friends in Buffalo.  After speaking with just Mark and JB there are several people that perished that our families have ties to.  Buffalo is almost the size of Charlotte, but in reality it's a much smaller town.  Everyone knows everyone else...it's two degrees of separation up there.

Lost in the shuffle today, but definitely not forgotten, was our precious baby girl's 10-month birthday.  Ems (as we call her quite often:) is doing really, really well.  She is constantly smiling and laughing and loving on her mommy and daddy.  This age is so cute because she's starting to understand what hugs and kisses are.  And this is a good thing because she owes Vicki and I a WHOLE bunch of lovin' after all that we've poured on her these last 10 months.

So in celebration of her "birthday" mommy and daddy brought the little one to Five Guys for burgers and fries.  Well, we had the burgers, and she "played" with a couple fries :)

The Plane

Sobering video of the crash aftermath

Terrible Tragedy

Vicki turned the TV on this morning at 5:15 and the first thing we heard was, "...plane crash in Clarence Center, NY."  I almost swallowed my tongue because my aunt Karen and uncle Alan live in Clarence Center, and it's not a big town.  Thankfully, they were far enough away from the crash that they weren't affected.  

To visualize how close they were, take a look at the map.  The plane crash occurred at the top of the map, labeled "A".  My aunt and uncle's house is at the bottom middle of the map in the red circle.  

Thank you, God for keeping them safe.

It's getting very strange

Buffalo Gets World Junior Championship

You know you're from Buffalo when...

I'm sitting here pounding away at homework and listening to HillBillary speak.  I give her credit as I know it is absolutely KILLING her makes her wish she was the nominee instead of BHO. Man, 18 million people voted for her to be the Democratic nominee and Obama doesn't put her on the ticket.  Wow.  Michelle and Barry really hate don't like Bill and Hill, huh?

And in consideration of HRC being the junior senator from the great state of New York without having anything to do with New York until she decided to run for PRESIDENT, and the fact that I AM from the state of New York, I wanted to share something funny with y'all...

You know you're from Buffalo when...

I'm from Buffalo. We eat chicken wings, not Buffalo wings. Jack Kemp is a quarterback, not a politician. We drink Labatt Blue and love it. Mighty Taco always has preference over Taco Bell. Pop, not soda and Pepsi, not Coke.

They are sneakers not tennis shoes. It's a sucker, not a lollipop. Bison chip dip, La Nova Pizzeria, Aunt Rosie's Loganberry, Chevettas Chicken, Peter K's Potato Pancakes and Ted's Hot Dogs are all too familiar...not to forget Taffy's Shakes and Charlie the butcher.

A fake ID is unneccessary, there is always Canada...But we have them anyway. Our bars don't close until 4amm and we DO sell beer in a grocery store (Tops or Wegmans), which always makes for early starts and late nights. Jim's steak out at 4 in the morning is calling it an early night...

We never cuss, but we swear entirely too much. We know that a 65 mph speed limit really means 80. We will cut you off, swear, and give you the finger if you are keeping up AND do it all in the snow, while expecting nothing less in return. Driving in the snow not only comes naturally, it is fun.

We know what Artvoice and Nightlife are and we either love them or try to burn every copy we see. We start the weekends off right at Thursdays in the square while enjoying beer, free music, and an interesting crowd.

We lived through Wide Right, The Forward Lateral, and No Goal. Dubbed by Dan Marino as "the meanest fans because no-one actually wants to live here..."

We all know he wouldn't stand one winter up here. We love the Bills (no matter what) and accept that it takes 2-4 hours to get home from a game. Nothing closes in 3 feet of snow or -20 windchills...In fact, that's how we prefer to tailgate.

We can correctly pronounce, spell, and identify Chippewa, Scajaquada, Lackawanna, Cheektowaga, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Olean, Tonawanda and Gowanda without hesitation. When giving direction it's not "take I-90 to Route 33 east" it's " take the 90 to the 33 east"..."the" is not an option.

We are 30 minutes from another country, one of the seven wonders of the world, and even a few beaches. It's the second largest city in New York.

I AM FROM BUFFALO, a drinking town with a sports problem, and damn proud!

LOVE IT OR HATE IT!

