Comments on: And Now A Word About Our Sponsor

By: ACute Angle

ACute Angle — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:07:49 +0000

Ooo… darnit….

http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2008/01/14/daily29.html

By: ACute Angle

ACute Angle — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:07:00 +0000

To Heather (#21):

In light of an article I read today about announcements made by NY’s very own governor Spitzer, I think the Governor may need to revisit his own remarks. I agree with you on where “Upstate” lies, having lived there myself for many years, but it would seem that the esteemed govenor may believe something else entirely.

See the attached website for the article.

By: Heather

Heather — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 15:04:22 +0000

Just my personal nit-pick: Upstate New York is not everything north of NYC. Where I come from (Western New York), upstate is the area north of Albany (the Adirondacks/Lake Champlain region). For the curious, Ithaca is technically in Central New York.

Carry on.

By: Vorple

Vorple — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:36:40 +0000

An interesting eccentric, Eleazer Williams , died in 1858 at Hogansburg, NY. His was an interesting life, too ziggity-zagged to justly relate here, but he’s probably most famous now as a lost dauphin claimant despite the fact that he was Native American and looked very little like the Bourbon family. A house in Hogansburg is known as The Lost Dauphin’s House and has been renovated as a hostel. Hogansburg is also known as Akwasasne which means “pheasants drumming.” Pheasants drum their wings against their breasts.

By: BrewmasterJ

BrewmasterJ — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 18:56:33 +0000

The Finger Lakes Wine Region, as we know it now, was once the world’s largest producers of Hops. It out produced any other region in the world in the last quarter of the 1800s. Alas to all of us beer lovers, prohibition and the realization that the land was more valuable for its vistas and for growing grapes led to the abandonment of growing hops here. The hops industry was also responsible for major innovations in the railroad industry to get those hops up (and down) large gradients and into the cities for processing.

Upstate NY is also the home of Glenn Cutris, who’s early works included the world’s fastest motorcycle and was one of the only federally contracted aircraft fabricator other than those guys from OH. The Curtis Ginny was one of the work horses for the armed forces during and after WW1.

And also, don’t forget about the albino deer at the Seneca Army Munitions Depot. The only herd of white deer maintained to warn of radiation and cemical leaks of our nation’s ammunition supply.

Ditto on the tikets to Alicia if I win. 2 small kids and a 2.5 hour drive both ways do NOT mix.

By: Andie

Andie — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:44:40 +0000

The fingerlakes region is home to one of the purest freshwater lakesâ€“ Lake Skaneateles, so pure that the water is not even filtered before being delivered to the surrounding towns for drinking.

We also have one of the most polluted lakes in the worldâ€“ Onondaga Lake. Thanks to industrial dumping it’s full of mercury and salt (some people tell me there’s like four inches of mercury on the bottom) and stinks to high heaven on a warm summer day. For some reason people still fish out of it (I’m almost sure no one eats what they catch.) No word yet on if anyone’s caught Blinky.

By: ACute Angle

ACute Angle — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:40:32 +0000

Oh, and I forgot my favorite: A fort (nicknamed Fort Blunder, I forget it’s real name) that was built on the wrong side of the Canadian border to supposedly keep the US safe from invading Canadians. No one realized that it was in the wrong place until after it was built and was summarily abandoned. It didn’t actually fall on US soil until after the boundary line along the parallel was agreed upon, so it was never able to be used. If you go up Lake Champlain just north of Rouses Point, you can see the derelect ruin jutting out into the lake. It’s actually kind of cool, a strange reminder of a time when we were at war with out neighbors to the north.

By: ACute Angle

ACute Angle — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:34:23 +0000

Writer Gregory Maguire’s first books were set in the Adirondacks around the Lake Placid region. He went to college at Albany State.

Ironically, the only place in the Adirondacks that receives cell coverage going up I87 is near the exit for “Paradox Lake”. (No. I’m not kidding. Although, they are planning on putting up another cell tower….)

The Adirondacks region was not only big during the 1800s for sanitariums (Many of their ruins can still be seen today), but there are a number of “company towns,” towns whose sole existance is due to mines throughout the area.

Northern New York played a number of important roles during the War for Independance, the French – Indian War, and the War of 1812.

Until the base was decommissioned in the mid ’90s, the Plattsburgh Air Force base was number 3 on the list of possible space shuttle landing sites, being one of the largest flightlines in North America. (Far larger, actually than the commercial flightlines just north in Montreal’s Trudeau and Mirabel airports….)

I’m not really looking for the tickets. Unfortunately, I no longer live up that way. I just wanted to share a few things.

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:52:15 +0000

Ithaca is where the the toothbrush was invented. (Had it been invented elsewhere, it would have been called the teethbrush)

Just kidding, Ithaca rocks, I live about 30 mins from there. Interesting tidbit: The 2nd highest waterfall in NY is located in Taughannock State park, interestingly only a short drive through wine country to the highest waterfall located on Seneca Lake. Both eclipse the height of Niagara Falls.

By: Liz

Liz — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 11:21:06 +0000

This quip from A Chorus Line has always stuck with me. It isn’t about Ithaca, but it’s kinda upstate New York, and that’s enough for me!

“I thought about committing suicide. But then I realized, to commit suicide in Buffalo is redundant.”