We had won tickets to the Sabres game Saturday night, in the company suite, but could not find one babysitter! Extremely bummed about not being able to go, especially since we won a very exciting 4-3 game against Pittsburgh. Read about it here – and check out the new hi-def scoreboard that debuted Saturday night (left).

Instead of watching the game in-person like I wanted, I found this, which was kind of funny. The Washington Post’s Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are my 10 faves:

1. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

2. Bozone: The substance surrounding stupid people, that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The Bozone
layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

3. Cashtration: The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.

4. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

5. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.

6. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.

7. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease.

8. Glibido: All talk and no action.

9. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

10. Arachnoleptic Fit: The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.

–Brian

Musicians As Artists

I always loved this cartoon (and the CBS Saturday morning show that was based on it). 23 years ago today was the first time Mother Goose & Grimm appeared in newspapers.

Check out the official website for an archive of cartoons and other fun stuff.

In all my days following the BILLS (even back to the 60’s) have I ever seen a team
devastated by injuries…that could have used ALL their healthy players this year to
be competitive! J.P. and Paul Posluszny’s injuries, probably THE MOST hurtful (no pun intended), to the TEAM so far! I don’t even want to be a Monday Morning Quarterback…just hoping the Team can keep it close in games the rest of the season. I did LOVE Trent Edwards’
first scoring drive as a PRO on Sunday (a thing of beauty)…GO BILLS!

Sometimes I don’t understand my wife. Heather looked at me this evening before falling asleep and said “I feel like we didn’t get anything accomplished this weekend.” What do you think?

• We met in Niagara-On-The-Lake Friday night, where I was doing a broadcast from the Niagara Wine Festival. After checking into a swanky hotel, we had a fabulous 2-hour dinner and dessert experience.
• Saturday midday we visited two Ontario wineries before having lunch.
• Saturday night we watched “A Night At The Museum” with the kids at home.
• This morning (Sunday) we drove to Orleans county and bought a bushel of apples. The kids played at a playground in the sun, before we headed home. Then we planted two mum bushes and finally put up a shelf in the garage that I’d been putting off.
• After dinner we had our traditional yearly “apple blind taste test,” where we tried fresh-from-the-orchard New York empire, gala, 20 ounce, cortland, and macintosh varieties to see which ones we liked best. I picked empire, Heather liked the cortland. Another split decision…

All things considered, I’d say we accomplished a lot this weekend!

–Brian

P.S. Side note: I made the Lockport Union Journal (thanks, Bill!)

So after a rough night at work where the computers died, knocking all our stations either off-air or into manual mode, I come home and learn about this bad news.

Cedar Fair (the company that owns Cedar Point, King’s Island, Canada’s Wonderland, and many other parks) has decided to close Geauga Lake’s amusement park (just three hours west of Buffalo) and change it over to waterpark only. You can read the announcement about the closing here.

Want to go visit Geauga Lake one last time before its rides are either demolished or moved? Nope, you can’t – Cedar Fair didn’t want to give anyone that opportunity. The park is already closed for the season and the rides portion will no longer exist starting next year.

Cedar Fair can’t be blamed completely though – Six Flags owned the park up until recently and ran the park into the ground. When Cedar Fair bought it, it was a serious uphill battle to get the park back to being worth visiting. And with Cedar Fair already owning the other two major Ohio amusement parks, I guess it wasn’t worth the trouble.

This is what could have happened to Darien Lake had it not been purchased by PARC, a company that actually cares about our park. All the more reason to definitely visit Darien Lake weekends through October 7th and support this new company.

Darien Lake has FREE admission during its Fall Family Fun Fest. It’ll be pay-per-ride or you can buy a wristband for $15 to ride everything. There’s a haunted house, corn maze, lots of family entertainment, and Deep Fried Twinkies!

As for Geauga Lake, I’m sure the spin rides will find homes at other Cedar Fair parks. But I’m wondering if they’re going to attempt to move “Villain”, an excellent wooden roller coaster. Same goes for “Big Dipper”, a classic (and still good) wooden coaster from 1925.

I have a lot of great memories of visiting Geauga Lake. The ultimate being the time me and a bunch of friends roadtripped out to the park and met up with my brother for a freezing cold, rainy October night riding all the rides and drinking lots of hot chocolate. Even with the miserable weather that night, we all still had an awesome time and stayed right until the park closed.

Visit this website to see Geauga Lake as it was.

Ever wonder what preparation goes on behind the cameras for a reality show?

