So, I have a question. Let’s say you were at Wal-Mart, and you were looking at electronics. You were really concentrating on finding the correct item and you heard a woman yelling violently at a child. You are familiar with the shame and horror of being abused so your sensitivities may be a little elevated.

Nonetheless, you tune into the yelling without being able to see who is on the receiving end. Then you start to hear counting. “One!” “Two!”, the bitch yells. Wait a minute- this one isn’t actually stopping at two like most teenage welfare mothers. This one sounds older and serious.

So, let’s say you slowly peer around your aisle to see what the commotion is. Let’s say you view a very angry woman, in fact a middle aged woman in a rage, with short blond hair and a red screaming face, and she is beating the ass of a small blond boy. Then, just then, when you are shocked and beginning to suffer from PTSD flashbacks, she picks the small boy up by one arm, violently swinging his shoulder backward, and flips him up and over the side of the cart, a good two or three feet off the ground and SLAMS him into the cart. Let’s say at this point she is yelling what you think are curse words at the boy. But you aren’t sure because you are sort of in a state of disassociation.

Hypothetically, let’s say you want to yell out- SCREAM in her FACE: “Do you feel BIG NOW? Huh? Do YOU? Does it make you feel good to humiliate and physically abuse your own small child?” But you aren’t saying anything. Then you do hear something she says. She says to Small Boy, “And you should be ASHAMED. SHAME on YOU. SHAME!”

And you scream in your head to Small Boy, “No, don’t you ever feel SHAME. You have nothing to be ashamed of! You are a boy! You are a person! You are a human being and you should not be ashamed!”

And then you think, “Bitch! Crew Cut bitch! You with the RAGE problem! Do you know what you are saying? You are really speaking to yourself you SHAMEFUL BITCH! Come on, try to twist my arm you BIG COW”

Just when these silent conversations are happening in your head, you realize your cellphone camera is out of your purse. And it’s turned on. And you are following her through the store. In fact, you abandoned your cart with your purse in it. And other people are staring at her in horror. In fact, one woman is covering her face. And you are chasing after her. Let’s just say this happens.

And she is with another child, a taller girl. Maybe ten years old. Walking a brand new bike. And they wind up going to the back of the store. Maybe to wait in some sort of layaway line or something.

And then, let’s say you find yourself taking her picture with your camera phone as she is trapped in line. You can’t speak up. You are the child. You feel that burn of the pulled rotator cuff. Wait, then you realize- that child never cried. He. Never. Cried.

Let’s say he knows not to cry. Let’s say he thinks it will bring more attention he desperately does not want. Because he feels ashamed. Because his mommy will take it out on him when they are alone. Maybe he has already been broken. Maybe he REFUSES TO CRY ANYMORE. Maybe he really isn’t in his body right now.

And maybe that lady is just standing in line, now smiling at the clerk. As if nothing happened. Not noticing you are taking her picture.

So, if that ever happened to you, and you went home, and put that camera-phone photo up on your blog- and said that in your opinion what you witnessed was abuse, would you be liable for slander?

So Iris and I are leaving Imperialist Big Box Store the other day, and she comes around to unlock my side of the car. Yikes! Dirty diapers. We say nothing at the time.

We both get in the car and Iris turns the ignition. She adjusts her mirror and puts her hand on the gear shifter. But she pauses, looks over at me and says, “So, if I just drop my pants and shit a big load in this parking lot, it’s okay???”

Damn irresponsible babies leaving their shit all over the place!

Bahahahahaha!!!

Found on Yahoo Travel: “Despite being located downtown and next to the Rainbow Center Factory Outlet and Niagara Falls Convention Center , this enclosed garden is a veritable oasis amid the hustle and bustle of sightseeing at the Falls . Many couples choose to celebrate their wedding ceremonies here, in either the Niagara Wedding Chapel or the Falls Wedding Chapel . The garden is a glass-enclosed tropical space with waterfalls, ponds and 7,000 trees. A relaxing place to visit—be it in between sightseeing tours or on a rainy day. Admission is free.”

Found on Online Highways: Wintergarden is imbued with peace and quiet in the middle of a tropical setting. Only a five-minute walk from Prospect Point, it’s open daily from 9-5. Admission is free. Adjacent to the Rainbow Center Factory Outlet Mall. Shopping & various restaurants inside the mall. A great place to go on a rainy day!

1978- The Hostettlers of Bryan, Ohio came to Niagara Falls for their wedding anniversary and discovered the beautiful “$7 million glass enclosed horticultural showcase called the Wintergarden”.

1981- Volunteers in Niagara Falls have built 50 cutouts, up to 20 feet high, of Mother Goose, Disney characters, Santa and his elves and other Christmas scenes, and five three-dimensional displays, including a 12-foot-high lighthouse and a 12-foot-long train, to add to the fun. They will be on show in a three-block viewing area made up of the E. Dent Lackey Plaza, the Rainbow Mall, the Wintergarden (a three-story collection of tropical plants) and the entrance to Prospect Park. The Wintergarden will glisten with two 26-foot-high reflecting stars and 1,000 poinsettias.

