If Woodrow Wilson had his way, there would have been a stronger, more endurable League of Nations for one thing, and for another, there would never have been a Prohibition. It was On This Day in 1919 that President Woodrow Wilson’ veto of the Volstead Act was overridden by Congress and hence provided for the enforcement of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, thereby ending the sale of alcohol. Buffalo had over 20 breweries at the time, producing over 30 million gallons of beer. After the 13 year dry stretch, only seven breweries restarted. Of the 14,000 breweries across the…
Author: Laura Sargent
Health is at stake. It’s known health Science versus area leadership Silence. And the West Side community is mad and gathering. People on Buffalo’s West Side are sick and geting sicker and while several world universities have been here in recent summers to study that fact, our WNY media crushes the data to silence. Why? And how could we let this happen? The area leadership and monied folk say the universities that spell out the health damage are just being silly academics. Really? This new West Side community push may be what they hope to be the perfect storm to…
Well, BRO friends, you are the first I’m asking to see my film—to debut here just in time for On This Day in 1967 when John McCain was shot down in his plane over Vietnam.”Faith of Friends” is a Buffalo-made film of that time. –It is also about a man from Buffalo who 50 years ago met a French-schooled Vietnamese lawyer studying international relations in Australia. Little did they each know then that years later they would create huge differences in the ways our POWS were treated in Vietnam, and specifically that of Senator John McCain. Here is the film…
The West Side of Buffalo is speedily being considered for major changes in its landscape which seek to offset a residential tax base community area close to the Peace Bridge and allow its bridge operational expansion. Questions remain over the debate of the effect the 24-7 idling diesel trucks have with their diesel particulate emissions following a trail of southwesterly winds combing an entire west side of Buffalo. A renowned University of Buffalo professor and medical doctor specializing in asthma delivered a report On This Day, October 25, a year ago to the American College of Chest Physicians on the…
Buffalo was on some high-riding times– making tracks….We had just opened the second largest train terminal in North America–the Buffalo Central Terminal . Then, Boom! Crash! The whole world came to a slow stop to enter a Decade of Great Depression. So, how’d we fare that time? Pretty good– because we are resilient and we are Buffalo. It was On This Day on October 24, in 1929, that the New York Stock Exchange came tumbling down. A full-blown financial panic ensued, leading to the Great Depression of the 1930s. For many who saw their fortunes wiped out overnight, including many…
Caleb Basiliko was there, –our Captain Caleb was there, as were other fishermen witnesses, when Captain John Friedhoff did not come up from last Friday’s scuba dive, working on behalf of our waterfront. Captain Caleb, always at and for our waterfront, here recalls: John Freidhoff was a true friend and will be sorely missed. I first met John as a student at Buffalo State. I was working in the boat shop of the maritime center and John, being the ever resourceful guy that he was, knew that would be a good spot to find a student capable of repairing the…
Toronto… and Buffalo… their great future ahead together are the best dreams we can ever foster hopes upon. The Bills are playing a game one date in Toronto this season, and likely many more to come, at least once per year, it’s said. It’s time to get our psyche together, regionally. Toronto is a bit over an hour away, and is on the very short list of top world cities that have it together. It was On This Day, October 22, in 1992 that the Atlanta Braves beat the Toronto (Labatt) Blue Jays, 7-2, in Game 5 of the World…
Captain John Friedhoff was working with his Sea Scouts last Thursday night. On Friday, we lost him to an accident while diving, while at work for us and our waterfront. Captain John J. Friedhoff, age 46, who was the lead boat captain and field station manager for Buffalo State College’s Great Lakes Center for the Environment, died on Friday while scuba diving in Lake Ontario near Brockport. His colleague, Captain Caleb Basiliko, was diving too, and found his friend with his mask off at deep depths of water after a difficult dive. The two men were attempting to retrieve sensitive…
Today we visit the great city of London in the seat of Middlesex County, at the forks of the Thames River. Do you know which London we are referring to? On our journey we’ll revisit an On This Day gold medal awarding winning beer from these parts. London is home to the founding of breweries, tobacco farms, and so much more, and is a mere few hours’ car drive from Buffalo, in Southwestern Ontario, with breezes off the lake—Huron, that is. A day trip there will deliver detail about an area and historically rich community we—Buffalo—ought to visit more often.…
There are three cities in the United States that are often compared in their prowess and cultural mix of preserved ethnic neighborhoods all working together to make a great and powerful city; they are New York, Boston, and Chicago. The Fourth Musketeer to this group, if you will, is Buffalo. Interesting, though, is the number of decades that occurred where Chicago and Buffalo each flanked as bookends on Great Lake Commerce and they both partnered together and competed against each other for the position of pre-eminence. Consider the boasts—true or false—starting with the fact that Chicago, the Windy City, is…