Doohicksie

Operation Backsplash is well under way. I spend a good chunk of Sunday putting up the tile, probably about halfway done.

Yeah, I won't go so far as to impugn the character of someone who like pineapple on their pizza, but I'll consider it in my head.

If he listens to coaches and becomes a more complete player, sure. He showed signs of it prior to his injury but I think any progress he made was lost with the injury and perhaps the coaches wanted him to concentrate on getting his shot back, I don't know. But assuming he's fully healthy in the fall I hope they push him back toward playing a more complete game.

And yet... all these things are coachable. If he wants to stick with the team, or at least stay in the NHL, he better start listening to coaches.

At some point a person has to take responsibility for their actions, but there's no denying Galchnyuk is a product of the system of elite athletics.

Oh I totally get it. From the time it is discovered that they have a special level of talent, people pave their way to do whatever the hell they want, then smooth things out in their wake. A friend of my son's was beat up by one of the players on the middle school football team. My son's friend was suspended under "no tolerance" but the football player wasn't penalized and didn't miss any games. If you have talent you're told over and over that you can do no wrong and some athletes push the boundaries of that too far. As an alternate view, my teacher wife wouldn't squeeze out enough points to the kicker on the HS football team. The coach and even the principal pressured her to inflate the grades so he could play (Texas has a no pass/no play policy statewide). She stood her ground. Two years later when he graduated, he came and told her it was the best thing that happened to him; up until then he thought his ***** didn't stink, but that really opened his eyes.

Trade bait either now or later.

This is a good article on what makes Buffalo style pizza. A couple of summaries from the article:

Are they 55 gallon? I knew 66 didn't look right... but you get the idea.

It read 118 but that's typical when you park in sunny, paved spot... the actual temperature once I started moving went down to 106. Still damned hot but not 118 hot. I typically drive with my windows down, even when it's hot like this. This is true. I post to a local Fort Worth architecture forum and there's a long-running thread about Buffalo. Most of the content is posted by me, but the comments from the others are on the whole very positive.

Oh yeah, I reminded today myself that Buffalo Bros has a good Friday fish fry too

Imported, so to speak. When the Bills came down to play the Cowboys on Thanksgiving in 2019, Buffalo Bros set up three of those grills made out of 66 gallon drums and cooked Sahlens all through the tailgate and gave them away for free.

He's a good soldier for the Amerks.

But really, except for Hawaii, L.A., and maybe Florida, this is probably true for a lot of the country. Our spring and fall can be very pleasant here, interrupted by a hellish summer with crappy weather in the winter. I say "maybe Florida" because if you don't like humidity Florida will be miserable most of the time.

That's Air Conditioning season here in Texas. (currently at 101)

Huzzah!

Yeah I see them a lot around here too, but no I don't have one. I used to make my own pizza, but I just used the regular oven.

Buffalo Bros works, I think, because it has a full bar menu but has "Buffalo Favorites" for those from, or partial to, Buffalo, and Ed is a trained chef who knows how to recreate the Buffalo recipes here. It seems like there is an increasing appetite for "Buffalo chic", the blue-collar aesthetic. But it's also a sports bar so if you could care less about Buffalo you could still enjoy the place. The location near TCU caters to the college crowd, for instance they have meet & greets with TCU athletes that pack the place. But on Bills game days it feels like you're in a bar in Buffalo. Buffalo Bros is not the only Buffalo bar here; there is also Nickel City which has a pretty stripped down food menu but the wings are quite good. That is also part of a small "chain"; apparently there is another NIckel City in Austin; the owner is from the Southern Tier of WNY. The primary cook at the Ft Worth Nickel City is the owner's cousin who's also from WNY. The Buffalo angle is more about the ambiance; the place looks like some "old men's" bar on Bailey Avenue. The Buffalo diaspora reminds me of the New Orleans diaspora. People have left their home city but still have a love for what makes it unique, especially the food. There are a lot of Cajun restaurants around here. There was always a Lousiana population here; LSU puts out good engineers who have been hired locally here. But things really ramped up in the aftermath of Katrina. Not as many people came here as went to Houston, but a lot did; the Will Rogers Center (think Hamburg Fairgrounds) was an emergency shelter for several weeks and a lot of the folks never left. The Buffalo diaspora is not as big as New Orleans, but I can see similarities between the two.

I used to think that was a lot of money for a pizza (the regular price of $26) but it's slightly cheaper than La Nova in Buffalo.

Buffalo Bros in Fort Worth was opened by a local restaurateur at the suggestion of one of his chefs who is from Kenmore. The restaurateur has several restaurants under different names and themes, but he has two locations of Buffalo Bros. The chef, Ed, is now part owner and partner. They've talked about expanding to Dallas but haven't gotten there yet. Maybe someday Florida, who knows? I think part of the issue would be scalability; right now they do runs to Buffalo for Sahlen's, loganberry syrup, Bison Brand French Onion Dip, etc. You can do that for a couple restaurants but if you get too many you really need commercial supply (especially if the restaurants are not geographically close). For other things he sources them locally, like he gets the kimmelweck buns baked locally to his spec.

It says 1/2 off on Mondays on the box. That one was about $13 I think (on Monday).

I keep meaning to check them out and just haven't gotten around to it.

If you can get over to Fort Worth, check out Buffalo Bros. There is a location in downtown Fort Worth and one near TCU. The guy who runs them is from Kenmore. If you're in town Monday that would be a good day because Buffalo Bros. has half off all their pizzas including whole pies and slices (excludes only pizza-wing combos). If you do decide to go Monday for dinner let me know; maybe I can meet up with you. The Duff's in Southlake is... okay, but it's set in a strip mall and just doesn't have a Buffalo vibe. The wings are okay though. PIzza from Buffalo Bros.

Kevyn is playing 5D chess with people who don't know you can jump in checkers. He may outsmart himself.