First off, I'd like to send a big shout out to Lee Simonson and all the good folks at the Lewiston Historical Society for the hospitality they showed me last week when I went down there to talk about Stefano Magaddino and the mob.
I know it's not much in the way of an excuse, but I write a lot better than I talk, especially in front of an audience. After several false starts, I threw the thing open to questions from the floor, and the 100 or so history buffs in attendance had plenty.
A number of those in the audience also told anecdotes about meeting Don Stefano, or related family stories passed down through the generations. It's a funny thing, but I hear these stories -- as interesting as any I gathered for the book -- everywhere I go since the book came out, and it's even gotten me to think about a possible sequel.
It was the first time I'd been into the fabulous Barton Hill hotel overlooking the river there, and the place is truly spectacular. Lots of oak paneling, brass and smoky glass that some hoteliers here in the Falls would do well to check out.
So thank you all. I had a great time and very much appreciate the fact that you braved another cold February night.
Look for Niagara Tourism & Convention Corp. CEO John Percy to announce another trip, first class all the way, to sunny India, where he went last year at great expense to the taxpayers of Niagara Falls.
Accompanied by a large entourage of hangers-on, Percy presumably rode on the backs of elephants, visited the Taj Mahal and generally lived it up in a style not much seen since Gandhi drove the Brits out some years back.
"We were treated like royalty," he boasted to reporters on his return.
Don't look for an accounting of how much the lavish expedition will cost, however. Despite the fact that he manages to shake down local hoteliers, the city and the county to the tune of $3 million a year, Percy doesn't have to account for how he spends a dime of it, since his is a private not-for-profit agency.
Or so he tells us.
Several people have asked me over the past couple weeks why we didn't give the trademark Niagara Falls Reporter welcome to Peter Mio, the Niagara Gazette's seventh publisher in the past 10 years.
Frankly, the last three Gazette publishers haven't managed to stay as long as one year, and wasting a whole column on the latest victim sent in by Alabama's Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. seemed like kind of a waste.
There was Carl Helbig, who lasted just 10 months after fleeing the Rochester area following an arrest on criminal harassment charges; Mike Kellogg, the Oklahoma cowboy who was back home on the range after less than a month here; and Steve Hall, about whom the less said the better.
So what can one say about Peter Mio?
Like Daniel Boone, Mio traveled far and wide from Kentucky, after running a small daily near the picturesque hamlet of Horse Cave. No, I'm not making this up. His cunning and skill as a newspaperman landed him a coveted job at the Tonawanda News, where he may or may not have done much of anything.
"Promuovalo e rimuovalo!" they say in sunny Rome. "Promote him and remove him!" in English.
Unfortunately for Mio, somehow the rubes down in Alabama seemed to have adopted this old Italian saying when it comes to running the sad Niagara Gazette.
And don't be surprised to see ubiquitous cable talk show host, former city councilwoman and mayoral candidate Candra Thomason step back into the Falls political arena sometime early this summer.
Thomason -- whose views on how government would be run under Paul Dyster during last November's mayoral contest have proven remarkably prescient in the 14 months since he's taken office -- seems likely to mount a serious challenge to incumbent Council Chairman Chris Robins and Councilman Sam Fruscione this autumn.
Robins in particular has done little during his time in office save for the dragging out of council meetings with endless and generally pointless questions that seem to have no other purpose than giving him a chance to hear his own voice.
He has acted primarily as a cheerleader for whomever is currently sitting in the mayor's office, toadying up with equal enthusiasm to the disgraced and indicted Vince Anello and the as yet undistinguished Dyster.
Thomason, who has been running the city Republican Committee since the Jan. 12 death of former chairman Frank Pannozzo, has something of a maverick reputation and is known as a woman who thinks for herself.
Finally, one local street cop cracked me up this week when he told me how difficult it was getting to pull someone over on suspicion of drunk driving.
I asked him why, thinking there might have been some change in the law I'd missed, and he was quick to explain.
"The streets being as bad as they are, everyone's weaving all over the road and crossing the center line trying to miss the potholes," he said. "I can't tell whether they're drunk or just being careful."
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | March 3 2009 |