Chris Carosa, Author at Chris Carosa

Such is Fame: The Real Enduring Legacy of Niagara Falls

By Chris Carosa on September 6, 2012

In crafting a list of hidden gems of Greater Western New York, it’s apparent one must define what one means by the word “hidden.” Of course, if one of these not-so-hidden gems turns out to have inspired something truly outstanding, well, that would be worth writing about. Before I get to that, though, let me share with you my methodology for compiling this list, but allow me to do this by showing you, not telling you (assuming that’s even possible in the format of the written word).

For example, we have plenty of gems that have received broad national attention. Indeed, several people, events and activities from, in and around the Greater Western New York region have found themselves honored with places in our history books.

What school-aged child doesn’t know the name of Continue Reading “Such is Fame: The Real Enduring Legacy of Niagara Falls”

Posted in Western New York State of Mind Tagged 50 Hidden Gems, Abraham Lincoln, Alex de Tocqueville, American Falls, American Falls Turned Off, Apollo 11, Bethlehem Steel, Buffalo, California Gold Rush, Charlotte, DeWitt Clinton, Erie Canal, Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden, Frederick Douglass, Frederick Law Olmstead, Genesee River, Grand Canyon, High Falls Gorge, Joseph L. Sax, Josiah Dwight Whitney, Lackawanna, Lackawanna Steel Company, Mariposa Grove, Niagara Falls, Pan-American Exposition, Rochester, Rochester Shale, Sam Patch, Seneca Falls, Susan B. Anthony, U.S. Army Core of Engineers, Ulysses S. Grant, underground railroad, War of 1812, West Seneca, Womens' Rights Conference, Yankee Leaper, Yellowstone, Yellowstone Park Act, Yosemite, Yosemite Grant

It’s Not What You Say, It’s How You Say It

By Chris Carosa on August 30, 2012

Winters in New Haven, Connecticut aren’t nearly as severe as those in the Greater Western New York region. I had proudly proclaimed my home town ever since that sun-drenched day in September of 1978 when I first stepped onto campus. As a result, when the winds of winter arrived, as a native of Buffalo, I felt obliged to walk the talk. That meant, on a regular basis, when temperatures “dipped” into the low thirties, I would trudge out of my dorm in nothing but gym shorts and walk to the post office to get my mail. (Before you get too impressed, the post office was located in the basement of my hall. There was no interior access, so I had to walk outside into the raised courtyard, down the steps to ground level, then turn a quick right before descending another set of stairs before, finally, entering the mail center.)

I remember one of those treks quite vividly. There I was, sauntering (after all, walking hastily would make it seem as though I feared the frigid temperature) through the courtyard without a shirt one coolish evening. Establishing a different form of cool, I stopped to talk to some friends. (I remember one saying to the other, “It’s cold, why isn’t he wearing a shirt?” The other responded, “He’s from Buffalo.” The first person said “Oh” with a knowing nod.)Continue Reading “It’s Not What You Say, It’s How You Say It”

Posted in Western New York State of Mind Tagged 50 Hidden Gems, accent, Buffalo, Cleveland, Danny Neaverth, Erie, Inland North, Irv Weinstein, Northern Cities Shift, Pittsburgh, pop, Rick Jeanneret, Rochester, Saturday Night Live, soda, standard American dialect, The New Yorker, Van Miller, Walter Cronkite, William Labov, Yale

A Whole Greater than the Sum of Its Parts

By Chris Carosa on August 23, 2012

Now that we’ve marked the boundaries of Greater Western New York, the fun really begins. First, we can delineate the counties included. Greater Western New York contains 17 counties. These represent all the counties west of or touching the correct Pre-Emption Line. Those counties are:

● Allegany           ● Chautauqua
● Cattaraugus      ● Chemung
● Erie                    ● Genesee
● Livingston        ● Monroe
● Niagara              ● Ontario
● Orleans              ● Seneca
● Schuyler            ● Steuben            ● Wayne               ● Wyoming            ● Yates

We should note that Pre-Emption Line marks the western border of both Seneca County (maybe, depending on who owns Seneca Lake) and Chemung County. The Line slices through the counties of Wayne, Yates and Schuyler. As it stands, the eastern borders of Wayne, Seneca, Schuyler and Chemung form a fairly straight line from Lake Ontario to the Pennsylvania line. OK, maybe it’s not quite straight enough to convince an officer you’re not unduly influenced, but it’s close enough.

