RochesterRob

Right down I-90 in Ontario County.

Also, how are the lawyers going to factor in. Alcohol is legal and there are definitions for intoxication that are used to decide legal and civil cases involving injury and death. Knowing people that have owned or do own bars lawsuits have greatly impacted the profitability of bars serving alcohol. Many across the region have closed because liability insurance and legal representation have eaten all the profits. The ambulance chasing lawyers will find a way to make money off of pot just like they have alcohol if businesses pop up to serve pot.

Excellent episode and scene.

Just like in any economy the market will adapt including the black market. Poor quality suppliers will get weeded (no pun intended) out and be replaced by high quality suppliers. Most people serious about growing MJ know about fertility and other agronomic issues related to MJ to put out a competitive product. The guy just sticking a dozen plants in his backyard and forgetting about them until harvest will go by the wayside.

While it does happen in pockets I question that a pot related conviction gets you barred from any employment even good wage jobs. BIL works construction and maintenance type jobs and is pretty open about his pot usage. He makes pretty good money most years and does not have the headaches of being a business owner like I do. Some people maintain that a number of professionals who work in partnerships or just work for a firm use pot and they are not being walked to the door due to pot. Some people can't find work due to character issues plain and simple..

About a decade ago there was a story on 60 minutes about the revival of "moonshine" where underground suppliers were supplying legit bars and the quality was much higher than what was seen during the 1920's prohibition period. Unless a person was running an underground club which does happen they probably buy enough legit liquor to keep any authorities clueless as to what they are doing. You might be willing to pay more to stay legal but that does not mean others will especially those scraping to get by financially. Lot's of municipalities in WNY where a sizable percentage of the local population receives public assistance of some sort so saving 10, 20, 30 or more bucks per week cash would be a big deal.

There are more and more places that require a permit for alcohol but I don't know that it is a 100 percent across the board requirement. There will be rules imposed on pot when made legal recreationally in NY so it will not be as simple as being legal to possess. As you said black market is undercutting legal sellers in states where rec pot is legal and I expect the same to be true when legal in NY. NY has a huge appetite for sales tax money and the same will be true with rec pot when it happens so that will leave ample room for the black market to compete. Most people truth be told don't have to do business with a dangerous person to buy pot so when they get tired of paying 20 plus percent more at Walgreens and the guys miss the women in the skimpy outfits they will look up their old supplier.

I guess that I will be the wet blanket to some degree. If it is like New York I would expect once recreational pot is legal it will be subject to rules just like alcohol and tobacco. There are a fair amount of public places you can not consume alcohol or tobacco and those same areas will no doubt be off limits for pot. Also, I would expect the cost not to change much or even increase when the state levies a tax on it. The black market is not going to go away especially if the tax is on the hefty side at 25-30 percent or more. For people expecting to make a fortune on the production side they will get to know the pitfalls of commodity production with the added twist of competing with the black market. For most people using pot I doubt they will see a significant difference in their lifestyle in terms of buying or using.

1968 Ford Galaxy back during the late 1970's. Don't readily have a pic but they appeared on nearly every television show back during the late 1960's for a family car. At least on the shows sponsored (furnished vehicles) by Ford such as Andy Griffith and Mayberry RFD.

Hard to say. Words remained and definitions changed in part because society collectively was isolated until the last few decades. Now we have 24/7 worldwide media and commentary along with political correctness. Swastika was a very benign word and symbol until the Nazi's came along but there is no rescuing that word away from being connoted with a hate group. Just the world we live in and maybe we could use a few absolutes in terms words that mean negative things. As long as we don't get carried away with things which is probably asking too much.

Fans calling themselves the Bills Mafia doesn't make them organized crime? I think everybody understands that. The point is the term mafia is in poor taste. I've known 100's of Italian-American people and I never heard one use the word mafia casually to describe blood relation or even community such as a neighborhood heavy with Italian-Americans. I always figured if they don't use it casually then I probably should not either. If you were an old fashioned poll taker standing in downtown Buffalo or downtown Rochester doing a survey and asked what the word mafia meant I doubt that a significant number of people would regurgitate the wiki origin you listed and that is the point.

I'm sorry that you cannot see that the word Mafia for most people means "organized crime" before it means "family". I would suspect a huge number of people would not even associate the word "mafia" with the word "family" if they were not educated in the Italian (Latin) language. The organized crime world has spent a fair amount of effort in trying to make people believe that they don't exist at various points in time. The less that people associate the word mafia with organized crime the better the Mafia feels about their existence. For me it is not much different than current day Nazi's try to down play the Holocaust that occurred at the hands of previous Nazi's in Europe during the Second World War. They would love it if most people thought they were just a bunch of sharply dressed (in black coats and boots) people that believe in a high level of order as opposed to a group of people that promote intolerance and in some cases death. I am sorry in that some words cannot be sanitized even if they were hijacked from earlier more benign meanings and definitions. If we were talking about using the Confederate flag as a symbol of support for our politics and even our sports teams it would be offensive to most and to use the word mafia is no different.