Survivor’s Jeff Probst shows you in a series of behind the scenes videos. Check them out at the CBS website.

As for the current season – after just one episode, I’ve already picked out who I’m rooting for to win and the ones I hope don’t last long.

So far, I’m rooting for James (the gravedigger guy) and Amanda (the hiking guide). Amanda wasn’t shown much yet, but some early comments by her already prove that she totally understands the game.

The most annoying to me was definitely the NYC waitress (just an unpleasant person), the whiny woman wrestler, the full-of-himself poker player, and Sherea (who seemed to be stunned that Survivor was taking place outdoors).

A lot of them weren’t shown much, so I’m sure the list will change next week. Plus, most of their names don’t sink in until a few episodes in.

It does look like a fun season though. See it online or Thursday nights on CBS.

Julie Chen is “The Chenbot” – see the Chenbot clip here. And check out the Chenbot fan page while you’re at it (proof there really is a website for everything).

This is a true story!

Thursday - Record company calls wanting to know if recording artist Vanessa Carlton can come to Buffalo and perform songs from her new album. Unfortunately, the date conflicts with Curtain Up 2007, a downtown celebration of the Buffalo Theatre District. Offer is declined.

The only bright spots in the BILLS loss to the Steelers was Bobby April’s SPECIAL TEAMS
(he has the one CONSTANT good thing about the team) and that both MIAMI and THE JETS
lost too! JP didn’t admit he played poorly (but he could have and SHOULD have) and can you
even have a ray of hope about this Sunday’s game in New England…but, as always, we still say…GO BILLS (and we ARE looking forward to THE ICE BOWL on January 1st at The RALPH with the SABRES and PENGUINS)!

I used to watch game shows all the time – Press Your Luck, Tic Tac Dough, Pitfall, Scrabble, The Joker’s Wild, Monopoly, and Classic Concentration were favorites of mine.

Now, it seems the classic type game show is all but gone except for the tired Wheel Of Fortune, Jeopardy, and Family Feud. But two new shows debuted this week and will hopefully revive the genre.

Temptation is a new version of Sale Of The Century. It airs weekdays at 12:30pm on CW-23 (cable channel 16 in Buffalo). It’s like a cross between a game show and the home shopping channel (there’s quite a few home shopping deals featured in the show).

If you liked Sale Of The Century, you’ll probably like this. I didn’t, so I wasn’t too thrilled with this show. There just seemed to be more prize descriptions than actual gameplay.

Crosswords is a new Merv Griffin created game show. It airs weekdays at 2:00pm on WGRZ (channel 2 in Buffalo).

I love this show. The set is very cool and there’s a lot of strategy involved in the game. So while I’m not good at crossword puzzles, that didn’t matter. The “spoiler” rounds, where other contestants can take the place of a current contestant, makes for a great addition to an already good show. And those rounds more than make up for the hard-to-see bonus round, the only negative I have about the show.

While it’s not an instant classic like the old 80’s game shows, it’s a fast-paced, fun half-hour. Definitely check this one out!

10 years ago Rocky bounded home with us, nothing but white fluff, energy, and fun. Seeing him sacked out on the couch most days, I find it difficult to believe he’s the same puppy that routinely leaped to the top of our refrigerator door to retrieve a squeaky toy I stashed there as a challenge. Nothing could stand between Rocky and his quarry back in the 90s.

Now with both eyes gone, he still paces excitedly when he hears something, anything that might indicate someone’s going outside. I don’t even need to say the word outside anymore – he’s keen to subtle nuances in my voice and stands ready at the door, heeding the call of wide open spaces.

I don’t necessarily miss his nervous pacing around the room, or his running from one side of the house to the other at top speed – a Jack Russell trademark – but it’s a little sad to see him constantly lying on the couch. So I have resolved to run him around more than I have, and maybe even take him to work with me now and then. The old guy deserves more than being the canine equivalent of a human couch potato.

Maybe we’ll both see you soon!

–Brian

I hope this won’t be a TYPICAL LOSS for THE BILLS (15-14 in the home opener against the
Broncos). True BILLS Fans could almost see the ending coming, but with NO TIME on the
clock and the DENVER kicker Jason Elam already MISSING 2 FG attempts it was particularly
HEARTBREAKING! Do you think The PITTSBURGH STEELERS (who had a BIG WIN at
CLEVELAND on Sunday) will be ready for the BILLS in their HOME OPENER on SUNDAY?

GO BILLS!