Neo

C is for Crozier ...

THIS will be the next great topic. They certainly did. They certainly will. What happens between “did” and “will”? I will support measurements that curtail my rights for the greater good during a catastrophe. COVID19 helps me juxtapose powerful government vis-a-vis bloated big government. It’s the end that matters. To what end? Wiping out an intruder (virus) meets my test.

What a great article. Step by step and methodical. It reminded me of the @Randall Flagg dissection of the Sabres v Hurricanes breakout and puck support strategies under Dave Bylsma.

He said it was because he was meeting you ...

Another hero ...

I can’t say. Perhaps one of the other cool kids, er early 80s UBers.

My goodness ....

THAT, I never heard. North Main Liquor. Corner of Main and Winspear ... “How can I help you?”

88 Highgate Ave ...

Harvey and Corky owned the scene, man.

I wonder if we’re talking about the same thing. I saw The Police at UB’s Main Street campus in the old gymnasium. The gym had that old school, high school style, layout with an elevated wooden stage at one end. I had my arms crossed, tilted upward, with my upper arms resting on the stage lip. Sting and the band were a few feet away. My memory has this happening Nov Dec of 1980 ... perhaps a tour 18 months after your sighting. I was hooked. Later that school year, same “seat”, and The Stray Cats. What a magical time.

@Wyldnwoody44’s flow constrained by a hair bonnet ... a sign The End Times have arrived.

I am putting you in the same category that I put TBPHD and Crusader in during the Carrion League and the tank thread days. While philosophically anti-tank, I was most decidedly PRO tank effectively once it was “on”. Whenever an OT loser point or a regulation win grabbed us a point or two, the two of them would assure me we were still on target, calming me.

I came up with my idea of hero during 9/11. I’d already lived a long time, but the word still confused me. Heroes walk toward things others scurry away from. EMTs, Fireman, Cops, Doctors, soldiers ... Atticus Finch. I’m a man of limited capacity. Simple truths, simple truths.

Keep us posted.

Print, baby, print!

“We are all Keynsians now.” I could walk you through my “in the moment conversion”, and how the statement is not inconsistent with with my fidelity to Friedman and Hayek, but no one’s interested. Now is the time for investment (well, technically lending) in businesses solvent and healthy before the outbreak. The healthy must not die, both people and businesses. Payroll loans, working capital and floor plans, with little or no interest, to keep people employed while the days go by. Current liabilities only, please. No social engineering or next generation stuff. That’ll keep and attract private capital as it always has. The risk of businesses not surviving the next eight weeks is huge. We survive only of there are stores and restaurants and car dealers and museums when the clouds dissipate. I want to go back to my same servers and bartenders. I miss them and worry about them. Stay home, don’t go out, and print, baby, print. Then, when the party’s over, on to this whole China dependency and vulnerability thing. To my fiscally conservative fellow travelers, this is not subsidizing inefficiency and failure. This is addressing a catastrophe. Government, even my version of it, has a role. ............... We look for heroes. They're all around us. Mrs. Neo is one, too.

I’m all for forwards who can finish.

Never call a welder “nerd”.

Our family is affected. My daughter-in-law has symptoms. She’s 29 and healthy. Because of her youth and health, her physician said she won’t be tested. She has been asked to self-quarantine at home. My son’s xompany told him to do the same thing after he alerted them. Two weeks. I suspect many of us will have stories soon. He’ll be paid. She doesn’t work. The two goof balls live in a wonderful shoe box sized home with five, yes five, kids seven and under. Oh, and two dogs. I can’t imagine. My wife cancelled her visit to see them over spring break just a few days ago, thinking something like this was possible. A good move, in hindsight. I’m learning that self-quarantine is a nebulous term. My daughter-in-law received little instruction and no rules or regulations. Be safe, be smart, wash your hands and sleep alone. This system we live in is fragile. Science and technology have insulated us from this truism. From time. to time, nature reminds us how vulnerable we are. Today, she’s reminding all of us at once.

Well, friends squabbling isn't a good thing, and I’m as black as any kettle. Setting that aside ... I was enjoying the knowledge based back and forth. My gut has always held the trades in the same regard as the degrees, often higher. Welding ... knowledge, artistry and craftsmanship. Who knew? We all did. Edit to add, while social distancing ... I was raised by bricklayers and steelworkers. As a young boy, I scurried to the refrigerator in our South Buffalo garage, fetching Schmidt’s bottles for my grandparents and great uncles. I listened to them “build and pour”. They were larger than life. Demi-Gods. I remember watching them do magic with their hands. They made reluctant toasters “toast” and disinterested washers “wash”. Thick fingers and gnarled hands that brought things back to life. My grandfather built small, fragile, model cars and ships with me, using those same hands. Actually, he built for me. I mostly sat, as much mesmerized as anything else. Culver Road, South Buffalo, craftsman and homemakers. I am one lucky son of a gun. Later, I would do well in school. Science, math, and literature they said. I listened and did what was expected of me. I have no regrets, life’s good. I do wonder, though, what life would be had I picked up a brick. I’ve wondered for years ...

The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys!

Quote, and @Taro T.. What a fun team to remember. There’s the obvious, LaFontaine and Mogilny. Then there’s the subtle, Andreychuk and Fuhr. Hasek was still unconventional. Another word was weird. His GAA was greater than three, not crazy in that era, but not evidence of all world talent. He was 11/10 in won/lost (no Sabres goalie won more than 11 games that year; 3 goalies won exactly 11 games). I hated the Andreychuk trade, believing Buffalo’s “hit him with your purse, Dave” ridicule was among our least informed player jabs of all time. Both series were sweeps and the most entertaining eight game stretch I remember. Eight games, six OTs, and arch rivals in the old Adams Division. My deepest impressions at the time: Howerchuk, an all time great, still is in his 12th season. He is a talent AND a gamer. Doug Bodger is a beast. I had no idea. Patrick Roy won ten consecutive OT games. Thanks to @Eleven and @Taro T.

I’d be “pick ‘em” in a race with Usain Bolt if I was running away from a Boy Band. The Beatles were not a boy band.

Sunrise, tomorrow .. En garde!