COMMENTARY: Ten Things you didn't know about Buffalo

 Many readers have condemned the following article, and for good reason: It
takes cheap shots at the city and people of Buffalo, NY. Regardless of its
intent, the article was in poor taste and came across as more mean-spirited
than humorous. I apologize to readers, regardless of whether they took
offense.
 
Tom Warhover  
Executive editor

 

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Known as one of America’s most depressing cities, Buffalo isn’t completely worthless. The city on the unattractive shore of Lake Erie did give us Buffalo wings. And windshield wipers. And Millard Fillmore, our 13th president. He succeeded Zachary Taylor, who died from a stomach and intestine inflammation possibly caused by his consumption of cherries. Come the next election, Fillmore couldn’t even win his own party’s nomination.

Depressed yet?

Here are 10 things you didn't know about Buffalo. And remember, everything's going to be all right.

10. According to one unconvincing account, the origin of the name “Buffalo” is a distortion of the French phrase "beau fleuve," meaning beautiful river. It’s said that French explorers shouted these words when they first saw the Niagara River.

That’s an image.

Picture a handful of Frenchmen skipping toward the majestic river shore, throwing their arms up in the air and yelling “beau fleuve!” Buffalo!

9. There are no buffaloes in Buffalo. Only in Africa and Asia.

“Buffalo Bill” Cody wasn’t a buffalo-hunter. He was a bison-hunter.

But there aren’t any bison in Buffalo, either.

The Buffalo Bills football team still has the nerve to put an outline of a buffalo on its helmet. And what looks like more of a bison – distinguished by a large hump – on its throwback helmet.

They’re confused too.

8. Buffalo is home of the windshield wiper. The idea was born on a rainy night in 1917, when a bicyclist collided with a National Roadster car driven by Buffalo Theatre owner J.R. Oishei. Oishei was so shaken by the accident he formed the Tri-Continental Corporation, which created the first windshield wiper. Trico, now one of the world’s leading windshield wiper manufacturers, has since moved to Michigan. But its original plant in Buffalo is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Buffalonians must be so proud.

7. Buffalo is more proudly home of the Buffalo wing. But Buffalo residents, strangely, call them chicken wings, not Buffalo wings.

The wings debuted in 1964 at the Anchor Bar in downtown Buffalo. Dominic Bellissimo was bartending late one night when a group of his friends came in begging for food. He asked his mom, Teresa, to make something. She scrounged up pieces of a chicken normally used for scraps, and Buffalo wings were born.

People started to flock to Anchor Bar, which uses a secret sauce recipe, to experience the new “taste sensation.”

Who needs pretty girls in tank tops and short orange shorts?

6. Buffalo does have Miss Buffalo Wing.

She’s crowned each Labor Day weekend at the National Buffalo Wing Festival. Miss Buffalo Wing wins a paid trip to participate in the Miss New York pageant. Wonder if they give an award to the sauciest contestant.

If you laughed, you're alone.

Another event at the festival is Bobbing for Wings, which we heard is preceded by a stampede to Sam’s Club to stock up on paper towels.

Then there’s the .5K Running of the Chickens, a race open to all ages and the same distance as four city blocks. Finishing times are apparently highly unpredictable, from “several minutes to three-quarters of an hour,” according to the festival’s Web site, buffalowing.com.

5. Buffalo is so used to snow that mayors from mid-Atlantic cities called Buffalo mayor Byron Brown this February looking for advice on how to clear snow. The city averages more than 100 inches of snow per year. The famous Blizzard of '77 made snowmobiles the only method of getting around in some areas, and 11 Buffalonians died as a result of the blizzard.

4. One of Buffalo's nicknames is the Nickel City. Not a reflection of the city's severely low median household income, the name comes from the picture of a bison that appeared on one side of the Indian head nickels that were produced during the early 1900s. In 1937, coins featuring a three-legged buffalo were mistakenly produced.

3. Buffalo's bar owners might be the city's most influential crew. Aside from Buffalo wings, they can claim the "beef on weck" sandwich, which stuffs roast beef in a German kummelweck roll. Covered with kosher salt and caraway seeds, the roll is the key to the sandwich's taste. The "beef on weck" is said to have been created by a Buffalo bar owner who thought the salty rolls would make his patrons drink more.

Maybe it should be the Nickle-and-Dime City.

2. Buffalo has the largest collection of grain elevators in the world, one of which sits next to the HSBC Arena, the site of Friday's game. Most of these breathtaking structures are abandoned today, but they once symbolized Buffalo's stature as the largest supplier of grain in the world.

Those were the days.

1. The Buffalo Bills are the only team to play in four straight Super Bowls.

They lost all four.