Ask Me Anything 2009

Continuing with my answers to questions asked in Ask Me Anything! 2009, I have a set of queries posed by Dave in Rocha, one of the occasional posters at BfloBlog.com, Buffalo’s premier sports blog. Do you buy into the concept of Tor-Buf-Chester? Do you think it can ever be a viable, marketable entity due to the fact that it crosses an international border? Are there other cross-border metro regions like this? A bit of explanation: there’s a pundit out there named Richard Florida who has posited a notion that economic activity in the next, oh, hundred years or so andDown the rabbit hole….

More answers to questions asked as part of Ask Me Anything! 2009. Roger‘s other queries are below: What would fix the image of Buffalo? Seeing as how national media and national discourse is so driven by narrative, and seeing as how Buffalo’s place in the national narrative is that of the perennial sad sack, I think that the only thing that’s really going to ever “fix” the image of this city is a major economic turnaround here. And when I say “major”, I don’t just mean “stopping the bleeding” or even “establishing consistent growth and an end to population decline”.Down the rabbit hole….

Finally getting back to the questions of Ask Me Anything! 2009, here are a few answers. First up, reader and frequent commenter (especially when I give voice to my Inner Liberal!) DaveS asks: As a movie guy Did you Like Siskel & Ebert? Which one did you prefer? I loved Siskel and Ebert. Loved ’em. During the 90s, they were usually on where we lived on Sundays at 10:00 or maybe it was 11:00; I watched faithfully. Their main corporate sponsor at the time was, appropriately enough, Orville Reddenbacher Popcorn. As entertaining as it was to listen to them disagree,Down the rabbit hole….

More Ask Me Anything! 2009 answers ahead! Beware! A reader dropped into my December 2008 post on working at Pizza Hut, and asks why the one that closed in Olean, the one near Wal-Mart, stopped its delivery business in the mid-90s. He wonders if this was because of prank orders placed by students at nearby St. Bonaventure University, but my recollection is that there weren’t too many prank orders. In fact, we didn’t get pranked too much at either location. There was one kid who would, for a while, faithfully call the other Pizza Hut in Olean, the one whereDown the rabbit hole….

It’s time to start answering the questions from this year’s iteration of Ask Me Anything! So here we go. (I’m not answering these in the order they were posed, by the way.) First, Neddie Jingo throws this at me: “‘Who is Spain?’ ‘Why is Hitler?’ ‘Hi-ho beri-beri!’ and ‘Balls!’ rang out in quick succession.” Ummm…moving on, then. I had to Google this, and it turns out to come from Joseph Heller’s Catch 22, which I have not read. Now I obviously have to read it. Curse you, Neddie Jingo! Stumped on my very first query. Next up, Roger (who is,Down the rabbit hole….

I know, I’ve made the “final” extension announcement several times already, but I figure, what’s one more? What I’ll do is run it right up to the end of this month, and then start answering the questions next month, which starts on Saturday. Or Sunday. Whatever. One of those is the first, so next week, I’ll start answering. So, go ahead, folks, Ask Me Anything! Just put queries in comments to this post. (This is just so they’re all in one place. Easier for me to keep track that way; two years ago I had Ask Me Anything! queries allDown the rabbit hole….

I know, I said that last week sometime was to be the final call, but I figured I’d extend things one more time. So anyone wishing to toss a question or a suggestion for a posting topic, toss it in comments here. For lurkers, anonymous queries are fine, as long as they’re not too invasive or require me to go beyond this blog’s PG-13 rating. This is basically your opportunity to make me write about something, so go ahead! Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….

It’s February, the shortest month, otherwise known as Anniversary Month here at Byzantium’s Shores. And that means, among other things, the annual playing of the game Ask Me Anything!, in which you, the readers, get to, well, Ask Me Anything!. That’s right, any question is fair game, and no question will go unanswered. Now, not all answers may be serious, but most will. Ask me something serious. Ask me something silly. Dare me to be different! Dare me to be unique! I’m going to keep the Questioning period open until the 14th, so as to give myself enough time toDown the rabbit hole….