This morning, many of us in Buffalo saw the clip of Anderson Cooper's giggling at Buffalo's dear, dear tradition of Dyngus Day...and some of us, especially the ones who've seen this before, got these butterflies in our stomach, because we knew what was coming next....
THE BUFFALO POUTRAGE.
I actually love Buffalo. There are some things that make me nuts (one of which is that we're surrounded by awesome farms and few restaurants care about local sourcing, it's nuts) but unlike some of the people who are here because they have not been prepared to move, I am here because I chose Buffalo. There are actually several of us who chose to move here, who like it here!
Let me explain first: When I first moved to Buffalo, I moved to the East side. Dyngus day central. Those few of my neighbors who were still Polish and hadn't moved to the suburbs, explained the holiday to me with sparkling eyes and laughter. Like most people not from here, I thought it was silly and funny and giggled. I giggled, they giggled, and squirt guns and pussy willows and GIGGLES went down my street.
By 11am, as the clip made it across local media, the poutrage began, with a few people here and there on social media sites very seriously upset at Anderson Cooper for mocking this very serious tradition, mocking Buffalo, mocking Polish people....take your pick. WGRZ did a few minutes of it on our early local news.
Seriously, for those of us living in Buffalo, we saw this coming. A few brave souls were already on twitter and facebook shaking their heads at the crazy poutrage as it built.
At 12:34, Anderson Cooper's giggle fit was the LEAD LOCAL STORY on WBFO, local NPR affiliate. Before then it was on the television news sources, and before the hour was up there was report of a planned rally/protest at 2pm. By 1:05 WBFO was referring to the Dyngus Day celebration as being "slammed," by Cooper. "Slammed."
I am serious when I say that unless there is a huge news story to displace it, this will be the lead story on the local news this evening...which represents everything wrong with Buffalo: A place where you need to be tough to face the winters (which are a joke compared to CNY) and where we say "It snows, get over it!" but where a little laughter at a holiday about laughter is a burden too much to bear!
PS: As of 1:11, Anderson Cooper has apologized and one of our senators made a very stern complaint to him. No. I am not kidding.
THE BUFFALO POUTRAGE.
I actually love Buffalo. There are some things that make me nuts (one of which is that we're surrounded by awesome farms and few restaurants care about local sourcing, it's nuts) but unlike some of the people who are here because they have not been prepared to move, I am here because I chose Buffalo. There are actually several of us who chose to move here, who like it here!
Let me explain first: When I first moved to Buffalo, I moved to the East side. Dyngus day central. Those few of my neighbors who were still Polish and hadn't moved to the suburbs, explained the holiday to me with sparkling eyes and laughter. Like most people not from here, I thought it was silly and funny and giggled. I giggled, they giggled, and squirt guns and pussy willows and GIGGLES went down my street.
By 11am, as the clip made it across local media, the poutrage began, with a few people here and there on social media sites very seriously upset at Anderson Cooper for mocking this very serious tradition, mocking Buffalo, mocking Polish people....take your pick. WGRZ did a few minutes of it on our early local news.
Seriously, for those of us living in Buffalo, we saw this coming. A few brave souls were already on twitter and facebook shaking their heads at the crazy poutrage as it built.
At 12:34, Anderson Cooper's giggle fit was the LEAD LOCAL STORY on WBFO, local NPR affiliate. Before then it was on the television news sources, and before the hour was up there was report of a planned rally/protest at 2pm. By 1:05 WBFO was referring to the Dyngus Day celebration as being "slammed," by Cooper. "Slammed."
I am serious when I say that unless there is a huge news story to displace it, this will be the lead story on the local news this evening...which represents everything wrong with Buffalo: A place where you need to be tough to face the winters (which are a joke compared to CNY) and where we say "It snows, get over it!" but where a little laughter at a holiday about laughter is a burden too much to bear!
PS: As of 1:11, Anderson Cooper has apologized and one of our senators made a very stern complaint to him. No. I am not kidding.