What exactly does this constellation of the 17 western-most counties of New York State tell us? I discovered this particular hidden gem while preparing for a January 2004 Continue Reading “A Whole Greater than the Sum of Its Parts”

Posted in Western New York State of Mind Tagged 50 Hidden Gems, Alaska, Allegany County, Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Sabres, Buffalo/Niagara Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, Cattaraugus County, Channel 13, Chautauqua County, Chemung County, Combined Statistical Area, Erie County, Gates-Chili High School, Genesee County, Livingston County, media market, Metropolitan Statistical Area, Micropolitan Statistical Area, Monroe County, Niagara County, North Dakota, Ontario County, Orleans County, population, Pre-Emption Line, PRSA, Research Triangle, Rochester, Rochester Americans, San Diego, Schuyler County, Seneca County, St. Louis, Steuben County, Tampa Bay, test market, Treaty of Hartford, U.S. Census, Vermont, Wayne County, Western New York Investors Conference, Wyoming, Wyoming County, Yates County

We Preempt Westward American Expansion for…

By Chris Carosa on August 16, 2012

A funny thing happened on the way to researching my book 50 Hidden Gems of Greater Western New York. For years I had been trying to explain to people just what exactly I meant by “Greater Western New York.” From a regional mutual fund’s perspective, it was easy. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires all regional funds to specify the municipalities covered by the fund. In the case where a fund’s region encompasses only a portion of a state, the fund’s prospectus must list all the counties included in its unique definition of the region covered. Like I said, from the SEC’s standpoint, defining Greater Western New York was easy.

Beyond that, though, I had to justify why we chose those particular counties. This was especially important because we market the fund only to New York residents, specifically, Western New York residents. And the folks we consider “Western” New York residents don’t necessarily consider themselves “western.” Or, in the case of those in the Buffalo-Niagara metropolitan area, they don’t consider Continue Reading “We Preempt Westward American Expansion for…”

Posted in Western New York State of Mind Tagged 50 Hidden Gems, 82nd milestone, Buffalo, Central New York, Charles I, Charles II, Colonel Hugh Maxwell, Connecticut Colony, Duke of York, Geneva, Greater Western New York, James I, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Monroe County, Niagara Falls, North Virginia, Ontario County, Pennsylvania, Pre-Emption Line, Pre-Emption Road, Pre-Emption Street, Preemption Line, Rochester, Royal Patent, Seneca County, Southern Tier, Treaty of Hartford, Upstate, Warwick Grant, Waterloo, Western New York, William Penn

The Lost Tribe of Western New York

By Chris Carosa on August 7, 2012

By the summer of 1679, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle had approached his wit’s end. His faithful lieutenant, the Neapolitan Henri de Tonti, had already repulsed one attempt by the Seneca to burn La Salle’s soon-to-be sailing ship Le Griffon. A year earlier, in hopes to attain a promise of peace, La Salle had travelled seventy-five miles east to the Seneca village of Ganondagan, located on present-day Boughton Hill, just outside of the Village of Victor, about 20 miles south of Rochester.¹ Peace was promised, but as the attempted arson proved, wasn’t necessarily guaranteed. So, ahead of schedule, on August 7, 1679, La Salle gave the order to weigh anchor and commanded twelve burly sailors to grab tow-lines and walk Le Griffon from the shallow ten-foot waters of Squaw Island, through the rushing rapids of the Niagara River and, with the help of a much hoped for northeast breeze, into the calm waters of what his native tongue called Lac du Chat (Lake Erie).² Embarking on La Salle’s mission in search of the Northwest Passage, Le Griffon thus became the first large ship to grace the waters of the Great Lakes above the Niagara Falls.

But it also left several intriguing questions: How did the Lake he sailed into get its name? More interestingly, why did he need to travel to the east side of the Genesee River nearly to the other end of Western New York to speak to the Indians? Indeed, what had happened to the native (at least relative to the Europeans) Western New Yorkers?Continue Reading “The Lost Tribe of Western New York”

Posted in Western New York State of Mind Tagged 50 Hidden Gems, Alqononquin, Annencraos, Boughton Hill, Buffalo, Buffalo Creek, Canandaiqua, Cat Nation, Champlain, Erie, Erie County, Etienne Brule, Ganondagan, Genesee River, Henri de Tonti, Honeoye, Huron Neutral Tribe, Jesuit Relation, La Salle, Lac De Chat, Le Griffon, Niagara Falls, Ontario County, Richmond, Rochester, Seneca, Sonontouan, Squaw Island, Susquenhannock, Victor

The Real Birth of Greater Western New York

By Chris Carosa on July 19, 2012

“It’s a Sicilian message. It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes.” – Clemenza, The Godfather