1982- St. Petersburg Times, In Niagara Falls, NY a five square block of downtown becomes a winter wonderland in December, as an opening event of the “I Love NY Winter Festival” [...] the centerpiece being the Wintergarden, where three stories of tropical vegetation become luminous with silvery decorations.

1983- Jun 27, 1983, The Miami Herald - The current wedding season requires his honor’s services for about a dozen couples every weekend who want to be married by the mayor of Niagara Falls. Call it sentiment. “I take them to the Wintergarden and hold the ceremony among the plants,” he says. “Very pretty. Very romantic.” …

1985- Dec 22, 1985 - Niagara Falls in New York State and Canada already have started their International Winter Festival of Lights. … There’s music and dancing at the convention center, free entertainment at the Wintergarden, and free train rides from 5-11 pm nightly at Fantasy Island on nearby Grand Island …

1986- . Hub of the great display will be the Wintergarden, a seven-story futuristic greenhouse with trees, shrubs and flowers next door to the Convention …

Dec 2, 1991 - ENTERTAINMENT: Music School of Niagara, Wintergarden, Niagara Falls. 7 pm.
.MUSIC: Buffalo Gateway Chorus/Sweet Adelines, Wintergarden, Niagara Falls. 7:30 pm.

Dec 9, 1991 - MUSIC: Williamsville South Chamber Ensembles, Wintergarden, Niagara Falls. 7 pm. ENTERTAINMENT: Croatian Creations Tamburitza Group, Wintergarden, Niagara Falls. 7 pm. MUSIC: First Presbyterian Church with Gaskill Chorus, …

Dec 16, 1991 - MUSIC: Lackawanna Young Christian Choir, Wintergarden, Niagara Falls. 7 pm. MUSIC: Sacred Heart Villa School Chorus, Wintergarden, Niagara Falls. 7 pm.

1993, August- WINTERGARDEN IS FOCAL POINT OF DISCONTENT FALLS OFFICIALS TRADING CHARGES OVER IMPACT OF EARLIER CLOSING TIME
The city administration and the City Council once again are pointing fingers at each other, this time over who is responsible for the earlier closing hour at the Wintergarden.

Meanwhile, some downtown merchants said Wednesday that the new 9 p.m. closing is hurting them.

With the doors to the Wintergarden closed, pedestrians have to walk around to Niagara Street or to First Street to make their way from the Convention and Civic Center, E. Dent Lackey Plaza and other nearby attractions to…

Apr 20, 1997 - MALL OWNERS OFFER TO BUY WINTERGARDEN Two weeks ago, the city gave the Niagara Falls Redevelopment Corp. a five-year option for use of the south side of the Wintergarden for a hotel lobby and restaurant if the development group buys the Ramada Inn at the Falls. Brian K. Meilleur, president of the development group, …

Aug 24, 1997 - Niagara Falls, NY, Mayor James C. Galie welcomed the group at the Wintergarden. “We have a jewel. We just have to refine it. … “There is no fabric to experience, no invitation to stay longer and explore the history, culture and ethnic diversity we have here,” Wysocki said.

1997 Old Falls Street, which disappeared from the life and fabric of the city to make way for a failed urban renewal project, could be reincarnated in the multimillion redevelopment of downtown planned by a group of international investors.

And the Wintergarden might have to be modified or torn down to make the plan work.

Bruce Jolley, director of planning for the Jerde Partnership International Inc., said Thursday that the firm “would like to bring the life back to Falls..

1998- LEAVE THE WINTERGARDEN RIGHT WHERE IT IS

The Wintergarden in Niagara Falls is one of the prizes of the city’s urban-renewal effort,undertaken in the mid-1970s.

The building is 107 feet high, covered with tempered glass and filled with exotic trees and shrubs. It cost almost $8 million when it was completed in 1975

The Wintergarden was designed by Gruen Associates, with Landscape Architect M. Paul Friedberg, who designed the first of the great urban malls…

2000- Jan 30, 2000 - In November, the city granted Wintergarden Entertainment an option to lease the building for 20 years, as long as Niagara Falls Redevelopment didn’t exercise its option first. Another question mark on the tourism horizon remains the Niagara Falls airport.

2000- DINOSAUR PARK MAY HATCH IN WINTERGARDEN FACILITY

News Niagara Bureau

A plan to turn the Wintergarden into an indoor dinosaur theme park, the “Wintergarden Rainforest Dinosaurium,” could be a reality by July.

Wintergarden Entertainment announced Friday it is ready to exercise the option the city granted it Nov. 4 to lease and redevelop the glass-walled downtown facility, with an option to buy the building.