Buffalo Trip Videos

Shufflin' off to Buffalo

Baby is a trooper! Thanks Tracy for staying at our house while we're gone.

Tim Russert Dead at 58

Tim Russert died today in Washington.  He was host of Meet the Press since '91.  He was an outstanding American, top-notch journalist and one of Buffalo's favorite sons.  This is a very sad day for us.

We'll miss you Tim...may God bless you and your family.

The Champs

Lacrosse and AFL championships...go Buffalo!

Don't forget to turn the lights out...

...when you leave.  Yep, thousands and thousands of people have left the Western New York area over the last 25+ years.  We all know this to be fact.  But just in case you were wondering if ex-Buffalonians (or ex-Amherstonians, like myself) keep up with what's happening in the Buff, well, they definitely do.

The following is data from Nielsen Online on the top 30 sites in the “News” category based on February 2008 traffic. This data takes into account U.S. home and work Internet usage, and it shows both unique visitors to each brand or channel and sessions per person.

Check out # 24 on the list.  The BuffNews.  That's a whole bunch of people checking up on the Sabres and Bills from places like Charlotte, NC.

P.S.  Drudge Report is a daily staple in my web diet.  I insist that you check this site out daily...multiple times per day.

Brand or channel; sessions per person; unique audience (000)

1. drudgereport.com; 19.9; 3,445

2. Daily Kos^; 8.9; 1,204

3. Fox News Digital Network; 8.3; 10,177

4. CNN Digital Network; 7.9; 37,181

5. AOL News; 7.7; 21,119

6. Yahoo! News; 7.4; 35,274

7. MSNBC Digital Network; 6.4; 34,013

8. ksl.com^; 6.0; 796

9. Breitbart.com; 5.3; 2,674

10. Google News; 5.3; 12,050

11. Gannett Newspapers and Newspaper Division; 5.1; 13,998

12. NYTimes.com; 4.9; 18,975

13. Netscape; 4.8; 2,709

14. Townhall.com; 4.7; 1,152

15. Media General Newspapers; 4.6; 1,761

16. GTGI Network 4.5; 1,345

17. Star Tribune; 4.3; 2,108

18. TWC News Websites; 4.1; 840

19. NewsMax.com; 4.0; 4,054

20. Zwire^; 3.9; 1,089

21. Cox Newspapers; 3.9; 5,197

22. washingtonpost.com; 3.8; 10,441

23. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; 3.8; 1,259

24. The Buffalo News^; 3.7; 502

25. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; 3.6; 1,472

26. MediaNews Group Newspapers; 3.5; 5,850

27. USATODAY.com; 3.5; 10,571

28. WorldNow 3.5; 10,588

29. IB Websites; 3.4; 7,565

30. St. Louis Post Dispatch^; 3.4; 1,022

Good times in the Buff

That's right.  The good times NEVER stop in B-Town.  Just ask Money!

Oh, and if you can handle it, take a look here and get into Beast Mode with Money Lynch.

Seriously

Honestly, I really, really don't know how much more of this one person can take.  How much more of this can one wonderful, proud community take.  For those of you that don't follow sports, the Buffalo Bills lost a game tonight they had NO BUSINESS being in.  The Bills are having their first Monday night game in 13 years, on national TV.  Dallas comes in undefeated, motivated, with the #1 offense, against the 1-3 Bills and our 32nd ranked defense, and with devastating injury after devastating injury completing decimating our roster.  And what does Buffalo do?  We intercept Tony Romo five times, return two of them TDs; run a kickoff 103 yards for a TD, and lead by 8 with a few minutes left.  What do we proceed to do?  Well, lose the game of course.  Dallas gets a TD, misses the 2-point conversion, recovers the on-sides kick, has a huge call against them shaving precious seconds off the clock, and then get two quick out passes picking up 15 yards, and with two seconds left they kick a field goal to win the game.  Oh wait, oh yes.  Dick Jauron called a timeout right before he kicked it.  It doesn't count.  He has to do it again.  He's a rookie.  No way he can make this.  No way.  Well, of course he makes it.  Dallas wins 25-24.

