Author: Lorne Opler

Toronto born and raised, but with my roots solidly planted in Western New York, I have been visiting Buffalo and enamored with Buffalo ever since I was a kid. I love writing for BRO but equally enjoy writing about Buffalo for Southern Ontario audiences to introduce them to all the great things happening in the renaissance city. When I'm not writing, I'm teaching fitness and health promotion at a community college in Toronto and running my own personal training business. Visit my website at www.lorneopler.com

The Civil War was one bloody mess, and Buffalo gave it its all. Some of our neighbors still remember meeting area recruits from that war. Doing the math, figure that a 20 year old soldier in 1862 was 90 in 1932. Imagine—many still living (albeit older) Buffalo folks can remember seeing the proud old Civil War fellows walk in parades on our streets back then. Buffalo’s General Gustavus A. Scroggs is the man who organized Erie County for the Civil War. He was a Buffalo lawyer, our County’s Sheriff (from 1859 to 1861) and a Brigadier General, to boot. Scroggs…

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On This Day, September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and started World War II. It’s time to get the story of what happened straight and on truth’s side. Poland fought hard, proud, and amazingly well, and gave Hitler a damaging limp in his armed inventory advance. Buffalo Poles remember. The events that unfolded and the decades of reflection are commemorated by Poles everywhere by a beautiful and symbolic 9′ x 7′ monument of jet black granite, erected in 2003, located in Buffalo’s Military and Naval Park on the Buffalo Waterfront. This grand monument honors Poland’s heroic struggle and the collective…

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Buffalo– did you know—The most important discovery of chemical science in the 20th Century was about to be examined. The date: September 1, 1931. The place selected: Buffalo, New York. The star of the five day summit: Professor Linus Pauling. The name of the summit: Double Bond. Who was watching: the world. Linus Pauling is the only person in history to win two unshared Nobel Prizes. The first of these was the 1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. This was a central achievement in the history of science — an achievement that also ensured Linus Pauling’s reputation as the most influential…

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This article series often talks about how fast the world is moving, and alludes to significant history stories about how enriched the timing of things once was. A favorite of mine is the tale of Millard Fillmore having to horse and buggy into Buffalo from East Aurora, for law lessons and all, but sans a cell phone or email…and he indefatigably became a very significant President of these United States. How fast indeed have things become. Do we own our cell phones, or do they own us? At Seven Seas Sailing Center we always tell our students who ask what…

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Joseph Ellicott was an amazing man. He was also a schizophrenic suffering man. But he was a genius. And a tireless one– who at his death in an insane asylum by his own hanging was worth over $600,000. Imagine the billions that is worth today. And Joseph Ellicott was undeniably The Founder of our Western New York. On this day, August 28, 1797, Joseph Ellicott, was formally invited to negotiations with the Senecas and the United States government because he knew the territory from traveling through it on his way to Upper Canada eight years earlier, and he had a…

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Niagara Falls is where Wild Bill Hickok dared to be an actor, a showman, and realized it was not for him. But he tried…and was trying on his financiers as well. Wild Bill Hickok met Henry M. Stanley in 1867 who asked: “I say, Bill, or Mr. Hickok, how many white men have you killed, to your certain knowledge?” Hickok replied: “I would be willing to take my oath on the Bible that I have killed over a hundred.” And that was likely true. It was On This Day, August 28, 1872 that James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok left the…

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The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco prominently places on their website a tribute obituary by the San Francisco News for William G. Fargo, a man loved in the west most certainly in San Francisco, and who was equally loved in the east, particularly in Buffalo, where he lived, served as mayor, and also where he died. On This Day, August 27, the San Francisco News ran the following story about Fargo, who was their favorite son too: “The death of any truly good man is a blow to the community to which he belongs, and very often…

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What a beautiful airport Toronto has. Buffalo’s airport is great, too, but Toronto’s? Well, their airport is also a City unto itself. I spent all day yesterday waiting at the Toronto International Airport for a friend coming in from Europe. The unexpected re-routed and delayed flights meant sitting and pacing for about five hours, and the past time (not remembering to bring my reading glasses) meant watching the people arrive. That was a surpirising delight because there’s a certain glee around poeple, a goose-bumps aura about some folks when greeting their loved ones from a long flight. It’s a joy…

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Ever hear of the World of Wings? It’s a group, vibrant, and alive, going back over a century in records, spanning the globe, and all deriving from Buffalo. The World of Wings deriving from Buffalo? Yes. Over a century? Yes. Chicken Wings? No. —Pigeons. Racing Pigeons. In 1973, the American Homing Pidgeons Institute, newly formed, received the library and breeding records of Edwin Lang Miller, a Buffalo long distance pigeon racing enthusiast. Edwin Lang Miller was born in Buffalo, NY On This Day August 25, 1887. He was one of Buffalo’s leading financiers and industrialists and also prominent in local…

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Buffalo’s enjoying the best summer of the entire country…but it’s so hot and muggy today; and therefore high time for a good old Buffalo Family whining session…let’s rouse a few complaints about things, together… So for starters, * We’d all certainly be better off if New York State business taxes were lower. * We’d really all be better off if someone listened to Kevin Gaughan’s report and trimmed County-City-and-Township governments. * We’d all be better off if the Peace Bridge Authority stopped spewing poisonous diesel particulates into West Siders’ lungs from four miles of 24-7 idling trucks. Still, many say:…

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