Our story starts approximately 400 million years ago. Back then, Western New York wasn’t really western, it was more northern. And by northern I mean north – as opposed to west – of the east coast, which itself might have been more appropriately called the south coast. Oh, and another thing. We weren’t hanging at a cool 42º North latitude. We were closer to the equator. In fact, we were just south of the equator.¹To prevent further directional confusion, I will Continue Reading “The Real Birth of Greater Western New York”

Posted in Western New York State of Mind Tagged 50 Hidden Gems, Acadian orogeny, Avalonia, Baltica, Catskill Delta, Devonian, Iapetus Ocean, Laurentia, limestone, Mesozoic, natural gas, oil, Paleozoic, Pangea, salt, The Age of the Fishes, Western New York

The Night They Burned Old Buffalo Down

By Chris Carosa on July 12, 2012

John Candy died of a heart attack in his sleep on March 4, 1994 while on location shooting scenes for what was to be his final film Wagons East!. Carolco Pictures released the 107 minute movie later that year. It flopped. Oddly enough, it wasn’t the last John Candy picture released. More than a year later, Canadian Bacon, featuring a cavalcade of Canadian-born actors, hit the screens. It quickly left those same screens, the farce of a Canadian invasion of Western New York too outlandish for cinema goers to believe.

Of course, in real life, America did fall victim to a Canadian invasion from across the Continue Reading “The Night They Burned Old Buffalo Down”

Posted in Western New York State of Mind Tagged 50 Hidden Gems, Batavia, Battle of Lake Erie, Blackrock, Buffalo, Canadian Bacon, Fort Erie, Holland Land Company, John Candy, Joseph Ellicott, Mrs. Lovejoy, Mrs. St. John, New Amsterdam, Niagara Falls, Paul Busti, Peter B. Porter, Reece's Blacksmith Shop, resiliency, resilient, Squaw Island, Timothy Dwight, Wagons East, War of 1812

Ruling the World My Way

By Chris Carosa on June 13, 2012

As I write this, alone, past midnight on June 12/13, 2012, I listen to an endless replay of Coldplay’s Viva La Vida, a tear welling in my eye, as I see my life passing before me.

For a long time, the song that most defined me was Sinatra’s My Way. Not Paul Anka’s My Way, but Frank Sinatra’s. I know it’s a cliché, and I’ve asked my family never to play that song as an homage to life at my wake. I’ve asked that primarily because it’s a cliché, not because it’s not appropriate, or, at least, wasn’t appropriate.

There was something about Sinatra’s defiance that makes his interpretation of Anka’s lyrics so alluring. Even as a high school teenager, I found myself attracted to the song and, in particular, Sinatra’s stiff chinned version. Sure, I liked the eternal optimism of The Impossible Dream, but that tune, without a definitive version, had only the poetry of its Continue Reading “Ruling the World My Way”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings, Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Frank Sinatra, My Way, Paul Anka, The Impossible Dream, Viva La Vida

The Solver – Rich: The Final Piece of the Puzzle

By Chris Carosa on June 7, 2012

[Previously: Roommates for Sale – Frank: The Designated Driver]

After Spike (a.k.a. “Pierce”) left The Roommates (yes, there was a fifth Roommate) in 1979 to join the Marines, a rather expansive punk group which qualifies for government assistance, the boys needed a drummer. Most critics would have agreed that, even with Spike, The Roommates needed a drummer. Spike brief time with the three originals did leave three permanent marks. First, it was Spike’s hidden love for martial music that set the early war-like tone of the proto-group. Second, he inspired Ted to write his first hit, the now famous folksy rag “Blond-Haired Boy from Brooklyn.” Finally, Spike gave the other members something they would need to catapult them to instant fame: Continue Reading “The Solver – Rich: The Final Piece of the Puzzle”

Posted in Slush Pile Tagged Davenport, fiction, Growing Up, The Roommates, Yale

Roommates for Sale – Frank: The Designated Driver

By Chris Carosa on May 31, 2012

[Previously: Rubber Puck – Ted: Proudly Not Silent, but Just as Deadly]

Frank started his professional life as a mediocre radio personality, constantly getting fired by general manager after general manager. Fortunately, it was steady work as the only people fired more often than Frank were his (ex) general managers. Scot and Ted found Frank sleeping on a park bench late one night and invited him in for a beer. He proceeded to drain their reserve of two half kegs. It was the first time he had had beer. The two immediately noticed Frank’s strange reaction to beer, and, as they soon discovered,Continue Reading “Roommates for Sale – Frank: The Designated Driver”