And now we come to the point of this post.  Why does this keep happening to us, and how much more can we take?  Here's a quick list of what Buffalo fans have had to deal with since 1990:

• Scott Norwood misses a last second field goal that would've won Super Bowl XXV for the Bills.  it would have been Buffalo's first major pro sports championship.
• The Bills go to three more Super Bowls, all consecutive (S.B.'s XXVI, XXVII and XXVIII) and proceed to lose all three of them.  Two of them to Dallas, and all three of them blowouts.
• In the 1999 playoffs (the last time the Bills made the playoffs) the Bills were winning at Tennessee in the final seconds, the Titans tried a trick play by lateraling the ball backwards (although after watching this 1,272 times it's hard to say for sure it wasn't an illegal forward pass) on a kickoff return, and we watched the Titan run it back for a game winning TD.
• The 1999 Sabres over-achieve and make it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals.   There was a rule this year that no part of your body can be in the goalie crease when shooting the puck.  Brett Hull has his skate in the crease, the refs don't see it, and DALLAS hoists the Stanley Cup, in our building.
• The last two years the Sabres have been loaded, and have lost each time in the conference finals.  Losing the year before last on a string of injuries to our defensemen that no one will probably ever see the likes of again.  I think we lost 4 of our top six D-men.  The last one going out before game 7 with an infection in his leg that he got from blocking a shot.

How come we can't win?  How come we lose heartbreaking games time after time?  Shouldn't the law of averages have caught up to us by now and given us one championship?  How come an already economically depressed city, which has had almost half its population leave over the last 40 or so years, not catch a break?  How can the Sabres start play in 1970 and not ever win the Cup.  How can the Bills play since 1960, play in four straight Super Bowls, and not win one of them?

How come?

I know sports are nothing but a past time to some of you.  But my friends and family from Buffalo reading this know sports are so much more than that.  It's how most of us grew up, playing and watching sports.  It's how all my closest buddies and I became friends in the first place.  I firmly believe sports have a lot to do with where we are in our lives.  We're all doing pretty well.  Certainly a few (or one:) better than the others.  But all of us do WAY better than the average American family.  And our sports attitudes have a lot to do with it.

Being from Buffalo pretty much means you're going to be a Bills and Sabres fan.  It's what we do.  It's what brings us together.  My friends and I to this day will schedule trips and reunions back to Buffalo based on when they're playing.  I know it's a little crazy.  I know it's a bit obsessive.  But this is how it is.  We all love our families.  We know our health is more important than a sports game.  We all know our real success in our lives comes from being a contributing member of society, being family men, and raising our children to be good citizens.  But being from Buffalo gives us an identity crisis because we know how everyone looks down on us.  We all know about the snow and blizzards, and the wind, and the lack of jobs, etc.  But Buffalo is a wonderful place to grow up.  A wonderful place to raise a family.  A wonderful place to always call home because we're proud of where we're from.  And the thing we all have in common are our hometown teams.  We always root for the Bills and Sabres with every last ounce of energy we have. 

And once, just once, we want a winner.  We've never really had it.  The Bills had a couple AFL championships in the 60's before the Super Bowl was invented.  The Sabres have always had a winning record, but never a Cup.  We've won championships in minor league baseball, indoor lacrosse and roller hockey.  But we've never won a major championship.  And although we all know there is very little chance of us winning one anytime soon (especially the Bills) tonight was going to be a little bit of vindication for the hometown fans.  But we lost... 

Although it just about breaks my heart to keep cheering for the Bills and Sabres, I will always be a fan, and will always be one of their biggest fans.  I don't know how much more of this I can take with losses like tonight, but I don't see it as having a choice.  There are no bandwagon jumpers in my group.  Not my good buddies, not my dad and not my cousin.  We are not going to give up.  I will root to the day I die.  This blog will always have a huge chunk of it dedicated to Buffalo sports and what's happening in my hometown.  But please, sports Gods, if you're reading this, don't make us sit through games like tonight.  Please.  It's going to keep me awake all night...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAGGIE!!!

Happy bday to our terribly spoiled dog, Maggie.  She's 1 today!

I had a wonderful time in Buffalo this weekend with The Berke Boys.  Hockey, hockey and more hockey!  I took a ton of pics and video, and I'll have it posted later today or tomorrow.  But here's one of us right before we left for the Sabres game on Saturday night...