The lease costs and the first phase of construction could equal about $1.5 million, said Paul A. Grenga Jr., the Lewiston…

Jan 1, 2001 - The 20th annual Festival of Lights passed into history Sunday night, with organizers already making plans for the 21st annual event. … The mall runs between Wintergarden and Niagara Falls Convention Center…

2002- GROUP URGING INCREASED SUPPORT FOR WINTERGARDEN

Published on March 3, 2002

Members of the citizens group Revitalization of Area Heritage are holding a party to try to raise enough awareness to keep the Wintergarden alive.

The free event, dubbed Wintergarden Awareness Day, will be held from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday in the Wintergarden, which is next to the former Rainbow Centre Factory Outlet Mall.

Vendors will sell a variety of foods in the glass-enclosed arboretum, and there will be musical performances throughout the afternoon.

{…}
Because Pelli’s buildings are world-renowned, Leoncavallo said the Wintergarden is one of the more significant structures in Niagara Falls. “The powers that be, so to speak, are pressuring the mayor to close it up,” she said.

Sep 28, 2003 - After giving away the plants and trees, the new owners of the Wintergarden are turning the 26-year-old downtown greenhouse into a tourist attraction for children. “People traveling to Niagara Falls to gamble are finding little for their children to do,” said Paul A. Grenga, …

August 7, 2007 The Niagara Falls Reporter - In the more than two years since the Niagara Falls Reporter made it public knowledge that Vincenzo V. Anello accepted a series of secret payments totaling $40,000 from developer Joe Anderson around the time he was elected mayor of Niagara Falls in 2003, federal agents have been looking for evidence that Anderson got something in return for his generosity.

Last Thursday, the ribbon was cut on a $3.4 million gift from taxpayers called Old Falls Street, where Anello granted Anderson exclusive vending rights in a no-bid deal during his first months in office.

But the real payoff for Anderson, Anello told the gathering of elected officials and bureaucrats, who were too busy patting themselves on the back to notice, is yet to come.

“In the not-too-distant future, Falls Street will be open all the way to the park,” the mayor said.

What he left unmentioned was that doing that would mean the removal of the former Wintergarden, now known as Smokin’ Joe’s Family Fun Center, which Anderson just happened to have had the foresight to purchase shortly before he started writing large checks to Anello, then a member of the City Council.

In making the purchase along with partners Paul Grenga, Brian Meilleur and Rick Horn, Anderson paid about $1 million for the civic greenhouse. Due to its location and the renovation it has undergone since Anderson bought it, as well as New York state’s bottomless pockets, the property would likely fetch as much as $6 to $8 million if taken via eminent domain.

Given Anello’s close ties to those three men, who orchestrated his successful 2003 campaign, and his well-documented history of accepting money from Anderson without telling anyone or paying taxes on it, the question that should be obvious to federal investigators is what his share of the big jackpot is going to be.

2007 - AUCTION BEFORE RAZING THE WINTERGARDEN- The Wintergarden is slated to officially close later this month. The 110-foot tall glass-enclosed atrium that has been a part of the Niagara Falls skyline since the 1970s.

The building, when opened in 1977, was viewed as one of the centerpieces of an urban renewal effort in downtown Niagara Falls. Anderson said he may consider building a hotel on the property, but those plans remain preliminary.

Anderson bought the Wintergarden in 2003, paying $1 million. He ran a family amusement center in the building for the past two years.

The Wintergarden was designed by famed architect Cesar Pelli, whose resume includes the World Financial Center in New York. The building went through a variety of uses during its 30-year run but was plagued by consistent turn over in plans and visions.

“It was a good building,” Bronstein said.

2008- WINTERGARDEN CLOSER TO AN END - At the same time and in a related move, the USA Niagara directors unanimously agreed to buy the Wintergarden from East Mall Entertainment LLC, a partnership headed by Niagara County businessman and Indian leader Joe Anderson for $1.6 million. Anderson had run the Wintergarden as an entertainment center the past few years, but closed the building last fall.

USA Niagara, in late July, struck a deal with Anderson for the Wintergarden.

The deal was subject to a series of public hearings.

By demolishing the Wintergarden, which was constructed in the late 1970s as part of an earlier urban renewal effort in Niagara Falls, it will create a visual corridor between the state park and Third Street while also re-opening the historic Old Falls Street right-of-way.

The demolition work will likely start next year.

2009- USA Niagara received an opinion in June from the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation that the glass building is not eligible for the state’s Register of Historic Places because of extensive changes that have been made inside the building. (EDITORIAL NOTE: changes Anderson made.)

State and city officials have said they believe that the building is a roadblock for tourists.

They have no plan to tear down the adjacent Rainbow Centre mall, which is empty except for one seasonal tenant, a ground-level restaurant.

