Doubting Thomas Blog

Archive for the ‘Buffalo Links’ Category

David Monroe moved to Buffalo and found he missed rockwiki – the people’s guide to Rochester, NY – and decided the way to stop missing it was to create a similar resource for his new home town. He invited me and a few other people to help get it started, and you know how I feel about building new web sites to connect people!

In fact, I’ve been mulling over the idea of a wiki about Buffalo for a while now, but recently, when folks from out of town were going to visit me, they asked me for a list of things to do while in Buffalo, and my Google search didn’t find any one web site that was dedicated to an encyclopedic description of our fair city. So I was ready to help, and that day I set up the framework of a wiki site so that we can start filling in the blanks.

On his blog, David wrote:

To that end, I’ve started a Google Group http://groups.google.com/group/buffalo-wiki?hl=en that is made up of Buffalonians, and computer savvy folks from outside of Buffalo to create a wiki just like the one I know and love. So far, we have some excitement and interest. If you want to lend a hand, join the group and give your opinion.

What do you say, are you the wiki type? Want to start writing wiki entries about the Buffalo topics you love?

Well, what is a wiki type, anyway? To write entries for a wiki, you just need to know about your topic, you don’t have to be a computer nerd. You just log in, do your best writing, and then wait for someone else to come along and try to prove that they know even more about the topic than you do.

Just be sure to proofread your work carefully, because otherwise, you’ll be one of the writers we post about on ShamefulTypos.com.

(oops, my finger got in front of the camera lens)

Lexington Co-Op has all kinds of good chocolate, including the organically grown Equal Exchange brand. I picked up two bars, one labelled “VERY DARK” and one dark with almonds. It is really good chocolate. The very dark chocolate is 71% cacao content. Mmmmmmmmm

I had a great lunch at Lexington Co-Op, too. I put a few scoops of assorted vegetarian, vegan, and meat-based dishes from their hot bar into a cardboard take-out container, grabbed a bottle of unsweetened green tea (its cap is in the photo too) from Honest Tea ( . . . ” such a lonely word . . . ” ), and then grabbed a piece of cake from the cooler, too. I know it sounds like a lot of food. But I like to eat.

But it was also a great lunch because I was with friends. I hadn’t seen R.T. in a while, and he was in town for a short visit, so it was a little reunion with P.D., R.B., and me.

Something about eating vegan, organic, and socially conscious foods at an open-air patio table on Elmwood made me feel conspicuously urban, though.

I haven’t worn a suit to work since… I really can’t tell you what year it was. I had a job in the early 2000’s where I wore a suit most of the time, so instead of wearing the same one every day, I purchased a few of them and rotated them throughout the week. (I usually wear a short-sleeved shirt or a dress shirt without a tie these days.) Other than weddings and funerals, I don’t have many suit occasions.

I’m really not a fan of dry cleaning. Mostly I keep my suits clean by not getting them dirty in the first place, but every now and then they just have to be cleaned, otherwise the fabric will wear out.

I have to check if all of my suits still fit me (not that I’ve gained weight or anything… ha ha), but now I know where to take them to get cleaned. There’s a place on Elmwood Avenue that doesn’t use the traditional dry-cleaning chemicals. They use water–so technically it isn’t “dry” cleaning at all, but the owner told me that he washes REAL FUR in his store, with water and the special soap-stuff they use, and the fur wasn’t harmed a bit. In fact, he says the chemicals that traditional dry cleaners use can leave a residue on your clothes that attracts oils and can damage your clothing. “Wet cleaning” leaves your clothes clean, so no oil builds up, which means they stay cleaner longer and don’t wear out as fast.

Isn’t that where you’d like to take your dry cleaning from now on? Check them out: Eco Friendly Custom Cleaners is located at 152 Elmwood Avenue. Oh, and one more thing–the chemical most dry cleaners use? It has been banned in the USA, because it is bad stuff. Think about it.

Hey, next time you see an advertisement for an event at the Central Terminal, go. It’s a really cool place.