BROOKLYN -- I can neither confirm nor deny recent broadcast reports that I have ever worked as an exotic dancer.
In an apparent effort to batter the editorial credibility of the Niagara Falls Reporter, a caller to Sal Paonessa's "Niagara at Nine" radio show on WJJL last week claimed to have heard that I once made a living as a male stripper.
Clearly, this person has never seen me, or they'd know they had heard incorrectly.
I laughed when Editor in Chief Mike Hudson told me about the call, which he said came amid a series of calls about the newspaper and the dark secrets carefully withheld from the public by staff members. Did you know, for instance, that Mike once sang with a band (gasp) that performed some manner of rock and/or roll?
"That's the coolest rumor I've ever heard about me," I told him. "Tell Sal I'd be glad to perform on his show if he plays the right music."
While pondering just what the appropriate accompaniment to such a spectacle might be -- "Tequila," "Strangers in the Night" and the Roto-Rooter jingle are the early front-runners -- I shared the rumor with my wife, expecting to elicit a scornful laugh. Instead, she scowled, apparently more disturbed than amused by the concept. In the interest of full disclosure, I stand 6-foot-3 and weigh about 230 pounds, roughly the same dimensions as Buffalo Bills running back Willis McGahee. Let's just say it's distributed differently.
For some reason, no one has ever been willing to pay to see me without clothes. Not that I've ever offered (Honest to God, Mom).
It seems that in the eyes of the caller, as well as others decrying Mike's musical background, attributing supposedly unsavory experiences to us somehow means that Mayor Vincenzo V. Anello didn't take $40,000 in payments from businessman Joe Anderson during the second half of 2003, didn't give Anderson a sweetheart deal to vending rights on the mall adjacent to the Wintergarden immediately upon taking office, and isn't now under investigation by the feds.
Unfortunately, at least for the mayor, that's all true. And what I, Mike or anyone else did or didn't do in the recent or distant past won't change that.
If anyone knows how the rumor started, please drop me a line at dstaba13@aol.com or call the Reporter's office at (716) 284-5595. I'd love to hear it.
In the meantime, I'll be busy keeping it on.
On a decidedly less salacious note, it looks like Anello's administration has, at long last, given up its losing battle to avoid paying the money owed to the libraries of Niagara Falls.
Library board attorney Ned Perlman and Assistant Corporation Counsel Tom O'Donnell appeared before state Supreme Court Justice Vincent Doyle on Friday. O'Donnell told the judge the city intended to obey the judge's order from October to cough up the dough promised in the 2005 budget, instead of continuing with a pointless appeal that could well drag into 2006.
Earlier in the week, the state Appellate Court had approved Perlman's motion to expedite the appeal process, and City Hall officials apparently decided to give up what was clearly a losing battle. O'Donnell said the city will pay bills as the library submits them. Perlman said, despite a cut of roughly 5 percent in the city's proposed 2006 budget, money left over from this year, due to the legal battle, would keep funding at roughly the same level.
Perlman and O'Donnell are scheduled to meet this week to work out final details, including payment of the former's legal fees.
Ran into Rep. Louise Slaughter at Spot Coffee in downtown Buffalo last week, where the veteran Democratic congresswoman was enjoying a latte with her husband.
After thanking her for including a Reporter editorial in her letter to the White House regarding the admission of a male escort to the White House press corps by President George W. Bush's administration, I asked her if she'd finalized her plans for the 2006 campaign.
Various local politicos from both parties have been positioning themselves to run for the seat representing the district that runs from Rochester to Buffalo by way of Niagara Falls if or when Slaughter decides to retire. Prospective candidates shouldn't plan on launching their campaigns any time soon.
"Oh, I'm running," she said without hesitation. "I've still got a lot of work to do."
Niagara County Republican Chairman Henry Wojtaszek challenged Slaughter in 2002, the first election following the redistricting that shifted her previously Rochester-area district to include Niagara Falls and Buffalo. In 2004, she faced opposition that could generously be called token and will likely get the same next year.
In case anyone wondered about the Brooklyn dateline on this edition of Citycide, business took me to New York City for a few days. Thanks to the wonders of technology, I'm writing this from the famous Brooklyn Brewery, following lunch at the even better-known Peter Luger's Steakhouse, where I had perhaps the best cheeseburger ever placed on a bun, with the thickest bacon I've ever seen. The smoked porter is pretty good, too.
Time to rejoin the conversation. Erica, Peter, Colin, Kim (a visitor from Denmark), Brendan and Juan say hello.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Dec. 13 2005 |