Niagara Falls resident Barbara Marchelos is among a group of citizens who want to see the Wintergarden saved.

Marchelos and others point to the arboretum’s architect, Cesar Pelli, as one of the reasons the state should incorporate the building into its plans.

“Niagara Falls has lost enough of its identity to some of the most ill-conceived projects, in part by changing downtown Niagara Falls into what we now know,” Marchelos said. “The planned changes by USA Niagara should recognize the worthiness of the Wintergarden project.”

June 12, 2009 WINTERGARDEN COMING DOWN-
Crews are demolishing the steel-and-glass Wintergarden in Niagara Falls

Here are some photos I took of the demolition of the Wintergarden this week. Notice in one photo, tourists wander through the dangerous equipment looking for anywhere to visit on the US side of the Falls.

A GREAT TIME!

Click the little SPEAKER at the top left corner to hear music with the slide show!

Happy Pride and WeLcOmE all new visitors! We are so excited about this weekend’s Pride Festivities! It’s a beautiful Saturday afternoon and we are getting ready for the Dyke March tonight in Buffalo. Today Iris and I spray painted a sign for the weekend that kind of / sort of says “Equality Now”. I has yet to have a stick but I’m confident Iris will do that for me before we leave! Our daughter is going with us tonight but our son decided against. Somebody has to babysit Rosie, the border collie mix who just had a really intense surgery this week.

Tomorrow though, we will have a babysitter come to the house, because I’m proud to say my son is marching in the parade with GLYS for the high school gay-straight alliance and my daughter and “almost daughter” are marching with PFLAG!

Now, did everybody get the memo that the line up for the Buffalo Pride Parade has changed? What is the deal with Kleinhan’s giving the organizers only 10 days notice that their parking lot can’t be used? After all the years it’s started there, what do you suppose is the problem? Let’s just hope it’s a benign scheduling conflict or something!

Okay- I’m off to find an appropriately vulgar t-shirt to wear tonight and maybe I’ll even shave my legs! Woo Hoo! I’ll post more photos as I get them from this weekend!

Happy Pride to all of our beautiful LGBT friends & family and remember: GOD MADE YOU THE WAY YOU ARE and GOD DOESN’T MAKE MISTAKES.

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
First they came for the Socialist
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
First they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
First they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

Gay Pride Events Around Western New York & Southern Ontario:

Saturday, June 7, 2008
Seventh Annual Dyke March and Rally
Rally at 7:00 pm, Lineup at 7:30 pm
Eckerd Drugs, 202 West Utica Street

The post march rally will include singer/songwriters Bitch and Ferron

The Buffalo Gay Pride Parade will step off at Kleinhans Music Hall and venture up Elmwood Avenue to Bidwell Parkway. Post parade entertainment will include musican Gregory Douglass, singer/songwriters Bitch and Ferron and Toronto Comedian Richard Ryder who last appeared in Buffalo during last fall’s Buffalo Bear Trap.
Pride Buffalo will be raising money to help offset the cost of the Pride events on Saturday, May 10th at Mohawk Place. Comedian Sabrina Matthews who has appearred on Comedy Central and LOGO will perform along with Special Guest: Kristen Becker

Doors open at 8 pm show starts at 9:30 pm
Tickets can be purchased at Ticketweb.com in advance
Tickets at the door will cost $22

Hamilton Pride Week June 13-21
http://www.hamiltonpride.com/

Toronto Dyke March, Saturday, June 27

Toronto Pride March, Sunday June 28

Toronto Pride Festival

I cannot stand the injustice of these people being PAID to protect and rescue animals… when they are just as guilty as any animal abuser! I think they are even MORE guilty than animal abusers because they have been entrusted and paid by the public to save and rescue animals!

This week, we in the Buffalo area are watching a dog who was ignored by the Animal Shelter. They claim they couldn’t catch him? He couldn’t even MOVE because he was so emaciated!!!!

Now the SPCA has a news release of a second dog found dead in a cage- and proof that the Animal Shelter was called as early as NINE DAYS AGO!!!!

In 2007, we watched as an employee of the Buffalo Animal Shelter was arrested for repeatedly stabbing a barking dog in the shelter during a drunken holiday party!!!

Obviously, the entire culture of the shelter needs a radical change. Public employees being paid by TAXPAYERS to protect and help animals- and it is a FARCE. Who should be charged with fraud and theft by deception for taking a paycheck?

PLEASE ACT NOW. Contact the Mayor of the City of Buffalo’s Office, and tell him that you want to FIRE the City of Buffalo Animal Shelter. They work for US! And we want them FIRED! NOW!

Call the City of Buffalo Animal Shelter and demand a RESIGNATION by Kelly McCartney, the one person who has been the administrator for all of these terrible events! 716-851-5694 (You can also join their Facebook Group, and speak OUT on the discussion board!)