The Mafia is not a fun party of presumably Italian fellows. The Mafia of various large US cities have made quite a number of lives miserable with protection rackets in the past. This means they bust your place up if you don't pay their fee (which is steep) on a weekly basis. Today, they cost you money even if you are not a direct victim of theft. Every time something gets stolen in a Mafia related crime and a claim is put through to an insurance company that company spreads the loss over its entire coverage base so anybody not living in their parents basement pays for it. I think people need to smarten up versus lighten up. Most people who join the Mafia have pretty short shelf lives to boot. Somebody that I have personal knowledge of lasted barely two years. Associates, soldiers, etc are nothing to the top ranks of the Mafia. I don't hate Allen but wish he had thought about it a little before he made that proclamation.

Inspired by the title but not really connected to the content of Buffalo '66 but I always wanted to see a series done about the AFL. Most likely from the standpoint of a fictional player or coach (or two) who would be observers to the phenomena of the AFL. Buffalo alone had Ralph, Saban, Glichrist, Lamonica, and Kemp to name a few unusual people. Then you had colorful non-Buffalo guys such as Bud Adams, Al Davis, and Joe Namath. Would not have to create much fiction to make it interesting. I'll have to talk to my lone Hollywood connection about it sometime.

Most people are probably unaware of this but early in Leslie Nielsen's he pretty much played straight roles and sometimes a heavy. Nielsen played JJ Adams in Forbidden Planet back in 1956 which was one of the templates for the original Star Trek including Nielsen's character as a prototype for James T Kirk. I just saw Nielsen a couple of weeks ago as a heavy in a The Big Valley episode from the late 1960's. Interesting how an actor's path changes as time progresses. James Best who was best known as Roscoe P Coltraine from Dukes of Hazard often played serious roles including a good Bonanza episode from the 1960's "The Price of Salt" with Kim Hunter.

All I can think of when checking out the story is John Belushi's Bluto from Animal House and the mortified reaction to the repo men taking the booze and one guy drops a bottle.

We had softball sized hail (at the large end) last May but thanks to a heavy tree/shrub line on the west side of the house my home was spared any damage. What scared me was the cat was outside under the pickup and got frightened by the noise from hail banging onto metal so she ran out into the hail. A miracle that she was not killed. In fact she suffered no injuries. Thankfully.

I don't know how much the Titan's uni reflects Moulds. Geographically, Tennessee borders Mississippi so it could just be Titan homers supporting their team. No doubt Moulds went through a period where he resented the Bills but time has a way of healing those kinds of wounds.

Given the recent ST efforts I sense nothing but disappointment in any reboot. The most recent projects involving any original cast just have been uninspiring with the worn out theme of our heroes going up against a meglo-maniac bad guy every time. I just sense a lack of willingness by the studio to get back in the spirit of the original with in-depth perspective of the characters such as what was done with "The Naked Time", "The Galileo Seven", or "Errand of Mercy." Employ complex characters such as Matt Decker or show vulnerable characters such as Simon Van Gelder. Nearly every Star Trek related effort for nearly the last 20 years has been poor. Enterprise was very uneven but could be entertaining such as the "In A Mirror Darkly" romp where the producers just decided to go for broke including Archer wearing the wrap around tunic that the producers extended to Shatner after "The Enemy Within" to help Shatner hide his growing gut.

Quite a bit of cloud cover working in from the West tonight. Pretty reddish-purple hue compliments of the setting sun. Summer Solstice in two days. Wooh-hooh. I kind of like sitting outside with a beer Solstice evening reflecting on life. Usually girls I knew in my youth.

Yep, I mentioned the Mount Morris dam in the other weather thread by the OP. They opened a couple of gates to keep the dam from overflowing. There was worry about debris going over the top creating damage down stream so the decision was made to discharge water even though it meant minor flooding in Monroe County. I attended SUNY Alfred back during the 1980's and the 1972 flood got mentioned plenty as it pertained to Wellsville and the surrounding area. Some people suffered a permanent loss as I understood it. Apparently, it was easier to get full federal assistance if your home or business was right next to the Genesee River versus up in the hills. Some farms there suffered extensive top soil erosion rendering the farms useless other than to let brush grow.

You are thinking about Hurricane Agnes back in 1972 when you refer to Elmira. Yep, a lot of those rivers look like nothing until a storm drops several inches over a wide area there. The Susquehanna River at Waverly, NY you can just about walk across most days and not get your shorts damp unless a lot of rain has fallen.

I've seen many strong storms during my life but the one I mentioned was the only one intense enough where I would not leave the pickup for fear of being struck by lightning. Not that being in a vehicle is extremely safe but better than running upright in the open. I do remember one time lightning struck near my grandmother's house while I was there. Probably as close as 10 feet from the door but it was the only close strike in that storm.

It seems there was more intense pop-up activity during the 1970's and 1980's versus current times. Our dog was very afraid of thunder and when she went into hiding during the summer months we knew a storm was only maybe 10-15 minutes away.

5-6 inches of rain I have seen where I live and it will create minor flooding as we sit up in elevation relative to any rivers. Hurricane Agnes back in 1972 created devastating flooding in New York's Southern Tier. I remember our family visiting a relative in Elmira, NY shortly thereafter and many downtown buildings had flooding to the top of their first floors as evidenced by the mud left. Wellsville, NY had extensive flooding and pushed the Mount Morris dam to its limit. A lot of permanent damage and misery remained in southern Allegany County afterward.