“Go Bills!” said the man in the blue shirt as he blurred past in the opposite direction.
I stopped dead in my tracks. The magnificent visage of the four heroes on Mount Rushmore rose ahead of me. But I looked back. So did the man who said those words. He puffed out his chest and pointed proudly with inverted thumbs to the logo on his tee. It was a Buffalo Bills shirt. I smiled and answered, “Go Bills!” in return.
Throughout my travels west, I wore my Buffalo Bills cap. Not so much to promote the team, but to keep the sun away from my hairless head.
Still, everywhere I went, there came this familiar refrain: “Go Bills!” On trails, in hotel lobbies, while pumping gas—it didn’t matter. The first few caught me off guard. After that, I began returning the favor. Far away from Buffalo, I had discovered a universal language. The phrase resonated with both Bills fans and even supporters of other teams. (Ironically, the favorite team of one was the Kansas City Chiefs!)
My immediate thought was, “Why does this happen?” But my broader reflection asked, “Why Continue Reading “‘Go Bills’—The Universal Language”
A Royal Mess Of Competing Colonial Charters
Or so it would appear.
Greater Western New York had been claimed many times before it was ever governed. European powers declared it theirs, and when Britain removed its rivals, the claims didn’t disappear—they multiplied. Now they came from within, as competing colonial charters layered atop one another. At one point, no fewer than five colonies claimed the region.
Yet, not one ever truly governed it.
Authority did not collapse at the forest’s edge. It contradicted itself at the source.
Long before a single settler felled a tree in Western New York, the kings of England were Continue Reading “A Royal Mess Of Competing Colonial Charters”